Verdant Refuge [Semi-Open roleplay, Revamped]

[Rakawan]

1 hour ago, Teloch said:

The column answered nothing, just emitted a static weird noise for a couple of seconds. Then, the gates have opened, revealing the two-sided garage gateway. The opposite gate of the garage remained closed, however. In a couple of minutes, A Chroma and Mesa bearing the now-familiar to the local authorities WTC elites "maroon-gold" scheme entered the garage port.

"Earlier, I was thinking if you ever leave that rail control post of yours or if you actually live there, Simon" Mesa said "I believe we haven't met in person yet, so you may call me Major Bloom, and that is Major Cooper". The Chroma nodded.

"You may just call me Simon." He says. "And who says I left... this could be a very convincing hologram."

One of the standard Vaubans pokes his shoulder and he turns to them.

"I said could be, Johnson." He barks. "Just how many fields are you incompetent in?"

[Rakawan]

2 hours ago, Teloch said:

"We are delivering the fifth generation fleet doctrine," He mumbled, probably expecting the inquirer to figure out either it was "yes" or "no", "but what we see here might be the..."

The heavy had no chance to finish his sentence as the ceiling broke, releasing junk falling from above along with the hypothetical master of this place - a fair fourteen meters high, nineteen meters long, and eleven meters wide, heavily armored, mechanical quadropod "golem" with a freaking tail. Its carcass was composed of vessels armored layers and industrial machinery gears as joints. Judging by the texture of materials, it was reinforced for many times. The "body" of the construct seemed to be made out of a few mantis hulls and at least one xiphos as a exo panzer, featuring the bottom "bomber hatch"; the "head" was unmistakenly resembling half of the primed liset's "beak", two mantis stabilizers were serving as "tusks"; golem's massive right "claw" was composed of scimitar's larger wings, while the "mandibles" and left claw were made of lesser wings; it also had the "braid-ish" tail of orokin design. At rare places, the massive glowing neural tendrils showed from below the armored layers, as if the armor was put above them or the "root" was inhabiting the construct's core like an average hermit crab inhabiting solid shells.

Despite having artificial joints, the thing hopped down with eery agility, recovering almost instantly after surface-shaking landing, sweeping the wide ark with its "tail" upon recovery, and leaning to one of the junk piles with it's larger "pincer" with the clear intent to toss it at someone.

"...Biggest pile of trash I've ever seen." Dixon says. "Hey ugly!"

He dances in place. There is something odd about his motions, and the tone of his voice.

[Teloch]

6 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

"You may just call me Simon." He says. "And who says I left... this could be a very convincing hologram."

One of the standard Vaubans pokes his shoulder and he turns to them.

"I said could be, Johnson." He barks. "Just how many fields are you incompetent in?"

1

"We would offer something for such an occasion, but beverage is prohibited here and alcoholizing a head dispatcher is the shortest way to disaster" Therese attempted to smooth the awkward situation, "I believe you wanted to coordinate the logistics?"

Cooper just crossed arms on the chest while watching in silence

[Teloch]

10 hours ago, Rakawan said:

"...Biggest pile of trash I've ever seen." Dixon says. "Hey ugly!"

He dances in place. There is something odd about his motions, and the tone of his voice.

 

 

 

Seems like "the biggest pile of trash" has already made its decision of the sequence in which it wants the intruders dispatched, and so ignored the Loki, preferring to toss a half-"eaten" liset that was peacefully lying nearby at Alan, and momentarily lunging at the heavy, lashing three downward strikes with its greater pincer, tail, and lesser pincer respectively. The good thing: Sig barely managed to dodge the strikes via zig-zag side rolls, nearly losing balance due to the multi ton force hitting the surface nearby. The bad thing: the construct broke the formation, separating one participant from three others, and clearly intending to wear out and finish the group one participant at a time.

