The creature that pulled itself up out of the floor bore an incredibly strong resemblance to a scarab beetle, albeit possessing only four limbs instead of the usual six and being the size of a small automobile. Its head was broad and spade-shaped, and its mandibles clacked in curiosity as it turned ponderously to fix the unblinking gaze of its gold-spackled compound eyes on the physicist. Its body was predominantly blue, with patches of red and yellow scattered evenly across its form, and its wingcases were fused shut and flared back into an odd shape resembling a throne.
"I would ask you not to harm it, Doctor Freeman," Dis Baba said reproachfully, approaching the enormous insect without fear. "The creature is herbivorous and gentle; it will not attack unless attacked first, or unless I command it to do so."
The Danse Macabre Codex"Well..." Gordon lowered his shotgun. "It hasn't attacked me yet, so I'm not got to hurt it."
Alright, that hadn't rang true in the Black Mesa Incident. The first alien he saw once he had a gun didn't have a chance to act in a violent manner. But this was a different situation, so Gordon was going to give the giant beetle a chance.
"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up.""Do not worry, Doctor Freeman; you'll find that palanquinbeetles can be quite the loyal companion at times."
Dis Baba knelt down by the oversized insect and placed a hand on its wide head, smiling faintly; the beetle let out a chittering noise and nuzzled against his palm, like a cat leaning into the palm of its master's hand while being petted. It then lowered its spade-shaped cranium to the floor, offering no complaint as Dis Baba used it as a stepping stone to reach the creature's back, where he strode to the thronelike carapace formation and sat down.
"Ah, that's better," he said with a sigh. He then leaned forward to glance at the floor, noting with some displeasure that the hole his mount had dug to make its entrance had somehow disappeared.
edited 27th Jan '11 7:38:02 PM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre CodexRey snickered slightly as he took another long drink. "Hey, look. It's a mobile oppression palace. That's awesome."
Easing back into life one step at a time"Ooh, interesting. Got any dragons where that came from? My life seems to involve dragons a lot. Once I was stuck to a giant spider who turned into a dragon, another time I was sent off to rescue a dragon. Somewhat ironic, really."
edited 27th Jan '11 11:26:21 PM by LizardOfAus
And a Strange Figure Emerges.Dis Baba tilted his head to one side at Vezon's words, a gesture that was mirrored by the palanquinbeetle. "Dra...gons?" he echoed.
The Danse Macabre CodexComprehension dawned on Dis Baba's face. "Oh, you meant wyrms! Yes, we have encountered plenty of those; big, dumb animals, non-sapient and completely hostile. More baffingly, they could somehow fly under their own power in the depths of space; the Kin had a trying time exterminating those pests, let me tell you!"
edited 28th Jan '11 1:03:39 PM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre CodexRey watched a moment, then shrugged, tilting back some and upending the bottle, practically chugging the last half of the bottle, then slamming it against the bartop, coughing a few times, patting himself on the chest and wincing. "Whoo, burns a little." He clapped his hands once, then held his thumbs up. "All right, well, now I feel better."
Easing back into life one step at a timeRey took the empty bottle and hopped the bar again, walking over to the ring and crawling slightly under the ring, behind the curtain hanging around it, then crawled back out without the bottle, nodding slightly and brushing himself off a bit before clambering back into the ring, climbing up to the turnbuckle and sitting again, watching the monitors of the ongoing challenge silently.
Easing back into life one step at a timeCarter looked back at Subaru, eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell?! You didn't jump?!" He struggled as she put his helmet back on his head. "What the fuck are you doing?!"
Then the Cyborg explained her plan. Carter quickly realized that it didn't need to end like this. Jorge had told him about Subaru's skills and augmentations. If they both jumped, they could survive it. Maybe.
"Alright." He steered the Pelican towards the Scarab. "I hope you know what you're doing," Carter said as he stood up. The Spartan held onto Subaru as she jumped out of the Pelican. Amazingly, she was strong enough to carry him, despite his armor weighing half a ton.
Bowser struck the Scarab first. The impact severely dented its armor, and sent it reeling, but it wasn't enough to destroy it. It was very likely that Bowser, on the other hand, would be severely injured by the impact, if not outright killed.
Then the Pelican hit its Mark. It exploded violently, taking a large chunk of the Scarab's armor with it. It stumbled to the edge of the cliff, desperately trying to stop itself from falling to its doom. As expected, it failed. "Holy fuckin' shit," Emile breathed. Jorge was grinning, though it wasn't visible, since he was wearing his helmet.
As Subaru brought Carter down to the ground, the Commander shook his head, slightly disoriented. Kat was quick to approach him.
"Commander! Are you injured?"
"No...I'm good. I don't know how I survived that, but I'm good." He turned back to Subaru, and stared at her for a few long moments. "...I was seriously going to do it, you know. You didn't have to save me...but thanks. I owe you one."
Jorge walked up and gave the girl a good pat on the shoulder. "That was amazing, Subaru. You saved my superior's life. I owe you as well." The SPARTAN-II then glanced around, searching for Bowser...
edited 29th Jan '11 11:04:59 PM by Nimitz
Jagged Alliance 2 LP (Redux) (Closed!)Mal-Keshar was murmuring to himself.
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Subaru chuckled as she let go of Carter.
“No one dies on my watch, if I can help it.” But in the back of her mind, Subaru was remembering that man who had committed suicide. He had died on her watch, and she couldn’t stop him…
Shaking her head slightly, Subaru looked up at Jorge and then at the other Spartans,
“Okay, we have a package to deliver, and about a gazillion Covenant to go through…why are we waiting here? Personally I don’t want to be caught when they come asking why their big walker is lying at the bottom of the canyon.”
Though Ravage was outwardly calm, internally the Predacon was finding it exceedingly difficult to contain the seething rage now coursing through his routers. Had he not been outnumbered by an order of magnitude, the Predacon would simply have allowed his murderous impulses free reign and slaughtered Carter right then and there, Challenge be damned.
But of course, as experience had proven already—personally, in his case—those who died in the course of these Challenges tended not to stay dead, and if Ravage wanted to get out of this mess and wreak bloody retribution upon his Nomad captors, he would need the others complacent and cohesive as a unit, not riven by mistrust and anger.
Oh, they would still die when the time came; he would personally make certain of that. Still, for now at any rate his 'fellow' Champions possessed some value as tools, a means to achieving his ultimate end; no sense discarding them until the task was actually done.
The Danse Macabre Codex

"Okay, but if we get drunk, I am gonna start up The King's Game." Narumi said as he conjured up some chopsticks, with one of them being red and the others numbered.