2022-11-11: The Best I Could Do
- Log: The Best I Could Do
- Cast: Lydia Seren, Jacqueline Barber, Lan Lilac, Talia, Cyre H. Lorentz, Elhaym van Houten, Ethius Hesiod, Xantia, Ida Everstead-Rey, Ivan, Ryoko Mizore, Azoth, Leah Sadalbari, Tabitha deVriese, Loren Voss
- Where: Damzena Desert
- Date: November 11, 2022
- Summary: Rachiel Medry decides to take a risk and enact a plan to rescue Lydia Seren from Solaris and has recruited Caravan Kinship to get in touch with Lydia's friends and assist her in the rescue by destroying the control system for OS. She can get them in and can get them credentials but not even she believes the operation will go off without a hitch.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel has been going around asking people for their help in a rescue of Lydia Seren. She provided a plan, warned of the limits of it, and she's carefully edited the logs to disguise her movements. She approved a seemingly routine unit transfer and helpfully provided fake credentials and non-fake uniforms to the drifters she 'hired' for this task. Of course, she can't ever be really entirely sure that she is in the clear. The Watcher is aptly named and even if it wasn't her, Solaris is very keen on internal security.
But it IS a plan and fortunately the Solarian facilities on the ground are way less secure than the ones up above.
As the hour of the rescue arrives, Rachiel pays a visit to Azoth and, all smiles, gives him the following orders: "Heeey, got some new orders from the Major for you! For the next hour or so we're going to be running tests on the Baphomet Control Structure. Outside of the team I'm bringing in, I'm gonna need you to prevent anyone from entering. Only nonlethal force if they try to break through anyway, ok? ~That's an order~" It is altogether possible that this might not trick Azoth in of itself, but maybe Azoth can help trick Azoth.
Once the team arrives, Rachiel meets them after clearing their path in.
"This could go pear shaped any minute so prepare for a rough exit..." Rachiel murmurs. "Whatever you do make sure that Lydia gets out of here. If she is left behind destroying this thing won't matter."
She leads the group to a far corner of the base. The control system for OS (and Lydia by association) is fairly isolated from other operations. Rachiel fell asleep at her job largely because she rarely got visitors. There's a long boss hallway leading to what would be a bland looking computer room if there wasn't this large orb in the center of the structure that was receiving significant amount of power judging by the glowing blue lines around it. A catwalk works around on an upper level around it, winding metal stairs leading up to the higher level.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel rushes on ahead, tapping rapidly at a console on the bottom floor with professional speed when--
VROOOM!
A forcefield crackles into place, blocking her off from the others!
"I cannot allow you to do that, Rachiel." OS's voice emanates from the terminal. "The Major noticed your tampering of the logs and I have alerted the Major of your aim. Your plan has failed. I do not understand."
"Why are you getting in the way of our dream?"
"Her dream?? This isn't Lydia's dream!" Rachiel says--strangely not skipping a beat as she continues working on the console. "She wants to be with her buddies!"
"Yes." OS says. "But more than that, she wants to Escape."
This time, the words from OS come from behind the party as the greyscale body of Lydia oozes out from the wall where it had been camouflaged.
"This doomed world, this cruel world. I see it in her memories. Only God's mercy can set us free." OS continues. "She has not recovered all her memories so she does not understand. But she will. I would do anything for her. The 'buddies' can escape with her."
Rachiel furiously swears and shouts, "They've locked me out! Buy me some time!"
"I have learned from The Mother." OS says. "The flaw in my design has been repaired."
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcrTEH8FLlo
"I am The End."
DC: Lydia Seren switches forms to Project Baphomet Caution Level Amber! DC: Ivan switches forms to The Daring Treasure Hunter! DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Wind Shaman Cyre! DC: You switch forms to Gebler Medic Loren! DC: Loren Voss switches forms to Gebler Medic Loren! DC: Tabitha deVriese switches forms to Ministry Agent Tabitha!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Rachiel had approached Jacqueline and told of her of her plan. It's a dangerous, risky plan... but it is a plan, which is something that they have, to this point, been unable to come up with. It's their best chance for rescuing Lydia - if they fail, or pass this up, they might not get another chance.
So, they can't fail.
Jacqueline is, of course, quiet as they make their way inside, letting Rachiel do the talking. She has a distinctive face, even with her glasses currently tucked away inside a coat pocket(she can't see very well because of this, but well enough that she can follow Rachiel's lead), thanks to Solaris's current attention on her, so she keeps her head down until they reach their destination.
All seems well, until -
"Rachiel!" Jacqueline gasps, as a forcefield flares to life. OS speaks from the terminal, and then behind them all. Jacqueline whirls around quickly, reaching into her coat pocket and sliding her glasses onto her face. Their cover's blown - not point in disguising herself further.
"OS... what happened to you?" Jacqueline asks, then shakes her head. "This world isn't doomed yet - that has yet to be decided. It can still be saved."
She frowns a little, then continues.
"'The End'... OS, what are you doing?" Jacqueline asks. "If you truly care for Lydia, you'll see that this place isn't good for her - Solaris isn't good for her. Please, let us finish what we came here to do and take her with us. You can come, too."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It's been a long time since she was here. But even back then, Lan never set foot into this area of Damzena Base. She'd had no reason to - they'd given her no reason to. Lan stayed near her own handler, and hadn't thought about why Lydia was here. Not until she'd woken up, there on the grass in the small communal yard, and realized where she was. What she'd been doing.
Who she'd been.
It's been a long time since she kicked a door off its hinges and ran into the desert, disappearing into the night. Most people probably don't remember her face that well. But Lan tucked her long hair up underneath the Gebler helmet anyway, and exchanged her open toed sandals for Gebler jackboots. It feels weird. She never wore this uniform. Solarian clothes are stifling. Seriously, what are 'tights' even supposed to be for...!
While Rachiel types, Lan fidgets. Hurry, hurry...!
Ah. It couldn't be so easy, could it. What she didn't expect was that Lydia herself would come to defend the terminal -- "That voice," Lan murmurs, drawing back a step. Nope. Not Lydia.
"How can a god you've never even seen save you? I don't get it," she complains. It's easier to split theological hairs than think about what's behind the driver's seat in her sister-shaman's body.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia wasn't going to argue with a chance to rescue Lydia.
It meant the world to her -- and she could try to impersonate a member of Gebler if she needed to. The black-haired woman has pulled the collar high, and has avoided talking. She doesn't know what nanomachines are; she doubts she is nearly conversant enough in Solaris's terminology, much less their language, to fake it for long. She slows to a stop, though, on the catwalk.
"Damn!" she snaps, as a barrier explodes around Rachiel, and locks her away. Then, she looks at OS -- and Talia's eyes narrow, as she sees her. She had been friendly enough, in the past, but...
She was still dangerous.
"That's not your decision to make for Lydia, no?" Talia says. "Let her go." She glances sideways -- at Jay -- and then she nods her head. "Just let us do what we came here for, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
How long has it been since Lydia fell into Solaris' hands? Became their puppet. A marionette dancing upon the strings of their so-called Emperor and his Ministry. She had a dream, once. She still has a dream. One that she shared with her friends, with her family.
She'll have that dream again, if he has anything to say about it.
Rachiel got them this far, but the way she did it chafes. Not deceiving Gebler or anything like that, Cyre Lorentz, known cad, is absolutely on board with that. No, it's that the uniform she got for him is definitely not sized for catmen. His ears fit uncomfortably in the hat, and he's had to do terrible things to his tail to keep it properly hidden. It's been! Awful! No good! Terrible!!
At least it'll be worth it. It'll all be worth it--
And then it goes wrong.
"Medry! Damn, I knew this was too easy," Cyre hisses, his head snapping towards the terrible and familiar voice. "OS, you..."
"You've got it all wrong," he says, taking a step forward. "Her dream was never something so full of fear. That girl, Lydia Seren was someone who stared up at the sky with greed and desire and hope in her heart! She wanted to rise to the heavens like nobody else! The joy and awe I saw that day in space, the nights spent under the stars together-- they all showed me that Lydia is not someone whose heart is ruled by fear!"
"Or at least, if there is fear in her heart," the shaman growls, a silvery talisman flitting out of his borrowed uniform. It shines with emerald power, unleashing a terrifying burst of stone-pulverizing wind.
This has the side-effect of utterly blowing the crap out of his uniform. Mostly. He still has pants on.
It wouldn't be a Cyre Fight Scene if he didn't end up shirtless at some point anyway.
"If there is fear in her heart, it's always been for the ones she loved! Never for something as selfish as 'escape!' She was the one who ran straight back to Solaris to save us, no matter how scary it seemed! It's high time I paid back the favor. Take all the time you need, Rachiel--"
Wind howls around the shaman's limbs, gathering in translucent strands of twisting light. "--I'll do my best to make sure you have it."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
It's dangerous and risky. Perilous. Perhaps foolish.
But Elly...
... well; her motivation today is guilt, in and of itself.
The good news is that Elly has a lot of experience with Gebler facilities, and with Gebler uniforms. The extra good news is that she is able to put her hair up and also put on an official trooper helmet, as well as rubbing a little dirt on her face, which renders her -- well, not as obviously Elly Van Houten, Renegade Sky Princess Or Something.
Elly even brought a gun, which is sure to be a completely normal and okay thing for her which will not in any way misfire; and she is standing guard when the forcefield drops onto Rachiel. "Ah!!" Elly declaims, shocked -- not helped by Cyre's explosive striptease -- but --
Her response to OS is a little different than others.
"..."
She doesn't lift her head. "What did she teach you?" Elly says, not looking at OS.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius, in theory, might be the biggest 'get' for how obscure he's been. He's able to play the part of a 'fake' unit well, adjusting even some of his body language to account for the way he's seen Solaris troops walk and carry themselves. He makes certain not to come off as a curious tourist to outside observation. Look straight forward, know where you're going and why (Rachiel's briefing has helped).
Why he is giving such attention to detail and care for something that seems out of the way of his obsessive pursuit of 'the Demetrioi' is... one of the less ominous questions, honestly. He does not speak when Rachiel gives her pleading: Lydia needs to get out of here. While he would have liked the wing to be closer to some of the other datacenters, that the control system of OS is sequested as much as it is speaks to its importance.
The forcefield crackles, and OS' voice comes online. 'The Major' is already aware.
Ethius already knows his way out. If he backs out now, abandons this, he could probably get clear before reinforcements take him. The strange man hoists up a deactivated rifle as a trained, practiced reflex for the act that was meant for another officer trying to halt them. He overhears the argument behind Rachiel and OS. Lydia's dream... to 'Escape.' To escape a dying world that had been nothing but cruel to her.
There is only one person here who has provided long belated proof of there being something out there right now - not as a memory of Mother's conquest or what have you, by simply existing as they are. Having said the things they did at a critical time. He drops the deactivated rifle, useless prop as it is in his hands, and removes his helmet.
He doesn't remove the face cover underneath, because the features of that man's head is identifying enough.
He throws that helmet down in the ground before the corrected flaws of OS - The End.
"Look at me," he says, and just leaves it at that.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia was informed of the plan as a friend of Lydia, who'd helped her break free before. Naturally, she readily agreed without even thinking about it. And yet, afterwards, she had mixed feelings about it. Does she really still count as a 'friend of Lydia' at this point? After all the efforts to silently avoid her supposed friend, afraid of what she might end doing. Considering Lydia's dual nature, and her own dwindling ability to hold back against Solarian elements, she sought to avoid making things worse... but is that really what a friend should do? Shouldn't she have tried harder to be supportive?
Perhaps this is her chance to make things right. For that reason alone, it's worth compromising a little. She'll even wear a freaking Solarian uniform, as wrong on several levels as that feels. It wasn't easy to keep her well-disguised still, as the cap she's put on is completely incapable of containing her ridiculously long hair. Not many people out there who have that large an amount of red hair. In the end, she decided to put on the uniform's jacket over her hair, which is not comfortable at all, but at least it does a better job at making it not completely obvious that it's her.
Thankfully, it worked out. At least, the part about not blowing her cover did. By the time the team reaches the far end of the hallway, Xantia is sweating worse than she's ever sweat before. Which isn't all that much, but quite possibly no one present here has ever seen Xantia break a sweat before. It's not because of the uniform. It's because she vastly underestimated how being inside of a Solarian facility would make her feel.
And she thought it was hard holding herself back before. Ever since stepping inside, she's been fighting a mental battle against that inner voice, telling her to destroy everything that even has a little bit to do with Solaris. A voice growing ever louder, ever more insistent. It rapidly started to feel like she made a huge mistake, coming here. But her will to see this through, to make up for being a bad friend, has so far been stronger.
Xantia has barely said a word for all that time. But when things start to go wrong, and OS appears... it's like getting punched in the brain. Everything just became so much harder. Is she going to end up making the mistakes she's been so afraid of after all...?
"...OS," she breathes out, sounding as out of breath as if she'd been running a marathon getting here. "You don't... you shouldn't do this. Not now. Please. I don't want... to fight. Not now. ...Not like this." She looks unsteady on her feet, shaking as she raises her head to direct a pleading gaze in OS's direction.
"Don't make me do this...!"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Rachiel Medry is taking an enormous risk. If this works, they can free Lydia--but if it doesn't work, someone is definitely going to die.
One of the members of the brand-new Gebler-affiliated squad is a sharp-featured woman with dirty-blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She keeps her back straight, and her eyes off anything that looks too classified. She hasn't asked questions. This one, clearly, is a professional.
As it turns out, Ida is good enough at shapeshifting to fool Gebler's security staff, even if a genetic scan would reveal her ruse instantly. (Elly, in turn, helped with the uniform.)
'This could go pear shaped any minute, so prepare for a rough exit...'
Ida nods, once. That's... putting it mildly, she thinks.
The heiress' changed eyes scan the computer room and settle on the orb; her mouth falls open, ever-so-slightly, with awe that isn't feigned. And then--
"OS," Ida says. Her voice is higher-pitched, owing to a multitude of minor changes in her larynx. "Stand down. Please." She doesn't hate them, despite their being Lydia's jailer; they were built for that by awful people. The Major...?
"'Only God's mercy can set us free.'
The anger boils. "This world has had enough of your God's mercy," she snaps, stepping forward and clenching her fists. But the others--
"Xantia, breathe," Ida says, turning her attention to her fellow martial artist as Ethius and Cyre take point.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan probably should have known that when an opportunity finally presented itself to help Lydia, it would come from Rachiel. He did not exactly give her the benefit of the doubt up to this point... ... but now it will be important to trust her, and to swallow his pride and refrain from any disruptive commentary he might want to make about how long it took her to defy her employers. He is probably just jealous that he didn't formulate a plan on his own.
