Ghost tightened his grip on his rifle. He'd been sitting here for several minutes now, waiting in ambush for an unwary Vanguard patrol or worse a hero to come through. So far nothing, but he kept his wits about him nontheless.
He heard the sounds of someone approaching on his right. Ghost checked to make sure he was completely behind cover and then poked his rifle out of the fort he'd made using crates around him.
The red lens of his rifle was trained on an armored figure for a little more than a second before he moved the gun away. "Find anything?" he whispered over the radio.
"Nope," Radiator replied dejectedly. He took a seat on some crates on the opposite side of the room, his armor still emitting faint traces of heat. "We're stuck here."
Ghost readjusted his position. Leaning on the floor against a stack of crates wasn't the best thing in the world for his back, which was still aching from earlier. "Not necessarily. There's still that big warship outside."
Radiator snorted. "And just how do you propose we get over there?"
"Teleporters." Ghost retorted. "You or HK fly over there and find a way in, then teleport the rest of us onboard. It's risky, but you should be able to pull it off."
There was a long silence as Radiator actually contemplated the plan. He was about to say something, when suddenly the duo heard voices approaching from the opposite side from where Radiator had come from.
"Quick, hide in the ceiling." Ghost spat as he once again shifted his position. His hand graced the side of his rifle as he again poked it out of his hide away and into the open.
"Four bogies, all of 'em metas. [censored], there's Jack 7. And ain't that his buddy Static Therapy?"
"They must have heard about us here."
"HK, this is Ghost, get your [censored] over here pronto."
"Think we can take 'em?"
Ghost contemplated the merits of a fight. They had the element of suprise, and there was a distinct chance that Ghost could take out one of the team members in the first shot. Radiator might be able to distract Static. Yes, they could pull it off....
"Get ready to take Static on my signal." Ghost grabbed hold of his rifle, his heart beat was already quickening in anticipation of hte kill.
Ghost was already ruling out targets. Phantom Paragon would crumple in any sort of a fight, as would FX, but Jack, he was an expert in this sort of fighting. He would be a pain in the [censored] to kill.
On the other hand, he was on the other side of Ghost, blocked by Static. Ghost didn't want to risk missing the shot. Instead he had to choose one of the freebie targets.
Pantom was blocked by FX, which made Ghost's choice of target for him...
"Get ready." he whispered as he zeroed in his sights on FX.
Time slowed as he pulled back on the trigger, taking in a deep breath. Already he could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He savored the moment for a few prescious seconds longer, then he took the shot.
An armor piercing round shot out of the chamber and went at super sonic speeds through the air. A second later FX's body gave a sudden jerk. His helmet suirted blood out in all directions, the sniper bullet having gone straight between his eyes. The other three heroes immediately made a move to dive for cover. As FX's body fell limp and he dropped like a stone Phantom Paragon disappeared into the darkness. Jack rolled over a crate, disappearing into a maze of supplies.
Static was about to do the same when suddenly a bright green bolt slammed into him from above. It impacted against his bright red electrical shield, immediately drawing his attention.
Radiator fell upon him like the flood, lashing out with bright green attacks that impacted further against Static's shield. Ghost had to leave those two to their own devices now, he had bigger fish to fry.
He was about to activate his thermal goggles and look for the other two heroes himself, when suddenly an impact grenade slammed into the crate next to him, and detonated. The shockwave sent Ghost flying out of cover and straight into a wall.
Jack 7 had hit his mark.
The drones were quite speedy, and it seemed sure that if Acid hadn't executed short jumps through time and space, the reptilian wouldn't have been able to keep a steady firing position in the frantic chase.
Sadly, not everyone could do so. Solid Shot's slug deviated due to the mechanoids' erratic flight pattern. Still, the round struck, blasting off the target drone's communications antenna.
Oh, now there's a thought.
The notion that Toy's jamming field wouldn't be able to keep pace was naturally of concern, but if something like this could be done, said potential perturbation could be eliminated before it even got a chance to create a true problem.
The reptilian took a knee, aiming carefully as his mind tried to predict the movements of the two mechanoids' evasive maneuvers, the very same causing Cory's fireball to slam into nothing but ceiling, raining down debris that prompted the drones to alter their pattern yet again.
Ineffable, however, seemed to have surprised the two, and despite the erratic flight of his intended target, the punch still stuck, the fist wreathed in destructive emanations shearing the mechanoid's arm from just below its shoulder in a shower of sparks. Still, the strike hadn't succeeded in stopping the robot. The drones raced on, undeterred.
Even Acid's shot didn't cause them to halt as it took out the other machine's antenna, the reptilian following up with another teleportation ahead in order to aim his next blast just as well. He knew there wasn't much time, the mechanical duo already racing out of the tower and into the circular, open-air structure that bound this structure to two more of its kind, but this much time there had to be.
Thankfully, this seemed to become a moot point in short order, Ryat66 loosing his own energy-based sniper round, the bolt lancing down the hall and out into the structure, followed by nearly immediate contact with a solid target.
The Drop Ship...?!
--------------------
Three Seconds Earlier...
Upon confirming Cher'tak's new orders, the Drop Ship's automatic pilot wasted no time placing the vessel in proper position, ventral weapons already charging as the ship slowed to a hover above the open-air torus. The moment the drones emerged onto the platform the three towers suspended, an Energy Burst would end their existence readily, the IFF systems keyed to match thanks to the Warmaster's foresight. Ready and locked, the ventral weapons would have no trouble taking down the two mechanoids below.
But not what came from above.
UNKNOWN ENTITY APPROACHING.
A horrendous detonation rocked the air itself with thunder; the Drop Ship's port aft section exploded with force, showering the ground below with flame and shrapnel.
ENGINE FAILURE. HULL ARMOR DAMAGED. LOSING ALTITUDE.
