"Right." Acid gave a nod at Cher'tak's mention, "You guys went to portals like the Akho with archway transmitters. There probably isn't even a hangar here."
"Let us not jump to conclusions." Sah'Teece intoned, "The Jade Moon is essentially a giant shipyard. Even if there's none in this section, there has to be something flyable in at least one of the assembly yards."
"We agree." the Lady Grey gave her opinion on the matter, crossing her arms, "Which means you shall need to locate one. We are not willing to compromise the current link back to Earth, and thus far every other portal generator Our forces have come across has been demolished - some beyond repair. We shall summon aid from Portal Corporation, but it may nevertheless take considerable time. A ship is currently the only option that does not entail considerable risk of delivering you into hostile hands."
"Speak of the floater." Acid remarked with an annoyed sigh as Ghost and Hammerhead ran toward them, and had he had money to spare, he would've already taken bets on what would happen next. Regarding the paramilitary man and crimson-eyed wrapped fellow with a disappointed book for a moment, he turned to Jake to give the youth answer, "I'll see what I can do. There's only two of me here though, so please don't expect instantaneous results."
With that, the reptilian vanished in literally no time, and a brief rush of air shot from all directions into the vacuum his teleportation had left behind. The force wasn't enough to cause anyone grief, however, packing barely enough impulse to drag a hypothetical sheet of paper across the floor for less than a second.
"We carry no interest in such an argument." the Lady Grey told the quarreling parties, then began to head back toward the portal chamber, "We suggest you settle this before Our scout returns with a vessel. There will be no tolerance of strife once we are underway once more. If anyone needs Us, We shall be in Communications, phoning home."
If anyone cared to try and discern the mentioned location, they'd find this rather difficult until she'd actually reached it. The ops center filled more than half of the large chamber, consoles and other various equipment huddled mostly along the walls that ran from one blast door to the portal chamber entryway, and then on to the second heavy gate. Vanguard operatives and machinery had clustered in this U-shaped area in a somewhat random, yet still organized pattern, and divided the section into different substrates: Mechanical, Munitions, Medical, Communications, Command, Research, and Mechanical II, spread out from one end of the U to the other in that order.
The individual sections stood modeled after the Vanguard Compound back on Terra, with each Mechanical substrate servicing the HVAS units, Munitions providing what equipment might be needed for combat (or to just enhance general performance), Communications aligned with the portal chamber's entryway, and the other sections serving their more or less self-explanatory purposes just like their counterparts back in the human world.
Vanguard personnel kept every station manned and attended to, even performing the guard and patrol duties the military men usually handled back in their compound under White Plains. In addition, the HVAS units not currently linked into a maintenance hub stood by watchfully at locations precisely chosen to cover as much area as possible in case of an emergency.
And as the Lady Grey began to speak into the microphone of Communications' main console (which faced the portal generators), the duo of HVAS units and assorted guards in the gateway chamber already stepped aside slightly to allow room for the expected Portal Corporation technicians...
--------------------
"I certainly understand, ma'am." Unai Kemen spoke into his side's counterpart to the console Lady Grey currently manned. He'd been called over to the terminal by the Longbow monitoring communications from the Rikti homeworld, "I'll have technical personnel to you ASAP. It might take me a while to...hey, wait a minute. I just remembered something."
Placing the earphones back onto the console, he turned in the general direction of the assemblage of bio- and technoforms, letting out a loud whistle to call for their attention. He followed with a wave to them, "Hey, guys! They got technical problems over there and could use some more brainpower! Medical expertise too, probably - I hear C'Kelkah's still out cold...!"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
--Portal Corp Courtyard--
Wallace's brow furrowed.
"Then perhaps we should get Nester," he intoned, "If they need medical attention, I can think of..."
Simmons cleared his throat and jabbed the inventor with his elbow. When Sheldon turned to him in irritation (this just hadn't been his night), the wizard was indicating the tiny female android.
"Oh..."
"Well," Ryat66 raised his hand, "If there's anything I can do, I would love to be able to help!"
"I'm..." Matt grunted, "I'm a little drunk right now... It might be best if I stayed here."
Sheldon nodded, then turned to Unai Kemen.
"If you would allow it, I would like to assist. I'd like to see what it is that risked the life of my little friend, here."
"I will go as well," Simmons raised his hand, "I would not like to think that I had not done all that I could to help this grand city."
----------
--Jade Moon--
Randall didn't know what to think about the newcomers, Ghost and Hammerhead. Something set him on edge about them, but he didn't have any hard evidence, so he dismissed the feeling as just some mild xenophobia.
