"Well this stinks."
James grimaces, then makes use of his absurd lightness, leaping into the air, hopefully above the bloody lobster monster's explosion. If attacked in mid-air, he tries dodging by pushing off against it--hey, he's aerogel! If he survives this turn, he launches another attack with his gravity pistol.
[MDEF vs. LTAR: 3 vs. 6] Heign attempts to leap over the Murder Lobster's explosion
[LTAR vs. MDEF: 2 vs. 1] Heign uses "weight" gun. Evasion is impossible, roll is only for damage mitigation.
You see visions of what is to come, what may be done. They aren't promising. There is no escape, and try as you might, you won't clear the blast.
Once, in ages past, in times that may or may not have been, there was a young prince standing at the crossroads. To his left, was certain death. To his front, was hunger and cold. To his right, was hardship. He need not have rode forth, and yet he did. He took the path to the right, and though he knew hardship, became a hero.
He was a fool. An imbecile, skilled in neither combat nor guile, and yet he was a hero, for he would go where his fellows dare not venture. It is of course, a platitude now, the tritest of cliches, to dare think heroism may be born of courage alone. And yet, even the most cowardly of heroes have their moments of bravery, for else they are naught.
Here you stand, with a body born of magic, a testament to humanity's glory days, a contract with the reaper. All you really need is a bit of courage. And really, let's be honest here, the heirloom you broke is far more valuable than your life at this point.
Steadying yourself, you charge forwards and leap upwards. At the apex, you swing your legs, running along the wall. It lunges at you. You kick off, a final boost. The air shimmers, and burns a brilliant octarine. The blast clips your boots, detonating them. Your feet are gone. Shattered. There is no pain, just a sudden loss of feeling as you are launched, clearing the rest of the blast.
As you hurtle through the air, your hold down the range adjuster, not even needing to look as you fire upside down. A sickening, wet crunch confirms what you already know as you land into a graceful roll behind your crippled foe.
You're off-balance now with the injury you've sustained, and you still hear the clicking of your foe as it skids to a stop. But you can also see, that its movements are sluggish and lurching, its tails swaying unsteadily, not long for this world. It begins skittering backwards, your vision tracing in another blast radius, one that soon extends in size as it lowers its tails backwards.
Crawl if you must, but dispatch it with care.
When this assignment's over, I can give you a body anew.
((Your feet are missing, but your legs are pretty much still intact, so you can sort of run along unsteadily along them, though you can't really stand on them. You can also crawl pretty quickly, hell you can crawl and fire your mundane pistols at the same time if need be like if John Woo made a remake of
The Grudge starring Chow Yun-Fat as the ghost.))
Clear the airspace from demons. Then shoot any remaining demons on ground.
To Red: "This is getting hectic. I already miss the times when I could walk around killing myself accidentally with magic and you would insult me. Stupid me, making promises I have to work hard to keep. What's the deal with that black smoke?"
"Well I thought you understood your own incompetence by now and I didn't need to constantly remind you sweetie. Also that shadow is a cloaking field as you could have guessed... idiot~."[UTAR vs. MDEF: 7 vs. 1] Ao opens fire on aerial units.
[UTAR vs. SDEF: 4 vs. 5] Ao opens fire on ground units.
[UTAR vs. MDEF: 2 vs. 1] LUPUS opens fire on ground units.
[MDEF vs. LTAR: 1 vs. 4] LUPUS attempts to evade the darkness.
You manage to pulp all of the air demons with ease firing off shots with your heavy cannon nailing them in surprisingly few hits each, the sniping package has definitely improved your accuracy. The ground demons however take cover near your non-bullet-proof, very delicious comrades making hitting them very difficult. The NEE LUPUS opens up on some of the demons from it's lower position with it's rifle which is embarrassingly larger than your own.
