General Kaos' Lair
Jack 7 took a few moments to survey the room. He wondered why General Kaos had chosen the emergency armory as the place for his last stand. The four man assault team had been careful to try and bottle the villain into his command center, but he apparently had already made his escape to the armory. Why hadn't he just run down to the teleport chamber and left the facility?
Jack 7 kept his grip on his assault rifle, white smoke still billowing out of the barrel like a cigarette. His three associates made similar sweeps of the room. When everything had been secured Jack walked over to Kaos.
Jack checked the shoulder strap of his weapon and then released his grip on it, letting it hang off his shoulder, occasionally bumping into his side as he moved. He bent down and grabbed hold of Kaos, wrapping his fingers around the collar of the other man's clothes. "Wake up Kaos." He said in a threatening undertone. When Kaos failed to respond he slapped the man across the face.
Kaos' head drooped to his side. His cheek burned, and the place where the beanbag round had hit him still was sore, but he was able to sit up a little. "Ahhh, Jack 7, always a pleasure." he sarcastically spat.
"Jack," a metallic voice called from down the hall, "the teleporter is fully charged. I ran a check of the log, looks like HK 48 was here right before we stormed the control room."
Jack gave a grim smile. "Mind explaining what HK 48 was doing here?"
Kaos gave a weak smile back. "48? He was hitting me up for some supplies. Said something about the Vanguard Task force and the Rikti Homeworld. I told him I couldn't help him and he left."
A thought struck Jack, making him forget about Kaos for a moment. He'd been briefed by one of his contacts in Vanguard about the task force. He'd turned the offer to join the task force down so he could finish up business here, but had promised to help out if time allowed it. He had no idea what HK 48 was doing on the Rikti Homeworld, but it couldn't be good.
"I'll tell you what Kaos, you get to wait here for the Longbow cleanup crew while I go pay your friends a visit. Take care now." With that he suddenly lashed out with a viscious punch to the face that knocked Kaos out again.
"Okay...FX, you set the teleport system up to take us to wherever it was HK 48 went. Phantom, call up the Longbow guys and tell them the place is all clear."
--------------
Peregrine Island, Five minutes later....
"Okay, we're less than a mile from the Portal Corps building. Let's see if we can't find us an android."
Jack lead the four man team in a run for the security checkpoint. Once there Jack walked over to the window where the Freedom Corps guard was. "Hey, have you seen this guy before?" He held a picture of none other than HK 48 up to the window, a look of grave concern on his face.
Essex ceased her efforts to filter the air upon being assured that it wasn't poisonous. Still, though, her eyes widened upon seeing the pillar of flame.
"Wo-ow..." she barely breathed, taking in the sight.
When Sah'Teece translated the script, she narrowed her eyes slightly at the inscription. Essex loved protocol, and had made it her personal goal to learn as many languages as possible...and so she set to learning the Rikti written language as best she could. Nonetheless, looking at everything, it all seemed so dire...
"...I hope this is where I'm supposed to be." she worried aloud. "This situation is more important than many of the ones I've dealt with before. I...I hope you guys will tell me what to do."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Negative." Acid voiced his protest with calm tone, the reptilian's gaze not straying from the path for even a split second, "And you'll know as soon as I know."
He stopped for a moment at the tower's entryway, seeming unsure whether to proceed. In truth, he endeavored to find any trap his mind could presently conceive, but again to no avail. There simply wasn't anything sinister hiding in the shadows - and that made Acid most apprehensive of all. There should have been something there!
After all, if this location was so perfect - so isolated, forgotten, and generally unimportant - and they had come to claim it, it stood to reason that nothing at all prevented Nemesis from doing the very same thing. Worse yet, the guy had gotten a good deal more time to play with than they had; he had quite the considerable head start.
Due frustration therefore abound. Nemesis wasn't one to forego the usefulness of traps, so where were they? All that Acid could see were aged spots and smears upon the finely crafted, if timeworn masonry of the trapezoidal entryway's walls and floor, and those certainly didn't look very fiendish.
The smell of one, however, told a vastly different tale.
The second the Khelari had stepped out of the rain into the corridor, the stench of death hung thick enough in the air to drive just about any predator's senses to high alert. One of the rust-brown smears on the floor seemed to grab Acid's attention in particular, the viscous puddle about the size of a human hand the largest of its kind about, tucked against the junction line of wall and floor in some form of niche right at the wide hallways beginnings, the entryways far extremity.
The reptilian inched closer to the thing, sniffing the air repeatedly to confirm this was indeed where the trail led. His head hovered close for a few moments, followed by the quickest means of analysis Acid had at his disposal - he licked the floor.
Dragging his long tongue through the puddle, he didn't wait for anyone's commentary, instead telling them what anyone with a spectrograph of some other means of molecular material analysis would stand to discover right about now, "Blood. Human. Adult male. Can't be more than a day old. State of high stress, but not fear. More like...shame. Like he felt he'd done something unforgivable..."
--------------------
Whether crazy, stupid, or anything else, the motorcycle's rider would find his vehicle at a dead stop no more than a hundred meters out to sea - unless of course the vehicle decided to arrange a sudden dive, in which case said rider would find himself at mentioned dead stop on the ocean floor. The water wasn't too deep this relatively close to shore, but this fish or that crab may have certainly given the man and bike a funny eye.
Be what may, however, it seemed the trial ended here. The place was a dead end. Whoever had driven the odd Ferrari seemed to value his privacy a great deal, and had taken deft precautions. Matt's attempt to trail the vehicle wouldn't be going anywhere...
--------------------
"Lost in translation." Acid replied to Sheldon with an opening of his hand, the gesture to convey roughly the same significance as a shrug, "Your words suggested you believed there to be only one engine. I'm not a telepath yet, you know - and English is certainly not my first language, heh. You do need to speak clearly with me."
"Taking that aside," he continued with a toothy grin, "what makes you think anything's not working? This thing just came out of the factory. Literally zero mileage. Got that new ship smell and everything. It's in prime shape. The shields are down because I left them off, not because they're busted. Not sure where you got that idea from."
"In any case, I'm not really sure where to put you at this point." the reptilian admitted, his long tail forming a curl of indistinct purpose for a moment, "Like I said, everything to do with ship movement's run form the bridge or fire control. The stuff in the reactors is manual backup and maintenance, which I'd just planned on getting a few technical personnel to keep an eye on if we had any to spare. Or do you do anything aside from engineering? Astrogation, piloting, detection, communication, gunnery, security, psychology of artificial beings...?"
--------------------
A pair of heavy plates ground apart without so much as the slightest noise, the near-vacuum about robbing the environment of the ability to carry the airlock's cycle sound. Likewise, the HVAS unit that now stepped from the open exterior door moved silent as death itself despite its mass and bulk.
The machine's systems ran diagnostics on and again. The frigid temperatures and harsh solar radiation meant it couldn't last for extended periods out here without its materials starting to break down. Nevertheless, calculations suggested malfunctions wouldn't begin to manifest for a tolerable span of time. The mechanoid's processor gave the all clear to proceed.