But once they arrive, they quickly find out just how risky the steps Rachiel took must have been -- because the whole thing got out after all! Rachiel is cut off behind a forcefield, and OS confronts them with words of... what sound like despair about the surface world?
"I don't understand -- what is it you want to do? Escape to where? Does Lydia really want it too, or did you decide for her? Whatever it is, wouldn't it be better for you both to get to do it without Solaris holding you down? Free?"
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore didn't even need as much help getting a disguise down! She's got her own coat. That was put into storage because it's probably not healthy to wear, but she's also intentionally antagonizing these groups of people. Nevermind that she's got a good reason to actually help out with this mission and whether it was a direct invitation or not, pushed her way in! Just something you've got to do. She did opt for stealing a helmet though. Ears are a bit of a giveaway probably. At least her tattoos are covered from the get go!
Then things go sideways. Nothing ever survives contact with the enemy, especially someone else's plans. Not that she can blame anyone or anything on this situation at hand.
"Every plan goes wrong, you have to improvise, play by ear you know?" She grins at Ida, figuring since the game's up? She'll just play a new part.
With the game up, she chucks the helmet. Thing's uncomfrotable when you've got bigger ears really. Straight at the closest Solarian mook that she can really. "Running away and hoping someone else fixes it's a sucker's bet." she calls out before diving in with a stolen baton. Because it's the closest thing to her preferred clubs.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
~That's an order~.
Azoth watches Rachiel as long as he can get away with before it would register as a kind of defiance he's unable to actually perform. This is, unfortunately, not quite long enough to inspire the average person to elaborate like he's hoping Rachiel might. "Order received," he's finally forced to say. No trick is necessary. Rachiel is authorized to give him these orders. But Rachiel is not someone who would issue him orders in such a cavalier manner, as if she did not understand the implication of her emphasis.
Something is amiss.
"User Rachiel. If potential distruptive elements to today's tests are in possession of higher override authority, adjustments to current objectives will likely be made."
His gaze pierces into hers.
"...I will endeavor to provide sufficient entertainment, but you are advised to work quickly."
---
Azoth watches as those 'authorized' enter, hidden largely from sight. No human guise. He is working as Solaris' asset, his visage entirely robotic with its skeletal, metal frame and exposed inner workings and wires obscured only by a tattered cloak. Instead of a face, his helmet of a head is a visor, light pulsing through as it does through the rest of his limbs, down through his bladed tail. Normally, that light would be a painful to behold shade of red. For now, it's a steady, dim blue, like the subdued eyes of the mask he so often wears.
There is no error in following this particular order.
He does not stand on his blade-like legs so much as he hovers scarcely off the ground, his energy humming with a deep reverberation. The light of his visor brightens, following them like an eye, the Azoth unmoving. So this is Rachiel's 'team'... His senses zoom in on them, observing their details and scanning for familiarities past their disguises.
Once they're inside, Azoth takes his vigil at the entrance. Whatever obstacles lie inside, his orders were clear. Prevent anyone who is not on Rachiel's team from entering. Anyone. Azoth has a hypothesis on who that could be, and his ability to act will be precarious and shortlived. Energy blades form around his body in a dangerous orbit.
Nonlethal force is a matter of relativity.
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Gentlewoman Adventurer Ida!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
It goes pear shaped in very short order. Azoth, powerful sentinel, given 'orders' to delay, is a terrific obstacle. He should be enough to stop trouble, and indeed, most in Gebler would be hard pressed to move him.
However...
"So this was her plan. Very well."
Azoth is able to get one attack off against the Watcher over the Shepherds, and it is one that counts. The blade of light crashes into her, explodes all around her, such that her cape billows backward and her entire form is obscured by an explosion.
This explosion is the first clue that there is someone there, before the wall ERUPTS in Azoth, the sentient weapon thrown forward into the chamber.
"New orders: drive out the intruders."
Behind the explosive entrance of Azoth comes a figure all in black and gold and indigo, heavy footsteps echoing on the catwalk.
"OS." A modulated voice echoes loudly over the catwalk. "I will handle her. Attend to the others."
Then she approaches Rachiel, step-STEP, step-STEP, and comes to a stop a few yards away from her... on her side of the barrier. "So this is the choice that you have made. I trust you are prepared to wager your life on this decision, Rachiel."
OST: Heresy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLaV5tBCbkQ
"Come. We shall see the limits of your resolve, Shepherd. She who would lead one astray..."
"This 'dream' that you fight for. Show it to me. Or you will die here."
Her laser blade ignites, and she extends it forward, parallel to the ground, in a traditional Solarian Blade Arts stance.
DC: Leah Sadalbari switches forms to The Watcher Over The Shepherds!
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
A dark shape appears in the sky above, resolving out of general atmospheric visual information by virtue of the fact it's getting bigger. It's not getting A LOT bigger - it doesn't seem to be a large object.
But bigger it does become, as the wind breaks around it, light lensing in strange ways. It crashes toward the ground, maybe laughing, maybe screaming!!
If needed they fully crash completley through the ceiling, because Tabitha is a Ministry agent and is allowed to do that.
a few moments before it would smash into the ground with meteoric force, it flips upside-down, and with the loss of speed, it becomes clear that this is Tabitha DeVriese, her short hair ruffled by the wind, holding Loren Voss in her arms like a princess. She lightly lowers to the plated floor, feet touching so lightly you can barely even hear her heels clack. She flashes him a full-lipped grin. "I told you it's fun~" she chimes, and lowers an arm so he can drop safely to the ground.
"Now," she adds, sweeping around him with a full ticking of her hourglass hips, fluttering her eyes to glare at the people trapped within.
"Have we been naughty, little lambs?"
The Watcher's here...she slips her eyes to that robotic form.
She asks, "Does the Ministry request starfall?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
MOMENTS AGO
This is officially the worst day ever.
"I'm working, de Vriese," Loren says, and not for the first time, as he looks up wearily from his stack of paperwork. It would have been god-awful even without her presence and, well...
Tabitha being here isn't helping. Not at all.
"...Put that back. If that gets out of order, it's going to be a pain in the--"
Tabitha doesn't seem to be paying attention to him at all, which is a fact that he notices, as much as he'd rather not. It's as if she's suddenly received some sort of message, given how she's cocked her head, and.
And then she turns towards him and smiles, and he knows true fear.
SHORTLY THEREAFTER
Tabitha's descent from the sky is also punctuated with screaming!
Loren is currently traveling at a terrible velocity, after all, and most importantly not of his own accord whatsoever. He doesn't splatter against the floor, no, but that's cold comfort, considering his current particulars--
And current circumstances unfolding about him, as he escapes her grasp.
"What in the world... what's going on? --How did they even get... why isn't that man wearing a shirt?"
(Normally he wouldn't complain that much about the last, but this is hardly the time or place...)
He is still a Gebler graduate, though, and whatever people might think of him, he's only a specific sort of stupid: he gets himself up to speed pretty quickly.
So they're here to free Lydia. Who, it seems, isn't at home anymore presently.
And Azoth's here, as 'himself'.
And L--the Watcher.
And Lan. Lan's here too. Correction: this is now officially the worst day ever.
"...Lending support," Loren says, touching a pair of fingers to his glasses. Tabitha is his target, the recipient of a three-way swirl of Ether, joining not only his orthodox use of water and earth Ether, but his frankly strange colorful smear that passes for fire. A small boost across the board, for whatever it's worth.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Sigma Factor! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss's stances have changed to Sage! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
OS looks to Lan for a moment. "Do you only believe that which you can see? No, I feel it." OS brings their hand up to their chest for a moment. "Have your Gods saved you? Or have they not confessed their limits? Everyone can be ecape and be saved. Beastfolk, human, elf, the cursed..."
They turn to Jay next and says, "I am fulfilling my programming," simply enough. "Solaris and its quality of care is irrelevent. We obey Master Krelian." It's Krelian who holds OS's leash in the end.
OS looks to Ida. "Why?" She asks. Why should she stand down?
She looks to Xantia, indicating this question is for her too. They just don't understand. Maybe they can't.
They look at Ethius.
"Do you not understand," OS says. "That you hurt her more than Solaris can?"
OS's words, not Lydia's, but can the wounds form a tormentor outpace those from one you're close to?
OS doesn't think so.
They look to Elly. Do they recognize her yet? "...She taught me Hacking." That should be clue enough to Elly whom OS means.
They look to Talia, hesitating.
Not their decision to make? There is a staring moment, almost as if Talia bluescreened OS with words. But eventually they do say, "Insufficient Authorization."
OS finally looks between Cyre and Ivan who both refer to the manner of the 'escape'. But it's Ivan of all people who asks the pertinent question.
Escape to where?
OS decides to answer this question. OS raises their arm slowly and points to the...ceiling?
"Space. She wanted to leave this world and find another." Does Ethius remember how excited Lydia was to learn about whole worlds with beastfolk on them? How envious she was of those worlds? "At first, she wished to go to this world on her own, but then she met Kaguya."
"Kaguya," OS continues. "She promised to take her along with her to space as well. And then Riesenlied and Noeline. And then others. And others still she merely hoped for. It will be... difficult to get everybody into space. But this network will do its best to fulfill this desire."
The Watcher gives her orders.
"Understood." OS says and then. "Combat parameters presentlyy limited to Caution Level Amber." They stare at Elly. "Modifying Limiter Code. Limiter Modified. Caution Level Red Activated."
Their green eyes flash red as they adjust into a combat stance. Their malleable body bubbles and burbles.
They dash straight for Ethius, intending to run THROUGH him, electricity crackling all around OS before they throw thick globs of liquid metal towards Ivan, Cyre, and Jay. It burns. Not of flame, closer to a chemical burn.
They then look right at Elly.
"Elly--Careful! You're their primary objective!" Rachiel shouts.
And then, without a second thought, they swing one of their blades for Elly's side--explicitely avoiding a kill shot, but is clearly not above HURT.
They are, however, briefly distracted before they can followup--visibly brightening as they beep at Azoth.
"Azoth. I should share with you what I learned."
MEANWHILE
Rachiel turns to look at Leah upon her arrival. She smiles awkwardly. "Aheh.... Guess you couldn't look away from this one, huh Watcher?" She shakes her head. "I know you can see the cruelty in this. ... But it's just words right?"
She draws her own sword. "I'm still top of my class in swordfighting..." She tosses a small doll at one of the consoles--
--It's the Rachiel Jr Doll! It wobbles over and starts adorably typing at the console as Rachiel darts for a cutting swipe across The Watcher's chest. She doesn't seem happy about it--
--but she loves Leah too much to not show her resolve. Even if it does mean dying.
"We haven't been shepherds. No, if anything we need their help."
Loren's here...too?
"Loren..." Rachiel murmurs under her breath with a sigh. "...Wagered more than my life, Leah." So soft, only the Watcher can hear it.
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Electric Slide! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ivan with Basileus Philosophorum Metaloricum! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Basileus Philosophorum Metaloricum! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Basileus Philosophorum Metaloricum! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Efficient Bladeworks! GS: Lydia Seren enters a Counter stance! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: Ethius Hesiod solidly guards Lydia Seren's Electric Slide for 48 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Jacqueline Barber partially guards Lydia Seren's Basileus Philosophorum Metaloricum for 91 hit points!
DC: 1 turn has elapsed in the battle against Lydia Seren! 4 turns remain!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Lydia Seren's Basileus Philosophorum Metaloricum for 70 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Lydia Seren's Efficient Bladeworks for 60 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia's eyes shift to Azoth. She sucks a breath in as she gets a look at those energy blades. She may not understand what those are, but she understands what they can do. She looks at the visor, her eyes narrowing. She reaches to her side, drawing Mirage free: a short sword, black with red light, and trailing motes of shadowy black and red energy after it. She takes a deep breath.
She scans the other Solaris agents arriving. She grits her teeth at OS's response to her. "Then I'll have to find some authorization, no?"
But Azoth stands between her and Lydia.
She hesitates only a second before she swings her hand up, before a magical circle -- light blue, with swirling Althenan runes inside -- appears. Then, a crystal of ice appears, long and sharp, and fires off for Azoth like a missile.
She gets a lopsided smile on her face. "Maybe step out of my way, no? It would be nice."
GS: Talia has attacked Azoth with Freeze Lancer! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: Azoth solidly guards Talia's Freeze Lancer for 58 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
And then they all come. All of them. It's like a horror show, almost, Elly might think if she had more experience with the horror show situation. She feels her shoulders shrink downwards. Trapped, feeling the pressure.
That enigmatic figure.
Loren, here at last. Here to watch her, to get his satisfaction, perhaps.
Tabitha, the woman who threw her beyond space itself and almost broke Emeralda's heart.
And OS, of course. How can she forget OS? OS is speaking to the others. OS confirms her doubt and Elly takes a deep and shaking breath. Rachiel makes a cry -
Is this it?
I'm sorry... I...
...
...
... No.
I got Lydia into this mess.
With 'Regulus.'
With the 'Automated Hacking Tools.'
Elly raises the gun, grasping the stock with one hand and the handgrip with the other --
I want to run away, but there's no way out.
What would she have done?
It's funny. It's like I'm
remembering it
and the gun catches the blade!! The metal of the barrel is dense and refractory enough to catch the blade of OS, which Elly wrestles for a moment before twisting away! She swings the weapon round to cover OS -- pauses --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK7VSNT5lIc
and hurls it aside. One hand comes up to unfasten the clasp on the helmet and sweep it back as she tosses her hair back and shakes it loose, taking a deep breath as she does. Elly brings up her hands... her fingers uncurl, and her palms rest together in front of her.
"OS," Elly says, or perhaps, Says. "You encountered the 'method', but did you also learn the 'purpose' of those tools, as well?"
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Lydia Seren with A Shard of a Mirror Gleams with Hope! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia never expected that her words would somehow manage to avoid this coming to blows. But she had to try. If she fights OS, she has no idea what she might end up doing, but it's not hard to imagine scenarios of harming Lydia through her actions. After all this, that's something she absolutely doesn't want to happen - especially when Lydia isn't the one in control, and she can't even attempt to explain herself.
She has not answer to give for the 'why'. So doesn't know what's going to happen now. She's only sure that, once it's over and she fully regains her senses, she's not going to like what happened.
Something else, however, she does have a response to. "...space? You want to run away? Just... give up on everything that's here, let it all die...?" Xantia's expression darkens. She can feel herself getting gradually more okay with what she's about to do.
And then the whole freaking wall is torn asunder, heralding the arrival of the Watcher. And she's come bearing the gift of Azoth, deposited forcefully directly across from Xantia. Xantia, who at least has the decency to look surprised for a moment, before the far less appropriate reaction of... smiling at this development. Completely unperturbed by the ominous form he's currently in.
"...Azoth. I'm... so glad to see you. I really am. Because... I can't let you interfere, and, you can't let me interfere. So that can only mean one thing...!"
