Champions of Tomorrow!

[The Demented One]

The stairways are built into an alcove that adjoins the perimeter of the factory, one welded on to each of the complex's corners. While the other's watch the crashing display of hammers, Enforcer ascends up to the highest level, his heav soulsteel tread rattling the loosely-bolted stairs. Though they are enough to hold his weight–in metal insufficient for such a task would be discarded for dross–the bastardized alloys of copper and iron creak and moan in futile protest. As the Soulsteel Caste reaches the top floor, he punches the pneumatic pad to open the doorways, the slab of metal sliding back into a recessed groove.

The sight of the child-labor factory stirs memories in Enforcer, drawn from a past life. He once worked in such a place, dutifully soldering essence circuitry and mixing alchemic reagents. The assembly line is hardly changed from his long-spent childhood. The same rubberized conveyor belt, the same furnace vents, the same megaton presses. The only difference is the eerie absence of any young workers, the silence of the grinding gears, the empty illuminated cage where Citizen Whiskers ought be. As his cold, unfeeling optics trace out the room, they are drawn to the ceiling–a massive gouge has been carved into the metal, a huge gap where the gremlins must have forced their way in.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Enforcer walks slowly through the nearly silent room, his hand sliding over tables, familiar tables. He touches nearly everything without looking right at them on his path through the work stations. His fist clenches, metal grinding on metal and brass bones popping. He kneels down quickly before the empty cage, his finger already feeling around the marred gash in the metal where the productivity rat once resided peacefully. His eyes dart around, looking at all the tiny pits and gouges in the metal, trying to find any meager clues that might have been left behind.

Spoiler

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Just rolling Perception+Investigation.

(7d10)[2][6][7][7][10][1][10](43)

[Whiskeyjack]

Node turns and follows Enforcer up the stairs. "I've analyzed the patterns of those hammers and I'll keep constructing an algorithm, in case there is no way to access the control room save through the hammer cascade. I suppose it would be silly to try and jump through now, especially if there is no other way out. And...I suppose I could have left all that to the monologue recorder for later review. Hm." He waits as Enforcer keys the datapad and steps inside; Node is but a step behind him, blade in hand, looking around the massive room, his optics pointing out and recording probable damage to the factory in the attack and beginning to analyze the best tactical positions should the Assembly find itself overrun by a horde of gremlins.

Node murmurs to Enforcer, peering around the Scourge into the rat's cage. "Should we be concerned with stealth, do you think?"

[The Demented One]

As Enforcer surveys the hole torn open by the gremlins, he cannot help but wonder why they would bother to do so. The corrupted machine-gods could easily have simply dematerialized and descended into the factory–clearly, they intended from the outset to steal vital material resources. It is hard to imagine that the void-born demons intended to kidnap a productivity rat, but that indeed seems to be the case. The hole itself is interesting, bearing the distinctive bore-marks of an adamant drill, presumably an integrated weapon of one of the gremlins. Small patches of molten steel dot its perimeter, however, indicating some kind of essence weaponry being used to widen the hole.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

"Stealth? No. The criminals are not likely to return here, and if they are I doubt they are a threat enough for us to remain hidden. When the time arrives for stealth, You will not find me." Enforcer takes one of the loose, solid drops of steel from the ground before the cage and holds it before the Circle. "The criminals were seeking not the rat, but materials. The theft of the productivity rat is strange. Their motives will be interrogated from them once they are brought to Justice."

[Whiskeyjack]

"Understood." Node focused his Essence into a pattern, a pattern said to have predated the First Days, a pattern brought from the Place Before yet still wrought of the indomitable will of the Maker. For a heartbeat, he and the pattern were one: one form, running in green tunnels; one form, diving into an expanse of blue oil; one form, neck craned back and staring at the far-above glory of the burning Core. And then that moment passed, but its echo remained in Node. Everything seemed sharper: the details on the cage, the acrid tang in the air, the skittering of roaches and the footfalls of his companions. And he felt the barely-restrained power, the feeling of standing between a massive anode and cathode, burning in every muscle fiber from his thighs to his fingertips. Sovereign Harmony seemed even lighter than before, were that possible.

Node glowed with golden electricity, his soulgem sizzling. He could feel the crystalline Charm at the nape of his neck flashing with inner light. the power came from him and felt as if it touched every molecule of his being. He looked around, better than he was before, analyzing the area with newly-honed senses.

Spoiler

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Activating Glare of the Great Maker Form. +4 to Strength and Perception. 5m Peripheral.

