Tales of the Praetorians: We Are Legion

[ca_lazerdwarf]

Dragonid groaned a bit as he quickly realized how heavy Kharag was. This was not going to be as easy a trip as he first thought. While his arms strained from the weight, he aimed himself downward and turned the jetpack up to full blast. He shrugged aside a brief twinge of worry that the extra weight would be too much when he tried to slow for a landing.

"This will be rough, but I do not want to be a target longer than we have to." he said to the Za'aki King as they plummeted toward the planet's surface, jinking and weaving to avoid incoming weapons fire.

[RobRX]

The alien king did not comment on the grunting from his carrier. Either he had not noticed or he chose to not comment.

 

"As much as I find this current situation rather shameful, I have to admit it is not the strangest...charge...I have done. Charging fortifications while you and your trusty mount are on fire is quite the fond memory for me. That or throwing myself using siege engines." Kharag had to admit it, he sometimes resorted to tactics which many would find to be completely silly at best and insanely suicidal at times but he had rested his conquests almost entirely on his near-indestructibility. At least, back on his homeword, he was almost unkillable. His recent escapades in space had proven him otherwise. As they plummeted toward the surface, he wondered if he would remember this one as yet another milestone in reckless and insane assaults.

[Thevshi]

As Dragonid and Kharag flew downward, they were accompanied by another female Praetorian who was surrounded by a glowing aura. More blasts of energy streaked up by them, most passing well away, but a few coming a bit closer than was completely comfortable. Luckily at this range it appeared they were not particularly accurate against such small targets, and the pirates appeared to be primarily counting on luck to hit any of them.

Then with a small sonic boom, Paradigm streaked by the others, carrying the large reptilian form of Seresk with her as she travelled at hypersonic speeds through the atmosphere towards the surface. It took her moments to reach one of the plateau over the valley where the pirate camp was located. As she came to a halt just above the ground, she released Seresk, the towering Praetorian landing heavily on the rocky surface as he turned his gaze towards one of the nearest heavy weapons currently firing up at their fellow Praetorians.

"You start with these, I will start clearing the other plateau." She started, before soaring out over the valley and toward the opposite plateau and the weapon emplacements located on it.

[Tiffany Korta]

Sitara gave a little smile she shouldn’t do anything to make poor Myothizar nervous, but she couldn’t help herself

 

“Who said I could fly this thing?†she let it drop for a second before taking control of the craft “Sorry I couldn’t help it, don’t worry I get us down fine.â€

 

It wasn’t a perfect landing but serviceable, it wasn’t her best field of expertise. As she stood from her chair her armour deployed from it’s belt until it covered her entire body.

 

“They should be all be in place by not shall we go see what they have in store for us?â€

[Thevshi]

GM

Traveller guided the small shuttle craft low over the rocky surface of the planet, headed toward one of the outer sides of the plateaus surrounding the valley. As the shuttle drew near, those inside could see the blasts of the pirates' heavy weapons streaking into the sky, likely targeted at their fellow Praetorians, who were too small to see from this distance.

The shuttle landed next to a small cliff along the side of the plateau, a location that gave them at least some concealment from anyone that might be located up on the top of the plateau. As Traveller powered the shuttle down, those seated inside took a moment to look out the cockpit at the area around them. So far, the area around them seemed deserted, and given that they were not yet being fired upon, it appeared that for the moment their approach was undetected.

The two other recent additions to the Praetorians got up from their seats, moving over and opening the rear loading door of the shuttle. A hot wind immediately blew in, sweeping in dust and sand, but the air was breathable, for those that needed to breath anyway.

[Exaccus]

"reminds me of lantern, only not on fire." moon-moth mumbles as he gets out of the passenger seat and walks down towards the exit ramp, taking a brief glance at the volley of what he assumed to be plasma fire streaking up towards what he was fairly certain were his descending allies following up with a brief look over the area around him. "So now we sneaks in and cut out the brains right?" "just like magic." he state proudly despite knowing how some people felt about the idea of "magic." but he didn't know what "subspace" was so how could he manipulate it?; Teleporting the short distance between the entrance and nearby cover, both to provide cover if craft were to be fired upon and to show off just a little bit. peering over the top with his antenna splayed back as he watches for signs of danger or even motion. 

[Thevshi]

GM

Up on one of the rock plateaus, Seresk trudged forward toward the nearest heavy weapon emplacement, his large spiked tail whipping around as he came to a halt, aimed at the weapon itself. The club like tail smashed into the large energy weapon with tremendous force, smashing it apart and knocking the crew to the ground. Pulling his tail back, the large reptilian Praetorian turned his attention toward the next heavy weapon, just as the pirates manning it lowered its barrel and fired.

