Fire off my Support Module on the Puppets. Call the wizards to prep me another rain of plasma dust. Then summon Caladlebolg and go with the good old ranged + 12 ixc combo. Gargoyle will help out with murdering the frames if able.
[LTAR vs. MDEF: 2 vs. 4, 9] Wide Area Bombardment spell support
[COMP: 16/8] Spell, 12 ixc
[UTAR vs. MDEF: 4 vs. 6] Spell attack and Caladlebolg on PUPPET
[MDEF vs. UTAR: 7 vs. 5, 1] Avoiding the invisible explosion guns
There are a lot of ways to call in spell support, it could be an underslung laser designator, a hilt without its blade, or small device with a big red button. It depends on what spells you have, and how many. In your case, it's a set of sensors rigged to the glove on your non-dominant hand with a small protrustion pointing forwards from your wrist. To fire, you need to hold your palm open facing upwards, and then, clench your hand into a fist. Doesn't have to be dramatic. Doesn't have to take too long. Just long enough for each part to be detected, and then, a split second later (for the sake of last minute corrections) the designator will do its work. The idea is that you can quickly order in an attack while still running around firing your weapon. Let's see if it works shall we?
You hold out your hand, palm up. Not in too much of a hurry, they don't see you, not yet. Letting your shotgun to drop, hanging at the ready by its sling, your bring your other arm across your body, your faithful greatladle precipitating within your grasp. In frozen time, you watch your options unfold, and they don't look the best. These autoframes, they've got more processing power than they should have, must be in fashion these days amongst eldritch murderbeasts it seems. It's, a long shot, but it's the best you have.
Your hand clenches into a fist and from above, ashen dust rains upon the plaza, and when they touch something, something solid, be it a building or the ground, a flash of light signifies another release of plasma hellfire upon the world. You see your foes swoop down, bodies almost scraping along the ground as their formation scatters to avoid the deadly dust, and as they do, two of them swing out their arms, fingers pulling invisible triggers.
Where you stood, where the trajectories of two imagined rounds crossed, the world
breaks. Everything there pushed outward and disintegrated in a mere instant. Of course by then, you weren't there any more. You were leaping to the side, a wave of corrosion and a barrage of necrotic bolts streaking forth to intercept the closest PUPPET.
It spins, twirling away from your attack as it catches three of the bubbles by surprise. The dust had past through them as did the plasma, but your magic, that proved to be far more effective, the wave and bolts rupture their membranes, popping them out of existence.
Your target on the other hand rotates upright, swinging its arm for another shot, and the remaining bubbles, seeing you as a threat begin spreading out to surround you.
Wink and offer charming smile for my Red Queen.
Allright, sneak in 09AIAR ready. Stay in shadows, sneak to safe listening distance and eavesdrop these folks. Princess Pink or Princess Cuddles, whichever I named it, should follow right behind me staying my shadow. I want to figure out wheter I should shoot them or not.
83 & 87
[COMP: 3/0] Spell, 83
[COMP: 4/1] Spell, 87
You slowly step forward to listen, casting your magic on the go. With your first spell, you produce the image of a string, or perhaps a wire - you can't tell since it's just an outline. With your second spell you get the outline of a pile of various articles of clothing.
You hear five people talking as follows:
1:
"How long until its ready?"2:
"The more you ask, the longer it will take, welding a full frame takes time."3:
"Just tell him..."2:
"Fine, about three hours, four if I calibrate properly."3:
"Can it fight effectively without calibration?"2:
"Maybe; wouldn't want to though - prone to slipping."4:
"Look we'll leave you be and nail down timing, as long as you finish in those four hours we're still on schedule."5:
"Finally, now we need to get to the target which is... difficult."They begin discussion of a plan to weave quietly through the warzone that is Floor 1 and Floor 0 which after the explosion went dark. Apparently their target is at the bottom of one of the government owned mining operations. Some sort of secret facility that locked down after the breach.
You can pretty quickly guess that they work for Vestige.
Open up the flip out panels on Item 225-B and hope it can either protect me as a shield or blast me a way out as a weapon. If it has any controls in its handles, use them. If that doesn't work, cast a9 31 11 around myself, the way the last spell worked.
To the various soldiers: "Get away from it, now! If you want to help, get a frame to destroy it, but there's no point in getting chopped up with me. Go!"
The black panels flip out an project a shimmering green barrier that curves inward slightly as the blades impact it they stop suddenly and you can hear mechanisms straining and creaking. Seeing your predicament several soldiers begin running for assistance, you try and help yourself with some more magic.
[COMP: 9/4] Spell, a9 31 11
You summon another cage this one is made of glass gears and mechanical parts entirely. It appears partially meshed through the first cage and does contribute to the jam slightly.
One of the soldiers returns with an engineer and plasma torch in tow. The engineer quickly begins slicing through the brass bars with his plasma torch leaving glowing orange cuts. It takes several minutes but eventually enough bars are cut such that the meat grinder is disabled. Soon after they pull the bars open like the rib cage of a monstrous beast freeing you, there is a brief celebration before they all begin swarming over the disabled thing. Classic System League.
