Children of the Flower (Alpha/Beta Squads)

[DaMadReaper]

8

Alpha

As the ships were busy discussing their plan of action, Kassandra had been busy attempting to find a lock on... anything within the deadspot, only to find that there was nothing of the sort within reach. Nothing that could be locked on, nothing that could be detected, just absolutely nothing. Like an empty void in the heart of space, where it had no right existing. Briefly, the possibility of something akin to a black hole would flash through their minds, only to be dismissed as there was no mass, no gravity, nothing, but the expanding hole in the sky. This, however, was not enough for one, specific man. He was not simply content with having annihilated a spaceship in close combat, no, he craved more. He would need to be the one to take the first stab at this new mystery.

 Golden light charged up, building into a point far too bright to look at, before plunging into the heart of the darkness. One thing no one ever expects is for a laser to... splash? The golden light diffuses into a portion of the black sphere, painting it bright yellow. The scene stands for a moment, before the point of impact starts being sucked in. It pushes into the centre, distorting the entire shape, a point on the exact opposite side doing the same, all being concentrated at the centrepoint. Immediately, all within the vicinity would receive a blaring void energy warning, watching as the former sphere now begins contracting.

Beta

In a single instant, the mission parameters had been annihilated. What had once been a distraction group was now a rescue mission, aiming for their original target, but under other circumstances. However the events had occurred, they were now forced to ensure the safety of their friends, rushing through the doors, ruthlessly ending the lives of any Grineer they came across on the way, leaving a trail of mess and carnage in ther wake, until at last, they reached it. The door behind which Delta Squad was now holding position at. The doors hiss open, merging the two parties together, and beginning the battle for their lives in earnest.

((From here, Beta Squad will be posting in the Gamma/Delta Squad thread as well, which can be found on the roleplaying page. Be sure to still tag your posts as Beta Squad as well. I will be writing what the situation looks like and what's happening in the Delta Squad post, so check over there.))

[Locky122]

On 2019-10-06 at 2:48 AM, DaMadReaper said:

8

Alpha

As the ships were busy discussing their plan of action, Kassandra had been busy attempting to find a lock on... anything within the deadspot, only to find that there was nothing of the sort within reach. Nothing that could be locked on, nothing that could be detected, just absolutely nothing. Like an empty void in the heart of space, where it had no right existing. Briefly, the possibility of something akin to a black hole would flash through their minds, only to be dismissed as there was no mass, no gravity, nothing, but the expanding hole in the sky. This, however, was not enough for one, specific man. He was not simply content with having annihilated a spaceship in close combat, no, he craved more. He would need to be the one to take the first stab at this new mystery.

 Golden light charged up, building into a point far too bright to look at, before plunging into the heart of the darkness. One thing no one ever expects is for a laser to... splash? The golden light diffuses into a portion of the black sphere, painting it bright yellow. The scene stands for a moment, before the point of impact starts being sucked in. It pushes into the centre, distorting the entire shape, a point on the exact opposite side doing the same, all being concentrated at the centrepoint. Immediately, all within the vicinity would receive a blaring void energy warning, watching as the former sphere now begins contracting.

Beta

In a single instant, the mission parameters had been annihilated. What had once been a distraction group was now a rescue mission, aiming for their original target, but under other circumstances. However the events had occurred, they were now forced to ensure the safety of their friends, rushing through the doors, ruthlessly ending the lives of any Grineer they came across on the way, leaving a trail of mess and carnage in ther wake, until at last, they reached it. The door behind which Delta Squad was now holding position at. The doors hiss open, merging the two parties together, and beginning the battle for their lives in earnest.

((From here, Beta Squad will be posting in the Gamma/Delta Squad thread as well, which can be found on the roleplaying page. Be sure to still tag your posts as Beta Squad as well. I will be writing what the situation looks like and what's happening in the Delta Squad post, so check over there.))

[Lucas Edwards - Alpha Squad]

"Warning - Unknown energy surge detected, Evasive action reccomended"

Lucas was now seriously questioning the tactical aptitude of most of Alpha squad, whose apparent solution to every problem was 'shoot first, ask questions later'. Even though He himself had armed torpedoes in preperation, he wasn't about to let them fly until he knew what he was dealing with.

And now it looks like the others had just kicked the sh*t out of the proverbial hornet's nest.

Void energy started surging forth from the rift at an alarming rate, Celeste sounding that off as an alarm that very much reccommends getting the hell out of dodge, so he opened up comms with the rest of the squad, alerting them to the current predicament. 

"Alpha squad, this is Garmr-1 - Deliverance. I have a funny feeling that we've just kicked the hornet's nest here, reccomending retreating to safe distance before we get blasted, thoughts?"

Edited October 7, 2019 by Locky122

[MetroFallout]

On 2019-10-06 at 12:48 AM, DaMadReaper said:

8

Alpha

As the ships were busy discussing their plan of action, Kassandra had been busy attempting to find a lock on... anything within the deadspot, only to find that there was nothing of the sort within reach. Nothing that could be locked on, nothing that could be detected, just absolutely nothing. Like an empty void in the heart of space, where it had no right existing. Briefly, the possibility of something akin to a black hole would flash through their minds, only to be dismissed as there was no mass, no gravity, nothing, but the expanding hole in the sky. This, however, was not enough for one, specific man. He was not simply content with having annihilated a spaceship in close combat, no, he craved more. He would need to be the one to take the first stab at this new mystery.

