World Tree MUSH

    Originium... It's funny just how the magical rocks can be so sought after despite their highly carcinogenic nature. How its so fought for among the factions on this world, amd how it has caused so much suffering to those that have contracted Oripathy.
    And now here's some gonk-brained corpo that got it in their head to try and examine the stuff ever since a certain operator left a loogie of infected blood on their corpo boat.
    Arasaka has spent the past few days moving in teams and squads of men and scientists through a Vine to this world so very far from their neon home of Night City. And they haven't been doing anything good.
    After a liaison between Rhodes Island and a certain fixer that operator Scavenger said could be trusted, and fixer rounded herself up a posse, Rebecca is here, too.
    Rebecca is the posse.
    Other people can be in the posse, too. It's very inclusionary. The point is, the party is settled on an overlook over the nearest branch that Arasaka has been entering from, and there's no missing the several trucks and boat load of armed Arasaka military men, women, and science teams that something is up.
    "Huhhhhhhhh..." Becca mutters. The solo, normally carefree about her style, has opted for a full body armored glove, to protect herself from the hazardous nature of the land's magical cancer rocks. "Don't like it." She says, looking through some high tech binoculars, and pointing out the various squads. "I'm seeing a lot of guys and a few Behemoth trucks, but no heavy machinery. Isn't this stuff made of heavy rocks?" She asks.
    Rebecca's suspicions are proven valid when more trucks come blazing over the horizon from another direction.
    "Aw shit."
    Aw shit is right, considering the cages mounted on the inbound trucks. With people inside them. "... Arasaka's not here for the rocks they're here for the blood."

    Magic rocks are certainly going to get Talia's attention. When she heard about the Originium, she began sniffing around and was approached with a job. By the time she got it, she'd been paying the local shrine a visit, showing her respects to the monks. It's a rare sighting of belief and tradition in a city overtaken by greed and technology. The shrine, while it's nothing to do with the Jedi way, is comforting in a way to Talia.

    They're also polite enough not to ask questions about the fact she has green skin, too.

    She joins with the posse, wearing cargo BDU pants, army boots, a Samurai tank top, and a mesh green top over that with some fingerless gloves, her hair done up in a ponytail.

    She inspects the convoy with her electrobinoculars, and the Jedi's jaw tightens when she notices something aboard the trucks; Cages.

    Talia grimaces. "Monstrous."

 Magic invading Night City? Well, it might seem strange if Adora herself wasn't a living example of it. 

 Catra might have introduced her to the weaponry of the city as the firearm tucked into her jacket attested, but there wasn't an ounce of chrome in her and the fact she could turn into an 8 foot tall 'Princess of Power' kind of proved the magic people thing. 

 This might not be her world they were venturing into, but spotting the people in cages? Well, it very well could have been. 

 Hell, it was already uncomfortably close to things she'd experienced during the war just given the cages. 

 "So...how do we bust them out?" Adora asks quietly. Her go-to approach wasn't going to be the subtle sort after all...

    Rhodes Island has a vested interest in helping the Infected. To that end, they sent Scavenger along to work with the out-versers. She's right there beside Becca and Talia, looking through a scuffed, well worn spyglass. She scans the Arasaka basecamp, then shifts to the incoming convoy.

    The white-haired Zalak frowns, collapsing the spyglass and putting it back in her pouch. "We can't let them get off-world." she states, hopping the ridge and sliding down to get closer to the 'saka goon squad.

 
     The full body sleeve on a biomod fox isn't something you'd normally see designed in Night City, but with the right pull and the right people, you can get one made. If a bit... funky looking. 
     Plastered with dark gray, reinforced at the joints to prevent tearing, and more so at the tail and ears, is TT. She looks like some gray glob all covered up without her usual dark evergreen attire, but she's come light today. With the 'posse' she's rounded up, she's got a feeling she won't even compare to what they can use. At least, not her usual stuff. "Wouldn't put it above Arasaka. Can't get the rocks, just get the infected. Typical... They don't know what the hell they're even messing with. No offense, but I'm not about to let Nightcity become -more- cancerous than it is already." 
 
     Twintail turns and hops down from the roof of her truck, that all too familiar Thorton Warhorse. But there's something different about it this time. There's a gun mounted on the back, put up on a nice turret. And it's a familiar gun. 
     The Mk. 31 HMG, the same guns used by the big mechs from that first arasaka heist. 
 
