World Tree MUSH

Ghost was sitting outside a small... Well. It was outside a rather technologically advanced city, on the side of the road. Things like robots, all that were fairly common place here, so she didn;'t draw much attention as flying cars drove by. She was sitting, glancing towards the setting sun.

"You shouldn't be doing this, Ghost," Jacker's voice played in her ear.

"I'm fiiiiine. Really. It was a small hiccup."

"You don't have everything you need. You almost collapsed earlier, and if this happened on the mission--"

"It won't happen. I'm fine."

"You're missing--"

"What, minerals? Food? You think I don't know that? I'm FINE! We need money. This? This will get us money. Your worrying? It won't."

"We can--"

"We've been over this, Jacker. I'm doing this. You're the support. I have backup, and they should be here soon. Going quiet, let me know when they're close."

There was some grumbling, but silence from his end after that. Time to wait. She was wearing... Her suit was different. Red, for one. Magma frame. To burn througgh things....

"Operator are you sure this is... wise?" Ordis worried in Ash's ear as the Tenno flew through traffic. No he was quite literally flying via a pair of jet-wings strapped to his warframe's spine. Traffic was annoying, the police were less than enthusiastc when they questioned him, and he was already late for this job.

I'm sure it'l lbe fine Ordis. Get in, raise a bit of noise, get out. They won't even be able to turn the air..." He trialed off seeing Ghost's chassis, "...off... Ordis is that who I think it is?"

After a moment, "If it isn't then that chassis design is close enough to likely be from the same world." Then as Ash landed a dozen meters from Ghost and the ARchwing system detatched from warframe Ordis then added a not-so subtle, "Still think everything wil lgo 'Fine' Operator?"

Ash took a breath and started towards the mercenary robot body thief. "Ah... Ghost?" He sounded unsure at the other person's identity. "You the hiring party or you answer the same Ad I did?"

    Maybe this was too irresponsible. Maybe he agreed far too quickly before hearing the entire mission out. But maybe it was better to go along and keep an eye out on things, especially considering Ghost's track record from the last two incidents in which Cayde-6 had come across her. The first two things are entirely reasonable, but he's completely hinged things on the last. It makes the most sense to him. 

    And maybe their little chat the other day just made him want to look out for the android all the more. She's good, yes, but sometimes... Well, he knows all about getting in over your head.

    "Yo!"

    The Exo strolls along like he's just been out for a casual walk in robo-town. His ghost is out of sight but ever monitoring things. And maybe she just doesn't want to be in reach should Ghost give into her urge to try tickling her.

    Looks like they're not alone for this jaunt, anyway. Cayde's metal brows lift as he looks at Ash, and he wags a finger as though it'd jumpstart his memory. "Ah, you again. Daredevil kid at the flying egg party, awkward bar company. Dooon't think I got your name either time though." Then again it's been a long while since, so it's quite possible it just slipped his mind.

    "This our fireteam?" he asks Ghost, glancing over. "-also nice suit."

Ghost nodded. "Eeyup. It's totally awesome, watch this!" She jumped into the air, on the second lava....

Orbs of LAVA shot out from her suit. Ho. Ly. Crud. WHO GIVES HER THESE THINGS?! "It's also resistant to heat and stuff and... like. That'll be important later. AANYWAY! We'll be entering from the roof. And yes, I recommended you, Ash. Cause you're awesome too."

 She then stretched out. "SO! Gentleman! I've called you here today so we can kill Superlad! We--"

"GHOST!" Jacker's line came over her coms, making her urk. And they could hear it. "Everyone, please switch over to line 672. I'll be encrypting all of our communications."

Once switched over... "I am Houstan. This mission is simple. Ghost is going to be heading through the refinery and inserting my connection into their system. Another person will need to steal one of their prototypes, a rather large bipedal robot. It will be heavily protected. You need to get it out of there WITHOUT blowing it up. That means one piloting, one driving. You'll only be experiencing robotic defenses, so go wild. But the automated defenses can be difficult. However, once you're in I'll be able to isolate the network enough so I should be able to keep the alarms and comms from going outside your local area."

"Any questions? GHOST! Don't."

Ghost's mouth opened, and then she pouted, crossing her arms. "Grumble... Houstan always such a tight ass...."

Ash looked Cayde over appraisingly and nodded. In spite of his warframe being built like a fairly athletic and rather tall person the voice that came out sounded more like a teenager still going through puberty. "So any other adds or is this gonna be our squad?" He shrugged and then offered Cayde a hand, "I'm Ash. Think I remember seeing you there ya. That guy ever show back up again or-" He grunted. "Sorry.

He streached, looking from Ghost to Cayde, "Look did either of you get something more than a bare minamum on what this thing the client wants?" 

In his transferrence pod Ash quirked an eyebrow. "Ordis you have my loadout ready?"

