World Tree MUSH

    "To answer your question." comes Dan's gentle tone to Rebecca. "Fragmentum is what happens when a Stellaron is activated... you saw it on Herta Station, those strange black and gold mineral formations. They are 'tears' or 'fractures' in space-time, and are all connected to one another, like a giant web of corruption. This allows monsters to freely travel between sites and why Arlan's job on the station has gotten much more difficult."

    Stelle places a hand over her chest at that, looking pensive. She carries the Stellaron that did that to the station, after all.

    Talia's suggestion earns a bit of consideration. "Perhaps we can find a way back through the city once we're out of the corrupted zone... for now, lets follow the path ahead, then we can think about what to do next."

    "Oh man I remember Arlan." Rebecca muses. "So you're saying this shit is like crazy portal juju for monsters. ... And now us because we just leaped into it. Huh." Well she gets the basic gist at least as she checks her jacket to see what weapons she has on her. Unfortunately she left the lions share of her guns back at the hotel, but she has her shotgun that never leaves her side, a pair of pistols, and MAYBE a grenade if she's lucky.
    "Alright, let's mosey."

    Clipping her belt together, Talia listens to Dan's explanation. "Are we somehow infected with this fragmentum?" She asks Dan with concern. It doesn't exactly sound good.

    Either way, she follows Rebecca, hand on her lightsaber as she senses out with the Force for trouble.

    "Oh, why is it always infections?" Jessica frets, her ears splaying out as she tugs her coat closer. Cheeks puff out, and she looks sort of miserably adorable, but everyone here probably knows she is still quite well-armed.

    "Um, don't worry, I'm not infected with Oripathy, so hopefully there won't be any other infections! Maybe I just have a really strong immune system?" Jessica postulates aloud.

    Stelle remains silent, her bat clutched in one hand as she looks pensively ahead.

    Dan shakes his head in return. "If we linger for too long, or eat or drink anything we find in here, or handle things too much, we may become like the monsters here... as you can see, some of them used to be Silvermane Guards."

    March huffs, as she takes point, half-drawing her bow with one of those ice arrows nocked. "Who do they think they are, ambushing us while we're asleep. The cheek!"

    Stelle finally pipes up. "I didn't like the feel of that supreme guardian... she had a... bad aura around her."

    Dan nods. "It seems our instincts were correct."

    Talia would sense them first. A group of Silvermane Guards are ahead, though they don't feel like they're searching for the group specifically. Perhaps they're a 'Monster Patrol' or something, trying to keep the population in check so the spread is slowed.

    Alright. Shotgun in hand, Rebecca grumbles.
    Though she pauses to pat Jess on the head VERY GENTLY with one of her massive mechanical hands.
    "Oripathy? ... Like what Scavenger has?" She muses before she's suddenly up front with March.
    Half crouching half walking she scoots low to the ground to make herself as small a target as possible as she goes full tactical, revealing a level of training she hardly ever shows through her normal devil-may-care attitude.
    This means one thing.
    Rebecca is serious about surviving this.
    "Yeah well. If I ever run into that supreme guardian again she better be supremely guarded because I'll be gunnin' to dome the skank." She scowls.

    "We get our answers once we're regrouped. Then we can decide on what to do with her." Talia says sternly to Rebecca. She keeps her hilt in hand as she holds up a hand, taking cover in an alleyway. "Patrol ahead. Stay low." She gives Rebecca a sharp look, to say 'That means you too.'

    Blink. Headpat? That's kind of embarrassing from someone as short as Rebecca! Jessica huffs, but answers, "Yes, oripathy is very common in my world, and usually fatal." She mumbles, not really wanting to discuss it right now, instead getting prepared.

    By that she means to duck into the side, finding a wastebin or base of a lamp or something to slink behind. With her hood up she shouldn't be immediately recognizeable, but the added obviscation should help, and give cover if it turns into a combat. Hopefully not, with bystanders around.

    "We should find another way around." states Stelle, as she ducks behind a trash can. Dan indicates a side alley, with a metal gate with some strange kind of control pod next to it.

    Talia would recognize the basic formation of the mechanism from the heater she repaired earlier. The tech here uses a lot of the same kind of modular parts it seems. It looks primitive but is actually pretty advanced under the hood.

