Rise of the Polygems IC

[napsii]

Danika was almost immediately distracted by the banter coming from inside the APC. Cautiously, she sidled away from it, blinking curiously as she turned her head over her shoulder to see what all the excitement was about. She slipped the gizmo back into her pocket, keen ears picking up on the two distinct voices. It was Ducker and Nevvy...going at it verbally again, apparently.

She winced as multiple thumps resounded inside, shaking the APC. For a moment she thought a fist would plow through the wall. Wouldn't have been surprising, really. Nevvy was as strong as her personality suggested; Danika had quite liked her when she wasn't being crass, mostly because whacking Ducker for his idiot comments wasn't in her personality. It was in Nevvy's, though.

She rolled her eyes, a little amused smirk playing on her face, and stepped away from the vehicle. There wasn't much of note, really, except for the white-haired newcomer swinging a distinctive energy weapon around. Reckless, but then again, Dani hadn't been any more careful with Rubenico...

Not wanting to be idling about awkwardly (as she basically always was, much to her embarrassment) the detached harpy was quick to plod over to her once she worked up the courage.

She nuzzled a foot against the ground, blinking her semi-luminescent gold eyes.

"Uh...hi. I'm Danika. But you can call me, uhm, Dani." she said awkwardly, feeling like she was in elementary school all of a sudden.

[Icaelus]

Luna took a step back in surprise. She had seen the harpy during the briefing, but she had seemed almost as much as a loner as she was..
"Er..yeah. I'm Lunalesca..Luna, for short.."
Wow. She sounded as awkward as she felt. Maybe she should stop swinging that Heat Bayonet around.. Luna quickly sheathed the blade behind her back, giving Dani a nervous smile.

Luna took some interest at the hacking tool in Danika's hands..Danika seemed familiar too..right, wasn't it the name of the person who had went with Jon Edge last night?
"Danika..Danika..Hey, weren't you the one who went with that guy, Jon Edge, somewhere last night?"
The name jogged her memory easily and she gave Dani a curious look.
"Uh, sorry. You don't have to tell me, of course. Some stuff should remain secret."
She smiled, the gleam in her eyes implying much more than a little midnight stroll..

[Zender_Solarheart]

(NPCing everyone here, as this thread has been in limbo far too long. Also, I'm dropping the lot of you straight into the action with this one, so get ready...)
Everyone files into their APCs in decent amounts of time. They all strap in, and the vehicles roll out one by one, moving into single file, with Serpent team's APC at the front of the line. Along the way, the following is said by Greg over the in-vehicle comms for all teams to hear:

"Okay everybody, listen up. The warp systems on this colony are a little outdated, so the 'Gems will need about half an hour to actually get it going. While that gives us more time to kill this weed at the root, it also means that the Karyuujin won't be able to provide fire support after that half hour. So let's try to get as much done in that half-hour as possible.

With that said, the APCs roll along for a good few minutes down the colony's internal roads, until they reach...

<<Polygem Hive: Border Sector>>
As the APCs near the Hive's field of view, they begin speeding up, ready for the impending rally of front-line Gems sent to defend their territory. This far in, stealth is pretty much a no-go anyway. Though, things seem eerily quiet at first...as if the Gems don't even see them as notable enough to defend against...

Meanwhile, unseen by the assault force...

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

A certain power-armored young man sits atop the outer defense wall, glancing over as the APCs begin rolling in, and chuckling. "Hehe...good...the gang's finally here." A purple-hued Polygem appears behind him, as if de-cloaking some active camouflage, and quietly says to him: "Your intel seems quite solid, right down to their mode of transportation. How did you know they would mount such an attack?" The young man simply responds: "Mr. Thujin, the concept of a sibling might be foreign to you, but let's just say that I know a lot about how the enemy commander thinks." "Mr. Thujin" simply bows in what seems like respect, then vanishes just as swiftly as he had appeared.

As the APCs reach about 250 meters (~820 feet) from the Hive's outer wall, things seem to get...shakier than usual, as if there was a mild earthquake happening on the flooring beneath them. It doesn't take the crews too long to figure out what's happening, though, as almost immediately after the shaking starts, a loud, deep, and ominous voice from within the hive bellows out: "Release...the HEXAGUARD!"

No sooner than that is spoken, does the source of the shaking reveal itself...

An enormous, cube-shaped red Polygem bursts out of the flooring beneath them, hovering in the air, with each of its six sides having one or more emerald-colored "eyeball" crystals adorning its surface. In fact, the thing looks like one gigantic six-sided die. As such would suggest, the very first thing it does is "roll" itself in mid-air, and lands on:

Four.

With seemingly no pause after the roll, the "Hexaguard" turns to face the APC for Titan team, and fires off four cyan crystals, which crackle and glow with electricity, and "link" to each other to form a cross-shaped pair of electric beams. If that thing hits the APC directly, it's likely to cut right through it, and even an indirect arc of electricity could disable it for a bit.

"Shit!" Greg exclaims, and veers the APC in a fish-tail turn to evade the beams. He just barely avoids a direct hit, but one of the crystals themselves got too close for comfort, and zapped the vehicle into an EMP-like state. Until Flint can get the thing up and running again, they won't be able to do much other than use the turret. It also seems to have taken some notable damage already (200 damage, to be precise), so they'd better get it fixed pretty fast, too.

========
WARNING
========

VS Polygem Hexaguard.
HP: ???
Status: Just rolled a 4, and EMP'd Titan team's APC.

Serpent APC

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

HP: 1,000.
Status: Normal.

Wyvern APC

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

HP: 1,000.
Status: Normal.

Kappa APC

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

HP: 1,000.
Status: Normal.

Titan APC:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

HP: 800.
Status: EMP Stun. Unable to move or evade, but can still shoot with the turret.

[MiscChaos]

"Oh shit!" Derek shouts as the humongous cube in front of them blasts at Titan team's APC. From the lack of explosions, he can tell that they didn't end up destroyed, but he's not gonna take his eyes off the... Hexaguard? to look more closely. "Unless there's some reason for me not to, I'm getting on the turret to try to take the pressure off Titan team. If we could be really agile while I'm at it, that'd be nice." Derek says, a bit clipped since a good portion of his fellow Platinum Stilettos were in the tank just hit. True to his word, he gets on the turrets controls and opens fire.

[daxtinator396]

Dax`s eyes grow wide at the gaint freaking die that has been unleashed upon them ,nearly taking out Team Titan, from behind the wheel of Team Kappa`s APC veering off to the right of the thing and pushes a button in the cockpit of the vehicle launching rockets from the APC`s heavier weapons and calling out to the people behind him,"Someone get on the turret and take out that thing!"