524/Target: Caverns of Prophecy

Target: Caverns of Prophecy
Date of Scene:	01 September 2014
Location:	Caverns of Prophecy (CP)
Synopsis:	Kaede decides to go do some snooping around and finds herself dealing with some Garlean Troopers over the Caverns Of Prophecy.
Cast of Characters:	312, 522

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Kaede (312) has posed:
    It's always cold up here.

    That would be Kaede's complaint if she weren't trying to be sneaky, using small bursts of her jetpack to ascend the rock face, avoiding the main patrol routes and trying to get the drop on the local defenders. She'd be hard to spot regardless, though her paint-scheme would stick out, her size makes her hard to see from a distance. She transmits a short radio burst back to Union HQ, just before she crests the top of a rock face. Her visor flips down over her eyes, and she uses its thermal and other sensors to scan out the area, looking for troop placements and any Elite presence.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
It would seem today that Elites were not here, but rather some of normal soldiers. They were down in the Caverns themselves and given full face helms.. for once.. to wear due to the vapors that were known to be in here. By rank-n-file these men and women down here were that of Garlean Troopers. They had one some metal parts, but mostly black leather and some crimson red cloth.

A few had gunblades at their side, some others had normal shields and swords.. and a few actually had metal staves. They were using a rock face to play some type of card game, though a few were indeed walking around.

There was some conversation that echoed to those who had good enough hearing and were indeed being quiet enough. "I can't believe we were stuck here on guard duty." One of them rumbles as he throws down his card into whatever game they are playing. "I mean, we are not even a full Century, let alone-- we don't even /have/ a Centurion here."

The other one then goes to choose one of his cards carefully, "We don't need a Centurion. This isn't a military operation, just a guard cycle we are doing for the Confederacy. You know-- to show that the Garlean Empire is willing to share some of its forces to help protect important locations."

The other one gruffs once more. "I don't see what is so important about this place."

One with the staff who has been doing most of the walking around looks back at the group, "This place is important because of the magics at work here.. now respect the command given to us and break is nearly over."

"Yeah yeah."

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Kaede pauses there... about twenty... no, thirty she can see, probably more inside. All human-sized and armoured. Plan of attack has to change, she was expecting Stormtroopers, or another group... these guys she's not seen or read about before.

    The Shinki ducks back down, then goes over her equipment... the Blaster will just plink off, but the Bolter only has limited ammo before its spent and unusable... Can't use enemy gear, its too large and her blades probably won't cut deep enough to penetrate that armour unless she gets a vital spot...

    She takes a 'breath' calming her nerves, before her visor clicks back down, her vernier jets flare open and she summons a large (for her) caliber Rifle into her hands with a flash and soft chime of the Slipway.

"I'MFROMTHEUNIONPLEASELEAVERIGHTNOWORISTARTSHOOTINGTHANKS!" she blurts out, as she streaks in a tight loop from her hiding place, firing randomly into the group with the solid report of a slug-thrower.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
When the yell of words came out and then suddenly gun shots. It caught several of them guard and a few others quickly spun around to go after who yelled found themselves being blasted right off there feet.

A few quickly ducked for cover and then ones playing the card game abandoned it as soon as the shots skimmed by, including one of them throwing his cards up in the air, "Cripes!" The group quickly got behind a few rocks and then made sure the chambers of there Gunsword was read to be fired.

One of them looked over at two of the mages who had taken cover, which he yelled over to them, "Come one already! Do your magic deal!"

One of the mages tsks, but the other one steps around the corner, with a glow of her staff's tip and a glow under her feet. She spins around sharply and blasts out a wave of magical aura that rips the stone from the very area and then hurls it right at Kaede.

While the magic is being casted, another group goes to take a flank position to try and get a better angle. A few with shields are also trying to make move toward her location, holding up there shields as they go to move in.

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Kaede yelps and starts to bank, twist and jink through the rock storm. It doesn't do that much good, as she gets pelted by gravel which breaks off one of her little winglets and cracks the connector pylon of her left engine. "I asked you nicely!" she fusses, firing at the mage with another couple of shots, before her targetting sensors light up. Flanking her? Great... uh, think, thinkthinkthi--GOT IT! She launches herself straight up, dismissing her rifle in favour of a buckler shield, sporting a pair of curved blades, with a third in her free hand.

