• Last Seen: 8 yrs ago
  • Old Guild Username: FinderOfPaths
  • Joined: 12 yrs ago
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    1. Penultimate_Pi 12 yrs ago

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10 yrs ago
I keep coming back here very so often, as if it would make my wanting to return any better. I don't know why that would be. I would just disappear again and regret it again, I'm sure.
1 like
10 yrs ago
i give up. why do I even bother if I can't be consistent? it's over for me.
10 yrs ago
I'm just... really in a bad time. I feel awful. I'm don't think I have the strength of will to show my face here again after letting everyone down.
1 like
10 yrs ago
just gonna bash my head on a door or something
10 yrs ago
whatever
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Most Recent Posts

@AtomicNut I don't think he ever said he took physical damage, he just felt the pain.
This post is a bit short, but it at least starts my intention to get to the Burning Hope. I figure that along the way, I might make contact with a small remnant of Marines and also take down one or two enemy search parties. How's that sound?

I'm thinking most of Fortune's action is going to end up revolving around the Burning Hope, whether as a base or as a source for key individuals and plot points.
"It really is the Burning Hope, isn't it?" James-G043's astonishment didn't speak for all of the group, but there was a certain relief in his tone that the others resonated to. After nearly two days of hiking, sneaking, and generally doing everything in their power to avoid being detected, seeing the sight of a UNSC craft as whole as this brought some worthwhile to this group of displaced Spartans. Perhaps, indeed, there was some hope after all.

Fiddling with the integral zoom on his suit's visor, Marcus relished in the sight of the frigate. Despite the obviously tough landing and the intense shear down the starboard side, the Burning Hope had managed to keep itself upright and intact. "It even managed to make it down mostly intact. I'm surprised," G214 though out loud.

"Don't be," Jackson-A081 tersely retorted, "The Paris-class is built to hold its own against cruisers. I'd call this less of a crash and more of an 'emergency landing'." Marcus quietly sighed at the comment.

A beat of silence, then James spoke up again, "You think there are many survivors?"

"I think a better question," Brian politely interjected, "-would be, 'Did any other ground troops think to trace the ship to it's wreckage?'" As if to directly ask the question to his commander, Brian's helmet turned to face Jackson.

He seemed to weigh the question for a bit before responding, "Maybe, maybe not. Depends on whether or not they thought it would be worth it." The Spartan crossed his arms, letting the pistol in his left hand rest carefully on the crease of his armored arm. "After all, the Burning Hope isn't outfitted to support ground troops- if they don't think anyone survived the crash, then it would be a pointless effort to try and get there."

"What about the Covenant?" Marcus asked, observing another dropship coming in from a different zone. "You'd think they'd be all over this, even if they thought the same way."

"That's exactly the other reason we came out here," the team leader replied, somewhat matter-of-factually. "The Covenant hasn't had the chance to expand their influence all over this world. Out here is territory they've yet to explore. That being said," Jackson uncrossed his arms, tapping his thumb on the hammer of his handgun, "They'll probably be sending a few more search parties once they realize there are survivors around.

"Speaking of-" The Spartan turned back to Brian, "How many can you make out?" Marcus forced himself not to respond, even though he was clearly already looking at the scene down in the valley.

"Two Spirits, so far. Not unreasonable to assume they have more on the line just in case."

Jackson clicked his tongue. "Two Spirits, equals a couple dozen or so Grunts and half as many Elites... or more, if we're unlucky."

Brian and James looked back to their commander. "Weighing our odds?" Brian inquired with a trademark smirk, invisible beneath his thick helmet.

"As if we need to. They're out of their grounds."

"Either way, it'll take a couple of hours to get down there, barring any other encounters."

"Then we'll double-time it, and hope they don't call backup. On me, Fortune!" Jackson announced firmly, allowing his squad to snap to attention. "We're reuniting with the survivors of the Burning Hope, and no alien scum is going to get in our way. Am I clear?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

A081 nodded, satisfied with the group response. "Move out!" He ordered, leading his fireteam in a headlong march down the hill. Their hope was certainly burning- not in ashes, but with passion.
This Frame was a tough one, for sure. The high-yield energy bolts did practically nothing to shake the Emperor, even less so when it erected it's great shield; Dynasty was lucky, then, to have managed to get in a single volley before that, the intense heat of her shots melting away at the less-durable armor. Lora's enemy let out a mechanical roar in response to this incursion, a certain glow seeming to materialize around it's outline.

