Futuristic [Archived] VOIB_ARC1_PART3

[WinterFestivity]

Imperial Security Directorate

Qinglong

Jiayi Yu

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

A small twinge of pain, fascinating, enough to provide some semblance of a confirmation that the words that she had spoken were indeed true, while not being enough of a pain to warrant anything other than the silent acknowledgment she had given it. She was left looking forward at Kyouka, waiting for her to begin their conversation, where she'd take note of the somewhat eager hurrying along she gave the conversation, not that Jiayi particularly minded.

“Your refined Exousiarch. Naturally, it is uncommon for one to have its potential unlocked. May I ask how you were able to unravel the dormant ability hidden within your blood? For simpler terms, I wish to know what methods you used to develop it. Surely, the Symbols didn’t offer a hand to keep you working for the Directorate.”

Ah, a question that quite potently cut to the heart of the issue - the thing that had identified her so surely as someone of note to Kyouka - her Exousiarch, and Incarce. Jiayi would glance towards the door and then the window, considering that someone might be listening on them, it would be difficult for any of those who weren't aware of her in some form or another to do so, though, so, she'd just take a deep breath and then speak.

"My Exousiarch wasn't unlocked by any of the symbols, yes, it was... Forcefully awakened through a method that I believe most would consider, what would you say... Repugnant? Likely the source of my evidently foul-smelling incarce, the operation we shall be disassembling within the near future is innately tied to said method, though, I'm not entirely aware of all of the specifics of it, just what I received during the process."

She'd then pause for a moment, wetting her throat with more low-quality tea as she raised an eyebrow and looked at Kyouka, speaking once more.

"I do suppose it is my turn to... Ask a question. You seemed to be rather interested when you determined that I, and several of my comrades hail from Zhenra, why is that? What is your interest in the place, or, well, perhaps a better way of saying that would be... Do you have a reason for distrusting that place and its denizens, beyond the mundane considerations we're both aware of?"

She'd then place her tea on the table, awaiting the response from Kyouka.


Interactions: ♥ Novelight (Kyouka) ♥

Code by Serobliss

 

[Novelight]

Forsaken Vanquisher

Yaksha

Kyouka Yamaken

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

A vague answer that purposefully avoided details for the sake of keeping it a secret. How crafty, Kyouka would think, before scoffing under her breath. "Very well, that'll do," Kyouka responded after the mention that it was indeed Qinglong's turn for this round. She listened with her eyes closed and the cup of tea on her lips, intermittently taking a sip after every couple of seconds, until the end of her question.

Like a natural, Kyouka answered her questions without thinking too heavily about her choice of words. "Those born from the world of inequality will forever make their adversity known. It is what builds their character and makes every and each of them so precarious. Have you ever visited the lowest-rated institution of Iliosie, Agent Qinglong? Compared to it, the common Zhenra institutions would only dream to have their qualities. Even the most ambitious and kind-hearted fools fall to their greed eventually when someone is exposed to the corruption that is the Zhenran system. I do not distrust the people who hail from that region. I distrust the corrupt system that molds its subjects into a monster of greed. Above all, it holds responsible for lowering the reputation of the Empyrian beauty."

She sighs after a short pause, "Do not mistake me for a patriot. I am well aware of the evils that lurk outside of that province, even in the immaculate Caliburn Vitos. Anywho, I believe that will suffice as an answer. If you wished for a more direct and concise answer, I'm afraid I am terrible at those. Now, my turn."

Kyouka clears her throat and lays the empty cup of tea on the wooden round table before her, "You mentioned methods. Methods that should not exist in this world, as those who are capable of bypassing the rule of an Exousiarch are those who have dove into the wrong side of curiosity. I take it that you're affiliated with... the Sishens, yes? Or perhaps you're affiliated with Akuno herself?"

Interactions: WinterFestivity (Qinglong)

Code by Serobliss

 

[WinterFestivity]

Imperial Security Directorate

Qinglong

Jiayi Yu

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

Jiayi would nod at the end of Kyouka's answer to her question. "I see, a satisfactory answer to my curiosity, I find that we are... In agreement there, I believe." She'd say, almost as if she were uncertain in her statement, not quite sure if that was entirely what she believed, but nonetheless, she'd offer a sigh and move into her answer for Kyouka's turn of the conversation.


"I suppose it'd reflect poorly if I were to lie in this regard despite our agreement... To be rather blunt, I'm intimately familiar with every Sishen, Akuno moreso than most, we are of the same blood, you see. I..." She'd pause briefly, clearly not entirely comfortable with disclosing this information. "I am the twin of Xianshia, the Sishens current leader. As you can likely tell by my presence here, I do not hold them in high regard, unnecessary cruelty, and every other vice that you're aware of with them, I have found to be rather... Distasteful." She'd take another sip of the tea.

"I do hope that is of satisfaction to you for an answer? You now know something that only Tianshu and the Director herself are aware of in its entirety. With that, I believe it's my turn to ask you a question, who are you associated with? You use several methods I'm admittedly unfamiliar with, the seal upon our vocal cords, the ability to... Smell, my incarce, the like, It's all rather unfamiliar to me, it raises a fair bit of curiosity within me on just who you work for, or, rather, worked for before falling under those twins' employment."

She'd place the tea back on the table.



Interactions: ♥ Novelight (Kyouka) ♥

Code by Serobliss

 

[Panther]

Valorous Order: Volume 1 - Interlude

Interlude Chapter

First Strike

Imperial Security Directorate

The Parlor Manager

Dorten de Jager

Cullan City, Cullanes, Empyria

The day had passed relatively uneventfully for everybody, save for perhaps Qinglong and Yaksha, in Cullan City. A backwater that is a far cry from what is back on Agartha. Instead of a vibrant metropolis bustling with life and activity is a bleak city lined with public housing apartment complexes that have a strikingly similar appearance to plattenbau with faded paint, cracked walls, and decrepit interiors unless the building was well-kept by the tenants or the municipal governments which is fairly uncommon. To go with such residences are relatively simpler commercial lots of similar quality that don’t even have fully functional bathrooms among other things save for the buildings that were first built by the mainland Emyprians back in Cullan City’s infancy as a colony before it became even more developed to become a proper city with the few accompanying highrises, and large commercial complexes and trading areas that were much newer and well-maintained quite simply because such could be afforded.

Parts of the city are a testament to the quality and robustness of Empyrian engineering, even if something had poor or subpar maintenance, it would still work properly and as it should albeit not optimally. Locally-constructed buildings can hold a candle to Empyrian standards… provided there is enough money. Cullanes is one of the poster children of the saying “Throw enough money at a problem and it will solve itself.”

However, the more developed portions were only the tip of the iceberg compared to the cesspit that is the slums scattered planetside in cities, in Rythen refugee internment settlements as if they weren’t deplorable enough, or outside of them as poorly formed communities. Even more decrepit public housing complexes, old and contemporary, that stand alongside improvised houses, some on roadsides, under bridges, or adjacent to polluted creeks and rivers. These makeshift houses are made out of wood, plastic, galvanized metal, steel sheets, and anything else that could be used to prop up what is no more than a pile of garbage to the mainland Empyrian where entire families ate and slept in the candlelight without electricity and basic amenities. The difference was that the impoverished people of Cullanes call these piles of garbage “home.”

Likewise, criminal elements from the petty criminals to the organized crime syndicates also call the slums of Cullanes ‘home’ as it was their prime recruiting grounds and where they chiefly operated in with the locals typically under their control, payroll, and care, much more so than the sectoral government, which has more or less become an open secret with both the criminals and sectoral government tacitly colluding with one another aside from the routine corruption. A proof of this tacit collusion being the fact that for the most part, only small-time criminals are caught and brought to justice, not the bigger fish that swam in the murky waters. Should one be caught, there is always a way for it to break free from the hook or the net. The pen, the money, or the more ‘direct’ sword and gun.

This order of things would soon change with the Imperial Security Directorate and the Hand of Agartha having a vested interest of solving part of the overall problem by conducting joint operations of their own against what the sectoral government could not ever pursue – the biggest fish, the Sishen Yakuza. The Zhenra-based intranational organized crime syndicate that has claimed hegemony over Cullanes’s underground. The goal, to massively disrupt their operations on the Sector, thereby weakening their grip on it enough for the Hand of Agartha to take over and finish the job, doing as it has always done as per the demands of the late Eleanor Ophelia whether anyone liked it or not – root out evil and proliferate Empyria’s ideals and facilitate the means to do so by uplifting the lives of the people of Cullanes, one community at a time. Why they’re moving now instead of way earlier in Cullanes’s history is for anyone to guess. It was better late than never.

