James Heign:
"Oh. Um... well, that's a bit worse than the crab thing. And Memento Mori still isn't ready. Well, wish me luck, guys. It's hero time. Time to be a hero? Something to do with heroics and time."
Well, that can't be good. The next time(if there is a next time) the ripples appear, James attempts to resist/dodge the "everything is gone" effect in order to intercept the... whatever it is... with his bound axe. To be precise, he throws said axe at the being. If attacked, DODGE.
The creature disappears and fails to come back, the sound of hammering resumes for a few tense moments before the sound of cracking and crumbling concrete stops it. This is followed by a sparking and crackling before you hear a sound that is horrific. Like lightning screeching down a chalkboard, the birth-scream of some horrific electronic demon.
I SEE YOU CORPSE EATER
FUCK.
Change of plans.
Kill that thing. I don't care how you do it. Collapse the whole fucking factory on it if you need to.
Worry not about the reactor. Slay the beast, and present them with its head. They'll hail you as a hero.
Its gaze we could see, and because it needed to gaze far, it must too be far, or least not close.
But it is accursed now, possessed by dire forces, no doubt this dragon of yours has grown.
Be careful.
Since work on the frame isn't likely to be done soon, I'll kill time and practice my magic by Defending Camps. Take Item 225-B, my real Shorty, and the goat with me. If I arrive somewhere calm, find someone in some form of command and get orders. If I arrive somewhere distinctly non-calm, get ready to fight. Try and invent a usable weapon "a9 31 66", and hope it isn't too big.
Item 225-B is heavy but you manage to lug it around. The trip towards the reserve camps is, tense, you board an APC that speeds right past the checkpoints, the guards stationed there no longer doing any checks - there's simply too many moving through them in both directions. Eventually, you return to the surface. First you see frames stand in rough formations, weapons readied for whatever tries to break through, slowly advancing as one by one, reinforcements arrive. Further ahead, there are the parties of infantry and frames engaged in various skirmishes, others, are fleeing, running away from all the death and destruction, the spells and the monsters.
Amidst the fighting you can see a LANDSKNECHT fighting several strange clockwork constructs and a large avian creature before it starts firing its weapon wildly and falling over. This probably falls into the not chill category, especially with the constructs trying to mine through the poor sod's plating.
[COMP: 1] Spell, a9 31 66
Something goes wrong and the result appears around you. A strange clockwork cage comes surrounds you, this would be just inconvenient but giant two foot long scythe blades pop out of the walls and begin spinning along the bars, closing in together like bladed irises. This is... not the most pleasant situation to be in.
The soldiers around you are now screaming and cursing.
"Huh. Dying didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. Guess I got lucky. Jus, how much stronger did that anomaly get after we died? And how can I get stronger? There's no way I can take that thing down with the resources I currently have, and I'll be damned if I get left out of the raid to shut that thing down because I'm too weak. I owe it some payback for killing me." Beirus asks as he takes a moment to collect his bearings in the supply closet. Afterwards, he exits the supply closet and goes to get his steak. He hopes he didn't get here too late, he likes his steaks rare. After retrieving his steak, he heads back to his quarters to eat and get dressed. Wouldn't do to be debriefed in his briefs. On the way back to his quarters, he sends a message to his oversight through a wall console or terminal or a phone or however they handle communication within the building. "This is Captain Beirus O'Greenahan. I'm back. I'll report for debriefing once I get some clothes on. There's plenty to go over, including what happened to my clothes, but that'll have to wait until the debriefing. This one might take a while, so some coffee in the debriefing room would be appreciated. And maybe let the ones debriefing me know to keep an open mind. Even with all this magic bullshit going on, some of what happened may be hard to swallow." After getting dressed, he heads to the debriefing room.
Get steak. Eat steak and get dressed. Report to debriefing.
+6 MDEF
+3 UTAR
+9 COMP
You step out of the closet into the busy kitchen, which is just about to serve dinner. The chef looks dumbfounded as you casually walk through, grabbing your steak without looking twice at the stunned kitchen staff.
Overall no change.
While it now controls your old body and that of your comrade we now know what it is, how it fights, and how the other NEE scouts died.
We know how to assault it, and you will grow stronger in time.
There is another operation to secure crucial resources. With those, and the intel you shall give, it will fall quickly.
"Understood, we will be waiting in briefing room six. The special investigation unit is here also so clothes will definitely be advised."You dress, eat and report for briefing. Hopefully in that order. The room is a small conference room with comfortable office chairs and a probably-real-wood table running its length. In the room are four persons; one you know as the base communications officer, a woman in her mid thirties who often makes playful talk or mildly illegal bets with the pilots. Then there is General McMurdo, an old gentleman who is the commander of the NEE ground forces in the colony. The other two are black suited persons identical except for the fact that one has a slightly darker hair than their companion.
"Greetings Captain, have a seat." McMurdo is congenial as usual but has the voice of someone very on edge.
"We have recently heard of your exploits in the unidentified anomaly, further we know about your exploits with unknown factors. Due to this we are seconding you effective immediately to Special Intelligence. Communications Officer Yanis will be your operations leader."Two sets of papers are pushed across the table, it notably states your rank as Major rather than Captain. Officer Yanis is about to protest before she gets to the paygrade section where she begins counting the zeroes with her fingers before whooping in victory.
((Debriefing ensues, please post as an action or dialogue what information you provide about the storm.))Wait, that thing got in melee range? SALT IT.
Repeat previous spell, targeting the vulture.
[COMP: 0] Spell, 08 a8 sabb
Unfortunately your attempt to do the previous spell again but better this time doesn't quite work as you again fire it leftward out of your left shoulder. Not your frame's left shoulder,
your left shoulder. Inside the cockpit.
