+- Omni Archive (https://omni.zulenka.com)
+-- Forum: The Omniverse (https://omni.zulenka.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: The Dante Verse (https://omni.zulenka.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+--- Thread: [4-12] The Mines (/showthread.php?tid=4681)
[4-12] The Mines - Karl Jak - 06-29-2016
They were winning the battle.
Despite the ferocity of the savages, the survivors weren’t crumbling before the onslaught. Even as the rain started to pour, prime and secondary alike battled to defend their makeshift encampment from the natives of the island.
“Push them back to the forest!” Okor shouted as the rain threatened to drown out his instructions. To serve as punctuation, the plague marine dispatched another of the savages with his bolter.
Unfortunately for the well-oiled group, their almost-victory was robbed from their grasp.
Dispatching a savage with just a twisted piece of steel at his disposal, Marcus backed up as the dying human flailed in the moist earth in front of him. Before the terminator could turn his focus to other issues, he felt the ground shift underneath his boots. “What?” He mumbled as the formerly solid surface buckled.
Vision, who was just a few feet away, saw Marcus vanish into the earth and rushed to aid the other survivor. The android found himself quickly distracted by the sound of bending steel as the wreckage of the plane and the crude walls around the encampment started to sag down into the soil. Vision quickly tried to scan his surroundings to discover the source of the seismic activity, but he was too slow to deduce a cause before the ground collapsed.
***
Despite being ‘burdened’ by organics, Fiara was one of the first primes to regain her bearings after the monumental landslide/cave in that swallowed up their reinforced position. The woman, coated in mud, looked up to see that the surface had to be nearly fifty feet above their heads. With the former world far outside of reach, she turned her attentions to what was around her.
Wreckage dotted the cave, both remains of the plane and an unsettling amount of human remains, both from the cannibals and secondaries who had failed to survive the unorthodox descent. With the sun choked behind thickening storm clouds, it was hard for Fiara to see what lay beyond the large room.
Near the other side of the cave, Okor stirred—his infested bulk half-buried beneath an amalgam of mud and steel. As the plague marine liberated himself from the muck, he noticed half of a businessman’s corpse lying on the ground. Shambling toward the remains, Okor saw that the man was clutching, of all things, a piece of nondescript plastic. Across the chunk of plane, the deceased man had scribbled a message in what seemed to blood.
Help – 3, 39, 42.
[spoiler]
You’ve half-fallen, half-cascaded down into a network of underground caves. It is impossible to climb back up to the surface. You’re all in a large room that’s half-filled with mud, corpses, trees, and wrecked plane (aka, the crap that fell down with you). There might be some cannibals or secondaries that survived the flight that you can do with as you please.
There are three exits to this cave. Two are in plane (teehe) sight, and a third is half-obscured behind some wreckage.
Everyone suffers 6 damage, except Okor (3 damage)
Congratulations to Okor for ‘winning’ Round 3. Your prize is the clue contained in the post.[/spoiler]
RE: [4] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Amaterasu - 06-30-2016
Fiara still was in the relative safety of the wreckage and was continuing her work of stabbing at whoever came too close, when the ground beneath their feet gave away. The wreckage creaked and a few bolts were sent flying like bullets from the enormous stress placed on them, hitting several of the employees around her, and one just barely grazing her ear and leaving a burning mark. She hardly had any time to scream before the entire plane nose sunk down, letting her do little more than to hold on tight to the closest support that she could find and hope for the best. Her head was smacked against the steel she held onto twice, leaving her too dazed to register what was happening around her for most of the involuntary trip.
By the time that the girl regained her senses the plane had come to a halt at the bottom of the pit and a suffocating silence had replaced the cacophony of battle that had raged here just... wait, had it been minutes ago? It could have been seconds or hours. She had no clue how long her dazed state had incapacitated her. Muttering something about putting bamboo shoots under the toenails of their aggressors and hammering them in, she got to her feet as far as the remains of the wreckage around her allowed. Had the metal been twisted and torn to a point where it was remotely reminded of the inside of a plane, it now was a mess of steel, plastic and other components beyond recognition. To top it all off it was raining into the hole and she was covered in mud that had gotten into the wreckage during the cave-in. Just perfect...
"Knew I shouldn't have stuck with the group... how am I ever going to find Saber in this mess?" She avoided asking herself the question if she would even make it out alive. Truth be told, the rescue mission to find the missing people had turned into a fight for survival very fast. As if waiting for the prompt her stomach gave an upset grumble. At least I'm not going to die of thirst, she thought to herself with bitter irony. The other three didn't look like they needed food or water to live. Well, probably not anyway. They might have their own necessities instead... she hastily brushed the mental image of Okor going into the bushes aside, amusing as it might be, and focused on the task at hand. Cave... limited light. Her Phoenix Blasters were still active though, she could... right. A look down at her bandaged stomach was enough to boil her anger and make the flames on her arms flare up into bright lights. It was very inconsistent, but supported by the little amount of light flooding in from the ceiling hole.
Almost immediately did Fiara have to suppress a scream by pressing her hand to her mouth and sliding backwards against a wall when the flames illuminated the horribly mutilated corpse of a Syntech employee that had been skewered by multiple steel bars during the fall. Though she wanted to look away she couldn't, her eyes refused to look away from the face with glassy eyes and a blood-covered chin. It was the woman who had previously helped her back to the wreckage, after she'd fought. Fiara felt something rise up inside her that made her snap back to reality, avert her eyes from the corpse and take deep breaths before her stomach could complete its rebellion and empty its contents on the ground. She forced herself not to look at anyone else as she got back to her feet and punched the steel wall with both hands and fired her Phoenix Blaster. It creaked but didn't quite break out of its hinges. A second double-handed smash blasted it out however and allowed more light into the room she had been stuck in. Still breathing heavily and holding back tears she grabbed one of the makeshift spears that the employees had made and climbed out through the opening she'd made, wincing at her injury that did not take kindly to such movements and stress. She ended up dropping the spear to the ground below her so she had both hands free and finished the descent.
Was she the last one alive? The question was answered when one of the attackers groaned, mumbled something in a foreign guttural language and grabbed Fiara's foot while looking up at her. She stabbed him through the heart with one hateful movement, driving the pointed steel through his body until his twitching stopped and left it sticking from his corpse, then picked up his spear instead. Following one of the few rational thoughts that made it past her bitter, frustrated feelings she also produced an ammo belt from her pocket and used it to replace the six shells that she had fired from her Phoenix Blasters - two during the fight, four to get herself out of the wreckage. Think, Fiara... the others can't all be dead. You can't have been the only survivor. The others are tough. They've made it.
As if to confirm her self-reassurance a grunt and the wet splat and schlorp sounds of someone moving through mud broke the silence. Fiara's eyes widened and she rushed over to what turned out to be Okor, coated in mud just like her. At this point, she didn't care about that nor about his... nature. He was alive. She wasn't alone. She wanted to hug him. "Okor! Are you alright?!" she yelled while stumbling through the mud to get to him.
Quote:1011 words.
RE: [4] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Okor - 07-02-2016
Dust and debris rained from the derelict roof of the cave, gnarled roots and pseudo-stalactites protruding from the earthen prison. The twitching forms of the recently deceased and wounded laid under the rubble and earth. The stench of death, damp ground, and flame suffused the air, an all-too familiar aroma to the ancient arsonist’s destroyed nostrils. Claws flensed of flesh clutched around the dead man’s treasure, the numerals scrawled upon it burning their way into his decrepit brain, the sickly morass of thought within his twisted skull struggling to internalize the code. What did they mean? The machine spirit of his armour was oddly silent, his thoughts unaffected by the slavering hunger and bloodlust engendered by the Data-born Daemon.
Without it, the ruined architecture of his thought processes were a lonely place, the turgid motions of his mind unaided by the electronic savagery of his oldest companion.
This island was an insufferable lair of mystery, with a puzzle lurking underneath every damned rock. He silently swore an oath to the Great Gods of the Empyrean that he would hunt down whatever annoyance insisted on fashioning these puzzles and personally feed them their own knees. That would be a relatively merciful and measured response to this madness.
The stimms coursed through his veins as his eye scanned his surroundings, seeking out any savages so unfortunate as to be entrapped in a confined space with him. Oh, how he hungered for the opportunity to make them pay for this assault.
