The Wildest of Ronins
"Huh. Welp shit. I wasn't expecting to be right about the bad feeling," as he said this his circuit tattoos reactivated and were now glowing bright red.
Auren pulled out his data tablet and booted up the field construction kit as he found a shield to hunker down behind which happened to be the same one the Captain and his daughter picked. He nodded respectfully towards his superior officer, as the nanobots came to life. From there his fingers danced on the controls of the nanites as they streamed towards one of the nearest entry points. Instead of forming a wall to delay entry, they instead spread out across the wall around the entry point.
A caltrop field had been Auren's first thought but he didn't know how the enemy liked to do their breaching maneuvers and reforming the field over a dropped piece of plating would take to long. Instead, he set them up to drop on the incoming hostiles and start eating any metals and silicon gear they may have.
Assuming he still had time after setting up the nanomachines, he'd draw his service pistol after putting the control unit away.
edited 9th Mar '17 3:29:02 PM by Kosjurake
Click Click Boom Boom
Sanity not included
As the Imperials took position, the orange circles became bright white, even becoming mildly painful to look at. Beside Ki, one of the marines had taken position with a scattergun of his own. Several clicks echoed through the room as he checked his weapon one last time.
Several small detonations sounded, and the circular sections flew short distances from the wall; one section made it all the way to the shield Ki had taken cover behind, only to be repulsed by the energy field.
"Here they come!" Takua shouted.
Springing out of the breaches came unfamiliar beings; Towering beings, a head taller than the average human, covered in shaggy, matted fur, and bellowing in primal fury as they boarded the station. Empty-handed and girded only with straps from which hung menageries of small items ranging from knives to what looked like feathers.
The roar of the invaders entrance was greeted in kind, with the roar of Imperial gunfire.
Auren's nanomachines coated one of the first through the breach, who broke off his charge to claw at the strange substance covering him. However, between deploying the nanomachines and getting into position, he wasn't left with much time to aim properly; his first shot went wide of his target, the bolt of golden energy sizzling past and scoring a glancing hit on the creature that followed, searing its hip in mid-air and turning its roar of bloodlust into a yelp of pain.
Xarok's barrage, on the other hand, found its mark as the air filled with a stream of hissing energy. Catching the beast full in the chest as it swiped at its fur, it barely had time to let out a strangled gurgle as it vaporized under the volume of fire poured upon it, a fate quickly shared by the third that left the boarding craft, while the second, caught with a much lighter concentration of fire in its side, collapsed, writhing in pain from its injuries at that hand of the two cyborgs.
As packs of the invaders poured from the boarding craft, Ki caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Several of the creatures had managed to disembark from their craft, which had a lower volume of fire being poured on it. As one of the invaders moved to rush her shield, whether for cover or simply to storm their fortifications, she brought her scattergun to bear, a loud report sounding through the command center.
Blood, or what seemed to be blood, at least, splattered from the creature's abdomen as it caught the blast full-force, stumbling backwards and collapsing. The wound was gory, and certainly lethal if left untreated, but her aim had been true; the flechettes had passed cleanly through the creature; if it received proper medical care, it would live.
"Nice shot!" one of the marines shouted. "Keep it up!"
Sylrath's target wasn't nearly as lucky.
As the massive creature locked eyes with him, a single squeeze of his trigger ended it; the bolt struck directly in the creature's mouth as it roared, ending its primal cries prematurely, and creating a new maw in the back of the creature's skull. The creature took a single, shuddering step forward, as if its nervous system hadn't yet realized it was dead, before collapsing to the ground.
"Damn, Ensign!" came the enthusiastic cry of one of the marines behind him.
"THAT'S RIGHT! CHOKE ON IT!" called another.
Siri's target emerged from its craft faster than the others, not bothering with the roaring of its compatriots. Catching sight of her, it charged, likely singling her out by her uniform.
The XO's answer was quick and decisive; a shot erupted from her pistol, striking her target's central mass. Letting out a screech, it slumped to the ground, clutching its chest in anguish, incapacitated, but not dead yet.
As Takua and his daughter rose from cover, sharp, metallic clangs resounded from their weapons, the telltale discharges of high-caliber kinetic weapons, as they fired in unison. The shots from their weapons struck dead-on; in what could have been comical, had it not been so grotesque, the heads of two members of the boarding party seemed to vanish, the walls behind them spattered with what greatly resembled the salsa several of the party guests had been enjoying prior to the boarding action.
The marines continued to hold their positions, their massed fire dropping several of the beasts as they exited pods further away. The defensive line was holding, for the moment.
edited 15th Mar '17 7:51:33 PM by Dragon573
It's kind of funny. Sufficiently advanced stupidity is like sufficiently advanced science; eventually, you find something you can't solve.
