[Nexus] Outside XXIX

[Dark Elf Bard]

Yes... much better... thanks...

She falls asleep, breathing softly. {Scrubbed}

[Hattish Thing]

Gazebo

He does ask her, ER...y-your ear...You Ok?

[Dark Elf Bard]

She's fast asleep. Maybe in the morning. Darn, she missed the sunset!

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Thessaloniki - The Vents]

Ah. So that's a wyvern. Leeh mentally kicks himself for not thinking to check the ceiling thoroughly. Clearly whatever stealth tech they're using is pretty advanced, so next time he'll have to try something a little more complicated to ensure no other wyverns get the drop on them...

Assuming there is a next time.

But if there's a wyvern here-

...

How many wyverns sneaked in this way? There can't have been many, surely? If the legion's army was full of these things the city would've been crushed already, so there can't be many of them to begin with...and they wouldn't commit all of them to a mission like this, surely?

If they lost all their wyverns here, they'd be thwarted instantly. They'd want to hold some back for some alternate strategy or to lead the assault on the city once the generators are deactivated.

......

Leeh turns and runs for the generators. He's willing to bet that at most, there's two more wyverns. Probably only one more. So if one of them is here playing distraction, the other one must still be working on destroying the generators. Which means there's still a chance to stop them. He figured they'd be too late for sure, but now it seems like they might have arrived just in time. Maybe.

"Hold it off!" Leeh shouts as he runs, adjusting his shape slightly to strengthen his legs so he can sprint faster. Ideally he wouldn't give the game away like this and hope the wyvern just figured he was running in fear or going for cover, but he doesn't want the rest of the group thinking that...and they might let it pursue him if he didn't warn them. No, he's making it nice and obvious what he's doing...and hoping the rest of the group is strong enough to at least keep that wyvern occupied for a while. Ideally they'll kill it of course, but it does look pretty tough.

[Hattish Thing]

Gazebo

Marty smiles. Good, she was asleep. She traveled a lot. Time for her to sleep. He then takes out a little ring that will teleport them to Trogs Second Floor.

[Zefir]

[Thessaloniki - The Wall]

Yay. Zefir jumps up happy that he got a hit there. it seems quiet hard to hit them after all.

He goes for another realoading having hit once makes the whole thing more funny. Also it's his last pack of rockets for that weapon. Let's hope he can get another hit.

As Zefir is ready he stands up again aiming and shooting the rockets again. He still tries to aim 3 of them at the vehicle in front, while the last one got aimed at the vehicle he hit before. Best get sure there isn't anyone who survives.

[Mr. Moon]

Legion Transport - Sam and Eighty

As Eighty nudges Sam, he staggers a little but stays standing. Reaching out, he places a hand lightly on her muzzle. She's surprisingly warm under his fingers. For a long time he looks up at her, frowning. "He yelled at you," he insists. "Called you names. There's more ways to hurt someone than just hitting them, Eighty. He upset you. I saw it."

The transport swerves to avoid being hit by a rocket. Sammy staggers and falls, bruising his hip as he hits the ground. He grunts and sits up. For a moment he considers standing again, but that might not be a good idea at the moment. May as well stay down here until they arrived.
"Where I come from," Sammy continues, "people don't let other people hurt their friends."

Thessaloniki - Vents

The falling rubble is all the warning Tavish needs. "Above!" she cries out, turning to face the attacker. She spots the wyvren just as it lands and by the time the beast swings it's vibroblade, Tavish has brought her glaive to bear. She angles the oak staff so that the blade slides down it, then twists and pushes forward to knock it away.

The immediate threat neutralized, Tavish skitters back a few steps, putting the metal of her glaive in between her and the wyvren. The blade flashes through the air as she cuts down and up, wedging the blade into it's armour.
Except, oddly enough, the blade doesn't seem to strike a moment before it should. By the time the sound of contact rings out, the blade is still in the air.

At the same time, Mallod darts into motion. She slides in to fill Leeh's vacant spot, blocking the wyvren's path after the beast. Raising her twin, brass scimitars, she darts in and slashes out, aiming for the gaps in its armour.
The blades are hungry, and they sense the prey before them.

[Rebonack]

[Thessaloniki - The Vents]

It's worth noting that the Wyverns are about eight feet tall, give or take. They're big. But that aren't massive by any means. More or less the size of an ogre. Climbing around on one probably would work that well.

Especially when the creature's tail lashes out, aims to wrap around the shadow mage's leg, and the face-plant him into the floor. Ouch.

As Leeh flees the weapons pod on the creature's shoulder splits open and FWOOSH! a rocket goes launching from the pod and slams into the ceiling just in front of the shape-shifter! The whole building is rocked by the explosion as a shower of stone rubble and masonry collapses into the hallway.

A human scrambling through there would be time consuming, if not impossible. And that's what the Ninety-Three is counting on. Seems she isn't aware of the whole shape-shifting thing.

"Stand before me as a warrior and fight!" the creature hisses after Leeh.

"You aren't a warrior, you're a monster!" Gaius yells as he kicks the safty off his rifle and opens fire on the beast. Aside from the joints the creature's whole body is encased in orahalcum armor. Most of the rounds deflect harmlessly off, leaving little more than shallow dents to mark their passing.

