Mega Man X Rp: Mission 2, Protect the City!

[Cyrus Knight]

History: Oceanica is a rather peaceful city. It floats more than thirty miles off of the nearest coast. It is one of the few floating cities in the world, after the Eurasia satellite crash, and as such, has a large amount of tourism, and an equally large population. Underneath the city are an expansive series of catacombs, spanning many miles. Were one to swim, it would easily take hours to reach the center.

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Hunter Mission: The bomb appears to have been placed at the center of the catacombs, and it is the hunters' mission to find it, and teleport it back to be disarmed. Unfortunately, there are four separate signatures that appear to be giving off the radiation waves that the bomb is believed to transmit. There are twenty-eight hunters, split into four groups of eight, each under the command of MFD, K'Tan, Chimera, and Delpha. MFD enters from point 1, K'Tan from point 2, Chimera from point 3, and Delpha from point four. Each group of seven hunters assisting them consists of one rocket launching hunter, one communications expert/detector hunter to locate the bomb, two hunters trained in disarming bombs who also have a plain blaster, and three generic hunters each equipped with a plain blaster.

((You each get control of your allies/cannon fodder. Name them and keep them if you like, or simply kill them off.))

Neutral Mission: Again, do as you please. Attack the hunters, attack the mavericks, steal the bomb (if you can find it), or anything.

Maverick Mission: Kill off all of the hunters.

Map:

Brown circles represent elite underwater mavericks, which are incredibly agile melee mavericks.

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Each of the groups of hunters teleported in from Hunter HQ, to their particular starting position in the middle of the catacombs.

((And... sorry about the delay. Please, kick me in the balls.))

EDIT - I almost forgot; in case you can't tell, the red circles represent the areas eminating radiation, and the green circles are non-maverick reploids (researchers) that can be rescued, who were trapped when the mavericks stormed the place.

[Knight]

((Shrugs, then puts on steel-toed boot and complies with kicking request))

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Tactical info:
K'Tan's team (call signs and positions are used semi-interchangeably):
Rocket-launching hunter: Molotov (position title: Breacher)
Bomb squad specialists: Impact and Shrapnel (position title: Demolitions)
Comm/detector: Romeo (position title: Signals)
Infantry hunters: Cryo, Jolt and Dash (Forward-1, Forward-2 and Rear, respectively)

Tactical formation, order of movement:
Forward-1 and Forward-2 alternate lead, with the second covering the first.
Breacher follows immediately behind the Forwards, providing any needed heavy support.
Signals and Demolitions follow behind Breacher, providing minor support when needed, but mostly staying out of harms way. EXCEPTION: Signals will move up with the Forwards at intervals to sweep the area.
Rear, obviously, provides rear-guard; keeping an eye out for any Mavericks trying to sneak up behind the squad.
K'Tan moves back and forth as needed, most often scouting ahead of the Forwards.

K'Tan's equipment: Generic underwater propulsion unit requisitioned from Hunter HQ. Back-mounted and jetisonable.
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In a flash of light and a shower of bubbles from vaporized water, K'Tan's team teleports into the catacombs. The combat hunters immediately create a defensive perimeter around Signals and Demolitions.

K'Tan turns his head to Romeo. "Signals, send a confirmation signal to HQ, then initiate scanning."

Signals nods once and sends of a quick pulse to Hunter headquarters, confirming their arrival, then activates his scanning gear. "Sir, I'm picking up four possible signatures, along with a multitude of Maverick energy signatures. The walls are causing too much distortion for exact positioning though."

K'Tan makes a vexed 'tsk' sound, then kicks off the floor and activates his propulsion unit. "Form up and move South. There should be an entrance that way." with that, he jets ahead of the group a ways, sticking to the shadows and looking for Mavericks.

It doesn't take long to find one. An aquatic guard with a nasty-looking trident weapon stands just outside the first entrance. "Unknown aquatic Maverick located five meters south of my location. Engaging."

