Champions of Tomorrow!

[The Demented One]

Courageous and Swift Scout silently trains his crossbow on the drone that attacked him, routing essence through its geomantic conduits as he prepares to fire. He unleashes the shimmering blast with a mute click, sending the essence-bolt dead through the gremlin. It stops short in the air and falls, barely catching itself as its hover-engine comes back online. The gremlin-pod is just barely intact, a smooth hole melted through it by Scout's attack.

Enforcer's lunge is a brutal counterpoint to the Moonsilver's silent strike, the scream of his soulsteel drill drowned out only by his own roar. The piston-driven drill collides with the gremlin, impacting its armored carapace and piercing into its mechanical workings. Enforcer feels a small satisfaction as he obliterates the drive-shaft of the corrupt machine's essence engine, sending a sickening tremor throughout its body. A backwash of nanoparticulare oil splashes against him, and torrents leak from the ruptured body of the drill-gremlin as it backs away.


Battle Joined

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

Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes

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2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -2

Courageous and Swift Scout

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DV -1

Tick 6: Galvanic Promethean Node, Hover-Gremlin Alpha

[Whiskeyjack]

Deflecting the missiles with sword and shield, Node peers out to analyze the remaining enemies. One is completely destroyed, while others are in various states of disarray, and his sensors lock onto the most badly damaged of the bunch, as well as the least damaged and their true quarry: the drone holding Citizen Whiskers. His anima flooding the tunnel with humming golden brilliance, Node dashes towards one of the walls; towards it and up it, bolts of lightning striking and steaming. He kicks off the wall when it turns vertical, again vaulting over the drill-gremlin and slicing at two of its hovering protectors.

The first slice targets Beta; the second, Epsilon. Node seeks to get the damaged units out of the fight, disabling their weapons instead of trying to whittle down more hale enemies. Sovereign Harmony snakes out once immediately after the jump, a blast of gold and blue light dancing along its strange edges, catching in the gashes upon beta and flooding its systems with the rage of the Maker, the scream of metal on metal drowned out by the furnace-roar of Node’s own Essence-powered attack driving his anima to its full iconic state. Seven whirling turbines of fire erupt into being, connected by thin chains of inscribed lightning. Words whip into existence, ancient and powerful and proclaiming the Maker’s superiority and the power bestowed to his Archons. Whirling and screaming, fat bolts of electricity dart of from the whirling fire-wheels raking across the drone's exosleleton in passing, a final slap of the Alchemical's disgust.

As his jump continues, Node wrenches his weapon free and spins laterally, cleaving Epsilon across its “midsection,” Sovereign Harmony clipping the second drone and the anima-halos following with a great buzzing bellow as his anima itself seeks to cleave the gremlin apart. His spin continues, allowing him to hit the other wall with his feet and slide down, immediately bringing sword and shield to bear against the remaining gremlins, and locking his eyes on the one bearing the cage.

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Dex + Martial Arts, 2-attack flurry. Adding 3 dice to each attack with an Excellency

First attack: (17d10)[1][8][5][7][8][1][8][10][3][7][3][3][9][3][9][8][6](99)
Second attack: (16d10)[3][3][2][8][8][9][1][6][10][8][5][2][9][2][9][5](90)
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: 15/48

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 Demented One]

Node gyroscopes through the air with perfect precision, his body an incarnate expression of the Maker's excellence. Prosthetic muscles align themselves perfectly to his will, blazing with the golden essence of his anima as it unfolds. His daiklave flashes out, burning orichalcum and gleaming adamant, and two gremlins fall. Their meat-riddled exoskeletons crack as they hit the ground, ruptured husks oozing mingled oils and endocrine sludge into the recessed grooves of the tunnel wall. The three remaining gremlin pods seem to look on their destroyed brethren with analytical fear, strange blue lights suddenly gleaming in the depths of their optic lenses. The drill-machine snorts a cloud of nano-smoke, blind of the threat that surrounds it.

It lunges for Enforcer, the pneumatic presses and extensible ligatues of its neck deploying in a burst of poisonous steam. The revolving soulsteel drill-bit oscillates like a manic jackhammer, driving down into the Sentinel's machine-flesh. He grips the spinning spike, sparks flying from the palm of his closed hand as he slams his other fist into the drill's base, throwing it off-kilter. "This battle is already decided, lawbreakers!" The drill gouges away at his flesh as he casts it aside bare-handed, but the wound is barely an abrasion. He's suffered worse. But what comes next is a horror even to the Soulsteel's black heart.

"EX–" The gremlin-babble is metallic and fragmented, the dissonant synthesis of corrupted voice-programming. "EX...EX–" Two tendrils of synaptic ferrofluid extend from the underbelly of the alpha gremlin, blindly probing the face of the tunnel wall. They sink into the grooves, metallic fluid spreading out through the recesses like water spreading through an irrigation ductway. "EX...EX-TER...EX-TER–" Light suddenly fills the corridor, as a hatch opens in the ceiling, revealing an anterior storage bay illumined with essence-fixtures. Within it, mounted in a swiveling gimbal-dock, hangs a multi-flanged array of soulsteel and adamant, a massive voidtech armament. The gremlin's metallic tendrils are wired directly into it, completing the blasphemous circuit.

"EXTERMINATE!"

A flash of green waxes viridescent throughout the entire tunnel, casting everything in bizarre silhouette. Scout falls backwards, screaming in mute agony as the moonsilver of his skin peels away. It crumbles to dust, falling away from him as if ripped by a meat-hook. Charms crack and shatter in their inset slots, and the dim optics of his eyes go black.