A few others strike the monster's maroon flesh, but it proves to be only slightly less resilient than the armor. He wasn't kidding when he said these abominations are hard to kill. All the people in melee with the monster makes it even harder to aim properly...

As the glaive clashes against the vibro-blade Ninty-Three's wrist mounted weapon retracts suddenly, leaving Tavish with nothing to push against when she thrusts the pole-arm's haft. This may leave her somewhat off-balance for a moment.

Then Mallod darts into the fray, twin blades hungry for blood. And they're met in kind. The Wyvern's other vibro-blade splits down the center and spins, filling the air with a high-pitch buzz. Ninty-Three parries the scimitars, the force of the impact incredibly fierce and offering the very real threat of ripping the swords from Mallod's hands. Like a viper striking the Wyvern lashes out with one of her legs in a bid to catch Mallod by the head in her talons. Should the beast grapple the elf she'll pitch herself forward, bringing the full brunt of her half-ton bulk down onto Mallod's skull.

Suddenly glaive attack! The Wyvern... Doesn't even try to dodge or parry and takes the attack right in one of the joints of its armor. The glaive is wet now with crimson blood and Ninty-Three lashes out to grab the weapon's haft with her free hand before it can be pulled back. Should she get a firm grip she'll attempt to sheer through the staff with her claws.

[Thessaloniki - Nearing the Vents]

Wendy and co are getting close! Close enough to hear the sound of a rocket explode inside the temple and the whole building to shake.

Officer Silas motions to everyone to follow! "We need to get in there and help before the enemy forces take the generators! Get those doors open!"

A chorus of 'Yes sir!'s ring out as several men run up the stairs and begin heaving against the temple doors open with all their might. And manage to push them inward just a little-

BOOM!

-setting off the explosive charges rigged to detonate when the doors are opened.

[Legion Transport - Slaan Mercs and Sixteen]

The ruined, twisted APC lays there on the rocky plane that stands before the city. Black, acrid smoke rising into the sky around it. There's no possible way anything could have-

*SHLUNK!*

A four foot long vibro-blade pierces the vehicles hull before carving a neat circle out of the plating which is then hurled away. Wyvern Sixteen hauls herself out of the wreckage, blood running down over an eye but otherwise still kicking. A weapon pod on her back splits open, deploying a rather unfriendly looking rotary cannon that trains on the incoming rocket.

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!

The automatic fire cuts the projectile from the air, causing it to detonate harmlessly while still some distance away.

[Legion Transport - Sam and Eighty]

As the transport jostles and lurches Eighty reaches out with one hand to steady Sammy, but unfortunately she was a little late with the gesture. So instead she just squats down a bit lower to remain at his level.

"That's just how Centurion Antony is," Eighty whispers back. "You heard him calling the other soldiers names and he isn't even mad at them. He's mad at me because I made a mistake. And he's in his right to be mad. I was only deployed a few days ago, I still have a lot to learn about the battle-field. It's his job to make sure I do learn instead of getting killed."

And she doesn't want to get killed. Even if getting killed would be an honorable death in the eyes of Mars without question. Especially considering how dangerous most of the missions the Wyverns are sent on. She won't be a coward, but she wants to live! If she survives until her twenty first birthday she would get to go home and see her family again.

Mother and father and little brother Ananias. She'll have learned so much about medicine, she's sure of it. She'll be a hero and no doubt they'll let her work at the hospital!

...even like this?

Yes...

Yes!

Even like this! Because everyone respects a hero!

Without thinking about it Eighty flashes another smile at Sam. "It'll all work out, I'm sure. Vediovis has seen to it that we'll be seeing to the injured together! It'll be the safest place on the battlefield and I'll make sure you aren't hurt."

[ThirdEmperor]

[The Legion - C&C Tent]

Those still inside are hurried off to the remaining transport along with Centurion Legate. That should include the triplets, the bald newcomer, and the weird bug man. "Everyone inside! MOVE! You'll be briefed on your mission on the way!"

The triplets need no further encouragement to get going, hopping into the transport and grabbing seats next to the door. "What sort of resistance can we expect to encounter and how well armed will they be, sir?" The one clad in green asks, the other two running quick weapons checks, making sure nothings broken or at risk of jamming in the midst of battle.

[Murkus]

Legion - Strike Team APC?

Assuming that Teq's been promised proper payment, the bug-man boards his APC. Still without any visible gear. He's merely wearing a large, dark ceramic-plated uniform with additional body armor underneath.

He looks quite used to bumpy rides, and at the very least braces himself. It's doubtful there's a seat on board that will fit him, unless some of the Legion's mutant supersoldiers needs big seats.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Thessaloniki - The Vents]

Ah. That'd be one way to slow someone down, wouldn't it? However, this is by no means the first time Leeh has been forced to make his way through terrain that a normal human would be incapable of passing.

Making up new forms on the fly can be challenging for Leeh, having to shuffle things about internally constantly, potentially cutting off circulation to certain areas for a few moments as things are rearranged, and so on. But when it's something he's done time and time again, it's automatic. He barely has to think about it.