K'Tan makes his way forwards silently, moving manually along the ceiling of the catacomb tunnel, his matte black armor blending seamlessly with the shadows. Taking a full minute to move five meters, K'Tan positions himself directly above the Maverick. He then launches off the ceiling, activating his blades and aiming to bury them in the base of the trident-wielder's neck.

The rapid movement in the water alerted the Maverick a moment too late to counterattack. It managed to get it's trident swinging towards K'Tan, forcing K'Tan to parry the weapon with one of his blades, which had the further effect of knocking him off his trajectory, his second blade scoring deeply down the Maverick's back instead of plunging into the circuitry within.

K'Tan flips and lands on his feet, coiling to spring at the recovering Maverick. The Mav turns just in time to have two energy blades buried into its chest. It shorts and sparks for a few moments, then colapses to the floor. "Target Eliminated, holding position. Proceed with caution."

[MFD]

MFD scanned the list of recruits. He let the mechanical equivalent of a sigh out. What was HE doing on the Hunters.

Venom Mamba. MFD had ran into him a few years ago. He was insufferably arrogant, and didn't quite have the guns to back up his claims. Groaning inwardly, MFD scanned the rest of the list.

Brute Rhino.
Slash Swordfish.
Chi-Rho.
Omega Hare.
Night Angel.
Red Liger.

