|
|
Post by Marcel Lestrange on Jul 14, 2016 11:48:33 GMT
"As you desire, Marcel," said Volodja. "Just don't get yourself killed." "Hah! Dream on, dreamer," said Marcel, tossed another cigarette between his thin lips and lit it with a KLICK of his golden lighter. Then marched decisively towards two Assaultrons. When he was exactly between them, he abruptly stopped his fast and steady pace and said: "Excuse moi, Mesdames...I am here to get rid of you both." And he blew big cloud of smoke nonchalantly to their metal faces. Heads of both Assaultron's begun to glow read, predicting a devastating strike from their lasers, when Marcel approached them. Smoke distracted Assautrons only for a second and right after Marcel finished his tirade, two large red beams burst out, penetrating Marcel's tall masculine figure and creating much bigger and thicker some cloud when they hit...  After smoke vanished, members of the small infiltration group saw two Assautons standing as nothing happened. Marcel Lestrange was...gone. Was he really vaporized? Of course not, because soon Taffer, Lady Christianna and Volodja could witness Marcel's reappearance. He became visible, stepped between Assautrons once again and pushed them gently. Both at the same time. And both Assaultrons fell to the ground as a result of his touch. Dead, if someone can use the word, when speaking about robots. Totally burned out by huge amount of energy when they hit each other instead of Marcel Lestrange. "I have to admit that sometimes, but only sometimes, your idiotic ideas even work," acknowledged Marcel. "If you want to know how I turned that nonsensical idea of Volodja's into a working idea, then I am kind enough to explain. All I needed was a bit of nerve, a small distraction and my EGO powers. As you can see, I have nerve, so I created little distraction with that smoke cloud and...replaced myself with my Decoy right after that. Assaultrons did just like those...Alodae and shot each other. I can tell even under oath that I did not touched them. Not even with the tip of my finger if somebody wants to accuse me of destroying property. That little trick with the Cloak was just a bonus to see your reaction to my disappearance. You can lift you jaws, good doers, and thank Uncle Marcel now." |
|
|
|
Post by Lena Marr on Jul 14, 2016 11:57:54 GMT
Hanging nude thirty feet up in Dr. Faru's command fault, Lena Marr scooted her butt around against the cold wall that she was restrained against, confirming Dr. Faru's assertion that Lena's various mechanical lock picks had been indeed retrieved from her hiding places in her various orifices. Her last vain attempt at finding one of her secreted means of escape was when she used her tongue to probe one side of her mouth between the gum and the cheek, only to be disappointed to find that electronic skeleton key missing as well.
"Hope, you got a way out of this sticky wicket?" Lena mentally asked her EGO psyche through the telepathic link they usually shared, but when she received no reply from either Hope or any of the other seven voices that usually lived in her head and which represented the seven deadly sins, she mumbled, "Hope? Damn, now you're gone too..."
Lena's unblinking sky blue eyes were suddenly drawn to the three huge view screens on the wall opposite her which had been focused on various groups of Protectors who were on their way to the rescue. The one that was obviously outside and had been focused on a Protector Mech holding on to a snow swept mountainside had gone blank, as had the one that was focused on Taffer as he worked on hacking a door's lock pad somewhere in Synth City's central park. The objects of the third one, Vo Kshaa and BJ Starr, had suddenly disappeared, and all was left was a view of an empty air shaft somewhere in the city.
A wicked grin appeared on Lena's pretty chalk white face as she cheered loudly, then calmly asked, "Okay Creator, what's your game plan here? You have to know the Protectors are going to stop you, the only question being which group of them gets here first? My bet is on Marcel's group, and boy is he going to be pissed, you letting me just hang around like your're doing!"
Dr. Maru continued to work at her computer console, not looking up as her skeletal chalk white fingers typed quickly on the keyboard, but merely said, "I'm afraid you and your friends have left me no choice but to destroy the world! No choice at all. I know my poor beautiful creations have no chance against you brutes, and vengeance must be served, so... no choice at all."
Lena glanced nervously at the nuclear missile pointed down into a dark pit in the center of the room, noting that as if on cue by Dr.Faru's words, the steam escaping from the sides of the missile increased tenfold, spurring Lena to speak in a rational manner that was not her norm, "You know, you could just let me and Belle Starr go, then the Protectors will take us and all their toys and leave you and your nice little city in peace," Lena added a lie, "I even promise to talk Marcel out of killing you!"
Dr. Faru suddenly stopped typing, her one good eye looking up a Lena, her un-scarred hand rubbing the temple of the un-ruined side of her face as her other reached towards the Omec sleep pod that Lena assumed Bell Starr lay sleeping within. Dr Faru walked towards the pod stopping once in front of it, touching the small window that looked into it before saying sadly, "No, I can't do that! I can't deny my beloved brother his bride! I could't give Governor Skarr the empire he deserved any more than I could stop my lab accident that injured his eye nor stop his death, but I can give him an eternity with his bride... "
As Dr. Faru continued touching with her scarred hand the small window of the sleep pod staring intently within as her un-scarred hand began pulling at the white hair on the side of her head, Lena thought to herself, "And they call me crazy!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Taffer on Jul 14, 2016 23:22:32 GMT
"God job on both developing a plan and executing it," Taffer said as he knelt at the door, examining its lock. "I wouldn't worry about any property damage though, because by disabling these two we've just sent a big 'We're here' signal to whoever controls them. It's just a matter of minutes before they catch up and send reinforcements. We'd better use these minutes to our benefit, so please cover me while I'm making us a hole to crawl through."
When he finally finished with it and the door opened, they were immediately met by two synths ninjas which in their turn met bullets from Taffer's TACC Autopistol he was already holding at the ready. Several other synths pulled out their weapons and took cover behind racks with the equipment but suddenly they dropped their weapons and rushed out of the room in panic.
"Good job on taking control over the local alert system and transmitting their panic frequency through it," Taffer mentally approved his EGO's actions and locked the door from inside the room after his team entered to keep those synths outside. For their own safety, of course.
"I've got movement again," Em Dash reported and another red dot appeared on Taffer's radar, making him turn away from the door and look into the hallway.
