hmmmm i hate being right, that's a Slanneshi cult in the making/ is already, sooo we need all sorts of help if they actually have a Deamon or two in there, not to mention whatever they might have gotten their claws on in this world and others
[X]: Inform the Autobots and Starsetters that you'll be heading there (Just autobots and paragonites will be available as possible team options)
Arne
You gave it a bit of thought. Local law enforcement was probably already compromised, but heading in alone would make it difficult to corroborate your version of events even with video footage. Such things could be altered after all. And you were pretty sure this organisation already had innumerable friends in high places. They had some manner of shadow over the causeways of destiny that obscured much of their nature beyond that they were serving something far greater.
"We can't wait for the papers to clear. I'm sorry but we'll be heading in first. If you want to join up after we head in once you have the clearance; sure do that. But if they have a hostage then waiting is going to get her killed or worse." You said, shaking your head as you looked towards the exit and let your armour manifest around you in a fade of blue light, letting the mission provide you with certainty of action as Samus followed suit.
"Well...I'll try to run damage control with Armsmaster...assuming he's not being a sore loser after his fight with Positron anyway." Zach said with a sigh as he motioned to Vista and Lola to follow him.
"I'm not going to stop you but...be careful please?" Vista said, looking to you in particular as you affixed your helmet and gave her a nod.
"Don't worry, this should be fairly routine." You said, though you really had no idea of what it would be like in the slightest besides probably more than it seemed to be.
"Are you ready to go Arne?" Samus asked, running a quick suit diagnostic before pumping her arm cannon with her free hand and letting her visor go into opaque mode.
"Well, rescuing captives in distress is one of my archetypical duties after all...come on Raela." Tyrius said, pushing himself to his feet as the Angel manifested her armour and spread out her wings in full glory. His own armour manifested in solarian light, encasing him head to toe in black, red, and gold fae-metal and his sword and shield manifesting shortly afterwards while Raela's twin cold-forged swords of heavenly steel glimmered into her hands.
"Well, come on, if we're goin' cult bustin' let's head in with style." Raelamiel said as her angelic helm glowed briefly while she ran her swords against each other with a sharp gliding sound, no audible grinding whatsoever. Sharp to the point of perfect smoothness in the blades' motions against each other.
"We can trust them Arne, I don't think incarnates would be part of this...network." Samus said with a small smile, getting a nod of acceptance from you while the four of you rushed out the door in short order. With flight and sheer speed, the journey to the location in question was brief.
The compound was in one of the outlying suburbs of Brockton Bay, a large and almost gaudy structure that seemed almost to be bragging about how much money, influence, and power the Church commanded. You remained on the outskirts though, not yet making a move that would get the four of you spotted. You saw some people wearing the symbol of the Church, a rocket-like shape in a starry background with tendrils of exhaust plumbing behind it.
Analysis of the Adherent demonstrates and comparison to the known genetic baseline of humanity in this dimension indicates that the subject has an unknown form of tampering within their bodies. This tampering is xenological in origin and stems from an extremely complex form of self-aware genetic matter that is aware at the subatomic level; allowing it to persist in its identity even with radically differing biochemistries. Simulations indicate that this Helix will spread through fluid contact, particularly sexual activity. While your own genetic code would be inviolable to this method of transmission, parahuman genetics would not be. Blood transfusions, unclean needles, and organ donations would also provide enough of shared fluid contact to ensure infection.
Analysis of genetic alterations suggests that the infection is altering adherent behaviour; greatly increasing the urge to mate and reproduce, overwriting prior sexual preferences and plans in the hopes of intercourse able to result in offspring. The partner will as mentioned, also be infected while the offspring will, as per simulations, gestate at a massively accelerated pace compared to the human standard; a hybrid of the genetics of the infecting alien life form and the host assimilating biomass fed into the foetal life form almost as fast as it is consumed by the mother who will give birth painlessly and easily before the infection renormalises their body to allow for repeat reproduction as soon as possible.
