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

[Wade Von Doom]

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

-----------------------------------------------------​

You are in your home world, doing something of great importance to it. Or, you're minding your own business, keeping to yourself amid your surroundings. Or perhaps you're relaxing in a place you find comfort in, easing away the stress of the day. Then, before you could blink, something blinded you with a white flash, like a camera bulb suddenly went off in front of your eyes. Suddenly, you're in a free-fall. Gravity pulls you left, right and center, as you tumble through the air like a person falling from the clouds down to Earth.

With the speed of the fall pressing against your body, what little you can see is a barrage of bright lights passing you by. It looks like the passing of stars in the night sky at breakneck speed, with your body glowing white hot like you have suddenly caught fire. Yet you can also see a faint tint of blue around your body, protecting you from it. But the g-force is so much to take, you begin to pass out. The sound of everything begins to fade from your ears, and the white takes hold of your vision, until finally you black out.

The next thing you see, when finally awakening, is someone's voice echoing gently as you regain consciousness.

"Hello?!" The voice shouts. "Hellloooooo?! Anyone alive down there?"

Opening your eyes, once again you're greeted with blinding white. But, at least when your eyes adjust, you can see much more clearly your surroundings.

Or lack thereof. You float in the center of a circular, white room, with several turquoise colored rings around your body. Two are scanning you, while the rest hold your limbs in place like cuffs to keep you as still as a statue.

"If you're awake in there, don't panic! J-Just don't panic– keep calm, it's all fine, alright? Don't move too much, I'm gonna get you out of there! But, uhhhh… Don't know how to yet, but I promise, I will get you out of there!.... It-It's just a bit complicated up here is all, bit of a new computerized system I'm going through, I'm not used to it, so, I-I'm uhhhh, just learnin' on the fly here to make sure I don't do anything wrong before I can break you all out–"

Before he could finish the sentence, an alarm system went off. "AH! No no no no no, Uhhhhhh, stop, stop it, stop-stop-stop!" The voice exclaimed. "Ahhhhhh, right, new plan: I'm just gonna release you all real quick, because I think they're gonna start sending in security up here!"

The rings around you unlock While now finally free to move, you're still floating aimlessly in this room without gravity.

The panels along the way begin to retract and shift, the space becoming larger in size, while a group ahead of you gets separated by one of the walls closing shut between you and them.

The room begins to fill with gas from the small space between each wall panel, with a few opening up for drones to fly through and approach you and the others. "Hold on, hold on, hold oooooooooonnn– Got it!" The voice shouts excitedly, as two larger wall panels open, one behind you, and one above. You can see people looking down upon you from the top, ready to aid in your escape. "Go go go! Follow where that opening takes you!" The voice shouts.

Several of the drones nearby seem close enough to reach. A bit of wiggling reveals that some movement is possible, a bit like swimming.

Time to escape.



------------------------------------------

INTRODUCING:

@Epiphany AS Moire B-220

@Grehstone AS Felix 'Dancer' Tobin

@Camleen AS Weiss Schnee

@noob13241 AS Van

@The Wanderer AS David Ludlow

@Wade Von Doom AS Alec Duggan

@BazusoTheGrey AS Oliver

@DrLucky1 AS 'Gehrman Sparrow'

@BlackRoseDova AS Runin Das Möngömaa

 

[noob13241]

Van - Station Escape

Going Loud

Time to escape.

For some, waking up to a new scenery is usually met with confusion. Few panic in the wake of that emotion while others quickly stifle it in favor of figuring out their situation. Through either experience or simply force of will, most will figure their way forward with only those two pauses of hesitation prior.

Van on the other hand doesn't have those moments of hesitation, as that very first moment he recognizes he's somewhere strange, he immediately tries to lift his body to little avail. So...he keeps trying with it going without saying that his frustration continues rising from the little effect he's having on his restraints.

At least, until he hears the rest of what the person...somewhere is saying...'You sound like your panicking more than mere down here considering probably knowing a lot more than me.' Sarcasm aside, he recognizes a rescue operation when he hears one. So when the rings unlock, he's ready to move...

If he ever knew how to swim that is. Van's lived his entire life landlocked in either a cold north or molten volcanic region, so swimming doesn't come naturally. What does though, is kicking off of things nearby. So when one of the drones floats a bit too close, he nabs it before reorienting himself to do exactly that to send himself flying straight on upwards.

No guarantee that whoever's up there's an ally, but they definitely sound easy to press for info. And that means time to get close before they can react.

 

[BlackRoseDova]

Time to escape.

Church bells tolled, and In the moments before Mongo came to, a fragmented, fuzzy scene played out before her eyes. A large battlefield littered with innumerable bodies. Mechanical humanoids with glowing green lights, firing weapons of the same color. A ship, depositing the mechanical beings onto the battlefield while others above it fired off into the distance. People being consumed by the neon-green energy, leaving behind either ruined bodies or nothing at all. Finally, a seemingly mechanical eyeball suffused with the same colorful energy as the weapons and the mechanized soldiers, staring directly at Mongo's point of view. None of it made sense to Mongo, and yet what followed was the sensation of falling, church bells tolling one last time, and then nothingness.

With a start, Mongo awoke in the circular room alongside several other people, her slumber seemingly being rudely interrupted by a voice that she couldn't identify. Never one to wake up smoothly, Mongo immediately attempted to jerk her body into movement only to find it wholly unresponsive. Several metal rings held her in place, while two others moved about her in an ominously familiar manner. This wasn't the first time Mongo had been scanned like this, and she definitely enjoyed this experience as little as her first time. To Mongo, this was all just another examination being performed by her captors from Cocoon.

"Again? Really? I thought they were done with this!"

Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, Mongo focused on the voice that was speaking, only really catching the last half of its panicked speech. As she tried to focus, Mongo instinctually reached out, metaphorically, to the brand on the inside of her wrist and tried to coax some sensation of magic out of it. As usual, no response was forthcoming until the voice finally managed to do what it promised and release her from the metal rings. With the rings gone, all of Mongo's magic returned to her in a rush, a sensation she hadn't felt since the failed assault on Cocoon.

With her restraints gone, Mongo was taken by surprise when she didn't immediately fall to the floor and instead remained in position, almost as if she were back on the transport between planets, rushing to the Breach. Pushing away the memories, Mongo took note of the gas, the moving walls, the drones, and then the opening that formed above her. Spotting what had to be a L'Cie rescue squad, Mongo began channeling her magic and shifted herself to her Ravager Class, blue energy coalescing on her skin and around her for a moment to signify her change.