And so within moments he's shifted into a blob. Just a simple blob of grey goo, with his various hidden items all bundled together in the very centre of his body.

And suddenly the rubble is much less of a threat as he simply oozes over and through it all. Of course being a blob he doesn't move as fast, but still reasonably fast enough that within moments he'll have made his way through the obstacle and onto the other side.

The wyvern's challenge to him leaves him shaken, though. Quiet whispering voices from his past start to ring in his ears, reminding him of all those times in the past he's turned and ran away. Is this really any different?

With difficulty Leeh shakes them off. He needs to focus. As soon as he clears the obstacle he'll start shifting back, hoping the wyvern also made it too difficult to get another shot off at him.

[Rebonack]

[Legion Transport - Triplets, Bug Men, and Bald Ladies]

Yay, into the transport! The back of the APC seals up and the vehicle takes off toward the city. The PCs find themselves riding with soldiers outfitted with some pretty heavy weapons. Looks like they're planning on running into some harsh resistance.

Or at least heavily armored resistance.

"Alright, listen up," Centurion Legate yells. "Our target is a vital one. The command center for the city's automated defenses."

A holographic map of the city is projected for all to see and the Centurion points to its location. "We're going to be punching into a heavily fortified and well defended bunker. But once we take this out most of the heat focused on our men up on the surface will go dead. This isn't going to be a cake-walk. And I expect to see honor and courage displayed by all of you. Am I understood?"

"YES CENTURION!" those abroad the APC thunder in reply.

[The Bandicoot]

The Vents

Flarg grunts as his face is slammed into the ground. Then, as he hears the door opening he teleports outside the building just in time, avoiding all but a small headache-inducing chunk of falling rubble. Did I NOT tell them to use the window? I could've sworn I said use the window. he doesn't seem to notice that his head is bleeding quite profusely. The wolves change into small puppies and poke/crawl around in the debris trying to find Galus.

[Gullara]

[North Forest]

Riss gave a small shrug. It was rather hard to know where to go without knowing where 'here' was. Or how to get anywhere from wherever 'here' might be. "Don't know." she said aloud, wringing her hands as she looked about, seemingly seeking clues as to where 'out of here' was. You could just ask her. I mean, she probably knows the area better than you do. Then again, you had to use geo-tracking to find your way anywhere on foot so that isn't saying much.

Gritting her teeth for a few moments, the muse steeled herself before forcing herself to speak. "Where.. Um. The way out?" she managed to say, stumbling over the first half of her question and, rather than trying to get it right, just plowed forward to the end. Oh hey, looks like you managed to get the gist across. Now we just have to work on, oh yeah, Actually Friggen Talking without sounding like a child learning sentence structure. Is that the problem here? Are you still in your formative years? No? Then why the hell are you talking like it? Riss actually flinched outwardly from her internal castigation. Though slight, it would look as if she was reacting to a small sting.

[North Forest]

Mimi stares at Riss oddly for a moment, tilting her head slightly. This girl sure is strange. "I could show you if you want. I mean, we're kinda in the middle of a forest, but I can at least send you in the right direction."

[Lady Serpentine]

[Thessaloniki - Walls]

On the sections of the walls containing Rose and Felis, a change might be noted in the Bloodthieves. Specifically, their expression shifts to one of feral exultation (not to be confused with exaltation, as Rose is the only one of those here ) as they begin to use their life-link with the Siphons to seek targets on the battlefield, reveling in the draining process.

[Legion Transport - Triplets, Bug Men, and Bald Ladies]

Despite the fact that they're more powerful, in basic abilities, and thus more tempting targets, than the simple soldiers of the Legion, the triplets, Teq and the muse are all left alone; Teq's life-signature reminds them of the Kyorl'Zuraj, and they have no desire whatsoever to try to fight one of those at the moment, so only one of the weakest Legionaries is targeted by the Siphon/Bloodthief team that hits this transport, in the hopes that their chosen victim die quickly enough that the bug-man won't get any sort of trace on them.

Of course, in a somewhat amusing twist of fate, their description of him, when one looks at what they mean by Kyorl'Zuraj, is going to be completely accurate - Teq is, in fact, a giant bug-thing with psionic abilities - even though they misidentified him.

[Legion Transport - Slaan Mercs and Sixteen]

The team targeting the occupants of this particular transport, however, has no issue with going after strong foes, and locks onto Sixteen almost instantly, the very fact of her power acting like a beacon to them as they try to drain her.

The other two teams haven't yet found anyone to try to drain, as they're closest to Rose, who's obscuring their vision to some extent, in a manner similar to the way it's harder to find a small patch of reflected light on a brightly lit section of wall than it is on part that's in shadow, since, as an Exalt, she's considerably more powerful than just about anything else on the field, though it's only a matter of time before they pick someone.

[Morty]

[Thessaloniki - Nearing the Vents]

Goddammit, Wenomir snarls as he runs up to where the door used to be and looks inside, scanning for the enemy and/or futher traps.

