Skyside 4

[Shadowcaller]

Skyside Streets

Ambrosia blinks at his reaction only to realize what she just had said. She groans. "Terribly sorry, sometimes I'm just too ingrained in my own way of thinking. I didn't mean a physical part of you. I meant more like a old memory you want gone or a mental part of yourself you think would be of better use elsewhere. A concept of yourself you'd think serve better as a hand." She pauses. "Sorry if it sounds a bit metaphysical but it's how it works."

[Deathkeeper]

Skyside Streets

Sam doesn't look comforted by any stretch.
"Look, you seem nice, but there's no way I'm letting someone I've never met mess with my mind, especially in a way I can't understand. Sorry. " he says, looking a bit afraid of her.

[Earl of Purple]

Chimera Syndicate Trade Platform

"We have been sent by the Night Queen of Groundtown to procure some weaponry. And possibly some vehicles. That ride was most unpleasant. In exchange, we have some items you might be interested in." Though he's not certain how interested the Chimera Syndicate will be in the combat drugs produced by the Great Khans, he suspects they may be interested in some of the technology they've managed to scrounge.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Triangle Street - Factory]

The guard makes a terrible sound, crumpling down around the fist in his gut. In his gut, blood and awful stuff spilling forward as the initial impact sloshes back, and that gurgling breath is the last sound the man will make as his dead weight topples over onto Bo.
And a second later a bullet slams into the dead man's back. The gunshot echoes painfully within the low concrete space, the flash of muzzle fire coming from behind the staircase, an upturned table, a slave trying to struggle free as the guard holds him as a shield and braces the shotgun over his captive's shoulder.

[Orm-Embar]

[Triangle Street - Factory]

If Bo didn't already have a low opinion of these guards, these latest shenanigans would be enough to convince him.

The sorcerer almost triggers another shield spell by reflex at the muzzle flash. But it's draining to keep doing that kind of thing. Instead Bo responds in kind, sort of, by dragging the dead man's body in front of him as a shield for the few steps needed to reach better cover. He finishes up crouching among the broken glass and litter with an overturned workbench between him and the guard.

As he moves, the shimmering air around him takes on an ugly red tone. From cover, he sights the guard - and then the sorcerer's magic lashes out at the gunman in a wave of red light. The attack is aimed at the gun itself. If Bo's spell is on target, the man's weapon should rapidly heat up and become too hot to hold. After that, if left to continue, it could even cause the metal parts to melt; and at that point bad things would be likely to happen to any chemical propellants in the ammunition.

During the few seconds' wait to see if the spell worked, he keeps taking quick looks all around, trying to gain an impression of the changing situation.

The blood all over his hand is sticky. His coat is going to need professional cleaning.

[Darkcomet]

[Chimera Syndicate Trade Platform]

"Barter requires the judgment of a representative appointed by the ID-EM council overseeing this facility. You will be escorted to an area to browse, and the representative will be with you shortly afterward. Do you want to look at weaponry, shuttles, or other vehicles first?" The drone inquires, with its oddly-lifelike speech. "Or would you prefer to meet with the representative here?"

[Zefir]

[Arkant's Factory]

"Hmm." Arkant thinks a moment. "Most of the other rooms are occupied. I could lend you my office for that, just give me a moment."
He stands up and shifts a few files around. If they take a look they see that most of the files he put into the cupboards are employee datas. He puts the books on the table and heads for the door.
"Just knock if you are done." He says and if there aren't any questions he heads out and followed by the man with the gasmask.

[Earl of Purple]

Chimera Street Trade Platform

"If we may see the weapons to begin, that would be much appreciated." The man smiles. He seems totally at ease with talking to a robot, or possibly with somebody through a robot. His home universe has yet to develop telephones, but after getting over the novelty of talking to others through devices with no cables, wires or obvious source of energy to a late-Industrial-Revolution-type-world native (trains, and early cars, but not yet radio or telephones and only recent electricity), he found robots and other mechanisms to be approximately similar.