He stared at the lava and made sure his warframe wasn't going to rebroadcast. "She's a kid being given walking warcrime weapons like party favors. Who in their right left or other mind would do this?"

Ordis... didn't answer. Instead his Archwing returned along with a trio of weapons. "A... Refinery. and Ghost here has a suit that makes lots of incredibly Hot Fire." His voice positivly DRENCHED with pessimism. "I've seen refinery explosions. They border on Nuclear in destructive potential."

Ash pulled a bow from the package ordis dropped. Said bow looked like it was made of fresh... still living and writhing... meat covered bone with a tendon as a bowstring. "So no on-site personnel, just robotics." Ash nodded as he strapped a rather large pistol to his right hip and a small palm sized disc to his left wrist. "So who's piloting the giant robot?"

Ordis, regardless on if anyone speaks or not, laughed. "Operator I would like to volunteer to PILOT THE GIANT MURDERBOT ensure the package is safely delivered."

    "Oooh. Very nice!" One might normally be worried about someone (like Ghost) being able to shoot lava at whim but the Exo looks a bit too interested in it. He looks back over at their other partner-in-crime then. "Ash. Got it. And I have no idea, haven't been back since," Cayde replies, shrugging after he's released from the handshake.

    The sudden shout while not as loud as it might be to Ghost still makes him hunch up a bit. "Hoo. So -that's- him," he murmurs with a knowing smirk. "Sundance, you get that signal?" A moment later he nods to himself as his ghost patches him in on that frequency so they can hear the details. "And there you go," he says, a belated response to Ash's question, granted -after- the fact. They've got this! What can possibly go wrong?

    He rubs his hands together as he considers the objectives they'd been given. "Oh boy, giant robot piloting? -and without blowing it up. Right. How hard can it be?" A few dings isn't the same as getting it blown up, after all. Of course then he scowls when Ordis volunteers. Hey, does that even count? 

    "So, Houstan, you got a map of the place handy, or we just playing by ear? I mean, it's fine by me if we do, but most people like you seem more happy with some sort of game plan." 

Ghost was still moping when Houston continued.

"Going in dark. We have a general vicinity, but not the exact locations. However, what Ghost is going through is the hottest part of the building, and it gets hot. But it's the point of weakness for the vault. On top of that, she'll need to get through the vault. Hence why we allowed her THAT particular death machine. The robot should be in the main warehouse. But it's a big warehouse and there will be a lot of security. Unfortunately, you guys won't be coming on the ground floor. It's too obvious. Now, I've managed to hack one of their security drones and Ghost helped... apprehend it. And you'll be riding on that, making your way in from the roof, together. You'll split up at the main floor. She'll head underground, you head to the warehouse, and try to find it. Please, for the love of all that is holy, TRY to remain quiet. Considering the electronic security, I can stop anything from outside the complex from finding you, but inside it'll be dangerous. Ghost, this goes doubly for you."

"You can't see it, but I'm sticking my tongue out at you!"

"And you'll need to pilot it manually. Do NOT engage the AI. Repeat. Do NOT engage the AI. Now..."

And then.... a giant, robotic orb landed near them, with wings. One of the large security drones... looks like there ride was here.

"Any questions?"

Ash sighed theatrically, rolling his eyes from within the somati pod at the back of his ship. "Ordis I appreciate your enthusiasm but there is basically no chance you'll be compatible with its hardware." THen after re-checking the meat-bw he added, "But I'm pretty sure whoever draws short straw would appreciate you tagging along to help with targeting and wayfinding>"

His warframe slowly shook its head. "Sorry for the interruption Houston." He cleared histhroat waiting on further details. Then after getting details he'd look to Ghost then Cayde. He could tell them how he basically was close enough to hold a Star in the palms of his hands, but that would be bragging rather than helping.

As demonstration Ash disappeared in a cloudof smoke leaving himself all but invisible to the unaided eye and more than a few optics besides. "I can do quiet ya." His voice spoke from the empty space his body occupied before. "Sidearm's loud as hell but has a lot of punch to it. Bow's no Dread but it'll eat through any armor plating light enough to still be mobile in." Then he reappeared and looked to Cayde, "You good going in quiet?" Then a pause, "Though if we won't have to worry about backup doing a full sweep and clear before blowing everything up will hide exactly what the client was after, or maybe make them think the client just wanted the place destroyed."

    Cayde nods along as Houston responds. "Well, at least it sounds like it'll be fun." That should make the guy feel a whole lot better about Ghost's choices for assistance on this.

    "Quiet, got it." He glances over at Ash as the warframe demonstrates, head tilting at its sudden absence before it reappears. "I can do quiet!" he insists, maybe too defiantly. At least they're not completely empty words. Hunters have to be stealthy at times, and his skills aren't only with a gun.

