10135/Guardians of the Evidence Locker

From United Heroes MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Guardians of the Evidence Locker
Date of Scene: 21 November 2019
Location: Planet Ataxes III.
Synopsis: The Guardians of the Galaxy are broke and kind of in debt to the Ravager Yondu Udonta. Rocket hatches a brilliant plan: rob the evidence locker of a Xandarian garrison on the border planet of Ataxes III. They're cops, so they MUST have the best contraband, right? This plan surely can't fail, and it definitely won't have reprecussions for the Guaradians down the road.
Cast of Characters: Yondu Udonta, Rocket Raccoon, Star-Lord, Drax, Gamora, Mantis




Yondu Udonta has posed:
A hundred and thirty thousand credits.

It's not a small amount of money. Forty thousand credits would be enough for a couple of mercenary gun-jockeys to enjoy a few months of hedonistic luxury at any space port. Liquor, drugs, prostitutes, expensive guns, however the tastes run. Three times that amount-- it's more than most honest spacers make in a few years. The sort of payout that is worth a few hops around a galactic sector to chase after.

And that's what Quill owes Yondu (according to Yondu). Fifty thousand credits of Kalaxian crystals. Fifty thousand credits which were intended to *buy* the crystals. Plus the vig of thirty percent.

Smart mercenaries and pirates go after low-hanging fruit. Merchant vessels, private pleasure skiffs. Raids on border planets. Low risk, low reward. Go after the big scores-- high risk, high reward-- too much, and the dice inevitably come up snake eyes.

Which is why even a daring spacer might consider Rocket's current 'mark' an insane proposition: A Xandarian Security Fleet evidence locker on Ataxes III. A distant Nova outpost near the edge of lawless space. Far enough away that the Nova Corps isn't likely to be on interdiction duty, but still uncomfortably near a modest garrison that includes a light freighter, two gunboats, two dozen fighters and about fifty ground personnel securing the station.

The /Milano/ is ghosting in the energy wake of an erupting solar flare. It's at a range where it won't destroy their systems, but it will confound most sensor attempts. With the ship running dark, loitering in space a few thousand kilometers from the planet, it might as well be invisible.

Time for the Guardians to come up with a game plan before Yondu starts skinning and eating people.

(Quill, of course, being the only 'people' on the /Milano/ at this time. Will Rocket's opportunism and his desire for a shiny new bloodleather vest win out over his loyalty to Quill? Let's find out!).

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
Rocket is monitoring the traffic through the Ataxes system, "I'm tellin' ya, this aint as bad as it looks." He calls out, defending his proposition with a little pulled fangy expression, "We owe a boatload of units, that evidence locker is worth a boatload of units, an' we don't even have to do no dirty work..." Excepting the part where they steal it from a Xandalarian outpost, but that's just splitting hairs.

The demunitive scoundrel pops up in a chair amongst the Guardians, probably with multiple dubious gazes directed upon him, "I'm /all/ ears if anyone /else/ knows how to get a hundred and thirty thousand credits in a single afternoon, but it don't come legal.." His neutron rifle lays down atop the table, palms flat against either side of it as he leans forward on slender arms.

Star-Lord has posed:
    "There's our mark..." Peter says, looking over to his left and flipping a toggle with his left hand, the ships lights turn to a shallow red on the inside and Peter looks back over his shoulder and ... the cockpit is empty except for him. "Well... I say we're going in." Peter says to no one and dances his fingers across the screen at his right and then sets his hand back down on the thrust bar before he starts to slowly push forwards.

    The ship lurches forward slightly and those in the back would feel the inertia dampers have to kick in at the change in motion, Peter rolls in his seat to aim his mouth backwards and shouts down to the gally, "We're going in, lets make this fast and easy!" Peter cackles as they get distance from the star and approach the surface of the planet.

Drax has posed:
"Fast and easy is unfavorable," Drax points out, standing towards the rear with his arms crossed over his green chest, "It implies avoiding outright conflict in favor of chicanery and deception. Your plan sounds like the plan of a dancing coward, Quill."