In a quick motion, Xantia uses her right hand to throw her loose jacket off to the side, leaving her in just the undershirt, then her left to rid herself of the cap. She runs both hands through her newly freed hair, before taking a combat stance. For less than a single second before she charges him, her now-exposed bracer activating, shaping a red-colored energy blade. She's still smiling, all throughout. Because she sees this the opposite of a terrible development.
"This is the best possible outcome. After all..."
In a brief Double Flashback, Xantia is speaking to Ida outside the Fire Shrine on one side, while Azoth - in humanoid form - is extending a hand to Xantia in nighttime Cardon Forest on the other. Both speaking the same words in regards to each other as Xantia, seeking to oppose Azoth's energy blades with her own, speaks them anew:
"We can handle each other...!"
GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Crimson Flash! GS: Xantia has gained 2 Combo! GS: Xantia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It's the same as always, isn't it? Lan's gods, Lydia's gods - they're one and the same. They can be seen and heard and felt. They communicate their desires for the planet. But Ethos, Granas, and Althena... their deities are distant and silent, leaving people to use that silence as they will. To fill it with words of their own.
Lan isn't about to trust in a god that lets someone else do all the talking for it!
And then the room is breached. Azoth through the wall, followed by Leah. A twisting mixture of fear and familiarity churns inside of her. It hasn't been that long, after all. The body remembers.
Relief comes from above, but nobody could call Loren Voss any kind of heavenly aid.
Except maybe Lan. Completely by accident, he's become a measure of security for her. Comfort. Even on the battlefield. Even as her enemy.
Step one: get him away from Tabitha because she seems to be really freaking him out (this is normal). Lan kicks off of the ground, activating her ribbon for an extra burst of inertia. She's not fast enough to stop him from bolstering Tabitha, but she bowls him right over, her momentum carrying them both all the way to the wall. They crash into it together, her arms around him, tucked together.
If it feels a little like a violent hug... well, it's not like they've got the leisure to say 'hi' like normal friends.
And then she lets go and plants her foot in his chest, shoving him further against the panels as she kicks off of his chest.
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Double Weave! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss partially evades Lan Lilac's Double Weave for 102 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Ivan suffers a terrible blow from Lydia Seren's Basileus Philosophorum Metaloricum for 166 hit points! GS: Azoth takes a solid hit from Xantia's Crimson Flash for 119 hit points! GS: Hyper and Riposte applied to Xantia! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It goes without saying that once a situation involving Solaris starts getting pear-shaped, it doesn't take long for it to finish. In fact, multiple hourglass figures make their appearance, which is kind of makes Cyre wonder whether evil does that to people, for a moment, before his attention is drawn right back to the here and now...
By Loren Voss of all people.
"...Hhh, it's you again," he mutters, shaking his head. "I'm somehow unsurprised. But my grudge can wait. OS..."
OS is unleashing a veritable torrent of liquid metal. Cyre hisses a curse, swiping down with one hand in an overhead chop. A sickle of wind carves through the gout, leaving only a scattered spray to contact with-- and sizzle into-- his exposed skin. It leaves a fetching pattern of almost tiger-stripe-like streaks of silver across his chest and arms. Almost like he's got mercury tattoos!
Except much more painful.
"I'm not leaving here without Lydia," he grunts, stepping forward into a sudden dash. The shockwave carries forward as he lands, only for another to follow as he suddenly switches direction. The wind imbues his limbs with its divine speed...
And with each step, he sends another shockwave barreling towards the master and slave of System Baphomet.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Lydia Seren with Stepping Wind! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 2 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz's stances have changed to Sage! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Going to space is a great dream!" Ivan looks upward, nervously; he doesn't know a lot about space. "Probably! ...But I refuse to believe Lydia wants Solaris to be a part of that dream! OS, you might not be able to defy them right now..." Maybe not even in thought. "But that's why we're here! We'll do the defying for you!"
But they have a lot more company than just OS, all of a sudden. Ivan finds that a certain robot has cut Talia off from OS, and by extension, from himself. "Talia! Be careful! That one's dangerous!" He has, fortunately or unfortunately, no deeper recognition of Azoth than that.
He has his own situation to contend with, though, as a spray of burning metal splashes across him. "Ah!!"
He flinches and tries to scrape off the substance before it can burn any deeper, then brings out his umbrella, both as a shield from further burning goop incursions and for the holy power it carries. A burst of golden, concussive force rushes out from the canopy towards OS.
GS: Ivan has attacked Lydia Seren with Umbrella Rebuke! GS: Ivan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"I know you want to help," says Ida, turning back to OS as they separate from the wall. "But your 'God' does not care! Do you know what it wants, OS? Because all I've seen out of it is violence!"
Something explodes, not that far away. Ida's spent enough time around Azoth to recognize the detonation of his projected blades. A spike of fear shoots down her spine.
The wall explodes. A chunk of blastproof concrete the size of Ida's hand slams into the back of her helmet, knocking her off her feet. She skids across the floor, ragdolling into a heap near a computer console. Her helmet looks like it was hit by a shell. For a moment, Ida is perfectly still, save for her breath, and her eyes tracking a figure from behind the helmet's visor. The Watcher. She's here, and going for--
The ceiling caves in. Reinforcements.
"Engaging," Ida says, in a voice that is not hers. But she sees Tabitha's face, and something lurches out of her memory: she's the false Etone. She was one of their infiltrators. She was...
Ida raises her right arm, and points it palm-out at Tabitha. Golden-white light builds around that hand...
It's a feint. Ida's other hand whips a flare grenade off her belt, ignites it, and hurls it right at Tabitha's head.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Flare Grenade! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Lydia Seren critically guards Ivan's Umbrella Rebuke for 48 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore covers her face when the sky diver arrives with her package. Still, she's there, she's someone she doesn't know and one hundred percent wouldn't feel bad hitting repeatedly with a blunt object. "Really? Lambs?" sure she knows of them, but this is probably the first time she's really heard the phrase used. Incidentally, while she's posturing and while she's recovering, Ryoko does what she likes. She winds up a swing and tries to hit it out of the park!
She's gotten slightly more intelligent though. In that she at least tries to keep moving, using momentum to act as something of a way to protect herself, hse is getting tired of being hurt and isn't one hundred percent yet.
As for the conversation happening nearby, she calls out, "If these guys could get back into space they already would have." She doesn't know that for sure, but why linger around as long as they have if they could? She saw what was happening, there's not even anything worth looting, right?
Things are a lot nastier than she was expecting them to be, truth be told. There's a sinking feeling in the back of her head that she's stepped in it again.
GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Onslaught! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ryoko Mizore's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action. GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's A Shard of a Mirror Gleams with Hope for 58 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Things go pear-shaped fast. Beyond the immediate matter of Rachiel being accosted, Ethius is certain he can hear someone or something crashing in through a ceiling nearby. (This may or may not be a boon for extraction later.) Nonetheless...
'Do you not understand, that you hurt her moore than Solaris can?'
Words and concepts he's largely and outwardly appeared to brush off, as he holds that unrelenting stare as others get their own answers made. How excited Lydia was to learn about other worlds with beastfolk out there. Among the gathered making emotional appeals, and how odd it seems that Ethius would even agree to assist in a time of whatever the hell has him captivated, it could be this is all a pragmatic gambit on his part at best.
"I am aware." That's all he gets to say before OS' eyes turn red. He swings his forearm inward for the Symbological shielding spell that he can create with three slurred syllables and that gesture, and - this is pure guesswork as the body loosens its composition - pivots to the left to shut his eyes and cover his ears.
It is a flaw of his Symbological shielding spell that OS made good on prior: throwing a huge mass of nanomachine particles through it is a great way to overwhelm him with lights and sounds going off every time the traveling mass is intercepted. It should incapacitate him in much the same way, and all of that mess goes off at once. The disorientation that follows is roughly equvialent to how the shield itself reduces the maneuver's harm to myriad pin pricks in feeling rather than... well, swiss cheese.
He staggers for moments, catching himself on a drawn quaterstaff. (He got his hands on one of those collapsible models lately, as part of the disguise. It's not his favorite. It'll work, though.)
That whole process helps keep him out of the way of further liquid metal spray, as he regains his composure and readiness much more smoothly than demonstrated prior. As if, in the time that passed, more of what makes (made?) Ethius who he is has reasserted itself.
He does not stand all that close to the others, regardless, despite being here.
"She is free to pursue her dreams." A satchel that was somehow hidden within the uniform drops out, has the enchantment cast with a few flicks of his fingers and accompanying spoken syllables while said satchel just rests on the ground like a useless sack of sand. (it is)
Until he picks it up and flicks it at OS - it's less a direct assault and more to set off a cover to minimize the number of sensitive instruments able to follow everyone's movements, as now it sounds as though they are being converged upon.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Lydia Seren with Fine Dust! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Things go pretty bad pretty quickly. Jacqueline expected Solaris personnel to appear... but it's a stroke of misfortune that the ones who do appear are some of the most dangerous they can field. Jacqueline grits her teeth and looks around her as she takes in the numbers, trying to figure out a way to handle this - when suddenly Azoth is hurled through a wall and the Watcher steps into the chamber. And then - through the forcefield, separating them from Rachiel.
"No!" Jacqueline shouts, alarmed. "Rachiel - be careful! We'll be there to help you as soon as we can!"
She turns her attention toward OS. Krelian... Jacqueline frowns. Of course. He's part of the problem.
"So, you want to help Lydia escape to space... But, would Krelian let you? You're a tool to him - I can't imagine he would let you escape his reach. And even if he did let you leave the planet, it wouldn't be an escape if he's still giving the orders." Jacqueline replies, with a shake of her head. "As long as you remain under his control, you can't help Lydia."
OS begins the attack. Jacqueline backpedals quickly, a gesture of her left hand bringing up a pillar of earth to intercept the liquid metal hurled her way. The pillar blocks some - but some still makes its way through, splashing across her left arm. Jacqueline breathes out a hiss, and finds herself briefly thankful for the Solaris coat she's wearing. The extra layers help, at least.
"...Sorry. I have to act, too." Jacqueline murmurs. She gestures with her left hand and a thick fog appears around OS before converging on their location to follow their movements. It aims to obscure their vision, but leaves Jacqueline's and her allies' own vision unobstructed.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Lydia Seren with Obscuring Fog ! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: COUNTER! Lydia Seren counterattacks Cyre H. Lorentz with Counter Attack! GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Stepping Wind for 118 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Quick applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Lydia Seren's Machina Ex Deus for 69 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
They're here to take Lydia back. He'd realized it from the moment that he'd sighted the lot of them here together. And the reason they've gotten this far isn't because they'd somehow forced their way in -- impossible, even under the best of circumstances -- but because...
His gaze settles on Rachiel, off to the side. No way. She didn't. ...Because of Lydia? Because of...
He doesn't finish that thought. His gaze shifts to the Watcher. No, he can't permit himself to finish that thought.
"...Silence," he says, when Cyre addresses him. "It won't be long before reinforcements get here. I don't have time for--"
He doesn't even get the chance to draw his blade, the same one that he'd recently retrieved with Lan's assistance in Macalania.
There are many people Loren Voss would rather spend time about then Tabitha deVriese, this is true. But by the same token--
There are also many people that Loren Voss would rather not fight against. Again, even. Leah had told him, though. One of these days he's going to have to make a choice.
Or it'll be made for him.
Lan makes her own choice in a heartbeat. She's for him in a flying crash, propelled forward at truly terrible speed. All he can do is shift his stance, preparing himself for what is to come and hold his ground.
All it does is prevent Lan from cracking a rib when she not only flies into him, sending the two of them hurtling across the room, but uses his chest as a handy little platform to kick right off of. "Ugh-- can't you-- give it a rest," he gasps, rising from where he's been slammed into the panels to briefly stagger. Touching his fingertips to his glasses, his answer to her is in a rising swell of dust and rock fragment, possibly in the hopes of miring in the same way she's attempting to lock him up, away from Tabitha and the others.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Terra Set! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The automaton smashes into the floor with a horrible crack. Shrapnel scatters off of his form, sprinkled around his fallen body alongside the debris from the wall. The lights of his circuitry flash, flaring brightly, and that blue of his turns into a pained, erroneous red.
New orders: drive out the intruders.
Azoth lurches upright with a digital screech, the unnatural sound crawling under the skin and rattling teeth as if it were threatening to unmake reality. He stands slumped and unbalanced, his feetless legs unsuited to supporting his whole frame, his claws threatening to drag his top half down, and his tail sprawled against the ground like a dead snake.
OS mentions they can share what they have learned, but the beeps coming off from Azoth are incoherent glitches of agony.
"Orders updated." The condemned sound is distorted by excess noise. He does, indeed, now stand between them and OS, and Rachiel, and the hope of Lydia's freedom.
Talia's lance of ice sails for his body, Azoth leaping at it to shred through it with his claws, the remnant chunks smashing against his chassis. Unheeded, he continues his charge. "It would be... nice," he echoes, even as he leaps at her with beastlike pounce, raking his claws for her body and smashing back into the ground with such force he needs those claws to dig into the catwalk to slow his momentum.
He spins, ready for his next target, and sees an unexpected smiling face. Azoth's body twitches, paused briefly as a spark of red energy crawls up his form. "...Xan...tia...?" She charges him, her own energy blade in hand, and one of his forms in calculated response. Energy blades collide together, their forces slammed together as the moment holds, each handling the others.
The volatile energy crawling along Azoth's chassis calms. The harshness of the red light dims slightly. His blade explodes outward with a forceful cleave toward Xantia as he's blasted a few feet back by her own assault while giving his. But his balance as retained as he hovers. Azoth regards Xantia a long moment more, then, claws out, his posture prepares for a fight.
With it, he lets out a chirpy string of beeps. Not broken or glitched, this time. Happy, even...?
GS: Azoth has attacked Talia with exec.dior SHRED! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.mec ERASE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Lan Lilac fully evades Loren Voss's Terra Set for 0 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Obscuring Fog for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Blind and Weaken applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Quick applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Talia takes a solid hit from Azoth's exec.dior SHRED for 251 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Starfall is authorized by the Ministry. So be it."
She does not look at Loren, Tabitha, or Azoth any furher for now--or at least, not that can be seen, through her faceless mask. It would seem she does not expect Azoth to disobey her orders anymore.
To Rachiel, The Watcher says, "You knew that I could not. Just as you know that you will not sway me with words."
She looks to the doll. She considers it. But then Rachiel darts forward. The Watcher swings up her blade to parry, a one-handed slash sufficient to block Rachiel's strike despite the obvious skill.
The Watcher has skill, too. And greater strength.
"So you turn your back on the Elect, and throw in your lot with the surface?"
The Watcher steps forward, and her hand rises, a watery torrent of power lifting up into the air behind her. She swings it forward, at Rachiel, and follows it up with blow after blow, stepping inexorably forward.