     "I'm open to suggestions. I don't usually deal with group hostage rescue drek. I can tell ya Arasaka's goonsquad don't mind if they flatline, they can easily get more."

    In truth, Marceline doesn't care all that much about magic cancer rocks. She's spent enough time as a denizen upon a continent /made/ of stuff like this that she doesn't really grok the big deal. At least, anything past punching up at a 'Big Guy' like Arasaka.

    So, somewhat impatiently but at least quietly, she stares down at the camp of corporate goons and squints, eyebrows lifting over the rim of her sunglasses as she too spots the trucks making their way toward their exit plan.

    "Oh dang, they're stealing people too? What-" Ah, the blood, right. "Jeez, nobody leaves. Got it." That they're okay with just abducting folks for anything more than a prank? Yeah, no.

    "So, what's the plan? Bust up their biz? They might just- Yeah, what the fox said."

    For her part? No protective suit; just a straw hat, sunglasses, a flannel shirt and denim shorts that were probably pants at one point but they've seen some serious wear. Chuck-sneaks and black socks to complete her look; though you'd think she'd cover up more since the sun is only just going down. She might be a little nuts.

    'How do we bust them out?' Adora asks, as Becca puts her binoculars away and starts loading her cherished shotgun, 'Guts', a garishly pink and green painted gun, much like many of the guns wielded by the Mox gang.
    "With violence." The solo replies way too casually as Scavenger starts sliding down the ridge. Rebecca is about as surprised by this as... Well.
    She's not surprised at all.
    "Look, if we flatline all the Arasaka guys fast enough, they won't be able to flatline the prisoners." It's... It's sound, if overly grisly, logic.
    This is when Becca decides to 'fit in' as she tugs up a rebreather mask over her face and... Puts on a cat-eared headband.
    "Alright, let's meowsey." She declares as she stands herself up, slinging said shotgun over her shoulder.
    The convoy hasn't notices Scavenger's approach yet, but soon enough Rebecca is falling into place beside the Zalak, a pair of assault rifles in each of her mechanical mitts.
    "Suggestion: We kill all the meowtherfuckers." Rebecca declares.
    Well if anything, Rebecca and Scav will make a good diversion if anyone wants to start moving up, as well.

    Talia stares at Rebecca as violence is suggested. Typical, but she's not going to argue. It's kind of the default in Night City, honestly. She pulls out a puppy eared balaclava and dons it, and sticks a tail on her belt above her butt. "Woof, woof, woof." She says, tone dry as the deserts that surround Night City.

    Taking off after Rebecca and Scav, Talia breaks off to make it towards the convoy, reaching out with the Force. She just needs to stop the first one, sent it careening off-road, make the rest stop dead in their tracks.

    She might need cover fire.

    Scavenger presses up against a boulder, pointing at the perimeter guards as Rebecca falls in beside her. "That is bait." she states flatly. The singular guard has his back toward them, a massive open invitation for someone to come and give him a dose of surprise proctology. She gestures and makes a move further toward where the Vine is. "We hit them from near their entry point. That way we can intercept anyone trying to run, while the others drive them toward us." she says.

    Once she's close enough, she breaks cover and pulls the black-wrapped weapon from her back. The cover unfurls and trails behind her like a comet tail as she leaps on one of the corpo drones near the Vine, slamming the flat of the giant blade down atop the poor sod.

 Well...at least Adora was with a crowd about as subtle as she was! A nod comes from the blonde, but she doesn't move to draw the 'backup' Lexington she'd been gifted by her feline partner. Instead a small flare of magical energy surging around her as the others leap into action grows to a momentary nova with the echoing cry. 

 "FOR THE HONOR OF GREYSKULL!" 

 A moment later and the body-suit and armored form of the Princess of Power joins the charge, practically walking cover even as she slashes her weapon through the air and an energy blast errupts from the sword towards the guards.

 
     Twintail hears Rebecca as she makes a suggestion she was about to go with, then she sees the rebreather and --. 
 
     "..." Her fox tail flicks in its hazmat protected attire, strong enough to move the material with it. Her ears even pin back. It just -had- to be cat ear stuff. And then she hears the cat puns over the radio, rolling her eyes as she mans the gun on her truck, giving a few hand signals to the hazmat suited driver inside as they give a thumbs up and start moving. "My bud and I are gonna be ready to pop out anytime. I don't got a lotta ammo on this thing, but she hits-aaaaaand there goes the diversion." Is said just as Adora belts out a battle cry. She deadpans as she gives a few more signals, getting the truck into a good spot to start the assault. Talia needs cover fire? She's about to get a lot of it.