 Golden light charged up, building into a point far too bright to look at, before plunging into the heart of the darkness. One thing no one ever expects is for a laser to... splash? The golden light diffuses into a portion of the black sphere, painting it bright yellow. The scene stands for a moment, before the point of impact starts being sucked in. It pushes into the centre, distorting the entire shape, a point on the exact opposite side doing the same, all being concentrated at the centrepoint. Immediately, all within the vicinity would receive a blaring void energy warning, watching as the former sphere now begins contracting.

 

"This is Garmr-2, there's a surge of void energy from that location, retreat at least 5 kilometres and keep going if the void energy surge keeps growing in scale." called out Zero, broadcasting the message to Alpha's friendly signal frequencies. "Will continue to observe from minimum safe distance and adjust accordingly."

In his mind, Zero was getting inundated with questions despite remaining a cool head on the exterior. What was going on?

[Spikey844]

On 2019-10-05 at 5:48 PM, DaMadReaper said:

8

Alpha

As the ships were busy discussing their plan of action, Kassandra had been busy attempting to find a lock on... anything within the deadspot, only to find that there was nothing of the sort within reach. Nothing that could be locked on, nothing that could be detected, just absolutely nothing. Like an empty void in the heart of space, where it had no right existing. Briefly, the possibility of something akin to a black hole would flash through their minds, only to be dismissed as there was no mass, no gravity, nothing, but the expanding hole in the sky. This, however, was not enough for one, specific man. He was not simply content with having annihilated a spaceship in close combat, no, he craved more. He would need to be the one to take the first stab at this new mystery.

 Golden light charged up, building into a point far too bright to look at, before plunging into the heart of the darkness. One thing no one ever expects is for a laser to... splash? The golden light diffuses into a portion of the black sphere, painting it bright yellow. The scene stands for a moment, before the point of impact starts being sucked in. It pushes into the centre, distorting the entire shape, a point on the exact opposite side doing the same, all being concentrated at the centrepoint. Immediately, all within the vicinity would receive a blaring void energy warning, watching as the former sphere now begins contracting.

 

1 minute ago, Locky122 said:

[Lucas Edwards - Alpha Squad]

"Warning - Unknown energy surge detected, Evasive action reccomended"

Lucas was now seriously questioning the tactical aptitude of most of Alpha squad, whose apparent solution to every problem was 'shoot first, ask questions later'. Even though He himself had armed torpedoes in preperation, he wasn't about to let them fly until he knew what he was dealing with.

And now it looks like the others had just kicked the sh*t out of the proverbial hornet's nest.

Void energy started surging forth from the rift at an alarming rate, Celeste sounding that off as an alarm that very much reccommends getting the hell out of dodge, so he opened up comms with the rest of the squad, alerting them to the current predicament. 

"Alpha squad, this is Garmr-1 - Deliverance. I have a funny feeling that we've just kicked the hornet's nest here, reccomending retreating to safe distance before we get blasted, thoughts?"

ALPHA

"Good idea Deliverance," Kassandra said, "get yourself swung around and retreating. It'll give us space if nothing else. I'll go last, I'm more able to take a hit." Kassandra had her guns aimed towards the sphere. Mental commands and flying hands had her ready to spin and flee at a moments notice, her mind racing as she eyed the bubble. 

'Void energies and Grineer craft? I don't like this mix,' the symbiote Tenno thought to herself, keeping her plasma cannon's trained on the deadspot, her sensors watchful for anything coming out. 

The Ghost Lance would retreat backwards, weapons aimed at the deadspot, until the others were at a reasonably safe distance, then Kassandra would spin the craft around and hit the throttle to chase after them.

[Locky122]

Just now, Spikey844 said:

 

ALPHA

"Good idea Deliverance," Kassandra said, "get yourself swung around and retreating. It'll give us space if nothing else. I'll go last, I'm more able to take a hit." Kassandra had her guns aimed towards the sphere. Mental commands and flying hands had her ready to spin and flee at a moments notice, her mind racing as she eyed the bubble. 

'Void energies and Grineer craft? I don't like this mix,' the symbiote Tenno thought to herself, keeping her plasma cannon's trained on the deadspot, her sensors watchful for anything coming out. 

The Ghost Lance would retreat backwards, weapons aimed at the deadspot, until the others were at a reasonably safe distance, then Kassandra would spin the craft around and hit the throttle to chase after them.

8 minutes ago, MetroFallout said:

"This is Garmr-2, there's a surge of void energy from that location, retreat at least 5 kilometres and keep going if the void energy surge keeps growing in scale." called out Zero, broadcasting the message to Alpha's friendly signal frequencies. "Will continue to observe from minimum safe distance and adjust accordingly."

In his mind, Zero was getting inundated with questions despite remaining a cool head on the exterior. What was going on?

[Lucas Edwards - Alpha squad]

"10-4 Ghost lance, Retreating now. Garmr-2, crank that washing machine around and get moving. We've got the Ghost Lance covering our retreat. Stay frosty, folks."

With that, Lucas cranked the ship around and began burning away at full speed from the now void-spewing lantern, the Deliverance gaining velocity at a hearty 5gs of acceleration. Deciding that around 700 metres per second was a good enough speed, he cut throttle and flipped the ship back towards his original location, tracking both the Lantern and the Ghost lance, ready to lend a hand if things went downhill...