[Shadowcaller]

Skyside Streets

Sam doesn't look comforted by any stretch.
"Look, you seem nice, but there's no way I'm letting someone I've never met mess with my mind, especially in a way I can't understand. Sorry. " he says, looking a bit afraid of her.

Skyside Streets

"Yes... I suppose..." The scholar scratches her head nervously. She was a complete fool when it came to actually interacting with people, wasn't she? "In that case, if I cannot give you an arm I may at least give you something to ease your suffering. Something to help you carry things." She suddenly opens her tome and tears out an empty ark of paper. "This should do, tabula rasa." She then hands over the ark to him. "Simply project something, the first thing that comes to mind on this."

[Morty]

[Arkant's Factory]

"His new offer sounds reasonable," Wenomir tells Cessie once Arkant leaves the office. "Freeing his employees is something we can do, as opposed to waging war against this entire rotten city. It's also not shameful or dishonourable for us."

[Deathkeeper]

Skyside Streets

Sam stares at the little paper sheet.
"Uh..." he says idly.
He thinks of food. He's only had a few paltry meals in the hospital, and his boss robbed him of even one of those from him.

[Shadowcaller]

Skyside Streets

As Sam thinks the sheet of paper suddenly start to fold itself. First a simply into two halves and then faster and faster, so fast he can't even see what's going on as the paper seem to gain additional dimensions, folding in ways that shouldn't be possible.
Ambrosia quickly let's it go as it starts to fold, watching it with vivid fascination. "I'm not sure that was such a good idea..." She mumbles to herself as she stares at the paper which now seem to slowly fold itself into what appears to be a maw crowned with jagged teeth.

But she then seem to take courage again and stares down the piece of paper. "Help your owner." She commands it in a much deeper tone than she otherwise speaks in.

Then the jaws simply fly away using it's jaws like wings as some kind of bizarre butterfly. It's fast too considering it shouldn't really be able to fly like that. A moment later it's gone.
"...it should be back soon." Ambrosia ensures, though her voice is anything from confident.

[Deathkeeper]

Skyside Streets

"That thing's just made of paper, right? If it goes psycho I can just burn it, right?" Sam asks worriedly as he watches the thing depart. He isn't holding his breath, that's for sure.

[Shadowcaller]

[Arkant's Factory]

"His new offer sounds reasonable," Wenomir tells Cessie once Arkant leaves the office. "Freeing his employees is something we can do, as opposed to waging war against this entire rotten city. It's also not shameful or dishonourable for us."

Skyside Streets

"That thing's just made of paper, right? If it goes psycho I can just burn it, right?" Sam asks worriedly as he watches the thing depart. He isn't holding his breath, that's for sure.

[Arkant's Factory]

"I'm worried about his real intentions. Just the fact he has his factories in Skyside is a red flag, I'm just considering how it will look for us if it turns out that he's a villain. Can we simply claim ignorance then? You have to admit this seems a bit shady. Why hire VIGIL to deal with something like this?" Cessie replies quietly.

Skyside Streets

"O-of course. Not that it would." Ambrosia replies as she looks around after the flying mouth. Just what had she created now?

But sure enough the paper-mouth comes flying back, stopping in front of Sam and then hurls out a number of hot dogs, ketchup bottles and bread in front of him from out of nowhere. While they're now on the ground it at least doesn't look like the mouth chewed on them, it simply devoured them whole.

[Morty]

[Arkant's Factory]

"Maybe he doesn't trust mercenaries? Or think he needs someone of our skill to deal with those slavers," Wenomir says. "You're right, though. We can't be sure if this isn't some sort of scheme. But then, no one deserves to be a slave, no matter who they work for. Freeing his employees from slavery is unlikely to make us look bad, even if he's hiding something."

