Futuristic [Archived] VOIB_ARC1_PART1

[lunar_moth]

Delpher

"Zenko" / Male / 23

Iscariots of Solarian

Syndicate-controlled Port, Seraphiel, Aucteraden

Zenko slips out of his little gaggle’s recentmost invaded warehouse, and casts an affirmative gesture at the team responsible for securing the Syndicate’s toys inside. They rush in and begin checking for and dismantling traps nestled amongst the goods. He’s about to move onto the next storehouse across the way, morale brightened now that they’ve actually begun to find what they’re looking for, but one of the Syndicate’s troops apparently decides the heroic thing to do in this moment is become a human bomb and take down an APC with him.

The bang! makes Zenko’s ears ring, even from his small distance away. “Shit,” he musters, as he watches figures engulfed by the explosion, but he can’t dwell on it for long — the suicidal brat’s pathetic excuse of a swan song must have riled up some of the stragglers still around, because suddenly there’s another Syndicate troop lunging at him with a barrel pointed down his face. Zenko swoops out of the way at the last moment; the bullet grazes one of his ears, and his hand automatically snakes up to clutch at it as he scrambles to spin and knock the gun out of the guy’s hands. The blade glimmers in the pier’s dusty lighting as it materializes in his clawed grip. He’s being sloppy, he knows, the droning buzz in his head stealing more of his attention than fit for someone of his caliber. He blames the rats for that (Zenko not-too-kindly “nudges” the body’s cheek with his boot); all this talk of the Syndicate’s dirty business in recent days must have set him off-kilter. Nothing good comes out of Zhenra, after all.

Remiel’s already barked off an order for another APC, which he only half-noticed due to being, well, occupied. He can hear the growling of the vehicle approaching, though, and takes his cue to get back to what he was doing before being so rudely interrupted.

He winds up, coincidentally, within eyeshot of Zengren, evidently on the tail end of some sort of rampage. She’s got the situation more than covered - he can practically smell the spray of viscera from here. Hell yeah, the Iscariots kick ass.

A voice through his earpiece. “10 minutes, people! Let’s try to keep this up while the momentum is still ours! We’ll press them harder once reinforcements arrive!”

Ten minutes? Piece of cake! Zenko lifts his bow and flies three arrows from his grip, a straight shot into the throats of some of the Syndicate troops clustering the warehouse he approaches. He takes care of the rest with a slew of bullets before they can make to stop him. The torn skin of his ear throbs in time with the hammer of his heart.

“Can do, boss!”


GM // Novelight , Khocolatte , Panther
KKO // voracity , pomme , Rielaix , Worthlessplebian , _Line 213
ISD // Ghostiiys
IOS // Huntertabbysandshark3 , simj26
VOI // NUSKI

 

[simj26]

Pixie

The Chariot / Female / 26

Iscariots of Solarian

Syndicate-controlled Port, Seraphiel, Aucteraden

The roar of guns. The smell of gunpowder. The fires of war burn ever brightly. Like as the world was to ignore the truth, and accept the mendacity of what was told to them, war was ever part of humanity. Hyzurian, Demonoid, whatever they may be, conflict will ever be part of their souls, a string within their DNAs. Perhaps she was the strange one, the only one to accept this as part of her- she found no joy in it, but she found no sorrow in or hatred of it. She simply knew she belonged here.

The shouts and the yells, the warcries resonated around her, from both her allies, and her foes, and yet, all she could hear was a resounding silence. Her footfalls silent, her form as dust and ashes and licking flames, she stalked past the combatants, taking care to avoid the line of fire from both sides. Those behind her would take care of those firing upon them, or at least, offer themselves as distractions. Slowly, one by one, the unfortunate Syndicate members that she encountered in her slow march towards their epicenter fell, clutching at bleeding gashes on their necks, their last sight as they attempted to cling on to the last fleeting remnants of their life, a shimmering figure, and four white wings, surrounded by an impenetrable darkness- the faerie that suffered none to live as she progressed. If they had the gods on their side, perhaps they would survive to tell the tale of the wraith that crossed their paths. Perhaps the tales would strike fear to their glazed-over hearts and eyes, break them out of whatever brainwashing they have suffered. Perhaps. Perhaps.

Her communications came to life, once, twice, but she did not bother to respond. So long as she brought the Syndicate to heel, most of them in their own blood, she had no reason to participate in their actual mission even the slightest bit. They were dogs of war, and they, especially her, were hired to make sure the jobs of their clients were that much easier. Zenko's enthusiasm was ever so slightly endearing, however. She couldn't fault him. She didn't care. He did what he wanted to do. She would not stop him.

Her blade was inches deep within her next prey's chest, when orders were barked through the communicator once again. She extracted her knife, and quietly looked towards the main building. How strange. Unflinching, she raised her handgun and plugged a hole at a Syndicate member who had only just noticed that his partner had stopped firing, then fired another shot into her first victim's head, silencing his cries of pain.

10 minutes was an awful lot of time. She could infiltrate the building herself, sow chaos from within. Unless the building was in full lockdown, where no one could come and go, there was bound to be a hole somewhere, right now. Her brow furrowed from beneath the mask. The only people to blame were the weak. The only reason why they had to resort to the new strategy was that they were throwing bodies into the grinder. She had expected better from the peacekeepers. She gave a muted scoff, holstered her knife and handgun, and finally brought out her main dish.

