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originally posted in:The Roleplay League
11/4/2015 4:00:18 AM
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"It's a hard process that can only be done by outside sources. Most of my men were freed by having the network they were apart of shut down, I would thank remove them from the network and reprogram them enough to function on their own."
English
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Seraphim's electronic mind digests that. She has no response to it, however. "Do you know where the human distress signal originates from, Sol Heretic?" the dirty Guardian asks.
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"No, it has only just come to my attention. I was busy making sure the outpost in the cosmodrome was ready for anything.*
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"Are you capable of providing accurate maps of these ruins, along with an estimate of enemy forces?" Seraphim inquires.
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"Yeah, let me just check my map." [b]quasis pulls out a holo map and checks the area[/b]
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Seraphim-6 studies the map, her electronic brain copying the data into her memory core. "Enemy forces?" she prompts.
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"Hmmmm, multiple hive mind vex, but they are rapidly disappearing. That can only mean two things, either fallen ate here, or oryx has a interest in this place."
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"Suggested course of action: avoid opposition and investigate distress signal. Stealth tactics preferable to extended battles. Recommendation remains the same: form a fireteam and proceed with caution." The mechanical form of the Exo turns fully toward the queen. Her head cocks to the side, her programming synthesizing a display of curiosity. "Will you be accompanying this frame?"
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"Yup, it could be interesting. Who knows what we could find." [b]quasis seems to smile, if a vex can do that[/b]
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The Exo doesn't respond in kind. Instead, she simply hefts her rifle up into a ready position and moves further into the moss-choked ruins of Vex architecture. Her feet seem to avoid the stone, keeping to the soft green plant life. It helps mask the sound of her steps.
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[b]quasis mimics her movements, making sure that she didn't make too much noise as she walked[/b]
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The ruins grow darker, and the tunnels begin to stink of moss that's gone too long without fresh water, or even the bare minimum sun it requires. At one point, just to see, Seraphim summons her Ghost to illuminate the structure around them. The beam casts everything in a harsh light, causing long shadows to crawl away from the Exo. Perhaps it's a fitting metaphor. Seraphim-6 comes to a halt as the hallway turns into a bridged chasm. Lichen hangs from each side of the stone-metal bridge. "Precarious," the Exo's Ghost comments, twisting to look down. It snaps back up at a sound. It sounds like rushing water, growing to a crescendo. Darkness gathers, and a chill fog sweeps through the area, coating the bridge. Massive spheres of rippling ebon begin to form. The noise grows into a scream and then the spheres burst! Flickering, twitching creatures, dangerous shadows of their former selves form and twist to peer at the small fireteam. "Taken!" Seraphim warns, dropping to a knee behind a jagged uprising on the right side of the bridge, just as incoming fire rips through their position.
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[b]quasis gets behind cover, her slap rifle transforming into a line rifle, which she uses to take out any long distance fighters like vandels or hobgoblins[/b]
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Seraphim takes aim at a charging creature that used to be a shield-bearer for the Cabal. She squeezes the trigger of her Cacytus mechanically. One. Two. Both strike the glowing center of the creature's face. It shudders and lurches backwards, it's unnatural toughness preserving it. Then the second round comes crashing in, and the monstrous Cabal is sucked in upon itself in a whirlwind of ill-colored light. More spheres blossom and give birth to their hateful children of Oryx. Taken Vex, fresh or perhaps merely yet to be slain by the free queen, open fire on Seraphim. The Exo ducks as hissing void energy scorches her cover. Plucking a grenade from her belt, she lobs it in an arc at their position. There's almost a pregnant pause before a [i]boom[/i] of thunder roars, and lightning blossoms from thin air to shred the offensive Taken.
