1576/Shipyard Attack

Shipyard Attack
Date of Scene:	14 February 2015
Location:	Void - Space Ways
Synopsis:	Confederates attack a Union shipyard, stealing a UNSC frigate during the battle.
Cast of Characters:	11, 38, 202, 242, 474, 524, 546, 675, 679, 710

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Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Those coming in with the Confederate forces have since been briefed on the likely composition of the defenders, but that includes only the forces already arrayed on this backwater planet. It's a planetary shipyard, servicing civilian vessels and smaller military ships, up to the frigate level, but not including true battleships and the orbital yards those would require. A contingent of marines and private military contractors are expected. The plan is to hit them hard and fast, so as to be in an advantageous position by the time the Union Elite Forces can respond.

    To that end, the first thing coming out of the warp gate is a score of armored wyverns, followed by another, and another. The riders have a technomagical look to them, but primarily, they really are magicians--combat mages of the Nation of Tower's air corps. A smaller number of staff-wielding magi ride pegasi at some distance behind, followed afterward by airships full of ground assault troops, and armed with heavy, magically-powered blasting cannons, firing beams of raw, arcane force at every target in sight the moment they appear. They also provide transport for any CEF members that did not bring their own.

    Shock and awe is the order of the day.

John-117 (474) has posed:
     Avon's Grove is one of those backwater planets with a name that was settled on due to some meaning it had to the first generation of colonists. It's a nice, temperate planet, with little in the way of anything remarkable beyond the Halifax shipyards. It survived the Covenant war by simply being too far out of the way and of too little tactical significance to initially bother with. After the war, the UNSC just didn't fortify it.

     Which makes it a prime target for the Confederate forces.

     To their credit, the UNSC responds quickly. Marines and PMC fighters get to their positions. Warthogs roll out alongside a pair of Scorpion tanks. But the defenses are quickly breached by the Confederate forces and their air support has the UNSC defenders utterly outclassed.

     There's a pair of newly constructed military frigates on the far side of the shipyard from the Confederate forces, alongside smaller civilian vessels. Cortana estimates that those must be their target.

Ri (710) has posed:
Ri is not generally used to land-based operations. She has not, infact, conducted a land-based operation in her entire life. But she was transported along with the other forces of the Nation of Towers, and there are ships or something, and her allies have need of her, so - in accordance with her orders to assist her allies - she has come to help sink ships and expand the Abyssal Navy!

...What, that's not the objective? She realizes her error ater being corrected on the radio, but is still really confused. She is supposed to engage the enemy, that much is certain. But given her perspective on the life cycle of ships - Abyssals specifically - the plan is bewildering. Well, at least for now she is totally okay with the main thing she is supposed to be doing, which is -wrecking every enemy in sight-. She'll leave someone else to take care of the other objective.

The Ri-class heavy cruiser is a dead-white-skinned young woman with large, black, bio-mechanical shark-like gauntlets on each hand, complete with gruesome teeth. And laser guns in their mouths. Her eyes are a blue-green coloration and glow faintly as she emotionlessly scans the area and then raises one of her gauntlets. The jaw creaks on its hinges, yet has more of an organic sound than a mechanical one. It's kind of gross. The cannon inside, however, makes plenty of machine noises as it fires artillery shells into the midst of the enemies who rush to defend this world and the facilities thereupon.

One might not expect such potent explosions from a human-sized foe, but while the radius may be reduced, the damage done is as though there were an actual heavy cruiser here, shooting its guns.

It's not pretty for those hit, but she at least doesn't have the same range as she would if she were giant-sized.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    A huge lumbering man in Kryptonian armor, face obscured by the opaque blackish forcefield they use for helmets, is dropped from one of the airships toward the shipyard platform, blue-white maneuvering thrusters getting him there. The man seems to be carrying a very large plasma weapon like others might carry an assault rifle, which he uses to shoot at any incoming vehicles he spots, blindingly bright white fireballs joining the dizzying array of projectiles being flung about.
    "Nam-Ek, bring back one of their ground vehicles if possible. Jax-Ur wants to see if we can build them on the Black Zero." Zod radios to the brutish Kryptonian. Nam-Ek's only response is something half-way between a grunt and a growl as he opens fire on a passing aircraft.

Nox (546) has posed:
    As usual, Nox needs no method of transportation, as soon as he has the coordinates, he makes the jump with the kind of speed and precision that even the highest of wizards often envy. His appearance is a muted crackle and a subdued flash of blue in the air, where he is allowed a commanding aerial view of the shipyard and its defenders while still being out of the way of Adelyn's airborne cavalry. He tilts his head back and forth with little mechanical creaks, as if indecisive of what exactly to do. Surely there would be no point in using up the energy required to destroy an entire frigate when the airship guns will do the same thing given a little time. That leaves only the ground defenders.

    Sighting a nearby gun emplacement from on high, Nox makes a pair of gestures with one arm before pointing two fingers towards the bunker, letting loose a spark of blue-white energy from his fingertips that immediately translates to a jagged explosion of ince inside the structure. It is much like an actual fireball that had turned to glass at its apex, completely engulfing any equipment for a few dozen meters around, and also anyone unfortunate to be in the way. A rather basic use of Xelor magic, but sufficient in this case. There isn't really any need to try and blow the defenders to bits.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    It takes awhile for all of the Confederate forces to arrive. Standing aboard the top deck of the last airship to enter the battlefield, a heavy robe protecting her from the wind, the archmage Adelyn Lysen holds her own power in reserve. A long, white staff, obviously magical with the slowly rotating rings around the gem at its head, stands in the air at her side, leaving her hands free to inscribe glowing letters into the air, subtly shifting the mana in the air. When complete, she attains a telescopic view of the battle on one hand, and a holographic map in the other. Here she places the advance of Nam-Ek, and there she points to the dot representing Ri. There are few enemy positions worth noting that won't soon be overrun, but she expects that to change, soon.

    In the air, gunfire hits warding shields, functioning much as the Covenant force fields the UNSC may be more used to, if with relatively light armor shuold those shields fail. Despite operating on entirely different principles, some aspects of the raiders will be familiar. Their attack forms, less so--the mages each strike in their preferred element, whether it be streams of fire, storms of flash-freezing ice, strikes of lightning or concussive explosions of wind. The pegasi riders generally hang back, as the majority of these are focused on healing magics. When the wyverns become injured, they take evasive action, giving time for shields to renew and wounds to mend.

    The airships have far less maneuverability, but generators and projectors that allow the mages aboard to erect far stronger shields. They only need to last long enough to get the ships in, let the marines on board jump down--each one with at least the magical capability to control a fall of a hundred feet--and then to withdraw while continuing to provide supporting fire. These are trying to avoid getting too damaged, since they'll be needed to get those marines out again.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Star Man was sadly working at the park today so there was no real space support for this operation. Metal didn't have hard feeling towards Star Man or the others from his production run. Far form it they worked legit jobs that at least made sure Wily had money for things like food, paying other bills that couldn't be snagged by the Federation because it was 100 percent above board.

Four Pillars of light appear as Metal Man teleports in along with two others and what seems to be a platform. As he said over the common he was not alone, two other Wily robots were with him. Heat Man was squat and looked like he was wearing a zippo. Flash Man looked like a human in high tech armour with some sort of energy canon on his arm. Yet the grin on his face was the sort you expected someone from a slasher movie to have.

Metal Himself who was in his normal armour which had far too many saw blades built into it. He looks to the platform as Sniper Joes start porting in using the homers to bring in groups of three at a time, the first ones take up position to guard the porter as the Wily army sends further groups in.

"Let's see what these guys got! Never sent a human to do a machine's job!"

Flash Man laughs out loud.

"They are out of time! I get dibs on spare loot right?"

