--Sheldon--
Sheldon's eyes bugged slightly as alarm klaxons went wild. He didn't have time to interpret, he could only hit the exit hatch button and run. Upon hitting the open air, he aimed for the landing pad and prayed his kinetic manipulation didn't wear out by the time he hit the deck.
Then he saw the ports. Lots of ports. This was going to be tricky.
----------
((Kip and crew need interaction.))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
OOC: *glowers at Soviet posting too quickly*
BIC: Small Toy rolled to one side, neatly avoiding the bullets that Curtis didn't have enough time to aim properly. The sniper quickly re-stabilized its position and tried to get another bead on Curtis, but it would likely be too late.
Meanwhile, Block Bot was still dashing at Essex and now Curtis. Reaching over its back, the protector bot spawned a pair of seeker drones and hurled one of them like a discus as he closed. The buzzsaw drone whirred through the air like a deadly frisbee, aiming to scythe through the gunslinger's gut.
At the same time Large Toy had scrambled to its feet and dashed forward as well, managing to grab Essex's foot as he crashed into Curtis.
---------------------------------------
Cher'tak cleaved a drone in half with a powerful swing from his bladerifle and then booted another drone in the head as he started to withdraw. Slamming a fist into the torso of an assault bot and blasting yet another drone with his bladerifle, the Rikti engaged in a fighting retreat back to where Cory and Ryatt were.
Toy Dispenser and Solid were doing about the same thing, the security droid blasting and punching his way through while Toy simply swept the mindless robots away with force bolt after force bolt. CT, Mini Bot, and Toy Bot formed a phalanx around Toy as they retreated, dealing with things behind and anything that managed to get in front with alacricity.
OOC: Archlich/Balsk post in a bit.
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.
The Arbiter's aforementioned kinetic shield prevented the blow from having its full effect, giving her attack the impression of suddenly having to punch through a very durable sponge. Regardless, her blow was nothing to sneer at, and it glanced off of his spine, causing him to hop forward instinctively away from the blow. Cursing, he twisted around quickly and fired a quick kinetic blast at the girl, hoping to knock her slim figure over and get her off balance. At least enough time to employ a pistol.
And what of Jake's already-in-place Force Bubble? Her petite figure would be powerless, now that she was out and in the open, to fight back against its kinetic might. Soon enough, she would be head-over-heels, so to speak, for the Arbiter.
-----
The Knives of Artemis sorely misunderstood the purpose of Jake's shielding. The individual shields that he had already put up largely prevented any attack from hitting him, save for that attack being of an extremely high velocity. As soon as a stun grenade came near him, a feat in and of itself due to the extreme amount of deflective shielding he had up, it simply flew off in a random direction, Jake's individual shield knocking it away from him as if slapping away a fly.
He glared at them, as if taking their targetting him as a personal insult. "Attack painted target." He simply stated, designating a random Knife in the crowd of them. "Use acidic missiles."
The robots turned, cold logic placing a targetting reticle right on the head of a poor girl just as it fired.
-----
The turrets would, depending on their weight, be thrown back as well by the kinetic force of the force bubble. It was probably safe to assume that, considering they were labeled as portable, they were fairly light-weight, and, thus, would be subsceptible to such effects.
Of course, this didn't diminish their danger. Just spread it out quite a bit more. Bullets flew everywhere as the two guns flew back, Jake ducking behind a piece of equipment as it sprayed its rounds, the Arbiter, strategically relocating, jumping aside behind a statue.
((*Pokes Soviet in tandem with Grey.* 
))
If it hadn't been evident before, it now stood clear that Acid had ceased all efforts to stop the elite Gunslinger. The reptilian's eyes narrowed as he accessed the team's communications channel.
"Guys, we need to move." he told them matter-of-factly, "We got incoming, and a lot more than we can handle. Mr. Wallace, I know how you feel about flying, but we're going to need that ship over here right about now..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Jake never found out what happened to Silver Meniscus after her encounter with his force bubble, because she vanished. The Arbiter, turning to deliver his kinetic attack, found nothing to attack there, the kinetic blast passing through the area the stalker had occupied without hitting anything.
"Surprise."
Silver Meniscus performed another Eclipse, aimed at the Arbiter's heart, from point blank range. The assassin had either retreated to the statue herself before the Arbiter, or she had noticed where he was going and beaten him there. He found a killing blow headed his way while he was still in mid-jump, where he had intended to find sanctuary.
