As the Physic AIs sprung its security traps they where locked into a realm with no way out and it was shrinking.
::FRCK!! FECK!! FRACK!! Darn this thing is good, ok sucker is way, too advanced for a tent village out in the middle of now where, How long we got Hex?"::
::"We have proximity 50,000,000 Milliseconds until total Pyic neural compromise"::
Just spending that spent a few hundred milliseconds, time was running out fast.
::"FRCK! ok options"::
::"We are trapped in closing the Phyic web, our options are, try and shut it down, Physic-back-hack to get it to think this was a glitch, or... full counter, fry its Phyic-mind with our own counter messers."::
::"Let's not go to war just yet, we just wanted to get on the net, Turning it OFF is bad and breaking it is bad, not good options Hex, got to think better."[i]::
Time passed, millions of milliseconds ticked off the clock as she tried to find a 3ed way,
40,120,820 Milliseconds left
::[i]"What's the news outside"::
::[1]"Alarms from the village, they seem to be getting ready to send out scout bots to find us, seems we triggered all their defenses. Which indicated the Phyic-AI cant pinpoint us.
Gift and Hex have a +23 to any save roll to be found with a Wis save Phicly She has Conceal Thoughts Always on.
::"Ok we need to know more about how this thing works, Scan and profile."::
[ooc]End Round2
30,110,292 Milliseconds left
::"Compleet, Its seems to be Religious in nature, and sentient to a point:::
::"That's how it got us, I thought everything owns there was dumb, seems you live and learn. Ok that helps, run a cross-comparison with the data from Rollo and Trix about the culture. If AIs helped takeout the evil overlords, then this must be part of the plan. So we work out what this is we have a chance."::
::"Complicance"::
20,000,111 Milliseconds left
::"This AI is not local, nothing in the culture has anything remotely like this."::
::"FECK@!, no this is good, means this thing came from outside, which means a Dimension intrusion. They came here to help, looking at the way they are working with the locals, who don't seem subject, that means intent, intent with faith.::
Now she bright up history of such planal events
9,827,287 Milliseconds left
Something shuck her.
::"What was that?"::
::"Its Seems its got a bit complicated outside mame, and the time"::
536,287 Milliseconds left
Defense not attacking, helping not controlling,
::"Yes yes I know ok!! think Gift think"::
896 Milliseconds left
Here to help, working with the locals after the loss of the overloads..
120 Milliseconds left
Come on come on, what universal...
The Physic space Hex and her where is was not tiny crushing them, outside who knows what was going on. Then it hit her faith, this AI was based on faith and good faith. It could work, it was made but it could work. All she needs to its get it to lesson to them!! She was betting her life on this but it was the least hostile root. A little hacking but only to stop it from making a mistake.
[spoiler=Gift And Hexqil]
As the Physic AIs sprung its security traps.
::FRCK!! This is way, too advanced for a tent village, what ya got Hex?.."::
::"You have 50,000,000 Milliseconds until total Pyic neural compromise"::
This spent a few milliseconds sending over.
::"FRCK! ok options"::
::"We are trapped in a Phyic web, so we can try and shut it down, Physic-back-hack to get it to think this was a glitch, or... full counter, fry its Phyic-mind."::
::"Lets try and fool it 1st then if we have to we fight our way out"[i]::
::[i]"Complicne"::
As the Physic AIs sprung its security traps they where locked into a realm with no way out and it was shrinking.
::FRCK!! FECK!! FRACK!! Darn this thing is good, ok sucker is way, too advanced for a tent village out in the middle of now where, How long we got Hex?"::
::"We have proximity 50,000,000 Milliseconds until total Pyic neural compromise"::
Just spending that spent a few hundred milliseconds, time was running out fast.
::"FRCK! ok options"::
::"We are trapped in closing the Phyic web, our options are, try and shut it down, Physic-back-hack to get it to think this was a glitch, or... full counter, fry its Phyic-mind with our own counter messers."::
::"Let's not go to war just yet, we just wanted to get on the net, Turning it OFF is bad and breaking it is bad, not good options Hex, got to think better."[i]::
Time passed, millions of milliseconds ticked off the clock as she tried to find a 3ed way,
40,120,820 Milliseconds left
::[i]"What's the news outside"::
::"Alarms from the village, they seem to be getting ready to send out scout bots to find us, seems we triggered all their defenses. Which indicated the Phyic-AI cant pinpoint us.::
Gift and Hex have a +23 to any save roll to be found with a Wis save Phicly She has Conceal Thoughts Always on.
