- Location
- Texas
I'm gonna call the vote here, expect something in the next couple of days.
Crossin this here Jordan: A Coalition Soldier Quest
- Thread starter VagrantHero
- Start date
- Horror
-
- Tags
- open voting
0% of the vote is going to be picked up
I'm truly devastated.
The Siege of Monterrey, 1.2
- Location
- Texas
AN1: I had to interpret a lot of interesting rolls I made. The delay was due to me having to figure out how exactly this shit was going to go down, far more swiftly than expected.
She drew now upon her abilities, as she had done many times before, she would do again now, relying upon the suite of enhanced senses that she'd developed at the Academy. Dorete first went through the less effective senses. Smell proved near useless in this environment, encased as she was within the sealed FEA. Hearing, marginally less so, the armor not as strong a barrier, but all sound was overshadowed by the raging winds and great guns. Annoyed, she calmed the winds around her unit; already, her hearing was adapting, and she could now pick out specific sounds despite the challenges. Her eyesight was heightened and piercing, seeing detail that before laid washed out, shadows and darkness falling away from her discerning gaze. The devastation wrought from battle was dangerous in places, large craters and suspicious outlines would not go unnoticed by her unit now, potential unexploded ordinance and hidden foes lurking.
Her senses of vibration and energy, however, would be performing the majority of the work in this environment. The snow wasn't the best conductor of waves, but the air, earth and metal, however, all screamed information to her. Anything that moved through a medium, she could detect within a radius, could feel the wake it left behind them through air and earth, and already the world around her was mapped with great accuracy, even voids and absences indicating different materials in space. The storm that obscured her thermoreception only amplified her final and most effective means of detecting the world around her. Most folk knew that the world was full of energy, but they usually thought about the obvious Blue Zones that Sorcerers prized for the high levels of ambient magical energy, and common people avoided due to the terrors they disgorged to sow destruction. The Earth's atmosphere, however, was filled with ambient electricity as well, which became more and more noticeable higher in the atmosphere, increasing by more than 100 volts for every meter above the ground. The opposing positive and negative charges of the upper atmosphere and the Earth's surface form an amazing electrical circuit, and the subject of many treatises on the subject of passive energy generation, Tesla being among the more famous men of science to try his hand at the art. Many spider species also utilized this principle when ballooning, birds used it for migration, and arctic foxes used the electromagnetic field of the Earth to guide them when hunting small rodents under the snow, alongside countless other examples of natural ingenuity. But the ambient electricity now was an order of magnitude greater than that of a clear sky. The electrostatic discharges during this storm weren't green because of sorcery or anything supernatural, no, they were just due to the rapid energy transfer from highly energized oxygen. On the lower end, even living things produced electricity, the process known as bioelectrogenesis, which she could consciously manipulate and detect, so precise was her control.
She emitted a few EM pulses, feeling out the battlefield in greater detail. She would serve as the eyes and ears of the unit, helping to coordinate with Captain Shoemaker and his Company, and Booth, her senses confirming or ruling out his visions and hunches. Plenty of others could kill the enemy, but Booth and she had much more valuable capabilities. With that in mind, she was ready to erect Telekinetic Force Fields to intercept fire, as well as manipulate the battlefield in the unit's favor. She could also erect trenches, create ditches, collapse buildings, and generally rearrange earth and metal as she saw fit, an ability her instructors considered a godsend for its use in creating cover on the fly, something the boys would no doubt be grateful for. She would have to refrain again from causing tremors, unfortunately. "Too disruptive to friendlies," Colonel Raymond said, and she was already politely asked to refrain for causing the Fort to lockdown a while back. Accidentally triggered an earthquake warning, had everyone scrambling to shelter-in-place. 1st Platoon got a kick from it though.
And now for her final card. Perhaps out of her childhood experiences, she had never developed one aspect of her natural capabilities far beyond their initial state. Most Psychics had some kind of ability to guard their minds, and indeed this was seen by society and the State as a natural enough matter, considering the condition of the world. What she could do was much more serious and showed she could develop further in this direction over time. She could detect other minds and shield them in the same way that she shielded her own, though for them, it was only temporary. The depths of the mind called to her, somehow, unexplored, untapped. She utilized this talent now, attempting to protect as many of the unguarded, vulnerable minds of her fellow soldiers as she could. She moved from mind to mind, lingering only long enough to erect defenses. Twice, the mind in question sensed even her fleeting presence. One in ten humans were Minor Class Psychics, and a small percentage of them would have telepathic abilities. It seemed two of the regulars had some capacity in that regard. One of them followed her mental trail back to her. "Thanks." You're welcome, she projected the surface thought. "Not a telepath? Surprising. Good luck out there, spook." You too, dead boy. Her mental defenses would stop any intruder from breaking into any thoughts that weren't intentionally projected and would hopefully hold up against any brute force possession and hypnosis attempts.
