"Ow... my head. Oh. Hello... okay. Okay, yes, I'll make the attempt."
Go do the thing the guy wants me to do. Once I reach the thing, use Memento Mori.
You follow the engineer who walks with the assuredness of a commander for the brief walk to the van which may as well have a giant neon sign saying "Totally not sleeper agents, we promise!" on top. Inside is another Loremaster technician who hands you some gear of dubious origin. Lovely. They are now practically running around screaming "Please don't notice me senpai!" and no-one seems to be giving a flying fuck about it.
"We told 'em we'd give them a discount for replacing the stolen Alcubierre Drive. Anyway, it's not like fixing the stuff doesn't help you guys as well either."Your newfound gear consists of a pistol, a gun and a helmet. The pistol is identical in make and model to the one you already have, the only real distinction being that it has a full magazine of 12 rounds and (probably) wasn't looted off of a dead person. The gun, if it can be called that, amounts to a literal black box with a pistol grip and a frontal grip. The pistol grip, of course, has a trigger, while the frontal grip has two buttons, one on top of the other. There is a display on the top of the box which reads a distance and a battery percentage.
"Think of it as a weight gun. Whatever is in its field will get mashed against the floor. Buttons in front change the field distance. So if say, the display reads 10, then the field will form 10 meters ahead in the direction where its pointing."Finally, there's the helmet. Its an ugly grey with cameras built into the front. It also has really shitty visual and audio feeds. It basically reduces everything you see into a pixelated blur through the cameras, and replaces everything you hear with what amounts to an 8-bit approximation. Lovely.
You head down the slowly filling streets towards the central spire eventually reaching it and joining a direct access lift down to Floor 1. The floor seems like you remember it, although the number of cars leaving is far greater than normal given the time of day. You soon see why as you head towards the edge and down some more, the warehouses and production facilities look like they have been caught in a warzone with a massive variety of damage from entirely cubic sections just gone to beams of destruction that have melted through several dozen in a single shot.
Outside the entrance to a electronics factory three stories tall, fairly sprawled out and painted in various shades of beige, you are unceremoniously dumped and told that the central reactor has been damaged and that you should probably put on the helmet. Judging by the sound of gunfire, this facility's probably not going to be doing much even with a working reactor power.
With whom do your allegiances truly align? The nation of your birth? Or given the chance, would you defect?
You have options now. This Consortium of theirs is quite partial to hiring more field agents at the moment.
And I'm sure the others will be just as willing if not more to hire once they learn of the opportunities here.
Your view shifts to highlight the more dangerous routes. Well, firstly, going into the actual facility is not a safe choice. It ain't certain death or anything like that, but it isn't really something to be doing without a good insurance provider at the very least. Secondly, it appears that actual entrance itself isn't too dangerous, nor is the area immediately following it. However, the routes on the lower floors do have noticeably lower survival rates. And, interestingly enough, for the paths that go near the sources of gunfire nearer to the entrance are safer, but the paths that go near the gunfire further away are more dangerous.
Ao Shi
"Eh, maybe it makes people underestimate me which suits me just fine."
Well then, let's make our way to where I left my LATRANS and corpse. Mostly avoiding mobile entities and using tradecraft when when my own senses are not enough to do that. See if I can commandeer a car to speed up the travel speed.
While traveling try to see if the reality altering effect responds to my will in any way. Like moving objects, altering substances, materializing stuff, altering my senses or senses of others.
Word. 72
Your accessory continues in its refusal to produce any tangible effect, regardless of what you attempt to will it into doing.
With nothing better to do ((our fault, we definitely need to give more palpable objectives)), you stride across the ruined lawns amidst the distant crackle of gunfire and occasional roar of artillery towards Floor 3. You come across the top of a grand flight of stairs that cascade downwards, out of the university and into the surrounding business district. Flanking you on either side are twin buildings, blocky squares with edifices consisting almost entire out of panes of glass. Many of which have been shattered. You see desks and computer monitors lining the insides, having been seemingly spared from looting, for now at least.
And, on the bottom floor of each, are NEE and System League infantry, huddled together with twenty in either building. Those with light machineguns have their weapons deployed as to cover the stairs, rather odd considering that everyone else looks like they're ready to march out on a moment's notice, with all their equipment kept on their person. Some of them seem to only be wielding pistols, and are just carrying additional ammunition for the soldiers with grenade launchers. Everyone seems to be packed rather lightly, with only weapons, ammunition, canteens and radios. A few of the soldiers in the right building are waving frantically at you.
[COMP: 11/0] You conjure the shimmering image of a pencil.
"You need to work on your recruitment process, guys. People can't actually make a choice without knowing what it is. This could kill me, but so could refusing, so how is this fair?"
Poke the sphere anyways.
