goneawayworld | ENDGAME

The New Hires won't stand a chance unless they manage to break into the weapons locker first. It needs to be bum-rushed so everyone can be equipped with what they need. Fortunately the lockers hold both their belongings (including ones that were permanently confiscated) as well as the rig's own weapon supplies.

Provided they can overpower the guards, they can be properly equipped for blowing the roof off the place.

After they get weapons, those who are gunning for the array need to move fast. The lab needs to be broken into so the array can be used to send a signal to permanently deactivate the nanochains - and then destroyed.

Fortunately, one of the K's is willing to let them into the main lab, but they'll likely have to fight their way to the array itself, transmit the codes, and then destroy it.

Innocent people around the rig need protection from Jorgmund's liquidation squads, the rank and file mercenary soldiers the rig employs for less "exceptional" circumstances than the kinds of odd missions that had been reserved for the New Hires.

One good thing is that at least the rig's normal employees aren't going down with a fight. Many have stockpiled weapons of their owns, especially those who worked for the rig with the Bey, before Jorgmund took over. Even mid-level bureaucrats are angrily joining the fight after finding out about FOX. More than one liquidator has been clocked with a thrown Swingline stapler.

But they'll all still need help and there are innocent people that need protecting. They won't be able to survive unless the New Hires shift the odds in their favor.

[Note: Players can do this as 1 thread or create their own threads if they have specific goals in mind.]

[ She rags on her power a lot, and don’t get her wrong she still hates it, but it sure comes in handy sometimes—all she has to do is meet up with some of the others heading for the lock-up, activate it through them, and then she’s imperceptible to the guards and able to get the jump on them.

The game’ll be up as soon as she’s wrestled the weapon out of one of their hands, but that’s a head start and about as much of an element of surprise as they’re probably gonna get, and she knows the others are right behind her. After that? All bets are off, but she’s pretty sure they have numbers and powers on their side here. ]

Don't shoot! I'm not on the New Hires' side!

[Wash walks in with an air of authority, but not one of aggression, hands held up so they don't fire.]

They're making a run for the weapons locker. There's no way you can hold them off alone. Give me a weapon and I'll help you. This is why Jorgmund has me working for them in the first place.

[One of the soldiers, knowing Wash is supposedly their plant among the New Hires, and not knowing that he regained his memory and totally has it out for them, hands Wash an assault rifle.]

[Wash says brightly:] Thanks!

[And then immediately shoots said soldier.]

Edited 2021-09-12 04:53 (UTC)

[ Carolina grins as she flows past Wash. With far too much practice, she pulls the unlucky next guard into a hold that ends with a snapped neck before he can level his weapon. ]

[ Carolina is armed, and may god have mercy. ]

[ She thumps Wash's shoulder in proud companionship before she moves on ahead. ]

Edited 2021-09-12 05:17 (UTC)

[ If she hadn’t already given herself away, the burst of laughter that erupts from South a second after she turns her own stolen gun on it’s owner would certainly do it. She reappears to anyone nearby, at this point being imperceptible would be more of a hazard than a help. She doesn’t want to get shot by accident, thanks! ]

Holy shit, Wash. With game like that how the fuck did I ever get the jump on you?

[ Yes, she knows why, but that’s not the point. She throws him a little mock salute, then she’s pushing forward too behind Carolina. ]

[Well, they're here! They've gotten weapons. Its off to a good start.

Guts opts for the simple option of shoving his titanium fist through the first guard face he makes eye contact with. Maybe it was a bit more rage than pure tactics in that moment - but hey, instant death!

The newly-created corpse is swiftly hurled at some other approaching guards to create bloody distraction for the others.]

[ The Rig has descended into chaos since the announcement, which isn’t really a surprise considering the extent of Jorgmund’s depravity. Which… they’ve decided to cover up with more depravity and death.

Robbie is ostensibly making his way to the lab, but he keeps getting sidetracked by staff skirmishes. He’s currently helping the accounting department defend their office from a liquidation squad that’s trying to storm the room. There are two furniture barricades, one blocking the door and the other at the start of the furniture blockade where half a dozen clerks are arming themselves with exactos and cubicle toys.

He’s standing in the middle of no man’s land because he honestly doesn’t care anymore.

From the noise in the hallway, the squad is trying to ram through the door. ]

For the record, you’re all complacent, complicit pricks.

[ “We gave you a box cutter!” someone snipes defensively. “No one’s making you stand out there!”

Robbie spares a glare back at the barricade. ]

Oh, yeah, that makes it better! Sorry your friend died, now do you want the Koosh ball or the zen fountain to take out the evil overlords ‘cause if you don’t we’re going to get shot too and you’ll feel even sprocking worse!

The banging on the door keeps going for a few moments as the squad outside tries to beat their way through. Then there's a shout and the sound of something being slammed into the sides of the hall.