It manages to down a handful of the annoying meatball demons before the shadow decides to join the party. It detaches itself from the lobby of the building like a sinister cloud and forms an orb of rippling darkness then it spawns several dozen tentacles. The LUPUS attempts to switch targets but is too late and the orb attacks before it can counter swinging its tentacles like cleavers at the frame.
The frame is much worse for wear now lacking one of its arms and having a mixture of coolant, oil and viscera slowly dripping out of the cockpit which features several new windows.
(Ask DECOHERENT)
"Hey... those sigils. One of those happens to be a die, a symbol I'm sure you appreciate. Also there are 8 sigils, and I was given the choice of 8 handlers.."
"Care to let me take a peek at your hand there DECOHERENT? Care to share why this guy was so interested with you all?
Hmm.
Lets risk it.
"12 d0"
Lets make a decay-sword 
If the spell works, and looks like it won't coal/oil-ify my hand on touch (best to poke very carefully with a pinky, hell I got two), use it to corrode/destroy/weaken the door of the safe, use my bound multitoolwrench to finish off the door if needed and check the contents.
Take anything of practical value.[/i]
(Ask DECOHERENT)
"Also you mentioned I should get back to my impromptu ally, shall I be legging it or is a "free" ride on the cards?
He manifests once again before you, and speaks, with the kind of slick nonchalance befitting his appearance.
"Now, I wouldn't normally be as frivolous as Red, but you did ask nicely... but I'm afraid, that -"From his pocket, he produces a playing card
"- Is not my card."It's neater and glossier, but it is, without a doubt, a replica of the image marked with a crosshair.
"As for their interest, if you saw people like you, doing what you do, I'd wager you'd take quite the interest as well. There's no free ride, but you're close enough you won't need one."[COMP: 11/6] Killy's spell.
You make a sword, it looks really evil being made of bone and having glowing runes it seems to whisper and move when you aren't looking directly at it. You decide to touch the sword with your pinky because that is totally safe.
[TRAN: 3/6] Killy's resist.
The instant your pinky touches it, a green arc in the shape of a hand rushes from your chest and grasps it by the blade. You die, and wake again in the same room which now features a sword that is very probably definitely evil and a coalified corpse.
We'll assume you grab some more clothes and take back the knife.
Beirus mutters something unitelligible under his breath as he looks at the dragon. "So we do what, Jus? Help the dragon fight? Or use the distraction to try to get to the thing causing this anomaly?
If Jus says to help, use Equipment Check on the dragon if it works, then help the dragon by firing on the Rock with my Bound weapon, and use the Plasma sword if they get close. If they cluster, try to hit them all with a plasma blast. If Jus says to go inside, go inside, get directions or use Equipment Check looking up if Jus says the anomaly thingy is in range, and head in the direction of the anomaly causing object. Watch out for traps and lightning spiders. Kill any watchers I see inside.
I'll follow Beirus' lead on this. If we fight the rocs - use Caladlebolg and '12 ixc' on them. If we go inside, be ready to use Caladlebolg and my necrotic missiles at any foe within.
Anomaly source.
Now.
Dragon identified. Record found in Flight of Fantasy databases.
XII: Stasis Wing Emperor-Drake. Go complain to the skeletons about it. I didn't name it.
It's from before the Fall, a common topic nowadays it seems. Part of an advisory AI network.
Can't figure out its original purpose right now, it's only a fragment and it's gone completely haywire. They all are.
The AI itself is likely somewhere within its center of mass, and projecting the rest of its body, yes those rocks too, they're just extensions of its body.
Issue is, it's effectively impervious to all harm.
If you can somehow get into its body, I can try and disable it, but it's so badly damaged we won't be able to make something out of it.
Not unless you get the other two units of its local group here.
It's repurposed some of its utility functions to freeze areas in time, and some of its interfacing to have some kind of pseudo-mind control.
So yes, bad news all around.
I'm not picking up the source here, but the anomaly is definitely in this area, and the building's foundations don't extend that far down.
It has to be on one of the upper floors.
Oh and, don't take the lift, I'm picking up electrical anomalies within it.