    "We need to hurry, they'll be on our heels before too long. We should try to avoid open conflict as long as possible."

    "I might be able to distract them somehow." Talia says, before she notices the gate in the side alleyway.

    "I've seen this before, in the marketplace. There was a space heater with mechanisms like this. I wonder if..." She reaches out to try and interact with the gate, see if she can open it up. There's little time to stick around, that's for sure.

    "What? Whaaaaaat?" Rebecca grouses at the look from Talia as she takes cover. She's being serious here. For once.
    "Going around's fine by me." The small solo mutters before pursing her lips.
    "Ah man it's terminal? ... Shit..."
    It's a sobering thought. No wonder why Scavenger was always so defensive about CLEANING UP HER BLOOD everywhere it landed. No wonder why Scavenger is... Like Scavenger.
    "That fuckin' sucks." She huffs.

    Oh good, it isn't breaking out into a firefight in the middle of the city right away. "Mmm, I agree." She nudges Talia, encouraging her to figure out a way around this.

    She nods to Rebecca. "It's treatable, but eventually gets bad." She doesn't linger on that though, because Scavenger probably has a decent amount of time left!

    The mechanism shifts, rotates, and then the gate slides open. Surprisingly quietly. The alleyway is one that isn't patrolled much, so there's a few of those frozen and flaming 'zombie' Guards down here, along with some elemental 'birds' that harrass and distract. There's enough combat noise out here at irregular intervals, that fighting these things won't draw undue attention.

    "I see another gate up ahead." states Dan, as he ducks under a wild swing of one of those frozen halberds. "I can't see a mechanism from here though."

    Zombies. Lovely. Talia's lightsaber flashes to life as she rushes into the horde. Jedi agility is put to use as she begins to cut down some of the undead, taking heads and limbs off with deadly accuracy, making sure to disable these things as quickly as possible.

    Some of them are even bifurcated vertically or diagonally, to make sure they can't crawl around missing just a leg or stagger around missing an arm. The flaming zombies are force pushed into the frozen ones, to see if they cancel each other out somehow. If they can keep ticking when frozen or lit aflame, then either of those options are out.

    As soon as Talia has the gate open, Rebecca takes point, shotgun going left then right in a precision sweep. The girl is more professional than she lets on as she keeps low, still.
    Then she sees the zombified guards.
    It would probably be better to avoid direct confrontation--
    *BLAM*. Rebecca blows one clean away, racking her shotgun as she takes aim and lays into another with another heavy gauge blast of buckshot.
    "Out of our way, motherfuckers..." She snarls, more irritable than enjoying herself at the moment.

>> SUMMARY[Rebecca] >> I, like JESSICA, am not good at avoiding direct confrontation.

    Well, at least Jessica can handle this kind of problem! She makes a face, then ducks to the side, her pistol emerging in a breath and joining Rebecca in taking some shots. She doesn't enjoy it normally anyway, but now she also isn't in a place where she can easily get new ammunition, so she's taking single, measured, careful shots at the zombie... heads.

    As sweet as she is, Jessica seems to constantly show she's pretty quick to go for the lethal strike if that's what's needed. "Ah... are you sure this way is any better?"

    "Better may be a stretch of the word." replies Dan measuredly, as his spear stabs through a Frostwalker's head. it topples over, turning to ash on the way down as it dies.

    Rebecca and Jessica fire and their shots take down the hostiles. They're not exactly the toughest of foes.

    Talia's strikes are measured, precise and deadly. Each swing ends one of these monsters, their remains burning away, or freezing to dust. The scuffle is over before it really starts.

    Behind one of the flaming troopers, another pod can be seen. It seems to be the control element to the gate ahead blocking further progress. "Miss Kyras, if you could do the honours."

    Talia's lightsaber switches off as the silence takes over, only broken by the hum of her weapon. She breathes in deep and clips the hilt to her belt before she approaches the gate, doing the same thing she did before in hitting a switch and hoping for the best. "Let's not linger."

    "Good idea," Jessica agrees, holstering her pistol. Funny how when in combat, she's a lot less jittery and sure of herself. Now that she's actually 'in the zone' she's not really sulking about, hurriedly moving forward to glance about with ears lifting up. Keeping an ear out for problems, she moves in, not wanting to hold up the others. "We might not be so lucky next time about the noise covering us up. And if those guards are competent, they might think to check this place out, so we should keep moving."

