[Nexus] Outside XXX

[Mindfreak]

[Bear Jokes]
Good!
... Should we eat 'em?

They're Bearly funny anymore
"I...I don't know. We weren't supposed to be hunting after today so I'm at a loss of what to do with the bodies now...never had bear before though..."

[Beans]

They're Bearly funny anymore
"I...I don't know. We weren't supposed to be hunting after today so I'm at a loss of what to do with the bodies now...never had bear before though..."

We can bring them in as an extra.
Let's get moving.

[happyturtle]

Thessalonikian Walls

Felis tries to steady his rifle and choose a target, but with the walls under attack by Shockomancy, rockets, and other weapons, it isn't much wonder that Felis loses his footing and goes tumbling over the battlement.

Being blessed by Fortune, it also isn't much wonder that he isn't injured at all in his fall.

Thessalonikian Palace

Vita sinks to the nearest couch. "Uncle, my brother has fallen into enemy hands. I must strengthen his mind and help him escape. Please do not let me be disturbed unless the enemy breaks through."

[Mindfreak]

We can bring them in as an extra.
Let's get moving.

Bearly moving
"But wait...I thought you were going to show me more of your...abilities..."

[Beans]

[Bear Cave]
... Um..
Like... um...
I guess I could run you through some drills with your weapons and stuff, y'know...

[Mindfreak]

[Bear Cave]
... Um..
Like... um...
I guess I could run you through some drills with your weapons and stuff, y'know...

BEARS
"yay! Let's do this!"
He gets into a fighting stance

[Beans]

[Bear Cave]
She'll run him through a series of drills; he can probably do them well enough at least.

[UncleWolf]

Slaanesh Mercs

"Let me down, Mistress. I can take care of them. Let the others preserve their strength." Pet tells Razorfang when he finally looks up. Looking concerned, the Wolfen does as asked, but has to use a paw to steady him when he gets to his feet. He takes a moment to breathe, but gives his Love a warm smile before holding up his shackles. As before, she removes her half to give to him. Afterward, he begins walking towards the hole in the wall. "Charlotte. Hat." He asks of her. She gives him a smile and pulls a black fedora from thin air to set on his head.

Pet's eyes begin to swirl into different colors as music begins to overcome his mind, but it stops when he hears Razorfang grunt and cry out. The others turn with him and see that Felis had landed in her arms. "Um...hi?" She asks the man in her arms.

(Godmod approved)

Above the Sea

"Like I said, it's about a day's flight away. We'll probably get there tomorrow at dawn if we take it a bit slow so we'll have plenty of light to search by when we get there." The good Captain explains as the ship lurches forward, continuing on it's journey.

[happyturtle]

Slaanesh Mercs

"Let me down, Mistress. I can take care of them. Let the others preserve their strength." Pet tells Razorfang when he finally looks up. Looking concerned, the Wolfen does as asked, but has to use a paw to steady him when he gets to his feet. He takes a moment to breathe, but gives his Love a warm smile before holding up his shackles. As before, she removes her half to give to him. Afterward, he begins walking towards the hole in the wall. "Charlotte. Hat." He asks of her. She gives him a smile and pulls a black fedora from thin air to set on his head.

Pet's eyes begin to swirl into different colors as music begins to overcome his mind, but it stops when he hears Razorfang grunt and cry out. The others turn with him and see that Felis had landed in her arms. "Um...hi?" She asks the man in her arms.

(Godmod approved)

Fallen into enemy hands. Cute, Vita.

Felis takes a quick assessment of his circumstances. His rifle is lost, dropped when he fell over the wall. Still has a vibroblade in his boot. Let's keep that as a hold-out for now. Definitely in the hands of elite mercenary units, and there's signs that a Wyvern has been near, though he can't see one.

Priorities:
1. Protect Vita.
2. Protect Uncle Octavius.

Priotity 1 was simple. To keep Vita alive, he had to stay alive himself. Priority 2, less so. Vita may believe that they could flee with their Uncle if the city fell, but Felis felt he knew their Uncle better. A fallen city would have its citizens sold into slavery, its leaders executed in the Colosseum. By a negotiated surrender and arranged suicide, Octavius may be able to save some of his people. And he would do that, rather than flee and leave the people to suffer for their loyalty in following him. To save Octavius, they must save the city.

Fortune, continue to favour me...