Analysis of brain activity indicates that subject is being influenced by a form of gestalt telepathy as well. A large network of infected or hybridized organisms in continual communication. Engaging one will invariably alert the rest of the telepathic network of your threatening status. They will also coordinate effectively and efficiently when met with stressors such as combat scenarios and quickly call for reinforcements from elsewhere while informing their other agents of the situation and then quickly discuss a response plan. Given the likely widespread nature of infestation, this will likely earn the user the ire of many local authorities.
Samus' Notes: How long have the creatures spreading this infection been present here? This sort presence suggests decades at least. But how have they avoided notice so far? This is extremely worrying...especially if this isn't the only reality they're present in.
Arne's Notes: If the situation is as bad as I might fear; then we're going to have to put our minds towards some sort of cure otherwise the number of people who will be killed by any purge is going to be genocidal. And I'm not going to take that step.
"Yo so...what are we going to be doing for back up? Or even getting in. Just kicking in the door seems like, I dunno probably walking into a trap." Raelamiel said as she sheathed her twin swords at her hips, Tyrius doing the same with his own solar blade.
"Local law enforcement and vigilantes are likely compromised. Even if we get the uninfected to respond, letting any of them know of the call is going to tip them off." You said, the prospect of upcoming battle banishing your usual shy demeanour, this was your element and your mind was quickly working towards solutions to the complex puzzle of optimal moves to make.
"Arne's right. If we just send a general call for assistance they're probably going to know we're onto them and then Emma is going to die or be moved somewhere else or worse. But we shouldn't call on every Paragon hero either. It'd be well...I don't want to bet whether Paragon City also has these cults. But I'm hoping your team and the autobots might be able to provide assistance?" Samus said, kneeling slightly out of the sight of the adherents as they welcomed acolytes of the church into the building for a morning service.
"So who should we call upon then?" Tyrius said, taking stock of the team around him. "The two of you are some of the finest generalists I've yet seen; Strikers par excellence. Raelamiel is a blender in close combat and I myself; well; I've yet to meet anything that goes through my armour or shield so I'll take point. Which means we probably need more support and crowd control. Augmenting and enervating support both, hopefully." Tyrius said as he looked between the group.
"We're going indoors too, so we'll need people who aren't going to have too much trouble fitting inside. Probably also some people who can slip in with us without being immediately noticed...and someone who can bring some summoned help to the field would be good at helping to cover the hostage when we have to extract her." Samus said, thinking about it as she took one more look at the rather baroque megachurch, more of cathedral than anything else at this point. Her echo-visor suggesting that the building sat atop plenty of catacombs below.
"So...that rules out a lot of the autobots." You said, most of them would be suboptimal indoors to be honest. Only those able to reduce their size sufficiently could be counted on as reliable and Bumblebee was already busy elsewhere. That narrowed down a lot of the known autobot assistance.
"But given the telepathy they use..." You started
"Yo wait, they use telepathy?" Raelamiel said as you realised...whoops you don't share suit data with her and Tyrius.
"Oh...sorry...one moment." You said as you fed the scan data yourself and Samus had acquired to the pair who looked through for a moment as you were patched into the hero-team system to share vital statistics, combat information, relative position, and other important details with each other as well as encrypted chat. A rather useful program of the Paragonites honestly.
"...This is some They Live! shit right here." Raelamiel said with a clearly disturbed tone of voice as she pondered the nature of the revelation and made a loud "hrmmm", steepling her finger sand tapping them against her helmet.
"Oh that's...Ytaliana's mercy that's not good at all." Tyrius said as his butterfly wings started to still their regular beat and the Paladin sat himself on the ledge and put his hands on his head.
"Dawn-Hawk, though I am but a humble Paladin of your service, I ask you to grant me revelation. How may I bring salvation to those who are infested by this curse without slaughtering them? Your squire and page asks this of you, so that he may deliver radiance to them without a river of blood." He said, starting to clasp his hands and pray, looking towards the Sun as you surmised his religion dictated. Not directly at it of course, because it would be foolish for a religion to ask for its adherents to do so, but keeping his face towards the weak winter glare of the sun shining through what had once been blizzard infested territory.
