The Evrensel Conflict: Prologue -- The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday (Loud)

[BazusoTheGrey]

As Oliver attempted to help the magic-kid (@BlackRoseDova) drag an apparently not-so-dead-Alec (@Wade Von Doom), he would fail to notice the first explosion let off by David's (@The Wanderer) gun, which just so happened to save him from the crash of the incoming ship.

If Oliver could feel what was happening to him, he'd probably be pissing his pants, figuring out a way to reorient himself, catching himself on a large enough piece of debris or even a combination of the three.

But, he couldn't. So, as the chaos unfurled all around him, Oliver was launched around the room like a demented mannequin, his limbs flailing about as he tried to figure out what the hell was happening.

Then, his body landed hard on something, flipping him around once more before he crashed face down onto what seemed to be a new platform.

"Fuuucking shiiit, that sucked."

Flopping onto his back, Oliver extended his arms forward, looking them over for any signs of damage and getting reused to the action of moving his limbs in the direction that he wanted them to go. He'd continue this for the rest of his body, too focused on getting reacquainted with movement to notice the rain of equipment falling from the ceiling, or the accompanying duffel bag that just so happened to land on his face and flop onto his lap. Glancing down at it, he took a quick double take before making an appreciative hum as he recognized the scratched and worn material, as well as his name imprinted with sharpie on a raggedy old piece of duct tape.

Chuckling to himself, he got up and took a knee next to the bag. The damn thing was one of the first things he bought legitimately with the money he got from work, surviving beatings during courier jobs, and even some of the rougher street fights he'd been in. Helped a hell of a lot during those jobs too, mostly because of what was inside...

Unzipping the pack, Oliver gave off a slight sound of relief as he registered the things inside of it.

Knick-Knacks of all shapes and sizes, such as a torch lighter, his old Shanker, macabre trophies from the more important kills, smelling salts for his workmates, and his old Zwei badge were all accounted for. But those weren't what he was looking for. unzipping the bottom compartment of the bag, he gave a slight snicker as he reached in and pulled out various syringes, pill cases, and inhalers. As he inspected them for damage, they all appeared to be in perfect condition.

When you're working as a Fixer, you need a niche or a competitive advantage over your rivals, elsewise you lose business and shut down.

Downpour Office's advantage was good relationships with various pharmacies in the backstreets, which just so happened to include heavy discounts on their most prized and experimental combat drugs. These things weren't your run-of-the-mill steroids or adrenaline shots. These things were fucking Singularity byproduct that could make a Grade 9 Fixer comparable to the Red fucking Mist.

They were most definitely gonna be useful later if shit got dicey.

Placing them back inside, Oliver made sure that no one got a good sight of the goods, looking around and observing everyone around him. They probably didn't know how valuable this shit was, but you never know. As an afterthought, he also grabbed the salts. It'd probably help get the unconscious back onto their feet, specifically the white-clad girl (@Camleen).

Strapping the bag onto himself, he walked over to the girls (@BlackRoseDova, @Camleen), picking up a pretty nifty looking Shanker (Ebony Sword) from the pile of loot as he did so.

When he reaches the pair, he uncorks the bottle before placing it underneath the white-girl's nose, its chemical stench heavy to everyone except him.

 

[noob13241]

Van - Station Takeover
For the others, they would quickly land on the new platform as a new plan is set up and new loot sorted. After all, for the most part, everybody was all on the same level as they 'fell' towards the open hole and said platform...

So it goes without saying that Van takes a while longer to get back as he's ended up flying ahead of the rest by virtue of his method of dodging. You can't blame a boy for abandoning the ship of a sinking vessel and coming back when it turns out to have all worked out in the end. At the very least nobody else would know about his attempt if he never mentions it.

And so, with his arrival announced by the sound of rock on metal, Van takes one look around at the pile of loot as the fire on him began fading and armor flaking into nothing in the zero gravity air...Before he unceremoniously picks up what potions were also on the ground and uncorks to rely on smell to guess which aren't poison before equally suddenly pours one onto his leg.

...Which given the audible hiss would make one think he poured acid on himself (Or maybe pouring potion onto a flaming leg, but who can guess which it is), but given the open hole in it visibly closing, that's clearly not the case...Sure feels like it though given the wince on his face.

With that done...his eyes glint slightly at recognizing an odd pair of gloves amidst the loot, as his hand flickers slightly and for a split second, they were pitch-black in color, before flickering back to regular skin (Shadow-stashed Shadow-dipped gloves).

With his slight spike of greed settled, he calmly reaches and places an oxygen mask on his face for what's to come.

 

[Camleen]

Were it within her realm of possibility, Weiss would have gladly surrendered the precious bow. If she were in a better state… and awake… Weiss would have handed it over with a smile. But as it is… with Mongo's thrust upon her Weiss is rolled onto her back. White hair spills around her shoulder, having pulled itself free of the clip it was held with. And then the heiress would lay there unceremoniously, arms and legs awkwardly position. Small scrapes and cuts all along her delicate seeming skin.

A spell of mercy is cast upon her (no matter how haphazardly, it still works) and that is her brain's alarm clock. ringringringring it says. But there is no immediate response. ringringringbongbongbong goes the alarm. Laying now upon her back, Weiss utters softly, nearly in whisper "Klein… I'd like pancakes… this morning… I'll sleep… jus' a lil… longer…"

Mongo is then the one addressing Weiss, asking if she was indeed awake "hullo" she utters softly, her eyes flicking half open. Mongo tries the secondary strategy of the poking… Weiss doesn't need to be fully conscious to be annoyed by this. But still quite enough to make Weiss lift herself up. But… the chemical is offered under her nose, and those eyes fly open as she gasps, and she sit up almost immediately. With an annoyed tone she shoves the bottle away from her "Get away from me, you....you!" Angry, too. A knee draws up and she now props herself on it, looking around them slowly. Slowly to her knees does she move, a hand coming up rest upon her forehead. "Why… why does.. my head hurt… why does my face hurt?" Her words are more to herself than anything.

