DeviousMe

Krr. Boards just ate my post. Don't have time right now, gonna try again later. Please don't abscond with Tomb just yet - or if yalls really need to move on, just assume that the snipers move to find clear lines of fire and take the shot.

Sector F11
Sub Pen

Mamma mia, that'sa lota posting...a. Okay, let's see if I can figure out what's gone where and what I need to respond to. >_>

Well, that was a fast getaway. I had to completely rewrite my post there, yikes. Here's hoping the sub can't do that. >_>

Though I have to ask...if she ran that fast, how come she didn't time warp?

Time is a funny thing. Some see it as a river. Others deny it exists. Still more think it repeats. But whatever the truth, or perhaps a truth, there is one thing definite about time.

It is relative.

A machine, for instance, has no concept of time. Oh sure, it can count cycles and add, multiply, or divide them ad nauseum, but none of it has any meaning. To a machine, there was no short and there was no long, abstract terms unfitting of something that 'thought' in terms of gigahertz...or more...

Sector E4

When Pious had moved, so had two machines. They hadn't been as fast as the speedster of course, that fact that they'd had no idea that they should hurry contributing more to that than anything else, but reason aside the result had been that they'd arrived at the edge of the elevator shaft just as the Priest had pulled the cabin into the air.

With a half-open door through which they had looked.

One instant. One picture. One click. It had been enough. They had seen.

The girl.

They had processed. They had calculated. They had matched - and the match had been positive.

Tomb.

TARGET FOUND_

The news had jumped off like a coyote on spring-loaded rocket boots that very same instant. What One and Two knew, Three knew. What Three knew, the ship knew. What the ship knew, Vyachslav knew. The rest had proceeded like clockwork from there. An electronic signal had moved mechanical hands. The exos' visuals had been locked in Tomb's profile. Their correlation with the humans' double-Is had identified hers. The search had been over. The chase had begun.

The order to eliminate had been entirely redundant.

Metal fingers had clamped down on the elevator's lower edge in the manner of an industrial vise, but it had been no use. Pious' power had been too great, and the Priest had lifted them along with the cabin without so much as a howdy-do.

But still they had seen.

All three of them had seen, even the one still on the ground, that one instant in time when Damsel and Tomb had left the cabin frozen motionless in their memory banks, sent back to the ship, back to their master before the woman's second foot had left the cabin floor.

Thus they had aimed, but never gotten the chance to fire. The first two had stopped mid-motion in response to a missile alert, releasing their grips the moment they'd managed to plot an acceptable arc down to the ground. Regrettably, it had been too little, too late. The rocket had been fired at too close a range for them to shoot down before it hit, and so it happened that in a strange twist of fate - unless the Priest or someone else did something now - they'd be directly caught in the explosion and smashed to the earth as useless hunks of metal.

The third certainly wouldn't be doing anything to save them. It might've been far enough away to take a shot at the rocket, but unlike One and Two, Three's line of fire didn't intersect the thing's path from head-on. There was nothing it could do.

What it could do was pursue. The mechanoid bolted after Damsel as best it could, but unfortunately its top speed couldn't even hope to match hers. It didn't take long at all for the distance to become too great to track, and with all the fire about, following a thermal trail had become nigh impossible. It still knew where to go thanks to its link with the ship, but the chance that it'd actually matter had reached just about nil...
__________________

Sector F11
East Shore

The Human Memorial Museum churned the waters on a course due south. The ship may not have been able to track Tomb itself, but so long as Vyachslav could direct it, it knew exactly where to go.

Below the waves, just beneath the waterline, a large hatch ground open on each side of the hull. With echoed gurgles, a pair of objects roughly twice the size of the mechanoids that had been encountered at the Insidium plant left their mother vessel with great speed, headed for Tomb's new position...

Sector D5
Viral Lab Alpha

Sector D5
Viral Lab Alpha

Vyachslav's only response to the scientist's rant was to put the squeeze on him, and quite literally so. Joints popped and bones flexed painfully as his large clawed fingers tightened their grip, their pressure making it hard to breathe and driving the man's blood into his head.

He thrust his captive closer to the writing, and the burning orange of his eyes was but a dim twilight, it created more than enough light to make out the letters. Vyachslav didn't care about the scientist's worries. He wanted Tomb, and he wanted her now...!
__________________

Sector E4
The Old Insiduim Plant

East Wall

With neither peaceful nor hostile intent directed its way, the first mechanoid reciprocated in kind, staying in the cover of the nearby trees. Not that they'd block IR signatures or anything, but the swamp-green hue of its armor did blend fairly well into this type of terrain. For the moment, it thus simply sat there and observed...

Inside the Plant

The second and third were deftly on the move however, and had by now entered what remained of the plant structure proper. If the demons of Erez'Zul (or anyone else, for that matter) were still around the area, they'd have no trouble spotting the two heading in the general direction of the elevator, following the latent heat trail of those coming and going. After all, they weren't trying to hide, and their footfalls were rather noisy...

