[48.00]

[psychoticracer]

Hn. So there are no spare Yellow Eco rounds, but extra weapons and ammunition on 07, for those who haven't figured it out. They're certainly NOT the caliber I'm used to, but they'll do.

[A ReDead screeches, terminated abruptly by gunfire. The bullet report is noticeably different from the type heard earlier from his comm. But then -

Click.

Comments

[electroniccrane]

[The zombies are more numerous closer to the breach, and the Major and Batou have stayed near it to thin their numbers before they can diffuse to the other decks. She can hear Erol slightly in the distance even as his voice comes over the comm, and then there's the unmistakable sound of a gun jamming.]

Shit.

[On one hand, it's Erol. On the other, not even Erol deserves to get dragged away to a fate worse than death.

She takes off toward the fray.]

// Come on. //

[electronichound]

[Batou grits his teeth, a surge of jealousy and anger rising in his chest. Anger at Erol for interrupting their activities and banter with his possible death, jealousy that he's going to have to share his time with her. Batou kills the emotional process with a thought. Now was time for action, not irrelevant things like his desires.]

// Yes, Major. //

[And he's covering behind her, crushing the occasional pirate, making sure nothing is on her back except for his watchful gaze.]

[psychoticracer]

[Erol snarls and takes out another hamstring with the spikes on his boot, but he's outmatched by things that can't bleed to death and can't be stopped by pain. More than a few have crushed kneecaps, splintered elbows, cracked ribs and knives through the eye, neck and heart, but it's damned hard to get to their spine and nearly impossible to saw through vertebrae with these shitty little knives... even if they WEREN'T hanging off his arms and legs and neck...]

Ghk - GET OFF ME!

[The Krimzon Guard's struggles were impressive; he twisted and fought and bit, but the ReDeads were impervious to pain, tougher than any human, didn't collapse when his spike or knife tore through a jugular or an eye. They just kept going, while his strength ebbed as his oxygen supply was constricted. He'd stopped them from getting a genuine sleeper hold, but there was still one wrapped around his neck, and his windpipe was constricted just enough to make a difference...]

[electroniccrane]

[There's Erol, recognizable partly from the red hair, but mostly from the frantic struggling, rapidly going down beneath a half-dozen of the zombies. She has no idea how long that one has had its arm around Erol's neck.

The Major clears her sidearm and drops the one strangling Erol with a headshot. Then a second--and the slide locks forward, the magazine empty. She tosses the useless weapon aside and continues her sprint right into the middle of the fight.]

[electronichound]

[Batou's right behind her, not wasting ammo when the Major is in the middle of the fray and might get shot by mistake. Batou dashes forward, using his bulk to simply plough through a knot of three ReDeads and send them scattered like bowling pins. He grunts in effort and easily crushes one's nick in his grip. The bone and nervous tissue is instantly pulverized and he uses the limp body as a flail to knock another back.

The body is discarded and Batou grabs, crushes another, crushes another. One of their fingers catches his hair tye and yanks it out, but Batou doesn't notice. He's up to his elbows in gore and the shock of white hair is like a banner in the middle of thw swirling, screaming chaos that is gradually being pacified.

The entire time the Major is in his mind, making sure nothing threatens her.]

[psychoticracer]

[Erol gasps as his throat is released, oxygen flooding back to his bloodstream. He hits the ground fighting; one or two ReDeads lose jugulars out of sheer instinct, but he shifts quickly to physically disabling moves, damaging braincases and - when he could swing it - severing spinal cords by skillfully breaking their necks. Much different tactics than he would use against Metal Heads or human opponents, but unlike the shift to peaceful surroundings, Erol could adapt to a different style of fighting easily

[weifengyiyu]

[Oh Erol. That looks painful. Allow Meifeng to put you out of your misery.

The gun is aimed straight between those silly, girly ears of his.

If only you had kept moving.

BANG.]

[electroniccrane]

// Sniper! //

[Motoko Kusanagi is among the best in the world at operating a prosthetic body. So when she sees the flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye, too smooth to be one of the clumsy zombies, she acts instantly and almost without thought. She grabs Erol and spins with him, placing her armored body between him and the sniper as she starts to carry him to the deck with her.

Speed. It has to be speed, the only way to cheat a sniper of their kill once they know they've been seen--

Over the radio connection to Batou comes a burst of static.