Battle Joined

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Tick 8: Virtuous Simplicity, Immaculate Chorus
Tick 10: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Delta
Tick 11: Galvanic Promethean Node
Tick 12: Drill-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Alpha

Galvanic Promethean Node

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2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -2

Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes

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2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

Two levels of lethal damage

Tick 8: Virtuous Simplicity, Immaculate Chorus

[The_Snark]

Simplicity's eyes darkened momentarily as the pod detonated, preventing the white flash from scoring an afterimage across her field of vision and impairing her ability to aim. Almost immediately, her combat algorithms began processing the remaining targets, comparing observed threat levels with the estimated time it would take to remove them. But they presented no definite conclusion as to the most efficient course of action, and the Plot Weaver's higher functions were occupied with surprise. It had come so naturally: she'd picked a fast-moving target out of several, located its most vulnerable spot, and hit that exact spot with pinpoint accuracy without even thinking about it. Indeed, if she had thought about it, she might not have been able to do it; her implanted instincts were good, but her conscious skill was less so.

Strange, and a little exhilarating. But Simplicity was given no time to recover. Unclean light painted the maintenance tunnel a malevolent green, casting a weird frieze of shadows against the floor and walls. A scream reverberated through the tunnel, but whether it was the agonized dying-scream of her fellow Champion, the victory-cry of the demented machine-spirit, or the tortured sound of the Void-weapon's inner workings, she could not say.

Her combat algorithms presented her with a revised threat-level analysis of the battle; the voidtech weapon array was outlined in bright red. Essence-enhanced vision picked out potential weak points: seams where invulnerable adamant was joined to invincible soulsteel by lesser metals, the narrow point of attachment to the ceiling, the unpleasantly pulsating steel cables that connected it to the gremlin. She had no idea of the weapon's firing rate, or how durable its inner workings were, but it was possible she would only get one shot. It would have to count.

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Aiming at the weapon array, using Aim-Calibrating Sensors to reduce Speed to 1. Anima ought to be totemic, but I'm waiting til the beginning of my next post to write that.

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

[WhiteKnight777]

Immaculate Chorus

Chorus briefly considered going for the Cage-Gremlin, but dismissed that plan - her beamhammer was not a weapon of finesse, and she'd never forgive herself if she hurt the children's dear little pet. Better to let her companions handle the more delicate task, while she rained righteous retribution upon those who had turned from the light of Autocthon. Striking a pose, she whirled her hammer in an elaborate figure-eight, describing arcing patterns of blinding emerald light in the air. With a sonorous battle cry she struck, leaping with incredible finesse onto the back of one of the gremlins. Seizing the mechanical monstrosity with surprising strength for her small frame, she grabbed it by the head, forcing the creature's face into the energy field of her hammer, melting the creature's countenance to molten slag.

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One straight-up attack.
(15d10)[6][10][9][8][5][3][3][8][7][4][4][5][5][5][9](91)

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 flows into the tempo of battle, bringing down her beam-maul on the screeching alpha-gremlin, still wired into the voidtech cyst that decimated your fallen comrade. She strikes with a resonant cry, but her blow comes up short, the essence-plasma just barely managing to burn through the gremlin's shell. Only the outermost rim of its armored shell is burned away, baring its epidermal sheath and visceral inner workings. Its shriek of staccato pain is a counterpoint to Chorus's cry, anguished but unbowed.


Battle Joined

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Tick 10: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes, Virtuous Simplicity, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Delta
Tick 11: Galvanic Promethean Node
Tick 12: Drill-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Alpha
Tick 13: Immaculate Chorus

Immaculate Chorus

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1-die stunt, +2m

DV -1

Virtuous Simplicity

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DV -1

Tick 10: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes, Virtuous Simplicity, Cage-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Delta

[The_Snark]

The blue light around Simplicity intensified as her weapon charged. A glow lit beneath her skin and raced down her torso through starmetal conduits, painting her body's natural Essence flows in bright azure. The lines reached her feet...

... and spread onto the floor, branching out with increasing speed and complexity. Tiny thin lines like the web of an extremely well-organized spider raced out across the floor, and the walls, and the ceiling, following the natural Essence-patterns of the Great Maker's body to form rectangular designs of spectacular complexity. Here the lines joined together into a single thicker line where a bulge behind the steel walls indicated the presence of oil pipes or steam conduits; there they formed a set of concentric hexagons around a closed hatchway. The combatants, too, were marked, cerulean lines faint beneath the electric brilliance of Node's anima and the choking blackness pouring from Enforcer's body, but still visible, accentuating their nature without obscuring. This was as it should be.

Only when they came to the gremlins hovered did the lines falter, running at irregular angles and deviating from straight lines into unpleasant curves, a queasy imitation of what ought to have been. As if that were not enough, what little light those traceries produced was a dull, fitfully flickering red. But these, too, served their purpose, painting the corrupted, haphazard Essence flows of Autochthon's lost children for his Champions to see.

As the last line completed itself, the blue light on the truncated end of Simplicity's arm flared once more, brighter than ever. Lances of light streaked out in calculated trajectories, each one gently curving to strike at one of the stress points and tangled Essence-conduits of the voidtech weapon that had claimed a Champion's life.

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Flurry of 5 attacks! The first one benefits from 3 aim successes, and takes no penalty for called shots, if this counts as one. Spending 6 motes on the 1st Dexterity Augmentation and 1 Willpower on both the first and last shots (plus 1 mote to fire each shot).

Attack 1: (20d10)[10][9][1][4][4][4][1][7][9][4][9][5][4][6][10][8][9][6][6][10](126) plus 4 autosuccesses
Attack 2: (13d10)[7][2][8][4][2][5][6][10][9][6][4][1][6](70)
Attack 3: (12d10)[10][7][10][6][10][5][4][8][1][8][8][5](82)
Attack 4: (11d10)[6][7][1][1][5][3][7][1][1][6][4](42)
Attack 5: (16d10)[6][3][3][2][9][6][8][10][10][8][2][4][10][3][10][10](104) plus 1 autosuccess

If the device is destroyed before she finishes, she'll spread her remaining attacks among the other gremlins.

