Phantoms Rising - Phantom Rising

Disruptis - Disruptis 07-Oct-21 11:11 PM

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[AR 1/5/3] CLOSED RP - Deep Sea Phantom Lab, Uranus "The ghost you saw is of a menace long thought dead. They study us, study our enemies." - Teshin Disruptis: A black and yellow Limbo stood face-to-face with a Grineer augmented with half a sentient head. The Grineer's eyelids were wide open, betraying the lifeless windows to the soul beneath. The corpse floated around in a vat of dark liquid as Disruptis examined the abomination before him, mostly in vain. Yeahhh bio is so not my thing. Where's Kapak when you need him? A quad round gun chamber unloaded to his left. Disruptis turned to see two specters of himself firing Quartakks down their sentient fox hole as another Battalyst facechecked it from the bottom. They were waiting down there. Watching. He unmuted his comms. "Alright, is everyone ready?" (edited)

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 10-Oct-21 12:05 PM

CHEGAR "Give me one more moment..." The Vauban replied, Strapping the dissected corpse of one on the brain-scooped Grineer to a resource drone, the body attached parallel to the body of another Grineer-Sentient hybrid. Finally, he chucked the discarded arm aboard , and gave the drone two firm taps, sending it on its way up to the surface. Autopsy kit in hand, Chegar marched over to the limbo, mulling over the detail of the medical exam over in his head.

Kelimnac - Dominus 10-Oct-21 02:39 PM

DOMINUS A faint whirring is heard as a Carrier drone buzzes around the Excalibur's head, the frame itself rolling its shoulders. His ammunition had been replenished by the drone, it having had plenty of material to draw from with all of the bodies and debris lying about. With Latron in hand, Dominus also approached Disruptis. "Ready whenever. How do you want to do this, precisely? We just diving in headfirst, and hit them hard?"

leirynot - Isa 11-Oct-21 05:35 PM

Isa Isa looks over her Zarr one more time and checks the slide of her Lex before giving Disruptis a nod. There are about 8 MOAs surrounding them now, set to stand guard over the entrance. She has no intentions on bringing them to fight the sentients. Their orders were to guard the entrance against any Grineer reinforcements as to prevent the Tenno from getting sandwiched between the Grineer and the Sentients.

Vosenedich - Lupin 15-Oct-21 03:34 AM

LUPIN "All set here." He said, giving the top of the cargo crate a reassuring pat. "There is only so much I could bring down in one trip, given the... requests that piled up." "I have about a minute's worth of indiscriminate fire on this behemoth, locked and loaded." With that he braced himself and hefted the modified Imperator with both arms, wobbling for a moment before he could plant his feet solidly on the floor. Between the arch-gun and the two-handed hammer strapped to his back, it was a wonder he was still able to stand (mostly) straight.

Disruptis - Disruptis 15-Oct-21 07:47 PM

Disruptis: Disruptis eyes Lupin’s arch-gun with a small measure of relief. Having that much fire power on their side was reassuring, even if Isa’s Zarr turns enemies to shrapnel faster than a Gauss finds a wall to slam into. “Only one way if we want to do this now and not later,” Disruptis raised his voice, pacing the room, “crash down there with a Cataclysm and start blasting. If there is nothing deeper afoot here than Grineer digging up some leftovers of the past, then this is your average drone hunt. We have firepower covering our exit so they should deal with stragglers, but we don’t want to give them the options of hiding somewhere and sneaking past us as we mow through. We need to kill every single one of these things if we don’t want to risk them meeting up with Sentients left in the Origin system and giving them way more knowledge than we want them to have.” “..especially with a New War brewing…” he mumbled under his breath. The Limbo stared into the Lion’s Den below. Am I… can I do this? Do I make another decision like this here? Do I risk bombing everything here? I… I can’t… his thoughts trailed off. The weight of what he was about to do again felt like it physically held down his shoulders. It had been a long time since he felt a measure of success in his life. Far too long. He stole a glance towards the gold Saryn that Isa piloted. It shone brilliantly even in the low light levels, casting faint rings of reflecting light around the room. His hand moved to a fold in his syandana where he wrapped his fingers around a now familiar cylindrical object. But… do I have a choice? Memories from the Old War flashed by his mind, fresh as the day they happened. No... and if there’s anything I know how to fight: it’s Sentients. He turned to the group one more time. “Any last bright ideas?” (edited)

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 17-Oct-21 12:51 AM

CHEGAR "I think our main problem now is a proper unified plan of attack. Along with some long term threat assessment: Assuming the SED is a collector drone, if we don't have an effective way to capture or destroy it, and it leaves even a fragment of a Phantom, we could have a problem. Equally, if it's nothing but phantoms down there, and one of them gets away, we have a problem. We know how to kill sentients; we're all quite good at it. we don't know how to kill this SED yet, and it leaving with even part of phantom could be just as bad as a phantom slipping by us." Chegar said hurriedly, keeping an eye on the hole. "Even if the Weaver is against the sentients, they may still want to study them too. And we've seen what happens when even the best laid safety precautions fail." "So, do we go in, focus only on targets we know how to kill and hope that the SED's cargo isn't a threat? Or do we spend time trying to figure out how to kill that too, and hope we have the man power to stop it and whatever phantoms are down there." Chegar finished quickly, eyes still towards the hole.

Kelimnac - Dominus 17-Oct-21 11:32 AM

DOMINUS He listened to their exchanges quietly, turning his head to each operator in time. "Maybe killing the thing isn't something we're able to do right now. But an opportunity to do so may pop up while we're fighting, and at the very least we can contain and eliminate the Phantom threat with extreme prejudice, and prevent that much." The Excalibur stared at the hole they were going to be diving into next, letting out a breath. "And it never did attack us while we were fighting the Sentients before. My guess is that they aren't affiliated. But I can only operate on guesses, here. Curse of not knowing my enemy as well as I wish."

leirynot - Isa 17-Oct-21 05:37 PM

Isa "Be prepared to step from your Warframes and fight and counter sentient adaptation. I will be unable to join you in such. Obviously try to spread my frame's spores onto as many of them as possible, that way the survival chance of any stragglers will be drastically reduced." She looks to Disruptis. "If what you have said of the Weaver is true, then her spawn shouldn't oppose us as we wipe these out. If it does, it may be time to reconsider what you know of her." She checked her munitions supplies one final time before nodding. "Do try to stay out of the blast radii."

Vosenedich - Lupin 18-Oct-21 11:57 AM

LUPIN "Alright, it sounds like we are all at least in agreement on frontal assault and extermination." He was adding himself to that vote with a nod to Disruptis, all the while hauling the arch-gun towards the opening. "Isa and myself will be busy ensuring a constant stream of firepower, at the very least for as long as the ammo lasts, while you three handle the Void-infused approach." He said very matter-of-factly. "And Disruptis, since you seem to be the one with the most intel on this other new threat, I trust you will make the call on the approach or retreat down there, correct?" "Have I missed anything?" He added as he arrived at the edge of the hole and held his ground, the nozzle of the gun pointing into its depths. (edited)

Disruptis - Disruptis 18-Oct-21 07:11 PM

Disruptis: “That’s right Lupin. SED-003-K isn’t worth the extra planning right now. It’s just a scavenger with others like it. It and whatever the muck its cargo is can bounce all it wants, the Phantoms are much more important. Though if said cargo happened to be another typical Tenno, then we’ll see if we can’t give them a hand out of here. They could help us too. If they tore this place apart on their own we could use them.” Disruptis hesitated, then twisted to return Isa’s gaze. “You’re right. If she did that would blow my mind, especially since… we were ingrained with so much hatred for them.” He could feel the heat once again, rising up his collarbone and into his head. A stewing rage. Whenever he thought of them it was right there, bubbling beneath the surface. Overshadowed by only one other thing. Disruptis took a deep breath. “Let’s go,” he finished. Then dove into the hole.

Small LEDs flickered all around him as he picked up speed. His arms were snapped to his sides and his posture was stiff, aiming to descend as fast as possible. The wind howled past his ears and tossed the folds of his syandana. The darkness pulled him deeper and deeper, until the light at the bottom began to expand. Two Sentient fragments moved to steal an incredibly slim glance up the tunnel as Disruptis tore down its length. He pried his hands into the chilled air and summoned a torrent of Rift energy in both palms. With a final movement, he crashed a Cataclysm down, enveloping both enemies in purple light. As he screamed to the bottom of the pit, Disruptis flipped himself around and pulled his torso upwards, falling backwards. He activated all the anti-grav on his warframe at once, barely slowing down before he slammed on the floor and bounced up onto his feet. Sentients formed thick barriers surrounding him on all sides. They began to move. (edited)

leirynot - Isa 21-Oct-21 01:08 AM

Isa Isa focused her energy into her weapon a moment before Disruptis entered the hole, infusing each grenade her zarr would fire with void-powered toxin, then followed right behind him. Her first strategy was, of course, to fling infectious spores at the largest cluster of sentients before firing a cluster bomb at them, intent on spreading the infection as far and wide as she could as quickly as possible. The sentients would eventually adapt to the corrosive spores eating away at them, but not until a good portion of their armor was dissolved, allowing other attacks to more easily finish them off. Her other two shots would focus on others that became infected near uninfected sentients, intent on spreading the infection as much as possible.

Kelimnac - Dominus 21-Oct-21 10:19 AM

DOMINUS Third in line was the Excalibur, no weapons in his hands as he hurtled down behind the others. His plan would therefore be obvious once he'd landed, letting out a breath as he pulled the Exalted Blade from the air and became the weapon, following up on Isa's barrage to fling beams of cutting light at the Sentients who had already been chewed up by her corrosive spores, hopefully carving swathes into their numbers. Drawing the blade up in front of himself, Max couldn't help but smile, the Tenno behind his featureless mask. He may be an amnesiac. But fighting Sentients as a team brought back memories in his very soul.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 21-Oct-21 05:13 PM

CHEGAR The Vauban followed soon after, diving down the opening behind the other three. In he blink of an eye, the sphere of a bastille rolled into his hand. He cast the orb into the crowd of sentients. Then another. Four times he launched bastille’s into the horde. Chegar touched down at the bottom of the hole, drawing both his angstrum and nikana, and nodded to his fellow Tenno.

Vosenedich - Lupin 21-Oct-21 05:43 PM

LUPIN Last to take the plunge, he revved up the Imperator's cylinders, one final check of its capabilities before he leapt forward - feet first - into the chasm. He crashed unceremoniously with one knee, foot and elbow buried into the ground. No sooner had he landed and his momentum dissipated, he opened fire into the mass of Sentients, letting the ammo counter on his weapon uncontrollably burn down as the constant stream of anti-aircraft projectiles sped up to its full deadly potential. He'd have to get up slowly and realign himself soon enough, but for the time being the best shot was to focus fire on Isa's and Max's targets to clear out one direction.