Trying to clear up the fog clouding her mind she shakes her head slowly. Mongo expresses her concern about the upcoming stress, but Weiss now looks around her. All kinds of weapons and armor and…. garbage… it looks like to her. Save for one item. Ice blue eyes widen when she spots her own sword, and quickly she crawls towards it. Now a proud smile graces her lips as she lifts up the rapier like weapon, seeing it undamaged. Which doesn't surprise her really, it's quite a heavy duty piece of hardware. Weiss twirls the blade in her hand, the tip pushing against the deck in front of her. Using it as a crutch she pushes herself to her feet, feeling her unkempt hair toppling along her shoulders and back. But she does hear Mongo's every word, even listens to those words. Then looking towards Mongo, she speaks with a flat, unamused tone. "….What?" is all she can say, having seen none of what she describes. And as she stands, Weiss is able to feel the annoying magnets once more latch onto the deck. She looks down at her feet, and then towards the others. A soft gasp escapes her lips when she sees Alec, and she starts to mvoe towards him. She stumbles a few times, and then stops as a hand moves to her head. Ouch… that hurts still. She doesn't have any ability to help Alec, but she can't just leave him. She steps closer to Alec, her eyes now moving towards Mongo. There is so much going on, she just needs to focus on what she can at this moment. "So what do we do? Does someone have a tactic?" Her tone is, once more, unamused. Annoyed. Her eyes look towards Oliver, very leery of… him? It? "Whose… sentry is this? Why does it have that.." she glances towards the chemical bottle "that…" Now her mind clears a bit more, and the more she becomes aware of the more she starts to get… hesitant. Scared?

 

[noob13241]

Van - Station Take- okay, we're all taking 5 so uh... Station Break Time
With the awakening of the princess and him being more or less done with equipping himself with what he's familiar with, Van takes one good look around, and...yeah, he's still done with the mess of a team, but at least now there's no threat to distract from dealing with the said mess.

First things first, grabbing potions and more importantly rags/random objects...really, anything that can act as a mouthguard or something to bite down on. The group only has one medic and he really doubts anybody will be moving with the pace she's going at, especially distracted too. And so it is to a coughing and dying Alec that he gets to experience firsthand the Van-patented medical experience. (@Wade Von Doom)

Which is to say, he's hit in the back to force whatever is in his throat out before promptly something hard is shoved into his mouth. This...is not a potion. That is something to prevent him from biting his tongue off in the process of where he's actually putting the potion. Poured directly into the hole where he's stabbed. Ever felt alcohol on an open wound? This is worse by more than a mile, and that's only the first bottle given it doesn't fully heal with just that. Once closed from the outside, Van just removes the mouthguard and replaced it with a fresh potion to hopefully take care of internal injuries.

And to any else who is injured...well, just hope your injuries aren't as bad, because this is what he's gonna be doing to the rest of the injured folk.

As for Weiss...Van pauses his medical actions to briefly speak in her direction, including Mongo by the association of the conversation. "Invisible robot and singular exploding ship. Said robot kicked you (@Camleen) in the chin before downing most of us. Ignoring irrelevant details, we've given up trying to go up from the inside, so now we're gonna climb outside and try from there."

He then picks up and throws another two oxygen masks at the pair (@BlackRoseDova Don't think I didn't see Mongo not taking one either).
"Put these on unless you don't need to breathe to live. As for who that guy is..." Van pauses remembering the robotic guy amidst their firing squad and considers throwing another mask at them too (He's grabbed like five just in case). "He's just with us, I'm pretty sure he's his own guy."

(Tldr; If you require medical assistance, given Mongo's business in gushing over her weapon and such, Van is fully equipped with healing pots of varying effectiveness and painfulness to provide such. And also throw an oxygen mask at you if you don't have one either)

 

[The Wanderer]

David Ludlow
Nursing some wounds and getting a new gun, slapping a mask gently onto the doggo

David held tightly onto Waffles when the sudden gap caused decompression and pulled them towards the gap, shrapnel flying around and other debris zipping past, David getting cut up as he shielded his companion from the sharp pieces of metal. Growling when shrapnel embedded in his skin. When the gap was thankfully closed, David slid and rolled, continuing to shield Waffles. Even as it dug the shrapnel in his back deeper.

The soldier would lean up as he began to pull pieces out of his back and side. Cursing each time when he grasped the shrapnel and pulled it out and throwing it away. What small injuries slowly closed up as muscle and flesh closed back to be unmarred once more.

His green jacket had spots of blood from where he pulled out the metal, his dog barking up him as Waffles tilted his head at his owner's actions. Wheatley's antics pissed David off but right now they didn't have enough of a plan, he did appreciate a new bag of equipment. Reaching into it and picking the LMG gun called Dingo and an oxygen mask for himself and Waffles. Appreciating the fact the mask easily shaped itself to wrap around Waffles' canine head. And putting on the one for him,

Using straps, David basically wrapped his dog to himself for the space walk. Or High Altitude Walk, so the dog wouldn't potentially float off or risk falling and dying. The mere thought caused red to just barely tinge the sides of his vision.

Walking over to Alec's prone body, he was surprised to see the Scotsman had survived. "You up for a walk, kid?" He'd say to him, pondering if it was better to leave Alec with a bodyguard to ensure he isn't forced to walk around, especially after the traumatic injury he suffered and barely healed from. "If not, can leave Waffles with you so you're not alone over here."

@Wade Von Doom @noob13241 @BlackRoseDova @Camleen @BazusoTheGrey @Epiphany

 

[Wade Von Doom]

With a shaky breath, and struggling to stand upright as he leaned against one of the metal panels, Alec gave David a faint smile. "No choice, really." They were about to go walking in space, to avoid an army of drones trying to kill them, all to take a station both of them had no idea for what reason or how they even got here.

Hard to stop now in his mind when they seemed close to their end goal.