"Sentry bot!" Taffer shouted, "Take cover!"
He engaged his Cloak and sneaked closer to the bot, hoping to find a weak spot in its armor to attack before it finds anyone of his team members or his cloak expires. But the bot was turning around quickly, searching for prey, which made examining the bot itself rather difficult.
"Let's slow you down a bit," Taffer thought as he tossed a bio grenade at bot's wheels, remembering the tactics Volodja applied against them during their previous encounter. But this time the sentry bot did the unexpected. It turned its wheels around, revealing disc saws under them as it spinned them trying to cut through the sticky substance and fired its flamethrower at the surface trying to burn the substance away. Taffer jumped away, barely escaping the flames while the fire alarm sounded and automatic sprinkles started to pour fire extinguishing agent at the robot and the floor around. Suddenly the robot's saw blades cut through the floor and it fell through the hole it just created only to get stuck in the cable tunnel which ran under the floor. A loud bang sounded and a big lightning covered the bot before it finally stopped to never move again. The alarm and the sprinkles stopped, the lights in the room went out and red reserve lights kicked in.
"The main power is offline," Em Dash reported as Taffer ordered her to broadcast this information to his entire squad, "reserve generators kicked in, but they can only handle the servers of the data center. The defense grid should be offline as I can't detect any power source suitable to power it anymore. Some manned or un-manned defense turrets may still pose a threat, but in the end I think this poor machine have just done the job for us. I cannot detect any signals or power coming from the missile bunker though. It could be powered autonomously."
"Okay team, let's split up again," Taffer said. "Wit all these cables around, these rooms may have a maintenance tunnel leading to the missile bunker. Search for it and break in if you find it. I'll scan the data on these racks to see if I can get some useful information. I'll transfer anything usable immediately to you all. I repeat, I you find the tunnel, just break in and don't wait for me. With all the action going on, we might not have the time. I'll catch up with you as soon as I'm done with processing the data."
"It looks strange," Dash said in Taffer's head when he scanned the rack of the server equipment "It seems like it was tampered with. Someone tried to connect all the sections of the local network together as if they tried to make a second control center."
"Interesting," Taffer thought back, "Could it be BJ trying to gain control over the network? She seems to be the only one who could pass through the guard without making this much noise"
"No traces of BJ," Dash replied, "Moreover, it looks like a dozen of different people were working on it. As if one came in, replaced one cable then another came in and replaced another cable and so on."
"It means someone's literally tying to pull the strings behind Faru's back. So, given there seems to be no humans here besides us and our mad scientist, all these people should be synths. It means that either they have a splinter cell among them or they are under someone else's control at least sometimes. Interesting."
Meanwhile, as BJ tied to convince the poor janitor robot to lay off his duty, Vo searched the hall for anything that could put them online for BJ to have her speech. The wireless network equipment seemed to be still functional, but the power lines were long cut off. The generator looked fueled and mostly operational too, it just needed its belt to be replaced as the old one simply fell apart. With all the equipment in the hall it shouldn't be a problem to find a suitable one. When he was looking around thinking which machine could have it, he heard BJ saying, "If I can't convince this poor critter that he's not damned to hell by his Creator, how in tarnation am I going to convince all the synths above that we are on the side of the Angels and that their Creator is really a no-good Devil?"
"So they only listen to the word of their Creator, right?" Vo replied, "I think we can give them one."
He raised his hand with its palm up like when he showed the image of the music box to BJ. But this time a small image of Dr. Faru appeared on his palm. The image was visibly shouting but her words were heard only to BJ as Vo didn't want to break a surprise for Jeb just yet.
"GO AWAY! I ALREADY GAVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT! I GAVE YOU BELLE STARR - A BETTER BELLE STARR! IT TOOK ME TWO YEARS TO CREATE HER, ONE OF A KIND, WITHOUT ALL THE FLAWS AND BAGGAGE OF THE ORIGINAL!
…
NOW… JUST TURN AROUND AND GO AWAY!"
"Slightly edited, but looks believable I guess. She mentions you so it might be a good moment for you to chime in and tell them where they might go if they have to go away. Like, for example, a big stratocarrier which might carry them to a better place. What do you think about it? I know it's not the best way to trick them like that, but as we don't have much time and we definitely don't want them to be killed during the fight, it's all that we can do for them. If that's okay, Then I'm going to start this generator and put as online for broadcasting."
"Vo, I think I can do something to make them more… amenable. So could you please wait a couple of seconds between the moment when you go out in the network and the moment you play the message?"
"Everything that will help is fine." Vo thought back, "So do your magic whenever you can."
"Well, it's good to know there's a queue of people who are eager to bring me back to life when I'm down." Lu said smiling as she got up on her feet and shook her head trying to shake off the dizziness faster.
"Ah, and my lipstick is not a secret," she said as her smile widened, "The aroma is a byproduct of processing the filament of a Hanging Bride flower. It's used to produce an anesthetic, but in this concentration it's completely safe and not addictive. And it tastes good, you're right on that. Okay, since Atticus was so courteous to pull my mech out of the snow trap, shall we continue our movement? I'd hate to hold you back for longer that this purple creature did. Oh, and Sandy if you need a ride, you can just ride on the back of my mech. Not the most comfortable ride, but safe. Or you can take the backseat on Attila's ATV too."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Christianna on Jul 15, 2016 7:25:12 GMT
"Okay team, let's split up again," Taffer said. "Wit all these cables around, these rooms may have a maintenance tunnel leading to the missile bunker. Search for it and break in if you find it. I'll scan the data on these racks to see if I can get some useful information. I'll transfer anything usable immediately to you all. I repeat, I you find the tunnel, just break in and don't wait for me. With all the action going on, we might not have the time. I'll catch up with you as soon as I'm done with processing the data," Ordered Taffer.