    Smirking at Ghost as she speaks back to her contact, he looks around at their little group again before replying to Houston. "Gotcha. Don't turn on the thingy. Keep things low profile and take out everything and anything that gives us trouble. Don't worry! We got this!"

    As their drone ride appears, the Hunter's grinning again, hands on hips as he looks it over. "I get shotgun!" he says as he hops on, even though he just piles on just about anywhere he can find suitable footing.

Ghost would hop on and giggle. "Silly. I don't think any of us even brought a shotgun," she joked. "And don't worry, Jacker, I know alllll about stealthy and subtle."

"... You literally JUST said my name."

".... Oh. Um. Do over! Houstan!"

"Anyway. This is an automated factory. And they make defense systems. If you try to fight things and clear it all out, trust me. You'll end up dead long before they run out of reinforcements. If you draw fire, keep going, don't try and kill everything. Try to break contact," he said firmly.

 And one they were all piled on, it'd take them out... it... seemed to be a five story tall building, wide. With an attached warehouse and.... Oh, that warehouse was massive. this place was outside the city, but just just, surrounded by turrets, metal fences and robotic soldiers. They didn't draw any attention, though. As far as they could see, nothing living seemed to be here.

Ash rather thought this Jacker vastly under-estimated his ability to 'deal with' security. Still. Stealthy was the better option so he wasn't going to contest the matter. "For the record. This drone is maybe the fifth least comfortable chair I've sat in."

Ash looked at the facility as they did a flyover and hmmed thoughtfully. "Y'knowif we had a rhino, EV trin, maybe even anOberon to confuse their IFFS, or inaros...." He grinned in spite of himself as his warframe checked then double checked weapons, which included flicking the disc from its left wrist into hand causing it to expand and sprout several long curved blades before retracting again. 

"Got any team comp suggestions from back home Cayde?"

    "You're right, guy can't even take a joke," Cayde says, chuckling. "-oh, is this thing still on? Um, yeah. Ignore that. It's not like we were talking about you or anything," jhe hurriedly adds. 

    He says nothing more in relation to taking on the whole of the security forces that might be sent after them. No point in looking for more trouble. He's already taking into account the potential for trouble by default. As they fly out, he eyes the warframe's weapons check, seeming to smile crookedly as he points at the bladed piece. "Ooh, I needa get me one of those." 

    As they near their destination the Exo looks out, Sundance doing her own scans to give him a better idea of what's awaiting below.

    "Team what now?" He blinks, glancing at Ash. "Oh. Er. Lesse. I'm feeling we have a fair mix of range and melee here. Anyone good at tanking? Eh, we'll figure it out. Fast and free, kid."

Ghost glanced over. "I don't--"

"YOU MAY NOT RIDE A RHINO INTO THE MISSION!" Houstan came on, making Ghost cringe.

"He's still realllllly mad about the time I rode an elephant through the wall and... Oh, he was mad about that one for a looooong time. I think he was just jealous cause I get to do all the fun stuff. But I mean, there is a zoo nearby if you wanna--"

"No. Ghost."

"But--"

"NO!" He doesn't respond to the commends from Cayde... Though the annoyance could be felt. Oh, the annoyance.

Wait, there was no... entrance. How were they supposed to get in from the roo--

"Here we go!" She jumped off, jumped a second time... and lava. After a few minutes, it burned a hole through the roof to the floor below. "Okay, guys, go in, have fun, watch out for the lava!"

Moments before she dove in and... The sound... of alarms.

"DAMN IT GHOST I LITERALLY JUST SAID NOT TO DO THAT! YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE! Four assault robots on the hall below you guys, make that three. Low cover, but Ghost has them focused on her. I've got their alarms isolated, but try to be careful."

Ash nodded at Cayde as they neared the drop point. As Jacker and Ghost argued he huffed, the lights on his suit dimming as he waited for the drop.

AAAaaand then Alarms. Like. ALL of the Alarms. "So much for stealth," Ash quipped as he dove headfirst through the hole Ghost made. There was a quick moment for him to mark one of the robots and, as he turned invisible just before landing a dark smoke-clone of his warframe appeared in front of the offending security drone to try stabbing it in the face before dissapating.

"Houston You getting any sensor feed from my rig?" He had started running literally as soon as he landed, not wanting to stay in place i ncase anything in the room had active scanning.

    Ghost's entrance is...pretty much what Cayde had in mind to do. As it is, he's just glad he's not the one being yelled at. Rising up, he grabs his handcannon and grins.

    Down he goes right at Ash's heels, just barely holding back a whoop as he drops. Even before he's on the floor his Ace of Spades flashes with several subsequent bursts aimed between the other two not being dealt with by Ash's warframe.