In a trail of fire and debris came down the vessel, ramming flat into the floor of the toroidal structure not a split second after the two drones had passed through underneath. The Ryat Unit's energy beam vanished in a cloud of smoke and dust, kicked up by the impact and rushing into the corridor with gale-force winds.
Acid didn't even have time to throw up a field of force, resorting to planting a boot on the ground and bringing his rifle up crosswise as he weathered the gust. With a predatory growl, he shot ahead in another teleportation not a second later, materializing atop the downed Drop Ship with the aim to either blast the drones again or locate the artillery position that had shot it down.
Of course, first things always came different, second than one expected.
From a column of black smoke came a heavy cylinder of blue, clocking the reptilian in the chest to send him crashing to the ground much like the vessel had done. Slamming down with his back for the second instance in what he considered much too short a time, the Khelari rolled back on his feet with a vicious snarl as he arrested his momentum, going so far as to dig the claws of his hands into the floor to bring to an end his motion in a crouch. The combi-rifle clattered to the ground over a dozen meters away, but presently that didn't much matter to its owner - the Titan that stood atop the Drop Ship was a great deal more pressing.
At first glance, the mechanoid may have looked as any other Zeus Class, the core chassis and framework the same - but only the first glance. The long blade that extended from its right arm, burning with the bright flicker of sun-hot plasma, was only the first clue as to what had taken the Drop Ship down.
The second was of course its designation, printed upon various locations of the Titan.
Not X-109.
Delta 5.
This was bad.
"Keep going." the reptilian rasped into the team's communications channel, spitting a clod of blood upon the floor that had lodged itself in his throat from the impact. He meant of course to keep pursuing the drones, feeling this was self-explanatory (the Titan had obviously locked onto him right now) as he continued to speak somewhat more normally, "I've got this jerk..."
--------------------
"Weapons fire." the Colonel reported in not two seconds after she'd heard the first shots in the distance, two fingers at the side of her helmet to convey the message back to ops, "Understood."
The vanguard officer and her patrol didn't waste any time, bolting down the corridor from which they'd perceived the sounds of gunfire. Backup was on the way, but the Lady Grey had ordered immediate action, and the small troop of Vanguard operatives would certainly make the most of it.
Upon arrival, the group's Adept immediately cast his first spell, sending a shard of ice against the hovering Radiator in an effort to slow him. Nearly simultaneously, one of the two Soldiers blasted a flashbang in Ghost Killer's direction, the second standing by to do the same if the first didn't achieve the desired effect...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Cher'tak's response to the unexpected assault and crippling of the dropship was a lengthy sequence of mental curses fit to boil someone's brain out. Thankfully the dropship had landed more or less on its belly, crushing the dorsal guns but keeping everything else from being knocked around too much. Not that it mattered much with the engines disabled, the dropship certainly wasn't going anywhere and enough emergency power remained for only a few minutes of operation.
"Emotion-state: Rage," growled Cher'tak as he made his way to an emergency escape hatch in the side of the ship and unlocked it. The door ground open slowly, too slowly for Cher'tak's taste, and he gave it a savage kick that sent the door flying out into the tower.
"Enemy: Foolish desire: [censored] kicking: Freely given," said Cher'tak as he jumped out of the dropship and shouldered his bladerifle. "Ally Acid: Support arrived. Human phrase: Appropriate: ..."
There was a clicking sound from Cher'tak's helmet and suddenly the Warmaster was speaking with the voice of Samual L. Jackson.
"I'm tired of these CENSORED titans on my CENSORED planet!" shouted Cher'tak as he opened fire.
While Cher'tak was busting his way out of the dropship, Solid had been hot on the heels of the two drones. He had ceased fire after his first shot in order to load up a magazine of AP rounds instead of his standard non-lethal variety. Sliding the magazine in just as he came out of the tunnel right behind the drones, the lens of Solid's targetting eye widened as he saw the titan come down and blow the hell out of the dropship.
Hitting the metaphorical afterburners, Solid just barely managed to slide under the falling dropship after the drones and then use his overload ability. Illegal Rikti technology in his forearms flared brightly, casting harmless but pretty arcs of electricity every which way as he supercharged the rifle in his hands.
Pulling up into an attack posture, Solid gave up his chance at keeping up with the drones in order to blaze away with a pumped up full auto attack. Electrically charged bullets acted as their own blue glowing tracer rounds, blasting at both drones in the most powerful attack Solid could pull out of his hat. The impressive dodges the drones had pulled off earlier would be for naught as Solid didn't really have to be accurate with this attack. If you were in front of him, you got hit. Period.
Needless to say Solid Shot enjoyed using this technique immensely.
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.
((Ventral guns, Khell. Ventral is along the "belly." Dorsal is along the "back."))
"Go granite, Randy," Cory's nose bled as he forced the thought through the Aether and started waving his hands.
A moment later, the form of Randall Grey arrived, bedecked in the hardened bedrock that was the signature of his brand of tanker. Forgoing his rooting at the moment, he charged at the Titan.
"Be careful," Simmons winced as he sent the thought through again.
"Next time just say it, boy," the tanker shouted back, "Gettin' through my skull's gonna be too damn hard!"
"Because it's so thick!" Ryat66 chirped, then noticed Cory's face, "Oh..."
"We should keep going," the wizard crushed a pink charm into his hand; the blood on his face cleared and his eyes uncrossed, "We need to stop those drones..."
"But, they warned the others already..."
"No..." Cory shook his head, "They didn't... That... That thing is not with them. Move!"
As the wizard and the hero-modded android pressed their pursuit, the tanker closed with the shipwreck. He pointed one of his massive granite fingers at the bizarre machine on top of it.
"Hey ugly!" Randy shouted as he picked up a chunk of debris and hurled it at the machine standing on top, "Show me what you got!"
As the combat android blazed away at the fleeing robots, Cory hovered overhead. He took to the sky when he determined a safe path to continue.