Slowly but surely, the bulky machine pursued a path to the provided coordinates, its mission to approach close enough to the undead sorcerer's last known position and relay anything it observed.
Still, Archlich had been quite accurate in his calculations - its sluggish pace would most likely prevent the machine from getting there in any amount of time even close to what the ritual necessitated. The undead sorcerer may have just as well had all the time in the world; for a respectable stretch, he could pry across the planes unobserved by Vanguard whenever he wished so...
--------------------
"Yeah," the Longbow soldier replied calmly as he observed the gate camera turning at the arrivals to inspect the four. Since the last quartet had been exposed, the security personnel had naturally tightened everything up a bit. Yet another group of four of course drew due suspicion, "what of it?"
The optical lens now zoomed to get a clearer picture of the newcomers, mustering each closely in order to produce images of sufficient quality for any future comparisons. What did they look like...?
--------------------
A dull sound of thunder.
Port shield generator damaged. Rerouting power.
All about seemed to bob and weave.
Communications nodes have been destroyed. Contact with the fleet has been lost.
Another impact.
Port shields are down. Increasing concentration of anti-fighter weapons fire in affected areas.
The tremors returned, steadily worsening.
Intruder alert. Sealing all non-critical areas. All personnel, retreat to secure areas immediately.
People shouted in all tongues. Chaos raged.
Hostile weapons fire detected in Deck Alpha transit hall. Automatic security response initiated. Security team to Deck Alpha transit hall.
Darkness consumed all.
He awoke with a start, tearing the rags from his face. A transparent ceiling peeled itself from his blurred vision, the large curve of canopy overhead allowing the full starscape outside to his view with no trouble at all. The cockpit lay in shadow, not permitting view of much else.
"Linear maneuver terminated." a soft female voice announced as he felt his back lifted from behind, the seat that conformed to his bodily contours raising itself into a somewhat more vertical position, "Stealth mode engaged. Diagnostic completed. Deactivating automatic pilot."
"Nav system initiated." the voice continued as panel after panel ahead came to life in iridescence of varied blues, touchscreens representing all manner of controls and instruments appearing on formerly black slates once more, the low level of light at least returning shape to the cockpit, "Command interface enabled. Requesting new heading."
New heading? What was going on here? Where was he? And why did his head hurt?
No, scratch that. The last one he knew. The first officer had clubbed him with his own command chair. Then a pair of engineering crew had wrapped their tentacles around him and carried him off.
A clawed, four-fingered fist rammed itself forcefully into the port console, but to no effect aside from a twinge of pain and a slight vent of frustration. It figured. It truly did. When would he finally learn to make people swear an oath of loyalty or something? Maybe then those morons would stop taking the damn beam!
Okay, calm down. First of all, there's still a chance they made it out of there. And if they didn't, I can't just smash their work by doing something stupid now. Have to think logically.
More than likely, someone had just punched some random coordinates into the autopilot and set it to go. Considering the command interface had been disabled until just now, they'd wanted to make doubly sure he couldn't turn around once he freed himself. That also meant the flight systems had been flying on sight, not keeping track of the ship's actual position. He'd have to reacquire it.
Very well, that wasn't so tough. A few taps upon the navigation screens, and periwinkle and cerulean symbol groups already rearranged themselves on Prussian blue templates, the boardpositronic calculating its new position. It didn't take but a few seconds to spit out a result.
"Lotron system." the positronic had fished from the old Arcon star catalogues, "Displaying position."
A projection of the system popped into view on the HUD, snow-white lines illustrating the orbits of eight full-color planets circling a small, yellow sun. However, it was the third planet that truly caught his eye - its presence coupled with the asteroid belt and ring system about the sixth planet left almost no doubt.
Still, it would've been an astronomical coincidence. He had to be sure.
"Course laid in." the mainframe stated as the ship's engines came to life with a dull roar through the aft bulkhead and the visible starscape rotated, the ship assuming the new heading only moments after the first few taps upon the command console. To his great surprise, the third planets rounding came into view almost immediately. Hed been even closer than hed thought, Ship reorientation complete. Orbit status: stable.
"Scan initiated." came the prompt reply to the entered instructions, an oscillogram fluttering across the HUD instead of the system chart now, odd tones and voices mingling with cosmic background noise. It sounded horribly mangled, but luckily his ears wouldn't have to differentiate anything. That was the machine's job.
"Positive match." said system concluded against expectations, displaying its findings in textual form, "Search term 'Acid Zero' is present on multiple counts."
Hah! So this was the system that nonconformist punk had told him about. There Acid was, and in a live transmission too. Excellent. Now all he had to do was...
"Warning - hostile ship approaching." the positronic stated with a calm only a machine could convey such a troubling observation with. It identified the type shortly after, and he knew the pilot only too well.
Luckily, or so it seemed, his pursuer's sensors failed miserably at his own ship's stealth functions, instead rushing past and directly for the planet. He almost let out a chuckle.
Then he realized there wasn't anything to laugh about.
The text on the HUD practically stung into his eye as he realized his pursuer had no doubt picked up on the very same transmission. This had just become a race against time...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
--Jade Moon: Rikti Ship--
"Okay... Okay."
Sheldon sighed.
"I get it now. My mistake was leading you to think that I thought... Never mind, we're wasting time arguing like this, and we don't seem to understand just what the problem is. Just take me to..."
He looked at the lettering on the wall. Some of the symbols and words were new, and he couldn't translate them. Others filled gaps and holes in words he'd learned from the wreckages he helped salvage in the aftermath of the last war. Again, Sheldon silently cursed himself for not working more on that linguistics program for his lenses, but he made do. He pointed to the equivalent of a hatch down the hall.
"I'll take the console in that chamber, then. I'll monitor the systems in this sector."
----------
--Rikti Earth: The Forgotten Sanctuary--
Randall grunted when the smell hit his nose. Death. When Acid conducted his own investigation and explained the situation, he frowned and reached into his jacket.
"Here," he handed over his flask, "It'll wash out the taste in your mouth."
"Are you alright, Mister Zero?" Ryat66 asked, "You seem to be a little out of sorts... Not that I know your normal behavior, but you seemed so in control of yourself before we landed, and now you appear to be suffering from some form of stress anxiety..."
"It's trouble in the air, Sixty-six," Randall explained, "I can feel it in my bones, too."
"And this place is supposed to be abandoned," Cory whispered, thumbing his trench coat nervously, "Be on the lookout... For brass..."
"Brass," the android chirped and his visor flashed red briefly before returning to green.
His systems were now seeking copper and zinc.
----------
--Peregrine Island: Offshore--
"Well, that was uneventful," Matt grumbled as the bike floated in the middle of the bay.
It was still running, still making bizarre sounds as its exhaust burbled through the water. The sound of a jet engine caught Matt's attention and he looked up to see a familiar face looking down at him.
