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Blood And Rust: Part two (the voice and the serpent)

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Author Topic: Blood And Rust: Part two (the voice and the serpent)  (Read 1847 times)
Bard
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« Reply #15 on: November 28, 2011, 05:42:09 am »

The passageway twisted and turned as the party made their decent. Some talked, some were silent. Time seemed lost in the dry veins of rotted metal (Though a few of the team could probably tell you the exact time spent in the pipeline and what they were doing on that date and time twenty years ago).

“There seems to be some air now, of a kind. We have entered the machine's ‘atmosphere’. Not that anything truly living would want to breathe it. I, at least can survive the pressure”

As if to confirm it for himself, he undid the binds of his suit and removes his gloves. He flexed his hands several times, like the circulation in his custom suit were less than perfect.

“These, I lost to the machine.” He said while holding up left hand, revealing the two middle fingers (of four) had been severed at the base. They had been replaced by a pair of metal talons, with some form of ingrained enhancement.
“I hear them.” said Marangreim “Eight thousand hearts. Mostly ones of the regulars, but I hear some of the blood shooter. They sound a distinctly more… ”



Meanwhile, the fleets had taken beating. Lesser defended ships had been shredded, while many larger ones where rendered impotent by the thick layer of angry metal attempting to surround them.

Then it stopped. The scratchers suddenly ceased to maneuver, and flew into the closest target or were blasted apart by it. Through the vacuum, not a single active hostile machine could be seen.  Hnangha had fled.



…juicy. Wait, did you feel that? Comm just went dead. Did we jump?

“Yes.”

The pipe came to an abrupt end. Niyames peered his head around the final corner, and found himself face to face with the gnarled, emaciated head of an Iavolg. Before the dull reptile could let out a cry, Niyames slashed its throat.

Lights were raised. The chamber was revealed. An open chamber with rough, uneven plates of flooring. The ceiling could not be seen. A forest of pipelines ascending like columns crosscut through the hollow. A dusty smog seemed to permeate the air, and few small, orange lights could be seen glowing in the dark.

And sounds. Guttural croaks rang out from the darkness, growing, getting closer.

“They feel our presence, and will kill us soon. I know this place. There is a bridge that will lead to safety, fifteen hundred meters throught the thicket. With me”

And he ran into the darkness, as the growls grew louder around the group. The Iavolg had come, in numbers. They lingered just out of the light. All that could be heard now was a ferocious mess of snarls and the click of talons on rusted metal.

Then the Iavolg attacked.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 09:38:31 pm by Bard » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #16 on: November 29, 2011, 06:23:39 pm »

"Bite this." Ke'ras said, ripping a grenade from his belt as he ran. He depressed the detonator and chucked the spherical explosive over his back. A chunk were taken out by the blast, others dazed and confused from the bright light and concussion of the blast. A few shots flew past him, and he realized that at least one shooter had his number. He turned at the torso as he ran, and fired off two shots from his pistol. His first went wide, too high and a bit to the left. The second one hit home, square in the thing's barrel. The shell's detonation split the creature in two, it's halves falling in a bloody pile to the floor. He saw that the horde was getting closer, and they weren't even half way to their destination. He flicked his pistol to full auto and drew his impulse blade. He swung around to run backwards.
"Keep moving!" He shouted over his shoulder, opening fire. The storm of shots, supplied by the belt feed extending from his armor's back-mounted ammo store, chewed up a number of the swarm, slowing the rest as they advanced under the storm of exploding rounds. One that was close leapt at him and he brought his sword at it, carving it in twine from head to tail. He raked his aim across the swarm, back and forth, slowing and wearing at the mass. Finally, satisfied with his suppression, he flicked back to semi and sprinted to catch up with the rest of the group, who had covered much ground as apposed to his slower backwards trot.
"Hopefully that slows them some." He said, arming and chucking another grenade to ensure they stayed back.
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« Reply #17 on: November 30, 2011, 09:36:38 am »

"Taking it from here!", a pakuweinia relieved Ke'ras' place at the very rear of the group. Putting a trio of semi-automatic shotguns to bear against the hostiles, a wall of high velocity pellets peppered the advancing pursuers. The pakuweinia kept a steady pace with the others, using her free tentacles to reload and hurl grenades at the mob.

Pulling out her twin machine pistols, Sinjino lifted off the ground and proceeded to lay waste to a row of soldiers blocking the path ahead. Turning around, she sensed several shooters that managed to get a bead on her. Reacting quickly, she flipped through the air to avoid the ensuing barrage, striking back with several well placed bursts that picked off her assailants as well as those around them.

