Move forwards towards the suspected dwelling of the Magical Girl.
"I hope she comes out alright after reprocessing. It's a shame we have to do this to children, but it's for their own good."
You continue to make good time up the road. It's a nice day out, and nothing notable happens while you drive your minimech. If it weren't for the giant white barrier dome blocking out the sky and horizon, or the fact that you
know there's a dangerous magical girl trapped in here with you, this would be a nice leisurely ride. As is, it's still pretty nice, you just have to keep your eyes peeled for danger.
Soon enough, you come to a fork in the road, near the summit. This is a pretty small "mountain". Ahead, the road leads to the topmost and supposedly largest mine entrance, the one Emine most likely is aware of. But... the second path leads further up the slope, towards the peak of the mountain. It's even more overgrown than the old road you've been on, hardly enough for one person to walk through.
Keep advancing, try to find a vantage point overlooking the mine entrance(s).
[Mobility:
2, 5]
You break away from the Whisperer, using your grappling hooks to swing up the slope. This is really the perfect environment for grappling hooks; massive trees, without too many branches to catch you as you swing through the forest. You push yourself, heading upwards as fast as you can, and your effort is rewarded: you quite quickly reach the highest mine entrance on the mountain.
The area has clearly been long overtaken by nature. The only reason you even realize you've stumbled across the entrance is the complete lack of tall trees; there's only flourishing undergrowth, and some young trees which aren't tall enough to swing from with your grappling hooks. The area seems to have been partially excavated long ago, with a short cliff bordering the far side of the area. After you start looking, you can see some remains of old buildings among the greenery as well... but the area doesn't look inhabited at all. There's no signs of trash, or obvious paths that have been maintained.
After about quick visual survey, you spot the mine entrance itself. It's a gaping black hole in the cliff face, which is utterly exposed. There's not much growth around it, no real cover, though a magical girl at full sprint would be able to cross the gap in a flash.
keep advancing
You, unfortunately, can't make progress nearly as fast as the Australian tree swinger who left you behind. You simply can't sprint uphill through wild undergrowth, even with your armor and exoskeleton. Nothing for it, though; you just grit your teeth and try to channel your annoyance at being left behind into more aggressively hacking at the plants blocking your way.
Fuck plants, seriously. You wish you had a flamethrower.
Who needs heavy armor when you have enough explosives to level a city on your back? me, and my bomb go in the hole.
Press the ping button wait for the guy with a nuke on his back to go through the hole and if he doesn't blow up follow after him
Proudly enter the mine
Wait until everyone else has entered the mine, then go in covering the back with my LMG.
The three of you wearing heavy armor hesitate before entering the mine, but Joseph has no such worry. Despite having no armor or genuinely useful gear, he hops into the dark mine immediately. The other three follow after him, squeezing into the tight space one at a time, with Bob covering the rear.
Magnus fiddles with his soultracker as he follows along, pressing the ping button and waiting for a response. The magical girl is... above and ahead. Probably either at the peak of the mountain, or somewhere along the slope to the peak. That's somewhat relieving; she's probably not in the mines, or at least not near you.
The trek through the passageway is initially tense, but quickly becomes boring. The team's flashlights play over the stone around them, but this is really just a thin entrance without anything notable. The most interesting things they see are animal bones and poop. There's many random turns and corners, with no real sense to them... but after the sixth such turn, all caution is gone. There's no traps or anything down here, and even if there were, some curious animal would have set them off.
After a little while, you finally come to a somewhat larger passage. Perhaps large enough to fit a car through. It slopes gently upwards to your right, and there's an ancient set of minecart rails set into the center of it. This is probably the main shaft, and it's easy to imagine where it'll lead if you go upwards, but otherwise you're left to guess.
Alpha Team:Name: Gerald Verital
Armory:
Comms with the team. Biometric locks disable them for anyone except you, so you don't need to worry about children spying on your chatter.
Basic Crash assault rifle. Very lightweight and maneuverable, without being as weak as a submachinegun.
Black patrol uniform. Provides no armor, because anything cheap isn't really gonna help. Optionally comes with face concealing gasmasks or balaclavas in case you want to hide your identity; the press seems to dislike us for some reason.
Woodsman Minimech: A three-meter tall bipedal mech armed with miniguns instead of hands. Has the best armor available to you, including a fair degree of magic resistance, and the dual miniguns allow you to make two attack rolls per turn. However, it is slow, bulky,
limited in close quarters, and tends to instill a false sense of overcondidence.
