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Barbarians at the gate
Fionna Faraday and Rika sat watch over their unexpected house guest as he floated in one of the regeneration tanks; making sure the infection from his wound was receding. The two young women pondered on his reason for being so far out in the obviously hostile wilderness, as well as commenting on his obvious ‘charms’. In the other parts of Sleipnir, Felix became quite put out by what he thought as his “replacement” taking up his bunk room, and began to empty his gear into the crew-deck hallway. Shalyndra heard the rather loud complaints as she exited a holo-training session and decided to continue her practice at stealth / evasion tactics at Felix’s expense, while Leena crawled around in the maintenance crawlspace above them. Much hilarity ensued until Shalyndra was directed to the second unexpected guest; the same man they had found unconscious on the Naruni Hover Transport after they had dealt with Archie-OZ III.

The robust blonde warrior in the regeneration tank chose to wake up much sooner than expected (perhaps due to the high concentrations of magicite in his body tissues), but it was soon apparent that only Johannes would be able to talk to the individual until Sleipnir would be able to piece together a translation algorithm. The battle mage put aside his cooks’ apron in the galley and wandered to the medical room as Shalyndra along with Felix hauled the shell-shocked and amnesiac James Cormac to an available med scanner. Rika & Shalyndra quickly and efficiently scanned James, then placed him into stasis until they could figure out how he had arrived on their vessel. As this took place, Johannes began to talk with the other visitor in Euro-speech, close enough to the Germanic dialect the native was speaking.

Johannes soon had the ‘tanked’ individual calmed down and able to converse coherently; the planets’ native named himself Deiter Brandt, House of Klaus and remarked he was grateful that the two members of House Shonaii (he mistook Rika as a Kiirn without a tail; revealing that there were non-humans on the planet) had brought him in as he was on deaths’ door. Soon, the language translation program took effect, just as Squire Brandt was decanted from his regeneration tank (causing BOTH Rika and Shalyndra to blush); unfortunately there was not much information forthcoming about the planet Team Alpha was stranded on. Most of what Deiter could tell them was how he had been given orders from his Knight Commander back at House Klaus several days ago (his time) to go into the local mountain range and hunt for anything ‘unusual’. While on this open-ended patrol he had been attacked by the same Displacer Beasts that had eventually ambushed Felix 7 Johannes; his steed slain and himself tossed into a shallow gully. When he had awakened, dazed from blood loss & shock, he had spotted the Sleipnir landing and began the slow painful trek to investigate, eventually passing out in front of Rika & Fionna.

When informed of how the other visitor had been found, Fionna & Rika both politely excused themselves to Deiter and then cursed vilely. It seemed that James Cormac had been brought across the light-years and dimensional veil though ‘mirror-walking’ a power held by only those familiar with the Nightlands. Fionna quickly and succinctly informed the new comers about what this entailed and the possible dangerous repercussions (and let Felix know, any other mirrors brought anywhere near the team would have to be treated), and then suggested everyone awake get settled and relax; maybe get something to eat. This was unanimously seconded by everyone (except James). The peace was not going to last much longer however. The day still had not ended (though the ships’-clock showed it should be around midnight, the sun was still above the horizon) when Shalyndra & Johannes both noticed at their respective windowed locations shooting stars. Deiter reassured everyone that it was normal, and in fact rather a cause for celebration (as long as no forest fires happened) as the chief source of star-metal / elemental iron with natural alloy mixes, came from these frequent meteorite showers. During another discussion of possible trade and mutual assistance, Deiter suggested they first contact a nearby fortress village, a place where one of his cousins worked as a ferrier. Sleipnir was soon made at least airworthy, with Deiter Brandt amazed at the sophistication of the ‘airship’. Requesting a radio to contact the village, he began to speak in rapid fire Germanic, but received no reply. The reason for this became clear as Sleipnir approached the location of the village their native guest had pinpointed; the village was burning. Landing less than a quarter mile from the front gate, Fionna used her fire control powers to extinguish the closest fires. Rika soon took control of the situation and ordered a full ‘warp-hunt’ loadout for the team (as much augmented gear as was available to deal with supernatural predators / daemonic incursion). She managed to (barely) get Deiter to calm down, and handed over one of the spare light force-field belts to him, assigning Shalyndra to keep an eye on the young squire. With Felix & Leena to bring up the rear, the NuMan split the rest of the team into pairs while she herself ‘ninja’d’ towards the East of the village palisades.

