Crimson Canines (Complete!)

[Orpheus]

Simon smiled, his heart warmed a bit seeing as his actions saved the lives of a few.


"We did what any man would do in the situation. I'm glad your recovering well" he gave a similar incline out of humility. He did nothing spectacular, is what he thought in his head


@art3mis254 "and I don't recall you? We're you with us during the operations?" He asked the girl who had also arrived to speak to the engineers. She didn't look like a medic. Possibly their same company?


@Zer0

 

[LocoBlock]

Jace returns from the civilian zone and goes to the interrogation room. He sits impatient waiting for his turn. He asks L "Are we allowed to cut anything off?"


@Zer0

 

[art3mis254]

Aimera shook her head. "No, I'm a new engineer here. Aimera Gordam." She scratched her neck and hoped to God the engineers didn't know her work because God that would be embarrassing. She was kind of well known in the engineering department, that was why she had been selected to cover for the recovering engineers. She was good at what she did.


@Zer0 @Orpheus

 

[Cryo]

Esty woke up with a groan loud enough to alert a beast. "Damn, that was one good sleep. Maybe I should start mingling with the rest of the squad." She then sauntered along the halls looking for interaction until she stumbled upon the medical bay. There were two people asking someone questions.


That guy was at the introductions this evening, what was his name? Simon, was it? she thought Who's the other one though? She wasn't there back then. Might be the other engineer that Artemis mentioned.





@Orpheus @art3mis254

 

[Zer0]

Sart's eyes brightened when he heard that Aimera was an engineer. "You came at a busy time, Aimera." he told her. "it's good that you're here. We need all the help we can get."


Sart waited until Simon and Aimera had finished their conversation, then asked Simon and her what they were doing here and if there was anything he could do to help.


@Orpheus, @art3mis254

***

​

Director L glanced at Jace with a raised eyebrow, then shook his head. "No, no one's cutting anything off . . . I'd torture them too, but their mechanical bodies don't feel any pain."


He looked back into the interrogation room. "You'd have to get information from them somehow through talking."


@LocoBlock

 

[art3mis254]

Aimera nodded, glancing at him in concern. "I was wondering what the hell happens to engineers at this place. Last time I checked, you should be fixing something, not laying here in pain." Nervous, she pulled out some gears and random supplies, begging to fiddle with them.


@Zer0 @Orpheus

 

[Orpheus]

Simon flashed up his eyebrows as she took out some bits and bobs to fiddle around with. It was a little bizzare but everyone manages one way or another, perhaps she was nervous. And if she was she was probably new.


"I'm here to find that out myself"


He looked back at sart. "Your Sart yes? I read your file before coming here, we need to discus a few things about what happened during the previous events."


He tilted his head and raised his hand as of holding a tray below his chest, gesturing if he could walk alongside him. The enginee r too of course


"If your free and willing"


He added


@Zer0 @art3mis254

 

[LocoBlock]

"I might be able to get them to talk other ways just need to figure out how to shut them down. Then use their memory banks to scan. We should get the engineers out here. Thell know more about these then I would."


@Zer0

 

[Cryo]

Esty walked into the med bay where Simon and the other recruit was. "Hey, what's going on here, and your name is Simon isn't it?"


@Orpheus


(OOC: I'll be going to school in a few, just assume I'm there just listening in)

 

[Orpheus]

Yes...."


He says in furrowed brow a little confused but wondering most importantly whose kid is this and why does it know me? Wait no can't be he never..... Is she lost? I mean she looks like an officer upon closer inspection so I guess it's wrong to assume. Still where are these girls coming from and why does he always end up with them? Is the universe trying to tell him something.


"Private first class Simon Strangecraft"


He replied though unsure bout his current situation since he didn't know who they were. Wetaminut........ The introductions.. He kind of recalls their faces, but he was too sleepy to bother....... Huh.... So their his squad mates then?


@Zer0 @art3mis254 @Cryo

 

[Soviet Panda]

Connor was in his mech, firing at the targets in front of him. He was doing rather good about not wasting a full box in about a minute. It took him half an hour to get through the first one. So if he was really good and didn't waste a single shot, that's how long he'd be able to fire before having to reload. Conserving ammo in this thing would be a pain, but he was determined to not blow everything in the first hour of a fight. A solid block of steel stood behind him, with a jagged cut going down it diagonally, and his chainsword was glowing slightly on his back. That thing had done exactly what they had told him it would do.

 

[thespacekid]

Aya was just increasing Vikram's curiosity every time she spoke. Why's she offering all this information so freely to me? His tapping fingers had turned from random to playing a quiet beat on the edge of the table. She's just dropping hints and warnings, but not giving away anything concrete.





