The Lost Legion - Chapter 1: The Creeping Unknown

*Thwep*

A stone dropped into the leaves, bouncing slightly against the ground and the human's head turned away for a split second.

The sound shouldn't have stuck out to him in all his years of soldiering; first as an assault tooper in the Caracosan Regime's glorious battallions, nowadays as a sharper-than-average guerilla hiding out in the Sprawl. It was however, those tiny devil-details that saved one's life frequently; the faint hum of a plasma rifle charging or the pitter-patter rhythm of vrexul spider-bombs moving in underground drain pipes.

He turned his head towards the stone; probably detritus kicked about by the tadpole-missiles. He turned ba-

A scream roared out from his lips as a blade entered his arm, ripping through the steel-laced nano-kevlar, through subdermal armor, and into his muscular mass beneath. Hands trembled and mouth open, glaring with HUD-overlaid eyes scanning Stein, he did not wait to swing his fist towards the sudden cybernetic intruder.

Too slow; a sudden twist of motion, another scream of pain, the kick of combat drugs kicking in, and the comforting grip of a rifle's torn out of his grasp. What would have been a curse became a fiery rage, then a scream. Once more, his combat armour failed to protect from a blade, this one tearing into his gut. Chemicals burned in his veins, agonizing delirium seared his mind, and desperate hands reached not for knife or sidearm but Stein's throat.

Stein's shoulder reacted first, slamming into him, carrying him as if he was little more than an insect smashed against a windscreen. His elbow raised and attempted to slam into the bastard cyborg's neck as the Pravlat-20 rifle enhanced by an energy jacketing dispenser fired a stream of vitriolic death into his comrades.

One human had turned just as the screams shouted but did not get to voice a word before a burst of rounds slammed into his body. The armour cracked, crumpled, and his lungs burst as the enhanced bullets tore straight through the back of his ribcage, vaporized viscera and blood sereanding them in smoke. He fell to the ground, violently convulsing as fungal organs within his body tried to pump life back into his half-dead corpse.

The tarrhaidim had reacted faster. One had rolled away, crouched and raised his rifle before cursing. His twin barrel pointed at Stein's head but his thrashing comrade was not still. The other one rolled away but mid leap but two rounds slammed into him. One ripped into his collarbone, tearing a gory crater into his flesh and another blew open the majority of his skull, sending him twisting and stumbling to the ground.

His fist slammed into the ground and he pulled himself up; no eyes stared at Stein but short tendril-like formation... no, worms! Beady eyes attached to slimy segmented bodies, a shadow cast over them by the risen crescent made up of the remaining bone and mushroom-flesh of its skull, wilting and wobbling in place as nerves and connective tissue twitched and squirted green-brown fluid outwards. Those worms had likely been some kind of back-up targeting mechanism; a faint electrical current was detected as it raised its own Pravlat-20 and began to circle around for a better shot.

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Their body screamed, a thousand howls from a legion of cojoined throats, feeling claws rip into hardened shell, hungry for the meat within. The drakaris; a low-born creature, little more than the byproduct of corporatist arrogance and brutish fumbling, clinging to the iron-willed gestalt tyrant who now had to swat at it as if it was a mere gnat. Horrific flames scoured its arms and body, its own heat-resistant shielding being put to the test as like a flood of lava they crawled towards its guns. Veins burst as emergency coolant sprayed out, drenching them both in a yogurt-like viscosity but it was too late. One barrel had melted and the others overheated as the vomit-spawn munitions in its back began to shriek and cry out.

"IS THIS THE WRATH OF YOU INSIGNIFICANT VAT-BORN SUB-SENTIENTS?" It roared as it raised its other arm, swatting over its back and stomping backwards, smashing a hefty rock in the process to pebbles in its rage-fuelled motions. "ON YOUR HELLWORLDS YOU MAY BE A KING BUT HERE YOU ARE LESS THAN GRIME BENEATH OUR HEELS!"

Forced to let up his barrage, the cojoined abomination swung again, thrashing left and right while trying to avoid its comrades. Its hatred only going, its other massive trunk-arm bent uncomfortably back, hidden ball-joints winging it into place as its claws opened. The prongs shrieked, electricity dancing along them, as it fired a blast of high voltage power backwards, hitting itself on the shoulder and gurgling as it tensed for the pain. As a semi-biological warmachine, itw as partially protected even if the agony was immense, forcing it to a knee. It was hinging its bets on its ability to resist its own shock.

The electirfying agony was interrupted by another kind of pain. High explosive shells slammed into its body. An eye burst open in yellowish fluid and nudibranch like ocular-organisms, torn from their connector nerves and writhing upon the soil. A few more blasted against its armored bulk, scouring and weakening armour and drawing a reverberating series of gargle-growls.

A hyper-accelerated round smashed into its "gut" and the machine stumbled backwards, crashing into one of the biotents. The structure held as it partially crumpled from it smashing into it before its shock-claws gripped the dirt and pulled it to its feet. With its cybernetic weaponry momentarily out of the picture, its front shuddred as a quartet of protruding tubes emerged at four points framing its jutting head.

