RP [Strays] The Higaflan Mutant Crisis

[iaincarter]

Freehold - The Great Cerg
Tunnels - Tunnels

For a moment, Huthang was torn between smacking his face in disbelief, or the slightly more laborious option of getting out of his cockpit, crossing over to Joe's Crookback to drag it's pilot out for a well-deserved punch in the face. The latter was a lot more effort, but Huthang held out the vain hope that it might actually knock a few more of Joe's brain cells loose from whatever prison they were locked within. The mutant was so disillusioned with his current superior Stray that he had become increasingly sure that brain damage couldn't actually worsen Joe's personality or abilities in any way.

At any rate, such wishful thinking would have to wait. The emerging enemy mech was of much greater and immediate concern, even if it's initial movements implied that the pilot wasn't experienced with utilising his machine. Huthang had known battle-maniacs in the past who learned swiftest under the pressure of battle and he had no desire to make a blind wager that this opponent was not such a person. That meant there was exactly no time for Joe's particular brand of prevarication that might be considered cowardice under a certain light.

Deciding that he would have to take action, Huthang activated the lance's comm channel. "Titania, co-ordinate with the other faeries. Get our mirage nanites in the air. I want a one-way illusion projected two metres in front of us that shows the tunnel ahead as being empty for anyone looking at us from the barge's side." Sure, there was only twenty metres of tunnel around the corner, but the longer they could keep the enemy from noticing them, the better. "Once you're ready, kick on the jump jets and we'll glide around the corner a metre above the ground."

Huthang began slowly moving his Sun Scorpion forwards, positioning his machine best for the following swing around the bend in the tunnel once the faeries were ready. He also began preparing the glassmaker to fire, hoping the jury-rigged repairs would at least allow him a good shot or two before giving out. "I'm hitting him with my glassmaker. If you have any radioactive weaponry, use it. If we don't kill it outright, maybe we can fake the pilot into thinking he has a radiation leak and make him bail."

"Mirage is up, Huthang, bringing jump jets online." Nodding towards his faerie's display, Huthang acknowledged Titania with a nod towards the faerie's holoprojection. With a little shakiness that smoothed out after naught but a moment, the Sun Scorpion slowly rose off of the floor of the tunnel. With a light hand on the controls Huthang moved the mech forwards, applying greater yaw to the rear of the Scorpion as he did, causing it to smoothly drift around the corner. As soon as the turn was complete, he pulled his foot from the pedal controlling the jump jets, causing Titania to lower the Scorpion back onto its legs.

"Fire in the hole!" Carefully placing the targeting reticule over the centre of the squid-like mech, using the red pattern of lights as a crosshair, Huthang triggered the glassmaker to fire. The background hum of his mech feverishly increased in pitch before there was a loud crack of superheated and displaced air that Huthang could feel through the seat of his cockpit as much as he heard it. A bright golden beam of energy, the size of a tree trunk, shot forth from the Scorpion - five seconds of actinic glory that lanced towards the enemy.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Front of the Barge

Yamog wasted a lot of time getting it together, there was no sugar coating it- For a moment they contemplated having Deimos project some more convenient monitor readouts as holographic panels directly in front of her face, but the bleeding, ruined, faceplate staring at her mere inches away was more than just horrifying and undignified, it was a liability- Cyborgs like these could recover from the most ridiculous wounds, sometimes- She watched a whole internep video about it!- Sometimes they didn't even have real brains in their heads, just a remote chip puppeteering the body from somewhere else...

Joanna's mech thus left them behind after valiantly taking that shot for the spider girl, and Yamog was forced to waste even more time trying to angle the armor away from the line of fire, opening the canopy again, having Deimos temporarily take control of the lasers again, firing along the floor to dissuade further borders- and then kicking upwards like crazy, whilst trying not to expose their body directly to the lead-raining void-

Light and shadow flickered in a dizzying display of dust, whizzing tracers, angry hud alarms, and blind carnage-

The body was dislodged- Her headrest exploded- Another shot hit the curved underside of her canopy, and reflected down, directly puncturing her suit with a sickeningly audible pop-

Was she hit? Somewhere just below her left upper armpit? She couldn't feel anything? Was that adrenaline blunting the pain?

Hatch closed. Hatch closed. Close the fucking hatch again-

This wasn't logical, human thinking anymore- Her screaming animal instincts drove her to just move- drag herself out of this, fire freaking everything, as soon as possible-

In effect, they surged ahead at an angle, crossing paths underneath Joanna's metal frame as they boosted backwards through the void, overhead- A continuous staccato chain fire of macro-missiles, spraying out of their hexagonal left side pods- A cognition somewhere between the spider girl and her fairy, the shots went from exploding uselessly in the dirt, to hitting the lower skirts of armour, to panging in and around the assembly of that gigantic glowing barrel-

This wasn't aiming, this was being so overwhelmingly furious that the enemy wouldn't be allowed to focus either-

Was it enough to divert the impending blast away from her comrade?

