Futuristic &nbsp; [Archived] VOIB_ARC1_PART2

Code by Serobliss

Emiya Shin · May 12, 2022

Imperial Security Directorate

Cecilia

Cecilia Ravenholm

Sindalone Weapons Port 14, Elesrith

Cecilia merely looked around at the carnage that she has spearheaded earlier on. The unmistakable smell of gunpowder, burnt materials resulted from magic, and of course, blood invaded her nose. Unfortunately, the fully armored helmet that she was currently wearing was unable to shield her from the grim but iconic smells of a battle's aftermath.

The heavily armored Demonoid was still holding onto her battered ballistic shield and military sidearm, albeit in a relaxed pose. She remained alert, while at the same time waiting for the adrenaline in her body to wear off. It felt like eternity, waiting for the investigation crew to come in. Her brain was still expecting that there could be stragglers hiding somewhere in the port, considering the large amount of guards in the area. Cecilia had already down to the last magazine for her handgun, after burning through 3 magazines worth of ammunition. Had not for Hildegard's liquid familiars distracting the guards, she would be in trouble. She also tried her best to deliver non-lethal shots as well, which was also one of the reasons why she went through most of her sidearm's ammunition.

Cecilia finally relaxed herself when their rather jovial resident hacker Cerberus started bantering with the team, though her words left much to be desired to be honest. Her antics reminded her of those starry eyed ISD recruits, thinking that she can take on the baddies like a typical videogame. Also, did Cerberus actually saw the damage on both Cecilia's heavily padded full body armor and the ballistic shield? Numerous impact marks can be seen on both the heavy body armor, and the ballistic shield. Heck, there were some direct gunshot hits to the Demonoid's torso and shoulders, but the armor did a good job in stopping them. But of course, stopping the bullets do not mean zero damage. Cecilia did felt it when they hit her, and they cause bruises from the high velocity impact.

The Demonoid unwittingly found herself scowling at the hacker, as she continued on with her comical finger guns. Fortunately, Cerberus was safe from Cecilia's angry gaze, as her helmet fully obscured her face, save for her horns. She also noticed Hildegard's apparent disdain for Cerberus, too. If anything, she wanted to bonk the Exhelian hacker's head with her ballistic shield.

Once Cerberus was done with her banters, Cecilia lets out a noticeable sigh. It sounded pretty robotic and hollow, however. Probably due to her helmet that could have altered her voice. She then set her military handgun to safety mode, and holstered it to her hip.

"Do you want to swap places with me, Cerberus?" The Demonoid seemingly replied in a nonchalant manner, as she lowered her ballistic shield to the ground and kept it standing with one of her thickly armored hands. "I don't mind having your place. It's a win-win situation, if you ask me. You get your share of trying to be a hero, while I get to laze around in some remote office. I can provide you a crash course in the art of breaching."

She then leaned closer to Cerberus. It was obvious that Cecilia was smiling behind that helmet of hers.

"So, what say you? Want a try?"

Code by Serobliss

lunar_moth · May 13, 2022

Vanguard of Imperius

Magnus Aurelimere

Barre Sinister

Sindalone Weapons Port 14, Elesrith

Yelling. Gunshots. Explosions. The whir of elemental magic speeding past your ear. The fuzzy feeling it leaves behind when it brushes too close to your cheek and burns the vellus right off. The pull of your skin where a blister forms on your heel as you skid to a stop in your sweaty boots and plant yourself firm to the ground for the umpteenth time. Raise the gun. Fire the shot. Raise your fist. Fire the blast.

A stray blast of magic hits you at an angle (too weak to matter) and you can feel the bruise as it blooms across your ribs. A bullet (yours this time, definitely not too weak) whizzes at the man who hit you and you watch, in real time, as it pierces his neck above his vest. The corpse falls like a wet sack of flour and you can already smell the tell-tale expulsions that follow its slackening muscles.

Let it happen. Avert your eyes. Keep moving. You’ll die if you don’t and you’ll let everyone else die with you so you keep going and then you wake up and do this all again tomorrow.

—Except, all of a sudden, it’s over now, the raid is over and you’ve won (you win) (they’re safe) and you’re dragging a hand across your face trying to catch your breath after knocking out and securing the last little stragglers, and Hildegard’s called it, it’s over, she’s got the investigation crew in to tie everything up but you’re having some trouble evening out your breathing through the way the spark-scars up your arms still throb in time to your pulse.

…

…

…Christ, get a hold of yourself, man.

A woman who’s in too-high spirits for her own good plods onto the silent battlefield and it’s like a bucket of cold water is dumped over Magnus’s head. The haze lifts. His ear, though still ringing like it always does in the aftermath, is no longer droning and drowning out the idle chatter around him.

Cerberus, in all her glory, strides on-scene to lament her inability to participate. Also, apparently to talk them all up, in a bit of a roundabout way

“Bang bang bang~! Gosh, I’d kill to be like one of you.”

Magnus can’t hide the scowl that takes over his face. Luckily, his helmet, which he is still wearing, does.

Ravenholm, though her face is hidden too, seems to feel the same— her mechanical exhalation is weighty with disdain. She rests the foot of her shield on the ground and leans closer to Cerberus. Like an animal baring its teeth. Half of Magnus’s brain thinks that’s an excessive reaction to a woman who has a reputation for ruffling feathers for fun. The other half is tired and wants to see her get bit.

Magnus clears his throat and removes his helmet, shaking his head a bit to dislodge the strands clinging to his sweaty brow. Clearly, if it’s safe enough for Cerberus to be parading around, it’s well time to take a breather.

“I have to agree with the lady,” he starts, tilting his head to peer at Cerberus. “By all means. Maybe in another life we’ll swap places. Although, I hate to be frank, but I think your perceptions are misguided. There’s no glory here. You win or you don’t; that’s all there is to it. Binary system. I think you’d be hard-pressed to justify dropping bullets into people just to play protagonist.” Which you had the luck of learning early on, didn’t you?

Emiya Shin

Code by Serobliss

Emiya Shin · May 30, 2022

Imperial Security Directorate

Cecilia Ravenholm

Disillusioned Defender

Sindalone Weapons Port 14, Elesrith

Cecilia thought she was the only one berating how insensitive Cerberus was at the moment. But to her surprise, Magnus also somewhat took offense with how their resident hacker joked about their battle just now. The tanned Exhelian spoke his mind, stating that there is no glory to be had in a battle, even such as this one. It is either you live, or die. Magnus's words definitely made the Demonoid laughed for a moment. She thought that the Vanguard officer was a laidback guy, judging from his suave appearance and what it seemed to be a rather humble personality. But even a good looking man like him had to endure some bad experiences, which most likely caused him to say such a statement to Cerberus.

And of course, Euthalia just had to play the role of a savior, swooping in and protecting her from the harsh reality that her teammates keen to provide. As for Cecilia, she thinks that Euthalia is just giving her too much slack. Cerberus should have known better. She should just go with the usual 'how is everyone doing', rather than trying to pull something off with the exhausted group. The Demonoid merely straightened herself, and listened to Euthalia's comments. Cecilia even cringed a bit, when the Hyzurian went pretty friendly with their resident hacker.

"You're giving her too much slack, Ms. Samon." She sighed in-between her words. "She should have known better. Not to mention a simple greeting is sufficient enough to provide a potentially positive feedback from us." And then comes another sigh. "But whatever. I'll just stay here for a while. Perhaps our resident hacker has something for us."

Code by Serobliss

lunar_moth · Jun 2, 2022

Vanguard of Imperius

Magnus Aurelimere

Barre Sinister

LOCATION HERE

Magnus represses a wince when Euthalia’s soft voice reaches his ears in an attempt at placating. The poor woman seemed so on-edge already; true, he was admittedly not performing at his best and had reacted a bit like a cat backed against a wall, but her role of peacekeeper must have been tiring to maintain. She was a good worker; although kind of her, surely petty squabbles were below her pay grade. Magnus brought one hand up to the side of his head and began to rub circles just underneath his ear. It didn’t ease the discomfort, but it made him feel as if he were doing something to help, at least.