Disruptis - Disruptis 22-Oct-21 04:37 PM

~Cancerous spore growths swelled on the sentients’ bodies as Isa’s cluster bomb detonated, tearing some of them apart and scattering more spores across the air. The nearby sentients switched to their phasing forms and avoided the following onslaught of Isa’s weapon, only to get diced to bits by Dominus’s sword slashes. Lupin’s barrage shredded through the shields of two sentients in a single second before eviscerating them of their torsos. Before he could hit more, the ones in front of his line of fire phased out as well. The ravaged wall of bots all around them screeched and launched their own assaults. Six conculysts slammed Lupin and Chegar from both sides. A sheet of tau orbs and laser beams cut into everyone other than Disruptis standing in his Catalcysm. The barrage fell drastically once Chegar’s bastilles activated. It captured around two-thirds of the enemies, who instantly switched to their phasing forms to avoid damage. Disruptis: Kzzzshhh. Disruptis ignited the plasma sword at his waist. He severed the heads of the two sentients frozen in his Cataclysm with searing overhead swings. He turned and narrowed his eyes, observing the battlefield. This happened last time, a long time ago. What did I do… Disruptis pulled the quartakk off his back with one hand and fired it at the nearest phasing battalyst from within his bubble of Rift. The quad round punched right through its head. “You can hit the blue ones with regular ammo if you’re rift-bound!” the Limbo called out, “take a step inside!”

Kelimnac - Dominus 24-Oct-21 01:14 PM

DOMINUS The Excalibur let the Void-essence blade fade into nothingness again as he immediately followed Disruptis's request, stepping back into the Rift, and pulling his Latron from his back to line up and take shots to destroy the phasing Sentients with the powerful rounds. As he did so, he spoke up. "Be ready, they're going to start adapting any second now. We'll need to purge it with the amps so we can keep shooting. I'm thinking I shift out first so you can maintain the rift, Dis. I'm not strong enough with mine to kill a big group, but at least I can shake their adaptations out." Dominus pulled the emptied magazine from his rifle, his Carrier dutifully dropping an extra into his hand which was slammed home. This was where he excelled. Where an Excalibur was meant to be. Fighting Sentients. A proper battle, just like the Old War. A memory flickered. Just like Ceres.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 24-Oct-21 02:18 PM

CHEGAR Chegar quickly moved to the inside the rift, sending a torrent of buckshot at the closest phased sentient. Even among the torrent of gunfire, rifts, and sentient energy, he heard Dominis call out. “Let’s do one better!” Chegar piped up. “If we work in shifts, we can keep them softened up for the others.” He said, now sending a volley of angstrum rockets towards another group of sentients. “Once your energy’s burned, I’ll tag in.”

leirynot - Isa 24-Oct-21 06:22 PM

Isa Having fired all three of her Zarr shots as their alpha strike, Isa swapped to her pistol. Her infection had spread nicely, and now was the time to nurture it and force the sentients to adapt to her viral attacks. She brought her hands up, channeling void energy to form a massive dose of viral agents. She threw her hands out to the side and unleashed a miasma of viruses to further weaken the sentients and empower the spores, allowing them to spread even more easily between her targets. With two her allies in the rift already, she would continue to focus on the non-phased sentients. (edited)

Vosenedich - Lupin 25-Oct-21 04:40 PM

LUPIN "Copy that." He responded shortly and jagged as he pushed away from between the now trapped (and phased) fragments that'd slammed into him a second ago. He rushed towards the rift, jumping and sliding at the last moment to ensure his next move would be as smooth and steady as possible, as he once more wound up the artillery aiming for those fragments at the edge of the temporal bubble first. The constant hammering vibration of the gun was not making the healing process of the carapace any easier, not to mention how distracting the toned down painful prickling he could feel from it was becoming.

Disruptis - Disruptis 27-Oct-21 04:10 PM

~The Tenno’s barrage continued shredding the Sentient horde despite their apparent invulnerability. They shifted tactics, opting to stay in the physical plane of existence so the rift-bound barrage bounced off them harmlessly. They hovered there for precisely two seconds, all thinking about something. Then the survivors rushed away from the Cataclysm, past the acid-eaten and bullet-shattered corpses of their brethren, and disappeared out a door to the right.~ Disruptis: Disruptis’s hands twitched, considering casting another cataclysm to stop them. He thought better of it. Instead, he stepped outside and pushed two large waves of rift energy over them, banishing a lot of them to the Rift on the way out. They instantly froze as Disruptis did not permit them to move within his stasis. “Hold up for a sec, don’t give chase!” he called out.

Kelimnac - Dominus 29-Oct-21 11:25 AM

DOMINUS The Excalibur had been just about to rush forward in pursuit, when Disruptis's voice held him back. He stepped back into place and kept his weapon trained on those that were frozen in view, waiting with a breath caught in his throat. "Probably planning an ambush on better ground, I'm guessing. How do we circumvent it?"

leirynot - Isa 30-Oct-21 10:32 PM

Isa Isa holstered her pistol as the sentients fled and reloaded her zarr. "That is likely. I suggest we all pursue from within the rift, spreading out and exiting once they begin their ambush. They are all most likely infected with spores, though once they adapt to it they will not be particularly useful unless one of us damages them again with an amp. We could send some ahead using the void to mask their movements and begin hit and run attacks to purge their adaptation and allow the spores to do their work once again."

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 30-Oct-21 11:14 PM

CHEGAR The Vauban took a knee. It quickly reloaded its angtrum, taking its ques from Isa. Still kneeled, the Vauban bowed its head. in another green-orange flash, it's operator appeared in front of it, his amp resting on his wrist. "Strike and fade." Chegar Mused, extending the amps prism "I can get behind that. Just give me the word."

Disruptis - Disruptis 01-Nov-21 05:29 PM

Disruptis: Disruptis grasped his forehead with a hand. Thousands of previous sentient encounters ran through his head as he pulled together a prediction for their next move. He arrived at a single conclusion. “They’re smart. They’re gonna have to do one of two things at this point: either ambush us with something that can get rid of my Rift, or trap us somewhere so they can run past. If they trap, they’re gonna need to use the environment to do it, so they need to lure us somewhere they’re set up. Getting rid of my Rift, on the other hand, needs tech they don’t have. Ikazu had sentient commanders with special powers, but none I know of could do that. Not to mention we haven’t even seen one yet.” The limbo stepped into his own Cataclysm and with four clean strikes swiftly dispatched the remaining enemies. He collapsed the tear in reality and they dropped to the floor. He banished himself to the Rift with a thought as he stared down the closed door. After a moment, Disruptis stepped forward. The door opened. Beyond stretched another long hallway littered with various boxes and crates. A battalyst peeked over one of the blockades and fired a laser at the Limbo. Disruptis just stood there as the beam bounced off his head. He looked further and noted the locations of sentients spread out amongst the barricades all the way to the back of the hall. Okay they are definitely luring us somewhere, he thought.

leirynot - Isa 06-Nov-21 04:41 PM

Isa Isa thought a moment. "We could split up. If they trap some of us with the environment they will still need to get past the others. Alternatively, I could attempt to pre-emptively trigger whatever environmental hazard they have planned to trap us by focusing fire on the environment." She proposed. Then she waits for Disruptis to go and scout the enemy positions. As he returned she asked. "So, do you think they plan to immobilize us?"

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 07-Nov-21 02:39 AM

CHEGAR “I’m a bit hesitant on splitting up. Chegar began, opting not to transfer back to his warframe for the time being. “Depending on if there are branching pathways through that door, the sentients could be betting on us splitting up: less Tenno to fight, higher chance of some of them slipping through the cracks.” He took pause for a moment, watching the doorway Disruptis still stood by. “On that note, I’m going to check to see if there aren’t any mimics around here.” Chegar said. He stepped out of the rift, and slowly began to spray down the area with void energy; if there were any mimics nearby, the team would know soon.

Vosenedich - Lupin 07-Nov-21 11:46 AM

LUPIN "Think you can keep all of us within your rift, Disruptis?" He asked as he toyed with the idea of simply ignoring the immediate threat to tackle the heart of the matter. "If you're certain they lack the capacity to drive us out of it, then it could represent a one-way shortcut to their backline, or better." At this, he set down the heavy machinegun and rolled his shoulders, they'd better make use of the short lull in their assault to get ready for the next step.

Disruptis - Disruptis 07-Nov-21 10:05 PM

~Chegar’s bombardment slammed into a storage container on the side of the room. The object unfolded into a sentient and shrilled in agony as it disintegrated. The blasts obliterated the rest of the room, but uncovered no others.~ Disruptis: Disruptis witnessed this and let out a heavy sigh. “Mucking mimics. I hate playing prop hunt.” He rolled his shoulders. “Can’t say for sure, Isa, but they’re definitely trying to lure us. I can keep us all in the Rift for a long time before I have to take a break, I’m a good Limbo after all. But I think Isa’s idea is best, with a slight tweak.” Disruptis swiped a hand across the Saryn’s shoulder, enveloping her in Rift energy. “Stay in the Rift and walk through them ahead of us, spreading your spores. We’ll be right behind you.” He added a faceless smile to the end of his sentence. “If the Rift drops for whatever reason, high tail it back to us. If it gets heated I know you’ll be fine though. You’ve already made that clear to me.” (edited)

leirynot - Isa 07-Nov-21 10:42 PM

Isa: The Saryn gave Disruptis a brief nod. "Good plan. Everyone ready?" Once everyone indicated they were indeed ready, Isa bolted forward through the door. Spores required much less aim than proper weapons, allowing her to jump and dodge around like a rabbit on cocaine as she threw her infection around at the sentients, allowing her comrades to follow up in the attacks to help spread them further, the energy given to her by being within the rift allowed her to be quite generous with them as well. Even if she were to be pulled from the rift, she would prove to be quite an evasive target when making her return to Disruptis, especially as she would also shed her skin to further boost her speed should she need to retreat.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 10-Nov-21 10:36 PM

CHEGAR Chegar made a hasty return back to his warframe, reassuming control of the Vauban in a puff of orange-green void. He took up a position near the rear of the group, sobek toward the door, and head on a swivel for any other threats to come their way. "Just like sand skates: they pop up, you put them back down..." he said under his breath; mostly to himself. with every puff of Isa's toxin's, Chegar followed up in kind, peppering anything that dared peer from its hiding place.

Vosenedich - Lupin 10-Nov-21 10:58 PM

LUPIN Following up behind Chegar, the Inaros spooled up the Imperator back up, spraying bullet hell across the room, a tactic that would definitely be wasteful were it not for the statistical certainty of spreading Isa's spores.

Kelimnac - Dominus 11-Nov-21 10:20 AM

DOMINUS Saryns were always a scary frame to watch in action. Dominus followed the pack, firing from the rear at the spores and targets of opportunity that presented themselves, using his Latron as a marksman's tool to improve their strategic odds. He kept his eyes on a swivel for any adventurous Sentients that might try to rush their flanks. At the same time he also dreaded whenever they might start adapting again, since it might as well be his turn to purge it with a Void-out. But maybe this was the practice he needed after all.

Disruptis - Disruptis 11-Nov-21 05:27 PM

~Isa tore through the hall and through the rest of the level, followed by the others who razed the Sentient forces behind her. The fragments took many hidden positions in an attempt to sneak some great hits on their enemies. They even mostly succeeded, scoring an annoying amount of lucky damage on them. They were all slightly wounded, but still in good fighting condition, with the exception of Isa who took no damage at all. Other than that, they seemed to be laid out in a clear line in a single direction. The Tenno swept the level completely, passing through rows of labs full of containment equipment. Most of the equipment was smashed and warped open to free whatever had been inside. Isa sprung no traps yet. Eventually they came upon a final dead-end in a room with heavy braces fit to hold something really big. Another hole was torn into the floor, yawning downwards into a deeper darkness.~ Disruptis: "Huh," Disruptis mumbled, "I was beginning to think they came from this floor, but maybe they're from further down."