    At the apex of her launch, she cuts engines and comes down from overhead, looking to get at one of those Gunbladers hiding behind the rocks. "Special Delivery! Sharp stabby thing for Mister Henchment #3441? Sign here please!"

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
A group that was moving to the flank find themselves getting divebombed. The blades cut into the leather parts of the armor drawing out blood. A few of them get shoved against the rock face and another one who attempts to get his bearings, takes a swipe at Kaede, but trips over his own feet in a sense.

The group with swords an shields though haven't ceased there own pursuit and as soon has the odd being they faced focused on one group, they come running in, attempting to not only shield bash her-- but if she gets hit by the bash, another tries to bring his sword down in a quick cleaving motion with the blade.

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Kaede's proximity alarm triggers, her vision filled with an alert and directional info. She spins in mid air, bringing up her own little shield to take that bash. The servo in her arm whines in protest, before she fires her jets to get clear of the group, missing the slash by sheer luck and speed. "Hmmph, you're not fun to play with." she grouses, then perks up. "I know! Lets play follow the leader! I bet you can't catch me~!" she chirps, then turns to head into the caverns, turning corners and generally trying to be an nuisance... but not before one of those blades is /thrown/ at one of the Shield users, the curved little dagger spinning like a shuriken.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The group can't fly nor can they really easily keep up with her. They are not even sure /what/ she is! A machine of some kind? Maybe? They have no clue. But she is a threat to this place and being she declared herself union-- yeah-- someone was pretty sure she said union-- she was probably here to take this place.

Kaede's thrown knife jams right into one of the shield users necks and takes him /straight/ down. He is a dead man now. They will have to carry him out once this is over. One of the mages steps around and with no staff in his hand, he reaches up with aetheric energy rolling across his fingers. Looking for the aetheric threads to grasp, even as another one goes behind him, "There is no Aether--"

Then he seems to grab something and as he does so a massive wind gust comes out of no where to try and slam Kaede into the ground. This causes the other mage to tilt there head as they continue, "--here? Huh."

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Kaede giggles, well they haven't caught up wit--- WHOA FLOOR! The sudden downdraft sends her plummeting, catching an outcrop and knocking one of the blades of her shield off before her jets right her course. "No fair! That's cheating!" she shouts, her voice echoing through the caverns now.

    She reverses course, coming back towards the group with another weapon materializing as she rounds the corner. Her right hand now holds some strange device, it doesn't look like a wea--- PWIPWIPWI! the 'muzzle' flashes, and little yellow bolts flash out, aiming for the mage that's wiggling his fingers in the air. It's some kind of a laser, though the bolts might only sting, they're relatively low power.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The other mage quickly comes around and raises up her staff to block the incoming shots with a magical barrier. the shots blast the edges of the barrier apart and cause her to wince. "You should go see to those troopers!"

The gunblade wielders that have been hanging with the mages take notice as Kaede moves into range. They quickly move out from there position and start to open fire. Bullets fly from the Gunblades right for Kaede, as one of them suddenly closes the distance and quickly leaps into the air to go and catch her with the gunblade's edge.

..Is that cat tail?

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Kaede huffs at the shield. "That's not fair!!" she whines... then suddenly bullets and a... cat-person-man-thing leaping an... that's a sword and...

THUD!

    Kaede gets hit by that gunblade, and sent slamming into the ground, bits of plastic breaking from her armour and one of her engines fizzling before reignighting, spewing smoke for a few seconds. She stands up, slowly, lifting her head to /glare/ at the Miqo'te that hit her. "... that." she begins, before her shield vanishes and two blades appear in her hands. She shifts her stance, then LAUNCHES into the air, right at his masked face. "HURT!"

    The Shinki goes full speed, jinking in and laying slashes across the Gunblader's armour, not caring where she hits, just cutting him up for hitting her.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The Miqo'te Garlean lands down and quickly moves himself around, he parries away one of the Kaede's attacks, but the other slashes into the leather armor of his shoulder. He staggers back, but he then goes to spin the blade upward in a whirlwind fashion.

If she isn't quick and the blade gets ahold of her, she may find herself getting juggled a few times by the blade, before he actually goes to drop kick her back into the ground. What a jerk!

