View source for 1719/Mission: Field Equipment Recovery

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/03/03
|Location=Galianda
|Synopsis=A perfectly normal mission to Odin in order to recover the remains of a field camp that went dark. Welcome to Odin.
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=7, 39, 42, 127, 571, 596, 626, 627, 667, 672, 714
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{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The landscape of Odin gleams darkly in distant light. From the air, the plate of the Lord of the Divines seems somehow less hellish than one might have expected. Still, it looks like nothing more than a vast, jagged landscape of dull metals coated under a layer of oxides from exposure to the air. Curling, thin plants twist like some horrible mix of kudzu and concertina wire through crevices and hang from outcroppings, the leaves sharp as blades. Tiny creatures the size of a fist and looking like nothing more than a mobile, ridged shell make skittering noises, with the occasional snipping and creaking noises heard as they stop near the metallic plants. Then they move on, part of the plant gone in the transition. <br /><br />The main transport for those present who do not have other options is a Murasame Zaibatsu air transport, being powered by a pair of men in KIRIN uniorm behind the pilot area. Behind that is a troop deployment area reminiscent of modern military designs. They are several kilometers away from the Junkyard, far from the safe areas. <br /><br />The objective is to travel to the emergency beacon that was activated before all contact was lost to the field testing facility, recover what materials and survivors can be found, and then signal for pickup. If everything goes smoothly, the craft will airdrop the group off into the facility, allow them to recover the site in an orderly fashion, and then the craft will come around to pick up and leave. <br /><br />About a half a klick from the site, there is a call from the pilot. "Local units, be warned there is a sudden magnetic storm arising. We are attempting to evade. I repeat, a magnetic storm is approachi-" <br /><br />The first warning beyond that is the sound of tiny needles dropping. If one looks out the window, the sky has grown dark, an odd thing happening to the windows. <br /><br />Tiny metal filaments are impacting them and sticking there, quivering, before being ripped away. <br /><br />A moment later, there craft shakes, and there is a sudden noise of tortured metal twisting and shearing under intense pressure. "I CAN'T GET OUT!" The pilot yells. "I CAN'T-" <br /><br />It's at this time that there is a dull thud, one of the engines crushing in on itself and imploding under intense magnetic stress, the ship shaking and falling towards the jagged ground at high speed. As if that was not bad enough, the pilot window shatters unde a terrific impact, a three-foot chunk of metal punching through the reinforced glass and spwaring the pilot into his chair.<br /><br />Welcome to Odin.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:39|Jinx (39)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;WELL. This was EXCITING. People are dead, the transport is crashing everything is on fire and Jinx... She's got her braids slapping in the air behind her as she JUMPS. The Cannon is wearing actual armor today, a Murasame Adamant-squad bodysuit painted neon pink and yellow, and is hauling ass out of the transport to get clear of any FLYING BITS OF DEATH. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It's in freefall though that she spins lazily, orienting herself to point Fishbones at the ground and launch a massive blast of counter force to at least stop her deadly fall. "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That didn't sound good. That didn't sound good /at all/. Sanary is on board that very transport, and the sounds of explosions does little to allay her fears. It does the complete opposite, in fact, drawing a great deal of... Laughter from the healer. Boisterous and confident laughter, even, as if none of this was actually phasing her. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Oh, this is perfect! Was wondering when something would finally happen." She sounds amused by the whole thing as she starts laughing again, although that could not be farther from the truth. Sanary's knuckles are already turning white as she grips the edge of her seat tightly, keeping her gaze focused on the other side of the ship. She's also shaking quite a bit from head to toe, apparently unused to the whole... Flying deathtrap thing going on.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Flotilla is here. They're in adventuring gear, Moonfin, the fishman, in a mix of samurai armor and a low-worn conical hat, Biteblade the humanoid plant in steel plating with bone ornaments and a mask to retain moisture, Pavo the bird-girl with a pirate-styled segmented-plate sort of thing with a muffler and bandana to cover up, Albert the monkey-man wearing some kind of dystopian commando armor with their full-face protection on, George the human with a scavenged spacesuit altered into an armor suit, and Seft the robot wearing full-on medieval soldier gear with a hooded cloak thrown over it for good measure.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Pavo is the one who jumps into action first. "CLEAR IT!" She calls out. Albert grabs the massive three-foot chunk of metal and attempts to yank it away into the transport. Pavo is an expert in in-atmosphere ship piloting! She will immediately attempt to shove the corpse away and take any emergency controls that there might be, and get this thing to crash-land a little more safely and a little closer to their target. But, mostly prioritizing safety, so that people don't get pasted. Assuming that she can fly what remains of the thing, even without the engine, by wire, she'll try to put it down as gently as possible. But there's not much gentleness you can do here.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The rest of the Flotilla are just kinda holding on as best they can.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Alexis Maaka is less than enthusiastic about this compared to Jinx. As the ship lurches and begins freefall out of the sky, she very quickly shuts her helmet completely and kicks the shock absorbers into gear while holding onto her seat. "Fuck me this wasn't a good idea..." She mutters, holding onto her seatbelts for dear life. The sound of the pilot getting speared by rebar debris doesn't exactly give her any additional confidence in this mission either.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She checks her wingpack for a moment, hoping Kotone doesn't have trouble with the thing just in case they actually have to jump...then again that's a last resort at best, given the high-speed magnetically propelled spikes the ship is still shielding them from that pass for 'hail'.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"God do I really need to learn to say no one of these days..." mumbles Maaka to herself.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:127|Kirikou (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Others might hem and haw over whether or not students are qualified to go to Odin. Not Kilik. When he heard the distress call, he stopped only long enough to pick up his Weapons from their own class. Yeah, he's skipping out on classes. Field work's always much more fun.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This, however, is a bit ... exciting. Not fun so much as freaking terrifying. Not so much for him, but for the two kids that came with him. "Fire! Thunder!" he cries out, raising his fists in the air. The twins turn, barely hearing their names in the cacophony. The visual signal however is unmistakeable. They vanish from their seats, going right through the restraints in streaks of energy.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They're no longer vulnerable, Kilik knows. He pours energy into them, using his soul to shelter them. He's still vulnerable, but not much so. He's tough, and has survived much worse. "Place your trays in the upright position, bend down, and kiss your ass goodbye!" he cries out within the transport, sounding more excited than terrified. He braces as best he can, relying on the armour and his own not quite natural toughness to ride through the landing. Or the crashing, more likely.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kotone Yamakawa had been curious about Kyra's and Dominic's world and this was paying very good too. She couldn't argue with it. She'd had however paused at the hazards the pilot mentioned. Okay what kind of crazy place is this, she can only however listen in horror as something happens, the pilot is trapped and she hears his screams then silence. She's now also hit things are falling. She looks to Alexis she's pretty spooked. <br /><br /> "I thought it would be rough but this is insane, don't worry Alexis I will remind you if you remind me!" <br /><br /> She's now very much regretting the job but it's too late now the contract is signed and she checks her own pack which seems to be intact. <br /><br /> "I hope we don't have to jump there's enough scrap flying about out there to count as Anti Air Flak fire!" <br /><br /> She's going to have to brace her self and she wonders about this place. Seriously what mad god makes a place like this<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:626|Kyra Hyral (626)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No this was not a good idea. This was a terrible idea. This was a terrible idea for everybody. Kyra agrees even if she isn't deterred by terrible ideas. Though upon realizing that Dominic and Kamon were not around she probably should have opted out. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;But at least she came prepared. Her clothing is different, replaced with flexible, form-fitting armor made from kevlar. It looks like she's about to star in some Hunger Games-only she'd be cheating heavily because she's come very, very heavily armed. Three different guns. Three bandoliers of ammo. Two leather belts. Somehow she can walk with all of this on. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She doesn't say anything, her pale white face looking paler and whiter than usual as she calmly straps herself in. She knows the pilot's dead and doesn't bother with attempted medical care.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>MOMENTS AGO<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Odin is dangerous.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;But Staren's not worried. He's from a dangerous world, and today, his consciousness is inside a combat robot, endowed with super strength and tougher than most body armor... and that's /before/ he adds additional armor and a powerful forcefield. It's not invincible, sure -- the armor's chestplate is covered in scorch marks which contrast with the shiny, just-replaced forcefield emitters, and there's a metal patch that doesn't quite match on the left side of the chest, where he took a hit from a raiser cannon yesterday.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Still, as he rides in the transport, Staren's not worried. What could Odin /possibly/ do to him?<br /><br />NOW<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Staren is unhurt, aside from being rattled around a bit.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hearing the noise in the cockpit, he gets up and rushes to investigate, shaking his head in disbelief for a moment at Sanary and Jinx. 'Why'd I get to ride with all the psychos...?' he mutters under his breath. When he reaches the pilot's compartment, George is already handling the piloting, leaving Staren to stare for a moment at the pilot's body. For some reason, he pulls what appears to be a pair of ordinary glasses from his bag, and holds them up to his face to look through them at the pilot, then shakes his head, putting the glasses away again. "I'm sorry." After an awkward moment, he reaches into his bag, draws his magitech staff, and starts projecting forcefields around the people in the cockpit in case of further debris.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:667|Grant Mason (667)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This is the kind of thing that Mason loves. I mean they're barely even starting and already stuff is exploding and people are dying. The Adamant Golem armor shakes to life as the ship plumets down towards the surface of Odin, and he moves towards the launch door, where he would normally jump from this kind of height anyway.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The massive armor leaps from the ship, falling down towards the ground at the usual pace that the armor falls, which is to say, breakneck. He's only deployed to Odin a few times, but each time is new and exciting, because there's so many things that can kill you.