The plan was a simple one. Their force would hit target after target until the Sorcerers responded. Then they would kill the Sorcerers. Easier said than done, of course, but with the amount of damage they were planning to do, they would have to respond eventually, especially when they noticed their forces failing to hold up against them. The relatively small unit size gave them a lot of flexibility on the battlefield, which when combined with the power granted by the Psi-Operatives, would enable them to leverage superior force against vulnerable targets repeatedly. Booth's Clairvoyance enabled them to avoid artillery fire from either side, predict where their targets were, and generally provide a bevy of tactical advantages. Her information acquisition would only enhance the unit's combat performance.
The unit advanced now under the wrathful storm, vehicles rumbling and RPAs cautiously tracking their surroundings as infantry followed. She felt its attention on them now, almost like a living thing, filled with malice. The earth around her gathered a dangerously negative charge in moments, which she hastily redirected into a nearby building. The crack of green lightning knocked her and some dozen soldiers down, illuminating all in its vicious light. She knew then that the storm was targeting them through some unknown mechanism as it tried again and again to form the deadly channels for discharging its electric weaponry, as much an enemy as any living foe. She would have her hands full, dealing with this. Luckily, her radio was still functional; her equipment wasn't anywhere near as durable as she was. She radioed the Lieutenant.
"One Alpha Bravo, this is Eight Bravo, the storm is targeting locals via unknown mechanism. I'm redirecting it best I can. Mines and unexploded ordinance at 14RMP07905316, more along the 54, How Copy, Over." Several moments passed before the Lieutenant responded. "This is One Alpha Bravo, Say Again, Over." She repeated the message. "Roger, I'll see about sending a couple engineers and a minesweeper ahead. Stay on it. Out." "Roger, Out." More radio comms like this occurred as she passed information on about the surrounding landscape, potential hazards, and the like. Radio discipline was pretty sloppy, but she'd gotten used to filtering it out for useful information. The regulars were nervous, but so far, their approach hadn't even drawn a major response. Either they truly hadn't been noticed, or they'd be getting a warm welcome soon. There were a host of factors one had to be cognizant of for any unit to have a chance at getting through a city fight without horrific casualties, even without considering the other hazards that couldn't be controlled. Situational awareness, already critical for a "typical" non-urban engagement, could mean the difference between going home in or out of a body bag. Every building was a potential enemy foothold; acting without coordination and finesse would be a one-way ticket to an early grave. Even general movement and maneuvering was vastly complicated by the varied sightlines, cover and concealment. Focusing only on the "obvious" enemy positions was a mistake, one she and Booth would be mitigating as best they could. Slowly, mines were cleared out, as squads bounded from cover to cover. Shots fired from the city began to land in a wide area, but no Coalition Soldiers were felled by them, and Dorete easily tracked where they came from. Moments later, Coalition mortars silenced the small arms, and their approach was uncontested for another few minutes, minus the ineffectual rage of the storm above.
Time seemed to slow down as they approached the magnificent lake that stretched for miles and miles around her, light shining as if from below the waters, and lo, it was shining. Before her, she beheld the shimmering lake, and within it, a glorious sun, beaming from the depths of the world, resplendent and bewitching. that made her want to forget the brutal Northwind, to lie down and forget the world's ending. Great spires of crystal and energy rose into the heavens, bewitching and mesmerizing. She stepped into the gleaming waters, soil solid beneath her naked feet, the warming rays caressing her neck - I was in my armor a minute ago, there was no lake here, suns don't belong in lakes, Mexico is freezing cold, and my unit was all around me. I am Specialist Abigail Dorete of the 2nd Psi-Battalion assigned to the 1st Army Group under General of the Army Prosek. I am one of the Coalition Elite, and I will not falter in my duties. This illusion will not bind me.