"What are you doin' all the way out here?" Psycho13 shouted from his Sky Skiff-turned-Hoverbike, "And how does that thing float?"
"Pure will, I guess," Matt barked back, "What're you up to?"
"Trollin' for Raiders," the other scrapper replied, "You didn't answer my first question."
"Hey," Matt grunted, "I'm after someone, and I guess they went down there..."
"So what're you doing up here?" Baker chuckled.
"Good question," Matt took a couple deep breaths, "I sure hope it doesn't get too deep, I don't know if I can keep control of this baby!"
McGinty revved the engine a couple times and took another couple deep breaths. His nerves calmed, he took one last deep breath and held it. Leaning forward, the motorcycle started to dive, burning a path through the water like some sort of boiler.
Psycho13 watched his friend sink under the waves for a moment. When the katana wielding mad man was gone and the only trace of his passing was the tell-tale bubbling at the surface.
"Man, you won't ever see me do something like-" he felt a tap on his shoulder, "GAH!"
"Calm down, Psych," Ryat99 intoned, "Did Mattock just do what I think he did?"
"Yeah. He sure is nuts..."
Ryat99 was staring into the water, his sensors tracking his ally. Calculations rattled through the android's head, measuring Matt's excitement rating ("extremely high" as opposed to his normal "very high") to average human health capabilities.
"Whatever he's after, I don't think he's going to make it," the android muttered, "Not without help."
"What kind of help?"
Ryat99 looked to the practical jet engine the scrapper sat on.
"No!" Psycho13 shouted as he hugged the vehicle, "It's my baby! I don't know what a dive like that will do!"
-----
Below the waves, Matt was passing out. He eased some of the air out of his lungs, and some more was pushed out by the mounting pressure. It had been a bad idea from the start, but he wasn't about to give up... Something bad was happening and he... and he... and...
As the world went black he could have sworn he saw a bright, shining blue...
-----
Ryat99 pushed the ice ball deeper and deeper. It was difficult, especially when the surrounding pressure continued to crack and break the ice. The second problem was easily fixed by applying more ice. Inside, Matt was recovering from his initial dive. The android was certain of it, as he could feel the rhythmic vibrations of the scrapper's breathing.
"Next time," he reverberated through the ball, "I suggest you rent a sub, or at least a SCUBA suit."
"Just get me where we need to go! It should be straight down!"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
The Lonbgow guard should have immediately recognized two of the group members from his various security briefings.
Jack 7, the leader of the group was a level 50 blaster of scientific origins. Jack had a rather good reputation with both Longbow and Vanguard, having worked closely with both organizations in the past. Jack was a highly respected marksman, and an excellent overall soldier, though one wouldn't expect that based on his appearance. Jack wore a big brown trenchcoat over his black flack jacket and pants. He had a matching brown fedora and black sunglasses, and a well trimmed beard.
Static Therapy, another guy that was well known by Longbow, was a former hero. Static had been on the run from the law ever since an event dating back to shortly after the Rikti war. Since then, he had been given a temporary hero license and had rejoined his former partner Jack 7 in Paragon City. Static wore red battle armor with black pads and a sleek black helmet. His black cape sort of dragged against the street below him, concealing various panels on his armor.
The other two were relatively unknown. One of them was a guy in grey armor with black stripes and a helmet that looked like the decapitated head of some alien creature that had been grafted onto some metal. It even had two horns that curved downward and ran about the length of his face. The other one was clad in grey ExoProto armor with blue lining and a velvet cape. If he checked his computer records the Longbow guard would see that the guy with the alien skull was a scrapper by the name of Phantom Paragon and the other one was FX 101, a controller-type hero.
Jack 7 pointed at the picture. "When did you last see this guy? We've recieved a tip from a reliable source that he may be trying to compromise the Task Force's mission to the Rikti homeworld."
"Well, if that's what you want..." Acid left the statement open with a slight shrug of his shoulders, hand closest to Sheldon expanding its clawed fingers in a helpless gesture. With Wallace having been unforthcoming about his expertise, the reptilian thought it best to just leave the man up to his own devices.
Still, if the inventor's distinguishing qualities with respect to this ship lay in the fields of propulsion machinery, his mind may have been crossed by the thought that he'd probably be very useful coordinating the distribution of power production from the bridge. If thus be, the Khelari would certainly agree, even as he already made his way to an elevator...
--------------------
"Perceptive, aren't we?" Acid returned to the Ryat unit with a sarcastic smirk of teeth while waving off Randall's flask. Unlike humans, the Khelari had never left the predatory path of their ancestors. While to Randall the thought of hunting down one's dinner might have been appalling, to the reptilian it was perfectly natural, akin to making a beer run at the local store. A good few species had perceived them as not quite right in the head due to this behavior - a technologically and sociologically highly advanced people rending live prey apart with their bare claws was seen as strange not only by human standards - one more reason why so many had been fervent to avoid the Khelari.
"Thanks, but I don't much care for alcohol." Acid opted to tell Grey instead of the whole story, continuing with his answer to Ryat66, "Yeak, no kidding I'm on edge. By all accounts, Nemmy's goons should be here, a dozen traps should've gone off by now, and I should already be complaining and calling snipers inconsiderate jerks again. So unless this blood here's fake, which it pretty much can't be - I like to shore the delusion that I'm an expert when it comes to this kind of stuff - that means there's a very good reason we haven't already been ambushed. What's upsetting me here is that I can't see that reason."
Unvocalized and however slim, there of course existed the possibility that Nemesis didn't have anything to do with this at all - but Acid wasn't about to believe it was all mere coincidence. Even if Ryat66 informed him that his sensors weren't picking up anything more than normal levels of copper and zinc in the materials that composed the tower (and certainly not in the form of brass), the reptilian stood convinced that the strategic worth of this location would be too great for Nemesis to not occupy.
Still, there seemed to be no trace of the brassen Lord or his army. Indeed, if the Ryat unit's sensors could detect so, he would arrive at the notion that the place was too clean. There existed an almost too distinct lack of evidence - but not by much. The android needed to be very thorough indeed to take note.
Be what may, however, the expected ambush certainly wasn't very forthcoming, the light patter of rain outside the only ambience about. The trapezoidal corridor stood wide, tall, and empty, luminescent bodies on walls and ceiling casting their yellow light about as they had for centuries; never ceasing, never changing.
The hall led on for a bit, then split into three paths at right angles to one another. Ahead, anyone who cared to look could already see that the straight path led outside again, to the other end of the mountain that held the landing area and its tower. Through the thin viel of water, other towers and bridge-like structures were somewhat visible, the water's light haze obscuring details for now. In contrast, the ways that branched left and right became ramps that ascended at a modest angle, then curved at some point afterward. Still, they seemed to lead outside again as well, for the soft sound of falling rain could be heard coming from there also.
Acid may still have stood over the spot of half-dried blood, but by the look of the reptilian, he'd be ready to move on once someone felled a decision that concerned which way to proceed...