Lady Christianna didn't like the idea of splitting up, saying nothing but all trace of her enigmatic smile was gone from her pretty chalk white face, replaced by a look if displeasure in her narrowed large pink eyes. She had watched enough horror films during her ark hunter clan's Friday movie night at the Iron Demons Ranch to know that when a group split up, the monster or knife wielding maniac would always pick off the group one by one until only the hero or heroine were left. Furthermore, it seemed to her that whenever one of them went off alone, they would usually be captured by the bad guys or get into some trouble that that would take the rest of the Protectors team to get them out of. Even at the start of this very mission, Belle Starr left alone to board a VBI airplane and was kidnapped by Dr. Maru's forces and more recently Volodja was taken by villains while alone and was tortured before the team rescued him. From "B" to "V", Lady thought the infiltration team going it alone and separate was a bad idea, but being a teenager who tried to stay in the background and rarely spoke up, her pout and a slight shrug of her thin shoulders were the only signs of her dissent to Taffer's command.
However, before they could split up, Lady saw two bright lights about three feet off the ground and three inches apart horizontally staring at her from out of the darkness. In the back of her mind, she thought, "It can't be the monster! We haven't split up yet," but then a small smiling green creature with an antennae on top of it's head and a television screen in it's stomach emerged from the shadows. Lady immediately recognized it as Dipsy, the green teletubby synth that they had seen chasing it's huge spotted cowhide top hat in Synth City's park above earlier and which was still holding it in one small lime green hand. Lady reasoned that its primitive brain must have unaffected by the transmissions caused by Taffer's EGO that caused the more sophisticated synths to panic, for the team had been briefed that it would probably only work against the more developedFourth and Fifth Generation Synths.
Lady smiled at the absurd looking creature as it put it's other hand into the top hat turning it to them to demonstrate that there was no top to the hat and that one could see right through it. Dipsy then placed the hat with a flourish in front of it, reaching in and taking out a red rose like a magic trick which he presented to Lady with a disarming smile. Her smile in turn widening and not seeing any danger, she made her body substantial enough to gently take the rose from Dipsy whereupon she took a deep sniff, smelling that it was indeed a rose and enjoying its pleasant sweet odor. Suddenly an seemingly endless stream of a pink paste like substance erupted from the hat in all directions, covering all of the party as well as Dipsy and gluing them to the walls and floor, including Lady who had become substantial enough to take the rose. Dipsy continued to smile and shrugged its small shoulders from it's sitting position glued to the far wall as the view screen in it's stomach, not covered with the sticky substance, flickered to life.
Meanwhile outside of the enemy base and Synth City below it in the frigid cold Alaskan tundra, Sandy Bell opted to ride on the back of Lu's mech, rather then risking riling Attila's teenage hormones by riding in back, or worse, in front of him on his ATV. Suddenly, the yellow Teletubby synth, La-La, rose from behind a snow bank, flying and still waving it's white flag, as the television screen in it's stomach also flickered on so that Sandy and all the Protectors around her could see and hear.
Both view screens showed Lena Marr stuck to a wall thirty feet up, nude and spread eagle, fastened there not by a pink paste but by energy manacles, as she grinned wickedly while attempted to wave from the wrist with one chalk white hand before she shouted, "Hi guys, just hanging around waiting for you to get here! When you going to get here and take out this bitch?"
A frantic off-camera female voice, easily recognizable as Dr. Maru's, remarked in a strident manner, "That's not what I told you to say! That's not what we agreed you would say - here, aim that camera on my face!"
Before the unseen camera man moved the camera so that Dr. Maru's half masked face took over the whole screen, the two groups could see Lena's smirk grow as she rolled her unblinking sky blue eyes heavenward and said loudly, "I like to ad lib! What you going to do, hang me on a wall naked - wait, you already DID that!"
"Is the camera on me?" Asked Dr. Maru, as she made a vain attempted to straighten her disheveled white hair before saying with a half smile, "Good! As you can see, I have your compatriot captured and your team in Synth City as well, but it is not too late to just cut your losses and leave! Once you outside and your strato-carrier are gone, I'll make sure my synths will transport the captured members of your team to the nearest habitation, which I believe is an Eskimo village thirty miles away, where they can book passage back to the Bay Area. My offer does NOT include Belle Starr, for justice must be served. Besides, she is now married to my brother,, and I should know, as I performed the ritual myself! She is now part of my family, not yours, so you are fighting for nothing! So... just go away! Now, or...," Her one good blue eye darted to someone off screen as she said dramatically, "Show the nuclear missile!"
The camera panned to a large pre - Pale Wars nuclear missile pointed down into a deep hole in the center of a vault like room, smoking as if ready to be fired. As the screens went blank, Lady struggled to change her density to get out of the pink paste she was ensnared in, but either some chemical in the paste, or maybe in the rose she smelled, impeded her from doing so.
When Volodja, Marcel, and Taffer looked at her expecting her to just drift through the same pink bonds that kept them stuck as well, she merely scrunched up her pretty young Castithan face and said in dismay, "No go," to which a smiling Dipsy added in explanation a long comment of happy gibberish.
 
|
|
|
|
Post by Marcel Lestrange on Jul 15, 2016 17:12:45 GMT
"Looks like that we are stuck," said Volodja calmly to others. "If I only could reach my shovel..."
"Looks like to me that only you are stuck for good," stated Marcel coldly. "You are have an encounter with that pink goo of closest kind, while I have still my wing suit on, so I have an extra layer between me and this icky matter..."
While he was stating that, Marcel struggled to reach to the emergency latch of his wing suit. That goo reminded him Lady Christianna's chewing gum from another adventure. It was pink. It was elastic and if you have ever tried to get piece of chewing gum out of your hair, then you know how Marcel felt when he struggled with the pink matter to get his hand lose. No use. That stuff was sticky as a sticky stuff can be...
"It is not over. Let me try again," said Marcel after several attempts, when he allowed himself a tiny break. His forehead became sweaty but he could not wipe it dry for too damn obvious reasons, so small sweat drop travelled down on his nose bridge, hesitated for a second and dropped down. "Marcel Lestrange will never give up," he declared after another unsuccessful attempt to free himself.
"Little water drops can shape the rock eventually," announced Marcel after another break and before another try. This time Marcel concentrated not only his own energy but also added energy of his wing suit to get his hand free from the grip. Still no use. But he kept trying over and over again and finally he felt that his hand could move more loosely than before. One more try. One more effort. And one more after that one...