[vodkacrepper]

Golden light splashed on the sphere before bending,ccontracting toward it's center as a tsunami of void radiation cascaded toward the general area, inside the boxy cockpit of the Arca Sylo Donovan wasn't moving, admiring the effects of thes sphere with both hands in the hair as the ship itself would move backwards along with the rest of Alpha team, but the prince? He didn't talk or communicate through the whole ordeal, simply letting out short chuckles in between his long silence.

 

[DaMadReaper]

9

Slowly, slowly, the sphere consumes itself, sucked in by two points emerging from the Lantern... maybe. You aren't entirely certain of what is truly occurring. Yet, the sphere continues its breakdown, eventually allowing the edges of the ship within to emerge from the inky blackness, coming into range of the group's sensors. However, they would soon realise that the ship was not running. As the sphere fully disappeared into the insides of the craft, it would become clear that whatever had projected the sphere, and by extension, the immense mass of void energy, was within. And then, destruction ensues. In a single instant, the Lantern is destroyed, its hull rent open from a thousand, maybe more, seams, exploding outwards at incredible speeds, showering the surrounding area in debris. The wave then continues its expansion outwards, consuming hundreds of meters in a fraction of a second, a concussive blast carrying the accumulated energy of an inordinate number of shots fired, but losing strength by the meter. 

By the time it reached the group, it had lost enough that its impact could be considered negligible. Just like that, it was gone. The void energy had returned to slightly above average, and a second black spot had appeared, this time only the size of two or three people across, but residing in the exact centre of the last one. However, there was a difference this time. This spot was moving, steadily approaching the Half-Light, and by extension, the group. This... would need to be dealt with.

[Spikey844]

Kassandra stared at the orb for several long moments, eyeing her shield levels as the energy wave reached them. Though it barely caused the shields to flicker, she was wary now. 

"The hell is that?" She muttered, staring at the small moving orb that was coming inexorably their way. She flicked a switch, deploying the railgun once more. It was almost recharged, and though wary of firing, she felt a little safer having it's target reticule join the others on her HUD.

She flicked open the comm channel. "All ships this is Ghost Lance, I have no idea what that is or if shooting it is even the right idea, but if we have to, the railgun is nearly charged."

As she spoke, Kassandra lined up the shot, already backing slowly away. If no one could think of a better solution, or her sensors didn't give her more info, she'd take the risk, take the shot. But only if there was no other option.

[MetroFallout]

10 hours ago, Spikey844 said:

Kassandra stared at the orb for several long moments, eyeing her shield levels as the energy wave reached them. Though it barely caused the shields to flicker, she was wary now. 

"The hell is that?" She muttered, staring at the small moving orb that was coming inexorably their way. She flicked a switch, deploying the railgun once more. It was almost recharged, and though wary of firing, she felt a little safer having it's target reticule join the others on her HUD.

She flicked open the comm channel. "All ships this is Ghost Lance, I have no idea what that is or if shooting it is even the right idea, but if we have to, the railgun is nearly charged."

As she spoke, Kassandra lined up the shot, already backing slowly away. If no one could think of a better solution, or her sensors didn't give her more info, she'd take the risk, take the shot. But only if there was no other option.

"Garmr-2, ready to let loose a salvo on my end if need be." said Zero as he continued to retreat along with the others. "Hopefully if we have to fire at that spot, the amount of firepower we possess would be enough to stop it dead in it's tracks... whatever the hell it is."

When the intensity of the fight died down and all they had to do was simply pay greater attention to whatever it was that was following them, Zero was finally able to feel what he felt like under his Vanda Stamen. It was the familiar feeling of feeling clammy with perspiration from the strain of performing high-g maneuvers and the adrenaline rush of combat.

"Garmr-1; this is Garmr-2, do you have anything in the databanks of your ship that would be useful in figuring out what's going on here?" asked Zero over comms. "Information on these sorts of energy emissions?"

[vodkacrepper]

"Sylo to Alpha, this.. All this things the half light threw at us up until now have enough void based technology to be pretty safe to say this is Orokin tech readjusted, how they got it is unknown, but we are to find out after all"

The prince would keep staring rather intensely at the sphere and his ship's scanners, but except the void radiation and energy readings, nothing was actually discernible.

Then, Donovan had an idea.

"Sylo to Alpha, steer clear of the area, i have to see if a theory of mine holds up before we waste more ammunition and energy"

As the message stopped, wallmeat's ship took a passing piece of debris floating in the area, lining up it's arms as it's targetimg computers got ready to throw the debris.

Then, as the piece of debris would start flying toward the sphere with chirurgical precision, Donovan's Plasma chaingun would light up of the usual golden color and charge up, shooting a small burst of golden energy spheres to the black dot, but only after any effect happening from the thrown debris would have stopped so that alpha team could see the differenteffect of physical objects and energy had on the ever-approaching object.

[DaMadReaper]

10

Alpha

The silence of space is deafening, even more so as the members of Alpha Group are silenced, facing a threat with no information in hand. For a few moments, none spoke as they took in the scene that they were facing. The hole in reality flew on, its effortless shifting an unsettling sight. Even as the silence was broken, none dared take action, for fear of setting it off once more. Though they had barely felt the effects of the last eruption, they knew that as the orb drew closer, they would not continue to be so lucky. Regardless, however, one man would choose to defy the inaction, and attempt to experiment with this force of nature.