“I apologize, Ms. Cerberus. It seems I was ill-prepared for today’s duty and it’s wound me up a bit. It is unprofessional of me to be taking out my own frustrations on my colleagues.” He takes a breath. Honestly, even if he didn’t always find himself to be on the same wavelength as some of the others, he should know perfectly well how to play nice until the job was done. God knows he’s had lots of practice in interacting with the more rambunctious of those Vanguard sisters.

Huh, speaking of which… hadn’t those two been recalled before their mission and replaced by another pair of names? Maybe if they had been deemed ill-suited for the job then it wasn’t so foreign an idea that Magnus might need to take a step back as well. Still, it smarted: he considered himself at least a league above that fast-talking, energy-burning girl!

Regardless, the matter at hand was this: “I may need to take up the lady Euthalia’s offer of a recuperation day, in the nearing future. Still, for now; was there anything more we needed to discuss before the survivors are to be dealt with? Does the lady Cerberus have information to share?”

Emiya Shin

Code by Serobliss

Panther · Jun 28, 2022

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith. August 7, 709 EC. 7:25 PM Standard Imperius Time

Just as Team 1 finished their sting operation on a Sindalone Organization-held port, Team 2 and a police convoy under the joint leadership of Sinaria Morphus and Syriel Janus were en route to their target location that was a larger distance away from where Team 1 operated. The quickest path to the target is straight through the Imperius Grand Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in Elesrith that serves to connect Imperius and another major city.

The convoy, full of security personnel provided by House Bismarck, drove through one of the two entrances to the bridge with the lanes already cleared for them to ensure they passed unhindered. However, movement of such scale would not go unnoticed to their enemy. The overtness of their maneuver would soon come to cost them.

As they were crossing the bridge, a large figure clad in a bulky set of power armor would leap from one of the bridge’s towers, descending with great speed towards the convoy, he lands directly on top of the first vehicle of the convoy, instantly crushing it under the force of the impact. Immediately, the convoy stops and a radio message is relayed to the whole convoy.

“AMBUSH! DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!”

Sinaria and Syriel were quick to respond, immediately disembarking from their vehicles alongside the other security personnel as the sounds of gunfire rang across the bridge, the traffic on the other side immediately turning into a stampede of motorists wanting to leave the area as soon as possible, either with their cars or with their feet. Luckily the chaos was only constrained to the other side, not wanting to go anywhere near the convoy which meant that Syriel and Sinaria could better consolidate their forces to respond. The enemy didn’t seem to target the panicking motorists which means the convoy is the only target, especially its two commanders. The battle is about to begin…

Kriegsheld Cadre

Syriel Janus

The Mage Knight

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

Syriel instinctively started to bark orders to the security personnel through the comms for those who were farther away, immediately taking command of the situation as she took hold of her rifle, “Get into positions and keep your eyes peeled! I want a layered defensive perimeter formed with the vehicles, go, go, GO! Forget the motorists, the enemy’s not after them!” There weren’t much hiding spots for ambushers, the only place were the towers where the armored assailant came from, that made things easier. What made things harder however is the fact that there’s only two ways out of the area and one’s blocked off by the assailant, the other is likely soon to follow as Syriel assumed that this one is not alone.

She turns to look at the direction of the general ruckus, “And I want that piece of armored junk dealt with immediately, if you have to call for close air support with AT from the nearest airbase, DO IT! We’re a fucking SWAT convoy, people! We don’t have any AT!” She then turns to Sinaria, grunting, “Miss Morphus, do what you think is best! I’ll call for backup!”

Wasting no time, she places her hand on the right side of her head, pressing a button on a communicator which served as a direct link to her fellow Kriegsheld, Dietrich, “Gundahar, we’re under attack at the Imperius Grand Bridge! We’ve been ambushed and are in need of immediate reinforcements! RESPOND!”

TerrorKitty

Code by Serobliss

Novelight · Jun 29, 2022

Vanguards of Imperius

Sinaria

Sinaria Morphus

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

Sinaria's Exousiarch, Sublunary Theory, is a versatile power that allows Sinaria to create a flat dimension from her surrounding that can do several things. Its main ability, 'Distortion', causes all objects that have entered through the opening to become shattered into thousands of pieces and removing all kinetic energy from it, granting Sinaria absolute defense.

Its other ability, 'Protostar', allows Sinaria to create sapphire butterflies that comes out of the opening, with the core of the butterflies containing condensed Phantasma Affinity that will explode the moment the butterflies are killed, or launches itself at a target with the intention of using the impact as a way of self-detonation.

Its major strength lies in its tough defense and lethal ranged strikes. However, a weakness can be obvious depending on the target it is facing.

While the dimension Sinaria creates is indestructible and can change in size depending on the size of the attack, Sinaria cannot employ 'Protostar' and 'Distortion' concurrently, as the state of the dimension must change in order to use its ability, crippling its destructive ability if Sinaria must focus on the defensive and the other way around.

Sinaria most likely didn't reveal this information to Syriel during the ride, as confidentiality was crucial for the Vanguards. Prepared to showcase her powers after the realization that this battle would most likely not be a simple one, Sinaria instinctively exited from her vehicle and activated her Exousiarch, covering several conveys from a heavy attack from the distance, saving multiple lives in the process.

"I applaud their bravery," Sinaria sneered, "but this is quite the audacious attempt. Knowing the outcasts of Imperius and their procedure, these must be foreigners." Sinaria relayed to Syriel, noting her suspicion that these terrorists were not mere coincidences. Not that it was a far-fetched suspicion. If anything, it was likely that a mole had acted faster than they would have liked.

"That metal knight is a bad matchup for me. I much prefer a ranger's game with the lady over there on the right tower. I'll leave the former to you, Miss Janus. And don't worry about reinforcements. The Vanguards operate in a synchronized manner. Any dangerous activities in the capital will immediately be relayed to their attention. If I were to take a guess, Lusia and Vex should be arriving in less than ten minutes."

Interaction:

Panther (Syriel)
Mentions:

Khocolatte (Viper),

lunar_moth (Lusia),

TerrorKitty (Vex)

Code by Serobliss

Panther · Jun 29, 2022

Kriegsheld Cadre

Syriel Janus

The Mage Knight

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

Syriel nodded after giving a glance at the new threat above them, indicating her agreement with Sinaria’s plan before taking a rather large and lengthy case from the car. She says with enthusiasm, “Sure, let’s hold out ‘till then! Wouldn’t wanna disappoint before dying now, eh?” She scoffs, giving a smirk before getting to work.

She opens the case, revealing an anti-materiel rifle complete with a set of magazines holding a variety of rounds. She takes an AP magazine that held 10 rounds and runs off with the case to a position where she can support the men fighting the armored figure while maintaining a considerable distance from it. How she wished she had a missile launcher right now and this entire charade with the armored figure would’ve ended then and there, but no such luxury now.

She grunts, going prone and laying the case to the side so she could easily grab another magazine when needed. She places her AM rifle on top of a support bag she laid down, taking aim. What makes the affair more difficult is the target, given the nature of the melee going on in front of her, the target was moving laterally all the while easily disposing of the security personnel that it comes into close combat with. Chances for a headshot were slim, a risk she could not afford which made her opt for body or limb shots instead.

Syriel’s eyes glowed a dim yellow, glowing outlines of the same color covering the body of her rifle. It is her enchantment magic in action, and she intends to use it to give more precision to her strikes and more power to her ammunition. She lies in wait for an opportunity and once one presents itself, everything appears to slow down, but in reality, she was just moving a lot quicker than those in her environment. She takes aim, a deep breath, and then a lengthy exhale followed by an enchanted AP round leaving the barrel of her AM rifle. The target – one the leg joints in the knee of the armored figure, who was currently preoccupied in a melee with a group of soldiers chipping away at the armor with their assault rifles, in an attempt to debilitate mobility.

The round strikes true, whether it actually did something or not was going to be determined in the next few seconds. The rifle wasn’t bolt-action, so a follow-up shot could immediately be fired. The hard part is the aiming, especially given a constantly moving target.

