Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23 
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Post by Jackie on Apr 11, 2015 17:57:47 GMT -5
The woman's lack of faith in the old truck would get a smile out of Ben as he went about replacing the belt, granted she likely wouldn't have been able to see it considering he was up under the hood at the time. "You'd be surprised." These old trucks might have not looked like much, but their suspensions could hold a lot of weight and girth. He personally didn't believe the mutants were to big to pile on, but it might have been tight with them and all the bodies so Ben wasn't about to object. Still, there wasn't a snowballs chance in hell that he was going to go after a bunch of Deathclaws on foot. "I don't suppose I could talk one of you into manning the gun at least? The .50 can really wreck em, or if either of you know how to drive I could man it instead." Getting a supermutant to do either of those tasks was out of the question, they were just too big and bulky to fit into the cab or turret ring, so one of the two humans would have to do it. Ben seriously hoped they would consider that much at least, the heavily caliber weapon could be a major asset in clearing the monstrosities out. Of course he wouldn't have been surprised if neither of them knew how to operate the gun or drive the truck, though he wouldn't have minded giving a little lesson if either of them would agree to help him out.
Once the new belt was on, Ben would close the hood and give the old one a toss into the back after walking around the truck a bit. The man was grateful for the supermutants help as far as loading the dead soldiers onto the truck was concerned. He'd been prepared to do it himself, but even though he was pretty strong he paled in comparison to the weakest of supermutants, and they could do the task much quicker. As they loaded the last body, Ben would scan the ridge line, he didn't want to be taken by surprise again, and all the commotion may have attracted more of the pack if any of them were close by. The bearded man's attention would be pulled by the sound of something hitting metal however, and he'd turn his head to see one of the supermutants punching the side of the truck. It was plain to see he was angry, likely over his dead friend, or so Ben assumed, so he wouldn't say anything of it, the NCR didn't use these trucks because they thought they were pretty after all, what was a few more dents and dings?
Ben looked a bit confused when that same mutant went on to address the woman as 'M'lady', and didn't want either of them to come, however before he could ask, the mutant had turned his attention to Ben himself. Sir he'd been called, if not for the seriousness of the situation, Ben may have found that term alone to be quite humorous. I'm anything but a sir. he'd wanted to say, but he would keep that particular thought to himself, instead shrugging his shoulders mildly before replying. "Truck's good to go so I'm ready when you and your boys are." With that, Ben would go and climb into the drivers seat of the vehicle, content to wait there while the mutant and his fellow humans took care of whatever business needed taking care of.
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Post by Ambassador SteelPlate on Jun 10, 2015 7:23:05 GMT -5
(Hey, guess who's finally going to stop being a dead weight on his own thread? This guy!)
"Neil can man the turret," Miranda said.
"I can?" Neil said, skeptically. He'd never fired a gun like that before.
"Would you rather be on foot in the open?" The thief replied.
"Uh.....you know, the turret sounds great, actually." Neil said.
"Alright," Miranda nodded as Neil climbed up to the .50 Cal. She turned to Sir Krawiec. "Gather the bodies and place them onto the truck, please. Burnsmore and Sniper will help you." She looked at Burnsmore. "Once the bodies are in the truck, go find the nearest squad of Steelmen in the County as send them up as back up." This was the best thing to do with Burnsmore, considering his lack of a weapon.
After a few minutes, the bodies were finally loaded up and Burnsmore quickly made his way back towards the County.
"The Steelmen can follow the truck," Miranda said to the NCR Soldier. "Neil and I will ride in with you. It's your truck, so it's only right if you drive."
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Post by Endicott on Jun 25, 2015 8:47:09 GMT -5
It was a deal, then. All of them would have to vanquish the deathclaws together, but Krawiec was uneasy about the motley crew they were becoming; he could trust a fellow mutant, but to trust his Majesty's sister, her unconventional friend and an NCR grunt? No matter the cause driving them, they all had their own motives... but Krawiec supposed he could put this paranoia aside for the sake of the county.
"It shall be done, then. The fellow soldier can man his vehicle, with you in tow... and the Parker boy. We knights will surround the steel beast and mobilise to attack the monsters."
And with that, he signaled for each of his green companions to surround the truck in a protective formation, taking his position nearest to where Miranda would be. With his sword drawn, he uttered a battle cry in a effort to start their journey.
"For valor and for honour!"