    "Sundance, just give me the usual head's up if we have any extra company heading our way," he says conversationally as he continues firing once his feet have hit the ground. "Which way guys? Or we just melting our way straight down?"

Ghost giggled. "Hee hee, more stealth."

"I swear... Okay..." As the bots were erupted from guns and blade, Jacker just sighed. "Okay. Alarms are settled. And no, burning straight down would be bad. Make your way to the elevator. You'll be able to make your ay down from there. But you'll need to get in through the roof of the elevator. It should be... Turn, then... somewhere. Look for signs."

There were no signs. There were, however, more security drones to interupt them on the way. Nothing major, though...

"And yeah, I've got full sight. I'm watching everything and-- GHOST! Take your hand out of your nose!" Pause. "Wait. You don't even have boog-- GHOST! GROW UP!"

"Hee hee."

"Anyway. Make your way to the elevator. From there, it's a straight shot to the ground floor, where you'll split up."

It wouldn't be hard to get there. Though, during one of the fights, Ghost did trip and fall on her face for a moment. "Oof! Sorry, hit the wrong wires! Let's do this!"

Ash would pull his bow out and fire at drones as need be. Each arrow would act like a blunt tipped arrow, iimpacting against its target causing clouds of caustic vapor to rise and cling to whatever the arrow impacted. Most thinks tended to not react well to having aresolized corrosives eating away at their important bits.

Then he saw Ghost trip and instinctivly moved to where she was, providing cover fire til she got her footing again. Nothing he could do now other than was just a mid-fight stumble rather than some chassis malfunction.

Then the Elevator. Getting in the elevator shaft was a non-issue. Neither would forcing the access hatch of the car. The real problem, at least for Ash, would be waiting. He hated taking elevators during missions since you were in a tin can in enemy territory where they could just drop explosives on you, or cut the cables, or any number of other things.

    "Fine, fine, we'll do it your way," Cayde says, giving his gun a twitch to eject its spent ammo cartridge in favor of slapping in a fresh one.

    Elevator, elevator⦠The Exo points down the hall with his gun, and not a second later pulls the trigger as another security bot appears in that direction. "Should be just past them!" he says as he double checks with his ghost, firing again before he flat out charging the remaining as Ash handles Ghost. He disappears right in front of the bots, reappearing at their backs to blast them both. With that handled, he bows and gestures towards the elevator just around the corner. 

    Wedging his knife into the doors he pries it open. Are they supposed to wait for the lift to get to them? Eh, one way or another he'll find it. The Exo takes this as his turn to drop down the shaft, his ghost helpfully reminding him that they have no idea how fast the thing goes and if it's still on the way down or coming u-- oh, there it is. 

Ghost would jsut smile at Ash at the help. "I'm fine, I just tripped. Really. Oh. OH! Cayde's getting ahead of us. We gotta go!" 

"It's not a race! The elevator is on the ground floor, be careful! It--"

And ghost already jumped in after them. Of course she did. Then.... "Cayde! Move against the wall!"

Good thing about lava? It glowed in the dark as it came PLUMMETING DOWN AT HIM TO MELT THROUGH THE ROOF! GEEZ!

Ghost would land down there a moment later as... it dug in throguh the elevatorl... then the floor of the elevator... To the cement floor under it. "Welp... we're on the main floor, Houston."

"Why do I even try? Okay, when you get through that door... Well. I don't know. You three be careful. Ash, Cayde, you'll head east. Ghost, head south towards the hoffices, that's where the main entrance to the basement is. Be careful."

When they opened the door.... About twenty assault bots... And three... mini mechs. With chain guns. And missiles. Eep.

"Huh...." Ash stepped forward holding up both hands, "Don't shoot don't shoot!" He kept his motions slow and his hands in the open. Was he surrendering?

He then disappeared, only to reappear behind a drone in the middle of the pack of Death Machines. "Hiiii!" His pistol was in one hand as a bladed disc flew from his left as he sprung upwards, twirling as he gained height, throwing energy stars with one hand as the heavy pistol fired from the other.

    "-Now- you tell me!" Cayde huffs at Houston. Thank goodness for sturdy robot legs! He looks up at word from his ghost and warning from Ghost, yelping as he throws himself against the shaft wall as a waterfall of lava pours down in front of him. 

    Once down and out, the Exo takes a moment to watch Ash's warframe at work with an appreciative grin. "I -really- want one of those," he says as the bladed weapon goes flying to dispatch more bots. Dashing outside he fans the hammer of his handcannon to fire repeatedly along the line of their opposition before throwing himself into a roll under the incoming barrage of weapons-fire. His knife goes spinning as he flings it at the 'eye' of one more.

Ghost took cover under the elevator... and then her robot went dim. All the lights shut off. And then after a few moments, one of the GIANT robot's turned blue. Well, all its lgihts glowed blue. And it began unleashing fire and bulelts and MISSILES on the robot.

