Jack 7 and the others nodded and then set off for the portal.
As they made their way across the grounds the team began to solemnly prepare themselves for the mission. Jack had a backpack slung over his shoulder that contained all the gear he would need. Static was completely self reliant, but would need to calibrate his incredibly complex battle armor for the mission. The others had their own ways of preparing.
Upon seeing the somewhat legendary Jack 7 in their midst many Longbow guards and leftover Vanguard personnel members would probably feel a sense of pride. Some of them had no doubt worked with him in the past, and even those that didn't at least knew his reputation felt emboldened.
Before stepping near the portal Jack tracked down one of the technicians and told him to inform Unai Kemen that Jack 7 and his team were now a part of the task force.
--Jade Moon--
Radiator and Ghost knew where they were going. Or at least, they knew the general location of it. Before leaving, HK 48 and Scarab had informed them of the location of the hangar. The two mercenaries were careful to avoid Vanguard patrols as they made their way through the halls, intent on making it to the hangar as fast as possible.
Ghost turned to his superior. "Why aren't we gonna steal the warship again?"
Radiator slowed down so he could talk to his comrade. "First of all, it's bound to be full of Vanguard. Second, it's not exactly good for keeping a low profile."
Ghost nodded. "But we can't let them have a working warship either."
Radiator grinned underneath his helmet. "No...that wouldn't be very sportin' now would it."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The hero team made it's way out of the portal room, making a beeline for the Vanguard command post. Once there they would look for Lady Grey. While Jack 7 may have never actually been introduced to her he had seen her before, and knew of her reputation. Some people back on Earth might not have trusted Vanguard, but he put a hell of a lot of time and energy into helping them. As far as he was concerned Vanguard had done more for the good of humanity than any other worldwide organization. He just hoped he wasn't too late to stop the mercenaries.
"I'm back. What'd I miss?" Jake inquired casually upon his return, giving a small wave and glancing around, his eyes eventually settling on the Malta. His decidedly cocky grin suddenly turned into a grimace as he realized the reality of what this place was.
"Oh... [censored]..."
-----
And hide quickly the Arahcnos soldiers did. Already they had found a secure location and set up a set up a small outpost. Cloaking it with special devices that visually mimiced the surrounding environment, and already being a safe distance away from any threat (Or so they thought, as they had no idea Malta was currently here.) they felt that there was nothing to worry about.
"Frankly, I'd prefer not to kill them." Acid remarked coldly, turning back to the walking trio with a sigh, "But I understand that you don't think the way I do. And this isn't my lead. I'll defer to your command, Mr. Grey."
Strictly from a logical point of view, Toy's plan was good. Nearly perfect, in fact. The only thing it couldn't account for was the presence of any other personnel in either tower that might see them and give alarm, but this was a risk that had to be taken one way or another.
Solid Shot, however, may have forgotten that his 'silent' missile would make quite a bit of noise from just being fired. The sound would arrive before the munition had. Of course, if the LRM had a true acoustic damper (like the 'silencer' on a handgun) or traveled at supersonic velocities, he of course held right.
Cher'tak's idea came with a hole as well, but only if Toy couldn't jam the Malta sensors somehow. If he could mask the characteristic signatures of the Rikti ship's teleporter and keep the mechanisms looking for such things from going off, the Warmaster's suggestion entailed no more risk than any other way across. Indeed, it may have carried less. If something did go awry, they'd at least have the Drop Ship right there to back them up.
"Your call." the reptilian told Randall with a toothy smirk, readying his combi-rifle as he crouched slightly, "I'm ready whenever..."
--------------------
The connectors locked in with a satisfying click in the nearly pitch-black darkness. Another down, so many to go. Adapting a linear converter to drag its ship into another universe instead of the libration zone wasn't exactly easy. Neither was understanding all this gibberish he'd gotten a hold of. 'Portal Theories' these people called it - there were unnecessary elements everywhere, in all forms of redundants, from n-dimensional equations of energy to simple impulse calculations!
Luckily, he at least had time to spare. In addition to the black of night, which proved less problematic than he'd initially expected thanks to his low-light sensitivity, the deflector field held his ship and a small area around it undetectable in the small portion of the EM spectrum that included and bordered on visible light - and he didn't consider it likely that someone would come looking with X-rays. The facility he'd gleamed his intelligence from (passively, of course) may have been right over that ridge of rocks, but the coast out here was still rough, rugged, and devoid of habitation.
Well, excluding the walking plants and random gunk, that was. Someone had played geneticist one too many times. Thankfully, they'd just ignored him after he'd taken care of the first few upon blatant displays of hostilities. From then on, he'd at least known why no one lived here.
However, this was also a strike of luck. After all, with these things around, the likelihood that anyone would come wandering about back here was slim to none. The dominant species of this world seemed quite fragile to him, and it stood to reason they wouldn't engage these strange mutations without a pressing need to do so.
Good. The Concile may have spat on the old ways, but he still respected that one shouldn't go about interfering with other species before making sure they were ready. Considering he was only here for one thing (well, technically two, but the process would be the same), and thus wasn't planning to be around long enough to obtain such information, the best option resulted in just avoiding contact altogether.
Another click sounded as another connection rested in. One more down, one less to go. He had to work faster.
Indeed, he now focused so on his work that he wouldn't even have noticed anyone passing through the deflector field, let alone walking about it unless they made a good bit of noise. He'd gotten used to the odd creatures mulling about this coast, and felt confident the deflector field would ward off anyone else...
--------------------
Thermoplast gave a twitch of his shoulders as the four ran off toward the portal. Humans and their creations. Always so impetuous. Good thing he tended to fly solo or with the SPC. Time was always taken to analyze the crime scene very carefully, and he'd picked up the habit to be applied just about everywhere else.
Or had that been a remnant of...before? He truly wished he knew...
