Essex's lower lip stuck out slightly in an involuntary pout, but she shook it off.
"I can handle it." she said, smartly making a 2-point landing on the ground and saluting Lady Grey. "Or else I wouldn't have come."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Excuse me for being a bit paranoid on a hostile moon that I know zilch about," Toy replied a bit testily. "Have you made sure that this automated launch hasn't alerted whatever passes as the authorities around here? I'd hate for you to find a ship for us only to have it blown to smithereens when a Rikti warship comes to investigate."
************************************************
"You don't get much more potent than the Rikti," Solid said, continuing to argue in an amiable tone so as to give no offense. "The only guys who might give them a run for their money is Arachnos or Nemesis. And since Arachnos is kind of holed up in its little island and Nemesis is too busy concocting grand schemes, the Rikti seem to be the greatest threat to our security ever since they invaded in the first place."
Keeping his targetting eye focused Radiator and Ghost, he turned his other eye toward Lady Grey.
"Unless you're talking about something that has yet to hit Earth. Cause if you are, I'd be veeeeeeerrrrrrrry interested to know exactly what that is."
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.
Scarab smiled in response to Ineffable's enormous errror.
The mercenary was standing in the middle of the arcane symbol on the floor of the assembly room. The only apparent diffrence was that his armor was gone. His two blades had somehow been removed from it at the last second, but his battle armor was definately gone. Instead, he was standing around wearing a white tank top shirt and black pants. His two blades were in black sheaths that hadn't been there previously.
It was rather simple really. As soon as his opponent attempted to teleport him away his body bound itself and his swords to the arcane symbol on the floor. His armor didn't fare quite as well, and by now was probably floating around in the vacuum of space.
"That was a little too close." he muttered under his breath. After giving the room a quick looking over he decided to find a quiet place to hide until things blew over.
--------------------
Ghost felt himself suddenly becoming very tired. He almost dropped his gun, something that rarely happened. To add to his problems, he now had a mystical storm following him. Well that just wouldn't do.
Ghost really hated magic. He detested the foul practice. If he had his way, any and all magic users would suffer a fate worse than death.
Ghost's armor was peppered with various blasts from Vanguard wizards. Ghost dived for cover behind several boxes of Vanguard supplies. The only thing that peeked over his cover was his battle rifle. He let loose a volley of enhanced AP rounds upon his Wizard friends. Chances were he'd take down at least one of the magic wielding men and women before having to reload.
Ghost pushed a button on the side of his belt and suddenly an acid mortar appeared beside him. The mortar seemed intent on blasting the Vanguard troopers that were focused on Radiator. A second mortar was summoned, this one on Ghost's other side. The two mortars were shielded by the crates of Vanguard supplies and would make quick work of even Vanguard soldiers.
--------------
Radiator felt the cold around him. He wasn't sure, but he had a hunch it was those mages down there.
Suddenly a plasma bolt hit him in the chest, sending him flying. He went straight down a mostly empty corridor, zooming out of the control room uncontrollably. That was the problem with all this crossfire, one was bound to get hit by at least someone's high level energy blast and sent flying. He came to a rather painful landing at the end of the corridor.
This in a way saved him from the rather unfriendly fire of the Vanguard soldiers, but also left his buddy in the middle of a hostile fire fight.
Ryat66 bolted after Ghost and was nearly smashed by one of the acid mortar grenades. Twirling through the air over the crates, he launched a stream of energy from his chest, guided down his arms and through his hands, only to miss the mortar.
"Damn!" he shouted as he keyed up some energy for his next attack, "this should do it..."
Whirling around the crates again, he fired a short-range but powerful beam that smashed into the mortar he'd missed earlier. Unfortunately, he took two acid grenades to the chest for his trouble.
"OW! PAIN!" he screamed.
----------
Sheldon chuckled as Radiator tumbled through the air. He indicated to one of the nearby... Rikti? Is that right?
In any case, he shouted about how he was heading for that individual and charged up his gravity gauntlets. He wasn't about to let Radiator get away.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
[ QUOTE ]
"And since Arachnos is kind of holed up in its little island and Nemesis is too busy concocting grand schemes, the Rikti seem to be the greatest threat to our security ever since they invaded in the first place."