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 13-Nov-21 06:43 PM

CHEGAR Once the team reached the braces, Chegar jumped from his 'frame, and began spraying down the walls and floor of the path with more void energy. "Doing another mimic sweep! I'll be back in a moment!" He called back to the group. Once he reached the end, he doubled back, continuing to spray down the area until he was back in sight of his warframe.

leirynot - Isa 13-Nov-21 07:57 PM

Isa Isa stood at the edge of the hole now, looking down it a moment before turning her attention to the braces, seeing just what it was they were holding up. If something slipped past them, it could potentially trap them by destroying the braces.

Kelimnac - Dominus 14-Nov-21 12:41 AM

DOMINUS "This strikes me as a rudimentary defense in depth. We've got the firepower and the durability to keep at it for a long time, and push them back, but they're trying to lure us to a position where they have the most advantage, and whittle us down along the way. But we've eventually got to run out of floors for them to flee down to." Dominus swept his headlamp across the hole, trying to see just far down it went. After a moment's thought, he checked his Latron's magazine, then removed and tossed it down the hole, depleted, catching his Carrier's swiftly dropped replacement. "Might as well see how far until it goes clunk."

Vosenedich - Lupin 14-Nov-21 04:08 PM

LUPIN "Might as well lay some traps of our own before heading in, a few Grineer grenades probably survived both assaults, shouldn't take long to rig them up for a quick detonation on our way out... or theirs." He added as he took Dominus' side by the hole, aiming down to its depths while he gave the room another quick look - maybe the entire thing couldn't be collapsed, but a single room could.

Disruptis - Disruptis 14-Nov-21 05:10 PM

~Chegar found no other mimics behind them. They had thoroughly dealt with all of them as they swept through, especially with Isa's spores, so none were left. The Tenno watched in silence as Dominus's empty magazine plunged into the darkness. One second went past. Then another. At the end of 10 seconds, an infinitesimal clatter sounded from the bottom of the pit, barely carried up by the echoing acoustics.~ Disruptis: "Huh," Disruptis remarked, "that was at least ten seconds deep." He thought for a second as Chegar returned from his double back. "I'm not sure how you'd rig them to detonate Lupin, but if you can give it a try." Disruptis was a strategist. He regularly spent countless hours strategizing plans one through seventeen for even the smallest of endeavours. When it came to execution however, even he grew tired of thinking all the time. "Everyone stay back for a sec," he called out before willing himself inside the Rift, and dropping into the hole. The Limbo fell, counting the seconds. His headlamp illuminated deeper sections of the tunnel that betrayed its construction method to be simply tearing apart at whatever was needed. At the 6th second, Disruptis engaged his anti-grav and slowed his descent. At exactly ten seconds, he collided with a metal floor below him. The entire room was lightless, save for a myriad of shifting blue lights of sentients that now surrounded him. They were complemented by a small glow of red charging on all of their tuning-fork arms. Disruptis pushed himself up to find himself face to face with a towering sentient figure. It stood on two long raptorial legs with a large blade in each hand. Two prongs grew out of his shoulders and bent sharply towards the sky, giving him a feeling of grandeur. In both of its hands were massive blades with edges that glowed an ethereal cyan. This wasn't your average sentient fragment. Disruptis instantly recognized this to be a Commander.

SPOILER

"Uh, hello there..." he gulped. The Commander let out a low grating sound that tuned higher and higher in pitch as it went, as if it was laughing. Its voice echoed up the tunnel and to the group of Tenno waiting above. Commander: "GENERAL DISRUPTIS! This system is a cruel and wretched place, is it not?" Disruptis: "Muck." ~The Commander quickly swiped one of his blades. It threw a slash of energy into the air which flew across the room and caught Disruptis in the hip as he attempted to bullet jump away. The slice cut straight through his barrier of rift, tore off his shields, and drew a small gash of technocyte blood.~ Disruptis: "Uh, GUYS! I could use some help down here, I'm surrounded! Ambush yes, trap so far no." (edited)

Kelimnac - Dominus 16-Nov-21 06:23 PM

DOMINUS "Going in. Spread out once you're on the ground." The Excalibur hopped into the hole, holstering his Latron over the next 10 seconds and clapping his hands together, removing the Exalted Blade from the Void right as his own anti-grav kicked in. Impacting the floor below, he turned his gaze up at the Sentient Commander with his head slightly tilted back, removing the Pangolin Sword from its harness with his left hand in a dual-wield. "Well then, this is serendipitous, wouldn't you say?" It was unclear if he was speaking to his fellow Tenno, or to the Sentient. There was nonetheless the slightest hint of enjoyment behind his words. Stepping just out of the radius of where the others would drop in, Dominus assumed a ready stance, sparks flying up as he dragged the Void-stuff blade along the floor in a sweeping motion, sending an energy slash of his own at the commander. "Keep me covered. I'll see about tying up our friend here. Shall we, Commander?"

leirynot - Isa 16-Nov-21 07:59 PM

Isa Isa took one step forward into the hole. As she fell, she channeled her energy into her hands, readying to infect whatever the closest opponent was with her spores the moment she landed. She was still in the air as she thrust her hands forward to infect the commander before landing. Immediately upon impact she then moved to draw her Zarr, flicking the switch to have it instead fire flak from the cannon. She waited for a moment now, planning to get in range and give the commander a blast of shrapnel from the cannon the moment she could.

Vosenedich - Lupin 16-Nov-21 09:53 PM

LUPIN He took a second to reconsider the options, maybe it wasn't too late to try collapse the entire place on them to buy some time - no, that'd mean leaving good Tenno behind - if he had any hope of leveraging the archgun against the enemy once he reached the bootom, he'd need to be near the end of the line anyway. After Isa disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel, he hoisted the Imperator vertically and threw it handle-first into the tunnel, jumping feet-first not a second later. Ten seconds was a long time to be falling, the time they reached the bottom, Disruptis might have been turned into minced technocyte. It didn't change what need to be done, though it didn't make the fall any less stressful. As his mental countdown reached 2 seconds till landfall, he disengaged the joint-locks on his frame and began to channel as much energy as he could, causing a sudden burst of golden sand to pour out the now-disembodied limbs and torso, and turning his momentum into a tempestuous sandstorm spiralling down and around. With any luck, he'd be able to manoeuvre around Isa and even provide some cover.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 17-Nov-21 07:08 PM

CHEGAR The vauban watched his companions leap down the opening, the distant sound of combat filling his ears as he contemplated his options. With a flick of his wrist, he latched a vector pad to one of the walls; it’s path directing him downward. He dove in, placing more pads as he went to accelerate him faster. When he reached the exit, he knew he only had a second to decide on a target. Tenno. sentient. BIG sentient. Go for the big sentient, obviously. Chegar hurriedly deployed more vector pads in an effort to redirect his now considerable momentum towards the commander. He drew his nikana, and once he was close enough, attempted to drive the blades edge into the commanders leg.

Disruptis - Disruptis 17-Nov-21 08:17 PM

Disruptis: Disruptis hit the floor in a crouch. The commander spun its arms around, flinging a constant stream of energy slashes the Limbo's way. Disruptis jumped sideways into a handstand to avoid a slash, then leapt again as the next one barely grazed him. He continued bouncing around the room, locked in a perpetual state of evasion all the while the commander drew closer. The legions of sentient fragments surrounding him kept their attacks at the ready since they were unable to pierce his Rift. "I… always… huff... hated your... charc-scrap adaptations... Azmodan," Disruptis grunted. Azmodan: "HA. HA. Still feel invincible, General?" Azmodan jeered in his robotic, monotone speech. Once Azmodan was in range, he swung his physical sword upon Disruptis. The Limbo saw it coming and ignited his cyan plasma sword in time to barely deflect the heavy attack. ~Dominus shot out of the ceiling and sent his own slash, which caught Azmodan off guard when it collided into his back. The towering Sentient Commander turned around to face him.~

Azmodan: "Very interesting. Yet another Blade of the Void challenges me. I must assimilate this data." As soon as he finished, a glowing yellow cyst formed on his shoulder. He looked up to see Isa drop down. He twitched his head once, and the battalysts behind her all loosed their armaments, frying her back, knocking her off balance, and spoiling her shot. A secondary barrage of blasts was blocked by a crashing sandstorm as Lupin landed into the fray. Azmodan twitched his head again, and all the remaining sentients fired upon the group save for Dominus, whom the sentient commander drove his two massive blades down on. Just as he did, the green blur that was Chegar's vauban tore down from the hole in the blink of an eye and sunk his blade into Azmodan's leg. The sentient's whole body flinched and he engaged his own phasing form, loosing the blade from his body. (edited)

Kelimnac - Dominus 19-Nov-21 11:50 AM

DOMINUS The Sentient, Azmodan was his name, had been expecting four Tenno at most, which was a reasonable assumption. But their Vauban had been a very unwelcome surprise for him. As he brought up his swords and blocked the gargantuan blades, his Warframe's limbs flexing and emitting purple energy from the strain, the sudden nikana strike and subsequent phaseout let him reset his stance and keep a wary eye on the Commander. "I'd gladly duel you, but I don't give orders to my fine associates, they act freely. Hope you don't mind the inconvenience." Lupin's sandstorm, Isa's cysts, and Disruptis's Rift control. Hopefully that would be enough to trim down the chaff's numbers, and that he or Chegar could buy enough time for the other to break off and assist.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 20-Nov-21 12:21 PM

CHEGAR The sudden phaseout sent Chegar's Vauban tumbling. His head whipped around wildly trying to get a fix on Azmodan. in another green-orange flash, Chegar transferred from his 'frame, sending it clattering across the floor. He raised his amp, sending several volleys of explosive void energy screaming towards the giant sentient. When his amp was depleted, Chegar transferred back. The Vauban twitched back to life as Chegar assumed control, and Chegar winced at the sudden jolt of pain, realizing just how much impact his 'frame had taken. "That... was the dumbest idea I've had in a long time..." He groaned, moving back onto his feet again.

leirynot - Isa 20-Nov-21 03:54 PM

Isa Now that the battalysts had joined the fight, Isa shifted focus to the crowd, as she would be most effective against that given her weapon choice. She tossed out more spores into the crowd before flicking the switch to fire grenades once more and sending two of them into the crowd, aiming for infected battalysts before running for cover to reload.

Vosenedich - Lupin 20-Nov-21 04:18 PM

LUPIN While the shorts crashing into the sandstorm and destroying a fraction of the void-replicated material wasn't painful per se, the sense of loss and emptiness spread through the Tenno's senses, his energy quickly draining away each second. "Retracting the barrier in 5, 4..." He warned the group over the short-range comms. He could feel his ethereal body straining to react to every shot, bending the sands to make room for the outgoing fire from his allies, then covering the gaps at which the sentient were firing. The reality was that once the sands fell, he'd be exposed for far too long while his body reassembled. "Take cover." He insisted before he reversed the flow his power. As he pulled the sands back, his hand latched onto the Imperator's handle, the rest of the technocyte body following after it, reassembling behind the weapon as it absorbed the sands that remained.

