Jet Force Requiem (IC)

[Lady Foxy]

Alitzah's spirits and mood seemed to be lit up by how Ammit mentioned how she was the best scientist they had, smiling deeply behind her visor; a hint of a blush too. Luckily, her face was always 'cloaked' by her visor as her only seen features would be the feminine tip of her nose and her bright eyes, the 'bright eyes' another effect of the visor. ''I-It's been a pleasure too, Mr. Ammit.. I won't disappoint you, I'll be back to work right away!'' The young Quarian girl stated as she saluted him away, his image powering down and vanishing just like a cloaking suit.

The whole escort process was almost a routine, although majorly she didn't mind at all. Rules had to be followed! However, she glanced at the person with an impressive armor-suit, raising an eyebrow as he shot her a glance that seemed of admiration.

Alitzah stopped slowly as she glanced back at the person in the armor-suit, then looking away with hopes of getting back to work and getting that hyper-drive test up and running. She headed for her own personal quarters, her mind already buzzing with all of her theories and calculations that she had made recently with a couple of tests.

[MiscChaos]

"FUCK!!" She whisper-shouts to herself, knowing better than to shout it out loud and give away her position. Matter-of-fact, she knows better than to let the situation rile her up. It makes her heart beat faster and messes up the accuracy of the shot. So she forces herself into a false calm that makes her heart just barely beat, lies prone to increase the accuracy of her shot, decrease the recoil she gets and the amount twitching muscles that could ruin a shot, and to hide better from the enemy. She looks down her sights and picks out a line of drones headed for the showroom and slowly lets out a breath until her lungs are emptied. After queuing up True Shot to further increase her accuracy, she lets loose, firing one shot for each of the drones she's targeted, aiming for where the heart should be. Headshots are for still targets and amateurs.

[Reaver]

Emile sighs at not packing more of his weapons and toys and keeps backing up. He pulls one of his NOVA blades out and the light blue blade lightens the room a little. He pulls a couple thermal grenades out and rolls them towards the slime drones to see what type of damage they will cause. "Let's see if you can take the heat you damn fucks." He mutters as he takes a quick look behind him to see how far away he is from the elevator.

[Icaelus]

Alma grinned as she stepped into the open, her shotguns roaring. Jack sure as hell couldn't dodge those..and she was proven right as the shotgun blasts took off most of his lower half, including the parts where the sun don't damn well bloody shine. Ouch.
"Hah! Take that, you piece of lowlife scumbag murderi-"
Uh, hold on a sec. No blood from that? And why was Jack flickering on the ground? Oh. Right.
"-ng hologram.."
Alma finished her tirade lamely. A hologram. She had fallen for the most basic of tricks. This meant that good ol' Jack was lying in wait..probably behind her. The merc whipped around, raising her shotguns again just as Jack dropped from a hole in the ceiling, swinging his baton. Shit. She quickly stepped back, but the kinetic pulse from his damn weapon blasted her away to smack into a rock wall behind her, knocking her head on the rock. The cavern rumbled. Shit. That sure as hell wasn't her stomach, even if she did forget to eat breakfast. Breakfast was overrated, for sure. Jack's running speed sure as hell wasn't, though.
"Damn it!"
Alma cursed, pushing away from the wall to give her some much-needed momentum in her pursuit after Jack. She soon caught sight of his back, raising her two shotguns again. Not the best weapons for this kind of range, but this was all she usually brought. Should've probably invested in a handgun or something..
Her shotgun barrels blazed angrily, scattering death onto rock everywhere. Hopefully she would get lucky and some would hit Jack..

[napsii]

What felt like the metallic taste of blood washed into the roof of November's mouth, which numbed under a lack of sensation -- like going to the dentist. For a moment, she appeared to wobble, like the ground beneath her was unsteady, but she recovered faster than the blink of an eye. She'd been trained -- no, designed -- to work under such conditions, and so her attention didn't falter for a moment. That being said, it was curious how quickly the signal dropped off. The uplink was encrypted and incredibly strong, by all rights, but she guessed the geological interference (coupled with what was perhaps a number of electronic countermeasure devices, if the Drones here possessed those) had a more significant effect than could be first be imagined.

She tightened her guard come the source of the noise. A distinctly humanoid figure (though his silhouette encapsulated by a large cloak) could be seen typing at a computer temrinal. The words laid out on the screen were suspicious: it was disconcerting that one be researching such strange and hostile topics were they not using a secure Federation connection.