"Hold on, hold on!" Wheatley's voice echoed, as Felix would feel his mech's limbs shake as they were freed up from their locks. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaand there!" With one last unlock, the mech was free once more, now with the curious addition of Wheatley screwed onto his mech's neck in the back. "Sorry, I know this isn't ideal, but uhhhhh, had a bad experience once with a human holding me while out in space. Long story, but don't feel like flying back out into an endless void of darkness, so, um.... Just be careful what you do, and try not to knock me off!" He said with a more optimistic, but still worried, tone in his voice to Felix.

Once everyone had prepared and armed themselves accordingly, Wheatley opened the panels once more. They were slow at first, allowing for the pressure in the room to seep out so they weren't all blasted outwards. They would still feel their bodies be pushed towards the cracks of light forming between the panels, but their magnets would keep them bolted to the floor. With the pressure removed, the panel slid aside, and they were now free to walk across the station to the top.

They could see they were on the edge of whatever galaxy they had been taken to. Far along the east side, there were the faint glimmers of stars shining across lightyears of space, each with their own color like dots of rainbows. While just in front of them, to the west, was nothing but pitch black. No stars, no planets, no comets, not even the faintest sight of another galaxy far beyond.

Just the darkest black none of them could have ever imagined. If you buried your head under three layers of sheets on your bed at night, when the moon has been blocked out from the sky, not even then would you see the truest color of black that they were witnessing before them.

A true and total absence of light.

As they climbed, they could see off in the distance to the east a swirl of colors. A ring of light had begun to form, and in its center was pure white, like staring into the sun without protection. In the blink of an eye, several ships would emerge from the central light, like they had just jumped out of hyper-speed, and began moving towards them.

The 'back-up' Wheatley had spoke about before were arriving. They had little time before they were close enough to fire upon them, yet just a third of the way to the top, they would be stopped by a legion of drones flying out from the holes along the sides of the station. They were the only obstacle in the way, and they would need to fight quickly, or else the ships would be upon them.

 

[BlackRoseDova]

-------------------------- Still in the Station ---------------------------

Weiss's (@Camleen) sudden movement of sitting up, thanks mainly to Oliver's (@BazusoTheGrey) intercession with the foul smelling bottle, was violent enough to send Mongo right back on her butt due to generally being to close to the other girl. Annoyed and somewhat perturbed at the assistance of Van, Mongo got back onto her feet and idly rubbed her sore rear end, the floors of the station being quite unforgiving for an area with low-gravity. Mongo'd have to remember that personal space was a common element of human decency; but, who could blame the girl given the way she'd spent the last few months?

"Yikes, talk about a rough waker..."

Mongo's words were muttered, but Weiss would easily be able to hear them. Not that Mongo really cared, given that Weiss was definitely not someone from Pulse. She looked much to...delicate...for someone who grew up in the wilds. Definitely a Cocoon citizen, and probably one of those better-to-do ones. Still, that didn't stop Mongo from sending another healing spell at Weiss as she crawled to her sword and got to her feet.

"Your face probably hurts cause you got kicked there by an invisible robot. Actually, everyone got kicked by him. Except me, but who's really keeping track?" Shouldering her family's bow, Mongo charged her magic for a few moments in preparation for the rest of the healing she'd have to do...given that Alec (@Wade Von Doom) was still injured.

"Tactic? I don't know. Not really my sort of thing. I'm more of a...go with the flow kind of soldier. Much easier to leave the larger strategy to the people who have the actual experience with it...rather than...well...me..." A shadowed grimace crossed Mongo's face, but that was a story for another time.

"...as for him (@BazusoTheGrey ), I don't really know who or what he is...but I guess he's a Sentry. I thought he was just some model of weapon I had never seen before..." Weiss identification was as good as any in Mongo's mind, especially when Oliver didn't exactly look like any of the Pulsian automata that Mongo was familiar with.

Before she could ask for any kind of details from the automata, Van appeared with the oxygen masks, one of which Mongo was quick to catch, "...Hopefully these things are tougher than they look." The masks were definitely a lot more delicate looking than the bulky oxygen masks and suits that Mongo was familiar with, but that was Cocoon tech for you. All delicate, no bulk as Commander Gil always said.

However, before she could walk off and help with Alec, things were set in motion for the group's excursion to the outer surface of the station, prompting Mongo to put her definitely-made-in-Cocoon mask on and pull her bow off of her shoulder. Guess Alec was going to have to wait...or get helped by someone else.

--------------------------- On the Surface of the Station -------------------------


Space.

The final frontier.

These are the stories of Mongo, who had only ever been in space while stuffed in a troop transport on the way to counter-invade a moon filled with people who hated her people.

Mongo's transport, back in the day, hadn't had any windows. Structural weaknesses, the engineers had claimed. Mongo hadn't really considered what she had been missing, terrified as she was about going to war. But now? Now, Mongo was getting to see what space really looked like...and it was beautiful.

To one side, an infinite void of darkness that was so black that it made her eyes hurt. Never before had Mongo seen such sheer darkness, not even when she had been first marked by Ramuh almost a lifetime ago.

On the other side, a sea of stars. Beautiful and exotic in their sheer color and variety of shapes and sizes. Where Mongo had no wish to look into the abyss on her other side, this particular vision captured her attention long enough for the others to move along without her for a few strides.

It would take her several moments to realize that she was being left behind, prompting her to quickly rush after the group and be in the rear as the drones began to exit from the station to attack them. Thankfully, there was a lot of people between her and them, granting her the time she needed to draw her bow and take aim at the approaching drones. Rather than drawing an arrow from the quiver that she had snapped up, Mongo instead used her magic to cast Thunderstrike, thereby forming an arrow out of pure lightning. Without the constraints of her firearm's housing, the other members of the Assault Squad would be able to see the lightning coalescing into the shape of an arrow before being released in the direction of the drones.

Unlike with her firearms, Mongo didn't have to really focus or otherwise rely on luck to land her shot. After nearly a half-decade of constant experience, archery came as naturally as breathing. Thus, it was no surprise to Mongo when her electrical construction slammed into one of the drones and absolutely devastated it.

