Feb 23 20:49:46 107 PA - Winter BBQ
From Chronicles
The hour for rolling out has come and everybody will have received a communiqué the night before, in one way or another indicating to meet at the Landing strip for final preparations and departure. Celaeno is... on time this morning. This morning - this early, early morning, she can be found on the landing strip outfitted to the teeth - an odd looking machine strapped to the back of her hovercycle. Her helmet is off, and she appears to be enjoying a cigar in the bitter freeze.
Erica arrized a little bit earlier then the appointed time and is dressed up in her armor and jetpack. Slung along her shoulders are two rifles. She is pacing back and forth across the landing strip and occasionaly turns her cyclopean helmet to take a glance around.
Vadania was told as the sun started to touch the eastern skies. So the soft clip-clop of hoves probably shouldn't suprise anyone as they approach from the direction of the gates. What might suprise some folk who know her is the war paint she's striped her cheeks adn forehead with. And the raven feathers brainded into her hair.
Bartholemew shows up at the meeting point weapons and ammo packed and ready to go on his cycle, his C12 slung across his back. He strolls over from his bike as he notices Cel showing up. He removes his helmet when he get near Cel, "Howdy."
Clop, clop, clop. It could only be Sebastien. A figure arrives in full plate mail, jet thrusters poking over his shoulders like a pair of stubby wings. His armor is a dull grey, once tinged with burnished bronze and showing several obvious signs of repair. Under him is a similarly armored horse, her shoulders and flanks covered in overlapping steel plate with a mail skirt protecting her legs. The steed's shaggy head has a ridge of armor steel down her snout, and from her forehead protrudes a silver spike. Eighteen proud inches, and polished to a twisted mirrored spire to end in a sharp point. A sword hangs at his side in a broad, ugly-looking scabbard, and across his saddle is a rather large-looking rifle with a bore as big as the gaping maw of Hell itself. "Morning," he greets cheerfully, rolling his shoulders. "So. Who packed lunch?"
As everybody begins arriving, Celaeno greets them one by one with a wave, the smoke from her cigar practically a signal for pickup. "This is Bart, he'll be throwing his weight in for some added support. He'll be bringing a fair amount of the punch himself. And if you didn't bring something to tide you over as we go, well, I highly suggest you go and get it now - it's going to be a hell of a long day or two." She sighs, "Hopefully we won't be overnighting anywhere, but I'm sure some fortunate farmer would be more than willing to put us up, if it came to it. And it may not be sandwiches, but it'll have to do," she says, handing Sebastien a bag containing three firegloves, and a map. "Since you and Vadania here are crawling, we'll follow you guys out. Everybody stick together - even if I go a little ways on ahead from time to time." Her cigar is spat out, her helmet is pulled on, and she mounts her vehicle. "Any questions can be asked on the road." And she's kickstarted, and moving.
Erica shakes her head showing she has no questions and she prepares herself to make way. She starts powering up her jetpack and fires it up as the group starts heading out. She swings her helmet around as she flies trying to spot any potential threat to the group as she makes her way.
Vadania glances around at all the tech and just sighs. A soft phrase is muttered under her breath as she glances over to Seb's. "I take it you are breaking the trail? Or is it that I will be ranging back and forth a bit to scout some on the grounds?"
Sebastien reaches for the map and globes, eyeing those little explosive bits and then glancing at his plasma grenades. They're better, but ... He reaches to pass the globes back towards Vadania. "I assume these will not offend your delicate sensibilities?" he asks with a wink, and he looks north with narrowed eyes. "We can follow the road a good ways, but west ... I'll clear it. Sara will not break an ankle if she steps in the wrong place." He peers back at Celaeno with a smirk, though he doesn't go running for sandwiches. He must have packed something in his saddlebags besides ammo. Heeling the horse into a ground-eating trot, the young man leans back and eyes the sky. A couple miles at a trot, then a couple miles at a walk. A pace a normal horse could keep up with on the long haul.
Bartholemew gives everyone a quick nod then saddles up himself "What frequency we usin for chat?." he asks just before firing up the engines of his cammo painted skycycle where he falls in line behind Cel awaiting the word to move out. When Cel heads out he follows keeping on her wing as they go unless ordered to hang back.
Celaeno says, "Channel four for those who've got 'em. Otherwise, you'll have to flag us over," and takes to the skies as she moves, alternately shooting ahead and circling back around to stay near Sebastien as he moves - always keeping him within vision. "So, horses, hmm? How's the ride on one of them? The jolting's got to get to you after a while."
