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+--- Thread: Not Compatible (/showthread.php?tid=5837)
Not Compatible - Alex Mercer - 04-10-2017
"What the hell is this?"
"You think one of those Primes got liquified?"
"Nah... They are supposed to be immortal, and always reappear right here, no matter how they died."
"Is this... is this a prime"
"Maybe..."
The two scouts were kneeling at the fountain, peering at the odd mass before them. What they saw was little more than a blob. It looked like a glossy black mass of fresh ink. "Touch it," one of the scouts suggests. She was a young woman, clad in basic leather armor and armed with a shortbow. Her companion was older, his short beard streaked with a bit of gray and his eyes as sharp as an eagle's.
"I don't think that would be wise..." He pondered. He removed his steel helmet, ideas forming. "Maybe we could scoop some of it up... It looks mostly liquid..." Inching closer, he holds his helmet the furthest from the rim as possible while attempting to dip it into the ooze. The sound was a faint, wet slurp as the ridge sank through the thick slime. "It feels like digging in wet sand..."
Just when he thought he had a good enough portion of the slime, the rest suddenly moves. It pulls the rest of its form up and into the helmet, fitting perfectly within the container. The older scout was confused; just a moment ago it had been utterly inert. Now it seemed to accept its place in the helmet. "I think it likes you, Jhoff. You should name it," the young scout teased. Not paying attention to her, the elder was staring at the creature; thoughtful of what exactly it was. He tilted the helmet, slightly sloshing the thick slime, watching the light of the Nexus sheen off its glossy mass. Finally, curiosity got the better of him. He touched it.
The instant his bare fingertips touched the gelatinous creature, small tendrils leap out, clinging to his hand. Pulling itself up, more spit forth, grabbing higher on his arm. The elder dropped the helmet in an instant wave of fear and regret. His hand suddenly felt so cold as it was consumed. More and more of his arm vanished inside the creature before he attempts to claw it away with his free hand. That too becomes stuck, and the spread begins from another angle. The young scout just stared, backing away as she watched her partner seemingly eaten alive by this Prime.
"I'll go get help!" Code for "I'm out." The young scout runs away at top speed, leaving the elder to his fate. Terror struck them both, but the elder could not run. In moments, his entire body had been swallowed by the slime. The world bled to black and felt cold. In his mind, something formed. It was like his own thoughts, but they felt foreign, as if someone were invading his private little world.
He saw the form of a faceless figure sitting amidst the black. There was a murmuring sound, but he could not make it out above the sound of his own heartbeat hammering in his ears, and the garbled scream he was emitting with every breath he took. I'm going to die! I'm dead, I'm already dead, this thing is going to digest me, I'm dead! This is not how I wanted to go, please Omni, don't let it end like this!
Numbness overtook his senses. He could scream no more. The elder fainted, his slime-coated form tumbled to the white floor. The slime slid from the man, leaving him as if nothing had happened. Not compatible.
RE: Not Compatible - Dell Conagher - 04-10-2017
As Dell recovered his senses from the jarring gateway transition, he pulled the PDA from his tool pouch and flicked it on. The surprisingly powerful device housed a mobile dataverse device and a communicator, and his eye was caught by a blinking notification about new bounties in the area. Seems there was some kind of creature, a Prime, that had killed a Camelot soldier in the Nexus. He looked up at the fountain in the distance as his stomach settled from the woozy warp-in.
Slipping the device into his belt pouch and pulling his shotgun from the ether and settling it on his shoulder, he started towards the fountain to see if the thing had stuck around, and if he could possibly deal with it....
RE: Not Compatible - Alex Mercer - 04-10-2017
The slimy creature had slicked and slurped away from the fountain only a short ways. It moved fast for a creature with no legs, but it seemed aimless. It did not know where to go, or what to do. There were no more possible hosts around. This place was so... empty. The Nexus' featureless white backdrop made it easy to spot the glossy black blob-like creature.
Lost. Where would it go? It struggled with its limited intelligence, but came up with only a vague emotion. Alone. How would it survive? What could it do? It did not know how to panic, but it did not know hope either. The Symbiote was an echo of personality with no solid form. With no Host, it was nothing.
Like a spiral, it circled the fountain, its path growing ever wider. The slime left no trail, despite its liquid form. It was not exactly "Wet" as much as it was a viscous, sticky goo. Lucky too, considering it knew not the danger its hasty attempt to bond had put it in.