He didn't have much else to offer at the moment, though. His concerns had already been raised, he was waiting to hear some suggestions before making any decisions or barking orders.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Solid gave Ineffable a look before looking Hammerhead and Ghost over.
"I guess you guys could be heroes," he said. "Scanner registers you as such and you certainly aren't as odd looking as Lord Darkity Dark the reformed demon. Then again with people like the Technicolored Dreambot here running around, you can't really judge people on how they look."
"Or on how they act!" Mini Bot added. "The boss is usually a lot nicer than some of the heroes we've fought before!"
Toy Dispenser rolled his head a little bit in exasperation.
"It doesn't really matter," he said. "As it is, we don't need any new hands. We still need to find a ship, which I'm going to head out and help with."
Toy turned to Grey as Small Toy trotted up next to its boss.
"Small Toy and I are going to exit out one of the airlocks and see about scanning the vicinity. That should give Acid a little less ground to cover. I don't anticipate running into any problems, but if I do I'll have one of the bots inform you."
"We'll probably see anything coming though," Small Toy said confidently.
"Airlock: Indicated direction," Cher'tak said, nodding at Toy Dispenser as he pointed to where an airlock would be. "Door code: Same: Earlier used."
"I remember it, Cher'tak," Toy said as he turned around and walked between the two new guys, trusting that they'd move out of his way rather than get poked in the eye by his shoulder guards. Small Toy trotted alongside, unfolding its sophisticated sensor array as it went. Once the pair got outside, Toy would grab Small Toy and use his anti-gravity system to float them up above the research base at a sufficient height to give them a significant scanning radius. Toy also called up Acid and told the other mastermind what he was planning on doing so that they could coordinate more effectively.
*********************************************
"I shall return to the Rikti world as well," Archlich stated as he started walking toward the portal, giving no reason as too why he suddenly decided to follow along.
"Are you all coming? Constructs, mortals?" Archlich asked over his shoulder as he went.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Ineffable shrugged and vanished into thin air. If they insisted that they were heroes, they could keep on insisting. It wasn't as if he cared.
He hated the search and manuver procedure that was going on. He was infinitely more reliable in a straight-up battle. He wasn't going to complain though, the least he could do was keep an eye on everything.
He dispersed into the enviroment and became one with it, and slowly moved off to 'Be About.'
"I am fully capable of rendering medical attention to any who might be in need of it!" Essex chirped happily. She was immensely pleased now that others were joining her, and skimmed slowly towards the Portal Corp building, making sure the others could keep up.
"Ah...though maybe one of you should do the talking. I'm still not really sure.."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
The Security Chief gave a not of approval to Sheldon, but retained a somber glare within his eyes; the sort of undertone that often accompanied a common agreement between two people whose methods differed.
He raised an arm toward the portal, motioning toward it with an outstretched hand. There wasn't any need for words now. The gate stood ready...
--------------------
The heavy step of Acid's work boots echoed eerily through the deserted corridors of the assembly yards. The reptilian knew what he sought, and following the path of logic, exactly where it would be. With an innate, near-perfect sense of direction, he pursued his goal.
"Okay..." his slitted eyes scanned about, "Where am I?"
In other words, he was so lost. It was to be expected, really. The shipyard may not have looked like much on the surface, but its works stretched on for kilometers below the moon's stone, descending into its bowels by the same measure. Simply put, it was a maze down here - like an automobile factory where everything had been scaled up a thousand fold.
Looking out across a half-completed discus ship through a transparent vista, Acid's clawed fingers tapped on the wrist of his other hand behind his back. The super-sized cylinder on the other side of the window gallery held the partially completed Rikti mothership securely in place with invisible hands as robotic fabricators attached piece after piece to the hull. The Khelari estimated its time to completion not long off, but still too long for their tastes.
His gaze drifted about through the amber transparencies, the panes leaning concavely away due to the ceiling's larger dimensions. As far as he could tell, this corridor circled the assembly chamber in its entirety, and like galleries both above and below this level indicated more. But as vast as the cylindrical chamber might be, the floor and ceiling high above and below were what really caught the reptilian's eye - as far as he could tell, the seams zigzagging through them indicated them as horizontal doorways.
Okay, so if this section assembles the outer hull, then there's probably a concurrent auxiliary vessel line around here somewhere, right?
Right. Probably closer to the surface. This line looks vertical.
Quite. And good sense dictates one doesn't perform final outfitting until the core structure's fully assembled.
And flight tested.
Right, right...so chances are not anywhere down here, but closer to the field.
Bingo.
Point taken. Oh...and is it weird that I'm talking to myself here?
Nope. Not at all.
Ah, okay. Just making sure.
