Lords of Creation: In Character #2

[apocalypsePast2]

Hakan, Rising Up, Area 11[/B]

Sunrise.

It had been killing Hakan every hour of the wait, but Soren had managed to convince him to give the dream-geezer the time to catch up. He, with all his nineteen years of wisdom and experience, didn't really see why that was necessary - they had the ganman, after all. But... Soren had a cool head. He had a way of feeling things out that Hakan envied sometimes - plunging ahead, but always keeping an eye on where he was going.

But now, the wait was over - the first glimmers of Mondo's eye appeared over the walls of the Bastion, Hakan jumped down the cleverly-concealed tunnel to the rebel base below. For the last time, he couldn't help but think - all these years of jumping in and out of tunnels were about to come to an end. He strode through the gathered crowd, looks of resolve on every face. Not all of them were here - some were in other hideouts, ready to pop up and strike amid the confusion. But many were - they'd stayed to back up their leader. Hakan felt a swelling of pride - he'd die for any one of them, and any of them for him. Brothers and sisters.

The time for flashy words was past. This stopped him about as much as it ever did. Climbing up onto the ganman, he addressed the crowd. "Listen up, bozos! This is it! We're going to be drilling up and out - so if any of you feel like chickening out, this is your last chance! No? Didn't think so! Then here we go!"

Slinging himself into the cockpit, he gripped the 'controls'. In reality, they were simply a pair of crysteel handles of armatures that roughly corresponded to the motions of his arms. He wasn't entirely sure how they worked, but figured he'd figure out as he went along. Figuring that turning it on was a good place to start, he gripped the handles and willed the machine to life.

Happily enough, it worked. The armor plating slammed shut in front of him, turning transparent from his side to allow viewing of the outside. That conquered, he willed the mech to walk, after finding a lack of any mechanisms for his feet. He grinned - this was easy! Easy as... walking. The mighty ganman turned towards the rebel crowd, who cheered wildly. "This ain't just some machine! This is more than that! We're staking our freedom on this thing, and on all of us! From now on, this thing is named Kakumei! It is freedom - ours... then all humanity's!"

Caught up in the moment, Hakan thrust his fist skyward in his favorite stance.

Right through the ceiling, and onto the street above. Well, that was one way to make an entrance. Yanking it back, he dropped into a crouch before hurling the entire bulky mech upwards, slamming through the ceiling of the cavern like a flimsy bit of cardboard. It landed, feet spread wide, on the street - somehow not collapsing the cave below. The Spiral was taking hold, and physics was going off to cry in a corner somewhere and remember the days when people paid attention to it.

Spotting a knightmare - standing somewhat dumbstruck at the shoddily-built copycat that had erupted from the stone beneath its feet - Hakan decided to test the combat prowess of his new weapon. Pulling back his fist, he let loose a battle-cry. "Blazing Eruption of Freedom Puuuuuuuuuunch!" Kakumei's fist impacted the knightmare like a meteor - the head went flying off into the distance, followed by the body going slack as the panicked pilot slammed eject and hurtled a hundred or so meters down the street in an escape capsule.

"Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Come and get me!" For a moment or two, he felt invincible. This was it! With this, he felt like he could take on the entire tiefling army single-handed. Unfortunately, the navy had something of its own to say on the matter. Even as rebels poured out into the streets, the destroyers Justified and Efficiency began their bombardment of the city below. The battleship Ultimatum hung ominously in the sky, but did nothing. Yet. It's weapons would cause much collateral, and it couldn't risk destroying its own troops until battle lines were more clearly defined. The Marquess cursed silently, wishing for a carrier - a wish that would likely be granted in a few hours as one was diverted from holding over 09.

But in any case, Hakan soon found that nothing ruined one's day quite like being knocked down the length of the street by a naval chroma cannon.

Area 11, Revolution

Janrya pumped two shots of gel into a pair of tieflings advancing down the street. Their chests exploded, the potent Void gel caving in their stermuns and rupturing their hearts. Several human rebels advanced rushed by her, hammering the surprised tiefling squad with weapons fire. They took down several troopers, but the tieflings reacted with trained speed, finding cover and returning fire on the exposed humans. The untrained rebels quickly fell to the professional soldiers. Janrya ducked back behind cover, a short crysteel wall, and grunted in anger.

The human troops were disorganized, and many fell quickly to the disciplined tiefling squads. That wasn't to say they didn't have heart. Years of oppression had hardened their anger into rage, and they fought like demons against the tieflings. But rage didn't win fights on its own, and the two destroyers raining chroma-flavored death onto the city had been slicing the humans up. With them still in the sky, the humans had a very slim chance, even with the Ultimatum still silent.

Wrenching herself back to the fight, she peeked over the edge of cover and was greeted by a whiz of laser fire whistling over her head. She ducked down as the squad unleashed a volley of fire on her. She started to cast an invisibility spell when the firing went abruptly silent.

Peeking again, she was greeted by the sight of a human wielding two swords tearing apart the tiefling squad with the grace of a ballet dancer. He swung and twirled through tiefling flesh like soggy cheese, slicing off limbs like loaves of bread.

It was over in a few seconds, the entire squad dead.

The man heard Janrya stand up, and glanced at her. " Janrya." he acknowledged, then glared at her. " I did not teach you to hide behind walls doing nothing, whelp. Do something useful, or I'll serve your soul to the Masked Lord."

" Lucian." She greeted her master. " A pleasure as always. " She grinned, then grew serious. " I believe we should try to remove those airships, " she said, pointing. "They're the biggest threat."

" Agreed. " Lucian looked up at them, then back to her. " So let's take them out right now." He smiled at her.

Janrya stared at him confused.

Lucian laughed, and shouted out a single syllable. With a flash of violet light, they dissipated.

The Justified

They reappeared in a storage closet on the Justified.
Janrya recoiled in shock at the sudden displacement. " You're a cleric and a Foolmancer?" she exclaimed.

He shushed her, and grinned. " You're surprised I kept some secrets from you?" he joked. Gesturing to the door, his human face morphed to that of a tiefling, and his clothing to that of a lieutenant's. " Shall we go?"

Pyrokus

" Well, I suppose I can contribute a bit too. And my War is a bit, well distracted, at the moment, but I'll soon have him on his horse and ready to go."

Walking closer to the Warrior Matrix, Quarland presses his palm against it. Purple fire flows down his arms and into the thing's circuitry, rejuvenating it.

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