3378/TMatM: Artifacts of Black Rain PT1
From Multiverse Crisis MUSH
TMatM: Artifacts of Black Rain PT1 | |
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Date of Scene: | 12 November 2015 |
Location: | Void - Deeper Void (North) |
Synopsis: | The Ganemede is wrecked, the Lost Logia it was carrying, though once escaped, are now contained, but the Five that were most dangerous are missing, along with the archaeologist that hunted them down.
Strange things are happening. what, you ask? FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON MAGICAL GIRL LYRICAL NANOHA: The Man and the Mission! |
Cast of Characters: | Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 256, 619, 673, 675, 754, 778, 883 |
Tinyplot: | The Man and the Mission |
- Royce Artega (883) has posed:
The coordinates lead to a /very fresh crash site. Looks like the tuning-fork shaped space cruiser hit the ground hard. There's a crash furrow stretching for about twelve kilometers behind the final resting place, and flames can be seen in various parts of the surrounding foliage. People can be seen milling around the ship, assessing damage, and performing triage outside of the potentially dangerous environment within.
Several TSAB Mages are in the air, scouting around, as if looking for something, and in the distance, flashes of various coloured energy, and the hulking form of some kind of monster can be seen. Things are pretty much Hell in a Hand Basket.
- Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
It was a general distress call, which means it can't be ignored. Not that Yulia's one to ignore them regardless, especially when she's in a position to help. Or to try to, anyway.
And so a Neo Zeon-flagged military spacecraft flashes out of hyperspace to take up orbit around the planet, signalling that they're here to assist. If anyone is able to signal them as to just what's needed, they'll stuff that into the shuttle before it's sent down tooward the crash site. Otherwise, it's going to have medical supplies, food, and instant tents aboard.
Yulia and her dusty-purple mobile suit serve as the shuttle's escort, touching down next to it with a clank of servos and heavy plating. She gave a terible wince when she got a look at the crash from above, and even now her face is wan. "Those poor people..." Than, to business, and she looks around to see if she can figure out who, if anyone is in charge around here...
...and that thought is suddently frozen as her eyes lock on the image of the monster on her viewscreen. "..."
- Staren has posed:
The... ship that Staren really needs to name drops out of FTL in orbit around the planet. It looks like... a small castle with thrusters on, and a sea serpent or dragon coiled around one section. Staren's fighter is attached to one side. Although... there's probably noone close enough to actually see it.
<<Staren of the Union here.>> Staren transmits to the TSAB agents in the area. <<What's going on, and what manner of assistance do you need? ...Is that a giant monster? I could help with that...>>
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Out of hyperspace comes the Raven's Claw, approaching the planet's surface as the nav-com narrows down those coordinates. The ship makes its way towards the landing site, and inside Kyle notes the arrival of a Neo Zeon-flagged vessel. "Huh, they haven't attacked yet." He mutters. Jan, with him at the controls, shrugs. "Who knows, maybe they got a heart after all. Not everyone out there has to be like the Imps."
"Point. Take us in, Jan."
The ship lands just outside the site, and Kyle hops out, using his commlink to transmit to the crew. "This is Katarn, I'm planetside. Brief me on the way, I'll be there shortly." Before anyone can respond he's already taking off; the Force helps him to sprint a good distance without so much as looking winded by the time he nears the site of chaos, lightsaber in hand.
- Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
Space taxis are kind of a thing in the multiverse, especially with Elites around to pay well. It was one such ferry that was carting Sanae elsewhere, when a distress call prompted a detour. That already meant extra pay, but, that does not mean that they linger around active battlefields longer than is necessary, though. Accordingly, when the small ship marked as such arrives carrying Sanae Kochiya, the gruff pilot/cabby keeps it short as it kicks up surface debris, "Don't worry about correct change, we'll charge it to your account later. Just get out so I can do the same!" "Okay! Thank you." The priestess hovers out the rest of the way to the surface, but for a moment it looked like she might free fall. Having to adjust for local atmospheres, and sometimes even local rival deities, is still a thing she is having to get accustomed to. As soon as she's out, the ship clears the area at the highest speed it can safely manage, outside the near-vacuum of space.
Taking a moment to smooth out her clothing, which is useless as she's still hovering - a habit of hers, perhaps, she takes a moment to slowly wheel about in the air and survey things. The crashed ship receives a slightly troubled look. Then she raises her sleeve to brace against the winds disturbed by other recent arrivals. When her arm lowers, her eyes almost seem to sparkle for a moment, beholding that a mobile suit has emerged. No, not now, she has to focus, there are survivors in trouble! And some kind of giant monster running amok! "I'll get a selfie later," she thinks aloud, unlikely to be heard save perhaps by the similarly outbound Kyle Katarn, and then hovers higher to shoulder level to the robot, before taking off in the direction of the trouble. This planet's air feels a bit peculiar, but hopefully her powers can still gather enough of it to be effective.
- Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
When the Raven's claw lands, Cirra Constantine unjams herself from the overnight bag sized passanger compartment and walks down the ram, only to watch Kyle take off.
"I thought Jedi were supposed to be mindful and cautious." For no one's benefit save possibly Jan's. The Judge can however see the monster in the distance, though not any details. She takes off at a run herself, much more measured then Kyle's. She can't just consume all her MP now or any dangerous situations could catch her unprepared.
- HK-47 (754) has posed:
It was... not quite the locale that he tended to frequent. Normally, he would be the one /causing/ these incidents with a well-placed act of sabotage; a sliced circuit here, or a corroded valve there, or the occasional modifying of a protocol dorid's behavioral core to persuade it that Kinrath venom was an /excellent/ additive to any ship-captain's hot morning beverage.