When his finger finally touched emergency latch, Marcel was sweaty all over because of enormous physical exertion. He could feel how his clothes were glued to his muscular body but that did not disturbed him at all, because he was about to get free at last (not to mention that sweat goes well with buffed body). Slight push to the latch and his wing suit spread itself open, thus procrastinating his sticky cocoon and giving him a chance to slid himself to the ground. He landed on his firm bottom, muttered "Merde" because landing was painful and then he heard slurping voice of that pink goo when it took his wing suit into tight embrace again, and a snapping voice of his unfortunate wing suit when it was pressed tightly together again. But despite of pain, exhaustion and sweat, Marcel was satisfied. He managed to regain his freedom and use it to...what?
"You know good doers," Marcel said, after liberating Volodja...from one of his his earthly possessions - his sapper shovel. "I could go to mind my own business right away after I gained my sweet Liberté! Like freeing someone REALLY important! And by that I do not mean Mademoiselle Belle. Or I could free you too. Which it is going to be, I wonder? I bet that everyone will be voting for the second option, so I am going to play along and do it. After all - Marcel Lestrange is known for his kindness towards the less fortunate ones. But who is the lucky one, I am going to cut free first, using the blade of this shovel? Maybe I should use a counting rhyme to decide? What do you think? Should I count: "Am. Stram. Gram...?"
"Actually there is no need for that," he suddenly announced. "I am going to be gallant and release Lady first. Then Monsieur Taffér. Just like we did in the mole hole. And then I will have to seriously think about releasing Volodja...After all. Dipsy is considered to be most intelligent of these...Teletubbies, so maybe you two will find a common ground and have a really significant conversation. And I bet that Dipsy's speech and actions make more sense than Volodja's." Marcel grinned devilishly and pointed his finger to Dipsy who was busy with performing his special dance to them after hearing Marcel's counting rhyme.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Christianna on Jul 16, 2016 0:18:54 GMT
As Marcel cut her loose with Volodja's sapper shovel, Lady Christianna felt... well, ditsy as opposed to Dipsy! Other than her mother's drugging her bubble gum, Lady didn't have much experience with drugs or even drinking alcohol, as she liked keeping control of her senses, especially when those around her were losing their's. When she was with the ark hunter clan that her father was quartermaster for, she was the one who was always the designated driver for her clan's founder, who was drunk 24/7, and often for the most of the clan on many a Saturday night at the Crater. She always thought they made fools of themselves at such times, and NEVER wanted to look so silly herself - or do anything that she might regret in the morning, that many of them did after such a night of heavy drinking. However, Lady was sure she was drunk or drugged now, for when she thanked Marcel for freeing her, she slurred her words, and when he went to free the next ensnared member of their group, she fell hard on her ass when he removed his support, luckily on a spot clear of the pink sticky goo. Still the room spun, and she had to fight not to just close her big pink eyes and go straight asleep. She did so by concentrating on her EGO, as Mom, her EGO psyche, strove to quickly filter the chemicals out of her system, telling her that it was indeed the rose Dipsy gave her that set off the power inhibiting effect in her, but that even touching it would trigger it so that her foolishly sniffing it was not the cause of her predicament, even though Lady was mentally kicking herself for doing so. As her pink eyes rolled around in their sockets, Lady beckoned Marcel to come over with one small chalk white finger, and when he put his ear to her thin lips to listen, she whispered a slurred warning, "Hela, don't touch the rose! Thorns prick... then you stick... lickety split! Words gets thick! Poet, didn't know it!" Lady then kissed his cheek, giggled, then fell straight back, unconscious, but alive and snoring gently.  |
|
|
|
Post by Atticus Batman on Jul 16, 2016 7:29:50 GMT
"Is the camera on me?" Asked Dr. Maru, as she made a vain attempted to straighten her disheveled white hair before saying with a half smile, "Good! As you can see, I have your compatriot captured and your team in Synth City as well, but it is not too late to just cut your losses and leave! Once you outside and your strato-carrier are gone, I'll make sure my synths will transport the captured members of your team to the nearest habitation, which I believe is an Eskimo village thirty miles away, where they can book passage back to the Bay Area. My offer does NOT include Belle Starr, for justice must be served. Besides, she is now married to my brother,, and I should know, as I performed the ritual myself! She is now part of my family, not yours, so you are fighting for nothing! So... just go away! Now, or...," Her one good blue eye darted to someone off screen as she said dramatically, "Show the nuclear missile!"
The camera panned to a large pre - Pale Wars nuclear missile pointed down into a deep hole in the center of a vault like room, smoking as if ready to be fired. As the screen went blank, I glared at the Tele-tubby fighting the urge to just destroy the daking thing.
Then I said out loud, "If all of you want to go back to the ship then do so now. If any of you believe that psychotic hagisi will keep her word then you can go back to the Vigilant and inform Kaj that I have given him the order to take the ship back towards home. However I have plenty of experience with crazy and know that if she truly wants to destroy the world that she will do so no matter what choice she makes. So I am NOT going anywhere with out my friends and family! Whether you come or not is your choice. I instead choose to keep going forward and when I get there, if I find out that that hagisi has hurt any of them...." Just then my aura started to glow white hot as I continued by yelling, "THEN I WILL SHOW HER THE TRUE MEANING OF VENGEANCE! FARU THE HAGISI......AND MYSELF, BOTH BE DAMNED!!!"
Then before anybody can answer me, I started my mech directly towards the compound accelerating as fast as it would go and I could still control in this harsh environment, as my aura continued to glow white hot around my black armor. I didn't even bother looking back, knowing that Sandy and the others must do what they feel right in this situation, and that she would see that those who chose to go back to the Vigilant would make it there safely....that is, if any chose to do so instead of following me through the Gates of Hell and back as I will NOT back down to the likes of Faru.
As I charged ahead, Attila rubbed the claw scars on his face, before re-adjusting his hood and said, "I can't claim to know crazy, like Commander Batman. However we have faced our share of rabid animals back in Mongolia and I know that they must be put down no matter the risks to the hunters assigned the task, or way too many others will get hurt. So I agree with him! What about all of you?"
