Inside the Great Maker - Exalted IC

Ray's shield emits a brilliant white-hot flash as it dissipates heat, still glowing brightly as she stabilizes herself with her wings and lands knees-first. The snow around her sublimates into a billowing cloud of steam from the heat she radiates as her momentum carries her forward into a slide, arms raised above her in triumph. Her triumph is short lived, as moments later she realizes these idiots still haven't given up. She just hit them with the will of the Great Maker, Flower effortlessly disarmed them, she saved all of their lives, and they still want to make her life difficult? Top marks for determination, but this was rapidly becoming obnoxious. If they really loved Kamak they should love her, see they were defying her will, and cease immediately. Foreign saboteurs, perhaps? Whatever, Needle would sort them all out later.
 
When posting your actions, please remember to include what the Speed of your action is or I will default it to a 6 for Charm usage.

Both of the Exalts from Estasia are standing guard over the retreating members of their Tripartite Assembly, and at the moment are holding their attacks. From what you know of Blazing Sword especially, he is not one to hold off on attacking a foe when given the opportunity to do so.

Arynne Arynne is up with Flowering

Order of Initiative
0 - [Blazing Sword - Delay]
1 -
2 - [Glorious Will - Delay]
3 -
4 - Flowering <====
5 - Ray, Needle, Guards 1-4
6 - Grenaders 1-4
 
Arynne said:
Her action is to get between them and their targets then.
Click to expand...
With a burst of speed, Flowering positions herself between the four people with their grenades and the fleeing members of the Estasian Tripartite Assembly.

Random Word Random Word and Psychie Psychie are up with Ray and Needle before the mortal guards get to attack.

Order of Initiative
0 - [Blazing Sword - Delay]
1 -
2 - [Glorious Will - Delay]
3 -
4 - [Flowering]
5 - Ray, Needle, Guards 1-4 <====
6 - Grenaders 1-4
7 - Flowering
 
The Great Maker himself, with all his prodigious computing power, couldn't find method in the madness of these idiots. They were still trying? Wasn't it obvious they had failed? Their entire plan revolved around the element of surprise. They were up against a full Assembly's worth of Champions, half of them had already been disarmed, and yet they continued like automata marching heedlessly into a trash disposal. Her incredulity does nothing to slow her hardwired reflexes. Already she has flared her wings to reverse directions, lifting her knees from the ground and twisting as she brushes her elaborate golden earring and whispers, "Go time."

The detailing on the earring becomes bright orange traceries of coruscating energy as The Destroyer Spirit Ultima Ratio Regum Dei wakes from its slumber, unfolding impossibly into an immense orichalcum essence cannon, cables extending to connect to Ray's arm and link her essence batteries with its reactor, armatures spinning around a spherical core at the base of the weapon as it ignites with a fiery orange light and a whine of rapidly accumulating power. Hardwired targeting algorithms compute the perfect firing solution and overlay it over her vision, and with a thought she unleashes a measured fraction of the pent up power. Instead of a searing bolt of plasma, the brilliant arc of lightning essence shorts across the chamber, causing a thunderclap shockwave to expand outward from the barrel with force sufficient to send one of the saboteurs flying backwards to slam into another, sending them both tumbling two dozen yards back to slam into a barricade and collapse in a crumpled heap.

"Stay down."

Dexterity 5 + Archery 5 + Specialty 1 + Accuracy 1 + Stunt 1 = 13 dice; 8 hits
Weapon is set to non-lethal mode, dealing 24B damage that does not roll over into Lethal. For every point of damage it knocks the target back one yard.
 
Ray's Essence cannon roars, hitting one of the grenade throwers square in the chest, knocking him back into the fellow next to him, sending them both flying backwards to land in a heap. They are both still alive, but you suspect that they may have a few broken bones from the dual collision into one another and into the safety barricade.