Out of all of her available elements, lightning was the most effective in the vacuum of space, at least according to Commander Gil.

 

[Camleen]

The white haired girl lets out an annoyed "Puh" when Mongo speaks of the invisible robots. She had to admit.. it was impressive sounding. If the Sentries from the Atlesian military were capable of such things, they would be remarably more effective. Out of the corner of her eyes does she look towards Oliver, not really saying anything to him at first. As if she was trying to decide what or if she should say something to it. But that train of thought is interrupted as she sees the breathing mask tossed near her.
Leaning down, her knees bent, she picks up the odd looking mask and inspects it a moment. "I'm… in space…" she utters with a scowl. Boy, the Academy does not prepare you for this. Her rapier npw strapped to her hip, she needs to figure this thing out. Discretely watching everyone else put the masks on, she does also. She fumbles with the mask at first, but is able to secure it. She keeps glancing towards Mongo, and then good Oliver. Taking her cues from the former, anxious of the latter.

She then felt something in her stomach, a quivering. She looks around herself slowly, noticing her hair is suddenly… floating? As if she were in water. Knees bending just a bit, she hops up… feeling the obvious change in the atmosphere around them. Once more following everyone's lead, Weiss begins her 'ascent' towards the station.

And as they move, her wide eyes stare out into the nothing. "It's… so beautiful…" she whispers, still staying close to Mongo. She has never seen such things. She has never beheld such majesty. In spite of all the weird she has known for the whole of her life, never has she bore witness to such beauty. She could stare out there forever, and she is sure she would constantly be finding new things. Sadly, a glimmering and growing illumination catches her attention. She looks towards Mongo, her eyes still wide as she watches Mongo aim and 'fire' an arrow… an arrow made of light? No… a form of electricity. Weiss' gaze shoots in the direction the arrow is fired, and she lets out a groan as she grasps her sword. "Again with these things."

Now her first thought was to use Dust to get them all to the other side faster. But if she tried that… well the drones would be dragged down with them. And that seems counter-intuitive to her. She takes a deep breath of recycled air and straightens her body. Holding her sword vertically in front of her with both hands, her ice blue eyes close and she focuses her mind. A moment later… her Semblence is activated.
Above all of their heads, perhaps they would notice 4 of her glyphs come into existence. They are lined up in a row, each of the glyphs looking to have the approximate diameter of a basketball. Not… that Weiss would know what that is. Eyes spring open, and she points her rapier in the direction of the drones and lets out a loud "EEYAH!" Now from each of the glyphs beams of light explode forward, each streamer of glowing blue heading towards the drones. They all fire nearly constantly. And as each of the beams of swirling energy hits a drone, that drone is suddenly encased in a thick chunk of ice.

And she hopes she is doing the right thing here…

 

[Wade Von Doom]

As the team fought, two ships would pass overhead; appearing from far off where the larger ships were coming from. They didn't attack, only circle around where they were fighting, until something dropped out from underneath them. Three large, circular, cylinder tubes with proportion jets at their top to make them land along the sides of the station close by where the others were.

The outer metal panels along the station didn't buckle or dent as they landed, as they used some sort of magnetic connection to stay in place. The doors along the tubes blasted open, and out came something new.

More robots. Bigger than everyone else in the group, as they stood around seven feet tall. Four came out each of the landed tubes, with eight carrying shields, while four carried rifles, distinguished between them different designs for their different purposes in combat.

'KNIGHTS'

'GRUNTS'

The Knights took up positions in front of the Grunts, using their shields for cover, as the four grunts mounted their rifles above. It didn't take much longer afterwards to designate priority targets to fire on first. Weiss, and Mongo.

 

[noob13241]

Van - Station Takeover
It's with the reinforcement of new robots that Van takes action. While him being in the fray with the drones certainly helps with lessening the numbers, those robots take higher priority in his mind as he flares up in his full henshin-ed form. With his speed, as well as already being in the fray, it doesn't take long before he's right in front of the shield and promptly sees an opportunity. (@Wade Von Doom)

In one motion, Van grabs one of the rifles mounted on the shield wall and promptly moved to pull on the weapon. And just for good measure, then he'll just hop on and kick the shields to launch himself with his charged blow, as well as the gun from the robot.

In the best-case scenario, the knights aren't able to react to him bolting away to another target. Worst case...well, he can always just pull drone parts from his shadow and toss them to block vision.

 

[BlackRoseDova]

Thrilled at the effect her lightning was having on the drones, Mongo was quick to string many more Thunderstrikes together and enter into a repeated rhythm. Arrow after arrow of pure lightning was released, especially in response to Weiss' act of freezing many of the annoyingly evasive drones.

Draw, aim, channel, release. A particularly annoying drone, one that was flitting about and firing haphazardly that Weiss (@Camleen) had missed, exploded.

Draw, aim, channel, release. Another destroyed, this time merely shorting out from the raw voltage coursing through it. It was one that had taken a more stationary position to bombard the front line of their group with a steady stream of rounds but had somehow gone unscathed from the rest of the group.

Draw, aim, channel, release. A drone to Van's (@noob13241) left exploded, one that might have been outside of his cone of vision. One that might have hurt him if she hadn't acted.

Draw, aim, channel, release. An arrow of lightning struck a frozen drone, courtesy of Weiss (@Camleen), and shattered it into frozen shards of detritus and ice.

Draw, aim...Mongo glanced upwards as a pair of dropships passed over her and Weiss's position. Mongo's rhythm was broken as the dropships passed, distracting her from her next target which promptly disappeared to do something beyond Mongo's line of sight. The dropships veered off to the side and deployed long canisters onto the deck of the station, which in turn released more robots. Ones that were different from the drones that they were fighting...but ones that struck a chord with Mongo.

