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>>30269628

SQUAD GUIDE:

http://pastebin.com/zLZZHWEx

UPDATES:

- Friction Axe/Light Fusion Cell removed from Armoury.

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>>30269645

This far down, the tunnels burn with a sickly inner radiance, a phosphorescence the suffuses the shadowed vastness; The fleshy, vaulted ceiling overhead domed and ridged like a distorted top palate, ropy strings of viscera and pulsing veins hanging across it. The lines between flesh and plant fibre, it seems, has blurred - There are masses of fibrous meat, bags of ochre liquid, twisted arrangements of tubes and arteries, all with the same red, nubbed texture, the glistening tone of raw flesh.

The Silencers surge out of the swirling mist in a ragged run, a dead sprint - Like black lightning, like quicksilver, as if the world itself has slowed down. They are grinning visions of death, in filthy, tattered coats - Their cracked skull-helmets bleached white, shading to a vile yellow, bleak and rapacious eyes glowing with sulphurous radiance.

Seven of them. Seven. The only sound they make - The only sound you can hear - is the low, oscillating hum of the spikes of light jagging through the mist, clutched in skeletal hands; The mist boiling away from the fuming energy fields, the sound deep and aching and utterly inhuman.

They're closing, with the immense and merciless speed of ravening beasts - The first seething shots streaking across the distance, flashes of light bearding the corners of your vision: The silence they bring with them stifling all words, all sound, as sporadic gunfire flickers from the wavering semicircle of your squad-

They'll be on you in moments, in less time than it takes to shape the thought.

And still you hear nothing.

HP: 202.4%
COBALT BOOSTER: 130%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 79%
METER: 55%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>30269964
Arc Gun.

>>30269645

>Fusion Cell removed

okay.jpg

>>30269964

Why did we not use the Nihl once last session? We've gotta let that fucker feed to recharge it.

But anyway, the main concern is insuring they do not get into a melee with the rest of our party. Rally Geist's men by stepping forward to meet the charge head-on firing one of our Vulcan's and kite shield. When they close to melee, overload the kite shield and bring up the other vulcan. Hit them with the Fish-Eye as soon as we bring the secondary Vulcan into play while we wait for the kiteshield to recharge.

>>30270039

Your hand blurs down to your side - Mag-locks disengaging - as you swing the Arc Gun up, the barrel crackling with cising sparks; The first crackling blast of lightning sears across the distance, the sizzling arc forking into twisting fingers of electricity - And the Silencers *move*, en masse, a single prescient organism reacting to a perceived threat with unbelievable speed and agility-

-It's not enough.

They're fast, but they're not *that* fast. Not fast enough to dodge lightning.

You don't hear the CRACK of the discharge, or the sizzling spit of the impact - You do see the charging wedge of Silencers light up with barbed chains of electricity, convulsing in violent tremors as the eneverating bolts scorch into them in a crackling hood of lightning-

Half a dozen guns target the lead Silencer. The skeletal figure rills as Maser Emitters boil it's very substance, Pulse Carbine fire stitches it with a hail of charged rounds, and then something with serious kick - A missile, or a Revolve Bazooka round - slams into it, and detonates it like a short-fused grenade.

The blast chars the suppurating flesh of the passage black, choking black smog joining the vile mist that swirls within the narrow tunnel. The Sinistral's hard-light field judders into existence, as your Plasma Vulcan spits a volley of actinic green bolts - There's a muffled flash as your shots detonate against yellowing bone, ripping half of a grinning skull-mask away...

Red jags of light streak across the distance, faster than thought.

(Continued)

Question: Is the Fusion Cell destroyed? Or just unavailable for the duration of the raid?

I'll haft to bail earlier than I wanted. Hopefully the thread picks up later. And use that damn Nihl at some point. On something.

>>30270568
We'll use it for corpse disposal, can't afford Consume's booster cost if we want to do anything else.

Later.

>>30270497

(You actually lost it; Your Friction Axe was left in the skull of a Corrector you wounded but didn't manage to kill. It's back in the clade hive, somewhere.)

>>30270325

The first seething spear of bloody radiance fractures against your Sinistral's buzzing field, splintering into a million shards - The second punches into your left arm, wrenching you to the side: Static flickers across your HUD, warning of damaged acutators, myomer damage, or something corrosive that *eats* through your armour like acid-

And next to you, impaled through his shattered faceplate and torso at once, Brass Manticore crumples like a puppet with strings cut. He pitches forward, with a silent crash that makes the floor judder underfoot - His twitching gauntlets still fighting to wrench the hell-red spears free, the ragged exit wounds at the back of his helmet, his cuirass, large enough to put your fist through.

The absolute silence is eerie, surreal. You surge forward, the Tyrant Burst system in your chest flaring with charge - Erupting in a blinding flash of light, a seething cone of eye-searing illumination that snaps everything into stark relief. You see another Silencer stagger, stumble, twisting like a figure in a maelstorm, chewed apart by frantic gunfire from Palladium Rook and Vector Geist...

-Before the remaining Silencers slam into the squad's ragged line. And suddenly, there's no time for anything else.

A jagged sword of light smashes into your raised Sinistral - Visible fault lines spiderweb across the ghost steel construct, heat bleeding through your arm as it fights to keep cohesion; Your Arc Gun's at the wrong angle, but your Plasma Vulcan spits point-blank flames, the plasma shots coring into the Silencer-

Talons rip into you. Not into your armour - Into your soul. The Silencer's free hand punches into your cuirass, then *through* it; Agony crackles up your spine, your vision blurring at the edges...

(Continued)

>>30270676

And then you detonate the Sinistral's field in the skeletal figure's face, and the concussive blast hurls your opponent back.

Wisps of smoke boil up from your armour, motes of Essence bleeding free - A sickening sense of weakness steeling over you, as the Silencer skitters forward with insect grace; The spike of bleeding light flaring with renewed radiance, stoked by stolen life. It *moves* - Stabbing with that searing blade, punching it forward like a fang, every motion a potential deathstroke, ragged coat swirling like smoke.

HP: 185.8%
COBALT BOOSTER: 113%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 70%
METER: 46%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

(Gentlemen: Be aware that the Meter reduction is not a typo.)

>>30270715

Holy shit, they have the Thief's powers too? Recharge the shield IMMEDIATELY, and activate the Crisis Arm. When he attacks again, block with the Sinistral and fucking PUNCH HIM. Keeping firing the Arc Gun if he doesn't close.

>>30270715

Are they actively reducing our Meter?

>>30270676
How frustrating. Guess it's destroyed if Haze's weapons are really so potent.

Great job with the weapon select morons.

>>30270715
So these guys steal Essence on touch? Great, we're in melee range so we can't use the big lightning bolt. Use muleta's melee attack to cut off their arms, then Cobalt Boost the Vulcans and go for killshots on the head.

>>30270781
No, these guys steal Essence/meter on touch. Veto the arm.

>>30270877
>Veto the arm.
>>30270781
>block with the Sinistral and fucking PUNCH HIM

Guys.

Friction axe shows its worth again!

>>30269645
>- Friction Axe/Light Fusion Cell removed from Armoury.

Buh buht why? They were actually USEful!

>>30271008

(My apologies: I meant from the equipment you're currently carrying. As in, you're no longer armed with your Friction Axe, as it was pulled from your grasp while fighting Correctors earlier.)

>>30270781
>>30270877

You're peripherally aware of the battle raging around you - The actinic light of Hellion weapons discharging, the shivering vibration of odd, weighty impacts, the crackling ozone taint to the air as a spike of crimson light hacks through Echo Saber's sword-arm; The flash of Tachyon radiance as Rook locks blade-to-blade with a Silencer, before Meridian Hand bathes them both in scorching flame-

Everything else - Every sliver of your attention - is focused on the lightning-quick killer before you. You flinch back from a skittering stab, wrenching the Arc Gun up; Your draw's slowed by the sparks shooting from your elbow joint, but you fire anyway - Spitting lightning into the Silencer, something black and fluid rupturing within the killer's core. Heedless, it ploughs towards you; Tattered coat burning with patchy flame, blade hacking out in a vicious three-form attack.

You take the first blow on the Sinistral - Your Assault Shroud sweeping up to block the next one, the searing edge carving a burning path through the nanomaterial before it erupts into a thicket of Shrike Blades. The blades knife through the air, impaling the Silencer a dozen times in the space of a few seconds - Buying you just enough time to snap your Vulcan arm into position, the barrels bearded with silent muzzleflash...