Defenses (-5 penalty)
Dodge DV 5
Parry DV [OUT OF ORDER]

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: 7/42 (11 committed)

Willpower 6/8

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

He could watch the rest of the enemy being slowly broken apart by his companions, a vision in his peripheral vision that was deeply satisfying. However, this was but an echo in his mind. There was a foe who had his punishment started and it was dearly in need of completion. His drill attempted to reflexively retract once again, but he looked down and he whispered, "No." His muscles tightened and the drill reinforced itself once again so greatly, each of it's components groaned against one another in a struggle of force.

He pulled his arm back and up, almost as if reflected by the victim of his justice. He was not spurned so easily, not by these creature. His fist and the Soulsteel drill that encompassed it slammed down, two sequential blasts of sound, surely the second was from the impact into the gremlin's flesh, but the first could only be guessed at being a breaking of the sound barrier.

Sparks flew as the drill spun against the monster's flesh, boring a hole even deeper in the same place. The Enforcer wanted so very much to tear out it's twisted heart so that he might be fortunate enough to discard it like another piece of garbage. Blind to the rest of the world, his drill was the drill to pierce the gremlin's heart. Two vicious slams of a Soulsteel piston! The vibrations in the armor and indeed in the air around his forearm caused one's vision to blur slightly if looking directly upon it. He felt his inner reservoir emptying quickly, but he could not stop now.

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Unsure if it's a wise choice, but going with the same as last time. Almost entirely out of essence at this point. Damned overzealous Soulsteel.
14m, 1wp.

Attack 1: (18d10)[6][2][3][2][3][4][5][1][1][1][7][4][7][5][1][5][4][7](68)
Attack 2: (17d10)[2][6][8][3][3][4][9][10][3][4][3][4][8][9][4][8][4](92)

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

Willpower: ●●●***

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

Virtuous Simplicity's barrage is a devastating show of essence. A complex circuitry of essence unfolds from her pulse cannon, seeker beams tracing out a grid of space as they pursue the gremlin-pods. Scout's murderer is the first to taste her fury, the bolt of blue incinerating it in a single flash. Metal and meat vaporize, and the devastating counter-pulse that flows through the techno-organic conduit devastate the assault-cyst, melting down the crystalline circuits of the looming weapon. The secondary beams disperse in a fractal starburst, lancing out at the gremlin-pods with mathematically perfect precision. The foremost battle-gremlins barely survive the onslaught, their exposed neuro-circuitry seared with heat. The last beam sears clean through one of the cage-gremlins mounted hovercoils, causing it to droop and spin through space.

At Simplicity's back is the Joyless Enforcer, still struggling to down the prime threat. He grapples with the drill-gremlin, boring away at its composite shell, struggling to disarm it. He manages to mangle a cluster of driveshaft-rotors, but the only systems he damages are secondary, not enough to disable the engine-heart of the beast. But before he can redouble his efforts, there is a sudden crash. One of the gremlin-pods cuts loose a volley of lancing strobes, sending a pulsating cascade of green essence at the smoldering wreckage of the weapon-cyst above. The light sears through the magnetized anchor points, cutting loose the restraints that support the superheated machine carcass. Still smoldering with the essential heat of Simplicity's attack, it plummets, melting a smoldering path clear through the factory.


Battle Joined

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Tick 11: Galvanic Promethean Node
Tick 12: Drill-Gremlin, Hover-Gremlin Alpha
Tick 13: Immaculate Chorus, Cage-Gremlin
Tick 15: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes
Tick 16: Virtuous Simplicity, Hover-Gremlin Delta

All

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The wreckage of the gremlin-weapon has melted a hole through the entire factory...and you're right above it. Everyone should make a (Dexterity + Athletics) roll in the OOC thread, at difficulty 3. You can use any augmentations or similar that you want to boost the roll, and if you want to post a description along with it, I'll give you stunt dice. Anyone who fails the roll falls through the factory, taking 10B dice of piercing damage.

If you don't fall, but still want to go down to the base of the factory, you can do so with a miscellaneous action, rolling (Dexterity + Athletics) at difficulty 1. If you succeed, you make it down; if you don't, you're still stuck up top. Try not to botch.

Virtuous Simplicity

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3-die stunt, 6m or 1wp

DV -5

Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes

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2-die stunt, 4m or 1wp

DV -2

Tick 11: Galvanic Promethean Node

[Whiskeyjack]

Node darts forward in the chaotic instant that the voidtech melts free of the ceiling and half-crashes, half-melts through the through the floor of the ventilation ducts. Scrambling to escape the dropping machine, Node desperately tries to run up the wall and vault the hole as the massive device succumbs to gravity. As the shaft rumbles with strain, Node shakily moves as high as he can before jumping, timing his ascent into the air at the same time that the first bits of the voidtech device impact and melt through the floor of the ventilation duct. Leaping over the sparking top of the machine, Node uses the smoking metal and heat shimmers surrounding him to cloud his opponents’ sensors, catapulting himself over the burning hole and towards the gremlins. His own combat sensors rake across the remaining gremlins, assessing their capacity for violence, prioritizing Delta for destruction, calculating a reflection algorithm to intercept the cage-gremlin, and ignoring the less damaged potential danger of Alpha for the moment.

