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+--- Thread: The Secondary Saga (/showthread.php?tid=2274)
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 3 - Gamzee Makara - 08-19-2015
Quote:GROUP 4
I was too thrown off guard to understand what was going on besides the impending death that awaited us below. Alas, it was not to be. I land practically on my face in a cesspool of stagnant slime water. I am lucky enough to escape a nasty impact, as I land in particularly deeper section of the pit. I do however bang my shoulder again, hitting it on the bottom of this death trap. I resurface, swearing incessantly in German. The water barely coming past my waste, but mein GOTT it smelled and tasted awful... I should not have been cursing and screaming on the way down.
"Well... We certainly went down, but I don't believe this is hell. Is everyone alive?"
I hear murmurs of annoyance and agreement. Crow begins talking about a strategy for making it out of this hole, when we hear the distinct sounds of a fight above. Gah, the robot was still above. I fear for its safety, and hope it makes it down here, preferably not in chunks of sparking metal. It was pitch black in this pit without our torch. I fear we will be fumbling around in the darkness until-
What is that?
Something glowing and flickering is falling from the arena, and only too late do I realize that it is our torch, our light. It lands in the grimy water with a hiss as it's life is extinguished.
Verdammt Perfekt.
After a solid minute of silence, I groan and curse again, cursing our situation and the luck of our group. I briefly ponder what kind of hells the other secondaries are facing, but there is simply no time for that. IRIS floats haplessly down in a spiral, shining like the bulb of a lighthouse. I suppose it will do. With a few words from Crow, we set about finding a way out.
Try as we might to find another mechanism of some sort, or perhaps a weakness in the wall, progress was slowed by various things. The water was disgusting, and every moment my skin was tainted by it was a moment of extreme discomfort. Our light source was admittedly better than the lone torch, but IRIS could only really focus on one area at a time. We had to take turns working in shifts with the spotlight. At one point, I almost prick my finger on a rusty spike or spear of some sort. They were fitted at the bottom of the pool of water, no doubt the original means of disposal of gladiators. There were also various remains of varying levels of decomposition. Many were ancient, but the water certainly ah, helped their complexion.
It is not long before, while sliding my fingers along a crevice, I find a button. A button. Of stone. I do not even think, as the alternative is was rotting here for eternity.
I voice my find in the form of curiosity before pressing the button without a thought. There is a consequence for this. The walls around us begin to rumble as some ancient machinery begins churning behind them. And then, the walls begin to move and rotate, rather quickly I might add. My hand still stuck in the crack of the wall naturally adds a degree of apprehension to my voice as I quickly jump back, shouting at the walls as if they were a misbehaving pet.
"Nein! What are you doing!? You are supposed to be a way out of hell!"
Then, many things happen at once. So enraptured I am with the moving of the brick walls that I fail to notice them falling. I hear shouts from Crow, and the metallic voice of IRIS, as I am yanked by the collar to the center of the room. Dust and mortar and brick all tumble down around me. There as a brief terse exchange of words between our automaton friend and the Captain of our expedition. I catch the tail end of the conversation.
"... might call it a possible way out!"
It is only my sharp thinking that saves my reputation.
"Yes, a way out! Just as I had predicted!" I succumb to a brief fit of coughing, the dust finally getting to me.
Or perhaps that is just the growing evil inside of me. Who knows?
"Let us get going before something ELSE decides to try and kill us!"
And without any objections, we move through the newly erected hole in the wall. It makes a rather nice makeshift cave, and there is even a proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel.' The irony in this is not lost on me, I assure you. I fear the exclamations of my fellows will only be met with disappointment at the hands of another trap or deadly encounter. But, once again the sad realization dawns on me that we have no other options. I shield my eyes from this new light, hesitant to have my hopes dashed once again by fate.
Quote:Translations:
mein GOTT = my GOD
Verdammt Perfekt = Fucking Perfekt
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 3 - Guu - 08-20-2015
Quote:
Everyone was strewn all over the floor after hoisting the goblin from his possible watery grave. The members that could breath took a moment to catch their breaths. Raw strapped her armor back on and reached for one of the torches with one of her wings. She lifted it up to get a good look at their surroundings. More murals covered the walls of what appears to be a long hallway. She could already see the makings of a typical Daring Do arrow traps activated by pressure pads on the floor. Unless if there was midair trip wire, she and Puppet boy were in the clear, but that’ll be a pain for the other three companions with them.
Sighing heavily for the trouble that awaits them. She looked around. The hallway behind them seemed to drop off somewhere, she dared not go towards the edge.
To her surprise, not far from where they were was a doorway. Strange symbols marked a sign next it. It was a crude but simple drawing of a man and woman.
Cautiously, she trotted to the entrance and peered around inside. Though it wasn’t familiar in her culture, she recognized it instantly as a human bathroom, complete with stalls, sinks, and even urinals, except they were all intentionally made in the aesthetic of an ancient temple. It was something out of a theme park, though she was pretty sure she was in a real temple this whole time.
“Hey guys, there’s a restroom over here!”
The group slowly gravitated to the portal and one by one, they were thrown for a loop as they spied a completely stocked bathroom. As they explored deeper, cautious of traps, they found that it even had magically refilling soap dispensers and paper towels.
“I don’t get it.” Stated Lyra, baffled at what she was seeing. She recoiled when she pulled one of the levers to the toilets and it actually flushed. “I thought this was an ancient temple, why would there be a bathroom like this?”
“Well, the Omniverse is only 10-years-old. It’s not shocking they’d have something modern in it.” Top Man replied. “This was probably put in for the people who built this place.”
“But still, kind of kills the atmosphere.” Lyra said, sounding a bit disappointed. “Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.”
The group took turns going the bathroom, not knowing when’s the next time they’ll get another chance.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 3 - Smith - 08-20-2015
Well, looks like I got a little carried away there. My bad. Not only was I not able to turn off my appetite before I nearly brained the guy, but I almost ate blondie as well. And after all the help she’d been giving me lately, I can’t help but to feel a little sheepish about it. I guess I’m not as in control as I thought I was.
Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. I mean, I’m a monster now. Just being around these guys is putting their lives at risk. I shoulda just walked straight to Darkshire and let the guard put an arrow in my head. Woulda been way fucking better than almost eating the closest things I’ve had to friends in years.
So, here I am, feeling sheepish as hell while Ol’ Rough-And-Tumble fixed up Blondie. Hell, the guy needed help himself, and it didn’t seem the droid was about to offer any. I wish I could, but I’m more likely to make things worse than to help any. I guess I’ll just stand around like a dumbass and wait for the fully cognitive folks to get shit together. At least if I don’t move anywhere, I can’t set off any more traps.
Once again, I find myself thankful for at least SOMETHING in this whole zombie bullshit scenario I’ve been living. Standing around, or doing anything for a long time, didn’t really bother me anymore. My body didn’t feel any of the discomfort that normal folks would with standing still, or running for long periods, or even lying in a weird position. And hell, I didn’t have enough mental faculties left to get bored of it. So, I guess it could be worse… I could be one of those monsters that still had to deal with mortal shit.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 3 - Gildarts - 08-20-2015
Quote:Group 1: Abner, Bucky, Christa, Urg
Time clouded her mind with the cottony softness of a dense haze. By the time the other human had found her in the dark and knelt to her side, she had wrapped an improvised cloth over her scraped abdomen. The sheen of hot metal still haunted her thoughts as she felt her side molten with pain.
Her crippling agony was only expressed through her hidden, cringing brow. The ex-soldier was currently propped up against the roughly edged wall as she applied pressure to her seeping gut; the sticky warmth began to trickle through her fingertips. This is getting bad.. she observed and tightened her grip unconsciously around the stem of her holstered pistol. Holding it gave her a false sense of comfort, or perhaps she held too tightly onto the notion that it gave her power. Or even just a chance.
Christa heard some gargling zombie noises jabbing through her cloud of pain. A dizzy glance up didn't answer any of her questions. Soon after, a helpful voice assured her of safety, despite their current predicament of being caged within the horrific mouth of a monstrous temple, ridden with deadly traps, and then there was also that other monster who wanted to eat them.
It was very caring of him, she would admit, containing her guts and similarly associated nausea, that was, until he mentioned one little word...
Aggressively, her response caused her to jump to her feet, before her balance wobbled and she used the same treacherous wall once more, to brace into a stand against her newfound enemy.
Now was no time to be prejudice, but these bastards were the ones who had killed her sister. Did all of them cause Katia's death? They might as well have, and their influence was the reason she was here – with a stab wound in the gut – in the first place. A steady, hostile glare held on him as the walls began to illuminate along the embedded patterns of stone with streams of golden light.
Abner was in her crosshairs, she had pulled a gun on him, but now, their current shelter they had taken began to crumble along the lines.
The ceiling was caving in, and while Christa would have died for her beliefs, she would not risk the goal of her mission, for she was fueled by the same determination to find Omni, for one reason: To bring her sister back to life.
Quote: I'm really impressed with everyone's effort this round! But now...
Woot! Another phase has ended! The temple is crumbling to bits and, how many of us are trapped inside? but we don't all die here! we will have the results at noon tomorrow, for the beginning of Phase 4! Stay tuned, folks!
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 3 - Ruby Rose - 08-20-2015
Quote:I HAD to get this post up, as too much went on in my group to be able to post next phase. Punish me as you wish XD
Grave made very quick work of cauterizing Alice’s poison wound, while Richtofen took the opportunity to deal with the rest of the misfortunate group’s ailments. The Nephilim stood up with Alice in his arms and made his way to the rest of his ragtag allies. Thankfully, the good Captain took it upon his own shoulders to step up to the plate and (somewhat) take a leader position… While spouting some kind of seafarer jargon Grave just could not understand. It meant something at least… well, he hoped. Crow turned and apologized for the lack of rope around the area. Surprise, surprise, Grave complained.
The spherical bot turned out to have arms that could actually hold things, like in this instance a flaming torch. Grave’s head swam like a fish in a fish bowl when he tried to think of how so much could fit in a tiny machine, so he left it for the time being. Crow turned back to Grave and mentioned that he should stay as the centre, and he couldn’t help himself when he replied with, “Aye aye, Captain!”
