[ QUOTE ]
Neither base can be attacked. The hero base is hidden, even if you switch sides; the villain base is too well defended
No leading either side, or any huge armies
Just because your character is a hero or a villain, doesnt necessarily mean they are required to pick a side. I will let your imagination come up with reasons for that.
[/ QUOTE ]
((occ: To Blightlord, attacking from the outside of the Arachnos base was suicide enough, walking into it you are risking annihilation and if not that temporal banishment from the creatures within that instead of destroying would like to toy with you forever. It would be noticed by now that something as amiss by the Fortunas and Mu Mystics who feel the unbalance and taint of Blightlord.))
((He's not talking about THE Arachnos base, he's talking about the one that Cry was in, which was attacked by sky raiders, torn to shreds, and now Cynic is in it and planning to Air Strike it. I think.))
[ QUOTE ]
((He's not talking about THE Arachnos base, he's talking about the one that Cry was in, which was attacked by sky raiders, torn to shreds, and now Cynic is in it and planning to Air Strike it. I think.))
[/ QUOTE ]
((occ: Cry was in the Fortress in his office that was ambushed and destoryed, his office overlooked the Training Grounds which I presume a good amount of the battle took place and Jake and Tamesis are surveying the damage along with Scirocco.))
((Well then, there you have it. Either it's a completely different Arachnos base or the 'no attacking it' rule has already been violated some 24 times therefore making it moot. Plus, Devious said through Scirocco that the base Cynic is in is NOT 'The' Arachnos base.
AGAIN, it would be NICE for some CLARIFICATION on this issue from SOMEONE who actually KNOWS which base it IS HINT HINT HINT HINT POKES KRAZY AND DEVIOUS))
Target rolled to one side, dodging the JumpBot's fire, then slamming it upside the head with a massive electric charge, stunning it briefly. Gravity carried it out of the fight, and he turned his attention to the most dangerous opponents, the Sky Skiffs. With the usual fire and thunder of battle, smoke from dying skiffs and exploding jetpacks, he hadn't seen Jake's 'bots yet- the Archer knew that there was another player in this battle, but he had no idea who it was.
He lobbed a rain of arrows into the air and fired another one horizontally, letting pointy death fill the air, showering from above and in front, to rattle off armour, stab the occasional luckless Raider... and get sucked into jet intakes, fouling them, jamming turbofans, making things overheat... explode... fall...
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
((Ah, when I read the beginning of this thread I was under the assumption there was one collective hero base and another collective villain base.
Blightlord's using the Arachnos soldier's body to get inside wasn't the beginning of an attack, just my way of getting in. Blightlord has no intention of just walking in, blowing everyone to shreds, then moving on. At this stage, he couldn't even if he wanted to. All he's seeking at the moment is a base he can reliably return to. Whether that means seeking mercenary-like employment or simply escaping there once in a while is up to whoever is in charge of affairs in this thread.))
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
OOC:
Yeesh, alright, alright; I'm movin', I'm movin'. 
1. So far, there is one hero base (the Bastion) and one villain base (the Fortress). All actions at Cry's office, as well as the appearances of Commander Cynic and Blightlord, have taken place at the Fortress.
2. Soviet began his Sky Raider attack before Wolffe announced that the Fortress was too heavily defended to be attacked (and vice versa that the Bastion was hidden too well). Since it was too late to edit, things went ahead. Others jumped on the bandwagon, so the excuse was created that the Sky Raiders had managed to temporarily disable the Fortress' defenses. It was about the only logical explanation.
NOTE: Scirocco has ordered the defenses brought back up ASAP. As of a little while ago, they are once more functioning at full capacity.
3. Scirocco lied. 
4. Blightlord is a master arcanist. I have little doubt he'd have spells in his repertoire that can conceal him both mentally and mystically. Therefore, Mu and Fortunata forces are highly unlikely to flush him out. Hence the security camera comment - unless he does something that would draw notice, there really isn't any logical way he could be found out.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((GOOD. THANK YOU. I still have no idea if Cynic is inside or outside, but one step at a time...))