He frowns pointedly for a moment, hairless brows furrowing at the distant planet. The gears are clearly working within his head as he concocts his own sort of grand strategy within his mighty brain.

"Perhaps if we loaded me into the torpedo bay ..."

Gamora has posed:
When the lights turn a dim red and the implications of everything about to happen to start to come to fruition, Gamora arrives in the cockpit back near Drax. She glances over at him and then forward at Quill and Rocket as he climbs into a chair. She raises her left hand up to grasp onto a small grip on the ceiling of the ship incase there comes any terribly unsettling alteration to the ship's stability...

Dressed in black leather from head to toe, with her weapons strapped to various parts and places of her body, Gamora just observes for the time being. She does vocally speak out. "I don't think this ship is even worth half of that amount of credits." She says to Rocket's question about making money fast.

Mantis has posed:
Mantis comes out from her crew quarters, wearing dark colors instead of her normal green. She stands near the table where Rocket's neutron rifle sits, her hands held before her clasped lightly. The changing motion of the ship gets only a slight lean from her to adjust. Mantis is gradually getting used to life aboard the Milano.

Mantis's head tilts to the side, looking from Drax, towards the bridge where Quill is piloting the craft. "You would make a wonderful torpedo," Mantis tells Drax in an enthusiastic tone. She looks back to the rest of the crew and looks thoughtful. "Rocket would make a good piece of evidence too," she say, a finger going to her chin in the way of someone lost in a thought. "You know. Inside the locker."

Yondu Udonta has posed:
Despite what Rocket says, Quill is, in fact, an excellent pilot. With so many primary systems shut down or on standby, it's not even that hard for a smaller ship like the /Milano/ to ride the solar winds with a low vector signature. She's a fast ship, but more importantly she's a *smuggler's* ship. And sometimes that means being stealthy rather than just pouring on the speed.

They coast along the stream of charged particles flowing from the sun Ataxes. Some clever engineering on the fly adapts to a local Xandarian telemetry array and makes the Milano's ion trail look like the wake of a passing comet. Ironically, the Xandarian arrays could spot a shuttlecraft in distress on the edge of the solar system, but they're ill-equipped to actually spot traffic in the atmosphere.

The Milano joins the flow of commercial shipping lines until they reach low orbit. Once over the spaceport and the surrounding city, they evade the surface scanners and can fly a bit more casually. The vessel engages a low-level cloaking field as it soars across the landscape below. Rocky promontories and tall buildings reach high but fall short of the hull, thanks to Quill's deft handling.

They settle the Milano down in an abandoned junkyard a few hundred yards from where the garrison is located. Perhaps not totally *unoccupied*... but it seems no one's going to come out and ask a heavily armed smuggler's vessel for a parking permit.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
"There's an idea." Rocket says under his breath at Drax, hoping down from the chair after slinging his rifle onto the jetpack attachments (because he /doesn't/ forget his) to head up into the cockpit since Star Lord is already starting their approach on the planets surface. "Drax wants to load himself into a missile tube, but I said you're the kind of Captain what likes to lead from the front... on account of you're not the coward he says you are... so... god speed, Quill." Fangy smile.

Rocket trying to be nice everybody.

"How long til we're there... better question... how long til you screw somethin' up and I have to fix it?" That didn't last very long at all. He drops down out from his chair and pads with rifle towards the cargohold, "Alright, we play this real smooth... we go in like we belong here, sneak aroun' these dumb ass Xandarians... an' then we leave. Richer, until we give the credits away.. but for a little while there, we'll be real rich.. until we're not..." He half looks up at Gamora as he pads towards the ramp, "Maybe a third of a half... like a third half the cost of the ship... on-" Eyeing Mantis, "Wait, do you mean like puttin' me in a box and leavin' me behind? Who's gonna fly us home? Him?! I mean he got us here safe-" Pointing at Quill. "-But those were under completely favorable conditions..." They were not. Not even slightly favorable. "An' yer gonna leave me... HUH! HAH... Imma SNORT..."

SNORT. SUCH SNORTING. "I'm snortin' right now! SNORTIN AT THAT IDEA.."