Yet, it exposed its armored rear and locked its attention on the heavy.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Teloch

[Rakawan]

20 hours ago, Teloch said:

Seems like "the biggest pile of trash" has already made its decision of the sequence in which it wants the intruders dispatched, and so ignored the Loki, preferring to toss a half-"eaten" liset that was peacefully lying nearby at Alan, and momentarily lunging at the heavy, lashing three downward strikes with its greater pincer, tail, and lesser pincer respectively. The good thing: Sig barely managed to dodge the strikes via zig-zag side rolls, nearly losing balance due to the multi ton force hitting the surface nearby. The bad thing: the construct broke the formation, separating one participant from three others, and clearly intending to wear out and finish the group one participant at a time.

Yet, it exposed its armored rear and locked its attention on the heavy.

Philip's blades glow, appearing to close examination as if another blade of pure energy appeared over them.

He runs up the things tail and plunges his blades into an exposed tendril.

Dixon runs up a wall, clinging to it and zooming in on an exposed tendril point with his Rubico.

Alan dodges the liset and darts up a wall, before leaping off it to sink his blades into the hull of the constructs larger mandible.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Rakawan

[Rakawan]

20 hours ago, Teloch said:

"We would offer something for such an occasion, but beverage is prohibited here and alcoholizing a head dispatcher is the shortest way to disaster" Therese attempted to smooth the awkward situation, "I believe you wanted to coordinate the logistics?"

Cooper just crossed arms on the chest while watching in silence

"And discuss arrangements for another rail." He says. "With the facilities on Lua and the increased support for the resistance cells the one we have is already quite busy. But I was also hoping for a tour, to see what technological marvels you have. So perhaps we could continue this inside?"

[Rakawan]

On Lua:

A crewman clad in the old-fashioned blue corpus jumpsuit appears to be deep in conversation with an ornately decorated Frost Prime.

"Sir, this is the fourth request for transfer we have received today." He says. "No one is comfortable around those... things. If we continue to use them we risk losing support."

"We need them to bolster security." Ryoko replies. "Until we can get an opening on the rail to bring more workers over. I find them disturbing, but we have no other option. That last attack nearly cost us the tower, we cannot afford another."

 

[Teloch]

46 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

Philip's blades glow, appearing to close examination as if another blade of pure energy appeared over them.

He runs up the things tail and plunges his blades into an exposed tendril.

Dixon runs up a wall, clinging to it and zooming in on an exposed tendril point with his Rubico.

 

 

It seems that the "fibrous body" of the golem is too thick to be properly damaged via standard means and unfocused fire. Even though almost no damage had been done, the golem switched its target due to the sheer insolence of one of the intruders. The golem dabbled the nearest pile of junk at Phil, who was forcefully shaken from the beast's back via latter one's jump. After making distance via secon leap, the "liset-head-mounted" laser guns began to glow. Seem like the mecha beast decided to shoot someone.

Sig took cover behind one of the piles after registering the change of beast's aggro and intentions.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Teloch

[Teloch]

48 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

"And discuss arrangements for another rail." He says. "With the facilities on Lua and the increased support for the resistance cells the one we have is already quite busy. But I was also hoping for a tour, to see what technological marvels you have. So perhaps we could continue this inside?"

 

 

"The innards of the ship is a no-go area, but we can show you the yard" Chroma spoke for the first time with his horse bariton. 

"Rules are rules" Bloom confirmed, hitting the lever to open the reverse gates that lead to the outdoor space, while the Chroma transmitted something via inner comms.

There were half a dozen lesser carriers in the yard, a metallic bunker with the dish array on its top, a tent that looks like a field kitchen, a parade ground, a number of cargo containers,  and a sextet of unfortunates who were penalized earlier digging something that resembles a shaft for another bunker.

"Building a new rail?" Bloom asked, "How does that concern us?"

Edited March 27, 2017 by Teloch

[Rakawan]

2 hours ago, Teloch said:

It seems that the "fibrous body" of the golem is too thick to be properly damaged via standard means and unfocused fire. Even though almost no damage had been done, the golem switched its target due to the sheer insolence of one of the intruders. The golem dabbled the nearest pile of junk at Phil, who was forcefully shaken from the beast's back via latter one's jump. After making distance via secon leap, the "liset-head-mounted" laser guns began to glow. Seem like the mecha beast decided to shoot someone.