You blink and are now in the middle of a street presumably on one of the lower levels given the smell and smog. You are in the middle of a rail repair depot, the tracks running beneath your feet with a lip on either side about 2 feet high. The warehouse to the south looks like it would be a repair and check station for trains before sending them onto the large test loop around the facility which the track you are on connects to, to the east is the rest of the building which has one fire entrance on this side which is propped open. The stacks from the forges are still billowing steam from the nuclear smelters which produce replacement parts on site for all the transport in the colony.
Twenty meters below, you can see the rail yards stretching a good hundred meters to a fence marking the edge of the facility. Fifty meters out is a break in the sea of trains, in the form of the test track which is held above the train-yard with concrete supports.
The facility and the neighboring warehouses and plants are similarly abandoned, the sounds of gunfire and inhuman screams along with visions of explosions and flame. This facility and three others are on fire and you can see gunshots pouring into the air like sparks from several streets. For once the smog is not entirely that of industry but one of battle also.
The silvery sphere is now next to you, with new text reading "We did not recruit you. Something else did.". The sphere flickers and the text changes to read "Evacuation was sounded. But no one did. Find out why.".
Something precipitates in your hands. It is, approximately, a gun. It looks like an assault rifle, albeit with somewhat exaggerated curvatures. That is, if someone subsequently decided that instead of bothering to give it a barrel, they'll just cut off the front of the gun. And indeed, looking at it, it seems to have been constructed in the same way as a cheap water pistol, with most of it just being plain empty, not to mention existing as a singular entity rather than being assembled out of individual components. It sports two pistol grips, each with a trigger, no magazines, and some sort of gauge at the top.
"Rear trigger to fire. Front trigger to activate rounds. Cannot fire more if you have 10 bullets awaiting activation."
You can see movement in the train-yard and can hear something inside the warehouse.
Let them bicker. Lay on the ground and chill out until their backup comes. Maybe ask Jus if he has any suggestions as to what should be done.
If they stop bickering and want me to answer their questions, then:
"I seem to have accidentally entered an eldritch 'pact' of sorts this morning. One of the effects is me being unable to die properly."
"As for the limo - aliens decided to give me a ride here."
"The things that the crazy guy in the LANDSKNECHT said? Like calling me a child of darkness? Or some weird shit about God?"
It isn't long until the investigation team arrives. Clad in black exoskeletons, unpainted save for a red stripe running down the center. Hopefully, that means they didn't have time to paint any camouflage on, and not that the army's decided that paint has become too expensive. Or maybe it's to match the color of their weapons, angular shotguns that look more like miniature cannons than anything else.
After sweeping around the area, three of the four walk over to the dismembered frames and begin talking to the previously bickering pilots. The remaining one stands guard over you from ten meters away. Their weapon is readied, though they seem quite relaxed for now seeing as you aren't doing much.
My suggestion? Make your way to Flight of Fantasy. You can quickly move your way to somewhere else from there.
Because these guys will probably want some answers, and answering it all is going to take far too long.
Start looking for an entrance. I'm sure you'll find one you can escape through.
For actual objectives, well:
Helping clear out Floor 0 would definitely help us and the NEE.
Since it is similar in nature to the storm here, and the turmoil on Floor 1.
You might even be able to get yourself a new frame for your efforts.
One of the old AIs have resurfaced on Floor 4 by the looks of it.
You could use that as a bargaining chip with basically anyone else.
Or, keep it for yourself. They're quirky but can be quite powerful.
There's rumors of something on Floor 2. Might be nothing.
Might not be. They say there's System League soldiers running amok down there.
Well, some of our operatives are System League, and they haven't heard of any of their
comrades doing much there. Could be lootable.
Go to one of the less nasty looking pubs.
Hdo.
You head down the streets over to one of the better pubs around, a large establishment on 35th and 72nd, it is a place designed with the modern minimalist approach which is often summarized as the work of lazy interior decorator who didn't want to plaster the walls so just left them as bare brick with some 20's style brass switches and wooden benches that are as overwrought as they are overpriced. The crowd is relatively large with many people crowding around talking about recent events such as the weather and how there is weather and the fact that the first floor is under assault by slavering legions of eldritch horrors. Normal everyday stuff.
So, here for the drinks? Or here so I can help you blackmail someone?
[COMP: 0] Fizzle goes the spell.
"aaaAAAAAA FUCK! Fuck this place! Bug-man, any way to fix my hand you know of?"
Leftward! Take my loot with me, and let's magic a bit for good measure: 1d 35! Surely there's a way to fix my stump issues.
You may be able to magic a way to heal yourself, or create something to replace it. More long term, the staff here will heal you should you die, or complete this gauntlet.