Her hand moved to her hip again, ready to draw her blade at a moments notice, and she proceeded forward, slowly with muted steps, toward him. It was her directive to neutralize any sort of threat, but her logic demanded she dig up some context from this person -- through interrogation or whathaveyou -- before making any hasty moves.

"Stop." her clear voice, perhaps a bit monotone, echoed off the stone walls. She had paused a good 8 feet from the man.

"I will not attack unless you do. What are you doing?" she questioned. It could be guessed from her stance and the sheer conviction in her blood red eyes that the battojutsu draw she'd enable to respond to a threat would come as lightning quick.

[Reapergod36]

Rava would step in, his mask covering his expression. He readied for what he expected. He just wanted to trust that, the goddess would not transfer the sins of his father onto him. Rava knew of why father died, but for that. He was a bit on edge around meeting with her. He always had a fear in his mind she would kill him for just being his father's son. That is why he always was very stalwart, and respectable around the goddess.

[Zender_Solarheart]

<<November. Planet Cerulean.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You see the individual’s cloak shift a bit, as if he was reaching for something with his arm. However, it takes only a split second for that shift to disappear, and he simply turns around without any hostile action. You still can’t see his face, but that’s because of the helmet and visor covering it up. Judging by the Gemini armor he’s wearing, however, you can assume he’s likely a member of Jet Force. But what are one of their guys doing down here?

“Hmph. And here I expected the Drones to find me first.” The male voice speaks with an air of great experience, as if he’d been fighting wars for the last 30 or 40 years. He looks you up and down, but unlike the common sleaze that undresses women with his eyes, this guy seems more interested in your technology. “Well, whoever you are, you’re not on their side, so I guess I’ll introduce myself.” He pulls back the hood of his cloak, and reaches up to take off his helmet, while speaking: “My name is- “

Unfortunately, he doesn’t get to introduce himself, as 3 or 4 energy bolts suddenly scream out of a tunnel off to your left, and head straight for you. The cloaked soldier pushes you out of the way, luckily causing the shots to miss you. However, he pays for it as one of the bolts strikes his arm, causing him to shout and wince in pain as it burns his flesh. When you get back up, you see the person who fired those shots. He’s geared up in full-body armor, as well, but its design resembles the Drones’ tech far more than any other. His face, however, is almost exactly like that of a young human male with black hair, though his skin is a dark pale blue, and his eyes are black with blood-red pupils.

“Sorry to bust your party, pal, but I’ve gotta put you down.” He then turns to look at you, and whistles while seeming to check you out. “You, however, could keep me company on the return trip. Oh, but where are my manners?” The blue-skinned man chuckles evilly, and introduces himself: “The name’s Alcor Ra’Nubistep, but you can call me Al, for short. Now, let’s rock!”

With that said, Alcor pulls a pair of Beam Daggers out of his sleeves, switches them on, and takes a low defensive stance, letting you make the first move. You can’t tell exactly how tough he is, but a gut feeling tells you that he’s not to be trifled with. Don’t let your guard down.

/=============\
PREPARE TO
DEFEND YOURSELF!
\=============/

VS Alcor. Threat level: Unknown.
Condition: Nominal. Defensive abilities unidentified.
Status: Yielding the first move to you and your ally.

<Nov>
Condition: Nominal.
Status: Normal.

<Cloaked man>
Condition: Mild injury.
Status: Left arm disabled for 1 turn.

<<Emile. Space Station.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The blade-armed Slime Drone seems to think the thermal grenade is food, as it literally dives onto the thing, trying to consume it. Of course, about 1 second after that, the grenade detonates, splattering its gelatinous gibs all over the place. The smaller of those drips seem to vaporize in mid-flight, and the larger bits are shrunk down noticeably, but then start shuffling back towards you, seeming as if they intend to re-form up close, or even absorb/consume your flesh as the little things that they are right now. The corrosive trail they leave behind them certainly suggests your armor won’t last long against them.

The cannon-armed Slime Drone seems a bit smarter, as it dives its amorphous blobby self away from the other thermal grenade. When the other slime gets gib’d, it re-shapes its body into what looks like a big scorpion tail, with a three-pronged maw in place of the stinger. It then starts firing drops of acid at you rapidly, almost like a machine gun. Most of the shots seem to scatter on the floor in front of you, but a few strike your armor, eating away at the right shoulder and bicep plates. You're still undamaged physically, but a few more hits from that acid could change that.