Sector D5
Viral Lab Alpha

Vyachslav lashed out with his free hand as the new ceiling quickly came too close for comfort (and especially flight), spearing his clawed fingers into the closest wall to gain support for a few fractions of a second while his feet sought hole's edge to grasp. They found it too, and fortunately it was solid enough to hold up, and not a moment too soon. The orange energy fields that formed his wing skins flickered out of existence once more as their power drained away, the black luster of their skeletal supports collapsing back into the matte pylons he could lay flush to his back.

He regarded the events below once more, unable to help a twinge of disappointment, then waddled forward and away from the hole, seeking an undisturbed wall. Soon there, he reached out and began to scratch another message into the material, at the same time turning his burning gaze to the scientist still held firm in his other hand. Vyachslav relaxed his grip a bit, turning the man toward the letters he'd etched into the wall, presenting them to him unmistakably as what they were.

A demand.

TOMB

WHERE...
__________________

Sector E4
Old Insidium Plant

The three containers crashed into the tortured soil with resounding report, coming apart in mere portions of a second, just as was expected. What was not expected, however, was that what emerged from the armored casings were [i]anything[/b] but battle drone.

Over three meters tall once they'd fully deployed, the swamp-green humanoid machines looked bulky and awkward, their arms and legs looking to be box-beam sections that were much too large in proportion to the comparatively slim torso from which they drew support. Their hips were unflatteringly wide, form serving function in providing solid, sturdy anchor points for the bulbous legs, and the wide section that served simultaneously as sternum and shoulders looked designed by someone with absolutely no sense of aesthetics.

Worse yet, the things didn't even have real heads, a small, squat cube that was visibly a multifunction camera jutting up between their shoulders like some sort of oversized techno-warts.

Ugly as they were though, their armaments held a strange allure. Though just as clunky and coarse as the machines in whose hands they lay, the long-barreled machine guns in their right hands were of visibly refined design, cooling jackets, gas-vent recoil compensation systems, and state conversion ammunition plans all tightly integrated into a weapon of pure, singular purpose. The buckler-like convex metal disk flanged to the lower left arm of each carried an even greater strange sense of functional beauty, adding both further defensive capability to the heavy-set armor of its machine, as well as making it a more versatile offensive weapon by providing point-blank range weaponry.

All in all, though they clearly weren't anywhere near as sophisticated as the Lance, each of the three was a visibly purposed piece of military hardware that probably wasn't to be taken lightly.

Especially on the move.

The three split up almost instantly, quickly assessing the situation for what it was and responding with rapid, resounding footfalls. Two went for what remained of the building, each on a different course, while the third sought some manner of cover in order to buy enough time for a further analysis of the forces assembled here - in other words, to try and puzzle out just who was fighting whom all here...

Sector D5
Viral Lab Alpha

Destroyer's wish was about to come true, though of course different than expected. Vyachslav hadn't been sitting there idle during his montage. Even as his long tail shivered the crate Hugo had thrown, sending them to rain down around the two - not that he expected it to harm them; they were, after all, only wood - he was already well into his further plans. If these two weren't content to deal with one another, he'd just have to give them something else with which to busy themselves.

So he aimed up.

A cacophonous roar strummed through the warehouse floor as the combi-cannon's interval setting pulverized a sizeable chunk of ceiling, all sort of dirt and debris raining down from above as Vyachslav unfolded his wings and powered up from below with great, purposeful beats. It wasn't enough to harm his opponents, but chances were decent that they'd find it rather hard to see in the rain of dust, rocks, and chunks of metal.

Naturally though, he didn't leave it at that. Why should he? There was so much more he could sic on them. The trap door in the room beyond the open blast gate was the next thing to go - or at least that was the goal of the multi-missile he sent roaring at it from the launcher in his back. Considering the thing carried a number of small HHe bombs, it was a reasonable idea. He briefly wondered what Warburg was like in this universe. Perhaps he'd take a look later on, after he was done here.

No, he certainly wasn't done here yet. The combi-cannon cycled again, and though the impact of the first chunk of concrete momentarily unbalanced the hovering and rising Vyachslav, it didn't stop him from lancing the thick, orange beam of a sun-hot thermocannon right into the explosive racks below. Truth be told, he wasn't sure whether their yield would be enough to do Destroyer and Hugo any harm (nor if the released virus would affect them), but he figured all the mayhem he left behind would at least keep them busy while he rose through the hole in the ceiling and into the floor above the storage chamber.

Was there anything here of note...?

Sector D5
Viral Lab Alpha

Your wishes have been granted. Welcome the Nemesis Army, Crey, Longbow, Rikti, Council, 5th Column, and the Devouring Earth.

Seriously though, I19 will have more tip missions. Be patient.

