[Nexus] AMEN 32: Srs Bzns

[Murkus]

They'll probably see a giant castle town approaching in the distance, and when the get within about 150-200 feet from the base, they'll bump into an invisible force wall.

[The Bushranger]

Shrike, for her part, does her best to act the part of a worn-down slave. Even if ths does look to be enjoying the various lashes a bit more than strictly necessary.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Vartan and his band run into the forcefield, and he scowls. "How are you supposed to get to the base to join with this damn thing on? There's nobody attacking them. Unless it's that flying castle, maybe." He yells toward the base: "Lower the shields and let us in! I want to join you!"

[Murkus]

Three henchies come walking out, carrying concealed weapons. They approach the edge of the barrier, one actually bumping into it. Seems they aren't all that familiar with it yet either.

"Um... hi. Yeah, one of our members kinda had this stupid thing installed and then left it on while he was out. Without telling anyone else how to turn it off." The lead henchman rolls his eyes. For future reference, lets just call him Vates. Because that's a cool name.

Vates turns towards the floating castle-town. "But by the looks of it, he and the others will be back soon. You'll just have to wait a few minutes."

[Moff Chumley]

((The castle should be there. Murkus, I believe you're the only one who knows how to get into the base...))

[Lord Iames Osari]

"Well, that's annoying. And pretty stupid, if you don't mind my saying. What if you needed to leave for some reason?"

[Murkus]

Okey dokey then. The castle's there. Suddenly, the forcefield disappears.

And walking out comes the horribly disfigured Jack Empty. "I'm sorry, what's stupid here guys?"

Vates straightens up, but otherwise looks casual. "Nothing. This slave trader, I'm assuming here, wants to join."

Jack ushers the trader and his slaves towards the base. "Cool, then. Come on in fellas."

[Moff Chumley]

The Moff hops down after Jack and follows the party towards the base. Suddenly he stops: We should probably leave the slaves, under guard, outside. Can't hurt to be cautious.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Vartan jerks his head to the guards, and they get the slaves moving up the slope toward the base proper as he heads up with Jack.

"I'm Vartan. And yes, a slave trader. You?"

[happyturtle]

(So the flying castle is parked outside the valcano, right? Darcy is still there, deadtimed in the middle of the conversation with Ebon and Agatha and the other survivors)

[The Bushranger]

And Shrike heads along with the other slaves, her head down, looking rather downcast.

[Murkus]

((Outside or above the volcano, that's right.))

"Ancient, psychopathic egomaniac." Jack remarks casually. "But yeah, I suppose it's best to leave them outside, at least for now. Or in a seperate quarters. With that business with the cyborg girl, I'm having trouble trusting new members." Too bad the other new guys aren't here, like Darcy or Maggy. They could get a heads-up that Jack is keeping an eye on them.

He turns to the construction workers who are working on finishing the base's repairs. "You lot! Get some people to start setting up a quick pen or something."

[Moff Chumley]

The Moff, with this little precatioun worked out, heads towards the base to catch up on Futurama reruns.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Anshu hunches over, looking at his feet and bending the perceptions of those around him, making him blend in with the other slaves.

"Good thinking. What about this cyborg girl?" Vartan asks.

[Murkus]

Jack waves Vartan's question away, grin receding. "Nothing. Old news. Just caused a bit of a mishap, that's all."

Not to mention Jack's first death since entering the Nexus. But again, old news.

"Yeah. So what compelled you to join AMEN, Vartan?"

They'll travel down the long entrance hall, hopefully with Vartan in tow, and enter the lobby.

The slaves will be kept outside, guards watching them. I would flesh that out more, but I gotta go.

((And deadtime. G'night people. By the way, to make one thing clear: all the slaves and such are disguised so that Jack won't recognize them, right?))

[Moff Chumley]

((The Moff can induct Vartan in Jack's absence.))

[Lord Iames Osari]

((Correct. There's 10 slaves and 4 guards plus Vartan. The slaves are all dressed in rags and chained and generally acting downtrodden. Plus some magics that make them sort of fade into the background.))

Vartan goes with Jack, leaving his own guards to assist in slavewatching.

"Well, I heard you were expanding, looking for people. And that you tend to run through henchmen pretty quick. I thought I might come by and offer my merchandise, and see about joining the group and seeing if that got me any benefits. I had more slaves for you originally, but the market got destroyed by some kind of freak natural disaster. It's pure luck I wasn't there at the time."

[Moff Chumley]

In a rare fit of helpfulness, The Moff will fetch Vartan the application papers.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Vartan looks over the application papers carefully. "I see I have to sign in blood..." he says, taking out a dagger.

***

Outside, one of Vartan's guards looks up as the three Kireeki-class Assault Skyremes begin their final approach toward AMEN. Warstriders in fighter mode launch from the larger ships and scream through the air toward the base as the skyremes descend further to allow their troops to disembark. "Look!" she shouts, pointing to distract the AMENite guards.

Anshu keeps his head low and murmurs something inaudible under the shouting, and the chains fall away from the slaves as he flares his golden anima.

***

As Anshu murmurs to the chains, Vartan suddenly drops the dagger from where it had just made a shallow cut along his palm. His eyes glow black, and his anima flares, shrouding him in impenetrable darkness within the silver petals of a blooming rose. Phantasmal grave hounds pace within the dark-cored silver aura as Vartan's voice - suddenly a woman's voice - utters dark words of deathly command, and trying to seize control of Moff's skeleton.

***

"Da gloriam Incarnae!" Anshu shouts, and the other slaves and Vartan's guards take up the cry, suddenly transforming with a whirl of color into the stylish and facemasked commando uniforms of the Nexus Irregulars. Large jade swords appear in their hands. Anshu's orichalcum razor claws likewise materialize on his hands, and he and the commandos move quickly, trying to punch through the ring of AMENite guards toward the inside of the base.

