World Tree MUSH

    While the local world doesn't have faster than light travel, it does know how to use Vines, and has been attempting to get ships nearby for some time. However it would appear that the Hydra was correct: they did fully intend to send a team to use violence to sieze the planet! The advance team entering the Vine and emerging via an APC which was rapidly deploying arms, armaments, and several dozen troops. Most are simple troops, but there are, as expected, about a dozen elites with power armor loaded up for violence, shouting orders to the others and quickly deploying what they need.

    It doesn't look like a small operation either! Though only the halftrack APC could get through the Vine before the small Vine destabilized for a bit, it came with that large number of troops and many supplies. A quick-deployed fab holds a small armory already, and the troops are working on assembling what looks like a large autocannon. Another small group is setting up what looks to be a large satellite dish.

    It's way more firepower than needed to take care of one 'problematic local'

 
 So the Hydra had been correct! Good, good! Cyber Frost would have been thoroughly infuriated if she had to suffer through another round of mindless -pointless- negotiation. Words had led to no fruits- now it was time to do things her way. 
 
 And indeed, she wasted absolutely no time trying to claim the blood that had been promised to her. Under the best of circumstances, Frost was a wildly difficult to control fighter- and these were far from ideal circumstances. She had made it clear she respected Samus enough to let her take the lead in negotiations- but now it was time for battle, and she wasn't waiting around for ANYONE! 
 
 "YAAAAAAAH!!" Rather than wait for anybody to devised a plan or anything of the sort- Frost just attacked! She came out of the wilderness and flew high up in the air, then she dove down towards the main force of the assault, specifically the soldiers coming out of the APCs attempting to plow into them with what appeared to be a giant ice made surfboard and impale as many of the main soldiers as she could into their own vehicles. Plan? What plan? At least other than reckless aggression.

    With orbital supremacy still within Justina's grasp, the scientist sets to work. She's not on the ground just yet, opting to take an indirect approach.

    "Minerva, divert all available power to the beam emitter and targetting scanners. I want as high a resolution as you can give me... we're going to provide some fire support for the people on the ground before I enter the melee myself." says the half-elf, using a holographic display to zoom in on the armory. "There, if we can disrupt their logistics, we should be able to slow them down."

    "Aggressive tactics, aye. Diverting power to weapons." announces Minerva.

    Outside, the bulbous shape of the Sanctuary repositions, turning its broadside toward the planet below. Two points of green-blue light travel along the ring of the Emitter girdling the crafts spaceframe. When they meet, a lance of blue-green shoots down toward the surface, dispersing slightly as it travels before hitting the area around the Armory.

>> SUMMARY[Justina Thyme] >> In position for tactical strike.

    At the end of the day, a Dragon Juicer really is only particularly specialized in the art of fighting an army. Juicers, in general, do not lend themselves to intellectual endeavors or the gentle arts. They're bespoke killing machines designed with a lot of money and a lot of effort. 

    So why try to use a hammer to paint the Mona Lisa? 

    "Catch you on the flip side, blondie." Valerian shouts, giving Samus a thumbs up as he rolls his shoulders and steps out of the back of her ship and simply walks off the ramp. Kept across his back is the wrapped bundle containing the Juicer Chainsaw, but for the moment he is bare-handed as he simple steps off the ramp and lets gravity take its toll. 

    He plummets straight down, like a meteor, and lands full force on top of the halftrack APC with enough power and force to buckle the armor plating and probably shake the entire thing up. 

    Standing from a crouch, he pops his neck and sighs, "Let's get to work."

    As the APC comes through the vine and destabilizes it, Samus Aran... Is nowhere to be seen.
    Let it never be said that the Hunter was afraid of a few men in powersuits, but perhaps she missed her opportunity to arrive before the bulk of the megacorp forces...
    Or.
    Or perhaps. Just perhaps... The Hunter was already laying in wait.
    [ENTERING ATMOSPHERE IN 10... 9... 8...]
    ADAM's electronic voice warbles over the speakers inside the gunship as a streak of light descends from the sky above...
    [5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0]
    Heat ripples off the sleek purple gunship's armored plating as it comes blazing down from the planet's atmosphere on a direct course for teh former location of the Vine.
    "Get ready to drop." The last daughter of the Chozo calls to her passenger as she thumbs a control, the ship's boarding ramp descending to open sky for him.
    Once he's away, the ramp slides back up into place and the hunter wildly swerves the gunship, jinking the sleek spacecraft into a hard turning strafe to come, jets screaming, around the arriving forces and bring the ship's cannon's to bear...
    It's nice that Frost respects her enough to have let her try and handle things peacefully. This is all well and good. But now it's time for Samus to show that she's not all soft words and non-violent solutions.
    As they say, if you want peace... Prepare for war.
    The gunship's cannon's come to life, at first brimming with a glowing internal light- before they unleash their payload of superheated energy rays hailing down on the APC in a storm of blazing wrath.