Sig took cover behind one of the piles after registering the change of beast's aggro and intentions.

Dixon changes his aim to one of the laser guns and fires, the anti-tank round screaming towards the cannon.

Philip digs his blades in and holds on, refusing to be dislodged from its back.

Alan rolls behind another pile of junk. 

[Rakawan]

2 hours ago, Teloch said:

"The innards of the ship is a no-go area, but we can show you the yard" Chroma spoke for the first time with his horse bariton. 

"Rules are rules" Bloom confirmed, hitting the lever to open the reverse gates that lead to the outdoor space, while the Chroma transmitted something via inner comms.

There were half a dozen lesser carriers in the yard, a metallic bunker with the dish array on its top, a tent that looks like a field kitchen, a parade ground, a number of cargo containers,  and a sextet of unfortunates who were penalized earlier digging something that resembles a shaft for another bunker.

"Building a new rail?" Bloom asked, "How does that concern us?"

"If you wish to ferry supplies back and forth efficiently between here and Sol, you will need a rail." He says. "Right now we have one, but it is barely enough to keep up with recent demands. Anything you needed shipped here would likely take a great deal of time to get an open slot."

[Teloch]

3 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

Dixon changes his aim to one of the laser guns and fires, the anti-tank round screaming towards the cannon.

Philip digs his blades in and holds on, refusing to be dislodged from its back.

Alan rolls behind another pile of junk. 

 

 

The shot collided against one of the canons, deteriorating its original aim instead of destroying, alas. The golem threw a rampaging feat, suppressing the invaders in their covers with the undamaged beam canon. Then, it goes even more berserk by  striding wildly and ramming through one of the junk piles in hopes to wash off the nasty excalibur in such a rude way from its back, and to grab someone who's been hiding behind it with its "mandibles".

This "lucky" someone happened to be Sig. As the bot lifted him pincered in between the former mantis stabilizers, the bottom hatch of its "liset head" opened, revealing something akin to a huge working mincer. The sound of this "mincer" was the same "wailing" sound the party heard for a number of times.

[Teloch]

9 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

"If you wish to ferry supplies back and forth efficiently between here and Sol, you will need a rail." He says. "Right now we have one, but it is barely enough to keep up with recent demands. Anything you needed shipped here would likely take a great deal of time to get an open slot."

 

"We would not be able to have a standby fleet wing if we weren't able to throw it to this remote point hastily. The thing is that we have our own infrastructure to cover our logistics" Therese said

"We exploit void loopholing" Cooper added laconically

[Rakawan]

1 hour ago, Teloch said:

"We would not be able to have a standby fleet wing if we weren't able to throw it to this remote point hastily. The thing is that we have our own infrastructure to cover our logistics" Therese said

"We exploit void loopholing" Cooper added laconically

"In that case my work here is done." Simon says. "Except to introduce the new Chairman of Transportation."

The Vauban who poked him seems to puff up his chest a bit, a fact that does not escape Simon's notice.

"Not you Thompson." He says. "Never you." 

The Vauban to the right of Simon collapses their helmet, revealing a young woman's face. Her facial structure and head size imply that outside of the frame she would be shorter than most people. 

"May I present Ms. Sierra." He says. "My apprentice of two years. She will be taking over my position on the rail network, as well as coordinating traffic to and from this planet."

Sierra holds out her hand.

"A pleasure to meet you Major." She says. "I was hoping we could use this first meeting to iron out the details of the WTC orbital lane for future use."

Simon bows to you both.

"Now I must oversee the details of my relocation to Lua." He says. "The Arbiter asked me to inform you that anyone in the WTC that has expressed an interest in working on Orokin era tech would be welcome at his Reliqaury. He seemed to deem this to be of some importance." 

Johnson follows Simon back outside and to the waiting Liset. The other Vauban stands directly behind Sierra, fiddling with some device. It appears to be a projector of some sort.

[Rakawan]

1 hour ago, Teloch said:

The shot collided against one of the canons, deteriorating its original aim instead of destroying, alas. The golem threw a rampaging feat, suppressing the invaders in their covers with the undamaged beam canon. Then, it goes even more berserk by  striding wildly and ramming through one of the junk piles in hopes to wash off the nasty excalibur in such a rude way from its back, and to grab someone who's been hiding behind it with its "mandibles".

