"Okay Soteriologist, wish me luck- It's hero time!"
Dude, not original.
I suppose I'll have to come up with a better catchphrase later...
You know Memento Mori? Let's use it. It will show the paths that lead to certain, likely, and probable death. Hypothetically, it should show the method of attack with least chance of death to self. If it does, do it. If attacked, dodge.
The shadows reveal paths to death, there are an awful lot of them. Anywhere within 3 meters of the beast is a death zone, absolute, guaranteed death, extending even up and behind it. The tails give rise to a triplet of intersecting arcs over its front that spread to cover it from most forms of frontal attack with a murder curtain, though it seems to lack any ranged options.
UTAR vs. SDEF: AUTOSUCCESS] Gravity attack.
LTAR vs. MDEF: 0 vs. 3] Murderlobster attacks.
Seems that it's best to keep your distance, so taking a step back, you draw your twin pistols and, red. Bright red, wreathing the area. Huh. You quickly swap them out for your gravity gun, the crimson reassuring dulling from "you're fucked" back to "you're probably fucked".
Rushing towards you on its spiked legs, it lashes out with the three scorpion tails at once from different directions. Red. Bright burning red. Something's wrong. You practically hurl yourself backwards as pull the trigger, then the world burns octarine. Out of the explosion of the tails rushes forth.
Pain. Burning pain. You stagger backwards. It caught you in the abdomen, the wound bleeding, burning, liquifying before your eyes, rapidly expanding. Memento Mori begins to wind down, the world slowly reddening as if stained by your weeping wound. But there's a beacon of life still, a single, clear spot, your ipod.
I shall dispense with the pleasantries, you're pretty fucked up right now.
Run for now. We can stop the bleeding, maybe.
Break open the case, there should be a length of metal, rip it out and bend it into a loop.
Stab yourself, torso, above the wound. Between the ribs, or your throat.
Focus on one of the words in your head, and direct it there.
Hurry, time's running out.
See the blueish strip in the red box? That.
The apparently-explosive monstrosity finishes reeling from its crushed head, seemingly only mildly inconvenienced from gravitational decapitation and is now about to charge at you. Lovely.
Aaahahhhhhh damnit. I should not have made that boar 
Oh well!
"SECOND VERSE, SAME AS THE FIRST! MOSTLY!"
Cast "22 ixc" at the boar (fight fire with fire! 
), other than that go take a gun or two from the most dead soldiers. I may need it.
Use mobile defense to dodge out of the way of the boar if necessary, and don't be afraid to test the guns on the boar if I get a chance.
COMP: 3] Killy's spell.
MDEF vs. UTAR: 1 vs. 0] Killy's spell attack versus Killy.
MDEF vs. UTAR: 3 vs. 0] Killy's spell attack versus Ryles.
MDEF vs. UTAR: 0 vs. 0] Killy's spell attack versus Ropey & Squire.
SDEF vs. UTAR: 5 vs. 0] Killy's spell attack versus Boar.
COMP: 9/7] Ryles' spell.
TRAN: 4] Ryles' synchronization.
UTAR vs. SDEF: AUTOSUCCESS] Ryles attacks boar.
MDEF vs. UTAR: AUTOFAILURE] Sniper shoots at Killy.
Et tu? Et tu?
The spell goes off funny, shots spraying out in all directions straight in front of you. Including towards you. The shots themselves appear to be bright particle beams as per usual.
Fortunately everyone hits the deck in time for the particle spray to demolish a good portion of frontages of both the glass building and the warehouse leaving gaping holes in both rather than in you guys. The next few seconds drag out into eternity as you hear the tromp of feet, the men from the front of the building. The boar also begins charging you. Looks like it isn't your day. You begin to get up to defend yourself.
You hear nothing just a sudden blackness envelops you and you wake up somewhere else. A dark apartment, the computer is still on with the hard-drive whirring away in the background. Your clothes are missing. Around the room is a small cot and a desk on which is a pile of roughly organized papers covered in scribbles.
Sniper from the roof shot you during your recovery.
Stacking the decks only works on the cards you know about.
You need to get back there, your partner's in trouble.
He made a few bad bets, and what he's unleashed could make further ops near that building riskier.
We need to go kill it.
Back off as swiftly as possible, if the boar makes a go at me then MDEF dodge either way that has open space in it, except up, unless I'm trapped.
If it DOES make a go which it probably will, use my LTAR to make another swing after dodging.
Dismiss my broom, take out my vacuum cleaner, and...fire at the boar, preferably keep firing until the boar is dead or I run out of ammo, using all my UTAR.
Fire out 1f a8 sabb with all COMP at the boar as well with the same UTAR pool.
As you dash away from Killy's spell, you hear a crack, shortly fired by a distant gunshot. You turn just in time to admire your comrade's new exit wound, right before the boar gores his corpse. Turning side-on, you dismiss your weapon and draw your vacuum with your left hand, bringing it into line perpendicular to your body. A grand magical circle traces itself before your weapon, time seeming to slow for everything else as it rapidly grows. Then, it flares with power, you swing your arm a few degrees you pull the trigger.
