The civilians inside cheered their rescuer and gladly ran through the portal, thanking the NotJaken as they ran for the Albatross. Once they were through, the soldiers left as well. One of them stopped to thank Jaken and ask for his name.Welsh Halfwit wrote:The NotJaken decided on discretion being the better part of sensible and stepped aside as he opened a portal into the room. After a few seconds of nobody trying to kill him he poked his fake head through the hole. "Anyone need a quick exit," he asked.
>It might be best to use a codename or alias. Hivemind sent to the NotJaken's head's up display.
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The assault from the off-screen enemy continued as the city's resistance was rapidly crushed on screen. Armored vehicles were tossed left and right without anything touching them. Tanks were crushed by something too massive to make out. Blasts of fire, frost, and lightning launched at the Celicans from off camera. Finally the attacker stepped into view. At least, the bottom half of it was in view. Someone apparently had taken control of the camera because it panned up to see a colossal figure nearly fifty feet tall silhouetted against the sun. It's eyes glowed bright white. There was a flash of light, then static.Welsh Halfwit wrote:Sana ran the image of the gun through her systems and it came up with a match in a few moments. "The showed this at a weapons' fair a few months ago," she said, reading it off the screen. "It was a prototype they wanted to sell to the Celican Military, apparently. It says the military turned them down on the expense of the gun and the fact the number of peoples that couldn't be stopped by the guns the military already have were too few to justify the replacement on a general scale.
Their words, not mine."
"Prototype must mean something different here," Seena said. "There are an awful lot of 'prototypes' on show... And what is killing them," she added as a soldier half landed in front of them. With the other half landing several feet away. She took her commlink from her pocket and spoke into it. "Seena to Colorado," she said, just in case, "Be careful, my love,"
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>Very well. I will investigate further.Buster wrote:Nodding, despite the fact that it's redundant when answering a voice in your own head, June headed up, carefully cutting into the side of the vehicle and sticking her face in so she could scan he trio of unconscious forms inside.
Mind if i pass control back to you, i want to talk to them, see if i can find out what happened. she asked, once the trio were safely loaded. the virtual environment for them being constructed to resemble a hospital ward so as to be less of a shock when they woke up. (cause where else would a front line casualty expect to wake up?)
June's vision would fade to white, then the hospital ward materialized in front of her. The tree Celicans were in a couple beds separated by hospital curtains.
>Waking them up now.
The three soldiers gasped simultaneously and shot up into sitting positions as Predator "activated" them. One of them looked around. "Where are we?! Where is that... thing!" he noticed June. "Who are you?!"
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Legotron123 wrote:Kolt gave an appreciatory nod before dropping down into the staton proper. ”I’m going to stick by Jenny then. If they figure out what we’ve done, she’ll be their first target.” He said, putting up a forcefield around the two of them.
Welsh Halfwit wrote:Jenny led the way in carefully, her captured blaster by her side and her hands ready. She brought her hands together carefully to produce a low sound that reverberated down the passageway.
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Hannabelle readied her knife. The gun wouldn't be much use down here.
They didn't encounter anything until they reached the platforms where they were supposed to meet the President in not too long. Two objects started shimmering in response to the sound, but that couldn't be seen otherwise.Buster wrote:intent on not limiting her senses, Kol pulls the muzzlepiece off her helmet before putting the rest of it back on. clipping that part to one of the magnet plates on her belt, not realizing that despite how modular the armor is, that piece isn't supposed to come off and she just severed her translator from it's power supply.
She falls into step beside Kolt as the team heads in. Weapons at the ready, save for one axe since she has the offcer's commandeered rifle in that hand, the barrel sitting atop her shoulder causing her to give off a bit of a Predator vibe.
"There's two. Usually there are four." Gadgeteer said, quietly. "eyes open for the other two. Keep quiet until we're close, don't engage until we find the other two." He said, walking casually toward the two shimmering spots as if he didn't see them.
(Note: Don't auto-hit the special forces people. They are elite enemies, and are supposed to be more difficult than normal Varanian troops.)
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Welsh Halfwit wrote:Encumbered by his boots, Corp wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the kick entirely and took something of a glancing blow to his side before doing his best to grasp the foot and push it up to unsteady the Shipmaster. "No <uff> insult was intended, I hope," he grunted as he moved and before Liz made her comment. "Although I might have been wrong."
