Planeside 2

[Recaiden]

Well, one thing remains true. Magic is unfair.

"Can do!"
Another round of moderate velocity munition for the (relatively) squishy dragons.

Poor things going for the biggest target as if it were necessarily the most dangerous.

[Fenric]

Of course not... otherwise it wouldn't be Magic!

These particular dragons are evil and aggressive... but not particularly bright.

And the eight wraiths do have fairly painful attacks, even if they aren't spectacularly effective, which keeps the dragons angry and not thinking clearly... at least for another round.

The dragons continue to blast ineffectually against Steven's shielding, and occasionally try to futilely claw at the thick armor plating of the vessels. Meanwhile, Mote sends yet another corpse spiraling down into the yawning abyss below.

Alright, at some point in the not too distant future I expect someone to notice their pets are overmatched. Keep your eyes open, folks.

[Recaiden]

It's not really directed at Verise, but one might hear a wondering word before the communication is closed.
"Pets?"

Another moment, another shot, according to the targeting spell almost certainly another dragon slain.
They seem to be in a pretty good situation, but they've just been reminded that it won't stay that way. Something worse will be coming, and they've already let some of the dragons get away.

[Fenric]

In this case, Verise is trash-talking and means that in as contemptuous and dismissive a spirit as can possibly be.

And indeed, another dragon spirals into the abyss. Now the others finally take note and scatter: fleeing rapidly in all directions. The wraiths immediately form up in pairs and begin wide sweeping patrols: well-trained and not pursuing.

but nothing happens... yet.

Ground crews to ready: you don't win an engagement by waiting for the enemy to prepare.

A very familiar pair of voices is among the responses

On our way
Certainly, commander.

And it is clear that Katrina and Caroline were indeed not willing to be left out.

[Recaiden]

"High Priestess Caroline? What are you doing here?"

Nothing's happening yet...they may as well make something useful happen.

The Mote, on the other hand, moves to pursue the dragons, plotting a curving course that they expect will let them intercept half of the things and shoot them down (if nothing goes too wrong) before drawing close to the battlecruiser once more. They've already missed the chance to catch all the dragons, but they ought to do what they can.

[Deathkeeper]

Plane of Air

Steven's ears twitch.
"Commander? Why do we have ground troops? I'm really not seeing any ground." he asks, ignoring the specific voice he hears.

[Fenric]

Caroline's voice comes back yet again

That's Gun Operator Second Class Caroline, thank you both very much. I haven't been training for this for the last two years for nothing!

Katrina is more pragmatic.

Hold on to your stomach. I'll try to keep her in one piece, Steven: don't make a special hell just for me, please.

And then the hangar bay doors open and the magnetic latches disengage. Caroline lets out a wailing yelp as the tank plummets down, but it changes to a guttural "urk" as Katrina (silent the whole time) slams the vertical repulsors to full power and guns the throttle to maximum: changing the dire downward plummet into a fantastic rail-free roller-coaster ride of dramatic proportion. As the tank settles down in its headlong rush, Katrina calmly activates the comm.

Glide-slope optimal, target in twenty two seconds.... mark. Reactors green, repulsors green, thrusters green, plasma delivery ready. Unlocking gun-control... now.

Caroline audibly swallows, then shakily responds

Gun control confirmed... oh... loaded and ready. *gasp* um... ten seconds to deploy: blast warning. Repeat: blast warning - primary package, keep one K distance. Fire solution now in 8... 7....

[Recaiden]

Different classes of gun operators. Goodness. The things groups come up with when they're way too big.
"Uh, yes sir."
That's what you say here, yes? Bloom hopes so.

The gunship fires a last shot towards taking down a dragon and turns away from its pursuit. Turns away from the tank, just in case.
You can be sure they're watching, though, from this safe distance.

[Fenric]

Honsestly? Caroline's just a bit busy to care right this instant

Give their doorbell a ring, won't you Caroline?

