New Guardians of Remnant: Shape The Future

With Freddie, Base of the Tower

Yoko nods, impressed. Honestly, before now she didn't really know what to make of the academic - she didn't have the best opinion of his type. However, he's proving himself useful.

"Good work. Follow your initiative then, I'll stick with you and watch your back."

LV-426

While looking for holes Freddy would find only a smattering dotting the defensive position, with the exception of one long string that seemed to trail up the wall for some reason. The bullet holes themselves, if analyzed would turn out to all be from the standard rifle or pistol round of the Vale armed forces.

Control room

"That's Sargent Vasquez to you. My men may all be gone but hell if I'm going to be treated like some rent-a-cop." The man replied to Talon with a glare, however as soon as the tension in his body released, Vasquez just looked tired. "I'd love to tell you what they are, but there's a slight problem with that..."

He walked over to a nearby console and pulled up a video (Which Aria would also see by virtue of being connected to the base). It showed a well lit hallway with two soldiers patrolling, Suddenly it was as if both of them were pulled off their feet and dragged away as if by some invisible force. The camera then cut to static.

"We don't know what they are, but there's definitely something there, one guy we rescued had claw marks on his ankles. But we can't see them. Not with thermals, different visual filters, nothing. I think we got one once, sounded like they dragged off the body."

Aria bit her lip as she watched the feed. She was impressed, but also scared. No filters, no vision changes found these things?

She let her own vision wander and pan out to the base in front of her, and shivered.

Infrared: false, thermal: false, what else could they use?

She took the video presented and went over it frame by frame, and pulled up any archived records on the feeds she could find.

in what location, base-wise, did you think you hit one?, she rattled into her scroll and sent off.

edited 9th Sep '16 6:35:51 PM by ImmortalFaust

Yoko, listening in over the comms, considers for a moment.

"Hey, ask if they tried radar or sonar imaging?"

"We could also... actually..." Freddie put away his Scroll, reached into his pockets and pulled out a big spool of wire, spare line for Growth's grappling hook. Then he realized he had the order of this wrong, blushed some more, sheathed Growth, drew Industry, pocketed the wire, and instead pulled out a handful of rebar, which he slotted into the hammer. Fully, uh, combobulated now, Freddie started hammering the metal poles into the walls with a series of thunks and clicks. "We're up close, I've got spare wire, I'll set up some snares to get in the way." He pulled out his Scroll again. "Did—did I send the pictures of the bullets and the holes right? Anyone get them?"

edited 9th Sep '16 8:19:46 PM by Taco

"Oh what the fu-" Nat groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes shut in agitation. "Right. Right. Because recon has to be interrupted." She grumbled as she checked her scroll, looking at Freddie's message as she did so. "I'll have to get closer to see what's up with those holes, Freddie, I can't get much out of a still image."

The Augmented Woman unslung the metal monstrosity that was Black Heavens Guns from her back before taking off to the base in a dead sprint. "All personnel do keep your eyes open, just in case."

LV-426

Talon quickly opened up his comms once Vasquez told him everything he knew.

"I've made contact with a Sergeant Vasquez. The base is under attack. The enemy cannot be seen by most conventional discernement. They either possess claws or have claw-like weaponry." As he spoke, Talon activated his Semblance, looking through all barriers to see the Auras of his teammates inside the building, as well as seek out any unknown Auras. If the enemy possessed Aura and could even cloak that, they would have to constantly be on their guard.

Novus 21st - Outpost LV-426, Vacu-Valoran Border

From his vantage point, Cowbry was listening intently as he set his drone on a scouting pattern.

"Copy that, switching visual surveillance modes." He began steadily cycling through his drone's vision modes as it hopped up the stairs. The tubular tools were equipped for a variety of information gathering; these included night vision, thermal, and a basic visual and audio suite.

Not much, but it could get the job done. Theoretically.

edited 9th Sep '16 9:01:52 PM by KR_Vandal

LV-426

Thanatos received Talon's feed, and sighed internally before relaying to all.

["Black Rook speaking. Enemy is invisible via most means... lemme think of a solution."]

(Shit. Fucking cloaking stealth shits.)

Thanatos' experience at videogames did allow him to learn about Invisible Monsters- there were quite a few video horror and action games which featured them. And as far as he knew, invisibility could still mean that they were tangible, in most cases.

And maybe this one- since they could drag and claw people physically.

In the pretty advanced videogames of the time, such mooks would still displace smoke, rain, leave ripples in water, and if somebody splattered blood or a coloured liquid onto them, it would stick onto them.