[Deathkeeper]

Skyside Streets

Sam takes one of the sausages that conveniently landed on top of the bread and not on the sidewalk. He munches on it idly.
"Yeah, kinda glad I set limits outside the head on this one." he says, looking at the paper mouth and its notable lack of intelligence in doing its one job.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row, Near the Street of Slavers

An open wagon trundles along, pulled by what looks like a clockwork triceratops, headed for the Street of Slavers. Ten people escort the vehicle, dressed in smart waistcoats, trousers and bowler hats, armed with batons, stun-prods and shotguns loaded with beanbags, whilst two more direct the polished brass beast of burden at walking pace. Within the wagon are twelve people, all shabbily dressed in tattered clothing and chained to the floor of the wagon by heavy iron links leading from their shackles. One of the people is a girl wearing a ragged blue dress, and she seems to be concentrating. She's leaning backwards, putting all her weight back, away from where the chain is anchored. Despite her slender build, the chain of her shackles is straining with pressure, and break. She's left with a pair of iron shackles upon her wrists, but the chain between them is broken as she tumbles to the floor, turning the fall into an awkward roll off the wagon and away.

One of the slavers moves to interpose himself between her and freedom. Desperately pushing weight into the iron shackles, she runs toward him, faster than usual as her muscles have less work to do. Just before contact, she pulls the weight she had stored in her shackles back, increasing in weight- not mass, density, or size, just pure physical weight- and bowls him over. Recovering quickly, she pushes the weight back into her shackles as she sprints away.

((Interaction Wanted!))

[Shadowcaller]

Skyside Streets

Sam takes one of the sausages that conveniently landed on top of the bread and not on the sidewalk. He munches on it idly.
"Yeah, kinda glad I set limits outside the head on this one." he says, looking at the paper mouth and its notable lack of intelligence in doing its one job.

Skyside Streets

Ambrosia scratches her head again and let's out a sigh. "I should simply have given you money. This is a disaster." Spirits rarely did what you intended of them sadly.

[Deathkeeper]

Skyside Streets

Sam finishes the sausage and wipes his mouth.
"Probably. I should probably go; these were probably stolen and I don't want to get caught with them. You need directions or anything else?" he asks, turning slightly away.

[Shadowcaller]

[Arkant's Factory]

"Maybe he doesn't trust mercenaries? Or think he needs someone of our skill to deal with those slavers," Wenomir says. "You're right, though. We can't be sure if this isn't some sort of scheme. But then, no one deserves to be a slave, no matter who they work for. Freeing his employees from slavery is unlikely to make us look bad, even if he's hiding something."

Skyside Streets

Sam finishes the sausage and wipes his mouth.
"Probably. I should probably go; these were probably stolen and I don't want to get caught with them. You need directions or anything else?" he asks, turning slightly away.

[Arkant's Factory]

"So we're going with the ignorance plead then if anything happens." Cessie summarizes. "If it come down to it, that's what we're both are going to claim. Agreed?"

Skyside Streets

"Just tell me how to get out of here." Ambrosia says with a sigh as she reaches into her tome to pick out a gold coin which she attempts to hand over as discreetly as possible.

[Deathkeeper]

Skyside Streets

Sam smiles and points her to a transit terminal again, palming the coin easily.

[Darkcomet]

[Chimera Syndicate Trade Platform]

"If we may see the weapons to begin, that would be much appreciated." The man smiles. He seems totally at ease with talking to a robot, or possibly with somebody through a robot. His home universe has yet to develop telephones, but after getting over the novelty of talking to others through devices with no cables, wires or obvious source of energy to a late-Industrial-Revolution-type-world native (trains, and early cars, but not yet radio or telephones and only recent electricity), he found robots and other mechanisms to be approximately similar.

"Follow the unit you see here to the designated area and a representative will be with you shortly." The drone will then turn and float along, leading the group to another area. Fortunately for everyone on this otherwise-precarious collection of bridges and platforms, Chimera did in fact bother to install guard rails, or it might be a bit hazardous. Hopefully no one tries to deliberately throw someone off or something. Various other drones are visible leading other groups around, though none quite so large as this one just yet, mostly those interested in browsing and seeing what the Syndicate is up to here.

