RP: 188604 [188604] 16: The Storm

Palace Courtyard

Small planetman. He talked very, very fast. Was this what a scared person does? Hard to remember.

The hulking robot just stared at him for a moment, five red eyes focusing inwards, whilst the four on the sizes continued to look out for an ambush. They hunched down to get a better look, but it was still head level for the square-jawed meat-soldier.

"You is... Ace? You not is... Uso?" It recollected some names, clearly having trouble remembering the information Arccos had rapidly barked to it, as well as the weird garbled transmission that they had tapped just a moment ago. Thinking for yourself was hard. Was he trying to trick them? "I am friend only Ar-cuss. I am help, if find, is. Ductor und engen-eer, I am. Taking us to Uso, is?"

Sullen rolling tones were not unlike someone drunk to the point of near unconsciousness, but it's axe was still very much braced for a stone-splitting sideswipe. It knew perfectly well that it wasn't smart, and that others may try to take advantage of that, but was willing to listen so long as their demands were satisfied.

"Taking us, then?"

Palace Exterior>

The small assortment of I'ee that Arccos had bumped into hardly seemed to notice her at first, only reacting as she patted them on the head. "Miss?", a feminine voice spoke from the Ee'ith ambassador amongst the huddled engineers; her mask displaying a sad frown. "What is happening? We cannot see, and we can barely breathe. When will the storm go away?"

The other I'ee were looking up at Arccos silently; five in total, counting the ambassador. Each of them pressed a little closer to the Freespacer for comfort, their nervous squeaks drowned out by the howling winds. "Can we come with you, Miss?", the female Ee'ith asked. "I'm scared we will die."

Interior>

Gut-Stripe's head snapped upright at the sound of something whizzing past her head, her mandibles dripping with fresh blood, and eyed the soldier who had just fired and was now hurriedly reloading. More than enough time for her to go back to maiming the screaming man beneath her: Digging her jaws back into the bloody gap in his abdomen and trying to reach beneath his rib-cage.

With an almighty tug, she finally managed to tear the heart out from within, tossing it to one side before staggering to her feet. The fighting had already made Gut-Stripe forget what she had even been doing before it started, simply revelling in the blood-shed and pain she was inflicting as she turned to the next hapless freedom fighter with a piercing screech.

Palace Exterior >

Outside, the storm had reduced visibility down to just a few feet. Even those within punching distance of one another could barely tell which side the other person was on. Only the loud booming voice and the crackle of Truffleclub could easily be distinguished... though it seemed the locals didn't quite know who's side it was on. The occasional Palace guard would take a pot-shot at the thing just as often as the attackers.

Between the Ragnarock Soldiers, the Osman Freedom Fighters, The Button-less Brigadiers, The Spacers, and the I'ee, there was really only one location of interest anyways: The Palace itself.

Soldiers from all sides seemed to be scrambling towards the structure, running inside to escape from the sand... only to then have to sort out which side one another was on before opening fire with whatever weapons they had available, once they felt safe that the iron giant outside wasn't going to follow them

Luckily for those outside, the next few explosions opened up additional pathways towards the interior!



Palace Interior >

"AYE BUN HEED AH WOCTOR!" Uso snapped, her jaw still hanging a bit loose as she held her face in place with her hand, focusing on pulling her body back together while her associates did their best to thin out the ranks of the enemy soldiers.

Then Uso overheard something calling out for her that was both Scary and Loud.

The Aspiring Tyrant would have a quick look around, between the sand, the explosions, and the gunfire she could barely tell who was who... all expect for Gut-Stripe who was busy literally tearing someone's heart out. Everything human near the wasp was busying itself with running away from the murdorable creature its its latest victim's blood sprayed the hallways.

"AKE HURE HEY HONT HILL HUT-HYPE!" Uso shouted, firing off her rockets again and heading towards McLewski, angling her shoulder blades so that the rocket exhaust would strip off what remaining clothing she had, switching on her body's own innate invisibility, leaving only her eyes and her lips visible as she rocketed past the local soldier and headed down the hallway to try and get some space between herself and the swirling melee.




Meanwhile, the Osman soldiers started to change up their tactics, fleeing the fighting, and the very stabby I'ee warrior, as much as possible, occasionally taking up defensive positions and laying down a hail of shotgun fire while the rest of their soldiers started knocking over lamps and setting fires with torches.

Of course, while Gut-Stripe was terrifying enough to keep the other soldiers away, Ace was not so lucky. Despite being fortunate so far, he finally managed to catch a shotgun blast to his leg, the exotic metals of the spacer ship shredding the meat of his muscles.

