Futuristic In The Wake of Empire

Gamma's attention was drawn to another aura. Quite close. Raw energy, sterilized and cleansed of imperfections. Unnatural. Far, far more precise than any organic practitioner could reach, even with augmentations.

As a general rule of thumb however, they proved a fair bit less powerful than trained etherealogists. Not that it made them any less deadly. An automaton could focus and deliver ether attacks far faster and maintain a superior level of accuracy compared to their biological counterparts.

Gamma had engaged their ilk before, early in his career. Nearly died. Their aruas had been far more crude, their mishmash of salvaged armor plating barely containing the balls of psychic rage within. But they had proven immune to many of his mental attacks, and had been armed with more than mere psychic abilities. All manner of fast firing ballistic weaponry and explosive launchers. Admittedly, he had been younger then. Far less experienced in the art of psi-slaying. He had wracked a fair number of kills against constructs in his time since then. Psionically powered or otherwise.

Still, he could not help but feel a tinge of relief at the presence of the rest of the team. This one was a far cry from anything he had faced before. This precision engineered, soulless killing machine. Doubtful he could take it alone, especially given the presence of the Blackguard.

The constructs aura flashed. A bright white. Alerted. Back in reality, he heard the dim call of the other construct. Jammed the communication systems. Asking for support in dispatching the mechanical beast.

Well, now or never. Gamma-001, immersed deep into a meditative state, began a more in-depth probe of the enemy aura. Black tendrils lashed out, running along its surface. A visual anamoly, of course. Just as how all things appeared on this plane. One could not truly comprehend what went in on this void without succumbing to madness.

Feeling his way through the veins nerves underlying reality itself, a presence loomed or rather radiated the same power as a long shadow. It did not fall over Gamma as much as it simply passed over and through his supernatural grasp. It seemed alive at first, emanating from a heart of amassed and swirling malevolence but assigning emotionality to this was a misnomer. There was no will that guided it, no conscousness or conscience - only the presence of a being perhaps at heart not more intelligent or psychologically present than a filter-feeding worm.

Invertebrate like, its ethereal power flooded the network of wires and circuits that hid behind tough armor, powering the entity from what felt like a dense cluster of raw power. It was a void-tech battery core in the heart of the drone, behind all of its tough armor. Yet elsewhere amidst electrical currents and digitized combat processes whirring alive, chinks in the armor could be felt.

At the base of its wings, against the flat vertical sides of its body, four areas where the armour was just a bit thinner and the ethereal current a little more exposed presented themselves. It wasn't by shining a light to Gamma's unearthly sight; it seemed as if the Arkradians had tried to conceal this weakness. To most cybernetic scans, they would appear "dead zones" where ether could not pass but in reality, the void-substance had thinned its connection there, partially diluting as it passed near these sections. Internal modulators could be detected just inches away and even moderately skilled technicians would be able to grasp their role - keeping the flow of this eldrtich power source smooth and uninterrupted.

Yet there was another weakness. Its body had an ether-reactive shield, hidden to sight but not unearthly sense, hovering within a metre-wide radius around itself. Yet it wouldn't react to solid munitions not moving at hyper-accelerated speeds as seen in say, rail or particle type weaponry.

The machine itself had stopped abruptly, its frontal camera-eyes blinking a plethora of chaotic colors as Whisper's own brand of techno-sorcery took effect and bringing it to a sharp and stilted stop, just at the mouth of hole. It had yet to actually descend, still out of sight of the bottom floor team.

It was only hesitating, preparing a counter-response, but if they wanted to act, this was it.

"Target invisible to sight, not seeing anything on video feed, anyone who has eyes give me target location and type!" Kazarczyon barked over the radio, his voice rendering as a scrapping saw-blade tone.

"Utilize low level energy weapons or kinetic projectiles." Gamma murmured, still in a half-trance. "It lacks sufficient energy shielding against attacks of that nature. Hyper-realisitic weaponry will fail to break the shield, impact-based. Target is located just above us, mouth of the hole in the cieling."

Even as he spoke, Gamma was in action. Light 'taps', for lack of a better word, against the vulnerable chinks within the void-energy current. Small jabs that would helpfully serve to weaken or outright break the connection to the wider circuitry, interrupting any counter-measure deployments, at least temporarily. Before it rerouted it through some other channel.

A full-on attack he could not risk, even if it appeared momentarily distracted. That shield would likely prove more than capable of weathering whatever he threw at it. He was competent within this realm, that was a certainty. But he was far more suited to the nullification of its practitioners and effects the power had on the physical world than within the ether itself.

Where scanners fail, heightened senses prevail. The doctor sees the shadow cast by the drone's arrival as soon as it's in a position to descend. They're capable of fighting, but it's not why they're there – better to hide and let the others wrangle the intruder, then patch them up after the fact. They writhe their way under the muck, like the rays or skates of the homeworld they've never seen, shielding themselves with the debris that coats the bottom of the... river? Lake? Whatever this type of body of water is called.

While they wait, though, it seems sensible to ensure that there aren't any *other* risks at hand. Still buried, they extend their feelers towards Gamma's location, intent on retrieving the parts he salvaged. "Would you kindly hand over the pieces?," they hum, using the water as a medium for sound. "I'd like to make sure we're not sitting next to a bomb waiting to be detonated." They'd rather have examined the wreck intact, but this will do for now. Even as they retrieve the parts, sizing them up by texture, they flip through their indexed memory for both the type of machine these pieces would be used in and the way such machines could be sabotaged. The bomb comment was quite literal; they've seen plenty of drones that self-detonate on disabling. This one's fuse might have been damaged, or it might be on a timer in the hopes its killers would carry it home. If it were to go off with all of them there... well, the Exile Battalion would almost certainly find itself in need of new recruits.