The weapon made little noise; faint *zrip zrip zrip* sounds as it fired an pinpoint precise of medium armour-piercving growth-spines, aiming it directly at the robotic duo, hoping to at least force them into cover. It couldn't properly scan them; machine priests of some sort but their armour readings weren't coming through clearly, even with back-up systems kicking into action. Quickly, its targeting lasers began to search for Sarnai. It could feel the hot metal embedded into its body - one of the tarrhaidim that comprised the biomech was dead from shock, forcing more weapon and vital functions onto a now smaller shared consciousness. Its beams began to sweep the treeline where it believed she was hiding, analysing the travel path of the bolt based on its positioning and residual traces in the air.

There was hell to pay for all the invaders.

------
"They're disrupted, we have the initiative!" The voidhanger, pulling himself up to a kneel, fired a burst of plasma and tried to aim low, scouring a few scouring hits on one of its thighs. Damn that thing was tough; his weapon was made for kiling vrexul as big and as armoured as as Karnix. This creature however was barely budging.

A blip on his HUD: cover locations. Affirmative, he blipped back, falling into cover. That creature may have zapped itself but there was no telling how hardened it was against electrical intereference even from even from its own weaponry. He sped back to the positions, hoping that Dalia could do something about its fearsome artillery.

Karnix in the meantime was spitting rounds from his Hellhammer, blowng a hole through another eye before ducking back into cover. He wasn't sure how well those spikes penetrated but he wasn't about to find out.
 
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Simon and Atlas have been walking through the forest for a while long now, lost in the mist. Their outpost, a small ASR agri-research center, is no longer available to visit due to being blown up by an unknown militant group, one of many, stalking the rural areas and countryside. Navigational data and equipment from both Simon and Atlas appears to not function, only giving off static and random numbers. Where were Simon and Atlas heading? Fuck if they know themselfs. They have been wandering the forest for two hours by now, with no end in sight. Small talk between the two has been an effective tool so far in keeping their boredom down. Food, TV shows, hobbies, video games, news, and whatever else that they could think of in the two hour span. An eerie silence follows the two, with no noise coming from the forest itself. No birds, no wind, no natural sound that one could listen to, when walking into a dense forest like this - nothing. That is, in before, the massive carrier-sized flying worm thing has caught their attention, along with the falling satellite smashing onto the planet - creating a sound that anyone can hear within a few miles, if not more. Well, it appears that thing, the satellite, is the only landmark worth going towards - better then aimlessly wandering in this damn forest. Fast-forward another two hours, with breaks in between, both Simon and Altas heard the distant sounds of Caracosan government loyalists. Warning Simon to stay back a bit, Atlas quickly moves forward - aided by her anti-gav movement system and thrusters - getting on top of a small hill.

Analyzing the loyalists, Altas was reminded of her time back on Mon-Sur, where she hunted down the last remaining fascist and national socialist remnant in the Mon-Sur outback. Those loyalists should be no issue, Atlas thought. A scattered remnant of the old remigne left in the nation. Four loyalists were patrolling the outskirts of the site, all on edge. Rising her Hellhammer, Atlas acquired a target within seconds, her targeting systems detailing the course of aim. A shot is fired from her Hellhammer, a bullet flying downrange. The closet loyalist to her had his head blown up, a known side effect of a large caliber bullet forcefully entering someone’s skull. Another loyalist finds herself to be lacking oxygen, her throat lodged with a bullet, with the bullet surprising not exiting itself out the other end. The two last loyalists would also meet the same fate as their friends, their upper body area shot fatally within the next few seconds from the last shot. With the patrol dealt with, Atlas informed Simon to move up with her. A few more groups of loyalists were met, some left alive in favor of stealth, and some less fortunately, as in not alive anymore.

As Simon and Atlas moved closer to the crash-site, the sounds of gunfire and struggle became louder and louder. Simon stayed back as Atlas ordered, with Model-700 moving forward towards the sound. Out in the distance, Atlas notices a massive tarrhaidim biomech - a thing of horror and wondrous mechanical-bioengineering. Better not face it head on, and besides, there were others facing it down frontally. Atlas repositioned herself, avoiding the watchful camera-eyes of the gestalt. The Hellhammer was not going to cut it, but her Hawkwyrm launcher will. Atlas’s targeting system linked up to her launcher, calculating a path for aim towards the tarrhaidim’s head, or what appears to be its head - hard to tell with the jumble of biomass and machine parts meshed together. Once a solid aim was calculated, Atlas opened-fired. The missile accelerates fast, using its first fuel cell before it drops the cell, and a second fuel-cell kicks in, boosting it before a rod is released, smashing directly into tarrhaidim biomech’s head.
 
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Dalia

Having done her damage to the thing she unlatched and moved toward the interior, spotting a nice spot on one of its legs. She tried to spit the plasma substance to burn out the joint and keep it down, weaving through the explosives and projectiles with bestial precision After that she found herself attempting to duck inside the structure.

The others could take the large thing down the rest of the way. She had done damage to it and made a hole. If the others were incapable of felling the tall thing maybe she was better off risking whatever remained of the unsmashed areas. "Big worrrrrds about heels when on ass Word talker. Like Road-Ducks."