Making use of his ship's rather unorthodox design, he grasped a piece of the debris that had been launched by the unholy explosion, steering its path back towards the origin, watching as the piece of scrap metal disintegrates on contact, seeming to merge with the orb, making use of its mass in order to raise its size by some small amount. Observing this, he repeats the actions that had led to the initial explosion. The golden beam charges into a point once more, before cutting its wa through the sky, painting the orb gold once more, and then it would stop. The orb would have grown once more, approaching three quarters of its last design, but now closer to the group. Some seconds after, the previous spectacle would be back. Two points, on opposing ends would start folding in. However, this time, the points would end into exactly that, a point, and not a circle. It seemed that the origin of the circle had been something within the ship, rather than the Lantern itself.

[MetroFallout]

"Well... that cleared up some of the mystery to whatever this is..." muttered Zero, observing the phenomenon and noting its similarity to a Nyx's Absorb. "All units, stop shooting at it. I think we're shooting at a Tenno inside the Lantern..."

Thinking for a moment, he pondered on the next course of action he could take before deciding to open up a broad spectrum transmission in the hopes that whoever was in the ship could hear and understand him.

"Attention to those inside the ship designated as a Lantern, identify yourself, we will not open fire upon you again unless fired upon or attacked."

[Locky122]

On 2019-10-12 at 2:54 AM, DaMadReaper said:

10

Alpha

The silence of space is deafening, even more so as the members of Alpha Group are silenced, facing a threat with no information in hand. For a few moments, none spoke as they took in the scene that they were facing. The hole in reality flew on, its effortless shifting an unsettling sight. Even as the silence was broken, none dared take action, for fear of setting it off once more. Though they had barely felt the effects of the last eruption, they knew that as the orb drew closer, they would not continue to be so lucky. Regardless, however, one man would choose to defy the inaction, and attempt to experiment with this force of nature.

Making use of his ship's rather unorthodox design, he grasped a piece of the debris that had been launched by the unholy explosion, steering its path back towards the origin, watching as the piece of scrap metal disintegrates on contact, seeming to merge with the orb, making use of its mass in order to raise its size by some small amount. Observing this, he repeats the actions that had led to the initial explosion. The golden beam charges into a point once more, before cutting its wa through the sky, painting the orb gold once more, and then it would stop. The orb would have grown once more, approaching three quarters of its last design, but now closer to the group. Some seconds after, the previous spectacle would be back. Two points, on opposing ends would start folding in. However, this time, the points would end into exactly that, a point, and not a circle. It seemed that the origin of the circle had been something within the ship, rather than the Lantern itself.

Lucas, for the most part, had been maintaining his silence, all the while trying his damned hardest to determine just what the hell Alpha was facing here. Nothing they were throwing at the now converted lantern seemed to do anything to it - if anything, their efforts just seemed to make the problem worse as time went on. And Lucas was starting to get sick of it.

He started running scans of the anomaly, trying to get a clearer idea about what energies were at play, and with the help of celeste, cross-reference that with anything that could dabble with these types of forces. It was a reasonable assumption that this was void energy, that much could be acertained from the sheer nature of it, so the main database focuses would be against orokin and, potentially, tenno sognatures. 

Opening up the comms once more, the pilot voiced his thoughts to the rest of the squadron.

"Alpha, this is Garmr-1, Deliverance. Don't fire upon the lantern - I'm running some detailed scans on it and cross-referencing them agaist knows signatures. Since i'm pretty sure it's void energy, it won't take as long, but keep a minimum safe distance until we find out more. Garmr-2 and Ghost lance, see if you can find out anything in regards to signal transmissions between the anomaly and the Half-light. Might be able to cut communitcation and stall for time if there is anything linking the two"

With that, he stopped transmitting and doubled down on sifting through the info the scanners were feeding him, looking at whatever results were showing up as they came through.

'God knows we need to find out what we're facing, and fast....'

[Spikey844]

On 2019-10-11 at 5:54 PM, DaMadReaper said:

10

Alpha

The silence of space is deafening, even more so as the members of Alpha Group are silenced, facing a threat with no information in hand. For a few moments, none spoke as they took in the scene that they were facing. The hole in reality flew on, its effortless shifting an unsettling sight. Even as the silence was broken, none dared take action, for fear of setting it off once more. Though they had barely felt the effects of the last eruption, they knew that as the orb drew closer, they would not continue to be so lucky. Regardless, however, one man would choose to defy the inaction, and attempt to experiment with this force of nature.

Making use of his ship's rather unorthodox design, he grasped a piece of the debris that had been launched by the unholy explosion, steering its path back towards the origin, watching as the piece of scrap metal disintegrates on contact, seeming to merge with the orb, making use of its mass in order to raise its size by some small amount. Observing this, he repeats the actions that had led to the initial explosion. The golden beam charges into a point once more, before cutting its wa through the sky, painting the orb gold once more, and then it would stop. The orb would have grown once more, approaching three quarters of its last design, but now closer to the group. Some seconds after, the previous spectacle would be back. Two points, on opposing ends would start folding in. However, this time, the points would end into exactly that, a point, and not a circle. It seemed that the origin of the circle had been something within the ship, rather than the Lantern itself.

 

19 hours ago, Locky122 said:

Lucas, for the most part, had been maintaining his silence, all the while trying his damned hardest to determine just what the hell Alpha was facing here. Nothing they were throwing at the now converted lantern seemed to do anything to it - if anything, their efforts just seemed to make the problem worse as time went on. And Lucas was starting to get sick of it.

He started running scans of the anomaly, trying to get a clearer idea about what energies were at play, and with the help of celeste, cross-reference that with anything that could dabble with these types of forces. It was a reasonable assumption that this was void energy, that much could be acertained from the sheer nature of it, so the main database focuses would be against orokin and, potentially, tenno sognatures. 