Would the Proboscis' ammo last long enough to get lucky, or would she be left empty handed in the open, when this thing finally fired?

 

[Commissar Farzi]

Luk didn't even hesitate-with a roar that shook the cavern he slammed into the techies; grabbing the biggest, and heaviest object-that being the crew served weapon they'd been so helpful to provide so large a blunt instrument; he swung it in one hand as grabbed a man by the throat and squeezed even as he hurled him into this fellows. Wayfinder could only imagine the sheer panic the big mutie was causing as he plunged into their ranks.

She heard the wet splat of a melon busting-chances were he'd likely just crushed someone's skull.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Tunnels

Like a weighted balloon the heavy squid mech pulled itself from it's bay with a wrenching of metal frames as it turned a rectangular bay door into an ovaloid bowed shape before it sank briefly as it's anti-grav unit adjusted to the change in depth causing it to bob slightly like a buoy on a chain in the waves before it steadied. The mech was clearly slow. That much was evident as it's every move required it to adjust with a series of retro thrusters to turn and maneuver while a massive central grav-chute in a protective duct acted as primary thrust and kept the octoid-mecha aloft while under it eight long serpentine mechadendrites ending in hose-nozzle like apatures that glowed in thermal with the heat of contained energy flicked and flopped around without purpose.

At least until it was attacked. Huthangs sun-scorpion dug all it's six legs into the deck and minutely adjusted thanks to his fairy to compensate for the incoming recoil as there was a brief glow from the tip of the scorpions tail as it came up off the ground and loomed over the mecha before the Gyros locked into place and like a mirror catching the sun in someones eyes in passing glimmered before the mech rattled and shook with the vibration of the weapon as a tree-trunk thick beam of golden light passed instantaneously from the tail-mounted weapon to the surface of the enemy mecha and pulled up and back against the recoil as the Gyros fought to keep the weapon straight.

Huthang couldn't see the result. In the dark and so close to his target the tunnel was briefly turned to day and then even brighter as light was reflected against the mirage nanites. But if he could see it what he would have bore witness was the Glassmaker striking an instantaneous red-orange gash on the surface of the mecha as it superheated durrandium plates but then traveled up across the mecha as the force of the beam pushed the mecha around and away like a balloon on the wind as it jerked away from his laser and collided with the barge and then away again as Huthangs beam then passed into the open vehicle bay and then continued up into the softer and less armored interior where the recoil continued to pull upwards as it cut into the ceiling and then up several decks and out the top of the barge before it cut a gut in the ceiling of the tunnel and the tail whipped back behind his mecha as the Gyros whined.


Blinking away sunspots Huthang at first may have thought he destroyed the Mecha outright due to seeing only a mess of red-orange glowing metal where it had once been. But then, from the darkness, four red lights rose from where the only slightly damaged mecha had been pushed as four of it's tentacles on the front pointing towards Huthangs side, and four behind it rose.

And like eight smaller versions of Huthangs Glass Maker, the tunnel erupted into a disco of whipping lasers flailing all about like out of control fire hoses of red energy.

Luk had just crushed another sack of meat with his heavy pummeling stick (a heavy burst laser) when the deck beneath him got suddenly hot enough to feel even through his boots and suit. He was able to look down long enough to see the deck glow orange and buckle slightly off to his side before the pillar of golden light ripped up the deck several feet next to him as thick as his torso and close enough that he went momentarily blind and stumbled back; Saving his life in the process as he fell backwards over the railing, only managing to catch himself with a single hand on the railing as he dangled. Blinking away the red spots in his eyes he was able to look over to his side and make a double-take as suddenly he found himself face-to-plate with the side of a massive floating sphere of metal and tentacles that rose started lancing in every single direction including the side of its own mother-barge!

A barge which very pointedly seemed to now be on fire bellow Luk and climbing where the stubby barrel of a plasma gun now hung lame and impotently as the last of Joannas and Yamogs salvo collided with the side of the barge; Effectively silencing the last of it's resistance even as a stray macromissile from Yamog struck into an errant breach and exploded inside.

They saw it too. There was a sudden and short lived flash of intensely bright golden light on the other side of the barge before the massive heavy-mecha was pushed onto the side of the barge with it's back to them. It mattered little as from one trial to another after defeating the Tech-Scums ambush and their barge the mega-mecha hovered ominously off the ground and without needing to even look at them rose half of it's eight tentacles behind it in their direction and erupted small but continuous beams of ruby-red light that lanced about and trailed momentarily up their mechs frames causing minor damage as they continued to dodge but whipped about erratically with a seeming complexity to control or keep on target as the red lasers trailed after them, over Luks mech, and chased after the two mobile mecha only to overcorrect and glance beams of energy over their armor that while not overtly as harmful as a larger weapon burned away anti-beam coatings on their armored exterior and left deep grooves in their armor like shoddy welds that begged only a moment longer that could if hitting any location for longer than a second or two could potentially melt through their armor as the four tentacles on their side and something it was firing at with four others on it's other side whipped about all the same as the squid-mecha bobbed up and down in place content to idle on it's grave chute and retro-thrusters to stay aloft like a floating fortress...

