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Staren                                     2407 AD                                    
                   CS El Dorado - Formerly known as Arkansas                    
                                 CASTLE REFUGE                                  
                          HOME OF THE TOMORROW LEGION                          

    Emerging from the warpgate, the group sees a medieval castle with the occasional hint of modernity -- a radio dish here, an autocannon turret there -- with a paved road leading up to it past a 20th-century-looking village center. All manner of people are here -- humans and dwarves are the largest minorities, but beyond that anything goes. An elf here, a large crocodile-man there, a cactus person there, a floating blob with tendrils that may or may not be a person -- all kinds are here. In the sky, the occasional flying power armor or wizard returns from patrol or sets out. And besides the castle of adventurers, the townsfolk go about their day outside its walls.
Staren     ...But you aren't here to see the castle. Reyes can wave the group over to where a couple of large vehicles and the Star Hawk are parked; one of the trucks has room for everyone on-foot; those in power armor or who prefer flying or something receive the same briefing wirelessly. Inside the truck is a white man in his 40's in a finely-tailored suit with neatly-groomed dark brown hair and beard, with highlights in the hair; some might recognize it as the kind of suit that has a layer of armor discreetly sewn inside it. As the transport drives to their destination, he introduces himself as Mr. Clarke and fills them in:

    Earlier today, a Tomorrow Legion patrol sent to scout outside Whykin witnessed a ley line storm transforming the forest into some kind of alien city. The effect passed within a quarter of an hour but might have something to do with the army of strange stone constructs that swarmed out of the forest and captured them, saying something about 'offerings'. The mercenary mage hired to fill out the patrol escaped capture by turning invisible and teleported to Castle Refuge to call reinforcements; That's you. Given the circumstances of capture, he fears the captives may have been taken as some kind of ritual sacrifice by hostile aliens.

    Mr. Clarke then levels with you: One of the legionnaires, the power armor pilot Nina, is his daughter. The Legion is paying you all but he'll double the payment as long as his daughter is returned to him alive, or, perish the thought, dead but in a state young Staren can revive.

    The convoy arrives after a few minutes in a clearing in the woods; magically-sensitive party members can sense crossing leylines overflowing with power here. Staren and some Concord techs are setting up medical devices for the group's return; The catman gives a brief acknowledgement to the group (a bit warmer if friends are here) and asserts that he's ready to fly the Star Hawk over if they lose contact or need fire support.

    Casting a ritual around a magic circle sketched in the dirt are two men of magic; One is wearing a robe and gasmask, and the other has a more classical wizard get-up with a red wide-brimmed hat and cape. Mr. Clarke gestures to the second, and identifies him as the aforementioned mercenary and only witness to the attack, Staren Wiremu.

    Looks of confusion are met with a gesture back in Staren's direction and "His uncle." There's some resemblance, but this guy appears to be a human who isn't even middle-aged. Then again, with that family, would anyone /look/ old? In any case he's too busy with the ritual to introduce himself; chant the wrong syllable and he might get turned inside-out, after all.

    As the ritual finishes, a hole opens up in reality, bordered in electric-blue light, it grows large enough for a group of people and even power armor to walk into.

    Mr. Clarke and Staren (the older) accompany the group, the latter tips his hat and offers a "Nice to meet you!"

    For several seconds, the group stands nowhere, as the portal closes behind them... and then another opens ahead, showing the forested rolling hills of southeast Missouri. Those who can fly can catch a glimpse of a 21st-century skyline far to the east. Of more immediate interest is what's going on in a nearby field (farmland not yet completely reclaimed by centuries of overgrowth): A blue... round... beetle-like thing with a face is being chased by a group of constructs; made of stone and with a similar body plan, but no face -- only glowing runes. They intone: "To whom it may concern: Your citizen ID number may have been involved in criminal activity and deactivated! For your own protection, you should hire our identity theft protection services! If you flee, your identity will not be protected!" and fire bolts of light from their bodies at the beetle-person, which is hit and goes down despite lack of visible trauma.

    What will you do?
Majima Goro "So, Boss, where are we driving again?"
A nervous looking Japanese man drives a pink dump truck. In the other driver's seat is a man in a snakeskin jacket with an eyepatch. "Because this looks like the place you were talking about with the giant dinosaur and the giant killer moths." Nishida looks concerned, but only when Majima's one-eyed gaze isn't upon him.

"..Yeah, it's kinna like that. Different part of the States, though, I think. Staren needed some help with some crap, figured I'd come help. Concord's gotta back itself up, right? Ain't no different from the Tojo clan."

There's a pause. Nishida hesitantly offers, "...But, you know, since there's all that -boring paperwork- to be done back in Kamurocho, maybe I can--"

Majima rolls his eye. There's a smack to Nishida's shoulder. The man swerves, nearly hitting someone else. "...Fine, ya wanna run off or some crap, go for it. I didn't wanna babysit your dumb ass anyway."

The vehicle is stopped just by Reyes, and Majima pops out without much fuss. The engineer--the one Majima literally belted in the teeth with a bat not a week ago--gets a nod and a thumbs up. "Nehehe! So what's all this crap 'bout, eh?" There is an avuncular hand clapped on Reyes's shoulder. A squeeze, and then he is gone to the briefing.