The powerful energy beam kicked up dust as it crossed the short distance in a blink of an eye, hitting Seresk squarely in the torso. Bits of rubble flew in all directions from the impact of the blast, but the hulking reptilian figure held his ground, seemingly uninjured by the powerful blast. Several other pirates fired their personal blasters at the figure, although they had little hope the weaker energy weapons would be any more effective. That fear was quickly confirmed, as several of the blasts glanced harmlessly off Seresk's scaly hide.

Over on the other plateau, two of the heavy weapons took aim at Paradigm, but were unable to track the flying Naram quickly enough, their powerful blasts missing their mark. A few of the other pirates managed to score hits with their personal blasters, but the attacks proved no more effective against the flying woman than they had against Seresk.

[ca_lazerdwarf]

Dragonid swooped down behind Paradigm and deposited Kharag on the plateau. He bared his fangs at the pirates scrambling to respond to the Praetorians' arrival, then focused on the weapon emplacements, still the primary threat.

 

The saurian warrior squared his shoulders and took a deep breath, stoking the flames before spitting out a large ball of flame, streaking across the plateau to burst against the heavy weapons platform. Steel melted and supports creeked, but it held together.

 

Dragonid snorted, maybe built a little better than he thought.

[RobRX]

As soon as he landed, Kharag charged the nearest target at full speed. Fist clenched, he struck the nearest pirate in the stomach. That blow alone was almost knock the target out cold. However since that wasn't enough to disable it, Kharag grabbed his target and lifted it overhead. "HRRRYAAAAAAAAAHHH! DOWN, CUR!" Roared the (now deposed) alien king as he slammed the target into the ground face-first.

[Thevshi]

Amara glanced over her shoulder a moment, glad to see Kharag and Dragonid had made it down to the surface without being hit by the heavy weapons fire. As Dragonid attacked one of the pirate's heavy weapons, the Naram turned her attention back to the other. It took her mere moments to close the distance by air, her long black cape billowing behind her as she focused her power on her strength and delivered a powerful blow to the weapon.

There was a loud crash, as the weapon was knocked over, metal twisted and smashed. Although not completely destroyed, it would not be a factor in the rest of this fight.

The glowing female Praetorian followed down after Kharag and Dragonid, splitting off toward the right to the plateau where Seresk was currently fighting alone. Holding out one hand, the Praetorian sent a blast of energy down at the heavy weapon that had just shot Seresk, hitting the target, but only managing to damage the weapon.

[Tiffany Korta]

Sitara moved down the ramp of the ship and followed a short distance away from Moon-Moth, bright white armour wasn’t the easiest thing to being sneaky in but she liked to play smart at time like this.

 

“I need you to scout ahead a little Myothizar, we need to find something we can use against the pirates. I’ll follow a short distance away if trouble starts hunker down and back you up.â€

 

With a little luck they’d find more than trouble up ahead.

[Exaccus]

giving a slight nod to the affirmative he once more vanishes in a somewhat subdued flash of light only to reappearing around another thousand or so feet north of his previous position, onre more poking his head out curiously from the rocks with his antenna pressed as far flat as they can go against his head, this time finding small cavern in the base of the plateau he gives a faint, almost imperceivable twitch of his antenna and projects a live feed of what he's seeing back onto the main part of stealth team. 

 

"I has found what might be a back door into their base....it doesn't seem to be guarded at all .." small illusionary copy of his head relates, still unsure of his communicator he figures its better to trust what he knows over it, figuring if they need to tell him anything they'll send it up to him "I'll hold position for now and watch for movement." it finishes before winking out and leaving them with what is simply a screen view of the entrance and a small approximate positioning for it.

[Mad Scientist]

Hūhunu had endured the somewhat choppy ride down in the shuttle, and made a mental note to volunteer for piloting duty in similar situations, out of a sense of self-preservation.  He wasn't the best pilot in all of known space by any means, but her training had clearly been more extensive than that of the Traveller.

On grounding, the shortest of the Praetorians triggered the bracer he wore on her right forelimb, activating the Phase Tech that unfolded his armour from N-space in moments.  The wash of hot air that swept across the small infiltration team was easily compensated for by the environmental systems, not that a little hot air is anything but comfortable to an Ipukar.  Of course, as a species they preferred a more damp, hot air, but the point was moot in any case.