COME WITH ME MY PRECIOUS WASP FRIENDS:

If Arccos possessed a heart, chances are that looking down on these scared precious creatures it would have grown three sizes that sandy day. Of course by precious she meant giant horrifying wasp monsters. And by giant horrifying wasp monsters she meant kinda cool alien people who were affectionate, despite being... Okay, Arccos' thoughts on the I'ee were complicated and varied minute to minute.

The lanky Freespacer extended her arms and scooped up all 5 I'ee. A her lanky form and broad arm span meant that unwittingly... All those years ago, Arccos had instructed Dr. Rip D. Torr to build her for hugging large groups of I'ee. The Maker does indeed work in the strangest of ways. For just one second, Arccos felt that she understood that every moment of her life had been leading up to this point. One second later, she realised that was dumb. But hey, these guys were in trouble and should be pulled out of there.

Trudging through the storm, clutching a whole bushel of I'ee under her poncho of office, Arccos made her way to the Palace gates! To shelter! To... Well, probably not safety. That sure was a lot of soldiers, and... And was that giant glowing thing Truffleclub? When'd they get here?

McLewski Out:

Looking up at Ace as he human shielded his way over, McLewski went to answer the big guy's questions... But then Uso rocketed past, and that sure was the strangest thing he had seen. That was the aliens' leader? Did her clothes just explode off, launching her into the palace and then she disappeared? How in every hell, and space hell was she still moving? She was talking with her jaw hanging off for the love of the legendary Sand Demon of the Rainbow Dunes of Khral!

And to top it off, he was pretty sure he had now seen alien ass. And liked it. But she was super beat up, and that was just... Uncomfortable. McLewski had done all sorts of bad things in his time, but he knew he probably shouldn't be leching on bleeding women... Oh Khralbeast, was he sure that was even a woman?

He reached under his coat to extract and hand Ace a gun. One that was almost certainly his worst one. It was a clunky, rusty revolver. Not even one that used cartridges, it had powder and wadding in there. There was a very specific reason why he was handing it to Ace.

"I wasted enough 'spensive bullets already on this load'a bull, you spacefolk can't shoot for shit, an' I know you ain't gon' track me down an' be payin' fer it. This one's got six cheap shots. Th' sights are a bit askew t' the left." McLewski patted some sand from the scarf concealing his face, partially to try and smack a little sense into himself. "I just saw a flyin' lady's funparts, fella. And none done told me she could fly or turn invis'ble, so I just bin' wastin' my time and two weeks pay wortha shots..."

He turned on his heel and headed towards a window he could jump out of into the storm.

"Good luck. I'm goin' home t'my husband, wives an' chilluns..."

AI Wagon Ride:

The two bounty hunters just kept the trail on in silence after Aries' threat. It was true they couldn't hear the whining over the storm, but these were also men used to blazing desert heat, wearing six or seven layers of clothing to protect against a skin shredding storm. They didn't notice the heat either. They also weren't dumb enough to think that Aries would have stuck around here and bargained to use the data-jockey thing if she could have just left at any time.

Pickett pulled out a flaregun, shooting it over the wagon to signal... Something. Will just shook his head, knowing full well this had nowhere to go but to violence.

"Look, there's nah need t'fight," Will said, pulling the triggers on his shotgun at around the N in 'need' to sucker-punch the suit of armor with both barrels of a sawn-off shotgun; loaded with the rounds made just to take these suits out. What kind of man presented himself as trying to negotiate in a standoff just to catch someone off guard? Was 'there's no need to fight' some sort of code-word these two had to start shooting?

Will's shot wouldn't be enough to destroy Aries, even if it did hit. These things were for killing people in the suit, not the suit itself. But even if Aries batted the gun away it was enough to serve as a distraction. Pickett unfastened the horses from the wagon and grabbed the bags as Will jumped onto the back with him. The wagon would coax to a stop, as two men riding four horses rode off into the sandstorm, hauling sacks full of power armor parts, and the datajockey.

AI Wagon Ride
Aries finally got all of the limbs of the suit in working order and heating up the armor inadvertently brought some of the other systems to minimum capacity specifically the thrusters. "Ok Now I'm pissed I tried to be civil but now I'm comin for you." Aries hoped off the back of the wagon and began running after the two engaging the thrusters to boost her as well. It wasn't long before she caught up and slammed into Pickett before blasting sideways to hit some of the horses. "Give me the device NOW!!!"

Palace Interior
Ace let out a yell of pain. "Guess I ran outa luck for that one." Ace wheeled around and took the head off of the man who shot him. "Well this is just great now I have a mangled leg and a wounded shoulder." Ace quickly tied his undershirt tightly around the room and used an empty rifle nearby as a splint. "Good thing I can heal fast otherwise I'd probably bleed out. Anyways running is out of the question and I only have five bullets. Great!" Ace began his long and painful walk to the med wing. He arrived and found one of the nurses. "Excuse me but could you get a doctor I have a wound." Ace then presented her his mangled but still functioning leg and shoulder.