'Fuck' Was the first though that ran through his mind as he saw the hulking figure. A very faint shiver ran through his spine as memories ran in quick succession. 'Blackguard' was the second word, but a half breath later brought his heart rate back down. The hulk was big enough, but something told him that it wasn't an actual Blackguard, just big enough to be one. The Squad Leader stood out as being important, so Drengr marked it and sent the tag to the rest of the squad. If things got hot it would have to be taken out first and fast.

To most troops, losing the leader, especially one likened to a Demi-god status, would demoralize and scatter them, ending the fighting quickly with as few lives lost as possible. Not to mention the ammunition saved by not having a prolonged fire fight.

As he was marking the Squad Leader a recently familiar noise crept into his suits audio processors. "What the fuck is that?" Tapping the side of his helmet to see if that would clear of the sound, he isolated that sound time stamp and sent a shirt range burst encrypted file to Whisper and the Brothers. "Can you clean this up and ID it?" The burst file would contain the spatial information centered on Drengr with all other IFF reference tags along with elevation and rage data. "It sounds like its getting closer. And possibly hostile" His rifle quickly but deliberately scanned the area to his right, left, behind, above and below; hoping his eyes would be able to pick up what was causing the strange echoing.

His squad had good eyes on the drones and the other combatant squad and with the Leader and Hulk being specifically tagged as high priority targets, he moved away silently and like a shadow to try and find and possibly engage the UNKNOWN that as causing the strange echoing. Though if the call for FIRE was made he would shift and start squeezing the trigger at the appropriate target.

Drone, enemy squad, or whatever.

AtlannianSpy ChasmOfOrganicMatter Daniel Reaving

Though their body was tense, Corvei felt some relief as information and commands were relayed to them through their comms. Finally, they had a task to do that they felt comfortable and confident with, that didn’t involve drudging up massive amounts of energy from the other dimension. The nervous pounding that had been building up in their skull began to dissipate as they focused, reaching out with tentative tendrils of consciousness trying to gently probe for information about those before them.

Their focus was shattered, however, by the appearance of the two behemoths, and Corvei sucked in an almost imperceptible gasp of air. They did not like this. While they appreciated Kazarcyzon’s faith in their power – and certainly wholly believed in their destructive force themselves, their squad leader’s words set them on edge again. Corvei remembered meeting a blackguard once, while they were still essentially Arkradian property. Their captors had been proud of their ingenuity in using a Scielto for near-unlimited ship power and had been eager to show them to a blackguard who’d found their way aboard the ship for a brief time. The mere presence of them had frightened Corvei then, and even now, freed with incredible ethereal power at their fingertips, they couldn’t help but feel a twinge of fear. They’d been ignored by the blackguard for most of it’s time on their ship, but Corvei had still seen its behavior, even towards her captors, the blackguard’s fellow Arkradian’s, and it wasn’t something that inspired a feeling of safety or a “warm fuzzy feeling”.

It was healthy, they told themselves, to remember their past, and use their fear to fuel their strength now, even if this wasn’t a blackguard. The nervous pound that had begun building once more started to slow as Corvei grounded themselves, and they again, tentatively, steeled themselves to continue their previous task. It didn’t take long for their next worry to appear though, this one taking the form of a drone, though there was a feeling of unease that washed over Corvei as they studied it further. It didn’t seem notably unique in appearance to them, though they couldn’t consider themselves an expert on drones, and had quite honestly seen relatively few in their lifetime. It seemed predatory to them, but not like anything tangible they knew of, instead giving them the impression that it was not unlike a void predator. It was an unsettling feeling, and though they knew it was dangerous, Corvei could feel the ether running through their veins pulling towards it. It felt almost magnetic, and the Scielto had to draw their magic back within the confines of their body, reminding themselves that this was not a normal entity, nor was it a normal feeling to have outside of the void. It would be dangerous to reach out to it, though their ether was drawn to the feeling of the droid, as was their curiosity.

Noting the words of their companions, any additions Corvei had to add fell short of being communicated. While they felt unsettled, though not fearful, per se, there was still that nagging feeling in the back of their head that they should just let the professionals do their jobs and engage as a support only when needed. Surely the others who had ethereal power could also feel what Corvei did, right?

“Can I help at all?”

It wasn’t exactly what they’d pictured saying, nor was it a decisive, tactical question, but Corvei figured they’d have to start their career here somewhere, and with their lack of knowledge and experience in small scale missions, or any other missions, really, it was probably their least damaging option. The last thing they’d want to do is disappoint the FSA, and getting all of their companions killed by making a rash decision would surely earn them the FSA’s wrath.

Ray had thought long and hard about whether or not to take the shot. After hearing that it did, in fact, have a weak spot, he decided to make his move.
"Advise, I'm taking the shot."

He switched his M42A's scope from digital to standard mode, and flipped up his HUD screen. Cracking his neck, he brought the sight to his right eye, letting it rest approximately 2.5 inches from his face and letting his cheek rest against the stock. He moved the little cross at the center of his sight around a bit to get used to the motion again. His left hand adjusted for range and windage, using a plastic bag stuck on a pole down below as a reference. Then he searched for the chink that Gamma had mentioned. For bipeds and animals, it was the left eye on an unarmored person, but with growing armor capabilities, Ray had fired at all sorts of weak spots over the years. Crotches, armpits, necks, and behind the knees, finding the chink in one's armor was a fun process. But doing it the first time was a fun and exciting challenge.