Next the Captain turned to Jan, the military man Grave didn’t pay much notice to, and he felt somewhat bad for that. He was assigned the important mission of watching the group’s six. He seemed disappointed, but Grave would have been more than happy to trade, had he not quite literally had his hands full. Finally they made headway through the temple-ruins-thing, until they came face-to-face with a crossroads. Grave never liked decisions. As if knowing the Nephilim didn’t want to decide, the Doc ‘suggested’ (or more so chose, with information) that the group go to the left…
That was until a heavy, scratchy noise flowed, or more so broke from the right. Grave could hear the Vampire whimper slightly in his arms, and even he felt a shiver run down his spine. Whatever was in there did not sound like it wanted to invite the group over for dinner… well, maybe to be dinner, but that was about it. They began to make a beeline for the left corridor, until that bloody doctor set of a tripwire, Jan barely saving his ass from the big-ass axe that soared out of the wall. Grave sighed as he silently thanked Jan for leaving Richtofen’s head on his shoulders.
At Jan’s command, the silver-haired man was already off, running with the group and holding onto Alice like a lifeline. He had absolutely no idea how he dodge- “SHIT!” Grave cried, as he felt a gnarled arrowhead find purchase in his pale shin, but he kept going, only adrenaline and sheer willpower pushing him on. He held Alice close to his broad chest, protecting her fragile body like a shield. Thankfully, nothing else came too close to the two, but at each tiny movement Grave jumped, ready to evade.
And then the doctor found himself alight like a German bonfire, swearing in his native language. The licking flames were soon extinguished and Richtofen back on his feet. IRIS casually hovered over the flames, and Jan attempted the same manoeuver as the problematic doctor, the difference being that the latter failed. With an arrow in the shin, Grave wasn’t confident he would make it over, but it was worth a shot. He turned to the female in his arms, “Hold on tight!” he told her with an energetic grin, and he leaped as far as one could with an arrow in their bloody leg, and managed to make it over, finishing in a stylish crouch.
Crow proceeded to activate a large stone door, shutting them off from the traps – and more importantly the unknown creature. Grave reached down and tore the arrowhead from his leg, too tired to shout in pain, before standing up and taking in the… ‘scenery’. Some kind of colosseum. Grave had seen quite a few of them where he was from, or at least he thought he had. Memories of before were extremely blurry.
The ‘peaceful’ moment was rather rudely interrupted by a colossal crashing and unearthly roaring from behind the stone door. The bugger was trying to break through… or more accurately, did break through. A gigantic axe cleaved through the stone and flew across the arena, barely missing Grave’s silver-topped head and lodging itself in the bleachers, of sorts.
Richtofen commanded their automaton ally to pull the lever, and the machine obliged… but the mechanism spawned a great, big hole in the floor, and the other four were sent plummeting into the pitch blackness. Before long, the sounds of splashing – or more so ‘erupting’, in some cases – water rose to meet the Nephilim’s ears, before Grave himself, along with Alice, hit liquid. The water didn’t seem too deep, but deep enough to save all their lives. Grave looked up to see Crow standing proud and the other two soaked nearly head-to-toe in the highly unpleasant muck, now that Grave could feel the sensation of the so-called ‘water’ around him.
Crow spoke up, and Grave was first to reply, “Bloody bet it could’ve… I managed to keep Alice in check though, that’s a plus, I guess,” he droned on, looking at the blond Vampire in his arms. Jan then suggested to figure out what the hell they were going to do. Before Grave could open his mouth, Crow’s voice rang out instead. Coincidentally, right as the Captain was complaining about the dark, an orange light began to soar down the chamber; IRIS seemed to have been attacked. Bloody perfect. Thankfully, a guttural (and VERY disturbing) squeal was heard from above. The bot managed to fend off the attacker at least… but the torch… yeah, the torch wasn’t so lucky. It was out before anyone could say ‘lights’, as the other three tangled their limbs to grab it. A for Effort at least.
Yet another light arrived, this one blue and much more artificial. The source was soon discovered behind it; IRIS, finally hauling ass down the cylinder. Crow suggested the group look around, and Grave more than gratefully obliged, slipping his soggy legs out of the awful substance. From what Grave found, it was some kind of waste; he found bits of half-eaten food, preserved for years by the slime, along with the odd bone or skull. He looked down at Alice, and she had her eyes firmly shut. No wonder. Grave didn’t blame her for not wanting to lay her scarlet eyes on the icky scene surrounding them.
Grave jumped as he heard a mechanism activate, and he prepared to jump over another axe, or duck another arrow… but that was not the case. The desecrated walls began to hum, click, whir and spin around, and IRIS’s report produced comfort for the Nephilim. Crow called for silence, and Grave listened in. The walls were creaking and…
Before Grave could even take half a breath, the Captain had the other two men in his grasp, and shoved the supernatural creatures out of the way, saving all six asses at once from the collapsing masses of stone and gunk. Grave coughed and spluttered as the dust filled his nostrils, and he did his best to miss the Vampire. The fricking doctor decided to use the trap as an excuse to show his ‘tactical expertise’ so to say. He suggested to get the hell out, and Grave was already off, Alice still with him, and he called over his shoulder, “No shit, Sherlock!”
Did Richtofen even know who Sherlock was?
Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Gildarts - 08-20-2015
Within the tunnels of the temple, lines on the walls began to glow, revealing to Abner that Christa had pulled a weapon on him. The ceiling of stone crumbled down upon them, weighing chunks crashed down around them, each heavier than the last. The cascade of rumbling earth had caused Urg to follow the bright path as arrows to his escape. Meanwhile, Christa held Abner at gunpoint.
“This is crazy, this place is going to kill us!”
The hatred hissed in her eyes, set ablaze by the luminous chiseled stone. A stone fell close to his shoulder, causing him to jump, yet, the standoff continued and Abner was held still only by the seriousness in her eyes.
“Lets go. This place is coming DOWN.” What part of that didn’t she get?
The woman bit back the snarky remark that rolled to the tip of her tongue, I don’t take orders from you. However, the condition of the wound in her gut was starting to worsen and she wasn’t sure she would be able to make it out alive if she was on her own.
She cast another look to him, she had once vowed she would kill every one that posed a threat, every single stormtrooper who dared harm her or another innocent. And now, she could see it past her hatred, past her pain, and past her own sorrow.
She could see his confusion. It shook through her with the dreadful pangs of mourning regret.
Abner had watched her and backed away with the wave of her hand. Quickly he ran through anything that might have tweaked her, Illusion? Poison? Hallucination? And while she did have a few venomous darts in her, nothing seemed to quite fit. The girl’s injury was growing more fatal with every strained movement. She grasped it weakly with one hand, as one of her eyes was crushed shut with pain. And in the other, the snout of her Beretta stared him in the face with intent to kill.
The gun in her hand was a mistake. Christa was about to lower it, but then Bucky appeared from the shadows. His mechanisms must have allowed him to see in the dark, as a sort of night-vision function; it was no surprise to her when Bucky raised his arms to the threat and completely dismissed the boulders falling from overhead. His stance squared and the light glimmered off of his cold metallic sheen.
Fate was testing her, she could feel it.
Eyes flashed like flame to the machine assailant, who seemed to have scrambled his orders, or maybe he was programmed to shoot at his teammates, Christa didn’t know. It did however, surprise her when Bucky, instead of raising his blaster at her, had raised it at Abner.
He wasn’t even holding a gun! Well, not entirely, but his intent was pure, from what she could tell. The droid’s judgement was flawed, or perhaps it was running on some scrambled feed, as Abner had held a gun earlier at Urg.
And Christa, laden with misgivings of the Empire’s injustice, moved her pistol’s crosshairs a few inches and let her finger fall on the trigger. Simultaneously, a huge fucking rock fell from the ceiling and crushed the droid completely. Bucky, the plucky droid with slight mechanical failure, was crushed and had died with a shot in the face.
Blue eyes slid back to Abner, as Christa made a judgement call, prioritizing her life over her own misguided beliefs and nodded to him. Together they escaped alive.
And then there were two.
...
[spoiler]
Quote: An injury recap.
Isaac rushes out of the temple, his breath rasping in his hoarse throat as the light flooded in on his dilating eyes. Coming fast behind him is Klaud, who takes a dense chunk to the face as she narrowly evades a huge boulder that would have crushed her entirely. Unfortunately, Krugman was not as keen with his reflexes, as the rock fell on him completely. It took a little man power, and an extra hand but Isaac had gone back for him, never one to leave a man behind. Clayton had rushed on, beside Klaud as he fumbled his hand in his pocket, and found something he didn’t recall placing there...
Raw Onion was using her wings to give her an extra gust. A brick fell on her wing, she winced a bit and trotted on. Top Man too, ran out of the cave, he tripped on his shoelace (because robots SO have those) on his way out, and dented his knee.
Meanwhile, the wooden boy, whose nose had now grown at least a yard, rushed for the exit. If he was able to sweat, he was sure he would’ve been covered in it. So overpowering was the thought and his desire to become a real boy, made his dreams true, and he followed the robot before him, plunging face first into the ground. This time, he had more of an obstacle than the robot would. The boy was thankful it hadn’t snapped completely, but his nose was stuck for at least a moment, as he shuffled in circles while doom fell down upon him. He dodged rock, man, and pony alike before finally uprooting his pole-like nose and flushing out the snort of soggy dirt from his nostrils. Man, he wished he could have sneezed just then, like a real boy.
Grobdum rushes on his way out of the temple, a rock beckons his eyes with all the glitters of gold as traces of magic seem to radiate from it, and the colors whisk into misty shades of blue and purple. He snags it before escaping.
Clayton slows his pace after the soft ‘huff’ from running and catches his breath. He finds a single shell in his pocket, rolls it around in his palm before loading it into his shotgun.
The team with Raw Onion, Lyra, Pinocchio, and Grobdum discovered a map on their way out. Lyra gently pulls the glowing note from a crack in the wall before a cascade of rock, dust, and sand litter the empty tombs. As she does this, she pricks her finger and receives a paper cut.
IRIS is the first out of the tunnels, the AI takes a thorough sweep before a dart scratched the machine's silvery armor. Another dart slices across the air and hits Grave in the back. There was a scowl of annoyance, but it was mostly from the fact they the light of day was still lingering in the sky. Jan followed Grave through the tunnel and followed the steps of the Vamp's dodge, however he was a bit too hindered by speed and a shell of rock slammed down on the back of his head.
Rictoffen and Crow – who had shied away from the the doctor's presence – both dodged the darts, however a second trap was triggered and they both took a solid gold brick to the face. Followed by expletives slurred together in a German and a pirate-y accent.
Urg had escaped with but another meaningless pinprick, meanwhile Christa was still in pain from her abdomen, and during their escape, Abner took a dart for the girl, unable to dodge and unwilling to throw her to the ground.[/spoiler]
...
