Assault on City 17: Team Ninja

[acts_of_gord]

In better times City 17 had many, many ways of crossing town. For the most part, the citizens of today travel on the surface, and mostly on foot. This is partly because they're easier to track down, and partly because the alternatives haven't been maintained lately. On the other hand, the Combine don't use the underpassages any more either. Clearing one of the tunnels that crosses half the City is a priority for the Resistance; it'll give them a much better crack at getting behind enemy lines. Thus the infiltration team finds themselves in a small courtyard at the back of what was once a highway maintenance building, facing a poorly lit flight of stairs leading down.

Comments

[raptorcanaria]

Oh no he doesn't.

Dinah follows up the scream by doing the move she would have if she were more confident in her skills. She throws herself towards the solider and leaps - not at him exactly, but over him, using him as s pivot. As she upends herself over him, she grabs his helmet, pulling it off and with her on the follow through.

No damn technology.

[acts_of_gord]

The motion snaps his head back, hard; the helmet is a full-face model that catches on the jaw, but nonetheless comes off thanks to Dinah's sheer momentum. The post-human face that appears is dazed and confused in the daylight, but the objective remains: stop the encroaching anti-citizens.

Combine hand-to-hand programming for their augmented humans is woefully unattractive to watch, but it may be effective. We'll just have to see, won't we?

[raptorcanaria]

Not the pleasantest looking opponent Dinah's ever faced, but not the scariest either. Regardless, she's done with using superpowers now and falling into her forte. The helmet abandoned, she turns back to the solider without even stopping.

Judo's good to start, then she combines Ninjitsu and Pankration, with one objective - to get him unconscious as soon as possible.

[acts_of_gord]

The closest analogue to the Combine soldier's responses is the Earth martial art of krav maga. It assumes all combat is final combat, that no quarter will be given, and that the objective is attacker neutralization. It is not, however, a set of coded responses that has seen much practice. The Combine generally rely heavily on their guns and armor, as that's been most of what's necessary to date.

And having to repeatedly defend one's unexpectedly vulnerable head puts a real crimp in the drive to move from defense to offense.

[raptorcanaria]

She hasn't seen some of these moves, and if she was in any state of mind other than extreme concentration, Dinah might note them to learn later. As it is, she'll just remember them later anyway.

But unlike him, Dinah has a lot of practice under her belt, and it's a matter of minutes before she finds his weakness and shoots in a firm nerve strike to his exposed neck.

[acts_of_gord]

There's a reason the Overwatch normally wears those helmets. The post-human modifications made by the Combine leave certain areas unavoidably exposed. The stricken soldier drops like a brick.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah exhales, not out of relief so much as the come down from fight mode, and continues on, rubbing at her throat.

It's sore, now.

[acts_of_gord]

The radio crackles. "Team Ninja! You guys still with us? Is Sniper Alley cleared yet? Valerie's on her way to pick you guys up."

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah finds John again just in time to catch this report.

"Tell him we're good," she says, redundantly. "I'm ready to go."

[jv-034.livejournal.com]

"We're all ready here; it's all clear. We're awaiting pickup. ...You copy?"

[acts_of_gord]

"We copy. Valerie's coming- over and out."

[raptorcanaria]

"Great."

Dinah clears her throat. Then clears it again.

"I need a week's worth of cough drops."