[/ QUOTE ]
Jake chuckled slightly at this, but gave no other indication that he had overheard their conversation.
"Very well, you are excused." Acid chuckled over Toy's receiver, "And funny you should mention a Rikti warship."
It was true. From the Khelari's point of view, the robotic mastermind's observation seemed very amusing indeed - for nothing else but now ascended silently from the opening in the landing field...
--------------------
Now the Vanguard forces started to get angry. Still, they had to admit that was some armor these guys had on them, what with it being able to take armor-piercing automatic rounds, plasma blasts, ice bolts, and WP shells without them even affecting the wearer in even the slightest negative fashion - the two should've been slowed, numbed, frostbitten, burned, vaporized, and downright liquefied by now.
There was no crossfire, no section of area to be covered. Vanguard's field operatives had been trained as marksmen, and their aim stood true. Yet there these two still were, moving right as rain. They weren't even running for their lives! Fine. They wanted to play rough? They could have it rough. The time had come to fight dirty. If Ghost and Radiator thought the flashbangs had been unfair, they hadn't seen anything yet.
Speaking of, said munitions once more led the sniper's fire greatly astray, the Wizards he tried to gun down moving as blurred silhouettes in his still-swimming vision. Not a single round found its mark. Even if one had, of course, it would've had one hell of a time trying to get through impervium plating.
Luckily for him, the acid launchers were under no such restriction. Their shells struck dead-on, splattering corrosives over the closest two Vanguard positions, irreparably damaging valuable equipment and reducing the structural integrity of personnel armors. Why Ghost expected them to keel over from this, on the other hand, remained a mystery. Impervium wasn't an easily corroded metal to begin with, and even if the acids had penetrated through their suits, the Vanguard operatives would've simply sought cover and swapped the affected uniform pieces out. The sniper would've probably been better off using normal explosives instead.
However, he had chosen acid - and that may well have spelled doom for him now, as a psi-bomb sailed into his cover in a high arc, detonating in a brilliant blast of psionic energies. The shockwave stood strong enough to affect even machines, completely scrambling the targeting systems of both acid mortars, resulting in Ghost's own machines finding themselves a new, closer target: him.
Even worse, in addition to being assaulted by his own vile concoctions, the psi-bomb's blast also carried a good amount of mental force behind it, capable of stunning even respectably strong minds. If this had caught hold of Ghost, it would leave him in a heavily disoriented state for a good while.
And there were still quite a few very angry Vanguard to worry about, just itching to put this pest down. Crack marksmen the lot of them, they wouldn't hesitate to put something through Ghost's skull the moment they got the chance - be it a bullet or a bolt of the arcane arts...
--------------------
Stomping after Radiator now came the duo of HVAS units had had been attached to the right-hand Mechanical sector, the mechanoids having finally detached their maintenance lines a little bit ago.
They weren't as speedy as Sheldon, however, so if Radiator had truly managed to get all the way around the bend and to the end of the corridor, it's take them about ten seconds to get into line of sight and obtain a firing solution.
Once they had, however, (or if he hadn't gotten all the way), he'd better have prayed to whatever deities he may have had faith in for mercy - because the cold machines certainly wouldn't, their programming commanding them to open fire with their plasma cannons in tactical norm.
In contrast to their slow and steady motions came the forms of Sah'Teece and Lk'Onik, the Rikti having understood Sheldon's gesture quite clearly. More than likely, Cher'tak had come with them as well, but whether or not, the two held their own weapons at the ready, planning to do the villain in with truly excessive force. How dare he try and stop them from returning home when they'd come this close?! He would pay...!
--------------------
"Are We to understand you have not been briefed?" the Lady Grey returned to Solid with surprise, and though her expression was that of stone, the mechanoid could discern the disbelief in her eyes quite well, "Or has there been an accident with your memory? 'Lord' Nemesis is, as you put it, "concocting grand schemes" right here and now. That is why we must dispense of these creatons with due speed and return to our search for..."
