DragonRage

"Chances of successful rescue: minimal at best," Taylor diagnoses in an even tone, "Damage to biological systems appears critical. Morelull, please put the Wailord to sleep. We must end its suffering as swiftly and painlessly as possible. Jet, prepare yourself." The meditite drops to the ground in front of Taylor, and solemnly sets his stance. Taylor intends to battle.

Mirri steps out of the sanctuary and uses Blaster Volley, pumping four 1d3 + 11 damage shots into the Ettins.

Loadout: Mirri smoothly steps into the Sanctuary, and slides a hand down to her belt of broken lightsabers. There, she stokes her righteous fury and resolve to protect, gaining a +6 bonus to her synergy (for a total of 11 synergy) for the next 3 rounds. Meditate on the Lost goes on cooldown for 6 rounds.

Mirri marches in, blaster at the ready, and starts looking for trouble to shoot.

Mirri joins the hunt!

"Affecting your mind, did you say?" Mirri asks Soma, "I might be able to figure out what it's doing, if anything. And since I can't read thoughts, I can guarentee you it'll be less invasive than your other options in this group." Assuming Soma is fine with trying, Mirri places her palm onto Soma's forehead and attempts to detect mental effects or alterations with the Force. This might trigger that wild magic thing she got from the Heartless.

Team Pipeline Repair: Junkrat cackles over something, as loud clanking noises echo through the area. Sha'Tith uses Lemurian Burrowing, attempting to throw rocks at the mines! Intelligence check 17 v 37! Sha'Tith blunders into a Junkrat Trap, which slams shut on his legs dealing 3 damage and preventing use of mobility-based actions or extra moves for the next 2 rounds! Leo fires a bolt of force mana at minefield 1! 17 v 27! Quality 19! Random Bitz 49! Leo detonates a few mines, removing 25% of them in a chain reaction! Leo's Frost Brute shoots Ice Fire at minefield 2. ...It doesn't seem very effective. Nader Sprays Minefield 1 with bullets, dealing 24 damage! 60% of the remaining mines detonate in a chain reaction! The Talon Shock Trooper prepares an action. The Talon Skirmisher prepares an action. Blue starts orbiting, not that any of the enemies know he exists. Freya uses Natural Requiem, calling a zombie horde with a 28 hit multistrike for 1d2 damage a hit and 112 HP. Every 4 HP lost lowers the damage output by 1 strike. Stelio attacks minefield 3, dealing 10 damage! 10% of minefield 3 explodes! Stelio waits... From high in the sky, a massive Dystoan Drop Bear plummets to land behind the party, throwing up a mushroom cloud of dust! It charges from the cloud and body-slams Leo, dealing 7 damage to him and pinning him down! It opens its maw, revealing a long tube lined with rotating razors, and roars! Status: ______________________________________________________________________ Assault Team! Contagion kicks off the festivities with May the Gas Rise, dealing 12 damage to all Talon Agents and inflicting a poison for 5 rounds that deals 1d6 + 7 damage per round. Aquila marks the Talon Heavy, raises his shield to block incoming fire, and advances! Alan directs his gun drone at the Shock Troopers, dealing 15 damage to Trooper 1 and 21 damage to Trooper 2! Trooper 2 is dead. Vitor fires a Blast Orb at the Flame Troopers! They'll take 2d6 + 4 damage unless they choose to spend an action dodging. From inside the derelict, a gaunt, red-haired woman in dark robes steps out, coughing lightly. "What the bloody hell is going on here? Who dropped a smoke- Oh, we're under gas attack. God damn it, you assholes are intercepting scientific progress here!" Moira uses Gene Hack, cleansing the Talon Skirmishers and Talon Shock Troopers. Talon Shock Trooper 1 uses Biotic Field, dropping a glowing, yellow canister that heals himself, the flame troopers, and the heavy trooper for 11 damage! Talon Shock Trooper 2 is dead. Lucine opens fire on the Talon Sniper, dealing 7 damage per shot! The Talon Sniper is not pleased about this. Talon Skirmisher 1 shoulders his assault rifle and sprays down the group, dealing 7 damage to all his enemies! Talon Skirmisher 2 places a Drop Shield, surrounding himself, Moira, and the surviving Shock Trooper in a translucent bubble of energy! Moira uses Gene Hack again, cleansing the Flame Troopers, Heavy, and Sniper! Talon Flame Trooper 1 stokes his flamethrower, building up an infernal glow and ominous hum in the barrel of the weapon. Talon Flame Trooper 2 uses Flame Wall, cutting Aquila off from the group! Using beneficial actions on Aquila will deal 3d6 fire damage to you! The Talon Heavy swings his minigun into position. As the barrels begin to spin up, a glowing shield expands out from the weapon, covering Talon Skirmisher 1 and the flame troopers behind him. Thus protected, he begins to advance toward Aquila. The Talon Sniper paints Ena with a laser sight. Ena blows the Talon Sniper's head clean off. Status:

A roar of engines heralds Mirri's entrance into the area, setting her X-Wing down next to the L33t bus. Once landed, she stomps over to the group, looking as grumpy as ever, though she does take the time to send a brief bow in Satomi's direction. "So this is the interdimensional vehicle? Doesn't look like much. Not that looks always count for much. Let me guess, she's got it where it counts?" Mirri snorts, amused at the memory, "Seems like everyone who's refurbished old tech uses that line. Especially the Corellians. Hey, these parts look a lot like my hyperdrive! I bet I could follow you in my X-Wing, if you blazed the trail. Which is kriffing good, because I'd sooner die than leave it behind."

"Yeah, I know. I kinda... dropped the ball, last time," Lucinda admits quietly, "But it's not gonna happen again, I swear it! I'm never going to let you all down again."

Teams Finalized: Derelict Assault: Lucine, Contagion, Alan, Ena, Aquila, Vitor Pipeline Repair: Blue, Leo, Stelio, Nader, Sha'Tith, Freya _________________________________________________________________________________________ The assault group heads out early, following a copy of the map on one of the Overwatch-issue tablets, while the repair team makes their way to a hovering cargo sled carrying a section of pipe and spare parts, and a big, bulky toolbox. The sled looks extremely rickety despite its softly glowing hover pads, but it moves easily enough. Soon the repair team comes to an area covered in remarkably poorly-concealed bear traps and mines, as demented laughter echoes over the area. Init: Status: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ The assault team, meanwhile, manages to sneak within visual range of the derelict. Vitor and Lucine can feel the hum of raw mana from the massive, exposed crystal deep within the site. There appears to be fewer Talon operatives than there were in the video, but also the distinctive, wind-swept print of a VTOL cargo aircraft. The Talon operatives don't seem too concerned with people finding and attacking them; they're fairly spread out, and only a few seem to be actively alert. Init: Status:

"Such wonderful new experiences!" Alexandria exclaims, rising to her feet, "I did not think it was possible for me to be safely thrown about like that. Quite bracing. Should be an interesting place to explore. Let's go have a look around, shall we?" Alexandria attempts to open the door.

"I suppose our failures teach us as much as our successes. We have an excellent backstop. And I always wanted to throw a black hole at something," Alexandria decides, "Very well! Let us inflict SCIENCE upon this prison of ours." Her left arm reconfigures into its gatling pulse cannon configuration, several ports extending to the side. "Assuming we have sufficient power flow, my cannons should be able to direct the energy needed in a controllable fashion. I can cut them off the instant before things become too dangerous to continue. I doubt the arrogant mage or engineer who created this wall has ever encountered dark energy in measurable quantities before, so it might be a blind spot in his safeguards." The cannon barrels start to rotate, slowly at first, but quickly becoming too fast to follow with the naked eye. "Hook me up! Let us begin the experiments!"

"You want to make a magical black hole? Energy can substitute for matter to a degree in such a substance, but I don't think we have enough of either," Alexandria posits, "It takes a lot of energy and mass to pass the Schwartzschild Radius of anything, and my power plant couldn't come close. The castle's power plant couldn't even come close. We'd need something of extraordinary energy density. Maybe if you somehow transmuted a large piece of matter to electrons? I'm not a theoretical physicist... "Also, black holes are incredibly dangerous to most things nearby, but I'd probably be fine, and I kind of want to see what happens."