Combat calculators align the jump to carry Node past Delta and straight towards the cage-gremlin; in the moment where he passes the teetering gremlin, his blade snakes out, a lashing blade of fire engulfed by the pyroclasm of his anima. Fire and gold metal tear into the damaged gremlin. As he passes, falling directly towards the cage-gremlin, Node hyperextends his sword-wielding arm, letting the shield’s magnetic field catch the blade’s pommel and stick fast. He extends both hands, wrapping the shield strapped to his arm like an encompassing net while clawing for the cage-gremlin with the armored gauntlet of his right hand. Hoping against hope, Node attempts to grab the gremlin and disable it without it being able to escape or hurt Citizen Whiskers further. His main concern is saving the rat; in its survival is vested the hope of the children, the hope of the city, the hope of the Great Maker Himself, and Node is not about to let so much hope turn to slag.

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Regain 4m from previous stunt.

2-attack flurry; sword attack on Delta and clinch attempt on the Cage-Gremlin.

Sword: Dexterity + Martial Arts + 4 (First Dexterity Augmentation) = (18d10)[3][7][5][5][4][2][6][7][5][4][1][10][6][3][4][4][4][4](84)
Clinch: Strength + Martial Arts + Compassion Channel = (17d10)[6][8][2][9][2][1][6][2][10][1][7][8][1][10][8][10][4](95)

Sword Damage: 21L + extra successes.

Also, spending 4m in the OOC thread for First Dexterity Augmentation to boost my Dex + Athletics roll.

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: +5 to Strength and Perception
• Orichalcum Caste Anima: +2 raw damage to all attacks

Essence
Personal: 7/16
Peripheral: 11/48

Willpower: 9/10

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 Demented One]

Metal hisses and seethes as the overloaded void-weapon falls through, still radiating an aura of super-motonic heat. The floor of the corridor bends and breaks, its badly-damaged structural integrity giving way beneath your combined weight. Simplicity, Node, and Enforcer manage to break free, scrabbling back from the red-rimmed hole, but Chorus is not so agile. She tumbles, falling through in a rapid arc, and alongside her falls the gremlin predator, its badly damaged chassis writhing in confusion and panic as it plummets. Champion and gremlin both plunge into the factory floor, amid the clangorous clamor of the pounding hammers.

But before the other Champions can attend to their fallen comrade, their is still the prime objective to be attained. He soars into the air, borne on piston-driven legs, tracing out a kinetic spectrum of speed. An effortless sword-stroke cuts through one gremlin-pod like a directed plasma field through solid steel, a single devastating blow. The annihilated gremlin clatters to the ground in two halves, spitting and melting as they roll onto the still-superheated edge of the corridor. As he falls, he catches the cage-gremlin in his bare hands, cracking and crushing its shell with brute overwhelming force. One mighty flex of his prosthetic thews rips away the cage, freeing Citizen Whiskers. The productivity rat happily clambers on to Node, tucking itself away behind the rim of his Perfected Lotus Matrix. The crushed remnants of the gremlin scream in analogue static as the Champion tosses them aside, and then is silent.

Only one gremlin remains, the brutal battle-beast alone in the depths of the factory. Dangling optics, displaced from the machine spirit's brow by the eruption of its drill-spike, nevertheless sight the lonely Chorus, her image reflected in their red depths. It bounds forward, black drill whirling and grinding out an awful dissonance, but the Jade Caste slips past it, side-stepping the momentous charge. The gremlin barely manages to turn from its course before colliding with the massive hammers before it, gouging spiked hooves into the metaceramic floor to brake. Sparks fly, but the voidtech abomination stops short of being crushed by the colliding hammers. Of course, with Chorus trapped in the middle of the hammer-field, this fate may not be far of for her.


Battle Joined

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Initiative
Tick 13: Immaculate Chorus
Tick 15: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes
Tick 16: Virtuous Simplicity
Tick 17: Galvanic Promethean Node, Drill-Gremlin

Locations

Steam Tunnel: Galvanic Promethean Node, Virtuous Simplicity, Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes
Factory Floor: Immaculate Chorus, Drill-Gremlin

Hammers
Zone One: Fires on Tick 15
Zone Two: Fires on Tick 16
Zone Three: Fires on Tick 17 (Immaculate Chorus, Drill-Gremlin)
Zone Four: Fires on Tick 15
Zone Five: Fires on Tick 15
Zone Six: Fires on Tick 15

Galvanic Promethean Node

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

DV -2

Immaculate Chorus

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6 levels of lethal damage.

Tick 13: Immaculate Chorus

[WhiteKnight777]

Chorus

Isolated from both friend and foe, Chorus scrambles to determine her best course of action. She felt her wounds keenly - but even that could not stop her from her mission. She could not fail her people - her city, her nation, her mechanical messiah. There was too much riding on her to let herself die - not to mention the many precious resources her city-state had invested in her. But most of all, it was her love of the Autocthonian people that drove her on - a flame burning in her breast that would not die. No force in all Autocthonia could prevent her from protecting those she loved.

Summoning up her strength, she tensed, hurling herself into the air with a mighty cry, trying to get clear of the deadly field with a single mighty leap.

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Channeling her love for autocthon and its people into a refusal to get hammer-timed. Translation: Channeling compassion into jump.

Dexterity + Athletics: 5-4 = 1d10+5 successes

(1d10)[6](6)




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)

[Whiskeyjack]

Node murmurs to Citizen Whiskers, "Hold tight, little one. You are safe and I will allow no danger to come to you. But this battle is not yet over, and this facility not yet secure."

Glancing from the two recently-shredded gremlins to the other foes fallen in combat, Node's hyper-sensitive scanners search the area for the hammer override key in the wreckage he can see. Humming in the background of his mind is the grief over the loss of his fellow Champion, the shame of failing to protect a member of his team. Beneath that grief is an unwholesome feeling of efficiency demanding that he reclaim as much of the magical slag and damaged Artifacts as possible for repair and reuse. Node relegates those thoughts to a subprocessor, freeing his blade from the magnetic grasp of the legendary shield and peering down into the gaping wound in the floor, peripheral vision still sweeping the area for any trace of the missing key.