Then Ray saw it. The left eye. He placed his little cross right where the... what would he call them? Wings maybe? Connected to the main body. It would be like cutting an arm off a bear. Always a good idea to piss it off so the rest of the crew could beat it to death with their rifles. If he was lucky the bot would just fall to the ground. If he wasn't it would probably lose it's balance, if temporarily.

Scratch that, if he wasn't lucky the thing would just become momentarily pissed off and he and his companions would be taken prisoner and spend the rest of their lives in some space gulag. They would be better off dead, Ray reasoned, and that was that. He had his own sins to answer for, and it was time to roll the dice. If he was still on the side of righteousness, everything would go smoothly. If it was time to fold and pay his debts, he was ready.

Ray inhales deeply, and places his reticle right over his target. He grins as he exhales and squeezes the trigger. Inside the rifle a small chemical process takes place, and a micro-explosion, resulting in a small projectile leaving the weapon, it's sound suppressed by the device screwed onto the end of the stainless steel barrel, wrapped in artificial foliage. Through the barrel, and then the sound and flash suppressor, leaves a 10mm by 28mm high explosive armor piercing caseless round, this particular one fused to detonate inside the target, and its momentum carries it at 987 m/s and the little round travels 253 meters, a little over two football fields, in .256 seconds. The HEAP round reaches its target well before Ray feels the 5 ft/lb recoil dig into his his right shoulder, and his reticle rise only an eighth of an inch.

The stealth capabilities of the drone were a large part incidental; it did not appear in camera feeds because its ethereal shroud made it appear as little more than empty space to most cameras. It did the opposite of concealing itself to more supernaturally attuned observers as Duskwalker would very quickly notice. As the image of the entity entered his mind's eye, so did the reflections of an artificial, supernatural intelligence. The drone was not yet aware of their presence, but as the storm of interference descended upon it, digitzed processes and ethereal pseudo-consciousness began to calculate and predict outcomes as dots were connected and weapon sysstems began powering up.

It was only due to the sheer influx of junk data its systems were being bombarded with that what appeared to be multiple micro-missile clusters had not been able to even open their firing ports. Gamma would have been an easy target but the buzzing, crackling machine was locked in place, struggling even to maintain its flight, a spectator to the commando excising a hefty chunk of its crashed compatriot.

A chunk that upon closer inspection, seemed to have been intentionally tampered with. Gamma might have noticed distinctly foreign components attached to the blocky portion he'd retrieved; a mess of what looked like blocky motherboard-bricks, red wiring, and cylindrical door-handle shaped attachments clustered on its side. In the corner of his sight, he might have seen the drone's cyclopean eye abruptly shift in its sock, its focus turned towards the item in his grip but it remained powerless to actually interact with them.

The Doctor would be able to notice that the unusually modified nature of the components Gamma received did not look anything like what Arkradian engineers would normally do. Much of the technology was pieced together from various sources, some of it likely local but others looking like looted military hardware from the prior government. It was clear that it was essentially a Carnazir creation - a bomb but not a lethal one, at least not intentionally. It appeared to be initially an EMP type explosive but what's more, there was something else attached to it. A signal booster of some sort, one that would sit in the middle of the EMP blast as it radiated outwards, cleverly protected from the electronics-frying shockwave. It seemed to also be intended to boost the sheer power of the EMP blast to possibly knock out the whole area. A series of pointed antennae like structures meant it was intended to receive distant communication signals - someone was clearly planning to disrupt the Arkradian forces here even before the Damnation's Hunger team had touched down.

Sparks, angry and luminescent, erupted from the base of its four wing-arms and its ethereal signature fluctuated wildly. Even as the electronic warfare attack began to fade, Gamma's quick reaction had staggered the machine as it began to descend, struggling to maintain its rapidly flagging altitude. Now in Kazarczyon's sight his hellhammer rifle swung over and his targeting systems took note. Switching their feed from his ocular implants to his own eyes, the biodata was immediately translated into digital information, transmitted throughout the private data network shared with the rest of his squad, highlighting the machine's four weak points.

"Corvei stop ogling the machine and start shooting it. Silently, we're just out range that the patrol won't hear us. Can you not silently launch ether-spikes?" The vrexul's voice grated through their coms network as his rifle fired, its usual shriek turned into an angry low-register buzzing hiss. Spine-shaped rounds slammed into the sides of the drone, now starting to stagger and shift left and right as it began rapidly regainining more and more control. In spite of his weapon's rounds being equivalent to heavy machine gun calibre, the airbone threat was tough and clearly made with resisting such ordnance in mind.

By comparison, Ray's weaponry might not have had anywhere near the same degree of brute force stopping power but from his perch on high and with his scope, he was afforded a precision those on the lower floors lacked. It came into play with a high explosive, compact payload embedding itself into the base of the drone's back-left wing, detonating within its body and blowing one of its limbs clean off, falling from its body and hitting the water with a splash. The bang was loud but not enoug to echo and travel back to the patrol, the drone teetering to the left as its mobility and ethereal power-networking is disrupted, leaving it vulnerable for further attack.

"I recommend the rest of you start shooting, silencers on. NOW." Kazarczyon growled, slamming a few more rounds into the drone's body. Whatever disruptions they'd place on it had just worn off but it was flying wounded and staggered. They had maybe half a minute at best to actually take it down before it had fully recovered. The initiative was on their side, with the severe damage already inflicted to the fact that the vrexul's heavy duty armour piercers, even when used for stealth duty were causing cracks to appear along its left side.

