SPACE STATIONS > The Cancer

Remember the Name (trenzalor)

(1/1)

GIR:
It had been a while since Sarah had set foot on the Cancer. Months that had felt like centuries. Perhaps years, even. But surprisingly little had changed in the time she'd been gone. The station was still a haphazard mess, filled with the worst scum this system had to offer, with order kept primarily by practicality and main force.

Jeth had been an interesting experience for Sarah, though the combat she'd experienced on it had not quelled her thirst for the hunt. So it was that she had left Kelly sehala Jeth aboard the Sassy Juice, the android (for a given definition. Nothing about her was andro-, after all), and prowled about for one of the Cancer's many bloodsport arenas. She had, a few decades ago, dabbled, taking part every now and again, though none had really offered her the hunt she really craved. There was no killing in those days, largely because it was bad business to kill off half your best fighters every night when your income was based on betting on who would come out the winner and people paying to watch good action.

It therefore came as a surprise to Sarah to find one such arena not only permitting, but actively encouraging, killing during fights. Killing multiple times during fights, in fact. Between the obvious resurrection technology involved in permitting such a thing in single combat, and the fact that she could finally kill her opponents (though, was it really killing if you couldn't eat them?), it was with great enthusiasm that she signed up, her eagerness tempered only by the fact that it was unlikely she'd find a challenge among her opponents, in her mind. Humans, compared to her, were slow, weak, and generally helpless, and she would likely be started off on the bottom rung unless someone saw potential in her.

Or, of course, unless she... financially encouraged... someone to put her up against someone better. Between paying off the human who set up the fights and showing him just how prepared she was for anything they could throw at her (her tail was at his throat and her hand on his shoulder so fast he had only just processed the fact that she'd moved), she managed to get herself put up against the best of the best. And warned that she'd better make it a good fight, or else.

So it was that Sarah came to be in what looked, felt, and even smelled like a network of seaside caves and tunnels, some underwater, all senses on alert for this hotshot. Some human in power armor, from what she'd learned, so she made sure to be on the alert for smells and sounds associated with human power armor designs.

trenzalor:
While Sarah had been gone, blood sports had exploded in popularity. With the rise of strange new technology from a single inventor. It doesn't take much searching, if Sarah wishes to know, in order to find out that all of it was invested by some human named Tenka. He managed to run away from Cancer and now there was a bounty on his head because the Death Match League (DML) wants him alive so that they can get even more of his technology. So far he'd alluded them however so what they had is what they were stuck with for now. With the explosion of death match came a lot of money and more attention, and that was sure to draw in at least some talent, so if Sarah wanted to fight someone worth fighting this was certainly the place to look. With the tagline "Home of the most brutal warriors in known space," it had to be at least somewhat interesting.

When Sarah first arrives at the arena, the building itself is very strange. Instead of a Colosseum sort of affair, is a large square complex. The inside is very clean and orderly. Obviously built by some kind of nerd. Instead of seats each viewer had a room that the went into. Inside of that room the current match was projected around the viewer(s) with holograms so that they could watch the fights in three dimensions. The main room of the complex itself was also bizarre. It's a large open space with hexagonal plates all over the place, as well as a few more doors and some robotic arms hanging around. Each plate had rails and strange machinery around it. As she's looking at it there's a flash from on of the plates and two fighters seem to materialize out of this air. They hope over the rail and head over threw a door labeled "players." It doesn't look like the usual blood sports arena, that's for sure.

When Sarah searches for how to enter into the death matches, she'd be lead into a room that had a few other potential fighters in it. Some of them don't look like anything special, while others look like they could really do a number on the rest of the people in this room. when it's finally Sarah's turn she's called up to the front desk. From there she's handed a brochure of rules in the arena and out of the arena. The rules for outside of the arena are pretty simple: don't attack staff, don't attack players, don't destroy anything. It also had an outline of the regular procedures, but Sarah doesn't read those. The other side has the rules for the inside of the ring. Or more aptly, rule. There's just one: Don't break the arena, in large red bold letters. Other than that everything is fair game. Magic, psionics, technology, you have free reign of whatever you bring into the arena and whatever comes standard with the map that you're put on.

When Sarah threatens the person at the desk, everyone in the room points various weapons that they have on them right at Sarah. They are all very protective of the arena. However the fight register holds up his arms as if to say that everything is fine. He then turns to Sarah. "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this. You must be desperate for a fight. Fine, fine. I'll set you up with a match. Please, just let me go." When Sarah lets him go he gets on the console and does just that. "Alright, head into the main room. You're fight is a private match so You'll be in single pod eleven."

