legionmissions | RESISTANCE IS FUTILE - [modplot/log catchall]

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RESISTANCE IS FUTILE - [modplot/log catchall]

Who| Everyone who signed up
What| "Resistance is Futile" plot catchall
Where| All over the place, but mostly Colu
When| After the network briefings and deployment.
Warnings/Notes| cw: zombies, body transformation (probably). If your subthread has something triggery pop up, put it in a subject of the one of the comments.

The entire planet Colu is a sprawling urban mess, one of the worst environments to fight zombies. Yes, the cities are clean and impressive and yes they're meticulously planned, but they're planned for elegance, efficiency, and ease of transportation -- not defense. While Colu had suffered under the yoke of various oppressors in the past, that was over a millenia ago, and they've grown complacent, thinking their world untouchable due to their technological superiority.

Now they're paying for it. Robo-zombies swarm through the various mega-cities, spreading their disease by touching or wounding their prey. Due to the many walkways, hover-lift tubes, maintenance tunnels, and sewer systems, there seems to be no way of stopping them.

When the Legion first arrives, it seems hopeless. The Coluan Home Defense Forces aren't used to combat and are struggling to set up defensive zones. But then something unexpected happens.

Pods drop in all over Colu from orbit. The CHDF regard them with suspicion and disdain, but they have their orders, and the civilians regard them with fear, despite word starting to spread about who's come to help.

Kid Q's voice comes over the comms and while it's hard to hear it through the crackling, she sounds absolutely delighted.

"Look alive, folks, we just got a miracle. It took some negotiating with the CHDF, but they finally relented on accepting some help from others beyond us."

The pods all burst open and Robotican combat mechs start rolling and marching out, spreading out over all of Colu.

"The Roboticans haven't been able to translate it to a cure because the virus was meant to interact with them differently than organics, but due to their disaster preparedness, they were able to develop a block to the Brainiacs' virus and only suffered a few casualties. Robotican leadership says they're eager to have their chance to make reparations to organics by defending them from this threat -- and that they're honored to stand with the Legion."

It's not a magic fix. It'll still be a deadly struggle. But at least they've got more than the inexperienced CHDF at their backs.

"Let's make the most of it, Legionnaires."

[ooc: This will be used as a plot catchall, but you can make your own log posts in Legion Missions set in the plot if you like. All major plot parts on Colu will be set up here, with "The Reject Pile" part set in the Legion World comm (with an accompanying network post). That said, if you'd like to set individual plot threads on Legion World, you can also start your own Legion World posts in

legionworld.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Places like Colu is just exactly Rico's area of expertise. Dense, cramped, and full of cits in a panic for one reason or another. The twisting corridors and streets don't do much to confuse him, and he navigates them with relative comfort. You haven't made it as a Judge until you've been through a riot gone really bad. And sure, these "rioters" are a little harder to put down, a little more deadly than the usual, but Rico's good at what he does. Very good.

Time for him to finally show it.

[A: A spirited discussion with one of the staff in the briefing rooms:]

"...No, I don't drokking care if I'm listed as whatever on your records. This is an emergency, and I need my lawgiver ammunition back."

"-...NO it's not the drokking same! You think stun shots are going to be useful in a situation like this?"

"-...Yes, that includes the incendiaries and high-ex. And yes I know how to use them, I'm not an idiot."

"-...Well, it looks like the circumstances have changed, haven't they? Any idiot could tell that. So why don't you use your spugwit brain to think outside of the box of a head they gave you for once?"

[B: Difficult decisions]

On Colu, in one of the secured, hastily barricaded habitation towers, Rico is quietly talking with a Coluan with a bloody injury on her arm, clutching it tight with tears in her eyes.

"I'm giving you a chance to say goodbye. You should be wise to take it."

Other Coluans are standing warily around in the corners of the room, some looking afraid. But not of Rico.

