The Adbot's Revenge!

[Shrike7]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Shrike listens carefully through all of Host's explanations, a hint of a smile growing on her face. When he finishes, she chuckles merrily, it quickly growing to a full-out laugh before she finally answered. "Yep, your intel department sure as hell dropped the ball on me. Sure I'm smart, capable, all that jazz, and my mind is sharp as a scalpel psionically in my own happy little mental world. But I wander into someone else's mind, and replace that scalpel with a fencepost. I lent my willpower and raw ability to Sparky to help fix Siphon up, but it was like handing him a brick of metal and him fashioning it into a blade, as well as being the hand that wielded it. I can vouch for you, but you're going to have to be persuasive all on your own, buddy."

 

[Pale]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Ducked behind a chimney, Pale plans her next move. They obviously weren't going to respond to the decoy knocking on the door.. and she didn't trust her own abilities enough to keep up the pretence much longer... so she let the light show drop. With a moment's concentration, the spells die away one by one, leaving the house in darkness once again.

However, the mage makes the mistake of leaning out to glance at her decoy before she dispels it.. right as the grenade bounces through the doorway.

(I figure, being on the roof probably means she misses out on the Sting/Stink/Gas effects.. but she's still hearing it, and seeing it..)

With a muffled cry of pain, the Mage throws herself back behind the chimney stack, fingers quickly rising to cover her eyes, far too late.

The illusion on the doorstep fades away into nothingness as her concentration evaporates.

After a moment or two, the Mage calms down enough to take stock. The world stood a blinding white, and muted, to her.. but she was alive, and, more importantly, she could still sense mana streams.. which meant she could cast.

After a long moment, the Mage's voice echoes out again from the radios.

"Very clever. Now, I know you can hear me... There are two options here. You surrender, and then we can talk like civilised people. Or, I blow this building to Hell. I'm pretty sure my compatriots can survive an explosion or two."

(Blinded, hearing mostly gone.... and she still talks a fight. I love this character.)

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Siphon had reached the mountain with no distractions, and let out a low whistle at the damage done. Almost nothing was left of the thing, and from what he could see, only one shot had been fired. He was about to leave and investigate elsewhere when a sudden blip of movement down on the rocks, what was left of them anyway, caught his eye.

How the fuck could something have survived THAT? He thought to himself. A moment later, said "person" walked into view.


It was an abomination, easily ten feet tall and probably weighing a good seven hundred or more pounds of pure .... synthetic muscle? To make matters worse, it was armed with what seemed to be a missile launcher, which was now .... aimed right at him!

"Holy fuck!"

He maneuvered the dart high and away, the missile barely missing him, and exploding harmlessly in mid air with enough of a force to tell him the warhead hadn't been a normal one, but an energy type. The explosion was visible for probably four miles from it, and the thing was already on the move again. This time it wasn't moving to shoot him, but rather had taken off at a dead run .... for the building East of what remained of the mountain.

"Ok, why the fuck is it heading there?" He decided to shadow the beast and see what it was up to.


((Remember I said something about new shit a while back when everyone wanted less Sci-Fi type monsters and something different? Well, the Wraith re-programmed an existing bio-weapon for one purpose. To be the Lurkers/Forum Members NEMESIS. Remember that pod they dropped? Yup, you guessed it, the fucker came from that. Ideally I'd like to have EVERYONE working together here before it arrives, and I can only delay plans for just so long here ....))

 

[Host]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

The Wraith hive returned about the same time the grenade went off, and suddenly everything was happening at once. Moonbeam reporting that Pale had faded out of existence, a mountain exploding, shrapnel flying into the building, a mountain exploding, Lurkers moving to more optimal positions, a mountain exploding – and a dart returning to buzz the place. Host’s mind, brilliant as he thought it was, was unable to cope with quite that many things happening at once. Thankfully, he had only to deal with one at a time.
First was the dart. That much was simple. It had come soon after the hive had hit, and from much the same direction as the hive had gone. The only question was why it had returned – and Host quickly came up with a reasonable explanation.