Visiting as part of a recovery and investigation effort was something unfamiliar to the cloaked form that makes his way through the comforting scenery of flaming wreckage that now very likely served as the gravesite for many meatbag passengers on their doomed vessel, posing as a 'wandering traveler' willing to lend a hand... but as always, HK-47 was nothing if not willing to 'broaden his horizons', so to speak.
Not that he particularly cares about the affairs of dead meatbags and their rescue. More rather, he was currently busy admiring the conflict his photoreceptors could pick up in the distance, the hulking behemoth in the backdrop serving as a wonderful highlighting for the destruction before him.
He cares little about stopping the conflict unless implicitly necessary. His focus is more on what methods of failure or sabotage had caused the crashing of the vessel... and as such, amid the chaotic and rushed salvage attempts, HK-47 proceeds to begin probing the area by first seeing if he can find a working computer port near any entrance in the ship... be it a designed entryway or an improvised one caused by hull ruptures from the crash.
Something caused this ship - which apparently had quite the interesting cargo - to fall... and the droid, figuring his Master would enjoy having new 'mysteries of the universe' - or whatever such ideological conundrums she seemed to fancy - to unravel, believed taking some initiative in his explorations may be a perfect gift for her.
After all... he was nothing if not a thoughtful and proactive droid.
... especially since, depending on where they directed their focus,this would give him the chance to have some first-hand contact with any Union operatives incognito, in order to build up his knowledge of their workings... and make future engagements with them far more 'productive.' And if not, he could instead slip under their noses to discover valuable information before they ever did and begin looking into it before they did.
Yes... he was nothing if not thoughtful and proactive, indeed.
- Rory White (673) has posed:
Descending through the atmosphere at the very edge of Cyborg G-force tolerances, the frigate 'Cognizant Odyssey' is on a rescue mission. Long before it appears the Ganemede is receiving its friendly IFF.
The ship levels out a small distance from the crash site and remains hovering. Active sensors bombard the fallen craft and the surroundings.
The teleporter blazes to life several times! Drones of all shapes and sizes beam down. Some of them are humanoid, but many are not. They move to convserve with some of the mages on the ground... but they have Rory White's voice when they do. Asking for the situation and where aid is needed most. A few of the other drones start blazing a section down and preparing a field medic's paradise - or hell, depending on how you look at it - with furniture and tools from the Odyssey's stores.
"What a strange ship design... what could have happened?" Rory asks her friend.
- Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa picked up the hint of troubl and has come to check on thing but the Bluenose has been in drydock for some time at this point. So here she is ridiung along ith Rory once more she wonders what happened there as the Cognizant Odyssey makes for the crash sight.
"I'm not sure we'll have to find out however."
Notes Kotone as she takes form after beaming down.
"I don't think we're the only ones here, also can you give me a few drones if it's not too much trouble?"
- Royce Artega (883) has posed:
No signals return to either the Neo-Zeon ship, or Staren's vessel in orbit. Looks like the distress call broke Long Range comms. Local communications are buzzing though. "Delta, watch yourself, it's wheeling around on you!" "Got it, just hold the bind a little longer, Gamma team has the Lost Logia scried and they're sealing it now." "Roger, reinforcing Binds!"
Kyle's radio receives a return message. "Katarn? Union, good. We're in deep shit over here. Lost Logia broke containment while we were recalibrating the Dimensional drive to take us to secure storage. They ripped out the engines, broke the hull open and poured out onto this planet while were were going down. We've managed to recontain most of them, but a few are proving more difficult. We've lost twelve Ground forces and an Enforcer during the crash, and have multiple troops in critical condition. Triage is going slow, we lost a lot of supplies due to decompression in orbit." the voice is gruff, possibly the Captain of the ship. "We're also confirming five artifacts are entirely missing..."
HK would find a functioning terminal, relatively easily hacked into as the ship's AI mainframe was offline, results of the crash, leaving only basic automatic systems to function. Recent activity in the secure hold has been caught on the camera systems, showing a mousy human with glasses opening the secure locker marked S-class, and extracting five items, before triggering some kind of fail-secure, breaching all remaining containers at once and fleeing out of the camera view. External cameras that remained functioning after the crash, show the man escaping off into the sparse vegetation, chased by some kind of... clockwork helicopter worm that glowed a baleful red along its entire body.
Those that move off to engage the monster, would find about twenty TSAB mages all working to keep it subdued, while a group focus power into a spell circle, likely trying to bore a hole in to seal the artifact causing the monster to start with. Just as the Sealing team fire their spell, though, the beast breaks free from its bindings, knocking several mages flying with a sweep of a tentacle. "Damn it! Alpha's gone! We need backup over here!"
The people moving to help with the Triage effort are gladly welcomed. The Drones don't even get a blink out of the Mages working to heal their comrades. "We've got a lot of burn trauma from a nasty fire-spitting Logia that broke free. There's also a lot of broken bones from the impact. We're low on supplies, so anything you can bring down will be a boon." Field medic heaven/hell is one heck of a boon, and more critical patients are moved into that area, while others are taken into portable tents so they're out of the wind and sun.
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Jan just smirks, before she kicks back in her seat when Cirra is about to leave. "My partner certainly isn't that way." She says with a chuckle, before she grabs some electrobinoculars to watch the scene.
Meanwhile
MONSTER: Kyle radios back, "Copy that. What can I do to help contain the situation?"