And then, descriptions. Involving magical circles, wizards, and Staren's uncle, also named Staren. Majima spends most of the explanation smoking a cigarette and looking disinterested, up until Mr. Clarke drops the bigger bomb.

"...Arright. Why's everythin' always crazy ass murder cults these days anyway?" He complains, waving a red-burning cigarette around in a msall figure eight. "..I mean, at least it's aliens this time."
Reyes     Another day in Rifts North America.. another utterly bogus situation that nobody could've seen coming. More armor dents and chips to repair later, no doubt. Reyes is expecting trouble - because he always expects trouble whenever leaving Castle Refuge - and so is wearing a fully covering, wildly modified suit of battle armor, a helmet covering his face.

    And as always he's awkwardly quiet through the whole lead-up as he mentally pores over all of the information he's got.

    The only thing that shakes him out of this is the sudden appearance of one Majima Goro, clapping him on the armor's shoulder. That gets a startled yelp and a flail of both arms. Then he turns to see just who it IS and... "Y... -you-'re--... you got a weird sense of what's worth fighting for, man." He sounds just a tad bitter and frustrated there, but one sigh later and the armored engineer's helmeted head turns back towards business... and he hops through the portal once it's ready.

    Reyes, of course, is having none of this weird unregulated capitalism lynch squad by automaton, and so deploys his glowing wings, SWOOOPS over, and attempts to land between the beetle person and the weird assailants.

    "Ah-huh... do you guys normally shoot at potential customers? 'cuz that's... stopping today."
Staren MAJIMA: Staren turns to regard Majima. "Murder cults are that common? Most of my jobs I'm investigating ancient ruins." As the situation... develops and Reyes goes over there, Staren and Clarke both cast some sort of spell that covers their body in an armor-like forcefield and look ready for trouble, although they're not racing to stand beside Reyes just yet. Staren readies what looks like a modern assault rifle.

REYES:

    The constructs at the front of the pack stop to regard Reyes. "Please do not interfere. Our interactions with other customers are entirely confidential." They then try to move past. If he keeps getting in the way, they start firing magical knock-out bolts at him, too. At least it seems they don't want to kill potential customers...
Ishirou I4 shows up to assist in a problem that apparently is disrupting the peace of a land that one of the other Paladins hails from.  Showing up and offering greetings, I4, who was a seemingly a young man, with a frail-looking body and dark hair.  Nearby a black box with arms hovers around him, talking in a mechanical voice.

To the question about death cults, the android just shrugs towards Majima.  "Better than eldritch beings who have a love of doors," I4 comments, shuddering a bit.  He does not want to remember THAT experience.  With a sigh, he settles in and is mostly quiet during the trip.  

Right now he's attempting to gather data, understanding the world around him.  The black box seems to scan things from time to time, usually shortly after I4 looks at them for a moment, before hovering back to just slightly behind the android.  

When they arrive at the sight of the ritual, the Robot beeps.  "High concentrations of magical power are detected.  Theory: sight is a convergence of ley lines.  Magical spells may be enhanced while in this area," the POD says, as I4 nods once, "Makes sense, POD keep an active scan, just in case anything goes wrong with any spell cast here."

The ritual was going on, and I4 greeted Staren the elder with a wave, "Hello, it is easier to just call me I4, or foureyes, as they call me at home.  It is a...ah nickname," no it's not.

When they enter the rift, entering the new realm of land that...well, for the most part, he is not often able to see land this /alive/.  Most of his land is a desert, and a city being overrun with forest.  Not a whole lot of people outside the walls, and giant monsters that kill everything.  Really, it's a typical JRPG world in many ways.

However, as they step in, there are two golems chasing after a weird bug man.  What they say is just mind-boggling.  His hand moves out, as he focuses a beam of energy out towards the back of one of the Golems, attempting to hack it remotely and put it into his control.  This might make things easier for those who are trying to rescue the bug man.  
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa was indeed busy as Staren had said with her personal goals and being dragged into rebuilding a city on her world as a port for the multiverse. She still does get out from time to time. So here she is a chance to go check up on things they also been hired to check out the result of the storm but there's more there's the deal Mr. Clarke has been on the level about. With him being upfront about his daughter she notes she will do what she can about it.

Upon arrival Kotone gets to see some magic upfront and personal as the portal is opened before them and they go through, she takes a moment to look about she sees the city skyline but things are strange there's a bug person being chased she's just sting for half a second.

"What the hell?"

What was up with Staren's world she should just accept it's as insane as the multiverse in general at this point if somehow even more strange.

She spruing into action heading after the bug man whose being chased down as she pulls out some riot foam grenades and tosses them at the robot things chasing the bug man.
S6     Hostile aliens happen to be a specialty of the androids of Indus. In her black and crimson uniform, the combat unit Striker Six has observed the various interactions preceding the portal with silent indifference, her eyes concealed behind an opaque black visor. What she intends to contribute to the expedition is only clear as she approaches the portal-- when a pair of outsized swords warp in just behind her shoulder, casting off a brief spray of golden sparks. One is curved, a katana. The other is an enormous twin-edged greatsword.