"I'll teleport you once I have them within range where they can't escape..." he called to the androids, "Just try not to shoot me!"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Ineffable had vanished not a moment after his punch connected, and once more, he rematerialized in front of a drone. This one being the undamaged one.
As he reappeared, Ineffable brought both hands about in an expansive bear-hug manuver. He was trying to grab onto and envelope the drone and completely obliterate it in one go. The drone would find this harder to dodge, even with its evasive manuvers, as Ineffable had literally appeared at point blank range and was filling quite a lot of space with his body.
OOC: Thanks Grey.
<_< And Ineffable is getting shot at if he does the bear hug thing, fyi. In real life there is always friendly fire.
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 think taking a few hits in return for completely destroying your opponent is a fair trade. 
Unless it manages to dodge. >.>
)
"Oh...right. Hecate is the one around. But I remember hearing about Hequat." Rosie said, scratching her head sheepishly. "The Soul Police have their eye on that situation too, but...the enchantments imprisoning her are a little beyond our league. And that's sayin' something, you know?"
She waited for Archlich to finish his meditation, her arms folded.
"So where do they need us?" she asked him. "It's not often the high-and-mighty heroes deign to ask us neutral powers for a hand that doesn't involve some sort of dumb moralistic power struggle."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Delta 5 didn't waste a single flop of processing time, hitting the literal afterburners by igniting a pair of jump jets and taking to the air in a trajectory that quickly became a ballistic arc. The flying rock and bladerifle shots went wide due to the leap, and a charge could be seen gathering on the soles of the Titan's feet. Simultaneously, a field of force that looked more like a beehive than an energy barrier constructed itself in a hemisphere about the mechanoid's front, building on itself hexagon by neon-blue hexagon until it had completed the form.
The Titan came down with power, directly in the path of Solid Shot, having placed itself at a dozen meters and between the android and the drones. Upon impact, the readied charge sprang from its feet and spread rapidly along the floor, an electro-kinetic shockwave racing radially out from the Titan, capable of greatly harming and shoving back everything in its wake, even a rooted Randall Grey at least so long as the target sat either on the ground or no more than a meter above it.
Many of Solid's electrically charged rounds found themselves beaten away by the wave of energy, though even more went above unaffected. Of those, the projectiles formerly speeding at the drone duo (now of course having Delta 5 in their way) collided viciously with the reflector field the mechanoid had projected, sending the bullets far and wide ahead of the machine, including at Solid and the others.
Needless to say, Acid's eyes widened quite a bit as he materialized from the teleportation he'd performed to jump past the shockwave, the reptilian at once changing his priorities and extending his palms in the directions of Cher'tak and Solid Shot to bring up his own brand of energy barriers in advance of them. He just hoped he'd acted quickly enough - if a force field wasn't there at the time a weapon crossed its line of action, there wasn't any way the barrier could stop it.
Delta 5 certainly seemed to have figured this out, its arms clacking closer to its side as the mechanoid charged forward at breakneck speeds, small spherical wheels in the soles of its feet giving the Titan incredible agility on the ground, not to mention the ability to speedily travel in all directions.
Rushing at Acid, who leaped to the side barely in nick of time, Delta 5 roared past the reptilian and barreled into the wall with a thunderous crash. Apparently, its systems hadn't been fully synched yet - but with the Delta units at the cutting edge of Malta's already ultra-high-tech arsenal, this was only a matter of time.
The Khelari certainly saw this, catching himself with a roll that ended in a crouch once again, his concentration broken by the sudden bull rush. The energy barriers had dissipated once more, but thankfully only after the reflected bullet storm.
"Heh, you should call it that!" Acid shouted to Solid Shot with a toothy smirk as he stood, not taking his eyes off the seemingly stuck Titan for a moment. It could've been a trap after all, "Now get going! I'll keep this thing busy! No worries - I'm gonna cheat...!"
--------------------
This time, however, the drone was ready. Cold, calculating, and by no means surprised, the machine batted the hovering Ineffable aside with a concentrated burst of its arm cannon. The normenergetic shot may not have bothered the brute, but the force that came with it definitely knocked him away. At this range, there wasn't any way the blast could miss, and if Ineffable vanished again to avoid it, he'd still be out of the flying drone's way - either way, the path had been cleared.
And so the drones rocketed on, roaring across the open space in record time, and entered the transit corridor connecting to the north tower...
--------------------
"He seems...unstable." Thermoplast commented emotionlessly, the cool, laid-back tone of his voice not letting even a hint of his thoughts shine through.
Still, the detective remained idle. There seemed to be much more happening here than was immediately apparent, and Rosie appeared to know just what...
"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--
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
Ryat66 tumbled backward five times before he reached out and grabbed the ground. Unfortunately, it was too slick to find purchase, but that didn't stop the construction android. He channeled a burst of energy into the floor strong enough to melt through the toughest steel out of his hands. The burst only lasted as far as the tips of Ryat66's fingers, but it worked. A small glowing streak was left behind the android, and he was able to stop his trip along the repulsion wave.
Randall had been thrown against the ship. With any luck, the next time Delta 5 tried that, his being Granite and Rooted would keep him in place, instead of just one or the other, as he was just in his Granite Armor on this go.
Pushing himself up, Randall started thundering toward the machine again. He wasn't about to let the cyborg stop him or his mission.
-----
Cory hated using the jetpack. Randall had gotten them for the whole crew, and they'd proven useful, even to the wizard, but the it was so... Conventional. It was a product of technology, and was originally meant to assist in long jumps, but Simmons and Randall's wife, Charlene, had discovered that it also provided an extra boost to flight speed.
Cory needed that boost now. Gritting his teeth, he retrieved a black remote control from the inside of his coat and pressed the single red button on it. There was a whirring and a clicking as the jetpack formed. It gave no consideration to the warlock's outfit (of course, since the coat didn't exist in a material sense, that made no difference) and just emerged through the back. With a whine, the jets fired and the wizard felt his speed increase. It was slight, but he was now gaining on the fleeing robots.
