Eberron with Giant Robots: Sharn

[Winged One]

Achille just stands there since he doesn't have much to say, but he does decide to remind Rin that there's half of a flying mechanoid in the hanger later.

[The_Snark]

"Well, they didn't use the word steal; they just said they retrieved them from Xen'drik. Did they know the technology was yours when they took it?" Dove sits; it's not actually more comfortable than standing, but it's a courtesy not often extended to warforged, and she appreciates it.

"And, er, I don't mean to rush you, because I really am curious about who you are and where you came from, but what is it that you actually want from our countries? I can't speak for Breland legally, but I'm sure they'd be willing to make a lot of concessions to avoid another war."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax considers that for a moment.

"Hmm...now that is an interesting way of looking at it. I don't know that we were made in the same Forge, but we definitely don't share much in the way of materials, at least, that I could tell....I do wonder who exactly made her, though....while I wouldn't put it past Merrix, I wonder how much of the mobile suit technology he knows about...."

[Elvith Jars]

"Beats me," Angel replies, "I don't know much about their history. I just drive 'em."

[Magnus_Samma]

Morodoc lets his face sink into his hand with a sigh. "Nobody followed them. Right. Well, ...whatever your name is, I'm pretty sure your commander's mech can fly. Why don't you get her to take you in whatever direction you think they might have gone and radio us when you have, oh I don't know, any idea where they are and I'll see about offering some backup."

"Ah," says Anavel, "the ruins of 'Xen'drik'."

He pauses. Keras smiles hugely, points to himself and Anavel, and waves.

"Of course I suppose we never should have expected the remains of our civilization to remain unmolested for however long it's been... but you people have taken it so far... to awaken the machine that even we dared not activate! It's not like we didn't put warning stickers all over the damn thing saying 'Ridiculously powerful engine of genocide, do not god damn use.' And then we're awakened to discover that not only are the modern humanoid races plundering the secrets of our greatest minds, they've used the one that should have stayed buried above all else and used it to render a vast swath of land in the middle of your civilization uninhabitable! Incompetence. Gross negligence. Unseeming hubris of the highest order. Keras could do a better job of running things."

He pauses.

"Unfortunately, since he is one of only five of our people left and it will take at least that many for a proper ruling council, we are going to find ourselves putting that to the test."

"Hey, screw you mang."

"Stop bleeding on the floor!"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin turns away and snorts derisively. "I suppose it's too much to ask for one simple third-circle spell in this outfit. Fine." She walks toward the door, looks slightly startled to see Achille there, but recovers with a "Come on, the team's getting Dove back ourselves."

At the door, she pauses and adds, "It's Rin. Not a hard word," and heads back toward the hangar.

[The_Snark]

"So you are from Xen'drik! Was that before or after the giants..."

ERROR! TANGENT

"... do you think a war of conquest is really the best way to go about it, though? I mean, the current rulers haven't accomplished everything they should have, and they've done some really stupid things, but have you considered how you're going to do this? Kill all their armies until they surrender? Strike at the rulers and force a surrender? Even if you win quickly, a lot of the people would rebel. They're very stubborn about their countries and who rules them, and if there's only five of you you would need people to cooperate with you in order to get anything done. What would you do then?"

[Lucid_Archon]

Liz rushes after Rin and tries her best to lock eyes with her. She looks very worried. "Rin... This is the most important thing we've ever done... We can't just walk into it like always. We need to sit down and plan. I know we don't have much time, but..." She shuffles for a moment, then plows on with renewed vigor.

"Rin. They just beat us. They just beat all of us, and took our friend. This airship is where we are at our strongest, it's our home and base and backup all in one. But they just walked in, ripped the ship and our suits open, nearly killed Thrax and took Dove."

"I hate them as much as you do. But in any fight, we can't stand up to them. We need to figure out a way to hurt them." Liz starts crying bitter, angry tears. "Then we can squeeze out every last drop of life from their bodies..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

(Got a couple of extra minutes on that Wisdom infusion, eh?)