[Whiskeyjack]

Node steps away from the rat cage, peering up into the ragged hole in the ceiling for some time, letting the flickering of his anima reach up into that dark, hopefully illuminating something of import or glinting off of an otherwise unnoticed piece of evidence. He does not spend time doing thorough investigations like Enforcer; he seems to wander around the floor, blade drawn, bending over here and there to look at a blast mark or a rent in the surface or overturned work. He notes the position of doors and interior stairs, of all the workstations. He actively looks and listens for any sign of danger, and attempts to discern where the gremlins might have gone after their unwelcome entry.

In the end, after giving the entire room a walk-around and beginning to build both an idea of what transpired and a plan to go forward, Node turns to his companions with a wry smile. "So...we're waiting for what, exactly? This factory's not just going to kill the gremlins itself!"

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Perception + Awareness; not conducting an inquiry, just looking around, maybe engaging in a bit of tracking if there's anything to track. (9d10)[8][3][10][3][3][9][1][3][10](50)

[The_Snark]

"They could have dematerialized through the walls," Simplicity observed, keeping her gun-arm trained on the jagged hole in the ceiling. It always pays to be prepared, especially where gremlins are concerned! "It would have been easier, if perhaps less Essence-efficient."

"I suppose they just preferred to destroy the ceiling rather than pass harmlessly through it." She noted that this oddity was what had allowed the gremlins to steal the productivity rat—dematerializing with another being in tow was outside most spirits' specifications—but allowed this thought to go unspoken. She had insufficient evidence to label the theft of the rat as the true goal of the attack: she didn't know how much material had been taken, nor could she form a logical theory as to why they would want the rat. She did not have enough speculation to warrant spending the time to mention it.

But between the oddity of the theft—she would have expected gremlins to kill whatever living things—and the fact that the children had reported the stolen rat first and the gremlin intrusion second, she keeps it flagged as an oddity.

"It's just as well, because if they hadn't, we wouldn't have a way to follow them."

[Whiskeyjack]

"True, true." Node notes his colleagues still looking around, and leaps nimbly onto a work desk to try and peer into the ceiling holes, his weapon held defensively, ready to strike out or parry should a gremlin appear.

Node stood on his tip-toes, still peering, using his anima as a lantern and speaking to his Simplicity in particular. "It would be difficult to make off with any spoils if they just came through the walls, would it not? So if this was a supply raid, they would need an easy exit. Strange..." Node glanced momentarily over his shoulder to Enforcer. "Any idea what exactly they took, besides the rat? Presumably supplies, but do we have any clues as to what those supplies actually were? And why grab the rat in the first place? The foreman said that the biggest gremlin had a drill, so that was probably the one that bored into the cage. But...why? The time spent getting the rat could've easily been spent...well...making an abattoir of this factory. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy that the children all made it out safe, but...such a result was extremely improbable given all current data."

Node continued peering into the ceiling for a moment more, then sighed and stepped down off the table and walking for the nearest door-analogue. "We should check the rest of the facility. The gremlins could have gone downstairs after they came in here. There could still be a few waiting down there. We should sweep the building, then pursue into the vents."

[The Demented One]

Node and those who follow him sweep the building, searching for clues of the gremlin's purpose. They soon find that the gremlin's attack was staged on every floor and station of the factory–scars of molten metal traced out by an essence laser mar blocks of hydraulic presses and thermal engraving units, while the larger factory-engines and clockwork dollies have been battered and bored through with the drill of the alpha gremlin. Here and there, component supply bins and alchemical reagent tanks have been toppled, ruptured and spoiled. A quick count reveals that the stocks aren't at minimum quota; clearly, the gremlins have made off with at least some supplies, pilfering mechanical parts and thaumaturgic oils.

[WhiteKnight777]

Chorus

Chorus looks around, humming softly to herself as she does so. She strokes her chin, her brow furrowed. "Some theft... but odd that they would take the rat. Unless they simply sought to strike at the will of the populat. Or perhaps it is merely their vicious nature. In any case, we should be after them immediately, there seem to be few more clues to be found here."

[The_Snark]

"No immaterial gremlins in the facility, sir," Simplicity reported crisply as they finished sweeping the area. "We should keep moving—the trail is deteriorating."

Pause. Then: "Er, one of you is equipped to get up there, right? I don't think I can..."

[Whiskeyjack]

Node blinked. Sir. Such an odd word to hear coming from a fellow Champion. In Claslat, there was competition...but not in the same sense of hierarchy. Not really. To be called "sir" by one other than a soldier under his command was...disconcerting.