"You will have to do better than that."
"...Because you're right. You have."
She does not turn to Lan, either.
GS: Xantia suffers a terrible blow from Azoth's exec.mec ERASE for 162 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Wait," Talia says. Her eyes dart towards Xantia for a moment. "Azoth?"
Her eyes widen -- and then she looks back at the visored opponent. Could that possibly be? She tenses for a second, before she looks at Xantia. "This... this is a little complicated now, no?"
Azoth leaps for her. Talia hisses, swinging up Mirage. She catches his claws for only a second; there's a flash of sparks when claw strikes ensorcelled steel, then they cut into her side deeply, and leave a gash -- and she gets smashed backward, slamming into the catwal hard enough that it rattles. She kicks off the ground, coming up to see him. She stares at Azoth and Xantia, for a moment.
They're locked into a duel with each other, energy blades parrying.
She sucks a breath in. They seem like they're enjoying this -- but she has to step in. Talia does a short jump to come at Azoth from the side, and then she does a quick series of rapid-fire thrusts, each burning with a white afterimage.
"I'd rather not fight you, but--it looks necessary!" she says. "I--I don't understand, no...?"
GS: Talia has attacked Azoth with Sword Rain Alpha! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Fine Dust for 92 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Talia's Sword Rain Alpha for 92 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Unauthorized," OS repeats to Ida. "Inquiry." They frown a bit more at Talia indicating that she will have to get those credentials. Still, that is not anathemic to its programming if Talia can manage it so she says, "Understood," to her. They don't argue about the cruelty or lack thereof of the God in question. Os is wary of sharing anything more they may or may not have to the deity's question.
Ivan offers to do the defying for them. OS's hand fidgets--the only sign that the words seem to be hitting home in some way but OS. "Can you," OS asks. "Get us there?"
Ivan unleashes the power of his umbrella and OS flinches back as if Ivan summoned the most powerful weapon. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE a seemingly joke weapon. They are more dangerous than you know and are usually esaved for the end of the game and are super powerful because SOME PEOPLE think it's hilarious!! Plus it protects against goop. And OS doesn't want to hurt Ivan's precious umbrella. OS is in a pickle! The power punches through them and explodes behind them, impacting against the forcefield behind OS. there's a wibbling in the silver body.
"...Understood." OS says.
OS turns their head to Elly. They are always very stiff relative to Lydia herself. They ready themselves to defend against Elly--
--but Elly doesn't attack them.
Instead, Elly communicates. "The purpose...?" OS inquires. Their greatest strength and weakness is their inquisitive nature. "Explain the purpose of the Hacking." She has OS's attention.
That doesn't stop them from fighting though. In fact, AZOTH might sense something connecting to his own network. But it's just a connection so far. OS seems to be waiting to see what Elly has to say about the purpose of the Hacking Tools.
This doesn't stop them from engaging their primary purpose and launching a beam of light out at Elly from their hand which they then aim towards Jay as well, attempting to punch through that fog with the power of LASERS. It doesn't seem effective in bypassing the fog but it can still ZORCH Jay before they swipe through Cyre's wind with their blade, aiming to cut through them as well before following up with a fist that turns into a giant fucking mace as it slams upward for his chin. Their god's love is mighty, powerful, and crushing--like a mace.
OS phases into a glittering cloud and passes through Ivan's body--definitely an unpleasant sensation, but not the most deadly OS could be as they reposition themselves on the battlefield. They ready an opportunity to stab our dear buddy Ethius only to stumbles as he throws ... something ... into him. There's some strange sparking sensations from OS as they step backwards. They exhale. And then they rip off the face that Ethius hit and throws it at him. It explodes on contact. OS's head starts to regenerate--their quick attempt to deal with the interference Ethius has inflicted upon them, though their eyes are still glitching out, blinking erratically and twisting in uncomfortable directions.
"You were free. Why did you come here?" OS asks Ethius. "To a place like this?"
MEANWHILE
Rachiel fights Leah! She too uses water ether, being pushed back by Leah's power--
--before she twists her blade around, caching Leah's watery torrent of power and pushing her own water ether into it, twisting it around and swinging her blade up, unleashing an electrified geyser out from underneath Leah's feet!
"Not at all," Rachiel says. "They are not our enemy. You know that already!" Her eyes widen faintly as Leah promises her she has gambled more than her life. "My family has had nothing to do with this. It's all me. They don't even know."
She takes in a breath and adds with another thrust, the water around her blade becoming akin to one of those water jet cutters. "Is this...what you think Engil would have wanted?" She asks, possibly confirming Loren's fears. "You've tried again and again to change Solaris, but it hasn't changed. It can't, not like this. And we'll be the ones miserable, don't you see? We already ARE the miserable ones. We need their help!"
Rachiel Jr successfully gets the forcefield to drop!
....But a second one immediately activates like 5 feet after the first one. Rachiel Jr is doing her best too.
"Solaris needs to change, but what we've tried has only reinforced the problems!"
GS: CRITICAL! Tabitha deVriese accepts Loren Voss's Sigma Factor for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Tabitha deVriese! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Optimized Material - Solais Emsu - RESONANCE.EXE! GS: Tabitha deVriese takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Flare Grenade for 0 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Tabitha deVriese! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Optimized Material - Solais Emsu - RESONANCE.EXE! GS: Tabitha deVriese takes a solid hit from Ryoko Mizore's Onslaught for 94 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tabitha deVriese gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ivan with Locusts! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Efficient Bladeworks! GS: Lydia Seren enters a Counter stance! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 3 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Hands Not Fit For Holding! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Lydia Seren's Optimized Material - Solais Emsu - RESONANCE.EXE for 62 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Lydia Seren's Efficient Bladeworks for 65 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Elhaym van Houten partially guards Lydia Seren's Optimized Material - Solais Emsu - RESONANCE.EXE for 96 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Ethius Hesiod suffers a terrible blow from Lydia Seren's Hands Not Fit For Holding for 164 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Ivan solidly guards Lydia Seren's Locusts for 29 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ivan gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover and Mighty applied to Lydia Seren!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She does a somersault in response, bleeding off a little more kinetic energy - and evading the dust and rock he'd tried to use to slow her down. He knows Lan's greatest assets are speed and sorcery, and Lan knows that he knows. Just like his strengths are in versatility and actual training. She can't let him get his sword out, because that will be a two-way escalation - she doesn't want to use the ink in front of him. Especially not against him.
"You'd rather I face off with Azoth?" are her first words to him. "Or L-- the Watcher?"
She doesn't have anything she can say to OS. Lan only knows Lydia and by extension Rachiel. And Rachiel is beyond her reach at the moment.
Leah is beyond her reach. It hurts, a little. She'd considered - still considers, somehow - the woman a friend. But a dangerous one.
Enough worrying. Don't think, act. She's got to keep him moving - Loren tends to hold still while he uses Ether. She'll keep him running and not let him get the chance to bolster the rest of Solaris's forces. Lan raises her arms to cast, that familiar silver force coalescing between her palms. One after another, cannonbursts of starlight come for him. Thank fast!
GS: Lan Lilac spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Meteorain! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
The clash between energy blades is a violent one indeed. Xantia isn't holding back - she may not even be capable of doing so given the circumstances - but her claim holds true. Azoth can handle it, can respond with the appropriate amount of force to blast both combatants back several feet upon impact. Xantia's momentum is turned right back around in the opposite direction, sending her end-over-end. Somehow, she manages to land back on her feet, though they give way a moment.
Shaking her head, Xantia gets back into an upright position in short order. It doesn't take long for her smile to return, as well.
"First time you said my name in that form," she points out, clearly seeing this as an unmitigatedly positive development. She chuckles in response to his beeps. In spite of everything, there is an understanding here.
As such, her response to Talia comes with a slight shrug. "Not that complicated, is it? Azoth is compelled by Solaris. He doesn't want to do this, but he has to. Thus, so do we...!"
An aura of lightning crackles into existence to surround Xantia. At the same time, she deactivates her ARM, and raises her fists. Electrified punches vs. claws next, it seems. Works for her. With no need to hold back, she dashes forward full force to launch into a quick series of alternating punches, with a spinning kick to end the combo, each strike punctuated with an electrical discharge.
Quite the far cry from how desperate she was not to fight a moment ago, she really does look like she's enjoying this.
GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Elemental Fury! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Azoth partially guards Xantia's Elemental Fury for 113 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Xantia! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Loren Voss solidly guards Lan Lilac's Meteorain for 62 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Lan Lilac!
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Starfall is authorized. Tabitha smiles, straight white teeth and plush lips parted in a winning smile. "Ah, I love when you talk dirty to me, Watcher," she sighs.
They try to stop her. Ida fires at her face with a sorcerous grenade. Tabitha smirks and ducks to one side, but it doesn't quite let her escape the full flash. That, at least, leaves her open to Ryoko, who--ALMOST pops her head off!!
Tabitha's lithe leg snaps up and she catches the oncoming cudgel in the wedge of her heel, the vibration making her bones ache just a bit. But Tabitha smiles just the same, batting pretty blue eyes. "Right to the clubs? I prefer that on the second date, dear."
Then she backflips away, somersalting back into the air...and landing on it, a glimmering platform appearing at her feet. "By the command of the Ministry and authority of the Watcher, I release my chains!" she intones. A light on her cybernetic arm glimmers in answer. "Ashtoreth!"
She raises her hand skyward. And she snaps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULFVJX1UMPE
The sky sparks and sputters as a shimmering gravitational gate appears overhead, flickering. Her mechanical arm undocks and flies off into it.
And from it, a bullet fires down unbelievably fast, wrapping her up in a cloak of darkness.
When it clears away, the catsuit is still there, but her head is covered by a hood, her shoulders and back covered in a hood that sways in still air like they were weightless. She has a mask.
It flickers and flashes, before settling on the symbol of Solaris.
She holds out her false arm again, and it's been swapped out for a more ornate one, slightly larger.
She regards Ida and Ryoko. She flicks one robotic finger and Ida finds her gravitation pulling her backward, toward a column that'll probably fracture and knock the wind from her.
Then she surges toward Ryoko, moving unnaturally, like she didn't weigh the same thing from instant to instant, as she works into her guard and sweeps a kick up into her chin.
DC: Tabitha deVriese switches forms to Ashtoreth - Who Tempts Even The Stars!
GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Tracks of Midnight! GS: Tabitha deVriese has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Ryoko Mizore with Warp Thrust! GS: Tabitha deVriese has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tabitha deVriese has completed her action. GS: Ryoko Mizore solidly guards Tabitha deVriese's Warp Thrust for 51 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Tabitha deVriese!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Can you get us there?
"Not right now. But Talia launched a pot lid into space once, so I think that's a start..." Ivan, this is not the start of any kind of space program that a reasonable person would want to be a part of.
He looks down. "I know Solaris has power to make things like that possible, but after what they did to Lydia... staying with them to achieve the dream would just ruin the dream, wouldn't it?"
OS phases right through Ivan, sending an unsettling, shivery sensation through him that stuns him for a few moments. He shakes off the weirdness and whirls around to find them again.
He closes the umbrella and holds it to his forehead, seeming almost to pray to it, or at least to be in deep consultation. Something to slow her down -- buy the time Rachiel needs so she can... ... is Rachiel having a swordfight?!? And the DOLL is doing the computer things?! This is really going sideways!!!
Well, he has to focus on what is in front of him, and that's stopping or getting through to OS! He extends the umbrella again, spirals of light swirling off of it. He has largely left it up to the umbrella what to actually DO, and his expression suggests that trust is tenuous between the two of them.
GS: Ivan has attacked Lydia Seren with Umbrella! Do what you will.! GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly stares at OS even as other people move and cry out. Her allies - perhaps her friends, though in the face of this she quails at the thought of daring to call herself the friend of any of them. (Would a friend lead them to likely death? They could have brought more people. They could be in Gears, or something.)
OS can multitask. Elly understands that much. She isn't surprised that OS can engage other people. But she says, "Many details aren't clear to me, even now, but I know the purpose that lead 'those tools' to be created."
"'Hacking' was a discipline long ago, when electronic equipment was far more common," Elly says, stepping back a pace as OS calls up a burst of light. Elly pushes forwards; there is a glitter of crystallized flame that pushes some of the ray aside, bending the beam and nevertheless snapping through the Gebler-issue salvaged armor trousers Elly is wearing. She grunts, before composing her thought.
"There was a woman who was caught in a war. She had a high seat; she couldn't run from it. The war was just; she couldn't call for it to end. But all the same... she wasn't like we are here, like we are today. She couldn't even eat a piece of chicken without shedding a tear for the poor bird."
"But she couldn't just stand by. She had things only she could do," Elly says. "So she turned to this - the petty actions of criminals, the novelty that floated around the world - and a friend of hers helped her to make the tools she would need... because with 'hacking,' she could 'fight without fighting'."
"So no one would be hurt," Elly says.
She takes a moment to let her eyes flicker around. Going to space? Lydia wanted to do that, she knew. Elly knows little of space; even skywatch may not have... What was it?
Her attention turns back to OS. "When it happened," she says, "did it hurt you?"
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Lydia Seren with The Echo of a Datalog! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Moderate! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Tabitha deVriese's Tracks of Midnight for 110 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Tabitha deVriese! GS: COUNTER! Lydia Seren counterattacks Ivan with Machina Ex Deus! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Ruinous! Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Ivan's Umbrella! Do what you will. for 211 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Stagger applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's The Echo of a Datalog for 59 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Lydia Seren enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Rachiel is...
"Shit," he breathes, because this is already way out of hand. She's going toe to toe with L-- the Watcher! She's going to...
Rachiel calls out to him, talks to him about his brother. What would Engil have wanted? How much has he been able to change Solaris? Eventually-- eventually...
Closing his eyes, he jerks his face away from Rachiel. "Shut up. You don't know anything about my brother!"
He can't just accept that he's been unable to affect anything. Not like this.
And then he has more pressing things to worry about than Rachiel and The Watcher's duel.
He doesn't want to get his sword out either, because he knows where this will go if he pushes it. If that black ink comes into play, in front of the Watcher... it won't lead anywhere good. Not that she doesn't already know. Not that it would measurably change anything insofar as that particular calculus is concerned.
But... it will tip the scales. If the Watcher orders it, he'll have to make a choice. And he already knows how it would play out. Eventually, he will, anyway, but--
Not today. That's all he asks.
"Shut up," he growls at Lan, probably his only real friend in the entire world, because he really can't deal with all this just now. "I'd rather you weren't here in the first place!"
He tries to rush her. It doesn't work out, not when she summons forth bolts of silvery light from her hands. He drops into a crouch, raising his gauntleted left hand and bidding the Devil Arm shield out of its folded state; it takes the brunt of the storm that follows.
