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Author Topic: Their Neck of the Woods. (Marakai)  (Read 701 times)

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Offline Wrathwyrm

Their Neck of the Woods. (Marakai)
« on: July 23, 2017, 06:34:49 pm »
Out on the fringe of known space, neither within the solar system nor outside of the area entirely, It stands...   It dwells in the company of asteroids, and is not dwarfed by them.  It is not a thing of nature.  It is the Nemesis.  A massive device, a machine of human design and incredible engineering: It was a ship, a base, a mining machine, a home - whatever you needed it for, there it would be.  Well...once it's completed.  The Nemesis is the sum total of all their technological power put towards a mighty creation, but it needs resources to complete it.  What began originally as the construction of a Dyson Sphere around a huge plasma-based reactor - heavily armored and heat-shielded to prevent tampering - soon transformed into the ultimate project for the Black Talon.

Who are the Black Talon?  They are the descended people from a group of colonists and terraformers who had learned en route to the beginning of their journey - departure from the solar system - that their higher-ups and financial backers had composed this trip in an ill-conceived manner.  Their ship was not superfast, which was necessary to reach a new star, nor was there stasis to keep them all alive and still young for when they maybe got there.  Ha ha ha...NO.  Those in charge had left the people best-qualified to comment on such an oversight out of the loop until the last second.  The result: A complete mess.  They had a ship which could easily last for generations, but the only solution the command staff had was for them to breed like rapids and live only on recycled food for the next several generations.

You can imagine, then, the rebellion that occurred afterwards, where the NEW leaders decided to break out all of the ship's gear, every bit of equipment used to support and alter life, and use it. They had all that they needed to change the ship and even themselves on the genetic level, all while feeding themselves, developing newer technology to work with, and so on.  Why?  The Long Game.  It was a plan conceived of perseverence.  They would be altered genetically, so as to increase physical and mental capability, and then pass their genes onto the next generation, and so on...until they became a people who needed less terraforming and were simply too powerful to be killed off by nature or hazards.  This was the christening of the Black Talon, within the vessel they now dubbed the Black Legion, owing to a singular commitment to a goal throughout the years.

Years have passed, flipping generations!  The Black Legion is a large longboat-style battleship in space, cast in black and gray with the Talon insignia on its back in red against the black of the hull.  A large ship, numerous defensive cannons and missles, tri-barreled main cannon up front - All of this militaristic power and it's still essentially home.  However, it's not the only home, not with the Nemesis project started so many years ago.  The Black Legion lately goes out to gather resources among asteroids.  With many of its labs moved to the Nemesis, its stores are much more free to do that.  The Nemesis itself had engines to move it, guns and missles to defend itself, but a number of its important systems were not complete.  It was developed to support the Black Talon, but it was also made to grind celestial bodies down and extract the raw materials for use.  Those mechanisms were not in operation, nor were the largest cannons, and not all of the ship was filled yet either.  The work must continue, and so therefore must the constant defense of their position against all challengers.

Truth be told, they had very few intruders.  This was an area of space in the system that was far from any planet and not exactly near anyone's regularly-traveled space route.  If they DID, however, come to this area, they could find themselves beset by giant mechs.  Originally developed for mining purposes, the Black Talon excelled in developing large robotic vehicles as a military force.  You could be drifting along in your ship when suddenly....holy crap, there'd be these flying robots that looked like space-age assassins coming out of nowhere, ready to carve you to pieces with energy blades.  Well...such people often need practice, even after training.  Hell, even the experts have to be sure of themselves.  Thus, we come to the crimson death machine currently drifting into an open and rockless spot, with mostly asteroids as reference points.

The term 'death machine' was likely appropriate for the Blood Omen.  It was armed, it was dangerous, and it was most-definitely a machine...and alive.  At this time, his pilot - It identified as a him - was in concentration, and they were moving at great speed, maneuvering to catch them, the little targeting drones which flew at random speeds and directions.  Their problem was thus: They weren't random enough, not for the humanoid battle machine which overtook them with main engines flaring orange and maneuvering engine-wings repositioning it and altering its attack vector at the drop of a hat.  The clawed hand of the thing actually reached out and stabbed the drone.  The Omen's single visor-eye then raked an eye beam across the one that had zigged while the other had zagged, and then fired a pinpoint beam at a third that was further away.  The Blood Omen stopped.

This is a waste of time.  We do not require practice, I especially with my targeting system.

The point is to do it the hard way to prove that even the most instinctive reaction will be the correct one.

My tracking equipment IS by instinct.

Then, you have nothing to worry about with this menial task.

A number of drones had been killed off rather quickly.  They were not built to test the Blood Omen, which was as capable in speed as it was in destruction.

Marakai2.0

  • Guest
Re: Their Neck of the Woods. (Marakai)
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2017, 07:20:06 pm »
Impressive.

The single word echoed softly over the comlink, the voice responsible soft and flat.
But then again, everything you two do usually is.

Above - subjectively, as there was no direction in outer space-  the Blood Omen was a second mech, smaller and thinner yet no less deadly. A single red light glared from a cyclopean skull of biometallic alloy, burning down upon the larger, crimson mech.