Rin looks, once again, shocked at Liz's emotionality. After a second or so of speechlessness, she matches Liz's gaze and replies. "I know we're hurting and outgunned. I know we stand no chance in a straight fight, especially not against more than one of the bastards. But...it's my fault they took Dove. I could have stopped that guy, or we four together could have stopped that guy, but I chose strategic concerns over saving and smacking some godsdamn sense into a teammate. I've never worked in a team before, and I'm used to my split-second plans only affecting me."

Rin pauses, suppressing anger at herself, and anger at herself for being angry at herself. "We can't beat them in a brawl right now, no. The Tairnadal have an expression that my master taught me when I was first learning the sword. It's hard to translate...it could mean 'courage' or 'burning blood' or just 'hard work and guts'. What it really means though, is that if you believe in yourself and never hold back, you can accomplish anything. Now. I have a plan to rescue Dove. It's a shaky plan, and possibly not any better than the one that got her into this mess. If you don't trust it, I understand. But I can't just sit by when I may have gotten a teammate killed, no matter how dangerous it may be."

She turns toward the hangar again. "This should work with just me and the boss. There may not be room for you anyway. If you could help the techs fix up the Gar Adduran, that should be enough." With that, she starts walking.

[Winged One]

Achille seems startled when Rin mentions the Tairnadal expression, but doesn't say anything until she walks away and he follows her. "Rin? Do you think that I might understand, ah, hot blood if I go with you, um, plan? It's supposed to be the, er, entire point of being a warblade, but I, er, could never really, um, get it."

Spoiler

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You want to keep calling him Shinji? Fine then. I'll turn him into Simon. I was getting sick of his emo crap anyway.

[Elvith Jars]

"One thing's for certain, Dove, like you, is not like a normal warforged. No telling what the bad guys are going to learn by picking her apart. Thank you for sharing with me, one of these days I've got a whopper of a story to tell. In the meantime, I think we should talk with Rin and figure out how to get Dove back."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin smiles slightly, walking ahead of Achille so he can't see it. "I'm not totally sure how I'm going to get everyone to the enemy, but if you want to back me up, I'm sure I can give you a demonstration. You'll just have to show me some of your fancy warblade tricks in return."

[Winged One]

"Um, maybe I can tell you the, er, principles of some disciplines one the, ah, way? It, er probably won't help much, but you might, ah, have a, um, talent for it."

Spoiler

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Translation: if you want to add a warblade level or two as part of our exposure to Magnus' Awesometouched form, go ahead.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax nods slowly and creaks to his feet.

"I will look forward to hearing it, then. I believe you are right....but did anyone see where she went?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

On cue, Rin sweeps back into the hangar and begins asking questions. "Satoshi. Two very important questions. First, is the Gar Adduran still combat/flight capable?" She makes a note to make sure Kara is still combat/flight capable, but she's apparently disappeared again.

"Second," she points over at the head of the partly-assembled Zalmar. "Is that thing flight capable?"

[Elvith Jars]

"Not sure," Angel admits on the way back to the hangar, "maybe somebody on deck saw them. Makes me wonder if they flew in a straight line or zig-zagged to avoid ground fire. They seemed pretty confident in their abilities, I'd guess they flew in a straight line thinking nobody could stop them."

No wait- Sha-something was the lieutenant, I was the Special Operations Medical Sergeant, and Tesla was the Special Operations Engineer. So I'm a Sergeant. Makes sense since Tesla and I reverted to type like the others likely did. But who the Khyber is Lieutenant Sha-something? *Sigh,* for all I know, he/she could be some goblin- and a fantastic cook if I remember rightly...

Angel walks to the hanger the rest of the way in silence, trying to remember bits and pieces of her uptime life. Nothing comes to mind but she does remember a few magical spells she used to know. She walks in just in time to hear Rin's question.

"Planning on taking a ride Honcho?"

