Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

[Tsuki]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Tsuki stayed quiet. If she was supposed to be not moving, getting a gun and potentially fighting would probably count towards that. Anyway, she could make her own weapons... later.

I don't really care if apologizing is a sign of weakness. I'm still causing everyone trouble and forced Siphon to be left alone. How stupid am I that I could've gotten.....

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Your not stupid. Many of my fellow wraith fell victim to those things and were killed, and they were better trained than any of you at avoidance. There is no shame in being taken by surprise, no shame in admitting when something out maneuvered you. And to be honest, I think that if you said that to Siphon he'd give you a hug and tell you not to worry about it. He struck me as the type of person who would sacrifice his own life to save that of another if he felt it could be done.


He nodded to Grave. "Yes, there is a vial five decks above us now that contains a chemical that will vaporize only the things growing within her. The bottle is yellow in color and about the size of a small glass. She will need to drink that entire bottle to get the desired effect. We have a few more of them, but the supply was limited since we were forced to destroy the supply outpost that had them in our fight. It may be possible to synthesize more should someone with a sufficient medical background and science try. Luckily for you, if I can get the proper materials, I have the technical abilities to attempt such a feat, but I will take any help I can get. As for the other wraith, if we move a hundred meters past this room to our south, we can cut open a hole in the floor and drop our bomb on them. That will render them out for some time, certainly long enough for us to gather what we need and return to Siphon, then make an exit."

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave sighed again. "Looks like we shouldn't waste time. Listen guys, I'm going to bring out my best weapon. In spite of it's looks, it has a lot of power, so if you see it glow or hear me speak the word Ragnarok, run and hide behind something. Basically, when unleashed it mowes down anything in front of me. Taxing, but effective."

The warrior focused, closing his eye. He reached deep into himself, tapping into his dormant power. Grave closed his eyes and raised his right hand. 'Trace.' An image drifted into his mind. He could imagine it - his own might given form. 'What you imagine is always your strongest form... Project.' Grave released the power within him. Dark energy surged through his body, filling his mana circuits in an instant. Power began to build up, overloading the circuit, and black light shot out of Grave's hand as he curled his fingers, grasping the hand of a sword that had yet to exist.

'Forge - Devil Blade!'

At that point, everything broke and everything reformed. For a moment, Grave's whole body became a medium through which he could project his idea into the world. The circuit's limit disappeared along with the black light. Grave opened his eye. His fingers remained fixed on the hilt of a black sword. Grave began to examine it and smiled. It had a long, straight, katana-like blade. Completely black, it had a short row of spiky teeth above the cross-guard, placed at the back of the blade. The grip's lenght suggested that this sword could be used with both hands, however Grave seemed to prefer holding it with just one. A knuckle bow, shaped like a claw of a beast, offered protection for hands. The cross-guard also had a sharp, menacing look. The rain guard had the shape of a skull - it looked like a human skull, unless someone counted the long fangs. The lower part of the jaw wasn't included. Long story short, it looked like a longsword made by a smith who had a bad nightmare before work.

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"Duck and cover at the end of the world, got it," Copper remarks. "Or at least don't be between you and the target." She remains quiet, though, as Grave forges his blade, taking in the details of it as it forms. Though she doesn't say anything, the glance of her eyes from him to the blade and back, not to mention the arch of her brow shows that she's plenty impressed with the weapon, even if he downplayed the looks.

"Here's hoping you won't have to use it much," she comments. "If we're all set, let's get our little slumber party going. The sooner that's done, the sooner we can get Tsuki her morning-after drink." Tsuki feels the slight hug the vampire gives her as she holds her. It's not much, but it's meant to be at least a little reassuring.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

John simply nodded, hefting the launcher into position, ready to fire if need be.


Sparky looked at Copper then spoke. "Very well. Before we move however, I'm taking it you want to neutralize the wraith trying to get in where we left Siphon first? Clarifying before I lead us one way when you have another plan."

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"That was the plan. Why?" She fixes him with an arched-brow look. "You know something we don't?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

He shook his head. "No, I just wanted to be certain we both had the same thought in place before proceeding. No use in having me take you to drop our bombs if you wanted to get the vial first. Wasting time is a luxury we do not have. If this hive becomes over run to the point that the others feel they can't contain the leech beings or capture all of us, we will have a major problem though. Standard op is to self destruct a hive if it is going to fall into enemy hands. Unfortunately, according to my survey of this area, triggering the self destruct of this hive may very well be much worse than a simple explosion. These mountains sit on top of a thin crust layer, and under that is a... I believe you call them magma chambers? If we were to detonate this hive with it's full self destruct, this entire mountain range would become a hot spot volcano within seconds. We would never survive it within a few miles of this hive. I managed to disable the device, but I have to admit, I doubt it will stop them forever. Unfortunately, we likely will never get to the room to completely destroy the needed components. I was forced to retreat before I could."

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Copper looks like she'd be pinching her brow if she werent' holding Tsuki. "Charming. Lovely. He just now mentions this. Allright, I'm for sticking with the original plan. We take out the threat to Siphon, book our asses up to get that vial, and then get Siphon and Burrito and get the hell out of here." As she mentions Burrito, she looks thoughtful. "We might have an ace there. If we can get him to the room you're talking about, he can maybe dismantle it. Regardless, let's get moving. Like you said, we're wasting time we don't have. Lead us to that floor."

 

[Tsuki]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

... Thank you....