They weren't so kind as to leave anything for me. Pity.

You'll survive. Terra, what else is in the regimen?

The spindly black mech pushed off of the asteroid it had been clinging to, and two jets on either shoulder pulsed to life to lower it to the others level.


Offline Wrathwyrm

Re: Their Neck of the Woods. (Marakai)
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2017, 07:45:59 pm »
The cockpit of the Blood Omen was not entirely quiet.  It carried the thrum of machine life combined with the beat of a body in operation.  For the record, the mech did not have a cardio-vascular system in the traditional sense.  No heart, in truth, or lungs.  The machinery supported the living end of things.  The interior was also red, yet metallic.  She sat in the seat, hands on the controls with vein-like wires connected to some parts of her body.  Her flightsuit and helmet were white. Yes, she was aware of who that made her look like.  She found that quite amusing.

She didn't seem all that menacing, though she was perhaps the best-performing pilot in the organization.  The other pilot's comment was not a jealous boast, but a statement of fact.  All the Black Talon agents could be considered good.  Some were a cut above even that.  So, like the man asked, what now?  Knowledge of timing, the use of proper targeting, and the application of great speed had finished this.  She and Ahren, the other pilot, were still technically getting use to these machines.  Terra Laedo had, before they could build her a mech of her own, been given the chance to pilot the Blood Omen after it had eaten its owner.  Scream Cleaver had been built with Ahren in mind, but this was having to test all of her abilities.  The two of them had actually been piloting similar machines up until now, that being the Blade Wraith assassin mechs.

Terra thought, and then turned Blood Omen up to meet the glare of the Scream Cleaver.

"We could fight each other.  Our mechs would suffer no permanent damage if we simply hold off on using maximum output."

Their mechs were biomechanical demons, practically.  That which was hacked off could be re-attached or replaced, thanks to the organic nature of the things.  The two them could enter an earnest fight with one another, and their machines would regenerate and repair the damage.  Th only problem was that their temperments were in question.  They knew that Blood Omen had killed its pilot, after some distaste with his work.  And although Ahren's machine had not exhibited similar tendencies, it was not impossible for it to happen...
« Last Edit: July 23, 2017, 07:47:22 pm by Wrathwyrm »

Marakai2.0

  • Guest
Re: Their Neck of the Woods. (Marakai)
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2017, 03:52:54 am »
Within the cockpit of the Scream Cleaver, the only audible sounds were those of the mechanics of the machine itself, the soft hum of life that was the perfect melding of machine and organic. The screens around Ahren occasionally would flash with motion readouts, sensors picking up the aimless drifting of the rocks around them, glaring against the black helmet the pilot wore.

The thoughts running through Ahren's head were that of the prospect Terra had issued. This would be a chance to see just how well pilot and mech could perform together, how well synched they could be. To actually test the limits of the Scream Cleaver against an intelligent opponent, rather than the mindless calculations of drones.

"....Affirmative." The single word carried confirmation of understanding, and a willingness to proceed. A light inflection could possibly convey a tinge of excitement.

Again the jets on the shoulders flared to life, a low burn to lower the Scream Cleaver from the Blood Omen's level. The clawed feet of the Cleaver then raised forward, and the boosters below exploded to propel the mech backward and away from the other.

After a time, one shoulder jet rotated upward to put the mech in a spin to right itself, and the Scream Cleaver rocketed away. The lower two jets would occasionally flare to life to maneuver over and around the other floating rocks.

After a moment, the mech flipped its legs forward to land solidly on a larger asteroid, ceasing it's movements. Ahren turned man and machine to face the red dot that was the Blood Omen.

"Make us work for it. Ready."


Offline Wrathwyrm

Re: Their Neck of the Woods. (Marakai)
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2017, 10:42:11 am »
Blood Omen remained motionless as the other machine took up its position on the asteroid.  Both pilot and machine had the same thought, just then: What could he be up to?  Ahren favored combat up close. And to be fair, Terra enjoyed closing in on targets for that personal touch, where firing at a dot in the distance was somehow unsatisfying.  Perhaps he knew her too well.  Perhaps anybody in the Black Talon did.  She had made waves throughout her life because she moved at her own speed and defaulted only to others when their tactics made more sense.  She was pushy, in that way, and that translated into her combat: The personal touch, the high-speed maneuvers, the definitive strike...  It was a style that anybody could pick up and read into.  But then, how well?

Ahren had chosen to take the Scream Cleaver to an asteroid, one of the many pieces of rock that'd seen mineral extraction via mechs.  Terra felt that he'd chosen poorly here.  Make him work for it?  She'd make him pay for it.  A smirk - not a hollow expression, but real interest and amusement - formed upon her lips.  Placing yourself on a surface while in space could prove disastrous.  And so far away too...  Could that dot see that - along the body, between shoulder blade and the main engines - Blood Omen was budding missles, grown from its regenerative pseudo-alloys?

"Alright, Omen.  We make him pay."

