>>40878661

The barbed spire of alien machinery behind you - All cruel lines and needle-points - forms a miniature ziggurat, bristling with spidering arms and toothed instruments, the holographic display flickering with warning red runes - Urgent chains of code spiralling outwards, circling.

Terminal corruption. Containment breach.

And yet, the alien pyramid - flecked with dried gore, with scraps of organic matter, nicked by the saw-toothed and rending surgeries that have taken place here - is almost wholesome, is almost a beacon of sanity, as Hell vomits forth it's filth.

There are shapes. Glossy and dark, pouring down the gallery - Like liquid darkness, like blood. Something that runs and drips, swells and flows again, in a tide of seething bodies; surging towards you like a roiling wave. And from above - And from all sides - there is the thunder of hammering limbs, beating sounds coming from the berths all around, as long-dead Correctors awaken to lurching half-life.

"Oh my God-" Even with the speakers that filter all emotion from his words - Even with the chequered armor that betrays nothing - Haze sounds like he's about to throw up. His eyeslits blink yellow, yellow, at the sheer horror of the creatures pouring down the hall - Most of them have spent eons in suspicion, in brine, in formaldehyde; they *ooze* unspeakable fluids, dragging slug-trails of black Lachryma behind them as putrid water, bio-fluid and seething black oil oozes down the walls from shattered capsules, cracks skittering across the surface of the glass-

They leave pieces of themselves behind.

(Continued)

>>40878672

With a vile, gurgling roar, an acid-ocean behemoth rips free of the containment cell. The great, flailing bulk does not land - It *ruptures* like an overripe fruit, pitted surface bulging with tumor-like growths, growths that split apart into ragged wounds; needled-toothed spawn, chewing their way free, swollen with awful unlife as their snakelike forms writhe forward towards you, across the slick tiles-

"How *many*-" Daegal's helm is canted back, his faceplate lifted in sheer blank horror. "-How *many* of the fucking things *are* there...?"

COMPILING: 6.8%

"Hundreds. Thousands. " There is a lightless hunger in Rook's voice. He stares, avidly, at the Lachryma that seethes and runs in oily rivulets from every surface; It may only be a trick of light, but - for a moment - you see the veins and arteries and fronds beneath his armor *palpate*, as the raptor-crescent arc of his helmet judders in a spastic twitch. There is a vile *need* in that smallest of motions, as he makes to step forward-

"-Get back in line."

Armaros's words are a flat rasp. Azoic light flickers beneath his visor, as the cables of his form bunch, hydraulics and electrodrivers humming to life - there is a snarl in his words, a metal-on-metal hiss of bitterly repressed anger; You can feel the loathing that boils up from within him, as palpable and as a lethal as hard radiation. His Distortion Halo is already deployed, cising bolts of charge flickering across his limbs, leaping from edge to jagged edge of his articulated superheavy plating as his plated fists clench around Ascalon's hilt.

Rook isn't stupid. He contends him with a glare as Armaros stomps forward, each step grinding tiles to powder underfoot. He seems to loom, to swell with titanic anger, cloaked in his own personal storm-

He's walking right towards them.

"What's he-" Daegal begins - "What's he *doing*-?"

(Continued)

>>40878679

"Hmh." The Thief, kneeling next to the tangled machinery of the console, wrenches a handful free. No power cords - Nothing like that. A branching array of dark tubing snakes forth, something disturbingly almost-but-not-quite random about their arrangement...

-Nerves.

A slender steel spike - Little more than a stiletto - extends from his wrist. When the Thief stabs it into one of the smallest tubes, something *writhes* within the console, as the lines of wiring *twitch* against his fist-

COMPILING: 10.7%

"Joker-" A brief glance, an ember flicker within the lens of his skull-helm.

"-Need time."

[ ] "We'll hold them off."
[ ] "Forget that - We need your help up front."
[ ] "How long?"
[ ] "-Can you get the other systems working?"
[ ] Free

HP: 96.4%
COBALT BOOSTER: 150%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 127%
METER: 42%
ENCROACHMENT: 9%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>40878707
>[ ] "How long?"
>[ ] "We'll hold them off."
Ok, first of all:

EXEC_SWARM

We need to think in large scale here. And the self-replicating ability of the swarm will be perfect here.

Use our remaining interceptors with EXEC_POWER_TRANSFER to have more distributed firepower.

Activate the Aquila, get out two Tau guns and go to town.
Kite everything and murder as much as possible before they reach our position.

>>40878707
>"How long?"
>"-Can you get the other systems working?"
>>40878756
Don't have anything to contribute myself, but this plan seems sound.

>>40878707
>[ ] "How long?"
>[ ] "-Can you get the other systems working?"

"Haze, prepare another large-scale attack if you can. If not, be ready to use the warhead."
" Daegal, make sure to protect Haze and try to mostly use ranged weapons."

Send out a few missiles and use booster to charge up the Fusion Annihilator for a large sweeping blast.