Her ducking inside served a second purpose. The electricity itself hurt. She would take a moment to assess the burn where her scale didn't cover. Despite the adrenaline the sting was present while she applied a patch in haste, white fire ready to react in case she was attacked.
 
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Red smeared across black metal, the smell of intestines joined the dark fumes as Stein shrugged slightly to keep his living shield raised. He faced the fungoid troopers at all times, ensuring that the Caracosan armour donned by the impaled valiantly performed its revised duty. Strangely however, his comrades refused to take any shots - but they were certainly preparing to do exactly that. Noting their alert repositioning in the IR spectrum, the android abruptly pulled back into the plume with the body, his front still facing them to ensure the retreat was protected and masked; the line of sight, broken.

While Stein kept moving back and watching his flanks, he ensured that his weakened adversary was losing an exorbitant amount of blood to the point of permanent syncope. In addition, he examined the body he carried for resources on the go, hoping to find a grenade or something of the like. The second act may soon ensue.

The pale phantom left the scene outwards, a direction in which one would emerge clear of the smog within a few moments of walking. The trail of blood was clear, however, leading to some dense fern clusters up ahead. There, the impaled trooper was prone with his back facing the tree canopy above. He was shifting slightly, trying what seemed like an effort to sit up in the wake of his lethal injuries. Stein himself was nowhere to be seen.
 
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Dead eye is laying on her belly in the darkness on a hill in range of the biomass and had switched to thermal vision thinking' my normal guns aren't going to do much of anything to that biomass, i want to take out its legs but i need to find the weak point so I'm not wasting ammo, maybe crimson or Marjan can help me''. She loads her ap into the chamber and then says in a lowish voice into the com" Crimson and marjan do you have any visual of the weak parts of the biomass's legs, if so that would be super great because I'm honestly not ok with just being stuck on the defensive here".
@Damnation's Hunger @ShiroKiyoshi
 
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Flicking on her thermal view, Shizuko watched the massive mech continue to tromp on as it finished gunning down the patrol she had been shadowing, almost directly past the foliage she was camouflaged in. Taking her hand off Chinami's hilt, she started quietly clambering up the tree she was at the base of, surveying the area around her. "Please Nine, let me not see that idiot kitten tromping after me...." she thought to herself as she did a full radius scan around her. Thankfully not seeing the Valkyrie suit moving through the forest, she turned her head to look down towards the ongoing skirmish in the camp.

She was still trying to sort out who was fighting who, as she was fairly sure that there was members from basically every faction on the planet present, but a rough battle line between the gestalt mech and it's infantry support and the....well the everyone else seemed to have formed up. Noting the rough positions of the fighters, she made note of the ones in the PCL uniforms, hoping that they were actually PCL personnel, she started charting movements between points then hurling herself through the liminal space between the ether and the normal world to get from tree to tree.

As she circled around the outpost to find a good vector of attack, Shizuko suddenly stopped as a familiar silhouette appeared in the corner of her HUD. Her armor blurring and shifting as she settled into a single place, she flicked off her thermal filters and zoomed in on the armored suit. "Oh...no, no, it can't be, it has to some other horrible little bird, I left her inside a smoking wreck about to blow, there is no...way..." she murmured to herself in disbelief. Her claws digging into the bark of the tree she was perched in, she left a long set of grooves before she launched herself through the air again, increasing her pace as she circled closer and closer to the armored suit, watching carefully for any sign that she had been noticed. Her target was so distracted by the fight though that she was able to land in the tree directly above them, falling straight down to crouch on top of the armored suit's shoulders, peeking over directly into the sensor array as she turned on her external speakers.

=================================================================================================================

The scene in front of Sarnai was pure chaos. Her first railgun round struck squarely into the biomech's "head", destroying much of it's sensorium, but the mech started flailing as the dragon woman spewed a sticky, flaming substance all over it making her second shot shoot over it's shoulder and plow into the trees behind it. At this point a number of explosive rounds came from the treeline and crashed into the mech, causing Sarnai to shake her head in exasperation at the overwhelming volume of fire being directed into the target.

Reloading her railgun, she started looking for other targets of opportunity in order to help end the fight faster, when she felt a sudden thump on top of Zaya, and her hand was already on it's way to her pistol when a sickeningly familiar helmet suddenly loomed large in her vision followed by a stolidly stated, "Boo."

Arreyat. She had been training local insurgents, helping them prevent the PCL moving in and stealing their natural resources for off-world mega-corporations. They had been preparing for a raid against a supply column when they had been attacked, she still had no idea how their base of operations had been found, but a PCL special forces team had suddenly burst in and started ruthlessly cutting down the barely supplied militia well Sarnai was still doing pre-mission checks on Zaya. She had scrambled in and got booted up before she was found, managing to surprise and kill two of the operatives before one appeared out of no where above her with some kind of sword. Taken by surprise, her weapon had been cut in half before she had been able to react, Sarnai felt panic shooting through her as her read-outs reported chunks of Zaya being carved and sliced off by the shadowy blur.

