<<Check that; it's got some kind of electrolaser shotgun in its hand. Watch out!>>
Get out of the line of fire! Head toward my pickup and try to summon a medkit for Angel when safe.
You manage to reach a nearby building, some kind of store with large glass windows and hide inside it. A few seconds later, you can hear the sound of thunder and glass breaking behind you, followed by the sound of the front of the building collapsing shortly after that.
You keep moving, using your sensor helmet to navigate through the corridors of the building and reach another exit. You call Jordan through your Interface and give him your location. You can hear the BETA getting closer and its electrolaser shotgun firing once more. You hope Jordan gets here quickly.
Meanwhile, you try to summon a medkit. You get a device that would best be described as an automated bandage applicator that is almost empty.
Jordan lands with his spaceplane (it looks kinda scorched in places but is otherwise OK) and you get in it.
<"Gotcha, I can handle it. Say, Angel's hurt, could you make a medical kit or something?">
If said ride comes in, come in and pick John up. If the robot is close, do so quickly.
You approach John's locatation, in time to see the BETA cast force lighting on a building. The building is riddled with glowing holes and its front collapses soon after. And then John tells you that he's going to be exiting that building soon.
OK then. I guess this means you're going to have to be quick.
You fly low, using the buildings as cover. Despite that, the BETA seems to somehow know you're coming and fires another round of lighting in front of you. You expertly dodge the lighting bolts, barely avoiding getting hit by them.
You land near John and extend the spaceplane's ladder. While you wait for him to get in, you can hear the BETA approaching. Let's hope you continue being such a good pilot.
Okay then, detour. Try to sneak behind the BETA while its focused on John.
Then shoot it, center of mass.
You keep driving, going around the rubble.
A spaceplane flies overhead and dodges a dozen or so bolts of lighting that come from the right side of the next intersection before going right at the intersection after that. Looks like you've finally caught up with the BETA.
Anything special you want to do or just take the next right and fire?
Backtrack to open space, wait to accumulate enough biomass to turn into a very small bird. Locate and consume the swarm of worms. Use all biomass into becoming some sort of Pterosaur.
You turn into a wood warbler. Even that makes you feel very hungry.
You look around you. Your vision is not the best right now, everything looks kinda blurry, but you're fairly certain there are no worms around here. Instead, everything around you is covered by a red and brown sludge. Well, it could be edible. Won't know unless you try.
You start gobbling up the sludge. It tastes like crap and makes you feel sick. But it also makes you feel fuller. You could keep eating this and hope you don't get sicker. Or you could go and search for something else.
This isn't as exciting as dying because I'm not dying. In other words, continue to not die.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive, staying alive. Just barely.
Meanwhile...
Bryan
A short welcome reprieve.
Faron
Head to the warehouse, if I appear to be following/followed, take a different route.
There doesn't seem to be anyone following you.
You drive out of the radiation zone and into the industrial district.
Please wait while you're synchronized with Lenglon.
<Babe, reason and I broke up a long time ago. Consumption reasons; she didn't like me drinking my toast and chewing my plates.>
Shotgun the front tire, then RAM IT!
"Eh, screw this."
Assume direct control! Shoot the dude
Ike takes control of his host and uses his superior skills to fire a burst from his machine pistol at Alan's host. He hits him in the chest, one bullet hitting his abdomen, another going through his left shoulder.
Alan's host looses control of the car but manages to stop it without further injuring himself.
The police car from before pulls up in front of his car to cut him off.
Meaanwhile, Ike's host keeps driving. He's lost enough time already with this... whatever this was. Maybe some assassin working for the Cause?
Those cops should hopefully take care of him and bring him in for interrogation... or at least return his body in a state good enough for it to be identified.
Now he has to focus on his real target. Can't let that scum get away.
Zechariah mused about the situation that the Entities are in compared to the Guardians. For all intensive purposes, the Entities seemed like Guardians who had powers on the level of Eido Aeterno, governing different universes and such. They had their feuds and the elders and the young entities, but for the most part they kept each other alive when possible.
Something itched at Zechariah's curiosity: although these Entities have massive power, some of them don't really seem to understand humanity and mortality. Either that or humanity is so insignificant compared to the scope that these Entities control that they ignore it altogether. The thing with the Guardians is that they understand humanity to a dangerous level.
How would the Guardians, physical representations of the basic fundamentals of the universes and humanity itself, fare against the Entities who govern these universes and loom over humans like giants to ants? The Guardians have experienced pain and suffering to an amazing extent, but the Entities have already acquired this power and have ascended far beyond the Guardians.
This thinking was starting to worry Zechariah, so he chided himself and shut his wandering subconscious off, for now.
Interface, Scion: <There needs to be a balance. Stagnation is what the Guardians fought off, in the form of the Shadow, but you cannot wage warfare far over peace. While chaos is the nature of existence, if you put all chaos and no order, everything will burn brightly but shortly. If you establish some order in there, you improve the quality of life for everyone. And... don't feel bad for being "young." Youth comes with opportunity to grow, chances to learn, and the ability to ascend.