As for the giant freak, it seems to be resting right now; perhaps it’s waiting for the Slime Drones to finish with you?

<Emile>
Condition: Nominal. Armor at 92%.
Status: Normal.

<Giant Freak>
Condition: Healthy. Right claw at 99%.
Status: Waiting.

<Slime Drone A>
Condition: Nominal. Body fluid at 96%.
Status: Firing rapid acid shots.

<Slime Drone B>
Condition: Splattered.
Status: moving to re-form itself.

 
<<Alma. Planet Rith Essa.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Jack seems to have anticipated those shots – though honestly, just about anybody would – and tosses a small metal orb behind him as he runs. The orb releases a brief kinetic burst, but it seems to deflect the bullets that it intercepts with the pulse, considering how you heard a shot or two zip past your head. Luckily, none of them actually managed to peg you, but they didn’t peg him either.

Fortunately for you, it doesn’t seem to have helped him much, as the pulse sent some seismic tremors through the tunnel structure, which somehow manages to have it drop some rocks to block his path. "Ah shit!" Unable to flee any further, Jack turns around to face you, and pulls out what looks like a modified Jet Force Pistol, which has an extra barrel on it. Must’ve been a souvenir from one of his kills. “Don’t come any closer!” he shouts, apparently panicking about being cornered. He’s not shooting yet, though…big mistake on his part.

<Alma>
Condition: Healthy. Armor at 84%.
Status: Normal.
Shotgun A ammo: 8/12.
Shotgun B ammo: 8/12.

<Jack>
Condition: Nominal.
Status: Nervous.

<<Lilia, Ryan, and Aigis. Earth ITS convention.>>

<Lilia>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Your first shot hits dead-on, but the silver Drone’s body isn’t ripped in half, as most Drones struck by your rifle are. It must’ve had some special defense or something, as it simply drops out of the sky with flecks of light green blood splashing out from where you nailed it. Unfortunately, the other two silver Drones seem to pinpoint where the shot came from, and your other two shots they actually manage to dodge. The second one simply pulls an evasive maneuver and guns the throttle on his jetpack, but the third one seems to vanish from sight altogether in a pulse of orange light.

Before you can acquire another target, however, your scope-sight is suddenly obscured by a silver sheen, and when you look up to see what happened, you find one of those two surviving silver Drones looming right over you. He attempts to stomp down on your head and crush it, but a reflexive dodge-roll saves your ass, for now. Unfortunately, your only other weapon is a Shock Dagger that you carry just in case something like this happens. Your enemy doesn’t seem mechanical, but the dagger’s electric current should still be able to zap him good. Better move fast, though, because he’s already lunging forward to follow up on that failed head-crusher.

<Lilia>
Condition: Nominal. Armor at 100%.
Status: Disarmed of Sniper Rifle.
Shock Dagger charge remaining: 100%.

<<Claire Jones. Planet Tawfret, Tartarus Prison.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You don’t have any cellmate, as the guards that captured you saw some files regarding your work, and thought it best to have you in your own cell, to reduce chances of you organizing a jailbreak. Though, it seems they didn’t count on you having friends in the merc business, as another note is sent in via a small metal tin, which one of your friends sent in through the barred window. No one’s really sure why this prison has no glass on them, but some speculate it’s to let the harsh air of Tawfret in, and for the lightning storms to keep you up at night.

Anyhow, the note inside the tin appears to have been hastily written, but you can still make out what it says:

“Knocking on Hell’s door @ 2200. Killing Bill in 21 seconds Q.”

It’s a clever code, but one you and your team know quite well. “Knocking on Hell’s door” means they’ll be busting you out while a distraction at the front gate occupies the guards. “@ 2200” means the operation will commence at 2200 hours. “Killing Bill in 21 seconds Q” means they’ll play the Kill Bill theme on the prison’s speakers as your cue, and that you should start moving when it gets 21 seconds in. It’s currently 21:30, so you have half an hour to prepare a plan of action.