Opening up the comms once more, the pilot voiced his thoughts to the rest of the squadron.

"Alpha, this is Garmr-1, Deliverance. Don't fire upon the lantern - I'm running some detailed scans on it and cross-referencing them agaist knows signatures. Since i'm pretty sure it's void energy, it won't take as long, but keep a minimum safe distance until we find out more. Garmr-2 and Ghost lance, see if you can find out anything in regards to signal transmissions between the anomaly and the Half-light. Might be able to cut communitcation and stall for time if there is anything linking the two"

With that, he stopped transmitting and doubled down on sifting through the info the scanners were feeding him, looking at whatever results were showing up as they came through.

'God knows we need to find out what we're facing, and fast....'

"Copy Garmr-1, firing up the scanners. I'll get back to you when I have results, out." That said, Kassandra diverted additional power to her sensors and scanners, but kept her weapons trained on the orb. Swiping across her HUD, she also fired up the ECM suite, setting it to hunt for any potential communications channels and/or signals between the two. 

Then a though crossed her mind.

With a flick, she began to ping the orb, hoping that maybe someone would pick up the phone on the other end. 

"Alpha, this is Ghost Lance. Be advised if that keeps getting closer without picking up I will fire. I'm not risking my ship needlessly," she said, setting a distance mark on her HUD. If it crossed the line, the full weight of the Ghost Lance's armament was going to slam into the orb.

[DaMadReaper]

11

Alpha

In Old Earth legends, there was always some set of magic words that would produce effects that were far beyond the capabilities of any alive at the time. They would be able to call down fire from the skies, or to smite their foes. What Zero had accomplished here was akin to those Old Earth legends. With a few, brief words, he had stopped the orb in its tracks, the raging mass of Void energy seemingly having... listened? For just a few moments, there would be no movement. No sound, either. No response. It was a perplexing situation to behold, as the ball didn't seem to be busy growing either. In the meantime, Lucas's scans would finish, picking up only a quickly recognisable set of characteristics, marking out the orb as one created by a Nyx warframe, though it had been modified and tweaked in ways that the Tenno would consider sacrilege, or rather... impossible. Someone had been tweaking the insides of their warframe, and it was not anything that had been recorded up till now.

And then, they would all feel it. There was no way to describe it. It was static for the soul, sandpaper for the mind, grinding and tearing, making its way deep into the very depths that they had thought unreachable, nestling somewhere within them that they had not known existed. Waves of nausea would spread through them as something foreign invaded their minds. And then, it began to clarify, thee static refining into some barely understandable forgery of a huamn voice, only understandable through a mix of guesswork, attention, and meaning injected into their minds.

"Hello there, my dears. I am... Altair. You have two minutes to convince me that it would be more interesting to leave you and the Half-Light alone, than to carry out my plans and destroy it."

And then it is gone. Not disconnected in some graceful manner, but gone, like water draining from a pipe, leaving grooves in your mind where the mental intrusion had torn.

Edited October 15, 2019 by DaMadReaper

[MetroFallout]

7 minutes ago, DaMadReaper said:

11

Alpha

In Old Earth legends, there was always some set of magic words that would produce effects that were far beyond the capabilities of any alive at the time. They would be able to call down fire from the skies, or to smite their foes. What Zero had accomplished here was akin to those Old Earth legends. With a few, brief words, he had stopped the orb in its tracks, the raging mass of Void energy seemingly having... listened? For just a few moments, there would be no movement. No sound, either. No response. It was a perplexing situation to behold, as the ball didn't seem to be busy growing either. In the meantime, Lucas's scans would finish, picking up only a quickly recognisable set of characteristics, marking out the orb as one created by a Nyx warframe, though it had been modified and tweaked in ways that the Tenno would consider sacrilege, or rather... impossible. Someone had been tweaking the insides of their warframe, and it was not anything that had been recorded up till now.

And then, they would all feel it. There was no way to describe it. It was static for the soul, sandpaper for the mind, grinding and tearing, making its way deep into the very depths that they had thought unreachable, nestling somewhere within them that they had not known existed. Waves of nausea would spread through them as something foreign invaded their minds. And then, it began to clarify, thee static refining into some barely understandable forgery of a huamn voice, only understandable through a mix of guesswork, attention, and meaning injected into their minds.

"Hello there, my dears. I am... Altair. You have two minutes to convince me that it would be more interesting to leave you and the Half-Light alone, than to carry out my plans and destroy it."

And then it is gone. Not disconnected in some graceful manner, but gone, like water draining from a pipe, leaving grooves in your mind where the mental intrusion had torn.

"Convince you huh? Well it's clear to me that you're quite powerful. Probably more powerful than any of us. With that power comes opportunity. Opportunity to see where it all leads. How far we can all go on the merit of our skill and ability as an organization." said Zero, talking over the broad spectrum transmission. "Our mission is to capture the Half-Light and make use of it for later operations. Wouldn't it be more interesting to see what we could come up with for our operations? It's worth a look, if only for the entertainment value whether we succeed or not."

He stopped for a moment before continuing as he flew towards the Lantern.

"Whether we live or die; whether we succeed or fail, I can guarantee that we'd be doing it big and making it as spectacular as possible. Considering it's no skin off your nose regarding the price of admission, why not just sit back and watch the show?"