A cry, reverberating off of the strange geography of their location, the echoes distorting and reflecting back upon themselves, the sinister sonics arriving from all sides.
A small figure rushed towards him in the darkness of their subterranean tomb, their arms outstretched as he struggled to make sense of the words they spoke through his combat-addled haze. A contagion-ridden claw went to the blood-drenched blade at his hip, ready to drive the time-tested weapon through the torso of his mystery assailant.
A shower of sparks, a long-suffering system aboard the wreckage of the plane finally giving into its mangled circuitry, a spray of superheated air falling from a shattered control panel, illuminating the visage of an ally.
Fiara.
He wrenched his hand away from his sword, the child slowing as whatever emotions that had first spurred their rapidity died. They skidded on the rubble strewn around the cavern floor, stopping before the mud-coated, mouldering mass of the marine. “Thank the Gods,” she spoke, “I thought everyone else was dead.”
Armoured shoulders rolled in desiccated sockets, mummified flesh scarred by the savage warriors tearing itself open further as he looked upon the child.
”Any sign of the others?” Okor queried, his voice like gravel doused in infested phlegm. A delicate pale hand tousled crimson hair as she pondered the question. “Not that I’ve seen. Did you think Vision and Marcus survived?”
A rumbling chuckle, the bass vibrations echoing off of the decrepit architecture of the cavern, lent a disquieting tone by the eternal state of disrepair his helmet was entrapped in.
”I would not... worry about them. Death is far from the worse thing that could happen to them on this damned island.”
“How could you say that!” Shouted the young Phoenix, anger flashing across her barely adolescent features. “They’re the closest things to friends we have here, and we’re not just going to write them off like that!”
Despite having no eyebrows to speak of beneath the rusted ceramite of his helmet, Okor still made a commendable attempt to raise one. ”They are primes. It matters… little what happens to them.”
There was a fire in the child, for sure. Their ballistic-adorned fists were clenched to her sides as she responded, perfectly willing to oppose the inevitably of Okor, her teeth grinding together as she uttered her opinion. “I don’t give a damn what they are, they’ve got a right to live like everyone else.”
There came an uproar of deep-bellied laughter, booming forth from the Plague Marine’s malevolent mass, filling the twisted contours of the cave. ”You don’t get it, do you? That which cannot… die, cannot live. No matter what tortures we endure, no matter how many fragments we are… reduced to, the damnable Demiurge that stole us brings us back. A Prime will always be a puppet on Omni’s strings, but you… You are mortal.”
She withdrew, her feet stomping down heavily on the earth, whether in frustration at her fate or Okor’s seeming callousness was unsure. “What the hell do we do now, then? Just lie down and wait for something to kill us? Because that seems to be an option for you!”
A skeletal claw pulled back the rack on the millennia-old bolter, the atomic-immersed shells within standing ready to slay whatever unfortunate being Okor found himself annoyed with. ”I thought our course of action was… evident enough.”
“Kill every last whoreson who dares to think themselves worthy of shedding our blood.”
Quote:851 Words out of 2400.
RE: [4] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Marcus Wright - 07-02-2016
Muddy primes fought to end this fierce war, each showing their mettle in tough times. The exploding rounds from Okor's bolter cracked like fireworks on the Fourth of July. The general screamed out his orders "KILL them! Don't let them win... "
In fact, the group backed up against each other. They formed a large circle able to fend off attacks. Many did come up with their own way to provide help to the group. One man took a spear and lit it up stabbing it inside a freaking out cannibal. The sweating woman grabbed the yelling tribesman. She swung a fist in the unfortunate cannibal’s face.
Marcus held his makeshift shield and weapon near his side. The machine man decapitated a man about to stab Fiara. The brave phoenix gave a slow smile of appreciation. She nodded a bit and moved attention back to the fight. The Vision burned alive a man with his laser beams that radiated out of his eyes. The stranger was trying to attempt to get to Marcus. The ragtag mixture of both heroes and villains forced to work together would work for a short time.
There was a short breath of relief for everyone. The first casualty would step backward finding out he walked the wrong way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiara called out to the missing survivor "HEY! You alright down there?!"
There was no response.
His emotions had finally kicked in like some painful reminder of who he was, a man in a machine’s body. He inspected his environment as tiny bit of light reflected off of diamond stalagmites. Somehow, they had run into a beautiful underground cavern. But this beautiful landscape had turned into a bloody one. The heroic secondaries that had fought for their lives died in gruesome ways. The view for the survivors in front of them was nowhere as beautiful as it once was. Horrifying sites such as a sparkling diamond stabbed a poor secondary through their body. This site had blood dripping down the walls into the crystal clear water nearby.
A voice gasped but Marcus could not tell who it was through the lasting darkness. It took some investigation but the terminator found the source of the screams. It was Fiara. She saw the gory scene and Marcus felt disgusted. There was something else going on here.
The screams of Fiara broke Marcus’s brief focus on himself. He roared to life as he pushed up from the slowly raising mud with small tears of skin missing. The mechanical beast had somehow “come back” to life again.
Marcus’s roar of anger echoed through the cave’s area calling out to anyone around. But nobody responded except a cricket. The caked mud drowned out the “Resistance green” Marcus’s coat had shown. The red on the coat meant more to him than anything else. and he would stop at nothing to find Kyle, Star and Blair again. Like the titan Prometheus, who was forging humans from mud, the terminator showed he would fight for the good of mankind.
Arriving just a little behind Okor and Fiara, he stood back. He listened to Nurgle's champion describe how he'd leave the others behind. Okor Fiara, we made it. He had a lot of questions swarming in his mind.
Marcus eyed the ancient armed man and asked “So you are a prime too? Cursed to live here forever being some entities plaything? He turned and frowned, letting the general lead the way toward the dim lighted caves ahead. However, the general was studying something. What exactly? He didn't know.
A question ran across Marcus's mind and he looked over at the ancient man "What did you find, Okor?"
Quote:635 out of 2400 words
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Karl Jak - 07-03-2016
End of Round 4
They had almost been ready to leave the cavern when Fiara noticed something under some nearby mud. With a furrowed brow, the woman walked over and pushed aside a twisted piece of metal to reveal the lifeless corpse of Vision.
The android, his face still twisted in a formidable grimace, was half-crushed and missing his right leg. Hopefully whatever had happened to the prime had been swift.
Quote:Vision is dead and will respawn at the Nexus in three days.
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Okor - 07-04-2016
The Plague Marine barely registered the latest loss to their roster. Malfunctioning electronics sparked, the sizzle of molten circuitry a near-silent requiem for their robotic companion. It was all their damned ilk deserved, a half-hearted attempt at mourning the all-too temporary demise of a would-be champion.
A brief moment of silence passed, all that they could offer to their fallen friend.
”This island is trying to… kill us.” Spat Okor, caustic bile searing his throat. ”Cannibals. Caveins. Gods know what else.” He held a clenched fist to his helmet, a natural reflex thousands of years of disease have been unable to entirely stimy. As his lungs finished tearing themselves apart, he looked up at his fellows. ”Jak’s been planning this from the... beginning.”
“I don’t know what we expected.”
As the static wave began to wash over them, the binaric screech of madness and power so often associated with technological progress overriding all thoughts, the all-consuming white noise devouring conscious thought as it drove the survivors to their knees.
Fiara screamed as the pain overtook her, blood pouring from her ears, mingling with the similar scarlet of her mane, marring her alabaster skin, already dirtied from their descent into the underworld.
The Terminator was face-down in the mud, his machinery failing as ones and zeroes fled from his pneumatic maw, screaming incoherent parcels of data into the uncaring earth.
And Okor’s voices returned. THREE. Three accursed primes, all that remained of those that stood against the madness of the Island, the trio that baptized themselves in blood, reforging themselves around an unbreakable core of defiance when reality itself turned against them.
THIRTY-NINE. Thruscas Sine. He remembered it, how it gleamed in the night, like a beautiful jewel in a galaxy of stinking, how it cast off its shackles of sickness, listened to disease’s dirge. He remembered how Nurgle and his children rotted it from within, rendering a perfected people into naught but festering corpses. The 39th millennium, and every single cardinal sin committed within its thousand years.