You made your own beseechment to your pagan gods. "Avorne; Lady of Fate, help me see. I offer to you my humble service, and the sacrement of warriors." You started while Samus made her own prayers in greater quiet, meditating for a bit while Raelamiel simply remained silent. Of course, as an Angel she didn't really need to pray for her Lord to hear her, she just had a direct line to whomever they were.
Samus opened her eyes first from her meditative trance after having sat down and crossed her legs, looking up and straightening herself up. "We'll need more people who can disable without killing. At least for the infected. I'm not sure about the hybrids or...the original infection vectors, but we need stun weapons and lots of them." She said as the answer seemed to come to her all at once.
"Okay, let me compile a list for you." Tyrius said as he forwarded a list of suitable starsetters. Those he had never sensed any unusual genetic alterations of in the recent past, those whose powersets he believed would complement the team, and those he trusted. You yourself went through some of the available autobots to add to the list; it wasn't much, at least those who could be here on short notice and have enough time to devote to a full unexpected mission, but it would be a start.
PARTY OPTIONS Choose four (Name your choice plan: whatever so the vote counter can keep track of it.)
[]: Iybraa: Massively powerful Psion, equipped with Vondun living-metal power armour, skilled at most ranges but also brash, arrogant, and impetuous due to the strength of her powers. Extremely good crowd control and general purpose damage, some support and tanking. Dominator Archetype.
[]: Olla Witwicky: Autobot Masterforce Gearhead sparkshifted, makes all kinds of gadgets for all sorts of purposes, also a very durable mainline fighter with a wide list of supporting devices. Great durability, good damage, wide range of support or pets. Confident, cool, and flirtatious. Guardian archetype.
[]: Mechamaven: Starsetter crafter type Hero who has a wide array of robots, all of whom have variably lethal to nonlethal weapons that can be teleported into the field to replace losses; and a number of gadgets herself. Also has time shifting devices that allow for a wide variety of excellent support options. More than a bit over-eager and has issues with subtlety. Mastermind archetype.
[]: Boltdancer: Electricity controlling mutant, can lockdown enemies, stun them, cause lethal damage if needed, turn them against each other, summon up electricity based beings, use electricity to heal, re-energise, speed up, protect, or augment or drain foes. Enthusiastic but cautious, will generally be careful. Great crowd control and support. Controller Archetype.
[]: Mistral Slash: Stealthy, able to do reconnaissance without being seen, speedster and high damage melee combatant via sword. Has plenty of knock out tools and disabling devices as well, relatively fragile if hit but can prevent that circumstance by not getting hit in the first place. Great damage and speed. Stalker Archetype.
[]: Galen Witwicky: Autobot Masterforce Sparkshifted, speedy, extremely so in fact. Able to teleport as well, allowing him to rapidly reposition himself or the team when needed. A bit of a glass cannon but deals great ranged damage and his ability to shift the battlefield around keeps him useful in most situations. Great battlefield control and damage. Shifter archetype.
[]: Dawnmaker: Quintessential swiss army knife flying brick able to shapeshift into differing Kheldian host forms to vary his abilities. Can do nearly anything, even some crowd control and support even if he's mostly for tanking and damage dealing. His exact stats will vary somewhat depending on Team composition as his stats shift a bit to be more of what his team needs. Glass cannons make him tougher, stone walls make him do more damage and so on. Peacebringer Archetype
[]: Arcee: One of the few mainline autobots who could both easily fit into the building and its catacombs and isn't busy elsewhere at the moment. All ranges combatant, tactical maestro, great leadership and gives the best teamwork enhancement, very sneaky, and quite fast herself. She's calm and confident in most situations but can let her choler get the best of her when sufficiently outraged. Leader Archetype.
[]: Eudaimonica: You know her, you love her. Mastermind Archetype and has Winterpyre.
[]: Shadowcaster: Ditto. Defender Archetype (Support over all else, mostly debuff based, followed by ranged damage.)
[X]: Plan Covering Our Bases
[X]: Boltdancer: Electricity controlling mutant, can lockdown enemies, stun them, cause lethal damage if needed, turn them against each other, summon up electricity based beings, use electricity to heal, re-energise, speed up, protect, or augment or drain foes. Enthusiastic but cautious, will generally be careful. Great crowd control and support. Controller Archetype.