Whisper // Ultan
"Ahh and here I was hoping not to have to get my hands dirty," Whisper said with a synthetic sigh "Alas,"

Whisper raised her hand towards the drone with her fingers pointing forwards and there was a barely audible whirring as openings on her fingertips opened to reveal five compact gun barrels. The Kyrion personal defence weapon concealed in Whisper's hand was effective in its role, but not well suited to taking on heavy Armor so Whisper aimed for the impacts left behind by Kzarycon's heavier ammunition, hoping the already damaged armour there would giver her smaller bullets a better chance of penetrating.

Whisper's finger's lit up with the tell-tale muzzle blasts of gunfire and a hailstorm of bullets flew towards the drone's weakened armour like angry, metal hornets.

Doc ignores the instructions to shoot and instead busies themselves with ensuring everyone else's guns don't get forcibly turned off. They seize the EMP bomb, no longer troubling themselves with politeness, and drag it down into the muck, wrapping themselves around it like a soldier jumping on a grenade. Not that their body would do much to stop the pulse, or suffer much if it did go off – no, they're protecting the bomb. Don't want it getting water damaged, after all, and this looks like a slipshod enough job that they don't want to assume its engineers had time for basic safety precautions.

Their skin schlorps out from their body, enveloping the device like an immune cell attacking a virus. The bomb is big enough, and the doctor's work hasty enough, that they're not hiding anything; were they to stand upright, it would jut out like a cartoon wart. But their skin's material is quickly adjusting to something less permeable to signals, and their inner mechanisms get to work "defusing" the EMP. They're not trying to destroy it, though – just remove its ability to receive signals. When this thing goes off, it's going to be at their signal – not some unknown Carnazir partisan's.

Even as they work, they slough themselves out of the line of fire, letting their more combat-capable allies deal with this. A good team is founded on effective division of labor, after all. Everyone has their own job; best they keep themselves to their surgery.

"Corvei stop ogling the machine and start shooting it. Silently, we're just out range that the patrol won't hear us. Can you not silently launch ether-spikes?"

Those words were really all Corvei needed - authoritative permission to rain destruction on this ethereal bot. For them, summoning the ether to do their will had always felt pleasant, like a rush of warmth running up their veins, giving them a soft, pleasant feeling, like being enveloped in a hug. It was comfortable, and maybe that's why pulling from it felt so easy for them. The initial pull for them always felt a little trance-like, with a bit of tug on their brain and tingles in their implants as ether willingly, and visually flooded through their veins. Edging towards a spot where they could see the drone best, Corvei raised their hands, feeling a momentarily sickening pull in their core as ethereal energy started focusing before their eyes.

For just a brief moment, it felt like the world stopped for the Scialto, their heartbeat slowed, intake of breath imperceptible, with just them and the unlimited power at their fingertips. As time caught up to them, Corvei focused, shaping their wad of energy into not many ether-spikes, but instead one large, long one, which hovered almost menacingly in front of them as they held their hands steady. Moving from their statuesque position, Corvei suddenly drew their hands back, leaning back a bit and bending their knees while waving their arms in an arc like some sort of pseudo-magician, and in an instant, the Scielto let the spike loose, it's course straight and true as it hurtled towards the drone.

The Butcher grinned as the drone's arm flew off. Damn, that feels good. Whose the big bad mofo now? Suck it you three armed asshat. Ray was happy as a clam watching the chaos below through his scope.

He spoke into his mic, "Great day for the Infantry, ain't it boys?"

He moved his reticle and lined up a shot with the drone's main body. He squeezed more HEAP rounds, till he knew he was out. 14 rounds in total, all of which are much less accurate than the first, but equally as deadly. it seemed like a good time to pack up, and Ray took out his mag and began taking accessories off his M42A, making it's profile slimmer so that it can fit in it's rifle bag. He kept the ghillie blanket on, but he now brought up his M41A2 Pulse Rifle, and turned on his holo sight. He scanned the landing right below him, waiting in case the patrol returned. If they did, it would find a nasty surprise.

Gamma-001 left his meditative state as the fireteam unloaded on the now vulnerable automaton. Gamma rose from the muck he had buried himself under, briefly reaching towards the sidearm still holstered to his side, but decided against it. His handgun, while certainly powerful, wouldn't exactly add much to the equation.

Instead, he began to drift forward once more, still submerged. Better to use this opportunity to move up. Doubtful he could help that.... doctor with, well, whatever it is he was doing with what had been salvaged from the drone wrecks.

The psi-killer subconsciously reached out, 'tasting' the air for any lingering signs of aetheric discharge or passive auras. Any further surprises of the exotic, psionic kind, would be hard pressed to evade his attention.

The sudden cascade of energy he made note of. The etherealogist they had brought was of a particularly strong caliber. Most interesting.

Limping in flight, cracked along its side, the once formidable drone had become over-expensive target practice. Heavy duty vrexul rounds even lacking their standard explosive charges had cracked its tough shell, rendering it vulnerable as even lighter armaments now rended deep into a once impenetrable shell. Some bit through steel, others detonated within, but it was a spine of ethereal power, phasing through its weakened ether reactive shielding that did it in. Armour crunched and bent as the once supernatural core that powered it was snuffed out in a short flash of light. Electronic systems and its own cyclopean eye flashed a white-purple as it landed in the water with a heavy splash, smoke sputtering from its iron carcass.

The last remnants of ethereal energy began to fade to embers, then dissipating to less than that, returning Gamma's scans to a dead quiet.

As the warmachine sputtered its last, the once active bomb had its connection to its handlers severed courtesy of the Doc.

Kazarczyon in the meantime reloaded his mag, multiple antennae sensors and parasite-symbiotes emerging across his back and shoulders, attempting to pick up any signs of motion or interference in the air. His cannon rifle swept around, only finding the amphibian creepers cautiously peering behind pillars and the water's surface.