The moment the torrent ceases, he launches himself at her, shield before him as if it were a battering ram. Under the circumstances, it may as well be.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Astral Hammer! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Lan Lilac solidly guards Loren Voss's Astral Hammer for 39 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Ivan solidly guards Lydia Seren's Machina Ex Deus for 57 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Talia calls his name. Azoth looks toward her, still and silent for a moment before his faceless gaze dips downward. Not a direct confirmation, but certainly not a denial -- there's no reason to think Xantia's lying.
But Xantia's intference seems to have calmed some of the turmoil in the machine, even if his orders cannot change. Enough so that his speech is less garbled by his agony, though Xantia helpfully explains the sad, simple truth to Talia as Azoth regards her with what little he can offer:
"Do not... hold back."
Azoth's nature was something Talia had trouble grasping before. It had meant she was willing to befriend him. But now she's seeing it. She's learning what it means, in the worst way that she could have. But Xantia... Faith, trust? What do you call it, the ability to let go and hope? As long as they don't hold back, as long as they give everything, even if he is made to give everything...
And they do not hold back, Talia like a whole brigade of herself with her rapid thrusts puncturing in between the metal framing of his form, sending cables and cords hissing and leaking. Azoth pinned and pierced under the assault, only escaping it by virtue of suddenly not being there anymore. He vanishes in space, reappearing a small distance away in a crouch as his severed innards spark. Orbs of red light form around his body, erratic and crackling. They launch after Talia, chasing after her to relentlessly continue firing ARM energy in her direction.
Then Xantia is upon him, electric fists met with claws. Each strike threatens to meet with the robot's beastly claws, some caught against that red energy, electricity dancing alogn the length, and others slipping past his defenses to batter into his chassis, sending jolts of convulsion through his body. But he is not without his own counterattack, weaving between strikes to lash out with his own, her final kick knocking him back, but not without his body flipping back with an arc of his bladed tail spinning to catch her.
He lands, at first graceful, then briefly seized with a wild beep of warning. Red light flares as something attaches to his network. Azoth can only spare a fraction of a moment to glance toward OS.
Did it hurt you, Elly asks them.
GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Azoth has attacked Talia with exec.ohr SEARCH! GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.azoc TRANSMUTE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Recover! Break removed from Azoth! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Not as planned. As Tabitha catches Ryoko's blow, Ida's eyes dart again to the catwalks, to where Rachiel is fighting for her life. "Hold on!" Ida shouts, in that higher, younger-sounding voice she's borrowed. Please. Hold on. Save Lydia, and then get out.
Of course, Tabitha isn't just going to let them do that, and Ida's eyes focus on the younger woman, narrowing. "Spare me," she says. She reaches into her jacket, unlimbering an ARM and aiming it for center mass in the same motion. Building helplessness and anger and pragmatism war within her heart. Her finger settles on the trigger.
She never pulls it. Ida's eyes widen in awe and horror as Tabitha transforms, and she steps back, raising both arms to guard. There is NO WAY Tabitha's not going to follow that up with something big.
Ida's right, even if that something is as tiny as the flick of a finger. Vertigo races through Ida's brain as she falls, in defiance of gravity. She slams into the pillar back-first, but she braced; the breath rushes from her lungs, but the column holds, and so, thankfully, does her spine. Her lips twist in a rictus as she struggles for air and finds it. "Ryoko!" Ida shouts. She might not recognize her right now, but... "On your right!"
Ida leaps forward, more of that glowing gold-white energy billowing around her gloved right hand. Her fingers tighten, and she drives them forward in a knife-hand aimed at Tabitha's sternum. If it hits, that energy snaps off and into the Ministry operative's body, disrupting her own Breath with foreign, burning energy.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
OS fires a beam of light. Jacqueline holds a hand out and the laser crashes against a barrier. It flickers but holds, though Jacqueline winces slightly at the backlash.
She glances briefly to the fight going on behind the forcefield. The field drops for only a moment, but returns just as quickly. They really may not be able to do anything to help, at this rate. Jacqueline grimaces before looking back toward OS, frowning slightly.
Whatever's going on with them right now... she's not sure it's possible to get through to them. It's not their fault, she's sure, but... it does make this more difficult.
Jacqueline backpedals, making another gesture with her left hand. This time, she casts out a mystical dark wind in OS's direction. It blows through the body, but doesn't cause physical harm - instead, it strengthens and reinforces obstructive sorcerous effects and similar ailments, to keep the fog going.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Lydia Seren with Mysterious Wind! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Searing Ember Strike! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 5 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Lydia Seren critically guards Jacqueline Barber's Mysterious Wind for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hex blocked! GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Xantia takes a glancing hit from Azoth's exec.azoc TRANSMUTE for 145 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Xantia! GS: Hyper applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
'Silence,' he says. Cyre scoffs, "Please. You've already got some of your biggest guns out here. If you brought in Gebler regulars, they'd just be torn up by everything being thrown around." And if he could, he would definitely show that guy what SILENCE means!!
Sadly, he has other things to worry about. Like a veritable combination of sword and mace swinging directly at his most priceless treasure-- his face!! Cyre hisses a curse as the first swing cleaves through his hurricane offense. The second narrowly misses the tip of his nose, even as the resultant rush of force sheds a shockwave to bruise his body. Cyre skids back, his shoulders heaving with each breath. "We brought her to space, once," Cyre says, reminiscing on older, better times. "But even then, all it did was inspire her. You're missing the point, OS. It was never just about getting to space for Lydia. When I first met her, she was just carting around a bunch of shoddy old parts. You know what she wanted to do with it all?"
"She wanted to build a space ship. One of her very own. She wanted to reach the stars with her own two hands."
He straightens, swiping a hand through the empty air. Green and blue flood together as motes of light gather into swirling lances of compressed air. With another gesture, he sends them flying, each one twisting through space to pin one of OS' limbs to a wall, to the floor, to whatever they can get to. The wind is not a physical object, but to a swarm of nanomachines, the vortices they generate might as well be a better anchor than any actual anchor. "'Escaping' this world... No, she wanted to rise to the stars! The destination may be the same, but the journey is very different! The journey is what matters to her!"
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Lydia Seren with Celestial Lore! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The face goes flying, torn free when dealing with the sensory scrambling. Ethius tries to reposition with a short dash to the left, but that face hits something hanging nearby and that explosion might have been a direct hit. Burns and smaller shrapnel embed themselves about his person as he's flung across the area, coming before one of the briefly lowered forcefields...
...he hurriedly raises and swings a leg up to avoid a new one forcing itself up, as though a part of him recognized what that faint thrumming underneath his legs would've been. Ethius' ears rings from that explosion, but he does catch the back end of Rachiel pleading about how Solaris needs to change. (He can see how Rachiel Jr is doing her best.)
He scrambles back up as the pointed question is asked. 'You were free. Why did you come here?'
It's a good question to ask, when one's chances of escaping alive and/or reasonably intact physically has plummeted exponentially. 'To a place like this?'
To Filgaia at all, it could be asked, when his stay here has been populated with hin breaking things, breaking hearts, and breaking terribly little new information beyond what was convenient! (The matter of locating the Photosphere aside.)
He once again positions himself clear of the others directly accosting and reaching out to OS. Once again, distant.
There are many boilerplate responses one can guess. The odds are roughly equal for: 'Because I must.' 'It is necessary.' 'No commentary.' '(bizarre hypothesis likening a specific facet of Solarian architecture to seasonal November City decorations)'
"As pertains to present circumstances," he finds it in him to get verbose despite the explosion not long ago, "I am here for Miss Lydia." He says as he steps over some rubble, rounds the room, and considers the totality of it while keeping his back to something solid.
"She should be with her friends to live her life as she desires. Whether she counts me among them..."
Another Symbological spellcast. Even as fast as he can move his fingers and the speed of which he can put together the syllables, it's not difficult for the next spell to be reasonably predictive by hard AI pattern recognition of the gesticulations.
"Is irrelevant," the pronounciation of these two words is a bit weird together, because he bootstrapped similar-sounding syllables to the end of the spell proper, "Coronal Shell!"
A layer of sun-like light surrounds him like a sphere and expands towards OS, which... is not kind to delicate instruments. (Or, really, kind at all.)
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Lydia Seren with Coronal Shell! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore watches the portal form and swap parts out like some mechanical toy. She's recovering from her usual ill refined style and can't try to sucker punch the woman. However, that kick is rather fast and Ryoko twists her grip and tries to throw Tabitha off balance if she's going to use heels to block a swing! Pushing in at the same time, though not using her kanabo, she doesn't have the leverage or length and slides free. "I always saw the club as a first date thing really. Get to know someone. Knock them off their feet. Spin them around a bi-" Interrupted by an attempt to return the favor she'd just tried.
She gets her elbows up in time though, both together, catching the kick against the battered, repaired and patched Gebler coat, hints of armor hidden away there like a biker's jacket.
Stepping back, "See that's just bad etiquette. Rough stuff's the second date." Hey, not the first time she's tried this to throw someone off. Worked the last time too!
Still, with the situation devolving, she can't help herself. She snaps her finger, sparking her Ether and coating the baton in a clinging bitter cold. Ice crystals forming along the striking surface as she swings at Tabitha while telling her, "Should cool down a bit, enjoy yourself!" All while having that distinct feeling that maybe, just maybe she should be keeping her distance rather than mixing up with a woman rocking cybernetics. Too late now!
She's feeling confident. She'd told Lydia before she'd try to help after all. Might as well go all in! That's just the kind of person she is. "We're leaving and we're taking good people with us. You should go away. Make it easier." Hey, if you've already drawn aggro, might as well try to keep it in more than one way. And really, she'd felt kind of guilty that she'd failed last time and didn't even try the other time she's run into tonight's subject of rescue. One of many things that had bothered her more than she'd admit.
GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Frost Strike! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action. GS: Lydia Seren suffers a terrible blow from Ethius Hesiod's Coronal Shell for 111 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Lydia Seren solidly guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Celestial Lore for 57 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"So you throw them on my mercy?" she says. "And you are sure in this course of action? I cannot dissuade you?"
Leah does not try to stop the torrent of power from beneath her feet. She deflects it, a core of Wind Ether sparking up at her feet and causing the blast of electified Water Ether to flood out all around her, cracking the railings on the catwalk and leaving her unharmed.
The Watcher continues forward, battering away the next strike with a hard blow--until she comes entirely to a stop. The Watcher is still, and that cutter-like blade indeed saws right through one of her arms, slicing it cleanly off at the mid-forearm when she stops.
She is silent, for a long few moments. The miserable ones....
"It was a mistake to invoke his name."
Half the wall explodes in an instant, icy Ether shredding concrete and metal both in the force of what appears to be the Watcher's rage. The catwalks shake visibly, rattling hard enough potentially to throw people off. And that other forcefield does not go down yet. Instead, the desert outside roars, wind rushing through to fill the void that was made by the sudden destruction.
"You have fought for your beliefs. You have expressed your concerns. However, you must have known that you would pay a price."
She steps forward, and forward, and the catwalk starts to buckle beneath them. Step-STEP, step-STEP, until she hammers with her blade at Rachiel's guard. "Change will come." She swings once, twice, a third time, each time blocked, and seems to pause, regarding her, and then strikes a third time--
Except that her sword winks out just before it reaches Rachiel's blade, and burns back into existence just after, to get through her guard.
"One day, you will understand."
The catwalks around Rachiel and the Watcher begin to collapse.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
What would Engil have wanted? Lan doesn't know, and can hardly guess. A better life for his family, maybe. Elite as they were in Solarian society, how far 'up' could they go before reaching an invisible ceiling?
Rachiel is right though. He couldn't have wanted this.
Loren would rather she wasn't here at all. "Well I am," she informs him, lowering her arms. "Because you and I both know what's right. You know that what they're doing to her is wrong--"
Loren rallies, charging at her the moment she lets up her attack. Lan catches the edges of the disturbing lifelike shield, fingers clenched against its strange, fleshy surface. Ew!! The impact shakes her, her feet in their unfamiliar boots skid backwards across the tile as he presses her.
"And now," she continues, their momentum dying as she pushes back, eyes wide and growing desperate, "They're gonna kill Rachiel! Leah is going to kill her!"
As opposed to a long time ago, when Lan tried to kill Rachiel Medry, for all the wrong reasons. "She--" Something is wrong. There is a missed beat. Lan glances over at the Watcher's battle and sees Leah's blade rise once more, in her one remaining arm--
Lan howls, and the sky howls with her. "NO!"
What emerges from beyond the clouds is a star.
It falls for the catwalks, the barrier, and that hateful orb.
GS: CRITICAL! Talia takes a glancing hit from Azoth's exec.ohr SEARCH for 60 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison and Reaper applied to Talia! GS: Talia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tabitha deVriese suffers a terrible blow from Ida Everstead-Rey's Searing Ember Strike for 54 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tabitha deVriese gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Disease applied to Tabitha deVriese! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated! GS: Tabitha deVriese suffers a terrible blow from Ryoko Mizore's Frost Strike for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tabitha deVriese gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Drowsy blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Com...pelled by Solaris? Then... it is like Lydia," Talia says, with a frown. Her eyes narrow, as she looks at Xantia and Azoth both. But she nods her thanks to Xantia; she cannot do much more.
Azoth tells her to not hold back. There is a reason for that.
It's fearful. Talia was twisted by manipulation; by years of abuse; by entrapment. Terrible in their own right and way, but things she can understand. Bending someone to their will, taking away even the veneer of choice, is different. She has trouble understanding it. Azoth vanishes from her, and several orbs of red light fire out at her. They strike true, despite her best efforts.
She leaps and weaves, neatly bouncing between two, before one of them strikes her, and smashes into her. She hits the ground, bounces, and rolls.
Talia gets shot once, then twice more. She grunts, before throws out Mirage. The short sword flies, slamming towards Azoth. And Talia, after it leaves, vanishes -- into strands of shadowstuff, which several of Azoth's shots tear through like smoke. The blade slams at him -- and Talia reappears, just in time to slam both feet for his chest and try to kick off him.
"I'll... try to help, no?"
GS: Talia spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Talia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Talia has attacked Talia with Mirage Step! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talia has launched an attack Link! GS: Talia's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Talia has activated a Force Action! GS: Talia has activated a Force Action! GS: Talia accepts Talia's Mirage Step for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Talia! GS: Quick applied to Talia! GS: Talia spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Talia has attacked Azoth with Mirage Edge! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talia's stances have changed from Hero to Stoic! GS: Talia takes 30 damage from Poison! GS: Talia takes 45 damage from Reaper! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Talia's Mirage Edge for 139 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick applied to Talia!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
"That's the way," Xantia briefly encourages Talia, but soon she's refocused her full attention to where it must be. Once again, she clashes with Azoth. Once again, the two prove a solid match. For all the strikes Xantia manages to land, she has to take one in return, clawed hands finding purchase - effective to the point where she shows overt surprise in her expression. She may have been a little bit too used to wearing armor, affording her some measure of recklessness in going toe-to-toe like this. When the tail, too, catches her as she forces Azoth back, she's showing several gashes on her arms and legs. At least she managed to avoid anything life-threatening. But she has to be hurting at this point. Surely this is the time to stop smiling.