After what felt like a frantic life time of wild haymakers and combat knife swings, the almost invisible attacker disappeared again and re-appeared at her side, slicing off an already weakened armor plate and cutting open the actuator connecting Zaya's hip and leg, and with a bone jarring thump, Sarnai-Zaya found herself staring up at the sky. Slowly, a helmeted face with a set of pointed ears along the top came into view, staring into her sensor array for a long moment before driving it's sword into the sensors, and then down and deeper, penetrating part of the reactor casing.

Removing her safety harness and grabbing her tool set, Sarnai proceeded to cut off and reroute power from all the major points, slowly winding down the system, removing the load in stages from the reactor so that she could safely turn it off without dumping heat and frying herself. At some point, the adrenaline crash caused her to pass out in her pilot sleeve, meaning once she finally got to prying the emergency hatch open and crawling out of Zaya, Sarnai had stumbled out to a scene of carnage dimly lit by morning light.

It had taken her a week of scavenging to get a communications array repaired so that she could inform her handler of the failure of her mission and request extraction, and then another eight months of work to get Zaya operating again so that she could be redeployed. How they had managed to both end up on the same planet, on the same battlefield, in the same place again Sarnai had absolutely no explanation for, but the fact that she wasn't shredding Zaya meant that she simply rested her hand on her pistol for now as she flicked on her externals.

"This feels awkward."
 
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Tsubasa circled around to the back of the camp, keeping near to Shizuko, but just out of sensor view and spotted two soldiers. Her mentor was trying to evade her it seemed and up in the trees for now. This meant Tsubasa would take the ground.

Her mentor leapt from the tree and onto the massive creature or thing. It was something. She knew that much. Nine, this planet was weird, but she was hopeful, even enthusiastic she could make friends if she tried her best.

Making her way up behind one of the remaining soldiers she masked her presence she was in thrusting range and thrust the staff forward getting the base of the skull, followed by a surge of voltage from the impact. She readied herself for a close range gun fight by breaking the stuff into the single handed batons. "Please surrender before we must hurt you more."
 
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Yuri jolts in alarm as the voice of Rho-Hux fills his ear, an urgent tone was in the major’s voice. Yuri had spaced out minutes prior due to a lack of activity and had been deconstructing his long range radio in hopes of repairing the device and sending a signal to headquarters.

“The wh-“ Before Yuri could finish his sentence he spots it, a giant behemoth of metal in the distance. How he didn’t spot it sooner was a mystery, though it’s safe to say his distraction with his radio was the likely candidate.

Spitting out a slew of curses, Yuri hastily grabs his sniper from its improvised perch on a branch and takes aim. He didn’t know if the rounds his rifle fired would do any good, but it didn’t hurt to try. Taking a deep breath to steady his aim, he begins opening fire on the mech, aiming for its joints in hopes of disabling at least some part of its exoskeleton. With each shot a loud crack would rip the air asunder. To a veteran soldier it would sound like the unmistakable sound of a heavy caliber rifle, but to a normal person, it sounded like repeating thunder in the distance.
 
"Hey hey hey, cattus lady, stand down, they're with us!" The voidhanger's weapon was raised at first until he recognized the sudden assailant, lowering the weapon and raising an empty hand.The PCL troopers had been rearing to close in on the enemy position and take the fight to them directly until Sarnai had been jumped by the feline assailant. It had seemed like more bad news at first but a friendly face? A Celestial one too?

"Look, it's a mess and I ain't a fan but right now, we don't gotta choice. You help bird lady, we're gonna help finish off the- oh shit, uh Karnix, dude, relax, guns TOWARDS the shroombot!" One of the human troopers was now wildly gesturing to what appeared to be a living chunk of bioengineered chitin and contoured plating to swing his enormous hellhammer rifle away from the cattus warrior.

"Okay, I promise we'll get you up to speed. We got a few more of our own here but for now if you'd just help us get rid of that thing." He gestured over to the enormous bleeding, burning, screeching mess that was the biomech. The third PCL soldier, a voidhanger, had already slid behind some of the burning wreckage of the oblong structure, firing a salvo of plasma into its failing, crumbling body when out of the woods, a flash of orange shot out and flew right over the fungoid monstrosity. It twisted mid air, a flash of a turn pointing right at the bulk of the enormous warmachine. Another flash and the sound of armour crumpling, flesh tearing, and chemical explosions as a burst of flame, fire, and foul fumes erupted out of the warmachine.

Its body twitched and convulsed as volatile storages ignited and the small ecosystem within began to immolate in the burning viscera. Chittering cries wailing over the din could be heard, a bird like thin pitch that carried over the slowly dimming gunfire. Streams of innards putrefying rapidly spilled onto the ground, some of it twitching to reveal a lengthy hammerheaded worm-creature, long cuts torn across its body stretching out to reach for whatever vain hopes were left.

Trailing from its abdominal region were a trail of transparent spheres, small tadpole like forms writhing within. It was the living munition generator for the tadpole bombs and it was likely bleeding to death, severed from its life support systems, and its own biological systems collapsing in on themselves.

"... Nevermind, there's maybe three left-" The human soldier who'd addressed Shizuko readied himself to get moving again before pausing and ropping.

Another crackle of full automatic fire, metal richoeting against metal, and wet, swampy tarrhaidim vocalization emerging from one of the biostructure.

