RP: Battle of 8th Avenue

RP: The Battle of 8th Avenue is an impromptu, low-expectation, low-pressure roleplay started up by Ahalosniper (because he started playing Gears 3 again, dammit). The RP takes place in the thick of the Siege of Jacinto. Made complacent by the supposed success of the Lightmass bomb, the Coalition of Ordered Governments has been caught unprepared; refugees from the areas surrounding Tollen and Montevado have flooded the city, and emergence holes pop up in the middle of the city without warning as Troika emplacements shoot down Reavers overhead. And you, just one Gear in a conflict far larger than yourself, are tested to bond with other Gears and civilians at a moment's notice in a desperate fight for survival. Good luck, and remember to keep your head down.

Rules

 * 1) Participant users are limited to one Gear character or one civilian character apiece. This is to promote close collaboration between users as essentially a single squad rather than go off talking to themselves, and while Locust characters can be fantastic, their tendency to be tough bosses would raise them above such a small skirmish as this.
 * 2) Gear characters can be brand-new characters or be preexisting characters from another squad brought in. The RP doesn't necessarily have to fit into their larger story, so consider this an AU if you have a character you really want to use, but couldn't normally take part. No canon expansions if they would've been dead or elsewhere, however. That would break real canon.
 * 3) In their posts, other users are allowed to write dialogue for your character (because doubling back with multiple things to say just gets ridiculous), though if you feel that what they write is too far out-of-character or you have a particular response you want to make at a particular moment, you can certainly talk to the user and co-edit one anothers' posts.
 * 4) You can add as many NPCs as you want, from unfortunate Stranded refugees to indignant Jacinto citizens to good ole' Carmine redshirt gears, but don't try to rope in a large number of your other characters in this manner. The focus should not too heavily be on them.
 * 5) Posts can be revoked by the moderator if they are deemed not up to quality standards, but these standards will not be unreasonable. In fact, the less stress felt while writing them, the better. Do not try to make novella-length posts. In fact, posts should be under 10,000 bytes, by far in most cases. Make them short so other users can read through them easily, and don't try to out-compete one another on length and quality, raising the bar for other users.
 * 6) Posts should be treated as going roughly in chronological order, though doubling back a few minutes or flashbacks where appropriate are permitted.
 * 7) Try to stay realistic in terms of what the Gears of War universe considers realistic. Don't let in-character arguments become arguments between users, and vice versa. Let's try to have some fun with this, shall we?

Participants

 * Ahalosniper (moderator)
 * Character: Sgt. William Kulm, COG Gear

1
"This is an outrage, I tell you! Do you know that without me, this city wouldn't still be standing?"

An overcasting cloud layer had done nothing to negate the usual heat and humidity the month of Storm brought with it when it wasn't raining. Clanking along the sidewalk of an upper-class suburb in his blue and silver All-Purpose armor, Sergeant William Kulm could see that it wasn't doing anything to improve the temperaments of Jacinto's citizens either.

He sighed to himself in exasperation, uncomfortable beneath full plates, as he walked a winding path through the tent cities that had formed all along this boulevard, filled with the refugees that had sacrificed and struggled just to get to Jacinto, only to find a hostile welcome and a tent in the street to be all that awaited them. Tensions between them and the city's well-to-do citizens they lived in the shadows of were running high, and the member of Jacinto's high society complaining to him was just one more symptom.

"Now what use would it be, I ask you, if a key member of the Council of Sovereigns can't get out of his own driveway?" The senator asked, brushing aside rudely a man in grubby clothing. Had he looked a little closer, he might've seen the clothing had once been almost as grand as his own.

In Coalition armor, Kulm had no need to push a man aside. Wherever he went, crowds would part with looks of either admiration or disgust, in equal measure. Kulm merely answered through his helmet's speaker grill, "If you had such a problem with playing host to the less fortunate, Councilman Barrera, maybe you shouldn't have been so eager to sign Operation Lifeboat into law."

It surprised most people that a common Gear would keep up much on Tyran politics, much less know any particular politician's vote on a given policy. Most of the Jacinto citizens who signed on quickly became officers, while the enlisted ranks were filled with the former Stranded that had been conscripted in accordance with Lifeboat. But Kulm had once lived in towers of ivory masonwork like these, until he'd run away from home to go to war. Often nowadays, he wondered what his life would've been like if he hadn't.

If calling him out on his politics surprised him any, Barrera didn't show it. "I can deal with doing my part in accommodating our fellow Tyrans, Sergeant. What I take issue with is the running of a whore house under my bedroom window!"