After another moment, there's a...rather polite knock, actually. "It's safe!" Sam shouts from the other side. "I should be able to shield us long enough to get out of here."

“That was anti-climatic.” Robbie starts to push aside what’s blocking the door, puts his back into it for about six seconds, and stops.

The staffers, who were beginning to creep out from their hiding places, hit the ground when Robbie blasts the furniture to the side.

It feels good, hitting something, since he’s expecting to find absolutely nothing to do on the other side of the door. “Get out of here to where exactly?”

The bits of furniture actually bounce back a bit from the door. "There are others fighting. We fall back to them, get these guys to relative safety with better weaponry and then I, at least, go back out to find more people to bring in."

Sam hasn't worked much with Robbie much, but he recognizes his voice as another New Hire. Whether he'd want to come looking for others or not, he's not certain. But the option is there.

There is a grunt as the soldiers get back on their feet, unleashing some bullets against his shield. "These guys are really annoying the fuck out of me."

Sam intends on purposely going to find more employees and saving them? Robbie looks back at the accounting team, who look… scared. They look like they know that their coworkers are ready, willing, and able to kill them. But they weren’t innocent.

They had Brainy’s blood on their hands. He doesn’t want to help them.

But he… can’t let them get mowed down by automatic weaponry. Dammit.

“Can you let me out on their side?” Robbie thumbs towards the recovering liquidators on the other side of the TK shield. “I can get them to stay down for awhile.”

Like hours. Or more.

The question makes him frown a moment, then nod. "I'll have to take it down and build it back up." He cracks a half smile. "My fine control is non-existent."

Which is why the liquidators look like so many bowling pins, really.

There's no glow to it like there would be in Robbie's world. Just a slightly shimmering wall of force that collapses when Sam drops his hand.

Brand pops out from cover briefly, just enough to squeeze off a shot with the revolver that had appeared in his room months ago. He's got good aim and hits one of the remaining guards dead on -- but there's no blood, and the guard doesn't drop. Instead, he starts...dancing. Like he's in the middle of some kind of flash mob or a meme. He's not going to be of much help to his fellows, not for another five minutes.

And Brand's got five more bullets in this stupid thing.

"Ass-pats later, let's get through that fucking door!"

[A squad of Jorgmund goons moves down a hallway looking for any New Hires or less than completely obedient employees to take out.]

[Ahead of them the lights slowly start flickering and dying out one by one. Moving with the encroaching darkness is a beast with blue-purple fire held in its mouth and a figure with a flaming sword, his black armor just barely visible in the firelight.

[As the goons in front take aim a panel peels off the wall and slams into them. As they try to recover their guns fall apart in their hands. The last of the lights goes dark.]

Edited 2021-09-12 22:45 (UTC)

There are innocent people among the workers of the rig. People who had nothing to do with the operations that now brings the wrath of the New Hires onto them. It's those people who Shelley focuses on, for the most part. After all, she knows really well how little the interns and the bureaucrats tend to be involved.

"Psst! Hey!"

It's not the first time Shelley sees someone gasp or get startled when she arrives. Every time she hurriedly has to gesture she's not there to cause harm! She just is really concerned with all these normal employees' safety.

"Come along! This is a warzone! Let's go to a safer place!"

Now if only she knew where a safer place was -- but probably not right there in the open. There goes Shelley, trying to take a couple of the normal rank-and-file through an empty hall. When someone appears around the corner she stops, pretty much about to grab onto the pair following her to hide them in her usual bubble. It's only when she realizes she recognizes who appeared that she relaxes just a little bit.

"These two need shelter, stat! Probably not a supply closet? Also, if you have a spare weapon I'd be so grateful, the ol' fisticuffs are outmatched here!"

Leaving aside that Shelley's 'fisticuffs', so to say, aren't all that great!

((cw: please mind the extra violence))

A familiar battle cry rings distantly through a brief quiet in the fighting. He knew that voice. It hits Guts all at once - both the realization that Saturday was within reach and the deep fear that he might still be too slow to get to her. Was Loken still with her? Was she alone?

As reinforcements flood the corridors, Guts in that moment accepts the embrace of the armor’s steel jaws. He couldn't afford to have his vision or his grip falter him now. He would not be too late this time. The black armor encases him, and his world becomes a dull roar of gunfire and chaos.

From there, the hallways transform from heated battleground to swift and bloody massacre. Where his sword was too large to swing, the armor's steel teeth and claws tear through soldiers' armor and flesh with increasing savagery. The walls crater with the force of the bodies slammed into it. Bullets ring where they ricochet wildly or lodge into the armor plates. The corridors scream with utter mayhem.

An unearthly metallic howl echoes back, possibly as an answer or simply a cry of wild rage. He had a dull sense of which direction to leap, from the winding labyrinth of corridors to an expansive room. The source of the voice. The place he needed to go.