Disruptis - Disruptis 22-Nov-21 03:15 PM

~BOOM!. Isa's first grenade scored a direct hit, scattering a stream of spores. By the time the next one fell, the sentients around its blast zone engaged phasing form. Looking around, there was no cover to run to in the entire room. Two large bay doors flanked the space on either side and it was entirely emptied out of equipment, to the point where some natural cover generated by the architecture was unnaturally shaved off. Chegar's amp projectiles detonated twice on Azmodan, breaking small pieces off his body, before he launched into the air to avoid the rest.~ Disruptis: Disruptis heard Lupin's warning and slid into his sandstorm. He gathered another large swath of Rift energy—some of the last in his tank—and spun it into another swirling cataclysm of deep purple light. When the sand barrier dropped, the rest of the sentient horde's barrage passed right through them. And Isa's last grenade found purchase once again as she was enveloped by the Rift. BOOM! Disruptis pulled the quartakk off his back. "You just don't know how to stay dead, do you Azmodan!?" he yelled.

Azmodan: "HA. You just don't know how to kill me," Azmodan replied. The sentient commander whirled his arms around, sending a barrage of energy slashes towards all Tenno save for Dominus. In the next second he swooped down and brought his shimmering blades down criss-cross across the excalibur's torso. "I will gather my data one way, or another," Azmodan muttered to Dominus. ~The battalysts dropped their phasing and charged another volley of shots for the next Tenno to leave the cataclysm. A few of them fell to the floor as they succumbed to Isa's blast damage and the corrosion from her spores.~

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 24-Nov-21 11:23 PM

CHEGAR Chegar began rolling erratically away from the slashes of energy. It took a moment for Chegar to get his footing back once again. Seeing Azmodan drive towards Dominus, he drew his angstrum, sending several warheads toward the massive sentient. He followed up by sending two vector pads directly under Azmodan, hoping to send him off balance.

leirynot - Isa 24-Nov-21 11:29 PM

Isa With her launcher empty, Isa considered her best option at the moment to be to fall back and reload. Shedding her skin for speed she darted for the exit, jumping and running a ways up the wall of the hole to be out of sight, where she clung to the wall for a few seconds to reload before dropping back down into the fight.

Kelimnac - Dominus 25-Nov-21 12:01 AM

DOMINUS Another exchange of taunts, and another attack. Azmodan wanted to keep things close and personal between them, and with how strong those last strikes were, he couldn't last trying to block them forever. So he didn't. The Excalibur dove in, sliding and spinning his swords around in a whirling dervish, trying to dart just in underneath the Commander's crosscut and do further damage to his legs as he passed through the wide gap between them. He didn't expect damage to the limbs to really imbalance the Sentient leader, but any structural damage at all would hopefully at least put him ill at ease. Time. Buy time. This is what you were made for.

Vosenedich - Lupin 25-Nov-21 10:37 AM

LUPIN "Good cover." He shouted to Disruptis over the sound of fire and destruction, while pulling the Imperator back up. They needed to focus on the commander, deal with it before Disruptis ran out of energy. Past experience told him taking them out wouldnt stop the other fragments, but it would cause them to either scramble and retreat, or cause them to slow down enough to offer them an exit window. The energy was slowly flowing back into him through thanks to the rift, it would still take quite a while for enough to accumulate for another sandstorm, but every bit counted. He raise the imperator towards Dominus and Azmodan, revving up the machinery and waiting for the next exchange, ready to unload right after the two moved apart.

Disruptis - Disruptis 27-Nov-21 01:24 PM

Disruptis: "Thanks!" Disruptis shot back to Lupin. Azmodan: Azmodan calculated everything at once. A rift-bound imperator fired upon him, a series of non-rift bound angstrum rockets flew towards him, and a Sword of the Void was dashing towards him. The commander decided not to start phasing lest the Imperator drill into him, so he swiped a blade across the air, detonating the rockets before they reached him. In that moment, Dominus slid past the sentient's other blade and carved across his leg, breaking large chunks off it. Azmodan shuddered from the damage and whirled around with two heavy swings that tore matching gashes across Dominus's chest, cutting through his shields, swordsteel, and flesh. "Hiding behind your fellow Tenno as usual, General?" he hollered. Disruptis: Disruptis sidestepped in and out of his Cataclysm, nailing sentients in the horde with his Quartakk faster than they could land a shot on him. Some shots were taken inside the Rift to damage phased sentients, and some were outside to deal with unphased. His looked like a well-oiled machine in his repetitions, scattering Isa's spores further and further along the sentient horde. "Muck off. You know I'm not cut out for combat, and I stopped falling for your petty intigatings centuries ago." ~Chegar, now outside the Rift, ate fifteen readied Tau orbs to the face.~ (edited)

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 28-Nov-21 01:04 PM

CHEGAR The Vauban was thrown to the floor by the sudden volley. Chegar sat up with a groan. "Alright...message received..." he grunted as he stood up. "Here's my retort." He said, Flicking his wrists, he sent another two bastilles towards the Battalysts, collapsing them into two cyclones once they were close enough. With the cyclones in place, he made a dash towards the cataclysm, attempting to bullet jump over Azmodan in the process. Further more, he redrew his nikana, and attempted to strike at the massive sentient's head; hopefully, all Azmodan's taunting's would distract him enough to get a shot in.

Kelimnac - Dominus 30-Nov-21 05:19 PM

DOMINUS The cross-slash sent the Excalibur sliding off of his feet and onto his back, but the Tenno would roll with the impact and be back on stable footing a second later. Movement, however, was a bit of a lurch, as he felt his Warframe slowly adjusting to the damage they'd sustained. "Tch...nice swords. They might make a good heavy melee weapon if I did some remodeling." And then he'd swiftly drag his own blades across one another, the sparks forming a Radial Blind to attempt to disorient Azmodan, and the other surrounding Sentients, further. Whether or not the blind affected him however, Dominus would pulse with another rush of energy as he Slash Dashes with his already formed Exalted Blade, hoping to catch the Commander in a cross-slash of his own, with Chegar's help.

leirynot - Isa 30-Nov-21 07:35 PM

Isa With her Zarr reloaded Isa dropped back down the shaft and rushed into the cataclysm. She fired one more grenade at the nearest group of phased sentients before stepping out, remaining just on the edge so she could easily slip back inside should she need to. From this spot she fired her two other grenades into crowds of unphased battlysts. She wouldn't approach the general, letting the three other Tenno take care of him while she dealt with the horde of targets that she was better equipped to handle.

Vosenedich - Lupin 02-Dec-21 02:50 AM

LUPIN It was clear that the enemy commander was well aware of Disruptis and his abilities - hell it was starting to outpace even a combination of the multiple Tenno abilities and weaponry thrown at them. There was little he could do to assist Dominus and Chegar, however, best he could do was to continue his state of over-watch, hoping to catch the slippery general with a well-timed rift-infused barrage of his gun. In the meantime he could feel the void flowing back through himself. "T-minus 5 seconds until the next Sandstorm is ready." He quickly announced over the private comms. Waiting while war-brethren were being torn apart was excruciating, but if he remained patient, maybe they could end it all that much sooner.

Disruptis - Disruptis 04-Dec-21 09:02 PM

Azmodan: Azmodan phased out to nullify Chegar's slash, then whipped around and counterattacked. In that brief moment, Lupin dumped around thirty bullets in the commander's back. The damage didn't stop him from unphasing and cleaving the airborne Vauban, however. Chegar flew across the room with a large gash on the left side of his torso. Azmodan then shook the lead out of his shoulder plates and glared at the Inaros. ~Behind them, Chegar's cyclones pulled two clusters of Sentients that failed to get out of the way in time together. Isa's first grenade exploded on top of them, and then everyone's visions went white from Dominus's radial blind. Fortunately for Isa, grenades don't require accuracy. Still blind, she lobbed the other two grenades in the approximate direction of the sentients and scored two good hits.~ Azmodan: Azmodan almost sent a slash towards Lupin before he was blinded too. The commander halted all movement as he came to a realization. Dominus dashed forward with incredible speed and broke a section of sentient ribcage off Azmodan. It crashed to the floor behind him. At the end of his slash, he felt Azmodan run a blade across his back, searing his flesh. Despite being fully blind, the commander had predicted exactly where the Excalibur would land. "HA. HA. HA. I already possess all of your combat data, Sword of the Void. We have met before. This time I shall be the one to destroy you." ~The sentient horde was warded off for now in lieu of Dominus's blinds, but they quickly recovered upright. By now, a third of them had fallen to spores and gunfire.~ (edited)

Kelimnac - Dominus 07-Dec-21 03:28 PM

DOMINUS The Excalibur rolled, the extra damage from the slash piling up on his chassis, before the Pangolin Sword was thrust down and dragged, leaving a long metal furrow in the floor as it slowed his momentum. He looked up at Azmodan and stared, as much as a featureless head could, at least. "You...know me? We've fought before?" Tugging his solid blade out of the ground with a grunt, Max rose back up, and took the time to evaluate the states of the others, and the rest of the horde they were fighting. Progress, at least. He could keep going for now. "I don't really make a habit of fighting Sentients, so that must've been during the Old War. I'm an amnesiac, and those memories are locked away. So if you're expecting me to be intimidated by you knowing how I fight from some bygone time, sorry to disappoint you." With another pulse of purple energy, he resumed a defensive stance. "My name is Dominus. And I'll show you exactly how little you know about what Tenno can do."

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 07-Dec-21 10:17 PM

CHEGAR The Vauban was sent tumbling through the air, finally crashing through the cataclysm onto the floor below. Chegar gave a low, growling huff as the pain of both the the previous tau orbs and the more recent slash finally set in. "Ow..." he said flatly. Transferring from the 'frame, he took a moment to fire his amp towards Azmodan again, before looking over the damage the Vauban had sustained.

leirynot - Isa 07-Dec-21 10:59 PM

Isa With her launcher empty, Isa backed off and launched herself back up the shaft to reload once more. She spoke over private comms again. "Need I step in or shall I continue handling the horde?" She asked. "I do have means that may allow me to take the General by surprise. Give the word and I will. In case he is listening in I am not telling what it is."

Vosenedich - Lupin 08-Dec-21 10:00 AM

LUPIN "Keep him talking, he-" He was forced to stop mid-sentence as he spotted Chegar hitting the floor and had to react to the sentient energy slash sent his way. With the barrage having been delivered and the weapon already low on ammo, the solution was rather obvious: he rough-handled the Imperator into a makeshift shield to stop the brunt of the slash, the remainder of the blow striking over and under the oversized weapon, cutting away at his headpiece and leg attachments. The weapon was built for the cruelty of space combat, but even then it it couldn't take a direct blow from a sentient's attack - it broke apart, scattering its mechanical innards when it hit the floor, discarded after achieving its purpose. "Switching in for Chegar." He announced, answering Isa's request as he wielded his hammer and charged towards Azmodan.