"Hostile presences - clear. I detect clearer, less filthy air up ahead. We're nearer to the damn. Upper floor team, take the lead and see if you can scope out the location. Lower floor, we're going to be on breaching duty. Doc - the explosive you acquired, I want to know if we could use it."

---

As both teams advanced, they would soon come across the ruined walls of the civilian structure they were in. As if a knife of gigantic proportions had shorn away most of the walls, the floor simply fell off, any windows long since shattered, and those nearing the edge of the structure were given an impressive view of a massive hydroelectric dam.



"Kazarczyon here, scanning the grounds in front of the dam - the waters before us are deeper than expected - I can see structures within the water and they do not appeare to be ruins, possible underwater approach path. A partially collapsed building - old brickwork, leaning in the water, wiill provide cover. Notable vegetation extended to our entry point. I cannot get a good scan on hostiles - I see two troopers and a sentry gun, but I suspect the dam has hidden gun platforms."

The huge arthropod was prone at the mouth of where the wall fell off, a watery pool before him. Scans indicated muddy, soggy ground before them, with ample vegetation creeping up to their position. The upstairs team would have a steep drop but also a better view of the damn. While there were not many soldiers visible, those that were were armed heavily far more than a light patrol might be - skeletal frames attached to kevlar esque armor, up to additional robotic arms jutting from their backs. Some of which were carrying grenade launchers and heavy duty energy casters.

A few could be seen exiting large doors, holding what appeared to be large machine guns, crew-served and with the sort of calibre needed to punch through light vehicles. A familiar, hulking, celaderakan could be seen with his heavy weapon slung resting across his shoulders, pointing at various locations on the top of the damn. The notably smaller soldiers under his command nodded, some of which were carrying now what appeared to be launchers of various sorts - tubular, with bulky targeting components attached to their side, ready for anything the carnazir might throw.

"Ray - you input is requested. My plan is to enter via the waters and attempt to breach from beneath. Preliminary scans via sensory parasites and appendages suggests it leads to an internal port, likely as close as we can get to the target. Upper floor team could remain on lookout but I suspect a Carnazir offensive is on its way. When we exfiltrate, we may need to stay in a more tight formation to avoid being split. We still need to discover where Invonarahon is being held in the base - we can likely only do that once inside."

As soon as he heard the first shot, fired by their overwatch, crack the casing on the drone Drëngr swiveled his rifle around and down, quickly lining up on the drone. Though he did but fire taking in the scene with a glance, noting the lower team has easily dealt with the threat.

With a slight shrug he turned his attention back to the other squad, watching as they did not react to the shots fired and continued to move away, opening up a clear path to the dam.

"Drëngr copies. Moving." His rifle up as he crept up to the area the other squad has departed, his sight line sweeping over the path they took. Covering the opening as he silently moved passed it.

It wasn't long before he approached the open and ruined ledge overlooking the dam. "Boss, I'm marking tangos as well as cover and possible ingress points. I have eyes on five tangos with at least one turret on the middle platform."
Drëngr moved to a deeper shadow near the edge letting his rifle slowly sweep across the area below. Sending an acknowledgement signal, letting the squad know he understands his orders. "If this goes sideways those upper platforms would be ideal for extraction. But if they move the HVT that's where I'd bring in transport." His mind running scenarios of the HVT bring brought out and led into aerial transport while the rest of the squad was attempting to stop that.

Ray looked over the dam complex. He didn't like taking orders, especially from bugs, but he didn't have any better ideas.

"Upper floors, set up overwatch and cover fire positions. Ground teams, move in under Kazar. He'll lead you in, and we'll provide you with updates. I want everyone on standby. Stay frosty."

Himself being the highest up, Ray crawled along the roof, maintaining his cover and minimizing his profile, and he walked up to a position to overlook the dam. He saw what was transmitted to him and decided to let each person assign themselves an area to cover, and instructed them to mark where they would watch, with Ray marking the left watch tower on the dam.

Gamma crept up alongside the team leader, slinking across the ground before stopping alongside Kazarczyon. He took a moment to sift through the relevant data streams broadcast from the team.

"I do not particularly enjoy the idea of moving inside unsupported." Gamma hissed over the comms, worrying a small divet into the ground with one of his blade tipped fingers. "While I have little doubt I will be able to remain undetected, the same could not be said of the rest of my compatriots. Perhaps a distraction of some kind is in order? A falsified demand for reinforcements to draw out their garrison, perhaps?"

Duskwalker staff in hand Approached gamma and kazarczyon, stopping about two meters away from them as the unnatural aura surrounding gamma began to turn his stomach. Duskwalker paused for a moment in thought, then interceded "what if we use the drones transmitter to send the false SOS, we were jamming it before but most of these machines have automatic emergency broadcasting." He glanced back to the wreck "I don't know how long the hack will take, but it would at the least draw the enemy out and allow us to slip by under the water." He tried to wear a hopeful tone but his inner cynicism of their current situation added a solemn rhythm to his suggestion "we should find a way to locate the objective before we can risk alerting the enemy" He pointed out examining the troop movements.


Duskwalker looked upward toward the second team, the aura of his fellow etherealist was in stark contrast to his own, while duskwalker possessed a calm blue green aura beaten down by years of honing his moderate power Corvei's aura appeared as whirling storm of dazzling color in his minds eye, carrying with it the natural stress of the situation but also a sense of doubt. Duskwalker stood confused for a moment as he pondered how a being of such raw power could possibly fear or doubt anything. Closing his eyes he stretched his mind out to theirs attempting project a feeling of serenity, the memory of laying in an open field under the stars and twin moons of his homeplanet was a memory he often used to ground himself, he hoped the emotion would help.