The Silencer's skull-helm deforms, under the hailing shots. It shatters, and the body shreds apart beneath the furious burst; Black, arterial fluid bubbling from the deep rents before they flash away in steam, the killer's form fracturing like an overripe fruit.

(Continued)

>>30271008
It really wasn't. Failed to kill its target and lost us a cell in the process.

>>30271063
>(My apologies: I meant from the equipment you're currently carrying. As in, you're no longer armed with your Friction Axe, as it was pulled from your grasp while fighting Correctors earlier.)

Ah!

I think you may need to start keeping an Active Loadout tab that's refreshed at the begining of each session - maybe keep it in the second post

>>30271115
That's the Armory dude, that's what the update in the second post was about.

>>30271139

If you'll look at the same post you're talking about, you'll note it isn't listing what we actually have on us right now, though, which is what I was talking about.

It says 'removed x' and not 'you still have these two guns in these two slots'. Iirc its the bazooka and the arc gun.

>>30271063

A heartbeat away, Shell Bullet reels back - His gauntlet weapon scarred and chipped by a dozen frantic parries, his feet slipping as the Silencer's next stab scours against his side - right before Mauler Sledge's hammer sweeps across, and smashes the grinning skull-faced killer into the tunnel wall. He has the good sense to pull away, as Nova Drake's flame projectors engulf it in chemical flame: The burning form spasms and convulses within the inferno, until it's burned to a bubbling black smear.

Sound returns, with a rush.

"-are those things?"

"-got them all?"

Vector Geist turns, unsteadily - He's limping, a machete in one hand, his Pulse Carbine in the other. One of the weapon racks on his back has been sheared entirely off, the edges of the cut still glowing a molten red.

"Brass Manticore's dead," he growls, in leaden tones. "Echo Saber, too."

You barely noticed the death - It takes you a moment to reorientate yourself, to glimpse Echo Saber's ruptured black-and-gold form: His sword-arm's missing, his namesake nowhere to be seen.

So is his head.

"Joker-" Geist's voice is a low rasp, uncertain. "...What are we fighting, here? What were those things?"

[ ] "Two of them, dead? Just like that?"
[ ] "...I don't know."
[ ] "-They looked like Totenaz."
[ ] "They weren't Players. Not Correctors, either."
[ ] "We have to keep moving. They weren't alone."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>30271217

(A quick addendum.)

HP: 179.1%
COBALT BOOSTER: 102%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 51%
METER: 53%

>>30271217
>[ ] Free

Argus scan. They can't have gone far.

[x]"Two of them? Dead? Just like that? I don't know, but they looked JUST like the thief. I don't think they were correctors, though...."
"...maybe something different, like rust kaiser? They couldn't have gone far, though. Maybe they're what happened to the other teams."

And bloody keep an eye out for the other lantern half - if these guys were hunting the thief, they might have the other half on em.

>>30271217

Well, that was fast.

> [ ] "Two of them, dead? Just like that?"
> [ ] "...I don't know."

>>30271217
[X] "Two of them, dead? Just like that?"

"Take a Player's Essence. Scrub every trace of them out until it's raw. Take a sample from another Player-doesn't have to be much, as long as it has their signature. Imprint as much as you like, and you have the perfect weapon to use against that last Player. You can't escape from yourself after all."

>>30271267
Don't mention the Thief. Veto the Argus too, this party of them is dead.

And the lantern's gone

>>30271363
>Don't mention the Thief. Veto the Argus too, this party of them is dead.

Why not? This is hardly the time for secrets, and we're not the only people who know OF him

>>30271197
No, the equipment guide/armory is what we have on us right now. The update in the second post explained what happened to the axe's listing.

>>30271217
>[ ] Free

Check to make sure if we're missing anythign

>>30271408
This is is the time to calm people down. He's looking to us to reassure him. Hearing that the Thief is around (in clone form) won't do that.

>>30271457

Yeah, okay.

Still!

There's no reason we shouldn't try to argus-scan them out. If we don't take them down now, they'll only strike back later.

>>30271551
Why? The Silencers that attacked are all dead.

>>30271575
>Why? The Silencers that attacked are all dead.

Then who took the helmet and weapons from our dead buddies?

They're not all dead. They attacked, got loot, and retreated. They're still around

>>30271602
They destroyed his arm, then his head.

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>>30271267
>>30271363
>>30271344

> [X]"Two of them? Dead? Just like that? I don't know, but they looked JUST like the thief. I don't think they were correctors, though...."

"Just like that," Geist's answer is curt, clipped. He sounds slightly dazed, as if he can't quite believe it - The fallen bodies already dissipating, succumbing to entropy, bleeding away into black mist. He draws a breath he doesn't need, a static-laden rasp over his voxponder.

"You noticed it too, then," he says - That uneasy edge to his words. "-Whatever they were...It's like nothing I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot."

Around you, the remnants of the squad are picking up the pieces - Blast Scarab lumbers forward, kneeling to prise Echo Saber's Ion Blaster free. Bombard Valkyrie and Mauler Sledge converse in low, hushed tones, gathering around Brass Manticore's ruined form: Occasionally, one or the other glances in your direction - Or down the tunnel.

"-Joker." Rook's tarnished silver armour is soot-black, now - He has his Tachyon sword in his hand, the edge seething with emerald energies. Wisps of smoke rise from the cracks in his limbs, articulating with an unpleasant crackling sound. Most of the damage from Meridian Hand is superficial, but there's a long rent that carves across his torso, exposing the charred myomer fibre within.

"The third tachyon beacon just went dark." He turns his head. "-Either it's been shut down, or..." Rook's voice lowers, to a whisper that doesn't carry.

"...Someone's beat us to it."

(Continued.)

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>>30271634

> "Take a Player's Essence. Scrub every trace of them out until it's raw. Take a sample from another Player-doesn't have to be much, as long as it has their signature. Imprint as much as you like, and you have the perfect weapon to use against that last Player. You can't escape from yourself after all."

Geist stiffens. You can tell that you've unnerved him.

"...Weapons," he echoes, almost to himself. "Living weapons..."

"-The very thought."

>>30271267

A brief pulse of the Argus system confirms your initial impressions: The passage is clear. The only traces of motion are the peripheral once, the uneasy palpitation of the increasingly organic tunnels, like the arrhymtic beat of a failing heart.

But nothing hostile moves - Nothing you can detect, at least.

For now.

You focus, on the sensor-ghost of your Joker Emblems; Ivory Zoauve and Vertigo Trisagion have formed up, moving - In rough order - towards the second beacon. Iron Ogre's squad - With Titanium Gigant's - is stationary, almost directly beneath you: Their numbers much reduced, now. Agite Striker has reached the first rendezvous point, already moving onwards; Her squad's path is parallel to Ivory Zoauve's, perhaps an intersecting tunnel.

-There's still no sign of Silver Cross.

The point-blank gun battle has scorched this section of the passage: The inky black murk to your back, rough slabs of slate rising from the viscous fluid like teeth from decayed gums. Before you, the twin archways remain - The first directly ahead of you, marked by Silver Cross's badge; Leading to a T-junction, left and right.

The second slopes downwards, at an oblique angle; If anything, it's even darker down there.

[ ] "We need to take the straight path - Then go left."
[ ] "We need to take the straight path - Then right."
[ ] "We'll take the passage downwards. Iron Ogre's squad is close."
[ ] "We need to retrace our steps."
[ ] "We need to scrub the mission, and get out of here."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>30271746
I'm curious enough anout why Cross did what he did that I say straight and left.

Also fuck, we needed that last beacon.

>>30271746

This just keeps getting worse and worse. What do we do NOW? Where are we even going?

>>30271746
I just want to say that I don't feel like you're giving us operable information. You've had this problem before: the character knows much more about the setting and situations than we do, and most of your players are in timezones where being alert and capable of sound decision making is very difficult at this hour. If you want us to be able to make ANY kind of decision confidently, you need to give us more to work with.

>>30271746
>[ ] "We'll take the passage downwards. Iron Ogre's squad is close."

Regroup or die

>>30271947

(My apologies: Is there anything I could add, that would help clarify the present situation?

Currently, Iron Ogre's squad is more-or-less directly beneath you: The second beacon would be straight ahead and down - It's unclear whether either of the tunnels are heading in the right direction.)

>>30271746

We need to keep pushing ahead. I vote that we head straight and left, seconding >>30271838 to start with.

