652/NODE: City of Falls - Introduction

NODE: City of Falls - Introduction
Date of Scene:	22 September 2014
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	Node Introduction, Meeting the Pure User within, an her pet monsters.
Cast of Characters:	151, 162, 347, 357
Tinyplot:	When They Return

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Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Opening the door is simple and easy. It is, additionally, something that only Zephyr is actually capable of doing; for some reason, the mechanism refuses to budge for anyone but her, so it seems she has exclusive control over when people may join her.

    Past the door is something odd. It looks like it's the interior of some kind of cave... But a more astute, academic eye would know no natural caves like this form. It's modeled after the interior of a meteor. Within, screens and high-tech equipment are lodged in and attached to the walls, embedded long-term for strange purposes, illuminating the area with a strange glow. It's one straight tunnel all the way to the end, and it'll take a minute or so to walk down.

    During this process, a man can be seen on the screens, walking, as if in parallel. A young fellow with short black hair, athletic and strong, with tanned skin and the suit that's the traditional wear of the Operators.... Mr. Speaks. He walks alongside the group, and what he says is said without interruption or chance for response, like a recorded message.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr waits for the others to show up, then opens the door, holding it open for the others to join her. "Right, lets keep this on the downlow... I have no idea what we'll find in there." she says, before focussing on Speaks.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    For someone whose introduction to Hana was 'being shot at', the young TSAB mage has been surprisingly fair towards her, all things considered. They've even swapped cartridges, giving each other a boon in battle. Her opinion of Zephyr is favorable enough that she's more than willing to head into the younger girl's Node; and so she is here, nodding to Zephyr as she walks through the door. "Of course." In a place like this, whatever Zephyr's gut tells her is probably correct, right? So listening to her is a good idea.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    The relationship with Ainsley and Zephyr, on the other hand, has been nothing but cordial, with mutual assistance and friendship being the theme since the first time they met and onward. Even with Zephyr having decided that Ains is an adoptive sibling. 'Sis.' The lizard girl is more than happy to be here to help, with Nom de Plume already resting on her snout. Of course, this may be the first time some of these people have seen that she is, in fact, a great deal taller, so she awkwardly tries to avoid the attention that the difference will cause by walking at the back of the group.

    "Mmh-hmm," she affirms for Zephyr in a pleasant tone, not about to interfere with the Node creator's plans.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Most sessions are meant to provide an understanding. I would say here that this is meant to show you consideration of the bigger picture, or perhaps an easing of cynicism. I could tell you this session is meant to teach you what your opposition, not just in this world, really is."

    "But it is not. This session has nothing to teach you. No life lessons, no grand scheme. Whatever meaning you find will be found in the meaningless. For the past year, the City of Falls has been beset by infrequent attacks, perpetuated by strange monsters and their un-defeatable master, all of which were summoned from the sky. Seek her, and her monsters. Stop them. And should you choose, find something worth learning."

    Mr. Speaks continues on his walking path, past the end of the tunnel, and out of sight. The end of the hallway bears another prefab security door, similarly easy to operate. We'll discuss what lies behind the door momentarily.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    "Lessons in meaningless huh? Sounds about right." remarks Zephyr as Speaks finishes his shpiel. The mage pauses at the door. "Monsters from the sky, summoned by an unbeatable master." she closes her eyes, remembering the vision, that girl's face... A shake of her head dispells the image, and she opens the door into the Node proper, once more holding it for the others. "Dee? Set Up."