Jake found he had problems. His Acidic missiles had worked very well on the single knife he had chosen to exterminate, but the knives were regrouping. A Blade of Artemis was shouting at the Malta sappers still in comission to open fire at the drones now that the Arbiter was no longer out in the open and couldn't deflect the bio-feedback energy with his kinetic blasts. Others were pulling out web grenades, tossing them with the idea of gluing Jake and his bots down by their shields.
And the Hands were throwing exploding shurikan, not at Jake this time, but at his drones.
Yes, the Arbiter was caught totally off guard by this manuever, however, he didn't need to be aware of his opponent in order to keep a passive shield up. Her blow, though, did have more of an effect than last time, his heart almost being directly struck from his being unprepared. He jumped backwards right after the blow, then dropped to a kneel, heavily breathing. His armor was cracking around where his heart had been, indicating that her hit had been severely damaging.
"Dammit..." He wheezed, looking at his assailant. "Stupid... wench..." With that, he dissapeared, presumably to some medporter.
But, said medporter could be anywhere.
Including being one of the pieces of equipment Arachnos forces lugged in just moments before.
He appeared right inside of that device on the other side of the room, completely healed and none the worse for wear. The only indication that he had been injured in the first place was a shattered chest plate.
"Round two, [censored]."
-----
Now, on to the Malta's plan of action. Considering the Arbiter wasn't very dead, it was mostly demolished, even moreso destroyed by the fact that the shields that he had put up were, indeed, passive.
As long as the Arbiter remained, there would be no sapper rays affecting any Arachnos forces.
But that didn't keep everything from affecting them.
Somehow, some way, a stray web grenade made its way through all of Jake's shielding and to the young mastermind himself, pinning him down in a rather sticky manner.
[censored], no! He thought. His shields had to be renewed every five to ten minutes, otherwise, they would wear off and become ineffective. It had already been three minutes since he had put up his shielding, so that left him two to eight minutes to get them back up.
But how long would he be stuck for?
In the meantime, a hail of plasma and Arachnos Mace blasts continued to barrage the group. Whatever they were going to do, it would either have to take care of those first or go strategically around them. 'To get to the king, one must first go through the pawns.'
--Sheldon--
"That's going to be a problem, considering the fact I just evacuated from it!" Sheldon replied as he landed and Malta Group operatives started materializing around him, "But I don't think I have much of a choice anyway!"
As the nearest of the troops started to port in, Sheldon looked back and cursed. With any luck...
No such luck. He had to use the jump jetpack in conjunction with what was left of the aura reducing his inertia to make it back. Pity, he was hoping the crashing ship would distract the soldiers, maybe make them scatter, but the reptilian must have had a better plan.
He took to the sky as weapons were being leveled at him. The Malta Group operatives wound up being left perplexed as Sheldon dove into the still-open hatch. Sheldon was equally perplexed, as on his way in, he saw a large number of missiles headed his way.
"Crap!" he shouted, "Acid, if you can still hear this, I just found out what the alarms are telling me, missiles in-bound, I'm diving low to try to shake em off... This will be a bumpy ride!"
He didn't have time to let his lurching stomach slow him down. He rushed to and took the vessel's controls, bringing the ship into a gradual, yet rapid, dive. Machine gun fire rattled off the hull as he swooped over the assaulting troops. Bullets didn't concern him. Rikti Steel could resist bullet impacts, especially when it was ship armor. What concerned him was the roaring sound coming from the still-open escape hatch.
Hitting the button to close the hatch, he could hear the sound of one of the surface-to-air missiles exploding against something upstanding in the Sanctuary. A spire, a pillar, a wall, whatever it was, it was behind him and he had to push the throttle a little more.
----------
--Randall Grey--
The tanker tossed and smashed the assaulting drones aside. He couldn't swing his arms fast enough to properly damage them, but it at least kept them away. Slowly, he worked his way to Toy Dispenser and his beleaguered assault drones.
-----------
--Cory Simmons and Ryat66--
Curtis had a firm grip on Essex and was focused solely on Acid. This was something of a mistake, as Cory swooped in. Curtis had enough time to turn when the warlock passed by him and slapped the Gunslinger's shoulder.
A patch of frost in the shape of a hand print appeared there and slowly started spreading out. Cory wasn't stupid enough to think that was going to stop the operative, however. He'd dealt with the Malta Group enough times himself.
