Four-Days Dead (Open)

Nov 12, 2018
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#21
The Antenora briefly froze as the Bergelmir seemed to rupture, spewing the nanomachines within its plating into the surrounding air. Acheron hadn't anticipated the deployment of Machine Cells, but the reactions of his pilots were sharp. Still, the coiling mass of grey goo was a threat that had to be mitigated. This is why he didn't enjoy pitched battle; too many things to keep track of. Even the T-Link System felt sluggish in his unpracticed hands.

The Assassin Bugs around the Werkbau vanished, first in gunfire and then in the boiling cloud. His inattention had cost him. Insignificant, but it stung.

He turned his attention to the mind-culled pilot, frowning.

"You owe me nothing. But battle is a question in and of itself, not an answer."

Jericho reached out and tugged at the Antenora's limbs, watched it respond with almost serpentine grace. The Bergelmir's spreading gas met a flickering wall of shadowy light, the space around his machine twisting to repel the hostile force swarming towards it. For a moment, he considered lowering the barrier and exposing the mysterious crystal beneath to the furious nanites outside - but the thought died almost as soon as it was born, discarded. He did not know enough.

Not yet. Not enough to test one against the other.

A resolution was made, and the Antenora followed.

"So, tell me, my macabre hunter..."

The alien machine reached almost lazily forwards as the Bergelmir refused to die, both hands framing a sudden spark of emerald light. It turned, gradually pivoting until it faced the regenerating machine below; six sparks leapt from the luminescent singularity, converging a moment later.

Target. Terra Sentinel.

"Can you think of a reason for me to spare those here?"

THOOM.

The cloud in the Antenora's vicinity vanished like mist at twilight, nanomachines burnt away by sheer output. The Ialdabaoth's attack was joined by a horizontal column of violent power from between the Antenora's jagged fingers, roughly twisting earthwards as it reached to pulverize the Bergelmir in a single blow.
 
Aug 4, 2018
334
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Somewhere in the UK
#22
It was.. charging?

The Bergelmir's fist was barely able to catch the uppercut, almost immediately shattering under the sheer force of the impact. But it had done the job it needed to - dulling the blow enough that the machine itself remained stable and grounded. Just in time for the second strike to tear through the machine.

Those blue fires practically gutted the Bergelmir, bringing its defences to the absolute limit while reducing the outer plating to melted slag. What remained of the machine cell cloud was burned away, leaving smoke and ash in their wake. The pilot only barely survived, a roar of pain audible as the cockpit was bathed in unearthly heat. And yet...

It wasn't enough.

Gears screeched as the remains of the Bergelmir took one step forward. Two. The shorn front of the Machinery Rifle was shoved into the front of the Iabaladoth's cockpit, igniting with a green light. This would be the killing shot, a reward for the pilot's failure in killing what remained of him. A shot that would never quite finish, interrupted in a plume of emerald light. Time seemed to slow for Wenzel, his own death flashing before his eyes in a plume of pure destruction.

He could succeed at his mission at the cost of his own life. Or flee to fight another day. Activate the ASRS now and maybe survive that last blow, instead of definitely dying to secure another kill. Macabre calculations with a simple solution at the end of it.

It wasn't worth it. A life for a life, when so much had been invested in his own creation? Never. The flip of a switch activated the thruster on the back of the Bergelmir, launching it sideways instead of up at first while the ASRS was forced into a functioning state by the few Machine Cells remaining. That killing blow went spinning off into the forest, and whle it was just enough to ensure his survival almost half the Bergelmir was finally obliterated by Jericho's strike. Nothing remained of its right arm or leg, the rifle similarly lost to the winds.

Perhaps given time it could regenerate. But that much damage would be measured in days and weeks, not minutes and seconds. This battle was lost. No words came from the pilot as the crippled machine took flight, fleeing home as it clung to life.

Mission failed.
Recommend Jericho threat level be increased.
Confirmed EOT of multiple types.
-Wenzel.
 

MKR

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 19, 2018
626
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#23
Laughter, echoing in response to the question posed by the pilot of the Antenora. As if asking for a reason to spare lives was worthy of mockery. The Werkbau in turn kept moving, beginning to circle the much much larger machine. Its gaze fixed on the machine, how it moved, what it did, what it was. And what it wasn't.
"Battle as a question and forcing an answer out of me with such a ridiculous question."