    Well, while the troops were prepared to fight, they were not prepared for the KIND of fight that they're getting. Guns blast down, and the armored carrier rattles, metal plates slagging and sloughing off to puddle on the ground. But it's a tough machine, weathering the onslaught with definite visible damage, but still operational, the turret above swinging around toward the attacking Frost who is on her way in.

    Then the top buckles inward. Sure, it's still intact, and still operating, but loud shouts of "WHAT THE HELL!?" come from inside as some of the troops still in the carrier stumble outward, and others fire lances of energy weapons toward Valerian.

    Many of the troops are not armed yet. This is nice for Cyber Frost, as she 'surfs' out of nowhere and bowls several over. Some scramble for weapons, and one already armed whips out a large knife, stumbling aside and counterattacking with a loud whining hum of the vibroblade crackling to life.

    Others are getting tossed rifles from the armory. "GO GO!" One of the armored troops calls. Then the blasts from Justina's ship rain down, pausing their attempts, causing him to shout out, "COMMS! Get that ship pinpointed and call in reinforcements!" He's yelling that toward the dish where several troops are piecing it together, while others hurriedly try to fit the autocannon barrel into place.

    Valerian puts up his arm and shields his face as the energy weapons pelt in against him. Some of them bounce off the apron he wears or the leather reinforcement parts of his shirt and pants, but some still hit his skin and leave scorch marks as they damage him, "Ugh! Can't you guys take a hint. Just get out of here!" 

    He gets a brief reprieve as the burning hot energy weapon from Samus's ship slams into the APC below him as he hops off to the side and hits the ground with a thump, "Thanks, Lady." He adds as he shakes off the stinging sensation in his arm. 

    His free hand comes up across his back and grabs the handle of the bundle. He twists his wrist and the Juicer Chainsaw comes to life. The mono-molecular mini-blades of the weapon whir to life and then thrusts it forward, sparks flying as he thrusts it into the side of the APC and then draws it upward, trying to cut a massive hole down the side of the vehicle.

    Justina nods, then winces. "Dustcloud over the target... we won't get another good shot, shifting focus, lets hit the comm dish. Begin prep of the XE-MI for ground assault. Load fireball bolts into the repeaters, and fit the extra Primus Nodes."

    Her hands shift and realign the viewfinder onto the sattelite dish construction. She dials it in as far as she can, aligns the focussing array to tighten the beam, then activates the sequence.

    While the beam charges, the scientist shrugs off her labcoat, and dashes through the ship to the ansible, strapping into the Projection rig as systems power up, and teleportals spool up to transfer the combat rig down to the surface while the operator loads themselves into the control system.

 
 "Get wrecked, assholes!!" Cackled Cyber Frost as she SLAMMED the deadly sharp tip of her surfboard into a group of shock troopers, shishkabobing them in the process and getting them nice and impaled onto their ACP. 
 
 The cyber ninja backflipped out of the way having expecting some kind of return fire, but she realized quickly that they had well and truly caught these guys with their pants down. "Hah! Knives??" Frost cackled as some of the soldiers resorted to melee weapons. Sure, they may be highly advanced vibroblade but it still meant they had to get close, which was a great vulnerability when facing Cyber Frost. 
 
 "And Aloy said you guys would be a challenge. Ah well, at least yer wearing Power Armor. At least try not to die too easily!" Normally, this would be the time when Frost enjoyed herself with some melee combat, but she had long waited for any kind of violence, and the thought of giving these lowly punks any sort of opening annoyed her. 
 