"You're outnumbered," Simmons intoned as his right hand erupted in flames and a sword of ice coalesced in his left, "and outgunned. I suggest you stand down."
At the entrance to the chamber, behind Curtis, Ryat66 was sighting in with a powerful burst of energy that was useful as a powerful snipe. One wrong move, and the gunslinger would be knocked off his feet.
There was an ominous humming sound coming from overhead. The android idly wondered if Sheldon had gotten over his fears of falling and flying to pull the ship into position over them, but didn't take his sights off his target.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
The Arbiter had just finished his taunt when there was a rather sudden concussive force.
His mediporter began screeching in a rather high pitch, indicating attempts to lock on to a new revival tube. The Arbiter wouldn't have to turn around to realize what the Malta Operatives had just done to his medical equipment.
---
Curtis raised one eyebrow.
Turning to Simmons, the Gunslinger merely shrugged.
And then a flash of light took him along with Essex away...a pod with an Assault Bot landing in his place.
The arbiter could clearly see Silver Meniscus' eyes narrow in fury as he spoke. Her right arm curled forward and dark energy visibly gathered along it, seething and roiling more violently by the second. The arbiter would recognise the signs of something similar to Ghost Widow's soul snipe attack. The woman was trying to snipe him. Was she stupid? Or was she banking on him being distracted by what had just happened to the medical teleporter?
Damn you Doctor Aeoooooooooonnnnnnn!!!!!!
*thud*
Someone fell from above, no, a former someone. At first glance, one would assume the corpse was one of the many dried husks which currently infects Dark Astoria.
*thud*
A second corpse fell six feet west of the first, barely missing Silver Meniscus by inches. This one was more blue-ish than gray in skin tone. It smelled 'fresher' which was obviously not very pleasant. Unlike the first corpse, this one was still twitching.
*thud*
Oww... my pride...
The speaker seem dazed as he slowly attempted to stagger toward an upright position. Human male of the Asian descent. Shocking azure hair and a matching Vandyke in the same shade, round sunglasses, the right lens shattered from the impact. He was, of all things to wear, dressed as a member of the 5th Columnist.
Lemme guess, judging by the combat around me, I've died and gone to Valhalla. That's not quite fair, I'm a Buddhist, I should of reincarnated!
---
Golden Giza Penthouse Suite #274A
St. Martial
Exactly One Year Ago
Ian! Ethan! Evan! I'm going out!
Three identical triplets appeared from the lounge, each had the same red mohawk and goatee. Ian, or maybe it was Ethan, hit pause on his portable game system. Evan, or maybe it was Ian, silenced his mp3 player. The last of the triplets professionally hung up his cell phone.
Where are... said the first brother.
...you going... continued the second brother.
...Jason? finished the third brother.
Jason paused at the door and thought about it, Grandville, I think, or maybe Cap au Diable. I'm leaving you three in charge of the Society while I'm gone.
The triplets replied in monotoned unison, Yes Sir!
---
Aeon Corp.
Grandville
Three hundred, sixty four days and eight hours ago
Dr. Aeon wasn't happy, Efficiency Expert Pither had sent someone to 'extract' information from him a few hours ago, a group of hero had trashed his inner sanctum last night in their attempt to reach Lord Recluse, and unbeknown to him in a few more minutes, Professor Echo was going to phase into his kitchen and drink the last of his soy milk only to rudely leaving the empty carton back in the fridge. The last thing the doctor needed was for some council reject to teleport into his restroom stall and threaten him with violence. You want me to do what?!?!?!
I want you to write a report on how television is beneficial to the development of the human brain, to be presented to Arbiter Dios by myself as your co-author.
Dr. Aeon hid his smirk, And here I thought I was being ambushed by the great Warshade Dark Sovereign, instead I have the honor of being in the presence of his Praetorian double the Viceroy Incubus. A villain pretending to be a hero who was a former villain, the irony is simply too delicious... very well, I agree, now where's my pen?
Dr. Aeon reached into his lab coat to remove not a writing instrument, but a remote control of some sort. In one smooth motion, he pressed the single red button on this device. The last thing Jason remember was his undead henchcorpses bashing down the stall door followed by a sensation of falling backwards, then, he simply wasn't there anymore. Dr. Aeon didn't know where he sent the Viceroy, nor did he cared, all he wanted was a nice cold glass of soy milk.
Jake's eyes widened at the sight of the decimated med-porter, the reality hitting him right then and there of what they planned to do.