If you were to look outside your cell through the shield wall sealing you in, you should be able to scope out what other inmates are doing, which may help you gain a tactical edge for when the operation starts…

<<Mia. Sekhmet Battleship. Your personal quarters.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The Commando Drones stand guard while you open the door to your quarters, then bow their heads respectively as you step in, waiting until the door slides shut before they march off to patrol elsewhere. Hard-to-believe as many would find it, the Drones do respect your privacy.

To your right is your bed, and the dresser for your clothes, both of which are modeled to resemble the bedroom furniture from your home planet. To your left is a miniaturized kitchen, with a small table for you to eat at, should you feel the need to fix any food for yourself. Through a door just in front of your bed on the right-hand wall is the bathroom, which is surprisingly well-kept for what Drone stereotypes would suggest, though you’ve found many of those stereotypes to be quite misled. Straight ahead is the door to your personal laboratory, where you keep everything pertaining to your work; test data, personal computer, holo-deck for physical design concepts, and so on.

<<Dax Sierra. Goldwood Tribal Village.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You look over the hover-bike, but find that it’s left in a secure “sleep mode” of sorts. It’s no old-n-busted model, either; this here’s a Kawasaki Shogun, the latest model they have on the market, and its anti-theft system will sound the alarm if you press even a single button on the thing. The engines can’t be sabotaged either, seeing how it runs purely on artificial gravity repulsors to stay afloat. It seems your only option at this point is to enter the cave…

<<Ravasaadi Zaash'n. Planet Poseidonis.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As your royal guardsmen accompany you through the inner sanctum’s long hallway, you find it eerily silent. Such silence is appropriate for the dwelling place of a mystical and wise being such as the Oracle. When you finally reach her chambers, you are greeted first by her two own personal guards, then by Oracle Dera’psi herself.

She’s quite the sight for sore eyes, if you were to be bluntly honest. Her outerwear consists only of the ceremonial garments that every Oracle has worn to date. A drape of cloth to cover her breasts, which is held up by a strap that hooks into her naturally grafted shoulder-plates. Her lower body is adorned with a short skirt that curves down a bit further in back to just barely hide her posterior’s central view, and an extra cloth-piece that drapes down to her knees’ height in front. She rises from her visionary position of spread legs and hands on thighs, and walks towards you slowly with that pink mist thick and swirling around her, being guided towards you by the Goddess of the Mist herself. The Oracle is mainly a conduit for Re’vera, after all.

“And so, the Warlord’s heir comes to me, seeking my guidance. Some say ‘like father like son,’ but I hope you will prove them wrong by being wiser than him. Step forward, Rava.” Re’vera seems to be holding you to a fresh slate in terms of expectations. Well, the sins were technically your father’s, and not your own, so as long as you don’t insult her yourself, you should be okay.

[TheDaughterOfHades14]

Claire sighs. She gets off her bed and begins to pace around. She walks up to the shield wall and leans against it. She begins to knock on it, trying to find a weak spot. She walks around the room and looks for more vulnerable places to break her way out. She sighs and then walks back to her bed. She lays there and waits.

[Reapergod36]

Rava gulps, he then steps forward toward the oracle until he is 2-3 feet away. "Hello mistress..." Rava kneels, his left knee up while is right knee is down. "My father was a fool to insult you." Rava said in a spiteful tone, Rava in truth hated his father for incurring the mistress' wrath. He could've put the entire race at risk. With how the goddess could come in contact with so many. The goddess would be able to know what was in Rava's mind. "Am I fit to gaze upon your host, mistress?" Rava said as he had been focusing on staring at the floor in front of her mainly. As he didn't want any mistake that he did not respect her position. He thought of some dirty thoughts of her. None were insulting, most ended with him getting killed just randomly.

[daxtinator396]

(Sorry totally missed my post the first time x.x)
Dax gives the hoverbike a once over and finds the sweet piece of machinery tamper proof,"Damn... Once I finish this job I`m making you mine Betsy." He said to the hoverbike with a grin before he becomes serious again and enters the waterfall cave carefully and cautiously his SMG held in the read position, butt stock against his shoulder and the gun half raised, ready to be raised on a seconds notice,"Let`s rock you slaver bastard..." He whispers as he enters the cave.

[Reaver]

Emile tries his best to avoid the acidic bolts while throwing proximity mines all over the floor. "Golly gee maybe this is why the damn station is abandoned." Emile turns around and tactifully retreats while hoping the mines will give him enough time to book it to his ship and grab a few more better toys for defense.