--------------------
Regretfully, the efforts of the heroic underwater expedition were in vain. The trail ended here, this was a fact. It stood to reason that whoever had driven the Ferrari had been extremely thorough in either transporting it away while not leaving a trace, or alternately getting rid of the thing via destruction with much of the same.
In any case, this particular track wasn't going anywhere, despite the sensitive nose of Matt's motorcycle and the technology at the group's disposal. They were up against someone very smart and thorough, able to anticipate just about any possible action of theirs...or they faced a victim of extreme paranoia.
However, that could well have been a clue in itself. After all, wasn't there an organization around whose collective paranoia meters could go through the roof by nothing more than a misplaced shipping label...?
--------------------
"Tried and failed." a calm, serious voice from behind pre-empted the response of the Longbow soldier. Chances were the four heroes had very well noticed the approach, but paid no mind to the PPD car that head meanwhile pulled up to the gate.
The vehicle's passenger window had been rolled down, allowing the owner of the voice to both hear and speak freely with others outside as the car slowed to a stop. Now that its motion had ceased, however, it didn't take but a few moments for the door to pop open and the sole of a thick, obsidian-blue boot trimmed in navajo white to tap the asphalt.
A second boot soon set down beside the first, and its owner didn't hesitate to follow, acting neither with nor without due haste as he rose from his seat. All in all, the man stood a little less than two meters tall, clad in a semi-oriental assembly of shaded white and the same obsidian blue, the two hues alternating on the pants of some manner of uniform.
A cloth belt of white wrapped around the waist, where the mostly blue baggy clothing of the torso ended, a single bandolier of cloth wrapping about from shoulder to abdomen's side. The sleeves were white once more, shoulders and upper arms protected by what could have been the armor of a Samurai. The distinct no ichi style carried seamlessly to the gloves about hands and lower arms, once more a mixture of obsidian blue and darkened white.
A long, white cape wrapped thickly about the man and over his shoulders, leading gently into a large reaper cloth that hid the lower half of his face. Round glasses that carried the crimson hue of blood obscured his eyes behind opaque lenses, though a portion of the tri-scar that ran into the right eye and across much of that half of his face stood rather hard to miss.
"Thanks for the ride." the man told his unseen driver - hidden by the mirrored exterior of the car windows - with a cool and collected tone, sounding somewhat like a mixture between a lawyer and surfer bum, then shut the door again. However, the car did not yet depart...
((And if the description wasn't vivid enough, here's a shot from "A Redcap Stole my Kitchen!" 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
--Peregrine Island--
"I'm not finding anything," Ryat99 echoed through the ice ball he held Matt inside, "And we've hit bottom. We need to surface soon, my armor's not gonna be able to take this pressure much longer."
"What about wheel tracks?" Matt shouted, half expecting the android not to answer.
"They'd have washed away long before now," the android replied, "And I'm scanning, sonar and El-Ee-Dee lighted, but I'm not seeing anything."
"Then what the Hell..." Matt stopped, "Oh damn... It was floating! Just like my bike! They picked it up with a helicopter!"
"Are we through with this? I need to get you to the hospital, you have to be treated for decompression..."
"There's no time!" Matt shouted, "Let's move, man, move!"
"Mattock, it's over."
McGinty could feel a sensation akin to an elevator rising.
"Hey, how can I breath in here?"
"I put the water through a desalination process and pump the oxygen I get from boiling it to you," the android replied, "It should have made you light-headed, but then again, humans don't breathe very efficiently."
"Right..." Matt sat down and looked to his mystic motorcycle, "Man... I am getting you a tune-up, and I'm feeding you nothing but the best oil and gas... Premium all the way."
"Your attachment to your abomination notwithstanding, There is simply nothing else for us to go on here," Ryat99 pulled them into the surface and started cutting away the top half of the dome, "How are you feeling?"
"Pretty okay, man. You kept that thing pressurized... I'm... I'm feeling fine."
"Alright... Well, what do you want to do?"
Matt sighed. Ryat99 was right. They had nothing more to go on.
"I'm... I'm gonna start riding for a while... Maybe check out a couple precincts and see if they've got any information on that voice..."
"That's not likely," Ryat99 intoned.
"Look... Think maybe you can go back to Portal Corp, see if you can get the information we got out of that rifle-mike? I'll... I'll go see that guy Cobalt Black told me about... I think he's..."
Matt looked in the direction of the gigantic female statue.
"There..."
"I'll see what I can do about getting the information," Ryat99 rumbled as he started flying away, "You sure you've got this?"
"Hey, we're dealing with somebody extremely paranoid, and I need the help of someone just as far gone. If Aaron was right, this guy should be able to help me find some of the most freakishly paranoid lunatics anywhere they might be hiding."
"Well, good luck with that," Ryat99 stated before flying back toward the Portal Corp command and control for the operation.
Matt revved his bike to life and started making his way for the gigantic statue and the mysterious secret agent known only as Crimson.
----------
--Jade Moon: The Rikti Ship--
"Unless you can think of a better position," Sheldon replied as he made his way for the opposite door, "At least you won't have to deposit an entire crew here... besides, I don't think I would be well-suited for fire control or the bridge... Look... Acid... I helped the United States Army reconstruct and reverse engineer a lot of the Rikti technology left over from the last war. I know how it works, but you're right. It would be unwise to leave the entire workings of a ship of this size to one individual. Besides, with the importance this ship has to the success of the mission, it would be unfeasible. Here, I can monitor the goings-on of this sector and you can better shunt the manpower that would have otherwise been placed here to better endeavors. We're looking at nearly twenty skilled people who can be used to a much more strategic advantage. Furthermore, since I've had my fill of Rikti technology, you don't have to worry about me trying to dissassemble, scrutinize, or otherwise compromise the integrity of my station. I'm sorry we're having this... this... misunderstanding. I'm certain you're just trying to find the best place for me, but I figure this is probably going to be it."
----------
--Rikti Earth: The Forgotten Sanctuary--
Randall still held the flask out to Acid.
"What makes you think I drink on the job? It's not good for Pee-Arr... This is water. I like the flask, it holds a lot, almost a canteen's worth."
Ryat66 scanned about but, seeing his boss was otherwise occupied, turned to Cory and shrugged.
"I'm not getting anything. There's no elements of Zinc and Copper combined... So no Brass. There's some Zinc here, some Copper there... But not nearly enough to say that this place was occupied."
"How... Unusual," Cory whispered, "If only I had some scrying enchantments or incantations memorized... I've been relying so heavily on normal detective work..."
"Isn't that better, though?" the android asked, "I thought only tangible, deduced information could be used in a court of law... Sometimes induced, but that tends to violate 'innocent until proven guilty.'"
"True, it helps for a court of law... But it doesn't help us here, where the law can't, and won't, help us," Cory looked about nervously, still sensing something foreboding in the air, "I'm starting to wish we brought more backup..."
"What if the Brass King's soldiers were here, and something killed them all?" Ryat66 offered.