"Congratulations, my beautiful captor. You have acquired a most valuable hostage, and one I hope you will not execute too hastily. I have ties to the Governor's palace, and - " He lowers his voice. " - I would be happy to pay far better than what the Legion is paying, if you can help us hold this city intact. Anything in my power to give, two souls excepted."

[Mindfreak]

[Bear Cave]
She'll run him through a series of drills; he can probably do them well enough at least.

Bearly Amazing
Not at all actually.
He fumbles over his feet, his arms lack proper coordination, and everything about his stance is wrong.

He's perfectly good in a fight, though she's only seen him fight animals so far, it's just he isn't good outside of a fight.

[Beans]

[Near Bear Cave]
She corrects him, frowning.
Her corrections are kind of meek, amusingly.

[UncleWolf]

Slaanesh Mercs

Razorfang listens closely to what Felis offers before giving a meaningful look to Rugal and the others. The vicious smile on her face told them that she wanted to take the offer. They were Mercenaries after all. Charlotte smiles back, but she can't help but point out the flaw of it. "They have superior firepower and allies you know."

"Of course they do. It'll be just like Trasskan VII. You know, the place with the Hive in rebellion?"

"Yeah, but that didn't go so well for the Hive, remember?"

"Maybe, but we made it out in the end." Pet adds before walking back to his Love and their new captive. Without pause, he leans down to give Felis a long french kiss as Razorfang whispers to the man. "You just offered yourself up to us, and for that, we'll try our best to save your city."

The V'traani Seer gives the Wolfen a sly smile before nodding. With that, he turns towards the hole and walks through. His fists crackle with Warp Energy, and when he points his staff at the group, he sends off an arc of lightning towards them. Instead of hitting the Thessalonians though, it arcs towards Thirteen. The power isn't great enough to kill, but will likely cause a decent amount of pain and muscle spasms, likely disrupting her movements.

With the attack, their commitment to a cause was sealed.

[happyturtle]

Thessalonikian Palace

Brother, no! It was done. She could feel the bond between him and these... she couldn't even read them. They were creatures of Chaos, and now her Brother, her soul, her life... his fate was tied to them, let the city stand or fall.

Thessaloniki - Slaaneshi Captive

Felis is kissed, and his mind goes blank. He'd never been kissed by a man before (was this a man? He wasn't sure...) but at the moment it didn't matter. When Pet pulls away, he simply looks back at him with a dazed expression, barely registering Razorfang's words or his sister's fears.

Thessalonikian Palace

Your fortune has finally failed you, Brother. and she felt the kiss the one called Pet gave to her brother, sealing the deal. She was not unmoved, but this was Not The Time and she let the creature know with a mental slap. It didn't help that it was the best kiss she had ever received, however vicariously.

She got the feeling that the Chaos thing merely chuckled. Well it might. They had Felis, they believed they could save the city. And dear, optimistic, glory-seeking, fortune blessed Felis would find a way to sacrifice himself to do so.

And sacrifice himself he had. After binding oneself to Chaos, she did not know what atonements would be necessary to reach the Elysium fields, if any such atonements even existed.

"Forgive me for making you worry, Uncle. Felis has turned a group of mercenaries from the Legion to help defend the city. Let us hope that he succeeds."

[Rebonack]

[Legion Camp]

For the sake of not slogging through even more bureaucratic nonsense the team will get their APC. They already know their orders. They already know how to carry out their duty. Get that anti-aircraft hardware out of the equation so they can more easily light up priority targets from the sky.

The city needs to be mostly intact after all.

Meanwhile!

Sneak sneak sneakin'!

The tent looks just like any other ammo storage tent full of small bits of metal and weapons designed to throw said small bits of metal through people really quickly. Hood guy takes out a small device, fiddles with it for a moment or two, and sets it next to an ammo crate. Who knows what the thing is supposed to do. Probably something nefarious.

Said ammo crate is then eased open and two others move into position to pull a false bottom out of it. Below? A ladder descending into the secret bunker! How very tricky.

[Thessaloniki - The Wall]

First up, the laser. It begins melting a hole through the wall. It'll take a little while for said laser to melt a hold through said wall. Probably going to get distracted by the guy with explosives first.

On another front!

Treachery!

Betraying the people you were contracted by is a terrible way to keep a good reputation as a Merc group. Why would anyone hire people who switch sides at the first sign of a better deal? Anywho!

Lightning bolt thing! BzzzzZAP!