Queen's Slave

Once the worse of the storm had passed over the city and there was still tons of dust in the air. Daniels had the Queen's Slave entering the atmosphere and diving for the Palace area. He was working overtime at the helm with a serious look on his face as if he was making a drop of assault troops onto Mish held planet.

Errowyn suited up in her daisy, about to put her Power Armor training to good use. She waited, hearing the hiss and thumps of sand and debris against the hull of the ship as it dove into the storm. Then it fades away as the ship gotten orientated to use the wind as help in the forward thrust. Who knows what she'll meet when she exited the ship.

She was uncertain, yet determined. Her heart raced from the high influx of adrenaline flooding her body. When she got the signal she opened the hatch as the ship turned just enough to prevent sand and debri filling the cargo hold she was in and to make it easier for her to exit.

She took a running start and plowed into the storms winds and sand to quickly getting disorientated as she fell from the sky. Hoping not to plow into a buildings below. It would suck if she missed the city all together and end up out on some featureless place.

Ka-Boooom! Crunch! "Oooof!"

Wood and stone exploded from contact of the colliding weight of the Power Armor at full speeds of being pushed by the winds. Warning light flickered to life and faded as the Daisy's AI quickly compensated for the momentary disorientation of impact.

She stood up with the debris of the now ruined house falling away from her. She looked at the huddled family staring at her with fright as the sand and dust began to fill the interior of the house. "Palace?" She boomed out through the Daisy's external speakers.

The terrified family pointed in the general direction of the palace. "Tw-two miles.." Stammered out one of the occupants. "Follow the road," Another piped up.

Errowyn finished freeing herself from the debris and left via the hole she had made on landing. There was nothing she could do about that. She took off though the shrieking winds and hiss of the sand against her Power Armor. So much for the paint job. She was worried about the weapons attached to Suit. The sand would make them useless so it would be with brute force hand to hand fighting. She made her way through unfamiliar streets, hopelessly lost, not knowing if she was making any progress.

At least the worse of the storm had passed by and was lessening by the minute. She was surprised to see people moving about in the storm of this magnitude. She kept scanning the radio frequencies of the Ragnorak's and any others floating out on the airwaves...

Palace Interior
Ace decided to turn to one of his last options and use what Aries normally operated to communicate to others. "Hopefully I can operate this with out killing myself...I'd be dead either way so its no bigee hopefully luck is on my side." Ace turned on the communicator that was implanted into him and immediately got a painful migraine. "Well shit I guess it isn't well I least I got it to work without killing myself that's a plus. Now to see if I can actually reach anyone." Ace was feeling woozy from the blood loss but tuned in to his normal frequency. "This is Ace...Ugh...I need help I'm woun-Agh! Wounded pretty badly and I'm losing blood if anyone can here this I need help stat. I'm where the ship usually is. I repeat this is Ace I'm wounded at where the ship usually is need help." Ace then switched off the communicator and sat with his back against the wall. He saw a mirage of his mother before finally passing out from blood loss.

Palace...

As Leon moved to put his plan into action, he received an incoming message from one of the originals, Corgan."Sir! I am diverting all of Alpha and Beta companies to the entrance, Epsilon should be moving through the building and Gamma is up top keeping their reinforcements from getting inside the building." He reported as he started sending out orders. "I will personally meet you at the entrance with an escort. I shall have my men begin pushing into the building!" He called as he elected four men to follow him.

Exterior>

The five I'ee all cuddled onto Arccos as she swept them up in her arms, letting out a chorus of soft squeaks from beneath her poncho. "Thank you, Miss!", came the muffled voice of the Ee'ith female as the wasps shuffled about in her grasp. The wasp cuddle cluster seemed intimidated by the sound of Truffleclub's voice, snuggling in tighter against Arccos and squeaking nervously to her.

What about Sammy>

The lanky Ee'ith male was shuddering in terror, half-buried in sand in the middle of the courtyard. He and an engineer had been blown out into the open in the worst of the storm, the latter of whom now lay still and unresponsive in Sammy's grasp; buried up to her head in sand. To the Ee'ith, it was Mei all over again: Left alone in the unknown with only a corpse to keep him company, only now instead of infinite emptiness, it was a stifling whirlwind of sand.
With the winds gradually calming, and half his body submerged in sand, Sammy let out a wailing yell of fright. He was too scared to move!