>>30271947
>>30271972

likely just 'forgot the prequel session' details at work

>>30271972
That helps, however slightly.

It's a flaw inherent to the setting. Uncertainty is the name of the game, and certainly it's what the characters are feeling. There's nothing wrong with it and it's clearly what you've been trying to communicate to us, but it's not fun from a gameplay standpoint.

Look, you don't have to change anything, it's okay. But participation will drop at these times.

>>30272021
>>30272082

(Ah, I see what you mean. To clarify:

The plan is to infiltrate the Original Hive, and descend through the tunnels until you locate the Smiler presence that Palladium Rook encountered. He believes that they have a base somewhere within the Hive. To guide you, you have three Tachyon Beacons scattered by Rook in his team's initial exploration.

The first Tachyon Beacon is behind you; The second one is ahead and below. The third one has been deactivated. The Player squads working with you have entered the Hive through various entrances, and they are each attempting to make their way towards the Beacons, in sequence - Which are meant to be the rallying points. If that fails, they are to proceed to the next one, with whatever forces they can muster.

While there is a lack of inter-squad communication, each squad leader and their members carry Joker Emblems, reverse-engineered from the icons used by the Black Tri-Stars. Each one radiates a distinctive signal, that can be tracked - However, the Hive is playing havoc with your sensors, making your tracking ability uncertain at best.

You have, however, arranged basic signals: One pulse of a Joker Emblem means to gather. Two means that assistance is required. Three means that the squad is retreating. Four, from you, means that the mission is scrubbed.

You have also arranged for the Black Tri-Stars to monitor the situation, though the help they can give is questionable at best, as they have very little idea what is presently happening.)

>>30272116

We need to move on. Haze still has two warheads, and we're functional.

That means: Regroup with the next squad, AND head toward the next beacon

Onward!.

In this case, it means either Downward, or Make Ourselves A Hole

Any weapons we have on hand we could use to just go straight down, JQOP?

Not to say do it, but couldn't the fusion annihilator do it like it did the spire?

>>30272145

We should head towards the end of the tunnel, at the very least. The scout indicated this one for some reason.

>>30272116

(In addition, the badges only produce the signal when they're activated. For some reason, Silver Cross's squad has not been utilizing them, rendering him effectively invisible to your sensors: However, they've been left at certain portions of the Hive, either as an indicator or a warning.)

>>30272145

(Potentially. The issue is that you're not certain how far the Fusion Annihilator would penetrate - Also, as you'd be aiming downwards in relatively cramped conditions, there's a serious risk of a backblast. That much energy, being discharged at once, may be detected by the denizens of the Hive...Assuming the structural destruction doesn't alert them, of course.

It's still a viable course of action, of course.)

>>30271838
>>30272019
>>30272164

"We're *still* going ahead?" Meridian Hand pushes his way to the front - The marks from the winged clades are still fresh on him, part of his torso plating ripped away. There's a deep rent in his hip, exposing wires flickering with sparks: Still functional, but damaged. He sounds appalled, at the thought of venturing further into the Hive.

"-Shit, man; We don't even know what's *down there*!" His voice wavers, at odds with the smoked-glass of his faceplate - Showing no emotion, even as he nods at the ruin all around. "If we run into more of these things..."

"-Hand." Geist silences him, with a weary glance: Levering himself upright, with a grunt. "Enough."

Hand looks around for support - Finds none, besides a few murmurs. He subsides, as Rook's gauntlet raps against his shoulder. "Watch where you're aiming," Rook rasps - His armour still charred from the fiery burst. "One warning's all you get."

(Continued)

>>30272227

Vector Geist exhales, before he gives the order: As leaden as it's inevitable. "Forward," he says - Tiny verniers flaring, lifting him an inch into the air. The tunnel's floor makes a sickening organic squelch with each step forward; It shivers, beneath your heavy footfalls. Occasionally, there comes a low vibration, a gust of vile air - Each time it happens, the ragged squad pauses, bunching a little closer together...Only to relax, when it passes.

It feels like you're descending into the belly of some great beast - Or down it's gullet.

The passage stretches ahead, for an interminable distance; It's hard to keep track of how far you've come, or how you're going to get back. But at last, you reach the end of the tunnel, and turn left-

-It's blocked. A wall of wet, beige flesh seals off the tunnel, giant quills interlacing and clatteriong: It pulses, a bolus of meat, fetid gases exhaled through unspeakable orifices, with the rancid shiver of spoilt meat and disease.

"Ugh-" Mauler Sledge clears his throat, then clears it again - It sounds like he's fighting to vomit into his helmet, his gauntlets bunching and unclenching on his hammer, convulsively.

The right turn of the passage continues to curve right, the walls ribbed and trembling; There's a hint of distant light from the far end, a vague glow from some dim source. Like everything else here, it looks washed-out, sickly.

"A dead end," Vermilion Ray mutters - His heavy Solaris pack isn't helping his mood. He's hunched over, miraculously untouched by your previous encounters...His armoured feet dragging through the murk, leaving trails against the wet flesh. "-It's the other way, or..."

(Continued)

>>30272330

"Wait." Geist's command is unnecessary - You sense it, too. Just for a moment, the faintest echo of a pulse; It's coming from *behind* the tumorous growth that blocks the left tunnel. Brief, but unmistakeably Silver Cross's.

"-Did you feel that?"

[ ] "We need to breach it. Fire at will."
[ ] "We need to breach it, but quietly. Blades, forward."
[ ] "We need to breach it, fast. Bring the heavy weapons up."
[ ] "I'll handle this - Stand back."
[ ] "We're not getting through this way. We'll need to head down the tunnel to the right."
[ ] "Forget it - We're heading back the way we came."
[ ] Free

HP: 179.1%
COBALT BOOSTER: 142%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 51%
METER: 53%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>30272339
>[ ] "We need to breach it, but quietly. Blades, forward."

>>30272339
>[ ] "We need to breach it, fast. Bring the heavy weapons up."
[ ] "I'll handle this - Stand back."

Tumorous growth?
Immolator

>>30272339

> [ ] "We need to breach it, fast. Bring the heavy weapons up."

Fuck this thing. This whole adventure has been a meat-grinder.

>>30272021
Not what I mean. The character and we playing him have no long-term goals. Survival, the most consistent goal we've had, is understood in the short term, as "win the current encounter". Since Nara Dreamland we supposedly should have been fighting the Smilers, but that only ever happens incidentally, when one of them happens to be in the area, or attacks us. There's been no great realignment, a decision to take the fight to the enemy. There WAS the attempts to find Hecate, but those quickly died when the multiple avenues we pursued failed or came back negative, and the character quickly settled into the old reactive pattern.

IF OP wants the game to move in that direction, rather than being a slice of life story featuring a robot killing robots trying to kill him, he needs to, in his role as the character's ego, say so. He needs to change the nature of the character, if not the game. Offer a list of targets, a list of assets, and the opportunity to take out targets of opportunity in other places. After some time the participants will be prepared to offers suggestions of their own and the game will progress in that vein.

>>30272116
This is much better. A clear (well not so clear, but add "Place Void Anchor at Hive's core to disrupt it" as the ultimate goal and it works) goal with the means to accomplish it and other information.

>>30272339
Sounds like Alura. What did we do to Alura? Crisis Arm+Nihl Sphere.

Do it again. Worked last time.

>>30272411

We did actually find Hecate. We just don't have the means to revive her, yet. This whole jaunt has been about taking the fight to the enemy, it's a search-and-destroy mission.

>>30272425
We were told that she'd suffered a brain hemorrhage at the same time her Red World self disappeared. If she weren't already connected to a life support pod, she'd probably be dead. We shifted into the Red World and found nothing in the pod.

I think she's dead. What we found was her living corpse.

>>30272379
>>30272402

> [X] "We need to breach it, fast. Bring the heavy weapons up."

Meridian Hand, Nova Drake, Mauler Sledge and Blast Scarab all have heavy weapons: An electic mix of Fusion Beamers, Revolver Bazookas and Graviton Cannons. There's the hum of weapons going live, as they level their guns at the throbbing bolus of flesh...

> Tumorous growth?
> Immolator

The Immolator's pilot light winks to life, as you take aim: When you squeeze the trigger, a cone of scorching chemical flame roars from the barrel, a swirling torrent of fire - It bathes the vile, oozing bulk in purifying flame, the bruised, glistening meat charring black, quills crisping away-

And then it *moves*. It rills in distress - Snaking, lumpen tentacles uncoiling from the mass, tusks chattering, clattering with snapping fury.