[Angel_Slayer_Alcatraz]

The fans on her headband spun faster as the the tips of her fingers opened to allow her to fire her weapons, she moved over to the officer
"excuse me, I request to join the fray"

[Laughing Hyena]

"Get to the public areas now people! Grab your weapons and move!" Ryan quickly said in response to the comms as he had need to prompt the others into activity just in case they were rooted to the spot. The fact that one of their own ships was firing at them was sickening to Ryan and considering the fact it was hijacked by the Drones made this even more hard to stomach. He gets on the comms so he could let command know they got the orders. "This is Martel of Lambda Squad, I copy our orders and are on route." Readying his auto rifle he switches it to the single shot setting just in case he needed to fire it and needed precise shots in order to avoid civilian casualties. Heading out to the door on their left upon exiting the rec room he approached quickly yet with caution just in case there was hostile contact in their approach. If there was he'd neutralize it as best as he could alongside his team and once he gets beyond the door he finds...

[Lady Foxy]

Alitzah waved the Commando drones away as the door slid shut behind her, sighing almost blissfully as she was available to improve her work at last. She was going to definitely get started on it, having eaten a healthily and good breakfast in the morning. After doing her morning routines and bathroom-whatnot, she was more than ready to start working on her latest project. Going into the miniaturized kitchen, fixing herself some snacks for later with basically consisted of a large but pretty 'cute' looking cup of hot, energy-steaming coffee.

Walking straight ahead into her personal laboratory, she found herself almost at home now. It was full of designs and sketches, calculations and devices, experiments and classified data. It was her technical and technological haven, in short words.

''Alright, let's get the holo-deck running first.. Then I'll transfer the current test data to keep it on with the current actual model. Then I'll be able to fit the pieces and things together until it works. I've already gotten calculations and theories that will easily grant me access to a 15 Light-years per minute on our current hyper-drive. With the schematics of my current work, I could crack the digital tests and get it to run smoothly. I have to run a lot of tests and hundreds of calculations.. One wrong thing and the whole hyper-drive goes off into an error. Explosions are not into my repertoire of results. Turning visual recording on, with voice recording running as usual.'' Alitzah said calmly as she passed the current 'beta' state of the schematics of a 15 Light-years per minute digital hyper-drive onto the holo-deck. She stared in awe at the comparison of a 12 Light-years per minute current hyper-drive. There was going to be a lot of code-cracking and calculation creation to be done. She began move holographic data and components, beginning to work as she began to put everything she had into getting a 'successful' digital hyper-drive that ran at 25 Light-years per minute. The components would be where her budget would come in, thus the actual testing itself. Holographic runs and tests ran on percentages and probabilities. Alitzah always made sure everything was on the edge of the best and running smoothly at the top.

She began to work on a 17 Light-years per minute hyper-drive, hoping it would succeed and all of it's components and stats would go right.

[MiscChaos]

Lilia allowed herself a moment of shock at the drone merely going down instead of splitting in two, but that's all. She just figures they've gotten upgrades and that she'll have to upgrade her rifle later to keep up. Just when she's about to go for Round 2, one of the survivors from the previous round runs up on her, making her have to roll to escape.
When she sees it go for a second attack, she waits until it's fully committed to the attack before dodging behind the thing and stabbing it in the head with her Shock Dagger.

[napsii]

November looked upon the man critically. The visor-shrouded face, and the Jet Force insignias laid upon his armor... there was no mistaking he was a soldier, and a dangerous one at that. Layers of material obscured his body, yes, but November's instinct told her he knew his way around a battlefield. She didn't relax as he spoke -- her guard never broke, after all -- and that may have been for the better as bolts of energy whistled through the air. The young woman grimaced, dashing sidelong across the sand to avoid a follow-up assault as the bolts collided with the man.

She planted a hand to the ground to slow herself, skidding to a stop with her red eyes fixed on the newcomer. Cautiously, she moved a hand to her blade, looking indifferent. Official protocol didn't demand she save the man in the Jet Force equipment, but circumstance demanded she neutralize the unknown threat. The digital programs which had influenced her logic reasoned the man could have been important to her ultimate goal. So she stood her ground.

Slowly, she rose to her feet and assumed a flexible combat stance, locking eyes with the awaiting "Alcor". The name didn't have any place in her memory, but future provided, she'd look into his history the strange amalgamation of both Federation and Drone designs on his gear was curious. She wondered of his purpose, though: assassin seemed the most likely, as he had obvious intent to have been tracking the man in the Jet Force gear.