Interior>

The corridor was now empty, except for the corpses of a few unlucky soldiers and Gut-Stripe, who gazed around at the carnage in disappointment. The others had run away; what did they even come here for if they simply ran when the fighting began? It made no sense, which only made the grumpy I'ee commander more irritable than usual. The calm after a battle was her least favourite part: As the adrenaline wore out and her fury subsided, she became reflective and almost a little melancholic.

Her thoughts were driven away when her antennae picked up the distant scent of smoke, and she snorted. Sabotage was petty. She felt a subtle rush of glee as her anger returned, stalking through the corridors in search of fresh meat. Her recent battle had taken a lot of her energy, however, so her progress was slow; trudging slowly in her heavy armour and scooping up firearms from the floor to check for ammunition.

Palace Courtyard

The Nepleslian was having trouble figuring out what the mushroom robot thing was going on about. He didn’t know anything about robotics, but he realized that the thing’s logic circuits must have been damaged in the crash. Either that or it was suffering because it couldn’t connect to the weird Freespacer group mind.

He spoke slowly so this Truffle guy could keep up. “I am Corgan. Is friend Ar-cuss. Uso in building, is. People try kill Uso. I take us help Uso.” Corgan would have prayed to whatever entity would listen this thing would not decide to crush him and go find Uso on its own.

Leon’s voice in his ear was the best thing he had heard all day. The men were coming to help take the palace back, although he doubted there would even be a palace left after this.

A strange wailing noise from nearby caught his attention. “Let’s see what this is first. Let me lead. If someone tries to kill me they are enemy Arccos, okay? Everyone else is friend Ar-cuss.” He said to the strange bot before walking towards the noise. When he was close enough to see it was an I’ee he ran over to check on the murdorable vespid.

He dug the creature out as best as he could. “Hey, I’m Corgan. Are you injured? I can stay with you until the rest of the men get here. I’ll have someone get you and your friend there to the Doctor.” His tone was strangely soft and comforting. Once he was sure the little I’ee wouldn’t sting him, he put his arms around them, using his large armored form to protect them from the storm.

Mt. Gleipnir...

Cyrus and the techs all looked to one another. "Is it ready?" Asked Cyrus

"Well..." The tech started.

"IS. IT. READY?" Cyrus asked again.

The Tech sighed. "Yes sir."

Cyrus looked to the two ID-SOLs and nodded. "All right. I will go first." He said moving and boarding the Soldier Delivery System, or SDS Pod. As he sat down inside the pod he plugged his suit into the makeshift sensor system on the outside, to track his progress. He did a systems check and all systems showed green. "All green on my end, how about you guys?" He asked as he strapped himself in.

"All good here Boss." One of the techs called. He moved to the terminal and a crane swung around and picked up the capsule. Cyrus was jolted in his seat as he was lifted off the ground. "Transferring to loading chamber." He said as Cyrus swung around and was set into the loader of the Railgun. The ID-SOLs also entered their pods and they were also transferred to the pods. "All pods loaded. Preparing Hammer System for fire." Another tech said over the comm.

One of the ID-SOLs opened a Squad comm. "Hey Boss, as we will be the first Drop Troops in Ragnarock, I think we need a name."

Cyrus smiled in his helmet. "I like it. Any ideas?"

The other ID-SOL pipped up then. "How about the Wyverns?"

Cyrus laughed and mentally set his callsign. "Alright boys, I am Wyvern 1. I am set you two as Wyvern 2 and 3."

"Sounds good to me Boss." Wyvern 2 replied.

"This is gonna be fucking awesome." Wyvern 3 added.

"Launch preparations complete. Load the first SDS Pod." The tech announced. Cyrus felt his pod being moved again until he stopped. He was now inside the barrel of the cannon. "Beginning charging cycle." The two magnetic rails, which propelled ordnance down the track, began to spark and crackle. Inside Cyrus's pod, he could feel electricity in the air. A huge smirk came over Cyrus's face. "Charge at optimal capacity. Launch angle optimal. Pilot status optimal. Ready to fire..."

Cyrus nodded. "See ya dirt side. Wyvern 1, Cyrus Marshal Launch!" As he spoke the words he was thrown back in his seat as the charge was released, propelling the pod down the track and out the end of the barrel.

After he left the barrel he monitored his progress in his suit. At the halfway point of his arc, a rocket fired and pushed the pod faster towards the target... A few minutes later the Palace was insight, his arrival was announced with a sonic boom that shook the walls and windows...

Palace...

Leon and his guards reached Corgan as a stream of Alpha company soldiers streamed past. "Sir, my men are moving to secure the building. Corpsman!" He called and a medic appeared. "Get our I'ee friend out of here. Sir if you will..." He didn't finish as he and the men all felt a massive shock wave as something massive struck the ground with considerable force.