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Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
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Post by Jackie on Jun 25, 2015 9:36:12 GMT -5
The woman's volunteering of her partner was rather humorous, more so was his reaction to the idea of manning the machine gun. It actually got a small smirk out of Ben. "There's really nothing to it, slide the gun along the ring as you need to and depress the levers in the center to fire it, besides that just aim center of mass." He instructed as the man climbed up into the turret. Ben's attention was grabbed when the head mutant starting relaying his battle plan, pretty straight forward fortunately, then again they didn't have much in the way of manpower and resources to go enacting any fancy strategies. The mutant's battle cry of 'For valor and for honour!' would be met with a grimace on Ben's part, whom would mutter under his breath (though Neil may have been able to over hear it). "I'll settle for not dying..." With that, Ben would shift the truck into low gear, crank the wheel towards the hill next to the road, and began their ascent. The man would make sure to not go to fast, else he'd risk leaving the mutants behind, and a fight against a den of Deathclaws was the last fight Ben wanted to ditch his support in. Slowly the group would make their ascent up the hill, and it was as they were cresting it than Ben was the most nervous. If a gang of the monstrosities decided to swarm over at that moment, they'd have been right on top of the little attack force almost immediately, and frankly Ben wanted to be as far away as possible when they found the nest, that way they'd have a good amount of time to pepper them with bullets before the mutants had to get up close and personal.
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Post by Ambassador SteelPlate on Jun 26, 2015 19:29:09 GMT -5
The truck rolled up the mountain, with the Steelmen jogging behind it.
Whiiiiiiiiir. Whiiiiiiiiiiir.
Up on the top, Neil was spinning around on the turret, trying to get accustomed to the controls. The sound of the thing turning constantly on its axis started to get on Miranda's nerves after a bit, as she sat in the cab with the NCR Trooper. A few times she actually began to open her mouth to call out for Neil to give it a rest, but then she remembered that he was probably just nervous and trying to prepare himself.
It'd been awhile since she had fought a Claw. They were very aggressive and deadly creatures, but they weren't stupid, either. If you showed that you were tough enough to beat down the strongest in their group, they took a hint and left. The toughest ones were usually the mother of the pack and the alpha male. Killing those two was hard enough as it is...killing them AND dealing with the rest of the pack all the while...that was bad.
The metal sounds of Neil spinning in the turret. Whiiiiiiiiiir. Whiiiiiiiiiiir. Whiiiiiiiiiir.
How much longer could she put up with that?
Charmaine would no doubt have something to say when she discovered that her beloved little sister had walked headlong into a Death Claw fight...but Miranda didn't care. She did, however, wish that Neil hadn't followed her. This was her battle, irrational as it may seem to him. Claws had killed taken her father away from her many years ago, and she had vowed to kill as many of them as possible. At the same time, though, she was glad Neil was here. He wasn't a strong guy, but he was a great shot, and he was manning the turret.
Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir. Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir.
The damn turret.
"Neil, will you cut it out!?"
That was what Miranda was going to say. But all she said was "Neil" and then she saw the three Death Claws jump out of the nearby trees and dive right at the truck, their claws out and ready to kill....
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Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
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Post by Jackie on Aug 1, 2015 19:56:40 GMT -5
Unlike the lady, Ben wasn't bothered in the slightest by the whirring noise, he'd had to work for hours on end around all sorts of noises, so there weren't many out there anymore that could really grind on his nerves. The engineer was also far too preoccupied with the task at hand to even register it really, far more concerned with getting over the hill and keeping on the lookout for Deathclaws. Unfortunately, the bunch didn't need to go very far after cresting the hill to find their next targets, or rather their targets would find them. "SHIT! HANG ON!" Ben would yell as he threw the shifter to a higher gear and mashed the accelerator, the metal monstrosity lurching forward, engine roaring. Two of the claws came from the side, but one of the abominations made the mistake of coming at them from the front. Ben wouldn't miss a beat however, and with gritted teeth he'd ram the Deathclaw with the vehicle. Deathclaws were pretty tough, there was no doubting that, but even they couldn't stand up to two and a half tons of old world steel and the powerful diesel engine making it move.
The Deathclaw would let out a shriek of sorts as it was hit, the beast managing to hold on to the front for several yards before being inevitably sucked underneath it. It's squawks would suddenly be cut off as one of the tires got pretty intimate with the creatures skull, crushing it with a blood-curdling 'crunch' noise. It was a damn rough ride though, as Ben, Neil, and Miranda would find themselves jarred around pretty heavily as the truck went over the infernal beast's corpse. Hell, if Neil didn't hang on to anything, it was possible he could have been bounced out of the turret entirely. After zooming ahead several more yards, Ben would crank the wheel and start bringing the truck back around, giving Neil an easier angle of fire to hit the remaining two Deathclaws with the fifty. If the remaining pair of claws was busy with the supermutants that had been behind the truck, Ben would stop where he was and grab the service rifle he'd brought along, content to fire on the Deathclaws themselves from relative safety, for what good the small caliber weapon would do anyways. However, if it was clear that at least one of the Deathclaws was still fixated on the truck, then Ben wouldn't take his foot off the accelerator, not wanting to risk having the monstrosity tear into them or the vehicle, as everyone knew they had claws sharp enough to cut through some metals.
