Scene #5697: Lost in the Depths-3

Owner	Pose
Wandering Dog	The Sage of the Depths is dead. The Lunar had been slayed by the adventurers deep underwater in the city of Luthe, and the entire city was under alert. The temple in which the adventurers fought was being steadily flooded via a broken window, and the time for celebration was short. Through the window, a problem could be clearly spotted. A colossal whale was approaching Luthe, fitting of the title of 'Great Whale God'. Almost one hundred feet long, a dark-colored orca with light pale markings across its head, chin, neck, and chest. Everyone on this side of Luthe could see the Great Whale God, who will be at Luthe in several minutes, barely enough time to react, based off of how fast it is moving. A whalesong is sung, one of fury and sorrow, of vengeance and hate. More soldiers arrive, and see and hear their god. Swimming up the stairs of the vast interior of the dome, the sight and song clearly move them, as the sharkmen merely glance at each other, before splitting up. Several bypass the group entirely, moving to swim up to where the stairs haven't been submerged just yet, before heading to the higher levels of Luthe, inside the cavernous temple floor. Several more decide to engage with the party, splitting off and weaving between walls and statues fluidly, moving to try and intercept and assault the group with their electric spears. These likely aren't the only ones, and with the flooding, they have the advantage. Up to, the chaos can't be seen, but someone was left behind as scout and lookout, and he's very worried. A hawk made of jade sits up on a roost, watching the waves, before trying to communicate to a man whose radio isn't on hand. Unable to reach Wandering Dog minutes ago, Lieren has put out a distress call, requesting someone to take a look and assist in rescuing slaves, and there's still ships moving towards the region of Luthe to ferry any adventurers or would-be heroes. The Starbound Flotilla has left behind equipment that will allow one to breathe underwater and survive the pressure, in both technological and plant/psychic-based formats, which can allow that problem to be bypassed. Once underwater, Luthe is a massive dome of technology and jutting structures, with several 'pods' connected to it in a ring around the city. Various shark-like humanoids seem to be getting prepared through the vast windows of the lit-up city, movement clear once up close. There's one entrance that is relevant - a massive smashed window on the upper part of Luthe, from which a massive wounded fishmonster is swimming away, and through which the party can be seen and reached. You have only a few minutes before the Great Whale God arrives on Luthe. The flooding is going to reach the upper levels soon. The Traitorspawn, slaves of Luthe, have still not been accounted for, and therefore are likely on the higher levels. What will you do?
Starbound Flotilla	Late arrival at this stage will mean that basically nobody is on-site to provide new folks with the breathing gear, so they'll wind up with a selection left behind: A big, fancy industrial scuba set, a high-tech rebreather styled like a gasmask, a sleek, stylish fish-aesthetic cheek-finning device, a weird crystal-embedded carved-rock-looking semi-magical implement, a fancy brass, glass, and gears breathing implement, or... A little sprout of a plant with odd algae growths, grown and bred to provide oxygen underwater when used as a mask! That's the Floran option, at least; it may be the one best suited to Blossom, if she's averse to the others on their racks.
Finna	This is a tricky issue. Upon hearing that the Whale God is coming, Finna decides to SWIFTLY vacate her disrespectful perch atop his statue and down to the soaked city where water's pouring in. She doesn't fear drowning or the pressure - she can just shapeshift into a more fitting form after all! But the fox gazes on the others with a mildly dirty 'you should have seen this coming!' expression and croons once with her snout for the ceiling. Almost a howl. Contained in that one sound is a warning: 'get ready.' Unwilling to be seen in her True Form by another Lunar, Finna briefly takes stock of the situation... and VAULTS out into the battlefield. Landing briefly on one of the Beastmen soldiers, she BITES into his shoulder just hard enough to draw blood and steal a taste... and scampers back out of the Temple. As soon as she's somewhere clear... her flesh ripples and she shoots upwards, growing into a complete copy of the soldier she just bit, complete with one of the shock lances from the fallen from earlier she pilfered while passing through! "Looks like the Traitorspawn are on the upper levels." She hopes that security isn't too tight. Maybe she can find them and let them loose during all the confusion!
Kyoko Takada	Alpha-39 has handled the venom as well as she currently can, for both herself and Moonfin. If anyone else was hit, they'll have to manage on their own somehow, as she can't continue fighting with the chamber flooding as it is. While she'd like to retrieve her knife, the one she tossed at the Lunar overloaded and is now so much scrap beneath at least a few feet of water. She, seeing that the guards have finally overcome the delay caused by the power outage and are moving forth, decides against fighting within this area at all, any more than necessary. It's hard to tell how far away that whalesong is, but even if it's to appear in the next few seconds, she's going to throw herself toward the stairs up as hard and as fast as she can, trying to make for temporarily dry ground. Along the way, she dodges swung spears, taking other blows against her longer blade, and popping bullets into anything that really gets in the way from her SMG, which can at least continue to operate when soaked so long as the firing path isn't occluded. Her magazine's empty by the time she reaches her destination, and she slings the long arm to reload later, when she has a moment.