"Judging from our situation reports," he says, subtly cajoling, voice pitched so low it's barely a rumble. "You have about three minutes before you turn into an inorganic construct. At this point in time, there is no cure. There is no stopping that process. You can either have a chance to say your last words and go out as peacefully as you can. Or you can turn and endanger everybody in this room."

Rico tilts his head, staring at her. "You can see the logic in my words, right? Use some of that eighth level intellect I've heard so much about."

The metallic silver is creeping up her arm even as he speaks. He draws his lawgiver, slowly and carefully.

"One hundred and fifty seconds left, citizen. Make a decision, or I'm gonna have to make it for you. And we both don't want it to come to that."

[C: Rooftop defence]

Rico is perched on the roof of a weapons depot, belly down and rifle up. The wind is howling around them, a freezing bitter cold that penetrates his uniform. Steadying against the wind, he pulls the trigger and blows a chunk out of a shoulder of a particularly large robo-zombie that made it just past the barricades, sending the limb spinning away from the rest of its body. He chambers another round with a rough yank, and this time his aim is on spot. Why couldn't he have a more useful power? Like the ability to shoot drokking lasers out of his eyes or something.

He exhales angrily, and holds out a hand without looking. "Ammo." He says, tersely. "Someone to drag that thing out of here before it gets up. And a carpet bombing, if that hadn't been ordered yet. This facility is indefensible, and we're better off destroying it. What's keeping them?"

[C. ii]

Well, looks like Rico got his way. The robo-zombies are truly swarming at the gates now, and explosives are being set before they can be assimilated. Because the only thing worse than robo-zombies are robo-zombies with guns for hands. Rico has several bags slung over his back, filled with slim, black charges, and he shoves one of those bags in the closest person's direction.

"Make yourself useful and plant these, will you?"

[D: Retrieval mission]

Rico's been up for 48 straight hours without sleep now, and has for the most part been called out to be part of one mission or another with perfunctory breaks to shovel food into his mouth. Not the most grueling or necessary shift he's ever done, and he finds himself enjoying the action, almost. At least it's something to do, reminiscent of his usual activity. And the chaos means that his behavior is more or less going unchecked.

This time, it's a retrieval mission, infiltrating an overrun nanotech lab. He's more used to shock and awe tactics, kicking down doors or crashing through windows on his bike and opening with a salvo of gunfire. But that doesn't mean he can't be stealthy if he needs to be. He's had plenty of experience breaking in, after all. His boots tread lightly on the ground, carefully not making the usual customary tromping announcement.

[E: Oopsies]

In a corridor somewhere, a veritable mass of bodies litters the floor. It looks like a charnel house of sludge and silver, mixed with coppery blood from the few remaining organic compounds. Some dragging themselves, some moving, but all somehow, some form of incapacitated.

BANG.

A robo-zombie twitching back to life is blown backward again, its brains splattered on the floor. Rico lowers his lawgiver, gasping for breath. Just barely a meter ahead of it, he pulls himself up, propped up on his elbow, one hand wrapped around his midsection and the other dragging himself forward. It's bleeding sluggishly and trickling through the gaps between his fingertips, a gash in his transuit.

Another robo-zombie stumbles back to life, and he raises his lawgiver again.

Click.
.....Click.

Rico curses under his breath.

[Wildcard]

You'll also find him on street level or going through housing blocks floor by floor, tasked with finding pockets of survivors and civilians and reporting their locations for evacuation. Feel free to run into him whenever. He's a busy man, and he knows what he can handle.

Claire had been doing her best to avoid Rico ever since the sugar packet incident, but in a situation like this with all hands on deck she couldn't afford to be picky. She's content to let him do his thing against the robo-zombies, breaking out Rexy when things get hairy.

She let's Rico take the lead with his explosives, running along beside as they reposition. Then, suddenly, he's shoving a bag of explosives at her and while she grabs it out of instinct, she also sputters with indignant confusion.

"Wha-- ? I -- ! This isn't --"

"What?" Rico snaps, fiddling with the tiny device in his hands. "This isn't your what? Your job? That's right Director, you're good for nothing but filling out paperwork and pencil pushing."

