Oh come on. What now?
Two soldiers coming towards you, that's what. They are definitely not in the best state of mind-they're firing their weapons at random. Maybe... don't reveal yourself?
James nods silently to himself...
James stays silent. Waiting for the soldiers to pass by. If they notice him, and start attacking(brainwashing, perhaps?) he dodges to the side of the bullets and chucks his bound fire axe at one of them. If they notice him, and stop shooting/whatnot... time to talk. Perhaps ask medical assistance.
The soldiers scramble past you clawing forwards and firing wildly behind them at something, though your positioning continues to ensure that none of the shots stray too close to you.. What you hear as they run past is... disquieting to say the least, if not in implication, then in sheer cheesiness.
"DON'T JUST STAND THERE, RUN! CAN'T YOU SEE THEM? THEY'RE HERE!"Ah, the feebleness of the human mind at work. A warning to you, for you are cut from the same cloth.
A sordid circumstance I must say, heroes ought to be made of sterner substance; mind you that is, something we've been working to rectify.
Let's see how well that's coming along, shall we?
[TRAN: 11/6] Unnatural Perception on first soldier.
[TRAN: 5] Unnatural Perception on second soldier.
Your vision shifts and you see, you see unfiltered through the cameras and filters. Though "see" isn't quite the right word, you
perceive, you
feel it, that otherworldly
something here, placed in terms of your sense, forced into your own terms.
They appear like the phantasms you see in stopped time, pale outlines of negotiable detail and opacity. Haze. A suffocating smog, thick to the point of blinding fills the room, well, choking and blinding for those who aren't you. You just adjust your vision and pierce straight through. Within it you can see glimpses of unknown horrors of a more physical variety - gorilla-esque behemoths of swollen turgid flesh covered in shredding horns, maws of teeth, and eyes that weep fire. You see near-formless pillars of eyes, mouths and faces surrounded by foot long spikes of fractally-splitting bone that constantly seem to fall and warp forward infinitely.
Interestingly, some of them are actually occupying the same space as the other soldier as if they didn't exist. Huh, guess each one's nightmare is their own.
You find yourself unable to switch your view into whatever's terrorizing the second soldier, but you've probably seen enough to get a pretty good idea.
Congratulations, you can see them.
Don't think of them as hallucinations, they're something more palpable, real enough for you to see them at least.
You hear a whirring, one that grows louder, coming from the same direction the soldiers ran in from.
You might want to patch yourself up while you still have a bit of time.
Continue. Find my companion. Keep killing the spotters and look out for weird things. If I see something that actively tries to kill me, '12 ixc' and apply Caladlebolg.
"Watch out for the symbols over here. They're like mines." Beirus calls down the hallway.
Wait for Ladlemonger to catch up, then keep moving towards the center. Kill any spotters I can with the ALCYONE as soon as I see them, preferably before they see us. Move quickly, before the storm can catch up to us. If I get attacked, retaliate with Bound Weapon or Plasma Sword depending on range. Dodge any attacks, into another building if I need to.
Remember when I said you're in their activation range? They are now activating.
The masks seem to burrow into the walls, embedding themselves for protection.
[UTAR vs. MDEF: 9 vs. 1] O'Greenahan fires on first mask.
[COMP: 8/8] Whitmore's spell.
[UTAR vs. MDEF: 8 vs. 4] Whitmore ladles and spells second mask.
[TRAN: AUTOSUCCESS] Enemy resist.
You know, I'd like to eventually make an encounter that doesn't just get resolved with one side absolutely slaughtering the other with minimal effort.
The walls give way and crumble, concrete and wiring whirling around each mask at high speeds. It'd probably be somewhat threatening if the two of you didn't take that time to shoot both of them in their face analogs.
Beirus, you just conjure your weapon, and pull the trigger, discharging all four barrels. The bullets are weak, far weaker than that of a normal AIAR, so even as they plow through a gap in the tornado of debris, impacting the mask, they only manage to make a few cracks. So you pull the trigger again, and again, and again. Try as it might, no matter how it alters its makeshift armor, you just keep on finding lulls in the density of the debris that your shots can break through. Soon enough, the mask shatters, dumping the accumulated mess onto the floor.
Hawk, you don't even have to fire more than once. The corrosion wave and about half your barrage crashes against a transient weakness in its defenses, eating through it. Then, the remaining globs of that black oil slam straight into the mask. You don't see any discharge, but it crumbles anyway from the onslaught.
