[indent][sub][i]featuring [@Odin], [@Lo Pellegrino] and [@Andreyich][/i][/sub][/indent]

Laura bit back a curse after McDowell threw open the door, took a bullet and closed it again -- now was not the time, nor was it her place, to berate the Knight-Sergeant. She was relieved to see Paladin Moss and Knight Estevez but the confusing situation was killing her. Who the hell was shooting at them from outside the building now? Laura sidled up to the wall, away from the windows or the door, her laser rifle in her hands, a scowl on her face. Her eyes found Moss’ and she saluted quickly, but refrained from straightening up for fear of a .50 bullet taking her head off. The holes that had been punched through the door were warning enough. 

“Sir, we’re sitting on top of a nest of Deathclaws and their Super Mutant masters,” the Initiate said without preamble. There was no time. She had to trust that he would simply believe her at her word. “There’s a tunnel in the floor of the docking bay that leads into their lair. When the Knight-Sergeant and myself were spotted, we returned and I collapsed the tunnel behind us to prevent enemy pursuit.” She paused and her eyes bounced between Moss and Estevez, noticing the impact marks on his suit of power armor as well. “Sorry, I have to ask; who’s shooting at us, sir?”

Daniel didn't particularly care that they were sitting on a nest of Deathclaws and supermutants when the path to them was sealed, more or less ignored that rather going straight to answering the Initiate's question. "Raiders. Most of them are just the same idiots you'll see in D.C., lower even than that given their guns. But there's a few of them that… They're trained. Professional, they've dealt with power armour before or at least learned how to." by way of explanation the Knight turned his head upwards to demonstrate the ricocheted .50 nearly having hit his throat. "What next, Sir?" he asked, turning to Paladin Moss. 

They might as well have been talking to the wall. Hidden behind the bulky T-60 helmet, the paladin’s face contorted. He stepped forward, each step causing the ground to quake a little under the weight of his frustration. 

“Are you suicidal, sergeant?” Moss boomed, placing a gauntleted hand onto McDowell’s chestplate. “Was I duped bringing you on? What in the hell kind of combat awareness consists of entering a hot zone and promptly revealing our position? This is [i]my[/i] squad, soldier. Your life is [i]mine[/i]. Risk yourself or my anyone else in the squad and I’ll put you down myself!”

The paladin lingered with his hand pushing firmly against the knight-sergeant. Stared long enough for any sense of cliché to dissolve, leaving only the unforgivingly cold promise of retribution. Then, with a small push, he turned away and cursed loudly. Paced the floor of the warehouse, glancing at the tunnel, then the doors, and back in an endless loop. 

Finally, standing waist deep in the mouth of the tunnel, Moss pointed to Grimshaw. “You have explosives,” he stated, or was it a question? “Set them up here. We will blow the way [i]back[/i] open. Whatever was down there will be killed. Suffocated or crushed or killed by the blast.” He began to nod erratically. “Escape into the tunnels. We’ll, follow them, down. We will [i]retreat[/i] below ground and we'll, we’ll [i]flank[/i] the raiders. That damned sniper.” 

With those words the situation changed. While a pack of raiders moved ever closer to the warehouse, inside, the freshly christened paladin struggled to assemble a coherent plan. And it was obvious. Awkward to pretend it wasn’t happening, challenging to square the Paladin Moss from before with the trembling man there now. 

“No, I’ve got it now.” Moss nodded and gestured toward Estevez and Grimshaw. “I want you two outside. You’ll hunt the sniper. Once the fifty is out of the way the rest of us will clear the stragglers. That’s.... That’s what we’ll do.” He ignored the prospect that another large caliber weapon could easily be hiding somewhere in the hills. Just continued nodding as he turned to McDowell waving a finger. “Knight-Sergeant, I want you to run distraction. Draw the sniper’s fire. Our guys’ll take them down first.” He glanced at Grimshaw and Estevez, noting their anxious looks. “This is how we survive, people. This is an order!” 

Watching the Paladin lose his cool was unnerving and Laura had to resist the urge to look at the ground when he turned his attention to her. The first, rambling, incoherent ‘plan’ he came up with was impossible and she dreaded having to tell Moss that she barely had any explosives left. Fortunately, he changed his mind and Laura’s spine stiffened when he ordered her and Estevez to hunt down the enemy sniper. That was more like it. She hadn’t taken on a raider with a .50 caliber rifle before but creeping through the wasteland was one of her strengths. She knew that it was important for morale that Moss recovered his confidence and as such, she was determined to carry out his orders flawlessly and prove to him that his thinking was still sound. 