This "lucky" someone happened to be Sig. As the bot lifted him pincered in between the former mantis stabilizers, the bottom hatch of its "liset head" opened, revealing something akin to a huge working mincer. The sound of this "mincer" was the same "wailing" sound the party heard for a number of times.

Dixon tosses a couple of Talons into the mincer, detonating them just before they are ground up. Philip leaps and stabs one of his blades into the mandible, targeting the joint with the other. Alan swings and stabs his blade into the other mandible joint, trying to sever it and free Siger.

[Teloch]

23 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

Dixon tosses a couple of Talons into the mincer, detonating them just before they are ground up. Philip leaps and stabs one of his blades into the mandible, targeting the joint with the other. Alan swings and stabs his blade into the other mandible joint, trying to sever it and free Siger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The party efforts are mostly useless due to the sheer density and thickness of mantis' stabilizers. The "toothy mincer maw" of the construct seemed to lose some of the razors to the explosion but still was rotating, spewing damaged fragments outwards. Seeing that the grapple is tight, Sig had to think of something different, and had to decide really fast, as the golem was about to put him into its "mouth". Due to high adrenaline, instincts, or sheer luck, he remembered about the emergency electromagnetic shields dump. He used one arcane enhancer charge to combust his shields, forcefully slipping down from the grapple like a wet piece of soap falling from someone's firm clutches. Obviously growing pissed, he bullet jumped at the back of the golem right before it attempted to nail him to the ground. He stung his melee like a harpoon into the same armor breach Phill attempted to pierce earlier and unloaded one full magazine with corrosive ammunition with the other hand. 

The golem attempted to shook off the pesky humanoids like a rabid bull, and then launched itself to the wall where Dix was hanging with the clear intent to smash the pesky organisms against it.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Teloch

[Teloch]

53 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

"In that case my work here is done." Simon says. "Except to introduce the new Chairman of Transportation."

The Vauban who poked him seems to puff up his chest a bit, a fact that does not escape Simon's notice.

"Not you Thompson." He says. "Never you." 

The Vauban to the right of Simon collapses their helmet, revealing a young woman's face. Her facial structure and head size imply that outside of the frame she would be shorter than most people. 

"May I present Ms. Sierra." He says. "My apprentice of two years. She will be taking over my position on the rail network, as well as coordinating traffic to and from this planet."

Sierra holds out her hand.

"A pleasure to meet you Major." She says. "I was hoping we could use this first meeting to iron out the details of the WTC orbital lane for future use."

Simon bows to you both.

"Now I must oversee the details of my relocation to Lua." He says. "The Arbiter asked me to inform you that anyone in the WTC that has expressed an interest in working on Orokin era tech would be welcome at his Reliqaury. He seemed to deem this to be of some importance." 

Johnson follows Simon back outside and to the waiting Liset. The other Vauban stands directly behind Sierra, fiddling with some device. It appears to be a projector of some sort.

 

 

 

Both majors tilted their heads. Seems like they both were tempted to ask how old is this girl.

"This garrison is mostly autonomous and one of its goals is to train operatives to work independently from the main bases. That being said, the amount of standard traffic would be non-essential in theory. However, there will be occasional shipments and situations when operatives will need to perform direct jump, without using void space scaling effect. In such cases, we will inform you beforehand"

"We may provide you with journals of operatives take-offs and landings if that would help organize the traffic" Cooper added

 

Edited March 27, 2017 by Teloch

[Rakawan]

1 hour ago, Teloch said:

Both majors tilted their heads. Seems like they both were tempted to ask how old is this girl.

"This garrison is mostly autonomous and one of its goals is to train operatives to work autonomously from the main bases. That being said, the amount of standard traffic would be non-essential in theory. However, there will be occasional shipments and situations when operatives will need to perform direct jump, without using void space scaling effect. In such cases, we will inform you beforehand"

"We may provide you with journals of operatives take-offs and landings if that would help organize the traffic" Cooper added

 

"17, by physical aging." She says. "That's how old I was when I joined the Tenno ranks."