Simmons started mumbling and tracing his fingers in a simple pattern he used to cast the spell most other heroes called "Chillblain." When he neared the closer of the fleeing machines, he cast and the energy gathered at his fingertips erupted into a frosty mist that hardened around the robot's ankles, dragging it to the ground and holding it in place. He tried to rush past it, but as it fired on him, he had to maneuver.
As it leveled on the wizard, Cory rotated in the air. The machine let loose a bolt of energy that scored into the warlock's shoulder, but Simmons let loose a Blaze spell that blew the machine's head clean off.
"Ow," he gasped as he dropped out of the sky.
He couldn't catch the other and he knew it. Perhaps Solid could, however. Without wasting anymore time, Cory started weaving his free hand through the air to summon his ally through the Aether.
----------
--Crey's Folly: 1st Malta Group Base on the List--
Kipland kicked the Operative's head against the wall. The rest of the group flinched at the brutal hit, but the younger Durj didn't pay them any mind.
"I don't want to take over Grey's Army," Kip spat at the goon, "And I need information. Where is the Slinger's base?"
"Even if I knew what you were talking about, I wouldn't tell you!" the Operative replied, "You meta-humans think you can run the world? The Malta Group will-"
Kip zapped him in the neck and the True Believer slumped to the floor. He placed a Police Drone beacon on the thug's neck and turned to the rest of the team.
"Okay, this base was a bust... Probably just an opening facility," he shrugged, "Nothing but zealots. Nester, any luck with that computer?"
"I sent the info to Indigo," he shrugged, "But we can't be certain that-"
"Great... We're getting used by our own side..." Kip grumbled.
"It might not be so bad," Ryat99 intoned, "Besides, this is just the first base. It's small, under-developed... We should have realized this wasn't what we were looking for, but still, it's good to stop these things when they've started out."
"Indigo just sent me back a message apologizing for using us, yada-yada-yada... And now she's swearing the rest of the bases should prove more fruitful..." Nester narrowed his eyes at his communicator, "Goodbye, good luck..."
"At least they admitted it this time," Kip grumbled again.
As the police drones moved in on the fresh signals, the team moved out. Matt hopped on his motorcycle and started talking soothingly to the machine.
"Why do you keep coaxing your conveyance?" Ryat99 inquired.
"Because it needs some lovin'," the scrapper replied, "I just found out it kind of has a mind of its own... I don't even know if it's a male or a female... I just know it didn't like that first fight I put it through."
"Such is the folly of blending mystic elements with technology," the android's visor glowed brightly briefly, "The results are grievously unpredictable."
"Well, I'll do better next time," Matt chuckled.
"Next time?" Nester asked as he looked the contraption up and down, "You have another one of these crazy things in mind?"
"No!" the scrapper sounded shocked and he started patting the console of the machine, "No... But a true motorcycle aficionado is never done working on his baby..."
The rest of the team looked worriedly to each other and Kip shook violently.
"We're wasting time! Let's get on to the next base and start putting foot-to-[butt]!"
They didn't have any argument , so the team moved on to the next base, which was just next to the Freakshow's "Circus" district...
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Ineffable was hit by the drone's attack. He had appeared at exactly point blank range. Literally zero distance between himself and the drone. At that range, even Synapse wouldn't have been able to dodge.
Then Ineffable vanished.
To reappear right on TOP of the drone, fists coming down in a pendulum motion to clock the thing in the face and obliterate it. Again, at point blank range. The drone, having just proven it was capable of dealing with surprises, could probably rotate an arm and spare another energy bolt for the brute.
.........Who would predictably do the same thing, over and over again until the drone was eventually slag.
If the drone could turn on a dime though, it could dodge the brute entirely and knock him away. Whether it had advanced or powerful enough aerial navigation protocols remained to be seen.
OOC: *rubs hands together*
BIC: "Mother [censored]!" Solid shouted as he brought both arms up in front of his face, his enlargened forearms blocking the few bullets that bounced back at him and weren't blocked by the timely intervention of Acid's shield.
High enough up in the air, Solid hadn't needed to worry about the energy wave, though Cher'tak certainly had. The Warmaster had taken one look at the oncoming wave of energy, knew he couldn't leap above it in time, and instead slammed the blade of his bladerifle into the ground. Gripping the hilt with both hands, Cher'tak was able to weather the energy wave as it crashed over and past him though he still took quite a bit of damage.
Smoking slightly from the elbow and knee joints, Cher'tak yanked his bladerifle back up out of the ground and shot a glance at the charging Randall. Nodding in agreement, the Rikti dashed to one side, seeking to catch Delta 5 in a triangle between him, Randall, and Acid. As he ran, Cher'tak snapped off a couple of shots at the currently immobile titan.
Solid, meanwhile, wasn't going to stick around and play with the massive hunk of metal and weaponry that was the Malta Titan. His targets, the drones, were currently speeding away like nobody's business and only Ineffable and Cortland stood between them and whatever their objective was. Also, as it was, he was too far away too catch up and hit the drones with anything that could slow them down.
Boosting up another few dozen meters to stay out of direct engagement range of the titan, Solid whipped his rifle up to his normal eye and synced it up with his targetting eye. Computations of wind speed, distance, and target velocity were running through Solid's head when he was suddenly yanked through space to a spot right next to Cortland and a hell of a lot closer to the drone.
The sudden change of location threw his calculations off but he was quick to adapt, the shorter distance would ease things greatly.
Aiming for the less-armored location right between the legs where a human's groin would be and was clearly exposed given the drone's pose, Solid waited for the last second and then fired a single specialty AP shell designed to detonate almost as soon as it punched through something. Given the general construction of these types of drones, the shell should explode some where near the main spine and cripple the annoying minion for good.
