Scene #7972: 2b2Forte

Owner	Pose
Staren	Secundus Zone #89223 Once, this was a land of infinite possibilities. The world appeared out of nothingness as the first explorers walked into it, many years ago; ground, plants, wildlife, rare ores, even pre-built villages and dungeons and structures appeared from the void and then remained. Things sometimes get a bit wonky around 32,000 km in a cardinal direction from the center of the world, and get REALLY weird past 2.1 gigameters or so. But it is a huge world, of endless possibility. Furthermore, it's impossible to die here. When you would otherwise die, you respawn at a (destroyable) self-designated spawn point or at the center of the 'map'. With the greatest hazard to exploration nonexistant, and functionally unlimited space and resources, it could be paradise. Zone #89223 is hell. Most explorers stop by only briefly, looking around the bombed-out, hard-to-navigate rocky hellscape that surrounds the standard spawn point before being killed, respawning, and going right back through the gate. More determined explorers have formed groups. Trying to find places no one is looking to place hidden or not-so hidden bases which may be fake and ridden with traps, balancing 'far enough from spawn not to get attacked' with 'but close enough to main thoroughfares they can actually get places' (There's a sort of fast transit system that involves going through a hell plane, it's a whole thing.) Groups form, work together, then there are betrayals and backstabs that leave nothing but one more ruin on the map. Some explorers have worked out hidden rules of the world -- item dupe tricks or instant-win or invulnerability effects stop working within a day or so, but lesser benefits such as seeing through walls and knowing the location of every other explorer within +/- 160m of their coordinates are common. Staren was lucky to slip some drones through when no one was watching the gate and get them spread out enough that they haven't all been griefed yet. Forte has probably been quite able to handle some griefers. Now Staren has come herself, with an arsenal she needn't be afraid to unleash in the hellscape around spawn, and set out in search of Forte, tracking through Secundus's systems.
Forte	Forte is both hard to find, and not hard to find. He's learned enough by now to not post up anywhere remotely near the warpgates, because the various territory 'holders' tend to come looking for him once they get a notification that he's threatening their precious 'resonance', whatever that means. He can't complain too much - the same system that's sending out alerts about him is the same system that oh so kindly provides him an easy list of areas held by the Concord and by the Paladins - areas he can drain dry guilt free (relatively), which isn't always easy in Sector Zero. It's been heaven. ... However, while he's far from the warpgates, there's signs. Areas that the data that makes up the world gets a little bit... thinner, maybe. Like there's a leak somewhere. And by taking measurements, and triangulating... ... There's Forte, at one of the more hidden bases, at its claim terminal - and once again using it as an ingress point to start absorbing, well, everything, one byte at a time.
Staren	Once she has a moment to breathe, Staren can summon various technological travel aids to go FAST. She may have gone into the hell transport system, built up speed flying over a freeway, and smashed into a pile of nigh-unbreakable wall someone had put on it to make use of the road a pain. Griefers waiting in ambush for stranded travelers were amazed to see a vehicle smash into their wall before they could even attack it... and then a new Staren body warped in, she hopped in, and laid waste to them. Her journey has been mostly quiet since. The region Forte has found is far from the origin, far from the overworld roads. Some past explorer, on a journey to the edge of the world, left a hellgate here to pop out and look around before returning to their journey. It looks normal enough, a region of grassy coast between ocean and a forest. During the day, peaceful wildlife grazes on the grass. The guild Forte's currently attacking have secreted an underground base 300m or so from this little-known spot. There are hidden doors and traps, and navigation is made a little more difficult by things getting a little glitchy, being slightly off of where they appear; but Forte could just drain any hazard he encounters. By now the survivors have mostly fled with their inventories or been slain. Deep underground they've bothered to actually make things look pretty nice? There's a library, a pool, farms, living space, a meeting hall, all artfully crafted from stone, wood, glass, and occasionally other materials. To the degree anything functions as a claim point, wiping out the spawn points at the 'dorm' area basically makes sure no one comes back here easily. Adjacent is a well-lit, large internal area where the guildies can meet or relax and admire their construction and an underground lake. Staren gets to follow Forte's path of damaged traps and such. She's in her new powered body armor, like the Delilah but smaller and wearable-size, painted white with glowy orange bits and a glowing visor consisting of three horizontal concord-orange lines. At the moment it's got add-on spurs and plates of hyperglass and megadiamond to help her navigate. It's Forte, so, she shoots first and talks later: A double-barreled shotgun adorned with red jade and rubies and ornate wiring appears... two feet to the right of her hand. She snatches it out of the air before it hits the ground, points it at Forte, and fires both barrels; Instead of shot, sparks of magical energy spray out, each one exploding into a small fireball. Then she pulls the trigger and two hypervelocity ramjet slugs shoot out. If there was any doubt as to who it is, her voice settles it: "You again! Gh..." Staren holds a hand to her helmet. "You know, I actually don't mind you teaching the people here a lesson, but disrupting the zone's resonance like this is a problem. As much as this place sucks, it could be important territory in fending off the Paladins." She sighs. Staren once said the same thing about Huffman and now it's 'essential'. For all her claimed ability at pattern recognition...