Acid's left eye quirked a bit as Toy's transmission came in, the Khelari not hesitating to respond, "Not to throw a wrench in your works there, but I don't think you'll find much beside the landing field on the surface. This me's in an assembly line several clicks down right now, an I'm seeing discus ship hull plating welded on. Logic dictates the smaller ships used as auxiliary vessels should be somewhere in-between myself and the surface, but definitely under it still..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Kshk.
Audible even over the roar of machinery was the sound of the twin blades sliding into play.
Scarab pounced upon his prey like a savage animal. His armor had changed from a deep gold to a murky black. His two blades had repositioned from their place behind his wrists and were now held on tightly by the assasin.
The blades were specially designed to penetrate almost any armor. The mercenary doubted that his prey would stand any better chance than all the other people he'd killed, but deep down he had a bad feeling that Acid was no ordinary prey.
Scarab missed.
It wasn't because he had bad aim. It was because he had been moved from one point to another via instantaneous transportation. Specifically, to a point ten feet away.
Ineffable, who had just faded in, casually placed a hand on Scarb's back where his spinal cord would have been. His armor didn't start to crumble or shatter or disolve into fine powder, so it was obvious Ineffable was giving him a chance.
"Thank you for not stabbing the wrong people." The leather-clad villain said dryly. "I will now inform you that SOME people might be willing to forgive you for stabbing them in the back. Those people are morons. The people who will retaliate when you stab them in the back are the smart ones. Does he look smart to you?" He asked, referring to Acid.
Ineffable had taken an enormous risk touching Scarab. The risk became substantially greater when you factored in the fact that Ineffable foolishly gave Scarab a chance.
Scarab's armor glowed red for a second.
Suddenly all unused power was transfered to a single region, namely, Ineffable's hand. The power was enormous and it probably gave him one hell of a shock. Nothing to dangerous, but if he held on for much longer he'd be in a world of pain.
Even if he retracted though he'd still feel where the unearthly energies had touched his hand. That said, Scarab made his move. Twisting free of Ineffable's grip Scarab hit the floor. Like any good swordsman he took a few steps back from both of his opponents. He had to keep an eye on two people now, something both extremely risky and if he succeeded, very profitable.
He tightened his grip on his blades. He took in one more deep breath. Then he struck. With both elegance and precision he attacked, trying to slash at Ineffable's left side while keeping his other sword in a defensive position near his side.
Post deleted by Mr_Grey
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Wait, isn't Randall back with the others?))
((Ope! My bad... GRHGH...
Nope, I was wrong again. Nothing to see here.))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Now wait a minute, I'm confused...))
"Thanks." was Acid's only remark as he thoughtfully scratched his throat, playing the old game of discerning the last place he'd look for something. Inevitably, said location would be where he'd find it.
In this case, the object in question was of course a flyable ship - which despite now having been narrowed down in location could still be in any number of places. Either way, he was fairly sure Ineffable could handle the inept attacker on his own...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
When Scarab had leapt away from Ineffable, he hadn't seen the results of his little distraction, but upon seeing the Brute, he didn't seem to have been fazed.
"Was nothing. But really, don't tell me you didn't see him coming?" Ineffable responded to Acid.
While speaking, he swatted the incoming blade across its flat side.
If Scarab didn't let go of the blade, he would fall to the ground, as the blade had just performed a full ninety degree angle change, and was now heading for the ground with some force. Additionally, the blade had turned black and now appeared to be steaming.
Ineffable casually followed up blinking out of sight, reappeared behind Scarab, and reaching forward for the stalker at a frightening speed to bring his deadly touch into play.
Scarab felt the sudden weight pressing down on both his arm and his blade as the weapon was flung aside by the brute. Scarab hadn't expected such a defense and was caught rather off guard by the move.
Thankfully his training in ninjisu gave him an edge in this battle. Instincts kicked in and he was able to both dodge the incoming counterattack and regain control of his blade. He did a sort of roll across the floor, his blade clanging against the ground as he did so.
Now the brute may have thought that his dangerous touch could burn through the sword, but that was highly unlikely. The blades had been made in some of the hotest places in the galaxy, and had been perfected through a variety of spells and treatments. They had been refined into almost perfect weapons.
Scarab was less confident about his armor though. He took a few cautious moves away from his opponent, bringing both blades up into a defensive position. His original plan having been dashed to pieces he was already forming a second.
--Portal Corp Courtyard--
Sheldon and his android approached the portal cautiously. He looked back to Ryat66, who nodded that they should continue.
"You're completely certain?" he asked.
Both Unai and Ryat66 shouted "YES!" over the sound of the rotating rings and the singularity.
"Why do I feel like I'm making a big mistake?" Wallace sighed as he turned around and stepped through the portal.