And... I guess we learned our lesson too late. Even in the first generation of Guardians, my generation, we had some deaths. Artemis saw to that. It cost us in the final battle because we didn't have everyone there. Luckily we had a few Guardians who were able to bring back the dead Guardians for one night, though the Guardians who opened the gates of death could not participate in the battle themselves. We... nearly lost that. We would've lost that, in fact. There was only one catch.
I was the only one stupid enough to sacrifice himself, throwing myself and my Shadow into the limbo, and destroy the Medium from there, cutting off the Shadow. It was a Pyrrhic victory. I haven't contacted any of the Guardians since. My guess is that I fell out of Eido's jurisdiction and somehow you entities caught me on the way out.
You don't seem to have a very good relationship with this elder, darker Entity. He's the one who shut Artemis up when I was unstable, wasn't he? What is he like?>
<What's Darkstar like? Oh, he's only one of the greatest of our species. He's a beast, instinct working hand in hand with a shrewd mind and vast amounts of knowledge. Doesn't hold back, takes what he wants. A bond-former of such power... He could bathe in the fires of the sun and swallow up entire fleets. Before he became an entity. And now that he is an entity... He can handle the intricacies of our power almost as good as I do, tackling the problems I would battle with finesse and intrigue with pure, unrelenting force and animal cunning. He's responsible for providing the raw power and control required for the games, along with S-Zero.> You don't think you've ever heard her speak with such admiration in her voice. Then again, you haven't exactly met her admittedly high standards.
<That's why I hate it. I hate that he- Ah, why am I telling you this? You don't need to know. Don't deserve to know. All you need to know is that I awoke near the beginning of the second cycle, he near the end of the first. He's not that older than me! All the rest are his- his problems! Thinks he's so superior because of his stupid heritage...>
<And I will definitely not tolerate someone like you calling me young and giving me advice, so watch your tongue! If I ever need the sympathy of failed humans I'll let you know.>Desynchronized. Attempting to reconnect...Reconnected. you hear a few minutes later. Or at least, they felt like minutes. Hard to keep track of time in this dark void when you don't even have a body.
Looks like they're keeping your host alive. For now.
{Irine}
No action
I'm not so sure this is a good idea...
The Van continues driving for a while. The trip is mostly uneventful. Amelia remains weak but stable. Zoe tends to her. Awena looks around, unsure of what to do. The man tries not to look at the gun Zoe keeps pointing towards him at his slightest movement.
<Are you sure this is a good idea?> Stellar asks Theri.
<Relax. All will work out in the end.> her entity responds before she has a chance to.
<You're helping her?><Don't sound so surprised.><So that means you know what's happening here?><No, I do not.><He's lying. Watch out.> Stellar says to Irene, privately.
<That woman, Amelia, she must be a keystone. And he must know something about this.>The Van stops after a while. Zoe grabs the man, points the gun at his head and gets out of the vehicle. Awena follows, taking Amelia's gurney with her.
You're outside an old warehouse on a deserted road, near the border of the Residential and Industrial Districts.
The warehouse is a large old thing made of concrete, two stories high, with a triangular roof made of metal. There are scant windows on its upper floor and none on its lower. The deactivated neon sign on its top reads "RAVENSCOURT INDUSTRIES". You can see black smoke rising off the roof and dissolving in the wind soon after
Zoe makes the driver take point and enter the building first, while she follows with her hostage. The place seems to have been inhabited once, but now looks deserted. There are no humans visible inside. Only metal supports holding walkways, a few metal containers and some piles of burning papers, the smoke from the fires escaping through the broken skylights in the roof.
At least that's all that you can see in this partition of the warehouse, for there are doors leading to other parts of it.
"Hello? Anybody here?" asks the driver. There's no response.
The driver turns around to look at the man Zoe is holding hostage. "Looks deserted. Do you thi-"
At that point, two men jump out from behind a container and point their assault rifles at you, shouting at you.
"DROP YOUR WEAPON NOW!"Zoe turns to make sure her hostage is between her and the two men.
"Relax man. It's me. We were supposed-"
"You could be a traitor for all I know. And I don't know that bitch. Tell her to drop her gun now and we'll see about letting you live.""Not gonna happen.""Drop it now or I WILL fire! You have until the count of three.""Look, we were ordered to-"
"One!""Just listen, we-"
"Stand down! Hold your fire."You turn to look at where the voice came.
Zoe doesn't know who that man is. That man who just ordered the gunmen to refrain from shooting you.
But Irene does. She's met him before. Fought him before.
Borislav Kuznetsov, former Director of the Skrytyy Mech research facility of the Red Army's Special Research Division.
And he has an interface, its crystal missing.
"That woman is worth more than any of you." he adds as he begins approaching Amelia.
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1146214 times)