“Stay down, away from the windows. We’re being buzzed, must be a scout making sure they hit what they wanted!” As he hid, Host had time to try and determine just what had happened with Pale. She had ‘disappeared’… like a mirage. She used an illusion at the door. Despite the overwhelming situation, Host grinned. She was good. the question, then, was why it had disappeared from the grenade. Host was no illusion master – that was the people that were currently hiding in the wall cavity (he sent a hostile thought their way for not mentioning anything about the illusion, though he didn’t really mean it). Still, from what he did know, he didn’t think it would have been disrupted from the grenade. The only thing that would have done that is if the caster’s concentration had been broken.
Which means the grenade must have affected her. Which means, she was nearby… maybe hiding in plain sight, under an illusion? No, that illusion would have ended at the same time she lost concentration. (I think.) She’s somewhere nearby, but not in plain sight.

Pale’s transmission cut through then, coming from Grave’s radio (Copper’s was in stasis and thusly not transmitting.) Host held up a hand to the Lurkers, walked over to Grave’s radio, and picked it up, mind still working furiously. There was a subtle difference in her voice that effectively proved that she’d been hit by the grenade, as far as Host was concerned. She was taking pains to keep her volume at a normal level - like someone who suddenly couldn’t hear so well, knew as such, and was trying to compensate for it. Host began speaking, his voice conveying a subtle hint of panic underneath a facade of authority, the type of mood that would cause a nervous sort of person to talk profusely. It helped that he didn’t need to fake it, either, only remove the anticipation and hopefulness. And everything he said was the truth, too… it would take a conning genius to pull the truth from his words.

“You know, I’ve had enough giant space continents of doom floating over my head today that I’m actually going to agree with you. We need to talk.” She couldn’t be underground. “you probably won’t believe it, but we actually came here for that very reason.” She can’t be out near the door, there isn’t any cover. “If you think about it, you’ll realise that that grenade was designed to be entirely non-fatal.” Host looked up. She’s on the roof. Silently, Host pointed to the radio, and then pointed to the ceiling. He moved over, pointed to a Lurker’s SOG, and pointed up again, all while still talking.
“See, we were trying to capture you so we could talk on our own terms,” The Lurkers had got the idea, and one had stood on top of a bed that had thankfully been strong enough to hold the Lurker’s weight. Host noted the subtle hand movements that indicated the priming of the grenade. I only have to keep her occupied for six seconds. “on our own turf. We couldn’t risk someone running into us while we tried to negotiate. But with the amount of shit that’s happened in the past few minutes, we really don’t have the luxury of choice anymore… do we?” the Lurker punched through the ceiling, which unlike the door, was made of strong enough stuff – some sort of experimental plastic - that punching through it while holding the grenade would be difficult. Instead, the grenade was held in one hand, while the other punched through, and then the grenade-hand came up through the hole. This afforded pale approximately a half a second of leeway, assuming she hadn’t moved from her position (perhaps deciding the fairly generic sounds of movement downstairs were something to be worried about, though is should be noted that they really hadn’t stopped moving since the hive returned, consolidating positions, covering angles and packing up to leave as they were).

('Future' stuff suspended temporally, till things are less chaotic. What happens regarding the Nemesis depends on how Pale responds…)

 

[Pale]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

After the first little incident with a distraction... the panicked shouts and cries that came as a response to her light show, Pale figured they weren't actually about to negotiate. On the other hand, despite tough talking, if they came out looking for her, the Mage didn't exactly have much ready.

So she had to keep them talking, and more, keep them trying their tricks, to see if she could gauge their responses. Next, she figured they'd use her voice on the roof to shoot her through the ceiling.

Which meant, it was HardShield time. A transparent shield to protect from physical attacks. After all, they'd never get a grenade like the first one through the roof... would they?