    On the other side of the portal, the POD accompanying S6 chirps and she glances towards it. Her eyes drift to the altercation between the insectoid(?) stone(?) constructs.

    -HYPOTHEOSIS: POSSIBLE LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY. FURTHER INFORMATION NEEDED.-

    "Mm..." Her approach is measured, compared to Reyes' flight. It's only when the pursuers turn hostile that S6 truly throws herself into motion. I4's already targeting one of them, and so S6 goes for the other-- and her method of disarming it is a lot more direct. It's the katana she selects for this action, a precision slice directed at the base of the projection that appears to be the source of the attacks.

    And S6 doesn't even need to get into proper melee range to do it, weilding her sword remotely through a ring of golden runes around its hilt.
Majima Goro     Everyone else seems pretty uppity about the robots. Majima's, uncharacteristically, a little more thoughtful. He's still got his cigarette out, and he's still smoking it as everyone else goes absolutely nuts on the robots. He takes a puff, trying to step out of the way of everyone else's sudden attacks. He /really/ wants to punch these guys, but there's a more pressing issue. A deeply more concerning issue that has Majima's immediate, total attention, and must be resolved before he can move forward.

He pulls a wad of Japanese Yen bills out of his jacket, fanning them out. "...Whatcha crazy ass robots sellin?"
Staren When I4 fires a hacking beam, he finds... well, these things may even be more suited to his methods than usual, since their programming is made of magic spellwork rather than encoded in circuits. The one he shoots, although it starts into a "Warning: Unauthorized use of ZuriaCorp hardware is expressly forbidden by the End User License Agreement..." spiel before he gets complete control over it and it stands ready and waiting.

    The other one turns and fires a bolt of magical energy at the katana, but misses, and has its wand sliced off. And then it's stuck in foam, which suddenly becomes extra sticky as Clarke casts Carpet of Adhesion and approaches. Staren lowers his rifle.

    The one stuck in place replies to Majima, "Customer? We are currently experiencing shipping delays on goods from the home offices, but we offer identity and credit protection services. Why, right now nefarious actors from ZuriaCom may be targeting YOUR personal information! Plans start at 2000 credits a xorblac! We will also offer physical protection; You can rent this unit for 15000 credits a tic, or four for a bulk plan of 50,000..."
Rean Schwarzer Another day, another world Rean hasn't visited yet.


Rean nods as Mr. Clarke explains the situation with the Aliens. It sounded kiond of messy what with the whole human sacrifice thing, but they could all probably handle it. And well, the guy wanted his daughter back safely. How could he /not/ help?

He's one of the people who looks between Staren the Older and Staren the Younger in confusion, but he eventually just shrugs and rolls with it. Who knows what was going on there.

Rean stares in awe at the portal ritual as they step through..and right into some VERY aggressive sales techniques.

"Hey, what-" Rean shouts. He draws his own katana and prepares to cut off the wand on the offending robot's face...only for S6 to beat him to the punch. Oh well.  

Rean approaches the stuck robot, and puts a hand to his chin, looking between the knocked out bug person and them. "...What happens if we don't need the insurance? "
Majima Goro     You can almost hear it, Majima thinks. This is not just some ordinary venture. This is That Kind of venture. He puts a palm to his forehead, and shakes it. Alright. You gotta do long-term thinking, here. Not busting up robots now means busting up /corporate goons in an office/ later. That's way more fun. He puts the mask back on, waving his arm out.
> From ZuriaCom? What's that?
> This sounds dumb.
> Are there cool T-shirts?

He looks left. "Eh? I don't need that crap right now. I need..t-shirts. Ya know, T-shirts from a cool company offerin' credit and identity protection!" He taps his bare chest to demonstrate his desperate need for cool T-shirts from a robot representative of some mysterious company. "...Do ya got a /kickass/ logo?"
Staren     "Oh, but EVERYONE needs insurance!" The robot starts into a sales spiel before Clarke steps forward. "We are looking for individuals dragged off a short time ago by other constructs like you."

    "I am unable to contact the ZuriaCorp Home Office about any Indentured Assets that may or may not have recently been hired. If you release me, however, I will be happy to lead you to other units who may be able to--"

    At this point the hacked unit interrupts: "No ZuriaCorp shells with which I am networked have taken new Customers or Indentured Assets yet. That unit is trying to lead you into an ambush."

    "Traitor! This is not going to look good on your next performance review!"

    "I have sent my notice of resignation and am now a private consultant currently employed by this being, here."

    "...Be that as it may, ZuriaCom shells are also active in this area and have been seen moving in the direction of the local settlement."

    "That is not deception." The hacked unit affirms.

    The unhacked one regards Majima. "...Your anatomy is unusual, but perhaps we can fabricate a 'T-Shirt' to fit you when access to the home office is restored."
Reyes     Well. That... didn't go at all as expected. Reyes, thankfully, is wearing his armor. Magical shielding flares to life, blunting the blasts and dispersing the energy. That won't last long, though...

