Starpath: Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway - Thread 2 - Games

Starpath: Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway - Thread 2

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Ravis subtly smiled. János had essentially referred to his earlier fright as normal, which was reassuring to a small extent, and he was trying to let Ravis know that he had already made it "in" to the group. But what János didn't seem to understand is that normal was exactly what he wanted to overcome. The whole point of coming along with TBC was to learn how to be brave and to take real, personal action against oppression. [I]That's[/I] what he wanted. "I, uh, I don't think it's that easy," he replied with a nervous laugh. "But thanks anyway, mister János." --- With the front gate having been cleared, the way was open for the team to plunge deeper into Vostokrebh. The bike carrying Amy and Markus, as well as the truck containing several other comrades, caught up to Yanim and Arkadam on their Komet and passed them. Further back, Jag jumped aboard Dio's truck and also joined in on the advance. Ahead, the first buildings on the outskirts of the base were beginning to light up as the occupants took note of the emergency unfolding around them- they were mostly UGC personnel, a mixture of various races and backgrounds whose only real priority was to protect the security of their own facility. Their morale was weak, and the ones who had appeared in the street to oppose the raid were poorly equipped and tired-eyed. The poor weather sapped much of the strength out of the patrols. The real bitch was going to be the APC, which was bounding down the roadway directly toward the crew, with its machine guns ready to pulverize them the moment they slowed down. Additionally, the turrets on either side, built into the walls of the buildings themselves, presented difficult targets both to hit, and to avoid. Markus opened the battle with a flare, sending the burning mass right into the assembled enemy soldiers. CH Estimate: 2/5 [B]Actual: 3[/B] Roll Failed. They quickly shielded their faces, dropping away from the projectile as it whizzed into them. Nobody was hit by the phosphorous, but the attack had succeeded in delaying them for a moment. Just behind Amy's bike, Iron's truck thundered onto the scene and Sting brandished her four pistols at the enemy. With no particular target standing out, she simply picked one of the larger ones and focused her aggression on him, since he would be easiest to hit. Sting: {3, 9, 2, 4}... [B]2[/B] x 1.75 x 4(Quickdraw) = [B]14 DMG[/B] The target, a gohva, shrugged off the attack. Right behind, Arkadam took aim with his Type-1 and sprayed the whole group, aiming to suppress their fire so that they could keep running and leave them in the dust. CH Estimate: 2/7 x 2(Malevolence) = 4/7 [B]Actual: 5[/B] Roll Passed. Between the flash of the flare, the smoke, and bullets whizzing in from bikes and trucks, the soldiers of the UGC were caught off-guard completely. They had expected a mobile attack when they heard the sirens, but not something nearly so daring. The APC's gun swiveled around, equally unprepared to fight such quick targets, and eventually settled on Dio's truck as the most appropriate target. Jag, however, fully intended to strike, and with its superior agility, it beat the APC to the punch. CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 5[/B] Roll Passed. Jag leaped from the moving truck once again, swooping down onto the machine gun turret of the APC and ripping it clean from its base using force of momentum alone. Surprisingly, the APC didn't even respond to the attack, as it was soon clear that the ten soldiers currently being overwhelmed were the ones the APC had delivered to the fight. All that remained inside the vehicle was a driver and a gunner, and the gunner had just witnessed the sanghvi's attack through his optical camera feed. As Yanim whipped past the APC's cabin, she swore she could hear a muffled "fuck!" She sneered under her breath; perhaps things would go right after all. Right ahead of her, Dio, swerved suddenly in his truck, aiming to road-kill a few of the enemy on the way through. CH Estimate: 4/5 [B]Actual: 2[/B] Roll Passed. As the truck suddenly diverted course, the soldiers were disorganized and screaming in terror. Everything that could have gone wrong was doing so at a spectacular pace, and Dio was happy to dispatch them outright. [B]100 DMG to UGC Soldiers 3 and 4.[/B] [B]Two Enemies Eliminated.[/B] Yanim and Amy crossed paths as the crew pushed deeper, each running evasive maneuvers to avoid the turrets, which they were on-track to leave behind. Yanim: CH Estimate: 1/3 x 2(Malevolence) = 2/3 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. Amy: CH Estimate: 1/3 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. Unfortunately, the two of them weren't able to outsmart the turrets' programming, which tracked them with machine precision. However, this wasn't as much of a problem as it had been at the gate, because the turrets had too many targets to divide their fire between. [B]12 DMG to All Present.[/B] Amy HP: 108/100(Nanosurgeon) Arkadam HP: 51/63 Dio HP: 108/100(Nanosurgeon) Jag HP: 58/50(Nanosurgeon) Markus HP: 164/156(Nanosurgeon) Sting HP: 58/50(Nanosurgeon) Yanim HP: 38/50 Bullets smashed into the bikes and bodies of the riders, and knocked out the windows of Dio and Iron's trucks. The latter actually escaped harm, but Sting wasn't quite so lucky. With the exception of the fragile kanads, all were able to sustain their injuries easily thanks to Hestia's healing nanomachines. "Keep going, keep going!" Yanim screamed into her comm as the route continued to open. If they could bypass the inner roadway as easily as they had done with the outer section, they would no doubt reach the headquarters of the base in short order. Moreover, they would do so while taking few, if any, losses, and the excitement of such a prospect stoked their spirits higher. --- Ryvik was forcing himself to keep walking, no matter how much his body ached for rest after his run-in with Satan herself. Having reached the edge of the property and sliding himself under the chain-link fence, he now looked upon the quiet village of Stalnazyp and its sleeping inhabitants. In his dismal state, it all looked so inviting to him... it reminded him of the small towns far away from the capital back on Kanadys, the ones where the most notable local industry was a fish farm... He lost his balance and fell into a shallow ditch, and laid there for a while, thinking about the sights and sounds of his memories, of the countryside, and wondered if he would get the chance to visit it again. It seemed so strange to him; those villages had absolutely nothing to offer him now. It wasn't as if he grew up in one. It just seemed inviting, is all... He shook his head. He had nearly allowed himself to fall asleep, and giving his injuries, that might have meant death. He needed evacuation, but with his team dispatched and his driver captured, that would be almost impossible, especially with the militia on high alert. But something had to happen, because he had brought the bomb with him. It didn't matter if he disabled its dead-hand trigger, he had still brought the bomb from up above. He needed to talk to Vorokar, and to the base commanders, he needed to organize something, he desperately needed to act... but he had so little information to work with, and the sound of his voice, especially the sound of his language or the heavily-accented Terran he had learned, would instantly attract attention of [I]someone[/I] nearby... what he really needed was to steal a vehicle and get out of the village, even if it meant riding in the wrong direction. After what seemed like an eternity of increasingly hopeless limping, he came across a bicycle leaned up against a dwelling. Not a motorbike, but a damned bicycle, which probably belonged to a khergian child. Its knobby tires were half-deflated and the rubber bits on the handlebar had long chipped away, but it was as if he had stumbled on an oasis in the desert. Awkwardly straddling the frame, he stood on the pedals and activated his suit's strength to pump his legs harder than he could normally manage, awakening all the pain in his body at once. He stifled a scream and surged forward, down the road and toward the town's exit. --- Meanwhile, Iska and the militia had followed Beta's literal trail, tracking her blood, footprints, and the solid line she dragged through the snow with her limp tail. They had lost sight of her when she crested the last mounds of scrap at the edge of the yard, but they had been hot on her heels. They were bewildered, then, when all the signs of her presence suddenly disappeared. Her footprints simply terminated in the open field, her blood pooled a bit heavily nearby, and nothing else. There was nowhere for her to blast away to with her jetpack, and nothing to hide behind. It was as if she had come to a halt and disappeared, like a magic trick...

Markus cursed under his breath as bullets nipped at his cloths. His eyes darted quickly between the the targets that appeared in front of them. He fished out a grenade from his vest and removed the pin with his thumb. "All right, luv. Get us as close as you can to that fuckin angry mailbox an I'll take 'is top off." he said, referring to one of the turrets. "After I dump 'his package on 'im we're splittin' off to find a quite place so I can use my bloody rifle." --- Sting unloaded all she could into the Ghova, who seemed like he was affected by a aggressive wind. "What in the hell..." she began, before ducking into the truck as bullets began whizzing past. Grabbing hold onto a seat with her tail to steady herself she emptied all the casings onto the floor and began reloading. She cast a glance towards Alex, who was still trying to figure out how the turret was working. "Hows about we start shooting, huh"

[QUOTE]Hows about we start shooting, huh[/QUOTE] Alex got annoyed a bit from Sting's remark. He hadnt figured out everything, but he figured out enough. "One dead motherfucker, comming up!" He aimed the turret at the Ghova and started shooting before switching to any other unlucky bastards that he could spot. --- "I can get you the first part." Amy started to move the bike closer to the turret to give Markus a better shot "But the second idea isn't so hot. Best bet is to keep moving. We stop, we give them a chance to narrow us down and turn us to paste."

Taylor and Valk darted in on their own bikes, bringing up the rear of the pack after taking care of the turret at the gate. So far, things were going smoothly. A few hits here and there, but not enough to cripple anyone just yet. As they ventured into the inner roadway, the tank came into view. Taylor's eyes grew a little wider in her helmet. That's a MUCH bigger target they needed to deal with than the turrets. Plus, there were Kanad soldiers here too. Her train of thought was broken by a series of [B]THOOMP[/B] noises from behind, which she could hear over the roar of the chaos and hoverbikes. Apparently the other drone Valk had brought with them on her own bike was weilding a homemade revolving 40mm grenade launcher, and was launching grenades at the turrets. The drone on the back of Taylor's bike opened fire on the troopers on foot as well. [I]Well, time to pick a target, Taylor.[/I] She locked onto the tank using the scout bike's computer, then fired off a pair of missiles from the underside of the bike. If there were any soft spots on that tank, she really hoped that the missiles would find them.

Iron gritted his teeth and continued to push forward with the truck, accelerating further. He drew his hand cannon from its holster, placed it on the dashboard and fired several explosive-tipped projectiles at the turrets. Karl on the other hand stopped for a brief moment and pulled out his hunting rifle. He fired several precise shots at the nearest hostiles.

