"STOMP STOMP...ROAR"
Watch for ambush. Lock spinal gun in attack position. Bare fangs.
You don't even bother to activate your translator as you yell onomatopoeia into your microphone.
"PTOMP PTOMP! SCREEE-AH!"
Your mech lowers its back and readies the plasma cannon in a naked show of aggression.
[Let's play "spot the tricksy shifter" - but she's real sneaky:
2 1]
You're pretty sure there's no ambush here. You focus all your attention on the lone native.
Watch for an ambush, and keep an eye on Aigresaur.
You set up the titan's camera feeds to give you a good overview of the area. You can see what Aigresaur's doing, but are unsure what you can do about it.
[Can
this one spot the shifter? - she's still sneaky:
5 3]
The computer spots some movement over to the north that you missed. You turn your attention in that direction, but can't make out any threats.
Within his mech ferrus's eyes narrow. these natives are either clueless or looking for a fight flying something like that. Hell, only time I remember this ending well was back in Calsara.
Florence's submachine gun twitches a bit as ferrous makes sure it's primed. He also makes sure he's up close enough to the group that he could fire his missile launcher if needed.
Your SMG waggling is somewhat overshadowed by the dinosaur guy's massive plasma cannon. Again, you're in dense vegetation, so you'd have to be pretty close to direct fire that thing. It's a rocket, it can't weave through the trees. Yes, you could fire directly up through the trees and have it come back down in the open area of the village, but coming back down through the trees is a different matter.
FLORENCE
STATUS: LOW POWER MODE
FUEL REMAINING: 3READ THIS BIT Y'ALLFour more natives approach. A guy in chainmail holding a quarterstaff, a guy in all black with black eyes, and a guy in plate armor with >>
SKULLS<< hanging from his belt. He is not holding any weapon, strangely for the level of armor he's got going on.
The last one is an older woman wearing ceremonial dress. Her maroon eyes glint from behind a mask made from the skull of a... you don't know what animal that belongs to. It's an alien planet.
Name: Malcolm "Romeo" Vertix
Class: Hardsuit.
Appearance: Blue eyed, blond haired, and clearly takes care of his appearance. A friendly and carefree guy who naively became a pilot purely to hook up with 'alien' chicks, and who's quick to brag about his womanizing, not that he's actually had any success. He's never been particularly good at hunting either, but most of his superiors like him and tend to give him more leeway than his peers. That's how he ended up getting selected for first contact, in fact.
Mech Appearance: Pretty basic and boring, just the standard steel gray, with the only modifications being some gold trim and three small hearts drawn on the lower right side of his helmet. The hearts have had large cracks drawn through their center, a prank by his squadmates.
Arcane: 100/100
Attributes:
Charismatic
Resistant
Merciful
Inventory:
Semi-automatic anti-materiel sniper rifle (3A)
Fully-automatic drum-fed shotgun (2A)
Smart missile launcher (5A)
Snubnose Shot Revolver
Upgrades:
Name: X4-18
Class: Titan
Appearance: A gruff and muscular man, he constantly wears combat armor and a full face helmet with gasmask except when alone.
Mech Appearance: Gunmetal grey and mechanical. An older design which can't move as fast, but is quite flexible, able to swivel the whole torso 360 degrees.
Arcane: 100/100
Attributes:
Unrelenting
Engineer
Overconfident
Inventory:
Twin Miniguns (4A each)
Missile battery (7A)
Infantry Rifle
Gas Mask
Personal Armor
Upgrades:
Name: Ferrus Veteris
Class: Tech gear
Appearance: A grizzled man with a scar over one eye and and hair that's just beginning to go gray. A veteran of a number of battles of the mech wars, he is noted for his skill as a mechanic frequently working on his own battle gear after the battle. Recently he has also taken up working accounts of skill both his own and those of his fallen comrades into the practical camouflage of his mech. Don't taunt him about it, he doesn't take it well. While he used to have a reputation for always wanting to be on the front lines and directly covering mechs as he made rapid repairs now a days he mostly is known to hang back and use his drones to repair them.
Mech Appearance: A battle gear that bears the marks of many battles, each of which has been repaired with varying degrees of competency and care, the welding at times elegant and paint job of mottled green with subtle designs of hypogryths and manticores worked into bearing either skilled artistry or the basest of apprenticeships. It's drones are similarly marked up, kept in excellent repair but clearly bear the marks of beasts and bullets.