"Um." He gauged the distance from floor to ceiling, internally running the plots of distance, mass, leverage, and velocity-to-acceleration curves. He smiled at Simplicity. "I can jump it, and I'm confident that I can carry at least one other Champion per jump, if anyone needs help getting up there." Node regretted saying that as his vocalizers finished processing the code; a Champion could easily take that as criticism of capabilities. "I hope that's not too...gauche. We could rig a ladder if you'd prefer that."

[The_Snark]

"Efficiency is never gauche," said Simplicity, after a brief theoretical calculation confirmed that yes, most battle-optimized Champions would be able to make that jump without difficulty. Even if Node had to relay them all one by one—which she rather doubted—it would be faster than locating or improvising a functional ladder. She held out a hand to the tall Orichalcum, signaling readiness. "Let's go, then!"

[Whiskeyjack]

Node walks to Simplicity and inclines his head upward. He quickly plots the optimum trajectory, estimates Simplicity's weight, and calculates the requisite amount of force necessary to get them both up into the ceiling.

Node takes the Starmetal Caste's hand and positions her in front of him, the final few digits of the calculations spilling out before his eyes. Perfect.

"Ready?" he asks. On her signal, Node slips one arm around her back, against her ribs and under her elbows, having her encircle his chest with her arms and hang on. He waits for her body to relax against him, especially her legs. A moment later, his legs flex and then he dips into a deep crouch before exploding upward in an elegant leap that neatly arcs through the air and into the ceiling gouge. The leap carries them forward; Node compensates backwards and extends his legs to neatly perch upon a ceiling support girders, or failing that, a space far enough away from the hole as to be considered reasonably sound structurally.

Node slips his arm from around Simplicity when he's sure she has her footing, then peers back through the hole and calls down to the others, "Anyone else need a hand?"

Spoiler

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I can currently jump 15 yards vertically. I assume I can easily make this jump in such a way as to leap into the hole in the ceiling and land without banging my head.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Enforcer examines the entrance point the gremlins took, his eyes darting around and examining every little detail of the cuts and marks they might have left. "Hrm." is all he mutters before vaulting forward like a living, mechanical shadow. Flitting silently from wall to wall, his own Circle scarcely sees him for he is just another fearsome nothing out of the corner of their eyes. He will not allow criminal void-spawn the satisfaction of seeing his blows land on them before they do.

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Stealthing! Using just 3 motes for First Dexterity Augmentation.

Stealth+Dex: (14d10)[7][6][4][10][10][2][7][4][5][4][10][4][10][1](84)

[The_Snark]

Oh, right, that was what she had left out of her cost-benefit analysis: dignity and propriety.

Simplicity disentangled herself from her assembly-mate ever so slightly faster than was really necessary, and busied herself with matters that were urgent and necessary and in no way an excuse to distract herself from the last ten seconds or so. It wasn't that she really minded—and realizing that was slightly embarrassing in and of itself—but in front of the others...

Right, right, urgent and necessary matters. As Enforcer's dark bulk rose from the hole and vanished into the shadows like terrible Ku in an instructive youth parable, she turned her attention to the darkened tunnel ahead, scanning for the dim outlines that would mark out immaterial spirits lying in wait. It was highly improbable that the gremlins had decided to stop and set up an ambush this close to the scene of the crime, especially when she factored in the Essence expenditure that such a phase change would entail... but lack of proper caution had never helped anyone, had it? And she was the only one capable of detecting such an ambush.

Another part of her mind pondered how best to pursue, examining the tunnels ahead for traces of the gremlins' passage and calculating the most efficacious pursuit formation.

[Whiskeyjack]

Node does not react as Enforcer disappears into the shadows. The Soulsteel Caste reacted as he had anticipated, and it was a good strategy at that. He worked through the chain of logic likely in Enforcer's head: let Node's anima give away their position, let Node draw the attention (given that he had already ignited his inner light, it was a logical deduction that his combat skills did not depend on stealth), allowing Enforcer cut at their flanks and rear and Simplicity sniped from the back row while Node engage them head-to-head.

Node's eyes smiled. it was all so clear, and well-orchestrated. The great machinated process of Autochthon was doubtless inspiration for the practices of soldiering and philosophizing alike.

