"....huh."
Examine the shiny in the "cage." Can I get it out? Can I smash it out? Try to do either, as appropriate.
Also examine the altar. If nothing obvious presents itself, reverently place the toaster on it.
The shiny seems to be a violin bow with its handle extended as to form a hilt not unlike that one would find on a sword. Well, aside from the trigger protruding from it of course. The limestone isn't fragile, but you have, as far as you can tell at least, time, and (an infinite quantity of) revolver ammo to spare. Shooting apart the stalagmites and stalactites, you claim your prize.
As for the altar, well, it's in pretty damn good condition and that's before considering that it's been in this dark and dreary cavern for lord knows how long. Despite how well polished it is, it certainly looks old, as if from an age long past. Roughly cut from a solid piece of rock, decorated with the symbols of some dead language. As you place your toaster upon it, its color and details seem to drain, like silver paint washing away. All that remains is a mass of marble carved in the shape of a kitchen appliance.
And then, the light of the cave shifts, rapidly. Some of the fire flies swarm and then scatter, lines of light etching themselves into existence, connecting them together to form a constellation of sorts. Said constellation takes the form of a sword that is now flying towards you.
"Well thanks, nice to know that if a big abomination from beyond comes to eat me I'll have a back up weapon."
"Always did want to use the Fire Escape instead of the normal way out."
Go down the Escape and say '8b' on the way down.
You being heading down the escape and say your word
[COMP: 6/0] You conjure the image of a magnificent quality table from purplish vapor that rapidly disintegrates into nothing.
The alley is pretty deserted the street however is beginning to fill with people once again as the attack from the SL has faltered. Now all they worry about is the damage below from the explosion and secondary, allegedly eldritch blast. Oh and there's the storm above the third floor which is definitely against the norm in terms of relationships between storms and underground colonies with no rain or weather systems.
"Fine, I'll bet ten then. Got my gear too, looks like pre-Fall tech, or something close. Fucking love R&D. You mind telling me what exactly I'll be doing?" Beirus responds to HQ, looking over his new kit before working his way through the process of equipping the mobility armor and sword.
Equip new shinies. Get orders.
Shinies equipped.
"Orders are simple - you are to investigate the storm, we sent in a LATRANS earlier and horrible death ensued. Hard to tell what happened, there was a lot of screaming and no useful information. Determine, useful information, causes and possible preventative measures against future anomalies. Come back alive, or, at least ensure your dying screams are more information and less incoherent. Best of luck to you, O'Greenahan."Ao Shi
Kill the core! Lot's of bullets into it! It must die! And do my best Neo impression if anything tries to attack me.
[UTAR vs. SDEF: 3 vs. 0] Your bullet slams into what remains of the core, sending a spiderweb of cracks ripping through it. And then, ripping beyond it, cracking the air beyond and then, the entire room. Everything shatters.
It is like watching reflections in shattered glass, like listening to a surround sound system with its speakers placed haphazardly in different rooms facing different directions. The fleshy tendrils around the room jerk violently then dissolve with a sickening squelch. The meatmen turn to meatmush which proceeds to rapidly sublimate into the smell of rotten flesh. Mr Stabby roars with rage and dissolves into a mass of ephemeral shadows. In the expanse beyond the broken pieces of reality, more rooms appear, only for the cracks to shatter them too. An octahedral cathedral, to an evil eye, and finally to a simple basement made of cinderblock. The basement is a large square room with several sub-rooms of cinder blocks that don't quite reach the ceiling, inside of which are shelving, workbenches and various water, gas and electrical distribution systems. You notice a shiny object that is in the center of the room, it is a small golden diadem.
"Well congratulations, you're in one piece and I didn't need to turn you into Congenital Analgesia Man."She gestures and sixteen points of red light converge upon you.
+1 to all stats
+5 EXT points
+5 INT points
- Flawless run
- Started with nothing
- Effective methods[/tt]
"If you know if there are any of these shards nearby, then drop me off there. Otherwise, drive me to <the place that I got killed horribly by the LANDSKNECHT>."
Get dropped off. Take a look at what I got from looting (my inventory seems to be empty). Attempt "22 ed" and hope that the Dark Lord doesn't strike me down for not using dark magic. If I got dropped off at the place where I got killed previously, check if the LANDSKNECHT is still there.
"none nearby. it is early. if you do find one, contact us. i will be waiting in FLIGHT OF FANTASY. the ENTRANCE will appear when you need it."Blasted walls and melted chambers welcome you. The spire still stands, despite having been gutted haphazardly by explosions and particle blasts. The walls had been reduced to rubble. The shield generators are gone, along with their signature shimmering. Sprawled on the ground in front of the ruins is what was once your frame. What little armor remained is burnt and charred save for the shadows that were once your comrades. The pair of dismembered LUPUS frames are still where they once were. Mostly, you note that a pair of arms and both of the heavy cannons are mission. That explains the blast damage at least. Judging by the noticeable absence of maniacal laughter, the LANDSKNECHT has already left.
As you exit your vehicle, you hear a familiar voice. Far shakier than before, and now bearing the the faintest hints of cold indifference. Soft glacial tones that belie the violence they promise. Without a doubt, it's one of the pilots you fought alongside earlier. Guess they survived after all.
"Get on your knees, hands behind head. Identify yourself, please."They bark at you, the words seeming to initially lurch as if to inform others of your intrusion.
