[center][h1][color=red]Captain Cloak's Crew[/color][/h1][/center] [HR] [@Evanist] As the avali party started to make their way into the forest, they may or may not notice the ship experiencing a number of vines trying to crawl up it's surface from all sides, it was quite obvious yet that it wasn't just made so from the crash, but they were definitely moving. Otherwise, the large creature they were following, or trying to pass around in order to search for one of their pods, didn't seem to react to their presence... although, it wouldn't be too hard to hear one of the bipeds on it's back hissing irritably. [color=orange]"Hsssss!... This is so wrong! How did we get sap on us anyway? and the 'captain' escaped it? and something is following us, 'I'm' supposed to be the stalker!-MrrlllSSSSH!!! I can't believe i'm glued to your back, this is going to 'ruin' my fur!"[/color] [color=a36209]"Not. Problem. No. Attack. No. worry. Shut. up. or. be. useful."[/color] The gravely voice clearly came from the big one that was lumbering along... they didn't sound like they had a plan for where they were going, but considering they were heading towards a mountain that had clearly had a big ship crashed on it, it was likely they just weren't talking about it... With a close look, it became apparently 'what' they were... 'one' was a huge humanoid, a titan of a 'man' that appeared to be literally sculpted from living clay, lumbering along with slow diliberate movements, and adorned only in very plain pants. On his back was some kind of feline looking creature, guessing from what little was visible beyond it's thoroughly covering over-coat and other bits of clothing, with it's tail absolutely furiously lashing about in agitation. The other was a brassy looking humanoid made of metal, perhaps easily identified as some form of automaton, dressed in a suit. They were both 'glued' to the big one's back it seemed, thick wads and strands of a sticky light brown substance were allover them with no clear reason 'why' or 'how' it had happened, they weren't even scraped up... [hr] [@nevikr] The creature he was following was pretty obvious, being all red, though once he got closer it was a bit more clear, buckles and belts ever-where, long sleeves, fashionable embellishments, a wide hat... whatever it was, it was 'thoroughly' covered and concealed by it's clothing, and was designed to be so. Interestingly, there was an odd energy that only his magic sense could see, though it was 'barely' visible, as if it was just on the very edge of what the spell had been designed to detect. whatever it was, it wafted out of every open space it could, the wrists of it's sleeves and gloves, the ankles of it's boots and pants, between the buttons, but especially from the collar where it's face was concealed. It didn't 'seem' to react to his presence there, invisibility or not, not 'directly' anyway, but it did turn around to investigate behind it as if it had heard something... firey red/orange eyes could be seen glowing under the hat and scanning the surroundings for a moment before it turned back and continued walking, of course, near the closest crash site as well, it was likely investigating the most recent craterous explosion that had been heard. [hr] [center][h1][color=purple]Shadow Bolts[/color][/h1][/center] [hr] [@Rune_Alchemist][@Ninja][@lugia] The creature didn't seem to pursue Shael any farther than the castle's grounds, seemingly having put all of it's focus on the more aggressive threat that had made itself known... At least until the shadows started to dissipate, the swirling night-mass vanishing in puffs of mist and the 'nightmares' along with it, though the Conjured Beryllius remained in and outside of the Castle itself, with the original creature still standing in it's door-ways... More importantly, with the shadows dispelled it became apparent what was going on beyond it... It didn't become 'night' again, but rather the sun continued moving these last few moments until it was behind the moon, forming a controlled eclipse that dimmed the lighting on Equestria without making it too dark to see easily. It was an ancient signal for a 'state of emergency' and though it hadn't been seen in centuries, it was common knowledge in schooling, aside from just being an intimidating display, it ensured both princess's celestial bodies were in the sky, nearby, and able to be drawn on if needed, not to mention the strange magical synergy that accompanied it. Case in point, now that the darkness had been expelled there were new creatures standing there, well, one was standing, the others were flying, those being strange hooved quadrupeds with long beak-like masks on, though one had feathered wings and the other leather wings, otherwise details about them were unclear, save that the feathered one appeared to be dripping water... and there were clouds and puddles scattered around the area. Considerably more demanding was the larger one, standing nearly two feet taller than the dragon, It was a dark equine, pitch black, with a mane and tail of nebulous night-sky with firey 'dawn' on it's edges and and eclipse patterned light in it's eyes... if the original creature weren't still standing separate by the door, it might be