He turned to Simplicity. "See anything? If not, we should start moving...let Chorus and Scout bring up the rear." He would have preferred the Moonsilver Caste ahead as well...though he was anxious to join the enemy. Anxious about the inefficiency as well. While Scout might be better suited on point, hopefully their rapid deployment would instill in the Moonsilver Caste a desire to more readily take the initiative. Node drew his orichalcum and adamant blade and began the forward progression, heightened senses trained ahead, somewhat comforted by the felt-but-unseen presence of Enforcer somewhere beyond the crackling light of his anima.

He talked over his shoulder to Simplicity: "If we get rushed, stay behind me...trust me, they won't get past. I have no doubt you'll get a few good shots off while I push them back with Harmony."

[The_Snark]

"Negative, sir," she said upon being asked if she saw anything. "I estimate a low probability of ambush this close to the metropolis, with the risk rising as we move away. Recommend we prioritize speed over caution for now, and re-evaluate as we leave the commonly patrolled zones."

This time, Simplicity realized she was using military parlance. Why? It wasn't standard practice for an assembly to adopt a military hierarchy, and the Champions of Tomorrow certainly hadn't done so. It had just... slipped in.

Odd.

She nodded agreement with Node's plan, falling in behind him. She would have placed Scout in front, on the grounds that a Champion's designation was usually a reliable indicator of their talents, but perhaps it would be better to have the tougher-looking Orichalcum in the vanguard. It would be the optimal formation in the event of an ambush, and if they moved quickly, Scout would not have much time to scout.

Spoiler

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Just tryin' to keep things moving forward. Let me know if I'm wrong and there is an immaterial ambush.

[The Demented One]

"Rrrrrrrrr-"

The noise is the sickening crunch of broken gears, the grind of acid-etched teeth against fatigued metal. After what seems weeks of venturing through the steam tunnels, the sound comes from everywhere, echoing along the copper-plated corridors like the beating of maddened drums. Enforcer is the first to see it, the disgusting techno-organic marauder that prowls these pipes. It pounds forward on four mechanical legs, interlaced with sinews of flesh and sickening veins of bone-ivory. It is not unlike a clockwork steed or an equiservitor, a four-legged machine speed...but its metallic cranium is split in half, pulped by the massive drill that has extruded through its cranium. Dorsal vents spew a prismatic backwash of glinting industrial waste, providing eerie backlighting for the machine.

Amidst this toxically vibrant mist hover a flight of drones, their golden plating tarnished by a metastasized patchwork of flesh. The opaque black lenses that adorn their foreplates fix on you as if the eyes of some cold malevolent intelligence, and hatches slide back on a half-dozen underbellies to display a bristling array of essence weaponry. Arc crossbows, plasma torches, and even a miniaturized hadron collider spark with menacing light, every targeting reticule and maser-sight locked on you. Only one drone hangs back from the offensive formation, and its equipment speaks to why. It has no weapons–only a changed of soulsteel mesh, a cage that holds the distinct outline of a productivity rat. Citizen Whiskers squeals in anguish, locked in the belly of the gremlin.

The abominable drill-servitor paws the ground, stomping a starmetal hoof against the cuprate tunnel. Bitterly colorful sparks fly as it begins to charge.


Battle Joined

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Tick 0: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes, Hover-Gremlin Alpha
Tick 1: Galvanic Promethean Node, Virtuous Simplicity, Hover-Gremlin Beta
Tick 2: Courageous and Swift Scout, Drill-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Gamma
Tick 4: Immaculate Chorus, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Delta, Hover-Gremlin Epsilon

Tick 0: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes, Hover-Gremlin Alpha

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Estasian Champion watches from the darkness as the creatures from the rotting innards of his Patron charge at him, their aberrant frames disgracing the majesty of Yugash and Autochthonia alike. Unfettered, focused and steadfast... these would be no match, they were a cancer that would be cut right from the flesh of the Maker. That was a promise.

Enforcer was not going to let them have the first blow, they would not be allowed the luxury. Footfalls hit the metal ground with swift, loud blows that echo with what only sounds like alien screams that seem to strike the senses at an ethereal level.

He vaults into the air, his legs pull up slightly in preparation for landing, and his fist pulls back in preparation for a practical application of justice. Red optics lock on every sick joint, every twisted amalgamation of flesh and metal, scoping every little weakness in it's body and losing all of the world around him.

A piston jutted quickly from his elbow with a perfunctory hiss, and at the same time, sharp strips of Soulsteel shot forth from the mechanical apparatus around his wrist and began to spin around a central point, very quickly becoming a very sharp, spiral-edged drill. Gears and muscles tightened, and his mouth opened enough to open the featureless maw of his armored helm. "CRIMINAL SCUM!"