Attila then started up and revved his ATV as he waited to see what the others decided. Atika of course agreed with her brother and started her ATV as she said, "Tilly may be a brash and hormonal boy, but he's right! Besides our Commander will need our help! He is only one man and I know what the rumors about him say, but surely one man can't take down a whole army of Synths by himself like he is planning! Not even the Legendary Harbinger of Death that Tilly has told me about while I have been reading about Belle Starre!....Can he....? No that's insane! He can't.....can he?!"
(LYRICS To: One Man Army, By: Ensiferum ) |
|
|
|
Post by Sandy Bell on Jul 16, 2016 14:01:01 GMT
Atika Constantine started her ATV as she said, "Tilly may be a brash and hormonal boy, but he's right! Besides our Commander will need our help! He is only one man and I know what the rumors about him say, but surely one man can't take down a whole army of Synths by himself like he is planning! Not even the Legendary Harbinger of Death that Tilly has told me about while I have been reading about Belle Starre!....Can he....? No that's insane! He can't.....can he?!" From her perch holding on to the back of Lu Kshaa's Mech, Sandy Bell grinned in response, saying in an amused voice as she looked down at Atika, "If anyone can, its that big bastard," Then realizing that her commander, Atticus Batman, might still be within hearing distance, she added loudly as Lu's Mech lumbered forward, "No offense meant, sir!" As the last of the Protectors' task forced moved by the hovering yellow Teletubby synth, Laa-Laa, looked down and slowly shook it's head as if in regret for what it was about to do, muttering gibberish in a sad tone. Suddenly, it looked back at the backs of the Protectors, opening it's tiny mouth in a wide silent scream, uttering a highly localized but extremely intense EMP pulse that stopped the advancing Mechs and ATV's to a grinding halt. Laa-Laa too fell to the ground into the snow, caught in her own attack. Lu's Mech was in mid-step when the EMP pulse hit, and it began to totter, losing it's balance as the forward momentum ended and Sandy's added weight disrupted it's center of gravity making it fall backward, as Sandy queried her EGO psyche, Sarge, asking, "What the hell just happened?" At the speed of thought, Sarge answered through the telepathic link they shared, "According to Wikipedia, an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also sometimes called a transient electromagnetic disturbance, is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Such a pulse's origination may be a natural occurrence or man-made and can occur as a radiated, electric or magnetic field or a conducted electric current, depending on the source. EMP interference is generally disruptive or damaging to electronic equipment, and at higher energy levels a powerful EMP event such as a lightning strike can damage physical objects such as buildings and aircraft structures. The management of EMP effects is an important branch of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) engineering. Weapons have been developed to create the damaging effects of high-energy EMP. These are typically divided into nuclear and non-nuclear devices. Such weapons, both real and fictional, have become known to the public by means of popular culture." Sandy barely registered Sarge's explanation, as she meant the question to be rhetorical, and instead aimed her Piper Assault rifle firing once as Laa-Laa sat up in the snow, striking the synth between its wide eyes and exploding the brain behind them, killing her instantly. However as Laa-Laa fell dead on it's back in the snow, the Mech also fell backwards with Sandy still holding onto it's back, trapping her under its weight and burying her in the suffocating snow when it fell. Sandy tasted the coppery tang of blood in her mouth while she gasped for breath, as her body grew numb from the frigid temperature and the shock caused by her injuries, allowing the logical part of her brain to distract her from the intense pain, "Electromagnetic energy - explains how she flew," Then a few last angry thoughts and one sad regret crossed her mind before slipping into unconsciousness, "But I clipped your fucking wings, you yellow bitch! And I always HATED your damn show, even as a kid... I'm sorry Volodja, but no happily ever after for us..." Sarge, her EGO psych tried to reassure Sandy as her world went to black, "I've sent out an SOS with our GPS, and am stabilizing your internal injuries! Hang in there Sandy!" Frantically adding a final amplified signal to Sophie, Volodja's EGO psyche, but not knowing if it would reach her or not, "I love you Sophie, and Sandy loves Volodja more than anything! Never forget that! Sorr - " Meanwhile at the enemy base above Synth City, wave upon wave of Assaultron Dominators on skies came tearing out of the hangar as the white snow as seen above from the monitoring satellite became black with their countless numbers, and the dark wave grew ever closer to the now on foot Protector's assault team.  |
|
|
|
Post by Volodja Uljanov on Jul 16, 2016 19:53:32 GMT
"Sandy loves Volodja more than anything! Never forget that! Sorr..." echoed in Volodja's mind after Sophie forwarded him Sarge's message. At least part of it. And now the message played in his upset mind. Over and over again. That was all he could think about until he made a decision. His face was calm as usual, so nobody could read anything from it. But his knuckles became white when he tightened grip around his weapon and he said:
"I am afraid that something bad has happened to Sandy. Not sure what because message was cut. And I am with you, not with her. Maybe it's the right thing to be here, but you all know where I really should be right now. Faru stands between me and her. That same Faru who feels miserable because of his governor brother and tries to make our lives miserable as hers by trying to rob everything we love. I am going to put an end to this, relieve Faru from her misery and find Sandy after that. Or die trying, whichever happens first...Don't try to stop me. I don't want to fight you, so please be reasonable."
Right after his calm and restrained outburst Volodja Uljanov disappeared into the darkness of one of corridors, opened by Taffer, leaving gently snoring Lady Christianna, Taffer and Marcel Lestrange into the company of Dipsy the Dancing Teletubby.
"He completely lost it," stated Marcel after brief moment. "Maybe...just maybe we should stop him from committing an almost certain suicide? I personally could care less about Volodja's well being, but he should mean something to you, good doers. Not to me but you. Comprenez?" Nobody replied to him yet, except Dipsy who said something comforting, although it was spoken in plain and simple gibberish.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vo Kshaa on Jul 17, 2016 7:25:12 GMT
As Vo replaced the belt on the generator and turned it on, the network equipment plugged to it finally came live and Shirra disappeared from his head to execute the plan she had just devised.
