[center][h2]A Team[/h2][/center] [center]Grin, Monochromaticrainbow, Themerlinhawk, & Tracyarmav[/center] [center][b]Day 1, Miday[/b][/center] [center][i]Adéla, Calder, Crow, & Marielle[/i][/center] “I’m not sure where the ‘Lady’ part came from, but I am Revenant, long story.” Adèla replied, “But I do have a plan in mind, of sorts. I’m a fighter, not an operator, so if anybody has the subterfuge skills to just get in there with no shooting whatsoever, speak now, otherwise we’re exploiting security flaws and there’ll be shooting, and fighting, and all that good stuff.” “Seems like fun, Marielle and I will be on a clock though since we will only have so much magic to work with assuming we’re operating in an anti magic zone.” Crow folded his arms and yawned as he peered up at the sun. “Must have worked through the night again.” “We’ll talk on that in a little, then.” Adèla looked to the rest of the group, “For the record I’m roughly as magical as rocks, so any magic you have or need help with you’re going to need to explain in terms for the ignorant savage. If there’s nothing else, I can tell you the skeleton of the plan, and anyone who thinks they could help is welcome to pitch in.” [color=8882be][i]Calder spoke up, his voice hissing like waves over shoals or on a gravel beach.[/i][/color] [color=8dc73f]“I have some skill at infiltration, though most of my skill is in traveling through the nevernever and then making a surprise entry to this realm. I do not know if that will work here or not, but it could provide us an advantageous entry and extraction point. My magic is wild, I will have little enough to add besides my strength, speed, and cunning, which are not lacking in any manner. That said, unless the tower has equipment on loan, I have only my mace and shield with which to aid this endeavor. Most of my tools used prior to today were on loan from my benefactor.”[/color] [color=8882be][i]Thinking for a moment he considered the requirements that he was aware of, and asked a question regarding the nature of the plans to retrieve the prisoner.[/i][/color] [color=8dc73f]“Are we going to get in by posing as Blades bringing in a new prisoner? If so, since I have no capacity to do anything about threats outside my reach anyway, I think I should be the ‘prisoner’ being interned.”[/color] [color=f7941d][i]I set my focus on Adèla taking her measure and liking the quality and strength of character she displayed in her demeanor and stance.[/i][/color] Suddenly a young, loud voice cut through all other noises in the room. If eyesight wandered among the group they’d catch Marielle, propping herself against a wall as an artificial grimace laced with her lips. She was picking her teeth with a kunai knife. “I say we just blow the fucker up with an RPG, grab the bitch, then make like a baby and get the fuck out.” She huffed out in between clenched teeth. “Need I remind you bitches I have a flying car that can crash the party?” Marielle stopped self-cleaning and started twirling the knife around her fingers. “As for you [i]tankface,[/i] Raven might have some supplies for a naked fighter such as yourself, unless you plan on using your ass to sit on people for a lethal weapon.” Marielle’s eyes wandered to Adèla’s face, then her outfit. “Dude what’s up with that getup? It looks like you’re ready to smash a sorry-ass’s face in.” She paused. “I want one.” “You haven’t even seen the actual armor and you think this is face smashing gear?” Adèla smirked, cocking her head to the side, “This is just the suit that goes under it. You haven’t seen anything yet.” She sized the newcomer up, “I have to admit though, while blowing the hell out of the prison would satisfy my inner pyromaniac, and my plan does involve plenty of explosives, the walls of the prison are reinforced concrete with ceramic and homogenous steel ablative layers. An RPG won’t do shit. Now, a shaped charge of several hundred kilograms of ANFO…” She smiled devilishly, “The best part is that it has excellent soundproofing and I know how to cut their central security system routing. We’ll blow a hole in their wall, walk through, and due to their brilliant design choices only a small part of the prison will know about it. They’ll easily be dealt with.” She patted the hand cannon hanging at her hip, “Apparently, we get access to the armory.” [color=8dc73f]“Ahh, yes… Now I see what they meant, about mortals being hopelessly graceless. Though it has less to do with grace, and more to do with gentleness and tact. Still, your plan will work, so I have no objections.”[/color] Adèla raised an eyebrow at Calder, “I think the proper word you’re looking for is [i]happily[/i] graceless. And of course the plan will work, I helped design the damn prison specifically so I could break myself out if I needed.” Marielle snorted. “Or [i]badass….ily…[/i] graceless” [color=8dc73f]“Not my words mortal, but I see your point. Do we lack anything? Or can we begin this little bit of chaos?”