A deep, dark sound resonates as Soulsteel collides with the aberrant and the unjust. The drill catches flesh and metal and sends gobbets of meat and sparks into the air with a blinding red light. The piston that juts from the Enforcer's elbow slams forward with intense movement and sound of metal on metal. Vents on his arm and shoulder open and smoke bursts out with a deep whistling.

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Using Void-Piercing Drill and Axiom Soulsteel Drill combo and array, to use The Circle Screams(Acc), Piston-Driven Megaton Hammer, Diagmatic Supercollider Drill, and First Dex Augmentation for 6 dice. Thousand Wounds Gear Form activated before the fight.
The equates to 12m, 1wp.

Dex+MA: (21d10)[2][4][5][2][8][1][3][6][5][9][3][4][1][3][9][10][2][10][1][7][5](100)

Health
-0 [ ]
-1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ]

Willpower: ●●●●●*

Essence
Permanent: 2
Personal: 6/12 (0 Committed)
Peripheral: 14/36 (10 Committed)

Charms Installed
Diagmatic Supercollider Drill (1m)
Piston-Driven Megaton Hammer (1m)
First Dexterity Augmentation (1m)
Sixth Dex+MA Augmentation (1m)
Strain-Resistant Chassis Modification(x3)(2m)

[The Demented One]

Enforcer's soulsteel drill hisses and whines as it strikes the gremlin, sending out showers of sparks that collide harmlessly off his black metal chassis. The gremlin's metallic exoskeleton cracks beneath the blow, but it is only a glancing hit, barely nicking the internal workings of the unholy machine. Analyzing the evident extent of his blow, it becomes clear that the drill-beast has an incredibly durable alloyed coating, its tensile strength comparable to that of his own armor. It pulls away with a frightsome lunge, verdigrised hooves clattering as they scrabble for a grip on the tunnel's floor.

But Enforcer's intrusion triggers a hostile response, tripping threat-assessment algorithms encoded into the gremlins's corrupted thought-matrices. One of the hovering drones unlimbers a wide-bored plasma cannon, discharging a luminous blue cascade of ionized energy at the Sentinel. But the Enforcer, steadily on his feet after his pounce, catches the plasma beam in his bare hands, throwing it aside through sheer martial prowess. The energy deflects harmlessly away, leaving the Soulsteel's palms superheated, small thermal cracks spreading through the weaker alloyed plates.


Battle Joined

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Tick 1: Galvanic Promethean Node, Virtuous Simplicity, Hover-Gremlin Beta
Tick 2: Courageous and Swift Scout, Drill-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Gamma
Tick 4: Immaculate Chorus, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Delta, Hover-Gremlin Epsilon
Tick 5: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes
Tick 6: Hover-Gremlin Alpha

Enforcer

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3-die stunt, 6m or 1wp

One level of lethal damage.

DV -1

Tick 1: Galvanic Promethean Node, Virtuous Simplicity, Hover-Gremlin Beta

[Whiskeyjack]

Node sees Enforcer rush forward to engage the largest gremlin, and struggles with an inner decision: to ward Simplicity with the mighty shield or strike back against their enemies? Seeing the aerial droves hone in on Enforcer makes Node's decision for him. His anima flashes around him, still a raw wound of power in the air from the deployment of the legendary shield minutes before. Fortunately, Simplicity hadn't started asking questions. They both knew the time was inappropriate, but he would genuinely be surprised if she had not noticed and recognized it.

Sparks popping from his soulgem and legs contracting beneath his sapphire and orichalcum armor, Node drops into a lunge for but a heartbeat then dartsforward, his passing evidenced by the steaming golden footprints left on the tunnel floor and the brilliant surges of lightning leaping from his anima, striking and carbonizing the walls.

But a simple leap carries Node farther through the air than a team of jump-troops could manage even with Artifact enhancement. He sails towards the hovering drone that had fired on Enforcer, shield extended before him until the moment of passing. The golden cog lowers and the young Archon slices outward with Sovereign Harmony, taking advantage of the drone's distraction from its own attack to score it once with his blade, his anima lashing out alongside in wide, white-gold arcs of electricity, lancing into the gash made by the blade and attempting to rupture the drone's internal components with surges of raw energy.