[Earl of Purple]

Thessaloniki- Gate

Narahar lifts his hands and draws his sickle, running it across his left hand. The wickedly sharp bronze blade slices through his skin, blood welling up and onto the sickle. As the blood touches the bronze, the engraved runes glow with dark grey light and absorb the blood and Narahar's movements start to blur as they speed up. It's not very fast at the moment, but the more blood the sickle drinks the faster it boosts Narahar's speed.

[Lord Magtok]

Legion Transport - Mystery Meat and Marciano => The Wall

HazMag's right eyes twitches slightly, and he turns his head towards Roosevelt. They're getting closer and closer to the wall, but he hasn't heard anything that sounds even remotely like guns on his side of the battlefield. They're still sitting ducks, and nobody's doing anything about whatever it was that caused the explosion earlier.

"Roosevelt, it's time. Blindfold, off. And remember, if he's not heard from for ten minutes, we tele-yank him back."

The cyborg obsessed with a dead president nods reluctantly, and the third member of their party has his blindfold removed. The first thing Needs Food Badly does after opening his eyes is stick his tongue right out at his commanding officer. That same aforementioned tongue then stretches out about a foot or so, comes back around to press itself against the mage's forehead, and does a ridiculously impossible salute because holy crap nobody's tongue should be able to fudging do that. The worst part is, NFB probably would've done that even if his arms and legs weren't tied up at all.

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Can I keep the rope?"

Roosevelt looks to Haz, who merely shrugs. By the time they look back to where the deranged sorcerer was, however, he's already long gone, along with the rope that was wrapped around him. The MagClone wizard known as Needs Food Badly turns himself entirely ethereal, passing right through the transport he was inside as if it were nothing, and immediately goes looking for trouble.

He finds trouble pretty quickly, too. Apparently some magical folk are trying to sap everyone's life-energy. That's just terrible! We can't have that sort of thing going on, someone might get hurt that way! Needs invisibly floats through the air like some sort of disgustingly malformed radioactive fish monster, trying to find a victim or two of the life-draining effect. If successful, he'll try to 'swim' upstream, riding the magical energies in an attempt to find its origin and then manifest in the belly of one of those individual siphons, as a malevolent tiny, spiky ball of flesh-shredding terribleness. For now, he's unlikely to seem to be anything worse than maybe an ulcer, if noticed, but that could probably change in an instant if that foul wizard is so inclined.

[Terumitsu]

[North Forest]

Well that would help, I guess. But it looks like you don't want to say it aloud, do you? Unless you want to be stuck here, I suggest you at least do something. Mimi might make note that Riss' already frighteningly pale skin color had lightened a few shades more around her cheeks as the muse bit lightly on her lip before taking a half-step toward Imp and lightly tugging at the chain. Given that the hellbeast was rather fixated on the idea of guarding, it seemed, some time was required before she got the idea that it was time to move again.

"Lead." the muse said, not quite reaching the volume of a normal speaking tone. Pausing for a moment as if there was something she had forgotten, Riss quietly added a single questioning word while hoping it wasn't something that would sound weird. After all, Aesop hadn't been activated at any point during this conversation so, as far as the muse could tell, she hadn't done anything too upsetting. Unless she was just that terrible at reading social cues. She wouldn't be surprised in the least if this was the truth. But regardless of if this was the proper usage of the word or not, the fey might easily pick up on the tones of uncertainty and tension even if the muse herself was unable to.

"Please?"

[Legion Transport]

The bald-headed muse smiled to herself when the shout rang out. It had been a good idea to put the helmet on, it seemed. While it's primary function was cranial protection, it also served to dampen visual and auditory senses. While others might find this a terribly stupid thing to have, the muse found it to be a necessity currently given recent events. She was still having trouble adjusting to the new intensity that everything had and information overload was still a very real possibility. And standing paralyzed in a noisy and rapidly changing environment (like, say, a battlefield) was a good way to make something go terribly wrong. There was no such mask for olfactory senses, though, for better or worse. While potentially helpful, at the same time, the scent of bodies crammed into the back of an APC that smelled of ozone.

So they were off to take out a bunker, then? What fun. While the majority of those on the transport appeared to be more or less rank and file, the bug-thing and the trio there didn't seem like they shared the same skill sets as the rest. Eh, what do I have to lose? "Hey, you." the muse said to Teq, raising her voice so she could be heard over the noise in the cabin. "So what do you do, anyway?"

[orb_of_blood]

Outside Trogs

Kale:

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Outside Trog's- Drunken Elf versus Angry Gnoll!

No doubt Kale does get liberally doused in his foe's blood as he deals the penultimate wound, but what's a little blood compared to everything else, to the all-consuming rage and panic of battle, the searing pain of the claw marks running cross his arms and face, to the triumphant pride of having won, having dealt what he knows must have been a killing blow to the ugly beast? Whatever part of Kale's mind would normally tell him to be disgusted, horrified by the carnage he's caused, has wisely fallen silent and let pure survival instinct take the helm.