Five Lost Logia artifacts, that can't be good at all. He's read the reports regarding their usage, and it's clear that in the wrong hands they could be a ticking time bomb. Kyle's not exactly suited to help with relief efforts, but others thankfully are. As he approaches the situation, he ignites his lightsaber and leaps to evade the tentacle.
Landing, he charges towards the monster. "Calvary's here, fellas!" Kyle announces, before moving to sever that offending limb before it strikes again.
- Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
Yulia gives herself a mental shake - it's not your first monster, you ninny! - and stifles her first instinct to question the widom or sanity of interstellar monster transport. That can be asked later. Right now, she's going to move forward in the direction of said monster and all of those trying to contain it. She's also trying to be mindful of all of the people around her...though she can't help the thudding.
The flash of a light saber catches her eye, and the mecha's head gives a nod in Kyle's direction as their paths converse. Followed by whirring and clanking as locks release on the machine's weaponry. >> This is Yulia Koslova, Neo Zeon, << she says over her loudspeaker. >> Are we capturing? Killing? Does this thing have a weakness? <<
Meanwhile, the handful of Zeon medics from the shuttle help with moving the wounded out of harm's way and into triage. Their specific brand of medicine may not be the same as everyone else's, but a bandage is still a bandage and sutures are still sutures...
- HK-47 (754) has posed:
...
His logic-processor had indeed hit a flash of intuitive inspiration, it seemed. The items that the bespectacled meatbag had taken - relics of some form, if he was not mistaken - were likely very valuable commodes.
And as his Master had a keen interest in such trinkets, HK-47 felt that he may very well earn his Master's appreciation for obtaining the items and bringing them back to her.
As such, he took note of the direction the meatbag - who was likely the saboteur of the ship - fled to, as well as the creature he had been chased by, wondering if it had been another specimen from the vessel.
Naturally assuming the physically-unimposing sack of flesh had been easily slain, HK at least hoped the creature had not damaged the relics upon presumedly mauling the fleshling to death... though he moved with deliberate caution as he proceeded to begin following the direction of the meatbag's flight through the jungle.
He knew that some creatures could be... empowered by certain fields of energy. Creatures on Korriban - Hissis - were strengthened by the Force. Assuming this creature, with it's imbued aura visible on the camera's visual spectrums, was similar was a prudent measure in HK's belief.
At the very least though, all the other meatbags present seemed too distracted to give immediate chase as he would... so hopefully, by the time they proceeded to investigate, he would already be departing with the relics in tow.
- Staren has posed:
"...Hm." Staren comments at the lack of response. He'll have to take action on his own initiative then...
Three high-explosive missiles from above are the first indication of Staren's arrival on the scene -- the second is the hail of railgun fire. Staren is, perhaps, not well-acquainted enough with the situation for it to occur to him that the monster might be dealt with /nonlethally/. On the other hand, it will be no simple matter to take down anything /that/ size.
The Star Hawk dives down through the atmosphere in fighter mode, pumping hypersonic metal slugs into the monster. Seeing how it reacts to these attacks will inform his next move.
- Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
Seals, huh? They aren't exactly the kind that Sanae is familiar with, as she finally gets eyes closer up on the situation with the monster, but something about this seems awfully familiar. "So, we just have to help weaken it, or just keep the heat off," she calls down? Taking a moment to roll up a detached sleeve, which immediately flops back down, she seems more than prepared to do that. This is how 'investigation' is done in Gensokyo: Beat things up until you get your answers. Drawing a wand from its binding at her hip, and in the other hand taking several card-like talismans between her fingers, she begins drifting in the air and to the side, angling to avoid retribution from the beast, herself. Her eyes dart around for a moment to take stock of the others on site, as well, mindful to do her best to avoid friendly fire.
Fortunately, that should be easy, as she selects a homing shot type. After she slings those paper cards from her hand at the monstrosity, they cut through the air for a moment, before folding and transforming into the shape of serpents, which quickly gain a ghostly halo around them of a more convincing shape. The set of four magical snakes track and home in on the beast, but do so somewhat non-specifically, so if there are any obvious magical weak points, it is unlikely they will be hit by them. That's the down side of using this kind of magic. Fortunately, for those kinds of specifics, she has other, more miraculous techniques, like how she is currently tracing a five-pointed star in the air with her flyswatter-like wand, causing it to glow. It takes a few moments to prepare, however, so it doesn't do anything on its own, just yet.
And now there is that guy with a beam saber, err, laser sword. Whatever it is, it's glowing, and glowing is cool! The star she was tracing flickers for a moment, before she startles from it and lowers her eyebrows in focus. There'll be time to admire cool stuff later, for now, concentrate!
- Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
he creature in the distance is massive. But Cirra hears something else more disturbing to her. "Five Lost Logia are missing?" thats a /specific number/ "Do you know which ones?" She draws a card from her side and holds it up between two figners. "The. BRIAR!" and stabs it through with her Judge Blade, slamming it into the ground.
The magic circle spreads out, and crystaline, barbed vines reach out from the monster's lower extremities and tendrils.
"Isn't a man named Royce assigned to this ship? Is he still alive" she asks through gritted teeth as she focuses on the law card trying to ensare the monster.
- Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is picking up some of the signals now at this point and she does look over to Rory well her avatar on the tac net does t the very least.
<<This just got hot it looks like.>>
She's trying to gather what information she can but she's making ready with her weapons for what good it will do she also opens a channel of her own.
"This is Kotone Yamakawa of the Flotilla where here to help where here we can...any extra information would be useful"
Also damn that creature in the distance was huge, it was time to get the rocket launcher ready even as a number of other people arrive some she's not seen before also the
"Wait five? Oh this isn't going to end well."