 No, this wasn't going to be fair by any means. Frost hadn't come here to fight. 
 
 She had come to -kill-. 
 
 "Shoulder Cannons!!" Twin projectile launchers appeared from Frost's shoulders as the kunoichi fixed her core to overclock her system and empower her machine guns. With a sound of whirling chaingun spinning, Frost began shooting a barrage of hyper sharp ice shurikens at the soldiers, ripping through their bodies and freezing them at the same time. She wasn't even going to let them get close as she aimed to shoot them down where they stood. All while cackling madly as she spun her upper body in 360 degrees, firing at any of them that got close. 
 
 "MWA HA HA HAHAAA!!"

    Once the initial strafing run is complete Samus' ship swerves... And goes sailing over the horizon into the distance. That's it? She's done and gone? It would... Seem so.
    Landing her gunship a safe distance away from the battle, the Hunter thumbs the controls one last time.
    "Keep the engines hot, ADAM."
    [Whatever you say, Lady] the ship's onboard AI replies as the boarding ramp lowers.
    Samus stands for a beat at the top of the boarding ramp. Before she lowers into a runners's crouch, like she were readying at the block...
    And she breaks into a full tilt sprint.
    Then her suit's thrusters kick in.
    In no time, Samus' boots hit the gound at a breakneck pace, speed rapidly accellerating with each second until she's a purple blur, crossing the distance between her ship and the battlefield in the span of but a few moments.
    She's on a cours right for the APC.
    She's not stopping.
    She's not stopping at all.
    She rolls her shoulder and positions her body to cause the maximum amount of damage she possibly can on impact--
    And she impacts the APC with the force of a raging typhoon.
    Only once she's plowed clean THROUGH it does she skid to a halt to turn to Valerian.
    No words. She just shoots the man a thumbs up.

    From far above, a beam lances down, blasting into the... force field protecting the comms array. Yes, it's important enough that it's protected, though the field flickers. Actual beam-screens are very high tech for this world, making them extremely rare, and it's still blaring alarms that it's taken a pretty damaging hit while trying to protect the delicate satellite deploying. The crew are frantically trying to get the whole thing set up before the screen fails!

    Meanwhile, a wrenching noise of metal squeals loudly as a chainsaw tears through the already damaged armor of the APC, resulting in more troops tumbling out... just in time for Samus to high-speed impact it! The vehicle is now truly a half-track in another way, as the structural damage from Valerian's chainsaw coupled with that armored form slamming into it has literally torn it in two, and deprived some soldiers of much-needed fire support.

    That said, they're rallying pretty well, lining up with guns while the knife-wielder charges... only to get chewed into hamburger by the cannons, as that one wasn't wearing armor. "GET DOWN!" someone yells, as the group tries to reform, blood spattering everywhere. Yet if anything they're getting more organized, so while their numbers are falling they're even more dangerous than before. One of the armored soldiers is hit, falling back to repair while another takes his place, not giving a reprieve.

    Valerian returns the thumbs up to Samus and then looks around. 

    Taking quick assessment of the battlefield, he comes to a quick decision. If they want to avoid reinforcement, that comms array needs to be his next big target. The dragon juicer watches the lancing beam his the shielding around the device and frowns. Might as well go give Justina a hand. 

    With a heave of strength, Valerian grips one half of the halftrack that he and Samus split in twain and he lifts it up over his head. With a grunt of effort, and a bit of extra juicing of his powers, he tosses the massive lump of metal sideways to send it crashing into the comms array and hopefully disrupt their shielding.

    With the APC handled, Samus is on the move once again, suit visor scanning threats, assessing targets, and handling the minutiae of battle for her so she can simply make a decision and go for it.
    On seeing the autocannon nearing completion, her suit blares a warning, pinpointing it as the largest possible threat on the field at the moment.
    But there are still other things that need to be handled.
    The longer that armory is up the more men can gear up to throw themselves into the fight.
    In an instant Samus' suit connects her to Frost via radio.
    "Frost." It's a curt battlefield greeting as she pings the location of the armory.
    "The longer that building stays standing, the more dangerous these men will be. The rest of us aren't as strong as you are, can you do something about it?"
    Is she playing to Frost's ego?
    Maybe a little as she turns her own attention to the autocannon in construction.
    Samus hurls herself groundwards and...
    Curls up and rolls into a ball.
    A ... Very small ball. Like. Uh. Probably up to Valerian's knee.
    This Samus-ball rolls right over to the men constructing the gun and...
    From the larger Samus-ball a smaller, glowing, ball just gets left in her wake. And another. And another. And a few more as Samus proceeds to just lay a series of very notably bomb-like objects around the men and the gun in construction.
    They are, in fact, bombs.
    And as fast as she rolled in amongst them, Samus wheels herself away before her dropped payload detonates in a series of concentrated mini-explosions.