He clearly does not understand the idea and is responding with anger until he figures it out.

Star-Lord has posed:
    "We're nearing the drop point, remember, I touch down the ship, you all bail out and I keep the ship air borne but near by and you call me WHEN you have the locker. Then I'll swoop in, grab you all and boom. We're outta this taint of a planet." Peter explains one more time and then gives Drax a very sour look. Did Drax leave a turd somewhere and forget it?

    "No, I'm not shooting you out of the torpedo tube... we don't even have one of those..."

    The news is still out on that turd however.

    "Hey Rocket, add torpedo launchers to the list. Those sound like they would be pretty sweet to have. Y'know, ... in case we do have to go talk to Yondu!"

    The ship weaves between and just across a few buildings and Peter guides it in towards the station's impound lot and sets down with the bay opening on the way.

    "It's go time ladies!"

Drax has posed:
"The hideous bug-woman speaks the truth," Drax declares, whipping his hand back to point at Mantis with such enthusiasm that he very near takes Gamora's head off with it as she passes, "I would make the finest torpedo. All of Xandalar would tremble as I exploded against the hulls of their feeble spaceships!"

As the ship lands, however, Drax leans forward to crane his neck and look out at the planet they've landed on.

"We have landed on a planet instead of weaponizing me. I am sorely aggrieved."

As Rocket talks, he frowns again: "Hateful beast, cease your snorting. I will prepare for battle."

As he moves out of the cockpit and towards the ramp, he mutters something to himself that sounds a bit like 'stupid spaceship does not even have a torpedo bay'.

Gamora has posed:
Gamora gives a glare to Drax when he nearly hits her right in the head with his wild motions, but she just lets it pass as the group starts to make their way toward the exit of the ship.

"It was good flying." Gamora quietly tells Peter after the others have left, as it had been good flying and throughout her her eyes had been roaming this way and that looking for obstacles or trouble that would potentially head their way, she'd been impressed by his decisions and abilities there.

"If you leave the ship, don't forget your boots this time." She chides him with a faint smirk before she turns and starts to trail after the others. "Lets keep our mouths in-check on this one. I don't want our cover being blown because we're all loudly blathering on about how great we each are independently."

As she's saying these things she's checking the charge on her pulse pistol, popping the battery out and then slapping it back in causing the pistol to come back online with a flashy display of blue and red lights.

She's ready to go and moves to disembark with the others.

Mantis has posed:
That Drax liked the compliment is no end of pleasing to Mantis, judging by the smile that results, not dimmed in the slightest by the 'hideous bug woman' part of his reply.

Mantis gives a quick shake of her head back to Rocket. "Not putting you in a box and leaving you behind. Putting you in a box and sending you inside. You can get all the good things back in the box, and we come get you," she tells the space racoon.

As everyone starts heading for the exit, Mantis stops and picks up a pair of sheaths with knife handles sticking out of them. She considers them for a moment before setting them aside and hurrying to join the rest of the Guardians




Yondu Udonta has posed:
The Ataxes III colony has a few hundred thousand total residents, sprawling out over a number of square kilometers. It's far from the dense urban concentration found on Xandar Prime, and nowhere near as rundown as Knowhere. 'Rural' almost comes to mind; one might see livestock wandering the outskirts of the city. So the local constabulary is perhaps a bit understaffed and not as alert as one might expect on a planet with a larger population. And the garrison itself... well, it's a sleepy backwater on the edge of Xandar space. The garrison mostly is present to protect the shipping lanes near the Ataxes system and interdict smugglers moving cargo into Xandarian space (or evading the hyperspace toll checkins).

So their approach, through a relatively seedy side of town, goes more or less ignored. Even if their stealthiness ranges from 'not really trying' to 'not understanding what trying to hide means'.