All-Seeing Eye	The Alchemical Exalt here has sustained some injuries from his fight with the sage's summoned demon--the grey fabric of his shirt is stained with a dark fluid that seems to drink in the light around it, or what little can be found in this deep, flooded room, anyway. It slowly bleeds forth from the wound, dark tendrils of it diffusing into the water like the ink of a squid. As the sharkman guards file into the room, those who attack him do indeed have an advantage. He remains on the floor, unburdened by the need to breathe but having to rely primarly on his hearing in the darkness. Swinging around a whip in water proves to be more difficult than he expected, and for a moment, he's surrounded, stabbed and beaten with the guard's electrospears. Crossbow darts zip through the water like miniature harpoons, dematerializing to compensate for the fluid's mass. They begin to strike the approaching guards. One shot is aimed at the hand of the nearest guard, in an effort to disarm him. Should this work, the Exalt strides through the water, wraps his hair around the guard's neck, and holds him in a clinch. Any approaching guards will have to fight around their comrade, or risk injuring him--which Eye will take full advantage of, if allowed to, firing at them from behind the safety of a hostage.
Haguro	With the immediate threat increased by the existence of an even bigger threat and also a flooding city, Haguro has quite a few things to split her attention between! What ends up winning out over all the options thus far, however, is pursuing that giant fishmonster. Someone had to let it loose to do that in the first place, so surely it must be headed back somewhere and not just swimming around aimlessly! Or so she hopes, anyway. Plus, there already seems to be a few people headed for the upper levels, so the cruiser is a little more confident in spreading out to expand the group's overall detection range. Running for the window, Haguro is already sweating as she goes right into the water, internally screaming at herself while swimming rapidly to try and catch up to the giant fish!
Lyria Mason	Lyra had gone back to the ship to get Swimmer ready and now she is she's a bit behind on the others but she's now clad in a heavy magi tek powered armour the hulking hting also has some sort of spell cannon fitted it took time she was not able to engage in the last battle but she's coming as heavy support here she's also got some help from the Starbounders on this thanks to them she's got a teleport in. Their Hulking machine forms and the geomancy amps are online as well. She smirks a bit behind her face-plate. She's got her goal she's going to go looking for the slaves to see what she can do to get them out and the heavy armour may be needed and thankfully it's made for water operations, but the whale is comming too. <<We don't have long foes nayone have an idea how to get the slaves out??>> She at least could try to stall the whale at the very least but she seems to be making for the dome and aiming to get to the upper levels one way or another.
Blossom	Recieving the distress call, Blossom came as quickly as she could. She wasn't sure what to expect of a 'whale god' or an underwater city, but she was excited to see both, and if she could provide any assistance to the operation going on then all the better. There was just the small problem that she didn't stop to think of how she would be able to breath underwater. Fortunately when she arrived on the scene, she did find an assortment of underwater gear left behind. Picking up the Floran mask, she looked it over curiously before frowning a bit. "Well, I sure didn't plan this very well..." She said to herself before reaching up to gently pat Maxwell on the head. "Sorry Max, unless you have a set of gills under those feathers, looks like you'll have to sit this one out. See you back in Silverdeep, promise to bring you a treat to make it up to you." The little bird ruffled his feathers in annoyance before fluttering away as Blossom boards one of the boats heading toward Luthe. Once at the staging point, she dons the mask and dives in, heading for the dome. She really has no idea what she's doing, but hopes she can figure things out as she goes and that it'll be easier once she finds some allies.
Starbound Flotilla	"Rest in finality, Anathema." Moonfin says, sheathing his blade with a sweeping, stylish motion, grazing it along his Matter Manipulator first and drawing off a stream of the blood therein before he slips it inside with a firm click. He keeps his eyes calmly closed, until the sound of the whale approaching reaches him and he looks up. Ohhh... Oh dear. "We have a problem." "Tell me about it, gonna have to car-wash this EVA gear to get the salt off." "Bigger." "Worried. Scanners are showing... Can this be right?" "Titan enemy." "Woah woah woah! Isss BIG monssster! Think... Might not be prey." "We've not got anything to fight at that kind of scale. Need to pull out!" "Focus on civilians and valuable potential collateral damage sites." "Anxious. We need to try to help the Traitorspawn!" "Floran gonna have ship ssstuff ready!" Moonfin pulls back, eager to recover from his wounds and his poisoning, thanks to Alpha-39. He draws anew though, now that fresh soldiers are pouring in. "We can offer little respite to the Traitorspawn without a means of conveying them to the surface!" He calls out. "The ships below; I tasked the Flotilla with making a solution for us to reach the surface with much cargo, I shall hope their progress is worthy of a test!" He assumes an offensive stance, and tries to break through the soldiers as best he can without a brutal accumulation of electrical burns... Calling out: "First Sea Hylotl Style: Surging Current!" And then he heads... DOWN instead! He's hoping to get down to that deck they de-flooded, where the amphibious crafts are waiting. The hope is to bring those around to the upper levels! But has there been enough time to complete them, or what may be holding up the progress...?