"Take it up with the one in charge. Now let's move we got a ship to get!"

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    The galloping of hooves races from a nearby warpgate. The never-tiring cadence belongs not to any living creature, but to a horse as dead and corrupted as its rider. Ivraala's Acherus Deathcharger carries her swiftly to the shipyard, the cold flames over its bony hooves leaving brief marks in the ground where it runs, its plated armor rattling with ever gallop. Ivraala crouches over the reins, her armored hood kept over her head with her horns allowed to pierce through premade holes. The hood is kept low enough that it's difficult to make out her features, but the cold light of her eyes and the purple glow of the crystals dangling from one ear are enough to illuminate some of her stern features.

    She doesn't slow as she sees the explosive Confederate invasion already ongoing. She speeds up, in fact, pushing the tireless Deathcharger even faster toward the shipyard. In the time before she makes it there, she tries to get an idea of exactly what - and who - she's going to be going up against; while she might not be /officially/ in the Union, this seems like as good a time as any to try and get used to her future enemies, and the first step there is analyzing and not just jumping into battle.

    The draenei is quite certain that she shouldn't be barreling in against the various vehicles taking to the field, but she finds a few options in the human-sized targets assaulting the compound. At least a few of these must be Elites, she reasons: nobody else looks quite like them, after all, though there /is/ a strange tendency toward the mechanical.

    Finally, once she comes near, she picks a target. Ivraala dismounts her Deathcharger mid-sprint, leaping to the side and tumbling into a crouch as it runs out of the area. She's quick to rise to her full height and draw her greataxe from off her back, letting the blade come to a hard rest on the ground beside her, where frost begins to gather on the earth's surface. Ivraala doesn't pay much attention to that: her gaze is focused on Ri, and after a moment's concentration, she silently thrusts her hand out toward the Abyssal.

    Dark hands suddenly swirl to life around Ri. They latch onto her wherever they can reach, squeezing her with a firm, icy grip, and once Ivraala gives a solid /yank/ of her hand, they echo her gesture to bring Ri flying through the air right in front of the Death Knight. Maybe not the wisest option, but Ivraala's main intention is to keep Ri from destroying the base any more.

Cheyanne (242) has posed:
Once there's an alarm and a location provided it really doesn't take long to get to that point with how effectively the Multiverse is connected to itself via warpgates and other means. Though once her hooves come to contact with the ground Cheyanne takes pause for a few moments. The world was alien and it took a short time for her elemental ties to properly organize themselves with the setting. The prevaliance of technologies beyond what she would know of may or may not make this take a little longer than usual.

Strange locations, strange enemies, but the purpose was all the same. The location belonged to allies and that was reason enough to trot outside her usual bounds. The shamanic zebra woman pulled her totemized staff from her back and with it in hand strode towards the conflict that was starting. Though her attention, at first, was not on the attackers. Instead she raised a free hand to reach out with her powers to the explosions resulting from the initial attack, drawing the flames of the fires and the smokey air away from them in attempt to minimize their presence so other allies can get organized.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra Constantine has a variety of duties in her position of bodygaurd. One of them is going ahead to places the royal family of al Cid plan to visit and inspecting it before their arrival to approve of security. This planet was picked for prince Landon's visit because it was distant, isolated...safe.

    Cirra is goign to have /words/ with the people that made that recomendation. Later.

    The combined confederate assualt begins in earnest. The Judge of Ramuh was at the meager, but humble colony when it began. But the Judge wouldn't let herself be hurried off to some transport or warp gate.

    "The. Brair!" Magic surges in a circle as the woman clad in bronze and silver armor fcalls out, a car held in between her fingers. She throws it at the ground, and spectral, thorny vines begin growing in the path of the Magical Marines charging on the ground.

    "This attack is coordinated. Too well coordinated."

John-117 (474) has posed:
     The UNSC fights. Gatling guns open up at the incoming Confederate airforces with a steady roar of shells, while marines with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers attempt to hit the airships where they might be vulnerable. But it's a losing fight.

     The Master Chief - SPARTAN-117 - had reached the battleground as quickly as he possibly could, but part of him thinks he's still too late. The Confederate advance is in full swing and the UNSC didn't have the time to mount an effective defence, much less the manpower. It's only a matter of time. The marines stick to cover and, in so doing, buy as much time as they can.

     Clambering up the side of a factory building, the Master Chief draws himself up on to the roof and pulls a SPARTAN Laser from his back. Bracing himself, and turning the shoulder mounted weapon towards the last airship to arrive, he squeeze the trigger - and hopes to bring it down.

     Maybe the battle can still be won by cutting off the head.

Nox (546) has posed:
    Out of all of the Union defenders, there are two that Nox recognizes. One of them he has little interest in, but the other one requires he settle a score with them. Leaving Cirra to someone else for the time being, he turns his attention to Cheyanne, the eyes of his mask narrowing to glowing slits in recognition of the troublesome elementalist. The expression doesn't last long, returning to the neutral state of the double circular stare right after, before he flickers out of existence and reappears closer to the ground, directly ahead of Cheyanne.

    "You've picked yet another inconvenient time to show yourself. I really wish for your own sake, and for the sake my own wasted time, that you would learn to stay home." Without exchanging further words, he makes the same fingergun gesture towards Cheyanne, flash freezing the ground between him and her with a rolling column of frozen spikes, set to freeze her should she be caught on, or skewer her instead should she not dodge far enough.

Ri (710) has posed:
One minute Ri is busy destroying the enemies, maintaining her calm for the moment even if the panic that typically sets in when dealing with enemies is inevitable, the next she is being grabbed by mysterious hands nad pulled through the air towards some strange individual.

...!?

She does not recognize this person, and the action does not appear to be friendly in nature. She does not try to reason deeper than that. As she lands heavily before the Death Knight, disoriented, but clearly under attack, Ri tries to take an off-balance swing at her opponent with one of her gauntlets. "ENEMY!" she yells, her calm already starting to break. Maybe she'll develop better discipline eventually, but at least at this stage of her mental development she acts more on the emotion and impulses of the moment than anything else.

And the first emotion that pops up when she is dealing with enemies is fear, and the first impulse is to react with aggression towards the source of her fear.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    You know if Nam-Ek is looking for a ground vehicle to steal, there's one coming in right now. It just appeared on the outskirts of the assault and is driving full speed towards the battle.

    Inside of the driver's seat, an armored figure is driving the vehicle at full speed. This armored figure is not one that's been seen on a battlefield before. Noble Six has brought her new armor to the field for the first time, and this will make a good shakedown run for the War Master armor. The steel grey SPARTAN brings her vehicle bounding towards battle, catching sight of the various defensive positions the UNSC is fighting from, though the Master Chief in particular does catch her attention. She's driving straight for the fight, if she winds up getting cut off, so be it.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    The Confederate marines move in organized squads of eight, scattering in every direction to begin claiming ground and making their way through the shipyard. Once they're down, they seem to be everywhere, with the apparent goal of clearing the field of enemies. The airships, while they're still in range, provide heavy supporting fire, with cannons strong enough to blast apart anything short of a heavy tank or a hardened bunker.

    The squad that Cirra intercepts are taken by surprise, but they're professional soldiers, and they recover quickly. Their route is blocked off, but fireballs are tossed her way--small, burning spheres that travel in ballistic arcs and explode like grenades. The marines take to cover as well as their UNSC counterparts. It's a deadly field for men and women at their level, and they know it.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    As dangerous as the ground fighting is, far deadlier is the SPARTAN laser, and with the Master Chief's marksmanship, it might actually find a vulnerable point even at that range. The ship's shield is already active, but is immediately pierced by the high-powered weapon--but the second shield beyond it is not, the interplay of superheated air and mana only causing a slight warping of the ship's armor, while avoiding serious damage.

