EliteCommander

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Ssarak Dyreackthanose

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Ssarak's timing seemed to be right on the mark, as he could hear the commotion beneath him when he flew overhead. As planned, the bandits had their focus solely on the electrified form of Alaira, so he went unnoticed in the skies above them. Even so, Ssarak had only a few brief moments before he had to strike, since Alaira would need his help quickly. He could not spot the prominent figure of the robed man, so he assumed that Alaira had targeted him first. As such, Ssarak quickly shifted his focus to the next largest threats. There was only one figure moving towards Alaira with any speed, but she could handle herself in melee combat, so Ssarak was mostly concerned with ranged opponents. The one in the tower was the most obvious, but there was also another on the ground who he could clearly see taking aim. Normally, the crossbowman in the tower would have been his target, but Ssarak guessed that the figure he could see scaling its side was Darius utilizing the element of surprise. Therefore, the crossbowman on the ground was the best target.

If there were any other immediate threats, Ssarak did not have a chance to notice them in the quick few moments he had to look over the area from above. Now that he had his target, he was moving for the kill. Ssarak went into a dive, straight towards the crossbowman on the ground, flaring our his wings in the last few seconds to slow himself just enough that he did not cause any injury to himself on landing. The bandit would certainly hear the wind from his wings as he drew close, but by that point, it was too late. Ssarak quite literally fell upon the crossbowman with his pollaxe in full swing. The axe head chopped straight into his chest, just below the left shoulderblade, while Ssarak's considerable mass knocked him to the ground. The swing benefited fully from the force of the landing and penetrated so deeply that it took a notable effort for even Ssarak to pull the axe from the body. Blood poured from the wound at a rate which indicated that Ssarak's blow had severed one of the largest arteries in the man's body, leaving him to bleed out in seconds.

To capitalize on the confusion, Ssarak decided to use fear to his advantage, though instead of expending his energy on a psychomantic attack, he made use of a more traditional form of intimidation. As he brought his weapon to bear, Ssarak let out an animalistic war cry in the form of a bellowing roar worthy of his draconic form. With luck, the combination of Alaira and his own surprising arrival would be enough to panic some of them.

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Hey Konan, I intend to post sometime tomorrow. Do you think you'll be able to post before then?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Hmm, this must have happened rather late into the evening. I was with Galsek and the rest of Harriet's alphas for several hours in the evening, as I had allowed Harriet the chance to form her defense. Unless Galsek knew about this well beforehand, then Harriet could not have instructed this herself, as I was present for their entire conversation. So, loyalty is a possible motivation, though we do not have enough evidence to say for certain that he does or does not know if Harriet is truly the traitor. In any case, we cannot simply allow Galsek to act unhindered. He has shown himself dangerous to the clan as a whole, even knowing the evidence against Harriet. There is also the possibility that some of her other alphas could resort to tactics like this. We just cannot act on this without causing more problems." Meesei observed.

Meesei crossed one arm over her chest and leaned her head on her other hand as she lost herself briefly in thought. This was a difficult situation, reminiscent of the Imperial politics she had heard so many people complain about in the past. It seemed like both action and inaction led to undesirable outcomes, which was likely just what Galsek intended to protect himself. But, after a moment, an idea sparked in Meesei's mind that could offer a potential way out.

"Actually, wait, there may be a way for us to turn this to our advantage. Just like we have to maintain our perception to the people of Harriet's pack, so too does Harriet to the rest of the clan. I could suggest to Harriet that she publicly denounce Galsek's actions. If she is the traitor, then she would want her alphas to cause chaos like this, but if she wants to be found innocent, she cannot appear to be in support of his actions. If she refuses to speak out against them, then that would cast considerable doubt on her during her trial, and if she does publicly denounce Galsek, then it gives us free reign to act against him." Meesei suggested before shifting her focus to Caleb. "However, for this to work, you must have credibility. The people need to believe what you have told us is true. Undoubtedly, Galsek is going to try to cast doubt on you, likely by claiming you lied to escape punishment. It is doubtful that anyone would believe that you, of all people, would lie to protect the traitor. However, some may believe you would lie to protect yourself from punishment, so to keep that argument from holding any weight, you must face punishment for your crime. We cannot appear to be going easy on you. So, it is my suggestion that we announce that we will allow Oswall himself to decide your punishment."

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

"I would guess that your father would want to send along the people who would best get along with me, or at least be focused enough on the mission to accept my expertise on the matter. If they do not intend to listen, it would honestly be better not to have them at all. We want to make a good impression on the locals, and there are some things that could actually get them in to some trouble if they make the wrong mistakes." Tarentek explained. He finished his meal, so he opened his canteen and sipped on his water as he continued.

"If we are lucky enough to get an audience with her, probably one of the most important rules is to do everything that the Queen tells you, without question. In diplomatic negotiations, you can disagree with her, that is fine, but in everything else, the Queen's word is absolute law, and she doesn't like to be questioned in her own home. If she wants you to do something you don't like or don't want to do, it doesn't matter; you do it. Disobeying the Queen is something they can and will arrest you for, and, well, you really don't want that." He added.

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

Tarentek nodded. "Oh, yes, quite a few. More than I could go over in just a few minutes. A lot of it is behaviors that might offend you which you and the others will have to learn to accept. I've encountered a few of those in my time here, if you recall. I wouldn't want you or the others to think someone is trying to insult you when they're not...or that they're being friendly when they're actually trying to insult you." He said with a chuckle. "We might want to set aside some time one day before the mission to go over all of that in detail. Preferably, with the others who will be escorting me. I may ask your father to decide a few days early on who will be joining me so we can properly prepare."