    "Alert, Beam emitter, offline. Particle cohesion matrix overload. Beginning repairs." announces Minerva. "Keep me posted... begin transfer! Link Up!"

    The XE-MI frame appears in a flash of light, and suddenly leaps into action. Two repeating crossbows unfold from shoulder mountings, and the forelimbs transform into wicked looking blades as the thing sails through the air, heading for the autocannon. Following up Samus' explosive chain, comes a volley of flame bolts. These launch in a stacatto pattern, lodging into bodies, metal structures and the ground, before the runes fizzle out and the magic power within erupts in plumes of superhot plasma fire. Anyone still alive, gets introduced to those blades, the Doll slashing in a very crude melee style... Justina's a scientist, not a swordfighter!

 
 DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!! "MWAHAHAHA!!" Now this was more like it! Cyber Frost was having a big ol' good time mowing soldiers down with her shuriken cannons. Not her preferred Kombat style by any means, but at this point she just wanted to slaughter people with impunity. 
 
 Besides, now that the men were getting organized, it meant that the real fight was about to start. She could almost savor it as she licked her lips behind her mask and prepared to plow into the group of men, ready to take this battle into hand to hand mode. 
 
 "Huh?? What!?" Frost's was pried away from her happy place by Samus' voice in her radio, and the ninja gave an exasperated reply. Frost was.. respectful of Samus, but the Hunter was barking the wrong tree if she expected the cyber ninja to listen to her orders. 
 
 Unless.. of course.. Samus just absolutely read Frost like a book and played to her ego. 
 
 "Pfft! You got it! That building is done for!!" Frost was just so absurdly easy to manipulate it was almost ridiculous. She immediately disengaged from her beloved Kombat and did as Samus told her. All with a determined look on her face to prove that she was -the best!- 
 
 The cyborg engaged her thrusters and flew up high to get a good angle on the building in question. She charged cold kinetic power into her core, overclocking it once again, and fired an enormous beam of ice to freeze the building solid and shatter to a million pieces. 
 
 "UNIBEAM!!!" 

    Shouts and then SCREAMS sound out from the various troops, as some of their cover is uh... gone. That's because a lone man simply heaves up a halftrack, well half of one, and TOSSES it! Which is totally a thing a Dragon Juicer can do, but is not something these people have seen! Even Valerian can't throw it far... and it's an extreme effort to do it. It's enough though, because the armored vehicle is a broad-spectrum kinetic impact, and screens help little against those. The comms array is crushed with a loud crinkling noise, and two of the troops manning it are also not going anywhere, from the crackling noise of bones breaking in their legs and spines.

    The ones manning the autocannon have enough time to puzzle at the ball rolling around... and then see the bombs that are beeping at them. "Get down!" one shouts, all of them hurling themselves away. The bombs blow, blasting the autocannon into parts again and undoing all their progress of late. They don't have time to recover before plasma bolts slag the barrel and feed mechanism, rendering the large weapon useless... and as they're caught off-guard by the Synth Body(in their terms) wading into battle, Justina has time to badly slash one open, and another falls to the ground dead.

    Which just leaves the men rallying to fight Cyber Frost. "She's just one woman! Form a line and cut her down with concentrated fire!" One of the armored troops yells... only for Frost to leap up, targeting the Armory. It freezes over, and a bit of it crumples.

    "Sir we've lost the explosives!" It's still functional, but creaking quite a bit. A stiff breeze will knock it over, and the troops make a mad dash for the remaining weapons. A few of those already armed are now shooting at Valerian, who is also clearly a huge threat.

    Comms Dish handled... auto-cannon... handled. APC... handled. 