She came to, lightheaded and nauseous, the gauntlet crushing her neck tightening and a foul note almost beyond hearing filling her with despair; she looked into the eyes of a demon's skull, the man behind the mask startled by her sudden awakening. With a thought, the earth below swallowed them both up; where she was left unharmed, the Sorcerer was crushed without a cry, so sudden was his demise. Another moment later, and the armor around her throat was mended, and the next breaths were greatly welcomed. The radio was only picking up static now, and she realized now that all sound was extremely dampened within this zone above her. She resurfaced after her recovery and saw that she had not been the only one so affected by the Sorcerous illusions. Dozens of men lay dead or dying, and one of the APCs was a molten husk. Five more Sorcerers were among them, killing at will, striking down soldier after soldier with swords, axes and maces as they received panicked return fire in some places or dead gazes in others. Not a one of them looked the same as the others. Each face was obscured by a demon's skull mask, each wore some kind of archaic armor covered in sigils and bones, and each carried a rune weapon; beyond that, all similarities ended. Fighting a growing sense of hysteria, she realized now that these men were an Order of mercenary Mystics, the Roses of the Crypt. All had delved deep into Occult Lore no man was meant to know, and all were ludicrously dangerous. She felt more than saw the tear in reality that they had come through into the center of their formation, and the Geiger counter was beeping more frantically now from the exotic radiation that was being emitted. Some of the soldiers had been transfigured to stone, others merely put to sleep. The rest were being butchered as they were, bewitched and confused, with only some dozen men seemingly unaffected, most of them fellow Psi-Operatives. Booth was barely alive next to her, unconscious, his helmet compromised by some kind of parasitic creature, which she quickly extinguished before sealing his helmet ferrokinetically. Below, she felt the final member of their Order stirring, grievously wounded but alive, and recovering quicker than she'd like. None had expected the plan to draw the Sorcerers out to work this quickly.
Condition changes: -2 Physical Health Points, Nervous (-1 to all skill tests). Armor loses 1 AV.
AN2: This definitely warrants a tactical vote. I made a series of rolls to determine what kinds of encounters would occur, and the fifth one had y'all tangling with probably the most dangerous enemies on the field pretty much instantly, which was about half a percent chance to happen (after the hostile storm which is indeed magical for those wondering, the minefield, human conscripts in the city, the mystic illusion trap). So, Dorete failed somehow to resist the charm despite the Mind Block, which made things a lot harder, and everyone who did resist (including most of the regulars you protected with Group Mind Block) became targets. You snapped out of it when you were attacked. The radio is being jammed somehow, and the unit will be slaughtered if these Sorcerers aren't stopped. How exactly you go about this is pretty important, so feel free to ask questions.
[] Write-in.
If need be, I can provide example plans, which I know at least one person will copy and resubmit to me.
She drew now upon her abilities, as she had done many times before, she would do again now, relying upon the suite of enhanced senses that she'd developed at the Academy. Dorete first went through the less effective senses. Smell proved near useless in this environment, encased as she was within the sealed FEA. Hearing, marginally less so, the armor not as strong a barrier, but all sound was overshadowed by the raging winds and great guns. Annoyed, she calmed the winds around her unit; already, her hearing was adapting, and she could now pick out specific sounds despite the challenges. Her eyesight was heightened and piercing, seeing detail that before laid washed out, shadows and darkness falling away from her discerning gaze. The devastation wrought from battle was dangerous in places, large craters and suspicious outlines would not go unnoticed by her unit now, potential unexploded ordinance and hidden foes lurking.
Her senses of vibration and energy, however, would be performing the majority of the work in this environment. The snow wasn't the best conductor of waves, but the air, earth and metal, however, all screamed information to her. Anything that moved through a medium, she could detect within a radius, could feel the wake it left behind them through air and earth, and already the world around her was mapped with great accuracy, even voids and absences indicating different materials in space. The storm that obscured her thermoreception only amplified her final and most effective means of detecting the world around her. Most folk knew that the world was full of energy, but they usually thought about the obvious Blue Zones that Sorcerers prized for the high levels of ambient magical energy, and common people avoided due to the terrors they disgorged to sow destruction. The Earth's atmosphere, however, was filled with ambient electricity as well, which became more and more noticeable higher in the atmosphere, increasing by more than 100 volts for every meter above the ground. The opposing positive and negative charges of the upper atmosphere and the Earth's surface form an amazing electrical circuit, and the subject of many treatises on the subject of passive energy generation, Tesla being among the more famous men of science to try his hand at the art. Many spider species also utilized this principle when ballooning, birds used it for migration, and arctic foxes used the electromagnetic field of the Earth to guide them when hunting small rodents under the snow, alongside countless other examples of natural ingenuity. But the ambient electricity now was an order of magnitude greater than that of a clear sky. The electrostatic discharges during this storm weren't green because of sorcery or anything supernatural, no, they were just due to the rapid energy transfer from highly energized oxygen. On the lower end, even living things produced electricity, the process known as bioelectrogenesis, which she could consciously manipulate and detect, so precise was her control.
She emitted a few EM pulses, feeling out the battlefield in greater detail. She would serve as the eyes and ears of the unit, helping to coordinate with Captain Shoemaker and his Company, and Booth, her senses confirming or ruling out his visions and hunches. Plenty of others could kill the enemy, but Booth and she had much more valuable capabilities. With that in mind, she was ready to erect Telekinetic Force Fields to intercept fire, as well as manipulate the battlefield in the unit's favor. She could also erect trenches, create ditches, collapse buildings, and generally rearrange earth and metal as she saw fit, an ability her instructors considered a godsend for its use in creating cover on the fly, something the boys would no doubt be grateful for. She would have to refrain again from causing tremors, unfortunately. "Too disruptive to friendlies," Colonel Raymond said, and she was already politely asked to refrain for causing the Fort to lockdown a while back. Accidentally triggered an earthquake warning, had everyone scrambling to shelter-in-place. 1st Platoon got a kick from it though.