[Winged One]

"Oh. I thought you, er, forgot about that." Achille says when Rin asks about the half-robot.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax nods and creaks along next to Angel in silence. His eyes flicker, slightly, as he walks, as though trying to clear his head.

"So I take it this means you've come up with a plan?"

[Magnus_Samma]

Kara abruptly appears behind Rin. "Who needs a plan!? We kick ass and take names, and we don't care about their names."

Awkward pause.

"Though I'm sure listening to her plan couldn't hurt."

"Uh, well, the Adduran's fine," says Satoshi, scratching the back of his head. "The only thing that got banged up was, er, the pilot. The overheating problem's not getting any better, either, but I gather the commander found a way around that."

"It's very liberating," Kara mutters under her breath.

"But, uh, the Zalmar isn't anywhere near ready for battlefield conditions, even the body's only eighty per cent complete."

One of the other engineers looks up. "Eighty per cent? But the Zalmar doesn't even need legs with that flight spell, it should be at a hundred per cent capability."

"... except we haven't installed any of the weapons or half of the armor," says Satoshi, "or even thoroughly tested the flight capacity. It's just a floating coffin right now."

[Nerd-o-rama]

(Oh, that's better. I was thinking it was just the head, and this was going to be a "Permission to use the Ball?" moment.)

Rin thinks on this, tapping her chin in concentration. "Well, better than I thought, but the lack of weapons is a problem. My plan was to fly in, threaten the enemy with magic-launcher-Exterminatus using the Zalmar and the Adduran while their guard is down, and fly off with Dove. Now, we could do the same, slower, with our regular units, but they're damaged, and the enemy would have time to prepare for a counterattack. Rapid assault is the name of the game here. Plus, if it came to an actual fight, we'd frankly be just as boned in those as in an unarmed Zalmar."

She pauses, pacing, and looks closely at the partially-complete mobile suit. "I know you said the weapons haven't been installed...but how long would it take to just bolt magic launchers onto the frame? Not hook them up to power or test them, just make it look like we have enough firepower to turn their hideout into a puddle of pottery glaze? I'm making the assumption they stopped somewhere nearby for repairs, here."

[Elvith Jars]

"Too bad we can't slip in a couple of commandos to swipe their War Gears with too."

[Lucid_Archon]

Liz raises her hand. "Rin, I think this is a bad idea. We don't know where they are. They'll have time to plan no matter what we do. And if they didn't have any qualms about attacking the Adduran then..."

Liz pauses and bites her lip. Then she turns to Satoshi. "Tell me about the overheating problem."

[Elvith Jars]

"Just out of curiosity, why aren't there more Gar Addurans?" Angel wonders aloud. "This airship is ginormous, you'd think you'd have an entire mobile suit division stashed away. And don't you have anything else that can fly, like one of those warforged raptors I've read about? And we're on a diplomatic mission to Aundair, anyway we can contact them for some help?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"The point is that they won't be expecting us now, after we just had a hard fight, and we're sitting easy in our own base," Rin explains. "They expect us to spend time regrouping, instead of just hopping in a new mech and pointing scads of magical dakka at them." Rin pauses, and gets a sly smile. "Think about it for another two minutes, I'm sure it'll seem like a better idea then."

[Elvith Jars]

"Exactly. They know we'll be coming to retrieve Dove- at least I would be expecting that- but probably won't expect to be hit so soon. My only concern is would they know we're bluffing about the magic launchers? They managed to slip aboard and check out our mobile suits so they may know our capabilities. Now if we had those rows of mobile suits back at home base to play with..."

[Winged One]

"Why would they, um, bother looking closely at a, er, mech that isn't, ah, finished?" Achille asks. Although the plan is badger-in-my-pants crazy, it makes a kind of sense to him. And it does appeal to something deep in his soul...

[Elvith Jars]

"Good question, Achille, but wouldn't you know want to know how a mobile suit is put together so you can more easily take one apart? Maybe they only paid glancing attention to the suit under construction but it is in the same space as our regular units..."