"Moo ohduh!" He somehow managed to shout, the webbing constricting even his speech. "Pwotek da med-pohtuhs!" If one weren't on the side of Arahcnos, the whole endeavor would've been rather comedic.
However, the message got across. All of Jake's henchmen jumped away and toward the med porters, the Protector Drones putting up shielding on each of them while the other three all launched plasma at the OpCommander, his nature having made it obvious to them by now that he was in command. In all, there remained three med-porters.
For now, anyway.
-----
The Arbiter, having only glanced from the corner of his eye that Jake's minions were coming to defend the porters, jumped to the side just barely in time to avoid Silver's snipe, pulling his pistol and firing off three shots to her head and chest, quickly following up with a kinetic blast and, should she be knocked over, several more shots.
-----
Just then, three figures inexplicably fell from the ceiling, seemingly oblivious to the conflict around them. Taking no chances, Jake acted quickly, negotiating with the trio.
"Ooo thwee!" He shouted, narrowing his eyes and quickly jerking his head back, freeing his lower jaw from the trapping. He cleared his throat. "You three! If you help Arachnos in this fight, I'll see to it personally that you are rewarded for your trouble!"
"Sestra! Destra!" Silver Meniscus shouted.
The newcomer of Asian descent suddenly found 2 blades at his neck, wielded by Hands of Artemis.
Silver Meniscus leapt into the air at tremendous speed to avoid the shots, which thankfully allowed her to dodge the Arbiter's kinetic blast as well. She *landed* on the ceiling, and bounced off. Having gathered several Gs worth of force in her moving body, she was little more than a silver blur in the air heading right for the Arbiter. Closing to point blank almost instantly, Silver Meniscus aimed a fist at the Arbiter's ruined armor-aiming right for his heart, unleashing a grasp of darkness as black as midnight in the process.
That's when all of Jake's drones were bombarded by several grenades all at once, thrown by various Malta operatives. The Knives, seeing their chance, all leapt out of cover and descended on the drones, now thankfully out of range of Jake's force bubble. Charging in once the grenades had done their work, the deadly woman put their swordplay skills to use.
Jake himself was still being bombarded by even MORE web grenades from select Blades who had chosen to remain behind cover.
With two cold steel blades pressed up against his thyroid cartilage, Jason calmly turned toward the head sister barking orders to his two wardens, "Looks like someone failed Tactics 101, those blades enter my jugular, I'll just pop back over there by the med bay. Those blades stay where they are, that's two of your knives with their attentions divided. My dear, we call that a lose-lose situation.
"The Arbiter over there just offered to purchase my service, while you have made no such offer, in fact I find it rather insulting. I could of turned the tide in your favor you know, I think you'll remember this day as your greatest military blunder."
And with that, he pushed his own neck into Destra's dagger, crimson blood sprayed out like a fountain, splattering the wall and any unfortunate to be in the way. After moments of intense agony, Jason reappeared on the platform of the three remaining medical porters. The move was masochistic and foolish, yet it satisfied his impulse for the dramatics.
"...brain!"
One blue and decomposing hand reached for the ankle of Silver Meniscus, pulling it closer to its mouth. A Malta sapper screamed as the other zombie tore a small chunk of flesh from his head reveling brain matter. He might live with immediate medical attention, but with a damaged frontal lobe he will never be the same again. Another Malta agent, dead from a direct acid missile blast to the face by Jake's bots, slowly climbed to his feet and reached for one of the Knives of Artemis, "Braaaaain..." it muttered, whatever loyalty it had to its former companions have been replaced by an intense unholy hunger.
Out of the shadow appeared three ancient skeletons, two in rusty armor and the third in tattered funeral shroud. Arcane phrases of some long dead language can be heard from the skeleton wearing the shroud as it drains the life force from any Malta and Knives within its reach, aging them physically as their souls are literally stripped from their body little by little. The other two armored skeleton intercepted the original two knives that had threatened their master.
"Sestra, Destra," shouted Jason, "Meet my girls, Lavern and Shirley!"
With his own personal undead army filling the front line infantry, Jason turned his attention to raising the moral of the living Arachnos soldiers. With his charisma and Leadership, he rallied the troops, "Soldiers of Arachnos, fight on! What are you afraid of, if you should fall, you'll be teleported to the med bay a couple feet from you, our enemies has no such luxury. Show them what it means to be the elite of Lord Recluse!"