::"Ok we need to know more about how this thing works, Scan and profile."::
[ooc]End Round2
30,110,292 Milliseconds left
::"Compleet, Its seems to be Religious in nature, and sentient to a point:::
::"That's how it got us, I thought everything owns there was dumb, seems you live and learn. Ok that helps, run a cross-comparison with the data from Rollo and Trix about the culture. If AIs helped takeout the evil overlords, then this must be part of the plan. So we work out what this is we have a chance."::
::"Complicance"::
20,000,111 Milliseconds left
::"This AI is not local, nothing in the culture has anything remotely like this."::
::"FECK@!, no this is good, means this thing came from outside, which means a Dimension intrusion. They came here to help, looking at the way they are working with the locals, who don't seem subject, that means intent, intent with faith.::
Now she bright up the history of such planal events
9,827,287 Milliseconds left
Something shuck her.
::"What was that?"::
::"Its Seems its got a bit complicated outside mame, and the time"::
536,287 Milliseconds left
Defense not attacking, helping not controlling,
::"Yes yes I know ok!! think Gift think"::
896 Milliseconds left
Here to help, working with the locals after the loss of the overloads..
120 Milliseconds left
Come on come on, what universal...
The Physic space Hex and her where is was not tiny crushing them, outside who knows what was going on. Then it hit her faith, this AI was based on faith and good faith. It could work, it was made but it could work. All she needs to its get it to lesson to them!! She was betting her life on this but it was the least hostile root. A little hacking but only to stop it from making a mistake.
5 Milliseconds left on the clock
A single command to all the AIs and locals,
Gift send a single command v the local web,
She also called it out with her voice.
"We come in pease!!!"
It came out of every speaker and soundbox in the village.
As the Physic AIs sprung its security traps they where locked into a realm with no way out and it was shrinking.
::FRC!! FEC!! FRA!! Darn, this thing is good, ok sucker is way, too advanced for a tent village out in the middle of now where, How long we got Hex?"::
::"We have proximity 50,000,000 Milliseconds until total Pyic neural compromise"::
Just spending that spent a few hundred milliseconds, time was running out fast.
::"FRK! ok options"::
::"We are trapped in closing the Phyic web, our options are, try and shut it down, Physic-back-hack to get it to think this was a glitch, or... full counter, fry its Phyic-mind with our own counter messers."::
::"Let's not go to war just yet, we just wanted to get on the net, Turning it OFF is bad and breaking it is bad, not good options Hex, got to think better."[i]::
Time passed, millions of milliseconds ticked off the clock as she tried to find a 3ed way,
40,120,820 Milliseconds left
::[i]"What's the news outside"::
::"Alarms from the village, they seem to be getting ready to send out scout bots to find us, seems we triggered all their defenses. Which indicated the Phyic-AI cant pinpoint us.::
Gift and Hex have a +23 to any save roll to be found with a Wis save Phicly She has Conceal Thoughts Always on.
::"Ok we need to know more about how this thing works, Scan and profile."::
[ooc]End Round2
30,110,292 Milliseconds left
::"Compleet, Its seems to be Religious in nature, and sentient to a point:::
::"That's how it got us, I thought everything owns there was dumb, seems you live and learn. Ok that helps, run a cross-comparison with the data from Rollo and Trix about the culture. If AIs helped takeout the evil overlords, then this must be part of the plan. So we work out what this is we have a chance."::
::"Complicance"::
20,000,111 Milliseconds left
::"This AI is not local, nothing in the culture has anything remotely like this."::
::"FECK@!, no this is good, means this thing came from outside, which means a Dimension intrusion. They came here to help, looking at the way they are working with the locals, who don't seem subject, that means intent, intent with faith.::
Now she bright up the history of such planal events
9,827,287 Milliseconds left
Something shuck her.