As the momentum carries him past the drone and over the drill-gremlin, he strikes out a second time with a diagonal backhand slice against another of the gunnery drones hovering above the drill-gremlin. Golden fire pours down his arm and over the blade, the orichalcum sizzling like water on a hot oiled skillet, the slicing edge crackling as the furnace of his soul again shot into the wake of the blade, demanding righteous condemnation for these traitors to the Maker’s will.

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Dex + Martial Arts, 2-attack flurry.

First attack: (14d10)[3][5][1][5][4][9][3][3][3][2][2][3][5][3](51)
Second attack: (13d10)[7][4][1][3][4][3][6][8][9][1][10][2][1](59)
Raw damage = 21L (10 Strength + 9 weapon damage + 2 anima) + extra successes.

DVs:
DDV 4
PDV: 11 (vs. hand-to-hand); 13 (vs. ranged)

Soak: 16B/14L
Hardness: 6B/6L

Health
-0 [ ]
-1 [ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ][ ][ ]

Active Effects

• Eye of Heaven Form: +4 to Strength and Perception
• Orichalcum Caste Anima: +2 raw damage to all attacks

Essence
Personal: 7/16
Peripheral: 21/48

Willpower: 10/10

Charms Installed
[General Slots] First Dexterity Augmentation, Accelerated Response System (Parry), Perfected Lotus Matrix, Strain-Resistant Chassis Modification x1

[Dedicated Slots] Sixth Strength Augmentation (Strength + Athletics), Imprinted Data Cluster – Martial Arts (Daiklaives +3), Technomorphic Integration Engine, Personal Gravity Manipulation Apparatus

[The_Snark]

Simplicity's vigilance proved needless.

Dissonant noise heralded the gremlin's arrival; a chilling wind carried the sickly smell of oil mixed with rotting blood. The cacophony reverberated through Simplicity's flesh and bone, wormed its way into her gut and turned it into a churning knot of fear. She knew her fragile demanor was a deception, that she was outfitted with a highly efficient panoply of artifacts and Essence weaponry; more thought and labor had gone into her design and construction than any three of Jarish's great human-operated war-weapons.

Still: fear. She had never faced gremlins, and her inexperience ate at her; she had faced a thousand, and the memories gave her no comfort.

The enemy heaved into view at last, and fear moved in unison with duty, calling her to action. Cull the weak first, or blunt the strong, the voice of experience told her. Choose and do not divide your efforts. She watched her fellow Champions leap forward, dark on the one hand and light on the other, one hammering at the monstrously strong creature at the center and the other cutting viciously away at the edges, and for a moment she faltered between the two choices.

Her mind dallied, but the intricate work of the Sodalts never halted. An outline sprang up about each creature, surrounded by tiny letters that detailed what she needed to know: this one had just showed itself capable of moving that fast, this one had displayed weapons of that caliber, that one had a weak point in its chassis right there. Strengths and weaknesses, displayed for fleeting moments, were pinned down and distilled into numbers. In an instant, she deduced that while the quadruped posed the greatest threat, the smaller drones had a considerably higher threat-to-durability ratio. Her arm drifted towards one of the rogue drone-spirits, effortlessly tracking it, and a soft blue glow dawned at the end, a pilot light.

The same light sparkled in her soulgem and lit up her eyes, and began to spread through delicate metal traceries beneath Simplicity's skin...

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Aim! Supplementing it with Aim-Calibrating Sensors, meaning that she gains the full benefit of aiming after only 1 tick (see submodule for details); Simplicity will act again next tick.

Defenses (-1 penalty)
Dodge DV 9
Parry DV 4

Soak: 2B/1L

Health
-0 [ ]
-1 [ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ]

Essence
Personal: 4/14 (10 committed)
Peripheral: 28/42 (11 committed)

Willpower 8/8

[The Demented One]

Node soars through the air in a pneumatic bound, flying just under the low-hanging roof of the tunnel. But the delicate barometrics of the gremlin-drones quickly detect the disturbance of his leaping attack, and the floating gremlin-pod he attacks darts out of the way. Recalculating his trajectory, the Archon compensates for his miss, managing to impale a second gremlin, skewering its vascular processes with the tip of his daiklave. A sickening pressurized whine resounds throughout the steam tunnels as tanks of lubricating fluids explode, leaving the gremlin-pod a half-wrecked derelict.

It turns its weapon systems on Node as he completes his leap, deploying multi-missle clusters in a hateful counterstrike. The Orichalcum Caste tucks his body down into a defensive crouch, his blade's tip crossed against the face of his legendary cog-shield. He brings its intricately-etched face to bear against the attack, deflecting the gremlin's barrage with sword and shield both.


