Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[DragonRage]

Warden 3 locks onto Circuit Breaker!

"Fools!  Your mechanical parts betray you, as robots always do!"  Circuit Breaker has begun hacking Warden 3!  The lock cannot be maintained!  Warden 3 will be hacked in 3 rounds!  Circuit Breaker has begun hacking VerTwo!  VerTwo will be hacked next round!

VerTwo deals 48 damage to the scraplet swarm with her four attacks!  Scraplets fall out of the swarm, pierced by bullets!

Tyra gains 13 initiative!

Initiative

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Tyra: 14
Warden 3: 13
Circuit Breaker:  8
VerTwo:  4
Scraplet Swarm:  0

Status

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Warden 3:  38/38, Being Hacked, Concentration Disrupted
Circuit Breaker:  ?/?, Angry
VerTwo:  54/54, Being Hacked, Concentration Disrupted
Tyra:  38/38, Healthy
Scraplet Swarm:  ?/?, Terrified, 48 damage taken

[Chevaleresse]

"Damnit-! Hostile electronic warfare detected. It needs to be disrupted at once." It was an uncomfortable, crawling feeling, having someone interfere with her computer systems. They were integral to her operation; she was well past the era of planes that flew by analog control alone. Fortunately, however, it seemed their foe had paid a bit too much attention to her electronics, and neglected the most basic tool of a fighter.

Warden 3 uses Sneak Attack on Circuit Breaker, dealing 3d6+DEX damage!

[cronos5010]

"Error, hostile entities are attempting to subvert this unit's systems. Attempting to rectify."

Vertwo tries to use Strike on Circuit Breaker to distrupt her concentration in turn if they fail a constitution check against the damage dealt by 1d6+Strength!.

[StormLord]

Tyra raised her wand up with ridgid, practiced motions to weave a hard shell of force around one of her companions.

Tyra uses Amethyst Wand on Warden 3 granting her 2d4+13 THP.

[DragonRage]

Tyra wards Warden 3 with a magical barrier!

Warden 3 fires her gatling cannon at Circuit Breaker, but the heavy rounds bounce off inches from her skin!

"My force field can stand up to shots from Optimus Prime himself!  Your little pea-shooter is nothing!" The supervillain gloats, "And now, your friend is mine!"

Before she can say anything else, a blinding white light shines from the Vector Sigma terminal, filling your vision with brilliant luminescence.

------------------------------------------------

Tyra finds herself standing just through the doorway of a dingy pub, lit by orange-brown lighting strips around the ceiling, reflecting warmly off brown cushions and brass fixtures.  The place feels very old, yet clean and well-kept nonetheless.  It is empty save for one person, a tubby, barrel-chested robot with wide, circular, blue visual sensors evocative of a pair of goggles, standing no taller than Tyra herself.  The light reflecting off his yellow armor makes it look almost orange, as he glances up from polishing a glass with a ragged cloth to meet the mage's eyes.  "EYYY!" He sets the glass down and waves to her, "Welcome to Maccadam's Oil House!  You're sure up late.  Come on in, have a seat at the bar, I'm pretty sure I got some organic-safe imports around here somewhere."

------------------------------------------------

Warden 3 finds herself in a clear, blue sky, hovering above fluffy, scattered white clouds.  The ground below is so far away as to be only a green and brown blur.

The scream of jet engines breaks up the peaceful scene, and the jet's radar and proximity sensors light up with sudden alerts of an unknown aircraft way too close for comfort!  The other jet streaks past, close enough for its windstream to buffet Warden 3, before streaking off ahead of her.  The aircraft looks somehow both ancient and advanced, white armor with maroon accents broken up by expansive golden filigree, exposed, brassy gears, and translucent blue panels extending outward as wings.  The strange jet does a roll, leaving a pair of glowing, blue contrails behind its engines, the invitation... and challenge given by the other pilot clear.

Catch me if you can.