The Mage shrugs, and starts to reply, idly leaning back against the chimney, feet up in front of her... and wings closed around her to keep the distant explosions from her still-sensitive eyes.

"Well.. I don't know about you.. but with that thing overhead, I don't think now is the best time. You could just do it the old-fashioned way, and help us shoot it down.. I'm not really feeling up to just flying up there and pulling it out of the sky, yaknow?"

While the Mage talks, there is a muffled bang from the grenade exploding, yet she carries on as if nothing happened, the Stingers bouncing off the HardShield, and her ears already deafened from the first grenade.

"Oh. And in case you were wondering, it was seeing what the Hive dropped in that crater that made me drop the illusions. Not your little trick at the front door."

(I was also thinking about backing off, and just carving the house apart.. but that seems a little hostile.)

 

[Host]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

“That thing’s not overhead anymore. Granted, it could probably destroy all of us at a moment’s notice if it was to come back, but currently it’s not here. Which is good, because we don’t have the slightest idea on how to destroy any of those... bloody invulnerable... things.” Apparently Host couldn't find expletives capable of covering his hatred of the hives. The grenade goes off, but Host holds little hope for a successful detonation. Not because of interference from Pale, but from the sheer size of the roof – the room with the Lurkers in was not all that close to the door, which likely put them too far away from Pale’s location to be useful.

“You still conscious?” Host asks, though it’s clear he expects her to be so. The lack of screaming and the constant breathing pace tell him all he needs to know. “Yeah, thought as much. I told them we should have brought more mages... now we’re out of non-fatal ways to deal with you. And we aren’t here to kill you, so we’ll have to call this a stalemate, for the moment.”
Wait, ‘what the hive dropped in the crater’?
Host hopes it’s a bluff or a distraction, but only moments later Zorori is relaying a report about images of said something moving in the crater.
Oh. That something. That’s not good.

“Alright, so there is an immediate threat to our existence after all – we hadn’t noticed the thing the hive dropped. Due to this new piece of information, I agree that we no longer have the time to screw around with complicated diplomacy. So, let’s make this simple: you don’t try to hinder us, and we don’t try to hinder you. We’re not surrendering, mind, we’re just not going to attack you anymore. …And when this thing is dead or nullified, we leave, and you don’t follow us. Hell, I’m even going to be nice enough to leave the people we captured. Limited time offer-” Host had to stop his overactive mind from making a quip about females and shopping. It wouldn’t do to insult the person you’re trying to ally with…
“We officially offer a mutual, not-attacking-each-other deal. You have our word. And we’re treacherous bastards, so you should know that that means a lot.” there is no sarcasm in this last statement. The more untrustworthy one seems, the more they must adhere to their word, lest all their allies turn on them.

 

[Pale]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

With her feet up, Pale was feeling just a little more relaxed. Now. If she had a cigarette, the world would be alright. After a moment's thought, and listening to the voice emanating from the box beside her, the Mage replies.

"I have a better idea. You're basically terrorists, right? You've probably got some sort of political agenda.. Some prisoners you want released, some country that wants independence, whatever. So if I just let you go.. you're going to do the same thing again, because as far as I'm aware, your point hasn't been made. So here's my counter-offer. You release my friends to me, along with the means to wake them up... Then you help us out with this little.. uninvited guest."

She stifles a yawn. It had been a long day.

"Then, in return.. You get my official protection.. and, I let it be known that the safe release of my buddies was due to your goodwill, and nothing else. Since you're not exactly at gunpoint here, it's technically the truth. Plus, if you want it... I'll make your case to whatever ruling forces they have here. Nunu quite likes me, Aika loves me to bits.. "

She trails off. The meaning was obvious. As an afterthought, she adds.

"And, yaknow, I could probably take that Hive down on my own if you weren't causing problems for my meat shiel-... I mean, my comrades."