Full-Conversion Cyborg
Xarok's weapon was performing admirably, though the kinetic guns of Captain Takua and his daughter had the satisfying bite of solid metal to them that the rotary cannon's directed-energy projectiles could not replicate for the lack of blood they spilled. Thinking about it, something seemed strange about these creatures' vital fluids, they were too vibrant, somehow. And it was odd how savage they appeared considering the previously unheard-of gate technology apparently at their disposal.... Rolling Perception
His HUD was also reporting a startlingly-rapid heat buildup in the weapon. A few more seconds of fire would be all Xarok could safely sustain. Nevertheless, these oddly-primitive invaders weren't dissuaded yet, so he continued shooting - moving onto new targets and leaving the one that survived his last barrage to ineffectually thrash on the ground for now.
edited 15th Mar '17 10:18:35 PM by StygianEmperor
Flesh is a design flaw.
Blood Mage Apologist
Command Deck
Sylrath aimed carefully, and fired. The shot was perfectly aimed, and slammed straight into one of the creature's chest. "Take that, you-!" The rest of his sentence was also a string of curse words, that no one present probably understood.
Naturally, however, the creature was only knocked back a few feet, and with a howl, it kept on coming. Apparently shooting them in the chest had variable results. Or maybe the damn thing was simply that tough. Two damage to one of the creatures.
Backpedaling, Syl pressed a combat stimulant into the hands of the marine behind him. "Pop the top and inject in the elbow! Trust me, you'll like this!" He yelled at him over the din of gunfire, blasting a few shots at the creatures wildly as he ducked back behind his cover.
None of his shots connected, of course- he hadn't taken time to aim. They were merely meant as a wild card. And sometimes, wild cards missed. Not actually firing, this is more just a ribbon thing- makes for a pretty narrative, no mechanical effect.
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
The Wildest of Ronins
Auren blinked at the state of their attackers. They were far far more primitive then he would have suspected given their vessels. Possible explanations shot through Auren's mind but he tried not to dwell on them in the middle of combat. Instead seeing as how they didn't have much in the way of armor for his field construction nanobots to chew through, he decided to change their orders.
He redirected them to one of the breaches on the edge of the group to reseal the hole. He had enough to possible manage two but he wanted a strong seal to delay them for longer if not outright stop them. Hopefully, they'd either waste the time to rebreach, or choose to be funneled through some of the other entry points making them further clustered. Which didn't leave him with much time to fire on the invaders at this point.
Click Click Boom Boom
The Best Worst Psychonaut
Bunch of fuzzy savages... how the hell could they pull off something like this? Probably mercenaries, Gaz thought, but she knew better than to dwell on it at this time.
She also knew better than to get too ahead of herself, even though her aim had been exactly spot-on. She intended to merely wound the attackers, not kill them. She was trained as a dropship pilot, not an executioner; she was never meant to kill. She took the job in the first place precisely because she wouldn't have to kill. Plus, it had the practical benefit of possibly leaving behind a few survivors that they could question later on.
Soon enough, more of the fuzzy savages burst into the room. Gaz took aim at their legs, once more intending to leave them 'merely' crippled. She recognised the benefit of her flechette-based rounds; smaller, sharper wounds, spread out across the body, which meant less chance of dismemberment or outright death at longer ranges. Her previous target's immobilised body had managed to block off one of the invaders, giving her another opportunity to emerge from cover. She fired roughly at the crotch region, which she admitted to herself was a bit harsh, but any lower and she risked killing the one on the floor.
The flechettes struck the creature in the midsection and made him reel back, clutching his bloodied chest. However, it was still standing, albeit vulnerable to the crossfire. Rolled: 23 chance to hit, for 5 damage.
"If you think like a child, you will do a child's work."
The Flamebringer
She frowned. Whoever these furry things were, they didn't seem to be the type to be able to put a Gate device on a corvette-sized vessel. Which meant they were being sponsored. But by whom?
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
Sanity not included
As Xarok swept his gun across his new targets, the first managed to escape the worst of the damage, taking glancing shots. The second two were less fortunate, with more concentrated streams of fire landing on them. Each of the unfortunate pair collapsed, taking short, shallow breaths, wounded just shy of death.
