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Mechanical legs propel Ordyt into motion, carrying him past and around his allies until he jukes in close to deliver a bayonet slash to the serpentine Legion officer.
Your foe grows a touch more confident despite the numbers arrayed against him. He whirls his spear in a great arc before stabbing the end into Flint's leg. While Flint's distracted by one wound, the creature's tail whips around and wraps around his torso, lifting him into the air!
The Commander hisses "The damage you've dealt to our operations here has been far too extensive. But that will only make your removal all the greater of an accomplishment when Khaim learns of it. A promotion, perhaps, will be in order..."
Heat billows off the Commander, burning Flint and Ordyt. Of the two, only Ordyt is hurt, and even then only mildly
|||| INIT ||||
Bel (32 dmg)
Flint (98 dmg, pinned)
Ordyt (1 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari (17 thp)
Sammad
Commander Gorchak (33 dmg, get em +2, whirling fire, **)
"Unhand--er, untail? Let go of the captain!" Ordyt bellows, sliding around to get behind the serpentine officer so he and Bel can take them apart.
"They always love to hear the sound of their own voices," Mari says, rolling her eyes as she circles around for another shot.
Grunting in pain, Flint suddenly finds himself upside down and hanging by his feet from a flaming tail! Struggling, he decides to activate his jetpack at full thrust, flying straight up and giving the Commander a choice—let go or be hung upside down as well (or so he hopes).
+2 if get ‘em applies
The Commander weathers the assault by the heroes surrounding him, his armor and body beneath proving surprisingly resilient. Ordyt gets a stab in, but his attack struggles to pierce the creature's side. . A flash of flame burns him in response . Thanks to the flank though, Bel lands two powerful slashes that seem fully effective. Unfortunately despite these wounds, the Commander's grip on Flint does not let up, and he easily keeps a hold when Flint tries to fly away. Worse, Mari's shot into the melee once more goes well off target.
The Commander reaches back and skewers Flint with his spear, then tries to crush him in the grip of his coils. Luckily, Flint's struggles loosen the bind a little, though he's still unable to get completely free.
|||| INIT ||||
Bel (32 dmg)
Flint (145 dmg, pinned)
Ordyt (8 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari (17 thp)
Sammad
Commander Gorchak (97 dmg, get em +2, whirling fire, ***)
Managing to get his weapon arm free, Flint still takes another devastating spear hit! Now bleeding from the grievous wound, Flint focuses some of his solar power, partially healing the damage from that strike (Move action Glow of Life heals 30 hp).
He then slashes at the tail still holding him, trying to break free or perhaps even slice it off!
In a moment of inspiration, Flint and Bel deliver a series of strikes that find gaps in the Commander's armor and sink into his scaly hide. He twists in pain, but holds on, though it's clear you've left him significantly injured.
|||| INIT ||||
Bel (32 dmg)
Flint (145 dmg, grappled)
Ordyt (8 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari (17 thp)
Sammad x2
Commander Gorchak (186 dmg, get em +2, whirling fire, ***)
From a safe distance, Sammad sights down again with his decoupler pistol. "Take the damned reptile DOWN, people!"
He lets out one pair of shots, then drops to a knee and fires another pair.
"Working on it, working on it," Ordyt grumbles back at Sammad.
While the Commander's armor protects him against the majority of the disintegrating pulses and stabs, Ordyt's second thrust finds a weaker spot. His stab sinks in deep, and when he pulls his weapon free, the enemy commander convulses and his spear of light shatters into glowing motes. He's only able to groan out "Curse you..." as he slumps to the floor.
Combat Over!
Now that you have a better view of the room, you see the south side contains a small bedroom and office combo, as well as a simple bathroom. A second set of elevators in the central pillar appears to be functional and capable of rising up to the floor above. The curving staircase on the west side of the room also looks like it could take you a floor higher. Judging from the elevation and view out the windows, you're likely just below the top floor right now.
||| STATUS ||||
Bel (32 dmg)
Flint (115 dmg)
Ordyt (8 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari (17 thp)
Sammad
"Hold still Captain, you got banged up pretty badly," Ordyt steps over to his captain and invokes a prayer of healing. "Did the salamander have any useful?" he asks over his shoulder.