    Divine Wind chimes once in response, forming the regular Battle-Ax shape those close are so familiar with. "Galeforce... you good to go too?" she asks of her circlet.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    "Finding meaning in the meaningless?" Hana echoes, one eyebrow arched. "That's life in general. It has no particular goal, no lesson to impress on those who have it, but there are lessons you can take from it nonetheless. This won't be anything particularly new, in that regard." She folds her arms behind her back, looking the door up and down. "The way I see it, there are two possibilities. The one that would make more sense is that she's called 'unbeatable' simply because she hasn't been beaten yet. But with our luck, it's the other one - she's unbeatable because she has some sort of trump card, trick, or cheat." Either way, they'll probably be able to figure out how to win, but it's good to think about such things in advance.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    The lack of a discernable goal from the get-go makes Ainsley a little nervous, and yet refreshed. Her gaze focuses on Speaks as if he was telling a really interesting story. She doesn't make much of a peep as they walk, though, having no insight into matters of lessons and battles. She doesn't feel herself qualified to really talk about this at length. She does seem attentive, though, when it's discussed.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Ready." That's Galeforce with an affirmative. It's always ready! Except, you know, when it's sleeping. "Just 'cause someone isn't beaten doesn't mean they won't get beaten if you /keep/ beating! I'm sure we'll deal with whatever this is fine!"

    The exit point is between two larger structures, tall colonization columns deployed for residential use, like an alleyway for a new planet's colony. There's nobody in the streets, though there's many signs of habitation. Far above is a night sky saturated with as many stars as can breach the light polution. The distant noises on the wind sound of activity, meaning the population is still here, but there's something keeping them off the streets.

    Presumably, people have been cleared for some cause, because many lights are on. Ainsley's Abstractum is the one that speaks up first. "Something appears to be happening already." The pair of glasses says, simply. "Unusual. How should we proceed with investigation?"

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr frowns a little. "I wanna say 'Split up', but if one of us gets in trouble the others might not be able to help... Galeforce? Boost my spell as much as you can." she commands. "Wide Area Search. Magic and Energy Signatures."

    <YES MASTER! W.A.S.:Energy> replies Divine Wind, as it spits out a couple dozen small purple wisps that disseminate out in all directions. They don't give visual feed, instead tuned to pick out the energy flux of combat or other high-intensity energy sources.

    "We stay together, that way we can put up a unified front to whatever's happening... lets move." says Zephyr, as she holds her Device ready, before walking out of the alleyway and onto the main street proper. "Eyes open, head on a swivel."

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    "Higanbana. We're going topside."

    This simple declaration is the first thing out of Hana's mouth after they enter the Node proper. She turns to Zephyr and adds, "I'm going to go up to the roof of this... is this a skyscraper? I think it's a skyscraper." She looks upward. "I have good eyes. I want to see the skyline, and get a feel for the layout of the city." It's also a good place to hear the hustle and bustle, see if there's any noises that stand out as Different(tm). And so, she leaps to the side of the building, catching the edge of a window, pushing off with a hand, a foot - leaping her way up the side of the building in a way even she wouldn't be able to manage without her Abstractum.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Zephyr decides to do an Area Search, and Hana goes upwards, along the side of a building. Her head turns to watch the gunslinger as she soars up the side of the structure. Ainsley replies to Nom de Plume in a gentle tone of voice, "We find where this event is going to occur, or is already happening," and gestures to Zephyr with a little uncurling of her fingers. She begins to hover off the ground at that point, preparing to begin flying up once they reach the street. She tries to get a good look down the road, both ways, scanning for anything unusual. She looks for movement in particular.

    "Feels like my birth city," she remarks. "That might mean they cleared out because the night is full of threats." She looks up at the night sky pointedly. "Hmm."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Ack, not much I can do besides some basic-level mana regulation for non-combat spells, but I'll do my best here! Hope we won't need to search much." The circlet on Zephyr's head seems uncertain, but it does engage its regulatory abilities to minimize mana issues. Too much of that isn't needed, though; the fluctuations are easy to detect. One big one, many small ones. There's an exact distance and trajectory for the former that can be extracted from that.