Fast as a viper 16 latches onto the face of a Thess soldier with one of her feet and hurls him bodily into the path of the bolt, resulting in the poor guy screaming in pain as his muscles seize up and spasm. In the same fluid motion the creature drops flat to the ground as her minigun deploys, whirs to life, and spins in a quick three-sixty hurling metallic death in all directions.

"The mercenary unit attached to me has defected," the Wyvern says to apparently no one as her high-powered rotary cannon trains on the mercenary unit in question without letting up the hail of anti-personnel shells. "I'll require backup to complete the mission."

Given the flame-spitting barrels of her gun and the steady steam of spent casings her position should be pretty obvious. As such her active camo flickers and dies.

[Palace]

The Governor nods at this report, though given his niece's initial reaction he isn't totally sure whether this is good news or bad. "So quick to turn, I pray to Vulcan that they don't see fit to turn again if your brother is in their hands," the old man sighs. "Maybe this is just the turn of events we need..."

[Mr. Moon]

The Museum of History

Spoiler

Show

"Oh..." Eighty replies in what probably isn't the most reassuring voice ever. "I haven't either. They told me that my mind was made so I wouldn't feel bad about killing people. But... I'll admit that I'm still nervous about it."

Those pre-battle bugs that still need to be worked out of her neural net no doubt.

"But hopefully we won't have to shoot at anyone. Hopefully they'll just leave the artifacts here and go away peacefully."

Riiiiiight...

Behind Eighty, Sam's lips twist into an uncertain frown. Maybe the people were different here and they would leave peacefully. But in Sam's experience, getting between someone and something they wanted only resulted in hostilities. Especially if that someone was nervous and jumpy. Allen usually made short work of them, or else talked his way out of any conflict.

But Allen wasn't here now.

Sam looks down at his revolver, where it sat heavily in his lowered hand. "Yeah," he says, swallowing, "hopefully they will."

Allen has no idea what the heck he's supposed to do!

Spoiler

Show

"Alright men!" thunders the Centurion as the APC comes to a halt. "You know your orders! Everyone MOVE!"

Open goes the hatch on the back of the APC as the troops file out, taking up cover around the armored vehicle! Their target appears to be a relatively small looking squat building. Aaaand... it doesn't look like anyone is guarding it?

That can't possibly be right...

Allen joins the line of soldiers moving out, looking around as he does so. His gaze falls on architecture around them, briefly looking for spots where a sniper might be hiding and waiting. Once his curiosity is sated, his attention falls on the building before them even as he joins the soldiers behind the transport.

Weird. No guards, and if it had any importance it escaped him. Once again, Allen turns to a soldier next to him in hopes of more information. "So, ah, what 'zactly's in there, again?" Because if it was unguarded as it looked, Allen had a sneaking suspicion his abilities were being misused.

Outside the Palace

Spoiler

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Explosives and stuff being set up? That might be helpful. And what's more! People showing up to help defend the place! Nifty! The palace still has its own much smaller barrier in place. One redundant with the rest of the city. And much weaker, too. It wouldn't be that hard for a well coordinated force to take it down.

"I see..." the militia guy replies. "Then stand your ground here with us. We can't let those Legion dogs get near the Governor."

Yeah! Show them what for!

Tavish nods to the guard. She lifts a hand, motioning for Mollad to follow her. Together, the two ice elves take their place standing among the guards. With her hands resting on the hilts of Laiaba and Demi, Mallod's looks around at the militia. These weren't soldiers like there had been on the walls. Whoever the general was of this city, he was either desperate enough to only have armed civilians as guards, or foolish enough not to expect to need them. And from what Mallod had seen so far, it was likely the latter. She'd seen and heard tell of many great fortresses like this that fell to similar hubris.

This was probably going to be messy.

Gates

Spoiler

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Marciano's laugh is quieted as the shield goes red. That's bad, it's heavily damaged. Marciano presses a lovely button that activates the giant claw crane thing. The crane flies out and swings to bite the ice elf clean in half with it's powerful mechanical jaw.

Luckily, Keval is quick and nimble enough to move out of the way of the crane before it can snap closed on him. After all, as quick as it is, the crane has to take a moment to spring out, unfold, and then launch at him.

Keval backs away further, until he's under the cover of the brick awning of a shop and hopefully out of the crane's range. Pulling another bolt from his quiver, he presses it into the firing mechanism of his crossbow and reaches down to pull up the string. It's a simple but slow process - he won't be ready to fire again for a few moments.