-WARNING: EXTREME ATTRACTION FIELD DETECTED-

"What?!" Dynasty's pilot exclaimed at this automated alert, just as she began to feel the entire Frame pull forward under the influence of the magnetic power. Lora leaned the machine back further, attempting to overpower the effects of the Imperator system. The effort only staved off the inevitable, the process of being dragged into Emperor's reach merely made longer. Too much mass, she thought, and quickly prepared to discard one of the Blaster Cannons in order to escape the machine's range.

The cadet got a bit distracted, however, by the carnage that too quickly unfolded around her. Rostosov's twin gatling guns had been turned into slag, forcing him to turn to his cruise missiles as his only source of attack. Caretaker had become entangled in a conflict with the dark-colored heavy Framewerk still remaining. Logic Gate was discovered, and had been deftly thrown aside by Irina's top-of-the-line war machine; the same weapon had caved in Paladin's head, leaving him to make a vain blind attack simply based on Elora's targeting data. The tables were quickly turning back on Squad Sigma, and with everyone struck as they were-

No, not everyone. Dynasty was still fully functional, and if Irina had any sense, she would take the Framewerk's head right off it's shoulders any moment now. But if their objective was to beat as many of them as possible, then Lora would push Dynasty until it could move no further. She took note of Logic Gate's incomplete data packet, trying to keep an eye on Sköll's blip on the radar...

Lora came back into focus when something clipped the heel of her Framewerk- the beheaded remains of a black and gold body, still holding a similarly-made sword, being dragged in by the Imperator system. The very sight of the weapon, and how it attempted to cleave Paladin in twain, gave Lora a devilish and risky idea.

"Excuse me-" Lora apologized halfheartedly to the long-deceased pilot as she planted Dynasty's foot into Phantom Zero's already concave chest. She lightly tossed her right-handed Blaster Cannon aside with a multi-ton thump on the earth, and with her newly freed hand grabbed onto the Blade of Hope. "I'm going to borrow this." Lora pulled back on the stick, forcing Dynasty to awkwardly wrench away the sword from Phantom Zero's deceased hands. In the fallen Framewerk's final act, Lora's mecha opened the burners again and heaved with it's stomping foot, sending the tremendous corpse towards Emperor like a worthless, gruesome projectile.

With one of her big bulky weapons gone, Dynasty was bought a bit more time in exchange: the lesser weight and mass gave the thrusters a bit more use against Emperor's magnetic pull. Lora still couldn't escape, but if this went as intended, then she wouldn't need to. Yet, Dynasty had never used a sword before, and the new weapon as such felt obviously unfamiliar in Lora's controls. Not being designed to wield anything but one or two of her blasters, Lora felt her synch rate actively dip as she attempted to test the heft of the Blade of Hope.

With only moments left to spare, the pilot forced herself to discard her inhibitions to this plan, and simply have faith in her Framewerk. "Come on, Dynasty," she spoke to herself again, this time coaxing the tremendous machine around her to work in her favor, "We have to give it all we've got. Nothing but our very best-!"

Lora lined up the remaining blaster to the approaching Emperor's head, and opened fire. Knowing the enemy would not be taken off-guard this time, she let loose a couple more suppressing blasts in the general area, and then switched gears. Dynasty suddenly reversed direction, only having to thrust forward on low power due to the magnetic attraction doing half the work. In the split-seconds Lora had, she leaned in forward with the left shoulder and reared back with her right.

As she was about to make impact, Dynasty tossed its whole body to the left, swinging both weapons in quick succession- the blunt end of the Blaster Cannon to knock away Emperor's shield, and then the Blade of Hope to slash into Emperor's damaged torso. Even if the sword lacked the power it normally had in Phantom Zero's grip, it had to do something. And as the smashing and screaming of metal on metal practically deafened Lora in her cockpit, as Dynasty's weight followed through and carried the Framewerk well past it's regal enemy- Lora could only hope the effort would be enough.
@Ariamis I'll keep that in mind. I'm thinking eventually, I may alter Dynasty either slightly or more dramatically, in accordance to a couple other good pictures I found. Either way, it would get rid of one of the Blaster Cannons and change the other to be a bit more vertasile.

