Mapping the Network

((From NetSquare))

Ro emerged from the small gateway first. He had his shield up and his rifle ready as he stepped out of the gate cautiously. When he didn't trip over a virus immediately like he'd been half expecting to, he increased his pace and moved away from the gate. Rosa and Nadia emerged from the gate next, with Nadia in the lead. The two of them were similarly armed and ready, but they also moved at a quicker pace to get out of the way of the gateway's exit point. As soon as the three of them were out of the way, Broadside's mechanized form stomped forth from the gateway.

While none of them had actually stumbled physically upon any viruses as soon as they exited the old gateway from NetSquare, there were already viruses within plain view, and they weren't that far away at all. "Contacts. Engagement imminent." Broadside observed as his sensors first came online and immediately detected the nearby group. However, as his sensors expanded their range towards their normal operating envelope, he began picking up additional virus groups, both moving and not moving. "Addendum. There are multiple viral groups within the surrounding area. The possibility of encountering enemy reinforcements during any given engagement with viral forces is high."

"When whoever it was that talked with Jared said virus density was high, that somebody really meant it."

"No kidding."

"That's outrageous." Jared said over the communication link. "Forget this. Return immediately."

Broadside calculated the distance to the nearest group, and frowned as he realized they were close enough to attack through the gate. They were committed whether they liked it or not. "Negative. Engagement with viral forces unavoidable. Combat imminent."

((Requesting Battle 1.))

As the team of four entered the strange, new world of the Rogue Networks, Broadside detected the group of viruses heading their way. Once they saw it, though, they saw that it was only a group of Bunnies. Hell, the team outnumbered the viruses. The only difference separating them from normal, everyday, pink-and-white Bunnies was that... they weren't pink and white. Instead, they were of a different color scheme altogether. What did this mean???

-- ENEMIES --
TuffBunny A: 100 HP
TuffBunny B: 100 HP
TuffBunny C: 100 HP

-- ALLIES --
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP
Ro.SP: 70 HP
Nadia.SP: 70 HP
Rosa.SP: 50 HP

-- TERRAIN --
100% Metal

-- ROGUE BATTLE 01, READY? START!! --

There wasn't much time to think about things beforehand as the crew, their backs to the proverbial wall, reacted to the viral presence on an almost instinctual level. Ro's shield was up and reinforced already, and Broadside's armor was already materialized and secured in place even before the Mecha Navi started to deploy his massive tower shield. A barrier finished materializing around Nadia before the SP could bark her "Armor UP!" command to summon suits of armor for Ro and herself. Rosa was just starting to move to take cover behind Broadside when all of these defenses came fully online, and the first of the battlechips from J.T. began arriving.

"This place is made entirely of Metal." Jared said as he slotted in whatever he could grab, as fast as he could grab it. "Hit them as hard as you like, Broadside."

Nadia frowned as she read the data for the first chip to arrive in the queue. "Hitting them hard is going to be tough if you throw this kind of stuff at us." She grabbed the PickPocket out of the queue as she spoke, and sent it to Rosa. "Rosa, see if you can do something with that." Nadia didn't know what use they could get out of the chip, but if anyone could make something happen with it, it was Rosa. After all, if Rosa could manage to get a Ratton1 to run a mouse-maze path through the PETs critical inner workings, then emerge from a temperature control circuit to blow up the entire medical ward, and this after somehow not blowing up any one of the dozens of critical systems it had passed through to get there... Then Nadia could reasonably expect her to do something with a PickPocket.

But... was that necessarily a good thing? Nadia had already sent the chip, but now she was having second thoughts: Err... come to think of it, if she could do that with a Mouse... do I really want to know what she can do with a Raccoon? Nadia's eye twitched as she looked over her shoulder to see Rosa holding hugging the Bandicoon she'd apparently already summoned... The better question is, am I going to survive it?

Ro picked a target from amongst the viruses, and fired his rifle to harass it. This brought Nadia back from her thoughts concerning Rosa and small, potentially destructive animals. "Yo, Broadside... Got anything you can hit these guys with yet?"

The mecha Navi off to her left replied in a deep voice: "Affirmative."

I never get tired of hearing that. She turned back around, raised her pistols, and painted the nearest virus with them as she grinned. "Then let 'em have it!"

Broadside's response this time came in the form of a spray of 30mm plasma rounds. Lots of them. Speaking of things I'll never get tired of hearing... THIS is one of them. Nadia watched as her Navigator unloaded God-only-knew how many plasma bolts into the corridor. However, during the barrage, Nadia could swear she heard scratching under her feet for a moment. Weird. A second or two later, and one of the metal panels behind the rear-most TuffBunny propped up. What is this silliness, now? A Bandicoon poked its head up from the hole in the ground, then skittered towards the TuffBunny.

Horrified recognition spread across Nadia's face as she realized this random raccoon was Rosa's. "Ro! HIT THE DIRT!" Nadia shouted as she dove for the metal deck like her life depended upon it. Ro followed suit without question; he abandoned his next rifle attack to do so, and covered himself with his shield as soon as he was down. Neither of them saw the Bandicoon as it made a grab for the virus, then did an about face, and scurried back down the hole it had crawled out of. The metal panel the raccoon had propped up slammed down into its original position again, and the Bandicoon was gone.