Wandering Dog	The sharkmen are full of fervor, but they're still a small squad for right now. Finna manages to bite into one, staggering him back as she escapes and transforms into him, while A-39 is able to tear through the guns with longsword swings and SMG bullets, and All-Seeing Eye fires crossbow bolts, allowing him to snap a guard's neck with his hair. Blossom will be able to get through the window to join up with the others and head either upwards with A-39 and Lyria, or downwards with Moonfin, as Haguro heads out it to pursue the fishmonster. Guillar evades her, escaping into the darkness of the water, but Haguro manages to get the closest to the Great Whale God, as well as a good look at the massive orca...who doesn't head for her, or even for the broken window. She'd be able to figure out, before he gets there, that he's heading straight towards the upper decks of Luthe, where the Traitorspawn are! As this is happening, more of the sharkmen soldiers are moving through the water. They move through hatches in the city to get into the higher decks faster, and Haguro would also be able to point this out. Heading downwards, Moonfin would notice that Luthe's militia is ramping up reinforcements, several of the guards sporting bows, as they gear up for what is essentially an invasion. One of them carries forward a technological ballista that seems to be electric, as they move to go up the stairs and through the sides to leave the city. This would go on for several floors, whether Moonfin tries to move through rapidly, sneak around them, or try and fight his way through (which is likely to be Very Difficult, because they have sheer numbers). Up top, those trying to deal with the Traitorspawn (including Wandering Dog and their ragtag group of rebels) will find themselves in thick ghettos, a clear sign that they've reached the area where the Traitorspawn would be kept. Screams echo through the area, as they'd already come upon a corpse of a man with a brand on his forehead, as well as the sight of the sharkmen soldiers attacking the Traitorspawn, one moving to attack a man protecting his daughter and heavily wounding him with his spear, as another is struck down by a pair of the sharkmen when he tries to smash a plate and use the shard to fight back. . The Traitorspawn are in immediate need of aid, and with more security heading in through hatches, need assistance being rounded up. An analysis of the number of homes, the number of Traitorspawn either cowering or trying to fight back unsuccessfully, and the like tallies them up at atleast several hundred, and that's on this Deck alone. This is all punctuated with the Great Whale God finally reaching Luthe. He does not move for the window where the Sage of the Depths has been killed, nor does he move for any who exit the window to come at him. Instead, the massive whale slams into the reinforced levels where the Traitorspawn are, shaking the entire Deck as it thrashes against the city, powerfully strong tail trying to thrash holes into the walls. The Great Whale God is not after you - he's after them.
Haguro	Haguro gives up on her pursuit of the fish beast fairly fast as she spots the bigger, more terrifying Whale God coming towards Luthe. "he Whale... It looks like it's headed for the upper decks! There's more soldiers going that way, too." Noting its direction, she calls out its predicted path to her allies as well as the path of the sharkmen, then changes her path to follow the sharkmen. Why try to find her own path when she can just follow the locals? "It's not headed for that hole, though... Is it planning on going straight through?" The prospect of the Whale God crashing right through the Traitorspawn's residential area is a very real threat with it slamming against the wall, but she can only hope the combined group can get the Traitorspawn out before that can become a problem. The fastest way to reach the Whale God, then, is to go straight up. Just shooting it with torpedoes probably wouldn't be enough, though, so she opts for plan B! Steeling herself, the shipgirl starts to glow as she grows... No, /becomes/ a massive steel structure. Metal creaks, wood bends, and what used to be a scuba-gear wearing maiden rapidly turns into a massive war cruiser! Said cruiser then begins ascending rapidly. Internally, Haguro is still screaming in terror as her ascent takes her right towards the Whale God in an attempt to smash right right into it!
Kyoko Takada	The whale god is out there. Alpha-39 is in here. She doesn't want to bring those two places together any faster than necessary, as that event would signal the likely deaths of everyone here they supposedly came to protect. It would be a hazardous area populated only with an angry sea beast and angry sharkmen in that case, robbing her of even the likely possibility of valuable salvage, to say nothing of all the needless death. The empty magazine pops out, and a fresh one is slammed back in its place, swapping from her armor-piercing rounds to lower-penetration, flesh-tearing hollow points.. So far, this op may have been a net loss, but none of the objectives are yet entirely lost. If she so much as slows down, that chance of success will disappear, caution bringing defeat. Maybe it's just a sunk cost fallacy, but she doesn't want this to be a waste of time. A-39 accelerates, rifled barrel raised in precise motions, eyes wide behind her mask, finger switching over the needle from AUTO to SS in the same breath as her fingers squeeze. She's seen how shark flesh reacts to her gunfire, and cut apart enough of these beast-people to know where the necessary pieces are. She fires one shot, straight at the brain case. One shot, one kill. Recoil and bystander risk, minimal. The soldier's arms move, hips swiveling, feet never stopping, as she selects targets, aims, fires, moves, fires again, and again. It doesn't matter what they're doing. She's not stopping to think, focusing entirely on completing her task as rapidly as possible, by bringing down everything that looks like an enemy.
