Well that's overwhelmingly one sided so I'll close it here.
[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.)
Samus
Tyrius and Raelamiel had already been allowed through the front doors at least, so the timer was already starting to tick down to act before things started to wheel into motion faster than you'd be able to control them, especially as Arcee had overall operational command rather than yourself. Still, you were fast, so you figured you could make the time to get in and get back to your expected duties before anything too major happened.
The other team had its own presence in the causeways of destiny, clearly able to perceive its movements with their own sort of distant sight. Several people able to make use of it actually. One seemingly particularly skilled in it. Old yet young.
One of the voices seemed to notice your intrusions into the paths of destiny and turned their notice to you, your astral form retreating before a figure in black and white armoured robes to try and elude...yes that was definitely a he...you think...maybe. Whatever, trying to dodge his notice was paramount. He was certainly powerful in the magics he made use of, lighting the way with runes to assist his focus.
"+I'm moving in to intercept the other team. Before they can interfere.+" You said over the line as you moved in, your rolling ball form phasing through some cover in ghost form to get a closer look. You let your morph-sight swap between the thermal and echo visors, trying to get a better sense of where the invisible ones were. Unfortunately, the stealth they used covered both thermal radiation and auditory output, so you instead found yourself relying on your distant sight.
"+What can you determine about them, Dawnchild?+" Arcee asked.
"+Sorcerous, they have more developed farsight than myself.+" You said with a quiet voice.
"+Stealth systems cover thermal and auditory detection systems so they're definitely ahead of the tech curve of this planet.+" Arne said, a note of caution easily audible in his voice.
You moved into position before they could reach the line of sight of the rear entrance or the sentries the cult had posted there. If you were going to have to disable them, you'd need to fight in a relatively inconspicuous manner. Well, as inconspicuous as you could manage with as few actual stealth tools as you possessed. You briefly cursed yourself for not getting some sort of cloaking field but remained calm and collected.
You were nearby, you could sense it. They may have been able to hide themselves from sensors, even from thought detection, or hearing, but you could feel their presence in the conduits of destiny. The Distant Sight would guide you as to what was the right or wrong course of action, and you muttered a brief apology to Old Bird that you were forcing yourself to learn how to master it before your education in the mystic arts was supposed to truly begin.
"+Feel them?+" Arne asked, his voice in your private comm channel, born of a link set up between your armorsuits. He kept his voice low and quiet, his psycho-morph mode floating somewhat over the ground while your morph ball eased through some of the debris and refuse of modernity. Disposed of cardboard and plastics that almost made you feel sick with how little care was put into cleaning it. Especially with all these unrecyclable plastics...but you noticed some of them moving. And not in the way the wind was blowing either.
"+There, I think I've got some of them.+" You said as you inched a bit closer and then unmorphed, rearing up to your full height and looking around. "It's alright, we know you're here." You said as you looked around before sensing an incoming movement, someone rushing towards you in an attempt to quickly neutralise you before you could give away their position. You shifted, bringing up your projected shield and deflecting the incoming spear blow.
"+I'll be keeping a close watch on them from here.+" moving into his own ambush position guided mostly by where he thought he needed to be. He caught only the briefest flash of an empathic signal before having to back away in a hurry from an attempt at a telekinetic cage around him; boosting back and phasing into the ground to elude the prison of force.
"+Okay, so definitely esoterics of some sort.+" He said as he transformed after emerging from the ground in ghost form, trusting in his senses to direct his movements as he fired off his blink pack to evade another attempt to cage him.
"This is foolishness Alyrsero." A masculine voice with a self-echoing reverb, pleasant and melodic to your ears said, deliberately choosing to speak in a language you understood rather than silent telepathy.
"These Mon'Keigh don't know what they're getting into! This is for their sake as much as ours Idaliryn!" The other, higher-pitched voice said.
"Bold words for someone who managed to get this lost in the webway oh son of Seers." Another female voice said before the argument transcended the verbal and went into the realm of thought as all movements stopped for a moment, Arne unfolding from his altmode and grabbing at some sort of staff before releasing the invisible implement when he sensed that the other was backing away.
You sensed telepathic communication, ripples through an empyreal realm you were faintly but not fully able to see. Sophisticated, information dense, thoughts full of rich emotion. Some shaped and disciplined, some wild and free, some silly, some hard-edged. It was quite the eclectic mix really.
You found the sensation of something approaching almost irresistable as a staff approached; twisting and then planting itself into the ground and projecting a shimmering field of invisible vapours around you to let the team have its appointed delegate reveal itself.
She was a slender figure, dressed in a clownish, multi-coloured outfit that hugged her body more than tightly enough for you to figure her for a girl, roughly even height with yourself despite her garb adding less to her height than your own. In her hands was a staff, upon her back was a series of what you recognised as grenade launchers as well as a pair of swords she kept in reserve. She was lean but clearly muscular, honing her body for battle even at a young age. You could tell that she had added some nonstandard armour to her outfit, perhaps relishing getting into the thick of things more than she could trust her abilities and skills alone to protect herself. All the added plates being made of some psychoactive material that was hard when it needed to be but soft otherwise.
"That will be enough of this attempt at finding battle my friends, I bid this contest of bravado come to its appointed and premature end." A feminine voice, young, melodic and bell-like while having a distinctive self-echo, standing tall and proud as she dismissed the cloaking field she had conjured and adjusted her black hood over the mirror-smooth mask she wore over her face, featureless and reflective.
Kaeliyae Eltravii is a young Shadowseer or Esdainn in her own language, a spell casting illusionist within the religious sect of her heavily divided species and culture known as the Harlequins, or Rillietann in their own language. Kaeliyae originates from the same metaverse as the gene infection spreading through this and likely other planets. Kaeliyae's species is known as the Eldar, or more poetically the Aesisha. Comparable to the Aelva of your own metaversal cluster, but distinguished by an inherent connection to a pleromic type overlapping co-reality that they refer to as Sha'eil; the place of Daemons from which they draw a large number of abilities referred to as Psykery, Witchcraft, and Sorcery to use their terms for the subdivisions of means of drawing from this realm. It is also where their soul is reflected in. Analysis concludes that Kaeliyae is roughly seventy-one Earth years old, but would be considered the equivalent of fourteen for her age.
She is far swifter, more intensely emotive, and has vastly greater reflexes than most even augmented humans, and possesses greater strength and endurance that can be augmented by her abilities. In combat, her mask will reflect the deepest fears of her enemies. Her primary weapons are a magoactive staff capable of both conventional and mystical energy reinforcement as well as a brace of pistols that includes a monomolecular shuriken launcher, a fusion ejecta pistol, a plasma pistol, and a neurological disruptor pistol. Unlike most adult Harlequins, she adds additional armour made of Wraithbone, a psychoactive material of varying hardness and pliability for added protection. She also keeps a pair of psychoactive blades in reserve, being fond of edged weapons despite the symbol of her office being the mist staff that she holds and is professionally trained in. In combat however, her greatest asset is her powers.
Skilled in multiple disciplines of the sorcery of her species, she is not only an accomplished illusionist, telepath, fortune teller, and telekine but also a practitioner of a mystic force relating to celestial phenomenon and electricity referred to as "Azyr", as well as biomantic abilities that allow her to manipulate her body and its functions. Accessed data makes mention of some entity known as "she who thirsts" who had once continually threatened the souls of her species until a being known as "Ynnead" offered them freedom and protection from this; allowing their abilities to flourish in greater strength. As per her own records, she considers herself a consummate storyteller and intrepid adventurer, never liking to stay in one place for too long and loving the feeling of finding something new and novel. Chipper, cheerful, excitable and energetic, she also takes it upon herself to ensure her eclectic band of friends don't get into too much trouble with aliens.
Samus' Notes: Hrm, she seems very interesting from what I can see! She's so much older than I am yet...she seems to be so youthful and vibrant. I'd like to question her some time, ask her about what she's seen across her life time. I really like her hairstyle too. Maybe I could try it for myself at some point.
Arne's Notes: I am...perplexed by the notion of a guardian religion aesthetically centered around clowns and harlequins. It hardly strikes me as the first thing that comes to mind when I think of when I hear the term "religious sect devoted to protecting a species' culture".
Kaeliyae's Notes: For future notice, it is really quite rude indeed to peer into those records without asking! But perhaps this once, I shall allow it so that in understanding we may lay basking?
The next was a figure of about the same height as Kaeliyae, with black and white armour and robes and the symbol of a stylised crying eye on his chest. It struck you as perhaps...melodramatic but the gaze he turned to you, shielded by the blue lenses of his helmet seemed largely devoid of levity. His outfit fitted over his armour; encrusted in runes and symbols you could only intuit the meaning of; was loose enough that you had little idea of his figure, though you figured him for someone who was probably rather on the skinnier side of things. He tried to reach into your thoughts for a moment, only to be repelled by the ironclad power of your progenitor soul and your place in the conduits of destiny, stepping back briefly as he looked upon you with greater intent, moving the spear he held in hand far away from Arne's hand and making a brief scoffing sound at the Cylosian.
"...Uh...sorry?" Arne said, not sure how he had offended.
"The least you could do for manhandling my spear. But I suppose it could not be helped with your ignorance." He said with a sigh as he let energy crackle along the spear to clean it of anything that may have come into contact with it.
"Hello there. I'm Dawnchild, and this is Duskguard. You don't seem to be from these realities. Is there anything we could do to help you?" You said, trying to both be polite but get to the point as the gaze of the male Eldar fixated on you to the exclusion of all else.
Placeholder version from when he was the protagonist of Eldarstuck. Pretend he has Ulthwe and not Alaitoc colours until I get him a proper commission.
Alyrsero Ardanesh is also an Eldar, though he is not a member of the Rillietann cult of the laughing God Cegorach; instead being a citizen of a society centered around a mobile planetship known as Craftworld Ulthanash Shelwe; or Ulthwe for short. Alyrsero Ardanesh is seventy earth years old, or roughly the equivalent of yourself in age as his own species reckons the passage of the years. As he grew older, he began a tradition of devoting oneself intensely to a passion or interest known as the Paths of the Asuryani; the subset of Eldar who had fled the birth of the soul-consuming entity tied to their species' actions in the late stages of their empire aboard the Craftworlds before it was too late. He has registered passing through the paths of the poet, the writer, cooking, painting, even a brief flirtation with the path of the warrior that lasted about five years until he settled on the assortment of paths revolving around his culture's sorcerous traditions under the tutelage of his father; Farseer Vrailius Ardanesh. A path he has remained in for twenty years.
Alyrsero arms himself with the magoactive weapon designated "singing spear" which moves according to his will and thought, is capable of significantly greater shield and armour penetration than a standard disruptor weapon, can be thrown and recalled with great accuracy and speed, and project his energies through it to amplify the damage he can do at a distance. While the Eldar's pressing need for manpower has pushed their culture to start ever younger with combat training, he took a shining to it few of his peers could match. Even with his father pushing him harder than most of his companions at his shrine due to expecting more of his son. Like most Eldar born after the loss of the "Great Enemy's" grip on their soul, his mastery of powers came early and in greater quantities than his ancestors. While his broad range of abilities, including the usage of the force known as "Chamon", Pyromantic abilities, Divinitation. Eldar Runic spells, Telekinetics and Telepathics, and even the force of "Hysh" are formidable, he still carries a twin-linked monomolecular shuriken pistol should he feel the need, while his armour offers both physical protection and mystical defenses; as well as the ability to alter fate to prevent hits from occurring.
Sardonic, convinced of the depths of his own intelligence, reluctant to admit to needing help when overwhelmed, and snobbish; his chief weakness is that he is often so busy burying himself into the past or studying the future that he can lose sight of the present or of things of more immediate or personal concern to himself. Despite this, he also is regarded as highly empathetic and a reliable friend for companions of his who are in need; and he does seek to provide help where he can. Due to his abilities of clairvoyance, he has self-appointed himself the leader of his group of friends following a detour in the otherworldly conduit network known as the webway forcing them to flee into less charted sections that brought them to this metaverse.
Samus' Notes: Oh if he is an amateur historian, maybe I could pull him aside and talk to him for a bit? I would bet that he has a massive wealth of knowledge about his own culture and society. Maybe even his personal life too?
Arne's Notes: He gives me the impression that he is permanently one or two moments away from launching into a prolonged and condescending lecture. I'll have to keep an eye on him before he starts trying to bend our ears.
Alyrsero's Notes: I am mystified, baffled, and amazed at how your systems could so casually rummage around in my personal records to be entirely honest with you. So for the moment, you have my intrigue rather than my outrage. Even further enhanced by finding myself in the peculiar situation where you are quite obscured to my own clairvoyance.
"Hrm, aliases. I would wager you are as foreign to this place as we are. Praytell, are you also seeking to uproot the Kintheif cult that has taken root in this small city of Mon'ke-" Alyrsero said before he found Kaeliyae staring more intently at him, making his statement die in his throat before he harrumphed and corrected himself.
"Humans? Or would the term Genestealer Cult have more meaning to you? Though I must confess you do not have any sign of being from a warptouched reality yourself, armour clad warrior." He said, breathlessly speaking at a pace that unaugmented humans wouldn't have the thinking speed to handle, but the two of you carried out as casually as conversing over the dinner table.
"If that's what you call the infestation that has taken root in the temple then yes. We're trying to find a way inside without sparking a fight in the streets that would cause collateral damage, and I...I came because I was worried that if your friends went in; they'd disrupt our plans." You said calmly, looking towards the Seer as he tapped at the chin of his helmet.
"Then we were of one mind! We shall call off our intercept, and hope you will do so in kind." Kaeliyae said with a bow as you quickly realised that she had made a habit of always forming rhymes in her sentences.
"How many did you split off for that purpose?" Arne asked, trying to get to the point as he always did.
"Of our octet, two. And that left us for you too." She responded with a gracious bow.
"How did you evade notice around here? You are hardly inconspicuous." You asked.
"Glamours are easy to use against those with no experience of the warp. A mere thought devoted to producing the illusion of humanity to your kind. But I can sense that such would never be able to confound yourself. Even less so than I could against the brood of horrors beneath this city." He said, swishing his cloak as he looked towards the complex.
"The humans of my reality and time would question whether this variant of their homeworld was worth saving or whether it should be consigned to the fire and reduce to ash. It and these other earths we have ventured to are infested with all manner of infiltrators. And I would wager that they have yet to be subsumed in large part because these forces are fighting each other as much as those who would seek to cleanse them. This is hardly a task I'd have taken on my own in ordinary circumstances; this is the work of armies and seer councils but if the Phoenix God has drawn me to this place then it must be for a reason, and I trust the guidance of Asuryan has not lead me astray. But you said that you were with a team yes? One of the ensouled machines, a human with an altered soul, a fae lost from their own realm far, far away, an angel wandering on orders from her heaven, a mutant born of a slum, and a psion from a strange, strange universe yes?" He said, barely stopping or allowing literally anyone else to talk while he rambled on and on and on, Arne taking a second to look towards you.
"+I think he's going to be at this for a while.+" Skjoldr said to you, though you nodded and remained polite.
"That's right, though I don't think I know the rest of your group?" Arne said.
"Myself, the Esdainn, a Bladewizard of the Hyshari, a Deathmaker of the Ynnari, a Warsage of the Aesasurmen, a Spellsinger of the Asrai, a Factormage of the Ithilyani, and a Sorceress of the Druchii who is...unfortunately...my full-blooded sister. To say that we are a dysfunctional and motley crew is to put it lightly; a severe understatement. But we are friends and kin, even if we at times struggle to stand each other's company. The Bladewizard, Ithilyani, my sister, and the Deathmaker are entering the rear of the building as we speak. So the spellsinger and the Warsage should be at your other companions by now. More or less exactly how I predicted it, though you two on the other hand; are much more of an enigma to me. And I am unfond of being left in the dark, so I will allow you to ask questions of me, if you would allow me to question yourself." He said, once again bombarding you with an endless onslaught of words that made you almost want to claw your way into the ground and hide away as he seemed to aggressively seek the most long-winded way to say everything.
"Are you sure we have the time for this Dawnchild? Even with our reflexes they're probably going to be spending all day probing into every detail." Arne said, looking towards you with concern.
"Worry not my strange and mysterious fellow guests. We too are beset by the passage of time, so we will not tarry on our quests." Kaeliyae said with a gentle, melodious tone to reassure you.
"Alright, how did you get here, Alyrsero?" You asked.
"You peered into my records, you should know. But if you must. We were looking to meet with my sister to celebrate our shared birthday until on the final leg of the journey to a meeting place we were beset by the most strange menagerie of Necrons whom I did recognise, enormously tall piratical reavers who thirsted for flesh and tossed forward legions of emaciated ghouls first whom I did not, radioactive insectile beasts who sprayed some manner of green ichorous assimilating poison wherever they went, and hopelessly lost white armoured humans whose second rate plasma fired some of the slowest projectiles I have ever seen and largely served to get slaughtered. I, using my best judgement, tried to lose the menagerie in the violence that saw me separated from my family and looked for passageways that would take us to safety. Now, I successfully managed to lose them, by also losing ourselves." He said before Kaeliyae waved him off.
"He managed to achieve his goals but at the expense of us not knowing how to return properly. So now we have been going through these uncharted segments of the webway from reality to reality, seeking what answers we can expediently!" She explained far more succinctly.
"Now, you have us at a disadvantage. What are your genuine names?"
"Samus Aran."
"Arne Skjoldr."
Not your full names but enough to satisfy his curiosity. "I will ask you further questions when time is not quite as...pressing...shall we get going? The brood mind's telepathy is insufferable to listen in on." Alyrsero groaned.
"There were some maintenance workers, uninfected, do you know anything of them...are they alright?" You asked as the Shadowseer gave a nod.
"It seems that the great dragon's kin-thief for at time are giving them berth. But for how long, who can say on this earth?" She replied.