Node chews his bottom lip thoughtfully, considering the prudence of going after the drill-gremlin. His own safety would not even be a consideration normally, given the gremlin's potential for further damaging the factory. Yet now he hesitates and considers the options, weighing the need for his own safety against the need to destroy the Maker's tainted servant below; the choice is not easy, especially because Node is safeguarding the life of the productivity rat, and will not allow a second death to wreck the morale of this city. Node becomes increasingly uneasy: the implications of a powerful Voidtech weapon concealed so close to the city also weigh on his mind; how many more of those things might be concealed in vents such as this one, waiting to launch an omnidirectional blow against the crowded industry of Zul?

[The Demented One]

Immaculate Chorus cracks the floor beneath her as she leaps, the sheer strength of her compassion more than enough to shatter steel. Like the ascending cylinder of a piston-driven engine, she rises upwards, clearing a full ten feet, just barely clutching the edge of the hole burnt into the roof. The hot metal is still superheated, charring the jade plating of her hands as she clambers up. Below her, the drill-gremlin chitters in rage, its gnashing gears grinding in impotent frustration.


Battle Joined

Spoiler

Show

Initiative
Tick 15: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes
Tick 16: Virtuous Simplicity
Tick 17: Galvanic Promethean Node, Drill-Gremlin
Tick 18: Immaculate Chorus

Locations

Steam Tunnel: Galvanic Promethean Node, Virtuous Simplicity, Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes
Second Floor: Immaculate Chorus
Factory Floor: Drill-Gremlin

Hammers
Zone One: Fires on Tick 15
Zone Two: Fires on Tick 16
Zone Three: Fires on Tick 17 (Drill-Gremlin)
Zone Four: Fires on Tick 15
Zone Five: Fires on Tick 15
Zone Six: Fires on Tick 15

Immaculate Chorus

Spoiler

Show

1-die stunt, 2m.

1 level of lethal damage from passing through the molten metal hole.

Tick 15: Joyless Enforcer of Absolutes

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Enforcer looks down at the Gremlin below, his gaze the embodiment of cold fury. The enemies continued to throw tricks, wrenches into the gears. No matter, this was no grand scheme so complex as to outdo the Champions. The smokey terror of his anima banner gripped him like death's hand itself, and he lept from his perch on the brim of the newfound hole in Autochthon's flesh.

His soulsteel claws and feet slammed into the sides of the hollow pillar as he made his way down to the Drill Gremlin. He threw himself down, and his leg, knee and fist collided with the steel ground with a deep grinding of metal. Like a deadly cloud, heavier than any metal he did land right before the monster.

"Your threat ends here, lawbreaker."

His hands reach out from his anima banner and grip the shell of the blackened virus in the belly of his land, his god and tightened his hands around it. His muscles clenched and his feet sank perhaps another half inch into the steel. He begun to spin.

He dragged the monster across the ground in a circle, letting the momentum carry it off the ground and bearing the burden of it's weight. His grip was powerful, his muscles were taught and his fury was cold. Finally he let his foe free, sailing through the air on a path the monster did not choose of it's own accord.

The crushing sounds of the hammers... They sang the song of bitter justice, of a champion's hand extended from the body of their god. And so that song would surely be the last thing the lawbreaking monster would hear. His downfall, his eternal rest, his inevitable death.

Spoiler

Show

Normal clinch attack, blowing 8 motes on First Dexterity Augmentation.

Dex+MA+So and so: (19d10)[3][6][9][10][3][8][9][9][2][5][5][8][2][1][7][3][5][7][6](108)

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

Willpower: ●●●***

Essence
Permanent: 2
Personal: 2/12 (6 Committed)
Peripheral: 0/36 (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 hits the ground with dark menace, his limbs and armatures unfolding like the mechanisms of cruel psychopomp gears. His black armor glows red, licked by the invisible tongues of heat that limn the edges of the jagged molten shaft. The gremlin skitters back in fear, but the Soulsteel Caste pins it with one mighty blow, his fingers puncturing and sinking in to the composite carapace of the beast. Enforcer lifts it up above his head, and flings it forward with catapult strength, lobbing the gremlin through the air, and dead into the path of the oncoming hammers. Twin pistons fire, driving forward their huge metal payloads with colossal force, crushing the hideous abomination between them. Shards of metal and bone spray Enforcer, clattering harmlessly off his soulsteel shell.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Joyless Enforcer stood up again, calmer, quieter, almost relaxed. His anima banner was already beginning to become transparent, he started making his way back up to secure the mission. He walks up the steel stairways with, looking about the room at his fellow Champions. "Is the productivity rat secure? It must be delivered to it's station."

[Whiskeyjack]

Node nods. "Well done, comrade. Yes, Citizen Whiskers is secure." He gently stretches one hand over his head and affectionately rubs the rat's head with a single finger. "But we must find the hammer key and deactivate the grid before we leave. It will only slow down the cleanup and reclamation teams."

Node glances over to the pile of slag that was once a Moonsilver Caste Champion. "And the remains of our brother-in-arms must be recovered with due formality, dignity, and respect," he adds quietly, summoning an inner resolve. "But also efficiency. I believe the other factories on the city's rim must be secured and searched as well. That voidtech weapon was installed here, not merely stored or carried here by one of the gremlins. If there are more artillery weapons like it installed around...I shudder to consider what a simultaneous attack with all or even some of them would do to the operational status of factories in this patropolis."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Enforcer turns his glance toward the broken body of the former Moonsilver Caste, emotion remaining unetched on the face-plate of his armor. "Hrm." He walks over toward the body and kneels down beside it. "This mustn't be hidden from the populat, either. They must know what breaking the Laws of Autochthonia causes. Lawbreakers killing Champions..." He is then very still and very silent.