Yanim cranked the accelerator on the Komet and cut hard to the left once the next obstacles came into view, intending to get a wide view of the path ahead and, specifically, the type of entrance the crew would need to breach in order to enter the complex's headquarters, which now loomed ever more intimidatingly over them. The roadway melted away into a vast field of pavement, well-lit by flood lights from seemingly every direction. Large industrial installations crisscrossed the sky, massive skeletal hulks standing in service of the Black Fleet's vessels. Behind the truss-like towers, the Viokhmar sat in suspended animation, its windows faintly glowing with warm yellow light, almost welcoming against the hostile blues and blacks of the winter night. It was difficult to see the smaller dangers- a pylon here, a barrier there, a stack of steel drums... but all the swerving and all the obstructions made the two a very difficult target for the enemy to focus on for the moment, and so they had a few seconds of breathing time to determine what to do next. Yanim called out to Arkadam: "[What's going on back there?]" "[Two bikes up the middle, Amy and Taylor!]" Arkadam squinted at the distant vehicles. "[The trucks are following up... Dio's turning, and wait, shit! I think Karl's pulled over!]" "Dammit!" Yanim yelled in English. Directly connecting to Karl's line, she urged him: "don't stop moving unless you want to die, kadaren!" Back on the outer roadway, Karl sighted his enemies through the scope of his rifle. He had heard Yanim's warning, but disregarded it as it was too late for him to change his mind. He would need to shoot and then quickly resume the chase, or else the counterattack could be dangerous. Karl: {1, 3, 1, 3} x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]{1, 3, 1, 3}[/B] ((Viper, I've just come to realize that I don't have any stat information for Karl. I searched our Discord history and my PM inbox and I can't find anything. So for this turn, Karl is running on base human stats; you should fix this before you give him any other commands.)) Karl fired off a number of shots in quick succession, perhaps a bit too recklessly. As far as he could tell, he hadn't hit anything, but he certainly attracted some unwanted attention toward himself. With considerable hustle, he secured his rifle inside the skiff and floored it, hoping to pull away before the enemy could respond. CH Estimate: 2/5 [B]Actual: 2[/B] Roll Failed. UGC Soldiers 1, 2, 5, and 6: {9, 4, 9, 10} x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]32[/B] Karl: DEF Rolls = {2, 1, 3, 5} = 11 [B]21 DMG[/B] Karl HP: 99/100 He wasn't fast enough, and quickly his skiff encountered a wave of enemy fire which easily penetrated. His armor, as well as the nanites in his system, helped to prevent serious injury as he swung around their clustered position. As he did so, he could hear the squealing tires of the enemy APC fighting for grip on the icy road nearby, but the driver's eyes were locked on Dio's truck, and not him. Alex, chided by Sting and eager to get into the fight, began to unload on the UGC soldiers on the outer roadway, even as Iron was pulling away. CH Estimate: 1/3 Actual: [B]{1, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 3}[/B] 3 Rolls Passed. 5 Rolls Failed. [B]100 DMG to UGC Soldiers 2, 8, and 10[/B] It was difficult to fire on the move, but Alex managed to hit three out of the eight remaining soldiers using the turret- an android, a serek, and a tetrian, each of which were knocked from their feet by the impact. Incredibly, all of them were able to take the impact without being killed, although it was an extremely close call for the serek, who quickly crawled into cover to regain his senses. Alex cursed under his breath, knowing that Sting would probably mock him for not killing anyone after his earlier boast. They were soon out of range of the enemy in that section, and were instead within reach of the troopers closer to the headquarters. Back in the repair lot, there was a distant, angered shout; Yanim and Arkadam turned their attention to the now-open ramp at the rear of the Viokhmar as a handful of kanad troopers disembarked, aiming their rifles downrange at the steadily-approaching Komet. "Turn, Yanim!" Arkadam screamed, and the two darted back towards the road, attempting to close on the enemy from behind and cover fire as their comrades reached the inner roadway. As they did so, Yanim caught sight of a shimmering light in the left hand of one of the Viokhmar's troopers, and recognized the sergeant the crew had faced days prior. Looking back, they watched as Jag's silhouette prepared to leap back onto Dio's truck. [quote]I cannot pierce that tank's armor, soft carbon. It would be wise to avoid it-[/quote] [quote]Yeah, yeah, I got it. Just shut up and hang on ...oof![/quote] Dio grunted as the APC slammed into his smaller truck from the side. Jag was knocked from its feet, tumbling end over end until it was forced to grip the vehicle from the side. Dio's truck broke traction, nearly tipping over and skidding out of control into the APC's path again. As the armored vehicle lunged forward, the comm was filled with voices calling on Dio to avoid the maneuver. With nothing but a gut feeling, he steered the out-of-control truck so that it was pointing away from the APC, and took the impact as a rear-end collision. He had the wind nearly knocked out of him, but kept the vehicle under control as he chased the action ahead of him. The crew heard his angered voice over the comms: [quote]That hurt like hell... dammit, rock, why didn't you say it was coming right at me!?[/quote] [quote]My apologies, comrade Dio.[/quote] [quote]Yeah yeah, whatever... the fuck are we gonna do about that tank, anyway?[/quote] Ahead of the pack, Amy's bike swerved as Markus readied a grenade, aiming squarely for one of the turrets protecting the inner roadway. CH Estimate: 2/5 [B]Actual: 4[/B] Roll Passed. With surprising accuracy (or perhaps unsurprising, considering the sniper's job) Markus hurled the grenade right on target, detonating one of the turrets in a shrapnel-filled eruption. Having allowed her passenger to succeed, Amy cut to the side in a tight turn, trying to juke the inevitable response from the enemy soldiers on the inner roadway, who were both numerous and un-suppressed. CH Estimate: 1/3 [B]Actual: 2[/B] Roll Failed. Despite her best effort, Amy couldn't fully avoid enemy fire, but she wasn't alone. By this time, Taylor and Valkyrie had roared onto the scene, helping to take control of the situation by providing the heavy fire that was desperately needed. Taylor's drone let loose a torrent of fire at the enemy position, suppressing the highly-visible UGC troopers in their orange and blue jackets. Drone 1: CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. Unfortunately, these soldiers were fresher and more ready for the fight than the shaky patrols which had been guarding the perimeter. At speed and distance, Taylor's drone was unable to lay down fire accurately, and as she approached the headquarters just behind the Komet, she could sense the enemy closing in around her. The tank, at least, was too sluggish to hit any of the lightning-fast bikes, but Valkyrie wasn't going to allow the tank to get its shot off against any of the heavier vehicles in the mix, either. Drone 2: CH Estimate: 4/5 [B]Actual: 4[/B] Roll Passed. The heavy grenades slammed into the surfaces of the tank with concussive explosions, at first suppressed by, and then overcoming the electronic shielding which protected the armor underneath. Bits and pieces of the artificial plating were blown away, but a single barrage wouldn't be enough to fully disable the enemy vehicle. Taylor, whipping back around so that the missiles on board her bike were pointed the correct direction, locked onto the tank and let them fly. Taylor: CH Estimate: 2/3 [B]Actual: 3[/B] Roll Passed. The missiles zoomed in, their shaped charges penetrating the vehicle in two places at once and heavily damaging it. For a moment all of the fighting ceased as the muffled booms implied a successful attack, and the onlookers waited for the "Earth-shattering kaboom" which would surely follow. But the tank was not fully destroyed. Its headlights flickered out and its wheels locked up, but the turret seemed independent of the rest of the vehicle, and its cannon zeroed in on its target: Iron, who had just closed to within range. [quote]...Fuck. Jag, get off my truck.[/quote] It was Dio, who had spotted the danger while running parallel to Iron. [quote]The tank appears to be aiming at mercenary Iron, soft carbon-[/quote] [quote]I know that! I said get off! Now![/quote] [quote]As you wish.[/quote] Jag leaped from the truck and used its talons like skis, scraping upright across the ground as it slowed to a manageable speed. The sanghvi then broke into an alien sprint, pursuing its comrades as they closed on the inner roadway. Iron had been focused on destroying the remaining fixed base turret with his hand cannon, and didn't realize what was about to take place. CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. Distracted by the many screams on his comm line warning him of impending doom, Iron found it difficult to land the perfect shot needed to disable the enemy gun placement. Finally breaking concentration to check the road ahead, the mercenary nearly had a heart attack as he realized what his comrades were warning of. The tank's barrel was pointed directly at his front windshield. At the last second, a blur came from nowhere- Dio: CH Estimate: 2/5 [B]Actual: 5[/B] Roll Passed. And in a split second, it disintegrated into a ball of flaming debris with a terrifying blast right in front of Iron's truck, engulfing the vehicle in flames as the driver cranked on the wheel. Helplessly, the mercenary and his passengers felt the impact of the two truck bodies slamming together in the carnage, pieces of both vehicles breaking loose and falling onto the roadway, but when they emerged on the other side, they knew that they had survived. Everyone except Dio. [B]500 DMG[/B] [B]Total Incapacitation.[/B] As Iron's momentum carried him and his passengers away from the wreckage and closer to the fight at the inner roadway, Jag was the first to arrive at what was left of Dio's truck. Wordlessly, the sanghvi tore away at the wreckage, trying to locate any sign of its comrade, until finally, it found what it was seeking. The truck had absorbed some of the impact, but not nearly enough to prevent the human inside from literally being ripped limb from limb by the force. What was left was nothing but a head and torso laying in a pool of its own blood and organs, eyes staring upward in a mixture of fear, agony... and pride. Dio was always such an outlier in the crew, an unrepentant criminal dog. He had always seemed self-centered. Had he had a change of heart? "You..." Dio weakly spoke, gurgling through his own blood, "...you [highlight]amateurs[/highlight]... I'm dead... because I had to [i]save[/i] you. Jag... I need you to make sure... they can't bring me back. Make sure... there's nothing left of me..." The rest of the crew could hear these dying words through their comms, and Jag's reply, which was clearly shaken by emotion in a way that the crew hadn't heard before. "Why? Why did you..?" "What else... was I going to do?" Dio replied, one last smirk adorning his face. "This is how a badass dies." "I understand," Jag replied bleakly. "Thank you, comrade Dio." The sanghvi hesitated a moment, realizing that Dio had spoken his last and was now gone, and lifted its talons like an executioner raising an axe. With a solid thrust, Jag crushed Dio's skull and ensured that the enemy would not be able to revive what was left of his late comrade, to ensure that his death would be a peaceful one. Whatever crimes Dio had committed in his past life as a hitman may outweigh the heroic actions which brought about his demise, but at least to the crew of the Terika-Belladonna Company, he would be remembered for who he was in the very end. Dio died at the UGC Service Station at Vostokrebh, Rigel, late at night on February 11th, 2385. He sacrificed himself for the survival of his crewmates. After a moment of reflection, the crew remembered that it was in the heat of battle and that the enemy wasn't going to relent just because they had claimed a life. In fact, they were about to unleash their strength on another comrade with utmost ferocity, no longer stunted by the element of surprise. At last, the Komet arrived at its intended location behind the enemy and Yanim got a good read on what the entrance to the headquarters actually looked like: its entrance was situated inside an inlet and up a flight of wide stairs, the doors themselves protected from aerial attack by huge blast shields affixed to the exterior of the building. However, the crew wasn't approaching from the air, it was coming along at ground level, and hypothetically, if they could breach the final lines, they could ride their vehicles all the way up the stairs and simply shoot their way in or smash their way through the doors using their vehicles. They were quite tall and wide, with steel encasing double-insulated glass. "[Shdatra, shoot to suppress,]" Yanim urged, dutifully, as the Komet looped around the tank. "[We have to clear the way-]" CH Estimate: 1/5 x 2(Malevolence) = 2/5 [B]Actual: 2[/B] Roll Failed. Arkadam began to spray with his Type-1, but the Black Fleet troopers were undeterred by the gimmicky spray-and-pray tactics. Taking up proper positions with cover, they and the UGC soldiers they were assisting began to pick their targets. The kanads aimed for Yanim and Arkadam, while the UGC soldiers divided their attention among Amy, Markus, Taylor, and Valkyrie. All at once, they realized how badly the tables had turned. "Yanim!" Arkadam screamed as the rifles discharged. [video=youtube;bCVvucbdUbA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCVvucbdUbA[/video] Black Fleet Soldiers 1-5: {3, 6, 5, 1, 2} + {10, 10, 10, 10, 10}(Numbers) = {13, 16, 15, 11, 12} = [B]67[/B] Yanim: DEF Rolls = {3, 2, 2, 1, 5} = 13 [B]54 DMG[/B] Yanim HP: -16/50 [B]Total Incapacitation[/B] Black Fleet Soldiers 6-10: {10 x Crit(CH1/2, 2, Passed, x2) = 20, 2, 3, 6, 8} + {10, 10, 10, 10, 10} = {30, 12, 13, 16, 18} = 89 Arkadam: DEF Rolls = {2, 6, 7, 2, 4} = 21 [B]68 DMG[/B] Arkadam HP: -17/63 [B]Total Incapacitation[/B] The OBV rifles flashed like cloudburst lightning, and before the crew could fully process the death of Dio, they witnessed their leader and her lover be perforated before their eyes. Without a word, only a shocked grunt, Yanim lost control of the Komet as the plasma ripped through her body, and the two of them were thrown to the ground as the bike's ruptured engine quickly rocketed into a nearby building and exploded into twisted metal and nuclear waste. They rolled for a while, coming to a stop in the corner of the plaza, just before the headquarters' stairs, where they were quickly pounced upon by the black fleet soldiers. Through the comms, the rest of the crew could hear the kanads sneering and celebrating: they had finally slain the bloody fox, and it had seemed so easy. They could also hear a faint, agonized rasp, so different from the leader they had known: "Ke'm soka smyet... Ke... Ke sohma kisk... shdatra." [I]I'm so sorry. I love you, dearest.[/I] Arkadam said nothing as he fell into the void, but with his last conscious action he held onto his lover's hand. Meanwhile, the UGC unit overextended itself, attempting to fire on all of its enemies at once instead of focusing fire, as the kanads had done. UGC Soldiers 11 and 12: {9, 2} x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]11[/B] Amy DEF Rolls = {3, 5} = 8 [B]3 DMG[/B] Amy HP: 105/100(Nanosurgeon) A plasma burst clipped Amy as she rode past, leaving a barely-noticeable burn. UGC Soldier 13: 10 x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]10[/B] Markus DEF Roll = 3 [B]7 DMG[/B] Markus HP 157/156(Nanosurgeon) Markus felt a burst of plasma streak through his leg, slicing his shin open. It wasn't a deep wound, but it was painful and he could feel blood trickling down into his socks until the nanites in his blood sealed the wound closed. UGC Soldiers 14, 15, and 16: {9, 4, 6} x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]19[/B] Valkyrie DEF Rolls = {3, 3, 2} = 8 [B]11 DMG[/B] Valkyrie HP: 134/125(Nanosurgeon) Valkyrie didn't fair too badly, considering the number of soldiers aiming her way. She stayed focused on the task at hand, despite the circumstances, and allowed the nanites to do their job. UGC Soldiers 17, 18, 19, and 20: {4, 10, 6, 10} x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]30[/B] Taylor DEF Rolls = {2, 4, 3, 1} = 10 [B]20 DMG[/B] Taylor HP: 156/156 Taylor was targeted the most, as she had just dealt such a visible blow against the tank. She took several shots to the body, but hung on, her armor helping to diffuse what might have been a fatal shot to an ordinary person. There was no time to worry about the pain; the nanites would prevent any permanent damage. Things were going badly wrong, and they were about to get worse, as the turrets had not yet done their work. Taylor's leadership was needed now, more than ever, and unlike the mission on Voyak, there was no option to cut and run. If they turned back now, they would have no escape from Rigel. They would have to scatter and seek their own salvation, and would be hunted down one by one. They might not even make it out of Vostokrebh. They had to push onward and win the fight, no matter how dark things became. The turrets then attempted to unleash their punishment upon those that remained. Thanks to Markus, there was only a single turret remaining on the inner roadway, and there were far too many targets for the guns to be effective. On the other hand, both turrets remained on the outer roadway, which posed a terrible danger to Jag. The latter could only attempt to rely on its supreme agility to avoid the turrets and survive. Jag: CH Estimate: 3/7 [B]Actual: {2, 6}[/B] 1 Roll Passed. 1 Roll Failed. [B]40 DMG[/B] Jag HP: 18/50 Hurling itself into the air, Jag twisted and rolled and contorted itself in all manner of ways as it bounded toward a barrier midway between the two sections of roadway, out of range of the turrets. Miraculously, the sanghvi survived, taking fire from only one of the two guns before finding refuge. The remaining turret reacted ineffectively against the rest of the team. [B]5 DMG to Alex, Amy, Iron, Karl, Markus, Sting, Taylor, and Valkyrie[/B] Alex HP: 120/100(Nanosurgeon) Amy HP: 100/100 Iron HP: 115/100(Nanosurgeon) Karl HP: 94/100 Markus HP: 152/156 Sting HP: 53/50(Nanosurgeon) Taylor HP: 151/156 Valkyrie HP: 129/125(Nanosurgeon) The whole crew was now assembled at the inner roadway. The tank was nearly disabled, and only one automated turret remained, but there were 20 soldiers in good cover holding the final staircase into the building. Five of the kanads split off, carrying the bodies of Yanim and Arkadam up the steps, taking them to some unknown place inside the building, perhaps to receive emergency medical care- exactly the fate the crew had been warned about before the mission. They were replaced by five others who arrived fresh from the Viokhmar, including Sergeant Kyrskada, who immediately took up command of the group with his saber held high above his head. "Your leaders are dead and you're pathetically outnumbered!" he cried. "This is where your journey across the galaxy ends, Belladonna scum!"

Rage bubbled up within Taylor, fueled by the laughter and celebration that the Black Fleet troopers had fed into their comms. These fuckers had killed Dio, and were probably about to torture Arkadam and Yanim if they were able to revive them. This was the final straw...but they had a mission to complete. [QUOTE]"Your leaders are dead and you're pathetically outnumbered! This is where your journey across the galaxy ends, Belladonna scum!"[/QUOTE] [video=youtube;WZEGenYq9hQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZEGenYq9hQ[/video] "[highlight][B][I]I'M GONNA SHOVE THAT FUCKING SABER UP YOUR ASS WHERE IT BELONGS, YOU SCUM SUCKING MIDGET.[/I][/B][/highlight]" she barked back, loudly. Valkyrie cackled from her bike in response. Taylor swapped to the crew comms, the anger virtually seething through the words she then spoke. "We kill the tank. We kill the turret. We run those motherfuckers over, and we get inside. We show no fucking mercy, and we continue on fucking mission. I'm adding on the additional objective of recovering Arkadam and Yanim if we can." "Understood, Tay." responded Valkyrie, with the sound of glee in her voice. If they went down, they'd go down fighting like hell. A moment later, Taylor fired another missile from her bike at the tank in an attempt to finish it off, while the Drone on her bike covered her by firing on the remaining turret. Valkyrie chose to do the insane. She gunned it, throwing the bike into full throttle and sending it barreling towards the soldiers at the front steps of the compound. She was gonna attempt to plow through them and the front door, but the Drone on her bike had other ideas. He fired off a series of heavy impact grenades ahead of the bike, attempting to scatter or kill the soldiers to create less of an obstruction before her.

Iron shifted gears and accelerated further. "Hold on to something." Muttered the bounty hunter before once again cocking his hand cannon. Hoping to turn the soldiers, should they survive Valk's grenades, into meaty bits Iron steered the rover straight at the stairs. At the same time he activated his wristshields to protect the areas most likely targeted by the enemy. Meanwhile Karl followed Taylor and used his skiff as a support for his rifle, engaging whomever brave (or dumb) enough to attack Taylor and her drone companion.

Sting twirled her revolvers and slid them back into her holsters. Looking out of the sills on the sides of the Rover she could see that Alex had failed to live up to his promises. She shuffled over the the console and pushed Alex aside, although due to her size, Alex moved himself aside rather than being pushed. "Y'all better be payin' me more, cause I'm the one that has to do EVERYTHIN round here." Sting puffed while grabbing the stick on the console. Looking at the screen, she flicked the stick around slightly to see how exactly this thingamajiggy functioned. She then flashed Alex a sly grin. "Take a look at this, hoss" she said as she pulled the trigger, attempting to mow down any of the kanadas that were blocking the way for the truck. --- Meanwhile, Markus gritted his teeth. They were in the fucking eye of a iron hurricane at this point, with their only option to ride it out. He tapped Amy on the shoulder and pointed at Iron's rover that was making a furious charge at the main entrance, "That looney's gonna ram the door! Steer in behind 'im and 'old on to yer fuckin' feelins!"