"Okay, guess that's-"

*SMACK!*

The tarrhaidim soldier who'd retained most of his skull fell forwards, its body convulsing from a sudden surge of electricty. Another cattus warrior stood there.

"... What? Is command sending us backup?" He asked, turning to Shizuko. "Look we'll get to names later but uh, all this support, we getting our exfil?"

The other surviving tarrhaidim trooper had broken from the base, seeing Stein's trail in the blood of his comrade. His grip on his weapon shook before he turned and ran off to the woods. The battle had been lost and for all its contempt, they valued their life enough to appreciate the promise of a future revenge.

All that remained was the reek of burning metal, melting bio-sludge, and the thinning fumes. Some clattering could be heard, thudding and shaking from one of the two biostructures; it sounded like shelves falling over or someone banging against a door.

Amidst the carnage, the tree-machine was shrivelling rapidly, its leaves retracting into their buds as its electronics darkened. Valuable information was being purged from its systems as a hard shutdown was being initiated. Its electrical interference had been vanished by the strange force lurking in Crimson's data stores; the same she had acquired from the satellite. It was still emitting a signal however; whatever it was, it was being remotely accessed but the lurker in her dataspace was refusing to disconnect.

As suddenly as it had begun, the battle was over. A third of the base was ruined but it had been cleared. The massive biomech guarding it was finally out of commission and they had not properly inspected both the ruins of the oblong structure or the two other buildings still mostly intact, now cleared out as Marjan had slain the tarrhaidim etherealist within.

2x Pravlat-20 Assault Rifle
A highly common assault rifle on Caracosa known for its reliability, modificability, and solid punch. They have an slot on their right side allowing for a specialized attachment that can accelerate their rounds when fired and sheath them in a jacket of impact-increasing energy. These ones do seem to have built in extendable stocks though there are no visible accelerator packs in sight.

1x Judgement Heavy Machine Gun
An old but sturdy weapon, the judgement is a long machine gun whose roots are in older edition anti-materiel sniper rifles. Recoil reducting technology combined with the enhanced strength of 31st century centuries have turned it from a precision weapon to one of raw brute force, renowned for its ability to put both lightly armoured vehicles and power armoured troopers on high alert. It is heavy, durable, and while it has a relatively slow rate of fire, if stabilized it is quite accurate and with impressive shot-per-shot stopping and piercing power.

1x parasitic munition spawner-worm
A slimy, elongated, hermaphroditic creature that was spawning the "tadpole missiles" in the downed biomech. The tarrhaidim are known to use various parasite creatures such as these, bioengineered to be weapons. It is possible to salvage parts of it whether eggs, organs, or possibly the entire worm for weaponization. If so, it must be done quickly as it cannot survive for long without its mutated host's environment before it dies and begin rapidly decays.

3x spine grenades
A local variant of fragmentation grenades, trading in explosive force for launching a raw volume of bristly spines. It is capable of shredding lighter armoured targets and disrupting those with heavy armour. It is especially effective at room and corridor cleaning as its spines will bounce multiple times. It is not very effective at actually killing heavily armoured targets however.

4x standard issue handguns.
Light energy output handguns, easily maintained and rechargeable.

Misc. supplies (flashlights, knives, medkits, compasses, rifle cleaning equipment etc.)

PCL Soldier 1 (Human)
Health: Solid
Ammo: 3/4 battles left
Mental state: confident, confused, relieved

PCL Soldier 2 (Human)
Health: Solid
Ammo: 3/4 battles left
Mental state: triumphant, slightly nervous, tense

PCL Soldier 3 (Voidhanger)
Health: Solid
Ammo: 3/4 battles left
Mental state: cocky, elated, slightly tense

Karnix
Health: Lightly damaged
Ammo: 3/4 battles left
Mental state: suspicious, untrusting, tense
 

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|Remaining: 00:00:00 |Reconfiguration of; module_045x$tsi%Ge5St - Complete |Rebooting interface… … …

The dead man shuffled, his rise from the greenery accompanied by a faint sound of moist sloshing. A move of the shoulder revealed white eyes; piercing through the dense vegetation from beneath. The wound in which the blade was buried became home to the Pravlat-20, the body of the firearm being slowly pulled out to avoid any of the external components catching on internal organs. With a powerful push, the corpse moved through the air only to fall on its back a meter away. The bloodied android sat up to gaze into the distant trees, registering the fleeing soldier - cowardice saved him from springing Stein’s trap.

Gunfire has stopped, all that remained was the hollow sound and crackle of flame and a toxic smokescreen. The fight for the listening post was over, for now - but anyone within a mile or two would have heard that exchange clear as day. There was likely a limit on just how much time could be spent here until the woods spew out another threat to this area.

The pale man stood, the human’s blood creating a stark contrast to his demeanour as if red on snow, staining a stretch of his hair, forehead and left eye; not to mention a large part of his jumpsuit. A dip in the river would certainly be an appropriate preventative measure to becoming a walking biohazard - though it wasn’t high on the agenda. The Pravlat proved quite effective in catching these troops by the balls - Stein suspected the coating of the projectiles played no small part in that. Getting to the root of that mechanism could prove useful indeed - taking this weapon with him for later disassembly was the prudent option. Using that clip on the loyalists depleted a good portion of available ammunition for it, however; as it currently stands, its use would be limited.