Interaction:

Novelight (Sinaria, Marauder)
Mentions:

Khocolatte (Viper)

lunar_moth (Lusia)

TerrorKitty (Vex)

Code by Serobliss

Novelight · Jun 29, 2022

Kriegsheld Cadre

Gundahar

Dietrich Lexcher

Emperon Palace, Elesrith

Tasked with the duties of a janitor, the black-haired Arclight armed himself with nothing but a standard issued Kurian S-45 pistol, and proceeded to take out each and every enemy that had attempted to escape the compound with vital information and items. Alone from the group, his secondary duty was to defend the command post if needed and come to Cerberus' rescue in case of an enemy counter attack, and so when Cerberus left her vehicle to approach the war zone, his cautiousness grew along with his curiosity.

However, shortly after he had begun to move towards the front of the port, he received a message from Hildegard regarding the operation's success, as he sighed in relief knowing that Cerberus was safe and sound, and that she was merely heading to the port station disregarding her position as the informant.

He smirked, knowing why she would approach danger without caution. It was foolish, but knowing the brains behind it he could be rest assured. He didn't know her personally but her talents were well noted within Dietrich's mind. And when he had gotten to the bloody scene, he remained unfazed due to the desensitization from his previous occupation, but was more so softly chuckling in response to the banter the group was having without him. Although ultimately, it was Cecilia and Magnus having the wrong idea.

"The theater of war entertains many different personalities. For those who are unable to experience the horrors of war will continue to fantasize it. But that doesn't mean we should ridicule their ignorance, don't you think? It's not like it was her choice. Fate did her dirty, knowing that her aspirations stood differently compared to the destiny she was given." Dietrich was quick to mend the situation with his own words, taking the side of the young naive girl who didn't know any better. "Not to say that we should play hero. Cerberus knows well about the cruelty of our work. If she didn't, I wouldn't have hired her for this operation, knowing the danger level."

Dietrich sighed, patting the shoulders of Euthalia and giving her a thumbs up. "Excellent performance. You've made this operation easier for us than needed, especially for me."

It was conspicuous. To clarify, the mood of the team as it currently stood. Hildegard remained on alert but perpetually annoyed by the world around her, albeit Dietrich knew better than anyone why she was who she is today. Euthalia on the other hand, seemed to have received no damages both mentally and physically. Not that he wouldn't have expected any less of her. They were war buddies from the past, after all.

Cecilia Ravenholm, the contractual member of the Kriegshelds representing the ISD for this operation, was tougher than he had initially thought. Previously, he had believed that there was a solid chance she would have asked for an end in the contract, especially after having to go through this bloodbath - but alas, he was wrong. A fortified soul, he had grown to respect her more than he had before.

However, there was one man who he couldn't help but to feel suspicious about. He had noticed, even before the battle, that Magnus wouldn't fit too well with the current way of things.

So he spoke to him in the side, potentially taking Magnus to the sideline to speak to him about his condition, only for their conversation to grow temperamental. Magnus remained vague about his string of thoughts but nonetheless explictly stated that he wished to sever himself from this operation, due to the realization that he would not fit with the current order of things. Though distressed and rather bothered by his early call of absence, Dietrich ultimately understood. With Hildegard present to officially relieve him of duty, the group was now short of a body, with now only Dietrich, Hildegard, Cecilia, Euthalia, and Cerberus available to take on the ports of the Sindalone Organization.

And what's worse, the mood soured when Hildegard received an emergency alarm from her devices, alerting her of a red zone being declared on the Imperius Grand Bridge.

"Tht son of-!" Hildegard exclaimed in distress, "Alpha team was ambushed barely a minute ago, 61 kilometers away from here! Sinaria's hunch wasn't wrong, there's definitely a fucking mole in our command line!"

Interaction:

Emiya Shin (Cecilia),

Khocolatte (Euthalia),

lunar_moth (Magnus)

Code by Serobliss

lunar_moth · Jun 29, 2022

Vanguards of Imperius

V. planifolia

Lusia Feodora Fair

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

From above, a helicopter enters the scene.

“You can let us out here.”

Inside awaits a woman clutching at the door’s edge with a white-knuckle grip; the only giveaway of the severity of the situation. She carries an assault rifle tucked in her free arm and a sword strapped to her back. Her expression is non-parseable from beneath the veneer of her helmet. When the woman turns her head to glance behind at her companion, the glare bouncing off her beetle-black veneer follows with. Like a facsimile of gaze.

“…”

Unseen, she opens her mouth only to close it again. Even after what feels like a lifetime in this role, she never knows what’s appropriate to be said; what use is a “good luck” to someone whose very job is to seize their chances and mold their victory themselves? Instead, she settles on this:

“I know you can keep up,” the woman tells Von Wolfenstein, because it’s true. She does not place her faith in her companions easily, but Vex, she knows, is… sturdy, to say the least. Flexible where she needs to be and rigid where it counts; practically a living weapon in the wrong eyes, but devoting herself to the fight for valour in a way that could only be entirely human. She gives Vex a final nod; a tilt down of the head, barely perceptible, but there nonetheless.

“…Fight well, and with courage.”

And then she steps out of the helicopter’s open door and into thin air.

***

Falling, falling, falling, down, down, down.

A housecat hops across rooftops and misses the landing. A baby bird tumbles out of its next and never opens its wings. A body gets thrown over the side of a bridge and does nothing but hit the bottom of the riverbed with no noise at all. The heart-stuttering sensation of that incompleted connection; your foot misses the last step in the ladder and the jolt in your heart is unmistakable.

Falling, yes, but make it like this:

A length’s away from tumbling to the ground, the woman casts her free arm out and fires a blast of aeromancy beneath her feet. The gale she generates is strong; after all, even slight as she may be, the force of it must be enough to cushion the landing of an armored grown woman. Wind whips against her face and whistles loud in her ears even through the helmet. She lands firmly with her feet underneath her and spares not a second before she takes off running.

Her target is unmissable. The armoured knight in question is big, to say the least, and every blast of enchantment from Syriel’s rifle ricochets yellow light across its angles.

The woman rushes past her and into the fray, quickly joining the handfuls of soldiers at the armoured knight’s feet and rapid-firing shots into its joints. Her spine tingles as she ignites another flare of aero magic and sends it tangling with each shot. The bullets flare glowing green and whip into the knight’s body with unnatural speed. Her gales batter against its armour like a sandstorm upon one’s face. Wind becomes the thinnest blade; a swarm of insects with razor wings.

Whatever good that does she doesn’t have time to deliberate on; the knight must be beginning to become impatient with their attempts and continues its melee attacks, heavy limbs thrashing with clear intent. The woman grabs the closest soldiers to her and throws herself backwards to avoid a blow from its steeled hand. The two soldiers she collided with tumble to the ground but otherwise escape harm— still, the side of her helmet is caught by its arc and cracks all along its veneer. Her rifle is sent skittering across the ground.

The woman straightens back upon her feet in one smooth gesture. Hands now empty, they come up to pull her damaged helmet off and toss it away at her feet. It hits the ground with a clink and rolls away, although it hardly matters underneath the sounds of combat.

The woman’s stark-white hair billows around her face, undone from its tie at some point during the fight.

Lusia Feodora Fair reaches over her shoulder and grips the handle of her sword in one hand.

When she swings it over to her front, her eyes begin to glow as if lit from within; pins-and-needles race across her nerves, down her arms, into the locus of it all— her longsword, which trembles minutely as all of its master’s magical energy is channelled into its blade. The blade itself takes on a subtle green glow and from it, windlets try to shred anything within their reach.

Lusia raises her sword up by her side with both hands. The aero swirling from its blade leaves miniscule raw-red cuts and scrapes on her cheek as she does.

This is how it goes:

A bound forward, backed by a spurt of aero magic that sends her nearly flying back into the armoured knight’s span. A yell tears itself from her throat with the exertion, and she slashes her sword at the knight’s exposed joints.

Her blood sings and she waits for the collision.

Code by Serobliss

Emiya Shin · Jun 30, 2022

Imperial Security Directorate

Cecilia Ravenholm

Disillusioned Defender

Sindalone Weapons Port 14, Elesrith

With a sigh, Cecilia merely listened to Dietrich as he defended Cerberus, saying that she should have the right to fantasize them doing their dirty, bloody work. Of course, the white haired Demonoid did not fully agree with what Dietrich's ideals. For now, she decided to agree to disagree. Once Dietrich was done, Cecilia acknowledged his decision in the topic.