The other Vauban continues to fiddle with the device and she hands Bloom a data pad.

The pad has her official records, listing her as a rail operator and combat engineer for 10 years, stationed at one of the outposts in the Tau system.It also indicates that she was one of the engineers that helped create the fold engines used by most larger Tenno craft.

The device the other Vauban is fiddling with finally activates and shows a 3d rendering of the planet.

"Non-existant." Sierra says. "Well in theory that would make things easier. However all large organizations are required to have their own take-off and landing lane, regardless of actual use."

The holograph shows several tube like images extending from different openings in the planetary shield to different locations.

"The old system had rail control monitoring every single craft that needed to land or reach orbit. It was a headache." She says.  "With this system you will each have your own lane, and manage your own traffic. In essence you get a tract of the sky as your own highway." 

The image shows three such lanes in green. Each starts at a different spot in orbit, but ends over the current location.

[Teloch]

2 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

"17, by physical aging." She says. "That's how old I was when I joined the Tenno ranks."

The other Vauban continues to fiddle with the device and she hands Bloom a data pad.

The pad has her official records, listing her as a rail operator and combat engineer for 10 years, stationed at one of the outposts in the Tau system.It also indicates that she was one of the engineers that helped create the fold engines used by most larger Tenno craft.

The device the other Vauban is fiddling with finally activates and shows a 3d rendering of the planet.

"Non-existant." Sierra says. "Well in theory that would make things easier. However all large organizations are required to have their own take-off and landing lane, regardless of actual use."

The holograph shows several tube like images extending from different openings in the planetary shield to different locations.

"The old system had rail control monitoring every single craft that needed to land or reach orbit. It was a headache." She says.  "With this system you will each have your own lane, and manage your own traffic. In essence you get a tract of the sky as your own highway." 

The image shows three such lanes in green. Each starts at a different spot in orbit, but ends over the current location.

 

"Well, that regulates it" The man replied again "maybe we won't even have to shoot down aerospace trespassers"

Therese slightly nudged her comrade, probably hinting to hide his dark sense of humor somewhere deep.

"So the issue is projecting, marking, and establishing, right?"

[Rakawan]

1 hour ago, Teloch said:

"Well, that regulates it" The man replied again "maybe we won't even have to shoot down aerospace trespassers"

Therese slightly nudged her comrade, probably hinting to hide his dark sense of humor somewhere deep.

"So the issue is projecting, marking, and establishing, right?"

"Actually the anti-air response is part of why we want to clearly define surface to orbit paths." She says. "Samson?"

The other Vauban deploys a grenade that projects an image of a large Anti-air turret.

"We've purchased several air defense systems recently." Sierra says. "If you look at the lanes defined you may notice something."

Indeed looking at the lanes reveals that none pass over the capitol, and other important sites. 

"The new turrets will be programmed to lock onto any craft that leaves a defined lane." She says. "Priority given to those that separate above high density areas. Someone suddenly turns and tries to fly above the capital, and we can guess they probably aren't up to any good."

She looks at the base.

"Additionally the lanes will give us predetermined pathing for any ships that get past the shields." She says. "It allows us to funnel ships to specific areas, and helps sort between those who are going about their business, and those who have a specific destination. The lanes will be kept wide to prevent someone from being able to target other ships with explosives, and to allow the turrets to target any vessel that tries to engages others in the lane."

Several turrets are shown, and the projected lines of fire reveal that it would be next to impossible to use the lanes as cover and still make planetfall.

 

[Rakawan]

2 hours ago, Teloch said:

The party efforts are mostly useless due to the sheer density and thickness of mantis' stabilizers. The "toothy mincer maw" of the construct seemed to lose some of the razors to the explosion but still was rotating, spewing damaged fragments outwards. Seeing that the grapple is tight, Sig had to think of something different, and had to decide really fast, as the golem was about to put him into its "mouth". Due to high adrenaline, instincts, or sheer luck, he remembered about the emergency electromagnetic shields dump. He used one arcane enhancer charge to combust his shields, forcefully slipping down from the grapple like a wet piece of soap falling from someone's firm clutches. Obviously growing pissed, he bullet jumped at the back of the golem right before it attempted to nail him to the ground. He stung his melee like a harpoon into the same armor breach Phill attempted to pierce earlier and unloaded one full magazine with corrosive ammunition with the other hand. 