questionable if it had just changed it's appearance, but 'it' was avoiding stepping into the sun-light for now, and in-fact had seemingly locked itself into a motionless prostration behind the new arrivals. This one wore armor of a darker lavender, alongside an expression of calm authority... to a certain magically aware Ebon, this one may radiate a far greater volume of that familiar night-themed magical power than the Fear abusing guard-creature in the castle, "I have been informed that you have something of an 'aggression issue' when it comes to my subjects." She was aware of the probability of it being unable to understand her, and augmented her speech with simple image displays, a remarkably detailed charicature of the dragon appeared on the ground before her, a conjured image, it swung at the shadow image of several ponies that disspated harmlessly when struck, and was quickly followed by another similar image, except instead of shadow images it was images of actual ponies, complete with blood and claws in them, and imposing a grand red X over the scene. "Since you have not struck anything but imaginary clones, I will give you a chance to curb this issue." She spoke with an intense authority, and even if he couldn't understand her words, there was a sense of uncompromising authority in the dark, orchestra like tones that emanated from her speech. "If you confirm yourself as a 'threat'." She conjured an image of him in an obviously predatory position over smaller ponies... Then proceeded to stomp the image herself, a motion that shook the ground far more intensely than her size implied it should, followed by simply narrowing her eyes as if to dare him to cross her... Otherwise, she paid little mind to the robot or the other creature that seemed to be a source of magic nearby... [hr] [@Rangingwolf][@WanderingBlackDragon] The hiss actually caused a bit of a twitch in the two quadrupeds that seemed coherent, the one in the lead raised a fore-leg a little... body language was another option for interpretation, but if they hadn't encountered anything as expressive as them that was likely to be a new field as well... similar could be said for the other side, though this world had 'sortof' bipeds, in diamond dogs and minotaurs, their physical structures were so wildly different it couldn't be assumed to translate accurately. Either way, they calmed quickly when they realized it was just the removal of... 'armor'? It was quite a thing to see actually, they were obviously vastly different species, it wasn't hard at all to figure that out... it was an easy guess to imply they were a group of aliens working together, though they couldn't guess to what degree or why. What they could infer was that each spoke a different language but somehow understood eachother, given the wildly different examples of speech that each one presented, leading the leader to run at the under-side of his head for a moment... He glanced back and made a motion with his head... the one half-lucid on the ground didn't react, but the still standing one nodded and reached up a hoof to raise their helmet, and the one in the lead followed suit. ... or at least, they'd been about to... then a carrot was poking at his mask... he knew, that one of his companions was staring dumbfounded through their mask at the audacity of this creature!... he however, knew something else was coming, and leapt to the side away from him in an instant, and 'why' became clear! His half concious companion who'd been practically struck dumb by 'whatever' had zeroed in on the carrot and with speed fit for a Jet-engine fired off at Escotto's hand, his mask slipping up just enough to see a blue furred muzzle peeking under it, gaping wide almost in slow motion as it shouted [color=yellow]"NNnnnoooommmmffff!!!!"[/color] before clamping down on the carrot with a thunderous 'clack' that vanished the entire thing, and came so close that it nipped the end of Escotto's finger-nail! It didn't stop there, he latched onto the boy's arm and began to hungrily lick his fingers and hand in search of more carrot!... of course, 'he' wasn't aware at the moment of the effects that a couple hundred pounds of pony latching onto someone's arm mid-flight could do, like drag them into the ground and such. Oddly, this display was only met with a dismissive roll of their eyes... or masks, from the other two, before they returned to the initial plan of reciprocating removing their masks. They weren't nearly as fancy, and simply stretched on a fastener before sliding up to cling to the top of their heads, revealing much smaller muzzles beneath, fur, manes, and expressiveness on a level rarely seen in other species. Remarkably large eyes, flexible expressions that were quite obvious even with just two to look at, and and even evidence of gender dimorphism [I think that's the word for it XD], at least if the shorter, softer muzzle and longer eyelashes on the second one are a hint, compared to the broader thicker shape of the lead... either way, nothing had any business being that cute... ...Somewhere amidst this, Amber Wing had nearly dragged Escotto to the ground with his weight before flapping his wing to pull up while still latched onto him, instinctively dragging them back up right. They still couldn't understand eachother yet, but... they could at least 'see' their mouths moving now. [color=purple]"Well, this is a step in the right direction, but we need to cross the language barrier to make sure they won't use any more fire around here."