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I don't care.

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I don't care.

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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: January 04, 2021, 02:28:47 am

[VoidSlayer]

I do wonder how her employer would respond to a plague lord.  Enough to put the murdering of you on hold?  Also he seems to respect fighting the plague.  If you take one down without his help could it get us a reprieve?

Then again you might need to be as strong as him to face one.

There are several other possibilities the plague may be doing besides a plague lord with this behavior pattern but none are good.

The first is a plague army.  This occurs when sufficient technology and military skill is absorbed for the plague to switch to a closer equivalent to a modern combined arms army rather then mad hive rushes.  It requires a massive retooling of plague "production" and current "troops" so a retreat would be in order.  It would depend on how much they managed to get out of the city before it fell.  I have never seen a plague fully absorb a SEED, obviously they will self destruct before that as we have seen, but if it did I do not honestly know if an army or plague lord would be more likely.

The second is a sporing event.  This is where the plague has calculated it will lose and is desperate.  Many commanders welcome the retreat and go carefully.  The plague though at this stage will use primitive rockets, it's natural resilience and any navigational data it has to make thousands to millions of very small ships.  They will be high level contagious but very small, a micro plague mind in each.  Then it launches them to anywhere and everywhere, moving at near but sub light speed.  Latching onto other vessels, drifting through gates or making the long journey through interstellar space.  It is theorized that the first plague did this but exact data is not available at this moment error found.  This breaks the hive mind of the plague up so it is a kind of death and the plague is normally "selfish" so loathes this kind of loss.

The third is a core breach, basically digging a thermal borehole to draw energy and materials directly from the planet's core.  That is rare but more common then a plague lord if it wants to up production and energy use.  Will not see more powerful forms in this case just more of them... generally.  This tends to make a planet... uninhabitable... over the long term though even for the plague so it is generally a desperation move.

As a note the plague is generally highly intelligent and unpredictable so 

A plague lord must have preconditions to form though, see if the Numbers have information on any other hidden experiments SEED had out there, if it absorbed some sleeping ascended that would be... bad.

You still might be able to hit hard and fast, damage the plague's infrastructure before the thing forms so it has much less to work with. 

[19_EgarAlnis]

((/me quietly updates to a d6))

[ZBridges]

I agree that hitting it now as hard as we can seems tempting.  My suggestion is that you call for a council meeting, making sure your foreign allies are also in attendance.  There is much to discuss, and you should prepare yourself to tie the knot with the Outlanders immediately in order to secure their support.  Send William to collect the materials for your arm. 

Be careful with Cephie, as sending her into danger may cause her to simply leave.  Keep her here for now as a bodyguard since we rejected Isela's ultimatum.  I assume the General has a backup plan, hopefully but not necessarily one that does not include violence.

[King Zultan]

Do we need to gather the council, couldn't we just go there and nuke it ourselves, you know get rid of all that aggression and anger we had earlier.

[ZBridges]

I think we do, as there is too much land to completely cover alone.  Plus too much exposure to the Plague will cause the Nightmare.  In addition, too frequent use of nukes will result in a nuclear winter.  Remember that Zero cautioned us against using fission or fusion.

Phoebe, is this something you think you can do alone?  I wonder what Constantine would have to say about this.

[King Zultan]

Oh yeah it might be a bad idea, forgot all about nuking things being bad for the environment and that being something we care about because we still want to be able to live here.

Probably want to reserve nuking things for stuff normal weapons and powers can't kill.

[19_EgarAlnis]

I...I don't know. I don't have any idea how powerful this thing would be.

"William? Go. Hurry. The Exclusion Zone is going to be swarming with them soon if I'm correct." You command, giving a lift of your hand. William dips a nod.

"Call our allies. The Council. The Nulls. Anybody of use." You state to Emma, brusquely. Emma turns away, following after her brother.

"Cephie. I need you to be my bodyguard. Isela and the Military attempted a coup." You finish, looking to the -- man, in a Crusader uniform. Cephie as Crusader smiles back at you, showing off sharpened teeth. Her armor shifts and curls, forming a gas-mask to cover them. You give a slow nod.


In a little less than three hours, you sit in front of the most influential people on this planet. Your council is seated around you at the table, Isela included. Eric stands protectively at your back with Cephie-turned-Crusader. The Nulls stand stiff and straight-backed, staring straight ahead without expression. Murdach looms with menace in front of you, at the head of his Retinue. Rekhyt and Samrend lounge near the exit -- armed and armored. Several Family Heads, you can tell by the haughty disdain, stand behind Hoganson.

All of them, in some way, are focused on you.

"Thank you all for attendin--" Emma rises, playing the gracious host.

"Aye, yeah. Let's cut the bullshit." Murdach cuts her off, "Pleasantry has a place. Ain't here." A technician strides forward, setting up a paper-thin screen.  A map of unfamiliar land masses stretches in front of you--

"That nub there." Murdach states, striding forward, gesturing at the screen, "Is the 'Holy Land.' Your fortress-state."