::"What was that?"::
::"Its Seems its got a bit complicated outside mame, and the time"::
536,287 Milliseconds left
Defense not attacking, helping not controlling,
::"Yes yes I know ok!! think Gift think"::
896 Milliseconds left
Here to help, working with the locals after the loss of the overloads..
120 Milliseconds left
Come on come on, what universal...
The Physic space Hex and her where is was not tiny crushing them, outside who knows what was going on. Then it hit her faith, this AI was based on faith and good faith. It could work, it was made but it could work. All she needs to its get it to lesson to them!! She was betting her life on this but it was the least hostile root. A little hacking but only to stop it from making a mistake.
5 Milliseconds left on the clock
A single command to all the AIs and locals,
Gift send a single command v the local web,
She also called it out with her voice.
"We come in pease!!!"
It came out of every speaker and soundbox in the village.
rr
test
Arlo stands over the limp form of GIFT, when he heard GIFT's voice in the distance coming from the camp's speakers. The dwarf paladin draws The Arlosword, ready to defend his android daughter.
"Yeah. 'We come in peace', but if they touch you, they're getting a hell of a 'war'!!"
Rollo awaits the outcome with enthusiasm.
"Indeed." Blue says quietly, not really intending to speak aloud. But the crackling electricity sheathing his hands reveals his readiness for things to turn nasty.
As soon as Gift commandeers the village's microphones, the AI kicks her out of the network by shutting it down entirely, leaving her back in "meat space".
While this is happening, the noise from the village increases and you can hear people and machines heading out in various directions, including yours. Then, moments later, you hear the trompa-trompa of the feet of a robot dog now 200' away (on the other ride of the ridge) and then the whoosh of a rocket landing near the party. . Ironically, the robot's microphone is repeating Gift's phrase "we come in peace" on loop. In the blast, two of the inexperience Gieshal riders are severely injured and moan from the ground. For all her experience, Tharion looks terrified and whispers "what can you do against such a thing?! How can we escape?" The thing is about 10' at the shoulders and 15' long. Armaund is holding his gun loosely and says telepathically "destroy it or just leave. We need to consider our friends, noise could attract more.". Minna points a wand at one of injured tribespeople, healing them partially.
The party is within a area of shrubs and boulders just before the top of the ridge, giving them partial cover but the terrain here is pretty uniform - a few trees and thick undergrowth about a foot high. The robot dog in on the other side the ridge, 200' away but it's coming fast and it apparently can fire rockets over the ridge.
The dwarf is thrown to the ground with the restr. Quickly getting up, Arlo grabs the limp form of GIFT and barks, "Everyone! Fall back!"
Blue disappears.
The blast hits and she laying down is thrown back and over, like a ragdoll. Then in mid-air seems to regain her balance landing on her feet. She too the full blast but then in moments, the wounds close, her skin healing.
Hex too takes the hit but the shrapnel just pings off his shell.
"Ok I shut down the local net, what did I miss? OOoo"
She looks at the robot dog,
"That's new"
Then she sees Blue go Invisible.
"BLUE THAT THING DOES NOT ONLY USE ON OPTICiICS"
Worried she pulls her blasters and ports after her dad, coming out behind the Robot-Dog.
Taking aim she shoots at its back left leg.
Gift tears off the robot dog's back left leg and haunches off and it falls to the ground, silent except for the soft sputter of shorting wires. You can hear several more of the things in the distance but none close to you.
Terexaltherin springs aside as the missile comes in, escaping the blast unscathed. We need to get the Gieshal riders out of here! he 'says' to the rest of the group. Then I have an idea. While they're all up in arms searching this way would be a perfect time to go around back and see what their portal area looks like. But first, let's get these people to safety.
Adding the riders to his telepathic communication, the little dragon says, As you see, we can handle them individually, but a group would be trouble. We need to get you out of here. Rollo, do you have any good fast-travel magic to help them out?
Rollo dodges the most of it. The dhampir frowns.
How many of these things are there? Terex, would you like to go find out? We need to know numbers and travel paths.
The Sage looks at Arlo.
You want to be the center of Their attention?
Rollo smiles at Terex' suggestion of transporting this many people.
He does cast Levitate, rising 20' into the air.