Of coruse, getting to the edge of the garrison is one thing. Getting inside is another. It's a standard template military base, used all over Xandar space. The theory is that a trooper transferred from one post to another can find the mess hall or the barracks as easily as if they were at home. Unfortunately, it also means that intruders know precisely how the base is laid out, and what those defenses typically are. The freighter is off station, along with one of the interdiction gunboats. Four fighter craft and the other gunboat are on the landing pad. Only two of the fighters look like they're on standby for takeoff. It's late enough at night that the guards can be seen under pools of light or manning their scanning systems. At least the Guardians won't have to contend with the whole of the garrison's forces at once.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
"Oh." Rocket's ears flatten back against the sides of his head with a glance over at Mantis, "Yeah, I guess tha' makes sense..." Squinting at her, "You sure yer not tryin' to leave me behind?" Scritching at his muzzle just back towards his neck, "Cus I don't want that." Obviously.

Drax, Rocket glances up at him as they both walk down the ramp, "I aint hateful, I'm honest. Jus' sometimes people don't like honesty too good.." But Gamora has a point and he makes a gesture at her with a flapant motion of his hand, "Yeah, yeah.. quiet time. Business... work... credits, I get it." Comms on.

Flipping down a single eye scanning visor, "I got parameter fence with low voltage electricals.. I can definitely get that turned off, but the junction box is over by that guard post..." Pointing to one of the manned posts with the sensor mounted proximity guns. "An' they don't look friendly... they look bored."

Another glance at Gamora, "Wanna use yer whore tactics on'em? Ya know, wiggle aroun' like a glaxon snake to seductify them an' then Drax grabs one and bashes the other one over the head with'em?" Nudging Drax, "Hit a guy with another guy... tha's thinkin' heroical."

Star-Lord has posed:
    The ship lifts off with a roar from the engines though the height isn't quite as much as Rocket or anyone else might have expected as the ship moves forward and the bottom of the craft clips into that electric fence and with a shower of sparks the fence is ripped down by the Milano.

    Even from down on the ground it's obvious that Peter didn't mean to do that and he just didn't see the fence as he quickly gains a lot of altitude and almost makes it look obvious this ship is doing something that it shouldn't be and it speeds up and around in a loud roaring arch to dip behind the nearest building that isn't at the Xandarian garrison.

Drax has posed:
Drax doesn't say anything in response to Rocket's suggestion, simply nodding his head in agreement. He draws out both knives, holding them up expectantly until the talk of hitting one guard with another. Slowly, dejectedly, he lowers the knives and tucks them back into their sheaths.

"Do not wiggle like a serpent," he warns Gamora, giving Rocket one final, wary glance, "That will be sexually unappealing. You should instead wiggle like a whore, whores are famously - "

His words are cut off by the Milano speeding past overhead and knocking the fence down. Suddenly, both knives are in Drax's fists again.

"The time of tiny and cowardly subterfuge is over! The hour of the mighty warrior is at hand!"

Gamora has posed:
Gamora was ready for this, she'd trained for these kinds of fights. Her pulse pistols are both held in either hand and she's gripping their handles with a fierce level of readiness. Her eyes go to Rocket. "How do you know that the guards aren't more into Drax than they would be in to me?" She asks the raccoon. "Its a gamble I'm not willing to take."

Her stare now goes to Drax when he starts to talk and it makes her draw in a breath as her anger levels start to rise---

And then Quill does that Quill thing.

Gamora's eyes sweep over to watch it, then she just exhales and glances down to the ground. "Everything you say about him is justified, Rocket." Gamora admits with anger, disappointment and so many other negative emotions flowing through her green skinned body.

She can hear Drax preparing to charge into the base with care abandoned, so she starts to... get a little distance from him, planning to take out any guards that might be distracted now by the first distraction that is Quill and the Milano, then the second distraction that will likely be 'The Mighty Warrior' and his battle cries...

Gamora's first targets are going to be the guard posts and those anti-aircraft laser cannons...

Mantis has posed:
Mantis moves down the ramp, her head tilting in a look towards Rocket as if she doesn't understand. "Why would we leave you behind? You are our friend," Mantis tells him, trying to make out the whole incongruity of the moment.

The others stride forward looking over the base. And then the Milano is taking off, failing to gain the altitude that one would have expected. The landing gear snacks the fence a shower of sparks flies up as metal groans and gives way beneath the ship's mass and thrust.