 

[Charaa]

Tunnels

Where Vega wanted to exercise caution and attempt communication with the strange creature, her new teammates had other ideas. The situation quickly escalated, and it became clear that diplomacy wasn’t on the table. She had barely begun considering how to engage with the peculiar squid-mech when Bell, her Fairy AI companion, chimed in with a swift warning, alerting her to the plan the others had devised with Huthang.

“Vega, our mirage nanites have been set up to create a one-way illusion projected two meters in front of us,” Bell explained calmly, “showing the tunnel ahead as empty for anyone observing us from the barge’s side.”

Vega's eyes darted to her sensors, already visualizing how the illusion would distort their position, creating a false impression of an unoccupied tunnel. The nanites were working in concert to deceive any potential threats, masking their approach. It was a clever trick, but Vega barely had time to appreciate the strategy before another part of the plan came through—this time from Huthang. He had made his intentions clear: he was going to deploy his Glassmaker weapon. And worse yet, if anyone had radioactive weaponry, they were encouraged to use it.

Vega sighed, feeling her hopes for a peaceful resolution quickly slipping away. “Couldn’t even get a chance to talk,” she muttered under her breath. It wasn’t that she disagreed with the urgency of the situation, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to the strange creature than her teammates were willing to consider. Yet, there was no time to argue.
Her fingers moved over the controls, activating her Hyper Laser system. The power hum of the weapon charging filled her cockpit as her focus shifted to the task at hand. Bell, always one step ahead, initiated the jump jets on her Mech, propelling Vega backwards into a more strategic position. The sudden burst of motion sent her Mech soaring through the air, and as it landed smoothly in its new vantage point, Vega’s eyes narrowed, locking onto the target.

The Hyper Laser fired, its piercing beam cutting through the tunnel's murky atmosphere with deadly precision. Vega had hoped for a chance to communicate, to understand what or who they were dealing with, but the moment for diplomacy had passed. Now it was all about survival and outmaneuvering whatever threat lurked in the tunnel.
Vega groaned in pain as the tunnel became very bright for her eyes, due to both of their attacks.

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold - The Great Cerg
Tunnels - Tunnels

Huthang groaned, trying to aggressively blink the sunspots out of his vision and in the main failing to do so. "Okay, let's not do that again...at least not without a much heavier set of goggles on hand..." Having for the moment forgotten the impending threat provided by the enemy, the mutant continued feeling sorry for himself as he muttered and grumbled to himself. "Huthang, Huthang!, Huthang!, HUTHANG!!!" Titania finally succeeded in capturing her partner's attention, even if she had to practically scream at the end there.

The pilot felt himself focusing once more and realised that the enemy was not as much in the way of defeated as Huthang had initially hoped. He gave his head a quick shake to dispel the last of the spots dotting his vision. "Um, try turning the mirage screen fully reflective, see if you can't cause some of the incoming laser light to deflect away from friendlies." He nudged the controls, shifting the Sun Scorpion to the side and partially up the wall in order to allow the rest of the team room to move up beside him.

Deciding that he didn't want to risk causing further damage to the tunnel ceiling and possibly trigger a cave-in, Huthang switched his weapon controls from the glassmaker to the macro lasers and pulled the trigger with an appropriate warcry "RAAAAGH!". While they didn't have the overwhelming power of the Scorpion's primary weapon, the fact they would shoot beams of blue energy down range twice per second meant that it would be a good distraction. Hopefully good enough to let Joe, Lisa and Vega move up and get their own cathartic piece of the action.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Rear-Side Of The Octo-Mech

Much like Vega, the four-armed spider felt a pang of sympathy over the situation. In the cold guts of this dead planet, there were only so many ways to survive, and this made the savage desperation of these degenerate cyborgs hauntingly familiar. There were many dice rolls in all of their lives, many degenerate and forgotten situations that could have seen their places switched in the here and now.

That potential connection was precious, wasn't it? Weren't these corrupted raiders more alike, compared to the pureblooded high-flying sycophants of Yamatai or Nepleslia's upper echelons?... Wasn't it a shame that they were all stuck down here, killing each other in the filth?...

As the automatic glare-tint of Yamog's canopy faded, and let the scorching strobe of the barge's broken power units back inside, her singular eye opened slowly, the yellow sclera gleaming like a beacon of omnidirectional, cold malice within the flickering gloom.