The golem attempted to shook off the pesky humanoids like a rabid bull, and then launched itself to the wall where Dix was hanging with the clear intent to smash the pesky organisms against it.

Dixon waits till the last moment before jumping clear, something on the wall beeps and Philip and Alan release their grip on the mandibles . They drop to the floor just as the breaching charge planted on the wall detonates with enough force to blast open a secured hangar door. Dixon tosses several Talons down at the damaged gun as he glides over top of it.

[Teloch]

4 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

Dixon waits till the last moment before jumping clear, something on the wall beeps and Philip and Alan release their grip on the mandibles . They drop to the floor just as the breaching charge planted on the wall detonates with enough force to blast open a secured hangar door. Dixon tosses several Talons down at the damaged gun as he glides over top of it.

 

With the explosion, the left pincer ends up being thorned away, and the "head" shell gets deformed. However, constructs don't feel pain, and as soon as it recovers, it rushes over to one of the huge prismite deposits, covering it with its "body" like a hen that occupied the nest. In addition to the "grounded mode", it shields from the party, hiding whatever it was doing with the deposit behind its massive right pincer.

"Dix, sap the rest of deposits. Everyone else, prepare to wear this thing down again" Siger said while observing constructs behavior.

[Teloch]

16 minutes ago, Rakawan said:

"Actually the anti-air response is part of why we want to clearly define surface to orbit paths." She says. "Samson?"

The other Vauban deploys a grenade that projects an image of a large Anti-air turret.

"We've purchased several air defense systems recently." Sierra says. "If you look at the lanes defined you may notice something."

Indeed looking at the lanes reveals that none pass over the capitol, and other important sites. 

"The new turrets will be programmed to lock onto any craft that leaves a defined lane." She says. "Priority given to those that separate above high density areas. Someone suddenly turns and tries to fly above the capital, and we can guess they probably aren't up to any good."

She looks at the base.

"Additionally the lanes will give us predetermined pathing for any ships that get past the shields." She says. "It allows us to funnel ships to specific areas, and helps sort between those who are going about their business, and those who have a specific destination. The lanes will be kept wide to prevent someone from being able to target other ships with explosives, and to allow the turrets to target any vessel that tries to engages others in the lane."

Several turrets are shown, and the projected lines of fire reveal that it would be next to impossible to use the lanes as cover and still make planetfall.

 

 

"Well, sounds clear. Tell me what you need to clear out so we can get it over with without delays"

[Rakawan]

2 hours ago, Teloch said:

"Well, sounds clear. Tell me what you need to clear out so we can get it over with without delays"

She gestures to the large hologram.

"There are three routes available." She says. "Just pick one and we'll send you the coordinate data to guide in new ships. From today onward I'll need a notification whenever you plan to have enter or leave orbit, or when landing. Any surface to surface transportation will need to be registered with Samson here." 

[Rakawan]

16 hours ago, Teloch said:

With the explosion, the left pincer ends up being thorned away, and the "head" shell gets deformed. However, constructs don't feel pain, and as soon as it recovers, it rushes over to one of the huge prismite deposits, covering it with its "body" like a hen that occupied the nest. In addition to the "grounded mode", it shields from the party, hiding whatever it was doing with the deposit behind its massive right pincer.

"Dix, sap the rest of deposits. Everyone else, prepare to wear this thing down again" Siger said while observing constructs behavior.

Dixon runs between deposits, placing a large breaching charge on each. The each one beeps as he activates it, except for the last. 

"One moment." He says, prying off the panel. "Uhhh, maybe two."

Beneath the panel you can see two fieldron containment units, and several detonite injectors wired together. Dixon removes an injector, and peers into the hole with a tiny flashlight.

Philip and Alan both draw their rifles, and prepare to engage again.