    Hana gets a better look. A burning red fire lights on her feet, and her mobility is multiplied heavily, allowing her to scale the structure's many exposed modules and other suchlike. "Certainly looks that way, ma'am." Higanbana says. What she sees doesn't give her the same exact information, but she does get a pretty good look at what's going on. Big gushes of dust and rubble, or at least relatively big, can be seen between the structures. Hana's keen gunman eyes can get a look at what looks like some sort of giant crab-scorpion chimera, with a thick gray carapace and massive claws to match the hefty stinger. The noises are of some sort of high-tech weapon firing.

    Ainsley gets a good look at some of the destruction left in the wake of the creature, as well as construction to deal with previous ones. Looks like they're often pretty large, and have enough strength and mass to crash into and through sections of these structures. If she starts flying, she might be able to track it down more and observe.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    After a minute or two of looking out over the city, Hana quickly makes her way back down the side, reporting as soon as she's in range, "We have a giant monster on our hands. Probably tech or magitech of some sort."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr nods. "That's fine, Galeforce. Anything helps." she replies, gently stroking one arm of the circlet fondly. "Hana? They're called Colony Spires. They're dropped from orbit during first stage colonization for use as habitats." she imparts, then blinks as Divine Wind brings up the readouts, and she calls over local radio. "Got something. Sending coordinates, converge and observe before engaging... we don't wanna startle the locals if we can help it." she advises, before lifting off the ground herself on four wispy 'pixie wings' of purple light.

    The mage heads closer toward the combat, keeping relatively low to the ground and her Device ready. "Suggestions, Dee?" <Insufficient Data, Master>

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley puffs a sigh at the damage the local battles have caused. She squints at some of the structures, trying to determine which of them would collapse should it be run into by some sort of charging monster. Then she begins to rise higher into the sky, leaving a trail of sparks and ripples in the air. Her own trajectory curves as she tries to find a spot above the battle to observe what's going on without getting in the way of the parties involved.

    "We will need to think about damage control, here," she tells Nom de Plume, "For now... Conceptual Sight. Let's see what it can do." If she can get a good look at the beast Hana mentioned, she'll scan it for the concepts of Offensive and Defensive Abilities, if only to get a rundown on what it can do if it's not using everything on whoever is already fighting it. Or, really, just a gauge of how dangerous it is for her allies, if nothing else.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The others will find it relatively easy to reach the location of the battle. Gonna need to do a fair bit of running and/or flying, but Hana, the only on-foot fighter here, has an advantage in speed. Ainsley, who's the first on-site, finds that there's plenty of other distractions keeping the monster from focusing on her at the moment.

    Specifically, there's a lot of drones! Lots of flying mechanical things firing beam after beam at the massive creature, while it retaliates with rushes of surprising speed, slashes and crunches of those huge claws or striking lightning-fast with that tail. CONCEPTUAL SIGHT shows that it has a relatively high degree of defense on the shell, but little within. High armor, low HP. The offense seems to be high too, but its attack methods are obviously limited.

    There's a girl on the back of it, but she's too far away to get a good look.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    Converge and observe before engaging. Simple and straightforward. Hana makes her way with all due speed, taking back to the rooftops as soon as she's able to give her a height advantage. She stops on top of the nearest colonization spire that's not directly in the engagement zone - right on the edge, in short - and falls silent, looking out over the battle with a sharp sniper's eye.

    "Ainsley, whatever you can tell me about that armor and its movement patterns would be helpful," she says over the radio. She intends to see if her armor-piercing rounds will go through; but if not? Then she'll need weaknesses to hit.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    There's plenty of combat info to be had, and Ainsley is surprised she didn't focus on a concept like that sooner. It would've solved so many issues with feeling useless during a fight without running in with a sharp object. Before she can get excited about it, though, she gets a prompt from Hana, and replies to her, "Avoid the tail if you can, it will be a painful experience to get hit by it. The armor is very thick, but the creature's only defense is that armor. Once you get through, it is a simple matter to defeat it. It does not seem to have anything like special abilities, and if it does, they are hidden from a surface scan. A fairly basic giant monster overall."
    A beat. "It also has a rider. Be aware."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr comes up near to Ainsley. "Drones? I guess they're the local Defense System... never seen so many in one place before except for training." she comments, then swings her Device around in her hand. "Lets get started. I'll distract it." she says, surging down at the monster with all speed. With Ainsley's advice, she smirks "First you crack the shell, then you crack the nuts inside!" a pause, as she also spots the girl, confirmed by Ainsley. "Maybe that's our Unbeatable assailant?" she suggests, pouring mana into her blade. <TEMPEST SABER!>