But first, with the Hand preoccupied as they are mobilizing the necessary templars and volunteers for the next phases of the joint operation, the Imperial Security Directorate must do its part in destabilizing the Sishen’s operations as part of the initial phases. They would do so by raiding the ports that constituted the interplanetary logistics network between Cullanes, Agartha, and other corners of Empyria that the Yakuza operates in after years of intelligence gathering. Most importantly, stop the illegal trafficking of Rythen refugees and other Rythen biological material that were and are still being used in the Yakuza’s experiments in duplicating the invaluable Exousiarchs for use by the Yakuza, and the highest bidder.

The real contributions of the ISD would begin with a raid on a small, but important port under the Yakuza’s control. The raid would be spearheaded by a certain “Dorten de Jager” and a certain squad composed of talented people with backgrounds normal and questionable alike that arrived the day before.

The relatively quiet cloudy afternoon in the port was soon to come to an end as it was beset by a small convoy of armored cars, one of which served as the mobile command post from which tactical coordinator Eina Irscheide would be operating in with the protection of 8 men. The sirens were kept off, it was already enough that the Yakuza would see them coming, they didn’t need to top it off by letting them hear they were coming. The raiders had discussed this the night before over the briefing about the combat plan calmly in contrast to the tense and nervous atmosphere as they quickly disembarked and put themselves into position. Dorten and the special team would enter through the first gate of the port while another 16 ISD tactical troopers would enter through the second.

Dorten, donned in tactical light plate armor with his face covered by a visor-covered tactical helmet and his voice altered by the latter’s software, cocked his assault rifle and looked at the team and spoke to them as they were starting, “We-he-hell, this is it folks! Day one of the shitstorm so let’s not keep our Sishy boys waiting!” He speaks to his communicator as the clock strikes three, “It’s go time! MOVE! MOVE!” As soon as the order was given, the troopers outside would vault over the port’s gates and have them opened with all barriers lowered or raised as the teams move in. As per the plan, Dorten and his team would go for the main office while the other team of 16 would split into 2 teams of 8 with one going through the warehouses before rendezvousing with Dorten’s team while the other would continue to the container yards. Eina and 8 other troopers would remain outside to watch for escaping enemies and to control the recon drones flying around the port that were deployed prior.

It wasn’t long before everyone heard the sounds of gunfire coming from the warehouse with a trooper radioing in that they have engaged the enemy, armed with a mixture of melee weapons and firearms. As Dorten and the rest were moving through the open parking area to close in on an entrance, a few Yakuza gunmen, at most 10, started to peek from the windows of the first and second floors facing the parking lot and started to pepper them with automatic gunfire, prompting them to take cover by the parked cars and smaller trucks.

The parking lot wasn’t empty either as under covering fire, Yakuza grunts armed with swords, pistols, and ballistic shields moved from their positions behind some parked vehicles and started to move towards Dorten’s group. The De Jager peeked out amidst the fire and saw them coming, alerting the team as he ducked back into cover with a round barely missing him, hinting that the gunmen knew what they were doing, “We got incoming. They got swords, pistols, and ballistic shields. If you have armor-piercing ammunition, use them! Melee people, be more creative!” He sighed, mumbling to himself, “Good thing I brought nothing but armor-piercing because fuck stopping power and hooray lethality.”

He starts them off by peeking out of cover to pick off a small group of three making their way to them with a burst from his rifle, his shots penetrating cleanly through the shieldman at the front, killing him before the other two behind him. Dorten then rolled over to a nearby car with bullets landing close to him. He had attracted the attention of a substantial fraction of the gunmen who proceeded to greet him in kind, giving a bit of a safer opening to the others as the remaining gunmen cycled between covering fire and reloading while their fellows below closed in which made covering fire a bit more risky.

Interactions: Novelight (Zhao) Khocolatte (Eina) WinterFestivity (Qinglong) Elucid (Gladiolus) Purity (Aria) voided (Erebus) OverconfidentMagi (Blackbird)

Code by Serobliss

 

[WinterFestivity]

Imperial Security Directorate

Qinglong

Jiayi Yu

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

It was a curious feeling, the moments before entering into a battle, the tension is always palpable, did the opponent truly see that you were coming, or would you be setting upon them utterly unaware, free to begin the execution at your leisure? She'd encountered all sorts of combat scenarios during her time, none quite as unique as facing off against the very kin that had raised her into the thing that she was in the modern day. The emotion was distinctly unfamiliar, she didn't know what quite to call it other than a strange sense of excitement, she would put her boundless talents to use against targets far more deserving of it, rather than whomever her superiors had decided needed to be extinguished.

Then the gunfire began, Jiayi took a moment to make her final mental preparations, and then she was ready. She briefly looked around the battlefield in order to commit its geometry to mind, along with the rough positions of the targets currently presenting any semblance of a threat. Shame that despite their apparent knowledge of the impending raid, they didn't commit anything more substantial, at least, not yet, it was okay though, she'd force them to reveal their hand, to reveal the genuine challenge awaiting deeper within the compounds inner sanctums.

She'd offer a glance at her fellow agents, perhaps they'd tear through this pitiful offering of resistance straight away? or perhaps some of the more green ones may find an unexpected challenge. Not that it mattered to Jiayi, still, she'd opt to leave some of the poor fools to her comrades, to whom she'd offer a few words, unusually vibrant for the formerly robotic and dead-sounding woman, though still far more subdued than the average person, only the tiniest hints of excitement poking through.

"I am very much looking forward to seeing how well you lot can carry this out, good luck, I suspect the Yakuza will need it."

With that, Jiayi would turn her attention toward the troops currently firing at them, moments later setting off with a tremendously powerful leap, undoubtedly empowered by her Exousiarch, setting her down upon the roof of a nearby vehicle as a mid-way point, landing with surprising grace. Grace which was immediately contrasted by her immediately leaping once more, with even greater force, directly toward one of the grunts, a warhammer comprised of hardlight forming in her hands as she put it to its intended use immediately, turning the man into a cloud of viscera, promptly shifting her attention over to the second one nearby, swinging the warhammers hooked end in order to bring the man closer to her.

"Ah, poor idiot, you aren't important enough to deserve existence, sorry you crossed my path."

The warhammer shifted instantaneously into a spear, which she'd run through the man's heart, rendering him a nonissue and soon-to-be casualty, the spear disappearing while still inside of the man as she'd do a gesture with her now free hands, causing a suit of hardlight, armor of sorts, to envelop her, giving her a bright and eye-catching glow. Once more, she'd set off with force, this time leaping directly into the second floor of the office building where she would do a second hand gesture, this one creating a wall at every end of the hallway, cutting off any exits the grunts may have had, while also adding quite a bit of light into the environment and hopefully momentarily disorienting them.

There, with her photomancy, she'd manifest a large axe, something else manifested too, underneath her shell of dazzling hardlight, a smile formed, promptly followed by her immediately getting to work on the grunts on the second floor. "Oh wow this is sad, did you fucking idiots expect any sort of safety up here? I hope you know that even if I don't get to you first, some bitch with a fucked up rifle is going to blow your brains out across the bedazzled walls - courtesy of me of course - Whiiile I could offer mercy, you all are still here so I don't care! Should've cut and ran when you realized you were going to get raided, now you get to face what you deserve!" A laugh would escape her as she'd promptly slam the axe into the nearest one in the process of her monologue, using the mans body to shield herself from any unnecessary damage from the bullets, promptly shoving it off at one of the further mooks down the hall with a loud thump.

Assuming that no one opted to fire on the hopefully distracted gunmen on the second floor, Jiayi would continue her rampage, until stopped or provided with no more direct targets.



Interactions: ♥ Novelight (Zhao) ♥ Panther (Dorten) ♥ Khocolatte (Eina) ♥ voided (Erebus) ♥ Elucid (Gladiolus) ♥ Purity (Aria) ♥ OverconfidentMagi (Blackbird) ♥

Code by Serobliss

 

[Purity]

Imperial Security Directorate

Aria

Isolde Caen

D&D, CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

It would’ve been criminal to not use the opportunity afforded by Dorty and the rest of his lot to take the more oblique approach into the port. Then again, the whole place was criminal, but that was a bit of humor that was lost without being vocalized.

Isolde was fairly certain that the guard she was currently running a straight jab into the windpipe of wouldn’t have appreciated it anyway.

The fact that the area still had some of the Yakuza men lingering around even with the full-frontal assault happening led her to believe she was on the right path to find what she was looking for. Her shadowy eye had tagged along one of the recon drones in the morning, and she’d noticed this side entrance to be something that had warranted further exploration.

There were still enough to where it wasn’t just a straight stroll in, but she could handle this much at the very least. Well, more than handle. Her exousiarch provided her with a significant advantage over her enemies, letting her react to incoming physical weapons with minimal movement that left her dodging with harrowing proximity, and put more force behind her attacks despite a lack of proficient background in proper martial arts.