    Adelyn was waiting for the appearance of a SPARTAN, and is only mildly surprised by the speed of the response. Her features are rather strained as she reinforces her warding shield, readying the ship for another attack while its own defenses recharge, but there's still a degree of confidence, there.

    "Captain, bring us in." The ship's officer salutes the archmage, despite the far higher risk at which they're putting the ship. Bringing it /closer/ to a Union elite known to be this dangerous? But she's a woman who uses what resources are at her disposal, and there is too much aboard ship to waste in caution. "Let us see how you fare." She mutters this, far outside of her target's hearing. "Trust me, I will take this with the seriousness it deserves."

    Guided by Adelyn's battlefield mapping magic, and supplied with her ample mana, the pair of ship cannons train on and alternately fire on the Master Chief's position, their accuracy only increasing as the ship comes closer.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man picks up a call for help from the marines that Cirra is going after, and a moment late she would hear something moving at high speed, Heat Man has headed off to possible cover their back and who knows what Flash Man's up to but Metal Man is coming right for Cirra, he's moving at high speed and those blades he's known for are in his hand. They make a strange zing sound as they leave his hands and head right for them.

"Your new. Who are you?!"

Metal Man inquirers hey he might get an answer out of it right? OR at least try to. The Wily Robot, is on his guard as this woman's an unknown and she clearly has magic.

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    Ivraala expects Ri to attack her. They always do, whenever the power of Death Grip comes over them. That's part of the point, isn't it? Draw their attention to the undead giant of a woman looming over them, send them into a panic...

    And Ri panics. A powerful gauntlet of black metal goes swinging for Ivraala, flying hard and fast even in its owner's fear. The draenei's impassive expression doesn't change; action is the first thing on her mind, and she's quick to take a long step back to try and clear out of Ri's range. It's not quite fast enough, though: Ivraala is spared the crushing jaws of that gauntlet, but the main 'nose' of solid metal cracks along her hip, putting her off-balance and turning a graceful slide into an awkward stumble. She's forced to shove her hooves into the ground to keep herself from falling over, but she manages to do so and push herself back into an offensive posture.

    "You're quick," she remarks frigidly to Ri, stepping back in and delivering a horizontal slash of her greataxe in a wide arc. It's not the strongest she can dish out, or reinforced with any real magic; more to test Ri's reflexes, really, and get a feel for the opponent Ivraala's gotten herself up against. If the chilling blade /does/ hit, however, its freezing enchantment comes into action, striking Ri with a bone-deep chill that will many any other freezing attacks that follow all the more potent.

Cheyanne (242) has posed:
The surge of ice comes up short as the fire and smoke that was being pulled away from the destruction slams down in front of it, causing an explosion of steam that blasts outward, swirling around the shaman in a cascade of steam, some of the bits of ice that didn't flash melt from the fiery block pelting her still.

As the steam cloud billows away Cheyanne is standing there in her usual stoic manner, with the faint flickering of miasma from the corner of her eyes.

"I could say the same to you. I thought prehaps you had an agenda after the last encounter, but I see now you are no less prone to destruction merely for the sake of your peers as any other." The faintly glowing gaze settles on Nox without fancier ados, staff thumping lightly to the ground in front of her. "I didn't think you liked taking the offensive..." From the point where it touchs the ground a surge ripples across the surface, coming beneath where Nox stands to erupt upward in a gout of flames.

John-117 (474) has posed:
     The Chief moves. It was too much to hope for, a shot from that range inflicting serious damage, and he rolls to the side as the cannons chew through the roof of the building and blast into into scraps of concrete and metal. A few blasts clip his MJOLNIR suit and the shields glow with a bright golden flash but hold - for now.

     "Chief," Cortana comments, "If she gets any closer..."

     "I know," replies John, and he shoulders the cannon once again. The blasts hammer him, dropping his shields and blasting him off his feet - just as he gets another shot off with the laser. Sure, she got more accurate as she came closer, but so did he.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Nam-Ek's armor has been scratched and pock-marked by incoming defensive fire, though the helmet seems strangely unharmed. The reason becomes apparent when some pistol rounds slam into the face and bounce off leaving a glowing white impact zone that fades quickly. Rather annoyed by the incoming fire aimed at his face, the Kryptonian growls and turns to face the UNSC technician who is desperately trying to wound the giant, and goes to grab the man...
    Only to be interrupted by Noble Six's Warthog slamming into him. It's not immediately clear who got the better of the exchange, since hitting Nam-Ek with a vehicle is rather like slamming into a bunker.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra sidesteps and turns to put her back to some rocky cover as the Marines call in fire supprt. Litteraly, support that is fire. Metal Man's blades slice into the rock just to the left of her head.

    Cirra reaches up and touches one with a guntleted finger, it rings with a *ting* "Hmn."

    "Not your business, Golem." Cirra summon the crystaline Judge Blade in to her hand as she comes out form cover. The sword swing through the air in an arc, deflecting another of Metal Man's blades and follow through to slice upwards at the Robot Master.

Ri (710) has posed:
Reflexes? Ri gets slashed with a great big axe enchanted with ice magic, but while the blade strikes true, it scours across a flicking blue energy field of some kind. Damage seems to be done regardless, based on how she staggers a bit, and winces, but at least Ri isn't disemboweled. She seems to make no move to actually dodge or defend herself. Instead she just raises her other shark gauntlet and fires artillery at close range, at her enemy's face. There is no dialogue exchanged. Talking? Negotiation? Insults? Praise? What do any of those have to do with battle against the enemy?

Nothing. There is only battle and destruction until only one of them is left. Aside from her survival-driven franticness, the implacable manner in which Ri fights, the lack of self-preservation beyond REMOVING the threat, may be a bit like the undead that Ivraala is used to dealing with.

Which is fitting, because she is basically a ghost in a physical form.

The chill that courses through her is not unlike that of the abyssal depths, but seems to go deeper somehow. It's unpleasant. But its true purpose remains unknown to Ri.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    "Damage report!" comes the captain's call, and is quickly relayed to the archmage. Adelyn curses, realizing that the sound of explosions is actually--despite her efforts to the contrary--the sound of the airship's port cannon being wrecked beyond immediate hope. Her greater defensive effort wasn't sufficient at this range, given that the armament openings are among the most vulnerable portions of the ship, by necessity. The starboard cannon continues to fire on the Master Chief, and the ship turns as it approaches to be sure he's kept in the line of fire, but the attacks will be coming in at half the rate.

    Adelyn won't be trying the exact same tactic again, with half the remaining power. "Keep advancing," is her terse order, as she lifts herself into the air in a blast of wind, her staff following precisely with her. She maneuvers with uncanny accuracy and speed, zipping through the sky to flank the Chief along with her airship crew. Once she has a shot, the magic circles that are already beginning to surround her will discharge spikes of ice, each burst linked with a minor homing component if she can aim clearly at her target.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man says "Golem? I'm sorry I'm not Jewish nor made by someone whom is Jewish. Additionally I don't run on divine power."

Metal Man's moving about and using his agility for all it's worth. Cirra is coming for him with a blade and he's forced to pull back as Cirra tries to get up close and personal. His optics narrow a bit. Okay this lady has magic she seems to fight up close.

"I am Metal Man. The first of the Wily Numbers."

He shifts his body and leaps off some equipment trying to get some more air over Cirra and throw a blade at her. If he lets her get close it's going to be bad. Very bad.

John-117 (474) has posed:
     The rooftop isn't a good location, the Chief realises, especially once his SPARTAN Laser burns out. He won't be getting another shot out of it and he tosses it aside, reaching down to draw the assault rifle at the small of his back. The airship continues, getting closer and closer, and the Chief is forced to maneuver as best he can to not get shot by it. His shields can't withstand that forever.