One Second

The drones and the gas were getting closer, and despite Mongo's attempts to doggy-paddle her way in any direction, she had nothing to hook onto or to kick off of. She could grab one of the drones, but she didn't know they operated or how they'd respond to her touching them.

Two Seconds

With nothing acceptable to use as a means to create momentum, an idea began to form in Mongo's mind. She could either ignite the gas with a fire spell and risk cooking herself and everyone in the room, or she could use some ice spells to build something she could kick off.

Three Seconds

Fire was out. She was not going to risk burning herself again. Never again. Thus, with her mind made up, Mongo tilted herself downward and thrust her branded arm out, firing three Blizzard spells at what she thought was the floor, but was really just the surface opposite of the upper opening. The first spell hit the surface and stuck, a medium sized shard of ice magically sticking to the surface and blessedly not shattering on impact. The second spell landed on top of the ice foundation, extending its height, followed by the third spell, which extended the height of the pillar up to Mongo's feet. Positioning her feet on the top of her icy creation, Mongo kicked off to the best of her ability, giving her the momentum she needed to start rising towards the upper opening.

 

[Grehstone]

Felix "Dancer" Tobin, Mechwarrior.
I don't know why I'm here.
All I know is that I've got robots to kill.

The operation had gone smoothly so far. Nobody was injured yet, everyone was in position, and the robots weren't as tough as Felix remembered. A twin laser blast from his Blazer rifle to the big obvious eye dazzled sensors and slagged electronics, blinding the bots that didn't immediately die. But something did feel off… like… Why was he on foot? Pirouette never would've fit in these hallways, but surely they had enough commandos not to risk their only mechwarrior, right? In fact, he didn't remember leaving the dropship with these people. Or… remember the briefing.

The fuck were they doing here?

Wait. They were freeing people. Prisoners. An extraction? Was that it? Maybe, but they were clearly taking these people with them into as-of-yet uncleared enemy-held areas. Okay, maybe they had to do something before they left? Sabotage? Hell, who even was in charge?… Felix decided to find out.

"Commander, we're linking up with the prisoners now, what's the next move?"

He called out, unsure who would answer out of the motley lot, and glad that between his neurohelmet and robots to be fired on, nobody was likely to notice how confused he was… Wait, why would he be wearing his neurohelmet? Was his mech along for the ride after all? Was this amnesiac episode the helmet's fault? Was it broken? Terrifying to think about… Thankfully, he was far more worried about the killer robots and the slowly encroaching gas at the moment.

 

[The Wanderer]

David
Ripping and tearing

He didn't quite remember certain things, the past few months spilling into one proper blur of conversations and actions. He remembered helping Larsa with building a cabin for her and her servants, he remembered training some folks in fighting, but certain events were not there. He felt like he was back in that debriefing after that operation in Vietnam. Head felt just as fucked up, minus the frequent headaches and sense of something important.

But that was a different time, different place. He needed to focus, as he held the modified M60. The firearm was tricked up by a handy gadget they had brought along, made it hit harder despite using the same ammunition, fired what looked like lasers but still ate up the bullets. He loved it, tore through the robots like butter and evened the playing field. And allowed him to maintain a hold on their beachhead and provide covering fire for those that needed to move up.

Their commander opened up a passageway as the prisoners were rising on drones to their position. David would quickly take cover and motion the newcomers to his position where he would drop the duffle bag filled with weapons. "Grab one and get ready." He would growl out, his dog barking as he got up to unleash more hell upon the robots.

@Wade Von Doom @noob13241 @BlackRoseDova @Grehstone

 

[Epiphany]

Moire B-220

"Everyone, up here! This way, move it!"

The orders issued from the oversized suit of armor, not from beneath the faceless reflective visor so much as projected from it via integrated voice emitters. Her BR85 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle was up, braced against her shoulder, but aimed down a corridor rather than aimed at the prisoners. They were prisoners, right? Was this a rescue op?

No, this was a military strike. 'An attack to capture, damage or destroy an objective or a capability'. But like other situations involving their adversary, people from other worlds or universes or timelines had been taken and transported here. The unit she was operating as a part of was made up of such individuals, for that matter.

@Grehstone @The Wanderer
When Felix asked for orders, she found herself answering. "We arm any of them that don't have weapons and we take them with us. It's risky but, if we have to blow this base, they would die anyway. At least together they have a chance." She gave David an approving nod at his duffel bag.

@BlackRoseDova @noob13241
The Spartan's armored figure shifted as her attention switched back to the corridor. Speaking up for everyone's benefit again, the woman's voice was clear, commanding and slightly accented in the shape of her syllables.

"We know you're confused. Just a little bit ago, each of you were in your own world, somewhere else, and now you're someplace unfamiliar with people you don't know. We don't know why but we do know who. Our adversary controls this base. We are going to take that control from them. They will resist, with robots, with guns. They will not succeed. Get up here, get armed, and follow us. Together, we may even find a way to send you home."

Moire wasn't entirely sure why she said all those words but presumably this really was their objective. The sensory package built into her visor continued to sweep their surroundings, looking for any sign of hostiles. When they came, she would be the first to meet them.

 

[Camleen]

A lone piano plays somewhere in the distance. Or that is the impression one would get, given the reverberation of the gentle tones. It is coming from a small speaker set up the on the floor within the training room this woman stands alone.

She stands alone in a place that, at one time, may have been a place of worship or exuberance for whatever thought of whatever deity one may hold as truth. How long ago that might have been, it's hard to say. The building, the chapel, is in an advanced state of ruin. It looks as if it had been in such a state for a long time. It's the kind of place you might avoid, but the younger daring adventurers might choose to explore.

This day, it would serve as training grounds.

The young girl standing among the darkness and debris wears a snow white short jacket with a light colored battle skirt. Long silver hairs flows gently while she steps lightly, ice blue eyes squinting in effort to get better perception of that surrounding darkness. She moves with careful grace and with hardly making a sound. In her left hand she holds her weapon of choice, and that is a stylized rapier. The ricasso is actually a cylinder with 6 slots carved along its outside, and each slot a different color. The blade gives a gentle shimmer with each little breach of light that might slip through darkness. The girl halts nearly in midstep, the her extended stride interrupted and she almost appears as a ballet dancer. Her eyes snap back and forth and she turns. In her focus the music fades out and she is now centered upon her immediate self, and the sudden familiar sound of 'click-click-click' and the cylinder built into her rapier spins. The red colored slot lodges against a miniature striking hammer and it draws back. Her every motion smooth, calmed and her features tell of that calm. Her left hand comes up and her rapier crosses over her chest and then swings it smoothly forward. With the swing a flare of flame ignites upon the tip of her blade. That fireball slings forward from the blade into the darkness. The areas that fireball flies by is illuminated briefly but long enough for her to get a view of what might lurk in that darkness.