The close quarters fight definitely wasn’t something she made a habit of doing, but the narrow hallway, the flickering lights that shook with the resounding noises of battle from the main fight, this was the environment she preferred. As she transferred the force of her jab into a full grab to push the now gasping guard straight into the ground, she used the weight of her body to crush his throat with a sickening crunch as she handsprung into the air. Another sword swing came at her head, which she reacted to midair by vaulting upside down off a dark sliver which snuck down from the ceiling for her to kick off of and bring her foot down with a reverse kick onto the guard wielding the sword’s head. Without missing a step, quite literally, she did a backwards shoulder roll to the gunman in the back that had been really annoying her with bullets the whole fight and kicked off the ground – straight into his crotch.

As he doubled over in pain, shadows reached up from the ground and drove his head further down, straight into the knee that rose to meet him. The pistol flew out of his hands, and she caught it to empty a couple rounds into his collapsed form on the ground.

“Ugh, Zhenra made.”

She disassembled the gun with surprising speed and let the pieces fall out of her hands as she walked ahead into a small office, filled with monitors both physical and holographic.

Let the rest of them secure all the physical goods and whatnot. She was interested in digital information, regardless of how mundane. Likely all she was bound to find here were just shipping manifests and operational documents, but even those could hide something interesting for her to read.

She pulled out her old-fashioned notebook and pulled the pen out of the spine, which she spun lazily around her fingers as she examined the equipment in the room. Seemingly satisfied, she set the pen down on the desk and a small holographic interface popped up from the side. With a couple taps, all the screens in the room briefly flickered as a progress bar came up.

Interactions: Novelight (Tianshu) ⟡ Panther (Dortmund) ⟡ WinterFestivity (Qinglong) ⟡ Elucid (Gladiolus) ⟡ voided (Erebus) ⟡ OverconfidentMagi (Malo)

Code by Serobliss

 

[voided]

Imperial Security Directorate

EREBUS

HIKARU FUKUI

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

For the most part, Hikaru stayed fairly quiet on the trek to the parking lot. Not because she was in the middle of making sure she packed something very important. What is this very important thing one may ask? Good question. Hikaru looked prepared to go into a firefight. She had her pistol holstered on her hip while her hands were supporting the rifle that was hanging from her by a gunstrap. Pockets of her combat vest housed AP rounds that she picked up from Dorten beforehand.

Soon enough, her face lit up once she patted a certain pocket in her pants. Seems like her cigarettes were packed along after all. Flipping open the top of her cigarette pack, she put a cigarette in between her lips before placing the pack back in her pocket. She hoped to have a moment of reprieve between all the shenanigans and have a smoke, but as soon she found herself lighting her cigarette, she also found herself being shot at as bullets whizzed past her.

Holy fuck.

Dropping her cigarette from her mouth, she threw herself behind a car not too far from Dorten himself. Annoyance welled up in her as a part of her mind lingered on her lonely, recently lit cigarette on the ground. Poor thing would be trampled on in the midst of all this. Switching the safety off of her rifle, she kept her eye on her boss. Once Dorten decided to leave cover for a small moment, Hikaru peeked from behind cover, providing suppressive fire with her rifle. While her goal was to make sure the Yakuza didn’t land a shot on Dorten, she wouldn’t have complained if her bullets happened to hit one of them.

Once Dorten was under cover, so was the Katsuragi girl. She glanced at her squadmates, noticing that Qinglong was missing. Peeking out from behind cover, she spotted Qinglong in the middle of the chaos. What was wrong with this woman? First she had no clue on how to hold a conversation, and now she had no respect for an organized firefight. How was Hikaru supposed to provide proper support if someone decided to go in without a care in the world? How enlightening. People were such interesting creatures. Unfortunately, Hikaru couldn’t get a shot in. Qinglong had dealt with the mooks far too well.

Then there was Aria, who already ducked behind a corner of the building. With an exasperated sigh, Hikaru decided to follow.

Taking advantage of the cover littered around the lot and the fact some of the forces were focused on Dorten, Hikaru focused on making sure Aria made it inside safe and sound. Unfortunately—for the nameless mob not too far from her—she had to take a little break from chasing Aria. As they pushed forward, Hikaru shot out a shadow tendril from underneath a car, tripping the lone Yakuza member and greeting them with the barrel of her rifle. Without saying anything, she pulled the trigger, quickly rendering the person dead. Although the cocky grin she had on her face said enough.

She truly was a bitch with a fucked-up gun.

Going back to the issue at hand, she lifted the dead member with the solidified shadow and used it as a bullet sponge until she reached the same place she saw Aria last. Dropping the dead body, she looked around. Another body and a disassembled pistol. How quaint.

“If I was one of those... Sishy boys, as Dorten put it, I would have taken a shot at you instantly.” Hikaru hissed over at Aria as she entered the room, tapping at the trigger guard carefully as she tried to make her point known. “What would you have done if you were caught off guard without anyone to support you?”

With a click of her tongue, Hikaru peeked into the hallway, this time using her shadowmancy to create a wall out of her interwoven tendrils to block off the side entrance and the nearest window. No doubt a few stragglers would try and follow them here, so it was best to take precautions before they came in.

Interactions: Novelight (Tianshu) / Panther (Dorten) / WinterFestivity (Qinglong) / Elucid (Gladiolus) / Purity (Aria) / OverconfidentMagi (Blackbird)

Code by Serobliss

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

IMPERIAL SECURITY DIRECTORATE

Malo Salas Vesta

Neon Blackbird

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

Malo clicked his tongue at Qinglong. She'd taken his preferred role by drawing the attention of every enemy in the area. He was faced with a choice he'd been mulling over the entire appraoch: should he hold back and risk someone on his... one of his coworkers being hurt, or should go all-out and just raze the whole place? It would leave no survivors, no questioning or trials, just a one-sided execution, but it would eliminate the threat to his coworkers. Stay cool... or burn it all? A tongue of hot pink flame escaped Malo's lips. Their safety was the priority. Enemy casualties were unavoidable. He entered the battlefield with his violet eyes already alight, crystalline frost crackling as it spread out from each step he took. He raised his hand, holding back the inferno long enough to determine Qinglong's position so that he didn't catch her in his attack. Everything else he could burn. Burn away the enemy, save her. If he burned away everything, he'd save them all. Burn... Burn. Burn!

But Qinglong was... smiling? Malo restrained the flames before they exploded out across the battlefield. Oh, right. This was a different battlefield. This group wasn't the same. Qinglong didn't need his protection. Suddenly Malo felt very cold. What was he even thinking about? "Nonsense."

One of the gunmen that had avoided Qinglong's slaughter by virtue of falling on his ass and out of her swing range saw Malo appearing distracted and swung his gun at the pretty boy and pulled the trigger. It didn't fire. No. There was a rainbow-colored crystal wedged behind the trigger. Malo was on him before he could do anything about the jam, slamming him back with an open palm while ripping the gun from his hands. "Go home kid." Malo stood over the gunman, who physically looked older than him, not even bothering to look down after the threat had been neutralized, while pulling out the gun's magazine and using his thumb to unload its contents onto the ground. A handful of the dropped rounds were caught in his phantasma and remained floating beside Malo.

Next.

Gunman aiming towards Erebus. Malo broke his line of sight with a plume of green flame. Enough to make his shot go wide and let Malo close the distance. By the time he'd taken aim at Malo it was already too late. The gun was already inoperable with neon crystals covering its trigger and firing mechanism. It was the only non-lethal way Malo knew how to disarm these kinds of threats. Honestly his power wasn't useful for anything but killing. Even as he mentally complained to no one, his phantasm reached to the other side of the vehicle he'd taken shelter behind and found the next weapon to sabotage. There were two enemies. He reached inside the chambered round and planted a crystalized mote of flame there, then nudged the muzzle slightly when the seed sprouted. He heard a gunshot, a scream, and cursing. One of the men had just shot the other in the leg. The shooter claimed he hadn't pulled the trigger. Malo set off the rest of the rounds still held in the gun's magazine and left the pair to attempt to figure out what had happened.

Next.

A man armed with a combo of sword and shield was rushing Malo, meanwhile Malo was more interested in stopping the group that looked to be going the way Aria and Erebus had run off. For some reason they weren't going inside after the pair, but Malo couldn't see the blocked-off entrance to know why. He avoided the knife and landed a light punch on the riot shield, just enough to push the attacker out of Malo's own line of sight on the higher priority foes. The bullets he'd caught up in his phantasma build up rotation before shooting off towards their unaware targets. His aim was off, as usual - Malo was never good at sharpshooting, and throwing bullets was even less accurate - but he course-corrected the shots as soon as they got close enough to their destination. The ring of crystalized flame around the base of the bullet casing released its energy opposite to where he wanted the shot to change direction, then... the mote of flame inside the propellant of the bullets ignited, and each of the bullets exploded. From his targets' perspective, they'd been shot out of nowhere, by no one, point-blank.