"MWA HA HA HA BURNINATE! BURNINATE ALL THE THINGS!" A robotic voice came from the robot. That carried on for a few moments as fire teared into it. Not that ghost cared, she was invincible. She--

BOOM! Missiles tore through her and the body erupted. Ghost silently screamed, her ghost form falling from the destroyed body. Eyes wide with shock, shaking. Her entire... body, for what it was, was tingling. It felt for a second like she was being torn apart. W-what was that? That hurt. That ACTUALLY hurt. It couldn't HURT! It wasn't SUPPOSED to hurt! How... why.... what?

"I lost cameras. What's going on over there? Where's ghost? Is she okay?!" Houstan called out over the coms, he sounded a little panicked. "Status report!"

"Her primary chassis's stil ldown. How long does she usually take to get that thing up and going?" Ash rolled on landing, dodging more incomming fire to scoop up Ghost's body and hopefully drag it somewhere less prone to things going boom. 

Then he looked to Cayde, "I'm going to get her clear of this, take over package delivery if she stays out of it." As he continued moving he concentrated, taking a deep breath. "It ain't much but this'll give you a bit of time."

Powerflooded through the warframe's systems, expanding its Invisibility to Cayde and Ghost. It would only last a few seconds, maybe a half minute at most. However that would give Cayde time andGhost... He wasn't sure what was up as he tried carrying her chasssis along.

>> GAME >> Ash spends an Edge for: Nothing to see here guys. Nothing at all.

    The woldly burninating mech gets a bit of an odd look before Cayde pieces together what's happened. He but turns for a moment to resume his own dishing of mayhem before hearing the explosion. "Ghost!" he shouts, looking back towards the smoking hull. Crap, what happens when she's stuck in something that blows? 

    Return-fire zings past his shoulder, Sundance calling for his attention. Pivoting, the Hunter resumes firing. "-think she took a ride on one of those mechs, got taken out though," he reports to Houstan after Ash's given his own. 

    "Yeah, you do that. I'll -rgh! Cover you-!"

    A shoulderguard singed from a direct hit, the Exo grunts but continues to shoot. They couldn't stick around here for too long, especially not short one person. Well, at least they didn't have a solid plan. Easier to improvise. Or something.

    Trusting his ghost to keep track of the two while he tries to keep the worst of the weapons off their tail. Dangit, he's not the Titan! Hunters weren't made to tank! "Wait, what's he doing?" he asks, seemingly talking to himself but it's his unseen partner addressing him. As he finds himself cloaked, even temporarily, his spirits are considerably lifted. "Neat. I didn't even train for that class!"

    He almost grins maliciously as he darts on past the remaining threats to get past them, but feeling it be a shame not to take advantage of, it's not without planting a knife blade into a few along the way. The less they have to worry about and all that...!

Ghost hovered over the battle field. How did it hurt? Why did it-- Oh my gosh, Ash, that idiot! That was HER body! She buried the sudden pain down...

"Not long, but she gets blown up all the time. She's usually--"

"Back a few moments later?" Ghost asked as her body came alive. "I've only been pulling THAT stunt within the first five minutes of you meeting me. Ash, put me down, silly. I was just jumping around and having some fun, gosh. Chill out a bit. You act like it's NOT something I do all the time."

There was an odd edge to her voice. "You two go get the thingie! I'm gonna go deliver, bye!" she yelled, before running off and...

"Ghost, what was that?"

"Nothing."

"The others are off coms for a second. What happened? All your vitals went wild for a second. I thought you were having a stroke."

"Nothing, I'm fine, I'll explain later. AFTER the mission."

"But--"

"Going radio silence!"

"Dang it, Ghost!"

After a moment, Jacker's voice came up again. "Houstan here. You two, run off ahead and get that Robot. Ghost is... fine," there was hesitation there. "She has her job, you have yours. And I'm monitoring both."

Definitely... nothing to worry about. Nothing. At all.

The robots, however, were following cayde, where Ash would need to follow to keep up and get to the warehouse. But hey. Already a lot of the bigger bots were gone. And the small ones were wayyyy easier to blow up.

"You are correct Houston," Ash stated flatly as he watched Ghost sprint off. "After the mision we will talk. Keep me informed." And with that he smiled as Ordis sent down his archwing. Fine he had a nice bright SHOOT AT THIS THING target planted on him, but now he had SO. MANY. MISSILES to fire at ALL of the things.

And yet he would also shoot at specific targets each time his archwing needed to replinish its internal missile stores.

He darted about, chip dammage here, chip damage there to the second layer of shielding the archwing provided. "Cayde, Progress?" 

And then a missile hit Ash in the back, sending him tumbling forward. "Owe... dangit Ordis what gives?"

"Dumbfire turret, using visual targeting it seems."