By the time the spectacle is ended and the comments made about Gamora's seductive skills and the preferences of the guards and everyone is ready to start forward... Mantis seems to have wandered off. At least she isn't there with them now.

Yondu Udonta has posed:
Well, that's one way to do it.

The emitter array for the tripwire is torn apart and goes flying a few dozen linear meters, and klaxons start blaring. They're hardly necessary, as the din from the /Milano/ ripping through the perimeter is enough to get the attention of every guard and trooper in the garrison. Alarms start to warble and blerp in a universally understood 'danger!' signal.

It's not the most artful of entrances, but it does have the virtue of getting the attention of the entire base. The guards manning the gun towers were definitely not expecting a brazen flyover, let alone someone skimming the canopy and making such a raucous din. The two guards in one tower seem to have forgotten they even *have* a cannon. They rush to gawk at the /Milano's/ artless glide and swift departure, clearly thinking it's some local drunk operator who simply lost control while joyriding. The other tower mans the cannons as fast as they can but the automated trackers aren't fast enough to get ahead of Quill. His low-flying antics prevent them from locking a clean firing solution before he's disappeared from view again.

In short: no one quite knows what to make of what happened. Not quite yet. The lights in the commander's quarters snap on and shouts of surprise and alarm echo from around the base, the troopers roused to activity like a hive of sleeping bees roughly shaken awake.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
"You had one job, Quill!"

Rocket is over here bein' all tactical and suddenly the Milano clips a fence. Are there warning sirens? Of course there. Why wouldn't there be sirens? And flashy lights, and Drax rushing off with knives... "Well so much for easy credits.." His hand grabs the grip of his neutron rifle and slings it forward, barrel slapping the other palm. "I'll go high!"

Leaping off with a burst of rockets from Rocket to propel the Raccoon into the sky! <"Not gonna lie, Quill screwin' up is almost worth hearin' Greenie agree with me that he's a dumb ass..."> Which in no way frees Quill from the vendictiveness that will follow.

The rifle slings up into his shoulder as he goes into a sustained flight hover mode above the torn out section of tripwire fence. The under-barrel drops down and he loads in a fat round shell with a CLINK CLINK report as its chambered and a THOMP as the plasma grenade fires out over towards a group of Xandalari looking in their general direction.

Their last thought is probably WHAT WAS THAT NOISE?!

CLINK CLINK ... THOMP

At the guard tower where the guards are all gawkin' at the Milano instead of firing at them.

The Guard tower, the guards, and the unused weaponry they could have taken shots with come down in a blaze of super heated metal, concrete, and molten rock. The structure bends, then folds, and finally crashes down ontop of the commander's tower...

"Stupid Xandalari."

Star-Lord has posed:
    Peter hoots and hollars as he calms down as the Milano takes cover behind a building and he ponders his attack. A glance at the map of the area the guardians are assaulting gives Peter the worst idea as he sees a decent straffing option. One that will likely be cheap, effective at keeping the eyes on him and not his team and not use a whole lot of ammunition.

    That shit aint free.

    Throwing the control stick to the side and his hands dancing across the control buttons, the Milano straffes to the left and back into view of the garrison and a firm squeeze of the trigger and the rotating guns start to spin and spit their large slugs through the air and towards the AA tower with the parked fighters behind it.

    Peter yokes the nose down and pushes the thrusters forwards and the Milano is floating forwards through the air and across the station raining bullets on the way and trying to cause as much damage as possible.

    "How's that for a distraction ya turd blossoms?!" Is the worst battle cry... ever.

Drax has posed:
Drax possesses that most critical of warrior abilities. The ability to charge headfirst into a fray without stopping to bog oneself down with tactics, planning, and OSHA considerations. No, he just runs right into the compound with both knives raised over his head as though he's about to stab the entire security contingent with them. Maybe he is? You're not Drax. You don't know.

As he charges, he notes some of the personnel running this way and that. But one of them seems more fitting prey - a decidedly stalwart and resolute soldier clad in Space Force armor.