Spoiler

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Haz and Roosevelt scramble to their feet, both with absolutely no intention of being impaled on Moon's sword when it comes swinging towards their cover. Haz realizes only too late that she didn't rush out alone, and hastily tries to catch the blade with the barrel of his shiny laser rifle. It'll probably be useless afterwards, as guns with swords buried in them usually are. Even if the sword doesn't quite stick, he tries to kick the pointy-eared bastard away, to give him room to gather his wits and plan out his immediate counter-attack.

"Crapcrapcrapcrap! Roosevelt, one's flanking! Hand me your saber, we're being-"

The cavalry saber slides out of its hilt, but isn't passed along to HazMag. The mightier of the two MagClones instead holds the thing in a defensive stance, waiting for Moon to make the next move.

"I'm afraid I have an elf of my own to sort out, sir. The notorious Ms. Shadesri. Perhaps you've heard of her?"

"**** you, this one has a sword too, and there's no way I'm stopping him with this stupid little baby knife."

Roosevelt sighs, plunges his saber into the ground, reaches behind himself to grab HazMag, spins them around to switch places, and then borrows HazMaggy's 'stupid little baby knife' right from the other clone's utility belt.

"There. Now you have the sword, and I have the lesser swordsman. Will that do, sir?"

"...Goddammit."

Sure, maybe knife-fighting a swordsman wasn't the most comfortable situation in the world for Haz, but now he's up against Moon! There's no way this is an improvement upon his earlier predicament!

Lesser swordsman? That's rather damning. You don't even know the fellow, Roose. Rather unsound tactical planning there.

Sevran's sword is deflected by Haz's gun, but he manages to flick the blade horizontal so it merely skitters down the barrel. As metal meets metal, his blade flares into a nova of glorious white light. Might daze Haz for a few moments. But Sevran himself seems unaffected. He raises his sword for another strike but before he can make it, he is kicked out of the way. He staggers back a few steps, giving the two MagClones time for their little switcharoo. Roosevelt and his knife are met with the fixed grin of Sevran's bear-shaped helmet, his red eyes sparkling behind it. In the time it took them to trade places, Sevran has regained his balance. He has the advantage of reach, and he's not about to waste it. He picks up a third chakram off his belt and hurls it at Roosevelt, hopefully disarming the burly MagClone. Even as the chakram leaves his hand, Sevran darts in a step with his sword extended, slashing low at Roosevelt's leg in an attempt to cripple him.

Meanwhile, Moon Called certainly isn't giving the pair any breathing room. After crashing into their cover, she picks herself up and hefts her blade so it sits on her shoulder. With a cry, she spins and uses the momentum to swing the massive sword at the position Haz is about to occupy. He's certainly welcome to try to parry it with his new sabre, but the force of the blow might just end up knocking the sword from his hand.

[Zefir]

The shield is very strong and doesn't even seems to be affected! Marciano is laughing now at the failed attempt. He made his tank to be invincible, and it was working. The RPG smashes the force-field and just kinda disintegrates there. The shield couldn't take too much more though. The wall is attacked once again, the giant top cannon switches to laser mode and fires a Laser Cat! large laser beam that should melt the very wall, causing the structure to fall.



Marciano's laugh is quieted as the shield goes red. That's bad, it's heavily damaged. Marciano presses a lovely button that activates the giant claw crane thing. The crane flies out and swings to bite the ice elf clean in half with it's powerful mechanical jaw.

Then Zefir's grenade hits the tank. Marciano sighs. Perhaps he should have thought of a better idea? He didn't have many tanks. Only three. He had brought all of them though, still...those things took ages to make. The forcefield fades.. Zefir will find a few heat seeking missiles blasted towards him.

[The Wall]

Well Heat seeking rockets are a small problem for Zefir. He will grap into his bag throwing a small device that copys a heat signal, hopefully dragging most of the rockets away. In the last moment he jumps away to escape the last incoming rocket, which leaves a hole where Zefir just stand. Luckily the boy was gone before the impact. Wherever he went zefir was distracted.

The fact Zefir didn't hide faster is due to the sheep flying behind the tank. He need to direct the sheep into the back of the tank looking for any obvious weaker point. Since the shield is gone the sheep should hit. If so it will explode, rather larg for a device of it's size. The explosion is able to destroy normal tanks.

[Mindfreak]

[Near Bear Cave]
She corrects him, frowning.
Her corrections are kind of meek, amusingly.