November's attack came before Alcor could so much as finish her words, perhaps catching him off guard as she dashed forward with lightning speed, augmented by gods-know-what unholy NHD technology. It was predictable that she'd be playing into a trick, though, so rather than hit him head on, she made a skyward leap as she neared, her black blade Freyja ringing from its sheath with a deathly glint as she somersaulted over Alcor's head.

Gravity took hold of her at the apex of her jump, sending her back on an angle toward Alcor's neck with Freyja in a tightly tucked position that would deliver a lightning strike with the blunt, non-lethal edge of her weapon (until he showed he would fight to the death, she use in not killing him) toward his neck as she flew past, presumably to land on the ground behind him. The stressful, high arc of November's approach would have likely made guarding her attack difficult while keeping balance or focus.

[Zender_Solarheart]

<<November. Planet Cerulean.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Alcor cries out “Oh shit!” as you close in, taking a swipe at you as you jump above him, seeming to have fallen for your maneuver to the letter. The moment your blade descends upon him, however…

“Just kidding!”

In a stunning move of agility and precision, Al backflips over your otherwise-foolproof strike, close enough to let it shave a few hairs off of him as the sharp end of the blade passes by. He doesn’t spare any time to gloat, vaulting off of the ground with the palm of his left hand, then pops what looks like a small gun out of his left wrist, firing off a few energy bolts at you mid-flight. You just barely dodge them this time, but his accuracy is troublesome, and your blades might not be the best-suited for deflecting such shots.

However, in the heat of the moment, he seems to have forgotten about the cloaked man he was sent to kill, who brandishes a Jet Force standardized Machine Gun, and fires at Alcor from behind your position. His accuracy with the weapon seems quite unusual, as well, as almost all of the bullets head straight for Al’s face. In fact, one of them grazes his right cheek, though he manages to evade the rest by kicking off of a nearby wall, and rolling to one side. “Ah, good, very good. You certainly live up to the tales, Mr. Juno.” Hold on a second, did he say “Juno?”

“Bah, you blew my cover. Seems I have no more use for this…”

As if he came straight out of an old Western movie, the man throws off his cloak, revealing the inexplicable armor of Jet Force high commander Juno himself. Wow, you’re actually fighting alongside the man who dealt the final blow to Mizar…though, it would explain his abnormal Machine Gun accuracy. “Still, with the secret out, I don’t have to hold back anymore.” Juno taunts, then brandishes a second Machine Gun in his left hand, the arm of which seems to have been healed by some strange mechanism in his armor. “Let’s go, Al.” Juno also looks over to you, and suggest that you move forward with a slight motion of his left-handed Machine Gun. Seems he’s gonna provide you with cover-fire.

<Alcor>
Condition: Healthy.
Status: Taking up another defensive stance.

<Nov>
Condition: Nominal.
Status: Normal.

<Juno>
Condition: Healthy.
Status: Dual-wielding Machine Guns, like a bawss.

<<Emile. Space Station.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Your proximity mines seem to actually cause the splattered Slime Drone’s bits to hold fast, as they remember what happened the last time they touched something like that. As a result, you make it up to the door you came in through just fine. The other blob, however, gets a bit more creative, and shoots the mines with its acid drops. That causes the aforementioned bits to be vaporized, but it also tears open the floor, and causes a small hull breach (the hole’s about as wide as a tennis ball), exposing the room to vacuum. As a result, the other slime quickly gets sucked out into the emptiness of space. Unfortunately, the pull is so strong, that had you not quickly grabbed hold of the door’s manual operation handle, you would’ve been sucked to the hole, and likely torn to giblets and spewed out amongst the outer wreckage.

As for the giant freak, it seems too large and heavy to be pulled over by that vacuum. Some of the looser bits of its crab-claw shell get yanked off by the suction, however, causing it to shriek in pain once more. It then coughs up what looks like a thicker, black version of those earlier slime blobs, which seeps into the hole, and somehow manages to plug it up. On the plus side, that lets you get back to hauling your ass through the door, and getting back to the ship. On the minus side, the creature seems even bigger than you thought, as it seems to be willing barbed tentacles to burst out of the walls in an attempt to skewer you. If there is a time to run, it is NOW.


