[center][h3]Maglev Carrige Ride[/h3]
[b]Location[/b] Spire 04 - Orca Space Complex Maintenance Sector
[b]Word Count: 1558[/b](+3)[/center]  

[color=ea590c]”What in the world happened here?”[/color] Was Edward’s (slightly accusatory) question upon returning to the stagecoach and finding it now lacked half its pulling team. 

Sandaphlon updated the duo as they returned with Eve from their portion of disengaging the Hypertube lock. Ramattra was more concerned of the contents of the Coach rather than the culled Reindrix, because he understood well before the suggestion that using their samples could produce creatures to replace them, if needed. He was just that many steps ahead, or just that biased in hindsight.

Edward recalled one of the Reindrix himself, retrieved the fallen spirits of the other four, before directing the iron golems forwards to replace them. Somewhat. Rather than hooked up in a row, he placed them to either side of the front of the stagecoach, shields locked together to form a wedge rather akin to a train’s snowplow. If the way the hypertube worked was as explained, then they wouldn’t be doing much pulling, and instead were there to lightly steer around what obstacles they could, and to take the brunt of any they could not.

Still, armor was one thing, but Edward was a skirmisher at heart, and the best defence was making sure your foes never reached your shield wall to begin with.

While Edward had prepared the Stagecoach for entry into the Hypertube, Ramattra stepped close to the human commander, nodding as he assembled the golems as temporary mounts. “Perhaps we should ask our large insectoid and TV-headed friends to pull the Stagecoach through the tube?” It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or insulting. 

Within earshot, the TV host would look over the top of the stagecoach, down at Ramattra and Edward, who seemed to be having a conversation about traversing the Hypertube. The CRT did not announce himself yet; strategizing like that was not his strong suit, but he knew listening would be important so that the tube arrived safely with the rest of the group.

[color=ea590c]”Ramattra! Would you be willing to act as an escort for the stage coach?”[/color] he requested, assuming that a lot of the other seekers would just be going their own way, if for no other reason than to avoid potential collisions.

Edward’s request was reasonable, and tactful, seeing as Ramattra was physically the tankiest member of the team at first glance. As well as the two being familiar with each other in and out of the battlefield, they have earned a level of trust and respect for one another. “Of course. Let’s discuss how we can cross the hazards ahead since the Stagecoach makes us the largest target. Perhaps something in our armory before we travel through?”

[color=ea590c]”Good idea, but let us be quick”[/color] Edward said as he brought up an armory screen to pursue the items in storage.

After a bit of checking, Edward picked out the [url=https://i.imgur.com/QUajHT1.png]Caldwell Conversion Chain Pistol[/url] because it somewhat fit right in his firearm style, mor that shinra’s golden gun anyway, and with 18 shots before its (likely lengthy) reload, it’d have ammo for the full trip. 

“Hmm…” The Omnic stared at the screen of the Armory’s catalog, undoubtedly window-shopping for upgrades before they entered the tube as well. Gauging the hazards ahead, Ramattra assumed that they played the biggest role, seeing as most other party members were able to evade or destroy robot threats along the path. “We will need quite some defenses… primarily from those explosive units.” He pointed out the bladed security fighting off tickers. The Skullings would be more threatening to the party members traversing the tube alone, but Ramattra was taking the Stagecoach with Edward.

Through a quick glance, the main item that stuck out to Ramattra was the [url=https://i.imgur.com/J99eDjN.png]Enchanted Buckler[/url], which was unwieldy in his Omnic form, but if he were to use it in Nemesis form… He rested the buckler idly on his off-hand so as not to affect his staff when not transformed.

“Loot get!” Tenna announced as he looked down at the screen from atop the stagecoach. 

“Ah, yes. Tenna, did you need anything before we went in?” Ramattra seemed hardly surprised to see the TV host, and offered him a chance to be equipped for the coming defense. Tenna thought for a moment and selected the [url=https://i.imgur.com/b2V5e6y.png]Comically Large Spoon[/url], a domedic weapon with cartoonish properties that was on brand for Tenna’s silliness. The Omnic stared at the absurdity before him for a moment before giving Edward the “all clear.”

[color=ea590c]”Of all the things to see repeated use”[/color] Edward said quietly with a disbelieving headshake, but he couldn’t help giving a little smile afterwards. If it worked, he wasn't going to complain. Not that he had particularly high expectations of Tenna at the moment, given he was part of the team that had lost half the Reindrix while the rest were away, but he was willing to be surprised.

With everything ready to go, Edward took his spot on the driver’s seat of the stage coach, one hand firmly on for support, the other holding his eighteen shooter at the ready. Then, with a slow trudge, the coach was slowly dragged forwards by the iron golems. Slow at first anyway. They came to a stop when the metal golems lost traction with the ground, only to then launch forwards at speed when the coach was pushed in.

It was a near thing, but Edward and his constructs managed to all stay on/attached to the coach, with the golems taking up the snowplow formation, overlapping auras reinforcing each other against potential impacts.

Potential impacts were to be found in relative abundance, as it turned out, and at least one pallet was dashed against the iron wall, the arrow shape causing the debris to ricochet out the side rather than showering the stagecoach itself. The larger obstacles, such as the skiffs and containers, had to be avoided entirely however, resulting in the coach itself being something in need of avoiding.

Edward, well used to yelling across noisy battlefields and crowds, put his pipes to work to shout out warnings of incoming shrapnel and maneuvering events to anyone following close enough behind as to be at risk, or riding the stagecoach and thus vulnerable to being tossed around/off it.

Seeing as transportation across the tube would be stable enough for the Omnic to ride on top of the Stagecoach, Ramattra took his place atop the vehicle, just behind Edward, holding on to any of its protrusions. Tenna resided within the coach, with two Tommy gun henchmen peeking out of the back door, ready to fire at any hostiles.

The threats in the tube quickly took notice of the large stagecoach making its way along the air, and those that were not attended to quickly made themselves problematic. The most frustrating of which were the Skullings, who took notice of the large sentient robot riding on top. They flung themselves at the Omnic, seemingly trying to latch onto Ramattra and possess him, but were quickly deflected by a swift staff strike. They were annoying, but weak.

The other two hostels were more of a concern, that was for certain, particularly because they created conflicting patterns of instinct.

Accurate revolver round shots and tommygun sprays made short work of the explosive tickers, which was good as they needed to be dealt with quickly lest they get too close and their blast radius hit the stagecoach.

The Cymuls meanwhile absolutely could not be shot, as Edward discovered upon being struck in the shoulder by one of his own pistol shots as it reflected off of the metal drone, leaving him vulnerable as the machine came spinning towards him at high speed.

Tenna, who had been directing his shadowy henchmen’s fire towards the tickers in the tunnel, had noticed Edward struggling to manage both the Stagecoach and fend it off from hazards. While the maneuver was quite risky and required Tenna to leave the safety of the stagecoach, his allies were preoccupied. Just in the nick of time before the defensive metal drone sliced away at Edward, Tenna got along the side of the Stagecoach next to him, and used the large metallic spoon like a baseball bat to swing the Cymul away with a satisfying [i]clong[/i]. 

Ramattra, had noticed that the Cymuls recognized the stagecoach as a threat and transformed into Nemesis Form to pummel and swat away any others that had closed in. 

[color=ea590c]”Much appreciated”[/color] Edward said to Tenna, his opinion of the strange man raising a notch in response to the save. Then, once he’d had his feather staff striker heal him, before taking back up his role of bomb shooting, a stressful job of rapid target identification, where taking too long would result in being blasted, and being wrong would result in being shot. The sooner the ride was over, the better.