Sub-machinegun firmly in one hand, Sawi alternated fire between the frontal attackers' flanks. "Blast out!", he reached for a pair of grenades with his free arm before doing a quick spin aided by his flightpack. In mid-spin, he tossed the first towards the gap opened by Ke'ras and the pakuweinia, while releasing the second into the enemies ahead. The resulting explosions pushed back the ones trailing the group and softened up the barricade formed by those at the fore.

"Friendly cannon twelve o'clock!", Tavira signaled the rest to move aside as he aimed his two-handed plasma cannon straight at the enemy vanguard's direction. "Full charge!", he let out a final warning, his weapon already at full capacity. Planting his feet firmly against the ground, he braced himself for the shot as the pakuweinia stayed with him to covered his back. "Bracing..."


"FIRE!"


A single, exceedingly bright bolt was unleashed from Tavira's weapon. Streaking past the team at orders of magnitude faster than the speed of sound, the vastly energetic projectile ultimately connected with the horde of brutes trying to block their way. The file of soldiers which received the full brunt of the shot were quickly vaporized by the attack while the two columns immediately to the sides were burned to varying degrees. The pakuweinia hurriedly dragged him up as they ran to regroup with the squad. But not before a pair of savages managed to bypass her suppressive fire, to which she responded by swatting one with her tentacle and bucking the other with a well placed hoof.

Back at the front, Ea kept the pressure against the persistent swarm alongside the other forward agents. A pair of assault rifles set to burst kept her targets at bay on either side, as a single grenade launcher helped in keeping their road to safety clear. She kept her sniper rifle at the ready, reserving it for those that managed to get a mark on her.

Another powerful shot impaled the endless barricade of adversaries. This time a solid round from a choro's anti-armor rifle. One particular fiend was quick to retaliate however, leaping towards the sniper. Barely, Sawi managed to intercept the foul creature with the superheated edge of his monomolecular bolo, slicing the fell one diagonally from neck to waist and then spin-kicking one of the severed portions back to another enemy.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2011, 05:42:51 pm by Yuu » Report Spam   Logged

"That bastard is watching that **** playing with a ****" should actually be a perfectly polite sentence to describe a child watching a dog play with some sticks. But it's not, because they somehow became offensive.
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« Reply #18 on: November 30, 2011, 02:37:42 pm »

Every shot fired or blade swung was liable to take out three or four Iavolg at once, but it didn't impact the media. Only taking down priority target seemed to make a difference. but still, the group had finaly managed to reach the bridge. deviding the room was a twenty foot chasm into blackness. the bridge itself was a horozontal pipe laid between the two sides

Marangreim didn't really bother fighting. He just sort of wadded through the Iaovolg, listening to the sound of snapping bones under his feet. That was about it, actualy.




Uzeta-Oatir had taken flight and began to fly through the maze of collumns, letting out burst of bullets on enemies bellow. He blissfully (for a Machy. chronic anger problems and a martyr complex are the norm) shredded through any Iavolg climbing down from the above or perched on a pipe.This went on for about thirty seconds before a volley from the Shooters shredded his wings in turn.

Instead of landing in a crumpled heap, however, he managed to keep running when he hit the floor. Being such a Speedy species, it was easy enough for him to run on top of the swarm. he made a game of it to aim for the savages and to stick them in the head before leaping off.  He quickly found himself at the bridge, where most of the other team had already arrived, being less easily distracted.



"across!" shouted Niyames, who was already heading his order.

then the world world shook. and again.

the roof burst. twisted beams of metal and wire fell from above, crushing the unlucky Iavolg below. as the debris fell away, the intruder was revealed: a great Bronze machine with a plethora of limbs, with one glowing orange eye. its full size could not be discerned. one of its tremendous limbs reached down and wrenched the bridge from the canyon, .

Niyames turned around, only to be met with another arm snaking around behind them. it's hand smashed into the ground, and uprooted the floorboards, so now the party was on a slant into the pit below. Niyames looked down into the divide, then back up at the machine above him. he took the jump.
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« Reply #19 on: November 30, 2011, 09:20:13 pm »

The rest followed suit, bracing themselves for what laid ahead.

Sawi anchored himself on to the pakuweinia as he revved up his flight pack, slowing down the pair's descent, ever so slightly. Not being as agile as the other larger members, or physically capable of handling such great falls for that matter, she graciously took the luzonian's offer.

