"It is the horror! I haven't seen such a misery in a long time." Imagine tells inspecting the bar. "You can for sure get drunk, but for every other cocktail something is missing."
"Maiden, give me a visual of what Gorn is playing with." she tells the ship AI. As the shaking view of the b**** slapping contest shows on the screen Imagine sighs.
"That's an Atrocite. Something like the harbinger of doom for the Devourer. I guess you have seen most of the stuff it can do already. But get it killed before you face anyone else. The boost it brings to the deadliness of devourer coltist's attacks is devastating."
"No special vulnerabilities, and no special protections, besides magic."
"That looks bad," observes Maxim from the relatively safe position on the ground.
Graviton Attuned x2. Total Defense action (for "Reflection" stellar revelation reaction).
After seeing what the ship weapons did to the last beast and knowing Gorn is likely in hand to hand with this new threat, Takeda decides to opt for his rifle. Unslinging it he runs to the off ramp.
Gorn punches the Atrocite into the stomach - if that thing has a stomach, and it's where other humanoids have theirs - making it cringe. But it will take much more punhes to take it down.
Once he gets outdoors, Takeda takes aim and fires at the atrocite. Over their personal comms he says, "Gorn, bring it lower."
Voxx takes aim at the thingy again, tracking....tracking , until sure that Gorn wasn't in the way, [b]"Yeah, bring it down here so we can share...the realizes that they were too far away for an effective shot.
He bides his time...
Takeda sees to dark specks in the sky and shoots in the direction. Surprisingly close, but he doesn't actually hit the outsider.
The atrocite does the airwalk to step away and shoots Gorn with a ray of dark energy.
Maxim runs back into the ship to get EH-RKs sniper rifle. Then he takes the lift up through the dorsal hatch so he can shoot at the thing from an elevated position.
Takeda takes aim again and fires two shots one after the other to try and accomplish with volume what he failed to do with accuracy."By all that is good this is aggravating!" He says and heads back to the command deck.
Focus fire
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As the thing steps back to launch an evil attack, Gorn sees the opening and launches another palpable hit as it fades.
Feeling his strength fade, Gorn decides the thing has done him a favor, and he flies back toward the ship, baiting the thing to follow.
Of course, he's never one to do things peaceably when he can do it with violence. With the movement, he smoothly combines a re-drawing of the artillery laser and looses a partheon shot.
Takeda shoots into the sky. Gorn deals some painful blows to the atrocite before slowly decending.
With no syrup, or any fruit juice around the simplest recipe to mix is a long island ice tea. There is no lemon, but who cares. Imagine fills a long drink glass with Rum, Wodka, Gin, Tequila and Triple Sec Curaçao. "That should do the trick." With her new drink she takes the pilot seat again. Not for the piloting, but it's the best seat on deck.
The atrocite goes back to zapping Gorn.
Maxim kneels on the deck with the big sniper rifle, aiming the unwieldy thing as best he can. With the wraith in his scope, he pulls the trigger.
Takeda contemplates taking off just to get closer to the stupid thing. He takes a calming breath and heads out to join Maxim. (will shoot again next round)
Voxx nods as Gorn continues to maneuver closer to the ground, but he still has to wait for the critter itself to follow...
Maxim manages to hit the atrocite despite the large distance. Gorn fires another parting shot, that also hits.
Suddenly there are three atrocites in close proximity to each other.
Takeda, now back outside, takes aim and fires at the atrocite.
Maxim shakes his head as two more of the little baddies pop into existence in his scope. Eenie, meenie, minie...
Gorn decides to let gravity take care of getting awy from that alien and it works quite well. At the end of the fall, he uses his flight ability to catch himself just above the ground.
Takeda takes out one of the three atrocites. As easy as it was it's probably not a real one.
Maxim manages to get in a hit on the real one.
The atrocite also decends but not as far and away from the group. Roughly in direction of the location the group wants to move to.
Grumbling, Takeda takes another shot.
adjust for range
Maxim watches through the scope as Gorn flees from the challenge and the villain smartly distances itself from the other shooters. His sniper rifle has plenty of range, as long as he picks the right target.