"Halt," the corpsman demands, lifting a hand and pointing the palm towards the approaching Drax, "You are in violation of sovereign Xandari - OOF!"

Drax simply runs into the man's middle with his shoulder, tackling and sending him cartwheeling over his head.

"DIE, XANDALARIAN!"

Gamora has posed:
'This wasn't the plan. We're not an army!' Is repeated several times inside of Gamora's head as she makes her play toward the base while Rocket soars and Drax roars and Mantis... vanishes?

Gamora's speed and agility take her to the second tower after the first one starts to fall from the wrath of Rocket Raccoon's barrage. By the time that Drax is talking guards and the Milano is on its way back for a strafing run, Gamora is up inside of the second tower and she's attacking the guardsman inside of it.

Neck punch!
Nose kick!
Knee to the dick!
Two pulse rifle blasts to the guard's chest!

The body of the guard drops and Gamora turns to the laser cannon controls. <"Don't shoot at the second tower! I'm inside it!"> She orders her team.

A moment later and the laser cannon is coming online, its barrel(s) spinning around to aim... at the hangar of fightercraft! She starts to open up with laser cannon fire now!

Mantis has posed:
The base becomes a beehive of activity. People running out of buildings. Some of them pulling on shirts still. Others pulling on pants, if not rad pants like Drax is wearing. Xandarians in uniform from other parts of the town start to flow back towards the base after the bright electric sparks and then the sounds of grenades and blaster fire.

The warning sirens cut in volume as a woman's voice comes over the base's speakers. "This is Commander Kragfer! All troops rally. Pilots to you-"

The instructions over the speakers cuts off for a moment and there's a scruffy sound like the microphone being bounced around. But only for a moment before the commandant's orders are continued. "Yes. Rally. Pilots. Pilots you go fly your fighters south. Scout for the Kree. Security team... everyone in the security office, to the west fence. Search for infiltrators. Quickly now. Rally for Xandar."

Yondu Udonta has posed:
Fun fact: the word 'bedlam', a bastardiziation of 'Bethlehem', comes from the Queen's English. It refers to the hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, the first mental institution in Britain. It was a place of madness and chaos, full of people screaming, weeping, begging, and raging at all hours.

Four hundred years and a few hundred thousand parsecs away, the Guardians are making a good case for reviving the use of that word.

It is not a tactical operation. It's chaos, pure and simple. No one has any idea what's happening. Security teams are designed to deal with *small* incursions. Minor issues. Set off one alarm, everyone reacts. Set off all the alarms, no one has any idea what to do.

The Xandarians are galloping in all directions. A response team from the other side of the base diverts their hovercraft and zooms west to intercept the non-existent threat against the western perimeter. A pair of fighters loitering in low station a few hundred miles away point their noses south and arm weapons systems to scout for the Kree.

A Kree merchant vessel lazily cruising in Ataxes' perihilion point is about to have a really awkward conversation with a pair of hotshot pilots.

Gamora's hasty announcement averts near-disaster as Quill starts his strafing run. A quick juke spares the AA tower from getting more than a few pockmarks across the lower base rather than destroying the entire platform. Between Gamora manning the heavy guns and Quill laying plasma down on the landing strip, the Xandarian air response is shut down before anyone can get off the ground. The hangar's front wall collapses, preventing any ships from leaving, and Quill destroys one of the fighter craft idling on the pad. The other gets singed, but it's hardly disabled, and a lone pilot in his orange and blue flight suit is sprinting like mad for the cockpit.

A dozen or more of the garrison troops are dead, trapped, or disabled. The commandant's giving bad directions to anyone paying attention to the radio. The remaining troops are doing what they can, firing blindly into the air to try and damage the /Milano/ with woefully underpowered handheld weapons. Others engage Drax and Rocket as two of the biggest threats, but frankly they're on their heels and scrambling to respond. The gunboat crew bursts from the guard shack in a six-man cluster to make best time towards the parked gunboat, in a desperate attempt to try and get it off the ground.