All-Seeing Eye	Eye pulls at the guard's neck--it doesn't take as much force as one would think. More determination than anything else. There is, of course, that moment where any living thing's struggle to stay alive becomes painted with frantic desperation, but if one can get past that, the deed is remarkably easy. Once he's cleared a route, Eye tosses the guard aside, his hair slowly billowing behind him in the water. He strides confidently up the stairs, towards the sound of the Whale God's assault. As his tall, svelte form breaks the surface of the water, it sloughs off of him to reveal the extent of his injuries. The gem embedded in his forehead sparks with purple lightning, and his abdomen is stained with the inhuman stuff that serves as his lifeblood. Halfway up the staircase, a better idea strikes him. He turns and begins to head back, only for his injury to flare up as one of his steel ribs scrapes painfully against a synthetic lung. Grimacing, Eye balls his hand into a fist and pounds it into his leg in an effort to focus on something other than the pain. Leaning against the wall, he wades back into the water and swims out of the broken window. This proves to be difficult, for it effectively means fighting a current. His hands are cut as he grabs onto the broken surface, but he forces himself through it, pulling through to the other side and leaving a pair of inky black clouds trailing from his hands. The Exalt swims around the exterior of the city, his form bobbing slightly as pain flares up across his abdomen like fire. He continues, until the massive form of the Whale God is in his sight. Eye is but a speck compared to such an immense being, but this knowledge doesn't appear to bother him in the slightest. The ancient Lunar might smell a pungent chemical aroma that heralds the bleeding Exalt's approach before he makes his ultimatum. "I have come to bring the justice of Autochthon to you," he announces. "You will cease immediately all attempts to destroy the Traitorspawn, and will submit unconditionally to arrest, whereupon you will be tried for crimes against Creation. You will do this, quietly, or there will be..." His eyes shift into two miniaturized Soulsteel cannons, and he raises his crossbows. "Trouble. You have ten seconds to comply."
Lyria Mason	Her people were tied to the water, their home plate the corpse of the Deity known as Leviathan. Hence her homeland bears his name and her people as well she is a Levitani in the end and away she goes along side A-39. <<He's going for the upper decks.>> Remora's powered armour form is proving to be a boon for her. Letting her carry some heavier fire power than she's normally be able to bring with her. She sees what's happened to the man and there's more there she sees him moving to protect his child. and Lyra moves she moves hard her hulking armour. "Your all going to be chum when I'm done with you for this!" With that she shifts deploying her spider drones, the machine leap from her power armour they are not so much direct attack weapons as camps. They will move in to lend support forming patches of ice to up set the footing of the attacking shark men or even trying to freeze them in place. AS Luria herself she'll not use the heavy canon yet but she will be using a secondary m-tek gun firing short lived laser shots at the attacking beast men. Hopefully she can run some serious interference also she'll be likely to draw some fire in her suit too which she could take for a little while at least. Everyone on her is someone not on the people here.
Finna	As news of Leviathan's direction becomes known, Finna FREEZES in the halls and almost stumbles a landing. That creaking noise was her blood turning to ice in her veins from fear. But still, she manages the landing, and the screams heat her right back up. "Hrrrrryaaaaaaaah!!!" With her beastman voice the vocalization's a bit awkward. What she thought might be a helpful disguise turns out to maybe NOT be so helpful, as she encounters Rebels and... Traitorspawn in the middle of aslaughter. Finna HURLS her borrowed weapon, sending it tumbling end over end like a spinning blade instead of the lean piercing spear toss it should be - but the aim is for the sharkman attacking the family! "Haven't you heard attacking the helpless is NOTHING to brag about?! Try something that can fight back, you coward!" She of course, currently looks like one of the Sharkmen, which just adds to the confusion of this matter.
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin isn't much of a sneaky type, but he's also not much of a lone-wolf murder type, and the fact that he has no backup isn't lost on him. As he descends through the structure, he tries to keep out of the main hallways where the soldiers and war machines are amassing; it's possible and even probable that skirmishes will emerge where his stealth fails him, but he's banking on the fact that they'll be focused more on dealing with the Traitorspawn than on dealing with him. For the most part, he takes a quite direct route: He digs directly through decks, surging around his foes in a loud but rapid way. Far below, the Flotilla have hopefully by now completed work on meshing six courier ships together into one much larger one, no longer limited to half a dozen passengers. Moonfin is their teleportation expert, though... Can he get the telepads set up in time! That's the hope here: Rush the amphibious ship up to the upper levels, and then use it as an evacuation point while the others make sure it doesn't get smashed to pieces! If Moonfin's digging-and-running strategy works out, he's going to leap aboard and set about work on the submersible itself, trying to fit it with a standard Flotilla-tech telepad. While the capacity on this ship may only be a couple dozen, maybe he can fudge that -- albeit (UGH) inelegantly -- by making it a teleportation site too. One hopes all this will work out... So that he can get on his way to the upper decks, from the outside, by dumping this messy mish-mash of a submarine out the lower deck airlocks and going up!
Blossom	Blossom makes her way inside and immediately starts looking for a way to get to the upper decks, legs burning as she's been swimming as fast as she can. She soon catches up with A39 and Lyria. Having heard what is going on along the way, she hurries upward along with them. Once they arrive at the battle between the Sharkmen and the Traitorspawn, Blossom hangs back from the front lines of the conflict. She tosses a few magic infused exploding acorns at the Sharkmen, and then turns her attention to the Traitorspawn, casting healing magic upon the wounded with a wave of her staff.