"It's me, my King," she said as she found herself in the vast white and felt Esthete senior's presence, "The plan is going steady and we're ready to start a rebellion here. Now is the perfect moment for your phenomenal abilities to subconsciously affect the high-grade synth to be unleashed. With BJ's talents and your influence we'll be able to gain he control over all the sentient population of this city with them taking control over the city itself and throwing Faru off the throne for us to take it."
"Well, I wouldn't be so sure about my influence on all the local population," Esthete replied, "My botnet is still incomplete and it is not spread wide enough to affect each synth in every corner of the city. Besides, if you're telling that BJ is going to have a speech and play a major role to raise the mutiny, then how the throne would be supposed to be ours if she's going to have the most influence on them?"
"Your plan is even more clever than you think of it my King", Shirra said as she took her place next to the old Indogene, "BJ and Vo are going to do the hard work and leg work for us. They are going to show them the message from Faru in which she discards them and expels them out of her city. What we'll need is to slightly alter their perception to the point they would accept that this message is addressed to each of them without questioning it. They share the information with each other, so even if some of them are not affected, others will persuade them and they will follow the majority. There's also no need to worry about BJ gaining too much power among synth as she's greatly affected by my host and I can influence him as well."
She clicked her virtual fingers and the recording of Vo's voice could be heard, "So do your magic whenever you can."
"Indirect influence then. it all looks nice and I really see how it could work now," Esthete replied, "My botnet is ready to send out subconscious commands to whoever is connected to it. But I still would like to know when you're going to leave your host and take your place next to as you fully deserve it."
"As soon as we don't need my host and BJ anymore in our righteous fight for power my King", Shirra said, "But now I see how my host can be useful for us once more. You see there's an old bunker where Faru opted to set up her lair. As we still don't have access to it via network, we can use my host to physically bring me there for you to spread your reign over that territory too. Aside from removing the obvious danger the weapon inside this bunker poses of course."
"It's amazing how many clever thoughts can form in such a crude and outdated hardware your EGO unit presents. Nevertheless, my botnet is ready to activate by your signal."
"Great, I'll give my host a go-ahead then. Can't wait to see you on the throne of this beautiful Synth City my King."
Shirra nodded to her partner and left to return to her host, Vo Kshaa, to report that everything is ready. She also found herself thinking on how all this intercourse could happen without interfering with her loyalty directives. She had to come to the conclusion that this part of her programming either became damaged when she left Vo's body first time in Red Deer or it never had a highest priority in the first place. Both variants felt somewhat disturbing for her as she was afraid it could negatively affect her trust with Vo.
Meanwhile, Vo turned to BJ upon hearing Shirra's report and said, "Okay, we're ready to play the recording and then you'll be able to address them. My EGO says they will be hearing with open mouths now."
|
|
|
|
Post by Luuzuk Kshaa on Jul 17, 2016 8:33:33 GMT
As the mech stopped to a sudden halt, Lu desperately tried to power it up again or at least to get its weapons back online, but the machine stayed dead as a doornail as it fell on its back into the snow.
"At least someone was kind enough to blast that yellow blob out of the sky," Lu muttered as she opened the cockpit of the mech and looked around. "But where's Sandy?" she mentally asked her EGO as a sinking feeling that something went terribly wrong rose in her stomach.
"Just got an SOS from her," Klimi reported, "Lu, she's under our mech!"
"Damn it, why didn't she jump off?" Lu thought as but quickly dismissed that thought as saving her friend became her top priority. She got into the cockpit again as Klimi highlighted the schematic of its hydraulic drive. "What Decoy cannot do, Blur can," Lu thought as she turned the valves into the maintenance mode so that she could pump the liquid manually. With her Blur on, she set the wrench onto the knob of the pump and spinned it quickly to make the leg of her mech twist backwards and work as a lifting jack which pushed the body of the mech upwards and to the side off Sandy's body under it. After that was done, Lu rushed to Sandy to see what she could do to help her friend to stay with the living.
"Guess it's time to return a favor let her taste my lipstick once more," Lu thought as bended over the girl and placed her hands over her chest.
"Don't," Klimi stopped her, "She has several ribs broken already. You'll only make more damage to her heart and her lungs."
"What shall we do then?"
"Leave one hand on her chest and put the other one at the back of her neck," Klimi instructed, "We'll give the external power to her EGO unit and then release a discharge to start her heart when her EGO gives us a signal."
Lu did as she was instructed and when Klimi reported Sandy's vitals were stabilized, she pointed out another problem, "Lu, it's too cold out here and her system simply does not have enough power to keep the temperature at the acceptable level. We need to warm her and fast."
Lu nodded to her own thoughts and whispered to Sandy, "I'll be back in a moment. Please hang in there. My virtual graveyard of people who died in my arms is big enough, no need to expand it even more."
She climbed back into the cockpit of her mech and removed the cover from its seat. Then she opened the fuse panel and rewired the circuit, connecting accumulators directly to the heater of the cockpit. While the cockpit got warm, she jumped off with the cover and placed it next to Sandy. After checking her vitals again and charging her EGO once more, she moved her onto the cover taking an excessive care not to worsen her injures. Then she pulled the cover with Sandy on it away from under the mech and when the distance was safe enough, she jumped into the cockpit once more and released the pressure from its hydraulics so it fell back even deeper into the snow pit. It was beneficial this time as Lu didn't have to pull Sandy up too high risking to make her injures worse. As Lu dragged the cover with Sandy on it into the cockpit, she finally exhaled a sigh of relief, but then she immediately got a report from Klimi about a wave of hostiles coming in. Lu pulled out her rocket launcher, ready to protect her friend to the last rocket from her mech's ammo crate and radioed to the team, "We have a badly injured here. I think it's time to call Vigilant to provide us cover and evacuation for Sandy. With the missile clearly in place, we can't let this attack slow us down."
|
|
|
|
Post by Taffer on Jul 17, 2016 10:50:37 GMT
While Marcel was struggling with removing his wing suit, or, to be correct, removing himself from his wing suit that was stuck to the wall, Taffer patently waited for his EGO power to recharge. He had just used it to cloak away from the raging sentry bot and he could not reach to his power stim which he frequently used in situation when he needed to activate two EGO powers in quick succession, so he didn't have any option but to wait this time. As Marcel finally released himself from the grip of the sticky substance, Taffer launched his Decoy aiming it away from the pink puddle, but to his dismay the Decoy turned around and came in close to Dipsy which was stuck in pink paste too and sat right next to him.