Malo made sure none of the distant enemies would be getting back up. He'd spared their lives, most likely, by aiming for the legs, but some people were made of stronger stuff and still got back up if the wound wasn't fatal. They seemed more interested in screaming and clutching their wounds than retaliating, so he turned his attention back to the melee opponent. Oh, he'd left. The riot shield was there on the ground, dropped after Malo's burning crystals had begun to melt through its surface from the brief moment he'd tapped against it. Well, that was the right choice. He hoped some of the other common street trash here had the same self-awareness.

Well then, onto the next.

Aria was already inside and Erebus as well. His next course of action should be to draw the enemy combatants inside away from them. "Agent Qinglong," Malo yelled up to where he could still hear the sounds of slaughter that roughly gave away Qinglong's location, "I'm going to knock on the door and request to be let in now. You may wish to cover your ears." Malo tapped his earpiece and relayed the message to the others as well. "To those already inside, you may feel a shake." He touched the heavily fortified metal plate that was probably meant to act as a door when unlocked, but unfortunately he lacked the key. Greenish-pink crystals spread to cover the door and surrounding wall of the building, and Malo thought it wise to retreat before 'knocking'. The explosion blew the door inside the building and brought down the surrounding wall and ceiling, leaving a hole like the place had just been struck by a mortar. With how weak the walls were, Malo wondered why the door had been fortified at all. Might as well leave the thing wide open.

He stepped over the rubble to enter the building. "My apologies, the door appeared to be stuck."


Interactions: Novelight (Tianshu) △ Panther (Dorten) △ WinterFestivity (Qinglong) ▽ Elucid (Gladiolus) △ voided (Erebus) ▽ Purity (Aria)

Code by Serobliss

 

[Novelight]

Imperial Security Directorate

Tianshu

Zhao Jintao

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

As uninterested as he was in the operation and the fighting, Zhao was ordered to contribute regardless of his efforts to remain at the base, knowing that his presence would achieve nothing. His laziness was apparent, but most who knew of his past would understand that his desire to avoid combat had nothing to do with his ego, but rather, the bottled PTSD that was formed after the countless disastrous operations that he was involved in during his time as an active agent for the Zhenra division.

He eternally called himself the unluckiest man in the world. Ignorant to the world in front of him, he often degraded himself for the sake of even a shred of comfort. Multiplied by his notorious track record and a family that no longer exists, it was incredible that such a man would even be alive, instead of committing the act of sin to either himself or others.

Understanding his unfortunate circumstances and withered aim throughout the years of nonactivity, Dorten had placed him under the same roof as Eina, becoming an assistant tactical coordinator. From the safety of the van, he comfortably repeated orders and coordinated the other squads through the warehouse, warning them of the positions of the enemy, preventing disasters after disasters thanks to his experience in this field of work and the distinct methods of the Yakuza.

His satisfaction was visualized by his exhaustive sighs, perhaps catching the annoyance of his co-operator. Regardless, his focus did not falter. After assisting with the armed squads he switched his comms over to Jiayi, commanding her until he no longer couldn’t strangely enough from the incoming distress signal that somehow managed to disturb the line between Jiayi and the command post.

And soon after his comms were cut off, Eina would experience glitches in the system as the multiple monitors began losing connection.

“Agent Dorten, do you copy?” He would attempt to reconnect with the operational field commander, albeit his efforts were unsuccessful after several minutes of effort. “They’re planning something nefarious. Eina, do whatever you can to reconnect us to the systems. The chances are, they have-”

Screeching noise from his headphones interrupted the Zhenran agent as he gritted his teeth and closed one eye in reaction to the deafening noise, immediately taking his headgear off to mitigate the damage in his eardrums. A moment passed before he would recognize that the noise came from a voice - specifically, a call for help, as one of the common operators managed to reconnect their comms, until they would inevitably be cut off again after a skin-crawling screech.

Nonetheless, the dying screams of the unfortunate operator were not what caught the fearful attention of Zhao and Eina, as their headcam had managed to restore its connection for a split second, only to show an individual covered in blood and terrific aura, instilling fear deep into the hearts of any that laid their eyes upon the figure.

However, unlike Eina whose terror was more on what the man did to the operator and the gory content, Zhao’s expression was more filled with anxiety and shock, recognizing the man that pulverized the squad with his bare hands.

And after the realization that Jiayi, Malo, Hikaru, and Isolde had gone in alone without proper support and their comms disrupted, the Zhenran agent wasted no second and propelled the van entrance open, alerting the guards.

“There’s absolutely no fucking way!” Zhao exclaimed as he hurried his way to the battle, taking whatever gear he could from the armory before engaging in combat. He had to warn Dorten immediately about the incoming disaster - a terrific storm that could potentially wipe the squad if they weren’t careful.

It took no longer than a few minutes for Zhao to reach the warzone as he found cover after cover, locating Dorten from the distance. After exchanging a few rounds with the gunmen in the distance he slid past one of the barricades and met with the agent he was looking for, dashing towards him like a mad man with sweat beads falling from his forehead.

“They have a fucking Wakagashira in the warehouse!” Zhao shouted under the hail of bullets that dashed past him from above, “A Yakuza high commander! The one that was involved in the Zhenra Incident several decades ago! We need to recall the operators, now!”

Wakagashira, or ‘First Lieutenant’, was a rank given only to the aces of the Yakuza who were deemed worthy of the title. A rank below ‘Executive’ which were the overall commanders of the criminal organization below the Oyabun, the Wakagashiras were infamous for consisting of powerful, nefarious individuals.

Interactions: Panther (Dorten), Khocolatte (Eina), WinterFestivity (Qinglong), Purity (Aria), voided (Erebus), OverconfidentMagi (Malo)

Code by Serobliss

 

[Panther]

Imperial Security Directorate

The Parlor Manager

Dorten de Jager

Cullan City, Cullanes, Empyria │ Dorten’s Point of View

Dorten was still taking cover behind the car that he successfully rolled over to when he saw the squad he came with him grow smaller and smaller. Looks like they went their separate ways as planned. Dortmund had previously left the flanking role ambiguous so as to leave room for adaptability and individual initiative, likely at Dorten’s expense, too, since he is the one commanding this hit with Eina.

What wasn’t planned however, is how exactly things will go, and that much is obvious when Dorten stared with bewilderment at Qinglong who had immediately and quite literally jumped into the fray by leapfrogging from a car to an unfortunate soul, pulverizing him with a hardlight warhammer followed by pulling another man and morphing the warhammer into a spear that impaled the current target’s heart.

Bewilderment was then followed by disbelief as he saw Qinglong leap into the second floor of the building to neutralize most, if not all, of the fraction of the 10 gunmen that were unloading on them just a few seconds earlier from the first and second floors. “Whoa,” he said as he watched in awe, “that’s cool! The Director got us a literal badass!” He was then forced to duck again by suppressive small arms fire from the ground floor and the men moving onto him as the others did their work at taking care of the few that were distracted by Qinglong’s maneuver.

He grunts, “Oh right, this isn’t an action movie.” He peeks only his rifle out to spray at the incoming men, but since it was more of a guesstimate than an actual effort, he only kills one of four as indicated by a metallic thud. The remaining three move in from cover as soon as he empties the rest of his magazine. They all emerged from their cover to gang up on him with combined gunfire only to find him already reloaded and met with a conservative full-auto burst aimed at their center masses. He had beaten them to the draw.

He takes another look at his environs, seeing that Aria and Erebus had gone off and already cleared their own way into the office building thanks to the efforts of the former clearing another entrance, and Blackbird going on his own in another portion of the parking lot to make his own way in if the explosion that sent one of the reinforced doors falling to the ground along with a portion of walling and the ceiling, the smoke, and all the small-scale pyrotechnics prior weren’t enough hints. Dorten sighed before shrugging, thinking to himself as he moved forward with relative safety, his rifle pointing ahead as he shifted from cover to cover to get to the ground floor, “Poor fire exits. Ah well, they can handle themselves, especially Qinglong up there, whew man, I wouldn’t want to be there unless I had something in store for her.”

He sees the last couple of gunmen in his line of sight on his way to the ground floor of the building, one was preoccupied with reloading from the cover of a reception desk where employees would time in after firing at the others while the other saw Dorten in the middle of all the confusion, albeit the latter saw him first and beat him to the draw by mere milliseconds as a bullet cleanly went through his head. The one behind the desk was about to emerge from cover until Dorten riddled the desk with 3 AP bullets that went straight through it like a hot knife through butter, hitting the torso of the man and silencing him for good.

