LaXnyd

From Stardust, To Stardust

I'm just surprised that Duck's ships are so advanced and their FTL drives are so efficient and powerful that they went from null to ready to warp before enemy barrage fire could hit them.

From Stardust, To Stardust

Same as Kyelin. Somewhere quiet on a quiet corner of the galaxy.

RWBY: Deep Blue

(Collab between Scarifar and LaXnyd)

Michelle switched her sniper rifle setting to fire Fire-infused bullets and aimed at where the Beowulves would be in a few seconds. She fired, setting a bush on fire and causing the Beowulves to stop suddenly and growl. From what Michelle remembered, Beowulves were cautious around fire, which worked to her advantage. However, it was just one bush that was set on fire, and they were already moving around it to continue charging towards them. Michelle decided that she had bought enough time for now and started leaping from branch to branch to continue running.

Gerald looked up to see Michelle leaping branch from branch - and he also noticed that as he watched her, he was starting to look up less and to look to the front more. In a brief moment, he realized that his partner was leaving him. What a great start to the partnership. Turning around, he realized that he should delay the Beowolf advance for a moment and took advantage of the seperation that Michelle's distraction had caused. Aiming Anwarter at the trunk of a nearby tree, he fired a red shot which flew in the air before blowing away a large portion of the trunk, causing it to topple over right on the path of the beowolves. Then, Gerald fired another round - knowing it to be a blue round - and took aim again, firing to form the ice bayonet

Normally, when Gerald fired a red round, he would eject the ice bayonet first. However, keeping his aim on the beowolves even with the ice bayonet armed from the barrel, he fired a red round even with the ice bayonet in the barrel, causing the bayonet to fly out of the barrel and imbed itself onto the first Beowolf which leaped over the tree trunk, causing it to fall and howl in agony at the dust bayonet imbedded in its stomach. Gerald took the moment to reload Anwarter by inserting another six-round chain of bullets.

Blue - Red - Red - Blue - Blue - Red.

And with that, he continued his great escape.

Michelle kept an eye on her partner as they tried to escape the Beowulves. She noticed him firing at the Beowulves, so she spared a few glances to see what he was doing. He had apparently caused a tree to fall right into the path of the Beowulves, creating another obstacle for the incoming threat to overcome. It seemed like she made a good decision when having him be her partner.

Then she suddenly had one question appear in her mind: why were they running? They were both meant to be training to fight these creatures, yet here they were, running like cowards. Michelle stopped at a branch and turned to face the Beowulf pack. She fired three shots in quick succession, one to set the fallen tree on fire, and the other two at two Beowulves that had jumped after the first one that had been impaled with her partner's icicle. The wolves she shot were instantly set ablaze, causing them to howl in pain as they tried to beat out their flames, and the rest of the pack was momentarily stopped as the Beowulves growled at the fire, not daring to come any closer.

Gerald, as he ran, noticed that his partner had stopped in her tracks and was holding the ground. Joy. That meant they were fighting. A direct confrontation had never been his style, but he figured there was no better way to get used to it. One thing was for sure, she sure changed her mind quickly - and Gerald wasn't so sure she was willing to leave her safe higher position to help him if he got in trouble.

Aiming Anwarter at the Grimm again, Gerald proceeded to take aim, preparing to go from the Grimm's weak spot... and then promptly remembered that he had a blue round coming next.

God. Damnit. Murphy.

With that, he entered a standoff with the Grimm, waiting for them to charge as Michelle picked them off one by one and waiting to see if anything of them would be brave enough to charge, in which case Gerald would have an ice bayonet ready for their soft undersides.

The younger, smaller Beowulves snarled, looking left and right for a way through the fire. The larger, older Beowulves, however, walked back slowly, determining that perhaps it was not worth the effort to chase down their prey. Another shot from Michelle, hitting and setting ablaze another of the younger Beowulves, soon confirmed it and they decided to growl at the younger ones who were still alive, as if telling them to leave. The younger ones growled back, as if frustrated, but obeyed their superiors and left with them as they ran back into the forest, leaving Michelle and Gerald alone.

Seeing that the Grimm had dispersed through Michelle's excellent marksmanship, Gerald was on guard for a moment, waiting for the presence of the Beowolves to disappear before he flicked on the safety on Anwarter and holstered it underneath his jacket again. Well, their first battle as a partnership could have gone a lot worse, so Gerald assumed that meant that he wasn't completely screwed over in choice of partners. That, and he was still alive after his first encounter with the Grimm. Hooray.

"...Well, that was an unpleasant distraction," he said in one of the biggest understatements one could make. "Shall we keep going?"

Michelle watched as the Beowulves ran off, then lowered Artemis. She turned to her partner, then scanned the area for anything worthy of notice. Her eyes caught an area of cracked stone, maybe a temple, which was obviously quite different from the forest that they were in. "Hey, I see something. Not sure what it is, but it's definitely a building, and probably not originally part of the forest. Wanna check it out?" Michelle reported to Gerald.