Disruptis - Disruptis 09-Dec-21 12:17 AM

Disruptis: "Wait… WHAT!" Disruptis's eyes went wide. "Dominus, you…" Three conculysts rushed the cataclysm, cutting Disruptis off. He pulled at the fabric of the Rift with one hand, freezing one conculyst's armament a couple centimeters from his face. With a well placed plasma slash, he sundered the sentient's core in two and bounded off it to the next. "I...Isa do you have anything to speed up the minion clear? They're starting to take a toll here." Azmodan: Azmodan stared Dominus. He could almost see the gears in the commander's head moving, calculating something. "Irrelevant. I will use both your power and the power of your General to defeat you," he stated. He caught Lupin leaving the cataclysm and twitched his head, sicing five battalysts on him. They unleashed four orbs and a beam on the Inaros in an attempt to hinder him. Three more conculysts body-blocked Chegar's shots as they tried to rush him, tearing them apart but detonating the charges before they could reach the commander. The Tenno's Vauban looked pretty rough. Other than the gash down its left side, those fifteen Tau orbs shaved much of the detail off his helmet and blackened spots all around it. The neck was slightly dented from the impact as well. Warframes could take a significant beating, so it was still raring to go, but for who knows how long. Azmodan flickered in and out of sight for a moment. This was different than his phasing form, something new. He disappeared entirely for a second before reappearing right behind Dominus. He swept the Excalibur off his feet with a surprise sword strike and followed it up with a downwards swing, aiming to cleave him in half. (edited)

leirynot - Isa 09-Dec-21 12:46 AM

Isa "I can attempt miasmas but they will likely adapt. Do you want me to target the general?" Isa asked once again. Pausing a moment as she clung to the wall, reaching for one more tool she brought with her in case she needed to compensate for her lack of stealth skills: a refract stimulant. "Answer now. General or horde."

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 11-Dec-21 09:40 AM

CHEGAR “Horde!” Chegar blurted out, sending another wave of void grenades into the sentient swarm. He took pause, moving to his Vauban. Pockmarks and dents he could manage, but the gash had to go. He moved his hand over the wound in his warframe, slowly trying to mend the opening with what void reserves he had. He continue to switch back and forth: void volley, repairs, void volley, repairs, repeat again and again. “This is becoming a war of attrition…” Chegar muttered under his breath, now desperately trying to determine his next move.

Kelimnac - Dominus 11-Dec-21 10:17 AM

DOMINUS "My power, huh...good luck with that." Azmodan fading out of sight wasn't expected, but the ambush from behind was. He was a Tenno, stealth strikes were part of his natural instincts. The Excalibur let himself be swept off his feet to determine Azmodan's direction and fall with the cut to avoid having his knees sliced out from under him, then tucked his legs under himself and pushed off with a suddenly freed hand just out of reach of the follow-up chop. But he wasn't trying to fully escape the Sentient. With a grunt of exertion that morphed itself into a kiai, Dominus would right himself and immediately attempt to slash through the Commander's blade near the hilt with his own solid one, trying to deny it as a tool. "Kill the horde! The more of these we eliminate now, the better for everyone later!"

Vosenedich - Lupin 11-Dec-21 12:05 PM

LUPIN "Horde!" He added almost in unison with Chegar as he sidestepped the first orb. With a burst of speed, he sprung forward, past the second orb, smashing the third with a swing of his Magistar, the fourth struck directly against his shoulder, cracking its pauldron - the motion continued regardless: he spun around, sliding and dropping into a kneel to meet the laser head-on, grounding himself with the hammer's hilt into the ground. If Isa thinned the hoard any futher, it would only take a few more moments before the beam dimmed and he'd be able to launch into a full-charge towards Azmodan. "There in two, Dominus." He added through barred teeth, focused on maintaining his hands and shoulders attached and enduring the attacks.

Disruptis - Disruptis 13-Dec-21 03:21 PM

~Searing beams of Tau energy ploughed into Lupin's hammer. He could feel the heat from the other side. The laser subsided to reveal the other battalysts charging a second round of shots. Two conculysts broke from the crowd and rushed the Inaros as well.~ Disruptis: Disruptis carved the other two conculysts inside the Cataclysm as four more rushed the barrier and froze. He turned and lopped the core out of one as he felt the embers of a rage flaring at the bottom of his stomach. Rage against these machines that come to destroy. Rage induced as if from an external source. Rage telling him to fight.

Fιɠԋƚ.

The Tenno grit his teeth and plunged his sword into the next sentient as the remaining two slowly accelerated in movement towards normal time flow. Azmodan: Azmodan's sword embedded itself into the floor with the power of his swing. Dominus's blade of raging void energy cut clean through the hilt, severing the commander's blade from it. It clattered to the ground, still pulsing with its own unnatural void-like energy. Azmodan shrieked in the high-pitched ways sentients do and grabbed the Excalibur by the torso. He leapt across the room and slammed Dominus into the wall, denting it from sheer force. Tau energy crackled in the palm of his hand, heating up Dominus's chest as he channeled a point-black beam. "Every one of you Tenno are nothing but chaos and destruction," Azmodan rattled off in a low monotone. (edited)

leirynot - Isa 14-Dec-21 01:29 AM

Isa "Understood." Isa stowed the stim before she dropped down from the shaft once more, viral agents beginning to gather around on her hands before she thrust them out, unleashing a toxic burst of the viruses to further weaken the hoard and aid in the spread of her spores as more of the legion of Sentients fell to them. From there she made her way once more to the edge of the cataclysm to easily step in and out as she fired more grenades into the hoard. One grenade, then the second before she fell back in to unleash a second miasma. Seeing her comrade grappled and slammed by the sentient commander. "Banish Dominus." The Saryn said over comms, bolting over to the side of the cataclysm that Azmodan was on. "Now." With one more step she was out of the cataclysm, her finger pressing the trigger of the cannon to fire a shot at Azmodan's back. She didn't actually wait for Disruptis to do so of course, and instead just assumed he would be able to in time before she was on the correct side of the cataclysm to make her shot.

Kelimnac - Dominus 15-Dec-21 12:35 AM

DOMINUS The punish for his successful attack came quickly and mercilessly. The speed with which they impacted the wall prevented him from doing more than simply splaying out his limbs and dispersing as much of the energy as possible. He was lucky the connection remained stable, since to lose consciousness now would be nigh-fatal. It was with an idle thought he registered that his Exalted Blade had dissipated from the loss of focus. Resummoning it would be difficult with Azmodan flinging him around. Isa had a plan, although it was difficult to hear her over Azmodan's rumbling, or the crackling of his torso beginning to burn up under the Tau power. Something to do with Disruptis. Limbo. Banishment. The card they had yet to play, and the Saryn had a follow-up to whatever involved his being banished. He made a show of resisting the Sentient commander's pressing force, gripping its wrist with his hands and squeezing, then trying to push against its torso with his legs. Presenting an easier target profile to Dis in the process. "Like answers to like, Azmodan. The Tenno merely answer force as they receive it. But if you really want my opinion about Sentients..." A subtle tinge of a smile in his tone. His own backup plan ready once his cohorts threw out their own, grappling the Sentient and pinning it against himself. Exuding as much Void energy as possible to try and keep the machine focused on removing him as a threat before anything else, to keep it from phasing out and losing them the opening. "You are all awfully predictable."

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 15-Dec-21 08:27 AM

CHEGAR Chegar watched as Isa dashed from the safety of the cataclysm. As she lined up her shot, Chegar took aim with his amp once again, sending a complement of explosive void energy to follow up on the Saryn's own volley. (edited)

Vosenedich - Lupin 17-Dec-21 03:31 PM

LUPIN Whatever the commander's hidden ace was, it was better they gave them no room to play their hand. "But please, don't leave us waiting!" He added to the mockery as he recovered from the barrage. Before the conculysts could close the gap, however, the Inaros shifted his weight as if to spring into a bullet jump, bending his body in an inhumane way to instead put his entire force and momentum into a throw with reckless abandon, turning the hammer into a projectile aimed at Azmodan. The attack left him completely open to the conculysts; his frame would be able to catch up in time, but he was estimating the direction of the impact and which way he'd have to twist to grapple onto the chargers. It would be a bad hit, but it should buy him enough time before the next barrage, and if he could wrestle control of the grapple, he could use the sentient's defence against them.

Disruptis - Disruptis 19-Dec-21 03:07 PM

Disruptis: Isa's voice cut through Disruptis's mind, barely dragging him out of his kind of stupor. He turned to see her leveling her cannon at Azmodan. Everything moved in slow motion as the Limbo threw his arm to the side to line up a banish. They were a ways away from him and he had to avoid hitting Azmodan as well. In a split second as his palm unfurled, calculations raced through Disruptis's head, guiding his wrist to the right position. He shoved a thin stream of Rift energy outwards. ~The beam of purple energy swirled through the air, behind Isa's projectile. The energy was faster, but the bomb had a head start. Half-way through flight it was a meter ahead, then half a meter ahead, then just a couple of centimeters ahead. Dominus caught a glimpse of the flash of the bomb flying towards him with what seemed like a trail of deep purple. Azmodan barely moved an optical sensor in its direction before the excalibur was bathed in the purple glow a fraction of a second before an explosion rocked the sentient's limbs. It kicked up fractures across his side as the prolonged battle took its toll. Azmodan staggered to the side, releasing Dominus. He instinctively entered his phasing form, much to the excalibur's dismay, before anything else could hit him. But the next attack came from Chegar's amp, blasting his left leg off at the joint of his hip. Lupin released his hammer as the commander swiveled around to face his opponents, but it wasn't going to do anything but pass through him. Until a warping sound filled the room. Disruptis took a blow from a conculyst behind him at the same time as Lupin did from the same, but his second arm was extended towards an intercept path in the hammer's flight. Right before he fell to the ground, the hammer received a blast of Rift banishment and surge energy. Azmodan's optical sensors would've gone wide if they could. The full force of a Magistar broke off half his face, then exploded in a surge of violent Rift energy.~ Azmodan: Azmodan doubled over, clutching his face with his free hand. His phasing form sputtered and faded as he barely glimpsed the Tenno through his sole functioning eye. (edited)

Kelimnac - Dominus 20-Dec-21 03:09 AM

DOMINUS Left alone by the Sentient commander, the Excalibur collapsed to the ground, body smoking with the damage it had sustained. His Pangolin Sword lay in front of him, having fallen away in the prolonged fighting. Azmodan's back was turned, but he wasn't sure he could move. But he knew what could. MAX The Tenno emerged from his Warframe's slumped body, scooping up the sword in practiced hands and rushing Azmodan's back with silent, furious steps. He would slash and chop the broken Sentient's body in a practiced flurry, then, reaching past his swordarm, he exposed the amp on his wrist, blazing purple as brightly as his eyes shone blue. "DIE, AZMODAN!" A burst of raw energy would explode from the Tenno's hand, sending him rocketing back from the sheer force and engulfing the Sentient in the deadly power of the Void. Max would tumble and roll, sliding back against the body of his Warframe. He was unconscious. But he gripped that sword with a fury unbelievable. And with a faded memory, drawn from the depths into his mind.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 22-Dec-21 07:00 PM

CHEGAR Seeing the blade in his fellow Tennos' hand, Chegars mind sharpened. It only took seconds, and his 'frame was back up and moving. The Vauban began its march towards the down Azmodan. Chegar clutched his Angstrum in one hands, and took aim, sending another complement of missiles towards the crippled sentient. Then came the flash; green-orange void erupting as Chegar emerged again, leveling his amp, and delivering another void laced payload before disappearing again. Missiles. Void. Repeat. Missiles. Void. Repeat. All while moving to avoid the onslaught of remaining sentient combatants: Stepping outside the Cataclysm was a dangerous tactic, and he knew he was going to get hit in the process. But if it meant keeping Azmodan Pinned. It would be worth it. (edited)

Vosenedich - Lupin 24-Dec-21 06:18 PM

LUPIN With its head-on impact, the conculyst lifted him off the ground for a brutal moment, sending a wave of pain as it shook his core. Still mid-air, he swung his legs under the sentient, a jab akin to a knee strike gained him the necessary momentum to dig his heels into the ground, lowering his center of gravity. He reached around the sentient's back and latched onto its wire-like frame, holding its head and shoulder tighly in a bear hug grapple. The moment his arms linked around them, the Inaros' joints locked in place, as Lupin ripped himself out the back of his frame and immediately cloaked himself with void-energy, dashing across the field to Max's side. His frame could take the punishment, but with Max unconscious and out in the open, there was no guarentee of survival.

leirynot - Isa 30-Dec-21 01:36 AM

Isa Isa's shots may not have actually impacted the sentient commander, but it served to split the threat between phased and unphased thanks to Disruptis's banishment of Lupin, ensuring the sentient commander took a hefty hit and freed their ally. Isa channeled more of her power into creating more nanovirus and threw her hands out again for another miasma, now likely close enough to infect Azmodan himself, she further tried to directly infect him with spores for good measure before drawing her pistol and resuming focus on the crowd for the time being, dipping in and out of the cataclysm.