Fionna & Shalyndra found a possible reason for the front gates’ shattered state; tracks of a monstrously heavy 3 toed creature near the timbers resembling the tread of a Gurgolye. Inside the gates they found some of the town militia in primitive powered armour, hacked and burned and an 8ft tall humanoid, presumably one of the reavers that had attacked the village. The being was dressed in what looked like beetle or other arthropod carapace made into armour, pale skin and blue-black blood leaking from the bullet wounds in its face and throat. No one recognized the creature... but there were more than likely more of them still present, including the Gurgoyle-like beast that had broken down the gates.

First round against 3 Yuzzon -ahem- I mean Necrol, and ONE Gona'grek went to the good guys.
HOWever, the team got tossed around HARD and were about to be stomped hardcore until Johannes did "HAAAAAAAASAN CHOP!" on the bio-powersuit beast and rolled a nat 20 nearly maximum damage.
To the face.

Now; possible 2 week hiatus between this session and well.. 2013
Re-cap will be posted by end of week though.

time to force these villagers into making Johannes some more robes for saving their butts

Yep; otherwise he's gonna be forced to wear *shudder* ... Spandex

I know Johannes is a Battle Magus right? Bad ass occ but what weapon/weapons did he use? I'm currious as heck!

Battle fury blade halberd

calto40k wrote:Battle fury blade halberd

NIIIICE!

I am in, for the next session! My computer is up and I am online with it as I type this and DhAkael and I chatted last night for quite awhile so I know it works!

Barbarians at the gate Pt2.

The group proceeded forwards; Shalyndra & Deiter stopping briefly while the squire knelt by one of the dead militia-men, saying a quick prayer and scooping up the drum-fed shotgun that seemed to be the local weapon of choice. Johannes split off and hugged the inner edge of the village wall, while Shalyndra, Deiter and Fionna followed a trail of the bluish-black ichor of the alien humanoids towards the town hall. Felix & Leena soon sortied after their team-mates, unfortunately for everyone, Felix was not used to the scavenged enhanced armour he had procured weeks ago and managed to cause a large racket. Due to this the alien warriors who were guarding the remaining civilians inside the Town hall were more than prepared for when Deiter and Shalyndra found them.
Sporting rictus smiles on their gaunt faces, one tossed his spear/staff at Shalyndra (and to her horror, after impact, reverted to a constricting serpent) while the other threw an egg shaped object through one of the town hall windows. An explosion and screams of pain & death along with a red mist of vaporized flesh & blood came from inside the building, while Deiter screamed curses at the murderous aliens and laid down a burst of explosive shot-shells. The invaders only laughed as the impacts scratched and marred their carapace armour.
Felix by this point had caught up to the other two, but before he could assist HE was ambushed by a solid mace to the face. Battle was joined, but it became quickly apparent that Team Alpha was outmatched by only three of the reavers. Even with Fionna & Johannaes entering the fray with rune-blade and battle-fury halberd respectively, their foes merely laughed as if the life & death melee were a polite sparring match regardless of the wounds they took. Rika added to the litany of problems as she crested the palisades; a fair number of the alien reavers had herded a large amount of the villagers to the far end of the town and had crucified them to torn planks from shattered houses, and were performing a ritual of some sort. When calling on Sleipnir to add some of its point defense lasers to disrupt the ritual, she was informed that the group of reavers were protected by some form of energy resistance magic.
It was only after Fionna had managed to slay one of the aliens that the ante was further raised; a massive creature, resembling a tentacle faced gargoyle with crab claws for hands barreled through a near-by wall and proceeded to batter and kick Johannes & Fionna with blows equal to a wrecking ball. Injury was further increased when the beast breathed a particle beam at Fionna.
The two surviving alien warriors backed away, bleeding but still smiling as their war-beast continued its assault. Shalyndra suggested a tactical retreat as she picked up a stunned and dazed Deiter, with Rika agreeing wholeheartedly (informing everyone that she had used Sleipnir’s teleport grid to rescue as many human life signs as she could detect). A last second forlorn hope leap attack by Johannes managed to bisect the head of the assault creature. Assisting Fionna and Felix, that trio ran for the gate & Sleipnir, catching up to Deiter and Shalyndra. Scant seconds after they had cleared the area, Rika activated the Sleipnir’s ‘Mega-flare’ TW cannon and with Fi’s assistance as a burster, glassed the interior of the village and hoped that even being energy resistant, the lack of oxygen had slain the aliens involved in the sacrificial ritual.

