Acquire rock. Acquire berries. Draw numbers on rock with berries.
You look at the ground. The forest floor is made up of very rich soil and no rocks whatsoever, so you grab the most cube-like twig you can find, which is not very cube-like. Next you look for berries. There aren't any, so you grab a flower and kinda smear its petals over the twig to create some kind of pigmentation.
You look at what you've got. No Dice.
YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
Keep alert kid, I've seen tribes more primitive than this cause trouble before, and that was without being half Arcane. Just remember, don't point your gun at something unless you want it dead, and if they point their gun at you they want you dead. Oh yeah, and of course the most important thing to keep in mind is that if you take care of Florence, she'll take care of you.
Settle down on my wolf legs and patch my targeting system for my missile launcher into Florence's (repair drone#1) eyes. Keep the Contingent pointed straight up so that if the missile is fired then it can clear the trees and hit the village.
You stop where you are and watch what happens through your drone. A helpful little window pops up on your display.
FLORENCE
STATUS: LOW POWER MODE
FUEL REMAINING: 4Neat.
Follow along. Keep stomping towards the village.
Continue to the village. If a native appears, stop.
Stomp Stomp Crunch.
"Thanks for the support, Ferrus. Hope I won't need it, eheh..."
Same plan as last time--get ahead of the group, to the forest, and walk directly out and straight towards the village. Keep my hands empty and in sight when I come out, my weapons holstered. Flying is fine if it'll get me there a turn or two sooner, as long as I don't fly so high that I'd be visible from the village.
You've nearly made it to the treeline and can see the village ahead when you come across what is apparently a native. He's wearing dark robes and has a simultaneously disturbing and charming face. He's waving some kind of white flag?
[Cultural Compatibility Roll!: 1]
Well, you know that different symbols can mean different things to different cultures, but... Let's just say that this particular symbol doesn't have happy connotations attached. This puts you very on edge.
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: Doctor Arturus
Class: Modified Hardsuit
Appearance: Tall, thin, with piercing black eyes encased in thin, wireframed glasses, a long sharp nose, thin lips and pointed chin. He wears white, with silver highlights. White dress uniform, white flowing cloak, white gloves
Mech Appearance: All white, with red highlights, notable among them the big red cross on the back and sleeves
Arcane: 100/100
Attributes:
Medic
Armorer
Merciful
Inventory:
Mana Absorption Shield (0A if you successfully absorb an attack, 2A if not hit)
Modified Arcane Extractor (0A)
Medical Suite (2A)
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:
"I love this form."
Examine the machines for weakpoints. check: joints that might be damaged or jammed to ruin mobility. exposed cables of any kind. Visible cockpits. air intakes that could be clogged or flooded. sensors or viewports to be blocked. emergency releases to be activated. exhausts to be plugged to suffocate engines. exposed tanks to poke holes in or fill with water or both. Hatch releases to be pulled. anything at all. Could the results of my examination be kept private please.
You take a look.
Thomas:
Assist in evacuation.
assist the village people with the evacuation. The sooner they are away from whatever is making that sound, the better.
[Herding arcane humans: 5]
You get everyone not valuable in defending the village out on the road East. That was surprisingly easy?
Head towards the stomping with my white flag. Wave it continuously.
You've just barely left the village when you come across two giant metal men accompanied by one normal sized metal man, flanked on either side by foot soldiers with strangely small LMGs. You gulp and smile.
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: 1/3
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: 0/0
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 (Thanks to the power of technology, this hammer zaps whatever it hits with lightning. Limited battery, but you can get around that by just re-summoning it.)
Advancements:
You've slept in, as usual. Someone came to wake you up when things started stomping around outside, and it's taken you awhile to get your armor on. As you exit the hut in which you've been staying, you notice that most of the villagers seem to be gone. Huh.
Author
Topic: Power and Pulse: Crimson Sky (Read 39101 times)