Scene #2625: Robots in the Rookery

Owner	Pose
Septette Arcubielle	Something is here. Radar, EM sensors, thermal imaging, even magical detection- all would show a disproportionately strong signal coming from near one of the warp gates. To a decent sensor array, it would almost be visible from space. The dragons seem to know it, too: those with nests to protect seem unusually alert, while the free-roaming wyverns tend to give it a cautious berth. Closer to the signal's origin, one would start to find deep talon-marks on the ground and even the rocks, with the occasional scorch mark and spatters of blood. One or two particularly foolhardy dragons had been drawn to the magical signal and swiftly dispatched, left where they lie with deep cuts marking their bodies. Septette didn't bother to wipe the blood off of her blades as she went about her patrol- there would doubtless be other things looking for a fight before she completed her rounds. Her own sensors aren't particularly acute; if she's noticed anything unusual thus far, it certainly doesn't show in her relaxed and apparently cheerful demeanor. For no discernable reason, she stops in the middle of an empty clearing and glances around, ear-fins twitching... perhaps it's just her nerves, but something doesn't feel right about this place.
Shizue	Flying on wings of white somewhere above the treacherous mountain terrain teeming with reptilian life, is something decidedly much smaller than the gargantuan monsters that call this place home. Smaller even that the more reasonably-sized Septette, a 15cm gynoid wearing steel plated armor of red and white coloration and an oriental aesthetic. Obscuring her face, a mask shaped like a caricature of the arctic snow fox - with eyes black as night and a perpetual grin fashioned from ceramic material. Over the expanse of the Great Mountain valley she flies, gazing long and silent upon the rolling hills below. It was not until that blip appeared that she'd taken to the sky, keen to stalk about in the trees and underbrush whilst taking stock of the occupation, the ongoing activities surrounding it, and ascertaining where advantages might be had. She had been content. But now that something bigger and more noticeable than even the technological dragons roaming here had become apparent... She was keen to confront it. Descending from the sky some feet away, the tiny Shink appears to land upon an overly large stone. A flash of light, and from the slipway a bow of white coloration is drawn and its string is drawn taut. No doubt if her opponent had sensors, she too might be noticed. So she makes no real attempts to hide, shouting... "Hey, do you always destroy valuable resources for sport or what?" If Septette loooked hard enough, she might even find that tiny, seemingly harmless, bow aimed directly at her...
Septette Arcubielle	Tilting her head a little, Septette focuses her eyes on the smaller robot. Her artificial irises brighten somewhat, and there's a quiet whine from somewhere inside her cloak as a cooling fan switches on. "When they attack me first, yes," she replies in a surprisingly conversational tone. "The few I've killed hadn't the sense to stay out of my way, or the good nature not to try and kill me." Most of the ancient war machine's skeletal form is hidden by her ragged purple cloak until a long, curved blade snaps out of her forearm, hinged at her wrist. The blood on it is still wet, but it shows no nicks or signs of wear. Despite the threatening move, Sept's smile never wavers: "I don't know who you are, little one, but you seem intent on making the same mistake that they did. There's no chance I can talk you out of that, is there?" A trio of baseball-sized hovering drones flicker into existence around her: red, blue, and yellow. They seem to have no weapons of their own, but charge up as Septette diverts magical energy into them... "I kind of like you, though," she adds incongruously. "If worse comes to worst, who should I mail your pieces to?"
Shizue	"That's what happens when you tread where you do not belong.", the masked Shinki replies, even-keeled, to Septette's first comment. The draw string is pulled just a little tighter, slender fingers recurling and tightening about the bow's frame for a better grip even as she stares pensively at her opponent. When that blade appears, she somewhat reflexivey steps back even though she's still at a good range from her target. As she does so, however, her mechanical wings of porcelean white slowly come to life... extending themselves just a touch in preparation. "..No chance." comes her second, very terse, reply after a few moments of cold and mostly still silence. "...Hmph." is the only reply to 'mailing the pieces' Septette will get before that teeny gynoid takes to the air... loosing an arrow at her from above that - if it hits - just might rock her world a little. If not... there might be a new crater there soon!
Septette Arcubielle	Septette looks a little bit disappointed by her opponent's reply, and extends the matching blade on her other arm as both edges begin to glow red-hot from their temporary enchantments as Shizue takes flight. Her density prevents her from moving as nimbly as the Shinki, but she reacts swiftly and with practiced precision, twisting to one side so that it passes right through her hollow 'ribcage' without striking any delicate components. The ground behind Septette practically explodes, and she takes advantage of the blast wave to boost her leap into the air, using small thrusters in her legs to try to stay within striking distance of the agile Shinki as she lashes out with those curved blades. Despite her aged and damaged components, Arcubielle aims her strikes with surprising skill: she may not be able to move half as quickly as her smaller opponent, but she compensates by leading the flying robot and trying to anticipate her defensive maneuvers. "You're quite the little marvel, you know," Septette comments in an unnaturally casual tone as she lands nimbly. "Please don't take this personally, okay?"