However, Vikram had noticed her glance at the two-way mirror, but he couldn't tell whether it was apprehension or hatred. He turned his chair slightly away from the mirror, and leaned closer to Aya, and dropping his voice to a low whisper, "But Aya, you've studied our history, and more than that, you've lived our history. When people start coming here, ordinary citizens I mean, back to the home that was once theirs, don't you think they'll be a bit more attached to it now? You were an ordinary person, that's why you got left behind, right?


"I can understand your anger. I know we've made mistakes, and it seems like we're going to make a few more, but you must remember it's not the citizens who've necessarily made these bad decisions, right? And knowing our history might tell you that the power of the people has always been greater than that of tyrants." Vikram glanced back at the mirror visibly uncomfortably, and dropped his voice even lower.


"Aya, here I'm not talking to you as a member of the Crimson Canines, or as a pawn of the United States Government, but as one human talking to another - Please let us come back home. We've made mistakes in the past, yes, and running away wasn't the best thing to do, but we came back, at least us ordinary people, with the hopes that we could fix things here, make things better, and hope that our home would take us back. "


He paused and looked into empty space for a second, and then as he started talking again, his eyes glazed over a bit, and his voice trembled,


"I mean, my old grandmother sits by her bedside at night, telling me stories of how Earth used to be, but I know even she was never there. It's just been a memory that's been passed on for so many years. She almost teared up when she got to know I was coming here, and asked me if maybe, just maybe, one day I could bring her down here too. Now I know that mightn't be possible but.. I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get sentimental." He wiped his eyes on the sleeves of his shirt, and cleared his throat, "This doesn't usually happen. It's just that I've never spoken of the way I feel for Earth or my family to anyone."

 

[Zer0]

"Of course I am! Lead the way." grinned Sart at Simon. "Oh, hey, there." he added to Etsy. "You here to hear about the story too? I'll tell you three all about it in the mess hall in the ground floor."


Minutes later, Sart was stretched out on a chair, sipping from a warm mug of coffee. "I'll start in the beginning for you, Ms. Engineer." he said to Aimera.


"As you all know, we've been building the Civy Outpost out in Lysaur Valley for a couple of weeks now. I didn't know we were being watched, none of us did. We didn't expect flayers to come here- I mean, they live in the Taura Ocean- and we didn't have any recon suits like your squadmate, Sarah Bishop.


"I was attacked by a bunch of flayers one night during a storm when I had to take a leak outside my mech. They were smart, and I didn't know that. One of them was bait and three jumped me taking off my helmet and piercing my spine . . .


"Then they took over me. I had no control over my body, I couldn't speak even if I wanted to, all I could do was breathe and move my eyes as they made me walk towards the Avia Spire.


"But that wasn't the scariest part . . . I felt the flayers in my brain, you know, like another presence or soul, maybe? I don't know-it didn't feel human, but I could understand what it was thinking . . . Like, 'hungry', or 'walk, walk, walk', and 'wet', or 'hurry, hurry'.


"And then I was in the Avia Spire, in that cave where you found us, and then the flayer attached to my neck was communicating with something, and then I felt another presence . . . How do I explain it . . . it was old, ancient, massive- it was the skywhale. I don't know how I know, but I'm sure it was the whale.


"And then I began to remember memories, and I realized that it was sifting through my mind, looking for something. I tried to fight it, but it wouldn't go away-like some kind of psychic mumbo jumbo. It was looking at the passcodes of our mother base, but it didn't find what it was looking for.


"That's when more engineers were kidnapped and brought in and I knew it was doing the same thing. I don't know if it found what it was looking for, next thing I knew I lost consciousness and then I woke up here with the others . . . That's all I know . . ." finished Sart.


@Orpheus , @art3mis254 , @Cryo

 

[art3mis254]

Aimera let out a low whistle, stilling her hands. The small wind up mech toy she had created clattered to the ground as it fell. Ignoring it, her eyes settled on his neck, observing for obvious signs of injuries or distress. She sighed, running her hand through her hair before speaking. "So these things could have found a way into our base and they can control humans, possibly using the nerves running along the spinal cord. The reason you could breath was most likely the fact that the area that controls breathing is an area of the brain that cannot be controlled, you do not need to think about it and it still functions. So if that is true, we are going to have to keep an eye on everyone's necks. Magic is just science we haven't discovered yet." Her finger began tapping out morse code on her thigh, speaking out her thoughts as she spoke. "So we have a lot left to do." She finished, glancing at Sart. "I definatly came at an interesting time."