Ash grumbled, "What i wouldn't give for an Itzal right about now..."

    "Ghost! -er, right. Sure." He hasn't known her long but something just sounded off there. Still, they've got a job to do, and he's not going to tell her how to do it. He can only trust that Jacker keep a good eye on her. 

    "If she needs any back-up, you better give a hollar, Houstan," he says once the other comes back up on the comms. "Now, how long does this stealth thing la-agh! Ack! Crap! Okay, guess they can see me now!"

    The series of dodges and ducking is executed rather clumsily at first, but not without his returning fire over his shoulder. He plants a grenade by the floor of the wall he runs by, which would trigger instantly the moment something crossed the red thread of light.

    "This is the right direction, right?" Always comforting a question to hear. Sorry Ash. There's an explosion as the pursuing bots trigger his trap. "-good! I think we're good! Hey, what was that? You all right there, kid? ...what're we looking f- Ah! Oh yeah. Warehouse. That must be it!"

The two broke into the warehouse! And ummmm... Lots... of robots. The big ones. Welp. Remember that massive robot that had been about 30 feet tall that cayde had blown a hole in the other day?

Now he knew where it came from. And there were three of them in the midst of booting up. "Head to the southern exit. Do NOT engage. These are the main models, and--"

Did I say booting up? They were booted. Oh hell were they booted. as drones flew into the air, buzzing in the air like a swarm of anger laser shooting bees...

BOSS FIGHT TIME!

Ash disengadged his archwing, sending it flying skyward before sprinting into the warehouse after Cayde. Wait... three of those giant robots, plus swarm of attendent drones.

"Oh this is so unfair..." He looked first to Cade then seemed to sigh as he started marking drones. "Houston, are any of those the thing we want?" He lept out of theway of laser fire, taking the occasional bolt as damage to his shields. THese he paid no mind as he continued running, marking other drones. 

Then he summoned the clones. Three smokey indestinct copies of Ash's warframe would materialize, each appearing in front of a marked target for a moment to stab, before disappearing and then reappearing in front of the next. His bladed disc joined in the fray bounding from target to target as Ash kept running. ""Are there any local controls, an override, any way to shut the big ones down other than brute force?" 

He was seriously under-geared for this boss encounter.

    "Aw hell."

    The way he says it makes it clear that Cayde's quite familiar with the things. 

    "Yeah, Houston? We have a problem." Because there's no way they can't engage now. "-Sundance! If I get us in close enough you think you can hack one to disrupt it? Okay, cool, twelve percent of a plan! Break!"

    The Exo dives to the side amidst the first of laserfire as it spatters about. He rolls and continues to run straight for one of the big bots. Would those drones keep firing at him if he was too close to those things? Then again if those big guys are functional then the drones are the least of his worries. Welp. Too late to backdown now!

    Taking advantage of whatever attention Ash may pull from their attackers, Cayde leaps up and up, and up again as he tries to scale one of the massive mechs. Then maybe his ghost can take a crack at things while he tries keeping things off of them.

There was tapping in the background and... "No. I can't get in. It's controlled by the central processor, and it's a closed system. If Ghost can succeed, it--" There were alarms as the doors... sealed. They were trapped now, in the warehouse... with those things.

"... I can shut them down if she can get there. Crud. It... huh? HEY! Damn it... I'll do what I can, but it looks like you'll need to fight those things." Drones were wiped out and... unfortunately... they launched more in response. A constant hail of lasers...

GOOD NEWS! As cayde started to climb one, gunfire rained on him... And the robot!

Bad news, the missiles and gun fire likely hurt him a lot more than it did the robot. But hey, they weren't afraid to blow each other up to get them!

"I'm sorry, guys. I'm doing the best I can!" a few of the drones, fortunately, started fighting FOR them. So that helped. But the big ones were still super deadly...

The lights of Ash's warframe grew brighter as he sprinted, running up the warehouse wall, the bladed disc in his hand slicing through drones as his pistol thundered, clicked, and then after ejecting the magazine he slammed the butt of the weapon ainst a waiting magazine at his hip. ""Please tell me those things have a cockpit?!"

When he ran out of wall he lept for one of the giant mecha, sheathing his disc to latch onto itwith the sort of grip a gecko would envy. If nothing else the drones firing at him would also have to fire at one of the big units.

Which given the armor it had wouldn't do much. So he holstered pistol and letp... somehow... to the topmost part of the drone he was on and started firing arrows of corrosive gas into the joints of the other two mecha as is smoke clones continually appeared, disappeared, and reappeared again. He had no idea if his arrows could corrode armor or joint or wire in any realistic time, but he had to try dangit! ALso his shields were as good as gone now.

Which was probably not a good thing considering the sort of guns being aimed at him.