Whisper // Ultan
"A good diversion is always entertaining, and I have been tapped into their comms long enough that I can frankenstein together something pretty convincing" said Whisper thoughtfully over the comms as she scanned over her section of the the dam from the upper floor vantage point. " But they require a certain amount of finesse. A distress call might draw out some of their forces but they won't commit them all at once and it will also likely encourage them to activate any lockdown or alert protocols they have. We could end up making more trouble for ourselves overall.

"If I may be so bold I would suggest a reshuffling of our two teams at this point." Whisper said, mentally bringing up the case files and her notes on her teammates and devoting a tiny fraction of her network to reviewing them. "My Kyrion is not going to be terribly effective in an overwatch role. Instead I'd like to move ahead into the facility with Gamma, Duskwalker and perhaps one more if we have a fourth who is confident in their ability to remain undetected. I'm confident a team like that could remain undetected long enough for me to access their internal network and from there I should be able to find some more information about our target and the internal layout and security measures inside the facility. At that point I should also be able to manufacture a more convincing distraction and a blind spot in their surveillance network that will allow our heavier hitting, less discreet members to catch up to us and enter the facility undetected as well.

ChasmOfOrganicMatter SpazTheButcher skydude808 VomitIcicle

Still working on the device, Doc sends out a reply. "'Explosive' is too generous a word. It's an EMP; any kinetic or thermal output would just be because the manufacturers were hacks. And make no mistake, they were." They're confident at this point it won't go off unless they let it, but they keep the bomb subdermal for the time being. "Still, this thing is going to pack a punch. If any of our gear isn't specced for extra-atmospheric deployment, I'd expect it to go down too."

"As for using it... if we have time and things stay quiet-ish, I can rewire its detonator. But the engineer's ineptitude is acting against us here." Their voice remains even, but those more in tune with the doctor's mannerisms would recognize annoyance. "This thing wasn't designed with the idea it might need to be rewired in mind; it's kind of a mess." It might sound like that actually constituted good design – a reliable way of keeping meddlers out – but they've worked on enough explosives to know what good defenses look like, and this is not it.

Now that they're getting closer to more hostiles, the true extent of Doc's camouflaging abilities comes into play. Their skin adjusts to the mottled browns of their surroundings; their breathing and heartbeat slow, and their body rapidly begins to cool to match the ambient heat of their surroundings. "I can be discreet," they offer when Whisper asks for a fourth. "And if we end up needing to bug out, better to have this thing –" they tap the EMP bomb – "where it will cause as much chaos as possible. That's inside."

Corvei watched as their energy spike hit true, easily piercing the side of the drone as it rather ungracefully fell from where it had been floating just moments before. They felt a surge of both relief and satisfaction as they watched their magic do its job with the ease that Corvei had come to expect, but they felt a twinge of sadness, noting that none of their companions had much to say about their feat of power. Perhaps, they thought, it was just that they were in the company of so many talented beings that their feats were not of note. Still though, while they were very proud of their power, they'd been unable to harness it fully, much less have anyone praise them for their job. It was a childish thought, sure, but Corvei felt that with all their uncertainty surrounding this mission that a few words of encouragement would go far for them - it was something they weren't accustomed to, given their past, and would have appreciated.
Never mind that Corvei thought to themselves This isn't the kind of bunch to hand out praises like I need some kind of pat on the back for participating. I don't need that anyway. I'll just have to show I'm capable and useful over time.
Sighing softly, Corvei felt the slimy slither of the ether pull back into their core, a perhaps somewhat sickening feeling that would have made them dizzy if they'd called on more of it. Somewhere in that feeling though, they felt a bit of another influence, another ethrealist. They weren't sure who it was, having not been well acquainted with anyone on the team before setting out with them, but for a moment all their fears and ill feelings were washed over by a sense of serenity and peace. It wasn't a feeling Corvei was long acquainted with, but they appreciated the brief moment of something akin to bliss and calm in the chaos that had been their neural state since stepping foot off the Damnation's hunger. While they weren't certain what had caused it, Corvei cautiously reached out their own tendrils of consciousness, doing their best to exude the feeling of thankfulness and kinship.
Cautiously advancing with the rest of the team, Corvei waited patiently behind the others on top, trusting them to mark important targets and locations while they peered out curiously at the landscape before them, listening to their teammates speak and taking note of the environment in the hopes they could analyze what was important in hindsight so that in the future they too may be able to recognize important details.
As Whisper mentioned reshuffling the teams, Corvei felt a bit jealous of those who were to team up for working their way around stealthily. They were quite aware it was not their forte - and while they weren't about to object, they made a mental note to ask the most amicable of those mentioned for.... lessons. They were a quick learner, or so they believed, and between their belief it would be a fantastic bonding exercise and a way to expand upon their skillset, Corvei thought it would be most advantageous indeed to keep a running list of team members in their head that could help them build their experience while between missions.
The FSA will believe me to be indispensable if I can be a well-rounded force to be reckoned with. I will be of greatest help to them when I am more than just an artillery cow.

"Data noted Drengr; sharing with the rest of the team."

There was a momentary buzz and flurry of notificaitons as the vrexul's biodigital systems attempted to share Drengr's data, marking them as overlaid markers on HUD's and other applicable digital outlets.