Flying off the Control Tower, Thanatos reported via the comms to everyone.

["Black Rook speaking: These idiots might be invisible, but from what I've learned from invisible baddies in video games, they still take up space, especially if they can drag and claw people like that! I'm sure some water to make them step on, smoke to displace, or paint to stick on them might just work."]

edited 9th Sep '16 9:15:01 PM by ironcommando

Base of Tower

"Good thinking Freddie. I'm going to try a form of echolocation/sonar here."

Sending out vibrations with her Semblance, Yoko begins constructing a map of the immediate area - likely picking up any nearby, visually cloaked enemies.

LV-426

As Freddie went about setting up his snares the first one he had set would be cut as if someone had taken a blade to it. And then...nothing, no attack, no warning to leave. Yoko's semblance wouldn't pick up any enemies directly but at certain points there would be cloud like areas where vibrations seemed to be muted. The enemy was there and they were watching and toying with the team.

Control Room

...Which boded poorly for Talon. For while his semblance did pick up the aura of both his teammates and the enemy. They indeed did have auras although they flickered in and out as if something were trying to interfere.

Of course the more pressing issue was that the one that had been hiding beneath the floor reached through the floor and grabbed onto his ankles. Then two more leapt down from the ceiling. One jumped on Talon's back and immediately set about trying to claw his throat out while the other grabbed ahold of Vasquez. There was a brief struggle, a wet sounding "thud" and Vasquez was dragged out of the room through a nearby air duct.

Base of the Tower

Freddie absolutely shrieked, straight into the comms, as his wire snapped. He whipped around to that first point and rushed forward, attempting to whip his hammer around at whatever had just broken the wire. He had no time to talk this through with his team, only to act.

Base of Tower

"POSSIBLE CONTACT! If any of you have sonar or echolocation-like abilities, switch to those. They'll show up fuzzy, but something's better than nothing."

Having let out her warning over the comms, Yoko goes to Freddie's aid, backing him up and unleashing a few punches on the fuzzy patch.

edited 9th Sep '16 9:25:26 PM by BluBeriPi

LV-426

["PVE TIME, LET'S DO THIS!"]

As Thanatos flew down, he fired two missiles at a clear area on the ground, which would then fly about above the ground's surface, creating trails of smoke. These weren't programmed to explode, but rather cover the open ground around the compound with smoke from their trails.

Thanatos' visual detection would be able to determine when the smoke was disrupted, as he charges his shots, heading towards the ground.

edited 9th Sep '16 9:36:20 PM by ironcommando

Base of the Tower

Picking up that their new foes were apparently invisible to the naked eye as well as Freddie and Yoko encountering something, Wilhelm radioed out "Purple Bishop, Red Pawn, this is Silver Knight. I'm closing in on your position and I'm coming in hot. Expect a fair amount of noise and property damage."

Grinning like a child in a candy store, Wilhelm extended his left arm in front of him before activating Eisenmacht's shield. As the silver hardlight greatshield flickered to life, the would-be Knight Errant began bursting through various buildings as if they were made of wet tissue paper before finally arriving at the base of the Tower.

Deactivating his shield and slowing himself down significantly, Wilhelm called out to Yoko and Freddie "Where is our foe?"

LV-426: Control Room

"Aagh!" Talon quickly cursed himself for not being more careful. Now he'd gotten himself pinned and he lost Vasquez. With a grunt of anger, he raised Brand and slammed his palm into the ground from where he was pinned. The impact released two bursts of Dust: the first was a blinding flash of light, and the second was a burning sphere that radiated in all directions from Brand to repel his attackers.

LV-426

The enemy facing Freddie and Yoko was apparently unfazed by two hunters screaming and charging it as it merely grabbed Freddie's wrist and attempted to use his momentum to pull the faunas between it and Yoko. Meanwhile if Yoko was still using her semblance to track the enemy she would notice another fuzzy area come sailing towards her.

Control Room

The dust attacks temporarily forced both of Talon's attackers off him. One's stealth actually went down revealing a human in cybernetic armor with clawed gauntlets and an animalistic mask, complete with opaque lenses. Though for some reason the enemy appeared to have taken less damage from the fire than Talon would have expected given the volume of the attack.

Then the second enemy burst through the floor, dust briefly revealing its form before it darted back away into the shadows of the room. Meanwhile the now visibly opponent charged in, firing bullets from one of its gauntlets at Talon to give itself cover

LV-426 air

Nothing of note occurred as the smoke trails from the missiles flew about outside the compound.

