A Dream of Quiet (IC)

[Leliel]

"Yes, Corona. I know. He tried to protect you. Of course, you know how that turned out. He did escape the Usurpation. Come and see."

Corona almost took a step forward. Almost.

"...How do I know I can trust you?"

[Scarlet Dragon]

Dancer is standing a little bit away from Corona/Raziel listening to her/him speak to the voice she is hearing. Dancer doesn't quite get what exactly is going on but he tenses when she asks if she can trust the voice. Dancer sheathes his claws just in case he has to knock her out.

[Recaiden]

Corona almost took a step forward. Almost.

"...How do I know I can trust you?"

"You do not know. You are alone, and in a world you do not understand, in a place you have never belonged. You have only my word. I say I mean you no harm. And your companion there. He will protect you, will he not?"

Pyrus moves to the panels, trying to figure out what they do.

They're made to be so easy a dead person could do it. Pyrus identifies a whole panel that controls the fixed-forward main gun, with a big red fire button in the center. But that's not terribly useful here.
Luckily, he also finds some panels linked to smaller weapons along the sides and rear of the ship, and activating them turns a smaller nearby view-panel into a view from a gun emplacement. It does appear that the guns along the port side of the ship are either not there or not active.
Would probably be easier to aim it from the actual turrets, but this'll do.

[Rhyvurg]

"I'm having Halo flashbacks here guys." He checks to see if the pursuing ships are in view of any of the rear weapons.

[Drascin]

"I always was more of a Battlefield man, myself. Anyway, great. Pyrus, Onyx, see if you guys can manage to drop the pursuers, alright? I figure the cannons in his thing are probably plenty good enough to drop a few light fighters like those."

He sighs. "Normally I might be a tad reticent to make people fall from two hundred meters high, but these are ghosts, they can just float down, so no remorse.

And in the meantime I'm going to help Dancer keep an eye on little miss crazy body hijacker down at the engine, okay? I'm nervous leaving a crazy Solar and an Oblivion engine unsupervised together"

[Leliel]

"You do not know. You are alone, and in a world you do not understand, in a place you have never belonged. You have only my word. I say I mean you no harm. And your companion there. He will protect you, will he not?"

"...That's true....

...But I'm here for more than just me. I know for a fact that nothing comes for free, and I'm not sure what you want will hurt the Circle."

[Recaiden]

"I'm having Halo flashbacks here guys." He checks to see if the pursuing ships are in view of any of the rear weapons.

It just so happens that one of them has come near, a small birdlike fighter ship. The other two are further back.

"...That's true....

...But I'm here for more than just me. I know for a fact that nothing comes for free, and I'm not sure what you want will hurt the Circle."

"I want to protect things, Corona. If your circle is a danger to the worlds, then I will have to hurt them. But I think we want the same things, all told. It is an awful thing to lose one's memories. It has happened to me too often. I would spare you that."

[Rhyvurg]

"Hello..." Pyrus tries to take a shot at the approaching vehicle. His odds are not good.

(3d10)[10][8][2](20) Int+Archery

[Tavar]

"Nah, Halo had decent controls, especially for the vehicles. "

Wing tries to get the shot just right before pulling the trigger on the lead ship.

Spoiler

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Wits (4d10)[2][7][2][1](12)

[Recaiden]

A crackling bolt of lighting arcs out towards the lead ship. It solidly lands on the wing, and the whole ship crackles with energy for a moment as lifters overload and armor plates burn. But it flies on.

A second bolt follows right after. But it misses by a mile, dissipating harmlessly into the air.

By each panel, a few little indication lights change. One flickers on and then back off after a moment. Another set just changes configuration.

(14d10)[8][6][9][8][1][9][10][6][10][8][2][8][3][7](95)

[Drascin]

And its about now that Drake arrives in the engine room again. He looks at Raziel's body puppet for a second before actually entering, making sure nothing crazy's going on.

"So, found out who that voice is already?"

[Rhyvurg]

"Ugh, this is like PC gaming. Who thought better graphic quality was worth using a keyboard and a mouse? Hey, let's take these fast paced games where reflexes and muscle memory are key, then put 'em on a system with a billion buttons all right next to each other. Madness." He takes another shot.

(3d10)[2][1][8](11) Once more with feeling!

[Tavar]

"Point of order: PC gaming came first. And I don't think it's strange at all to want to, you know, aim at the target, rather than aiming around the target."

While speaking, Wing triggers a few turrets, forcing the boat to jerk upward a bit...

Right into the path of a turret that Wing specifically left charging in the meantime.

Spoiler

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Aim for 3 ticks:
Excellency for 2:
Wits (9d10)[7][10][6][5][6][10][10][4][6](64)

[Recaiden]

The ship dodges up, but almost twists out of the beam's path. The machine flickers and slows, too heavily damaged to maintain its previous speed.

(17d10)[2][5][10][4][5][4][1][2][4][3][6][6][5][7][1][4][6](75)

[Leliel]

*Bzzt...crackle*

Corona jumped a bit, and then began to smell the fumes of cannon fire.

"Drake. How many."

[Recaiden]

Pyrus Aims! until further notice.

Meanwhile, a ship comes close enough to the ship to return fire.