- Rory White (673) has posed:
"Don't worry then! I have plenty of nanobandages!" Rory's drones relay to the mages. Indeed, Nanobandages she has in spades. She has hundreds of nanobandages just for a situation like this. Boxes of the things. Drones beam down said boxes and bring it to triage. The plum-sized objects, applied to wounds, bind and deliver cocktails of painkillers, whilst cleaning and mending wounds to a degree. They'll make sure people survive if they can be saved, but more serious medical care will be needed long term.
- Royce Artega (883) has posed:
MONSTER: The beast roars in pain as one of those tentacles is sliced cleanly off by Kyle's leaping attack. The missiles and railgun fire make it buckle and roar in pain turning to look up at where they came from. It doesn't look like it's all that resistant, but all the damage, save for the cauterized wound, regenerate rapidly. No ranged attacks return to either Staren, or Sanae, only growls and roars of irritation. "We need it held down so we can seal the artifact inside of it! We have a fix on its location, but the Defense System is making it hard to get a lock!" calls up one of the beleagured mages, dodging another tentacle. Cirra's Briar helps stop it moving with those grabby, snaring barbed vines, earning more growls and roars, and a whip of a tentacle at the annoying ground-bound girl.
INVESTIGATION: HK sets off after Royce. That's good, but he likely has a lot of ground to cover. Something he'd notice first, is a wisp of smoke rising from about a kilometer away in his direction of travel. Something is on fire, and it's a good distance from the crash site.
"Yeah, we know which ones. The Artifacts of Black Rain. The records and video feeds are still in the ship, but we can't get back in because of toxic gas inside." the Captain says over the radio.
MEDICAL: Are grateful for the nanobandages. They are applied liberally to critical patients so they can be stabilized for transport to proper medical facilities.
- HK-47 (754) has posed:
It is unsurprising that a fire in the distance would go unnoticed by the local meatbags. Likely, they assumed it to be a broken-off fragment of the vessel that splintered away either during re-entry or upon it's crash, and thus dismissed it as another fragment of inconsequential debris.
HK however knew otherwise, having had the chance to enter the vessel and observe the security recordings that none of the other meatbags could reach due to the toxic chemical fumes in the air - which a droid such as him was utterly immune to due to lacking the utter design-flaw of having air-sacs in his chassis.
And as such... he was in an excellent position to give chase.
However, he keeps his photoreceptors at their maximum clarity to observe for any impending threats, such as the unknown cog-driven creature that had chased after the fleeing meatbag from the vessel... and cycles through his wrist-mounted weapons for his flamethrower, just in case something manages to close in without his noticing.
- Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
Capture?...Well, okay...They must have their reasons, hopefully they're good ones.
"Wish we'd brought Mom along," Yulia mutters under her breath, then banishes that thought to the back of her brain to join the others. "Rose, take over defense systems. Weapons and motion control on me," she calls over her shoulder to the pink haro plugged in behind her.
'Roger, haro!' the robobal warbles back. 'Activating combat defense apps.'
Since Kyle seems to be on to something...the purple mobile suit draws a pair of rods holstered in the top of its armored skirt, which telescope out into a proportional staff when she snaps and twists them together. >> Moving in! << she barks as warning as the suit lurches into a jog toward the monstrosity. That staff becomes a spear as a beam edge flickers to life just before it slashes at the closest tentacles, though it's still barrelling forward toward the monster's body.
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
"Copy that, we can keep it distracted while you seal this thing!" Kyle replies to the mage, not taking any more time than necessary to avoid getting smashed by the monster's tentacle assuming it comes his way. He's nimble, and his laser sword makes a fine distraction when it comes to being flashy.
He flings his lightsaber at another of the offending limbs, intending on severing it before the weapon extinguishes it's blue blade and flies back to his grasp telekinetically.
- Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
As she is being mostly left alone, perhaps because she is cheating and hovering in the air, it gives Sanae Kochiya time to refocus, the light of the sigil she traced in front of her becoming solid-seeming light in front of her. The only thing the creature attacks her with is that awful growling sound it's making, in defiance and annoyance. This earns it a scolding, that it likely can't understand, "If you don't want to be shot, you should just let yourself be sealed, then!" Her ears are sharp enough to have picked up on the key word 'Lost Logia' by now, as well as a certain name, Royce. That would be why this feels familiar. Nonetheless, she keeps pouring it on, with another blast of four homing, serpent-like shots to help try to keep the monster pinned down, and hopefully let the TSAB mages get back up and finish the job from their end.
She also finishes charging her laser, as it were. With her own glowing magic seal primed, she pauses to consider: If it's suppression they need, multiple shots are better than a stronger, single one. That is why, when the five points glow more prominently than the rest, they don't focus as a single beam before firing. Instead, each one fires individually, sweepingly across the main body of the critter, as well as inevitably those arms. Unlike a light saber, these don't exactly burn, much less cut. What they do, however, is pump magical power at whatever they strike, more like subdual damage. While it is multiple beams, their spread is still somewhat limited, and willingly aimed away at allies operating around the bulk of the beast. The drawback is that while she is pouring this much power into her magic, she cannot really move much. Hopefully it'll remain distracted with the ground threats - she knows she would be, with a huge robot attacking.
- Staren has posed:
"Ugh, how is it regenerating so fast?!" The mages radio something about a magic artifact inside it. Oh. Staren considers -- He has two special weapons that might actually do enough damage to give it pause even /with/ regeneration.