Kaede (312) has posed:
    The thing about Fliers... they can often right themselves in mid-air. The whirlwind slash sends her spinning, but as the Miqo'te tries for the drop-kick, she suddenly stops, then jinks off to the side, bringing those dagger-blades down into his leg. "Why don't you sit down, your legs look MANGLED!" she chirps happily, before flitting off in search of another target, regardless of what her current foe ends up doing. She locks onto the mages again, dismissing her blades for the rifle. "Hey! Lets see that bubble stop this!" she goads, then fires off a few shots from the gun.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
One of the mages was actually tended to some of the wounded, so when the bullets come, she can't stop them in time and they go right through the leather armor she is wearing. The other one also gets nail as well and staggers against the rock.

He grits his teeth, as he watches the Miqo'te who was in close combat with her lay on the floor crying out in pain. He then looks back at Kaede. His eyes narrow, though they can not be seen thanks to the helm they are wearing.

He then extends out his hands, before the area shakes. One of the guys who was playing cards earlier looks over at him. "Kage! Don't!" To late though...

The mage slams his hands together and the walls seem to explode as boulders and rocks of different sizes are all thrown right for Kaede in all sorts of different directions. The mage roars out, "Begone from here member of Union! This is Confederate land!"

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Well, Rocks are an effective weapon. The Shinki is buried under several, in fact, one crushing a leg and snapping it from its mounting outright, while another smashes and destroys one of her engines. Luckily she didn't get entombed in the pile.

    The debris suddenly explodes outward, and the Shinki lifts up on her one remaining engine, missing a leg and glowering with one silver eye visible through her shattered visor. "Master bought me this visor... Now it's RUINED!" she growls, launching herself forwards to just slam HERSELF into the mage's helmet-clad face.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Kaede shows her rage! --and the mage pays for it dearly as the he is slammed into the head by her. It isn't the helment that breaks, its the sheer force that knocks the mage right over. One of the Gunblade wielding troopers tsks as he loads up ceruleum shells into his gunblade's chamber. "We need to get people out of here."

"But if we leave," The other states who is doing the same. "Then we could be marked as cowards."

"And you have a better idea?!" The one barks over. They both though at the same time spin around from where they were protecting themselves and unleash several shots from there Gunblades. Though the shells look normal, they have an explosive force on impact that is marked by a blast of blue flames.

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Reckless attacks preclude defense. Kaede is struck by a few of those bullets, her frame shedding fragments and exposing the inner workings of her body. Luckily her CMS is the most heavily shielded section or she might have just gone down when its casing is <span class="underline bold_fg_r bg_n ++ aught.

    chr">S-SYSTEM ERROR. POWER SYSTEMS RUNNING LO-- DESTROY. ELIMINATE. KILL.</span>

    That silver eye? Turns blood red as she recovers from the explosion, peeling herself out of a cavern wall. Her helmet is discarded, revealing the half-destroyed face beneath. "Now you've made me angry." she growls low. That big Rifle is brought back out. She checks it quickly... four shots left... make them count.

    She aims at the Gunbladers, but instead of firing immediately, she holds the trigger for a second, then releases. Each time she does this, four in total, the 'bullet' seems to be much, MUCH bigger, and their impact far more pronounced.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The two gunblade wielders blink when they see that big rifle swing around-- and if this was an anime-- they would be sweat dropping. "SHIII!!" They both yell as they suddenly run from the shells. The explosions rock right behind them as they try to scamper around the corner, one of them grabbing the Miqo'te as they do so who hollars in pain as they move in.

They hide there for a moment before one of them tosses the other one of his packs. "Take care of his legs."

"And what are you going to do?!"

"You said we need to leave right? We can't leave so long as killer machina is trying to blast our heads off!"

The other one ruffles through the pouch, even as they both flinch at another shot goes blasting by. "Well.. Then get to it man!"

He gives a nod, then pushes off around the corner, moving around in a circle in the cavern to try and get a different position on Kaede. He then pulls out a device from his pouch. A garlean equivalent to a grenade really. "Hey! Tin-can!" He roars out, "CATCH!" He then leaps and throws the blue orb, which flickers several times.