A bolt of essence arcs out from the front of the ship, to slam into the back of the Maelstrom, dangerously close to the gun Tavar is manning.

Those in the engine room see the spiky soulsteel assemblage that's not the prayer thing start to move. It whirrs and clicks and sparks.

Dancer, and maybe Corona and Drake, feel a tiny shiver of motion from the blast.

(8d10)[1][4][9][6][1][1][3][5](30)

[Scarlet Dragon]

"So Drake..." a moments indecision over what word to use "it not possessed at moment" as he feels the shiver Dancer looks sharply at Drake and asks "What going on to ship?"

[Tavar]

Wing focuses, tuning out everything around him. To be honest, this mostly remind him of that asteroid level in Shadows of the Empire. At least there aren't any giant rocks that have to be shot.

Spoiler

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Wing heroicly uses the aim action for 3 ticks. Should I just move on to the Attack, or should we wait for Pyrus?

[Drascin]

"Three. And I have no idea" Drake replies to Corona and Dancer in turn. "Perhaps it's just revving up because the guys are spending energy to shoot. But I'm going to give it a check just in case." he says, approaching very carefully and checking for the essence flows with his essence senses.

[Leliel]

"Three....wonderful."

Corona looks directly at the bowl.

"Can you save the ship? Help us evade these pursuers? I will listen to you if you add that on top of Karesni's fate."

[Rhyvurg]

Pyrus grits his teeth, slows down, and takes aim before firing again.

(6d10)[9][6][7][8][1][8](39)

[Recaiden]

The voice does not answer in words. Corona feels a wave of semi-meaningful noise smash into her, and then, like a quick waves washing overhead, it's gone.

Drake hears that the essence is flowing off towards the back of the ship, near the turrets


With a bit of aim, the lightning beam smashes into the trailing ship. It stops moving. And then it starts moving again. Down, twisting and diving and spinning out of control.

Spoiler

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(15d10)[2][6][1][6][5][6][3][2][6][1][10][5][4][3][7](67)

[Rhyvurg]

"Okay, I'm changing my vote. We should use the ship to help defend Gem."

[Tavar]

Ignoring the disabled craft, Wing again fires a few distracting shots, followed by one more after they dodge, all of which miss. But now that the threats over, they don't expect the fourth shot, aiming right for their midsection.

Spoiler

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Taking a Shot:
Aimed for 3 ticks:
Excellency for 2:
(9d10)[10][8][3][3][5][2][3][7][8](49)

[Leliel]

Sensing the psychic tide bounce off her, Corona almost asks for the voice to try again...

...then decided to wait and see if the voice had made good on its "protect the ship promise."

[Drascin]

Hearing Corona speak, Drake kind of freezes and looks back. "Okay, do I seriously have to explain why trying to strike deals with mysterious voices of totally unknown procedence that have no particular reason to not lie their ass off and play you is probably not the best of ideas? Especially while we're near a source of evil oblivion power? Raz, man, if you're still there, can you back me up? Yes, I'm paranoid, but I REALLY would prefer to not end today with a Final Fantasy boss fight"

[Leliel]

...Ugh....

Did someone call my name?

It takes a few seconds for Raziel's now-conscious mind to gain Corona's memories of what happened while asleep.

Without missing a beat, the arm shoots up, and begins dragging their shared body back.

WHAT IN THE NAME OF **** DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING! BACK TO YOUR CORNER, LADY!

The body's eyes turn blue-green again.

"Ugh...now you know why I don't call on her more often. She doesn't get we ain't that strong, man. She honestly thought she could deal with that force in the bowl."

Raziel walks past Drake, hoping to help the crew up decks. As he does so, his right arm moves of its own volition, pressing a scrap of paper with Old Realm written on it. He does not seem to notice.

If Drake looks at it, it says, in Old Realm:

Confront him about his family. The one you know as Raziel won't go against Szoreny until he resolves his issues with his real father.

PS: His real name is John Fieldsman, by the way.

[Recaiden]

Coincident with Raziel regaining control of his body, although probably no one can relate the two, the undamaged craft pursuing them breaks off. This is *way* above their pay grade.

The damaged but still flying one, by contrast, ramps up its engines, certainly to dangerous levels, and speeds towards the ship, closing in fast.

[Leliel]

"...Damnit, I regain my body, and this is the first thing that happens?

If I ever find a Maiden, I am going to sue."

More angry than anything now, he throws the battle canteen and what is left of the water in it at the battlecraft. As it does so, it blossoms into the Ichor Flux Tendrils again, this time arranged as a watery starfish that grabs the speeding airboat.

Then, it turns to ice. Very heavy, very non-aerodynamic ice. Ice weighing down one side and not the other.

Spoiler

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Ichor Flux Tendrils, clinching again.

Alpha: (8d10)[9][7][4][9][1][6][4][7](47)

Beta: (7d10)[1][10][1][4][10][2][3](31)

Gamma: (6d10)[10][7][4][2][3][5](31)

[Scarlet Dragon]

As Dancer follows Raziel and see him throw tendrils of ice an idea comes to him and leaps out from the crafts flying towards the battlecraft as well as grabbing the Tendrils and giving them a speed boost. As he approaches he grows to giant size and slams the tendrils with all of his strength into the side of the ship.