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As the coils of the salamander’s tail loosen, Flint lands and deactivates his jetpack. ”Thank you, everyone, that was too close,” he responds.
”Belmarniss, Mari, it sounded like the commander was organizing the battle from a terminal nearby…Perhaps you could throw a wrench into the system?” he suggests, wincing in pain from the partially-healed stab wound.
While you decide whether to take the time to rest, Bel heads over to the terminal from which the commanding officer was issuing orders. It automatically locked after he closed his connection, but the security is not complex enough to keep Bel out. She finds the system contains personal notes, files on the various divisions deployed to Khalannal, battle plans, reports, and communications to a place called "The Crucible" which appears to be some kind of central command for the Legion expedition within the Sun. In addition to all the files and data, there's the audio connection to the Legion's secure comms network, noting that you're currently signed in as "Commander Gorchak".
The vast amount of data would take hours if not days to sift through - and you don't have the time to spare right now.
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Convincing Flint to rest is not hard--he took a real beating this battle. He takes it easy and tries to catch his breath as others variously work the computers and search the body.
It takes a few minutes, during which Flint rests and Ordyt provides some magical healing, but Mari and Bel manage to get access to a raw data feed of both video footage and comms geopositioning. Setting up the terminal to transmit to the Breath of Embers is harder, but not outside the capabilities of the two hackers. By the time Flint is back on his feet, you have a rather bootstrapped stream being broadcast. When you fill Tae in, her eyes go wide "That's, well, amazing. We'll do what we can to get this to the rebels fighting, don't worry." You also hear Nib in the back going "Hey, anything on the anti aircraft positions in there? Maybe we can sneak past 'em?" before Taeress turns to the ysoki and disconnects the call.
Other than a few small personal effects, the Commander's quarters are spartan. His few important items are all on his body. This includes is silver armor (equivalent to vesk brigandine IV), a pilot handcoil, a minor gluon crystal, a copper plated access card, and a disposable comms device without any interesting data on it.
Letting out a low whistle at the armor, Flint says, ”That’s a nice set of silver armor there…Someone should use it who doesn’t mind being all shiny,” casing a veiled glance at Sammad.
Sammad glances back at Flint and gives an almost mischievous grin. "I do so like being shiny...considering what's likely to await us, I could use all the protection I can get..."
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"Might need some customizations, but I think you'd look pretty dang good in it, Sammad."
Finishing this prayer of healing Ordyt stands and gives Flint a comradely rap on the shoulder. "Let's check the doors to ensure there's no nasty surprises and the push through. Stack up, team."
Much improved, Flint follows Ordyt up the stairs and checks the door along with him, pointing out anything he might miss.
At the bottom of the stairs, you listen in and hear the sounds of wind and the distant, dull roars of far-off explosions amid the vibrations of the building. A staticky hum fills the air, making it difficult to make out much more of what might lie ahead. With Flint and Ordyt leading the way, you head up the stairs.
You emerge into a massive platform at the top of the Spire. This hemispherical room’s transparent walls look out into an odd-shaped observation deck overlooking the city. The center of the domed ceiling has been forcefully opened to the sky, looking up to the roiling plasma of the sun's interior up above. Meanwhile the rest of the hemisphere rises up to a height of forty feet. A massive monolith of dark crystal fills the exact center of this room, its surface pulsing with intricate circuitry and violet light. Computer terminals and holographic code walls are arrayed in two semicircles around it. They all appear to have been brought in here later and installed - their style does not appear to match that of the native Anassanoi construction. A door on either side of the room leads out to the observation deck, while transparent tubes that would likely connect to the elevators rise up on either side of the monolith.
Two towering giants in heavy powered armor stand guard on the north and south side of the room. While both sport manes of fiery hair that spill out of their armor, the masculine giant to the north wields an enormous sledge with extra reach, while the feminine giant to the south has a cannon mounted to her armor that she has ready to fire.