@Zer0 @Orpheus @Cryo

 

[Orpheus]

Simon listened intently as sart pressed on about his experiences. There's a lot of things going on it seems, and it looks like we're fighting a battle against the fauna of the earth itself. He was also interested in the llayers psycho intrusion capabilities, it's probably what caused the zomflayers. The engineer certainky had a good idea too. Perhaps the flayers attack the pheripheral system rather than the autonomous if that were the case it could mean there's a limit to him much they can control. A bitter taste ran in his mouth realizing that the zomflayers they killed were horrifically conscious but couldn't do a thing......


"Did you manage to a least catch something from them? Like why do they need passcodes? Or their intent? It seems too well organized to be orchestrated by giant whales."


Either the whales were the puppeter or someone was dangling them bybthe strings. This case gets more and more bizarre the more deeper it got. Perhaps he needed to talk to the survivor next.


@Zer0 @art3mis254 @Cryo

 

[Zer0]

"I was left behind because I couldn't afford the ticket." Aya told Vikram. There was a pause where she was again motionless, just like a machine.


" . . . Maybe if you reveal to the entire human kind the main agendas of all the factions and tell them all about us, they'll rebel and change leaders. But, let's be realistic, will you really do that? Start a war amongst yourselves, wouldn't it destroy you?"


Aya looked at Vikram after he spoke about his grandmother with her default cheery mechanical mask, then said softly, "I am not the leader, so I can't stop anything . . . But if you can prove that you won't fight over the earth then maybe my father-"


The other android suddenly clapped a hand over Aya's mouth.


Aya herself seemed to have frozen, probably out of horror that she let something like that slip out.


"I-I'm not talking anymore." she said quickly, sounding scared. "I wish to return to my room now."


@thespacekid

***​

Outside the interrogation room, The Boss turned to leave. "Take her back to her room." he told L.


The Director of Intelligence simply nodded and The Boss stalked off.


"What you have heard here, stays here." Director L told Jace, and by his tone and gaze he didn't need to mention that spilling the secret would be a very unwise thing to do. "You can escort them with the other soldiers to their room, and talk to them; see if threatening works, only no violence, not yet."


"We scanned their bodies yesterday." he added. "I don't know if Aya was lying when she said she was a scientist- but she's definitely thought things through before leaving her people . . . There are four additional units attached to their central processing units, we suspect containing acid or a small explosive. Any attempt to open it to access the memory banks will burn the hard drives . . . R&D is still working on a way through it."


@LocoBlock

***​

When Vikram came out, and after the androids were escorted out of the interrogation room, he was once again told to keep all that he heard here secret, and was thanked for his work.


"We'll call on you again to speak with the androids." said Director L. "Good work."


@thespacekid, if your character returns to his room, you will find another hidden message from your Cult asking you to give them all the information you acquired from the androids.


(OOC: @thespacekid, please PM me the name and details of your Cult. They're going to play a big part in this RP)

 

[Zer0]

"I didn't catch more, but I know the whale was impatient and frustrated." Sart told Simon, scratching the back of his neck.


"I don't know if this helps, but the only passcodes we engineers don't know are the ones for the Command Center, Intel Sector, Brig, Quarantine Zone, and the master commands that overrides the security system . . .


"You know I heard talk, from one of those three girls who were with you in the Spire, that the flayers were gathering information, I think they're right, like maybe trying to figure out how to beat us . . . After the Presiden't speech, everyone now knows these titans are trying to kill us, I just don't know why they haven't done it yet. Like, I don't know what they're waiting for. . .


"Anyway, if it were me, I think I'd try to capture one of the higher ranking officers like The Boss. They're the ones who know everything."


@Orpheus, @art3mis254

 

[LocoBlock]

Jace proceeds to walk with the androids back to the rooms. "You know the sooner you talk the sooner this is over. So please just do it. I know how machines work. You probably don't have emotion processors. Or your hearing units are removed. Maybe you don't even have a speech program." He kept walking and thought "Who would create such a thing. To live but not know how to do anything. Oh wait us. Actually I have an old android unit similar to these that I use to clean my room." He then proceeds to tell them "I'm going to my room I might have an idea." He proceeds to go to his room and looks at his android. He opens up the back and looks in it. He doesn't understand it so he shuts it off and loads it on a cart. He takes up to the engineers bay and yells. "Is there anyone here who knows how androids work I want to learn how mine works and what to do to fix it."


(All the engineers are in the med bay so stuff I geuss.)

 

[Cryo]

Sart's story was quite interesting, surely after a situation like that anyone would be feeling insecure, but hearing his story a question popped into her train of thought.


"Tell me, after all of that. Do you still feel a connection to the flayer?"asked Esty."Like as if its presence still lurks in your mind."


@Zer0 @Orpheus @art3mis254

 

[Zer0]

"No." Sart told Esty, shaking his head with a look as if he was remembering something unpleasant. " . . . I felt like I was being invaded inside . . ."


