DragonRage

Zephyr, the Alter Aurorus

Amelie responds by pulling a rather alarmingly large knife seemingly out of thin air and slamming it into the webbing with a flick of her wrist, right between the captive's legs. The bound man whimpers pathetically and wiggles futilely against his bonds, but Aquila would notice that the sharp blade parted the strands easily. "The web is as strong as real spider's silk, but does not last as long. Once dried, it is easy to cut," She informs the knight.

"Oh god oh god I don't know much please don't kill me for that!" The soldier responds, and if he seems more afraid of Amelie smirking in the back than Aquila in his face, at least he's talking. "Moira wouldn't tell us much so we couldn't tell people about it but I think it's some kinda wrecked Zeppelin or something! She called it the Skyship Weatherlight once or twice! I think we were siphoning the fuel lines to get the stuff we were canning, I don't know where it goes after we crated it up. If- If you let me go I can show you how to fix the fuel lines!" Vitor curses in the background. "He's probably not gonna know much more than that," The Brazilian assesses, "Talon likes to keep information compartmentalized so captures can't set them back far. Unless this guy's a member of their command staff in disguise, they'll only have told him what he needs to do his job, and you don't exactly need much knowledge of the insides of the ship to operate a canning plant or stand guard outside."

Amelie shrugs, seeming content to observe the group's actions as people continue filtering in to explore the derelict. The ship is clearly ancient, having lain in this place for centuries at least based on the dust and animal tracks inside. Most of the hull seems shaped from a single piece of wood that, when scratched, actually oozes sap like the entire ships is some exotic plant cyborg. Wires, pipes, and strange clockworks can be found throughout the ship, apparently to adjust the sails and steering vanes. There are two large cargo holds in the fore and aft of the vessel, and an empty weapons deck connects them below the main deck on the surface. The glowing crystal that apparently is meant to power the whole vehicle sits in the back atop some kind of thruster that has no apparent fuel tank or source aside from the glowing crystal. There are a lot of other machines, but a cursory examination is unable to divine their function. Vitor and Lucine are able to confirm that the glowing crystal contains a seemingly bottomless wellspring of mana (which Lucine can use to top herself off), Contagion confirms that the crystal is definitely supposed to power the vessel somehow (though he can't figure out how), and Amelie adds that it looks like the hole in the hull is slowly... healing. As is other less severe instances of damage to various mechanical parts and areas of the hull. Huh. Neat.

"Medics! Jade and Halley need aid!" Lexiel puts actions to her words, her aura restoring 5HP to Jade, Halley, and Solomon. "Hit the flyers next! They're doing the most damage!" (The Bel Lahmu are the flyers). However, she decides to focus on defense this round and casts Increasing Devotion again, this time calling three Soldiers (still have 1 HP and a counterattack that deals [syn] damage) to block for Jade, Halley, and Venus.

"Oh, right, the gun's a mystic code," Vitor recalls, "Maybe you run hot or something? If you're having trouble recovering on your own, we can try to set up a leyline tap later, or draw some mana from whatever Roadhog was getting charged up with."

A bloodthirsty grin stealing across her face under her helmet, Mirri flicks the safety cover off her torpedo launcher and sights in on the Vajra. The targeting computer quickly reports a lock, but she waits a few moments more until the Force chimes in too, before pressing the firing stud. The X-Wing shudders slightly before the torpedo, shrouded in a blue glow, leaps from the starship's nose and soars toward the hulking creature. (deals int x5 damage, so 35 assuming no buffs, and cannot miss).

Contagion finds the following on the corpses! Since there's too much for him to carry, he presumably sets it out so people can come have a look. Nader and Leo head to the pipeline to see what they can do about it. The pipeline has very obviously had a big chunk of it exploded, with fresh water gushing out to soak into the ground. Fortunately, it looks like there's enough pipe on the cart to patch this if you had a way to keep the seals between the new pipe and the old pipe from leaking. ________________________________________________________ "If you are seeking a power source, there is a car-sized glowing crystal a few rooms down the left-hand passage," the blue woman informs Aquila, her flat, yellow eyes sliding over Alan as he attempts to casually walk past her. "Your friend might want to try that way first." Then her cold gaze slides over to Lucine's blatant ogling, and she smirks slightly, cocking her hips in a provocative fashion. "Like what you see, little girl? Come back in a few years and maybe we'll talk." That's when Vitor walks in, already talking at Lucine. "You said you were feeling tired? Maybe mana depletion? But I saw you eat and sleep last night, and you didn't use a lot of magecraft this fight that I saw. Were you doing anything to up your draw- Santa Maria the Widowmaker!" The Shield of Imhotep materializes on his forearm, and he interposes it between Lucine and the sniper, who snorts and rolls her eyes at the display. "The Widowmaker died six months ago, agent. Strike Commander Lexiel triggered her conditioning with a lucky turn of phrase, and Agent Hanzo filled her with enough arrows to kill six men," She flicks the safety and drops her gun, allowing it to hang freely from its shoulder strap. "I am Amelie Lacroix. Talon and I have taken different paths. And unless Moira was lying to me, I truly have escaped the reach of their claws. Killing you would be... enjoyable, oui. But such pleasures do not endure enough to be worth the effort."