Yes, ma'am! Fire in the hole!

The shining projectile that swiftly launches from the front of the tank's main gun is deceptively small, and moves slower than it seems it should. But buried inside, a complex series of shells of various exotic materials surround a deadly set of anti-protons and hydrogen held apart by a tenuous magnetic barrier... a barrier that is shut off once the proximity sensors detect the arrival of a sufficiently solid mass at a predefined distance.

With a ferocity that puts stars to shame, the antagonistic particles annihilate each other, and the massive burst of high energy photons is captured by the layers above and converted swiftly to astonishing heat: resulting in a rapidly expanding sphere of plasma (and a few hot neutrons, a bunch of slow ones, and only a minor amount of ionizing radiation in the X-Ray and above bands). Remarkably friendly, all things considered, for a twenty ton high-yield explosive.

And with that, the front gates, their gatehouse, and a good chunk of wall to either side simply cease to be there anymore (not to mention any of Raiden's soldiers who were so unfortunate as to be in the area). A rain of rubble falls down into the yawning abyss below as the convertible fighters convert to their ground form and charge through the opening.

Door's open, cap'n.

Good shooting, Caroline. Switch to anti-personnel and support the walkers. Mote: keep an eye out... for...

Verise stops talking as her long-distance threat detection sensors go fairly solid red

Holy Tamamo.... We got a really big something or an awful lot of smaller somethings inbound.

[Recaiden]

They sit back and admire the blast, glad to have all that on their side.

Bloom completes the sentence for Verise, and then gives directions.
"Keep an eye out for that? Move us up and in, get a clear view of them."

And the gunship is off, weaving through the clouds, keeping a roughly even distance from that thing on the scanners. If they can.

[Fenric]

It's a dragon...

... a dragon the size of a small mountain ...

It's grey, and lumpy, and shouldn't possibly be able to fly. Lightning crackles across its skin as it glides through the air, a determined and rather unpleasant look on its craggy face.

Scanners aren't showing any separation... Mote: is that one creature?

[Recaiden]

"One creature, a dragon."
"Uh...it's very big."

The obvious thing to do, of course, is to shoot at its head.

[Fenric]

Verise turns to Steven

Ok... we're in trouble. Legendary dragon inbound, and we're out-gunned. This ship was never upgraded to what it could be - there was never a point - but it can be.

She looks to the Comm.

Prayer meeting, folks! We've got five minutes tops to get this antique Command Cruiser upgraded to a modern Battle Cruiser. Steven can't do it on his own, so let's hear some poetry!

Steven should feel the first ones starting even before she's quite done. But Verise isn't done...

Anti-air: Capital ship inbound. Get the Broadsword in the air: we NEVER put our eggs in one basket!

Wait... "Broadsword" is a WingCommander II vehicle...

[Deathkeeper]

The Air World

Steven raises an eyebrow, mentally taking notes.
Really? You just want a gun? I mean, with a miracle I could cast Persistent Domination on it. Or Polymorph, or...Okay, gun it is.

The nice thing is that having prayers do the poetry for you means you don't have to really do as much yourself. There's some grinding, clanking, and a definitely copyrighted sound effect as the ship's hull twists and morphs, growing oversized cannons but also the prerequisites...
Well, gotta construct additional pylons to power this thing. That means another power core just for the gun, probably, and room to put those, and the space for the gun to actually aim outside the ship...think the thrusters will need to be stronger to carry the weight? Oh screw it, just make everything overpowered. he says, waving at the magic and letting it take the shape the prayer-givers desire, since he has not enough knowledge himself of the subject to properly redesign the ship.

[Recaiden]

It's not such an uncommon name for something, now is it? And they can have Wing Commander vehicles that stopped by just fine.

"The changes we see happening to your vessel...those are the intended ones? Yes?"

[Fenric]

And away in the mountain base, the starport gets a new building attached to it.