    Cayde's resorted to using his knife as an extra, moveable handhold. Hey, it worked on the other one! He just has to be mindful should the thing try to ram him into a wall again. But with the drones raining lasers upon them, that seems the least of his problems.

    "Argh! A little help here..!" he grunts as he gets pelted. Climbing the mech doesn't exactly provide good cover for him, especially once he reaches the top. Planting his feet and gripping hard onto his knife that's plunged into metal, he does his best to take aim and pick off some of the drones- the ones that were still shooting at them, once he sees that some have changed tactics in their favor. "-thanks Jacker! Er, Houston! Okay Sundance, you're clear!"

    With a shimmer of light his ghost emerges, glancing around before ducking right into the mech her Guardian hangs on in similar fashion. [I'll see what I can do.] she says as she proceeds to scan the systems, looking for a way to interrupt the processes, anything really, so long as it'll help them outside.

The robot stops as the ghost goes into it... which is likely... good! Then... "CAYDE. SUNDANCE! Out, now! NOW!" 

They stopped the systems and...

With the robot stopped for the split seconds... The drones let EVERYTHING they had on the bot. It had a massive hole blown in it... then collapsed. But...

There were a lot less drones on their side, though. Most fell in the assault and...

"Guys, I'm in the system! Ghost did it. She-- huh? Ghost? Ghost! Get cover!" He sighed. "I'm working on shutting down the full security! Just hold on, keep them busy! Ghost is fighting on her end, too. We're almost there everybody!"

 The two robots redoubled their efforts, raining missiles, large ones and dozens of them, down on Ash and Cayde.

Ash's bow fell to the ground with him resorting to simply dodging incomming fire. His clones continued their work, but keeping bladestorm going was tiring. It forced his attention to split... just long enough for a rocket's explosinon to send him flying from his perch to the ground. 

He groaned and for a moment was still. Being still as a Tenno meant Death since being still meant things could shoot you.

In his somatic pod Ash groaned, feeling every impact, every burn, and especially that rather hefty impact across everything on his back.

"Up..." He weezed, forcingnumb limbs to move as the world remained unfocused. His ears rang, or was that the noise of plasma bolts? The outer layer s of his warframe's armor scorched as e forced himself to rise. Deep breath as he forced his mind to task. 

All that pain, all those hurts. His worries. Fears. Everything was shoved out of mind. 

He started running, There were no more smoke-clones. His bow was scooped up and again firing corrosive arrows at the drones. Many shots missed, but given how many targets there were even if the world was fuzzy he was bound to hit something.

    "You heard 'im Sundance, bail!"

    The Exo scoops his ghost up the moment she emerges, pushing away from the still robot just narrowly before the other drones pummel it. He lands, hugging his partner right into him before he shouts and throws himself out of the way once the mech falls. "Phew..! Maybe I am gettin' too old for this," he mutters, leaning up against the fallen bot. At least now he has some sort of cover, provided it doesn't get overloaded by the damage it took and blow more than its top.

    "Awww, come -on-...!" he groans as the other two giant mechs fire what looks like everything they've got at them. "Ash!" Seeing the warframe fall, he hauls himself up onto the fallen mech, trying to provide cover fire. "Yeah, that's it! Right here!" he taunts, but he's feeling it. Still, in current company he feels he's the better suited for tank at the moment. As the missiles fly towards him he twirls his gun and slams the hammer between each rapid shot, as fast as he can dispatch them. He knows he won't get them all, he knows this is gonna hurt, he knows it as his gun clicks empty and the remaining missiles explode around him...

And Cayde would see his death. All those missiles, as his gun went empty, flying at him... And flying PAST him, detering so they missed.

Moments before the robots went still and collapsed. The doors unsealed and...

"I'm in," houstan said. "All defenses are now down. Downloading now, you guys can walk that bot right out. Just rmeember, don't engage the AI. It should be in the area south of you."

There was a light chuckle. "Hey, Ghost, done. We... Ghost? Ghost, where-- HOLY! Ghost! Respond! What the hell are these readings?! Ghost! Ghost, respond! Where are you? Get back into your body! Damn it! I need one of... Oh. Oh there she goes. she's in her body. Ghost, you okay? Huh... Ghost?"

There was no response. "Ghost? Ghost, respond. Ghost? GHOST! Damn it. I need one of you to go and get here. Here, uploading the map to the coms. The doors are opened, and she's in her body. Just pick her up. The other one, get in the mech and work on getting it out of there. The system won't stay down for long. Pickup will be there soon."

Ash huffed as he cleared all manner of warnings on this that and twenty other things that were going to need peeling off of his warframe to be fixed. "You get the client's toy. I'll grab Ghost."

Ash sprinted off, as in two legs running on the ground rather than fancy acrobatics. "ALright Houston. Spill it. The hell's wrong with Ghost and how do we help?"