    The blades become fully engulfed in boiling winds as she comes down from over the top as the thing lunges at one of the Drones.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Hana finds it simple to ascend the spires, and to maintain the height advantage. She gets a good look at everything - the monster and the girl - and can get a strong tactical assessment here. Lots of charging, a few swipes, a jab, and then another charge right away! Not unlike a machine, here, and easy data for Ainsley to feed. As for armor-piercing rounds? She'll likely find those very useful, once they start getting employed.

    Zephyr finds her attacks coming down harshly. "STRIKE DRIVER!" The circlet on her head flares bright red and the tempest saber lays through the armor in the back, prompting a screech. As she winds up on its back with the rider, she'll get a good look at the madly grinning girl, the only close-up sighting yet. It's Aurora.

    Covering her eyes as the dust and debris are knocked away from Zephyr's impact, she flares her own magic out to blast the dust away, long enough to point a finger at her assailant. "Well, if it isn't a bug on my bug!" Neither a crab nor a bug is an insect, damn it. Then Aurora makes a motion like she just shot something out of her finger-gun. The massive scorpion-crab slams a huge singer down towards her now, trying to smash her away.

    Shortly after it resumes its attacks against the drones, but also against Zephyr, or any other party member that draws its attention! Rushing, crashing, then swiping with the claws and trying to crush with massive power, before driving to a distance with that awful stinger...

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    "Hmm... let's give this a shot, then," Hana concludes, speaking into her radio. "I'll work on the creature. I have very few nonlethal options for its rider, so that would be better for Windstar to handle. But I do have some heavy ordnance, especially with Higanbana's help. Ainsley, keep me appraised if anything significant comes up."

    And then she's off across the roofs to a much closer building, one right in the middle of the engagement zone; it wouldn't do to lead the monster towards undamaged structures, after all. Once she's got her perch, she comes right up to the edge and lifts both revolvers. "Higanbana. Lineshot Burst, if you would."

    And then she opens fire.

    There is no special tricks here, no hidden tactic. It's a simple opening barrage, left-right-left-right, raining down shot after shot on the scorpion-crab-monster, each bullet given her tried-and-true combo of effects. Armor-piercing, to punch right through the plating, and explosive, to wreck what's underneath. The moment the creature turns its attention towards her, she jumps for a different spire.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    "Auror---GYHAH!" Zephyr is caught off guard once that scorpion tail slams her away, knocking her careening head over heels into a nearby building. The debris explodes outwards as her magic flares brilliantly. "Sis. Hana? Careful... I know this girl." she calls over radio, then levels her Device at Aurora. <IMPULSE DRIVER!>.

    The blades crack open and begin to rapidly spin up, gathering air from the surroundings into a confined area right in front of the gemstone. "FIRE!" At the command, a burst of purple mana shoots into, and through the gathered wind-ball, launching a beam at Aurora and by extension, the monster.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    "I'll try to project attack trajectories as they arise." Ainsley reaches up to touch at Nom de Plume, realizing that the creature's rider, Aurora, is directing it... so there has to be a concept there that is present before the attack actually occurs. "Conceptual Sight." She focuses on the rider this time, and searches for 'Planned Attacks,' then she tries to project the concepts with: "Conceptual Memory!"