"Someone's trying to pull a Samus, isn't he?" said Toy as he came flying up from over the edge and witnessed Acid dodge the titan. "And I think this is going to take more than just you, Acid."
One hand casting forcefields on the three other combatants and the second hand snapping off well-aimed pulse rifle shots at the titan, Toy went into full support mode. Basically he zipped back and forth in a complicated evasive pattern above the battlefield while providing shielding to his allies and the occasional well aimed laser bolt or electrical blast to the fight. He couldn't do much else until his bots caught up and considering that they were only equipped with jet thrusters when Toy expected to make high-altitude drops they lacked the flight capability to make it to the battlefield in a timely fashion.
--------------------------
"It is best that she remain trapped beyond the veil," Archlich said to the small trailing group. "While I worship her for the power that she is I know full well that she would extinguish humanity given the chance. I... do not agree with those views."
Archlich had come to a statue that looked a lot like a human caught in the advanced stages of the drug the Lost used. A melding between human and Rikti, this god looked to have been created sometime during this dimension's forced evolution. The god looked to be fairly minor, having been in existence for only a short time before the purge of all religion and thus garnered only a small following of scientists and researchers if the glyphs at the base of the statue were true.
"I do not know why you were called here," Archlich said to Rosie though he still refrained from looking at her. "Perhaps those 'high-and-mighty' heroes believed I would do something foolish. Something like trying to scavenge what remains of the power the gods of this dimension had before they fell into ruin."
Pausing, Archlich spread open his arms and looked out toward the rest of the cavern and the mysterious carved pillars that filled it beyond sight. Beings like Rosie and Archlich, creatures of magic, could feel the sluggish energy of the place, long abandoned and weak, but there and able to be tapped by someone with the knowledge: Knowledge that someone like Archlich would certainly have.
Even Balsk and Thermoplast could get an inkling of this same feeling now that Archlich had brought it to their attention. Balsk due to his magical abilities and training and Thermoplast due to the experience gained while among the SPC. The draconian got a little nervous at hearing this proclamation and one hand inched toward the sword hanging at his side.
"Yes the 'heroes' would think that, wouldn't they?" said Archlich rhetorically as he lowered his arms and turned to face the trio. "But they see only the evil that beings such as I might accomplish and overlook the good that we do. For how much do we truly know about the vanishing of the gods of this dimension? Sure we know that they were all killed by a starvation of worship but we don't know why or for what purpose the Rikti were driven to do so! We don't know the means or the person that orchastrated this mass deicide!
"Yes we were told that the Rikti united as one to annihilate all god worshippers and we know that the gods died from lack of worship, but just look at how many holes are in that story! Just think about it: How hard it would be to kill an entire worlds worth of gods! Gods that knew what was coming!"
"Not going to get any answers from here, Bones," said Balsk as he nodded toward the statue of the scientist god. "Not even from that bugger. He lasted longer than the others somehow, but we're still here a hundred years too late to talk to him. How do ya plan to learn stuff with no evidence remaining?"
"I must at least try," hissed the mage as he spun around and stalked off down the path, aiming for what appeared to be a monolith of some sort of the distance.
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.
"Oooooooh, you got yelled at." Rosie teased Balsk, as she followed Archlich around, arms folded behind her head.
"Listen, Archie, maybe I can give you a hand. Come on, I am a Soul Cop. I can at least amplify your power or something. And who knows how we got here? Maybe I took a wrong portal turn at Albaquerque(sp) or something."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
((Nice move with the bladerifle there, Khell. 
))
A few of Cher'tak's shots struck home, ripping into the Delta's back and scorching its armor. One even struck a conduit of significance, the reflection field that spanned across the Titan's front giving a momentary flicker before the mechanoid managed to wedge itself from the wall and face its opponents once again.
"How right you are." Acid savagely grinned to Toy as this transpired, "Though I intend to use something a great deal nastier than Phazon. Grey, Warmaster - if those armors don't double as Hazmat suits, get clear now!"
No sooner had he finished that sentence than the Titan moved again, the spherical wheels in its soles allowing it to rush across the ground as in a hover, but with much greater speed.
Delta 5 had no intention of stopping anytime soon, the arrangement of its wheels providing a firing platform of more than adequate stability, allowing it to launch a missile volley at all its adversaries without even bothering to halt. Safe behind its reflection field, the mechanoid could roar off its swarms with practical impunity, and it certainly didn't end there.
As Acid reinforced Toy's protective fields with his own, both to deflect the missiles that had targeted him as well as to provide the android with greater defenses, the Titan blasted a grapple line at the robotic mastermind, trying to hook a leg and yank him to the ground. Its idea had been to either ram him into the floor, plan and simply, or tear him toward the iridescent maw of a charging plasma cannon...
--------------------
Or such was the plan - and Cory should have known better than to assume things would play out just the way he'd calculated.
In truth, simply wrapping the mechanoid's ankles in ice couldn't drag the flying machine to the ground. Had it been skimming close to the floor, perhaps; but the corridor stood wide and tall, and there wasn't much chance of this coming to pass anytime soon.
The sudden shift in weight distribution, however, caused the drone to tilt rearward, its thrusters ramming the thing - and Ineffable, unless he vanished again - right into the ceiling with a respectable crash. Dust, grit, and flecks of silver paint rained from above along with the robot, its formerly polished chassis now home to several char-black patches.
The end result was much the same as Simmons had anticipated; the mechanoid ended up on the floor, feet frozen to the ground like someone's tongue. The counterattack occurred as well, the spinal joint still permitting full rotation of the torso.
Cory's Blaze, however, did not yield the desired result. Head aglow in fiery red, as if it had been extremely ticked off, the drone let loose on the wizard with a full auto pulse laser volley.