"Very well," she finally responded through the comms. "10 minutes, Iscariots! Time to earn our paycheck!" They were the premium service on the market, and though it was a simple rallying cry, it served to remind them exactly why they were picked for this mission. Perhaps, it would remind the other members participating to drag themselves by their knickers and start pulling their weight.

Having already made her way all the way behind enemy lines, placing her rounds into the backs of those still focused on the front was no hard task. Her heart beat fast, the adrenaline rushed through her veins, the dopamine was hitting. Surrounded by all sides, anyone else would have thought it to be a death sentence. To Sasha Dupaulis, she saw it as a target-rich environment. Scrambling up behind cover, she brought her sights up to her eye whilst marking her every target in her mind's own.

It didn't take long for the Syndicate members to notice their fellows falling forwards instead of backwards, a bullet in the back of their heads for their troubles. Some chose to focus on their unseen assailant, and the others continued to attempt to push back her flanking group. Good. Attention was split. Now all she had to do was survive for the next ten minutes...

 

[_Line 213]

Aizu

"Darklight" / Female / 21

Sixth of the Kaiser Knights

Invicta Angelas, Seraphiel, Aucteraden

Aizu's ears prickled slightly as something touched the edge of her consciousness. Instructions...?

Oh! Instructions!

She had been so busy attempting to navigate the wild firefight, moving from cover to cover and slipping out of the way of enemy firing lines to properly register the command immediately. Quickly, she pressed her back against a concrete bulkhead, giving herself a moment of breathing room as she replied to the Second Knight's command. "R-Right! I'll watch what's going on behind us!"

She turned her attention in the direction she had ran, her back still firmly against cover as several other security squads ran past, doing what they could to keep pace with the likes of the Iscariots and the Kaiser Knights. Even despite her cover, she flinched heavily as the sounds of several explosions rocked the port, some coming within seconds of each other. Quickly, she peeked around the corner, her weapon prepped and ready to fire as she glanced toward the source, trails of smoke already beginning to rise into the sky from vehicles that had been set aflame. She clenched her jaw slightly as she reoriented herself with her issued objective, pointing her weapon back toward the group's rear as she swept her surroundings for hostiles.

A flicker of movement caught her eye and she turned, firing on instinct as her fire ripped through the leg of a fleeing syndicate soldier. She immediately tensed up as she watched the man fall to the ground, again doing what she could to push the visage out of her mind as she centered her breathing, turning her gun on the rest of their way in for a few quiet moments, before moving up slowly with some of the personnel to advance. This was her job, right? It was what she had signed up for, what she was supposed to be doing...

Her pace slowed as her senses tuned in to her surroundings again, the charred bodies of their own soldiers riddling the field surrounding the exploded APC, many of their attacking forces scattered as they began to clear the field in anticipation of the low rumble that shook the ground around her. The demonoid lowered her gun, the sheer sight of the scene catching her entirely off-guard. It was only once the lights of the incoming vehicle began to glint off of the helmets of the fallen that the Knight's senses returned to her, quickly forcing her to step out of the way as a fresh rush of personnel approached. She waited on the sidelines, clutching her weapon tightly as she watched them pass by for a time, before quickly forcing her attention to return to their surroundings and their entry-point; if anything managed to get the drop on their reinforcements, after all, it would be her responsibility to help fight them off.

Job to do, she thought to herself, job to do...



GM // Novelight , Khocolatte , Panther

EAST FLANK // Worthlessplebian (Breaker), lunar_moth (Zenko)

 

[voracity]

ANTHEM

PHELES/FEMALE/33

Third of the Kaiser Knights

CENTER FLANK :// Syndicate-controlled Port, Seraphiel, Aucteraden

“Anthem, be careful with those cranes, do not block our entry points and deal as much damage as you can! Name your targets and we’ll steer clear of them!”

Anthem grit her teeth at the reminder, gratefully that is. Property damage wasn't usually exactly something of a priority, but when their reinforcements, easily counting up into the high hundreds plus their vehicles, needed a safe way in ... Her gaze shifted from the first of the cranes, the closest to herself, and inadvertently, her allies and onto the second and third ones.

It wouldn't be 3 for 3 but as long as it can stop the rats from scurrying around, the sooner they can clean up for the bigger fight ahead. The quicker this was done, then the risk of being blown up in the sky would fall off sooner too.

----

“Anthem, status report!”

"It's coming down!"Anthem roared into the comms as loud as she could just to be heard over the sound of the crane breaking apart on itself. She had wanted to break down the structure from the bottom legs, but with the goons running about heavily and catching onto an easy overhead target, she opted to dive bomb in a wreath of fire onto the weak supports at the top, allowing the crane to essentially fall apart on itself in a burning wreck.

Closing the comms for a moment to take a deep breath from the performance she had done, she steeled herself from behind the cover provided by the shielded men and women, and a large armoured vehicle she couldn't immediately put a name to before turning into the comms once more to relay her report.

"Second and third cranes, away from our entry, they're falling back onto their own side. They won't want to go crawling through debris and a burning terrain, and the damage ... it won't spread quickly. It's right next to the sea. Air support is picking off the ones still walking - they're going to be herding them down the middle. If reinforcements need a easy way in, right side is clear," she concluded, sheathing and folding in the sword, trading it for a firearm.

CENTER // Novelight (Lucael), Khocolatte (Siesta), Panther (Remiel), voracity (Anthem), Huntertabbysandshark3 (Zengren)