Sinjino, on the other hand, approached Uzeta-Oatir, holstering on of her guns to get a hold of the person. At the same time, she busied herself scanning the surface below, if there even was any.
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« Reply #20 on: November 30, 2011, 10:00:48 pm »

Ke'ras left a small "present" at the top before he jumped. He jumped backwards and as he fell, fired off a decent cable from a small belt-mounted pistol. It latched into the wall and slowed his drop to levels he and his armor could take. A small timer ticked to zero in the corner of his HUD, and another explosion rocked their previous location.
"Ahhh," He sighed. "I love grenades." He looked around for hostiles. "We appear to be clear for the moment; sensors aren't picking up anything either, but hey; fliers could burst from the walls any second knowing this place." He said into the comms. He checked his belt; he had used three of his eight grenades; that left five. Hopefully they got into some closer quarters. He checked his ammo on the HUD: He was still considerably in the green; nothing to worry about there, for the moment. He switched comms channels for a second.
"Ke'ras to Fleet; how's the weather out there?"
"Well," Spat the fleet commander. "I'd wager a fifty it's better in there. These guys are like the Zeront; they may not be all that tough, but DAMN, there's a lot of 'em!"
"Keep up the good work, Commander. Ke'ras out." He flipped back to the squad channel. "Sensors read less than 70 metres to the floor, keep your eyes peeled for hostiles; we don't need to be ambushed as we land." He said.
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« Reply #21 on: December 02, 2011, 01:29:55 am »

as the floor was lifted, those still standing began to slide toward the hole. Marangreim slammed his pincer into the panel, securing himself.

"Deep water down there! I can't swim, too heavy! I'll try to regroup with you later. If not, al doshemr yals, Savladient!* "

with great difficulty, he pulled himelf over the lip of the tile, and was lost from sight.


meanwhile, Niyames and the others who had jumped found themselves in (or hovering above) a slow flowing canal, fourty feet deep. the walls were slick and black, but there was nothing here trying to kill them. Niyames was in his element.

"right. we follow the stream. it should bring us to a safe place, if my charts are still accurate."



*(Dictionary: I Stone sight coworkers
actual meaning: I will greet you in the afterlife, True companions)
« Last Edit: December 10, 2011, 08:08:44 pm by Bard » Report Spam   Logged

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Badger Man 22
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« Reply #22 on: December 02, 2011, 03:02:07 am »

As Marangreim pulled over the lip, Ha followed, jumping along the panels to do such. "Water is quite despicable, gets in one's circuits yes."
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« Reply #23 on: December 03, 2011, 07:48:53 am »

Ke'ras landed on the safe perimeter of the lip.
"Eugh...I ain't goin' in that muck," He said jokingly. "I'd sink like a stone. I could walk along the bottom, but good luck getting me out." He retracted the grapple and it came reeling back to the launcher on his belt. "Glad I thought to take this thing." He leaned to the hole.
"Good luck, you guys!" He said. A "You too!" echoed back, but it was impossible to figure who said it. He activated his helmet lights mentally, and the two lights in his helmet kicked on. "Well, shall we move on?" He turned to Marangreim.
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« Reply #24 on: December 03, 2011, 08:40:25 pm »

"Yes, move. But after you turn off those infernal lights, yes? Lights attract attention in the dark, no nightvision or spectrum viewing for you?" Ha began to dust himself off, despite the lack of dust on him.
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« Reply #25 on: December 04, 2011, 11:07:21 pm »

The conglomerate made a piercing metal noise, and lashed at the ravine’s lips, ripped at its sides. Below, an avalanche of metal came down. Niyames barely managed to doge the fragments falling into the water.  But the fragments quickly clogged the way and the sides buckled and collapsed over the river. There was no changing of minds now.

But now they were safe, relatively.
Time passed, and the party drifted down stream, passively or actively. The canyon became a tunnel. Often it became steep, but never hazardously so. They were going deeper. Other streams joined and left with theirs. Whatever this network did, it was immense. And finally, as if to unnerving the team, underneath the surface, but meters below them, could be seen another river, of worms, flowing through the canal to destinations unknown.

The tunnel opened again, but not into a canyon, but to open shorelines.

“Here we are” said Niyames.
They had emerged into a tremendous place, filled with connecting streams and waterfalls. Spires rose and bridges arched through them, and flowing water cascaded down, The Place was close to beautiful, if not for the ever present monotonous brown metal.