--------------------
Having proceeded into the branch at brisk speed, several members of the Arachnos troop quickly moaned at the sight of the ramp, of course averse to the idea of having to lug the already heavy equipment they carried up there. But orders were orders, so lug they did.
The ramp wasn't long, but it certainly was steep, having been designed for Rikti, not humans. It performed a trio of right-hand bends as the floor ascended, until the Arachnos expedition had been fully turned around and to the right once more as they reached the ramp's end. Before them now lay some manner of ring corridor, which curved along the periphery of the tower, and seemed rather tall indeed, the ceiling at least twenty meters above them.
If they chose to follow this passage, they would soon reach the hallway's end, roughly a third of the way around the tower. In the wall to the left stood an opening much like the entryway they'd come in through, the corridor becoming a bridge to another tower in the hazy distance, the rains soft pitter sounding through the doorless gateway.
But even though the corridor terminated in a wall ahead, there were a few more meters of it, ending in some sort metallic panel upon the wall. Large and rectangular, an array of luminescent circuits crisscrossed the background plate in a very artistic fashion, nodes and relays laid out like a flowing river instead of the usual right angles and dense clustering.
In addition, there seemed to be a contact plate in the middle of the panel, and the floor that led from the doorway to the panel's wall carried the texture of metal, not stone...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
--Rikti Earth: The Forgotten Sanctuary--
Randall scratched his chin through his beard. Finally, he settled on an idea.
"Here's what I'm thinking. As a stone tank, I can just about weather anything they throw at me. Once I have all of their attention, you hit them with the LRM, Solid Shot. While Solid and I are working on that, the rest of you use the Dropship to swoop in and mop up the rest. Sound good?"
----------
--Founder's Falls--
"Alright, Mad Matt," Indigo handed over some information, "Here're the addresses of locations I know of... And here's the assistance Mr. Crimson said he wants you to have."
Nester, Kipland, and Aaron Durj arrived from out of the sky, the eldest flying in with his exosuit.
"Damn snipers..." he shuddered, "Matt, what the Hell is going on that you had to drag me away from my video games?"
"The Malta Group!"
Aaron rubbed the bridge of his nose and burped a little.
"Indy... I'm so tired right now I'm getting indigestion... Can I please go home now?"
"Why aren't you in uniform?"
"Because I'm fricking tired!"
Indigo frowned and nodded. Kip's double saluted his friends and leaped away to the north. Matt looked over his crew appreciatively.
"A medic, two butt kickers, and a tank. I don't know what could stop us now."
"Plague," Nester offered.
"Death," Kip muttered.
"Fire," Ryat99 nodded, "Bullets... Those horrible sapper things..."
"Okay, shut up!" Matt barked, "We've got a fight to win, and this negative thinking is only gonna get us killed!"
"Suicidal planning will achieve the same end," Kip countered, "And you've never been one for the plans, Matt. You're a 'point-me-where-to-go-and-I'll-do-the-slashing' kind of person. What the Hell is this all about?"
"Revenge, mostly."
"For who?"
"For Randy!"
Kip stared at the other scrapper for a moment.
"What do you know about Randy?"
"What's going on?" Nester asked.
"Look, I'll explain on the way to this address, and make sure everybody's up to speed. Well, as up to speed as I am. I kind of ignored some aspects of the situation because I figured the less I knew, the less-likely I was to get ambushed."
Now it was Kip's turn to rub the bridge of his nose.
"What the Hell," he finally muttered, "Let's kick it, Matt. If what we're doing winds up helping Randy get back, I'll be happy."
"Why?" Matt arched his eyebrow as he approached his bike, "What do you know about it?"
"All I know is that Randy activated his contingency plans when something he's doing right now went wrong. I've been talking with his lawyer about acquiring the supergroup."
Matt nodded, "And I've been working at making sure you don't wind up running things!"
"Coolness."
"So, where to this time?" Ryat99 asked.
"The Folly."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Essex sighed, fidgeting. She had only heard of the 'Slinger', as Reikoff and the other commanders had, for some reason, kept her sheltered from the crazy fellow...
"...I have a full and working knowledge of the Maltan communications systems." she offered quietly. "I...I can help you jam them. I mean, it'll probably get me in trouble, but this isn't something I can really ignore..."
She looked quite troubled at the prospect, however, but it was true -- she had spent quite some time hooked up to Maltan communication machinery on the Battle Planet, so manipulating it would be second nature for the little android.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Arf!"
Bounding out of the car to catch up to Thermoplast, a black-and-white border collie sprinted, rather self-importantly, towards the operative. The guards gave it no notice, letting it out of the car - it was a security dog, after all, as denoted on the car's identification.
The border collie slowed as it trotted beside Thermoplast, tail wagging neutrally and tossing him a glance with strangely intelligent orange eyes...
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Damn..." Was all Jake muttered as he looked at the advancing Malta.
"Two things. One, what did I miss while I was gone? And two, what's the plan?"
If Malta's here, then that complicates things. I may have to send for some leadership to keep the men in order if it comes to a fight, but as long as they keep themselves inconspicuous, they should be fine.
Should, anyway...
-----
The Arachnos soldiers paid the communications panel no mind and, trusting that Jake had planted them in a secure location, continued on their tiresome journey, crossing the bridge above them.
However, not before setting up an emergency med-porter at their current location. Should something happen to any of them, they would simply be teleported right back to the medical machine, ready to yet again fight whatever had taken them down.
Ineffable merely stood where he was, waiting for somebody to make a decision. He seemed rather distracted, however.
He was looking up, and there was a small, almost undiscernable smirk on his normally barren face.
"Ready whenever." Acid gave a nod, clawed fingers tightening about the barrel of his rifle as he brought it into a transitional position. The reptilian may have been a sniper at heart, but he could plainly see they had enough of those already; he'd be better off saving his attention for the expected unknown.
Sah'Teece in the meantime ran his fingers across the ship interactions module he'd grafted to his armorsuit's left arm, transmitting instructions back to the Drop Ship's autopilot. Over the small mental network he then requested of the Warmaster to take control if he could. Tactical decisions might have to be made in fractions of a second once this began, and the former diplomat felt Char'tak's experience would serve them better than his own...