What a farce this had become. The gun remained trained on the machine's head the entire time. At the same time the gun slaves returned to the spine of the machine, placing themselves in their rightful place as answers followed.
"Can I think of a reason to spare those here? Oh a million and then some, though it would be hypocritical of me to state them and I really really doubt you care about trivial things like the value of the human soul or whatnot."


The machine stared at the Antenora, as if to answer for itself that hidden question if Jericho cared. He doubted it. People who cared didn't ask that so casually.
"But that is all the false pretense that that is the correct question to begin with. Which it isn't, see the real question you ask is 'is there a reason to kill everyone here'. A battle is no question, a battle is the answer to that question. Ask yourself this wise guy, did you ask if you were going to fight before you teleported in here or after. If you only began asking after you're an idiot who asks themselves if they need to take a breath every time."

Inside the cockpit a malicious grin formed, imagining things and occurrences. Ah he remembered now, he liked talking, liked mocking. Words words words, choking the life out of someone with the air in their own lungs before even firing a shot at their face. Having them know they were beaten before even beginning to fight.
"Before you know it you forget to ask and asphyxiate yourself."

He could think of reasons to kill everyone here, he was angry, angry at his self and lack thereof, angry at the situation he awoke in. Angry at the world that vomited him out of nowhere, there was still a gaping void where a person should be but the anger had been vented, literally shot out of his system and in the new 'calm' vague familiarity with the voice that addressed him presented itself, unconnected dots that drew something.
"Very eager to call me 'yours' are you, well if you like questions that much. I've got two for you."

He had made it to the other side of the Antenora, the gun suddenly turned around at the weakened, drained Shurashin finger on the trigger as the Werkbau stood between the two of them now.
"Question one, can you think of any reason for me to kill him?"
The Werkbau's finger was on the trigger ready to pull at any moment and fire at the head of Ialdabaoth.
"And question two, why would I be 'yours'?"

The demonic visage stared at Jericho's machine with what could almost be described as malice.
"Oh and you, Mr. honor. I suggest you take a deep breath and stay put, if you as much as move a muscle I'll fire. Feel free to lament your fate or try to call upon honor again. We'll see if your mistake was one in just a moment."
 
Aug 25, 2018
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#24
Matthias’ eyes widened in shock as the Bergelmir emerged from the blast of Haki, a smoking corpse that defied logic. The broken heap swung one melted arm up, driving a rifle directly into the man’s face, huge barrel mere feet from the front edge of the cockpit. The pilot grimaced but didn’t let his eyes close; if he was going to die, he wasn’t going to look away from his death.

The shot never came, as a blast of violet energy destroyed the air only a few meters in front of the exhausted Shura. The destroyed remains of the rifle dropped to the ground in front of him, as the remains of the damaged Bergelmir vanished into the woods. It had clearly reached an unknown decision before fleeing. The young man felt his heart start beating again, and began gasping in an attempt to recover his breath. He hadn’t noticed his tension until after the inevitable death vanished, the executioner’s sword in the form of the Bergelmir’s powerful rifle.

He did save me, the caring bastard.
There was no time for relief, as the conversation between the Phantom of the Woods and Jericho reached its peak and the enemy had placed the Ialdabaoth between him and the Antenora. The Shurashin realized his folly and the reality of the situation, as his breath slowly returned to him.

The Ialdabaoth was willing; all it needed was his Haki. The man knew that his presence was now placing his comrade at a disadvantage, and would only serve to further drive a wedge into this battle. Opening a private comms channel to Jericho, the young man spoke briefly.

I’ll move one hundred meters diagonally; I can stop one shot.
Sucking down one steadying breath, the man narrowed his gaze, The next moment would be an eternity, and not one the Shura or Shurashin would savor. The Ialdaboth shifted backwards and launched itself directly away from the Werkbau in a diagonal path, opening a direct line between Jericho and the unknown pilot. He raised both of his fists and prepared to plant his feet as he shot backwards, already planning for an attack of some form.
 