    With any luck, she creates visualizations that the others can avoid, either as images that appear before the attack, or vague trajectory lines they can avoid.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Lineshot burst." Higanbana says, simply. The advanateous positioning gives Hana no cause to move, so Lineshot is going to be ESPECIALLY effective, thick glowing red lines suddenly saturating the field of battle and marking trajectories upon which Hana can fire for massively increased explosive damage and armor-piercing effect. It disables one of the claws before the creature begins doing much more of its charging to get away from and around the lines that saturate the site of battle.

    It's a clever use of Conceptual Memory. It'll probably only work effectively on enemies with a limited number of tactics, such as this massive crab-scorpion, but it's working on it for now, showing a shimmering, flickering, uncertain phantom image of the creature's charge attacks that send it tearing around the streets and into the drones.

    For example, it doesn't predict when Aurora suddenly stops and snaps the creature around to face Zephyr. "What? /What/?! This girl /KNOWS/ me?" For some reason, it seems like Aurora doesn't know Zephy. There's a sudden flare of light as her own Barrier Jacket is summoned, her own Device - no, that's not a device, the black gem clearly marks it as a Pure - is summoned to her hands. It acts silently as she points the rather more staff-like Device straight on to Zephyr's attack, projecting a large red BARRIER and tanking much, though not all of the damage. Hana's taken out one claw, and now Zephyr's collateral damage takes out the other, while stray damage from both has severely wounded the legs.

    "Grrrrhhh! You! I'm going to find out what you know! I'm going to strangle it out of you while I crush that stupid circlet! When I get back here with something better! Crunchy! Home!" The large creature lets out some kind of horrid, stunning screech, like one of those screaming insects. And then it leaps up!

    ...And... Doesn't come down? It's escaping above, and suddenly doesn't seem affected by gravity. It won't be long before this thing is completely out of sight from the ground.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr frowns, and shakes her head. "No... you're not her, you just have her face." she says. As 'Aurora' screams at her, she readies another attack, sending it after the escaping monster and its rider.

    <JETSREAM IMPULSE!> the Device chimes, a mass of purple motes forming in the air above her, before splitting into dozens of smaller points. These then arc out like homing missiles, tracking up after the fleeing Pure user.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    Hana goes through several rapid changes of perch before she decides she's in a safe enough position to open fire again, and by then the scorpioncrabthing is beginning to lift off into the air and fly away.

    Hana stares.

    "Really."

    And then calmly, she lifts both revolvers up and begins firing again, unloading HE-AP rounds until either the scrabpion (scorab?) comes down out of the air, or it passes out of range.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley looks up as the crap-scorpion achieves escape velocity, ears ringing from its scream. She backed away from it and she's just... staring up into the sky.

    "Hhhhuh."

    She frowns at this sight as it vanishes into the sky, whether or not it gets hit by those bullets. "This is going on my list of Strangest Sights," she remarks, surprised by this ability quite a lot. "This does support the words that the enemy of this Node comes from the sky, though. Clearly it is quite literal and also the place they seem to return to after a battle." A beat. "I wonder what's up there."

    Just for kicks, Ainsley tries to Conceptual Sight the sky for 'magic' concepts, just to see if there's some sort of weird spell doing that, or if the sky is a ruse.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Zephyr's massive stream of missiles meets a barrier projected by the Device-Pure, crashing through the larger defense and impacting the monster, causing it to shriek again as more armor is torn off (though the monster itself remains less damaged, from the new angle)... But it doesn't stop. It's like gravity was turned off for it! It's kind of surreal. Something above must be helping out here.

    Hana's shots are technically more efficient, but now that the enemy is out of her usual firing space, Lineshot Burst provides less buffing power and so she winds up injuring it more superficially, similarly to Zephyr.

    As for Ainsley? There is a very large magical concept in the sky. It is a little bright to look at, and the volume of magic at work here obfuscates the details, just like how light from the sun obfuscates light from any one part of it.