Psychie Psychie is up with Needle

Order of Initiative
0 - [Blazing Sword - Delay]
1 -
2 - [Glorious Will - Delay]
3 -
4 - [Flowering]
5 - [Ray], Needle, Guards 1-4 <====
6 - Grenaders 3-4
7 - Flowering
8 -
9 -
10 - Ray
 
Seeing the numbers of terrorists dwindling rapidly, Needle will continue to focus her attention on protecting Mara, Garret and March. She grabs up her Beamklave but does not yet activate the blade, but holds it ready as she keeps on pushing the three Ministers to safety.
Going to use my action to Defend Other, Spd 5.

Health Levels
-0 [ ]
-1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
I [ ]

Essence: 3
Personal: 15
Peripheral: 41 / 20
Committed: 21
Willpower: 6
Clarity: 0

Virtues
Compassion: 1
Conviction: 4
Temperance: 2
Valor: 2

Join Battle: 6

Dodge DV: 8 (9)
Parry DV: 6
Dodge MDV: 5 (6)
Parry MDV: ?

Soak
Natural: 4L/6B, +1L/2B Hardness
Armor: +7L/10B, +5L/5B Hardness
Total: 11L/16B, 6L/7B Hardness

Reaper Beamklave
Speed 4, Accuracy +5, Damage +7, Defense +1, Rate 3, Attune 3

Synthetic Leather Reinforced Buff Jacket
+7L/+10B, +5L/+5B Hardness, Attune 3
 
With Needle's urging, the three Ministers and their escorts manage to get inside the vestibule where you were waiting before the airship landed, getting the three out of harms way. Alarm bells are ringing in the area, and the sounds of many booted feet of other regulators can be heard running into the area, trying to apprehend the fleeing members of the Kamaki crowd for questioning, just in case there are more terrorists that are trying to blend into the civilians on the run.

The security guards right there pair off and they dive forward and tackle the last two grenaders that are still standing. There is a nasty struggle going on as the regulators work to subdue the terrorists and keep them from detonating any more of the Essence grenades to prevent them from being interrogated. More guards are running up to their aid, and at least at this point, it would seem that there is no longer an immediate threat.

Moving out of combat time.

The two Estasian Exalts both look wary, and Blazing Sword manages to get the last of the Estasian party up into the airship, leaving Glorious Will out on the landing pad. At this point, it looks like the Aerial Skiff is about to power up its engines and take off with the delegates to get them away to safety, leaving only Glorious Will behind.

It is clear that if it were not for the keen eyes and rapid actions of the three Champions of Kamak there, the numbers of casualties in the Estasian party would be terrible, and it would most certainly guarantee full on war between Kamak and Estasia.
 
Needle first turns to the three Ministers and asks, "Are any of you injured? No harm done to any of you?" So long as the answer is negative, she then turns to look at one of the nearby regulators. "I want live prisoners to interrogate. Dead bodies will not be able to answer all of the questions I have. Gather up all the people that you can apprehend that were at the landing pad; some of the terrorists may still be hiding in their numbers, and will need to be put to the question. The rest of you get the Ministers to a secure location. Whatever it was that these rabble were trying to do might still involve an attempt on their lives."

She takes a deep breath, then asks, "What is the status of the delegation from Yugash? Has there been any trouble involving them?"
 
Seeing that the guards have the grenade-tossers well in hand, Unexpected Flowering of Heroic Fortitude lowers her staff. She looks up at Glorious Will.

"Champion, may I approach? We should talk."
 
Ray nods at Needle, collapsing Ultima Ratio back into an earring before soaring off to corral the dispersing crowd, herding them back onto the plaza to testify.
 
Psychie said:
Needle first turns to the three Ministers and asks, "Are any of you injured? No harm done to any of you?" So long as the answer is negative, she then turns to look at one of the nearby regulators.
Click to expand...
Minister March lets out a little chuckle. "I'm a bit shaken and bruised, but that is much better than the alternative! Thank you for your rapid action, Champion."

Mara looks flustered, and says, "What was all that?!? Garret, was there some secret plot to assassinate the Estasian delegation that I was not privy to?"

Garret snarls out, "NO! This was in no way preplanned by anyone in the halls of power. I have no idea where these . . . terrorists! Got ahold of such deadly weaponry. Trust me when I say that there will be a through investigation about all this!"

The guards there begin to split off, one running off to share word that Needle wants prisoners to interrogate, and the others hustling the three Ministers off to a secure location, leaving Needle there alone.