Cory looked down at the android. His face was a mask of shock.
"It did this and left little to no trace of either side? But this blood stain..." Simmons poked Randall on the shoulder, "We should be leaving. Now."
"Where?" Randall grunted over his shoulder, "I don't think we're done here."
"It doesn't matter," the warlock replied, "We're in danger here, regardless of how safe it looks. It looks and feels like a trap, and it most certainly is not a duck."
"Alright," Randall pointed down the way they'd been heading, "Think that will be fine?"
"Anywhere is better than here," Cortland was near-hyperventilating, "We just need to get moving!"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"Oh calm down." Ineffable said in an annoyed voice. "Slow and steady might not always win the race, but at least it never wound up splattered against the wall. There is a chance, as slim as it seems, that not every last fork we come across is going to be trapped or lead to traps."
He then raised an eyebrow.
"And after tackling a Nemesis Warhorse and a Dark Watcher automaton, do you really think there is any one entity down here that can challange us? Unless you missed them with your scan, Ryat, we should be safe enough for the moment."
He folded his arms and looked at Acid.
"Now pardon my short attention span, but what exactly was our plan when we first got here again?"
The small quartet of meta humans stared intently at the new arrival.
Jack 7 was the first one to say anything though. "And just who might you be?" he asked in a somewhat irritated, but polite tone.
OOC: Stop making the thread go "BRRZZZZT", DV. D:<
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.
"Set up a base of operations before Lady Grey and the rest of the Vanguard troops arrived," Randall grunted to Ineffable, "Push out hostiles, defend from said hostiles, and try not to get killed in the process."
"That last one's easy for me!" Ryat66 chirped, "And no, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary... As far as ordinary goes here."
Simmons sighed as he shook his head.
"You may not see the danger here, but not everybody can weather damage as well as you can."
"In his defense, we did come out of one Hell of a fight up there," Randall grunted, "If we could take that, I don't really know what could take us down."
"I'm certain we'll find something," Cory whispered.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((That's my fault. I keep wanting to post my next move, but then reprimand myself for not giving everyone a chance to make their own yet, and delete the post again. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Eh me two I guess. As for this so called Brzzting....
*Shoots Khell's computer*
It will no longer bother you 
))
Jake had sat in silent comtemplation from the moment he got off of the ship until the current situation, in which he finally announced that he needed to go to the little villain's room. As nonchalantly as he could, he excused himself from the rest of the group to step outside.
"Excellent." He whispered as he glanced back into the tunnel where the rest of the group was. He walked a good distance away and, after again making sure he was not being watch, complete with a full scan from his goggles, dropped a simple disk like device onto the ground. At a glance, it seemed like it was nothing, but closer inspection would reveal a clever use of technomancy, which allowed for inter-dimmensional travel to be made quite easy. Pulling out a head set and saying a series of numbers, Jake calmly walked away, leaving the device to its own affairs.
And, after a few minutes of waiting, a cloaked Arachnos Drone suddenly materialized.
Then another.
And another.
And yet another.
Jake glanced back and smirked.
"Hail Arachnos." He muttered, turning back forward with a strong urge to laugh.
Nah, too stereotypical.
"Wilco." Acid replied from down the hall, indicating he understood Sheldon's position and did not expect a response.
He left it at that as he placed his hand upon the contact plate of an elevator, the convex covering doors sliding open freely to allow passage into the tubular chamber. Moments later, they closed once again as the cabin's occupant selected his destination. He had a long way to go teaching the Vanguard personnel how to work a starship.
In any case, the bridge would be first. He had to start somewhere, and even though it might take quite a while to get the point across for respectable operation, if the command deck was capable, then at least things could be run from there in case of an emergency...
--------------------
"Oh, no reason." Acid's teeth bared themselves in a sinister grin for a moment in reaction to Randall's question, adding a slight chuckle to the end of his answer, then took some time to shut his own yap and listen for once. Ryat66 and the warlock had some good points. But who or what could or would do something like that? It just didn't make any sense.
"Took the words right out of my mouth." the reptilian added to Randall's summation, standing from his crouched position and taking his combi-rifle in hand again, "Same goes for damage. I'm afraid I'm extremely allergic to pain."
He'd hoped Randall would take point after deciding on a direction, but apparently this was no so. Too bad - hopefully not for him. Thus proceeding ahead in the indicated direction, Acid and the group behind him soon came to the end of the path.
Quite literally.
The path straight ahead led outside again alright, but the bridge that had been here had apparently give up its duties ages ago. A sheer vertical drop now dominated this side of the tower, the structure having extended far beyond the mountain on this side. Apparently, whoever had built it had not believed in biaxial symmetry.
The drop seemed to lead into some sort of valley - either that or a lake, depending on what hid underneath the steamy mist a few dozen meters below their current elevation; even thermal sensors couldn't penetrate it - and out of said depression rose the bulk of the towering structures, the whole thing rimmed by a respectably expansive mountain range.
"So much for straight ahead." Acid remarked with mild annoyance, spying across the gap to the tower the now-gone bridge had once led, "Gotta be at least a hundred meters, probably more. Who all can make...?"
His question suddenly came to an end, without warning and from one moment to another. His head ducked down a little, eyes focusing on something in the distance. The reptilian had seen something, this was sure. While he probably hadn't the keenest vision of the group - meaning others could probably pick up on this more or less easily, depending on their own optics - he could take note of motion very well, as just about any predator.
Thus being, he quickly managed to find the source, though me may well not have been the first.
Across the steam-filled chasm and to the left, on one of the still-intact bridges that led from one tower to another, there walked a trio of humans, dressed in cutting-edge uniforms of midnight blue.
Malta Operatives.
Now things started to make sense. Malta had the know-how and resources to travel here, the ruthlessness and raw firepower to wipe the floor even with Nemesis Army forces, and the cunning and gear to clean up any mess they might have left behind.
Still, they were a mortal force, only human. Someone had missed that last spot of blood, hidden away in the niche where Acid had found it.
So there were Malta. At least three.
The Khelari couldn't tell from here, the slight haze of rain blurring the image in conjunction with the lateral distance too much for him, but others were perhaps able to discern that the group of three consisted of two Operation Engineers and a TacOps Commander, the latter of which spoke into a radio of some sort as they walked.
Not being one who let information slip between his claws, Acid raised the scope of his rifle to his eye in order to compensate for the distance, scrutinizing their path closely. The tower they'd come from and the one they'd picked as their destination stood almost at a right angle to the group's viewpoint; meaning from here, the Malta journeyed nearly directly from right to left. Their departure point didn't hold anything interesting to see, but through his scope the reptilian could see the corridor that their bridge became upon connecting with their destination tower held some sort of screen - a circular, almost parabolic display that showed...well, actually, it didn't show anything but a blank, reflective surface.
It was the reflection of something that stood within the corridor, hidden from direct sight, that piqued the reptilian's interest enough for him to utter, "Hey guys...check this out."