And now for her final card. Perhaps out of her childhood experiences, she had never developed one aspect of her natural capabilities far beyond their initial state. Most Psychics had some kind of ability to guard their minds, and indeed this was seen by society and the State as a natural enough matter, considering the condition of the world. What she could do was much more serious and showed she could develop further in this direction over time. She could detect other minds and shield them in the same way that she shielded her own, though for them, it was only temporary. The depths of the mind called to her, somehow, unexplored, untapped. She utilized this talent now, attempting to protect as many of the unguarded, vulnerable minds of her fellow soldiers as she could. She moved from mind to mind, lingering only long enough to erect defenses. Twice, the mind in question sensed even her fleeting presence. One in ten humans were Minor Class Psychics, and a small percentage of them would have telepathic abilities. It seemed two of the regulars had some capacity in that regard. One of them followed her mental trail back to her. "Thanks." You're welcome, she projected the surface thought. "Not a telepath? Surprising. Good luck out there, spook." You too, dead boy. Her mental defenses would stop any intruder from breaking into any thoughts that weren't intentionally projected and would hopefully hold up against any brute force possession and hypnosis attempts.
The plan was a simple one. Their force would hit target after target until the Sorcerers responded. Then they would kill the Sorcerers. Easier said than done, of course, but with the amount of damage they were planning to do, they would have to respond eventually, especially when they noticed their forces failing to hold up against them. The relatively small unit size gave them a lot of flexibility on the battlefield, which when combined with the power granted by the Psi-Operatives, would enable them to leverage superior force against vulnerable targets repeatedly. Booth's Clairvoyance enabled them to avoid artillery fire from either side, predict where their targets were, and generally provide a bevy of tactical advantages. Her information acquisition would only enhance the unit's combat performance.
The unit advanced now under the wrathful storm, vehicles rumbling and RPAs cautiously tracking their surroundings as infantry followed. She felt its attention on them now, almost like a living thing, filled with malice. The earth around her gathered a dangerously negative charge in moments, which she hastily redirected into a nearby building. The crack of green lightning knocked her and some dozen soldiers down, illuminating all in its vicious light. She knew then that the storm was targeting them through some unknown mechanism as it tried again and again to form the deadly channels for discharging its electric weaponry, as much an enemy as any living foe. She would have her hands full, dealing with this. Luckily, her radio was still functional; her equipment wasn't anywhere near as durable as she was. She radioed the Lieutenant.
"One Alpha Bravo, this is Eight Bravo, the storm is targeting locals via unknown mechanism. I'm redirecting it best I can. Mines and unexploded ordinance at 14RMP07905316, more along the 54, How Copy, Over." Several moments passed before the Lieutenant responded. "This is One Alpha Bravo, Say Again, Over." She repeated the message. "Roger, I'll see about sending a couple engineers and a minesweeper ahead. Stay on it. Out." "Roger, Out." More radio comms like this occurred as she passed information on about the surrounding landscape, potential hazards, and the like. Radio discipline was pretty sloppy, but she'd gotten used to filtering it out for useful information. The regulars were nervous, but so far, their approach hadn't even drawn a major response. Either they truly hadn't been noticed, or they'd be getting a warm welcome soon. There were a host of factors one had to be cognizant of for any unit to have a chance at getting through a city fight without horrific casualties, even without considering the other hazards that couldn't be controlled. Situational awareness, already critical for a "typical" non-urban engagement, could mean the difference between going home in or out of a body bag. Every building was a potential enemy foothold; acting without coordination and finesse would be a one-way ticket to an early grave. Even general movement and maneuvering was vastly complicated by the varied sightlines, cover and concealment. Focusing only on the "obvious" enemy positions was a mistake, one she and Booth would be mitigating as best they could. Slowly, mines were cleared out, as squads bounded from cover to cover. Shots fired from the city began to land in a wide area, but no Coalition Soldiers were felled by them, and Dorete easily tracked where they came from. Moments later, Coalition mortars silenced the small arms, and their approach was uncontested for another few minutes, minus the ineffectual rage of the storm above.