Okay, I'm confused. What do the numbers in parentheses mean? <_<

Sector D5
Viral Lab Alpha

Sector D5
Viral Lab Alpha

The 'mechanoid' meanwhile moved on, for as much as his curiosity had been piqued, he hadn't come here to entertain himself. Vyachslav may have been more easily distracted than his big brother, but when it became necessary, he was quite able to maintain focus for a while.

Doing precisely that, he followed the path ahead and down, descending the shaft of this elevator in the same manner as the one before - except this time, he didn't wave to shear the doors out of his way before proceeding. The warehouse floor shuddered infinitesimally as it took his weight, the forest of glassware giving a directionless, echoed series of clinks and tinkles. Of course, chances were that no one even noticed, what with the brawl in progress.

Half awaiting the outcome, half heedless thereof, Vyachslav proceeded toward the open doors (or at least for now, the combatants between it and him), moving at an unhurried pace on all fours while he looked about. Was there anything of note on the other side of the open blast door...?

Sector D5
Viral Lab Alpha

Vyachslav moved on as planned, proceeding through the decontamination chamber with the accompanying runch and squeal of overstressed metal. As expected for an environmental isolation chamber, the second door locked down and inflated a secondary seal the moment he pushed through the first, but that didn't save it. Neither did the alarm. However, if Tomb or her staff were paying attention, they'd probably be aware now that and exactly where the lab's containment had been breached.

The idea of sending another dose of viral agents into the system entered Vyachslav's mind briefly, but the low probability of finding anything but a security office manned by the requisite inattentive minion prompted him to decide against it. Instead, he proceeded into the corridor that lay past the former decontamination chamber, more than curiously observing the word 'FOOTRY' as he passed. That alone wasn't enough for him to proceed into the room, however. For that, there'd need to be at least one sentient lifeform inside (human or otherwise) of which he could pick up the presence.

Was there? For that matter, was there anyone aside from the scientist Destroyer presently confronted on this floor and/or the three below him...?

Sector D5
Within the Mine

Vyachslav didn't much react to the appearance of the Countess Bathory, the DeFeurards kind enough to deter her before he had to take action. Outwardly, he didn't even appear to taken note of the vampire and her entourage, moving unhurriedly on and down the shaft that held the elevator Destroyer had taken. He didn't bother to turn, entering the passage down headfirst like some great serpent, hands and feet applying pressure to the walls to support a gradual descent, his claws giving him more than sufficient traction.

At the bottom, it didn't take long before the sickening snaps of buckling metal echoed from the elevator, crackles and pops that resembled those of a soda can as it was inexorably crushed echoing into the fluid-filled chamber. Ripples spread from the mangled elevator doors as the wire mesh 'cabin' beyond grew smaller, flatter, a huge black hand squishing the lift from above, shearing the bent doors from where they still clung with the gut-wrenching retch of screaming metal.

The rest of Vyachslav followed soon after, hands and feet gradually removing their applied force from the walls of the shaft they'd pushed against. He emerged from the elevator in the same manner in which he'd entered, proceeding into the flooded chamber headfirst, neck followed by hands, body, feet, and finally his long, whiplike tail, the seventh appendage snaking through the doorway behind like some ill-willed viper looking for prey.

If there was nothing of interest here anymore, he'd simply head on to the doors of the decontamination chamber and try to buckle them in and out of his way, much like Destroyer had done with the elevator doors, but of course with a different goal in mind.

If there was however, what was it? Were the limbless vampires in the red fluid still 'alive', so to speak? Maybe even still sentient and coherent enough to speak? Or had the 'un' been taken out of these undead and they were just so much lifeless flesh?

Moreover, was there anything of interest ahead to be found? Active spells perhaps? Odd paths of energy? The voracious consumer responsible for the EM surges deep inside Mount Inconvenient...?

Buzzclaw and Maria Jones are their names.

A5 - The Human Memorial Museum (the ship)
A9 - Kimiko and Corporation telemerc teams Three and Four
C5 - Nightwalker
D5 - Big V is with Emerald and the DeFeurards
Unknown - the rest of the telemerc teams; apparently hopping from place to place

I think that completes the list, except of course for our deceptive detective in Cap au Diable.

Oh, I don't know. At least from the commercials, that stuff's always been sufficiently creepy. Granted, it's not on the level of cutely dressed midgets singing 'You're in Happyland, Happyland, Happyland...', but still.

Clarification: Big V isn't picking up on the ghosts themselves, but rather the magic that's controlling them and putting them to work as messengers. Unless I've misunderstood something, that'd be located at currently operating Necrotelicoms, just like a radio puts out an EM field.

As for the ship, it picked up on the packets being sent and received through the regular internet connection on Isla de la Calavera Aislado, not the Necrotelicom. The ship doesn't have any means of detecting magic or other overdimensional phenomena. It does have an excellent electronic warfare suite, however.

If you'd rather this not happen regardless though CB, I'm open to suggestions. Big V is the magic sniffer and the ship's the EM one, so if you've got any ideas, please do let me know.

Sector D5
Within the Mine