The Lady Grey suddenly grew very quiet as her gaze shot up to the motion she'd spied through the hole in the ceiling Ineffable had created earlier in the battle with the copy of Devon Wilcox. The stars had vanished from one moment to another, a dark form simply blotting them out.
It didn't take but a few seconds for the same to happen just outside the window gallery at the chamber's other end, a shadow moving across the moonscape with ominous inevitability. However, the larger viewing area also allowed a clear sight of the cause: a Rikti discus ship in the process of moving into position over the facility.
"...a ship." the Lagy Grey finished tonelessly, unsure of how to proceed further. Even she hadn't expected something like this - not to mention what happened next.
A voice crackled from the loudspeakers of the main console in Communications, a few seconds passing before the frequencies had been matched to present a clip and clear, "Hey guys, look what I found. So, yalls still need a ride?"
It was Acid...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Scarab celebrated and planned to soon. Ineffable had spent a grand total of three seconds in orbit. He rematerialized, and he had obviously either seen this coming or just sensed Scarab right before he arrived. The stalker was looking at a fist of disintergrative fury that was rocketing for his face.
Scarab thought he heard something and immediately moved aside.
Quite immediately so it would seem. The stalker had been given various speed enhancers prior to donning his suit in the first place, and as such was far faster than a normal human.
Still, the attack caught him without his weapons drawn and this was quite a disadvantage. He dashed several yards away, unsheathing his weapons as he went.
He flipped over several crates and landed on the ground...and all of this was in less than three seconds after Ineffable had returned.
Rather irritated he turned to face his opponent. "Before we do this whole fighting thing again...I have an offer for you."
((Vapor, you can't just leave everyone else hanging like that. Respond with Radiator and Ghost already or this isn't going to go anywhere. 
))
"Hooooooolyyyyyyy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit........." Toy Dispenser exclaimed as the Rikti warship exited the underground docking facility and started drifting over the research station. "How the hell did you get the codes for that thing?"
As he talked, Toy also thuroughly scanned the ship, searching for any lifesigns. It never hurt to be sure.
******************************************
Solid paused as Lady Grey brought up Nemesis' master plan for the Rikti. He had completely forgotten about that in the excitement of catching the Vanguard leader on something.
"I totally forgot about that," Solid said in a bewildered tone of voice. "Damn all this adware to the darkest depths of an ENIAC system."
Across the room, Cher'tak was advancing alongside Sah'Teece and Lk'Onik as the Rikti and Sheldon chased after Radiator. The Warmaster had his bladerifle held in such a way so as to whip out a melee attack as soon as Radiator came close enough to attack. Knowing that the hero with them was less durable than the assembled Rikti and that he was the toughest out of the three, Cher'tak made sure that he was ready to intercept any attack that Radiator might make. He might have fought against humans in the past, but now that he was working with them for the survival of his very race, he was sure as hell going to make sure none of his new allies died on his watch.
"You are either the most insane or the most brilliant lizard I have ever met," Solid said as he followed Lady Grey's gaze and heard Acid's remark.
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.
No matter how powerful a psi bomb, there was no way the mortar coulld even hit Ghost. That said, he had very little to worry about from them. Instead he clutched at his skull, disorienting pain causing him to fall over.
"Radiator, where the hell is HK 48? I'm....pinned down by Vanguard over here!"
Radiator in turn had his own problems. Rapidly approaching HVAS suits threatened to obliterate him in a rather excessive show of force, and the Rikti weren't far behind with Sheldon.
Radiator took a little long to get up off the ground and it showed in how he turned back. His rocket boots activated and he quickly shot around the corner, pushing his boots to their limits.
Ghost was on his own. In spite of the incredibly powerful psi bomb though, he was able to pull out his last wild card.
He really didn't have that many options to go with in the first place. A firefight would be foolhardy, as Vanguard had numbers and positioning.
At first he thought about running, but this too was flawed. Too much crossfire, and now there were people going after Radiator, so regrouping was still out of the question.
He first thought of making his now very badly damaged acid mortars cut a hole in the ground and then make a get away. Again, flawed, because he doubted the floors here were that easily destructible.