Yes, they are equals. I respect them. A thought lingered, mercurial emotions reversing directions with an unhinged, pulsing shudder. And to spill blood, that is what has made us both what we are... So I should meet their uncouth aggression equally, shouldn't I?

Was Sir Caleb even still alive?

With the definitive pop-clunk of unlocking servomotors, Yamog leaned forward, ratcheting the throttle all the way forward.

Redshift. The thudding of gigantic, clawed treads. The Savage Proboscis used it's angled thrusters to push forwards and maintain balance only. It was a nightmare to control even with four hands, sending intense juddering vibrations that threatened to blister her palms, if not dislocate a wrist.

The chainsaw arm swung sideways, and then upwards- Providing the inertia to throw themselves into the air-

They just had to get inside the tentacle's arc. It was something that the other, obscured attacking units couldn't do, attacking from the front? And hopefully it would put her at an angle, where she wouldn't be chewed to bits by friendly fire?

Maybe a crazy, savage little machine like hers could clatter through the distraction, and see what work her sanctified blade could do to the inner hinges of those massive arms...

 

[StrikeWyvernX02S]

Joanna raised her arm to her face to cover her eyes from the short yet bright flash of light as the barge bursts into flames, lowering it down as soon as the glow lessened. With her and Yamog's combined full burst salvo eliminating the Techscum's barge from the picture, Joanna's attention now moves over to the other side of the barge, to the large floating ball with laser-firing tentacles which is now marked on her HUD. As much as she wants to get in and rain hell on it up close, the damage on her unit would make such a tactic too reckless, so she decides to hang back and focus more on dodging the beams flinging around the tunnel. She fires off her mech's boosters, blowing off dust around her as a beam makes its way to her position, attempting to run from it.

"Huthang seems to be trying to take the enemy's attention," Ilayd said, "see if an opportunity presents itself."

Knowing what Ilayd is implying, Joanna waits for a moment where the rave of beams stops chasing her around. She plans to rush in and fire her Hyper Laser and missiles at the base of one of the tentacles.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Tunnels

Despite it's considerable size and class the tentacled horror of a floating spheroid mecha did not have armor to match. A fluke by any sense from it's angle had allowed it to survive Huthangs Glassmaker but under the onslaught of an over-strength lance the enemy orb began to wilt. Clearly lighter than it appeared to stay airborne most of its armor seemed relegated to a series of overlapping plates on its rounded mass that when the first one was warped and broken enough to fall off even Huthangs lighter Macro Lasers scored a hit that penetrated in and did not soak or reflect but caused the enemy pilot or intelligence to take notice and begin rotating and bobbing the mechs mass to move an increasing amount of vulnerabilities that were becoming exposed.

As it rotated the set of red-pannels that constituted the front of the mech swivelled on time to see a mass of thousands of pounds of durrandium and thorium flying at it as Yamogs flyswatter dug its chains teeth into a whipping metallic hose causing it to bat out of the way only for the mechs mass to come back down on the tentacle and as it hit the ground unintentionally anchor the tentacle to the ground under its weight and arrest the rotational force of the floating mecha which could no longer simple turn its devastated sides out of fire which increased as from one side the tripple-barreled beams of Vegas Hyper lasers and Huthangs Macro Lasers were met with the heavier impacts from one of Joes heavy lasers penetrating through the mecha and causing an orange glow before blowing the pannel out from the other side; While on the other side a series of Macromissiles and Hyper Lasers from Joanna and close-range ranking from Yamog crippled it's offensive weaponry while with increasing numbers plates began to fall off damaged or spent and munitions began puncturing into the interior of the massive balloon of a warmachine but never quite scoring any critical damage eluding to a more centralized interior set of mechanisms.

At least that was until it finally gave up the ghost and it's grav-unit malfunctioned from the damage.

It did not cut out or sputter. Instead something clearly critical to maintaining it's equilibrium malfunctioned and the hood of the chute under the mecha exploded its protective flanges outwards as it overpressured and delivered a stream of pure anti-gravitic force pulling the mech upwards and even out from under Yamogs mech as it flew up, smashed into the ceiling of the tunnel with cringing force that dislodged several pannels on the tunnel with a series of sparks, and then began trailing against the ceiling, the wall, the ground, and all around like a deflating balloon that nearly impacted several of the Strays Mechs before with a final sputter the grav-unit cut off and it struck the ground of the tunnel and rolled several meters on it's side like a dented soccerball before it lay still and unmoving; All the lights and apparatus on the machine dull and dimming before they went dark with its machine-death...