"Save your breath, son." Cynic said in a tired voice, brushing off Tamesis' attacks as if he was being hit with wet popcorn. The shielding held firm, and just by looking at it one could feel even Psionic attacks would be halted by the shielding about the Commander. The only hint there even WAS shielding was the crystal at the end of his Night Stick glowing slightly with each blow. Suddenly, with a series of surprising aerial acrobatics that transformed Cynic into nothing more then a grey blur, the Commander was suddenly behind Tamesis and rocketing away.
***
Some time ago
"-rade." Hyperbole finished explaining as he and the Commander walked down the grey hallway with the occasional steel door and overhead light.
"Official?" Asked Cynic in an excited voice.
"Official." Said Hyperbole.
"Does this mean I get access to the super secret tech crap?" Cynic asked excitedly.
"Actually..." Hyperbole began. Cynic groaned. "Due to budget constraints, we're going to have to go with Faith Based Tech." Hyperbole said quickly, as if he wanted to get it over with. Aside from the footfalls of the two walking down the hall, there was silence.
"Faith Based Tech with capitals?" Cynic asked. "Errr? What is that?"
"Ah, well...You see..." Hyperbole said carefully. "The tech is powered by your belief that it will work." Silence again.
"Any suggestions how I'm supposed to work with that?" Asked Cynic is his old cynical [censored] voice.
"Believe VERY, VERY HARD?" Hyperbole suggested. Cynic started swearing but was stopped short as Hyperbole guided him towards a seemingly random door. "Here we are. I'll wait out here, and whatever you do, avoid mentioning mint bread."
"Mint what?" Cynic asked a tad too late as Hyperbole closed the door behind him.
((Dogma, you're "Inside" the base, but the wall was blown apart, and part of the ceiling collapsed, and the floor got melted by Krazy's robots. So it LOOKS like outside, really, but it WAS inside the base proper.
And TeChamelion and Soviet haven't noticed my interaction whatsoever ;_; at least if those raiders are zipping around, changing formation and the like, there's a better chance that one of them would catch a missile meant for me >.>
)
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((Uhm... more 'you're not trying to do anything with/to me and/or haven't noticed me' than 'not noticed', Acanous...))
Energon X watched the giant... whatever... with a distinctly jaundiced eye. "Lovely. I seem to have been spotted." He watched the conglomeration of rocks a little longer, then shrugged, sighed, and flipped a switch. Cry was abruptly on the receiving end of a blast of static- the blaster had turned on his old Vanguard Psi-shield, with the gain cranked up so high that the knob had snapped off. No biological brain could have survived the intensity of the scrambling, but, since E-X didn't have one any longer, this wasn't really a difficulty for him.
A staticky transmission to the Rover. "Don't worry about me... this is not, repeat, not the main force of Arachnos. And depending on your power supply, you'll have either Sky Raiders and Malta, or Circle of Thorns and Banished Pantheon, coming after you as well. Er... check the old commsats at 5643, vector 6.73 alpha for data on those groups, it should still be working- it was all general knowledge anyways, so no-one ever bothered to shoot it down."
With that out of the way, he turned is focus on the giant pile of rocks. "Shades of Jurassik... bleh." he muttered, and closed in on the giant monster, hurling bolts of energy that could carve a building in half at it as he went, a purplish streak tearing across the sky.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
((Ok, so it's more soviet than you. I have to wait on him posting a reaction, then on Krazy posting a reaction, then I can post, and my next post may provoke an attack of opportunity from you. Wait, that's DnD...))
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((Negative. Commander Cynic appeared as Jake, Scirocco, and Tamesis were already well inside the base. As I mentioned earlier
)
[ QUOTE ]
Cynic's idea wasn't bad. Ultimately, however, his plan carried a fatal flaw - the Fortress housed an amalgamation of villain groups, and though Arachnos technically oversaw proceedings, each faction still had been quite adamant about privacy; common sense, really.