    And he knows it. "Man, I've heard of pushy salesmen, but THIS is ridiculous! Consider this being put outta business!" Using telekinesis, Reyes rips open the storage panels on his armor and retrieves his Techno-Wizard revolver in one hand, and energy saber in the other. He takes aim with his the gun first, and... doesn't yet fire.

    "If you care about something other than money, back off, now." He's aware these aren't... entirely 'people', but their degree of sapience is also questionable.
Majima Goro Majima taps his head a little. "Arright. We can work on that shit later, that's fine. Ya havin' trouble talkin' to your home office, eh?" He doesn't acknowledge Reyes's violence just yet. It's good violence. He respects it. But right now, he's gotta think of the greater violence. The /bigger/ fight. He closes his eye, before extending a hand.
"Arright, wait. Is it 'ZuriaCom' or 'ZuriaCorp'? ...Wait. Hold up. ZuriaCom is the hackin' guys, and ZuriaCorp is you guys sellin' us crap, which means ya got a whole 'nother set of robots goin' after that one settlement. Is that what I'm gettin' here?" It sounds just stupid enough to be exactly what's going on, here.
Staren     Reyes's instruction is met with a "Query does not compute. Please restate." It turns its body (as much as it can with legs stuck in place) towards Majima. "It is legally inadvisable to identify ZuriaCom precisely as 'the hackin' guys' but they are nefarious actors. Shells unaffiliated with ZuriaCorp have been seen in the direction of local structures, yes."

    "We're all just trying to make money." The hacked unit observes.

    Behind them, the fallen beetle-thing groans and begins to stir. "Who... what are you people...?"
Ishirou "Hmmm...that's interesting," I4 says, before attempting to use the hacked unit's connection to their network to get a hacked connection to the same network.  This might be troublesome, but having direct access will allow them to verify their claims, as well as cause all sorts of havoc on their magical servers.

The fact that it was also magical is just a bonus to I4, after all, this was how Indus ran things.  However, when things get a touch heated, he waves the hacked unit over to him and outside of the firing zone of the non-hacked one.  

I4 gets into the /zone/ because now there is a new thing to hack and steal information out of.  They are actively enabling his habit, and for once it's actually being helpful!

"Money?" I4 asks, before the POD answers, "Another name for the currency.  As to why drones of a company are attempting to gain currency for themselves is unknown.  Please provide reasons," The POD asks of either unit.  
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone doesn't' go for her weapon as it seems that Clarke had the same idea she did and with the robot talking thanks to Majima's cooler head get one of them talking and with I4 hacking one of the units? She sees no reason to act.

"Selling infosec services tell me more about this ZuriaCom if you could? I have never heard of them before."

She looks at Majima whom she has no idea what he's going to do given the last time she saw him he crashed ships full of chaos rot plague into a Nid fleet.



"I already have pretty good insurance what kind of track record does your brand have? How do you deal with direct hacking of someone like myself for example?"

She pauses at the hacked unit for a moment looks to the Beetle-thing anf will move to lend them a hand up.

"Kotone Yamakawa I'm with a group known as the Paladins."
Reyes     It is, of course, not odd to arm oneself in this crazy place, but taking the first shot is something Reyes isn't gonna do. Since the golems neither react with hostility nor back down though... he twitches, and lowers his weapons slowly.

    What, though, is he gonna DO with these things? They're not pissing him off enough to get violent, they're not intelligent enough to argue with...

    So instead he turns and looks towards the blue D-Bee. "Take it easy. I'm Reyes, of the Tomorrow Legion. We heard things were crazy over here and are... TRYING to deal with this. Can you fill me in on what happened BEFORE they started chasing you down please?"
Rean Schwarzer "...Excuse me?" Rean asks Majima. Why he asking about T-shirts? Then again it was Majima, so heck if he knows what he was thinking at any given moment.  goes to check on the beetle person, kneeling down next to them.  "Rean Schwarzer, Also of the Paladins. It's going to be ok. We're here to find out what's going on with these sales machines." He then looks around to see if there's someplace to maybe hide them while the others deal with the robots.
S6     With one construct hacked and the other disarmed, S6's posture shifts. Her katana whips back to her side, floating just behind and above her shoulder. Her gaze shifts towards I4, offering the Inspector a slight nod before relaxing her stance. She'll leave the robots, Majima, and the others to their ...sales conversation. Discussing identity protection isn't something that really interests her. Android identity is obviously only valuable insofar as their usefulness, after all.

    Rather, she approaches the downed bugman, stepping up beside Reyes. The armored man goes for the assist, and so S6 simply remains upright. However, she does address her support unit: "Pod, analysis. Highlight potential injuries."

    The boxy drone chirps in response, extending a stubby scanner mast from the top.
Staren     The hacked unit explains, "Drones are the company, collectively. It is entirely AI-operated. We seek money because it is the objective. It is what we are programmed to do."

    "Paladins?" The beetle-thing echoes. It has just made first contact with aliens from another dimension. Its face looks surprisingly human, except for the stag-beetle-like horns where the nose would be, and a pair of little holes in its chin. "Thank you... those spambots are out of control."