     Cortana warns him just in time for the Chief to turn and catch Adelyn's burst of ice squarely in the chestplate. He stumbles, gets clipped by another burst from the gunship, and falls through the roof.

     Still, if Adelyn where to peek down there, the green-armored SPARTAN would be missing. Where'd he go?

Noble Six (38) has posed:
With the warthog crashing into her target, it sends Noble Six skidding off to one side from the force of it. That's no ordinary dude, that's for sure. Even a SPARTAN would go down under the force of a full speed warthog.

The SPARTAN rolls out of the vehicle before it flips, and lands with a thud, looking at Kam'ek, "You're in my way." The SPARTAN growls out at him, hands coming up to her back to grab the weapon mounted there. Seems she decided bring something close quarters for this time, as she breaks out her shotgun and unleashes a blast towards the Kryptonian soldier.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Some of the damage has been mitigated by Cheyanne's elemental control, but the air corps is still setting fires and generally breaking things, while the ground troops are not just keeping the UNSC forces busy, but making headway in some areas while the elites clash elsewhere. It's still going to take them some time them some time to achieve any of their goals, with a lot of base to burn and a lot of ground to fight over.

    The squad Cirra had stymied is grateful for Metal Man's intervention, but still blocked off from joining thanks to that Briar card. They take another route, quickly reorganizing and continuing with the mission.

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    Ivraala doesn't have the benefit of a barrier to protect her. If she's shot in the face at point-blank range with artillery, that's not something she can just walk away from. Fortunately, she has pretty good reflexes herself. When she sees that gauntlet rising up toward her, she's quick to twist aside and manages to avoid the artillery. The report rings in her ears and the shell flying past gusts her hood back off her head, but she's fortunately spared violent destruction. The most she has to deal with is the damage to her hearing and the burning blast of Ri's cannon.

    The draenei stumbles back from her sudden evasion, forced to get her footing again and forced out of her own greataxe's range. Even from afar, however, she has options. Maybe now Ri will see the reason for that earlier biting chill.

    Ivraala starts backing up a little further, and in the process, she thrusts her free hand toward Ri again. Her tattoos pulse from beneath her skin with an icy glow moments before the Death Knight sends out a blast of magic. A howling, wailing blast of chilling wind goes flying toward the Abyssal to strike below her ghostly skin and fill her with a supernatural chill. Even more severe, however, is the side effect: if that blast hits, Ri would find herself infected with Frost Fever, the supernatural disease building up gnawing ice inside the Abyssal to gradually wear on her from within. The effects of her greataxe before only make that deathly cold even more potent.

    Whatever the effect, Ivraala continues backing up, trying to maintain some distance so that she can react in time to whatever Ri proceeds to do.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Nam-Ek is surprised by the shotgun blast, which staggers him and forces him to take a step backwards. Blood? Maybe? The brute is unsure if he's actually bleeding, but if there's one thing Nam-Ek truly believes, is that nobody makes him bleed his own blood. Even hypothetically.
    The kryptonian joins combat with Noble Six by snatching up the flipped warthog like it was made of foam and with a feral growl, slams it down as hard as he can in an attempt to bury Noble Six in it.
    "RAARGH!"

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Adelyn doesn't immediately go after the SPARTAN, because for all the good her wards do, she is not built for a close-up, close-quarters slugfest, and that's a thing that could happen. Instead, she commands a nearby wyvern rider to go after the Chief for her, the drake landing near the hole while the rider looks down, ready to immediately fire bolts of crackling electricity should it spot a murderous super soldier.

    Adelyn remains in the air, though slowly moving about, trying to bring up deeper scans of the surrounding area to spot the energy signature of a suit of high-tech powered armor moving about.

Nox (546) has posed:
    "How very droll." Nox states in response to Cheyanne, half-lidding the eyes of his mask in a perfectly faceless, blase expression. "I'm not here to document my work for you. If you're interested in how far I've come with my personal goals, you'll have to ask someone else. Likewise, if you can't fathom the reason for any of this, then I owe you no explanation." Having fought Cheyanne previously, Nox is very much familiar with this particular attack. The moment he sees the staff thump against the ground, he jumps through space, leaving behind a momentary afterimage that is subsequently engulfed by raging flame that drows it out entirely.

    Rather than reappearing at an alternate angle to sling a new spell at Cheyanne, the Xelor switches tactics and dispenses with the battle of magic. Clashing with the elementalist spell for spell is generally a waste of energy. Instead he flickers to her immediate right as a split second distraction to take her attention, and then reappears at her back, swinging both hands clenched together into a haymaker fist down at her neck, emitting a pulse of crushing gravitational energy the moment they make contact with anything, shattering the earth below him either way.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Metal Man jumps over Cirra's slash and she jumps upwards as well. Whatever she is, she's fast and nimble. "None of that means anything to me." She grabs hold of the rocky clifface and sees the ground forces on the move, "Tsk."

    "Enemy ground forces are rerouting-" Metal man's blade comes flying in and Cirra has to release her hold on the clifface and drop down. "Damnit." She hits the ground and whisps of dark smoke seep out of her armor as she takes off at a sprint across the field, the briars disappear as she forges straight through them.

    "The. Rampart!" Another card in her hands, another magic circle. This time, spear like spikes forged out of the ground in the enemy's path. Eaasier to get around then the brairs, but more dangerous to just run right through.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Well that's unexpected. Sure she can lift a warthog with a bit of effort, but this guy is throwing it around like a rag doll. She tries to get out of the way, for all the good it does as he manages to smash her with one of the hubs from the vehicle and knock her for a loop.

    Landing hard on the ground, the SPARTAN picks herself back up quickly and moves away from the guy swinging the warthog like a club. She pulls something up in her left hand and throws it, not at Nam-Ek, but at the Warthog itself. Plasma grenades are known to make Warthogs explode into huge fireballs for some reason.

John-117 (474) has posed:
     Too much to hope for, apparently.

     As the wyvern rider perches on the edge of the hole, the Chief doesn't open fire. He can be very quiet, when he needs to be, despite his eight feet of height and heavy set of armor. Of course, that heavy armor also generates a fair bit of heat and energy and, therefore, he's a pretty easily spotted energy signature and that energy signature is currently slipping out of the building, and looking to squeeze off a burst of rifle fire at a presumably unsuspecting Adelyn!

Ri (710) has posed:
Ri does not know what to expect from her opponent, because her only opponents have been ship girls. Fighting with some kind of magic axe is weird enough. Being grabbed by a bunch of magic hands is even weirder! But now some kind of crazy magic ice with magic diseases is being launched at her!? She is blasted in freezing wind that slips right through her shield, biting at all that exposed flesh in a way that not even the chill of the blackest reaches of the ocean depths can. And she feels it inside of her as well, painfully freezing her innards. And still, even despite the damage inflicted, the pain she is in, her utter perplexity about what's happening to her, she keeps to that single task - destroy the enemy - with the determination and fixation of one suffering from insanity.

With patches of ice on her pale skin, Ri raises her other gauntlet, and starts firing both, one after the other, aiming low rather than high. That way, even if they miss, the blast radius might hit her opponent! ...And possibly Ri too, but that's what energy shields are for! ...Shields that don't fully protect against damage, but SHE CAN NOT BE TOO PICKY.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Cirra really isn't letting those marines go. While there are other squads that are not so blocked, any squad locked down here means another squad without the support it needs to quickly overwhelm the UNSC. On the other hand, forcing them to deal with her means that she'll need to deal with /them/.