--------------------
Thermoplast nodded silently to the canine, as if he'd just acknowledged an order. He stopped for a moment, waiting for any more of their number to make way through the gate.
Still, he couldn't help but feel a strange sensation of direction - as if he'd been meant to be here. This was odd, to say the least, as he generally kept a cool head and distanced, calm attitude toward just about anything...
--------------------
((Contact as in physical, not communications.))
The Arachnos troop had come to a wise verdict. Malta wasn't to be trifled with, and more likely than not, they'd soon be reminded just why Lord Recluse hadn't made an all-out move against them in the past, even though on the surface his organization looked more than capable of taking on the rogue clandestine operatives.
The bridge stretched a fair distance to the next tower, easily more than two hundred meters, but sat at an angle that did not allow a direct view to the destroyed crossing where the Vanguard team contemplated their course of action. In addition, the structure on which the Malta currently walked sat too far in the haze of steam and rain to offer any clear picture.
Indeed, the goal tower sat at the outer rim of the Forgotten Sanctuary, base clinging to a steep grade of mountainside at what looked to be a ridiculously dangerous angle. Still, the thing had stood for hundreds of years, and therefore logic suggested its foundations were sound.
Nonetheless, the appearance could have stirred fear in some. Not due to the tower itself; the cause rested in the steep side of rock it sat connected to. The small range of mountains stood with a radius curvature with vertex somewhere in the distance to the right. This was an easily observable fact.
But if this was so, what did it mean? Did the facility sit in some sort of meteor crater? Or was the cause something else entirely?
Be what may, Malta hadn't posted any guard on this particular overpass, whether organic or mechanical. The journey looked to be uneventful.
But appearances could be deceiving.
At the bridge's midpoint, a weight sensor had been rigged to the construct's masonry of stone and metal. The tiny device sat coupled to the walkway underneath, allowing no visible trace to anyone who stood upon the bridge. In addition, its workings required such a low voltage that the thing was practically undetectable - a nearly perfect trap.
The moment someone set foot on a section surrounding the mean, a somewhat circular area roughly ten meters in diameter (which also corresponded to the deck's width) the sensor would be set off...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
--Rikti Earth: The Forgotten Sanctuary--
"It's all settled, then," Randall took a deep breath and blew the air out of his lungs to calm himself, "I'm going to be in the air for a while, but once I'm hanging over them, I'm gonna go granite and bomb into the midst of them. When they're all nice and close to me, Solid, you blast them with that LRM of yours... Don't worry about me, I'm gonna be a mini-Jurassik, I could probably take a meteor to the grill when I'm like that. While I'm in the air, the rest of you get to the dropship for phase two."
He took another couple of deep breaths and made for the ledge where the bridge used to be. The drop down didn't worry him. Nor did the distance. What worried him, if anything could be said to worry Randall "The Ugly Rock" Grey, was that no plan survived contact with the enemy.
Taking a final deep breath, he gave the thumbs-up to his team, and leaped. He always loved flying through the air like this... The rush of air, the wind in his surprisingly still-dark hair... It all made him feel like he was alive.
True to plan, as he started falling on the Malta Group, he "flexed" and his thick gray granite armor proceeded to wrap around him. It extended out from every opening in his clothes and wrapped around him. Though the power was incredibly careful, it still worked exceptionally fast.
Landing in the middle of the group, he hit the ground so hard it sent a tremor through the earth, knocking the conspiracy theory terrorists off their feet. Randall gave the group a quick scan, searching for the tell-tale jet-pack that indicated a Sapper. Even if that were a problem, he rotted to the ground. He wouldn't be moving fast at all, but at least he could take anything they threw at him now.
----------
--Brickstown/Crey's Folly--
The group arrived in record time (utilizing a mix of portals and their supergroup base) at the entrance to Crey's Folly. It was an inappropriate name, for the area was actually turned into the disaster zone it currently was by the Rikti, as it was one of the first places they teleported into from their dimension's version of Paragon City and they just opened fire, leveling much of the industrial complex. The region once known as Venice hadn't received much attention since the guns were fired... What few people ventured in did so under heavy guard to maintain the few still-running power plants and factories. The rest were criminals, heroes, or the Rikti.
Mad Matt and his crew were only interested in the first of that list at the moment. The Malta Group were fond of Crey's Folly, Kip explained, because it was a dangerous area few people went to. So, it made sense that three of the locations Crimson and Indigo had given them indicated this region. One pointed at a place none of them wanted to go just yet, White Plains... The Rikti War Zone. The other two were a tad too remote to have access to the kinds of power plants required for the Slinger's endeavors.
Still... They were remote... So heading out to Dark Astoria and the eastern edge of the Hollows were still in the cards. Matt had a bad feeling about things, though.
"You guys still want to hit these locations, or just cut straight to the chase and go bust up the Rikti War Zone base?" he asked.
Kip shook his head.
"Regardless of what our guts are telling us, man, we gotta hit at least one of these bases first and hope that it has info on other cells. We clear the three bases Indy and Red said are here, and we stand good chances of finding where we're looking for. For all we know, the Slinger doesn't have anything to do with any of these bases, but if we hurt them enough, they'll figure that it will cost them much less to give us what we want to know. Six bases should be enough."
"Or they'll try to kill us," Nester rubbed his shoulder self-consciously, "Guys... I've been hit by cluster rockets before... It doesn't tickle."
"Oh, quit yer cryin'." Kip waved his brother off, "What do you think Ninety-nine?"
"I say you've got a good plan, Boss. Let's get crackin'."
Matt and Nester nodded. Though they had their doubts, those paled to Kip's logic. Kip, of course, had been doing this longer than both of them combined, both officially and unofficially. Nester checked to make sure his Healing Wave generator was still good and his Medical Gauntlets were calibrated. Everything was good and he rocketed into the sky. He was shadowed by Ryat99. Kipland leaped into the distance.