Some of them looked like the robots in her Focus. The ones with glowing green eyes. The ones who had mercilessly butchered on a forsaken battlefield far away in time and space. Pausing for a moment to finish channeling, Mongo pulled the string of her bow back and dug deep into her L'Cie Brand, to the pale green crystal that composed the eidolith that was grafted onto her spirit. Thunderstrike was a flexible spell, and possessed no stronger iterations beyond the focus, willpower, and strength of the L'Cie who cast it. It wasn't like Thunder, which had different, defined iterations of itself that were stronger. There was no Thunderastrike. Only Thunderstrike.

Thus, focusing as much of her magic to her bow as possible, Mongo's hands began to burn as the raw electrical magic coalesced and grew, growing in brightness and intensity until finally she couldn't contain it any longer. With an audible crack, felt more in the bones of those nearby than in the ears due to the vacuum of space, a lance of electrical energy shot across the space between Mongo and the shield wall and slammed directly into the center. The ensuing flash of light hid the formation from view for a moment, hiding the effect that Mongo's attack had on the newcomers. Back in Mongo's prime, back during the battle of Cocoon, this sort of attack would have been enough to devastate an entire wing of Cocoon Dropships. But now, as a reverted L'Cie with almost no Crystarium to her name, what was the effect going to be? Would the shields absorb the energy? Would the enemy be unharmed? It was a definite possibility, especially given how little Mongo knew about them.

In the meantime, Mongo's bow hung loosely in her left hand, a hand that was severely burned along the inside of the wrist up to her elbow. However, no matter the grotesque sight of that burn, it was nothing compared to the mess that was Mongo's right hand, the hand that had held and channeled the electrical energy. Chalky white bone poked through the bits of her hand that had had all of flesh melted away, while the rest of her hand that still had flesh was mottled and blackened by the effect of the magic. It took all of Mongo's willpower and self-control to not puke into her oxygen mask or otherwise pass out. Such a wound was disgusting to look at, and Mongo had to physically turn her eyes away from it as she focused on shifting to her Medic Class.

However, her vision was fraying along the edges. She shouldn't have done something stupidly reckless, especially in her current state. If she passed out here, then who was going to fix the problem that she had stupidly caused?

Kneeling down and clutching her hand close to her chest, Mongo fought to keep herself from giving into the oblivion that ate hungrily at the edge of her senses while she waited for her brand to finish charging even one cast of Cure. She just needed one hit of her healing magic to fight off passing off, and then she could focus on getting her hand back together.

She just needed one hit. One good dose to get her on track. One shot of the good stuff to get her back on her feet and back together. Just one little dosage. Just one.

 

[Camleen]

A smirk draws across Weiss' face as the number of drones slowly decreases. If she were with her team, these drones would already have been neatly dispatched. But Weiss knows she is essentially alone here, and she must adapt. And adapt she does, watching each of the drones then knocked out by Mongo's lightning bolts (that's how Weiss perceives Mongo's actions). And she is delighted. When things go well, and they go according to plan, it's a wonderful day. While there technically no plan, things were going as if this was the plan. Her confidence is building.

The dropship appears, and Weiss lets out a soft sigh. This is so annoying. She keeps herself between the Knights and Mongo (not in the line of her fire, of course). Turning towards them, she whips her sword downwards so the point is towards the deck. She hates the magnets on the bottom of her boots, she isn't as agile with them. If she is going to fight these newer robots properly, she'll have to get rid of said magnets. But she stands poised, almost looking regal as she stares down the new opponents. As the Knights form up, she comes up with a plan.

Which goes right out the window as a blast comes from behind her.

Weiss ducks down a little as the energy ripples through the air right next to her and hits the Knights. Her eyes squint as if trying to adjust to light, and indeed that was close to her. How reckless! Weiss turns to inform Mongo that she needs to be more careful… but instead of a criticism she lets out a loud gasp. Mongo's hands…

Quickly she locks her sword to her hip and she moves to Mongo. Kneeling in front of the woman… Weiss feels a queasiness at the pit of her stomach. Her hands hover between them as she looks Mongo over. Now while most all of her friends have had little to no exposure to such gruesome sights as Mongo's hands, Weiss unfortunately has seen such things. When she said her family was in a war, she didn't mean it figuratively. That doesn't make it easier seeing Mongo's current state though. But she doesn't have a field kit, or any such thing at all. A quick glance over her shoulder to see where the Knights are now. Someone else is engaging them, but Weiss has little faith Van can hold them off for long. She has no clue about Van's abilities. Or anyone else. Looking towards the others gathered here… can anyone help Mongo? If she were to call out… any sound is gobbled up in this place absent of air.

Weiss has to destroy the new robots and the smaller drones. Weiss has to get someone's attention to try and help Mongo. Weiss has to help Mongo.

Her mind rapidly goes through the list of what she needs to immediately accomplish. But she can't do all of that at once. Now it's her hope Van can keep the Knights occupied until she can engage them. With a frown she leans a little to her side and both hands grasp the hem of her skirt. With an unheard grunt she tugs it, and then again. Her face starts to go red with her efforts. And her skirt finally rips, almost knocking herself off balance. Glancing towards Mongo she tears along the hem of her skirt, the torn part as wide as an average ribbon. Her hands move so they are close together on the fabric and she now works on tearing it off. With a strained voice.. "Just stay awake. I'm going to help you." and of course Mongo wouldn't be able to hear that but Weiss feels the need to say it anyways. The fabric finally tears and she quickly begins to wrap it around her right and pulling it tightly. She makes sure her eyes now stay on Mongo's eyes, attempting to keep her attention. Weiss ties the fabric as tightly as she can, tugging on it to make it as tight as possible. The burnt arm, she can do nothing for. But this hand, she can at least try to slow the bleeding. Or so she intends.

Now if Weiss had known Mongo was trying to build up a Cure, then she could help her speed up the process. But as it is, this is what Weiss thinks is best. Every few moments she glances over her shoulders, seeing where the enemy is.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

COLLAB POST BETWEEN ME, @noob13241 @BazusoTheGrey @SorryTM @Grehstone

With the drones heading towards them, a familiar face would be amongst them. The humanoid machine before, the 'invisibot,' flying atop one of the drones before departing with it and landing twenty feet away from the others. It now had a rifle, some sort of energy weapon like its pistol, and before anyone could attack it, the thing went invisible once more.