Time seemed to slow down as they approached the magnificent lake that stretched for miles and miles around her, light shining as if from below the waters, and lo, it was shining. Before her, she beheld the shimmering lake, and within it, a glorious sun, beaming from the depths of the world, resplendent and bewitching. that made her want to forget the brutal Northwind, to lie down and forget the world's ending. Great spires of crystal and energy rose into the heavens, bewitching and mesmerizing. She stepped into the gleaming waters, soil solid beneath her naked feet, the warming rays caressing her neck - I was in my armor a minute ago, there was no lake here, suns don't belong in lakes, Mexico is freezing cold, and my unit was all around me. I am Specialist Abigail Dorete of the 2nd Psi-Battalion assigned to the 1st Army Group under General of the Army Prosek. I am one of the Coalition Elite, and I will not falter in my duties. This illusion will not bind me.
She came to, lightheaded and nauseous, the gauntlet crushing her neck tightening and a foul note almost beyond hearing filling her with despair; she looked into the eyes of a demon's skull, the man behind the mask startled by her sudden awakening. With a thought, the earth below swallowed them both up; where she was left unharmed, the Sorcerer was crushed without a cry, so sudden was his demise. Another moment later, and the armor around her throat was mended, and the next breaths were greatly welcomed. The radio was only picking up static now, and she realized now that all sound was extremely dampened within this zone above her. She resurfaced after her recovery and saw that she had not been the only one so affected by the Sorcerous illusions. Dozens of men lay dead or dying, and one of the APCs was a molten husk. Five more Sorcerers were among them, killing at will, striking down soldier after soldier with swords, axes and maces as they received panicked return fire in some places or dead gazes in others. Not a one of them looked the same as the others. Each face was obscured by a demon's skull mask, each wore some kind of archaic armor covered in sigils and bones, and each carried a rune weapon; beyond that, all similarities ended. Fighting a growing sense of hysteria, she realized now that these men were an Order of mercenary Mystics, the Roses of the Crypt. All had delved deep into Occult Lore no man was meant to know, and all were ludicrously dangerous. She felt more than saw the tear in reality that they had come through into the center of their formation, and the Geiger counter was beeping more frantically now from the exotic radiation that was being emitted. Some of the soldiers had been transfigured to stone, others merely put to sleep. The rest were being butchered as they were, bewitched and confused, with only some dozen men seemingly unaffected, most of them fellow Psi-Operatives. Booth was barely alive next to her, unconscious, his helmet compromised by some kind of parasitic creature, which she quickly extinguished before sealing his helmet ferrokinetically. Below, she felt the final member of their Order stirring, grievously wounded but alive, and recovering quicker than she'd like. None had expected the plan to draw the Sorcerers out to work this quickly.
Condition changes: -2 Physical Health Points, Nervous (-1 to all skill tests). Armor loses 1 AV.
AN2: This definitely warrants a tactical vote. I made a series of rolls to determine what kinds of encounters would occur, and the fifth one had y'all tangling with probably the most dangerous enemies on the field pretty much instantly, which was about half a percent chance to happen (after the hostile storm which is indeed magical for those wondering, the minefield, human conscripts in the city, the mystic illusion trap). So, Dorete failed somehow to resist the charm despite the Mind Block, which made things a lot harder, and everyone who did resist (including most of the regulars you protected with Group Mind Block) became targets. You snapped out of it when you were attacked. The radio is being jammed somehow, and the unit will be slaughtered if these Sorcerers aren't stopped. How exactly you go about this is pretty important, so feel free to ask questions.
[] Write-in.
If need be, I can provide example plans, which I know at least one person will copy and resubmit to me.
Last edited:
- Location
- Texas
- Location
- Texas
Yes, and probably quick enough for it to not matter.
[X] Shock and awe
-[X] Entrap the sorcerers' feet so they cannot move.
-[X] Channel the lightning into the individual sorcerers' flash frying them.
-[X] Entrap the sorcerers' feet so they cannot move.
-[X] Channel the lightning into the individual sorcerers' flash frying them.
ThatGuyWithIdeas
Treize died for our sins
- Location
- Romania
[X] Shock and awe
-[X] Entrap the sorcerers' feet so they cannot move.
-[X] Channel the lightning into the individual sorcerers' flash frying them.
-[X] Entrap the sorcerers' feet so they cannot move.
-[X] Channel the lightning into the individual sorcerers' flash frying them.
I feel like this supposed to be an insult but for some reason I am not.
- Location
- Texas
I think the next Informational post will actually be about Magic and Rifts Sorcery, given the circumstances. Been a while since those two subjects were discussed in depth.
Just letting you know I care, man. ^^I feel like this supposed to be an insult but for some reason I am not.
As I create a vote taking someone elses ideas!
Mystic Knights
- Location
- Texas
Just as a rough idea of what they look like, differs a bit from what they look like in story. This is artwork from World Book 16.
- Location
- Texas
All right, gonna call the vote here. I'm going to have fun with this.