>>40878756
>Activate the Aquila, get out two Tau guns and go to town.
The Tau has an extremely short firing rate and is a single-target weapon. Using something with a large AoE or fast rate of fire is better.

>>40878803
>Send out a few missiles and use booster to charge up the Fusion Annihilator for a large sweeping blast.
Always remember that lachryma-infused enemies do not drop Meter.

I would prefer to hold back on meter use whenever possible.

>>40878815
> extremely short firing rate
The Tau also has very front-loaded damage.

OP, what kind of correctors are we up against? Heavy types that the tau won't overkill or weaker ones that are better killed with the Vulans?

>>40878823
>I would prefer to hold back on meter use whenever possible.
>what is EXEC_POWER TRANSFER

>>40878756
>>40878776

> "How long?"

The Thief makes a low sound of irritation - the aural equivalent of a shrug. He doesn't spare you a glance as he wrenches another handful of tubing free; There are clusters, nodes, that pulse and throb with internal life - When he spears one of them on his stiletto-probe, a riling convulsion of silent agony spikes through the entire network-

> "-Can you get the other systems working?"

Now *that* gets his attention. He doesn't respond, beyond the shallowest of nods - but the holographic display flickers, sparks dancing, leaping - green telltales winking to life, then back to red-

He's working on it.

> "Haze, prepare another large-scale attack if you can. If not, be ready to use the warhead."

"But-" Haze begins - "But *Armaros*-"

Haze. Focus.

The exhaust ports in his armored throat, the vents bleeding streamers of thin smoke, whirr to life - the haze becoming dense, a vile yellowish-green of vectored toxin, plumes gathering into a tight ball-

> "Daegal, make sure to protect Haze and try to mostly use ranged weapons."

"-Ranged *weapons*?" The Arsenal Beacon on Daegal's back hums - The internal glow filtering through the striations, as the smoothbore bulk of a Revolve Bazooka materalizes; For a moment, Kazuya looks genuinely appalled, electrodrivers humming as he braces to take the weight - Even as he heaves it up to his shoulder, the flip-out holographic sight deploying-

"Do you know how to use th-" Haze begins, struggling back up-

(Continued)

>>40878875
It can be used for one purpose per round.

If you charge Fusion Annihilator, you can't also fire missiles from Booster.

>>40878892
>"-Ranged *weapons*?" The Arsenal Beacon on Daegal's back hums - The internal glow filtering through the striations, as the smoothbore bulk of a Revolve Bazooka materalizes; For a moment, Kazuya looks genuinely appalled, electrodrivers humming as he braces to take the weight - Even as he heaves it up to his shoulder, the flip-out holographic sight deploying-

>"Do you know how to use th-" Haze begins, struggling back up-

He really needs to start collecting relics.

Let's see how this comedy continues.

>>40878894
I really wish we still had the chaingun. How about the Autocannon? It should be good for this situation?

>>40878919
There are two guns of its type in the Hollow Sun.

I think the one that we got is the one best suited against heavy armor. I need to look it up.

>>40878892

There is a loud, sucking *whoosh* of air, as Daegal fires the first round - the anti-armor rocket screaming across the hall, banking in low on a spiralling arc; It hits the first Corrector - A lurching spider-creature, leaving a long smear of unspeakable fluids behind itself as it draws a swollen abdomen forward on four remaining legs - squarely between the glistening nest of eyes. Everything from the thorax up vaporizes in a blinding orange blur, the concussive overpressure flinging aside the skinless hounds loping ahead-

And Daegal yells - "*All right*-!"

"Joker, don't encourage him-" Haze begins, but he's drowned out in hot backwash of flame, as the launcher spits out another rocket - This time, it goes wide, spiralling upwards into the vaulted ceiling; thick black smoke boiling out to engulf them as you vault the steps, your autoreactive talons skidding against the ground-

The first horrors - scuttling scorpion-clawed monstrosities, twice-dead worms carried forward on a thousand thousand scuttling feet - are almost upon you. Your Rifle Bits deploy, fanning out on gravimetric engines - Particle guns humming with killing light-

And then a storm of hiltless blades rips across them, ice-white spines that shriek as they split the air - there is a solid, meaty *chunk* with each impact, impaling, slicing, meaty gobbets flung wide with each brutal impact. You glimpse - For a moment - Rook, one fleshmetal wing spread; Another volley of Shrike Blades ratcheting outwards, bright and gleaming, ready for launch.

(Continued)

>>40878942
Nah, you mean the Machine cannon. We have the original one which has low armor penetration but great range and ridiculous rate of fire. Using the Photon Beamer for a few sweeps would also be good once Armaros is out of he way.

>>40878942
Looked it up.

Autocannon is the anti-infantry variant.

Also, don't forget that we got Rubicante and Cagnazzo, in case a Corrector comes too close to comfort.
Due to Vector Trap, we should be able to equip them quickly and then instantly switch back to another weapon.

>>40878948
>And Daegal yells - "*All right*-!"