Out on the landing grid, Glorious Will gives Flowering a suspicious look as the Aerial Skiff with the Estasian delegates onboard takes off with its two escort airships, heading out for open space as it raises up a powerful Essence force field to protect the vessel. Once she sees that her people are out of harms way, Glorious Will lowers her crossbow and slowly steps forward closer to Flowering. She glares at Flowering and the mass of guards rounding up the crowd, watching carefully as the guards carefully secure the known grenade throwers and roughly hauling them off while others escort the other audience members off to be carefully searched and questioned.

Finally, she says, "Tell me one good reason why I should listen to anything you have to say. How do I know that this whole meeting wasn't some sort of ruse to get members of my government here to be attacked and possibly taken hostage or killed outright?"


While that is going on, Ray is busy aiding the various regulators in rounding up the few members of the audience that didn't break and run earlier as more guards come out to help secure the scene. One sergeant goes over to Ray to report, "Champion, we have detained a total of eighteen members of the populat that ran inside, and there is another ten out here. They are all being searched and taken to holding cells under heavy guard. We have also gotten word that the Yugashi delegation has arrived safely, and that there has not been any attempt on their lives, but their delegation has been taken into secure housing under guard by other Champions of the city." He glances over at the spot where one of the dropped grenades lies, and he continues.

"We have investigators on the way to go over every inch of the landing field, locate all the contraband, and begin the process of determining just how the insurgents were able to get ahold of such firepower. Do you have any other orders, Champion?"
 
It takes a supreme effort of will, but Ray doesn't sigh. What a colossal failure, and for such stupid reasons. If this was a militant faction within Kamak, they were an utter embarrassment. She could have given them a dozen better plans to give Estasia a bloody nose, had they bothered to ask. "Find me a secure room. I want one of the saboteurs in it - one that froze - alone, for two minutes before they're sent to the holding cells," she commands, not bothering to conceal her anger. It was highly irregular, and she would certainly be censured if caught, but she had to know.

If her orders are followed, Ray sweeps into the little holding cell below the security post at the landing grid and slams her fist down on the table spartan metal table, glowering down at the saboteur thoroughly restrained to a chair on the other side, the incandescent light of her wings filling every available corner of the tiny room and still somehow outshone by the furious orange-gold glow of her eyes, "Idiot! Does Estasia look hurt to you? Is this what vengeance looks like? What were you thinking? Oh, that's right, clearly you fucking weren't. Tell me who and why, and I'll push to have all of you reassigned to a lumpen penal unit on the front lines when they inevitably declare war, somewhere you can do real damage, instead of a penal work detail in the organics recycler. Assuming you haven't been recycled by then. You have thirty seconds to decide, then I hand you off to Needle, who I promise does not give a fuck how many of your shiftmates Estasia has killed."
 
Random Word said:
It takes a supreme effort of will, but Ray doesn't sigh. What a colossal failure, and for such stupid reasons. If this was a militant faction within Kamak, they were an utter embarrassment. She could have given them a dozen better plans to give Estasia a bloody nose, had they bothered to ask. "Find me a secure room. I want one of the saboteurs in it - one that froze - alone, for two minutes before they're sent to the holding cells," she commands, not bothering to conceal her anger. It was highly irregular, and she would certainly be censured if caught, but she had to know.
Click to expand...
The one guard nods. "At once, Champion." He then turns begins to give orders to have the man in question pulled aside and quickly hauled off to be questioned by Ray.
Random Word said:
If her orders are followed, Ray sweeps into the little holding cell below the security post at the landing grid and slams her fist down on the table spartan metal table, glowering down at the saboteur thoroughly restrained to a chair on the other side, the incandescent light of her wings filling every available corner of the tiny room and still somehow outshone by the furious orange-gold glow of her eyes, "Idiot! Does Estasia look hurt to you? Is this what vengeance looks like? What were you thinking? Oh, that's right, clearly you fucking weren't. Tell me who and why, and I'll push to have all of you reassigned to a lumpen penal unit on the front lines when they inevitably declare war, somewhere you can do real damage, instead of a penal work detail in the organics recycler. Assuming you haven't been recycled by then. You have thirty seconds to decide, then I hand you off to Needle, who I promise does not give a fuck how many of your shiftmates Estasia has killed."
Click to expand...
The man is hauled into the room by a trio of guards, his hands and feet in heavy duty restraints. After placing their charge in a seat, the trio of guards give Ray a nod and position themselves outside the door, waiting for her orders.