Or, heck, it might be more expeditious to wait until I unlock those other secondary/primary systems before I start changing things.
@Ariamis A question I haven't asked before: How acceptable is it to have our Framewerks modified? For example, the original Roxy's upgrade into Roxy Kai, altering her primary loadout and such- could that be something I could do with Dynasty at all?
\I've been thinking about that. What I've been thinking is that maybe there aren't vehicles like we're used to - trucks and bikes and cars - but rather a more fantasy-steampunk kind of vehicle. Things that might not have been intended as vehicles in the first place. Automaton animals and the like.

What do you have to say about vehicles yourself? :)

Well, that's a clever idea, having non-vehicle machines turned into vehicles; I found a picture that could illustrate your idea fairly well: http://elle-shengxuan-shi.deviantart.com/art/steampunk-vehicles-401254460

Actually, while I'm fairly interested, I think my RP plate is actually kind of full right now, so I might have to pass this one up. Good luck, and have fun!
Potential interest.

What say you about vehicles, since you mention Mad Max?
And here we go.
As Caretaker communicated her intent to help, Lora forced herself to simmer down, seeing as she clearly wasn't going to be making progress by herself in any case. Still, she couldn't help but fume at the hot mess she and the other cadets had been plunged into.

You're being too critical, someone might say, but Lora couldn't help it. This was a young girl who had suffered through the pains of war, who had been forced to grow up when she all too suddenly became the oldest of her family. Thus far, her only foray into adulthood had been the induction to this experimental, intense soldier program. Lora had got it in her mind that it would truly help her- she could save lives, destroy the Cruxi, and return to Mitch ready to take responsibility.

Unfortunately, becoming a soldier had nothing to do with becoming mature and adult-like; the process served to train one to discard their humanity, to abandon emotion and morals when it would benefit the world you fought for. Still, Lora went along blindly, convincing herself that she could well and truly help people with the efforts she would process and execute here.

Some help she was, so far.

Harold was quick enough to rebuff Lora's angry remark of the open comms, his voice returning in a slightly clearer and hopefully private channel. Dynasty's pilot initially gave no response, for she had been doing nothing but waiting to be free from her grave of concrete. With another grunt, Lora laid into the controls with a better synch ratio, and this time got a passable result: the flight burners opened to full throttle, making the Framewerk raise from the rubble stock upright to spread a fine mist of particulate rock.

On the open communication channel came the choked sacrificial words of Sigma as Dynasty prepared to enter the action again, followed soon by Ariin's furious response. Closing that and taking a hold of the private channel Rostosov opened, Lora heard the pilot preparing to let loose with his heavy weaponry, as well as Paladin announcing his intent to draw Irina towards himself. Irina... the ace Framewerk pilot the cadets were expected to face. Lora grit her teeth with the revelation unfolding before her: Eiswolf had just been downed by the superior fighter, leaving her Frame in the company of two of her heavy-class teammates.

Speaking of them...

With another fierce punch into the joysticks, Dynasty leaned forward and let the thrusters carry the machine onward. Renewed vigor and rocket boosters carried the Framewerk out of the dust cloud and gradually accelerating to a heightened cruise speed. Her target: the regalia-clad pearl Framewerk hoisting itself from the ground, armed with sword and shield and ready to pick up where it left off inadvertently. "Paladin, Dynasty is engaging on your left!" Lora bleated over the private line as she almost fell into firing range of the enemy.

Dynasty tilted back in flight, quickly slowing itself to a dull hover as the humanoid machine swung the dual blaster cannons up to bear. Within moments she had acquired the target in her crosshairs (thanks in part to Emperor's sheer size), and without a moment to spare, the cadet pilot systematically pulled the triggers. A bolt of intense energy slammed into the otherwise pristine shell of the royal-themed machine, and then another bolt soon followed. Every second that passed saw three more blasts leave Lora's barrels and enter the enemy frame with the ferocity of a mortar, the recoil nearly pushing Dynasty back were it not for the flight burners.
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