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While gunshots and energy discharge sounded in the distance, Sigma was close to deciphering the purpose of the Vex pattern he had been observing. "Hmm... What if I..." Using his own Arc energy as a catalyst, he delivered pulses to key points in the pattern. After the 9th pulse, the pattern began to glow brighter and seemed to expand. Within seconds, it had expanded into a map of the local Vex ruins! Sigma briefly wondered why the Vex would need a map, before coming to the conclusion that the disconnected free Vex may have used it at one point early on. "Clever," he said, with a tone that only hinted at the admiration he held. He had heard Seraphim-6 speaking with the group of free Vex earlier, but he had heard of these free Vex before, in scattered texts and , more recently, a treaty with the Last City. He knew little else about them, however, but he figured they could be useful allies. Anyway, back to business. He examined this map and noticed some oddities. There were differently colored points on the map indicating a few things. Blue dots seemed to correspond to Vex portals, red dots denote hostile Vex, Fallen or Taken, and green dots represent allies. The green dots on this map were somewhere off in the Vex ruins, seemingly in trouble as the red dots began to close in on them. "I guess that's what the gunshots are about," he concluded, deciding to go and help. Suddenly, one of the blue dots nearest to these allies began to glow brighter than before. "Maybe if I touch it?" he pondered, but as his palm came into contact with it, he was teleported instantaneously to the portal in question. This meant that he was in the middle of a battleground. "Well, how convenient."
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The flicker-flash of teleportation catches Seraphim-6's attention. She twists, aiming her scout rifle at the figure that emerges from the light. It's Sigma. "Non-hostile," she identifies him. "Seek cover." It seems like sound advice. Mechanically, she turns back toward the battle. She aims and fires, putting rounds through charging, blackened bodies. Her clip runs dry, right as what used to be a psion rounds her cover. She releases the Cacytus, letting the sling it's on carry it to the left side of her body. Without a pause she reaches for the weapon to her right. It's a fusion rifle. Her finger finds the trigger and pulls it even as she brings it up to aim. Lightning flickers along the barrel as it begins to charge. The enslaved psion disappears in a dazzling flash as blazing bolts of Arc energy tear through it. Even as it dies, something worse enters the fray. The fog shrieks again, and more blackness fills the area around the bridge. When it bursts apart, a Taken hydra looms above its fellows. It's massive, and it booms out a war cry in corrupted machine code. It sounds like a fog horn, and it's more felt than heard. "New plan," Seraphim-6 calls above the din of battle. "Disregard stealth tactics. Engage and obliterate enemy taken with extreme prejudice."
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Edited by cry_w: 11/6/2015 9:03:10 PMSigma, not prone to disputing sound advice, hides behind a large piece of the Vex architecture, a column of machinery and ontological computing power. Within seconds, the imposing form of a Taken Minotaur had taken the field, a blighted monstrosity that writhed with dark energies. Luckily he had just the tool for the job, courtesy of Rasputin. "It seems that something more is required for such a creature," he said, as he readied his Sleeper Simulant for a beam straight into the core of the deformed Minotaur. "Luckily, I have just the thing." He aimed. He fired. It would have killed it. Unfortunately, there was no charge left in the weapon after days of fighting and traveling. It was dead, and, he did not move, so was he. "Well, this is unpleasant," he stated, before moving back into cover just as a powerful bolt of solar energy slammed into the ground where he had been standing. [i]Time for plan B[/i], he thought, pulling out his Lyudmila and readying an Arc charge in his other hand.
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Eye-searing bolts of void energy pummel the Exo's cover, and she hunkers down behind it. Glowing pits scar the Vex hybrid of stone and metal. Many Guardians would probably swear at this point, or at least look perturbed. Seraphim-6 simply reloads her scout rifle. She waits, her attitude as cold and distant as the metal she's made from. Her optics register the incoming solar bolts from the Minotaur. Leaning out to take a shot is the result of a risky but acceptable equation. Barely shifting, the muzzle of her weapon emerges behind cover. She squeezes the trigger of her weapon rapidly. The weapon bucks, but the Exo's programming allows her to compensate and reset her aim each time. The Minotaur's shield flickers and flashes, casting aside Seraphim-6's rounds and reducing them to heat-boiled slag. The incredible impact of the rifle, however, brings a cost to stopping the bullets. With a sudden crash, the Taken Minotaur's shields fail. "Reloading," she calls to her allies. "Target suggestions: Minotaur and Hydra."