[Spikey844]

On 2019-10-15 at 3:57 PM, DaMadReaper said:

11

Alpha

In Old Earth legends, there was always some set of magic words that would produce effects that were far beyond the capabilities of any alive at the time. They would be able to call down fire from the skies, or to smite their foes. What Zero had accomplished here was akin to those Old Earth legends. With a few, brief words, he had stopped the orb in its tracks, the raging mass of Void energy seemingly having... listened? For just a few moments, there would be no movement. No sound, either. No response. It was a perplexing situation to behold, as the ball didn't seem to be busy growing either. In the meantime, Lucas's scans would finish, picking up only a quickly recognisable set of characteristics, marking out the orb as one created by a Nyx warframe, though it had been modified and tweaked in ways that the Tenno would consider sacrilege, or rather... impossible. Someone had been tweaking the insides of their warframe, and it was not anything that had been recorded up till now.

And then, they would all feel it. There was no way to describe it. It was static for the soul, sandpaper for the mind, grinding and tearing, making its way deep into the very depths that they had thought unreachable, nestling somewhere within them that they had not known existed. Waves of nausea would spread through them as something foreign invaded their minds. And then, it began to clarify, thee static refining into some barely understandable forgery of a huamn voice, only understandable through a mix of guesswork, attention, and meaning injected into their minds.

"Hello there, my dears. I am... Altair. You have two minutes to convince me that it would be more interesting to leave you and the Half-Light alone, than to carry out my plans and destroy it."

And then it is gone. Not disconnected in some graceful manner, but gone, like water draining from a pipe, leaving grooves in your mind where the mental intrusion had torn.

ALPHA

Kassandra clutched her head as the words poured into her mind, shuddering and gasping at the mental intrusion. Something flashed in the back of her mind, a memory of a violation of something that she once held sacred but was now a fleeting image that danced just beyond reach. The memory was filled with pain and feelings of loathing and betrayal. 

When the presence faded, Kassandra was half folded in her chair. Thankfully her Cephalon had automatically locked the controls as she buckled under the mental assault, preventing any possibility of her body becoming hijacked and turning the Ghost Lance's formidable arsenal on her newly made allies. 

Are you alright captain? The message flashed up in the corner of her display, text rather than spoken. Kassandra didn't respond at first, trying to regain her scattered wits. Then she reached out and flipped open the comm line between the ships.

"This is the Ghost Lance. That felt like a Tenno, a Nyx, but.... wrong. Wrong on a fundemental level." The others would be able to hear the distress in the Tenno pilot's voice, how shaken she was. "I don't know what they've done to their warframe, but it is an abomination. I know that much."

[Locky122]

2 hours ago, Spikey844 said:

ALPHA

Kassandra clutched her head as the words poured into her mind, shuddering and gasping at the mental intrusion. Something flashed in the back of her mind, a memory of a violation of something that she once held sacred but was now a fleeting image that danced just beyond reach. The memory was filled with pain and feelings of loathing and betrayal. 

When the presence faded, Kassandra was half folded in her chair. Thankfully her Cephalon had automatically locked the controls as she buckled under the mental assault, preventing any possibility of her body becoming hijacked and turning the Ghost Lance's formidable arsenal on her newly made allies. 

Are you alright captain? The message flashed up in the corner of her display, text rather than spoken. Kassandra didn't respond at first, trying to regain her scattered wits. Then she reached out and flipped open the comm line between the ships.

"This is the Ghost Lance. That felt like a Tenno, a Nyx, but.... wrong. Wrong on a fundemental level." The others would be able to hear the distress in the Tenno pilot's voice, how shaken she was. "I don't know what they've done to their warframe, but it is an abomination. I know that much."

Lucas, also in the midst of recovering from what could only be described as mental sanding, responded to kassandra's communication. 

"Can confirm, Ghost Lance, signatures match that of a nyx, but something is deffinately off... Looks like Zero is communicating with it. Just hope he does a good job of convincing whatever it is we're dealing with. If his goes south though, I still have six torps. Could probably overwhelm that thing with combined firepower.... "

[vodkacrepper]

"I don't know what they've done to their warframe, but it is..."

The voice of kassandra would cut off as the inside of the Arca Sylo went completely dark, and a single voice, similar to that of Donovan, but more... Tuneful, like it singed instead of simply talking, would start humming.
Along with the lights inside the cockpit, communications also went suddenly dark, and then, the voice spoke.

"It is marvelous"

Then, communications would open up again, and the cockpit would now be illuminated by an uncountable amount of energy that filled up the room... If scans were to be applied to the sudden energy spike, it would be easily revealed these was in fact... Eidolon energy, but before anyone could try to hail back the Sylo, everyone in the general area would receive an invite to open a video-feed with the ship.

If accepted, said video feed would show the dark cockpit of the Sylo, only a few swirls of eidolon energy lighting up the inside, then there was Donovan, no helmet on, the marble like appearance of his skin reflecting the energies that flew around it... But in the middle section of the otherwise featureless meat-mask, a single vertical cut was present, not enough to peek at what's behind the wall-meat exterior, but still profound.

"Altair Altair Altair... Only two minutes are you gonna give?
Well then... Let's speak"

Donovan's would now hold his signature red frysta, gently tapping the pavement of it's ship with it following a certain rhythm.

"Outside and inside the beasts belly
Tenno and others are joined today
On a quest to capture and tame
For peace and for fame
To kill them all off? It would be a real shame.
But you wanna see the impossible?
Until now no decision was even logical!
And yet we met you
A friend or an obstacle
for our prize and fortune
So no matter if you want it or not
Stand aside, enjoy the madness and flow of the show.
Or stand in between and be killed as part of it all."