Matt marveled at that. It seemed like Kip flew just a little farther every day. Perhaps he was flying... Revving his motorcycle, he tore off into the distance, heading for the first agreed upon address.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"... OK, we can just ignore the guy who doesn't know the plan." Jake muttered, his eyes automatically keeping track of Randall in the air. "Suppose following the crowd's as good a plan as any." He muttered, simeaultaniously sending a request for some sort of leadership to be sent to the Riktified Terra via a small device in his pocket. The thing was, essentially, a cell phone, so it was highly unlikely that anybody would find this suspicious, even on the off chance they noticed him performing the task in the first place.
-----
The Arachnos soldiers and drones had absolutely no possible way available to them at the moment to detect the device and, therefore, fell right into the trap. As to what they could do regarding what the trap did once triggered, however, remained to be seen.
"Would have been nice to give me a little warning," Toy Dispenser muttered as he hit the anti-grav and zipped through the air toward the Maltan tower.
Leaning in midair up against the stone of the tower and out of sight of the Maltan agents or other robots, Toy locked in on the frequencies the Maltans were using for communication and flooded them with a high pitched tone sure to give a normal person a headache in short order. While short-ranged, his interference would affect anything transmitting into and out of Toy's range that Toy didn't specifically state as being safe.
****************************************
"Ah subtlety, how I dislike thee," Solid said to himself as his LRM made a 'pff' sound as it left the barrel of his gun.
The missile seemed to lazily drift through the air towards the Maltans until Grey landed amongst them. Surprise gone, Solid shot a blip of code at the missile which ignited its rocket and sent the thing hurtling into the trio of Maltan Group soldiers. The explosion would certainly be noticable if the heavy thump Grey had made upon landing wasn't clue enough.
Cher'tak had smoothly accepted control of the dropship from Sah'Teece and brought the ship in low enough so that the group was standing at the upper threshold of the dropship's portal range.
As it was, a Rikti portal burst into life in front of the group and Cher'tak motioned for everyone to hurry in.
"Entrance portal: Limited time: Move quickly," said Cher'tak as he drew his bladerifle and tapped it against the ground. "Supporting troops: Remain: Eliminate Sappers. All others: Board: Posthaste."
"Don't have to tell us twice," said Combat Toy as the assault bot stomped through the portal onto the Rikti ship. Toy's other bots went through just as quickly.
"I'll help Grey hold off the swarm of baddies that'll show up any second," said Solid as the rockets on either side of his boots lit up. "I'm sure the rest of you can handle whatever's in there without me."
Kicking off and leaping over the side, Solid fell a good ten feet before he spun around and shot straight up into the air, maneuvering to get a good view of the bridge and the tower that the Maltans were on and in.
***********************************************
The sound of a large pair of beating wings steadily approached Thermoplast and the dog from up high. Neither of them really needed to look up to see how it was, as the winged figure suddenly stopped beating the air and landed with a thump in a crouch right in front of the pair.
"Aiming to trick someone out of a donut again?" asked Balsk, resident bronze-scaled draconian and current beat cop of the Soul Police Chapter of the border collie.
The dragonman nodded politely at Thermoplast before continuing to address the dog.
"So, there a specific reason you called me out here? Bit beyond my 'Security Level'," Balsk said with the addition of a pair of air quotes. "But if Portal Corp does what it's name suggests, I guess I'm the right man for the job."
The draconian shrugged and flexed his wings, jostling the extra-long broadsword sheathed at his side. It and the belt keeping the sheath around his waist seemed to be the only stitch of clothing that Balsk was wearing but considering his reptilian nature he probably didn't really need clothes. The was also the whole problem of getting a tail into pants that Balsk fervently wished to avoid as much as possible.
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.
"I can't believe we're doing this..." Essex murmured ever-so-softly as she trickled behind the main group, trying to stay out of sight. She did, however, keep an eye on the vitals of those in the group...boosting a bit of nanoaccelerants to Solid to further hone his already unbelievable aim.
----------------------------------------------
The dog snorted a bit at Balsk's words, but her tail wagged easily even as she glanced up to Thermoplast.
"Wuff."
With that, she began trotting purposefully over to the room that had been predesignated to the group...
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
The Malta Operatives didn't even get a chance to bark their characteristic, "MHI!" before the hulk of stone Randall Grey had become roared from rain's haze and right into their midst, his impact bowling them over like reeds in a hurricane.
Indeed, the bridge itself groaned under the collision, dust flaking off the overpass at several points, the structure showing its age. It held firm even so, and Solid's missile didn't change that, finding its mark not a second after the tanker's impact. A terrifying sound of thunder echoed in tandem with the explosion's fireball, hurling the Operation Engineers over the edge and into the abyssal realm of mists below.
The TacOps Commander, however, had managed to react quickly enough to roll out of the explosion's radius, spitting a colorful string of curses as his radio gave up its ghost in the interference. Using his momentum, the man rammed the flat of his palms against the ground, bounding back up in a heartbeat and almost simultaneously loosing a frag grenade at Randall.
He didn't have time to take any other action, a Rikti portal already flaring into existence directly behind him, ready to let loose those that the approaching Drop Ship had taken aboard with the first gateway not a few seconds ago. Sadly, technical limitations of Rikti teleportation workings didn't permit a straight transit from one point to the other.
Not that this had bothered Sah'Teece. The Rikti diplomat stepped from the second portal with deft speed nonetheless, striking at the Maltan Commander with his bladerifle, the edge's iridescent energies singing by at hair's breath from the man's neck due to the highly trained operative having thrown his body low and forward, his mind frantically trying to make sense of the situation.