He doesn't stop planting charges as he goes, peeling the sticky adhesives off the side and slapping it against the wall, flicking switches on as he strides quickly along, expecting her to keep up with him.

"Maybe you should've have enlisted as a legionnaire if you couldn't do anything useful. Like follow basic instructions, or even do what people tell you to."

Edited 2017-08-13 18:33 (UTC)

She huffs a sigh through clenched teeth instead of respond to his verbal sparring, instead trying to focus on watching what he's doing and then mimicking it. No, it's not her job. Yes, she's more than capable of doing it, and at this point she's more determined to show him than to try and convince him through arguing.

"Oh, I've been plenty useful. I've got heavy explosives of my own I've been utilizing. Autonomously." Oh how she would love to break out Rexy right now.

"What are you saying, woman? Cut the talk! We don't have time for your yammering!"

He shouts this behind his shoulder, despite... having been quite wordy himself. They burst through a set of doors to enter a large atrium, filled with pallets and pallets of weaponry stacked on top of each other. Here he's a little more careful, less slapdash with his placement.

"A few have made it in already, so watch your six. Cause I sure as drokk won't be doing it for you."

"I wouldn't trust you if you offered."

She's equal parts terrified and irritated, and some small little piece of her appreciates the chance to snap at him instead of think of the greater things at hand. However, with robo-zombies on the loose and him not at all trustworthy, she snaps her hand and it starts to glow red, sputtering like a flare, and then she tosses the spectral rod out into the middle of the room. It continues to his and spit, and then erupts in a large bout of flames and flashes blue; flames rising and eventually solidifying into the fully-grown form of Rexy, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. She's glowing blue, very faintly translucent, but solid enough as she takes a step and chuffs, sniffing the air and pulling her massive head left and right.

Claire waves to get her attention,

"Rexy! Rexy, here. Uh," She's hesitant, as always when Rexy focuses her attention down, those giant teeth and that huge jaw still too close for comfort. Claire points back at the door they came out of. "Go watch that door." She points again for emphasis; eyesight based on movement, gotta get her order across.

Rexy steps off towards the indicated direction, and Claire sighs, taking out another explosive and looking for a good place to affix it.

Rico doesn't pay Claire much mind when she does her strange thing, determined to ignore her presence as well as he could until a giant drokking lizard thing erupts from the spitting spectral flare. Pretty hard to ignore that, even for him.

He freezes, takes a running dive towards cover and goes into full threat mode, already hatching a somewhat risky plan involving a hurled charge and a bullet intersecting paths. Those giant dagger teeth look threatening enough. Translucent - how solid is it? Can it go through walls?

But it focuses down on Claire instead, and Rico has a half-second of hope that it goes and eats her first. But unfortunately not. He watches it trundle off with a hard frown, standing up abruptly and striding towards Claire feeling like a fool, masking the sudden race in his heartbeat by the influx of adrenaline. Not that he would ever show it.

"Director." He grinds out, jabbing a finger in the same direction Claire just did. How the hell did something like that come out of a pencil-pusher? "What is that?"

It's hard to miss such a large man as himself diving for cover, and Claire watches with a thinly bemused expression. She's not really surprised at all.

Of course, Rexy is a pretty fearsome sight. Claire herself isn't entirely comfortable with the idea that she's somewhat in charge of her. But, everything she's seen and heard from Rico it's definitely pleasant to see him less than amused.

Which is why she crosses her arms and tilts her hips as he addresses her.

"Oh, I've been calling her 'Rexy'. Good friend of mine. Keeps me safe."

Rico crosses his arms right back and glares down at her, determined to get his dignity back. But Rexy?

"Well if that dumb animal follows orders like it's owner, I'm not holding out much hope for that," he sneers. "Get back to work, Director. You've delayed us long enough anyway."

And as a barked afterthought as he turns away: "And keep that thing on a leash!"

Claire gives him a look as he walks off, at this point more bemused than anything because she know she's got him frazzled. "Simply waiting for you to say your piece, Judge Dredd."