Then, the live video cut off, radio communications still open as the same humming from before came out of the immobile ship.

[DaMadReaper]

12

Alpha

And just like that, space fills with chatter. The agents of the Children speak amongst each other, their minds having been assaulted in such a way that there are likely permanent consequences that would only be understood far, far down the line. For now, however, they were forced to dance for the amusement of a madman. While Kassandra and Lucas were talking to each other about the unholy abomination that was vaguely recognisable as a Nyx, Zero was taking the initiative, trying his best to sell the benefits of letting this ragtag group make it to see the next dawn. 

...and then enters Donovan. Wallmeat by trade, and poet by heart, he speaks, video feed playing out an oddly offputting song, aiming to appease the creature with art. No matter which side of the battle they were, they knew that the sight of marble flesh breaking into song would never leave their dreams. Or nightmares.

Once she was sure that all of their attempts were over, she took two moments. The first, to consider how she would respond. The second, to remember which wires she had to press together to activate the godforsaken noise that remained of her telepathic capabilities. They would know the moments were over when another mass of writhing worms invaded their minds, settling inside some of the grooves that it had created at first.

"Ffffantastic. Truly fantastic. I'm glad to see that you're all playing along nicely, my dears. Well, I hope my boss won't be that upset with me if I let you go. Just... remember to tell whoever's leading you that 'Altair was here.'"

Some of the group may have noticed another build up of Void energy as the orb began absorbing into the beast, revealing an Ivara painted in shades of white, gold, and purple, sitting in the Lotus position, but twitching. All the while, the Void energy kept rising, reaching a peak far above what the others had. 

"Goodbye, my sweets."

And then it emanates. A wave of force several times stronger than the other ones had been, tearing into any in the vicinity, the ones who were on the closer side having their shields knocked entirely out, with dents painting parts of the hull of the larger builds. That is, with the exception of the Half-Light. It would be about now that they remember the distinct lack of serious shielding on the ship, as it was sporting a massive gash across its side. This... This did not bode well.

[MetroFallout]

On 2019-10-19 at 12:46 AM, DaMadReaper said:

12

Alpha

And just like that, space fills with chatter. The agents of the Children speak amongst each other, their minds having been assaulted in such a way that there are likely permanent consequences that would only be understood far, far down the line. For now, however, they were forced to dance for the amusement of a madman. While Kassandra and Lucas were talking to each other about the unholy abomination that was vaguely recognisable as a Nyx, Zero was taking the initiative, trying his best to sell the benefits of letting this ragtag group make it to see the next dawn. 

...and then enters Donovan. Wallmeat by trade, and poet by heart, he speaks, video feed playing out an oddly offputting song, aiming to appease the creature with art. No matter which side of the battle they were, they knew that the sight of marble flesh breaking into song would never leave their dreams. Or nightmares.

Once she was sure that all of their attempts were over, she took two moments. The first, to consider how she would respond. The second, to remember which wires she had to press together to activate the godforsaken noise that remained of her telepathic capabilities. They would know the moments were over when another mass of writhing worms invaded their minds, settling inside some of the grooves that it had created at first.

"Ffffantastic. Truly fantastic. I'm glad to see that you're all playing along nicely, my dears. Well, I hope my boss won't be that upset with me if I let you go. Just... remember to tell whoever's leading you that 'Altair was here.'"

Some of the group may have noticed another build up of Void energy as the orb began absorbing into the beast, revealing an Ivara painted in shades of white, gold, and purple, sitting in the Lotus position, but twitching. All the while, the Void energy kept rising, reaching a peak far above what the others had. 

"Goodbye, my sweets."

And then it emanates. A wave of force several times stronger than the other ones had been, tearing into any in the vicinity, the ones who were on the closer side having their shields knocked entirely out, with dents painting parts of the hull of the larger builds. That is, with the exception of the Half-Light. It would be about now that they remember the distinct lack of serious shielding on the ship, as it was sporting a massive gash across its side. This... This did not bode well.

Zero's eyes widened when the wave began to approach him along with some additional shrapnel being propelled by the expanding wave. In a split second, he had to decide how to take the unavoidable incoming damage. Instinctively, he knew it would be better to take the physical damage directly with his Archwing rather than taking it with his EVA suit. The Vanda Archwing is readily replaceable and repairable, something that his flesh and blood would not be.

The impact knocked out the majority of the Archwing's systems which meant almost of its systems were offline and he suffered major damage to the primary thrusters, requiring a system reboot and the use of the much weaker secondary thrusters.

While he was left spinning in space during his full system reboot, Zero kept calm and his eyes on his overlay. While he may not be able to fight in the Vanda anymore, there's still his guns that are in the weapons lockers that he could retrieve if push comes to shove and he needs to fight to keep himself alive.

When the system did finally reboot itself and he managed to stabilize himself, he found that all weapons systems and the majority of his motive systems were shot to hell with additional damage to his comms booster.

Squinting at the damage report's readout, he simply sighed and switched over to using his EVA suit's emergency close-range comms and navigational systems and used the Vanda only for movement so as not to stress the heavily damaged Archwing unduly.

"Alpha, this is Garmr-2. I have taken critical damage but I'm still fine, my EVA suit's untouched. In no condition to fight except essentially on foot. Request backup, how copy?" came his voice on the comms, crackling to life on the channels after the explosion.