"I'm on it." Staren replies. He's already decelerating, and the sonic boom finally races ahead of him before he pulls up from his dive just above the monster, then flying away, slowing more and transforming before the robot finally lands in humanoid form almost a mile away.
The Star Hawk turns as its right shoulder-pack unfolds and extends into a massive railgun reminiscent of a rifle longer than the mech is tall, the machine reaching up and grabbing the foregrip to pull it down, swiveling on its shoulder mount.
[Anti-Wireless Railgun 0%]
As the weapon charges, the Star Hawk's wings open, allowing the missile packs mounted there to open and fire. A stream of missiles, a few at a time, launch into the air and make their way towards the monster.
[Anti-Wireless Railgun 25%]
The mini-missiles rain down from the sky, exploding in 30' wide fireballs that would burn ordinary, unprotected living matter to ash in an instant. It's probably less effective on magic-powered monsters, but Staren bets it will do /something/.
[Anti-Wireless Railgun 50%]
Staren watches the bar on his HUD fill, capacitors in the rifle storing up power as fast as the Star Hawk's reactors can produce it.
- Rory White (673) has posed:
"You're not thinking of going after that monster are you, Kotone?!" Rory White's seen that thing on the sensors. She doesn't think anyone should be fighting it. Why are they fighting it anyways?!
For the moment her efforts are focused on Search and Rescue, however. The stream of drones finally reaches around thirty - her limit without going to increasingly freaky means. Twenty or so dive into the downed ship, heedless of fire or dangers, using all manner of sensors to seek out survivors to be tagged for rescue if the drones can't do it themselves. Rory's own consciousness bounces between them all, making choices where the AIs require input and handling delicate work where they are insufficient.
It makes it look like she's commanding them all simultaneously with full care. Quite an illusion.
- Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
The whip-like tendril comes in for Cirra lightning fast, and with her focused on maintianing The Briar while asking questions, is a bad recipie in this situation.
She swings the Judge Blade up and tries to block, only to be half- successfull. IT slams her back and she ends up rolling in the dirt for quiet a distance until she comes to a stop. Panting she stands up agian.
"Someone. Enter the Ganemade and check the computers for those missing artifacts!" She snaps her sword open into a rifle and fires exploding crystal shards at the massive mosnter.
- Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is seeing that Rory is tending to the wounded that likely is for the best she's not suited to fight something this big yet, there's Staren and others there she just has the rocket launcher to see if it's needed givben the scale of the thing there. Kotone has taken command of a few of Rory's drones and is now sending out the units where she can to help find wounded and a few are also trying to find where Royce got to.
Well she was till Cirra barked an order and it was a damn good idea when she thought about it too. Kotone given her nature was also very suited to shis as she'd break off her hunt to get into the ship and go after the computer to see what she could find after she jacked in.
- Royce Artega (883) has posed:
The consentrated effort on taking down the monster was showing progress. The regeneration was amazingly fast, but effort from multiple sources, and the cauterizing strikes from Lightsabers, Beam Glaives and the like all start to wear it down. Exploding crystals pock the beast's outer carapace. Sanae is left alone for the most part. This thing isn't intelligent, and is going for the biggest threats, the thing that was holding it still, which is now stinging it with crystal bullets, and the big metal thing with the hot stabby thing. It turns as the Briar starts to fade, grappling with Yulia's Mobile Suit and roaring into the 'face', just as missiles start landing on its back, vaporizing huge chunks of its 'flesh', which regenerates a bit slower than before. Maybe it's wearing down.
HK would be unmolested in his search, and eventually, would find the wreckage of the helicoptor worm. Seems the 'meatbag' isn't as helpless as he thought. The area around the wreckage is also torn up, like a tornado came to this specific spot, before instantly disipating. How odd.
Kotone would find the same information HK got. The video recording of Royce taking the Artifacts of Black Rain, setting off the release function of the remaining artifacts, then fleeting into the wilderness after the ship crashed.
Unfortunately, everyone that was still inside the ship, that wasn't killed in the crash, were overcome by the toxic fumes, and have all suffocated in their trapped positions. No lifesigns to be found.
- Royce Artega (883) has posed:
Addendum: Recent footage shows a cloaked figure accessing the terminal, then heading the same way Royce went. The 'being' in a big hooded cloak or large cape moving fast through the underbrush.
- Staren has posed:
The rain of fireballs continues. It's just to keep the monster distracted while the heavy weapon powers up.
[Anti-Wireless Railgun 75%]
Staren plants his mech's feet firmly on the ground. Inspired by the legendary Glitterboy design, laser drills in the heels melt shafts into the ground and deploy stabilization pylons. Thruster ports open, nozzles angle calculated to offset the upcoming impulse. Struts with additional stabilization thrusters extend from the massive gun, as well as cooling fins. Staren moves the targeting reticle over the center of the massive beast and waits. Almost there...
[Anti-Wireless Railgun 100%]
[Anti-WirelFIRINGilgun 100%]
Stabilization thrusters fire to offset the recoil as capacitors in the base of the weapon dump gigajoules of energy into rails inside the barrel, creating a magnetic field that hurls the shell inside down the barrel at several times the speed of sound. Beyond the physical realm, enchantments layed upon the machine imbue the departing projectile with magic power to further enhance the accuracy and might of the destruction about to ensue.
It takes less than half a second for the projectile to cross the distance between mecha and monster at speeds so fast that the air ignites, making it look as if it's being propelled by a great pillar of fire.
