Romulus slipped under the incoming projectile, moving far enough away to avoid any spare bits and pieces to fly his direction. This wasn't the first time he's gone into combat with someone capable of tossing huge projectiles at him, but not at this... Scale.
"Interesting how resilient this kind of tech is compared to what we had at the lab, even the top of the line equipment would have at least gone blank for a minute or so. Reminds me of what I built this bad boy out of."
Romulus unfused his gun from his armor, drawing it out and fizzling his staff for a moment before holding the trigger down, pointed square at the arm he had striked as the gun looked like it was charging spare voltage from his suit into the gun barrel. His gun, held steady in his hand, fired a thin, but far reaching beam, a bit wider and stronger than the one he had used on the pipe before.
50% CHARGE - VOLTAGE SHOT
Romulus quickly went to work wrangling the beam downwards, in an attempt to sever Ferrus's arm, before prepping for the retaliation afterwards.
"For you, being disarmed would be an understatement. Let's just hope we can put you back together when you rise back to the surface."
Outside
Arbles's ping is a bit bad here but she's still online at least
The diminutive pilot struggled to hold onto the loli that had been passed onto her. She could manage, kinda, but it wasn't exactly easy. Jeez, how much does a kid weigh again? Even with all these coats you weigh a lot... Then again, physical strength was never her strong suit. Her dad teased her because of it all the time!
...Simpler times, back then. Then again, everything's simpler when you're not the one paying taxes and bills and/or dealing with bureaucracy.
Rhea got a pat on the head. "Whatever the heck you did, we'll do our best to get you healthy again." I hope.
"...those bullets were made to pierce through the armor of heavy tanks," Keith realized in terror as he watched every single one of his HEIAP rounds merely glance off BTC-03's arcandum chassis.
Nothing was seemingly capable of harming this hulking titan of a juggernaut. In the middle of his startled state, the informant's senses had dulled to the world outside his tunnel vision, not having yet noticed that he no longer held Tara's mechanical, disembodied head, nor that Juryrig(?) had come to help. It wasn't until the alchemist had gotten to firing his own gun to help in slowing down the golem that Keith's senses snapped back, hearing the words of the concerned, friendlier Juryrig. He quickly swiped a hand through his bracer's screen scanner, decloaking himself and turning to berate his crewmate for not having escaped.
"Help?! You should b---!" About to reply, the ex-sergeant was abruptly interrupted as a wooden pew, flung in his general direction by the towering foe, had escaped his attention during the brief exchange and hit him in the chest, splintering into a hundred tiny fragments which embedded themselves in his clothes and skin and throwing him down the hall by its momentum, poor Keith only coming to rest after crashing against the wall near the exit door.
The heavy impact on both sides, in quick succession, had rendered the informant unconscious, yet miraculously not as badly hurt as one would imagine from witnessing the scene. His padded, bulletproof vest had absorbed much of the projectile's blunt impact from the front, on top of the veteran soldier having an already durable body. The end total of his injuries so far would come to be at an approximate tally of... a slashed Achilles' tendon, multiple splinter injuries, half a dozen bruises, one or two broken ribs, a mild concussion, and a shattered pride.
"Euugh..." Rhea managed as she.... slowly, very slowly, regained her sense of self. She looked around, only... seeing a bleak, empty white landscape around her, with vague shapes around outside her proper range of perception. She managed to catch a glimpse og a face as she heard the words 'hold onto her' and, barely managed to mutter "Did you die too?"
But, as she was passed along, she started realizing the unfortunate truth; I feel pain, therefore I am. It was several... very, very long moments, that felt like an eterinty, before she even registered the fact she was being heled by somone, carrying her along and complaining about her weight, of all people. She barely felt that pat on her head through the bleary haze of exhaustion, cold, and worst of all, the pain of over exertion. And yet still... she felt like she had to move, she still had to fight. Her semi concious struggles, surely didn't make her any easier to carry for the tiny one now responsible for her. "Not... not done... I can still..." But even so, she found it a struggle just to stay concious, and her struggle to keep moving put a burden even on that, although she felt her mind was getting put back together piece by piece... maybe. Maybe that, was just a delusion too.
"His name is KEITH," Juryrig speaks aloud, as he tries to regain control over the body,"and you done screwed him over! You keep doing this to everyone you meet!" However, Tom suppresses the chaotic entity within him with his sporadic spirit.