Hm... a strongman, an aquatic swordsman, a bunny, an angel that had something to do with Darkness, and two mysteries. They should make up for that acid-spewing idiot.
~~~
They teleported in. The green jewel on MFD's helmet shone brightly, basking the dark catacombs in an emerald blaze. MFD was purple and orange, the glaring color scheme of Porky.
Chi-Rho was a neo-Christian Robot. A priest by vocation, Hunter by necessity. MFD had taken the time to get to know the enigmatic robot as the briefing ended. He shot out energy from a blaster. A gunner. Good for variety...
Red Liger seemed to be a Fire-elemental reploid based on the mysterious crossbred liger. Partly lion, and partly tiger. Interesting...

Suddenly, he heard a hiss and fizzling, followed by an explosion, and Mamba yelled, "I got one!"

The moron had left the group. "Venom, please. Stick with us. I don't want to lose anyone," MFD lied. Only a little white one, though...

He analyzed the mav, but there was nothing left to analyze. The acid had eaten through the main parts of the circuitry.

"Dammit, Mamba. We can't be blasting everyone. The primary target is finding the bomb."

(Dammit, Cyrus! I hate having to create cannon fodder on the fly. I get so attached...)

[Cyrus Knight]

((You don't actually need to put any work into the cannon fodder/allies. You could have just left them generic and nameless, calling them simply by position; I just thought it would be interesting and add a little depth to the story to do it. You can express more of your main character in their actions with other side characters. Besides, if you get attached, don't kill them, and you can use them in later missions. Also note, I put a little clarification up in the first post, I realised I had not identified the red and green circles.

I was gonna respond to you two, but something has come up, and I need to go. In around an hour and a half I should be home again to finish my work.))

[Cyrus Knight]

((Sorry again. I didn't get home nearly the time I needed to, and was properly bombarded with another barrage of commitments and projects and giant assignments over the weekend. I deserve another swift kick to the gonads.

Also, in an effort to keep better track of things, I'll be including a map in each post. Also, since MFD didn't say which direction he was going in, I'll just assume that he went south, away from delpha and point 4. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.))



[K'Tan]

Losing contact with unit UW-17 (out of 26), the two closest mavericks, UW-18 and UW-19 silently readied their tridents, and, in unison, started off swimming towards the location of their lost comrade, and seeing a contingent of hunters, dove in together towards the front most reploid (K'Tan).

[MFD]

Like their partners towards the west, units UW 8-12 became alert as soon as UW-13 was vaporized by the spurting acid of Venom Mamba. But, as they were ordered to have at least three mavericks hold position and wait for the hunters to come to them, UW-8 handed his trident to UW-9, who then went off to pre-empt the approaching threat. Sighting Mamba, UW-9 spun both of his weapons, and sped towards the hunter, ready to jab them into this uncorrupted enemy.

[MFD]

"Time to see what you Hunters are made of!" shouted MFD to his comrades.

Black Mamba stepped to the side, getting a scratch on his breastplate from the mav.

Red Liger slashed at the mav, and ripped into its circuitry. Mamba got a good spit inside to destroy this one.

Meanwhile, MFD and XP (Chi Rho) shot down another of the mavs. Slash and Hare both handled their mav quickly, as did Brute Rhino and Night Angel.

MFD absorbed the data for the trident into his memory banks. Gonna have to delete something soon. Oh, well. He looked around. Mamba lathered some sealant on the scratch. "You got hit."

"A scratch."

"Don't go wandering off. You might be worse off. Luckily it was a two-to-one ratio this time. Slash? You care to check for the bomb here? And Chi Rho, go tend to that reploid. The rest of us will cover you. I see more mavs to the west."

If they fail to locate the bomb, they'll head northwest to the next radiated spot.

[Knight]

((Complies with the kicking request AGAIN.))
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Romeo's voice came over the comm. "Sir, two Maverick energy signatures headed your way. ETA... 30-45 seconds. Can't lock it down with this interference."

K'Tan snatched up his fallen opponent's trident and stared off into the murk. "No visual yet, so here's what we'll do..." he quickly outlined a plan to Signals who, in turn, passed it on to the squad.

•••

The two Mavericks approached the body of their fallen comrade, and came to a halt, looking around for the intruders. K'Tan waited and watched them pass underneath him, then fired a buster shot at the leftmost of the two mavs. The shot did little more than score the robot's armor, and both enemies quickly turned to face this new threat.

K'Tan tripped the density switch on his manuvering pack, dropping himself to the floor and giaining some stable footing. He held the trident in front of him quarterstaff-style and waited for the mavs to attack him. Jetting back down the hall, UW-18 and UW-19 quickly engaged K'Tan, but as they were wielding their tridents as spears, K'Tan had very little difficulty parrying their blows, though they were out of his range to counterattack.