I cannot do much for you. If you were to run to one of the places where you would respawn upon death, I could repair you, but those are constantly shifting and they made sure that they can't appear here. I'd suggest you just try and not get injured further. Preferably by violently murdering any potential source of harm you come across. And then setting the remains on fire. Repeatedly.
You head left, running down the tunnel and ending up in a large cavern with walls made of indigo stone and a floor of fine pink sand. In the center runs a stream which then goes into an upwards waterfall into a cavern above, the roof is lit by bright blue crystals that seem to be the source of a soothing crystalline hum that fills the cavern. There are footprints throughout the cavern and evidence of activity in the form of a dead campfire and some bedrolls. The river enters from a gorge at the north of the cavern, there is a ramp up to a high exit in the east, the upward waterfall into a hole in the ceiling lies to the southeast and the entrance is to the south. The murder bees seem to following you, though they are a fair distance away still thanks to your supernatural speed, plus they seem inert for now.
[COMP: 10/6] You summon a large black belt of fine powder that rapidly disintegrates and falls to the floor, when it reaches the sand you hear an audible hiss as it touches. After a few seconds it, and the sand, begin to smoke with noxious black fumes that burn hotly, forcing you to back away a bit.
I guess it is time to return to the major fray, as much as I'd live some parts from those Laser Deer for myself, I'm kind of curious what my steed's intentions are, given it's clearly intelligent enough to (at least instinctively) understand the basics of electromagnetism and how to modify itself, presumably as so to create a dynamo to power my beautiful laser gun. 
Either that or it modded itself for mag-lev somehow, but given it's trying to mount the train and not the rails, I'll assume the former.
"Alright my valiant steed, onwards to GLORY I guess! Although... I'm not sure if you can understand what I am saying." (Keep an eye out for any signs of acknowledgement, I'm curious if I am sitting on top of a potential free-thinking ally or not )
So, let's do the thing... how did you put it...
...go riding off behind a maglev atop a magnetic winged doom bear with a gun for a face.
The bear gives little acknowledgement other than continuing to shift beneath you. You remain on the bear, with your acolyte and rope horse climbing aboard a flatbed carriage with supplies. The train pulls off from the station, slowly accelerating to a cruising speed of just under 80 km/h (slightly under because the murderbear seems to be acting like an inductive brake to generate more power) as it enters a long tunnel into the city proper. After several moments, a slight blue glow pierces the darkness as the gun appears to power up due to the bear's efforts with its copper core. It only has one shot though, since it's still evidently lacking its primary battery, meaning that it can't actually store much power.
The tunnel soon rapidly turns unto the fifth level of the colony after corkscrewing for several minutes. A large and opulent level filled with stone facades and the other hallmarks of the rich or government employed. The colony itself is a graceful corkscrew still turning regardless of the petty squabbles over it.
The train slows to a halt on the transition station at between Floors 5 and 4. After the magnets shut off the bear disengages and looks around almost unsure of what to do. There are several exits to the platform but they all lead to the main entrances of the station, the troops are disembarking from the train and the 'guards' are motioning them to the exits shouting.
"All personnel move off the carriages and report to base on this floor! From there new troops will be briefed by Ishida anyone, everyone else reports to their COs!"((Welp. We just made a roll for the bear. It, well, succeeded so hard that it leveled up from it.))
Raising its wings and spreading its mass out, the bear proceeds to, well. It's now covered in guns. You're not sure how, but after the first few guns its magnetism seems to suddenly intensify. Its grown larger, and well, it has guns for fur now. It's a giant bear made out of supernatural magnets and guns. It seems that either it can empower itself just by attaching more things to itself, or it's some kind of pokemon and just evolved. At this point, it just ejects your weapon free and turns to face you with its gun face. Which it proceeds to eject into your hands amidst the flashes of a camera from somewhere on the platform.
There's a military journalism there, checking their camera before bursting into cheery laughter amidst some backslapping from some of the nearby soldiers. You aren't certain, but you're pretty sure you just helped make propaganda for the enemy. Propaganda that features a magical magnetic bear made out of guns.
Have you considered defecting? Because at this rate, you're probably going to get tried for treason when this is all over.
The murderbear, having cycled another gun into its face and grown a gaping maw, proceeds to crawl onto one of the flatbeds and lie there apparently having its hunger sated for now. One of the higher ranking officers, sort of just stares at it blankly for a few minutes before shrugging
"Well, guess we've got ourselves a new mascot. Send it back to camp, keep it away from things we actually need, oh and request some replacement guns." They nod towards some of the freshly disarmed soldiers.
Beirus opens an encrypted channel to his team on the way. "I really appreciate the concern, but I won't die. Well, I might, but it won't keep me down for long. One of the perks that comes with the wall running and possibly dangerous magic. Y'all, on the other hand, would not come back. Which means that if I tell you to run, you haul ass and don't look back until you get back to base. Understand?" Beirus says to his team before muting himself on the channel.