FOURTY-TWO. Seven Sevens less Seven. The most sacred expression of Nurgle’s Numerals, but undeniably missing something. The Seventh Marine. Beneath the dirt and grime of his armour, VII was emblazoned upon his pauldron, the sole remaining survivor of the Long War, the last number standing, the only Son of Barbarus that existed in this twisted reality, this faithless hellhole.
Slowly, the group began to stand, blood and hydraulic fluids leaking from their ears, Arturia wincing in pain, as was her right as the closest thing approximating humanity within this subterranean hall of horrors. “Th’ hell was that?” She slurred, attempting to reclaim her senses after the synthetic shriek had passed. ”Nothing… Good.” Responded Okor, his blighted biology wholly incapable of registering the suffering inflicted upon the others. The familiar sensation of his machine spirit began to slip back into his psyche, antiquate neural interfaces returning to life, allowing the malevolent sprite to claw its way back into the cybernetic carapace bonded with the Legionnaire's body. ”With every passing instant, this isle… seems to come up with new ways to torment us. I have no doubt that Jak is planning… something, and only a few of us will live to see it. Every single particle of this place will bend itself towards our demise, and before we go out to meet it with blades in hand, I would very much like to know something.”
The Plague Marine loomed over his two companions, corruption dripping from his every pore, the quiet hum of the atomic fire that powered his ancient armour filling the void of silence, a reminder of the near-absurd power contained within his rotten bones.
He breathed in, toxic gasses filling punctured and shredded lungs, a small amount of noxious fumes slipping from the pipe still embedded within his torso, a memento of the crash that had doomed them all.
”Are you... afraid?”
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Amaterasu - 07-05-2016
Quote: The below takes place before Okor’s post.
Fiara gasped when she saw the corpse... or was it the scrap heap? She didn't know what to call it, she had never met a man made of metal like Vision. Maybe that was also why she did not regurgitate what little was left in her stomach right now... she averted her eyes and heaved the metal out of the way entirely to lay the android's body out in the open, then with her spear waved to the others. "Come here! I found Vision! He’s... he’s dead, I’m certain", she called. Her voice was trembling despite it all and the flames on her wrists provided a beacon of light in this dark hole that Okor and Marcus could find her by. She closed his eyes and, lacking coins for him to pay the bridge guard on the Sanzu river, placed two round black stones on the lids. Maybe the guard would accept them for lack of actual payment to be allowed to pass. The two Primes came over and Marcus briefly confirmed that Vision was gone - not that one needed to have a medical degree to tell.
Quote:End of retcon. This takes place after the end of Okor’s post.
"I’m not scared. There’s reasons... always gotta be. Nothing happens out of the blue.” She grunted as she slowly forced herself back on her feet and used her sleeves to stop the bleeding from her ears, though it seemed that no new blood was pouring. What the hell had that been...? Sure there had to be a reason, but that doesn’t mean that it was always one in plain sight. She felt dizzy on her feet, balancing on them was difficult. Her ears were still ringing... hadn’t Moegami once told her of this? Of how the ears held some integral part to balance the body? And that screech had thrown hers out of whack, though she was slowly recovering. But she wouldn’t be quite as nimble on her feet for a while.
”Okor, would you mind explaining what you just told me?” She asked with eyes trained on the marine, crossing her arms again. She nodded towards Vision’s corpse - an error that made her stumble and nearly fall over - and tried to avoid looking at the other ones that were scattered around the place. “You say that Vision and Marcus cannot die. Because they are... what they are?” She made a vague motion at her face and torso, carefully slow so she could stay balanced. “Metal-men? Some sort of... of Tsukumogami? Possessed metal statues?”
"We are Primes. We are... Damned to dance upon Omni's strings until he tires of us. Vision will rise again in the Nexus, soon enough."
“So you come back to life? You just... your spirit returns to your body that is reanimated?”
Okor responded with another deep croaking laugh. “Have you no idea at all?”
“I only heard the word “Prime” before but never understood its meaning”, admitted Fiara. “If you could fill the gap, that’d be great.” The flames on her wrists had now died down to little more than candlelights and didn’t provide much vision. Because she still had her arms crossed however her face was eerily illuminated from below, like a parent lighting their face with a flashlight as they told their children a scary story.
"When something ends our cursed existences, The Smiling One... recreates us at The Fountain in three days. We can work the Omnillium that flows through our veins, forging cities, weapons, sustenance... and Secondaries."
“And you call me mortal because I’m a Secondary? Because they’re not immortal?” Fiara asked and waved her hand around to underline her point. Again, carefully and slow.
"Exactly."
“Ha!” She looked quite smug and pointed at Okor, only to stumble forward two steps due to the sudden movement causing problems to her balance. She hastily recovered though the flow of her speech was ruined at this point. “I’m a Phoenix, I told you. Like my father, if I die I shall rearise from my ashes.”
"The rules in this world are different."
Fiara sighed, again back on her feet. “I’m not going to die if I can help it, whether I return or not. But thank you for the explanation.” She took one step back so she could look at Okor and Marcus simultaneously and adress them both. “So... what are we going to do now? I don’t think that I want to know what sort of creep caused this... sound, but we can’t get back out.” She looked up at the hole through which they had fallen in. “... and I’m still missing my friend, Saber. I don’t know how we are going to get out of this... cave system, but maybe either of you have some idea?”
Quote:The screech has messed with Fiara’s sense of balance and will cause her to stumble and be thrown out of balance at any sudden movement. She will recover from the condition over ~40-50 minutes during which her balance gradually restores itself.
If deemed appropriate she can also take some damage from the screech.
782 words.
Translations:
Tsukumogami: A type of monster in japanese mythology: an object that comes to life on its 100th birthday as it’s possessed by a spirit.
(basically Fiara believes that Marcus & Vision are spirit-possessed metal statues or puppets, because she doesn't know what a robot or cyborg is)
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Marcus Wright - 07-07-2016
The group was a twisted mess. Everyone shared an awkward silence as they began to register the loss of one of their teammates, the Vision. Marcus confirmed the obvious by bending down and placing long, muddy fingers on the Vision’s metal shell. Fiara placed black stones on the vision’s eyes and Marcus was silent, as respectable as the Terminator could get.
Marcus found a few old sticks and configured the sticks into a makeshift tombstone into a cross shape. He remembered an old quote a human once taught him-- that we bury our dead. He hauled
the android over toward the gravesite. Okor grunted, not so impressed. He was losing patience with the other male android in the group. He increased his volume, cutting the intended silence. “Didn't you listen to what I said earlier? They will come back. They are primes.”
Marcus’s sea blue eyes shone with a fearsome crimson light through his narrowed retinas.Feeling a tingling sense of emotionless behavior, he switched to a cold, terminator like state. Emotions meant he was weak. Okor didn't need emotions to judge his opponents, even Fiara was ready to jump someone willing to attack her. Was he a man or machine? He was sent to kill nobody, but many lives were lost by his hand. No, he wasn't weak, senseless or a monster. He wouldn't compare himself to the metal men designed to kill. But he still avoided eye contact to worry that he could of done more to help the vision. But one story was over and another began.
The ear piercing noise made everyone fall to their knees. The green coated man fell down face first in the mud. He started screaming data mixed with a few obscene words.
Marcus’s once thick and healthy face had red blood cells mixed with complex metal parts gleaming in the sunlight. As he was about to move, a loud buzz went off in his dirty trench coat, worse off for wear. The lit screen showed a message from none other than Hiro, the same hacker that had been with him when Skynet attacked the arcade that day. He pulled out the muddy device, trying to wipe off the screen. He pushed the button as he connected to Hiro via private server.
Hiro had wondered who he was with and where he was. His thoughts trailed off as he thought about what the digital samurai was saying. Hiro had somehow activated communication on the island and was giving him a way to find shelter and food. He turned toward the giant General and the young phoenix. Marcus gave a weak smile, confident in his speech. “Okor, Fiara, I just got a message from Hiro.He’s offering up his shelter and some extra food.” I don't know if we need the time but rest could be good for all involved.
Okor was pondering a thought, many things on his mind. The putrid man in reality couldn't give a crap about the others. Disgusting claws surrounded thoughts in his head, just a reminder that the others had one purpose and once they were used up, they too would be cast aside like toys.
A cold reminder of this was Okor’s chilling statement “Do you fear?”