    Every man and woman there has a drawn sword, and several more have physical shields, ready to cover their follows. But it's the empty hands that she should really worry about, as one soldier makes a complicated twisting gesture to summon a repeating barrage of long, piercing shards of ice. Another, ignoring her, uses his Earth affinity to try to disrupt the ground and knock down the spear-spikes blocking their progress. It isn't working well, owing to the concrete ground being far harder to move than natural earth or stone.

Cheyanne (242) has posed:
"Rampant destruction to cripple potential of an enemy's ally force, with a side of likely attempting to steal something," Cheyanne replies flatly at the remark about not fanthoming, even as it's only an appearance in Nox's wake that the spell strikes.

Instead of just raising the staff Cheyanne flips it above her out of her hand, then catch it in both hands overhead. It looks entirely like just trying to be dramatic with her movements, until she pulls it down horizontally behind her head just as Nox's hammerblow is being dropped at her head. She grunts with the recoil as the gravity pulse causes the pavement around them to crack and impact downward around their feet, sending a plume of dust from the crackup whaifing outward as she's forced bent partway over from the attack behind her.

Cheyanne then shoves his arms off her staff and twists out of the way, even as the now cracked ground undulates the smaller sections like several punchs from the earth itself aimed at Nox's legs and midsection as rock lengths piston out of the ground. Will he be quick enough to realize she possibly tossed that first spell to get him to come close on purpose?

"You dilate time and distort space. Powwers definately hard to displace... But your powers are no longer a surprise." The staff is raised at an angle in front of her, making it difficult to judge if she's readying it as a weapon, or for another possible spell? "Is that a challenge to which you can rise?"

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Nam-Ek had been planning to use the warthog as a shield against future shots from the smaller SPARTAN, but the plasma grenade solves that problem for Noble Six. A cry of surprise escapes Nam-Ek as the warthog explodes in a great gout of shrapnel, flame and smoke.
    There's a moment before a smoldering Nam-Ek barrels through the smoking wreck, wisps of flame clinging to what remains of his armor. His helmet is flickring dangerously and even though it is still mostly intact, Nam-Ek is suffering from the effects of what oxygen has slipped past the filters, the world flickering through several different wavelengths even as he attempts to connect with a massive uppercut to Noble Six's body.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Adelyn's caution is vindicated, and the rider she ordered doesn't even get killed in the process. On the other hand, he doesn't get to unleash the lightning, either, and the Chief opens fire before the archmage can actually prepare an attack. Most of the burst is caught on a glowing shield held in front of her hand, but not all--she's not completely covered by this defense, and the rifle scatters enough at this range to clip her wings. That is, the wings on her head, which turn out to be neither horns nor decorative in nature.

    With a typical mage's capacity for enduring physical damage, this draws out a heartfelt curse of pain, and delays her counterattack for a potentially significant quarter-second. A pre-charged magic circle discharges a cloud of white lights that scatter into the air, each reorienting and homing in on the Chief from twenty different angles only after Adelyn 'paints' him with a pointed finger, and a quick surge of marking mana. The lights will, naturally, explode for individually minor damage on contact with anything.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man says "Very well then human, I have no more for you."

Metal Man foes silent now he he tracks her movements, whomever this human is? She's beyond any baseline human on his world. He can only think of a handful of humans even from alternate worlds that could do this. He's keeping track of her movement he notices the cards. Like certain long running mages in the Union it seems this Judge is quite the solo combatant but he can try to give some support for the marines or so h3e thinks he gets a few shots off but the spikes come. He's not able to get away in time, he does however pull back before the damage becomes worse. It's like he's got a lot of experience dealing with spikes. The spikes have also forced him to stop attacking for the moment.

Nox (546) has posed:
    Overextended from throwing so much power into a close combat attack, Nox takes the spires of rock straight on, smashing into his greaves and chest armour with deafening clashes of stone on steel. He goes reeling back from the blow, hurled bodily through the air, but catching hiself just before he'd hit the ground, reverting back to a sedate hover, even as the armour cracks and crumbles off of him, falling to the ground in a pile of loose metal. "Tell me, are you speaking in rhymes to annoy me, as an attempt to be unique, or as part of some sort of gypsy curse that forces you to do so?" He doesn't seem likely to take the bait. There are plenty of other Confederates here, and destroying the shipyard is a secondary objective. There's no need to try and show off here so long as they continue to overrun the UNSC in the background.

    "I can imagine while you'd arrive at that conclusion, but I personally stand to gain nothing from either destroying or stealing any of this." Extending one hand, he grips the summoned hilt of his trademark sword, flashing into being with the clattering of sliding metal and interlocking teeth. He vanishes from the spot, reappearing predictably right behind Cheyanne, only to blink out just as fast, zapping from her six o'clock to her three, then her eight, then four, then ten, flickering around her at completely erratic angles. Finally, he lunges inwards with his blade pulled back for a full-arm stab, only to wink out at the last second and approach from the opposite direction, already halfway through the motion of thrusting.

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    Ivraala's dexterity is really her only salvation here. Ri fires on her again and again, exploding the ground beneath her feet just moments after she's able to leap out of the way. Ivraala prances, bounds, rolls; Ri strains her agility to the breaking point, and while she manages to keep just a step ahead of the explosions sending debris flying around her, she's not really managing to /return/ the favor while strafing around the Abyssal. She needs to make Ri /stop/ somehow, and her diseases will only do so much...

    Another powerful leap sends her flying to the side, lowered into another practiced tumble that ends in a crouch. There, with a moment to spare, Ivraala swings her hand toward Ri and sends a swirling orb of shadow easily the size of a basketball at the Abyssal. Hopefully that should be enough to stagger her and stop the artillery strikes for a few moments, but either way, the Death Knight immediately rises and rushes toward her opponent, gambling that it'll actually work.

John-117 (474) has posed:
     Bingo, the Chief hits Adelyn with a volley of bullets and seems to have hurt her. He circles around, putting the burning wreck of a Warthog between him and her the best he can - which doesn't do much when the whole of the air becoes filled with white lights and they fall upon him like starfire.

     His shields drop and the Chief's armor is scorched and burnt by the blasts, burnishing the green into more of a drab shade. The Chief pulls himself onto the rear gun of the Warthog, finding it still operational, and lets the gun roar as he turns it on Adelyn!

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Noble Six has managed to penetrate his defenses, but the hammer blow he lands on her sends her flying. Her shields are not designed to deal with melee impacts, they're designed to deal with ranged attacks.

    This winds up with her slamming into the ground some distance away from where he hit her. Armor is visibly damaged, but the upgraded War Master armor is designed to withstand far more than the old Mk. V she used to wear. Shotgun still in hand, she swaps it out onto her back and instead opts to use the other weapon she brought with her. A simple design, she loads the breach loading grenade launcher with a round and fires.

    The round doesn't fly in an arc like a normal grenade might, she fires it at the ground where it impacts and bounces, angling back upwards at Nam'Ek, before she releases the trigger and it airbursts.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Somehow, it feels like things /have/ become a slugfest. As great as her magical reserves are, and as much power as Pure Guardian allows her to wield, there are limits to Adelyn's endurance. She is immediately aware of the distance between her current state and that limit, even as she handles pushing away the pain and reorienting for another strike. Her previous attack seems to have worked--but now the Chief has a vehicle-mounted machine gun, and she's already noticed how much ammo those vehicles stock.

    A twisting, roiling column of Air magic catches the fire and scatters the rounds, but not well enough to entirely avoid damage, even with the mage dodging through the air as quickly as she can. She's grazed half a dozen times by high-caliber rounds, and bleeding from nearly as many places, by the time she finds cover behind a tall stand of rubble. She's lost altitude as well, the defense taking attention away from the magic holding her in the air, and she needs to concentrate now to at least stabilize her wounds.