They had followed the path to freedom, after dodging stone chunks and booby traps alike, and finally when they had reached the twilight sky, Christa released her arm from around Abner’s shoulder and leaned against a tree with deadened branches.
With a small glance, she tried to sum up where the tunnels had taken them. There had to have been a mistake. They had been delivered to a part of the forest that lacked leaves and was filled with decay and macabre scents. They exchanged a glance, or well, Christa looked at him with a bit of surprise. If he didn’t know his way around the map, he would soon enough. The girl pulled out her copy of the Tangled Green that was littered with sticky-notes.
“We’re on the edge of the forest. These tunnels must have taken us further than we thought.” She observed leaving an intentional icy chill in the tone of her voice.
Abner marveled for a moment, her fingers stained the map with smears of crimson, her wound had yet to be treated or wrapped and yet she disregarded it as though it had little use to her.
Drops of blood trickled past her palms and dribbled to the crisp leaves that had fallen to the ground. Eerie groans came from the trees as Abner’s eyes followed the tree line, seeking their source.
A creature hobbled over at a slow pace, hastened only by the greedy thirst for blood. The crisp crackle of leaf under foot alerted the duo too late, and by the time Christa’s eyes looked up to tell Abner they were in the Blighted Dell of Tangled, they were looking at one of it’s finest specimens.
The walking dead took a lunge at the injured Christa, who revealed under the flicker of her map, that she had held her pistol the entire time. The snout of the cold gun pressed against the zombie’s forehead and a shudder of remorse touched her eyes.
“It’s you.”
It became all too clear to Abner ‘who’ she had meant when a picture of the man fell to the ground. “Tennant,” she muttered as he very vaguely remembered the story she had announced to their group about the guy who had left his family.
The suited man in the picture was now a flesh eating monster, worse than the kind that had found them in the tunnels, Urg had at least fought with them. The one they now faced was a mindless drone, enslaved by instinct and had lost his humanity. What qualified her to pull the trigger? Mercy, she supposed, or pity. Christa was just sorry she hadn’t made it in time.
Jaws chomped the empty air, as he was only held back by the soft force on his forehead. The chewing commenced and the once-man seemed as though he were mouthing the words, “Kill me.”
Oh the horrors he must’ve seen.
Christa granted his wish.
A single gunshot echoed throughout the still land. The suited man collapsed, seemingly at peace, yet his mouth spoke two words, gurgling through whatever fluid was in his mouth, “Ghost girl...”
Christa and Abner exchanged a silent glance, until she too, collapsed beside the undead’s corpse, too fatigued from the pain to fight it anymore.
...
Quote:OFFICIAL BUSINESS
Welcome to Phase 4!
This phase will last until Monday evening! (YAY) So, what will you be doing during this time? FIGHTING ZOMBIES of course! But don’t shoot Urg!
Anyway, because it is improbable the rendezvous would immediately happen, you’ll stay with only your groups until half of this phase is over. (Saturday Evening)
Right now:
[spoiler]Urg “got separated” from group 1, and has the option of running into anyone he wishes.
Group 1: Abner, Christa
Group 2: Isaac, Klaud, Zora, Clayton, Roger Krugman
Group 3: Raw Onion, Top Man, Pinocchio, Lyra, Grobdum
Group 4: IRIS, Rictoffen, Grave, Crow, Jan
Rogue Zombie: Urg (Group 1)[/spoiler]
...
Sooo, this is what the injuries look like, some causes I individualized, others, I left it up to you or you were preoccupied with some already ‘foddered’ injuries.
[spoiler]Zora receives a moderate injury.
Bucky gave those Jedi-scum hell, but was crushed by a rock.
---
Isaac is uninjured.
Klaud receives a minor injury.
Clayton receives a minor injury.
Krugman receives a fatal injury.
Raw Onion receives a minor injury.
Top Man receives a minor injury.
Pinocchio receives a moderate injury.
Lyra receives a minor injury.
Grobdum is uninjured.
Christa gets a minor injury.
Abner receives a moderate injury.
Urg receives a minor injury.
IRIS gets a moderate injury.
Rictoffen gets a minor injury.
Grave gets a minor injury.
Jan gets a major injury.
Crow gets a minor injury.[/spoiler]
...
LASTLY!
Your throes are naught for not!
Clatyon “finds” a mystery item.
Grobdum “finds” a mystery item.
Descriptions of each will be PM’d
Group 3 received the highest overall score. The winning group has received the map to Omni.
(Please don’t confuse this with the rp fodder map I had Christa pull out, that was only a chart of the tangled greens, and has little relevance other than she will follow the ‘breadcrumbs’ back to the rendezvous.)
Prizes are awarded. RP this as you will. Or as I did in the injury section. I’ll fill you in via PM. :D Happy Writing everyone.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Demetri Malius - 08-20-2015
I was greeted by my allies, who seemed relieved at the sight of me. I could understand from the floating snuffed out torch that my light was the reason for it. Before we could gather our senses, the walls began to shift. The captain pulled us all back, and i expected my systems to announce some kind of danger.
-No response-
Or not? But that would mean this wasn't a trap. I called it out to the captain, who replied confused at the heap of rubble before them.
"NOT A TRAP, Y'SAY?!"
I roll my eye as I continue. "I believe I might call it a possible way out!" Of course he didn't understand, he wasn't a high-tech machine like me. I continued towards a gaping hole in the wall which led to a cave. Once the others saw my discovery, they shouted with excitement. I quickly floated down the cave hallway towards a light at the end, hopefully leading outside this wretched place. Grave seemed to be surprisingly close behind me, considering he was carrying his vampire friend, then again, he is a nephilim. As we neared the exit, my light began to dim, running out of power. At least we didn't need it anymore. I was still upset at my HUD glitching out though, it was rather irritating. There was a fair amount of static and my HUD would occasionally disappear for a second, but at least it was still functional. As my eye adjusted to the abundance of light, I looked out into the green forest. Although it seemed a bit vacant around the immediate area, my sensors detected something in the distance, but with my injuries, it couldn't extract any information.
"I'll be right back, going to check this out really quick..." I announced to my allies as they slowly made their way to the light. I quickly hurried over to the lifeforms, and cloaked myself, as i soon found there to be a lot of them. They weren't the orcs from earlier, so that was good. I soon came much closer, and i seemed to be about 50 meters away from the cave, when my sensors detected their race. Darkspawn. Fuck. Any and all information on these guys were negative, all about how brutal and savage they were, how ruthless. They made the orcs look like bunnies frolicking in the fields. I slowly backed up, but found myself against another being.
Warning: Detected
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck....I didn't look back as the Darkspawn i bumped into roared at its allies, pointing at me as I rushed back to my own friends. No way I could fight these guys. I'm made for stealth combat, not "all out war full of blood lust" combat.
Warning Survival Rate Low, Recommended action: Find host.
A host? That's right, I could latch on to one of my allies for support. But which one?
I then saw Crow emerge from the cave. Well, this needs to be done as soon as possible, so I guess he's the lucky winner.
Host Identified. Scanning bio-signature. Complete. Fitting transformation to match measurements. In progress.
Although I have no idea what I'm doing, there's a first time for everything, and I knew I could trust my systems, if anything. No room for anything like human error there. The captain gave me a look of suspicion as I rushed towards him.
"Darkspawn ahead! We are going to have to fight them!"
Crow began to speak but I clashed with his face head on as he tried to avoid my dive. I latched on to his head as my functions adapted to his data.
Configuring systems to host. Complete.
"Avast, ye bilge-addled hunk o' tin, what in the name o' Jack Tare are yeh doin'?!"
Due to my new form, I could only communicate with him through internal vibration that could be understood with his sound receivers, or ears, as humans tend to call them.
Well, since I am not built for heavy combat, I'm kinda going to have to use you, or more specifically, use you to use me. At his moment, you now have access to my HUD, and my systems will now calibrate your body. In other words, you now are faster and more accurate to due me being on your face and currently making up for your human error. Happy times.
Calibration complete. Host body now enhanced. Synchronized.
My laser then revealed itself from the side of the pirate's face.
See? It's good. Also, lasers. I wiggled the laser around in display.
Lastly, prepare for the wave of attackers that stand before us. As we have five minutes until I have to detach from your body.Warn the others and prepare for battle
My glitchy HUD displayed the horde of enemies closing in on our location. Oh, things were definitely about to escalate.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Ruby Rose - 08-21-2015
Quote:I decided to jump ship to first person, as I felt much more comfortable with it and I felt it was going to be MUCH more entertaining XD
I couldn't help but think that the ghost girl just wanted me and everyone else dead. I mean, we were sent through hell, right? EHH wrong! What came next made what we had just been through look like… heaven, to be blatantly honest. We filed in through the 'tunnel' of sorts that opened up from the Doc's discovery, and IRIS decided to float on ahead to do some recon, until we heard an unholy roar from the shadows. The ball-bot came dashing back and before any of us knew it, she had latched onto the Cap'n's face! It looked like she was attacking him, but soon enough, they seemed to be conversing, only one of them being heard and it wasn't IRIS. The two had merged, becoming one, beastly cyber-pirate. It sounds a lot cooler to say out loud, eh?
Our group marched on, dreading what was ahead, and I swear I saw Richtofen biting his nails, but that might have just been my wild imagination. But the temple thought it would be funny to throw something at me with my back turned, and I felt a massive-arse dart sink into my mid-right back, barely missing the spine. I kept walking, waiting for the paralysis… but to my pleasure, it was only a normal one, and I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I was holding. I really should have picked something thicker to wear, rather than just a bloody singlet and jeans. I was more-or-less the least well-outfitted member of our group, Alice being possibly worse.
Speaking of which, I looked down at her, and her eyes were telling me something… that she wanted to move. I looked to Crow, who had passed me on the way, and spoke, “Hold up a sec, Cap,” I told him, and he stopped, replying with, “What is it, boy?” and BLOODY HELL I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw how crazy he looked with IRIS attached to his face. Eugh…
In response, I stopped behind him and set Alice’s legs down, “I thought I might take the Doc’s advice and get Alice to move around some, try and get her muscles to relax a smidgen,” I elaborated while I supported Alice at the waist. She was able to move her arms slightly, flex her fingers without too much effort, but she was still finding it a challenge to stand by herself or move her head. The best she could do to show her contentment was a very, very subtle nod of the head, and I scooped her back into my thin, bony arms.
We were off again, coming closer and closer to the light… and then hell began to break loose. Some kind of zombie – not the one from before – reached out and nearly snagged my hair, if it weren’t for Richtofen’s quick reflexes. A bolt of energy soared past the back of my head and tore through the undead’s skull as if it was a rotten melon. I nodded my thanks to the doctor… and he seemed to be rather frightened, but also relaxed. Had he been in a similar situation before?