Nov 12, 2018
52
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#25
The Bergelmir's decision to retreat was only regarded with a faint expression of disdain, and the Antenora's pilot exhibited something nearing impatience as the machine turned to face the remaining combatant. The buglike visage met the demon bat's own eyes, mutually glaring and tracking in a lazy circle. Something about the two of them felt similar, even to the untrained eye. The same implicit logic, the same base expressions made manifest in their outer armoring.

However, their pilots -

Even now, were so different as to be an implausible pair.

"...When did you learn to talk like that?"

It was legitimate perplexion coloring Jericho mental voice as it reached into the opposing figure's ears. Where had this caustic figure come from? Had it been lurking within his own ranks this entire time? Had his senses truly been this dull before he'd stepped into the Antenora's cockpit? Just how much had the alien machine split his mind open and filled the rest in with "programming"? How much of it had been subconscious learning, plucked from the minds of those cultists?

He was thinking too much. Piloting the Antenora was instinct, not skill.

"You didn't use those words...before. Do you truly remember nothing? Why would you ask me before shooting an enemy? Before, when you fought - "

The Ialdabaoth was moving, an increasingly blurred flash of red against the ruined landscape. Of course. That man was never content with being still. The Antenora's hands refused to truly rise in compliance with the Werkbau's ominous threat, only vibrating in place, but the resulting surge of energy expanded outwards in a blinding, overwhelming sphere of blue light, encompassing everything around within a shadow-banishing glow.

"You didn't ask me before pulling the trigger."

"Draupnir Ring."

The surge reshaped itself in motion, suddenly lashing inwards like a nebula collapsing to form a newborn star. The wavefront went from sphere to a vertical plane in less than a second, converging loudly towards the Werkbau's upper torso, and it only accelerated as it flattened. Soon, it was almost on top of its target - and if it reached, it'd continue constricting like a gruesome python of shaped starlight, pinning the machine's hands against its body. If the loop was allowed to progress even further than that, it'd begin taking hungry bites out of the underlying material itself, pushing towards the cockpit with twisted intent.

Like an encircling jaw, the precursor's teeth closed in.
 

MKR

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 19, 2018
626
3
18
#26
"I've been alive for what? Ten minutes now, that should answer the 'when'." The genuine surprise was surprising in its own right, the claim made before seemed to hold some weight if this was a genuine reaction and not merely one for the senses. Still the man kept talking without saying anything, questions gone without answer. He should be used to this by now but it was still frustrating.

Used to? How would he have been used to something...

An internal distraction that lasted long enough for the Ialdabaoth to dash off, in the snap reaction afterwards he was already too slow. The beam and bullet piercing the air where the Shura had been but a split second prior instead of where he was now. A click of the tongue with that. Unlike the other man he was actually answering questions however.
"Or did I not have to ask?"

He whipped his gaze back at the attack being called to see the wave forming, the machine widened its arms and braced its legs, the barrier which had protected it from the Machine Cells coming forth once more. The first wave of the squeeze shook through it, the nebula being held a distance away from the demonic machine but its arms still shaking from the impact as it fought to hold the barrier as wide as possible, to reduce the area of impact.

Another wave struck, the Werkbau's limbs shook in response, denting inwards. Damage was being reduced but not nullified and in return he was a sitting duck, if he removed his focus from the barrier it would shatter and he'd be compressed into sausage. But for this entire time the Shura could attack him without him being able to do anything about it.

"Well, what is it. Honor, or victory?" He directed at Calcio. "Take your shot if you want to win but you reduce that duel you were so proud of to rubble."
A laugh accompanied it, even in this situation as the machine's limbs were being put through a trash compactor he just had to see what the man would choose, and then the attention went back to the large thing trying to crush him.

"Alright, I'll bite. If you can answer a question I'm willing to continue where 'I' left off as you imply. But for that you actually have to answer a question directly for once." Another wave, the elbows buckled inwards but the barrier held. It was an endurance match in its own right as parts of shell were being crushed under the weight of stars.

"What. Is my name." It was a demand, not a question as the weight of a cosmos crashed down on him that was the question.
 