Dorten walks over the wall that served as the apron of the reception area’s large windows, finally entering the building after a short firefight. He still heard gunfire from within the building, looks like Aria, Blackbird, Erebus, and Qinglong would be preoccupied for a while longer. He examines the scene to confirm that the gunmen holed up here are dead and looks at the area outside to see that it was noisier here inside than out there, leading him to assume that the outside is clear. Of course there are gunshots heard farther out from the warehouse and soon enough, he was contacted by the third team that went to the container yard just as he was about to radio in for a status check.

“Alpha Actual, this is Alpha 3, we’ve engaged the enemy here at the container yard, they’re all armed with guns and we’re pinned down! We heard some of them talking about retreating to the docks with some merchandise while others are buying time! The recon drones have picked up small craft docked nearby, they’re planning to run!”

Dorten replied as he made his way further inside, being met by a man with an alloy machete trying to jump him from an open door to which he responds with an immediate kick to the stomach followed by three successive shots, two to the torso and one to the head, “That’s a given, Alpha 3, but we’re here right now to kick them somewhere, not to destroy them, that’s more of a bonus. Fight your way to the docks and if you can, prevent some from escaping. If they have any brains, some boats would’ve left by now or even before we attacked. We just came earlier than they anticipated and they haven’t completed whatever it is they’re doing. If the area’s too hot, regroup back at the entrance. That goes for all squads.”

He then keeps going, reloading in the meantime as he switches to messaging another team, “Alpha 2, clear the hostiles in the warehouse and group up with Alpha 3 ASAP. There’s probably no merch in there, but we’ll see about that after this raid is over. Alpha Actual is now clearing the office building, over and out, Alphas.”

The reception area was already fully cleared and Dorten was just about finished clearing his immediate vicinity of goons before noticing while passing a corridor that the communications were starting to become less reliable. Even going as far as actually talking into the comms to no avail, “Can anyone hear me? Alpha 2? Alpha 3? Guys? Gals? Gays? Living people? No? Shit…”

He sighs, remaining calm even in the face of something going wrong, “Broad frequency jamming. Smart. Bad news for us though, means they got something. Fuck me.” He would attempt to reconnect with his left hand, his right on the rifle. He wasn’t too far from Aria and Erebus, and maybe even Blackbird as well, when Tianshu came running over to him looking like he had just seen a ghost and prompted an instinctive pointing of the rifle which was ingrained by military training and experience, a thing difficult to shake off for a law enforcement officer.

As he heard the frightened, and possibly demoralized, Zhenran state his piece as he stood down, Dorten gave a grunt, “So the chances of a big Sishy fuck interfering weren’t as low as bro anticipated. That means we’re in the middle of disrupting a major op without us actually knowing, considering they had the balls to bring in one of the most notorious mass murderers in Empyrian history other than our own fuckin’ government.” He looks over to see a grunt in tactical body armor emerging from the end of the corridor with an automatic weapon loaded with a drum mag and blasts him in the face as they talked.

He looks at the man over, concerned and frustrated, “Military-grade equipment, eh? Damn, these guys are raising the ante. We’ll assume Alpha 2 and his squad are dead meat in the warehouse as much as I fucking hate to admit it. I told Alpha 3 to withdraw when the area was too hot, they’re not dumb but they might be cut off, won’t know until comms are back.”

He turns back to look at Tianshu, “As for you, go to the second floor and find Qinglong and wrangle her. She must not exit this building, and have her regroup by the parking area. I’ll find Aria, Her Majesty, the geezer-in-progress, and the neon twink meself. All four of them should be at the parts of the office building that I expect them to be in if bro’s remarks of them last night are anything to go by. The mass murderer Sishy fuck will likely try to cut off our retreat so be prepared for anything once we regroup and make our way back together. Now, LET’S GO!” He then runs off.

Interactions: Novelight (Zhao) Khocolatte (Eina)

Qinglong's Point of View

Qinglong easily carved her way through part of the second floor, eviscerating the Yakuza grunts that had long since opted to use their guns against her than close the distance to give her an advantage. More out of fear of coming close than out of common sense. Some were running and shooting as they peppered the hardlight suit time and time again until they ran out and kept running or until Qinglong caught up to them and tore them a new one.

Shield-bearing Yakuza stood at the front to distract her, only buying a few seconds for those running behind them as they were torn apart, too. Whether those few seconds would be enough reprieve or not depended on the pursuer, and she wasn’t going to stop until something made her.

Some begged for mercy to no avail upon being caught by her wrath, others fought to their last breath as the blue-haired Exhelian-Demonoid continued her massacre with joy and excitement on her face. The last things those unfortunate criminals would ever see was someone who took pride and pleasure in delivering their demise.

Qinglong managed to get to an employee break lounge deep in the building’s second floor that the stragglers were running through. As she makes her way into the break lounge to pursue, an entire squad of 12 Yakuza gunmen split throughout the lounge peeked simultaneously from their cover, tumbled tables and dividers that hosted standing tables and high chairs, placing her in a would-be crossfire of automatic pistol-caliber carbine gunfire

Fortunately, a sliver of opportunity came when their attention was diverted just as they were about to pull their triggers thanks to Blackbird’s explosive entrance downstairs severing some power lines that connected parts of the building, the second floor break lounge is included here. Switching to emergency power, basically battery-powered high-luminosity lamps in strategic places, was going to take time. Not that it mattered anyway since Qinglong is clad in a suit of solid light. Some of the gunmen had instinctively looked over to the source of the blast and around them in confusion before being dragged back by a severe reality check of point-blank gunshots aimed at Qinglong from the few that were focused on her. A prologue of the murder to come.

Interactions: WinterFestivity (Qinglong)

Aria and Erebus's Point of View

Aria had made short work of her enemies in a more elegant way compared to Qinglong with her martial techniques and her shadowmancy. Coupled with the enemies preoccupied with other and more immediate concerns, these enabled her to reach the small office with relative ease as Erebus went after her with rifle in hand and shadowmancy in effect as sounds of fighting came closer and closer to Aria. The Zhenran woman had to be quick with what she wanted to do here or she would be caught in a slightly unfavorable situation.

Fortunately, it wasn’t time for that yet as during her rushed attempts of getting information from the office computers, Erebus would come through the door and blocked the entrances off with her shadowmancy before proceeding to reprimand Aria in an expression of displeasure and concern. This meant that Aria would have more time to extract information, an advantage soon denied by an explosion from downstairs that cut the power to a fraction of the building. It was Blackbird, but whether they know or not was up to their knowledge of each other and what the Yakuza might have up their sleeves.

The office’s lights were the first to give out as always while the computers would only have 60 seconds of uninterrupted power supply before they give out as indicated by a prompt that appeared on the screens of every single active computer in the office. Normally, the spare minute would be used to shut down the computers properly but the circumstances beg to differ by orders of magnitude.

Soon enough, both women would become aware of the Yakuza breathing down their necks as they heard two separate groups attempting to break through Erebus’s barriers at different points, giving them some time to prepare before they inevitably break through. The attackers made holes in the shadow barriers small enough for grenades to be lobbed through, something that the resilient and desperate assailants would capitalize as 4 grenades were thrown into the office.

Interactions: Purity (Aria) voided (Erebus)

Blackbird's Point of View

The explosive entrance had caught many around the immediate vicinity off-guard as those nearby were knocked over by debris, if not the door and the blast. Groans, moans, grunts, and cries were heard as he walked over the rubble for a good several seconds. A few Yakuza grunts that came to, or are still conscious, looked at Blackbird with fear and awe, they were too injured to fight him and it wasn’t long before he found some that died from the blast and the debris that it sent forth.

The suffering living and the dead, other than their lacerations, were covered in either dust or ash or both. It was a spectacle that might give him nostalgia, reminiscing that would soon be interrupted very quickly as the corridors and rooms still intact host a bunch of gunmen that were mostly uninjured, helping themselves out as those that remained standing peeked out of cover to unload their magazines on Blackbird in a fit of primal emotions other than their orders to buy as much time as possible for any of the Yakuza’s maneuvers.

One came out with a 40mm underslung grenade launcher aimed at the nobleman until he was shot from the flanks, causing him to lay down on the floor dead. The same happened to the man that tried to pick up the rifle with the launcher. They were split between Blackbird, the new assailant, and retreat. Some chose Blackbird, falling to inexperience or emotions. Some chose the new assailant to cover those that stayed to try and get rid of Blackbird. The rest retreated to whatever rendezvous point their superiors had designated.

Blackbird heard footsteps and gunshots coming closer to him as the new assailant shifted from cover to cover, eventually getting to a pile of rubble next to him that could be accessed thanks to the gaping hole left by the explosion. It was Dorten, and he said begrudgingly to the colorful nobleman, “Hey, Birdie! We gotta find the others, regroup, and fall back! The Yakuza brought a high-ranking lieutenant of theirs! It’s one of the fucking mass murderers from the Zhenra incident!” He peeks from cover to try picking off the men that had been shooting at him that were now shooting at both him and Blackbird, with limited success.

