Reapply the same buffs as before, but otherwise don't move or act. This is a perfectly fine place to be.
[Selfshifting - Spiritual:
2 5]
You settle back into your old form, now comfortably invisible and watching the scene below with detachment.
Hmm. Looks like the smaller suits at least are manned, and have an emergency release. You mentally note this potentially useful fact.
Summon weapon. If successful, prepare myself for possible hostile behavior.
Thomas may not have seen what Malabus tried to pull, but he certainly hears the commotion.
Summon a daggermacewhip.
Two of the mages gesture and strange weapons appear in their hands.
The one in the heavy armor gains a technological-looking warhammer, while the one in black gains a bizarre bladed chain thing?
They both take defensive stances.
"Man down. All troops hold fire, the native is down too. Let's see how they treat this. Zrand, have you got a medic? Somebody get Malcom out of there."
Watch what the natives do for their guy.
You watch. This would be a disturbing sight for most people, but you were trained and
engineered to stay calm under such circumstances.
If the natives fire, let loose the Plasma!
Otherwise, look and sound as threatening and intimidating as possible. Nobody messes with an angry Aigresaur!
Not that I'd expect an Aigresaur to care, but the two forces are currently too intermingled to use that cannon without 100% definitely for sure killing some friendlies. The higher-ups say that if you shoot at friendlies they'll take away your snacks...
...You power down the cannon for now and prepare the jaw for combat.
((That went about exactly as well as expected.
Okay, guys, I get the hint.))
Resist.
Instead of my previous action, just flounder around on the ground like a wimp.
Instead of resisting, you flounder around on the ground like someone with severe brain damage.
[Malcolm Resistance - Not resisting!:
5 1]
[Malabus Resistance - Not resisting!:
6 6]
Malcolm just stops. His suit emits a concerned beep and quickly powers itself down. Malabus also stops. And then stands up. He is lucky enough to have avoided any lethal damage, but is permanently changed.
He stands erect, staring at nothing in particular, having lost all motivation.
[Malcolm and Malabus are now for all intents and purposes dead.]make sure that Malibus isn't permanently brain-damaged: drag him away from the metal things and make sure that he keeps breathing and his heart keeps beating.
At least he's easier to drag now that he's standing rather than flailing on the ground. Malabus doesn't say a word as you drag him away from the machines and into the village. Surprisingly, he's physically unhurt.
Ferrus uses his drones connection to check if Malcom is still breathing and has a heart beat. If he doesn't have a pulse use the drone to jury rig his suit do it starts administering electric pulses until he has one again. If anyone makes an aggressive action such as pointing a weapon at an an ally open fire.
If you see a native so much as point a weapon in your direction blow his head off, but their guy is down too. If it is an attack it's an incompetent one. But get the doc on him. He's probably in a bad shape from whatever the hell that was.
Suit diagnostics tell you his heart and lungs have stopped completely. Only Aigresaur's mech has a mechanism for shocking the pilot remotely.
FLORENCE
STATUS: LOW POWER MODE
FUEL REMAINING: 2Get bearings.
At the moment you and your fireteam are spread out and taking cover behind some trees. The immediate area is fairly dense forest, limiting visibility. However, the village to the east is more open.
Everyone seems to be pretty on edge right now. You silently hope this doesn't lead to death and mayhem.
Now I kinda envy R_C. I could have enjoyed this {more} as a never-ending series of unnamed goons.
Okay.
You, Razan Havill, are this this squad's medic. You bravely walk over to where Malcolm fell and hit the release on his suit, before dragging him back to relative safety. He's not breathing, and has no pulse. This isn't looking good.
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:
Name: Rico Vasquez
Class: Rifleman
Appearance: A young man of medium height, with a slightly dark complexion and facial features best described as southern European or South American. Skinny, with small but surprisingly resilient limbs. He has no discerning facial hair, though tends to have a 5 o’clock shadow most of the time. Comes from a proud family line of men not quite suited for piloting mechs, but just perfect for footslogging and eating dirt.
Stamina: Fine
Attributes:
Expendable
Inventory:
Infantry rifle
Combat armor
3 grenades (smoke, flash, teargas)
Training:
Basic
Name: Razan Havill
Class: Combat Medic
Appearance: A fine young man and/or woman with short, generic brown hair and amber eyes.
Stamina: Fine
Attributes:
Expendable
Inventory:
Infantry rifle
Combat armor
Medical kit
Training:
Basic
Medical
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: 2/3
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: 2/3
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: 2/3
Push: 0/0
Attributes:
Deadly
Resistant
Overconfident
Inventory:
Plate Armor
Soulbound Arc-Hammer
Advancements:
Well, that could have gone betterAt the moment our two forces are strangely symmetrical.
Up front we have Zrand and the Chief, who are too brave or foolish to run from the standoff.
Behind Zrand are the two towering Titans, piloted by X4-18 and Aigresaur. On the other side we have Thomas and Alexandrus. Much smaller than the mechs, but no less powerful in their own way.
And unseen but watching from a distance, Tanya and Ferrus prepare to ambush the other side if they try anything, you know, hostile. Like an ambush.
[Knife's Edge: Peace]
So far, everyone has been silent. The two unfortunate victims of reckless magic have been dragged off, and the two forces are left to stare at each other in unease.
The Chief loudly clears her throat. Zrand takes a quick look around and lowers his weapons to the ground, before stepping forward.
"I... Hope we can still negotiate."[Translator - No data:
4 2]
As he speaks, the little device on his collar emits an annoyed tone. Zrand curses under his breath.
"Argh! Damn thing![Translator - No data:
2 1]
This time the little machine speaks in a monotone voice.
"Screw single mothers!"The Chief pauses for a second before a dagger appears in her hand and she points at Zrand.
Author
Topic: Power and Pulse: Crimson Sky (Read 38873 times)