Latches around them began to pop open for more drones to fly out, which could be used for cover. It was stalking around them, trying to pick them off before they could advance any further to the top, as they were but a third of the way there.

Oliver stands at the front of the group, his Zweihander resting comfily against his shoulder as he observes the return of both the annoying ass robot and yet another army of drones. Absentmindedly, he turns to the rest of the group and asks "Soo, anyone have any battleplans, needs or preparations they need to share with the group or should we just get into this like a classic street brawl?"

It's spotting the invisibot once more amidst the crowd of drones that Van's body flickers in the void of space. Fear of defeat? Nonexistent in him. Ignorance of mistake? He's lived for long enough to not repeat failure.

And so with the question of a plan...well, Van never stuck to much of any plans either way. "Only plan is don't get leave yourself open to get shot." And with that, he charges with henshin in full flare to go tear and store up pieces of drone plates along the way.

Oliver watches the kid charge off into the group of drones and sighs before announcing, "Well, guess we'll leave the drones to him, I'll try keeping the invisible fuck locked down whenever he shows up"

Walking a short distance forward, Oliver casually activated his augs, his eye glowing bright as the world slowed down around him as he kept watch for signs of the bot. Almost as a second thought, he also reached into his duffelbag's pouch, clenching one of the cheaper variety of injectables in his hands, before injecting it into the port on his neck, twitching as the world around him became... clear

Oh look, that invisible fucker had returned again. Bringing out the futuristic rifle he had found behind, Five quickly ran it over, finding the trigger and such before diving behind a hatch and beginning to fire.

"Just keep an eye out so we don't have another repeat from what happened for the Scotsman" he replied dryly, before resuming to fire upon the incoming drones.

knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock
The rhythm beat over and over in Oliver's head as he let the drug course through him, a knock seven-fold whispering to him, resting in phantom veins and missing nerves as it traveled through a body that should not have been able to feel, yet did.

Seven knocks, seven steps and seven hits.

Seven moves was all he'd need to kill anybody standing in his way, and all that the drug would give him.

Felix, meanwhile, had to carefully feather the jumpjet controls as his beloved Pirouette floated through space with... Well, grace would be the wrong word. He was using engines intended to hurl thirty tons of machinery short distances within a planet's gravity in order to maneuver in the weightless void of space. The fact that he maintained control and direction at all was a testament to his skill and time spent in the simulators.

"Fuck me... I'm gonna mop up as many of the little guys with my laser as I can, the second you spot that damn stealth bot, you point him out and get clear. Not many problems an AC20 can't eventually solve. And these little fuckers aren't really a threat to me."

That said, Felix aimed carefully and fired the small laser, raking a wavy crescent across the back line of flying drones. Small was a relative term, however. His infantry rifle killed plenty of those drones in one quick shot. This was small in the terms of weapons carried by tanks, mechs, and aerospace fighters. They didn't stand a chance.

With his foot tapping rhythmically, Oliver turns toward the Battlemech. "Aight, sure, I'll try to hold it in place for you. Don't worry about blasting me to bits, I'll manage"

"Honestly, we're probably gonna have a repeat of that regardless, considering how much of a pussy this thing is." Oliver continues scanning the area, fingers clenching and unclenching to the seven-fold rhythm coursing through him. "Can't really blame the thing considering what its got... would've killed to have whatever invisibility tech it's using now"

"Could you lot just, uhhhh, watch out for me as well? I-I'm a bit exposed back here, obviously," Wheatley mentioned to everyone from behind Felix's mech. "And... You know, I'm doing fine so far, but I am getting a little panicked by all those ships appearing, because there are A LOT coming out of that wormhole--"

Wheatley would notice something begin to crawl up Pirouette from behind its legs. It was invisible, but its shape was noticeable, and Wheatley quickly realized what it was.

"It's on you! IT'S ON YOU!" He shouted to Felix.

Pulling out a blade from its arm, it stabbed for the mech's neck to pierce through the armor; either to cripple its systems, or stab at Felix inside.

"It's behind you! It's behind you! IT'S STABBING YOU, IT'S RIGHT ON TOP OF YOUR HEAD!" Wheatley screamed, before the robot then grabbed at Wheatley to rip him off Pirouette's body. "IT'S GOT ME! IT'S GOT ME! HELP! HELPHELPHELP!!" Sparks flew off into space as Wheatley was gripped tight by the invisibot.

KNOCK
Just as Wheatley begins warning Felix, Oliver is already in motion, accelerated by both his own augs and the supernatural strength given to him by his drugs. Zweihander held by the blade, he sprints toward the general direction of the mech before...
KNOCK
he shoots his leg toward the ground and launches himself upward, crossing the gap between him and the mech within milliseconds. As he rockets forward, he is already swinging his crossguard toward the robot, hooking it around its arm, too fast for it to dodge or block.
KNOCK
With the arm secured, Oliver pulls the blade toward himself, stopping his own momentum and bringing him toward the Mech. With a flip and a quick activation of the magnets, Oliver lands on Pirouette.
Now holding the Zweihander in half-sword, Oliver engages in combat.

The hit landed, knocking it off balance slightly as it stood on the mechs back, yet once again, its armor didn't appear all that damaged. When Oliver went to attack again, the robot was quick to retaliate.

By throwing Wheatley in front of its body as a shield.

KNOCK
Ducking forward to dodge the robot's impromptu-shield, Oliver quickly swung his back leg forward and locked itself behind the robot's opposing front leg, pushing his own body against the robot's in a well-practiced brace. At the same time, he thrusts his zweihander between the arch of its legs, hooking it around the robot's back leg, before his off-hand once again grasped it by the blade and pulled the robot's leg out from underneath it. With the robot off-kilter, Oliver pushed forward, forcing it onto its back with Oliver on top.
KNOCK
Landing atop the toppled robot, his zweihander left underneath it, Oliver quickly scrambles onto it whilst slapping the still screaming Wheatley out of its hands with a backhand. Knees holding the thing down, Oliver pulls out his new shanker, and begins to savagely stab and cut at the asshole.