It is a Beowulf. A Grimm, a beast that seeks nothing more than destruction. Despicable creatures. This one was lead here by the girl, so she could fight it without its pack to aid it. Good practice for her. Secret training, as she doesn't want to admit to anyone she might need training. The Grimm stalks forward as it growls lowly. With her rapier lifting up horizontal at shoulder height. She is going to attack, and never gets that chance. Merry fate has another idea.

A flash of white fills her vision, forcing her to draw back and instinctively into a defensive en-guarde stance. Her eyes narrow and she drops her upper body a little, making her profile a bit smaller to help in defense. Sadly, defending herself is something else she won't get the opportunity to do.

Her next sensation is of being besieged by gravity's draw. She lets out a short cry as she tries to get her bearings, not even being able to put together a cohesive thought. A deafening sound of wind passing by, and she draws her arms up in blind defense with the barrage of lights seeming from all of the spectrum. But she can't see that for very long at all, as black starts to creep in from the perimeters of her eyes. And those icy eyes roll into the back of her head and she is out.

".….hm…. hru…. huls…." she utters, coming slowly out of that consciousness. Being pulled slowly from the darkness by an unfamiliar voice. "…. whu?" she utters. She tries to move as her eyes flutter open cautiously, sensing the brightness suddenly surrounding her. She tries to move again as her eyes bring focus back, and they widen with realization. "Hey!" She cries out as she tries to move, tugging at the impossible bonds. "Hey!" She yells more loudly, her eyes wide while she still fights without result. Her eyes scan what they can when she hears the voice again, and she immediately calls out "Who are you?! I demand you release me now!" Her tone goes from loud to frantic scream by the end of the sentence. Falling silent then, as the voice now seems to be in some kind of distress. "What…" she tries to look around as she calls out again. "What is going on?! Answer me!" Her arms and legs suddenly are able to move, her eyes snapping towards the opening. She still floats, her stomach feels very queasy. She kicks her legs and waves her arms to try and get her orientation right, now seeing the others. She gives a glance down at herself, still in her uniform. Her rapier at her side. She looks back up, her long hair floating about her shoulders. She takes the drones in, they remind her of Surveillance Drones. But not quite Surveillance Drones. And she isn't sure of their intent, or their master. She turns as best she can when she hears the voice once more, and an angry scowl comes across her delicate features. So she woke up bound, and then apparently liberated by bodiless voices coming from somewhere. She can't really trust anyone at this moment, so she has to decide who she mistrusts the least.

Her left reaches to grasp the hilt of her rapier, and a soft 'click-click' is heard as the cylinder in it turns. Her eyes look in the direction of the others, and something starts to happen in the space between them. 6 tiny dots of glowing white light come out of nowhere, with one of those under her feet. She draws her knees up as she stares towards the others. The dots of light suddenly expand to rings with a diameter of 3 feet, and what appear to be stylized snowflakes from the middle. They are flat, as if they have no depth to them at all. The patterns inside of the ring spin slowly in opposing way. Weiss pushes off with her feet as if she were jumping, and while her feet are merely a half inch or so from the surface of the glowing glyph, she is catapulted forward. The glyphs formed at angles in their positions, those glyphs across from one another. See is launched to one glyph, kicks off of it to another, and then another. Her movement is very fast, nearly a blur of smooth motion. She approaches the landing everyone stands on and she lands in a forward rolling motion. She springs to her feet, standing in a 3/4 stance from the others, her rapier held pointed downwards. The glyphs shrink down to dots once more, and then are gone.

Weiss' head tilts up a little as she watches them, keeping her distance and staying on her guard. At least some of them seem familiar with one

another, and they seem quite adept at doling out orders. First one (@The Wanderer ) and then the one wearing a full suit of armor ( @Epiphany ) cheap armor, from what she can tell. Her head tilts up as she speaks in a stern tone. " ~I~ am not going to aid you destroying anything, you lummox." Addressing Moire "I'll defend myself, and those around me. But I'm not going to aid someone I don't know or care about to overthrow someone I don't know or care about. For all I know you're the ones being the aggressors. So you better give us more details, right now." She stares right into the Spartan's visor, a cool and calm look upon her features.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

"Oh, you're charming," a Scottish voice said sarcastically to Weiss.

In the midst of all the gunfire from the top of the room, there's was David's weaponry, which fired metal bullets with extra damage to metallic structures, and there was another besides him that fires orange ammunition rounds; thermal clips they were called. The weapon itself was of a different design of David's, more sleek and rounded, compared to the bulkier function of the M60, like they were from completely different centuries.

As Mongo (@BlackRoseDova ) jumped up towards their opening, the Scotsman raised out his arm besides his rifle to grab her, as he was firmly connected to the metal plating of the 'floors.' With a grunt, he managed to stop her from ramming into the other wall above them. "Here," he pulled out two small, round disks from his pocket, handing them to Mongo, then grabbing two more to chuck to Weiss.

"Magnets, put them on your soles," he explained, letting go of Mongo, then reaching his hand back out again to try and grab for Van.

 

[BazusoTheGrey]

BOOT UP SEQUENCE READY
PERFORMING CALIBRATION
.
.
CALIBRATION COMPLETE
MENTAL STATE: CALM

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL

As his vision came back to him, Oliver registered two things. One, he wasn't dead, which was a bit of a relief considering his earlier predicament, and two, he was floating in a sterile ass room with a bunch of other folks near him going up toward some hole in the ceiling. With the way some of them were dressed and acted, he guessed that they were fellow fixers. That meant that this place was either a dumping ground in The Library for unlucky schmucks like himself, or he was somewhere else entirely.

Great.

Giving himself a quick lookover and pat-down, he was relieved when all his parts were in the right places. Hell, he even still had his sword and baton with him, which was a very pleasant surprise. Whatever corpo experiment or Distortion bullshit he was in now sucked at its job.

Mentally shrugging to himself, Oliver reorientated his body, wiggled a bit toward the hole in the ceiling, then latched onto it with his Zweihander's crossguard before pulling himself into the opening. If there was one thing he learned during his time as a Rat was that there was safety in numbers, and since these guys were in what seemed to be the same situation as him, they were probably trustworthy enough to stick around for a bit.

Standing behind the snow-themed Fixer, Oliver waved his hand toward the armored Scotsman (@Wade Von Doom), before his robotic voice blared out, "Hey, you mind passing a few of those to me too?"