It was time to take stock and recuperate. Out of a village of nearly four-hundred, only thirty had survived; 22 women and 8 children. Deiter was heartbroken and even knowing one more sword would not have made a difference he blamed his inexperience as a squire for the demise of his cousins village. Shalyndra tried to console the squire while she, Fionna and Rika saw to first aid for the survivours.

After a number of hours (and finding ample rooms so the villagers could rest), the crew came together on the bridge and began to analyze what and where from about the reavers. After a while, they concluded that regardless of where they had originated (and if Team-Alpha may have inadvertently brought the invaders down on the planet when they had encountered the space-squid), the reavers were a clear and present danger to this world. Rika & Fionna flew the Sleipnir to within 10 miles of Deiter’s lord’s demense. The city-state of House Klaus.
The sun finally set after one of the longest days, literally and figuratively, for Phoenix Alpha.
The date is now August 27th, PA 109.

So "Dieter" was the guy in the archaic looking Power Armor? Cool, another recruit perhaps! And Dang, lots of damage done! Whether PF brought them or not it's a darn good thing they were there to fight these "Reavers"! Man, I can't wait for the next session!

Here's hoping all the principal characters in the narative-at-present show up tomorrow.

DhAkael wrote:Here's hoping all the principal characters in the narative-at-present show up tomorrow.

Down one player (two PC's) BUT last session of 2012 went off without too much trouble.
Whoo... now timez to sit back & RELAX.

Re-cap will be in a few days and Merry Chaunkawnzsolticxamss!!!

I had a blast! Thanks D! And thank you to my fellow players! Looking forward to the first session of 2013.

Glad to have you in the group, we've got an excellent crew together

Thanks man and on first impression I have to agree 100% you are all excellent players with great pcs, and I'm glad to finally be a part of it.

Ho ho m'fn'n HO!
Perfectly wonderful X-mass day ruined by someone IRL being a spoiled princess.
-sigh-
...and at least two weeks until another game session.

Sorry to hear that man. Let me know when stuff is straight.

Oh? Have a new recruit do we?

Yeppers; another "Traveler far from home"
This time dropped onto the now-named world via Alien monarch trancendental energy-state metamorphisis.
Re; got caught up in the Regis's 'Screw you' at the end of New-Gen... but instead of becoming "One with teh universe" this PC got punted across dimensions.

Funny how that seems to be the S.O.P. of a good 75% of Phoenix Force Alpha members

Veritech pilot?

SWEET! DhAkael is a genuinely good gm from my experience and the other players are also very good! And I think we can use the heavy Armor/Weapons and super sonic flight capabilities! Welcome aboard.

OH...
F.Y.I; re-convening on Sunday Jan.06, 2013 @ 8:pm (Eastern Time).
...and yes I know...I need to write up the latest re-cap .Been busy w/ family.

woo hoo we got a mecha/veritech/pa pilot and a new veritech pilot fun times fun times

I wasn't discounting Chirax, about the whole PA thing. I just thought it's cool that we could use one more Veritech in the hangar. That reminds me, we have yet to introduce Cormac and Chirax.

lol wasn't taking it that way IU'm happy to have someone able to fly the beta and do all sorts of crazy stuff with

calto40k wrote:lol wasn't taking it that way IU'm happy to have someone able to fly the beta and do all sorts of crazy stuff with

That's cool man, I'm happy for you and our new recruit.

Lost Seraph wrote:I can actually fix mine. Now all we need to do is steal a Reflex furnace so we can draw of the protoculture supply and go into the energy business.

And where would we need to go to get one of these things? I'll help get one!

Lost Seraph wrote:We need to engineer a dimensional portal on the Sleipnir, and transport ourselves to Robotech 2020, where we steal one from one of the crashed Zentraedi ships.

LOL, we can try it, but I think DhAkael has other plans for us.

*The stage is set, the cast is chosen and the script is ready, but where is the orchestra?
*Leeroy Jenkins, or Ezio?
*Tastes great or less filling?