I need a better vantage point. I can create Walls of Ice, but that will only slow them down. Ice Storms would also slow them down. But I will need a finite place to intercept their paths.
Rollo calls down to Tharion.
Gather everyone into a defensible position. Try to use the cliffs as cover. I can Wall and Storm the approaches.
Rollo drops a 50' rope down to Arlo.
Tie this to your waist and keep me above you.
The Sage looks at Arlo.
You want to be the center of Their attention?
The dwarf nodded up at the dhampir silently. Arlo was used to being a distraction, especially when it helped others escape.
The paladin set down GIFT and quickly kissed her forehead. "Go. I'll see you later."
Arlo then walked toward the camp, his shield up and ready. The holy warrior began to rap The Arlosword against this shield, making a racket.
Blue hears Gift's admonishment, but he is determined to take the robodog down before it does any more harm. He almost pulls up short after her devastating barrage though. Almost.
So Arlo, Rollo and Armaund move together as the distraction posse, over the green-brown Chaco landscape (Blue flying above them). The remaining party hides in the best places available, the less wounded Giesel riders cleverly camouflaging the area and tend to the wounded.
Minna turns her adamantite "shells" into a shimmery flying thing that flutters overhead and the rest of the party see to the safety of the Gieshal riders and then Minna continues to heal the wounded with her wand (anyone injured get 9 points back). Armaund fires his mini howitzer into the air once the posse move far enough from the main group.
So, after just half a minute of walking toward the village (so maybe 400-500 feet covered. 5 rounds) indeed, along the ridge come two other robots - one duplicate of the dog seen earlier and another, large spider bot. This bot is not just larger but clearly built for toughness - it's legs and sensors built with redundancy.
Both bots move and fire towards the "distraction posse" - two shell lands around Armanund and Arlo . Another shell hits Minna's fluttery thing, which falls to piece and reforms.
Armaund shoots with dead eye, dead shot, get one hit on the thing and seems not slightly phased.
The things are each 250' away and closing at 90 ft round while firing.
Gift can tell the village network has remained down but the destroyed dog did transmit something when it was destroyed.
She nods at her dad.
"See you later Dad"
Then she ports next to blue
"Nice shooting Blue, more coming, can you take on the Spider tank, My blaster want do that much to it. But Electric will."
She Blows him a kiss and is gone, leaving Hex behind with him.
This time to the riders.
Helping and protecting the hurt.
Terex does his best to help the injured riders hide for now, using his expertise with stealth to coordinate their efforts.
Then he flies to join the others, though trying to stay unnoticed by the robots.
While you're holding their attention, I'm going to try to work my way around and see what they have around the Wall. I want to at least get a look at what their portal back to their home looks like, to see how hard it will be to get to it to close it.
With that, he starts trying to sneak around the robots to get closer to the Wall.
Rollo will cast Haste on his group.
Arlo gets knocked around another blast. "Fine", the dwarf breathed hard, switching out The Arlosword for his trusty magic battleaxe.
"Rough negotiations, it is."
The paladin begins to weave around trees at a run to close the distance between the group and the robotic defenders, feeling the haste spell take hold of his movement.
For you? Of course. Blue thinks, as Gift disappears. He feels a flush rising to his cheeks, which is really an odd thing for someone as pale as he is. Instead of speaking to the empty air, he turns and heads invisibly for the larger tank. On the way, he uses his arcane powers to enhance his pistol.
Once he reaches the spider bot When he arrives, he wastes no time getting to work.
I'm using another pool point for Empowered Magic (Su): The magus can cast one spell per day as if it were modified by the Empower Spell feat. This does not increase the casting time or the level of the spell. The magus must be at least 6th level before selecting this magus arcana.
Putting that on a Shocking Grasp that's a close range spell for me because of the Reach Spellstrike Arcana (Su): The magus can deliver spells with a range of touch with ranged spellstrike up to a maximum range of close (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 caster levels). The magus must be at least 9th level and must have ranged spellstrike to select this arcana.
+ x1.5=46
After helping the riders hide, Terex sneaks up to join the others. Once we take care of these, I think it might be best for us to disappear. Maybe all of you could hide in my library while I sneak away? ...I haven't told you about my library, have I?