"SHATTAP AND LEMME HELP, JURYRIG!" The alchemist's body, monstrously empowered by whatever the hell lived inside him, grabbed Osco by the collar and threw her onto the Alchemical Horse with a heavy SLAM, and with a firm slap on the tabletop, the abominably constructed machine vaulted off, carrying Osco from the fight towards the exit.
As the seconds counted down, he frantically dug for any kind of alchemical blueprint that could help right now. Ideally, another Scout or Munch Turret would do, but the first thing he found as a alchemical blueprint for a potent alchemically-induced explosion; it MIGHT beat it, but then Tom would have to get up close and personal, and... Well, that's pretty much suicide, even if it worked. So he had to go with the next option:
"Special Move, SCREAMING EAGLE" The panicked, risk-taking alchemist pointed the open end of the haversack at BTC-03, and shoved the blueprint inside! A chain reaction bubbled within, cascading into a fast, violent explosion of pure force and flame that rockets Tom away from the encounter. He felt his bones and joints breaking and dislocating, his ear drums rupturing, his skin burn, and his brain rattling about to gain a concussion or two; while tall the damage is healing up, it did not negate all the traumatizing pain. If anything, it's prolonging it. Yet, all that matters is if Tom can use the powerful explosion to fly all the way to Keith; he'll worry about the injuries after this. What is something he can say to take his mind off of his excruciating pain?
As Romulus held down on the trigger, he started to get the feeling he had made a mistake. The continuous beam crackled and sparked against the armor as the beast of a machine approached his position with an alarmingly fast stride. When Romulus pulled off the trigger, it revealed a scorched path down the machine's shoulder and arm, which has cut away at the thick fiber casing that ran around the Breaker-Types upper arm. Behind it was a series of dark metal pales and some kind of synthetic muscle fiber. The damaged arm twitched from the aftershock, but the other one seemed quite fine as it hurtled towards Romulus' face.
The Breaker-Type had backed the man under the balcony, and thrust it's arm forwards to pin the armored Romulus against the wall. The metal fingers of the machine curled around him, pinning his gun against his chest as it lifted Romulus off the ground. With an agitated heave, the artificer was thrown in a full force overhand pitch- sending him hurtling towards the other end of the nave.
OSC-01 was caught completely off guard as she was pitched over the alchemists head and onto the moving table. It was quite a feat, given her incredibly dense weight. The Overseer rose to their knees, reaching out alarmingly for the polearm caught in the machine in vain as Horsie pulled her away.
She looked around as the table moved towards the exit, but wasn't ready to leave yet. The Overseer yanked the unconscious Reman off the ground on their way past, throwing them onto the table in her place. OSC-01 landed on the nave floor without nearly as much grace as they were accustomed to, falling onto their knees and staying on the ground for quite some time. They were running out of energy for this. Slowly. they made their way towards the lost feather.
Overhead, Romulus was sent sailing out of the Nave- through the windows in the observatory dome. In a flurry of shattered glass and snapped wrought iron, he broke through to the outside world. At least the snow was there to catch him as he plummeted down into the courtyard below.
The attacking Gargoyle was stunned as Deimos' own blade was driven against it's thin skull. The blade ripped away at the exposed metal and wire with a flurry of sparks, knocking the Gargoyle off it's tracks. For what it was worth at the moment, it seemed his new cutter could do well in hand to hand combat. Though it's effectiveness against anything properly armored could be questioned. The machine was knocked back into Marie, receiving the finishing shock as it landed. It flailed and locked up violently as its circuits were overloaded, blowing out several weak capacitors as it fell the ground in a smoking pile of metal.
Courtyard
Dahlia was thrown off her feet as a man in armor came crashing down into the fountain basin mere feet from her. Across the courtyard, the ISS Downrider came to a slow landing in the snow, ready for the pilot to take the wheel. Dahlia scurried over to the delivered unconscious, beginning to drag them through the snow towards the landed cargo ship.
Mikodimus was sitting at a bar having a drink. This was the establishment he would frequent after a successful hunt. He recalled how dead he felt after years of chasing the bad guys. Was always the same thing day after day. Nothing new to really perk his interest. That was till he heard about an odd job from a young captain Dahlia. Something about finding a lost empire or what not. Personally felt this was going to end up a joke of a trip.
This quickly changed as he learned this trip was just the start of the ride. This mixed with the crew of crazy just made it even more exciting.
As he sat the images around him drew distant. The crew he would now considered family became fuzzy then vanished. He stood and took one last sip. The last of the crew to remain was Dahlia. The person who brought him out of the hell he called everyday life. As her image began to fade a smile crossed his lips. "You are not getting away that easy lil miss."