Near the Bear Cave
Her corrections don't help at all.
He's still quite sloppy.
Eventually he just stops.
"Seskila. These drills are impossible!"

[Eadin]

Above the Sea

"Like I said, it's about a day's flight away. We'll probably get there tomorrow at dawn if we take it a bit slow so we'll have plenty of light to search by when we get there." The good Captain explains as the ship lurches forward, continuing on it's journey.

"Hm, how about I help speed things up a little."
She's a sea goddess after all. She'll walk to the front of the ship, looking at the water.
"With a little help from me, we can be there in a few hours, with your permission."

[Beans]

Near the Bear Cave
Her corrections don't help at all.
He's still quite sloppy.
Eventually he just stops.
"Seskila. These drills are impossible!"

[Near Bear Cave]
She frowns. "... Let's go home and eat and try this tomorrow."

[Mindfreak]

[Near Bear Cave]
She frowns. "... Let's go home and eat and try this tomorrow."

Near Bear Cave --> Hive
Adam will quickly butcher the bears then and put the skins in his pack and the meat on his and her back then.
"Okay." he said, offering her his hand again.
He'll then walk with her back to the Hive.

[Beans]

[Hive]
Back they go!
She goes and gets them something to eat when they get back to their quarters.

[Mindfreak]

Hive
As soon as she leaves Adam removes the bear skins from his bag, cleaned them, and then placed them on his hide stand to dry and later be cured.
When she returns with food he'll be relaxing on his web bed.
"What did you get for us to eat?"

[ThirdEmperor]

Thessaloniki- APC

Narahar didn't dodge in time and has a sword through his arm. He screams in pain and one hand darts towards a bag at his belt, aiming to enter it and pull out a bottle.

Thessaloniki - APC

Teq keeps Narahar pinned, intent on making him stay where he is. As a result, he can't raise a foot or some such to stop the priest's action.

Perhaps the triplets can relieve him of the bottle or restrain him somehow.

At the very least they'll try. One moves in from the side, trying to grab Narahar's unrestrained arm twist it behind the priest's back, preferably in such a manner that Narahar can neither drink the potion nor release it with enough force to cause the flask to shatter- As for all the triplets know, said bottle could easily be an explosive.

The second tries a different tactic of restrait, trying to get a hand around Narahar's neck and hold the edge of his dagger against the jugulars in unspoken threat of swift retribution for any last minute ploys.

[Earl of Purple]

Thessaloniki- APC

"OK, you got me. But I'm a mere mercenary; I know nothing about the city beyond that I'm being paid to defend it. I don't fear death, though you should fear mine." That's a hollow threat; there's no reason why anybody should fear Narahar's death except Narahar, who's died once before and so knows what's waiting for him and doesn't fear it.

For the record, the flask is an Oil of Summoning; when it shatters, an extraplanar giant wasp appears and obeys whomever broke the bottle.

[Beans]

Hive
As soon as she leaves Adam removes the bear skins from his bag, cleaned them, and then placed them on his hide stand to dry and later be cured.
When she returns with food he'll be relaxing on his web bed.
"What did you get for us to eat?"

[Hive]
She shows him the various standard foods she's brought back for them; filling, tasty, though repetative.

[Mindfreak]

[Hive]
She shows him the various standard foods she's brought back for them; filling, tasty, though repetative.

Hive
"Yum...tasty..." he said as he took some, eating it slowly.
He was clearly being sarcastic.
"I hate eating dried food all the time..."

[Beans]

[Hive]
Well, I think it's okay. She shrugs.

[Murkus]

Thessaloniki - APC

"And why's that?" Teq asks, yanking his sword free from Narahar's arm. The holes in his arm have been cauterized by the super-heated blade, so he shouldn't have to worry about bleeding out. The nerve damage, however...

[ThirdEmperor]

APC

"Yeah, why's that?" The triplet (presumably still) holding Narahar's arm back adds in, trying to pry the flask from between his victim's fingers. Could be useful. The one who hung back, meanwhile, will pick up the sickle and examine it, unless someone or something stops him. The third one just stays where he is, content to let the other two talk for him.

[Mindfreak]

[Hive]
Well, I think it's okay. She shrugs.

Hive
"It gets a little tiring after a while..." he said with a sigh, devouring the rest of his so not to draw out the torture.
"I guess I'll go to sleep then...I don't think there's anything left to do..."