    Valerian watches the Kombatant (Frost) firing ice at the armory. That thing won't hold up much longer under her assault and she deserves the final blow. It'd be outright disrespectful to take it from the girl. 

    Valerian turns his attention towards the shock troops and then rolls his neck, walking towards them, "You gentlemen feel like dying today? Because we've pretty much obliterated everything you have backing you up, you're out here on a limb. At this point, it's not a matter of 'If' you die, it's going to be a matter of 'when'. So this is my one time offer, from me, to you." 

    He glares at them, "Just walk away. Put down your weapons, tell your bosses th-" And then they start shooting at him and he frowns. It's more of an annoyed look, as he pulls down his goggles over his face and then dashes in towards them. Instead of the Juicer Chainsaw, which is back strapped across his back, he is using his bare hands. 

    To be clear, the gunfire is damaging him, but not nearly as much as one would expect. Bullets bounce off his skin leaving scrapes and abrasions that slowly bleed. Laser weapons leave light scorch marks rather than lancing through his body. The clothing he wears does seem to be some sort of armor, offering him protection, but it's not infallible. 

    Still, he chooses to power through his pain as he grabs one solder by the helmet and simply slams him into another, converting both into what can best be described as 'a pulpy mess' as he shakes some blood off a gloved hand. And then he dashes towards a power armored troop and attempts to slip around behind it to, of all things, suplex it into the ground with cratering force.

    Justina shifts clawed feet, bringing blades up defensively, in case someone decides they want to be a hero. Noting the slagged feed mechanism on the autocannon, the red optic flares and shifts towards the remaining mass of troopers. She dismisses the blades, and instead begins to manifest a blue-white aura. "Scattered bones of the Divine Beast. Spire, Crimson Crystal, Steel Clockwork. Move, and become the Wind. Stop and become the Stone. Striking spears rend the shields asunder. Chain Lightning!" Claw-like hands weave magical lines as she speaks, forming a rune-symbol that then bursts and discharges lightning bolts that strike a target, then leap to another... she's very clearly lapsed in any form of defense and anyone who can sense it would note her 'Soul' is more 'present' within the Doll frame.

 
 "HRUAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" Cyber Frost was essentially levitating in the air through pure firepower coming from her chest, screaming at the top of her cybernetic lungs to bring the structure down. 
 
 Not because she cared, or even because Samus had technically ordered her too, but because she was determined to prove how great she was. Break this down and all will see the might of her Kombat prowess. It was her gate to greatness. Heck, by giving her a specific target to prove herself, Samus had ensured that Frost took this mission personally. She was bringing this building down no matter what! 
 
 It was frozen solid now, all it needed was an extra push to send it off on its way. Frost disengaged her thrusters and landed, looking somewhat spent but nowhere near down. "Hey! I'm borrowing this!" She said over to the soldiers as she grabbed hold of one of their transport vehicles and.. 
 
 She just lifted the remains of an APC and -hurdled- it at the building.

    It was more of a request for Frost to handle the Armory than an order. She did, technically ask very nicely. But still, seeing the armory get summarily handled in the ensuing chaos afterwards by the Mortal Kombatant... Well. Samus will chalk it up as a victory for the team.
    She also has not come out from that strange ball-form she's in.
    Mayhaps she's just feeling very spherical today.
    Nevertheless, the Hunter rolls around the battlefield.
    She's got places to go.
    Has to follow her rainbow, and such.
    Zig-zagging to make herself an even harder to hit target, she tumbles into the throng of the remaining soldiers.
    Once again she leaves something behind; a small, compact, silver sphere with a series of moving mechanical parts.
    It beeps a warning as she rolls away.
    "Get clear." It's the only warning her allies get as the Power Bomb beeps faster.
    When it goes off, it goes off with the force of a miniature tac-nuke; high heat, high force, high yield.
    Her armor can withstand it.
    The surrounding environment can NOT as it erupts outwards with a sonic boom of concussive force only to suddenly and subsequently implode on its own explosion, pulling debris, men, and just about anything nearby into a centralized point of smoldering destruction.

    Valerian is now getting a withering spray of gunfire, and the armored trooper is startled that such 'light' armor is proving effective. Then again this guy just threw half a tank! "What the hell are you?!" he demands, readying a vibroblade... only to flail as he's suplexed hard into the ground! This leaves Valerian open to some concentrated fire for an instant, but...