((Well now.))
The few Zombified Malta were quickly shot down by their former comrades, the Operatives feeling no remorse. The OpOfficer continued to rest calmly behind his cover as concentrated fire crashed around him.
"Bullets don't work that way." He quietly muttered to himself as a shot skipped off the floor next to him with a fwping!
"Engage Psychological Operations." He quietly ordered.
One of the Arachnos Bane Spider Scouts suddenly stopped firing at the Arachnos and took cover. He slowly faded from sight as his armor took him under the veil of stealth.
Another medbay suddenly exploded.
[censored]! was Jake's initial thought at seeing the undead rise. A shudder, too great for even the many web grenades piling up on him to contain, resonated throughout his body, goosebumps already appearing on his skin.
Dammit! I [u]HATE[u] zombies!
Of course, he would never say this out loud. Judging from the necromancer's refined speech, he would most likely take extreme insult from that line of speech, and, taking into account his performance in raising not only the dead, but moral as well, that would be what one would call a 'bad thing.'
Instead, Jake only shook his head to force himself out of his terror. Whatever. He's helping us, that's all that matters.
Still hiding behind his Personal Forcefield, Jake simply watched the fight continue, planning.
-----
Malta's attack involving the Bane Spider could be considered ingenious, especially in a chaotic situation such as this one. The fake Spider could easily go by unnoticed toward the med-porters, and destroy one with utter ease.
However, that was all he could do. Just after the shut down of this life saving device, nearly every Bane Spider took notice.
"Hey!" One shouted, pointing to him accusingly. "I can't sense him in the mental network!"
"The line's been breached! Defensive action!"
The Battle Drone portion of Jake's minions turned and began firing plasma at the poor sap, and even the other Bane Spiders, in their embarassment of someone actually impersonate one of their 'brothers', began to fire without remorse at the imposter.
So, how would he respond to a projectiled attack on two fronts?
-----
Were it not for the miraculous catch of the ankle of Silver Meniscus by a turned dead-man, the Arbiter would surely be dead before the med-porter could even take effect, his heart literally being crushed beyond all repair. Thankfully, for the Arbiter and Arachnos, in any case, the save had been made, and incapacitated her long enough to give the man enough reason to pop off at least one more shot, aimed straight at her forehead.
-----
Suddenly, Jake, in his incapacitation, had a thought. A rather dramatic and cliché'd thought, but nonetheless, a thought.
"New guy!" He shouted, gesturing in the direction of Jason with his chin. "How do you feel about flaming zombies?"
With that sentence, a single Battle Drone fell back behind his companions, his right 'hand' already morphing to suit a new purpose.
"'Cause I may have something that just reeks of Hollywood in mind."
OOC:
Ho ho ho! You have reached over limit mode! Toggle black doom aura and tingly sound effects, complete with flinch resistance! Rawr!
Oh, and [ QUOTE ]
((Well now.))
[/ QUOTE ]
LARMLAK!
BIC:
"Hello Lavern." Sestra said.
"Hello Shirley." Destra said.
"Meet our sisters, Rhea and Hecate." They both said simultaneously. Both skeletal knights found not 2, but 4 Hands of Artemis before them. Swords drawn, both knights suddenly encountered multiple attempts at splitting their heads in twain along with disembowelment. The 4 Hands of Artemis were dancing in a deadly death waltz around both of them, swords flashing.
And the infantry had problems of its own. The Knives fought like woman possessed, cleaving through armor and bone alike with equal amounts of ease. Caltrops were scattered everywhere, grenades flying and assassins flying and jumping everywhere. It looked like both forces were equally matched.
And it was interesting how Jake's bots were holding up, considering THEY were the center of the assault. Each bot had at least 2 knives hacking away at them, including the one that had just proffered its limb.
Silver Meniscus was not doing as well as the rest of her force, the grab at her ankle throwing her off and earning her a bullet to the forehead. She went down, hard, whispering very odd last words.
"The Moon Rises."
Her body did not vanish as it hit the floor, but Jason wouldnt be able to raise her as an undead slave. Clearly being a proficient necromancer, he would probably recognize the signs of building up nether energy around her body. The beginning signs of a soul transfer. And it looked to be targeted EVERYONE in the room who wasnt a Knife or Malta! The sheer power behind the transfer would completely overwhelm any defense, stunning everybody it affected without fail to fuel Silver Meniscus. Even Jake would be blown right out of his personal force fields by it, as well as the Arbiter.