Upshot: at this point the security office is unoccupied, as the 'Commandant' has deployed everyone else far away from the fight.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
"AHAHAHAHAH!" Rocket is laughing like a mad Raccoon beneath the fury of THOMP BOOM, but the season of fiery death is come to an end with the advent of returned fire. The rocket propelled Rocket Raccoon clicks the gun over to semi-automatic neutron fire mode with a flip of his clawed thumb and a burst of side thrusters to strife him out of the path of lancy lazy laser fire, "AHAHAHAHAHA!"

The battlecry of a Bedlum Generation.

POOMPOOMPOOM

The superheated, energy propelled projectiles don't just kill the underarmed guardsmen.. it eviserates them. They're a fine red/pink/meaty paste when struck by the high volicity round. It literally doesn't even have to hit them... just passing //by// them tears huge chunks of flesh from bone, bone from body... and life from person.

With a WOOSH He hovers quicker towards the shack near the command building and slings his rifle, "Drax, Imma hack the door an' get the booty... do the thing where ya kill a bunch of shit heads so they don't kill me." Tearing off the access panel, tiny hands dig into the wiring to resplice them, twist, zap.. "AWOEI!" Punch it, several times, then resume slicing open the door.

Star-Lord has posed:
    Peter's straffing run continues as he slowly moves over the base, finger still wrapped tightly around the trigger, feeling the vibrations through the ship and into his soul as the guns go off and the Guardians basically terrorize some stupid ass backwards hillbillies in cop uniforms.

    "Ya ever stop and ask if we're the bad guys?" Peter says to no one as he shuts off the guns to the Milano to ask himself this deeply moral question before he has to think about something else.

    "Gamora! Gunship! Uh uh uhhhh..." Peter seems to have forgotten how to talk for a moment as he's pointing at the big grey ship from his seat in the space ship while Gamora, is in a building possibly unable to see Peter's finger. "Guys runnin' at it." He rambles out like a bafoon.

Drax has posed:
"What is our quarry?" Drax asks into his own communicator thing, having remembered to actually put it on and talk into it for once. To be perfectly honest, he'd only half-listened to the plan on the way here and as far as he was aware the plan was 'go into the place they weren't meant to be.' They'd done that part, so now he was curious about what part came next.

He pauses for a moment, standing stock still in the midst of the battlefield with both knives in hand and a pensive look on his face. A moment later he shrugs.

Someone else will handle that part.

As the soldiers rush towards him, Drax lets out a bellowing roar of challenge. He drops to one knee, sweeping one of the men up by his ankle and swinging him through the air to use him as a sort of wet and noodly mace against the others. He laughs delightedly.

"Yes, Hateful Beast!" he calls to Rocket, swinging the man at another man, "This is very heroical!"

Gamora has posed:
The laser blasts from the tower cannon that Gamora is manning continue to sizzle and pepper the base! Are these 'deserving bad guys' that they're decimating? Who's to say, they're a military of some kind and that likely means they're the enemies of SOMEone.

Gamora isn't going out of her way to kill people, she's aiming for defenses and machinery, such as that gunshipboatfighter that Peter just called out!

The cannon sweeps across the landing field and starts to tail the pilot running for it. She skips the blasts would would outright kill the pilot and instead aims for his starship and starts to paint the landed craft with laser fire from the base's own cannon.

<"Mantis!"> Gamora says over comms, recognizing her voice over the base loud speaker. <"Make sure you redirect any reinforcements to a different location, maybe the moon on the other side of the planet!"> Its a suggestion at least.

<"Rocket! Don't hack the door, just blow the damn thing down and go get the stuff!">

More cannon fire from the laser turret she's in.

<"Drax... Just... let it all out. All the rage you've got!">

Off comms, Gamora mutters and something under her breath about stealth and subterfuge being out the door with this Brute Squad.

Mantis has posed:
The crackle of laser fire and the sound of flames mix with the smell of smoke as the assault on the base continues. "Um. Signal detected. Up by the moon. Behind it. A cloaked ship. Don't let it escape," the female voice announces over the speakers again. After that the speakers go quiet.