The reflection was that of a robot. A mechanoid of the 'Assault Bot' type, to be more precise...
--------------------
"I don't know." was the answer Jack 7 received, likely much to his confusion, curt and accompanied by a slight shrug of the man's hands, not to mention spoken in a tone that suggested the man didn't really care - that it feel by the wayside, unimportant as could be, "You can call me Termoplast. Everyone else does..."
--------------------
It didn't take long for Jake's device to run into some trouble. It may have been partially arcane, but that certainly didn't mean the mystic barrier around the Rikti homeworld would suddenly ignore it. If this had been true, just about anyone could've come here by now.
The barrier reacted.
Violently.
After the sixth drone, Jake's device experienced a sudden and very dangerous power surge. If the thing was capable of overloading, it would do so in no time at all. Already, the still-active weavings of humanity's most experienced heroic mystics that had utterly squashed any attempt at traveling to or from the Rikti homeworld for so long sought to wreak havoc by simply tearing the device apart.
Whether they succeeded or not, however, one thing was clear: Jake would have to figure out just how the Rikti had managed to break through the barrier before he could safely transport anything here by his own means...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"That's not good," said both Toy Dispenser and Solid Shot at the same time as they both saw what had caught Acid's attention.
Solid shot Toy an annoyed glance but the mastermind was too busy tracking the Malta operatives to notice. After Acid talked out loud, Toy zipped along the bridge and spotted the assault bot pictured in the reflextive pane as well.
"Two Op Engineers and a TacOps Commander," Toy Bot said for the benefit of the others that couldn't see clearly what the two androids and Acid were looking at. "It appears that we also have the Malta to worry about on this mission."
"And maybe a captive metahuman too," added Solid as he finally got to that part of the tower. "There's one of those big assault bot type dealies that the mastermind villain types love so dearly. I've always wondered about that, you know. Did you guys buy all your robots from the same Evil Mart?"
"Lord Recluse has an odd rule regarding henchmen," responded Toy as he stepped back from the edge. "They all have to conform to a certain standard. If they don't, then nobody will have anything to do with you. It's really weird but I suppose you don't get that powerful and evil without losing a few screws on the way."
"Whatever," Solid shot back as he lifted up his rifle and took aim at the three Maltans. "I have a clear shot with my LRM at the three of em. If we want the [censored] dead, I can send them off the edge."
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.
--Rikti Earth--
"Something about the Chosen having to conform to a particular type," Ryat66 made an almost sighing sound, "My brother, Ryat Prime, explained some of it... Like how we saw so many... rogues... running around with robots just like his... Apparently they have an idea of what their 'Chosen One' is supposed to look like..."
He looked at how Toy was glaring at him at that moment.
"Oh... You guys weren't talking to me..."
"Here are our options," Randall grunted as he examined the situation, "One, we go down there, sweep and clear, and recon for their base of operations. Two, we build up a base here and prepare for the inevitable, that they'll attack us and have the advantage of siege tactics. Of course, we've got our powers and talents... We could probably take them still. Or... We could retreat and find another landing site. Of course, that has its own hazards, what with the Rikti most likely noticing out descent... there might even be a ship heading out here to investigate."
His eyebrows arched as he realized the enormity of the situation.
"Wow... This is probably about to get very bad."
"Well," Cortland intoned as he sat down cross-legged, "It seems to me that we should eliminate one of our enemies right now. The Malta Group... I dealt with them once, recently... Mattock..."
"Matt?" Randall grunted.
"He said to look out for this particular car... I can't explain how I found it... It... It was a feeling he sent to me... The Group was watching it... This was just when the Corporation was having trouble with the Portal... Matt sent the information to me... I don't think he realized he did, his control with Aethereal communication is terrible..."
"So the Malta Group may have been involved with the Portal problems?" Ryat66 asked, "Wait... That doesn't sound right... It doesn't match up to what I ran into in the control system..."
"These are all problems we can deal with later," Randall clapped a hand on the android's shoulder, "For now, let's figure out how to deal with these [butt]holes. I'm thinking dropping in on their heads, smashing the Sapper, and moving our way through their ranks like normal. Always a sound plan for the Malta group, right?"
----------
--Jade Moon: The Rikti Ship--
Sheldon removed his trench coat and started familiarizing himself with the room. Placing the Aggressor at a point where he could see it easily from nearly any point, he siphoned some speed from it and set about checking monitors and determining the plant's power output.
Monitors (even in a Rikti sense) flickered to life and Sheldon was pleased to note that his translations of technical terms were still up to par.
----------
--Peregrine Island--
"Crimson... Oh, Cobalt! Awesome!"
Cobalt Black 3-8-9, from Praetorian Earth, stood there next to Crimson. His unit had escaped during a moment of turmoil and invasion of Prime Earth by the Praetorians, and have been used by Crimson and his partner, Indigo, for the purposes of espionage and surveillance of the Malta Group ever since. Cobalt had recently been relieved of his assignment after he led the duo to yet another group to send a Hero after.
"Who is this, Aaron?" Crimson asked his plain-clothes attired agent.
"This is McGinty. A friend of my double. What are you doing here, Matt?"
"Malta Group troubles!" Matt shouted, "Or... Someone like them... Look, I have a lot of problems and I think you're just the guy to help me, Big Red!"
Crimson arched an eyebrow at the bizarre looking young man, but he didn't seem too bothered.
"What have you got for me?" he asked as he waved off Aaron Durj.
"Righto," the double-agent replied before walking away, "Hey, Matt. Nice bike. Think maybe I could get a go on it one day?"
"Maybe," the scrapper replied with a chuckle, "If it'll let ya."
Aaron nodded and made his way to the boat he intended to sue to get back to Peregrine Island, and from there to Talos Island and his apartment. Matt, however, had to spend his time explaining to Crimson what he'd dealt with over the course of the night. Leaving out the bits related to Portal Corp's actual mission was difficult, but Matt was able to explain that a certain amount of secrecy was required on their part, which Crimson was able to accept.
----
Ryat99, in the meantime, got a hold of the audio file Matt had told him about. Listening to the voice, he couldn't figure out for squat whom it could possibly be, but still transmitted the voice profile to the other Ryats in the city. With almost a hundred about, one of them was bound to catch some kind of snippet.
"I guess I better get back to Matt," the big android muttered before flying away.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
--Jade Moon--
By now all Vanguard operatives had been alerted to the presence of the four mercenaries. Knowing Vanguard they'd have a standard shoot on sight order. In fact, Radiator would have been apalled to find that they didn't.
It mattered little though, because there really was no way out of here anyway. The team had no idea how much control the Vanguard team on board the warship had over the vessel, or what kind of defenses the base had against ships. Right now the most important thing to the team was gathering intelligence.
To that end, they split into two groups of two. The first one included Radiator and Ghost. The second contained HK-48 and Scarab.
Team one made it's way across the facility to search for transportation. Judging from what Scarab had told them this place was some sort of a manufacturing plant for ships. That's most likely where the Vanguard team had found their warship.