Whatever it hits is going to have a very bad fraction of a second as tremendous, magic-enhanced kinetic energy is dumped into it all at once, and then the device /inside/ the shell triggers, opposing elemental energies allowed to combine and blow apart the shell in a very short-lived but forceful tempest of eldritch fire, water, and steam!
Vaporized coolant sprays from exhaust ports across mecha and railgun in clouds of green steam for a full second before it moves again. Staren watches anxiously to see if the massive monster disappears. Was it held in check long enough...?
- HK-47 (754) has posed:
...
Well... it seemed that once again, his Master's old sayings were true - meatbags could never be judged by their flimsy, squishy exteriors.
... well, perhaps not in those exact words, but the gist of the concept was the point; namely that HK-47 was perhaps mistaken in assuming the frail meatbag would be as frail as he seemed. Of course, he realizes in hindsight he should know better - the wrinkled, aged meatbag 'Kreia' had hardly seemed a threat, and yet not only had she been immensely powerful but she had also been the one to impart his Master and Creator with many of the manipulative, perceptive and cruel tendencies that HK had come to respect and adore his Master for.
As such, it was perhaps not quite so surprising that the meatbag he was pursuing had managed to be more formidable then he expected.... or perhaps he had utilized the relics to his advantage? Though that too would have been more then the droid expected. Or perhaps it had access to an energy field manipulation power not unlike the Force used by the Jedi and Sith?
Either way, the damage to the landscape was going to hinder the droid's attempts to pick up on the meatbag's trail... but he has to start somewhere.
Thus, wasting no more time, he begins searching for a pathway left by the meatbag - and should he find it quickly, he will immediately resume his chase, though now he is prepared for what may be a challenging combatant.
- Rory White (673) has posed:
Instead of pulling out people to rescue... Rory's drones end up locating and retrieving the dead. It's a grisly business but the drones lay down a massive tarp and just start laying bodies down in rows and covering them with white sheets. So much for that endeavor.
Kotone's discovered footage makes her angry though. In no time at all. "Someone SABOTAGED the ship?!" She could have been calm and somber had this been just a disaster, an accident... but now it's a crime. That's something else entirely. Her drones pause, awaiting instructions... and she only resumes doing so after about ten seconds of shock and emotional management.R
"The suspect must still be on the planet somewhere. But there might be a warp gate anywhere.."
- Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
The monster seems to be succumbing to the force pouring in from all sides. At least, as best as she can tell, since it can be hard to read the body language of things that aren't really humanoid. Yet, the reaction time seems slower, as does how quickly the injuries heal themselves. "I, *think* it's weakening," she calls, though her tone is thoroughly uncertain. That might just be some kind of terrible, tentacled horror's trick to lure them into a false sense of security! Of course, that might not be anything to consider, for much longer. Noticing yet another robot landing nearby, and appearing to set itself into the ground for something presumably massive, she breaks off from her own directed lasering, letting the beams dissipate before releasing the five-pointed, encircled star as a projectile of its own accord. She's clearing out for whatever that thing has in store.
Probably a good thing, too. The breeze rustles her robes from where she had taken a slightly safer position, to brace in case slag from the monster started coming at her like shrapnel. She still has several more of her seals in hand, though, just in case that and the others didn't finish it off enough for the TSAB personnel to deal with. More importantly, with this much heavy machinery around, and a guy with a laser for a sword, her thoughts turn to other things. No, not getting a picture with robots, but that name she heard earlier, Royce, and the missing Lost Logia. 'Well, he seemed like a nice enough guy, kind of nerdy,' she figures. No way he could have run off with something dangerous. That is worrisome, though, that the poor guy might be out there, somewhere, with them on the loose. "It looks like you all have lots of cool weapons on this. I'm going to start searching," she calls to the fellow monster assailants, before flying off! She'll presumably be refining that search a good deal, once and if the discovered information spreads.
- Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
In hindsight, charging in to try and pin the monster down when everyone else is raining down missiles, magical light beams, and lord knows what else upon it may have not been Yulia's Most Brilliant Tactical Decision Ever. In present sight, this usually works on Giant Monsters, even if it does give the people back on the bridge anxiety attacks every time she goes toe to toe with one. Thankfully Sanae has good aim. Staren's missiles are a bit more indiscriminate, and her mecha's ablative paint gets flash-burned down to flat plating and primer.
She's gotten its attention all right, which was also sort of the point of the tactic. Maybe a bit more attention than she really wanted, as she and her suit become one of its main targets as the creature wrests free of the weakening bonds. One tentacle wraps around the mecha's left arm, yanking it back and up at an unnatural angle, the spear torn away to spin through the air and land on the ground somewhere behind her. Gritting her teeth, Yulia twists the controls to reach out and grab in hand that tentacle to play a pretty sick version of tug of war with it.
It roars in her face as it jerks her mecha forward, and she is very glad that her cockpit is sealed.
She pulls taught on the tentacle and ignores the terrible noises all of the arm's joints are making, then suddenly bullrushes forward again, bringing hr mecha's still free right arm up to try and jam it up against the monster's top row of teeth. If she can get the other arm free just enough to jam it against its lower jaw...it can't bite if it can't close its mouth, right?
- Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa does not linger too long in the wreck she can only keep so much clean air in her system, for her remaining organics. She does however share the data with the other people in the Flotill and will double check to share the footage of what Royce did with the Union. She thinks Staren will but she has to be on the safe side in a situation like this.
<<Someone else got in here before we did from the looks of it>>
She add the addtional data with the mysterious cloaked figure but she's not going to stop as she gets the heck out of the wreck now they need to figure out what to do next aside from delaing with the wounded here and the monster. She didn't find a single living soul on the ship either.