His eyes snapped open and lunged forward at whatever was dragging him by his feet. They tumbled for a moment before settling in the snow. His fist drawn back ready to strike. Then his eyes came into focus and seen it was none other than Dahlia. "Oh...hey Capt, looks like you was saving my ass huh." He said with a grin as he stood and helped her back on her feet.
The desperate alchemist tumbled and rolled, his enhanced body taking the brunt fairly easily as he fumbled the rest of the distance to unconscious sergeant person. "Shoot shoot shoot, I am so sorry - Oh Gods, okay, okay, no pressure, I can work with this- Dang it it I got no needles- Improv, Tom, IMPROV!"
Tom grabs Keith, threw him over his shoulder, and ran at a breakneck pace out of the ruin. Pure panic spread on Tom's features, deep down worried that someone just died right now. He would really, really like it if no one died. "C'mon, hold it together until we get to the ship!"
Courtyard
This is, until, Tom sees the Downrider land in the courtyard. "Oh. Oh hey, they brought in... Uplander, right? That's what they call it?"
"Downrider."
"Oh, right, sorry buddy." Tom, after glancing to his side, sees Horsie running ahead with the robot-
Wait a minute, why did the white robot lady thing turn into a human dude? What happened?
Deimos looked to the pile of scrap laying before him, his chest heaving. If there were this many now, who knew if there were more? That, however, did not matter. The commotion would obviously be enough to attract more unwanted company any second now. He could imagine the boxy-armored engineers springing out of the woodwork with guns all aimed at the naked fox and the rest of the Downrider crew still inside of the nave.
the thought brings up a second issue:
Deimos is standing upon a pile of scrap, his body exposed and pale with only a gauntlet by way of what one may consider clothing. His tail drooped while the realization dawned upon him once more. In the heat of battle, he couldn't care how much clothing he lost so long as his - and his teammates' - bodies were still intact. But with the battle coming to a close, all he could think of was the need of clothes.
He stared forward at the woman directly in front of him and felt as his face grew so hot he could swear it would melt the snow outside. He used the slowing down sawblade as a makeshift means of modesty, spinning on his heels to march towards the open doors. "Y-You didn't see anything!"
Alpier Observatory
Courtyard
The bare fox would refuse to leave the confines of the observatory until the last minute, waiting for his colleagues to gather inside until he would make a bolt towards the opened ramp. His hands were clutched over his groin, but his figure dashing across the snow like a streaker outrunning police would be obvious to anyone with better vision than a star-nosed mole. How this happened, he still had no clue. Perhaps it was one of the robots? then again, that ability might not be too keen with armor.
Of course, Deimos had planned to play it cool, but if he casually strolled in the buff, he'd be a foxicle before he even made it into the Downrider's quarters.
Fully unequipped for combat. This was not the fight Marie should be picking. She had something good for dealing with small things, like those sawblade...monstrosities. She did not have the means to deal with the golem. She needed to reidentify the priorities in the area. Most of the crew was out. The only one not out was the allied Overseer, who was currently suffering from an insufficient power source. She had a much stronger arsenal, and the Overseer being out of commission would likely decrease their effective combat power by far too much. So, Marie ran after the Overseer.
In a world visible only to her, she began to draw connecting wires and components to the Overseer in the air, ionizing the gases. From her palm, the invisible wires linked to a control circuit, which linked into the main power bus of the Overseer's frame. It was crude and imprecise, but Marie linked herself up to the Overseer's main power supply. She was now an auxiliary power source, capable of supplying the Overseer with the energy she needed as of the moment.
"Overseer!" she shouted, before cranking herself up to as high as she could safely go, filling the friendly relic with the energy she needed. That was enough. Time to evacuate.
Outside Observatory
Romulus was off-balance after the impact. He clearly didn't expect to just be tossed away instead of impaled, it was a poor prediction on his part, and he paid the price. And even though dazed, he still wanted to save the crew from both that huge machine, and the beast lying insi-
WARNING! CRITICAL THRESHOLD REACHED!
Damn. The driver was telling him his body couldn't take any more punishment. He had many many other keys, but It wasn't worth risking his body for. Spotting the ex-mafia head of crew, he had to make a decision fast otherwise he would have to face up to his actions real quick. But, making sure the crew was taken care of at the current moment was top priority. He turned to Dahlia for a brief moment, brushing the dust and rubble from the fountain off of him.