More and more creatures of the night reached out as we made a mad dash for the light at the end of the tunnel, and each one was swiftly downed by the doctor and Jan. IRIS managed to fend them off of her host’s body well enough, too, using plasma of her own. I was considerably the most useless member of the group, with my precious cargo and all. I was grateful to their efforts to protect one another, and vowed to do the same for them, even if I had to do it by myself.
Our band of misfits burst out into the searing light; with the time we spent in there, the clock hadn’t even turned its hands twelve hours. Or maybe it had spun an entire twenty four? That was a mystery none of us were going to be able to find out. Once we were out though, there was no light of salvation, no stairway to heaven; only the gate to hell. Yes, those undead spattered the green (or was it brown?) area, like ink all throughout a once beautiful forest… no, ink was used to make beautiful things. They were more like blood splattered from a thousand-year old corpse. They smelled just as bad, too, so it wasn’t a bad comparison.
“Shit’s just hit the fan,” I heard Jan mutter behind me. “You don’t say…” I replied, my voice trailing off. Screams were heard all around us, as the rotting beasts closed in like a suffocating cloud of decay. Jan already had his rifle out, scanning the zombies with his ironsights like a machine. Richtofen had is luminous pistol at the ready, a broad (and somewhat sadistic) grin pulling his face. IRIS’s lasers were whizzing up and down, left to right, ready to blast anything while still on her host’s face, and Crow himself looked cool as ever, still with his saber sheathed. Me? Well, I kinda just hid in the middle of them, Alice whimpering in my arms…
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Gildarts - 08-21-2015
Quote: Below I'll be posting some "encounters" to prompt your group. (Incorporate them how you like). Saturday evening I will be announcing a few other items that people have found in the temple. Stay tuned.
The group of Lyra, Grobdum, Pinocchio, Raw Onion and Top man heard whispers in the trees as the dark sky sprawled out high above them. Night grew near and a single figure protruded from the shadows, silently approaching them with humbled, shuffling steps.
IRIS, Rictoffen, Jan, Grave, and Crow had finally collected themselves, when the howls of night called. Dusk was fading fast and the maddening chaos of the land would have stirred panic in any man's mind. Rictoffen may have been distinctly effected – based on his past encounters with creatures of the night – however when he first caught sight of an entire horde, creeping closer alongside the trees, he may have recalled the devastation of his homeland, and after a prolonged glance and the abyss, he raised his weapon.
Isaac, Klaud, Zora, Clayton, and Roger could sense prickles down their spine. A coiling chill came from the despairing darkness while grieving groans haunted the dead air. A flickering light flashed in the middle of where their group had stopped to breathe. The general was the first to see the image, as it's fleeting light had caught the corner of her eye. With a blink, the translucent form was gone, but an echoey voice still tainted the air.
"Run."
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Thaal Sinestro - 08-21-2015
Quote:
Grobdum waved the stone above his head wildly, a psychotic look of joy on his face. He cackled as the temple crumbled behind him, his sundry comrades stumbling ,fumbling and bruising themselves in their escape. A massive cloud of stone dust washed over them as the last of the building toppled into itself, bits of rock raining down as it gave in to whatever force consumed it.
The sound of it was deafening as the rock cracked and crumbled, enormous forces collided and dispersed, the earth below their feet rumbling almost too forcefully to stand. As each of the group slowly clambered from the wreckage of stone and magic, they made account of each other.
Raw Onion was the second one to her feet but the first one to make the count, as Grobdum was too consumed with his sparkling trinket to even notice their presence.
The tiny Pegasus weakly attempted to flap a wing, which was limber but sore, and her tiny voice called out, “Is everyone ok?” The purity of her concern could be heard by anyone who listened, her massive eyes crinkled with concern.
“I banged my knee pretty bad,” Top Man muttered as he flexed it back and forth, the soft sound of scraping steel murmuring from within, “but it seems like it’s still functional.”
Pinocchio fumbled with his massive nose, trying to get the dirt and mud off of his face. “I think I’m ok,” he finally conceded after he knocked free a large clump. His wooden eyes rolled towards the lithe girl, who was looking over a glowing map of some kind. “What’s Lyra got?” he pointed as he asked, drawing everyone’s attention to it.
“It seems like a map,” she said flatly, “and yeah, I’m fine. Just a little cut.” She turned the page back and forth, inspecting every detail, exploring every line of the paths and every letter of detail. “I think we’re in some kinda place called, ‘The Blighted Dell.’”
“One sec, like, the Blighted Dell?” Top Man almost shouted, clearly shocked. “My brother Snake Man went through here a while back! Him and Proto Man were trying to fix the Blight. It still looks pretty Blighted, though.”
“Yeah, I dunno if it’s gonna be winning any tourism awards anytime soon,” Pinocchio said sardonically. “I know I keep on saying this, but let’s just get out of here as fast as possible.”
Lyra nodded in agreement, “Yeah, I don’t like the looks of things. It almost looks like…” she squinted in the dying light and gazed into the trees, “it looks like there’s something in the trees.”
The tiny goblin stuffed his treasure into a small sack at his hip and scurried over to the group, “Yeah, I’z hearin’ it too, Big ‘Un.”
The woman’s bubbling contempt wasn’t offered an opportunity to express itself before she was interrupted by a horrible shrieking noise and Grobdum was smashed violently into the ground. The thief couldn’t help but leap back from shock, blinking a few times before looking to see a horrible, thrashing creature mounted atop the prone goblin, its claws raking down into his back. The sound of shredding clothing, shrieking, and sobbing filled the air as the shaman helplessly flailed under the powerful creature, all while the sun slowly died behind the trees.
Without much thought, Top Man charged forward and kicked the thing in the head, sending it sprawling on the ground beside Grobdum. Whimpering, the small goblin rushed away, the tattered remains of his clothing barely clinging to him. Snarling, the goblin withdrew his dagger from behind the safety of Pinocchio’s wooden body.
“They’re Darkspawn!” Top Man yelled as he stepped forward and smashed his foot into the monster once again, “I’ve seen them on Tumblr! I think these ones are called Shrieks or something!” A few thousand comments rolled in and he nodded, “Yeah, Shrieks! Or, I guess ‘Dickbutts,’ but I’m going with Shrieks for now!”
As if on cue, several more of the ravenous little beasts fell from the treeline and emitting horrible noises to live up to their namesake.
“Circle up!” the soldier pony roared, slowly cantering backwards. The rest of the party fell in at her command, most falling into some form of fighting stance. Pinocchio, and thus Grobdum, stood in the center, mostly just cowering.
With a determined glare, Raw Onion flapped through her pain and ascended into the sky, snatching one of the clouds with her hoof, tugging it down into the battlefield. “Look out!” she screamed, and kicked the cloud with both of her rear legs. A lightning bolt spat out of the cloud and tore through the horde of howling darkspawn, catching a few in its path. Those unlucky few were instantly charred to a dark black, convulsing as their bones were illuminated from the inside of their bodies, eventually falling into smoldering heaps.
“Holy shit!” Top Man yelled as the tiny magical pony called down the power of the elements to incinerate her foes. “HOLY SHIT!” he repeated, caught somewhere between astonishment and panic. When one of the shrieks leapt from the shadows he barely had the presence of mind to duck out of its way, quickly spinning to kick it in the gut. “Holy SHIT,” he finally concluded, returning his attention to the melee.
Lyra’s bow twanged and an arrow found itself in a darkspawn’s throat, a blood-soaked gurgle the last noise it ever made. She drew another arrow, but the creatures were quick and plentiful; she barely had time to fire before the next was upon her. “You guys need to keep these things off of me!” she barked, stepping backwards as she caught one of them mid-leap. “What are you doing, Grobdum? BLAST THESE THINGS!”
“I can’t!” he pleaded, trembling behind the wooden boy. The tall woman cast him a fierce glance and he started, her expression offering no sympathy. “Dere ain’t ‘nuff WAAAGH! Boss!” he moaned.
“I don’t know what the fuck that means, and I don’t care!” Her most recent shot missed as the shriek bound to the side, closing the distance to its target and slashing at her.
“No magic!?” he asked himself, an uncharacteristic gravel in his voice, “I’ll make me own magic!”
Pushing past Pinocchio, the goblin charged forward screaming at the peak of his tiny lungs, “WAAAGH!!!” His dagger plunged into the shriek’s thigh, and in response it exhaled an awful squeal.
The monster’s reaction was short lived however, as it swept its bladed arm back and dashed the goblin aside, turning back it its original target. Unfortunately for it, Lyra had restrung an arrow and was in the process of putting it through the creature’s eye.
Even with a fresh new wound across his face, Grobdum sat up quickly and shook off the hit. “I… I’z feelin’ it!” he screamed with ecstatic joy, “I’z feelin DA WAAAGH!” Laughing at an insane pitch, he tore a branch from a nearby bush and thrust it into the darkness.
“I IZ DA WAAAGH!” he roared as the magic flowed through him, small flecks of green sparking from his skin. With a maniacal look in his eye, the shaman rode the wave of euphoria as the power surged through him, along his arm, from his fingers, down the branch and launched into the world.
The dribble of green magic sputtered out a small orb which trundled this way and that, popping like a party favor at the end of its journey.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Gamzee Makara - 08-21-2015
Ack, yes. The temple is behind us, though not without leaving us a few bumps and bruises for our grand exit. Both the Captain and I are respectively smacked in the face by an ill-mannered trap. How dare it not have the courtesy to let us escape! At any rate, I no longer care. Finally, free of that cesspool and it's pungent smells. So long as I don't walk too close to my companions, at least. Speaking of my allies, it would appear that our robotic friend is attempting a sort of symbiotic merging with Crow. How utterly intriguing! It almost makes me wish that we had a moment to stop and study this-
Well this is...Less than pleasant.
After escaping from the bottomless (but not really) pit, we made moves for the light ahead. The closer we got, however, the more unsettling things became. I could hear them...Hear them again, louder and clearer than ever before. The voices of the damned. Their whispers, their cries for help, their repentance. It all seeps into my mind, coaxing my sanity from me.
I do not believe the others are aware of it yet. They do not hear, cannot hear. I am jealous of their ignorance.
However, it is this ignorance that is going to get them killed. I see the shadows move, grasping for the Nephilim, who was tending to his weakened friend. Without any modem of thought, I whip out Boomhilda and squeeze the trigger. The energy bolt reduces the zombie's head to a mass of burnt viscera as the body falls into the open. Grave shoots me as startled look, acknowledging my assistance. I nod back, but only slightly. My eyes have a distant, foggy look about them.