There it was. A sense of Fear. I'm going to die, the scout had screamed in his head. Such a horrible thought.... such a frightening concept. Death. That was something that perhaps every Klyntar knew and to some extent feared. It was the driving force to find a host. In this case, that act of self preservation may have done just the opposite...
And still it wandered, its short spanned mind dwelling on the Scout's loud thoughts before he fainted...
RE: Not Compatible - Dell Conagher - 04-10-2017
As he drew closer to the Fountain, Dell was able to spot the amorphous black blob as it lurched its way across the stark whiteness of the Nexus floor. It was still a good ways off and he drew up to the.... thing. Keeping his distance, he dropped the toolbox with a hefty 'Thump' and lowered the shotgun, pointing it in the general direction of the mass.
"Hold it right there, creep. Can you understand me? If you would come quietly it'd be mighty obliging."
Dell tried the reasoning approach to begin with, though he kept a little bit of distance and watched its movements.
RE: Not Compatible - Alex Mercer - 04-10-2017
"Hold it right there, creep." This phrase was so familiar. Instant memories welled, bringing back thoughts of a past Host. She used this line so often, it was almost her catch phrase. It took no time at all to spot who said it. He was the only living thing for who-knows-how-far. It did not stop, however. Almost mindless, perhaps desperate - if it knew such a thing - the slime moves towards Dell - and it was pretty fast for such a creature.
It would be a split moment before the slime gathers itself up into a dense ball, then springs at the man with the familiar words. Nostalgia... Is that not what the humans called this? A sense of comfort from memory of things long since past? If so, then Zenith was definitely nostalgic right now. Maybe this would be his new host? It was not fond of guns, it often fought against them, but maybe it could cope. Maybe his new Host rarely used it. Maybe a lot of things.
RE: Not Compatible - Dell Conagher - 04-10-2017
With little time to react, Dell dove to the side to avoid the flying blob of... whatever it was. Tucking and rolling, he popped back up and fired a blast of shrapnel from the Widowmaker at it. "Texas style, then. Have it your way." He says, pumping another shrapnel round at the general direction of the blob, peppering it and the area around it with sharp slag and shotgun pellets.
"Fast little thing. And creepy too." The engineer mutters, stayed on his toes as he reloaded. He kept an eye on its movements as his brain tried to formulate what the hell this thing was and if he could even hurt it, much less kill or capture it. He only had to hope that he could deal with it, or hold out long enough for someone to intervene.
RE: Not Compatible - Alex Mercer - 04-10-2017
The sound of gunfire is immediately met with a wet Splat. The shrapnel sank into the creature's dense biomass, the force causing the amorphous creature to bevel inwards. There was no effect. The creature lands on the ground, before gathering itself up and slithering away. Another resounding BANG! is met with another slurp as the mass absorbs the shrapnel. Again, the force causes the creature to warble, but nothing more.
This utter immunity to physical damage was only visual. The body absorbed it, but the high force and foreign matter caused a sensation in the creature that reinforced its fear. Pain. It hurt, and the second shot only main that suffrage double. It did the only thing it could do. It fled. The creature had speed on its side, despite having no legs. Dell would struggle to keep up, especially if he had to stop and reload the Widowmaker for any measure of time.
Pain. Fear. Alone. These powerful emotions were overwhelming to such a simple creature. It hurt on so many levels that it did not understand. It could not comprehend why this was happening, why it hurt or how to make it stop. Its slithering form quivered more and more as it fled towards one of the distant walls.
RE: Not Compatible - Dell Conagher - 04-10-2017
Lowering the smoking gun Dell continued at a dogged pace after the mass as it fled. He was going to catch this thing.... He slung the shotgun over his back and pulled out one of his toolboxes. Made from sheet metal and sealed against the elements it could prove to be a useful container if the blob didn't have any corrosive properties. And so the chase ensued, a black blob creeping much faster than it appeared able to, followed by a red-clad engineer with a toolbox....
He huffed for a moment and then increased the length of his stride a little, going from a run to a sprint and closing the gap for a short moment before winding up and throwing the toolbox, catch undone and lid open, into the slime's path in hopes of either landing on top of it or in front of it!
RE: Not Compatible - Alex Mercer - 04-10-2017
The slime continued to flee until it appeared that would no longer do. Its pursuer managed to keep pace and was no longer dealing damage, and instead had the same idea the scout had: contain the slime. That did not end up well the first time, and after the shoot-first, ask questions later attitude, Zenith was not terribly inclined to bond with this man at all. Surely there would be someone else...