Blue seems to partly fry some of the spider robot's circuits but those who know tech can see this thing is massively over-built and sturdy. It keeps coming.
Gift and Minna help and guard the Gieshal riders. Tharion expresses worry about the other half of the group staying with the Gieshals, hoping they'll have the sense to run when the robots appear.
Armaund stays where he is, multiply attacking with his howitzer (doing somewhat less damage than Blue, the device has significant DR and resistance to at least some energy).
The spider bot fires one explosive shell at Blue and one at Armaund. The robot dog also fires a shell at Blue and advances to within 50' of Arlo.
[ooc]Arlo is 50' each from the robot dog and the spiderbot, which are about 75' from each other other, converging on Arlo. Armaund is 100' feet back and Blue is in the sky somewhere between them and Rollo is naturally hovering above Arlo.
There's too much going on all at once, too many places to be. For a bit Terex considers getting his copy out of the library to help, or making a new copy of himself, but he decides the other party members can probably handle making sure the riders are safe. So for now, he focuses on sneaking up on the spider bot.
As he approaches it he looks over it for weak points or maintenance hatches or the like.
Sneaking up right behind the spider-bot, Terex quietly draws his wand of shocking grasp, says the command word, and pokes the robot with it.
+
Ouch. That was no fun. Better end this quick. Blue thinks, before opening up on the spider tank again.
Crit?
The Spider Robot grinds to a halt in a hail of lightning and sprouts fire from various ports. At that moment, Gift notices a single transmission from the village, calling all of the robots (and people, you presume) back to defend the perimeter and the robot dog immediately turns and runs in the direction of the village So the party and the Riders are left alone in a few moments. Armaund walks cautiously back towards the Riders and Tharion whispers "Is it safe? Can we go to find my riders? Your prowess against the creatures was impressive, my friends."
Gift stands and looks as the Robot hound goes.
"Save your rounds, they have been recalled."
She walks over to the DOg bot she dropped.
"Hex scan"
::"Compliance"::
We should definitely get the riders out of here, Terex says as he puts his wand away, But I think I should keep an eye on them while you guys do that. I'm suspicious that they'd recall now instead of trying to surround us. They must be up to something, but I don't know what it would be.
Unless anyone objects, he again sneaks towards the little settlement, careful to avoid the alarms in case they've been turned to be more sensitive after the recent events.
Just getting near the village is enough to convince Terex to abandon the idea - the village is on ultra high alert with a wide variety of detection technologies being deployed, sonic, electrical, chemical and so-forth aside from visual.
Watching for a bit to see if there's anything coming their way, the little dragon returns to the others.
They've gone pretty crazy with their perimeter detection grid. I'll bet they're shooting rats that cross their line at this point, Terex reports. Let's get everyone well away from the area and discuss our plans.
Arlo sighs and answers mentally. Alright. Alright. How is the condition of the Gieshal riders?
Despite Gift, Armaund brings down the remaining robot dog as it is retreating. "We need to cover our tracks, am I right? That thing could have described us." and then joins the others helping the Tharion and her tribespeople.
Gift examines the robot dog(s) and the spider... most of the key inside chips have been destroyed by a chemical reaction initiated when the things were destroyed, a common effect for military robots their masters don't want in the wrong hands. Still, the robot is consistent with Xilian's Index level 4.2-4.4 . The time spent in the village network confirms this. It's a "dumb" hunter-killer robot (on par with an average magical construct).
The Gieshal riders have been healed by Minna and others but they're concerned about the situation, in awe of the party's prowess but worried to find the other riders back with the steads. Thus the party spends a quick few minutes "sanitizing" the battle zone - covering evidence of their presence and abilities - and then leaves, moving as tracklessly as possible, coming on the location where the other Gieshal were, discovering them absent but then finally catching up another five miles away.
Once the other riders are found, Tharion speaks to their group and to the party. "I have watched these heroes command amazing forces against terrifying enemies. I can believe now that you have the ability to seal this "wall" and I believe we should aid you in whatever you need in this regard. And I implore you to stay and do this task."
Gift takes out any comms chips left in the bots then blasts them, to any recoding devices are obliterated.
