ic Praetorians: The Deadly Dozen

[Tiffany Korta]

Another move, another shot, but this time it was a miss. It was something to be expected, sometimes the fates weren’t kind to you. The trick was to stay conscious for enough time to make the shot that counted, a trick that so far Sitara had managed. She wasn’t sure what would happen if she ever failed, there had been stories among the recruits of a backup plan or two for even those extremes.

Sitara chided herself for getting off track and instead examined the battlefield to get a good overview of what was happening. When they got back they would have to put some practice into small unit tactic, especially herself.

[Thevshi]

GM 

Aboard the Sar-lan 

"Be safe Mater Vyrdna."  Magnetar managed to say before the other Praetorian teleported away.  The magnetic controlling Praetorian then flew deeper into the prison ship, passing several of the sentry robots that were trying to blast their way out of the Sar-lan.  After a few moments, he reached the mess hall where Cavalier and Moon-Moth were currently trying to get to the trapped Lor.

"Mater has headed down to the engine room to try to keep the sentries from overloading the core.  But there are still dozens of them scattered around trying to breech the hull." 

On the surface of Dreeda III 

Varlis raced back around the edge of the landing area, passing by Amikai and Paradigm as he closed with here Kharag was fighting Sullek.  As the reptilian criminal approached the pair, he slowed down ever so slowly, aiming his blaster at Kharag and unleashing a barrage of energy blasts at the Praetorian.  But once again Kharag's reflexes were more than up to the challenge, as he dove to one side, rolling under the hail of blasts as Varlis streaked away.  The criminal looped around the edge of the landing area toward the opposite corner, well away from any of the Praetorians he could see. 

At Paradigm's shouted order, Huhunu, lowered his/her rifle and stood back up as he/she started toward the ramp to the Devotion.

[Vahnyu]

No sooner had Mater Vyrdna taken the droid out, than the rest of the assorted droids started making their move. The Dragon-shaped metal arm roared a machine's fury, as Vyrdnaya fired off five shots, and managed to injure two of them, but the rest were rapidly gaining ground. "Tsk, annoying little buggers." Realizing that the engine core'd soon be overwhelmed, the mechanically transformed Praetorian decided that a change of strategy was in order, and so she dug her blaster arm into the floor.

 

The arm cannon fused with the floor, as the robots opened fire in order to rupture the engine core. Moments before the first shot made contact though, a wall of steel, cable, and circuits arose from the floor, while one of the robots was shot from behind, and blasted across the engine room. The shot had been fired from a turret, one of many that had spontaneously errupted from the ground, ceiling and walls, all of them created by Mater Vyrdna manipulating the random assorted devices that made up the engine room and bending them into her will. Several more robots tried the same stunt, only to be met with the same fate; the cannons opened fire, and the robots fell apart under a hail of plasma death, bringing the total death-to-laser-blasts count up to 8. "Who's next in line for some good ol' deoxidization?" She quipped, as her left eye's laser lens glowed a menacing red.

 

However, the hail of enemy fire managed to break the circuit-wall, reducing it to a trash heap.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Vahnyu

[Thevshi]

GM 

On the surface of Dreeda III 

Rux once again leapt from a rift in space near Seresk, her plasma sword once again slashing through the air.  As with the first time, the attack slashed across the large Praetorian's torso, but once again, his armored hide withstood the attack as he gave a slight grunt.  Before Seresk could react, Rux was once again gone through a second rift, taking her back to the nearby rooftop. 

Sersek took a few moments to study the battle around him, before focusing his gaze back on where Rux had ended up. 

As Kharag rolled back up to his feet, Sullek rushed toward him, swinging his sword at the Praetorian.  But Kharag had been ready for just such a follow up attack and was already leaping a bit further from the cyborg criminal so the blade passed harmless between the two.  The Praetorian then moved back in to try to launch a counter attack, but Sullek was able to sidestep past.  "Are you too afraid to face me alone!"  Kharag called out tauntingly as the two turned to face one another once more. 