Eventually, after a few turns on the precarious network of paths, they will arrive at an area best described as a sort of open gun show. Racks of weapons, deployed from hatches in the floor, line the area, from pistols to heavy weapons, as well as a few more unusual pieces mixed in that don't seem to match the other, more common examples.

"Should you wish to test a weapon before purchase, we can deploy a holographic firing range."

[Morty]

[Arkant's Factory]

Wenomir nods.

"More or less. We saved his employees from slavers, which is within our general mode of operations, and had no part in whatever other operations he may have."

[Earl of Purple]

Chimera Syndicate Trade Platform

The group of people will follow the robot. The Great Khans stay away from the edge, but nobody in the group is so blatantly sociopathic as to deliberately throw somebody off the air-station.

"Thank you for your assistance. We'll let you know if anything immediately jumps up at us." The man in stripy robes smiles and bows to the drone, though not especially deeply.

The group of people quickly spread out to look at the differing weapons. The Great Khans are most interested in solid-slug rapid fire weaponry, preferring the reliability of gunpowder to the flashiness of energy weaponry. The two in vests will search out the largest weapons and try to pick them up; they've supernaturally boosted their strength far beyond human limits, so even if the weapon is designed for use on a tripod they should have little difficulty. The man in the labcoat is far more interested in the energy weapons and their principles. The six in their fringed dusters will look for shotguns, hunting rifles and other such weaponry. Their current weapons are revolvers and Wild West-era weapons. The Dunmer isn't particularly interested in the weapons, and the striped-robed man is looking for the weapons that can be bought in bulk and used with little training; the others are more interested in weapons for themselves, whilst he is looking to arm his organisation.

[Darkcomet]

[Chimera Syndicate Trade Platform]

Guns.

Spoiler: Lots of guns.

Show

Easily the most common of the weapons are a pair of laser models, a rifle and pistol, designated the LR-46 and LP-50, each with slight variability from a lethal kill mode to a merely extremely painful stun setting. While neither is made to deal with extra-heavy armor, and they only have semi-automatic capability, they're quite sufficient for less, and are the tried and true weapons Chimera's used for a while now. Though not bleeding edge, they're common, cheaper, and have been made extremely reliable as the models were used and updated over time. There's also a sniper equivalent in the same group, the high-powered LR-50, which does about what you'd expect, and then, most highly celebrated among the lasers is the much more expensive Infinite Descent LR-52B Vari-Las Rifle Mk II. In addition to the LR-46's power modes, the 52B can be adjusted into a number of different firing rates, varyng depending on the current charge. The sustained-beam 'full-auto' mode is comparable to the LR-46 in lethality, and as the user dials up the power further, its rate of fire decreases, effectively giving it a semi-automatic mode with heavier armor-piercing abilities likely sufficient for the heavier personal armor around, and finally a full-blown sniper mode akin to the LR-50. All this comes at the cost of a high pricetag, and there aren't as many of them available. No one's getting 52Bs in bulk. There's also the LP-52X, a much higher-powered laser pistol that could probably burn through near any personal armor, but it has an extremely low rate of fire and charge. Or, it does in theory, anyway. It can fire faster, but it's prone to overheating if you do that. Infinite Descent does not take responsibility for the result of firing LP-52Xs that fast.

Those looking for heavy weaponry will encounter three types, two energy weapon variants and a much more expensive missile launcher. The HL-23 and HL-24 are more laser weapons, each curiously appearing to have some kind of magnetic clamps and linkages on them to interface with...something that isn't seen here, though they still have conventional grips for normal use. The 23 is an anti-tank laser cannon, held akin to a modern man-portable missile launcher, and is powerful and precise. The 24 is more of a heavy rifle-shaped weapon, more like a machine gun, with three barrels arranged in a triangle pattern. It fires heavier sustained beams easily capable of cutting through most any infantry armor, and typically alternates between the barrels to compensate for heating issues, though if one really wanted someone dead, they could focus all three on them at once. That'll cause overheating and heavy power drain, though, and unlike EI tech, these don't recharge on their own, though you can recharge the charge packs if you have compatible wiring and a power source. The last of the heavy weapons is the HP-01X missile launcher, noted as experimental, which uses charge packs similar to the lasers' to power a system that superheats the fuel in specialized warheads, which are then fired as crude, brutal plasma missiles that explode into superheated, plasma-based death for anything nearby, easily capable of wrecking heavy vehicles and anything else that gets caught in it.