Those birds are, evidently also parts of this anomaly. They're really more Red's specialty, but I am able to pick up arcane energy readings in their discharges.
Steer clear away from those arcs, they'll explode flesh on contact.
Those tendrils also act as a sensory array, they're able to pick up every faint electrical fields, including those in your brain and heart.
They don't seem to be too good at spotting though, I'm not entirely sure why, by all rights they seem far more suited for directing the storm than those hooded entities.
You both head toward the tower and make it halfway before the party rather inconsiderately decides to be with you guys and the party is not the conventional cake variety but instead the 'MURDER THE SHIT OUTTA BITCHES' kind of party and it just so happens that the two of you are the super special guests of honor. Fortunately the other guests are preoccupied so you can dodge their incidental collateral (read as: you) damage with ease, allowing the rocs to charge the dragon and its thralls while the dragon begins to really wreck shop using pre-Fall hax.
First it's a dragon so it just turns one roc into a snowcone with a crushing swipe of its tail while its thralls begin engaging the smaller birds, preventing them from interfering with it's fight with the remaining five. The rocs retaliate, forming together into a massive spiraling double helix of static and swirling wind, one doesn't join the funnel, instead hanging back near the far end. Then, from the clouds above arcs lightning in a blinding flash. It redirects them into the helix and they rapidly begin to multiply. You can barely see as the bolts multiply and condense into a bolt several meters wide.
It lances towards the dragon at a c-fractional (approximately 33% according to Jus) velocity. Only your enhanced reflexes allow you to track the next move. The dragon looks at the beam of pure destruction and simply takes the hit. It doesn't flinch as it takes 126% the yield of
Hiroshima: The Musical's climax straight to the face and is totally fine. The blastwave of the colossal bolt sends both of you flying into the air and causes the snow to be blown away entirely in the area around the bolt. The snow and debris freeze.
They ice over, frozen, unmoving in mid-air.
Continued attempts to enforce change are futile.
Accept that eternity is superior.
Feel my majesty and weep, lesser ones.
It unleashes the force of its will. The voices of countless people, past, present, and future coursing through your mind in a matter of nanoseconds. All of them demand, exhort and cajole for you to submit; to submit to their desire to remain, to stop, to slow, to preserve. To change no more, for the future is too uncertain. To become as absolute and eternal as the very bedrock of this universe.
[COMP: 12/8] O'Greenahan's Resist.
[COMP: 1] Whitmore's resist.
Berius: You notice Hawk's eyes begin glowing a hellish blue as you both tumble through the air, he calmly dismisses Caladlebolg and conjures his 09AIAR, as he swings his arm towards you, with intent to open fire.
Hawk: Your head is currently swimming with unnatural thoughts. You also notice that Berius is a dirty liberal who must be purged before he revokes your right to bear the arms you are about to smite him with.
Not sure how lucid you are, Ladlemonger.
But if you are unable to break free soon enough, we shall terminate you and bring you back away from this influence.
"Damn, I hope this transformation lasts long enough for me to do my business here."
Tell the Squire to pull up the trapdoor, from an angle that'd keep him protected by the lid as he lifts it up, be ready to shoot anything that comes up with my vacuum with all UTAR, jump back if whatever coming out is especially nasty.
If nothing comes out...tell the Squire to watch the door so no one comes in behind us, go down the depths within, and explore, unless going down proves to be unreasonable for one reason or another.
But shove a dead body in first if it proves dark and hard to see.
The squire lifts the trapdoor with a grunt as he covers the door with his rifle
"Clear!".
The trapdoor reveals a room beneath lit only by emergency lighting so it is quite dim. The dead body lands with a thud and little else. Once you enter you are in a corridor made of concrete lined with cables and pipes. As you look around the dim emergency lighting makes it difficult to see detail beyond fifty meters in either direction. In the distance you hear cackling.
Author
Topic: Perplexicon - Down the Foxhole - Raining Mecha (Read 179975 times)