Seeing the shot go through, Josiah curses and picks up his radio.
"Damnit, beasty's ethereal. Normal weapons ain't gunna touch it. Gunna need Spell slingin' an' brainwaves ta stop it!
"It'll be feedin' off the one 'e's catchin'. The more he gets, the tougher this S-O-B's gunna be ta take down."
= 28
= 35
Burgurk blasts pure bolts of energy towards the being and for a moment is pauses what it is doing and lets out a primal sound that screams over your comms, causing hands to go to ears quickly. Many of the refugees are stunned by the sound, but with the help of the Titan Robotics machines you have with you, they are coaxed to take cover behind Elsie.
Jace, hearing Josiah over the comms, decides that though he would rather face thing toe to toe, he had no weapons capable of hurting it. Instead, he moved to each refugee, picking them up and carrying them towards the other side of Elsie, attempting to keep them safe from the glowing blue monster.
Jingu swings around his flight path in order to head for the monster. He layers on speed to his flight, but it will still take him time to get there.
Jingu races towards the creature as fast as his wings and mental power can carry him. Burgurk’s bolts wounded the creature, but it seems to be still quite the threat. Deciding that Burgurk was a nuisance, it aimed one of its bolts of energy at the flying monster man. At least it wasn’t at one of the refugees this time.
The ephemeral blue beam goes wide and misses Burgurk completely. It impacts harmlessly on the ground near some refugees, scaring them, but otherwise leaving them intact.
The remaining refugees continue to be helped by Jace, Deloso and the Titan Robots to get behind cover, but there are a lot of them still trying to make it away from the thing.
Continuing to fly (last round and this), Burgurk ends up 26" away from the creature , and attacks again :
= no activation
With -4 Range and +4 Size, that's a 9, Raise
Doing
= 35
With -4 Range and +4 Size, that's an 11, Raise
Doing
= 44
Josiah places his hand atop his chrono-accelerator, and activates it. Then, with blurring speed he starts to assemble an arcane-infuser for Elsie's main gun. Slamming it into place, he charges up the laser cannon, taking a second to divert a bit of the super-charge to his rifle, Scarlet.
Closing with the spectre, Jingu slashes through it with his glowing psi-blade.
As Burgurk gets ready to launch another barrage of bolts, Jingu closes the distance as fast as his wings can carry him and Josiah prepares another blast from Elsie, this time with a bit of magic thrown in. With telekinetic blasts, slashes from a psychic blade and a super enhanced laser cannon, the strange blue creature, already wounded, starts to quiver and vibrate. The blue glow intensifies as it starts to expand.
Soon after, the creature explodes into a million motes of blue light, taking a few of the unlucky remaining refugees with it. Jingu was engulfed in the blast as well and it takes a moment for your eyes to clear and see what happened to him. Not only that, you can feel the heat from a growing forest fire…
"Do we have anything to stop a forest fire? I don't think my blasts would help..."
Jingu feels the power of the creature wash over him, but his chitinous shell keeps him mostly safe, other than some minor heat burns that will heal within a day or two. Still, the forest being on fire is another worry and many of the new collection of refugees are looking around for some sort of answer.
Captain Deloso looks around in bewilderment. A whole group of robot refugees and now almost a hundred human ones. You definitely don’t have room in the trailer for all of them. ”Well boys, as much as I enjoy a good burn, we can’t just let the forest burn down. I will see what I can do about it. The rest of you try to get the refugees settled in and prepared for a long walk.”
With that, Deloso activates his flame aura and starts walking directly into the path of the forest fire to hopefully quell it before it gets out of hand.
Jace runs as fast as a Hyperion Juicer can, going from stray refugees still fleeing away from the scene and trying to bring each one back to the trailer to corral them. More of the shooting and killing type, he has a difficult time convincing them he is a good guy.
Jingu shakes off the stunned feeling from the explosion, and tries to ignore the burning sensation from his body's signal hairs. He flies overhead, scouting the area for areas that look best to gather the refugees. When he finds a suitable spot, he sends a broadcast signal to the people.
●The giant creature that was attacking has been defeated. Allies are here to help. There are fires burning in the area, so please look overhead to see signals guiding you to a safe location. Please provide injured and immobile companions with assistance. If you require emergency help, please wave or signal the flying figure in the air, and he will direct rescuers to your location.●
Tapping into his power to reorganize and manipulate light, Jingu creates large glowing arrows in the air, directing the people to the gathering point.
●Command, I'm directing the people to a safe location. Josiah, there is a clearing approximately 150 meters from you, baring 27. Please move Elsie there and prepare to administer emergency aide to the survivors.●
Still concerned with the idea of magic being used in the area, the people’s sense of self-preservation kicks in and they attempt to follow Jingu’s orders.