"Sure. I'll keep that in mind, Dietrich."

After Dietrich was done praising Euthalia, then comes the bad news. Magnus wants out from this operation. Cecilia understands how the battered man felt, as he and Dietrich discussed the matter on the sidelines. The Demonoid of course, seized this moment to take further breaks. She proceeded to conjure a stool made of stone with her Geomancy, and slowly sat down on it. Her battered riot shield rested on her lap, as she glanced at Dietrich and Magnus talking between themselves in private. Cecilia had little to no qualms on operations such as this. Then again, it was not like she has much choices to begin with. She considered herself as a marked person, ever since Incident #33 happened, and it got covered by the media. She chose to submit herself to ISD, for a possible chance to redeem herself.

Perhaps, a chance to redeem herself to the Empyrian monarchy.

Or was it a chance to redeem herself from the ethical faults that she had allowed, back at Akashic Records?

Either way, Cecilia's train of thoughts came to an end when Dietrich returned to the group. He broke the news that Magnus will be transferred out from this operation, and Hildegard agreed to officiate the decision. But the bad news did not simply end there.

The other team was ambushed, and currently under attack at the Imperius Grand Bridge. The news also accompanied with the fact that they truly have a mole within their ranks.

Cecilia immediately stood up, with her riot shield beside her. Of course, the Demonoid also dismissed the stool that she had conjured just now. She then faced the group, specifically Dietrich and Hildegard.

"What should we do now? Should we assist the other team?"

Code by Serobliss

TerrorKitty · Jun 30, 2022

Vanguards of the Imperious

Vextress (Vex)

Alba Vex Von Wolfenstein

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

Alba simply nodded her acknowledgement of Lusia's kind remarks. Though there was more behind those the few words, that which had gone unspoken but not unheard. Her peer was someone the cyborg had nothing but immense respect for, as she did most of the other Vanguards, but Lusia had a poetic air about her which was endlessly soothing. It made Alba wonder if the Woman would ever retire and have children someday; the thought was saved into storage for recall at a more suitable time. Now was time for action, she had a job to do and there was no room for failure. The Vanguard leaned out of the helicopter as she thanked the pilot over the whirring blades via comms without needing to actually open her mouth. Moments later she let go and began her descent into freefall; 12,000 feet 45 seconds before impact with the bridge below her, that was more than enough time.

Scanning the scene and analyzing everything that was relevant to the situation she determined there was at least four different ways she could land, though most of them had too high of a risk of damage to the bridge or friendly combatants already engaging the targets. "Mage Knight this is Vextress of VP, V. Planifolia and I are initiating engagement with the armored target in T minus twenty seconds. I will advance and assist Sinaria with the second terrorist over." Alba's message relayed to the closed channel though a synthesized voice as she dropped ever closer to her chosen landing zone.

T minus 10 seconds left, 4 more than she needed.
Her eyes began to glow brightly alongside the mark on her back as the Noble activated her Exousiarch's 'Superconductor' ability while she simultaneously and quickly chanted an incantation, activating the enchantments on the atomic blades held within her body. Suddenly her speed decreased rapidly as her body's orientation spun until she was right side up, allowing her to attach the boots of her suit to one of the large metal cables of the bridge without losing too much momentum. Sliding along the cable she actually began to speed up by propelling herself with magnetic forces. Closing in on the battlefield the girl slid in a corkscrew motion until she was riding the bridge cable upside-down before detaching to spring board off the cable below her and somersault over the friendly soldiers who'd stopped firing once Lusia entered the combat zone and onto the concrete road, landing on all fours. "Please be careful, I trust you can handle the target on your own but I may as well lend a hand." Alba called out to Lusia as her own body began to shift, joints extending, spring joints decompressing, stretching her body into a more quadrupedal form. 'Feral Configuration Complete' flashed in her mind, signaling the cyborg to begin her assault.

She dashed forward incredibly fast, leaving cracks from her launching point; sprinting on all fours towards her comrade and the enemy at speed while the blades in her arms extended. The feline like movements gave her enough mobility to dash around Luisa despite the other Woman's proximity to armored assailant and effortlessly slink underneath them, slashing at their ankles as she ran between their legs, her left blade getting snagged in the tough armor and automatically ejecting itself from her body to allow Alba to continue forward without stopping. The removed weapon shook and rattled as she attempted to recover it with her magnetic ability but to no avail. Giving up on that idea she focused on the attacker that was trying to sneak attack Sinaria, passing Syriel as she bolted along the stopped conoy. Alba leaped into the air above her Senior Servitor, diving at the cute insurgent with her right arm held out infront of herself, blade first.

Interaction: Panther (Syriel) lunar_moth (Luisa) Novelight (Sinaria) Khocolatte (Viper)

Code by Serobliss

Novelight · Jul 5, 2022

Arcalion Syndicate

The Marauder

Name Unknown

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

These tenacious bunch, the Marauder would compliment silently within the void of his mind. A modicum of guilt crossed his mind for a second, as he engaged his twin broadswords into battle, activating its elemental capabilities to engulf the edges in flames.

"A half an hour won't do." The Marauder responded sharply, "Fifteen minutes. Regardless of the results, once the timer reaches the end, we are to disengage. Do not disobey the command, Viper."

That was the order. Corvus had no intentions of waging war on the ground of Elesrith, when both the Vanguards and the Kriegshelds were present. This operation, which was to simply test their chances and assassinate the key targets before the true war, had a high probable chance of a miss.

But that wasn't going to do. Just because their time was limited, didn't mean the Marauder would show mercy who stood in his way, and that included the mere grunts whose weapons were ineffective against his steel armor, as each bullet that grazed against his armor further strengthened his physical enchantments.

Without chariness he raided through the company of armed soldiers, desperately trying to stun his movements from further advancing through their defense, but they could not prevail without the assistance of the Vanguards and Syriel. Each slash left a burning scar on the severed bodies of the soldiers, making it impossible to heal their injuries through conventional means. He considered them mere fodders, existing only to give the Vanguards some time to prepare, in which they were successful in as he observed the skies send reinforcements.

A helicopter with the Bismarck symbol appeared from the distance, most likely housing more Vanguards that responded to Sinaria's emergency alert.

A plasma cannon upraised from the Marauder's left shoulder, with each cords attached on its back connecting to the body's core, as its energy condensed behind the barrel of the cannon for a powerful shot. With each second spent charging, the Marauder aimed the cannon at the helicopter and fired without hesitation, only to soon realize that the reinforcements had already left the helicopter before the shot could connect.

The aircraft flared up within seconds, killing the pilots that had delivered the two Vanguards, as the blazing air vehicle crashed into the lake beneath the wide bridge, successfully causing chaos to further make the situation difficult for the enemy.

Then came in a woman with skill in aeromantic spells, joining the fray among the many who held their weapons against his presence. The Marauder lightly bent his knee forward to momentarily enter a defensive state, preparing to fend off against the enemy's offense, by hardening the enchantment on his armor and using his dual broadswords to parry all attacks.

And almost as if he predicted her next move, the Marauder stepped his left foot forward to guard against the Vanguard's attack, and parried her longsword with the sheer might of the Marauder's strength, likely sending shockwaves into the Vanguard's sword, transfering to her body.

His raw strength was unparalleled. Possibly rivaled only by Aldous' elemental strength, but even then, it was difficult to measure. A mixture of enchantment and raw power from the user underneath its armor, the Marauder asserted himself as the absolute powerhouse of his battle, but with two weakpoints that most likely caught the attention of the Vanguard and the Arclight.

A severe lack of mobility and cautiousness. As if flaunting its absolute defense, the Marauder did not heed attention to shots that grazed against his armor, and only bothered to defend against strikes that was deemed 'problematic'.

That would mean only one thing: If Lusia's attack connects, it could potentially cripple his limited defense.

Interaction:

Panther (Syriel),

lunar_moth (Lusia)

Code by Serobliss

Panther · Jul 5, 2022

Kriegsheld Cadre

The Mage Knight

Syriel Janus

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

Syriel sees her earlier shot connect, albeit the fast pace of the whole skirmish on her end was making further opportunities difficult considering the enemy’s toughness. Her waiting for a better opportunity wouldn’t be too long until a House Bismarck transport helicopter came over them and ushered two new Vanguards into the fray before it got shot down.