As for the splattered remnants of the creatures' heads, as best Xarok could figure, it was one part blood, one part brains, and one part "anything else that might be in a creature's skull." As he looked on, Takua and his daughter took another pair of shots, painting the walls with similar results. It seemed that "alien skull" plus "high-caliber kinetic weapon" equaled "one hell of a mess." The most unusual part of the situation, he found himself realizing, was less the spattered gore, and more that Takua's daughter, who certainly didn't look military, had access to such a weapon. Based on the power, that thing couldn't be authorized for civilian use outside of dangerous frontier worlds.
The creature that Sylrath shot snarled in pain, and its frenzied eyes locked on Sylrath, flashing with hatred. In a blur of motion it was on him, its thick, furry paws extending to grab the diminutive reptilian and rip him apart, and in a moment of primal instinct, the good doctor made the first move that came to mind.
With a sharp "crack," Sylrath's forehead collided with the beast's snout, and he felt its nose, or what passed for a nose, give way under the impact. The creature reeled back, whether in pain, in shock, or simply to get its balance, and the hunter in Sylrath replied accordingly; he went for the throat, felt his claws tear through flesh, meeting resistance from what he assumed were tendons before tearing through those as well, leaving the creature to collapse backwards, nearly headless, and entirely dead.
The marine stared at Sylrath for a second, processing what had happened, and glanced at the stim-pack with a concerned expression before shaking his head. "Waste. Looks like its about over," he jerked his head towards the holes.
As the nanobots reorganized themselves, they moved to fill the hole that the creatures were passing through, and the result was a blood-curdling screech; one of the creatures, half-way through the hole as it was sealed, became trapped as the nanobots solidified around it.
The creature gazed up at Siri from where it had fallen, locking eyes with her. For a split second, she could have sworn she saw a flicker of fear in its gaze; whether she could or not, it didn't matter; whatever emotion, if any, she'd noticed, it quickly dissolved, replaced with the primal rage the creatures had displayed until now, and its head likewise dissolved as the blast from her gun caught it dead on. The body collapsed back to the floor, twitching grotesquely.
The marines had largely succeeded in stopping their boarding parties; despite their size, the beasts evidently failed to grasp the concept that charging face first into automatic fire was a bad idea. The last few left their boarding craft and were quickly cut down, leaving only the crew and the few injured survivors, as well as any still in the pod Auren had sealed.
A beep sounded, and Takua withdrew his comm unit. "What is it?" After a split-second, his eyebrows raised. "How did you know we'd-..." holding his comm out in front of him, he hit a button, and the Inquisitor's voice became audible.
"-emotions. I could feel the battle winding down... Did you put me on speakerphone?"
"Inquisitor, where are you?" he snapped.
"You're upset that I left," she stated bluntly. "If you must know, I'm only a quick tram-ride away near the shuttles, seeing off the rest of the civilians. I thought they could use an escort. turned out to be a good idea; the bastards dropped boarding craft on multiple decks. We need to get to your ship and join the battle. I'll stay put until you reach me, and we can raid the armory on the way."
Takua shot a glance towards DiGaza, quickly approaching the group, who nodded. "We'll see you there," he answered
"What about the survivors?" DiGaza asked as she approached.
"There are no survivors," the Inquisitor's voice was cold and firm. "If you took any prisoners, you're to execute them immediately."
"What?" Takua asked flatly, glancing at his officers.
edited 30th Mar '17 5:05:20 PM by Dragon573
It's kind of funny. Sufficiently advanced stupidity is like sufficiently advanced science; eventually, you find something you can't solve.
Blood Mage Apologist
Station Command
Syl politely took back the combat stim, slipping it into his pack. They weren't the recreational kind of stim- you only took them when there was real trouble. Hell, he was kind of relieved that there hadn't been any need to use them.
Wiping a bit of blood off of his claws, which did almost nothing, considering the amount of gore and tendon on his claws, the doctor glanced around. noting that almost all of the creatures were dead. Whatever they were.
When the inquisitor spoke, Sylrath glanced at his captain, and back at the wounded creatures.
Pretending not to notice her orders, the Drakon strode over to the creature that Gaz had shot, bringing his medical bag with him. Pulling out a can of spray-on-bandages, sealing spray, and various other medical equipment, he began to work.
"Would one of the marines present please stand by to assist me in case of emergency?" He called out, waving his bloodstained claws in their general direction.
"These are dangerous creatures. I want to make sure that they aren't harmed in any way- under my authority as Chief Medical Ensign, we can decide what to do with these creatures after we've stabilized them... Inquisitor."
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
Full-Conversion Cyborg
As he finally let the barrels of his weapon spin down and replaced it on his pack's mag-locks, Xarok imperceptably shook his head at Sylrath's vain attempt to pull rank. He was certain an Inquisitor's authority trumped that of anyone here, other than possibly DiGaza. Still, he would wait to carry out the execution order until he heard another assenting opinion from his captain or DiGaza herself. Or at the very least, an explanation for it; it seemed tactically unsound not to interrogate any survivors.