Marcus turned his head and frowned,his breathing slow and calm. He mentioned “fear is a beast that feeds on attention.” I'm metal and I'm a man. Terminators can't feel pain or fear, but I can.
All of them started to head toward the distant caves ahead but the real choices were still to be made.
Marcus inched his leg, shuffling a bit as oil dripped like a bad science project. The smell of oil mixed with blood would make the most battle worn soldier puke
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Amaterasu - 07-07-2016
Quote:Adding yet another retcon because I am an enormous idiot who forgets stuff, like incorporating global damage into my posts. The following takes place at around the time where Marcus is confirming that Vision is dead.
As Marcus was kneeling next to the body Fiara felt a sharp pain going through her stomach, making her drop to her knees and cough up a large mouthful of blood that splattered on the ground, onto her chin and the front of her T-Shirt. At first she thought that her proximity to Okor was finally starting to cause trouble for her, but then she noticed how both the armored hulk and Marcus showed similar signs, not quite as evidently as her but still - and Okor himself worded his concerns. And Marcus wasn't meat and bones, he couldn't get sick... but what was that then? She wondered while proceeding with her work.
Could it be that this island was cursed? Or had the savages that had attacked them used some sort of... spell? Of powerful magic? She wiped the worst of the blood off with her sweater sleeve and proceeded.
Quote:Fiara has taken 2 damage (12/20 HP, plus any damage that Karl may decide to allocate for the ear-bleeding caused from the screech, in my 1st post)
151 words written (total for this round: 933)
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Okor - 07-07-2016
The others carried on with their rituals of grief, the choking darkness of the cave a fitting setting for the misery they attempted to hold out of their hearts. Okor spared no sympathy for the corpses they shared their space with, every carcass a mere shell for the now departed soul. Why did so many cultures waste their time with fawning over the deceased? The dead were just that, dead. Their life had come to its inevitable conclusion, and what came to them after was Nurgle’s domain, not that of Mortals to determine.
Perhaps it was some solace, being able to care for the carrion, while the spirit passed on to The Lord of All’s embrace. He wouldn’t know. Once a casualty of The Long War was pillaged of all useful possessions, they were left to rot, at best. Brothers became bomb-ridden booby traps, and under the dying light of ever-burning phosphex, friends became a feast.
It was the nature of things. Those that endured grew strong upon the remains of the weak, carving their names into history, all the while The Grandfather tested them, every second they struggled for breath earning them their continued right to existence.
Okor wheezed in a breath, the pollutants carried with him since time immemorial seeping into the ragged tatters of his lungs, the biological alterations that lifted him above the rabble of mankind, degraded through millennia of Nurgle’s touch. Every waking moment would be plagued by agony, were it not for his multitude of blessings.
But the time had passed for such reflections and musings. The light of the sun peered through a distant opening, glinting off of the damp stone of the cavern. They could see nothing of the world beyond as they approached, their steps in time with one another. The heavy footfalls of Okor, rusted greaves crushing rock underfoot, contrasted against the dexterous movements of Fiara, occasionally paused by a brief tinge of pain. The mechanical stride of Marcus was refreshingly constant, the snarl of gears and the hiss of pistons accompanying every motion. The Phoenix’s gun-gauntlets slowly smoked, the soft flames ringing their circumference momentarily abating in this moment of grim resolve and resolution. The Terminator’s fists were clenched, the technological supremacy that made up their being more than excusing any lack of armament, flesh-clad iron ready to strangle and bludgeon without mercy, without respite, without rest. The Champion’s notched and pitted blade hung from a bare hand, the jaundiced skin torn away, revealing fossilized bones and mummified flesh, whilst the antique gauntlet maintained a death grip around the atomic atrocity of the Rad-Bolter.
”Beyond this cave lies the… unknown. The Island will keep throwing tests at us, until we fail.”
A crack as his boot fell upon a shard of ivory, powderizing the item. Human bone? Perhaps this was some kind of midden for the savages, the final resting place of the slain and the slaughtered.
”And so it falls to us to kill it first.”
The subtle vibration of a stone. The product of their passing? Perhaps. Given the nature of their prison, such a mundane event would be highly unlikely. The probable outcome would be a twenty-foot tall abomination against nature awaiting them, given recent happenings.
”Find Hiro. Kill any fear-mongering bastard in your path.”
The trio began to crest the exit from the underworld, the sun beginning to illuminate the blood and mud coating their battered forms.
”Let any monster that comes across you know that in this place of… death, you will know no defeat. Only Defiance.”
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Karl Jak - 07-08-2016
End of Round 5
Quote:In the original post for this thread, I noted that there were three exits to the chamber. Let me know which one you take, and I’ll let you know what your destination will be.
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Okor - 07-10-2016
The shining light that had promised them salvation flickered and dimmed as they crested the lip of the tunnel, their high hopes crushed as the cerulean sky was denied to them, their prison of stone still enfolding them. Massive machinery groaned under its own weight, the lack of maintenance evident, the oxidation marring their garishly painted flanks like mortal wounds inflicted upon great beasts.
There were other, less metaphorical bloodstains in evidence, spattered across the minimalistic construction in the cavern, several of which twisted into Runes even the Champion of Nurgle failed to recognize. Marcus and Fiara followed behind him, making the wise decision to stick behind Okor’s bulk, shielding themselves from any unseen assailants with the cancer-ridden carapace of the Plague Marine. “What happened here?” Asked the Phoenix, gawking at the abandoned facility before them, her scarlet eyes widening as she looked upon the vista of violence before them.
The mechanisms within Okor’s ancient warplate protested as he knelt, the motion unfamiliar without his Rightful Lord before him. He grasped the haft of a pickaxe, the steel topping its handle adorned with blood and gobbets of grey matter. From beneath the verdigris-coated helmet came a growl. ”In short? Nothing… Good.” He dropped the tool to the ground, the sound of steel on stone echoing through the cavernous quarry as his gears ground, struggling to raise his weight upwards once more.
”It’s safe to assume they found a relic. A receptacle of some Dark God’s… strength. Absolute power, corrupts the weak absolutely.” He ran a hand along a railing, the sanguine stains upon it flecked with iridescent particles. ”They would have already been open to temptation before they unearthed it.” He raised his claws, displaying the rainbow-ridden matter that made this false world go round. ”Omnillium. They were sent to extract pure… power. A few whispers would start driving them, fuelling their greed and weakness. Three days for the corruption to find a foothold, at most. Drive one, perhaps two men to madness, break their minds and reforge them in its own image. Another three to consolidate. Bring others into the fold, locate arms, and cast aside what remains of their humanity.”
The gangrenous giant looked upon the disturbingly corpse-free carnage surrounding them. Sparse bullet holes riddled the surface of one wall, the haphazard placement indicative of panicked sidearm fire, a holdout weapon against the horde that descended upon them.
”Maybe one hour to undertake the act.” Smeared trails of crimson led around a corner, explaining the disappearance of at least one carcass. Was this the start of the Cannibal Cult that assailed their position? Mere miners, driven to madness by some incomprehensible truth they uncovered, tempting them to feast on the flesh of their fellow men?
“How do you know so much about this?” Queried the false-man, the subtle hum of electronics audible, betraying their inhumanity. “Did you deal with this often, in your home ‘verse?”
Tainted tusks slowly split themselves open in a sinister smile beneath his horned helmet, blackened fangs wholly immersed in the toxic effluence that coursed through his veins. ”Deal with it? I… Dealt in it.”
There was silent for a moment, broken only by the shuddering death rattles of the abandoned industry around them.
“Just what do you mean by that?” Came the response from Fiara, her teeth gritted together, threatening to crack under the pressure as the flames encircling her gauntlets began to flare to life.
”What I mean is that you did what you had to in order to survive. You killed, you corrupted, you swore your soul away. You did whatever you could, because if you didn’t, someone… else would do it to you, and take what little life you had left in you.”
“And does that excuse what you’ve done? You’ve slaughtered how many, Okor?” The Phoenix practically screamed, her voice echoing off of the man-made mausoleum they had stopped within.
“How many lie dead by your hands?”
It was practically a whisper, a near-silent accusation that sought to condemn the Chosen of the Dark Gods for all the bloody deeds done in their unspeakable names.
”Worlds. I have seen… Solar Systems set ablaze, and tasted the ashes.”