Omen's eye flashed with anticipation of a real battle and launched several missles.  They flew towards their target, arcing before straightening on their individual vectors.  It was perhaps not obvious until the last few seconds, as they were closing in on the asteroid, that their intended target was not the Scream Cleaver...but around it!  Missles would plow into the rocky asteroid and immediately send up an explosion of plasma, smoke, and flying dust from their impact zones.  Great cover.  Blood Omen had been heating up his engines to charge, and at missle impact, he did.  Heat signatures, the Scream Cleaver could pick up even while blind.  Tactical scanners and proximity alarms would show the movement of an opponent to your area.  These things cannot tell you what you foe is about to DO, though.  For that, you need eyes, and in space you can't hear the sound of the weapon chosen.

The bloody mech's hands expanded and pulled back as the emitters slid forward to replace the hands.  Large reddish-orange energy blades ignited.  Both descended at once in what would inevitably become a Terra Laedo blade-dance, to strike down and then pull to once side as a spin is put upon the vehicle to perform a number of sideways slices in great force and momentum.  Terra was not a dancer herself, but she did like to be in motion.

Marakai2.0

  • Guest
Re: Their Neck of the Woods. (Marakai)
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2017, 12:53:55 pm »
Ahren had originally intended on closing the gap under fire, testing the Scream Cleaver's maneuverability while under fire. However, the missile barrage gave him a much better idea - one that Terra seemed to have latched onto as well.

In that split second before the dust and debris completely clouded his vision, Ahren could see the telltale orange glow of Blood Omens engines igniting, and knew that Terra had decided to close the gap for him.

Ahren reached a single hand forward and switched off the comlink, and spoke only to his mech.

"Scream Cleaver. Ninja. Zero emissions.
Dark side."


Another flipped switch opened four round ports on the mechs back. Four long tentacle-like appendages shot forth, barely disturbing the dust.

In silent understanding, the mech left all engines unfired and, utilizing the clawed ends of its four new limbs, silently and stealthily slipped out of the dust cloud and out of visual range, just as the Blood Omen touched ground and those energy blades went a-swinging.

It took seconds before the Scream Cleaver navigated its way to the other side of the asteroid, subtle vibrations signaling that the other mech continued its deadly dance.

Hidden behind his helmet, Ahren smirked. "Scream and slice, Scream Cleaver. Let's give them hell."

Heh, you're speaking my language, now...

Two of the claws opened and folded backward to reveal broad-range sonic emitters, and slammed forward into the rough surface of the asteroid, and the other two folded back to reveal similar, much narrower emitters.

A short high-pitched whine would signal the charge and blast of a close-ranged sonic boom, shattering the celestial body before them, while simultaneously the boosters at the back and feet of the mech exploded to life to push through the asteroid.

The heat signatures Blood Omen were giving off were obvious, and Terra would see Ahren's in return as he rocketed forward through the destroyed asteroid, one energy blade flaring to brilliant life while two tentacles wielding deadly sonic drills would snake in, invisibly, through the new, much larger cloud of dust towards the legs of the crimson mech, the energy blade swinging towards it's shoulder.

The perfect sneak attack - from below. Ahren's grin was wide. Let the games begin.

Offline Wrathwyrm

Re: Their Neck of the Woods. (Marakai)
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2017, 02:34:18 pm »
Because Ahrem had correctly assessed the nature of Terra's attack, he had been able to duck out of the way of the large and dangerous energy blades.  Part way through the 'dance', Terra realized that her opponent had gone.  There was no solid matter in the immediate vicinity.  She stopped and scanned around.  Ahren had switched the comlink off, but that didn't matter because in times like these, being connected to Omen meant that it was her thoughts that were spoken to the thing, not necessarily her words.

He wants the asteroid to act as cover.  There's no other reason to use it.

I concur.

Will he dig?

It seems likely.

There weren't many applications for an asteroid in a fight.  It was a natural defense for however long you had rock to hide behind, it was cover in the stealthy sense, and it could provide a dustscreen when exploded, bits at a time.  Because there were soon increasing vibrations in the ground where Blood Omen stood, coupled with a heat signature that indicated a hard-working mecha-engine, it would seem that they were right about him digging.  Since they'd had a moment to think about that, though, a plan had formed, which...Scream Cleaver would not like.

Let's be absolutely certain with something here, first.  This was an asteroid, yeah?  It was smaller than the Earth's moon and swinging around no planet, unless you want to count the Nemesis.  The point is that if it has gravitational pull at all, it is even lower than the Moon, practically non-existent for high-velocity, high-acceleration machines.  If Blood Omen had an engine in its posterior, an equivalent fart could've propelled him from the asteroid adequately.  The point is that when Scream Cleaver approached, the ends of Blood Omen's arms were made to look a bit more like its own feet, and the engine ports widened...because they wanted better coverage.

When any bit of Ahren's mech broke the surface, the reaction was plasma engine flames.  Four ports blasting cones of rather unfocused hot plasma, the ONLY fire that can exist in space for any amount of time.  It was like Ahren and his mech had come up underneath a launchpad, right through the launchpad, and then gone "Oh" as ignition happened.  If his tendrils or blades got any of the Blood Omen before it rocketed away from the burning area, it wouldn't be all that much.

 

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