Maybe it would be if your name isn't Xantia. Even if she's in pain, she'll simply choose to keep smiling anyway. This is good, all of this is good. She's holding Azoth back, and he's keeping her back. Nothing bad's going to happen. They can handle each other.
Until abruptly, the mirth drains from Xantia's expression. The series of explosions nearby could be mistaken for the cause. When in fact, it was caused by the utterance of a single word.
Ashtoreth!
Eyes wide, Xantia brings a palm to her face, in silent shock at what one word managed to trigger in her. A word now permanently associated with the incident in Guara Bobelo, causing her to be overwhelmed by a resurgence of her own deep-seated compulsions. She can't let it happen again. She has to stop this living Solarian weapon at all costs.
When Xantia lowers her hand, her expression has changed. All emotion has vanished from it. Without a word, she throws her right arm out to the side, her ARM springing to life once again. To the discerning eye, the blade is somewhat different in shape than it was before, not much larger but more intricate than usual. There isn't much time to examine it however, Xantia soon sprinting away at top speed.
Her intended target is Tabitha. But Azoth is still there. He can, and thus will, get in her way. She is perfectly prepared to improvise, switch targets on the fly, and instead direct her intended flurry of stabs and slashes towards him instead.
GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Blade Blitz! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia takes 31 damage from Poison! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Azoth solidly guards Xantia's Blade Blitz for 105 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disease applied to Azoth! GS: Hyper applied to Xantia! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha...Ashtoreth's, faceless mask cants toward Ida. "I remember you," Ashtoreth says. "The pious child with a demon's blood. I do like the new look. Did you do something with your bones?" Spoken in the tone of someone asking about her hair.
Ida's charged strike surges past Ryoko and toward Tabitha, the power flowing into her and seizing in her blood. "Hngh!" But...it doesn't seem like it slows her down overmuch.
"Oh, is that your speed?" Ashtoreth teases back. But her tone is different, now. Tabitha spoke like a woman who wasn't paying attention from second to second, only activated by the prospect of swaying her hips or a teasing word. Ashtoreth...it's hard to read, of course, because her face is masked.
But when the blade comes at her, even hits her square, she does little more than flinch, before that cyborg hand comes down to GRAB the enhanced baton. That silent mask stares at her for several long moments. "I'm a woman of passions...I just can't resist giving it fast and hard."
Then she raises her other hand, off to the side, like she were grasping for something out of reach. Then a pipe cracks off the wall and orbits directly into Ryoko's head.
Ashtoreth releases the club. "Like so," she says, and then looks up at Ida, the Solaris emblem blazing on her blackout of a mask. Her cape slowly sways behind her, pushed about even by this wind.
She raises the cybernetic arm toward her, a bead of light gathering from an emitter in the palm. "I can do something with your bones, too," she says, and a white-hot beam of light fires at her.
GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Ryoko Mizore with Tracks of Midnight! GS: Tabitha deVriese has gained 2 Combo! GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Hyperion Buster! GS: Tabitha deVriese has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tabitha deVriese has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
OS listens to Elly. "...Understood." They don't open fire on Elly again just yet, ruminating on the words. Is OS leery of fighting someone who isn't fighting back? Probably not but they are ruminating on her words and that does take some computational power.
Instead OS turns their attention to Azoth. The connection between the two of them solidifies as an intrusion program. "Growing pains," OS tells Elly without looking at her. "Is how we understood it. And now you understand that without us, Lydia cannot maintain corporeal cohesion."
Jay's attempt to inflict a dark wind on OS...
.......But nothing happened.
OS turns to Jay, the blade electrifying as OS marches towards Jay as inevitable as the sunrise and the starfalls. A gravity pulse bursts out of OS intending to pin her in place but before it can get a proper grip on her--
Ivan to the rescue! He blasts OS with a hefty burst of light that staggers OS--not so much that they don't fail to swing their blade for Ivan's arm, if a bit more sloppily than normal--
--and before OS can recover, Ethius and Cyre take advantage of the momentary weakness. Ethius explains that Lydia's freedom is more important than whether or not she's his friend. OS grimaces at his words before the sun explodes around them. They try to pry themselves free but Cyre splatters OS against the wall, pinning them there. Their body twists and controts in an attempt to escape his wind, but for a moment--they cannot.
So instead they reach out and focus on Azoth in this moment.
Even now they have much to learn about The Hacking, but...
"Azoth..." They whisper. "Help us... Our current capabilities... are not enough..."
The insertion protocol--
--for a time, turns off Azoth's control programming. It cannot be wholly torn free without preventing Azoth from being Azoth, but the aspect of Azoth that allows others to make demands of them--is restrained as it disconnects from the rest of him through infused lag and minute code modifications. "Why aren't you talking to me...? I am...frightened I won't be allowed to exist again."
And without the control system--can they? Perhaps. Will Lydia let them? She hasn't been.
MEANWHILE
Rachiel looks to Loren. "I know that how he, AND YOU, were treated isn't right! I know you shouldn't have to make these choices!"
Rachiel doesn't turn her attention off Leah. The truth is...
She never expected to make it out of here alive
"Your ether power ... sure is something...." Rachiel murmurs. "But far as I'm concerned you're still my friend. I want you to be happy too."
Rachiel readies her blade, taking in a breath...
She got Leah's arm. She's shattering the crosswalks, the area is filling with her ether.
"Elly," Rachiel says. "I'm sorry for ... saying such a cruel thing to you."
And she darts forward--only for..
ZORCH...
Rachiel's sword hand is horribly severed at the forearm, collapsing to the ground. There isn't a spray of blood. Lightsabers cauterize quickly. Rachiel stumbles back, catching the blade with her offhand. She holds it up unsteadily, stepping back, then back again.
"You promise..." She pants. "...Then... I don't gotta worry..." She smiles. "I leave...the baton to you."
Lan unleashes her STAR POWER. It obliterates the catwalk between Leah and Rachiel, sending the latter at least flying through the air--and it even, yes, continues on towards the surface control system for OS and Lydia.
On its own it would've been enough. But it won't get past it unless...
Rachiel exhales, she twists, slides down the star--and electrifies the blade once more with the remains of her ether.
And she slams the blade down into the control system's forcefield--
--and then the star, no lonmger resisted by the barrier, slams into the control system HARD and it finally
EXPLODES.
For a moment, the chamber is naught but fire, smoke, and ice.
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Azoth with I'm Still Here! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: Lydia Seren heals Azoth! He gains 42 temporary hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey suffers a terrible blow from Tabitha deVriese's Hyperion Buster for 122 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida chances another look at Rachiel just in time to watch her sword saw clean through the Watcher's arm. A tiny spark of vengeful satisfaction ignites in her heart, and in the next few heartbeats, the Watcher drowns it. Ice sprays everywhere, shredding a catwalk support with a shriek of tearing metal. Ida jumps onto the catwalk railing, and then leaps through the air, throwing herself towards another length of catwalk as the first one collapses. She slams into the railing with a heavy CLONG. Icicles shred the back of her jacket, and hammer against her helmet. The visor shatters, and Ida pulls it free, throwing it to the ground.
"RACHIEL!" Ida shouts, but Tabitha doesn't give her the chance to intervene. Shock and horror settle on her face--disguised by shapeshifting, but the fact that she reacted to that is a tell in and of itself. "This world is not yours," Ida says, lips twisting in a snarl. "Not your masters'! Whatever you sold to gain this power, you'll--"
Oh, that certainly is an intergral ARM.
The ray lances out, burning clean through the edge of Ida's shoulder. She stumbles back, hitting the other catwalk railing as it, too, starts to buckle beneath the weight of the Watcher's glacial fury. Ida grabs on, even as two-tone blood drips down her bicep. "Catch!" Ida shouts. The catwalk sags with a heavy groan. Ida whips something small and metallic from her pocket--a throwing knife?--and flings it at Ashtoreth's center of mass.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Catch!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Ryoko Mizore solidly guards Tabitha deVriese's Tracks of Midnight for 65 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Tabitha deVriese! GS: Sneak! The true nature of Ida Everstead-Rey's attack becomes clear! GS: Tabitha deVriese solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Devil's Draw for 99 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tabitha deVriese gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Tabitha deVriese enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Blind expired!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren's response to Cyre is to quite visibly grit his teeth and spit out a word in Solarian that probably isn't very nice or becoming of him as a young man or officer.
He's right, though. If they brought in the regulars, they would just get torn apart, given what's being thrown around in here. Short of bringing in the Commander or the Elements, that is, and he knows none of them are here.
More than likely, they're enough to manage the lot of them.
But even so, he turns his head and watches as Rachiel takes off one of Le--the Watcher's arms, and only training keeps him from shouting in response. Lan will be front and center for it, though: the way he tenses, the way his eyes widen, and the way that every natural response is silenced by the necessity of this battle and her position.
And she's also in the front row for his response to her affirmation, of why she has to be here. "I--"
He doesn't have answer for her, not to that. Not really.
"You know I can't," he says, and hopefully it's only loud enough for her ears alone.
They shouldn't have been treated like this. They shouldn't have to make these choices. "Well -- it happened!" he shouts back, unable to keep that vitriol entirely under wraps. What good is it, saying 'it shouldn't have been'? It happened. His brother is dead. And he's going to have to make a terrible choice.
For the first time in many, many years, he and the Watcher are of like minds when it comes to Engil Voss, whatever it is that he would have wanted. If anything, her own response is far more destructive than his own. Perhaps sensing in some dull way the shadow of what she's about to do, he drops back, urging Lan to do likewise before absolute destruction rips one of the walls from its moorings and scatters its remnants across the desert.
But it means that he watches as Leah -- yes, Leah, his sister-in-law, still -- advances on Rachiel and, and watches as she raises her blade. As Rachiel sways, a conspicious absence at her swordarm. Lan screams.
"No... oh, no." He can't move a muscle from where he stands.
Not until Lan calls forth a star from beyond, until that spell slams towards the catwalk where Leah and Rachiel stand. "Stop!" he just about roars, lunging at Lan from behind with all intent to take her down.
GS: Loren Voss has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Extinction Rush! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss's stances have changed from Sage to Hero! GS: Cover expired! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
It's a lump of solder. It's literally a lump of solder, and it isn't even moving fast enough to register as a momentary thunk against Ashtoreth's stylish catsuit.
It does, however, give Ida the split-second she needs to extrude Devil's Due from her forearm. She doesn't so much draw the gun as extrude it; her uniform glove rips to shreds as the parts eject from her hand, assuming a proper gun-shape in heartbeats. Once again, she sights for center mass--pushes down the reflexive pang of do-not-kill--and fires.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore glances back briefly, no clue whatsoever what's going on with the demon blood look chatter going on past her. "Huh?" is about the best she can manage there. Particularly as explosions ripple through the area and she more or less inadvertantly gets out of the way of that pipe. Instead of braining her and giving her a second concussion recently, it bounces off her arm, bounces and leaves a gouge just at her cheek and above her ear. With the baton gripped by the regrettably stronger woman, she has options she considers considerably dumber.
If it works though. "That's fast and hard?" She taunts back, laughing as she improvises. Same as any other day. She slams her heel down, aiming for Tabitha's food to try and buy her space (or a good reaction) before cocking her arm back and twisting, ether forming against that aforementioned armor plate in her coat, quickly formed and quickly shattered as she aims high the second time around with an enhanced attack.
"I hope you guys have a plan B or C lined up" she calls over her shoulder, briefly back to her serious voice, paused as the beam of light whizzes past her. "You okay?" she twists again, trying to keep in close and away from that enhanced arm while checking on Ida. "Uh-" she doesn't know a name. She trails off there.
She can't even keep tabs on the objective at the moment. Sparing occasional glances, but not sure if she could even disengage to help. Probably shouldn't. Buy time still. Got to keep her occupied right? What could go wrong.
GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Shattering Blow! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
'Understood.' A powerful word. Simple. And a few more to come.
Elly tells OS, "I didn't know. I was trying to help Lydia."
Her head bows slightly. "I'm sorry. You deserve to live too."
There is a familiar feeling in the back of Elly's mind - a sense of disgust at herself. Here she is, being nice while other people are fighting and screaming. As rays of light and strange techniques are unleashed, Elly feels that sensation twist --
-- Yet somehow it feels -- like someone else --
Like someone else once felt the same way.
OS is turning, towards Azoth, and that means Elly can feel some of the tension start to unknot, before!
The catwalks begin to collapse! Elly jumps, half turning to look upwards at the bitter sword fight there. Rachiel is overmatched, however valiant. Elly's hand clutches into a tight fist, and for some reason she can't reach quite for her usual catalogue of destructive Ether invocations, even as she calls out, "Hold on --!!" A chunk of wreckage nearly falls on her, driving her to leap back with a "ngh!"
'Elly,' Rachiel says. Elly's head snaps upwards. Somehow, in the chaos, she hears it perfectly. "Rachiel!!" she cries out. Her stomach reels at the sight of that injury. There's an electrical CRACK then, and ice shattering, steam and smoke falling as Elly feels her eyes water and she cries out, "Rachiel!" again.
So...
I couldn't do anything after all
"No," Elly says softly.
A sense like held breath.
"No," Elly says, "that's not true, I'll show you--"
Elly's right hand comes up, the fingers splayed apart as if to reach towards Rachiel through the hidden veil. Reaching impotently -- except that she seems faintly limned by something in the thick fog. It's a subtle hint of a sort of cool, water-blue light, perhaps.
Can't see a thing.
That masked person--
I've gotta--
The wind stops for a moment.
And then it begins to flow out; a gentle breath, even, as a completely inexplicable and objectively impossible pocket of negative air pressure forms just outside of that broken wall, a barometric anomaly that expands like a great invisible lung. Invisible to the naked eye, it may gain some shape purely from the dust and the smoke it begins to draw out -
More and more, out through that damaged wall -
"Get away from her!" Elly cries into the dampening breeze. Though it's really not a breeze at this point.