"We've already sent in two of our team inside, we need to get in and support them as soon as possible." You said, hoping to drag the conversation back to where it needed to be.
"And so have we. Going in as a single unit would likely get us immediately noticed. But perhaps four teams of four might be able to chart this labyrinth?" Alyrsero suggested, and you couldn't fault him; with your teleporters you could quickly consolidate teams if needed.
"Alright then." You said with some reluctance.
"Excellent. We are already here so we may as well go in together." He said as he looked towards the building.
You checked the hero-team application on your suit and saw the vital statistics of the eldar pop up and then sorting themselves into new groups; conversations had between the two dispatched to the remainder of your team likely filling them in.
(Hit points are in Shields/Armour/Health, note that not all damage resistances and damage avoidance abilities are equal so some characters might be a lot tankier than they look. Don't worry, you don't have to manage all this, consider this more of a guide to how well your team is shaping up. I'm still not keeping track of this via dice so this is all pretty easy for me to sort through as I do the kriegspiel chats with my buddies)
Group 1:
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
Alyrsero (Asuryani Warlock, Good resistances, Extreme Defence, Ranged Damage, Support): 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Kaeliyae (Rillietann Shadowseer, Good Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/950|400/400|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 2:
Arcee (Autobot Commander, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder): 750/750|750/750|750/750 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Galen (Autobot Masterforce, Very Good Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Battlefield manipulation): 500/500|500/500|175/175 Morale: Good. Stress: 0
Tyrius (Yntanaer Paladin, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Tanking): 1500/1500|1500/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Raelamiel (Choir Angel, Great Resistances, Great Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 1000/1000|1000/1000|1000/1000 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 3:
Marcus(Boltdancer) (Great Resistances, Good Defence, Control, Support): 300/300|100/100|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Iybraa (Great Resistances, Extreme Defence, Control, All range damage): 1000/1000|500/500|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Ormothin (Asrai Spellsinger, Decent Resistances, Great Defence, Support, Control) 1250/1250|100/100|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Elendria (Aesasurmen Warsage, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 4:
Lelithax (Druchii Shadow Sorceress. Great Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage) 1250/1250|850/850|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Korlanil (Ynnari Deathmaker, Ranged Damage, Support) 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress 0
Idaliryn (Hyshari Bladewizard, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Impetuous. Stress: 0
Clarioli (Ithilyani Factormage, Summons, Control) 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
"That's everyone then?" You said, getting a nod out of Arne.
"Okay...then we're going to need a change of plans." Arne said.
Situation:
Group 2 is consolidating at the building front entrance while group 4 is consolidating at the building rear entrance.
Group 3 is on stand by.
Group 1 is on stand by.
There are an unknown but very large number of genestealer cultists and likely genestealers in the compound and potentially beyond.
There are a large number of civilians who might be threatened if the fighting spills outside.
This is not a PRT sanctioned operation, as such you will not be automatically coordinated with local heroes, who may be compromised already.
You and the Eldar can tell who is already infected and who isn't.
The Genestealers are as of yet, unaware that you are coming.
There is no time to swap group members around due to Group 2 and 4 already starting.
Please list your choices as [X] Plan: Whatever for the vote counter's sake.
Group Actions (As a Team)
[]: 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. You can take the Eldar with you by holding them. This is however, socially awkward and will likely lead to interesting conversations with them that can lead to interesting places.)
[]: Phase in through a wall into the nearest unoccupied room (guaranteed lack of observation, only a random chance of finding anything useful straight away. You can take the Eldar with you by holding them. This is however, socially awkward and will likely lead to interesting conversations with them that can lead to interesting places.)
[]: 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)
[]: Consolidate with Group 4
[]: Consolidate with Group 2
[]: Consolidate with Group 3
[]: Write in
Samus Actions:
[]: Check the building wi-fi for any possible files or relevant data that might be relevant to this group's acitivity's that you may not have been able to extract from the internet.
[]: Take point, Use the Echo-visor to see who or what might be making noise inside the building as well as the direction and locations of the sound.
[]: Take point, Use the Thermal Visor to check for heat signatures before entering.
[]: Hang Back: Keep to the morph-ball to retain a lower and stealthy profile with the aid of the frequency suit's vibrational absorption.
[]: Hang Back: Move-in quietly and stealthily to use your visor suite to determine possible threats, calling them out as they appear.
[]: Ask the group to delay a bit to set up buffs. (Costs some time)
[]: Write in
Arne Actions:
[]: Use your ship's deep penetration scanners to try and peer deeper into the possible makeup of the catacombs and acquire a better map before entering..
[]: Take point, establish all possible alternate routes near point of entry to take a look for passageways and possible ambush points.
[]: Take point, Use a combination of the Ghost Suit and the Temporal distort and Blink Pack to go from point to point to silently scout out the area.
[]: Hang Back: Remain in the vents in the psycho-morph to monitor the situation from above, moving in and out as needed.
[]: Hang Back: Establish a rear guard against any possible ambushes, ensuring escape routes remain open.
[]: Find a connection to the building's CCTV system to get a look at what the Genestealers are seeing.
Scheduled vote count started by Spartakrod on Jan 17, 2021 at 4:59 PM, finished with 9 posts and 9 votes.
[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.
[X] Plan: Knowledge without Awkwardness
Group Action:
[X]: Go in through the vent into the office (Lots of computers, might have valuable information on their intranets)
Samus Action:
[X]: Check the building wi-fi for any possible files or relevant data that might be relevant to this group's acitivity's that you may not have been able to extract from the internet.
Arne Action:
[X]: Take point, Use a combination of the Ghost Suit and the Temporal distort and Blink Pack to go from point to point to silently scout out the area.
also am i missing something, why the hell is a Dark Eldar part of this motley crew of Space Elves, even if they are young, that is something that should not stand or be allowed, those freaks should not be anything close to good
also am i missing something, why the hell is a Dark Eldar part of this motley crew of Space Elves, even if they are young, that is something that should not stand or be allowed, those freaks should not be anything close to good
She serves Malekith, not Vect. So she's not a perverse seeker of pleasure and torment, more of a sneering Eldar supremacist and disciplinarian asshole.
In Galaxies of Darkness, the emigres from Warhammer Fantasy became gods in an altered 40k timeline, with Malekith forming his own, new Naggarond which was meant to be a realm of steely and martial discipline devoid of the free for all anarchy that caused his kingdom to be stolen from him by Khaine and Chaos' shenanigans in the endtimes. So she's more of a cold Stalinist than someone who'd torture you for fun.
And well; Alyrsero's dad shagged her mom and he got to keep the son and she got to keep the daughter when they split up; so she's still family.
Plus, Eldar are very devoted to people with familial relations even if they can't stand them. It's why Malekith never got rid of his mom even though he was well aware of her making deals with everything from Chaos to the Undead.
Lelithax might be a smarmy asshole, a ramrod disciplinarian, more than a bit of an unpleasant bigot, an ardent nationalist for the glorious Eternal Shadow Kingdom of the great Malekith and devotee of the Cythari who has prayed to beings such as the Pale Queen, Morathi, or Lokhir Fellheart.
But at the end of the day she's still Alyrsero's twin sister so it's a complete faux-pas in just about any variant of Eldar culture to completely disavow all ties; and they still love each other as siblings even if Alyrsero and Lelithax have hugely divergent worldviews and beliefs. Even despite them being raised largely apart from each other as even after Ynnead freed them from Slaanesh's claim on their souls; the Craftworlds are still pretty set in their ways and aren't big on leaving the Path system nor have they dropped their criticisms of Malekith's endeavour after he migrated to the 40k setting in Galaxies of Darkness.
Your twin sibling is generally speaking, a really big deal and not someone you can cut out from your life that easily. Especially when Eldar mythology has such a huge emphasis on the special bond between multiple-birth siblings.
She's also not completely irredeemable, she's fourteen and raised in a spartanist, militaristic society devoted to restoring the glories of the Eldar by conquest. She's yet to actually really do anything evil personally of her own volition beyond being kind of a jerk. Though of course the way she killed some of the pursuers was more than a bit extreme, spells that turned the shadow inside of their bodies into blades and then flensing them outwards is kind of gory after all.
Group
[X]: Go in through the vent into the office (Lots of computers, might have valuable information on their intranets)
Samus
[X]: Check the building wi-fi for any possible files or relevant data that might be relevant to this group's acitivity's that you may not have been able to extract from the internet.
Arne
[X]: Use your ship's deep penetration scanners to try and peer deeper into the possible makeup of the catacombs and acquire a better map before entering..
An accurate map is a number one priority. Arne can transfer it to all team members.
Group
[X]: Go in through the vent into the office (Lots of computers, might have valuable information on their intranets)
Samus
[X]: Check the building wi-fi for any possible files or relevant data that might be relevant to this group's acitivity's that you may not have been able to extract from the internet.
Arne
[X]: Use your ship's deep penetration scanners to try and peer deeper into the possible makeup of the catacombs and acquire a better map before entering..
Group 1:
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
Alyrsero (Asuryani Warlock, Good resistances, Extreme Defence, Ranged Damage, Support): 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Kaeliyae (Rillietann Shadowseer, Good Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/950|400/400|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 2:
Arcee (Autobot Commander, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder): 750/750|750/750|750/750 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Galen (Autobot Masterforce, Very Good Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Battlefield manipulation): 500/500|500/500|175/175 Morale: Good. Stress: 0
Tyrius (Yntanaer Paladin, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Tanking): 1500/1500|1500/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Raelamiel (Choir Angel, Great Resistances, Great Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 1000/1000|1000/1000|1000/1000 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 3:
Marcus(Boltdancer) (Great Resistances, Good Defence, Control, Support): 300/300|100/100|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Iybraa (Great Resistances, Extreme Defence, Control, All range damage): 1000/1000|500/500|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Ormothin (Asrai Spellsinger, Decent Resistances, Great Defence, Support, Control) 1250/1250|100/100|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Elendria (Aesasurmen Warsage, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 4:
Lelithax (Druchii Shadow Sorceress. Great Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage) 1250/1250|850/850|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Korlanil (Ynnari Deathmaker, Ranged Damage, Support) 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress 0
Idaliryn (Hyshari Bladewizard, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Impetuous. Stress: 0
Clarioli (Ithilyani Factormage, Summons, Control) 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Arne
"We should head into the office...can you two fit in vents?" You said, looking over to your Eldar allies, your red eyes having a brief moment to scan through the readouts of the building and its known floorplan. They didn't have any altmode capabilities that you knew of. But Kaeliyae was dressed like a circus performer so you expected some contortionism out of her. At the very least she seemed very...flexible and...you swallowed a bit as you shifted your legs slightly due to an awkward sensation. This was rather inappropriate, she was a stranger...
You looked at Samus who regarded the maintenance workers with a feeling of tension through her.
"Are we going to leave them?" She asked.
"The skeins of fate don't seem to hold their doom as falling this day." Alyrsero said, making her sigh in relief.
(Stress roll passed)
"Anyway, Kaeliyae?" You asked.
"Vent passage is an old hat. I shall move with the grace of a cat." She said with confidence in her voice as Samus started to tap into the local wi-fi to get a connection to some of the computers that weren't part of the planet's internet.
"These files aren't encrypted very well, but I'm not finding a lot of incriminating evidence. Mostly business transactions and things to show inspectors." Samus said with a frustrated sigh as she lowered her hand from her helmet and looked to you with a shake of her head.
"Genestealer Cultists can store memories in their brood mind. They don't need to keep software data for their operations on these ancient computers. I doubt they'll have anything more than is absolutely necessary on their devices, but from what I can determine, the portents for discovering something of import on their more isolated mainframes are somewhat good. So far be it from me to discourage you." Alyrsero said, folding his robes and cloak around his front as you nodded and had a look at the wall.
"I'll have my fightercraft run its deep penetration scans...hopefully we'll get a better layout of the compound." You said, following multiple layers of advice. First was your training; never go into indoor labyrinths without doing everything you can to get a good map going. Second was that the conduits of destiny seemed to indicate greatly increased likelihood of someone getting seriously hurt, dead, or...worse if you went in unprepared. Third was that you weren't keen on going into a building full of vent crawlers unless you had a good idea of possible ambush points.
The Sleipnir passed overhead in cloaked mode, high in the mesosphere and away from possible prying eyes. Its scanners made a composite sweep across multiple spectra and with multiple devices; including a ship scale version of the echo visor to analyse the vibration of matter to form an image of the sound below. What you got showed that the catacombs stretched down rather deeper than expected even before the ship noted that there were seismograph cloaks in use to prevent this very sort of early scouting. They went down below the sewer lines and started spreading outwards until the cloaks prevented the Sleipnir from getting any further data. But the interior of the building was easier at least.
A maze of offices, corridors, storage spaces, community rooms, lecture halls, everything you'd expect out of a particularly ostentatious brand of twenty-first century monotheistic religion tailor-made to appeal to the aesthetics of American Christianity. You sent the map out to the others, using your scan visor to upload the psychic information to Kaeliyae who gave you a nod before she passed it out to her kin dutifully, arming them with the sword of knowledge and the shield of forewarning.
"Okay, I'll go in first." You said, it was the logical choice. You were the most melee suited of the group thanks to your shock coil and your slightly greater physical strength than Samus. In corridors where you might not necessarily have enough room to easily switch places.
"If you are willing to test yourself against Genestealer claws, be my guest. Hopefully you will fare better than humans do in this sort of situation." Alyrsero said as Samus raised her hand.
"I'll cover the rear, make sure nobody who shouldn't be following gets close." She said, pumping her arm cannon and cocking her wrist gun.
"Then I shall take the middle position. Now quickly, that we may end this tyrannic superstition." Kaeliyae said as she put her staff on her back, huffing a bit as you scanned the side of the building after getting into position, signalling for the group to follow you down the street once Kaeliyae reenabled the spell of invisibility. The short crossing of the street going by cars that seemed to be moving still to your perception of time giving way to a quick bit of architectural analysis.
It was a stately looking white set of walls pockmarked with many windows that you made note to not bump into. The flat roof eventually gave way to a steeple and some majestic looking spires, and the stained glass on some of the windows clearly depicted scenes of strange, alien things giving enlightenment to the ignorant. Sequences of transfiguration, ascension, and understanding played out across the large windows over what you assumed to be service rooms or facilities specifically for the priesthood's religious requirements; while more conventional windows allowed in the light of the sun for more secular rooms. Snow dusted the sills, rooftops, and much of the outlying machinery such as air conditioning units.
You jumped up to the vent exit you had spotted, carefully unscrewed the grate, and placed it onto the air conditioning unit next to you, looking back at the group behind you as Samus activated her flight unit and moved behind you.
"Can you two make the jump?" You asked, looking down at the two Eldar, Kaeliyae giving an eager nod and bow while Alyrsero remained quiet and put his spear away.
"A moment pl-" Alyrsero said before you fired off your grapple tether from your arm cannon hand and yanked him up to you, a surprised wail coming from him as you tugged him towards some handholds that he quickly purchased his fingers into before he hissed.
"Perhaps a bit of warning next time? At least when I've travelled with humans they tended to offer me that as a courtesy." He hissed.
"I am human." You said bluntly as you let the electric blue grapple energy fade.
"Are you? Perhaps by birth. But by spirit? You could hardly be called Mon'ke-...Human." He said, catching himself before he finished saying what you were pretty sure was a slur in his language.
"Let's not debate xenoethnicity right now. Come on, come on. Get going before someone notices!" Samus urged, clearly annoyed with the burgeoning debate as you rolled into the psycho-sphere; your own ball like alternate mode for when the psycho-morph's sides were too prominent to easily squeeze inside. Kaeliyae followed, a masterful acrobatic leap and flip easily bringing her into a crawling position into the vents while Alyrsero grumbled as he pulled himself up and started crawling inside; Samus being the last inside; briefly unmorphing in a prone position to reattach the grate to prevent suspicions being raised; changing back into her alternate form immediately after using a quick low power burst from the laser cutter to give the grate a slight welding into place.
Inside, the chattering of the Brood Mind was more intense, and you could hear distant skittering through the vent systems; which were clearly enlarged from what was standard to allow for more room to move around. You weren't big on the idea of fighting inside of these vents, especially when two of your entry team were lacking in any efficient means to fight off would-be aggressors while prone like this. Finding the exit into an office room came as a relief; your alt-mode extending its limbs and detaching the grate leading into the empty office before skittering out like some large and terrible insect; crawling along the ceiling and then the wall with the spider-morph upgrade before you unmorphed and extended your arms to quietly catch the rest of the group as Kaeliyae undid the spell of invisibility.
She landed in your embrace, a brief glance shared between you two before you set her down as you flushed and tried to look away, harrumphing until it was the Warlock's turn to be caught in such a way, a quick stammer coming from him as you set him down and a shake of his head being followed by him dusting off his robes before Samus dropped down; a brief affectionate headbutt being shared between you two when you had your limbs wrapped around each other.
The room was full of computers. Row after row. Server mainframes could be seen in the next room, while the monitors here were all black; their towers currently in off-mode. You gave a brief boost to Samus as she reattached the grate above, letting her back down and noting the carpeted floor and the immaculately clean walls. Your suit's olfactory sensors informed you that the place smelled of well...twenty first century cleaning products, harshly regulated air and that scent of dustless carpet.
Samus quickly took a look through the stored data on the computers, using thee hard connections of the towers in here in the hopes of finding something that she might not have been able to from outside.
"The Adeptus Mechanicus would not give a half glance to most of these ancient heaps of junk. Vaul blessed look at it; silicon and copper." Alyrsero said with clear disdain as he examined one of the monitors and towers after Samus had pushed on the on-button of one of the computers to get to work.