The hallway behind him becomes eerily quiet as he reaches the last remaining thing in the way. Black claws hook into the gaps of a large metal door, catching it just before the hydraulics lock it shut entirely. He is dimly aware of the damaging strain on his body as the metal begins to creak, slowly prying open the entrance to allow himself entry.

The soldier pulls the pin on his grenade. Saturday skewers his hand to his chest, scooping up the fallen explosive and hurling it high through the vast cargo bay in the same moment. It detonates midair, and she sees in the soldier's eyes that he understands his gambit's failed before she jerks her blade sideways and severs his heart. He falls choking on his own blood.

And then she turns to the next one - who isn't there. She turns, and turns again, checking all sides. There's something animal in her movements. And then -

She steps out of her killer flow like a freediver breaking surface. The bodies lay where they fell; a half-dozen Jorgmund kill squads, intercepted on their way up from the belly of the Rig. Loken is there, still standing, painted bloody red. She glances down at herself.

That makes two of them, actually.

"Shit. Well, least I can get my own clothes back after this - "

The vast steel doors begin to creak. Saturday is already moving silently towards Loken, away from them.

"Something behind it," she murmurs. Her preternatural sense of space can't makes sense of it. Whatever is slowly prying those doors open is - familiar, and alien; shaped like a friend and also like her worst nightmare. "Something weird."

Loken takes a defensive stance, lining up his bolter on the doors, waiting carefully for what comes, "We can't get further into the rig until we deal with this, one way or another."

His helm's autosenses focus in on the pried doors. "Whatever it is, it's not acting like a kill squad. A stuff emanation this far in?"

The sound of their voices percolate like a familiar echo, alerting him to their places around the corner.

Through the red streaks of the cursed helmet, Loken's bolter glints brightest in his vision, the figure holding it cloudy and faceless. Sword gripped in his other hand, the massive slab is hurled forward like a steel missile towards this threat.

He leaps with unnatural speed, a dark blur lagging intentionally behind the weapon, causing the door to slam shut once it was no longer held in place.

Price has been pestering Robbie for a little while. Truth is that the boy was just so upset that it could have been entertaining to watch him either go completely berserk and break everything or destroy himself, perhaps both...Until it somehow became everyone's plan to break everything. What is the fun in that now?

Of course they will not allow him to 'contribute to the cause', so he decides to go to the lab by himself and whoever has the same idea can stay. He creates a sharp ice shard to use as a weapon. He manages to sneak around one worker and slit their throat with it.

He looks down at the body, curls his mouth.

"Perhaps I should have frozen them." he shrugs. His eyes light up with the red lasers, contemplating destruction rather than planning. It's almost romantic in a sense, the idea of destroying the lab. It's because what happened in a lab that now he's in trouble. Obviously it was the Director's fault, and now he can start a cathartic fire.

That is an important thing to note. Most of the telekinetics that Robbie knows wouldn't have to drop the whole shield. "Don't worry - I've got you covered."

Speaking of bowling... his original plan was to bowl them all over with energy balls, but the fact that it might take some time for the shield to go up behind him again overrides that. But without the visible effect, he misses the lowering by about 2 seconds, and one of the recovering baddies takes a hipshot from the floor. The bullet finds Robbie's arm, and there's a sort of screamed grunt.

And then there's a shockwave of blue energy that hurls the liquidators backward into the very solid metal wall, with a collection of soft clangs and thumps. They'll... probably get up later. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Robbie manages to ask, "Anybody want some guns? I know... I'm one short."

Edited 2021-09-13 20:33 (UTC)

He'd never been telekinetic long enough for anything more than the broad strokes. Literally, really. His telekinesis tended to be better for throwing things around and shielding.

Sam lets out a breath and goes forward, picking up a gun of his own. He checks it over before patting one of the liquidators down for a holster.

He's trying to be better about actually using them.

"Do you need us to find a medic? I can field dress it, but I'll need some cloth. Anybody feel like giving up your suit jacket to the cause?"

The fact that he pulls back the slide to check the chamber and lets it forward with a loud 'click' is only coincidence. Not intimidation. Really.

[A figure that turns out to be Mio runs comically fast through the door right towards the weapon locker as soon as she learns it's being taken care of.]

Hi, everyone.

[She searches through its content.]

I don't know what to say in these kinds of situations, but thank you. I really need to get my weapon back.

[A clicking sound follows as she grabs her Camera Obscura from the locker and sets a Zero lens on it.]

If the stuff gets shaped through our thoughts and fears, I suppose it could count as a spiritual connection. [she muses] Maybe the Camera Obscura could work against it too. It's not much, but as long as there is a possibility of it working, I'll try.

ENDGAME - STOP THE RIG

WEAPONS LOCKER

THE LABS

LIQUIDATION

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Thread has potential for self harm.

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Re: LIQUIDATION

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going apeshit (w/ loken + saturday)

Re: going apeshit (w/ loken + saturday)

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cw violence

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