 

[noob13241]

Van - Station Escape

Spoiler

As the others rise up to meet up with their 'rescuers', Van is...below still. In spite of moving sooner in making his way up, he, unfortunately, lacks ways to really do so. And the drones themselves weren't helping in doing his way much faster either.

One slips up though and the rest is history as even in the low gravity state, the drone is launched in the opposite direction and smashes into the wall as Van arrives at the group...and well...

A certain man who tried to catch him would find that the boy would not need the help, and if anything, trying just put him in the landing zone. As Van rises, he reaches out with his hands towards the edge of the opening as he 'catches' himself and flips up inside on his feet. The issue is that the Scotsman would find that Van being on his feet means Van's feet to his face.

And to little care for one of his would-be rescuers, the boy simply follows along with what the others said about arming themselves, as well as voicing a bit of his own complaint, albeit in more of a compromise fashion than stating their stance firmly like the girl who gives off noble vibes. (In a bad way, you know?)

"Mind bringing us up to speed before we go aiming for everything and anything that moves? Enemy info, location deets, goals besides smash robots and claim territory?" There's definitely a leak of sarcasm in his voice as he floats around with a gun in ha-
snap...Correction, floating around with pieces of a gun floating alongside him, as he cocked it too hard and broke it-
crack. Make that plural in 'guns'.
frying pan noise. Alright change 'guns' to 'weapons in general'.

It is safe to say that weapons and Van do not agree very well, although he seems to not really be bothered by his failed attempts in using any of them (He's never used a weapon before and they do not agree with him either).

 

[DrLucky1]

Gehrman Sparrow

Gehrman Sparrow woke with a blistering headache from the sudden transition from one world to the next, followed by a less-than-comfortable awakening. Clearing his mind, then refocusing, the pirate hunter maneuvered in the zero-g environment with the grace and poise of an acrobat, stabilizing himself to observe his surroundings. Once situated, he found himself observing a strange standoff above him: on one side, a girl in white and a rather enraged teenager. On the other, two tall figures, one clad in armor and the other without. To the side, a bag of weaponry.

Thinking quickly and recalling the words he had heard while in captivity, Sparrow made a snap decision. Snapping his fingers, he created two small swirls of flame, one at his location and another above. A moment later, he was gone – reappearing at the opening above. After all, it would be rather impolite to refuse such a welcoming party, and they had even brought gifts.

He performs a shallow bow as he arrives, as if this were a performance rather than a rescue mission, then introduces with a curt "Gehrman Sparrow." His bodily expressions are largely unreadable, but his scanning eyes reveal his distrust as they observe the group closely.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

‼

"GAH!!" Alec yelled, as the young man Van smashed his foot right into his face. Because of the magnets on his heels, he couldn't fall over, instead he staggered and bent backwards awkwardly while a few droplets of blood came out his nose; gently hovering in the air a few inches from his face. "FU-CKIN'.... OOOW!" He cried out, using his free hand to cover his nose, all while trying to regain his balance.

With everyone out, the panels quickly closed, leaving the drones below cut off from them. "Everyone alright? I heard shouting in there! A-And a lot of gunfire!"

"We're okay, just get us out of here!" Alec shouted back, before chucking some more, (albeit, slightly blood covered,) magnet devices to Oliver and Gehrman. Once they put on their devices, and were firmly planted to the metal panels, it suddenly began to move forwards; out from the small corridor they were in.

"As our current commander said," Alec pointed to Moire, "We're gunnin' to take over this place. It's something of a relay station for the thing behind your kidnappings. It's finding people across various worlds, bringing them here, and then either sending them back out to different realities, or keeping them here for study. Either way, we're gonna try taking it and stopping its operations. If we do it, we might be able to send you all back home and lock this thing out of taking any more people from your worlds."

As he spoke, the corridor they passed through opened up, revealing more of the station they were in. And what a station it was.

It was twisting and turning, panels fluttering open to change shape or direction to fit whatever the space needed to be.

Management rails for the panel arms unlocked and changed place, and light bounced from one source to another like signals for interception. Each opening of panels, more floating platforms came out, each holding another small group of misfits of various realities.

Cyborgs, elves, mages, droids, wasteland bandits, military commandos, troops of galactic alliances or soldiers of medieval kingdoms, it was a small army of people floating across and above from them.

It was disorienting to look at, to see were things ended, and where it all started, with the changing of the structure and shape of the station impossible to gage a coherent distance of.

"Hello!" The voice they heard when awakening called out. On one of the railings besides them, moving upwards to follow along with the group, was a little, round device with a singular blue eye in its center.

Wheatley
​

"Hi! Name's Wheatley, I'm your hacker extraordinaire for this rescue op! Now, I did run into a very slight problem, it's nothing major, I promise, but uuhhhh, you know how the whole room is kinda spinny and disorientating? Well, I think the station's AI might've picked up on the fact that I'm in the system, and I do still have a good control over things! I'm planted firmly into the system, it can't kick me out yet, buuuuuuuut, it's trying to slow us down by changing the station's structure around so we'll run into a dead end."

"And I take it you can't stop it?" Alec asked.

"Uhhhhhhh, I won't say no yet, I-I won't yet, but I will say, possibly 'maybe.' BUT! But, as long as I keep you all moving, I think I can navigate around it--" he was then quickly interrupted by a laser just missing him by a inch or two, "AHH!"

The drones from the before had come back, this time in greater numbers. The panels covering them had opened up to reveal small, twin mounted guns coming out their sides. "AHHHH!!" Wheatley shouted again, "Okay okay okay, hold on, hold on! Uhhhhh, got it!" The paneling of their floating metal floor changed shape to prove some cover, and people like Van and Weiss would notice the magnets on their heels began to glow blue.

If they tried to jump, they could levitate in the zero gravity. "Okay, that should help out a bit! We're in the exchange section, it's sort've like a prison area for people they just kidnapped, and if I'm reading the system right, we want to get to the mainframe of the station at the top! Just, try clearing the drones, and I'll try maneuvering you all through this!" In 'trying' to, he immediately allowed a large section of wall closing in on them to smash into the side of their floating wall, causing everyone to stagger backwards.

"Sorry! Wasn't paying attention there!" Wheatley quickly said.

Good luck to them.

 

[BlackRoseDova]

Thanks to her quick thinking, Mongo's slow ascent was assuredly going to reach the people above her. She was neither the first, nor the last to arrive, instead being right in the middle of the pack and being thankfully grabbed by an absolute giant of a man before she bumped her head into the ceiling. Clad in blue armor and wielding a long metal contraption that Mongo couldn't quite place; she was just happy to see some kind of rescue team after so many weeks of captivity. Supreme Commander Lazard hadn't forgotten about her and the other L'cie of the Third Fleet after all, a worry that she had begun to foster after so many days of looking as the same set of walls.

