Re: Grand Battle S3G1! (Round Three: Caelo Ruinam)
02-17-2012, 03:24 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Anomaly.
Water.
Endless water.
At last, Tengeri thought, a return to her natural terrain. No bounds, no battles to deal with, no imminent death. Just an endless expanse of less-than-clear water, and a smattering of fish. Very large fish, but fish nonetheless. Nothing to worry about for the current moment, at the very least.
And with nothing to worry about, she had plenty to worry about. What had even happened? Obviously they didn't all die from a nuclear detonation, although there certainly had been one. One of the combatants had been killed just in time, it seemed. But who? Tengeri searched through her logs, hoping to find a record of the termination of one "Saint Scofflaw", or whatever the hell he was calling himself these days. Even if it hadn't been a day since the whole thing started.
Tengeri sighed as the words showed up in her display: GB-006 terminated: cause unknown. She supposed it was for the best that Kerak hadn't survived. The dinosaur would just as soon have murdered all of them than cooperate. Nonetheless he was likely the lesser of two (or possibly three) evils, when compared to Scofflaw. If events had actually played out as he was hoping, Tengeri's hatred would soon melt away as the dashing rogue who also happened to be a complete bastard slowly won over her hearts and no that is idiotic!
Scofflaw deserved death. That was simple enough. She had told herself this since the battle's beginning, but could never truly realize it until now. He managed to enslave the minds of virtually everyone on the battlefield, including their fellow battlers, and ultimately use them to his own ends, depriving them of their own free will, using science that didn't make any logical sense! Had it not been for her superior implants, she would have been no different (or she might not have been entered in the first place, but there was little use dwelling on that). He was going to get his comeuppance, and he was going to get it as soon as she caught a glimpse of his vaguely-ugly face.
Multiple aquatic lifeforms approaching; likely predators.
Tengeri looked up. The very large fish had decided to converge on her position while she wasn't paying attention - huge gray ones with numerous rows of sharp teeth. Evidently, they had decided that she would make a nice meal, or something of the sort. Tengeri immediately drew out her manipulators, armed with plasma cutters, and waved them menacingly at the fish. Presumably this only made her appear to be some kind of enormous squid-eel, as the organisms only drew closer, their teeth bared.
Several moments later, a number of burned, unconscious fish slowly floated to the water's surface. As the sufficiently-shaken scientist disarmed her weapons, she took a moment to look at the scans of her current area, revealing it to be little more than a significantly-less-than-endless circular, stone-walled tank, something she might have picked up on sooner had she been paying attention, and had the water been less murky. Either way, there appeared to be a number of large glass windows on one end of the tank. Ostensibly they had at one point been used for viewing, but those days were long past. There was also some sort of large chute above the water's surface, much too high for Tengeri to gain access.
Deciding the windows were quite obviously her best chance for escape, Tengeri switched her manipulators to a flat, spearhead-esque configuration, charged toward the glass, and rammed several into it simultaneously. With a rush of water, she immediately found herself thrown at the very surprised quartet which had been walking past the window with comedically-appropriate timing.
"What?!" the large, six-armed one shouted as a stone shutter prevented the entire tank from emptying into the corridor.
The very-familiar cuboid stared at the aquatic scientist quizzically. "Um. Hello, Tengeri."
"Mr. Zimmerman, sir!" a voice suddenly called. Zimmerman lost his balance and slipped from the platform, catching hold of the turret and hanging in the air. With great effort he turned around to face one of his underlings, whose name he hadn't really bothered to learn. The faint sound of his wrench hitting the ground echoed throughout the chamber.
"What is it?" the chief spat.
"Sorry, am I interrupting?"
Zimmerman would have applied his palm to his forehead would that action not have been likely to result in his death. "Yes. You are. This had better be important."
"It is, sir. Shark tank one has been breached!"
"Damn it, we just finished transporting the sharks in! Is the breach contained?"
"Yes."
"Then why, exactly, did you feel the need to tell me now?"
"Well, there's more. The tank was broken from the inside."
Zimmerman raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying someone escaped? That's impossible. The sharks would've killed anyone who got inside."
"I don't know the details. The sharks were fought off. Burned or something."
"Burned. They were underwater. Fire spells don't work underwater. You know that."
"There might be something in the fortress we don't know about. Maybe a fault in some ancient mechanism."
"And you are?"
"A... mechanic?"
"Then take care of it, gods damn it! And tell security. And more importantly, get me down from here! There's a control console down the second walkway on the right, third door on the left. It's locked, so use your key there. It'll retract all of the turrets and I can get onto the catwalks. Hurry it up."