[X]: Iybraa: Massively powerful Psion, equipped with Vondun living-metal power armour, skilled at most ranges but also brash, arrogant, and impetuous due to the strength of her powers. Extremely good crowd control and general purpose damage, some support and tanking. Dominator Archetype.
[X]: Arcee: One of the few mainline autobots who could both easily fit into the building and its catacombs and isn't busy elsewhere at the moment. All ranges combatant, tactical maestro, great leadership and gives the best teamwork enhancement, very sneaky, and quite fast herself. She's calm and confident in most situations but can let her choler get the best of her when sufficiently outraged. Leader Archetype.
[X]: Mistral Slash: Stealthy, able to do reconnaissance without being seen, speedster and high damage melee combatant via sword. Has plenty of knock out tools and disabling devices as well, relatively fragile if hit but can prevent that circumstance by not getting hit in the first place. Great damage and speed. Stalker Archetype.
I'll agree with this. Samus and Arne both can do damage, we could use recon, Boltdancer and Iybraa both have good CC, and Arcee has a teamwork buff so that's always good
alright, yeah we need to really think about who we are bringing in
So Here is my Suggestion
[X] Plan Stamp out the Corruption
[X]: Iybraa: Massively powerful Psion, equipped with Vondun living-metal power armour, skilled at most ranges but also brash, arrogant, and impetuous due to the strength of her powers. Extremely good crowd control and general purpose damage, some support and tanking. Dominator Archetype.
[X]: Boltdancer: Electricity controlling mutant, can lockdown enemies, stun them, cause lethal damage if needed, turn them against each other, summon up electricity based beings, use electricity to heal, re-energise, speed up, protect, or augment or drain foes. Enthusiastic but cautious, will generally be careful. Great crowd control and support. Controller Archetype.
[X]: Galen Witwicky: Autobot Masterforce Sparkshifted, speedy, extremely so in fact. Able to teleport as well, allowing him to rapidly reposition himself or the team when needed. A bit of a glass cannon but deals great ranged damage and his ability to shift the battlefield around keeps him useful in most situations. Great battlefield control and damage. Shifter archetype.
[X]: Arcee: One of the few mainline autobots who could both easily fit into the building and its catacombs and isn't busy elsewhere at the moment. All ranges combatant, tactical maestro, great leadership and gives the best teamwork enhancement, very sneaky, and quite fast herself. She's calm and confident in most situations but can let her choler get the best of her when sufficiently outraged. Leader Archetype.
Reasoning:
Iybraa: having more damage and crowd control will be useful for these things if they are actually Genestealers, which they most likely are given the hints about them,bit of a concern with Psionics and the hive mind interacting, but the benefits of her power might be worth it
Boltdancer: a good choice for whatever we need to do and since the entire building probably need electricity, they won't run out of juice for a while, plus they seem to be able to buff us, so all of my yes
Galen Witwicky: good for adding some more to our range and another speedy character, plus his teleportation will be handy in the upcoming battle
Arcee: she is by far the most experienced of the options and probably one of our best options of speed if things go wrong for someone, I'd be good to have someone with more experience then us helping organize this recon/attack for the fine folks of the Protectorate, they probably won't be too happy about the passing over of law.
We're currently tied so I might do an interlude post to tide you all over. I've got a bunch of drafts sitting on my computer, one for some Eldar kids, one for some Necrons, one from the perspective of the Tyranid hive mind itself, and some others just lying around.
[X]: Iybraa: Massively powerful Psion, equipped with Vondun living-metal power armour, skilled at most ranges but also brash, arrogant, and impetuous due to the strength of her powers. Extremely good crowd control and general purpose damage, some support and tanking. Dominator Archetype.
[X]: Boltdancer: Electricity controlling mutant, can lockdown enemies, stun them, cause lethal damage if needed, turn them against each other, summon up electricity based beings, use electricity to heal, re-energise, speed up, protect, or augment or drain foes. Enthusiastic but cautious, will generally be careful. Great crowd control and support. Controller Archetype.