The voices.
Samantha. Samantha it is her doing. This hell I have walked through, all of it. She knew that I was going to seize the Aether from her and gain control of the undead hordes, she must have. She sent me here using the very power I lust for to face mein doom at the hands of the same beasts that wrought death and destruction to the dig site, to the Fatherland, and to the world. I even stare down these monstrosities with another hapless group of make-shift allies. My thoughts are slowly becoming muddled and tampered with, as if they were not mine to develop. I begin to get a fuzzy, deafened sensation in my ears. The only thing I can hear crystal clear is the sound of my own last breaths and the fucking voices.
I try to shove all of this from my mind, and keep moving with the group. It doesn't work.
When we finally reach the mouth of the cave, we break open into dismal, muted sunlight. I shield my eyes so as to get a better look at our new surroundings.
"Untoten."
The word floats upon my breath with a whisper. I know the others hear it now. The ceaseless chanting, the moaning and groaning of the damned and forgotten, those ravaged by the disease. These are not the same undead I am accustomed to, but it matters not. They sound the same. We are surrounded by a Legion of the Damned. Some are grouped together in mass hordes, just waiting to be blown to smithereens in a GLORIOUS DISPLAY OF SCIENCE AND EXPLOSIONS AND POWER AND
Oh. Some of the others are staring at me. I am wearing a sickening smile stretched wide across my face. I realize I should be worried and fearful for our current situation, and I do believe that I am. No matter how much I wish it would go away, I can not dispose of this mask of glee.
"Have you gone daft then, you bleedin' quack?"
"No, my robust, brash, simple-minded friend. I am simply excited."
When I speak, I do not hear my voice. I hear something else. I am not entirely sure what it is.
This frightens me.
I slowly place both of my hands on my gun so as to steady it, levying the pretty pretty sight on one horde in particular. There is fresh blood on their disgusting, corrupted bodies.
This also frightens me.
In my head, I see scenes of horror and gore and strife. I see France, Germany, Britain, Russia, the World, all of it being devoured by the hordes. I see myself and Dempsey and Takeo and Nikolai. Fighting. Killing what is already dead. I did not think the crazed grin on my face could grow any wider, but it does. I am so scared, so horrified of what is to come. But I want it to happen so, so very badly. I want this death and destruction. My hands begin to twitch.
I am losing control.
The voices, they are calling me to action. They are calling me to relieve them of their sorrow, their suffering.
The voices.
I say something else, but I do not hear it. My words are lost to the constant, never-ending cacophony.
Quote:Translations:
Untoten = Undead
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Zack Fair - 08-21-2015
In nearly two decades as a soldier across two different realities, Abner took pride in the fact that he'd never left anyone behind. He'd been in some terrible, awful situations, and had dragged troops from all but the bowels of hell. It didn't matter what manner of injury someone had, when Abner went anywhere with a squad, his squad came back.
But this girl was pushing it.
It had been hard enough to make her keep her focus on the real problem, as the crazy bitch had become suddenly so dead set on shooting him when the temple had been falling apart around them. If there was one person Abner was jealous of, it was their former zombie companion who had all but said "fuck this" as he departed down a hallway. He even felt a bit of envy towards Bucky, who had gotten the relief of being brutally crushed instead of having to tote this insufferable woman around.
His patience was running thin. To him, all that mattered at this point was going home. He wasn't sure if he would just sit in his reclining chair, first, or go straight to the armory in Coruscant and raise hell, or the Underverse, or whatever the proper expression was in this place. Abner continued to move with Chrisa, helping her along. To add injury to insult, he'd even managed to take a few darts for her in their escape, while she was still refusing treatment. He hadn't offered again. She knew where to get it if she needed it, but he'd make her ask nicely at this point.
His first instinct had been wondering if she had been under the influence of some substance, but he noted back his mention of his Imperial affiliation. It probably wasn't a smart thing to have said. To him it was just a paycheck, but the Empire had done some pretty unforgivable things to a lot of people, so it was understandable to be mad at them. The biggest example in his mind was putting him in these god-forsaken woods.
A from the distance caught his attention. He looked around, tracking the source. It didn't take long for the creature to come stumbling out, and it was one Christa recognized. Abner watched as she seemed to briefly pause, but then put it down.
Huh. That was much different than the previous zombie. Still, it managed to get two words out. Those two words said a lot, as it reminded both of them exactly what had brought them here. Not that it cleared anything up.
As they exchanged glances and silently confirmed that those words held significance to the other, Christa suddenly collapsed, falling to the ground near the zombie. Abner looked down at her in clear disbelief. He looked around for a second at the sound of more groans...and more footsteps.
"Oh, I know not," Abner voiced his disbelief, looking back down to the fallen girl.
He moved over and saw that she was barely conscious, struggling to stay awake. The groans were getting louder and the rustling of the foliage closer. They were sitting ducks here. Abner reached down and grabbed Christa by the shoulders, preparing to hoist her up over his own. At least he could move her this way. As he grabbed her, the defiant woman grabbed his wrists quite tightly, despite her own weakened state. It looked like she wasn't entirely comfortable with him yet.
That, however, was Abner White's breaking point. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. She'd warmed up to him a little bit since the temple, but it was obviously out of necessity. Hesitation and distrust could waste valuable seconds, and he'd had enough of it. He knocked her hands aside, then grabbed her by the shoulders again.
"Listen to me!" Abner snapped, taking an authoritative tone he hadn't genuinely used in many years. "I don't know what your deal is, but if you don't learn to play nice right now we're dead. I don't know what your deal with the Empire is, but you better leave it right here on this jungle floor." Abner kept harsh eye contact with her, neither of them blinking. "I'm not old and wrinkled as sin, I'm not wearing some goofy ass robe, and I'm not shooting lightning bolts out of my ass! I'm not Palpatine, and I'm not the goddamn Empire. Out here, we're just folks. So get that through your head and get a fucking grip!"
The first zombie burst from the trees, it's eyes locking on the two of them with pure and primal hunger. Abner glanced to Christa. She wasn't fighting against him anymore. Maybe she had agreed with that rant of his or maybe she was too weak to keep moving. Hell, maybe she wasn't even conscious any more. It didn't matter, and if need be he'd give her the abridged version later on. For now, it was time to get the hell out of here.
Abner stood up and hoisted Christa up, throwing her over his shoulder. As he held her in place with his left arm, he quickly drew his energy rifle in his left hand. Luckily the standard issue E-11 that stormtroopers used was short enough to not be too unwieldy in a single hand. The recoil might be a pain and it would be harder to aim, but he could get clear in this. The only way to go was further in the jungle, so that's where they were going.
The first obstacle was the latest arrival of a zombie, and Abner did not hesitate to blast it directly in the chest. As the walking corpse dropped to the ground, Abner moved forward as fast as his weakened state would allow him. His left hard throbbed and burned, and not too far from that gash was the holes he'd been unable to treat from the darts. His Kevlar had only taken one or two of them, the rest had gone right into flesh. This was combined with the cuts he'd sustained dealing with the orcs earlier. On top of that, he was doing everything he could not to spill Christa's guts all over the place as he moved.
He was completely taking back his thought from earlier. He'd have to patch her up as soon as they got a moment, simply because he was going to need her help with this one. A few more blaster shots and more zombies dropped. They seemed to be coming from everywhere, now. Abner was steadily walking forward, yet he had to be firing in all directions.
He pressed on, the smell of death filling the area clear as could be. He'd heard of a blight, but never experienced it. He didn't care to ever again, either. But he shot every one he could see, careful not to shoot too rapidly and overheat his rifle. Blood trailed down his back, both from him and Christa and mixed with the mud he was trudging though. It wouldn't take an expert tracker to find them, that was for sure.
Abner raised his rifle and shot another zombie, and he thought back to his old boast. He'd pulled soldiers from all but the bowels of hell. Now he felt certain about adding "hell" to the list.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Proto Man - 08-22-2015
[spoiler]
Quote:[/spoiler]
They’d left behind the temple and stepped out into a dead forest filled with nightmare monsters.
What are the odds of that?!
Top Man rolled his eyes as he jumped backwards to avoid the oncoming swipe of one of the shrieks. When the Robot Master landed on the ground, his gimp knee buckled just enough to cause him to lose his balance. As he teetered, a second bestial darkspawn tackled him to the ground. Spit spattered on Top Man’s face as a mouthful of teeth tried to clamp around his skull. Quick reflexes allowed the robot and clench his fists around the shriek’s neck and prevent it from taking any more pieces out of him.
Although he’d dealt with the immediate threat, the shriek still had two fully functioning fists that starting raking against Top Man’s chest. If he’d been made of flesh and blood, the scene would have been gruesome and gore-filled, but since his body was made of ceramic titanium, there was just a lot of scraping sounds. Before the creature could rip its way into Top Man’s insides, a brown blur slammed into it. The impact from Pinocchio knocked the shriek over, and as it fell, the robot rolled with it, keeping his grip on its neck. With the creature momentarily confused, the Robot Master shifted his hands up a little and wrenched his attacker’s neck.
Once he heard the snap, Top Man scrambled up to a standing position and flashed a thumbs up to the wooden puppet, who merely stood and stared at him with wide eyes.
“You okay?” Top Man asked before a darkspawn sprung out from the trees and smashed down on the Robot Master’s back and shoulders. A beat later, the robot’s sensors picked up a sudden spike in temperature, and one horrifying scream later, the weight was off his back. Rolling over, Top Man glanced to his left to see a charred corpse with little puffs of green smoke twisting up from its twitching corpse. To the machine’s right, the little feller with the staff was laughing up a storm.
“Boom!” The goblin cackled as more darkspawn separated themselves from the surrounding tree line and stalked toward the group.
Once he was back to a vertical position, Top Man glanced over to see the pony and the girl fighting side-by-side against more shrieks. This isn’t going to end well. Slowly but surely, they were being closed in on by the slobbering monsters. “We need to leave!” The Robot Master shouted as he glanced to his associates. Grobdum seemed too busy blasting apart anything within eyesight, but even with the shaman’s dazzling display, more of the monsters poured out to replace those that were now smoldering corpses.
“This way!” The voice was that of Raw Onion, who had punched a hole in the enemy lines with the assistance of Lyra. Turning to the two ladies, Top Man saw that Pinocchio was already en route. The puppet’s wooden limbs seemed to almost flap about as he rushed toward them. In the other direction, the robot saw that the goblin was still intently focused on blasting apart anything close to him. In fact, the only respite the shaman took was when he was casting other spells. As Top Man watched, one of the shrieks toppled over and started to rake at its own flesh.
