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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 5584118" data-attributes="member: 12037">Sniper rifles make a lot of noise.It isn't like the movies, where there's a little "ppphhht" sound and people fall over dead with a hole in their head. They're big guns with big bullets. Max's MK11 weighted over fifteen pounds empty and fired 7.62 mm caliber bullets. That's a projectile larger than a Duracell hitting you at supersonic speeds. It also had a range of over 1000 meters and hits within half an inch of the scope if you're good, and Max was nowhere near that far away and was highly trained. One other thing about sniping. You don't go for the head. It's a small target and the large calibers involved can hit a man straight in the chest and blow a hole big enough that it doesn't matter if you technically miss the vital organs, because the giant gaping hole there will make the guy just as dead. Of course, as Jack had pointed out, they needed Tony alive, and taking out the biggest threat first with lots of overwhelming force was a big part of a rapid dominance strategy. So, the first shot was going for a less vital area. Max was going for his left leg, the largest non-completely-immediately-lethal target on Tony's soon to be very injured body.The rifle boomed to life and the shot echoed in the street. It could have been mistaken for coming thunder from the storm, except for the gaping hole in Tony's leg spewing blood from his femoral artery. He collapsed in a heap, screaming in pain. His lackies turned immediately, agape, dropping whatever boxes they were carrying. If that wasn't treated in minutes, he would bleed out. One guy started toward him, while the others went for their guns, looking around in horror. It's not easy to pinpoint a sniper shot, not with the distance it puts between you and it. Plus, the echo had left them spinning in circles. It was perfect.Emerald was already on them, and much closer than they could have imagined. With a quick focus of power, she held out her hand, sweeping it across her vision while saying "Aeroga", and three of the men flew backward through the air and slammed against the side of one of the vans, leaving dents and collapsing unconscious on the ground. That wasn't exactly an easy use of magic, throwing three large guys fifteen feet, but it was expedient and better than getting shot at. She felt it a little more difficult to concentrate. She pulled out her pistol to deal with the other two men. They still didn't know if there were others inside. If five more came out, she'd have a bit of trouble with them. If more came out, then they'd have to run.Jack took off like a sprinter toward Tony. His job was to grab him and get away. Then Emerald would escape, she was great at hiding, and Max would, of course, already be long gone. That way, if there were more people, they wouldn't be in a prolonged firefight. It didn't matter how good you were. Once bullets were flying, odds were you were going to get hit. Avoiding that kind of situation was far preferable to the alternative. He crossed the parking lot in a few seconds and was almost to Tony when he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye and barely swerved in time to avoid being grabbed by one of Tony's men, a large man who probably played football in high school, who went down as his arms didn't make the contact he was counting on. Jack lost his balance for only a split second, but it was enough. The other guy he hadn't seen hit him from behind like a truck, throwing both of them to the ground. Jack rolled, cutting his hands on the pavement beneath, and came to a stop about thirty five yards short of Tony, who was looking at him with bewilderment and, even through the pain, reaching for his PDW. Jack cursed his luck under his breath just as the first guy growled and started getting up.Tony apparently wasn't about to go down without a fight, and even through the blood loss and pain and the high probability that he was going to lose that leg, pulled up his gun and aimed it directly at Jack. A sharp pain shot through his leg when he pulled the trigger and the blowback hit him, but he kept the muzzle trained on Jack, who had taken to a roll to avoid the incoming fire. Jack still had the magic speed enhancements for a few more seconds, and he managed to get out of the worst of it, but he still caught a bullet in his right forearm.Max watched the scene below unfold and he tried to get another shot off. Shock and awe sometimes had the effect of scattering your opposition, but in this case, they probably didn't have a planned escape route. So their fight or flight mechanism shot a serious dose of addrenaline in them and told them to go down swinging. That was okay. Three of them were already down, and Max had the guy who knocked Jack down in his sights. Another shot, and the man lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. With that, his job was done. He grabbed the rifle and started heading down to join the others.The spells that Jack had weaved into his leg were gone at this point. He had planned to get in and out fast, so he didn't pour any more power into the spell than he thought he would need. He didn't plan on being grabbed. Stupid mistake. Now he was in a tough bind. He had risen, and had a one man defensive line coming down on him while Tony was firing at him with an automatic. He decided to try and take out the unarmed man first, running for him at full speed. Hand to hand was his forte, but he was aching from the previous fall and had taken a bullet in the arm. With his right