Erica keeps a little altitude as she keeps scouting around as best she can while keeping up with the group. She uses the multi optics and split screen functions of her armor to keep a good idea of the surronding area. While they travel she uses the time to make sure she is familiar with the IR scope the Sebastien lent her.
Bartholemew follows orders keeping along with Cel and the others. He keeps alert on his sensors to be sure of no surprises. every now and then when Cel circles back he waits in hover using his binoculars to visually scout ahead.
Vadania blinks as she's handed the fire globes. Then after inspecting them nods slightly. "Magics I can use. Tech the spirits get a bit erked about." She tucks them away and nods towards Sebastien. "Lead onwards then. We're the slow pokes here."
"Just like riding a woman," Sebastien replies with a grin that can be heard through the radio. "I can do it all day." Sara bucks a little beneath him, and Sebastien's voice says, "Now now ma charie, I didn't mean that --" and his radio cuts out, as he sweet talks the horse. Miles and miles go by. It feels like days, but they're just hours. Lord knows how Bart feels on a skycycle, drifting along at the speed of smell. At first the going is easy, the road below partially cleared by traders and refugees. Then as they head off road, things get dicy. The forest closes around them, a blue wall in the distance the reminder that when they arrive, magic will be afoot. Nothing's quite the same near a ley line, which Sebastien carefully parallels without crossing. Odd trees and plants grow, eyes watching from the thick part of the wood. Though as another tall blue wall can be seen on the horizon, they know they must be getting close.
Celaeno's feeling a bit more talkative on this trip, idly making conversation throughout, though as blue glow becomes increasingly luminous and permeating, conversation becomes sparse. "Everybody remember your roles," she crackles from just over the treetops, hovering a several meters behind Seb, leaning away from Vadania. "Bart, on me and ready - stay in the air. Erica, stick to Vadania." Eventually, she begins dipping below the treetops to keep a more reasonable eyeline.
As the group gets closer to where the target might be Erica drops altitude and moves closer to Vadania. She unslings her Wilks laser rifle and starts scanning around for movement. She uses the IR scope that is on the rifle to start looking around in case the creature is already invisible.
Bartholemew, flying along on Cel's wing, "Aye doll. On you." dipping into the tree tops with her, keeping his eyes and scanners peeled for trouble.
Vadania scans the blue wall and sighs in relief. "We're getting closer. A good, good thing." She unlimbers her bow and sets about warming it to avoid the risk of splitting it as she strings it.
"...and so I said to her, tails welcome. It's like a party in your pants!" The young man laughs, and Sebastien glances across at Vadania. "Getting sore?" He smirks, and winces at an irregular hoofstep. That snow below is looking awfully tempting. If only he could fashion some sort of rudimentary cold pack that wouldn't give him a terminal case of soggy underwear. He pulls a small tube from his belt, a metal affair eight inches long with knobs and dials spread here and there. Some would call it a lightsaber. None of you heathens though. The movie's been ancient history for half a millennium.
The party breaks through to the celaring. A man sits in the clearing, garbed in what looks to be ancient armor and wielding two long modern katanas. The armor consists of several metal and leather pad tied together tightly and meticulously. Their fashion looks to over some freedom of movement while still offering decent protection from blades and most arrows. A spear or arrow at any juncture though would surely penetrate (-5 to strike). At his hip looks to be a modern billie club.
"Salut," Sebastien greets, walking into the clearing as Sara clinks below. His head swings left, and swings right, his armor catching the scant sunrays that pass through the surrounding wood to dapple the clearing below. He eyes the man below with those swords, and keeps a healthy distance. "My friends and I are looking for someone. Big, scaly, ugly, likes to eat people. You don't suppose you have seen anyone like that, have you?"
Celaeno watches Seb approach the ... Japanese man, crackling over the radio and shaking her head, "This is probably our guy," she's chuckling, if only for the moment. "Erica and Vad, stay back and move right. Bart, keep on me, your call if you want to stay with your 'cycle. Remember, watch the friendly fire." For her own motion, she moves left, closing to a bit over a hundred feet, fixing her eyes on the Japanese man as she crackles back to Seb, "Hey, Sebastien? Tell her you're our strongest warrior and are here for a duel. Mention something about honour. Could be worth a few giggles." She sets down, adjusting a small knapsack at her side and freeing up her rifle, idly.
Bartholemew shifts his bike to the side a bit so as to be able to get a good lock on the suspicious samurai with his missles and not be too bunched up with the others to be engulfed in a massive attack or threaten others with collateral damage from an attack on him. He remains hovering on the outskirts of the clearing keeping alert to what is going on keeping the warrior covered so to speak. "I got ya covered doll, don't you worry your pretty little head, this guy is in my sights." he radios.