------------------------------------------------

VerTwo finds itself standing before a forge, the sulfurous light emitted from the great fires silhouetting a massive anvil, and an equally towering figure.  Light shines through carved, geometric cutouts in her armor and limbs, under two glowing, red eyes, and a mane of cable-like dreadlocks extending from the back of her head almost to the floor.  She leans upon a titanic hammer, the head as tall as VerTwo's entire body, staring down at the battered robot, face invisible in the gloom.  "You have suffered greatly," The immense Cybertronian observes, "You cannot even recognize it.  Yet, systems worn and compromised, I can still see something within you...  A spark of something more, perhaps?  Come forward.  Step up to my Forge.  Let us see what we can make of you, Sparkling."

[Chevaleresse]

"What. . .?" She looked around in her place far above the earth. Was that what they call a nightmare? A hostile intrusion aiming to wrest control of her own body, and one threatening to do the same to her ally. . . and suddenly she was in the skies where she belonged.

Just as she began to process this, she nearly overturned in midair from the wash. For just a brief moment, she questioned if she should pursue. This entire scenario might be some trick of their previous foe. And yet. . .

A red glow appeared in her engines for a brief moment, and then she was in motion. The roar of her engines was quickly left behind as she engaged her afterburners and shattered the sound barrier, chasing the contrails she'd been offered. I don't know what you can do. . . but I am the greatest dogfighter ever made. The corners of her mouth turned upward ever so slightly as she soared after her challenger.

[DragonRage]

The ancient jet ahead of Warden 3 begins to shift, wings moving in, becoming shorter, more streamlined, and canted forward.  Then its engines light up brightly, and with a roar and an echoing BOOM, it breaches the sound barrier and keeps going, reaching what Warden 3 estimates to be around Mach 1.5 before its acceleration begins to drop off.

[Chevaleresse]

Reading. . . Mach 1.5. Easy prey. She kept a careful eye on the craft, watching for any true hostile intent, but she had to admit she was enjoying this just a little. What are you thinking? She shifted her course slightly, aiming to intercept as she continued to pick up speed. Her maximum was well above 1200 knots; the odd craft had little chance of escaping at this rate. I'll need to write a report about this later.

[DragonRage]

Warden 3 begins to overhaul the strange aircraft, her greater top speed showing its value as she slowly closes the distance.  The clockwork jet activates its afterburners, accelerating again, but doesn't seem to be able to break Mach 2.  The pair approach a towering cloud formation, fluffy, white pillars forming a maze through the sky.  The ancient machine extends its wings again, braking down closer to Mach 1.4, and then its engines shift outward a bit, before rotating to kick the aircraft first left, then right as it weaves through the clouds with impressive agility.  Thanks to its vectored thrust, the clouds aren't even disturbed by its passage.

Warden 3 notices that for all that they look natural, the clouds can't possibly be.  They're registering as solid objects to her radar.  Even if they aren't actually solid, if she flies into one, she'd be blind.  That would be dangerous...  And she'd definitely lose the other plane.

[StormLord]

Tyra immediately furrows her brow as she finds herself in the starkly different situation.  She scans the room without moving for a few seconds, searching for any sign of inconsistencies or suspicious movement.  Eventually, slowly, she takes steps towards the bar.
"Umm...what have you got?"
It occurred to her perhaps they would have something more interesting than clear spirit or gut rot.

[Chevaleresse]

The F-22 shed her own speed as she closed on the obstacles, dropping to her normal combat speed of mach 1.5. I can do more than move in straight lines. Maintaining her configuration, she darted through the air, skirting dangerously close to the cloud cover as her control surfaces worked frantically to keep her on course and still closing. She had her own thrust vectoring to use, of course, but Warden 3 could sit on that until she needed it.