Team 2 had a two-part mission. The first was to gather as much intelligence as possible from the Vanguard. The second, was to sabotage the Vanguard operations on this base in any way possible.
To that end Team 2 was now on it's way to a secluded corner of the base. HK 48 surmized that this was a prime location to set up an ambush for an unwary Vanguard patrol. The problem was, neither team currently had their cloak on, which meant that they were totally exposed...
--Earth--
"Nice to meet you Termoplast." Jack replied. Jack slowly returned his attention to the Longbow guard. "Okay, we're going to need to go through the portal and join the task force. I know how these guys think, if they aren't busy fighting Vanguard team members, they'll be setting up traps for when they do find team members..."
Jake's deviced seemed to be much more than it appeared. Earlier, Jake had ported in his full squad of robots, and none of his devices seemed to experience any problems whatsoever. Indeed, it seemed they were even reusable. But then, why was Jake's means of transport immune to the Rikti's barrier?
Jake's many hours of working with Naylor and Arachnos's top portal specialists gave birth to an ingenios system of transport that combined both portals and teleportation. The portal aspect would allow for travel to great distances, and the teleportation aspect would allow it to bypass many of the difficulties normally found in portal jumping. Even the mighty barrier of the Rikti Homeworld could not block the device's goal of teleporting in Arachnos Drones, supplies, men, and weapons as it brought in the necessary materials to build an Arachnos Outpost.
OOC: Now that's thinking with portals!
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.
(( ))
((
))
Acid's answer was but a silent twitch of the shoulders. He just used those chasses in order to not stick out any more than necessary when he operated on Terra. They weren't that bad of a design either, but for the really tough stuff he still preferred the TARA-III-U.
"I'm not comfortable with that." the reptilian voiced his concern, referring somewhat directly to Solid's idea of the LRM. In truth, he felt perturbed about two items, but the issue of whether Solid Shot could lock on his missile took a back seat to the first, "That robot there would see, bark an alert through the whole base, and we'd be up to our necks in Malta...that is...
He turned to the robotic members of the team with the gleam of an idea in his eye, "...unless we can jam their communications?"
Indeed, a localized cutting of radio channels would disable the robot's ability to sound alarm if the three Malta Operatives on the bridge were attacked and vice versa. However, chances were high it would have to be a rather small area.
The reptilian suspected the presence of various sensors over Malta's core stronghold. From the fact that their landing had gone unnoticed by Malta - as they were known to strike at the opportune moment, which would have been a while ago, when they'd still had the element of surprise - in conjunction with the mechanoid's presence and the overlooked bloodstain, Acid had deduced the operatives here were likely low on true manpower, and therefore unable to cover the Forgotten Sanctuary in its entirety.
Of course, this was but an educated guess. He could've always been wrong. But if he was right, this changed very much indeed.
Logically, a meager human presence could lead nowhere but heightened security in the sections they did hold. The Malta Operatives may have been paranoid, but they had managed to turn this into a decided advantage. Their means of detecting extranormal activity were cutting-edge, and there was little dispute that they'd immediately pick up on anything unusual in their territory unless it barely registered on the 'power meter'.
He also suspected this included standard teleportation, especially those forms akin to Rikti means, and made sure to let the others know of his concerns.
"Also, I really don't think there's anyone captured over there." the Khelari added as a closing thought. The final decision on how to proceed of course rested with Randall Grey - or just the first one to get impatient and make a move; that tended to happen on large teams where not everyone knew the others - but he still felt it wise, "With that kind of robot and Malta, I think we're dealing with..."
--------------------
Crimson's answer didn't have to be waited on long. The agent knew the ins and outs of the Malta Group in as much as anyone not a part of their upper echelons could.
"Watchdogs, varmints...this is serious." he told Matt with a grave tone, "I think you're dealing with..."
--------------------
"...the Slinger."
--------------------
"I've dealt with the guy before." the reptilian elaborated, "One of Malta's own mad scientists. Mad in the sense that he's a cyborg Gunslinger with a near-suicidal attitude. Lost both arms somehow, but he just grafted on robotics and back to work he went..."
--------------------
"In short, the guy's a maniac." Crimson summed up, "A smart maniac. Dangerous as can be. And yes, I am trying to frighten you. Don't take this guy on alone - no matter what. He will kill you...or worse..."
--------------------
Indeed, if the process was thus, there wasn't any way for the mystic barrier to block Jake's transports. The Vanguard portal on the Portal Corporation campus had already been punched through, and therefore attained stability. Arachnos' process of dematerializing something, then sending the energy stream on a direct course through that gate, followed by ducting it to the location of Jake's device, which in turn also rematerialized the 'cargo' was practically foolproof.
Thankfully, the Malta Operatives hadn't stationed any sensors around the landing platform or the first tower, or the whole place would've been up in arms already. Instead, at least for now, things went just as the young man had intended.
Space, however, would soon become a concern. The first tower wasn't that large, and if the Arachnos forces wanted to remain undiscovered, they'd have to find somewhere else to hole up before Vanguard's Delta team wished to return to the Drop Ship...
--------------------
It may have taken Radiator and Ghost Killer some time to determine this, but eventually they'd discover the vastness of the facility dropped their chances of finding a vessel of their own to practically zero. The Rikti had veritably hollowed out this moon, building gigantic complexes beneath the surface that filled volumes that often measured tens of cubic kilometers. It was simply too big for two people just randomly poking about.
Vanguard had realized this early, having taken steps to secure the surface level of the facility they'd arrived in and nothing more. The Lady Grey wasn't willing to stretch her manpower that thin. With Lk'Onik's aid, they sealed off pairs of blast doors that connected their chosen sector with others, then depressurized the paths between them. Patrols of at least four secured the outer perimeter and unused chambers, consisting of mixed units that ranged from normal operatives to ranking officers.
Of course, even said 'secured' sector was rather large. Vanguard certainly couldn't cover the whole place at all times. Partols and checkpoints had to cycle, and though it would've been though for a novice to stealth to slip in undetected, chances were someone skilled in covert operations stood a good chance.
Of course, that was if this someone wanted to just waste time.
If instead said someone had in mind to get to get to the planet, there still hovered a certain Rikti warship over the base, unmoving and with its shields down, ergo free to boarding via extraspatial displacement. That didn't go to say there weren't other ways of getting aboard, but a process like teleportation was likely the simplest and quickest.
Stemming from the fact that Vanguard's Delta team had taken an auxiliary vessel of said warship, and generally large starships carried multiple auxiliary craft for extension purposes, it stood to reason there were still some aboard that weren't doing anything useful right now. It would've been a downright shame to just let them sit idle...
--------------------
Thermoplast gave a polite nod in response to this, then coolly stepped past Jack 7 and his squad to present his identification to the gate guard, who instantly granted him passage.