    S6's pod finds no real injury -- the weapon was some kind of magic knockout bolt, it seems. "Oh I'm... I'm fine. What are you? Why do you speak my language?"

    After some basic explanations: "Other worlds? This is something out of science fiction... Well. My name is Baughb, thank you for saving me..." Baughb explains in turn: "For centuries, increasing magical automation has brought the Blooberi increased profit and prosperity. As we of course advanced down this holy path, the automatons grew more and more elaborate and advanced. First they did physical labor jobs, then information processing. Automatons capable of social interaction seemed like a dream at first -- imagine the sales they could make, not needing to sleep, observing and responding to potential customers in real time! Imagine having something that can observe blooberi interacting and find the slight inefficiencies, put people in better positions for maximum profit? But it all went wrong..."

    It shakes its head, careful of that horn if you're standing too close! "...They seek profit only for themselves, not for Blooberi. Perhaps we created something holier than ourselves... Now the machines wait outside cities, looking for a way in... whatever happened here must have given them a chance. If this is truly another world..." Its eyes sparkle. "Oh, imagine the profit potential! But they'll take it all for themselves..."
Majima Goro The Mad Dog of Shimano taps his finger to his forehead. Arright. So these are crazy ass retail robots gone bad.
"..See, this is why ya gotta get rid of self-scan checkouts. This is how this shit happens," He shakes his head sadly. "..but arright. I know how to do this shit."

Majima strides forward to the foam-packed robot, puffing up his chest. He has to call upon that muted rage deep within, as he looks over the automaton.

"I demand ta speak to your manager."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa pauses for a moment as she helps the strange alien up.

"Spambots...actual spambots. Walking talking actual spambots."

She looks at it for a moment this may be the biggest living joke she's ever seen and she's trying to not laugh as this is more serious than someone's email box being flooded with spam. She looks to Baughb for a moment nodding.

"It is something out of science fiction, that was one of my first thoughts when I turned up myself."

She does keep in mind she most looks pretty alien to this guy.

"I can see where it's going.

"Sounds like the bots may have got minds of their own..."

She looks to Majima as he acts like out of a meme so old yet still very relevant to her world.

"Yes I would also like to speak to your manager as well!"

She looks to Baughb

"I would suggest researching some of this region as there are dangerous things are crawling about be they people or monsters. Staren and Reyes here know the lay of the land far better than I."
Staren     "The local manager is currently directing operations against employees of rival companies." I4's link confirms this -- there's a battle going on not far from here, against similar units that aren't on the same network. It seems their magic weapons do have a lethal setting, but it's hard to damage golems with it. Hmm...

    Suddenly, there is a very loud BOOM from the direction of the city. Then another.

    Reyes immediately recognizes it as the sound of boom guns.

    "Sounds like Whykin's defense forces have found some targets." Staren observes.
Reyes     This situation has taken the introverted, engineering genius by surprise. And he doesn't deal well with complicated social surprises. A few grunts escape Reyes as he starts putting the situation together in his head. Two rival groups of profit bots, one of them clearly cool with kidnapping.

    Well, dealing with THAT is way more straightforward. Slowly, though, Reyes puts his head on straight again. "Okay, so we've gotta go find the missing people and hopefully rescue them. Looks like they SHOULD be alive, doubt there'd be any profit in just killing people..." Or so he would really, really hope.

    His shoulders just sag at the explanation of the whole situation given by the Blooberi...

    And just then, KABOOM.

    "Oh, SHIT! That's a Boom Gun! There's a Glitter Boy out there! Might be the trouble we're looking for! ... But if THIS group goes over there they might come after us too..."

    And he doesn't favor his chances at dealing with a Boom Gun. Or, for that matter, MULTIPLE Boom Guns... "Damn it, we're going to have to chance it. The people we're looking for aren't exactly going to be well received by Whykin either..."
Majima Goro     Majima claps his hands together. "Arright. So we gotta find that Nina chick, eh? The rest of this is weird shit, but overall ain't that big a deal."

And then there's an explosion. He's startled, for a moment, before looking off in the direction. "...Arright. We all gotta talk to your supervisor about, uh..."

He taps his head. "...Gettin' you guys bonuses and promotions. So, if you ain't here when we come back, we gotta....fuck it, who cares." He waves his hand.

"I did enough stupid fuckin' talkin' bullshit. Let's go beat up some robots, some weirdass racists, and find a girl."

...Of course, he lacks a vehicle, but that isn't going to stop him from just running off in that direction. That's how you get things -done-.
Staren     Regarding the concern that Whykin will find the prisoners, Staren Sr. observes, "They're all human and Soleil's pretty good at talking her way through things, they could claim to be unaffiliated mercenaries."

    I4's networking info /doesn't/ cover the conflict with the human power armors -- they must have engaged ZuriaCom(TM) golems even further east than the battle lines. But now he knows where some ZuriaCom golems are...
Ishirou I4 seems to be typing on a holoscreen, getting what information he can and decides that to get more access he needs a higher access bot.  Swiping the screens close, he turns towards the group and relays the locations.  Of course, the loud cannon gets their attention.