Aug 25, 2018
51
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#27
The Shurashin narrowly dodged the combination blast that came from the Werkbau, sliding to a stop a few dozen meters away. The young Shura looked through his view screen onto the battlefield, in time to see the circle of light wrap around and constrict his enemy. He easily identified the source of the attack; it had come from Jericho, who was in full control of this battle. He heard the pilot of the Werkbau speak across the open comms channel, and a grimace crossed his face. This expression shifted into a twisted smile, as the man spoke bitterly.

I recall someone saying that if I value honor more than my life, he’d just kill me. I’ll leave you to Jericho, Nameless.” With that statement, the Ialdabaoth waved towards Jericho. The Shura wasn’t sure if his officer would recognize the gesture, but it was enough for the pilot.

I’ll continue my futile search for a rival...but it wasn’t you.

Filled with mixed emotions, the Shurashin shot into the woods, trying to get a tail on the Bergelmir that had fled the battlefield minutes prior.
 
Nov 12, 2018
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#28
"...He is my subordinate, Shevirat Ha-kelim. His loyalty overpowers his honor."

Jericho had said it so casually, let it drag free from his lips with not a hint of anticipation or foreknowledge. The Antenora's eyes drifted skywards, as if the machine itself were reminiscing, and its hand clenched further, driving the encircling band of light further inwards in a planet-cracking contraction.

"We built you from nothing once before. I'd be willing to do it again. You were worth it. Everything that went into you paid for itself in spades."

The Antenora had lowered as its pilot spoke, beginning to drift closer like a looming omen. It blocked the light from the remaining fires behind it, leaving it nothing more than a faceless cliff of angular curves that hung balefully over the destruction surrounding the remaining pair.

"Do you want for me to decide who you are, emblem of the old Directory? All I'll need from you is for you to trample my enemies. You won't have to spare anyone I order you to destroy. You are my answer to this twisted world. And maybe, in the end, an earth of better men emerges from under your scalpel, Shevirat."

A dismissive wave banished the crushing pressure from existence, leaving only the alien machine's smoking hands and jagged spires. Drawing out enough energy to use the Antenora's trump card without previous testing had been unwise, but the consequences were fair. He'd have to study more to use more.

Otherwise, this would just be dumb luck.

"...and, of course - "

"You could always change your mind now. You're a new man again! Why not?! WHY NOT?"

The Antenora's hands spilled back out into light, held wide as if it intended to embrace the stars.

"I need an answer now," the voice finished. "So would you mind?"
 

MKR

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 19, 2018
626
3
18
#29
It seemed that Calcio individual had enough brain functionality to sit this one out, though loyalty being the reason? Somehow that was doubtful, Jericho however... That was familiar. It was a name heard before, and one heard before. Of that he was certain even if the context to its mention was evaporated like particulate. But there was one more name heard, a grin flashed over features. How interesting, a name that sounded right yet wrong. Like nostalgia for another, yes that was the case was it not? Nostalgia for another.


"Looks like you can answer questions after all, what a surprise." The Werkbau stood upright, smoke coming forth from its joints as the barrier stopped its function. A glance was fired back at the Ialdaboath as if to rub the machine's current state into the face of the pilot there. He couldn't explain why but parts of what was said sounded right, reluctantly so. As if an acknowledged fact amidst the very laws of nature itself.
"Alright I'll bite, but if I want to kill someone I'll do it even if that interferes with who you want dead. Especially if I decide that I want to kill you." The machine took a step to the side "I'll be my own answer when I want to be, be it scalpel or machete that's my choice."

The machine spread its arms wide, leaving its torso exposed to the Antenora.
"That's my answer, if it doesn't suit you then shoot me here and now. I won't give you another one. But until I decide that you should die, I'll be your scalpel. Just don't give me a reason to answer my question." The light cast by the Antenora cut the Werkbau's shadow into the dirt, elongated by the source it looked like a proper demon, or perhaps the devil himself was proposing this deal.

The Shura had run off, leaving the two of them alone in the woods. As if in mock embrace against the pale light of the moon, two men or two monsters. Perhaps a mixture of both, yet then. Whom was which? A laugh filled the comms as the fire raged.