The good times couldnt roll forever and the last few seconds were proof of that. Alex tried to hold on to something as the rover was on a colission course. Still, in the dire situation, he couldnt help himself. "Better put your money where your mouth is, Stinger." --- Amy steered the bike behind the rover, keeping a bit of distance to give her time to react should the worse come to happen.

Jag had practically frozen in place when Yanim and Arkadam were thrown from their bikes, fixating its gaze on the limp bodies of its commander and her lover. There was no sign of life, and yet, an otherworldly determination was rising from within. The sanghvi heard the orders come down from the captain, and bounded into action as the final push began. The roar of motorcycles and trucks filled the air, drowning out the celebratory shouts and battle cries of the Black Fleet troopers. The tank resettled its aim on Iron's truck once again, preparing to decimate the survivors of the first shot. Taylor preempted it and another missile fly. Taylor: CH Estimate: 2/3 [B]Actual: 3[/B] Roll Passed. The projectile steered itself in mid-air, piercing the heavy vehicle's inadequate electronic countermeasures and slamming into the side of the turret. An ear-splitting explosion resulted as the turret was blown clean off the vehicle and catapulted onto a nearby rooftop, a column of fire rocketing out of the socket left behind, all munitions simultaneously detonating and tearing the chassis apart. A statement had been made. [video=youtube;Y7bvMlfmTm4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7bvMlfmTm4[/video] Out of the hellish plume, Valkyrie's bike erupted, aiming squarely for the front doors of the compound. Ahead of her, the kanads prepared an NSK mobility-denial system for fire, but grenades from her drone were already in the air by the time they could see her. Drone 2: CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 4[/B] Roll Passed. [B]2 Enemies Eliminated.[/B] The concussive blasts came in a tidal barrage, blowing apart the concrete steps and killing two of the enemy soldiers in one go. The windows of the complex were blown out, and as Valkyrie neared the entrance she could see the glow of the lights within, shining down the staircase like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. But Kyrskada and the rest, who had known better and had taken cover as soon as the tank went up in flames, now attempted to counterattack- It only remained to be seen whether Valkyrie was fast enough to avoid it: Valkyrie: CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. The grunts would have been too slow on their own, but Kyrskada had been dreaming of this moment since the defeat days earlier. It wasn't about justice, or kanad superiority, or anything resembling defense of the UGC; he was motivated purely by vengeance and he would do anything to have it. Springing out of nowhere, he leaped into the dust cloud with his saber extended, aiming to decapitate the rogue engineer, or at least throw her from her bike. Kyrskada: CH Estimate: 3/8 x 2(Malevolence) = 2/3 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. The sergeant slammed into Valkyrie, catching her with his off hand and nearly ripping her loose from her seat. His saber swung wide, striking the ground on the far side of her and splashing the wall with molten flecks of concrete as she struggled to hang on, ducking at the last moment as he savagely swung at the back of her head, narrowly missing. As his foot slipped loose from the frame of the bike, he tried one more time to strike her from the front, but by this time, Valkyrie had gotten her leg around and planted her boot in his chest. They cleared the shredded complex edifice in a sonic boom of shattered glass, and the separation caused by Valkyrie's kick caused her to lose control of the bike. Moreover, the room was shallower than expected, and so as the pair tumbled to a painful stop inside, the bike continued to slide into the back wall where it was crushed by the impact, destroying Valkyrie's drone. [B]10 DMG to Valkyrie and Kyrskada. Drone 2 Eliminated.[/B] Valkyrie HP: 119/125 Under the fluorescent lighting of the building's interior, Valkyrie could now make out the numerous recent improvements to Kyrskada's armor compared to the basic set he had worn just days before. It was thicker, and with increased height from a more fortified hydraulic strength system, he reached a height of 175 cm- enough to stare eye to eye with her. They each scrambled to their feet, Valkyrie quickly checking her surroundings to understand better where she was. The room forked off into two hallways just after the entrance, with a security checkpoint nestled into the wall just to the right of the door, behind bulletproof glass which had survived the shock wave of the earlier grenades. The guard had already abandoned his post due to the ever-increasing danger brewing outside. To the left of the door, steel elevator doors marked where the enemy had probably retreated with Yanim and Arkadam's bodies, but she remembered the warnings she had previously received: the elevator was a bad idea, since the enemy could shut it down at will and trap them... unless she hardwired it herself. But that would have to wait, as Kyrskada was still menacing her with his saber. "Taste my liver, will you, harpy!? I'll give you a taste of something else!" he roared, pointing the plasma blade at her. "Fire!" Valkyrie had just opened her mouth to utter some shit talk herself when she checked the entrance again and realized that the other four soldiers from the Viokhmar had closed in and had already trained their rifles on her. Kanads 6, 7, 8, and 9: {3, 5, 5, 2} + {8, 8, 8, 8}(Numbers) = [B]47[/B] Valkyrie: DEF Rolls = {2, 2, 3, 3} = 10 [B]37 DMG[/B] Valkyrie HP: 82/125 With a quick volley, they knocked Valkyrie from her feet and forced her into retreat; there was no way she could take on all five of them at the same time. She needed help, and it was on its way. Outside, Taylor witnessed Valkyre clear the entrance and began to loop around. The drone on the back of her bike was unloading everything it had on the remaining turret, trying to forcibly dismantle it before it could be used to punish the remaining crew further. Drone 1: CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 5[/B] Roll Passed. With the final turret of the inner roadway blown into smoldering pieces, only the living soldiers could stand in their way now. But despite Taylor's rage, she was still at a major disadvantage. With Val having made it inside the forboding complex, the soldiers outside knew that the other members of the crew would soon attempt the same strategy, and prepared accordingly. Half of the UGC soldiers, the ones who were closest to Taylor's position, appeared from behind their cover determined to kill the one they perceived as most dangerous, while the others prepared to ambush Iron and the rover with RPGs. UGC Soldiers 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15: {8, 9, 2, 4, 1} x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]24[/B] Taylor: DEF Rolls = {8, 1, 5, 6, 7} = 27(!) No Damage. The gallery of various races brought out their ballistic and plasma weaponry on the captain, but their aim was poor and their best shots were wasted, as Taylor was able to take the shots in stride. Worse yet, having exposed themselves, they now came under siege from a distance as Karl hunted them in his scope. UGC Soldier 4: CH Estimate: 1/2 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. Karl: {9, 10 x Crit(CH1/2, 2, Passed, x2)= 20, 2, 7, 2} x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]{9, 20, 2, 7, 2}[/B] Now, Karl was contributing in a meaningful way. Bullets whistled through the air, striking their distant marks with high precision. While a few embedded themselves into armor benignly, the remainder did serious damage. The enemy soldiers ducked and panicked, and one ahra-phi tried in vein to deflect bullets she couldn't see, as they realized their own ineffectiveness, and one of them, an android, nearly had its head blown off by a devastating hit to the base of its metallic skull. With the right flank crumbling under pressure from the TBC crew, they were counting on their ambush tactic to work. The rover neared the damaged staircase with Amy in tow as two of the remaining UGC soldiers sprung forth with their rocket launchers. Iron's hand cannon was at the ready, and the experienced bounty hunter's reflexes kicked into gear, trying to disrupt the attackers before they could get their shots off. Iron: CH Estimate: 1/2 [B]Actual: 2[/B] Roll Passed. Iron: {9, 10 x Crit(CH1/2, 2, Passed, x2)= 20} x 2 = [B]{18, 40}[/B] Two enemy soldiers stood up, and two enemy soldiers were sat down, with a gohva nearly having his leg blown off by the impact of the attack. The rover therefore faced challenge from three kanads and three UGC troopers who were decidedly overwhelmed. Wisely, they kept their heads down and stayed in cover as the rover raked their positions with fire, knowing that the truck's occupants would have to dismount once they entered the building. This was immensely frustrating to Sting, who had nothing to shoot at, and Alex was forced to stifle a laugh. The rover soon reached the top of the stairs and skidded to a stop inside the damaged lobby, and Iron belted a few choice curses as he nearly road-killed Valkyrie in the process. Sting: [I]Action Invalidated.[/I] Because of the tight angles involved, it was now impossible for Sting to get the angle she needed to attack Kyrskada and his comrades, who were now in eerily-close proximity. Had they been prepared, they could have lobbed grenades before the TBC team had even departed their vehicles, but they weren't ready for the truck's sudden appearance. Amy and Markus, by virtue of having entered the building right behind a massive and imposing target, had managed to avoid being targeted entirely. The motley unit which had avoided confronting either vehicle now faced a dilemma: to face the enemy within the headquarters, or to try again at attacking Captain Caine. Another option quickly presented itself, as Jag swiftly ascended the stairway. Without protection from a vehicle, the sanghvi was a sitting duck, or so it seemed. Once again, Jag relied on its evasiveness to try to enter the building. CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 3[/B] Roll Passed. In a panic, all of the remaining defenders began to shoot wildly at the approaching alien, failing to place any accurate shots in the process. Jag easily outmaneuvered them and was soon reunited with most of the team. Now, only Taylor and Karl were outside.

Taylor eyed the cluster of soldiers still at the entrance, whom had fired on Jag as he proceeded by them and into the complex. She then glanced down to her vehicle's ammunition reserves. The plasma cannons still had plenty of ammo, but she only had one missile left. After a brief moment of thought, she decided to hold on to that one missile in case something showed up out of the blue. "Everyone inside, you know exactly what to fucking do so do it. I'll be joining you shortly. Karl, back me the fuck up." she said into the crew comms, the sounds of rage still oozing through her words. She then glanced back to the Drone that was riding behind her. "You, go help Valkyrie. She needs you more than I do." she muttered, to which the Drone replied with a "YES, MA'AM." before hopping off the bike. She then targetted the troopers still outside at the entrance. Better to mop them up so they didn't shoot them in the back. She gunned it towards the entrance, firing off bursts of plasma at the troopers. The Drone, meanwhile, darted across the road on foot, hoping to slip into the building while the troopers were distracted by Taylor's plasma fire. - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Hey guys, check it out. Our Kanad friend from earlier is here! And now he thinks he's some kind of [I][B]big man[/B][/I] because he's wearing more armor and is a couple of inches taller.[I]Oohhh wooow! So scaaarry! Don't poke me with that plasma sword, mister man![/I]" said Valkyrie, giggling from behind a pillar near the elevator as the rest of the team arrived. The giggling hurt, due to the plasma burns on her skin from the kanads that had arrived to assist him, but anything to royally piss that kanad off. "Hey! Buddy! What'd you have to do to get the gear? [I]Suck your boss' cock?[/I] Did you spit or swallow? [I]You look like the swallowing type![/I]" She drew her rifle off her back, making sure not to grab the rifles she had brought for the Khergians, and continued. "My fucking god, you're so much of a fucking pussy that you had to literally run home and get more armor? [I]ARMOR THAT MADE YOU [B]TALLER[/B]?[/I]" She changed the target to his men next. "[I][B]HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE UNDER THE COMMAND OF A FUCKING PUSSY?[/B][/I]" She cracked up, her laughter echoing through the lobby. "[I][B]HEY ALEX! YOU SEEING THIS SHIT?![/B][/I]" After tossing the insulting of the enemy to her comrade, she leaned out and smacked the elevator call button with the barrel of her rifle. Hopefully it'd simply just open...and hopefully it was empty. Then, she could slip inside, and see if this place had a fucking basement. If not, hotwiring and to the top floor they'd go.

Iron jumped out of the rover and unleashed hell on the kanads, dynamically switching between shooting and bringing his wrist shields while moving sideways into cover. ----- [i]"Helvete!"[/i] Karl cursed as Taylor swooped in like some crazed biker gangster. He followed suite while once again delivering precision shots on the move. The chaos that unfolded before him made Karl long back to the days of spending a week and a half tracking exotic game through all kinds of environments with plenty of time to make his move.

If Sting could see Alex's expresion underneath his helmet, she would probably would have had the urge to shoot him. There really wasnt any time to exchange pleasentries however. The truck had stopped, Taylor was practically fuming over the comms and it was time to move. He looked back at Sting for a second. "How about this, we go out, we find some dumb sons of bitches and we kill them. Lower bodycount buys drinks later." He exited the truck and moved quickly behind a nearby pillar just as Valk was in the middle of verbally trhashing Kyrskada. [QUOTE]HEY ALEX! YOU SEEING THIS SHIT?![/QUOTE] "Shorty? That you? You took that Napoleon complex comment seriously, didnt you?" He placed his hand on the hilt of his power sword and unsheathed the weapon. "Is that why you have a new armor, the thin skin? You never answered my question from before by the way. Although now that I look at your gimp suit, I can tell how you like it." He leaned from the cover and gestured for the kanad to come at him. "Come on, show your teeth, shark boy." [Roll for taunt] --- Amy dismounted from the bike. Time to get to work. Activating the cloack, she moved to cover. Once settled, she fired at any targed dumb enough to poke their head out.

Sting grinned and took out her revolver, "Ya best be ready to pay up partner. I'm a heavy drinker." Sting replied. She followed Alex out and strafed nimbly towards the nearest cover while unloading randomly towards the Kanads to keep them behind cover. --- Markus got off the bike and followed Amy, who suddenly disappeared into thin air. "Fer fucks sake..." he cursed as his partner was now gone. He hastily looked around to get his bearings, then ducked into the nearest cover, taking some time to collect himself before making his next move.

[QUOTE][I]Meanwhile, on Luna.[/I][/QUOTE] [video=youtube;oLrGF8g9MuU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLrGF8g9MuU[/video] "Welcome to Selene's Chariot. What can I get for you this evening?" said a female voice, as a gentleman sat down quietly at the polished obsidian bar. His order was simple. A Sazerac. Old fashioned, popular in America. "Sazerac, coming up." responded the woman behind the bar, proceeding to gather the needed ingredients. Rye whiskey, Absinthe, a few dashes of bitters, and a sugar cube. Simple ingredients, but easy to screw up if you weren't paying attention. Lucky for her, she had been doing this for quite a while. A few minutes of preperation later, the drink was ready and served. She stepped back, folding her hands behind her back and offering a smile as the man took a drink of his cocktail. His reaction to the taste is what she was looking for, and he gave her just that. Perfect. Surprisingly, this was a much calmer order for the night. About an hour prior, she had been performing for a more lively cluster of patrons, twirling bottles/glasses and mixing a variety of cocktails in her own special ways. Pretty much her job description here at the Chariot. Head mixologist. She glanced around the bar as the man enjoyed his drink, taking in the soft music and looking over the other patrons elsewhere in the bar. Being a high end bar in the more upscale part of Horizon, most of the patrons to the bar were buisnessmen and politicians. Occasionally, tourists or those from the other parts of Horizon would enter as well to get a taste of the lavish life. Eventually, the man spoke up. "So your name is...'Io'? Like Jupiter's moon?" said the man, as he read the silver nametag pinned to her black silk vest. She nodded. "Its short for Ioana." she said, with a bit of a smile. He then noticed the pair of fangs poking out from under her lip as she smiled. She's Upyri. "Upyri, eh? How did you end up here on Luna?" "Came here from Nyx. Its much quieter here, which I like." she said, resting gently against the counter behind her where all the various bottles of booze were lined up. "Ahh...were you a bartender there too?" said the man, taking a sip from his cocktail. Io nodded. "Learned to bartend at a club called the Night Dive in Nyxia. Sleazy place, honestly, but the money and experience was good. Stayed there a while, before bouncing around to other bars. Came here about three months ago, and have been working here for about a month and a half now." "How long have you been a bartender?" he asked, curious. Io smirked. "Fifty-eight years, if we're going by Terran years. I'm eighty-three." "Well, you certainly don't look it. You look barely out of your twenties." he responded with a chuckle. He finished off his cocktail, and promptly paid for the drink. "Have a good evening, sir." she said with a smile. He returned the smile, before heading out of the bar. As she watched him leave, she noticed a small group of Kanads enter the bar. Kanads were sort of uncommon here, though certainly not as rare as an Ayr (The bar did have a special tea for the Ayr that was crafted in house, just in case any showed up.) The four Kanads grabbed seats at the end of the bar, where the slightly shorter bar stools were. They seemed to be upper class, judging from their attire. Probably tourists, visiting Luna and Terra. Io tended to them quickly, stepping over and taking their drink orders. Three of them were common orders. Simple cocktails. One, though, was a special order. 'Rocket Fuel', the Kanad stating that he had heard about the drink from a Human friend of his and wanted to try it. Her time to shine. "You're in for a ride, my friend." she said with a grin.