>"Joker, don't encourage him-" Haze begins, but he's drowned out in hot backwash of flame, as the launcher spits out another rocket - This time, it goes wide, spiralling upwards into the vaulted ceiling
This is mildly adorable.

>>40878948
>And then a storm of hiltless blades rips across them, ice-white spines that shriek as they split the air - there is a solid, meaty *chunk* with each impact, impaling, slicing, meaty gobbets flung wide with each brutal impact. You glimpse - For a moment - Rook, one fleshmetal wing spread; Another volley of Shrike Blades ratcheting outwards, bright and gleaming, ready for launch.
Boy, I sure hope he doesn't go batshit again. That's the last thing we need.

>>40878991
I think he's trying to be careful.

>>40878981
It's funny how little nudging he needs to learn this shit. Just a little bit of giving him a hint.

Maybe he's starting to get the hang of things. I wish we can show him a burning Joker scene at some point. He'd be fucking envious.

>>40878948

You intuit all this in the span of the moment - As Armaros lumbers down the right flank, down the steps that spiral upwards to the central console's dais, he is a figure of terrible anger; the reanimated horrors are shambling forward, the lesser Correctors limping and staggering and loping forward - You see things like enormous, fleshless bats, knuckle-walking on furled sails tarred Lachryma-black, something that might be a giganthropus ape with bone spurs bristling from the knuckles, countless insects and arachnids and scuttlers, all the myriad nightmares you could ever imagine and more than a few you can't-

You hear their gurgling howls, as something muscular, something segmented, like a vat, jet-shelled centipede writhing with wet psuedopods rears up above you - a stinking mist boiling from the reanimated abdomination's noisome flesh, the great weight of its glistening bulk smashing one of the lesser Correctors underfoot, turning it into a tarry puddle as it draws up to collapse and smash down on you...

But your Rifle Bits are already firing. Ice-white, pinpoint beams lance down, on all sides - A burning rain, die-straight, like swords. They burn through spinal columns and sever limbs; they flash-burn Lachryma to white heat, black shapes riling in spontaneous infernoes as your Assault Shroud denudes-

And spews forth a swarm of your own.

Daegal yells an incoherent warning, as he chambers another round - But it's lost in the actinic buzzing, buzzing of the death's-head parasites that boil outwards from you, their mandibles chewing, gnawing, sweeping through the shambling mass in a devouring cloud; EXEC_SWARM does not care whether meat walks as it is consumed.

(Continued)

>>40879044

The Tempest Scrander at your back vents charge - Vector thrusters hurling you aside, as the Corrector's fluid mass slams *down*. Flailing antennae lash out at you; A glancing blow draws sparks from your armor, slashing a deep gouge...But then the Emulator Module at the base of your spine pulses, and you discharge both Tau Guns squarely into the back of the thing's head.

The flesh *bulges*. It swells. The wet, clotted eruption that follows hurls superheated black fog upwards and outwards, like a noxious mist - Iridescent slime and biofluid boiling out from the great, gouting wound as the massive nightmare thrashes in its second death.

"He's making us all look useless!" You hear Haze yell - Even as a huge dark shadow descends from above; A gigantic abomination glistening like an oil slick, seething internally as it moves, withered organs and secondary hearts pulsing within the sickening translucency of the semi-amophorohous shape's skin, tiny tendrils riling outwards like twitching fingers.

-It's going for the console.

HP: 91.1%
COBALT BOOSTER: 109%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 83%
METER: 42%
ENCROACHMENT: 2%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>40879140
>"He's making us all look useless!"
Kazuya in his element.

Time to use the Scrander (Use Booster for instead mode change into flight mode) and Abruption Jets to punch the thing, followed by firing cobalt boosted POWER_TRANSFER missiles everywhere to get an even spread of napalm for some damage over time.

Then continue firing dual Taus at separate targets.

>>40879140
>"He's making us all look useless!" You hear Haze yell -
Oh, Haze. Don't be jelly.

Anyway, we should try and stop it from reaching the console while not damaging the console itself. I don't think melee is going to do a lot, what with the redundant hearts, so let's use the Tau again.

>>40879173
>Oh, Haze. Don't be jelly.
I think Haze is also starting to appreciate the thrill of the fight.

>>40879140
>"I hope you're not forgetting to use the Argus System, Daegal."
Abruption Jet + Auspex + Crysis Arm the thing.
>"I suggest you jump, Armaros"
Unleash two or three sweeps of the Photon Beamer before switching to the Autocannon and gunning down anything that approaches.

>>40879190
>Auspex
Ah, so we look for something important and smash it?

...Would that even work on lachryma-infused stuff?

Our encroachment is low, but I'm not sure if we should use DRAW_FORTH to restore some health and weaken the thing.

>>40879209
Considering Armaros is berserking the fuck out, I wouldn't vote to use Draw Forth.

>>40879168
Here

>>40879190
Sounds better in terms of what we do after killing the thing.

>>40879220
I just had the hilarious idea of DRAW_FORTH OVER ARMOR, in mid-air.