"Holy shit!" Blast Scarab's bleat of terror is drowned out in the fusillade that follows; Mauler Sledge's Fusion Beamer unloads with a brilliant flash, the searing beam lancing into the suppurating wall, shearing off the reaching tendrils, brown ichor flashing to steam. The cliff of meat *deforms*, as gravimetric distortions pummel it, crushing it, distorting it; The thrashing, boneless convulsions before you are a thing of lurid nightmare, unclean in the worst possible way.

You don't even need to give the order; They're firing as fast as their weapons can cycle, driven by the heedless need to see the filthy thing dead. Burning, wilting, tendrils coil towards you - A vicious slash from the Sinistral shears through the writhing length, dropping a dripping worm-limb at your feet. It's as thick as your arm, and it continues to shudder with hideous life until you burn it to ash.

You burn everything.

It's the only way to be sure.

(Continued)

>>30272411
>here WAS the attempts to find Hecate, but those quickly died when the multiple avenues we pursued failed or came back negative, and the character quickly settled into the old reactive pattern.

The problem, really, is that we have competing players who want different things
I want:
To find what happened to hecate, and rescue her
To kick pazuzu's ass and get the second eye
To figure out what's going on with the school play and the prophecy about two eyes, a spaceship, and true love.
I want to save our tristars from death flags
I want to plant void anchors everywhere - here, at school, in place of deathmarks after kills
i want to see argent prominence suceed
I want to find out what's going on with mio's dragon, and rescue the trapped hyades who helped us get free will from the hyades imprinting(we think)
I want to take rust kaiser alive next time we fight him,(like the head-data-storage unit) throw him in the grinder, and find out what makes him tick and why he keeps coming back.
I want to find a way to use our Admin Powers for GOOD, like reinitializing stages and UNDOing all the harm the smilers are causing to the world/stages
I want to unlock the red joker's memory, and find out what we've been missing this entire time.
I want to find out what the white joker meant about making your own weapons.
I want to Exec_reap+Exec_verbatim the smilers we kill, find out what their endgame plan is, and shit in it. Especially bell zephyr, and figure out where our casette player is
I want to figure out our friend's part to play in this - the one who can block out the red world.
I want to plan for and come out on top of the Culture Festival shit - mainly by planting a void beacon there AHEAD of time, so whatever shit goes down, we profit.

But most of all, the idea of quitting the game, that the RJ is only playing it till he can find a way to stop it and what it does to people, is the one I like the most

We have goals.
its just hard to keep sight of them all.

>>30272510

"Cease fire - Cease fire!"

Vector Geist's voice crackles across the narrow space, one hand lifted in a stilling gesture - "It's finished."

He sounds relieved, despite his words: You can tell that the entire encounter has sickened him, pulped flesh badging the craters stippling the walls - Meat-vapour fumes and churns, wafting around you as the dead tumour-wall shudders in it's death-throes. The grease-fires are still burning, when Shell Bullet ventures forward to give it a wary kick.

"Looks dead to me," he says, looking back over his shoulder - A ripple of laughter making the rounds. The levity doesn't last long; In the distance, down the widening passage, you hear-

...A scuttling. The sound is muted, but constant - A scrape of steel on flesh, the low grind of acutators. Something's approaching, and fast; Your Argus system washes a radar pulse down the corridor, and comes back...

-They're on the ceiling. The walls. Reducing their targeting profile.

But even without the Argus System, the sensor-ghost of Silver Cross's icon - Just one - flickers in your HUD like a fitful flame.

"-You think it's a trick?" Geist asks; He sets his feet, levelling his Pulse Carbines. "Joker-" There's a question in his voice, as he jerks his head towards the interlopers - Clearly thinking about the Silencers, the encounter still fresh in his mind.

HP: 179.1%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 51%
METER: 66%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>30272610
>COBALT BOOSTER: 150%

heal up a lil bit - 10% worth

>>30272610
GOGOGOGO

SEARCH FOR SILVER CROSS

>>30272557
Thing is, we play the character passively. We take an opportunity (raid the Hollow Sun), or follow a lead (going to the Arcade) We don't go hunting Smilers on our own or look for Vitruvian Devices, or anything like that. It's because we're rewarded when we let things happen to us as much because we don't know where to start.

Two things: Red Joker's never been affected by the Red World that we know, he was never influenced by the Hyade imprinting. The Void Anchor doesn't work like that: It causes damage as it drains. Any player who finds themself in an area where they take constant damage will leave. All it'll do is change the battlefield and eventually destroy the stage.

>>30272610
150 booster? Oh shit. EXEC_SMITE. Kill them all.

>>30272610

> "Don't shoot yet. Wait till you see the whites of their eyes."

>>30272649
>150 booster? Oh shit. EXEC_SMITE. Kill them all.

Vetoing.

CONSERVATION is the name of the game for this excursion

>>30272677
Why bother? Look how much it regenerated just since beating the Silencers a minute ago. If we're not using it, we're going to lose more people.

>>30272702

Let's hold back to see exactly what we're up against, here. We want to avoid a friendly-fire situation.

>>30272610
>"-You think it's a trick?" Geist asks; He sets his feet, levelling his Pulse Carbines. "Joker-" There's a question in his voice, as he jerks his head towards the interlopers - Clearly thinking about the Silencers, the encounter still fresh in his mind.

"I think we've got to try to help our pal out."

>>30272702
We'll want to top ourselves off first, though. And see what we're fighting first anyway.

I thought you were telling us to teamfrag all our buddies for xp.

>>30272727
Eh? Oh god no. If there's contacts on the walls and ceiling they're probably Correctors. I thought the reduced radar profile was them adapting to our Argus use.

> just got in here.

Christ guys, why did you all not exe_swarm the silencers like the last thread put forward.

>>30272740

Because people can't remmeber shit from the last thread before jumping ahead and making plans and forgetting what we're doign

>>30272740
Because they drain energy. Energy effects destroys the swarm like it does the shroud.

>>30272641

Seconding this

Also, deploy a single bit and send it ahead to scout.

>>30272768

Maybe it will but the enetgy effects appear to have been through physical contact only.

That means individual members of the swarm will die but not the whole swarm.

>>30272819
Remember Alura? She blew the entire swarm away with a single ray attack when it didn't seem she had any energy attacks.

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>>30272641

Cybele's Emblem glows green - Neon schematics sketching themselves into existence across your dented cuirass, your damaged arm: The luminous illumination gathers, gradually dispersing, as the rents seal up. Tiny servoes whirr as you move your left arm, your full range of motion restored.

>>30272642
>>30272665
>>30272727
>>30272725

> "Don't shoot yet. Wait till you see the whites of their eyes."

Geist nods. "Hold your fire," he crackles - There's a ripple of anxiety, making the rounds; You catch a snatch of conversation - "...waiting for some *thing* to kill us all..." as fingers tighten on triggers, the sounds creeping closer, closer...

Each moment extends into infinity - Silver Cross's icon inching closer, the distance shrinking. At this range, you can't tell that it *is* him, or some imposter; The firing line silhouetted by the flames that smoulder at your back, until-

"Friendly!" It's the first time that you've heard Silver Cross's voice raised above a whisper - It's a *hiss*, a serpentine metal-on-metal scrape as your Argus system picks up their humanoid forms, at last; Right as limbs articulate with the muted murmur of sound baffles, a shape unfurling with arachnid grace as it inverts, scuttling from the wall to the floor, metamorphosing - Like a magic trick - into an upright shape.

(Continued)

>>30272851
I'll be fucked. Good call, you guys.

>>30272851

His title is a misnomer - Some unknown trick has darkened his armour to the lightless grey of concrete, though the cross on his helmet glows with crimson light, a counterpoint to the emerald illumination of emerald eye-lens. His squad - Silent, looking on, communicating with each other in clicks and chirps of electronic noise - are barely visible as floating neon crosses.

They've lost one man: A straggler at the back isn't doing too well, either, twitching with spastic disunity as he struggles to stay locked in place, head twisting from side-to-side as if tormented by flies. It's oddly disquieting - Almost as disquieting as how only their leader's sensor profile shows up.

"We nearly shot you," Geist says - His straightens, his fingers unclenching from the trigger grips; Around you, weapons lower, slowly but surely. "Where the hell have you been?"

