Event Major Contract: Queen of Leeches

[Bravo]

Bravo was happy to be out of the water, but there was no time to relax. Rambling Soulless, as she would've called them, greeted her with shriveled hands and gnashing teeth. So, the Hunter opted for a more stealthy way of getting rid of them. As the first one drew in close, Bravo would slash at them with her vibro-knife, aiming for their wrists and throats. One of these buildings had to be mostly clean of these Soulless so she could find time to check herself for leeches.

After shoving her blade through the neck of the second rambler, she would use the body of her impaled Soulless, using the knife embedded in it's neck like a grip, and through the corpse in it's way while slipping the knife out so she could keep the blade. Hopefully that would distract the last one long enough for her to get inside one of these buildings and disappear until she was ready to go back out. The venom from the leeches tired her out more than she had expected, and she didn't want to be caught out in the open with a bunch of zombies.

@Phoenix

TL/DR: Bravo knifes the first hostile in the wrists to keep it from grabbing her before stabbing it in the neck. She does the same with the second one and pushes it into the third before retreating into a building to recover and hide.

 

[Ayşe Mataraci]

Team OrcTree​

The leeches covering the civilians pretty much told Ayşe all she needed to know. It seemed unlikely that anything covered with parasites - especially considering the name of the thing they were hunting - was looking to be friendly. It would be in their best interest to simply put them out of their misery, as far as she was concerned.

Pulling up her rifle, Ayşe fired off two shots of incendiary ammo in quick succession, each one aimed at the head of a different leechperson. For the third, Ayşe would drop her rifle and pull out her chainsword. Luckily her rifle was looped around her with a sling so it wouldn't fall to the ground.

Ayşe would fall into a defensive stance if she had to, but either way she would swing her chainsword and look to carve the lunging leechperson in half like some old wood.

If she were successful, Ayşe would then look to help out Venus if she needed it. If her shots/swording didn't fully dispatch her enemies, Ayşe would stick with melee but fall into a defensive posture, hoping to keep them at arm's length.

Spoiler: summary

Ayşe fires two shots of her rifle, each one at the head of a different leechperson. Then she pulls out her chainsword and attempts to saw the third one into submission.

If she is successful, Ayşe will then look to help Venus. If not, she will fall into a defensive posture and look to keep the leechpeople at arm's length with her chainsword.

@Phoenix @lizziie

 

[Ice]

Team Boogeymen
​

Ice kept her gaze on her surroundings, joining Zero in sabotaging the other boats. The oars would also be tossed away for any boat they didn’t use. She took a moment to peek in through any windows to see if there were any valuables inside. If nothing was clear, she would join Zero in the boat and they would begin to row towards where the trace could be felt. Ice kept peeking through her binocs the entire time.

She wasn’t sure what kind of creatures were in these waters so she also frequently glanced down for any motion. Ice signed at Zero to keep rowing where there was cover and the obstruction of trees and vines.

@Orbit @Phoenix

 

[Venus]

OrcTree

Venus raised her hand to protect her face as she stood up, but as soon as the creatures were within reach, she would attempt to overpower them with her size and plunge her vibroblade through one's head. If that were successful, she would throw the body of one into the other, then pull out her bow, notch an arrow, and attempt to shoot the remaining one through its head. Her size and reach allowed her to keep them at bay more easily.

If she was successful in killing both, Venus would shrink down in size and wait for Ayse to catch up.

tags: @Logan @Phoenix

 

[Vega]

Vega had certainly overestimated how muffled their conversation would be because of the grunting that had been done but thankfully they had been interrupted before could get to investigate the corpses and, therefore, would be able to spot the grenade as it came to them.

Chances are he would have not been able to dodge it by running away, but he had an answer for that that was better than just running: The droid quickly grabbed the nun by the arm and used his built-in jumpboots, quickly propelling them as far away as possible as Vega tried to make the jump as horizontal as he could to gain distance fast.