All these questions and more will be asked (and maybe answered) in the next instalment of 'On wings of fire.'

This is true!

Sooo... 2013...






Happy newbeers.

Going down hill already?

Plans within plans; conspiracy and existentialism on a megaversal scale.
Halfway through the night James Cormac’s med scan was finally complete and he was decanted; finally able to meet with Phoenix Force Alpha while conscious. The first he encountered of course was Rika, who playfully asked him how he was and how he had managed to find her and the rest of the team halfway across the megaverse. James was quite fuzzy on the particulars, but did mention that he was so desperate to find them because they were the only ones said to be knowledgeable about what had happened to Free-Quebec. While the rest of the team slowly gathered in the med-bay, Rika told James that though she had not been present at the purging of Quebec, most of the rest of the team had been. The NuMan captain surmised that James had annoyed one of the Nightlands powers responsible for Free-Quebec’s demise and instead of outright killing him, for some reason had used Felix Perez’s shaving mirror as gateway to place him with Phoenix Force. This sparked a brief memory flash for Mr. Cormac, of golden hair, black armour, a crown of thorns and a voice telling him he was getting too nosey, then images of pain and torment as infinite reflections sped past.

Idle conversations and introductions continued and moved to the galley, where Johannes Teufel had prepared the early morning meal.
With the antics of Felix attempting to assist the Battle-Magus in the kitchen lightening the mood, Captain Hanlah-Falkon turned the discussions to what was to be done. Deiter Brandt suggested that when full daylight came, he would take the village survivors to the city of House Klaus and report to his knight commander what had transpired. Rika agreed, suggesting that she use the same technology (a teleporter grid) to safely deposit them close to the city gates, since the planet they were on seemed to be filled with native dangerous life forms. Deiter calmly stated that his world had a name; Caliban.

At this, both Rika & James Cormac sat up in alarm, both coming to a conclusion they hoped was NOT correct. Going aside, the scholar and warphuntress talked in low tones (sadly, not realizing that almost everyone else had VERY acute hearing, even aboard ship), and James speculated that this world might be the one written about in a sci-fi game franchise popular on Terra in the age before the cataclysm. Rika shook her head and stated that it was impossible; she KNEW of the Caliban that James was thinking of, but in its home dimension it had been many thousands of years destroyed. When asked how she knew, Rika looked up with haunted eyes and dully stated that the game-setting James was familiar with… did exist in the megaverse, and that the horrors written in fiction did not do the reality justice, as she had briefly been within that alternate reality.

Mr. Cormac was then told the theory Plato of Lazlo & High-Mage Narciss du’Lackmoore had postulated many years ago; writers and artists prior to the cataclysm, though not prophets or oracles, may have been able to pierce through the veils between dimensions and been given glimpses of the aspects of the megaverse. “What is fiction, dream & nightmare to one reality, is fact in another.” being the phrase attributed to Plato. As the two joined with the rest of the crew back in the galley, talk turned to what to do with the alien reavers, who may still have had members on Caliban still, despite Rika & Sleipnir’s attempt to immolate them. It seemed unanimous; the vote was, after returning Deiter and the villagers to Klaus and meeting with the local authority, Team Alpha would go forth and hunt down the reavers… even the normally restrained Rika agreed they had to be eliminated completely as it seemed that Caliban had no way to defend the high-orbit theatre. Plans finalized, the crew and passengers went to their rooms again for a little more rest before meeting the sunrise. Deiter & Shalyndra acted like two highschoolers with a mutual crush, with the elf maid acting first and kissing the Calibanite Knight goodnight before retiring to her own quarters. Meanwhile, Leena Shidow gave Felix a quick peck on the cheek and skipped off to her quarters, leaving the adventurer in a goofy state of euphoria.

Dawn on Caliban was fast approaching, and the ship-date read August 28th PA, 109.