Tarentek was nearly finished with his meal, though he wasn't in any particular rush. "I think you'll be fine, though, as long as you let me lead the way and try not to make any assumptions if you're unsure about what someone is meaning. You seem to have been reasonably understanding about our differences so far, even if there have been a few misunderstandings. Is there anything you can think of that the others joining us might have issues with?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"This is...troubling." Meesei said in a severe tone as she paused to consider the implications of this information, and how they should respond to it. The simple answer was to detain this Galsek for spreading dangerous misinformation and attempting to subvert the ongoing investigation. However, she feared the situation might not be so simple. "So Galsek has attempted to sabotage the investigation? I wonder if this was his intended goal, or if he just wanted Caleb to discredit me? In either case, this puts us in a difficult situation. He does not seem to have any new evidence to support Harriet, so he simply omitted the evidence which exonerated Oswall. He spread only part of the story in order to influence Caleb, and I doubt he will stop with him. But, it could be a dangerous move to detain him, as the others in Harriet's packs may start to believe we are targeting their leadership."

Meesei let out a sigh, leaning forward slightly as she clasped her hands together. "I wonder, does he act purely out of loyalty to Harriet, or has he been influenced by our enemy as well?" She commented as her gaze shifted straight to Caleb's eyes. "Caleb, no one has been able to find you for quite a while. When did Galsek give you this information?"

Mass Effect: The Face of Injustice

Avatar arrived at the space station on the third shuttle coming from the planet’s surface. The vessel bore no name of which the Council representatives had been informed, but a quick visual scan on approach had revealed some information on the station. It was an aging Scepter-class civilian transport developed by the ExoGeni Corporation twelve years after the end of the Reaper War. It was designed to be larger and cheaper than other transports, making it ideal for resettling and rebuilding efforts. It was 32% larger than a standard frigate, though modifications to this particular vessel to convert it into a space station had increased its size 5% beyond that. Based on schematics from the stock vessel, Avatar determined that it had four decks, with living space surrounding most of the core systems in the center. There was also a large, reinforced “panic room” near the core systems, though Avatar had no way of knowing if it was still present.

The meeting taking place on this station was in regards to the settlement on the planet officially designated as 2196 BH3, which had not yet received an official common name from any Council government. Although, it was virtually certain that the present inhabitants of the planet had named it. Records on these locals were sparse, so Avatar’s knowledge on them was close to negligible. They were all of Council races, but they were not officially citizens of any Council government. As the planet naturally contained dextro-amino based life, the majority of the population was Turian, though there were an unknown number of settlements which had cleared out areas to grow food for levo-amino populations. It was unknown if any Quarians were present on the planet. Despite the variety of inhabitants, all of the planet’s settlements, and indeed the planet itself, carried a low population. They had no unified government and were much less developed than most galactic civilizations. Therefore, it was the hope of the interested parties within the Council governments that they could negotiate the settlement of the planet, along with the integration of the present population, in return for resources the locals would need.

Based on the instruction it had been given thusfar, Avatar’s purpose on the station at present was minor. The primary focus of this meeting was for the Council’s diplomats to begin negotiating settlement and integration with the representatives from the planet’s scattered cities. All others who were not security were present simply to meet said representatives and answer questions they might have relating to their area of expertise. In addition, only those designated as security were permitted to carry firearms, so Avatar had left its weapons at the temporary settlement on the planet’s surface from which the shuttles were carrying all who were attending the meeting. Interestingly, despite the fact that the station itself was a minimum of fifty years old and was in a state of borderline disrepair, the weapons detectors on the airlocks were a remarkably new model, created only three years prior.

The meeting was scheduled to begin in two hours and thirty-two minutes in the largest room two decks down from the airlocks. Since it had the opportunity, Avatar elected to locate and speak to representatives from the planet, or some of the others who had arrived before it, to learn more about the present situation.

Mass Effect: The Face of Injustice

Avatar isn't young. Or old, or anything in between. What is age to a self-upgrading machine?

Also, I will be posting in ten minutes.

Mass Effect: The Face of Injustice

I think you're good, Echo.

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

"Well...I don't know if I would call them my people. I mean, they are my species of course, but the Karisskan of Tel Nof are quite different from those of Amman. We do share a common background, but we split away from one another long ago." Tarentek began. He did not know everything about the Karisskan of Tel Nof, but he had learned some in preparation for his visit to their city years ago. "There are fundamental differences in our beliefs and the way we live our lives. We see our gods, especially Jhala, differently. For my people, as you know, we are called to develop a deep understanding of the world for the honor and service of Jhala, but the Karisskan of Tel Nof follow a different path, one that can change with their leaders. They split from our people by following their first king to settle Tel Nof. Since then, all of their kings and queens have had absolute authority over their people. They believe that Jhala imparts her wisdom on their monarch, so they serve as leader in state and in spirit. Still, those shared roots we have make them somewhat similar to my people, in a few ways. A lot of our social norms, like the way we behave and talk around one another, are similar, so I can be of help in that regard. They do trade with other cities, so they are accustomed to interacting with other races, and are...reasonably understanding when they make mistakes. Mostly."