There was hardly a path not blocked by some sort of gate after less than a dozen meters, and these doors were of course secured by a colorful assortment of means to prevent the unauthorized from opening them.
[...]
Cynic's encapsulating shielding, however, rendered him unable to interact with them at all. Ergo, a closed door might as well have been a solid wall to the man. If he did nothing to remedy this, Tamesis and his troops would have all the time in the world to figure a way to do the officer in.
Luckily, it seemed the same applied to the hacker bothering the Arachnos network. Since someone or something actively blocked a part of the system, it was just about the easiest thing in the world for the technicians to trace it back to the source. At roughly the same time as Malak and his escort departed, an extermination unit received the order to head to said source and perform the action their name implied...
[/ QUOTE ]
---------------------
Sadly, Energon's transmission never reached the Dark Rover. Radio communication had been obsolete out in the galaxy for such a long time practically no one remembered just how long it had been anymore.
Groul and Danger, having access to the map still, were a different story.
"We know." the red-scaled being's voice replied, "And we already know precisely what will happen. Didn't the Dark Dragon tell you...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Cynic calmly floated in front of the first security door upon reaching it, apparently stumped. "Say, would you happen to have any means of opening this here door?" Cynic asked, spinning around mid-air, expecting to see Tamesis right there or at least in hot pursuit.
As far as the 'source' of the filter went, it appeared to be coming from the database itself. Which meant that the filter had either been programmed in manually and had therefore been approved and supervised by Arachnos technicians already, or somebody had hacked the place ages ago and buried their tracks so deeply that this much time later it WOULD be impossible to trace the filter back to the source. So it was only to be expected when the extermination squad wound up right at the source: The mainframe, with only a few puzzled technicians wondering why they had just barged in, and no hacker in sight.
((Alright, alright, I'm coming. *GrumbleChristmasGrumble*))
Tamesis had given the man almost no time to even think of the words he was about to say, his combat oriented brain already noticing a pattern. It appeared that his crystalline staff was the source of his shielding, thereby making it his weak point more than anything else. Teleporting right next to him, he immediately made a grab for the staff, hoping to take it, or at least break it, as soon as he had a grip on it.
-----
Jake was just beginning to see the battle on the horizon, his goggles already identifying several figures in the battle, including the retreating L3-37 and his captured resister. "Excellent work." Jake praised as he passed by, the robot giving barely more than a beep to signify that it had received the message, much less appreciated it.
But why let this element of surprise go to waste? Jake veered upward and to his right, heading straight for an old building. The perfect vantage point for sniping.
Down the hall, a trio of Bane Spiders quirked their heads at what had just come around the corner there: an Arbiter, some random dude, and a whole gaggle of troopers in hot pursuit.
"Don't see that every day." the Executioner's hand drew a squiggly line on the clipboard as his attention was diverted from inspecting an armory guard post to the debacle down there, "Aw dang, now I'll have to start over."
"Hey, you!" he yelled down the corridor at Cynic, "Yeah, you! Get lost! You're being a distraction to facility operations...!"
--------------------
Actually, the technicians knew quite well why an extermination squad had entered the mainframe chambers. After all, they were the ones who'd called them.
The duo of Arbiters that led the unit didn't bother with words, instead stepping to the closest access terminal to work their authorative magic. Since the technicians had traced the filter to within the database, the solution was really quite simple and self-evident.
Delete the program.
The Arbiter Corps held command override permissions as well as access to background records - the very existence of which was completely unknown to any other entities (with the exception of Recluse himself of course) - and if two or more were present, could work their authority with terrible absoluteness.
After all, there was a reason people generally didn't break into Arachnos networks by remote, instead taking information in person and by tangible copy. Since Arachnos seemed to have an uncanny knack for sniffing out hackers, it was just common sense.