---
||| STATUS ||||
Flint
Ordyt (8 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari (17 thp)
Sammad
Red Giant
Yellow Giant
Bel (32 dmg)
|
Back in the Commander's room, Belmarniss whistles at the silvery armor.
"Be happy to refit this when we're not in the middle of a battle, Sammad."
She joins the group as they advance, and upon seeing the giants, their fiery hair temporarily overwhelms her shades and she gives an agitated grunt as she tries to blink away the spots in her eyes.
"Oh, uh...scatter!" Mari shouts, injecting a virus into the red giant's powered armor before following her own advice.
The red giant jerks to one side as his powered armor suddenly swings one arm out of position. He gets it back under control, but is shaken, for a moment at least.
||| INIT ||||
Flint
Ordyt (8 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari
Sammad
Red Giant (shaken 1 rd)
Yellow Giant
Bel (32 dmg)
Rushing into the room, Ordyt picks a target and attempts to run them through--with giants, it's always a matter of hurting them faster than they can hurt you.
Flint’s eyes begin to blaze with solar fire as he activates his haste circuit, lights himself aflame with cold fire, and charges the large red giant!
”I’ll try and lock this one down while the rest of you kill the other,” he says into the comms.
The northern giant gets his armor back under control and takes a more solid stance before taking a tremendous swing with his sledge. An aura of heat surrounds the head as he swings, and when the sledge's head impacts Flint's side, the solarian goes flying! While Flint regains his footing, the giant boosts his way over the neighboring console and down to the south-east to reinforce his ally while also breaking directly line of sight on Flint.
To the south, the other giant delivers two kicks before swiftly stepping back to build some room. He ducks under the first, but the second catches him in the chest with a burst of flame.
||| INIT ||||
Bel (32 dmg)
Flint (23 dmg)
Ordyt (35 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari
Sammad x2
Red Giant (48 dmg)
Yellow Giant (22 dmg)
His eyes ablaze with solar power, Flint flows with the pushback, looping around to try and re-engage the red giant. Even his Hasted speed is not enough to get him all the way there as he skirts the southern edge of the machinery, using it for cover. Instead, he lights up again and Stellar Rushes the red giant, hoping that the cover provided by the machinery on his approach gives him the extra edge he needs to re-engage!
Flint closes the distance at an impressive speed, surprising the red giant. Unfortunately his icy scimitar strikes against the heavy plates of the giant's power armor and glances off.
||| INIT ||||
Bel (32 dmg)
Flint (23 dmg)
Ordyt (35 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari
Sammad x2
Red Giant (48 dmg)
Yellow Giant (22 dmg)
"Captain! We need to coordinate but I can't reach you, can you reach me? We'll bring them down faster together!" Ordyt signals over the helmet commlink before stepping in to jab at the giant's knee.
Sammad, unable to see Flint or his opponent, dashes closer then draws down on the giant opposing Ordyt. "Good thinking, Ordyt-the faster we end them, the better!"
He switches with practiced ease to his screamer pistol then, and fires a pair of shots towards the giant!
-
The red giant takes a step back and goes for another swing against Flint, but this time Flint is ready for the massive sledge and steps out of the way, with the enormous head of the weapon passing within an inch of his legs. The yellow giant backs off as well and fires an electric blast from her cannon through both Ordyt and Flint.
||| INIT ||||
Bel (32 dmg) x2
Flint (40 dmg)
Ordyt (52 dmg, 2 negative levels)
Mari x2
Sammad
Red Giant (48 dmg)
Yellow Giant (55 dmg)
Grimacing his way through the muscle twitches from the lightning cannon, Ordyt lunges forward to stab at the towering warrior before him, but an involuntary jerk of his arm spoils his aim.
Even with his eyes aflame, Flint balances at the power and reach of that barely-avoided blow. In the comms, he says, ”Sorry, Ordyt—I am too far inside his reach to back off right now.”
Hasted, Flint takes a guarded step closer to big red and slashes twice with his Solar Scimitar!
Circling wide, Mari comes around to rejoin the others fighting the yellow giant with a pair of slugs from her breaching gun.