"Human technology had to get started somewhere. So it might as well find its origins from what gifts sand has to bear." Kaeliyae said with a soft smile beneath her mirror mask as she sat herself at one of the swivel chairs and spun around, sprawling on it like a dancer with a leg raised and amusing herself with a delightful laugh as she rotated at high speeds. A girlish "whee!" coming from her as she gave herself a quick spin. Samus also sat down, her scan visor perusing the endless files while you kept on checking the door with the echo visor, Alyrsero looking up at the vent system with an uneasy breath.
"Junk isn't quite right...these computers are modified with nonstandard technology produced by Stalkware." Samus said.
These Computer Mainframes, despite aesthetically resembling the expected norms for computers of this era, internally have been outfitted with technology well beyond the means of this planet's civilians. Modifications include solid-state metamorphic circuits which while inferior to Federation standard designs; are able to easily handle any computing demands conceivable in this time while still being similar enough to silicon wafers in appearance to fool observers lacking in the proper equipment. The computer's records indicate that they are often used to play newly released and technically demanding video games as part of a means to entice youth with entertainment activities. Financial records show that the Church has made a massive number of such entertainment product purchases, offering them as a reward to youth interested in joining or as part of a package to ensure that parents who may wish to join can be assured that their children will have their entertainment needs met. Records also show a large number of gaming console purchases.
Following the conversion of a number of game development and publishing studio heads to the religion; a number of games have also been produced under the explicit patronage of the ecumenical society that the Church of the Star Traveller belongs to. Others are simply funded out of the deep pockets of the religious establishment, as part of a marketing campaign by the organisation to pose itself as a place of "fun as well as enlightenment that can be enjoyed as part of an ever-expanding community." Based on log-in records, this campaign has been hugely successful, with the Church attracting large numbers of disaffected or impoverished youth who would otherwise not be able to afford such products, or are lacking in any regular circle of friends who could be expected to play with them face to face.
The means of acquiring this technology are not listed on the records. They were most likely developed by the Church itself in secret based on plans from their metaverse of origin, allowing themselves to make use of superior computers without revealing their technological superiority. However, network compartmentalization devised in expectation of possible observation of technokinetic parahumans ensures that many other forms of data are not available from these computers.
Samus' Notes: Everything I learn about these...Genestealers paints them as some sort of societal predator, lurking in camouflage among the population and tailoring their religion to what they think the people are hurting for. They're clever, which means they're incredibly dangerous. And clearly much better at computer security than the Weltreich. This sort of sophistication is...hrm, I'd need to see more before I can make my judgement. But I don't like what I'm learning. If they're already this rooted into power structures then getting them out is...how do we even start? And if they're spread throughout the other metaverses I....I'm going to need to think about how to deal with this.
Arne's Notes: From what I'm seeing, Genestealers seem to be perfectly adapted to incorporating host species into their lifecycle. Parasites on a societal scale. If that were the end of it, that would be dangerous enough, but the way they speak of the coming of gods from beyond the reaches of this world tells me that they're adapted to prepare the way for what I can only assume are the harvesting organisms sent out to collect the seeds they sowed. They already have technological superiority for one thing, and with the way they're amassing converts and based on what I can foresee...they're probably preparing for a takeover of some sort.
"I already have enough trouble with the concepts behind the institutions of "money", don't seek to regale me with babble about this "corporate world" as so many of the humans here already have." Alyrsero said as he kept his sentry watch, folding his arms over in front of his chest.
"I don't really get it either, even in this time they produce enough to let everyone live at least comfortably if they shared the burdens and rewards equitably." Samus said, getting a nod of agreement out of you.
"But it does mean that the technology isn't from here." You said.
"The Kin-Thief have assimilated the knowledge of countless societies and all of their secrets. They will have already developed the means to ensure their task of consigning this world to bleakness." Kaeliyae said, humming as if she were just telling a funny little story.
"I'm not going to give up on this or any other planet!" Samus snapped, growling at the end of her sentence as she tightened her expression beneath her helmet.
"Such fierce yet noble rage! Praytell, for what do you consign yourself to this; an emotional cage?" Kaeliyae asked in a singsongy voice.
"I've seen enough worlds die..." Samus said with a colder tone, tensing her throat and holding back her choler as Kaeliyae seemed to shift her mood to something more dour, frowning beneath her mirror mask.
"Oh my, please don't cry. I had no intention to pry." Kaeliyae said, her tone clearly regretful.
"Tragedy motivates you both I would assume. Tragedy to separate you from your human heritage to make you more." Alyrsero said, surprisingly insightful for someone you had written off as a cryptic and arrogant ass.
"And what about it?" You said, not quite giving him a straight answer out of a sensation of unease around someone whose probes across the conduits of destiny made you slightly uneasy. It was something like talking to the older progenitors, particularly the ones you lacked familiar with. Always wondering whether they knew what you would say in advance.
"Anger born of tragedy is a path to both righteous outrage; and the darkest sort of bloodfury. Be careful lest your anger end up consuming you." Alyrsero cautioned, almost making you roll your eyes on the spot before letting out a strained exhale and looking back at the echo-visor's view.
"You still have both parents." You said pointedly as Alyrsero gave it a moment of thought.
"Please! Stop fighting." Samus hissed, clearly irritated that the argument had gotten started at all and not wanting it to go a step farther. But you got a quick ping on the group chat system.
Arcee: They've got us made.
Tyrius: Bald guy took a look at me once I got into a room with him behind the main chamber and tried to stare into my eyes and get me to relax with one of the girls in the cult. She uh, showed me to a bedroom and as I was trying to back out some freaky thing with four arms dropped down.
Raelamiel: Yo what the fuck kind of sex cult is this? They're coming out the walls now!
Galen: Really glad I'm packing a rotary gun right now.
Idaliryn: We shall move to support the humans and the machine-woman. As soon as we get through this brood.
Clarioli: Can we make our way through such a tide?
Idaliryn: Let's find out together!
Marcus: Hey, where do you need my group at?
Iybraa: You guys have maybe...five seconds before they catch up to you.
Elendria: I am quite astonished as to how you haven't noticed a cult of this size earlier.
Ormothin: They don't have witches of their own.
You heard something hissing in the distance that didn't sound like mere air pressure. And you looked to the left briefly before the wall opened up with secret hinges to seamlessly let through something that was fast; outpacing its own sound for a moment before stopping and flashing deadly claws at you, identifying you as one of the primary threats. Your senses exploded into overdrive and you quickly extended your left arm's blade to deal with the incoming attacker, the monster's somewhat man-sized body tensing with muscles like lightspeed coils as it pulled itself back out of the charge and extended its jaws from a short, powerful head to let out a roar, bouncing between the floor and ceiling to escape a cascade of bolts fired from Samus' arm cannon; six limbs scuttling faster than bullets.
Analysis of Entity, matched to Eldar records names this entity as a member of a species known as the "Tyranid Genestealer" or "Kin Thief of the Great Dragon" among many other names to the many species of its native metaversal cluster. The organism is extremely fast, proofed against nearly all conventional man-portable firearms of the current time period, possesses enormous strength and quark sharp claws able to cut through most forms of matter with ease when combined with the strength of the user. While user armour will be sufficient to survive the claws unshielded, tissue damage will be virtually unavoidable if it manages to engage user unarmoured. The creature's lifecycle subverts that of its host species via ovipostor infection, taking over their reproductive cycle and indoctrinating victims into the localised hive mind of the cults that they establish as a vanguard organism for the fleets of the rest of its relatives; a hive minded homogenising swarm referred to as the "Tyranids" or "Great Dragon" among countless other recorded names; a swarm well known for devouring all matter and energy they come across in enormous armadas driven to consume by their overwhelming collective hunger and urge to multiply. A swarm believed to have consumed at the very least; billions of galaxies in their entirety and whose encroachment on the "Garden of the Old Ones", a sphere of space some five billion light-years across centered around the milky way has been considered a sign of impending apocalypse by many cultures.
Cross-referencing data with Autobot records have shown that Tyranid "hive fleets" are also making their presence felt in other realities being joined by the events, but Autobot theories currently rule out the Tyranids being the primary cause of the reality convergence. However, it has lead to an increasing proliferation of Genestealers and other scouting organisms who are set on not merely preparing the way for their parent organisms but also sampling the genetics of local organisms to see if they have anything of interest to the Tyranid gestalt consciousness. Trace analysis indicates that these Genestealer cults have carefully studied parahumans and metahumans and the chances of encountering Genestealers with parahuman or metahuman powers is extremely high. The strength of the Genestealer localised hive mind is enough to shackle the extradimensional passenger's desires to the brood mind's own thoughts, allowing them more control over these powers than most parahumans can manage.
This Genestealer seems to be largely baseline but has had augments compared to Eldar records; with enhanced speed and strength. Despite this, the Genestealer is relatively fragile and will be downed by most of your weapons. Homing weapons able to track the genestealer or wide area weapons such as the spazer-beam augmented beam are recommended to engage the Genestealer in areas where the Genestealer has room to dodge. Melee against Genestealers is only recommended to prevent them from closing with more vulnerable allies or to pull a genestealer brood's attention to yourself. Note that Genestealers also have hypnotic gazes, and can subvert the wills of those who stare into their eyes, and are nearly silent while moving when they do not wish to be heard. Head shots are highly recommended as the Genestealer's biology will allow it to persist through most other injuries long enough to make an attack unless the brain and spinal column are destroyed.
Samus' Notes: Now this I think, is the sort of fight I was born for. If I have to take on billions of these things to save this world from their parent organisms; then I'm going to do it gladly. Hopefully I can get something to cure the infected sooner or later, and figure out some way to deal with their hive fleets. I have to, but for now...I think I'm going to enjoy this.
Arne's Notes: Samus is already looking forward to this fight, I can just feel it. Their interest in these worlds is clearly rooted in biologies they haven't encountered before. If we don't do enough to stop their parent organisms from receiving the information they're harvesting we're going to have a much bigger problem to worry about. But if it's a fight they want, Agadhar Ivask Slauganth[1]
Alyrsero threw forth a wall of force, pushing the Genestealer off the ceiling and letting your Shock Coil erupt from your arm cannon; the tendrils of conversion energy erupting out of your cannon, turning matter into bolts of electricity and concentrated streams of neutrinos and then leaping into the enemy; ripping its entire atomic structure apart in an eyeblink, ash falling to the ground as you heard roaring all around you.
"We're in a kill box, move!" You said, opening the door and rushing forward as you saw more of the Genestealers barreling towards you. Bald cultists with sharpened teeth raised strange looking guns towards you that you identified as slugthrowers; barking to life with a volley of metal launched by chemical reactions far in excess of what cartridges native to this world should be able to; hypersonic rounds advancing to you in slow motion as you sidestepped the volley of rounds and let loose with your beam down range, sweeping multiple mutated cultists in a single shot while Samus tackled a Genestealer trying to reach for Alyrsero as he sent light cascading downrange into a mass of cultists exploding out of doors; burning them to ash.
The stealer flailed in her grip before she twisted its head off and tossed it at a cultist hard enough to reduce him to pulp, but the remains quickly disappeared in snapping sounds.
"Mediporteers." Samus said with a hiss as she shot a missile downrange at cultists in heavier armour; the eruption of the missile expanding in a wave of anti-energy that froze everything in the way as Kaeliyae pushed open a door into another hallway, lightning exploding from her fingertips and her mist staff smashing in the head of a monstrous three-armed cultist who had emerged with a gun pointed to her head.
You backed into the room, blade emerging and sweeping through another Genestealer as it closed with you, slicing it in half in an across motion.
You looked down, seeing an entryway to the lower levels as more of the cultists were closing in on your position; each of Samus' shots claiming the reaper's toll and a pile of ash or ice.
"Down we must go. Here we will find only the foe." Kaeliyae said, her shuriken pistol slicing through a bald-headed and seemingly unmutated cultist until he disappeared in a display that made you glad you were mostly fine with the sight of blood.
Group 1:
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
Alyrsero (Asuryani Warlock, Good resistances, Extreme Defence, Ranged Damage, Support): 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Kaeliyae (Rillietann Shadowseer, Good Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/950|400/400|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 2:
Arcee (Autobot Commander, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder): 640/750|750/750|750/750 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Galen (Autobot Masterforce, Very Good Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Battlefield manipulation): 350/500|500/500|175/175 Morale: Good. Stress: 0
Tyrius (Yntanaer Paladin, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Tanking): 1400/1500|1500/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Raelamiel (Choir Angel, Great Resistances, Great Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/1000|1000/1000|1000/1000 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 3:
Marcus(Boltdancer) (Great Resistances, Good Defence, Control, Support): 300/300|100/100|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Iybraa (Great Resistances, Extreme Defence, Control, All range damage): 1000/1000|500/500|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Ormothin (Asrai Spellsinger, Decent Resistances, Great Defence, Support, Control) 1250/1250|100/100|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Elendria (Aesasurmen Warsage, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 4:
Lelithax (Druchii Shadow Sorceress. Great Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage) 1250/1250|850/850|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Korlanil (Ynnari Deathmaker, Ranged Damage, Support) 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress 0
Idaliryn (Hyshari Bladewizard, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1150/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Impetuous. Stress: 0
Clarioli (Ithilyani Factormage, Summons, Control) 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Situation:
Group 4 is moving to reinforce Group 2.
Group 3 is on standby
The Genestealer cult is now aware of your presence and will continually attack you until they deem it necessary to withdraw.
A very large genestealer cult force is converging on your position from all sides.
The genestealer cult priority is to infect you; thus they will seek to cut your shielding and remove your helmet. You are likely immune, but best not to test it.
The Genestealer Cult is well equipped and will be moving in better assets soon.
The weapons exchange is audible outside of the building, so it is likely there will be responders.
Most local vigilantes, villains, and protectorate heroes are not likely to survive against the Genesteealers.
The Genestealer Cult has mediporter technology from Primal Earth and as such losses will be recovered in an offsite facility unless you kill the target too completely for the biopods to recover. Unlike restore stations in your own metaverse they can't regrow a completely new body for the soul to inhabit from a saved state.
Group 2 is being overwhelmed due to the multiple vectors of Genestealer attacks.
Your current corridor order is Arne>Kaeliyae>Alyrsero>Samus.
Actions: (As always, label your votes under [x] Plan: Whatever)
League Options (Can pick one order option and one team teleport option):
[]: Order Team 2 to move towards Team 4
[]: Order Team 2 to hold its ground and make a defensible position
[]: Order Team 2 to make a fighting retreat to more defensible ground
[]: Have Team 3 teleport in to aid you
[]: Have Team 3 teleport in to aid team 4
[]: Have Team 3 teleport in to aid Team 2.
Group Options: []: Shuffle corridor order (Specify who should be in front, who should be in second etc, and who should be in the rear) Not necessary at the moment.
[]: Cast buffs to improve combat capabilities (will attract more genestealers due to warp phenomenon)
[]: Smash your way to a lower floor (Don't have to take the stairs, but you'll be less prepared for whatever's below)
[]: Find cover to hold and clear out the local area (Lose progress but make it less likely to take damage)
[]: Charge! (Risk more damage but clear out more of the enemy and make more progress)
[]: Advance by fire (Neutral option)
[]: Write in
Samus Extra combat Options:
[]: Make use of the alt-mode to weave in and out of combat, laying down bombs, boost attacks, alt-mode melee and other weapons while maintaining a low profile, making it hard for the enemy to get a bead on you at the expense of some damage.
[]: Deploy Rotor Blade shields (Send out rotor blades to carve the enemy apart and block incoming attacks)
[]: Make usage of super missiles (Will damage the building but clear out a very large number of enemies at a time)
[]: Focus on using charged shots (Reduces rate of fire but makes the damage you deal much greater, letting you sweep corridors in single shots)
[]: Freeze the surfaces (Makes the surfaces of the combat area slippery and thus more difficult for the enemy to make use of them)
[]: Speed boost! (Smash through everything in your way to run down to where you need to go.)
[]: Write in
Arne Extra Combat Options:
[]: Focus on using the Shock Coil (negates most of the enemy's ability to dodge, continually refilling your shielding and repairing whatever damage your body and armour take too)
[]: Move into melee (Tank for the rest of the team, occupying the attentions of enemy hordes; will take more damage but keeps other team mates safer)
[]: Focus on usage of seeker missiles (highly effective against large swarms of enemies, will consume more missile ammo and damage the structure though)
[]: Corrosion Projector Assault (Push forward with the corrosion projector on your munitions launcher, melting most things in front of you; but it leaves a rather unpleasant mess)
[]: Grapple Combat (Use your grapple beams to yank the enemy around, making it harder for them to close, letting you drain select foes, and also getting to use them as clubs)
[]: Focus on the Autoflak (As an AoE rapid firing subweapon, this is one of the ideal circumstances for it; but keep in mind that it does use a lot of UA.)
[]: Write in
[1]: Uskarlyc term meaning "Until I reach slauganth." I.E: Until I honour myself to escape the cycle of reincarnation and transcend to the final reward.
[X] Plan: Consolidate Forces
League Options (Can pick one order option and one team teleport option):
[X]: Have Team 3 teleport in to aid Team 2.
[X]: Order Team 2 to hold its ground and make a defensible position
Group Options:
[X]: Advance by fire (Neutral option)
Samus Extra combat Options:
[X]: Focus on using charged shots (Reduces rate of fire but makes the damage you deal much greater, letting you sweep corridors in single shots)
Arne Extra Combat Options:
[X]: Focus on using the Shock Coil (negates most of the enemy's ability to dodge, continually refilling your shielding and repairing whatever damage your body and armour take too)
[x] plan me
[]: Order Team 2 to hold its ground and make a defensible position
hold and wait for group four nice and simple
[]: Have Team 3 teleport in to aid you
two two-group teams makes sense
[]: Charge! (Risk more damage but clear out more of the enemy and make more progress)
[]: Speed boost! (Smash through everything in your way to run down to where you need to go.)