DhAkael wrote:Plans within plans; conspiracy and existentialism on a megaversal scale.
Halfway through the night James Cormac’s med scan was finally complete and he was decanted; finally able to meet with Phoenix Force Alpha while conscious. The first he encountered of course was Rika, who playfully asked him how he was and how he had managed to find her and the rest of the team halfway across the megaverse. James was quite fuzzy on the particulars, but did mention that he was so desperate to find them because they were the only ones said to be knowledgeable about what had happened to Free-Quebec. While the rest of the team slowly gathered in the med-bay, Rika told James that though she had not been present at the purging of Quebec, most of the rest of the team had been. The NuMan captain surmised that James had annoyed one of the Nightlands powers responsible for Free-Quebec’s demise and instead of outright killing him, for some reason had used Felix Perez’s shaving mirror as gateway to place him with Phoenix Force. This sparked a brief memory flash for Mr. Cormac, of golden hair, black armour, a crown of thorns and a voice telling him he was getting too nosey, then images of pain and torment as infinite reflections sped past.

Idle conversations and introductions continued and moved to the galley, where Johannes Teufel had prepared the early morning meal.
With the antics of Felix attempting to assist the Battle-Magus in the kitchen lightening the mood, Captain Hanlah-Falkon turned the discussions to what was to be done. Deiter Brandt suggested that when full daylight came, he would take the village survivors to the city of House Klaus and report to his knight commander what had transpired. Rika agreed, suggesting that she use the same technology (a teleporter grid) to safely deposit them close to the city gates, since the planet they were on seemed to be filled with native dangerous life forms. Deiter calmly stated that his world had a name; Caliban.

At this, both Rika & James Cormac sat up in alarm, both coming to a conclusion they hoped was NOT correct. Going aside, the scholar and warphuntress talked in low tones (sadly, not realizing that almost everyone else had VERY acute hearing, even aboard ship), and James speculated that this world might be the one written about in a sci-fi game franchise popular on Terra in the age before the cataclysm. Rika shook her head and stated that it was impossible; she KNEW of the Caliban that James was thinking of, but in its home dimension it had been many thousands of years destroyed. When asked how she knew, Rika looked up with haunted eyes and dully stated that the game-setting James was familiar with… did exist in the megaverse, and that the horrors written in fiction did not do the reality justice, as she had briefly been within that alternate reality.

Mr. Cormac was then told the theory Plato of Lazlo & High-Mage Narciss du’Lackmoore had postulated many years ago; writers and artists prior to the cataclysm, though not prophets or oracles, may have been able to pierce through the veils between dimensions and been given glimpses of the aspects of the megaverse. “What is fiction, dream & nightmare to one reality, is fact in another.” being the phrase attributed to Plato. As the two joined with the rest of the crew back in the galley, talk turned to what to do with the alien reavers, who may still have had members on Caliban still, despite Rika & Sleipnir’s attempt to immolate them. It seemed unanimous; the vote was, after returning Deiter and the villagers to Klaus and meeting with the local authority, Team Alpha would go forth and hunt down the reavers… even the normally restrained Rika agreed they had to be eliminated completely as it seemed that Caliban had no way to defend the high-orbit theatre. Plans finalized, the crew and passengers went to their rooms again for a little more rest before meeting the sunrise. Deiter & Shalyndra acted like two highschoolers with a mutual crush, with the elf maid acting first and kissing the Calibanite Knight goodnight before retiring to her own quarters. Meanwhile, Leena Shidow gave Felix a quick peck on the cheek and skipped off to her quarters, leaving the adventurer in a goofy state of euphoria.

Dawn on Caliban was fast approaching, and the ship-date read August 28th PA, 109.

And James was left with a hover cycle in his bed! LOL

Lost Seraph wrote:Wait. Is this world the Caliban from Dave Hargrave fame? Arduin?

I think he's using something from Warhammer in this instance.

Lost Seraph wrote:Hmm. Burn and purge time.

Seems to be, yes.

Going to be some fun times coming soon

Three days and counting!

Have I mentioned that I've been playing a metric [censored] tonne of Dawn of War 2 lately?
No?
Well I have and I have become...Inspired.

DhAkael wrote:Have I mentioned that I've been playing a metric [censored] tonne of Dawn of War 2 lately?
No?
Well I have and I have become...Inspired.

Okay, well, you guys are hosed....He may be sick as a dog, but he's getting -inspired-....sickbed fever-dream delusions plus apocalyptic grimdark video games as inspiration means serious skull-hurt reality-warp GM-as-guide-to-hell.