Well, nearly pure survival instinct. Wrenching the pick free again, Kale staggers back, pausing to catch his breath and glare a million acidic daggers at his foe through the haze of red. Even amidst what amounts to a small war, Kale's not a killer by nature, not when he has a choice in the matter. Hence why he doesn't press the assault and finish off the wounded Grendar. "I'll give you, give ya one chance. Give up now an I won't haveta end you." He rasps out, having to pause briefly midway through to spit out the blood filling his mouth from where one of the gnoll's claws tore clean through his cheek, leaving him with a sneering half-smile carved onto his face.

Grendar's reply is a wordless snarl, curling black lips back over red fangs. He's adopted a defensive position, his deep wound turned away from Kale. He doesn't want to die, and attacking again would be the stupidest thing imagineable, especially with the searing agony stabbing through most of his mind, unrailing most of his thoughts.

Have to find Sleet. Have to heal this. Have to escape.

Escaping definitely came first. With another snarl that ends in a soft whimper of pain, he backs away slowly, fur raised and claws out, ready to meet a possible second attack from the miner.

Kordak! He calls at last. Kooooooordak! But his call for his brother is lost to the wind, merely only showing off his knowledge that the wound was indeed fatal.

Talnissa:

Spoiler

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Normally, Talnissa would nod, showing she accepts the plan, and thus hopefully making people less likely to freak out when the that's keeping their brains from ending up splattered all over large chunks of ice stops doing so, before she cast the spell. Or something, anyway. But clouds of steam, even ones playing host to a ghost, aren't really well adapted for body language, at least when they're spread out to provide to cover, rather than being molded into a humanoid form, so instead, she simply flows back into her body as fast as she can manage.

Then, as soon as her body is running again, which only takes, once she's inside, a few seconds, she casts the spell. Which, really, is quite simple. A few Cryxian words, a gesture, and the activation of a couple of runes with what's left of the stored necromantic energy, and it's on its way, a poison-green bolt of smoke, twisting and writhing as it goes, flying from her hand towards the Gnoll mage.

If it hits - and though it's possible to evade it, especially by ducking behind someone or something when it doesn't have time to change course, it follows him to some extent - it should render him utterly unable to concentrate, partly through direct means, partly through it putting just about anything that can feel such in quite a bit of pain, as well as render him physically weaker. Of course, if he's magically shielded, it doesn't do any of those, unless the warding is rather weak, instead trying to eat through as many of his defenses as it can.

Well, what kind of mage doesn't protect himself when walking into a battle? True, he wasn't expecting retaliation in the form of spells as he'd already killed the human mage, but as the smoke hits Kremiir's outer ward - a relatively strong protection against spells - and begins to break through it with uncanny speed, he wonders how badly they've underestimated the people on this world. What had they thought? That the Nexus would be similar to Laira, where people feared them instinctively?

Keeping a hold on the raging storm spell as well as his protective wards was taking a toll, but he was not prepared to just lay down quietly. Especially not with Kordak standing nearby, watching his movements with his typical disapproving scowl.

So Kremiir casts a different spell, aiming as best he could without visually selecting targets. Luckily for him, it's an area affect, in the form of a spiked ball of ice bowling through the center of the storm for Talnissa and the slaves. The first creature or object it hits (and by the way they're spread out, it'd be Talnissa as she was in front to cast her own spell) is the luckiest, as they'd be knocked down and only mildly torn up. The creatures around it, however, would find themselves pelted by sharp shards of ice that pierce and tear and impale.

Not that the slaves are much better off where they're standing. But what with the huge chunks of ice that are already falling around them, dodging them is a full time job, filled with leaps and rolls and ducks to the side, making them all the more vulnerable to the new spell as well.

AM4:

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[Outside Trog's]

AM4 notices the blow in time and attempts to parry it. The standard parry is at the automaton's disadvantage, however, as it will result in sending AM4 staggering and losing balance for a moment.

If the Gnoll manages to get by the parry, it will hit the plate above the machine's heart and knock AM4 down. Giving it substantially more time.

The gnoll is easily parried, but takes the opportunity from the stagger to push AM4 down (attempt I suppose). If it doesn't work than he turns tail and flees as fast as his paws can carry him in hopes of outrunning whatever retaliation the automaton will give. Even if it does work, he turns to streak away.

No-one can say gnolls are particularly courageous. The lesser gnolls here are no exception. Already too many have leapt away, the slaves are starting at a rebellion, the entire fight is collapsing in on the slavers. And no other gnolls seem willing to engage AM4 after seeing the energy which had so crippled their brothers sprout from her hands with ease. In fact, if she approaches any of them, they scuttle away quickly and somewhat quietly, whimpering and snarling warnings.

Marty:

Spoiler

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Gnoll Cave of Dooooom

Well, Marty is dragged there easily. But now his large chest wound is bleeding out on the floor. His left leg is burned up beyond recognition. No boot, just a disgusting mix of melted flesh and leather. His foot's toes are burned and long gone. There's nothing there but a lump. It's frightening...now he's merely surviving by determination. His white shirt is ripped where that viscous whip tore his flesh near to the bone in one area. He looks bad. He turns to Drift in a fever of death, "H-help... M-me...l-l-leave....L-let me.....m-me....g-go.... He's tired up now.

Drift chews on his lip nervously. Why is the prisoner still talking to him? He's going to get them both killed!

