World Tree MUSH

    Leaving Antonia to lead her team of Miners back toward the entrance and Natasha's triage camp, the group venture further into the mine. The narrow caverns suddenly open up into a larger grotto, filled around the edges by mining equipment, crates and storage boxes, some filled with glowing orange Geomarrow, but most sitting empty.

    Standing at the opposite side, blocking the only other way out of the grotto is a large, armoured robot. Its right arm looks like a chainsaw, bulked up to cut through stone, and its left arm is a reinforced thing to counterbalance the weapon arm. It hasa a narrow 'head' with two glowing red optics, its design makes it look a little like a really tall man in full plate armour.

    Stelle steps in front of the group, brandishing her bat, while March states the obvious. "Whoa! Stop! Stopstopstop! There's a big evil hunk of metal right there!"

    Seele frowns, stepping up beside Stelle. "That model... it's one of Svarog's lapdogs alright." she seems confident at least. "Don't be afraid, I've dealt with these before. Lets go!"

    That's when the Wildfire enforcer jinks forwards and engages the robot with her scythe, clashing with a surprisingly well timed brandish of the chainsaw to intercept the scythe blade.

    The massive robot is more something Talia was expecting to fight. She activates her lightsaber, the green light filling the room once more, and she rushes towards the robot with Seele. While Seele and the robot clash their weapons together, Talia goes low to try and sever one of its legs with her lightsaber.

    Deeper into the mine! Hooray.
    Big giant evil chainsaw robot! Not so hooray!
    Rebecca follows along easily enough but the sight of that thing and its stone-cutting chainsaw arm gives her a moment of pause.
    "So like. I donno if I have enough bullets to handle this." The smart-aleck solo says scratching her head.
    Before she's brandishing a shotgun.
    "Guess there's only one way to find out."
    It is as Seele holds that chainsaw at bay that Becca aims for the 'head', starting to pump shell after shell of buckshot at the thing in hopes of damaging its optics.

    As specified, when it comes to battle Jessica is pretty simple in concept. She has a gun. She shoots the gun. But she's also a trained PMC member, and when the space opens up, there's a blur and a glimpse of swaying cat tail as she darts toward some higher ground, leaping up to try to get a better angle and range, and also spread the group out. "Looks like a hand to hand type! Keep moving!"

    She snaps off a few shots, testing its armour, and watching to see what it does. Hopefully it will just sit there and only attack people that walk right up to it thoughtlessly, but she doubts they're that lucky.

    Another blur, this one so many colors, dashes forward! Bi De is very fast, but those who have been paying attention to him fight may notice he's... slower right now. Sluggish, if still faster than a normal human. He ducks and weaves, trying to thread through the legs of the robotic opponent while Stelle keeps it busy. "I have little experience with opponents such as this," he notes.

    He's going to try, though. A Qi-enhanced talon lashes out, trying to get behind and tear at the joints of the armored legs, surmising that there's something 'soft' under the plating.

    The Direwolf is engaged. It's optics flash brightly as it revvs the rock cracking chainsaw. With a heave it knocks Seele aside, and with the momentum steps out of Talia's swing, the tip of the lightsaber nicking the armour plate and slagging a little of it... though that doesn't seem to slow it down.

    Buckshot pellets pepper its upper hull, and one of the side 'lights' smashes out, emitting sparks and earning a metallic growl of frustration. The 'head' optics are occluded by the raised sparr at the top of its torso plate. This likely means it can't see very well straight ahead, but those main optics aren't getting smashed by the Smolo just yet.

    Jessica's attack with her Originium pistol manages to punch through some of the thick work plating... though the outer layer has a sub-layer, spaced to defeat armour piercing rounds.

    Bi De's assault scratches away some of the leg armour, and manages to tear out one of the servos in the knee, slowing the thing down noticably.

    Not that it's done just yet. It revs that chainsaw and with a burst of red-hot exhaust, charges towards Jessica's perch, aiming to slash down the foundations and make some cat sashimi. "Careful! It's frenzying!" calls Seele, a few moments too late.

    Talia's lightsaber manages to leave a little scratch. She stops herself with her foot, sticking it out so she can slow her slide, then she coils it to propel herself into the air at an angle, soaring diagonally over the machine.

    Was it an industrial bot, or a war machine? Talia couldn't tell, but she's more concerned with survival. She swipes down to strike at the robot's shoulder, to sever the arm with the chainsaw off at the shoulder before its frenzy gets somebody hurt.