Palming the devices handed to her, Mongo was quick to slip them onto the soles of her boots, prompting her to stick to the "ground" like any other person on the team. Zero gravity was not something Mongo liked, especially when her only experience with it had been in the brief time approaching the Breach. Mongo would never admit it to anyone, but she had definitely vomited in her helmet during the ride. One of the many reasons why she had been ecstatic to lose it in the crash a mere hour later.

However, any further reminder of that particular event was metaphorically shunted to the side as a giant suit of armor (@Epiphany) gave a short speech about where they were, what they were going to be doing, and what they needed the newcomers, I.E. Mongo and a few others, to do. The-giant-suit-of-armor-that-had-a-voice wasn't making the most sense, as hopping worlds was more or less an impossibility in Mongo's mind, but being ordered to grab a weapon was definitely an order that she could get behind.

Remaining quiet for the moment, Mongo nodded in thanks to the funny sounding man (@Wade Von Doom) and skirted the personal space of the giant-suit-of-armor-with-a-voice (@Epiphany) so as to get to the bag of weapons that was a bit closer to the regal-looking teenager with the sword (@Camleen) than she would have liked, given the tension that she was creating in the group. Mongo didn't know these people, she was unarmed, and it seemed like things were about to get really hostile in a second. Thus, deciding to throw caution to the wind, Mongo ducked down to the bag of weapons and started rifling through the assorted items. Swords, maces, bows, long metal contraptions like the one the Scotsman was holding, and smaller metal contraptions that fit better into the palm of her hand, and even a double-tubed "Spankr" (whatever that was). All of it was laid bare before Mongo's eyes.

Sufficed to say, Mongo was simultaneously lost and disappointed with her choices. All of the bows looked substandard, especially for a L'Cie to use. She'd notch one arrow and snap the bow string if she wasn't careful, or go so far as to snap the wood of the bow itself. Meanwhile, the metal bows would kill her if she used thunderstrike with it. Where was her Airgetlám when she needed it?

So, instead of grabbing a bow like she was most comfortable with, Mongo instead grabbed what appeared to be a pistol to others, but to her was merely a metal-thing with a trigger. Sure, Mongo knew abstractly what a gun was, but she'd never held one before because she hadn't needed to. She was a L'Cie, not a common foot soldier for the Pulsian Army. Her bow was what she was comfortable with, and that was what she had used.

Thus, Mongo picking up and holding an M6G (@Epiphany) was like watching a child holding its first fork. Her grip was all wrong, and the idea of firearm safety was a foregone concept to the girl as her finger rested directly on the trigger without there being any threats nearby. Worst of all, Mongo was curious enough to put the barrel of the gun to her eye so that she could see down its length. Prime firearm specialist, Mongo was not.

Meanwhile, as she committed the worst firearm safety violations known to man, the "floor" that they were on began its journey into a corridor and out into the greater hellscape that was the relay station. Mongo spoke up with her first set of words as she pulled the gun away from her head and fiddled with it, her eyes roaming over the visual mess that was the station.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not going back in the box. If helping you lot gets me out of here faster, then I'm in." These bold and courageous words were punctuated by the audible click of the M6G's magazine being released from the bottom of its casing, rendering the weapon ammo-less aside from the singular bullet in the chamber.

All things considered, it was probably safer that way for everyone standing near Mongo.

Unfortunately though, the magazine being released coincided with the drones appearing and the overall platform shifting to provide everyone cover from the raining laser fire that marked their arrival. Wheatley's speech was more or less ignored by the girl as she looked straight up at the mess of incoming drone and considered them for a singular second.

Stepping to the left to get under some cover, Mongo began to charge her magic in preparation for a spell. The angle was a little weird, given that the drones seemed like they were "falling" towards her and the others, but using a spell through a firearm hopefully wouldn't entail any of that "recoil", or whatever it was that Sub-Commander Gil had told her about when it came to firearms.

 

[Camleen]

Through narrowed eyes does Weiss look towards the man with the accent, Alec. Her sword is drawn a little to one side when she looks down towards the little discs. "Magnets?" She is doing her best to stay calmed, making it seem like she needs no one, and no one's help. But she can feel the effects of the lack of gravity on her form. Weiss leans down carefully and scoops up the magnets, looking towards the others to see what they would do with them. Well… they put them on their boots. Just like the man said.

Then over her shoulder she looks, her eyes widening and she just stares at the mechanical seeming being. It seems a very clunky and badly colored Altesian Knight, but she knows that's not possible. She knows her mind is just trying to make links to things she actually understands. Since.. .she doesn't understand anything right now.

Her gaze is cast towards the others then as she frowns with displeasure, and she takes a subtle step away from Oliver. While she doesn't understand the situation… or anything from the last half hour or so… she still recognizes when people are in trouble. Even if some of these don't seem like people. Her mind tells her to bolt, she can take care of herself. She doesn't need these freaks, these monsters. But her heart… well it agrees she may not need them. But maybe they need her? She is a Huntress. And that means protecting others. Van runs passed her, and she lets out a sigh of defeat. Of giving in.

She looks down at the magnets she holds in her right hand, then towards the floor. She could technically move without the aid of magnets… putting magnets on the bottom of your boots seems… hokey. And won't the constant 'clickclacking' of the magnets get annoying? Yes, yes they would. If she needs to fight, if she needs to defend herself and these others, her fighting would be quite more difficult. If she could split her concentration is multiple ways she could make it so none of them needed the magnets. But that wouldn't efficient or proper form. Looking upwards she recognizes the danger there, and probably coming for them. She has to assume that.

"Ugh" she voices very loudly and in a disgusted tone. "Okay, all of you listen to me!" She balances on one foot, her other drawing back. She reaches behind herself and affixes a magnet to her sole. She seems to have a perfectly balanced posture, again as a dancer would. She does the same with the other boot, and already hates the way it feels. "I don't like this whole thing, and I certainly don't like any of you." Her tone is snobbish… or Weiss-ish would be more appropriate. It takes just a little effort to take a single step forward, not used to the new footwear. "But obviously we're all in this together. So don't do anything stupid and you all will probably make it through this." She sounds like a real snob… but she isn't, really.

She is scared. And she hides it under that awful demeanor.

And as they together travel along the corridor, Weiss finds herself suddenly being disoriented. Motion sickness, it seems. For only a few moments, it's minor enough that she can breath through it. That she can calm her mind, and therefore calm her body. Ice blue eyes look along their surroundings, so many different beings. Monsters. It's almost frightening.