Stein crouched by the body he carried here, searching the pockets for additional magazines - surely the soldier did not plan on only using the weapon once. With any luck, he would find sufficient ammunition for at least one more encounter.

Upon conclusion of looting, he took a stroll back through the dark smoke with the Pravlat in his left hand - while his own rifle rested on his back. Stein emerged at Crimson and Dead Eye’s position within the next few moments, seeking to check on their status. According to rebooted AR scans, Marjan has managed to eliminate his target - but there were additional unknowns. Newcomers, whom he elected to disregard for the time being.
 
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Hidalgo is not longer concussed and flips up and out of the bush, he walks passed the cattus or whatever they are called then says to his allies" I was hoping to kill one of them at least but i got knocked on my ass, so sorry i wasn't more useful this time, and thanks for covering for me i lucked out with the anti vehicular round this time had it got a second salvo i would be very dead".
He pauses for a minute and then walks up into the now cleared area and then says" I'm taking two of the three spine grenades and some medi kits. there's also a heavy machine/tank buster here, it's not my style so, Dalia, Sarnai, or kermix knock your selves out, also hope we don't bump into any more biomasses like that any time soon". He continues to look around the tent and says" Is there any smaller items you guys would like me to get you while i'm here to save time".


Dead eyes looks up to stein standing near her and then says" Cool looking riffle and what else is in that place", and i got to admit having those trackers sure made it tricky, and now that i think about it, where the heck has crimson gone and done a bloody Houdini"? She got up and stands next to stein looking into the distance trying to see what's ahead of her.

@steinOS @Esper @Damnation's Hunger @Sarnai-Zaya
 
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Shizuko continued to lock eyes with the sensors on the powered armor suit she was perched on even as the PCL trooper called over to her, but the bird inside refused to flinch, just staring back with her hand on a pistol. Eventually, Shizuko slowly turned her head in the direction of the trooper, the face covering visor of her helmet effectively replicating a dead eyed stare, and then burst herself through the space between them landing on her feet in front of him.

Scanning around the area, Shizuko looked over at Tsubasa standing over the unconscious body of a loyalist and let out a long sigh, before looking back at the trooper and bringing down the tinting on her visor so he could see her face well she turned on her external speakers. "Unfortunately, I was about to ask if I could hitch a ride on your exfil. 6th Step of War Shizuko Kasagi, here as a representative of my home world's government along with the kitten over there." she says pointing over towards Tsubasa. "Whose your commanding officer? Any idea on what the hell is happening to comms, or what the weird mist is?"

==============================================================================

Sarnai just sat there patiently watching the PCL operator, ready to gun her jets and get some distance from her the second she even twitched, but they both just sat perfectly still as the firefight died down around them. After what felt like an hour, the Catus woman finally turned her head away and then disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of ether, making Sarnai twitch in reaction, nearly pulling her pistol out. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out, she felt the tension drain from her as she picked up her ether signature over by one of the PCL troopers.

Slowly taking her hand off the pistol, she reaches up and unplugs her railgun, listening to the quiet whine of the magnets winding down as she reattaches it to Zaya's back. Looking down at her suit, she sighs in annoyance as she brings a hand up and runs it along the divot in her chest plate, before clacking her talons along the controls as she thinks then starts walking down out of the forest towards the torn apart camp, flicking on her externals.

"HEY DRAGON LADY! How easily can you make turn metal to liquid?"
 
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Hidalgo is done with looting first building, but after a fierce battle, he's still wary so he pulls out his pistol and switches off the safety.
As he gets closer to the rattling he says"
I'd rather not have to get violent so please don't attack me". He continues to slowly advance but being vigilante. He slowly puts his hand on the door and opens it a bit and peaks around the corner to see if he see what's inside, he seems calm on the outside but his heart is pumping somewhat because of his mixed emotions. ' I really hope my day doesn't get any worse almost getting blown into meat chucks was bad enough as is'. ' Mind you the battle has probably left most if not all of the different factions on edge so chance are i'm not the only one feeling this way'. Hidalgo's attention is drawn to the sound underneath metal box, being the wary type he looks around and finds a metal pole near him on the floor and picks it up. He then starts to move the metal box out of the way with the metal pole, by doing it this way he hopes to move the box with outputting himself in danger. Little by little he continues to nudge the box till it's out of the way, he is now waiting to see what's going happen next .
 
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The door was one of the few mundane things about the half-oval strucutre, its top curving like some sort of tent but retaining a solid, vegetation-like solidity as if comprised of bark and stem. Both ends crackled as the velcro-llike fibres and hooks between a long slit pulled away and it opened maw-like, awaiting his entry. A musty smell emerged from within, pungent and wet as the moist soil thinly covered by a partially hardened membrane, still bending to his step. A computer sat at a table; old regime-standard, boxy and case-shaped, flicking through data streams from the tree-machine's observations. A few weapons hung on some of the racks; pravlat 20's primarily, but two were of a more exotic design. A few crates cluttered a corner and a lengthy steel case sat on the floor, shaking as something thumped against it underneath.