In the tunnels a barge sat full of holes, some alight with dimming fire in the lack of air as combustibles exhausted themselves, several dozen lights of unmoving forms lay strewn about where their operators had fallen, and one large funnel-mech lay limply like a dead squid out of water with a long set of now innert laser-funnel tentacles strewn about it like intestines pulled out of it. Only the strays in their mechs were still standing, as well as one form still caught on the railing of the barge as Luk flailed about like a hanging pinata.

"Hot damn!" Lisa broke the silence as her Psycho Frame carefully dismounted from Huthangs Sun Scorpion and looked about, her spotlights highlighting various points of interest as she maglocked her SK to the side of her armor and strode forwards towards the other half of the now united Strays contingent of the Terror Wolves in the tunnels. "Ya'll really went out of tha fryin pan on this one!" She remarked, one of the armors hands clapping against its large power-claw in celebration not that any of them could hear it.

"Yeah... Yeaaaah." Joe started, and then drew out as if coming to a realization. "Would'a been all over for you lot if we hadn't come by lookin for your lot. Bet that's worth something, saving youse guys bacon and all; I'd say worth at least two thirds of the salvage for coming to the rescue wouldn't you say Chi-" The little mutant paused over the radio as his Mech swiveled left, and then right, it's spotlights trailing about before coming to sit on the still stationary and inactive Highwayman mech sitting where it had been parked and powered down the entire fight.

"Hey, Where's Roger at?" Mutant Joe wondered out loud...

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold - The Great Cerg
Tunnels - Cave/Camp

Huthang ignored the fact that Joe was flapping his gums again, choosing instead to move his sun scorpion closer to the rest of the strays before powering down. There was vital work that needed doing to secure their position. "Titania, run whatever system checks you can and put together a list of what you think we can fix out here. I'll be back in a bit." The mutant pulled his Judge revolver from his personal effects storage along with the reloads before retrieving his trusty bone knife. He exited the cockpit and descended to the floor of the cave. Huthang took a quick look around before fixing the burning wreck of the barge as his starting point.

Moving methodically around the cave in an anti-clockwise direction, Huthang began checking the life-signs of the downed Tech Scum by poking the end of his knife into their fleshy bits. If any of them were still alive enough to react, well, he had a Zen Armaments .45 cartridge with their name on it to correct that unfortunate state of affairs. Under other circumstances, Huthang might have been tempted to slit their throats and let them bleed out - but that would still leave them capable of acting in their last moments so it was better to avoid the risk of them pulling a piece, or worse, a grenade.

Once he was sure all of the enemy would stay down, he'd circle back around and start stripping them down for anything useful. The eldritch mutant actually felt himself get a little nostalgic, being reminded of how he had similarly spent many of his teenage years in the tunnels deep below Funky City. Just like back then, he was once again doing what was necessary to protect his people from those that would do them harm.

 

[Commissar Farzi]

Luk promptly lost his grip-just in time for Wayfinder to catch him in his cockpit as he landed headfirst in the pilot's seat, struggling to right himself even as Wayfinder sealed the cockpit. The sounds of him struggling, with the fairy disabling the controls to prevent any mishaps as he finally got himself facing upwards after slamming into the control pannels a few times.

The fae wondered if she should have let him drop, and decided against it-if anything he was good at making their enemies shit themselves and cry.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

The occasional thudding vibration let Huthang know he was being followed despite the lack of sound. Twisted and macabre, the backlit form of the Savage Proboscis was not exactly comforting... The way it skulked, grasped at the dirt, winded up its chewing blade... It almost seemed to be hungry for further death, rather than merely keeping an eye on him. The malicious, blood-drunk swagger of combat did not seem to have left the fairy's psyche just yet.

<"Be watching your darlin' noggin' for snipers, our boy Huthang..."> Yamog sounded parched, drained. <"I've heard tell those spacer coilguns can pop a mindy...">

Rather than just be abrasive, she was actually looking out for him, whilst tuning through radio channels with her lower right hand.

<"Roger? Caleb? Are any of you still alive?"> Another tired drawl. <"Might any of my darling knights still draw breath?...">

Deimos was running scans for FoF signals at the same time. The static hiss of leaking radiation from all of that ancient, defective spacer tech-shit didn't really help...

<"Joe, your destiny has brought you to a divine path... Please do not sully it with chatter of worldly goods... If we can't find the rest of us, we wouldn't even know how to divide it...">

 

[StrikeWyvernX02S]

Joanna breathes a sigh of relief as the fight is done, for now, and looks to assess the situation. Her eyes swipe between her instruments and the rest of the squad around her. She overhears the different situations happening across the Strays, but she focuses instead on her own set of worries, that being the damages her unit sustained and of course, the recently defeated floating ball of parts that's just begging to be salvaged, though she prioritizes getting something done about the damages instead.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Tunnels

Cursory glances at the dead and the way the wreckage from the fight was strewn about were less than fruitful with everything scattered and disorganized as it was. Bodies, all over the place had minor personal effects, simplistic weapons like coilguns, lasers, and battery railguns of various qualities while EVA or hardsuits were less than that the Strays had to their name with the added addition of large or small holes puncturing them and their now dead occupants.