    Well, Scavenger slipping off kinda settles things, don't it? Marceline doesn't mind, though she does wind up wondering how messy this is going to get. Surely they won't bring that big metal dingaling around again for a bit, right? She kind of hangs back, watching as peeps move out, trailing in-theme animal accessories and she can't help but roll her eyes. It's not that she's judging; she just didn't think to bring any of her own!

    Adora's next and... she tips her sunglasses further down her nose as the very large warrior girl barrels down toward inevitable combat with a battle cry. "Dang."

    Keeping to the lengthening shadows as best she can, she makes her own way down toward the approaching trucks. If she can get close, get aboard and attack a driver she might be able to stop up the whole convoy at least for a hot second.

    Divide, conquer, yay. She's accidentally doing tactics!

    It starts.
    Becca narrows her eyes as Scavenger points out the obvious trap before laying into the guard closest to the vine, flattening the poor sod under her buster blade. This unfortunately raises the alarm, and Arasaka's private military soldiers aim and open fire while their science team members run for cover. But soon enough, Rebecca is on top of that boulder, grinning like a maniac behind her rebreather.
    "Oh man, purrfect, it's target practice! HAHAHAHA!" She cackles, starting to unload. Between her assault rifles and the much heavier ordinance of the MK. 31 HMGs on Twintail's car, Talia gets the cover fire she needs as she uses the Force to send the first truck spiraling out of control. It doesn't have a cage on it, but the ones with cages behind it are forced to slow to try and get around it.
    "What's the matter, corpo gonks? Cat got your tongue?" Becca crows as she hops off the boulder, using Adora as brief cover to reload while the Princess of Power cuts down several more guys in her approach.
    With how slowed and mucked up those trucks are... The drivers are practically easy pickings for Marcy.

    Talia reaches to her belt, undoing her holster as she draws her blaster pistol. The IX-4 lets off a shrill whine as red blaster bolts make smoking holes in the windshield of the front vehicle. Once the drivers are dead, Talia rushes onto the truck and runs across it. She dives to the next truck, drawing her lightsaber. To locals, she probably just looks like some kind of super agile weirdo with a laser sword and an energy weapon. Nothing too special. Thank the Force for that. The Force might be a bit harder to explain.

    Talia uses her saber to cut a hole in the truck's top, making a move to liberate the prisoners aboard it and terminate any guards on-board.

 
     "..." 
     Twintail actually stops shooting. For a second. The person in her Thorton looks in the mirror and makes a hand signal at Twintail, communicating through some unspoken language. She responds with just a growl. A fox's growl. Uh oh. She narrows her eyes and redoubles her efforts. "Rebecca I -swear-..." There's defiantly some kind of tension building up there with Rebecca not only in cat ears, but spouting puns like she is. It isn't sure which one is getting under TT's suit more. Or maybe it's both acting as one? 
 
     What we do know is it's making her start to focus down on the truck with the caged people. Her shots are careful, taken in three bursts before re-aiming. For once, she's not all out attacking a truck, she's caring for the people inside, just trying to cripple and slowdown the truck in the best way she knows: Getting the driver or shooting out the tires.

 Not exactly excluded from the 'weirdo' camp herself, She-Ra made her charge towards the guards, fists that could easily throw a tank onehanded and the sword of power easily carving a path towards the cage vehicles while the lesser calibre weapons bounced harmlessly against her skin. 

 Course, the heaviest guns would hurt, but they had to actually have those ready and hit her with them... and the fire from the Smolo and the Jedi didn't exactly make that easy for them.

    "Guess he didn't have much chrome." she muses, before stabbing her blade into the ground to weather the incoming fire and the consequences of her actions. Bullets sprang off the shiny metal of the giant nodachi, the Zalak waiting for a lull in the rhythmic clatter. Once the others engage and the guards have to split their fire to more pressing matters, the Zalak picks up her impromptu cover and makes for the scientists and corpo drones. Noone gets out of here, lest they bring samples with them or convince the upper levels to send more resources.

    She seeks out new li--- wrong script. The non-combatants, and unceremoniously starts laying waste.

    Anyone who sees Scavenger in this state would find someone without emotions on their face. It's just a job, these are targets.

>> SUMMARY[Scavenger] >> I used to deal with 'troubles' for my employers. Eventually, they started to call me 'Scavenger.'