    "Well this is going nowhere fast." Becca grouses as she empties her shotgun. But when the machine shifts its attention to go after Jessica, the solo clicks her teeth.
    "HEY." She snaps, loading an armor-piercing slug into the breech of her shotgun.
    "Don't you fuckin' ignore me!" She shouts as she lines up a shot.
    She's still aiming for the head.
    "Frenzy THIS!" She shouts, firing the much higher power slug off in hopes of pulling some aggro off the others.
    She does not think this through.

>> SUMMARY[Rebecca] >> I AM A DPS WITH A TAUNT SKILL.

    Jessica is in threat-identification mode and doesn't know the origins. It's hostile, that's what's important. also heading right for her! "EEEK!" She doesn't yowl like a cat at least, but she does have her tail stand up and her ears fold back before she leaps from her perch, tumbling over and rolling across the ground to avoide that chainsaw!

    "NGG!" She grunts, the kitty hitting the ground hard! But battering and bruising is much better than being torn to pieces, even if she's sacrificed a chance to shoot at it while dodging.

    "Hmm." Bi De skids to a halt as the machine just lurches forward, away from him. "Does this creature not feel pain?" That is worrying, causing him to cock his head. "Is it possessed by a demon?" His wings fan out and he gathers Qi again, waiting for an opening and...

    Only seeing a hail of bullets. Not that he blames Rebecca because anything that would try to hurt Jessicat is clearly evil beyond redemption.

    He pauses long enough to realize that Rebecca is shooting toward the head. Very well. The chicken dashes forward again, this time looking for more joints along ankles or knee, deciding that crippling its movement would be good. And also keep him out of the hail of gunfire. The rooster is very slow compared to normal, and conserving his Qi.

    TZZZZT. The shifting of the robot in its frenzied assault brings an armour plate into position to catch the light saber. It slashes deep into the metal, but gets slowed down by the sub-layer, a denser alloy of some kind that doesn't melt as fast. This gives the thing just enough time to turn that spinning chainsaw on the mirialan.

    Luckily for Talia, the thing is knocked off balance by a sudden slug to the face, that spar denting from the impact and drawing aggro just like Rebecca wanted. Its optics flare, and with another rev of the engine the thing charges at the Smolo.

    Bi De's assault may be dangerous, as the thing is moving a bit erratically with the damage already incurred, and its mad dash towards its new target, but if he makes it in, he'll find more chances to cut connecting cables, rip out servoes and sever hydraulic lines.

    "It's a ROBOT. It doesn't have any pain receptors!" explains Seele, as she moves to intercept the robots charge, clashing with its chainsaw again. "No demons here, unless you count me."

    That dense alloy is giving phrik metal a run for its money. Talia narrowly avoids a nasty haircut from the chainsaw, landing in a tumble. She sees Bi De, and calls out, "Try to dig inside of it, cut some wires, destroy servos!" She calls out to the chicken.

    Meanwhile, she hurls her lightsaber as hard as she can at the machine's leg, the same leg she attacked before. Her lightsaber is a humming, spinning buzzsaw as it hurdles toward the robot's leg, intending to hopefully cut deeper now.

    Okay. Okay Becca has its attention. This is good.
    So. What now?
    It is AS the robot turns its attention to her that Rebecca pauses.
    She did not think this through entirely as the others lay into it, and she doesn't have time to load another slug into her gun.
    "Awwwwww sheeeit..." The solo grouses as it makes a wild charge right for her...
    Though Seele moves to intercept the chainsaw blade before it can bisect Becca, the solo tosses her shotgun aside.
    "Motherfu----" She shouts as the chainsaw comes down and she brings her hands UP.
    Rebecca catches the chainsaw like a samurai in an old period flick or anime catches a katana; in the flat of both her palms.
    "Nnnnngggggggghhhhh...!"
    Just holding that thing is taking all her strength, her Gorilla Arms augs venting as her knees buckle, but she HOLDS the thing with every ounce of strength she has.
    "--CKERRRRRRRRR!" She finishes her invective as she hauls off and jerks back, twisting the chainsaw arm to *judo flip* the mecha to the ground with a violent amount of force.

>> GAME >> Rebecca spends an Edge for: RULES OF NATURE!!!

    No pain receptors. Bi De hears Talia's suggestion and pauses, then darts over to the side, running along the wall to get around behind the Direwolf and... leaping! Wings spread, flapping once to guide his path, and then the chicken thumps onto the back of the machine and latches!