Courtyard...

"Incoming!!!" Cyrus boomed over all channels as his pod struck the ground with considerable force, followed closely by his fellow Wyverns. "All units. This is Cyrus, I need a sitrep ASAP." he said blasting the the pod apart and standing up. "Holy shit that was awesome!" He called over the Wyvern squad channel. He turned on his thermal vision and was surprised to find someone in the courtyard. "Guys I got a live one!" Cyrus called he sprinted over to Sammy. Cyrus knelt down. "Ambassador! Are you okay?" He said digging Sammy out and pulling him from the sand. "Wyvern 3! Get our Ambassador to safety! 2 on my six!" He said as he checked Sammy over. "Sir, my man will get you to safety." he told Sammy as he stood and ran into the burning palace. He drew his two pistols and busted the door down. Looking like a true gunslinger as he fired on multiple targets with his weapons, dropping the attackers left and right.

Pickett & Will know how to Sandstorm:

As guns flared and horses were loosed, the two bounty hunters looked back to see a flare of light launch up into the sky. And... Already knew these suits could do that. They also knew that in the extremely limited visibility of a sandstorm it was far easier to see a team of horses than two men already covered in dust. They had willingly chosen to jump onto the largest target just as they left visibility, and so by the time Aries had managed to not get blown away by flying in gale force winds capable of flinging rebar across the city, adjust flight and steer they had already tucked and rolled off the horses.

Aries's landing managed to break the legs of one of the rear horses that Pickett had been riding, the whole team collapsing into one big pile of panic as she steered to crash into another. Innocent domestic animals that had spend the last few hours blindfolded and frightened, now crippled. And the two had disappeared into the sandstorm. As much as they didn't know what the word technology meant, it seemed they were both the type who had lived and survived off the brutal landscape of planet 188604 their entire lives.

Of course there was an element of luck to it. The only reason why they weren't visible on any sort of sensor equipment was simply because they had gotten closer to the wreck of the White Lament, which was still blasting off wave after wave of electromagnetic interference and a long gout of irradiated dust. But they were gone, along with their spoils.

All except for one piece. If Aries kept close to the ground she would manage to spot a black rectangle nearby, rapidly getting covered in sand: The Datajockey, it seemed had been abandoned. A few cracks on its body showed they had thrown it under the horses to be trampled, trying to destroy it. But it was sturdy nepleslian engineering. It... might have still been workable? Maybe?

Of Wasps and Mushrooms:

Just as Corgan was busy trying to communicate with Truffle-club, Arccos herself trundled up to stand beside the massive construct. A cluster of wasps around the lanky 'spacer's form making her appear as something like the universe's worst lollipop. She just... Took off her helmet to confirm to Truffleclub that she was the one wearing the armor, and looked around.

"So... I tried to find my friends, but they got stuck in the storm." She indicated the wasps with her chin, slipping the helmet back on. "Corgan, the houses around the palace are empty! I don't really know why but there's not really a need to... Evacuate..." Arccos looked back as her own questions were answered.

McLewski's Plan 2:

Just as Ragnarok's companies as a whole charged in to face the soldiers and save the day, Corgan, Leon and the company leading the counter-attack where rushed from behind by what seemed like a large body of reinforcements for the local soldiers. And not particularly good ones at that. Unlike the uniformed soldiers, these people seemed closer to an angry mob. Wielding an odd assortment of hunting weapons, torches and flasks of lantern oil turned firebombs. They surged past Ragnarok, firing the odd pot-shot or flinging a half-hearted firebomb but proceeded to head for what seemed to just be... The palace in general? They certainly didn't seem to have any plans: About half of them flung torches to smash in windows and set the building ablaze, while the other half just and climbed in windows to start looting.

Suddenly the environment was a great deal more hazardous to fight in. The line between enemy combatant and desperate local drew thinner as layers of dust, windblown sands, and smoke from growing fires made it near impossible to distinguish between a stupid teenager and a trained soldier.

How they'd managed to motivate all these people as yet remained a mystery. But things got worse as a window smashed outwards on the second floor of the palace. Just as rioters turned up, and in a move that was almost certainly planned out in detail. In the one area of the palace with enough cover from the storm for it to even be visible: The young Prince Jacob was flung bodily out of a second story window. Plunging down to earth only to stop just short of the paving stones as a noose around his neck tightened with a gruesome snap of bone, the Prince's head twisted sideways to an impossible angle for a living man.

And the one standing in the window who had done it wore the uniform of the Invaders' own lawmen.