"Hm. That's almost certainly a sign that the barrier is still being monitored," Alexandria moves up behind Mar and Tesla, astonishingly quiet for someone so large. "If only there was some way to gain access to its root controls, I might be able to wrest control of it away from its creator. Or at the least, give him one huge slagging headache."

Assault team thus far: Lucine, Contagion, Alan, Ena Pipeline team thus far: Blue, Leo, Stelio "I think we should probably do an even split between the pipeline and the ruin," Vitor says, "They're both of critical importance to success here. Talon doesn't defend fixed locations all that often; they're used to being on the offensive. So they'll probably take an active defense and aggressively counterattack. We might be able to use that to lead them into an ambush or trap. The most they'll have is some trenches and sandbags set up for cover. We'll need someone with magical know-how on the assault team. Unless somebody else has the chops, I think that means me. "And Leo, what did I just tell you about not letting you try to commit suicide? You're not getting in my lab until you have your health back. You just got bit by the deadliest snake in the fucking world! I'm amazed you're even walking right now."

Mirri tells R2P14 to get her X-Wing in the air, and hooks her cargo cable to the bottom before he lifts off. The droid carefully manuvers the fighter over to the Massive Tanker, where Mirri attaches it to the hull. Then, she starts cutting out a large section of metal with her lightsaber, for R2P14 to carry to shore.

Assault team thus far: Lucine, Contagion, Alan. Pipeline team thus far: Blue. Sha'Tith and Aquila settle their differences like men! Or man and lizard. Sha'Tith promptly gets wrecked. It isn't even close. "... Uh, Ena, was it? Didn't I just get done saying Roadhog and Reaper probably aren't going to be around? The pipeline team's going to be facing Junkrat, the crazy explosives guy that Nader shot. He got his arm back on impressively fast. "Sorry, Alan, but all we have is what you see here. Nothing really useful for armoring your drone. What it's made of is probably tougher than our walls, and that's the only metal we've got. "Somehow I don't think stealth is an option. Talon gives infrared goggles to all their goons. They can see heat. And none of you seem exactly good at covert, pardon my saying. We're going to have to go in hot and hope for the best. I'm not sure how the hell you think you're turning our fine, fine resources of dirt, rocks, and scrub brush into useful soldiers, but if you think you can, go ahead. Because I'm still not letting you kill yourself messing around in my lab. Do you have a death wish, kid? I'm really starting to wonder."

Blue Occultist gains 1 dexterity from sparring! The group decides to take the time to eat and sleep, because that is important. Ena doesn't need to sleep, and so stays up to research this world, gaining 1 intelligence. 4chan has not defeated her this time, but there shall no doubt be a reckoning. The next morning, Snow wakes everyone up with a triumphant shout about how she's decoded the mysterious message! It's a video file in two parts. The first part is obviously shot through the scope of a sniper rifle, and shows a bunch of people in full-body, black armor swarming over what looks like a hull half-buried in sand. Though the hull is encrusted with the grime of ages, some parts still shine through a reflective silver. The armored people appear to be split between guarding the site, chopping at a hole in the hull with axes, and doing something to a huge, faintly-glowing crystal in the center. Whatever they're doing to it, they're bringing in empty canisters and leaving with pallets of full ones. The canisters look exactly like the one Roadhog used to heal himself. Then the video shows an image of a map from the safe house to presumably wherever this wreck is, before ending. "Holy- That must be where they're getting the mana to keep Roadhog powered up!" Vitor exclaims, "Well, in absence of a better possibility. But what the hell are Talon goons doing swarming over it? Why would they want- Oh, of course. Talon's this crazy social Darwinist terrorist group. Survival of the fittest, advance humanity through conflict, and all that shit. Having Roadhog knock over the last source of law and order in this area, Junkertown, would sound great to them. Best case scenario, it's just goons, and they think Roadhog and Junkrat are enough heavy hitter. Worst case scenario, they've called in Reaper and the Widowmaker. The Widowmaker is, hands down, the best assassin in the world. Scary, blue-skinned bitch who only feels emotion when she's killing people. Almost certainly got some surgical enhancements to make her a better sniper, but without much high ground around here she's a lot less dangerous than usual. Also, point in our favor, no confirmed activity on her part since Strike Captain Lexiel and Agent Hanzo ran her off six months ago in Prague. Reaper's this crazy, probably Mexican guy who only ever wears black cloaks and this owl skull mask. Dual wields shotguns. His aim sucks, but that's the only advantage you'll have, because he can turn to smoke whenever he feels like it and fly around, and he's strong enough to go hand-to-hand with a sapient gorilla. Oh, and I'm pretty sure he's a magus, because he eats the souls of his victims and is completely immune to physical damage. "If you've got any gods to pray to, pray that he didn't think this was worth his time. Though he's got a huge hate-boner for Overwatch agents and isn't exactly subtle, so him not teaming up with Roadhog to attack my team definitely suggests he's not around right now. But, well, you all deserve to know what the worst-case scenario is. In short, we have enemies of unknown strength and quality. Roadhog will destroy every glimmer of hope left for the people of Australia unless we cut off his access to that wreck and what they're getting out of it. But stopping Roadhog won't help if Junkertown falls before we can cut him off, and I just got word from Overwatch mission control that Junkrat's bombed Junkertown's water pipeline. They'll never hold out without water."