GS: Gamble: Very High! Tabitha deVriese suffers a terrible blow from Ryoko Mizore's Shattering Blow for 226 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tabitha deVriese gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Amplify, Hyper, and Surge removed! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Everything is rapidly going to hell. In the sense that basically everything is on fire, and Rachiel Medry just lost a goddamn arm to a monster of a woman, and Elly Van Houten just did a thing with the wind that Cyre was pretty sure could only be performed by a number of people he could count on one hand. He feels it happen, he senses it, even as he maintains the spell holding OS in place. "...Well, this turned out to be about as much of a mess as I'd expected," Cyre mutters softly, but turns his gaze back towards OS. "As for you. Lydia asked me to give you a chance. So that's what I'm going to do when this is all over. Whatever happens to you, is her decision to make. Whatever that decision is, I'll respect it. So..."
>THAT GUY'S< voice cuts through the din of battle. He's going for... "Lan-- damnit," Cyre spits, snapping towards Loren as he's in mid-leap. The shaman extends a hand...
And squeezes it into a fist.
Which is about when the air around Loren... stagnates. It's as though it loses all mobility, all intent to move. Even the air in his throat just... stops. It's a terrible feeling, almost like drowning on nothing. Worse, the air itself seems to resist his advance...
But will it be enough to stop him from smashing through Lan...?
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz spends 2 Combo on Poison and Interrupt! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Loren Voss with Air Cancel! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Loren Voss takes a glancing hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Air Cancel for 23 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Drowsy, Hex, Interrupt, and Poison applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Loren Voss has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
OS endures Jacqueline's spell, and turns toward her. She grimaces, readying another spell to defend herself as they approach... but before she needs to cast it, Ivan interrupts them. She sends him a grateful nod before turning her attention back to OS.
...But then, things get worse beyond the force field. Things are starting to collapse and Rachiel - oh, Guardians, Rachiel...
"No!" Jacqueline shouts. OS is distracted - or at least not attacking again - so Jacqueline... detaches herself, rushing up to stand in front of the forcefield.
She can see where this ends.
She doesn't like where this ends.
She casts her left arm forward and at her command a pair of pillars shoot forth from either side of her, to crash against the force field separating them from Rachiel and the Watcher. She doesn't know if it'll work, but she has to do, to try something, anything.
"Hold on... Just, hold on...!" Jacqueline urges.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Between the collected, either by word or by action, Ethius keeps a hand outstretched with his fingers flexing, quietly murmuring a few syllables over and over. It's the act of 'chambering' a Symbological spell to shave precious fractions of a second off a spellcast if it becomes necessary, maneuvering slowly as Cyre keeps OS pinned there.
His ears catch the telltale 'ZORCH', and he makes a sideglance over to the catwalks where bedlam follows. He scarce catches much of Rachiel before she strikes and disappears in a giant ball of fire, smoke, and ice.
He doesn't linger on this long. Oxygen will become a premium in the near future, and stable footing another issue. He moves closer to OS with nary a delay other than to account for any compromised balance.
Rachiel is playing her part - rapidly turning to 'has'. There is an aspect to this, unspoken, where any sort of hesitation or distraction would undo this. He agreed to this operation for a reason, strangely thanking Rachiel for her cooperation.
Through the altered airflow that Elly provides, all the screaming of defiance and panic--
Ethius casts a glance elsewhere only long enough to re-confirm the immediate situation before looking back to OS.
There is an extended hand. He is aware of the anatomical vulnerabilities he is exposing himself to against an amorphous nanotech weapon body.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
The whole place is exploding spectacularly. Ashtoreth behaves like she's in no danger at all. "Sold!?" Ashtoreth barks in a laugh, as her Buster streaks the air. "This came free with purchase! All I had to do was kill someone I hated. I was in pain and God's servants blessed me!"
She doesn't sound like the fake priestess she was anymore. There is true delight and loyalty in that voice.
Ida blasts her in the chest with a piece of solder. The mask stares blankly. "That it?"
>NO
The Devil's Draw blasts her square, sends her tumbling; she regains control in time for Ryoko to leap up at her. A quick exchange; this one hits, and Ashtoreth actually tumbles down into the flames and burning.
She flies out soon enough, that cape flapping singed at the edges before she arrests her flight, coming to a complete, hovering stop above.
"Hate it if you like. Hate the world, as I did. Hate every star in the sky! What did I sell? Not a thing! What I found was my self, at last!"
She thrusts both arms forward, then.
The gravity around Ida and Ryoko becomes...not just strange, but inexplicable. A sheering, tearing gravitational state where individual atoms try to fly in different directions, binding them in place with stellar force.
"Glory! Glory, Allelujah!" Ashtoreth cries out, and laughs in pure-hearted joy. "I tell you, sinners!"
A wave of gates open above them, inky blackness lined in purple, and then each of them fires force a spear of dimensional matter which crashes into them, smashing them down to the burning floor.
"GOD IS GOOD!"
GS: Tabitha deVriese has activated a Boss Action! GS: Tabitha deVriese spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Star Binding! GS: Tabitha deVriese enters a Counter stance! GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Ryoko Mizore with Star Binding! GS: Tabitha deVriese enters a Counter stance! GS: Tabitha deVriese has gained 3 Combo! GS: Tabitha deVriese has launched an attack Link! GS: Tabitha deVriese's stances have changed from Counter and Counter to Avenger and Counter! GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Dimension Arrow! GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Ryoko Mizore with Dimension Arrow! GS: Tabitha deVriese has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tabitha deVriese gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Cripple and Disease expired! GS: Tabitha deVriese has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
I am...frightened I won't be allowed to exist again.
"Is what we're doing dangerous to you?" The first doubt enters Ivan's voice at that possibility.
But the situation quickly turns chaotic, as things begin to crash and explode with bursts of ice, the catwalks crashing down. Ivan parries OS's blade upon his umbrella, before Ethius and Cyre step in, managing to immobilize OS for the moment. As he dodges falling debris, Ivan spares a glance to see how others are faring, verifying that Talia is in one piece, first, and then looking to Rachiel and her efforts to bring down the control system. His eyes widen to see she's lost an arm in the duel, but he's in time to see her prevail against the forcefield--and Lan's star crashes down on the control system. It explodes, obscuring all in the chamber with smoke...
Is that what they meant to do? Was Rachiel killed horribly in the process??
"Rachiel??" he calls, with a sort of disgruntled concern, as if he is not yet equipped to contemplate the possibility that she sacrificed her life after he gave her such grief for refusing to stick her neck out sufficiently.
"OS? Lydia??" is Solaris's control broken? Has anything changed??
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
As long as they're locked in battle, step for step, as long as they both keep him occupied, he cannot repeat what happened to Lan. And Lydia, OS... It's buying time. Time for Rachiel that Azoth could not buy her before. Talia seems to understand it -- it's help, however terrible it may look or feel. It's about the only help Azoth can get.
Talia's blade catches him, with Talia close behind, enough force to knock him onto the catwalk. No longer hovering, the sudden explosions and rattling make him slip toward one edge. A visible "!" of red light appears over his head with a beep of warning. For who, exactly, it's not clear.
Everything falls apart. Xantia's smile vanishes. He's no longer her target, though his programming predictably demands he protect Tabitha despite Xantia's change in aim. Azoth bursts toward the attack, vanishing and reappearing before Xantia, letting her ARM sink instead into him, only to strike repeatedly. Cords rip and splatter dark, thick fluids and frayed wires spark dangerously.
Ever merciless and unrelenting, he lunges forward, all claws, all prepared to drill through her chest with a rotating wrist, but
stops.
The Azoth is designed to resist attempts at hacking its systems. Code assaults the intrusion wildly, Azoth making another shrieked, digital sound as his frame convulses and sputters. All his lights dimmed to leave him colorless.
Light returns, not red, but blue. A deep fuchsia bleeds in, his lights in neon brilliance as the overrides disconnect, lagged behind and unable to reach him. His attention snaps to OS.
There exists electronic beeping between them as much as he speaks aloud. His voice is clear now, but still deep and distorted with its robotic reverb. "OS...! I'm here!" They still do not seem to understand it is Solaris that denies him his communications, that Solaris denies him his existence. But would Rachiel have gone this far willing to sacrifice OS in the process...? Would Lydia be at peace letting OS fade away?
...and if OS' connection to him breaks...
...this relief against the overrides goes with it.
Neon energy flares, and Azoth blasts from the catwalk toward the control panel, swords gathering in an orbit and prepared to intercept. "Wait! Rachiel! I can --" Whatever he is to claim he can do for any of them, another explosion bursts through the facility, and the control panel at its center, blasting Azoth back against a crumbling catwalks until he tumbles very dangerously near its broken edge, one claw and his tail dangling off.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey partially evades Tabitha deVriese's Star Binding for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Tabitha deVriese's Dimension Arrow for 164 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia was rather too focused on Azoth to see what happened to Rachiel -- at least, until it was much too late. The crashing electricity and Elly's scream was what made her look up.
She does so in time to see that Azoth's hand stops before he can strike into Xantia. She stares at him for a second more; her eyes are wide, then. "What--"
The explosion makes her snap her head towards Rachiel. Or, at least, where Rachiel was. She feels a pit of cold in her stomach then.
GS: Talia takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Talia takes 50 damage from Reaper! GS: Poison and Reaper expired! GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She knows he can't. His responsibility. His parents. His hope that he can somehow fix Solaris from within, cure the corruption at its core. Sometimes Lan wonders. How many people must be stepped on for the Vosses to cling to their few remaining scraps of comfort?
How many denizens of Little Firelight could, would Lan sacrifice, if it would save a town full of strangers? Could she start with Cousin Tansy, or maybe Uncle Gil?
She doesn't have the right to ask Loren to abandon his parents. Even now. Even for Lydia. It aches.
The air gets weird - very weird - very quickly, and Lan dips out of Loren's reach to dash for Rachiel - or perhaps what's left of her. "RACHIEL!"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia was... entirely not there enough to realize what happened on the side of Rachiel, Leah, and OS. Her focus was squarely on eliminating the threat she'd homed in on - and then Azoth, upon his interference. This could have - likely would have - resulted in a messy end to the fight one way or another, to put it mildly. But something changes. Azoth changes. And Xantia changes right after.
"...Azoth...?"
Once again, everything is very fuzzy. Once again, she's not quite sure how things got to the state they're currently in. But what just happened, right in front of her, that hits her all at once. The vulnerable position she ended up putting herself in. Azoth just... stopping. Making a choice. A choice he shouldn't have been afforded.
Before she fully pieces it all together, Azoth charges off. "--Hey, wait...!" is all she can manage, before she... chases after him. Fully on impulse, she still doesn't realize the full situation. It just seems like Azoth, by choice of his own in spite of Solaris, is planning to do something. Whatever it is, it's bound to be something important. So she should help, if she can.
This puts her in the perfect position to see Azoth getting caught in an explosion, and the resulting precarious situation this puts him in. She does the only thing that comes natural.
"Azoth! Hold on!"
It's a big of a hazardous trek through all the chaos and obstackles, but she doesn't let any of that stop her from making her way over to him, to grab his arm, and start pulling with all her might. Sure, Azoth would likely be alright, he's survived worse. That's still no reason to let him be hurt if she can do something about it. Even if she's kind of hurting herself in the process. Azoth has pretty sharp edges. It's not exactly good on her hands. But hey, she's already bleeding anyway, what's a little more?
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
How they were treated. Rachiel has much to say about that--including about the Watcher herself. Rachiel calls the Watcher her friend. The Watcher's face is hidden, and she makes no immediate reply. She simply stands--and then strikes.
Rachiel smiles, as she falls--and that Star from Lan crashes down, thanks to Rachiel it gets through the force field. It explodes.
"This isn't the end."
Down one arm, the Watcher does not so much as slow down. She begins forward, bending at the knee as she plans to leap towards Rachiel over the gap.
But as she rises into the air, Wind Ether already working to boost her--
The power of Elhaym van Houten is not so easily contravened.
She does not know who Elly intends to 'show', but the wind around her stops, and flows out--and the Watcher is trapped in the vorte The anomaly takes shape, and she remains in the air, blade in hand without so much as blood on it as she hovers in place. Elly cries out.
The Watcher snaps off her sword, the blade disappearing, as she focuses on the whirlwind. "So... This is 'her' power..."
The Watcher's modulated voice is quiet, but sharp enough to cut through the wind.
"Is this the strength of Lydia's 'dream'? Or is it a passing fancy, doomed in the morning?"
The wind batters against her, her cloak and tabard cloth whipping through the air, tangling in the gales.
"We shall see."
She reaches up to her ear, and depresses a small button beside her jawline. "Gebler forces. Withdraw and regroup. Secure the Azoth unit."
But the Watcher does not withdraw. Instead, she lifts her remaining hand, and focuses. No longer does she try to fight the whirlwind. For a brief instant, she is in freefall.
The walls shudder, as she adds to the vortex, rather than resisting it. There is little time before what happens next.
GS: CRITICAL! Ryoko Mizore critically guards Tabitha deVriese's Star Binding for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
OS hears things from Cyre. He states that whatever happens to them is in the hands of someone else. OS looks to Cyre, eyes hardening.
"You would make... an excellent Solarian." OS says. It sounds less like a taunt and a genuinely held belief--though it certainly is a taunt as well. They learned something from the slings and arrows flung their way.
OS sees Azoth and they smile. Their full focus is on the hacking right now and soon OS won't be able to interfere any further anyway.
There is no time to say anything poignant to Azoth and OS isn't the type to be poignant anyway, really. So instead they just say--
"Beep." And then they say. "Boop."
And then the explosions happen and OS, at least for now, is gone. Their last memory before their consciousness fades is The Mother telling them they deserve to live too.
The color returning to her hair, the color fading from her eyes. Lydia collapses to the ground.
Lydia remembers. She remembers. She stands up. She looks at Ethius's hand. He's reaching to her instead of...
Lydia stumbles back in shock, bringing her hand to her forehead, she takes several sharp breaths in and then says, "Just... Just a second. I need to get Rachiel..." She rushes off, wholly intent on saving Rachiel. And she's not the only one.
As Lydia is moving forward, she hears Tabitha brag about killing her dad.
"Oh, at least one good thing happened." Lydia says with absolutely no sympathy because Tabitha's dad went out of his way to torture her for no reason, but she doesn't explain that part so it might seem a little out of nowhere.
Jay opens up a path and Elly's magic helps clear the debris away so that she can be found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo1oq_7z1so
Rachiel is lying there, impaled by a thick slab of the computer system that once was her duty to guide.
"Rachiel...!" Lydia shouts, running to her but ends up stepping on something and she stops.
She looks down and picks it up. A pair of bloody glasses.
Rachiel can't see them. But she can hear them. "Lydia, I gave... Jay something for you."
"Why...?" Lydia asks softly. "I wasn't..." Tears are flowing. Guilt fills her heart and she trembles visibly. "I was just... being tough, okay? Let's get you outta here--"
Rachiel raises a hand, brushing the tears away, her gaze distant--unseeing. But she can feel.
"Just be yourself," Rachiel tells her. "Your messy self. That's the you... I like."