The droid would quickly aim his outrider rifle at the two hunters, shooting back as he moved towards the nearest trees in order to find cover. He would probably not hit them but it would at least supress them and force them into cover, not only that, but should any of the incendiary rounds hit the cover it would probably be set on fire.

Thankfully, on moments like these where he had to fight other hunters the armor would actually prove useful, it would be hard for them to hit the droid accurately enough to hit in the same place enough times to pierce the armor, at least not with the sudden movement and the firing back...But Vega just hoped his newest meatbag ally would be able to help as well, they would probably reach cover after this but that just meant they would be in equal ground.

@Phoenix @Forsythe Crowholde

Spoiler: TLDR

Using the jump boots to gain distance, shooting back and getting to nearby cover.

 

[Akira Tay]

It didn’t take long for Akira to close the distance between herself and the lumber mill - and to very quickly become aware of the commotion that has already erupted within the building. Her gaze flicked between the Leech-covered civilians and the two other individuals - their equipment and the simple fact they were there, keying her in that she had encountered another group of Hunters come for the contract.

In silence, Akira weighed the pros and cons of leaving the pair to their own fight. In the end, though, the Togruta knew the potential value in having allies during a hunt.

Without a second thought, Akira drew back the string of her plasma-bow - activating a slender ‘arrow’ of energy to take shape. She released the bowstring, unleashing the bolt of violet plasma that streaked through the air, in an attempt to pierce through the skull of one of the leeched.

She repeated the maneuver again, this time aiming for the one that Venus was fighting.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

@Bravo would find success bringing down the leech-covered people, but before she made it to any kind of cover of the buildings, she would be able to hear gunfire very close ahead and to her left. Perhaps she wouldn't be able to tell if it was aimed at her, but she would certainly be able to tell that it wasn't coming from the leech-infested.

To both her left and right were buildings, that seemed to even be attached by some sort of bridge-like overpass on the second levels, and at present there was no indication that anyone was inside either building... unless the gunfire had come from inside the building to the left. It was difficult to tell.

@Venus and @Logan would find easy success in bringing down the leech-infested individuals. They would even notice additional arrows - plasma arrows - not from them zipping through the air, dangerously close. In fact, it was almost indistinguishable from the person firing at the two hunters. They would have to assume that they were under attack because that was the way of the Hunt.

@Akira would manage to hit her targets, but may well find her intentions were misinterpreted. After all, hunters didn't help each other in the field. The only people you could rely on were the people you had come in with... and sometimes not even them.

@Ice would be able to peer through the windows and in her search would find a journal detailing the events that had unfolded around the boat house with the appearance of the Queen of Leeches. It would take her a small amount of time to skim through the materials, which she could do on the boat if she opted not to keep watch. @Zero would have no trouble in sabotaging the boats or prepping one for his own use. In short order the two would be underway and although they would notice ripples in the water as if something lurked under the surface, nothing seemed to make any attempts to attack them while they were on course so far. To their left they would hear explosions and gunfire and to their right they would hear gunfire, though both still sounded relatively far off as of yet.

@Vega would leap off with his jump boots to avoid being immediately blown up, but between not being designed to launch a large robot carrying another person through the air while also competing with the grime of the swamp, the results were not as hoped. Vega would be lucky that the grenade shrapnel didn't tear him to pieces entirely, but that was probably in large part because it was bodily absorbed by @Sidapa. The nun's body was shredded to pieces by the detonation with nothing being carried by the droid but a few shredded hunks of meat. Such was the nature of the hunt. Even so, the droids outer chassis where much of his armor was was shredded as well, creating far more damage than originally hoped.

Still, Vega's attack would manage to fell one of the hunters, sending him to the ground in a screaming, bloody heap. That wasn't enough to stop the other two from unloading upon him, however. Gunfire would continue to shower upon him relentlessly. After all, they were two guns to his one.