Acid had taken much the same approach; only he'd chosen to transport himself by means of his own mind's capacity to teleport, displacing his body just at the rear and to the side of Sah'Teece. Analyzing the situation in a heartbeat, the reptilian took a knee and lined up the barrel of his rifle at what (at least to him) seemed the greatest threat at this point, taking steady aim into the entryway that held the inactive screen.
The robot at crossway's end, however, seemed to possess neither need nor capability for confusion, allowing it to act much more quickly than its beleaguered human comrade. IFF mechanisms assessed the granite-armored tanker as its primary target, prompting the launch of an incendiary missile barrage, the machine's calculations suggesting that the rooted Grey would be at a disadvantage to the resulting patches of blazing flames due to his presently greatly slow running speed.
Then the mechanoid followed up with a very unexpected move.
It fled.
Integrated thrusters ignited within the soles of the assault bot's feet, snapping the machine's frame up and back, the robot obviously intent on getting out of the interference it had detected in order to alert the base...
--------------------
The effect didn't let wait on itself long. The sensor launched its signal almost immediately, a minuscule current shooting down well-concealed wires along the underside of the bridge, the electric impulse racing to both ends and takin less than a millisecond to tap its receivers.
C4 plastique.
The pair of charges placed at the terminators detonated nearly in the same instant, viciously tearing apart the entryways of each tower that the bridge connected, sending flame, debris, and maybe even ragged pieces of the Arachnos mediporter station rocketing every which way.
Worse yet, these had only been the initial igniters. Half a second later, another pair blew, even as the bridge already fell away into the abyss, explosion after explosion propagating from endpoints toward mean at half-second intervals, the C4 packs having been placed with no purpose other than to completely annihilate the overpass and any who dared cross it.
Coincidentally, this took place at virtually the same time as the ambush of Delta team upon the quite surprised Malta, meaning that the sounds of thunder from each event overpowered the noise of the other, leaving Arachnos and the Vanguard detachment completely unaware of one another by means of sound...
--------------------
"Seems we have our answer." Thermoplast told Balsk with lax tone, his arms giving a bit of a shrug as he turned to follow the border collie.
He knew nothing of a designated room or such, but this wasn't unusual. Generally, only the uppermost echelons of the SPC knew what precisely an assignment entailed before it had begun. Still, the bits and pieces of conversation he'd caught led him to believe this 'Archlich' might have had something to do with it.
In any case, his mind stood focused on this, and thus he didn't even notice yet another new arrival making his way past the gate as the three walked off.
The figure may have looked unusual to the average human, but in Paragon City, atypical had long since become the norm. None of the security personnel even bothered with the new arrival for longer than a few moments after he'd provided identification to the gate guard and thereby gained admittance.
The figure stood at a height of a little more than two meters, perhaps two point two, clad entirely in an assembly of dull gray robes that left no clue to his actual features. A thick cloth in the style of a 'reaper' covered the lower half of his face, bulging outward like some manner of maniacal dentist had just stopped working on the jaw beneath. The same brown cloth extended onto the head over the neck, coming down onto the stranger's forehead like a hijab.
The only visible clue to the intruder's nature sat in the cloth's opening for the eyes, a pair of large, set-apart oculae that contained slitted pupils with irises of almost blood-toned crimson. They surveyed the scene about closely, as if scrutinizing every detail of every molecule of campus within their grasp. A few strands of long hair in the same crimson hue hung at the edges of the gap, and the man's skin seemed to possess an orange or persimmon tint, as well as an odd-looking texture. Details were hard to make out in the shadow cast by the thick bulges of head-covering wardrobe, but said skin surely wasnt smooth. The figure was without doubt not human...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
--Rikti Earth: The Forgotten Sanctuary--
"What!?" Randall shouted as he saw the machine flying away, "Oh no you don't!"
The roots wrapped around his legs crumbled away and he grasped for the nearest movable object.
The Malta Operative.
Picking the struggling man up in the air, he hurled the operative with all his might at the fleeing machine. He then started stomping across the bridge, charging through and backhanding operatives left and right.
----
Ryat66 sidled next to Solid Shot and took aim. One of the operatives had grabbed the side of the bridge. One sniper shot later, and that grip was gone. A long trail of bright orange and yellow flame scored into one that pulled himself back up. Simmons blew some smoke off his fingertips when the two androids looked back at him.
"What can I say?" he asked with a sly grin, "Sometimes, the villains just irk me."
----------
--Crey's Folly: Malta Base 1--
((Y'know... If Sovs wanted to drop in, any one of these places would be prime...))
The quartet moved into the warehouse. It was the first place Indigo had told them should be teeming with Malta operatives.
The info had been wrong.
"Maybe we should check for basement levels or something," Matt suggested.
Kip almost walked out into the middle of the floor and executed one of his signature rants. Instead, he stopped at where the hallway became the room and dove behind some forgotten crates.
"What are you doing?" Ryat99 asked disparagingly.
"Look, man, you haven't dealt with the Malta Group before," the scrapper hissed, "They pull all sorts of crazy paranoid voodoo on jobs just like this... I'm not getting my [butt] kicked because I forgot to check-"
A grenade exploded next to the android. Ryat99 calmly turned to the operative that fled down the hallway as soon as he made sure someone noticed him.
"I think they want us to go that way," he said calmly as his ice armor replenished itself, "What do you think?"
"I'm not in the habit of springing traps when I know they're traps... Not unless I've got something I can sacrifice instead."
"Oh, come on!" Matt started jogging for the opening to the hallway, "What's the worst they can do?"
"Torture us," Nester answered.
"Kill us," Ryat99 added.
"I think they'd throw [censored] in there, too," Kip also tossed into the conversation as he picked himself up, "I wouldn't put it past them."
Matt stopped jogging after the operative before cartwheeling to the wall.
"Jeez, guys... You really know how to take the fun out of this..."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Ineffable did not need portals to move instantly from place to place. And he also did not need to resort to physical force to stop his enemies from getting away. The brute materialized the split second Grey had landed, and seeing that the situation was essentially handled, set his sights on the mechanoid. The only apparent remaining threat. The brute reached out with a hand, and clenched it.