Erica switches her laser rifle over to pulse mode as she gets up in front of Vadania, trying to keep herself inbetween Vadania and her mount and the Japanese man. She starts moving right careful to keep herself inbetween, but not blocking Vadania's line of fire. She keeps the butt of her laser rifle to her shoulder, but she doesn't raise the barrel to aim, yet. She doesn't say anything over the radio and instead just obeys her orders silently.
Vadania take sher cues from Erica suddenly trying to urge her to the side and knees LF to turn and move that direction. Her bow strung now and an arrow readied as she glances towards the man? Seb's was greeting.
The man shakes his head, rising to face the mounted knight. "No I have not known anyone like that for a very long time. See most of my kind despise the flavor and particulars of human flesh. So many bones, not enough meat. Size is of course relative, what you consider big and what I consider big are vastly different. And most all of our race are considered very elegant. Many of us are worshiped as gods." He opines, taking a single step towards the group.
Sebastien raises a gauntleted left hand, empty, to palm a universal 'stop.' "Easy there. There trouble is; your kind are shapeshifters. And, I understand, territorial. You could well be the dragon we're after. You understand the dilemma?" That helmet tilts to the right, three different lenses adjusting silently as he stares at the ancient-garbed man. "The point is, the one we seek is distinguished by a rather singular trait amongst dragons. I suggest you do not. Unglove you hand and stick it out for me. I will shoot it with silver shot. If you are unharmed, then we will pass on with an apology and remove the menace that would, otherwise, send less understanding groups like us after your head." The young knight reaches to his belt and puts away that tube, then begins unslinging his shotgun. "My friends will know if you do magic. I recommend you do not. Else we will have a misunderstading."
As the conversation apparently continues, Celaeno starts losing patience, "This going anywhere, Seb, or should we just go ahead and light the bastard up, hmm?" If only she could have heard what the dragon said, things would have progressed to the barely discriminant violence by now. "After all, we're in the right place."
Bartholemew hovers keeping his sights locked on the Samurai, just waiting to light him up on command from Cel. He patiently await his order with the discipline of a good soldier.
Erica raises her rifle barrel up to start taking aim as the man steps forward. She continues walking a little to the right to flank him but most of her focus is on taking careful aim with her energy rifle. She readies herself to shoot if the man proves to be hostile to Sebastien's suggestion.
Vadania tsks softly as she continues to get edged farther along. The arrow still resting on the string as she waits. LF seems to be taking her cues from her rider at the moment as Vada stays calm despite hearing parts of the conversation.
The man shakes his head again briefly. "Let you have an additional shot at me for free? I think not. Not that your specs of silver sand will do much, or that you even have enough to concern me. But I expected the shadowy one to send a group capable of a good honest fight that would be at least worth the effort, and the descrepency of allowing him to leave." He levels his sword at the ready and his body tenses. "So let us begin."
Sebastien's fingers slip free of the shotgun as he hears the dragon's words, reaching to his belt to draw out the tube on one side and a chainsword on the other. The tube spews a flash of light, a burning flare of barely contained laser energy, and the sword whines briefly before roaring into a twisting blur of sharp teeth. Sebastion yells, "NOW!" as Sara's eyes flare, a snap of white between horse and samurai moments before her armored bulk bears down on him, Sebastien's swords falling to do their dirty deed.
Bartholemew opens fire with a double burst of his laser turret on the samurai. He has had this guy in his sights since they first laid eyes on the strange dude, he's just been waiting for the command that has now come.
At the rising sword and Sebastien's subsequent response, Celaeno's rifle snaps up, adding a somewhat redundant, "Light it up," over the radio. Two quick pulses accompanied by her rifle's signature Crack! are sent downrange, her eyes watching for any further speaking that might indicate the casting of a spell.
Never quite seeing what the indivitual shots are doing to the man/woman/dragon/whatever it is, Vadania draws back on the readied arrow and tries to put it to good use against the thing. Hmm, sucks being one of hte few not dressed up in armor to play. RAther loud.
Erica finishes aiming as everyone starts reacting and attacking the dragon in the form of a man. She squeezes the trigger letting off an aimed laser pulse from her laser rifle at the target. The silent pulse is contrasted by the noise that Sebastien and Cel are making.
The dragon skillfully parries the blow from the chainsword, bringing his swords about for a blow of his own immediately. The fire from the others cuts through his armor like it wasn't there. Clearly it is truly traditional garb. Though for all the firepower, her barely seems to flinch.