Deloso, busy with the fire, only says: ”Copy that Jingu, good work.”
Burgurk uses his blasts to level a swath of trees that are in the path of the moving edge of fire, trying to create a firebreak.
= Success
As Jace attempts to convince the people to move towards the Elsie and Josiah, Jingu puts up the equivalent of neon signs directing them. While it is difficult, in that most of you are not human, their survival instinct bypasses that and you start to heard them in the right direction.
Meanwhile, Deloso and Burgurk attempt to keep the fire at bay so you have more time.
Jace continues to help corral the people towards Jingu’s signs and Elsie. He also makes sure to watch out for those who are in need of medical attention and goes to them first.
Same action :
= Success
Josiah moves Elsie to the clearing, and puts on his hazard lights to make himself visible. Hoping out, he starts directing refugees into different areas, trying to direct any wounded to a designated area. He pulls out components to manufacture a bio-regenerating healing device.
The device will have around 5 charges, and he starts looking for a volunteer that might be able to use it.
If if gets a volunteer, he'll hand over the device, with a brief set of instructions on how to use it.
Jingu moves around the air, watching for anyone that signals him for extra help, and then directs ground troops to the correct spot.
Burgurk and Deloso battle the fire, with Burgurk creating a firebreak and Deloso convincing the flames to consume only what is left of a small copse of trees.
JIngu and Jace continue to direct traffic while Josiah helps with the medical treatment of the wounded. Other than a few cuts and bruises, most of the humans seem relatively unharmed. At least physically. Those that were touched by the strange being however, they died almost instantly, their life force drained from them.
You spend the next two hours treating the wounded and patching them up. Marcus and his people help where they can. The next problem becomes what to do with them next. You still have another day or so before you get to Castle Refuge and you certainly don’t have the resources to feed one hundred and twelve people.
”Well, we can’t just leave them out here. Who knows what else will come for them. There might be a settlement nearby or we can see if we can go hunting for some sort of sustenance for them. Ideas?”, Deloso asks as he keeps looking back at the dying fire.
"Most humanoids can survive a week without food, and up to 3-4 days without water. If we push on, we can get to the Castle well before we hit those time limits.
Alternatively, Jingu could fly up very high and use his sensors to detect any settlements or signs of humanoid life. If it's closer than the Castle, we can go there. But if it's a small settlement, could they handle such a large influx of people?"
Deloso frowns. ”It is also possible that they have already gone that long without either. Nonetheless, we should probably press on then. Most of them will have to walk, but the most wounded can go into the trailer. If it comes down to it, we will have to stop and find some food and water for them. Once we get inside Refuge’s domain, we should be able to find a patrol to help them out.”
Jingu will get some altitude and scout for a source of clean flowing water.
Jingu flies up and realizes that the river you had been following for a while should be fairly clean. There is a spot that has a short, four to five foot fall with plenty of rocks to filter out impurities. Taking the refugees there, you spend another two hours making sure they are cleaned up and at least hydrated for the rest of the journey. You get going as soon as you can, wanting to put some distance between you and the place where ethereal soul-eating creatures come out of nowhere. Deloso does his best to go around and keep the humans warm during the cold night and in the morning, he gets a fire going to warm them for the last journey ahead. Throughout the next day, you make stops along the way, slowing your progress, but it helps to give folk who are not used to marching for so long time to rest and recover. Soon, you are on your way. Before evening, you pass a patrol of Legionnaires in Flying Titan Armor. They are too far to hail, but they tell you one thing, just by their presence. You are almost home. That’s when Jingu senses something amiss…
Monday, December 11th, 109 PA (2395CE). 1927 hours. 24 Degrees F, Clear. Northern Arkansas (Archrock, AR)
Deloso comes onto comms, frantic. ”There’s fire nearby and I can sense something else, something bad.” Jingu and Burgurk both feel their senses perk up as well. A psychic warning of bad news. Jingu especially recognizes this feeling. It has been a while, but he is sure it is..
”Xiticix!”, someone yells out as something black flies overhead. Jingu spots an overturned hover truck about 100 yards ahead. The flames and smoke from the wreckage obscure vision from anything else, as does the night sky, but everyone knows where there is one Xiticix, there are several.
Burgurk activates his goggles, giving him Darksight and Farsight.
The Hunters are *just* beyond Medium range, but Burgurk fires psychic bolts at them anyway, maybe that'll bring them closer...
= 14
Doing
Then targets the other one...
And again :
= 14
Doing
= 56
And again :
Embedded Powers: Techno-Wizard gear with an embedded power allows the wielder to use the power spending her own PPE or ISP even if the power is not normally available to her. Embedded powers do not use Power Modifiers unless noted otherwise. The wielder rolls her Arcane Skill or Spirit (her choice) to activate the power. There’s no Backlash for rolling a Critical Failure, instead the item suffers Technical Difficulties (page 117). Maintaining a power from a TW item does not inflict penalties to arcane skill rolls but does require spending the necessary ISP/PPE.