"The breaker has a limb gone, I'm gonna need you to keep the crew safe, but watch out for the mechanic. He has something he's hiding, and he doesn't know what it is."
Romulus took the gun that was welded to his hand, and shot a few successive rounds to make a wall of fire; Generating enough smoke to finally allow him the security to fizzle his armor and portal back to the ship, acting like nothing had happened.
Dahlia fell back into the snow as she was tackled out of nowhere by her employee. She threw her weight back against Mikodimus before he started to pull away in realization. Before he could finish the smile however, Dahlia punched the man square in the nose with a right jab. The result was some minor bruising around the nose and left eye.
The captain threw Mikodimus off herself as she stood up, brushing the snow off her as she looked back to the others speaking. "Do that again and you're finding your own way home, Plissken." Dahlia motioned the man towards the cargo ramp, along with the others. It was time to get the hell out of here. Nave
OSC-01's head jolted upwards at the sudden surge of power coming from the engineer. Always something new. But now wasn't the time to dwell on questions. The Overseer rose to a full stance as she spotted the lost Breaker-Type: which had caught on to the few remaining souls in the nave. Her gaze shot between the engineer and the glaive impaled in the machine to her right. "Go. Now," the Overseer commanded, brushing Marie towards the exit with their limp wing.
At the exit to the nave, two Bouncers ushered and guarded the remaining crew and unconscious out of the building. OSC-01 on the other hand made a break for the defiled looking glass. The Overseer ripped the glaive from the tangled web of machinery while its duplicated folded neatly against her arms. OSC-01 turned for the exit once more, only to find the Breaker-Type once housing Ferrus standing over her silently.
The stillness permeated the air for a moment, before the golem reached to grab OSC-01. The Overseer jumped back from the grasp, raising the retrieved polearm offensively. "What are you," the Overseer demanded as they raised the hardened edge towards the Golems neck. With little pause, the golem raised its first and struck out, aiming to hit the Overseer. Instead, the hook connected with one of the Bouncers, which had thrown itself in harms way for their unit. The hit landed with so much force, it snapped the Pixy unit out of the Bouncer shell cleanly. The rest of the Bouncer was thrown against the floor, its limbs furling as the punch send disembodied plates of bent armor and floating limbs scattered across the Nave with a crunch. But it wasn't finished.
The Overseer reeled back, bracing the polearm across her arms as the next punch came in. The golem threw another jab, connecting with the center of the Overseers defensive posture. The arcandum plated glaive bowed under the immense force until it could give nothing more, breaking in half along the sliding joint with a sickening snap.
OSC-01 was thrown to the floor, having changed from an offensive posture to rapidly throwing herself away from the golem as the two ends of the broken weapon bounced of the floor beside her. Stuck at a keeling posture between the window and the Breaker-Type, she was left with little options. With a glance to the side, the Overseer gripped the broken polearm and threw themselves backwards out of the window, shattering what remained of the already-beaten glass and metal on her way down.
The Overseer hit the snow with a rather graceless posture, not having enough time to properly angle themselves for a landing. She romped out of the snow drift as cold mush clung to her defenseless reactor port, looking up at the now still Breaker-Type. The golem stood motionless at the edge of the observatory, watching the scattered members of the Downrider crew make a break for their landing craft. OSC-01 stared up with mixed anger and fear, the now unsuited Pixy unit scuttling under her wing in reflected terror.
And so, OSC-01 did just as she had done before, over half a millennia ago: she ran. The busted Overseer evacuated along with the remaining Bouncers, barely making it to the cargo bay ramp as the ship started to stutter to life. The old cargo ship lurched, pulling away from the snowy descent as the ramp closed, leaving the pilot in the perfect position to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible.
Back at the Observatory, the Breaker-Type's reactor sputtered and halted with a whine, leaving the barely-damaged unit stock still at the windowsill. Behind them approached the familiar black and teal machine which emerged from the room the Breaker-Type broke out from, come to inspect the unit themselves in frustration. Compared to the Breaker-Type, even Satori was dwarfed- but she lost the real prize. The bodyguard looked up at the now open skyline, watching the cargo ship cruise away with a steaming trail in its wake.
Until next time.
This is effectively the ending of Episode Two. Another interim episode will be up soon, which will contain both storytime and probably someone getting the crap beat out of them. Feel free to JP as you'd like, but know that episode 2.5 will take place about a dayish after the event of Union, once characters have had time to rest and start recovery.
In the mean time, I'm going to the beach soon. Maybe we'll go somewhere hot next time too.