[]: Focus on the Autoflak (As an AoE rapid firing subweapon, this is one of the ideal circumstances for it; but keep in mind that it does use a lot of UA.)
every bit of resources that we burn can't be used later, but i'd rather burn resources than constantly worry about resources and end up getting hurt because we didn't use enough materiel
[X] Plan: Moving Defense
-[X]: Have Team 3 teleport in to aid Team 2.
-[X]: Order Team 2 to hold its ground and make a defensible position
-[X]: Advance by fire (Neutral option)
-[X]: Freeze the surfaces (Makes the surfaces of the combat area slippery and thus more difficult for the enemy to make use of them)
-[X]: Focus on using the Shock Coil (negates most of the enemy's ability to dodge, continually refilling your shielding and repairing whatever damage your body and armour take too)
[X] Plan: Consolidate Forces
League Options (Can pick one order option and one team teleport option):
[X]: Have Team 3 teleport in to aid Team 2.
[X]: Order Team 2 to hold its ground and make a defensible position
Group Options:
[X]: Advance by fire (Neutral option)
Samus Extra combat Options:
[X]: Focus on using charged shots (Reduces rate of fire but makes the damage you deal much greater, letting you sweep corridors in single shots)
Arne Extra Combat Options:
[X]: Focus on using the Shock Coil (negates most of the enemy's ability to dodge, continually refilling your shielding and repairing whatever damage your body and armour take too)
Group 1:
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
Alyrsero (Asuryani Warlock, Good resistances, Extreme Defence, Ranged Damage, Support): 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Kaeliyae (Rillietann Shadowseer, Good Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/950|400/400|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 2:
Arcee (Autobot Commander, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder): 640/750|750/750|750/750 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Galen (Autobot Masterforce, Very Good Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Battlefield manipulation): 350/500|500/500|175/175 Morale: Good. Stress: 0
Tyrius (Yntanaer Paladin, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Tanking): 1400/1500|1500/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Raelamiel (Choir Angel, Great Resistances, Great Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/1000|1000/1000|1000/1000 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 3:
Marcus(Boltdancer) (Great Resistances, Good Defence, Control, Support): 300/300|100/100|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Iybraa (Great Resistances, Extreme Defence, Control, All range damage): 1000/1000|500/500|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Ormothin (Asrai Spellsinger, Decent Resistances, Great Defence, Support, Control) 1250/1250|100/100|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Elendria (Aesasurmen Warsage, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 4:
Lelithax (Druchii Shadow Sorceress. Great Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage) 1250/1250|850/850|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Korlanil (Ynnari Deathmaker, Ranged Damage, Support) 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress 0
Idaliryn (Hyshari Bladewizard, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1150/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Impetuous. Stress: 0
Clarioli (Ithilyani Factormage, Summons, Control) 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Genestealer Acolyte Hybrids are first or second-generation hybrids of Genestealers and humans. As the admixture of genetics is so heavily weighted towards the Tyranid infestation in the genome, Acolyte Hybrids are visibly aberrant from the human norm, displaying additional limbs, a more stooped and predatory posture, unusual skin tones, claws, and sharpened teeth as well as short tails. First-generation hybrids will typically possess at least one extra pair of limbs, while second-generation hybrids usually only have one additional limb and vestigial remnants of the other extra limbs that tyranids possess compared to Earth Tetrapods. Acolyte Hybrids also have greatly enhanced reflexes, durability, endurance, regeneration, metabolic efficiency, and strength compared to the baseline human norm and due to possessing built-in claws as well as added appendages; are much more dangerous than is normal for an unarmed human in close combat.
They will typically also have the rending claws of their alien parents, occasionally replaced instead by the quicker and more nimble scything talons or the psychically active boneswords; and more rarely by the brute power of biomorphs such as crushing claws or the paralyctic abilities of lash whips. Due to the adaptability of the Tyranid genome, the capabilities of Acolytes can vary wildly, but all possess aptitudes for complex machinery, the memories of their parents and indeed the entirety of the Genestealer Hive Mind, and more than enough dexterity to operate tools and various forms of weapons. While preferring close-quarters combat, they are more than capable of operating at a distance, some even preferring to use their extra arms to hold multiple weapons at a time. Be cautious for pistols or grenades.
Analysis of the weapons utilised by the Cultists demonstrates relatively consistent patterns likely derived from technology from their home reality. This includes ultrahigh-velocity autoguns with high penetration slugs capable of kinetic energy far beyond the assault rifles of this world, laser weapons, assorted weaponised mining or industrial tools, more powerful and concentrated explosive devices, and even rocket-launched warhead weapons and the occasional plasma or thermonuclear vent weapon. Body armour and biomorphs for additional capabilities and endurance is also variable. Many ideas from local humans having been adopted into the capabilities of the Cult, adding to their list of weapons and potential threats. Due to their telepathy, caution should be used when engaging due to enemy situational awareness superiority.
Samus' Notes: The degree to which this genome can alter infectees is nothing short of incredible. Even passing through generation after generation. If this is just the vanguard of the primary body of this collective mind then the parent fleet would be capable of incredible bioengineering.
Arne's Notes: I'm not sure which possibility is worse. That these creatures were purposefully engineered with these capabilities, or that somewhere there existed situations to prompt this all to evolve naturally. Both possibilities raise disturbing questions.
Primarily comprised of third and fourth generation Genestealer Hybrids, Neophytes have a far easier time passing for humans; particularly when utilising treatments to guise lingering phenotypical changes such as skin tone and baldness. Neophytes will also have enhanced physiologies altered by the Tyrannohelix infestation in their genome to better suit the cult's needs and as such are greatly above the human average in terms of physical capabilities. With more dextrous hands, they are much more capable of using more standard marks of weapons without being restricted to specialist models with grips designed for genestealer claws, and as such typically make use of more finesse dependent tools and devices. This is augmented by the memory sharing of the brood mind; allowing for the hybrids whose growth rate can be altered by the demands of the hive mind to immediately preform to fighting standards.
While third-generation hybrids will still typically have patches of chitinous carapace and altered cranial proportions, fourth-generation hybrids are virtually indistinguishable from humans and are even generally considered attractive and extremely physically fit samples of their species. Hair implantations are used to guise the lack of hair growth characteristic to hybrids and to enhance desirability to spread the infestation further. These generations of hybrids also display a strongly enhanced tendency to have a connection to the Pleromic coextant surreality referred to as "The Warp" that they can make use of in combat useful ways; greatly enhancing their dangerous capabilities.
Human hybrids will also display an increased likelihood of having para or metahuman powers much like their purestrain counterparts, and it is likely that a number of capes are actually fourth generation hybrids in disguise. Fourth-generation hybrids seem to be more likely to show these abilities; likely as part of cape community infiltration methods. In combat, Neophyte hybrids will typically prefer to remain at a distance; making use of conventional infantry tactics in coordination with their more close-quarters capable kin.
Samus' Notes: These creatures would have to have been here for decades to build up this much force and presence. I can't even imagine how far they've pierced into societies like this or others.
Arne's Notes: I'm going to need to develop something to quickly identify hybrids for the rest of the team. And give everyone I can a thorough search. I have no idea who might be part of this infiltration cult, and I don't like being in the dark.
These hybrids are divergents from the typical Genestealer cult lifecycle and make constant use of more complex and readily identifiable Tyrannic biomorphs and bioweapons. Whereas the likes of scything talons or crushing claws are a rarity among Acolytes, among metamorphs they are a universality. More esoteric biomorphs such as toxin sacs, parasite implantation organs, feeder tendrils, or regeneration nodes are also plentiful on Metamorphs, and their biologies are often tailor-made as they are born, hatched, or cloned in large numbers for any conceivable purpose. Ranged bioweapons are also often seen among them in order to add unconventional distant attack power to the Cult's repertoire.
Due to their extreme visibility, Metamorphs are typically kept out of sight until needed. However, with the existence of mutates with radically divergent physiologies on Earth Bet and Primal Earth as well as an extensive record of nonhuman presence on primal earth; Metamorphs are often able to act more openly than they can on worlds more familiar with tyrannic varieties. However, their preference for ambush tactics and tendency to develop chameleonic biomorphs results in them still preferring stealth tactics over making themselves particularly visible or obvious to potential threats.
Metamorphs will typically seek to close into melee with specialist biomorphs, assaulting from unseen avenues and angles and providing support for the purestrains and acolytes. While less agile or strong than their purestrain counterparts, their ability to still make ample usage of many forms of tools allows them to bring to bear a number of pistols and wear added armour over their bodies for some additional protection. Their tremendous degree of morphic variability also allows them to be tailor-made to deal with certain opponents, and many also have implanted powers harvested or copied from the local organic population.
Samus' Notes: Their Capacity for such rapid adaptation and mutagenesis would be fascinating if the results weren't so hideous. I can only expect that the more I probe into their activities, the more I'm going to be faced with specially adapted counters for what I can bring to bear. I'm not looking forward to the costs of fighting a cult with this sort of power, I need to find some way to counteract their influence.
Arne's Notes: That they're using organisms this obviously mutated from the human norm above ground tells me that they're confident that their plans are close enough to fruition as to not care about whether or not they're discovered. Which means that either the force they're vanguarding for is expected to be here in a span of months or years, or they have so much influence that it doesn't matter if they're publicly known.
Genestealer Aberrant Hybrids are exceptions from the typical Genestealer Cult lifecycle who are shaped for massively greater mass, durability, and strength and typically make use of heavy ranged or melee weapons that allow them to make the best possible usage of their superior size and might. While slower than is typical for the highly agile Genestealer Cults, the Aberrants are still much faster than is norm for humans and should not be considered as overly lumbering beasts. Aberrants are also highly mutable and can be altered to possess a wide range of biomorphs and secondary capabilities to augment their raw prowess directed by the cunning Hive Mind of the Cult.
Aberrants will typically remain hidden until later into a Cult's planned uprising, engaging in fights out of sight or in circumstances where their unusual physiology would be able to pass inspection as not overly out of the norm. With the wider variety of nonstandard phenotypes seen on many of the Earths being linked by the Nexus event, they are able to operate more openly than would be normal in their native realities. Like metamorphs they are also extremely physiologically variable and can be customised for dealing with certain opponents, though they nearly always share a tendency towards a preference for brute power.
Aberrants will usually either lay down heavy weapons fire or barge into the fray with heavy weapons such as power sledgehammers to crack open tough targets or lay down suppressing fire. Despite their size, they retain the capacity for stealth and silence that all Genestealer derived tyrannomorphs do. And while seemingly simple beasts, the Aberrants are directed by the Brood Mind with clear tactical cunning and purpose as well as a degree of coordination most normal squadrons cannot match. Many aberrants are also outfitted with extra equipment such as tinker derived armour or weapons.
Samus' Notes: Even by the standards of these Genestealer cults these organisms are absolutely hideous. Powerful, well adapted for their task yes; but there's something so uncanny about their assymetrical bodies and their strange posture. But this sort of being must only be used when they're confident of success or no longer fear discovery. Can I manage this and so many other threats?
Arne's Notes: From what I can tell, based on the name and the genetic data these aren't normal parts of the lifecycle. I'd guess that they are some manner of stress response; developing cultists with increased musculature and brute power to deal with situations that call for raw strength and endurance. But I also feel that this is all just a smattering of what they're capable of.
Samus
There was no time to be lost. You could handle yourself here, so the standby team needed to ensure that Arcee's group was properly reinforced immediately; before the Genestealers could overwhelm them. You tapped into the communications network as you smashed a genestealer down into the ground with a swing of your arm cannon like a club, the thunder disruptor creating a loud and powerful clapping sound as it smashed the metamorph into steaming paste; Alyrsero's spear digging itself into another metamorph crashing down from the vents above, crackling wraithbone shrieking as it burned the insides of the Tyranid hybrid out right besides you and forcing your helm to filter out a bit of extra noise.
"+Marcus, you need to help Arcee's group out. We'll be heading down as fast as possible. But you should focus on trying to find Emma. I don't think she'll be in too deep in this facility.+" You said, a charged shot erupting from your cannon; the elemental setting of your beam in gamma mode to scourge a hallway of a mess of incoming hybrids, orange goop spreading outwards from blackened and disintegrating bone while the cascade of bolts bounced around the hall. Each of the radioactive orange bolts exploded every time they bounced; diffusing deadly radiation outwards in clouds of doom that seared through the carpet; bouncing only when they encountered targets they couldn't pass through.
It would have been enough to obliterate most conventional genestealers, but the hive mind had not set its gaze on these worlds without reason nor had it neglected continually improving its organisms over the millennia of its attack on the Garden of the Old ones in its native reality. Your eyes widened as more resilient cultists, hybrids, and purestrains picked themselves up and started to heal at frankly astonishing rates; even regrowing flesh from nothing. Others were able to pass through the lethal radiation with less than serious injuries, while others even had functioning equipment after the impacts. This was incredibly unideal.
"+Uh-huh. You sure you don't need help there? You've got contacts literally everywhere I can see.+" He responded before another, reverbing voice cut in.
"+No time to argue human, the genestealers will tear your companions apart if you do not render assistance.+" She said, her voice stern and wise sounding, clearly well educated in the ways of battle and warfare. Like what you'd expect a seasoned general to sound like if that seasoned general were about your physical age.
"+Come on, Tyrius and Raelamiel are incarnates, I'm sure they'll be fine.+" Iybraa said before that elfin voice spoke again.
"+What manner of fool are you to think that the Great Dragon does not know exactly what your well of furies is? Or that even more foolishly; it has not already sunk its efforts into understanding what the sourcewells of your realities have to offer? I looked at what your Paragon City had to offer. You are not ready.+" She said as if scolding a child.
You gulped slightly, backing away with a jump as a metamorph with mantis like claws from its upper two arms pounced towards you, snapping them in careful arcs like an expertly wielded scythe. Deflecting the heavy swing of an aberrant and pushing Alyrsero out of the way of a coordinated volley of Lasgun shots, you found yourself fenced in by a trio of purestrains, each lashing their claws into you with unnatural speed that allowed them to move in a way to threaten even you. Your shields took the impacts, regenerators working to recover the lost energy as they sought to test them for weakness.
Samus HP: 1090/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000
"+...Okay I'm hoping this is just some kind of...alien talking down to earthlings thing.+" Marcus said, his voice tensed and clearly unnerved. You bisected some of the genestealers with your bayonet, smashing the ground with your fist to create a thunderwave to throw more of the genestealers back while Kaeliyae's fusion pistol bathed a number of neophytes in her way in thermonuclear ejecta; the fury of a star smiting them to ash.
"+She's not one to exaggerate for intimidation.+" A male, gentler voice said, giving your mind the sense of healing and life ever-vibrant while you struck some incoming purestrains with missiles, tearing a few apart before they could get into range. Arne's Rotor saws sent body parts flying around him, blood smearing everywhere and the injured who couldn't regenerate flashing away with the telltale energy signatures of mediporters. A Purestrain that managed to approach his back while he crushed the throat of an acolyte dug its claws towards his helmet, making him grunt before his munitions launcher melted it into chemical soup with a green spray; wrist-gun's shock coil lashing through Neophytes spraying him with lasguns.
Arne Universal Ammo Count: 278/280
"+Arcee how is your position faring?+" Arne asked, her feed full of monstrosities of various shapes and sizes rushing at her as she spun a wheel flail in a wide arc in front of her, severing body parts and causing a series of mediportation flashes; her subsonic repeaters howling with vibro-projectiles as fast as they could to cut down Mining Laser armed Acolytes whose intensely powerful bursts managed to bubble burst Galen's shielding; forcing him to the ground as a Purestrain clawed scores into his autobot suit, trying to get at his neck. Raelamiel stabbed the genestealer with thrust from one of her heavenforged swords, blood solidifying around it before she tore it free with a bisecting cut; the angel's other hand making a quick motion and encasing Galen in protective ice.
"+Operation is completely FUBAR. Repeat, we are getting rapidly overwhelmed here.+" Arcee said as a dozen purestraits leaped at her from behind, clawing in frenzied motions as she let out a grunt of pain; Seacar standing on her shoulder to fire at the Tyranids clambering all over her with an ion blaster to clear them off even as they cut through her shielding and started to dig into her plating. Tyrius' flame erupted around her, reducing the beasts to dust while the Paladin surrounded himself in a holy pyronic aura, shouting out his challenge to the creatures who turned towards him as he took an obvious spot in the circular chamber and let them charge him in a massive mob.
"+Find a defensible position! Now! You're going to die there!+" Arne said with alarm while he stabbed his bayonet into the brain of an augmented genestealer; its body altered for greater toughness, armour, and strength and coming to a halt when his blue blade shredded through it. You shot a dozen metamorphs that exploded from a panel to his side before one with bulging biobomb sacs could reach him, its explosion churning a dozen of its kin into mulch and a sphere of lightning thrown down the newly revealed passage by Kaeliyae sending the cultists setting up firing positions behind their melee counterparts convulsing into dust on the ground.
"+Of course, wouldn't want to have too many dance partners on all sides, would I?+" Dozens fell apart with each of Tyrius' swings, hundreds took their place and he was eventually buried in the smothering pile of fanatical organisms; many of those being the same ones that he injured to the point of having to teleport out for healing only to be teleported right back into the fight once repaired. His shielding reached zero but...his armour integrity did not budge even as endless numbers of horrid biobeasts tried to tear at him. Their claws, talons, blades, and tools could not find purchase through his armour even as they ripped at him even through his blazing aura. And then he extended his wings and let the fire engulf the room to burn all who would try to harm him into dust.
"+I can keep at this all day.+" Tyrius said cooly, his shielding recovering frightfully fast. Arne seemed briefly relieved; your sense of tension relaxing only briefly before you took a chance to fire a charged shot into some vents and grimaced as you heard the death screams of more horrors. Everything it seemed, was a potential vector for attack here. And as such, Tyrius' boast of being able to keep the endless swarm at bay was not something you wanted him to prove. Even he needed help.