The man has not been treated nicely by the guards; Ray can see the distinct signs that he was 'apprehended' with a bit of gusto and has several fresh bruises and a few cuts on his face where he was taken down by the guards. He glares up at Ray, jumping in surprise as you slam your fist down on the table next to him. He is silent for a long moment, then says, "You have no idea just how badly you've screwed this operation up. I am an agent in Section Nine, and we were under orders to take out the Estasians. We had received word that they were planning on making a move against both our people and the Yugashi delegation, and were given instructions on eliminating them and the Exalts in their party before they had the chance to do so. Now you've gone and ruined everything."

Go ahead and give me an Int + Investigation roll.
 
After giving her orders, Needle heads out of the vestibule and takes a long look around the landing platform before heading over to where the onlookers were at. She says nothing for a moment, continuing to examine what evidence is here before kneeling down to get a closer look at the one grenade on the ground without touching it. "Hmm. An Essence Pulse Grenade. Serious hardware. If memory serves, these are kept under lock and key, keeping them out of the hands of the general populat. How is it that these insurgents have so many of them?" Needle stands, and motions for one of the investigators to come over. "Carefully gather all of these up that you can find, and get me the inventory records of the storage bin that these grenades are supposed to be in, and then have someone make a in person, eyes-on check to verify if these are really ours or if they belong to some other source."
 
Ray's eyebrow arches almost imperceptibly. She has to admit she's impressed. Most populat are a gibbering puddle, tripping over themselves to please her when she has her Charms deployed in full force, but this one is holding himself together surprisingly well for one who froze up at her command. She's almost inclined to believe him. Dozens of hazy lifetimes all agree the left hand not knowing what the right is doing would be classic brass. Except people like Needle plan these sorts of things, and Needle isn't stupid enough to think a handful of citizens with a plan that roughly runs, 'Push to the front of the crowd at a high security event and try to lob hand grenades at the targets,' is sufficient to do anything beyond annoy more than a full Assembly's worth of defending Champions.

She looks at the saboteur with a sadness and pity borne of distant recollection before replying quietly, "No, I think not. If those were your orders, you were set up. You were never intended to succeed."

Int 2 + Investigation 0 + Stunt 1 = 3; Wow, 3 hits! Ray is rocking this thing she's terrible at.
 
While Ray is no intelligence expert, you are quite certain that you have never heard of a 'Section Nine' at all, but from the intensity of the man talking to you, he is quite emphatic about it being real. If there is a Section Nine, it would have to be a closely held secret to be a complete mystery to you.
 
She's never heard of a 'Section 9'. Could be a lie, but once run up the flagpole it would be easy to disprove, and it's not like it would convince her to release them, so it doesn't seem likely. Could be real, in which case this entire operation is way above her pay grade, and presumably someone important wanted this embarrassing mess. The powers that be are ineffable. Could be crazy, but contagious crazy usually means someone's gone to town on these clowns with the happy fun spike, which is seriously bad news. The list of Champions with happy fun spikes isn't long, and proving none of them were involved definitely sounds like a Needle problem. She's getting a headache just thinking about it. She doesn't have time for this. She needs this guy on his way to the holding cells before she gets caught alone with a terrorist by someone who matters.

"Whatever. I've never heard of your unit. Unless you've got contact info for a superior officer willing to come and bail you out," and take responsibility for this fiasco, "we're done here."

[Unless he's got anything more to offer Ray shuffles him off to Needle's tender mercies and rejoins the others.]
 