Able to see the two Hunters once his goggles activate, he Burgurk notes that they seem to be coming around for another pass, this time to attack. Focusing his power, two waves of force ripple from him through the air and into the two large insectoids. Stunned for a moment, they suddenly burst into pieces of ichor and carapace, splattering a few of the refugees underneath. The refugees begin running frantically for cover, not knowing which way to go.
Jace, lacking much in the way of night vision, a small oversight on his part, runs as fast as a Hyperion class Juicer is capable. He knows full well the danger of letting even one Xiticix escape and he intends to make sure it doesn't happen.
He knew now that he had their attention. He was okay with that.
Jingu activates the flight capabilities of his armour to boost his own flight speed, and blazes towards his hated foes. As he blazes forward he brings up his Psi-blade and shield, and looks for an opponent to strike out at.
Josiah looks about for one of the evil buggers, interest keyed in particularly because he knows how much his friend hates the things. If he spots one, he takes a shot at it, trying to splat it out of the air.
Jingu races ahead, either his power or his intense hatred for the bug creatures propelling him at high speed towards one of them flying around, above the wreckage of the truck. Nearby, a bright beam of angry red light turns another into a mist of crimson and black carapace. The remaining three turn their attention to Jingu, seeing him as an anathema of their own existence.
Down below back with Elsie, the robot runaways decide to help the human refugees by corralling them into cover and away from any fighting.
Focusing their fire on Jingu, the trio’s blast ripple the air with energy and slam against his psi-shield, threatening to destroy it.
As Jingu gets close to one of the Xiticix, its blade snakes out to catch him, but he is too fast for it.
Unable to reach the flying insects with his blade, Jace continues to fire on them, trying not to hit Jingu in the process.
Two of the remaining Xiticix drop to the ground, precise laser blasts through their heads ending their threat. Only one remains, the one Jingu is in aerial combat with.
Jingu slashes out at the insectoid warrior, his temper getting the better of him, though at least one of the blows flies well aimed.
Jingu flails out, attempting to at least discourage the alien insect from attacking him, but it moves away. As it returns to strike, Jingu’s blade sings out, a more precise cut, and cleaves the thing in two. It falls to the ground and while Jingu is perhaps satisfied with his kill, he knows that a dead Xiticix is an alarm bell for other Xiticix for miles around. They had to move fast.
”Report!”, Deloso comes over comms. ”Did we get them all?”
As far as you can tell, you did.
●All visible foes eliminated. Be advised, Xiticix exude a death pheromone when killed. Any other drones within a few miles will become aware of the deaths within a few minutes.●
Jingu uses his enhanced flight speed to get some altitude while it lasts, and searches the landscape for any Xiticix scouts, or for their distinctive wasp-like paper-mud constructions.
”Copy that Jingu. We best move fast. Keep an eye out for the rest of their hive. Burgurk, Jace, see if there is anything useful in that truck, we’ll get Elsie moving towards you.” Deloso then goes about corralling the refugees and then starting them moving again.
At the truck, Jace and Burgurk can see that it was an overturned Northern Gun hover truck. There are bodies of guards and the drivers scattered about the wreckage. The cargo seems to be mostly intact however. One of the crates busted open and Burgurk can see the muzzle of a laser rifle sticking out.
Meanwhile, Jingu flies as high as he can to survey the land and any threats nearby. Luckily, he can not spot any more Xiticix or their remnants. It doesn’t mean there aren’t any, but at least for the time being, this scouting party was it. He does spot however a hover truck coming in fast from the North. Its markings, or lack thereof, tell you they must be raiders. Or worse. You have about ten minutes before they arrive.
Burgurk says to his comrades "It's probably best if we load all these weapons after we deal with the incoming threat".
He shouts to the huddled masses "Everyone bunch together, get as close as possible in a tight circle! I'll hide you from the incoming enemy!"
Deloso comes back on the comms. ”Sounds like someone coming for the pickings. We need to secure that cargo, but the refugees are the first priority. We’ll use Elsie as cover, but Burgurk, if you can raise up a smoke cloud again, that might help.”
Burgurk says to his comrades "It's probably best if we load all these weapons after we deal with the incoming threat".
He shouts to the huddled masses "Everyone bunch together, get as close as possible in a tight circle! I'll hide you from the incoming enemy!"
●No offense Sarge, but a big dust cloud kinda just says, 'Drop your bombs here.' I can probably manage an illusion about the same size; a large rocky outcrop for instance, and it will look at lot less out of place.●
= Success
Burgurk shouts and growls at the huddled masses to get them all within an LBT.