McLewski didn't have a husband, or wives, or children. What he did have was a paycheck for target number two coming along, to be handed to him by the new King of Osman: The General. Those in the mob loyal to the crown seemed driven to bloodlust at the newly martyred Prince, those who didn't recognise the prince seemed driven to act more unpredictably as fear and panic mounted.

Everything was on fire.

Sammy-Exterior>

The little ambassador seemed in shock as Corgan and Cyrus came to his aid, digging him out from the sand, along with the limp, lifeless corpse of a female engineer; whether she was Ithee or Ithit was impossible to tell. Sammy's mask displayed a sad frown upon its black screen as he clung tightly onto the engineer's body, his rapid breathing producing a soft, repeating squeak of terror.

It took him a good few moments to even register the presence of his rescuers, but as soon as he did, he let out a little squeal. In a swift, desperate motion, he dropped the dead body he had been holding onto for dear life and exchanged it with Cyrus: Clinging on tight to his torso and burying his head against him for comfort. "I... I wanna go inside!", the ambassador managed to blurt out. "The storm won't go away! It wants to kill me!"

Palace Interior>

Had the entire population of this dusty, horrible planet gone insane? The throng of looting, burning locals invading the palace, even fighting amongst themselves, confused Gut-Stripe immensely. Not that it changed things much: The palace was still under attack.
While she still had the luxury of remaining undetected, the I'ee warrior searched among the dead for a suitable firearm and shield, eventually settling upon a half-loaded revolver and the body of a particularly short man.

The sight was assuredly odd: A limp, bloodied man shuffling in the direction of the looting mob filling the halls, a revolver's barrel peeking out from under his left arm-pit as Gut-Stripe hid her body behind him. She shot at the first man to turn her way, hitting him in the gut, then spent a moment figuring out how to load the next round.
The corpse in her arms lurched as buckshot eviscerated its belly, absorbing most of the force. Finally, Gut-Stripe flicked the hammer back, chambering the next round, and fired it at a boy who was busy looting the body of a dead soldier, hitting him in the shoulder.

Hissing at her poor accuracy, the I'ee quickly chambered her final round, shooting the fallen, screaming youth again before tossing the gun and corpse aside. She let loose another unearthly screech, raising her rapier and charging for the throng of looters.

Palace Interior
Ace snapped back to consciousness when he got the new gut wound but he was too weak to scream. He merely grabbed Gut-Stripes leg and said in almost a whisper. "Help." Before passing out again.

Palace Courtyard

No skin to feel the scouring wind. No nose to become intoxicated by the spreading smoke fumes. Truffleclub hardly seemed to register the wizz-crack of bolt action rifles now striking the floor precariously close to their squatting position, their considerable mass unintentionally blocking the space between two finely chiseled pillars that allowed access to that particular wing of the gardens.

They followed Corgan with difficulty, squeezing through the arches, but didn't seem to say much. Truth was, this was the first time they had ever seen a nepleslian, never mind a sentient person-sized wasp. It made weird peeping noises. There were sonic booms echoing above, even despite the bizarre air-movements above them finally calming down to a degree.

A young human in a dirty blue overcoat suddenly charged in from behind, screaming bloody hell whilst arcing a mining pickaxe above their head. The giant metal thing just plucked them off their feet unenthusiastically with one hand, barely even registering them as a threat, and gently placed them back out of harm's way. Dejected and massively confused, the wannabe god-killer then had no choice but to just wander off again, muttering to themselves.

Is this what all planets were like? Just constant wind and sand and fighting? Weren't they supposed to have loads of plants and stuff?

Deeper into their section of the courtyard, a huge blast of dirt. From a large smoldering cylinder, a somewhat more sizable human stepped out, standing head-to-shoulders to Truffleclub. Instinct told the automata that they were an enemy, but this 'cor-gun' fellow seemed to recognize them. Oh well.

The machine backed off a little, not wanting to threaten them whilst not quite understanding the situation.

Just as they were considering leaving, however, the one person they were looking for turned up completely out of the blue!... Albiet covered in yet more of those petite bug-type people-things? They were kind of like the junkers on closer inspection, but yellow and made of meat. Planets were weird.

"Ar-cuss. You are alive." They said, lumberingly, almost as if to reassure them. Perking up with enthusiasm was like watching that little distant spark of intelligence incarnate. "This is you friends? Is yellow meat-bug this Uso, them?"

A distraction. Another man, red coat, bloodshot eyes, a burning rag-and-bottle in his hands. That was a threat.

Cloudy silently turned around and made a motion like a back-handed slap, only so fast that the arm seemed to disappear for a moment, along with a good portion of the assailant's upper torso. The bottle exploded several feet behind them, fortunately away from most of the group.

They weren't angry or filled with adrenaline. If anything, Truffleclub continued to just look depressed as they turned back to Arccos, giving a pretty typical look of 'are you sure this is where you want to be?'