Of course, if the wizard could still recall Solid Shot to his location while under such bombardment, the gun-toting android would find himself in the cone of fire as well. Still, chances were this wouldn't stop Solid from getting off his round. The potential impacts upon his arms and rifle, however, would have created a very adverse situation to a steady aim, resulting in the explosive shell standing very little chance of striking its rather maneuverable target.
Furthermore, the mechanoid blasting away may have done worse yet. It ignited its foot thrusters once more, trying to melt the ice of Cory's Chilblain spell to break free and take off yet again...
--------------------
"That fellow has more brains than it would appear." Thermoplast remarked nonchalantly, stepping forward to pace after Rosalind.
"I may not be an expert on these things," he uttered coolly, "but from my experience, these beings you term 'gods' did not keep many records themselves. They tend to rely on followers to do so. Ergo, it may be wiser to seek such in locations of worship rather than here..."
"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--
"Ah!"
Cory rolled away from the blaster fire. Lasers scored overhead, one nailed him in the leg, and another struck him in the back. Cursing, he crushed a green gem in his palm turned to the next spell in his arsenal...
Fire Breath.
No words were necessary, no thought, even. Just a sudden inflection as he blew his lungs empty at the machine. The fire spewed forth without fail and the Warlock wrapped his striking hand in fire to hurl as soon as the fire was done.
-----
"I'll be fine," Randall replied as he continued his march and scraped up a piece of debris to hurl at the Delta unit, "Man, I've never seen a Titan act like this before..."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
OOC: So Solid was never teleported then?
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.
((Grey didn't annul it, so up to you. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Safety: Assured: NBC attack," answered Cher'tak over the team link as he dove to one side, avoiding a couple of missiles but taking direct hits from a couple others.
Bits of blood red armor fell to the ground as Cher'tak picked himself up, revealing undamaged slick looking grey metal underneath. The grey armor almost seemed to shiver a bit at being exposed to the open air and it was obvious that those missile strikes had punched fairly deep. Not that this fact would deter the Warmaster from his duty.
Indeed, Cher'tak seemed to take Delta 5's attack on Toy as a personnal affront. The Rikti knew Toy was a formidible combatant even without his attendant robots but for the Maltan titan to ignore a Rikti Warmaster in favor of a minion-less mastermind? Unacceptable.
"Ignore me: Your peril!" Cher'tak shouted angrily as scooped up his fallen bladerifle and moved to flank the titan again, firing on the run at the machine's legs in an attempt to hit something vital and slow it down.
While Cher'tak was running and gunning, Toy Dispenser was frantically swerving and diving. Out of the half dozen or so missiles fired at the mastermind only one hit, though that one tore a hefty chunk of armor off Toy's chest, revealing the layer of artificial muscles under his upper chest. Nanites were repairing the damage but they'd need time and a lack of more damage to worry about.
Thankfully Toy's evasive pattern combined with Acid's shields caused the grapple line to harmlessly deflect from its target and whiz off into open air until it was retracted. Toy blasted the titan with a bolt of arcane lightning in return but did no significant damage.
----------------------------------
Solid materialized next to Cory just as the first drone started firing, peppering the blaster with laser pulses that seared bits of armor up and down his left side. Unfortunately the impact force generated from the solid light did indeed throw off his aim. But being unable to place a bullet where it needed to go didn't phase the droid, he just needed to flick a switch to load an LRM round, set it to a proximity fuse, and fire it using about the same calculation.
If all went well, the LRM would either hit the drone and kill it or explode right around the drone and knock it off course into the ceiling, floor, or walls. Either way, Solid would charge forward and slug a few more rounds at the [censored] in order to make sure it was dead. He could leave the other drone to Cory.
-----------------------------
Balsk rolled his eyes at Rosie's childish tease but continued to stay on his guard as the group moved through the pillars. He trusted this undead about as far as he could have thrown a red dragon.
"Do not insult my intelligence," Archlich replied curtly to both Rosie and Thermoplast as he kept moving, looking over his shoulder briefly. "It is not random happenstance that brought you and two of your cohorts to this place so recently after I had opened it. Either some other being capable of tracking portals across dimensional boundries informed you of what I was doing or 'Lady' Grey and her pet army did. Take multiple guesses if you need too, the first three don't count.
"Sarcasm and my increasing irritation aside, this pocket dimension remains the last bastion of godhood in Rikti space. If there are to be any records that the gods or their worshippers had saved then they shall reside here in that monolith. That monolith is the equivilent of the Hall of Olympus for these gods and they likely died there, surrounded by as much of their fading wealth and power as they could accumulate."
Archlich had turned to face the distant monolith about halfway through his speech and turned back to glance at the others now.
"Gods can be all too human, can't they?" asked the mage, the blue flames of his eyes flaring brighter than usual.
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.
Rosie nodded, turning serious.
"Listen, Archie." she said, "I better come check this out with you. You're a braniac, sure, but ...well, like humans, spirit creatures tend to lash out when cornered. If there are any remnants of these Gods left, they might have been driven mad with starvation and isolation. I'll be your bodyguard."
The were-human pondered. "Hrm. Rather, your bonyguard. Heheh."
Turning back to Thermoplast and Balsk, she looked serious. "You guys can come along with me if you like, but this is spirit stuff waaaaay over the heads of a layman. O'course, you guys aren't exactly laymen, but...It'd be a good experience, but I don't want you ending up dead."
...A coy grin spread across one side of her face.
"...Not much of what I say is gonna make you not curious, huh?" she said cheerily, folding her hands behind her back while her tail wagged.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Balsk smirked back at the werehuman, the same side of his mouth quirking up to reveal his teeth.
"You'd be surprised," Balsk said enigmatically as he finally took his hand off the hilt of his sword and rubbed at his neck. "But yeah, I'm coming along. It'd take a living god to keep me away from something this interesting."
"Restrain your enthusiasm," Archlich said as he suddenly stopped, blue runes bursting into life all around him. "You may just get your wish."