Disruptis - Disruptis 04-Jan-22 03:11 AM

~The conculyst that slammed Disruptis to the ground pinned him and dragged him out of his own cataclysm as the others inside resumed movement. Three conculysts engaged whirlwind protocols, throwing all the other Tenno outside of the purple bubble of Rift energy. Chegar got two rounds of suppressing fire raining down on Azmodan's broken body, allowing Dominus to approach before the Vauban was caught in the midst of five battalysts that scored a shot on his head.~ Azmodan: Azmodan could barely resist as Dominus hacked into him with his sword. Cracks splintered all across his body. Isa's miasma crawled into the grooves Dominus dug. Dominus unleashed a last burst of chaotic void energy and blew out the sentient's midsection. The light faded from its eyes as it grew very still. ~The conculyst in the Inaros's grasp struggled but failed to escape. Upon witnessing their leader's demise, the rest of the sentient horde immediately disengaged from their targets and flew through the hole in the ceiling in a mad dash.~

Disruptis: Disruptis grit his teeth and transferred out of his warframe, revealing his operator to the open air. He hadn't changed his outfit a bit. Disruptis still wore his typical black and yellow manduka suit with a koppra hood, zipped up to protect his already scarred face from danger. As he swiveled to engage his opponent with a large burst from his Klamora prism, the small red mark glowed once again on the synoid gammacor at his warframe's hip. After dissolving the conculyst's face, he transferred back into his warframe and leapt to his feet, locking his eyes on the swarm of retreating enemies. No… I don't think you will, he thought. The Limbo raised his hands upwards, channeling all the energy he had left into them. A deep purple glow blared to life across the accents of his warframe. He thrust his arms forward, unleashing a massive torrent of Rift energy that crashed into the cluster. Every single sentient froze in a small choke point. It was a beautiful display that almost resembled a luminescent chandelier. Disruptis's body shuddered as he held an incredible amount of focus in one single place. He hadn't been using a Limbo for this long without gaining his level of mastery. With the last shreds of his will, he lowered one arm towards Isa, sending her into the Rift without the mental capacity to utter a word. He only nodded. (edited)

leirynot - Isa 07-Jan-22 04:40 AM

Isa: Isa dropped her pistol as she was knocked away by the spinning sentients, then reached back for her Zarr and began to reload as the general fell. She didn't have many shots left by this point, but in their attempt to flee they had all clustered up so wonderfully for Disruptis to freeze them. Isa would take no chances here. She wanted to ensure maximum efficacy of her shots. She raised her arms toward the group infecting several with spores before spreading her arms wide, dispersing one more miasma, then with a sickly yellow glow her hands grasped the grenade launcher, empowering its grenades with void-infused venom. Finally, she aimed at the cluster, and thrice did the cannon fire, each shot aimed precisely within the cluster to ensure the resulting explosion and cluster bombs would catch as many sentients as possible, and that those who survived the blasts would be infected with corrosive spores.

Kelimnac - Dominus 07-Jan-22 09:14 AM

DOMINUS There's a gentle groan as the Tenno wakes himself back up, his instinct pulling him back into his Warframe. As the Excalibur slowly, gingerly tries to get to its feet, there's a thud as it falls back into a sitting position. Nonetheless, he takes up the Thumper kitgun on his hip to his hands and holds it steady, in the event there were any Sentients left. From what he could see of Isa and Disruptis, that was unlikely to be the case much longer. "Gh...yep. Overdid it again. I'm okay, Lupin. Help the others finish up. I'll just hang here." Intellectus was saying something to him over their connection, but Max couldn't really make it out, even within his Transference. His head was still scrambled from the output of Void energy. Not to the point of memory loss (again) thankfully, but everything was fuzzy. Maybe that's how he'd lost his memories in the first place, blowing up some Sentient leader. Not the worst way for them to go, really. Killing Azmodan had felt good to his core. Like it'd resolved an old grudge.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 07-Jan-22 02:15 PM

CHEGAR The Vauban was sent sliding in Dominus's Direction, grinding to a halt mere inches from the Excalibur. A massive crack ran across the side of the Vaubans helmet, its epicenter; a large dent that Chegar had failed to patch earlier. Chegar transferred out once again, letting the Warframe go limp. He took a moment to look around, assessing the situation at hand. With the remaining sentients now pinned in the chokepoint, he might finally have a bit of wiggle room. He approached Dominus' Excalibur, and letting his Vazarin training kick in, began to rejuvenate the damaged 'frame. "Go give 'em what for." Chegar said, now turning his attention to repairing his own warframe. Considering the damage to the armor, helmet, and armor, this could take some time.

Disruptis - Disruptis 09-Jan-22 03:51 PM

~The frozen Sentients could only observe in horror as toxic bio-growths encased them in a beautiful yellow-green. With each heavy explosion of artillery, pieces of them flew down the hole, until they were all either ruptured away or disintegrated into dust.~ Disruptis: As the last one fell, Disruptis relinquished control over his power and doubled over for a moment, clutching his Limbo's head. He took a deep breath in, then stood to survey the aftermath. "How's everyone looking right now?" he called out. (edited)

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 15-Jan-22 07:13 PM

CHEGAR "Sobek's Empty, and my warframe's is going to need some repairs, but I'm alright over here." Chegar said. Still working to mend his Vauban. "If anyone else needs fixing up, let me know."

leirynot - Isa 15-Jan-22 07:31 PM

Isa Isa took a moment to reload her zarr. "Zarr reserves empty. Superficial damage to frame. Shields absorbed most of the conculyst impact."

Kelimnac - Dominus 16-Jan-22 02:22 AM

DOMINUS "Headache on the way. But I'm still somewhat stable. Carrier might be able to replenish some ammo for everyone if we let it gather some raw material." Nodding his thanks to Chegar, the Excalibur pushed to his feet and pressed a hand against the wall, still not quite sturdy enough to stand totally unassisted. "I'm a bit scrambled right now after that. The Void and I aren't the best of friends outside of the Warframe, so using it in big bursts like that is, well...rough. But at least it's done."

Disruptis - Disruptis 16-Jan-22 07:42 PM

Disruptis: Disruptis swiveled around to point a finger gun at Dominus. "So you really were the first guy to run into Azmodan, weren't you? That's how he got his blades, right?"

Kelimnac - Dominus 16-Jan-22 07:46 PM

DOMINUS As simple a shrug as any other, reaffixing his scattered kit and recharging his weapons. "Damned if I can remember, Dis. Apparently this was a rematch. Either way, those blades won't be hurting anyone now. My sword was the sharper one this time." He still couldn't hear Intellectus clearly. The signal must have been damaged when he took those hits. Maybe the fight would've gone better with some tactical updates...

Disruptis - Disruptis 16-Jan-22 07:50 PM

Disruptis: "Well yeah, I guess," Disruptis remarked. He lowered himself into a squat and rubbed his hands, watching the last of the Sentient debris hit the floor. "Unless the Phantoms have enough of a base somewhere to remake him again. If that happens, I'm not sure which ability he'll evolve this time."

Kelimnac - Dominus 16-Jan-22 07:55 PM

DOMINUS "They lost a lot here. And he was pretty eager to beat us and get back up top so they could grab more material. If there's anything left, it might get chewed up when the Grineer move back in. Even if not...well. We'll just kill him again ourselves. And I'll make damn sure that I burn every last piece of that bastard's essence. So far he's one of the only memories that I've been reunited with, and I'm not happy about it."

Disruptis - Disruptis 16-Jan-22 08:00 PM

Disruptis: "Yeah, about that! You got a case of long-term Void-cryo amnesia? Did you not thaw right?"

Kelimnac - Dominus 17-Jan-22 05:33 PM

DOMINUS Another shrug, this time moving closer to the others and squatting down alongside the Limbo operator. "Beats me. I found my pod in a Grineer base on Earth. My guess is that it was getting transported to Luna, or somewhere else, but whatever was carrying it crashed. My Cephalon knew who I was, obviously, but he either doesn't have the data on me prior to waking up, or his precepts forbid him from accessing it at all. All I can remember is the ship, some figures I think are my family, and working with three other kids to survive after everything went down. But faces, names...all blurry. It feels like my memories of the Old War were tampered with."

Disruptis - Disruptis 19-Jan-22 08:59 PM

Disruptis: "Void of a problem there. Maybe past you dug their nose where it shouldn't have been and an Orokin high ranker did something about it. I have my own experience with memory loss so I feel ya."

Kelimnac - Dominus 21-Jan-22 11:54 AM

DOMINUS "Maybe. Or someone I know...knew, did the same, and I got caught up in the fallout. At least I'm not alone in that regard." Rising back up, the Excalibur lets out a heavy sigh. "In any case, what should we do next? Intellectus has been trying to reach me for awhile now, but I think the damage and my little stunt has my connection all warped. If we think these Sentients are out of the fight, we might want to get topside before another Grineer QRF shows up and sees the carnage."

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 21-Jan-22 01:47 PM

CHEGAR With a puff of green and orange energy, the Vauban slowly stumbled to it's feet. Its head shook as Chegar worked to reestablish his connection, letting out an uncomfortable groan. "Guess there's nothing I can do about the headache." He muttered to himself before rejoining the rest of the group. "Seems to me we have a two part problem: We still that other target down here that we need to deal with. Not to mention, I personally don't want this.. thing" He started, pointing at Azmodan's shattered body "left behind for anyone to tinker with: Void knows that if someone manages to bring him back online, we're going to have some big problems on our hands." (edited)

leirynot - Isa 21-Jan-22 03:05 PM

Isa "I could have my proxies come in to retrieve the remains." She proposes as she walks over to what is left of Azmodan. "Once retrieved we can take our time thoroughly destroying them."

Disruptis - Disruptis 22-Jan-22 03:50 PM

Disruptis: "That's not just your cephalon unfortunately," Disruptis explained, pulling the gammacor off his hip. He mounted it on his arm and brought up a HUD of sorts projected using the weapon's own energy. He selected some icons by twisting his arm before the hologram of a graph with a slope that looked like it had gone through an earthquake. "There's still some interference garbling signals that are even coming from as close as the surface at this point. Signal to Noise Ratio and all that. Good idea on the proxies Isa, give it a go. I say we keep sweeping this place for more sentients until we reach the bottom of…" The Limbo caught sight of the static waypoint he placed on only his own HUD earlier. The one marked 'Hydroid?'. It was not far away now. "this…" Disruptis stalked out of the room, entering a hallway bathed in harsh red light. It emptied out into a broad catwalk overlooking an enormous deep sea reactor. The mechanism churned flickering red light, flooding the room and adjacent corridors. Disruptis paused half-way through rushing out to the next room. Muck, I should check this first.