    While she's vulnerable, her forces still have air superiority. The same rider that looked for the Chief earlier turns on him now, the mage tossing an exploding sphere of electric power while the wyvern tries to get in close enough to actually grapple with the warthog.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra's spears re magical constructs, maintained by Magic Particles. Using earth magic to try and move them has mixed results but some of them just start bursting into paritcles of light as they're disturbed. THe magic ice lanes across her shoulder, drawing blood as it tears through heavy Judge armor. "Tch!"

    The Judge rolls forward with the impact, displaying more remarkable agility as Metal Man gives her an opening. She flips back up to her feet and swings the sword around-

    As it transforms into a large rifle.

    The crystal blade splits open as part of it turns into a grip. The weapon fires with an explosion of magical energy. The tip of the blade ejected like a super sonic knife.

    And then reloads with a flash of energy. The weapon fires again into the collection of magic using marines trying to bypass her traps.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Nam-Ek's first instinct is to snatch the grenade out of the air with his hand and hurl it back at N6. Although not as quick as Zod (who in turn is not as quick as Faora), Nam-Ek does manage to snatch the grenade out of the air and gets half-way back into his throw before it goes off, ruining the gauntlet and arm armor that was left and leaving long tears in the undersuit. His hand is bloody from the sharpnel and explosion, wet red streaks all along his arm and hand.
    "RRRRRRRRGH!" Nam-Ek roars through gritted teeth as he painfully forces his hand to close into a fist, fingers shaking as they do so. With his good hand he rips the weapon off a passing warthog, shakes the UNSC marine that was manning it off almost casually, and fires it rather clumsily at Noble Six by steadying it on his injured arm. Nam-Ek doesn't really care which weapon it is as long as it causes damage as he storms towards Noble Six.

John-117 (474) has posed:
     If she wants these yards, the Chief is going to make her struggle for them! He turns the heavy machine gun on Adelyn, trying to keep it on her even as she takes cover in some rubble. When she does, the bullets chew up the concrete and blast dust and fragments into the air.

     The wyvern descends upon him, and the Chief is too late to turn the Warthog's cannon on it. He lands on the Warthog, forcing the cannon to fire into the ground through the sheer weight, and the blast from Adelyn sends the Chief flying from the gunner position. He lands hard, crumpling against the ground, and electrical discharge arcs over his armor.

     "That blast fried some of the systems in here, Chief," Cortana remarks, "Give me a minute or so to reboot and restart!"

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Cirra's aim proves true, and the Earth-casting marine is caught by her fired blade-tip, going down with a serious, possibly fatal wound for his fellows having been unable to react in time to shield him. This halts the squad's effort to get past the trap; instead, they start falling back, though not without firing as they go, using brief lances of both ice and fire.

Ri (710) has posed:
Death Coil may heal allied undead, but against enemies it does nothing but damage. Ri has died/sunk enough to not be keen on experiencing it again, and already feels the chill of an insidious force working through her insides. She is so disturbed by the prospect of getting hit by that attack that she is willing to continue her clearly-not-working strategy of shooting at the ground. Only this time, she shoots directly at her own feet. The explosions do damage to her legs, but send her flying up into the air from the shockwave. Flames scour her, but the majority seems to be absorbed by that shield of hers. And so, though this wasn't really thought through terribly much, Ri's sheer desire to NOT get shot full of death energy has allowed her to improvise a little bit. Perhaps another step along the path to not being fully crazy and bestial anymore.

But this also results in something else.

An Abyssal flying through the air at at a Death Knight, cannons still smoking with the heat of their firing, and the jaws surrounding said cannons attempting to be applied to Ivraala forcefully!

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    The rate of fire put off by the chainguns that they mount on the Warthogs is enough to drop even the advanced shields of the GEN2 armor in a fraction of a second. Noble Six's shields flare and drop, and she rapidly sprints for cover, taking several shots in the process which penetrate the undersuit of her armor.

    Diving behind a wrecked warthog, she hisses softly at the oh so familiar feeling of biofoam filling those bullet wounds and the not-so familiar feeling of the suit sealing up over top. She quickly takes stock of what she has available to her until she glances down at the back of the overturned warthog. Spotting something, she ditches the grenade launcher and grabs the weapon laying in the dirt. She knows she's going to step out into the withering fire of that chain gun, so she'll need to make this count.

    Stepping out from behind the warthog and into the line of fire, she squeezes the trigger on the rocket launcher, emptying the first tube and sending the high explosive warhead flying at the kryptonian. It automatically cycles over to the second tube and she fires again, sending the second rocket sailing in shortly after the first, but aimed a bit lower, trying to impact this one at his feet. She just hopes he can't fly.

Cheyanne (242) has posed:
"I would ask why you expend yourself in assisting without personal gain, but you wouldn't give me a straight answer anyways." Cheyanne replies, not bothering with the query about her rhyming skills other than just smirking a bit. The moment of amusement is fleetingly swift however. Too much serious matter going on to be mirthful, weighed heavily by the fact that she knows she can't do much about the background invaders with how much she has to focus on Nox to contend with him, and can't leave him to do much else or he will simply run roughshod over the facility with his bizarre abilities.

Sometimes being the wise one is a pain in the striped ass.

To Cheyanne's credit she doesn't flinch as Nox starts blinking around. She knows what he's doing, jumping across brief moments of space and time to mislead her. Until he appears long enough to start the motion of attacking, forcing a decision if that will be the attack or if it is another feint. What if it is and she doesn't respond? What if it isn't when she does?

In a split-second Cheyanne opts to not risk either, striking the butt of her staff to the ground at her hooves as Nox starts to thrust, and a bubble of water wraps up around her, only to freeze over. It proves to have been the smartest move as Nox blinks out and what would of been an impaling thrust comes from the opposite direction. It sinks into the iced sphere, but that causes it to explode rather messily at the force of the strike and though she spared herself from being run through the shaman is still flung away from him rather roughly across the tarmack.

Half worked, half didn't work. That's the best you can take with someone like Nox, really.

A kick of the legs gets her back onto her feet, regripping her staff as a few sparks crackle up between the horns topping it. That's when the lightning strikes, a sudden bolt of electricity that lances towards Nox himself. But then several more come down at various points around it, sending arcs of charge spasming between them as well, leaping back and forth between the strikes, trying to catch the mage at point that blinking away from one will put him in the crossfire of others before he can jump again.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    The first rocket hits, shattering what remains of Nam-Ek's breathing apparatus and sending him flying even as the world breaks apart into a dizzy array of technicolor spots and structural details that Nam-Ek can't comprehend. The explosion of the second rocket hits him, knocking him off his feet and drowning out for a moment or two the cacophony of every sound within ten miles.
    Left with the remains of his undersuit, Nam-Ek struggles to get to his feet, the gray-skinned giant holding his head with his hands and breathing hard as he tries to stop the rush of sight and sound. Stumbling, he makes it to his feet, opens his eyes. And immediately wishes he hadn't. Nam-Ek sways drunkenly, then falls to the ground with all the grace a stupendously drunk giant can muster, passed out.

Nox (546) has posed:
    Nox lets go of his sword the moment it becomes stuck in the ice, teleporting backwards as it explodes so as not to be caught by flying icy shrapnel. The sword turns once in midair, before sinking point first into the earth, remaining standing at a slight angle. "That's the first correct thing you've said so far." Nox drones to Cheyanne. As the arc of lightning comes at him, he doesn't make the attempt to dodge, knowing it'll probably just arc towards him, being pretty much made of metal. Instead, he catches the bolt head on with a barrier of glowing clockwork; turning gears of cerulean light that interlock to form a many layered screen of holography, serving mostly as a showpiece for the temporal mechanics involved in essentially erasing attacks that hit it.