 

[Host]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, if only because we don’t have any way to wake them up, and they won’t get up themselves, not for another two hours anyway. Our ‘wakeup’ stuff was left behind - not really necessary on a capture mission, y’know." Host sighs. "I’d love to keep haggling, but we seem to be almost out of time. I don’t know how long this thing’s range is, but it’s certainly not short enough to give us the time we need to come to an agreement - though, luck holding, it should be long enough to make a statement.” Host pauses.

“We won’t attack you unless you attack us - by the bye, waking them up in the middle of us will be considerred an attack. We’ll leave the building when this is over and we’ll leave the captives in the building. If you follow us, we’ll attack you. Take it or leave it, but you can’t afford to fight on two fronts even close to the level we can – and we’re going to have to leave it there, because our exceptionally ugly friend is entering my maximum range.” Host turns the radio off, and the Lurkers instinctively line up in three rows of six, each holding some kind of rifle.
“Host, we’re armed with sleeping and paralysing dart and syringe guns.” Zorori noted.
“Doesn’t matter, we don’t need to kill it, just stop it from moving for a few hours. I figure we should capture it, anyway.”
“How the hell do you expect us to get that thing back to base? Maybe if we’d brought a cage…”
“You don’t need to worry about transport, Zorori. It will walk willingly with us. I brought Hack with me, just in case it was needed.”
“Well, I suppose that works... assuming the drugs don’t kill it outright.” Host looks out to the blip in the distance.
“Zorori, I get the feeling that our drugs aren’t going to affect it all that much.”

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

This close in, they could now notice the creature carried two weapons. One was a massive chaingun that looked like it belonged on the front of a helicopter, and the other was a surface to air missile launcher, the latter of which was now aimed directly at the building, the ugly big feon preparing to fire ....



When a single dart came flying in, swooping low and firing near the creature. While the shots missed due to the creature seeming to sense it coming, it DID serve to distract it. Said dart then banked at an angle one would think totally impossible, clearing sky high in seconds, pulling at least thirty g's. It didn't take a genius to figure that whoever was piloting the dart probably knew people were that things target, and wanted it focusing on more than one option at once.



Still, the creature turned, and once more sighted it's missile launcher, then fired at the building's side ....

 

[Host]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Host spies the creature’s weapons as it approaches, and turns the radio on again to let Pale in on the benefit of his insight, and as a warning to the movement about to happen.
“Rocket Launcher! Spread out, and get behind the building!” Whoever the hell was in that dart had bought them all the time the Lurkers needed to take cover either on the ground floor on the far side of the building, or behind the building itself.
Hang on; I thought the darts were on its side... Maybe it's one of the darts the forum looted... or maybe it's so berserk it's attacking its own masters? Mabye a third factor... gah, that's all we need.
For the sake of courtesy, they take the unconscious members and Copper to the ground floor with them. Host grabs a scythe from the place he’d left it between the walls, with the unseen illusionists supposedly following him down. He would have liked to have the time to get off a barrage before hand, but had used up all the Lurkers’ time moving things to more defensible positions. They'd have to weather the first shot. (Pale, if she had a mind to, would be able to notice the Lurker emblem on their chest plates – but only if she gets in close, it’s not visible from the distance she’s currently at.)

 

[Pale]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

The creature was just getting close enough for Pale to feel the edges of its resonance, on the mana spectrum. As Host's transmission ended, she stood up to get a better view, cursing the bright lights still flashing around the edges of her vision.

"Whoah... big guns. And a ROCKET LAUNCHER?"

The mage spotted this fact just as said weapon fired... and the impact sent the winged mage tumbling from the roof, rolling a couple of times before landing on the far side of the building, not far from Host and his men. The benefit of wings allowed her to land on her feet, and relatively gracefully, though.. So she shoots a glare to the Lurkers, certain of their amusement.