Wandering Dog	OUTSIDE: Haguro pursues to slam into the Great Whale God, turning into a massive battleship and rising into him. She slams into him, knocking him off his attack and tearing into him, but would notice that he's extremely sturdy, as the whale turns to smash her aside with a ram of his head, before focusing to move back and ram Luthe again. As he's doing so, Eye comes and shouts his declaration. The Great Whale God answers. With a flick of the orca's tail, a massive current is created, and moves to slam All-Seeing Eye into the walls of the dome! It looks like surrender isn't an option here. UPSTAIRS: A-39 has learned how to kill the beastmen as they've travelled up here. Her bullets tear through them, creating fresh corpses, as Lyria shouts. "You've brought the wrath of the Great Whale God upon us!" Shouts one as he readies a bow, firing an energy shot into her armor before his feet freeze up. Finna, meanwhile, moves for the sharkman attacking the family and slashes into him, her opponent howling as his spear falls to the ground from the 'sudden betrayal'. "How dare you side with them! They've brought nothing but suffering!" Blossom can heal the wounded father and the other wounded, but sharkmen continue to pour in, more with bows firing their energy shots upon A-39 and Lyria. They've moving to flank from various staircases, and most of them actually don't see the Elites as the threat, moving to focus on the Traitorspawn. DOWNSTAIRS: Which is why Moonfin's efforts in getting down below are good to succeed. He's capable of digging through the reinforced decks with some effort, sliding through the ground like a landshark to get to the staircases and allow him to deal with the beastmen when they aren't, as he correctly suspected, focusing on getting upstairs. There'd be a second group of them down near the generators, having investigated, but after he'd bypassed them, Moonfin'd be able to get to the ship and set up his teleporter beacon. No one's trying to get to the lower deck or outside near the submersible pens, so 'stealth' of that sort might actually work! LEVIATHAN: After knocking All-Seeing Eye back, Leviathan would move to slam into the decks again. The upper floors rock, as a hole is formed in a higher deck. He's trying to flood them out, as the water starts pouring above! From the screams above, this isn't the only Traitorspawn deck, either - there's risk up there as well.
Kyoko Takada	Alpha-39 is past the point of caring about the arguments of her opponents, if ever she did in the first place. She's tunnel-visioning pretty hard in the extreme focus that's bringing such precise accuracy to her attacks, barely hearing them, and only ignoring Blossom's sudden appearance on account of how entirely unlike a shark she looks. Finna is not so fortunate in that regard, and whether A-39 shoots her is dependent entirely on whether the Lunar changes back before the sniper spots her. There are a multitude of distracts, at least, and other targets to shoot first, as more guards pour in from the lower decks. There's also plenty of cover in such a crowded environment, but such a full focus on offense leaves A-39 temporarily vulnerable. Even with most of the attacks going against the "traitorspawn," she has plenty with which to contend, and while she could shoot a flung spear out of the sky, arrows heading directly for her are a more difficult matter. Her cloak is struck, then one of her supply pouches, then another as she shifts focus in realization of the changing scale of the battle and her position. She fires, dropping one opponent after another, cold-blooded despite the heated circumstances. Even with her small size, an arrow finds its way into her flesh eventually, hissing pain from beneath her mask even at the shallow wound that penetrated her armor, finally bringing about a change in strategy. There's nothing to go back to, in the flooded decks below. May as well bring that passageway down to block off reinforcements, and take out the congregation of ranged enemies near it. Only her arm appears from behind cover as she tosses the explosive pouch, the device ticking rapidly rather than presenting a lit fuse. There will be no time to toss it back away, as it explodes at the very moment it reaches its destination, strong enough to build a barricade of corpses, though perhaps only to buckle the deck below, rather than burst it. The water will reach them eventually, either way.
Haguro	Even in her ship form, Haguro is about as evasive as a ship submerged in the water. She's tough, at least, so the cruiser does manage to partially weather the blow from the Whale God, albeit with a great deal of pain and transforming back so as to not get hurled too far upwards that she wouldn't be able to get back into the fight. Clutching her side, Haguro grimaces while nursing what's undoubtedly going to become massive bruises under the diving suit, then takes stock of the situation once more. The Whale God is attacking Luthe again. There's a hole in the upper floors of Luthe. All-Seeing Eye is engaged with the Whale God as well. Her allies are fighting the sharkmen inside and helping the Traitorspawn to try and secure an escape route for the slaves. What to do? Try and keep the Whale God from causing any more damage, it seems. Remaining in her human form this time around, the shipgirl starts diving again while firing torpedoes at the whale god, aiming her shots parallel to the walls of Luthe. She can't risk blasting the walls directly, so she'll just have to risk making herself an easier target while circling around the god to try getting below it once more.
All-Seeing Eye	The current is met with a pleased smile and a flick of the wrist. All-Seeing Eye's whip slides free of his sleeve, only to sluggishly undulate through the sea. His golden eyes flick downwards towards the weapon just as the Whale God's attack slams into him. The force of the attack sends him hurtling backwards into the nearest wall. His artificial body dents the dome, and a black spray spurts out tellingly from his chest as the impact drives a rib through one of his lungs. The Exalt grins, his teeth blackened by this same substance, and spits. With a wince, he reaches into the wound and wrenches the offending bone free. One wet snap and a stifled groan of pain later, and the composite rib fragment is tossed aside, dissolving into inert sludge without Essence to sustain it. Bolts of purple lightning filter through his eyes, sublimating into mist to travel without friction or resistance through the water. The Exalt's vision is awash in targeting suites and calculations, all attempting to guide his aim towards the whale's tail in an effort to hamstring it.