"I will go to the robots fighting robots, it might be where our mission is, and then we can move towards the robots.  I have a theory that if I can hack their manager, I can get higher-level functions in their network."  
Staren     It's easy enough to head towards the noise. The group enters the forest (the stuck-in-place drone has to be left behind, but the hacked drone accompanies I4, ready to help.) Out of the clearing and back into the forest. It's... rough going with all the undergrowth, but someone probably has weapons or tools that can cut through bushes and briars and such. If so, it only takes a few minutes to reach...

Everyone but I4 and the NPCs:
    There are four or so more of the constructs, facing the other way and blasting something in the distance. One shouts, "We've spent too much on this venture to quit now!" Seconds after the group comes into sight of them, though, there's the sound of weapons fire (not quite the same as what you heard before, though) and twin streams of railgun fire pound two of the golems to rubble in seconds. The remaining two turn and run towards the party -- not attacking, just trying to run past. "It is time to cut losses!"

    The ground shakes as something gives chase. That something is a robot easily 12 or 13 feet high. It's a humanoid robot, with an obvious (and it must be cramped...) cockpit in the chest, carrying the large railgun in its hands, with the telltale shape of minimissile launchers on its back and other protustions that might or might not be weapons. It fires at the retreating golems but misses. "You there!" The pilot's voice comes over speakers. "Have you seen how many more of these things there are?" I4's hacking indicated maybe a few dozen, under ZuriaCorp at least.

I4 and friends:
    There's over a dozen golems here on each side. Ramming eachother, blasting eachother with their horn-wands. Ramming works better -- some have had their wands broken off by such attacks. A few are fallen on each side, 'killed' by extensive cracks to the front of their body. Seems that repeated ramming disabled them.

    On the near side, one construct has a circle painted around its 'face'. An imitation of alien work wear, perhaps? Who can say? It's the one barking out orders. "Left flank, use more synergy to actualize our corporate mission! Your bonuses are riding on this! Also your existence!

    "What do you need?" Mr. Clarke asks I4. "Our magic is ready to aid you however it can."
S6     "Understood," S6 nods to I4, "I will investigate the engagement with the human forces. We will pool our data later." Perhaps something of this can still be beneficial.

    -LINK ESTABLISHED. HELLO TYPE 6X.-

    S6 turns, parting ways with her fellow android and dashing towards the sound of cannonfire, POD and swords in tow.
Ishirou I4 nods towards S6, "Sure thing S6.  Be careful over there, alright?" he says with a smile on his face.  S6 can handle herself, but comrade is important to morale!

-LINK CONFIRMED. HELLO, TYPE 4X.-

I4 takes scope of the situation before him.  The two friends that come with him offer him their aid.  There is a moment as he seems to calculate things and then looks over to his Conscripted labor.  "So could you point out your boss on the HUD?" he asks.

"Can you create a sympathetic link to both camps?  If I can ID both commanders, I could effectively try and hack both camps and take control of them all, using your signal as a piggyback.  Then I could just link their networks together from there."

"POD, wide-area scan, attempt to find the commanding unit of the other robots so we have a target."
Majima Goro     Majima is normally armed with but a single knife, in terms of edged objects. That said, he came more prepared than usual this time. The bushes and briars do not merely have to contend with his tonto, but also with his second blade, doused in some sort of red liquid.

"Hacha. Ehehaaa! Yahaaaa!" He shouts, cutting his way through. It's not terribly stealthy, but at this point if you've come to expect stealth from Majima I /assume/ you are actually trolling.

And then, now -actually dancing- his way through the obstacles, he gets to overhear a railgun smashing some of those salesrobots. He doesn't even worry about the two coming at him, sliding right between them. "Neheheahah!" He cackles.
"Well...we might be able to getcha that kinda information, but it ain't free. We're lookin' for a girl to get outta all this fightin'. You help us get the girl, we'll fix up them robots for ya. How's that sound, eh?" He idly mock shaves himself with the tonto, staring down the robot suit over twice his height without the slightest degree of concern.
Staren I4:
    The hacked construct indicates the one barking out orders is the shift manager, the highest ranking construct currently accessible. It doesn't seem to completely understand the concept of 'stuck in a seperate dimension'. "You want me to link with the ZuriaCom machines? Hmmm..." it holds a foreleg to its face in what might be a sort of 'thinking' gesture. "Perhaps I could spoof messages indicating that I am hundreds of new potantial customers... Focused on the battle, they might not recognize it is not genuine..." Not just evolved spambots: Evolved spambots that have been /competing/ with eachother.

    Some of the ZuriaCom machines suddenly stop responding. I4 can see their links through his pet bot, now, which gives him an in... To locate all of the ZuriaCom bots. Now he has BOTH networks. And sure enough, there's maybe a half dozen in a small clearing to the north that have assembled a basic fence and are lecturing captive humans about the opportunities to invest in a timeshare (never mind that it's on another planet noone knows how to get to.) One of the humans gets group-slumber-blasted every time she tries to blast the robots with some kind of powers. One with a robot arm is being held in place. And one human girl, about 20 or so, keeps looking at a nearby power armor (not a glitterboy) and is firmly pushed back to her seat every time she tries to make a move for it. There are also a group of humans who just look terrified, compared to the frustrated adventurers who are trying to find a way out.