It doesn't take much searching through the main room to find the right plate. Instead of the larger plates that can hold a lot more people, this is a single person plate. walking into it it looks a little bit cramped but it fits Sarah just fine. After confirming that Sarah is ready the machines around the plate start to light up. Suddenly there's a flash and Sarah's vision is filled with white, even if she closed her eyes. for a moment Sarah is inside of a white void before the world fills in around her. once the world completely fills in Sarah would be able to see what's around her, but she wouldn't be able to move of feel anything, or do anything at all. This only lasts for a couple seconds before an announce plays out from an unknown source. "Match starts in
3...
2...
1...
Begin!"

When the announcer calls out to start the match suddenly there's a blue light and all of Sarah's senses and muscles materialize around her, so she's back to normal. Even though it doesn't seem possible, the area that Sarah is in feels completely real. The rock underneath her feat, the salt in their air, it's perfectly replicated. However there isn't any time to appreciate it and suddenly a voice speak into Sarah's ear as if she wear weapon a communicator. "Well well well, look who's too good for the proper way to fight. You asked for it."

In the distance there's a faint sound occasionally. It's hard to pin down because of the cave system, but it's slowly getting louder. Suddenly and without warning, a massive buzz saw bounces off of one of the walls of the tunnel that Sarah is in and is heading straight for Sarah. The thing is moving fast, as in really fast. it's razor sharp blades spin rapidly as it zooms through the air towards Sarah. It looks like it might even be able to cut through her scales. The sharp blades of the spinning saw look like they'll really hurt if that thing hits. Brutality and efficiency, two staples of Death Match.

Along the floor of the tunnel are five strange objects. They appear to be pills of some kind, with one half being orange and the other being white. At the end of the tunnel that Sarah is facing there also appears to be a weapon floating in the air above some kind of hover pad. It looks like a rifle of some kind. It has a black body and muzzle, but the barrel is a purple glowing tube. However the strangest part is that it has two triggers, one above the other. Also on the ground next to it are two energy cells of some kind. There don't seem to be any more buzz saws flaying towards Sarah, so now it's her turn.

GIR:
As the buzz saw blade flew toward Sarah, she initially ignored it, thinking it useless against her scales and armor. The first hint of pain, measured in microseconds, caused her to reflexively duck while creating a gravity well to redirect the blade, as well as telling her that that was not the case. This human, it seemed, had some decent toys. Sarah quickly analysed the blade by shifting her sight into the magical plane and making note of the magics reflecting the blade. Within milliseconds, two more blades followed along the same path as the original, the idea being to strike back at the source. Both were changed to correct minor flaws in the composition.

Sarah was no stranger to combat. Be it in an arena or on a battlefield, she had well over 300 years of combat experience, and the majority of it had taught her that the weapons issued to or built by her were the only trustworthy ones. The rifle and energy cells were analysed, then converted to magical energy. It would do no good to leave it there, and she could improve on or fix the design at her leasure back on the Sassy Juice. The pills, likewise, were analysed and destroyed out of hand, again out of pragmatism born of experience. She could patch herself up decently if she needed to. No sense relying on random pills, less sense leaving them for the enemy to rely on.

As she continued sensing around, her armor and scales began to take on a near-identical color and visual texture to the surrounding stone, the result of a magic-based technique she had perfected over two centuries that helped hide her not only visually, but on the IR and UV spectrums as well. Sound magic, though not her best discipline, helped complete the stealth tactic, with her magic helping mask her sounds as well. If this human wanted to take her down, it would need to earn that right. Magic was converted into two more blades, sent down two other tunnels, as she moved toward the scent of standing water, her camouflage shifting to keep her hidden as she moved. Sarah's combat experience was mostly on land, but her time on Hesta had made her just as familiar with water, a domain humans, as land mammals, were even worse in. Battles were best fought asymmetrically. If you were in a fair fight, you were already doomed. The more unfair the fight in your favor, the better.

As she retreated, Sarah used magic to create a levitating, mobile gun emplacement. For even bargain-bin power armor, it would be more an annoyance than a threat (more so as its shield was designed to withstand sustained artillery fire and powered by drawing in ambient magic), but that was the point. She would create several such turrets if things went even remotely to plan, intended to cause the clamor in the east to her strike in the west. To further complicate the matter, some of them would be actually dangerous, but look identical to the harmless ones. All warfare was deception. It was a lesson she'd learned when she was owned by rebels. The more deceptions she could maintain, the better. Especially as it would make direct approaches more effective when she got her enemy used to seeing her as a manipulator.

trenzalor:
It would almost be hard to feel the buzz saw as it cut into Sarah's scales because of just how sharp it is, cutting smoothly through unprotected flesh. When the blade is redirected it bounces off of the nearby walls a couple of times before it bounces back towards Sarah's back a second time. If it misses again it bounces around once of twice before its momentum finally dies and it clatters to the ground.  The blade is atomically flawless and chemically treated for maximum sharpness. The only magic in the blade is an enchantment that causes the blade to bounce around like it does. As Sarah is analyzing the blade, the bouncing sound returns, but this time much more frequently. Suddenly four more buzz saws come bouncing around the corner from the same direction, all bouncing chaotically around Sarah trying to rip her into a million pieces. Each of them makes two or three passes at Sarah before they finally stop bouncing around. Getting out of there without a scratch would be impossible, but depending on how good Sarah is at dodging ricocheting projectiles she might have come out of it with a few deep wounds. If that is the case, Sarah would find that she doesn't bleed from her wounds. The two blades that Sarah sent out bounce through the tunnels but don't seem to impact anything.