“This is one of the machine’s greatest reservoirs. I never came to this place myself while I was here. I knew it was a sight. Though I never imagined" he getured with his steel talon. "It would have preserved on of those.”

and there, in the center of the room was a large structure, surprisingly colorful for this dull hell, plated in gold. (grimy, of course. its been there for decades) It appeared much like a cathedral, with a large orange light adorned above its entryway.

***

meanwhile:


The Iavolg had been scattered by the arrival of the COM, but were quickly regrouping.  Marangreim seemed less boisterous than he had an hour before.

“Unless you think we can kill that by ourselves, we have to leave. Thankfully, the big thing saw fit to build us a new bridge.”

 He gestured to bent walls of the canal 

“It’s where the guy wanted us to go anyway, so I’m charging there and not stopping. And unless you think you can keep up, which I seriously doubt your little biped legs are capable of, you should climb on my back before go. Also…”

He paused and shot a rocket into the chest of an approaching savage.

“…offer expires in ten seconds.”
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« Reply #26 on: December 05, 2011, 01:49:41 am »

Ha grasped the graid's back and set his feet nearby in a single fluid motion, no more than 5 seconds after the initial offer was presented.
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« Reply #27 on: December 05, 2011, 06:19:49 pm »

"I'd rather not get left behind." Re'vas said jokingly, climbing onto the Gradient's back as fluidly as he could manage. He killed his lights and switched to thermal.
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« Reply #28 on: December 05, 2011, 08:37:08 pm »

Charkan followed the alien king, his feathers cramped by the environment suit. After a lengthy period of drifting (making him instictively uneasy of any sort of hypothetical aquatic carnivore), a shoreline was reached in an opening that revealed a wondrous sight. As the larentili announced, "Here we are," the avian soldier stared in awe at the expanse of sewer-like pipes and metal rivers. Could the gilded building hold some kind of important device?

"Niyames, did we bring any kind of biological agent along? If a central reservoir of this magnitude were to be poisoned, it could quickly turn the tide in our favor. By the way, do you know the purpose of that gold-plated structure? I suspect it to be the control center for this area, so if we commandeer it the same disrupting effects of a toxin could be achieved."
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« Reply #29 on: December 05, 2011, 11:40:26 pm »

Marangreim reared up and took off, his two allies safely riding his back. Across the canyon, under the conglomerate, and on forever. An hour or more passed before he even seemed to look around.

“Oh, uh, I think we lost em.” they found themselves atop an octagonal tower, 20 feet in diameter, connected to many other, identical towers through metal bridges. Waterfalls flowed down the towers’ sides. The ground was too dark and far to be seen, but a few dim lights could be discerned. then came a great thunderous noise.




Niyames gave his your an idiot stare, which, to be fair to Charkan, he gave to just about everyone with little provocation.

"Poison The water? why would the Machine want that? The only reason It does not crush us is the limits instated by it's programing. Why would it let a toxin flow freely from this place? stoping us from killing several miles of it's transportation network is something well within it's allowances.

By the way, do you know the purpose of that gold-plated structure? I suspect it to be the control center for this area, so if we commandeer it the same disrupting effects of a toxin could be achieved."

A curve of the lip suggested a twinge of sadness in Niyames.
"Again, why would the machine let us control anything about it? The only one capable of that is the one in its heart. That is an old building from the homeland. A control center, of a kind, I suppose. The High palace of  king Uneni. What I wonder is why the Machine would have taken and left intact its adversaries' power symbol..."

Niyames walked to the front of the structure.

The building was over 80 feet tall, at a very conservative guess.  It was a blocky thing, perfectly square around the base. Twin column flanked the entrance, which was only four feet wide but stretched almost all the way to roof. The orange light was stationed directly over it. On closer inspection, it seemed a recent addition.

Niyames glared at it.
“So, Machine, and I know you can hear me, why did you bring this here? I know it’s not sentiment. I have felt your soul, and I know it contains none.”

Silence. He turned with a huff. The machine’s eye stared coldly and emotionless.

But then came a responceresponded. A great rumble shook the world. The rivers splashed and the towers shook.

As the roar waned, it became not just a sound, but voices, a chorus of voices, screaming in unison in every direction. They faded one by one, until only one feminine shriek remained, before it too was suddenly cut off. Then it spoke.

"You know why, Niyames. It is the same reason you fear to speak my name."
With every word, its voice seamlessly shifted to another. 
"So, the king has returned to take his throne."

End of part one
« Last Edit: December 06, 2011, 10:44:34 am by Bard » Report Spam   Logged

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