[WhiteKnight777]

Chorus

Barely alive herself, Chorus dragged her damaged shell to where her comrade had fallen - so new were the Champions, and already they had suffered an incalcuable loss. She began to sing - a song of opportunities lost, of a friendship withered on the vine. A song that contained all the deep and abiding sadness that one could have for the death of life that had touched one profoundly, and yet one that was virtually unknown.

[Whiskeyjack]

"Can we take him back as-is? Or is more sophisticated equipment needed to...ensure the proper preservation of his body?"

In the back of his mind, a process beat rhythmically: That could have been me, it said uneasily, repeatedly. That could have been any or all of us. He tries to force it down, but it is...difficult. Node surveys the corpse, assessing whether it will retain material composition if lifted up and cradled, or it it will simply collapse to further slag if disturbed.

"And not to be sacrilegious in this time of great loss, but we still must recover that key. Simplicity, Enforcer, your assistance in this matter is requested."

Setting aside the possibility of moving Scout for now, Node walks over to the destroyed gremlins present in the vent and begins inspecting their remains for any sign of the hammer key. The pulse of his Essence reservoir is thick in his ears, a slight sweat upon his brow sizzling into vapor as his roiling anima consumes it. The necessity of finding the key is a welcome distraction. He had lost men under his command before...but never a Brother.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Enforcer pauses and scans the area, and it takes only a few moments before he takes note of something. He walks over to a metal hatch and opens it with a loud creak, but takes out a dirty grey tarp just big enough to hold a body or two and brings it to the corpse of the fallen Moonsilver Caste. "To keep the wounds of the Scout from the eyes of the Populat. Fear will keep them from work."

[Whiskeyjack]

Node straightens from the final corpse with a long, irritated sigh.

"The key is not here in the tunnels. It may be down there," indicating the hammer-passage, "And thus there is a 97.7% chance that it was destroyed if it was carried by the drill-gremlin. Upon our return, I will refit myself at the Vats and repair the damage to this factory, including stabilizing the hammer array."

He nods to Enforcer. "A sound plan. But the body will not hold up to being moved in any form. Even placing a light tarp over it may crumble it to dust. The only...salvageable components are his soulgem--Maker be praised for that small blessing!--as well as his Charms, any other integrated Six Magical Material components, and his issued Artifacts."

He then turns, his eyes looking to each of the other Champions. "Is one of you skilled in art, or sketching? Or does anyone have an optical data-recorder installed? These moments and images must be memorialized and committed to the data-banks and image-crafters, even if very little of Scout's body will be able to be shown to those he died to defend, simply by virtue of its current ultra-fragile state."

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The Soulsteel Caste didn't wait for a response from the rest of his Assembly, he was in no way skilled enough to sketch and had no recording charms installed. There was little time to waste, this section would be dealt with soon. One thing at a time. The Enforcer collected the rat from the crippled corpse of the criminal scum, and showed it just the slightest bit of invisible affection. "Hrm. Time to complete the mission."

He guided the rest of the Assembly back to where the young women had been waiting for them, clutching the rescued rodent in his Soulsteel grasp far more gently than one might assume he's capable of. The first security officer he saw he whispered to, ordering they section be barricaded to keep the workers out until it was repaired.

"The criminals are dealt with. The productivity rat is secure."

[The Demented One]

Enforcer finds the luminated streets of the patropolis strangely empty, even accounting for this late work-cycle. Soon, though, the reason for this becomes obvious. Regulators line the streets, distinctive in their grey trenchcoats and smoke-tinted goggles. The Tripartite's own law enforcement cordons off a direct route to the Hall of Champions, keeping a silent vigil over your grave procession. Courageous and Swift Scout's remains are like the bier of a state hero, paraded through the city before a stoic, steely audience of watchers. The Unconquered Sun's Daystar has no place in Autochthonia's myths, nor the Gates of Halidom that stand within it. And yet, Scout might well be one of the righteous dead laid to rest within the Howling Crucible, one of those eternal lumen who are set as guardians of the firmament. Indeed, his soulgem is destined to be set upon the brow of a newborn babe, and his soul brought back once more into the Great Maker's service. A Champion's work is never done. A Champion is eternal.

Massive hydraulic presses unfold the gate of the Hall of Champions, elevating a ramp for your entrance. You enter the municipal fortress in silence and austerity, so unlike the fanfare and adulation that once met you here. The assembled mass of mortals is long gone, back to their factory shifts and rest-cycles. Undersecretary Lev is at the control console of the Hall, a multiplex grid of display screens glowing before him. Each screen shows a different angle of Factory Complex 815, surveillance imagery patched through the city security grid. The three children are still within, sharing an Illustrated Propaganda Primer between the three of them. "Welcome back, Champions of Tomorrow." intones Level, somber and severe. "It is a day of triumph and tragedy, indeed. You have triumphed, and yet one of your number is fallen."

The young child laborers rush over to you, happily collecting Citizen Whiskers from his perch on Node's shoulders. "Young Torin, I am assigning you with care of your productivity rat until your factory has been restored to full operational capacity. Remember, the weight of the Maker's work rests on your shoulders." The Undersecretary pats the children on the back, and sends them scampering out of the Hall of Champions. "Now, Champions, we must address the death of Courageous and Swift Scout. It is unfortunate that he fell in the line of duty, but we cannot let this hinder the project. Thus, I would ask you that Scout's death be kept classified, a state secret. We have begun recruiting a new Champion to stand in his stead, but the replacement cannot be known. The Populat will never know that Courageous and Swift Scout ever died. It is the price of keeping our nation, our nations, safe."