We increase our weight, then drop onto an enemy like we are Kirby.

>>40879209
>>40879220
Yeah, probably wouldn't be a good idea. We've got a swarm up though, so we could restore our health with that. Assuming it doesn't get destroyed. And that it isn't only capable of restoring the Shroud.

>>40879248
Maybe we should start firing Shrike Blades everywhere.

The poison effect would be very useful.

>>40879190

> "I hope you're not forgetting to use the Argus System, Daegal."

"I'm-"

Rocket after rocket bangs off. A riot of fire and hurled sharpnel chews up the hall, a necklace of fireballs quivering the ground; Daegal, his feet braced, is firing a Bazooka with each hand - the overlapping detonations must be overwhelming, like shoving a strobe light against your eyes, clicking them on and off - but each salvo that squeals out erupts in a ragged blast, liquefying twice-dead bodies, flinging them aside like matchsticks in a hurricane.

"-trying-"

More whirring blades. A dark blast of ozone-crackling energy from Haze's hand - where it hits, an entire pack *liquefies*. Flesh sloughs off bone, as the entropic elements in the smoke-blast accelerate decay to a fever-pitch; it eats through quivering, jellied flesh, so fast that a heat-haze of rippling vapour boils skyward-

Your legs curl beneath you - the static jets flinging you skywards as you *spring*, towards the bloated shape hanging in the skies; It resembles a sky-whale, swollen with gas bladders and fins to keep that vile, decaying bulk aloft - Scaled flanks and claw-toed flippers urge it forward, teeth like spears of ragged yellow coral shuddering open for a yawning bite. Smaller parasites, writhing like worms, bleed out from the meat-wounds in the thing's guts, falling in a constant, sickening rain-

The Tempest Scrander burns blue-hot at your back. One Tau Gun shimmers away to nothing, the Crisis Arm coalescing, condensing, as your fingers curl into a wrecking fist. Cold strength pulses through you, as your Cobalt Booster flares - Your head down, your fist leading, as you hit the afterburners-

You punch *into* the descending Corrector, like a railgun shell through a cranium.

You punch *through* it.

(Continued)

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>>40879275
>You punch *through* it.

>>40879275
>Daegal, his feet braced, is firing a Bazooka with each hand
He's definitely getting the hang of it.

>A dark blast of ozone-crackling energy from Haze's hand - where it hits, an entire pack *liquefies*. Flesh sloughs off bone, as the entropic elements in the smoke-blast accelerate decay to a fever-pitch; it eats through quivering, jellied flesh, so fast that a heat-haze of rippling vapour boils skyward-
It's easy to forget that Haze is perfect for encounters against living organisms.

Thank fuck that we trained him.

If we come out of this alive, we'll have lots of parties in the Real.

>>40879310
Overkill isn't necessarily good. We might overshoot.

Shit, why can't I post images?

>>40879275
>You punch *through* it.
Somehow, I'm not sure this is a good sign.

>>40879338
It has secondary hearts 'n shit, I don't think it is.

>>40879355
I doubt extra hearts mean much to a zombie. What I'm really worried about is our arm being stuck in it instead of it being thrown away. We may get grappled.

>>40879365
Ever since this arc started, grappling has become our greatest fear.
Remember that Corrector that dragged us along?

I miss the times when we headbutted people into submission.

>>40879275

Rotten flesh disintegrates beneath the Crisis Arm's charge field - The superdense alloy like a battering ram, like a wrecking ball. Your vision momentarily goes a deeper red, as clotted gore, as the thick ropes of dessicated organs, spill out over you - in the instant before they're incinerated by the Tempest Scrander's backwash. You erupt outwards in an bloody exit wound, suit vents juddering as they try to cope with the tarry black fluid that fumes forth - Foul internal fluids raining down, your autoreactive talons digging into the thing's hide-

And you see-

There are ripples of spatial distortion, where Armaros is. Pulses of disintegrating white fire. When he goes to work, his fury is unstinting - It is as if the Correctors have offended him, personally, and all his rage is boiling out of him in crackling spheres of electric fire, invisible hands that wrench twisting forms skywards and rip them apart, a surging vortex that crams miserably mismatched creatures together into a many-limbed nightmare of thrashing flesh as waves of acid fire strips meat from bones and wrenches semi-articulated skeletons free-

> "I suggest you jump, Armaros."

You're not sure if he can hear you. You're not sure if he can hear anything. He rears back and brings both fists down - Like Satan's own ax-handle - onto a crustacean studded with hundreds of hard black eyes; When the shell cracks, when it flips over, legs twitching as it fights to right itself, blue fire boils from his visor - Sphere after sphere after sphere of semi-solid lightnings, still chewing away at the creature's guts as Armaros *strains*-

(Continued)

>>40879365
>>40879375
If only we could still set ourselfves on fire.

>>40879405
We could ask Kazuya.

>>40879407
>Kaz, set me on fire!
>Huh?
>Just do it!