After a while, he said, "You know, they've got a bunch of flayers in the Quarantine Zone. Some of the Intel Sector people were talking about looking for some volunteers to let the flayers bond with them, but you know, no one is that dumb . . . But the Intel people want to understand the mind linking."


@Cryo

 

[Orpheus]

They must really want us dead or gone..... There's not much more we can learn from start other than the possibilities of an infiltration within us. Added to the fact that whatever plan our enemies have, they're in a hurry. They'll be clumsy but we can't predict what they'll do next. We need to be prepared.


The moment sart spoke about possible experiments with mund linking a nerve struck him a bit.


"Lrts hope they dont get too far ahead with the proposal"


It hit close to home


"Well, I guess that's all we need to know, thank you for your help Sart I appreciate it" he raised his hand for a shake


@Zer0

 

[Zer0]

Sart shook Simon's hand. "Anytime, anytime . . ." he said accommodatingly, smiling.


With that, the engineer left for the medical ward where the rest of his companions were.


@Orpheus

 

[Zer0]

Mission: Recon, Barrigith Mountains


A month after the sky-whale incident, the squad was surprised when The Boss himself assembled them all inside a secure room, where he explained their first top secret assignment.


Before the second sky-whale escaped into the eye of the storm, The Boss had tagged it with a tracking device which the Intelligence Sector has been monitoring for the past month. They went to all the places the titanic whale stopped, but found nothing significant, and now the signal has been lost.


They last traced it to an icy cavern in the Barrigith Mountains, a six-hour flight to the north from the Crimson Canines mother base, where they lost contact with their scouts yesterday in a blizzard.


The objective is to search and rescue the five scouts, or to retrieve the memory cards from their suits if they are dead. If they encountered the sky whale again, the squad is to capture it by entering it like they did with the first, then setting up a remote detonated bomb. Mission leader is The Boss.


The squad is to assemble in Mecha Hangar 18 at 600 hours tomorrow before departing for the Barrigith Mountains.


Weather: Blizzard, Heavy Winds


Danger: It is possible, that the scouts were ambushed by organized enemy forces. Stealth is important. But if any androids are spotted, they are not to be destroyed, only neutralized and captured.


(OOC: @CkSmalling (Might want to make your mecha now. Please tag me when you're done.), @thespacekid, @Musical Dragon , @Beowulf (Trench knife. And your recent passive feature needs to be in four words.), @Commissar Darman , @DJGomez, @Orpheus, @art3mis254, @LocoBlock, @Cryo.


Make the final changes to your Gears, MOLLEs, and Mechas, then tag me when you're done. After your first posts related to the mission, no future changes will be counted.


For the new guys, we have a fast pace where the GM usually moves the story everyday, waiting only for one day before moving on, so make your posts more detailed if you want your character to do more. I'm looking to finish this mission in a week, at most two.)

 

[Zer0]

​

In the month since the sky-whale incident, the Crimson Canines saw many changes. The chilly haze of rain that persisted all last month ceased two days ago, then yesterday morning, the sky lightened suddenly to a dazzling, opaline white, and the muddy Lysaur Valley was revealed covered in glittering frost.


Their first winter has finally come.


Now, the location of the Civy Outpost was changed after it was destroyed, and it now sits on a hill, north of the Crimson Canines mother base in the open plains of Lysaur Valley, far away from the Avia Spire. Its construction was completed a few days ago, and the first batch of wary civilians from the U.S. mother ship had arrived from space yesterday.


The new base of the Japanese Amber Fox located on Sol, a lonely snowy mountain south-east of the Barrigith was also finished. Though much smaller than their previous headquarters, two gargantuan V-14 Antimatter Cannons protruded from the two towers that composed their military base.


The Crimson Canines also did a purge on the entire base and uncovered many flayers hiding within nooks and crannies. A few people also went missing. Security was tightened and their suits and mechas have been re-designed to be "flayer-proof". It's now common to see everyone in a suit, even when relaxing.

 

[Zer0]

The Boss was in Mecha Hangar 18 before Artemis arrived an hour before their departure.


He was resting beside his mecha, a Goliath with winter camouflage. It was different from the standard Goliaths in the hangar, in that it looked more worn, and had many sleek additional components Artemis wasn't familiar with.


She wasn't sure whether to greet him or not, since it might disturb him, but after a few seconds of deliberation, she decided to greet him anyway, "Boss!" greeted Artemis saluting.


"At ease." said The Boss in his smoky gravelly voice, nodding at her.


Artemis wondered if she should make conversation, but settled with prepping her mecha before launch, and waiting for the rest of the squad to arrive.