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The armor shifts in the air, feet pointing towards the ground, preparing to land, when the pilot frowns under the helmet. Looks like a huge metal spire directly below him. That will be a problem. He shifts his hands back and grabs the huge cannon mounted there, firing several shots at the spire, the recoil of the cannon propelling him backwards as the concentrated minature fire spells built into the armor fire off, the thrust from them slowing him down enough where he won't die on impact. Unless he hits something /else/ while coming down.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jinx rapidly finds that leaping out of the transport might not have been the best plan. Still, one can forgive her enthusiasm, if not her responses. The moment Jinx leaps out of the craft, she finds herself fully exposed to the magnetic storm, without the buffering of the ship. Tiny metallic prickling feelings begin to be felt all over her body, like some kind of steel sandstorm as she begins to get seemingly randomly pulled and ripped through the air by any magnetic material on her body, some of which does include her buckles, possibly her ammo and guns, grenades, explosives, backup explosives, sub backup explosives, the doom monkey, and maybe her fillings. Does she have fillings? She might not soon. If nothing else, at least she can use Fishbones to not splatter or get pierced upon the /actual landscape/, provided she doesn't get abraded to death. Some kind of cover would be an awesome idea. <br /><br />Mason finds his problem similar, but at least he has GOLEM-type powered armor to keep him from getting ground down immediately. Systems register steady damage hits, however, the system's HUD showing his structural integrity degrading quickly. His cannon-jumping meets with the same success as Jinx: It'll keep him from dying, but it doesn't keep him from getting flung around much. It's only his weight that keeps him from getting skipped along the spiky crags like a crunchy candy with a nougat center.<br /><br />Maybe Jinx can hide behind him or something, he grants partial cover to allies hiding behind him. <br /><br />Pavo immediately moves into action, leaping into what could be certain death as he pushes the pilot out of the way and engages the co-pilot systems. The controls look fairly straightforward, mostly designed to try to focus and direct the thrust being generated through the magic being provided by the other KIRIN members in the power section. One is about to stand, but lets Pavo do the job if he want to. Less rust ripping at their flesh, that's for sure.<br /><br />The good news is that Pavo's efforts managed to cause the ship to not crash into the huge spike that was looming before the craft, probably ready to cleave the thing in half at best or skewer it at worst. Instead, the magnetic wash forces Pavo down into a rough landing in the middle of the valley created just beyond, an array of metallic spikes rending and clawing up the bottom of the craft but providing essential stopping power. <br /><br />Just... watch the floor plating. Staren's quick thinkingwith the force field saves Pavo a lot of discomfort, and probably keeps the ground from abrading through the floor. The impact is jarring, but survivable. <br /><br />A few minutes later, the air lightens up and there is a tinkling sound in the air from the sound of falling shards of metal. It gleams and glitters in the growing light in the distance, perhaps a moment of beauty in this terrible land. <br /><br />Instruments read that the group is still about a half click from the objective. The two KIRIN members stand up upon landing and rtrieve their fallen ally, laying him out. "Don't worry about him. We'll send up an extraction beacon as soon as we're sure another storm won't come through. Keep moving."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The shaking beneath Sanary's feet is more than enough to get her to pull her legs up onto her seat, the girl hugging her legs to her chest and having little other option than to pray that the whole damn ship doesn't explode on impact. Thankfully, the vessel does seem to hold up well enough, all things considered, and she taps her foot tentatively on the semi-solid ground beneath her before finally starting to breathe again. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Holy hell, that was something." She's still quite nervous as she starts laughing again, although it isn't nearly as grating or loud as earlier. She struggles with her seat belt for a moment before managing to slip out of the thing, standing on shaky legs as she glances around at those still inside the ship. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Is anyone injured? Not dead, but... Regular injuries? I can take care of those!"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:626|Kyra Hyral (626)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"...that went well." Kyra remarks entirely non-sarcastically as she unbuckles herself and gingerly minces around the spikes that broke through the flooring of the ship. Having known the extent of Odin's landscape, making any sort of crash landing in one piece is a feat made possible only by excellent piloting, especially in the middle of a magnetic storm. "Good to know that they'll send another ship though." <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyra pulls a set of goggles down over her head and yanks up a small part of the collar on her suit where it can cover her nose and mouth, providing protection to her airways. She notably does not leave the wrecked ship cabin until she hears the rain of iron fillings and scrap finally stop. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"C'mon-" Kyra nudges Kilik, actually rather relieved that he opted for this mission. "Time to get moving, you're obviously tank, so you need to get out there fifrst with the rest of the tanks. Sanary, stick by me, you can get a good sense of who needs healing from the back."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:39|Jinx (39)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And BOY HOWDY is Jinx happy she's not wearing her usual outfit. She squeaks a bit as she lands, mashing the button on the suit to tighten the seals and keep more of that AWFUL METAL DUST out of her nethers. She also shuffles up behind Grant, checking all of her gear for damage. She's lost some chompers, she's lost a bandolier, but otherwise she's okay. <br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Pow Pow revs a bit, knocking dust and grit out of the rotors and then comes to rest. "What's the plan, Mason?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kotone Yamakawa is not leaping out just yet, no but damn she does notice Pavo make a break for the cockpit, he is a hell of a pilot maybe he can pull them out of the death dive. Well they are alive so far, thanks to him and Staren.. She's ratteld pretty badly but she's alive and intact wshe moves to rise up from her seat and looks over to Alexis. <br /><br /> "You okay?" <br /><br /> She'll help Alexis if she needs it, as she moves to get up. <br /><br /> "We need to get moving soon as we can. Negative I'm not in need of anything miss. Let's get everyone up and going... and Kyra?! Hey!" <br /><br /> She wasn't expecting to see her on board she also gives Kilik a bit of a nod, anyone teaming with Kyra is likely pretty okay right?<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;THe impact is enough to jarr Alexis some, but she's still on rock solid ground at the end of it, and that's good enough for her. "I'm fine." She grumbles to Sanary, popping her neck before she unslings the GASH rifle from her shoulder. Climbing out of the ship, she pops her suit's seals to ensure that anything in this land doesn't get inside to screw up her body all the same.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"At least the storm's lightened up. I'm not holding my breath on it lasting though. Let's get on with it, kids." Kyra, being the local, gets a glance from the black-armored mercenary from offworld that's toting a shitload of weaponry. This isn't going to look a bit menacing.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Given the fact you're probably the most knowledgable about this dump, anything you can tell us before we're jumped by whatever goes bump around here?" Straightforward enough. Souji's briefing may have neglected one or two things anyway.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:127|Kirikou (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He's perhaps a little relieved the landing went so well. Kirikou laughs, his voice a bit shaky. He's banged about but not really hurt, not significantly so. He keeps his weapons close to hand though. This is no time for sightseeing.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Not wanting to look less enthused over this situation than the ladies, Kilik grins. "Nothing like a little excitement to get the blood flowing? Er... pumping?" he says, unbuckling and getting up without too much fuss. "Right. I'm up front." he agrees with Kyra. Him and the other front-liners. "Ready to go! We gonna run? Don't want to take too much time down here, right?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Pavo's nice bandana is completely in tatters and she's more than a little busted up by being in the less shielded pilot's section, having sustained a few metal fillaments to the face and torso. Her armor absorbed most, but not all of the impacts, but since she wasn't stapped in, she got tossed around a bit by the impact.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Ghhhh... Aye, sawbones, might need a bit to top me off before we're gettin' on the road." She calls out to Sanary, and maybe to Kyra and other healers with something to spare. For now, the rest of the Starbounders are going to get to work. They've still got their protective and survivalist gear. If necessary, George is going to carve a gap in the hull to escape the crumpled craft, but they'll take an escape hatch if they can get it. While Pavo stays behind, the remaining five Starbounders try to clamber out.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Albert is the one that speaks up. "If there was dormant fauna here, then that doubtlessly awakened it. Begin marching before they rub the sleep from their eyes." He'll try to emerge from the craft and into the valley. What parts of the party that are willing to do so, Albert will try to motivate to march with the Starbounders. They intend to pick carefully through the arrays of metallic spikes, harvesting anything that looks harmless to harvest and otherwise attempting to plot a seasoned survivalist's path through Odin's harsh landscape towards their objective. BITEBLADE, the plant-person, intends to scout ahead, if possible.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Staren protected the /people/ at least, if not the /ship/... after the crash landing, Staren pulls himself away from some crushed instrumentation he was smashed against -- He was so focused on getting up forcefields, he didn't get strapped in again! Fortunately, the damage from that is relatively insignificant.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;At least everyone but the pilot seems to be okay. And maybe those people who jumped out, but... that's kind of on them. Staren looks out curiously at the landscape once the storm is clear. It is kind of beautiful in its own way, but his second thought is: "How long until the next storm?"<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As people start stepping out into the unforgiving wasteland, Staren makes his way out and groups up with the 'tanks' in front.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sanary's finally calmed down after a few more odd laughs, an appreciative nod given towards Kyra and Kirikou. "Heh... Right. Should be easier to do that as long as everyone's in front of me. Would rather not have my blood feel like it's about to jump out of my head, but..." <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;There's another laugh, but it actually sounds somewhat relaxed this time around. "Eh. Good enough." Turning towards Pavo's voice, the blind girl starts towards the impromptu pilot. "Easy now. Just stay still for a sec. Don't want to get too tired out before we even get out of here." <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; She takes a slow breath as she holds her hands towards the top of Pavo's head, channeling the healing magic from her own body to her hands, then downwards starting from the head. It wouldn't heal her immediately, but (assuming it actually works) it would speed up her natural healing processes immensely along with providing a light soothing sensation.