Sai'x sent another sonic blast at Dragonid, this one hitting the Praetorian.  However Dragonid's natural durability was able to withstand the powerful blast, as the Praetorian continued to hover in the air.  Nearby, Amikai lifted up into the air and moved back near Sai'x.  As he went, the criminal sent a blast of electricity down toward Paradigm, but it missed the paragon and blasted a chunk out of the ground near her.

[trollthumper]

"All right," said Cavalier, looking at the barrier that stood between the group and the hostages. "In... ideally less than a minute, I'm going to need at least one of you to clear a corridor. Moon-Moth - and, by the way, sorry about the 'butterfly' thing, that was a dick move - if you can use your magic to clear some room for them, then all the better. Magnetar, your talents seem good for shutting down the droids. At least one of you get ready to move these guys." He sent the energy flowing towards the armor and its servos. "As for me..."

 

He brought his fist down on the plexiglass, shattering it with one blow. Even he looked surprised.

 

"...okay. A lot less than one minute. Let's move, people!" 

[Raveled]

Corona was still committed to taking in at least one of the criminals awake and aware, if just to get the details on how they took control of the prison ship. She noticed Rux jumping into and out of combat; maybe the woman would be more amenable standing down if she wasn't willing to get engaged in a long fight. The officer flew towards the teleporter, her aura flaring. "Stand down," she shouted. "You're only going to make things worse for yourselves by resisting!"

[Thevshi]

Paradigm tracked Amikai's movement into the air for a moment before glancing across the landing area toward where the speeding form of Varlis was running around the perimeter.  "Traveller, continue to help Dragonid with the airborne opponents."  She called up to the other Praetorian.  "I am going to try to deal with some of the hit-and-run types." 

With that, the Naram started flying after Varlis, streaking across the landing pad with a gust of wind in her wake.  As she drew near the reptilian speedster, Varlis turned his head to see her rapid approach.  He started to try to dodge, but Paradigm was on him too quickly, swinging her right fist in a powerful uppercut which caught the criminal under the chin with a loud *WHAM* that sent a small shockwave out around the pair. 

Varlis was knocked unconscious and sent flying up into the air from the powerful blow, arching out over the city and soon disappearing from most of the other's line of sight. 

Paradigm frowned slightly, not having meant to hit him quite so hard, realizing she was going to have to go catch him.

[Exaccus]

Wasting no time moon moth had already begun the calculations nessicary for transporting the room of lor officers the glass doesn't even hit the floor before being caught up in the swirl of distorted space ashe works his craft, generating an immense portal to the interior of the devotions spacious cargo bay "Please to be proceeding in an orderly but timely manners through the portal, I assures you is 100 percents safe, We are here by request of your government to rescue you and recover your prisoners."

[Tiffany Korta]

Being thousand of years old, and having been placed in stasis twice, many of the systems in her armour didn’t work as well as she should and in the struggle to get the Praetorians back up to speed she’d neglected the necessary work to get things working again. Sitara was very much aware of this as she activated her anti-grav’s to bring her closer to the actions going on around her, it was something she’d have to look at very soon.

 

As she went through the necessary repairs and parts she need she rested the pike and prepared a shot of the weapon against the target, sometimes she found her attacks easier when she was in this state what was that Terran word for it again?

In this Zen like state she fired off a shot scoring a solid hit upon her target.

[Thevshi]

GM 

Aboard the Sar-lan 

While the Lor crewmembers at first seemed hesitant about Moon-Moth and his portal, the presence of a Star Knight, and the chaotic destruction being caused by the sentry robots, changed their mind and they started through the portal.  "I will keep an eye on them."  Magnetar stated as he flew through above the line of Lor. 

Down in the engine room, Mater Vyrdna had managed to deal with some of the robots trying to blast apart the ship’s core, but there were still many more.  Several of the blasts from the attacking robots managed to pierce the outer shell of the core, unless she could quickly eliminate the remaining robots, they were likely to completely shatter the outer shell and destabilize the core in seconds. 

On the surface of Dreeda III 

Inside the Devotion, Lor crewmembers started running out of the portal that had appeared inside the vessel’s cargo hold.  That brought the Lor face to face with Huhunu, who had just come up the ramp into the ship.  The Ipukarian marine started to level his/her assault rifle, when Magnetar came flying out of the portal as well.

"Huhunu, these are the surviving Lor crewmembers." The other Praetorian called out, holding up his hands to signal the marine not to shoot.

Lowering his/her weapon, Huhunu looked at the gathering Lor.  "Paradigm wants the Devotion in the air, they will need to find a place to secure themselves."  With that, Huhunu continued toward the bridge. 

Outside, Traveller's blast slammed into Sai'x, knocking the winged female flying backward and her sonic forcefield flicked, and then disappeared.  Sai'x's wings stopped beating, as she flew back several dozen feet, dropping down quickly to land hard on the ground.  But somehow the superpowered criminal remained conscious, although she had clearly been knocked for a loop. 

Dragonid smiled slightly as he turned his attention back toward Amikai, sending a jet of flame at the dark haired humanoid.  But this time Amikai was able to dodge the Praetorian’s fiery attack, gaining some altitude in the process. 

Out among the buildings of the city, over a half dozen small police drones came flying into view.  The automated drones quickly opened fire with their blasters, several aiming at the four airborne Praetorians.  Most missed their targets, with only Paradigm being hit by a shot, which harmlessly glanced off the Naram. 

The other drones began firing seemingly randomly at buildings around the landing pad…..

[trollthumper]

They'd managed to do it. Cavalier was leading the Lor crewmembers out, helping to offer reassuring words and keeping them from pushing too hard. Mater Vrynda was handling the robots, and while it seemed like evacuation was the best possible route at this time, there was still a chance they could save the ship. A slim chance, but still. In any case, all the other Lor would be safe while they took on the real threat. X'madi may have posed herself as a diabolical trapsmaster, but ultimately, her diabolical choice was relatively easy. 

 

Too easy? 

 

Cavalier tapped one of the exiting Lor crewmembers on the shoulder. "Think. Was everyone on the ship in that plexiglass case? Could anyone else still be on board?" 

[Thevshi]

GM 

Aboard the Sar-lan 

The Lor crewmember looked to Cavalier as the Star Knight stopped him and asked whether there was the possibility any other crewmembers might still be aboard.  The Lor paused a moment in thought before replying.  "When we were all gathered in the prisoner's messhall, we did a headcount.  There were fifteen of us missing.  Others were able to confirm that seven of those missing had been killed in the breakout."

"But we don't know what happened to the other eight.  They might be dead as well, or placed somewhere else aboard.  The prisoners never said anything about them." 

[Vahnyu]

"Annoying little buggers." Vyrdnaya tsk'd when the drones blew through her makeshift barrier. Once more she dug her hands into the floor, but this time she completely focused her consious effort into transforming the ship's floor and adjucent walls into a thick solid barrier around the ship's core. Metalic sounds skreeched through the room as she bended and twisted the materials of the ship to her will, until it all formed into a full wall behind her, completely surrounding the ship's core from all sides. Even if they didn't get past the barrier she created, Mater Vyrdna knew full well that the drones could still wreak some real havoc if they wanted to, but at least the core's integrity was one less concern for her. "Hope this holds them off a bit."

[trollthumper]

Just as I thought. Cavalier was glad he always listened to his instincts, no matter how much he wished he could turn them off sometimes. He broke away from the group, giving Moon-Moth a hand signal to keep up the portal, and took off through the halls of the ship, eyes peeled. 

 

"Mater, we've got a situation. Crew members say there are eight others missing, presumed... well, they're presuming nothing. They could be sealed away somewhere else on the ship, they could have been loaded into the furnaces, hell, they could be planetside. But I need to check the ship to make sure X'madi didn't squirrel them away so she could get the last laugh. Just keep those things away from the core as long as you can." 

[Thevshi]

GM 

On the Surface of Dreeda III 

Seresk looked up at the police drones that had arrived on the scene to add more chaos to the battle.  With none of the drones or other enemies currently nearby, the large Praetorian bid his time, while positioning himself defensively in front of the Lor government official. 

Rux glanced over toward Corona a moment as the Lor officer shouted at her to try to get her to stand down.  "Would rather take chance at remaining free than going back to sentence."  The cyborg replied in a metallic voice before jumping into another rift in space.   

Mere moments later, Rux appeared down near Procyus' unconscious form, picking up the insectoid speedster and then moving through another tear in space and out of sight again. 

Sullek lunged back in toward Kharag, swinging his sword in a downward strike at the ancient warrior.  Kharag began to set back from the attack, but then suddenly the cyborg reversed his attack, trusting the weapon forward and slashing Kharag in the chest.  The force of the blow sent the warrior spinning backward, dark blood splashing on the ground as he went.   

Seemingly satisfied with the blow he had managed to land, Sullek then turned and took a few running steps, before leaping into the air.  His leap carried him in a long arc some four hundred feet back into the city, returning the direction he and the other superpowered criminals had come. 

Sai'x pushed herself up off the ground, hurt but not completely out of the fight yet.  Her dark wings quickly took her back into the air with powerful beats, as she flew off to follow Sullek, leaving the fight behind.

Amikai watched his companions as they began their retreat, before turning back toward Dragonid once more, sending a blast of electricity toward the reptilian Praetorian.  The lightning bolt struck Dragonid squarely, causing him to drift back a few feet from the impact, but he was able withstand the powerful attack, as electricity danced along his scaled hide and mechanical wings.

The dark haired humanoid then turned away as well, flying off to catch up with Sai'x and Sullek. 

Aboard the Sar-lan 

As he flew off through the ship, looking for signs of any other Lor crew, Cavalier passed more of the sentry robots that were busy trying to blast their way out into the void.  The ship was taking some heavy damage from the rampage of the robots scattered throughout.  Even if Mater Vyrdna was able to keep others from destroying the core, the ship could suffer enough internal damage to break it apart if the robots were not stopped. 

Down in engineering, the remaining robots continued to ignore Mater Vyrdna, as they opened fire on the new barrier the Praetorian had just placed between them and the power core.  Multiple blasts struck the makeshift barrier, scarring the metal and blasting half a dozen pockmarks into it, but for the moment it held.

[Raveled]

Corona watched the criminals escape, picking up their wounded and fleeing back into the city. Different emotions warred within her; anger that they were still out of reach, concern for the planetary rulers still huddled on the ground, and the simple animal joy of watching her enemies run from her. She pointed and blasted one of the drones out of the sky, vaporizing it in a red-gold blast of comic energy. "It's time to regroup," she said, broadcasting to the Praetorians. "We need to contact the group on the ship and see if they're turned anything up. Then we'll root out the convicts in the city."

[Thevshi]

Paradigm watched the various villains as they began to withdraw, then glanced out in other directions for a brief moment.  "No Officer K'zan, any regrouping will have to be done on the move.  There are more of those drones moving through the city, blasting at various structures.  Wherever the colonists are, they are likely in danger and we need to find them."

"Traveller, get in touch with those in space and see if they are able to get down here, we need them.  Dragonid, pursue the retreating villains and try to slow them down as best you can and see where they go.  The rest of you need to secure this area and see about dealing with some of the other drones in the city."

The Naram looked back up into the sky before adding, "I need to go make sure Varlis does not fall to his death, and check on Adiri while I am up there."

With that, Paradigm took off into the sky, accelerating as she went until a small sonic boom echoed behind her as she broke the sound barrier.  Moments later she was thousands of feet in the air, coming up beside the unconscious form of Varlis who was still hurtling through the sky.  Easily catching the reptilian villain, she then began scanning the sky for a sign of the other villain she had thrown into the air earlier.

[Thevshi]

GM 

On the surface of Dreeda III 

"Understood Imperatrix."  Dragonid replied, as his mechanical wings carried him forward after the fleeing villains.  While not the fastest flier among the Praetorians, Dragonid was fast enough to catch up with the retreating villains, Sullek's leaping distance, and Sai'x's injury having slowed down their initial retreat. 

Not wanting to make things easy on them, the reptilian Praetorian opened his mouth and sent another jet of flame after Sai'x.  This time the blast was on the mark, striking the dark skinned humanoid squarely as she let out a brief cry of pain before spinning out of control as she lost consciousness and crashed not a rooftop of a nearly building. 

Magnetar led the Lor crewmembers over to the Devotion's ramp and out onto the landing field.  But the Praetorian quickly realized this was not exactly the safest place either, with the automated police drones firing at his fellow Praetorians.  Directing the Lor to a nearby shelter for safety, he flew up into the air, his forcefield glowing brightly in the hopes of attracting any fire from the police drones.  He moved over near Traveller.

"What is the situation?"  He asked.  "We were able to locate most of the Sar-lan's crew and bring them down, but there may be others that were kept in another part of the ship." 

Inside the cockpit of the Devotion, Huhunu began the preflight procedures, getting ready to get the large ship airborne. 

The police drones continued firing at any available targets, the one that had shot a Paradigm previously not turning toward Corona as it opened fire.  The Lor officer easily dodged the attack, as did Traveller.  Seresk sidestepped the blast aimed at him, as he moved in front of the one aimed at the Lor official, the beam of energy dissipating harmlessly over the Praetorians tough scales. 

Over where Dragoind was in pursuit of the fleeing supercriminals, two of the drones moved to intercept him, both firing at the Praetorian.  While Dragonid was able to dodge the first attack, the second managed to clip him, but failed to cause him any serious harm.

[trollthumper]

Cavalier zoomed through the ship, looking for any remaining signs of life. He finally found some sort of trail - dried blood stains, caked into the walls. He knew what he would be finding before he reached his quarry, but he still pressed on. The bodies were arranged almost artistically, like a mandala of flesh. The killer hadn't tried to make a tapestry, but they obviously believed their work required some sort of aesthetic display. As haphazard as it was. 

 

He shook his head. "Negative on the missing Lor," he said. "They're all dead. Once everyone's clear, we can blow this popsicle stand, join the others planetside, and make sure this doesn't happen again."

[Vahnyu]

On 16/3/2016 at 6:25 AM, trollthumper said:

"Mater, we've got a situation. Crew members say there are eight others missing, presumed... well, they're presuming nothing. They could be sealed away somewhere else on the ship, they could have been loaded into the furnaces, hell, they could be planetside. But I need to check the ship to make sure X'madi didn't squirrel them away so she could get the last laugh. Just keep those things away from the core as long as you can." 

 

"Roger that, Cavalier, I'm keeping them at bay as we speak!" Vyrdnaya responded to her teammate, just as she'd finished erecting the wall around the ship's core. Seeing that the combat drones seemed focused on taking the wall down, she decided that, instead of taking them down, she'd keep the wall up via her own consiousness directly. It seemed to work; as soon as a dent was made, Vyrdnaya funelled more of her technopathic tools towards restoring the wall. It might not have gained first place in aesthetics in art exhibits, or even participation admitance for that matter, but it held solid and true.

 

Nevertheless, continuously reconfiguring a battered wall with her mind took its toll, Vyrdnaya started feeling the fatigue and strain from the constant overwork, so Cavalier's retreat order came as a grim relief.

 

On 21/3/2016 at 4:27 AM, trollthumper said:

He shook his head. "Negative on the missing Lor," he said. "They're all dead. Once everyone's clear, we can blow this popsicle stand, join the others planetside, and make sure this doesn't happen again."

 

"... they didn't make..." She mouthed, before catching herself. "... Affirmative, Cavalier, I'm making my way to the entrance. Over." With a somber look, Vyrdnaya undug her hands from the floor. She looked at the droids, ever intent on their purpose, and clenched her fists. She wanted to hurt them, to make them feel the pain, the sorrow, the agony, the regrets of the deceased. She wanted to take out her frustration at them. To make them suffer.

 

Tsk... so stupid, Milareth...

 

Wings materialized on her back, and she flew up to the ceiling, merging with it as soon as she touched it with her head. Once again, her consiousness traveled through this foreign entity, this unknown ship, until finally arriving and rematerializing back at the Lor ship's entrance, barely a second having passed. When she looked at the mindless drones back in the engine room, she seethed with hot white fury at the animate, but still unthinking, objects that had been one of the tools of the Lor officers' executioners. Now, she had let go of her rage, but not her anger. For she was certain of one thing.

 

There will be hell to pay, for this.

[Exaccus]

Moon-moths antenna visably wilt backwards as the weight of those heavy words settle on him like lead burdens "" this is moon-moth portal is holding and ready to take us to the devotion head to my position when ready." he states almost droning ashis mind retreats from its physical attachments and into deep and endless thoughts and visions within itself stretching the seconds out till each felt like it's own independent day one after the other passing in succession as a parade of crawling light, shadows and matter.

[Tiffany Korta]

 

A change of circumstances demanded a rapid change of tactics, something that Sitara excelled at after centuries of experience. Repositioning her Power Pike, with a little spinning flourish that wasn’t really necessary, she changed the settings before sending out a rapidly expanding ball of energy at the new enemy.Whilst doing that she rotated her comm’s frequencies to contact the Praetorians still within orbit.

 

“Enemies are retreating we are attempting to follow. Things have as usual gotten complicated!” She also uploaded a map tagged with everyone’s locations as she could best simulate “What’s the situation with you up there?”

[Thevshi]

GM 

Traveller's ball of energy managed to catch the two police drones that fired on Seresk and the Lor official, blasting them both from the sky.  As the twisted hulks of the two drones crashed to the ground, Seresk stood his ground, putting himself between the Lor official and the last police drone still in the immediate area, but too high up for the large Praetorian to get to. 

A few hundred feet away, the super criminals continued their retreat away from the landing area.  While Rux and Sullek focused on just moving further away, Amikai took a moment to turn and fire another blast of lightning at Dragonid. 

The lightning bolt struck the reptilian Praetorian, but once again his scaly hide withstood the attack with minimal effect.  Amikai then turned and flew off after his two retreating companions.

[Raveled]

Corona wanted to countermand Paradigm, she wanted to lecture the Praetorian on securing a scene before rushing ahead, she wanted to insist on her way ahead the alien's, but that wasn't her job. Instead, she circled around and blasted the last drone out of the sky, before landing near the ramp leading ot the Devotion. The government representative that had met them was still there, cowering, keeping out the line of fire; the Lor agent retracted her helmet briefly to talk to him. "Get inside the ship," she said. "Do every last thing the Praetorians say, and think very hard about where the governor could be hiding."

[Thevshi]

GM 

On the surface of Dreeda III 

Seresk helped the Lor official back to his feet as Corona landed nearby after bringing the last of the police drones in the immediate area crashing to the ground in a twisted heap of metal.  "As I already mentioned, the governor and police chief are dead."  The official stated as he prepared to board the Praetorian spacecraft.  "When the leaders of these escaped criminals took over the governor's offices, they moved a FTL capable yacht to the hanger facility there." 

Aboard the Sar-lan 

As the last three Praetorians aboard the Lor prison ship gathered in the room where Moon-Moth had formed his portal down to the Devotion alarm klaxons began sounding throughout the Sar-lan.  It took Cavalier a moment to register what the klaxons were for, then he realized that somewhere, some of the sentry drones had blasted through the outer hull and opened the ship to the vacuum.  But for some reason, the fail safes that should be locking down various sections of the ship to transport were not closing. 

It was only mater of moments before the interior of the Sar-lan became a complete vacuum….