The young Sebastien curses as he's so easily cast aside, his new his new laser sword flying from his gauntleted hand to wink out and land in the snow. A resounding 'CLANG!' echoes as the dragon lands its first shot, forcing Sara to actually takes a step back. Two beams of light snap between the pair, flashbulbing in the confined space as Sara turns the air into so many disjoined motes of dust, causing any hair not bound up in helmets to stand neatly on end. Sebastien reaches with his bare hand, and the tube twitches once, then flicks through the air back into that gauntlet to flare to new life, and his swords play a drummer's staccato as he re-engages.
Happy to simply sit and let the situation develop more while she works from the fringes. Crack! goes one shot, Crack! goes another. "Keep it coming, everybody," she grunts through clenched teeth, taking a slow step forward.
Bartholemew fires another duo of dual bursts from his laser turret while maneuvering upwards to fire from overhead to minimize friendly casualties.
Sliding her leg around and over, Celaeno dismounts as she moves, shouldering her rifle once more as she calls, "Keep it coming, everybody," her rifle resounding with another sharp Crack!
Erica fires another pulse shot from her energy rifle this time not taking the time to carefully aim. She keeps her flanking position as she watches with some amazement at the array of weaponry being made to bare on the dragon in the form of a man.
The dragon flails, starting to lose against Sebastien's deceptive mastery of tech and starting to feel the bombardment of the others. "My, you people certainly are making a good show. I should stop holding back for you." He drops his swords, giving a brief pause before making a gesture and chant to cast a spell.
Sebastien's a blank slate. The trouble with wearing a helmet. Those three cool eyes arranged in a cluster on the helmet's face glint green and red as they catch the light. His swordsmanship is perfect -- perhaps a little too much so. It's like he knows where the dragon's blades will be before the dragon does, ducking and slipping aside with grace seldom seen. It's as if he and horse have fused into some centaur-like dervish of utter annihilation. Slow, sweeping chainsword strokes that fall under the dragon's guard, and that slippery laser sword that flares through the vibroblades lifted to stop it and burns broad swaths across the dragon's chest. Sebastien heels Sara to leap over those fallen blades, going berserk to try and disrupt that dragon's spell.
Bartholemew fires another barrage of laser fire from above on the dragon or wanna be man, able to see the whole show with a birds eye view.
Celaeno scowls vaguely at the air as the creature seems to shift gears, planting her feet firmly as she sends two shots downrange at the dragon - who appears to finally be taking things a little more seriously.
Vadania draws her arrow and hits the dragon, yay!
Erica blinks as she hears the dragon start casting a spell. Not knowing what he is casting she decides to continue doing what she is doing and squeezes off two laser pulses at the Dragon.
Well the armor the dragon summoned blocked most of the knights attack at least. Shaking his head he mutter something in a foreign language as he punches at Sebastien with both hands before chanting again with another gesture.
Both miss though, and then the dragon is simply gone.
Sebastien blows through the hole in the air where the dragon once stood, he and Sara circling before coming up short in the snow. "Someone shut off those swords," he calls, looking down into the snow, and laughs. "We neutronized it. You know what that means? A complete particle reversal." He sounds happy about it.
Though, some seconds later, he blinks. "Wait. There is something ..." His head snaps around, and Sara begins to circle again. His head ducks, his breath going slowly from his body, as if concentrating fiercely on his navel.
Celaeno scowls, flipping her helmet to infrared as she glares around, seeing nothing. "You wish," she begins before launching into a series of orders, "Everybody keep on the alert, form into groups and get ready for anything." Beginning her walk to approach Sebastien, "Vadania, Erica move in a little, but get ready to jump back out, or scatter. This thing might be coming back giant." Warily making her her way over she picks up the swords as she shoulders her rifle, backing away slowly from where it disappeared, "This isn't..." she begins, before giving a final, "Shit, everybody hot!"
Bartholemew urgently looks to his sensors to try and pick up the dragon that has chosen to vanish, blinking to who knows where. Scanning all spectrums of his equipment. Perhaps he can pick it up for a long range shot with his missles.
Erica blinks at the disappearence of the man. Frowning inside her suit she raises the rifle up and uses the rifle scope to start scanning the area looking for any heat sources other then her companions. She walks in a little bit towards where Sebastien is, closing the distance by a little bit as she keeps scanning the area.
No longer than 75 seconds later the dragon is back in full towering glory 28 feet high. It looks refeshed and quicker some how.
Vadania draws another arrow, sending it flying quick and true. Tarnishing one of the lovely scales of the long snakey dragon. A very annoyed long snakey dragon that rakes its claws down in full furry at Sebastien.