"It is something I intend to check," Mirri admits, "But I hadn't thought of it before talking to the two of you. The Force can make one a better engineer and pilot, so I wondered if it might be able to help with your duplication problem. Or at the least, allow you to circumvent it. Fair warning, I was only a Padawan when the order and the Republic fell. But I suppose that still makes me the foremost expert in the world, doesn't it?"

"Hm. Maybe R2P14 will have more ideas," Mirri acquiesces, "He was always more interested in the research side of things." Struck by sudden inspiration, she extends her Force senses, and gives a stiff poke to the place in the backs of the two parahumans' minds Master Yaddle told her can be used to test for Force Sensitivity if you don't have the usual equipment. Uber gives a useful response, and L33t a strong one, that actually causes her to miss a step. They're both trainable. Hm. On the one hand, she isn't sure how qualified she is to teach. On the other, it would be a useful carrot to dangle, Soma had expressed interest as well, and Master Kenobi always said you learned more from teaching than you did from being taught... "Did you know you are both Force-Sensitive?" She asks the local cosplayers slyly.

"Water? Dangerous?" Taylor asks, voice even blanker than usual with apparent non-comprehension. Then, he notices that Jet and the Morelull seem distressed at the idea of submerging their heads and puts two and two together. To get five. "Ah, of course, some types of Pokemon must not be able to handle submersion. Perhaps we should return them to Aether Balls before we continue. That should deal with the water problem nicely."

"If not to help with the Boat Graveyard, to help with transport," Mirri re-affixes her helmet as she pauses briefly, "You say you've explored everything your powers have left. Have you explored hyperdrive mechanics? Particle beam generation? Repulsor technology? Particle and ray shield optimization? Life support systems? Time manipulation? Inter-dimensional travel? If not, I believe we are still in business. "Sithspit! I didn't know they'd brought demo charges! We should probably head over to the bay. I do not have confidence that most of my... compatriots can employ those charges without harming themselves."

Mirri considers Uber and L33t's request for proof, and then decides to take the simple approach. With a hiss of released seals, she lifts her helmet off, revealing her face in all its red-skinned, horned glory. "We're not from around here," She informs Uber, before scraping a finger across her cheek to prove she isn't wearing makeup or a holographic mask.

"I survived a practice that Reinhardt and Zarya attended," Vitor replies confidently, "Reinhardt's seven five without his armor, built like a freaking castle, and dangerously overenthusiastic. Zarya isn't quite that ridiculously huge, but she's literally the strongest woman in the world. Ran out of ammo in battle, so she ripped a giant cannon off an armored vehicle with her bare hands to keep shooting. Runs around in Russian winters in a vest to show off how tough she is, and look good on the Russian recruitment posters. I'm not saying I won, because they kicked my ass. But I was the only one who got into that ring and didn't need a trip to the infirmary afterward."

"Well, we've got a bag if you want to use it, assuming the other knight guy's finished. Did he say what his name was? Things have been going pretty fast," Vitor says, "Or if you'd rather we could go a few rounds. I wouldn't call myself an expert but I've got a bit of experience."