The final idea to hit him was to blow open the window gallery nearby, exposing everyone to the harsh vacuum of space. He decided against such a tactic, mostly becaues he had no way of returning to the ground once he'd gone into space.
His solution came in the form of a sudden flash, followed by a rapidly expanding cloud of smoke.
When the smoke dissipated over thirty seconds later, everyone would find that Ghost had quite literally disappeared.
Anyone with advanced enough targetting systems might have seen Ghost running out of the room under the cover of his cloaking device, but he was too fast, and as such was able to make it out of hte room and into the corridor without encountering any further resistance.
-----------
Radiator kept running. His jet boots propelled him down the corridors at startling speeds.
"Ghost, we need to find Scarab and get out of here. Head for the hangar."
((Edited for the sake of everyone's sanity))
Small Toy was startled when Radiator suddenly flew by overhead. As such, it was unable to deploy it's particle beam rifle in time to open fire.
Although linked to Toy Dispenser's neural net, Small Toy could not know what its brothers had seen without Toy Dispenser clearing the information for dissemination. Since Toy was somewhat distracted in scanning the Rikti warship, he could not offer active assistance to his bots, thus enabling Radiator to get past the little drone quite easily.
But Ghost wasn't as lucky. Small Toy had deployed its sophisticated sensor array instead of its cloaking device and had situated itself in a corner from which it could see both in the direction Radiator had come from and where he had gone. Ghost's cloaking field was good, but battle damage had eroded some of its capabilities and Small Toy's sensors made quick work out of the remaining field.
A new target firmly in sight, the battle drone aimed down the length of the particle beam gun, fused as it was into the drone's right arm, and fired a single bolt at where Ghost's chest should be. While normally Ghost would be able to easily keep going after being hit by such an attack all of the wounds he had recieved by the Vanguard soldiers had most likely degraded his health to such a state that Small Toy could take him down with one or two shots.
******************************************
"Amazing how quickly mortals forget things," Archlich remarked as the snow storm surrounding the invisible Ghost drifted off down the hallway. What Small Toy's sensors had identified as damage to the cloaking field were actually bits of snow impacting the corruptor, creating a thin outline that just about anyone could see.
"He won't get far," stated the lich as he started walking after Ghost to keep the spell in range.
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.
"... Wow..." Was all Jake could say as he gazed upon the awesome sight of a Rikti Warship floating gracefully overhead. "I've gotta remember to give that guy a pat on the back..." He muttered.
Sheldon paused at the corner of the hallway. He just knew Radiator had something prepared for him on the other side. Puling a pistol from the holster in his left breast pocket, he held it out in front of himself. There was a glowing aura wrapped around the weapon and he gestured in a pushing motion.
The pistol floated away, Sheldon holding his gauntlets in a position to keep its flight steady. Aiming the weapon down the hall, he flicked his fingers a couple times, squeezing the trigger and causing the pistol to discharge down the hall after Radiator.
After the fourth shot, Sheldon dove under the pistol and drew a second to aim down the hallway. As Radiator turned, he squeezed off a few rounds of his own, caused his floating pistol to drop down to his right hand, and turned the two weapons on the retreating mercenary.
----
Ryat66 dragged his damaged body away from the Vanguard crates. All over, his armor was pocked and scored by the acid the mortars had launched at him. The machines hadn't fared very well after that, as the combat android had turned its attention solely on the offensive weapons.
Still, damage had been done. Immediately, Ryat66 was wishing he'd switched to his combat armor, but he couldn't do that until the slots were freed up of the bits of metal that had dribbled into them.
Randall took the android in his meaty paws and started carrying him away from the disaster and toward the command group. He wasn't fast enough to go chasing after those treacherous mercenaries, anyway.
"How'd you get here?" he rumbled at the machine that looked like a toy in his hands.
"A bit long a story, sir," Ryat66 replied, "I'm going to engage my emergency repair routines now, so I hope you're not mad if I'm not useful in the next few minutes."
"It'll be alright."