[/color] He looked pretty though for a long moment, even rubbing at his chin as he looked around... it 'might' have appeared that he might be ignoring the request to meet leadership, but he was just seeking inspiration... He actually spotted something familiar and firey dropping into the far end of the gorge that caused him to perk up, raise his hoof, and glance back to his second [color=purple]"I've got it, Ruby, the feather!"[/color] [color=orange]"Gotcha boss!"[/color] She then proceeded to give them a rude gesture that could potentially be interpreted in any society that has apposable digits, but to then was known as 'flipping the middle feather'. Which earned her a swat in the head with his wing. [color=orange]"heheh-ow!-hehehehh, okay okay, hardass, heheh. I thought it was funny."[/color][color=yellow]"Meeee, toooo..."[/color] She stepped forward then before extending her wing and... igniting it... Or more specifically, something built up heat enough to ignite the air in contact with the largest pinion. Amidst this Amber had continued flapping his wings, kindof dragging escotto by his arm as if trying to take off with him, but only causing himself to drop lower and flap back up again, all while still nibbling on his hand [color=yellow]"More. more. more! gimme more! Hungry hungry hungry hungry pony!"[/color] She then proceeded to singe doodles into the stone in-front of her while he rattled off an explanation, even if they couldn't understand, practice and experience was one of the most certain ways to permanently cross a language barrier, in time. [color=purple]"Alright, I dunno what you said yet, but we've got to get this through before 'anything' else. Do. not. use. fire. on the forest! or it's creatures!"[/color] While he spoke, she quickly doodled some poor stick figure bipeds, with wolves and trees, and fire... In the first image, the bipeds used fire on the wolves, in the second the trees made big sound waves and a bigger wolf came out combined with vines and roots from the trees. In the third image it showed the bipeds breadking the core thingy that had been tossed into the gorge, and with an arrow to the next image, which she doodled much larger... It had a poor charicature of their ship and 'tiny' bipeds, along with a much 'bigger' wolf monster about to step on them... with a mountain doodled nearby for reference. And next to that she added a larger depiction of 'fire', with a bit X scorched over it. She then added one more little doodle, of the forest cowering... or perhaps bowing, and an example of the 'the sun' doodled above it. It might not be easy to explain 'clearly', but hopefully it was clear enough that 'fire' would lead to a steadily escalating threat. [hr] [@thedman] The ships guns were making short work of the flying swarmers, there were just so many of them that it was only widdling down the swarm, and the fewer of them there were, the harder it would get for the guns to target the small things... still, there were pierces of them scattered allover the hull and ground in various states of disintegration. A couple of the bigger ones had managed to be eaten up by the guns before they could get below their range of motion and seemed to be holding on a bit better despite being full of holes, but were rendered impotent in terms of threat. Some distance away the flying ship came down for it's forced landing... a glow emanated from the ring in it's center to cushion the landing so it wouldn't shatter said ring, and soon released the ship itself to rest on the stone, where the shield grew brighter in respond to the entirely predictable diversion of some of the swarm to pile onto the shield... The marine's had something else to focus on however, and while the ship had been opening, something in the air slowed to watch as the crashed forces piled out to join the fight... information gathering was key, and it was quite a show to see how they fought. The swarming changelings were easily minced by... whatever they called those, they fired like cannons, but tiny and rapid, and the big ones... heavens, what 'was' it that they threw at those behemoths?! Some might question firing anti-air missiles at targets that weren't flying, but as it happened they were plenty big enough to hit anyway, and it was astoundingly effect! Big and tough looking as they were, the missiles that sprayed them easily penetrated what armor they had, and the explosions dispersed huge chunks of the creatures, easily leaving the first several in pieces, or missing enough to be crippled... there were certainly more though, roughly half a dozen remained, and the arrival of a greater threat certainly deterred them from the ship, which one might note had visible caving in the armor from the behemoth's impacts. Now though, the remaining numbers turned to charge the big metal things that had just splattered them. Amidst this, something small from up in the air had zipped around far out of their firing angle, and using it's tiny size snuck up on the goliaths quite rapidly and... landed on one of them, right next to it's right weapon platform, staying safely out of it's line as it watched it in action... If one got a look at it, it'd look like a very large bird with four legs, far smaller than the big griffon that was fighting a behemoth, but wearing a similar beak shaped mask, and mumbling tiny flute like sounds [color=39b54a]oh. my. goodness! I can only get so wet! such marvels of weaponry! I MUST pick you apart and find out what makes you tick! oh, oh, but, nono jade, nono, no taking apart the strange alien machinery while it's fighting, that's mean and dangerous, but ohhhhh! I must find out what causes such DAMAGE! EEEEHEEEHEHEHEEEE!"