Private/Closed Bootleg Bros. Ultimate - The Banished Campaign (Act 1)

[PaprusTeuton]

Kazaaak
Arcturus Pit - Early Morning
One turret down, 4 to go, all of which were now shooting at the Mantis. The bulk of them were in the pit, and so had an angle on the open cockpit of the Ghost. Kazaaak zero-turned to the left and activated the ghost's thrusters, launching him forward towards the pit. In spite of being briefly slowed down by some trees, the ghost was able to punch through into the main section of pit.

Pushing forward, Kazaaak drifted around some trees, using them as cover between him and the shade turret in the center- although still taking damage from the ones at the entrance- before he reached the foot of the platform. Kazaaak turned the ghost left and deactivated the thrusters, drifting up the incline to get behind the turret!

Kazaaak fired plasma at the turret, breaking the shield and destroying it. He was now being fired on from behind by the remaining turrets, made worse by the fact that the Ghost was now on the top of the platform, making it more susceptible to fire. Zero-turning and activating the thrusters, again, Kazaaak drifted around a landing platform to get a better angle on the remaining Shades.

 

[Fraseandchico]

JULIAN

With Kazaaak flying drifting away for cover and safety, the AI knew that the bug was drawing plenty of attention, which seemed to almost relieve JULIAN of any consequence for his own shooting.
"Perfect," He mused - Had the robot required breathing, it would have held off for a moment as it realised that the attention was now likely being drawn towards Keyes. "...Not perfect." JULIAN added, realising that this would likely be considered a moment that 'required revealing' himself. And take it as such a moment, the SPARK did.

The SPARK slid out from behind the tree it used as makeshift cover, raising the Beam Rifle once more - Attempting to take advantage of the foes still being focused on Kazaaak - And attempted to reach a suitable position to fire upon the Jackal Snipers, acting to draw not only their attention away from Kazaaak or Keyes, but also the attention of other foes in the area - Then move for cover.

 

[comic]

DETOUR​

—Ambush Clearing, Day 2 Early Morning—​

Kaminski kept up with what he could, firing well-timed shots at every opportunity, but the Banished contingent in this area was surprisingly strong. He was wasting bullets on brutes and jackals, their own defenses stalling him, leaving the marine to only deal any real damage to the grunts.

Copen took the opportunity to punish the defending phantom, heavy bullets slugging across its surface. The pilot turned the bow of the ship quickly, the vehicle’s side now facing the mantis. The grunt stationed on the port beam with its plasma turret opened rapidfire, spewing a hail of plasma out towards the mantis - only to be quickly eliminated by an equal spray of hot 20mm lead. Blue bioluminescent blood exploded in the interior of the phantom as the plasma turret was ripped apart.

“Shit, okay, maybe a bad idea,” Kaminski grunted as he pulled on the belt to ground himself with the movement of the mantis. “Why the hell are there so many of these bastards?”

The jackals held back, taking defensive positions to lay down suppressive fire as the brutes moved in front of them, ordering the grunts to be the ones to actually get close to the mantis. Almost all of them were compliant and stupid.

Kaminski had taken out only a few more grunts but the rest were converging on them.

Copen’s targeted dropship turned its bow around again, this time to face the starboard side to the mantis and let the next turret-mounted grunt let loose through the trees.

The mantis was tough, but it was a big target, and plasma scoring was piling on, the damage mounting up. A few screens flickered in front of Copen, one console sparking for a moment. He let loose the second silo, another five 30mm rockets flashing through the air as he set them out toward the isolated phantom. At its distance, it saw the attack coming, the dropship swerving on anti-gravity to drag it out of the way. Two rockets passed by, nearly grazing it, but the other three struck right at the exposed core.

An eruption of hot blue plasma burst out of the phantom, almost like a contained miniature supernova in detail, balls of plasma cascading to the forest below as the phantom shuddered, rolling backward through the air. It remained in the air however. Yet as its smoldering hull reoriented to start firing—a white light blinded the horizon for a brief moment as the phantom erupted in an even mightier explosion, its entire frame bursting apart, sending melted and twisted metal sailing through the air in every direction, the explosion more akin to a scream than a boom.

The was one down, and Kaminski had managed to take out a few more grunts in that time. However, they were upon them, several starting to leap for the legs of the mantis, bony hands clawing to grasp the metal and start heaving themselves up.

Grunts: 17
Jackals: 12
Brutes: 12
Phantoms: 2
​

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

Kazaaak’s maneuver forced him into a nearly-cornered position, though he managed to take out another shade turret along the way. Yet after a second, as he turned to fire at the next turret nearest him, the one right beside his ghost suddenly shook, then erupted in a contained explosion of blue light, sending shrapnel falling into the pit - and exposing Kazaaak to point-blank shots from the second shade on the same level as he.

The ghost was great for how the mantis had been using it, but with focused fire so close, he’d quickly find that its defensive capabilities really weren’t anything special against plasma. And now, his stunt was drawing the Banished ground units back to this side of the pit, rather than the exterior.

Keyes had to flatten himself against the shadow of the wall, watching as brutes and grunts rushed right back to where they’d been before, firing their weapons up at Kazaaak. They hadn’t noticed the captain - yet. The freed marines were forced to find cover to avoid getting spotted, still weaponless for the moment.

JULIAN exposed himself to fire at the sniper jackals and draw their attention, a particle shot piercing through the skull of one and dropping it. Only a couple others took notice, moving quickly to defensive positions to return fire on JULIAN, though the others seemed too focused on Kazaaak to take notice.

If the mantis didn’t move quickly, the ghost wouldn’t survive another second under such conditions.

Grunts: 12
Sniper Jackals: 5
Jackals: 4
Brutes: 13
Shade Turrets: 3
​

 

[ArmedBlue]

Copen
​

One down.

As Copen suspected, the chain reaction from destroying the Phantom’s power core was more than enough to put it out of commission. That left two more of the dropships, but as both Kaminski and the Mantis’ systems pointed out, there were more urgent matters at hand - Banished infantry were gathering all around the mech, opening fire on the large target.

“Something must have gotten their attention beforehand…” Copen theorized. It was likely the earlier presence of the rest of the team, he figured, though the exact cause didn’t matter right now. Shaking off the troops near the mantis as soon as possible would be best. “Hang on!”

As he said that, the cyborg pressed down on the big red button in the cockpit, and the Mantis raised one of its legs before quickly slamming it back down. In an identical manner to before, the earth in front of the mech would erupt for a good distance, Copen having aimed the stomp in an attempt to reach the jackals that were slightly further away, or at least force them to back off as anything in front of them (and likely directly around the Mantis) was suddenly uprooted.

His focus on the ground troops was only made clearer when the missile launcher was pointed downwards, Copen now aiming primarily at the brutes as he began to fire missiles upon them, trying to clear out the more resilient opposition before they could further gang up on the Mantis. As he did so, the cyborg directed the mech to step away from the infantry, and once another good opening in the trees presented itself, iX would switch targets, opening fire with the chaingun at the nearest Phantom.​