Taylor orders Jet to step in front of himself and Kenshiro the Morelull and himself, then use Detect to block the incoming attack! Hopefully, this will cause the Wailord's attack to be wasted, allowing an easy counterattack. He then asks Kenshiro to ready a Mega Drain, to fire the moment the Wailord returns from its dive.

Maris jogs into the room, and throws a handful of fire at the goblin farthest from allies, dealing 7 damage to it! Assuming a 16 hits the goblin.

Mirri comes out of the bus, starts, and immediately calls R2P14. "Hostile heavies! Get my bird in the air! We're going hunting." She hops into her X-Wing, and it lifts off before streaking toward the enemy. Hm. Might as well ham it up a bit for Uber and L33t. "All systems green," She states into her comms, "Locking S-foils in attack position. I'm starting my run."

Vitor pulls out his first aid kit (really should have packed that sooner), and starts treating wounds. (Between him and Alan, everybody gets back to full HP who wants to be.) Aquila enters the derelict to find that the red-haired Talon doctor and the surviving soldier didn't make it very far. The soldier is pinned to the wall by a sheet of sticky-looking, white threads. The doctor, meanwhile, is being pinned to the wall by an incredibly attractive, blue-skinned woman who has the Irish-looking medic by the throat. The blue woman appears to be wearing some kind of padded armor, colored a mottled tan to blend with the surrounding desert, and has the second-largest gun he's ever seen (after Nader's Horsekiller) slung over her back, and a bandolier of grenades. A strange helmet with what looks like eight round, red eye-marks on it sits over her hair, which is also blue. "Talk," The sniper orders her captive in a flowing, French accent, "Tell me where the kill switch is, and I'll make it fast." "No kill switch," The Talon doctor forces out, "All psychological. Conditioning deemed sufficient. Physical weaknesses (gasp) Mercy would have found. Unacceptable-" The woman cuts her captive off with a sharp blow to the temple that sends her staggering, and slings her rifle into firing position. However, before she can open fire, the Talon agent vanishes into wisps of smoke again. The sniper pulls her helmet's visor down over her face, scans the room, and pushes it back up, muttering something extremely uncomplimentary towards her former captive in French. Then she turns to Aquila, gun pointed at the floor, but in a way that he's sure would let her point it at him almost instantly if he attacked. "Huh. You got in here faster than I expected," She comments, yellow eyes appraising the wounded knight. "I was here for her. I got what I came for. What is your mission in this place?"

Lucinda puts on the future coord she picked up on the shopping trip, along with her guitar. "...Not sure I feel ready for this but, uh, less so than last time. That's progress, right?"

Team Derelict Assault: Thanks to her Eternal Arms Mastery, Lucine is able to bulls-eye the missile before it hits! It detonates harmlessly in the air. The remaining Talon agents fail to reappear. Combat is over! Feel free to investigate the derelict. Team Pipeline Repair: Sha'Tith roasts the remaining Talon soldier. Junkrat has apparently decided that discretion is the better part of not getting another limb blown off by Nader, because he flies away by surfing on explosions. Somehow. Freya reanimates the following: The pipeline repair team is now free to do whatever. Hopefully starting with repairing that pipeline.

"Keep it up! Don't lose focus! Get this guy first!" Lexiel shouts, pointing at Officer A. Both officers are priority targets, but the faster one is more dangerous. Her aura pulses yellow, healing Jade, Laver, and Liliya for 6 HP apiece, as she moves a glowing orange rune over her left knuckles. With a few quick flaps of her wings she rises over the battlefield, and plummets like a missile towards Officer A, left arm drawn back for a punch. She thrusts her fist forward, through the rune, and as it passes through the gold and black plates of the Doomfist gauntlet slam into place around it, crackling with red energy. Lexiel casts Summon Doomfist, and strikes Officer A with a Rocket Punch, dealing 2d4 + 11 damage. Lexiel is now suffering from a -2 weight penalty, as the Doomfist is a bit heavy for her at the moment (this lowers her initiative and opposed check results by 2).