Verise smirks a little

Yeah... you've got a point: that's just the first thing that comes to mind. Hold on to that thought: prayers along those lines may still be coming.

Then to the Comm

Affirmative, Mote: just getting a little divine assistance. I've got a Broadsword heavy bomber getting under way, too. I'm not entirely sure I want that thing to get all the way to us.

The dragon flies as straight toward the action as the clouds will allow: it is not fast. As yet, it takes no notice of the Mote.

In the castle, Caroline's force is soon stuck in a stalemate in the inner courtyard: they can't advance without leaving their vehicles, but even combined the pilots aren't enough to deal with the enemy forces. They, in turn can't so much as show themselves in a window without being immediately blasted into oblivion.

[Recaiden]

And a bunch of jobs as physicists and technicians are created.

That was close enough to an order!
The spires at the back of the gunship glow brighter as it accelerates, and they fire the main gun at the colossal dragon. How can they miss?
Hopefully it takes notice of that, giving the cruiser and bomber time to prepare, even if it's not particularly hurt. Reasonable physical expectations don't really apply to something that size.

[Fenric]

Verise gets the reports from the ground

Steven... I think they may need you on the ground. Your wife has the enemy pinned down, but they can't advance themselves. Somebody needs to take the marines in.

Away by the giant dragon, Mote's first show blasts a shower of rock and debris from the giant creature's back. It does not appear to notice, and further examination will show that there's a lot of rubble piled on top of the thing as if it has been sleeping underground for a very long time.

The Broadsword arrives, being indeed the stocky, triple-turreted bomber from Wing Commander II. It holds about a kilometer distant, and discovers the same problem.

Torpedo sync process beginning... but there's a lot of crap in the way: the thing's covered with a thick layer of rocks and mud. It's unclear how that will compare to armor plate.

[Deathkeeper]

[The Air World]

Steven looks at Verise with some measure of panic.
"Uh, define 'ground' and 'take.' I have no combat training, Commander. I'll only be a liability in a gunfight." he says, with a not entirely inaccurate opinion.

[Recaiden]

"It doesn't seem to even notice our fire, much less be injured by it."

Hopefully the Broadsword has something more suited to this target.

"We'll try to break through the rocks with sustained fire on an area."

At least until someone comes up with a better idea (so far, landing people on it is the best they have, and that doesn't seem like a good bet).

[Fenric]

Verise looks oddly past Steven, and there's a shuffling of footsteps. Then she draws her pistol and shoots him!

the tiny slug clearly hits the bulkhead beyond.

but Steven shouldn't feel anything... at all... like the slug went around him, or Verise missed at point-blank range somehow.

We're in the spirit world, Steven. You're in INARI's chain of command, and to say that you're immortal here is an understatement: there just isn't anybody here in the same league as you. Maybe that dragon... we'll find out.

So when I say "lead the marines", I mean just that: you walk in front and let the bad guys shoot at you, brandishing your swords and being threatening. And I imagine you might just find that not everyone inside is equipped in quite such modern fashion as all that: your sword-practice just may have some practical application. We'll delay rubble-boy out there if we can't kill him, and you go take the objective out from under his ugly mug.

Caroline has no combat training outside of her tank. And she's too timid.

Meanwhile...

The mote's sustained barrage gradually clears an area of pale gray scales. A direct hit on those gets the dragon to finally look at the Mote with narrowed eyes.

Then...

Fire solution locked in: torpedo away.

With a roar and a flare, a large tube launches from beneath the bomber and streaks toward the dragon. They set the armor-penetration as low as they possibly could, but it was no use: the torpedo smashes into the dragon and then bursts out the other side, finally exploding violently but uselessly against the side of a nearby cloud mountain. The dragon definitely notices this offense, and snarls like a restless volcano: drawing in it's breath for a blast.

Direct hit: but failure to detonate. There's not enough resistance to trigger the fuse. Got his attention, though...