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>As the fury of the storm ends, it becomes rapidly more apparent that there's another problem to deal with: <br /><br />The area is bitterly cold. There's nothing to really hold heat around here besides the cutting, concertina wire-like plants, and that's not really helping much. Breath condenses into white puffs in the air, and touching the ground with bare flesh causes it to greedily attempt to drain away the heat in its chilled state, possibly sticking to flesh if one waits too long. The ridged ground seems to be layers of different metallic oxides all jammed together, perhaps even partially melted in spots. <br /><br />Odd, that.<br /><br />The light continues to grow, and with it an unspoken sense of tension. They're a huge distance from the Warpgate, and they're a good distance away from the Junkyard by ground. In this environment, it will be dangerous to make such a hike. At least they are in a large group...<br /><br />As the groups collect themselves and prepare to move out, the source of the growing light crests a steel mountain: Phoenix, an incredible distance away, soars high, moving to sweep through the air, eventually coming to a perch on some unconscionable point.<br /><br />The light of Phoenix has immediate effects. The area begins to rapidly warm to pleasant levels. <br /><br />A few minutes later, it warms further, heat waves beginning to form as one looks over the valley ground. <br /><br />The heat continues to increase, and there is a low groaning noise, the ground shaking. The more scientifically-minded might be able to place the source of this: <br /><br />What happens when a large amount of cold metal is heated extremely rapidly, or vice versa?<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;There's one more person coming along on this expedition than the number of crew and passengers in the airship. Said person has been intending on doing something like this for a very long time, scoping out potential opportunities, and perhaps wrangling a little something with the Zaibatsu off-screen. Having gathered the full extent of available data, Zwei has concluded that Odin is far too dangerous to send anything less than its best, and so Asche has been deployed in full combat preparation, cutting through the high altitude storm at such a speed that the air pressure deflects the more lightweight needles, with the rest falling on his shielding. It'd be embarrassing if it hadn't send him at least prepared for the weather after all.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He descends as the storm clears, homing in on the crash site of the downed airship, figuring it for the most likely candidate for the dispatch team. The air rumbles as he drops back under the sound barrier from trans-continental flight, firing retro thrusters to slow his descent until he touches down perhaps ten or twenty meters away from the wrecked hulk. The red light in the slit of his helm sweeps back and forth across his optical band, assessing the sudden change of temperature, and whether or not it'll be a threat to the other people who have gathered. It actually makes Zwei a little incredulous that people can actually live in this place on a permanent basis. "Greetings, members of the flotilla; Staren; Kotone; Alexis; Jinx; and others I am meeting for the first time." he rumbles in his fiery, electronic baritone. "I doubt you are attempting extraction just yet. You do not seem the types of be dissuaded over something like this."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Staren doesn't mind the cold. He's a robot!<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As the ambient temperature climbs, though, Staren stops staring at THEIR SUN IS A BIRD and shaking his head, and frowns a bit. How hot can it get here? What made that melted metal?<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And then the groaning noise starts. Staren wonders what it is, and his brain immediately answers: "Oh, /no/. Earthquakes too?! Get ready, there might be metalquakes, guys!" He crouches, slightly, lowering his center of gravity and looking around. Where the hell would be safe? /Nowhere/ is safe! He can only hope it won't be too bad...<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Oh right, wings. Transparent orange, stylized insect wings made out of some kind of energy deploy from his shoulders, and he flies a little off the ground, wings buzzing like an insect's.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:127|Kirikou (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kirikou was prepared for the cold. He was warned against it after all. Heavy boots, a thick coat, both are rather helpful while the metallic ground's cold enough to leach heat away. As he moves out along with the other front-runners though, the heat begins to get to him.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Place is kind of extreme isn't it?" he asks, opening up the front of his jacket. "And the ground sounds kinda..." he pauses. He knows some of this. He comes across as a thug, but Kilik's got a good head on his shoulders. He's fairly middle of the road when it comes to grades, but that's still a fairly well-rounded education in the best school on his world. "I think I know where all the metal fragments came from!" he announces. "Step lively people! You don't wanna be on bare metal when it starts to buckle or crack, or whatever it's gonna do!" he yells, scouting about quickly for some sort of ground to stand on that's sturdy enough to not actually erupt under their feet. Whatever he can find at short notice he starts heading for, beckoning the others to follow at speed. "Once the heat's settled a bit we can move on. But from that cold, things are about to get bad real fast!"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:667|Grant Mason (667)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Golem armor is getting pelted constantly by the storm, and and Mason does not seem like a happy camper. He does his best to shield Jinx from the storm until it passes, "You alright back there?" He asks, as he moves to try to help up, "We need to get moving. This suit is thermal sealed but with the damage it took, it won't stay warm for long."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He starts to hoof it as quick as he can towards where the rest of the group is, until the light comes out. He holds one of his hands up in front of his face, and the visor of his helmet turns black to block out the light, "I don't like where this is going." He says, as he looks to the others that are around.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:39|Jinx (39)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Jinx is already doing her best koala impression with Grant, having clambered up on the big guy's armor and riding it like a pink and yellow backpack. Both Fishbones and Pow Pow lay in their slings over her shoulders as she holds on for dear life. "I'm okay, it's just REALLY SHITTY. I want to get this crap and get out, REALLY BAD." <br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And then the place starts to turn brilliantly bright and Jinx's own visor turns black, the bubble headed suit offering at least a little protection from the heat. "Do we know where this crap is so we can get it and go?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The cold doesn't phase Alexis that much, given her suit's enviro-seals keeping her body temperature regulated. That said, she does seem confused at the melted bits of things. As she continues on the hike, she doesn't seem to even blink as Asche makes his entry like a meteor from the heavens. "Hey big guy." He says, nodding to Zwei's brawnier side as she goes from a gentle stroll to a jog.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Of course, the heat grows and she mutters something as she notices her temp-sensors skyrocketing within minutes, and then earthquakes. "What the hell...? Scatter!" She knows what happens when metal is superheated. And it's enough reason for her to begin making a break for it, her visor adjusting visual input to avoid blinding its wearer.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sanary pulls her coat shut as she tries in vain to shield herself from the insane coldness. It certainly doesn't help that she's only wearing an old tunic underneath it, a great deal of body heat lost through both her exposed head and legs. Thankfully, the coldness giving way to warmth allows her to reopen the coat and even start breathing normally again. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "Could be worse... At least the place doesn't smell like shit." She laugh loudly for a brief moment before settling down again, unable to stay amused for too long as the heat grows more and more oppressive by the minute while the ground shifts beneath the group. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Metalquake? So we're walking on..." Trailing off at Kirikou's words, she doesn't need to be told twice before darting in his direction.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:626|Kyra Hyral (626)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyra's about to take care of Pavo with several shots from the aurumal autodoc but Sanary steps in and heals the former pilot. "How's that?" she calls out to Pavo, assuming Sanary's skills did the needed trick for now. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Odin's pretty extreme, yeah. It's why there's barely any civilization on this plat-uh oh." Kyra sees the first rays of Phoenix's light cresting over the mountains. A brief glance to the ground lets her know that they're all in for some serious trouble very soon. Nevermind the heat, which is bad enough to grill them if they stand too long here. Kilik's on the right track, though. "Get off any metal if you can-!" Kyra warns, waving a hand, murmuring. A final, loud word of "Float!" follows and Kyra begins to hover about a foot off the ground. Despite this, she seems completely capable of running on air and still getting somewhere.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Biteblade scouts no immediate threats besides LITERALLY THE GROUND.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Starbounders seem to collect back together, after Pavo gives her gratitude to Sanary and Kyra. She seems healed! They're off and into the marching. Which quickly turns from Dante style hellish to just normal hellish. Oh christ thank goodness that ASCHE showed up earlier. As the ground slowly begins to cook Biteblade, they wind up going up to Asche.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"BIG METAL FRIEND. PLEASSSE." They say with intent distress. "Sssuperior carbon nanossstructure, better thermal conductivity! Cook lessss! Pleassse. Alssso, fish keep whining about dying." Wait, what is Biteblade asking? Oh. They appear to be trying to climb Asche. Asche will still be hot, but probably less, if they let Biteblade and Moonfin climb up onto their shoulders. The rest of the Starbounders are just going to have to tolerate the HOT FEET, and be wary of an upcoming earthquake, making sure they're never around too dense a cluster of those jagged metal teeth.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kotone Yamakawa notices that Zwei arrivs and she's rather glad to see her here right now. Okay one of her remote,s ugg this is hard to think about sometimes but either way an agent of Zwei or Zwei is here. EIther way it's good company to have really. She does look out at the doslation of this place the cold doesn't bother her really givne her actual nature. The plants look strange but she gets the gist of them. Kotone? She has no breath form the cold that's a big give away about herself. <br /><br /> She moves carefully as she gets ready to move out she notices as thigns start to warm and she stares for a moment at the metal. <br /><br /> "Oh lovely tempature hazard." <br /><br /> She keeps in step with Alexis and Zwei's brawler body. She does not need to be told twice as she too scatters along with Alexis.