"Incoming!" Molotov gleefully called over the comm, as a missle slammed through the weakened back armor of the left mav, ripping it apart from the inside. K'Tan, expecting this ahead of time, had already braced against the concussive burst of the explosion. UW-19 was not so lucky, getting picked up like a toy and slammed against the tunnel wall by the underwater shockwave. A quick barrage of buster shots from Cryo and Jolt finished the job.

"Good work." K'Tan said, jetting back up the hallway. "Signals, anything on that bomb signature yet?"

"I think so. Looks to be just southeast of here. I'm also picking up an uncorrupted reploid just around that corner ahead."

K'Tan nodded his head in understanding. "Okay, good. Let's go take care of that reploid first. Dash, I'll want you to escort them back to the extraction point and then rejoin us, understood? The rest of us will go after the bomb to the south. Move out!"

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((I'm going kind of slowly here, as I'm not sure exactly how strong these Mavericks are supposed to be. They're obviously stronger than average cannon fodder, but do they qualify for mini-boss strength?))

[MFD]

I could see a group of them be a mini-boss, but there is too many to consider each one a mini-boss.

[Knight]

K'Tan jets over to the uncorrupted reploid, who had been cowering in a corner, out of sight. He drops to the floor and paces up closer, moving slowly so as not to appear as non-threatening as possible.

"It's okay, stay calm. we'll get you out of here, okay?" K'Tan steps aside to let Dash approach. "This is Dash Noctis. He'll get you safely out of here. Stick close to him until you're clear." K'Tan turns his head to Dash "Rejoin the group as quickly as you can. Things have been too easy so far. It's all going to hit the fan soon."

K'Tan kicks off the floor and jets back to the rest of the group. "The rest of you, we head south. There's bound to be Mavericks guarding that bomb signature, so we hit hard and fast. Signals, Demolitions, stay out of range of those tridents. Molotov... take point and let them know we're here."

Molotov chambers a rocket and starts swimming south. "Only too happy to, sir."

Cryo and Jolt quickly take up flanking positions and K'Tan keeps pace with them overhead. "Mavericks sighted. Looks like they know we're here. Sending a greeting card." Molotov drops to the floor and locks in place, leveling his weapon at the Mavericks. "Two away!" he calls as he sends a pair of missles streaking at the ground immediately in front of the mavs.

K'Tan kicks in his jets and prepares to take the shockwave head-on. "Don't let them recover! Attack!" Blades extended, he barrels into the leftmost mav, knocking aside it's weak attempt to counterattack and slamming his left blade into the center of its chest.

Cryo takes advantage of the mavs' momentary confusion to charge up a freeze burst and fires it off at the center mav just as it is regaining its balance. The mav manages a partial dodge, but one of its fins is encased in a block of expanding ice as water around the fin turns to ice as well. The mav quickly starts chipping away at the ice, attempting to regain combat mobility.

Riding the shockwave right behind K'Tan, Jolt charges the right mav, who takes a stab at this assailant. Jolt dodges partway, the trident taking part of his shoulder armor with it. "Not bad..." Jolt mutters as he grabs the trident before the mav can make another swing. "My turn now!" releasing his capacitor's charge, Jolt sends a burst of electricity down the shaft of the weapon and into its wielder. Bolts of energy arc outward through the water from the unfortunate Maverick. Jolt releases the trident and drops to the floor, taking a moment to replenish his capacitors.

Finally knocking off the last of the ice, the center Mav turns on the closest threat and hurls its trident at Jolt before he can recover from the electric burst. The trident flies true, piercing his chest armor and knocking him back against the wall. A screech of feedback comes across the comm as Jolt's systems overload and then shut down.

K'Tan glances from his injured opponent for a moment just in time to see Cryo broadside the center mav, stunning it and releasing a point-blank freeze charge into its chest. In a cold fury, Cryo slams his fists repeatedly into the frozen mav, first cracking, then shattering the armor. Breaking it apart piece by piece.

The remaining mav attempts to take advantage of the distraction by stabbing at K'Tan, but ends up overextending the swing as K'Tan ducks out of the way. "Lights out." K'Tan says quietly as he drives both blades home, gutting the mav's circutry.

As the mav drops, K'Tan kicks away and calls over the comm "Demolitions! Get up here and check this bomb. Signals... see to Jolt. Cryo, it's dead. Get up and see to the captured reploids."

Romeo drops to the floor by Jolt's fallen form. A quick once over is all that's needed. "Can't do anything here. The trident hit his power system. I'm downloading his memory matrix and sending it back to HQ."

One down and out of the mission. It could have gone worse... K'Tan idly fingers a deep score across his own armor where that last mav had gotten too close. Definately need to be more careful... they seem to be getting better.

[Cyrus Knight]

((screw the numbering system. I didn't write down which were which, and I don't feel like thinking about it right now. By the way, I think both of you are totally awesome.))

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K'Tan