 

[Ice]

Boogeymen
​

Ice had grabbed the journal and other useful materials, but she needed a moment to read. She gestured for Zero to keep rowing and keep an eye out to their surroundings. In the meantime, she quickly read through the journal to glean any information.

The sounds of explosions and gunfire could be heard in the distance and she grimaced behind her mask. Since they sounded far off and the two had kept to the shade, Ice doubted they could be seen just yet. Neither noises pointed in the direction of the target, so they would stay to the course and go in the direction their tracking senses suggested.

@Orbit @Phoenix

 

[Zero]

Explosions and gunfire could be heard in the distance but they wouldn't draw the Hunters' attention. They would have to deviate from their course too much in order to investigate what the cause of the noise was. The serum informed him enough that they were drawing nearer to the target and that was the main prize of this whole hunt.

As they rowed through the water, Zero wouldn't fail to notice the natural movement swimming in it too. While Ice read, he kept watch around the perimeter as he maintained his smooth motions with the oars. He'd let the boat drift as far as he could before rowing again as he attempted to cause the least amount of disturbance in the water. The other boats that floated around them would almost act as an early warning system, hopefully acting as distractions if something proved hungry.

Zero kept their course where the serum pulled them, as always remaining silent but vigilant for anything.

TLDR: Rowing toward the target and maintaining watch along the water and bank for anything.

@Phoenix

 

[Vega]

Vega quickly dropped the corpse of the nun after noticing that she had lost her life. It was unfortunate because it meant all the damage the droid had taken had been for naught, but fortunately part of it had also been absorbed by the organic meat shield that had been made out of her, and he had also managed to hit one of the hunters, nice!...Now he had to kill the other two.

Thankfully, Vega had already began to run towards cover before and he intended to not stop doing so now, the distance between the nearest trees and him not that big. However, in the span of time it would take Vega to get there he would grab his dyoxis grenade and throw it at the other two organics, hoping they would suffer a painful, toxic dead because of their breathing dependency...It's important to note that the biggest target the enemy would have would be his back, which was also armor but was probably the least damaged part of his chassis and could maybe handle the slugthrowers, but at the end of the day it came down to him getting to nearby cover before getting killed.

 

[Venus]

OrcTree

Luckily for @Akira Tay, it was difficult to miss a five-meter-tall tree person if you really wanted to shoot at them. So when the Neti was successful in taking down the leech-people (leeple, as she decided they were now called), she did not shoot back at the stranger. There was, however, an arrow notched against her bow, despite the assumption she was operating under.

"You have five seconds to show yourself," she called out, her voice stern but not unfriendly. It was just the sort of tone one might suspect from someone unsure of who they were dealing with. Venus was probably among the friendliest of the hunters, if you could even call her that.

Venus would then wait for Akira to do as she asked, and if she didn't... well, she'd let Ayse take care of it.

tl;dr: Venus calls out to the stranger.

tags: @Logan @Phoenix @Altaris

 

[Akira Tay]

Akira watched as her arrow sailed through the air - striking the leeched individual, but still coming a bit too close for the pair of Hunters to be comfortable. Togruta immediately changed positions, slipping towards cover behind another particularly large tree. Her shoulder pressed against it, fingers pinching the bowstring. She was prepared to draw another arrow and fire upon the pair, if they moved against her.

Perhaps she would anyway, if and when an opportune moment arose. There were few allies amongst the Hunt, after all - and two less people to connect the Bounty suited her just fine.

“If I aimed to hit you, I would have.” She said flatly from behind her cover, loud enough for both of them to hear. After a single breath, the Togruta rounded from her cover - drawing back an arrow in preparation for the worst. She didn’t release her ammunition, instead waiting for Venus or Ayse to take any hostile action.

They weren’t friends, and it remained to be seen if they were enemies. But perhaps working with them was - for the moment - more useful than traversing the swamp alone.