She scoffs, slightly frustrated at the losses, but was relieved that reinforcements had come in a timely manner. She barks orders immediately, “Backup’s here, people! Let’s bring the fight to them! The rest of you, go help Miss Morphus and the cyborg, your guns won’t do anything to him, but they can definitely do something to that bitch on the other side! And keep your distance from her!” The soldiers on the Marauder’s end promptly retreated to reallocate themselves to the other flank to put more pressure on Viper and more support for Sinaria and Vextress. The latter of the two had just recently struck the Marauder to little avail.

Upon the soldiers’ relocation, they fired 3-round bursts or 1-round semiautomatic fire at Viper from a distance, minding Vextress who decided to play to what appeared to be the enemy’s element which was melee single combat of the ‘dirtier’ variety with the combination of a pistol. They didn’t split too far apart either so they couldn’t be picked off individually and when Viper does take a dive at any concentration of them, she has Sinaria, Vextress, and responding troops to worry about.

Syriel grunts while reloading before calling out to Lusia, “Miss, keep him busy! I’ll give you some cover fire!” She sends more enchanted armor-piercing bullets from her anti-materiel rifle to the Marauder at spots where she inferred that the armor is thinner or thinnest from the relative safety of a new location that she set herself up on now that she has ascertained that being near or on vehicles was not ideal as an explosion from any one of them inflicted by the Marauder would mean serious injury. Now that the Marauder has to get past Lusia, Syriel is free to pepper him for as long as she has ammo, her goal being to pinprick the Marauder while Lusia dishes out most of the damage, especially with her incoming strike. Although she was running low on AP magazines and the remaining munitions were ordinary ball rounds or incendiary rounds with some tracers.

Interaction:

Novelight (Sinaria, Marauder)

Khocolatte (Viper)

lunar_moth (Lusia)

TerrorKitty (Vex)

Code by Serobliss

lunar_moth · Jul 5, 2022

Vanguards of Imperius

V. planifolia

Lusia Feodora Fair

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

Shit. There goes their ride. The helicopter ignites in a blazing ball and goes down just as hard. The detached part of Lusia’s brain reminds her: an unfortunate casualty, but perhaps an unavoidable one. One does not make it this long as a servitor to the people without making their peace with needless loss. It is a cruel world but it is her job to be crueler when she must. And so she does.

Dodge. Weave. Feint. Avoid the pattering of bullets still aimed at the knight and make sure your strikes keep true. It’s a bizarre little dance, and Lusia’s hair begins to mat to her sweat-glistening forehead as she leaps away from the armoured man’s broadswords for what feels like the thousandth time.

The knight parries her again and she’s pushed backwards from the force, heels skidding against the ground. Her breath leaves her in a single gasp. Out of the corner of her vision she can see Vex begin her surreal sequence of transformation into a cyborg state; Lusia drags her attention back to the fight at hand. Distracting? Of course; such a feat always is, but she has no time to waste, especially when she must fight around the darkening spots in her sight. She rips an inhale into shaky lungs, twirling her sword in her grip.

“Mn— I won’t say no to any assistance you might provide,” she barks back through gritted teeth. A new barrage of enchanted bullets begins to torrent the knight’s joints, and Lusia dances around their paths to continue striking when she can. She’s thankful for a few seconds’ reprieve as the armoured knight’s attention is drawn to the newcoming attacks— her arms still quiver a bit from the force of absorbing his blow.

“Heard!” she calls out to Syriel in response. Unstoppable force, meet immovable object.

Lusia reels back her arm and leaps forth once more back into the fray. Now the armoured knight has his attention split even further— desperately, perhaps frantically, she hopes that that will be enough to turn their favour. Her sword swings; its imbued windlets bounce against the knight’s armour and leave sounds like a miniature hailstorm.

“Hurry up and die!” Lusia spits out at him to match the force of her next strike.

Novelight (Marauder)

Panther (Syriel)

TerrorKitty (Vex)

Code by Serobliss

TerrorKitty · Jul 7, 2022

Vanguards of the Imperious

Vextress (Vex)

Alba Vex Von Wolfenstein

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

Alba wasn't expecting to be countered so easily, the edge of her arm-blade skirting hard along the knife brought up to deflect her attack. Sparks flew and the android was forced to push away to avoid literally falling into the target. Her back nearly met Sinaria's as she skidded on the road surface. "I can handle this one." Alba said confident in own ability, but knowing it wasn't her call to make but things seemed a bit more dire with the other insurgent. If they all took out the brute then she could stall until then and there wouldn't need to be a split in manpower.

A crackling sound burst through Vextress's mind as her antenna lost contact with the helicopter she'd only just ridden to the combat zone. There was no time to wait, casualties were expected but they weren't even engaged in battle as a combatant, and that pissed her off more than anything else. Currently the smaller target was pulling out pistol but Abla was already moving in for her second attempt at ending their life. Yet it took all of her concentration to dodge the bullets coming her away as she had offloaded a lot of her internal RAM to analyzing their targets and the armored one was taking longer than normal and it was running her hot. Allocating the rest to maintaining feral configuration which would be too much for her brain to handle on it's own without more practice. Forcing the cyborg to begin the process of returning to her base configuration as she advanced in order to spare more computing power to the rest of her systems. Though as her mobility declined, so did her ability to doge the incoming fire; a single bullet grazing her left leg and causing blood to trickle down the side of her white suit. She had been counting the bullets, but it seemed that the margin of error wasn't in her favor given that last one. Still she was close enough to-

"Oh shit" Alba exclaimed as enemy's weapon extended into something like a long sword. She grit her teeth but was thankful for the boost in processing power in trade off for agility, as he eyes began to glow once again, using the power of her exousiarch to magnetize the both the blades on her legs and the sword swiping at them. Intentionally making them all a single polarity, forcing her legs out of the way and allowing her to do a cartwheel in-place before releasing the magnetic forces before the noble strained herself unnecessarily.

Only to find a gun pressed to her forehead, her bright eyes wide in shock until Alba realized she was still alive after hearing the empty chamber click uselessly. Without moving herself, she used her still active ability to force the gun backwards into the enemies' forehead, though he wasn't as hard as she'd wanted as it was mostly insulated material, but it did give her enough time to bring up her right arm and stab into the target's shoulder before stepping back. Quickly turning around as something else caught her attention "The brute is an android! There's nothing biological under the armor!" She yelled over the intercoms in her synthetic voice, having finally finished her analysis she realized the situation had changed and not entirely for the better.

Interaction:

Panther (Syriel)

lunar_moth (Luisa)

Novelight (Sinaria)

Khocolatte (Viper)

Code by Serobliss

TerrorKitty · Jul 14, 2022

Vanguards of the Imperious

Vextress (Vex)

Alba Vex Von Wolfenstein

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

Alba's biggest concern at the moment was the android attacking her comrades now that she had a better understanding of what made it so dangerous. Normally a scan wouldn't yield much more than basic details, but given the Marauder's cybernetics and the fact that she happened to be compatible enough to interface with some it's systems to get a general sense of what the machine was capable and it terrified her.

The cyborg's inattention to the Woman behind her was broken as a warning signal flashed in her mind but it was too late and Alba found her heavy body falling to the concrete ground with a hard thud. Her brain was scrambled trying to process too much information at once. Panicking Vex raised her hand just above her head with her thumb extended while simultaneously chanting quickly to activate a spell. A glowing charge of energy began glowing above her thumb tip, sparking and crackling with electric electric potential which she fired directly at her attacker's forehead. Her aim was true given their close proximity and the fact that she could see via the optic lense that the laser she was using to focus the energy. However shuddering from the heavy combat going on with the brutish robot caused Alba to miss; the bolt of charged particles whizzing past the enemie's head, singing off a lock of hair in the process.

It wasn't what she'd wanted but it would have to do as she used the distraction roll out of the way and spring back to her feet. The battle would have to end soon, Vex knew her luck wasn't going to last.