Those looking for projectile weapons will find the selection a bit boring, as Chimera strongly favors energy weaponry. However, while it's not exactly gunpowder, one set of weapons does stand out, the CMW-004 and 005, deviating from Chimera's weapon naming conventions. Simultaneously, these are heavy, built to be tough, unlike Chimera's usual preference for sleeker technology. This is because these are older weapons as well, and not originally made by any within the Chimera Syndicate. Heavy gauss weapons with a limited fire rate but very high power, the 004 is a rifle, and the 005 a pistol. The designation stands for 'Cross Magnetic Weapon,' as the weapons were originally developed by the Altaran Dominion's Project Haven for the Dominion's royal guard, and appropriated by Infinite Descent following the seizure of Project Haven's records. They're fairly crude compared to more recent UDN gauss weapons, but still very nasty.

While those looking for shotguns will be a bit disappointed by the lack of any models that stand out, there is a weapon modification of note, compatible with the LR-46, LP-50, and LR-52B, a beam splitter that can be fitted into the laser weapons to make them into impromptu shotguns.

Other than that, there's a selection of older, less notable weapons, like regular old gunpowder weapons and the like. They don't really merit much of a description and you can probably decide the exact details for yourself.

[Earl of Purple]

Chimera Syndicate Trade Platform

The Nebari shall pick up an LR-50, and ask for a target. She's interested in the accuracy, but more interested in how visible the beam is. She's a trained infiltrator and assassin, and whilst lasers make less noise than projectile snipers, the beam can point out exactly where they're hiding.

The Terrisman in the striped robes motions to the Great Khans, and orders one to try the LR-46 and LP-50, both with and without the beam-splitter. Another Great Khan will try the CMW range; more for himself and his colleagues, than the organisation as a whole.

The Thugs in vests are far more interested in explosions than lasers, and will try the missile launcher.

The Dunmer is only here in case things get out of hand and magic is required, though she'll look around, joined after a while by the people in dusters and bowlers.

[Shadowcaller]

Skyside Streets

Sam smiles and points her to a transit terminal again, palming the coin easily.

[Arkant's Factory]

Wenomir nods.

"More or less. We saved his employees from slavers, which is within our general mode of operations, and had no part in whatever other operations he may have."

[Arkant's Factory]

"Very well, let's go back and tell him we agree to his terms then." Cessie replies before heading that way.

Skyside Streets

Once Ambrosia takes her leave Sam won't get a calm moment as another strange person approaches him. "Ah-excuse me, sar but I couldn't help but to hear about your... predicament." While the person is definitely humanoid, it could be easily be mistaken for a mummy wrapped in white bindings as it is with the only hint of what lies underneath is a bright white light that streams through the small openings of the bindings. It wears clothes though, a hood, gloves and a longer skirt. "Your, ah, body is broken is it not?" The being gestures at his missing arm.

[Deathkeeper]

Skyside Streets

Sam frowns at the stranger. Not even enough time to make off with some of the food.
"Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that." he responds simply, and a little bit defensively.

[Shadowcaller]

Skyside Streets

"Ah, but what if I could offer you something even better? A completely new body that would be exactly like your old one except with a complete arm? You'd even be able to make adjustments to it if you so desire, sar." The being offers. "I'm talking about a sar-body, not a robotic replacement. A perfect clone."

[Zefir]

[Arkant's Factory]

When they knock at the door, the big guy opens it. It takes a few moments and Arkant appears right behind him. they enter and Arkant takes his place again.

"So you came to an decission?"