Arcane: 97/100
Attributes:
Engineer
Wise
Merciful
Inventory:
"Contingent" Heavy Missile System (6A)
2x SMG Repair Drones (3A activation. Remain active for 3 turns before needing to recharge. If a drone does not dock before running out of energy, it will be lost.)
Long-Range Comms
Repair Tools
Infantry SMG
Upgrades:
Name: Aigresaur
Class: Titan
Appearance: A cute nubile youth in a green dinosaur onesie. His eyes are a striking blue and his beard an impressive brown, possibly due to not being washed regularly. He seems functional as a pilot, but he believes that he is a dinosaur and doesn't talk in complete sentences.
Mech Appearance: A standard mech painted with a feather pattern reminiscent of a dinosaur. There is a rather massive cannon mounted on the back.
Arcane: 100/100
Attributes:
Unrelenting
Resistant
Blood-lusty
Inventory:
Spinal Plasma Cannon (15A)
Point Defence Cannons (4A)
Big Chompy Dinosaur Maw (4A)
Crate of Beef Jerky
Jerry can of ultra-caffeinated caramel soda
Infantry Rifle
Personal Armor
Upgrades:
Time to reposition. I look for and go to a hidden sniping vantage point to observe from and regenerate my mana. If I can't find a good spot then I'll accept one that's hidden but I can't shoot or observe from either instead.
You zip off and easily find a good spot high up in the hollow of a large tree. You should be both hidden and able to observe from here, though there is always some amount of risk that someone will see you. With that you drop your magic. As your tighter senses and faster movements drop, you feel some mix of tired and refreshed. You're visible for now, but your mana is back to full.
go locate my allies, try to get us grouped up in preparation.
Inspects the village for clues. Try to figure out what is going on.
If I'm not already at the village, head there.
For the sake of expediency, I'm sticking you three where Malabus is about to do his little magic trick. The Chief also follows you.
Name: Donnel Adderson
Class: Weaponmaster (Razor Buckler)
Appearance: Pale skinned with brown eyes tinged with sea green, and messy brown hair with a goatee. He is average sized but on the thin side muscle-wise. He typically wears a gray and tunic and trouser pair with his spirit animal, an octopus, embroidered in green on the back.
Mana: 3/3
Push: 0/0
Attributes:
Quick witted
Medic
Merciful
Inventory:
Soulbound steel buckler shield with razor sharp edges
Steel chainmail hauberk
Steel-capped quarterstaff
Medical supplies
Advancements:
Name: Tanya Xelcarostia
Class: Shifter (Selfshifter / Lightshifter)
Appearance: Brown eyes, tan skin, brown hair bound in a ponytail, with moderately angular facial features. Short ad thinly built, with splotchy brown leather clothing. Spirit animal - swift fox.
Mana: 3/3
Push: 0/0
Attributes:
Aware
Spiritual
Frail
Inventory:
Silent Marksman's Rifle
First aid kit
Travel pack with food/water/survival gear
3 harmless smoke grenades
1 white phosphorus incendiary smoke grenade
Advancements: None
Name: Thomas Blackshroud
Class: Weaponmaster (Daggermacewhip)
Appearance: Thomas Blackshroud looks every bit the weaponmaster, pitch black hair, pitch black eyes(he wears contacts, they do stop him from seeing, but that's irrelevant...), black leather armor, black boots, black gloves... His Spirit Animal is the Bat
Mana: 3/3
Push: 0/0
Attributes:
Aware
Unrelenting
Blind
Inventory:
Black Getup
Soulbound Daggermacewhip
3 Smoke Bombs
Advancements:
Name: Malabus
Class: Shifter (Sameshift, Fleshshift)
Appearance: A mage in dark robes. Due to a previous fleshshifting... "incident", his face and physical features are constantly, slowly, and involuntarily changing. It only takes a few minutes for his appearance to change completely.