Interaction:

Panther (Syriel)

lunar_moth (Luisa)

Novelight (Sinaria)

Khocolatte (Viper)

Code by Serobliss

Panther · Jul 14, 2022

Kriegsheld Cadre

The Mage Knight

Syriel Janus

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

Syriel grunted as she expended another magazine throughout the duration of Vextress’s latest bout with Viper that led her back to the Marauder where she was the first to fully realize that the armored enemy was nothing more than a husk of enchanted steel with no man inside to operate. This made Syriel tilt her head slightly in disbelief before widening her eyes at the reality that this armored enemy they’re facing might actually be disposable. It could be rigged to blow upon being defeated or upon being sent to the brink of defeat. Or worse yet, it’s actually part of the objective. But the robot looked too high-end to be sacrificed but to their detriment, they don’t know about the enemy they’re facing and what powers that be are behind them if any. Maybe that thing really is disposable. There was only one way to find out.

She quickly reloads her last magazine while Vextress did what she could to fight the Marauder with her latest attempt involving a failed headshot, and it was obvious that she was already starting to run on fumes, and injured. She calls out to Vextress by name since there’s Lusia as well who could become confused if she called them by just titles such as ‘Miss’ or ‘Lady,’ “Lady Wolfenstein, get yourself out of there now! It won’t get any better for you if you keep fighting!” Then she calls out to Lusia, “Lady Fair, mind your distance and escape route if that suit decides to self-destruct! That thing could potentially take a section of the bridge with it if it does!”

The Marauder’s armor was already battered, even penetrated at some points, with Lusia’s prior assaults, Vextress’s back-and-forth maneuvering attacks between the Marauder and Viper, and Syriel’s pinpoint shooting at inferred weakspots except the head. And the hits on the joints were already causing evident operational damage as the actuating systems that allow the Marauder to do its range of motions couldn’t bring the full range to bear. The Marauder’s movements likely became more sluggish, to what degree remains unknown. Nonetheless, both sides were running out of time, especially the duo of assailants as they can already see police sirens and SWAT armored cars approaching from the horizon followed by helicopters converging on the bridge.

This was particularly problematic for Viper as more people will overwhelm her with far more collective firepower, dodging a few bullets will still mean getting hit by another few. Being safe from one shooter won’t make her safe from another. As if the men currently dumping bullet after bullet in attempts to hit her weren’t enough.

As for the Marauder, Syriel had to deal more serious damage, either way, that suit could potentially blow up if it doesn’t shut down peaceably after being sufficiently damaged or at the will of the one controlling it. Risks have to be taken. And once more, with a deep breath, she takes aim, pouring more of her incarce into her weapon to place a more potent enchantment that boosts not only damage, but also accuracy. A special enchantment was made that should the bullet penetrate, a pyromantic enchantment will create a subsequent explosion of a small scale. Slightly below that of a hand grenade.

Things slow down to a crawl as she waited for a clear shot on the Marauder’s head where a main or vital system is likely located. Seeing a chance, she takes the shot, pulling the trigger and sending the improvised armor-piercing, high-explosive round straight out from the barrel of her AM rifle straight towards the Marauder’s head.

Should the shot strike true or not, she hastily follows it up with a shot to the robot’s center mass in the torso with a bullet that’s enchanted with increased speed for better penetration alongside the same aforementioned pyromantic enchantment.

Interactions:

Novelight (Sinaria, Marauder)

Khocolatte (Viper)

lunar_moth (Lusia)

TerrorKitty (Vex)

Code by Serobliss

Novelight · Jul 22, 2022

Arcalion Syndicate

The Marauder

Name Unknown

Vanguards of Imperius

Sinaria

Sinaria Morphus

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

Sinaria's vague absence in the skirmish was mainly due to her status as the captain of the Vanguards, overseeing the situation at hand next to Syriel, but still contributing massively by contacting the SWAT force in the capital land to surround the other side of the bridge and bring reinforcements. Having already notified her Collbrande of the situation, reinforcement was sent with haste, even though she had hoped for more to conclude this battle without having to suffer casualties. But that was going to be difficult, with more than a dozen men laying on the ground with their lives taken by the monster that was the mechanical knight.

Something was off, however, as Sinaria noticed the pattern of their fighting style that the Marauder exercised. Its pressuring combat maneuver combined with its absolute defense was possible only because of the two broadswords it wielded. Not only was it downright impressive, but it spawned suspicion. As expected of Sinaria's seniority in the Vanguards, and as someone who served 3 different Collbrandes with the Bismarck name in the past, she could vaguely pinpoint which style of combat the robot imitated.

Regardless, he wasn't her focus, so it was difficult to tell. "Vex," Sinaria called out from the ground, "Save the analyzed data and its pattern of movement. I want to view it after this is over. If that's who I think it is, then this matter must be brought to the attention of Her Grace and Lord Faust. I doubt it, but it shouldn't be neglected nonetheless."

Behind the static design of the Marauder's intimidating face, sat a man who was reminded of his glorious past. As he closely observed the swift movement of the silver-haired beauty, his drive faltered for not even for a second, but that was enough for her to strike a critical blow to his mainframe. When it mattered the most the Marauder could not activate his defense fast enough, causing her sword to penetrate through his left shoulder, destroying the cannon that had shot down the helicopter prior.

Along with it came other internal damages that spelled issues for the machine. With slight impairment to the core, most likely caused by the reverberating incarce that had managed to reach the energy storage, causing the suit to discharge a light shock. Nonetheless, this was not a fatal issue. The suit was not only disposable, but the Marauder never started the fight with the desire to be the last one standing. As the priority of this planned strike demanded, he and Viper's goal was to analyze the enemy, and buy enough time for their men to evacuate to a secure haven.

The Imperius Grand Bridge was named 'grand' was a reason. It was the largest bridge in all of Elesrith, connecting Imperius with the other provincial lands. Not only was the bridge wide, but it was also excruciatingly long. He wasn't certain if they had caught on to their exact plan, but considering that their two enemies decided to ambush at the literal center of the bridge, it was obvious that they had a plan that involved an escape. He would expect nothing less from the Vanguards that he once fostered during his prime.

The clock ticked towards the designated minute where they were supposed to fall back. With haste he silently sent a voice message to Viper's comms, "Initiate the planned escape route. Leave the rest to me." and the moment Viper was given the orders, she disengaged from combat and dashed towards the other side of the bridge, away from the Marauder's position.

However, their perfect plan was fated to be foiled as the Marauder made the same mistake twice. Before he could increase the toughness of his armor in exchange for reduced offensive power, the Mage Knight's impeccable shot came blazing from the distance, its speed impossible to be countered as the Marauder's attention was on his comrade. During the split second of his inattention, the bullet pierced right through the upper cranium of its mechanical head, blowing off several sensory devices, crippling him of his hearing and partially his sight.

At this point the Marauder was on full alert, successfully blocking the second shot with his broadsword thanks to its automatic defense protocol that he activated at the last possible second. Still, that was too much of a fatal blow for the Marauder to remain standing and buy time for Viper. At this point, he had no choice but to go through with the final act.

The Marauder's red visor flickered, displaying the cessation of the robot's motion as its body began to shut down. After a few seconds, the Vanguards and Syriel's tension would rise at the sight of something destructive, as the center of the Marauder's body could be seen vibrantly turning red, almost like an exploding molten core, further validating Syriel's suspicion that this battle wouldn't end without the destruction of this part of the bridge.

And before the Marauder could self-destruct and sink the bridge, Sinaria quickly grabbed onto several men and bolted from her position while shouting orders, "WITHDRAW, NOW!"

What followed soon after was a single catastrophic explosion that incinerated the center section of the bridge completely, wounding several and killing those with negative fortune, while those who were capable of escaping did not leave the detonation without a tear in the flesh.

Interaction:

Panther (Syriel),

Khocolatte (Viper),

lunar_moth (Lusia),

TerrorKitty (Vextress),

Admiral19 (Retten)

Code by Serobliss

Panther · Jul 22, 2022

Kriegsheld Cadre

The Mage Knight

Syriel Janus

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

Syriel saw the first of her final two shots have a negative effect on the armored Marauder, but she no longer cared about her last shot. She assumed that the successful headshot was the coup de grace. She would be correct and incorrect at the same time. Correct because it ultimately brought the Marauder to the brink of inoperability which would result in a hull loss. And incorrect because her suspicions turned out to be true, the Marauder was the one who would have the last laugh.