"+But I don't want you to.+" You said, looking to Marcus who sighed in acknowledgement. "+Please, they need you.+" You said as Raelamiel swung herself around like a blender; frosted over bodies fragmenting all around her, frozen gore slipping off of her swords or shattering off of them; some creatures icing over just for getting near her or losing their footing on her icy patches. Many who struck her froze instantly and shattered, others were repelled by her aura or armour, but even as she sent heavenly cold in all directions; the beasts kept coming, more cold resistant ones jumping forward and pushing through the icy death to reach her; cultists trying to stop her arms from moving as the Angel struggled against the horde starting to claw at her; kicking a couch through a horde of them only for one to carve the wayward furniture apart with a swipe of its claws and leap into her face, a foot through its chest obliterating its skull.
"+Galen, Seacar; powerlink!+" Arcee shouted; letting Galen jump into her hand and combine with a pistol that formed in her hand; followed by Seacar whose forms merged into a larger repeater rifle. Her vital statistics spiked, shielding, armour, and chassis doubling in point count and her resilience to damage growing in turn. Scattering energy beams tore through the monsters, letting them
"+Alright, but if you need my help; I'm on call you hear?+" Marcus sighed. The idea of him sitting safely outside was starting to make you mad, especially as you had to deflect an Aberrant's powerhammer swing with your own thunder disruptor punch, batting the crackling instrument back and then obliterating its body with a charged shot, plasmic viscerae steaming outwards as Alyrsero threw down walls of telekinetic force down the corridors on either side that hordes of cultists were pouring down, smashing them off their feet and then right into telekine walls he created behind them that compacted them in a rather...messy display. With this kind of fighting, you needed all hands on deck. Why was he wasting so much time?!
"+Just do it!+" You shouted, Arne's shock coil splitting forth from his arm cannon in a stream of conversion energy; a cascade of electricity and directed super-dense neutrinos lashing through a massive, three and a half meter tall three armed monstrosity that occupied the stairwell in his way, the creature grunting with pain but managing to swing a power hammer blow that could have crushed the Cheyenne Bunker that the boy intercepted with the shield forming around his arm; vaporising the creature with the intensified flow of conversion from his arm cannon.
"Fate and fortune, guide us oh meagre servants to you oh Laughing God. Comics and Muses, grant us your favour in the fates in this ghastly pod." Kaeliyae said, using the space she was given by Alyrsero sending forth a cascade of white bolts of energy; another charge shot from yourself whose bolts exploded with each bouncing impact; and Arne's whirling rotor-saw to weave a curious blue wind around her hand gestures. You flicked only the briefest of gazes towards the sight while you presented a wall of radioactive fire with each burst from your arm cannon, counting down until the next charge shot was ready.
You fired again as the blue winds of azyr wrapped around you and then twisted the conduits of fate into better paths, Alyrsero casting sheets of fire down a hallway swarming with acolytes and stepping back as a burning acolyte rushed through, melting apart and lashing at him with its rending claws to try and get one last act of spite through; fate twisting around him by the will of his armour and by sheer luck; the Acolyte stabbed itself in the head with its claws hard enough to decapitate itself. Something you found...rather funny, but your brief attempt at laughing as you provided a rear guard for the group heading down the staircase opened you up to the sudden warning sensation of something approaching fast.
Hooked tendrils burst out at incredible speed, throwing you back with some force before you absorbed the energy into your frequency suit, releasing the stored impact energy outwards as a conical burst of grey power, rippling across the ground and tossing the foes trying to swarm into the staircase aside while you backpedaled down the stairs.
Samus HP: 1085/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000
"No end to the list of gadgets in your armour is there?" Alyrsero said, taking shelter behind your rotor saw while you deflected a fusilade of lasers thrown towards you, lightspeed beams bouncing into the neophytes who fired them and forcing them to take shelter while another charged shot erupted in an orange nova from your cannon. You didn't look at the piles of rapidly plasmafying flesh or the disintegrating bone; you just moved to the next target. There was too much coming at you at once; the building almost seeming to come alive with an unending swarm.
Grenades dropped from higher levels fell at great speeds until Alyrsero caught them and flung them back at their senders. A prelude to yet further attacks from above from gunners taking up positions in vantage points built into the stairwells to turn them into killing fields. Carriages with twinlinked laser weapons were dragged forward, gun shields allowing them to ignore any accidental friendly fire before they were depressed to your position while your wrist gun scythed through a number of cloned acolytes trying to crawl down the walls to reach you.
The multilasers let rip at lightspeed, not high in armour penetration capability, but still attempting to obscure your vision in the overlapping fields of fire of no less than six of the multilasers. You were already in motion, your agility alpha power infused into you helping you with dancing around the rapid pitter-patter of multilasers set up in alcoves above you, angling your sword to deflect the beams back to their senders until your munitions launcher lobbed some explosives right back at them, detonating morph ball bombs in their ranks and causing the power packs of the weapons to detonate in a red flash. A mining laser impact stabbed into you as you swung around, the multilasers having preformed their jobs of distracting you.
Empowered by the technology grabbed from infected tinkers, the Mining Laser struck hard; its base form already meant to cut through meters thick bulkheads. It didn't quite hurt, but your suit registered the potent impact with warning symbols flaring into you as your shielding absorbed the damage and your frequency suit charged with a fresh burst ready. But even before you could return fire, Kaeliyae retaliated with lighting that turned the offending acolyte to a pile of dust, leaving your own shielding to regenerate on its own.
Samus HP: 1070/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000
The foe was relentless; bobbing and weaving its assets out of range in an effort to prevent you from getting better shots, quickly realising that you were able to fire through cover and adjusting their movements accordingly. As many were well accustomed to dodging lasgun fire; your own energy projectiles; while difficult to avoid; were not impossible, as shown by a purestrain threading the needle of your charged shots to set up a leap at you. Your rocket pods ripped down range, airbursting with incendiary munitions hot enough to reduce Tungsten to ash and clear out an entire hall of monsters while Arne's multi-missiles flared out around the stair-well; combined with his seeker missiles and pyro-missiles to leave nothing but burning ash in front of him.
One hundred and twenty multi-missiles flew out from his back, spreading in all directions and then striking every stealer cultist his suit identified while your rockets dealt with the remainder. The room rumbled and shook with detonation after detonation; the building somehow managing to stay intact through what you surmised was the usage of nonstandard materials as well as you not charging up your explosives. Bright flashes of light and motes of ashen dust pockmarked your vision and the death screams of beasts beyond measure filled your ears. Alyrsero pulled at the fires that were born of the incendieries, weaving them into a band around him with an incantation while his spear glowed; and Kaeliyae quickly pointed to a door of interest.
For a moment, everything was quiet, the shrieking of the monstrosities subsiding as they pulled back to safer ground. They were clearly studying your responses, and a look around with your echo visor told you that they were still present; simply reconsolidating as Arne shoved open the metal door in his way with an effortless push, leaving you to slam it shut behind you.
"How many more?" Arne asked, taking a look at his universal ammo count for a moment.
Arne Universal Ammo Count: 268/280.
He would likely need to restock soon at this point lest he be forced to do without his primary method of augmenting his durability.
"With their teleportation systems? Functionally without number. You cannot hope to simply kill your way through this cult. You will need to strike them in the heart. Something we would have been able to do without complication had you not arrived." Alyrsero said, dusting off his cloak of the Tyranid biomatter that had congealed on it.
"If you want to insult us just say it to my face." You scowled at the Eldar who gulped slightly before Kaeliyae raised her hand.
"He means no offense. Please let's not compromise our defense." Kaeliyae said humbly with a gracious bow. "We were just set on a plan of quiet insertion and withdrawal, to achieve our precise aim and then to pull back. But now that the swarm is fully aware of our presence we will need to take more aggressive recourse to deal with that fact. We are but four, and we face a vast horde. If we are not careful, upon our foes blades we will find ourselves gored." Kaeliyae said as she sent charges of electricity through the room to provide a bit of a perimeter and potential respite, letting out a sigh as she looked around; adjusting her fingers' grip on her staff.
"We'll have three quarters of our strength looking for Emma Barnes. They should be fine, but our own group is undermanned and we can't ask the other team to split its forces. Who else do we have on standby?" Arne asked, taking a look at the icons of the other teams on the map converging; the other Eldar group still fighting to reach Arcee's position just as the teleport reinforcements arrived to provide assistance to Arcee. With four extra heroes gathered in one place, they were able to keep their position largely steady; while the Eldar seemed to be advancing at a good clip.
You took a moment to look through the files; noting the PRT's Scanners as well and pausing as you saw that they were dispatching people to check out the situation.
"The wards must have told the protectorate that we were going to investigate the cult." You said, your tone quiet as you took a moment to contemplate.
"They might provide some manner of distraction." Alyrsero said without much in the way of emotion in his voice.
"No! They can't come here. These people...most of them don't even have proper armour, nevermind shielding! They're going to die or worse, get infected! Some of them might already be infected!" You said, anger flaring. The idea of them throwing their lives away like this made your blood boil. This was no place for people who couldn't withstand their claws for at least a little while. Their talons could cut into even your own skin, which was quite the achievement to say the least. Against people like Vista and...you didn't want to think about it, you absolutely couldn't let the thought of that seep into your brain.
"The peanut gallery would do little but create more in the way of corpses and grief. This battlefield is no place for those who would be dashed to ribbons upon its reefs." Kaeliyae said, shaking her head with a sad smile beneath her mask. "The sad truth is that this is not a place for the average combatant. This is a place of death and horror, many of the locals meet an end much like a boot upon an ant." She continued as she looked around, no windows in this hall, the doors on either side all giving you a sense of anxiety. Nothing was in them as far as the echo-visor could see; but these creatures were very good at being quiet and masking their echolocation profiles.
"We could give the ones best suited for this sort of combat your augmentation magic. But nobody that we can't guarantee won't get infected should come. We need people with some way to stop the Genestealers from implanting into them. Armour, shielding, kinetic energy manipulation." Arne said as you gave it some thought.
"Given the likelihood of network compromising, it is unlikely to be wise to make specific requests for personnel. Simply list what qualities you require and trust that they will choose wisely. We do have fortune on our side, after all." Alyrsero said while you checked the floorplan Arne had acquired, the rooms to your side were mostly full of mundane supplies and materials. Ahead was an elevator that would lead further down, but an elevator would be an obvious point for ambush. Stairs were also available, but based on your previous experiences would probably already have dug in defenders waiting.
"Where's the nearest security room?" You asked, Alyrsero pointing downwards a bit.
"Three levels down, to the left. I am sure you'll be able to monitor the situation from there. And I am certain they'll have some records in there." He said, calmly as if he were simply giving directions to the store.
"And Emma?" Arne asked.
"Five levels down, three corridors to the right, closer to the other group than ourselves." He said solemnly.
Of course it wasn't going to be easy.
Group 1:
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
Alyrsero (Asuryani Warlock, Good resistances, Extreme Defence, Ranged Damage, Support): 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Kaeliyae (Rillietann Shadowseer, Good Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/950|400/400|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 2:
Arcee (Autobot Commander, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder): 500/1500|750/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Galen (Autobot Masterforce, Very Good Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Battlefield manipulation): 25/500|300/500|175/175 Morale: Good. Stress: 0
Tyrius (Yntanaer Paladin, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Tanking): 300/1500|1500/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Raelamiel (Choir Angel, Great Resistances, Great Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 450/1000|1000/1000|1000/1000 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 3:
Marcus(Boltdancer) (Great Resistances, Good Defence, Control, Support): 300/300|100/100|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Iybraa (Great Resistances, Extreme Defence, Control, All range damage): 1000/1000|500/500|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Ormothin (Asrai Spellsinger, Decent Resistances, Great Defence, Support, Control) 1250/1250|100/100|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Elendria (Aesasurmen Warsage, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 4:
Lelithax (Druchii Shadow Sorceress. Great Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage) 1050/1250|850/850|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Korlanil (Ynnari Deathmaker, Ranged Damage, Support) 750/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress 0
Idaliryn (Hyshari Bladewizard, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 850/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Impetuous. Stress: 0
Clarioli (Ithilyani Factormage, Summons, Control) 700/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Actions: As always, list them as [X] Plan: Whatever
League Options:
[]: Send a request to allies for assistance (gain upwards of eight randomly chosen team mates, four will go to your team, four will go to team four. Note that there is a possibility of genestealer infection for organic allies; though incarnates should at least be resistant.)
[]: Tell allies to steer back to avoid possible genestealer infection
[]: Have group 4 hold position.
[]: Tell group 4 to move towards Groups 2 and 3.
[]: Have groups 2 and 3 hold position.
[]: Have Groups 2 and 3 move to Group 4.
[]: Write-In
Group Options:
[]: Use time to prepare buffs and set up spells (allows the genestealers more time to consolidate themselves but enhances your fighting ability.)
[]: No time for delays, head immediately (Less powerful and more limited buffs, less benefit of foresight, but gives the Genestealers less time to prepare)
[]: Write-In
Direction Options:
[]: Head for the Security Room (Get an update on the disposition of some of the enemy forces as well as some of their records on their likely operations, building an intelligence profile on them.)
[]: Head for Emma (Rescue Emma Barnes before she and others are given the Genestealer's kiss; reuniting with Group, 2, 3, and 4)
[]: Check around for possible items of interest and secondary objectives (More likely to find power-ups and things that might weaken the Genestealer Cults overall as a faction on Earth Bet or at least prepare countermeasures)
[]: Write-In
Path Options:
[]: Rush into the Staircase (Likely genestealer teams waiting there, leads to the most other rooms with items of importance that you probably want to collect; including power ups.)
[]: Rush down the elevator (Heads down quickly, but cuts through a lot of rooms that you may want to visit, will likely have ambushes but not quite as certainly as the staircase)
[]: Smash your way down (Break open the floor to go down one level immediately, surprise enemies below you and open your own paths of advancement, however this will eventually trigger heavier response)
[]: Find Alternate Paths (Takes more time, but avoids the most enemies.)
[]: Find the nearest psychic enemy presence and take them out (Look to start a boss encounter, will make the rest of the mission easier by disrupting the Genestealers somewhat, but take up time with a more difficult combat encounter)
[]: Write-In
Samus Extra combat Options:
[]: Make use of the alt-mode to weave in and out of combat, laying down bombs, boost attacks, alt-mode melee and other weapons while maintaining a low profile, making it hard for the enemy to get a bead on you at the expense of some damage.
[]: Deploy Rotor Blade shields (Send out rotor blades to carve the enemy apart and block incoming attacks)
[]: Make usage of super missiles (Will damage the building but clear out a very large number of enemies at a time)
[]: Focus on using charged shots (Reduces rate of fire but makes the damage you deal much greater, letting you sweep corridors in single shots)
[]: Freeze the surfaces (Makes the surfaces of the combat area slippery and thus more difficult for the enemy to make use of them)
[]: Speed boost! (Smash through everything in your way to run down to where you need to go.)
[]: Write in
Arne Extra Combat Options:
[]: Focus on using the Shock Coil (negates most of the enemy's ability to dodge, continually refilling your shielding and repairing whatever damage your body and armour take too)
[]: Move into melee (Tank for the rest of the team, occupying the attentions of enemy hordes; will take more damage but keeps other team mates safer)
[]: Focus on usage of seeker missiles (highly effective against large swarms of enemies, will consume more missile ammo and damage the structure though)
[]: Corrosion Projector Assault (Push forward with the corrosion projector on your munitions launcher, melting most things in front of you; but it leaves a rather unpleasant mess)
[]: Grapple Combat (Use your grapple beams to yank the enemy around, making it harder for them to close, letting you drain select foes, and also getting to use them as clubs)
[]: Focus on the Autoflak (As an AoE rapid firing subweapon, this is one of the ideal circumstances for it; but keep in mind that it does use a lot of UA.)
[]: Write in
Scheduled vote count started by Spartakrod on Jan 19, 2021 at 3:03 PM, finished with 5 posts and 5 votes.
[X]: Focus on using the Shock Coil (negates most of the enemy's ability to dodge, continually refilling your shielding and repairing whatever damage your body and armour take too)
[X] Plan: Moving Defense
-[X]: Have Team 3 teleport in to aid Team 2.
-[X]: Order Team 2 to hold its ground and make a defensible position
-[X]: Advance by fire (Neutral option)
-[X]: Freeze the surfaces (Makes the surfaces of the combat area slippery and thus more difficult for the enemy to make use of them)
-[X]: Focus on using the Shock Coil (negates most of the enemy's ability to dodge, continually refilling your shielding and repairing whatever damage your body and armour take too)
[X]: Plan: Combine our Forces
League Options:
[X]: Tell allies to steer back to avoid possible genestealer infection
[X]: Tell group 4 to move towards Groups 2 and 3.
Group Options:
[X]: No time for delays, head immediately (Less powerful and more limited buffs, less benefit of foresight, but gives the Genestealers less time to prepare)
Direction Options:
[X]: Head for Emma (Rescue Emma Barnes before she and others are given the Genestealer's kiss; reuniting with Group, 2, 3, and 4)
Path Options:
[X]: Smash your way down (Break open the floor to go down one level immediately, surprise enemies below you and open your own paths of advancement, however this will eventually trigger heavier response)
Samus Extra Combat Options:
[X]: Deploy Rotor Blade shields (Send out rotor blades to carve the enemy apart and block incoming attacks)
Arne Extra Combat Options:
[X]: Focus on the Autoflak (As an AoE rapid firing subweapon, this is one of the ideal circumstances for it; but keep in mind that it does use a lot of UA.)
So, this plan calls for us to reunite with the other groups and rescue the prisoners, including Emma. I also think it will be wise to continuously change our mode of attack so that the Brood Mind does not adapt too quickly.