    What that doesn't actually stop is the arc between two electric charges when the second one lances down behind him and joins the first, shooting a white hot bolt of lightning through his midsection and out the other end, scorching the bandages around a pair of molten orange entry and exit holes, accompanied by a metallic snarl of anger. With a series of gestures, he causes the clockwork barrier to collapse, folding in upon itself into a razor thin line of blue-white energy that burns like a flickering flame. Throwing his arm outwards, he launches the hyper-compressed plane of shear force straight at Cheyanne, cutting through spacetime like a knife.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Adelyn's going to still need some time to get herself back in shape. While her support magic is exceptional, her healing is somewhat lackluster. In fact, she's largely reliant on prepared talismans--fortunately, she does have a small supply of such with her.

    The wyvern rider shouts triumph. It may have been a lucky strike, but he's still some no-name enlisted soldier who just knocked down a Union officer during a pitched battle, and he'll get at least a commendation out of it if he lives. But if he can actually kill the SPARTAN...

    Some time ago, the Nation of Towers' air corp was defeated and disgraced. It's been a long, hard road since then for many of the soldiers to regain their sense of pride. Hard enough that more than a few zealously seek glory on the field, and this grunt is no exception.

    The wyvern tears at the MJOLNIR armor without apparent effect, the mage riding it channeling bursts of lightning in to play havoc with those rebooting systems, trying to keep the Chief suppressed. The beasts teeth bite down, but this is no true dragon, and its jaw doesn't have the strength to cleanly crunch military hardware of this level. Frustrated, it finally tosses the Master Chief to the side, aiming him for the partially-intact, partially-on-fire Scorpion.

    Adelyn, meanwhile, is rising back into the air. She is renewing her broad awareness of the battlefield, scanning and plotting positions. Her expression is grim, but not dismayed. Outside the field of view of the elites present, her true objective here is finally being achieved.

    Further into the shipyard, in the midst of a firefight, a Stalwart-class frigate--one of the smallest UNSC line-of-battle ships, but still an enormous shape over any fight on foot--is lifting into the air. Nearly half a kilometer in length, if the thing had been crewed and operational here at the start of the fight, it would have made the Confederate advance a great deal more difficult.

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    Ivraala...really wasn't expecting that tactic. She has to skid to an abrupt halt in her charge when Ri sets off those close explosions, lifting one armored arm and gritting her teeth against the shockwave that billows over her. That moment of surprise leaves her far too open, for when she opens her eyes again, Ri's nowhere to be seen. Until, at least, Ivraala looks up.

    It's too late.

    The powerful jaws crash into her upper arms and clench down, cracking into her saronite armor to the flesh beneath. The force of Ri's impact sends Ivraala sprawling on her back, teeth clenched, fangs bared in a pained snarl. Blue blood seeps from the cracks formed in her armor, but that's the last thing Ivraala is concerned about right now.

    With Ri on top of her and pinning her arms, Ivraala's options are limited. No weapon, no arms; she needs to get Ri /off/ of her, and she's starting to get desperate to do just that.

    She only glares at Ri for a moment. The next thing she sends to her Abyssal opponent is something much more direct, paired with a shout of rage and effort: a headbutt, twisted slightly so that the curving edge of one of her horns can slam into Ri's face with all her strength behind it.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
The weapon transforming that isn't what he was expecting. This is a moment of oh frek, Mtla does pull out another blade, he had half a mind to try and parry it given how the material that makes up his blade is also used in metool helmets, however the blast is too big an he's force to leap a good ways up shifting as he's airborne and throwing off several blades, the question is where have his two brothers been? That's a very good question, but for now Metal man is forced to keep dealing with someone who's showing she's got a heck of a power set.

Cheyanne (242) has posed:
The Plus: Techniques she put thought into after the last encounter with Nox are paying off in some regard. Not perfectly, but he does have a very unorthadox set of peculiar abilities to contend with.
The Minus: Just keeping that pace was still very taxing on herself, and demanding all of her attention.

Not to mention Cheyanne hasn't really come up with a concept on conteracting the projected compression of space in and of itself. The best she can do is metaphysically grab the ground near her and pull it up to form a solid slab of hardened earth in front of her, knowing it's not going to actually stop the space-slice. At best it can diffuse some of the force in the attack, though with the narrow edge it's dealing with that is still going to cut through the solid material without much effort. Hell it doesn't even SHOW much with how thin the slice is, other than a faint 'ffmp' and dust puffing out as the upper half of the formation thuds against the lower half after the thinner than a blade slices through it.

Even if she was deterring most of the direct hits, the amount of energy Cheyanne was expending to do so whas tremendously exhausting. She wasn't going to be able to keep this up for too much longer. But just for a bit longer.

The rock formation starts to crumble apart, looking all the world as if Nox's attack hitting it was causing it to collapse. Though as it does the debris is swept up from the ground in a swirling mass of its own right. As it falls apart and is swished off to the sides Cheyanne can be seen, scowling and visibly panting as she struggles with the stamina she has remaining. The churning of air and rubble swirls about a bit more erratically than her elemental conjurings normally due, sending several sweeping 'arms' of wind-stewn rock whiplashing towards Nox's general vicinity.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
With her target having gone down from the rocket barrage, Noble Six drops the rocket launcher and moves back to the warthog she had used for cover. She flips it back onto it's wheels and moves to the driver's seat.

Using the MJOLNIR armor's built in IFF systems, she floors the warthog, damaged as it may be, towards where the Chief is at. She has to get to him in order to get him away from whatever is attacking him. Spotting him on the ground, she skids the vehicle to a stop and dismounts, moving to the back where the vehicle's weapon sits unmanned.

Mounting back up onto the chaingun, she begins to open fire onto the wyvern and its rider, trying to force them to back off of the Chief, to either give the suit time to reboot or, preferably, outright kill the attacker so they can evac. She just hopes the wyvern doesn't turn on her at this point, she doesn't know if she has enough left to fight it without the vehicle's weapons.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra takes cover again as the marines start their retreat, letting thier fire strike the sturdy boulder. But Metal man, the other machiens. "Ha... I guess I have to really start, if you're hiding trump cards."

    Black smoke starts to seep out of Cirra's armor, and the blood - but not the wound - start to burn away.

    Cirra jumps up on top of her cover, and with a heave that shatters the top of the rock, launches herself upwards at Metal Man. "You're going to start telling me where the others are, Golem!"

    The rifle turns back into a sword and Cirra slices through the air with a swing stronger then the last by a factor of two.

    She's going to be paying for it later, he r blood pressure is already dropping.

Ri (710) has posed:
It makes sense that her opponent would use those horns on her head. Body parts are weapons too! These gauntlets that Ri wears are practically part of her, so she understands the concept well enough. But she doesn't really... DO 'dodging', so he headbutt sends her head whipping back forcefully, with blood streaming from her mouth. She tumbles off of her opponent, trying to bring one of her cannons around to aim, but in addition to her aim just generally being bad, she is also dazed and still worried by the painful cold inside of her. She is starting to lose what semblance of clear-headedness she has left. So, since her opponent is so good at dodging, she shoots something that, at this range, should not require much aiming at all!

A TORPEDO!

...On land!

Gravity should just naturally pull it downwards onto her opponent, right? ...Wait, that's not how torpedos work?

Well, shit. Maybe it will go off anyway if it's on a timer or something, giving Ri time to get out of range a little bit. Though that might give Ivraala time to escape too. Though the sheer unexpectedness of a torpedo that doesn't go anywhere or anything might also work for surprise factor?