[Winged One]

"Um, of course I want to know that. All I can do now is, er, tell where the seams in the, ah, plating is." Achille says. "But they could do that in, ah, their own base instead of here."

[Magnus_Samma]

"War seems to be the only thing people in this era really understand," says Anavel, glancing behind him to see the DM headdesking because he completely forgot to reply to Dove's question last time he posted, "but I do not think it will come to that. We need merely impress upon your people the pointlessness of retalation with a sufficiently impressive deisplay of power. Once Leonidas is completed, I will possess one of the most powerful mecha ever constructed. Your governments will have no choice but to capitulate at that point."

He pauses, seeming to will himself to relax a little and seem a bit less insane, "but of course we would not object to acquiring allies. We have already met at least one like-minded individual who intends to assist us, and any who wished to offer their services or moral support will be eagerly welcomed into the fold."

Meanwhile, the DM smacks himself in the head again because he got so caught up in making the Zeong reference.joke that he forgot that the Zalmar really was just a head last time you saw it. We will say that the rest of the suit is being constructed elsewhere in the hangar. Or maybe the engineers onboard just work really, really fast.

"We didn't build the adduran," explains Satoshi, "the gnomes did, and they are working on more. The problem is the prototype is almost impossible for the average soldier to control. It's not even as self-aware as a golem would be, but the elemental spirit inside it does have a sense of its surroundings, so the suit literally has a mind of its own. Kara's the only pilot we've found who has the physical strength and force of will to make it do what she wants it to, and on top of that the 'leaks' in the fire elemental's containment that allow us to use it to power the suit's weapons transfer the heat into the suit's frame. We're experimenting with cooling systems but right now it only has an operating window of about half an hour, and about halfway through that it starts to get really uncomfortable. This isn't the first time Kara's walked out of the thing without her uni- Ow!"

"We needn't go into all the details," says Kara, taking her foot off of Satoshi's. "Anyway, you guys are making some good points. We -could- cover the Zalmar with weapons and bluff our way through a confrontation..."

"Except they've shown willing to attack an -airship-, so there's no telling how ready they'd be to try and shoot down a big mobile suit," says Satoshi helpfully.

"...okay, but we do have a couple of raptors onboard don't we? Can we use those?"

"Aren't you the only one on board with any experience piloting them?"

"... and I wouldn't trust Aundair with a pair of boots right now, much less a rescue mission for an experimental warforged."

".... maybe they'll bring her back by themselves?"

Kara smacks herself in the mask. "Let's call that the worst plan in a series of fairly bad plans. The trick is to select a plan that, while bad, is not -catastrophically- bad and merely ridiculously unlikely. And no, David, I am not doing the girl scout ruse, you just want to see me in a skirt."

The gnome walks away dejectedly, muttering to himself under his breath.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Raptors, you say?" Rin asks. "You know, all we really need out of the Zalmar is flight. If you've got something else that can do that, and we can use speed instead of firepower..."

Suddenly, Rin lights up with a devious grin. "I've got it! As usual, all our problems can be solved with fifty feet of rope, a ten-foot pole, and sufficient application of superadvanced magical techonology..."

>>To be Continued

***

"Next time, on Eberron with Giant Robots: Sharn!

The plan to rescue Dove is underway, featuring more awesome new model kits for you nerds at home, and lots of awesome explosions! Hopefully on the bad guys' side. Will she be safe? Or has she gone Total Pacifism on us like a sissy? And regardless of that, what else lies on the northern horizon? Friends in Aundair, or mortal enemies in Thrane? Or vice versa?

Meanwhile, the team's secrets drift gradually out of the mists of memory and secrecy. Who is Achille's master? What happened to Angel's team from the future, and why did they return in the first place? Where is Thrax's brother? Why is Liz such a slut? Ow, hey, I was just kidding! Jeez.

All this and more on the next episode of Hyper-Dimensional Magical Girl Ri--I mean, Eberron With Giant Robots: Sharn.

Oh, and Angel says there'll be more fanservice. Whatever that means."