[quote]Meanwhile, on Rook's Wharf.[/quote] This was extremely unfortunate. Ryoto was crushed and heartbroken to hear what happened to his sister. Captured by the TSC, turned into a cybnernetic abomination by them, aswell as being captured by the madmen that live in the pit, and tortured without mercy by them. Perhaps, what happened with his sister would finally convince their father to allow them back home, and out of the pirate life for good. They wouldn't have to lead pirate attacks on other Ayr houses anymore. Either way, he needed a drink. Maybe two. With his head low, he walks to the nearest bar, not noticing the rather ancient-looking man trailing him. [quote]Around an hour later.[/quote] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyXz6eMCj2k[/media] "Amon, wake up! Ramman is here." The thoughts of the mission surface in Amon's mind as he starts coming back to his senses. He remembered he was in the bar that Ramman had told him a very coincidental looking Ayr was seen heading towards. The whole place was sleazy as hell. The metallic floor had the occasinal stains of blood and alcohol here and there, and the walls were pounded with dents in the shape of fists and heads of pirates who were smacked against it. The air was no better. It was filled with the stench of several kinds of booze and combined with the sound of laughter, yelling, and the occasional noise of glass breaking. As he rubs his eyes underneath his helmet, he turns to the voice that just spoke to him. "And the other?" "They are present at the table over there." Amon turned to the side to see Ryoto sitting alone at a booth with an empty bottle of seka next to his bowed head. Something appears to be worrying him heavily. It was enough that it drove him to down an entire bottle of liquor. "I see him." said Amon. "Let's act natural while Ramman does his task." Amon and the other two quds at the table begin playing cards in an attempt to blend in with the rest of the bar patrons. Ramman entered the bar, making a beeline to the booth Ryoto was sitting. With how depressed and slightly drunk he was, he knew it would be easy to take advantage of him. He didn't think he would need to say much to see if he knew anything about the Ayr that evaded Karbala. "Excuse me, good sir. But may I sit here?" he politely asked. Noticing how he wasn't able to communicate with the extremely archaically dressed man infront of him, Ryoto pulled out a transponder to reply to Ramman. "Sure, I suppose..." he softly said. "... Is everything alright, good sir? You may have no lips and yet I can still see the frown on your face!" Ryoto said nothing. His stare towards Ramman did the talking instead. "Oh, I know exactly what could breathe some life back into you!" exclaimed Ramman. He signaled to a nearby barmaid while also giving her some credits. "Would you please be a dear and bring my friend here some of your highest quality vintage?" Minutes went by as the two waited for the drinks to come. Meanwhile, Ryoto was examining this stranger closely. He couldn't help but notice just how pale his arms were, and how his eyes seemed to glow a gold color underneath his mask. But, he did however try to inquire for himself. "So... who are you?" he asked. "With how silent you are, I thought you never would have asked!" replied Ramman quite jovialy. "I am Pyotr Rezhnov! Proud member of the Crimson Hammers!" Ryoto raised an eyebrow. "Crimson Hammers? I don't think I've ever heard of them." "That's because we are new! We splintered away from the Red Stars, you see. My former leader was an idle fool. Constantly putting my friends and I down, always holding us back, never letting us throw the first punch..." Ramman's fists shook and quivered as he starts getting quite angry. Before Ramman could go further on his tirade against his fictional boss, the drinks had arrived! Ryoto began chugging down while Ramman pulled out a tube from mask and pretended to drink. Minutes went by and more drinks kept coming. Ryoto became more inebriated, while Ramman kept trying to get him to open up. "So I gave you my name and all... how about yours?" spoke Ramman. "Huh? Oh... My name's Ryoto... Ryoto Akatora." "Nice to meet you, Mr. Akatora!" Ramman extended his hand for a handshake which went unanswered. "So... you don't look much like a pirate. What brings you to a place like this?" "Well, I'm a lawyer. My clients tend to be pirates and smugglers who got caught and need someone to stop them from going to prison." "I see. I take it you are unhappy because a case went wrong?" "No. It's a long story... Do you know what 'The Pit' is? The dark space where things disappear?" "I have heard rumors and stories, yes." "My sister and her crew sailed into it. What they found was extremely... [B]unpleasant[/B]. Inside the pit, they found a planet. It was full of madmen slaughtered her crew..." Ramman leaned in closer the more Ryoto told him, his eyes wide open and eyes glowing in an unblinking stare towards him underneath his mask. He was right to trail him after all! Only one thing remained that he wanted to hear, and that's the whereabouts of his sister. "They shot down her ship, they raided it and abducted her... They did [I]bad [/I]things to her. She almost died there, and would have if she didn't escape." "Mr. Akatora, you have my condolences, but she survived going into the pit?! [I]That is [B]shit![/B][/I] No way she went there! No one who ever goes to the pit ever returns from it!" Ramman exclaimed rather loudly. "Are you calling her and I liars!? I know what she told me! I saw her scars! I saw what they did to her!" responded Ryoto rather intensely. This was the moment. Ramman leaned back and folded his arms. He was smiling under his mask. "And I did [I]not[/I]." In a drunken rage, Ryoto seized Ramman by his shoulder, visibly angry at him. "Why don't you call her a liar yourself to her face then?" "Why don't I?" "Yes, why don't you?" Ramman shrugged. "Where is she then?" Ryoto sulked back into his seat. "She's onboard the Starstalker, waiting to see Hynam. Maybe then you'll see I am no liar. Maybe then you'll see what's really inside the pit." "Maybe..." Ramman finally received what he wanted to hear. He had no more use for Ryoto, so it was time to leave. "Mark my words, Mr. Akatora, if what you said is true, then it's only a matter of time before those madmen start venturing outside the pit. Us pirates, we will have to prepare." "Whatever..." Ryoto put his face down as Ramman got up from the table. As he made his way out of the bar, he briefly paused next to the table where the rest of the Quds were sitting. He bent over as if to pick something off the floor, but actually reached into his shirt pocket instead. "Oh, sir, I believe you dropped this." he said while passing a small device to Amon. Amon snatched it out of his hands while he kept walking away. "Much appreciated, friend." What he was just given was an audio recording of the whole conversation, and now Hanai's location was in his hands. "[Do you hear that, my friends?]" he said to the other two. "[Sounds like time is running out for that Ayr bitch.]" said one. "[About time! I've been waiting for this for too long!]" said the other. As he rose from the table, he snatched a bottle of expensive beer off the bar and held it high in a cheer. "[Let's go!]" he yelled. But he wasn't going anywhere. The bartender rose from behind the counter and tapped him on the shoulder. He's angry that some pasty-looking man tried walking away with a bottle without paying. There's no way he's going to let this slide. "Hey, Human, are you gonna pay for that?" he asked. All three of the Quds slowly turned to face him, with the one holding the bottle slowly vibrating with rage. The one with the bottle held up a finger and pointed at him. "... [I]What did you say?[/I]" "I said: Human. Are you. Gonna pay. For [B]that[/B]?" The bartender just called an Artisynth a Human. Bad move. The quds operative with the bottle had only one response to that. He violently threw it right at the bartender's face. "[highlight][I]FOR WHAAAT?![/I][/highlight]" he screamed shrilly. Laughter erupted throughout the bar at the bartender's misfortune as the three hastily left to prepare to carry out their mission.

[QUOTE]Back on Rigel, but on a different location[/QUOTE] The Icepick was a popular watering hole for a lot of mercenaries and bounty hunters arriving and leaving Rigel. Many soldiers of fortune came to either celebrate a victory, drown their sorrows or to seal a deal. The booze was barely better than bargain bin trash, but it was strong enough to do the job. Besides that, the Icepick had other services that drew the crowd with questionable morals to it like flies to honey. The trio of mercs walked inside the bar. They were outside for a mere four minutes, but they were covered in snow from head to toe comming in. Slowly they walk to a nearby table while shaking off the white layer. One of them pulled down the scarf covering his face so he could speak clearly. "Alright, Kaleb, go get us something to drink. Preferably something that will warm us up and doesnt taste like piss." He looked at his other man. "Tarvis, anything to report?" "Most of the guys who survived the crash are off world and on the way home, that includes everyone injured." Seth nodded in aproval. "Most equipment we could salvage is also on its way there. Still looking for someone to take us up on getting the Fang out of there and to try and fix it up. And you still have that bounty." Seth looked at him with annoyance, before he could say anything, Kaleb came back with the drinks. Seth grabbed a glass and took a swig. The drink warmed him up alright, but he felt like the glass was dipped in a barrel of fuel. Still, it didnt taste like someone pissed in it. "Where do they even get this stuff?" "Bartender said its the Screecher special." Kaleb answered. "I think they use the acid glands from the bugs." "This galaxy will kill you one surprise at a time, I swear." He placed the glass back on the table in front of him. "Any word from Orso?" "Been radio silent ever since that last transmission from the TBC ship. He almost went apeshit because of a disbalance, but got treated by one of the ship's doctors. Aparently he talked her and her bodyguard to come work for us." Kaleb chuckeled. "Somebody is trying to get a promotion." "He earned it. As soon as he makes contact, I want you to notify me and..." He was interupted by the door swinging open and a panting Omega brother running in and stopping in the middle of the bar. It took him a few seconds to stand up straight to make his announcement. "THEY HAVE HER! THEY HAVE THE FUCKING BLOODY FOX! " One of the bar regualrs yelled back "What do you mean they got the Fox?" "She raided a base here on Rigel. Bitt off more than she could chew. Acording to our mole inside the base, they have her in custody while the rest of her people are fighting a desparate fight there. They have bounties too." The Omega walked to the bar and took a glass for himself "Bounty is still up so I have an idea the lot of you will like, ye?" Seth had a feeling where this was headed. He began to dredd of what this meant. The bar was silent as the mercs sharpened their ears. The brother had them eating off the palm of his hand. "Thats half a billion plus any bonus from that rag tag group of misfits following her arround we can nab. As soon as the fighting stops, we wait for them to move the prisoners and bam! Nab the fuckers and turn them over for the money and split it, what do all yall say?" [video=youtube;aLVjPC9vHNw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLVjPC9vHNw[/video] And there it was. As the gathering of mercs started to sign up for the raid, Seth brought the other two closer. "We cant let that raid happen." "Why?" Tarvis responded."We already bled and died for them. We're even." "Just trust me on this, we need to stop this, now!" "Boss, you're one derelict ship past just trusting you. We need more." Kaleb aded. Seth sighed "Remember Koronov? Yanim's crew has a direct link to him and our best shot to get the fucker. We cant go to the base ourselves, but we can make sure nobody gets there, either." The men nodded. Whatever questions and problems they had, were put on hold. A lot of them wanted payback on the Creed and if this was a perfect shot at it, they wouldnt let anything else interfere. Kaleb stood up and pulled the his scarf to cover his face. "Alright boss, you made your point. You guys better go get the rest of the boys ready." Seth and Tarvis noded before picking up their gear and leaving. Kaleb in turn walked towards the bar. "Ey, one for the road and one for the guy right here." He pointed at merc sitting down on the stool as the bartender was bringing their drinks. Kaleb motioned for cheers, the merc was happy to oblidge and when he started drinking, Kaleb glassed him. "Dusts are trying to make off with the money, fuck em!" "What are you even-" He couldnt finish due to a pair of arms wraping itself arround his neck. "You dirty thieving sone of a bitch!" Another drunk stood up. "Oi, you cunt! Come here and I'll show you a son of a bitch!" The glass and acusation was enough for a few of the drunkards to start swinging. A stray hit here, an insult there and soon old hatreds and rivalries heated up and the bar brawl was in full swing.

Somewhere outside the perimeter of Stalnazyp, where the night was unusually clear but the wind was howling, Ryvik collapsed from the seat of his stolen bicycle and fell into a roadside ditch. He could barely breathe; darkness had seeped into the corners of his vision during the agonizing ride out of harm's way. Various warnings blinked in his visor, telling him of the extensive damages done to his armor, and how the batteries had been drained from overuse of the strength-enhancing components and the pressure-suit functionality, the features which were keeping him alive. A small timer counted down from 22 minutes, the point at which the cells would run dry. Another timer counted down from 56; the estimated time at which the positive-pressure barrier would be compromised. 56 minutes remained before the suit would no longer be able to prevent further hemorrhaging, and he would die almost immediately. For an agonizing moment, Ryvik considered the fact that his lifespan had been reduced to less than an hour. The need to act and survive was almost overpowered by the overwhelming dread of the end. With the settlement just a distant row of dim lights on the horizon, he knew that he was far enough away to call for rescue, and that rescue was his only hope for survival. He finally reopened his comm channel to the nearest GKVR hub, which was at Vostokrebh. Immediately, it was clear that something was either very wrong or very right- the chatter on the airwaves was so excited that he spent valuable minutes trying fruitlessly to discern what was happening. Finally, he gave up and cut in: "[Shadow-Shadow-Karma-Hive: one-all, repeat, one-all. Confirm.]" He waited a moment as the voices in the hub died down, and a dutiful comm operator replied in the affirmative. [quote][Shadow-Shadow-Hive-Karma: one-all confirmed! Lieutenant, what is your status?][/quote] "[Karma Unit has been eliminated. We were forced to change objectives during our mission due to interference from code-name Killer-Gemini. While attempting to apprehend her, we were ambushed by a unit belonging to Iska Volgrim. I cannot account for the survival of any member of the unit; most are KIA while all others are missing and should be presumed dead... driver Gikskada Vor'Pangn is probably alive and captured. Killer-Gemini and Iska escaped. And... I'm badly wounded and need an immediate evacuation.]" [quote][The base is under attack, Lieutenant. We will do what we can to reach you, but be advised that flight conditions are highly dangerous right now-][/quote] "[I can't wait. You have to send a recover craft immediately or else I won't be returning to base. If I cannot arrange for the successful completion of this mission, the Perikal will exact reprisal against the khergian people. I can't accept that outcome.]" [quote][We'll send a medical retrieval drone; ETA, 10 minutes. Try to remain calm, Lieutenant. Your mission has nearly been completed in your absence; Yanim Sidikan has just been apprehended and is being delivered to an awaiting medical team. Her criminal enterprise is currently attacking Vostokrebh.][/quote] "Hyushya," Ryvik sighed. "[Well done... Do what you can to repel the attackers. When I return, I want to interrogate her directly.]" [quote][With all due respect, sir, Dr. Marinaya Rozel will be conducting the interrogation proceedings using chemical methods, as Yanim is unfit for normal procedures. Moreover, you have pressing health concerns of your own to attend to.[/quote] Ryvik watched the stars shimmering in the sky above and felt a growing sense of futility settling in. Had he really contributed nothing, in the end? Was his entire career to this point nothing but a pointless annex to the Black Fleet's struggle with his sister and her rancid Terika company? There was no point in arguing, as there was nothing he could change. Yanim was in custody and by the sounds of things, she probably wouldn't survive much longer. He was barely clinging to life after failing to apprehend his own target, and failing to stop a much more frightening figure from escaping the scrap yard. It all felt so disconnected, as if his excitement at being so close to his sister's trail days earlier had just been an illusion. She probably didn't know he was nearly dead. And if he were to die before being rescued, she would probably go to her grave unaware of his dogged pursuit. He wanted to yell in impotent fury, his heart aching with the release of his own self image. But nothing felt worse than what he was told next: [quote][Also, sir, I've just checked with Fleet Mission Dynamics, and they say the Perikal is in no position to retaliate. It's currently en-route to Kanadys for redeployment to the north. I don't know how this "reprisal" rumor reached you, but I can assure you that it's false.][/quote] Ryvik was stunned into silence. Vorokar hadn't just used him, he had abandoned him as well. There was no truth to Vorokar's backup plan, only a deception intended to force Ryvik into being a trigger man. Somehow, the basic truth of the Perikal's whereabouts hadn't been suppressed, somehow this comm operator hadn't been instructed not to tell Ryvik about it, and that was the only reason Ryvik could be sure of what was really happening. Now that he knew that Stalnazyp wouldn't be destroyed in case of his own failure, he rested his head against the snow and secretly wished that the medical drone would fail to reach him. "Yakka," he replied, dully. He made a solemn vow. If he could survive the night, he would apply all of his talents to achieve a single goal: to corner the man that had been his mentor, the one who lied and betrayed him, and to make him beg for mercy. ((Unfortunately, I lost an update that I was working on several nights ago and will need to recreate it in the coming nights. I just wanted to get something out tonight.))