Gerald followed Michelle's and his eyes landed on the cracked stone which Michelle was looking at.

"I guess," Gerald nodded, beginning to head in the general direction of the stone. "We don't have any other informed alternatives, so I suppose that is really our only choice."

"Ok," Michelle replied, then dropped down to Gerald. "It's not too far away, maybe a two minute walk," she said. As she started walking, Michelle awkwardly asked, "So, uh.... I suppose we should, um... get to... know each other?" She wasn't one for conversation, but she thought it was necessary if they were to continue being partners. She only hoped that this little conversation would not be so awkward.

Michelle's question honestly surprised Gerald, but she did have a point. After all, the two were going to be partners. They worked better when trust was formed. However, to Gerald, trusting someone who hid their very body language with a cloak wasn't exactly comforting. It could just be the fact that he saw too many self-proclaimed vigilantes back in the day who thought cloaks were in style.

"Mmm... what do you want to know?" Gerald asked as they walked. "I'm not a really interesting guy, in case you're wondering."

"I, uh... don't... know, actually," Michelle said, unconsciously avoiding eye contact by looking down. As she looked around, she asked, "Maybe... the weapon you're using? That might be a good start."

"This?" Gerald asked, reaching into his coat and unholstering Anwarter. "It's Anwarter. Revolver based. Uses red or blue dust. It probably can be used with other forms of dust, but I've never tried it." It had been too expensive to buy other forms of dust, even if the effect he could achieve with it through Anwarter could be very interesting.

"What about you?" Gerald asked, turning back to Michelle. "Is that sniper rifle all you have? Normally, I assumed that people with sniper rifles let it transform for close range combat, but yours doesn't seem to have that function," he commented.

Michelle took out her sniper rifle from underneath her cloak and held it out. "I call this Artemis. Uses all 4 kinds of dust: red, blue, yellow, and green," she explained. "Also, I do have another weapon," Michelle said as she put away Artemis and pulled out two pistols from their holsters. "Well, two, actually. Together, they're called Apollo. They're just regular guns though; they don't do anything special," Michelle said. "I've been meaning to change that, but I can't figure out how to get them to do what Artemis does."

"Well they've been doing a good job for you so far, haven't they?" Gerald commented, idly wondering if the gunsmith who forged Anwarter might be able to actually help Michelle with Apollo. He actually did have one other weapon, but should he tell her? Schnellfeur, after all, was a mere handheld semi-automatic, but the mere surprise of having it offered Gerald so many opportunities.

"I actually do have one more weapon, but it's actually a secret ace in the hole." Gerald admitted to Michelle as a compromise. "It's not really powerful, but I've caught a lot of opponents off guard just by having it, so I like to keep it a secret. Don't tell anyone though." he asked with a grin on his face and a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Michelle turned toward Gerald at the mention of a "secret weapon", curious yet respectful of his privacy. "I won't tell anyone," she promised. She was going to ask something else, but they had arrived at the building. Michelle turned toward it, and noticed that it was a temple of some sort. "Well, we're here. Let's go see what's inside," Michelle said, putting away Apollo and putting Artemis into her hands while still keeping it underneath her cloak.

Only nodding in response to Michelle, Gerald, who already had Anwarter out, opened his chamber to confirm just what bullets he had left. Nodding in satisfaction, he closed the chamber and stepped into the ruined circle to find what appeared to be chess pieces.

"Well, it sounds like we're not the only ones here." Gerald commented as he heard talking, which actually relaxed him a bit. Someone being here meant that any Grimm here would have been cleared out. Looking at the options of the chess pieces, Gerald turned to Michelle.

"...I'm not much of a chess player, so what do you want to take?" he asked.

"Hmmm...." Michelle thought out loud, looking at the choices she had. "Let's go with this one," she said, grabbing the white bishop and showing it to him, then placing it in an inner pocket within her cloak. She looked at the others that were there, recognizing the one that had been mauled by an angry mob of chickens before she saved him, but not the others. She turned to Gerald and asked, "You, um... wanna go say 'hi' to them?"

"Sure." Gerald shrugged, wondering if Michelle taking the white bishop would have any drastic implications down the road. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. Safety in numbers, after all."

Turning to the others who were currently at the ruins - he recognized Kael, who had been swarmed by chickens yesterday. Good to see he had made it. He also recognized Coral from the airship. Then again, her appearance wasn't something that one would easily forget.

"Hey." he called out, stepping forward. "You guys got your relics too?"

From Stardust, To Stardust

"Favor please. Tell the guys in orbit, the new contact, Jeddevans race to back the fuck off. Tell them that you wanna fight this own your own"

"Why would the humans do that? Their current line of thinking is 'Fuck the Iscandarians.'"

"Because they think the can perserve and they dont know the aliens so yeah. And I dont want them interveneing anyways."

...Can you find the humour here? I sure can't.