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The mission team is 500 meters from the field site. It's probably just on the other side of that big metal mountain over there. However, there's a small problem between here and there: <br /><br />Kirikou and Staren call it first: The metals shift and groan, the unusual compositions and varigeated layers heating in different speeds, causing portions of the spiked ground to shift and buckle, cracking open. There is a cataclysmic sound of shearing metal and a roar as a gaping chasm rips itself open, the MZ transport shifting and falling in as the ground under it breaks open as well. The ground shakes, threatening to hurl people to the ground or worse, into the chasm. Those who happen to have sensors will notice a wealth of metallic elements being opened up to the air. Iron, gold, titanium, silver, copper, iridium, it's all there, and almost pure. <br /><br />The scans also pick up some deposits of magnesium, sodium, and... is that radium? <br /><br />Needless to say, there are a number of explosions as well. <br /><br />There is a movement from the crevices as well, sizzling fragments clattering together and fusing. What phenomenon is this? Those who have seen it might never forget, and those who observe it now will rapidly learn: The metal connects, forming into a skittering, claw-like figure, all sharpness and gnashing as it balances for a moment, as if unfamiliar with motion... <br /><br />And then it immediately begins hurling itself towards the nearest target, in this case Kotone, followed by attacks from what look like a dozen more. They move with a rising sound of metal grinding on metal, and they immediately begin to try to shred pieces of Kotone's synthetic body off if they can reach it, trying to consume those pieces and integrating them into themselves.<br /><br />Also coming along are larger, winged beasts that seem handcrafted of lon, infinitesmally small filaments drawn into horrifying wings to bear a terrifying mass of grasping, shredding claws in a circular maw.<br /><br />Third, comes the sound of hissing objects firing through the air. Spikes rake down among the heroes. Those that are pierced will immediately feel ill effects, as a quick scientific analysis of the spines indicates they are extruded, metallic arsenic. <br /><br />What. The. Hell. <br /><br />The spikes seem to be coming from lithe, quick-moving... entities, seemingly made of flowing metal that twists and bends on its own will, adhering to no law of nature and only resembling a four-legged mammal by sheerest chance. A long metallic tendril on the back seems to extrude more spines at every moment, prepared to be fired again. The beasts seem to be staying apart and flanking to pick off targets at range. <br /><br />                                                   <span style="color:xterm212">Lv48 Nightmare Seeker x12</span><br />                                                    <span style="color:xterm212">Lv54 Nightmare Shrike x6</span><br />                                                <span style="color:xterm212">Lv55 Nightmare Arsenicore x2</span><br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They're almost there. If they can just weather the metalquake...<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Of /course/ it's not just that simple. Staren winces as the transport is lost, but he doesn't know enough to risk going after it...<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It becomes clear he'd /probably/ get swarmed by monsters if he tried that. As the Nightmare Seekers start crawling towards the group, Staren takes a couple of shots with his beam cannons, then draws the raiser rifle... only to see more enemies coming. He holds out a hand and fires one of the micromissiles at a Shrike, to see how it handles a homing attack...<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And then a spike hits his forcefield, making it flicker into visibility and cracking off a small chunk of it. Arsenic? The heck?<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Since poison is something he /doesn't/ have to worry about, Staren flies towards the nearest Arsenicore, drawing his beam saber for a flyby attack!<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:39|Jinx (39)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;JINX ducks a blast of flinders and splinders and shards that clips 6 inches past her left ear, she yalps and snarls and steadies herself up on Grant's shoulders long enough to kip off of him. She lands on a nearby outcropping of metal, near enough to the rest to duck inside the cover of the tanks and supports. PROTECT THE CARRY. <br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That said, she shakes out her bangle and... Doorbuster, her modified coilgun, drops to the metal ground with a glang. She cackles happily, kicks the charging lever...<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and then unleashes a massive blast at one of the Big Ugly Things. In fact, the biggest one she can see.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:127|Kirikou (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ooooh, time for some FUN! It doesn't take Kirikou long at all to react to the incoming monstrosities. As they start to emerge from the metal, he slams his fists together twice, ringing out a challenge.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;There's nothing much Kilik can do against the Arsenicores. They're at range, so he'll just have to keep moving and keep his eyes open. The shrikes and seekers are another matter entirely. He breaks into a run, then LEAPS into the air to plant a metal-clad fist into one of the Shrikes as it makes its own dive. Not that he can do tremendous damage to it; his soul isn't charged to deliver lethal blows just yet. But still, that bird-like thing is going to be hit with a metal impact.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kirikou's attack on the Shrike is only a secondary thing though, an attack of opportunity. He's looking to pound some Seekers, to try to give Kotone a break. He has no particular fear of wading in. And if they like metal so much, he'll feed them his fists! Well, not literally. Having the twins consumed by monsters would be bad. Fortunately, metal though they might be, they're also shielded by soul energies. The Seekers may open wide to try to eat them, but they'll have a hell of a time going through Kirikou's soul power first.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Despite the fact that Weiss is the chipper socialite and Asche is the killing machine, the Starbounders in particular are probably aware of the fact that the former typically expresses Zwei's pragmatic traits while the latter expresses its philosophical and sentimental capacities. Basically, it means that there is no way Asche is going to reject the heartfelt pleas of one of his friends. Folding the booster units flat against his back, he reaches down and lifts Biteblade under the arms and plants it firmly on one of his shoulders, having just enough space to fit the Floran between the inside of his pauldron and his neck guard. He extends an arm for Moonfin to climb up onto the opposite shoulder, showing the warrior poet the proper respect. The Armiger's exterior has vastly less thermal conductivity than metal by design, more like a warm car seat than a molten oven. More importantly, he can regulate the ambient temperature inside of his personal defense field in the same way it can negate the heat of an energy weapon, so the Floran and Hyotl are actually in for a fairly comfortable ride. He simply inclines his head towards Alexis to sow his acknowledgement.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"I second JInx's question. Reactionary strategies are the worst possible choice in the face of relentless aggression. This environment won't become any more hospitable over time, and so it would be best to limit the amount of time spent here." presumably that question is swiftly answered, and so Asche moves overland at the pace of the others, frequently firing his vernier thrusters in small bursts to avoid falling into chasms that open up underneath him, or to sweep out of the way of jutting spires. If Biteblade and Moonfin can hold on well enough, they'll also be shielded from the explosions of volatile elements being exposed to air, and eventually, the spikes of arsenic that suddenly rain down from above.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Asche wastes no time deploying weapons, launching a handful of marble sized sensor drones to paint a real time map of the battlefield and warping a pair of sleek and angular black and red SMGs large enough to be used as melee weapons into his hands. He assesses that the party is somewhat tilted in favour of melee combat, and so he switches his attention to the nightmare shrikes, aiming both guns up in an akimbo grip and immediately dumping copious amounts of reactor capacity through the twin automatic raisers. Streams of white lights fill the air, raking through the sky to chase down the flying enemies, each one precisely calculated to collapse into a fusion discharge within a certain proximity, like an anti-air flak gun.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:667|Grant Mason (667)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So not good. Grant takes several of the spines into his armor, his suit giving him a very unhappy sound. He swings his big un around and moves to try to cover Jinx, because while his gun is big, she has more of them.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He opts to open fire on the same target she is firing on, both to focus fire and try to bring down a single target, and to try to draw it's attention with a barrage of explosive rounds from his massive chain cannon.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It's never that simple.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Alexis growls as she spots monsters on the approach, leveling her coil-rifle as she sets the rifle to semi and fires away. Cute as it is to have Biteblade and MOonfin perched on Asche, that will have to wait.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The cyborg is nearly clipped by spikes from the skies, her armor suffering a chip here and there as the carbon-fibre plating keeps her safe, but she doesn't want to take her chances against this. It's time to seek cover. Alexis makes a run for Grant, taking refuge behind the pilot's mech suit while she takes aim at one of the flying beasts and fires electro-magnetically accelerated slugs at them.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:626|Kyra Hyral (626)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;There was a small worry in the back of Kyra's head about suddenly spamming Float in regards to, perhaps, her magic going awry again. But this worry is completely overridden by the fact that they're in the middle of Odin and on a very primal level she wants the party to survive. Float spells are spread as the heating occurs as fast as possible until it all just seems to merge for the white mage into one gigantic burst of white magic buffs. Everyone, provided they aren't magic resistant, can float. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;All hell quite literally breaks loose and the golems that Kyra warned everyone about make their appearance. From a clinical standpoint, she finds the interactions with Kotone rather fascinating-but expected. "Ah, of course-SANARY, START HEALING PEOPLE! JUST START THROWING DOWN HEAL SPELLS!" Kyra calls out, jamming some antidotes into her needlegun. She keeps moving about the rear, diving sideways as a hail of arsenicore spikes dot the ground where she was standing. She fires back at them-yes, with the antidote needlegun rounds.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kotone's become way of magic and the like thanks to places like Kingsmouth and well this isn't helping much. The thing are trying to get a holed of her. They do get some of her ripping off a small pieces. She yells in pain as she pulls away, she looks to the thing manages to keep it under controls and just starts shooting at it. <br /><br /> "MAAKA! They are trying to ear our cyberware!" <br /><br /> She yells as she attempts to get back before they get another meal out of her. She's really debating using that wing pack. She sees the flying things. <br /><br /> "Damn it I thought I wouldn't be seen as dinner here!" <br /><br /> She thought wrong and she's also still shooting she's picking up speed as well trying to get shots in on the seekers, thanks to Kirikou she gets some much needed breathing space. <br /><br /> "Get the objective and get the heck out!" <br /><br /> She tries to give her saviour some covering fire as best she can. She will talk with Kyra later, right now she wants to /stay/ alive.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Aaand that was their ride getting eaten, wasn't it? It certainly sounds that way, judging from all the noise. Sanary reaches for the axe and bell tied at her sides, but doesn't free them just yet as she hears Kyra's direction. "On it!" Channelling the magical energies inside her is easy enough even with all the chaos unfolding around the group, an amused noise coming from Sanary at the sensation of the Float spell. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "Three over there, two that way, and.. Got it!" There's a brief grunt before she throws her hands out to her sides, directing the healing magic in concentrated waves towards the heroes. It's not the most potent healing spell, but it's aimed fairly well even as she doesn't look towards anyone in particular.