Silver Cross doesn't answer right away - His gaze goes to Rook, then to you. It seems to be a deliberate gesture, his silence oddly insolent.

"Joker," he says, at last. "-You're still alive. Good."

[ ] "Where the hell have you been?"
[ ] "Did you deactivate the beacon?"
[ ] "-You were trying to lead us here, weren't you?"
[ ] "Why didn't you use your icon?"
[ ] "You were supposed to follow Agite Striker. You disobeyed a direct order."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>30272932

"What the hell happened? We went in early after we saw you were out of position."

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>>30272932
>[ ] "Where the hell have you been?"
>[ ] "Did you deactivate the beacon?"
>[ ] "-You were trying to lead us here, weren't you?"
> other
"Talk and walk, we're running out of time."

Start making our way towards iron ogre''s position.

>>30272962

This, then pretty much all of those

>>30272932
[ ] "Did you deactivate the beacon?"
[ ] "-You were trying to lead us here, weren't you?"
[ ] "Why didn't you use your icon?"

>>30272932
>[X] "Did you deactivate the beacon?"
>[X] "-You were trying to lead us here, weren't you?"
"I'm the worst thing down here, Cross, and I'm waiting for your explanation. It had best be good."

>>30272932
>[x]"Did you deactivate the beacon?"
Don't expect him to answer the rest anyway.

>>30272932

Also, PLS USE BOOSTER TO HEAL UP.

Its full after all.

>>30273040

He's right. Heal up during the break

>>30272932
>[ ] "-You were trying to lead us here, weren't you?"

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> "I'm the worst thing down here, Cross, and I'm waiting for your explanation. It had best be good."

Silver Cross stares at you, in unblinking silence - Something whirrs and clicks within his armour. His arms hang loose at his sides; He seems unused to standing up straight, unsupported, as if he longs to drop to all fours.

"Joker," he begins, again. "We saw them. The white rider, and..."

Cross hesitates. He looks back over his shoulder, up at the others - Communicating in clicks and beeps, voice lowering as if pronouncing a curse.

"-The other one. The *skull*."

"Phantom Edge."

> "What the hell happened? We went in early after we saw you were out of position."

"No time," he answers, whisper-soft. "We saw. We followed. Only way in."

>>30272976
>>30272999

> [X] "Did you deactivate the beacon?"

He nods. "-Had to." Cross makes a fist - And suddenly, his sharp fingers clasp a tiny device, a square plaque of worked silver. It's small, inconspicuous, with a light set in the surface - A light that's dull and dead.

"That's mine," Rook says, by way of confirmation - He's taken a step forward, then thinks better of it.

"It was the wrong way: It's a trap. All a trap. Like a web, don't you see? The wrong way brings the spider."

(Continued)

>>30273087
>"It was the wrong way: It's a trap. All a trap. Like a web, don't you see? The wrong way brings the spider."

"And the spider is Kraken? Or is there is a bigger fish here we don't know?"

>>30273106
Doesn't matter, going in the wrong path will alert the guardians. We knew that already, guessed rather.

Also, whoever said Kraken was here wins a prize. Wonder if we'll get a shot at killing him for real.

>>30273087

Now, comms would have been fucking awesome.

Did we at least work out some rudimentary pulse comms? Like 'HELP' for a frantic double pulse.

Because noe might be a good time to pulse 'GATHER'.

>>30273144

we would have, if wata hadn't blown out first void anchor up.
We can get real comms off of the research for the command units

>>30273158

Are you STILL on that.

It was a bad call, get over it already.

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>>30273040

Your Emblem glows, again - For a heart-stopping instant, the light seems to dim...Before a glowing haze of emerald illumination swirls around you, rewriting and reforging like a mist. Your torso plating is restored to a polished sheen - Your damaging limbs twisting back in the right direction, without the scrapes and gouges from the Correctors, the Silencers, so far.

Cross stiffens, dropping into a half-crouch; He only relaxes when it's clear you're not about to attack him.

"Wish I could do that," Geist mutters. "-Would've come in handy."

> [X] "-You were trying to lead us here, weren't you?"

Another spastic nod, hummingbird-quick.

"We found a way in." The crusher of his mouthpiece articulates, into something that might almost be a smile. "-It's what we do."

> [X] "Why didn't you use your icon?"

"Couldn't risk it, this close. They might have seen - They may have *known*." Cross hesitates. "-They don't know yet. But they will, soon."

> "And the spider is Kraken? Or is there is a bigger fish here we don't know?"

He jerks his head, in the direction of the tunnel. "Emblems off. This way."

Green-glowing lens settle on you.

"-Just you, Joker."

[ ] "-Phantom Edge is dead. I saw the body."
[ ] "The white rider...Kraken? Do you mean Kraken?"
[ ] "We need to wait for the others."
[ ] "We're all going."
[ ] "-All right. The rest of you, hold position - I'll be right back."
[ ] "Rook, can you activate the beacon?"
[ ] Free

HP: 260.0%
COBALT BOOSTER: 65%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 51%
METER: 66%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>30273144

And by pulse, I mean ping our IFF emblem that we have with the other team leads.

>>30273171

I'll be on it until we get one planted, for reals. We have missed SO MUCH research and income

>>30273176
>[ ] "-All right. The rest of you, hold position - I'll be right back."
>[ ] "Rook, can you activate the beacon?"

We need the squads to gather.

Consult with cross. Will using the beacon tip off the OPFOR?

>>30273182

Yes. To reiterate, you've arranged basic signals: One pulse of a Joker Emblem means to gather. Two means that assistance is required. Three means that the squad is retreating. Four, from you, means that the mission is scrubbed.

You have also arranged for the Black Tri-Stars to monitor the situation, though the help they can give is questionable at best, as they have very little idea what is presently happening.

The pulse produced by the IFF Emblem is notably weaker than the pulse produced by the Tachyon beacon, however.)

>>30273176
>COBALT BOOSTER: 130%
>HP: 202.4%

>COBALT BOOSTER: 65%
>HP: 260.0%

OP, you used the old or odd calculations @ 2:1
>(COST: 1% COBALT BOOSTER - 1% HP)
True cost should be 58% hp for 58% CB = 72% CB eft

>>30273214

Use the IFF pulse then.

Do it a couple of time, spaced out so they cant be mistaken for other commands.

>>30273217

(My apologies: You're right.

Health before healing: 190.0%

Health after healing: 260%.

Cobalt Booster expended: 70%.

140% - 70% = 70%.)

HP: 260.0%
COBALT BOOSTER: 70%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 51%
METER: 66%

>>30273176

"If we're going in alone, should we warn the other to scrub off?

[ ] "The white rider...Kraken? Do you mean Kraken?"
[] "I'd rather we brought everyone in we could, but if this is something i need to see..."
[ ] "-All right. The rest of you, hold position - I'll be right back."

>>30273176
>[X] "-Phantom Edge is dead. I saw the body."
That's why they went after Holophusikon I guess. Or maybe the Thief really was possessed.

>[X] "The white rider...Kraken? Do you mean Kraken?"
>[X] "-All right. The rest of you, hold position - I'll be right back."
"Move back down the tunnel a bit, away from this area. No telling if someone can notice if this thing's dead. Cross, will using the Emblem alert the guardians?"

>>30273176
>[ ] Free
>"Emblems off. This way."

Might as well obey.

Ah, hell guys. I think i figured out why they wanted ph's body.

The thing they do with rust kaiser? How he keeps coming back?
They just pour essence into a new mold, and voila, new kaiser.
they've replaced the mold with Phantom Edge

> [X] "The white rider...Kraken? Do you mean Kraken?"

"Yes-" Cross catches himself. "-No. Both."

You can tell that he's uneasy, on edge - He's seen something that's disturbed him, something he can't quite be *sure* of...And it's eating at him.

> [X] "-Phantom Edge is dead. I saw the body."

Silver Cross sniggers. It's a low, grinding sound - Unpleasant, alien. But perhaps it fits Cross's nature; "You think that means anything, Joker?" He turns his head - "It's true. It was him. *Him*."

> [X] "I'd rather we brought everyone in we could, but if this is something i need to see..."
> [X] "-All right. The rest of you, hold position - I'll be right back."

"You heard him," Geist echoes, the tension writ large in his voice; He doesn't like what he's been hearing. "Set up a perimeter - We're waiting on the Joker." His words are directed at you, too - A warning not to make him wait too long.

> [X] "Rook, can you activate the beacon?"