“Come. On!” Top Man shouted as he ran over to the goblin and closed a hand around his shoulder. “Time to go.”
“I got dis! I—”
Thwack!
Top Man’s palm left a red mark on the side of shaman’s now wide-eyed face, but before Grobdum could react, he was being half-pulled, half-dragged toward the tree line. Once they were through, the group kept moving and hoping beyond hope that they could get away from the mob of corrupted elves trying to cut them into tiny pieces.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Gildarts - 08-22-2015
"I'm not the one..." Who killed your sister.
She heard his words matched with her own, and ceased the retaliation that had set fire to her soul. Now, slung over the man's shoulder, she was nothing more than a heavy bag of rocks. At least rocks could be thrown at someone, she had an empty pistol and no energy to exchange another clip. The woman was nothing more than a burden on his shoulder. And she couldn't help it.
It was rather unlike her to accept such a situation, but both Abner's pep-talk and the wound in her gut made an equally compelling argument. A few more blasts and the zombie brains scattered across the dismal forest floor. The hauntings of darkness slowly petered out, and the undead wanderings became less frequent.
Christa had fallen unconscious on his shoulder, not from the pain, but her eyelids drooped from all the gooey blood loss.
...
Abner and Christa sat in the dark.
No zombies dared come near them. Still the screams of the night could be heard in the wandering forest of decay.
The blonde had riffled through the dead man's pockets and found little of relevance, aside from a picture of his family in the chest pocket of his blue over coat. The man in blue... A hypocrite. She couldn't help thinking as she scoured his body for his personal effects. On the back of the photo, inscribed in thick lines of ink, was a date that cast her reeling mind back into her own memories. The ones of her sister, the same that held so much regret.
The alluring echo of a foreboding gunshot carried over the many gnarled branches and clouded her already foggy mind. Neither of the two said much and Christa couldn't tell if the propped up Abner was asleep, or pretending to be. No fire was lit between them – that would alert the already too aware enemy – and the horrors of the deathly land continued to loom over with the climbing suspense of the empty air. It was her shift now – to stay alert for the monsters that craved her sweet scented flesh, perhaps that same thing would lead Urg back to them.
In her hands she held the pistol, it was now loaded with her normal bullets and the familiar metal was cold to the touch as she clicked the magazine softly into place. With another glance down, the veteran had looked at the laceration that cut along her ribs. The gauss was soggy with hardened crimson gore and her body had numbed the acute pain's nagging sensation from her untidy mind.
It had taken quite a few makeshift stitches but now the bloody job was done. The cold night air was crisp with every small inhale of her lungs and with every steamed exhale, the moon's light caught on the wisps of cloud before her lips. Another glance flashed over to the stranger who had all too quickly became her sole companion in all of this. Her pale eyes sliced through the night affirmed that he wasn't being eaten alive, though she couldn't say the same for the others they had been separated from.
"You want to say something, say it." His eyes snagged hers and held her hostage with the subtle shimmer of conviction. Apparently, he wasn't asleep.
Christa rarely hesitated but in this staunch moment, her tongue hung dry. 'Sorry' wasn't really in her vocabulary, though 'debt' certainly had its place, so she lifted her shirt and gestured to the gauss, particularly unsure of what he could and couldn't see in this dim light and muttered, "Thanks." Mainly, for saving her ass.
Abner opened his mouth, ready to speak his mind but was fatefully interrupted by a streak of white.
It's movement stagnated over the injured Christa, and he soon distinguished the being as a youth-sized figure with long, freshly thrashed hair, and donned in a white dress. The woman held up her revolver to the translucent girl, registering the apparition's arrival as just another unrecognized, extremely dangerous demon of the Tangled Green.
Before Abner could voice that he recognized the girl, he noticed that Christa had paused to look at her for a long time. Had the ghost taken any other form, she wouldn't have waited to blast a bullet through it's chest. Not that a steel bullet could do anything to a supernatural being that could walk through walls.
The resemblance was uncanny, so much, that Christa's jaw remained open in awe.
"I'm not your sister." The child said in an ominous tone, as though reading the injured woman's mind.
"Wait, she can help us," he warned to Christa, who would not pry her eyes away from the child.
"Who are you?" It was no longer a question, but a demand, perhaps even a little harsh on the spirit who had taken the form of a little girl.
Both the humans were standing now, Christa had yet to lower her weapon but not a thing in the world could convince her to fire at the child that looked so much like her sister. The name remained on the tip of her tongue. It had been three hundred and sixty eight days since she had seen her beloved sister, Katia.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Yu Kanda - 08-22-2015
Klaud was right, this last hallway did indeed lead the group outside. Once her boot set on the soft earth Klaud stopped to catch her breath. Her comrades weren't far behind and decided to follow her example. After fighting for their lives and running through that ancient tomb of traps they deserved a breather. But only three were outside. Krugman and Isaac were still missing ? Klaud turned towards the exit but couldn't see anyone. "You two seen Isaac and Roger ?" Klaud asked directed at the two companions that made it outside with her.
" I was a bit too busy avoiding debris to be paying attention to others" Clayton said as he was catching his breath.
"I saw Isaac turning back for some reason. Don't know why though" The exhausted Pokémon said.
Klaud took a few steps back towards the exit. "Isaac ?! Roger?! Can you hear me ? " She yelled though the echoing hallway into the darkness. For a little while it was quiet. But then Klaud heard coughing "We're here, Roger is hurt. He needs some help." Isaac's voice echoed back as two silhouettes appeared within the smoke. With just his one good arm Isaac was supporting an very badly wounded Krugman. Blood was covering his face as it was hanging down towards the ground. The General rushed over to take some of the weight off of Isaac and escorted them outside. Once outside they sat Roger down against a tree.
"Roger can you hear me ?" Klaud asked the wounded soldier. Unfortunately she only got a moaning sound as response. "This does not look good, this wound needs to be closed before he loses any more blood" She directed Isaac's attention to the wound that was visible on top of Roger's head. Isaac quickly responded with a piece of cloth and applied pressure to the wound.
"Can i help ?" Zyra asked as she joined the three. The creature was pretty wounded herself. Struggling to keep herself standing.
"You can help by sitting down, you need some rest yourself." The general said with a strong voice and a strict gaze towards her Pokémon ally. Zyra did not like hearing it but listened to the wise words nonetheless.
Clayton was up ahead, near the tree line. His eyes and attention were more directed at the forest. There was a dark mist and an ominous feeling not sitting right with him. His senses never let him down. His eyes narrowed as he noticed a bush move slightly. Without making a sound he slowly aimed the mighty rifle towards the bush. With a focused eye set on the bush he slowly approached it. The bush shook again and slowly a body emerged, it was slow and it's flesh seemed to be rotten. Clayton lowered his gun and took a closer look. It was hideous ! The hunter once again took aim, but in the corner of his right eye he spotted something else. Another flesh rotten body emerged from behind a tree, behind the first body two more emerged from the thick mist. The fearless hunter took a step back and stepped on something. He looked down and saw his boot on top of an arm, that was attached to one of these creatures. The undead tried to get closer and take a bite from the hunter's boot but was greeted by a bullet from Clayton's gun.
*BLAM*
The loud noise made the other three turn around And saw Clayton standing closer to the forest. "What happened ?!" Isaac shouted.
"General I think you might want to get up here unless you want your new friends to get eaten" Clayton shouted.
Klaud got up, with one hand on her whip she walked closer to Clayton and she saw it with her own eyes. A small army of slow undead creatures came towards them. She unraveled her whip and took stance next to the hunter. " Isaac, take care of those two. Me and Clayton will hold them off as long as we can"
" And you better hurry" Clayton added quick.
The first undead came out of the tree line and met fierce energy coated whip lashes that ripped off their flesh and limbs together with bullets from the mighty hunter weapon. The battle for survival has once again begun. Only this time, they were outnumbered badly.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Strazio Rockwell - 08-22-2015
Exhausted.
Exhaustion did not even begin to describe what Isaac was feeling in that moment. His aged body and weathered bones railed against him. Every movement was an exercise in discipline, an exercise he was not sure he could continue. Roger was in worse shape than him, the boulder had damaged him severely. Isaac’s mind wandered back to the battlefield. Every Sector 8 operative was trained in first-aid, but this injury was well beyond Isaac’s knowledge of medicine. Feverishly he worked at the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding and bring his ally back to reality.
“Wake up” he spoke quickly “come on, come on you bastard.”
The sound of battle echoed in the air and again his mind wandered to the battlefield. Memories of long-slain allies danced in his exhausted head. How many of his allies had taken their last breath in his hands? Even his own wife had died cradled in his arm. The thought of death forced a deep knot into his gut. Even though every death was now a faded memory, he was still unable to forget.
BANG
A shotgun blast snapped him back from his fugue state. He couldn’t afford to get distracted at a time like this. Every moment was valuable and Isaac resolved not to waste any more time. The Bloodlance looked at Zora and then back at Roger. Finally he took a longing look at the approaching horde of undead. Small tendrils of blood wormed their way from his stump and lashed about violently. They had to move and find the others, one of them had to be a doctor of some sort.
“Zora, I need your help” he spoke sharply.
The pokemon’s ears perked up in response to Isaac’s request “yes?”
“I’m not strong enough to carry him, but you are. We have to get moving and I’m going to help clear a path, can you take care of him?” he didn’t wait for her to answer before standing up and moving towards Clayton and Klaud.
Time seemed to slow down as Isaac’s eyes focused on the oncoming horde. His sharp eyes watched the shambling monster emerge from the tainted forest. They weren’t alive, at least not in the traditional sense and so with this realization Isaac permitted himself to let loose. The mutated blood pumping through his veins had brought itself back to stable levels during their time in the temple and he was no longer anemic. With a sickening squelch several long ropey tendrils of blood ripped themselves from his amputated arm.
“We have to rendezvous with the others” he shouted as he walked past Klaud and Clayton “General, Hunter let’s clear a path.”
Without warning the wicked spears of blood lashed outwards. His blood stretched into several thin pointed ropes and snaked itself through the ranks of the undead. Striking like scorpions the spears punctured skulls, disabling the shamblers. Isaac watched as his twisted tool of war destroyed large swathes of the roving zombies. He focused his strikes to create distance between his comrades and the encroaching force.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Roger Smith - 08-22-2015
Quote:Group 4: IRIS, Grave, Richtoffen, Jan, Crow
Glad as anything to be out of the stinking bilge-pit, Crow put a little more giddy-up in his get-along as he made his way down the tunnel revealed by the dear ol' doc's discovery. Not for the first time since they'd gotten stuck in this blasted hellhole did the landlocked pirate find himself grumbling under his breath some rather impolite things. He was trying his best to remain professional, but it was hard to get over his natural distrust and downright dislike of those who called themselves a 'doctor'.