"Jus, I need you to tell me when we reach the point that they have less than 70% chance of surviving if we continue. And don't bother telling me that their only chance of certain survival would be not going in. Also, do I really need to be off comms when talking to you? Seems like the others can't see or hear you anyway, would it seem like I was talking to myself?" Beirus asks Jus while looking at the buildings , trying to decide which would make the best vantage point for his squad. He also unmutes himself on the team channel.
What's the effective range on my squad's weapons? If it's enough for them to cover me for at least a block or two from a vantage point, then it's time to start clearing buildings. Start with whichever one of the bottom three is tallest and/or has the best line of sight into the rest of the area. I'll go in first to check the ground floor, then my team can come in and we'll move up floor by floor with me in the lead until we get to the top floor. I'll double check that the roof is clear and then they can provide overwatch from there while I clear the next building up. If that one is safe and in the mostly normal zone, I'll go back to escort them to a better vantage point. If their weapons don't have the range to cover me, we'll go up the street to the left of the gazebo thing to the edge of the mostly normal zone and I'll check the effects on the other side of the border. Is it a sudden change or gradual?
"Sure, running sounds good to me."They can go in safely. Assuming they don't catch a stray bullet, trip over and break their neck, or suddenly go crazy.
Don't expect me to tell you when it falls exactly to 70% or something though, I'm not an actuarial.
A good bet would be to have them fall back if something weird pops up or if it starts getting dangerous for you.
If there were close enough, I could make it seem perfectly normal for you to be speaking to me.
Even if they are too far, you have recently run up vuilding, been used as a meat puppet for a cursed frame
and, are now marching into a supernatural storm in an underground colony. After raving about
how you'll come back to life should you die. I do not think that failing to mute yourself would be much
of an issue at this rate.
The AIAR has an effective range of around 400 meters, assuming a human-sized target. The ALCYONE is a bit iffy, its damage comes more from the bullets exploding than their kinetic energy, and it's surprisingly accurate. Issue is, the bullets are subsonic, so there'll be a bit of a delay between firing and actually hitting.
As you aren't too far into the business district, the buildings aren't too tall just yet. The tallest one of the three, standing at thirteen stories, is the rightmost one. An office building of a design best described as unremarkable were it not for the windows being arranged in a curving pattern its facade. Really, windows are just decorations. After all, with the colony underground and all that, all the lighting's artifical, and anything ressembling a breeze is from air conditioning, so it isn't like windows really offer anything in terms of natural light or fresh air.
You sweep into the deserted, dusty reception. Not much of note, the desk is lacking its computers though its probably just that the company didn't want to leave anything of particular value to be looted or blown up. The lights are currently off for the sake of saving power, though they can be turned on still by the lightswitch. There are four elevators, which don't seem to have any power. Your squad joins you as move up the fire stairs and clear each floor, one by one. As with the reception, all the more valuable assets such as computers and monitors are nowhere to be found. Finally the four of you head out onto the roof.
From here, you've got a fairly good view of the surrounding area, well, the road and rooftops at the least. The footpaths are partially obscured by the cyborg trees. Actually, you're not sure whether or not they count as cyborgs, but they are referred to as such surprisingly often. Though how much of the tree is actually needed is up for debate, seeing as quite a lot of their physiology is rendered redundant by the fact that they are literally pumped with the water and nutrients they need like just about every other utility and have been modified specifically for that.
Ahead, darting beneath the ashen clouds are birds of some kind, you can't really make out much from this far, but they definitely aren't the feral birds that are normally here. Trading your weapon with Johnny, you go back down the staircase (good thing the exoskeleton's been doing most of the work running up and down stairs) and continue to the next building up.
Crossing into the anomaly is utterly unremarkable. It seems that the border is more of a hazy, arbitrary "beyond this line lies weird shit" line to put on the map than something of any greater importance. The next building ahead is an inoffensive beige slab of an apartment ten stories high. Though upon smashing through the automatic door, you find that it has quite a rustic, cozy interior. Okay look, we'll assume that you check each floor and make sure that none of the units have been broken into or anything, but if you want to properly clear every single unit to make sure that there isn't some sort of horrible frame-eating monster squatting in one of them, you're going to need to break down a lot of doors, and it'll take a while. As it stands, everything you've checked seems fine. No sacrificial altars belonging to kooky death cults or anything on the roof either.
Your radio crackles, and after a short delay, Mirai's voice filters through
"Boss, I think I saw something. Looked, sort of like a person, but it, vanished before I could get a good look at it. It was on the roof of the building on the opposite side of the street, I think it was looking at you."
Author
Topic: Perplexicon - Down the Foxhole - Raining Mecha (Read 179583 times)