 

[Ayşe Mataraci]

Team OrcTree​

The leeple had gone down a lot more swiftly than Ayşe would have assumed. Not that she was going to complain, though. The less of her incendiary ammo she had to use the better and she did make a mental note not to waste the good ammo on wretches like these in the future. Her chainsword would do just fine.

By the time that Ayşe caught up to Venus, the tree lady was calling out to some mystery person who was firing arrows in their direction. Ayşe had noticed the leeple with arrows in their backs, but hadn't really given much thought on where they had come from.

If it had been up to Ayşe, she would have just shot first and asked questions later, but Venus had started the callout before she'd gotten there. Walking up behind Venus, Ayşe would let her presence be known to her friend before she would scale her back and plop onto her shoulder like the hobbits from those Lord of the Necklace movies.

Should have just let me shoot them, She said, waiting for the stranger to answer as she pulled up her rifle.

Spoiler: summary

Ayşe climbs up onto Venus' shoulder and waits for the stranger to reply, her rifle sighted and ready to fire if necessary.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

It seemed that @Bravo was so caught up in the gunfire that she failed to make a decision. Instead of making for the building to check herself for more leeches, she stood there and the venom flowed through her veins, making its way all the way throughout her body. She would drop face-down into the dirt, claimed by the swamp to become a leeple that wandered the swamp until her body decayed too much to keep going.

@Zero would not see any movement on the shore line, but he would notice that the foliage began to change. Here, the wood seemed thicker and almost sick as if some old evil was lying on it. He would recognize it as similar changes to those previous hunts when he had neared the target. The warping that accompanied something being here that wasn't natural.

Coming near to the docks, he would see that the dock was covered in birds. A whole murder of crows that would most certainly be disturbed should they choose to pull up to it. Or they could risk disembarking in shallow water and trying to climb up the bank, risking whatever was rustling within the waters.

@Ice would find reading through the journal to be very interesting, and would have to choose what and how to impart the information to her partner, if anything.

@Vega did manage to make it to cover but the gunfire didn't really stop for the moment. His dioxis grenade landed next to one of the other two hunters, and there was immediate choking and gagging as he stumbled out of cover and away from the source of the toxin, trying to get as far away as he could as quickly as he could. Meanwhile, his friend continued to provide covering fire to hopefully protect his partner while the man got clear of the cloud of death.

Meanwhile @Logan, @Venus, and @Akira would find their emotional support meeting still uninterrupted for the moment, but they would be forced to decide where they would go next or if they would move at all. Many paths lay before them. Into the buildings straight ahead or simply bypassing the buildings to follow to their target beyond. To their right lay a large lake that they would be able to sense they would need to cross in order to reach their target. They had the option of descending further on this side of the lake to look for crossing or backtracking a bit to swing around the northern most edge and come down along the other side.

 

[Zero]

From the sensation he felt within himself, to the signs that were becoming more readily apparent, the message was clear; they were close to their monster. The corruption he saw shared similarities with other jobs he had taken in the past and let him know these creatures were indeed from Hell.

As they continued to navigate through the water, a dock would suddenly reveal itself to the two Hunters. What drew his attention were the birds that rested on top of it, their heads twisting at unnatural angles in order to peer at him and Ice. If there was still a path, Zero would keep rowing instead of landing at the dock. They were close and that meant they could take a little time to find the approach they chose. As they went through the water, Zero would once more return to his vigilant state with his head scanning left to right.

If their natural watery path was no longer traversable, then Zero would slowly bring them in toward the dock. The birds would be a nuisance but it would just have to be a fact they accept. When they neared, the Hunter would retrieve the weapons he placed on the floor before returning them to their fitting sheathes. Stepping off onto the dock, the birds would immediately react to his presence, whatever that would be as he scanned the area around him once more.

@Sreeya @Phoenix

 

[Vega]

The droid decided it was the moment to advance and strike now that one of the two hunters was busy gasping and getting out of cover, Vega had to take advantage of the reduced volume of fire coming his way quickly, before he managed to catch his breath...Although it would take him a while, the hunter may have not inhaled enough of the gas to die, but Dyoxys was quite a dangerous substances for organics.