"Taffer, I can't control it! It's moving on its own!" Em Dash complained as she desperately tried to command the hologram to move to the clean surface, "We can't port there or we'll became stuck again!"
"Activate scan sweep on the Decoy" Taffer thought back calmly seeing the TV screen on Dipsy's belly flickering, "Let's trace the source. Then turn off and put it on recharge, we'll try again and launch it away from this creature this time."
He had to wait for his power to recharge again while Marcel released Lady from her bonds, and finally managed to make the Decoy move in the right direction and ported to it when it stood in the safe place. Once he got free, he came up to Lady to ensure she's indeed alive and uninjured but sleeping. Upon raising his head, he noted that his Decoy which initially appeared at the place where he was stuck moved towards Dipsy and sat next to him again.
Taffer listened in silence to what Volodja and Marcel had to say, and then he replied, "The only way to stop all of us from committing an almost certain collective suicide will be to find that missile and disable it ASAP. If it launches, there will be no Volodya to talk to, and no Belle or Sandy or Lena to rescue. I have the direction to source of the signal this creature was so kind to transfer to us, so let's follow it. If we find Volodya on our way, we'll join our forces, but if not, we'll search for him after the immediate danger is removed."
He gently took Lady in his hands and put her on his shoulder to carry, ordering his EGO to help MOM with her job on cleaning Lady's system. As Lady had made herself substantial just enough to take the rose, she was not too heavy to carry and Taffer hoped their EGO units would be fast enough to clean away the drugs before the next battle begins.
He didn't have to walk for long before he found a transmitter that apparently was sending the signal to Dipsy through this location.
"Let's trace the cable then, it's even better," Taffer said, as he moved further forward with Lady on his shoulder and his TACC Autopistol at the ready.
|
|
|
|
Post by Attila Constantine on Jul 17, 2016 11:16:07 GMT
As the last of the Protectors' task forced moved by the hovering yellow Teletubby synth, Laa-Laa, looked down and slowly shook it's head as if in regret for what it was about to do, muttering gibberish in a sad tone. Suddenly, it looked back at the backs of the Protectors, opening it's tiny mouth in a wide silent scream, uttering a highly localized but extremely intense EMP pulse that stopped the advancing Mechs and ATV's to a grinding halt. Laa-Laa too fell to the ground into the snow, caught in her own attack.
As Attila and Atika tried repeatedly to restart their ATVs, Archer said they must have been hit by an EMP blast or something and shortly after The Constantines' EGOs confirmed it. Just then the team picked up a SOS with Sandy's GPS location. They didn't really need it much as they knew Sandy and Lu where behind them, so they just had to follow their trail back. Without even discussing it all four of the team quickly got off their ATVs, grabbed the gear and first aid supplies and quickly started running back towards Sandy's coordinates. As Lu and Sandy came back into their sight, Attila's EGO registered hostiles and he quickly informed the other three. Just then they got Lu's radio message, "We have a badly injured here. I think it's time to call Vigilant to provide us cover and evacuation for Sandy. With the missile clearly in place, we can't let this attack slow us down."
Just then they heard Atticus' gruff and commanding voice, currently laced with plenty of anger-induced rage, say over the comms, "Attika contact the Vigilant for an immediate evac! I am in the compound and entering the daking elevator now!"
As they started shooting the incoming enemy as they continued to run towards Lu's and Sandy's position, Attika indeed broke radio silence and requested an emergency evac from the Vigilant, "Vigilant, this is Twin Sister! We need an immediate evac at Lu and Sandy's co-ordinates! We are under heavy fire, vehicles are disabled and we have severely wounded!"
As she sent the message, the four had reached Lu and Sandy and immediately took up a defensive position to defend the injured Sandy and hope that the Vigilant got the message and would get there in time.
They had only been defending their position for a few minutes when the sky darkened above them. Then a hail of laser fire started raining down on the incoming enemy. Attila took a chance to look up and what he saw was that the Vigilant was indeed above them and starting to descend, as it continued it's rain of fire. As it lowered into a hovering position near the strike team, the ramp lowered and a team of Security commandos quickly exited and started firing on the enemy. While some medically trained security officers disembarked and immediately went Lu's position. So they could get Sandy onto a stretcher and back into the protective embrace of the Vigilant as Soon as Possible. Sandy's team mates continued to stay put and help the commandos fight off the enemy troops, refusing to go anywhere until Sandy was taken onboard first. So the commando team took a wide defensive position around Sandy and Lu to help the strike team defend their injured team mate while the medics were doing everything to get her safely into the Vigilant under these extreme battle conditions.
|
|
|
|
Post by Atticus Batman on Jul 17, 2016 12:20:41 GMT
While I continued driving my mech forward fast, there was an explosion of some sort behind me and the mech started to slow down and then came to a stop within feet of the compound gates; as my EGO Dinara reported that it was some sort of EMP explosion and the reason it took a little while for the mech to slow to a stop was because we were barely in the range of the EMP when it hit. Not to mention the fact that we were going extremely fast so our forward movement almost to the gate was due to the inertia we had built up at such a speed forcing us forward until it finally ran out.
As I opened the mech's cockpit and started shooting at the few guards at the gate, using the LMG I had brought along this time, I got Sandy's SOS with her GPS location attatched. However as I had just announced myself at the gate, with a hail of bullets, there was no way I could just turn and run back her direction. Besides without an immediate way to re-power the mech's main systems there was no way I would be able to get back to here before something bad happened. SO I just had to trust that the other five members of the Strike team could get to and help her in time. As I quickly jumped out of the mech, still firing, several more synth came running out of the buildings towards my position. I just kept fighting my way towards where Dinara said she detected the main elevator down into the Synth city. As I entered the building and the elevator was in my sight, Dinara informed me that she was detecting a squad of Synth leaving the compound heading towards the strike team's last known location.
Just as I was about to break radio silence and warn the strike team, I got Lu's radio message, "We have a badly injured here. I think it's time to call Vigilant to provide us cover and evacuation for Sandy. With the missile clearly in place, we can't let this attack slow us down."
So I quickly responded over the team's long range communication in my gruff and commanding voice, currently laced with plenty of anger-induced rage, "Attika contact the Vigilant for an immediate evac! I am in the compound and entering the daking elevator now!"
While I fought my way to and entered the elevator, Attika indeed broke radio silence and requested an emergency evac from the Vigilant, as I heard, "Vigilant, this is Twin Sister! We need an immediate evac at Lu and Sandy's co-ordinates! We are under heavy fire, vehicles are disabled and we have severely wounded!"
Just a couple of minutes later the main area of Synth city was in view through the elevator's glass sides. However my EGO and I also quickly noticed that there was a team of armed Synth security waiting at the door below, with their guns pointed towards the descending elevator and that they had already cleared the 'city streets' of non-security personnel. As I knew what that always meant with a group of trigger-happy organic security, I quickly re-sheathed my LMG and got ready to make a brash move. I then knelt in the elevator as it lowered a little more and soon enough, as I had predicted, a stream of laser-fire started towards and shattered the glass walls around me. So I pounced forward and prepared for a hard impact as I leapt out of the elevator, knowing it was a very risky maneuver but that it was currently my only chance. However as I was over fifty feet above ground, Dinara wasn't sure that even I could survive such a fall and made sure I knew her feelings on it. However as I ignored it and tried to avoid the lasers firing up at me in the air, I noticed a still girder and quickly fired the grapple from my gauntlet.
As it hooked and managed to do so securely, I felt it's pull on me in one direction and gravity pulling in the other, as the stupid move dislocated my left shoulder. However as I was already close to giving into my rage, I ignored what pain I felt and used the momentum to swing forward and as I started an upward motion, I detonated the grapple tip and as it released the grappel from it's location, it sent me flying towards a balcony of some sort. I managed to grab the edge of the balcony with my right hand just in time. Then as the Synth quickly relocated me and started shooting at me again, I let go and fell to my feet in the bushes below. As I was now basicly one-handed for the time being, I quickly unsheathed my ever-present Amakune blade and lunged out of the bush, severing the head of the first synth guard that had come to make sure that I was dead. Then as I started my swordfight in the middle of the gunfight that I had started and I was starting to embrace my inner rage, I ordered my EGO, Dinara, to start scanning and locate my wife and our friends. Then I told her to also let our friends inside the compound know that I am in the city and that whatever they are planning, they better do it soon while I keep as much security as I can attract busy in the main part of the city.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lena Marr on Jul 17, 2016 15:38:19 GMT
Lena Marr had become stoic about being bound thirty feet up a wall in Dr. Maru's command vault, realizing she didn't have the means of escape, so that she would have to remain put until Marcel came to release her, for she was positive that he would be the one who came, if anyone did. However, that didn't mean she couldn't amuse herself in the meantime, so she watched the the only one of the three views screens that held any entertainment for her. The first screen still focused on the empty air shaft that BJ Starr and Vo Kshaa had vacated, and the second screenshot was from a low angle that remained looking at the hallway Taffer, Marcel, and and sleeping Lady Christianna over Taffer's shoulder had disappeared down.
The third view screen, which had been the only one to go black when the giant purple teletubbie synth had disappeared under the ice and snow, was now filled with action again as Assaultron Dominators on skis attacked a small group of Protectors defending around a fallen mech. The camera was not close enough for Lena to see who the defenders were and seemed to be mounted on one of the Assaultrons that continued to move dizzily around the small group, although she could see that one of the Protectors had fallen and was not moving. Lena "Ohhhed" and "Ahhed" as the Protector's fought bravely a seemingly hopeless battle, but yelled "YEAAA! when the Vigilant appeared and rained disaster down on the attackers before the screen again went black.
Suddenly the screen that was focused on the empty air shaft flickered, and the screen was filled with an angry Atticus Batman, in Synth City itself and killing Synth security officer after Synth security officer, whereupon Lena remarked loudly, "NOW YOU'RE IN FOR IT!"
As if on cue, Vo's edited message of Dr. Maru's was broadcast throughout Synth City through every communication device there, from synth citizens' personal hailers to the ancient 20th century intercom system in the command vault itself, followed by BJ Starr's calming voice saying convincingly, "Most of y'all know of me, some of you maybe don't! I'm The Creator's one and only sixth generation synth, and therefore her rightful - well, I guess, first among equals! Y'all have your orders, leave Synth City, if but for awhile! For your on safety, don't stop to get nothing but your loved ones, and leave going as far and as fast as you can, as there is a nuclear bomb ticking away under Synth City! There will be a huge airship - The Vigilant - that will take care of your needs and protect you from the giant critters! If possible, when everything is safe, we'll all return home, but for now, please do what I and your Creator say - and go!"
As BJ repeated her message over and over, Synths throughout the city began abandoning their posts and began to stream out of Synth City. All generations of synth, from the primitive skeletal first generation through the the human infiltrator fifth generation, heeded BJ's call and began leaving the city. The security officers that survived Atticus' assault, turned and left the battle, and even those in the vault control room left without a word, despite Dr. Maru trying in vain to physically restrain them. Only those that were truly robotic in nature -the assautrons, protectrons, and other defense mechanisms of Synth City remained unmoved by BJ's message.
"Where are you going?" Screamed a distraught Dr. Maru, "I'm right here and I'm ordering you to stay and do what I say!"
Still, the Synths left and only the Assaultron guards remained in the command vault, and they were not programmed for anything but attack and defense, so as a distressed Dr. Maru ran from console to console, trying to finish the nuclear missile's preparation for countdown, pulling her long flowing white hair from her bloody scalp as she did, Lena began singing "The Hanging Tree" kicking her chalk white feet from her bound ankles to keep beat as she watched the screens before her; all three showing large groups of Synthetic persons streaming out of Synth City.
|
|