"I -meant- to do that. Now.. how do we stop this thing?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

The creature apparently wasn't pleased it hadn't hit any of them, and showed it's displeasure by tilting it's deformed head back and letting loose with a roar that was audible from where they were. When it finally fixed it's gaze back on them, it leveled the chain gun at the group it could see, and opened fire.




The dart completed it's maneuver and Siphon scanned once more. The big fucker somehow hadn't been hit, and worse, had opened fire on the building. "Oh, you just made a big mistake fucker."

He angled the dart back to perform a nosedive strafing run, but it would be a few moments more before he was in range. Plenty of time to watch the thing start opening up with the chain gun, too far away to distract it.

 

[Host]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

The rocket blasted open the room the Lurkers had previously been in. Whatever the house was made of, it was not capable of standing up to rocket blasts. Nor gatling gun rounds, for that matter, the shots tearing through the walls and even into the back rooms the Lurkers were residing in (although not all the way out the other side). Needless to say, the Lurkers inside hit the deck. Zorori and the seven Lurkers outside were largely pinned by Nemisis’ fire. Zorori answered Pale’s question with the most obvious answer -
“We shoot it a lot.”

The monster wasn’t able to hit the entire house at once, and this proved to the Lurkers advantage. When it moved to cover the right side of the house, the Lurkers on the left shot at it. When it moved to cover the left, the Lurkers on the right shot at it – and Lurkers that had moved to just inside the doorway took the chance to bolt out behind the house. Host himself was still inside, but not retreating as one might expect him to be – he popped up from the front door behind the stasis’d Copper, using the invincible ‘box’ containing her frozen form as a shield and firing a confiscated dart weapon at the beast (though when it looked ready to use a rocket he’d run back in, the stasis shield wouldn’t protect him from those). He was an unerringly good shot, too, managing to hit the monster a multitude of times.

The Lurkers never took little more than glancing blows to their armour, and cycled their more shot members back from the line of fire. All in all, they moved like a well oiled machine, clearly trained to a significant degree in squad based fighting, even managing to predict any attempts of at feinting made by the creature (though this may be more attributed to the Lurkers spying on the beast from various parts of the building and reporting back through the suits. Also, they were paying acute attention to the beast's rocket launcher arm, because if it fired at one side with that while using the gatling gun on the other, the Lurkers’ rhythm would be lost and several might get killed... they didn't intend to let that happen).

 

[Pale]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Pale watches the Lurkers take on the monster with a casual disdain that belies how impressed she actually was. Not many squads were this well disciplined, to keep up a constant barrage of fire without casualties. Of course, their weapons were hardly suited to the job.

Eventually, the Mage grows bored of simply standing and watching them fight, so shrugs, and begins to cast while they have the Nemesis distracted. Slowly, a spear of white light forms in her hand. Finally, she holds a nine foot spear of solid light in one hand. Taking to wing, the Mage lands on the roof of the shattered house, and calls out to the Nemesis.

"Hey. Ugly! Up here!"

When she was satisfied she had its attention, she mutters..

"WhiteLance."

And with that, she throws the spear off into the sky. There is a long pause, in which she cheekily grins at the Nemesis and hops back down behind the house, out of firing range. Nothing happens.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Nemesis roared in anger, enraged at the cowering and alternating tactics of the Lurkers. A moment later it solved this problem by aiming one weapon to either side, and opening fire ....


Only for several loud clicks to be heard as the ammo pit ran dry. Letting loose another bellow, it tossed both weapons aside, then ran for the nearest group of lurkers at full speed, the hail of bullets and stun blasts seeming to not even phase the ugly thing.




Siphon was in range, and opened fire again on the beast. This time he glanced a shot off the beast, causing it to stagger from the hit, chest burning where it's synthetic flesh had been hit. This revealed a multitude of ... purple tentacles, which now waved about in fury.

His strafing run complete, Siphon angled back to fire again when one of the tentacles extended out and literally swatted the dart like a fly, teetering him off course, but at an upward angle. The dart quickly vanished behind what remained of the hill that had once been a mountain, a small explosion audible a few moments later.