With that anticlimax out of the way, you two quickly (well, as quickly as O'Greenahan can manage in his cumbersome armor) slip out the side and run off towards the center. After a block or so, the pair of you come to a stop in the reception of a large office building just outside the center. You can't actually see the skyscraper in the center, but you can figure out its position quite clearly, seeing as it's the only building surrounded with storm activity so intense your enhanced vision marks its entire perimeter as a killzone. The cyclonic gale sheathing it alone could probably strip the flesh of a person, not to mention the fact that individual raindrops are registering as projectile attacks.
Swarms of spotters meander near it, currently oblivious to your presences, though that is probably the least of your problems seeing as there are a few lightning spiders arcing through air, their radiance illuminating the circling flocks of even larger ice rocs above. Burnt and embedded into the side of a building across the road is the missing LATRANS, having evidently fared quite poorly.
"Ha, found someone trying to compensate for his small dick!"
Now make sure I'm not too close the spearman, and shoot the spear with machinegun. Pray I won't miss.
[MDEF vs. UTAR: 0 vs. 1] Machinegun attack.
You fire your machinegun, displaying such shameful accuracy that you can feel your ancestors, every last one of them, spinning in their graves (and urns) at your failure. You manage to hit everything outside of five meters of your target, who proceeds to nonchalantly waltz straight towards you, swinging its burning spear forth.
Considering you're in a eight meter tall machine perfectly capable of flying out of reach, it isn't a particularly threatening sight. Yes, it's probably a capable of harming you if you let it, but so could a shiv-wielding raccoon, and no one really lives in fear of those.
(If we need to finish the current round of actions first)
MDEF Roll to the right (or just away from the cars, boar, and closer to the building in general) and then split LTAR between two slashes at both the soldiers left, 2 LTAR goes to any that have assault rifles, or just either, with the other one getting 1 LTAR.
(If not)
1f 02 sabb at the boar, all COMP (and UTAR), regardless of if it succeeds or not, carry on with the above.
[MDEF vs. UTAR: -3 vs. 12] Soldier fires on you.
[COMP: 3] Spell.
Welp, one of the bullets clips your shoulder as you dodge. It then proceeds to shatter, its fragments tumbling chaotically through your flesh, forming numerous wound channels, the armour appears to do nothing to stop the shrapnel simply being torn through. You yourself, are sent tumbling to the floor from the impact, needless to say, no part of this experience is remotely pleasant. You try to aim your spell as you fall, but it fizzles anyway, adding insult to injury. Or in this case, impotency to grievous bodily harm.
[MDEF vs. UTAR: 2 vs. 0] Soldier fires on Squire riding Ropey.
Squire, having managed to remain unscathed thanks to Ropey's supernatural agility ducks into cover further ahead. Turning to face you, he quickly scrambles across his armor, pulling out some sort of autoinjector that he tosses to you.
"This might save you, use it."You are now bleeding out. Also, your shoulder and arm are in a pretty bad state.
"... whoops"
"05 sabb" thinking of / aiming at the closest, most exposed opponent, and quickly dive behind a car, preferably one that provides at least some cover from both the goons on the roof and those at the foot of the building/wherever (We are still in the car-park right?) (use full COMP and MDEF respectively?)
I'm not entirely sure you understand what those spell words mean...
[MDEF vs. UTAR: 2 vs. -1, 0] Soldiers fire.
[COMP: 10/5] Spell.
[LTAR vs. MDEF: OUT OF RANGE] Spell attack.
But it matters not because you miss anyway. As you leap into cover, evading the incoming hail of bullets, you cast your spell. An odor, that's the first thing you register. A horrid, nauseating odor intense to the point of being almost palpable. With a violent roar, an abyssal black discharge flares outwards from your left shoulder, the roiling energy taking on traces of a blood-red hue as it disperses. Needless to say, while visually impressive, it doesn't really do much to the people standing well out of its range.
The boar on the other hand is forced to do a one-eighty to avoid crashing into your spell.
[LTAR vs. MDEF: 5 vs. 0] Goring.
Apparently deciding that it still needs to brutally murder
someone, allegiances be damned, it proceeds to charge straight back into the soldier it was initially launched at and proceeds to start goring them much to their displeasure. And pain. Mostly just pain.
-holy hell it's been over a year now and less than 24 in-game hours have elapsed-
Night is beginning to fall. Yes, night. In an underground colony in the middle of a war. It really, really shouldn't, but seeing as the designers thought it would be a great idea to put all the main control systems at the very bottom of the colony, the bottom that is apparently now overrun with eldritch fuckery, there aren't any easy fixes right now.
Though really, considering that everyone is either in the dark, in a well-lit area, or in a frame with night-vision, it's probably not going to impair any of you anytime soon.
Author
Topic: Perplexicon - Down the Foxhole - Raining Mecha (Read 180019 times)