"We engage. It'll be extremely dangerous though."
Attempt to contact the two LUPI inside the base and tell them to shoot the LANDSKNECHT's core and rear weapon (focus on the core if they aren't scratching the weapon) while I take care of the head. After the head's gone, fire on the core.
As you give the order, you notice that the hostile pilot is broadcasting on an unencrypted channel. Huh. Now, whilst it may be understandable for them to be demanding surrender or some-such given their definite advantage, that isn't what you hear. What you hear is deranged, maniacal laughter. Apparently you're fighting a cartoon villain.
Your shots succeed in rendering the head unit inoperable by blasting holes in it. Chances are, as with all frames, it has back-up cameras, but, they'll be shittier of course, so you can chalk it up as a success. Meanwhile the other two LUPUS pilots don't fare as well, their heavy cannon rounds fail to deal any noticeable damage, namely because the distortion around the weapon reduces them to hazes of plasma before they manage to impact it.
"What the hell is that thing?""Shit, aim for the core."01-PUPPET/AF Head unit disabled.
FCS impaired.
Effective combat range reduced to: still too damn far.
"You children, you pitiful children are all so weak. So utterly naive, fighting for the dead empire of husks."So, with the head out of the way, and the weapons apparently impervious, everyone proceeds to open fire upon its core. Upon the sustained fire, a seemingly endless deluge of Stygian ooze erupts from the frame, thankfully no one is in the range of the reactive armor, though it still manages to soak up quite a lot of the incoming damage. The laughter only seems to grow louder.
00-LANDSKNECHT/AF fully activated.
"I have seen what it has shown me. I know what once was."Flaring to life, the leg-integrated thrusters come to life, propelling the frame into the air as it begins to adopt evasive maneuvers.
[UTAR vs. MDEF: 2 vs. 2] Try as you might, you are unable to keep up with its movements, bullets grazing past but never hitting it.
[UTAR vs. MDEF: 7, 6 vs. 2] ((This uses the same MDEF roll, we just prefer to keep player rolls separate from NPC rolls.)) Your allies, however, fare better, managing to continue pounding the core with their heavy cannons.
Gateway weapon activated.
Electromagnetic anomalies detected.
The distortion, now large enough that its sides almost touch the computer clusters, glows with a brilliant violet light, one so bright that it approaches a blinding white.
"I know how we are but ants amongst the bones of God. God is shattered, the throne of man was burned by God."[MDEF vs. UTAR: 0 vs. 2] [MDEF vs. UTAR: 0 vs. 11] The weapon flares with radiance as eight beams erupt from its center. As they leave their source, each fans outwards in an arcing trajectory, spreading apart. If you watch closely, you can see a spectrum of colors - a reversed rainbow of sorts, at their widest points before they collapse back into a deathly white. It is upon where the head and limbs of each of the two LUPUS frames connect to their cores that each beam refocuses inwards. Explosions of plasma erupt forth from the points of impact, the beams pulsating to coincide with their dissipation as they sweep along, severing the parts with ease. Judging by the frantic screams and cursing, the cores and pilots are intact still.
"But I see you... fragment... I see you child of darkness. Run dark spawn Run! RUN!"The hovering frame begins to slowly glide towards you.
"Oh god, we're all gonna die!"I'll go out on a limb here and assume that the FCS isn't too good for the user's mental health and not that the League entrusts things like that to psychos.
Actually, they're purposely reducing its accuracy as well, they seem to be toying with you.
Looks like you have one last chance to get outta here or cripple that lunatic.
The arms are quite damaged from the heavy cannon rounds, and the reactive armor has been depleted for now.
But, everything it needs to kill everyone is still fully functional.
"Normally I'd say that was a load of crap, but it seems I just conjured up a load of cats. Now do you know what happens when they tell a person they can run along walls?"
See just how well I can run along walls. Give "99 ed obbh" a shot while I'm at it.
If last night was any indication?
They'll break into two separate secure facilities, steal three rifles and an incomplete bio-weapon, randomly discharge said rifles into the ceiling and get the bio-weapon drunk.
Well, you're able to run
along them pretty damn well, provided of course that you maintain a reasonable speed. However, running up doesn't seem possible, and you can only descend at a rather shallow angle whilst wall running.
[COMP: 4] Your spell fizzles unfortunately.
"...AHHHHH!!!"
Cower in fear.
You cower in fear (as effectively as you can on the rather small platform of the makeshift vehicle) as your apparently suicidal ally speeds down the hall at highway speeds and stops at the gate to the lockers.
Ao Shi
Addressing my hangers: "I probably shouldn't tell you but whatever, I don't care at this point. That frame is AF01-PHAROH and it is rumored to be cursed. As in pilot goes nuts and does stupid things like that. It's arms are usually chained when not in combat."
Red: "So what I felt wasn't real then? That's a shame... I appreciate your assistance, I really do. But if you can manipulate my sensory input can you then..." at this point he stops speaking and articulates rest of sentence in his head. ...read my mind?
"Oh, and another question. You, or rather your side, probably wants something in return of granting me this wide access to magic words. What it is?"
Lets run into direction where storm isn't and which also isn't a dead end. Probably also should give heads up to allies in that direction via radio. Or let Beirus's squad do warning on my behalf.
