Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.
Luckily, the Burrito and his companions did not meet any leech creatures on their way to the location of the Lurkers’ evac. They did notice muffled crashing and roaring from somewhere not too far away – maybe the creatures were fighting with each other, or something was scaring them away – or maybe they just preferred to go for a group that had a female in it. Whatever the reason, Burrito made good time with the Lurkers, and got to the evac with time to spare. …or would have, if their method of evac had been there yet.
“Oh,
what the hell?! Where
are they!? We’re on a limited timer here!” ‘here’ was rather unusual for an evac location, being fairly far from any of the exits, leading Burrito to wonder just how they expected to get out…
The wall came down behind Krell’s group, cutting the Lurkers off from the Thembrihkal… but only for a moment. Krell could notice the barrier beginning to crack after only the first hit. Still, it served its purpose. Krell’s group successfully outdistanced the beasts long enough to reach the evac point – only to find that no transport awaited them, only the other Lurker squad and their guest.
“Commander-“ David began, walking towards Krell’s group – only to find them hurriedly running past him, whilst letting out various curses to whoever was driving the transports that were taking so damn
long to get here. David took a quick look in the direction his commander had rushed in from, and, spotting several rampaging tentacle monsters not far off, ran back in much the same manner as the other group just had. Unfortunately, the Lurkers quickly surmised that they did not have any further to run – if the Thembrihkal were to get between them and the evac site, there would be no time to take another way around.
“Well… what the hell do we do?!” asked a panicked Lurker from Krell’s squad that Burrito had no knowledge of.
“We fight till we stop moving! As we have always done!
That’s what the hell we do in my legion, Ike!” Proclaimed the Lurker with the orange helmet, the apparent leader.
“Suppose I should be glad I’m not normally in your legion, then.” Ike quietly remarked.
The charging Thembrihkal were beginning to send small tremors through the floor of the hive, as the unusual group readied themselves for a truly bloody battle. Then the tremors became more violent, and then even more so… until a Lurker from the other squad made an observation.
“Hey… even when they were a few feet from us, the shaking wasn’t this bad!” The orange-helmeted Lurker turned his head to face one of his squad.
“William, th-“
“I sense… something… below.” William cut in, pre-empting his commander.
“and beside!” He added, surprised, as if the new being had suddenly appeared out of nothing. Moments later a deep male voice played simultaneously through each of the Lurker’s suit’s speakers. Its every syllable was sinister, each sound saturated with evil to such an extent that it could surely only come from the mouth of a demon.
“
Craignez le feu d'obscurité...” The orange-helmeted leader moved his hand to his helmet, and firmly placed it there.
“Oh, come on, not him…”
“
Craignez votre cauchemar le plus mauvais.”
“I would have preferred to be saved by that bloody fox! …Well, maybe
not...” the ground shook from some unseen impact, as the voice continued:
“Tremblez avant la force du Corbeau Noir!” The Thembrihkal reached the site the transports were to arrive at – and chaos erupted. The wall of the passage beside the large beasts exploded inwards, as a giant thing, in the shape of a large bird – part machine, and part
darkness – forced its way through the wall.
And on its back…
A rider. Clothed, neck to toe, in a dark-blue metal suit, similar in shape to that of the other Lurkers, if not in colour – though this is far more difficult to notice than the outer coating of black feathers, covering all the body bar the arms and legs. In one hand, a tremendous blade, shaped lie a giant raven’s feather – the other holds nothing, but bears a large device near the wrist. Between its shoulders are the ends of several larger feathers, fanning out to resemble the wings of a seraph in miniature, and the ends of each shoulder bear the start of two small ‘wings’ of a more earthly design. But it is the helmet, more than any other feature, which sets it the most apart from every other Lurker. Seemingly made from the same metal as every other Lurker’s suit, the helmet’s main difference lies not in its material structure, but its design. Resembling not the reptilian features of the common Lurker’s suit, but the beak of a bird, and extending at least two times longer than needed. To add to this unusual design, the top and bottom sections of the helmet are not connected – a sure target for any hostile snipers in miles, and obvious weak-spot. …And yet, somehow, attempting to see into the gap always ends up fruitless, regardless of angle… as if the helmet had somehow contained darkness within it.
In sync with the arrival of the mounted warrior, the floor of the hive burst open under the frontrunners of the Thembrihkal. Beneath the two newly-made holes, were vehicles that resembled nothing more than armoured subway cars with wheels attached… and with
big fucking drills taped to the front. Big fucking
strong drills, as the Thembrihkal soon discovered, when the still advancing vehicle’s drills connected messily with the Thembrihkal’s soft underside, even managing to tear apart their metal shell as they burst into the corridor.