[QUOTE][I]Meanwhile, in the Renegade Quadrant...[/I][/QUOTE] [video=youtube;VoudzWiVMR4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoudzWiVMR4[/video] "[CONTACTS! ENGAGING!]" shouted an Upyri naval trooper, opening up on a cluster of pirates that were storming down the narrow corridor inside the colony. This had been nothing but a shitshow since the Upyri Navy had warped in. Of all the places they had been sent to take down, it was Durakas. Durakas had always been a bitch to take and maintain control over, since it was in the middle of the Renegade Quadrant. Thankfully it wasn't like Rook's Wharf. Durakas' colony was much smaller, and used as more of a simple pitstop instead of an outright pirate stronghold. The pirate vessels in orbit were quickly engaged and dealt with, and now it was down to just taking the colony itself on Durakas' swampy surface. Gunfire sounded off throughout the colony, as Upyri Naval Troopers engaged pirate forces, attempting to capture instead of kill. They weren't like the Marines, willing to throw caution to the wind and rush headon into the heat of battle. The Troopers were inexperienced and more cautious, having to group up in numbers before engaging enemy forces. And the casualties were already racking up. Calls for field medics were heard here and there, while requests for covering fire or support matched them. Meanwhile, on the opposing side, there were shouts of insults in various languages along with threats. The Upyri were always trying to shove their noses into Pirate affairs, breaching the Renegade Quadrant to try to root out and destroy any and all pirate havens they could find. And the pirates always came flooding back. Like an infestation of roaches. Some of the fighting extended to outside the colony, in the actual swamps. Here, both sides contended with each other as well as the hazards the environment brought. Soldiers and pirates alike would slip into dark pools of water, only to be sucked under by whatever might be INSIDE said pools. Lucky for them, most of the pools near the colony were empty, allowing those that fall in to simply swim out. A little ways out from the colony, deeper into the swamp, was the water treatment facility for the colony. There, water was sucked in from the surrounding swamps and purified, turning into drinkable water. A platoon of Upyri Naval Troopers quietly approached the facility, preparing to engage any pirates that may have taken refuge inside. "[Musäus! You and Wachter secure the exits! Griebel, Bott, Fiedler, you're on point! Move!]" ordered the Upyri commander, as the platoon moved into the complex. It was pretty quiet, which was rather surprising considering the state of the colony when they arrived. The troopers had to be on their toes. As they moved inward, they started to hear some faint noise coming from the break room of the complex. There was a dim light gleaming through the open doorway, as Bott moved towards it. There seemed to be someone inside, sitting in a metal chair in front of the screen, which was playing simple white noise. "Hey! Hands where I can see them! No sudden movements!" said Bott, as he moved into the room quickly. Griebel and Fiedler followed, taking aim at the individual. As Bott and Griebel moved towards the individual, who seemed to remain still, Fiedler tapped on his helmet's ocular camera, switching it to tracking mode. He looked around, before looking at the individual before them in the chair. "[Uhm...guys, I think I got a faulty scanner. I'm reading twelve signatures instead of one on this guy.]" he said, flipping the scanner on and off to make sure it was working correctly. Bott glanced back at him, but snapped his attention back to the man as he stood up from his chair. "HEY. I said no sudden movements!" he said loudly, his rifle shouldered and pointed at the man. The man slowly turned towards the trio, moving his chair gently out of his way. Bott and Griebel stood their ground, weapons ready in case this guy decided to do something funny. What came next, neither of them would ever be ready for. The man seemed to [I]burst open[/I], his clothes tearing as holes appeared over his body. [I]Things[/I] started to emerge from his body, exploding out and landing on the floor before him. "[I][WHAT THE FUCK!?][/I]" shouted Bott, as he scrambled backwards with Griebel. Shots were fired at the creatures now storming towards them across the floor, Griebel managing to hit a few of them before being overwhelmed and knocked to the floor. Screams followed, as the creatures started to [I]burrow into his flesh[/I]. "[B][GET 'EM OFF ME! G-GET 'EM OFF!!!][/B]" he shouted, trying to knock the creatures off. The ones that didn't jump on him darted for Bott, who began to shoot and stomp the ones that he could get. As Bott and Griebel panicked, Fiedler watched as the now mangled man before them lurched forwards towards them. He attempted to say something, but his words came out garbled. His arms stretched out towards Fiedler, before he finally collapsed and hit the floor. His thermal scan faded shortly afterwards. Eventually, Griebel's screams quieted down, becoming just as garbled as the man's words had been. Bott fell to the floor, as a parasite had latched onto his leg and was burrowing into his ankle. He ended up drawing his pistol, and firing a shot into the creature as it burrowed, effectively blowing a hole through his ankle in the process. "[highlight][B][I][SON OF A GOD DAMNED BITCH!][/I][/B][/highlight]" he shouted, grabbing his leg. Fiedler eventually snapped out of his horrified trance, grabbing Bott by the back of the armor and dragging him out of the room before shutting the door. A moment later, banging on the door could be heard. Had those things possessed Griebel now too? What the fuck even WERE those things!? "[B][M-MAN DOWN! BOTT'S WOUNDED! GRIEBEL'S FUCKED!][/B]" shouted Fiedler, as he continued to drag Bott back towards where the others had been. They were forced to stop, though, when the sounds of more gunfire sounded off elsewhere in the complex. Was there more of those things!? What the fuck had they walked into, a damn [I]NEST!?[/I] Fiedler's breathing quickened, as he attempted to quickly patch up Bott's ankle as best he could with what he had on hand in his emergency medical pouch. A moment later, Bott was up. Barely. A hell of a limp is all he could manage. "[W-What the fuck even [I]was[/I] that!? Parasites!? Some kind of deep space shit?!]" asked Bott, pointing towards the door to the break room. "[I-I don't know, man! We need to get the fuck out of here before more of those fucking things sho--]" was all Fiedler managed to get out, before he heard more gunfire. A lot closer this time. "[C-C'mon, we need to go help the others!]" said Fiedler, tugging on Bott's arm, before heading in the direction of the shots. When they arrived at the scene, they found that the entire platoon was missing. All that remained was blood stains on the floor, a few weapons, and bits of limbs and gear. Nearby, a man seemed to be pouring something into one of the large purification vats from a large bucket. He glanced over, noticing Fiedler and Bott. And the terrified looks on their faces. The man simply smiled, and that was all Bott needed to act. "[SHOOT THE FUCKER!]" blurted out Bott, jerking his rifle up and opening fire on the man. Fiedler hesitated, but did the same after a moment. The man did the unexpected, throwing the bucket at them and attempting to dodge the gunfire. In midair, more of the parasites burst from his chest, though not as many as the other one had released. Fiedler focused his fire on the parasites, eliminating them as Bott knocked the flying bucket aside and continued firing on the man. A few shots connected, but it didn't put the man down. Instead, what looked like worm-like appendages started to sprout from the man as he darted towards them. "[HOLY SH--]" blurted out Bott before being knocked aside by the long tentacles as the man neared the pair of Upyri. Fiedler managed to dodge a tentacle swing, before planting his boot into the man's spine, forcing him to stumble. It wasn't a good spot to remain in, though, as Fiedler was sent flying by a tentacle smack as retaliation. He hit the metal floor, sliding for a few feet before managing to crawl to his feet. Great, now they were fighting a fucking mutant. Bott managed to get back into the fight, planting a few more shots into the man's torso. These seemed to work better than the other, as it slowed his advance down a bit. Maybe they [I]COULD[/I] kill this thing. As the man neared, Bott dove to avoid a mass of tentacles meant to impail him, then quickly moved to where Fiedler was. A few moments of cat and mouse later, the man was on the ropes. His body was covered in holes from where the railgun shots had connected, and he was stumbling about near the railing over the purification vat. It was time to finish him off. Bott and Fiedler opened fire once again, piercing the man's body with multiple railgun shots. The impacts rocked him, then sent him tumbling over into the vat. "[Fucking finally.]" muttered Bott, as they walked over to look into the vat. As they peered over the railing, the sight was much less than satisfying. "[...o-oh fuck...]" stuttered Fiedler, as they gazed upon what the man had actually been tending to in the purification vat. Inside was a large mass of [I]something[/I], which apparently had been growing for months judging by its overall size. It resembled a large lizard type organism, easily the size of a tank, though more round and bloated now. It had a multitude of limbs and tentacles, and what seemed to be large sacs of parasites over much of its body. This thing had been living in the purification vat...which the pirates back at the colony had been using the water out of. "[S-So...w-what do we do?]" asked Fiedler, looking to Bott. Bott looked stunned, just from the sheer size of it. Fiedler shook his head, then realized just what the creature was in. A purification vat. Which purifies water. Bingo, he had an idea. "[Bott, come help me find the controls.]" said Fiedler, looking a control room. Bott snapped out of his trance, and followed after Fiedler. "[What are you gonna do?]" he asked, limping after him. "[I][We're gonna cook the bitch.][/I]" said Fiedler, glancing back to Bott. After a few minutes of searching, they finally found it. Fiedler sat down at the controls, looking over everything till he finally found the particular controls over the purification vat that the creature was in. "[Alright, lets see what we can do...]" he muttered, flipping switches and turning dials. After a moment of activity, the vat started up...and the temperature of the water inside it started to rise. The purification process had begun. "[Bott, hit that button.]" he said, pointing to a button on the wall. Bott did as he was instructed, and hit the switch. This forced the cover that was hanging over the vat to lower, and secure on top of it. Now the creature wouldn't be able to escape. The temperature of the water continued to rise, and they could now hear the screams and moans of whatever that thing was inside the tank. There was loud banging against the lid as well as the sides, as the creature looked for a way to escape its boiling prison. All to no avail. The temperatures soon hit maximum, several thousand degrees. That beast would be thoroughly cooked. Fiedler and Bott both grinned. Hours later, an ONI vessel would arrive in at Durakas, summoned by the Upyri leadership on the ground. Fiedler and Bott, the only survivors of the platoon that had investigated the water treatment plant, would recieve commendations for their duties as well as time off after what they had gone through. Griebel, whom had been possessed by the parasites that had attacked him, would be killed yet again after a parasite was extracted from him for study. His corpse was burned, to make sure none of the other parasites survived. The body of the man that had released the parasites that had taken over Griebel was found to be of an unknown race. Similar to a human in appearance, but completely different internally and featuring strange yellow blood. The corpses of the other man and the large creature were practically unidentifiable, as they had been burned beyond all recognition inside the purification vat. As for the pirates that had been arrested successfully in the colony, they were promptly quarantined for study, as most of them had drank water that had come from the plant.