“I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to go a day without violence. Do you know what it’s like to have to kill? I don’t mean in self-defence, or survival. The urge is built into my genome, wrapped so tightly around my psyche that it’s become… a part of me. It used to be so… simple. The Emperor of Mankind had abandoned his sons, and sought ascension, at any cost.”
He breathed deeply, ruined respiratory systems serving no other purpose than to house a host of parasitic organisms that would have long since killed and hatched from any other ‘living’ being.
”So we fought, because that’s all we can do. We killed brothers, burned worlds we once paraded upon, and swore ourselves to the only Gods that deserved our worship. For ten thousand years, we sought to cast down a false God, because we hated them, and they… hated us.”
“It was all so simple.”
A corroded gauntlet fell down upon a railing, irreparably bending it as his inhuman strength destroyed any hopes of it ever retaining its structural integrity.
”But now, it’s twisted. The dead return to life, realities even I could never fathom… existing spawn forth new pawns for Omni’s great game, and I still have to hate.”
A bare hand twisted the steel further, warped metal digging further into deadened flesh, Okor incapable of heeding the wounds.
”And it’s all I can do to try to hate the right people.”
The Plague Marine looked up from the ravaged architecture at his companions.
”What of you? What were your worlds like?”
Quote:960 Words according to Wordcounter.net
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Marcus Wright - 07-11-2016
Expecting to find a exit, nothing bothered the three of the exhausted survivors more than the the screech of the ball of metal. The metal was as malleable as clay when the ancient man threw the useless junk heap aside like a child's toy.
Okor lead the brave explorers as the flame braced phoenix and the cold, metal tainted man named Marcus felt on edge. Everyone decided it was safer that the general covered them from the elements.
The group felt the chills of the forsaken cave making everyone's neck hair stand up on edge. Fiara swore she could've felt claustrophobic as she stepped into the mine with Marcus besides her. She took a deep breath and caught a slight sigh and rolling of the eyes from Marcus. She scoffed.
The darkness of the mine, death of the miners and the area surrounding them started to feel all too real. “Everything, the miners who became mad, eating each other's flesh over ...power."
Power… What does it feel like to wield it over somebody else who feels weak?[\i]
Marcus’s thoughts became words as he related it to his situation. “My world?” “I died years ago by Lethal injection. I honestly woke up in a different earth. One post apocalyptic setting full of machine men who held power over humans.”Should I mention Cyberdyne and Skynet? Power is a word thrown around so easily.
“Signing with Skynet that day was horrible. I lost what was left of my humanity as I battled Just for survival of those important to me.. My girlfriend and friends. “
Survivor, he survived being one pawn to become another’s pawn.. Like being moved by Omni on a chessboard, favored prime providing chuckles to the entity
Killer, a word used by many to describe those in society who kill in defense or more. Marcus eyes Okor and nods “ I am a terminator, a being meant to kill yet even a cyborg can feel small amounts of emotion. Traces of humanity remained inside his human body parts.
Fiara said “what did it feel like on death row?”
Marcus closed his eyes for a second and blinked “ It felt weird knowing that all of us have a limited time.. "
[i]But omni will never allow rest.
Machinery betrayed all thoughts as he listened to Okor and Fiara.
A team that stays together, fights together”
A pickaxe was placed nearby in Marcus’s green coat. In case of danger, he'd use it.
Fiara’s screams at Okor proceeded of echoing in the mine. As Fiara tried to determine how many people Okor killed, he admitted the truth.
The ancient general had killed planets and so much more.
Was everything good however ?
Quote:442 words according to word counter.
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Amaterasu - 07-11-2016
Fiara huffed but held herself in check when Okor finished speaking. He was turning out to be... more than what she'd anticipated. This world was confusing to her, it wasn't black and white, it had so many... gray tones. Her already damaged hearing sent jolts of pain through her head when the marine's massive hand bent the steel and caused creaking which shook her to the bone.
"An... Emperor, I heard that before", she mumbled, trying to force her mind off the pictures that coursed through her head after Okor's speech. Entire worlds that burned? She couldn't even begin to imagine the pained screaming of innumerable souls whose lives were ended by fire and sword. "Would you stop that!" she then yelled sharply when another squeeze of Okor's fist threatened to break the crust in her ears and send more blood down her cheek, neck and long ruined clothing. She pieced together what she knew to make sense of the strange words Okor was using. Emperor... that meant Tenno. So there had been some Tenno seeking to ascend past humanity and become a kami? A God, as Okor named it? She'd heard that term too... God-Emperor, spoken out by a man in white armor of some sort who she had encountered in the Dunes. So that's what that meant.
"So you forsook your leader, your Ten- I mean, your Emperor, to pledge yourself to the Gods, and in their name you slaughtered your brothers, your own family?" She huffed, letting the flames still lick around her wrist before she flexed her fists in a certain way that caused her Blasters to return to their inactive state and snuffed the flames out. She knew how on edge she was right now, and as much as she wanted to slam a fist into Okor's expressionless helmet and blast it and everything inside it to pieces, she knew that it would be an error. Right now, she depended on him more than he depended on her, if they wanted to make it out of here. But if she left her Blasters in their armed state, her hand might slip... an accident may happen. No, she had to contain herself. "Are you not aware that the first Emperor was crowned by Amaterasu, a God herself, and that all his descendants rule under her sign by birthright? How can you serve the Gods if you refuse to serve the one who the gods appointed as their mortal hand on Earth?"
"The Emperor of Mankind claimed the title not by birthright, but by his... actions.”
That note took a fair amount of steam out of Fiara’s engines. An Emperor without noble blood in his veins? To her that was like a bird without wings, or dry water! She could simply not wrap her head around the idea. By his actions... what must one have done to be granted the title of Tenno, without nobility? And even then, how had he gotten the position? A Tenno could only reign with the authority of a kami to back him up.
“Your world must be very... different from mine.” She finally said. “We, the kami, only took care of supernatural beasts, of Youkai, Akuma and such. We let humans take care of one another.” She looked back and forth between Okor and Marcus, passing a hand through her hair. “So... while neither of you are Youkai or Akuma, you are humanlike... yet you both are made to kill? It’s anchored in your very being?”
Marcus replied that time. “I am human only by looks. But really, I am a machine.” He pointed to the shreds of skin beneath which his metallic exoskeleton laid bare.
“I don’t get that. To have one’s purpose solely be to kill, that’s like being...”
“... a weapon?” finished Okor when Fiara was at a loss for words.
“Not even the darkest Youkai I have heard of exist to kill.” She took a step back and yelped when she nearly tripped as her foot sunk into a deposit of semi-liquid Omnilium. Hastily she caught onto some railing and pulled her foot back out of the jelly-like rainbow mass, then looked back at the two of them. Okor’s words about them being unable to die came back to her mind, and seeing the metal beneath Marcus’s skin, the truth beneath a thin disguise, and the once humanlike mass of rot, disease, flesh, armor and intelligence that was Okor, stirred something with her. Pity? Or was it fear? She shook her head and tried to put her usual unhappy and serious face back on. “I’ll go look over that way, see if I can find anything useful. Bodies or writings or something. If it’s got the phoenician alphabet I’ll call you so you can read it.” She then took off, separating herself from Okor and Marcus temporarily. She needed time to think, and she needed to be alone for it.
Although, she did keep what she’d said and began searching for bodies or anything else worth picking up, now with her Phoenix Blasters activated again to provide light.
Quote:Translations:
Youkai: A collective term for spirits, monsters and similar supernatural beings.
Akuma: Demon
851 words according to wordcounter.
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Karl Jak - 07-12-2016
For the moment, the separation had been good for the trio, even if it was an imperfect separation at best. No matter how far she removed herself from the plagued marine, Fiara could still detect his half-dead stench.
Two levels removed from her partners, the phoenix entered a small metal shack built partially into the wall of the underground area. Letting the door soundlessly swing shut behind her, she pointed her Phoenix Blaster in front of her and let the flames light her path as she tried to examine the room without setting anything on fire.
Better yet… Glancing around, Fiara spotted a wooden chair and swiftly broke off one of its legs. A few moments later, she allowed her weapons to return to their idle state as she set the makeshift torch into a ventilation hole near the room’s entrance. With everything bathed in a pale yellow light, she could see that the room probably didn’t serve as someone’s living quarters. Tomes lined a few of the shelves, and there were plenty of small pieces of technology built into the walls. Some sort of overlook station? Fiara tapped one of the glass boxes and furrowed her brow as she looked through the old window at the darkness of the mine.