Ahead, one of the ubiqutous pillars was splitting apart into what looked like a surrealist's attempt at an artificial human, all jagged lines merging uncomfortably with shapes almost too smooth to be real.
"~~~-!@~--!%@~" spoke the construct in a booming tongue that no one had a hope of understanding.
"Holy [censored]," Balsk muttered as he whipped out his sword. "I couldn't understand that..."
"!~~~~@#!~&*~~!" said the guardian once more, it's tone unchanged.
It's intent became obvious as it slammed a beachball sized fist down where Archlich had been standing. The lich, anticipating this, had teleported atop a shattered pillar behind the guardian and loosed a flurry of magical bolts at the guardian's back.
"Why defend what is not there?" Archlich shouted triumphantly, his eyes flaring once more.
EDIT: Edited cause I realized no non-English characters are showing up.
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.
"Gotcha!" Acid shouted back over the roar of the remaining missiles, then made a quick mention over the channel to Toy Dispenser, "Don't stop it. Part of the plan."
Delta 5 didn't give Randall the time of day, its reflector field repelling the hurled debris. Still, the kinetic force the collision had imparted caused a torque, allowing Cher'tak's flank to form an angle to effectively bypass the hemispherical barrier.
The legs, though struck by the assault, didn't seem to hold anything vital to the Delta unit's operation. Despite the torn armor, the Titan kept rolling swiftly upon the wheels of its soles, countering the induced moment almost immediately to guard once more.
Pulling a flank of its own, Delta 5 took aim at the Warmaster and his surroundings with its arm cannons, blasting a rapid volley of neon-blue bolts at him in the fashion of a strafing, dual-barreled plasma machine gun turret.
And what was Acid doing?
Apparently nothing, as the reptilian had just been standing there, seemingly to grab at nothing but thin air. The motion didn't result in any visible effects, and indeed it looked to have zilch to do with the battle here. Toy, however, had probably already deduced its purpose.
Then the Khelari made good on his word, clawed fingers tapping upon the watch-like device that sat on his left wrist. Virtually in the next instant, pitch-black metallic plating began to layer itself over Acid's arm, extending rapidly in panel upon panel to coat the reptilian in a sinister-looking suit of powered armor that added quite a bit to the Khelair's slim physique.
Lines of pulsing energy traced across the completely dark material in luminescent green of the most venomous hue, and the section that had encapsulated Acid's tail had added large, saw-like teeth to the appendage's dorsal edge. A grim green visor had formed over the face, and its reflective luster gave little clue as to what the suit now showed is occupant. The process itself had consumed no more time than a few fractions of a second.
Here we go, then.
With a motion that much resembled a sigh of contemplation, the reptilian engaged the overcharge, tendrils of the same venom-green energies lancing out from the suit while a visible field of the stuff formed about the Khelari. Ambient radiation levels shot through the roof, and it now become rather apparent why Acid had been so adamant about this - the concentrations he now emanated would have debilitated a human body in mere minutes.
OVERCHARGE INITIATED.
TIME REMAINING - 14:99
In the blink of an eye, and with the same green iridescence, the suit's left lower arm became a gun barrel, easily the size of a fist. Acid didn't hesitate a moment from here on out, letting loose a concentrated beam of green that lanced into the floor ahead of the Delta, carving a groove into the ground and crystallizing wherever its energy made contact with a diabolical hiss. Indeed, the stuff seemed to be eating its way into the floor, and as the Delta rolled across the suddenly appeared obstacle, the crystallized energy began to attack the soles of its feet, nearly instantly robbing the Titan of its supreme mobility.
Provoked and angry, the Delta unit immediately leveled a gun-arm upon the reptilian, but already found him no longer where he'd been. A slew of venom-green bolts into its back soon revealed where the reptilian had teleported to, but much too late to save its reflector field generator. Acid had paid attention during Cher'tak's earlier assault, and acted upon his observation. The barrier's hexagonal construction faded into thin air, leaving the Titan exposed to attack from all sides.
Launching another missile volley at the others, Delta 5 took off on foot, its heavy yet quick steps rocking the ground as it opened plasma fire on the attacking reptilian. However, Acid seemed to have anticipated this, and now the two strafed in parallel, each trying to gun the other down. The Delta's plasma blasts vaporized wall on one side of the open area, and Acid's bolts of crystallizing energy frighteningly ate away at the other as Sah'Teece arrived on the scene.
The former diplomat had held something upon his mind, and more than likely Char'tak had taken note, but now it fell by the wayside in favor of covering fire, the Rikti leveling his own bladerifle at Delta 5 in an attempt to catch the speeding mechanoid.
But where had Toy's entourage gone? Hadn't they been right there with Sah'Teece...?
--------------------
The fiery spell washed over the drone even before it has ceased firing, charring the few remaining spots of silver to a very ugly, ashen black. Specks went flying back under the kinetic force of the breath, and as Cory's fireball struck, the mechanoid seemed to have had enough.
Detonating with thunderous applause, the machine gave up the ghost, hoping to wreak ruin upon those around it with the cacophonous explosion that resulted from the activation of its detonator.
Still, the blast came too late to catch Solid Shot before he could fire - if it caught anyone at all, of course - and his LRM streaked down the corridor with its characteristic whistle, catching up with its target in mere seconds...
--------------------
"Yyyyyup."
"Is that all you ever say?" the Operation Engineer huffed at his comrade with a grunt, the latter stemming more from hefting up the heavy back plate of the assault bot he'd just performed a diagnostic on.
"Yyyyyup." the Special Qualification Marksman snickered under his mask of midnight blue, tipping his cowboy hat up just a little with a flick of his fingers.
The Engineer sighed with rolling eyes as he set the plate back down, looking to the Gunslinger with a frustrated glare. The marksman just sat there at the edge of the bridge, just at the joint that connected overpass and tower exit, staring down into the misty abyss below.