Nadia heard, rather than saw, one of Broadside's heavy caliber shoulder cannons fire upon the viruses. She took her hands off of the back of her head, took a chance, and looked up to see a metool sized plasma blast fly towards the middle TuffBunny. Another thunderous cannon blast, and a second large plasma shot burned through the air towards another of the viruses. The air began to glow from Broadside's direction soon after, and Nadia guessed the Chief planned to hit anything left standing with something nasty.

Of course, the flashes of plasma explosions and conducted electricity would have to die down before any of them could see if a target remained to shoot first.

((Broadside gained ZapRing 2 Battle Chip from theft!))

The sound of Broadside's guns discharging plasma rounds rang across the battlefield, accompanying Nadia's own shots, which sadly sailed on by without hitting their target. The machinegun was effective, however, and turned the Tuffbunny into a fine, data-y mist. Broadside's electric cannon then made quick work of one of the TuffBunnies, but the other got out of the way. Amazingly, the attack that Broadside fired as a backup also came up empty. The virus launched an attack towards Broadside, but it just fizzled sort of pathetically against his shield, barely leaving a mark.

Perhaps spurred on by the busty Rosa's hug, the bandicoon came back with a good haul!

-- ENEMIES --
TuffBunny A: DELETED
TuffBunny B: 100 HP
TuffBunny C: DELETED

-- ALLIES --
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP (20 HP Casing) (5 Hit Shield) (Slow)
Ro.SP: 70 HP (2 hit shield) (20 HP casing)
Nadia.SP: 70 HP (20 HP barrier) (20 HP casing)
Rosa.SP: 50 HP (Broadside Shield!)

-- TERRAIN --
100% Metal

((OOC: This post brought to you by a headache. :< ))

The remaining TuffBunny had avoided the stray machinegun fire. The tenacious virus then jumps out of the way of both the TwinFang attack and the follow-up DollThunder. Enough was enough as Broadside fired another TwinFang1 from his shoulder cannons to bracket the obnoxious virus as he opened the left-torso missile battery, and filled the hallway with plasma warheads. If the missiles didn't get it, the anticipatory cannon fire probably would.

Ro and Nadia were still hugging the deck, expecting the Network to end around them. The irony is that they were not afraid of Broadside bringing about said apocalypse, but of a raccoon. Jared didn't know what to say about this....

Look at your bunny, now back to me,
now back to your bunny, now back to me.
Sadly, he isn't a pile of Bugfrags.
But if he stopped using lady-scented chips
and switched to Broadside,
he could seem like a pile of Bugfrags.

Look down, back up. Where are you?
You're in SciLab, with the bunnies that turned into 15 BugFrags.
What's in your hand? Back at me, I have it.
It's a victory, with two [ZapRing2] battlechips you love.
Look again, the victory is now zenny! (840z)

Anything is possible when you use Broadside and not a bunny. I'm on Metal.

-- ENEMIES --
TuffBunny A: DELETED
TuffBunny B: DELETED
TuffBunny C: DELETED

-- ALLIES --
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP (20 HP Casing) (5 Hit Shield) (Slow)
Ro.SP: 70 HP (2 hit shield) (20 HP casing)
Nadia.SP: 70 HP (20 HP barrier) (20 HP casing)
Rosa.SP: 50 HP (Broadside Shield!)

-- TERRAIN --
100% Metal

Nadia stood up and looked around once the sounds of combat stopped. The raccoon was gone, as were the viruses, and she was still in one piece. Ro, who was also just getting to his feet, seemed to be likewise relieved. "That went better than expected. I've never seen Bunnies that fast before."

"Yeah, I know." Nadia said as she started collecting the data left behind by the defeated enemies. "Let's salvage what we can, and scoot." She found some ZapRing2 data and whistled. "Niiiice."

"I'm all for that." Ro replied as he moved to comply with Nadia's orders. "By the way... Whatever happened to your little fuzzy buddy, Rosa? He didn't blow up, did he?"

"Blow up? No, no, no; Bandit wouldn't do that." Ro and Nadia looked at each other as they realized Rosa had named the raccoon. Rosa held up another copy of the same ZapRing2 battlechip data Nadia had found. "He got us this, and went home."

Ro looked at the data each of his comrades was holding and whistled. "I think 'Bandit' is a keeper."

"Woooo, seriously? Two chips? Outstanding!" Nadia exclaimed as she sent her share of the data to the PET.

However, there was little time to celebrate their victory. "Viral reinforcements inbound."

((Requesting Battle 2.))

A squeaking sound was heard rattling through the network, as all of the team prepared themselves for more viruses to fight. The squeak was a familiar one, and they would be in a right position to be cautious. The entire thing looked a little silly, though, as two Silly rode in on two smaller Ratty2, looking very strange as they squatted on the tiny rodent viruses.

-- ENEMIES --
Silly A: 160 HP [Riding Ratty2 A]
Silly B: 160 HP [Riding Ratty2 B]
Ratty2 A: 100 HP
Ratty2 B: 100 HP

-- ALLIES --
Broadside.EXE: 200 HP
Ro.SP: 70 HP
Nadia.SP: 70 HP
Rosa.SP: 50 HP

-- TERRAIN --
100% Metal

-- ROGUE BATTLE 02, READY? START!! --