The fleeing robot was in the corridor one moment, the next, without any evidence to tell what had just happened, it was back on the bridge not two feet away from Ineffable.
Tossing a quick wave at Corey and Ryatt, Solid dove off the edge and zoomed over to the fight. He arrived just in time for Ineffable to relocate the assault bot.
"Nice catch!" Solid shouted at the brute as he threw his free hand forward, little tendrils of electricity shooting out and wrapping around the assault bot's feet, trapping it on the ground no matter how hard it pushed it's thrusters.
"I call the fascimile!" Combat Toy suddenly shouted as it came barreling out of the portal, dodging to one side of Acid and Sah'Teece and ramming its shoulder into the trapped assault bot.
With one hand Combat Toy grabbed the assault bot's right arm and shoved it down and away so the plasma cannon couldn't hit anything. With its right hand CT grabbed the left cannon at the elbow and violently ejected its wrist sword. The sword carved through the assault bot's elbow and severed the plasma emitter from the rest of the fire. In a final coup de grace, CT angled its torso upward and then fired both plasma cannons in the assault bot's face.
Cher'Tak made a much less spectacular entrance, stepping out of the portal and lowering his bladerifle at the fleeing TacOps. Taking half a second to aim, the Warmaster put an expertly placed shot right between the man's shoulder blades.
Toy, meanwhile, continued leaning against the tower wall and wondered why he heard two explosions.
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.
Archlich's portal was soon disrupted.
--------
As Rosie glanced back at Thermoplast and Balsk, she made a beckoning motion by glancing towards the door and glancing back. Once the door was opened for her, she turned a corner.
Before them all stood a large, grand, arcane portal, crackling with energy. Rosalind leapt through it without a second thought.
--------------------------
Landing on the other side, she tossed the cosmic travel out of her fur and transformed.
"I [censored] hate doors!" she fumed. "And 'doggie doors' are soooooooooo [censored]' humiliating. This one time, this one time, I chewed on a doorknob for FOUR HOURS trying to open it. FOUR HOURS! UGH! Humans."
With that said, she turned to Archlich, holding out a hand.
"Sup, old man. Slap me some bone."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
OOC: .......I completely forgot about Archlich. Errrr..... <_< Let's correct that.
BIC: "So this is what it feels to walk where gods once trod," said Archlich in a reverent tone as he stepped out of the portal and took several slow steps into the cavern that stretched before him.
Immeasurably large, the ceiling of the cavern reached up into infinity, defying Archlich's ability to identify where it ended. All around him were gargantuan stalagmites carved with arcane glyphs and records of past deeds. Some of the rock formations had been carved into elaborate statues of the various gods that must have called this place home. Most of the gods were human-shaped while a few combined animal characteristics with that of humanity.
Slowly walking forward, Archlich didn't notice the sudden shiver that went through his portal; he was much too absorbed in this discovery to pay attention to such unimportant things.
The statue of the goddess of magic was easy enough to find even though her form in this alien world differed slightly from what Archlich remembered her to be. A beautiful women clad in robes of the richest red, her sharp, aristocratic face split in a wide smile with one hand forming the simplest of arcane gestures and the other holding an open tome of magic.
Most of the color was gone, washed away by the passage of time, but Archlich could almost completely remember what it would have looked like. Almost, but not quite.
With a shuddering sigh, Archlich kneeled on the ground before the statue of Hequat and it was thus that Rosie, Balsk, and Thermoplast found him with his cape puddled around him and his skull pressed against the base of the statue.
"I don't think he's in the mood to talk, boss," muttered Balsk out of the corner of his mouth as he stepped out of the portal.
OOC: Archlich has emotions? GASP.
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.
"Guess he won't notice if I take his femur to chew on." Rosie said, leaning down to tug at the skeleton's leg-bone cheerfully.
But she paused.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeey." she said, pointing to the statue of Hequat. "I know her! She's that...Hecate...chick. Since the Old Gods got bored of running civilizations, she's got a Coney joint up in the Bronx."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
The soldiers were indeed caught off guard. In fact, they were essentially screwed. Considering they had counted on Jake to find them a secure location, not a single iota of effort was put into any sort of defense until some type of headquarters was formed, and, apparently, this would be their downfall.
Or so one would think.
The moment before the Maltan explosives had decimated the bridge, a lone figure suddenly popped into existance no less than five meters from the opening. Stepping out onto the cold metallic floor, his black standard issue Arachnos boots making a satisfying clang, the Arbiter simply glanced out over the edge and emotionessly teleported his entire squad back into the hallway, after which he quickly set up a shimmering wall of green. One may have wondered as to what the purpose of this wall was, but it was soon made clear when an explosion ripped through the hallway up to the point where the wall was set up. The forcefield rippled, but held, much to the relief of the soldiers and, although one would have been able to tell outwardly, the Arbiter. Taking down the field, he quickly ported in another medical device with a device very similar to Jake's.
The soldiers, after getting their bearings, shakily stood at attention, the wind from the canyon blowing through the door and into their eyes, watching as the Arbiter ran a diagnostic on the new medical device and the drones that had been with them.
"Alright..." He finally said, his boots clanging as he walked turned around and strolled toward the group. "Status report."
"I want to know what went wrong, why, and what we can do to make this problem go away."
-----
Sighing, Jake yet again contemplated his place in the team, considering he had been left completely out of the loop. As he had already previously decided to follow the crowd, Jake flew across the canyon with his minions in tow, landing on the other side in a matter of seconds with yet another satisfying clang. He immediately spotted the fleeing mechanoid, and, as Newton stated, reacted, in this case, with a steady stream of lasers and plasma.
Or such was the plan.
While Ineffable had indeed completed his attempt of recalling the enemy mechanoid to his position before it took to the air, there had been no guarantee of success. In addition, he may have noticed the machine carried a rather non-standard internal structure. It would seem that even though the robot looked like any average Assault Bot type out there, the Slinger had performed extensive modifications. Of course, this only applied if Ineffable could even differentiate the properties of objects he attempted to teleport in the first place.