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>>40879394
Guess I was worried for nothing. Also, holy hell is Armaros mad. Dude is channeling enough rage to match Guts.

>>40879415
We've got the elemental powers of destruction, perfection, ABC weapons, crows and telekinesis.

Best strike force.

>>40879394

"-Oh fuck-" Rook crackles, in something very much like awe-

And Armaros *roars*, hydraulics shrieking as he hoists the thrashing creature - At least twice again his size - into the air. It is a monotone machine-vox howl, as he hurls it down the steps, like a man throwing the hammer - When it hits, it detonates with all the force of a fragmentation bomb. There is a thunderclap - A torus of expanding force - electric flame spewing outwards in all directions, washing through the churning mob. The twice-dead creatures caught in it shudder, melting, resolving briefly into skeletons that turn to dust and disintegrate.

The vast Corrector beneath you judders, lowing in distress - your talons skidding, scratching deep furrows in the barnacle-encrusted skin, as the wind whistles through the gaping hole in its guts. It begins to list, as Lachryma bleeds out of the great, gouting wound; Even as you wrench yourself free, your launchers cycling up-

It's Haze who sees what you're about to do, first. He blanches, and hurls himself flat behind the rising spines of the steel pyramid, hugging the ground-

"Get down," Rook rasps to Daegal - And Kazuya half-turns, and says-

"Huh-?"

(Continued)

>>40879444
Oh and the avatar of edge.

>>40879450
There's no denying Armaros is effective, but he seems a little too focused on single targets.

>>40879450
>"Huh-?"
Important last words.

>>40879456
His collateral damage more than makes up for it.

>>40879450
>And Kazuya half-turns, and says-

>"Huh-?"
THIS IS NOT THE CORRECT RESPONSE FOR WHEN SOMEONE ON YOUR SIDE TELLS YOU TO GET DOWN, KAZUYA.

>>40879476
I think Rook and Haze just might be used to our tendency of randomly unleashing AoE fuckery already.

I guess it's time to find out how sturdy Daegal really is.

>>40879450

Rook's kick takes him right in the chest, and Daegal drops, swearing.

Your rocket pods bang like snare drums, trailing white smoke across the tainted air in their wake. Not fragmentation loads - Napalm. The first missile erupts into a swirling cloud of greedy blue flame - the Lachyrma catches light, the heat drawing the next four missiles in a staggered flight as they kick to life, spinning twisting ropes of exhaust in their wake. Ablaze from end-to-end, each incendiary blast mantling it further in flame, the flying behemoth descends with a ponderous, grinding unstoppability, listing badly to one side - Veering away from the control spire, ploughing nose-first towards the mindless horde below-

-Where Armaros kills again and again and *again*, until he almost pitches over in the tide of barbed fiends that swarm him, levelling them into a pile eight deep as ichor clogs the steps, rich, ruddy, stinking, his fists smashing them aside, forming his own blockade-

He looks up. He growls something that might be a curse.

But then he begins to run.

(Continued)

>>40879523
I thought he wasn't that sturdy, it's that his armour rating doesn't degrade. So he suffers the HP loss, but he doesn't get the other downsides of being hurt, capiche?

>>40879562
He is sturdy. OP confirmed that along with the lack of degradation his armor rating by itself is really fucking high.

>>40879551
>Rook's kick takes him right in the chest
I'm imagining a chicken-like player doing a kick right now.

The mental image is hilarious.

>>40879551

The behemoth's descent is oddly graceful, unfurling in slow-motion. As your Tempest Scrander hurls you up and away, as you bank *hard* on your thrusters and burn for safety, you never actually see it touch *down*-

But then the gas bladders rupture. And then napalm flame kindles the vile Lachryma mist that seethes in the air.

There is a strange, drum-like thump. Furnace light glows, as flame spills outwards-

Then the noise and the shockwave hits you, and stamps you down to the ground.

You land with a jarring *crunch*, tumbling for ten to twenty metres in a skidding, scraping flurry - On your back, slowly, slowly, coming to a halt. Before you - Leaping flames crackle, smoke seething in the air - it shrouds your view of everything below the steps, except for the great, charred bulk that cooks in its own internal fires, the ravenous blue inferno shooting long tongues of sickly flame and columns of filthy black smoke into the still air.

Something without a mouth screams.

"Joker-"

There is a shadow, silhouetted by clustered emergency lighting, above you. It looms, tall and strong and assured, sheathed in gleaming armor - a great cloak billowing in the scourging heat-winds, solemn and regal.

Then Kazuya actually *says* something, and ruins it all.

"-Holy shit, that was *insane*. How are you-"

"How are you still *alive*-?"

You get your arms beneath you. Metal groans, as you lever yourself upright. The ground has cracked - Your armor hasn't. The firestorm has only served to cook the crackling layer of gore that coats your armor, your altered sensors cycling - Taking in the flaws that skitter across the splintered tiles underfoot, from your crash-landing.