While she had killed one of the chairs to provide a less danger-prone source of light, Fiara found a second one and camped herself in front of the largest of the metal terminals. None of the knobs and dials made much sense to her, but given the general state of poor maintenance, she doubted she could do much harm to the abandoned equipment. After a few moments, she found herself doing little more than playing around with the controls.
As her hand flipped up a switch, she heard something groan from behind her, and while her first instant was to spin around and arm the Phoenix Blaster, she quickly realized what had happened. Above her head, there was a faint flicker as a solitary surviving light bulb flickered alive. Out through the large window, she spotted a few pale stars in the darkness as a couple more incandescent bulbs fluttered to life.
***
With Okor taking point near the top of the mine shaft, Marcus made his way down another path. The woman was on the other side, so he headed opposite of her and found himself softly walking along a partially rusted catwalk. With his systems not fully functional, Marcus had to keep a hand along the railing to guide his steps as he relied on the human senses.
Fortunately for the terminator, a few of the old lights that had been hidden in shadow overhead flickered. The initial addition of light to a formerly dark environment was enough to shock his senses for a few moments, but once that subsided, he was able to guide himself over to a nearby door built into the wall of the cavern. The iron, which seemed ancient beyond its years, screeched as he pushed it open. How old was the Omniverse?
The room was illuminated by a pair of hanging lights, although Marcus could see a few more tiny cages filled with dead bulbs. In the pale light, the terminator noted that he was in some type of barracks. Rows of beds lined the far wall, and most of them had lockboxes resting on the ground before them. Although coated in dust, the beds were perfectly made up, as if the room had housed a bunch of greenback marines under the sway of an angry drill sergeant.
“This supposed to be a mine or a military installation?” Compared to the evidence of bloodshed out in the main area, the neat little room seemed out of place.
Crouching down in front of one of the beds, Marcus examined the footlocker. After taking a brief moment to bash off the lock, he opened the partially rusted box and started to rummage through its contents for anything of merit. Underneath a few copies of the same basic outfit, Marcus found a leather pouch that zippered shut. Since that seemed infinitely more interesting than the collection of nudie magazines and the man’s gambling earnings, the terminator unzipped the pouch and pulled out the collection of papers stuffed inside. After walking over to a bed underneath one of the lights, Marcus unfolded one of the papers and glanced at it. It didn’t take long for him to see that it was a makeshift journal.
***
Day 14
We arrived on the island about two weeks ago. Mr. Jak would refer to that as a ‘fortnight,’ but then again, he also sleeps with men. Namby-pamby businessmen… How am I supposed to believe that that guy created me? Just because I woke up in a barracks instead of at some fountain? Bullshit. This ain’t some new uni-verse. Bunch of fucking retards. I know that somewhere Billy and Jed are laughing their asses off. Jagoffs probably got me drunk and locked me up in one of those off-world freighters.
If they were that jealous of me bangin’ their sisters, they shouldda just said something.
Day 20
This is some screwy fucking planet. Supervisor says they had to gundown a bunch of spear-chuckin’ fruits out in the woods. I heard something about ‘They ain’t s’posed to be there’ or some shit.”
Fucking hippies. My daddy died to protect Central City from jealous neighbors.
Guy next to me is called Larry. Larry drank the Kool-Aid like all the others. ‘Omniverse.’ Yea, okay. Because this is just some magical fairy world where people can grow extra dicks. It was bad enough you got the people flying around shooting bombs from their hands.
Day 25
We was mining today when we broke through into some of the shiniest fucking shit I’ve ever seen. Not just that it was shiny, because I’ve seen gold and silver. This shit shimmered (like that word? The nancy-boy taught it to me) with the colors of the rainbow. ‘Omnilium’ or something. Just sounds like another rock to me but whatever.
I guess this is the shit we were supposed to find, because the Supervisor and the others started salivating. I’m not gay, but I’m sure they probably had boners over this shit too.
Day 27
People are getting weird. A lot of the pussies are having problems sleeping at night. Worse than that, they keep fucking waking me up with their crying and screaming. One of them… I think his name was Tony? … Anyway, Tony got so bad they took him away in the middle of the night. Tony didn’t come back. They folded up his bed real nice and emptied his footlocker. Bosses said he was going home early.
Going home early?
I’ll have a few nightmares if I get to go home early.
Day 30
People keep saying weird shit. Talking about hearing voices in their head. Insisting that it’s the omnilium talking to them. How the fuck does a rock talk to you? I’m surrounded by faggots. One of the guys ran screaming out of the barracks and dove head-first down the main cavern. Guess it took a few people to mop him up off the floor.
Since I can’t sleep very well at night (fucking dreams), I’ve heard people whispering in the beds. Talking about communing with the omnilium. ‘Becoming one with the omnilium.’ Talking about…
Fuck, it’s too hard to focus. I’m too tired.
Day 32
It’s today.
We’ve already taken the main office. A few of the nonbelievers tried to detonate explosives to bury the mine, but we stopped them. The open air exits were destroyed, but the emergency elevator remains in tact. We captured most of those fools and painted with their insides.
We won’t let them prevent our ascension.
We descend now. Down to the Ascension. It speaks to us.
We shall join.
At that, the series of journal entries stopped. Marcus scowled as he set the stack of small papers down onto the bed next to him. The man’s handwriting had started off terrible and gotten worse from there, but the last entry had been nearly perfect. Everything was smooth lines and perfect English (or whatever they called the language here).
The man had made mention of descending… did he mean down into the mines?
Then again, the journal had also mentioned an elevator the surface…
With a scowl, Marcus sat up off the dusty bunk and started back toward the rest of his group.
Quote:End of Round 6
Marcus has been eliminated from Final Prize contention
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Marcus Wright - 07-14-2016
Deciding they could cover more ground if they separated, Fiara, Okor and Marcus paved their own paths. Marcus’s journey was dark as he staggered off, metallic face gleaming with flakes of blood-stained skin peeling off like paint chips. A view through a human's eyes could tell twice as many stories as looking through a terminator's opticular sight.
Marcus was unique. He was able to use senses common to a terminators and human beings. The strength and power of a terminator and the resourcefulness and willpower of a human. He had remarkable healing abilities. This helped him carry on his tasks of finding information about the Omniverse.
Fluorescent lights flickered like a switch making the catwalk hard to decipher. Marcus muttered a string of curse words as he stumbled in the darkness.He placed a finger to his face as a curious thought came to his mind. “What if this iron door is within my reach? “What if it is at the end of this catwalk?”Imagine his surprise when he found what he was looking for.
“What exactly did i miss here?!”
Marcus wasn’t in the best of moods to celebrate as he opened the ancient iron doors. To his dismay, he found an out of place military-like barracks in the mine. The floors were swept and spotless. In between the emptied walls of the garrison held a hidden secret : a box containing a treasure trove of information.
He lifted up the heavy box and blew off the dust setting it on the bed. He went into the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a screwdriver he knew would be helpful in this situation. He used it as a pick to open the lock.
In the box,Marcus found a pair of sparkling jelly-coated suspenders. It also contained a flannel button-down shirts underneath. The limited light reflected off the black rubber boots and miner’s helmet with a low grade light on the top. Maybe the terminator could get some use out of the helmet as well. He studied the inside of the yellow helmet and fingered a mini-switch where the light source turned on. He was glad it was a working helmet.
But the major treasure in the box was a soft bonded journal with a wealth of information. Marcus moved toward a bed and sat down. He flipped each page with a slow pace.
Page 1: Day 14
The terminator raised an eyebrow. The miner who wrote in the journal had handwriting that was very difficult to read. He processed what he could read because of the poor handwriting and saw that he was reading from a secondaries’ point of view. The host of this little “adventure” was named Karl Jak. He brought these secondaries here to work and perhaps die.
Page 2: Day 20
The war machine eyed the second page. Misinformed words were written worse than the page before. Marcus began to question if he could read this page at all.
The Omniverse from this miner’s view was full of primes and secondaries who had chosen to “drink the kool-aid”. They believed in the Omniverse so much that they would jump into pure Omnilium, or go stark mad. Voices descended into madness as the dark gods hidden within Omnilium “persuaded ”everyone that dying for it was a just cause. All it took was some smooth talking. Panic took over as the foolish followers obeyed the voices they heard.