[/color] Suddenly the black haired girl fixed her posture and stepped closer to the center of the group. With the flick of her wrist a card suddenly appeared at her fingertips, replacing the kunai. It shone like oil and had two words etched onto it, along with a symbol to match. [b][i]The Star[/i][/b] “If we need it I can always use this little beauty. Always helps me find my car keys.” Marielle winked. “So it can most definitely find who we’re looking for, let’s say, if the power goes out. or we can’t rely on tech.” [color=8dc73f]“It is a pity that your pretty cards can’t fetch the lost item, or this would be much simpler. Does it at least tell us how to get to the lost object or person? That’s something I keep forgetting to ask about actually, who are we fetching and are we taking anything for them to use on the way out?” [/color] Adèla rolled her eyes at Calder before fixing a glare on Marielle, “What do you mean, can’t rely on tech?” She huffed, muttering under her breath, “Magic users.” Marielle shrugged. “I love machines as much as the next cool girl but hey, I need my damn car keys ASAP when I’ve got shit to do.” Marielle’s glance glided over to Calder before she shrugged again, this time more dramatically. “I have no fucking clue, whoever she is she’s my hero.” She inhaled sharply before grinning. “Saving me from the curse of not being violent.” [color=8dc73f]“I see you have yet to learn the value of patience, like most youths.”[/color] [color=f7941d][i] I laugh, the sound not unlike a rolling boil. I dismiss my jibe as Adèla speaks up, hoping to avoid an interruption from Marielle.[/i][/color] Adèla piped up, “Her name is Ludelle Glowren. Genius hacker, not exactly a frontline fighter. I imagine we’ll be doing our best to keep her out of the line of fire instead of handing her a rifle.” [color=8dc73f]“Is hacking her only skill then? And everyone should be able to fight, so if she has anything that could be used in a fight, we should provide her with whatever she may need to do so. I suggest taking a durable computer, since she’s a hacker. She may need to access something electronically on our way out.”[/color] “Shaped charges are universal hacking devices. Besides, when I cut the security it’ll take them at least an hour to get the systems in that sector up and running again, and that’s without live gunfire digging chunks out of the walls.” Adèla looked over at Calder, “Again, she’s not exactly a frontline fighter from what I remember. She’s also a good pilot.” Marielle stretched a little, taking all the information in before frowning. “I have tons of space in my hat,” She fumbled with the magician’s cap floating snugly behind her, pulling it out in front of her with one hand. “So, whatever you decide to bring for her I’ll carry it. That way you guys aren’t tripping over yourselves like a bunch of clumsy teenage girls with too many books.” With that she flicked the cap in the air and it danced around in a spin, defying gravity like a balloon before it slowly lead itself back to her shoulder blades like a shy magnet. “You’re going to burn through your magic like crazy if you pull that crap inside the prison.” Crow kept his arms folded. “This is going to end badly if you plan on relying on magic to do anything in that prison. It’s going to be spotty at best and since you’re human you don’t have anything else to draw on. I advise you acquire heavy armor and do your best to not use magic. Otherwise you’ll get shot and then you’ll end up in my morgue and then you have no idea what I might do to you. Crow’s face didn’t give away any hint that he was joking. Marielle shook her head. “Keep your pants on, the storage in my hat barely uses any magic at all, besides, I have armor.” with that Marielle lifted up one of her boots, the bottom containing a compacted metal appearance. “My skateboard here will cover me up and save my ass.” Marielle roughly kicked out in front of Crow’s face, the metal suddenly jolting and transfixing into half of a metal rectangular surface everyone could only assume was part of the machine she mentioned. [color=8882be][i]Calder was dubious of the factuality of a skateboard covering Marielle up, but it was her board and her life, so it’d probably do well enough. He did still want to take some kind of computer for their target, he’d probably need extra batteries too… Calder wouldn’t mind getting his hands on some arms and armor, he’d never had a chance to play with anything so modern. His evaluation of his teammates continued, Marielle was a hot head, who could be trusted to keep the heat on; Crow was hard to read, but his calm morbid manner bode well for him; Adéla seemed a competent soldier in every respect, but her capacity to listen was somewhat lacking for someone in a