Celaeno cringes back as the dragon suddenly rears its giant, ugly head, "Fuck!" she yells, practically pulling away before steeling her resolve, moving in to try out her brand new swords - bringing them around to bite into its flank.
Sebastien stares up. And up. And up. This is what a cat looks like to a mouse. His mouth gapes open, and he utters, "You know, I think there's been some sort of misunderstanding. You aren't the drago--" and then his sword comes up, one claw raking his armor. Another pair fall on him, sending the knight flying from his mount to land in the snow below. The world swims around him as the young man twitches for a second, his horse defiantly rearing up to plunge her horn up at the dragon to try and push it back, getting between it and Sebastien. The young knight, for his part, gets up without the laser blade, a blade of pure white light springing to light in its place. "That wasn't very nice," he utters.
Bartholemew hesitates in firing as the huge form of the dragon is sighted. The shock of being in such a creatures presence is a bit overwhelming for him at first.
Erica crys out in horror as the giant dragon appears. She ducks down and cringes for a moment as she watches it attack Sebastien without being able to initally support him. She trembles slightly within her armor before she is able to come back to her senses.
Vadania draws another arrow with nerves of steel from her position and releases to take a little more out of the Dragon. The Dragon is still very annoyed with the knight, pursing him despite the efforts of his elegant steed. The claws come down to rake at him again. perhaps for the last time.
As Celaeno hefts the two swords - they have quite a nice weighting to them, really... and she starts going to work on its flank, both rising and coming down to bite into the monster, flashing in glorious arcs at it, again and again.
And Sebastien's dodging! Hoo boy! Run, Sebastien, run! He rolls one way, and runs another, going in little circles like a man possessed! As he goes, he's keying buttons on his chest, initiating pre-launch as his jet pack coughs snow and whines to life.
Bartholemew finally regains his discipline and raining down a barrage of laser fire from the turret of his skycycle down upon the huge lizard facing off with the knight and Celaeno.
Erica manages to compose herself and raises her rifle up to her shoulder to fire off a pulse of lasers at the long dragon. She bites down and gnaws on her lower lip inside the armor as she takes her shot. After the pulse she turns her head to make sure Vadania is still doing ok.
Vadania seems to have fallen into a rhythm here draw, fire.. Run florist, run.. Draw.. fire. She is trying to work on getting the dragon to need a new tailor. She's creased another scale.
The dragon is perhaps too focussed on the knight to bother with the others as they continue to bombard his hide. Though his hide is taking much less of a beating with the tables turned on the knight. Though when one of 'his' swords is broken against his hide her turns on Cel, claws lashing out to knowck the other from her careless grasp, and then lashing at her.
When one of the swords suddenly stops working, Celaeno begins muttering, "Winona would never have let me down," though that doesn't seem to prevent her from using it to parry the dragon's incoming blows. As soon as is feasible, however, she quickly drops it, drawing a working vibrosword as she moves to get out from in front of it. Once it's free, both swords come whipping around again, to bite into its side.
Up up and away! Sebastien clicks his heels, straightens his back, and waits for his ruby slippers to take him home. The jet pack belches a cough of flame, and then the electrically-driven fire focuses behind him. The snow around the young knight explodes as he jets into the air, and he quickly circles to reach up and yank a grenade off his vambrace. From a little over a hundred feet up he chucks it down, at the dragon's backside, well away from Celaeno's hand to hand endeavor. Meanwhile, Sara's eyes flashbulb in two more snaps of bottled lightning into the creature before her.
Bartholemew showers the dragon with another blaze of laser fire. Shot after shot doing his best to wear down the beast for those slicing him to pieces up close and to lay cover for the knight going to the air.
Erica walks around slowly, trying to circle behind the dragon so she can get a clearer line of sight on the large creature. She fires two quick pulses at the dragon using her energy rifle trying to wear the creature down.
Vadania continues her circling slowly as she draws and fires again. She hasn't quite forgotten about the globes she has stashed. But does remember the splash damage they did in the Dregs.
The Knight now removed for the moment the dragon can truly focus on Celaeno, another swipe to disarm followed by a pair intended to maim and or dismember.
Sebastien rapidly turns into a bomber. The jetpack is idling, pushing him over the frozen fight at a couple miles an hour, as he slowly gains altitude. He drops his chainsword to fall, idling, into the snow below while pulling free a pair of grenades and more dropping than throwing them at the dragon. Then another pair of grenades in the same direction, tumbling before he gropes for his controls to scoot around for another pass. Below, Sara has stopped and is zapping merrily away!