The dust-covered De Jager continued, his helmet protecting him from the dangers of inhalation, he was controlling his breathing as well from all the physical activity that does get the heart pumping, “Tianshu ran all the way to me earlier and told me all about it, apparently the fucker’s good enough to wipe us all out if we fuck up! They’re jamming our comms so we’ll have to do things the old-fashioned way. Tianshu’s upstairs to get Qinglong, we’ll get Glady, Aria, and Bussy!” He then quickly corrects himself, “I mean Erebus!”

He peeked over again only to get forced down by a bullet that hit the debris protecting him, “Got anything explosive to get them all out of the way at once? Preferably something that does NOT collapse a ceiling!”

Interactions: OverconfidentMagi (Blackbird)

Code by Serobliss

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

IMPERIAL SECURITY DIRECTORATE

Malo Salas Vesta

Neon Blackbird

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

There had been more enemies in wait on the opposite side of the door than Malo had expected, but that only validated his choice to use a violent means of entry into the building. The display, and resulting carnage, had proven effective at shocking those within into submission. Those that were neither dead nor too injured to understand what had happened showed no signs of reaching for their weapons to try and get in a lucky shot onto the intruding noble. That was good. For all his overwhelming offensive firepower, Malo was just as susceptible to bullets as any other noble, which multiple incidents even during peacetime had proven was quite susceptible. And there was no time better than the present to test that.

Malo found the first door within reach and used his phantasma to throw the door open as his body dove through as the hallway he'd just occupied was filled with gunfire from more attackers coming to respond to his unsubtle entry. Good, the more that came to deal with him, the less would be heading towards wherever Aria and Erebus had gotten themselves. He thought about what he should do now, even as the attackers moved towards him down the hall. He didn't like his odds fighting close-quarters against so many guns. He could probably lead the group on a chase and pick them off along the way. It would take a bit of time, but disrupting this location was the idea, and he could disrupt quite a bit while on the run. Malo had decided on a course of action, but someone coming from the opposite end of the hall threw a wrench into his plans.

Why was Dorten here? Malo assumed the man capable in his own rights, but frankly Malo would prefer he just stay out of the way. Malo was completely unaware that Dorten had already likely saved his life by taking down the Yakuza grunt preparing to fire a grenade right into where Malo assumed himself safe for the moment. Dorten made his way to where Malo had taken cover inside the doorway. “Hey, Birdie! We gotta find the others, regroup, and fall back! The Yakuza brought a high-ranking lieutenant of theirs! It’s one of the fucking mass murderers from the Zhenra incident!” He nearly managed to get himself shot trying to get out the words while also returning fire at the enemy. “Tianshu ran all the way to me earlier and told me all about it, apparently the fucker’s good enough to wipe us all out if we fuck up! They’re jamming our comms so we’ll have to do things the old-fashioned way. Tianshu’s upstairs to get Qinglong, we’ll get Glady, Aria, and Bussy! I mean Erebus!”

Malo was too busy chewing on what Dorten had said about a new VIP target appearing to hear his Freudian slip towards Agent Erebus. His orders were to regroup and fall back, but... that was only if Malo cared about following ISD orders. He was only working with them to further his own goals after all. To serve and protect. To...

"... make yourself useful."​

His body shuddered from the chill he felt inside his memories, but it helped him to make up his mind.

Dorten ducked down further as another well-aimed shot took a solid bite out of the rubble protecting his insufficiently-defended head. “Got anything explosive to get them all out of the way at once? Preferably something that does NOT collapse a ceiling!”

Malo's eyes glowed a cold violet as he gathered flames into his palm and crushed them down. "... Yes, sir." He pushed the neon-shining gemstone between his lips and stepped out of hiding spot into the hall and crushed the crystal of concentrated fire between his teeth. It was worth noting that while Neon Blackbird had been the name Malo was best known, it referred to his feats as a pilot. On the ground, where he admittedly spent less time in the spotlight, he was known by another title: Saltpeter Dragon. He exhaled.

Flames like the tail end of the Blackbird's beloved winged craft's exhaust filled the hall with neon green and pink too bright and hot to keep from recoiling back from. Malo's teeth cut off the stream of fire, whisps of pink flame and green crystal coating his lips the only indicator of what he'd just done. Well, besides the unnatural sight behind him as he turned to face Dorten. The entire hallway had been completely transmuted into what looked like a crystalline tunnel. Malo had done as asked and prevented the ceiling from collapsing any further, and indeed the ceiling, walls, and floor were completely coated in a thick layer of neon crystal. This did not include the far wall where the hall turned a corner, which the jet of flame had simply continued on straight through and beyond. The Yakuza firing squad was still there as well, frozen in the positions they had taken in their last moment, their clothes, weapons, and flesh incinerated, but their bones standing as they were, made beautiful covered in neon crystal.

"Is he good enough to walk away from that unscathed?" Malo asked Dorten directly. It was one thing to hear about something, another to see it. Malo had shown Dorten his attack just now so that he could get a judgement call. Either way, Malo had already decided, he simply wished to know his chances.


Interactions: Panther (Dorten)

Code by Serobliss

 

[Panther]

Imperial Security Directorate

The Parlor Manager

Dorten de Jager

Cullan City, Cullanes, Empyria │ Dorten and Blackbird’s Point of View

Dorten remained in cover, instead looking at Blackbird as he started to use one of the aces in his sleeves. At that point, the floor completely belonged to him to perform the colorful but infernal display of his arcane power. The results were phenomenal as one could expect from an Exousiarch wielder, the corridor before them had turned into a vibrantly-colored crystalline tunnel with the crystallized skeletons of the incinerated Yakuza looking like markers that denoted the start of the tunnel. The whole thing was a work of art in its own right, others would beg to differ however what with all the skeletons. But still, it was a work of art that Dorten witnessed the making of, something that made him look in awe once more, but a different kind of awe from the one that Qinglong gave him.

Whereas Qinglong showed an impressive display of literal and brutal ‘badassery,’ Blackbird showed an otherworldly display that combined fire, crystals, and art, in a twisted way for some, that Dorten hadn’t seen before, even from other wielders of the flame. It was unique, he was sure that there might be nothing else like it in Empyria. He emerged from cover and walked through the tunnel, inspecting it and the crystallized skeletons at the end of the hallway. Truly, witnessing the man’s capabilities firsthand was a whole different thing from reading his dossiers. It was something that boosted his confidence in the team’s odds. First Qinglong, and now Blackbird. But right now, the odds were stacked against them and the De Jager wasn’t sure about their chances.

He plays safe, assuming the worst since Tianshu is the better person to ask for matters like this. With this in mind, he answers, “Maybe not unscathed, but he won’t definitively be down for the count. An open area does appear to give’im chances to evade completely. Well, this isn’t yet considering his command of the arcane. It’s going to be good considering his position. But ultimately, we’ll see.” He then looked into the continuing hallway towards the offices, motioning for the two of them to keep moving, going first, “C'mon, the intelligence-leaning folk should be in the offices ahead.” He hears footsteps and soon enough, grenade explosions, confirming his assumptions, “Yep! They’re here!” This prompted him to sprint as fast as he could to the source, only briefly delayed by two gunmen that emerged from another hallway that also lead to the same place to which he reacts by continuing to sprint, strafing them as he went.

Dorten first arrives at one of the office spaces of the floor. He was close to the office that Aria and Erebus were in considering the proximity of any further noises, here he is once again harried by a few gunmen that had closely entrenched themselves in the cubicles and team spaces in an otherwise open office. He takes cover behind a concrete pillar that was good enough to protect his whole profile. The explosions earlier and Blackbird’s recent show gave him the same or similar idea of using a grenade, he lets go of his rifle, letting the sling hold its weight as he takes two grenades from pockets in his plate carrier and places one in each hand. The individual grenades used a button protected by a cover to arm them instead of the old, but still reliable and far from obsolete, method of using pins that had to be pulled. A dial was also integrated into them so that the fuse timing could be calibrated depending on the needs of the thrower before pushing the button.

With the fuse times set and the grenades themselves armed, Dorten simultaneously throws both of them over towards the general area of the office that they were assailing him from as soon as the gunfire gradually decreased in intensity as the gunmen had to reload. A few seconds later, the sound of an explosion filled the area followed by a short silence that turned into a lengthy one. Looks like they were killed or gravely wounded by the two grenades. Dorten peeks out of cover and walks over to where the grenades detonated, and sure enough, dead bodies riddled with shrapnel were grouped close together.

Dorten looks over to see a gravely injured grunt that was moaning in pain. He had survived the blast but was profusely bleeding and missing a leg. Dorten sighed before walking over, taking hold of his rifle again and pointing it at the man’s head, “You picked the wrong side, bud. Sleep well.” He then pulls the trigger, putting the man out of his misery. He takes a deep breath before continuing, “Let’s go.”