((EDITED... Grumble... Also, you indicated that Radiator turned around, I assumed that meant he was headed back the way he came. Still, it's not like Sheldon's too skilled with a pistol, especially doing the action movie stuff he's doing here...))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Grey...I edited the turrets out. Also, Radiator's kinda just running away from the Vanguard Task Force as fast as possible, so I doubt he would turn around and attack Sheldon, even if he was under fire.))
"Nemesis AND the Rikti." Essex sighed. "This is terrible."
Upon hearing Acid's voice, she brightened considerably. "Sir Acid is helping us?" she chirped. "This is wonderful! But our forces are divided...No matter. We've got to get to the others at some point if we're to present a unified front...I doubt we have the sheer numbers the Rikti command, and that would make managing a multi-fronted battle quite difficult."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Action Replay." came the reply to Toy as the ship stopped dead over the surface-level compound. The robotic mastermind's scans (depending on the quality of Toy's sensors of course) would make out either a duo of very concentrated life signs in the center of the discus or a myriad of spread-out readings over its entire volume.
Alternatively of course, there always existed the possibility that the ship's reactors might have overpowered Toy's inquiry with their scatter emissions, but chances were this wasn't too likely.
In the prime case, however, Toy would have certainly noticed one of the readings suddenly vanish. If he followed up by tracking it, his sensors led him nowhere but...
--------------------
"I am not a lizard." Acid huffed gruffly as he materialized in the ops center now far from Solid Shot, crossing his arms on the matter, "Seriously, I'm not cold-blooded, I definitely don't do the tongue thing, and do I look scaly to you?"
"Another time." the Lady Grey remarked cold as ice, not taking her eyes off the besieged sniper as she answered Essex, "You are quite correct. The situation is grave. However, if we are able to procure factual, irrefutable proof of the truth, We hope the Rikti shall consider us enemies no longer and aid us against that despicable man...machine...whatever."
Or become suicidal.
"Now then," she turned to the Khelari, giving a curt nod upward, "This vessel. It functions?"
"More or less." Acid explained with an unsure gesture, "It'll take some time to train a crew, and without that it's pretty much not flyable right now. But I caught it in final outfitting, so it's got three Drop Ships aboard. We can use those, no problem. And does anyone mind telling me just why there's..."
The reptilian never finished his inquiry, eyes giving a twitch as a sudden flash encompassed the chamber from Ghost's ignited smoke bomb.
Vanguard operatives were at a loss as the sniper went for broke, the hot cloud dense enough to obscure their perceptions. Archlich's storm didn't help in this respect - as it only affected Ghost and nothing but, it remained ineffective against the smoke cloud, allowing the sniper to escape from the chamber.
"Hmph." the Lady Grey growled at the unsatisfying termination of this room's hostilities, then turned to the staff returning to the communications console, "Increase patrols in all sectors under our control. Shoot on sight. Shoot to kill. We cannot afford any more of these interruptions. Then recall Delta team. We need a presence on the planet as quickly as possible..."
--------------------
The HVAS units were dumbfounded as a snow storm that defied the laws of physics suddenly sped past them, their programming not capable of independently discerning this was indeed an enemy. Thus being, they simply kept pursuing Radiator until they lost tracking - which did not take very long. Rocket boots, dangerous as they could be, delivered impressive speeds.
The Rikti, however, (especially Lk'Onik) could certainly differentiate just what came down the corridor there. Blades at the ready, they redirected their efforts unto the escaping sniper.
Well, at least they planned to do so until they perceived a certain small mechanoid lining up a particle beam cannon. Following common sense, they rapidly strove to move out of Small Toy's line of fire, succeeding in throwing themselves out of dangerous airspace just instants before the cannon discharged...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Ineffable completely ignored Scarab and winked out of existence once more.
And reappeared in the space Scarab was currently occupying. He was going to simply make Scarab pop like a baloon by rematerializing inside of him. Either that or just obliterate him from the inside out.
It didn't even matter how fast Scarab was. All Ineffable had to do was perform a minor course correction mid-teleport and he'd wind up inside his target regardless of what evasive manuver it tried to perform.
Back on Earth
HK 48 rematerialized inside a bare recieving chamber.