Vadania continues her circling slowly as she draws and fires again. She hasn't quite forgotten about the globes she has stashed. But does remember the splash damage they did in the Dregs. She does seems to be doing quite well with just the bow and arrows though.
With the dragon's onslaught continuing, Cel keeps up her parrying, missing one of the claws as it gashes heavily into her armour - a grunt is heard over the radio as it so does. Suddenly stopping in her motions, she pulls shifts her weight to bring her swords flashing into a double-fisted downward arc before sliding to her right, bringing them up and across in a large X.
With Bart's laser turrets offline he fires a missle towards the creature, aiming for the end not occupied by friendlys.
Erica keeps moving trying to get behind the Dragon in order to better flank it. She doesn't see a root as she moves and trips over it. It takes her a moment to regain her footing.
For the second time today the dragon is starting to look somewhat haggard. This time Celaeno is suffering the personal insanity of taking it head on, and endeavor that has broken two swords so far and rouched up her armor a bit. Above Sebastien and Bart bombard the dragon from affair, Sebastien the previous member to try his hand at the dragon is worse for where with his armor in clear tatters. Aside are Erica and Vadania, unscathed save for their reduced ammo stores.
Perhaps too wrapped in the heat of battle to notice the damage it has thus far sustained that dragon continues to attack Celaeno. Though seeing as she's broken more swords than it has disarmed it has dropped that tactic for full on clawed furry.
Sebastien is down and out. Or is he? Nay, he's up and in! A sharp whistle carries across the battlefield, from above, and with a small explosion of sound that figure darts four hundred feet across the sky to flip once in the air, legs over his head even as Sara trots along to catch up beneath. His legs down, the jets reengage, and Sebastien falls into a spray of snow that raises a white cloud around he and his horse. A flash of white appears from inside, and Sara's head ducks as he begins her charge back into the fray with the leather straps that held her deadly bundle above her saddlehorn dangling loose and severed. Sebastien appears above that cloud, a bulky shotgun cradled in his arms with a heavy satchel dangling from his neck.
Vadania finally recalls that she was handed the globes. Drawing one from the container she looks it over and then eyes the dragon. Hopefully it can do more damage than the arrows she's been redecorating scales with. She winds up and throws the thing praying she didn't have to yank some pin before hand.
The dragon's onslaught of claw is met with the flash of steel, whirling in a desperate attempt to stave off being filleted - no difference being made between defective and working blade. Ducking and moving her own body considerably more than she is managing to deflect the tremendously powerful swipes, she misses one of the blows, spinning around - barely keeping her footing as she slides back a few feet, her swords barely keeping pace. Celaeno's almost-useless sword drops to the ground as her hand dips into the knapsack at her hip, bringing out a bright red and yellow globe, throwing it quickly and without fanfare as Sebastien zips around. Once her missile is launched, the hand flashes down just as quickly to secure the last sword that she has in her possession.
Bartholemew launches a volley of 5 missles into the ass end of the dragon. hopefully no friendlies will get tagged as his impatience for this creature gets the best of him.
Erica manages to regain her footing after almost tripping over a tree root. She quickly moves back to a firing position and moves her rifle up to her shoulder and fires off a quick laser pulse at the dragon. She trys to hit the area damaged by the exploding fire globes.
The extremely pissed off Dragon is now and extremely pissed off dragon thats on fire! Though it reacts to this a little bit differently than what you all might expect. It reaches its claws back to dip them in the flame quickly before swiping the now flaming claws at Cel again.
So much for his glorious takeoff. Roostertails of snow rise to either side of Sebastien as he skims the earth horizontally, a wild ragged cry heard first as snow explodes around the drift he plows through, then on the radio in everyone's ears. "WHICH WAY IS UP?!" he yells, spinning, and finally the young man pulls a near-right-angle ascension, trailing snow. "You crazy son of a!" Sebastien guns the engine as rockets swish past to his right, and as the concussion buffets his jets, the young knight turns to a distinct hammering sound as ten 12-gauge shells hurtle through the air, white cups opening into four-leaf flowers to loose nine silver pellets each as nearly a hundred .32-cal projectiles rain down on the dragon from above.
Below, the crazed horse charges in with reckless abandon, head down, silver spike thrown back at the last second to plunge up into the creature's scaled belly.
Vadania hmms as she never was a good ball player. This time she draws out another of hte globes and shifts a little preparing to throw it properly this time. No huge rush, it's only tearing into the two that said they were going toe-to-toe with the beast. Her lips twitching slightly at the effect that the tech is having for the rest of the group. Yeah, she'll stick to her 'primative' things.