    "I don't wanna stick around to deal with dudes if they decide to check out the noise." Rebecca says as she takes up the rear to cover the group while Talia handles the next gate.
    "Hey, how you doing on ammo, Jess?" She does aside.

    Moving swiftly once the gate is open, Dan, March and Stelle take lead, running quickly along the narrow, one-way alley towards a large plaza with another of those weird portals floating in the center.

    As they reach the widening part, gunshots ring out from the left of the group, scattering around their feet to slow them down, rather than aiming directly at them to main or kill. "Look out!" is the only warning, from Dan, as he skids to a stop and covers March with one arm.

    Guards with firearms line the walls to either side. Guards with halberds block the path ahead, and more start to file in from behind, encircling the group. "They really did catch up to us... even had time to set up an ambush." remarks March.

    Bronya then steps through the group at the rear, "You dare underestimate me?" She flips one of her hair drills. "Even though it's suffering from Fragmentum corrosion, this is still a part of Belobog. It was our home and the Guards know this place like the back of their hands. Enough cat and mouse. Drop your weapons and come with me." The Commander sounds geniunely annoyed at this point.

    When they're cornered, Talia sighs in disappointment. She doesn't even have it in her to activate her lightsaber, she's that annoyed. "I'm afraid we can't comply, commander." She says. "We just want to leave. Do you really want to throw more men away?"

    The commander makes a foolish mistake. Calling for an end to this 'cat and mouse game' while Jessica is there, cornered and holding a firearm. She frowns, hearing the comment and flattening her ears, then when Talia comments she lifts her weapon, pointing it as her ears perk up and her tail waves slowly.

    "You do realize that I'm the cat here, right?" she points out with a nettled tone. "Of course the mouse wants the game to end."

    Moving along right into an ambush!
    "... That's a lot of guys." Rebecca mutters. She looks to the others.
    "We doing this? I'm down for going down in a blaze of glory."

    "The Supreme Guardian summoned me last night to tell me you had deceived her. Your identities and purpose here are counterfeit. You seek to overthrow the Architects. My orders are to arrest you. It is for the adjudication panel to present you with the nature and penalty of your alleged crimes."

    March explodes, not literally, "What a two-faced old hag!"

    "Publicly insulting the supreme guardian only elevates the seriousness of your crimes. Throw down your arms and surrender!" Bronya is clearly not listening, and the threat from Jessica only gets her even more on the offensive. She summons a long rifle with an axe-head built into the end of the barrel assembly, a more refined version of the guards weapons, combined together.

    "One thing is certain, everyone." says Dan in a lower tone so it doesn't carry. "We mustn't be caught here."

    Stelle agrees, and March grins malevolently. "If they won't let us go, we'll just have to give them a taste of Astral Express medicine!"

    Talia narrows her eyes. "Very diplomatic, March." She asides dryly, before she activates her lightsaber, the green light illuminating the area as she adopts a fighting stance. "Fine then, we'll just have to settle this with a little aggressive negotiation."

    Rebecca racks her shotgun. For once... She looks absolutely serene.
    "I don't know what an Architect is." She points out. "And if you don't get out of my way... I'mma kill all your guys." She says smiling sweetly.
    "And then I'm gonna kill you."
    "And then I'm gonna go back and kill the Supreme Guardian."
    She pauses.
    "Then I'll go home, drink a few Broseph beers and take a long-ass hot bath because it's too cold here."
    Oh yeah. After that?
    She just freaking opens fire.

    Jessica belatedly answers the question earlier, "I'm um, fine with ammo as long as I'm careful. I've been keeping it on reserve in case we ended up um... well, like this." She gestures at the group, then narrows her eyes as the fanatical group just gets more obstinate. "See, this is why you shouldn't just have blind faith!"

    She doesn't do a spam of bullets, but she has no trouble starting to select targets and pick them up. Double tap if necessary, but not wasteful, moving to the side so she doesn't make an easy target while the more melee adept can take the brunt of any forward action.

    Shots ring out, Guards fall. Jessica taps them in the head, knocking them down. Some of those high power Originium slugs punch clean through, spraying the ground red. Occasionally the bullet strikes at just the right angle to deflect, and the trooper goes down with a dented helmet, rather than a new ventilation hole.