Samantha staggers to her feet, barely conscious, and reflexively draws power into herself. She uses Fiery Rebirth, healing herself for 2d6 + 32 HP. The Phoenix Corona is off.

The Battle Continues! __________________________________________________________________ Pipeline Repair Team Cackling madly, Junkrat barrages the cart of parts with grenades, removing 36% of its health! The cart can't take much more of this! Sha'Tith uses his Barbed Wire to deal 2 damage to each human enemy! Then he torches the Shock Trooper with his Flame Breath, dealing 9 damage! Leo pumps 7 mana into healing Sha'Tith! Leo lacks skill at healing, but he seems to have done something at least partially right, as a blood-red protective aura surrounds Sha'Tith, granting him 20 temporary hit points. The Frost Brute prepares an action... Nader shoots the Dystoan Drop Bear, blowing a large hole in its chest. The strange creature staggers, razor maw grinding, before it falls dead before him. Chalk one up to superior firepower. The Talon Shock Trooper blasts the Frost Brute with his shotgun, downing the construct. The Frost Brute was not ready for this! The Talon Skirmisher pokes his head out of cover and fires his assault rifle at Leo, dealing 9 damage! Blue draws upon his fast magical power... and shows his lack of practice, surrounding himself in a large, remarkably clingy globe made of ground water. The badlands beneath the party's feet shift omenously, as though something supporting them was removed. Freya alters her loadout! She also has a large, cybernetic bear corpse to work with... Stelio carves up the Shock Trooper, dealing 20 damage with his first swing, and 21 with his second! The Shock Trooper falls in three pieces. Status: ______________________________________________________________________ Derelict Assault Team Contagion riddles the remaining Flame Trooper with bullets! The terrorist drops to the earth, bleeding heavily. Aquila recovers from his stun! Alan, showing great forethought, produces some medical supplies! Vitor stabs Shock Trooper 1 with Gae Bolg, dealing 18 damage! The shock trooper is perforated to death. Moira vanishes instantly, leaving the remaining skirmisher looking very sorry for himself. Lucine takes a shot at the last Talon operative, but the Drop Shield blocks the bullet! The remaining Talon Skirmisher drops his gun to hang from his shoulder by a strap and flees back into the derelict. A grapnel fires from the Mysterious Sniper's position, and pulls them toward the derelict, where they vanish inside. Ena takes a look at the flying object and is alarmed to see it's a missile painted black, with glowing purple lines! Status:

After some consideration, Taylor asks Kenshiro the Morelull to use Flash. It's not the most reliable strategy, but accuracy scumming has served him well before. Jet's moveset isn't exactly optimal here, but Confusion is the only choice he has to put the Wailord out of its misery as soon as possible.

"I- I am really bad at apologizing, aren't I?" Mirri asks Satomi, "I sure seem to like the taste of my boots today. I suppose I shall take my leave then. I'm not quite so bad at reading people to miss that you'd rather not be spending time near me. And after what I did, I can hardly blame you." Mirri turns around and starts walking away.

Lexiel's aura pulses faintly, giving +1 initiative to herself, Jade, and Halley! She casts Increasing Devotion, placing a Soldier to block for Jade. The soldier has 1 HP, no resistance, and will defend Jade by body-blocking attacks as best he can while counterattacking for [syn] damage. "Stick close to cover and watch each other's backs," The angel orders the group. She has passed Sachi the extra healing bauble before the battle commenced. "Focus fire on the dragon teeth beasts and the officers first! Then the mouth creatures, and then the skeletons! We kill their leaders and best attackers fast, and then work our way down. Let's go!"

"That is... No, I reacted as I did because I am short-sighted, short-tempered, and uncomfortable in large groups," Mirri admits uncomfortably from nearby, "But that is why I was angered. However unintentionally, you implied that the honored dead were undeserving of such respect, having no spirit to become one with the Force upon passing."

Mirri finds a quiet corner to work off the backlash from Lucille's actions by pulling her helmet up and hurling vigorously.

Samantha, remembering what happened the last time she recklessly charged at a powerful enemy, decides to play things safer this time around. She draws upon the power of the Phoenix, surrounding herself in cosmic fire (12 backlash damage), activates her Phoenix Corona. The young superhero rises above the group, wings of psychic plasma extending over them, and surrounds herself in Psychic Armor (+synergy x2 to resistance for 4 rounds, base synergy is 11). As the reassuring layers of telekinetic force settle over her, she sets her gaze on the Lancer.