In the hectic maelstrom of battle, Xandarians are running to and fro, towards their stations, away from incoming fire from Ravager ships, flying rodents and daughters of Thanos.

One of those supposed Xandarians loses her cap, and stops to go back and grab it. Mantis pulls her commander's cap back down on her head a little more snuggly to cover her antennae and avoid losing it as she hurries across the base. She heads towards the same base gate that she entered in the Xandarian uniform she took from a female soldier, now sleeping blissfully in an alleyway in her undergarments.

<<I am heading for the pick up point,>> she says.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
<"No! I-.. But.. But I've already start't hackin' it!"> Rocket complains to Gamora, ZAP "OWWW!" <"FINE!"> One step back, hand into a bag dangling on his side to grab a sticky explosion, <"But I can definitely hack the door..."> It's important that everyone realizes he's capable of doing it. Even while he complies, slaps the sticky bomb to the metal portal, and steps away with his back turning to the explosion...

Which doesn't come.

Clicky clicky

He slaps it in his palm a few times, glances back at the bomb, then down at the detonator.

CLICKY

Nothing.

Clawed fingers quickly unscrew the bottom, "DAMIT!" <"Who took the batteries out of my fusion detonator?!"> Grumbling, Rocket runs a lot further away, whips out a pistol and shoots the explosive plastered on the doorway..

Nothing, "Really? That really should've work't..."

Star-Lord has posed:
    <Mantis, you're ready? Okay that's a copy.> Says Peter into his comms as he lets go of the trigger and the ship's front stops spewing out plasma charged death down onto the pock marked runway and landing pads.

    <On my waaaaay!> Peter warns as the ship tilts in the air and sweeps over towards the pick up zone they pointed out earlier.

    <Rocket, just pick up the whole thing, Have Drax's huge ass do the lifting if you can't do it.> Peter says and then checks back in with the rest, <Gamora, Drax, lets hurry up before we have terrorizm added to our rapsheets. We're pushing our luck as it is with all these explosions.> Peter's thought isn't finished with the final kaboom from the runway.

Yondu Udonta has posed:
Well, it was going very well there for a minute. Then again, if 'reckless haste' has been a successful tactic thus far, why would anyone expect it to suddenly STOP working?

The explosive charge Rocket is using is called a 'shaped charge'. It relies on a carefully controlled detonation that works in one direction, forcing a significant amount of the blast against a single tiny spot. Extremely effective when properly done.

When it's shot with a nine-gauge plasma blaster, things kind of go pear-shaped as the explosive charge detonates asymmetrically. It works, of course-- Rocket's demolition work errs on the side of 'no such thing as overkill'. In this case, the blast erupts with enough force to knock the cybernetic rodent tail over teakettle backwards a few dozen feet, despite his extra 'precautions'. The door goes flying off the rails.

And most of the front quarter-right of the security office goes as well as the shaped charge violently blasts out several support struts.

Inside is fire and wreckage. It looks like the usual array of confiscated goods. Illegally modified black-market weapons. Narcotics. A few plants that are now on fire and no longer a threat to the local ecosystem.

The misshaped charge, combined with the highly flammable nature of some of the contents, doesn't leave a whole lot of 'value' to the 'valuable confiscated goods'. It's probably a lot less than they'd want it to be. Almost certainly not enough for them to completely pay off Yondu, at least not without some fast talking.

In fact the singed Rocket finds only one thing that looks like it's remotely valuable. It's inside one of the smaller security safes, which was also blasted apart by the charge. The sole content is a dense metal box. It's warm to the touch and surprisingly heavy.

Heavy means valuable, right?

Warning alerts blare from the Milano's panels. The freighter and the other gunship are returning to the scene. All the Guardians get the alert simultaneously: time to am-scray!

With time only to steal what isn't bolted down and on fire, Rocket and Drax get the lions' share of the goods to the Milano, and the group makes a hasty exeunt stage right minutes before the cops show up to a scene of utter calamity.

At least they have *something* to show for their work-- and Rocket has his own little bauble, tucked in his vest where he can hoarde-- er, 'guard' it carefully. For later.

Because he's such a sharing critter.