The usefulness and general willingness to be civil in return Richtoffen had displayed had mollified Crow's venomous disposition to those of the scientific and medical persuasion to a degree, but he still maintained a respectable distance from the doc as they scampered off from the temple and all its traps, down this tunnel to wherever.
The hiss of darts, probably a last-ditch trap of the temple, alerted the captain sufficiently to allow him to avoid earning another injury, a trio of swift ducking steps sending darts sailing past and over him , clattering uselessly against the walls and floor. The doc had similar luck with avoiding that trap, but Grave wasn't so lucky. Neither was mister Templar, who took a sizable chunk of rock to the back of his head and went down hard. He seemed like he would live, for now at least, but he was definitely not doing well after that.
Blast it all, but whoever built this place sure didn't want people getting out alive, did they? For that matter, it was as if they just plain didn't wan--
CLING
CLANG
"BLEEDIN' SWAB...!"
A duo of sharp smacks of metal against flesh resounded in the tunnel, along with a snarling curse from Crow, and what he assumed was a similar curse from the Doc. The offending trap this time? A brick of...gold?
Traps and deadly temples be damned, he'd be a poor excuse for a pirate to let something like that go!
Snatching the brick of precious metal up, Crow resumed his exodus, bringing his free hand up to shield his eyes from the light at the end of the tunnel. It probably wasn't that bright, but after so long with only relatively dim torchlight it was practically blinding.
Acknowledging IRIS's mention of heading on ahead to do recon with a simple, "Aye, probably not a bad idea," he slowed his pace slightly, the persistent ache of everything taking offense to his desire to be in a hurry. The intense ache of his head after the gold brick incident certainly didn't help matters. Passing one hand over his face to try and soothe what was no doubt going to be a nasty bruise at the very lease, he paused when his fingers reached his hairline....and found something distinctly missing. "Ah, bleedin' hell...." he grumbled at this realization.
He'd lost his damned hat.
Of course he didn't have much time to be disgruntld over that, as soon enough IRIS was back. And headed straight at him. All sense of tiredness vanished from Crow's expression, his eyes narrowing in a suspicious glare at the mechanical device as it hurtled at him. "Darkspawn? What're yeh on about...?" As it got closer, and didn't show any intention of stopping, Crow flexed at the knees and made to dive aside, giving a call of, "Whoa there, where be the cannonfire?!"
Further comment was cut off as the robot latched onto his head, sending his dive to one side into a rough sprawl onto one knee, earning a snarling cry of protest. "Avast, ye bilge-addled hunk o' tin, what in the name o' Jack Tare are yeh doin'?!"
The answer he received wasn't what he had been expecting, nor how he had expected to hear it, and he froze, looking exceedingly confused about the whole thing. But he got the general gist of the whole thing, and regained his feet in short order. He tossed the gold brick in his free left hand, a smile working its way onto his face. "Well, then...this should be interestin'."
"Right, off we get; best to get out in the open already. We got trouble on the way, lads." He tapped at IRIS with one finger of his free hand. "Accordin' to m lovely little piece o' headgear, we got Darkspawn in the area." Offering Jan an arm up to get him back on his feet, he started off down the tunnel again. "Handsomely, now, me buckoes; no time fer waitin' to be caught with only one way to go. We know exactly what's waitin' for us if that happens."
The entire situation came up short when Grave spoke up, finally asking about letting his lady friend stretch her limbs. "We're in a bit of a hurry, boy..." Crow growled, but he relented, striding several paces forward and trying not to look too impatient -- or concerned, for that matter. "Tell me, me mechanical little pretty...any idea how many o' these Darkspawn things we be dealin' with?"
Well, if I wasn't so damaged after all our fun in that temple I'd be able to give a more precise count. But I can say there are at least a few dozen.
"So too many to try and take in a straight fight, with the condition we're in..."
A very astute observation, captain.
Looking like he was ready to move on again, Grave scooped Alice back up and their ragtag group hurried off again, interrupted by something lurching out of the shadows to make a grab for Grave. The doc put a swift stop to it with a shot from his fancy magic gun, or whatever it was -- and managed to look completely out of it, in the process -- but they didn't waste any time pondering over what it was.
"Just a wild stab here, but that'd be one o' them Darkspawn, aye?"
Aye-aye. I... I mean yes. It would be.
"Perfect..." Crow growled, looking distinctly less than pleased at the confirmation.
The number IRIS had estimated came up at something approximating reasonable accuracy as they finally made their way out into the open, forced to fend off more of the nasty little blighters along the way.
And good lord above...it was not a pretty sight.
"Shit's just hit the fan..." Jan muttered, checking his rifle to make sure it was ready to go.
"You don't say..." Grave added in, looking distinctly as if he wanted to be just about anywhere else.
IRIS's lasers were darting this way and that, ready to zap anything that made any sudden moves.
And the doc...well... Crow spared a glance at him, and the look on his face sent an unpleasant chill down the pirate's spine. "Have ye gone daft, yeh bleedin' quack?"
"No, my robust, brash, simple-minded friend. I am simply excited."
While he hadn't been in Richtoffen's company very long, even Crow could tell the change coming over him. And he didn't like it one bit. "Well, lads...this looks like a fine situation we've handed ourselves in now, eh?" Slowly, the same excited, manic grin from their original scuffle with the orcs before plunging into the temple began to peel itself across his face, his free hand reaching for his saber.
A round of screams went up from the Darkspawn surrounding them from virtually all sides, and Crow answered with a bellowing laugh. "Right-o, mates! Much as it'd be lovely to go down in a great big bloodbath, what say we try and get ourselves outta here in one piece?!"
A general chorus of agreement was sent up from the group. "IRIS, me mechanical little beauty! Yer damage prevent ya from tellin' whereabouts there be the fewest o' these scallywags so's we can cut our way through?"
One moment.
There was a distinct whirring, and the glow in the mechanical addition to Crow's face blinked and flickered rapidly.
Five o' clock, captain. That would be the easiest way to try and cut through!
"Beautful!" Whipping around almost one hudnred eighty degrees, Crow tucked the gold brick he was still clutching into presumably the same pouch he'd pulled his booze from before, and came back out with a pistol clutched in his hand. The loud crack of the primitive firearm, and the ensuing cloud of smoke and acrid smell of gunpowder filled the area, as a bullet lodged itself in the eye of one of the creatures menacing them.
"That's the way we go, lads! Straight on through until we find haven or can't go any further! Give 'em no quarter, and don't fall behind!"
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - The Grey Man - 08-22-2015
Quote:Group 2 – Clayton, Zora, Roger (das me), Klaud, Isaac
[spoiler]I ran with the others through the cramped hall, holding up the rear alongside Klaud. The temple had started crumbling down all around us after we’d made short work of our clones. Bits of loose stone crumbled and fell, making vision difficult as we sprinted towards light—towards the only hope we had.
That was when I noticed it. The hairline fractures in the ceiling, all converging and coalescing. It’d crush me for sure if I didn’t move. I could kick it into high gear, damage myself further, but I’d probably be able to run past before it came down.
It would also crush Klaud if I chose to outrun it. I could try to drag her forward, but that would just slow us both down. So, it seemed, I had a choice, and I had to make it fast.
I winced a little as I ran. I knew what to do. I always knew something like this would be what killed me.
“Klaud, heads up!” I warned her. Sweating, my breath ragged from my cracked ribs, the damage in my leg screeching throughout my body, I closed my eyes and inhaled sharply. With the last of my strength, I broke into a full sprint. It didn’t take long to reach her.
—KRRAAACK—
We both looked up; it wasn’t just a particularly large piece of ceiling. It was practically a boulder. If I pushed Klaud forward, I’d risk her falling down, and in this corridor that was a death sentence. There was only one thing to be done.
I stopped running, planted myself firmly against the floor, and raised my hands up. She started forward, trying to stop me, and the falling slab of stone struck her hard in the face. It landed evenly on my two hands. I immediately regretted this decision.
“Go!” I choked out. She obliged me.
It didn’t take long for my knee to give in under the weight. On the order of seconds, the weight of that great stone had asserted its dominance over my strained and hurting arms, bringing it hard down against my face. I screamed out in pain as the rock drove me further and further into the ground, its weight coming down hard against the full sum of my parts. I was enveloped entirely by the oppressive bit of broken rock.
All was black.[/spoiler]
Quote:Memory/Flashback
I made my way east. It’d been a few days since they’d taken the house, so I had a pretty good idea how to deal with them. At least, I felt like I’d be fine if I could trust the stranger’s advice. I looked down at the gun in my hands. The thing was ancient. It was pretty hard to believe that it would help me out, but whatever. I shuffled through the vegetation. There she was, plain as day. The old ranch house. Our garden, our house, and even our personal crafts were on lockdown. The NTNJ soldiers were walking in a loose circle around the whole property.
I remembered what he told me. Look for gaps in their defenses, then exploit them. Scanning the situation through the scope of the antique rifle, I saw them. It was actually pretty easy to spot the odd man out—he didn’t seem to pay much attention, compared to the other guys. He was walking around pretty lazily, barely holding his gun up, while the others seemed… I don’t know, more professional?
It didn’t matter. He’d be the first of many. I brought my crosshair down towards his torso and squeezed the trigger gently, just like I’d been told. A quiet pop echoed out. He jerked forward. I’d hit him. The tranquilizers took a few seconds to work their magic, but it still happened too fast for him to really react.
I looked around the rest of the premises. Looked like I was in the clear to start taking out a few more of them. I popped a second guy as he rounded my car. He fell down pretty quick, but freaked out and started firing off his gun into the air. It had caught another sentry’s position.
Shit. I’m not good at this.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and swallowed a scream. I turned. The stranger.
“You want to get your family back, right?” he whispered, hunched just as low as I was. “You’ll never even get in if you do it this way.”
“Look,” I explained to him, trying to keep my cool, “I’ve never done this in any way before today.”
“Well, you seem to have pissed one of them off. Take a look.”
He motioned towards the house with these words. I brought my gaze over to where he’d indicated. The third guy was trying to jostle the rookie awake. “Shit,” I muttered, taking careful aim and pegging him as well. He fell.