((Bleh, forgot the assault on the Bots. Sorry, Bwerp.))
Jake's many minions were, indeed, getting slashed up pretty badly, deep gashes showing in much of their armor, even as their slammed the small women with as much force as their arms could muster, breaking ribs and skulls as the women flew backwards.
However, the women were barely even making a dent, if you'll pardon the pun, in the mechs. Deep gashes were made, but nothing else. This metal was something else entirely, and it would take several slashes perfectly positioned on the exact same spot to break through.
In the mean time, however, weighted arms still flung into the skulls of the women, knocking them away with the force of a truck.
[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately for Malta, as soon as said Bane Spider even made a threatening gesture in the direction of the med-porter, he was bombarded with a hail of plasma fire, quickly melting his armor and himself to slag before the robots continued to fend off the opposing force.
[/ QUOTE ]
((Whoops stealth doesnt work that way and neither do secret plans.))
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately for Malta, as soon as said Bane Spider even made a threatening gesture in the direction of the med-porter, he was bombarded with a hail of plasma fire, quickly melting his armor and himself to slag before the robots continued to fend off the opposing force.
[/ QUOTE ]
((Whoops stealth doesnt work that way and neither do secret plans.))
[/ QUOTE ]
((I'm fairly certain Jake has both himself and his robots equipped with enough tactical vision to see through his own troops. Not to mention, he placed the med-porters as top priority, so any hostile action taken in their direction would be considered a no-no and pretty much end up as a bad thing for the offender.))
OOC:
I believe Bane Spider Scout stealth defeats all forms of player-implemented perception up until the point it attacks.
The Computer is a Cheating [censored]. 
((Well I mean if you absolutely have to notice him that's well and good but you can't just turn him to melting slag the second I try something now can you?))
Bullets rips through the zombies like a hot triple-blessed knife through delicious unholy butter. As one falls, another dead Malta or Knives took its place. In typical zombie movie fashion, they bite huge chunks of flesh off the living, occasionally two would work together to literally rip a victim apart in half, feasting on the entrails and other blood rich organs.
Lavern and Shirley continued in their sword dance with Sestra, Destra, Rhea and Hecate, further pulling the focus of the Knives away from Jake, his robots or the medical bay. One of the Knives succeed in decapitating Shirley, its skull flies in a graceful arc across the room landing near Jake, the eerie flames in the eyes sockets flickers and finally fades. A cold sensation washes over Jake as a Tortured Soul materialized from the grinning skull inches from him. It paused for a second, staring deep into Jake's eyes, reading his sins and past failures, before turning around and joining the combat.
Another Grave Knight steps out of the shadow and continued where Shirley left off. Its sword glowing with a vile purple glow that can be best described as the physical manifestation of pure hatred. It performed a head-splitter and down goes Rhea, so much for the mother of the Queen of Hades...
The Lich calls forth foul tentacles of pure darkness, giving the Knives a taste of their own medicine. A Dark Servant appeared in the middle of the heaviest Malta concentration, joining the Lich in summoning the strangely serpentine tentacles of the frozen moonless night.
This was combat at its most brutal, the air filled with the scent of warm blood mixing with rotting flesh, of intestinal bile and post-morten loosen bowls. Shocking the senses and psyche of those who are used to the gentle nature of modern crime fighting, where the defeated was teleported safely to a medical facility. Some of the opposing numbers were lucky enough to escape the fate of true death, but the majority of the fallen are beyond any hope short of divine intervention.
The sheer brutality surpasses even Agincourt, the dinner entertainment of Vlad the Impaler or the atrocities of Pol Pot...
Jason barely heard what Jake had said, "Do what you will, I'm not attached to this particular batch. Just do me a single favor, stop 'defeating' them and start KILLING them. This. Is. War."
His attention was drawn else where, the strange energy signature from the corpse of Silver Meniscus. He felt... pity(!) for her, he wanted her to live with the shame and humiliation of defeat. He had imagined her at a ripe old age of 65, haunted every night wishing if she had only made Jason a better offer.
He started to recognize the pattern of the negative energy, it reminding him of the exploding corpse utilized by his Earth counterpart Dark Sovereign the Warshade. Jason's eyes widen as he realized what was about to happened. The undead may be damaged, but he could always replace them. The Arachnos forces would be fine, if at least one medical teleporter remains undamaged. He shifted his priority toward self-preservation, side-stepped partially into the infinite parallel universes and phase shifted.