    The first driver never sees her coming. Just the door flying open on sprung hinges. There's a brief scream, then the poor fool is tumbling out of the driver's seat and possibly into the path of one of the trucks.

    She's gone like a shadow, soon plastering herself onto the wind screen of the next vehicle, her visage twisted and horrifying. "You have something that belongs to me. Gimme!"

    While she hisses over the roar of the vehicles engine, she digs lengthening claws through the armored glass. "I'm so HUNGRY!"

    She might have a laugh about this later but goodness she's going to leave a bunch of uncomfortable captives in her wake.

    "Whaaaaaat?" Rebecca asks over the comm-line as bullets fly everywhere. One rebounds off Adora's impenetrable skin and knocks the cat-ears right off the solo, who staggers away from the hail of fire to follow. "Ohjesusfuckingchrist!" Blurted thoughtlessly as she ducks for cover. Okay that's enough playing around, she almost lost her head there.
    "EX-FUCKING-SCUSE YOU." Rebecca declares as she blows the nearest Arasaka crony in half with her shotgun, while She-Ra cuts through more guards.
    Scavenger lays into the science team. It's very grim work, but someone has to do it, and they're almost helplessly defenseless as she does.
    Between TT, Talia, and Marceline, the convoy comes to a grinding halt- drivers are flung from their windows, tires are shot out, a dude is ripped from his driver seat and flung into the oncoming wheels of the truck behind- and Marceline terrifies just about everyone in the process, causing the last two truck drivers to bail.
    A guy makes a break for the vine only to be shot in the back, dead before he crumples to the ground as Becca racks the slide on her shotgun.
    "I think that's all the guys." She says, a lot more seriously as she lowers her gun.
    "Aite, let's crack open the cages, get these people out, send 'em home, and set everything on fire." You know. Just to send a message.

    "Please, don't kill me! I have a fami--"

    The last Arasaka corpo pleads, before being ended by the emotionless Zalak. She glowers as she turns, wiping the blood and whatever cyber-fluids from her blade. "So do all those people in the cages. You're not special, but you don't get to dictate to them how they'll die." she snarls under her breath, kicking a canister of fuel over and rolling it into one of the tents. She then scoops a grenade from a fallen security soldier and tosses it in with the pin twirling on a finger. "Torch it all. A Catastrophe's gonna hit here in about a week or so... that'll bury the rest... and make this area uninhabitable with more Originium formations."

    The Zalak feels different to those that know her well enough. Melancholy in a way she wasn't before.

    Talia normally isn't one for mass slaughter, but her time in Balmorra has taught her that one can't always control their allies. She doesn't kill any of the remaining Arasaka mercs, but she doesn't stop her friends from doing as they see fit.

    SHe's more concerned with their prisoners, cutting open cages and leading the infected out. "We're going to get you all someplace safe, I promise you. The company won't hurt you anymore." She says calmly to the prisoners.

    "We need to act fast. Who brought the explosives?" Talia asks Rebecca.

 
     TT halts her gunplay once things seem to be done. Her ears flick at distant cries that go silent, and she just leans over on the mounted gun, flicking that tail annoyingly as she watches. She makes a few handsignals again, the driver gives a 'thumbs up', and the truck starts to make a slow crawl up to one of the Arasaka trucks. 
 
     "Trucks are the explosives. Gotta think outside the box." TT gets herself out of the truck, and grabs a rag. She pops open the truck's fuel intake, and sticks the rag in, before she moves onto the next one. And the next one. All the while, she's lightly flipping what appears to be some sort of strange zippo lighter in her hand. "Once everyone's clear, we light it and delta."

    Marcy made her mark. Be disruptive, scare the daylights out of some people, stop anyone innocent from getting got- Then she's gone. She moves quick, not so quick that she won't be seen by some of the poor captive bystanders but by the time it's all said and done- She's got her own ideas about what to do.

    Rather than stick around for the truly gruesome bits of the aftermath she just fades into the shadows. She may act the part of the scary nightmare creature but she's maybe just a bit more squeamish than she lets on. Ah well~

Violence comes to an end and She-Ra was focused on doing the hero thing, tearing and slicing through cages after having essentialy done the same to the merc kidnappers. 

 She wasn't one for slaughter of the surrendering, but she too was essentially focusing elsewhere rather than interfering with others as the people/subjects were freed and the slightly glowing giant blonde exhaled a sigh of relief.