    Said hail of gunfire turns toward the 'synth' that strides forward, with the lightning crackling and leaping from trooper to trooper, jolting some to spasming deaths while others scream loudly and are burned. The line they formed to handle Cyber Frost is broken, leaving a scattering as they try to regroup, some of the commandos in armor shouting orders to... some effect while Justina is causing that chaos with a sudden show of power.

    "I need an Anti-Materiel rifle!" One of the armored troops calls out, and the armory provides! Or was. The frozen building has a man inside, frost-covered and shivering, fumbling the rifle and preparing to hand it over. The armored trooper holds out his hand to grasp it...

    And then there's no armory, as the small building is shattered and flattened, smearing the quartermaster to paste and also, incidentally, taking off the armored trooper's arm, leaving him staring at it in shock. He doesn't even notice the dull 'BOOM' not far away as the remaining ammo cooks off and sets the half-track-half aflame.

    The troops have formed two clusters, a defensive line and a back-to-back group ready to hold their position. Except... the latter group shoot a quick few shots at the weird incoming ball, and then the beeping starts. "SCATTER!" one shouts, but it's not enough, bodies fly as the power bomb goes off, and while some may survive the blast, none are getting up and fighting right away, the crater smoking where one of the two holdouts were.

    Leaving just the line settling in, the front row dropping to their knees and shooting a last salvo as the others regroup right behind them. It's more desperation than anything else, though... and after that single volley one of the commandos yells out, "Will you accept surrender?!"

    "I was going to OFFER you surrender and you all shot me in the fucking face," Valerian shouts back at the commando as he sighs and adjusts his stance, "And to answer your question, I'm a Dragon Juicer. Something your world probably doesn't have an equivalent to, but not a lot short of a Glitter Boy, a CosmoKnight, or an actual-ass God can stand up to me." He adjusts his footing a bit and then puts his hands up as if to indicate he's not going to attack them further.

    Justina takes a few bullets for her trouble, a girlish squeak emitting from the imposing Doll as it recoils and falls behind some debris, out of line of sight. Being that 'synced' with the Doll body means those impacts are going to /hurt/ later. She's in no position to accept a surrender, so keeps quiet.

    With the power bomb dying down, the armory reduced to rubble, and the soldiers in a rout, readying to surrender, Samus uncurls from her morphed ball form, rising to her full 6'3" height.
    "They're done." She says simply. 
    "They're not even worth finishing at this point.
    She doesn't enjoy killing.
    "There wouldn't be any challenge or honor in it."
    Right Frost?

 
 "YEAAH! SUCK IT DOWN!!" Cyber Frost threw her head back and cackled in mad laughter, flipping the exploding building the bird with both her hands as she basked in the chaos, even more amused that she had caught one of the soldiers mid-reaching for a rifle and took off his arm. Bonus points! Hah! 
 % With the armory destroyed now it was a matter of simply FINISHING the remaining troops. Oh, how would Frost -savor- their dying screams as she ripped them limb from limb! 
 
 "Eh?" The cyborg stumbled a little.. Surrendered!? Aw, come on.. 
 
 "Tsk.." She gave Samus an annoyed look and huffed, crossing her arms and looking away. Relenting from continuing her assault on men asking for mercy. 
 
 "Their lives mean nothing to me." 
 
 If only Sub-Zero had been as crafty as Samus, maybe Frost would not have abandoned the Lin Kuei and joined with Kronika. 

    Well, that's... something. The men lower their weapons, looking wary and bedraggled, while the armored troopers left(both of them) help their crippled comrade back up, the stragglers heading quickly toward the Vine nearby. "This planet is insane," one of them mutters.

    If anyone follows up, there are rumors of crazy laughing cyborgs hurling tanks around and smashing people flat, and weird robots with superpowers and high explosives they hurl around with impunity.

 
 "Hey, hey! Don't be blaming the planet!" Cyber Frost quickly pointed out. "It was me who kicked your asses! Frost! I'm that bitch! Remember that!" Oh good, people that'll now go and spread her fame. Letting them live was a good idea... 

    "Minerva, recall now." comes Justina's voice from behind the debris. A flash, and the Doll is gone.