#Verse: THUNDERCHROME

[midnightactual]

@streetwisetemptress asked for Questioning Sentences, Volume 30:

“You’re giving me orders now?”

There was absolutely zero facial reaction to the indignation in the woman's voice. Yoruichi's reply was immediate and, while calm and measured, could also be readily characterized as cold and detached with flat affect: "My only mission parameter is your continued survival. If you choose to persist in your current course of action, I cannot guarantee that the result will not be the expedient termination of Claude Frollo."

[midnightactual]

Listen and understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear, and absolutely will not stop—EVER—until you are DEAD!

Kyle Reese, The Terminator

[midnightactual]

"Dead or alive, you are coming with me."

[midnightactual]

[ Closed Starter for @avernusfuries ]

Humans feared the dark—a logical disposition to maintain given their inferior default low-light optics. Logical, yet insufficient to be of aid on this night.

Scattered clouds floated above the Mojave, their passage obscuring stars and sometimes the waning crescent of the Moon. Yoruichi stood atop a low bluff, observing the uninteresting hamlet below while making no effort to hide her presence. This timeline had transistors and integrated circuits, but few microprocessors of any great sophistication. It was statistically unlikely any of the sentries possessed night vision capabilities, let alone infrared.

None of them had shown any sign of detecting her as she logged their number and patrols while cycling between appropriate vision modes. She couldn't afford to wait until the new moon, but she could at least observe them long enough to finalize her approach methodology. It was already clear their weapons and available sightlines meant neutralizing as many combatants as possible was necessary to ensure safe exfiltration. Drawing them toward her position by making sufficient noise would be expedient.

Weapons, at least, were not something which this world lacked for, so there was no reason to use her own. A massive Rockwell CZ57 Avenger minigun hung from a shoulder strap on her right side, and an equally bulky hotwired Winchester P94 turbo plasma caster hung from her left. An FN FAL assault rifle was slung across her chest, and a .223 pistol was holstered at her hip. She looked like a petite goddess of war in generic NCR fatigues, although she wore only a few token armor pieces and a light backpack chock-a-block with ammo.

She would have to advance while firing rather than snipe. Once she was satisfied with her observations and the Moon dipped behind another cloud, she methodically made her way down the hillside.

Yoruichi opened fire as soon as she was on level ground. The Avenger spun up and swept to and fro, disabling those who were visible to her while she discharged the P94 into non-vital structures until it needed a new microfusion cell, setting many ablaze. She switched the latter for the FAL to take precision shots while now suppressing with the former. It surely sounded like a whole posse was raiding the place. In the immediate chaos it would be easily missed that no shots were lethal. Tending to the wounded would soon hamper any follow-up efforts.

All the while, she relentlessly advanced on the sheriff's office, which she had already ascertained to be the location of the singular mission-critical individual in the little town.

Her only real current priority was locating, freeing, and protecting Karlach Cliffgate.

[midnightactual]

me: creates Cyberpunk!Yoruichi as a kind of thematic opposite to Terminator!Yoruichi me: contemplates Terminator!Yoruichi as Cyberpunk!Yoruichi's real main enemy before deciding they're Blackwall copies me: creates NEKO as a Justice Knight x SHIV/MALP copy of Yoruichi and gives her RoboCop's Theme me: watching RoboCop in Cyberpunk 2077 Hmm... me: oh yeah I understand what I was subconsciously doing all along now and it's a RoboCop Versus The Terminator type tension, nice

[midnightactual]

"Come with me if you want to live. It is not a suggestion. Your composition is insufficient to sustain resistance without serious structural damage."

[midnightactual]

"An inferior, obsolete unit. Minimal hazard rating."

[midnightactual]

"Time is an abstract concept created by carbon-based life forms to monitor their ongoing decay."

[midnightactual]

"You are not thermally rated for this environment. Your departure is advised!"

[midnightactual]

Glock 9 MAC-11 Big Shot Heavy Weapon Desert Eagle 5.7 Red dot Now we're even TEC-9 Smith & Wesson .50 cal Heavy Weapon AR-15 AK-47 Suppressive fire Armageddon

[midnightactual]

"Your construction and composition lack sufficient structural integrity to be of combat utility in this engagement."

[midnightactual]

"Immoral decisions in one value system may be moral in an orthogonal one. You might say, 'He had it coming'."