During all of this, Needle is busy monitoring the efforts to round up and detain everyone that they can get a hold of that was a part of the crowd concealing the insurgents. She ponders her next move. It is most likely that most of the populat members there had nothing to do with the attack, and that the ones throwing the grenades were simply using them for cover to get close to the Estasians. Even so, they will all have to be identified and questioned, held in the detention center until we can separate out the innocent from the guilty. Lucky for me, I have the proper Charms to be able to get into the minds of those being questioned and make sure of their culpability.

Some of the prisoners gathered up are clearly involved in this attack, and they are the ones that Needle will focus her attention on first.
 
Arynne Arynne
Sherwood said:
Out on the landing grid, Glorious Will gives Flowering a suspicious look as the Aerial Skiff with the Estasian delegates onboard takes off with its two escort airships, heading out for open space as it raises up a powerful Essence force field to protect the vessel. Once she sees that her people are out of harms way, Glorious Will lowers her crossbow and slowly steps forward closer to Flowering. She glares at Flowering and the mass of guards rounding up the crowd, watching carefully as the guards carefully secure the known grenade throwers and roughly hauling them off while others escort the other audience members off to be carefully searched and questioned.

Finally, she says, "Tell me one good reason why I should listen to anything you have to say. How do I know that this whole meeting wasn't some sort of ruse to get members of my government here to be attacked and possibly taken hostage or killed outright?"
Click to expand...
 
"I can think of three, Champion.

"First, you have my personal apology for our lapse in security, and the risk you were exposed to. There will most certainly be an investigation, and persons will be held accountable. In the meantime, I can only say, on behalf of my nation and my fellow Exalted, that I am truly sorry.

"Second, you saw with your own eyes Incandescent Ray of Judgement and myself move to stop the would-be assassins. In particular, Ray put herself at no small risk to shield you and your people from harm. Before you judge us by the actions of those misguided people, weigh her actions on the scale as well.

"Third... if you want to find out what really happened, and submit a full and accurate report to your government, your interests would best be served by remaining here with open ears, open eyes and an open mind. I was not attempting to placate you when I spoke of an investigation - knowing my Assembly, that investigation has already begun. I don't know what level of security will be invoked in the proceedings, but given that our leaders arranged this meeting in good faith, you would have a very strong argument for being allowed to participate, or at least be briefed on the results."
 
Glorious Will glares at Flowering, almost seeming to be mad at the good points that you are bringing up. She is silent for a moment, then says, "This could all be a part of some plausible deniability scheme, but in the interests of trying to establish a peaceful dialogue, I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Clearly, if it were not for your Incandescent Ray of Judgement, many lives would have been lost, and undoubtedly our nations would now be in a state of full on war. I am going to require that I be a part of any and all investigations into this or it will spark greater tensions between Estasia and Kamak."


Over the course of the next several hours, the attendees that have been rounded up are under intense questioning, and it is generally accepted that most of the populat that were there on the landing pad are innocent bystanders that were swept up in this and had absolutely nothing to do with the attempted attack. That being said, there is a total of eight people that have started to crumble under their interrogation and have admitted to being a part of the plot. According to these people, they are all a part of the secret special ops group known as Section Nine, and were tasked from the highest levels to be on site to attack and kill as many of the Estasian delegates as possible.

While this has the potential to be true, thanks to her intelligence sources, even Needle has zero information on a group known as Section Nine. It is curious that the cover story for all eight of these people is nearly word-for-word exactly the same as one another, even though they have all been detained separately and are not being allowed to compare notes. They are all quite insistent in their stories, and no amount of physical duress is getting them to change their proffered statements.

Given that Needle herself has the neural probe capable of mental manipulation, the first thing that comes to you is that there is someone with access to these people that has manipulated their memories. You know that this level of memory alteration is still beyond your capabilities, indicating that this had to have been done by an Exalt of considerable Essence. In order to isolate the compromised memories, it will take a considerable amount of time for the Meticulous Surgeons working in concert with the Adjudicators to be able to use the best available technology to be able to target the implanted thoughts and make an attempt to recover the original memory engrams that were altered.
 
"...so, that's a thread we can't follow, for now?" says Unexpected Flowering of Heroic Fortitude, tapping one green-tipped finger against her chin. "What about the grenade fragments? Were there any pieces large enough to analyze?"
 
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