[COMP: 1] Well. Hope you enjoy your covenant with the (apparently yandere) Dark Lord. Your lungs transform into masses of metamaterials, none of which are particularly useful for breathing.
When respawn, you find that you are no longer in the warehouse. Instead, you're being propelled out of the limo onto your recently-created corpse as it speeds away behind you. The limo, not the corpse. That would be weird. Okay, all things considered, that'd be the least weird thing so far. But point is, that doesn't happen.
After much sputtering, they finally speak again.
"You can put those clothes back on. Slowly, no sudden movements.""Or we'll shoot."
They don't say that last bit, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out the implication.
"YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
Shout out for my horse to follow if it isn't and continue with my Murderbear Rodeo ((love my datasheet status btw)) and try to steer the Murderbear towards the colony and away from tents/passers-by, activating [LUCK] if it can effect my physical rolls as well. Continue to try and bring the bear under my control.
Ask DECOHERENT what he thinks of the situation/where he thinks I should head, it's probably time I started dealing with some of the problems we already have, rather than exclusively making them 
(No matter how awesome they may be 
)
[LTAR vs. MDEF: 3 vs. 1] You bring the murderbear under your control, okay not really your control, but you're able to sort of steer it. The swaying of it's body, controlled by your power over it's neck with your chain, you bring it around to the direction of the colony leading it through the tents some of which collapse behind you as the tent pegs fly like bullets at the shining hide of the murderbear.
[MDEF vs. UTAR: 2 vs. 2] You dodge a ballistic tent-peg that would have made a painful stirrup straight through your ankle.
The bear continues to spasm beneath you, but can't put enough speed into it really buck you, so it tries to sway side to side such that you fall off which proves to be similarly ineffective with you gripped onto a chain around it and whatnot. The way the bear moves it appears to be searching for something, as you approach the colony the tents transition to prefab buildings constructed of interconnected shipping containers some of which are small enough for trucks the others that would have been dropped by aerial transport.
It shifts quite violently at one point lurching towards a generator outside one of the buildings tearing through the mesh fence before you can bring it under control. The bear greedily rips at the generator grabbing as much of the copper as it can before you drive it onward. Officers, covered in exotic weapons and armor, stream from the building the generator once powered and look onward they begin conferring amongst themselves conspiratorially. Apparently after the initial novelty, magnetic murderbears have just become another fact of life in the camp.
You also notice that a soldier is following you, equipped with basic rifles and roughshod armor constructed of ceramic cast offs and metal scraps. He addresses you respectfully
"Sir who has such great fortune upon himself. I would ask you allow me, a lowly decade to join a vaunted century like you! So that I may improve myself as you do yourself. What say you? May I join you in the glorious reclamation of our enemies goods and chattels?"Head into the colony. There are matters to be dealt with on Floor 4. As the situation goes, the payoff should be well worth the risk.
-snip-
Well, your day has been rather, eventful, thus far. Your workplace got attacked by enemy soldiers. You and pretty much everyone in the facility other than those who got killed, and the Loremaster Consortium staff (guess the League didn't want to piss off the people who also fix their FTL drives), were taken hostage and then released a distance away from the facility, a distance just great enough to be irritating. Oh and during all this a fucking tempest has planted itself in the middle of the colony. The underground colony. Where tempests have no business existing in.
From what you can gather from the rumors being passed back and forth between your colleagues, one of the pilots sent to retake the facility apparently turned into an action movie hero and started running up walls during the battle. Oh, and a guy working in Flight Systems, Ao, is dead. Details are hazy but apparently he managed to figure out how to pilot one of the LATRANS, captured an enemy squad and then his head turned into wax. Somehow.
Having returned to where you were, you find a black tablet sitting next to your toolbox. Its screen is on.
Grimoire protocols activated
Available networks are:
SOTERIOLOGIST
RED_QUEEN
JUS_AD_BELLUM
SMOTHERED_MATE
MALEBRANCHE
TZINACAN
DECOHERENT
SCHROEDINBUG
Enter a network name, or press ENTER to skip
Derek continues past, going down the stairs.
You manage to move down most of the stairs before it happens. The ship lurches, ripping the stairs away from your feet and sending you tumbling down onto the floor. Then, the sirens begin to wail their dire warnings.
It has come.
First comes the stench. The sickly odor of death and decay. Then, thick, choking smog billows upon you from all sides, smothering all light. Finally, the emergency lights kick in, soulless crimson eyes piercing the darkness. Damn it all. Even with this light, the thick fog conceals all but the faintest of details. You are in another chamber with pillar-like structures. That much you can make out.
You cannot see the contents of the pillars, or at least, not at this distance. But, in the short lengths of silence, the gaps of the alarm as it loops back to the beginning, you can hear them. A sort of quiet sloshing, amidst the panicked and dying squawks that have subsumed the distant birdsong.
You are sprawled at the bottom of the stairs sore but unharmed. Behind you, there are more stairs heading further downward, in front of you are the pillars of unknown contents. Above, the crimson lights shine down, the only clear visages within the roiling haze. In the corners of your vision you see things. Glimpses. Sudden movements within the fog. The glint of metal. Distant figures. Mounds of corpses. For a moment, you could of sworn that from the corner your eye, you could see one of the crimson lights open, like a set of eyelids, to reveal an abyssal darkness. A void that was darker than black.
Author
Topic: Perplexicon - Down the Foxhole - Raining Mecha (Read 179535 times)