[ ] "-How long was I out?"
[ ] "The others?"
[ ] "I'm fine, if you're asking."
[ ] "Player armor. You get used to it."
[ ] "Where's the Thief?"
[ ] "Did Armaros get clear?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>40879712
>[ ] "The others?"
>[ ] "Player armor. You get used to it."

>>40879712
>"The others?"
>"Player armor. You get used to it."
"In case you haven't noticed, there's no meat under these things. Just Essence."

>>40879712
>[ ] "-How long was I out?"

>[ ] "Player armor. You get used to it."
"One day I'll tell you about how I made a friend by headbutting him so hard that my sensors went out.
Or that time I got cut in half by a crazy dude with precognition and got saved by Akira.

You were quite good yourself, I must say. You seem to be getting the hang of it."

[ ] "Did Armaros get clear?"

"Did Thief's plan work?"

>>40879712
>[ ] "The others?"
Asking about specific players would send the wrong message, so let's go with this.

>>40879712
"Years of fighting in a robotic body have to count for something, you know. Can't exactly call yourself one of the best if you haven't pulled a few insane stunts."

>>40879789
Good idea.

>>40879787
Changing this to not mention Armaros.

I want to give Batman a hug he needs one

>>40879761
>>40879773
>>40879787
>>40879789
>>40879798
>>40879817

> [X] "Years of fighting in a robotic body have to count for something, you know. Can't exactly call yourself one of the best if you haven't pulled a few insane stunts."

"What, when you punched *through* that - that horrible *thing* - then blew it up with missiles? This is something you're *used* to doing?"

> [X] "Player armor. You get used to it."

He just shakes his head, incredulously.

>"One day I'll tell you about how I made a friend by headbutting him so hard that my sensors went out.
> Or that time I got cut in half by a crazy dude with precognition and got saved by Akira.
> You were quite good yourself, I must say. You seem to be getting the hang of it."

"Yeah, well..." Daegal glances down. "With these things - It's easy, you know? They're *monsters*. If I just - If I just focus on what I'm doing, now..." His voice trails off, a trace of levity entering his words. "Huh, really? I'll have to ask Akira about th-"

He stops, mid-sentence; taking in the destruction on all sides, as if it is only now dawning upon him.

"-After. After, for sure."

> [X] "In case you haven't noticed, there's no meat under these things. Just Essence."

"Yeah," he says. He sounds troubled, looking down at himself - You wonder what he thinking, what he's seeing.

> [X] "The others?"

"They're-"

(Continued)

>>40879888
>"What, when you punched *through* that - that horrible *thing* - then blew it up with missiles? This is something you're *used* to doing?"
He really needs to hear about the raid.

>>40879888

There is a sharp, brittle sound - A hiss of energies. Flickers of lightning, dark and unhealthy, flare like troubled synapses from the ruptured area of the console array. Odd harmonics, like the low moaning of distant voices, fill the hall. You lever yourself to your feet, as the holographic display shivers to life; chains of cold green light circling overhead, the feeble air-push of the compromised systems.

"-Done."

The Thief's words are clipped, as he stands; the augment spike retracting into his wrist, the network of synaptic cables and artificial nerves rustling with a low surrusation as they withdraw. The ember-glow of his skull-helm has dimmed - He seems unruffled, despite the ruin that has taken place - taking it in with a contemplative glance, before he turns to you.

"Joker - Systems are restored."

His boots scuff against the overlapping tiles, as he graces Daegal with a nod of acknowledgement; "Kazuya. Good work."

"'Good work?'" Haze echoes - He's not limping any more. Though his chequered armor is caked with soot, lined with cracks, he's - somehow - come through the last few battles mostly intact. "That's the first time I've heard-"

The Thief fixes him with a singular look, and Haze shuts up.

"We're finished here." Armaros's growl comes over his speakers, as he comes up the steps - Steam trailing from his limbs in a fug, his gauntlets, his sabatons, every inch of his darkly silver form, caked with gore and flaking Lachryma. He looks like he's waded through a charnel house; the actinic hum of his Distortion Halo dulled to a low grumble, the segmented plate of the charging rack glowing intermittently as it cools, light escaping between the pulsing woven lines.

"Hnnnnn." Rook's rasp is low, amused, as Armaros lumbers past. "-Not so above it all, are you?"

(Continued)

>>40880042
>"Hnnnnn." Rook's rasp is low, amused, as Armaros lumbers past. "-Not so above it all, are you?"
I hope he doesn't lash out against that comment.

But I feel like the team is starting to really grow together.
Haze and Kazuya are becoming better fighters. Rook is getting his shit together. Totenaz feels friendlier than usual.
Only Armaros is still an uncertain.

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>>40880042
>"Hnnnnn." Rook's rasp is low, amused, as Armaros lumbers past. "-Not so above it all, are you?"

Oh boy

>>40880042

There is a *crack*. A sound like a miniature thunderclap, as Armaros - Without any warning at all - backhands Rook across the face. The impact snaps him back, a sound like a rifle shot - Jagged chips flying free from Rook's raptor-helm as he's snatched away without warning - knocked sprawling by that unsweeping blow.