The Barge and Mecha were the real prizes though the former wasn't fully navigable yet filled with smoke as it was and would require a more intricate salvage job while the latter would have to be intricately taken apart for anything sans the laser nozzles or the surprisingly easy to removed armored plates which went towards simplistic repairs to cover fresh laser burns and the like over now exposed armored segments lacking the anti-energy coating all the corporations mechs were treated with.

All in all they would have to come back for their prizes to transport anything valuable back to the factories for their claim and couldn't rightly utilize anything just yet. It was nothing new; With most operations the Terror Wolves partook in getting second and even third operational deployments just to recover the spoils of war if the contractor couldn't be pressured or gaslit into recovering it for them. But it equally left a sour taste in the mouth to leave perfectly good salvage just laying around...

For the most part all they could do was fix up their machines and salvage the Strays camp which was in equal parts scattered and destroyed. Yamog found what was left of her knights this way; Her Flyswatter was still intact though had popped several servo and hydraulic hoses in the legs which were easy repairs there was an uneasy vibration under her legs as her unique choice of weaponry whirred with a number of bent of broken teeth and a loose chain which would need to be tightened.

She found them where the fight had all begun. Two forms, lights on their hardsuits active again collecting corpses and dragging them over to a pile to scrounge through. Lacking the IFF identifiers by virtue of not being a part of the corporation and not being issued Fairys it took dismounting and meeting them on their level to identify Micah and Tindal as the former used a roll of shiny chrome tape to seal up a web of cracks on Tindals visor while he studiously examined a Techies weapon as he managed to figure out the catch release and accidentally dump the few remaining cartridges out to slowly fall to the ground causing the knight to casually toss the weapon aside.

They noticed Yamogs mech approach and her dismount as Micah took a knee and Tindal lowered himself as much as he could with the clamp-like brace on one of his legs that he had applied keeping it ram-rod straight.

"My lady." They both greeted in unison.

In the fight Tindal had been covering Joanna and had taken significant damage though he played it off as just another scuff, the Knight Errant of Yamogs order didn't disaude the mystic from clucking over him and noting that if not for the heavily-armored Barghest Hardsuit that the knight would have suffered significantly worse than a broken leg, several bruised ribs, and a few minor punctures already sealed. Micah, ever the quiet one, had gotten off significantly unharmed and had been on the periphery of the battle seeing less overall action but holding his own against no less than six of the tech scum and managing to kill all but one in the short fight.

Hesitantly, They showed her Calebs body when prompted.

Caleb had been on watch and the first one engaged. Holding his own against the entire vanguard who had jammed his comms and tried to take him out silently his body had been stripped of his hardsuit, weapons, and all equipment and even most of his underclothes and showed a morbid display of the wounds it had taken to put him down. His short but messy chesnut hair was lost on one side from radiation burns on Rogers Worlds from the Devils Deathbell and his face had contorted slightly from a tumor in his thighroid that made his face slightly puffy but other than that his head and face remained unblemished from any wounds save a small trickle of blood from his nose. Kind blue eyes looked up without recognition and his lips were parted to show a gap-toothed crown of teeth.

Ser Caleb Gale of Tullshire couldn't have looked more than twenty years old if one could read past the early mutations skewing his features. A young squire from Rogers World IV he had been a part of the cavalry charge against the Slugs when he took up his lords armor and mantle when the man had been blinded by the nuke-flash and made an account of himself as a dragoon. He had been knighted and was one of the first batch of Rogerians to follow Yamog offworld.

In the thick metal plating of the tunnel there was nowhere to bury him. And neither Tindal nor Micah were keep to make a cairne out of scrap to leave him. Wrapping their comrade in a tarp they tied the body to the hood of their anti-grav skimmer as Tindal, less mobile, stayed with Yamog while Micah searched around looking for Calebs sword.

"Twas a good death," Tindal remarked with surprising pride to his tone as he stood with Yamog. "A score- Nay, two score at least to make Cal fall and even in death he would not drop his blade they had to pry it from his hands because not a one of them had the honor to meet him and take it while he was alive!" The knight winced as he slammed a gauntleted fist to his chest and caused a flare of pain to shoot up from his bruised ribs.

He paused after that, the glow in his visor not so much showing Tindals face but by the angle it was clear he was watching Yamog from his peripheral. There was a long pause before he spoke again.

"We haven't had many dead yet in the order." He admitted, "A few but mostly those who have gone out and not come back. We stand vigil for them though we know they wont return but Cal is the first to actually... We haven't yet- We dont-" He struggled to come up with the words as he gestured towards the body.