<<Didn't find a single life sign in the hulk I think everyone's dead...>>
- Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
As the creature starts to slow down - a tad, Cirra runs, and dives into a slide down a piece of the Ganemede's hull, buying her enough time and cover to draw out another Law Card.
"The. Rampart!" she stabs the card into the ground, and crystal spikes sprout out of the ground, forming a barrier that inflict damage on the monster if it approaches her direction. This gives her enough time to look at the transmitted video files. "Royce...and someone else."
"Kotone." She shouts to the cyborg and points two fingers in the direction the hodded figure took off in. Signalling that they should pursue. THe Judge take off fromt he fight with the monster, running to the tree line. With some luck it'll just run itself into the barrier and mire itself for the others to take care of it.
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
"Yulia!" Kyle calls out, "What are you-Wait." Pause. It takes him a moment to realize before he gets a knowing grin on his face, producing some detonator charges before he begins to take a run towards the mobile suit.
Leaping and using whatever handholds he can, Kyle climbs his way up to the MS's shoulder before holding on for dear life while she wrestles the monster. THis might be a terrible idea, but he's used to that sort of thing.
He waits until the mouth is open enough, before he primes the charge and tosses as hard as it can, aiming for the monster's gaping maw before it goes up in a firey explosion.
"Sorry pal, don't have any antacids for you!"
- Royce Artega (883) has posed:
The Monster wobbles, then lets out a mournful whine, before the detonation charges silence it. The Railgun bolt slams into, and right through it searing a hole that reveals the pulsing core of the monster. The remaining Mages spot the opening, and swarm in, lashing Bind spells onto the creature while it's distracted, while the original group charge up their sealing spell again. This time it's much faster, as they don't need to burn through the thing this time. The beam strikes the core, and the monster yowls in agony, then quickly begins to disipate as the Core is sealed. The 'monster' turns out to have been a rather mundane sheep-like creature. It bleats, nips a bud from a narby plant, then prances off as if nothing happened.
HK would find little to note about the direction Royce went in, except perhaps a single footprint in the looser dirt heading northward, further away from the crash site. Cirra and Kotone, would eventually find the helicoptor worm wreckage. Likely long after HK has moved on from the area.
Rory's help with pulling the dead out of the wreck is appreciated. Grizzly business, the families of the people found would appreciate that they were given some proper respect.
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Kyle remains perched atop of Yulia's MS, bracing himself for the explosion before it goes up in sound and fury, until finally nothing is left.
He then balances himself atop her shoulder, before spying a sheep-like creature, looking on in confusion before he actually glances to the mecha's head. "Hard to believe those artifacts can make something that small into something so deadly." He muses aloud, before he leaps to the ground, the Force softening his fall and jogging towards the remaining mages. "Alright folks, what's left here?" He asks, trying to avoid getting too close if it's dangerous for non-mages to be at this distance.
- HK-47 (754) has posed:
A feint trace... and only one? It seemed... odd. If there was one print... where were the rest of them?
...
Still, it was the only lead he had... and he could not afford to waste time. There was no guarantee how long it would be before the Union members would start pursuing his quarry as well.
And so he decided he had to take a calculated risk. If it was a trap... well, traps could work both ways if one was expecting it. If it was a distraction, then if nothing else he would be out of the way enough to retreat without drawing suspicion and possibly never being detected. If it was correct, he would have his grand prize of the relics in hand.
All things considered, it was his best option... and only viable one, really.
Thus, moving ahead - though being sure to keep watch for any other signs that might make him suspect a different trail - HK continues to pursue his target, musing on how much longer it may or may not take before he may find what he is seeking.
- Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
>> Doing crazy and stupid things that make Avel cringe. << She's only half joking. >> Hang on! <<
The mecha begins backpedaling away, at first because she's expecting the presumed inevitable explosion...when that doesn't happen, at least not exactly, it's to be out of the way of the mages so that they can bind and seal and...well, Yulia has no idea what they're doing, really, but it's all very impressive to her untrained eyes.
The end result being a sheep that escapes seems almost anti-climatic, but a better outcome than an earth-shattering kaboom.
At this point, the mecha does not move very far, just a few steps to get further out of anyone's way. >> Was that the only one? <<
- Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
Cirra comes across the wreck of the clockwork wyrm and shoves a piece of the smouldering wreckage over with her foot. "This looks like some kind of hunter-killer drone." she pauses, "Though I can't discern the make of it." she walks the permiter of the mechanical carnage. "Something powerfull did this... one of the artifacts, possibly." she comments to Kotone as she looks for another lead to follow.
- Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is keeping with Cirra as they go she looks to her for a moment as they also take note of the wreckage.
"Maybe we'll have to find out and be on our guard if we do."
She keeps with Cira whom she's heard enough about to trust her in this situation.
"Right I'll keep an eye out for things and send a drone ahead hopefully that will get us some warning when we catch up with it but I wonder think Staren might be able to track these things given his experiance iwth both magic and tech?"
She opens a general channel.
<<We need to track relics if we can ans keep a heads up whatever else is out there is packing a lot of heat>>
- Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
There is no deeper knowledge of where things are heading, for Sanae Kochiya. Not even any 'miko sense' to follow, or Force ghosts guiding her through a voice in her head. But from her vantage point in the air, she does spot the movement of others following the trail, as well as hear the sealing rattles of the monster she had left behind to go scouting. Accordingly, she cruises along behind, until Cirra and Kotone apparently pause to examine the wreckage. She is just about to lower her own altitude to join them, when she spots something peculiar, and decides against it. Instead, she calls down, in response to the open frequency hailing Kotone projects, "I see something flying ahead. I'm going to go check it out!" And then, without any concern for personal safety whatsoever, she begins to pursue the other relatively low flyer she saw. Maybe it's a native life form, but given the circumstances, she can't ignore it, either.