[DragonRage]

"Lemme see here..."  Maccadam roots around under and behind his bar for a bit, the warm lighting glinting off the windshield across his broad chest, "This has Energon in it, this stuff's mixed with motor oil, this stuff'd clear your tubes out real good but probably not the best for a friendly chat, this beer's a decade past the sell-by date, better throw that out, Ah-hah!" He comes up with a clear bottle, suspiciously unlabeled, full of a clear, green fluid, "Bartered this off a human spacer a while back, before we got the currency exchange set up.  Hard spirits never really go bad, they just gain more character.  It's..."  He stares at it for a moment, "I'll just uncork it and have a sniff."  He does so, but it doesn't seem to help, "It is...  It is..."  With a shrug, he pulls out a pair of glasses, drops a sphere of ice into each, and pours a small measure out, before sliding one over towards Tyra, "It is green!  And not a hint of toxic compounds.  Well, aside from the alcohol, but that's supposed to be in there.  Still, better water it down with some ice just to be safe.  I'm getting an engine room moonshine vibe from this stuff."

He takes a metal straw from a box under the counter and has a speculative sip of his own drink, making a clearly fake lip-smacking noise, as he doesn't really have lips.  "Huh, not half bad.  Dive bomb of Energon, a few titanium shavings for flavor, I could even sell this to my usual clientele."

------------------------------------------------

The cloud maze grows more and more challenging as Warden 3 progresses further, passages getting tighter and more winding until even her agile opponent is brushing the edges with its wingtips at times.

TICK

An impossibly loud sound, like an enormous clock, fills the air, rattling Warden 3 as she emerges, close on the tail of the ancient jet, into a more open area.  Two aircraft erupt from the clouds on the other side.

One looks much like the jet she's been pursuing, folding wings, intricate Steampunk construction, blue contrails and all.  From the front she can also see its bizarrely long nose, extending far beyond the cockpit, and two pairs of cannons mounted underneath it, massive gun pods fixed forward.

The other jet looks much like an F-22 Raptor, adapted for carrier duties.

Both are translucent and filmy, filled with white vapor, like empty shells filled with the clouds around them.  But Warden 3's electronic warfare suite informs her that the cloudy ancient jet is attempting to paint her with a laser guidance system, even as her own doppelganger starts angling for a missile lock on the aircraft that she's been pursuing, prompting it to throw itself into an evasive spin, firing a spread of blue energy bolts from its own gun pods.

[Chevaleresse]

Stupid, stupid! She'd somehow managed to assume there was no potential for hostilities from her strange challenger. The enigma of the cloudy Sea Raptor - something that should be an impossibility - could be dealt with in a moment; there was no time to be querying the stranger over the radio.

Warden 3 threw herself upward, deliberately stalling at full power. Her engines shifted, vectoring to main control as her nose heeled over and rolled. Warden's airframe swung through the air, rapidly flipping her upside down and backward. Now pointed at her attacker, she pressed the attack, aiming for a missile lock and readying her cannon while simultaneously preparing an evasive dive.

[DragonRage]

Warden 3 finds herself, much to her surprise, loaded with the Sidewinders and AMRAAM missiles she'd be issued by the United States Military, rather than the ARTEMIS missiles she acquired after her displacement.  Still, they find a lock on the ancient jet readily enough, as it vectors its thrust in an attempt to bring its gun pods to bear.  However, it appears that the strange aircraft, while capable of extraordinarily tight turns for a supersonic jet, does not feel comfortable entering a deliberate stall.  Warden 3 has a clear shot before it can even try to fire back.

TICK

Another immense sound rings out, and the real ancient aircraft vanishes from a similar predicament against Warden 3's doppelganger, appearing above the cloudy Raptor.  A pair of missiles leap from recesses underneath its wings, and it fires another volley from its underslung gun pods, boxing the translucent jet in while the missiles connect in a fiery, crimson explosion.

[Chevaleresse]

What-!? She simply didn't have a countermeasure if her foe was capable of outright teleporting behind her. The fireball she witnessed out of the corner of her eye was a bad sign; it was one anomaly eliminated, but she suspected this would not increase her odds of survival. Focus on what can be done. She focused on recording this data in a format that would be retrievable if she were shot down here, while loosing a pair of Sidewinders. The small air-to-air missiles flew downward and away, exposing the internal bays for only a fraction of a second. She turned up to climb once again, attempting to regain her altitude as the missiles chased down her misty opponent.