[X]: Galen Witwicky: Autobot Masterforce Sparkshifted, speedy, extremely so in fact. Able to teleport as well, allowing him to rapidly reposition himself or the team when needed. A bit of a glass cannon but deals great ranged damage and his ability to shift the battlefield around keeps him useful in most situations. Great battlefield control and damage. Shifter archetype.
[X]: Arcee: One of the few mainline autobots who could both easily fit into the building and its catacombs and isn't busy elsewhere at the moment. All ranges combatant, tactical maestro, great leadership and gives the best teamwork enhancement, very sneaky, and quite fast herself. She's calm and confident in most situations but can let her choler get the best of her when sufficiently outraged. Leader Archetype.
Samus
You reviewed the list and made your selections. You decided to put in a rather succint but polite description of the situation you were facing to aid the newcomers in getting up to speed with what would need to be done. And with a quick return ping affirming their interest, you awaited their arrival. With a brief flash of energy, the four summoned were gathered; pulled into position by Iybraa's tremendously powerful psionics simply carving open short lived wormholes with light twisted away from the group to prevent them from being noticed by the sentries sifting through the snow covered streets.
"Alright, hive mind, you have my interest." Iybraa said to you plainly and simply, folding her arms beneath her chest as she floated in the air above you, her energy wings shimmering from pink to invisibility to reduce the obviousness of her profile as her organic-metal armour flexed with the movements she made; more like some manner of metal crab than standard technology you wore.
"Hey, someone has to keep Iybraa in check. Call me Boltdancer, Dawnchild. And yo, 'sup Duskguard?" Boltdancer said, giving the two of you a thumbs up with one hand in his pockets.
"You're not my babysitter." The Yurye said with a prolonged sigh.
"Taking on the Church of the Star Travellers? Bold. You two were right to get me on the line. These guys can tear through some of our autobot pretenders, so if you're going in, you're not going in without support." She said, her minicon; Seacar; sitting upon her shoulders, aarms and legs folded and rounded television screen like face making a "hrm" gesture as they considered the view ahead of them.
"Heeey, what's good Sammy? Besides how you look." Galen said, finger pistoling you and grinning beneath his helmet.
"I'm surprised that I'm not the biggest flirt around here." Tyrius said with a small chuckle.
"Well...I think that's everyone, right?" Arne said, looking to you and receiving a nod in return.
"Yep, present as fuck." Raelamiel said as she clasped her fingers around the hilt of her sword.
"The cult seems to be widespread, so we're going to need to have someone on hand to deal with the fallout of engaging them. But if that doesn't transpire well...it's better to get in trouble for doing the right thing than to be unpunished for doing evil or nothing." You said, Boltdancer taking a second to have a look at you and nodding as the young mutant made a finger picture frame containing some of the electrical infrastructure and focused for a bit.
"So, gonna be real. I'm not super familiar with space stuff even though I'm in the team full of nonhuman...buuuuuuut." He said, Marcus' accent born of the poorer districts of Paragon where many other Black Americans like himself dwelled in. It was rather interesting to hear, and he had your immediate interest as he left you hanging for a bit.
"There's a lot more electricity going beneath than they're actually drawing from the city grid. Like, a lot of it is blocked to me but the amount of juice they have going through there's thousands of times what you'd be able to get out of the city power plant. And that's probably just auxiliary shit. No way that was made with local tech." He said before putting his hands back in his trench coat pockets and looked towards you.
"That'd make sense, the DNA infestation in them isn't from this metaversal cluster. Iybraa, you're a better mind reader than myself; what can you sense?" You said, nodding at Marcus before turning to Xaeon's sister as she raised one finger to indicate that she needed a moment and then looked ahead, resting her other hand on her temple for a moment while her psionic presence reached out. It was a subtle probe, trying to not alert the telepathic network of her intrusion lest all this prep work end up being for nothing. But she found that there was no easy holes for her presence to fill in. Any attempt to touch into the network would trip the entire network.
"...Ugh, sorry, can't do any psi-scouting. Their telepathy is weird though it's not...normal psionics, its going through some overlapping dimension. Okay that's not completely true, some of it is closer to psionics but the other part is more...kind of like magic? It's weird...there's so many redundancies going on here, like it was designed to ensure there could be no way to make the network fail." She said, grunting with displeasure at not having proved her superiority quite yet.