 

[Host]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

The entirety of the normal Lurkers now behind the house and the beast now sporting tentacles, Host decided it was time to retreat, taking his Copper-come-shield with him. Pale’s spell unfortunately hadn’t done anything, and soon their cover wouldn’t mean squat. Getting reports from the Lurkers at the edges about Nemesis dropping its weapons and moving toward the Lurkers, Zorori decided it was time to call in for evac. God knows when said evac would get here, but at the moment, retreat seemed the only real option.

Oooh, unfortunate, her magic seems to be erratic..., Host thought with a grimace as nothing happened. Must be that time of the month.
As he rounded the corner Pale gets her first visual indication that she’d been conversing with something infernal. Not having yet pulled Copper around the corner, Host begins talking.
“Pale, was that a delayed spell or did your magic have no effect? It’s rather important that we know what options we have.” there was no accusation or taunting in his voice, only a need for information.

 

[Pale]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Pale has a far-away look in her eyes, standing leaning against the edge of the building with a faint grin, and her voice comes as if distracted by concentration on something not quite in front of her.

"Just.. delayed. Give me a second, I'll have this thing in a bodybag. Here it comes... -now-."

The bolt thrown only moments ago by the Mage hurtles down from the heavens, unerring in its course, aimed directly for the Nemesis.. except now, it's more like 20 feet long, and five feet wide.

For a moment, there is no noise after impact, no explosion.The Lance simply hammers into the Nemesis and vanishes. After a long, protracted moment, everything is hid from view by a sphere of white, blasting out around the target, sending up soil in a spray for at least fifty meters. When it dies down.. nothing could remain. Could it?

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

((Didn't see that one coming or plan for that. Grats, you found one of it's weaknesses.))


Pale had been right, it couldn't survive that. Though the creature didn't so much as explode, but rather IMPLODE upon itself, which was fortunate since if it had exploded, certain places would have been covered in pieces of the creature.

A few seconds after Nemesis was killed, the pod that had been dropped exploded off in the distance.




Siphon pulled himself from the wreckage of his dart, very unhappy. He heard the explosion far away, and could only hope it had been the creature, and not the people in that house. He still had no idea that he'd protected those who could be considered the enemy, and even if he had, at that exact moment he wouldn't have cared. Human lives were human lives, regardless of if they were the enemy. If they were going to kill each other then so be it, but it wasn't needed for an alien species to interfere in that developmental stage.

Slowly, he began walking back towards the building, carrying a single pistol stunner with him, just in case.

 

[Host]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Pale finds herself, not rather unexpectedly, in the middle of a group of Lurkers who had previously been intent on capturing her… and all of them were armed with weapons capable of doing this easily.
"And now, we come to the part where we leave. Grave and Shrike are over there-" Host waves an arm in the general direction of the two prone forms lying on the grass "- and Copper is over here, behind me. Now, when I said that the members of your party were unconscious, I was, in fact, being somewhat overbroad. Unlike the others, Copper is in stasis - we'll turn the field off once we've gone a distance. She'll think she's still in the middle of a battle, you see, and we don't want to risk her suddenly attacking everybody. Grave and Shrike will both wake up in about two hours, as I said before, and Grave will likely be quite groggy, at best." Host puts a scaled finger to his chin, trying to remember if he'd forgotten anything. Satisfied after a moment, he continues. "That's all, apart from remembering not to follow us." the Lurkers turn to leave.

 

[Pale]

Re: The Adbot's Revenge!

Pale nods, smiling faintly as the Lurkers turn. She purposefully waits until they're about ten paces away, then calls out.

"Wait! Don't worry, I'm not about to blast you... Do you even know what that insignia is? It's an old Lurker symbol, way back from the second forum.. What are you kids doing wearing it? The Lurkers themselves were wiped out, so what does that make you..? The homage squad?"

(Edited. Lemme know if I need to edit again )