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Dash retrieved the first wounded reploid, "Thank you, maverick hunter, sir." and escorted him to a safe distance, where he was transported to a nearby reparation facility.

Meanwhile, while Cryo was extracting the second wounded 'roid, Hunter base sent a confirmation that they had recieved the signal from Romeo of Jolt's memory matrix. "Don't worry, we'll be able to re-construct him. And believe me, if that bomb goes off, he'll be the lucky one."

Also, Impact and Shrapnel reached the possible bomb location, and began examining the device there. "I'm sorry sir" Impact said, "this isn't what we're looking for. It's a dud."

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MFD
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Chi Rho reached the trapped researcher without incident, and brought him back to the extraction point, where he was transported to safety. "Bless you, maverick hunters! We were studying some energy formations down here. When you're done, we'll be sure to donate our research to the hunter organization!"

Slash Swordfish reached the bomb location, and began carefully going the machine. "It's no good, sir, this isn't the bomb. It's just a dud."

But from behind the hunters, who were now grouped around the bomb location, came two of the underwater mavericks, no longer in complete unison, and faster than before, tridents before them, ready to strike.

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Elsewhere
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Meanwhile, near Delpha's entry point, the mavericks began to group around on of the radiation points, as two of the points had allready been overtaken.

[MFD]

Slash put his equipment away when he heard gunfire. MFD and the other six reploids protecting him were in battle positions. MFD was firing electric spikes into the murky depths, and Mamba was spitting at those mer-bots. Hare began firing tooth missiles at the incoming enemy. Liger was in a defensive position behind them, and Night Angel was flapping his wings in an attempt to slow them down, to give the other hunters more opportunity. Rhino looked ready to charge if the mavs got too close. Slash pulled his sword off his face, and prepared for another battle.

Naturally, Chi Ro saw, the band of hunters easily overpowered the two mavericks. He gave the scientist the teleportation badge to be taken away to Hunters' HQ. The group came together again, and walked north to the next location.

(Happy, GJ? Now you're totally unguarded.)

Rhino, Slash, Angel, and Rhino were in the front row, with the four projectile reploids in the back. From a distance, Chi Rho lit the ocean with his blasts of light energy, and the mavs came to them like mosquitoes to a lamp. Rhino charged the mav in front, and impaled one on his horn. He threw this mav into one of the others.

MFD and Chi Rho stood back, taking potshots at the mavs.

Slash was fiercely battling his opponents. These models seemed more intelligent than the first encounters. Angel was covering him from above with bursts of a dark energy signature Slash didn't quite recognize.

Black Mamba's acid ripped into the side of the mav, and Mamba looked for his next prey. As he turned from his downed enemy, with the last bit of strength it had before the acid ate out his servomotors, Mamba felt a piercing pain. He turned around again, the water jostling the trident in his back. This time, he spit in the mav's face.

Liger was mauling his foe, and Hare was firing missiles at his. During the battle, the six hunters gracefully dodged MFD and XP's basts, while capably handling their opponents.

The battlefield stunk of ozone from the energy beams. Mamba was on the ground, with a trident sticking out of his back.

"Chi Rho, you patch up Mamba. Doesn't look TOO deep, but be careful. It could be messy. Slash, you ought to get to work on the bomb. Hare, Liger, Rhino, protect Slash. I'm picking up a reploid signal northeast of here. Angel and I will go check that out, and come back. I can see on my radar that the eight remaining merbots are protecting the radiation signal north of here. This next fight may be more difficult. I know you'll be able to handle it. Hopefully one of the other teams is close by for backup. These things seem to be getting smarter, the more of them we kill.

"You have your orders. Move out."

[Cyrus Knight]

Slash Swordfish, after studying the device for a bit, turned back to MFD, "Nuh uh, sir. This one's also a dud. Looks like the proper bomb location is the one the mav's are centering around."

All the while, the remaining eight mavericks waited, sensing the current, and preparing to give their lives to protect this object...

[MFD]

"Good. We've cleared out the other reploid up ahead, too." (Cyrus...)

"Let's move it out."

MFD prepared for the battle. It would be interesting. Black Mamba was helped up, and then he was fine.

[Knight]

K'tan opens the comm to the main Hunter frequency while his team goes about their immediate tasks and prepare to move again.

"Delta? Are you there? We've cleared the west section of the tunnel system, but it looks like the Mavs are gathering to the north, near the point that Delpha was supposed to port in at. Have you had any word from teams 3 and 4 yet?"

[MFD]

"I haven't K'Tan. I have a plan, though..."

MFD silently communicated his plan to K'Tan, and then looked up. "Let's play ball, men!"