(Drat)

From his point in the air, Thanatos notices that the guys who entered the tower are in trouble. Immediately, he turns his visual zooming sensors to attempt to find a fire extinguisher around the area, and if successful, would fly towards it.

[Gonna have to smoke those bastards out.]

edited 14th Sep '16 7:32:52 PM by ironcommando

Base of the Tower

"HERE!" Was the only way Freddie could respond to Wilhelm as the creature grabbed him. He was, however, still aware enough to try to salvage this situation. As Yoko's fists came flying towards him, Freddie recalled that her martial art was designed to bypass armor, and what armor was more potent than a human shield? This was probably still going to hurt, a lot. Tears in his eyes in anticipation, Freddie instead reached out and attempted to wrap his arms around his assailant, hoping Yoko would understand and instead try to bypass Freddie entirely.

Nat made a beeline for the nearest entry for tower, nearly smashing through it as she charged past Wilhelm. "Hey Wil, nice to see ya join us," she said with a grin to the knight before turning right back to Freddie and Yoko, "What the Hell is going on!?" She cried out as she saw Freddie being hoisted up by...well, nothing really. "Cor! You've got some weird...snake shit, right? Why don't you see if you can sniff 'em out!" She yelled back, turning her head to where she thought he might be.

Once done, the augmented woman raised her gun and waited to see if she couldn't get a better view on whatever was attacking Freddie.

Base of the Tower

"Tch! This is gonna suck, friend."

Concentrating, Yoko strikes at Freddie with her Semblance, sending a high frequency vibration through him and attempting to deal damage to the assailant behind. At the same time, she drops down low, dodging away from the second intruder, hoping that Wilhelm would manage to pick him out and deal with him. "Wil! To my left!"

edited 14th Sep '16 9:45:40 PM by BluBeriPi

LV-426: Control Room

Talon grunted with effort as he unsheathed his sword and released a fiery slash at his attacker. He tried to dive out of the line of fire and behind something solid in the room as he attempted to inform his teammates further through his opened comms.

"The enemy does possess cloaking technology! Dust seemed to disable cloaks! Be advised of claws and gunfire from gauntlets!"

Base o' the tower

"Acknowledged!" barked Wilhelm as he began charging in the general direction of where his foe was supposedly located, winding up a massive swing with Recht as he did so. When he had built up a fair bit of momentum and had a decent feel for where he would be swinging, Wilhelm would swing his mighty hammer through the air in front of him in a wide arc, taking care to avoid hitting his allies in the process all the while shouting "Show yourself coward!"

LV-426

Yoko's vibration passed through Freddie without issue, doing a surprisingly small amount of damage to the young man. His attacker wasn't so lucky, being thrown back into the wall, their camouflage flickering.

Freddie's swing, due to the angles involved only clipped the leaping enemy and sending them spiraling, though they righted themselves with one of their claws, leaving a clear trail on the floor.

Thanatos would find a fire extinguisher in short order, due to it being a common item.

"That's super racist you know." Cor replied. "Sure, I can try you filthy traitor to humanity." He teased before noticing the claw trail behind Wilhelm and drop kicking the point it stopped, sending the invisible enemy back towards the knight. "Big guy! Swing behind you!"

Cor quickly cleared the impact zone to be. "Nat, I tried, but all I can smell is a ton of Dust. It's like these guys have been swimming in it or something."

Control Room

While the fire slash did manage to drive back the visible enemy, the concealed one took Talon's search for cover as a wonderful opportunity and dashed in to deliver a quick swipe before quickly retreating out of range.

edited 15th Sep '16 1:48:56 AM by guyshane

LV-426

(Seems like these invisible idiots are concentrated around the tower. Let's do this!)

It was a few seconds before Thanatos landed in front of a fire extinguisher, before using her energy blades to slice off the restraints so he could carry it.

["Dust, huh? I'll try that too! In the meantime I'm gonna use this to smoke them out and reveal themselves!"]

At the base of the tower, Cor, Wilhelm, Yoko and Freddie would notice the black jet speeding towards them... with a fire extinguisher in hand. Seeing the claw marks disappear, and Cor's comment towards the guy with the big hammer, Thanatos got his gun ready and sidestepped, but nicely called out to the armored knight-like guy.

"That dude's yours! Not gonna KS!"

edited 15th Sep '16 2:00:58 AM by ironcommando