The spell fires first, a large, vaguely streamlined mass, your cleaver ripped from you to join it. As it flies off, you notice that the cleaver has reverted to its old saber form once more. The summoned creature slams into the boar, its body too massive to be blocked. As its still reeling from the blow, your shot, a burning rainbow crashes into it, tearing a hole through its frame.
It might have survived, it's hard to tell, giving its mechanical construction, but before it can give any indication, it finds itself torn apart by the magnet death bear. The ursine mass shifting to integrate whatever ferromagnetic components from its prey, along with both sabers now into its form.
The good news is that it doesn't charge at you or anything, the bad news is that it doesn't appear to be an actual ally either.
Get into cover or try and find the sniper.
You can't save yourself from attacks you can't predict.
"I have an idea, but I'm not certain it will work. It also might kill you."
If Beirus consents, dab my finger in his blood and write '12' on him. Try to apply magic to the numbers. If that doesn't work (and my COMP points weren't drained), try '12 84' and put the armor on him. Maybe one of these will turn him into the similar state (aka half-dead, but not really) as I am.
If none of these work, or Beirus does not want to be a test subject - look for meds in the APC and try to patch him up. If no meds are found, but I have something I could improvise with, try that. Then help Beirus into the building.
Also, fire off my Eq. Check. Beirus' will recharge next turn anyway, assuming he lives.
COMP: 9/5] Whitemore's magic.
TRAN: 15/5] O'Greenahan's Resist.
Well, so much for hygiene. You dab, almost jamming, your finger into the edge of one of his wounds and attempt to trace the numerals onto him, they aren't really visible due to his chest unfortunately already being somewhat blood-stained. Nonetheless you focus, trying to somehow channel the spell into him. It's, not working, but it's not entirely failing either.
The spell's definitely going off, but it isn't manifesting immediately like the usual casting. You try retracing a few times but to no effect, not until your finger reaches the edge of a wound. You feel it, a connection, the spell activating.
Instinctively, you jab your finger into the wound and see that a green spark in the shape of a hand discharges from his chest, reaching towards you. Something pulls it back, dragging it back into him. His blood blackens and congeals, his pulse slowing. The influence ripples outwards from your finger, spreading across his body, flesh and bone rapidly decaying, liquifying into oil. Something gives way and your hand falls further in. There's no heartbeat, no heart, no lungs. Your hand brushes against
something near the back, it feels flexible, slimy what remains of his spine perhaps?
Everything beneath his neck is pretty much just petroleum with a few traces of coal. He seems pretty alert though and seems to still have full control of his body.
This will only last so long as your hand remains inside him.
You'll need to jam in some kind of antenna, like a nail or aerial to make it more stable.
Speaking of which the van has one. Shrapnel went through the engine, so it's inoperable at this point.
For future reference, your comrade's weapon is the SOL18I. Weighted ceramic-tungsten body.
Projects an plasma blade 18'' long or a gout of plasma. The latter depleting its battery. 50% battery remaining.
As for what's up ahead? You're currently out of range for me. You'll need to push forwards.
"That didn't *gurgle* go as well as I had hoped. Drowning in my own blood. That's like number *gurgle* two on my list of the worst way to die. Fuck this *gurgle* storm. Ladlemonger, you got any ideas?"
Let Whitmore try his ideas out. It's TRANS to resist, right? Don't outright deny the magic so much as control it to heal me and shape me into a better version of myself. Better as in not bleeding to death or corrupted beyond recognition, and maybe with the ability to fire off necrotic blasts and beams and whatnot. Or to control that energy through my will. If that doesn't work and I'm not dead, check the APC quickly for a med kit or anything that might help, like mysterious syringes or something. Then try to get inside the building.
So feel a tingle as your comrade tenderly fists your chest wound and then everything below the neck becomes crude oil. Small green sparks begin to discharge into you from the surrounding air. Strangely, you can still feel and move your body pretty well.
We'll end the turn here for you two, seeing as while it did 'work', it's not going to be too easy to fight if the Ladlemonger wield you like a sock puppet.
Right. Let's get reckless. Double jump back and forth with Alcubierre Drive, trying to avoid damaging soldiers and cause matter annihilation in spot where the junkie will be shortly.
You prime the drive and all the feeds cut out for a microsecond while the jump program activates. To an external observer the LATRANS frame is breifly cloaked in a feild of warped air, like a mirage. Then it flickers for a heartbeat to be replaced by something akin to the surface of a star which explodes violently obliterating said observer.
The feed cuts back in and the only mark of the demon is a shadow burned into the building it was leaping from. The buildings around you have had up to their first ten meters completely atomized while the next few meters are still glowing orange in places, steel and glass melted like wax while anything organic is either burning or ash blowing in the shockwave. The damage is far greater in the ones you moved towards, with little damage to those behind you.
YOU DEFEATED+4 EXT points
+4 INT points
[+] Completely Untouched
[+] Victory
[-] Overwhelming Advantage
Your frame's radio crackles to life.
"This is Andrukas. Once you're finished up report to Floor 1 and observe the anomalous units. Engage at your leisure, I only require your observation."
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Topic: Perplexicon - Down the Foxhole - Raining Mecha (Read 177438 times)