----------
--Jade Moon--
"Okay..." Randall grunted, "I think we've been sittin' on our [butts] long enough. It's time to move. If the portal's up and runnin' again, we may as well head over there and see what's what. If we can get home, so much the better. We can work from there how to get to the Rikti world again. If not, well, I'd rather not wait forever trying to find a spaceship to get back to Rikti Earth. Again, maybe they've cobbled one together out of crashed bombers and we can cram it in there somehow... Or, again, we could find an alternate route through the Shadow Shard... We've got other options available to us now, people, we better get moving."
((YAY! Funk's gone!))
Randall started walking back through the wrecked hallways, picking his way to the entrance room.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Essex watched Sheldon and his androids head through the portal and steeled herself.
"Here goes nothing..." she chirped, biting her lip and skimming through the portal...
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Okay." was Acid's only remark to that, the reptilian's long tail swaying about in characteristic motions of deliberation. If his conclusions had been drawn correctly, he now knew where to find a ship.
First, however, he figured the team topside really should know about this, just in case.
"Listen up a moment, everyone." he spoke into the team's communications channel, "Just wanted to let ya know we've got a hostile down here. The dark guy's taking care of him, but I'm pretty sure he's one of the four that barged past us earlier. Might not be, my memory's never been good, but just be careful anyways..."
--------------------
"Ah, We are gratified to see such a quick response." the voice of Lady Grey greeted the new arrivals, the head of Vanguard standing behind Communications' main console. While not directly in front of the portal, the section sat close enough to the small gateway chamber's entryway to allow for a good view and conversation at normal volume.
The HVAS units that flanked the portal site remained motionless, and aside from the Lady Grey's words the only affirmations of acknowledgement were a few respectful nods from nearby Vanguard operatives.
"One moment." she bade of them as Acid's transmission came in, his words heard most clearly from a hidden speaker in the terminal, the Lady Grey answering with an ordinary, "Understood..."
--------------------
"What do you speak of?" Sah'Teece wanted to know from Randall Grey, "I believe you underestimate the complexity of bridging the multiverse. It took both our and your most experienced minds in the field of gateway travel just to arrive here. The barrier established by Omega Team still stands, and it was not easy to circumvent."
"Agreed." Lk'Onik supported the other Rikti's opinion, and though he'd become coherent again, the Psi-Scout still trembled somewhat from what he'd discovered, "Departing...departing now is simply not an option. We must..."
He quieted down for a moment as the Khelari's voice came over his headset, the transmission audible within Sah'Teece's helmet as well. Responding as guardedly as he could, Lk'Onik reacted by attempting to pick up the ambient thoughts of Ghost or Hammerhead.
This didn't go to say he tried to 'read' their minds. Almost all intelligent creatures' (no matter if they were organic, technological, or otherwise in nature) conscious thoughts streamed into the world around them like waterfalls of sensation. Nearly just as many didn't even know this, humanity included. Beings capable of 'listening in' on this mental scatter could quite literally discern the thoughts of those around them without ever even wandering near their minds.
In addition, such a process could be difficult to guard against. In almost all cases, hiding one's thoughts depended solely on mental discipline and experience, and in all cases it had nothing at all to do with power. If the black-clothed sniper and wrapped man didn't possess this discipline, it wouldn't be any trouble at all for a Psi-Scout like Lk'Onik to pick up on their ambient 'thought leaks'.
If this did indeed fail, however, the Rikti would take a more direct approach and directly attempt to enter their minds to get at the information he sought. Since both these processes could proceed at the speed of thought (in this case, of a Rikti), the time taken couldn't even be consciously measured...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Ineffable didn't burn things. He simply applied immense amounts of force to them. Stone tended to melt, metals also tended to melt, organics usually dissolved into fine powder, and anything else just shattered. Ineffable didn't know why, but he wasn't complaining.
His response to Scarab dodging was quite simple: He vanished.
Two short seconds later, the ceiling caved in and fell on Scarab's head. Or rather, it didn't. Ineffable had taken the smashed in roof from the fight with the Watcher automaton and dropped it on Scarab. The slab in question was over five meters by five meters, and it was already right on top of the stalker. Dodging would be incredulously hard if not downright impossible.
And of course, he still needed to worry about when and where Ineffable would reappear.
Jake yawned and checked the time indicator on his UI. This was going nowhere. They needed to get down to Rikti Earth. That was the only beneficial thing for any faction involved in this to do, at that point. He adjusted his headset and scowled at the pace this operation was going.