In short order, a door opened on each of the two vehicles, and several Lurkers left each one, armed with various weapons – some even looked strong enough to harm the Thembrihkal. As the Lurkers and Thembrihkal began to clash, it was not the sound of their weapons, nor the roar of their opponents that dominated the battlefield, but the booming laughter of the suited, beaked figure riding the dark, avian machine. As he leapt from his perch, the darkness making up the body and wings of his mount dispersed, leaving the mechanical components to clatter impotently to the ground. The feathered Lurker let out a cry as he charged the Thembrihkal, somehow managing to not be shot by his own side:
“
For the Lurkers, and The Black Raven’s legion!”
The reinforcing Lurkers immediately echoed the cry, as they continued to press the assault against their armoured foe.
“AH! Those assholes are stealing my battle!” The orange-helmeted Lurker complained.
“What do they think we are, Damsels to be rescued!? Come on, my legion, there’s still some left for us!” And with that, their leader took off at speed towards the battle. Strangely, only two of the group with Burrito felt suicidal enough to follow him, and those two stayed back with the rest of the Lurkers firing from a range. The remainder of the group simply made for the transports. Not having a weapon capable of harming a Thembirhkal, and besides, feeling drained by the various damage and exertions of the day, Burrito neared a transport and merely watched.
Meanwhile, the feathered Lurker had reached the Thembrihkal. His lance-like sword swung out, and tore into the extended steel tentacles of the nearest Thembrihkal, who had been trying to grapple him. It howled and bucked in pain, thrashing it’s wounded limbs – but, thankfully, the length of his weapon put the Lurker beyond the Thembrihkal’s range. This success was, however, a small one, as another Thembrihkal was already nearly upon him - and behind that one, three more. All this before he’d had the chance to finish the first… although thanks to the ranged support, that became unnecessary, when the Thembrihkal roared in pain once more, and then finally collapsing from various impacts.
The Lurker levelled his left hand at the next oncoming Thembrihkal, the device on his left wrist opening at the front to reveal what appeared to be a gun barrel, and turned out to be what is likely the most unconventional weapon Burrito has yet seen. Without any discernable motion, the Lurker triggered the gun, causing it to fire out not a bullet, but an egg. Furthermore, an egg that couldn’t have possibly fit into the barrel it was fired from, nor stored in any large quantity inside the suit – there was surely some magic involved in the weapon’s mechanics. And the supersonic egg wasn’t even the full extent of the attack. Shortly after launch, the egg hatched into a bird resembling a raven – or at least the head of a raven, the rest was something of a blur at that speed – which then steered itself toward the target! The resulting impact proved to be more deadly than the projectile implied – the raven not only displayed armour-piercing properties, it actually
exploded almost immediately after contact… and they were being fired at a rate parrel to any modern submachine gun. The Thembrihkal not only found its progress slowed by a hail of high-velocity ravens, cawing as they went, but actually ended up being injured in the process.
“
Bwahahahahahahahahahahaaa!”, laughed the raven-themed Lurker, as he simultaneously fired with one hand and swung with the other, his voice cutting through every other sound on the battlefield. Unfortunately, even one such as he could not hold back multiple Thembrihkal, as the wounded one in front quickly found itself shoved along by the ones behind. In short order, the laughing Lurker could potentially find himself cut down… but the orange helmeted Lurker from the other squad removed that concern, as he bodily leapt onto the foremost Thembrihkal, metal claws proving their superiority to metal tentacles as he bodily tore his way into the beast. The bird-Lurker was less than appreciative for the assistance, though.
“
Krell!? What the hell are you doing!? We’re preforming a fighting retreat, not trying to rout the enemy!” He said, firing on one of the other two advancing Thembrihkal, and cutting away the tentacles of the third as it tried to tear him apart. Krell either didn’t hear or didn’t feel like responding, as he exited from the opposite end of the Thembrihkal, and leapt onto the next closest. Probably both.
The Thembrihkal he landed on attempted to swat the annoyance, only to find its tentacle grabbed and, with some effort, torn straight from its body. Unfortunately for Krell, it responded to its partial castration by using
multiple tentacles to swat Krell, catching the Lurker unprepared and sending him back towards the other melee Lurker. Were it not for the hail of various ranged weaponry pushing back and killing one of the remaining Thembrihkal, the two Lurkers would have likely been overrun in the time it took Krell to stand back up.
