DragonRage

Samantha draws upon the power of the Phoenix to the greatest extent she can, an almost blinding orange light surrounding her in the shape of a massive raptor of flame. She raises her hands above her head, and the fires of her corona begin to draw upwards like water down a drain, forming a massive sphere of raw energy and plasma. Once she's gathered as much power as she can, smoke rising from her body as the cosmic fire burns at her, she brings the sphere forward to point at Lancer. "Hey! Chowderhead! Eat this and die, ya wannabe Apocalypse flunky!" Then she releases containment on the side furthest from her, and a beam of psychic fire, burning as brightly as the midday sun, scorches a line between her and the dark Servant.

"Very Well!" Taylor pulls out his vulnerable grass type so that Cathode and Suzie can do their thing. "Kenshiro, we're falling back for now."

"Guh. Not productive. New strategy needed. Kenshiro, prepare yourself," Taylor orders, returning Jet to his Aether Ball and sending the Morelull out. "The black core has a flying move. You will likely not withstand a hit from it, but this thing must be stopped. Use Flash to reduce its accuracy. If it misses even once with that move, we will have a significant advantage."

Taylor considers his options, and decides on a gamble. "Jet! Use Bide!" Then, he uses his class ability to raise Jet's defense. With a little luck, this will allow Jet to survive long enough to unleash energy.

"We need to defeat the dark core!" Taylor shouts, perhaps unnecessarily, as it seems like most of the group has figured that out already. "Jet, try to use Confusion to telekinetically expose or attack the dark core! If it has the dark type immunity or you can't target it, we'll have to try something else."

Sister Rachel notes that everybody seems to be going inside. This seems unsafe. "Unless there's a good reason not to, I'm going to find a high place and keep overwatch," She informs the group, "This is starting to seem like a possible trap to me."

"Huh. Fascinating," Taylor remarks. "Jet, keep an eye on it in case it becomes hostile again. Can you sense anything from it with your psychic powers?"

"The perimeter must be made secure," Sister Rachel agrees, "There's no telling what will come, but I am certain enemy reinforcements will arrive at some point. They always do."

"It is using Razor Wind!" Taylor deduces from the wind whipping around the tree, "Jet, use Detect to block it! Razor Wind is a powerful move!" At least, it is at our level.

Reluctant to wake the sleeping person, Sister Rachel quietly has a look around (or as quietly as someone in power armor can be). She eventually finds a user's manual for the audio equipment. So she settles down to read that, trying not to disturb the sleeping lady.

Sister Rachel takes some time in the machine shop to give her inferno pistols and medicae rig some much-needed maintenance rites. Praise the Omnissiah! The machine-spirits seem delighted, the equipment sliding back together smoothly. Once that's done, she decides to head over to the propaganda department and have a look around. Perhaps she can bring the God-Emperor's light to these poor souls...

After some thought, Taylor decides to lead with Jet the Meditite. Jet's blocking move could be invaluable against powerful attacks, and there's no shame in swapping if he needs to.

Lexiel considers her options, and then she grins. "Hypersonic dragon!" With an echoing boom, a gigantic, red creature, trailing fire as it burns through the sky on wings and biological rockets, soars into battle. "Get the archers, boy! Get the archers!" She urges the beast, as it grabs Jade and hurls him onto its back (amping up Fluxcharge) before soaring towards the dragon tooth archers. Unlike most of Lexiel's other summons, the dragon can attack when it's summoned, dealing 1d6 + Lexiel's synergy + Lexiel's intelligence fire and water dual typed damage to the targeted enemy (dragon tooth archers C). Upon entering the battlefield, it moves target ally to the top of the initiative order next round. 4 resistance, 35/35 HP. The initiative boosting effect only lasts 1 round. Her aura pulses again, giving Solomon, Jade, and Laver 5 HP (amping up Fluxcharge again).

Samantha, seeing things are suddenly going her way, turns up the heat. Her Phoenix Corona blazes around her, sending ripples of pure force through the air and converting the ground beneath her to glass as she raises both hands and assumes the classic 'Kamehameha' pose. Thus prepared, she sends another beam of fiery death toward Lancer. While shouting "Ka. Me. Ha. Me. HAAAAAA!", of course. Assuming no debuffs or other shenanigans, it should do 21d6+21 damage to the Servant.

"Agent Vitor Santos-Schultz, pleased to meet you, I think," The Brazilian greets the possible AI, possible phone call, "And we're wearing clothes. What, you got something against clothes? And the director probably ain't here. This place has been abandoned for a real long time. We came down here to make sure it isn't fulla uncontrollable killer robots or something, and salvage what we can. It's pretty clear nobody else wants what's in here, or this place would still be in use."

"I didn't see any evidence of traps, but that doesn't mean they aren't present, just that they didn't make a strong impression on the building's history," Vitor says, "But if they've got an elevator or mechanized doors or anything like that, we'll need the power just to navigate the place. I think we're going to have to roll the dice and hope for the best."

Sister Rachel goes to Shen's workshop, for now at least. She'll almost certainly want to visit the armory for some training and the propaganda division to spread the word of the God-Emperor at some point.

"It looks like it's an R&D lab focused on weapons technology. Apparently created by Hyperion's founder, Maxim Turner, to ward off industrial espionage during a 'corporate war', whatever that is. There's probably some good stuff in here, but there might be enemies too. That entrance wasn't nearly as well hidden as I feel like a secret military lab should be."