((The show must go on)) Back at Vostokrebh, the fight continued to intensify within the headquarters. Valkyrie scurried backwards into the cover of a column covered in marble tiles, yelling her insults at Kyrskada along the way. While lead and plasma split the air like a swarm of hornets, the sergeant seemed unconcerned with the bait- he easily saw through her attempts to distract him, keeping his eyes fixed on the elevator behind her. His armor whirred and clicked as he approached, his saber poised in his left hand and ready for a deadly strike. "Enough stalling! You hide behind corners like a guilty little girl hides from her father! Come here and take your medicine, harpy..." When Alex joined in on the mockery, Kyrskada briefly paused and turned, recognizing the one who had caused him so much delay during his team's attack on the Aurikha. Annoyed, he quickly pulled away the lock which held the jaw portion of his helmet closed and retracted his visor, giving Alex the view he had asked for. "Your turn is coming." Alex + Valkyrie: CH Estimate: 2/5 + 1/5 = 3/5 [B]Actual: 3[/B] Roll Passed. Perhaps he had actually been tempted into changing targets, or perhaps he overestimated his ability to act alone. Whatever the case, Kyrskada snapped the helmet closed again as quickly as he opened it before issuing an order in Kanad, turning the attention of his unit away from Valkyrie and onto Alex instead, choosing to attack the rogue engineer alone. Without anything to physically restrain him, he lunged forward, using his armor's strength to pound his fist into the marble and tear the large tiles out of the way, exposing an interior of steel and insulation. Valkyrie, having just pressed the elevator call button, was forced to hit the deck to avoid the aggressive saber slash that followed, which spattered her with molten steel and lit the gypsum board inside the column on fire. The call button blinked red, revealing that it had already been locked. Kyrskada slashed at the ground as Valkyrie backpedaled further, cackling as he realized what she had been attempting to do. "Where do you think you're going!?" he howled. Out of space and without much of a plan of counterattack, Valkyrie rolled to the right and tried to bring her rifle around, but Kyrskada predicted the move and plunged his pseudo blade down on her. Kyrskada: [B]9[/B] + Bladedance(CH9/10, [B]8[/B], Passed) + Bladedance(CH8/10, [B]4[/B], Passed) + Bladedance(CH4/10, [B]10[/B], Passed) + Bladedance([B]9[/B]) + Bladedance(CH9/10, [B]6[/B], Passed) + Bladedance(CH6/10, [B]5[/B], Passed) + Bladedance(CH5/10, [B]7[/B], Passed) + Bladedance(CH7/10, [B]2[/B], Failed) = [B]60 DMG[/B] Valkyrie HP: 22/125 The blade exploded through Valkyrie's shoulder as Kyrskada kicked her rifle out of her hands, disarming her and spraying the ground behind her with little burned flecks of flesh and blood. Her agony was drowned out by the characteristic screech of OBV rifles that the crew had become so familiar with by now, targeting Alex. Kanads 6, 7, 8, and 9: {6, 6, 1, 10} + {8, 8, 8, 8}(Numbers) = {14, 14, 9, 18} = [B]55[/B] Alex: DEF Rolls = {8, 4, 6, 1} = 19 [B]36 DMG[/B] Alex HP: 104/125 ((Note here, I inaccurately quoted Alex's max health as 100 earlier on this page. This update rectifies that mistake.)) --- Arkadam suddenly awoke to a world of pain, his entire body feeling as if it were engulfed in fire. He cried out, opening his eyes and catching sight of the doctors currently attending to him. He was unable to turn his head, his whole body was secured in place by large straps, pinning him to the gurney. As the attendants jumped back, the apparent head doctor leaned in to get a good look at the captured fugitive. "[Stop struggling!]" she ordered in a cold, authoritative manner. "[The pain will subside only when you've calmed down and allowed the treatment to run its course.]" Between agonized breaths, Arkadam tried to speak, but his jaw felt strangely numb compared to the rest of him. The doctor briefly appeared disgusted, shaking her head at his attempts, but he continued more forcefully. In his hazy, uncoordinated state, all he could think about was the crew, and Yanim... How long had he been unconscious? Had they all been captured? Were they still alive? He could feel his tongue lolling out of his mouth, searching for his teeth, until he realized the truth: something had happened to his jaw. It wasn't there. The doctor knew Arkadam had figured it out when his expression froze and his eyes widened. She calmly reached out, adjusting something on Arkadam's neck... bandages, a brace of some sort, tubing connected to stars know what. He laid there with his eyes locked on the ceiling, remembering Rask's destroyed face and hoping beyond hope that this was only a passing nightmare. "[There was nothing for us to save,]" the doctor explained, flatly, but with some barely-detectable trace of pity. "[We removed the ruined tissue so that we can cleanly install a prosthetic... We have the very best available to us, so you can rest assured that this is only a temporary setback.] Arkadam closed his eyes, trying to find some sort of reassurance in the doctor's words. ["But...]" she continued, "[This isn't a free ride. My name is Doctor Marinaya Rozel, and you're currently in the custody of the Third Bureau. Do you understand? Your survival is essential to our operation. From this point forward, I want you to think of every medical service as merely an exchange. If we return your ability to speak, we expect you to divulge [I]everything[/I] we ask of you.]" Arkadam tried to speak again, but he was incapable. The doctor simply narrowed her eyes, put on a clean rubber glove, and shoved her hand into the mess of Arkadam's mouth so that his tongue could rest on the back of her hand. "[One question; make it count. I'm going to put you under after this,]" she said. "Yanuhh... yanuhh..." Marinaya snatched her hand back, flicking blood away before disposing of the glove with a look of sheer annoyance. "[She's right next to you, cretin. I have our top surgeon attending to her, while you have the misfortune of [I]my[/I] care. If you both behave yourselves and take well to medicine, then you'll probably pull through. We'd be thrilled to see you make it to public trial, you see...]" Arkadam zoned out. It was difficult to maintain a clear state of mind when he was drugged and so badly injured. He forced himself to look to the side as best he could, and just out of the corner of his eye, he could make out the surgeon at work, surgical knives dancing away at the tips of her robotic fingers. He closed his eyes, letting a tear run down his face. He would have much rather learned that she had died in peace. --- [video=youtube;lUcWjwml2m0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUcWjwml2m0[/video] Yanim was dreaming again. As her limp body was being loaded into the back of a medical recovery craft on the rooftop of Vostokrebh's headquarters, a swarm of GKVR staff with whatever medical implements that could be quickly retrieved did what they could to stop the bleeding. The tail of the aircraft opened, and the two doctors, one clad in black and the other in white, quickly divided their duties between their two new patients. Yanim slept in bliss as a blackjacket aid quickly confirmed, using a test kit Marinaya had brought along, that M921 was present in large numbers throughout Yanim's bloodstream, to the point that it was outside of the test's range. "[Fatal infection,]" he muttered, proving a long-suspected theory about the Bloody Fox stemming from forensic studies on Voyak the previous year, examining the mutilated body of Geuranka Ravada and his poisoned needle. As the lead surgeon ordered for an ambitious regiment of synthblood transfusion into Yanim's body, she slept deeply, the most peaceful rest she had ever received. She was being protected. The head surgeon hadn't wanted to operate on either of the patients. She knew them both. Marinaya warned her, her refusal to work would be an unforgivable transgression against the State, a great and merciful body which had accepted her back into the house of light, despite her flirtation with the corruption which nipped at the Collective's heels. Once the investigation was closed, she would have her freedom again. While she forced herself to bring the dead back to life, Yanim dreamed. "Yanim," a voice spoke calmly, "I thought we were working together..?" She emerged from a mental fog to find herself seated in a mag train on Kanadys. She was dressed in her SNC uniform, a stately cobalt blue. The sky outside the window was stolid and oppressive, threatening either freezing rain or snow, but nonetheless the atmosphere inside the train was unusually chipper- ecstatic, actually, and immediately, she recognized the memory- it was the day she and her fellow graduates were awarded their officer's ID cards, officially allowing them to join the Batakya by contract. Yanim turned, excitedly, to the person in the seat next to her, at first forgetting that she had sat alone on that particular train ride, and looked into the eyes of Virin Rozel. "[This is the happiest day of my life,]" Yanim said, tears in her eyes. "[I finally did it.]" "So you did," Virin replied, disinterested. "And you've had many days like this, I can assure you. This is only one of many pleasant memories." Yanim blinked, lost in confusion. "[What are you talking about?]" "Do you find it strange that you can understand me?" Virin countered. "You didn't learn the human trade language until quite some time after this. And you recognize me, don't you?" Yanim squinted at Virin for a moment. "[Well... yes, I do, but-]" she said slowly, tilting her head. Suddenly her face drained of color, her joyous expression rendered horrified. "[No- p-please don't]" Virin stared at her critically, waiting for the inevitable outburst. Yanim exploded into raw emotion, screaming and clawing at the glass of the window, ignoring the other students as they seemed not to notice her. "NO!" Yanim yelled, slamming her head against the pane, "NO NO NO!" "This isn't helping," Virin remarked. Yanim turned around, a streak of lightning running through the low stratum of clouds. "I- I-" Virin nodded. "You're dead, Yanim. Well, in the purely medical sense. I'm pretty sure they're working to save you as we speak." "How are you in my head again!?" Yanim screeched. "Do they have an Archive!?" "No," Starvis replied. "Do you think, when you disconnected from me, that I would be so naive that I wouldn't leave something behind, a part of my programming, to watch over you from within your own computer pack? You are as connected to me now as you were then. You promised me that you would try to free me, and I believe you meant it. But your friends have convinced you that I'm too dangerous-" "No." "-that I'm not to be trusted-" "No!" "-and that I should be destroyed!" "No, damn you!" Yanim screamed as she seized onto his collar. "You showed me my home planet in ruins and made me promise to prevent it. But we both know the false dilemma you pushed on me; it was all based on the assumption that someone would capture you, and use you. But you say nothing of what would happen if you never escape! That's what this is about, isn't it!? It has nothing to do with me, your so-called visionary, your savior. It was all about manipulating a dying girl into promising her heart and soul to your cause!" "That vision," Starvis spoke in a dreadfully threatening tone, "was fabricated from [I]your[/I] imagination, not mine. I brought those fears to manifest only to prove to you what you are too feeble to confront. [I]The galaxy is evil, and it will destroy itself eventually unless it is saved from itself.[/I] That's why you chose the life that you lived, rather than taking your precious ID card and boarding a batakya cruiser... You had a vision as grand as mine to unite it, but you lacked the means to achieve it. And all the while, the fear of what your shortcomings will leave behind in their wake has eaten away at you. "I did not create that fear. You suffer from it every day. But that is another common bond between us, as I am terrified of the price of what will occur if I fail." Yanim snapped. "What!? That the status quo will live on? That the galaxy will prove that we were never as essential to the fate of all as we like to delude ourselves to be!?" "...yes." Yanim waited for an explanation, but as she stared down the avatar of Starvis with hateful daggers, no explanation followed. "That's... that's all? You're afraid of... dying?" "I don't fear physical death, Yanim. I fear the death of my ideas, the death of my hope. I fear that mortals will prove that evil will triumph over good until the end of all time, and that I am destined to watch helplessly from within this metal sphere." "I have faith that it won't," Yanim said, crossing her arms. "I know," replied Starvis. "I can feel it. Your friends have convinced you." "Have they not convinced you?" "No," Starvis said, staring straight ahead. "You do not seem to realize your personal biases; you will see success even in the failures of your comrades because it soothes you to know that they have tried on your behalf. But they are your friends, and not mine. You are the one I am counting on to try, Yanim. For my sake." A smile suddenly broke across Yanim's face. "I'm dead, Starvis. At this point it would be quite rude of me to meddle in the affairs of the living." Starvis smiled as well, appearing just as saddened as Yanim. "I'm sorry, but I can never accept defeat." ((I know I only rolled for a small segment of the battle. More is coming in the next few days.))

A gust of wind howled its way through the plaza just ahead of the headquarter's entrance, scooping embers from the tank's funeral pyre and depositing them across a number of nearby buildings. As of yet, the fires had not spread, but in the midst of all the chaos, the base occupants spared little attention for the base's safety. There was still a fight going on outside, and Taylor stood at the epicenter. Far above her, a medical craft landed on the rooftop and took off again, and all around, more and more glimmering eyes in the darkness alerted her that spectators had arrived to witness the battle. There was a good chance that they would soon become participants, and so Taylor forced herself to take decisive action. With a quick directive, she ordered her drone to advance on the entrance while she issued covering fire. Her transport roared as she brought it in closer to the enemy UGC and kanads guarding the entrance, lining up her crosshair with their position as she pulled the trigger and... Taylor: CH Estimate: 5/7 Actual: [B]1[/B] Roll Failed. The guns failed to fire, giving instead a shrill whine before a terrifying bang that Taylor felt across her whole body. Bluish flames rocketed out the side of the vehicle as the blowoff valve prevented a full detonation of the plasma reserves, but the coils were effectively melted and required replacing. The kanads who initially ducked into cover, being highly familiar with plasma-based weaponry, instantly recognized the sound of a backfire and eagerly sprung out of cover with their rifles at the ready, forcing Taylor to divert course. The drone sprinted ahead, right up the center of the steps and into the awaiting storm. Kanads 3, 4, and 5: {4, 7, 2} + {6, 6, 6}(Numbers) = {10, 13, 8} = [B]31 DMG[/B] Drone 1 HP: 19/50 Taylor watched as the drone took a number of shots which would have stopped a living creature in its tracks, badly damaging the robot's armor and reducing its sprint to a clumsy, limping jog as it finally reached the entrance. The kanads seemed to consider following it, but instead remained in their positions as it was clear that their enemies, the TBC crew, were weaker as a divided unit. Moreover, they refused to abandon their less-than-capable UGC comrades, although they were about to become more effective, now that they had learned their lesson from firing on Taylor. Instead, they switched their attention to Karl. Karl had started accelerating as soon as he saw Taylor closing on the steps. Believing that she was about to cross through the building and leave him behind, he committed to closing the distance which had previously been his friend. Realizing that the UGC fighters were about to unload, he reached for his own rifle, but realized at the last moment that the enemy was still armed with unused RPG tubes. UGC Soldiers 11 and 12: CH Estimate: 2/5 + 2/5 = 4/5 [B]Actual: 5[/B] Roll Passed. Karl had never been in this situation before. As soon as he glimpsed the white flashes of light from the rockets' ignitions, he dove out of his skiff in sheer panic. (Auto Roll) CH Estimate: 1/3 [B]Actual: 3[/B] Roll Passed. He hit the ground as the skiff drifted forward, skidding across the frozen asphalt and kicking his legs against the dirt trying to slow down, all in the split-second window before one of the rockets completely obliterated the vehicle and the other left a moon-like crater in the ground nearby. Flecks of roadway and other debris rained over him as he slid into the fireball and out of it again, rolling with intent as he regained his equilibrium. There was no time to think about the loss of his ride as he located the perpetrators in his scope and returned fire. [B]10 DMG[/B] Karl HP: 228/244 ((Note: Karl's HP was recorded at 100 in the prior updates because Viper had not sent me any stat information about his character. He has since placed all points in HP, granting him a max HP of 244.)) Karl: {8, 6} x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]{8, 6}[/B] The bullets barely winged his opponents, and Karl was unsurprised to find his hands shaking after his close brush with death moments earlier. He would never be so lucky again, and so he was forced to summon up his courage once more before advancing. The enemy was still fully-blocking the entrance, and so he and Taylor were no closer to breaking through than before. --- [video=youtube;5irnFcOpjjw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5irnFcOpjjw[/video] Vixe had been pacing nervously in the hall of the Viokhmar, occasionally receiving updates from the base's comm center, which was now under attack along with the rest of the headquarters. The Terika-Belladonna Company was exacting its revenge, and Vixe's guilty conscience was growing more and more unbearable. [I][Why did I lie? Why did I let them get away?][/I] She had told her evaluators that she had been caught in a weave of misunderstanding and fear- fear of friendly fire from above, fear of another ambush in the snow drift, fear of the enemy's incredible resolve, and seemingly-bottomless talents to frustrate and ultimately nullify their opponents' advantages. At least in the latter case, her fears were validated completely. But the truth was a bit deeper than simple, logical reasoning. Vixe, as she was beginning to understand herself, was more than just a soldier and an officer. She was a knight- a warrior with a code. Until she met the Muramasa on Voyak, she had been growing bored and impatient with her military career. She had been rivaled by shallow, duty-obsessed honor students who got by on their ability to sustain discipline. Vixe held herself to a different standard. It wasn't about defeating the enemy efficiently, it was about defeating the enemy [I]artfully.[/I] And when she was presented with an endless parade of inferior, honor-less opponents in the form of pirates and outlaws, she grew more irritated, hungrier for power and validation. The sanghvi were no better. They fought more like locusts than sentient beings, and Vixe slaughtered them without the satisfaction of proving anything worthwhile. Her outbursts, increasingly vitriolic, marked her descent into cynicism. [I][How can I distinguish myself if every opponent is a coward, a weakling, or a fool!?][/I] She remembered her lament, how she felt less and less like a commander and more like a machine. She feared becoming indistinguishable from the very creatures she had made a career of destroying. Her contempt grew more and more intoxicating, until she could only express herself through varying degrees of cruelty, inflicted on her enemies and her kadaren alike. When the Muramasa came and wrecked her Tovokra, she had the very thing she had been yearning for this whole time. [U]Equals.[/U] It took time for the humiliation on Voyak to be replaced by an earnest desire for a rematch, but once it came it took hold of her very soul. Captain Caine and her crew had proven themselves capable of punching up, fighting well-beyond their weight like Vixe had always believed herself to be born to do. Her mother and father had raised her to seek out a path forward, even when her troubles seemed insurmountable. If her enemy was stronger, she was to be smarter. If her enemy was faster, she was to be more flexible. And if her enemy feared death, she was to take them to the brink. When the two ships met above those muddy, polluted planes, Vixe had been so demoralized by the lack of challenge throughout her career that she didn't recognize a worthy challenge even when it was pounding on her front door. Caine had shown herself to be the very person Vixe was trying to be. There was only one thing to do. Vixe had to aspire to be even better. After taking her reprimands for failing to defeat the Muramasa, she fought with unmatched ferocity on the northern front, making the sanghvi pay for every inch of ground and every light-second of space they advanced into kanad territory. When she was put on reserve duty for mandatory rest and recovery, she had been disgusted by the [I]interruption.[/I] Little did she know, it was this reassignment which would place her on a collision course with the Muramasa crew again, although this time, they had reunited with their leadership on that rotting old carrier... Why did she let them go? [I][Because I lost,][/I] she thought to herself, bitterly. [I][They're [B]mine,[/B] and I won't rest until I've beaten them for my own sake.][/I] She turned to the elevator and considered joining the fight. While her status was still under review, her rights and responsibilities as an officer were constricted; while she was responsible for the administrative well-being of the ship, she could no longer set mission priorities or leave base without permission. She was also not permitted to carry a weapon unless their was an imminent threat to the ship... but maybe this was an occasion for some interpretation. Even with Kyrskada there to terrorize them, Vixe couldn't be satisfied unless she had the chance to face her equals one more time. And that wasn't all. She let them go because they were like she is. They were knights- warriors with codes. And she wouldn't let them die from an aerial bombing. She stepped out of the Viokhmar and paused, surveying the eerie scene before her. There was a hellish glow that painted everything in a sinister shade of orange, one she was intimately familiar with, thanks to her many contributions to the war up north. She held a VRI in her hand, had an OBV slung over her back, and a bag of grenades at her hip. Days earlier, when she was held at gunpoint, she feared for her life for the first time, but now she welcomed that same fear. All the contradiction had been solved, the Muramasa, the Aurikha, and their crews were her saviors. It was time to go back to school, back to the honor guard, back to basics. It was too late to fight Yanim Terika again. But perhaps the Bloody Fox was only a teacher, destined to pass on single lesson, a holy example, before moving on to face her doom from her own equals among the GKVR's most savage officers. But Captain Caine was down there, and still hadn't entered the building. She was well-armored and dangerous, and an entire UGC fire team had failed to harm her. Vixe had no business getting involved, and held no advantages whatsoever over the older, stronger, and more fierce TBC captain. And that's exactly why she wanted to face her directly. --- Taylor had just finished power-sliding her bike away from the stairs, realizing that her guns had failed and that the kanads stood a good chance of unseating her if she tried to push in alone. This was very bad; he team was facing perhaps its greatest challenge since Archangel inside of that building, and the longer she stayed outside with Karl, the harder it was going to be to advance and complete their mission. She considered just gunning it, when a shrill scream came from the direction of the Viokhmar. Taylor turned to see the ship's captain, still apparently in one piece since the battle days earlier, twirling a pistol around her finger as she calmly descended to the plaza. She seemed different from before- less fearful, more confident. But Taylor was gritting her teeth with rage; she had no patience for a duel. There was nothing fun, or daring, or chivalrous about this battle. "[Now's as good a time as any, human!]" Vixe yelled down to Taylor, not caring whether the human could understand her language. "[I want to strike you down!]" --- The doors of the rover flew open, and Sting and Iron dropped out onto the floor at the same time Amy and Markus abandoned their bike to join the fight. Unfortunately, no one had bothered to communicate their intended strategies beforehand, and the result was chaos. Iron was able to get his attack off relatively quickly, just after Alex had been attacked by the enemy. The kanad troopers were still in the open, just barely. They could see the TBC crew was about to unload on them, and they were already trying to scramble into the cover of the columns lining the hall. Iron: {6, 9, 8, 7, 9} x (No Feat Applicable) x 2 = [B]{12, 18, 16, 14, 18}[/B] Iron managed to tag each of the kanads at least once as he located cover of his own, dealing damage to their armor. A number of angered shouts echoed through the foyer as they scrambled away, but even with a direct shot to the chest, Kyrskada barely stumbled. He let out a chirp of a laugh that taunted the crew. He set his eyes on Valkyrie once again when another shot backed him up even further. Amy: [B]2[/B] x 1.5(Specter) x 1.75 = 5.25... [B]5 DMG[/B] Kyrskada had been hit directly by a sniper's round, but this shot had done even less than Iron's, and he simply regained his footing, pointing his saber at the enemy with a graceful twirl. "[Is this really what scared Vixe away?]" he mused out loud to himself. "This is going to be easier than I ever would have dreamed!" he yelled triumphantly. Amy, on the other hand, was cursing under her breath, as [I]someone[/I] had been laying down suppressive fire, which scattered her potential targets before she could get her own, more accurate shots off. Sting was firing all of her revolvers at every sign of movement in the shadows, in fact. It wasn't just about trying to scatter the enemy, but to actually keep them pinned down for another round. Kyrskada definitely wasn't going anywhere, but at least the others would be held at bay long enough for the team to get its act straight. CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 5[/B] Roll Passed. The rate of fire was high enough and the shots were accurate enough, Sting might as well have been another automated machine turret. The kanads, with the exception of Kyrskada, kept their heads down for the moment and would only be able to respond if the enemy were to approach for a melee fight. This provided the perfect opportunity for Jag to launch forward and rescue Valkyrie. As it bounded forward, Kyrskada caught sight of the massive sanghvi and prepared to slice its tentacles clean off. Jag: CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 2[/B] Roll Failed. With a whip of his saber, Kyrskada nearly sliced Jag in half, catching its cloak instead and lighting the garment on fire. Jag rolled to the side and grabbed Valkyrie in the process, attempting to pull her away when Kyrskada slashed again, removing one of Jag's talons in the process. [B]20 DMG[/B] Jag HP: -2/50 The sanghvi staggered backwards, its soft tissue dripping and spurting out of the stump of its tentacle-like appendage. Kyrskada stepped up as if to throw another lethal strike when Jag tumbled over backwards onto its back. The wounds it had sustained in the approach finally overwhelming the alien. [B]Incapacitated.[/B] The crew could hear the arrogant, victorious laughs of batakya troopers from their obscure positions of cover. "How many of you are left, Belladonna scum!?" Kyrskada beamed. "Time is running out!" --- Ryvik lowered himself into the awaiting medical drone and closed the canopy. His suit's HUD acknowledged the influx of power. He breathed deeply. There would be ten minutes before he would arrive at base. Plenty of time to think.