    Qi rushes through talons, digging into the metal just enough to maintain a grip. But then Bi De does nothing. Or more accurately, he's carefully looking over the back, trying to find a place he can work his talons into. He figures if it doesn't feel pain, then just holding on like this won't be considered a threat, giving him time to find a weakness.

    Becca does a good job in taking the heat off Jessica, and the feline isn't about to waste that opportunity! She scrambles over, wincing as she feels the battering she took getting out of the way, and then draws her pistol again. Or, more accurately, lifts it since she never let go of it.

    This time she takes aim, much more carefully than before, and waits for an opening. The Direwolf is damaged, so she'll focus on that instead of bullet spam. The joint that Bi De damaged seems like a good thing to practice sharpshooting on.

    Becca stops that blade. Seele jukes away with that weird quantum skipping thing she does, and the cybersmolo disrupts the robot enough it spins, loses its footing due to the damaged leg, and lands hard on the ground. Bi De and Talia lay into it next, Talia's lightsaber singing through the air, and slicing clean through the chainsaw blade as the thing tries to use that to right itself. Bi De will find something giving off a lot of energy. It's no Qi, or anything 'living' but the sheer output can be felt by anyone at that range. It's 'heart' analogue perhaps.

    Jessica's precision shots dislodge the remaining leg, leaving the thing at the mercy of a very large and angry co--- rooster.

    With it dealt with, assuming Bi De finishes it off, the party can regroup, and press on deeper.

    Taking the tunnel that was being guarded, the group will eventually emerge into a vast, open area. Dozens of meters up to the roof, and almost equal down to the lowest layer. Catwalks crisscross this underground canyon, minecart tracks in equal measure, and large stansions, scaffold constructs and other bracings can be seen all over.

    Dominating this area, is a massive glowing pillar of Geomarrow, crystals the size of buildings... or one giant crystal formation the size of a skyscraper from Rebecca's world. The base continues down a deeper section, possibly hundreds of meters down.

    Bronya is in awe. "Seeing it up close... this vein is even more spectacular than I imagined." she says, resting a hand over her sternum as her grey eyes sparkle in the reflected light. Seele doesn't seem as excited though. "I doubt the Underground will ever see it fully excavated..."

    At the base of the vein, a heavy robot, that looks like a really fat dude in bulky armour, stands watch over a... normal guy in a power suit, and a young girl, mid-teens, with white hair and a strikingly red dress... and... no shoes? The girl is speaking but her voice doesn't carry to the group on their vantage point.

    Talia was aiming to sever a leg, but she'll take that. She reaches out as the now-deactivated lightsaber hilt flies back to her grasp, and she nods when Bi De finishes the mech off. "Good job." She flashes a thumbs up before taking off to the tunnel.

    Her eyes go wide when they see the massive crystal. "I've only seen crystal formations like these on Illum, where we'd go to get our kyber crystals. The entire planet is full of them." She says thoughtfully, glancing down at the lightsaber in her hand.

    Her eyes note the girl and the man in armor, briefly mistaking the latter for a droid of some kind. "Mmm."

    The robot goes dowwwwwwn!
    Rebecca pumps her arms and crows.
    "Wooooo!" She says before huffing and collapsing to her knees.
    "Ah hell..." She'll have to see a ripperdock when she gets back to Night City for overtaxing her arms like that but it got the job done.
    And then they find a massive thing of Geomarrow.
    "... So like. How much are we looking at here?"
    She has dollar signs in her eyes. But then she notices the trio at the base of the thing.
    "... Huh. So who're they?"

    The steely grip of the chicken on the robot's back keeps him there while the bullets tear into smaller systems. Robots are strange for Bi De, but Talia's advice helps, and after a little bit of a chaotic 'ride' the rooster sees what he needs.

    Beak stabs forward, Qi flares, and the moonlight blossoms as he pours some of his reserves into the 'stab' at the base of the head, slicing through the subdermal layer via bypassing the thick plates outside to begin with. He must have hit something important, because an exhausted rooster quietly struts off, falling behind the others. "That took a lot out of me. I will... observe for now." Letting the others take the lead here while he recovers. The deeper he goes, the worse he looks.

    Phew. Jessica holsters her originium gun, and swaps to the one Rebecca lent her. "Hopefully nothing quite so tough further in," she says, now trying to conserve ammo. She still has quite a bit in her pack, but she has no idea how much longer they'll be away from a new source.

    Upon seeing the next group, she stops from her struggling urge to pet Bi De and stares. "It's never that simple. I bet they have some kind of claim to this."