Catching a good chunk of the explosion, Celaeno manages to duck away and down with the explosion - still taking an unfortunate brunt. "No more rockets," she growls over the radio as the dragon's claws scoop the quickly dissipating fire into her while she's still recovering from the concussion - the jarring collision ripping out a giant chunk of the front of her suit to reveal an odd body-suit underneath before her swords begin spring into action, both swords raking at the beast before... well, before she begins moving to put as much space between the two as possible.
Bartholemew radios to Sebastian's comment, "It's where the blue is!" chuckling as he manuvers to land at the outskirts of the clearing on order of Cel. As he lands he slides down from the saddle unshouldering his C12, using the Skycycle as cover.
Erica smiles inside her armor as she thinks that the tables are finally turning on the dragon. She keeps her rifle to her shoulder and fires two more laser pulses. She trys to keep hitting the same spot she hit previously hoping to overwelm the armored scales of the dragon with her laser pulses.
Things are not going well for the party, with its second supposed heavy hitter running for cover. Things arent going great for the dragon either though, its on fire, and looks pretty beat up. Buts what that in the sky? Someone comong late on a hovercycle?
Vadania blinks as the globe things seem to be working well. She shakes her head slightly as she ignores the new fly-in and lobs another of the globes towards the back of the dragon. One left to throw and she's back to plinking away again.
Its last plaything not wanting any more the dragon considers who else is pestering it with itchy beams of light, foul magic or grains of silver sand. Turning to Erica it makes its decision, charging to lash out with flaming claws.
Erica squeaks loudly as the dragon rushes across to her and attacks her. She uses her jetpack to blast straight up and out of the dragon's range after her armor gives her warning signs of the large amount of damage she took.
Sara will keep it busy! That silver-wrapped mare gleams in the ghostly of the shrouded sun, shaking her head and tossing that horn up again into the great wyrm above. Sebastien, overhead, reaches down to slap the controls, stabilizing his flight, and the young knight's a stationary target up there seventy meters up. Drifting gently to the right, held steady by a small Wilk's brand gyroscope, thrusters burning as he jams down the trigger. The afternoon sky rattles like God's knocking on the door, and He wants in bad! Each shot cup a multiple launch vehicle, turning scales the size of dinner plates into so many shattered fragments and shredded meat.
Bartholemew's Skycycle hits the ground with a loud thud as he slides off the bike readying his rifle andfiring a burst from his C12 from behind the cover of his bike. In Dragonese he shouts, "DIE DRAGON, DIE!" unleashing his spray of laser.
Flare arrives on her hovercycle and blinks at the scene. She can see her best efforts going in one direction and she focuses her attention on the flames on the dragon and puts forth psychic energy to fuel those flames and make them burn even hotter.
When the dragon doesn't follow her, Celaeno scowls, pivoting on one foot as her swords plunge into the snow next to Bart's skycycle, fireglobe grabbed and lobbed downrange - just one more match on the impending inferno. "Bart, you're on interference," she says, loudspeakers only - "Anybody gets in obvious trouble, you're their shining knight." T he rifle is then swung around and shouldered in preparation of a series of shots as Flare bursts onto the scene. Hell hath no fury like a burster... near fire.
Vadania starts to back off from the dragon as she draws and looses an arrow. Skirmish fighting anyone? She was doing fine with it before and now that she's globve free it's time to return to the basics.
Another coward fleeing to the skies from the dragon it turns to its fleeing companion, easily over taking her to rain down on her with a clawed slashes.
Erica lets out a sigh of relief as she is hovering a good distance above the clearing. She commands the armor to turn off the warning alarms and brings her energy rifle up to her shoulder and fires another laser pulse down at the dragon trying to draw it's attention away from Vadania at the least.
Click. The drum drops from the bottom of Seb's rifle, smoke rising from the empty chamber and end of the barrel even as the air warbles and lenses hot in the frozen sky. A small streamer of smoke ribbons to the earth trailed by that fallen drum even as he fishes out another. It clicks vertically into place, and Sebastien jacks the first round into place before bringing it around on target to ... "Mon Dieu," he breathes, seeing the great wyrm bearing down on the unarmored Vadania. Throwing the shotgun off into the air, the young knight reaches for his jet pack controls and plunges down towards the earth, stretching an arm out before him superman-style. Looking to sweep Lois Vadania right off her feet!
Bartholemew fires another couple of bursts from his C12 hoping to tear into the lizards flesh and put another wound on the scoreboard.