<Emile>
Condition: Nominal. Armor at 91%.
Status: Normal.

<Giant Freak>
Condition: Healthy. Right claw at 94%.
Status: Tendril-spamming.

<<Lilia, Ryan, and Aigis. Earth ITS convention.>>

<Lilia>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You manage to evade the Drone’s strike just fine, but by the time your Shock Dagger is ready to stab him, the guy vanishes once again, with that same orange pulse of light as before. You impulsively turn around, knowing how tactics like these often make way for back-attacks…

…And you’re greeted by the Drone’s fist slamming you in the gut from a crouched stance, rattling your body and senses rather harshly. The blow flings you backwards against a cooling unit on the roof, and damn did it hurt...

Well, no time to think about pain right now, seeing how the Drone is now looming over you, holding your own Sniper Rifle by the barrel, ready to bash your head in with it. You also hear him say something in that snarly hissing voice common among his kind, and while your mind may not want to believe it, it sounds about exactly like “Messatsu.” Since when did Drones play Street Fighter?...Eh, whatever, just keep him from rifle-bashing you to a pulp, that would be priority #1…

--Battle Stats--
<Lilia>
Condition: Moderate.
Status: Mild dizziness from blunt force. Unable to evade, due to being pinned by the Drone, but can still attack.

<Shinobi Drone>
Condition: Nominal.
Status: Pinning Lilia down.

<Ryan>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Once you get beyond the door, you find that the civilians are in an even bigger panic than you expected. Hell, there are some silver-colored Drones jetpacking in and shooting at them, and you even see a few civilians killed with your own eyes! If you didn’t know better, you’d say they were aiming specifically for them. Jayson and Dexi file out ahead of you, and you can already here J-Man out there shouting obscenities to draw off the enemy’s attention.

After you shuffle down the stairway from the bunker you were just in, another silver Drone literally appears out of nowhere right in front of you. It quickly pins you up against a nearby wall, gnashing its big insectoid mandibles in front of your face, and causing you to drop your Auto-Rifle. You still have a Shock Dagger and those Shurikens on you, but however you plan to get out of this, do it fast, because the blade on the Drone’s left arm is about to come plunging straight for your skull…

--Battle Stats—
<Ryan>
Condition: Healthy.
Status: Pinned against the wall. Cannot evade, but can still attack.

<Shinobi Drone>
Condition: Nominal.
Status: Rearing back for a skull-stab.

<Aigis>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The Jet Force officer looks over at you with an expression of disbelief, and says “Sorry lady, but there’s nothing you can really do he-…oh, built-in weapons. I see.” He clears his throat, then continues: “If you want to help, head downstairs to secure the ground floor. We’ve got things covered up here. And take this.” He hands you what looks like a small pocket radio. “Use that to keep in touch with our frequency. Just know we aren’t responsible if you end up KIA, little missy.”

With the elevators essentially unusable, your fastest route downstairs will be the escalators off to your right. Better get a move on, especially now that there are Drones crashing in through the windows. The nearby Jet Force operatives are holding them off for now, but it’s unclear if they’ll last…

<<Mia. Sekhmet Battleship. Your personal laboratory.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Your initial tests seem to work good enough for the most part, though for an increase of just 2 lym (light-years per minute), that’s to be expected. The tricky part comes with balancing the new parts you need for a higher lym limit, and the conduits that connect the hyperdrive to the engine core. If you feed too much power to the drive, it could cause power failures in other key components of the ship, such as life-support, and that’s never good. On the other hand, feed too little, and the drive simply won’t work.

That aside, your current test results turn out as follows:

-Speed capacity: 17 lym.
-Power threshold: 60 terajoules (TJ) per minute.
-Excess power leak: 50 kilojoules (kJ) per minute.
-Hardware integrity: stable.
-Overall efficiency rating: 98%.

It seems your hypothesized 17 lym hyperdrive would work just fine, in theory. However, if pumped up to roughly 20 lym, it can be expected that the power being leaked would jump up, thus reducing overall efficiency. Therefore, you may want to look into reinforcing the conduits’ insulation…

<<Dax Sierra. Goldwood.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As you enter the cave, you find things eerily quiet. No guards, no traps, and certainly no slave traders seem to be in the area. Eventually, you come to a 2-way fork in the tunnel, which doesn’t immediately seem to have anything different about either path. However, your advanced sense of hearing picks up on a faint beeping sound coming from the path on your left…

<<Claire Jones. Planet Tawfret, Tartarus Prison.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The shield wall is a barrier of pure energy, and while it doesn’t zap you on contact, knocking on it doesn’t really have any meaning, seeing how the energy is evenly distributed. Your actual cell appears just as impregnable, but then again, this is one of the most notoriously sturdy prisons in the galaxy. Doesn’t help that you’re in Block Z, where some of the most dangerous of criminals get locked up.