As the invisible robot made its move, Five kept his eye out for the moment to strike, having pulled out his new knife. Activating it, he could the heat rising from the blade.

Well, fuck. It looked like Oliver had gone ahead and had begun to slash at it. The giant robot had taken some of the pressure from the drones off.


Five stood ready, prepared to make a move if Oliver wasn't able to finish the bastard off.

If the Mechwarrior was grateful for one thing today, it was thick armor. Even going through the canopy glass would mean getting most of the arm inside before that sinister blade could cut him. That being said, Pirouette's communication equipment lit up with errors, and a rush of air signified a hull breach. If Felix hadn't thought to snap an air mask onto his helmet, he'd be a goner already. As it was, even a mech with fully actuated arms would have trouble reaching the little saboteur, and the Urbanmech's weapon pods weren't even close to that.

Thankfully, within seconds he had a second boarder along for the ride. The other sword wielding robot. Well, Cyborg? He still didn't know. What he did know was that things were pretty precarious for Wheatley, and the little cue ball might get broken out there if he didn't act.

So, with one last micro adjustment of the Jumpjets, he ensured that Pirouette was gently floating in a relatively safe direction before he set it to idle, locked the Gyro, and pulled the feeds from his Neurohelmet. Then, he unstrapped himself from the crash harness and opened the top hatch, pistol filling his hand as he floated up… and got hit in the face by something. His free hand tried to block it, and though he was too slow for that, he DID grab hold of a handle… Oh. It was Wheatley. Well, with his legs spread to catch the edges of the hatch, he easily dunked Wheatley inside before he turned to the bot fight.

The robot fight in question was a lot of tight, skilled swordplay. Any Kurita Samurai, Rasalhague Viking, or Solaris Swordfighter would be impressed. Felix, however, was concerned with survival. So, he dumped the mag. Five bursts of three shots, fifteen angry .45 rounds, all flew at the currently-visible swordsmachine. He knew from experience that their armor was too thick to be bothered by it, but if he could throw off its balance or grab its attention, that'd give his unnamed ally a good opening. With luck, it would be fatal.

"AHHHHHH!!!" Wheatley screamed as Oliver knocked him out of the robot's grasp. With fear of once again wondering through the endless abyss of space, Felix made an incredible grab for the white and blue core. Even if by accident. "OH!" He yelled once he realized he was okay. "Don't let go! DON'T LET GO!" He then repeated, before being thrown into the pilot's seat. "Ow!" His big eye hit the seatbelt on the way down.

The machine, meanwhile, was successfully pinned by Oliver, and being smashed by both his Ebony blade, and Felix's pistol blasting its head at short range. Finally, there seemed to be some damage being done to it, as small, yet slightly visible cuts could be seen each time Oliver tried slicing into it with full strength, while the .45's left behind small indents once his mag was empty.

The machine didn't have a face, so they couldn't see how pissed it was. The machine thrusted its hips upwards, trying to throw Oliver off its chest, and using the momentum, rolled Oliver onto his back now with it on top. Before Oliver could do anything, it wrapped its arm under one of his legs to mount above the machine's shoulder. Then, grabbing Oliver's jacket by the sides, planted his feet onto Pirouette once again, and lifted Oliver up to power bomb onto Felix.

If there's one thing that Oliver figured out in the Backstreets, is that being locked on the ground with a knife to your throat meant certain death. Really, it was a fundamental rule for any type of combat: if your back's on the ground, you're likely getting your shit pushed out the other end.

So imagine his surprise when the bot ignores that and just rolls him right over, and decides out of nowhere, to style on him by slamming him back down. Shit probably would've worked too, but just as the robot was primed to throw him down, Oliver remembered a small little detail.

He could kick off the fucking air.

Surging his right arm forward, it grasps the bot's left as his augs prime online alongside the magnets on his one free leg before he kicks outward. The second last KNOCK pulses through the metallic limb as it transforms the jerky, awkward movement into a powerful force, launching both him and the robot careening into space connected to each other by Oliver's iron grip. With his body now free from its grasp, Oliver brings it closer and mentally steels himself as he swings his left fist towards its face, the drug in his systems activating for the finale.

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK

The rhythm assaults his mind as the whisper that came to him before comes back as a wailing scream, his mind burned as his punches accelerated itself at the robot over and over and overandoveraCndoverovErandoverinAherhythmofSE

Pulling himself away from the insidious tempo in his head, Oliver aborted the last of his lightning fast pushes and instead shoved the robot off of himself with the assistance of a light kick, stopping his momentum just enough that he simply floated slowly in space. The robot however was left rocketing away in the distance, its form becoming smaller by the second.

Now floating in space, Oliver realizes that in hindsight, this was a pretty stupid decision. Unless the others cared enough to get him

he was stuck floating in space since the magic magnets decided to crap out on him. His kick gave him just about enough momentum to get back to the station, but by how slowly he was moving he figured it'd take about an hour or something at least.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

As Van grabbed the gun and attempted to pull away, Mongo's shot blasted through the small space between the shields he had created in rushing into them. The blast knocked all the robots away, scattering the makeshift cover, and sending the robots themselves drifting off into space. If it weren't for that, Van wouldn't have been able to get the rifle, as the machine's grip on it was locked tight. But the blast knocked it loose, and now Van had himself a piece of mysterious tech in good condition.

As for the invisibot that had fought Oliver and co, the robot was knocked off Felix's mech, and indeed, began floating away at incredible speed from the low gravity. They had a chance to make a run for the top of the station now, the path was cleared. They just needed a way inside, to pierce through the heavy metal plating.