Still, luck had been in his favor; as well as Solid Shot's. Ineffable emerged victorious, and the mechanoid quickly found itself on the bridge and stuck to the ground by a polarized electric field.
Combat Toy, however, did not share this luck. While the targeted part sliced easily enough under his wrist blade, the enemy mechanoid's frame turned out to be tougher than it looked. The plasma blasts weren't hot enough to liquefy its head, although a large torrent of exterior facial coating flaked away in the wake of the split stream, the material underneath aglow in radiant crimson.
In addition, the missile launchers upon its shoulders could still very much fire, although they had to wait to do so until after Combat Toy had concluded its plasma assault. A pack of swarm missiles roared at the offending machine from point-blank range, seeking to blast it off and clear of the Malta mechanoid.
Acid, however, still fired (likely much to the confusion of those about him), but it now became quite clear the assault bot hadn't been his target. Instead, the energy round blew apart a plate in the stone-metal hybrid of corridor floor, the blast of shrapnel delaying the duo of 'Battle Drone' type machines that had been standing behind a duo of thick pillars a few meters into the passage.
The robotic sentries had been positioned to face the other way, probably to guard their larger comrade from rear strikes, but now they bolted for it as well, having attempted to kick on their own thrusters only moments before the blast's pressure wave had rammed them into the walls. The momentary loss of positioning data forced them to recalculate, postponing their takeoff by a few seconds.
"Check your fire!" the Khelari roared at the approaching Jake, both to overtone the ambient dissonance as well as reprimand the youth for having his henchmen open fully fire on a hostile grappling with an ally in melee without full exactness in other words, playing sniper with a field barrage.
Unfortunately, his next round would have to wait. Up until now, the enemy had behaved as he'd expected, and the reptilian had no doubt this would continue. After the added duo of robots had been threatened, there were only a few logical choices available to the assault bot for its next action. Acid knew it would pick the most unexpected one - insane as it may have been - taking directly after the lunacy of its creator.
Still, pre-emptive measures came too late, even as Acid dropped his weapon and thrust the palms of his clawed hands ahead. As the assault bot's glowing head began to lose its iridescence, the machine already made its move. Without warning, it engaged a detonator, exploding with enough thunderous violence to tear a hole right through the bridge deck. Thankfully, the support structure held firm, but the configuration still groaned with horrid echo, vibrations shaking the entirety of the crossway.
The bulk of the blast had bashed against an unseen barrier, causing the air in its area to flare up pale-blue, but the sheer impact had been too much for the reptilian's transitioning stance from crouch to stand. The force had bowled him over and back, shield collapsing as he lost concentration upon hitting the bridge deck and skidding aft a few meters. With a vicious snarl, cursing his inattention as much as the painful abrasion, the reptilian rolled back up, using his momentum to his advantage in order to stand more quickly.
"Ess, make sure everyone's okay!" he shouted to the reploid while making a dive for the dropped combi-rifle, snatching the weapon from the ground and promptly teleporting across the hole to give chase after the battle drones; which had of course taken off by now.
Seeing this, the reptilian performed another short-range 'jump' to get back at their heels, despite the fact that it seemed unlikely he'd be fast enough to stop them alone - and he wasn't one conceited enough to believe that he indubitably could. By now, they rounded a corner to the right.
"Warmaster, get the ship ahead of them!" Acid's voice came across the team channel in short order, interspaced with quick breaths that stemmed from a hastened sprint, "I'm transmitting an intercept course!"
The trajectory arrived moments later. It would take the Drop Ship past the tower the assault bot had been positioned in, as well as above the large structure anchored to this tower and two others not far from it, connecting the three like some manner of toroidal plate. Located just behind and to the right of the original tower, Acid apparently suspected the open-roofed structure to be the destination of the battle drones, and hence had concluded for it to present the best opportunity to cut them off...
--------------------
"Direct." Thermoplast remarked emotionlessly at the transit, casting a glance about at the remnants of the former Rikti pantheon's spiritual realm.
He said not a word as his gaze fell upon Archlich, deferring to Rosalinds judgment when it came to these matters. That did not go to say he wasn't prepared for a sudden and violent change of situation, however, a gloved hand reaching beneath the side of his white cloak in precaution...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Gonna have to do better than that!" roared Combat Toy as the smoke from the missile launch and resulting explosions cleared, revealing the scars and slight cracking of the armor across CT's chest. While annoying, the damage was nowhere near enough to take the upgraded assault bot down.
The sudden self-destruct might be, though. Right at ground zero, Combat Toy was knocked backwards a good fifteen feet, did a backflip in midair, and hit the ground with a horrible screech of metal grinding against rock. Various systems shorted out in the sudden detonation, Combat Toy lay on the ground attempting to get its bearings back. It was effectively down and out for the next half minute or so.
Solid Shot was quite annoyed when the assault bot violently exploded, the blast wave almost swatting him out of the air. Thankfully he was able to regain his bearings quickly enough and noticed Acid chasing after the pair of battle drones.
"Coming in on your six!" the security droid shouted to the mastermind as he dove down and tried to hammer one of the drones with a slug to the back of the knee. Acid was in no danger of being hit, though Solid would be forced to slow down his flight in order to get an accurate shot in.
"Order: Recieved: Acting," replied Cher'Tak as the Warmaster expertly swung the dropship up and about to take position over the open air dome. A press of a button activated the dropship's belly turrets and a psychic command keyed in the correct IFF codes for his allies.
"Ah hell," muttered Toy Dispenser as he started floating along the outside of the tower, trying to keep the running drones within range of his jamming. It was a bit of a stretch, but he could keep both drones under the blanket of his interference while still messing with whoever else might be in the original tower.