James Heign:
"Okay then. It's as good as dead."
Operation: Fear the Reaper is a go.
Step 1: Locate the enemy. Basically, look around until enemy is detected. And/or let enemy be detected as a result of beam thing becoming visible.
Step 2: Activate Path to Death. Basically, use Memento Mori to see the path that leads to the monster's certain death.
Step 3: Follow the Path to kill the monster.
If attacked: Dodge before attack is actually launched.
You dismount and cautiously stumble forward on stumpy ankles finding a hole after moving a short distance past the murdered soldier. It burrows straight through the foundations, cables sparking and water pipes gushing their contents into the room below. The room below is crisp clean metal with curved sides and many bare wires and electronic panels along the walls. You can see where a cable has been shoved into a wall to bring this electronic dungeon to life, removing it and going home is probably out of the question as you are unsure if your new form is resistant to electricity or not, certain aerogels are conductive after all, and your head probably isn't going to appreciate being shocked.
You hear rumbling from deeper in the facility and scratches lead from here down a hallway and away. You follow them, slowly, using your flapping and pushing off the walls to go faster than retarded bird-fish speed. You reach the end of the corridor and turn seeing the foe from before now sans howitzer moving around the next room holding a large makeshift hammer made of rebar and concrete. It is working at several computer terminals doing god knows what. You ready yourself activating Memento Mori, everything down the corridor is blood red murder which is seeping into this the longer you wait here... it appears not to involve the creature however, as its movements and position do not affect the coloration. There are several suspicious panels that don't appear to do anything and are black spheres that begin opening out like flower buds.
Ohcarpohcarpohcarp
Salt them to death? Please?
Then run away really quickly.
[LTAR vs. MDEF: AUTOSUCCESS] Going Biblical
The bear is practically on your lap, making actually firing your weapon a slow, awkward affair. You hear the construct screeching. You see your console flare with warning messages as it cleaves straight through the restraints holding the arms in place. And then, your fingers wrap around a trigger.
You pull it, and the construct collapses into salt.
With the bear's position, you really can't do much, it's just confused and flailing, its movements hitting the controls and sending your frame flailing around like an epileptic being injected with electrified meth. Really, at this point the bear's the (horrifically incompetent) pilot and you're just the seat rest. The remaining foes, don't seem to be attacking for some reason, though the bear seems to thrash with increasing violence and fury. Perhaps getting out of this thing might be a good idea.
"Sounds fun." Beirus responds upon hearing his new assignment and signing the requisite forms before starting his report.[/color]
Make my report. If they want the short, concise version instead, make sure to cover everything about the types of enemies I saw, the behavior and abilities of them and the storm, the wind wall, the dragon, and anything else that would be incredibly important, and how the Ladlemonger helped. See if Jus wants me to add anything else, or what I should tell them if they start asking about him.
The two agents just write everything down without batting an eye, the general looks confused but he seems to have made peace with the fact that the universe stopped making sense when there was an invasion of demons and the comm's officer is trying to make some sort of argument but can't get past the first few words before becoming speechless and flapping her gums uselessly.
"Given this debriefing I think you will need to come with us downstairs, come along."They lead you and Comm's Officer Halliwell into one of the lifts which they take straight to the helipad, perched on the helipad is a military jump jet fitted with an underslung troop compartment. The engines warm up as you approach.
"The flight down is going to be rough to get past the enemy forces so grab a bag if you aren't good at flying." The inside of the jet is spartan with basic bucket seats with a five point harness packed into a space little bigger than a cupboard. The engines whine as you all buckle in Halliwell grabs a bag quickly and already has begun to turn green. The jet kicks off the ground and lurches off the pad before beginning a violent dive down to the lowest floors, the scream of the engines matching the retching of Halliwell who is meeting her breakfast again.
After a frighteningly quick deceleration you slam back into your seats and the jet begins cycling down. Getting out, you find yourself in a warehouse the roof of which is rapidly closing back up to conceal this hidden landing pad. Soldiers and suited men are walking around checking everything.
"Do you have any questions or need anything before we begin?"Summon up some hopefully ok armor: "22 84" and if it fits, and doesn't have spikes on the inside, wear it!
Head down the righthand fork, straight into the all-consuming darkness because I don't want to die, although if I can coax the boar to go first by tempting it with a nice hunk of tasty metal then do so.
Keep my gun at the ready, and if combat is initiated activate [Luck] and start firing at the threat's center of mass. Use MDEF in preference to SDEF. Be extra cautious of ambush in the darkness (that is if it doesn't instantly dissipate once I pass it's barrier )
[COMP: 8/4] Spell, 22 84
You summon a sci fi looking piece of torso armor. It's a perfect fit.
You toss some metal down the righthand fork. The boar trots happily forward towards the darkness and as it approaches, the darkness curls up and condenses into shadowy tendrils, the boar trots a little further and then there is an oink of surprise as it hits something solid. The darkness closes up around it and there is a squeal and then, there is nothing. The chuckling becomes a peal of cackling laughter.