You are now in a cramped cockpit with a confused lead bear, maintaining balance quickly becomes impossible and you are shaken and shoved partway into a lead armpit. Fortunately the enemies miss as whatever they expected for you to do, "flailing like a shrew on a bad trip, spraying old testament flavored death everywhere like a homicidal disco ball" wasn't it. The large angry samurai thing is rapidly climbing towards your cockpit, blade clenched in its head, apparently unwilling to fuck with your arms, the others are following albeit more slowly than their serial killer robot companion.
"Why am I not surprised? Jus, anything of interest for you in the area?"
+6 COMP
+8 TRANS
+7 MDEF
+4 UTAR
+3 LTAR
Let's get going. Figure out where the NEE and SL soldiers I'm supposed to help are and head there. Summon a '12 1c' on the way there.
It isn't that hard you simply follow the blood streaming into the gutters and the horrific, dwindling screams of pain and terror.
[COMP: 10/9] Spell, 12 1c
[TRAN: 15/9] Synchronization
You summon a squat humanoid creature that is, ignoring its horribly hunched posture around 5 feet tall with the wings adding another foot overall. The face is disfigured and part human part swine with tusks and an upturned nose, beneath its heavy grey eyelids an all consuming green light shines. It is made of grey ossified shell plates, between which runs oily black flesh. It turns to you and follows in silence.
After walking a bit further you finally find the university plaza. In the center is a beachball-sized sphere of silvery light floating a few stories above the ground, said ground is just completely covered in blood. Just, blood everywhere, it's like if a truck driver fresh out of his second divorce and heavily inebriated because of it, and overturned, spilling out all the contents of their tanker which happened to be blood for some inexplicable reason. Look, point is, there's a lot of blood and it's all over the ground. It's like a janitor's worst nightmare, or at least a slip hazard.
There's also slices of human flesh, slices of LUPUS and LATRANS, what appears to be evil demon flesh, oh and the remains of some kind of frame-sized, vaguely humanoid tentacled murder beast. It's had a lot of its lower parts sliced off and sliced up judging by the blackened flesh everywhere, while its body seems to have been violently burnt and exploded.
The buildings have been blasted with scorch marks, and some kind of explosive weaponry. The forces that are left are staying well away from the sphere, there are about 15 soldiers, all spread very far apart, hiding behind whatever cover they can... a scream and spray of blood reduces that to 14.
The attackers were a trio of PUPPET autoframes, circling the sphere in a holding pattern of sorts. All of them are missing their weapons, but their arms are positioned as if they were still wielding them, their fingers resting upon where the triggers should lie. Two of them had swung their arms toward their victims as if aiming an invisible rifle, they then both pulled the trigger. For the briefest of instants, nothing happened. Then the soldier and everything around them become mist and flew out, no heat, no light, just a mess and a crater.
Scanning around the area you also see several distortions, pellucid bubbles, filled with points of orange light flitting around.
One of our other agents was here. There was a malfunction with his frame's Alcubierre Drive.
I believe that, is what is floating inside that bubble up there.
In that building over there, should be a core responsible for the demonic infestation.
We are unsure whether it is still intact, considering the state of this area.
Summon a clockwork boar to help out a little: "a9 03"
Proceed forward exploring carefully as I go. Keep the gun at the ready. If I think I hear/see/find an enemy carefully reconnoiter the area/investigate the enemy (I am aware based off of earlier information by the [Reveal Secrets] tradecraft it might mess with me a little mentally, so be prepared for that if at all possible). If ambushed trigger [Luck] and open fire with my pistol/sik the boar on whatever it is.
[COMP: 4/4] Spell, a9 03
[TRAN: 2] Synchronization
The boar, a brass automaton with gears gleaming from within the gaps in its exterior, is summoned but not to your aid. It simply clicks several times at you then starts chewing on the floor tiles, a turn-key on its back steadily rotating. Brilliant.
Proceeding forward through the mess of tunnels you can hear footsteps all around, echoing through the dimly lit facility. After many turns you find an odd place where the path here splits into two.
[TRAN: 4/4] Resistance
Down the left fork is what appears to be the server room, but the more that you look the more wrong the image appears, it gives you the gut feeling of being a despicable trap of some sort. The right fork leads into all consuming darkness which looks menacing and seems to move at times.
You begin to hear faint chuckling echoing down the corridor on the left.
Padma looks at the kiosk-thing wide-eyed, shocked.
"Wait, wait, what? Who are you? But, since you're asking me who I am, I guess I'll give it? I'm Padma. Padma Mangal. I'm a secretary here."
Introduce myself, hope it doesn't murder me?
"no. you are not just SECRETARY. not any more. they have chosen you. you are compatible. you have POWERS now - AGILITY, ANALYSIS, ALTERATION. THING is here. THING is bad. ROCK cannot squish THING. they must neutralize THING. you are now their AGENT.
i SALESMAN. can help. i have special DEAL for you: you do JOBS for us, we help you - FAVORS; EQUIPMENT.
old LORDS have awakened. one is here. help harvest it. how you harvest is your choice, will give you LOCATION and DATA. you ask for TOOLS.
what do you want to know?""Oh come one, you have me! Please don't go cheating on me, it would break my heart."
There probably was a side door somewhere along the building, right? Let's find one that's not openly visible for the people inside and melt its lock (assuming it's locked) with my plasma torch and get inside.
"Oh would I now~? Don't worry, I like you for different reasons~"You sneak around the back and find a small service entrance, thank god for maintenance staff wanting their back doors. It takes several minutes to cut the lock but eventually you get through it. The room is a maintenance hallway which has several tools hung up in cages that have been cut open. At the end is an ajar door around which is a flickering blue white light of an oxy-acetylene torch.
Author
Topic: Perplexicon - Down the Foxhole - Raining Mecha (Read 179780 times)