Rook seems distracted. You can't tell if it's relief - that he's been proven right - or trepidation, given what you might be about to run into. His eye-lens whirr, behind his faceplate; The Player equivalent of a blink.

"-Yeah. I can do that. I just need..." His fingers close around the beacon. "...Some time."

> Consult with cross. Will using the beacon tip off the OPFOR?

A pause.

"...Not sure," Cross admits, finally. "-This close, maybe."

>>30273251
>>30273182

Rook nods. The squad falls back, down the passage - Just past the ragged remains of the tumour-growth, now shredded, charred pulp from the discharge of so many heavy weapons. The first pulse tugs at your sensors - A delay, then again.

One, then again.

One, then again.

You're not sure if the other squads can hear it - At this distance, it's all guesswork. Hopefully, enough will pick up on the signal.

(Continued)

>>30273461
Both? Oh crap. White Joker.

>>30273461

Well considering that we can still observe their signals, I hope that they catch it and converge.

>>30273328

You reach up, and detach your Joker Emblem - There's a low hum as the filaments detach, the sensor-ghosts of Essence signatures fading away; You're no longer linked to them, however tenuously - For all intents and purposes, you've dropped off the surface of the world.

With an electronic grunt, Cross drops to all fours - He scuttles forward, along the tunnel floor, ambulating at surprising speed: It's an uneven motion that reminds you of a spider, or a beast, suited to the fleshly passages around you. It's not too far; The passage curves upwards, the meat-fibre giving way to stone - Some long-forgotten maintenance passage, too regular and angular to have been naturally formed.

It doesn't last: The passage narrows, shrinks. You can hear the scritch-scritch of Silver Cross's squad, receding into the distance - Falling back. Soon, you have to hunch over to continue; You don't have to crawl, not *yet*, but the path takes on the irregular shape of a fresh tunnel, the edges grinding and scraping against your freshly-restored crimson armour with each step...

-And then, abruptly, there's a sliver of light at the far end.

You feel it before you see it - The vibration beneath your limbs, as your Tempest Scrander scrapes against the ceiling. Then the sound; Mechanical noises, the sounds of industry, and a puzzling liquid noise...One achingly familiar, evoking the cold grasp of an old nightmare.

It's the sound of waves, lapping against a shore of black sand.

(Continued)

>>30273553
...Bomb it. Send the place straight to hell.

>>30273553
>It's the sound of waves, lapping against a shore of black sand.
PTSD time!

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>>30273553
...Shit.

>>30273553
>Then the sound; Mechanical noises, the sounds of industry, and a puzzling liquid noise...One achingly familiar, evoking the cold grasp of an old nightmare.

... is this the one from the, er, vision-thing? "ie - what doe sHE need all this machinery for?"

>>30273553

Another few meters, and Cross's oddly-jointed fingers fasten on your shoulder. He shakes his head, warningly - A silent admonishment, telling you to stop.

The place beyond-

It's the very bottom of a chasm, cliffs of black rock and concrete rising up on all sides - It's uncertain where one begins and the other ends, but they've fused together into a rumpled whole. Beyond is...

-You don't have the words.

It looms above you, a lightless block of darkness against the blood of the crimson depths - Giant pipeline buttresses bulging from a red-blurred shadow, engines embedded in thick, tree-trunk foundations of corroded black steel sending their rumbling beat through the walls. A deep beat, a walking-beat; Like the throb of a behemoth's furnace heart.

It is an edifice of riveted black metal and pipes, like a wasp crushed by a great heel: Oily girder work laces the structures, great mechanisms rising and falling with the bang of hammers and pistons - Dark fumes venting from the stacks, giving way to the occasional belch of smoke. Then there's the *whirr* as colossal shapes descend into the murk below...An ocean, you realize, of something that's too viscous to be water, too dark to be oil, that roils and churns like a living thing as great drills churn up torrents of black fluid, sucking it out of the porous rock.

-It's a refinery.

(Continued)

>>30273718

I think we found our resting place for the void hammer

>>30273741

Holy shit. We need to find a place to hook the anchor up to asap.

Maybe.

Depends what's being made here. If we can hijack it? ho lordy.

better yet, a way to cleanse the hive off the stage and claim the entire thing without destroying or degrading it.

>>30273844
Fuck no. Wipe this place off the face of the planet. It's in too deep, the best thing for it is to use their industry to fuel our own. Plant the Void Anchor.

>>30273844

This thing is obviously kraken's baby. I dont think we'll be able to do so unless we kill him.

Fat chance of that.

>>30273741
>>30273844

Hopefully, its not a trap, and not a delay to prevent us from claiming a better place later on.

TOLD YOU we should

>>30273855
I'm not sure you understand the contradictions there.
>destroy stage
>use industry
>???

All i'm saying is examine the damn place first.

Resources such as these have to have some sort of... capture/claim mechanic/slot we can use.

>>30273871
It's in the middle of a fucking Corrector hive

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>>30273718

You're beneath it, staring upwards at the great bulk of the metal platform: You'd estimate that it's several kilometers square, of ingenious and hideous design - Like a parasite, barbed limbs and filaments hooked into the central shaft of the Manifold Tower that rises from the black lake, locked in place like a bloated tick.

It suckles power from the Tower; Conduits and energy sinks glowing cherry-red, adding their light and heat. And again the great drills descend, churning down, down, ever down, drawing in the oozing black oil that ripples and writhes as it's harvested...

Above, you glimpse motion. Above - You glimpse soft, beige forms, in all-concealing suits - Their outlines plump, baggy, filling out the whole-body garments. A moment of realization strikes; They're hazmat suits. Impermeable, the helmets opaque, the figures moving with shuffling clumsiness, in a dreamy haze-

...As if they have all the time in the world.

No power cords. Nothing like them. But a branching array of dark tubing grows outwards, towards the rig above - Something disturbingly almost-but-not-quite random about their arrangement.

Blood vessels, pumping black oil.

Your optic sensor buzzes, as you trace the path upwards; Your vision adjusting, zooming in on the raised shapes that cluster thickly against the surface of the pillars, half-glimpsed on the overlapping tiers of the platforms above...

Another flicker of realization. Tsukimi, pale and wan and eternally asleep in her fluid cell. The SHEOL STAR ARCADE, the uncertain shape of the chair within the sealed chamber, with rusted and bloody medical restraints-

They're Cradles. The black oil is being pumped into the Cradles, the coffins for the living. If you strain - If you really strain - you can make out the vague hint of motion in the nearest one; Changing, growing, becoming something new.

(Continued)

>>30273882

Oh god. This is their factory for Silencers, Rust Kaisers and Agalms.

This place dies.

>>30273882
So THIS is where they make the Amaglam.

...Wait, they built it around a Manifold Tower? Those stupid motherfuckers. They're going to regret that, this is a two for one deal for us.

>>30273882

Oh hell. Find the control centor, and find Hecate.

Scan for friendly names and signatures. Use the nihl sphere to light our way and see the power connections runnng throught the place.

>>30273912
>...Wait, they built it around a Manifold Tower? Those stupid motherfuckers. They're going to regret that, this is a two for one deal for us.

hahaha oh holy shit.

Hijack it!

>>30273912
>>30273920

Wait, what can we do to the towers again?

>>30273924

We believe that the red joker armor - and our System Authority - had mad skills when it comes to accessing functions they shouldnt'

>>30273924
Activate them.

>>30273937

Isn't the tower already activated in this case?

>>30273913
Hecate's not here, we're remembering the life support pod she was in. It's the same device on both si-

WAIT FUCK THE CRADLES EXIST ON BOTH SIDES. THEY'RE GOING TO STICK THESE ALL OVER THE CITY AND LET AMAGLAM INTO THE REAL WORLD.

>>30273933

But what can we do to the tower?

Shut it down? Self Destruct? Do they have any other functions that might be usable in this case that we should consider besides just finding a space unsupervised and activating the void anchor to fuck up the place?

>>30273959
>Shut it down? Self Destruct? Do they have any other functions that might be usable in this case that we should consider besides just finding a space unsupervised and activating the void anchor to fuck up the place?
We can access the cryptic menu. So there might be other options.

>>30273948
The last time we activated a Tower it had options.

>>30273959
Well, the last one uploaded a kill order to the berserk cyber-Correctors in the vicinity. Thus one's modified, activating it could let us do the same thing to every Amaglam in existence. Or self-destruct, or kick off a chain reaction that tears down the barrier between the worlds.