Activating the recon armour's perception scrambler, Hūhunu faded from observability and bounded out into the waste, following in the wake of the Moon Moth's instantaneous transport.  It was, he had to admit, a method that precluded the chance of tripping mines or trip wires and the like, barring extreme bad luck in choice of a materialization point, but she still preferred to make such sorties himself.

Ah well -- they were still learning each others' capabilities and proclivities, were they not?

"Commander Shashikala, would you like me to inspect the entrance for security measures?" he suggested, her comms also masked so as to not betray his hidden position to anyone trying to pick up unusual activity.  His training made her a good choice for dealing with security and entrance protocols; the engineering marvel that was the Hūhunu armour made him the best choice.

[Thevshi]

GM

As Moon Moth scouted ahead and Huhunu vanished from sight, the telekinetic Praetorian who made up the fourth member of the stealth team remained near Traveller, ready to follow her lead as they moved. 

Up above on the plateaus, the sounds of battle continued to ring out as Seresk moved over toward the last remaining heavy weapon emplacement near him.  Once again the spiked tail of the massive reptilian Praetorian whipped around, slamming into the side of the weapon.  But this time the blow was only a glancing one, causing only a bit more damage to the weapon. 

With Seresk now too close to effectively use the weapon against him, the pirates manning the weapon aimed it up into the air at the glowing Praetorian that had blasted the weapon a few moments earlier, trusting that the other pirates on the ground would be able to do something to stop or slow down the massive figure.  The powerful beam of energy lanced into the air, but the energy controlling Praetorian was too quick for it to accurately track, and the blast passed well behind her. 

Over on the other plateau, the last operational heavy weapon there once again fired at Paradigm.  But as before, its powerful blast missed the caped Praetorian, and streaked harmlessly off into the sky. 

Although their heavy weapons were proving ineffective against the force now in close combat with them, there were still a number of pirates around the weapons who tried to dispatch their attackers.  Multiple pirates fired on each of the Praetorians, in some cases hoping that numbers would allow at least one to score a hit, in others trying to combined their fire against the more resilient Praetorians.  Overall, the results were less that desirable.  Only Dragonid managed to dodge both blasts fired at him, with one pirate managing to score hits on the other four Praetorians.  As before, those attacks were easily shrugged aside by Paradigm and Seresk.  The glowing field around the energy controlling Praetorian likewise completely absorbed the blast, leaving only Kharag as a possible casualty.  However, the God-King of the Za'akis was a veteran of countless battles, and more than capable of taking a hit.

[ca_lazerdwarf]

As the pirates fired at Dragonid, he lept to the side evading both blasts and jetted around the plateau. "You can not defend this position," he told the pirates with a savage sneer, "That weapon will burn with or without you."

He arced around till he found the perfect position, placing a group of pirates between him and the heavy cannon. With a deep breath he spat out a continuous stream of flame all the way across the plateau. Three pirates were overcome by the smoke and flame and fell to the ground, but the jet of flame flowed harmlessly over the weapon, doing nothing but charring the paint.

[RobRX]

The shot hit Kharag, but only inflicted truly minor injuries, nothing more than a scratch. While far from a mindless brute, Kharag was still very much, in many ways, a savage. Angered how some lowly mortal would dare open fire on him, he roared, baring his dark purple gum and rows of sharp teeth. In a moment, he was closer to a pair of pirates. One of them took mean left hook to the head, knocking him over. The poor pirate then soon found himself used as an improvised weapon as the alien grabbed him and used him to take a swing at a second pirate.

"Hraaaah!! Is that all you have, scum?! Is this all I can expect from pillagers of the stars? If this is the only challenge you can offer me, I am dissapointed!"

[Thevshi]

Paradigm scarcely felt the blast that had managed to hit her, the enhancement process she had undergone making her able to resist far more powerful attacks with relative ease.  So far they seemed to be doing well, dealing with the pirates and taking out at least half of the heavy weapons.  But the Naram felt they had likely been lucky that the blast from the heavy weapon that had hit Seresk had not caused the reptilian creature harm.  If they did not hurry, it would only be a matter of time before one of them did get hurt. 

Turning back to regard the last heavy weapon near her and seeing it resist Dragonid's powerful flames, the purple and black haired Praetorian flew down over toward the weapon, swinging a powerful fist at the main assembly.  The blow struck solidly, the force of the blow shattering the metal at the point of impact and sending shockwaves through the rest of the weapon, causing it to break apart and collapse in a useless heap of scrap.

[Thevshi]

GM 

Energy blasts streaked around the glowing Praetorian hovering above plateau where Seresk was trying to take out the last of the heavy weapons.  Individually, the pirates' blasters presented little threat to the female Praetorian, but she was not about to let them try to combined their fire on her or her teammate. 