If he could have looked around he would have, and even so he expects the harsh punishments he's so used to now from his masters. But they don't come and his sensors still seem to say that only he is close enough to hear Marty's wisps of words.

Still, what should he make of them? It is one thing to kill in the Pits, it is another to listen to a man die when you know you can help, when he had been trying to save the slaves in the first place.

What in sweet Andaress' name do you expect me to do? He asks helplessly, his voice barely a whisper. Even that hushed question makes him more nervous than ever and he briefly considers throttling the half-elf for inciting ideas of rebellion in even his mind. Still, that would only raise even more questions, so he keeps his hands down.

[Hattish Thing]

Outside Trog's

Marty looks terrible. His chest flesh has been ripped out. He bleeds into his clothes. He's sweating profusely. His head lolls to the side. His magenta coat is ripped up. His foot is burnt up beyond any resemblance of a human limb. He's as close to death as he's ever been. he's tied up in such a way that his blood drips into a pool around him. He's somewhat delirious.
I...don't...know....P...Please...I just wanted to....he....hel... His voice fades. His lungs are slowly filling with blood.

[Murkus]

[Legion Transport]

The bald-headed muse smiled to herself when the shout rang out. It had been a good idea to put the helmet on, it seemed. While it's primary function was cranial protection, it also served to dampen visual and auditory senses. While others might find this a terribly stupid thing to have, the muse found it to be a necessity currently given recent events. She was still having trouble adjusting to the new intensity that everything had and information overload was still a very real possibility. And standing paralyzed in a noisy and rapidly changing environment (like, say, a battlefield) was a good way to make something go terribly wrong. There was no such mask for olfactory senses, though, for better or worse. While potentially helpful, at the same time, the scent of bodies crammed into the back of an APC that smelled of ozone.

So they were off to take out a bunker, then? What fun. While the majority of those on the transport appeared to be more or less rank and file, the bug-thing and the trio there didn't seem like they shared the same skill sets as the rest. Eh, what do I have to lose? "Hey, you." the muse said to Teq, raising her voice so she could be heard over the noise in the cabin. "So what do you do, anyway?"

When the muse speaks, Teq is quite deep in thought. He's holding tight to one of the corrugated ridges along the inside of the APC, eyes closed, breathing a little slowly. Steeling himself for battle, no doubt. The fear and screaming and dying only gets worse with age, for some people. His amber eyes flick open, and they're drawn to the bald woman.

"Shock and awe," Teq explains, smiling patiently. "I'm very good at terrifying people."

A sudden bump causes his head to hit the ceiling, and the giant winces. Shifting his mandibles with something like anger, he returns the question. "You?"

[Mina Kobold]

Outside Trog's

AM4 staggers, but manages to retain just enough balance to remain standing. The machinaton does not have time to stop the Gnoll from leaving, however, and instead glances at the surrounding chaos.

After advancing towards another of their foes and seeing it run away, AM4 pauses. Normally, the automaton would pursue, but AM4 turns to look for the group's leader instead.

(Sorry, I forgot the name. It's been a while. ^_^' AM4 is looking for the person who got them into the battle, or anyone else close by. )

[Zefir]

[Thessaloniki - The Wall]

Zefir looks at the life draining mages, a bit happy that they work for his side, but still woried. Then his attention goes back to the fiel as he notice his rocket blewn away.

"So you want it guy?"

He takes off the first launcher and takes the other one who only carries one rocket. A much bigger one then the other launcher keeps. Indeed this is a splitter rocket made for air targets , but since there is no aircraft it will do his deeds here.

"Take that."

He shoots the rocket against Slaan Mercs and Sixteen transporter.

[Mr. Moon]

((Sorry for taking so long to get around to posting.))

Thessaloniki - Vents

Wenomir should see a rope hanging down from one of the windows. It's secured at one end by a grappling hook, and tied to a pillar on the other. Might be useful for getting in.

Mallod grunts as her scimitars meet the wyvern's screaming vibro-blade. She rolls back with the angle of the parry, snatching her twin blades free before they can be ripped from her hands. The roll turns to a dive as she darts backwards, curling into a ball and somersaulting backwards to avoid the wyvern's claws. Once her feet touch the ground again she leaps up, surging forward towards the menacing war-beast. The scimitar in her left hand, Laiaba arcs high and her right scimitar, Demi, swings low. It can't block both of them.

The wyvern grabs out for where Tavish's glaive should be...
... and meets only thin air, even though by all rights her fingers should close around the oak staff. She can even see them close around it. Tavish offers no explanation or commentary, save the enraged and silent roar of her helmet. The blade darts in again, the red scarf flapping in the air like a bloody flag, to spear into the wyvern's flank.

Transports - Sammy and Eighty

Sammy can't quite return Eighty's attempted reassuring grin. He sighs, shaking his head. "There's better ways to teach people, without making them feel like crap." But how could he make Eighty understand that? Sammy thinks back to his Pa, how he spent his spare time teaching Sammy how to read, how to dress wounds, how to take care of radiation poisoning. And Allen... Well, Allen was more like that Antony guy. But for different reasons. And Sammy knew not to always listen to him.