She sticks an explosive down with a little grin, and then turns to Rexy and says just loud enough; "Okay, Rexy, don't eat the angry judge, alright? Good girl." The dinosaur swings its head back in her direction and tilts it curiously, then huffs and goes back to watching the doors behind them.

The lawgiver slides through Rico's hands like water, as Ray grabs it by the barrel and phases it out of his grip.

"We don't execute civilians. Especially when they're potentially curable. Not now, not ever. Unless you'd like a one-way ticket to Takron-Galtos." Ray says, glaring at the Judge.

"Ma'am," he adds, turning to the infected Coluan, trying to sound as comforting as possible, "I'm afraid you're going to need to leave the area. Unfortunately, Arbitraitor here is right about you being a danger. I can open up a quick way for you to get out. After that, I swear we'll do our best to find you and cure you once we have a solution. You have my word as a Legionnaire and a Ghostbuster."

Rico's hand instinctively grabs through thin air when he feels it gone, and whirls around at the sudden loss of his lawgiver. His cajoling tone turns icy calm as he ignores the woman in favor of assessing Ray.

"Potentially curable? You don't drokking believe that for a second, do you? You want to let her loose on the streets to go attack another barricade? Be a danger to somebody else that's not you?"

He extends a hand as he stares him down, palm up expecting his lawgiver back.

"She's already dead." Rico states bluntly. "Do you understand that? I'm speeding up the process. Give."

"I've exploded gods." Ray says, staring Rico right in the lenses. "After that, anything's possible, especially this. We have a duty to protect everyone as best we can, even her. You took the same oath I did, you should know that."

Ray slaps the wall, turning a section of it intangible The Coluan runs through the temporary hole, not wanting to be anywhere near Rico, and it shuts behind her before anything else can get through.

With that, Ray tosses the gun back. "You're only getting that back because you need to be able to defend yourself."

Rico lets it all happen with an aura of displeasure, and he catches the gun easily. His mistake.

Forty seconds left.

"You're a fool," he says, shortly. "An optimistic fool at that. I don't need you to tell me my duty. By doing this? I'm protecting everyone."

And with that, he stalks through the same path the Coluan woman left through, melting through the wall like it's not there. And once he's gone from sight, a split second of silence, then -

BANG.

He comes back in, lawgiver smoking. He tilts his head at Ray, and a smirk shown just for him plays at the corner of his mouth.

"You're welcome."

Ray's had twitches for his proton pistol, but he resists the urge. He's better than that. However, not so much so that he's above administering some form of punishment.

The floor opens up beneath Rico, dropping him straight into the basement.

Rico's used to having floors blown out from under him, but it just disappearing under his feet? He has half a second to look shocked before he starts plummeting into the darkness below, stifling the remembered panic in his gut.

He manages to land in a cat's crouch, sending a muted jarring impact up his ankles. He switches on his helm's infrared vision and yells upward, regardless of whether he can hear him or not, determined to get the last word.

"She was already converted when I looked! She'll get back up eventually to attack others soon enough. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Disgusted, Rico shakes his head and starts looking for some stairs. Time to leave this place and go someplace else. He just can't work like this.

Suddenly, the woman's head jerks back, a hole square between her eyes. She doesn't even have time to look surprised, though that pained look appears to have eased as she crumples backwards.

Several yards back, and Locus lowers his rifle, staring at Rico. It's hard to tell through the helmet, but he looks as though he might be judging the man for drawing this production out as he has. If he needed to kill her, he should have done it, not stand around talking about it.

It's the sort of stupid mistake he was used to his former partner making.

After a second of stunned silence, there is a lot of screaming from panicked Coluans in the room.

Rico pays no mind to the sudden commotion, instead looking back at where the shot came from. He stares back, shamelessly accusingly as he brushes off some of the brain and shattered flecks of bone that's splattered on the front of his transuit without looking away, mouth pulling down in a disgusted frown.