His head swiveled around and his eyes flared as his sensor suite did a quick scan of the area.
"Query: Where is General Kaos?"
"HK 48, always a pleasure."
The android turned to face the general. "Salutations: Hello meatbag. Query: did you get my message?"
"Indeed, but I'm afraid I don't see how I can help you." Kaos said. The man, in his mid fifties was one of small mercenary team's closest allies, often joining them on contracts too big for them to ordinarily handle. His black and red battle armor nearly blended into the darkness of the room, and his velvet cape gave him a sort of regal look.
"Explanation: my associates are under heavy fire from both Rikti and Vanguard forces. You are the only person with the manpower and equpiment to deal with them."
"You misunderstand my mechanical friend," as the general said this 48 could hear the sounds of gunfire in the distance, followed by a loud explosion and several shouts. "I'm currently under assault by a team of heroes. Normall I'd be able to repel them, but they apparently brought along help. There is no way I can help you with this crisis."
"Plea: Surely there must be something lying around that we can use."
"Hmm. Well I don't see how. I hardly have the resources to even get you back to whence you came."
"Apolegy: I am sorry we have to leave on such terms then General Kaos."
"As am I 48. Perhaps..." he looked down the corridor with a gleam of hope in his eyes, "after this mess is all sorted out, and after I've relocated my base, then I can help you. For now, I suggest you go help your friends."
48 gave no indication that he was upset or that he was even done talking. He just stood there until the team running the teleportation controls in the viewing room above returned him to where he'd come from.
-------------
HK 48 activated his cloaking system immediately after returning to the alleyway. After a few seconds pause for his systems to readjust to the area he began teleporting again.
He arrived at the threshold of the portal seconds later. He quickly stepped across again, emerging on the Jade moon.
Not even stopping to scan the area HK 48 immediately teleported to Radiator's position.
At the same instant he summoned Scarab and Ghost to their position.
Radiator nearly blasted his own teammates when they appeared on his left. "Can't you see I'm in a hurry?"
"Yeah," a frost covered Ghost replied, hastily wiping frost off of his armor. When they had teleported he had left the storm behind.
HK 48 scanned his three comrades. "Statement: The battle did not go well."
"No, it didn't." the normally silent Scarab interjected. "But if we want to live much longer we should move."
"Agreement." 48 chirped.
They disappeared again.
The team reappeared in an isolated room on the far side of the facility.
"This should be a safe hiding place for now."
"Define safe." Ghost quipped, his fingers still gripped around the trigger of his rifle.
"Definition: free from damage, danger etc.; secure."
Ghost turned, and for a second thought of blowing the android's head off.
"It's the head," Solid said in response to Acid's comment. "Looks like a lizard. And the tail. But hey, why would we need a crew when we've got some perfectly good androids right here? Just point us to where we can download the flight manual and then hold onto your socks."
****************************************
Small Toy's IFF system was linked directly to its particle rifle. If a friendly wandered across the sights at the exact same moment Small Toy triggered the rifle, the beam would not fire. As such, Cher'tak and the other Rikti had no need to dive out of the way. Not that they knew this, of course.
In any case, Small Toy's aim was moot as Ghost was teleported away a milisecond before the beam hit him. Instead it flashed through the air and drilled a hole the size of a button into the ceiling of the corridor. An emergency shield shimmered into place before much atmosphere could be lost, though the loud hissing of impending decompression probably unnerved anyone who had heard it.
"My apoligies," Small Toy said as the rifle folded back up into it's handless arm form. "You were perfectly safe, though the sudden disappearance of my target was unexpected."
Cher'tak looked over at Small Toy from where he had pressed himself up against the wall and mentally sighed.
"Return: Main group: Best course," the Warmaster said, having recognized the tell-tale sound of a teleport when Ghost vanished.
************************************
"You have a friend in there still, Acid?" Toy asked over the team link. "Since aside from the passive life signs of Rikti tech I see one other living thing in that ship. I think we've got ourselves a ride."
As he was saying this, Acid would be recieving a short message from whatever system he used to communicate over the team link indicating that Toy Dispenser was requesting a teleport.