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Not everything can go well, of course, as the movement of her arms moves her right into the path of one of the Arsenicore's needles, lodging the poison-filled needle right into her shoulder.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Moonfin prepared the group well.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;CERAMIC weapons are drawn abruptly! "KOTONE!" The now-floating Albert calls out with a harsh tone. He charges, intending to use his massive CERAMIC WAR-HAMMER to smash the creature away, to a reasonable distance, and render it vulnerable to other attacks!<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Moonfin draws his katana and blasts forward off of Asche's shoulders, swiping it in front of him to cut spines as they come down on the rest of the Flotilla. He goes after one Seeker, and Biteblade after a Shrike, with Biteblade firing off shot after shot after shot of EXPLOSIVE WATER ARROWS from their bow on Asche's shoulder, and Moonfin intending to close the gap with the ground targets, moving quickly despite the terrain due to their float enhancement and ENERGY DASH boosts, and attempting to cut the creatures down using his ceramic katana.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Seft is immune to all poisons, and thus yanks a ceramic battle-axe out of her Matter Manipulator and attempts to charge it down and plunge the axe into it, tanking any spine damage it offers. Pavo does much the opposite; despite her floating, she LEAPS bodily into the air a good twenty or thirty feet using more energy mobility. She draws her ceramic cutlass and attempts to start stabbing it into horrifying faces immediately. George has remained behind, drawing a laser pistol of some kind, scavenged from another world, and begins to provide suppressing fire primarily at the seekers.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Of the Starbounders, George takes the most damage, suffering immediate poisoning and mild to severe lacerations through his EVA suit. Moonfin similarly suffers an intense wound from one of the Seekers, and Pavo's wounds on the torso are likely to be re-opened by the Shrikes. The Starbounders have a lot of skill but their equipment here is sub-par, and it means a substantial bit of damage here.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Staren fires at the Seekers with his beam cannons. The impact vapirizes parts of the Seekers off, but they keep coming short of being vaporized. Any metal bits they contact adhere to them, making them grow larger, spikier, more dangerous over time and repairing damage. <br /><br />A being such as this /has/ no vital points. Staren will probably need to aim to either destroy or completely incapacitate in some manner. a Shrike gets targeted by micromissiles, the impacts juggle it through the air, shredding one of the wings and sending it slamming to the ground, smoking. <br /><br />It gets up using the endlessly shifting maw-ring, the individual teeth working as tiny claws to drag it along the ground towards something it can strike at, perhaps hoping Alexis doesn't see it trying to latch onto her foot as Staren begins flying in towards one of the Arsenicores. He finds they are more than capable of fighting in close combat. Slashing one feels kind of like trying to stab through a ship bulkhead with a lightsaber. For all of their speed, they are insanely dense. They feel different than the simpler ones, somehow. But then the air rips with the sound of thunder as Jinx fires Doorbuster, the impact combining with the cannonfire from Mason to knock the Arsenicore over. Antidotal needle shots from Kyra seem to just punch into the side of the beast, the antidotes not seeming to cause too much trouble since it has no circulatory system to speak of.It drags itself up, hurling itself towards the Adamant Ranged DPS Team (And Alexis), hurling itself bodily to strike at them with sheer bulk. And poisonous spikes that erupt from its body in a clashing maw that opens up to try to clamp down on Mason. <br /><br />Can't forget the maw. <br /><br />Meanwhile, Kirikou smashes another Seeker, a loud metal-on-metal impact being heard. For a moment, the beast tries to clamp down on the soul weapon, gnawing on it with fingernail-on-chalkboard noises as it attempts to consume the weapon. However, it seems incapable of doing so at the moment, falling away from the impact, twisted from the strike. It really is like punching a steel baseball. <br /><br />Kirikou wades in on the Seekers, whom gladly attempt the same tactic. However, they are repulsed by his soul energy, giving him several free hits and taking a good amount of attention off of Kotone before they decide to go for something else. <br /><br />Like his leg. Legs are nice. Several Seekers attempt to simply lunge at Kirikou, trying to overwhelm his guard and start taking pieces out of him. Kotone still gets plenty of attention, the Seekers seeming to act like some kind of metal-starved swarming insect. The members of the Flotilla, however, prepared for this. The use of non-metal weaponry reduces the attention they get from the Seekers and gives them a solid first shot, the impacts of the hammer setting a Seeker up for an Alley-oop from Kotone as she riddles with with shots. Moonfin and Pavo work together to cut into the Seeker population as well, their unusual weapons giving them the ability to strike and disassemble several of them. George's laser fire helps to pin down the Seekers for the others, as this display of team work allows them all to quickly start engaging the Seekers on something closer to their terms.<br /><br />Asche, meanwhile, has no opposition to the sensors being deployed, though a Shrike does attempt to eat one of the small drones. Good thing that Asche predicted such action and interposed with raiser weapons. The fusion blasts quickly begin withering the Shrike population, a direct hit with one of the strikes vaporizing the Shrike in the explosion. They are more urable than the metals that make up their bodies, but not by that much.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Alexis's eyes widen for but a moment as she sees Kotone under attack by the flyers, about to lunge to the girl's defense before Albert takes that chance himself. The Apex is closer, and she has other problems. Seeing George under fire is enough for her protective instinct to get into overdrive, giving the cyborg reason to run like hell to the injured Starbounder-<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;-but first, she has something gnawing her leg. "OH YOU CAN FUCK RIGHT OFF!" Her leg stomps at the Shrike with as much muscle as she can, firing repeatedly point-blank before she struggles to get back to running for George's aid.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Assuming she does manage to get rid of the shrike, she slides up beside George as she lays down cover fire for anybody better suited for medical work, for the moment attempting to fire upon the Arsenicore that flings tiself towards the Adamant Ranged DPS Team with great aggression.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:667|Grant Mason (667)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That is a big 'ol maw and it is coming right towards him. That's when he starts moving right back towards it. The gun in his hands drops to the ground, and instead he reaches behind his back and pulls two axes from the armor. These axes would probably be heavy two handers for an average sized person, but Mason is anything but average sized.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The berserker leaps to meet the maw head on, swinging those axes with all the force he can muster as he dives inside of that huge mouth. He figures this is not the sort of tactic a normal person would employ, and his motivation may bring him past those poisonous spires that make up teeth and into the area behind it, where he will be free to cause havoc with those weapons of his.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Of course what's most likely to happen is he will be crushed to death when he dives into the creature. But you know the old saying, no guts, no glory. And he wants the glory from taking one of these things down from the inside.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:127|Kirikou (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kirikou's attack on the Shrike was relatively successful because he'd been somewhere the flying golem hadn't expected. Against the mass of Seekers however, he's a bit of an easier target. He tries to stay mobile. As a well-practiced tank, mobility has always been his strongest asset. His legs are normally not too easy a target because he usually crouches low compared to his opponents, and he tends to keep those deadly weapons of his low as well to keep his body covered. The creepy metal crawlers, however, tear at him, raking him with metal shards.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The initial wounds are little more than scratches, tended to by Sanary's healing spell. As the Seekers continue to tear at Kirikou however, they begin to have effect. First they tear away one of his shin guards. "Hey! That was a gift, damn it!" he bellows, smashing down on the offending Seeker with a soul-flame-enhanced gauntlet. Easily a lethal blow on a skilled human, but then these monstrosities are a lot more powerful and a hell of a lot tougher than a skilled human. Despite his agility though, the creatures manage to tear at his legs somewhat. He doesn't seem to be slowed down by the damage, not significantly, but the jumping around he's doing only adds to the blood that spurts at every stomping impact and desperate kick.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sanary draws in a sharp breath as the pain from the arsenic shoots through her arm, clenching her teeth tightly to keep herself from crying out. Instead, she simply starts muttering silent curses to herself as she removes the bell from the rope holding it in place. Her faded eye glints for a brief moment before the healer starts swinging the bell wildly, snapping it back each time to center the sound towards the Arsenicore with fewer people next to it. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead of a simple ringing noise coming from each shake of the bell, however, an infusion of magical energy into the instrument causes it to send out concentrated blasts of pure sound at the creature. Although her aim isn't all that great between the searing pain in her other arm and the constant shouts she's bellowing out because of the previously mentioned searing pain, Sanary's really swinging the hell out of that bell.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:626|Kyra Hyral (626)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Seems her chemicals aren't potent enough on their own without a circulatory system, much to Kyra's disappointment. One day the biochemistry will be useful for something besides healing. One day! But not today. Opting to just stay out of the way and focus on keeping people up, Kyra all too happily switches targets, firing the next antidote needlegun round at Sanary. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hmm, now isn't THIS a familiar sensation for the healer? Being shot with darts?<br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The needlegun is slid back into her under-arm holster so Kyra can take up her shiny golden rifle in both hands. She doesn't warn anything about this 'weapon' and simply lets the heal lasers do the talking, taking aim and firing at Alexis, then Kilik, then George. One hit on its own doesn't really heal too much damage but the follow up hits, range, and speed at which they come seem to make up for this.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rrgh. These monsters are tougher than Staren could have hoped, but that's not exactly unexpected.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Staren comes up with a plan: Heat them up with his energy weapons, then have someone flashfreeze them. Maybe the stress will break them apart...!<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Noone has a way to make cold. So much for that.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Okay, new plan: Maybe he could cut off their tails so they can't use those spikes? It's worth a try! He stops flying past at the back of the arsenicore, puts the raiser rifle on his back again, and with his free hand...<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He tries to grab the tail, while working on cutting through it.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;If that works with any speed at all, he flies over to the other arsenicore to repeat the process. If he can deprive them of their tailspikes, his allies should have an easier time fighting them!