Battle Joined

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Tick 2: Courageous and Swift Scout, Virtuous Simplicity, Drill-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Gamma
Tick 4: Immaculate Chorus, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Delta, Hover-Gremlin Epsilon
Tick 5: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes
Tick 6: Galvanic Promethean Node, Hover-Gremlin Alpha
Tick 7: Hover-Gremlin Beta

Galvanic Promethean Node

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2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp
1-die stunt, 2m

DV -2

Virtuous Simplicity

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2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -1

Tick 2: Courageous and Swift Scout, Virtuous Simplicity, Drill-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Gamma

[The_Snark]

Azure patterns traced themselves down Simplicity's neck and arms as starmetal wires flared to life beneath her skin, suffusing her body with Essence. Every artificial muscle and steel tendon was brought into line, moving in perfect unison, no more and no less than directed.

The drone was not a stationary target: it bobbed up and down, jetting sideways on hover-thrusters. Simplicity's eyes catalogued its movements, compared them to standard machine-spirit evasive protocols, predicted its trajectory for the next few moments, and projected it over her vision, all in the space of a single second. The Plot Weaver found her course plotted out already. What else could she do, save follow it?

The glow tipping her weapon-arm brightened. A clean blue line of energy lanced out towards a patch of empty air, which—if her systems were operating properly—would be occupied by a gremlin in a fraction of a second...

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Spending 6 motes on the 1st Dexterity Augmentation, plus 1 to power the pulse cannon.

(25d10)[5][2][4][7][8][9][10][1][2][7][7][7][10][10][2][1][3][5][5][7][9][2][9][4][8](144)
Plus 3 successes from aiming. Raw damage is 13L piercing, plus extra successes.

Defenses (-1 penalty)
Dodge DV 9
Parry DV 4

Soak: 2B/1L

Health
-0 [ ]
-1 [ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ]

Active Effects

• Transcendent Multimodal Artifact Matrix: Essence Pulse Cannon (3 peripheral, 2 personal)
• Anima: +1 Accuracy, Damage, Join Battle

Essence
Personal: 4/14 (10 committed)
Peripheral: 24/42 (11 committed)

Willpower 8/8

[The Demented One]

Virtuous Simplicity locks on to the distinctive thermal signature of one of the gremlins, the heat signature of the small hadron collider mounted on a gimbaled mass of gears and servos. In the same instant, the gremlin detects the charged motonic build-up of the Starmetal Caste's essence weaponry, deploying its own arsenal to fire a counter-shot. At the same moment, the two children of Autochthon, one virtuous and one corrupt, fire.

Simplicity shies away instinctively from the particle collision beam. Combat algorithms take what would have been an ineffectual flinch and turn it into useful movement, two lightning-quick steps to the side. Slightly faster than the gremlin's weapon can track, just far enough to take her out of the initial field of fire and not a step further, the motion is a preprogrammed attempt to trick the drone's targeting systems into overcompensating for her movement–and it works. Leptons bombard only the tunnel walls, pitting them harmlessly with irradiation scars.

But the Plot Weaver's aim is true. The gremlin pod she fires on explodes in a flash of plasma, its inner workings vaporized instantly. The explosion jolts the bore-engine, causing the gremlin to charge out of corrupt emotive algorithms simulating irrational fear. It pounces on Enforcer, red plasma sparking as its own drill clashes against his own, bright enough to blind a lesser man. The beast-machine forces its way through the Soulsteel's defenses, goring him on its rotary horn. But try as it might, it cannot bore through Enforcer's armored chassis–the drill whines and sparks uselessly against the soulsteel exoskeleton, its efforts futile.


Battle Joined

Spoiler

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Tick 4: Immaculate Chorus, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Delta, Hover-Gremlin Epsilon
Tick 5: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes, Courageous and Swift Scout
Tick 6: Galvanic Promethean Node, Hover-Gremlin Alpha
Tick 7: Drill-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Beta
Tick 8: Virtuous Simplicity, Hover-Gremlin Gamma

Virtuous Simplicity

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1-die stunt, 2m
1-die stunt, 2m

DV -1

Tick 4: Immaculate Chorus, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Delta, Hover-Gremlin Epsilon

[WhiteKnight777]

Chorus

Immaculate Chorus' face took on a strange serenity as the gremlins emerged to challenge them. Her skin of of jade shimmered as elaborate traceries came alive, dense-packed pneumatic muscle micro-pistons firing with tiny whines, gleaming sparks of essence flashing off neuromotonic transmitters. Frank Exchange of Views was suddenly in her grip, and she hefted it, its field of force glowing a deep emerald green. And, as she always did, she began to sing.