And the first one upgraded the Fusion Annihilator.

>>30273967
>We can access the cryptic menu. So there might be other options.

Especially options they've put there since revamping the place

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>>30273882

The rig resembles a pagoda, a ziggurat - Three levels of metal platforms, forming a stepped pyramid. The first is a forest of Cradles, the great drills ever-descending at the distant corners; Always, always drawing on the black oil, bloating and engorging itself. The second bears the glint of steel consoles and arcane gauges; The puffy, vague shapes circling, shuffling along in their slow, leaden way, manipulating *this* and *that*, locked in their eternal reverie.

...The third, and last, is the raised platform at the core - That borders the Manifold Tower itself. What little you can see of the technology is abstract, alien; The original superstructure, expanded outwards and adulterated, from the simple, elegant controls at the Tower's very heart.

And here, at last, you glimpse the bright gleam of armour, targeting profiles - Too distant to accurately gauge - flickering on your HUD...

-The Smilers.

From far, far above comes a shriek - A shriek straight out of hell - and the sweep of great wings. Circling, slowly; A shadow gliding across the lake beneath, like vultures circling a dying carcass. There's something equine about the shape, as it folds it's wings and begin to descend - The white rider visible at last, a cloak of tusk-tipped tendrils folded behind his back.

Kraken.

(Continued)

>>30273983
>And the first one upgraded the Fusion Annihilator.
Totally worth it.

>>30274003
>(Continued)

"Cross, go get the others. They're here. Its time to rock"

>>30274003

Huh...

Ideas on how to sneak up there past Kraken?

Dont think the others can squeeze through the hole with any good time.

>>30274003

oh jesus fuck JQOP you sure know how to nail the ohgod moment with your writing

>>30274024
I have a better idea.
We've got a railgun. It gains damage at increased range.

We headshot the fucker.

>>30274024
Noooope. Way too many of them.

We sneak in. Kidnap one of the worker Smilers, rip out his voxsponder and cut off his limbs. Activate the Tower, see what it does. Kill the Smiler to plant the Void Anchor, fly out while destroying as many entrances to this place we can see.

We won't get Kraken, but a lot of the rank and file will get vamped.

>>30274064
Sounds ok. Make sure to rip off any antennae etc as well

>>30274064

We need to kill 2.

One for intel.

>>30274064
>>30274082
>>30274095
But make sure to make this covert.
On the way out, we headshot Kraken. Just because.

>>30274082
Oh, good point. Grab one of the comm devices.

On the way out, activate it and scream "IT'S THE BLACK JOKER OH GO-" and turn it back off.

Also: Jesus Christ, they're turning people in the pods into Amaglams. The black liquid sounds a lot like the memory material in Nara Dreamland.

...Come to think of it, that stuff reacted to Joker too. Jesus Christ, what is he?

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>>30274003

"Joker-" Cross's voice is low, hushed, as he hunches in the long, dark shadow of the rig - Carrying, over the all-encompassing sounds of dread machinery at work, over the black waves.

"-It's him." His fingers clench convulsively on your armguard. He's looking past Kraken, at a rigid shape in blackened bone - Skeletal, still, a vision of faceless and grinning death.

"It's-"

A shape, you note distantly, without a right arm.

And a name:

PHANTOM EDGE

JOKER QUEST

EPISODE 80.5

TO BE CONTINUED

>>30274103

Thats not really going to work.

I dont expect a single shot from even our tier 3 to ohko a Joker-class player

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>>30274119
ahhh crap.

>>30274119

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

Akria are you him now? What the fuck are you doing here.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

>>30274123
I never said that it's intended to kill him. But it will fuck with him.

>>30274119
>A shape, you note distantly, without a right arm.
That's interesting.

>>30274134
Akira had two arms--one of them was this guy's right arm. They fucking brought fucking Phantom Edge back to life.

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>>30274119
Weeeeeeeeeeelp.

>>30274140

Then it really doesnt matter since he'll recover the moment he exits and reenters the red.

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>>30274119

(Gentlemen: My sincerest apologies, but I'm utterly exhausted. I would love to continue, but this looks like a natural break-point.

You've been a wonderful audience - My apologies for the extended nature of this segment, due to the necessity of 'dungeon-crawling', so to speak. I honestly didn't expect this arc to take quite so much time, even streamlined from the more complex system I had envisioned.

Good night, and God bless: I hope to see you again soon.)

>>30274151
You don't understand.
It's Kraken. We can't kill him yet.
But we WILL shoot his head off. It's part of our Vendetta.

>>30274153

Holy shit. He looks fucking evil.

>>30274153
>even streamlined from the more complex system I had envisioned.

Shit, you'll have to tell us about this one later

One request: Remember to recharge the booster from this tunnel-traveling excursion

>>30274164

And I'm saying its a waste of meter we'll need to fight our way out of the dungeon.

>>30274188
We haven't had an opportunity to fuck with Kraken in ages.
This isn't about logic. This is about "Fuck this fucking guy".

It's either that or running out screaming and trying to tear him apart with out bare hands.

>>30274179

(While I can't divulge too much, the original plan was for you to locate and individually recruit each one of the candidates for the raid, alongside Palladium Rook or alone.

However, that rapidly proved to be unfeasible - Especially in light of how long the preparations took, which was completely unexpected. The Hive was also initially designed to be more extensive as a complex, before the inherently infeasibility of running a dungeon crawl in the Quest format - And game balance issues - became obvious.)

>>30274153
Thanks for running, JokerOP.

>>30274164
>>30274202
Yea... no. I dont see it helping us especially when we need to be fighting our way out and making sure the as much of the strike force survives.

>>30274219
>And game balance issues - became obvious.)

Thanks for running. Its always a pleasure.

Were those game balance issues the one syou playtested recently? I remember something like that resulted in changes to Barrier

>>30274119
>>30274153
Sounds like I missed an amazing thread.

>>30274110
Start with a basic premise: Jokers come in pairs. Trisagion is wrong, there are four Jokers, not three.

White, Red, Black. In a sequence. What comes next? Here's a hint: The word originally used to describe him doesn't translate well. Khloros is a yellowish-green color, associated with pus and Death.

And then you realize that it fits, horribly well. To this rider was given the power to take peace from the earth. Everyone fights to become the Red Joker. How's it feel to realize that we're the Red Rider of the Apocalypse?

>>30274247
So we are one of the four riders of the apocalypse and have a strained relationship with the other three?

Seems like the apocalypse is cancelling itself.

>>30274153

Oh god. We need to bail.

If only we'd bought the GARM upgrade

>>30274297
No clue! It's still more speculah, but it fits weirdly well with what we know. White Joker is making a power play, Red Joker causes conflict wherever he goes, and the Black Joker is eternally trying to fill the void of its existence.

We don't have to get along with the other Jokers, we play the role just by doing our thing. Winning this quest might involve ensuring all the Jokers, however many there are, fail to accomplish their purposes.

Looking forward to next time. Later all.

>>30274153

Okay, so how are we going to do this? If I'm reading this right, we're going to need to fight Phantom Edge, Kraken and a lot of other players. Maybe whatever they're growing in the cradles, too.

We have, what, about forty semi-useful assholes? This is like throwing a bag of shrews into a meat grinder.

>>30274398
Let Haze shoot his missiles.
Then combat log.

>>30274398

Good news is, we almost have tier 3 weapons.

Speaking of the manifold tower, i think that upgraded fusion blaster's gonna be carrying a lot of weight this fight, particularly with the immolator in the other hand

one to strip the armor, one to bring the pain.


>>30274411
>Let Haze shoot his missiles.

Oh jesus no. We want to save the people in these pods.

>>30274398

....

Our best bet might be to let the rest walk into the trap.

And since they'll likely move to intercept, we take that chance to sneak in.

>>30273214
>You have also arranged for the Black Tri-Stars to monitor the situation, though the help they can give is questionable at best, as they have very little idea what is presently happening.

How were they planning to get here to help, btw?

>>30274416
I sort of suspect theres not much left in there to save.
Might be worth a try though.

>>30274423

Depends how far along they are

Also

This may have been what THE SUN was made for.

>>30274416
>Oh jesus no. We want to save the people in these pods.
They're already dead and their corpses are in the process of being turned into Amaglams. Better to end their suffering.

>>30274422
Not at all. They're the exit solution, we ping them on the way out and they ride Garm in to cover us as we run from the things in the Hive.

>>30274411
...Evil. I approve wholeheartedly.