If the PRT and SWAT went in, basically all of their nonpowered personnel would be dead within seconds of the Church of the Star Traveller engaging them, and any who survived would only have lived because the Genestealers passed the kiss onto them. It doesn't help that modern firearms would bounce straight off of a Genestealer even at point blank, and even the neophytes' armour is based off of the Brood Mind's knowledge of how to make Flak or even Carapace Armour in Galaxies of Darkness and would also just nosell modern firearms. Meanwhile the often mocked lasgun would reduce a SWAT officer to limbs attached to the rim of a bloody crater where his chest used to be. And lasguns are much more accurate, have a better rate of fire, can have their ammo topped up by just being recharged, and have zero recoil. Sufficient lasgun fire at max power settings would tear apart even an Abrams tank.
The Brood Mind knows how to produce a lot of the technologies of its home setting, which while middling to low tier in that setting; amidst 21st century earth it puts them head and shoulders above any nonpowered or non-supertech assisted military force around.
The plus side is that this technology is simple to make and doesn't rely on any weird physics voodoo so if the cult can be bested; its technology can be easily learned from.
Now the biocrafting abilities they have are of course; quite simply matchless. You'd need to get to the level of the Sagaverse Progenitors or the Warhammer Old Ones to find people who are as good at altering flesh as the Tyranids are; even with the reduced resources available to genestealer patriarchs and broodlords compared to the Norn Queens and Swarm Kings of proper hive fleets. They already know what makes the human genome tick, the average 21st century human has so many easily cured genetic defects compared to the humans they're familiar with (that life expectancy is rather low in the grim darkness of the far future is because of bad pollution controls, overwork, or the risk of violence in places like Hive Worlds or Agri-Worlds; but if they lived in a civilised world with better environmental standards they can expect to live some centuries before needing Rejuvenants and are stronger, faster, tougher, and healthier; basically sort of captain America) and is so very simple compared to the genome of even basic tyranid bioforms.
It's a simple thing to dangle the promise of miracle cures and treatments in front of 21st century humans that are utterly trivial to the Genestealers but are the stuff of dreams even to the very rich; whom are their primary targets because they have influence in society that lets them avoid law enforcement and from the top-down; filter further infestation into society. A lot of rich people fearful of mortality or suffering from terminal illness were easy suckers.
They also have enthralled para and metahumans and have spliced some of those abilities into many specialist organisms, purestrains, and hybrids; experimenting with them to see how they work and what they do. They've also looked at other alien infiltrators and societies, learning, observing, preparing. And of course, the Purestrains are; even in the basic form (nevermind the specialist original strains I've created for Galaxies of Darkness and this); incredibly lethal murdermachines. A full brood of twenty genestealers and a broodlord would; especially if they have the right biomorphs and augmentive mutations for statline boosts; rip an autobot fire team of five standard troopers to shreds if they reached melee range without taking any casualties (this is of course; a big if). Pulling them down and then apart shockingly fast.
This team can survive a lot better than five generic autobot privates of course, but the Stealers have the advantage of numbers, hive mind coordination, onsite biopods for their mediporters to teleport casualties to so critically injured cultist scan get back to the fight as soon as they can make the trip, and knowing the exact layout of the place already. So it's going to be quite the nightmare to go through.
If it makes you feel better; at this point, sixteen terminator Astartes probably would have already taken casualties and most likely would not be able to successfully pull off this mission. So you're doing pretty good all things considered.
[X]: Plan: Combine our Forces
League Options:
[X]: Tell allies to steer back to avoid possible genestealer infection
[X]: Tell group 4 to move towards Groups 2 and 3.
Group Options:
[X]: No time for delays, head immediately (Less powerful and more limited buffs, less benefit of foresight, but gives the Genestealers less time to prepare)
Direction Options:
X]: Smash your way down (Break open the floor to go down one level immediately, surprise enemies below you and open your own paths of advancement, however this will eventually trigger heavier response)
[X]: Head for Emma (Rescue Emma Barnes before she and others are given the Genestealer's kiss; reuniting with Group, 2, 3, and 4)
Path Options:
Samus Extra Combat Options:
[X]: Deploy Rotor Blade shields (Send out rotor blades to carve the enemy apart and block incoming attacks)
Arne Extra Combat Options:
[X]: Focus on the Autoflak (As an AoE rapid firing subweapon, this is one of the ideal circumstances for it; but keep in mind that it does use a lot of UA.)
[X]: Plan: Combine our Forces
League Options:
[X]: Tell allies to steer back to avoid possible genestealer infection
[X]: Tell group 4 to move towards Groups 2 and 3.
Group Options:
[X]: No time for delays, head immediately (Less powerful and more limited buffs, less benefit of foresight, but gives the Genestealers less time to prepare)
Direction Options:
X]: Smash your way down (Break open the floor to go down one level immediately, surprise enemies below you and open your own paths of advancement, however this will eventually trigger heavier response)
[X]: Head for Emma (Rescue Emma Barnes before she and others are given the Genestealer's kiss; reuniting with Group, 2, 3, and 4)
Path Options:
Samus Extra Combat Options:
[X]: Deploy Rotor Blade shields (Send out rotor blades to carve the enemy apart and block incoming attacks)
Arne Extra Combat Options:
[X]: Focus on the Autoflak (As an AoE rapid-firing subweapon, this is one of the ideal circumstances for it; but keep in mind that it does use a lot of UA.)
Group 1:
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1100/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
Alyrsero (Asuryani Warlock, Good resistances, Extreme Defence, Ranged Damage, Support): 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Kaeliyae (Rillietann Shadowseer, Good Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/950|400/400|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 2:
Arcee (Autobot Commander, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder): 500/1500|750/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Galen (Autobot Masterforce, Very Good Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Battlefield manipulation): 25/500|300/500|175/175 Morale: Shaky. Stress: 10
Tyrius (Yntanaer Paladin, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Tanking): 300/1500|1500/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Raelamiel (Choir Angel, Great Resistances, Great Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 450/1000|1000/1000|1000/1000 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 3:
Marcus(Boltdancer) (Great Resistances, Good Defence, Control, Support): 300/300|100/100|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Iybraa (Great Resistances, Extreme Defence, Control, All range damage): 1000/1000|500/500|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Ormothin (Asrai Spellsinger, Decent Resistances, Great Defence, Support, Control) 1250/1250|100/100|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Elendria (Aesasurmen Warsage, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 4:
Lelithax (Druchii Shadow Sorceress. Great Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage) 1050/1250|850/850|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Korlanil (Ynnari Deathmaker, Ranged Damage, Support) 750/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress 0
Idaliryn (Hyshari Bladewizard, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 850/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Impetuous. Stress: 0
Clarioli (Ithilyani Factormage, Summons, Control) 700/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
These Purestrain Genestealers trade some of their speed in a sprint for additional leaping capability and a flexible "Venom gun" biomorphci gun-symbiont attached to a flexible mount emerging from its back. The Venom Gun fires an organic silicate crystal through a process quite akin to that of standard mass drivers, accelerating the crystal to extreme speeds able to punch through armour or multiple targets; or even being set to explode in the midst of enemies to scatter and disrupt formations while devastating softer foes. These shards are laced with a complex mixture of extremely lethal toxins and hyper-corrosive acids to cause lingering damage after initial impact, and due to the relatively little biological expense needed to create ammunition for the weapon symbiont, the Fusilier can sustain its fire for significant durations with impeccable accuracy and substantial range. Note that the Fusilier's venom cannon is a separate but conjoined organism with its own awareness and firing capabilities and as such, the Genestealer can carry out all of its other functions without distraction.
Samus' Notes: I think I'm starting to understand these Tyranids more. Standard templates mixed and matched to various effects for better results. Every organism is a pile of symbionts joined into an apparent whole more efficient than if it were a single creature with special adaptations. I could write entire books about this.
Arne's Notes: A lot of these organisms are extremely young, minutes old at most. Which means they must be artificially produced somewhere. Which means they've probably figured out how to get the most out of Rikti biopod technology. Which can mean nothing good.
The Spinebeast is another evolution of the genestealer adapted for multi-ranged combat, once again sacrificing some speed for the ability to expel bursts of hyper-velocity spines from vents on its chest and release frag-burst spine clusters from vents on its back to allow for a grenade assault; whether to suppress enemies before charging or deal with clustered opponents at a distance. While somewhat short-ranged, the Spinebeast's ability to deal damage before actually closing the distance gives it a place within the ranks of the Genestealer cult; particularly when suppressive fire is needed or large numbers of soft targets present themselves. Spinebeasts can only fire while exhaling, giving a window of opportunity to strike with little in the way of return fire.
Samus' Notes: I'm not too concerned about this strain, at least relative to myself. The spines can't harm my shielding, but they are dangerous to more fragile allies or those who rely on speed to stay out of harm's way. I'll need to eliminate them quickly for their sake.
Arne's Notes: The toxins they make use of are seemingly alive, able to alter their own composition in an attempt to bypass immunities to ensure debilitation. I think my own physiology should shrug it off, but it'd probably hurt to get stung all the same. As for my team mates, the best term for what these poison spines would do to standard human physiology is "liquification".
Purestrain Alphas are enhanced Genestealers that possess significantly greater durability, strength, speed, and size over conventional Genestealers as well as the possibility of having more complex biomorphs such as Adamantite tusks and burst-strength musculature to allow for more powerful goring impacts on charges, implantation attacks through enlarged fangs and injectors on the claws to force-feed an instantly lethal organism into an open wound that hatches into a carnivorous and extremely toxic swarm that eats its way out from the inside out, extra organ redundancies to allow for a greater chance of surviving major injuries, emergency regeneration glands that will trigger a burst of almost instantaneous healing to recover lost tissue from a reserve of biomass if available, as well as greater warp sensitivity that allows them to make use of powerful esoterical abilities and function as potent nodes within the Genestealer Broodmind.
Purestrain Alphas; like all Purestrains; demonstrate fully sophontic cerebral capacity and thought processes albeit shaped through a highly alien and predatory mindset. As such they will seek to make use of genuinely thought out tactics and will rapidly adjust their methods when dealing with unexpected threats or changed circumstances. Alphas can also have the additional biomorphs of lower grade purestrains, and can pass on an alpha kiss to sire more powerful hybrids than standard genestealers at the expense of longer gestation times and smaller litters per birth of the host species. Alphas are also much more likely to display replicated ultrasophontic powers absorbed from the realities that the Tyranids have begun to infect. Exercise caution and observe their movements and scan data to determine their ability set.
Samus' Notes: It seems that some organisms have stronger connections and broadcasts of their gestalt mind than others, which means that their death would cause disruption to the overall network. In essence, shoot the ones who are making the most telepathic noise to give the others a headache.
Arne's Notes: The amount of variety these organisms can have is almost dizzying, but I think I'm starting to figure out the basics of their standard template system. What it does mean however, is that they'll be able to adapt quickly by swapping out parts until they find the winning combinations.
Arne
"+This is Samus. Chris, are you there?+" Samus said over the comms while you made a quick perimeter check, nothing there so far, but you couldn't help but glare at the two Eldar from time to time, still not entirely sure what to make of them. They had to be holding out something from you.
"+Uh yeah, we're preparing to enter the cult compound. Figured you could use some help. Armsmaster even had a look at the suits you gave us in Warpspeed's time dilation chamber and put it together with some of the recovered Weltreich and Rikti samples that should make f-+" He started before Samus shook her head and hissed unpleasantly. If they thought that they could come in here with just that and survive the attacks from so many different angles by such a well coordinated foe then they were definitely not ready for this.
"+No, no no! This combat zone is far too dangerous for you. I'm not going to have any of you get hurt here...not by these...geneparasites! You could spread the infection across the entire city!+" Samus said as she pinged a packet of the scan data she had acquired, filling Chris' suit with all the relevant data that got a brief, pregnant pause until he made a small "Oh" in response.
"+You should just form a perimeter, don't let anyone leave the building without knowing where they're going.+" You said, clenching your teeth slightly as you could feel the scratching of the Brood Mind in your mind's ear. They were active, chattering with a chorus of voices that stretched across a vast network. From many, one.
Samus nodded in acknowledgement of Chris' final response before she looked towards the door closest to her objective, Alyrsero and Kaeliyae taking a moment to make their incantations and beseech their gods for boons from the curling winds of the warp. To augment your striking power in melee and to ensure that your strikes would land more true; twisting fate a little bit more around yourselves while you took a moment to analyse the energy as you accepted its boon. While you could have rejected it, it was easy to see that it was harmless.
"Alyrsero, can you speak to your friends? We should gather at Arcee's position as quickly as possible." Samus said, looking to the Eldar boy who offered a simple, gentle nod.
"Such can be done immediately, and already has been accomplished. If fortune favours us, and it must; we shall be able to stand as one." The Warlock said, shaking his head slightly at what you guessed what the sense of the hive mind all around him.
"We need to save Emma first. Every moment we put that off is another she's under risk of being hurt, killed, or...worse..." Samus said with trepidation beneath her breath, steadying herself as you scanned the floor below her with the echo visor to penetrate through its layers and get a better view of what lay below. The floor beneath sure enough, had more than a few enemies to put it lightly. Below you was a Sunday School class room meant to fit at least a hundred students who would listen to the lecturer and their assistants with rapt awe. All while the Genestealers almost certainly claimed the Children as further avenues of spreading...a thought that made you queasy to your stomach.
They were gathered at likely entrances for your group to take as you made your way farther down into the bowels of the complex, but you had no intention of going such obvious routes. Zurvduat would have tanned your hide for making such a foolish mistake as to indulge the enemy with passage through obvious routes of ambush.
"But we're going to need to link with the rest of the group if we are to ensure everyone makes it there safely. We'll have to head down and advance towards the building centre. Once there we can decide on how to reach the holding facility. And when we're there...we're going to need some way to shut down this operation." She said, trying to think about what would be the best way to go about such a thing. "If they're a hive mind with a hierarchy in the gestalt nodes...then finding the largest local organism and neutralising it would probably be the best start to taking this cult down." She said, proud of her own answer based on the little smile she gave beneath her helmet.
"Certainly much cleverer than most humans who've never seen Tyranids before. Far less collateral damage than the incarnation of humanity I'm more familiar with in addition." Alyrsero said as you started to select your targets, angling the bounces and spreadshot of your beam to make sure it hit as many targets as possible and using the Star beam as your elemental setting for its added area of effect and incendiary and "sticky" quantities. Excellent choice against the regenerating powers of the Genestealres, and to be frank...you took a look at the visage of a happy family beneath the tendrilled visage of a descending purple and blue monstrosity, the roping embrace of an alien god coiling around them and a circular maw wide open with what you recognised as animalistic hunger.
They were a family clan, all united in brood-brotherhood. All in the thrall of the hungry god descending from the void that this version of Earth had yet to fully understand or properly explore. Every aspect of family twisted, childbirth for the sake of more resources, devotional love coerced by psychic trickery, coupling for nothing more than partaking in the lifecycle of a genoparasite; all against the will of all involved. You almost wanted to vomit, you gulped back the bile in your throat. Your emotions went cold with icy fury, and you had to swallow air to prevent yourself from spitting out a curse your family elders would have disapproved of.
You recoiled and grimaced beneath your helmet. Such a perversion of something so sacred. You reached for the collar of your suit, briefly letting a necklace you habitually wore manifest from beneath. It bore the family symbol, a winged silver-blue and red shield with crossed swords; openable into a holo-locket bearing images of every Skjoldr you could claim familial relations with; current and past. You thought about all that being...forced...coerced...demanded....you wouldn't allow it.
"We're going to smash our way down, hit them with phasic weapons first, then crash the ceiling over their heads. Samus, mind taking point on this?" You said, letting the necklace fade back to beneath your zero suit collar, far too precious to risk dangling over your armour where a claw might cut it in the unlikely event of shield failure. She nodded and detached the rotor blades and wind blades from her suit; letting them move independently as you let your charged up beam explode out of your cannon in a burst of nine orange-white sunlike ovoids that sinewaved their way straight through the floor and crashed into a different tyranid each. The burning solar orbs diffused outwards and bounced around in a cascade detonation that, had you not set the environment to not register to the beam; would have almost certainly annihilated all traces of the structure that the beam touched before its force containment fields klcked in to ensure that the energy was spent only on targets that mattered.
For a moment, it was like the sun itself had exploded in their midst; plasma vibrating with ruinous jackhammer frequencies, diffusion eruptions bouncing between targets and their plasma leaving clinging annihilation on any genestealer they touched. It was to put it lightly; destructive to the point of virtual obscenity. But you weren't done, smashing your fist into the floor to send hypervelocity fragments of floor and ceiling into the surviving tyranids; defended either by shielding or luck or warp magicks. Splinters smashed through floors further below, carving out gouges in the level below as you ran down the debris fall of crumbling floor; your cannon shifting like a living thing; sections spinning, the barrel lengthening and then snapping claw like extensionsinto place on the sides as your purple primary weapon clicked. Your wrist gun formed this tool in miniature; munitions launcher lobbing ejecta mortar shells, shoulder mounted paralyzers identifying anything that might be a problem; rocket pods and multi-missiles streaming from you as you identified every target you could.
More of the Tyranids were on their way, new strains eager for battle. Survivors of your assault had managed to regenerate by now when they weren't teleported away, and hardier organisms were slipping into position just as samus' rotor saws descended and spun around the room, gore and blood exploding outwards.
Your cannon clicked and thudded, and then did so again and again. A normal human would have never have been able to hear the distinct firing sounds of each round released from your cannon, timed to slip through Samus' spinning rotor blades or Alyrsero's crackling fire shields and Kaeliyae's expertly woven illusions that even the genestealers seemed fooled by based on how some wasted their ammunition on them; or had their brains tricked into believing illusory injures were real to the point of death. But yours was a simpler, crude weapon; a cudgel of brute power made by the Diamonts to simply rip through plentiful, quick, or relatively soft enemies. Something the cult was all three of.