It was the same sound heard from outside and it was not getting any quieter.

On the weapon racks:

3x Pravlat-20 Assault Rifle
A highly common assault rifle on Caracosa known for its reliability, modificability, and solid punch. They have an slot on their right side allowing for a specialized attachment that can accelerate their rounds when fired and sheath them in a jacket of impact-increasing energy. These ones do seem to have built in extendable stocks though there are no visible accelerator packs in sight.

1x Tislanin Light Plasma Beam Gun
Fires a sustained energy beam effective at shorter ranges. Relatively lower power in standard configuration but the amount of energy expended can be increased at the cost of emptying the battery faster. It can ignite certain targets and is primarily useful against light armour especially bio-type.

1x Purgation Medium Machine Gun, Incendiary Configuration
Solidly accurate medium machine gun firing electro-accelerated rounds, partially heating them up causing them to extend into a spine like form. Fairly low recoil and capable of ripping through lighter infantry easily. Still retains solid armour piercing capability though not intended for heavy armour.

2x Sararhatan Combat Axe
A compact and collapsable hand-axe that can generate an energy sheath around its blade when swung, increasing damage relative to force. The blades however appear to be somewhat dulled at the moment.

On the table:

1x Field Computer
A standard issue computer for communications, data analysis, scanning, target marking, and so on. It was still being used before the raid on the outspost began. It is unknown what particular data it contains.
 

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I haven’t been keeping track.”, Stein responded to Dead Eye’s question of Crimson’s whereabouts. “But you were right next to her.

The question of what other resources were available in the area was a valid one - it was time to go check before the other vultures leave nought but scraps. Marching back forward into the main camp, Stein navigated the various potholes created by explosives and high calibre impacts to end up at the semi-oval building. It seemed Hidalgo was already inside, earning a brief glance from the android as the latter entered the humid storage space, almost immediately stopping at the portable computer. No words were said.

Pale fingers tapped across the keyboard, attempting to bypass authorised access by bringing up a console; the immediate objective was to force the computer into dumping its most recent and ongoing entries into a downloadable log. More specifically, Stein was aiming to find anything relating to the recent Abzu breach and communications history - if other outposts were still functioning, perhaps information of their locations and connectivity status could be found here. If not, then it would save a lot of time investigating them for survivors.
 
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Dalia sniffed around the remains looking for something unique. She was not sure what it was yet, but poisonous was likely it. This was a plant base in the middle of an area with a lot of trees. Perhaps there was even things to chop down trees, like swords, axes or a combat chainsaw.

She snickered about the chainsaw and imagined Heavy Metal Chicken attaching that to her suit and chasing Rho-Hux around. The chain saw would be even scarier than the Sky Monster she wanted to fight, even if only personally.

The minor burn which seemed to be slightly better as she started to apply a mild pain spray to it, meant to accelerate the healing. It did however itch and that. Maybe these enemies they just killed had better medicines on base than her roughly put together field first aid kit. Sniff sniff sniff.
 
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Scanning around the area, Shizuko looked over at Tsubasa standing over the unconscious body of a loyalist and let out a long sigh, before looking back at the trooper and bringing down the tinting on her visor so he could see her face well she turned on her external speakers. "Unfortunately, I was about to ask if I could hitch a ride on your exfil. 6th Step of War Shizuko Kasagi, here as a representative of my home world's government along with the kitten over there." she says pointing over towards Tsubasa. "Whose your commanding officer? Any idea on what the hell is happening to comms, or what the weird mist is?"

Tsubasa poked the knocked out man to check for a pulse first, then got a field kit out. Alive, check. She then disarmed the downed combatant and injected him with a relaxer. He was probably going to be scared, which would mean more zapping. She didn't want to do that again. It would have made her guardian annoyed she was tending to a hostile. No hostility meant no annoyance, a brilliant plan all in all.

She roused the man enough to tend to his wounds with the healing gel in a semi-aware state. "Stay still and work with me please. I'm a Doctor so I am gentle, but the rest of them are not."

Her eyes looked at the burn as Doctor-Chan started to collect data. "Malnourished and a little dehydrated likely. In accordance with protocols if you give me your name and rank then I can see to it you are classified as a ward of the PCL and not subject to excessive harassment. Maybe we can even help your friends with proper medical treatment."
 
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The metallic case slid, hopping up and down as the grey plated trap door beneath thrashed and jerked against its its locks. Without the case on top of it, the blows became louder and a tireless rhythm pounded against the metal. The hinges resisted every hammering, angry blow ringing out with dull, reverberating thuds. They had become powerful enough that the metal case, heavy as it was, was pushed off onto the dirt floor by the impact. Whatever was inside, it wanted out after having been locked away for whoever knew how long.

In the meantime, Stein examined the computer and found a treasure trove of information. When the party had assaulted the outpost, the computer had been left where it stood with no time for its digital locking systems to be activated. Now its secrets were laid bare to the Carnazir sellsword. There was a slight issue; the main source from which its various atmo-ethereal readings came from, the strange machine-tree, was marked with a large red "X" on the screen. "POTENTIAL BREACH: PORT CLOSED" was what it read if he attempted to access the port.