Interactions: OverconfidentMagi (Blackbird)

Code by Serobliss

 

[voided]

Imperial Security Directorate

EREBUS

HIKARU FUKUI

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

The explosion that shook the building was enough for Hikaru to spin on her heel and turn around, aiming her gun at the doorway. There wasn’t anyone behind her, but good lord, who caused that rumbling. Was it Qinglong? She did see the woman jump into the second floor. Just from that jump alone and seeing her handle Yakuza members, she could admit that the Zhenran woman was strong. No, there were also other folks she didn’t account for; Dorten, Malo, the Yakuza and whatnot. It was too early to lower her guard. Worst case scenario, something went off and her own team got hurt.

Let’s just hope her own team blew something up.

On the bright side, the office was now dark. Just illuminated by the blue light from the computers that Aria was interested in. In short, she was in control now...

...Until she was blindsided by the noise of grenades being thrown into the room. Oh, what the hell. Clicking her tongue, she produced a tendril from her hand and slammed it into the ground, knocking the grenades back near the doorway. It wasn’t enough to suppress the explosion, but enough to make sure the explosion didn’t hurt either her or Aria. But goddamn, explosions were loud.

Loud and annoying.

“Fucking Sishy boys...” the woman muttered, letting her rifle hang as she pulled out her pistol.

The explosion would have rendered her barriers—and the doorway—useless, allowing the Yakuza to trickle in slowly. The first one Hikaru found, she fired a shot; twice in the shoulder, one in the chest, rendering the mob a nonissue. As that one fell, she leapt forward towards the next member she spotted, pistol-whipping the man upside the face before using the shadows to create a knife that soon found itself in the man’s abdomen. Once, twice, thrice. Three stabs before she kicked the man back out into the hallway.

“Fuck the information Aria, help me out. Give me a striking performance of your own.”

And with that, another gunshot. Ending the life of the pincushion in front of her.

Interactions: Panther (Dorten) / Purity (Aria)

Code by Serobliss

 

[WinterFestivity]

Imperial Security Directorate

Qinglong

Jiayi Yu

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

One by one, she felled every unfortunate soul that crossed the path of the living weapon, the glee of cutting loose never truly got old to her. This much was evident as the smile never left her face even as she wrought destruction through the halls of the office building, tearing through the pitiful attempts to stop her with relative ease, none of them were even worth her expending more effort than the upkeep of her hardlight armor and weapon.

It was then that she found her way into the employee lounge, it looked like they were going to attempt to spring a trap on her, the first semblance of intelligence she'd seen from them throughout her entire night - or that she'd noticed, anyway, as the disappearance of comms escaped her notice - it was a shame it only bought them a handful of seconds, especially when their attention was stolen by the explosion further down, no doubt associated with one of the other agents on this mission. She wasn't going to hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity granted by their hesitation, within seconds she burst into action with trained reflexes, the bullets either flattening against her armored shell or missing her entirely as the woman leaped into the air, left hand manifesting a small spike with a cord of flexible hardlight which would promptly be thrown out at the nearest Yakuza, piercing through him before swiftly pulling back - taking him with it - as she'd use the man as a bulletsponge before dissipating the hardlight and kicking him away with tremendous force into the furniture three men were hiding behind.

She'd land with surprising grace after that gesture of force. However, that grace wouldn't last for very long as it became apparent that upon her boots touching the ground, the entire floor become entirely coated with hardlight, the rest of the room following right behind it as it became blindingly bright, which resulted in her being exceedingly difficult to tell apart from the background thanks to the two matching up identically. Two of the mooks would find themselves decapitated before they even had a moment to react, and the next three would all be engulfed by a box of hardlight that would constrict on them, one would find himself hit by a knife in the chest, followed by a blade of wind that would do the rest of the work.

The last man would find himself disoriented to an unbelievable degree, the woman had just ripped apart the room and shredded every last one of his comrades, she'd repeat that hook-trick from earlier as she wrapped it around the man and promptly dragged him to her, disarming him in the process as the hardlight around the room and herself would dissipate for the moment. She'd speak again, excitement coursing through every word as she looked the man straight in the eye.

"Sorry for brutalizing your friends! Can't have you causing problems down the line, now can I? However, I think a reward is due, cause you guys offered the first bit of intelligence from the henchmen brigade that I've seen ALLL night! So I'll let you off easy, mkay? Just sit down in the corner, tie yourself up, maybe! They won't hurt you if you offer no resistance, yeah?" Her expression shifted into that of one ruminating on something as she held him there, returning to her usual smile as she let him down. "Just know that if you move or try to run, you'll probably get your brains blown out by that sniper bitch, dominatrixed by the other chick, probably incinerated or some shit, or just plain ol shot! But I hope you know that if I find out you ran, I'll gut you like a pig. Get out of my sight."

Just like that, she was gone, heading further into the building, aiming to find some way to survey the rest of the battlefield, only for her to bump into Tianshu moments later, her bloodlust and excitement subsiding as she'd appear rather... Confused, by his presence in the building. "Agent Tianshu? I thought you were to remain at a distance, has something occurred that required your presence? Or rather, my presence?"

Interactions: ♥ Panther (GM) Novelight (Tianshu) ♥

Code by Serobliss

 

[Purity]

Imperial Security Directorate

Aria

Isolde Caen

D&D, CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

Aria watched Erebus enter the room and block off the entrances without much surprise, considering she'd assumed that the other noble lady would follow her regardless.

"Now you've blocked off our escape points," she observed.

There wasn't much further discussion to be had on the matter as an explosion rocked the building and Aria held her arms out for balance, the lights above flickering a playful little dance before they all shut off entirely. She turned her attention quickly to the screens, which all flashed a warning of being on backup power and began to count down.

She knew who was behind it before even pulling up the security camera footage that ended abruptly in brilliant neon. She understood what he was capable of, read about his modus operandi, imagined spilling his viscera.

"That pompous, bigoted, trigger-happy…"

Those were just a few of the choice words she muttered under her breath about their flamboyant friend, but she didn't have the luxury of continuing her string of curses as voices echoed down the hallway. Yakuza. She turned to the holographic screen hovering above her pen with both hands and typed in some things on the keyboard that came up. The progress bar accelerated. She'd have to make do with not copying specific files.

When the grenades rolled through the gaps, Aria stamped the ground with one foot with her focus still on the progress of her little project, causing a black spike to shoot out under each grenade and launch them through the individual holes they came from. What she didn't account for was Erebus doing something similar, which threw off all the trajectories and just blew the barrier up instead.

"Maybe a team building exercise would be good when we're done with all this. Give me a couple more seconds…"

A bullet whizzed by her head, but her focus remained on the small glowing screen.

The progress bar hit 100% right as everything was suddenly blanketed in darkness. The power had gone out completely.

Several muffled shouts and screams came from the hall as the gunfire ceased. Aria conjured a small ball of light as the noises died out.

"I'm not here to give a performance, Erebus. Unlike some brightly dressed clowns on our team.”

Nevertheless, her own penchant for creative brutality came out as she walked down the hallway towards the exit and the subtle light from her palm revealed the first corpse, both blood and darkness pouring out of every orifice. The next one over was bent in impossible angles that bones definitely shouldn’t attempt, the next dismembered into several pieces but still vaguely in the original shape as if it had been put back together, the next disfigured by long, trailing cuts beyond recognition, and on and on it went for the entire hall. The shadows were still slowly moving, possessively curling around pieces of bodies as if trying to pull them into the void, and the tendrils seemed to flinch as Aria exposed their deeds to the light.

She tapped her earpiece for a second to try and listen in on comms, but all she was getting was static. Hmm. That was odd.

“Did Dorty mention what else we had to do?”

As if on cue, the door ahead shook with another round of grenade explosions, and she opened it to reveal a hall similarly riddled with bodies.

“Oh. I guess I’ll just ask him myself. Dorten, did you mention what else we had to do?”

Interactions: Panther (Dortmund) ⟡ WinterFestivity (Qinglong) ⟡ voided (Erebus) ⟡ OverconfidentMagi (Malo)

Code by Serobliss

 

[Panther]

Imperial Security Directorate

The Parlor Manager

Dorten de Jager

Cullan City, Cullanes, Empyria │ Dorten, Aria, Blackbird, and Erebus’s Point of View

As Dorten was about to move in on the suspected general location of the two ladies, he saw all the fresh corpses mangled in any number of ways in the corridor before the two ladies in question emerged from one of the doors of the other offices. They were now all together in a single hallway with Dorten sighing in relief that they were fine following the grenade explosions that he and Blackbird heard recently.