"Mothership is... Messy, right now... Fires, is. Fibers, is. Gas bad for your friends. EE-EM-PEE." A status report, as clear as they could make it. The facts of the matter reminded them that it wasn't like there was anywhere to run to. "Ar-cuss probably not go. Friends not go. Do not want them for getting harm. Cloudy is wanting them to not be harm."

Somewhere in the Storm
After Aries realized that the two bounty hunters weren't around she almost gave up hope. That was until she tripped over the data-jockey. "Huh now why would they just leave this here idiots." Aries decided to waste no time and hook herself into it since the sand being blown around was starting to clog up the exposed motors of the suit. Luckily the data jockey power up and Aries was able to make a jump. She decided to jump to Arccos as Ace's life signs were too weak for him to survive Aries jumping in.

Palace Courtyard
Aries blipped onto Arccoss's HUD. "Hi you miss me? Anyways Ace is in trouble his life signs are very weak and normally in a storm like this it would be hard to track him but luckily he sent out a transmission saying exactly where he is. I'll play it for you."

Ace said:

"This is Ace...Ugh...I need help I'm woun-Agh! Wounded pretty badly and I'm losing blood if anyone can here this I need help stat. I'm where the ship usually is. I repeat this is Ace I'm wounded at where the ship usually is need help."

Click to expand...

Outside

"I think I've got it..I've got it!" 8-Ball triumphantly as he finally gain a good grasp over the controls of the Ragna-Chopper. That was when the yokel told him to shoot down another ship that was airborne. "You realize this is a transport helicopter, right?" The local responded by firing a shotgun at the controls in the helicopter. 8-Ball shot the man a death-glare. "Oh you..." The pilot began to say before turning back to the now useless instruments. "Strap in. Looks like we'll be doing this using VFR!" VFR was short for Visual Flight Rules. That meant Tiberius had to be able to see. Which wasn't a problem until about three seconds after the instruments were all shot to shit.

8-Ball shot the man another death-glance. Too bad the local couldn't see it under the black mask. Seriously, that look would kill lesser men. But he had no time to dwell on cleaving mortal souls. There was a sandstorm blowing in and the chopper was airborne. It wasn't long before it was hard to tell up from down, left from right, and whether they were the chopper was experiencing some turbulence or the tail rotor gritting against the ground and possibly hacking people into itty bitty pieces. All the pair inside knew was that numerous alarms were blaring warnings for whatever reason before the chopper landed. The landing was hard, hard enough to throw anyone forward against the dashboard who wasn't strapped in, this included the man waiving around a shotgun. The man appeared to have been knocked out by the impact while 8-Ball, who practiced basic aviation safety, only had a slight case of whiplash. At least the chopper landed upright.

The pilot unstrapped himself from the chopper and stood up. His body was shaky from the crash, but he would soon recover. He looked down at his unconscious 'friend' and assessed that he wasn't in any immediate danger of dying. Who knows, maybe a few hours of sleep will do him some good?

In the meantime, 8-Ball would make his way to the Ragna-Chopper door. He opened it and was greeted with gale-force winds mixed with sand all around him. The mixture was like a modern day sand blaster. A really, really big sand blaster. One that howled like a tornado. Anyone would be crazy to go out in that storm. Unfortunately for 8-Ball, there were people going to be stuck out in that storm depending on him. That meant he had to be crazy and brave the storm to try and get back to the palace to try again with another ship. 'Some heroics...' He thought bitterly as he stepped into the storm and started a long walk to where he thought the palace was.

Tiberius walked around for minutes, possibly more, in that sand storm. His suit was having issue getting a clear signal due to the storm's interference, so he couldn't tell if he was going north, south, east, or circles. He only started to get some semblance of where he was when gunfire began ringing out in the distance. 'Ah-ha!' He thought victoriously. 'They have to be fighting over something important. And the only thing important on this rock is the palace!'

The pilot was relieved at first, but what he ended up walking into was a literal shit-storm of chaos with no less than four factions in the middle of a conflict. There were no clearly defined battle lines or commanders trying to pick sides. To be honest, Tiberius had no idea what was going on. So he continued to walk through the fray of seemingly senseless violence. He figured he had little to worry about as he was unaffiliated with anyone technically. Anyone who tried to stop him would get blasted by a heavy caliber revolver that may or may not contain exploding acid.

"This is 8-Ball, what in the name of all that is holy is going on?" He called over the radio as he entered the palace and began to get clear signal once more.