Duck, you sir, either have one of the strangest, convenient, unconventional and oddest senses of humor I have ever seen. Either that, or you're a dirty dirty liar.

From Stardust, To Stardust

...I won't say anything on balance. I just won't. I absolutely refuse to speak on the topic. However, I will say this.

In my opinion, the idea of the humans just bending over and happily letting an entire foreign alien race tell them that they suck for letting their planet devolve into a radioactive inferno of nuclear war and how to run their own governments and policies was completely and utterly ridiculous.

Edit: Okay, maybe I misread that a bit. You want the humans to refuse help that's being offered to them that doesn't promise to essentially colonize them. The enemy of their enemy is their friend. Refusing help out of pride is also ridiculous and Duck is essentially trying to metagame for your help and favour. In my honest decision, I would honestly say to you: These kind of things should NOT have been decided in OOC PMs - whether or not the humans accept help should be strictly roleplay and their decision, whatever it may be, should be in character for them as a people.

From Stardust, To Stardust

Combat Information Centre, Admiral Zhang He, Flagship of the Pearl Fleet

The collective command staff fell silent at Captain Magnus' revelation. From what he spoke, this meant that the Iskandarians of the Eternal Union didn't live on water. So where did they live in that case? On land? Beings actually lived on the great dry ocean above?

"Could be possible." The Chief of Science reported. "I mean, we do have signs of life on the dry ocean in atlantis, using what we describe as "noses" instead of our traditional "gills". If these people of the Eternal Union do not have gills, it is very possible they have some way of extracting oxygen from the air."

The admiral fell silent, contemplating the revelations before turning back to the command console.

"...Captain Magnus," Admiral Hei finally repsonded, "We apologize for the communications silence; we were forced to consult with the chiefs of staff for possible solutions. We have, in fact, developed several methods of transportation and temporary survival upon the dry lands."

XXXXX
Combat Information Centre, Combat Carrier Li Wen, Pearl Fleet Vanguard Squadron Flagship

Captain Hign had been awaiting instructions from the Admiralty. After listening to the conversation between the Admiral and the Eternal Union, the Captain finally made a few decisions of his own about the STC Acheron.

"STC Acheron," he transmitted, "THis is the Li Wen. You are welcome to dock alongside us, but, uh, just for confirmation, our species is aquatic based and we do live in water. As a result, the decks of our ships are flooded." he said, confident that the STC Acheron and her crew were also an aquatic species - after all, how many intelligent dry races could there be, right?

"That won't be a problem, would it?"

RWBY: Deep Blue

Gerald did not need a sniper rifle to hear the faint but very existing rumble of approaching beowolves. Looking up at the direction Michelle indicated, he began to run.

In all honesty, Gerald had never actually seen a creature of Grimm before. As such, this experience was rather new - and a tad frightening - to him. He had heard the tales, read the stories, watched the videos on what they were but he had never faced anything like this. While he had been in life or death situations before, everything he had been facing was strictly human. This was new. Entirely new.

As he ran, he kept Michelle in his peripheral vision and took note of the bullets he had. He had fired two red bullets and used the blue for his descent, so that meant...

Red Blue Red.

Under the grim realization that he could not reload, he pressed a button on Anwarter, releasing the ice dust bayonet from his barrel, causing it to fall to the forest floor before shattering under his running feet.

From Stardust, To Stardust

Acheron, I replied to you ^^

From Stardust, To Stardust

Combat Information Centre, Zhang He, Flagship of the Pearl Fleet

Admiral Hei turned to his officers for a moment, silently asking for their opinions. All of the gathered officers and specialists gave a nod and Admiral Hei nodded back. Turning back to the communications console, the Admiral began speaking.

"Captain Magnus, on behalf of the Pearl Fleet and all Alarai I would be honoured to accept your invitation. My ship's science officer will send you the data on our physiologies, but I do not predict any difficulties."

XXXXX

Combat Information Centre, Combat Carrier Li Wen, Pearl Fleet Vanguard Squadron Flagship

Captain Hign floated on the command platform of the Carrier, listening as the static-burst transmission came in from the STC Acheron. Two races in one area? Both of them contacting the fleet independently? The Admiral was already in talks with the Eternal Union, as such following protocol it came to him to handle the discussion with the STC; a responsibility that he was suddenly very much feeling the weight of.

"STC Acheron, this is the Li Wen, Flagship of the Vanguard Squadron of the Pearl Fleet." Captain Hign spoke. "We have received and return your request for peaceful contact with the same."

How a stealth ship just managed to appear near the Vanguard fleet, the first line of defence for the Pearl Fleet against any possible hostile forces, was completely beyond him. He would be sure he would be having a very stern and angry discussion with his chiefs of staff. This security breach was unacceptable; had the Acheron been hostile then there may have been tragic consequences.

From Stardust, To Stardust

The Long Range Recon Patrol sounds nice ^^

The Alarai would help the crashed ship but they can't live on land