How are my passengers doing? Can they handle my ticket worthy speeds?
How fast these frames are supposed to be compared to how fast it actually seems to be going?
Be dissappointed for lack of materialization. 02 3d.
"That sounds fucked up on so many different levels. How would you even repair them? Anyway, I can help with the negotiations, but I can't guarantee much, most of the guys sent here are raw recruits, they figured that we had better chances of surviving out here than on the front lines. So much for that.""We can get back to that 'real' thing another time, perhaps where there are fewer murderous robots roaming 'round."She pauses before smiling wryly
"And no, I can't read your mind. But, I can read brain signals and stimulate nerves, so I've gotten quite good at hot reading. Plus it doesn't get Mal angry, which always is a good thing.""We need you to fight the big evil thing chewing on the bottom of your colony. Now I know that you want to just go 'why not just go now with a big bomb?', well, no... Just no. BAD PLAN"She sort of just flails randomly, apparently deciding to do that instead of elaborating
"You'll need to deal with a couple of other things first. Then you have to (and this may happen while dealing with previously mentioned things) deal with some minor things. I suggest finding a few transdimensional targeters, even though the damned pieces of crap caused this mess in the first frigg'n place."Transdimensional targeters?
The storm is still steadily growing in size, its torrential downpour incessant. Thankfully, due to the design of the roads, widespread flooding is unlikely to occur, well, aside for in nearby basements. But then again the general waterproofing of a basement is analogous to the function of a touchscreen: they are things that do not work, are not expected to work, and exist only so that their inevitable failure may inspire existentialism regarding
the ultimate futility of the human condition.
Well, you're moving at the frame's maximum unassisted running speed for its current load. The frame is capable of reaching that. But it usually does not move at that rate, the controls should not be capable of facilitating those speeds, due to being decidedly user-unfriendly. They are designed to be as ergonomic as possible, but considering that they are also meant to handle the movement of a giant somewhat humanoid vehicle with enough control that it can perform jumps, kicks and various other leg-based actions on a variety of differing terrains, that isn't saying much. Really, it'd be quite hard to make it significantly
less ergonomic considering that all the options short of replacing the console with a wall of electrified blades the pilot must repeatedly headbutt are pretty much equally shit.
You on the other hand, are maintaining that speed without any training, whilst maintaining two conversations at the same time, and randomly casting spells.
[COMP: 2/2] Speaking of spells, you manage to conjure a length of chain formed from wax.
You duck into cover behind a building whilst the rest of Beirus' squad covers you and your passengers.
"Wooohooo!" Steer! Let's get to that admin building. Oh, and stop and see if the security guards have any weapons, if we have the time. "This is awesome!"
You grab a pair of self-defense pistols off fallen the guards and continue trucking down the hallway, riding your deathchair rocket sled. To your right are doors into the different flight lab cubicles, on the left are doors into the storage areas, high energy labs, maintenance areas and other miscellaneous areas. You arrive at the heavy steel door, screaing partner clinging on in fear to the back of your seat. Through the partially open door you can see part of the locker room which has casual clothes and minor personal belongings left there from when people change for work. The locker room ends after about 20 meters and is about 10 meters wide from memory.
FIRE THE SECOND PLASMA RIFLE!!
You draw the other plasma rifle and fire.
[UTAR vs. SDEF: 0 vs. -1] You should have missed. You really should have. But, in its attempts to either intercept the projectile or punch you in the face, it's rather hard to tell which one the figure was aiming for, it thrusts as much of its body as it can move into the path of this second shot. So now its being boiled and trapped by two of those rounds. It doesn't seem to be dying or anything, just trapped and pissed.
You are beginning to feel rather light headed.
Beirus radios his squad on their private channel. "Stay clear of me until these arms are restrained. That's an order. I'll take care of that last Puppet myself. Go take cover with that engineer for the moment, but don't go too far. We still have a facility to clear afterwards."
He then switches to the public channel so that Aoshi and his group can hear him. "I'm sending my squad to cover you until these arms are restrained. Once that is taken care of, I'll need any System League soldiers who are willing to volunteer and help us clear the facility. They might be able to talk down their comrades without us having to resort to violence."
Go take down that last Puppet with the autocannon. If I lose control, then let the Pharaoh do its thing as long as the Puppet is the only target.
[TRAN: 9/5] Oh hey, you don't relapse for once! Good for you. You chase after the PUPPET in as sane a manner as you can normally manage and open fire on it as it attempts to slip behind another building.
[UTAR vs. MDEF: -1 vs. 0] Well, it fails to dodge in any appreciable manner, but your aim is off and all you succeed in is a bit of property damage.
"Pretend I never say that."
Derek attempts to run over to the frame.
Needless to say, all four soldiers open fire on you immediately whilst the explosions continue to bang against the wall. Time freezes and your evasion options appear. Red however, seems to still be moving.
"My oh my did you fuck up. Time has frozen so that you can see how you can fuck up less in the next few seconds and not die horribly."((You are able to sacrifice your Action phase (since you probably aren't going to attack, and your Reaction phase still lets you move towards the frame) to use both your stats in your Reaction phase (as in, we roll both, both take effect and incoming attacks have to beat the higher of the two rolls).))