Tsuki merely hugged Copper back, waiting quietly for her nightmare to be over. She was feeling a bit queasy with her 'tummy' full of... not so nice stuff squirming about.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave sighed as Sparky explained the situation. "Oh, for the love of all Evil and Unholy... Just great. You know people, once we disable the nasties trying to snatch Siphon, find the vial, pick both Siphon and Burrito up, we should make sure that the self-destruct system is down for good. We don't have our chopper because it was trashed and Copper used the rotor to make Octopus-on-a-stick. If we travel by foot in a rough terrain like this, getting out of the danger zone is going to take a lot of time. Now, let's move."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Sparky nodded once, moving outward. "If we can get to that room, I can also definitely disable it for good. I may also be able to introduce something into the air systems as well. If you have any kind of bio-agent capable of killing humanoids... wait, we may be able to distribute plasma coolant in the air shafts and suffocate every living thing on this ship, that would eliminate the need for us to blow it up. Alternatively I could attempt to fly this hive, damaged as it is, elsewhere to blow it up."

He also answered Grave. "We would never escape the danger zone on foot in time, your correct there. Ah, we're here."


He stopped at a section of hall, a terminal there. He began pressing buttons on it, speaking lightly to the others. "When the hole opens, drop one of the bombs in after setting it to go off, then haul ass away from that hole. You don't want to be stunned yourselves now."

A moment later, the hole was open, and they could spot several wraith still firing at the door, the rest of them having just returned with.... the missing cutter and flamethrower they hadn't found in the armory.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave moved away from the hole, covering his eye. He didn't want to stay too close to the blast zone and get paralyzed. He smirked as he whispered a sentence to his comrades.

"Fire in the hole."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

With the others out of the way, John rolled the live bomb into the hole, ducking out of the way.

Moments later, a strange noise was heard, followed by the grunts of surprised wraith, and a half second after that the sounds of multiple bodies hitting the floor.


Sparky was already standing as the bodies hit, obviously knowing these devices better than anyone there. "That's it, they're out cold. Now we make sure they stay down for good. This won't take long."


He jumps down the hole, the sounds of things being cut open harshly filling the small area. After less than a minute, Sparky leaps back up into their new room, his body splattered with blood. "They won't be bothering us any time soon, I cut out their hearts and brains. In fact, they won't ever be waking up. Now, let us get moving for that vial, we don't have forever."

He began heading out, pausing only long enough to be sure the others were following him.


((For late posters, you can have your character jump down and help in the carnage, if they can get back up by jumping like he did, or simply move onward, I leave that choice up to you.))

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave didn't really want to slaughter helpless foes. The Devil Blade didn't exist for such purposes. The warrior followed Sparky, focusing on scanning the area around as he moved. "Hey. Do you have any real names? Sparky sounds kind of... Inappropriate." Altough killing comrades wasn't something Grave approved of - and for all he cared these wraith were Sparky's comrades, or at least former comrades - he was impressed by the wraith's effectiveness.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"We do have names, but most of them would be... unpronouncable to non-wraith. The last human I encountered who actually didn't try to kill me took to referring to me by the name of Chris, so I suppose you could use that."

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave nodded. Chris was a rather plain name, but this wasn't the best time to think of such things. "Listen, there's one thing I wanted to ask about. When I've mentioned the Octopus-on-a-stick, I was talking about one of those armored tentacle monsters that were made here. How much do you know about them?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

There was a moment pause as he picked his way over a piece of debris, moving it so Copper and Tsuki wouldn't have a tough time of it before answering Grave. "Plenty. Originally it seems that someone within the forum west of here was creating them along with the leech creatures to be bio-weapons for war. When we came across the blueprints for the Thembrihkal, the decision was made by the queen to attempt introducing wraith DNA into them. This it believed would allow us to control them at will, but still leave each unit with enough intelligence of it's own to survive without input. It seems for the most part it worked, however with the queen's death, and the main commander gone, only the king of this hive has the ability to order them. If he is killed, the creatures will act on their own, and will become highly unpredictable. They have two weak points, one is high up where there is a small slit in the armor to allow movement, and directly underneath their bodies is a small section that is exposed, and not armored. Enough force there can possibly kill one of them, but the trick is getting close enough to hit it without being grabbed. Ingenious design really I have to admit. Mixing vampire DNA and wraith DNA allows it to regenerate at an incredible rate, and makes it very tough to injure. It also allows it to feed in a way most humanoids will simply find too... taxing to break free from. Overall a good instrument for war. In principle, an abomination."

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave nodded. "I agree." He fell silent as he processed the info, memorizing it, before two details struck him like half-bricks. "Uh... The king of the Hive... He's a large, bionically enhanced behemoth, right? You see, Tsuki hacked the systems of the Hive and dropped the ceiling on a guy like that... Also, what about the leeches? You've said that it was supposed to be a bio-weapon. If you didn't complete it, then who did?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"He is. If he's dead as you say, then the Thembrihkal are without direction. They will be highly unpredictable from now on. As for the leeches, we did not complete them, we deemed them to be uncontrollable. However it appears whoever was originally working on them did in fact finish at least a few of them. By now they will have populated this ship, reproducing at will with humanoid females. We can only assume that whoever the original designer was may still be alive, since these things were not loose when we originally left the attack site."

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"Or perhaps they're smarter than you think." Grave sighed. "You know, I've seen many ways to fight on a forum, but most of the time it involved sex or some sort of strange tactics." He shook his head. "Good opponents are hard to find these days."