<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The drones aren't particularly tough, being loaded with sensors and propulsion rather than shields. It's fairly trivial for the shrike to consume one of them, though this ironically gives Asche a pretty good idea of what passes for its internal biology before the drone is destroyed. Simultaneously watching through the eyes of the rest of the sensor web, he has a good idea of what each person is individually encountering. Kirikou seems to be able to hold his own with his metal fists serving as a seemingly insurmountable aggro shield. A few of the Starbounders appear to be struggling, but there's enough of them that they can still tag out if someone becomes potentially too injured to continue. Staren hasn't been directly threatened yet, as his forcefield seems to be providing some kind of deterrent. The pressure appears to be off Kotone for the time being, and Kyra hasn't made herself enough of a threat yet, but it seems like either one of them could be killed fairly quickly if things were to turn sour. Grant, Alexis and Jinx are all under attack by what seem to be the more formidable enemies.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Asche trusts the melee fighters to be able to handle the seekers for the time being, and the arsenicores appear to be outweighing the shrikes in combat effectiveness, so he reprioritizes them as primary targets. He tosses the submachineguns over his shoulder, both of them vanishing into thin air as he rezzes a heavier weapon attached to his arm and anchored to his shoulder. Leveling it with both hands, he aims for the Arsenicore not currently being engaged by multiple Elites, and briefly overcharges the gun's capacitor, allowing the electrostatic whine to build for roughly three seconds before releasing the round with a tremendous kick of light-pressure induced recoil, causing his verniers to fire in order to compensate. The round is on the opposite end of the raiser spectrum, functioning like an ultra heavy penetrator with theoretically infinite inertia. If it doesn't smash the target in half, it should at least propel it far away enough to remove it from the fight until the rest of the golems can be dealt with; such is Asche's rationale.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kotone Yamakawa is just trying to not die at this point the strange horrors hgere make her really wonder about things. Kirikou has been a huge help in keeping her from being consumed by something from Odin. She does her best to keep shooting the seekers she sees they are hungry they are starved and she keeps making use of her reaper round loaded rifle. Rounds chatter away as Kotone keeops moving. She however takes the help from Albert an hte other, she's very thankful right now. Becoming dinner is not something she plans to do. She keeps shooting and now she's trying to take out means of flight if she can. She can only hope they are not trying to eat Alexis. This is turning into a team effort, from the looks of it.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:39|Jinx (39)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;LEEEEEROOOOOOOY MASON gets JINX to squawk with dismay. She's NOT SUPPOSED TO SHOOT FRIENDLIES. NOT SUPPOSED TO SHOOT... <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Fuck it. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;There's dismaying sensation for the Very Excited Jinx as she has a pang of hesitation at her current course of action. She kicks the recharging lever on the coil gun an-<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Wait no, that sensation is a hunk of metal coated with some sort of toxic salt that's currently sticking through her outfit. She can't... really feel it. That's probably bad, as the blood that's leaking around the wound is quickly coagulating. S-something to worry about later.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Jinx sniffs takes aim again, and launches anotherDoorbuster shot at the 'head' of the thing that Grant just jumped into.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kotone gets free of the nonsense, so Albert is freed up. Dropping his hammer for a moment, he finally draws a much more effective weapon. His ROCKET LAUNCHER! What he needs right now is ANTI-MATERIAL, not anti-personnel, something that's meant to pierce armor. He's gonna try to wait on Mason and others to get clear of the Arsenicore that just charged them down, and as soon as they're clear, he'll begin firing rocket after rocket to try to stun the creature and tear it apart with blasts, opening it up for the ranged DPS team.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;With Asche acting the part of heavy weapons, Biteblade... Well, normally Biteblade would be covering Asche, but let's be honest, Asche probably doesn't need it. Instead, the Floran will use Asche as bait, having them stand there while it lines up shows from that bow.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Moonfin is unable to sustain his rush due to the resistance of the assailants here and his sub-par equipment. He falls back to Asche's barrier to nurse his wounds temporarily.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Seft remains in close range with Staren Despite large spines sticking out of her, she's currently not poisoned, and is going to attempt to act the tank to cover Staren's efforts, using her SUPERIOR ROBOT BODY. Well, Staren's a robot too, but he's busy with not-tanking. She gets its attention with a lot of chopping, until her ceramic axe completely shatters due to the creature's resilience.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;George has a giant spine sticking out of him that's poisoning him. He heads over to Asche as well, to nurse his own wounds, still firing at Seekers, while he uses Kyra's burst of healing to justify yanking giant chunks of metal out of his body.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And PAVO, of course, is still jumping around like a maniac. Her wounds are opening and she's suffering new ones, but she'll sustain her assault on the Shrikes for now, powered by GREED-FRENZY, or something like that. Or too poisoned to feel it all correctly.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Stomping on the Shrike just makes it easier for it to latch onto the limb. The sensation a hundred tiny claws attemptifn to shred through armor, clothing, and flesh with an insatiable appetite is horrifying- KRAK, KRAK, KRAK! Alexis' bullets dislodge the creature on pure impact and send it skidding and bouncing along the superheated metallic surface of Odin. even if it's not dead, it's probably not moving for a while. Kotone helps, using her guns to punch through the remaining wings of the airborne Shrikes and landing them. This makes them /less/ dangerous, at least... Which makes it easy for Pavo to pounce on them and cleave-frenzy them into the ground. Their dependance on aerial movement makes them vulnerable when groundbound.<br /><br />And then Grant Mason pulls axes and tries to cleave into an Arsenicore and through it from the inside. This is a bad idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which that Nightmare Golems, as stated, have no 'vital organs'. There are no stomachs, no brains, nothing. Just metal being shaped to terrible purpose. The spikes punch into the Golem armor, the maw attempting to crush him at the same time as Mason tries to cleave into and through it. The question is rapidly becoming which will fail first: The Nightmare Golem, or the GOLEM armor's containment, exposing Mason himself to the ravenous, all-consuming hunger of the Nightmare Golem. Even now, pieces of the armor are being dissolved and pulled into the mass of the creature. Sanary adds to the assault on the beast with magical bell assaults. The clear ringing of the weapon causes vibrations to shudder through the Arsenicore. <br /><br />Asche confirms what a number of others have found out: There is no internal biology. It's made of animated, pure metal. Upon contact with metallic compounds, it disassembles them and incorporates them into its own body with astonishing rapidity. The remnants it cannot use are passed through and dropped, left behind. Meanwhile, Staren sweeps in and tries to cleave through the tail of the wounded Arsenicore, the beast thrashing and bending impossibly in order to strike back at him and Seft, who has also joined in on the chopping action. Without much in the way of internal structure, the Golems can quickly adapt to being attacked from multiple sides. Staren is struck at repeatedly, however, before the tail is lopped off, sizzling as it hits the ground. He looks for the second... <br /><br />Which is right behind him, the massive spined maw open to devour Staren whole. A moment before it would land, however, it lurches, impossibly, in midair as the raiser penetrator shot impacts and transfers immense kinetic energy (among other things). The impact causes it to bend impossibly with a shriek of distended metal as it is sent flying, shattering apart to scatter across Odin's surface. <br /><br />A moment later, the Doorbuster fires again, the Arsenicore gnawing its way through Mason taking the impact to the 'head' and reeling. It's about as much of an opening as Albert's going to get, and the rocket adds to the disruption of the Arsenicore. The multitude of focused fire impact gives Mason just the opening he needs to crash into it with the axes, cutting into and punching straight through with a scissoring strike, which causes it to fall apart, landing inert on the ground. How much of that GOLEM suit is left, however, is anyone's guess. <br /><br />There's still a whole pile of Seekers to deal with, though. Good thing Kirikou is on the case. It would be awesome if they didn't just grab his shinguard. The Seeker who took it begins to rapidly attempt to consume the metallic portions of it, bulking up larger as it does so and gaining more definition. Kirikou, however, interrupts this with SOUL FLAME PUNCHING, which smashes it into the surface of Odin and melts it into the metal in what would probably be an awesome-looking indentation were he not getting swarmed down. Thankfully, the others are getting freed up now, which means his swarmy travail will be over soon. Maybe.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:127|Kirikou (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The brutal fighting continues. Kirikou gets shot with a laser beam, which isn't nearly as bad for him as he might have expected. The boost seems to actually speed him up, a small but possibly noticeable amount. He WAS being slowed down by his injuries... but he was also speeding up as his soul burned. With some of the injury taken away by Kyra's healing, he gets a slight boost.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He puts his new energy to good use, slamming a fist down and discharging electrical power into the metal around him. And into the golems too, of course. Not just basic static electricity, but soul-fueled power. "Double T!" he cries out, either unwilling to take the time call out the attack's full name or feeling it's more stylish this way. Hopefully these Metal creatures have a weakness to Shock damage!<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Alexis sadly doesn't have enough time to prevent the Shrike from shredding her coltish calf practically to the bone, eating through armor like termites through wood. Letting out a roar of pain, she definitely makes her shots count as she ups the out-put on her coilgun to armor-shredding levels as she tries to finish the job.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Blood leaks from her leg, but luckily for her the endoskeleton of her body is made of sterner stuff, even if this is greatly risking contamination to the wounded area and also practically inviting millions if not billions of tiny irritants to eat at the complicated machinery. She's still got the boot left, that's a good sign. God knows, it'd suck having to walk around barefoot in this land even if she's an inch from skin contact with this shithole.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"If only we had Toph here." growls Alexis, as she takes aim towards the Seekers in order to drop them, blazing at their limbs in order to keep them immobile. Like hell is she going to waste any more ammo than she already has trying to kill them.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Asche moves from one target to the next with unerring precision, dismissing the cannon with an invisible signal and summoning another piece of his arsenal, taking the form of bulky additions to his wrist guards that pop and swivel outwards, exposing dense racks of absolutely miniscule warheads, little more than a micro-array of hydrogen peroxide vectored thrusters and a tiny grain of positronium embedded at the end, altogether no larger than an AAA battery. He expands his personal defense field outwards as some of the Starbound flotilla come to take shelter within its confines, dedicating an increasing amount of energy to maintaining its expoinentially increased area, which is fine since he's not using energy weapons at the moment.