When Dell attempted to grab the creature in the box, the idea almost immediately backfires when he cannot muster the strength to close the lid. The slime was strong - very strong, in fact. As Dell tried to close the box, small tendrils leap from the creature to grab at the man. The slime begins creeping up Dell's limbs, grappling with every cubic inch of its slimy mass as it slithers. The touch was so cold; not debilitating, but perhaps quite irritating. The grip on Dell's wrist tightens as the creature squeezes, proving its strength once again to be one of its stronger suits. Dell's hands were bound by the creature, still holding the toolbox it had not even a moment ago tried to scoop up this slime in.
Why? Zenith could not understand. Why did they do this? Why did they bring pain? What was the reason for this? It was not right. It was not right! Anger rose. Like an animal backed into a corner, Zenith bit back, and it did so with that grip. It was trying to crush Dell's hands with all its might, even as it crawled up the man's form.
RE: Not Compatible - Dell Conagher - 04-10-2017
Dell gasped as the creature bound itself around his wrists, forcing him to drop the the toolbox, wrapped around his hands and crawling up his arms. His right hand, encased in a glove, was causing the creature trouble as it tried to crush it, being much tougher than his left with much greater strength and resistance.
With a heave and a snarl of rage the engineer was able to pull his right hand free of its rubber and symbiote encasement, revealing a robotic hand which he used to pull the shotgun from his back and stick the short scattergun into the creature point blank and pulled the trigger, rapidly emptying the bullets and scrap into the symbiote, shredding his left arm as well with a cry of pain.
RE: Not Compatible - Alex Mercer - 04-10-2017
The moment Dell managed to free his arm and grab the tool of so much of Zenith's pain, the alien abandoned its attack. It disengaged, releasing Dell's other arm and the toolbox before returning to it's almost orb-like shape and fled. This fight was unwinnable without a Host, someone to give it shape and constitution.
It's speed was fueled by fear. BANG! The gun was unleashed just too late... It clipped the Symbiote as it plopped to the floor, but by the time Dell recovered from the blunder, Zenith would be quite some distance away, and quickly adding distance. Catching up would be close to impossible.
Zenith obviously knew nothing of where it was going, or what it would do when it got there. It only knew that here was bad. Anywhere else had to be better than this. It felt so much pain, the shrapnel was rolling around in its form. Every now and then, one small fragment would be left in its wake, like a trail of oily metal bread crumbs. It did not take a bloodhound to follow the wounded prey's trail through the blinding white of the nexus, even if Del were to lose sight of it.
If Del knew which gate was which, he might notice Zenith was heading towards the Frozen Fields gate.
RE: Not Compatible - Dell Conagher - 04-10-2017
Dell was familiar with the gates and he could see the intended path of the amorphous mass that was now bleeding.... as was his arm which was torn with shrapnel from the blast of his shotgun that he had knowingly unloaded right at his hand. Instead of chasing after the beast, he sat himself down on the toolbox as the adrenaline faded and the pain started to set in.... the blinding, throbbing pain of his torn up arm. He might pursue this particular thing later.... but for now he needed to recuperate. He was exhausted and also in pain.
RE: Not Compatible - Alex Mercer - 04-10-2017
When it noticed Dell was not persuing it, Zenith slowed. It need not breath, but needed sustenance. With no host, it would starve, and in such critical condition, it would not survive another round. This world was indeed a cruel one. Maybe beyond the next gate there would be something a bit more welcoming. A host, perhaps... or chocolate... Or both... Just the memories of chocolate calmed the Symbiote. It gave it some sense of courage, or at least allowed it to forget its fears for a time being; long enough to cross through the gate and into the Frozen Fields.
RE: Not Compatible - Dell Conagher - 04-10-2017
Knowing his quarry was headed for the icy Fields, Dell took his time to heal with Omnillium. He'd go after his quarry in time.... but it will be a while until he was able to finish healing himself.... or maybe he wont go after it at all. He was clearly not quite able to take it out himself but maybe if he could take a more technical approach, perhaps set a trap of some kind... but now he needed to heal.
RE: Not Compatible - Dell Conagher - 04-12-2017
With the thing long gone, Dell pulled out his dataverse device and fiddled with it for a moment before standing, picking up his toolbox and retrieving the discarded glove. He slipped it back onto the metal hand and brushed himself off, heading for the Courscant portal.