Hey, that sounds like freaking fun to me!!!

oh yes there will be... fun

Introduction of Tao-Shi Moon
The view outside 2nd Lt. Moon’s cockpit was filled with stars. Each bursting point of light another cluster of Invid rupturing or a fellow veritech detonating. It was a scene of horrid beauty that spoke to her soul but her conscious mind recoiled at the sheer brutality and utter WASTE.

[Warning: Hostiles approaching. 30° low, port side] flashed onto her helmet display.

Another clam-ship had just disgorged a swarm of rust red enemies.

"Damn it! This is Moonlight Shadow to any units, my location; three hundred, that is three-oh-oh units in sector 16. I need some support, over!”

At least Buddha had been kind in two regards; the first being that Tao-Shi didn’t have some hotshot Alpha jock riding on her nose, so she could make all her own maneuvers, the second that the Invid coming towards her were ‘only’ unarmed units. Readying her external racks and internal missile bays, the Beta’s sensor & targeting systems started to halo as many enemy targets as possible. There were an awful lot of Invid and Tao-Shi’s missile load-out would only be able to deal with about maybe a quarter of them.

…

A Bright flash or brilliant white and fiery orange erupted from the surface of the Homeworld. Had it been the Neutron-S missiles? No wait, the pillar was expanding, the top radiating outwards like…

“Are those wings?!”

The phoenix-shaped energy mass swept forwards at mind numbing speed; engulfing the Garfish & Ikazuchi vessels surrounding Reflex point and then it was upon her. Deafening music like a million voices in a choir resonated through every atom of Tao-Shi Moon’s being, but instead of pain it brought sadness and joy in equal measure.

“THIS PATH IS NOT FOR YOU.”

Tao-Shi’s consciousness moved its perceptions behind her. There stood a gleaming armoured figure in gold or bronze plate. The style was reminiscent of Tirolian bioroid, but at human scale, and the faceplate was transparent; revealing an obsidian skinned humanlike visage with the most intense blue eyes she had ever seen.

“YOU ARE NEEDED ELSEWHERE. I HAVE SENT OTHERS FROM SIMMILAR REFLECTIONS TO ANOTHER EARTH. IN YOUR CASE, I THINK SOMEWHERE ELSE.
DO NOT FEAR; YOU SHALL SEE EARTH AGAIN AND OTHERS OF YOUR KIND. HOWEVER, THE ROAD WILL BE DANGEROUS AND LONG I FEAR.”

Before she could ask what the being was talking about a portal wreathed in blue-white energy opened in front of her and a long tunnel of absolute darkness speckled with blue-green motes had her falling for an eternal moment.

~**~

“Frauline… Frauline Moon?”

The voice was female, not unkind but definitely sounding impatient.

“Huh?” came her well thought out response.

“Oh thank the founders you are awake. We were worried about you. Some of the villagers were sure that you were some daemon sent to eat their cattle and steal their children. Raus…come on frauline, no time to dawdle, you are to be presented to my mistress and we can not have you looking like a cudbear has used you as a chew-bone, nein?”

Tao-Shi slowly opened her eyes; bright light met her gaze and blurry vision, but she made out the figure of a middle aged woman in long skirts and archaic blouse. Turning her head, she also saw stone and wood in equal measure along with what looked like mega-steel for the door, the paint long since buffed away.

“Where…?” She asked.

The matron walked over to one of the windows and threw open the curtains, bright and crisp daylight spilled forth.
She replied matter of factly;
“You fell from the sky and ruined a crop of bread-root with your sky-ship-with-legs. As to exactly where, you are a guest of the Baroness Integra Von-Klaus, of Klaus-Stahd, the Sleeping-woods of Caliban.”

Hehehe Welcome to Caliban Tao-Shi Moon! (And also to her player Lost Seraph in all seriousness!)

LOL, yeah, "OOPS, sorry" doesn't quite cover it. But assuming we survive what's coming, we'll probably all pitch in to help however we can.

(applaudes) That's quite the intro! And no, you're not in Kansas....

hey, it beats James Cormac's (first) intro; Crow to the face at 120mph.

DhAkael wrote:hey, it beats James Cormac's (first) intro; Crow to the face at 120mph.

Yep, bird strikes can seriously hurt..

LMAO, yeah that sucked! I fully expected Leena to eventually want to give James crap about his landing lol

Oh yeah it's almost time to get to the killin'