Magic: Determination. You are an inspired, brave, and happy individual, full of indomitable hope and optimism! Nothing gets you down; you're totally immune to fear and sadness! You don't need any fancy magic to win this, you'll do just fine with your issued equipment!
Name: Kevin
Gear
Comms with the team.
Basic Crash assault rifle.
Black patrol uniform.
Magic jetpack
Heavy powered armor
Magic
Sixth Sense
Name: Joseph Martins
Armory
0: Comms with the team. Biometric locks disable them for anyone except you, so you don't need to worry about children spying on your chatter.
0: Basic Crash assault rifle. Very lightweight and maneuverable, without being as weak as a submachinegun.
0: Black patrol uniform. Provides no armor, because anything cheap isn't really gonna help. Optionally comes with face concealing gasmasks or balaclavas in case you want to hide your identity; the press seems to dislike us for some reason.
3: Tactical nuclear backpack bomb: These generally are much more effective against us than against magical girls, but we have a lot in stock, so... here. The casing is heavily armored and extremely magic resistant. comes with a dead man's switch.
Soultracker (Activate to ping magical girl's location)
Magic
Triage: Touch one or more living people. You may transfer any or all wounds one of them has (including yourself) to any other person you are in contact with (including yourself). ANY wounds work, including loss of limbs or bisection.
Name: Big Bob
Gear:
Comms with the team
Basic Crash assault rifle
Black patrol uniform
Resistor
Heavy powered armor
Light Machine Gun, Advantage at medium range, scores multiple hits
Magic:
Determination
Name: Magnus Victorinus (Really its Allen Leopold but he would never admit that)
Magical Power:
Beacon: Causes you to glow with an inspiring light. Provides all nearby allies with strong resistance to magical debuffs, and makes it difficult for an MG to target them rather than you. This power always alerts the magical girl to your position.
Gear:
Comms with the team. Biometric locks disable them for anyone except you, so you don't need to worry about children spying on your chatter.
Basic Crash assault rifle. Very lightweight and maneuverable, without being as weak as a submachinegun.
Black patrol uniform. Provides no armor, because anything cheap isn't really gonna help. Optionally comes with face concealing gasmasks or balaclavas in case you want to hide your identity; the press seems to dislike us for some reason.
Heavy powered armor. Weakly antimagic, and makes you very resistant to harm without slowing you, but the weight and strength of the powered system just about cancel out. Purely defensive.
Neurally integrated Exoskeleton: Makes you strong enough to fight toe to toe against any child, and improves your speed and reflexes to boot! Comes with a heavy melee weapon of your choice to utilize your new strength. DOES NOT offer any real protection, but works well with powered armor.
Resistor: An improved version of the standard issue suit which grants you very strong magic resistance, and has a woven-in kevlar vest. Does not interfere with your own magic. Magic resistance can be impaired by damage.
Sledge Hammer: My weapon of choice for the Neurally integrated Exoskeleton package not much else to say.
Name: Whisperer. That's all he answers to.
Magical Power:
Close combat: You have advantage in melee combat, and have moderately heightened physical strength and reflexes.
Gear:
Comms with the team. Biometric locks disable them for anyone except you, so you don't need to worry about children spying on your chatter.
Basic Crash assault rifle. Very lightweight and maneuverable, without being as weak as a submachinegun.
Black patrol uniform. Provides no armor, because anything cheap isn't really gonna help. Optionally comes with face concealing gasmasks or balaclavas in case you want to hide your identity; the press seems to dislike us for some reason.
Heavy powered armor. Weakly antimagic, and makes you very resistant to harm without slowing you, but the weight and strength of the powered system just about cancel out. Purely defensive.
Neurally integrated Exoskeleton: Makes you strong enough to fight toe to toe against any child, and improves your speed and reflexes to boot! Comes with a heavy melee weapon of your choice to utilize your new strength. DOES NOT offer any real protection, but works well with powered armor.
Resistor: An improved version of the standard issue suit which grants you very strong magic resistance, and has a woven-in kevlar vest. Does not interfere with your own magic. Magic resistance can be impaired by damage.
Dual Blood Warglaives: A pair of Warglaives. They seem to always be dripping with blood.
Name: Duncan Long, better known as "The Australian"
Power: Mobility
Gear:
High-Grade Firearm: Sniper Rifle (Sniping, Very High Damage Ammo)
High-Grade Firearm: Shotgun (Close Quarters Combat, Wide Spread Ammo)
Wrist-Mounted Grappling Hooks
Comms with the team
Basic Crash assault rifle
Black patrol uniform
Author
Topic: SMAK: Hunt a ~Magical Girl~ as SWAT! (Read 12059 times)