Not to mention that it would likely cause animosity with the doctor that was currently trying his best to keep the would-be invaders alive. He had noticed others among the senior staff seemed to be going for wounding shots, as well. To Xarok, an enemy that clearly intended his death did not merit such leniency.
"Would you not have us interrogate these shock troops?" he questioned Takua's comm, the Inquisitor's earlier slight not forgotten. "...What do you already know of them?" Roll Read Other to determine honesty
edited 31st Mar '17 4:52:05 AM by StygianEmperor
Flesh is a design flaw.
The Wildest of Ronins
Auren's glowing circuit tattoos shift from their pulsing bright red to a steady calm blue now that the combat if over for the time being. Though the head engineer fiddles with the control unit to his nano constructors nervously as he stares at the aliens he had trapped.
"So... anyone else think this was too easy?" he gets out from behind cover, walking away from the captain and the communicator to instead get closer to the aliens he had trapped. Gingerly avoiding what gore he could from the killed ones. He didn't look particularly queezy at the mess, but nor did he look completely comfortable about it. Instead he stood a few feet away from the alien trapped in his nanowall and stared at the raging beast.
"There's no way these guys built those ships. So are they slaves? mercenaries? biological constructs? Some lucky primitives that found some high end precursor tech?"
He pauses in his considerations as he cycles through his cybernetic eye's various settings and begins examining both the trapped beast and the various corpses surrounding the place, looking in particular for neural implants of some sort. Rolling Perception +Awareness: 5d6+4d10=42
He refrained from commenting on the execute them all order from the inquisitor having no real feelings one way or another. Though since the Captain seemed less then a fan of the command, he was waiting for a confirmation or denial from the captain.
edited 1st Apr '17 2:34:38 PM by Kosjurake
Click Click Boom Boom
The Best Worst Psychonaut
The heat may have died down in this sector, but Gaz could tell already that this attack that was happening was far from over. Once the breaches had been sealed up by... whatever the abzyna the glowing circuit-man was using, Gaz took the opportunity to reload her scattergun. Blood still pumped through her veins at a heightened speed and she was already fidgeting about with impatience. There was work still to be done.
As such, she listened closely to the communique that ensued between the higher-ups. They needed them to get to their ship. Of course, the ship she was supposed to be helming, instead of fiddling about with ground battles. This was top priority.
She began to edge closer to the exit heading in the direction of the ships, anticipating that her new sendi would soon follow. But alas, they did not. Instead, they started milling around once the woman on the other end gave a kill order for the fuzzy rydzi that had just attacked. Having thought about it, the woman's voice did sound a lot like the woman with red-and-black hair from earlier. She must have been this 'inquisitor' figure after all.
Tapping her fingers on her scattergun's pump-action and rocking her hooves back and forth, she once again found herself snorting indignantly in response to... well, everything. The kill order was regrettable, that much was certain. Gaz had made an effort to avoid killing the attackers in the hopes that something could be learned from them; and, possibly, because they were probably being manipulated and didn't deserve to die. But lives were in danger here, and to be honest, they didn't have time to argue over it. She had her doubts about this inquisitor lady, but she knew that she knew more about the bigger picture here than any of them did.
Thus, as a way of articulating this point, she thundered her way over to the downed creature that the lizard - the 'Drakon', if she remembered correctly - was tending to, and doing her best to ignore the machine and the rather gory yet surreal scene created by the utterly dissolved creature stuck in a wall. Returning her attention to the creature still alive, she pointed her scattergun directly at the creature's head, making sure to keep her finger off the trigger, just in case.
"Forgive forward action, Nydki Takua, but our defence demand speed. Tried to keep vakisk- I mean, unknowns alive, but reality is: we kill unknowns as ordered, we get speed, yes?" she addressed Captain Takua, slowly and deliberately; hopefully it'd at least defuse the quandary everyone seemed to have reached by forcing them to come to a decision, lest the entire station gets consumed by a ball of fire before they can get to the ship.
"If you think like a child, you will do a child's work."
Sanity not included
As Sylrath patched the creature, its breathing normalized, and its eyes cleared, focusing on the medical officer. Letting out a soft groan, it made a weak vocalization. It almost sounded as if the beast was attempting to form words.
Then, the feral look reappeared in its eyes, and whatever it had intended to say was replaced with a bestial howl, showering him with spittle as its arms shout out, intended to take hold of the Drakon's neck. The medical officer ducked back just in time, but before he could move to restrain the creature, Ki ended its life with a quick blast from her scattergun.