"He wants to know what you want us to do with his body." Micah spoke up over the comms, the other knight coming back with a bundle wrapped in a smaller tarp from which the pommel of Calebs power blade protruded.

=======

They found chips shortly after it became clear the fighting wasn't going to start up again. It was Huthang, actually, who stumbled upon him in his scrounging when the Octoid-mutant came face to face with the same interesting observer that Yamog had. Flat against the ground and hidden under some kind of makeshift ghillie of tarps and detritus to resemble just any other pile of wires and scrap on the ground the glowing dotted visor of red lights studied the pointed barrel of Huthangs pistol pointed at it when the mutant noticed too late he was not alone.

The observer rose. And kept rising until it stood some nine foot tall and loomed over Huthang in a dark jumbled mess of hanging fibre-optic wires, devices, loops, and somewhere buried underneath the outline of a hardsuit that implied that at least half of the voidfolks mass was it's disguise as it stood nine foot tall and close to half that at the shoulders it stared down at Huthang from above and through its tech visor as four arms slowly pushed out of the disguise cloak to push it apart and reveal a third set of arms holding Chips up like one might improperly hold a child or a cat for inspection.

"Oi." Chips growled, looking up first at the observer and then down to Huthang before doing a double take.

"Huth? Rads, man what is you doing down- Will you put me down already you big skeleton-lookin-" Chips was cut off as he was dropped the four foot down to the plated ground where he recovered himself and looked about.

========

Tunnels

The strays, all of them stood dismounted with their mechs lining the walls of the tunnel as with a work of the Fairys and a small personal canister of Mirage nanites made up a hologram of the tunnel map system with Joes lance input on the direction they had covered in a dark shade of danger red.

"That vault wasn't cracked the last time we was down here." Chips intoned gravely as the Observer spoke up having gotten a connection to the Strays shared proximity net.

"Bhris an fheadhainn a chaidh air chall an seilear fhosgladh o chionn trì cuairtean deug" It spoke in a genderless, machine monotone as several unnaturally long machine arms left its cloak to gesture at the red zone.

"The Pathfinder says a group went that way like thirteen days ago and after that the junkers started appearing." Chips Fairy, Snacks, translated.

The Observer did not give a name but through a game of telephone through the Fairys and it simply identified it as a Pathfinder from the guild of the same name; A group of voidfolks and others who roamed and explored the corpse of freehold in search of tech vaults, safe travel routes between settlements, and searching for lost technologies in their vaults now exposed from a time before the free state and before they were build ontop of and forgotten in Freeholds industrial rise. A mostly neutral group to the various factions the Pathfinders were often solo or in small groups and the Corporation had hired more than one in the past to find safe travel routes through the glass sands or to map out tunnel systems such as these beneath their factories.

When the fighting started the Pathfinder had already been silently watching the strays camp though none of them had yet commented on the powered down portable energy unit that had been powering the oxygen pump to Luks tent it had swiped when the fighting started. Having no love for the Tech Scum but not being confident in its ability to take own that many tech scum and not risking exposing itself had hidden and when Chips had stumbled upon it had hidden the elder mutant as well until the fighting died down.

"We'll have to come down and clear them out if there's a factory down here." Joe added. "A junker factory is big. The shares from finding and claiming one of those could set us all up for a while! Not to mention if we can figure out whats making them so hostile and turn it off we can get a supply of junkers for the corp!"

The conversation went on a bit as they discussed the fight, the damage to their mechs, Calebs death and the status of the other two knights, and the danger of leaving a hive of hostile junkers so close to their rear when the Pathfinder revealed that the tunnel leading to the surface that they needed was less than a few hundred meters further ahead from where they were.

"It's settled then." Chips decided, much to Joes annoyance. "Without our gear we cant loiter much longer so it's either go back or go on; And our objective is right ahead. Tend to your mechs, make sure ye batteries is charged and everythings reloaded cause we head out within the hour! Micah, Tindal are you two sticking with us?" Chips concluded, as the two knights looked to each other, Yamog, and then back at chips before nodding.

"And what about you, big guy?" Chips asked as the Pathfinder cocked its visored head quizzically as his Fairy translated and then gave its answer back to them through her.

"He says he'll help us navigate the right way if we'll hire him." Snacks said which Chips nodded to expecting the answer.

"1/10th share of anything here. If there aint nothing you want then we'll fabricate you whatever you want or need back at the factory; Weapons, gear, repairs, batteries, ye name it." He offered getting vigorous gesturing at the latter offer as the Pathfinder withdrew back to its little corner to dig up the rest of its belongings.

"One hour!" Chips reminded them.