As it turned out, the Shipmaster was neither angry, nor distracted as he danced around the strikes, almost stepping on Corp once or twice by mistake. He was focused completely on Liz and Lewis. Then Lewis threw his dagger.Legotron123 wrote:Liz landed on a catwalk with a thud, smirking as the gravity turned back on. ”No, in this fight specifically, you have surprisingly acted with honor.” She said, before aiming a swing at the leg he was trying to kick Corp with. ”The problem is with literally everything else I’ve heard about your empire. Now, I’ll admit, I just arrived in this dimension yesterday, so I don’t know every single detail about how your regime works.” Another swing, this one aimed at his right arm. ”But I’ve read the Beacon’s files and I’ve had Hivemind explain somethings. And if all of that is true, than your people really don’t know what honor means.” She tried kneeing him in the crotch before swinging her axe at his head. ”Because honor isn’t just following a set of rules. It’s about honesty, fairness, and integrity.” Another swing, this one at his shoulder. ”If your government was honest, they’d admit that nothing changed after the Dragon Knight saved your world. They’d drop this whole pretense of “rouge fleets,” and admit that all their talk about respecting strength only applies to them.” A swing at his arms. ”If you were fair, than your invasions would follow similar rules to the fight we’re currently having. You’d contact the planet ahead of time, let them know the rules of engagement, and give them the tools and time they need to prepare themselves.” A swing at his neck. ”And if you had the slightest bit of integrity, you wouldn’t even HAVE this practice of enslaving people in the first place, and you certainly wouldn’t arbitrarily decide that some people don’t get to be people due to circumstances outside of their control. As an old friend would say, face it you knob end. You and your whole empire are the exact opposite of honorable!”
That was when Lewis would make his move. Once the Shipmaster was angry and distracted by Liz’ insults, he made a line between his eye and one of Lewis’ daggers. Even if he tried dodging out of the way, the dagger would just course correct and hit it anyways.
The Shipmaster caught it midair, and crushed it to dust in his hand.
"The words you speak are those of one who knows little of the matters you speak of. They are misinformed at best, and hypocritical at worst." The Shipmaster spoke, clearly, seriously, and in a low voice. "Your first assertion, that nothing changed after the Dragon shifted Varas with it's bare hands, is wrong. Everything changed, especially on Varan. Especially to me. More and more Varanians find value in virtues aside from strength." He ducked another shot from Liz. "Why do you think none of our ships followed the Beacon when it left our range? Why do you think I did not kill you the moment I had you at gunpoint? It is because my kin are alive because of the courage and... altruism... of the Dragon. I owe him. We all owe him whether we accept that or not. In his absence, I owe his brother. I serve our Warlord, but I respect the Hive." He stepped to the side to dodge another swing. "Second. Warlords operate independently. We are not a part of the Varanian government, thus they have no authority over us." His voice got more serious. "Third, the Celicans are not innocent victims like they pretend to be to get your support. They had more warning than we did. Why do you think we are here? Celica Challenged us. They invited us. They Called us here to fight them. They asked us to fight them. They knew what was involved. If anything, them breaking the rules by calling for help simply makes themselves look weak, cowardly, and unable to live up to their own boasting. Finally, your last statement is as hypocritical as you say I am. You do the exact same thing. You would not consider the respected elephant or rhinoceros people. Nor the horse, or the buffalo. We do. You decide what a person is based on the intelligence it has as a species. Whenever the species fails to live up to your intellectual standards, it becomes exploitable as food or as labor, and no member of that species is spared, nor are they an acception. We define it with strength, and define it individually. That which is weak is potential prey. A bit stronger, and it is labor."
"RRARGH!" The Shipmaster roared in frustration and tried to tear Kobor off of him, but he found himself tangled. He started pulling at Kobor, not caring if he had to rip the squid creature's tentacles off. It was starting to look like he was going to, as he was more than strong enough to tear Kobor's limbs off. "Persistant, sticky creature! Release me!"Buster wrote:>Gravity's back!
Well that's promising... I'm surprised you haven't sent the packet yet though.
Creating 2381 permutations of the instruction set, without corrupting any of the schematics, so they have to be disabled individually rather than someone just sending a master shutdown command takes time!
We're more than close enough to stay connected though, you can get back on there if you want. If you can either take him down, or buy me five minutes, i can start production. then they'll be the ones racing against time.
Gladly.
Ejecting, It takes Kobor a bit to get back over, not being the most mobile thing out of the water, but soon enough the ship master will find over a dozen tentacles wrapped around his legs and constricting. and this time they're covered in suckers that don't want to let go, not smooth metal since the armor isn't in the way.
"Miss Me?"
The Wyvern took advantage of this moment, deciding to push that whole revelation about Celica calling the Varanians to the back of his mind for now. He leaped into the air and swung his club hard at the Shipmaster's jaw. It hit with a sickening CRACK. The Shipmaster grunted and staggered, seeing stars and with his lower right jaw hanging limp. "Liz, punch him! Knock him out!"