When Sarah tries to analyze the rifle she would find that this is way beyond her, without a doubt. This is some kind of fringe plasma weaponry. It would take an owner's manual and a professional a week to try and comprehend just one piece of the technology. The energy cells seem to power the rifle and have a few shots each. The pills aren't any kind of medical pill that Sarah would know of. They don't have the makeup for that. The seem to be some kind of energy pill but their purpose isn't clear just by looking at them.

The two saw blades that Sarah send down the hallways bounce around but again they don't seem to impact into anything. Suddenly Sarah would hear Sarah's voice inside of her head, but it doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere. "If you don't come out of there soon I'm coming in for ya. This is mah house." The signal cuts out before Sarah can respond. As Sarah starts moving through the tunnels towards the water she quickly comes across a turn and around the turn is an artificial river through the middle of a compound with a second floor with connecting walkways overhead. There's also a glass ceiling and natural sunlight is shining through. There's a blue sky overhead with a couple clouds visible through the window. There's a faint mechanical sounds that's quickly becoming louder. Suddenly Kan leaps through the air between the walkways with a rocket launcher equipped. She lets go of the trigger as soon as the tunnel exit is in sight  and releases a volley of six missiles towards the tunnel exit just as Sarah is walking through it. "Peekaboo." While the missiles are in mid flight Kan lands on the walkway next to the one she jumped off of and starts running to another part of the map. She's moving fast thanks to her power armor.

GIR:
In the time it took the blade to hit the first wall, Sarah had already noted the enchantment on the blade. It was unique, but similar to ones she'd seen before, and the blade redirecting back to her confirmed it. Before the blade could cover the distance, she converted it into magical energy and dispersed it, making a mental note to disperse any others that came her way. Her chance came as more blades came out of the tunnel, vanishing before they could impact as Sarah simply converted and dispersed them, then created more and sent them along return trajectories just like the first. <Too many blades to dodge, huh? You're good, human.>. The lie was told telepathically, for Kan and Kan alone. She didn't need to know where the human was to talk to her, nor did she need any communicator. A few flashes of her tail blade created what Sarah hoped would be convincing injuries, all easy for her to heal.

Plasma weaponry was old hat for Sarah, and analysing machines of any type, including weapons, was second nature to her. She had worked on weapons both as a mechanic and as a slave, and unique designs simply added to her repertoire of technologies, and had over a century of combined experience figuring out what things did by literally and mentally taking them apart, using her magical senses to virtually take things apart that she wasn't physically permitted or able to. Even as Kan briefly revealed herself, Sarah made notes on the design of her armor. It wasn't perfect, as, unlike the weapon, Kan wasn't stationary, but, given time, Sarah would be able to analyse enough of it to disable it. Assuming she even wanted to. Sarah was acutely aware that a human without power armor was no match for her, and had no intention of creating that situation. Call it pride or thrill of the hunt, the result was the same: Information gleaned on the armor would be filed away for use in her future projects, but the human would keep that particular advantage.

The missiles were dealt with by creating more blades, these immediately in their path, and to all sides just to be safe. Rather than follow Kan, however, Sarah simply went back into the tunnel. If the human didn't want to come after her, Sarah knew it had to be for a reason. Going out of the tunnels, therefore, was to follow the enemy to her own ground. Better instead to make the enemy come for her and prepare a fitting ambush. To that end, Sarah created several more turrets, these with stronger shields than the first. Six of them had the same weapon. The seventh had an identical-seeming weapon that fired identical rounds at significant percentages of light speed. Even the sturdiest armors would be hard put to survive sustained fire from such a weapon. As soon as they were created, the turrets began to seek out Kan, starting with her last-known position, and each utilising a digital copy of Sarah's brain as the operating system, with all the intelligence that entailed. With the drones released, Sarah focused on setting up traps within the tunnels, as well as scouting them for useful ambush spots, her wounds closing as she did. <You won't.>, she taunted, a delayed response to the enemy's earlier taunt. <You're only guessing where I am. You know you can't win in direct confrontation, so you strike from a distance and hide. Your weapons have done a lot of damage, for sure, but I've found a new spot.>, she continued. Keep the enemy talking and taunting. Let her think she had Sarah cornered. Then strike when the enemy slipped up.

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