Seeing the flickering visor and glowing red husk made Syriel’s eyes widen in fear, instinct making her react as fast as she did where she hastily stood up before running away with what equipment of hers she could take, exclaiming, “Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK! EVERYONE GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” She enchants her body, toughening herself against the blast to come, topping it off with a form-fitting incarce shield to protect against shrapnel.

Then, a brief lull before finally… boom.

The Marauder’s disposable suit goes out in an infernal explosion, the force of the blast placing Syriel and many others around the Marauder in immediate danger with a hailstorm of shrapnel. Those unfortunate enough were left to their fates, falling to the river below if they weren’t blown to meaty smithereens, sent flying with their insides ruptured, incinerated by the blast, or made into mincemeat by shrapnel.

Syriel’s incarce shield took the brunt of the shrapnel flying towards her, others fortunate enough to react in time would be suffering a similar situation, with or without an incarce shield. Unfortunately, there was too much shrapnel hitting the shield that caused it to give out prematurely otherwise Syriel’s incarce reserves would be in trouble. The enchantments took the brunt of the remaining pieces of shrapnel, but that wouldn’t stop the shrapnel from grazing Syriel and cutting her skin in exposed places such as her arms and legs. The clothing covering those parts would be tattered.

She found safety behind another vehicle, setting herself down onto the pavement with a sharp pang of pain. It was here that she realizes that two pieces of shrapnel directly hit her in the left upper arm and her right thigh, eliciting a groan followed by a cry of pain.

Adrenaline kept her from feeling most of the pain, but it wouldn’t be for long. She looked at her wounds, seeing that the shrapnel dug themselves in following the hit other than open wounds made by the shrapnel that grazed her. While she doesn’t have a medkit on her person, she does have her magic, using it to carry out rudimentary first aid as the situation de-escalated.

The scene would’ve been silent if not for the car alarms and sirens that rang throughout the bridge, maybe even in the cities on either side of the bridge. Not that Syriel could hear them properly anyway, her ears were ringing and every sound around her was muffled.

Grunting and groaning in pain as her heart raced, she taps the communicator on her head with heavy breathing, “S-status report!” She looks at the piece of shrapnel that dug into her left arm, gritting her teeth before taking it and pulling it out, “Ack! Shit…” She places her hand over the hole left by the shrapnel, putting pressure on it with a handkerchief as she slowly mends the wound with magic, taking deep breaths as she dealt with the stings of pain.

Interactions:

Novelight (Sinaria, Marauder)

Khocolatte (Viper)

lunar_moth (Lusia)

TerrorKitty (Vex)

Admiral19 (Retten)

Code by Serobliss

lunar_moth · Jul 23, 2022

Vanguards of Imperius

V. planifolia

Lusia Feodora Fair

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

Fair’s sword strikes true and lodges itself in the knight’s shoulder. She wrenches it free with a sickening metal squeal.

“About time,” she mutters to herself, chest heaving with adrenaline. Lusia spins her sword around her fingers and hops backwards; just in time to watch a blast from elsewhere hit the armoured knight square in the head. Bang! Robot confetti everywhere.

She, foolishly, thinks for a moment that perhaps it’s over. The knight certainly looks crippled, now near-headless and missing its shoulder gun. Unfortunately the knight prepares its final swan song and begins to swell with heat. Lusia can feel a bead of sweat trickle down her back. She hesitantly steps backward, then again, faster now, until Sinaria shouts, “WITHDRAW, NOW!” and Lusia hurls herself away from the detonation with as much force as she can muster still.

A burst of wind from her heels helps enough. She can feel herself topple over the edge of the bridge and begin hurtling down to the water’s edge; narrowly escaping the explosion’s brunt, but not before a flying bit of shrapnel catches her in the temple. It’s not a deep cut, but head wounds have a habit of making themselves known, and it’s quick work before her leftmost side of her face is dripping red. Lusia blindly drapes herself in as much of an aero-barrier as she can in the few seconds before she lands.

She hits the water’s surface like a bullet cuts through skin. It knocks the breath out of her; small matter, as she instantly refills her lungs with the last bubble of trapped air that follows her down and threatens to float away back to the surface. Mostly it’s the sticky blood that clouds her face and leaks into her eyes that gives her grief. She thrashes a hand in front of her face to dispel as much of the bloody cloud as possible. Then she begins the frantic upstroke to the surface of the water.

Lusia bursts headfirst to the surface and heaves in a gasp. Her left eye is, of course, still smeared and blurry with blood, and she tries her best to blink it away (to no avail) while locating her sword. It’s not hard- her sword’s landed a few feet away on the water’s surface, held aloft by glowing green windlets that circle its body. She tucks it back in its sheath upon her back as best she can and weaves through the water towards the land’s edge.

Let it never be said that Miss Fair was not versatile on the job.

***

Lusia finally reaches the water’s edge and manages to catch a ride back up the bridge, hanging off the tailboard of an emergency vehicle that rushes to the scene of impact. The breeze generated by the vehicle’s motion is largely enough to strip the water from her clothes; a little extra help from a stream of aero aimed out her fingertips like a hairdryer takes care of the rest. Well, mostly. Hair that long holds moisture for what feels like forever.

Her head wound’s slowed its bleeding but it still drips sluggishly down the side of her face. It looks more gruesome than it feels. She still blinks back the blood that worms into her eye and tries to blur her vision.

The emergency communicator tucked in the breast of her bodysuit buzzes to life. “S-status report!”

Lusia pulls the neckline of her suit up closer to her face to speak into the microphone. “I had to take a detour but I’m fine. No damage. I’m on my way back up to the scene now.” A beat. “You sound … strained. Do you need assistance?”

Code by Serobliss

TerrorKitty · Jul 23, 2022

Vanguards of the Imperious

Vextress (Vex)

Alba Vex Von Wolfenstein

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

Alba grunted in annoyance. The one thing she hated most was having to disengage before finishing what she'd started, but Syriel wasn't to be ignored simply out of pride. The cyborg was beginning to approach rather hardlined operational limits. That would only mean she'd probably end up crushing herself with her own mechanical systems as they'd eventually slug behind her biological ability and desynchronize. At least for now she could mitigate that problem with cryomagic.

A loud hissing could be heard as she chanted a spell, steam bellowing from her body, the non-organic plates extending outwards to allow her to vent while she simultaneously moved back from the target who suddenly began to run, which only furthered her increasing suspicions of imminent self destruction from the other enemy. Vex herself was too far to think of rushing towards the supposed bomb threat to rescue anyone, and Sinaria's ability would protect the more experienced Servitor from shrapnel. That simply left Alba to fend for herself if the worst came to-

Vextress barely had time to start running, turning around mid sprint as she detected multiple objects heading her way. Activating her exousiarch again in order to repel incoming shrapnel as she tried her best to ride the blast wave backwards to minimize its concussive force, but still she ended up tumbling quite a bit. Roughly scraping herself, metal and flesh across the rumbling pavement. Warnings were blaring off in her mind; eyes shooting open as held out her hand, using her power to slow down a large metal wire from slicing her in two. However, as it's momentum waned to a crawl infront of her, the heat generated from the magnetic forces applied was suffocating. Vex felt like she was going to melt from the inside out, despite still just barely being within her full limits.

Quickly getting up only to find concrete still raining down from above and in her direction. She used her one remaining arm blade to cut down the larger pieces that came down upon her until things finally settled down not only moments later. Though she bridge was still shaking and shuddering under her feet.

Looking back there was no sign of the surviving target and while Alba would love nothing more to switch to her feral configuration and hunt them down she was barely able to move from where she stood. Steaming as she attempted to cool herself down. "This is Vextress, reporting in. The second target was last seen heading north, unable to pursue..." She said in order to give an update to her own situation. "... Could someone please come get me... I can't move..." She added dropping her usual straightforward expression as she held back tears. Her body was pushed to it's limits, and she was more vulnerable now than ever. Rather, for the first time in a while, Alba was scared.
Interaction:

Panther (Syriel)

lunar_moth (Luisa)

Novelight (Sinaria)

Khocolatte (Viper)

Code by Serobliss

Novelight · Jul 27, 2022

Arcalion Syndicate

???