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He barely even has to aim, simply having his marker drones paint the seekers for him before dumping a hundred and twenty micromissiles into the air like an angry swarm of blue-white fireflies, swirling down upon the golems like embers caught in a whirlwind. The antimatter charge of each one is vanishingly small, meaning that the individual explosions, while deadly, are relatively self contained. They aren't nearly powerful enough to destroy a nightmare golem in one go, but the ultra-precise nature of them allows him to nail targets with dozens of shots each without any danger to his allies currently embroiled in close combat. It's a wide range attack meant to cause immobilizing damage to many enemies at once rather than a show of overwhelming firepower; hopefully giving the others the chance they need to finish off the devouring host before they can get any worse.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sanary finally seems to be calming down at the strangely familiar feeling of the darts sticking into her, easing the pain of the poison before it could do too much more damage to her. "Thanks, Kyra! Alright, back to healing..." <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Taking a long breath to recollect herself, she holds the bell up briefly before reattaching it to her rope-belt and holding her now-free hands out. She begins the process of directing waves of healing energy at her allies again. "Don't get too reckless now! " Instead of her blanket area healing from earlier, however, these next waves would appear to be more controlled and deliberate in comparison. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It's all relative, of course, and there's still quite a bit of redirecting that needs to be done just to ensure that the healing energy reaches its intended targets. The bulk of her energy goes into to help keep Jinx, Pavo, Grant, Alexis, and Kirikou on their feet.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:39|Jinx (39)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Jinx's arms are moving slower as she starts trying to recharge the Doorbuster. She's also blinking. That thing in her chest is much more painful now, the shock of the attack getting past how excited she had been a little while ago. <br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She's swatted with healing energy from Sanary, but decides against Doorbuster for the smaller things crawling around trying to chew on people. The coilgun vanishes back into her bangle, and she snifffs, pulling Pow Pow up from it's sling, and starting to hose down the metal pests with swathes of minigun fire.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:626|Kyra Hyral (626)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;For a few moments, Kyra abandons the aurumal autodoc, letting it dangle by its strap, as she takes up the needlegun once more. Still slotted with antidote darts, she takes careful aim and fires one at George, hopefully to finally cure him of his arsenic poisoning. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Taking up the rifle again, Kyra unloads another round of low-damage but rapid fire healing upon whoever she sees as wounded. She fires upon Kotone who will soon learn that the rifle is capable of healing /her/ as well, its mechanics not limited to the same as mostly organic-based white magic. Kilik, being subject to the up-close fighting of the nightmare golems gets another few extra hits from the rifle. "KEEP IT UP, YOU'RE DOING GOOD!" Kyra offers by way of encouragement before Kyra shifts her focus again. Her hand strays to her belts where her flasks are kept but she doesn't follow through. It was NICE not having aggro from the hideously dangerous murder monsters right now.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kotone Yamakawa is now making sure all the horrors are staying down for the moment. She does open fire now trying to pick off the ones on the ground. She keeps on shooting for a moment before she's forced to put in a frsh clip, thankfully there's a lot of people mostly working in tandem to take them, she does however make sure to try to finish off those seekers that remain. She looks to Alexis. <br /><br /> "The metal and earth bender? She'd destroy these things." <br /><br /> She goes back to shooting at this point. <br /><br /> Shes shen shot at by Kyra? Wait the damage from eariler is knitting itself back together that's a bit of a happy shock there. She'll have to ask Kyra about this later!<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Severing the tail takes longer than Staren hoped. The manticore claws at him -- each time, scraping some of the metal of his armor off, making a shallow groove... without the intelligence to focus on a single spot, though, it leaves Staren's armor a scratched-up mess and doesn't get through. "HA!" he shouts, as the tail comes off, then moves to back away from that manticore and turning... to find a mouth nearly engulfing him! He flies away from it without thinking and raises his beam cannons to fire -- only for it to be sent flying by a raiser blast. Staren stares, then turns to Zwei. "Thanks!"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:667|Grant Mason (667)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>You know his plan was bad from the start, but Grant didn't realize /how/ bad it was until he was inside of the mouth. Then he knew it was a bad idea. Next time he's going to stick to shooting it from outside.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He still does his best to hack away at it while it tears his armor apart, though, trying to tear through it until Jinx's shot blasts it apart. The golem armor falls to the ground, huge chunks of it melted off entirely and leaving Grant exposed to the elements. He does appear to still be alive, though, as he pushes himself to his feet, or at least seems to be trying to do so.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;We're down mostly to a few seekers. As such, the honorable ones -- that is, Moonfin, Seft, Biteblade, and Albert -- remain in play, assisting the others. Helped by Sanary, Moonfin and George can both get back into action, the former drawing their katana anew and diving into the swarm, though Seft is reduced to punching, which looks a little bit silly and may have unfortunate side effects given that she's made out of metal. Biteblade just keeps firing those arrows! How convenient. Albert has wielded his hammer again, and chosen to go back to attempting stunning blows against the masses.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;George and Pavo are both jerks; neither of them mind being irradiated, and as such, they've gone a bit farther ahead, into the chasm, and jumped down into it, rappelling with their grappling hooks and using their Matter Manipulator's auto-collectors to grab chunks of valuable RADIOACTIVE and RARE substances broken up by those explosions. They seem to be bickering slightly over it. Kind of jerks!<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kirikou sets them up the bomb. The Double T technique slams down into the middle of the Seekers, the electricity shocking them for several moments. Do they feel pain? Either way, it makes them pause for a critical moment, the impact launching them upwards. Alexis fires, picking a couple off in the air with the alley-oop, the sniper coilgun firing with extreme precision. <br /><br />Speaking of extreme precision, the tiny positronium swarm missiles fire and bombard the remaining Seekers, the fireflies make a nice backfrop for Kotone and Jinx to add their own gunfire to the mix. <br /><br />However, there's no way the weakest of the Nightmare Golems would last long against the combined attention of this team. They are soon shattered and obliterated, the detonations consuming them and leaving nothing behind. Seft and the melee-focused members of the Flotilla might find it a bad idea to jump in, though they can always clean up the edges. <br /><br />The battleground still radiates with heat, but at least it's not heaving and exploding anymore. George and Pavo head down into the crevasse and start picking up some DELICIOUS METALS. They quickly find it's not even ore that they're pulling up: They're veins of pure metal, somehow inexplicably sandwiched togehter in defiance of all sanity. The rare and radioactives will probably make this quite worthwhile for them as long as they can get it back to base and offload them at the space station before the Ur-Quan notice- oh wait, wrong script. <br /><br />It might just be George's imagination though, but one of those hunks of radium almost seemed like it moved for a second...<br /><br /> Eventually, the team will move towards the field camp. The trip there is hot due to the continued influence of Phoenix, but perhaps the extreme heat is better than freezing. The beacon calls them on. <br /><br />A perimiter defense field is seen in the distance, marking the edge of the field encampment. As one might have expected, it is silent. Crates with the markings of the FUJIN Research Institute are present, most of them smashed open and their contents unerringly rummaged through by a million tiny fingers. Half-disassembled defensive emplacements are observed, computers lie partially consumed, test equipment is ransacked.<br /><br />The commonality is obvious: There isn't any metal present. There are, however, about a half dozen corpses of various FUJIN members, their ID cards intact.<br /><br />Inexplicably, in the center of the camp, the signal beacon remains active... Though one of those corpses is left slumped against the console with a long metal spike driven through it, affixing it to the base of the beacon.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:39|Jinx (39)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Jinx... Jinx is movin' sorta slow along with the group. She's popping open her helmet from time to time to chug healing potions, but this is just like all those crappy times that Twitch shoots her with POO ARROWS only worse ugh stupid rat UGH.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The lack of any good loot at the site of the 'rescue' operation makes her collapse a little bit. "Dangit. This is dumb, this is all dumb."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kotone Yamakawa is just laying down the fire now she's trying to make sure the nightmare golems will stay down for the moment she's trying to catch her breath out of old habit. She ees nothing is moving as they make for the base. She doesn't like this it looks like the monsters hit this placve here, she notices it. She takes a moment. She's going to start collecting the ID cards and any personal effects. She's going to go about this with a bit more skill than one might expect. <br /><br /> "Look for anything of note left here, grab any documents or anyhting else our employer might want is all I can think now. This is a God forsaken land." <br /><br /> Kotone shakes her head and goes about her grim work. <br /><br /> "Oh Kyra so how /did/ you heal me?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Figures." Alexis says as she ambles through the camp's remains. "At least he probably knew ahead of time we were here just to grab his toys. I'd be annoyed if we were expected to babysit the scientists out of here given what we just ran into." She's used to this sort of thinking from business types, and the cyborg just produces a flare.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"So," She says, thumb about to prime the flare and set it off. "Who votes we just signal pickup and get the fuck out now? Not much we can find here that's any use, we're obviously not the only people to have found this place."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The fight is over! Hmm... There are resources down there, but Staren's not sure he has the time to just sit here trying to find the right ones, so he moves on.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To a base where everyone's dead and all the equipment seems to be broken. Staren sighs. He nods to Kotone, and starts searching the facility for any /paper/ documents that look like they're records rather than manuals or handbooks or the like, and any undestroyed equipment that looks like it's worth more than a few credits.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As the fight winds down, Sanary hunches over to catch her breath and closes her eye, stopping the flow of magical energy to it. Throwing out all that energy between the healing and the bell use has taken its toll on her, although the healer can still muster enough strength to follow the group. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"We've gotta grab what we can, at least. Just..." Sanary pauses to rub her temples lightly, a tired sigh escaping her before crouching in place. "... Tell me which ones to grab and I'll load up as much as I can. Better to grab something just in case this area gets swarmed again."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:626|Kyra Hyral (626)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"That's a trade secret." Kyra grins, wagging a finger at Kotone. "Maybe I'll show you later. Look alive, though. Those golems were bad, right? This plate can spawn those things all day and will closer to ascending Odin. Stay alert!" <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyra doesn't stow the aurumal autodoc quite yet, letting it rest in her hands with the barrel pointed down, at the ready so she can deploy it as needed. She continues to bob up and down under the power of the Float spell and she moves to the edge of the fissure to act as a spotter to George and Pavo as they venture down. There was always the danger that the ground could shift again in the heat, closing the crevice on them. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She'll also give them some pretty impatient looks the whole time until everybody is moving together again. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She doesn't seem so surprised to find the state of the Fujin camp. "The golems have been here, maybe multiple times. I guess we just take what we can since most of the stuff seems useless now." Kyra makes with the gathering of ID cards so there is some record of the dead on the trip. She also checks each corpse very carefully in case someone's actually alive.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Asche dismisses his final set of weaponry, hopefully for the rest of the day. Just from what the Armiger has gathered, Zwei can tell why the natives fear this place. Attempting to go to Odin is like attempting to dive to the bottom of the ocean. Nearly impossible to nagivate, fatal without the right equipment, with an ambient atmosphere hostile to all forms of outside life, and populated only by things that may as well be from another world for all the things they have adapted to. It can't begin to imagine why any significant number of humans would ever want to live here on a permanent basis. What purpose could there possibly be to settling an alien, inorganic hellscape?<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Before moving on to the equipment, Asche begins salvaging the corpses. Recalling the drones, he begins scanning and identifying any erroneous components of the disassembled nightmare golems, picking out anything that isn't clearly mundane metal and stripping it out with precision tools. He opts for the rock simple solution of simply carbon wiring it all together for ease of carrying before finally catching up with the rest of the group. It's extremely questionable what a post-scarcity being would want with metal monster parts.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"I believe at this point we are reclaiming raw materials to be salvaged and repaired later. The equipment itself is beyond useless at this point." he replies to Alexis. Extremely basic lifesign checks verify that the men are indeed dead. He wonders what could possibly be worth setting up an outpost here of all places. Anything that doesn't have to be unbolted from the ground is far game as Asche begins rounding up the still salvageable pieces, carrying around stacks of crates and defensive emplacements with trivial ease, stacking them around the beacon. He'll let someone else signal for pickup.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;George and Pavo get a nice helping of cancer and also incredibly valuable PURE METALS. Thank goodness. This will be /incredibly profitable/. They reel themselves back up. The rest of the group may subsequently observe them glowing ever-so-slightly.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, Albert, Biteblade, Moonfin, and Seft are hard at work on recovering the equipment. They basically just swing their Matter Manipulators around and suck up spatially compressed iterations of the equipment, filling up the hyperdense space within. Though Seft and Moonfin, once all the gear is cleared away from a given body... Wind up picking them up, using their Matter Manipulators. Apparently the pair intend to return the bodies to their families. That's what people do around here, right? Probably.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The field camp is surprisingly intact in some ways, and completely gutted in others. If it was left sitting out and it was made of metal, it's been consumed. There are a couple locked crates that appear to have withstood some damage but look intact enough to have things inside. There are a lot of plastic, glass, and stone goods that don't appear to have been damaged either. Lots of paper and wood. Photographs, too. Perhaps the Golems you fought were the ones who wiped out this camp and your arrival interrupted it. <br /><br />There are some printouts that indicate that the project was apparently dedicated towards an anti-Golem field defensive perimeter design, but their project ran out of funding. Clearly, proving it works would have given them all the money they could want, but it looks like it failed miserably.<br /><br />Asche performs examinations on the corpses. Nightmare Golems appear to be entirely made up of the materials of Odin, pure metals. The Seekers are mostly useless, but in the Shrikes and moreso in the Arsenicores, there appears to be an alloy of some black ultra-dense material. There is significantly more of it in the Arsenicores' remains.<br /><br />Asche and the Starbounders work to quickly clean up and sweep the area, saving intense amounts of time compared to doing it all by hand. Meanwhile, Kotone collects the ID cards and works on collecting personal effects. There's no way to return the dead to life, but perhaps at least their belongings might give their families some sense of closure if they have any. Kyra works with her, checking to see if any are alive. They are quite dead, and appear to have been for a day or more. Cause of death is fairly obvious: Murdered by Nightmare Golems. Interestingly, None of them seem to have blood. <br /><br />Kotone eventually works her way to the impaled man on the signal beacon, an Odynari who seems more intact than the others, probably by virtue of all the metal running through his bones, the filaments seem to form a sorrt ofplate along the brow ridge as well as throughout his bone structure. She removes the ID card, and as she looks at it, something cold touches her. <br /><br />The hand of the man moved, suddenly gripping with crushing force as it wrenches itself to the side, the spike coming free with a fountain of sparks from the beacon. Empty eyes stare forward, worthless as the metal withinbegins yawning open, ribs shrieking and cracking as they distend and attempt to punch straight into Kotone and begin devouring her metallic portions.<br /><br />Welcome to Odin.<br /><br />                                                     <span style="color:xterm212">Lv30 Nightmare Risen x1</span><br> <br>

:'''{{#var:39|Jinx (39)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;UWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAH.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ZOMBIE MONSTER UNDEAD TERROR MONSTER EATY METAL GOLEM DEATH THINGS. The poison is making Jinx loopy and the only thing she can even think of doing at a time like this, without any of her guns directly in her hands... is to snap draw ZZAP and pump taser rounds into both Kotone and THE METAL CHANGELING.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Staren makes sure to recover the research data and photographs, slipping them into evidence bags. Anything that looks worth more than a few credits of plastic, glass, and stone is stuffed into his bag -- He'll get to those locked crates momentarily.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Only, before he can get to that, the man who triggered the beacon comes back to life! "Kotone!" He raises his arm and fires the beam cannons immediately, before charging in and trying to pull the flesh-and-metal golem and the cyborg apart. Yeah, he's made of metal -- he'll deal with that in a moment. Kotone's not covered in as much armor as he is.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;If Staren can successfully seperate them, he tackles the golem to the ground or shoves it into a wall, then draws his beam saber and jams it in, then decides that's too slow. He drops the saber and lets go of the golem for a second, holding his arms up in front of him, forearms crossed in an X. The 'gauntlets' of his armor fall away, revealing... less-bulky mechanical arms underneath, which begin to glow and arc with electricity.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Then he tries to plunge his hands /into/ the Nightmare Risen, and with the distinctive BZZZZT of a downed power line and a blinding flash, dumps a ton of electricity into it.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Let's see how YOU like people sticking their hands in your insides to take you apart, golem!<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:714|Sanary Rondel (714)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hearing the strangely electric sound from nearby, Sanary interrupts her stuff-hauling and turns around while reaching for the axe at her side. She doesn't react quickly enough, however, before Staren presumably does... Something to whatever was causing the noise. <br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"What's...? Are we under attack again?" She clenches her teeth as the tomahawk is drawn, keeping mostly still to try and listen for any incoming threats without expending any more energy than she already has.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Kotone Yamakawa is noticing the man has metal fused into the man's body she's aware of Kamon she doesn't think much of it as she's collecging the various personal effects but then he moves. She's hit by the taser rounds but it's not as effective as it would be on an organci she's also acting at this point to get her self the hell away from this thing. Odin is a land of horror, she had heard htew term of somewhere being God forsaken and this place /fit/ the bill. She's away now still a bit slowd down form the attacjks. <br /><br /> "FRAG IT! FRAG THAT DAMN THING!"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:627|Souji Murasame (627)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The Nightmare Risen is quickly dispatched with the combined firepower. It does not think, it only hungers. Jinx ZZAPs the Risen, and the shock causes the dead flesh to spasm, interfering with the being's attempt to devour Kotone. Staren takes advantage of the opportunity to blast it, and then rush in and separate them. The Risen bounces off of a research tent, and gropes for Staren with deadly swiftness... But Staren is already prepared. With a crackle of lightning, he thrusts his hands into the beast and unleashes massive amounts of electricity.<br />5rThe results are messy. Staren might want to clean himself up after that, but the intense amounts of electricity causes the metal itself to sublimate in a rush of metal vapor. <br /><br />Once dispatched, the area is functionally clear for the time being. Once signaled, another Murasame Zaibatsu transport comes in and lands. The local gear is quickly loaded in, and all present are given a trip out, where all present are swiftly brought to KIRIN's private medical facilities and given treatment. Payments are made swiftly and as agreed, and all who participated are assured Souji appreciates their efforts and will be glad to work with them in the future. <br /><br />Those with alternative arrangements are handled more privately.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Starbounders have dealt with zombies before, sort of. In a way. So the sudden ZOMBIE MAN situation just gets Moonfin recoiling away in horror and deciding that, you know, he's gonna go ahead and leave just that one corpse, and take what he's got, and let the others deal with what's going on there as he stumbles back.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;George and Pavo meet back up and board, alongside the wounded Seft, Moonfin, Biteblade, and Albert, who will dump the equipment nice and gently into the transport. Then they go work on nursing their burns and poison and other suchlike on the way to medical treatment. Pavo seems in especially high spirits! CAPITALISM!<br> <br>


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