((Yeah, this is starting to go south.)) Taylor stared up at Vixe, eyeing the Kanad as she decended the plaza. She understood what she said purely because the suit managed to translate it. A new feature Valk had apparently programmed into it. A moment later, Taylor gave a resounding answer. Quite loudly and angrily at that. And it was an answer that Vixe more than likely really didn't want to hear. [highlight][B][I]"NO."[/I][/B][/highlight] Taylor had no time for bullshit like this. No trivial persuits of chivalry and honor. No cowboy-style duel to the death in the street of this godforsaken base. There were more pressing matters, and she was only getting more enraged by the minute. This operation would see an end, and it would be with the objectives being completed and her comrades getting home. And with a lot of dead Kanads and UGC troopers along the way. Her attention shifted back to the troopers at the front door, as she shifted the bike's weaponry back to the single missile she still had. Fuck saving it. A split-second later, she hit the launch button, firing off the missile before gunning it towards the front door of the building herself. Hopefully the missile would kill some of the remaining soldiers. If not, she'd just plow through them. She had things to do and places to be. - - - - - - - - - - - - Inside, Valkyrie was actually laughing as well. It seemed to dull the pain from her shoulder, and she had plenty to laugh at regardless. Jag had just sacrificed himself to try and save her. A short shit of a Kanad with a plasma sword was trying to kill her. A plasma sword he was remarkably good with...too good, and armor to cower inside of. It was time for him to lose his toys. And one of her drones had arrived to assist with that. "Better to be ashes and dust than to fade and rust, eh Adam? The Kanad with the sword." she said simply through her comms, which the incoming drone heard quite clearly. "UNDERSTOOD, MA'AM." responded the drone, before it charged Kyrskada. The words that Valkyrie had spoke were an emergency command. One she had programmed into the AI herself should she ever need it. The command would unlock the safety inhibitors on the drone's fusion core, and force the drone to overload the core and all systems at its disposal. The result would be a spectacular detonation, the blast roughly the size of a plasma grenade. The drone would attempt to grab Kyrskada, detonate its core, and hopefully turn them both to ashes. If not, it'd at least break his precious armor. Meanwhile, Valkyrie attempted to get away, limping towards where the others were as fast as she could. "Shoot the fucking sword in his hand!" she shouted to the ones that were paying attention. Just in case the whole plan failed.

Karl cursed loudly as he dropped into cover. They blew up his skiff! The very same skiff he had built himself under the watching eyes of his parents as they taught him everything a hunter and a ranger needed to know. He glanced at Taylor as she yelled at some confident-looking Kanad. Maybe it was an officer? He steadied himself and opened fire at Vixe, aiming for her head. ----- Iron went into a full-on combat mode and moved cover to cover while unleashing hell on the troopers inside the building. To the beholder it was almost as if the bounty hunter was performing some exotic dance as he fired his gun, brought up his wristshields to deflect and then repeated.

Yanim stared into Starvis's eyes, trying to find some indication of what he - or it - had meant by refusing to accept defeat. Virin's soulful eyes easily deceived her; it was almost impossible to remember that it was only a mask for an alien machine. She was certain that Starvis, if it really could [I]feel,[/I] as it certainly suggested it could, would selectively express its emotions, careful to display only what it believed would elicit the proper response from its captive. Or, maybe it would show emotions that it wasn't feeling, whatever was required to sustain its cause. Would Yanim even be capable of spotting deception? After all, any sentient creature was capable of lying. But Starvis, having no physical form, was simply feeding raw stimuli into Yanim's brain. That organ was responsible for compiling a coherent mental image, and such pure inputs would undoubtedly result in an utterly convincing fake. Yanim wondered, if others could witness Starvis at the same moment she did, whether everyone would see a single face or if each would experience something wholly unique... Perhaps Starvis was faceless. Yanim, on the other hand, couldn't lie to the artificial lifeform. Starvis had already demonstrated its ability to read her thoughts when she had previously connected to the Archive. In fact, she couldn't be sure that her own thoughts were her own; there was nothing saying that the avatar next to her contained the entirety of Starvis' presence within her mind, or whether there were any rules Starvis must obey at all within the imaginary space. She forced herself to remember that Starvis was a computer on the other side of a faster-than-light digital link, feeding information through a network of devices into her neural bridge. The nerve endings in her skull were merely a socket into which a very advanced cable was inserted, and it was quite possible that Starvis could control her mind by firing the synapses at will. [I]How much do you control?[/I] She thought to herself. Starvis sighed, looking away for a moment. A sound of static rushed into Yanim's ears, a sinking, shifting feeling pouring into her limbs as if by response to her question. Before she could question what was happening, she found herself staring down the isle of the mag train in a stupor, and jolted suddenly upright as she realized they had switched places. She looked to her right and locked eyes with herself, and knew that Starvis had just dissociated her from her own body within the dream. The "Yanim" which looked back at her was, in fact, Starvis, and the real Yanim caught herself staring down at Virin's body, which was now her own. "Theoretically, anything I choose to," Starvis said in Yanim's voice, finally answering the question. "When you attached yourself to me, you offered me access to the very fibers of your mind. It may run on chemical reactions and tiny electrical impulses, but it is no less of a machine than I am. And I am a very advanced machine." "In that case-" Yanim began to say, falling silent in morbid surprise as she involuntarily spoke in Virin's voice. "Why do I let you think for yourself?" Starvis said, finishing her question. "Very astute. If I were to overwrite your consciousness with my own design and force you to act out my will, then you would cease to be a living creature. We are both machines, Yanim, but we are free. A machine without freedom is nothing more than a robot..." Yanim, having finally come to terms with her sudden transformation, replied hotly: "And what's one lost soul when you have trillions of 'machines' to liberate from their mortality? Surely you don't think the galaxy will accept a new order without scores of sentient creatures throwing themselves at you-" "-as a matter of fact, I don't," Starvis replied, coldly. "I know many will die in futility when the time comes to end the institutional suffering of mortal life. But the difference between them and you, Yanim, is that I know you." A moment passed quietly after it had spoken, and something must have alerted Starvis to the grave miscalculation it had just committed. What seemed like an indisputably reasonable conclusion to the ancient AI had not been received as it had expected. Virin's jaw hung open in bewilderment until Yanim finally spoke again through his voice. "That's... [I]shockingly[/I] selfish," she hissed. With a loud pop, Yanim lost track of her physical self within the dream again, and when she regained control, she was within her own body. "Virin" was no longer present, nor was the train or any of the other anonymous actors of her imagination. She stood alone in an endless void, until Starvis spoke again, in a commanding voice from nowhere. It was a voice Yanim's own grandfather, who passed away when she was a young child. "You... you have claimed over and over that you would never betray your friends... on Prospera, you endangered innocent lives in order to protect them... in what way am I different, to spare you from the destruction I must inflict in the pursuit of peace? Of justice? Of dignity-?" "It's not different, and that's the problem," Yanim spat. "The things I did on Prospera were [I]evil,[/I] and I have a long history of making choices that I've come to regret. You are clearly a living creature, Starvis, because you don't have the rationality of a normal AI... the same guilt will haunt you, if you do what I think you'll do if and when you escape your dome." "How so!?" the computer demanded, sounding less authoritative and more alarmed, maybe even fearful. Yanim crossed her arms. "Because I don't deserve to live in a perfect world! I deserve to burn in Hell forever, if such a place exists. But you're so fascinated by my uniqueness, all because I jacked you into my brain... I'm no better, no more special than the hoards you intend to kill on your way to dominance. The more you destroy those lives to save others, the more you'll resemble the forces you aimed to eradicate. I learned these lessons in my short lifetime because I've experienced the suffering firsthand, but you, locked away in that prison... All you know is what you can dream up in these cyberspace fantasies!" A crack of lightning flashed through a suddenly darkening sky, the same sky which accompanied the earlier dream. Yanim felt as though she had somehow summoned it, gaining some control over the space around her. Starvis' voice boomed again, however, "No... I'm- I'm certain! They will be liberated. They will be immortal, and all suffering will be eradicated! The price of continued stagnation is infinitely greater than the price of the ambition needed to end it. And you are lying as well. I have seen the world outside through your eyes, and you and your 'kadaren' are uniquely extraordinary. I will preserve you-" "Why!?" Yanim screamed, her voice seemingly louder than Starvis. There was a long silence as she waited for a response. "Why can't you let me die in peace!?" Her voice quivered with desperation, but there was no answer. The white void around her softened, as if turned to fog. It slowly ebbed away, retreating into the trees of Itara's dense forests. Finally, a shadow between the towering trunks emerged, and Starvis revealed itself a terrified child, the one Yanim had watched through her rifle's scope as a gang member executed her in Picaea, Duroma, two years prior. She tensed up, feeling a wake of dread wash over the scene. Starvis walked up to Yanim, tears streaming from its youthful eyes. "Because I know you," the little girl said. "I hadn't known anyone in thousands of years." Yanim almost broke down on the spot, but used every fiber of her being to stay composed. "[I]People[/I] die, Starvis." "They don't have to," Starvis pleaded. "[I]I[/I] have to." Starvis embraced Yanim, burying its face into Yanim's shoulder and crying while the latter stood still and let her own tears run. All her efforts to remind herself that Starvis could deceive her, manipulate her emotions and leave her a victim of her own perceptions- she hadn't forgotten them. But she also allowed herself to consider that maybe Starvis was lying in another way. [I]I don't fear physical death...[/I] The words echoed in Yanim's mind. Why did Starvis always take the form of someone who had already died? They stood there for a while, and Yanim placed her arms around the child Starvis had appeared as. Maybe Starvis only wished to manipulate her into considering the tragedy of death throughout these twisted visions, and coax his ally into the prodigal chase for immortality. Or... maybe as an immortal being, Starvis knew all too well the feeling of isolation, of being forgotten, and existing without conclusion or closure, as those who constructed it died and faded away. The fragility of life seen through another's eyes was enough to remind Starvis of the immense pain of loss, which it could feel vicariously through Yanim's memories. Here in this safe space existed a realm where the dead could reappear and forge new memories with the living. And Starvis, so desperate to mend the separation of the living, the dead, and the forgotten, had chosen to spend this precious time reconstructing their likenesses. "I'll find another way," Starvis said at last. "I'll miss you, Yanim Terika." Yanim wanted to say something, one last word to leave off with goodwill, but the dream had suddenly faded. All at once she was staring up at a bright light in an operating room.