The map was easy to follow and Ash would stop on sighting Ghost, "Hey great jobback there... Ghost?" He would creep closer, "Say somethign ot megirl."

    Oh hey, lookit that! He's not dead! Cayde opens his eyes, surprised and somewhat confused for a moment in that he's still in one piece- a fact he will not complain about, and neither will Sundance for that matter.

    "Talk about cuttin' it close, Houston," he says exasperatedly, although there's something of a smirk in his tone. He nearly falls off of the downed mech as he stumbles to hop down from it, taking a moment to lean on the thing. "Right. Yeah. Will do." Just. Give him a sec. 

    Hearing Houston's concerned shouts for Ghost make him tense. "Crap," he murmurs. That doesn't sound good. Glancing over at Ash, he nods, giving the warframe a brief salute before the other hurries off. Holstering his handcannon, he staggers over towards the disabled mech-monsters, picking the better looking of the two by way of external damages before slowly climbing on up. Ow, his everything...

Ghost was laying... amidst a lot of rubbage. Lots of blown up robots. She was in cover, but... "It... hurts..." she finally whispered. "Everything... it... h-hurts. Actual... pain. Felt like... felt like I was being... t-torn apart... if I could throw up... I'd be..."

"What do you mean pain? You're a ghost, you can't feel--"

"Oh, but I felt it. All that pain as I was..." She had to stop for a second, twitching a bit and whimpering. "Hurt... like... h-hell... oh it still burns... it's not supposed to... hurt like... urg..."

"... Damn it. Ghost, this must be from..." Jacker sighed. "Fine. You two helped us. Money's been short. We've been doing what we could to keep Ghost's... on proper life support. But all the materials we need? We don't have access t o. Some are expensive. Some don't seem to work in this world. And we're not experts on how this kind of stuff works. We couldn't begin to guess where to get all the stuff we need. We've been keeping it going but... Well. This stuff affected her powers in ways she's not... none of us were prepared for. She's not SUPPOSED to feel herself being blown up. Hell, she hasn't felt ANYTHING ever! Her body isn't set for that. Just... get her in the evac. We'll deal with it once we're out."

Ghost just whimpered. "Hurts... just.... just hirts and... nd burns... all over...."

"Get out of there with the mech, get to the transport. Boogan is already on the way to get her. The client has agreed to hold onto her until Boogan gets there... Ghost?"

She wasn't responding... And went still, as she just... fainted?

"Damn it. I knew she was acting weird... I knew she shouldn't have risked this, needing money or not... It'll be fine. Just... get there."

They would find no danger escaping, with the defenses down, taken in by a large ship... which took them to a base.

And Ghost didn't respond. The machine glowed blue, a sign that she was in it. But it was like she was sleeping. Though.... she looked... pained. Something neither of them had ever seen on her before. Not... the pretend 'ow ow' stop nooging me pain, but... real pain...

It wasn't a comfortable rest. If they waited, they'd be able to see Boogan... a rather normal, clean cut looking man who lookedl ike he should be doing IT work, not dealing with advanced robots... And definitely NOT in this line of work.

But he wouldn't let them follow him(though they could force it), after all... Ghost had to be kept safe for now. The less people who knew where she was, the better.

"Houston.... I know Ghost isn't a Tenno, but I'd swear what she's going through is somatic shock." Ash would pick Ghost up, cradling her as he carried her out of the building. "There's a reason I don't just let my warframe tet blown up beyodn the fact it's expensive to rebuild. Pain carries over. so.. yea. Her going from 'haha I don't feel any of your pain' to 'ALL ofthe hurting' it overwhelms the mind."

He would limp as he carried Ghost. "IF there were Corpus around they'd..." His head shook, "It's like a half-sure thing but whatever spat me out had to have grabbed other folk from my home and they deal with this kind of nonsense. I'll try keeping an ear to the ground."

Why? What possible reason did he have to care about this girl? 

He would nod to Boogan after setting Ghost down. "Just send Ordis the specifics on what you need found. I'm making no promises and Isure as hell ain't charging you."

The warframe stared down at Ghost a few secons longer. "I wish I could help make her stop hurting."

    "....."

    Perhaps he might seem uncharacteristically quiet, but between dealing with his own pain and the news as Houston lets them in on, Cayde's got a lot to mull over. Shouldn't have let her go off by herself, but they'd either way have been short-handed. Still...

    Sundance hovers over his shoulder as he maneuvers the mech out of the warehouse and to the rendezvous point. "Later," he tells her at the inquiring look as to whether she should start repairs. He can last for now. And once they get back he can relax, at least as much as he might allow himself, what with knowing what happened with Ghost. Well, he isn't exactly hurting for credits or whatever they were thinking to pay him for his cut of the trip. He won't go badgering anyone while they work, but he just might hang around a bit longer.