“Yes, Paladin Moss. Ad Victoriam!” Laura said and saluted. She glanced at the Knight that was to be her hunter-killer partner and she nodded at him, as if to say [i]‘we’ve got this’.[/i]

Gregory had the equivalent of a wasteland thousand yard stare, not much seeming to penetrate the man at this point. It was unclear whether he’d given up hope -- which was unlikely given he was a soldiering type that did not think too much about the situation at hand to begin with -- or whether he was just confused on what to do, lacking any orders from above. The paladin did little to improve this, his rant against McDowell being more than justified, but the following ‘plan’ being something that an upstart initiate would’ve come up with in tactical training. Luckily, Moss recovered, and the plan afterwards made a little more sense. Still, it was iffy. All it would take was a good shot with the .50 cal, and McDowell would be a goner. Not something that was on [i]McDowell’s[/i] mind, admittedly, but a realistic guess for anyone else all the same. Initiate Grimshaw and Knight Estevez would need to move quickly if they wanted to have the hulking tank of a man that was McDowell survive more than five minutes.

He reached down and grabbed the sledgehammer that he’d dropped, his fists tightening around the handle until his knuckles went white. Metaphorically speaking, because nobody could actually see whether they turned white, as they were clad in a good amount of steel. “Ad Victoriam!” he bellowed once again, and with newfound confidence he marched his happy self to the door, satisfied that the plan now made sense, and he no longer had to call his own shots. 

Where Laura might’ve wished to execute the plan to restore Moss’ confidence, Gregory was more occupied with performing his task to regain Moss’ favour. It was for that reason he held back a little, did not give in to his idiotic, but strong, ways and instead stood by the door, ready to open it and go outside to draw fire. He glanced back and the comm lines would suddenly crackle, revealing a very out-of-character McDowell. “Ready when you are, paladin, knight, initiate,” he said, rolling his shoulders slightly, the mechanisms whirring and protesting as he did so. 

An alarm blared in his power armour for the second time. [b]Warning! Critical power! Replace fusion core![/b] The beginning of the message might’ve been caught on the comms, but McDowell was quick to shut off the comms to make sure that the latter end of the message would not be heard. With some good luck, his power armour would last until they were clear. They could figure out what to do after that.

Looking between the Paladin, the Initiate and the Knight Sergeant Daniel kept quiet after recalling who they were up against. After mirroring the salute of his comrades to their leader Daniel turned to the Initiate with a resigned sigh. He felt it was best they wait their enemies out, perhaps kill them in a crossfire as they came inside the warehouse but orders were orders. 

"Alright then." he began, grabbing his rifle. "They know about Gregory and the Paladin, they know about me. But they don't know about you, so you'll be our little trump card. Did you see any side entrances exploring this place? If I could bait him out, you could seal the deal. But we only got one chance, the report on that laser of your's will make you a target right away and the fact you're not wearing power armour will make all the other raiders see you as the best target. If we can't get him in the first try, then we'll switch with you the soft target becoming the bait. Deal?" Daniel finished, ready to spring into action. 

That was a relief. “Deal,” Laura echoed in agreement. It was a solid plan and she was glad that Estevez seemed to be on the same wavelength as she was. He struck her as a level-headed sort, from what she’d seen of him so far, and that was a welcome change of pace after McDowell’s brash stubbornness and the Paladin’s emotional outburst. It helped to calm her down and steady her own nerves. She took a deep breath and brought the reassuring weight of her laser rifle to bear. For someone that had practiced with solid ammunition on the range her whole life, switching to an energy weapon and learning proper marksmanship drills had almost felt like cheating. Firing a weapon without having to accomodate for bullet drop or travel time was like running without training weights. 

“There’s a side entrance in the loading bay,” Laura said, her eyes looking up and to the left as she brought the warehouse’s layout back into her mind’s eye. “I’ll slip out and use the abandoned cars for cover. They won’t see me coming.” She nodded to herself to reaffirm her plan. “See you on the other side, Knight.”