Unknown

Vanguards of Imperius

Sinaria

Sinaria Morphus

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

"Evacuation of the storage sanctuary will go smoothly thanks to your efforts. We have no losses on our side. Hastily leave Elesrith at the nearest hour possible. Our business in the Golden Province is done for now."

The encrypted voice came from the pilot, the comms connected to the helmet. However, Viper already knew that the pilot themselves weren't the one who spoke those words. He was merely a voiceless pilot and a carrier of their boss' message to the wounded Viper, giving her the next orders.

Without a second to waste, the submarine submerged below visible waters and activated stealth, remaining undetectable by the Imperius police that was depatched moments ago to search for Viper, who was last seen jumping into the lake, the scene captured by a helicopter. However, as desperate as they were to have someone for interrogation, the feminine figure was nowhere to be found for the next several days.

Interaction (End):

Khocolatte (Viper)

IMPERIUS GRAND BRIDGE, IMPERIUS, ELESRITH

The explosion had caused Sinaria's ears to ring, leaving her momentarily shell-shocked. Even a veteran of her level was affected by the near unpredictable conclusion of this fight. Although it was expected of terrorists to equip themselves with a weapon that gave them the last laugh, to have blown up a bridge that was made under the orders of Solomon von Bismarck himself during the Foundation Era was an unforgivable act.

Not to mention, their lady Collbrande was not going to take this lightly. And from the looks of it, this destruction and event weren't going to remain just provincial news.

With the combination of luck and skill, Sinaria's body remained relatively unharmed, as she had activated her Exousiarch before the self-detonation of the black knight. However, as how limits go for a phase 3 Exousiarch, she was unable to save everyone. Along with several open cuts that had managed to slice through her thigh, waist, and arm, alongside her laid dozens of dead men blown to bits. As unfortunate as they were, Sinaria could only grit her teeth and tighten her fists, while she directed her attention to those who were still alive.

Thankfully, none of the Vanguards and Miss Syriel suffered from life-threatening damages. Still, she was going to have to take responsibility for the failure that had occurred here at the Grand Imperius Bridge. As much as she hated to admit it, this certainly wasn't going to be the end of it. And if her next predictions were to come true, then that means that the enemy had already made their move.

Who the perpetrators are was going to be the largest mystery. Ideally, it would be safe to assume that those two capable criminals were under the Golden Path's payroll or were illegal mercenaries sent by the Sindalone to reroute their movement. Regardless, of how their predictions were beginning to come true, especially considering Hildegard's team's success in their first hit, this was a clear sign that the Kriegshelds were right.

The Arcalion Syndicate had already prepared themselves for this war, much before the Collbrandes even knew of their name.

Sinaria's trademark grin was nowhere to be seen as she bit the edge of her fingernails, beginning to slightly doubt herself while she thought of what their next move should be. What worried her most was how this event was going to cause a ripple effect on the Northern Coalition Anniversary, as the date of the ceremony was no less than a week. If news spreads that terrorists were holding the province for ransom, it was only going to force the Collbrande of Volcrest to remain in her frozen throne, effectively canceling the anniversary altogether.

These worries would soon fade within her mind, however, as she gestured for the medics to hurry on over and treat the wounded. This was not the time to analyze the enemy's move. As the captain, her priorities stood in the safety of her subordinates.

"Lusia! Vextress!" Sinaria shouted, being unable to use her dysfunctional comms for communication. The first to have graced the vision of Sinaria was Vextress, as she hurriedly dashed to her position, bringing certified medics along with her to fill in the gap of her limited medical knowledge.

"You'll be fine. Don't lose yourself and stay awake!" Sinaria ordered the mechanical soldier, before leaving her after a quick pat on the shoulder. Fortunately, damages could've been much worse. Now to locate the missing Lusia...

A minute afterward she stood at the edge of the bridge, sighing in relief as she saw Luria being safely boarded on the rescue boat. Smart girl, she sighed again, relieved that the white-haired vanguard was able to escape the explosion's wrath.

Interaction:

Panther (Syriel),

lunar_moth (Lusia),

TerrorKitty (Vextress),

Admiral19 (Retten)

Code by Serobliss

Panther · Jul 28, 2022

Kriegsheld Cadre

The Mage Knight

Syriel Janus

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

The bleeding from her left upper arm wound stops as a result of her first aid treatment, now the next order of business was the piece of shrapnel lodged into her right thigh.

Syriel took deep breaths as the others answered her call for a status report. Lusia was the only one who returned with a question out of all of them. They were all injured, that much was certain. To what extent, each of them should most likely know.

“You sound … strained. Do you need assistance?” Asks Lusia.

Syriel answers, “I’m fine. Just a number of cuts here and there followed by two pieces of shrapnel that dug into my left arm and right thigh. Already took care of the one on my arm, I’m about to take care of the one on the thigh. I’ll see myself to an ambulance once I can walk with more… peace of mind. Go help out the others. Lady Wolfenstein’s in a relatively worse shape but I think Lady Morphus has it covered.”

She sighs, ordering the other soldiers through her communicator, “I want a head count of those still living. We have a fucking formal report to make and submit. Relay the orders to everyone who’s still fine. Commander, out.”

She turns to look at the shrapnel lodged into her thigh and at the handkerchief on one hand, tying the latter around her thigh near the wound to act as a tourniquet, “Well, here goes nothing.” She takes the metallic debris, experiencing a sharp pang of pain that made her groan and gnash her teeth. Then in one swift motion, she pulls the shrapnel out, making her grunt as she tore a portion of clothing for use as a bandage. She then applies pressure to the wound after covering it up, using the same magic from earlier as first aid.

The Kriegsheld looks around her to see injured men laying on the road or sitting with their backs against cars or barriers, waiting for help to arrive or watching said help do their work with them. More gruesome sights include the entrails and viscera of dismembered bodies damaged by the explosion and its products. Truly a nightmare, it was. A very uncomforting food for thought as the situation has changed entirely for the worse.

Interactions:

Novelight (Sinaria)

lunar_moth (Lusia)

TerrorKitty (Vex)

Admiral19 (Retten)

Code by Serobliss

lunar_moth · Aug 2, 2022

Vanguards of Imperius

V. planifolia

Lusia Feodora Fair

Imperius Grand Bridge, Imperius, Elesrith

“Copy that,” Lusia barks back to Syriel Janus. “Let us know if your situation changes.” She winces a little bit at the pain that lances Syriel’s voice, but she trusts her self-assessment, and if Syriel is going to decline further assistance, then so be it. The least Lusia can do is trust her and leave the door for help open.

Sinaria Morphus’ voice crackles to life in her comm. Lusia effortlessly switches channels; tells her, “I’m all clear. A few marks here and there, but nothing I can’t handle for now. I’ll be back up to help the other survivors soon. Do you and Vextress need me to do anything as well, or will you two manage together?” She clicks her microphone to silence and, waiting for a response, locates one of the emergency first-aid kits on the boat’s trunk. She’s not a medic in any capacity, but if someone’s in trouble, she can certainly help in any way she can— after all, Lusia’s no stranger to patching up unpretty accidents for herself.

The boat stops at the water’s edge and Lusia hops out the side. More emergency vehicles— ambulance-types and law enforcement on motorbikes, she catches glimpses of —are already on their way to the top of the bridge. At least, what remains of the bridge. Lusia briefly considers snagging a ride up too but ends up deciding on a simpler course of action:

Jets of aero from her heels, launching her footsteps further across the ground and higher into the air, allowing her to bound across the distance in a method that would almost look majestically silly, if not for the severity of the situation. Hey, she’s a common-blood only; without an Exsousiarch, relying on much more frequent use of elemental magic is a necessity in her line of work.

Lusia reaches the bridge’s apex and immediately spots a wounded footsoldier. She darts to his side and begins patting down his body where he’s splayed on the ground, checking for wounds. She curses when her palms come away darkly sticky.

Lusia clicks her communicator on again and mutters into it as she begins to work on wrapping the man’s torso with bandage strips. Emergency medics begin to rush about around her, and one kneels on the other side of the man and helps her dress him. “A few wounded infantrymen on the lower-south side of the bridge, no more than ten from what I can see. There’s probably more closer to the detonation site. I’ll keep looking.”