You saw Samus moving as a whirlwind; ice beam firing from wrist gun and arm cannon and arm-blade and bayonet finishing her weapons fire or thunder-disruptor kicks could not. Kaeliyae and Alyrsero moved with almost divine grace, crushing foes where they could and dancing away where they couldn't.
You though?
You just dumped a massive amount of firepower down a room choking with what seemed like a limitless supply of respawning aliens hellbent on bringing you into the fold or seeing what genes could be harvested from your corpse. They threw themselves through the wide left doors of the lectern, pushing aside seats and jumping on the walls; ranged weapons scattering off of Samus' rotor saws and chargers being eviscerated before they could get close. But your weapons were what was thinning the tide. Each shot erupted into a black cloud, each cloud meant the deaths or maimings of countless more organisms.
They clearly didn't appreciate this; you realised as universal ammo pick ups flew towards you and your senses informed you of imminent danger. You spun out of the way of a barrage of venom gun shots, your autoflaks making a thunk sound before opening fire again; each donation like a bass boosted balloon pop following a sound like a sharpened hammer striking steel. More corpses. Mining laser blasts reflected back to their senders; missiles were caught by warpborne hands and flung back; but yours was the deepest tally of bodies.
You almost didn't register yourselves moving through the halls, your warrior instincts almost operating on automatic. It wasn't pleasant nor painful, it almost felt numb. Conditioning and trained responses to remove the need for doubt or hesitation in the heat of battle. Your squad mates needed you at your optimum, no time to stop and think as a charged autoflak round of yours ruptured the bodies of toughened genestealers. But your next volleys struck snarling Alphas, half again as tall as their kin. Their skin sheathed themselves in organic metal, a power taken from mutants plucked from primal earth. The autoflak round that would have gone through all of battleship row shattered against psychically toughened mutant steel; the beast and its kin rushing towards your rear guard.
Arne UA Count: 70/280
You wasted a third shot before realising you weren't thinking, and hesitated just slightly before bringing up your cyber-hoplon shield from your left arm to deflect the heavy ground shaking claw blow from the colossal metal clad Alpha Purestrain; its hand moving so fast that the air burst into flames around it from friction's protestations. You flinched and looked back at Samus; vaulting atop a huge and grotesque looking aberrant and twisting its head off with a spin of her legs.
"Samus, torch it!" You shouted, using the temporal distort to quickly introduce another Alpha Purestrain to your autoflak before its electric defence fields could fire up; timing it just so that the magnetic cage of its electrical energy would trap the shrapnel of the charged autoflak based on a calculation made in your brain that even the best supercomputer on this planet couldn't dream of matching. That was one threat you wouldn't have to worry about, and you quickly yanked an Aberrant into the path of another Alpha Purestrain while time was frozen around you. The inevitable impact of the Alpha's superhero harvested nether energy bolts through the Aberrant's skull would be funny to watch for sure, but you'd have to save that for the highlight reel later; given that just four rooms in through this level and you had probably exceeded the killcount of the Munich mission .
To your left, Samus was busy smashing an Alpha Metamorph with an extended carapace reinforced by a powerful deflecting energy aura harvested from another primal earth mutant; striking hard enough to turn the metamorph to paste before its light barrier could shield it; her hoplon shield then being spun in a way to get the sharp rim through an acolyte's power sword; leg snapping forward and shattering a Purestrain frozen before her leaping towards the flaming form of Alyrsero. As much as you...were less than keen on his company, he was an ally and that meant he had your protection.
Samus didn't take long, her eyes shining with realisation and a devilish grin beneath her helmet as she turned towards you, your bayonet slicing outwards and bisecting an acolyte that had dropped from above with a bomb of some sort, clearly intending to suicide bomb Kaeliyae by exploding close to the electric field she was generating around herself. Samus caught it with a burst of pyro-multimissiles and your blade quickly doused itself in frigid anti-energy, time resuming all at once as the metallic Alpha first heated to incredible temperatures right before cooling towards absolute zero even more ruinously quick as the Ulfbehrt style blade you shifted in a traditional sword grip struck its temper heated body and shattered it to pieces.
"Impressive, but we don't have all day." Alyrsero said as he took stock of the seemingly unlimited hordes of enemies barreling down on your position as Samus smashed through a wall to open a new position into a cafeteria, a large and strong Hybrid hefting a rotary gun and cackling praise to the Star Traveller as the gun let loose with mass-accelerator rounds in an almost laser beam like stream to herd you towards more multilasers; a superspeedster Alpha leaping out of camouflage and smashing claws into your back with a series of loud crashes, catching you just as you were unable to alter your course of movement to avoid heavy sniper fire to prevent the shift in momentum from pushing you off course to drop kick an Aberrant.
Arne HP Count: 1050/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000
It caught you in an arm bar, allowing another that had mastered the esoteric arts of Qi throw a fancy quadruple palm blow into your chest that rattled you a bit more; the influx of energy rocking through your armour and giving you a momentary jolt. Another that sheathed its limbs in scalding fire raked across you, pushing you down to let a superstrong Aberrant smash you in the back with his power sledgehammer, a blow that would have probably shattered the eight wonders of the world into irrecoverable pieces but merely got a grunt out of you. They were infused with incarnate power, letting their blows do more damage than they should; you could sense the energies of the Sourcewells broiling inside of them. But two could play at that.
Arne HP Count: 975/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000
Releasing the stored up energy of your frequency suit in a large burst, you let the purple shockwave explode outwards in all directions; augmented by your thunder disruptors and your alpha incarnate to clear out the room. The eruption of energy, tinged with added red and blue from your own personal power, made a bassy drop sound as it erupted outwards and obliterated anything that you read as hostile. With the foes in the room properly atomised, you stood yourself up shaking your head briefly and taking a look around.
Group 1:
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1000/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 975/1100|1100/1100|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
Alyrsero (Asuryani Warlock, Good resistances, Extreme Defence, Ranged Damage, Support): 825/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Kaeliyae (Rillietann Shadowseer, Good Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 900/950|400/400|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
"Everyone alright?" Samus asked, getting a few nods of affirmation as Kaeliyae signed, pulling one of her witchblades from the table she had impaled a mediported genestealer to.
"I will endure for yet some time more. But it would seem that the swarm thins for us four." She said, sitting down and exhaling, crossing a leg and looking around at the spacious cafeteria and its host of overturned seats.
"Hey, why is it that you always speak in rhy-" You started before the carving open of wormholes by Iybraa through her telekinetics yanked you all towards her position; your attempt at sitting in one of the available chairs instead meeting you with empty air and a quick fall onto your ass.
Samus caught herself when she found herself no longer leaning on a wall, while Kaeliyae merely continued to float and Alyrsero was standing straight to begin with.
"...me...." You finished, standing up and looking around you.
The first thing to catch your eye was the unpleasant aura around the first of the unfamiliar girls you met gazes with. She wore black, purple, and grey wraithbone and shadowtouched ithilmar hex-armour with splendid looking robes covering much of the body, including the abdomen, a skirt emerging from below her hip guards, and around her sleeves. Her arm had two pairs of graceful but eminently sinister looking curling horns emerging from the temples and brow. A witch-helm divided into three pieces; the gunmetal trimmed faceplate designed like the slats of a furnace with eye pieces in a permanent expression of disdain. A short, conical skullcap with a tiara that wrapped around, its peak just below the midpoint of her helm's brow horns. And at last; a protective shadowweave covering black hair that stretched out to her knees in a plainly but neatly styled black mane that seemed to flicker and writhe like a hundred thousand little cilia, almost making her look like she was floating in water.
Her attention locked itself squarely on Samus, then you, then Alyrsero.
"I see that you have come to the conclusion that it was not enough to get us lost on these pastbound echoes of the former Mon'Keigh homeworld, but you managed to find yourself two apex hybrids at that. Though funny thing, you two have so much potential and yet I sense it's...so...unshaped. Hrmmmm..." She said, rapping her gunmetal clad fingers against her face mask in thought. "I'll tell you what. Instead of calling you Mon'keigh or hybrid, I will make some effort to remember your names. Come on, don't be shy. Whatever you think it might be, it's not your true name at least." She said in a tone that told you quickly she was one of those sorts of people who revelled in cryptic nonsense.
"Cease bothering the pair for a moment would you?" A figure who struck you as someone who didn't so much walk in the light as he was incapable of ever being in its presence. His almost blindingly white armour with trimmings of gold and highlights of pale blue. A conical helm with a closed corinthian style face, piercing blue eye-pieces and wings like a noble gold winged dragon covered his head, his dashing looking blue cape behind him as his formidable looking greatsword was stabbed into the ground through the head of a Metamorph when he saw it twitch; causing the body to mediport out.
"You really are the worst sort of killjoy Idaliryn." She hissed with displeasure; her shadowy grey aura flickering at the glowing luminescence of his almost blinding white aura of mystic wind, invisible to most but almost obnoxious to yourself.
"Sister, be nice." Alyrsero said with a sigh.
Tyrius burst out of a pile of charred limbs and bodies that was hundreds deep, flexing his wings outwards and shaking his head. He pulled off his helmet and wiped some beads of sweat off of his brow, his hair seeming to fall in exactly the right way to just enhance his looks rather than look like he had just fought a life or death struggle against literally thousands of genestealers.
"Wow that was a workout alright." Tyrius said, rolling his shoulders and grinning a bit, seemingly oblivious to what he had just been through.
"Where are the others?" Asked Alyrsero, getting an idle gesture from Lelithax who adjusted her cloak to wrap around more of herself. He looked to a seance of the remaining four Eldar, trying to twist the shadows of obscurity descending over the conduits of destiny, or as they said; the Skeins of Fate. Odd how differing cultures from such different universes could end up having similar concepts really.
"Hey if they could pull me out of a fire like that they can do whatever they want." Boltdancer said, his jacket a ruin, having been torn to pieces by clawmarks and weapons fire. You immediately had a scan of his biosigns and were relieved to find no foreign DNA contaminants were detected so far. He let out a groan as Kaeliyae approached him and weaved some threads of biomantic warp energies, drawn entirely from her own internal capabilities rather than the rituals and spellcraft of sorcery or the winds of magic. His costume repaired itself at her urging, and he looked at the Esdainn with wide eyes.
"Uh...thanks...uh..." He said, looking her over. "Yo what's your pronouns?" He asked, clearly interested in the Eldar illusionist as she giggled and tapped two fingers to where her mouth would be beneath her mask and touched it to his own lips.
"She's named Kaeliyae!" Samus said cheerfully, rolling a shoulder and keeping close to you.
"Many thanks daughter of the wise. I am here to offer you all escape from the tyrannic vise." She said with a performer's bow in response as you took a moment to shift your focus back to Samus; a sensation of her eyes fixated on you snapping you out of your general observations of the room.
"Arne, we're going to need to talk about your habit of throwing yourself into the heaviest fighting possible." She said to you, a small sinking sensation starting to pervade through you.
"Can we do it later? When we're not pressed for time?" You said, getting a nod out of her in return. She asked you to promise her that, and you obliged in an instant.
"Alright troopers, we should get rolling as soon as possible." That familiar metallic voice said as you all looked to Arcee. Who had clearly seen better days, but was in one piece at least; Galen sitting on her shoulders like a child being carried around by a parent, breathing frantically.
"Your pet human is on the verge of panic." Lelithax said with bemusement while Iybraa floated to Galen and laid her hands on his head, telepathic prowess being used to banish the terror from his brain, urging him to calm down and regulate his breathing, slowly but surely starting to relax.
"Hrmph, parlour trick." The sorceress said with disdain that made whatever beauty she might have under her armour suddenly a lot less appealing to you; dispelling much of the initial sense of curiosity you felt in the figure her garbs suggested.
"The tyranids will be on the move shortly, we must move with haste to halt them if you are to save these people from infection." One of the Eldar from the circle said, her armour's blue, green, and white hues not guising the fact that just a moment's glance could tell you that she had many souls within that suit. A constellation of hosts and identities that shared their thoughts and memories with her and formed into a new singular being. Elendria; informally called a battlemage, more properly referred to as a Spell Warden from the hint that Alyrsero passed onto you to make sure that you didn't make a crucial misstep in referring to his friends.
Her white highlights and dashing looking cape and flaring pauldrons made her seem like a superhero, while her dragoon crested helm had a kiteshield mouth guard defending her lips, the armour form-fitting and snug, with an added tunic around her legs for reasons you didn't quite understand.
"I think we can handle them. So far we've been holding up pretty great separately." Samus said.
"They know you can best their lesser beasts. They will not be so overconfident now that we are moving as a group." Elendria said as she gave her maul like sceptre a twirl, her shield in her other hand shifting slightly to repair cracks and gouges dug into it.
"How many are on their way to our position?" Arcee said.
"Tens of thousands. With Broodlords. The Supreme Patriarch of this web of infestation knows not why you are here, but is quite determined to render that question a moot one." She said before holding out something you recognised as a pair of energy tanks.
"I am not certain as to the significance of these devices, but I believe they are intended for you." She said, throwing them over to you in a quick flick of her wrists.
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1200/1200|1200/1200|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1200/1200|1200/1200|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
"...Interesting..." She said as she looked to one of her companions; whose more metallic armour; primarily electric yellow with a number of cyan highlights and trimmings of red; designed in a rather circuit board style pattern with diodes emerging from her pauldrons, spectacle like eye pieces, a bifurcated mouth guard, and a swarm of companion machines around herself and then grabbed two items she had been tinkering with, getting a protest from the Ithilyani.
"Elendria I was still work-" She said before she tossed the two items at your faces. one of them beaned you in the head while the other was caught by Samus as your armour analysed, recognised, and then incorporated the Ithilyani craft into itself in the typical flash of light that left the items consumed; wrapping around your suits to change the Resonance Suit into yet another bit of altered appearance.
LUMOSUIT ACQUIRED
WARP VISOR ACQUIRED
The Lumosuit is derived from the work of the Eldar; including the Holofield and the Ithilyani Hyshite generator a common piece of Eldar technology that augments user defense by making them far harder to hit. The Holosuit offers superior capabilities to a standard cloaking device through its multiple options for stealth and evading detection; including camouflage via light-warping, the projection of mirror images, or in an effect that gives the device its nicknames of "domino field" and "jigsaw field" among humans of its native reality; making their apparent image explode into a widely spread cloud of multi-coloured fragments with the effect becoming more chaotic and unpredictable the faster the user moves, making the discerning of their true location extremely difficult without non-electromagnetic forms of perception. The effect will also bend light-based weaponry around, making the user far more difficult to properly afflict with such weapons, and also allows for traversing light-based barriers without issue. While the defensive gains of the Holosuit are relatively modest otherwise save for a major increase to user speed and greater defense against damage from esoterical sources, as are its physical increases beyond speed enhancement; they are still present, and with the suit equipped; the user can more properly interface with Eldar technology.
Samus' Notes: Acquiring something this useful for a stealth mission this late after we abandoned any hope of stealth is...ironic and not in a funny way.
Arne's Notes: As handy as this could be in the future, I'm kind of mad that I didn't make a cloaking system earlier now.
The Warp Visor allows the user to see warp signatures clearly; allowing the user to quickly perceive the empyreal side of targets, what sorts of creatures might be lurking in the warp, as well as signals that go through the Empyreal realm and other similar manners of pleroma type idealistic coextant surrealities. This can allow the user to also determine the course and direction of such energies as well as what the prevailing currents are in the empyreal realm. It is also useful for determining the prevailing metadimensional weather conditions such as that of the "winds of magic", which, should the user choose to exercise their potential in such regards; allow them to much more reliably control and manipulate such powers towards their own ends. This is useful against enemies who might be setting up ambushes in coextant dimensions, try to flee into them, or are using them to communicate via means usually impossible to intercept.
Samus' Notes: Ah-hah! This is something that should help with tricky, fading capable enemies. I feel like I'm going to need some time to get properly used to it though.
Arne's Notes: Staring into realms of souls without the proper adjustment is going to give me some unpleasant headaches, but I'd better learn to just get used to it.
Your armoursuits underwent yet another incredible transformation that was leaving Raelamiel quickly typing something into her phone. Based on what your visor was feeding you, a complaint about how your appearance was constantly changing and how you never actually maintained a consistent look.
The antennae of your suit remained; while the armour combined the insectile aesthetics of your usual armour or the spacesuit like appearance of Samus' and melded it with Eldar armour sensibilities for something agile looking, Your armour seeming to get thinner with no loss of strength, the vambraces extending slightly to form more prominent blades covering the knees and the elbows, circuit like highlight lines dancing across key nodes of the armour to trace minor geometric patterns; the outer limbs of your own armour taking on a silvery hue, the helm and chestplate shifting to a rich platinum, and the inner and abdominal armour changing to a tone of gold while your highlights began to glow a brilliant cyan before resuming more normal levels of luminosity. Your pauldrons took on a more graceful, curved like appearance, almost like the graceful flow of upwards facing scimitars, and your visor even shifted as well; the monocular gaze shifting to your forehead as a sort of "third eye" and shrinking down to about the size of a balled fist, while a bifurcating glowing white line went down the length of your helm, Going across your helm was now a V-shaped visor to cover your eyes.
Samus' suit also gained a "third" eye, her outer limb armour taking on a platinum hue, her abdominal and inner thigh raiments the colour of silver, and her chestplate and helm the finest gold to go with her now yellow coloured highlights. Her pauldrons curved down whereas your curved up, but otherwise retained a rather similar look to your own suit overall, the cloak of the main rotors of the helicopter mode remaining, along with the fins and thrusters of the jet mode. The rail Rotor blades moved into their usual spot, and the cockpit of the jet mode reasserted itself in a hurry, the autobot symbol worn over your heart still present.
"...I'm not getting that back am I?" Clarioli said with a sigh before you shook your head.