"I don't have the key to that room."
"All of you have the key to that room! They're all exactly the same!"
The mechanic scampered off without another word. Zimmerman sighed. It was going to be a long day.
"Eet looks a bit like a Leviathan," the tentacled creature muttered to the green thing.
"We have had dealings previously," Velobo told his muscle-bound companion, beforing turning to Tengeri, who had at this point gathered a field of water around herself and hovered a few feet in the air. "Tengeri, was there not a better exit than that one?"
"Sadly not. Sorry, I didn't see you there. Or your... friends? Who are they?"
"Oh. They are-"
The six-armed man shoved Velobo out of the way. "SIR DORUKUMETS! And co. Have you come to attempt to best ME in combat as well?"
Tengeri nearly laughed at the absurdity of the warrior's challenge. "Sorry, I'm not one for fighting. I assure you that your armor would not be especially protective anyway. May I ask what it is you're doing here?"
Maybe they're the heroes The Fool referred to, she silently mused.
"You couldn't take on Dorukumets if you tried, Levie! No one can!" the green one overexuberantly shouted.
"Silence, Tykidu!"
"Alright, look. Before you start squabbling amongst yourselves, I just wanted to know if you know anything about this place. Anything unusual inside that I might want to know about? Or perhaps more importantly, a way out?"
Dorukumets laughed heartily. "Not unless you have an airship! Monsters would probably get to you first even if you did! Calidad trusts you, so I guess I'll forgo fighting you if you really don't think you can manage it. If you're looking for unusual things, you might try heading for the core of the fortress. It's that way," he said, pointing unhelpfully down the corridor.
Tengeri quite nearly offered to go along with Velobo, but ultimately decided against it, partly because Dorukumets could probably turn on her at any moment and partly because he and the green thing were both incredibly annoying. "Uh, thanks. Be careful out there." She floated blindly off through the stone corridors, scanning for signs of this "core" the warrior had mentioned, as well as for other signs of life. From the distance, she heard a very loud shouting of "DORUUUUUUUU" followed by a number of crashes.
Water.
Endless water.
At last, Tengeri thought, a return to her natural terrain. No bounds, no battles to deal with, no imminent death. Just an endless expanse of less-than-clear water, and a smattering of fish. Very large fish, but fish nonetheless. Nothing to worry about for the current moment, at the very least.
And with nothing to worry about, she had plenty to worry about. What had even happened? Obviously they didn't all die from a nuclear detonation, although there certainly had been one. One of the combatants had been killed just in time, it seemed. But who? Tengeri searched through her logs, hoping to find a record of the termination of one "Saint Scofflaw", or whatever the hell he was calling himself these days. Even if it hadn't been a day since the whole thing started.
Tengeri sighed as the words showed up in her display: GB-006 terminated: cause unknown. She supposed it was for the best that Kerak hadn't survived. The dinosaur would just as soon have murdered all of them than cooperate. Nonetheless he was likely the lesser of two (or possibly three) evils, when compared to Scofflaw. If events had actually played out as he was hoping, Tengeri's hatred would soon melt away as the dashing rogue who also happened to be a complete bastard slowly won over her hearts and no that is idiotic!
Scofflaw deserved death. That was simple enough. She had told herself this since the battle's beginning, but could never truly realize it until now. He managed to enslave the minds of virtually everyone on the battlefield, including their fellow battlers, and ultimately use them to his own ends, depriving them of their own free will, using science that didn't make any logical sense! Had it not been for her superior implants, she would have been no different (or she might not have been entered in the first place, but there was little use dwelling on that). He was going to get his comeuppance, and he was going to get it as soon as she caught a glimpse of his vaguely-ugly face.
Multiple aquatic lifeforms approaching; likely predators.
Tengeri looked up. The very large fish had decided to converge on her position while she wasn't paying attention - huge gray ones with numerous rows of sharp teeth. Evidently, they had decided that she would make a nice meal, or something of the sort. Tengeri immediately drew out her manipulators, armed with plasma cutters, and waved them menacingly at the fish. Presumably this only made her appear to be some kind of enormous squid-eel, as the organisms only drew closer, their teeth bared.
Several moments later, a number of burned, unconscious fish slowly floated to the water's surface. As the sufficiently-shaken scientist disarmed her weapons, she took a moment to look at the scans of her current area, revealing it to be little more than a significantly-less-than-endless circular, stone-walled tank, something she might have picked up on sooner had she been paying attention, and had the water been less murky. Either way, there appeared to be a number of large glass windows on one end of the tank. Ostensibly they had at one point been used for viewing, but those days were long past. There was also some sort of large chute above the water's surface, much too high for Tengeri to gain access.