[Spikey844]

On 2019-10-18 at 5:46 PM, DaMadReaper said:

-snip-

 

On 2019-10-20 at 12:19 PM, MetroFallout said:

-snap-

It took Kassandra several moments to recover from the second mental intrusion, the complete wrongness of the mental communication making her feel sick. The Ghost Lance shuddered under the shockwave, but it's powerful shields and the relative distance from the epicentre meant it absorbed the shockwave fairly well. Didn't stop multiple warning lights coming on the ships cephalon rerouting power to reinforcing the shields and routing micro repair drones to some of the more sensitive sensors that had been fried by the wave of void energy.

She recovered from the telepathy in time to catch most of Zero's message to the group. Shaking her head to clear it, she flicked open a comm line. "Gamr-2, this is the Ghost Lance, I should be able to fit your oversized archwing into my bay. Heading your way, stand by." 

The familiar movement of the joystick in her hand, the throttle causing the engines to purr and roar, it helped settle her mind. Drive down the screaming that haunted her soul.

[MetroFallout]

On 2019-10-21 at 11:38 PM, Spikey844 said:

It took Kassandra several moments to recover from the second mental intrusion, the complete wrongness of the mental communication making her feel sick. The Ghost Lance shuddered under the shockwave, but it's powerful shields and the relative distance from the epicentre meant it absorbed the shockwave fairly well. Didn't stop multiple warning lights coming on the ships cephalon rerouting power to reinforcing the shields and routing micro repair drones to some of the more sensitive sensors that had been fried by the wave of void energy.

She recovered from the telepathy in time to catch most of Zero's message to the group. Shaking her head to clear it, she flicked open a comm line. "Gamr-2, this is the Ghost Lance, I should be able to fit your oversized archwing into my bay. Heading your way, stand by." 

The familiar movement of the joystick in her hand, the throttle causing the engines to purr and roar, it helped settle her mind. Drive down the screaming that haunted her soul.

"Understood Ghost Lance. Standing by. Will maneuver into bay when you've come to a stop." said Zero, blinking for a moment and pursing his lips before speaking again. "Thanks for the assist."

When the white whale of a ship that dwarfed him in size approached, he gave the pilot inside a friendly wave when the cockpit moved past him. Once the ship had stopped past him and he had ascertained that the bay hatch was indeed open, he goosed the throttle to the thrusters bit by bit to fit inside the cargo bay before cutting the engine and detaching himself from the Vanda, letting the Knux grab onto something reasonably solid to hold it in place before he hopped out of the snug mounting point that hooked his waist to the Archwing and stood on the bay floor as the hatch closed up once he had confirmed to Kassandra that he was in over the comms.

Edited October 25, 2019 by MetroFallout

[DaMadReaper]

16

Alpha

With the explosion of shrapnel and void energy gone, peace returned to the space around the lumbering hulk. Though Vanda had been more or less shredded, there didn't seem to be damage too serious to the rest of the group, the combination of their distance and shielding having proved to be far more resilient than the larger than average Archwing, able to withstand what could have been called... an excessively flashy exit, for no apparent reason. That is, until the site from which the explosion had originated cleared up, revealing the form of the Nyx, motionless, none of the signals associated with active warframes presenting themselves on the scanners. It seemed that the surge of energy that had torn the hull of their target was intended to fry the systems, in order to avoid having their research stolen.

A light stinging sensation prodded their minds, running a smooth path through minds shorn open by the altered Nyx's communications. Like molten silver, the smooth voice recognisable as their leader filled into their 'ears', working to soothe the pain left in the wake of the rampage.

"Two things. Firstly, what the hell happened over there? Something forcibly cut the mental links I'd been maintaining with your squad by... blasting psychic interference? Secondly, prepare for the possibility of a quick extraction. From the minimal amount of information I received during the interference, there was something... else laced into the messages. They may be further targets in the vicinity, but I would prefer to not find out."

[MetroFallout]

On 2019-10-22 at 11:58 PM, DaMadReaper said:

16

Alpha

With the explosion of shrapnel and void energy gone, peace returned to the space around the lumbering hulk. Though Vanda had been more or less shredded, there didn't seem to be damage too serious to the rest of the group, the combination of their distance and shielding having proved to be far more resilient than the larger than average Archwing, able to withstand what could have been called... an excessively flashy exit, for no apparent reason. That is, until the site from which the explosion had originated cleared up, revealing the form of the Nyx, motionless, none of the signals associated with active warframes presenting themselves on the scanners. It seemed that the surge of energy that had torn the hull of their target was intended to fry the systems, in order to avoid having their research stolen.

A light stinging sensation prodded their minds, running a smooth path through minds shorn open by the altered Nyx's communications. Like molten silver, the smooth voice recognisable as their leader filled into their 'ears', working to soothe the pain left in the wake of the rampage.

"Two things. Firstly, what the hell happened over there? Something forcibly cut the mental links I'd been maintaining with your squad by... blasting psychic interference? Secondly, prepare for the possibility of a quick extraction. From the minimal amount of information I received during the interference, there was something... else laced into the messages. They may be further targets in the vicinity, but I would prefer to not find out."

“Understood but... Alright so if you want to know what really happened, we came into psychic contact with a Tenno using some manner of Nyx warframe that was heavily modified or tampered with. Goes by the name of Altair, I would suggest looking into that name.” replied Zero as he went about in the Ghost Lance to find a seat. “As far as I can tell, the modified Nyx warframe was intentionally overloaded to self-destruction to avoid capture. Unfortunately, the explosion wrecked my Vanda and I had to hitch a ride on a friendly ship.”