- Location
- Texas
I've finished making rolls for the combat. Will try to have this written up by the end of today.
The Siege of Monterrey, 1.3
- Location
- Texas
The company had been ambushed some time ago. The soldiers still fighting didn't stand a chance against the Crypt Knights. Their shots found no purchase against them, unable to injure or kill. Any man that tried to bring heavier weaponry to bear was struck down by one of the Crypt Knights, lightning lancing out from his rifle with inhuman accuracy. Stormbolt, came a whisper at the edge of thought. That was the weapon's name. Almost all the RPAs were disabled, and as she observed an APC tried to ram the Sorcerers. The rifle cracked again, and the vehicle veered off into the darkness. The only way to salvage this situation was to win this fight before the other Crypt Knights realized the threat she posed. She couldn't let fear hold her back. Without radio comms, she couldn't request anything from the rest of the unit, couldn't coordinate. This would be her only chance. Her initiative. She could only hope that the rest of the soldiers could do something with her distraction, even if it didn't kill the Sorcerers. She called, and the storm answered.
Channeling the storm through her body allowed her to both add her own Psionic energy to it and increase its capacity to break through any magical defenses the Sorcerers had. Where a Sorcerer could shrug off a mundane lightning strike with ease, she was enhancing both the power and the type of energy being delivered. In this sense, her Psionics could be viewed as both an amplifier and a converter for the lightning. In order to get the most benefit from this strike, the Sorcerers would have to be prevented from escaping easily. Geokinesis would perform admirably here, locking their feet and preventing easy repositioning. It would have to be enough.
The only warning the enemy had was the sudden anchors of earth around their feet. Before any of them could react, a great conduit of lightning channeled from the storm and herself began overloading their defenses in a screaming medley of metal and electricity. Then it went horribly wrong.
One of them wasn't caught off-guard. One of them realized the threat. One of them countered her assault. Despite her precision and control, her lightning wasn't a match for this force. She could only look on in horror as the lightning was redirected against her will in a furious nova of electricity. A whisper of a name reached her mind. Stormbreaker. A dozen soldiers convulsed under the very lightning she had brought to bear, dead by her hands. As the world faded back into view, one of the Knights was still standing, unharmed by the power she had thrown at him. His voice boomed from his demon skull mask, cutting through the unnatural silence, deep and prideful. "You would challenge Stormbreaker? Fool, I name you, for daring to wield Perun's lightning, and cursed you shall be for your hubris. You have no power against me!" The earth parted before his march, unwilling to hold him any longer.
Of the six Sorcerers, one lay below the earth, recuperating from his wounds. Two were unconscious, incapacitated by her surprise attack. Two more were recovering slowly, struggling to rise to their feet, clumsy and pained. They should be dead! No, it was optimistic anyway to think that her attack would have killed them all. It was just going to be harder, now. She didn't dare wield lightning, now, against the final Crypt Knight, as he had shown that he could redirect it easily. He bore a rune-blade with a broken back design and a long mace in his left-hand. Where the other Sorcerers bore wounds, bleeding, and staggering, he was still pristine, demon skull mask failing to obscure his wrath. If she could just take him out of the fight, she could save what remained of local forces and remove an important asset from the enemy. These Crypt Knights were important and irreplaceable, and cold as it may be, a company's worth of infantry was an easy trade to make if it got them off the field. If.
Intermittent small arms fire impacted around him, now that he was visible. A burst that struck him directly simply went back the way it came in a display of impossible physics, a muffled cry and fall followed. The fire stopped after that, as the men tried to recover and reorganize, only a dozen maybe still in fighting condition, for whatever good that was. There were too many dead and wounded, scattered around the column where they had fallen. Some were bloody ruins of armor and flesh, others in many more pieces than they should have been in life. This couldn't go on.
Plumes of fire erupted from beneath him by her will, but they were extinguished just as quickly by conjured water or some spell that snuffed them out. An icy mist wreathed the Crypt Knight as he marched. She probed his defenses with columns of earth and gusts of wind, but none would touch him. "The earth will not rise against its master. Lightning cannot strike me. I command the water, air, and the dead. I am your Doom." On his final word, his presence wrapped around her spirit, painful and menacing, like icy needles constricting her heart. His laughing form came closer and closer now, the world growing colder and her senses failing. She Telekinetically launched all of her grenades at the Sorcerer, which he responded to with spoken word and a gesture of his long mace. The grenades didn't detonate, lying idly around him. "Someone would have killed me a long time ago if that trick worked," he scoffed. Tricky, but not tricky enough. She detonated them anyway with a spark of Psionic power. Half a dozen explosions rocked the earth, incendiary and shrapnel both. For the second time, the Crypt Knight was obscured from sight, this time by flame and earth. For the second time, she sensed he was unharmed, flames sloughing off of him like water.
