(I'd think I'll go ahead and start a team mission.)
♚The Doll Prince: A Last Cheap Shot.♚
"Had you not stabbed me in the back, you wouldn't be in this situation, Monseigneur Jack!" Napoleon spat as a rat-thing grabbed Jack from behind.
Feeling woozy from bloodlost and hitting his head on the floor, Napoleon wanted to continue this mission. However, he knew that it would take a miracle to continue moving in this state and with these monsters attacking them. Mustering enough willpower, Napoleon had the dolls swarming Jack to peel off and keep the beasts away from him. He'd even unsummoned the ones guarding the downed security guard at the entrance of the security area to divert more energy.
This is it, he thought to himself. The Doll Prince has finally met his end. No more ambitions to be fulfilled, no more glorious plans brought to fruition. It seems that he won't get to meet the Queen after all or to encounter Lady Amarante again. Is this how Napoleon Bonaparte felt as he laid on his deathbed at St Helena, slowly succumbing to arsenic poisoning? Had he dreamed of a glorious global empire that he could've established had he won at Waterloo? Such things didn't matter as the masterful tactician known as Napoleon Lambeau, the Doll Prince, was about to die before he could show the world his brand of excellence.
At the very least, all he can do is to give a final gesture of defiance, just as he had done in his fight with Lady Amarante.
"Monseigneur Jack!" Napoleon called out, sneering as Jack fought off the rat beasts. "When we get to Hell and I no doubt take over, I'm making you my court jester!"
With that, Napoleon gave Jack a solid jab to the face, hopefully sending him into the midst of the ravenous beasts."
((Are you fine with getting sent to assist the guys exploring the spaceship? Do you want to learn anything about that mission before you decide?))
Jack takes out a heart card and uses it on the beast to get it off him. While he's distracted, you kick him on his stupid face, once again sending him to the ground while you use the push to climb back to the platform. Through the open door, you can see Jack and the beast now under his control getting up and getting ready for another attack. More beasts are swarming around them.
((It's not my choice if fate decides to throw me through time and space away from anyone I've ever loved. For now at least, I'll only be making decisions in-character.))
Just grab a random bag of gear and run.
You grab the bag with the engineer equipment, shove your own bag in it and start running away. You can feel people moving to track the noise your heavy suit makes as its boots impact the ground, but you ignore them. They're staying inside their rooms. The real danger is those three points approaching your position.
Luckily they appear to be approaching more cautiously than they initially were. That gives you time to reach the corridor leading to the exit. But then you feel one of the points change its path, forming a line straight to you. They must be able to hear you moving. The other two continue on their way, but the one following you might be a problem. You can also see some people in the corridor up ahead, which means that even if you could magically make your movements completely quiet they're bound to make some noise when they see you.
Weird, oh well order some sake
((Are you up for helping one of the teams with their mission? They're suffering from a shortage of manpower. Their mission is to explore a spaceship that had gone missing and has recently reappeared.))
"Here you go." the girl at the counter says as she puts a glass in front of you and fills it to the brim with sake.
"So, new here, right? Where were you taken from, if you don't mind me asking?"
Campaign: Rebel Assault
((Augh! My post seemingly got eaten! I was going to action to check out that pop, as it seems I'm the nearest to it...but now, feels good to know!))
Consider what the pop could have been. Musket shot perhaps?
[...]
Ike lets you know that the trigger-happy alchemist lady just shot a guy that was giving them trouble and is now laughing to herself.
Theri looked around for possible dangers and seeing none, proceeded back with River. If there was a rating from 1-10 on how alert the enemy may be, she would've guessed a 6, wherein they're alert but haven't designated a specific problem yet. Hopefully she could add to that confusion.
Proceed with step 2 of the plan! Hopefully everything is in time and in synchronicity!
You return to Zechariah as quickly as you can, bringing a small group of recruits with you. After making sure the recruits can start working on taking care of the civilians and the prisoners you've captured, you start making your way to the second warehouse. It's a straight line from here and you see nobody along the way, so you just run towards it.
As you get closer to the center of the town the effects of the Dark magic coming from it become even stronger. You can feel the coldness, the emptiness, the hungry influence looking to claim more and more for itself. It fills you with an unnatural feeling of dread. You glance at the top of the tower visible above the roofs of the nearby buildings, the center of the dark ritual. There is some magical effect warping the light coming from it, making it appear dark and distorted, as if viewed through a reflection on moving shadows. You can catch glimpses of something moving beneath the shadows, a faint fiery light. You feel the need to do what you came here to do and then get out of here as quickly as possible.
As you reach the warehouse, you begin walking slowly, trying not to alert the guards there if you can. Both of the large doors of the warehouse are barred and locked and a smaller wicket gate on it is closed (you don't test if it's locked, as that could alert the guards inside). You can't hear much from inside it. You think you hear people moving around and whispering, but not much else. But you can see light coming from the various windows on its second floor. You catch a glimpse of someone's shadow as they move in front of a light source.
You don't think there's a chance you'll catch them off guard like you did in the previous warehouse. Either the guards here are more scared or more competent than those at the previous warehouse. So this will most likely turn into a fight. You know you have to take care not to accidentally hurt any of the civilians during the fighting. You trust your strength (and even if you didn't a missed punch is unlikely to result in much collateral damage). But Zechariah's shadow abilities appear a bit too powerful lately, he might not have much fine control with them. And River does tend to get a bit... carried away at times when fighting. Even the two water mages accompanying you, you don't think they've seen much fighting in their lives. Sure, they are capable, but you don't know how well they'll perform under pressure.