"Did you just rob this woman of her chance to say her last words?" Rico says mildly, comically disapproving. Somehow, it's not difficult at all to hear his words despite the sound of shouting in the room. He gestures at the civilians in the room pressing themselves against the wall, trying to get further away from the gore. One man is looking at his bloody shoes, splashing vomit out in the corner. "Now look at what you've done."

Rico taps his foot impatiently. Fix this, Locus.

Edited 2017-08-24 06:45 (UTC)

He did, as far as he's concerned, stepping forward with the gun still in hand, at the ready, that skull-like helmet tilting slightly in Rico's direction. "I gave her a clean death."

So much as could be expected. A neat little hole in her forehead and some blowout behind her, sure, but a good deal more quick and painless than her transformation would be. He feels nothing at all for the people now panicking and scrambling, nor the man vomiting in the corner. He had no control over these people's reactions. But only their ability to steel themselves would save them.

"There will be worse. And she will not be the last, if these people aren't taken to a more secure location. We should spend less time talking, more moving."

"My drokking ass it's clean. I beg to differ," he mutters under his breath as pats the last of the gore off himself. With one last grunt of disgust, he folds his arms and glares disapprovingly at Locus.

"Well they're hardly going to be moving like that." Rico jerks a thumb over his shoulder to the general chaotic state of the room. Adding to the noise are the zombies outside the barricade slamming their bodies against it, driven into a renewed frenzy by the commotion. "Good going."

And they say he lacks empathy, he thinks with a mental scoff.

"And at least put that drokking thing away," he snaps as an aside as he cants his chin sharply at Locus's firearm. He finds it just a bit threatening, and he's glad for the reassuring weight of his lawgiver in his hand. "You don't need that right now. Do you?"

Edited 2017-08-26 04:38 (UTC)

Locus merely cants his head, letting the sound of the renewed force of the horde beyond trying to enter fill the silence before straightening his gaze upon Rico. "It will be put away when the need for it has ended. And this is far from over."

He has no intention of being anything but at the ready. Rico can be as uncomfortable about that as he likes, and the people losing their minds over there can be just as uncomfortable. Uncomfortable isn't dead.

Priorities.

Rico grumbles, but he doesn't overly push the point. He knows with an absolute, iron-clad certainty that he could outdraw him if it came down to it anyway. Well. At least there's somebody on this team who knows what needs to be done. It's earned Locus just one tiny iota of respect.

"Alright, fine. Keep it out if you like." he says begrudgingly, as if Locus had ever needed his permission in the first place. "Just keep that itchy trigger finger away from me."

He turns around to yell at the people in the room, at least try to wrangle them into some semblance of order, when he pauses. He looks down at the Coluan woman's corpse, and squints. Had the infection progressed that far? Something looks... off.

Off enough that Locus steps forward and lifts the gun again, once more aiming for the woman's face. What remains of it.

"Go. Get them to safety. I'll hold it here."

Because these things don't die easy, and these people? Stand a better chance with Rico. Locus doesn't save people. But what he does do? They'll need in short order.

He's fine with facing that alone.

It's... doubtful whether Rico saves people any better. But he nods, and turns around. It's the easier job in his opinion - what's so damn difficult about shooting a body on the floor every time it twitches? But he still appreciates it - it's easy to get blindsided by these things. Gets from 'headed to resyk' to 'up and running' faster than you'd expect.

He's a little dubious of his ability to herd a room of panicked civvies to safety through a teeming mass of robo-zombies, but there are times where Judge training kicks in. And that means The Voice, and a natural air of comply right now if you know what's good for you.

"Alright citizens! You need to calm down. If you don't want to end up like that meatbag on the floor, you'll shut the drokk up right now!" he bawls. Surprisingly, it works. He glances back at Locus in a sotto voice. "I'm going outside to clear the area. Watch them for now. Don't let anyone get bitten in the ass. If I need help - which I won't - I'll shout."

And with that, he disappears through a window, lawgiver in hand.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE - [modplot/log catchall]

Rico Dredd | OTA | CW: gore, mercy killing, violence

C: ii

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