--------------------------------
"She is Hequat," said Archlich quietly enough that he could barely be heard. "She was... is the goddess of my people and favored student of Tielekku."
Slowly rising to his feet, Archlich started walking down the rows of pillars and statues, seemingly ignoring Rosie and her crew for the moment.
Balsk cast a worried look at Rosie. The guy they had come for looked to be seriously unhinged, not to mention undead. Balsk had generally found that insane undead mages with religion were big trouble but he'd follow Rosie's lead until the lich started something.
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.
"Feh." Jake scowled, stopping his minion's fire. He ordered his minions to hold their fire, however, continue to hold a lock on the target with a nonchalantless any slacker would have envied. "Tell me when it's alright to shoot again, I'ma put up some forcefields." He announced to the group, opening a glowing gloved palm in Combat Toy's direction with the intention of providing him with some defense.
His course of action, however, was cut short with the detonation of the target. Schrapnel flew everywhere as Jake suddenly abandoned his action, instead favoring a personal bubble for himself, which deflected not only the initial blast, but also any schrapnel that saw it fit to fly in his direction. Any pieces of flying metal that collided with his shield would find themselves violently flung in another direction, leaving Jake untouched. His minions, however, did get hit, for what little good it would do. Jake's robots were designed with combat in mind, therefore, there was little they couldn't withstand. The blast caused them to slide back a few yards, and knocked down a couple of the smaller drones, nothing more.
Jake smirked as the damage cleared, anybody who happened to be observing clearly seeing he didn't truly care about the health of his comrades. "Wish more of my opponents did that." He muttered.
Ineffable had vanished the moment the assault bot was held in its little cage, and as such, he was free to react once the other two drones were discovered.
Ineffable popped out of thin air right in front of one of the retreating drones, throwing a destructive punch right at its body as he appeared. He was also extremely transparent now, as he was stealthed, and thereby impossible to see from a distance. He used this in the hope that any additional drones/scouts/long range scanners wouldn't pick him up wrecking these drones. Which was unlikely, but it never hurt to hope.
OOC: I love that phrase. I am using it so much these days.
BIC: "Oh... Him..." said Toy Dispenser as he cast back through his memory databanks. "Heh, can't believe I forgot about that [censored]. He's just about the only non-Destined One to use Arachnos approved combat drone designs."
"Which just adds to his nuttiness," muttered Mini Bot. "Like seriously, the boss and we only fought him once but the guy was a TOTAL nutcase. He had more nuts than the nuttiest Nutter Bar or the most peanutty of peanut butters or-!"
"Shut it, pip squeak," said Combat Toy as it thumped a fist on Mini Bot's head.
"In any respect, I can do the jamming," Toy said after Mini Bot was done talking. "The only problem is I'll have to get a lot closer and I won't be in communication during that time. I generally only use this function when I'm taking down a military base and I only need to communicate with my bots. But it's worked a good 95% of the time."
"I remember this one US Colonel screaming into his walkie talkie as we came in through the cei-," said Mini Bot just before it was cut off by a dual thump from both Large Toy and Combat Toy.
Rubbing its head, Mini Bot slumped off and sulked at the back of the group.
"Oddity, Attitude: Toy Dispenser's minions: Continually: Boggle: Mind," said Cher'tak as he watched this display in amusement. "Regards: Current situation: Jam: Maltan systems: Supported. Addendum: Utilize dropship: Aerial, Teleport: Assault."
"If you want me to shoot the bad guys you better let me know soon," Solid interjected. "It'll take a few seconds for my missile to hit them while flying silent and they're going to be in cover pretty soon."
"By 'flying silent', Solid Shot means that the missile will only accelerate to killing velocities just before impact," stated Toy Bot to whoever was listening. "Previous demonstrations of such a tactic have proven that the missile is generally not seen until detonation."
********************************************
Right about now the Paragon Police Department station in Peregrine Isle would be receiving an anonymous tip regarding a stealthed Arachnos Flyer that had breached Paragon City's perimeter and had landed on one of the island's beaches. The exact coordinates of the landing weren't supplied, but the search area was narrow and the various photos that accompanied the tip would be enough to get a rapid response team of Police Drones and a few Kheldian officers to search the area.
"How the hell did they find out about that?" muttered the exceedingly pale police chief to himself as he tore up and deleted several photos showing himself in various comprimising positions with several Carnies, not all of whom were women.
Up in orbit, Toy Dispenser's manufactory returned to passive sensors once more. Knowing that there was quite a bit of other life out among the stars, the mastermind had placed more than a few types of sensors on his satellite that aimed out into space. But despite having the best technology that money could buy installed on it, it was still sheer luck that the manufactory had detected the approaching ship.
Standard procedure in this case was to alert Toy Dispenser ASAP. But since Toy was unavaliable the manufactory could do nothing but wait to see what the alien vessel did. And since the ship chose to land literally right on top of Toy's operational area, the AI of the satellite classified the ship as a threat and did what was neccessary to neutralize it.
Hopefully it did the right thing and Toy wouldn't be too mad at this presumptuous display of initiative when he got back.
***********************************************
"LET THE GATEWAY TO THE NEXT WORLD BE OPEN ONCE AGAIN!" bellowed Archlich to the airlessness of the void before him.
With a sudden crack that was not so much heard as felt in one's soul, a portal opened before Archlich. Roughly circular in shape, the portal was rimmed in brilliant blue energies and its center was blacker than the depths of starless space. The energies released during this event scoured the various wards around Archlich's camp to nothingness and radiated enough energy that the dormant warship could pick it up, as well as anything else within that same range.
But Archlich cared not for discovery. At this point he almost didn't give a damn if he himself died because of this.
Archlich was going to stride amongst the remains of gods and the rest of the multiverse could go hang itself for all he cared about it right now.
Walking through the portal cause it to shrink down to an infinitily small dot of energy. The portal was now fully active on the other side and would remain in such an undectable state until Archlich deigned to venture back through it to the mortal realm.
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.