The image on the display changes -- a tremendous grey mass curls across the ocean. "An' that is some Plague Fuckery."

It's three times as big as the Holy Land.

"So what's the news, Pheonix?" Murdach finishes, his drawl abruptly cutting away to something more sharp and mechanical. "Because, in about two weeks, all hell is going to break loose."

[ZBridges]

Is this from the spy plane?  If so, it's good it was completed in time. Hopefully this will not go like it did last time...

"It looks like you already have some idea.  We suspect that the Plague has created or is in the process of creating a Plague Lord, a powerful enemy, in preparation for a major offensive.  This meeting is to discuss plans to mitigate or eliminate this danger based on the resources available to us.  There is not much time, so decisions need to be made quickly."

[19_EgarAlnis]

"Looks like they succeeded, if I'm being honest." Murdach murmurs. "We've got antimatter warheads, but they're low-yield. Hypothetically, we could glass the Holyland."

"What's a Plague Lord?" Rekhyt questions, lifting his hand politely. "And...what's antimatter?"

"Imagine God is real. And he's fresh out of mercy." Murdach offers to the Outlander.

"What?"

"...right. Savages. Uh..." Murdach lifts a massive gauntlet to his face. "Imagine Patches, except bigger, meaner and without restraint."

"Pheonix has restraint?"

"...you do not know how much." You state, darkly.

"You have a navy?" Murdach questions, looking around at the confused council.

"What's a navy?" Isela returns, genuinely confused.

"Well, fighting it over the ocean isn't a good idea then. We can bring more firepower to bear on the land."

"We've survived Plague plenty of times before." Hoganson lifts his hand to comment. "Is this...Plague Lord that much of a worry?"

"Found it, boss." A Skarinite technician calls from Murdach's retinue. The image on the screen changes to a video.

...A city burns beneath a dark, stormy sky. A massive figure looms over the inferno of buildings as dark figures rip and tear their way through the streets. Ichor rains from the sky...then the city is gone. The camera cuts out...and an image of a planet takes its place. Black cancer spreads out from a supercell. A thousand wings of red cut through the atmosphere, reaching into the Void as the storm spreads to consume the entire planet...

It cuts.

And there is nothing but silence from the crowd.

"Was--was that a..."

[15] "It was. That was our homeland, once upon a time." Murdach states, stoic. "There's no running. There's naught but to do or die. So me and mine will die on our feet."

[1]"This is your war, Pheonix." Samkrend rises, making to leave. "The Khagnate will stay out of it."

[18] "Are you a fucking idiot, father?" Rekhyt rounds on his father.

[14+3 vs. 12-1] "...I'm sorry? What did the sniveling pup just say to me?!" Samkrend twists to face his son -- and receives a knife to his gut. Rekhyt was fast, faster than you could react -- you rise, trying to use your Willpower to stop the fight --

[8+3 vs. 13+2] Samkrend's knife flashes to his hand -- and he slices his son across his face. A spray of blood follows the path of the blade. Murdach looks to you and begins to move --

[1][19+3 vs. 15] But it's too late. Rekhyt dances forward and slams the knife up to the hilt into his father's gut. Samkrend crumples back, staring at his son. Blood streams down Rekhyt's face. The youth leans down to his father and seizes the older man's arm. Samkrend's muscles curl back, pulling it free from Rekhyt's grasp--

"You've gotten strong," Samkrend gives a very disgusting, hacking cough. More like a retch than anything. "Your siblings?"

"The elders will be of no issue, for a time."

"Good." Samkrend draws an ornate, black knife from his belt, and extends it towards his son. "Good luck, Khan Rekhyt."


It takes an hour for the council chamber to be cleaned, the non-combatants to be calmed, and for Rekhyt to return -- devoid of weapons besides the black dagger. "The Outlanders vow their support for as long as I have it."

"What is the plan, Pheonix?" Rekhyt's manic grin is replaced with grim determination.

[ZBridges]

That was... lucky.  Ok, how are we going to do this?  We have the Outlanders, the Skarinites, and the Crusaders (for now).

Do we organize a defensive line at the shore, perhaps a bit inland to bring everything we have to bear, and/or do we try to find the Plague Lord himself, the source?  Also, we may need to enact conscription.  I wonder if we could funnel it into a kill zone...

"Could we use munitions to funnel it into a smaller area, a kill zone?"

[King Zultan]

We might have to do both at the same time because I don't think this planet has the weapons capable to kill the plague lord if it makes land fall.

[ZBridges]

I would be open to that.  It may be helpful just to scout out what this mass is and try to find out what it is suceptible to.

[King Zultan]

Wasn't that what sending the planes over for, or are you saying that we should go down there and see what we can do to it?

[ZBridges]

I do mean flying over to it ourselves to get a better idea of what it is and what affects it... from a "safe" distance.

[King Zultan]

I'm good with that, we go in and throw some stuff at it from a distance and see what it hates.