Local Conditions wrote:
Somewhere in spacetime
- Location: Center, Level 6
- Population: 600 million (50-150 million on level 6)
- Mission Time: 02:58:15
- Ley Line Activity: 500' from ley line nexus
- Weather: Indoors, 65°, 50% humidity
- Visibility: Bright even, almost approaching daylight
THE SCORCHED FACE
The security forces in Echo's control continue buy his story and move with surprising alacrity at his commands. The new data on the screens confuses Echo with a mess of unfamiliar icons and words--their codes for threats have little in common with his experience. Judging by the way the wolfen reacted, the level of hardware he is packing and his quite satisfactory credentials leads Echo to the unmistakable conclusion that he canid is law enforcement of some kind. He was most likely tailing Spade, but why is up for debate. The noro probably recognized his true nature and tried to off him before the shit hit the fan.
Ponsener gets very serious and gives Echo a stern smile, then gets to work. Whatever his actual rating in this security groups hierarchy, the junior agent takes charge with authority seemingly imbued by Echo's confidence. Voice reports on enemy movements soon begin to come through Echo's comms.
Inside, Grant approaches the map and Spade in the moments before all hell breaks loose with a few simple questions. Spade is happy to answer, as best he can. His mirth is gone, but he still has a positive sort of feeling about him, as if somehow despite the craziness, he's confident things will turn out okay. He says to Grant,
"Mr Sorenson is quite right about the Knife, they are not the easiest people to deal with. I suggest sneaking in, which, to answer a question from before, is how I found this information. I was sneaking around down there." He frowns a little bit as the mage asks about the nearby nexus,
"I'm pretty sure these ones up here are somehow maintained to prevent random rifts or ley line storms, but my knowledge of the mystic arts is not deep enough to understand the effects on a typical user."
Spade nods to Sorrenson and hands him a small data chip,
"This should fit into most standard holo projectors. I used the built in device in the room here. Theatrical maybe, but there's nothing wrong with that." He's distracted as Sil offers her usual oddball contribution to the conversation. Spade starts to explain the geography of Center but stops dead at the bag'o'gold. He looks in the golden glow reflecting off his face.
"I surely hope you can come back after you task is complete! You, my dear are a rare beauty, a femme fatale for sure, but well worth the risk."
From inside the private room, the oddball group watches as the wolfen's face burns off under the plasma blast (Naruni plasma pistol, naturally) and what it reveals confirms Soren's initial prediction: beneath the realistic and perfectly lifelike flesh and fur, the wolfen is an advanced cyborg. He is unfazed by losing half his face. He shoots back, one hand firing at the noro with some built in cyber-weapon. He produced a heavy HI laser pistol from a compartment in his thigh and blasts away and the nefarious horde.
From the center of his spiderweb, Echo can see the scene play out a few seconds longer than his compatriots. The wolfen spends the first few seconds covering the door to the room, but once the oddball group is through the portal he dives for cover. The noro keeps his attack on the wolfen as long as he can but then just starts shooting into the panicked crowd.
Echo moves swiftly from the security room to a vantage point on the mezzanine with good coverage of the target area. The dragon-monster thing is frightening, to say the least. The shock of seeing it at first was tempered by the physical separation, viewing it through a camera it didn't seem as bad. But out here seeing the beast in the flesh, at least 20 plus feet tall, it is more horrible than Echo thought at first. It's not that it's a dragon, no it's that this some twisted mockery of a dragon, a hybrid of the majestic beast with devilish features: goat hooves, a rat like tail and fur tufts reminiscent of a demons. Echo is shaken for a moment as he tries to line up his first shot. It's inconsequential though, even distracted, Echo's marksmanship is without equal. His first shot hits the monster in the head, leaving a visible wound--a wound that almost immediately begins to heal--but the beast doesn't react, instead he shoves a humanoid down its throat. Echo's second shot hits, and this time, the demon-dragon is pissed off enough to find this person attempting to be a threat. Echo's hiding spot is good enough that he can get of the third shot before being discovered. But he is discovered after that shot and the beast charges...
Sil and Spade are finishing their conversation, and he breaks off answering the Palladium native to defend himself with a little energy projection. When Grant reacts with a magic way out, Spade brightens,
"Yes, that sounds good!" He scampers through the portal as fast as possible. Sil's psychic probing at this point is pretty much obscured by fear and a determined will to survive. She dashes out through the portal behind Spade, leaving Sorrenson and James still in the room.
As Grant casts his portal spell, his back is to the fight int he atrium. James does not have his back to the atrium, and he is forced to fire a couple shots from his hold-out pistol and the mini-shotguns to dissuade some of the spiny creatures from breaking into the room. The effects aren't too damaging, but they do slow the monsters down. Next to him, Spade appears to be unarmed, but he shoots a couple ruby colored energy beams from his hands. James follows through the portal, right behind Sorrenson, the last one out!
While James is shooting, Sorrenson takes the moment to poke his head out for just a second. It's plenty of time for a sickening confirmation of just how bad the bad guys are. In addition to a clearly evil noro mercenary, which is bad enough, there are six cryox, four shock dragons, two fenry, two dire harpies, two deevils and just for shits and giggles, a dragon deevil. They are tearing into people left and right, up and down, breaking glass, tearing up walls, and generally causing as much horrible destruction as possible. The hosts of Dyval might be more subtle than the demonic hordes, but they certainly can play rough when they want too. The amount of blood and bodies after only a few seconds is a grotesque testament to their ferocity and cruelty. Prudently, he dashes through the portal just ahead of James!
When everyone is through, the sounds of chaos are closing in on the private room. The portal vaporizes as the some of the weird spiny things enter the room. Just in the nick of time!
They find themselves in lobby full of chaos. They were able to exit into an alcove, and could easily get to the weapon-check, but for about twenty other people all fighting for the same thing. A few of the spiny beasts have found their way into the hall too, which is only adding to the confusion. Sorrenson could probably reach the Drudge in a handful of seconds, so that's good.
What are you doing?
Note: AOI "through" the armored suit seems legit.