He goes to dive behind a bolder and huddle down. The grenade that was thrown however blinks faster and faster, before it suddenly explodes in a power blast wave of blue energy and flames. It may not do much to her, but it sure did cause the area to shake!

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Kaede's built in target tracker notes the target, spots the grenade... but she can't clear the blast zone in time. More fragments come flying off, including her other leg. The remaining engine sputters, belching out black smoke as it just barely hangs on. "You wanna leave!? Well I won't stop you if you just GO!" she shouts, dismissing her spent rifle and summoning her blaster. "That's what I wanted in the FIRST PLACE! But NOOOOOOooo, you had to make this DIFFICULT!" she grouses, acting very much like a huffy little child. The grenade thrower is treated to the sight of her building charge in the laser gun... this time, instead of a bolt, it's a BEAM of white-yellow energy.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The one who was hiding from behind the rock, goes to make a bolt for it, "Like we are going to believe that!" He barks out. As his hand goes to hit the ground to flip over to the next cover, he is slammed by the beam and impacts into the side of the wall and is knocked out cold.

Kaede is slowly being surrounded by dead bodies and a few unconscious really. There isn't much movement at first, until one of the normal sword wielders comes to sneak up around from behind and then goes to not only try to shoulder tackle her into a wall and then attempts to impale his blade into her. "Get the Cote out of here now!" He barks out as he hopes to pin her for a moment.

The one who was also hiding grabs the buddy after he patched up the wounds using heat from two magitek devices to burn the wounds closed, picks up the guy and goes to make a run out of it. Already radioing to the airship about needing the pickup with medical.

Though this fight isn't over, cause yes, there are still those here willing to fight on. After all-- only a fool of a Garlean would back down then face the wrath of the Black Wolf.

Kaede (312) has posed:
    PROXIMITY ALERT! CORE FRAME DAMAGE REACHING CRITICAL LEVELS.

    Kaede bursts her remaining engine, getting caught by the shield on the way out. She slams into the ceiling and winces as one eye pops free of its socket. "You're getting on my nerves, just GET OUT OF HERE ALREADY, SHEESH!" she grouses, then gives the Shield-guy a few bolts of laser fire for his trouble.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Those who do wake up, find themselves getting orders on there comm to pull out, as this doesn't look like a fight they can turn around. The one with the shield takes notice that the machine is falling apart though and chuckles lightly, as he twirls the sword in his hand. "Your not even compa--ARGH!" He doesn't even get to finish that insult before he shot back by the laser bolts.

The mage named Kage, shakes his head as he looks up from what he can tell is a losing battle. The female mage, an old friend of his-- lies dead. He removes her helm and then gently brushes the hair out of her face. He then lowers his head, before he grits his teeth.

Reaching up, he foolishly tosses his helm aside. The elf like ears are noticeable, but shorter then a standard elezen found in Eorzea. His eyes glow with a hint of white light. He takes her staff in hand and twirls it around, before it goes to rest it behind his arm. His other hand swings over to the side across his chest. There is a flicker of light forming in his hand.

His other hand twirls the staff into the ground before he goes to pull upon what little threads can be found of Aetheric energy. He lets out a roar in not only frustration but in his anger, he his hand comes around and then unleashes a blast of white searing light through the very tunnel where Kaede is. The light itself seems to 'cleanse' any blood from the area, by simply burning it away.

Though when the spell is done, Kage nearly collapses to his knees.

Kaede (312) has posed:
    Kaede is battered, yes. Her core frame is heavily damaged and she's running low on power. The burning light catches her and melts an entire arm off. The remaining engine dies as well, leaving the Shinki to slowly float down to the ground. "Just go... Take your wounded and leave." she says, oddly calm. Kage... though. He's earned the full flame of the Shinki's ire. Her remaining arm lifts, and the laser begins to spin up. It hits the original charge level... then continues along another charge sequence. "I'm sorry..." she says, then releases the charge. The beam this time is a blue-white torrent of energy.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Kage gets blasted away by the laser beam from Kaede. As for the others they are already moving out and jumping down to the airship that has arrived. No one really wants to report this to the Legatus, but they will need too and they will need to explain how they lost...

How they lost to a little robot with a whole lot of arsenal.