[Deathkeeper]

The Air World

Steven blinks.
"I honestly don't understand how that works. I'm touching things here; my body is mortal and physical. Unless I left it behind, I shouldn't be any more invulnerable here. If you insist I'll try, but I don't remember really being any braver than Caroline." he admits, fingers flicking nervously at Eclipse's guard.

[Recaiden]

"Got him!"
Sort of.

This is where Bloom would say something about the forward shields, if they had directional forcefields and not just the protective enchantments on the hull.

What it's actually time for is a burst of speed to put as many degrees possible between them and the broadsword, flying up around the dragon.

[Fenric]

Verise quietly puts her gun away.

You're a lot braver than you give yourself credit for, Mr. Primerra. Now please report down to the drop hangar...

An aide steps up to lead the way.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, Caroline and the walkers still have the defenders pinned in... but it's only a matter of time before somebody inside comes up with something to counter the vehicles.

And over at the giant dragon...

Well... we got his attention at any rate...

The bomber turns sluggishly and begins to pull away: the tail and right-side turrets ineffectively blasting bits of rubble from the enormous dragon. For it's part, the dragon unleashes a barrage of lightning that crackles and arcs all around. It certainly acts rather like proper electricity - jolting and jumping and generally not having much in the way of directionality. But there is so very much of it, and both communications and any sort of electromatic sensing or scanning equipment is abruptly and hopelessly scrambled.

[Deathkeeper]

The Air World

Steven nods, and heads out under the guidance of the aide. He has a lot to think about.

[Recaiden]

"Holding, not as bad as the magical blasts."

The communications officer is slumped at his post. That hurt.
Bloom is seeing to him with a healing spell - did she really try to rhyme 'head' with 'ahead'? I'm not sure that's going to fly - so has no instructions to give, but they know what they're doing. The ship pitches and twists to aim at the colossal dragon's open mouth.

[Fenric]

Steven is met by a squad of werefox marines in full power armor. They brighten immediately when they see who's going to be the leader

Holy Steven!
Such an honor
We can't lose!

and so on... Now into the ship everyone goes! It's a plain looking thing with relatively little in the way of ... well ... anything. There are four seats of a sort for people not in armor, and basic clamps for people who are. There is notably nothing indicating a live pilot at all...

Over at the dragon, the lumbering, colossal beast can move it's head surprisingly quickly and lunges after the Mote: the smaller ship having had the misfortune of catching its attention first. This does have the substantial bonus of shedding a great deal of the dirt and rocks from it's head and neck.

As communications come back....

We're trying to field-modify a torpedo: shorting the fuse to go on impact at all rather than trying for any penetration. Estimate five minutes.

Roger Broadsword. The wave canon is still warming up: we've got a similar delay.

But ground insertion will deploy momentarily - we've got to keep that thing occupied long enough for Steven's squad to do their job.

[Deathkeeper]

The Air World

Steven waves sheepishly at the troops.
"Afternoon everyone. Hope you're all feeling well. It feels strange that I'm not wearing a vest or anything but I'm apparently more or less invulnerable at the moment." he tells them with a chuckle.

[Fenric]

[Air World]

(( Rec's turn ))

---

[Dreamlands - Alicia's Grove]

Oh, fine, Sen: make me into a human.

And not just human shape: Nobu is now the spitting image of Sesshomaru from "Inuyasha". Fortunately, the three-tail is not familiar with the anime and doesn't recognize it.

So... where'd you dump us?

And he looks around at Alicia's dreamscape

[Ionbound]

[Dreamlands - Alicia's Grove]

Dreams! Alicia's dreams are...Perhaps slightly strange. Alicia's dream-self resembles a Greek goddess, glowing with power. The hydra and a version of Nobu's human form from earlier are both nearby, in different, scantily-clad, outfits.

Alicia, for her part, doesn't seem to be lucid dreaming, but as the dream just started, she's kinda standing there, waiting for the action to start. Nobu better do something, quick, before things get out of hand.