>>30274422

He's saying that they can't. We gave them an out of the suicide mission, and THEY TOOK IT.

>>30274432

But Haze Missile or Void Anchor?

Hmmm.....

>>30274432
>They're already dead and their corpses are in the process of being turned into Amaglams. Better to end their suffering.

You're just making shit up. That's speculation at best.

If anything, i'm getting mass effect/corrector base vibes

>>30274445

This depends entirely on how well the fight goes.

We're gonna need to be in TOP shape for this.

Huh.

The solution is right infront of us.

We steal a Haz Mat suit to get in closer.

>>30274430
I don't think so, the Hollow Sun exists to create Daegal. They wanted to REPURPOSE the Sun into something like this.

>>30274445
Haze Missile on the people. After it settles we go kick an Amaglam until it breaks out and comes after us, then kill it to activate the Anchor right in the middle on the facility.

>>30274445
Void Anchor requires essence to be flowing around.
...I wish we could just push meter into that thing.

>>30274460
>Daegal

create what?

>>30274460

Thing is Haze said that the missile burns for a long while.

If we shoot it, I dont think we can afford to hang around for so long for it to die out and deploy void anchor.

>>30274460
>Haze Missile on the people
I wanted to destroy the infastructure, actually.

>>30274460
>Haze Missile on the people. After it settles we go kick an Amaglam until it breaks out and comes after us, then kill it to activate the Anchor right in the middle on the facility.

Guys. Fuck no. Fuuuck no.

Disastrous things happen if we blow up the tower.

Best case scenario, we ~take~ the facility, beat the smilers, free the players trapped inside, rescue hecate, don't blow up the manifold tower, and link the essence-extraction to the hollow sun.

Try *not* to blow the damn place up.

No haze missiles, no void anchor bombs - see how the situation plays out first.

Hm.

Does Haze need to shoot the missiles?

Can he give us one?

We go down there, we plant void anchor, carnifex and make a fucking big distraction away from it while killing ALL the shit.

Then when the INDESTRUCTIBLE shield deploys we drop the missile and boost the fuck out.

Ugh. Its a damn shame we can't Smite+Verbatim. That would make an -amazing- opening to the fight.

As shitty as it is, I think we need to 'waste' some booster on Reap, to figure out *exactly* what's going on here and how to stop it.

>>30274493

The god damn thing is in the middle of their damn base.

It is undefendable. We have to fuck it up completely otherwise they will just reconquer it.

>>30274471
The golden figure at the Hollow Sun's core. It's uber-Player armor, like the Red Joker but for defense instead of offense.

>>30274477
Me too, that's what the Void Anchor is for.

>>30274493
Hate to break it to you but Hecate's not here. We had a flashback to her in the hospital after seeing the Cradles.

And we're not blowing up the Tower, we're draining the Essence from the entire area. It won't explode, just degrade.

>>30274513
We know how to stop it: plant a Void Anchor right in the middle of it. It'll render the area unapproachable, and destroy it over time.

We use Reap to find out where Pazuzu's supposed to be. Or where Megaera is.

>>30274519
>for defense instead of offense.
No, it's just *perfect* armor.
So perfect that it can't be kept active with essence.

>>30274557
Uh? No, it's so perfect that it needs a user with a metric fuckton of the right kind of Essence to wear it without dying horribly.

>>30274569
Well, yes.
Which effectively means that it can't be powered.

>>30274557

I don't think it's meant for us. But who's the one who's going to wear it? Mio? Hecate?

>>30274519
>Hate to break it to you but Hecate's not here. We had a flashback to her in the hospital after seeing the Cradles.

last we had a flashback, man, we learned she was alive.
I don't care about the relationship, but she saved our life and got us the goddamn sphere, we owe it to her to *try* to find out what happened to her.

>>30274595

I have to wonder if its the armor of midas cybele was talking about
i mean, it sure is golden.

>>30274607
We've been trying. Every time we've tried we found nothing.

Last time we had a flashback to her, we saw her die.

>>30274595
Kotone, maybe. Or us if we lose the Red Joker.

>>30274595

Maybe cybele?

>>30274653
Doubt it. She can barely sustain empowering us.

>>30274666

We kind of got the short end of the stick, when it came to a Hyades partner. Couldn't we have gotten someone nicer? It's not like I have anything against Cybele, but she's utterly and completely batshit.

I put even odds on her trying to knife us to death when she finds out about the other girls.

>>30274720
Personality-wise she's the sweetest we could get. She's Mio without distractions taking away from Joker-kun and a whole heaping platter of mental issues plus a chance of not being human.

If Mio is Hellebore/her avatar I wonder what will happen to the Emblem. New power?

>>30274720

I think that Yui and Mio are the most attractive girls of the lot, to be honest.

>>30274645
>Last time we had a flashback to her, we saw her die.

No, we were told by our jealous girlfriend she died. Its JUST like her to lie so she gets us all to ourselves

>>30274921

I can't wait to see all the girls collide in one big clusterfuck of tears and yandere instincts.

>>30275031
>Joker becomes evil overlord
>The girls kill him and then vow to never care about guys again

>>30274883

I like Yui too.

If only she didnt show up so late.

>>30275392

She might still win. Who knows?

>>30275596

Nah. Still voting for hecate if it comes to it.

>>30275626
True love is best love. She's the only girl who can actually understand us.

>>30275645

It's funny that /tg/ considers her our true love, when we didn't even get that far with her. We kissed Mio, and we had sex with Cybele: We didn't even kiss Hecate.

What I'm saying is, making up with Hecate is going to be amazing.

>>30275749

* should be amazing, I meant. After all the hoops we're jumping through. I don't think any other Quest has had us work so hard to get the love interest back, before.

>>30275749

only due to a lack of time with her.

>>30275812

I wonder what would have happened if we met the other girls first. Sure, we only met Hecate a few threads in (Asuna is chronologically the first girl to show up) but Hecate appears in the very first chapter.

>>30274921
What, at Nara Dreamland? We saw her death from the 1st person.

>>30277806

The pool in Nara Dreamland only has the memories of a Player when they're in the Red World. I think.

I still don't know what the fuck that thing was, but the whole experience reminded me of a Harrowing from Wraith: The Oblivion.

>>30275645
>She's the only girl who can actually understand us.
Kotone has an even better grasp on RJ, though she's pretty much a lost cause at this point. Something which I lament as I really want her to win.

>>30278376
I want to save her, at least.

>>30278376

Isn't the White Joker trying to save her?

>>30278459
Does that mean Hecate will be the blue Joker?

>>30278483

I doubt it. The story doesn't seem to be heading that way. I think things are going to get bad, and very quickly. The next chapter promises to be an absolute slaughter.

>>30277922
She's not anywhere in the Red World and she's not in the real. She's either in suspended animation or dead.

>>30278459
Ptobably, yeah. Does that make him Naoya or the priest?

>>30278662

My theory is that she can't access the red World, because her brain is damaged. We don't get attacked when we're asleep or unconscious, because we can't 'log in' when that happens.

Notice how Argent Prominence vanished when he was put under anaesthetic? You need to be awake to control your Player form.

Hecate/Tsukimi is in a coma, and thus she's unable to 'log in'. If she was awake, she could easily save herself.

>>30278724
If she's comatose, doesn't that mean that there's nothing at all we can do?

Remember that Players suffer backlash from losing in the Red World. Bardiel gutted her and she died. Her body lives, but only because it's already in a cradle.

>>30278724

That's a chicken-and-egg problem, isn't it? She can't access the red world because she can't wake up, and she can't wake up because she can't access the red world.

>>30278832

I think she suffered a stroke when Bardiel killed her. Jury's out on whether that's fatal or not.

>>30278857
Given the doctor's prognosis, and what Kotone said about finding someone to love after Hecate disappeared...

>finally have time
>read thread

Should've popped the Carnifex and waded into the middle of the Silencers. Burned them all to death while pumping Immolator/Vulcan fire. But nooo. Can't be flashy.

>>30279547
Using the Carnifex starts with blasting a grenade in a circle around you as the armor ejects. We couldn't activate it without hurting the squad, and the fire burns out of control, so same story.

Now, we should have led with the lightning bolt. Not doing that was a mistake, but it's not like I was on to suggest it.

>>30279679
>blasting a grenade in a circle around you
What the fuck? You seem to be overestimating the power with which the armor is ejected.

>>30281294
We've used it to kill Correctors before.