:: City ::

Errowyn charged through the howling windblown sand and debris, closing in on the palace. She began to hear gunfire and odd loud thumping sounds then more and more thumping sounds. The area was showing traces of radioactive particles mixed in with the sand. She blinks as she advanced through dust filled streets. She saw more and more people heading in one general directions and were armed with all sorted weapons and make shift fire-bombs.

With the Dust and sand filling the air and dust covered people moving about shooting at anything moving. A dead body hanging from a second story window swinging on the winds. She smiled as she knew they would not find Princess Julia as she was safe at another location very far from the palace.

She moved with careful and deliberate movements, letting the building shield her from the worse of the storms effects. It was mayhem and war over a building. She looked up into the window. Seeing a uniformed person gloating down at the locals. Not knowing if he was friend or foe. She held fire, accessing the situation.

:: PALACE ::

Errowyn slowly advanced closer to the palace back walls were there wasn't much damaged and was pretty quiet. She activated the jump-jets on the Daisy and lifted up and over the back wall onto the Palace grounds into the more quiet sedated part. She was picking up the more radio traffic between the units and individuals. She kept herself on radio silence as she moved closer to the Palace Medical Wing. She figured by now if Uso was injured, she would be there. And so far it was the quietest part of the Palace. She dashed across the grounds, plowing through the dust covered plants there, to approach the Medical Wing.

She frowned as none of the doors here were big enough to admit a full sized Daisy power armor. Windows were pretty much the same. She ran intense scans to get readings on the personnel inside. It seamed they was busy gearing up for the assault on the wing. Setting up a barricade to hold off the invaders. Whether it was friendly or enemy.

She wasn't to worried as she looked for Uso bio-signature. With the radioactive particles mixed in with the sand and dust and debris. She still got good reading, yet it was a bit fuzzy.

Palace Interior >

“uuuer auy uuuy umueu...

uubber baby buggy bubeb...

Ruber Baby Buggy Bumper...”

Uso opened her mouth wide, her jaw and face finally feeling like it was back in one piece, words now finally sounding like works again as she observed her surroundings. Ace ran off somewhere and got shot a bunch... people were trying to burn down her palace... there was an angry mob outside... and a giant robot was screaming her name. A sandstorm was keeping her trapped in the palace, and she had just discarded all her clothing so she could use her stealth.

Luckily there were some Ragna-soldiers near by,

Uso would run over to them, still invisible, and shout, “I need this!” As she grabbed the datapad and the 10mm from the nearest soldier before shoving him aside and heading back down the hallway. She quickly sent out a message on the all hands channel,
“Who brought the giant robot? Is that ours?!”

Uso then quickly arranged the next few moments of her life based on what she needed to accomplish in the next few seconds.

Armed, and her face now free of shotgun pellets, Uso rocketed back towards the main hallway, the blast from the Chemical Rocket Thrust organs in her shoulder blades shaking the palace slightly as she made a rocket powered leap back towards Gut-Stripe, bounding along the floor, then walls, then ceiling with amazing speed. That little insect was adorable... she wanted to keep it as a pet! It would do her no good to let the locals shotgun it to death.

One of those locals had just been shot by Gut-Stripe, and the rest were getting into position, readying a line of shotguns at the insect as she charged forward... but at the last second the flying, cat-like blur armed with a machine gun seemed to be the bigger threat, a hail of shotgun-fired spacer-metals flying over Gut-Stripe's head as they tried to hit Uso

*BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM*

Of course, there was no time for sitting around and killing all of these guys... even at high speeds Uso's NH-7 body would be able to put bullets in a few of them as she passed by. The remaining soldiers could have chased after her... but there was a sword wielding but approaching! Those that could gripped their shotguns like bats, and prepared to do their best to defend themselves from a stabby death.




Palace, Medical Wing>

When Uso arrived in the medical wing. All she'd find was a shot up Ace, and a power armored someone... all of their doctors were either out in the city doing who knows what, or stuck onboard the Queen's Slave for the duration.

“OH SHIT HELLCAT!”

It took a few moments for Uso to put 2 and 2 together. After all only one person in several light years owned that kind of armor.

She also saw ace bleeding out from a series of shotgun wounds on the leg and chest.

“We need to clear this place of Baddies....” Uso said, pressing the barrel of her 10mm up against her middle finger.

*BAM*

“Do what you need to do, this situation is going sideways.” Uso would hold her hand over Ace, the gap where her finger used to be dribbling her blood out onto his chest, and then onto his leg. The nanomachines inside starting to stick up his body... sure he'd probably die of heavy metal poisoning in a few days... but they had doctors that could fix that.

“I guess just kill anyone that looks at you funny.”



Uso then dashed back out of the medical area, and right into the angry mob from outside, They would put an actual pitch-form right into her stomach, and she would give them all of the remaining bullets from her 10mm.