Christ... He though. You'd think they'd have some plan of action figured out by now. I mean, how hard is it to find a workable space craf-
[ QUOTE ]
"Listen up a moment, everyone." he spoke into the team's communications channel, "Just wanted to let ya know we've got a hostile down here. The dark guy's taking care of him, but I'm pretty sure he's one of the four that barged past us earlier. Might not be, my memory's never been good, but just be careful anyways..."
[/ QUOTE ]
... Alrighty, that figured... Jake thought, smirking as he realized the irony of things. "Mmkay, do you need us to do anything specific about it? Track down the other three, head back through the portal, anything like that?"
He put his hand to his earpiece and pushed it closer to his ear. The volume on this particular headset seemed to be permanently stuck on 'Low.'
--Jade Moon: Delta Team--
"Pft," Randall didn't seem too perturbed by the Rikti's comments, "Trust me, I've seen enough of history to know that with enough pressure, anything's possible. Still, you've got a point. I don't know how it works. I haven't got the head for it. Still, we should get on to doing something... Unless, of course, you can think of somewhere we can look for a ship."
When the alert came over the channel from Acid Zero, he turned to the new guys and arched an eyebrow. The rest of his face, however, looked decidedly angry.
----------
--Jade Moon: Arrival--
((It's just Sheldon and Ryat66 at this point. Honestly, I forgot to include Cory... I used Ryat99 a little earlier just for some immersion.))
Sheldon nodded to Lady Grey and moved for the nearest Vanguard agent to get his communicator keyed up to their channels. Ryat66 immediately set to wandering, admiring the machinery and the equipment. Upon seeing an HVAS, he made a whistling sound.
"This looks a lot like Ryat Dreadnought! Damn... Too bad about him..."
Cory emerged from the portal shortly after Essex. He shook his head sadly.
"I couldn't convince Mattock to join us, he seems rather dead set on figuring out what happened..."
----------
--Portal Corp Courtyard--
"So!" Matt barked as he wandered up to the technicians surrounding the rifle, "What've you guys learned? I'm itchin' to put someone on the business end of my sword."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Hammerhead and Ghost turned to look at each other.
"Plan B?"
"Plan B."
-------------
HK 48 reappeared out of thin air in between the two HVAS suits.
------------
Scarab barely had time to register Ineffable's disappearance before the ceiling piece came crashing down. He gave a grunt as the slab hit him with amazing force.
He raised both hands to try and stop the concrete from squishing him. He felt his muscles straining against the weight of the object, and he knew he could never hope to keep it up for any long period of time. Instead he tried to tip it over so it fell away from him.
If Ineffable or Acid looked, they would see that Scarab's armor had once again changed color. It was now an ocean blue.
The spell would give him a sort of early warning before his opponent could strike, giving him an edge.
He raised his hand to his headset.
"Plan B."
------------
If the Rikti was still reading his thoughts, he would find that Hammerhead wasn't planning anything, but instead was concentrating on something. A name.
Radiator.
Suddenly the overcoat and the body wrappings burst into flames. Ghost similarly backed away from the Task Force in front of him.
Radiator/Hammerhead looked around the room at the assorted heroes/villains/assorted Vanguard personnel. He decided he'd take his chances.
--------------------
At the exact same time HK 48 made his move. He ran straight for the portal. A pink android exited it, walking directly into his path. 48 sidestepped, running right past Essex.
On his way out he tossed something at her. It was a rather strange object. It was a shiny metallic black sphere with a somewhat devilish smiley face drawn on it.
When she caught it she would hear the device give a beep. The actual purpose of the device wasn't apparent until after 48 had gone through the portal.
A cold hearted metallic voice spoke up. "Hello, this unit's designation is 666, what is yours?"
---------------
Radiator brought both his arms in close to his chest. Anyone in the room with a geiger counter would have found that the glowing green energy swirling around his arms wasn't for show.
Ghost had quite literally vanished, having phase shifted. Whatever it was that Radiator was preparing to do, it didn't look good for those in the makeshift command center...
Scarab's Armor began to give him a warning.
0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 Nanoseconds before the warning had fully registered, Ineffable was swiping at Scarab's legs. The brute had just rematerialized, half buried in the floor. While the stone around him wasn't being obliterated by his mere touch, the air around his hands seemed to shatter as they attempted to clamp onto the stalker's legs and test just how tough that armor really was.
Ineffable seemed completely oblivious to the fact that obliterating the stalker's legs would also mean the slab would crush him-Then again, a teleporter who could become intangible probably never worried much about anything.
"Lie?" Ghost asked indignantly. "I am not lying. We are heroes."
Just in case he was ready to pull a fast one on the heroes, his hidden smoke pellet dropping into the palm of his hand as he said this. Your move sparky