Thankfully, it did seem to have its own complex set of atmospheric readings based on what the machine-tree had scanned the aerospace for. Of note were recordings strange fluctuations in the weather; not just from earlier today but a few stretched back to around a week ago. Unusual buidups of pressure and electricity, sudden rainfalls in regions that typically did not receive it even at this time of year, and moments of interference stopping any accurate readings. One of the particular logs appeared to include some notes by whomever was tasked with these readings.

One of them mentioned that some of the disturbances could be caused by one of three things.

1) A "void-shroud", typically used to conceal vessels hiding within the atmosphere from outside detection by creating a coccoon-like covering of immaterial energy. Conventional signal bouncing and scanning simply was unable to detect it while more supernatural sources while better suited frequently had to strain to find the hidden entity amidst a variety of other false-positive indicators and atmospheric interference. They were known to cause unusual disruptions in cloud formations and weather patterns though in the Caracosan civil war, who knows how many were being deployed.

2) Severe ether-saturation. Many, many etherealists had seen combat in Caracosa. So had strange weaponry and mechanisms designed to harness power from beyond. Typically, these took longer to manifest but with how long the war had been ongoing, this could have very well have been the first signs of the natural equilibrium connecting the physical to the immaterial starting to go awry. This also created blind spots in many scanning systems, even ether-scanning ones, that could be used for infiltration and exfiltration by vessels and void-creatures.

3) Void-creature infestation. All the mayhem and carnage wrought upon not only Caracosa but the very space it occupied metaphysically. Such disturbances attracted a variety of extradimensional wildlife, many of which came to feed upon one another if not the supernatural emanations that radiated from these warzones. In their attempts to both hide from one another's hungry maws and make the most of these eldritch feeding frenzies, frequently they would interfere with not only meteorological readings but also the very weather, causing freak accidents and once-in-a-lifetime occurrences such as rain in deserts or winter weeks without a drop of snow.

There was more information; some of it pertained to the fog but most of it was fairly new. Sudden spikes in ethereal energy within the lower levels of the atmosphere just an hour before the mist had appeared, followed by heavy interference with the scanning systems in the cyber-tree. It was almost deliberate, based on the readings, as if someone was trying to cast a curtain over the nation-sector. Yet information gathered and deciphered on the computer had been copied and transmitted to "CAMP 012020". Some further digging revealed that "012" was the 12th camp of 20. Where exactly didn't seem to be included, at least not without more deciphering and data-crunching.

---

Outside, the twitching tarrhaidim, the one who Stein had partially decapitated with his new rifle, was beginning to stir. The wormy protrusions that emerged from his throat were wriggling again, lights blinking along their upper bodies as if turning back on. The withered quarter-rictus of its head began to quiver as stray strips of nerves and flesh curled, unfurled and stretched out, wobbling awkwardly as it began to rise and reach for an assault rifle that wasn't there.

Lacking a mouth, nonetheless it was making sound from the opening-closing gap that was its throat. Gurgling of some sort, scratching, sloshing - they could hear its unusual insides working... and this close, see bits of tissue and bone extending, stretching, and growing over where its head once was. It moved into a sitting position, unarmed apparently, but knowing it was a prisoner. One that was going to be silent until it regenerated enough of its head but at the very least, knowing it was helpless for now.
 
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The injuries were a pain in the ass to patch up, but Rho-Hux had been through worse (memories of the battle for Planet Nibbuivis briefly invaded his mind). He existed the torn-up building and began looking for the rest of the PLC. Judging from all the noise he heard, they had won the battle. He must have been out for longer than expected as the troop had moved further ahead. Another fight must have broken out. When he found the rest of the group he noticed a few members were missing and there appeared to be some new additions to the troop as well. At least the hacker was still with the group. Their mission, while growing increasingly difficult, was still possible.

"Cadet!" Rho-Hux shouted at one of his human troopers. "I want a list of every PCL operative still with us. After that, I'll need a medic to make sure these wounds don't worsen. I hope one of you lot passed field-medic training."
 
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Alrus and the scouting party had escaped the unknown invaders and the mist, to add his bad luck he has been separated from the scouting team, and knowing the mist could come back at any minute he starts running to the nearest forest. It's not very long before he makes it to the forest and is looking around, he continues to walk through the forest and up and hill and ends where the others are.
He is relieved that he's isn't alone anymore after what had just happened. He sees a medical A.i treating and talking to a knocked out enemy combatant then goes over and then says" I'm alrus from the tech department, i don't mean to be harsh or anything, but i don't think it wise to be making a promise you may not likely to be able to keep to him".
He pauses for a few moments then says" While I'm not one to shoot or kill unless i have to I'm not foolish enough to be a bleeding heart, changing the mindset of an enemy combatant at the best of times is very hard let alone anything else, I understand that from a doctor's point of view you want to try and save him, but what we want in this world so often doesn't mean jack because others just don't give a crap".
He pauses for a few moments or so the says" Rho hux needs some medical attention when you get the chance and i hope you don't hate me to much for being so forward with things but before i was a techy i was a soldier and understand how things on the chain so often work".

@Esper
 
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