Vega would use his jump boots again to jump out of cover, advancing towards the hunters in a quick but sudden move that would hopefully take them by surprise. It would certainly take more time for the one giving covering fire to react to his sudden moves and where he would land while the droid knew exactly where he was. After that, Vega would return fire, hoping to take out the one that was firing back and quickly switching to the other one afterwards, which should be a bit easier to deal with as he was scrambling away.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Jump boots to quickly move towards the enemy and shooting at the one giving covering fire then at the other one should the previous hunter die.

@Phoenix

 

[Ayşe Mataraci]

Team OrcTree​

Ayşe looked down the barrel of her rifle for a few long, tense moments before ultimately deciding that blasting this weird pointy headed fuck might cause more issues than simply using her as a meat shield later. She and Venus had already wasted enough time dilly-dallying around with the leeple, they really needed to get a much needed move on.

Best not to linger. Ayşe said, her tone disinterested as she used her current vantage point on Venus' shoulder to look out for anything interesting.

We need to cross the lake, Ayşe thought out loud, pondering the best manner in which to do that. Venus, can you turn into a boat, or is growing tall the only parlor trick you have? Ayşe said with a smirk.

We might be able to back track and go around, but I think our time would be better served going down this side to see if there's some way to cross.

If Venus wanted to shrink back down to her normal size, Ayşe would slide down her friend and back onto her own two feet. Otherwise she'd remain in her vantage point, rifle ready to deal with anything that might come.

Spoiler: summary

Ayşe suggest heading down the current side of the lake instead of back tracking, hoping to find a way across without wasting more time.

 

[Venus]

OrcTree​

Akira's response came with a good dosage of snark that Venus chose to ignore. The Neti slowly lowered her weapon, although her finger wouldn't completely leave the string until Akira lowered her weapon as well.

"Unfortunately I lack that sort of creativity," she replied with an amused shake of her head to the Orc's boat comment. As for Ayse's plan... well, it worked for Venus. Better to spend a bit of time looking for something that could save them much more time.

"Are you coming with us...?" Venus threw her voice back to Akira, waiting for the Togruta to supply a name. Assuming it was given and an affirmative answer was given as well, she would wave the Togruta over and kick (not literally) Ayse off her back while she shrank down into a less inconvenient size.

"Let's go look."

tl;dr: Venus talk to her emotional support hunter group (ESH) (pun intended) and then heads off to search for a way across the lack with at least Ayse.

tags: @Altaris @Logan @Phoenix

 

[Ice]

The Boogeymen

Ice shared with Zero the information in the journal, but nothing was said aloud. She had that familiar sense of getting closer to the hunt. She didn’t like the option of messing with something in the water, so disturbing the birds would have to be their only option. There was noise all around where the other hunters were, but it sounded distant still.

Ice stepped off the boat, tugging the two boats along to hide them entirely from sight based on where she could tell the others would approach. The crows made a lot of noise, but the explosions that kept erupting in the distance likely covered it up. Ice wasn’t going to take any chances, knowing full well the birds were visible.

She first looked for anything the birds may have been picking at. Barring that, she ventured deeper into the forest. The first thing she did was scale a tree to gain a vantage point like she did in the beginning. Remaining hidden from sight, she looked through her binocs to take in sight of her surroundings.

@Phoenix @Orbit

 

[Akira Tay]

“May as well,” Akira said after a moment of pause, glancing between the two. The Togruta wasn’t entirely convinced she could trust the pair, but the fact they hadn’t come to blows was a good indicator that, for the moment, they were better off navigating the terrain together.

“Akira,” She said after a moment, lowering her bow and dispelling the plasma-arrow that had been notched.

Without another word, she began to make her way in the direction of the lake - moving ever-so-slightly behind Venus and Ayse, if only to avoid any nonsense they walked right into.