[ThePhantom]

Outside

Gordon, in dragon form was heading to the base, when the warstrides show up.

"ATTACK! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

Gordon turns to face off agains the warstrides.

Inside

The guards, caught by surprise quickly are cut down. Then Gordon's roar echos through the base. Some henchmen run to man the turrents, while others head for the armory to grab their weapons. A few henchmen try and slow down the exalted troops, but its not likely for them to have sucess.

[happyturtle]

[Inside]

Darcy has just arrived inside and headed for her room to have a shower and change into clean clothes when she hears the attack start.

She casts invisibility on herself and heads for the lava cannon controls.

[ThePhantom]

(Wait, how would she know where those are? She wasn't here when Gordon used it, and he usually keeps it under the lava. Sure, there's are controls to raise it up, but how would she know which ones are those.)

[Moff Chumley]

As Anshu murmurs to the chains, Vartan suddenly drops the dagger from where it had just made a shallow cut along his palm. His eyes glow black, and his anima flares, shrouding him in impenetrable darkness within the silver petals of a blooming rose. Phantasmal grave hounds pace within the dark-cored silver aura as Vartan's voice - suddenly a woman's voice - utters dark words of deathly command, and trying to seize control of Moff's skeleton.

...



The spell is sucsessful. Why wouldn't it be?

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Outside]

The warstriders open fire on Gordon with their Elsewhere stutter cannons, raking him with the small, high-speed magical vortices.

"Whoohoo! Let's show these bastards who they're dealing with!" the Crimson Meteor whoops to the other pilots as she and her vanguard skyfang bank away, maneuvering to set up for another pass on Gordon as the other 10 warstriders continue the assault.

Hurricane-class Variable Common Warstrider

Spoiler

Show

This blue jade warstrider has a slender, streamlined construction, with wings folded neatly on its back. The long, sloping adamant helm/entry hatch extends well down the fuselage and cannot rotate, but nonetheless provides the pilot with a 360º visual field. When in "bird" mode, the legs and arms fold up under the deployed wings, holding the Elsewhere stutter cannon along the centerline of the warstrider, and the pilot reclines in the helm, using the harness to direct the 'strider's flight and fire the cannon.

Elsewhere Stutter Cannon
These rapid-firing weapons fire bursts of coin-sized Essence vortices at high speeds, but the vortices quickly lose cohesion and dissipate. When the vortices come into contact with a solid object, they transport however much of the object they touched into Elsewhere. These "bits" can be retrieved from Elsewhere via a chute at the rear of the weapon for post-mission analysis or other uses.

The skyremes reach a low enough altitude and begin disgorging the ground troops, wearing jump harnesses over their gunzosha power armor that take them safely to the ground, were they form into marching order, unlimbering shields and power maces and beginning to approach the base on foot. The skyremes hover over the ground troops to provide cover and air support.

[Inside]

Anshu and the commandos retrace Vartan/Cerise's route inside, punching through the comparatively little resistance.

"Now, what's your name?" Cerise demands of the Moff as her husband and the commandos (and presumably Shrike) arrive.

[Murkus]

Jack hears Gordon's roar and notices all the events occuring at once. He shouts to some henchmen. "One of you! Engage the crushing hallway. No one else gets inside." This may occur before the slaves-turned-commandos make it into the lobby. The long entrance hallway will start to close on them rather swiftly, attempting to squish them.

The hollow man draws his own weapon, and immediately rushes at Cerise, attempting to put his sword blade at her neck. "Release my friend. Now."

[Moff Chumley]

The Moff feels his jaw come back under his control. I'm The goddam Moff you pathetic... The Moff will spit out insult after insult until he's silenced.

[happyturtle]

(Wait, how would she know where those are? She wasn't here when Gordon used it, and he usually keeps it under the lava. Sure, there's are controls to raise it up, but how would she know which ones are those.)

((She was given a tour and has been wandering the base since she joined. But if the controls are secret, then I guess she isn't going there.))

Darcy suddenly realizes that what she thought was the lava cannon control is actually an espresso machine, and heads for the center of the base instead.

[ThePhantom]

Inside

A number of henchmen manning the turrents start firing on the army, not willing to risk hitting Gordon. Another group go and ready a few surprises for their guests.

Outside

A group of twenty henchmen, man the gate to AMEN, shutting it, and throwing explosive cows at the army with the cowapult.

As for Gordon, given that parts of him are not attached thanks to the stutter cannons, bleeds while he chants.

"Aze mena heni gota farn."

The blood stops in its fall, and forms a red bubble around Gordon.

[happyturtle]

[Inside]

Darcy may see the inside henchmen as she heads for the center of the base, having ninja'd the bossman's player.

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Outside]

The skyremes fire their lightning ballistae, detonating the explosive cows short of their targets, and the implosion bows hurl explosive orbs of magical energy at the cowapult.

The warstriders continue attacking Gordon. There are 15 of them in all, and they make passes in groups of 5.

The ground troops, for their part, aim their power maces and begin firing force blasts en masse at the base/the shield every few steps.

[Inside]

Anshu and the commandos speed up as the walls close on them, and manage to make it into the lobby, save for the last 2 of the commandos, who are caught inside and crushed to death.

Still shrouded in darkness, Cerise forces the Moff to try to tackle Jack as he rushes her. If that doesn't work, she'll block his sword with a gauntleted hand. If the blade is forged of some mundane material, she'll be able to scrunch it up, ruining the edge.

At the same time, Anshu and the remaining ten commandos begin clearing the room of other henchmen.

((Deadtime, hopefully not for long))