The reason stood clear for all to see. If Jack 7 and his compatriots had taken a moment to look at said ID while it had been in the lit window, they'd plainly seen the unique marks upon it: he telltale logo of Paragon City's very own Soul Police Chapter...
--------------------
And they hadn't been the only ones.
In the shadows of a rocky vista to the north-northwest of the Portal Court gate, by a deciduous tree just beyond the electrical tower that supplied the campus with its everyday power, hovered a tiny machine no larger or even looking any different than the generic seeker drones deployed by heroes and villains alike. It aroused no suspicion at all, a passing spandex-clad metahuman ignoring the thing completely as he flew by. After all, the things were known to be somewhat dumb, sometimes lagging great distances behind their owners, even going so far as to stop in a dead, completely unresponsive hover on occasion.
But this was no seeker drone.
Indeed, its job was nowhere near that complex. All it had to do was watch, to be the eyes of the cloaked heavy fighter that had landed just beyond the rocky hills that surrounded Portal Court. Invisible and nigh undetectable in its current state, the ship sat there as powered down as possible without dropping the deflector field and assorted other detection countermeasures in place.
The cockpit sat in near-total darkness now as a side effect of this low-power state, the vessel only drawing energy from the emergency dynamo. The HUD stood as the only active instrument, displaying the feed from the camera drone as the ship's occupant worked.
He'd managed to track the source of the transmissions that mentioned Zero's name here. Approaching without being detected had been difficult, but thanks to the surrounding water he'd managed. Now he'd been passively listening in, gathering information on the whereabouts of the Khelari.
Results were quick and promising. He knew where to go and how to get there. Now he just needed a way. Simply asking was out of the question, for various reasons - not the least of which being the guy who they'd just granted passage to. The man may have worn a radically different outfit, but if that wasn't Thysthe, he swore he'd eat his wig.
A working knowledge of the English language had sped things up significantly. Hopefully, it had also put him ahead of his competitor. He knew the guy had a better ship, and was more than smart enough to find a way to the Rikti world without aid, given enough time. He, on the other hand, would need to make use of these Vanguard people. Thankfully, he at least had a conditioned mind to counter telepaths. He wasn't sure if they had any, but better safe than sorry - he made sure to keep his thoughts so elusive a telepath couldn't even sense his presence.
Alright, one more time...clothes, check. Wig, check. Paint, check. Gun, check. Sword, check. Identification, check. Okay, here we go...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
--Peregrine Island--
Matt's reaction was decidedly not fear.
Manic glee seemed to be the closest label to describe what Crimson was seeing. A devilish grin split the scrapper's face near in two.
Of course, he was happy about a number of things...
"So I'm NOT crazy!"
"Well... It's too soon to say that," Crimson muttered, "But on this, no."
"Well, then give me an address to search for!"
Crimson considered refusing, but knew that was going to get him nowhere. This hero had a fire in his heart that was easily reflected in his eyes. Things were about to get nasty, and Mad Matt McGinty was going to be at the heart of it, one way or another. Crimson asked for his communicator and typed a few locations he could try into it.
"See Indigo for more information," he grumbled, "And though you're likely not to take my advice seriously, don't go after him. You're not ready for this."
"Ho-ho! I am SO going to go find that guy and give him a reason to build a cybernetic [butt]!" Matt tore off for his motorcycle.
"WAIT!" Crimson shouted at his back, "Weren't you listening to me!? I said don't take him alone!"
"I won't! I've got the bike!"
Crimson pulled his cellphone from his interior left breast pocket and dialed a number.
"Aaron? Yeah. You're friend? He just gave me an ulcer. I know what one feels like, dammit! Look, he's going to need help, and I suggest you find it for him. Get to see Indigo, and be in uniform! Hop to it!"
Matt made for the docks and was surprised to meet Ryat99 there. The android mentioned how the particular soundbite was being circulated through the Ryat network as they spoke but McGinty told him to cancel it.
"I don't want any Ryats going up against that guy... Not unless its you or Sixty-six. Capiche?"
"Got it."
"Alright... We're heading for Founder's Falls next. You up to the trip?"
"Always."
----------
--Rikti Earth: The Forgotten Sanctuary--
Randall nodded to everything Acid said. He had a plan in mind, but didn't know how it would go over. Still, it was something.
"I'm thinking I should super leap over... Go granite, drop in and let the shooting start. During the confusion, the rest of you drop in and start tearing the bad guys apart while they're distracted."
He paused for a moment.
"If we can get their signals jammed, so much the better."
"Solid, Cory and I can pick them off with sniper shots and blasts," Ryat66 offered, "Perhaps Ess-Six, too?"
He turned to the female-seeming android with a hopeful posture.
Randall nodded at Ryat66's plan. Turning to the rest of the group, he waited for any other suggestions.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"I'm not picking up anything anamolous," Toy said to Acid as they started crossing the overpass. "Then again I might be getting a bit overwhelmed from noticing something new every couple of seconds or so. In any case, what exactly are you following?"
"That alien quote thingie makes me think of the crap we flew through to get here," Solid said outloud after Sah'Teece had finished translating the inscription. "I don't know about you guys, but without those giant [censored] flame projectors I don't think we could've landed."
"We still would have landed," Toy Bot added. "But accuracy would have been drastically reduced."
Meanwhile Cher'tak kept his own counsel, not speaking to anyone and keeping his thoughts to himself but clearly ready for conflict.
***********************************************
"This should do nicely," Archlich said to himself as he began taking various items out from under his breastplate and placing them in the required positions.
Although even if Archlich had wanted to speak to someone other than himself he probably wouldn't have been able to manage it, seeing as how he was currently at the bottom of an age old shallow crater on the room about half a mile from the research base. The mage wanted enough distance to ensure that the foolish mortals wouldn't be able to get to him quickly while being close enough that he could still teleport back quickly given any trouble. Though once he began the ritual, the only thing that could snap him out of the trance of casting it would be death itself. Not that dying would harm Archlich much, it would just be extremely inconvenient and delay his plans for several days. And those several days would undoubtedly put the Rikti homeworld beyond his grasp altogether, so Archlich would make sure that there were enough wards place around this crater to obliterate or halt an entire army.
Of course Archlich knew about Lady Grey's plans to keep him watched. He had expected nothing less but was assured when the 'wards' he had placed around the base camp relayed to him her exact orders. While the lich had a grudging respect for the woman's ability to keep an organization like Vanguard operational and productive, he knew what she would do to him given the chance.
By the time the main group had landed on the planet, Archlich had finished placing his runes and wards, the first of which to go up had been a cloaking charm to mask him from the sight of the Rikti warship hanging overhead like a Sword of Damocles. Satisfied that his defenses were complete, Archlich began preperations for the main spell. Not only would he be casting about to see if any gods of the Rikti had survived, but he'd also attempt to enter their world if it was still around. Every pantheon had their Valhalla or Olympus and Archlich figured that the old gods of the Rikti had had one as well. The only question was if it was still there and if any god was still lingering about in it.
But first... He had to prepare everything, which would take a little while.
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.