"I could make new ones for you? I have the designs now so it should be a matter of just getting the fabricator..." You said before she waved you off.
"It's fine...they were old anyway." She said, smiling a bit beneath her helmet as you decided to test out the new visor.
You saw the world in a rather new, different light to say the least. The colours of reality faded and washed out but the luminescent light of the winds of magic far more starkly clear before your vision. You saw people less as they were, and more the ideal imagery that they saw themselves through or the stories that had been forged around them. Samus was the heroic valkyrie in resplendent armour, the once and future champion of the cosmos and the last, best hope of all things. The Eldar all embodied certain virtues, such as Alyrsero's always open mind's eye and his curious nature reflecting in his helm now having a third eye piece.
Arcee was the hardy warrior, grizzled beyond her seemingly smooth appearance, marred by millions of years of conflict but bearing a proud determination to see the old war through. Tyrius well...Tyrius just looked even nicer than he normally did.
But you also saw the shadowy tendrils of hive mind speech, pulsing signals travelling across the immaterium, threaded together into a cable drawn from a massive number of voices, vibrating together like the sounds of music. But you quickly figured out that true enough; there were thousands of them. Tens of thousands. Which struck you as absurd. This was a city that, including its outlying suburbs, numbered maybe two million? Where were they getting this many from? How would they even hide this many?!
But your armour gave you the helpful warning of
SEISMOGRAPHIC READINGS INDICATE LARGE ENEMY FORCE CONVERGING ON YOUR POSITION
Ah wonderful.
"We need to get going, a massive number of enemies are bearing down on our position." You said flatly to get everyone's attention, raising your voice a bit louder than its usual quiet and inoffensive tone.
"How many?" Arcee asked.
"There are tens of thousands of connections to the hive mind node in just this area, probably more beyond where I can see. I've counted twelve thousand eight hundred and twenty six signals approaching us with more on the way." You said as you took a look around the room, immediately figuring that it was used for more protestant style sermons for people turned off by the Catholic style set of pews for their mass. But that meant that the chairs were while nice; completely incapable of defending anyone from anything.
"This preaching room has absolutely nothing for hard cover and has zero choke points. We need to get moving or we're going to be stuck in a killbox. The ceiling has vents that they can drop from, and there's multiple grates on the floor that they can use to vertically envelop us." You said, quickly gesturing to what your combat training told you were the clear signs of this not being the ideal place to be.
"But there's tons of space here before any of them can get into melee." Galen said.
"Not worth allowing them to surround us from all sides with room to manoeuvre." Samus agreed.
"Where do they even get this many dudes?" Raelamiel said as she sharpened her swords against each other, huffing a bit while her wings beat idly. "There's only like...three hundred and fifty thousand people in Brockton Bay...maybe...two million if you count all the suburbs?" She continued.
"They likely have some means of fabricating new hybrids and purestrains with the biopods they took from your reality. What can be used to regenerate flesh can just as easily create flesh." Elendria said with a small shrug of her shoulders as she rattled off her theory.
"In that case; we need to get moving, come on." Arcee said with a gesture towards the door closest to where Emma would be. You hustled quickly, hearing the scratching and the rustling in the walls intensify as the voices of thousands of organisms swirled around you in the empyrean; the gestalt coming to its decisions and formulating its plans.
Samus stopped the group at a circular room that lead to a number of doors; a junction in the webwork of hallways. She looked at the ceiling and shot at the vent grates with her ice beam to freeze them over in thick sheets of ice before having a moment to look around. She saw what you saw; that the creatures were moving in the walls and preparing to emerge through tunnel connected closets and smaller rooms to try and set up their ambushes; while others crawled above or below.
Ahead was the room where Emma and others were being kept, and while you could snipe out the genestealers there through the walls with your phase-wave beam, to actually go down the last hallway into that room would require going through a gauntlet of ambushes in areas with multiple avenues of potential enemy advance. Here though, you could make a stand and bleed the enemy out. Or perhaps, if you were feeling brave; you could split yourself and Samus off; you were armoured and armed to the teeth. You could push through the distracted enemies while the tyranids focused ont he main group. More importantly, with the blink packs, ghost phase systems, temporal distortion units, holofields, and silenced suits you had, you could sneak in and teleport them out.
Group 1:
Samus (Chozo Hunter, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1200/1200|1200/1200|1000/1000. Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Arne (Alimbic Knight, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, All Rounder): 1200/1200|1200/1200|1000/1000 Morale: Great. Stress: 0
Alyrsero (Asuryani Warlock, Good resistances, Extreme Defence, Ranged Damage, Support): 1000/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Kaeliyae (Rillietann Shadowseer, Good Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 950/950|400/400|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 2:
Arcee (Autobot Commander, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder): 1500/1500|950/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Galen (Autobot Masterforce, Very Good Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Battlefield manipulation): 500/500|400/500|175/175 Morale: Shaky. Stress: 10
Tyrius (Yntanaer Paladin, Extreme Resistances, Extreme Defence, Melee Damage, Tanking): 1500/1500|1500/1500|1500/1500 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Raelamiel (Choir Angel, Great Resistances, Great Defence, Melee Damage, Control): 100/1000|1000/1000|1000/1000 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 3:
Marcus(Boltdancer) (Great Resistances, Good Defence, Control, Support): 300/300|100/100|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Iybraa (Great Resistances, Extreme Defence, Control, All range damage): 1000/1000|500/500|100/100 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Ormothin (Asrai Spellsinger, Decent Resistances, Great Defence, Support, Control) 1250/1250|100/100|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Elendria (Aesasurmen Warsage, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Group 4:
Lelithax (Druchii Shadow Sorceress. Great Resistances, Great Defence, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage) 1250/1250|850/850|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress: 0
Korlanil (Ynnari Deathmaker, Ranged Damage, Support) 100/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Optimal. Stress 0
Idaliryn (Hyshari Bladewizard, Great Resistances, Great Defence, All Rounder) 1250/1250|850/850|250/250 Morale: Impetuous. Stress: 0
Clarioli (Ithilyani Factormage, Summons, Control) 700/1000|350/350|200/200 Morale: Great. Stress: 5
Actions:
League Actions:
[]: Hold the junction. This is a circular room with substantial cover and four chokepoints to hold with relatively few avenues of ambush. If the entire team holds here, you could bleed the tyranids out into having to pull back. You can help the prisoners out by phase-wave sniping genestealers through the walls.
[]: Rush the gauntlet. Move to rescue the prisoners with the entire team. This is a dangerous path with a massive number of obstacles and it's likely some team members will be seriously hurt due to this being the Genestealers' favoured environment.
[]: Sneak off to rescue them. You and Samus will head in to rescue the prisoners on your own. Your team will lack your firepower save for phase-wave sniping for some time; but you'll be able to get in and out quickly and save the people or at least determine which ones are already infected.
Defensive Preparation: You can pick three options
[]: Set up defensive turrets and traps. Clarioli, Galen, and Arcee can set up some defensive turrets and drones that when paired with the electromines and gremlins of Boltdancer; will provide significant obstacles for the enemy to have to traverse as well as adding a great deal of supporting fire capabilities.
[]: Prepare Hexes. You have a lot of casters on your team who can set up wide area hex spells that will weaken the entire enemy force bearing down on your position, giving a greater chance of nobody getting seriously injured.
[]: Prepare augments. The above, but you set up long lasting and powerful augmentation spells more potent than what can be casually casted in combat to bolster your league before the enemy closes in.
[]: Call in Autobot Minicon strike team. This will call in some additional minicons who while not part of your league; will be able to offer a wide variety of extra supporting firepower, melee capability, guaranteed immunity to genestealer infection, and other capabilities. This will however, likely cause an even more intense Tyranid response as they sense the spacebridge's activation.
[]: Have the Eldar summon some Winds of Magic Spirits: Winds of Magic spirits while lacking in the technological firepower of Minicons and having a greater vulnerability to massed firepower, have more esoterical ways of dealing damage and can generally get into melee better than Minicons can with Genestealers. With your team composition you'd mostly summon Azyric, Hyshite, and Ghyranian spirits of Celestial Energy, Cleansing Light, and Radiant Life.
[]: Prepare a major destruction spell: Have the Eldar prepare a ritual that will cast a powerful spell that will burn its way through many of the Genestealer Cultists, killing many of them before they have a chance to get into combat range.
Defensive Planning: You can pick three options
[]: Close up avenues of attack: Do your best to limit the number of directions the enemy can attack you from.
[]: Divine likely enemy disposition: Peer into the future and get a bit of added intelligence on the enemy's likely movements, what they're likely to send; and ensure that your team is able to engage with more confidence and is less likely to be surprised and be penalised by being caught off guard.
[]: Organise Lines of FIre: Set up a coordinated system to ensure that anyone who needs fire support is going to get it, thus allowing for better overwatch fire on incoming enemies as well as supporting fire on engaged allies and superior suppression against advancing opponents.
[]: Organise Melee Sequence: Sort out who's best able to handle what in close quarters combat so that nobody ends up picking fights with things they really shouldn't. Ensures that melee engagements are optimal between team mates.
[]: Establish organised positions: Has the team take up a clear order of battle that will allow for optimal support for each other and keeping squishies out of immediate harm's way, while also making it clear whose job is what to further optimise the engagements that will happen.
Samus Actions:
[]: Swift as Lightning, Deadly as Thunder: Rush in and out of melee with a combination of your various movement powers, alt-modes, timestops, teleportations, and phase-outs. Never let the enemy focus you down for too long, but they'll soon realise the futility of attacking you and focus more on other team mates.
[]: The Gauntlet Thrown, the Die Cast: Make yourself the most obvious target possible, rushing into the very thick of battle and draw all eyes on yourself as you purge everything you get into melee with. You'll take more damage, but allies will take less.
[]: Like the waves, like the storm: Attack from a distance, brutalising anything that gets in your line of fire, making use of your most destructive ranged weapons to kill as many of the incoming Genestealer cultists as possible as quickly as possible. The heavy emphasis on charge shots and explosives though means you'll largely hang back out of melee.
[]: A glacier's curse, a winter's smite: Make heavy usage of immobilization weapons such as your paralyzers, the ice beam and missile, and judicious usage of time-stop and teleportation to stop the enemy from moving as they please, pushing allies about to get hurt out of harm's way or locking down threatening enemies before they can close in. Lower damage but better support.
[]: Flow like Water, move like the Currents: Bounce around in your alt-modes frequently, taking advantage of manoeuvre to dive into the thick of the enemy and cut through them quickly in a non-obvious way, pinballing from one formation to the next. Especially good at clearing enemies out of ambush points.
[]: I am a blade of many shapes, a warrior of many forms: Take a neutral, adaptive stance; adjusting your techniques and your style as the situation demands, not really having the benefits of any one of them but none of the weaknesses of any; but mitigates risk the most overall for the entire team.
Arne Actions:
[]: Blood of the Einherjar, Scion of the Alimbics: Unleash the true fury of the Uskarlings and your status as an Alimbic Knight, dealing massive damage in close quarters as you go full rip and tear mode; likely talking damage in the process but annihilating enemies in a vicious blur; your shock coil being used to restore energy where needed.
[]: The Lightning Incarnate, the Storm's Son: Make heavy usage of the Shock Coil, the Positron beam, and the Electrowave Beam; frying your enemies and stopping them in their tracks with convulsing bolts of lightning and anti-matter; never missing, striking foe after foe without mercy. Deals a great deal of damage but is intensive on your Universal Ammo and Missile stock piles.
[]: The Assassin's Knife, the Silent Death: Move stealthily, going between foe to foe to eliminate any of importance before they can realise you have them in your sights, targeting synapse organisms, leaders among the cult, psykers, and specialist before they can threaten the rest of the team.
[]: Knight of Honour, Paladin Aspirant: Make yourself the rock upon which the enemy will shatter against. Rushing into the very thick of battle and draw all eyes on yourself as you purge everything you get into melee with. You'll take more damage, but allies will take less.
[]: Pilot Extraordinary, Child Ace: Take the possibly risky option of having the Sleipnir provide air support with its bunker-buster and object penetrating munitions guided by yourself in tandem with the ship's Synthetic consciousness. This will take some of your attention to coordinate the shots in a way that ensures nobody gets hurt who isn't supposed to, but the ship has plenty of firepower.
[]: Legacy Breaker, Lineage Maker: Find the most important synapse creature in the incoming Genestealer swarm and eliminate them over all other priorities to disrupt the Genestealer Broodmind as much as possible, this has a high risk of getting hurt as you literally plunge into the swarming masses, but will make the rest of the encounter easy.
Here's a plan for Samus and Arne to rescue the captives while the rest hold the fort.
[X]Plan: We'll Be Right Back
League Actions
[X]: Sneak off to rescue them. You and Samus will head in to rescue the prisoners on your own. Your team will lack your firepower save for phase-wave sniping for some time; but you'll be able to get in and out quickly and save the people or at least determine which ones are already infected.
Defensive Preparations
[X]: Set up defensive turrets and traps. Clarioli, Galen, and Arcee can set up some defensive turrets and drones that when paired with the electromines and gremlins of Boltdancer; will provide significant obstacles for the enemy to have to traverse as well as adding a great deal of supporting fire capabilities.
[X]: Prepare Hexes. You have a lot of casters on your team who can set up wide area hex spells that will weaken the entire enemy force bearing down on your position, giving a greater chance of nobody getting seriously injured.
[X]: Prepare a major destruction spell: Have the Eldar prepare a ritual that will cast a powerful spell that will burn its way through many of the Genestealer Cultists, killing many of them before they have a chance to get into combat range.
Defensive Planning
[X]: Close up avenues of attack: Do your best to limit the number of directions the enemy can attack you from.
[X]: Organise Lines of FIre: Set up a coordinated system to ensure that anyone who needs fire support is going to get it, thus allowing for better overwatch fire on incoming enemies as well as supporting fire on engaged allies and superior suppression against advancing opponents.
[X]: Organise Melee Sequence: Sort out who's best able to handle what in close quarters combat so that nobody ends up picking fights with things they really shouldn't. Ensures that melee engagements are optimal between team mates.
Samus
[X]: I am a blade of many shapes, a warrior of many forms:
very good stuff, we need to think this one through
I will put down the options i think is best and with my reasoning, with no voting or plan just yet.
Defensive Preparation: You can pick three options
[]: Set up defensive turrets and traps. Clarioli, Galen, and Arcee can set up some defensive turrets and drones that when paired with the electromines and gremlins of Boltdancer; will provide significant obstacles for the enemy to have to traverse as well as adding a great deal of supporting fire capabilities.
- The more things the Genestalers have to claw through, the better. plus the covering fire will be good for dealing with any tough creature.
[]: Prepare Hexes. You have a lot of casters on your team who can set up wide area hex spells that will weaken the entire enemy force bearing down on your position, giving a greater chance of nobody getting seriously injured.
-This sounds very good, weakening the oncoming tide before it even touches us is good.
[]: Prepare augments. The above, but you set up long lasting and powerful augmentation spells more potent than what can be casually casted in combat to bolster your league before the enemy closes in.
-on the other hand, making sure our squishes are stronger is good too.
[]: Prepare a major destruction spell: Have the Eldar prepare a ritual that will cast a powerful spell that will burn its way through many of the Genestealer Cultists, killing many of them before they have a chance to get into combat range.
- The more of them that die, the better. Honestly clearing out a majority of the cultists means more of our ammo can go to the more dangerous creatures.
Defensive Planning: You can pick three options
[]: Close up avenues of attack: Do your best to limit the number of directions the enemy can attack you from.
- i don't think i need to say how important this is
[]: Divine likely enemy disposition: Peer into the future and get a bit of added intelligence on the enemy's likely movements, what they're likely to send; and ensure that your team is able to engage with more confidence and is less likely to be surprised and be penalised by being caught off guard.
-We need to know where they are moving, so giving this to us is good, plus it makes sure no bullshit surprise attack will doom someone.
[]: Organise Lines of FIre: Set up a coordinated system to ensure that anyone who needs fire support is going to get it, thus allowing for better overwatch fire on incoming enemies as well as supporting fire on engaged allies and superior suppression against advancing opponents.
-These creatures thrive off melee combat, getting the chance to infect us. This should not happen, so making sure they have a wall of guns between them and us, is optimal.
[]: Organise Melee Sequence: Sort out who's best able to handle what in close quarters combat so that nobody ends up picking fights with things they really shouldn't. Ensures that melee engagements are optimal between team mates.
- Good for those who really should not be in the front lines.
Samus Actions:
[]: Like the waves, like the storm: Attack from a distance, brutalising anything that gets in your line of fire, making use of your most destructive ranged weapons to kill as many of the incoming Genestealer cultists as possible as quickly as possible. The heavy emphasis on charge shots and explosives though means you'll largely hang back out of melee.
[]: A glacier's curse, a winter's smite: Make heavy usage of immobilization weapons such as your paralyzers, the ice beam and missile, and judicious usage of time-stop and teleportation to stop the enemy from moving as they please, pushing allies about to get hurt out of harm's way or locking down threatening enemies before they can close in. Lower damage but better support.
[]: Flow like Water, move like the Currents: Bounce around in your alt-modes frequently, taking advantage of manoeuvre to dive into the thick of the enemy and cut through them quickly in a non-obvious way, pinballing from one formation to the next. Especially good at clearing enemies out of ambush points.
- these three are the ones i'm having the most difficulty seeing which is best, they all have merit. i guess it depends on the major stratagy the rest of the team is doing
Arne Actions:
[]: The Assassin's Knife, the Silent Death: Move stealthily, going between foe to foe to eliminate any of importance before they can realise you have them in your sights, targeting synapse organisms, leaders among the cult, psykers, and specialist before they can threaten the rest of the team.
-Taking out the more deadly and skilled opponents before they even get to us, is a good thing