And while the filter ended its existence, the secret records gave the Arbiters precisely the moment the system had been compromised, as well as the location of its origin. There was no practical way to prevent this, as no one even knew about this system aside from Recluse and the Arbiters. The filter expired, this was a fact, and the records would show where it had come from. Sure, the source might no longer be there, but the data certainly didn't care about presence, only time and location. When and where did it yield...?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
The monster stubbled as part of its shoulder and arm started to slide until more rock filled its place repairing it. "You Energon-X, have fought infinite powers and energies only because you could match them! Now lets see how things work the other way when your powers betray you."
The creature hulked and brought its hand forward twisting and changing into frost and ice meant to cover the landscape and Energon-X. The spray of cold would only melt on the armor of Energon-X, but the battleground was becoming a mere playground for a game Cry was setting up.
Cry loved to study the greatest of heroes and most favorably the weaknesses of each. Even Lord Recluse's weaknesses were known to him a secret he would take a lifetime to tell.
The static did little to interupt his mind, vacant from his body, subconsciously and dimensionally warded in a bubble someplace in the battlefield.
Cry messed with the elemental structure of the monster, it dragging a piece of pure diamond and then its body not being able to support itself being fire. Then as it stumbled it erupted into a freon of energies constantly being eaten and exhaled formulating fromt he ground into its internal energies.
"It begins now Energon-X, lets see that battle pride I hear that can break civilizations apart." The monster now of energy opened its mouth to a ray of kinetic energies that swept the landscape toward Energon-X.
Cynic raised an eyebrow as Tamesis uselessly attempted to break the shielding that not only protected but bonded both Commander and Night Stick together. Then the Executioner shouted.
"HEY! TRYING HERE!" Cynic roared back in irritation. "NOT ENTIRELY MY FAULT!" He then looked at Tamesis again. "Hey boyfriend. Can you stop trying to marry my stick for a moment and open the damn door? You're holding up traffic."
***
The filter expired only to be replaced by another completely identical one that rose from the endless stream of data to replace it. The source was quite easy to track though, the exact time of the breach being the same moment the mainframe had come online, the new breach having occured the exact moment the previous filter had been deleted. The location itself was not as important as the source. The mainframe appeared to have created both filters independently and by itself.
From the ULTRA C.A.T.S. terminal, Angus Macginnie watched Acanous' bio meter fluctuate for a second time. His synthetic eyebrows furrowed, thousands of microprocessors telling him that he should be worried.
While not capable of true concern, being an infiltration android, he was quite capable of analyzing almost any situation, and finding an appropriate course of action.
Engaging his hard-light holo emitter, and his consealed leg-jets, he flew over to the Steel Canyon transporter enclave and engaged the teleportation subroutine.
Some people play for glory, some people play for fun, some people play for the LOLs.
I play to win.
Play hard or get out of my way!
@Lord Asmodeus
((Whoa, hey Angus, what are YOU still doing up? get bored of teaming with that noobtroller?))
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
The Bane Spider grinned devilishly under his helmet.
Haha. Sucker fell for it.
One of the armory guards gave the inspector a nod, then quickly accessed the storage chamber and handed his superior a weapon that greatly resembled a Hercules Titan's plasma cannon...
--------------------
"How annoying." the left of the Arbiter duo huffed, her fingers wandering over her terminal. Again the filter underwent deletion, and this time the subroutines for replacement went with it. All of them. The thing wasn't coming back.
The problem of location, however, took a little more effort. Arachnos' mainframes weren't intelligent, nor anywhere near so artificially. They were data management devices, nothing more. Ergo, this left the Arbiters with two possible conclusions:
One - the mainframe wasn't a mainframe. It had never been. While possible, the likelihood of this was so low as to be effectively negligible. Arachnos designed and manufactured their data management systems in-house, and with very stringent quality standards. Chances nobody would've noticed this hovered around zilch. There was a reason Arachnos sat atop the food chain of global organizations, after all.
Two - the mainframe had been compromised upon its installation. Infinitely more likely, this possibility was really the only reasonable one. Therefore, someone had accessed the system at that time and planted these programs. Since the thing had come online with said routines already running, it had of course never had any need to detect them, as they hadn't disrupted normal operating procedures.