"The upper floors are where they will likely be mounting most of their weaponry; more than what we can see. If the coming carnazir attack is aggressive enough, that may be the distraction we need, even if we will still be heavily exposed. We may need to retreat further past the damn into Arkradian held waters for the transport to pick us up; submerged exfil... assuming they do not destroy the dam. It is a very useful location strategically." His voice continued as his mouthparts chittered, deep in concentration as he attempted to plan a possible escape route. "The patch of land, partially wooded, by the highlighted top right corner area - we can move faster over land and into the foliage. That should provide an inkling of concealment."

Upon Ray's instructions, Kazarczyon motioned to the rest of the ground team to follow, going low as his rifle moved into his auxiliary side limbs and he crept stomach to the ground - no longer as a humanoid but a massive, creeping creature of bogs and of filth. One whose great size seemed to diminish with how his carapace seemed to stretch as if it was made of muscle rather than flesh, micro-fissures and links within the plates stretching out as his body partially compressed, slither-dragging himself across the murk and through the shadows cast by the ruins behind him.

"I don't think I need to tell you which targets to prioritize." The vrexul's voice sounded over Ray's coms, dropping from a grating buzz to an almost murky mumble. "If the Carnazir attack, you need to find a way to either regroup to us or to a different position to cover our escape. There is a very high likelihood they will use the same positions that we did when they strike."

From above, Ray and the rest of the upper floor team could see the strange alien sliding towards the leaning ruins, his antennae and sensor-appendages waving rapidly like an epileptic conductor, one free spidery limb motioning for the others to stay low and on his six. They could probably afford to at least partially crouch but due to the vrexul's size, he had to make due with a more primitive if uncomfortably quick form of movement.

As Gamma and Duskwalker made their suggestions, the vrexul had pulled himself up to peer around a corner - not with his own head but a centipede like creature that emerged from his inner elbow. The lower floor wasn't very crowded; a pair of soldiers walking by the ruins of a crashed chopper, a turret with a mounted .50 calibre, and a pool of water that stretched out just around the corner. While it was hard to see from above, the depths were far, far deeper and lined with metallic railing and walling. There was a submerged passageway dug into the ground and curved inwards to the dam.

"We have an electronic warfare expert with us. That's hopefully within their capabilities. We could create a false sighting of a potential threat. More importantly, to see if we could acquire control of any cameras within what I assume is a lower docking port. I suspect it's an entrance for both submerged drones and personnel during rainy seasons when this area gets flooded. I don't want us to be spotted the second we enter it."

He paused for a second; Duskwalker's bio-readings seemed to fluctuate and he looked over his shoulder towards him. He said nothing but the dome-like eyes of his did not look like they were willing to accept anything going wrong at such a critical junction.

Whisper's voice interrupted anything he would have said as he pondered on her suggestions for a few moments. As much as he felt he should be the one to lead the assault team, when it came to sheer firepower a hellhammer rifle was probably the deadliest weapon at their disposal.

"This diversion might be best if during the entry, we need to disrupt the enemy enough force their attention elsewhere, or to weaken them before a carnazir strike. One way or the other, our exit is going to be messy. With that in mind, I will remain ready to cover the retreat. Ray, I believe you should be part of the entry team. The twins can remain with me; something tells me we are going to have to rip our way out once they become wise to our ploy."

Doc's words concerning the bomb however, created a problem for them. While his biomechanical systems would not suffer to the same extent as say, Whisper's advanced electronics most likely, it would be enough that combined with the rest of the team it could severely cripple any capability to retaliate or even generally function.

"Doc, is it possible detonating it in the lower levels of the base could diminish the raw blast radius and potency? Enough that if we're accidentally caught in the blast wave, it will not be as crippling as it normally might be. Our biosystems will be considerably less affected but the rest of the team may be another issue. If we do not have the bomb, we have to count on a carnazir offensive, one that might be after our VIP to hold up the Arkradian attack."

However, an answer seemed to be forming within his strange, insectoid brain.

"Corvei, do you think you could create an ether-shield? One that could shield all of us? EMP from my experience struggles to affect void-borne power but resisting that much force could be taxing." He asked, tensing as he heard a rumbling from the water. He motioned for those with him to stay low as only the parasitic centipede-like cymbiote peeked around the corner.

Through its linked vision module, he could see a shape moving through the water, breaking the surface, and rapidly ascending - two more, three. Heavy duty combat drones, the same ones they had taken out earlier. He could not tell if they were all using ethertech, but they were clearly on alert. He spied missile pods, kinetic pulse beam projectors, and from his built in biodigital systems, what appeared to be advanced targeting and scanning modules. These things were on high alert.

Corvei's power alone on that note, was probably the deadliest of any of theirs when it came to raw destructive potential. He seemed... green compared to the rest of them but as far as he was concerned, you did not underestimate even a lesser scielto caster and expect to get away unscathed.

"Eyes sharp, Ray, I think..." His own eyes spotted something in their peripheral vision approaching the drones - a dropship flanked by a few internal wing-rotor VTOL craft. He almost cursed. "That's a lot of escort for a dropship. If it's who we think it is, then we have to start moving quickly. There's a high chance there are blackguards on that vessel... and if so, we're going to need all the brutality we can muster, even if there's just a chance of encountering the blackguards in combat."

"Barriers would mitigate the effect, yes. I can't imagine a military base built in recorded history without rad-eaters in the fulcrete." The doctor gives a thin smile. "But this thing was intended to pack enough punch that those defenses wouldn't matter. It might be tuned to a frequency this base is ill-equipped to handle, in which case we could have our less-organic colleagues adjust their defenses to the specific wavelength... but given the impression I have of this thing's engineers, I think it's probably running on brute force."

One of their arms unwinds, prying into the guts of the bomb. "This thing does have some features that are probably intended to help pierce etheric barriers – but they're add-ons, not built-in features. A set of null amps and a pspike attached to the same detonator. I can remove them easily enough. Just keep in mind, if it can't get through our ether shields, it can't get through our adversaries' either."

"In either case, it sounds like we're in your capable hands, Corvei." Their eyes wander to their etherically-inclined comrade. Doc's been around enough soldiers to recognize the early signs of self-righteous resentment. It's a problematic tendency, but this isn't the right operating theater for excising it. Better to just sate Corvei's ego for the moment, then pull them aside once they've all disengaged and Doc can properly treat that little malady.

Drëngr nodded and settled into the shadows, watching the patrols and weapon emplacements.

His gauntleted fingers lightly playing across the pistol and fore grip of his rifle, he would have preferred to be on the ground team entering the complex. The tight spaces of the corridors, passageways and rooms were much more to his liking than the wide open spaces of the outdoors. The simplicity of clearing a room or a hallway without having to worry about any threats from overhead or below was a very nice feeling. He could allow himself to relax, so to speak, and focus the task at hand.

Checking the next turn or opening for threats and making the split second decision to either squeeze the trigger or use alternative means to subdue a tango.

But he was also very good at open field combat. And if the incoming troops were really going for an open assault, rather then the current stealth option, than he was confident he would have plenty of targets. A target rich environment where he would be clear to engage anyone he could get a sight picture on.

"Drëngr standing by to clear a path to exfil."

His fingers on his left began drumming a steady, slow and soft staccato. The rest of the music playing on repeat in his mind. An old song, a chant really mixed with electronic synthesized music harkening back to the days of sea going warriors feared for their savage ways.

When an old adage from his early training came rolling through. 'You should always be looking for work.' It meant that you should never have down time or be doing something that didn't help the mission. It has been beaten into them regularly. Even if every angle, hallway, opening out angle was already being covered by other team members, there was something that could done or add a rifle to.

"Ray, I can mark additional targets for you, if you need an alternate location spotter."

Gamma-001 observed the goings-on with mild interest. It seems the components he had salvaged had consisted of a semi-functional explosive device. Well. He'd be certain to be more careful where he stuck his hands next time. No telling how poorly that could've gone.

The cyborg stalked forward, sinking into the muck alongside Vrexul.

"Permission to advance?" The cyborg half-growled, his head tilted to observe the approaching Blackguard craft.

"I should be able to determine any more of the... exotic threats we face, and with a far less chance of discovery than most."

Whisper // Ultan
It didn't take long for Whisper to catch up with the ground team, her durable frame letting her take some long drops through holes in the shattered floors and her powerful shock absorbers minimizing the noise when she landed. While she moved Whisper split off a portion of her network and dedicated it whipping up the the requested false distress signal. A really good deep fake was a true work of art, something that Whisper could devote the better part of her network to for hours or even days. The most involved method involved using a virtual workspace to simulate actual terrain and then seeding it with simulated forces, letting the audio sources filter through distance and terrain. And that was just for the background audio, most of which would be filtered out by noise interference cancelling algorithms anyway, but the way those algorithms interacted with the interference and the traces they left behind could actually be analysed for telltale signs of spoofing.

That was all a level of sophistication well above what Whisper was able to do on the fly in the few minutes she had to spare right now however, besides which it sounded like nobody on the receiving end of this call would have the time to subject her work to that much scrutiny before they had more pressing matters to deal with, the quick and dirty approach would be fine here. Whisper pulled the audio she had from tapping the enemy squad earlier, chopping it up into words and syllables and using some programs she already had at hand to extrapolate out the ones that were missing. Next Whisper assembled a basic distress call formatted correctly for Arkradian audio communication protocols adding bursts of static or audio of weapon fire to mask the bits that sounded too artificial.

"The distress call is fabricated," Whisper said, she was close enough to the ground team to speak to them out oud but she kept to her internal comms system anyway to keep noise down. "Not my best work but it should pass the smell test. I'm programming a macro to launch it and then follow it up with some Carnazir jamming protocols I'm familiar with, should be able to cut out the actual patrol and cast some blame, the whole package will go out on your mark. In the mean time I'm going to focus on the cameras and sensors along our infiltration route, I shall attempt to splice in looping footage over the actual feeds."

Outwardly there was no change in Whisper's behaviour but from her perspective the physical world seemed to melt away as all but her most basic subroutines abandoned meat space for the rigid, glittering superhighways of Ultan's information-scape. Compared to many planets of a similar size, Ultan's netscape was dark, with long stretches of gloomy dark illuminated only by fitful bursts of sparks, the electronic death rattles of abandoned systems reaching out for long gone comrades. Over this graveyard loomed the squat, foreboding edifice of the damn's network, all brutalist, function over form without the friendly UI elements or sleek streamlining of civilian networks.

Despite its grim appearance the network was not intimidating to Whisper, Akradian networks tended to be half a step behind compared to the paranoid and secretive Carnazir or the well financed UCL IT specialists, Whisper had infiltrated more secure systems in her defragmenting cycles, the closest thing she ever came to sleep these days. Whisper's way in was simple enough, she simply waited for another patrol to call in and then piggybacked a little surprise in on their transmission, a lightweight bit of malicious code that would copy itself throughout the system until it found a port it could open up for the larger part of Whisper's digital consciousness to wriggle in through. It took several seconds, an eternity in cyberspace but then military networks like this were seldom built for speed, but finally Whisper was in and able to stretch herself out through the network, almost like cracking her knuckles before getting to work.

Casting her awareness out, Whisper began searching for traces of video files, knowing they would almost certainly be the security feeds she was looking for, she would need to skim them for a while to gather the footage she would need to construct a convincing loop to splice back in over the feed