"I am Sister Celestian Rachel of the Argent Shroud. May the blessings of the God-Emperor be upon you, defenders of Holy Terra," Rachel slams her right fist into her left pauldron in the Imperial salute. "My decades of experience battling all manner of xenos scum and healing the wounds they inflict are at your disposal. I understand your tech-priests might wish to examine the Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and the lasgun schematics within? "I also am well versed in the less martial rites of the Ecclesiarchy. It has been a while since I have given a sermon or had the luxury of easing a dying man's passing to join the Emperor. But the fortitude of a soldier's soul is as important as his body, if not more so, and in this manner as in all others it is my honor, duty, and privilege to serve the defenders of humanity."

This time, Increasing Devotion puts out five soldiers. Two defend Lexiel, and one each goes to defend Jade, Laver, and Solomon. Lexiel's aura pulses with healing, restoring 5 HP to herself, Halley, and Solomon. "Take down the fastest enemies!" She decides, "We need to keep our momentum going, or they'll overwhelm us!"

"Sure thing. The lasgun section is the second dog-ear," Sister Rachel hands the book to Nader, "The other dog-ears mark useful parts. Everything else is basically emergency toilet paper, not that I've yet needed to use any of it for that, thank the Emperor. I'll see to it that you get a copy of the useful information once we have a chance, but there's no harm in lending it now." Nader would see that there are six dog-eared sections. 'The Battle Hymns of the Imperium', 'the litany of the lasgun', 'the precepts of entrenchments', 'rites of cleanliness', 'basic first-aid', and 'enemies of the Imperium'. It seems the last two sections have been heavily annotated with ornate, cursive corrections and suggestions. The first section is full of hymnals that appear devoted to glorifying the God-Emperor of Mankind and his 'Angels' the Space Marines. These hymns seem to have mostly been cribbed from other songs, some of which Nader recognizes. The second section describes how to make a lasgun, spread through a lot of religious procedure, talk about keeping machine-spirits happy, and maintenance advice. While the science goes over Nader's head mostly, the actual procedure is really simple. Heck, Forenia could have mass-produced them if they'd known the designs. The third and fourth sections are a highly practical guide to battlefield fortifications and sanitation respectively. The fifth seems to as written advise praying and walking off wounds a lot, which is annotated with actually helpful medical advise, though it sometimes calls for supplies that Nader doesn't recognize by name. The sixth section reads remarkably like a Soviet propaganda piece as written, making the enemies talked about within seem incompetent and weak. The annotations turn it into a businesslike guide to fighting extremely dangerous enemies called 'Orks', 'Tau', 'Dark Eldar', 'Eldar', 'Necrons', 'Tyranids', and 'Heretics'.

"Hey guys! Over here! I found something interesting," Vitor calls out, "Looks like some kind of buried facility belonging to some dudes called Hyperion. I'm going to try to read its history as best I can. I can see the past of any object I touch, for those of you I haven't met yet. Might be something valuable in here, and I can almost certainly divine out where the entrance is." Vitor uses his psychometry to read the history of the Hyperion facility until he stops getting relevant-seeming information.

"Huh, that's odd," Vitor had decided to wander the area in search of something interesting and/or useful when he saw that Tim was probably a lot better qualified to supply first aid than himself. He seemed to have stepped on something metallic. Cautiously, Vitor prods at the buried object with Gae Bolg. Assuming it doesn't respond by trying to kill him, he brushes a portion of it clear of dust and attempts to read its history with his Psychometry action.

"Xenos technology. Utterly untrustworthy. Especially if these xenos have discovered the old trick of putting homing beacons in their wargear in case an enemy loots it. It's a common tactic against insurgents, back home at least. Besides, Imperium technology is far superior to some magnet gun," Rachel opines loyally. She rummages around in her belt pouches briefly, before coming up with a battered, metal-bound book with a golden eagle on the cover. "If you need better weapons with which to combat the xenos, this will provide the superior option. The Infantryman's Uplifting Primer. Granted, most of the book is garbage. Propaganda and cherry-picked prayers chosen to encourage guardsmen to happily martyr themselves. But there is one chapter well worth reading. The one that details everything you need to maintain and repair the standard-issue Imperial lasgun in the field. It's so detailed, in fact, that you could build an entire lasgun from its instructions. "Granted, the lasgun isn't the most powerful weapon the Imperium ever produced. But it's inexpensive for the damage and rate of fire it has, nearly impossible to break beyond repair, you can charge the power packs by throwing them in a fire for a few hours if need be, and the technology can be scaled up to tank or even warship use. Punches right through lighter armors, and focused fire can bring down even the hardest targets."

"Psykers. Why does it always have to be psykers?" Sister Rachel edges about as far away from Harry and the XCOM troopers as she can get, "Not even sanctified, though that doesn't necessarily make it safer to be around them... "Wait, did you say that you've discovered a possible biological basis for psychic powers? I would be very interested in exploring this. I am Sister Rachel of the Argent Shroud, ordained Hospitaller. I've mostly been doing battlefield triage lately, but I have training in all manner of the medical arts. I have done brain surgery before, though only to treat injuries or extract shrapnel. I also have extensive in my order's more traditional pursuits of humanitarian relief missions and defensive warfare, though I'd prefer to not need either of those in the operating room. I could safely explore and study the brain of a living subject assuming a proper medical facility. I wouldn't want to try it with only my field medicae rig."