Auren scanned their remains for any sort of implants, but he was unable to find anything; if there were any implants, he was unable to locate them.
"I don't have time to explain myself; we've got another wave incoming on my position!" The inquisitor snapped. The sound of grinding metal could be heard through the comm unit. "Suffice it to say, you're doing them a favor! There's no helping them at this point! I'll brief you later!" The inquisitor's voice cut out.
"Don't worry about them," DiGaza waved a hand. "Get to your ship. The marines and I will handle clean-up."
As if to emphasize this point, one of the marines put a round through the trapped beast, and dropped a grenade into the pod behind it. "Fire in the hole!" he shouted, backing away quickly.
The resulting explosion silenced the angry roars from within.
Takua gritted his teeth, but nodded. "Come on. Everyone to the tram."
"I do not enjoy being left in the dark," his daughter noted flatly, already moving for the tram. "Her explanation had better prove satisfactory."
edited 12th Apr '17 11:15:21 AM by Dragon573
It's kind of funny. Sufficiently advanced stupidity is like sufficiently advanced science; eventually, you find something you can't solve.
Full-Conversion Cyborg
Xarok impassively noticed the interplay between Sylrath and his unfortunate patient, "They are being controlled against their will, then. Until there is more we can do, let us take note and guard ourselves against such weakness."
He followed his captain to the tram.
Flesh is a design flaw.
Blood Mage Apologist
As the creature lunged for him, Syl had scrambled backwards, hissing in anger. But before he could've reacted, the beast's head exploded into bloody chunks, causing the reptilian humanoid to whirl around to face his much, much taller crewmate in surprise.
"Uh... thanks. I'll remember that," he promised awkwardly, scratching a chunk of loose skin off of his neck. Then he realized that his hands were still covered in blood and a windpipe, so he wiped it on his uniform. "I'm not too stubborn to admit that you were probably right."
Having blood on his hands was... familiar. He didn't like it. Checking his pistol, Syl followed Takua, his weapon at the ready, his eyes darting around the room, lingering on the vents.
"They're bestial," he observed. "Powerful but unskilled. The one I shot would have torn me apart had I not taken... measures... to prevent it from succeeding in its goal." The doctor licked some of the remaining gore off of his claws with his forked tongue when he thought no one was looking.
"Are any of you injured?" Syl asked, glancing around at his fellow officers and Captain, towing his medical bag along with him. "I don't believe any of them broke the line, but it is better to address such issues now rather than later."
He made it a priority to avoid walking under or near any vents or openings- such thins brought back bad memories.
The doctor's reptilian eyes lingered on the Captain's daughter. She seemed... different. More over, why was she on the ship? She had handled herself with rather impressive skill during the attack...
Roll perception to notice anything off about Takua's daughter.
edited 14th Apr '17 5:44:56 PM by Cwest5538
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
The Wildest of Ronins
Auren frowned at the lack of anything, but the Inquistor's statement implied there was something at work here. Psychic domination then. Which led to the question, were they themselves at risk? Or was this species just particularly susceptible to psychics? Or did it take a long dedicated process to break them down this far? So many questions, so little time, and not really Auren's area of expertise either. Checking for psychic domination: 5d6+2d10 = 27, Is Auren going to be psychically dominated: 1d6+2d10 = 11
Shrugging, he entered the deactivate command to the nano constructors and the swarm of nanites flowed back to him disappearing within his uniform somehow. With that, done he holstered his gun and headed to the tram after the Captain and his daughter.
edited 16th Apr '17 3:27:19 PM by Kosjurake
Click Click Boom Boom
The Flamebringer
Siri nodded. "She's an Inquisitor, she can do what she damn well pleases. But I agree. Anyhow. We have our orders. We need to get to the ship." She watched the marines dispatch the remaining creatures with precise efficiency. She shook her head. This wasn't something that was her problem to worry about... but it still stat wrong with her. The inquisitor better have a good explanation for this, yeah. She sighed, composed herself, and followed the captain towards the tram.
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
That was the first thing that went through Siri's mind.
The second was dashing over to and flipping a table for cover. Well, concealment, at least. The table wouldn't actually hold up to being shot. She assumed. The giraffe lady - Zolatan, right? - was taking point, the cyborg had brought a ridiculously oversized gun, and the dragon - Drakons? Creative name. - was swearing profusely. She smirked at the irony of the Zolatan yelling for the Drakon to shut up.
The Inquisitor disappeared to... somewhere.
They were being boarded.
And she'd missed all the dancing, apparently.
Damn.
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.