The Councilman lifted an arm of his fine gray suit to the next building they were approaching, and they alley beside it. Sure enough, some of the Stranded had set up shop dealing in Sera's oldest profession. Kulm knew it wasn't the only illegal activity being conducted on this street, either. Drug dealers peddling Imulsion-derivative toxins and thieves were thriving in the crowded streets, blending in so well that they no longer had any need to hide.

This very street had become filled over the last few days with an open-air market of wood-pole tents and movable trailers once the police had opened it up for use. The Storm heat and unwashed bodies of the refugees gave rise to an abominable stench that permeated the street. Stranded and citizens mingled, with mixed levels of comfort. There were even a considerable number of Gears, some still wearing their armor and even armed, others off-duty and here to enjoy the benefits of such a crowd.

Once, the scantily-garbed women leaning against the corners of the alley to display their long legs would have disgusted him. Now, however, he realized they were showing skin as much because they could barely afford clothing as much as to attract business. A Gorasni girl of no more than twenty with the edge of a bruise peeking out from under her thin top met the eyepieces of Kulm's helmet, and he saw in them the deadened hopelessness he had long since started to feel himself.

She smiled at him sweetly. He quickly looked away and walked past.

Councilman Barrera stepped in front of him as they ascended the stone steps to the front door of his large, private apartment. He took turned on the top step beside a Northerner who'd taken a seat on his porch, standing almost as tall as the augmented Gear.

"Now listen here, Sergeant. I could have you stripped of that rank and all the privileges being a soldier offers you, and then you'd be just one more streetrat on my doorstep looking for a handout. Do you hear me? I want something done about all this!"

Behind his helmet, Kulm bristled at the threat. The Councilman had to know it was an empty one; with Jacinto just about the last safe place on Sera, the Coalition was clawing for every man and woman able to hold a weapon that it could get, just as miserly as men like this were about their coin. But he knew his duty. And he wouldn't let an impatient socialite break his discipline.

Forcing his face straight, he pulled his helmet off and met Barrera's angry gaze with his cool green eyes and the most calm demeanor he could put on. "Councilman, your concerns are noted, and I'm sure the Coalition will see to them as soon as it can in the course of finding livable conditions for the entirety of its people. But until such time as it can, we need every citizen to do their part in ensuring the well-being of the many. Thank you for your cooperation."

Kulm nodded succinctly as he finished, his brown hair swaying as he tried not to smile watching the Councilman fume, thinking that he hoped he hadn't been so pompous as a kid. But just then, he felt a tremor carry up through the concrete and shake the bones of his legs.

"Oh, no."

He turned around, and no sooner had he planted one foot on a lower stair than the sound of cracking concrete echoed through the street. The din of the refugee crowds stopped for a moment, only to be replaced by screaming as slabs of broken asphalt rose up like an enormous zit and shattered, revealing a hollow space carved out of the rock below. Massive, spindly legs of a Corpser drew back into the dark, swirling mist below, and from that space charged a writhing mass of sickly pale figures, scrambling up slanted shards of the street or clawing up the sheer sides into the light of day.

A few men and women who'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time were last seen falling in among the debris, and bullets trailing black Imulsion vapor cut down more of those who had begun to flee in fear.

Kulm's mind raced. The Locust had been wearing away at Jacinto's outer defenses for more than a month now, and occasionally managed to get an E-hole past the lines, but never this far in before. How could they have broken through?

He refocused. It didn't matter now. What did matter was throwing them back into the pit.

"Start bringing people inside." Kulm told the Councilman without so much as a look. "We need to get them off the streets."

Being ordered by some lowly infantryman startled Barrera from being frozen in shock. "I'm not bringing any mangy Stranded into my-"

The reply was suddenly cut short as William grabbed the front of his pressed collar and dragged him close. "Get them inside, now." Then he released the Councilman and unclipped the helmet from his belt, sliding it back on again with the blue optics glowing to life.

Grabbing the stair's rail with his left hand, Kulm reached over his back and unlocked a chainsaw-edged Lancer assault rifle from his back, and vaulted over the rail, catching himself with the free hand as he dropped to the street below. Pushing himself up, he started running against the flow of the crowd and shouting over his helmet's loudspeaker, "Get off the streets! Get inside anywhere you can! Gears, stand to and prepare to fulfill your oaths! Get something across and barricade the street! Keep the civilians out of the line of fire! To me! Gears, rally to me!"

That Damn Sniper 00:57, March 6, 2014 (UTC)
 * Mod's note: Obviously, let's not break out the Berserkers just yet. Keep it to Drone-level grubs and under for the time being. If you like, take advantage in your first post of the opportunity to explore the refugee camp. Maybe someone managed to get together some decent food for sale, or perhaps you're in the middle of other activities which lead the Locust to catch you literally with your pants down. You can take 'em all the same.