He waved to the two ladies, lowering his rifle as he walked close to them, immediately cutting to the chase, “Sup, ladies! Good to see you alive and well because we got a big BIG problemo in this’ere port-a-potty. Tianshu came running here looking like he’s ‘boutta shit ‘eself and told me that the Sishy boys got themselves some help from their upper chain, a high-up lieutenant who was personally involved in the Zhenra Incident. If you’ve done your good ol’reading, you’d know that the fucker is a mass murderer who is more than capable of taking us on by himself. He’s prolly been here since the start or came as backup. Don’t really know, and don’t care right now. What does matter is that there’s more to this port than meets the eye if there’s a high-up Sishy murderer here that’s already dealing with or dealt with one of the two other tac teams that we came in with.”

He shrugs, sneaking in a little introspection as he casually, but quickly, caps a random Yakuza grunt that came tiptoeing through the hall behind Aria and Erebus with a three-shot burst, “Ah well, as if we aren’t murderers ourselves anyway. SO, bottom line, twinkie and girls, we gotta run all the way back to the parking area we started in and group up with the two Ching Chongs, Tianshu and Qinglong. Whether we’ll retreat in good order or fight the Sishy lieutenant or both will be my and Tianshu’s guesses. All our comms are jammed but luckily, I advised any and all teams beforehand to withdraw as soon as the area gets hot. And well, I somewhat know those disappointments-to-their-parents like the back of my hand. They should be running right now with at least something in their hands to justify a big boy being here.”

He gestures over to the hall that he and Blackbird came from, “Come on, peeps! We gotta run!” He goes off immediately.

Interactions: OverconfidentMagi (Blackbird) Purity (Aria) voided (Erebus)

Code by Serobliss

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

IMPERIAL SECURITY DIRECTORATE

Malo Salas Vesta

Neon Blackbird

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

"Maybe not unscathed, but he won’t definitively be down for the count," was Dorten's assessment.

"Hmm..." Malo slipped into thought as Dorten led the way through the crystalline tunnel he'd carved through the building. The kinds of people that came to mind when he thought of surviving his dragon-breath attack head-on were all inhuman monsters that often found their way into his nightmares. If this new threat deserved a spot on such a list, then perhaps Dorten's strategy of retreating for now was the correct one. He closed his eyes and sighed a small pink flame.

"... make yourself useful."​

One of the monsters he'd been imagining spoke.

Malo opened his eyes, glowing with power as he prepared another crystalline firebomb in his fist. He seemed distracted as he walked slowly after his superior agent, and he was, but his phantasma was on auto-pilot spread ahead of them feeling around for potential threats. Behind him the crystal-lined hall dissolved back into odd-hued flame, which was sucked between Malo's fingers into the forming gem before it could spread. The charred skeletons fell and broke, the beauty that kept them standing unceremoniously taken away.

Though he arrived at where the enemy was engaged with one of the other agents that had infiltrated the building after Dorten, who sprinted loudly towards the sound of gunfire - he should be careful, that was a terrible habit to fall into - Malo's phantasma reached the enemy first. He was already disable the triggers or firing mechanisms of the first few he could find when Dorten decided on a more expeditious approach. The gunmen were discovering Malo's disruptions just in time for two grenades tossed in by Dorten to land in their midst. One of them was clever, and quick enough, to recognize the object and instantly kick it away. That was a good way to lose a leg, Malo thought as he tugged the grenade with his phantasma just enough so the grunt's foot missed. He was thankful to not actually be looking at the scene to see the despair as the man realized he'd failed and was about to die. It was always the same heartbreaking face.

"You picked the wrong side, bud. Sleep well." ... "Let’s go."

Malo looked away from the man's face only after Dorten had executed the man who'd been unfortunate enough to have his leg blown off by the explosion. "Always the same face," he muttered. Dorten had already moved on, but Malo knelt down and took a knife from the grunt's belt, pocketing it without a word. He pushed the image of the grunt's face away, into some container in his memory that held all the rest, to prioritize what was in the next room after the door opened. Agents Erebus and Aria. He'd been more concerned about their safety during the initial raid, but after learning there was a single highly-dangerous enemy Malo was now more concerned about Agent Qinglong. Based on how she'd jumped into the fight initially, she seemed the type that would pick a fight with a strong opponent. And also based on what he'd seen from her then, and Dorten's rating of his own chances, Malo's conclusion was that if Qinglong encountered the enemy first, she would certainly die.

He followed Dorten's lead back the way they'd came, but Malo stopped at the hole he'd blown in the side of the building. He stood there, looking around slowly, making no move to continue following. "Agent Alpha A," he addressed Dorten, "I will wait for Agent Qinglong." His tone stated his unwillingness to budge as much as his stance. If Dorten explicitly ordered him to continue retreating now, it would be an act of insubordination, something Malo did not wish for, but his own goals he considered far more important. To make himself useful. And to not lose anyone.


Interactions: Novelight (Tianshu) △ Panther (Dorten) ▽ WinterFestivity (Qinglong) △ voided (Erebus) ▽ Purity (Aria)

Code by Serobliss

 

[voided]

Imperial Security Directorate

EREBUS

HIKARU FUKUI

CULLAN CITY, CULLANES, EMPYRIA

“Ah, team exercise this, team exercise that...” The shadowmancer grumbled under her breath, dealing with whatever else was showing their face. ”You could have said something too! I’m not looking at you, so I have no clue what’s going on in your mind ! It’s far from my fault, y’know.”

Under the cover of the now-darkened office, Hikaru simply rolled her eyes at Aria’s next words. Not here to give a performance? Was Hikaru not allowed to make a joke based on the woman’s codename? Either the joke didn’t land, or Aria was just dense. Probably the latter. As Aria walked past, Hikaru raised a hand to her face. At first seeming to be a salute before it quickly morphed into a childish taunt. Tongue sticking out as her finger pulled down on her cheek right below her right eye.

Mission to get on Aria’s nerves is a go.

Hikaru stepped into the dark hallway, unable to see but for the light creeping in from the windows, and Aria's photomancy. As she kept going, she saw the blood and carnage that had been laid by Aria, following in her wake. Not giving a performance? This was a performance in itself! Hikaru mouthed a wow before she tapped her own earpiece. Static as well. Did the ISD invest in cheap earpieces? What a disappointment. Well, a snarky remark to Aria would have to wait.

The sound of hurried footsteps resounded on the other side of the hallway, a guard most likely. They didn't know what they were in for. There was a bang, followed by a yell which was quickly stifled, asphyxiating into a fearful cry from shadowmancy. And then, silence.

How lame.

There was no challenge. The more she killed, the more she was starting to think that she was simply better in combat than most of these Yakuza dogs. Following the tech nerd, she met up with the rest of the group; Blackbird and Dorky. Or was it Dorty? Whatever, Dorky fit this guy more. She popped up behind Aria and placed a hand on her shoulder and held up a gun to the rest of the party.

“Hey, how are Zhenran guns compared to Katsuragi ones? Are they any good?” Yep, looted from a corpse.

Oh right, the lieutenant.

“Ah, if he’s dangerous, who’s gonna get Qinglong? Unless the Zhenran ojisan already has picked her up for us. In that case, Flamboyant Twink over here can tag along with the rest of us.”

Interactions: Panther (Dorky) / Purity (Aria) / OverconfidentMagi (Blackbird)

Code by Serobliss

 

[Panther]

Imperial Security Directorate

The Parlor Manager

Dorten de Jager

Cullan City, Cullanes, Empyria │ Dorten, Aria, Blackbird, and Erebus’s Point of View

As they were on their way back to the parking lot, Dorten stopped upon the first sign of someone else stopping. He turns to look who it was and it was Blackbird, followed by everyone else. He heard the man’s intentions to stay behind and cover for them in an attempt to wait for Qinglong before Erebus made things a bit clearer for everyone after her banter with Aria by asking if Tianshu will be the one fetching Qinglong.

On the teammates front, Dorten thought the two women seemed to be getting along swimmingly, to him, some of the deepest bonds of camaraderie always started with a little shit-talking and banter aimed at getting on someone’s nerves for remembrance among others. Well, synergy or not, this was the team he’s stuck with, no sense complaining.

Back to their retreat, he protests against Blackbird’s decision to stick around, “Whohoho there, Birdie, you ain’t gon’ play hero by waiting on those two yourself here. Tianshu’s got Qinglong and they’ll run to the parking lot with us waiting for them there before we run with our tails between our asses like our lives depend on it.” He then walks into the distance.

Another random thought that he utters as he goes, “Also, ‘ojisan’ is a bit too old for that guy, wouldn’t ‘oniisan’ be a better fit? My Katsuragi speak ain’t good because I’m built different but I know some basic terms. Ah you know what? You can correct me while we’re running, Erebus. Come on, people!” He then picks up the pace, “If you have to princess carry Birdie so he moves, do so!”

Interactions: OverconfidentMagi (Blackbird) Purity (Aria) voided (Erebus)

Code by Serobliss