 

[Charaa]

Tunnels
After the battle, Vega stood in the dimly lit tunnel, her body tense but steady as she emerged from the cockpit of her Mech. With practiced ease, she climbed out, using her additional arms to grip the ridges of the walls, wall-crawling her way down to the ground. Above her, her Dynamiteon Class Mech and the others lined the walls of the tunnel like silent sentinels, their sleek frames illuminated by the dim glow of holographic projections.

The Fairys, always efficient and resourceful, had worked together to create a holographic map system using Mirage nanites. A small personal canister of nanites in Vega’s possession contributed to the seamless projection, casting a three-dimensional map into the air. The network of tunnels sprawled out in intricate detail, with Joe’s lance marking their covered routes in a deep, ominous shade of danger red. It was a clear warning of the peril that lurked ahead, a visualization of just how treacherous their path had been.

Vega’s eyes scanned the map briefly before drifting to her surroundings. The tunnel walls, marked with scuffs from the battle, seemed to close in around her. She barely registered the ongoing conversation among her teammates, her focus elsewhere. The murmur of voices blended into the ambient hum of the holographic projection until a single voice broke through, cutting cleanly into her thoughts—orders to tend to their Mechs.

Finally, something that felt right. Vega’s gaze snapped back to her Dynamiteon. Her hands flexed in anticipation as she considered the tasks ahead. Ensuring her Mech’s batteries were fully charged and its weapons reloaded was a top priority. Every battle took its toll, and she knew her survival depended on keeping her machine in peak condition. “Bell, check my Mech’s overall status, could you please?” Vega asked, her voice steady despite her lingering fatigue. Bell’s soft chime of acknowledgment filled her mind as the Fairy AI began scanning the Dynamiteon’s systems. Vega paced toward the Mech, already planning her next steps.

The scan results flickered on her HUD, breaking down the damage and wear sustained in the skirmish. The power grid was intact but running low, the primary weapons had discharged over 70% of their energy reserves, and the chassis bore superficial damage in a few places. Her Hyper Laser showed signs of overheating, and one of her jump jet nozzles needed recalibration.

Vega nodded to herself, formulating a plan. She would start with the critical systems—the power grid and weaponry—ensuring they were operational before moving on to repair and recalibrate the auxiliary systems. Her eyes lingered on the scratches marring the Dynamiteon’s armor plating. They weren’t a priority, but she made a mental note to buff them out when time allowed. With Bell guiding her through the diagnostics, Vega grabbed her tools and got to work, her mind already focused on the intricate balance of mechanics and engineering that kept her Mech battle-ready.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Tunnels

"...You came a long way to die, Sir Caleb." Yamog fished inside the tarp to close his eyes, and then put a hand on his chest, sitting on top of the skimmer's handle bars with him in the monochrome gloom. The reality of the situation seemed somehow seem colder, in a way beyond description. She had dealt with corpses in a religious capacity before, as several cults had desired the services of her oddly shaped ilk- But it was still unnatural just to see a person outside of their suit in this environment, as if shedding this mortal coil along with their armor.

She didn't really know him. But this wasn't theatrics. They both shared something, even if it was something unwritten, undescribed.

"...Those worms have cursed this place... We should be kindred, but they chose to hide and grovel like useless parasites, rather than seizing their birthright in the stars." A flash of anger, then she closed her eye too, now maneuvering so that they were sitting cross-legged above, with a glove on both sides of his morbidly placid face. Emotions reassembled, the blue priestess matched the expression unconsciously. "...Sir Caleb, first of your blessed kind, you have lit the way thus far. And we should all do rightly to emulate."

After a further pause, she finally cast her gaze back up to Tindal and Micah, regarding their injuries with an inquisitive sympathy. She wondered what they must be thinking, and if this gave them a crisis of faith.

"Inheritors, truth-seekers, my brothers." A calm tone, sorrowful but boldly cherishing. She put a hand on both of their shoulders and bid them to rise. "I'm your lady, but I'm not your lord. You've given so much to be here, you have nothing to prove. The path to truth lights itself... Honorable death and blessed mutation chooses who it chooses."

"Brother Tindal, your body and equipment seem quite damaged." A reserved tone. She didn't want to give the idea that her idle concepts were orders. "Somebody needs to take this new knowledge and experience back with them, so there is no fault if you leave with Brother Micah on the skimmer now... But if the fire in your heart still needs extinguishing and you choose to remain, it seems proper that the body of the fallen should be mounted on the Deadly Proboscus' troop cage, above and beyond harm."

/////

Further down into the hole. The Proboscis looked more ramshackle than ever, despite the repairs. Hastily refastened and rerouted hoses. Half-torn, re-riveted plates. The red and black colour scheme shredded with flecks of silver.

"So you are saying we need to get a fairy into whatever is controlling these bugs." Yamog responded to Chips. "Or else cut off the head of whoever is giving the orders."

Her mecha's chainsaw clunked and reved a few turns, as if to illustrate a point.