He hurried over to a large terminal mounted behind the railings and shot tendrils of light from his gammacor at it. A quick pre-loaded subroutine execution and the interface was unlocked. He kicked up a cacophony of clicks with how fast he issued commands and brought up diagrams. Anyone watching would think he was merely mashing buttons, but that was only his standard typing pace. The holographic display brought up a now complete floor map of the lower levels, as well as a handful of other images and symbols. Disruptis's head rapidly swung side to side as he absorbed all the information and came to a single conclusion. He brought up one last diagnostic to confirm it. The image of the floor map scrolled downwards until it disappeared out of sight. It traced the path down into the depths of the trench outside. Three deep-sea Grineer structures flanked the symbol of a sentient wreckage. A couple symbols denoted the current situation: a broken chain link on the wreck, and three very slowly depleting percentages on each structure. "Shal vast," Disruptis muttered.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 24-Jan-22 03:37 PM

CHEGAR He couldn't make out what Disruptis had just said, but Chegar knew the sound of concerned discontent quite will. "Isa, let's try to put a rush on Savaging the body." He said, Quickly moving to Disruptis' position. "What've we got?" Chegar asked, Jogging over to the Limbo's position.

Kelimnac - Dominus 24-Jan-22 03:48 PM

DOMINUS Still rubbing one arm as his body knit back together and began replenishing his energy reserves, Dominus wasn't far behind. He analyzed the symbols on the display for a few seconds, before muttering some rather more mundane curses of his own. "When will the blasted Grineer learn. Sentient tech needs to be disabled, not harvested or understood beyond how best to break it. They don't have the capacity to fully seal it off from connecting to their fellows."

leirynot - Isa 24-Jan-22 07:50 PM

Isa Isa gave a brief nod to Chegar before attempting to open up comms to her cephalon. If successful, she would request some larger cargo ospreys to make their way into the facility so they could be loaded with the remains of the sentient general. Regardless of if communication was possible with Ziton, she gave orders to the MOAs that were guarding the entrance above to descend and begin gathering the remains of Asmodeus into a neat pile for easier loading once comms were restored, or for on-site destruction if they could not be.

Disruptis - Disruptis 25-Jan-22 03:53 PM

~Isa failed to hear anything from her cephalon other than static, but the MOA's beckoned at her command.~ Disruptis: "Ikazu's body holds a few sentient fragments inside some of its parts. Reserve forces, for when things got tough. When we trashed him, they didn't get the chance to deploy so they presumably sank with him. We didn't have time to go down and break him up more since Sek–... since Command pulled us back for another assignment. "The Grineer have been poking around, trying to get at the fragments. They shocked certain parts of his body to get them to open. Kinda like how you can do the same with animals to force muscles to contract. They had it kinda contained, but then the Hydroid roughed things upstairs and the sentients trapped in the facility broke free somehow. It just escalates from there, and now the corpse I helped bury is drawing a lotta power from these stations that were once used to shock it. I don't have that full of an understanding of how Ikazu works, but that does not look good to me. We have to stop this." Disruptis punched in a few more commands and was met with a sequence of error codes. "Muck. I can't do it from here, we're gonna need to go inside and shut it off from there, or destroy the connections somehow." He left a remote shell open on the terminal and backed off, glancing towards the waypoint. "But that can wait just a sec. We have a Hydroid to talk to." With that, he ignited his plasma blade and stalked out of the room with it held at his side.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 25-Jan-22 06:19 PM

CHEGAR The Vauban followed quickly behind, readying his nikana as he followed behind Disruptis. "If our path towards our anomalous friend intersects with one of these power sources, we may have an opportunity destroy it or sever its connections" Chegar said, making sure to check his corners. "It might buy us some extra time."

Kelimnac - Dominus 27-Jan-22 12:13 AM

DOMINUS Since it seemed to be a melee powerwalk, the Excalibur fell in line with his Pangolin Sword. The Exalted Blade had worked wonders on Azmodan, but he wouldn't need it just yet for a singular Hydroid, if it came to that. Plus, it just looked cooler. "At this point I'm partial to just boiling this whole sector of ocean with an orbital laser. Or a particularly determined Wisp if you have one on call. The planet'll survive...85% of the time. But we can't do either of those things, obviously." He lets out a sigh. "It's never as easy as that, or remotely fair to what lives here."

leirynot - Isa 28-Jan-22 06:38 PM

Isa Isa was occupied overseeing the gathering of Asmodeus's remains. She eyed Disruptis for a moment as he re-entered the room she was in, then looked back to the pile. For good measure, she stepped from her frame for a moment, revealing her fully masked form as she held up her hands, firing a few frighteningly powerful beams of void energy from her amp, first at the largest portions of the remains, then at the smaller ones before finally bringing her hands together for a second and launching a massive ball of void fire at the pile. She turned to the proxies that were there, speaking aloud, her voice still somewhat distorted, indicative of her artificial larynx. "Juatp pkiy. Apetp se it atyote akktoaykey atp ktetetp atyote jko iyt'p asotj pkiy jtouk ttos akktoaykitj." Guard this. Alert me if anyone approaches and prevent anyone who isn't among this group from approaching. The woman herself then disappeared again, taking control over her warframe once more as she followed Disruptis.

Disruptis - Disruptis 03-Feb-22 12:11 PM

Disruptis: "Not anymore," Disruptis replied, responding to the comment about a Wisp, "I'm beginning to think our only way forward is to take the plunge." He watched Isa for a couple seconds as she finished. A very slight smile tugged at the corner of his lips at the thought of her doing what she does best: burning things. She was quite good at it, he had to admit. I never found out why she wears that mask… Disruptis noted a little sullenly. It occurred to him that he was standing a little straighter now. The dark clouds smothering his mind were not gone, but they had lessened a little. He did it. He can do it. He just proved that again. The Tenno felt as if he had picked up a sliver of himself that had fallen out a while ago. He made sure to keep focused, however. They weren't out of the seas yet. After she transferred back in, he turned and led everyone out of the room the other way. They found a set of stairs descending further downwards. The group's warframes appeared and disappeared out of sight as they passed sections of harsh crimson light and sections of complete darkness. There didn't seem to be any elevators this deep, probably a design choice made in mind of what the Grineer were keeping down here. They passed broken containment area after broken containment area, not stopping to investigate with more of a passing look-over. If there was something hiding somewhere, the MOAs were going to take care of it just fine. After descending what felt like five levels, Disruptis opened the door to a darkened series of metal catwalks cutting through the middle of a massive reactor room. This one reached hundreds of meters both upwards and downwards. The walls were lined with pipes and chambers. This was clearly the main power generator for this part of the facility, and the last one was just a slightly safer backup.

Disruptis froze. Around twenty meters away, a scene of carnage was strewn across the grated catwalks. Enormous pieces of some shadow-like monster hung from cylinders, railings, and blocked off passages. As if it had been torn apart. The Limbo glanced at his holstered gammacor. Its mark burned red. Though strangely enough, the pieces of the creature were rapidly dissipating into the air as he stared. The mark slowly faded in time to the degradation. The rotating lights briefly illuminated a subject at the center of the decimation every second: the form of an operator, hunched over a heavily damaged hydroid. The operator wore a tattered gray suit with dulled outrider armaments. A long Haztech mask obscured all sides of his head from view. Disruptis's arm lowered his blade without him even realizing. "Hello? A–are… you alright?" ???: The operator stayed where he was, his hands glowing with cerulean tinged void energy. "I'm fine." He grumbled wearily as he finished mending a sizable tear in his Hydroid's leg. With visible effort the rather small Tenno brought himself to his feet. "Whatever this thing was, it put up a hell of a fight, but I was perfectly fine, no thanks to-" The Tenno stopped dead as he turned around to face the trio. "...you." The Tenno finished his sentence, all the irritability in his voice gone. With a trembling hand he reached up and pulled the Haztech visor off his face, revealing a set of sunken, blue-grey eyes. "Dis?" (edited)

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 05-Feb-22 05:58 PM

CHEGAR The Vauban moved to Disruptis’ side, taking in the sight of carnage, with its vision quickly fixing on the operator/hydroid pair that lay ahead of him. “Well..:” Chegar began, trying to find his words among the now still chaos. “…this I think simplifies things.” He quick emerged from his ‘Frame. “How far are you on repairs?” He said, restorative energy practically dripping from his fingertips.

leirynot - Isa 05-Feb-22 10:01 PM

Isa The Saryn walked over to the disappearing bits of the now dead creature and examined them as best she could before they finished evaporating, not seeming to care about the operator or Hydroid. After a few moments she turned to Disruptis. "Is this disappearance a normal occurrence when one of her creations is destroyed?" She asked, still paying the other Tenno no mind.

Kelimnac - Dominus 06-Feb-22 12:37 AM

DOMINUS He cast his vision across the carnage-strewn battlefield, memorizing as much of what had been left behind to go over later in his mind. As soon as he'd taken it all in, Dominus kept a close and careful eye on the Hydroid's operator, his sword not put away just yet. If this thing had been so easily dispatched by a single Tenno, it either had been weaker than he suspected, or this could be some sort of trick. He was ready for either to be the case.

Disruptis - Disruptis 07-Feb-22 04:39 PM

Disruptis: The rotating light caught the operator's face, and Disruptis's mind swirled into a frothing bog of feelings. The plasma sword slipped out of his grip and clattered onto the floor, projecting a cyan glow across the undersides of his warframe. "N… o…" he breathed, his voice cracking, "no… nonononono NO! You CAN'T use him! He's already GONE. I won't let you!" Disruptis snapped the gammacor off his hip and aimed it right at him, keeping his distance. His arm visibly shook with a mixture of anger and fear. "TELL ME SOMETHING ONLY THE REAL MURO WOULD KNOW!"

Nor_Urzak - Muro/Aurelia 07-Feb-22 04:40 PM

Muro: The Tenno's eyes, once wide with confusion, narrowed in naked anger. "I should have known." He snarled at the hysterical Limbo. " So what is this then? You get paid off by the Grineer to try and trap me? Lure me in with all that talk about raiding this place so you could get a bounty when my back is turned? Or do you sick bastards just get your kicks from playing pretend? His eyes flicked from one target to the next, not knowing where the first shot would come from. "You come in here, dressed up like one of my friends, and then you start making demands at gunpoint? I hate to break it to you," Muro spat venomously, " but I've seen this too many times already to fall for it again. I..." He seemed to soften somewhat, as if his mind had drifted elsewhere. "I'm the only one left. I know that. I saw what happened, no matter how badly I wish I didn't." The Tenno's already raspy voice starting to strain. Slowly, he raised both his hands, palms facing towards the group of Tenno. "I'm not stupid." He sighed, with a mixture of rage and exhaustion. "Right now, I don't stand a chance against all of you. So go ahead, kill me if that's what you're here for. I'd sooner die than tell a pack of disgusting frauds like you anything." His eyes flashed with a defiant rage. (edited)

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 08-Feb-22 03:33 PM

CHEGAR Muro? Use him? Frauds? Did I miss something during breifing? Chegar looked from the Limbo to this other Tenno, then back again in a several quick successions. "Okay. Time out.:" He said, calmly stepping between the two, keeping his sides towards them both. "One or both of you need to take three steps back and take a moment to explain what's going on, 'cause..." He paused, looking again to the lone Tenno, then back to Disruptis. "I feel I'm missing some mission critical information at this moment." He continued to switch his gaze between the two once he finished; mostly to make sure they didn't attack each-other just yet, but also to watch for which of them would start first in the event he had to dive out of the way.