Wheatley kindly pulls up then, and Weiss stares at it. For a moment she is about to strike at it, but she holds her hand. "Rescue op?" She says softly. She remembers now, a disembodied voice when she was being restrained. Oh goodness, so many questions. Questions that spawn more questions. Like sand flowing through an hourglass, just keeps on building. She looks towards Alec as he asks his question, and then back to Wheatley for the answer. She feels herself roll her eyes with his answer. Or lack thereof. "Wonderful." she utters.

And then Wheatley almost gets sniped.

She gasps and turns to see the source of the blast. "Oh no" she says softly, and without hesitation she turns to face the oncoming horde. She moves kind of clumsily, but stays on her feet. If she wasn't so well trained and agile, she would probably have fallen on her face. "Everyone stay behind me!" She shouts in a stern tone. Some of them might find cover, but Weiss knows she can provide cover. The cylinder in her sword turns 'click-click-click-click', and she draws her sword up, holding it horizontally at shoulder length with the tip pointed out towards the drones. The sword begins to give off what looks like… steam? The kind of condensation there is when a very warm object is suddenly subjected to a very cold temperature. She is motionless as the barrage starts.

And then in front of her a white glyph expands, it's inner patterns spinning for 3 turns. The glyph expands enough to cover this side of their platform, to ensure any fire hits it. The glyph glows a gentle white, it's patterns seeming to resemble a snowflake. Or the emblem they can now see on the back of her top.

The beams hit the glyph. And with each hit it shudders, and so does Weiss. She shifts her feet to give her a more advantageous center of gravity. "I can't keep this up forever, you know!" She dares a glance over her shoulder to them, and then back as she continues. "So" she lets out a cry as the platform hits something, and she nearly falls out. Buffoon! She wants to yell at Wheatley. But she holds her tongue, and focuses back on her glyph, a few errant shots making it through the outter boundries of the glyph. "I can take down some of them, but not all of them! So do something!" And if need be, she will even go out there and fight them herself.

Now she hasn't forgotten they are all there, but she seems to act like she does. She is, perhaps, to busy doing her best for them and has disregarded pleasantries at the moment.
All of this, and she states she doesn't like them. And she hasn't even told them her name yet.

 

[noob13241]

Van - Station Takeover

Rage Engaged

With the scene around him shifting and the arrival of enemies, Van is...just about usual with the sight of the multitudes of creatures and beings captured in sight. He's seen demons and angels. Creatures as low as goblins and even the biggest creature he sees here are those same multitudes equally small to the biggest back home.

Even if he were able to feel shocked, the only part this place would dig that up from is out of the sheer size of the place alone. With that, he goes back to picking through (aka breaking) the weapons before the action comes to them.

And where everybody is readying weapons to fire back...Van has been unsuccessful in finding a weapon to work with. And while he doesn't think it blatantly, Weiss says the thing creeping in the back of his mind that he might have to do.

"Everyone stay behind me!"

It is with that sentence- no, that phrase that Van ticks over, and his mind clears to a blank white. "Quit playing hero and taking lead."

Anybody who would look at Van now would see him lifting the biggest weapon they got with a frown on his face and anger written all over (mostly figurative, but his tattoos are technically anger written all over himself). And then they would see him jump and kick the ground hard as he uses it as a shield as he rapidly approaches the drones. Shots mostly hit the weapon that he has 0 clues about using and occasionally in areas of his body that do little for him to notice, let alone stop him.

Near the end of his approach, whatever the thing he picked up began to hiss as something in it got broken severely, but by that point, it's done its job. And one of the drones can just have it as the resulting detonation sends him flying further to another drone in the process.

And with him grabbing onto it, it was only a matter of seconds before its sight goes black as Van tears its eye out and more than a few panels as well.
And from there...well, he kicks off from that drone once more to do it all again with new shields with a roar that sounds more monster than human...Actually, let alone monsters, it sounds more like an explosion in verbal form. (Ignan is a language literally of fire. And Van is currently cursing in boom)

 

[The Wanderer]

David
Reloading, in a sour mood and getting ready to rip and tear some more

As things calmed down for the brief seconds that everyone introduced themselves basically, little exchange of names and just folks posturing for the most part. Some are giving tells that despite their cool and collected demeanor, that they're losing their shit internally. The smug girl that basically looked them over as if they were piles of shit that had gained sentience for instance, despite her tell being subtle, it was the flick in her eyes, the way that she quickly moved back and forth. Breathing slightly increasing in a steady pace before calming down.

David almost took pity, but right now there was no time for such notions. Right now, they were in the mud, and it was going to take grit to get them out of it. Waffles would whine slightly, grounding David somewhat to ease up as he took the initiative in introducing his allies and himself.

"I'm David, that's Alec, this is Felix and that's Moire." He'd say in his deep gravelly tone, gesturing to the respective teammates.

He wasn't pleased at the destruction of the weapon by the one who kicked Alec in the face, though from the brief look of surprise, it was an accident, so David let it slide. He was surprised to see a child casually sift through the weapons, part of David wanting to stop her and keep her out of harm's way. Yet he had that feeling that she knew how to fight, brief flashbacks to Child Soldiers in Vietnam, ones trained to shine shoes with grenades in a box or strapped with enough explosives to take out a truck or hiding a pistol in their clothes as they ask for candy.

Waffles' bark brought him back from memory lane before he got too absorbed in memories from fifty years plus ago.

The sounds of chaos unfolding made him take cover behind the floating remains of a drone as he pulled it down, the gravity forcing him to keep a hold on it as he kept Waffles behind him, just in case a shot went through, so he could tank it and his companion would be safe.

But thankfully it wasn't needed as the smug girl did a wave, some weird symbol showing up in front of her spinning, starting to look like a snowflake, it was absorbing the shots from the active drones which gave him ample time to dump cover and raise the Upgraded M60 as he unleashed an onslaught of strange laser bullets into some drones before the sound of a click made his blood freeze as he quickly went to reload. Dumping the golden liquid looking metal box as he got another and got it ready.

Thankfully the fellow Berserker was busy ripping apart a drone or two, making the other Drones focus him for a moment, and when they began to attack, a hail of gunfire from David would cut down any drone that attempted to get in cheap shots on Van.

@Wade Von Doom @Epiphany @noob13241 @BlackRoseDova @Camleen @DrLucky1 @BazusoTheGrey @Grehstone

 

[BazusoTheGrey]

Casually placing the magnets onto the soles of his boots, Oliver began testing them, shifting stances and taking test steps to make sure that they wouldn't impede movement. As he did so, he also quietly observed each person in the room, noting their general builds, apparent ability, and attitudes, specifically those he was standing closest to, Gehrman Sparrow and the snow-themed Fixer lookalike. Frankly speaking, he didn't trust the former. If there was one thing that someone would learn in The City is that the crazies tended to be the ones being polite rather than the guys brandishing weapons openly in the streets. The latter however was so put off by the situation it was hilarious, hell she even openly balked at his existence given how long she stared at him.