Marcus read the last few pages. What kind of creature was lurking around them that tormented these miners? The war machine couldn't possibly imagine being trapped in this madness. The ex-killer fought for the humanity he had left. But how could he find his own humanity if these miners couldn’t save themselves.
Finished with reading the horrifying truth,
the terminator took one last look at the barracks and called out for Okor and Fiara. “OKOR, FIARA! Come as fast as you can! I’ve found something you want to see.. “
When Okor and Fiara arrived, Marcus proceeded to tell them the secret the journal told him. The jelly on the suspenders drove the miners mad. The group had two choices:
They either rode the emergency elevator above and risk more damage or they go below and join the miners in the Ascension.
This time it was choosing the lesser of two evils. Where would they go from here?
Okor wanted the creature's skull
Fiara wasn't sure
Marcus just wanted to get away
Quote:word count of 772-
Of 2400
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Amaterasu - 07-15-2016
Even after having somehow managed to turn the lights on Fiara played on a little with the rusted command console, turning on a few more lights, turning off others and generally causing a somewhat annoying lightshow of dim flickering on the ceiling that made it harder for Okor and Marcus to carry out their respective tasks. Finally though, she ended it when one lever caused the console to spark threateningly and pulled said lever back before stepping away. "That's good enough as it is, I guess... huh?" She looked up because just then Marcus called Okor's and her names. She was about to run over when a thought occured to her. She ripped off the chair's remaining three legs - that chair that she had salvaged for her makeshift torch - and brought them along in case that the torch she had ran out on her, or if Okor and Marcus wanted one.
The explanation that Marcus provided struck Fiara with surprise, but she didn't interrupt the terminator. It wasn't possible that they all lived inside... an illusion, a fake. Okor and Marcus began heading towards the elevator, and she followed them, until a thought shaped in her head. An idea that grew with every step she took until she decided that it needed to come out.
Fiara eyed the mineshaft that led downwards, then turned and stepped back one step so that she could look at both Okor and Marcus at the same time as she had done before. She did want to adress the both of them after all. "Listen, I don't know WHAT is up with this place, with the whole Omniverse even, but whatever 'thing' -" She made air quotes with her fingers as she said that - "befell the miners shouldn't affect the three of us nearly as much. I mean, you two are Primes, right? If you can manipulate this Omnilium matter, then you are probably resistant to whatever drove these... these Secondaries crazy, right? And me, I'm nothing like those guys. Marcus, don't give me that look, I'm really not! And even if I was, the miners were in here for... what? Twentysomething days? We've been here for twentysomething minutes, tops. I can still climb even with my injury, and you both are okay too."
As Marcus and Okor didn't reply at first, Fiara waved her torch towards the direction of the mineshaft. "What I'm saying is, we could go down there and take a look. We're not forced to stay and can still back away. And I'm not exactly thrilled about staying down there for long, anyway... I want to get out of here and find Saber again." Neither of them seemed convinced, but she couldn't read Okor's face due to his helmet, and Marcus just seemed skeptical about it all.
"Another thing. These miner guys are the only people we heard of thus far, and they lived in this mine, which is pretty close to where the savages attacked us. I don't know how big this whole island is, but... it could be a connection. Those men could've been the miners, driven crazy by The Ascension."
This theory was met by even more skepsis. "It's far-fetched", was all that Okor commented on it. Marcus added: "There's no evidence of such. They could just as well have been natives or summoned by a Prime."
Yes, yes it was. Fiara looked back at the mineshaft then at Okor and Marcus once again. It's not that she was drawn to it or anything, she was simply curious. But it may be a better idea to just leave it as a mystery and to go find Saber again. "I was just saying... but even if we don't explore, we should at least keep note of it and pass it to Syntech. Maybe they'll make more of it." Her mind was rattling through the types of Youkai that could perform a feat such as this, to influence entire groups of humans into doing its bidding, but none came to mind. At least, none that could do so in just twenty days and on upwards of a dozen individuals, in ways that caused ill dreams. She looked at the elevator door they'd been heading to, wondering whether or not this was best left. She had a mission and couldn't risk it by throwing herself at a Youkai that was completely out of her league.
Quote:737 words according to MS Word.
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Okor - 07-15-2016
Dust drifted from the roof of the cavern, powdered stone falling across stalagmites as the trio made their way towards the Elevator, its forgotten mechanisms still standing ready to carry them into darkness. It took but a few moments for them to reach it, standing around its corrugated steel, awaiting a consensus. For the briefest of instants, there was silence, the void of sound filled by nothing more than the soundless shifting of tectonic plates and the drip of water against rock.
Corruption-ridden claws clutched the rusted railing, the cyclopean crimson eye of Okor looking out over his companions. ”We have two… choices.”
He gestured with his tainted talons, the dessicated digits dripping with liquid rot as he raised the hand towards the far-off sky, their paleolithic prison holding them back from the other survivors.
”We could ascend, and find Hiro. I’d expect us to encounter more of these… Savages, although Gods alone know how that would end after our earlier encounter. Perhaps they would seek vengeance, mayhaps they would fear us, or they might know naught but hunger. We’d be moving overground in plain sight, in unfamiliar ground. Nothing we couldn’t handle, naturally, but… still a tactical consideration. An Ambush is nigh-guaranteed.”
Rotten fingers raked across his helm, a parody of stroking his chin, a mockery of nature being the closest thing to humanity the Chosen of the Dark Gods could muster in this moment of darkness.
”They are tribespeople. Hunters, first and foremost. They would strike fast, isolate Fiara, end her, and fade into the forest. We would have to move in… close order.”
His decrepit grey matter slowly churned, calling upon an unnaturally prolonged lifespan filled with more warfare than any one man should ever be subjected to. Screaming slave-soldiers, their blood filled with Frenzon crested a ridge, crude blades digging into Astartes Ceramite, powered by drug-fuelled bloodlust. Nearly ten millennia ago, Death came to Galaspar, and broke one tyrant’s hold, while putting another upon its throne.
The Kajor Compliance still came to him, in his dreams. A world of barbarians, armed with stone and flint, facing Mankind’s greatest creations, without fear. The pacts they sealed with the Dark Gods ensured that, beings of smoke and flame tearing apart his brothers, their cackling drowning out the screams, the howls of agony that-
He shook his head, attempting to drive off the nightmares of the past. The Gods lent him their strength now, not to the foe.
”We haven’t seen any… sorcery used, but it wouldn’t be... unwise to expect it.”
Gears ground as the Machine known as Marcus opened their mouth to speak. “Was their much magic where you came from, Okor?”
”You could… say that,” chuckled the Chosen. ”The Gods dwell in the Sea of Souls, and grant power to those born with the talent of Theurgy. An infinite wellspring of strength, but woe betide those who... drink too deep.” At this point, he halted, a seizure wracking his corpse as his lungs rebelled, attempting to drive out the host of parasites dwelling within.
”But there’s always, a choice, isn’t there?”
“Whatever did this still lurks… beneath us. Marcus, did these cultists speak of a goal?”
The Terminator rolled his shoulders, the pistons beneath his false flesh sparking, a memento of the damage suffered in the battle against the feral cannibals. “They spoke of joining into an… Ascension, of some kind. Do you have any idea what they meant by that?”
Beneath the antique iron of his helm, paper-thin skin split into a maddened grin, his entropic extremities cracking as he stretched them out. ”The entity that corrupted them must lack a physical form in this realm. At first, it lurked in the… Omnillium. An object of desire, calling to the greedy and vulnerable. It used them to thin the herd, and ensure it had only the strongest for its host. Couple that with the joining....”
He leaned forward, the exuberance exuding from him as palpable as the stench that constantly surrounded him.
”I predict a hulking amalgamation of raw potential and human flesh, guided by an ancient and alien intelligence.”
“And I want its skull.”
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Karl Jak - 07-16-2016
Their minds seemed resolved to face whatever lay just beneath the base of the mine shaft.
Marcus lead the way with a torch he’d created from some torn clothes and a lighter from one of the lockboxes. Just a few paces behind him, Fiara had her Phoenix blasters primed and ready for the next obstacle. Behind the terminator and the woman, the plague marine followed. He had no need of a torch with all the light from the others, so Okor kept his weapons ready and his senses sharp as they gradually descended the platforms that lined the sides of the mineshaft.