You push such thoughts away from your mind. It doesn't matter now. What matters now is rescuing those people, making sure they are safe. And you're running out of time.
You hear a soft whine from your right. You turn to see River look at you for a second, then up at a window, then back at you. Hm. That could work. You could enter from one of the windows, if you found a way to climb. Or you could have River jump up there and let you know about the situation inside. Or you could simply break the door down. Or intimidate/scare them. I guess you could also try talking to them, but they are probably not going to listen to you.
Keep at it.
You keep on keeping on keeping at it.
You could probably walk around if you wanted, but not much else.
"Getting very worried about that airship. Looks like dark magic.
...How is the anti-magic going, Fire-Fox? Need anything?"
Order recruits to load an alchemical ice bolt into the crossbow, and aim it at the airship. A tsar ice bolt should freeze the gas inside the airship, basically acting as the opposite of a hot air balloon and forcing it to crash land. It should also create slippery ice all inside the airship making it difficult for crew to do anything. Should do relatively little collateral damage if it's off target.
Tsar the crossbow. Prepare to fire.
"Load ice." you tell the artillery operators, still speaking quietly.
For a moment, they freeze and just look at you, processing what you just said. Then their minds 'shift gears' and they spring into action, loading the bolt into the already prepped crossbow.
"Ice loaded." one of them reports, maintaining the same volume of voice.
"Target is the airship. As we practiced.""Targeted airship." the operator reports, having made some final adjustments to his aim.
You spend a moment on your vantage point, alternating between looking at the crossbow and looking at the airship. Looks like it's positioned correctly.
"Clear." you say and then approach the crossbow.
"Clear." the operators whisper amongst each other as they stand a safe distance away from the crossbow while you put your hand on it and focus on your power.
When you are satisfied, you force the Tsar energy into the crossbow. A barely visible soft green glow spreads from your hands and into the crossbow, quickly spreading to all parts of it. It immediately starts changing, getting larger, heavier. Its string turns into a massive rope-like thing. Its trigger now looks more like a lever. The padding on its back looks more like part of small sofa. And the bolt has turned into a spiky missile, the inner side of its semi-transparent surface covered by a web of brightly glowing green cracks, purple and blue shapes worming their way between them.
The moment the Tsaring is finished and you give the all clear, two operators immediately begin working on bracing the now Tsared crossbow while Lune, displaying some quick thinking, places his shield over the glowing bolt to hide it from sight. He stands ready to remove it whenever you give the order to fire.
You don't know how stable that bolt is. It's probably best to fire as soon as you can. But rushing your shot could be just as deadly as not shooting. Deciding to take the risk, you spend a few seconds trying to judge if the Tsared crossbow is aimed correctly. You close your eyes for a moment and try to visualize the last time you saw it fire. It was a chaotic moment, your memory of it feels somewhat distorted, but it's the closest thing you got. You open your eyes and try to visualize something similar with the crossbow's current position.
Still, this isn't exactly like last time. For one, your ability seems to have focused much more on the bow part, making it larger and presumably more powerful and less on the bolt. You could say it's more of a cannon than a mortar. Worst case you might have to 'walk' your fire and hope the airship and the re-Tsared crossbow don't change too much for it to matter.
"1 step right." you say, hoping to counteract the effect of the wind at those higher altitudes.
"1 step right." one of the operators repeats as two of them work on carefully raising the Tsared crossbow and adjusting its aim.
You make your way back to your vantage point, so you can see what adjustments are needed for the next shot. You also have dedicated spotters for that job, but two pairs of eyes are better than one and you think it might help better direct your ability if you see its results.
"Get ready..." you say and raise your arm.
Two of the operators stand on either side of the crossbow, ready to pull its trigger. You really hope it doesn't just explode in their faces.
Maximus: Medical Section
Kosak Durar:
"Where are they?"
Find where those things are coming from. Start punching it.
((The mission's good.))
Brian Hoss, Maximus
Find the mastermind.
((The mission's good.))
<Svajoklis, Medbay>
I'm with the big guy. We can only manage so many of them, better go find the one controlling them.
Go find the mad Overlord.
((The mission is fine, just rather depopulated.))
((All right then, let's see about getting you some helpers.))
You decide to head deeper into the medical section, following the Master signal to its source. You open a door leading to the various wards of the medical section. The corridor beyond is is in a much worse state than the parts of the medical section that you've seen so far. It is missing several panels from its walls and the lights are flickering, as if they are not receiving as much power as they should. At about its midway point, the corridor has been blocked by a fleshy growth that is spreading its tendrils everywhere. You can see the edges of the tendrils squirm slightly. You could try making your way through it or you could try going through one of the adjacent rooms.
The room on your right has suffered extreme heat damage, to the point where its original purpose can't be determined by looking at it. You have to check the map on your Interface to see that it's supposed to be the Stasis Surgery Ward. Walls have melted and formed a sphere around... something. The center of the sphere is still glowing, still almost-molten with heat, however this must not be a recent development because there are various cables and devices arranged all around the molten core. You can see a door that would lead to the other side of that fleshy growth, however the heat has welded it shut. The map says it leads to the Hyperstasis Pods.
The room on your left says it's an Intensive Care room. You can see beds in it with various devices arranged around them. The beds' white sheets are dirty with various red, brown and black stains. The map says the room beyond it is an Artificial Gravity chamber, essentially a giant wheel that turns to produce artificial gravity.
You can hear more of those things with the giant eyes on the other side of the corridor, making their way to you.
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