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Post by Jay on Jan 9, 2017 6:36:49 GMT
Setting The Stage This mission wasn't handed down from the officials of Sanctuary. Rather, it was a target that the Hanatenno were tracking themselves. A group of mages, known colloquially as the Children of Orion, had been the subject of numerous surveillance operations by the Hanatenno. Their activities had largely been benign, save for the occassional spikes in magical energy use near the borders of Sanctuary. Recently, this wasn't the case. A golem had been unleashed upon the populace of a town near the borders of Sanctuary. The attack left destruction, a pile of corpses in the name of Orion, and a target on their heads. They had graduated from a possible threat to an outright menace overnight. Two Tenno were sent to an area farther outside of Sanctuary, within the wastelands. Cragged, multi-tiered passes and various stone pillars sat in a symmetrical patterns as one advanced through the area. In the middle sat a canyon; the target area of the operation. Within said canyon was the primary objective; a giant stone that towered over the people within. It was of a crescent shape, with debris floating above it. An unnatural glow emanated from it, indicating the magic flowing within. A magestone, as the organization called it. It was a sort of battery for their magic - made their supply of it as infinite as they wanted, so long as they were within its range. However, it needed to be powered by at least two specially-trained individuals. Those two individuals were whom they were after. The apprehension of them would weaken Orion's forces, rendering this specific magestone useless. Thus, the mission was simple: retrieve those two being used to power the magestone at any cost. The Tenno were dropped off from their ships on the edge of the canyon's ridge. They would have to make their way down. Various members of Orion, both guards and scholars, walked through the area. How the two approached this problem would determine the flow of the mission. |
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Post by Jay on Jan 9, 2017 6:54:54 GMT
Dusk Once the ship dropped them into the location, Dusk was quick to scope out the scene. The particular area they were in was outside of the range of any surveillance magic, as far as the reports stated.
Still, they had to be vigilant. Her job was to set up and point out any possible threats for her partner.
Even if that partner was someone she wasn't exactly fond of.
The sniper immediately got down to her knee and withdrew a disc-shaped device. The device unfolded itself, revealing a drone. It was one of her many scouting technologies that she made use of at the beginning of any mission.
The drone hovered over the ground before immediately taking off due north. It would point out any technology - or magical obstructions - that would be problematic during this operation.
It would be careful to not go near any possible hostiles, only opting to take a mid-ranged, four point scan of the general area.
With the prep phase beginning, she finally addressed her partner while she made to ready her gear. "So, how are we doing this?"
She needed to know so as to prep the correct equipment. If this operation was going to be loud from the start, she needed to know ahead of time. Human
Neutral Good | 27 | Female |
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Post by Fukami Tsukikage on Jan 10, 2017 16:41:31 GMT
While her partner scoped out the scene, Fukami untied her kimono and made sure she was facing the opposite direction. The spider-like limbs of her Exospine unfolded and spread across her body like sheets of aluminum, coating her first with one layer to keep her "strapped in", then another to protect her. After about ten seconds, she was dressed head to toe in a second skin that didn't so much as reveal her face.
She stretched for a moment, making sure everything was working properly and also giving herself some quick exercise while she listened to what her partner was saying.
"Well, it looks like you're already handling some recon, so that's a good starting point," Fukami said. Her voice was warped slightly by the armor, giving it a mechanical twang. "The way I see it, there are two practical ways we can go about this.
"One is the boring route. We turn invisible, sneak up behind one of the target mages, and then one of us pulls them out of there while the other covers. Then one of us goes back in and grabs the other target. Since this 'Magestone' thing needs two people to work properly, getting rid of one of them should make it a cinch during round two.
"Option two is more interesting, and I think it might be easier on us. We find a way to destroy the Magestone, then pick our targets off together. Two birds, one stone," she chuckled to herself after saying that. "Even if their magic isn't as effective on us directly, the second they realize that, they'll probably start slinging around spells that affect us indirectly anyway, so dampening those turns the tides in our favor, but destroying the stone will probably put us in the open."
Fukami didn't know much about this "Dusk" woman outside of the briefing she'd been given, but she seemed an awful lot like a buzzkill. She knew it was more practical to try to lay out some sort of plan before diving in, but trying to plan too much in advance was never a good idea. Nothing was ever going to work out completely, and if you tried to force things on the path you laid out instead of thinking with your heart, you were bound to miss opportunities.
And the thrill.
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Post by Jay on Jan 11, 2017 20:07:42 GMT
Dusk Dusk listened to Fukami's assessments closely. It was clear that she understood how their actions would affect the overall mission. This wasn't surprising, considering the briefing told her exactly that about her partner.
Still, the latter's preference was showing. "I'm sensing that you want to go with option two," Dusk replied immediately after assessing her words. "We don't know anything about the vulnerability of the magestone, so that would b-"
She was interrupted by a beep; her drone had finished its scanning of the area, and gave her the information she needed.
She reported it to Fukami. "Twenty-eight active hostiles, four with at least B-class energy," she said. "Ten are unknown."
Those numbers meant that stealth wouldn't be too prudent here. There weren't enough of them to warrant a more safe, shadowy approach.
Still, that magestone would be a big threat.
Closing her screen, she drew her sniper rifle from her back. "I'll cover you from the back."
Fukami's preferred way it was, then. Human
Neutral Good | 27 | Female |
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Post by Fukami Tsukikage on Jan 14, 2017 19:01:15 GMT
"Who cares if we don't know anything about the thing? That doesn't mean we can't break it," Fukami replied. Underneath of her helmet, she'd been smirking since Dusk said the word "hostiles".
Fukami dashed up to the ridge of the canyon to scope things out with her own eyes. A handful of them were climbing the canyon walls. As far as she could tell, they were unarmored -- their bodies were covered almost entirely with dark robes, with only their eyes showing. A white crescent, clearly modeled in the image of the magestone, was patterned into the chests of their clothing. It wasn't hard to make the mental leap to assuming that they were a part of some cult.
The two of them had the advantage of positioning, but not the element of surprise like Dusk wanted. The second Fukami came out into the open, they spotted her, one among them shouting to alert the others. In less than a second, they were slinging bolts of magical energy at her. The first shot caught Fukami off guard and struck her shoulder, but it had little effect against her armor. Less than a second later and the shouts changed became a chorus, changing from something she couldn't quite make out to "Tenno!"
In retaliation, Fukami's right arm unfolded, the hands converting into the barrel of a cannon. She mentally set the power to "low" and fired it at the group below her, picking them off one by one. Three of them were knocked off balance by the blow and fell to a much lower level of the canyon. Fukami bit her lip. She didn't mean to kill them.
In her brief moment of shock, she failed to notice another bolt of magical energy. Considering the previous shot, she probably wouldn't have even cared if she'd been paying attention -- but the attack wasn't aimed at her. It was aimed just a few inches below her at the edge of the canyon. The dirt under her feet was blown apart by the spell and Fukami lost her footing, taking a tumble into the canyon below -- and her enemies.
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Post by Jay on Jan 16, 2017 22:29:26 GMT
Dusk When the fighting began, Dusk had taken aim. Stealth wasn't going to be an option, it seemed, so it seemed that she would be forced to deal with the action going on below.
A few shots rang out from her gun, instantly downing two of the mages with well-placed headshots. That got the attention of a third, whom she had barely missed due to a protective aura around them.
Spells were slung her way, and Dusk was on the move. Taking out her sidearm, she opened fire at the protected mage, finally finding her mark when the shield disrupted from taking too much damage.
Fukami falling caught her attention, and Dusk was quick to help. She leapt from the side of the cliff and deployed a device to the side. Then, she turned to shoot a tiny, glowing chip-like object that embedded itself on a rock formation.
What resulted was a wire of light that angled downward. Dusk made to grind down the wire, accelerating as she continued.
The wire would be positioned in such a way that Fukami could catch herself. Human
Neutral Good | 27 | Female |
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Post by Fukami Tsukikage on Jan 17, 2017 4:38:57 GMT
As Fukami fell, she was too shocked to scream. She figured it would be a long way down, and taking a one way trip that far into the canyon would be a bad move, even for her. Dusk had said there twenty-eight hostiles -- enough to swarm her if she landed in a disadvantageous position.
Something shot her direction from behind her. She could swear it was a spell at first, but it looked almost like a thread. A zipline of some sort? Her thoughts were happening too quickly for them to have much in the way of words accompanying them, but her suspicions were confirmed when she saw Dusk slide down it. Instinctively, she grabbed for it, almost surprised it was a solid object. She jerked to a halt, giving her a moment of discomfort.
"Thanks," she called. "I don't think we'll be able to shoot that one," she said, pointing to the aura-encased mage with her free hand.
With that, she swung back and forth on the "wire" a few times to build momentum. As soon as she was sure the had the speed, she flung herself off it and planted herself on the edge of the cliff, digging her hands clean into the rock and positioning herself just above the sorcerer. The shock of Fukami popping out of seemingly nowhere was enough to get him to drop his guard for just a second -- though not his aura -- and pulled her left hand out of the rock so she could slide her foot down into his face. One strike wasn't enough, so she removed the other hand and put all of her weight into the next blow, which caused him to lose his balance and fall like the others had.
"Do you want to stick together, or split up?" Fukami shouted to Dusk.
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Post by Jay on Jan 19, 2017 18:05:32 GMT
Dusk A feeling of slight relief came over Dusk when she saw that Fukami saved herself. While she didn't doubt the woman's skills, she was aware of how important this mission was for them.
Still, that mage was problematic. He seemed to home in on Dusk, which meant that he was aware of her presence. Great.
"Split up, take different routes!" Dusk shouted back, picking up her gun.
She dove down deeper into the canyon, taking the cliffside as a way to get down. It was out of the range of most of the spellcasters who reared their heads, all of which were feverish in their attempts to stop the Tenno.
When Dusk landed on an extruding piece of rock, she briefly took aim. One shot rang out, and a mage that was trying to move into position was taken down quickly.
Her eyes flickered to Fukami briefly to check on her status, before going back into the scope. Another shot, another one down. That brought the numbers down to about twenty-three, if her counting was correct.
She took aim at another target - a mage performing what seemed to be a casting ritual. Before she could take him out, however, she caught the glimpse of something entering the sky.
It was red, bright, and beautiful; like a star. Then, it began to fall - directly toward Dusk. She was quick to move, jumping from the rock to evade the explosion that happened behind her.
The force sent her flying toward another formation, where she deftly took hold.
More of those missile-like blasts of energy came down, aiming for the Tenno women.
The next step was finding where they originated from, as they seemed to conjure themselves from the skies. Human
Neutral Good | 27 | Female |
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Post by Fukami Tsukikage on Jan 21, 2017 19:02:30 GMT
Fukami watched Dusk as she gave the order to split up, just to make sure the two of them weren't going to go in the same direction. Instead of following her shot-caller further into the canyon, she stayed near its walls and pulled herself up onto a narrow path -- if it could be called that -- that went across the outer rim. Considering Dusk was the one with the sniper rifle, it would have made more sense for them to be in one another's positions, but maybe -- just maybe, Fukami thought to herself -- she was beginning to rub off on her partner.
What a load of bullshit that idea was.
It didn't take long for two more mages to come running up to her. Their choice of attack was as strange to her as Dusk's, considering they had the advantage when shooting her from afar, but at least it wouldn't be much trouble to deal with them. She kicked the first one to approach her, knocking the wind out of him, but the second one grabbed and held her. He was much heavier than she was expecting, as if a small car had been dropped on her. Must have been some kind of spell, she thought. While trying to push him off, she heard a whistling sound and an explosion down below. It didn't take her more than a moment to put two and two together.
Immediately, she took fast, shaky steps to the edge of the canyon and let herself fall off, then caught the edge of it. A fiery burst of energy fell from the skies and erupted where she had just been standing.
"Dusk, watch the skies!" she shouted. "...And if you have a moment, shoot this guy off of me!" The mage was now clinging to her back and she was in no position to shake him off.
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Post by Jay on Jan 23, 2017 22:12:36 GMT
Dusk Not a moment had passed after Fukami yelled when the shot lined up and executed. The mage on her back was downed immediately.
Contrary to what it seemed; Dusk knew how disadvantageous the position was. Thus, she had taken higher ground immediately, creating another wire for herself to scale the cliffside. She was in a position that gave her a better view of the battlefield - in particular, the skies above where the attacks were raining down.
The magical blasts that formed had some sort of source, that was for certain. Looking through her scope, however, revealed nothing to her.
She would have investigated further, but the situation called for her attention back in the canyon.
"Get to the stone! I'll cover your back!" Dusk said to Fukami.
The plan would be simple enough - being the shot-caller, she needed to stay behind. Fukami was more capable in an all-out assault by a wide margin, so Dusk's primary use would be in assisting her by alerting her of any incoming threats. The number of hostiles were dropping, but the amount of obstacles were increasing exponentially.
She withdrew a device from her belt, and it formed itself into a disc-shaped drone. Upon activating, it flew upward into the sky. "In twenty seconds, it'll EMP the magic field up there," the target was obviously the blasts coming from the air. "I need you to not die before that."
Human
Neutral Good | 27 | Female |
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Post by Fukami Tsukikage on Jan 30, 2017 17:08:49 GMT
Fukami breathed a sigh of relief as the weight on her back lost his grip and fell off. She straightened her back and gripped the rocks in front of her again to get better footing, then returned her attention to Dusk and listened to her orders.
"Don't worry, I'm an expert in the fine art of not dying," Fukami shouted after her partner finished.
She slid -- or more accurately bumped -- down the edge of the canyon, just barely gripping the rock. As she did so, though, the mages noticed her presence and focused on her, nearly ignoring Dusk and clustering around the spot they projected she'd land. Instead of falling into their trap, she jumped off the cliff while still having a good distance left to fall and made a four-point landing that made her armor buckle and gave her some distance from the cluster. A noise like thunder and the sound of rumbling rock told her something she should have realized sooner -- a blast of energy would have hit her if she'd stayed there.
She wasn't keeping count, but had a feeling that her twenty seconds weren't up. She got to her feet and turned around to see a thin, but almost solid-looking stream of light moving toward her face and in front of one of the mages'. She pushed it out of the way with the side of her hand, then swept his ankles to make him lose his balance while the din of crumbling cliffside echoed through the canyon. Her opponents this time seemed less suicidal, and got away from the falling rocks before they could be harmed by them.
Even so, she could tell she was going to get dogpiled if she tried to take them on, and she didn't have to look up to know that there was probably another magic missile coming her way. Rather than stand her ground, she turned almost a full 180 degrees and darted further into the canyon, toward the magestone. Another blast of magic hit the ground and scattered the ground behind her to the wind. She took a quick look behind her to see if her tactic had worked, only slightly letting up her running pace, but her jaw slanted sideways with unease when she noticed that her enemies had practically run around the outline of the impact crater.
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Post by Jay on Feb 1, 2017 19:08:49 GMT
Dusk Watching Fukami's actions from afar, Dusk could easily see why she was recommended for this mission. She was a powerhouse - a juggernaut who broke any opposition. She was a wall-buster.
That made the sniper a little relieved. At first, she was unsure as to how things would go, but it was clear that her partner knew her role in the mission.
Now it was time for Dusk to perform hers.
Switching on her scope, she tilted her head. The EMP wouldn't be active for another 10 seconds, so she was quick to deal as much damage as possible.
Taking aim, she shot down a mage powering a blast of energy made to attack Fukami.
Then, she felt something resembling a ball of energy whiz by her face, and immediately took aim in that direction. Someone sat on an opposing end of the canyon, taking potshots at the sniper.
Narrowing her eyes, she ducked behind a stone to move out of the way of another attack. Then, with movements as fast as lightning, she took aim and popped a single round into the mage's head.
It was an easy kill - they didn't seem to have a deflector shield up. With that threat down, she moved back to her position to help Fukami.
That brief fight may have cost her, though.
Hopefully it wouldn't be too devastating, since the EMP was set to start now.
"EMP's starting, standby," she said to Fukami over their communication network. Human
Neutral Good | 27 | Female |
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Post by Fukami Tsukikage on Feb 3, 2017 22:57:54 GMT
Fukami turned back around as she heard Dusk call to her, only to see another swarm of mages -- all still near-identical and clad in those black robes -- now barreling out of their fort to attack her. Bolts of magic flew in her direction, and she nearly ran straight into one of them. If the spell didn't suddenly dissipate, it might have been the end of her. She wanted to thank Dusk, but there wasn't enough time for that.
Even with the mages "unarmed", they were still an army. Or at least a small squadron, and they had the advantage of positioning. A little more than a dozen people were arranged ahead of and behind her. They could still overwhelm her with sheer numbers, and there was always a chance there was more than magic up their long sleeves.
Fukami activated her cloaking device and took the only way out she could think of -- up. She jumped meters into the air and came to cling on the edge of the cliff again, scrambling around and trying to get to a higher ledge. The device wasn't foolproof -- her shadow was still cast in the canyon below, and she wagered the only thing saving her from more literal enemy fire was the disruption her partner had just caused.
"Dusk!" she shouted after pulling herself onto something that vaguely resembled solid ground. "How long is that EMP thing going to last?"
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Post by Jay on Feb 5, 2017 20:38:15 GMT
Dusk Dusk looked into her device's screen, checking the time. "Two minutes," she responded to Fukami.
Two whole minutes to complete their mission. That was good - a lot of things needed to happen, and two minutes seemed like enough time for it to happen. Now, it was time for the women to do their work.
When the mages started to crowd Fukami, Dusk narrowed her eyes. Throwing a grenade down into the chasm, she aimed to disorient or kill a number of them. The grenade's explosion got four of them out of commission, but Fukami was still in trouble.
That time used for the grenade, however, made it easy for the sniper to switch rounds. With a click of the settings, the scope turned blue and Dusk had turned to her Support Rounds. Pushing a tiny space on the side of the rifle, she set it to the correct calibration.
A few, mildly stinging, rounds would be shot at Fukami. The rounds would dissipate if they hit her, and their effects would immediately start: a burst of physical vitality that would allow her to perform her duties against a larger crowd of enemies.
"Go after the magestone, I'll keep you covered!" Dusk said in the communicator. Human
Neutral Good | 27 | Female |
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Post by Fukami Tsukikage on Feb 10, 2017 18:28:43 GMT
Fukami was startled when she felt something pierce her back. More than one something. Not just the armor -- it went right into her skin, nearly making her lose her footing. She reached around and grabbed for whatever it was, but didn't pull it out immediately. From the size, shape, and the way pinprick way they hurt, she was certain they were syringes, and only Dusk could have shot something from that angle. For a brief moment, she wondered what they were for, but she didn't wonder any more after her eyes grew wide. She felt like she'd just had five or six cups of tea shot straight into her everything.
She heard Dusk loud and clear over the communicator inside of her helmet. She almost asked herself why she'd forgotten to use that earlier. Of course, it was mostly because she liked yelling. It was what kept her in the mood. She followed her shot-caller's orders and raced around the rim of the canyon to the magestone.
She couldn't believe she'd been so distracted earlier that she hardly noticed it. It was just like what the report had described -- a big rock in the shape of a crescent moon. But at the same time, it was so much more than that. Something about it, maybe the aura it gave off or the rocks that floated beneath, made it seem like it wasn't real. Like it shouldn't exist.
But wasn't all magic like that?
Whatever the case, it didn't stop her from jumping onto one of the rocks, intending to use them as stepping stones to get to the magestone proper. Unexpectedly, it buckled under her weight and went into freefall, taking Fukami down with it. Her reflexes were just fast enough to let her pushed off the rock and jump onto another, which also started to fall. She initially wondered if it was because the rocks were just barely being supported by whatever mystic force held them aloft, but then it struck her: the EMP Dusk had set off was canceled the spell that kept them in the air, and they were only falling now because she was doing something to disrupt them.
Wonderful.
She disengaged her cloaking device. There was no point in keeping it on when the falling rocks were going to give away her position. The stone hail now falling as she steadily leaped to her destination put an idea in her head though. What would happen when she was on top of the magestone instead of these rocks...?
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