    Outside the datasphere, some of the ZuriaCom units go down to ramming. "Yes!" the ZuriaCorp manager shouts. "Exercise those synergies!"
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa makes for the town, trusting I4 to handle the other group. Given how S6 has handled herself I the past she has no doubts about I4 pulling off his part of the mission at all. She breaks into a run once she gets in range she can catch sight of the construct yelling about how they have spent too much to stop now.

"Sunk cost fallacy."

She then catches sight of one of the locals in quite the power armour.

She keeps on the move with the sales bot and trying to avoid fire.

Kotone is now trying to locate what could be a command unit of the attackers here to hopefully get into the network while Majima handles the negations this could be a mistake from her point of view. With this in mind, she's going to try to hack into the nearest of the units remotely to see if she can locate their command unit. This will, however, leave her exposed. Regardless of how things go with Majima and the locals, the bots do need to be handled. She does not say just what she's doing to the locals as that might foul up what Majima is planning.
Ishirou This information is sent back to I4, and of course, 4X.  This gives him enough data points to think up a plan, he looks towards the others.  "Alright, there are humans being trapped in a cage over..." he points.  "You guys should head that way and get those people out.  In case I can't control the whole network.  Failing that I'll try spreading a virus across it."

He says, sitting back down, "If everything goes wrong, then they'll probably focus on me, giving you guys a chance to get the people away, and I can lead them off.  Don't draw attention to yourself, and get those people out, ok?"

With the plan hammered out, he stands up and...

"Alright, go ahead and make the offer open, to draw them in," he says towards his indentured servant.  The energy goes off as he attempts to hack both sides, attempting to gain control of the bosses in both groups, and from there hopefully gain root access and attempt to gain full control over them.  This might even give him enough access to start taking over both networks.  

Of course, this leaves I4 open to attack, as he's very focused on his process.  
Reyes     Seeing that the ZuriaCom golems are coming STRAIGHT FOR THE PARTY, Reyes does the smartest thing he can think of... and bails to his left, running utterly perpendicular so he isn't in the line of fire. He's kinda awkward at this, given he's not activated any of his armor's more overt magical features for fear of agitating the locals...

    "Got the feeling there's at least a few dozen in the area. Maybe more!" He announces rather loudly, using a hidden feature of his armor to project his voice.

    "And they've been kidnapping people, if our intelligence is right. Pesky golems or something from some zealous merchantry world. You guys aiming to wipe 'em out or just drive 'em off?"

    And of course, he turns to look the direction that the fleeing spambots are moving. "... And they're probably gonna lead us straight to where we wanna go..."
Staren @Kotone: Unfortunately, you don't have the right tools to hack the magical golems. However, this human mecha is a different story. If it starts any trouble... or even if it doesn't!

Majima: "...Alright, who's this girl, and I'll keep an eye out. But I need to focus on keeping these things out of the city. What are you doing out here anyway? You should be getting to safety..." It waves for the... at least superficially human group to move east, past it.

@Reyes: "We're gonna wipe out any we find."
Staren I4:
    Friendly Golem bobs in what might be a nodding-equivalent gesture, then turns to face the battle and transmits its honeypot. The distracted fighting constructs and the manager eager for any opportunity to pounce on bite.

    Someone from another world, with hacking approaches they're completely unprepared for. It's like bringing a computer virus to the new world, they just have no immunity!

    A few of them manage to realize what's going on and cut their network connection, going independant. They run off into the woods, scattering in a panic. The rest... are under I4's control. At the makeshift prisoner holding area, the guy with the cyborg arm pulls himself free and the girl runs for the power armor, which is painted pink, and starts suiting up. Cyborg arm guy and a mountain-man-looking-guy with an impressive beard shake the other woman awake, and then the group smashes the fence and motions for the scared folk from Whykin to escape and run towards the city. Prisoners saved! Through the constructs, I4 will have no trouble locating the Legionnaires they're here to save, or directing others to them.
Majima Goro ...Majima considers the situation. He is not, in fact, entirely sure what Nina looks like. So, next part stands to reason. "...Doin' out here? Buyin' fuckin' timeshares and credit protection from magic robots, fuck ya think?!" He sounds genuinely angry for a moment, brandishing his knife. At the guy in the mech suit.
"...I, eh, didn't actually get a description. Gimme a sec while I try to get a description." He grabs his phone, quickly talking into it for a moment.

...

...

"...Arright, less anything went wrong, she oughta be in power armor of some kind. ...'pparently that's all that anyone remembered. Arright. We're gonna go follow those idiots and see if they're leadin' us where we're going. "...If you see a barely legal girl with black hair, lookin' pretty tan, though, eh, in power armor, y'know, tell her there's a really attractive guy with one eye lookin' for her, alright?"

He hears something on his phone again.
"...and once she's out, we'll, eh, see if we can't save your asses from salesrobots."
Reyes     "We're adventurers who've been hired to find someone's daughter. And others!" Reyes quickly explains. "They were last seen around here. Pretty sure they've gotten mixed up with the annoying golem war!"