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Post by Ambassador SteelPlate on Aug 7, 2015 10:11:47 GMT -5
Neil had just finished a rotation, his turret now facing forward, only to find a Death Claw leaping towards him. He only had time for his eyes to widen before the truck suddenly lurched forward, mashing into the giant beast and eventually sucking it under the wheels. It was an incredibly bumpy few yards, and the struggling Claw didn't make it any smoother. Parker was thrown left and right in the turret, only somehow managing to stay in by sheer luck.
Eventually, the truck swung around, and Neil saw the other two coming at them. There was a nest nearby, and certainly more would come with all this noise. They had to get rid of these two fast. Neil opened fire on the big gun. Almost immediately, one of the Claws staggered from the powerful blows. It kept coming, Neil saw, but the rounds were definitely hitting their marks. He held down the trigger and it finally went down, with the other still coming up fast.
The beast made a leap for the truck. The next split second, a bolt from Sir Sniper's Guass Rifle smashed into it's head, and it flew off to the side. The bolt wasn't enough to kill the tough beast, but it was stunned quite badly. It shook it's head to clear its vision, growled menacingly, and began to get back to it's feet, turning it's head to see where it's prey was. Instead of seeing where they were, the beast's face met the business end of Miranda Quinn's Ripper, which she calmly thrust right between it's eyes and effectively turning it's brain to mush.
She ripped the device out of monster's head, and looked up, her face full of fierce, savage, burning hatred. Neil immediately knew why. Though he couldn't see them, he could hear more Claws hurrying down the mountain towards them.
It sounded like a pack of them.
And they'd be here soon.
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Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
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Post by Jackie on Sept 1, 2015 9:21:39 GMT -5
The three Death Claws were promptly dispatched without a terrible amount of fuss surprisingly enough, even as he brought the truck around however, Ben could hear more fast approaching. Sure enough, as he positioned the truck so it was facing the hill, Ben spotted a fresh pack of the monstrosities descending down upon them. Throwing the shifter of the truck into reverse, Ben would quickly start backing up to rejoin the mutants, which had been left a short ways behind them when Ben had sped off. Once the truck was back with the mutants, Ben shifted it back into drive but kept his foot upon the brake, releasing the wheel and picking up the service rifle that he'd stashed on the floor in between the driver and passenger seats. "Unless anyone has any objections, I think it would be best to pour as much lead as we can on them before they get on top of us, I'll try to run down any survivors if I can." Honestly, Ben disliked having to use the truck as a weapon. Sure it was a sturdy machine, but that didn't change the fact that there were 200 year old parts still on it in places, and jarring the vehicle around to harshly, to much, could cause serious damage. Ben couldn't afford to worry about that now however, as the Deathclaws were closing the distance fast and would be within the group's firing range in a matter of seconds.
Bringing his rifle up, Ben would take aim at one of the Deathclaws, specifically targeting it's legs. While the machine gun had enough firepower to bring down a Deathclaw, Ben knew his little rifle didn't, but that didn't mean it couldn't be used to slow the beasts down. When the Deathclaws finally came within range, Ben would start to fire, as he hoped most of their little defensive line would. Even under a withering hail of gunfire the beasts wouldn't stop, only a few even faltering slightly as they were struck. Fortunately they were having an effect, and a few of the claws succumbed, but it quickly became clear several others would make it through and get in close, if that happened then only the mutants would stand a chance against the creatures. Setting his rifle aside when the remaining Deathclaws were only 10 or so yards out, Ben would release the brake and mash the accelerator, the heavy truck lurching forward as it's engine roared. Still the Deathclaws came, and Ben would take aim at the pair in the lead. Rather than running one down entirely, Ben struck both front runners, one getting hit with the left side of the truck, the other getting hit by the right. A loud crunching noise indicated something on one of them had been broken, but neither had gone fully underneath the wheels, rather they'd been knocked to the side and momentarily stunned. Ben wouldn't stop after making contact, instead hoping the truck would draw the claws into a chase and allow the mutants to shoot them in their backs.
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