Allen...
Sammy looks up at the roof. It'd probably be easy to convince Allen that Eighty would be useful enough to take with them. That was why Allen kept Sammy tagging along, after all. He wouldn't admit it, but the mercenary needed Sammy. It might take a little convincing, but he'd see the value of Eighty's talents, too.
Yeah. That's what he'd do. Once this whole job was over, he'd track down Allen and ask him if Eighty could come back to the Wasteland with them. He smiles to himself, content with his plan. "You're right," he confirms, "it will work out.

[Rebonack]

[Thessaloniki - The Vents]

Bah!

Temporal cheatery. Ninety-three takes stock of the disparity between the glaive's impact and when it actually strikes. Might make it easier to avoid the thing.

Or!

The Wyvern leaps straight up into the air, slamming her claws into either side of the hallway as her second weapon-pod splits open and reveals a nice friendly looking rotary cannon. The gun whirs to life before spitting a steady stream of red-hot death at Gaius and Tavish. Wu oh!

Gaius, fortunately, has some idea of what the monster is up to when it jumps and dives around the edge of the hallway just in time to avoid being ventilated! Vulcan that thing is fast! Far faster than something that size has any right to be.

A number of Thessaloniki soliders pour in through the ruined doors while other pull injured comrades to safety. They're trying to get a bead on the Wyvern, but the blasted thing is using the twisty corridors and vaulted archways for cover!

Leeh manages to get over the rubble heap just in time for-

*kaTHOOM!*

The sound of the generator's steam-collectors imploding on themselves rather violently. Seems the other Wyvern rigged them to vent without the equalizer valve safely maintaining proper pressure.

So no explosion.

But the implosion is violent enough that the whole building shakes...

A second Wyvern is standing at a safe(ish) distance from the ruined generators, watching them each crunch in on themselves in a thunderous domino effect of destruction.

The creature turns toward Leeh casually, then looks down at the floor in front of him.

...

Several explosive charges have been rigged under the bodies of dead priests near the entrance to the generator room.

*BOOM!*

Meanwhile, Outside

Nearby street lamps flicker and die as the main power source of the city is disabled. Which... is bad. Wendy will no doubt notice that the expressions of the soldiers range from terrified to defeated to enraged. This is really really bad.

"The walls!" Silas yells. "Reinforce the walls and the gate! We have to-"

*BOOM!*

And then the wall of the temple explodes outward in a hail of debris, shortly followed by an eight foot tall armored beast that can only be described as a second Wyvern bounds through the jagged hole.

It darts from the temple to the cover of a public bath across the street, but not before lobbing a salvo of rockets at the soldiers outside. Look out guys! Incoming!

[Thessaloniki - The Walls]

The shield flickers.

Flickers and dies.

An as soon as it does rockets begin to streak from the incoming APCs toward the fortifications! Oh noes, look out!

One merc, a wizard of some kind, standing next to Rose abruptly bursts in a cloud of fine red mist shortly before a sound like a thunderclap reaches their ears.

"Wyvern on the wing!" a Thess solider yells, pointing at what looks like golden speck waaay up in the sky in the distance. "It's got a rail-gun! Take cover!"

[Thessaloniki - Dippy and Co]

With a sound like shattering ice the barrier around the city is extinguished. "Welp, that's our cue. Everyone on-board!"

A doorway opens!

Onto an vehicle of some kind?

An vehicle that's invisible! How nifty.

[The Legion - Slaan Mercs and Sixteen]

Sixteen narrows her eyes at the incoming rocket, even at this distance able to tell that something is off. She doesn't even notice the life-drain yet. Too focused on other things.

Like sticking her claws into the hull of the transport and hijacking what's left of the APC's mostly ruined computer system!

Flack and flairs are fired from the transport. Hopefully the counter-measures will be enough to baffle the incoming rockets.

And then sends a message to another Wyvern currently on the wing some distance up in the sky.

"Understood. I see him," Forty-Five replies as he begins to cycle his rail-gun again. Zefir's warning will be a blue flash in the far distance. The hyper-sonic round would reach him long before the rail-gun's thunderous report does.

[Legion Transport - Bugs, Triplets, and Muses]

One of the soldiers starts looking sick!

Huh. Wonder what his problem is.

Probably just nervous or something.

"Alright, their shields are down. Everyone get ready, we'll be at the wall shortly."

Bet they're going to blow up the gate!

[Legion Transport - Sammy and Eighty]

And Eighty is happy to hear that! Now all they need to do is survive the next few minutes as they draw closer to the city...

She reaches out, ever so carefully, with one of her claws and attempts to muss Sammy's hair. Her father had always done it to her and she's pretty certain it was meant to be affectionate. Though it always resulted in her flailing her arms a whole bunch.

[Legion Transport - Allen]

A nearby explosion and the lurching of the transport may suddenly rouse the filthy mercenary from his sleep!

"Alright, this is it men! You all know your orders, get ready!"

A stream of rockets streak from the top of the vehicle and from dozens of others nearby, blasting the front gates of the city into burning slag!

Only to cause a bunch of swords to appear. Huh...

Wonder what they're going to do about that...