- Rory White (673) has posed:
Well, Rory's efforts are unglamorous and sometimes grizzly, but someone has to do it. The wounded can't be just left there after all simply because running off after a GIANT MONSTER is more interesting.
"So we have what looks like... someone sabotaging the ship in order to make off with magical artifacts? And they are now active, out in the surroundings, and possibly hostile? There might be MORE monsters showing up?"
- Staren has posed:
Staren shot clean through it? "Oops. Maybe I overdid it..." Staren mutters to himself. After it's clear the mages have the monster in hand, he packs up the gun and flies over to them. "Is there any way for us to track the artifacts that have been removed from the ship?" he asks, over local radios or speakers if necessary.
- Royce Artega (883) has posed:
"That was the last uncontained Lost Logia, apart from the ones that we now know Royce stole." says one of the Mages, as they move to secure the artifact. It looks like some kind of pendent, now it's not encased in a glowing spherical core. "Just need to recontain this and we're good, thank you Mister Katarn, everyone." the 'Lead' mage says, his Device giving a chime of confirmation too. "Hey... you see that too?"
On the horizon, black clouds are starting to form, some kind of weather system? The orbital vessels would be able to tell this isn't natural. No signs of it were present before a few minutes ago, and it's getting bigger.
Rory's concerns are likely aleviated by someone passing on the message that the giant monster was the last 'free' Logia.
Staren's question earns someone flying up to the 'head' of his mech. "Yeah, we have a tracker aboard the Ganemede, but it's kinda busted and buried. If you can get it out, we might be able to figure out where Royce went.
Sanae's approach doesn't go unnoticed by the flying thing. It suddenly changes direction, picking up speed and beginning to trail a golden light behind it, which is sickly mixed with traces of a blue that looks unhealthy.
- Royce Artega (883) has posed:
HK, if he doesn't have any kind of air-sensor, would likely lose track of his quarry. Cirra and Kotone also, though they have Sanae to point them in the right direction.
- Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
The unfortunate thing about flying is, unless one has a cloaking device or something, it does not lend itself well to stealth. She is particularly obvious, with her fluttering robes, and when the unidentified flying object appears to notice her, she calls out, "Hey, wait!" It's particularly shocking, when she overhears some of the chatter going on over the radio. Could that nice Royce guy really have been involved in this? As the fellow flyer begins to tear away in glowing streaks across the sky, she does her best to follow it for a few moments, remembering what had become of that person in the mine, when she first found out what a Lost Logia even was.
"<<He seemed so nice, though,>>" she openly recalls. "<<Maybe it brain washed him into breaking it loose?>>" She does her best to keep up, her miracle power flaring up and willing more wind around her, but the strange, less dense atmosphere of this planet simply does not cooperate with her, and she should be thankful she can fly here at all. When it becomes obvious she cannot keep up at all, and with this freakish storm roiling in, she's forced to call back, "<<I...I lost it. Whatever it was. I can only give a heading and last position. Sorry!>>"
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Kyle nods, "Don't let me keep you, then." He says, clapping the mage on the shoulder before his attention is caught.
A pinge of /something/ crosses his mind, as he frowns. It's a hell of a thing to feel over the Force, but he handles it stoically. "...I sense a disturbance in the Force, like there was something crying out for help, before suddenly going quiet." He says out loud at last, eyes narrowed. "I get the feeling this isn't over yet."
- HK-47 (754) has posed:
What exactly had /happened?/ His target had left little to no trace of passage.
Where could the meatbag have vanished to?
However, one of many things HK had been equipped with was sensors to help compensate for most effects or obfuscation... compensating for air-pressure changes altering his shots being one of these things.
But having air-pressure sensors is not the same as dedicated atmospheric-sensory suite.
As such... he lacked an exact direction to go on... and the fact that whatever had been moving through the air must have broken the sound barrier at the rate it was going.
And considering his own relative speed was far underneath that, there was disappointingly little chance he would catch up to his target before the trail dissipated. The most he could do was log the approximate direction it went in.
And in doing so... ponder to himself how any meatbag could /possibly/ endure such speeds?
Granted, it was the Multiverse, so physics as he recognized them may not necessarily apply - a frustrating concept to have to work around at times - but, at the same time, he could not help but wonder if the relics the meatbag had been carrying had contributed to these abilities.
It would not be unnatural for energy to be imbued from the relics to the fleshling. His Master had possessed notes on theories that artifacts imbued with 'the Force' could empower those that could access them.
...
In any case, there was no chance he was going to make good on his original goal of obtaining the artifacts. In which case... the only thing he could do was opt to pull out while he was still undetected. After all, his recent attempt to assassinate Toph Beifong - the daughter of widely-known Union Major Anthony Stark - had likely made him a very unwelcome sight among Union members. And while he would normally revel in being regarded with such well-deserved concern with him as a threat, it was not advantageous for his current situation.
Thus, ensuring he has the correct coordinates for the last known general direction his target left in, HK-47 begins stalking back through the woods to retreat for the moment.
Perhaps he could find a way - transport of some form - to pursue the target later on, if he had the chance. And if nothing else... it was an interesting development to appraise his Master of.
If nothing else... it had been an intriguing, if not disappointingly conflict-free event to investigate.