    Shotgun reports bark, and troopers go flying back from taking a solid spray of buckshot to the center mass. Their armour holds, but that's a lot of force hitting all at once and most of them are down for the count.
    Talia's ignition of that emerald blade earns her a ranged volley from the riflemen.

    Stelle engages in melee, intercepting any of the halberdiers who go for Jessica or Rebecca. March hangs back with the rangers, loosing arrows that sometimes freeze their target in place. Dan helps intercept melee fighters, his spear singing as he swings and jabs, twirls and parries.

    One trooper is sent flying backwards, and Bronya holds out an arm to catch him, steadying him long enough he can get his feet back under him. "Lady Bronya..."

    She holds up a hand dismissing the Guardsman, and steps into the fray herself. "I'll handle these evildoers. Myself." She brings up her rifle, and takes aim at Jessica, firing a bullet that swirls the air around it as it travels. On impact it's like being struck by a thousand tiny blades.

    Melee fighters Talia can deal with, but the riflemen are a bit of a headache. Their projectiles can't quite be deflected like blaster bolts and other energy weapons, leaving Talia with little option but to dodge and fire back with her blaster bolt. She performs a butterfly twist leap to dodge a shell, before she rushes in to engage Bronya directly. "We are NOT your enemy!"

    Rebecca has had it. She's done playing nice. She doesn't bother shooting to injure or maim at this point, when guys come at her, she aims for center of mass and heads to put guys down as efficiently as possible.
    Then Bronya takes to the field.
    "Ah shit." Becca says as Bronya takes the shot at Jessica.
    She lunges-- intending to shove the operator aside-- whether she makes it in time or not though...

    Jessica snaps off several shots, clinical and quick. It's looking good so far, but then she gets the attention of Bronya. Uh oh! Because while she's got the basics of being defensible and tactical movement, she's far from an expert and thus unprepared!

    "AH!" Fortunately Rebecca shoves her aside! Of course if it were just a pullet, that would be enough, but the wind blades tear through her coat and shoulder, actually drawing the Operator's blood. Significantly so! It doesn't stop her shooting, though, and she snaps off not one, but THREE shots at Bronya before the hot magazine ejects, and she fumbles one-armed at her coat to get another one in.

    It's slower, but Jessica CAN reload this thing one-handed. Maybe that should be a warning sign. The fact that the normally plaintive girl isn't squealing like a stuck pig after a fairly significant injury is also of note.

    Bronya parries Talia's saber, with the bayonet on her rifle. The Geomarrow blade glows brilliantly as it absorbs the energy from the Lightsaber, and redirects it straight back, blocking the strike and bringing the Jedi to a standstill. "If you give up, I will guarantee you a fair trial!"

    Tink tinktink clunk. PFFFSSSSSHHHHHHH.

    A thick cloud of smoke, or opaque gas begins to fill the alleyway from several canisters that just seem to appear from nowhere. The agent in the cloud has a soparific effect. Those affected would see the smarmy smile on Sampo's lovely mug before they pass out. "Ooo! Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin the intensity of the moment~." The blue-haired scoundrel walks through the gas, as if it isn't affecting him. "Sampo does have one thing to say. I'll never let friends who've helped me come to harm."

    "I don't see the legal system being very kind, I'm afraid." Talia says, as she duels with Bronya. At least until she hears something go off. A smoke grenade perhaps? Talia's vision begins to fade and her heartbeat slows. She chants to herself mentally 'I am one with the Force and the Force is with me' over and over, but her mind slows and her thoughts doze off.

    Her lightsaber switches off, and she raggedly tries to get a good look at the blue-haired fellow. "Wh-who are you?" She mumbles weakly.

    And then, she slumps over as the gas sends her to Sleepytown with an unceremonious thud.

    Needless to say there's blood. Shoving Jessica out of the way of that shot means Rebecca ate a part of it herself, as she gets torn into, her medical systems telling her exactly what's wrong and where. But there's no time to to recover.
    "This shit ain't fair in the first place, you expect us to believe we'll get a good trial!?" She snaps back before... A canister hits the ground by her foot.
    "Oh that's not fair either!" She snaps, firing wildly and blindly into the gas until her body grows heavy... Her eyes grow heavy... She grows heavy... And collapses in a heap of smolo.
    "Zzz... Zzz..."