She sang of loss and of mourning for wayward servants - of regret. Visions of what might have been, of little gods uncorrupted by the void. Hopes that would never be, dreams dead before their time. And she sang of burgeoning resolve, of absolution, and of sweet release of long-suffering silicon souls. She sang as she charged, her massive weapon describing a brillaint green arc in the air as she slammed her hammer into one of the hovering gremlins, the glimmering field of force making a mockery of the Gremlin's armor. Its metallic body began to glow white hot at the point of impact, the incredible strength of Exchange's energy field quickly turning the fallen machine spirit's body into molten slag.

Spoiler

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One straight-up attack.

(15d10)[9][10][1][1][7][1][3][6][1][6][6][7][4][6][9](77)

Defenses
Dodge DV 4 (5 Dex + 2 Essence)/2
Parry DV (5 Dex + 5 Melee + 3 Specialty -1 Defense)

Jade Grand Beammaul: Speed 4, Accuracy +2, Defense -1, Damage +17L/5, O, P, R, 2

Soak: 15L/16B

Hardness:9L/9B

Health
-0 [ ]
-1 [ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ]


Willpower: ●●●●● ●●●●●

Clarity: 0

Essence
Personal: 8/16 (8 Committed)
Peripheral: 32/60 (10 to the Armor, 10 to the Crown, 8 to the Weapon)

[The Demented One]

Immaculate Chorus's beam-maul falls like an iron decrescendo, bringing its immense torque to bear on the gremlin-pod. But her blow is poorly optimized, catching the hovering drone at an inefficient force-transferal angle. It slams down against the hard copper plating of the tunnel, nevertheless, but the damage to its techno-organic shell is only external, fracture-lines running all along the armored exoskeleton. It deploys a plasma-flamethrower to scorch Chorus–but its weapon-bearing servos have been damaged by her attack! The jet of plasma goes wild, instead searing Courageous and Swift Scout. Its misguided attack triggers response protocols from its nearby gremlin, causing the miniaturized combat pod to unleash a bristling barrage of nano-magnetic blades. The spray of plasma superheats his moonsilver armor, leaving it an easy target for the magnetized blades. Glistening vital fluids spill as he suffers the attack silently.


Battle Joined

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Tick 5: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes, Courageous and Swift Scout
Tick 6: Galvanic Promethean Node, Hover-Gremlin Alpha
Tick 7: Drill-Gremlin, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Beta
Tick 8: Virtuous Simplicity, Immaculate Chorus, Hover-Gremlin Gamma
Tick 10: Hover-Gremlin Delta, Hover-Gremlin Epsilon

Immaculate Chorus

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1-die stunt, 2m

DV -1

Courageous and Swift Scout

Spoiler

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5 levels of lethal damage

Tick 5: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes, Courageous and Swift Scout

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The drill of the Enforcer ricochets from the drill of his opponent, his torso twisting and ready to snap back and unleash justice upon these abominations. The great Soulsteel piston of his elbow shot out again with a hiss and a metallic clink. With another deep grinding sound the drill expanded slightly, and then he thrust his fist forward into the metallic flesh once again. The drill impacted hard, more blinding red sparks shoot from the point of impact as the drill continued to work it's hardest to bore a massive hole in the lawbreaker. The piston shot forward with a loud clang and thrust the drill deeper, the stare of the Enforcer was intense, his focus entirely on the Gremlin and it's demise.

"RRAAARRL!" He put all his muscle into it as the piston shot back once more, and yet again forward trying to dig the hole deeper. The criminal would die! In the name of the Maker!

Spoiler

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Same as before, but two attacks. Makes for 14m, 1wp.

Attack 1: (19d10)[1][7][5][7][5][7][2][6][8][5][10][5][1][4][8][8][9][2][10](110)
Attack 2: (18d10)[7][9][3][6][5][5][10][4][8][7][8][2][4][5][6][2][6][4](101)

Health
-0 [x]
-1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
X [ ]

Willpower: ●●●●**

Essence
Permanent: 2
Personal: 6/12 (6 Committed)
Peripheral: 6/36 (10 Committed)

Charms Installed
Diagmatic Supercollider Drill (1m)
Piston-Driven Megaton Hammer (1m)
First Dexterity Augmentation (1m)
Sixth Dex+MA Augmentation (1m)
Strain-Resistant Chassis Modification(x3)(2m)