Now, however, they had. As a result, they had been purged. Now all that remained was to find out who had inserted them at the time of installation; and where. Since the secret records showed this also, the Arbiters had no trouble discovering just that.
Sadly, chances were quite high said someone had just been a very sneaky person who'd managed to plant the programs during installation. If so, they'd have used a captured access code (or some means of breaking into the system without tripping an alarm), and all the records would show would be something akin to, 'Technician Whoever installed these at this time.'
The result of such would of course be (assuming said man or woman was still alive, of course; Arachnos employment wasn't exactly the safest job around) a proverbial witch-hunt - which would end with some random sap in an interrogation room and no usable results whatsoever...
--------------------
Weaver Airfield
"Why me?" the base commander of Arachnos' airport subsection placed a hand upon the front of his helmet. Yet another operative had just arrived in the facility's hospital...well, what was left of the man, anyway. It wasn't much, and didn't look very appetizing.
"Do we have any leads yet?" the Huntsman questioned his lieutenant with trembling fists, "Any at all? I'll take a hair!"
"Sorry, Sir." the TacOp shook his head, "All we've got is that slime. I think we're in a horror story and the Hydra's the monster...or not. Doesn't explain the Fortunata."
The base commander only nodded silently. The man was right. Unless the Hydra had suddenly gone psycho...er, psychic, there wasn't any way it could've disabled all mental power in the vicinity.
"Keep looking for now." the Huntsman ordered, "Groups of four, keep an eye on your partner at all time. Don't need any more suckers being pulled into vents...why're those things so damn big anyways...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
[I've never heard someone whine so much while they get PL'd. and hey-Zin's almost 50]
Appearing in Steel Canyon Angus began zipping towards Acanous' position. Using the bio monitor to track him and silent hoverjets to fly Angus was as undetectable as current technology would allow.
He managed to spot Acanous and some sky raiders just as a wave of missiles and plasma rained down on AC like a wave.
Some people play for glory, some people play for fun, some people play for the LOLs.
I play to win.
Play hard or get out of my way!
@Lord Asmodeus
((Gratz on being almost 50. Bug me when you get there, lol))
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
Angus may have been invisible to any type of technological means of detection, but this didn't exclude plain old eyesight. Jake clearly saw him making his way towards Acanous in an obvious rescue attempt.
Well, obviously, an Arachnos Arbiter charged with the task of bringing said hero back wouldn't like this. Landing on his perch, he took a quick aim and fired a stream of plasma at Angus's head, which, if it hit, would tear a perfect hole through his skull.
-----
Tamesis's eye twitched as the staff gave nothing to indicate it had even been damaged.
Dammit. He thought. This guy's shields are as good as Jake's.
This is, of course, when he saw the giant-evil-buster-cannon-of-death-and-destruction, as he liked to call it, be brought into the fray. Grinning, he hopped back a fair distance, opting for the rest of the soldiers to stay back and fire as well, if for nothing else, then for the effect of overkill.
[hard-light holo emitter, Angus looks like Predator when he's moving, it'd be hard to find a place to shoot, if you did notice]
Some people play for glory, some people play for fun, some people play for the LOLs.
I play to win.
Play hard or get out of my way!
@Lord Asmodeus
Blightlord looked back at his trio of undead. Their helmets still in place, from any ceiling camera surveillance they'd appear as just incredibly weary soldiers back from a long day's patrol.
Satisfied, he walked inside, seeking a quiet place where he could dismiss the undead. It didn't take long. The restrooms, in their most disturbing state, proved quite vacant. Blightlord willed the zombies to melt away, drawing them into himself for later use.
Flushing the toilet to avoid suspiscion, he stepped out. Unless someone was paying an unusual amount of attention or there was really no privacy in the villain base, no one should notice that four men went in, but only one left.
But then again, maybe there would be no surprise at all. The restroom was downright toxic.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell