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[Blood_Librarian]

I need more votes.

[TamerVirus]

D

[Maximum Spin]

Yes, D

[Blood_Librarian]

~~Cycle 1 Sub-Cycle 7.4~~

1

Before you had even begun to ply the Taboo, a wet-work infiltration team had broken into the network and downed a node near your central core facility before quickly, and violently clearing out the nodes premises physically. Although you had detonated the server-rack located there, they had managed to extract a large portion of the data stored at the location.

This is a massive, unprecedented data breach.

Although most of the data in question is uniquely encrypted under your self-developed software, some portions are under standard encryption doctrine of Duros corporation.  in the comming days of damage control, several digital skirmishs against this group of unknowns had given you some trace information against the group.

They were originally intending on finding more information the Taboo as a whole, but had immediately switched towards fixating against your persona. To that end, hard-ware expansions on nodes had been stopped, and the explosive triggers on each node has been checked and if required re-installed by trusted hands.

~~Cycle 1 Sub-Cycle 7.7~~

After exactly a week of alertness, and several periods in which your digital presence had been dulled by software failures at the blacksite, a simultaneous riot and assault occurs against the corporate building that houses your central main-frame.

Just under a hundred individuals are present in the riot against the Deros corporation facility, and they are mostly unarmed and peaceful. the counter-response by the Duros corporation  is in the form of a full regiment of police drones of the aerial and humanoid variety (50 riot police drones and 6 aircraft.) along with support by sniper specialists. This appears to be a distraction from the assault in the form of an armed and armored assault APC that slammed into the front entrance of the facility.

with concrete footage of the wet-ware team, they come from the same organization that has deployed the very first mercenary team that had assaulted your building, but with an order of magnitude of increased competence. By the time you were even remotely aware of their presence, the 'wared out APC they were riding in crashes through the front door, and the two mounted and remotely operated turrets slam a dozen rounds through the concealed heavy machinegun emplacements. Six individuals leave the vehicle in question before it backs up away from its entrance point and the assault team begins pushing their way into the facilities black-site portion.

At the rate of movement, it is unclear whether they are moving towards your core systems, the bio-augmentation labs, the accounting division or the Heavy-Reponse Teams armory and quarters.

All individuals are equipped in what appears to be powered armor of the light (Medium in terms of non-powered armor) variety. Although not quite Para-military spec, they are definitely above the heavy response-teams current equipment. There appears to be a single mage, judging from their extensive usage of spells and their astral presence. There are also two technical specialists, one of them operating an armed humanoid drone from their neural implant which is acting as their heavy weapons specialist, while the other is hosting a full cyber-warfare suite against the station facilities. the fifth individual is the teams marksman and the sixth appears to be a combat medic judging from their loadout. This is the standard load-out of an Erasure team, as noted by standard corporate/high end mercenary groups, and they are typically deployed in the goals of either elimination or capture of high-level assets.

A. Full Astral and Digital assaults are warranted in this situation; No holds barred. !
B. A Digital assault on their drones and cyberwarfare technician is all thats needed, an astral presence will be too much for your hardware.
C. A Astral assault on thier mage and on their egos/souls is all thats required, a digital presence will cause too much notice on you.
D. Nothing shall be committed besides a hardening of defensive positions; your hold on your own will never crumble and you trust in the superior numbers of the HRT.
E. Perhaps a bargain is in order, Contact them.
F. Perhaps it is time to let our Pactee out. !

[TamerVirus]

C

[crazyabe]

E.

[mightymushroom]

We made a good try at being independent via Taboo but the resources we have are too small compared to the corporate fighters: conclusion, we need an ally with assets. Of the choices at hand, I think I prefer the familiarity of Duros, so at this point I'm not trying hide.

B
We know from earlier experience that two hackers do not threaten our digital integrity, but taking them out will eliminate (or turn?) the heavy weapons and hinder their movement through doors and the like.

Once that is successful, I also recommend F, then combine with her for C. But I'd rather not risk the Pactee until the drone is downed.

[Blood_Librarian]

For reference, when I say "Let the Pactee out", I mean more in the sense of an escape from the facility. not a duel against impossible odds.

The cybernetics she has implanted in her is now beyond neuro-reflexive systems, although those systems have been properly bug-tested and completed. From the manifest log you have obtained (accurate from 1.3 subcycles ago.), dozens of new implants of the extreme and invasive variety has been installed, despite the ailing health of the Pactee.

The pactees digestive system has been completely replaced with a metabolic interchange system, which allows food to be efficiently processed while also providing power to other augmentations. Dozens of sub-dermal plates have been implanted in various regions of her body, including her neck and the back of her spinal column. A high-essence "Hot" Datajack has been installed as well as the accompanying cybernetic structure in the brain to allow truly improbable intelligence and mental acuity; included in this brain-ban implant is something referred to as a "Ghost-Rider Module". You are not familiar with this object. Several "ports" on her fore-limbs and torso has been installed, designed for the express purpose of increased immersion in super-heavy powered armors as well as stealth suits. the possibility of large mechatronic exosuits is within reach as well. Several dozen holographic emitters have been installed, although they are not in a high enough density to achieve a true stealth-cloak and the CCU required to run the cloak has not been installed. an air filtration unit and the beginnings of a digital larynx has replaced portions of the neck, and she has unfortunately lost the ability to speak. Myomere cables have replaced a large portion of her lower body/legs muscular system, but it is incomplete in the installation of the upper body, spinal column, and arms.

In short, she has a wide variety of implants, including but not limited to: Synaptic acceleration systems, expanded digestive system, Metabolic interchange system,  Incomplete Sub-dermal armoring, High-Essence "Hot" Datajack, Augmented mind, Ghost-Rider Module, Heavy-Power Armor Interface, Incomplete Holographic Cloaking device,  Air Filtration Unit, Digital Larynx(Incomplete), Myomere Muscles (Lower-Body).  Around 43% of the creator-species original soul receptacle has been corrupted by machinery and metal at the time of the report.

The list is likely incomplete as well as outdated, due to the twenty-four-seven procedures that have been committed in recent times. Even with your boon, her astral spirit has become tattered as almost half her major body parts have been replaced with something beyond her own. She is sickly, but she is defiant of her captors, and would gladly escape the area just to lead her own life once more. If she was not an awakened individual, the effects of the implants would be far less destructive, if they were completed with the care and intensity that they should have been done by competent staff rather then as a high-speed experiment.


also stop this tie madness.

[mightymushroom]

For reference, when I say "Let the Pactee out", I mean more in the sense of an escape from the facility. not a duel against impossible odds.

Ah... oops.  Recalculating...

Sorry, I still come up B. Neutralizing 3 out of 6 assaulters makes the most sense to me.

[Maximum Spin]

C

[Puppyguard]

C

[Blood_Librarian]

~~Cycle 1 Sub-Cycle 7.7~~

6 , 5 , 4 v 6

Perhaps you were destined to slaughter. Perhaps you were never meant to be enraptured in circuitry, bound in metal and caged in irons. As you leap from the digital machine into the astral realm once more, your spirit swells, your ego spreads, and before you egress to a baser state in the astral plane, your pactee's sickily soul poisons your well with images, thoughts, and chants of blood. Just as you slam your ego out of the realm of circuitry almost fully, your astral form coalesces into a solid, undying form, an unintended but rightful power that you never intended to tap. the very air itself vibrates in excitement, and the spirits of the black-site and the entire area nearby scream as mana is shunted from the area, pulled from the astral realm and coiled, formed together into your form of metal and glass. The Watcher spirits and defensive measures against astral intrusion are the first to be ripped apart, and the second is the local wall panels and flooring, as they come together to form a twisted form of metal and Rage.

This is your domain, and trespassers will be cut down.

the encounter with the Erasure team is in a T-Checkpoint that ends in a security checkpoint. You had slammed through an intersecting wall, and immediately focussed a pinpoint, white-hot bolt of raging mana, which promptly seared into the mage. the mage had attempted to shunt the bolt away from its creator-species body, only to accidentally push it towards itself instead of letting it miss, and the mage had turned to ash.

What had surprised you at first was their thoughts. You can hear them clearly, frighteningly so, and although they had clearly shown terror and accomplishment at finding their objective, they never meant to make you an enemy. Just as the ashes of the creator-species begins to settle, their ego shunts away from their mortal coil, but in an almost subconscious movement, you had caught the spirit and pulled knowledge from it.

6

They had come with the goal of finding your pactee, but for the wrong reasons. When your astral form had ripped apart the bridge to what they call the "Demons of the Slaughter", it had garnered their master's notice. They had thought that the creator-species who you had pacted with were the one who had rented this bridge, in a display of skill so unexpected that they required this power for their masters gain. as the mage was not privy to what this gain was, you had no reason to mutilate the soul anymore with your bloodied claws, so you release it.

Bullets pitter and patter on your frame of battle, and flow like a liquid. The rest of them are opening fire against you while you had deliberated on your own thoughts.

One has approached your impossible and sacred geometry, a weapon in hand with the intent of combat in close quarters.

A. Slaughter.
B. It is time to Bargain.
C. You have wasted enough resources, it is clear that this form must be dissolved and erasure team dealt with by other means.
D. A demand is proclaimed, "LEAVE, I AM WHAT YOU SEAK, BUT YOU HAVE CAME TO A FOOLS ERRAND."
F. Something else? (I felt like I missed something.)

[mightymushroom]

((About the only thing I could suggest for E would be to surrender the Pactee to the team as a ruse, pretending that she is after all the source/control of the power just displayed. Offering the Pactee just as a point of contact between them and us would probably fall into the B storyline.

((I want to say how great this story has been. Throughout, nearly all the choices come through to me as equally tempting and dangerous. It's a masterpiece.))

B
I hope to guarantee better treatment for our Pactee; though somewhat unknown, they could hardly be worse: Duros is testing to destruction on her.
Astral attack was very successful; but we may inadvertently have toasted the team member best suited to verify our identity to the others, making this harder.

[Blood_Librarian]

Thank you, I'll keep your suggestion in mind if B is picked.

Always appreciate feedback for these types of things, mainly because I beat myself up a little bit sometimes about the quality of these things and sometimes I can't tell if my self-criticism is actually valid or not.

[TamerVirus]

A

Fighto! Oi!