Giving off a mechanical snort of amusement at her discomfort, Oliver listened to the explanation provided by the Scotsman apparently named Alec. As Oliver listened he gave off another snort at the scenario given to him which then transitioned into a chuckle when the station fully revealed itself. Looking up, Oliver couldn't help but feel that the assholes back in the Wings would've loved it here. With its scale, size, weird technomagic, and the variety of endangered kidnapees, they'd probably find themselves right at home.

"Wow." Was the only thing he could really say in response to the new information and locale he'd been given. Funnily enough, getting kidnapped by what was probably aliens or something wasn't the strangest thing that had occurred to him considering his career. Rather, it was the fact that he had the chance to even stand in a place as grand as this and that it was probably the same thing that prevented him from being a book in a weird-ass distortion.

Shaking his head to cut off that bit of wonder and curiosity, Oliver turned just in time for an extremely talkative metal ball to appear. Oliver stared at it for a bit before reluctantly accepting its existence and the fact that it had a name.

Since he was in space or whatever, The Head probably wouldn't know that he interacted/existed with what was most definitely an AI without trying to murder it. If he didn't talk about it (entertaining the fact that he'd make it home), he PROBABLY wouldn't get horribly murdered or taxed to hell by the nearest Claw or Arbiter.

Probably.

Before he could continue down that line of thought, Wheatley's tirade of words gets stopped by what appeared to be lasers.

Leaping into cover and unsheathing his Zweihander, Oliver briefly wondered what the hell he was supposed to do to a bunch of flying things, right up until the angry kid that kicked Alec's face in decided to just jump up there and start punching shit. Watching him from his little piece of cover, Oliver noticed that the kid was practically flying around thanks to the magnets he had under his boots.

The same magnets that Oliver himself had.

Good to know.

Backing up a slight bit, Oliver places himself in a crouch with his blade shouldered, hydraulics flaring and spitting steam, before he breaks into a sprint, bounding across the platform within the blink of an eye with the help of Ronin Workshop's augs, before leaping and crossing the gap between himself and the drones within a second. Swinging his blade, the Zweihander cuts through armored panels as if they were a part of the air as well as helping to reorient onto the surface of another drone.

Taking out his baton mid-flight, Oliver lands and swings under himself, frying the drone's internals while also launching him forward as Thunderbolt Workshop lived up to its namesake; causing the drone beneath him to explode from the electrical force.

With all the drones distracted by the raging berserker near him, it was easy work cutting apart the flying drones, with Oliver only being harassed by stray laser bolts that merely scorched his suit.

 

[SorryTM]

Five Hargreeves​

Suddenly, you're in a free-fall. Gravity pulls you left, right and center, as you tumble through the air like a person falling from the clouds down to Earth.

With the speed of the fall pressing against your body, what little you can see is a barrage of bright lights passing you by. It looks like the passing of stars in the night sky at breakneck speed, with your body glowing white hot like you have suddenly caught fire. Yet you can also see a faint tint of blue around your body, protecting you from it. But the g-force is so much to take, you begin to pass out. The sound of everything begins to fade from your ears, and the white takes hold of your vision, until finally you black out.

Five had experienced a lot of things that no normal human being should, an unfortunate amount happening less than a month ago. But what was probably the universe ending? That was new. Slowly shifting his neck in a process that pained more that loosing said neck, Fives glanced at his missing appendage, a gift from the Guardian.

Or were it should have been. While he was barely able to see, Five could definitely notice that blurry shape that was his full arm alongisde his hand. How the fuck what that even possi-

That was the last thing he remembered before passing out, gravity finally getting a hold of him.

----------------------------

When he hear the voice and saw the opening, Five simply warped upwards in a flash of blue, appearing right beside a solider of some kind. He had grabbed a Sniper and a Hatchet, since in his 13-year old body, he wouldn't be able to properly use many of the melee weapons, and he hand't spotted a knife inside the duffel bag. (And he personally thought it was karma that a Hatchet had been one of the only weapons he could use.) Moving aside quickly, he inspected the Sniper, checking out how many rounds it had. Deeming it satisfactory, he watched in silence as everyone else grabbed whatever weapons they desired, stewing in his own thoughts. It was an odd sight, a young boy with a hatchet in one hand and a sniper on his other one. Hey, nobody had called him out on taking two weapons

--------------------------

Ducking as the first shot was fired, Fives began to set up the Sniper he had received from the duffel bag while dropping the Hatchet. Having managed to get some magnets at the late minute, his feet were firmly planted on the ground. Glancing at their her snowflake shield, he rolled his eyes as the Ice . girl asked for them to do something.

Taking aim with the scope of the sniper, Five shot his first bullet directly at a drone that had survived Davids hail of gunfire before during to reload, and then getting up shooting another one before repeating the cycle. Anyone that bothered to glance the apparent boy would find that he handled himself like the pro, shooting ridiculously well for someone his age, almost as if he had more experience than his age suggested.

@Wade Von Doom @Epiphany @noob13241 @BlackRoseDova @Camleen @DrLucky1 @BazusoTheGrey @Grehstone @The Wanderer​

 

[DrLucky1]

Gehrman Sparrow

Reacting to the sudden invasion by the drones, the bounty hunter leaped into action. The girl had provided sufficient cover to avoid the barrage of bullets being spat out form the guns of the drones, while others made short work of the drones with a variety of deadly implements. It would only be polite to add his on brand if firepower to this conflict. Despite the strangeness of this whole endeavor, it had been rather interesting so far. Not having any suitable marionettes at the moment was rather unfortunate, however. It rather went against the acting principles of a Marionettist to act in person like this. Nevertheless, he would fine one sooner rather than later, seeing the number of people who had been abducted to this station.

Taking a split second to evaluate the battle, Gehrman made a jump through his flames. He appeared above, relative to the others, with the newly attached magnets affixing him to a nearby panel as he righted himself with supernatural coordination. His goal of a clear firing line being achieved, he took a breath and, amidst the chaos, drew his famed weapon, Death Knell. Pouring spirituality into the iron-black revolver to produce a slaughtering attack, the weapon responds accordingly. With a thunderous noise, a rain of enchanted bullets shot out of the black-iron revolver towards the mass of incoming drones, each impacting with sufficient force to penetrate the light armor of these robotic assailants.