The arm around Erol goes limp, and the Major's shell is on its knees next to him, mouth hanging open and eyes staring at nothing. The back of the titanium skull is missing, dripping hydraulic fluid and brains.

For a moment, nothing happens, then the shell pitches forward and thumps to the deckplates.]

[electronichound]

[The moment she cries sniper, Batou has a smoke grenade out and thrown down to the ground. Who needs a heron feather when you have the blessed aegis of chemistry and science?

Too late, however.

Static bursts in his head and Batou opens his mouth, bares his teeth and screams. Again. Again. He steps in towards Erol and boots him hard in the stomach, sending the elf flying through the air, out of the sniper's line of sight. Batou has he rifle and he steps out of the smoke with his rifle up and at his shoulder.

The trajectory software in his OS has completed its analysis, so Batou doesn't need to see where Meifeng is. He fires, fires, fires again, forgoing the science and math that didn't protect the Major in favour of the much older method of 'spray and pray'.

It clicks empty and Batou sinks back into the smoke. He gathers the Major's shell in his arms, bending down over her and touching his forehead to hers.]

// Motoko.... //

[There is, of course, no answer. His signals go out, disappear into the aether. His voice is pained,

[psychoticracer]

[Erol picks himself up, dazed by the sudden turn of events. He was used to thinking on his feet - but he WASN'T used to getting tugged around one minute and kicked across the hallway the next.

Really. It wasn't as though he ASKED Motoko to take a bullet for him. Now she'd saved him twice in the span of minutes. This really had to stop, it would wreak havoc on his reputation.

He glances around to the sniper's location, but Batou's berserker gunfire has surely cleared her out. If not, she likely resembles Swiss cheese instead of a lanky "Asian" woman.

Erol stalks back across the hallway. He's sore from the kick, but it seems he's managed to avoid a broken rib, despite being hit with the equivalent of an I-beam at full velocity. Be bruised in the morning, though. Pausing by Kusanagi and the grieving Batou, he glances over the dead shell, the milieu of ruined zombies.

She'll be back.

I didn't ask her to.

Better move before the enemy comes back.

No... none of those are particularly good things to say to a grief-stricken

[electronichound]

[He kills the grief emotion with a thought. It's too much, even for his strong body. He can't take the self-blame for letting her be sniped a third time in front of him, can't take the guilt, can't take the grief.

He leaves the rage process on.

Batou picks up her shell and slings it over his shoulder, catching up to Erol easily. He's tempted to dump her shell overtop of the elf, ask him if he can carry the weight of Motoko's corpse, is he strong enough to be her backup, to carry her death when it happens over and over again?

But that would kill Erol.

Motoko died to protect him.]

You owe us.

[His voice is furious.]

[psychoticracer]

[Erol glances back at the imposing cyborg. Outwardly he appears thoroughly unimpressed, but his heart rate speeds up at the thought that he's alone with this man. The elf has to take a second to ensure his voice is even and firm when he speaks.]

I didn't ask her to do that. I owe you nothing.

[electronichound]

I don't care. You owe us twice, once the first time, again for her life. You will repay it.

[His tone is flat. He's stating fact, Erol, not opinion.]

[psychoticracer]

Like hell. You want to talk debts? You owe ME a month of freedom. I'd have happily died - twice - to get out, so as far as I'm concerned, it's evened out.

[The statement is punctuated with a smirk. Erol knows that trick of uncompromising tone and he's not playing. It's only effective if the person you're speaking to buys into it at some level, and this particular assertion would require some sense of conscience. Erol happily gets away with and takes advantage of what he can, where he can, without the slightest pang of regret. As far as he's concerned it's just a battle of terminology.]

[electronichound]

Irrelevant. You will repay this debt.

[Are you seriously trying to play the emotions of a man who's just turned his off, Erol? Come on.

He grabs Erol by the back of his clothes and tosses him like a ragdoll into the wall one handed. ]

You belong to us now.

[psychoticracer]

[Not his emotions quite so much as whatever sense of debt Batou was trying to turn on HIM - but hey.]

Uhnf!!

[Fuuuck that's right, Batou overpowers him by a factor of roughly 250:1. Not that he'd forgotten... more willfully ignored.

Belong to him? Oh no, Batou. You don't get to play THIS game twice. He gives a nasty chuckle, stepping away from the wall and straightening his armor - which is conspicuously lacking in the prominent shoulderguard baring the title "Commander" in Precurian script.]

Afraid someone else got there first, Batou. You'll have to speak to my commanding officer.