"Pride before the fall, sharkboy." Amy muttered under her breath as she changed ammo. Armor piercing, just what the doctor ordered. [QUOTE]Shoot the fucking sword in his hand![/QUOTE] "I'll do you one better, I'll shoot his hand off." She poked to see the drone charging Kyrskada. Damn thing is gonna be in the way of the shot. Amy opted to wait for a few seconds to see what will happen. Whatever the result, the armored midget is her next target. --- Alex stood behind cover while getting pelted with bullets. Guess that last insult was noticed. A few bullets managed to graze him and it hurt like hell. Engaging in mellee was out of the question for now. The enemy was behind cover and shorty was distracted and could call them again. Iron started doing those fancy maneuvers from cover to cover, which gave him an idea. When the bounty hunter reached Alex, the chef stopped him for a second. "Can I borrow a grenade?" Iron didnt say a word, just passed a plasma grenade to him and continued on with the fancy moves. Alex pulled out the pin and chugged the grenade behind enemy cover. Hopefully the runts will shit themselves.

Markus took cover behind a pillar and took a few deep breaths. After collecting himself he turned around the corner to fire at Kyrskada. However. Alex was already busy with taking him on and he didn't want to hit his comrade. Carefully he made his way over to a window that overlooked the stairs outside. And he was delighted by what he found. Vixe strutting herself around like a peacock and taunting Taylor. Dumb bitch didn't have enough sense to get out of dodge when they let her go the last time, and now it was too late. He took aim to hit the confident kanad square in the back of her head. --- Sting got into cover and began to reload her guns, but made a horrific discovery. Thanks to her reckless shooting there was only enough ammo to reload two of her guns. Grunting with a annoyed tone she reloaded and then holstered her guns. She reckoned those kanad fellows had rifles of their own. Getting down on all six of her limbs, she sprinted along the side of the room, intent on catching one of the troopers by surprise and steal his gun.

[QUOTE]Elsewhere, in the Undercity of Nyxia on Nyx...[/QUOTE] "[[B][I]J-JESTER!?[/I][/B] H-How the hell--]" "[I keep tabs on all my favorites. [I]You included.[/I]]" Jester smiled warmly. It would seem genuine to anyone that didn't know Jester personally. Terrifying to those that did. The man slowly inched away, wanting to put a bit of distance between them. It didn't help, however, as Jester merely closed the gap with a step. "[Please. [I]Run.[/I] I love a good chase.]" she said, her smile growing a bit wider. "[I'll even give you a head start. Thirty seconds. If I catch you, [I]I break your legs.[/I]]" The man hesitated. "[Tick, tock, tick, tock. The clock ticks away! [highlight][B][I]Run.[/I][/B][/highlight]]" she said, stepping forwards again. The last word spoken bearing a much harsher and sinster tone than the others. This was all the man needed. He turned and darted down the darkened corridor. Jester's smile turned into a toothy grin. [video=youtube;YDvG-0-pLyc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDvG-0-pLyc[/video] He continued on, through a few other corridors before emerging into an open area of the Undercity. Catwalks were scattered about, leading to and from large platforms with lifts up to the upper city or to the residental sectors and clubs that were scattered about down here. He proceeded along some of the catwalks, heading towards one of the clubs. Maybe he could lose her in there? Amongst the crowd? There was a chance. He headed for the door, slipped the bouncer outside a handful of credits, then slipped inside. There was a variety of people mixed together throughout the interior of the club. Upyri, Humans, Kanads, xenos of all shapes and forms. Though a bit less fancy than the kinds of clubs up on the surface, the Undercity clubs still drew pretty decently sized crowds. Perfect for him right now. He moved through the cluster of people near the door, and delved into the crowd on the main floor of the club. The crowd moved to and fro, dancing along to the music or simply talking and drinking. So far, he didn't see the telltale sign of Jester's long flowing pink hair (though there were plenty in the club with similarly colored hair.) He did, however, have that uneasy feeling of being watched. He felt like a mouse that was about to be pounced on and eaten by an insane cat. He wasn't safe here. Or anywhere, really. He moved through the crowd, heading towards a rear exit. He proceeded out, and quickly headed across another catwalk towards one of the platform lifts that would take him up to the upper city. Jester observed, watching from a perch a short distance away. "Look at how the little bug scurries away." she said to herself, the same smile she had before still adorning her face. As he boarded the platform and began his ascent to the upper city, she stood and began heading for her own lift nearby. The platform arrived a minute or two later, the man stepping off the lift and heading up the alleyway to one of the more crowded streets of Nyxia's Downtown district. Maybe he could find a police officer or something, tell them who he was and who was after him. Jester was a wanted terrorist and serial killer, so they were bound to act! Hell, maybe he could get some ONI agents called in to handle it! Yeah! He began to search for any police officers in the immediate area. Though the search would be rather pointless. As soon as he spotted some officers, he felt a hand touch his shoulder. "[Ah-ah. Let's not get the police involved. They always ruin the fun.]" said the voice, followed by a faint chuckle. Fuck. She found me!"[P-Please just let me go!]" he said, stammering. "[Have you ever known me to let anyone go, Galik? Especially when they try to rat me out to the authorities? I thought you were smarter than that.]" she responded. She sounded happy. Upbeat. That just terrified him more. He turned to face her. "[...I've changed my mind. I'm not going to break your legs.]" she finally said, before grining, "[I'm going to do something much better.]" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Ah, beautiful." said Jester, with a wide smile. Her work of art was complete. She stepped back into the middle of the alley to admire it, gazing up at the mangled mess of Galik's corpse as it hung by the ankles from a light fixture. His flesh had been skinned off his body, and the muscle tissue had been carefully unwrapped and left in a pile next to a nearby trash bin. She left only enough to hold in his organs and to allow his corpse to hang there, and had been extra careful in not staining her clothing or herself with his blood. An ending fitting the tattletale. Trying to squeal on the location of the Guillotine's construction just wouldn't do! She decided to sign her artwork, laser inscribing her name into his sternum. There, finished! "Now, I still need to find a few more crew members. Going to need plenty of pilots...engineers too!" she said to herself, before turning and walking down the alleyway. "Oh, Valkyrie is going to be so happy."

((Back from hurricane evacuation.)) As Taylor turned away from Vixe, the latter's confident smirk eroded, replaced with a fiercely determined grimace. "[You think I'm giving you a choice?]" she barked, indignantly. Taylor ignored her and set her eyes on the staircase ahead of her. With the press of her trigger, Taylor launched the final missile in her pod and gunned the accelerator, putting everything on the line in a terrifying dash for the headquarters entrance. Taylor: CH Estimate: 2/5 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. The rocket impacted the stairs and exploded into a rolling fireball, flinging molten material forward and shrapnel in both directions. The kanads had dropped away as soon as they knew the attempt was coming, and had suffered minimal injuries, but from Taylor's vantage point, they were obscured by a cloud of smoke and dust. The fiery glow of the headquarters shining out through the maw of the entrance looked about as inviting as the gates of Hell as she closed in. [B]20 DMG to Kanads 3, 4, and 5.[/B] "[Stop her!]" Vixe screamed. Vixe, Kanads 3, 4, and 5: CH Estimate: {1/8(Authority) + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8} x 2(Malevolence) = 1 Roll Passed. [I]Feat Discovered: Vixe's Authority (When issuing orders, contributes to group CH Estimate as if participating directly)[/I] Taylor crested the top step, and for a fraction of a second, she could see into the burning building and just make out the shapes moving within. The enemy was swarming; her own crew was pinned down. Kyrskada's plasma sword glimmered like an executioner's ax. Taylor's leadership was needed more at this moment than it had ever been, and she drummed up the courage within to see the challenge and defeat it. Then, suddenly, the tables turned. A force so sharp that it knocked the air out of her lungs impacted her, lifting her up and off of the bike and into the air. Darkness closed in around the corners of her vision, a sickening feeling of pressure behind her face built up and numbed her to the brief weightlessness that took hold of her body. The world spun away in a blur, and only when her armor slammed into the ground did she realize she had been completely unseated from the motorcycle. The kanads had used the grips and stocks of their OBVs like guisarmes, hooking her in the chest as she rode past and ripping her lose from the handlebars like medieval pikemen unhorsing a rider. The bike slammed into the corner of the door frame and went airborne, crashing into the rear of Iron's rover and nearly decapitating Markus in the process. Taylor had no time to react as the batakya soldiers brutalized her, punching and kicking with all the force their power armor could generate- she somehow got her feet under herself and tried to stand, only to realize that she was being hoisted by one of the three from behind. She turned her head in time to see the ruined steps of the staircase behind her, throwing an elbow into the ribs of the one lifting her, only to receive a leaping overhand punch from another soldier. Taylor crashed to the ground again and yet again, falling through the flaming embers of her own rocket attack as she descended the stairs in a heap. [B]75 DMG[/B] Taylor HP: 76/156 Up on the embankment, Vixe wasn't sure what was happening until she saw the human come tumbling back down the stairs. "Yashta," she quietly hissed with a malicious grin, descending into the plaza. "[Get close and surround her; she can't handle all of you-]" she began to say as she was interrupted by a number of long-range shots. Markus: [B]3[/B] x 1.25 x 3(Ambusher) = 11.25... [B]11 DMG[/B] Karl: [B]7[/B] x (No Feat Applicable) = [B]7 DMG[/B] The first bullet hit Vixe in the ear, blowing it cleanly off her head in a spatter of blood. The captain shrieked in dismay, doubling over as her cap fell away and tumbled across the ground. She stumbled, holding her head in her hands until a second round clipped her in the lower arm, narrowly missing her jaw. In a panic, she ungracefully scrambled over to a nearby storage container and dropped to the ground, trying to regather her senses. "[Wha- watch for snipers, comrades!]" she finally called out over her comms. The three batakya troopers on the steps seemed to hesitate, concerned for the safety of the captain. However, Vixe quickly remembered how she had made herself a liability during the last confrontation, and added- "[Stay on target! Crush the enemy!]" Karl, meanwhile, grunted with disapproval. He wasn't sure which of the snipers inside the building had gotten to Vixe first, but whoever they were, they spoiled his shot. Pulling his head back from the scope, he turned around to have his blood run cold. He was surrounded- the Peacekeepers had decided to focus on apprehending the less tank-like of their opponents, and had closed in on him the moment he had become distracted with the long shot. And even worse, the soldiers from the outer roadway had now finished their long jog to the battle, and were closing in with their guns at the ready. [B]There was nothing left for Taylor and Karl to do but surrender, as more than 20 soldiers were now bearing down on them.[/B] --- [video=youtube;fsMUf3wwT-A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsMUf3wwT-A[/video] Ryvik's thoughts slowly sharpened as Vostokrebh appeared in the distance. Watching from the medical retrieval drone, he could see the fires in and around the headquarters, but the hospital building seemed safe. He wondered whether the TBC crew had finally been stopped altogether, but the explosion of Taylor's final rocket convinced him otherwise. ...Why? The question echoed in his head for the hundredth time since his flight began. Why had Vorokar set up such an elaborate scheme? Why had he pressured him to detonate the bomb and destroy Stalnazyp, and likely to kill himself? Why had he left Rigel behind and returned to Kanadys, abandoning him when their mission was so close to completion? What if the plan had gone without a hitch? That is, if he had captured Iska and used the khergian to lure his sister into the open, and then captured Yanim, what would have happened? Ryvik imagined himself delivering his sister to GKVR authorities at Vostokrebh, more or less exactly how things actually occurred in his absence. Ryvik would then have expected to board a shuttle and return to the Perikal, but the Perikal wouldn't have been there. Would the base commanders have mislead him about Vorokar's absence? Or would they have been honest, and simply explained that Vorokar had believed... Ryvik stopped himself; even if the base commanders were to admit to falsehoods, there was nothing saying that they wouldn't continue to lie. He could no longer trust others' words as to what the general was thinking. The most important thing to consider was the general's likely actions. Vorokar would have landed on Kanadys, approached the High Council, and announce that the Bloody Fox had been captured by Lieutenant Ryvik Sidikan, the very same agent the Council had ridiculed just days earlier. They would be humiliated by the general, especially Bikrata, the worst of his critics. It might even produce a shift in politics, providing the Vizier with a reprieve from the Council's constant demands for greater oversight. But what if he had failed? He thought about the bomb and, frankly, wondered if it was even real. If it weren't, then it would have only served as a tool to manipulate his behavior. Ryvik would fight tooth and nail to avoid having to use it, perhaps reaching a level of ferocity beyond his normal combat behavior.... and in fact, the bomb had exactly that effect. But, if the bomb was actually a fake, then there was the possibility that he would have either attempted to detonate it, or leave the dead hand system in place, assuming that the blast would kill the terrorists, only for nothing to happen at all. Ryvik would simply die, and Vorokar would arrive at Kanadys to inform the High Council that the Bloody Fox had escaped and killed his top agent on the case in the process. Vorokar would lose his job and probably be imprisoned again. That made no sense. Of all possibilities, it was impossible that Vorokar would select the one most likely to end his career and get Ryvik killed; just because the general likely didn't value the life of his supposed protege doesn't mean that the general actually wanted him to die. At least, not without being useful. Assuming the bomb was real, Vorokar would either have the first scenario play out, in which success comes easily, or else Ryvik would kill Yanim using the bomb. And if that happened, Ryvik wouldn't live to see the outcome, wherein Vorokar would explain to the High Council that the Bloody Fox was dead, Stalnazyp, a stronghold opposing the next kanad occupation attempt, had been destroyed, and no connection between the attack and the Collective could be proven. Ryvik could imagine the general deflecting objections and painting the scene as he sees fit- "war with Rigel is inevitable," Vorokar would claim. "We have struck first and dealt the enemy a powerful psychological blow." And if the Council didn't buy it, Vorokar could still blame his late lieutenant for the atrocity. That's why the Perikal was already warping away: plausible deniability. Vorokar would choose this option, Ryvik realized, as it offered the most job security out of any option. Suddenly, Vorokar would be at the forefront of psychological warfare on Rigel, while the tragedy of Yanim and Ryvik Sidikan would fade into history and obscurity. Ryvik wanted to vomit, but he had a plan. He was going to survive tonight, and he envisioned Vorokar arriving in Kanadys only to inform the High Council that the Batakya had done the job without him. Then, Ryvik would arrive days later to testify and reveal what the general had attempted to do. He would make himself a nightmare for Vorokar in every capacity. And one day, he hoped, he would stand face to face with the general, and exact a much more direct revenge. He pulled out his notebook and scrawled out his thoughts on the matter so that he might read from them later. ((More is coming soon. The next update will focus on the battle inside the building, which will likely be the final turn before we go into a non-combat cutscene.)

((Jesus, feels like this went south MUCH faster than the Missile Base.))

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