At the same time, the negative effects of Death Knell came into play, granting Sparrow a random weakness for the next six hours. Ailurophobia, the fear of cats. Manageable, if somewhat annoying. Easily mitigatable, as long as he was simply able avoid the horrible things. His arm shuddered involuntarily as he pictured his new greatest fear. At the very least, he could freely use Death Knell for the next six hours as he had already paid the price.

Raising his large revolver once again, Gehrman unleashed another wide area attack from his position, guiding his aim away from the melee combatants that had moved in so suddenly. With his second shot fired, the pirate hunted unlatched himself from the panel he had been standing on and jumped back into cover behind the glyph of that still yet unnamed girl in white. He began to talk in a rather casual tone, that rather contradicted the current situation of the group. "I've offered my own name, and it would only be courteous if you would introduce yourselves, yes?"

 

[Epiphany]

Moire B-220

---------------------------------Before the station begins to move----------------------------------​

@Camleen
The Spartan looked down at Weiss. The girl was armed with a sword but wore civilian wardrobe and, more tellingly, had completely non-regulation hair whose length would be a hindrance in a fight and whose color would make her an incredibly obvious target. Civilian. The aggressive posturing only strengthened that designation.

"This is not a secure location," Moire answered Weiss, her warm Irish voice light and easy despite her impassive armor-clad visage. "We don't have time for a debrief right now. Please stay in the middle of our unit when we move so we can protect you. We'll answer all your questions as soon as it's safe to do so."

When the young girl then demanded more attention from everyone, the Spartan shook her head slightly at the bluster. No point in calling it out at this point, though. Civilians always complicated a mission and she'd need all of her focus to make sure these people didn't get themselves killed.

@BazusoTheGrey
Moire noted the arrival of what looked like either a robot or someone in very strange powered armor. Their choice of a sword felt more anachronistic than Weiss' choice, possibly because swords had lost military value centuries before practical combat robots or armor had been developed. At least they seemed game with the situation.

@noob13241
Van's arrival (and collision with Alec) mostly meant her having another civilian to protect, judging by his lack of armaments (or armor) (or, frankly, just his clothing). As with Weiss, Moire's visored head shifted slightly to presumably 'look' at him as the Irish woman's voice issued from the Mjolnir Mark IV Armor. "We don't have time for a full debriefing right now," she repeated for his benefit. "Take a weapon and-" at which point Van apparently shattered a gun while trying to...what? And then he did it again? At last, she said "Sir, please move to the middle of the group before we get underway. We will protect you." Hopefully before he did any more damage.

@DrLucky1
The puff of flame followed by the emergence of Gehrman Sparrow almost ended in her putting a bullet through him. Thankfully, Spartan reaction time was superhuman, as was her mental recall. She'd seen the young man among the floating captives below. Clearly he had magical powers. Useful, given he otherwise seemed to be a civilian. "Mr. Sparrow," she said, repeating his name, "Please arm yourself in case we encounter hostiles. We'll do our best to defend you but we have an objective further in the base and your best chance of living through the next 24 hours is to follow this group and be prepared to defend yourself."

@Wade Von Doom
Alec evidently decided there was time to explain things which...well, it didn't hurt since the rest were still rallying up. Moire let him talk while she surveilled their surroundings for signs that the station's AI had noticed them. "Good summary," she said when he finished talking.

@BlackRoseDova @SorryTM
The adolescent civilian didn't attract Moire's attention, seeing as the girl didn't speak up or get in the way. At least until Moire's surveillance of the surrounding area meant she spotted the teenager Doing It Wrong. The tall youth who broke multiple guns trying to use them was bad enough but this was a death wish. Naturally things went to hell before she had a chance to intervene.

As a result, the 13 year old boy arming himself with a sniper rifle simply went unremarked on. She had more to worry about right now than civilians listening to direction and arming themselves from David's arsenal.

---------------------------------Once the group begins to move...----------------------------------​

@Wade Von Doom
The Spartan ignored the dizzying sights of the station's impossible geometry, and its impossible residents. Spotting the enemy took priority. Wheatley's arrival didn't surprise her, though she didn't immediately remember meeting him. His composition and dialogue was reminiscent of the Forerunner Monitors, though, and (for the most part) they weren't a danger.

But then more of the enemy drones appeared. Moire engaged immediately, firing short 3-round bursts with surgical precision. She didn't let their return fire skew her calculated trajectories of attack, trusting that her Mark IV armor's energy shielding system to keep her alive while she drew fire to hopefully minimize the risk to the civilians in the group.

@Wade Von Doom @The Wanderer @Grehstone
"Fire Team!" she called out to Alec, David and Felix. "Let's buy Wheatley some time!" Not that her orders were particularly necessary. These three, at least, were soldiers who could be trusted to react like soldiers.

@Camleen
Naturally, the white-haired civilian decided her non-regulation hair and wardrobe wasn't enough of a target, she had to add to it by avoiding cover. To a Spartan's accelerated mental cognitive processes, she had ample time to debate knocking the girl down versus trying to shoot down enough drones before they killed her. Magic is what decided her, for the moment, not that she knew the girl had it but others did which meant hopefully that sword was more than a prop.

Which it turned out to be. The white glyph was some kind of magical equivalent to Covenant Deployable Cover? Very useful.

If only she hadn't felt the need to issue orders as if others needed them.

@noob13241 @BazusoTheGrey
One of the other civilians seemed to feel the same way. Of course, then he went and did something arguably even more risky. Except that his choice of 'cover' and his apparent physical durability meant he wasn't instantly torn to shreds. The big youth seemed fast and incredibly strong, like a human-shaped Jiralhanae Brute. Amazing. She started calculating his changes in direction to avoid accidently shooting him when he switched targets.

Then the robot with the sword went and did the same thing. This whole spectacle was yet another thing she'd not be mentioning when she eventually returned home and had to file an after-action report...

@DrLucky1
The magic-wielding human opted to teleport and then open fire with some kind of archaic revolver, before maneuvering around the battlefield while trading shots. When he decided to strike up conversation with the white-haired magic-wielder, Moire just tuned it out as yet another needless distraction in a fight too full of them.

At least they were all making a good show of themselves. For the Spartan's part, she'd opened fire the instant a drone had appeared and she hadn't stopped, swiveling the barrel of her Service Rifle from drone to drone. Even with conservative 3-round bursts, her 9.5x40mm ammunition emptied her first magazine. "Reloading!" she called out, resisting the urge to take a knee or find cover herself. With all of these unknown warriors and civilians in the mix making targets of themselves, hopefully Moire's tall imposing armor-clad form would continue to draw fire she could withstand in the hopes of keeping the rest of them alive.