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Something stirred in Morden when he saw the Vangar ship crash. Something that allowed him to tolerate Silje clambering onto him like a horse. What lay before them was allegedly a civilian airliner piloted by Vangar. Morden absorbed the mist to keep pace with the truck on the off-road path, with Silje stuck on top of him. He just barely moved faster than it, able to move just ahead until they were all at the scene. It was a barren, dedicated crater of dust and rock with nothing to offer for anyone but the occasional vulture. If anything, the downed airship did it a favor. From the smoke and twisted wreckage, Morden could see thin trails of mist fuming out. To him, the astral mist was a red energy that diffused into the atmosphere like oxygen, waiting to be breathed in. The tractor of the ship had been compromised. 

[i][color=a90000]The mist is leaking from the reactor. That is what you are noticing, Gerard,[/color][/i] he warned, silently. [i][color=a90000]Mind your magic use, all of you.[/color][/i]

As Gerard managed to deduce, the Vangar Honorguard lie dead as well. What kind of civilian airliner held troops like that?

[i][color=a90000]Diplomatic? No, Vangar does not [b]negotiate.[/b] I do not like this, I’m going on ahead. If anyone is alive, they won’t be able to kill me.[/color][/i] Morden dropped Silje off of his shoulders and breathed in more mist, for good measure. His skin began to crackle with red energy, his limbs thickened as his muscles grew denser. He felt power surge through him, and now he was confident enough to enter a fight.

The rush never got old.

[i] [color=#A90000]E[/color][color=#AA0000]v[/color][color=#AB0000]e[/color][color=#AC0000]r[/color][color=#AD0000]y[/color][color=#AE0000]o[/color][color=#AF0000]n[/color][color=#B00000]e[/color][color=#B10000],[/color] [color=#B30000]s[/color][color=#B40000]t[/color][color=#B50000]a[/color][color=#B60000]y[/color] [color=#B80000]t[/color][color=#B90000]o[/color][color=#BA0000]g[/color][color=#BB0000]e[/color][color=#BC0000]t[/color][color=#BD0000]h[/color][color=#BE0000]e[/color][color=#BF0000]r[/color][color=#C00000].[/color] [color=#C20000]T[/color][color=#C30000]h[/color][color=#C40000]e[/color][color=#C50000]r[/color][color=#C60000]e[/color] [color=#C80000]i[/color][color=#C90000]s[/color] [color=#CB0000]n[/color][color=#CC0000]o[/color] [color=#CE0000]t[/color][color=#CF0000]e[/color][color=#D00000]l[/color][color=#D10000]l[/color][color=#D20000]i[/color][color=#D30000]n[/color][color=#D40000]g[/color] [color=#D60000]w[/color][color=#D70000]h[/color][color=#D80000]a[/color][color=#D90000]t[/color] [color=#DB0000]c[/color][color=#DC0000]o[/color][color=#DD0000]u[/color][color=#DE0000]l[/color][color=#DF0000]d[/color] [color=#E10000]b[/color][color=#E20000]e[/color] [color=#E40000]a[/color][color=#E50000]t[/color][color=#E60000]t[/color][color=#E70000]r[/color][color=#E80000]a[/color][color=#E90000]c[/color][color=#EA0000]t[/color][color=#EB0000]e[/color][color=#EC0000]d[/color] [color=#EE0000]b[/color][color=#EF0000]y[/color] [color=#F10000]t[/color][color=#F20000]h[/color][color=#F30000]e[/color] [color=#F50000]e[/color][color=#F60000]t[/color][color=#F70000]h[/color][color=#F80000]e[/color][color=#F90000]r[/color][color=#FA0000]i[/color][color=#FB0000]u[/color][color=#FC0000]m[/color][color=#FD0000].[/color][/i]

With that, Morden turned and stormed off into No Man’s Land.

A trail of iron and steal surrounded him, burning bodies and withered flesh filled the air, but Morden blitzed past everything. His steps were light, without proper Vanguard plate armor, and all the destruction could not phase him. Morden stopped to survey the bodies along the massive scar cut into the land. By all accounts, this landing was relatively soft, it wouldn’t be impossible for a decent amount of them to survive. Most of the ship itself seemed to have torn away in massive chunks, leaving behind pile upon pile of scrap like a trail of breadcrumbs.

There was definitely no saving the vessel, that became apparent as Morden neared the remaining half of the ship. The stern seemed to have been lost in the initial explosion, but what could possibly do that much damage to a ship out here? While in flight?

[i][color=red]Barghest, I am at the center of the crash. No survivors yet, and most of the vessel is missing from the destruction. The path is safe, you are clear to-[/color][/i]

[i]CLANG![/i]

A huge metal hunk of [i]something[/i] fell out of a large pile of wreckage. Stepping forward, Morden saw what looked like the beaten and battered remains of some strange bipedal [url= https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1210817654777188392/1216944296876314835/s7w2LYp.jpg?ex=66023ab2&is=65efc5b2&hm=884113ac9a8a1c51102bcd2e4b20878f7de87e0fbb5626532e2d87acd6779369&]robot.[/url] A large, hulking 8 foot tall machine forged of some sort of dark blue metal alloy he'd never seen before, its head set deep between its shoulders and layers of heavy armor, and a cannon the size of a 40mm grenade launcher attached to its arm. Was it one of the Vangar's new toys? They loved their powered armor- but this machine had sustained large amounts of damage. Across its torso were impact marks, scorches and dents from bullets, blades and spells scoring or ricocheting across its armor. Its left arm was missing and in its place was a tangle of wires and cords in patterns that didn't match typical Vangar synthetic muscle and stuck between its shoulder plates was what looked like the blade of a Vangar power-lance.

[i][color=red]Contact! [b]ENGAGING![/b][/color][/i]

He didn’t give the thing time to use that weapon before charging it. Morden dropped low and sprung up to give it a quick haymaker straight to its center mass. 

Morden was rewarded for his troubles with a stinging jolt of pain up his hand and wrist, and a dent in the armor. The robot didn’t even react. The fact that it could survive that meant this wasn’t ordinary material. 

Vangar [i]never[/i] sent machines into battle. Robots were their logistics workhorses, not their soldiers. AI wasn’t sophisticated enough for Vangar’s standards, it was simply not fit for the battlefield, and they shipped them with weapons onto a “civilian” airliner…

It had to be dead, given the damage. But the fact that it was here at all was a grave omen.

[i][color=red]Barghest- We have a problem. It’s a dead robot. Not power armor, not an armored foot soldier, a [b]robot.[/b] This isn’t a civilian airliner, this robot in front of me is eight feel tall, and armed with a cannon. Vangar doesn’t use machines to fight wars…[/color][/i]

This did not bode well. How many of these things were still functioning?

[i][color=red]…I barely damaged it. There could be more of these still in working order. Holding this position for now.[/color][/i]