"But if we need you to, can you tap into the telepathy network?" Arne asked, bluntly. This was an important tactical question that demanded a swift answer.
"I never said I couldn't. Haven't met a lot of defenses that could keep me completely out. Probably aren't any that could keep me out if I really pushed myself." Iybraa said with confidence brimming in her voice. Confidence that made you briefly worry for her. But then, weren't you more than a bit prideful yourself? Who were you to judge? You who dove into a complicated free for all head first and decided to try to take on multiple high grade enemies at once?
"What we're going to need is reconnaissance. Someone who isn't going to set them off immediately. That rules out you, Arne, and Iybraa straight away. They'd sense your psychic presence immediately. My suggestion would be Tyrius. I've seen his charm show. It should maybe placate them long enough for him to spot an entrance, and he's tough enough to last until support arrives." Arcee said, kneeling down and having a look at the complex before she turned to Raelamiel.
"Given that they seem to prefer couples, you should go with redhead." She said.
"We shouldn't just let them go in without some guarantee of support. Arne and I could crawl into their ventilation system in our alt-modes or phase through their walls. Or both even." You said, taking another look at the circumstances ahead. You wagered that with your current repertoire of suits and reinforcement upgrades, you'd be able to tank your way through most of the trouble that'd be flung in your direction. And you just...didn't feel right leaving the two of them on their own.
"Sound plan. Once you have your breach; the rest of us can teleport in." Arcee said, focusing her optics on the four chosen to be in the lead.
"So what am I supposed to do?" Galen asked, shrugging his armoured shoulders.
"B-team needs some tough support. We're tougher than most of the low-pretenders we've sent in so...we should be fine...theoretically." She said.
"Theoretically?!" Galen squeaked.
"I estimate only a fifty seven percent chance of one of us dying horribly." Seacar said, their jovial tone chirping in the ears of their listeners.
"What?!" Galen said with a small voice.
"Oh don't worry, it's only a joke. I lack sufficient data to make an analysis anyway." They said with a shrug.
"I'm gonna provide eyes and ears, check on the electric fields moving around. Now, quick warning. I can't tell you exactly what the stuff I pick up is like. I'm only seeing like, magnetic fields and electricity." Boltdancer said, looking towards you and Arne, Tyrius and Raelamiel you figured were already well aware of what their teammate could or couldn't do.
"And I'm gonna give ya'll another warning. There is something moving in those vents. A lot of something. Freaky, coordinated, fast. If you want to sneak around I'm gonna have to give you a heads up. Maybe with your psychic voodoo we might just pull this off. Or you know; you can just phase through some walls." Boltdancer said.
"Right, act like we're going against the devouring Earth. The second any of us have our cover blown, we all have our cover blown. So we just need to get inside without starting a fight on the streets." Tyrius said, his team captain voice already switching on as he placed one hand on his hip and used the other to gesture to the compound.
"Why don't we just kick in the door?" Galen said, drawing glares from literally everyone else present.
"Take a look around." Arcee said, letting Galen have a long view of the surrounding area before he turned back to her and shrugged. He really didn't seem to get it. Even as he looked at the great mass of humanity just going about their day, most of whom weren't even slightly out of the ordinary for 21st century humanity.
"What do you see?" She asked.
"I dunno, people just doing their things?" He said.
"That's exactly it. There's people there. Hundreds, maybe thousands who'd be in the threat radius if we started a fire fight in the open." She said with a stern but understanding look, he was still young after all.
"Alright...so how are we starting this?" He asked, sighing as he folded his arms beneath his chest.
In a matter of a few minutes, Tyrius was approaching the door and pausing himself, Raelamiel by his side and both of their inhuman natures guised; wearing comfortable looking winter clothes as they were greeted by a well dressed acolyte. Slick, good looking, clearly well to do and the epitome of what Americans generally considered trustworthy; so white and just the right amount of stubble on his chin.