leadership role. Calder had answered one of Adéla’s questions in the conversation, and received only interjection from Marielle in response. The lack of response bothered him more because it showed a lack experience as a leader than because it was a slight to him personally. These thoughts lurked in the back of Calder’s head while he waited for the group to decide to move to the armory or where ever we were going next. Since the conversation seemed to be more about where, when, and how frequently things would be exploding while they went to extract their target, He turned to Crow to see if he had any suggestions on how to proceed. Calder just hoped this didn’t turn into a hostage situation, since explosions didn’t mix well with those.[/i][/color] [color=8dc73f]“Crow, if magic is of no use, how would you retrieve Ludelle Glowren?”[/color] Adèla sighed, interjecting with an exasperated grumble, “All of you, shush. Look, I have a computer of my own specially reinforced to be about as indestructible as you can make such a device. I’ll take it with me for her to hack things, but the fact of the matter is any combat skills she has are going to be reliant on her own magic, if memory serves, and that’s not going to be of much use whilst in the damping field. Her main skill in this sense will be hacking, but that’ll almost certainly take more time and be less expedient than simply cutting through the door - their security is top notch, 65536 bit encryption, intrusion detection, the whole shebang and they’ve almost certainly upgraded it since. I’m happy to restate my actual plan for entry sans magical assistance if someone needs. Now, let’s avoid falling into a big pissing contest again, are there any more questions?” Crow raised his hand. “Are we going to go to the armory?” He stood there with a bored look before he calmly shoved Marielle’s foot out of his face. [i]Is this amatuer hour or what? Shard is actually going to get me killed. No brains all tits is going to burn more magic than a match in a room full of gas, the Troll doesn’t know a channel item when he sees it and Knights actually come in a non magical flavor still? I would have thought we stopped taking people who didn’t at least have potential but here we are.[/i] Crow gestured. “It’s that way, loud mouth is gonna need a helmet or someone might damage her most dangerous asset.” Crow pointedly ignored Calder’s question. [color=8882be][i]Calder decided to take a hint and shut up, no one wanted his input right now. He could live with that, he was effectively the most junior knight present, despite having a few centuries on most of them. He waited patiently while the others decided what was next on today’s agenda.[/i][/color] Adèla looked over at him, “You had a question I remember? What was it again? Sorry, but things kind of got… out of hand. It was something to do with disguise?” She then glared at the rest of the team, “You all can have your pissing contest after the op, got it? Right now, take your attitudes and shove them where the sun don’t shine. You’ll have plenty of time to sling insults later.” [color=8882be][i]Calder was quite surprised that she even remembered that there had been a question, which had come so much earlier in the conversation. It had been more or less answered by now, but since she’d remembered its existence he decided to reiterate it for her further consideration. [/i][/color] [color=8dc73f]I had asked if we were going to pose as Stygian Blades bringing in new prisoner to the prison, it seemed a quiet and simple insertion method to get us past at least the first line of defense. From there we could progress further into the prison and collect our charge and then bang out if necessary.[/color] “Ah! An interesting plan, but unfortunately not something that will work for the entire plan, however it would serve very well as a Trojan horse of sorts, I can provide you with a tool to slap on one of the security apparati that will short the connection to the central hub, they won’t even know anything’s wrong until they get a report in person. Again, I designed it that way in case I needed to spring myself. And unless they’ve completely overhauled the security system, it’ll still be like that. And I know for a fact that they haven’t, since they never thought to deactivate my security key.” Adèla grinned maliciously, “A good enough plan for you?” Crow raised an eyebrow ridge [i]She’s ex stygian blade, that explains so much.[/i] He’d spaced out early on in the conversation since this was going to be a giant mess and he was still mulling over an autopsy from earlier. [i]Why are we doing this? Shard could have sent Ralrisk and this would have been over before anyone knew the prisoner was missing.[/i] “So I get that you have security access and all that crap but why are we being sent? The Mistress of Shadow could get in and out easy with a single person. Are we rescuing more than one person?” Crow was officially suspicious of this whole operation. It smacked of a smoke screen. Adèla shrugged helplessly, “All I was told was I needed to break out the prisoner they transferred there recently. That’s all I know. I’m also wondering why we don’t just send in a stealthier person instead of a strike team.” Crow’s eyes narrow. “We’re bait. This is a cover for something else entirely. That smug bastard. I bet he really does want to rescue her but I bet while we have the entire city breathing down our necks he’s got something else planned.” Crow rolled his eyes. “Come on, I want to test out some of the toys in the armory and the Troll needs a minigun.” With that Crow stomped towards the armory with Vulture squawking on his shoulder. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The armory was a gigantic vault around an inner sanctum which housed the Forge. Master of Arms, Master of Steel, and Master of Blade credentials could get you into the outer Armory but only high level clearance or Master of Steel clearance could get you into the Forge. The massive Hardened Adamantite doors hard three separate sets of sliding bolts across the double doors as well as sets of bolts that extended from the structure of the doors themselves into the substance of the tower around the Armory. The actual structure of the armory was made of an entirely different substance that appeared to be a type of granite but anyone attempting to cut through it would be in for a much harder time than expected. [color=8882be][i]Calder walked through the armory, noticing that the majority of the weapons were made for creatures smaller than himself. There were several made for begins his size, but only one caught his as appealing. A five barreled 20mm mini-gun, with an enormous pack for ammunition, Calder supposed. He picked it up and slipped it into one of his pickets, bag of ammo and all. He’d never bothered to find out how his pants o’ pockets worked, but they did, they always did, so he added this new toy to his kit the same way he usually did, putting it into a pocket. Calder looked around knowing he’d be a large target while using the mini-gun he wanted something that would help mitigate their ability to knock him out of the fight. He finally found a sturdy looking breastplate and helmet. Looking around some more he found a belt-spat that he could wear if things got bad, though he probably wouldn’t bother since it would hinder his access to his pockets. Calder finally moved back to the entrance, where he would wait for the rest of the team, wearing the new breastplate and helmet, but having stuffed the gun and belt-spat into his pockets, which didn’t bulge in the slightest to suggest that anything was in them.[/i][/color] Tapping a wall console crow brought up an inventory. Scrolling through it he selected a few pieces of equipment. “Sentinel, can you bring me the class VI ballistic hybrid armor? I need the mobility, the class V and IV are too bulky.” Testing the armor Crow turned right and left checking how it allowed him to move. “This one works the class VII doesn’t provide enough protection. Will you bring me the subcompact ballistic weapons?” The wide selection of submachine guns shifted itself in the armory so Crow could go over them. Finally selecting a drum fed short barreled gun which could be fired with one hand. Adding a side sling strap and two extra drums Crow tapped the panel again. This time sentinel brought him a bandolier of antipersonnel shaped charges. Adding this to the collection Crow tapped the panel a final time and added three compact shaped breaching charges. Marielle followed suit, eyeing crow as he laced on his new gear. With that she flicked her wrist a little, her cap dancing behind her in excitement. The sound of static electricity popped all around them, and there was a distinct scent of sulfur in the air. If one were to look Marielle was now carrying an oily black railgun sniper rifle hybrid with a scope to match. She leaned it up on her shoulder, the barrel aiming for the ceiling. The gun was surprisingly light, as was most of the newer gun models of Galendar. She swiftly strapped it to her back using a magnetic back shoulder blade piece she also produced from her magician’s cap. Marielle had a small pistol strapped to her hip as well, matching the color of her other gun. It was one of Galendar’s finest for its unique lethal ability to use Marielle’s magic to distort the way the ammunition worked. Marielle produced the metallic skateboard from her feet and the metal slithered and appeared to melt, covering up her legs and matching the shape of the muscles. Finally the magician’s cap popped a little more and place itself on the top of Marielle’s head, the shape contorting into a black biker’s helmet with transparent orange face shield. Her card armbrace lay neatly snug against her entire upper arm covering the skin in black from the wrist up. She leaned her shoulder against the wall. It’s a shame nobody could see her amused grin. “All set boys, oh, wait.” She frowned. “Does this armory have any small pack belts at all? I need one of them to contain some stuff the Marrowblade woman gave me.” Adèla walked into the armory, marveling at the myriad martial marvels mounted on the walls and within easy access, she could even modify them. She felt her heartbeat speed up, and licked her lips in anticipation. [i]this[/i] would be good. Rushing over to a worktable she called for her armor from her quarters, starting on modifications to add to it before it had even arrived. Never before had such facilities been available to her, but now that they were… She selected a servo, wiring it up to a miniature cold fusion generator and armoring the whole assembly in the same plating her armor was made of. Descending into a fury of tinkering, soldering, she didn’t even notice when her armor arrived, taking a whole five minutes to do so before launching into the work with renewed vigor. Attaching the various components to the graphene carapace she would be trusting her life to, she hummed contentedly, pleasantly surprised to see the sheer amount of available materials to work with. She had even managed to wire a cooling system to mask her thermal signature, autorepair functions in case of a serious armor breach, combat drug administration system and biomedical scanners leading to a readout on the helmet, and a dead man’s switch, just in case the worst happened. The reactor wasn’t even close to full power utilization, but her own time was limited and she was forced to stand back after a while, admiring her creation. Stepping into the armor was like a whole new experience, instead of the armor sitting on her like a weight, it powered on and moved with her, biomedical data flashed on the visor and told her her heart rate, breathing rate, even blood pressure, and could automatically administer drugs accordingly, in addition to clotting agents, painkillers, and various stimulants. Cool air surrounded her as the air conditioning system kicked in. The armor tapped into her cybernetics, allowing her to “feel” problems in addition to diagnosing them from the visor, and as she moved an arm the armor moved with her, servos activating to make moving the heavy plating completely effortless. Adèla grinned, making a few fighting moves and miming using her sword. The armor responded as smoothly as silk, and the reactor had no troubles whatsoever keeping up. Whether or not it’d hold up to sustained live fire scenarios was uncertain, but she could use the armor without it anyway. Her thoughts then turned to weaponry, looking around the armory until her gaze alighted on a thing of beauty. A massive gun normally reserved for use mounted on armored vehicles looked ripe for syncing with her armor’s and her own cybernetic aim assistance systems. “Pinnacle Arms, M-315, heavy machine gun, Mars IV Pattern operating mechanism, 500 round capacity.” She grinned, marching towards it, “Better known as ‘fuck yes’.” She hefted the monstrous contraption, pleased with just how easily she could lift it with the aid of her newly modified armor. To her delighted surprise she found it was already configured for cybernetic linkup and personal use. A few seconds of finagling and a new readout popped up on her visor, detailing current ammunition, weapon temperature, etc. Grinning, Adèla made her way back to the rest of the group, grabbing a few more ammunition packs on the way. “So,” she said, “shall we?” The doors of the armory swung open once more and figure took up the doorway. Shard smiled as he looked them over. “Lethal, I like it. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen Knights look like this. About damn time.” Shard had changed. He no longer wore the olive drab jacket, poet shirt and cargo pants. Instead his body was covered in a set of tight fit scale mail that mimicked the appearance of bronze however that was not the true armor. Over the top of the armor was a sheen of fluid crystal that formed ridges and joints as Shard moved. The armor was a hybridization of magic and technology. The crystal it was composed of was a liquid at room temperature but the nanite swarm that inhabited the armor was capable of holding the liquid to the Shard’s scale mail while cooling it in different areas to solidify it. The crystal was energy nullifying and one of the hardest substances in Galendar. “As much as I’d love to join you I have other things to attend to. However, your ride is waiting. Don’t keep Lady Marrowblade waiting. She’ll get you in close and then her people will get you out when you’re done. With that he turned and left the armory. “Close the door on your way out.”