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.
Essex bit her lip. So they were considering opening diplomatic relations with the Rikti...
"...I wonder if I've still got it." she murmured to herself. Tilting her head quizzically, she made a thoughtful face. "Okay. So our priority is finding proof that we should work together against a common enemy. Where do we start?"
Sighing, the little android rubbed her head. She wished she'd remembered the briefing from earlier. Stupid freakshow electricity...
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
((I could have sworn I typed a response here...))
Sheldon pushed himself off the floor. He was disappointed that the assailant had got away, but that was beyond his control now. He turned to the Rikti and the nearby android and nodded accordingly. Looking at the Rikti again, he almost did a double-take.
"Oh! Lk'Onik and Sah-Teece! I'm sorry for my momentary hesitation earlier... At first I wasn't sure whether to place my trust with your assistance... I mean, I've heard of the negotiations with the Traditionalists, but I never once believed I'd be working with them. It's an honor. It truly is."
He started replacing his weapons to their holsters as well as restocking their ammunition.
"I had a bit of a situation a while back," he muttered, "Since then, I've learned never to doubt even the most mundane of weaponry... These may not compare to my Gravity Gauntlets, but they're really useful in a pinch. I'm going to head back for the command center and see what's going on now... Perhaps there's something more productive I can be doing than just chasing lunatics who stubbornly refuse to be caught."
----------
Ryat66 pushed himself out of Randall's massive hands. His repair routine was almost completed, much of his internal structure was back in shape and now he just had to focus his attention to his surface plating. A thin silvery ooze leaked out of the multitudinous cracks and seams in his body, spread out (thinning as it did so) and poured into the various pits and scars left by Ghost's acid weaponry. There was a light crackling sound as the nanites used their own material to repair the damage.
"I'm going to need to request to use some of the steel in that pocket dimension Sheldon uses for construction projects," Ryat66 murmured as he examined his health status, "There we go! One hundred percent... And, as an added bonus..."
He arched back like a blaster charging up, but instead a series of pops, whirs and clangs echoed through the Command Center. Suddenly, Ryat66 was wrapped in a dark-red and gold combat armor. He admired himself for a second before warbling a happy note.
"I should be able to weather a storm like that now."
"Good to hear," Randall grunted, "I'd still like the story behind why you're here when you should be back home, but that can wait."
He walked over to the task force commander before sitting heavily on a crate.
"Lady Grey. I trust that warship I'm seeing out there is supposed to be our ride to the surface... What do we need to get started?"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Ineffable slowly rematerialized by the Lady Grey, muttering something about sockpiles of oranges.
"Aside from the Rikti ship I just noticed, is there anything important I missed?" He asked in an annoyed voice
"A little skirmish, nothing more." Jake replied to Ineffable as he overheard his inquiry, brushing a bit of imaginary dust off of his trenchcoat.
Ineffable lost his patience. He had come to a conclusion.
Either his opponent's armor was completely indestructable, or he was a higher being in physical form. In either case, Ineffable did not have time to sit there and kill Scarab slowly. So he went directly to plan B.
Ineffable with Scarab still wrapped in a Bear-hug, vanished.
-----
And they both promptly reappeared hovering about five miles above the surface of the Jade Moon. The last clear look of Ineffable Scarab got was during the spin of being whirled about and then chucked into space. The sheer velocity he had was staggering, he broke both the planet's gravity and the moon's. Scarab now rocketed into deep space, with no available breaks anywhere in sight.
He could boost his strength as much as he liked. Here in space, with zero traction, he couldn't do anything except travel in the direction he was thrown.
Even if he somehow recovered from the attack, he couldn't rejoin the battle. That far away from the surface at the speed he was going, the Moon was going to be out of his trajectory by a good few thousand kilometers. Attempting to return would just result in his fiery impact on the planet.
And, of course, that was all assuming Scarab could survive the vacuum of space, and the severe cold which was over three hundred degrees below zero.
Ineffable did not appear to be impeded by either of those enviromental problems. After throwing Scarab, he simply blinked out of existence.