Probably just drive through. Will ding up the APCs something nasty though.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Legion Transport - Triplets, Bug Men, and Bald Ladies]

Yay, into the transport! The back of the APC seals up and the vehicle takes off toward the city. The PCs find themselves riding with soldiers outfitted with some pretty heavy weapons. Looks like they're planning on running into some harsh resistance.

Or at least heavily armored resistance.

"Alright, listen up," Centurion Legate yells. "Our target is a vital one. The command center for the city's automated defenses."

A holographic map of the city is projected for all to see and the Centurion points to its location. "We're going to be punching into a heavily fortified and well defended bunker. But once we take this out most of the heat focused on our men up on the surface will go dead. This isn't going to be a cake-walk. And I expect to see honor and courage displayed by all of you. Am I understood?"

"YES CENTURION!" those abroad the APC thunder in reply.

The triplets join in on the shout without even thinking about it, the one dressed in red even trying to give the legionare next to him a friendly punch on the shoulder in the spirit of warriorly bravado. It's good to be part of a war again, even if it is only temporary and they're only hired guns, not actually proper soldiers.

The high level of personnel and equipment being sent on this mission is encouraging as well. If this bunker is as well fortified as they've been led to believe, then odds are the unfortunate sods defending it will have some fairly heavy firepower. Heavy firepower means advanced weapons, maybe even some sort of tech Excelsior's never seen before. If they could salvage something like that, then maybe they could even return home without being executed for failing their mission!

[Mr. Moon]

Thessaloniki - Vents

The wyvern jumps out of the way. It's turret trains on Tavish. The ice elf looks up to regard it, cooly. The turret whirrs to life and the stream of bullets shriek towards the Sabertooth.

There is a bright flash of blindingly white light. The silver decorations on Tavish's armour flares into life, shimmering and coating the ice elf. The bullets hit the magical barrier like a thousand tiny hammers. None of them pierce her armour, but each of them pushes her back. Staggering backwards, Tavish backs up until her back is pressed against the wall and then she has nowhere to go. Grunting with effort, she lifts her arms to shield her neck and eyes. She'd drastically under-estimated the force of the weapon.

But while the wyvern's attention is on the older Sabertooth, Mallod has been working. Returning Demi to it's sheath, Mallod backs up as far as she can. Once her back touches the wall opposite to Tavish, she presses against it and then uses it to launch herself forward. She pounds the ground, picking up as much speed as she can in the short distance, before leaping into the air. Her powerful legs propel her up as she rises up to grab onto the wyvern's tail. Should she get a grip she'll hang there and attempt to slash into the beast's underbelly.

Thessaloniki - Front Gate

The sound of warfare grows louder.
Closer.
Sevran shifts his weight, partially to keep his feet from going numb but mostly in nervous excitement. He always felt itchy before the start of a battle. The feeling always faded quickly, though. Once the adrenaline started.

The shouts around them are more frantic now. Even with his ears covered by his helmet, Sevran's sharp ears can make it out. Something about a generator falling. Something about shields. Before he can ask if anyone knows anything about this, an explosion rocks against the gate.
Ah. That'd be that, then.

"Hey, Priest!" Sevran calls to Narahar. "You ready?"

Because ready or not...

Here they come.

Transport - Sammy and Eighty

Surviving was always the most important part. The hardest part, too.

Sammy protests rather loudly and incoherently as Eighty's talons muss up his already mussy hair.

Transport - Allen

"Zuh?" Allen sits up as the general sound of explosions and voices grows louder. He looks around, rubbing a strand of saliva from his lips with his sleeve.
Oh. Looks like they'd be getting to the city soon. Allen glances down at his gun, checking to make sure it was loaded and ready to fire. Satisfied, he sets it down and reaches under his coat to withdraw a revolver. He pulls out the magazine, spins it, makes sure all the slots are loaded and slams it back in. Good.

Now then. Glancing around, the mercenary nudges the soldier sitting next to him. "So. Uh. That big guy menshunned somewhat 'bout orders?

[Morty]

[Thessaloniki - The Vents]

Wenomir swears, using some words unfamiliar to anyone who wasn't a farmer at some point in their lives. He doesn't really know why the place apparently so vital was so unprotected, but that's not important right now. The barriers may be gone, but the wyvern can't be allowed to run wild inside the city either. The damn thing is escaping fast, though. Well, he's got just the thing to help with that...
He mutters a command word and disappears in a flash. He then reappears near the fleeing wyvern, breaks into an extremely fast run to try and catch up with it. If he manages to do so, he'll try to bury his sword in the nearest unprotected area of its body.

[Thessaloniki - Dippy and Co]

Dipsnig hops into the transport, but his ears twitch as he does so. This doesn't look good.. they're going to send everything they've got at the city now.

[Earl of Purple]

Thessaloniki- Front Gate

"Ready and waiting. Don't go through the gate; I've warded it up with a surprise for anybody that tries smashing through it." Narahar's voice is fast; it sounds as though he's trying his hardest to slow it down, too, though it's not working very well. He's leaving a slight blur behind him as he moves as he activated the magic in his sickle by slicing open his palm. Hopefully it'll drink more blood, and when it does Narahar will be faster.