[Whiskeyjack]

Node sighs as the Undersecretary grows quiet. His anima has faded from a roiling bonfire to a simple golden glow punctuated occasionally with crackles of gold-white electricity along his body and, more often, through his hair.

The moment of Citizen Whiskers' departure had been a blessing from the Exmachina for Node, seeing the children happy and smiling, knowing they felt safe and secure again, ready and eager to return to work. And yet, that moment had been all too short before the duties of the Champions' position had been brought to bear, and the mechanisms of the State levied against the truth. This was the only world Node knew, and yet...it still felt somehow wrong to him.

He relegated the feeling to a secondary process, to buffer it with logic and turn a feeling into an intelligible counter-argument. There were more pressing matters to attend to, he assured himself before reiterating his earlier warning. "I would again suggest that other factories be checked for the presence of covert weapon systems. There could be other Voidtech installed in other locations, without our knowledge and to our detriment. A deployment of these weapons during a shift or at the time of a shift change would be nothing short of cataclysmic."

He pauses, letting the implications sink in. "As to whatever Champion joins the team...certainly he will not bear the same inherent name within his mind that Scout did, the name he was born knowing. I imagine you seek to find a Champion with similar abilities and capabilities, but the name, and for a Champion to give up his true name..." he shakes his head. "I do not know if that is your intention, but I cannot help but believe it best to tell the Populat. With greater vigilance, and the opportunity to tout courage and conviction at a state funeral, perhaps a greater benefit can be gleaned. In any case, that Voidtech should have been discovered before it was deployed. There was a breakdown in security protocol somewhere, Undersecretary, and that is the most unnerving aspect of this mission."

He takes a breath. "Finally, as you saw," he indicated the security footage, "We were unable to recover the key necessary to manipulate the hammer array. Sufficient time has elapsed since arrival for my Charms to be ready at the Vats; I am prepared to undergo immediate refit to a configuration better suited to repairing and reinforcing the damaged parts of the facility."

[The_Snark]

That sense of urgency which had possessed Simplicity—nay, taken her and swallowed her whole, enveloping her in a transcendent state of existence in which there was nothing but necessity and action—vanished in a flash of light. Her eyelids darkened momentarily, preventing the sight of the white-hot wreckage from leaving dancing spots in her vision. By the time they cleared, the rest of the gremlins were falling, and the molten remains of that awful weapon were plunging into the factory beneath them. Essence still beat through her conduits, pulsing out into a steady blue aura, but in the sudden abrupt silence, she became aware that her reserves were running uncomfortably low. No targets presented themselves. A quick analysis informed her that one of her companions and at least one of the enemies had fallen to the lower floors, but the red-hot metal at the edges of the hole held her back for a vital few seconds; and soon enough it was finished.

Node's words jarred her from her search for targets and brought her back to the unpleasant matter at hand. Though she officially bore no more responsibility for Scout's death than any of her fellow Champions, she couldn't help but feel that it was her duty to deal with the aftermath. She was of the Starmetal Caste: it was her task to anticipate the unforseen, develop contingency plans, and mitigating the damage when errors were made. The death of one of the Champions on their first excursion most certainly qualified as an unforseen outcome—and she could see no easy way to smooth it over. She was silent as they returned, computing possible courses of action and running simulations of the public response.

"There are practical concerns with that course of action, sir," Simplicity added as her Orichalcum comrade finished. Though she had been impatient with his loquaciousness earlier, now she found herself grateful. It was a comfort to know that one of them, at least, would never be at a loss for words, even in the direst circumstances. "I've been running the calculations, and there's a significant chance that Sova will be unwilling to supply a replacement. Relations between Yugash and Sova are still controversial, and the loss of a Sovan Champion will weaken those members of the Tripartite who advocated for joining this initiative. It would be very difficult for them to justify the risk of sending a second Champion, even in the best of political circumstances. The Champions were meant to help bring the Eight Nations together, and this course of action risks alienating one of them." She spoke clinically, without any of the uncertainty or emotion she'd shown before. It was still there, of course, but right now it was easier to retreat into practicalities. Her mind was wheels spinning within wheels, evaluating without emotion or ethics.

"A replacement Champion manufactured without Sova's knowledge would sidestep that difficulty, but it is likely that she would be expected to interact with citizens Scout knew. Her Sodalites, in particular, would have a good chance of identifying her, and if the counterfeit were revealed, it would do far more damage to Yugash-Sova relations than Scout's death alone."

"Unfortunately," she glanced at Node, and for an instant there was a flicker of an apology within her eyes, "revealing Scout's death is even more problematic, as you have determined yourself. Sova might still withdraw its support, especially as they would have lost face publicly. And the repercussions on morale would be crippling: the public is unlikely to associate us with hope and efficiency if they recall that we lost a Champion on our very first mission, barely outside the city."

The Plot Weaver adopted a lecturing stance pulled from some forgotten past life, feet apart and hands clasped behind her back. "I've isolated two courses of action which minimize the negative repercussions. In the first, Scout's death remains classified. An expert diplomat—perhaps a Champion from a nation other than Yugash—should be sent to persuade Sova's governing council to provide a replacement, or perhaps bypass the full Tripartite and approach the Sodalites in secret. If that replacement proves unsuitable for impersonating Scout, the deception will be phased out, with Scout supposedly sent on an extended mission away from the Eight Nations; the impersonator would then join the Champions under his or her own name. Scout's disappearance will eventually be noticed, but the long delay and the uncertainty of her death will drastically reduce the impact."