Forte	"Gh-" Shooting Forte first and talking second is probably the smartest move, but it's still very rude! He takes it full-on, and ends up getting sent flying away from the terminal, smacking against the opposite wall. "... You... again." He picks himself up off of the wall. "I do not know how many times I need to say this," he says. "I'm not here to teach these people a lesson. I am not here to teach anyone a lesson." "I do not care about the Concord's feud with the Paladins. I do not care about the Paladins feud with the Concord. I do not care what either group is trying to do here. I do. Not. Care. Especially. About what my presence here is preventing you from doing." "And you keep coming back to me. And talking to me. As though you expect me to care, if you just... say it enough." Forte loads a battlechip silently, and then floats a little closer to Staren. "And I'm infuriated, now, that I'm having to say all of this again, and so plainly this time, and so I am just - done talking. I have one word for you, Staren Wiremu, from now until you get it." He opens his mouth. "NO" The rejection hits like a truck.
Staren	Staren takes a defensive stance, putting a forcfield up and still getting slammed through the wood wall behind her into stone. The thruster spurs folded into defensive position, but even the force that gets through the attack hits the megadiamond plates head-on, cracking them. Staren grunts in pain at the sudden motion. Ah. Right. Without using up her reserves of mock TITAN smart armor, getting slammed around actually kinda hurts. Perhaps she should be more concerned about the data corruption sticking to her. "I know that! It's just force of habit! Sorry! I feel weird just, like, shooting you and not talking!" She raises the gun and fires a single barrel magic shot, just trying to push him back as she tries to move to a position that ISN'T against the wall. The corruption eats at her as she attacks. "Ah?! What the hell is this?!"
Forte	Staren is talking because she... feels awkward otherwise? Forte can't parse it, but then again, maybe Staren hasn't spent a decade floating in silent isolation like most normal people have. Such stunted development. Still - as Staren fallsback, Forte moves forwards. He needs to drive his point home. About tracking him down: "NO" About interrupting him when he's draining resonance: "NO" About expecting him to care: "NO" About him saying anything except NO right now: "NO" All delivered aggressively and violently, blasting apart walls with the weaponized rejection as he goes.
Staren	Forte is very persistant in his rejection! Staren's armor is covered in cracks, and she starts to make grunts of pain as the rejection and data corruption eats into her body inside the suit. She's got to weather it, find an opening, and strike decisively! Not yet... not yet... hang in there a little longer... She magically fires the other shotgun barrel, more exploding sparks, leaps up, and kicks off a wall, trying to get closer to him. The armor around her arm splits and opens, electricity arcing between the halves before snapping shut, the electric whine of SOMETHING charging up audible. "You know, this is actually kind of helping me feel better about the thought of just attacking you without explanation?" Then she realizes she's still doing it. "Oops, right."
Forte	Stop apologizing, Staren. This isn't a friendly conversation... Forte starts maneuvering defensively - trying to get what remains of this base between him and her, and timing his psychic rejections so that they'll land when there's a clear path between them. It only works to a certain extent, really - and Forte's starting to feel worn down by how many hits he's taking. He needs to finish this quick, drive Staren off, and absorb enough data so that he can heal back up... What might be the final blow of the fight comes suddenly. Forte blips, vanishing from his position - and reappears behind Staren, point blank. "NO" It's a dirty trick, but Forte isn't in the business of fighting fair, either.
Staren	Forte blips. Staren immediately turns around. The arm or her armor crackles and glows as it deploys an armblade. They've seen eachother's respective tricks before. She puts the momentum of the turn into a stab aimed right at him-- "NO" The armor's movement stops, it flashes red and starts to fall over, and then there's a puff of smoke which drops all the xp orbs (they bounce on the ground with a bell-like tinkle) that she picked up from the bandits that tried to ambush her before, and the armor and shotgun lie spinning in place like item pickups. Well okay then.
Forte	"..." "Ugh..." Forte staggers a bit. "... Might need to rethink this, if it keeps attracting this sort of attention..." He goes back to the terminal and proceeds to resume drinking this zone's data dry.