"Oh shit-" Daegal blurts out-

"Rook-!" Haze makes a sound between a yelp and a snarl-

-But it is Rook who comes to his feet first, his eyeslits burning with killing light.

"You *hit* me-" he hisses - His voice carrying, in a guttural, malign whisper. There is utter disbelief in the words; his faceplate is cracked, but the crack is already sealing over - stitching itself shut, with sickening slowness, the way a smile slowly fades.

Armaros - Slowly, a calculated insult - turns his head. It is the fluid neck-swivel of a move-by-wire system, of helmet-display target sensors.

"I *slapped* you." Armaros says, with careful deliberation. "If I *struck* you, you would be broken."

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>40880155
Oh for fuck's sake.

Anyone have an idea how to handle this?

Just tell them to stop it? I feel this would only raise resentment for later.

But is there any way to get them to see eye to eye?

>>40880155
>"You *hit* me-" he hisses - His voice carrying, in a guttural, malign whisper. There is utter disbelief in the words; his faceplate is cracked, but the crack is already sealing over - stitching itself shut, with sickening slowness, the way a smile slowly fades.
Easy there, Amuro.
Also try to deffuse the situation, I guess. Let's just say we're still in enemy territory and we don't want to call more raving hordes down upon us.

>>40880155
>"Now is not the time. I know I don't have to remind either of you what is at stake here."

>>40880174
>But is there any way to get them to see eye to eye?
No. Best we can get is them setting aside their shit for later, after the world isn't ending immediately anymore.

>>40880174
>is there any way to get them to see eye to eye
Nah. Even without the Lachryma they're just too different.
>>40880155
"Armaros, you're acting like a child. Both of you are. There's too much at stake for us to start fighting over a snide comment or a slap."

>>40880155
Step between the two.

"This is enough. Rook, it's a bad idea to antagonize someone who just went full Hulk.
Armaros, we really don't need petty fights right now. We are the only six people in here who can stop the Diadem and the Smilers. There are many lives at stake here.

It's apparent that you resent half the team for being lachryma-infused, but we are your only allies right now. Believe me, I wouldn't be using this stuff if I had a choice, and neither would Rook.
Once this is over, we can go our separate ways again. But right now we have to work together."

>>40880155
"Leave the snark and violence for the Smilers. You two can settle your differences after the job is done."

>>40880253
>>40880214
>>40880187
>>40880183

> Step between the two.
> "Now is not the time. I know I don't have to remind either of you what is at stake here."

A dire rasp issues from Rook's speakers - You can feel the blank, feral hatred oozing from him, a palpable force. Armaros's stare is lightless, and all the colder for it; It is not that he hates Rook. It is that he feels Rook is beneath him - and that, more than anything else, is what makes Rook bridle.

>>40880241

Rook's answer is a voiceless snarl; but you're right, and he knows it. His helmed head twitches on his neck - "This isn't over," he hisses, inclining his sloping raptor helm. He jabs a talon in Armaros's direction, a fist bunching in silent threat. "-This isn't *over*."

He stalks away, his talons clanking against the tiles - there is a pent-up fury in him, as his claws drag against the wall with a shrill scrape that draws sparks: Gouging deep furrows in the already-marred surface, a dire sound that would set teeth on edge-

If you had any teeth.

> "Armaros, you're acting like a child. Both of you are. There's too much at stake for us to start fighting over a snide comment or a slap."

Armaros makes a low sound, a clanking not-quite-laugh like an autoloader cycling.

> "Armaros, we really don't need petty fights right now. We are the only six people in here who can stop the Diadem and the Smilers. There are many lives at stake here."
> "Once this is over, we can go our separate ways again. But right now we have to work together."

(Continued)

>>40880371

"'Once this is over,'" Armaros rumbles, the sound issuing from deep within. "-Is that what you believe, Joker? That this will be over?" He shakes his head, static fuzzing across his speakers. For a moment, he seems to stare into the distance - At something only he can see.

"This mission will end us, Joker. A few more hours - that is the measure of our lifetimes."

Actinic light flickers, beneath his visor.

"Joker - You are already half-undone."

[ ] "-What's eating you?"
[ ] "I'm still in control, Armaros. *Rook* is still in control."
[ ] "So be it, then. But I'm seeing this through to the end."
[ ] "It's too late to be having second thoughts."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>40880387
>[ ] "So be it, then. But I'm seeing this through to the end."

>>40880387
>"So be it, then. But I'm seeing this through to the end."
>"-What's eating you?"

>>40880387
>[x] "So be it, then. But I'm seeing this through to the end."
>[x] "-What's eating you?"

>>40880387
>[ ] "-What's eating you?"
>[ ] "So be it, then. But I'm seeing this through to the end."
"If not me, then at least everyone else. If my end comes, I will pass my armor on to someone worthy.
The least I can do is make the future a little less bleak. I already saw too much suffering and lost too many people. Pazuzu, the White Joker and all of their ilk need to be taken down.