"Alternatively, we make the death public; if Sova refuses to cooperate, we may be forced to. We make it clear that this was not a routine conflict, and portray it as the first sign of an organized threat from the Reaches. In keeping with this, we mobilize the Populat for a large-scale gremlin hunt, perhaps even a war. There may still be some negative effects on morale, but the change in daily routine will emphasize that this is a serious threat, and that we were lucky to discover it this early. It might be true—that voidtech weapon was installed unusually close to the patropolis—and even if it isn't, we can make use of the mobilization. War unifies a population, increasing productivity and spurring it to decisive action."

"The choice is not mine, sir," she concluded, "but these are my recommendations."

[The Demented One]

"A comprehensive examination of every factory would cost too much in time and resources, Node, but I will notify the Tripartite of your findings. Perhaps we should commission a run of workplace safety posters featuring you and your assembly." The Undersecretary smiles, hesitantly placing his hand on the Orichalcum Caste's shoulder, a friendly gesture. "And if you were to repair the damaged workings of Factory 815, it would be a great display to comfort the Populat. I am sure their shining Archon of Tomorrow will not let them down." His smile is pitch-perfect, teeth bleached white with alchemic compounds shining in the light of the Hall. But his smile soon fades, as he turns to more serious matters.

"But of course, the most pressing issue is replacing Scout. We risk Sova's ties to the Champions project with this, and the political fallout could be dramatic. No one wants to see the Elemental War start anew. Virtuous Simplicity, I'm placing you in charge of a diplomatic mission to Sova. Take whichever of your fellow Champions you need, and make contact with their Tripartite to negotiate a replacement. We need not keep this a secret from their government and sodalities, but any exposure to the Populat would be disastrous. Take enough downtime to reach the Sovan Embassy at Kadar, and negotiate as best you can. Should the deal fall through, managing the news of Scout's death is left to you. Is all this understood?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Immaculate Chorus

Chorus spoke up immediately in answer to the Undersecretary's statement "I will go, comrade." She said, her voice vibrant with emotion. Ever since they had returned, she had been quiet, brooding, quite unlike her usual upbeat self. Not only had she herself been near-mortally wounded, but she had lost a comrade. Death was something she had experienced only in memories, distanced as they were by the passage of time and lives. The sting of it, the bitter knowledge of loss, was as fresh as that of a child encountering death for the first time. Her companions, perhaps, had more of Autocthon in their soul, to be able to bury it and continue their duty. But to Chorus, the idea of simply letting their comrade fall by the wayside was a hard one to bear. She wanted to scream at the Undersecretary for letting a hero, a companion, a friend go unmourned. She wanted to beat her fist against the walls. Most of all, she wanted an opportunity to remember that he had lived - it seemed to her that his existence had been a fading dream, already half-remembered and fading like acid-fog.

Two oily, crystaline tears dripped down her flawless cheeks, and her voice thrummed as she spoke. "I will go. I have... a way with people. I think I will be well suited to the task of smoothing over the difficult diplomatic negotiations. And if things to not go as planned, I know I am the best suited to breaking the news to the populat. I will not lie, sir - I would rather see our comrade given a state funeral. It hurts to let a Champion go unremembered, a hero unmourned. Even in this dark and trying time - especially in this time, people need to know that every sacrifice matters. That the death of one for the good of all is something to be celebrated, not feared. They need to know that death and suffering are not in vain. They need hope for tomorrow. Isn't that why we were made in the first place?" Her voice was plaintive, revealing another facet to her question, though only subtly - the tinge of fear. Not cowardice, not a reluctance to sacrifice - but a fear that she would die without meaning, that if she had to sacrifice herself, it would just be one more loss that the people of Autocthon could scarcely afford to bear. A fear that manifested itself now in a desperate need to take action to right what seemed so very wrong in the early, senseless death of their comrade.

[Whiskeyjack]

Node nods back to the Undersecretary, not irritated for the position of his hand, but obviously aware of the awkwardness emanated from the Tripartate official. We are so alike, and yet so different, he thinks for the fifteen-thousandth, four hundred and twenty-second time. But still, he forces his lips to crease in a supportive smile.

"I shall not. And the posters are a good idea, Undersecretary. Even the smallest bit of knowledge can be remarkably useful if discovered in the right time. Increasing the Populat's awareness increases our own ability to prevent tragedies from happening." he pauses and turns to speak to his Assembly-mates.

"Virtuous Simplicity, if you would like for me to go as well, I am at your disposal. I have an experience with diplomacy, and with the Tripartate in particular. Should it be the case that you want me to accompany the mission to Sova, then there is no time for me to waste here. I will undergo expedited refit and see to the factory repairs immediately." he looks to the other Champions and to Lev. "Please excuse me. It would be unconscionable if I was needed for this task yet busy with another project. If I am needed, you shall easily find me at the Sector Fifteen Vats, and then at the factory in Sector Twenty-three."

Node salutes his fellow Champions, gives the Undersecretary a curt not, and briskly turns on his heel, walking towards the main exit.

Once out of the Hall, Node sighs. Pretty pictures, that's always the solution. Too much time to prevent Voidtech from being assembled in factories? Rat****. In the end, it will be deeds that matter, not words trickling down. But...all we have now are words. Words are the only thing preventing panic and riot. And if such is the case, then I will use empty words til the time that proper action can be taken.

Reinvigorated by his resolve, Node marches quickly towards the nearest Vat complex. He takes the time to smile and exchange words with citizens that he meets, but does not tarry over-long; there is too much to be repaired, too much planning to undertake, too many glitches to fix. And such is the way of Autochthonia.

Node's muscles ease as the winch lowers his body into the warm, bubbling thaumaturgical soup. Having given the configuration orders to the techs, he enjoys this creature comfort as his body is optimized for a completely different task.