As the dragon begins having its way with the rest of the group, Celaeno simply shakes her head, a slight sigh escaping her lips as it begins dissembling and routing the rest. Crack! goes the rifle, "Evade and regroup!" she calls over the radio, Sebastien's heroics garnering a grudging admiration. Crack! it goes again, her feet planted firmly.
Wait a second. Those flames are getting bigger, and bigger, and he's flying into an inferno with ... she's still under the dragon. "SARA!" Sebastien yells, "RUN HOME!" And then there's a flash and a mighty crack as millions of volts fuse Sebastien's armor around him. Smoke and flames burst from his armor's seams, the jetpack rocketing right on while he plows through Vadania, quite lifelessly, slamming her on at an ever-accelerating rate up from twenty, thirty, forty miles an hour before her heels hit snow and the conglomerate plows into a snowbank at the tree line. Sebastien's armor sizzles in the snow, the smell of well-cooked meat hanging in the air. The stomach-turning fact is that it actually smells good.
Vadania is far from squishy when she gets smacked by the super-looper man. The arrow she had nocked tumbling away as she gets 'rescued'. Battering-ram rescue tactics, it seems. Not that she's going to be trying to grab another as she's bowled into next week by the humane wrecking ball.
Vadania swooped away by that pesky night the Dragon turns to the parked cycle where its other plaything ran off to. Charging it decides to lash out at her companion.
Erica notices the increasing flames and gnaws on her lower lip for a moment trying to decide what to do. She almost grabs a stun gernade to try to stun the dragon, but watches the dragon go after Bart. Yelling out a loud "Fuck You!" over her armor loud speaker she fires two quick laser pulses at the dragon trying to distract it.
With the dragon divebombing in with a final swipe, the flames practically exploding around it - rending Bart's armour into uselessness - Celaeno quickly grabs him, half-dragging, half tackling him as she moves. The interposition of herself between the now unarmoured man and she collapses on top of him, eyes clenching as she concentrates on her own field.
Who would have guessed that a dragon would meet its end from fire? No ordinary fire no, magical intensely hot fire, amplified by sheer mental will to catastrophic potential. The dragon's sudden wail of indescribable agony almost rivaled the foom as the flames reached their climax the the immediate atmosphere about the dragon ignited into super heated plasma. When the smoke cleared the carcass was undeniably still, smoldering intensely. Quite comparable to a roast fresh from the oven. In the Center of the clearing is a flash and suddenly there is a pile of gold and gems where there was none before.
Vadania sighs as she struggles free of the cannon-baller rescue team and dusts herself off. She glances down at Seb and nudges him in the ribs with a foot. Then nudges him a bit harder with a light kick. "That hurt!"
As the dragon drops to the ground, Celaeno slowly drags herself up, haggard and disinterested in everybody else. She shoulders the rifle, moving slowly to her 'cycle ignoring everybody else. The machine strapped to the back is bodily hoisted onto a shoulder and dead to the world she moves back to the body. A series of gruesome motions and it does its gruesome task, letting it work as she moves to take collect the series of swords left strewn across the field.
Erica lets out a sigh of relief as the dragon is destroyed by the fire. She lands back on the ground and looks around trying to see who might need some help. She walks over to Sebastien and Vadania and trys to help him up if he can move
Bartholemew pick himself up worn from the battle that destroyed his armor, still in a daze from that last shot the dragon gave him. He pulls pieces of battered plastics from him tossing them off to the side as he pulls a winter coat from the cargo compartment of his cycle to put on for warmth.
Poor Sebastien. He's out cold. It's probably for the best, with his armor blackened, half melted around him with holes in it smoking. Inside black flakey bits of char spiderweb over raw red meat. Still, his pulse is strong and his breath sounds unhindered. In the distance, his shotgun and swords rest individually strewn about in the snow.
Vadania waves Erica off as she's fine. "Go get his things." she states as she starts digging in her pouches to start some first-aid on her bowling ball. She doesn't seem all that repentant for kicking him in the ribs.
Celaeno slowly drags the machine back to her 'cycle, strapping it down thoroughly before moving to account for everybody else, looking flatly at the prone Sebastien. "Go take your share once he's stable, Vadania," she says. "Anybody else wants to hack off any trophies, by all means," and then she begins drudging back to the corpse.
Bartholemew moves over to gather his share of the loot, preferring the gold to anything else. He hacks off two claws for simple keepsakes and then looks around at the others to see how they are faring in the aftermath.
Vadania continues to work on Seb as the others divvy up the stuff. She's after bones and maybe some of the scales if she can find any that escaped the cooking for the most part. She doubts she's going to be able to claim the skull for her armor. She glances over to the group. "He'll probably want cash to repair his tech-suit."