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin, with a telepad now wrought, wounded and battered, flops into the pilot seat of the craft. He keeps one hand pressed against the wounds of his torso, and the other on the control stick of the amphibious, mashed-together supercraft. "Launch?" "Indeed. George, I need you outside." "I already hate whatever this plan is." "I'm going to bring us to one of the upper deck breaches." "Anxious. Aren't those lost causes?" "Detonate as many hull repair grenades as you can on the cargo airlock." "What's your plan, sharkbait?" "Seft, Mr. Petrov, dig through the ensuing hullfoam and drain the water therein." "Surprised. Oh! That... This could work!" The heavy craft ascends rapidly, its captain against hope that Haguro and All-Seeing Eye will be able to work together to keep the whale off the site for just a minute. George resentfully finds himself gripping the outside hull of it, holding onto the slapped-together cargo bay door for dear life with one hand, and holding a handful of metal foam grenades in the other. Classic space-station hull management tactics: Create a gush of metal foam, then dig a gap between two coherent spaces. If this all works out, five seconds after he pulls the pin on this, a gush of metal, waterproof foam should seal the main ship to one of the upper deck breaches. And then ten or so seconds after that, a tunnel through the foam and into the flooded upper deck is carved, and the water ideally beginning to drain. "I have utmost certainty in this plan, if Luthe is built well and if my allies can act /expediently/. Bring all evacuees here!" Moonfin calls over radio, warming up the telepad to try to beam them to the surface to evade the matter of capacity limits. Who knows what kind of power drain that might put on even a half-dozen merged ships, though...! And it's not stable at all. If the Great Whale God gets even one solid hit on the upper decks or on the ship, it's likely that this ad-hoc docking umbilical will get cracked, to say nothing of the damage to the Flotilla captains.
Lyria Mason	Lyria Mason take s ahit hte energy bow burns away a portion of her amrour but it's not breached not yet at lreas more shots could be an issue she sees as his feet freeze up. "They ain't the ones who did the deed, now are there. But you mates? You got the black spot today." Lyria is notin a good mood seeing this and she'll move int leveling M-tek laser again at one of the beast men. She'll move to stalk towards them readying to fire again. "The only suffering I see is what your causing!" Some more fire on her but most don't they go for the traitor spawn and she moves the one with the bow she'll fire on as she moves to atry to barrel into the ones going for more of the slaves. She has to keep them fighting /her/ or her allies.
Finna	"Who ever said I was on your side to begin with?" Finna-Sharkman casts a wild, toothy grin... and promptly there's an explosion of smoke, from which emerges... A broad-shouldered, bare-chested man with a great big black-brown beard. His chest ripples with muscle and cascades with hair. Grandiose, brawny, and with muscles positively RIPPLING - yes you can see the waves and bulges and veins popping - all across his burly body. "ERIK BLACKBURN is no kin of yours! HAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" With that said, the great big manly man bares his chest, raises his arms like a superhero and-- And his chest hair glows and FIRES OFF LIKE TINY, PIERCING BULLETS! WHAT THE HECK?! Of course, this display is an all illusion. The needles will STING if they hit, but do no damage. The real danger is in how, while they're in flight, 'ERIK BLACKBURN' takes the moment to durk UNDER the barrage and arrive a moment later with an elbow to the solar plexus. A SHOCKWAVE bursts every which way from the impact if it strikes!
Blossom	After taking the time to tend to the most wounded Traitorspawn, Blossom took note that the numbers of the Sharkmen were getting out of hand fast. She quickly shifts gears, waving her staff at A39 to at least lessen the damage and pain from the arrow that had hit her in the leg. With that done, she goes on the offensive, tossing more magical exploding acorns at the Sharkmen who were going after the Traitorspawn. She winces at the loud explosion from A39's makeshift grenade, but hopes it's enough to stem the tide of Sharkmen before the three of them are completely overrun. "If either of you need me to do something, feel free to say so. I'm kindof doing this all by instinct.
Wandering Dog	UPSTAIRS: A-39 manages to shoot through more of the guards, throwing an explosive to the stairs. Luthe is pretty reinforced, so it doesn't blow a hole in them...but it does send back a chunk of the reinforcements, buying them some breathing room and space, and warding the guards off of that stairway. Lyria, meanwhile, is able to take out the men with the energy bows, protecting many of the Traitorspawn being attacked, with the aid of Blossom and her magical acorns. Finna manages to take out more as 'Erik Blackburn', who is more intimidating than silly in the wake of how his shockwave takes out several of the Beastmen, but as even more come up other stairwells, they only have a few minutes before they're overwhelmed. Which is why the Flotilla and their horrible monstrosity ship arrive right on time. As they slam into the deck breach, Wandering Dog, Tomazri Gavrane (the Dragon-Blooded), and the rest of the resistance group are moving towards the ship, ushering any Traitorspawn they can to it. As they shout and at one point, Wandering Dog climbs onto the ship to wave them forward, at the cost of getting shot down with an arrow, but it does what it needs to do - it gets the Traitorspawn moving to the teleport pad, and will save dozens, if not hundreds of lives. OUTSIDE: To try and stop Leviathan, Haguro begins firing torpedoes. The Great Whale God reels its head back as it slams into the explosions in front of it, As that's happening, All-Seeing Eye fires several crossbow shots into the tail - it's large enough that it doesn't cripple the tail, but the Great Whale God is injured, bleeding from the coming injuries, and is unable to use it as effectively. He thrashes with surprising agility, moving to slam into Haguro as she comes up from below as well into All-Seeing Eye...which buys those inside several minutes to get a lot of the Traitorspawn out! But, after that, the Great Whale God moves to slam forward again, creating another hole in the deck. Another hole is made, before he sings another verse of the whale song and moves to start swimming around Luthe, away from the group. Up above, several hundred Traitorspawn have successfully been rescued...now it's time for the escape.