RI IS NOT GOOD AT PLANNING.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    With a second SPARTAN appearing, the wyvern rider isn't going to push his luck. He stops firing and focuses on just defending himself. Sadly, he's no archmage, and his shield is punched through before her can get out, Noble Six's chaingun fire wounding the wyvern too badly for it to continue flying. It makes a crash landing behind some rubble, giving the rider one chance to still get out of there if he can meet up with either another member of the air corps or the retreating marines.

    Speaking of the Towers marines, they are now moving back the way they came, still fighting as they go, but trying desperately to reach the cover of the airships. Those airships, including the one the Chief damaged, and are now rushing in as low as they can over the yards, trying to pick up the wounded and any squad that's taken too many casualties to continue fighting as a unit. Those that can still fight are still doing so, and the airship's cannons are still clearing the area of any non-elite defenders.

    The one notable exception, of course, is that UNSC frigate hovering over the field. It's a ship small enough to land on a planet, or to hover in the air, but it's still disturbingly huge this close. And it's not really doing anything. It's just slowly accelerating in the direction of the warp gate.

    If one manages to get the local defense on the line, they may receive the response that no, THEY aren't the ones who ordered it to lift, and in fact there is no crew here to man it.

Nox (546) has posed:
    Nox lets out a noise of irritation as yet another attack fails to reach Cheyanne, keeping his arm raised where a steady glow begins to build in the palm of his hand, increasing along with the steady rise of an electrical hum building from somewhere within. The newly empowered spell is cut short by impact of a high velocity rock splitstream slamming into his arm, knocking it aside before another one smashes into his head, snapping the lense on the left side and knocking him out of the air where he lands on his hands and knees. Back to the ensuing storm, he weathers the pelting stream of airborne debris with a steady stream of clanks and thumps, his outline fizzling with blue static as he struggles to reassert his teleportation ability before suffering any further damage, before finally deciding to simply forget it.

    Throwing his arms out to either side, he lets loose a shivering wave of translucent blue energy, catching the stones in mid flight and halting the continuing attack completely. Rising to his feet, and then off of them once more, he gestures towards Cheyanne, and then the rocks begin to move again. Rather than simply flying back towards her, the wind streams actually reverse direction, carrying their payload at exactly the same speed as before along a trajectory that unerringly homes in towards its original source as it backtracks along its timeline. Just before the flying stones would slow down to reassemble themselves into a barrier, they exit the temporal rollback, simply flying at Cheyanne at their previous deadly velocity from all angles, any one of them potentially lethal.

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man says "What you expect me to obey like a good little slave?!"

Metal Man isn't moving to strike just yet, he seem to be staring Cirra down for a moment but she's fast and is able to slice into him before he can respond.. She's bleeding he knows he just has to keep her busy and away from his allies. Just for a bit longer. It wasn't luck that got Cirra that hit, it was pure skill and timing. She's cut a gash in Metal Man's chest causing a nasty rent and clearly she got some internals as there's sparks coming from it. Metal Man does not /look/ happy about this at all.

"I will not tell you."

He leaps and at the apex of his jump he throws another blade at her. From the looks of the damage he doesn't seem to be as heavily armoured as one might expect.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    At least with the wyvern down for the count, Noble Six can rescue the Chief. She moves from the turret over to where the SPARTAN is laying at, and hefts him up.

    He's heavy, sure, but she can firemans carry him back to the warthog and load him up into the passenger seat. Once he's been loaded up, she'll jump back into the driver's seat and get him the hell out of dodge.

Cheyanne (242) has posed:
Cheyanne takes a few steps back as Nox starts reversing the flow of the elemental force by literally rewinding it. She uses her staff to deflect a couple of the larger chunks of rock, but the backlash is coming too steadily for her to keep doing that.

Progress, but Nox still has too many unorthadox tricks for her to keep up with all of them. This foe is going to take farther study to contend with farther. Frustrating, and at the same time, somewhat of a provoker of interest. It wasn't often she came up against such situations due to experiences.

Despite her efforts the main force of the time reversed spell slams into her, sharp chunks of rock leaving red streaks of blood against her black and white form where they cut like earthborn windstewn shrapnel. Despite exhaustion she manages to level a narrow look in Nox's direction, though there was no need to actually say anything. Look alone was enough to say he hadn't seen the last of her, likely to his own annoyance.

And then the wounded shaman is gone in much the same manner as she often appears out of the air, putting the remaining reserves she has into teleporting away with the rest of the withdrawls.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    As the marines fight their way back, it's now clear that they've shifted focus from 'cause as much destruction as possible in their advance' to 'retrieve the fallen.' Nam-ek is in their path, and the brute will be lifted up as well as they make their escape, assuming no one else gets to him first.

    Their escape, in this case, is much the reverse of how they landed. Through air magic shooting them into the sky, to be caught by the sailors aboard ship, or with earth magic catapulting them on rising columns, the squads work in orderly fashion to withdraw. This leaves much of the actual fighting to the remaining air corps, throwing magic and harrying anything too small for the airship cannons to reach.

    The frigate makes for the warp gate, to be taken back to Confederate territory. In truth, the marines who lifted it don't have nearly the manpower, nor the time, to arm the weapons systems.

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    Ivraala doesn't even know about torpedoes in general; naval combat in Azeroth hasn't really reached that point yet. She's managed to figure out by now, however, that anything strange sent out by this person is undoubtedly dangerous. Without Ri weighing her down anymore, Ivraala is free to scramble to her feet again, trying to grip her greataxe even despite the blood still rolling down her arms. It hurts, but she has to endure...especially when Ri sends off something new.

    The torpedo drops, and Ivraala isn't quite quick enough to get away in time. She's far enough not to get caught in the main brunt of the blast, but the shockwave is still enough to send her flying, tumbling over the ground until she digs her hooves in to come to a stop. Wincing, straining, Ivraala nonetheless manages to push herself to her feet, but the situation around her isn't looking much better. People are retreating by now, and she'd rather not be stuck with this vicious opponent in the meantime.

    As the debris from the torpedo is still clearing, Ivraala quickly sheaths her axe on her back again and brings her hands to her sides. Darkness swirls around them, dark magic coming off of the Death Knight's body in waves. It takes a few moments, but soon Ivraala gathers enough power to thrust her hands forward, summoning a smokey portal held open by a floating skull in front of her.

    She doesn't spare another glance at Ri. The draenei simply dashes into the portal, which closes up behind her right after she passes through. A quick method of escape, at least.

Ri (710) has posed:
Ri is not in great condition either, and even if the magical disease within her is starting to dissipate, she doesn't know whether it's going to come back or not or what. She is glad for the fight to be over, though up until the point where her enemy is actually GONE, she is still single-mindedly focused on Ivraala's destruction. In the end, she comes to realize her allies are pulling out, and that she should maybe do so too. The radio message confirms it. Did they win? Or is it just time to go?

She doesn't know. She was oblivious. But it seems they are, indeed, getting out of here. So she takes her bleeding, half-frozen, pained self and clumsily runs with her great big shark gauntlets towards the extraction point. She hasn't had to run in so long she has practically forgotten how. It may take her a little bit, but hopefully she'll make it out with everyone else.

That enemy fought in ways she never would have imagined. Are there more enemies like that? Enemies who are nothing like the Ship Girls she has fought? Nothing like her fellow Abyssals? She isn't prone to thinking too much. But Ri... Might need to think about this.

Though, hopefully, somewhere safe.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    "Interesting that you call *yourself* a slave." Cirra falls back to the ground in a roll and pops back up to her feet to dive behind cover. She looks up as the Frigate as it takes off. "Tch. I guess a safe backwater is really jsut a tempting target indisguise."

Metal Man (11) has posed:
Metal Man looks at Cirra as she pulls out he lowers his weapon as he replies.

"It's often considered an insult implying I'm souless."

HE looks at Cirra and then he pulls back, he does give her a salute and it's not mocking as he departs.