“Okay, you’ve cleared the outer perimeter,” the stranger said, sounding awfully calm, “but they’re going to know that you’re out here now. How do you plan on sneaking in there undetected?”
“… I don’t know, you tell me.” I shot back. “I just want to be done with this and have my family back.”
“Ha,” he chuckled, lighting up another one of those weird tiny cigars. “I’d like that too… but that’s not how war works, I’m afraid. Here, take this pistol and make your way over to the craft over there. I’ll cover you with the rifle.”
He handed me a second gun, and I relinquished it to him. I turned it over in my hands. Late 20th century maybe? I couldn’t figure out where he’d gotten this crazy thing either. I appreciated the help, but why couldn’t this guy just use normal guns like a normal person? I didn’t even know how to work this thing.
“It has a long trigger pull as the safety, holds 12+1 in the chamber, fires a high velocity lead projectile around 45mm in diameter into the target; their laser-proof mesh armor can keep the shots from killing them, if they’re lucky, but vibromesh is really not made for yesterday’s firearm,” the stranger helpfully explained. I held it in my hands. It was lighter than my old lasergun I used as a plinker. I didn’t really like the way it felt in my hands. I aimed it towards the ground, and put my finger on the trigger…
“It’s also really loud, so don’t shoot it until they’ve already found you,” he warned. I nodded, and, keeping my finger on the trigger, ran down towards the personal craft, sliding up next to the great behemoth of alumisteel and fortiglass. I stole a glance upwards to see what it looked like.
Two in the living room, one in the kitchen. They were moving around pretty quickly, too, rifles at the ready. I felt pretty unsure of myself.
One jerked his head towards me; I dove down. The sound of glass breaking, of confused shouting, of lasers colliding with my sweet baby hovercraft, and you know it had to be just ruining the slick paint job I dropped 800 neo-creds on. It quickly dawned on me that the craft was now the only thing separating me from certain death, and panic began to creep its way into my joints, a slow shake overtaking my entire body, my breathing becoming uneven with the most primal kind of fear.
Then, just as suddenly as it had arrived, the cacophony left. I stole another peek. Nothing, but a window was broken. He’d shot them through the windows… I rushed to the front door, small gun at the ready. Taking a few deep breaths, I waited for my racing heartbeat to steady as I grasped the handle of the door…
Quote:Fading into the real world
BOOM
Gunshots. I snapped my eyes open. Every part of my body, from my head to my hands, was pulsating with a ferocious kind of agony that washed over me in waves, like some macabre tide of dismal suffering. I could hear primal, feral screams, and the sounds of battle loomed outside of the periphery of my hazy vision.
Was I dead?
I could hear Clayton, Klaud, Isaac… Their voices definite in identity, but indistinct in the meaning of their words. No. Unless we’d all bitten the big one, I was very much alive. As my vision shifted in and out of focus, I realized that someone was carrying me. “Hey,” I said weakly, “What’s happening?”
At least, I think I said that. It was hard to tell, I was pretty fucked up. Also, possibly partially blind and deafened now.
An answer came, but to my ears it was just sound. I looked around instead, desperate for answers. Pain shot through my body as I craned my neck to get a better grip on my surroundings. Zora, the alien from before, was assisting me along. Shakily, I kept craning my head, now to direct my line of sight towards the sounds of chaos and war.
Fields of screaming, fetid and diseased looking creatures shambled towards the group horribly. Isaac had taken point, and was utterly decimating them, cutting a path for the others to follow.
I wished, more than anything else, that I could help, but I knew my limits. I couldn’t even see straight… To try to shoot like this, especially with so many of my teammates relying on close-quarters combat, would have only disastrous results.
I could only hope that my senses would stabilize themselves soon.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Jak Mar - 08-22-2015
Quote:Group 4-IRIS, Grave, Richtoffen, Jan, Crow
I blinked several times. Finally, after many traps and monsters, Richtoffen had found a exit. Could this be a solution to all our problems? I knew better to be positive, being a solider. I knew I bit my tongue several times to keep some of my more rough language to myself. Instead, it happened to come out as something that could actually help our group.
In the tunnel, a large "hisssssss" of darts kept my attention as I avoided them . I did not see this rock coming. Neither did our group. Usually i would be able to dodge something like this, but not today. A large piece of rock had broken off and hit me smack dab in the back of the damn head. The next thing that happened was that i hit the ground fast and hard.
A well timed curse had come out of my mouth "SHIT!" as i tried to recover once again. This injury regardless wasn't going to help ANY of our group's cause.
Just then two large piece of metal hit squishy flesh of two of our group members.
CLANK!
CLANK!
I stepped back and frowned. trying to make sure Richoffen and Crow were fine before stopping to check myself out.
Two large brick… of gold?! What the hell was that doing here? Forgot it… Anything could happen here in this strange world.
IRIS finally spoke up after this time and offered to do some spying for our group. I heard Crow accept and slow down. IRIS left us for a small bit and I reloaded my rifle. I didn't have much time to observe but i did notice Crow's hat was missing. I explained a bit to the group. "Oh,believe me losing a hat is the lowest priority thing we should be focusing on right this second."
IRIS explained about these creatures called Darkspawn. They were our next enemies. What happened next was rather surprising.
IRIS had attached themselves to Crow and now was a strange combination of pirate and machine. This could prove to be good after all. Crow had helped me to my feet and I nodded a brief thanks. I wasn't one for thanks, but in this case this works. I could forget the arguments between our group now.
I looked over at Richtoffen and at least he was moving, but he didn't seem in the right mindset to fight.
Grave picked up Alice and we began to run again. IRIS on crow began to estimate there was 26 of these "Blights" coming at us. We wouldn't be able to fight these creatures head on, plus it was not a great idea.
Sarcasm wouldn't exactly help in a situation like this. Oh well, i guess the saying goes "Stupid questions get stupid answers." I'd only stop them if they started to fight each other which didn't seem pretty likely at least for right now.
We didn't have much time to prepare for the upcoming onslaught. I shoot at a darkspawn trying to come at me in general. The creature's brains splattered on the ground in a second and it stunk the place up. One down, 25 to go.
Wait… IRIS and Crow found a way out and it involved running. I looked to the 5 o'clock position. I pointed out the direction and followed IRIS and Crow, Alice and Grave and Richtoffen toward a way out. Shit was about to fly after all and we all ran our asses off. I'm proud to call our ragtag group "soldiers" but even if a battle was won, the war was never over.
Re: Secondary Saga - Phase 4 - Demetri Malius - 08-23-2015
"Tell me, me mechanical little pretty...any idea how many o' these Darkspawn things we be dealin' with?" The captain spoke aloud to me as I surveyed the area.
Identifying targets...1...6...15...19...failure to track targets. Restarting process... error..
Of course my HUD is too glitched out to count simple enemies. I don't need those stupid identifiers anyways. I quickly do a head count as Crow looks around at the horde.
Well, if I wasn't so damaged after all our fun in that temple I'd be able to give a more precise count. But I can say there are at least a few dozen.A few moments after I spoke to him, I settled on the number of 25. Quite the horde of these vile creatures.
"So too many to try and take in a straight fight, with the condition we're in..." He glanced our allies, who had acquired a few more wounds since I had just seen them. Grave seemed to have a puncture wound on his back, and Jan's head was leaking blood from some kind of collision. I then also sensed a new injury on Crow's head as well. Richtoffen still had a few gashes and wounds from the traps earlier. We were all beaten and bruised. His analysis was impressive. For a human at least.
A very astute observation, captain.
As Grave began to follow us through the small field of trees, a Darkspawn lunged towards him from the grass. Richtoffen was able to relieve him of his face, with a frightful sadistic look. As if he had done it before many times.
"Just a wild stab here, but that'd be one o' them Darkspawn, aye?"
Aye-aye. Wait, did I just lower my speech to pirate lingo? Damn DNA receptors, must be feeding off of his mindset. I... I mean yes. It would be. I tried my best to refrain from giving in to the new habit.
"Perfect..." The captain grumbled, the vibrations of his voice ever so slightly rattling my metal. It was weird being on someone's face. Is this what a nose feels like? Do noses even feel? Hold on, no time to think of this, back to the matter at hand!
Darkspawn were closing in on their destination. The others began commenting on our grim situation, but I didn't pay much attention. I focused on the enemies before us. We can take the course of least resistance and flow through the battlefield and escape. Such a good plan that it should be law.
"IRIS, me mechanical little beauty! Yer damage prevent ya from tellin' whereabouts there be the fewest o' these scallywags so's we can cut our way through?" Oh man this guy is going into my favorites folder. A compliment and acknowledgement that I would know such things? Well shiver me- wait no. Not doing that.
One moment...
Calculating most efficient route Tracking location. Beginning navigation. Please make a u-turn at the earliest convenience and bay left for 50 ft. Okay... so in other words...
Five o' clock, captain. That would be the easiest way to try and cut through!
I honed my aim on the targets behind us as the cap'n... captain whirled around and rushed forward whipping out a firearm and firing a bullet into the eyesocket of the nearest creature.
Targeting mode: Laser Rifle. Charging.
tzeww!
I watched my laser burn a hole into the skull of a Darkspawn trying to rush forward at the doctor giving him enough time to join the others as they followed suite behind us. As it became clear to the demonic creatures that we weren't going to clash with them head on, a few began turning to other means of attack. A flurry of arrows came falling towards our group, ad although poorly aimed, few came dangerously close to striking wounds on us. One arrow smacked the back of my metal, clinking as it fell to the floor. A few other more skillful spawn began firing spells, which I wasn't too fond of as bolts of fire whizzed past us. Yeah they had shit aim, but all they needed was one lucky shot to take one of us down.
Don't panic, this might tickle a bit.
Activating utility mode.
the pirate's skin stretched as I peeled my metal flesh off of his nonmetal face. Careful not to drop myself, I had timed the fall with his stride, causing me to land perfectly on his swinging arm, which I clung to for dear life.
DNA unchanged, process time completed.
I quickly formed into my utility bracer form as we, well everyone but me, continues to dodge the barrage of projectiles from our back and sides, with a few dark ones rushing us from the front. Now to get to business.
Yeah, take a left here, they are starting to clutter up ahead. Also, pay no more attention to their mindless shots.I said aloud as I was able to speak aloud once more
I shook violently, along with crows arm, as the area around the group started to turn a light blue, and arrows and fireballs began bouncing off the area shield I had created.
A-a-aye c-capn-n, th-thiss'll h-hold us-ss f-for n-nowww. I stuttered heavily from the vibrations. Did I also just speak more lingo. Ah, to the depths with it, I was too dizzy to care.