Kyoko Takada	Alpha-39 gets magical healing, which saves her a great deal of trouble. The wound may be shallow, but she has only an ordinary amount of pain resistance without doping herself up on combat stims. She properly sees Blossom for the first time, recognizing the help but with no time for an acknowledgment. There's plenty to do and no time to do it in. What can she do? What can anyone do? "Grab your stuff and run!" she yells, perhaps helpfully, as an exit arrives and people can start making it for the telepads. "Grab /their/ stuff and run!" It doesn't matter now, does it? There's rubble, corpses, and everything jumbled up. No one's getting out with all their wealth unless they were wearing it, which a slave most likely is, but that's hardly a mercy, in their case. A-39 growls in her throat and ducks under return fire at the first reinforcement to show, firing one-handed and lifting a shockspear off a fallen guard, then tossing it to the first traitorspawn to look her way. It likely won't do any good against a whale, but at least she'll feel better if the people get out of here with some way to survive, whether they have to stab someone or sell the bloody things. She grabs a couple more, and then makes for the telepad herself, setting her gun against her shoulder and waiting until either everyone's through or the location is too dicey to hold to duck in and through. The fact that Leviathan didn't keep smacking the city hasn't escaped her notice, but she's not clear on why.
Haguro	In her human form, Haguro is considerably more graceful and evasive! Not so much that she can avoid the Whale God's entire body coming towards her and All-Seeing Eye, but enough that she can avoid the worst of the blow and take it on her uninjured side. It does mean having injuries basically everywhere, but at least nothing's broken beyond their ability to continue functioning! And yet, the Great Whale God is still not quite gone yet. It may be moving around Luthe instead of attacking the dome, but the cruiser isn't ready to turn her back on the giant just yet. "Let's... Make sure he isn't going after the survivors." Haguro suggests to All-Seeing Eye, then pursues the Great Whale God! She remains in her human form still, although there's a faint light around her as she keeps herself prepared for one last transformation just in case things go south. "Are you leaving, then? If you're planning on going after anyone, then..." She swallows nervously, then cocks her wrist turret dramatically. "... Th-then we'll fight as long as it takes for you to retreat!" It's a shaky warning at best and a pitiful threat at worst, but it's... Something! It's better than running away, at least.
Lyria Mason	Lyria Mason is still doing what she can to keep the guard busy. She makes sure she is up in their prows, she's going to see they fire on her but there's a price for this her suit it taking ome serious damage here. She will move to cover evacuation of traitor spawn to get them the heck out of here. She also will make sure any of the beastmn who are still up to fight get a good deal of fire form her but there are more coming, and they have to keep going. They can't get everyone out but she's fighting with a good deal of force here. She keeps firing shots from her laser but she knows they don't have long. "Get to the ship your ticket out of this hell hole is here!"
Finna	'Erik Blackburn' moves in a way no girthy, muscular man. He moves like lightning, zipping around between weapon swings and driving his elbow or fists into softer areas that bring grown Beastmen bellowing to their knees. There's little the soldiers can seemingly do, it would appear, even against this completely improvised and impromptu assault. But none of them are being killed like this. Not by Finna. Opinionated and violent natured she might be, but cruel... not really. This doesn't apply if being lethal is a life and death moment for an ally or the Traitorspawn though! If she has to lop off an arm with a brutal chop, she'll do it. But then... BOOOOOOOOOOOM! Erik flies off his feet, flailing through the air. "AAAAAGH! What's he trying to do?! DESTROY THE CITY?!"
All-Seeing Eye	The sparks from the gem in Eye's forehead go from occasional bursts to constant crackling, electrical arcs traveling along its surface. A cloud of ink that seems to mingle with his spilt blood begins to slowly swirl around him in the beginning of a vortex, while crossbow bolts fly forth from behind it like debris thrown by a hurricane. As Leviathan approaches, he narrows his eyes, staring the Lunar down head-on. The purple targeting grid which overlays his vision lines up a shot for his eye cannons, only to have to re-calibrate once the whale slams into him. Inky black blood spews from his mouth as the wind is knocked out of his lungs, sliding across the immense body of his undersea foe. Eye is bowled over, thrown over the whale's body. His 360 degree vision keeps this from being too physically disorienting, but he wasn't built to take this kind of abuse, and it's clearly showing. Sparks erupt from his shoulder blade as a wound from one of the guards' electro spears is exacerbated. Hot enough to burn through his designer peacoat, the white-hot sparks soon reveal the articulated plates and synthetic fiber musculature of his arm, bent and frayed out of shape. His vision allows him to track Leviathan's movement even as his body is thrown aside, and as the whale passes him, he makes another in a long line of poor decisions. Ignorant or perhaps uncaring of the size difference between them and the potential consequences of such, Eye materializes a length of pure, purple lightning in his hand, and loops it around the tail of the fleeing Lunar. Dragged along like an undersea skier, the Exalt clenches his teeth, and with a shout of genuine, determine exertion, floods as much Essence as he can through the energy whip, attempting to electrocute the whale until one of them is dead. The swirling ink around him billows outward and increases its speed until it's a veritable waterspout, and flashes of lightning illuminate portions of the bilious mass. If Leviathan wasn't iminently visible before, then he certainly is now, carrying along a very pissed-off impromptu anglerfish lure.