Deciding the windows were quite obviously her best chance for escape, Tengeri switched her manipulators to a flat, spearhead-esque configuration, charged toward the glass, and rammed several into it simultaneously. With a rush of water, she immediately found herself thrown at the very surprised quartet which had been walking past the window with comedically-appropriate timing.
"What?!" the large, six-armed one shouted as a stone shutter prevented the entire tank from emptying into the corridor.
The very-familiar cuboid stared at the aquatic scientist quizzically. "Um. Hello, Tengeri."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Maintenance Chief of the Day Martin Zimmerman leaned precariously over a narrow walkway over a long drop, tightening the screws on one of several cannons he had been ordered to inexplicably place over a 1000-foot chasm while actively avoiding a number of still-functioning, heavily-weaponized ancient robots that hadn't been informed that Caelo Ruinam was under new management. He also had to take care to avoid being in the wrong place when large sections of walkway randomly detached themselves and plummetted to the ground. Not that it was new for anyone working for Lady Midday - wherever her base was set up, "accidents" happened quite often (hence his title). Zimmerman, in fact, held the record for survival of a maintenance chief, at thirteen full days."Mr. Zimmerman, sir!" a voice suddenly called. Zimmerman lost his balance and slipped from the platform, catching hold of the turret and hanging in the air. With great effort he turned around to face one of his underlings, whose name he hadn't really bothered to learn. The faint sound of his wrench hitting the ground echoed throughout the chamber.
"What is it?" the chief spat.
"Sorry, am I interrupting?"
Zimmerman would have applied his palm to his forehead would that action not have been likely to result in his death. "Yes. You are. This had better be important."
"It is, sir. Shark tank one has been breached!"
"Damn it, we just finished transporting the sharks in! Is the breach contained?"
"Yes."
"Then why, exactly, did you feel the need to tell me now?"
"Well, there's more. The tank was broken from the inside."
Zimmerman raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying someone escaped? That's impossible. The sharks would've killed anyone who got inside."
"I don't know the details. The sharks were fought off. Burned or something."
"Burned. They were underwater. Fire spells don't work underwater. You know that."
"There might be something in the fortress we don't know about. Maybe a fault in some ancient mechanism."
"And you are?"
"A... mechanic?"
"Then take care of it, gods damn it! And tell security. And more importantly, get me down from here! There's a control console down the second walkway on the right, third door on the left. It's locked, so use your key there. It'll retract all of the turrets and I can get onto the catwalks. Hurry it up."
"I don't have the key to that room."
"All of you have the key to that room! They're all exactly the same!"
The mechanic scampered off without another word. Zimmerman sighed. It was going to be a long day.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"You know this creature, Calidad?" the big one asked."Eet looks a bit like a Leviathan," the tentacled creature muttered to the green thing.
"We have had dealings previously," Velobo told his muscle-bound companion, beforing turning to Tengeri, who had at this point gathered a field of water around herself and hovered a few feet in the air. "Tengeri, was there not a better exit than that one?"
"Sadly not. Sorry, I didn't see you there. Or your... friends? Who are they?"
"Oh. They are-"
The six-armed man shoved Velobo out of the way. "SIR DORUKUMETS! And co. Have you come to attempt to best ME in combat as well?"
Tengeri nearly laughed at the absurdity of the warrior's challenge. "Sorry, I'm not one for fighting. I assure you that your armor would not be especially protective anyway. May I ask what it is you're doing here?"
Maybe they're the heroes The Fool referred to, she silently mused.
"You couldn't take on Dorukumets if you tried, Levie! No one can!" the green one overexuberantly shouted.
"Silence, Tykidu!"
"Alright, look. Before you start squabbling amongst yourselves, I just wanted to know if you know anything about this place. Anything unusual inside that I might want to know about? Or perhaps more importantly, a way out?"
Dorukumets laughed heartily. "Not unless you have an airship! Monsters would probably get to you first even if you did! Calidad trusts you, so I guess I'll forgo fighting you if you really don't think you can manage it. If you're looking for unusual things, you might try heading for the core of the fortress. It's that way," he said, pointing unhelpfully down the corridor.
Tengeri quite nearly offered to go along with Velobo, but ultimately decided against it, partly because Dorukumets could probably turn on her at any moment and partly because he and the green thing were both incredibly annoying. "Uh, thanks. Be careful out there." She floated blindly off through the stone corridors, scanning for signs of this "core" the warrior had mentioned, as well as for other signs of life. From the distance, she heard a very loud shouting of "DORUUUUUUUU" followed by a number of crashes.