Spirit Animal: Chimp
Mana: 3/3
Push: 1/0
Attributes:
Charismatic+
Overconfident
Inventory:
Black Robes
Wooden Staff
Rat in a Cage
Lantern
Travel pack with food/water/survival gear
Advancements:
Name: Alexandrus the thrice reborn
Class: Weaponmaster (Arc-Hammer)
Appearance: Long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He wears perfectly normally proportioned plate armor with tasteful blue highlights and colorful runes. He keeps a pair of old human skulls tied to his belt. Spirit animal: white tiger.
Mana: 3/3
Push: 0/0
Attributes:
Deadly
Resistant
Overconfident
Inventory:
Plate Armor
Soulbound Arc-Hammer
Advancements:
Main Course:Warning: Side effects of mind melding may include: Loss of memory/garbling of memory of what happened during the mind meld after the mind meld, memory loss and gain (from the other mind meld target), loss of memory of how to do basic things, like walk, breathe, etc. (only after breaking the mind meld after 24+ hrs. of mind melding). Consult your doctor before attempting a mind meld.
Good prose. But the side effects are going to be worse than all that. 24 hours isn't the point where you start seeing bigger side effects, it's the point where you've already been dead for 22 hours.
Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes.
Engage the mood music.[Woah, woah, nobody shoot it, nobody shoot! Lemme handle this! Watch for an ambush!]
Malcolm, the gray-colored hardsuit leading the mechs, crouches back a bit and raises both his empty hands in a placating manner. A tinny voice echoes from his speakers a moment later.
"Stand down! There is no need for hostilities, we come in peace, on a mission of learning! I repeat, stand down!"
Speak the above into my translation software, and hope the meaning comes through. Edge a little closer to the man, and be ready to (nonlethally) tackle him to the ground if he draws a weapon or bomb or something else. Also tackle him if we come under attack.
"Halt! I come in peace! I would like to open communications, but it appears that we do not share a language. I will attempt a mind-meld in order to assist communications. If you can understand me but object to this, please tell me so now."
If not told not to, kneel and commence a mind meld with the frontmost mech-guy. Basically, I'm using Sameshifting on our brains, causing thoughts and memories in one brain to be accessible/appear in the other as well. This should effectively turn the person who I am melding with and I into a gestalt consciousness that is in perfect harmony with itself for as long as the spell persists. Use a push on this if necessary.
If the mind meld is successful, the frontmost mech-guy/me entity should probably tell its friends about what just happened, so that they don't freak out.
I would have thought that this sort of thing would be standard procedure upon encountering new cultures. I guess it's not.
Do it anyway. Spend a push on it, because this seems like a push-worthy thing.
[Translator - Still no data:
5 2]
"Goan! Beuin ananit! Beroun ceoru an hammaui, bentia hen ereeitn ka wewwewernit. Beroun cacatin gagana-gaang heya be wewwewernit. Hey be droni daonint co."
After the man is done speaking, the translating software starts beeping angrily.
[PU҉S͠H͜͟͏: 6]
Malabus feels a power flow through his that's he's only felt a few times before in his life. He effortlessly pushes off of the ground and starts standing on air instead as everything around him seems to fade, lending his body all the light and color. He claps his hands together, producing a furry purple light. As he draws his hands apart again, the light is drawn out into a glowing link between his palms-
[Does this count as aggressive action? - Merciful:
yes no]
...Malcolm tenses up-
-and Malabus throws his right hand forward, casting the line into Malcolm's head, while bringing his left hand up to his own head, linking the two skulls.
[Sameshifting: 1]
Huh.If not told not to, kneelse turn the person who I am melding with and I into a gestalt consciose a PU҉S͠H͜͟͏ on thisusness that is in perfect harmony with itself for as long as the spell persists. U if nost m and commence a mind meld with the frontmost mech-guy. hifting on our brains, causing th Basically, I'm using Samesoughts and memories in one brain to be accessiblDo it anywaecessary. If the mind meld is successful, the frontmy. Spend a puech-guy/me entity should probably tell its friends about what just happened, so that they don't freh on it, because this seak out.
The pair both scream and fall to the ground, spasming. The link disappears a moment later, but they stay down. Their panicked shouting makes very little sense to anyone around.
"ckarai! n GAIATIN?! EreNGratac! SAT AGANGIATIraa!"
"Wnint inwin ckarai! aSrat awin JREAT A!"
Author
Topic: Power and Pulse: Crimson Sky (Read 38421 times)