“
Krell, we don’t have time for this! This starship will be leaving, in very short order!”
Almost as if to accentuate his point, the hive’s engines fired off, shaking even Krell out of his bloodlust. He simply growled in annoyance at the prospect of having to leave a fight unfinished, but still forced himself to the transport’s entrance. Burrito, who had been watching alongside the ranged Lurkers, decided it would be a good idea to leave with everyone else – the one exception being the Lurker with the mechanical bird mount, who could assumedly find his own way out, and was still cutting up the few remaining Thembrihkal. As the last of the Lurkers entered the transports, the doors closed and they backed down the holes they had entered through. The drivers preformed a U-turn, tunnelling back the way they’d come from.
The inside of the transport did nothing to diminish the idea that it was simply a subway car with armour plating, as the seats were of a familiar fashion to those the signature transport of the subways. The battle over and the threat avoided, Burrito found the fatigue from the actions of the day were no longer so easy to shake. His mind wandered to his travelling companions, sitting still, probably conversing with each other over the inter-suit com.
They’re so secretive… probably talking about me, actually. I am the odd one out, here, after all. And, though he didn’t know it, Burrito was completely correct.
“So? Does it look like it’s working?”
…
“Nope. Damn, he must be immune to the gas. And here I was hoping it’d be
easy.”
“So, plan B?”
“You want to kill him wi-“
“Gah, Plan C, I skip the joke one.”
“Alright, does anyone have a SOG on them?”
“I’ve got one, want me to prime it?”
“Yeah, on my signal-“
“Hey, guys. Guys!”
“What?!”
“Ah… it seems he’s… fallen asleep.”
“…You have to be joking.”
“No… No I’m not. He’s out cold.”
The Lurker was correct, too. Overcome by the power drain caused by the multiple battles, wounds and other actions throughout the mission, Burrito had become too drained – he was simply without enough power to continue to operate, and had set himself to recharge.
“That… might make this the easiest capture mission I’ve ever been on.”
The other Lurkers just murmured agreement and moved to restrain the new captive, as their transport continued to its destination…
The Black Raven dispatched the next Thembrihkal, but quickly found himself faced with two at once, an amount even the talented warrior was not comfortable facing if he didn’t have to – even if they
were the last two there. The hive seemed to have risen enough to kill any Thembrihkal stupid enough to try going after the retreating Lurkers, and the remaining ones would be killed in the explosion anyway... There really wasn’t any reason to keep fighting them. He grinned, and slashed through a nearby tentacle.
Now, since when have I needed a reason…? he thought to himself, continuing to dodge his opponents.
Besides… an unavoidable death, no preceding battle, no fairness – not even the intended target… I wouldn’t wish that on the worst of opponents. His reverie was quickly broken as a tentacle almost scored a hit, opening the path for another, which launched a painful hit to the gut, and sent the Black Raven flying like his namesake. He got to his feet quickly… but without the armour’s apparent shock absorption, he probably wouldn’t have gotten up at all. He simply grunted, and used his new-found range to use his raven-shooting weapon… Only to have nothing happen. The warrior, confused at his loss of ammo, took a moment opened his senses, getting a feel for the spiritual side of things. What he found was startling –
has aura was depleting, being Siphoned off, into the Thembrihkal.
These beasts leach Wakfu?!
He gave a plaintive look over to his ride.
Much as I may wish to end this properly… at this rate, I may soon not have enough left to power the bird!
He gave up the battle, quickly mounting his ride, the wings of darkness appearing and unfolding as he did so, although seemingly very sluggishly. He took off through the hive, quickly and dexterously finding his way to the exit, despite the comparative size of the tunnels to his mount, his booming laughter soon beginning, and echoing as he went.
I -would- have won if I’d stayed, he justified to himself.
It was just the time limit, is all. I’d rather not be caught up in this explosion with no way to power my escape. He stayed, hidden near the ground, to watch the hive explode… and then for some time afterwards, until he got a call from Lurker command through the radio –
“Black Raven, we have a new task for you…”
[I'm leaving this here - it was part of the placeholder that was here, but it isn't explicitly covered in the proper post, and I didn’t want it to get removed completely.
A lifesign has appeared suddenly not too far from the wraith's location, but only briefly before flickering out of existence, probably just a glitch caused by the hits the hive has taken.
For the players, Burrito won't respond to any radio signals or any other form of communication, and cannot be located via any method, including psionic. Magic returns a result, but a random one, as if something was scrambling the result.]