With Seresk right next to the last heavy weapon, the energy controller turned her attention to a group of pirates firing at the pair.  Extending her hands out in front of her, the glow around the Praetorian intensified, as energy began to build up between her hands.  Then, rapid bursts of energy lanced out from her hands, arching out in a wide cone-shaped pattern.  Multiple blasts struck the ground, blasting apart rocks and kicking up dirt.  Five of the pirates were caught in the barrage, knocked backward dozens of feet from the force of the impacts, where they lay unconscious.

[Tiffany Korta]

SItara listened to the comm’s traffic of the Praetorians as they faced there enemy in comat with a mix of satisfaction that there plan was working and little bit of sadness that she wasn’t right now in the midst of battle.

“Okay this seems to be working let’s keep moving forwards keep you wits about you and we should be fine. I’ll be a step or two behind you all.”

She followed up keeping a short distance away, aware that she was the least stealthy of her little groups. Normally she would have led from the front but in this case it would have probably put them in more danger and possibly spoil the plan

[Thevshi]

GM 

Seresk regarded the pirate heavy weapon coldly as it tried to blast his new teammate out of the sky.  The massive reptilian Praetorian whirled his long spiked tail around behind him, before whipping it around once more to strike the heavy weapon.  This time the blow as solid, crumpling in the side of the weapon and breaking it off its support column.  The heavy blaster cannon crashed two the ground, smoking and clearly out of the rest of this fight. 

Meanwhile the various pirates were at a loss on what to do without their heavy weapons.  Those that were over on the plateau with Seresk and the glowing woman providing air cover turned and started running toward a makeshift stairway that would lead them back down into the valley below the two plateaus.  Those on the other plateau turned their attentions on Kharag and Dragonid, opening fire on the pair.  One pirate managed to hit Kharag, while both of the pair that fired on Dragonid managed to score hits.

[Mad Scientist]

After a moment's consideration, Hūhunu decided that 'this is working, let's keep moving forward' was an adequate answer to the question he/she had posed.  Bounding forward to close the rest of the distance to the pirate base's back door, he/she deactivated the perception filters from the armour and gave the winged Moon Moth a short nod before turning his/her attention to the doorway.

"Examining the entrance for traps, alarms, or surveillance," he/she reported, and began just that, mission recorder steadily capturing audio and video of the operation as it unfolded.  They would see shortly if this was going to be an easy entrance, a complicated one, or a simple one.

[Mad Scientist]

Oooops.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Mad Scientist
Inadvertant double post.

[ca_lazerdwarf]

Dragonid shrugged off the blaster fire with barely a grunt, but he was not going to stand for being fired on any more. He rushed to the side, looking for a good position.

"You fools make this too easy, can you not see this is not a fight you can never win?" the dragon warrior smirked before blowing out another long stream of cracking flames. Four of the pirates warriors were caught in the rushing flames and with cries of pain fell to the ground, trying to beat the fires out before falling unconscious.

[RobRX]

"You believe this puny weapon can harm me?" Said Kharag as he tossed aside the pirate he had used as his improvised weapon. "The bite of an infant of my species has more sting to it." Walking up to one of the pirate, Kharag punched him straight into the face then finished him off with a kick in the stomach. Letting no motion go to waste, his moves flowed and the rest of the kick struck another pirate. Finishing his mention he punched the other pirate who collapsed too.

[Thevshi]

Paradigm paused a brief moment to look around her on the plateau.  The pirates' heavy weapons were out of commission, and Kharag and Dragonid seemed to be handling mopping up the remaining pirates.   A glance at the other plateau confirmed the other two members of the assault group also had things well in hand. 

"I am moving down to the main part of the pirate base."  Paradigm called out to Kharag and Dragonid, before shooting over to the edge of the plateau and then zooming down into the cannon below.  Below her she could see scores of pirates running about, grabbing weapons and equipment.  There were a few fighters visible parked under camouflaged netting, and currently the pilots were scrambling to get inside. 

The young Naram crashed down onto the rocky ground hard, the force of her impact creating a small crater about a foot deep.  As she landed, Paradigm slammed her hands together in front of her, sending a shockwave rolling out in front of her.  The shockwave knocked over boxes of equipments, some of the boxes exploding from the force of the concussive wave.  A number of pirates were caught in the shockwave, nine of them blown off their feet, to tumble across the dusty ground unconscious.  But three other pirates remained on their feet, one a pirate who had somehow managed to avoid the worst of the shockwave.  The other two were large hulking figures who simply braced themselves against the shockwave and weathered it with no ill effects.