Blossom	Hearing A39 yelling about running, she starts to move toward the telepads, doing her best to help usher the Traitorspawn along at the same time. Lyria seems to be doing a good job dealing with the remaining Sharkmen, but she decides to lend a hand. She tosses a seed toward the biggest mass of the beasts, which upon hitting the ground, explodes with a flash into a magical flower, spreading spores around which stun the nearby Sharkmen for a brief moment. It wouldn't stop them, but it would slow them down a bit. Finally she goes back to healing any of the injured Traitorspawn who are lagging behind because of their injuries to help them along.
Starbound Flotilla	Sometime during all that chaos, the Great Whale Got slams a fresh strike against the structure. The thick metal foam cracks ominously, and spurts of water fire through it. "Gettin' a little hot to handle out here, Moonie!" George calls out, desperately sealing them as fast as he can, but the entire seal itself is now dissolving. "Gang, anyone left in here better get on or learn to swim real upwards /real fast/!" A gush of water slams into his head, knocking him down. "Gaaaah, fuck this... Bailing! Get on or get swimming!" George shouts, scrambling to his feet and dashing for the cargo door. Anyone who's trying to board here is going to need to move /fast/ through the dissolving tunnel! Crashing columns of water slam down from above while huge gushes blast out the sides; it's a hell of a platforming challenge to say the least to get through before it all collapses! At the very least, George is more than willing to leave the door open to the last second, but not a moment longer! Get out this way if you're not planning to get out any other way! Once everyone's aboard, of course... "Punch it!" "It is certainly no less than punched already." "Full sail, and no stopping!" "Worried! We need to circle to the opposite end of the whale!" "Go go go! Fassst! Floran gonna manage pressssure, jussst go!!" "Hull holding, barely. Didn't go for the ship, but this isn't ready." "It is ready enough. We ascend." The whole craft lurches sickly, and emits sparks and arcs of electricity as it overloads subsystems to desperately get the HELL right out as fast as they can, to hit the surface and be outside the whale god's range of assault soon as possible! They slip by All-Seeing Eye, briefly, and as they do... Seft calls out! "Panicked. Mister Eye! Please! You won't be able to do this alone, and we need time to prepare! Please just grab on, I promise you'll get a chance later! We still need your help in Thorns and... Just let it go, please!!" Her voice is as monotoned as ever, but her glitching and buzzing and panicked beepy tones tell a very different story. It's an option he can take, unless he intends to get up on his own.
Wandering Dog	The resistance effort escapes into the Flotilla's ship, as Finna, Lyria, and Blossom hold off the last remains - though they'd probably want to escape immediately, as they are heavily outnumbered. The traitorspawn A-39 tosses a shockspear grabs it, looks at it, and then nods and rushes through the teleporter to protect what is likely their family. Luckily, none of the Beastmen manage to slip into the teleporter, so they don't have to deal with that potential problem. Haguro and All-Seeing Eye pursue Leviathan, who doesn't seem to still be on the attack. He doesn't respond to Haguro, and instead seems to be moving towards the dome...but as Eye lassos onto the Great Whale God's tail, there's a horrible call of a whale song as the electrical current courses through him, painfully burning into the Lunar. However, it doesn't kill him, or even seem to be close to doing such. It serves primarily to make him angrier. The Great Whale God suddenly starts thrashing its tail, moving to give Eye heavy whiplash, before slamming the tail into the Alchemical, moving to send him flying back at Haguro. His burns healing, the Great Whale God, Leviathan rushes forward at Luthe...and in a flash, disappears. Or atleast, appears to, but has really shrunk - into a humanoid shape, who opens a hatch on the side of the city and disappears inside. No matter what people do next, after half an hour, something invariably happens: Luthe starts to rise. The pods jutting out of the dome start off propulsion, and the city is quickly rising to the top of the waves. After several thousand years, Luthe has seen the sky once again.
All-Seeing Eye	One doesn't need augmented hearing to hear the pained, angry cry from Leviathan. It elicits a sneer of adversarial delight from All-Seeing Eye, who gladly continues his assault. That is, until the whale begins thrashing him around. His hands grip the length of energy tightly, which is exactly the wrong thing to do. His damaged arm is wrenched completely off on the first backswing, and when the whale swings its tail again, he is thrown free, the whip disintegrating without his hand actively grasping it. He swims downward, stretching a hand out to retrieve the severed, sparking limb, only to have Leviathan's bloodied tail smash into his battered chest and send him hurtling backwards. Upside down and bleeding profusely, the Exalt grimaces in mute pain and rage as his quarry escapes, rushing quickly away from him as the force of the blow and the speed of Leviathan's swimming increase the distance between them. He manages to right himself after a moment, giving chase now only to his severed arm--there are valuable resources that went into its construction, after all. Battered, bloodied, and maimed, All-Seeing Eye won't have his justice today. With his functioning hand clenched around the wrist of the sparking soulsteel cybernetic, he grudgingly makes his escape. Once at the rendezvous point, he waits, glowering in silence as the magitech minutiae of his stump whirr, click and grind uselessly. His vision zooms in on the form of Luthe in the distance, now risen above the waves. His fist clenches around the nonfunctioning arm, and the soulsteel creaks under the pressure. This won't be his last visit to the city. Not by far.