If you get out of this and I don't, please take care of Kazuya and Natsumi."

>>40880387
>[ ] "-What's eating you?"
>[ ] "So be it, then. But I'm seeing this through to the end."
"You didn't give up on Rook when I brought him to you back then. I want to believe that the man who called his own subordinates family hasn't given up on himself either."

>>40880497
I like this write in

This is a nice write in

>>40880387
"One step before the other.
That's what the last Joker said when I thought that I would be trapped in the Black for all of eternity.
And I will follow those words here. I'm seeing this through to the end, even if it is my end."

>>40880402
>>40880408
>>40880450
>>40880456

> [X] "So be it, then. But I'm seeing this through to the end."
> [X] "If not me, then at least everyone else. If my end comes, I will pass my armor on to someone worthy. The least I can do is make the future a little less bleak. I already saw too much suffering and lost too many people. Pazuzu, the White Joker and all of their ilk need to be taken down.

"-As have we all."

> [X] "If you get out of this and I don't, please take care of Kazuya and Natsumi."

Armaros says nothing. It is a promise that he does not believe he can keep, because - As you are aware of, now - he does not intend to survive.

> [X] "-What's eating you?"

For a long, long moment, you think he may simply remain silent. But then - He exhales, a breath he doesn't need; the sound crackling over the closed channel. "The waste. The march of time, if nothing else."

He turns his head. "This place, this ship - It is a wonder. Creatures from a thousand worlds. Machinery - Sciences - Technologies - we couldn't begin to imagine. And they-"

"-And the Smilers take it. And they turn it into a weapon. For spite."

"Six years, Joker. Six years to rebuild the city - To make *something* from the ruin, to save it from the rubble-"

"What is it that we are doing here, exactly? We have found an Ark that eclipses the very limits of human achievement. A ship that could take us to the very gates of Heaven itself."

"And now this, Joker. And now we have to destroy it - Everything and everyone on it."

(Continued)

>>40880648
So my guess was correct. He really is a man of science.

I wonder what the relation between real and red world tech is.

>>40880648
This is classic SMT endings, right here.
We've got Armaros as a non-religious Law, Rook is basically Chaos, and Daegal is neutral.

>>40880648

"Argent-" His voice falters. "-How he would have longed to see this. A moment earlier - *Days* earlier, and..."

"...And it no longer matters."

"Perhaps it is our nature to destroy ourselves. Perhaps all Players - in the truest form - are like Bardiel. Like the Smilers."

"-Like Rook."

> "You didn't give up on Rook when I brought him to you back then. I want to believe that the man who called his own subordinates family hasn't given up on himself either."

He pauses - Contemplative now, thinking. Not answering you, not right away; But the sidelong glance he gives you is thoughtful.

> "One step before the other. That's what the last Joker said when I thought that I would be trapped in the Black for all of eternity. And I will follow those words here. I'm seeing this through to the end, even if it is my end."

"-He said that?" Armaros's vox-filtered voice is wondering, as he shakes his head. "That is what he told you?"

"The last Joker," he says, evenly, "-was wiser than you know."

He straightens. Not just in form, but in spirit. The gravimetric emitters concealed within his frame engage, hydraulics whirring as he draws himself to his full height. Tiny flickers of lightning sizzle across his form - the coating of gore on his armor dissolving, boiling away, leaving it pristine.

Armaros seems...lighter, somehow. As if a burden has been lifted from his spined shoulders, his exoskeleton articulating into motion once more.

(Continued)

>>40880752
So Daegal is our Heroine?

>>40880784
Basically, yeah.
Or, if you want to look at it a different way, he's the Hero and we're Chaos.

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>>40880760
Fuck yeah

Squad Morale restored

>>40880760

"-As long as *one* still believes. As long the world is still worth preserving."

The light flickers, within his visor. A spark - then a steady, internal illumination, kindled to a racing actinic glow, an azure flame.

"Until the end, Joker," Armaros rumbles, at last - "Whatever the end - We shall see it through."

JOKER QUEST

EPISODE 136

TO BE CONTINUED

>>40880798
>we're Chaos
Joker is pretty Neutral. If we were to go full SMT he'd be Dark Neutral, and Kazuya Light Neutral.

>>40880801
For once we didn't get everyone to run away screaming.

>>40880815

(Gentlemen - I hate to leave you here, but it's extremely late on my part. I would love to continue, but this looks like a natural breakpoint - And tomorrow is the start of a full week. Once again, I apologize; Life has not been kind to me lately, and it looks to continue in a similar vein.

Good night and God bless - You've been a wonderful audience, and I hope to see you again soon.)

>>40880833
No worries.
Today's session was quite good.

Did the exploding engine inspire you?

>>40880833
Thanks for running, JQOP. Try not to get into any more car accidents.

>>40880845

(Ah, I wouldn't say that, really.)