"Oh! Oh, wait!" Whealtey screamed inside the mech. "Try doing some damage to the that massive antenna there!" There were some antenas atop the station, but looking around, they would see it looked to retract back into the station itself. "They probably do repairs to it inside the station! And, it would probably be kept close to the server room itself!"

 

[Grehstone]

Felix Tobin
Hear the cannon sing…

Once Felix was back in the cockpit, things went fast. Wheatley was jammed between his knees, the crash harness was buckled, and Felix began reinserting his Neurohelmet feeds, his brainwaves buzzing as he resynchronized with the machine. The radio got plugged in just in time for the warrior to hear Wheatley's hurried instructions.

"One second, where's…"

He spared a moment to look towards where he'd seen the two robots grappling. He saw only one, and it was tan. Theirs, and he seemed calm. The crosshairs fell onto him… The rangefinder confirmed the thing was moving back to the station. As slowly as he could be, but moving.

"Okay, if he's not back before we're done, I'll go back for him. But now… I missed your voice, P… Sing for me."

With that, the Urbanmech began to thrust towards the station, crosshairs falling on the base of a communications antenna. In the air-emptied cockpit, the click of a trigger pull was absolutely inaudible. But, vibrating through the custom Endo-Steel frame and into his seat, the sound of a cannon's roar, though faraway, could still be FELT, and though the recoil wouldn't blow 30 tons of military metal away any time soon, Felix did have to tap the jets to stabilize it, prevent an uncontrolled spin, and line up a second shot. Even in the void, the song of high explosive shells shook both mech and station, antennae and dishes spinning off into the black, the flash of muzzle and the burst of explosions reflected in so much metal… Three shots rang out in all, the Mechwarrior electing to reserve his seven other rounds in case it wasn't over, but… As the mech floated over to the now-retracting equipment, it did FEEL over.

"Okay Lightbulb, am I walking you all the way home or passing you to the infantry?"

 

[noob13241]

Van - Station Takeover
With the approaching blast, Van is quick to force himself to the side as the boom scatters the robots into the air, him alongside them. He, however, is much more nimble off the ground, and well...

To say he makes quick work in moving to where they can't hit them and forcing whatever equipment out of their hands is a given. Especially since they hardly have the leverage to resist or swing back without sending themselves spinning out.

It's only after more or less finishing shadow-stashing the loot away that he feels the shockwave of the mech's shots. And seeing what they're doing...well, he just makes his way back just fine with little issues or delays, as his speed was more than capable of handling a straight path even at the distance he put himself at.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

The antenna was damaged by Felix and his mech, and it only took a few minutes before it, and a large platform around it, would begin to sink into the station. "Keep walking, keep walking!" Wheatley answered Felix worriedly, as they were so close to their end goal. All while behind them, more pods would land along the station, with more troops popping out to fire upon them all. The platform was slow to retract, but once it was low enough, the top would begin to close. Pressure would be pumped into the large room, and arms would pop out the walls to begin working repairs on where the damage was.

"Alright, there should be some sort of pathway that leads down. Go there, and that should take us to the server itself!" Indeed, they would see a small gap between the walls, which would take them to an elevator that lead down below. Once it stopped, the walls opened once more, and inside was a pristine white interior, with blue glowing all around.

"Now, find me a wall panel, insert me into it, and I can take the station from there!" Alec would take charge of that, grabbing Wheatley and running around the circular room until they found something he could fit into.

"Alright, Alec, need your code now, mate!" Wheatley told him.

"My what?" Alec had no idea what that meant.

"Your code, your code breaker! You know, the thing the doctor gave you!" Wheatley explained. Looking into his omni-tool, Alec could see something was hiding inside its mailbox. A series of codes, from an 'anonymous' sender.

Waving it over Wheatley, he handed over the codes. "Great! Just give me a few minutes, it'll ram through the firewalls like a big drill, and replace me as the main central intelligance for the station. Then I can drive us out of here!... Hey, actually, do you think this is going to be painful? Cause, the last time I did something like this, it REALLY hurt, but that was more me replacing someone else's body-- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Wheatley screamed out, and sparks began to fly around his body. The lighting all around them flickered dramatically, and warning sirens began to go off like the place was going into lockdown.

It then began to rumble. "WARNING. NEW INTERFACE BEING CONRTSUCTED. ALL UNITS, PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY PROCEDURES." A voice echoed out across the station, before the shaking got even worse. The station began to move, propelling itself out towards the darkness of space, while the piloting system began 'road construction.' It shot out a light towards nothingness, like a laser cutting through metal, and with a shield reinforcing itself for the travel, it made the sudden jump across all reality through a self-created wormhole. The robots that were stuck on the outside of the station would be thrown off by the jump, leaving them behind to float in space like the invisi-bot.

All the lights inside would cut out, and silence would take over the server room. Yet, after a few minutes, they would turn back on with a gentle 'bing' noise echoing through the halls.

"NEW INTERFACE CONSTRUCTED. STATION MAINTENANCE NOW UNDERWAY."

And with that: Victory.

But a combination of a luck, persistence, and a miracle, they managed to do the impossible. Take over the station. They could breath and take a moment to enjoy the calm. Although, strangely, as they would enjoy their moment, music would then kick in. Followed by the sounds of clapping.

"Bravo! Bravo!" A voice echoed out from around the corner of the server room. When the stranger appeared in full, he looked... Well, human. Dressed in a dazzy black and white suit, a gentle smile on his face, and a cigarette between his index fingers. "Congratulations!" He told them all, before another voice, similar to his, echoed out from around them.

"Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!" Yet another voice echoed. Several more then followed, along with the sounds of clapping. From the other side, and following in behind the man in the suit, where others in black tuxedos, yet their faces were obstructed by smiling theater masks.

"Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!"​

"Congratulations!"​

"Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!"​

"Congratulations!"​

"Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!"​

"Congratulations!"​

"Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!"​

"Congratulations!"​

Confetti then would begin to fall from the ceiling, and even above them, a big massive banner above them said 'CONGRADULATIONS!' In rainbow lettering.