After a fifteen minute march further into the bowels of the island, the trio stepped down from the metal platforms onto a jagged rock floor marred with countless wounds from pickaxes. The base of the shaft wasn’t any wider than twenty square yards, so it didn’t take long for Fiara to find what seemed to be a piece of metal hastily anchored into the stone.
Okor strode over to the strip of metal and tapped on it with his boot. “This is what we want,” he remarked as he stepped back, dropped into a squat, and dug into the ground at the edge of the metal. Without waiting to be asked, Marcus joined the plague marine, and the two uprooted the metal plate.
Almost immediately, Fiara let out a surprising yelp and stumbled away from her two partners. Okor tilted his helmet as Marcus took a few steps toward the woman. “What?” The terminator inquired, trying to dial up the compassion before Fiara shook him away.
“It’s… it’s nothing,” she mumbled. “Something down there just smells awful. More awful than anything I’ve ever encountered.” Marcus took a moment to furrow his brow and shoot a glance back at Okor.
“If your resolve has faltered, you may remain here.” The plague marine stepped forward and dropped down into the hole.
“Just stay.” Marcus spoke as he joined Okor.
The terminator, torch held above his head, landed in a crouch next Okor, who had his sidearm at the ready. “It is here.”
Somewhere out in the darkness, Marcus heard a wet popping sound followed by the wet slithering of inhuman appendages against something other than rock. Underneath the machine, the ground seemed to shift and churn, and a quick glimpse showed that the floor of the cave looked more like raw sinew than stone. Sweating red and pink biological matter writhed beneath his boots, and it was then that he noticed the roof of the cave was dripping viscous ooze down onto the two stalwart primes.
“All around us.” Okor spoke softer as unnatural, amorphous shapes continued to shift in the darkness just outside Marcus’s torchlight.
A disembodied voice that sounded like the melding of a hundred souls spoke all around the pair of primes.
“Join the Ascended. Forsake the bonds of the False God.”
Quote:End of Round 7
Fiara has been eliminated from final prize contention.
You stand before/inside the Ascended. Or, as I referred to it in my head ‘the Flesh.’ A living cavern the size of a football field created by nearly a hundred ‘souls’. The Flesh will attack you by twisted constructions that it wills from the cavern walls. Mangled, near-human forms that will call for you blood. Eldrich abominations that writhe and weeze and spew toxic ichor. The fucking stuff of nightmares. Go balls to the wall wild with it. I look forward to it. Plus, you have Okor, so I’m sure you can think of other pleasant words to describe the things.
Some may be mobile, others might be permanent fixtures, as if they are some fleshy gargoyle. The concept is somewhat inspired by ‘The Flesh’, a boss from the game Darkest Dungeon, if you want to google that.
Fight or flee.
RE: [4-] The Darkness Below (Team Robo Phoenix) - Okor - 07-18-2016
The howling retort of the Plagued Paladin’s bolt pistol was the only response the abomination received from Okor, the airbursting shell detonating scant inches in front of an amalgamation's warped visage, coating its gibbering maw in burning phosphex. As the freak fell to the floor, the Chosen’s heavy tread trampled it, his mass crushing its twisted bones like twigs as another shot streaked down the corpse-carpeted cavern, blooming in another blaze of alchemical flame.
”False? Came a digitized snarl, a set of septic spurs sinking into the throat of a charging brute, the piercing talons carving through the creature’s distended flesh before closing on the twisted vertebrae at the back of their now-shredded gullet, snapping it with a spite-fuelled application of force. Claws scratched against his armour as he tossed the freshly forged cadaver aside, the maddened mutants electing to swarm the roaring giant rather than his less noticeable companions.
Jagged barbs that might have once been fingers tore into his paper-thin skin, raking long furrows in his dessicated flesh as the deranged cult sought to make a feast from his corpse, a fresh offering for their Demonic master. As The Champion of the Dark Gods disappeared underneath the tidal wave of twisted mockeries of the human form, he yet promised vengeance. ”I have looked upon true divinity, you… poor excuse for a warp sprite.”
A god-gifted blade shot out from the swarming morass of frenzied post-human butchers, its length disemboweling an unfortunate beast, its three mismatched arms attempting to hold its organs in, an activity doomed to fail even before the Terminator demolished its skull with a pickaxe.
”I speak for the only… God that’s worth worshipping in this damned realm, the only Deity that has ambitions beyond this forsaken cave.” A tendril shot from his gut, the barbed appendage throttling another abomination as Okor strode forward, the bulk of his bolter kicking back against his torn trunks of arms, claiming another pitiable excuse for a life. All around him, the monstrosities closed in, deranged arrangements of appendages and torsos shambling unsteadily towards the Gene-forged Demigod of war, their forms warped and twisted to accommodate a wide variety of biological weapons. Claws, fangs, flails, and tentacles made themselves evident in the sickly green light of his censers, each focused on tearing down the heretic that dared to oppose their heavenly father’s will. His blade clattered to the corpse-coated floor, falling, to be forgotten amidst the coming chaos.
”And his first commandment…”
Flickers of flame ran over his rusted armour, the cleansing fire eating away at the aeons-old Verdigris, leaving behind scorched ceramite, its blackened surface laid bare in the darkness down below. His soulless flesh combusted, the mummified meat upon his longdead bones turning to Ash as he moved forward, an inferno consuming him in entirety. He raised two hands dripping with liquid flame, each holding the death-dealing tools of his trade. A skeletal jaw, wreathed in fire, cracked open, locked in a permanent grin.
”Betrayers Burn.”
All hell broke loose, with Okor riding at its fore.
A bolt shell inundated in radiation penetrated an amorphous mass of flesh, the many howling maws across its surface twisting into an expression of pain and confusion, before the round detonated within it, sending gobbets of meat flying across the subterranean tartarus. Phosphex sprayed across a tangled mass of limbs skittering towards him, the amalgamation of appendages crashing to the ground as what was once several cultists was devoured by Mankind’s oldest friend.
Brass shells fell to the still-living tissue of the floor, glowing crimson as they sizzled against the abominable cavern, each step of the Plague-ridden Pyre searing his mark into the horror, an eternal brand left upon its flesh, a reminder of the true monster within this realm. His own soul fuelled the flames of his personal inferno as he descended into the skittering horde, twinned weapons reaping a bloody toll upon the sullied secondaries. Each had turned upon their own kind, damning themselves to this existence, driven to madness by the aspiring Demon within these catacombs.
An insectile creation reared up from the darkness, scything limbs formed from twisted ribcages surging forward and embedding themselves in Okor’s ebon plate, the mutated muscles behind the blow easily driving the chitinous cleavers into the blazing conflagration within his torso. The cluster of jawless human heads atop its structure screamed an undulating cry of hatred at him, elongated tongues lined with cruel barbs latching on to his armour, toxic venom dripping down the sinuous lengths of flesh.
Blackened claws depressed the trigger of the Plague Marine’s atomic atrocity, the incineration of his sluggish muscles and long-rotten nervous system allowing for startling alacrity, sending a series of shells into the creature’s abdomen, sending a spray of shrapnel and gore across the Legionnaire’s armour. A flame-kissed sole impacted upon its torso, driving the dying freak of nature back into the darkness from which it came, the claws it drove into Okor’s charred hearts snapping off, remaining embedded in his tarnished torso.
And yet, they still came. With a roar matching the seemingly endless howl of his ballistics, The Dean of Security made his defiance known, the crackling fires consuming him warping the wordless scream of rage into coherency.
”I am Okor Paleblood, Wyrmbreaker, Foeslayer, Thief of Crowns, and the ruination of this world!”
He could no longer see Marcus. That was irrelevant, there was nothing more to this glorious moment than himself and the foe. Thought carried itself along trails of embers, every barely-suppressed violent urge within his mind exercised upon the enemy as he left a trail of broken bodies in his wake, a one-man holocaust unleashed upon the freaks that dared to think themselves his match. He was Armageddon incarnate, a thrice-blessed champion of the True Gods, and they were nothing.
”And you are naught but ash.”
Quote:1007 words according to google docs, The Burned man T2 transformation used, down to 1 sp.