"Well how are you two fine young souls today? Our Friday service is already ongoing, but our doors are always open to the curious who have interest in the faith of ascension." He said, with the charming voice of a television star. You kept close, in morph ball mode; using the ghost suit's phasing abilities to disappear into the ground every time you sensed someone might be looking in your direction.
"Oh well, my boyfriend and I just blew in from out of town ya know? Thought we'd check out what's up with the higher up in New Hampshire ya know? Stretch the Rhode Island legs." Raelamiel said, briskly slipping into a persona that was...basically exactly her but he probably didn't know her so it wasn't that much of a worry.
"Oh of course, your parents with you?" He asked.
"Tch, they're lame. They wouldn't understand." She said with a haughty huff.
"Yeah, we're just trying to find something to do away from judging eyes." Tyrius said while Arne's psychomorph form contracted into a sphere like your own morph ball to lower its clearance a bit.
"We need an entrance." Arne said to you over your armor links.
"+Well go anywhere near the main entrance and you'd cross about a few hundred pairs of eyes. Kitchen supply entrance isn't being watched closely though. Top Entrance is also being watched like a hawk. But there's some sidevents you could quickly slip through. Closest one to you would drop you into an unoccupied office. Lot of computers there but can't exactly see what's going on.+" Boltdancer said.
"+But if you're going through the vents you'll need to drop down in a few seconds. There is...a ton of stuff going through the vents. I can't exactly tell what they are but they're a bit bigger than people, least...I dunno...six limbs. Lot of them just waiting. But oh man down below? Just what I can see? This is just one of this Ecumene's compounds here and there's enough shit there to drown the giant in the beanstalk castle. Now, there is a maintenance entrance, I'm seeing some crews entering...normal bioelectric signatures but...hang on...six limbed mofos moving in near them. Watching.+" He added.
"+Samus, remember the plan.+" Arcee cut in as you felt your choler starting to rise. People were in potential danger and your heart ached with the need to leap in to save them. It was a difficult calculus, you weren't sure if those maintenance workers were in actual danger or not, but the potential of it...and it also had to be weighed against the possible collateral harm dealt elsewhere. Could you just...risk the possibility of those people getting hurt? What about the mission? Splitting up wouldn't matter, as soon as any of them were aware they'd all be on alert.
"+Also getting readings of...fucking shit there's another bunch of people moving in god damn. Counting eight. Moving in from the rear a-....huh...what am I talking about?+" He said, the sudden lapse in his memory triggering your esoteric senses that something reached through the same dimension that these things housed much of their hive speech in and cleaned the memory out of his head. Something expert, rather older than you were, but almost playful really. A jest played by some manner of wily prankster.
"+Some kind of...amnesiac...definitely the kinda...extradimensional magic thingy these cultists are using to chat with. Just more individualistic. Seems to have been triggered by them noticing he was seeing them...I can...stop the mindwipe myself but...okay looking through the eyes of some animals and....getting very brief glimpses of like, swords and staffs and shit before they shimmer out of vision. I've got no idea who these people are but they might risk the whole plan.+"
What to do?
Actions:
[]: Go in through the vent into the office (Lots of computers, might have valuable information on their intranets)
[]: Go in through the Kitchen (poorly monitored, quick path downwards)
[]: Phase into the catacombs (Immediately leads you to an important relevation, but a lot of enemies are there)
[]: Phase in through a wall into the nearest unoccupied room (guaranteed lack of observation, only a random chance of finding anything useful straight away)
[]: Rescue the Maintenance Workers (Avoids stress roll, guarantees safety of maintenance workers, but you'll need to suggest some actions to do it either unobserved such as having Iybraa try to move some objects near them psychically to make them walk back out; or what you'd want to do if you're kicking in the door. Arcee will disapprove)
[]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
[]: Write in
[x]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
Whatever the fuck the other team is is the thing that could cause everything to go to shit the quickest if they interfere. Gotta figure out what they are first.
[x]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
[x]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
[x]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
[x]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
[X]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
Last thing we need is a third party or a friendly fire incident.
[X]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
[X]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.)
[X]: See the other mysterious team going in from behind (Encounter the third party straight away, possibly gain them as non-party allies/form a temporary league with them.) I hope for no friendly fire incidents if they could be allied.