Acid felt no need to speak further words to Wallace. The man knew what he had to do, and could be trusted to do just that. Keeping up a conversation wouldn't serve any positive purpose right now; at best, it would've been a distraction.
And not only to him.
The Khelari's presence may have only been in part, but if this one day became the truth, then this part worked with its entirety; namely on a way to escape this rapidly escalating situation.
Acid had no doubt that Wallace would get the ship here. No, the problem lay in the thereafter. This meant he had to be very, very careful - even the next few seconds could decide which way this mess would turn. Acid's thought process needed to be clear, calculating, and most important of all, concise as could be.
So it was.
Now he could act.
Reading contacts from his scanner, the reptilian's other hand dug several micros from a pocket of his black, biker-like jacket, clawed fingers expertly separating the three to the space between them. The next moment, he'd vanished, air filling the vacuum his teleportation had left behind with a spontaneous pop. Not a few seconds later, an infuriated bark came over the Malta Operatives' radio network, mostly concerning the matter that a fireball had just consumed one of their SAM sites.
"Doing my best to cover ya." Sheldon heard the Khelari's voice in his team's channel again, "Only got so many micros though, so make it fast..."
--------------------
Cher'tak's senses flared to high alert as his back suddenly collided with a solid object, the Warmaster's head and blade whirling about...and stopping dead a moment later, the form of Sah'Teece mirroring his movements almost perfectly. Had their suits of powered armor not carried differing hues, an onlooker may well have thought the Warmaster had run into his own reflection.
Apparently, the heat of combat had caught the two in its fervor to such an extent that they'd temporarily lost one another. The specifics remained to be explained, but the former diplomat certainly seemed to place priority on getting out of here alive, returning to the adversaries on his side while Cher'tak did the same in complement, the two Rikti working their way rearward as they fought back-to-back.
"I believe retreat is planned." he informed the Warmaster, receiving yet another gash in his already scarred armor for his moment of inattentiveness before ramming his own blade down the figurative throat of the offending Rikti-robot-machination, "I think it wise. We should form an extraction zone..."
--------------------
Forgotten Sanctuary
Command and Control
Things hadn't much changed in the local C&C center of the Malta Group. Most of the personnel within the chamber that brimmed with field command gear hadn't even moved from their stations.
Behind the large, ornate gates set into the room's far wall, however, things looked entirely different.
The Commander stared upon his monitors devoid of emotion, the iridescent blue of the haphazardly arranged screens the only source of illumination within the otherwise pitch-black chamber.
Reports crackled from a terminal's speaker system with hectic frequency, and the Commander analyzed each with great care. The Knives seemed to have acted prematurely, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. Well, there was...just nothing that would've helped more than harm. The operation's success ranked greatly higher in importance than individual lives.
Still, something had to be done.
The ornate blast gates ground open and shut yet again, an Operations Officer once more emerging from the reclusive Commander's domain. Almost immediately, the man spurned the command staff into action, most of the present black ops personnel of course being Operation Engineers.
"Tell 'em to hold long as they can, fall back if they have to," he told the one manning communications to relay to the detachment currently engaged with Arachnos. Meanwhile, several Engineers left their posts and broke open a supply crate, stuffing their pouches and satchels with large amounts of plastique, "and bug out on signal Kappa Blue. Just don't let the enemy outta that tower..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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((Huh, guess the forum didn't like my last reply.
Post deleted out of my own stupidity, and original post involving said Bane Spider has been edited accordingly.))
Right as the Arbiter landed and performed one of his kinetic blasts, he heard his warning.
"There will come soft rains."
Silver Meniscus' powerful stealth techniques were suppressed just as she performed an Eclipse-An extremely powerful assassination move from behind the Arbiter, aiming for the base of his spine. The Knife of Artemis was intent on blasting him with a built up amount of dark power that would not only blow him away, body and soul, but would also conduct itself into his body and cloud his senses.
The Hands of Artemis employed their stun grenades, lobbing them at and through Jake's force bubble to land right in the midst of him and his drones. His dispersion bubble alone was enough to prevent the stunning effects of one or even 2 of them, but could he cope with 4? The weaker minions and Lieutenants of the female group retreated to the same cover Malta was using, and began taking opportunistic shots at Jake with poisonous darts and shurikan.