out of commission, he went with a left feit, which the guy fell for, and slammed his knee into the large man's testicles. Not a completely honorable move, but a quick and effective one. The opponent was down before he could say "Oh God, oh God, why does it hurt so much?" He turned to face down Tony, but the semi-automatic caught him as he turned, and he felt a dull pain hit him in the stomach. He looked down to see a clean hole starting to leak blood.Emerald was only a second too late to stop it. She was on Tony, and put her pistol to the back of his head. "Drop it." He did. She resisted the urge to cold cock him. He wouldn't live long enough to regain consciousness if she did. There was already a pool of blood forming all around him. She sighed, and ripped off a bit of his clothes to form a turnequit around the wound. It was right above the knees at the bottom of the thigh. She'd have to cut off all the blood to his leg. "Who are you working for?"Jack started treating the wound. Belly shots aren't immediately lethal, but he was going to need treatment soon. It didn't look like any major arteries or organs were hit, thankfully. He sure didn't feel right, though. He sat down and put pressure on the bullet hole, feeling on his back to see if it went through, but finding no exit hole."Guy named Richard Hall." Tony grunted out the words as she tied his leg. She wasn't being gentle."Where do you do the drop off?" She walked around and knelt in front of him. He eyes were cold and steady on his.He clenched his teeth. "Harbor. Barge called the Sea Horse.""Lotta guys?""Some of mine. Half dozen maybe."She looked at him to try and tell if he was lying. She was good at reading people, and he didn't look like he had it in him to lie at the moment. She nodded satisfied, standing up and walking over to Jack. "What's the prognosis?""I need to see somebody."She sighed. They'd have to put off the Sea Horse a few hours then. And, he wouldn't be 100%. Heck, he might not be 50%. He'd have to go at it post op. They'd need a good plan.Max drove the car up to the warehouse, having packed up his sniper rifle in the trunk, shotgun in hand. "You got everything you need?"Emerald looked up. "Yeah."Max's shotgun went off at the back of Tony's head. "Can't have him around any more." He went in to check out the warehouse and found a few more PDWs, some pistols, and crates of drugs. He also found some cans of gasoline. Pouring them out, he made a little trail out the door and lit it, stepping away as the warehouse lit up in an inferno. Seeing the others climbing into the car, he ran over. "Nope. We're going to need to switch," he motioned to one of the black vans, the one without the large dent in the side. "Camouflage.""We're going to have to hit a doctor first. Jack took a shot.""Bad?""Will be..."Max emptied everything from his car into the van, shifted it into neutral, and pushed it into the blaze. Then they took off to find someone to treat Jack. Someone who wouldn't report a gunshot wound.[sblock]EncounterScene Aspects: TONS OF COCAINE, BAD PART OF TOWNTony "The Wolf" RobertsAspects Civilian Black Ops For Hire, "I get the job done", Realistic ExpectationsSkills Good Athletics (+3), Good Contacts (+3), Fair Conviction (+2), Fair Deceit (+2), Fair Fists (+2), Good Guns (+3), Fair Investigation (+2), Fair Might (+2)Powers Fast Reload, Careful Aim(+3 to Weapon on aim w/ fate), Wrestler (+2 grapple)Refresh 5Physical Stress OOOO (uses all consequences)Notes Weapon:3 PDW, Armor:1 bullet proof vest, Good Attack w/ Guns, Good Defense, Average InitiativeThugsSkills Average Athletics (+1), Fair Fists (+2), Fair Guns (+2)Physical Stress OO (thugs don't take consequences)EventsBeing one of the main NPCs, Tony had full use of consequences. Max rolled something like Fantastic on his Guns, plus invoked his high aspect, plus had a stunt that increased damage when he had surprise, plus used a stunt that consumed a fate point to increase damage. In the end, he did something like 15 physical stress, which is pretty much the whole point of the sniper rifle. With Tony's 4 stress boxes, he had to take an extreme consequence (Lost Leg) and a moderate consequence (Lost a Lot of Blood) just to survive.Now, to get the sniper rifle, at the start of the session I made Max roll Resources to buy it. It was a Weapon:4 military grade weapon, after all. But, Max has a freaking Good Resources! I figured he deserved the sniper rifle just for putting that many points into Resources for a one off game! And, hey, it really worked out well for him.After I gave Tony the consequences, the only reason he was able to keep firing was the 5 fate points he had, because I forced compels against the extreme consequence every round (the fight ended up being only two rounds!). He paid the fate to keep going, which I figured with his aspects that was reasonable. If it had been more of a brute NPC, I probably would have had him stop fighting instead of trying to take Jack out with his PDW. But, he is a professional, after all.Jack took a hard hit with that PDW because Tony invoked his "I get the job done" on his Guns vs Jack. He had to use a severe consequencet. That was rough! We went with Belly Shot. However, it was not the worst hit of the game. That has yet to come. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" />Emerald used an amazing Intimidate on the guy, tagging his physical consequences. At that point, he was just too injured to argue about it. He was beaten. So they got their information. From where I'm sitting, they earned it![/sblock]</blockquote>

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