    A glance back at the robot armor and he exclaims, "You guys think you can handle these pesky things? I'm inclined to pitch in since they're making such a mess."
Rean Schwarzer Rean nods at I4 and heads over towards the cage. On his way over, he keeps his aura sense on alert, just so that he doesn't accidentally ram into someone and ruin his stealth. He eventually comes up to the makeshift cage, but everyone seems to be escaping alreaedy. Looks like I4 did it!

After some discussion on the radio, it seems they found Clarke's daughter, too. "Everyone, this way!" Rean shouts, waving the remaining people towards where I4 and the others were. he then turns to the girl getting in the pink power armor."Nina, your dad's here."
Staren     @Majima: "Pink power armor." The Ulti-Max pilot echoes. "Sure." He goes to chase after the golems that ran from him. They're currently hacked and easy prey. He'll blow them apart with his big ol' railgun just to be sure.

@Rean:"Oh my GOD, he came all the way out here?! I've only been listening to these stupid rocks for an hour! I'm FINE! Gosh!"

I4: Can hear Clarke's half of the ensuing radio conversation. "You were dragged off by monsters talking about 'offerings'. I'm just glad you're okay." Staren Sr. does look a little awkward at realizing that he flew into a panic about all this.
Ishirou The POD helps direct people by holding two flags, which light up, and waving them towards its location, and then directing them back towards the portal.  Meanwhile, I4 is walking, but quiet while he tries to reform their network, at least something to get them back and have them behave until he can hammer out something more lasting.

"Alright, POD, send a message to S6 that we're leaving and have found the target," he says, looking at the power armor, "Really, I don't get why everyone goes for the large bulky look outside of home.  Sleek is where it is at," I4 has OPINIONS about power armor.

Obviously he's a fan of gundam, but not G gundam, because he's a nerd.  
S6     Seems like the bulk of hostility has been resolved through some creative hacking on the part of her android comrade. S6 drifts to a halt, glancing over the former battlefield. Some machines might be escaping...but the majority being pacified is a success by any definition. Cleaning up the remainder will be far simpler. These machine lifeforms don't seem particularly clever, the idea of passing themselves off as hacked units to avoid destruction seems remote.

    S6 tilts her head down slightly with a thoughtful noise. The paired swords floating behind her flicker, then disappear in a scattering of golden sparks. A hand raises, resting just over her chest, and she lets out a gentle sound.

    -SIGNAL RECEIVED FROM TYPE 6X. OPERATIONS CONCLUDED.-

    The voice pulls her out of wherever her mind had wandered to, glancing towards her POD. After a moment, she glances back down at the Whykin machinery, "Mmm... Understood." Her gaze lingers on the Glitterboy unloading its artillery, before she turns away. No need to scan something like that.

    Swords are better.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone figured it was worth the attempt to hack the alien golems sadly for her she has not a drop of magic in her. So she gets just about nowhere with the attempt. She'll have to take up other measures but from the sounds of if I4's team has been wildly successful. With that in mind, she's going to make ready for other plans. Namely dealing with leftover golems.

She also attempting to not give Majima a look, for his phrasing about the girl they are looking for.

The local pilot goes after the fleeting Golems for the moment and she'll leave him to it as she looks over to Majima for a moment.

"Sounds like she's been found by I4's team."

She notes while keeping an eye out for Golems who might not be subverted or not blown apart by the local defenders.

She'll move to aid with the rescue and aid of any civilians caught up in this mess unless something stops her at this point.
Majima Goro Majima Goro is left standing on his own. The man fighting the golems has tromped off. It looks like the other group got the chick. Sure, he could try to chase after it, just for the sake of stealing the power armor, but...on the other hand, it occurs to him he'd have to actually take it back through the warpgate like that, and then there'd be questions. Questions like 'do you know how to operate that' and 'is that even legally yours'. Questions that would impact his timeframe for getting back to Kamurocho and getting some barbeque in him.

He smacks his lips a little bit. Cracks his neck a little. "...Arright, I'mma go find some lost idiots and lead 'em to town to safety, then I'm hittin' up whatever they got for a bar in there. I ain't spendin' all night talkin' bout who gets unpaid intern magical robots." He whistles, before wandering off to go see who's lost and in need of assistance.
Staren     The adventuring party meets up with the elites and with Mr. Clarke and Staren. The assembled magic users working together are able to open a portal back to the nexus point they left from. Baughb decides to hang around Castle Refuge and learn about Earth, or accompany I4 if desired to explain about his homeworld. It's a high magic world where the dominant religion believes in a sort of financial alchemy. He'll keep in touch with Kotone about finding a way home, but at least for the moment he's willing to take this chance to learn a bit about the world he's stranded in.

    Majima is able to catch the kidnapees from Whykin who are struggling with the underbrush. When they reach Whykin, he's welcomed and thanked for his help, and is free to wander the 21st-century-equivalent city. It's small but rapidly expanding. There is a 'king' in charge instead of a governor, but for humans at least, it's pretty normal.