Then she is away with the others, but not before she checks in on Blue
"Good shoot spark-boy"
She says flirting with him.
Floating above Arlo as the carnage is begotten, Rollo keeps a wary blue eye out for any other further intrusions.
He levitates 20' further upward (40').
The dhampir then will return to the ground, once the immediate threat is over.
Rollo will ask these questions to Tharion.
What we need to do right now is identify the portal these people came through and close it before they bring in reinforcements, Terex 'says' to everyone. Tharion, your riders should stay well away from any of those machines. As you've seen, we know how to handle them, but you would be at a serious disadvantage against them. Now I saw a path going to the south out of the village, so that might be the direction they came from. We should go take a look.
Terex will help look for the trail, but... well, he was never the greatest hunter.
Blue grins. "Thanks. You were pretty impressive yourself."
At the area where you've united with the other Giesal Riders, Armaund looks around the lush desert landscape and says "I agree with Terex, we should find these people's entrance at The Wall and close it. We should be able to find their path to The Wall just by circling the village at a reasonable distance. But their technology is perplexing to me. Maybe Gift or Blue can answer some question. Would they be able to able to teleport to their door in the wall? Does their technology involve such things. Also, if how much of a threat would these three hundred or so individuals be? Could they sustain their system if their supplies were cut off? We have to think about way to persuade them "gently" to return because just eliminating them would be too cruel. Anyway, I assume will find their track if it exist though perhaps they might also use flight for transportation. There's a lot to consider. I may take a couple of units of technology training once we return to Sigil."
Unless they're far from the usual progression tech, they wouldn't teleportation for a while. Also, at this stage, they'd be highly dependent on their tools and probably couldn't manufacture things like those robots locally. Still, they could easily move with some kind of flying device, thought regular wheeled vehicles would use less energy and probably are limited by that.
"HEx checked out their local net, and I the tech they have. Unless they're far from the usual progression tech, they wouldn't teleport for a while. Also, at this stage, they'd be highly dependent on their tools and probably couldn't manufacture things like those robots locally. Still, they could easily move with some kind of flying device, thought regular wheeled vehicles would use less energy and probably are limited by that."
she says moving over to blues side.
"I'm happy to go scout if you are blue"
"I concur with Gift's assessment." he says, facing the others. Turning to Gift, he smiles and says "I'm happy to go if you are. But give me a moment, I need to get some healing first." he holds up his flesh-and-blood arm, which has some rather significant burns from the blasts earlier.
They shouldn't have technological teleportation, yeah, but we can't discount the idea they might have some tricks we haven't seen yet, Terex cautions. What did you do to get them so riled up anyway, Gift? Did they really react that badly to you just hacking in and sending a message? I feel like these people are really touchy.
I would have liked to have approached them peacefully, but, well... he sends his memory of the wrecked robots, I think it's going to take some work now. Shutting down their portal will at least give us leverage over them to make them listen instead of just shooting first. I hope.
He pulls out a wand and flies over to Blue. I've got a healing wand, let me fix that up.
Rollo nods in appreciation of the answers to his questions. The dhampir then readies to go scout with the group to find the trail that leads to their portal in the Wall.
The Sage nods in agreement to Gift's assessment of the invaders' tech abilities.
Rollo does take out a wand to heal himself.
"The thing is Terex, the AI that was running the next, was odd. Faith-based holy code and designs all over the place. Souls and well as minds represented, in a kind of it of cyber temple. Even the bots had soul representations. Just odd, when I showed you it did not just go after me because I was not recognized it went after me because I was not of the faith. My soul was hexqin and they just did not have that kind of blend in there, of a spit soul."
She thought a moment,
"All higher-tech culture develops AIs and they all tend to be psionic in nature. It's the only way you can truly get them to be self-aware and have empathy. If they don't have that they are just clear automatons incapable of having true emotions. They can only ever mimic them. But A psionic-brian like mine, fellings even to the point of having a soul. So it is possible it can also have faith, and be in tune with the divine. And AI afterlife and all that. This may be what they have, a hive mind faith-based Psionic culture. Fascinating."
Then she looked at Rollo
"Poop! they could even have faith-based divine magics."