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The Minotaurs shields are down! Sigma leans out from behind covers and takes aim at the creature. 1, 2, 3, 4 rounds, straight to core of the blight. The core bursts in a shower of tainted particulate, before imploding in on itself along with the rest of its body. "Minotaur down!" he yells to his comrades, before going back behind cover to decide his next move. His rifle is powerful, but it doesn't have the punch to take down a Taken Hydra with that kind of power. His Hitchhiker could kill it, but the time it would take and the range of effectiveness eliminates this as an option. His Simulant is out of power, so that can be excluded. He does have his Arc charge though... A plan forms, but a new complication appears that he had not considered. The Hydra is shielded. Unlike normal Hydra models, however, the shield is projected by corrupted oracles in the room, and their power makes the shield impenetrable. He can not hit them all, and the Hydra would kill him if he tried to target them this blatantly out in the open. If he were alone, he would be dead. However, Sigma is not alone. He signals to Seraphim and the free Vex to attack the oracles. He knew that Seraphim could outrun a Hydra's gaze, and he's sure that the free Vex has some tricks up her sleeve. Now all he needed to do was wait for the moment to strike...
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The Exo nods once and swings around her cover. She sets her wrist against the side of it, steadying her aim as she begins to fire. Her muzzle flashes, bright plumes of flame roiling forth. Bullets slam into her targets, leaving holes in twitching, shadowy forms. They ripple, then fall in upon themselves. When the last one goes down, Seraphim looks to Sigma. "Go!" she shouts.
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As the last of the distorted oracles is destroyed, Sigma sprints out of cover towards the Hydra. Without the oracles, it is rendered helpless, with its only actions being the convulsions of prey trying to escape from a trap. He runs forward, all while building up Arc energy for that perfect moment. He leaps from his high perch, and, with the Hydra beneath him and the Arc energies reaching their pinnacle, he calls to the storm. His mind is clear, his Light flows throughout his body, and he can feel the force of the lightning that he guides. All he needs to do now is give it form, direction, and purpose. He needs a jagged spear, flowing through him towards the ground in a cacophony of Light and electricity and the remains of his enemies. With this intent, the lightning heeded his call, and it came down through him, striking directly into the heart of the blighted Vex. The results were instantaneous and devastating; the Arc energy had overload the malformed machine, causing it to explode and disintegrate within the span of a few seconds. The monstrosity was gone, and the other Taken left once this thing was killed. While he didn't feel that that the Taken had left completely, Sigma felt it necessary to take a moment of reprieve to reload, restock, and rest. He would handle the remains if spotted anyway.
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Seraphim rises from her spot in cover and walks forward to stand beside Sigma. She pulls a magazine from her belt and reloads her weapon. Her optics scan the remains of the Hydra, taking in the heat-glow of its savaged wreck. "Enemy combatants nullified. Human signal still requires discover." The Exo pauses and looks toward her fellow Warlock. "You arrived by Vex technology. How?"
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"It was some sort of map," he said, "it had indicators showing hostiles, allies, and portals. It seems that it sensed my intent and connected to a portal nearby." [i]Beware. Taken. Continue. Now.[/i] projected his Ghost, with an urgency uncharacteristic of it. "We should probably get moving. I sense a dark presence west of here. The distress signal is in the same direction, so I don't feel like things will be getting easier anytime soon." He moved ahead, signaling her to follow. He wasn't sure why his Ghost was panicking like this, but it must be for a good reason.
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Seraphim nods her head, following the Guardian, her weapon held low. "West," she repeats his words. "You can sense what I cannot. Have you discovered anything else about the signal?"
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"It's... quiet," he said, trying to focus on the presence he felt. "It is like there is an absence of being, a stain upon our world. No sound dares to disturb it, because they are afraid." His focus wavered, and in that moment he thought of his condition. When did he start sensing the darkness? Has his Light waned? [i]No matter[/i], he thought, [i]nothing can stop me now. I'm too close.[/i] Once he had regained his focus, he told Seraphim, "Be cautious; I have no idea what cruel amalgamation of darkness lies ahead."
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Seraphim watches the Warlock as he speaks, and even after he finishes, her helmeted head does not waver. Does she suspect something, or is she simply processing the new data? "The bridge leads west," she finally concludes, with no hint one way or the other. "New information suggests preparations are necessary to encounter an enemy of greater magnitude." The Exo lets her scout rifle's sling take its weight while she unlimbers the massive Objection from her back in a rattle of chains. She checks the feed and then racks a round into place. "Preparations complete," she announces, before looking back at Sigma. "With an upgraded sensor suite, logic states that you should lead the way."