Kelimnac - Dominus 08-Feb-22 03:52 PM

DOMINUS Also stepping up alongside Chegar, the Excalibur thinks for a moment, and posits his theory. "If I'm piecing this together...you both think the other isn't really who they are. That you're having a trick played on you by...whatever the hell that thing you killed was. Or whatever it's master/creator is. So, with that in the air..." Dominus points back at Disruptis, Isa, and then Chegar. "I only met these people today. We just killed a Sentient by the name of Azmodan together, and stopped a potential resurgence of the bastards planetside. Now we're trying to stop the actual ship they arrived on from waking up or doing anything else that might ruin the planet, and the entire system." He sheathed the Pangolin Sword and opened his palms, a gesture of nonviolence to the Hydroid's Tenno. "Whatever it is you suspect, I don't think an enemy trying to trick you would take up the appearance of someone you don't even know. And I've seen those here use their Void powers. That's difficult to fake, we both know that. Let's take a breath, and figure this whole thing out."

leirynot - Isa 09-Feb-22 07:23 PM

Isa The Saryn finally turned around to look at Muro. "Ah so you did survive. Disruptis survived as some other sentient attacking him preoccupied him enough that couldn't help in the fight. I nearly incinerated him for it abandoning us upon meeting him again." She spoke quite calmly, not caring in the slightest about Muro or Disruptis's hysteria. She turned her head to look at the Limbo. "Perhaps it would be best to simply move on without him. He can have time to calm down and then contact you later now that he knows you're alive. We have more important matters to deal with." (edited)

Disruptis - Disruptis 09-Feb-22 09:10 PM

Disruptis: Disruptis blinked in confusion. "Are you serious right now Isa? Where'd all your caution go?! This could easily be another one of Weaver's tricks. She's done it before! You guys saw Muro caught in the blast directly. No way he survived all this time to randomly show up here. It's been a year and a HALF." Disruptis tensely held his index finger just above the anti-abnormality module, refusing to lower his gammacor. If he pulled it for the second time today, there was no telling what it might do to him. His essence was still recovering from the last one. Then again, maybe it was just his dulled memory, but the nuances of the Tenno's reaction reminded him far too much of Muro.

Kelimnac - Dominus 11-Feb-22 12:42 AM

DOMINUS "If you're that concerned about it being a trick, then you can go on ahead while I wait here with them. I don't have the same connection that you do. If they try to pull anything on me, you'll know about it pretty damn quick. But we have other priorities to see to right now, wouldn't you say?" Seems like he was adamant about them getting the mission done over anything else. That said, his gaze never left the Tenno in front of them. Ready for anything they might pull, even if in his gut instinct, he didn't sense any real danger, beyond a gentle fear. These two both feared the reality where their friend was dead, and yet also feared the reality where they had lived, but now didn't trust that the other had done the same. Max knew how that felt. All too well.

leirynot - Isa 11-Feb-22 03:02 AM

Isa The Saryn shrugged, raising her zarr. "Then scan him. He's not fighting back at the moment. If he tries to stop the scan or he reads as being the creature I open fire. If he scans negative we can leave him. Or you can leave one of us with him. You know I lack the sentimentality that you do."

Nor_Urzak - Muro/Aurelia 11-Feb-22 01:12 PM

Muro: "Ask your friend here what's going on. His lousy acting chops aside, he seems to know more about what's going on here than I do. " Muro's tone was surly as he lowered his hands, noticing the more subtle attempts the others were making to deescalate. "Fact is, I've only met you people today as well, and two of you are wearing the faces of dead comrades of mine, so excuse me for not taking you at your word. That said, at least one of you did your research." He looked over to Isa. "Gotta say, if it weren't for this guy pointing what should be a glorified lockpick at me, I would have believed you were the real deal." He chuckled humorlessly. " The Disruptis I knew was always going on about that thing and all the neat stuff he could do with it. Everything besides killing someone effectively, that is." He turned back towards Disruptis, his voice filled with contempt. "You want me to trust you? Take a breath? How about you drop the act and put that thing down first? I've already said I can't fight all of you, much less win, and if you were the Tenno you claim to be, you'd know damn well that a stiff breeze on Mars would hurt me more than that thing. Behind his words, his mind was racing as some of what the Excalibur said started making sense. If someone knew who he was, what he had done, why impersonate these two of all people? If this wasn't a ruse, what exactly was it?

Disruptis - Disruptis 11-Feb-22 01:45 PM

Disruptis: "I–I… I just…" Disruptis stammered, wobbly taking a step back. Two heavy thoughts chased each other in a circle in his head, physically dizzying him. On one hand, he refused to be tricked in such a despicable way. This would be too far, even for Weaver. On the other, bubbled desperate wishes that this was true.

I͘ţ ̵m̷iǵht̨ ̷b̧e hi͏m.

You're right. Seeing that the others were helping handle the situation, he decided to take a plunge. "I–If you are really Muro… take this," Disruptis disengaged his gammacor and slid it across the floor towards him. "Please. Throw this on and flip the switch on the bottom of the top prong. If you are the real Muro, nothing will happen. If you are actually related to Weaver, it's going to make you wish you weren't." He added a little cold emphasis into that last sentence. (edited)

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 11-Feb-22 02:35 PM

CHEGAR Chegar watched as the gammacor slid across the floor, waiting in nervous anticipation for whatever was about to happen. He dared not draw his amp, lest he trigger a proper standoff.

Nor_Urzak - Muro/Aurelia 11-Feb-22 04:07 PM

Muro: Muro eyed the device on the floor before looking up at Disruptis in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?" he said incredulously. "I'm suddenly supposed to just pick this thing up and push some random button because you tell me to? If I'm going to die here anyway, it won't be to some obvious, amateur hour trap like this." His foot moved back, as if to kick the Gammacor away, but he stopped short, his foot hanging in the air before being carefully set back on the ground. "How about this? You ditch the warframe and maybe I'll do as you ask." Muro asked his question deliberately, keeping an eye on both the limbo and the Zarr-toting Saryn.

Disruptis - Disruptis 11-Feb-22 07:28 PM

Disruptis: Disruptis took a measured breath, keeping his eyes locked on the Hydroid. With a familiar whooshing sound, his Limbo went still. Out of it metaphysically climbed a Tenno dressed in a yellow and black Manduka suit and sleeves with Koppra leggings and hood obscuring his face. His hands moved up to the hood and peeled it back to reveal his face and head full of raven-black hair. On the ground in front of Muro, the red mark faintly glowed to life atop the gammacor. In the rotating light, Muro could see the Void scar across his face was still there… though it looks a little bigger for some reason? It was hard to tell, but what was clear was the presence of a new scar-wound starting from his right cheek that disappeared down his neck. Disruptis's eyes now held a look of defiance and bottomless determination. The fear inside him had evaporated and been replaced with something else. Something that wasn't afraid to even die right where he stood. "I survived, did you?" (edited)

leirynot - Isa 13-Feb-22 06:32 PM

Isa Isa stepped forth from her warframe as well, fully masked as Disruptis had seen her before. She held up a hand, a small fireball appearing in it as a display of her previous talents with the element. "If you need further demonstration, give me a target." Her distorted voice was as devoid of emotion as usual. If it was an imposter they certainly went all out on purchasing an artificial larynx it would seem. (edited)

Nor_Urzak - Muro/Aurelia 19-Feb-22 05:27 PM

Muro: Muro took in the pair in front of him, the sight of them hitting him like a great weight. "No way." He mumbled aloud, just barely processing this revelation and the countless questions that came from it. Trembling even more than before, he reached for the now glowing Gammacor, taking the device in his hands. He shook his head in disbelief. "I mean, how? After all this time?" After taking a moment to find the switch Disruptis had indicated earlier, Muro looked back at the pair, his sunken eyes containing a mixture of hope and lingering doubt. Without another word, he flipped the switch. (edited)

Disruptis - Disruptis 19-Feb-22 06:21 PM

~Click. After a couple tense breaths, nothing happened. Not even so much as a light flickered.~ Disruptis: The tension visibly slid off Disruptis's face. He inhaled for what felt like the first time in minutes, taking in the sight of Muro: his friend. Without another word, he charged Muro and threw his arms around him, bringing him into a tight hug. The Tenno's eyes grew misty as he did. "Hey, man. Good to see ya." (edited)

leirynot - Isa 19-Feb-22 10:03 PM

Isa: Isa immediately disappeared, her Saryn moving again the moment Muro hit the button. "Wonderful. Let's get back to what we were doing." She continued on toward their original destination now, past the evaporating remnants of the creature Muro had killed.

EscortAlpha - Chegar & Svytoj 20-Feb-22 03:32 PM

CHEGAR Chegar let out long, drawn out sigh of relief, slowly making his way back to his Vauban. "Yay...No explosions..."He said, letting his professional tone fall by the wayside for a time. "Good. Good good. " In a flash, he was away, his warframe back up and running again. "What Isa said... Lets go with that." He continued "When ever you're ready." He said, looking to Muro and Disruptis.

Nor_Urzak - Muro/Aurelia 01-Mar-22 06:49 PM

Muro: Muro's arms hung limply as Disruptis hugged him, the reality of the situation still not quite hitting him. "I... Yeah. Good to see you too Dis." He pulled himself away rather stiffly and phased back into his frame. The Hydroid pulled itself to its feet, shallow cuts still present on the frame's body. "Alright then. Uh, what exactly was the plan again?" Muro asked sheepishly.

Disruptis - Disruptis 04-Mar-22 01:02 PM

Disruptis: Disruptis released Muro and wiped his eyes before transferring back into his own warframe. "Ack, right. Basically, a Mother class sentient is trapped deep in this ravine we're in and it's slowly waking up. We need to cut off its power lines, and could really use your help. Are you in?" The Limbo passed by the Hydroid, holding his fist out for a fist bump.

Nor_Urzak - Muro/Aurelia 08-Mar-22 02:37 PM

Muro: "So we're just wrecking the place then? Sounds good to me. Two birds, one stone." The Hydroid returned the fist bump before reaching for his Zaw. "That... thing took pretty much every bullet I had on me. Let's hope the old-fashioned method works."

Disruptis - Disruptis 11-Mar-22 07:12 PM

Disruptis: Disruptis's face broke out into the first joyous smile he had in months. He picked up pace to keep up with the rest. "Hey Isa, you got any Corinth-compatible shells left? Give Muro a hand if you can or I'll give him my plasma sword…" ~The group strode forward to wrap up the night in one last battle. Metal creaked as the broken facility held fast amidst the swirling currents of Uranus. Lights flickered. The air grew colder. Despite the now happy reunion, something ominous hung in the air. Something that made one feel like something was going very wrong.~ [END RP] (edited)