Team Pipeline Repair: Junkrat's mad laughter accompanies a spray of grenades, which arc over the minefields, striking Sha'Tith for 20 damage and reducing the supply cart to 75% structural integrity in a spray of force and shrapnel! Sha'Tith spits fire and death in all directions, removing 30% of minefield 3, the remainder of minefield 1, and 10% of minefield 2. His barbed wire deals 4 damage to the Dystoan Drop Bear, but fails to strike the hidden Talon operatives. Leo, who while in good shape is kind of weedy, attempts to grapple half a ton of cybernetic koala. He gets a good hold on it, but is unable to bench several times his body weight and shove it off. The Frost Brute readies its ice fire and goes looking for trouble. Nader punches a bear in the face! He deals 22 damage to it, Leo's grip having let the armored man line up the perfect hit! The bear rears up, looking slightly punch-drunk. The Talon Shock Trooper, lenses of his helmet glinting in the bright sunlight, steps out of an alley behind the Frost Brute, jams his shotgun into its back, and pulls the trigger, dealing 15 damage to it! The Talon Skirmisher stays hidden, readying an action. Blue taunts the Drop Bear with his delicious scent. The bear seems too concussed to notice. Freya orders her zombies forward unto the breach! The zombies sacrifice themselves to detonate the remaining mines. Stelio sees his chance and takes a swing at the Drop Bear, dealing 14 damage with his first swing, and 14 with his second. The Dark Adverse status effect does not trigger. With a metallic whine, the Drop Bear staggers off of Leo before dropping to all fours. It shakes itself like a wet dog, before setting itself to charge again. Status: ____________________________________________________________ Team Derelict Assault: Contagion uses Toxin Cloud, dealing 15 damage to all unprotected enemies! Talon Skirmisher 1, Talon Heavy, and both Talon Flame Troopers are hit. Talon Skirmisher 1 and the Flame Troopers are poisoned. Aquila bashes the Talon Heavy with his flail, dealing 22 damage to him as shards of material fly from the machine gunner's shattered faceplate. Alan orders his gun drone to open fire on the Talon Heavy, but fails to make an impression on the trooper's shield. "That tank needs to die!" Vitor declares, levelling his spear at the stocky terrorist. "I'll have your heart! Emulated Phantasm! Gae Bolg!" The long spear begins glowing with unholy light, radiating bloodlust, before Vitor charges forward and slams its point into the Talon Heavy's chest. The machine gunner dies instantly, his shield winking out as he falls. Vitor's Blast Orb lands, dealing 7 damage to both Talon Flame Troopers. Vitor is now suffering from magical backlash, and all his magical actions will cost 20% of his MHP for the next 3 rounds. With a sigh, Moira fires a spray of yellow stuff over the Shock Trooper and the Flame Troopers, restoring 16 HP to them. Talon Shock Trooper 1 charges Aquila and shoulder checks him. 17 vs 11! Aquila is shoved to the ground and stunned, but not before he gets a counterattack off, dealing 13 damage to the shock trooper and putting a deep dent in the close combat specialist's armor. The Shock Trooper is no longer in the Drop Shield. Lucine pops off a shot at Skirmisher 1, dealing 16 damage! The skirmisher staggers, dropping his assault rifle as he clutches at his wounds, before falling to the ground with a disbelieving moan. Talon Skirmisher 2 throws a grenade at Aquila and Vitor! Vitor takes 18 damage! Aquila takes 16 damage! Moira uses Draining Grasp on Aquila, pulling 6 HP from him. Flame Trooper 1 attempts to set Aquila on fire, spending his Stoked buff! However, before he can do that the Mysterious Sniper makes their presence known by blowing his head clean off. From their vantage point, Alan, Lucine, and Ena could easily track the contrails of the sniper's rounds to a bluff on the other side of the battlefield. Flame Trooper 2 attempts to set Vitor on fire, but Vitor plugs the flamethrower barrel with Gae Bolg's haft, causing a backup that forces the Talon agent to drop his flaming weapon with a curse. The Talon Heavy would do something here, but he's very dead. Ena takes a shot at Moira, but the Drop Shield easily tanks the blow, with no visible strain. A glint of light attracts her attention to something flying through the air in the distance. Status:

Mirri switches targets immediately, pumping four more blaster bolts into the Wyvern for 11 + 1d3 damage apiece. Then she draws her lightsaber and uses its defensive action, blocking the first attack to strike her this round, and reflecting any projectiles blocked this way back at the attacker.