She was running out of cards to play. Nothing was working, he kept countering everything she did. Rockets would be unlikely to land a solid hit and would take too long to prepare, and rifle fire would only hinder her judging from what she saw the Crypt Knight do before. The blade was the answer. Stormbreaker. If she could separate the blade from the wielder, its power would be denied to him. But her Telekinesis couldn't grasp him, something kept intercepting and disrupting. She would have to close to melee range. A risky proposition considering his armaments, but the only other option was to retreat and to leave her unit to die. Not going to happen. Even if she got out of range of the radio disruption, it would take too long for reinforcements to arrive. Maybe the teams of Outriders would return, but it wouldn't change the immediate circumstances.
The Crypt Knight emerged from the epicenter of the explosions, less than fifty feet away, his long mace exchanged for an intricate horn of ivory and bronze. The horn blew, and for a moment, no sound emerged. Except, that wasn't quite right. The sound had always been there. This was the sound of the underworld, the sound of the depths, the sound of the cold death of the earth. An existential vertigo overcame her, the sense of doom, of mourning. She couldn't breathe. Her heart would not beat. For what felt like an eternity, she knelt in the muddy earth of Mexico, clutching the soil in her freezing hands, far from home, far from help, far from where she belonged.
But she didn't fade.
Life returned. The sound receded.
She rose again for the second time. For the second time, a Crypt Knight was startled by her sudden awakening. Unlike the first who lay beneath the earth, he responded quickly. Stormbreaker called, and the spirits of the wind answered, swift and deadly. Stormbreaker called, and the spirits of the dead answered, welcoming and cold. Stormbreaker called, and the spirits of the water answered, powerful and mighty. Stormbreaker sang for her, but she was ready. She formed a vacuum around the spirits of the wind, and they died without a sound. She burned the spirits of the dead, and they turned to ashes and broken dreams. She heated the waters to vapor, and the spirits retreated, hissing and weak. She caught the Crypt Knight's strike, and Stormbreaker fell to the Earth, disarmed. For a fleeting moment, she felt victory.
Five shots rang out behind her. The Pale Green Rider, a voice murmured. The Crypt Knight she disarmed had disappeared, as did Stormbreaker. A final shot rang out, and she turned to see that one of the other Crypt Knights had recovered, his revolver aimed not at her, but above. What? She looked above and beheld a realm of stars and dust. Her armor was caught in a powerful electromagnetic grip. Damn. She realized now what they had done. The bearer of Stormbreaker had sought to kill her, but when that proved too difficult, he delayed her, kept her static. They were going to eject her into the portal. Damn her slow thoughts. Desperately, she tried to shake the grasping hand, but she was too close. There wasn't enough time.
The world faded.
Channeling the storm through her body allowed her to both add her own Psionic energy to it and increase its capacity to break through any magical defenses the Sorcerers had. Where a Sorcerer could shrug off a mundane lightning strike with ease, she was enhancing both the power and the type of energy being delivered. In this sense, her Psionics could be viewed as both an amplifier and a converter for the lightning. In order to get the most benefit from this strike, the Sorcerers would have to be prevented from escaping easily. Geokinesis would perform admirably here, locking their feet and preventing easy repositioning. It would have to be enough.
The only warning the enemy had was the sudden anchors of earth around their feet. Before any of them could react, a great conduit of lightning channeled from the storm and herself began overloading their defenses in a screaming medley of metal and electricity. Then it went horribly wrong.
One of them wasn't caught off-guard. One of them realized the threat. One of them countered her assault. Despite her precision and control, her lightning wasn't a match for this force. She could only look on in horror as the lightning was redirected against her will in a furious nova of electricity. A whisper of a name reached her mind. Stormbreaker. A dozen soldiers convulsed under the very lightning she had brought to bear, dead by her hands. As the world faded back into view, one of the Knights was still standing, unharmed by the power she had thrown at him. His voice boomed from his demon skull mask, cutting through the unnatural silence, deep and prideful. "You would challenge Stormbreaker? Fool, I name you, for daring to wield Perun's lightning, and cursed you shall be for your hubris. You have no power against me!" The earth parted before his march, unwilling to hold him any longer.
Of the six Sorcerers, one lay below the earth, recuperating from his wounds. Two were unconscious, incapacitated by her surprise attack. Two more were recovering slowly, struggling to rise to their feet, clumsy and pained. They should be dead! No, it was optimistic anyway to think that her attack would have killed them all. It was just going to be harder, now. She didn't dare wield lightning, now, against the final Crypt Knight, as he had shown that he could redirect it easily. He bore a rune-blade with a broken back design and a long mace in his left-hand. Where the other Sorcerers bore wounds, bleeding, and staggering, he was still pristine, demon skull mask failing to obscure his wrath. If she could just take him out of the fight, she could save what remained of local forces and remove an important asset from the enemy. These Crypt Knights were important and irreplaceable, and cold as it may be, a company's worth of infantry was an easy trade to make if it got them off the field. If.