"You could at least help me with this, you know." the technical specialist told the man while leaning against the metallic stone wall of the passage, casting a glance at the large mechanoid as well as the duo of battle drones that he knew stood positioned behind the pillars just beyond the entryway.
"Yyyyyup." mumbled the Gunslinger, but quite amusedly so, standing deftly to approach the armor plate and assist the Engineer in lifting it back into place.
"Thanks." retorted the technical operative as the two slowly brought the plate into position, "So this is really the only part we're allowed to remove when we run a check? Weird order, if ya ask me."
"Yyyyyup."
"I mean, I can understand the Commander wanting to keep his details to himself, but that's a little extreme, don't you think?"
"Yyyyyup."
"Oh come on! You could at least carry on a decent con..."
The Operation Engineer never had a chance to finish that sentence. With the loud crash of metal upon stone, the armor plate fell upon the floor as the two Malta Operatives beheld one of the Commander's drones smashing into the wall down the corridor in a wild aerial spiral, the mechanoid exploding almost upon contact. Even more troubling was the sudden appearance of several more mechanoids out of thin air only instants later. Now it became very apparent what Acid had done - he'd sent Toy's entourage on ahead via jump, probably with the original intention that they'd cut off the fleeing drones. As things stood, however, they'd probably gotten other ideas by now.
And for the first time in a long time, the Gunslinger uttered a phrase that differed from his usual mantra.
"What'n Sam Hill...?!"
--------------------
"It was just a suggestion." Thermoplast's shoulders gave a shrug as his head tilted to the side a bit, the gesture intended to underscore his acceptance of Archlich's denial.
The amnesiac couldn't quite place how, but something felt decidedly off about this. Then again, the Rikti were just the humans of another world, right? There wasn't any reasons for their gods to have behaved any differently from those of 'Primal Earth'.
Or was there?
Thermoplast rewound the timeline. The statue of the deity they'd found last suggested that either the beings the Rikti had believed in had changed form themselves, or been replaced as their forced evolution had proceeded. This could have meant the last gods of the Rikti had been just that, behaving as their worshippers had become.
Still, he was by no means an expert in deific matters, and so opted to defer to Archlich and Rosie's greater experience. Thermoplast nodded without a sound, and then stepped casually forward to display his willingness to proceed.
Upon hearing the golem's voice, however, the cyborg's lax manner quickly made way for much more hardened and serious demeanor. Even as his internal translator got to work - the device could reconstruct and covert from and to virtually any language with less than nine uttered words - the detective flung his hands forward at the guardian.
A ring of fire ignited around the golem's feet, attempting to immobilize the construct. Thermoplast could feed nearly double the magnitude into his flames that the general hero or villain had access to, having earned the designation of 'Vanguard' due to this. As a result, he could succeed in locking down even the leaders of many villain groups he'd come up against.
Of course, that was no guarantee he could do the same with the golem - or that it couldn't escape from the fiery ring altogether before it had formed completely...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((OH HAY YOU RRRRRRRRANG?))
"AH'M CALLIN' BULL!" Gunslinger Curtis yelled at the top of his lungs. "RASSIN' FRASSIN' ENEMY CAN'T LEAVE ME ALONE FER TEN MINUTES TO FINISH SUM'N LIKE THIS!?! BAH!" The Gunslinger stamped his foot. "Engineer, get yer city slickin' [censored] on that radio an' GET ME MY TEAM!"
"Aye sir!" The Engineer saluted, ducking behind some cover and beginning his transmission.
"As fer yew li'l runty hunks 'o junk!" Curtis yelled, pointing at Toy's Bots with one of his Colt Python .357 Magnums. "Yer all scrap now!"
He smacked the teleporter on his leg with an audible slap and went hurtling through space-time to appear right in the middle of the robot crew. "Suck on THIS, YA VARMINTS!" He hollered as he began firing bullets from his hips at seemingly all of them at once. Interesting to note was the fact that he just kept shooting and shooting, until one of the 'bots saw what was happening - He was moving his hands so fast while shooting that he was actually reloading a bullet from his waist every time he fired. Humans shouldn't even have that kind of dexterity, but there was evidence enough as the shots rang out...
((Sovs? Uh... Toy's crew is in Rikti Earth... Curtis tagged along with the Slinger? He (and Reikoff, by extension) always struck me as a leader of his own cell, and not prone to the maniacal mad science of his counterpart. Wouldn't he would be quite a bit bothered by the Slinger's predisposition toward "meta" methods of handling situations?))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Curtis does not lead his own cell, he is effectively Reikoff's hitman, and he can be transferred about for big stuff like this. His 'team' is just more Specialists that were assigned to him. And his personal feelings on the Slinger's methods don't even come into play.))
Randall stood casually on the bridge. The combat had gotten away from him, but he felt good about the work he'd done. Turning to Cory and Ryat66, who were now moving to pursue the fleeing enemies, he smiled and "unflexed" his armor.
Feeling the rain fall upon his face, he sighed. Things were going well, but he still had a bad feeling about things.
-----
Cory flew on ahead. Ryat66 tried to keep up, but he was hampered in the corridors, unable to leap properly. The wizard caught up behind Solid Shot and hurled a fireball at the nearest fleeing machine.
Behind him, Ryat66 leaped and fired. His aim wasn't so good, however, as the energy beam scored across the ceiling.
"Damn," the android shouted as he picked himself up, "That would've been so Boss if that had hit!"
"Well, keep moving!" Simmons shouted, "We cannot allow them to escape and warn their fellows!"
The android was bracing himself for one more, better aimed shot. Rarely used in the heat of a fight, the sniper blast was his last desperate chance to contribute more to the cause.
"Locked on... FIRE!" he shouted as a thin beam of concentrated energy exploded from his wrist pod and arced toward the nearest fleeing robot, "WHOO!"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.