Shizue	Shizue's own, discrete, thrusters active in her wing unit as well as her feet - propelling her backward even as her arrow explodes violenttly upon contact with the ground. "...Mrrrn..." A groan of frustration penetrates her thin, ceramic, mask as her opponent begins to approach - visibly unphased by her arrow. "...So fast, for something so large...!" The Shink begins her usual evasive maneuvers, attempting to weave her way around her much larger opponents slashes. But the speed and complexity of the attack patterns leaves her at a loss, ultimately taking a deep gash across her front plate and shredding armor debris with an audible crack and high-pitched whining! Whirling away from her opponent like a ragdoll tossed on the air, due to the sheer momentum, it takes the Shinki several moments to unstall after losing a few dozen feet of altitude. With a barely audible hiss, and a grinding of mechanical components, she gains control of her flight pattern again.... and darts straight for her opponent before chucking a tiny little hand-made bomb at her from the Slipway. "...Catch!"
Septette Arcubielle	Twisting around to face her opponent as the flying robot regains control, Septette focuses in on the tiny bomb, but this time she can't move quite quickly enough: though she starts moving almost as soon as it leaves Shizue's hand, the larger robot can't change her momentum quickly enough to get out of its blast radius. Realizing swiftly that she'll take a direct hit regardless, Arcubielle switches tactics, charging towards Shizue again in an attempt to keep her adversary within melee range! An instant later, the bomb goes off just in front of Septette's chest, tearing off most of her cloak and lighting the rest on fire. In addition to damaging her cooling systems and hydraulics, it reveals something rather interesting: inside her flesh-tone ribcage is a glowing red sphere, wired up to her 'spine' and emitting the bulk of that harmless radiation. It certainly looks important, but is it vulnerable? Despite the damage she's sustained, Septette's attacks don't skip a beat; either she's exceptionally disciplined or simply doesn't feel pain. This time she takes a couple of swipes that can't possibly connect, falling several inches short of her opponent, but hopefully serving to drive the Shinki back towards a large flat rock- where those spherical drones are waiting for her. The blue and yellow create weak electrical fields to hem Shizue in on either side, and the red one projects a jet of white-hot flame at her as it draws on Septette's magic! "You're not the only one with a bag of tricks," she says softly over the crackling roar of the magical fire. "Don't count on strength or size to make me careless."
Shizue	KRAAKOOOOMMM!!! ...is what that explosion should have sounded like. If it were bigger. But unfortunately, it amounts to little more than a gun shot. Still, like a gun shit it was potent - definitely enough to do minor damage even to machinery and burn any fabric not flame-retardant in make. And that's pretty much exactly what happens, a portion of Shizue's opponent being engulfed in flames and then... ...Not stopping or even so much as flinching. "...Pffft, bosses are always hax." An obscure quote about gaming culture spews forth from her lips before her thrusters kick in strongly again and the Shinki begins to attempt evasive maneuvers - bobbing and weaving deftly around the successive blade swings whilst descending until finally coming to realize that something was amiss. "...Those swings were..." ...And then she begins to pay attention to her supplimentary sensory data again. "Blips on the radar, maneuvering... where?" Her head whirls, attempting to locate the attack drones her opponent was attempting to corner her with. "...All sides..." comes a faint and decidedly somber tone. She's soon snared in an electrical field, and her 15cm body absolutely submerged in flames, emiting a shrill cry as her components simultaneously overheat, melt, and misfire all at the same time. The end result is a grounded Shinki, who hits the rocky earth with a soft thud, before beginning to push herself back to her knees. "...Damage extensive already, auxiliary support systems failed. Sensors black..." About what one would expect for a power difference of this magnitude. "...Gotta get out of here..." she grouses, standing slowly. "...but first..." Within the space of a few moments her opponent might see another tell-tale slipway flash as Shizue switches from Bow to Katana and then proceeds to take to the air again... and fly straight at her in an attempt to drive it directly into that exposed glowing red sphere. "...Here goes...!"
Septette Arcubielle	Adjusting her stance and taking a step back, Septette withdraws the drones before the dust and smoke can dissipate. The Shinki almost certainly survived, but even if her work here isn't done, that trick isn't likely to work twice. "I wasn't kidding about the box, you know," she says as her vision clears, sounding a little impressed by her foe's bloody-minded persistence. "But you're looking at this all wrong. I'm not some endgame boss. I'm an optional encounter-" Her voice cuts out momentarily as the Shinki initiates her kamikaze attack, and Septette shifts all of her focus to preparing a counter. Electricity arcs between the veteran android's knifelike fingertips, and her retinal displays cut out as she shuts down secondary systems in anticipation for the blow... The katana strikes true, but slides off of the crystalline core as it catches on a crackling field of energy. A moment later, Septette brings her hands together, trying to trap the smaller robot in her claws and deliver a damaging shock! "-You're the one who picked a fight with me," she finishes in a dissonantly cheery tone. "It's not like we have to kill each other to advance."
Shizue	There's a momentary clanking of metal on metal and a shrill scraping sound as Shizue's katana scrapes against the core bit does absolutely nothing. It was like a child with a plastic knife trying to cut into a tank. As that familiar crackling of electricity begins once more, Shizue realizes her gambit had failed and she was in way too deep. There was only one appropriate thing to do... ...be spiteful. "The thing optional here is your brain! Apparently you opted out! There's nothing optional about...!" She's cut off by the overwhelming currents of electricity that consume her mid-sentence, causing her body to begin to spasm violently and her armor parts to become completely blackened from all of he burns she's received today. Finally, a cascade of system failures result in her thrusters cutting off, her body going slack, and her falling out of the air... even as the attack continued to shred components off of her. The unconscious Shink simply... falls to the ground in a cloud of burnt armor debris... with a minor exposion in her flight unit occuring on the way down. Then, silence.