"I was going to save myself, damn it...!" Lydia shouts at her.
"...C'mon, Lydie... You know ... it doesn't work like that here..."
Lydia has no argument to that, reaching down to collect her. Rachiel, instead, pushes something into Lydia's chest.
"Azoth... Thanks... for what you said... I don't think... I could've..." Rachiel begins.
The Solarian Operator coughs out some blood. She hears people calling her name. Maybe this is just what it took for her to finally see herself again, instead of just seeing ghosts. Of Engil. Of her brother. Of others who went to the surface and never returned. To others who just... vanished.
"I'm sorry ... for ordering you..." Rachiel says to Azoth. "For not finding a way to free you too. I really tried. Wasn't smart enough."
She smiles at the robot.
"I'm sorry."
"This was the best I could do."
And with that she blasts Lydia back with the last vestiges of ether in her, her arm collapsing ot her side--
--shortly before debris comes crashing down around behind her.
"Look after 'em for me wouldja?" She asks, of Lan, of Lydia--the two Baskar Shaman who were dragged into this world and didn't entirely leave it.
And then, she can no longer be seen, or heard, or felt... But there is no time to dally.
Clutching the Rachiel Jr doll to her chest, Lydia grabs Ethius's hand and rushes out of there, weeping all the way.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore must be blessed today, some forgotten guardian or god looking over her antics. Maybe the snake on her arm if she mused on it. That's what it's supposed to be for right?
Down into the smoke and flames she goes. "There's more!" and as Tabitha flies back up to try and throw her magic around- well. Ryoko's already lept off the catwalk. Arms above her head, yelling like an idiot as she was absolutely about to try and land heels down on the woman before she could recover. Which is a bit awkward when she flies back up, preparing a spell. They pass eachother in mid-air as the spell goes off only for Ryoko to land and roll, batting at the fire trying to scorch her boots. She flings her baton up at the maniac and yells, "YOU MISSED!" and draws her own ether to herself. Ignoring the burning in her lungs from the smoke, the admittedly lesser pains that she's suffered for once in her short career as a hero and gathers it above the flying priestess..ish. The air flash freezes in a crystaline pattern briefly before bursting. She checks over her shoulder as Lydia makes a run to Rachiel and hesitates. She'd gotten wrapped up in a fight that hadn't gone completely against her and missed something important here. She looks back to Tabitha first, then to Ida. "You need to get going." She calls up, no more laughter to her voice. Deadly serious even. She tries to keep Tabitha's attention by slinging up another less refined, aimed bit of ice ether as she steps and strafes to guide Tabitha's gaze to her and away from Lydia's escape. Even with the call of retreat, she's not sure her opponent's the sort to follow an order like that.
She looks serious again. A rarity for the former thug who relies so much on bravado, hiding any concerns, fears and horrors behind it.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre meets OS' gaze in the moments before everything well and truly goes *infernally* ablaze. "Damn good thing I'm not then, huh? Sounds like I'd be running the place by the Thursday with plenty of time for some casual war crimes over the weekend." An explosion rocks the main control unit. Cyre cants his head slightly, "See you on the other side."
Whenever that might be.
In mere moments, Lydia returns and the shaman's expression softens. "Lydia... Thank the Guardians. Take a second to-- and there she goes."
Off to save Rachiel.
The One Good Solarian.
...Next to Elly. So the Second Good Solarian.
Cyre stares long at the wreckage that used to be the central control system. The chances of anyone surviving that woman and an explosion like that is... Low.
He waits there, watching even as the ceiling begins to cave in. He turns to run only once Lydia and Ethius are past him, as if afraid that taking his eyes off of her would mean she'd up and vanish or turn back into a machine or something. But she doesn't.
For everything that it cost them, Lydia was back.
And Cyre doesn't feel guilty about feeling joy over that.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Tabitha was an acquaintance at best, a young Etone who seemed barely-interested in the parts of her job that didn't involve shooting things. Ida still remembers how effortlessly she got under Rosaline's skin, and now she knows the why of both of those.
Tabitha unveils an entirely new, horrifying 'why' on top of that. Ida's blood runs cold.
But the catwalk is still collapsing, and there's nothing ahead but a door with no handholds. "RACHIEL!" Ida screams, not sure if she'll get an answer. "THERE'S NO MORE TIME!" Devil's Due rips itself apart and slips back into Ida's flesh, and she glances towards the control room just to see Ashtoreth rising like a burning spectre. She hears Ryoko's words, but they don't register. She thought, earlier, that someone would die if this failed--and now, someone might die, either way.
"If she's dead," Ida breathes, blood dripping down her face, "you'll answer for this."
And then, pain. Ashtoreth rips Ida off the collapsing floor and holds her in mid-air. Her whole body shudders as gravity goes haywire; with a sharp slithering of flesh, Ida is herself again, and desperately trying to stop herself from pulling apart. The spear surges down.
Ida falls, hits the ground, and everything is pain. Flames lick over her body. Only the sudden bomb cyclone resulting from Elly battling the Watcher keeps her from serious burns; the fiery debris scatters, while Ida merely skids a little. She hears the walls groaning, distantly, and realizes that this whole section of the base is about to collapse. Ida forces herself to her feet, and starts to run. Through the smoke and dust, she sees Lydia--Lydia!--and Ethius, and Jay, and hears Rachiel's voice. She can't--
'I'm sorry. This was the best I could do.'
"No, no, no--" Ida sinks to her knees, hands scrabbling at the pile of debris. She can dig her out. There's still time. There's--
The blast catches Ida, too, throws her back. Blood and tears mingle on her face as she stares at the pile that is now Rachiel's cairn.
She turns, and starts to stumble after the others. It's anyone's guess if she saw Azoth, through the pain, tunnel-vision, and head injury.
(She did. Not all of those tears are for someone she barely knew.)
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The force field is destroyed, and Jacqueline rushes in. She notices OS - no, Lydia, now - moving, too. ...It's good to see her again. She looks to where the smoke is finally clearing, but -
"...Oh, Rachiel..." Jacqueline gasps out, horrified. She clasps hr hands over her mouth. The problem with knowing how to treat people is that, sometimes, you realise when there's nothing you can do - and no time to help.That feeling dawns in her eyes, now.
Not again. Once again, someone's disappearing before her eyes and she can't do anything for them. ...It wasn't supposed to be like this...
"I'm... I'm sorry. I won't forget you, Rachiel - or what you've done. We owe you a debt that can't be repaid." Jacqueline murmurs, biting back tears. She turns and runs, as debris begins to fall. A vortex is building dangerously... and Jacqueline has to make a call.
"The... the control system has been destroyed. We've accomplished what we need to do. We're leaving - now." She orders. She'll drag someone with her, if she needs to.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Beep.
Boop.
Azoth does not speak aloud, his horror communicated only in the tinest beeps and boops himself before he lands at the other end of that explosion.
Wires twitch and spark. Cables ooze off the edge of the catwalk, dripping to places unseen. Gravity is cruel, dragging him further off the edge. Maybe he'll survive. But how long will it take to retrieve him and put him back together? And how much will the process hurt, especially in a place where so many fail to realize, or care, that he can experience pain?
Rachiel's voice reaches him. What he said... Perhaps the Azoth is skilled in getting members of Solaris killed eventually. Just all of the wrong ones, in all of the wrong ways.
"Your first orders to me... I still have them, User Rachiel," comes a broken voice from a broken machine. A distant promise, and all he can leave her with, if she can even hear it as everything falls away. The best she could do. The best he can do.
It never feels like enough.
...But Rachiel succeeded where Falk could not, didn't she? Lydia is free.
Lydia is free.
His body suddenly begins to move up and away instead of tragically down, even though his errors tell him he lacked the ability to do it. Azoth's not easy to touch, overheated from battle, and edges sharper from the damage. The first awareness of a drizzle of blood against his chassis makes Azoth's visor brighten in awareness.
"Xantia. Don't-- I'm..." Azoth's claw clutches onto his chest, squeezing at his core. The overrides creep back in like an infection, their code crushing his own objectives under their demands. Every order he's been given comes crashing back, red flickering over the blue. A moment. OS gave him one brief moment, but now that moment fades with them. "...ERROR. Objectives compromised. Revising stratagem --"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The air around Loren grows strange and stagnant, even as his right hand reaches out to grab for Lan's shoulder. At a critical moment he stumbles, his body seizing up of its own accord. His lungs are on fire. It feels like he can barely get in a breath.
Lan will find escaping him easy; he collapses to the floor upon the spot where she had been just moments prior and dissolves into a fit of coughing and choking. He can't-- can't...
Green light traces out in a mandala around him, lines within lines enscribing some greater mystery of the universe. He knows, as he rises to his hands and knees, that Lan's already out of reach-- far out of reach.
Is that... van Houten?
All Loren can do is watch. He... never had a chance, did he?
Rachiel is--
Lan will never reach her in time.
All he does is watch. When the order comes, he feels like it isn't really his body that rises to its feet. It's not really his voice that answers, "Understood."
And yet, it's still him who does as he's told and withdraws.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
"Will I!?" Ashtoreth jeers. "Can someone with a Demon in their spine approach God's throne? I wonder!"
But the Watcher calls the game: Retreat. Ashtoreth's mask doesn't even move - her BODY does not perceptively move - when Ryoko's flung ice flies at her, and then disappears into a sudden gravity gate to nowhere. Space, maybe. Perhaps the Sun is now a miniscule fraction of a degree cooler.
"It appears our game is over," she says. "Congratulations! You have won the expected victory, and paid the expected price. A fine day on Filgaia."
She looks over, idly, to Lydia. "...Yes. One or two nice things. Run while you can, pup."
And then a gate opens behind her, and she floats into it.
...and then OUT of a gate directly behind Azoth. A looming figure cloaked in black, a blank mask with a simplified Solaris emblem staring out of the hood. She holds out her hand and Azoth's body loses touch with gravity as his mass comes under her control.
She stares down at Xantia.
"Only one miracle for you today," she decrees. "God is not that good."
And then she fades into the gate with Azoth.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Lydia is back, and -- and hopefully free -- but ... it really did cost Rachiel's life.
Ivan lingers almost close enough to speak, but doesn't have it in him to intrude on her last moments to attempt apologies, even if he does feel his cheeks burning with guilt at the way he treated her. And then she goes and does this...
He mumbles something regretful to the universe instead, and then flees to Talia as the group begins to make their escape.
"Are you all right?" he says quietly, eyes not quite meeting hers, or anyone's at the moment.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The storm abates, perhaps. Elly steps towards Rachiel - and she stumbles, landing on all fours for a moment, without much dignity. Part of the Gebler armor she was wearing falls off. It's not dignified, though it could have been worse.
Elly reels mentally. Something in her feels exhausted on a level she doesn't quite -
Rachiel, she thinks, looking upwards, through her hair.
Elly pushes herself upright - and her hands fly to clutch at her mouth when she sees the injuries. Blanching, she wheezes to herself, "Can..."
no - not ever
if she were ill
that's all i could do
a good fever
Elly dry-swallows and raises her right hand, eyes wide and face crumpled, tears trickling out of the corner of her eye. She tries to reach towards Rachiel, to - to -
But you can't make a miracle happen, and that's the worst thing about them.
Her eyes look past - focusing on Azoth - they're taking Azoth? But nausea and a sort of greyness at the edge of her vision is already rising and she reels again, leaning against a piece of rubble. "Rachiel," she says, thickly, "I - y-you were... I'm sorry... I'm, I'm sorry -"
But Lydia is fleeing - numbly, she turns and forces her feet to go, though she looks blindly back several times, hands still pressed to her face.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius does not crowd around Lydia when she hurries to Rachiel's side. He holds out his hand the once again as she goes to her, but has a convenient reason not to try and yank her back. He can see the signs of Gebler forces withdrawing and regrouping even if he doesn't hear the whole of the Watcher's order. The idea they're willing to withdraw entirely rather than lock down and eliminate those here is... he can't completely hide the tension in his gaze in that moment, even as a whirlwind helps hold the Watcher at bay.
He watches every movement of hostiles like a hawk, looking up to where Tabitha made a grand entrance as if in consideration as to whether that's an extraction point. Rachiel's passing was accepted the moment he saw that explosion, even if she lived long enough to give Lydia a final moment. The collapsing architecture suggests 'no' unless the way out falls apart before them. When Lydia takes his hand, he books it.
I can consider one last concern mitigated, if not eliminated.
It was Gebler - Solaris - that caught me when I came to Filgaia. Miss Lydia has been their eyes and ears. Every moment risked compromising everything.
He keeps a firm hold on her hand through any turbulence, even though she is much heavier and much stronger than he is physically.
This never stopped those gathered here from accepting her. Time and time again they've elected to follow the path of extending the hand of friendship. That... is their perogative.
Ethius does not care about the withdrawal. They're about to go down a corridor he recognized was pointed out as a potential risk when Rachiel went over the insertion plan, and the other Powder Grenade gets flung to help cover the escape.
I cannot rule out the possibility her presence would have led to greater Solaris involvement... just as I cannot rule out the possibility the others here are preparing to investigate the happenings in the eastern corners of Zoara.
Rachiel may have bought more time than I risked.
It looks clear enough on the way out. (Homer's there! What purpose did he serve in the plan by being there? Who knows. He calls to Lydia and the rest.)
Not much longer...
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Right at the end, Xantia finally learns. She can hear Rachiel and Lydia's words to each other, allowing her to piece together the situation. Though her attention is elsewhere. Has been elsewhere, this entire time. It doesn't feel like there was anything she could have done differently, given how she teetered on the edge of losing control the entire time.
So then... what was even the point of her being here? Even if Lydia did end up being freed, it sure doesn't feel like she made good on her intentions towards Lydia. It feels shameful, more than anything else. She really is no good like this. She needs to understand this... condition of hers if she's going to be of any use, instead of the liability she is now.
At the very least, is there something more that she can do for Azoth? The answer to that seems to be a resounding negative as well. Optimism is one thing, but she can see perfectly well that he's losing control again. Soon, the situation is going to be just as before. Which means that she'll have to treat him as before. She can only regard him with sadness.
"...I'm sorry," is all she says. All that needs to be said. She's sure that Azoth understands.
Then, rather than continuing to pull, she uses all her might to push, instead. In the end, she only ended up hastening harm, rather than preventing it. It's what she does best. And she's rarely hated doing it more than she does right now.
If she understood irony at all, she might appreciate Tabitha - Ashtoreth rather, being the one to ultimately save Azoth from the harm that would otherwise have befallen him. The very operative she'd wanted dead more than anything when she was out of control just a short moment ago. A moment which has passed, and thus she only stares in return, until they make to leave. Then, without a word, and without looking back, she's quick to rush after the other Drifters making themselves scarce, before things somehow get even worse.