[/color] It was practically prancing in place on the goliath's hull at this point, seemingly forgetting about the fighting entirely. More importantly, the landed ship's shield changed properties, seemingly frying the swarmers attached to it, or repelling them at least as many flew off of it like a cloud of gnats, and in the next moment it dropped and re-raised, but not before launching several small green beams from it's deck towards the crashed ship... The adjutant chimed in immediately *BWOOP!* "Warning, Sergeant, it appears that the unknown ship contains creatures visually similar to those attacking the ship! Though they appear to be under attack by the swarm as-"*BBWOOP!*"Warning! Secondary psionic wave-form detected approaching the bridge! It... has engaged the previous attacker and have already injured eachother." [hr] back on the bridge! It was quite a sight, though they had surely seen more horrifying creatures in the zerg before, being caught without armor or better weaponry with the non-combat crew had it's own issues... Nevertheless, connecting with it's mind may not have been the best idea Specialist Lee had ever had, though he couldn't be blamed for ignorance of 'what' he was dealing with... It was like a hurricane of psychic activity, one big one directing thousands of smaller ones of numbers he could witness dwindling even now, voices going back and forth were a constant, and above it all echoed the biggest in mid speech <-Will consume you all for the blood you have-FOOL!> It had barely been seconds before it caught on to his presence, and concealed or not it looked right at him, a noticeable snarl on it's face and an instant later a thousand voices were screaming through the connection he'd opened, it didn't seem interested in 'reading' so much as destroying the potential threat that could interact with it on that level! With the voices every creature in the room seemed to multiply a dozen times over and flood the air while surging towards Lee, it was a sea of horrors with that big one's vicious glare at it's center, swirling around him, and flooding images of horrible mutilations rought upon him alongside the deafening screeches piling on into the connection... they didn't know who or what he was though, or if perhaps he 'had' the mental fortitude to resist something like this. It didn't matter though, he only needed to last a couple of seconds it seemed, as the two concious crewmen opening fire distracted it considerably, without the central force behind it, while the assault continued it dimmed, slowed, became transparent in comparison, the screeching lowered enough to hear the sound of the guns... It's shell was being rapidly cracked and broken away by the bullets pelting it, green blood could be seen leaking out, but it wasn't going to take it lying down, it's horn lit up and a sensation of intense psionic power could be felt for a moment before a visible wave surged towards to injured men... Something interfered though, several smaller ones made themselves known, through the same hole as the big one entered, differently colored but there was no time to worry about that, two dropped down immediately on either side of the injured crewmen and light their horns, while the third soared right over with it's momentum... collectively, a counter-force pushed the psionic wave downinto the floor, though it caused their guns to be dragged to the floor with considerable force, it kept it from hitting them directly, and the third one pierced right through the wave to collide with the big one, though it hardly stumbled, it's glowing horn directed numerous shards of glass into it's wounded shell, and one 'big' one right into it's left eye. The psionic flood directed at Specialist Lee died instantly there as it's attention was ripped violently to another threat, just intime for him to see a similar wave of force blast the attacker off of it and into a wall hard enough to leave it noticeably dented, it's strange insectoid speech had turned into furious screeching as it prowled it's way towards the seemingly downed assailant... He'd also get to see the other two, one with pink secondary colors, and the other light blue, using their own projected force to 'carefully' keep the injured men pinned in place while they... extracted the glass shards? and covered over the wounds with some kind of goop colored similarly to themselves. The pinned men looked horridly frightened of this situation, but they didn't appear to be brutally murdering them like one would expect.