Intermittent small arms fire impacted around him, now that he was visible. A burst that struck him directly simply went back the way it came in a display of impossible physics, a muffled cry and fall followed. The fire stopped after that, as the men tried to recover and reorganize, only a dozen maybe still in fighting condition, for whatever good that was. There were too many dead and wounded, scattered around the column where they had fallen. Some were bloody ruins of armor and flesh, others in many more pieces than they should have been in life. This couldn't go on.
Plumes of fire erupted from beneath him by her will, but they were extinguished just as quickly by conjured water or some spell that snuffed them out. An icy mist wreathed the Crypt Knight as he marched. She probed his defenses with columns of earth and gusts of wind, but none would touch him. "The earth will not rise against its master. Lightning cannot strike me. I command the water, air, and the dead. I am your Doom." On his final word, his presence wrapped around her spirit, painful and menacing, like icy needles constricting her heart. His laughing form came closer and closer now, the world growing colder and her senses failing. She Telekinetically launched all of her grenades at the Sorcerer, which he responded to with spoken word and a gesture of his long mace. The grenades didn't detonate, lying idly around him. "Someone would have killed me a long time ago if that trick worked," he scoffed. Tricky, but not tricky enough. She detonated them anyway with a spark of Psionic power. Half a dozen explosions rocked the earth, incendiary and shrapnel both. For the second time, the Crypt Knight was obscured from sight, this time by flame and earth. For the second time, she sensed he was unharmed, flames sloughing off of him like water.
She was running out of cards to play. Nothing was working, he kept countering everything she did. Rockets would be unlikely to land a solid hit and would take too long to prepare, and rifle fire would only hinder her judging from what she saw the Crypt Knight do before. The blade was the answer. Stormbreaker. If she could separate the blade from the wielder, its power would be denied to him. But her Telekinesis couldn't grasp him, something kept intercepting and disrupting. She would have to close to melee range. A risky proposition considering his armaments, but the only other option was to retreat and to leave her unit to die. Not going to happen. Even if she got out of range of the radio disruption, it would take too long for reinforcements to arrive. Maybe the teams of Outriders would return, but it wouldn't change the immediate circumstances.
The Crypt Knight emerged from the epicenter of the explosions, less than fifty feet away, his long mace exchanged for an intricate horn of ivory and bronze. The horn blew, and for a moment, no sound emerged. Except, that wasn't quite right. The sound had always been there. This was the sound of the underworld, the sound of the depths, the sound of the cold death of the earth. An existential vertigo overcame her, the sense of doom, of mourning. She couldn't breathe. Her heart would not beat. For what felt like an eternity, she knelt in the muddy earth of Mexico, clutching the soil in her freezing hands, far from home, far from help, far from where she belonged.
But she didn't fade.
Life returned. The sound receded.
She rose again for the second time. For the second time, a Crypt Knight was startled by her sudden awakening. Unlike the first who lay beneath the earth, he responded quickly. Stormbreaker called, and the spirits of the wind answered, swift and deadly. Stormbreaker called, and the spirits of the dead answered, welcoming and cold. Stormbreaker called, and the spirits of the water answered, powerful and mighty. Stormbreaker sang for her, but she was ready. She formed a vacuum around the spirits of the wind, and they died without a sound. She burned the spirits of the dead, and they turned to ashes and broken dreams. She heated the waters to vapor, and the spirits retreated, hissing and weak. She caught the Crypt Knight's strike, and Stormbreaker fell to the Earth, disarmed. For a fleeting moment, she felt victory.
Five shots rang out behind her. The Pale Green Rider, a voice murmured. The Crypt Knight she disarmed had disappeared, as did Stormbreaker. A final shot rang out, and she turned to see that one of the other Crypt Knights had recovered, his revolver aimed not at her, but above. What? She looked above and beheld a realm of stars and dust. Her armor was caught in a powerful electromagnetic grip. Damn. She realized now what they had done. The bearer of Stormbreaker had sought to kill her, but when that proved too difficult, he delayed her, kept her static. They were going to eject her into the portal. Damn her slow thoughts. Desperately, she tried to shake the grasping hand, but she was too close. There wasn't enough time.
The world faded.
- Location
- Texas
If it is any consolation, the plan almost worked. Got unlucky that the one Crypt Knight that responded in time also had the weapon that I modelled after Veles, the enemy of the Storm god Perun.