The present time is 21:45.

 
(meanwhile, in Cell Block Y…)

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

A female prisoner hears a little beep from near the shield wall on her cell. She looks up from her bed, and finds that the energy sealing her in is no longer present, for some odd reason. Naturally, she gets up to investigate, and wander outside for a while. The guard on duty always stands in a room adjacent to the cells, but with a clear view in, so he can go in should trouble arise. One of the other inmates speaks to her: “Yo Nev, how’d you open your cell?”

“Nev” quickly shushes the other inmate, but it’s too late. The guard heard that, and his attention is focused on the prisoner standing outside her cell. He walks over with his stun pistol ready for immediate action, and asks her: “Alright little missy, how’d you get out of your cell? Huh? Say something!” Nev simply smirks, and shouts “BOO!” The guard doesn’t know how to react to that consciously, but reflexively moves his pistol arm up, which Nev quickly breaks between her right calf and elbow. She then quickly spins around to elbow him in the back of the neck, rendering him unconscious before he can call for help. She then takes his key-card, and starts unlocking the cells of her nearby inmates…

<<Ravasaadi Zaash'n. Planet Poseidonis.>>

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

“Fit? Yes. Capable? Not just yet. Let’s fix that…”

Oracle Dera’psi steps forward, and lays her right hand on your left shoulder. This allows you to share her direct link with Re’vera. The world seems to fade into a solid pink, and when that pink allows you to see again, you’re looking straight at the goddess herself.

She appears to you as teasingly as you might’ve expected. Her clothing is mostly minimized down to what she can wear without exposing her really naughty bits. This includes a black bikini, the top of which just barely stretches around enough to hide her nipples; a pair of black thigh-highs, which hug her legs to perfectly represent their shape; and a pair of fingerless gloves, which have a little purple gem sewn into the top.

“Ahh, that’s better, isn’t it? Now then, Rava, what would you request of me? I could probe your mind and see for myself, but I’d rather hear it from you. I think I might find some more ‘private’ thoughts in there if I did, anyhow.” Re’vera respects your privacy? Wow, imagine that. Well, stay focused, good prince; remember that you’re not here to “sight-see.”

[TheDaughterOfHades14]

Claire sits up when she hears the commotion. She runs to the energy wall and looks out. Her eye's widen as she sees that one of her fellow inmates has gotten free. She starts to wave her arms, trying to get Nev's attention. She then starts hitting the energy wall, trying to make noise. "Come on. Come on..." Claire mutters to her self.

[daxtinator396]

Dax enters the cave expecting a battle and finds... nothing. "Strange. Better keep going." Dax says quietly to himself as he keeps walking finding no sign of well anyone! He soon reached a fork in the cave and his cat ears swiveled and listened down each one and he faintly heard a beeping noise and thought it might be a slave collar and quickly went to investigate taking cautious steps in case it was a trap.

[Laughing Hyena]

Ryan was amazed the drone actually did get the drop on him like that considering how acute his sense typically were during a time of danger. This one must have been specialized because he never saw him coming until he was right in front of Ryan's face gnashing his mandibles and reeling back for a fatal strike. However Ryan was quick to react as well. The auto rifle was dropped but Ryan due to being pinned to the wall by the drone decided to make a counter attack rather then reach for a weapon. . It was seconds that were not to be wasted and thus he did not. He pulls his legs up and then mule kicks the drone off him. Considering how strong Ryan was, the drone shouldn't win in a strength contest. Not to mention if it worked the attack the drone tried would no longer be and option since Ryan kicked him off. Ryan slides down the wall onto his ass if it works and gets his gun back and rises back to his feet after taking some suppressing shots from a kneeling position to make sure the drone couldn't just run at him and kill the soldier. Of course Ryan was intending to try and kill the drone but if he failed then at least he was back on his feet and on even ground. "Wanna try that again bug brain without a surprise attack?" He taunted.