Takeda kills another one of the imaginary enemies before the remaining original flies further away and the trees obstruct sight to follow up with shooting.
"Well, we might as well get to it before that thing comes back with friends." Takeda says reloading his magazine. He carries six additional mags on his person in addition to the one in the weapon. He then fetches his backpack and slings it over his shoulders.
Similarly grabbing his pack, Voxx shoulders his rifle, "Yep...let's go a-hunting! "
A short jog of about half a mile later, the path through the harsh jungle eventually turns into the remains of a battered road leading to a large structure. As you approach, you can easily see the front doors of the building have been blown inward by some explosive force.
It is a bunker-like building constructed of a kishalee alloy that resists deterioration and the scourge of the elements. Even so, the jungle plants festoon nearly every exterior surface, and the occasional curious jubsnuth and other alien creatures have gnawed on the building’s corners.
The ones who arrived before you chose the brute force option to open the doors. The resulting blast was so powerful that the entrance to the place is now a charred mangle of metal and melted plastic.
Sounds of cruel laughter can be heard from inside.
Flickering ceiling lights illuminate the entrance. The light is tinted green and is rather low. The remains of a large double door lies broken on the floor, while a couple of bizarre-looking chairs or couches sit mangled against the north wall. Two short sets of steps lead up to a raised section of the room, from which a double door exits to the north. A smaller door stands in the southeast corner. The source of the laughter are three cultists who greet you with an evil grin before attacking.
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Before the group sets out, Gorn states, "Pause a moment. Some of us have been engaged in combat and require a moment's respite."
Gorn collapses onto a three-person acceleration couch and sprawls out. In time he opens something. Probably a lager.
After ten minutes he regains his feet, switches out his battery from a fresh one from one of the ship's chargers, and head out with the group.
At the building he considers flying around it for a quick reconnaissance, but decides against it. It doesn't seem the time.
"Why are these cultists always laughing?" he muses.
"Because they are close to getting what they relish, death." Takeda says and begins to put holes in them.
Focus Fire with combat rifle
One of the cultists takes a shot from Takeda, but retaliates with throwing a grenade. He throws it right past takeda catching all in the blow.
Activate Haste Circuit as a swift action. Graviton Attuned x1.
"You bastards singed my hair! Now you die!" Maxim activates The Morning Star and launches himself with lightning speed at the same SOB that Takeda lit into.
Maxim tries to run the cultist through with his weapon with mixed results. He adds another whole to the body and paves his way to meet his god rather sooner than later. But not yet.
As everyone else stands there as if struck by lightning the cultist open fire.
Takeda returns fire.
Focus Fire
Takesa shoots the cultist onece more, but even though wouded badly, he still stands.
As he still got the gun in hand, Gorn shoots one of the cultists. It causes a good deal of damage, but sadly only to the rock lying at the entrance.
Voxx moves in and swings his plasma sword at a cultist.
Maxim's cultist drops the gun and draws a sword. With a masterfully executed swing, he cuts into Maxim.
Maxim attempts to finish off the most badly wounded cultist.
Graviton Attuned X2.
Maxim kills one and wounds the next cultist.
With Maxim being the bigger threat, he earned the attention of the cultist.
Takeda then adjusts his position (5' step) and fires at the easier of the two targets.
Focus Fire
Voxx smiling that he's now in his element, up close and personal, chops as the nearby cultist...
Takeda puts some additional holes into the cultist, leaving Voxx without his direct target. But there is one more, that can take Voxx's rage.
Gorn moves forward, till he sees the remaining one and shoots, preparing the cultist for Maxim to finish..
Maxim takes a second to activate his forcefield, wishing he'd done that before charging into the fight. Then he takes a good hack at the last damned cultist.
Edit: since activating the forcefield is a standard Action, Maxim activates it and then takes a guarded step in the direction of Imagine.
With the big guys covering the cultists, Imagine carefully moves in to put a magical band aid on Maxim.