[System]
Age: 15
Gender: Male

Nationality: Japanese

Favorite Gundam Series: G Gundam, Gundam Beast

Personality: Joe doesn't want to be here. He's not interested in the Gundam franchise, he's not interested in pursuing a career in pro Gunpla, and he really, really hates the kind of losers that frequent the Akibahara district. However, he understands what wins in this sport, just like in the Toku and "actual decent robot" shows he loves: Hard Work And Guts. While your performance in the arena won't impress him, your training MIGHT. He's mostly sticking around because it's the school closest to his house, and by Japanese school districts, he's stuck here. Plus, he figures that the faculty here's going to be interested in funding one of his personal projects.

History: Joe's family has always been gearheads who love giant robots, superheroes, and space. Well, giant robots that aren't Gundam. This really colored their career paths. His Uncle Go builds military robots. His Uncle Saotome works on autopilot systems for jets. His brother Jiron works in bomb disposal. His sister Noriko joined the navy to work with guidance systems. His cousin Gai is an astronaut. Joe and his father, however, take after Grandpa Sadamitsu- a grizzled mechanic and known hellraiser from the days when Bancho were in every schoolyard. As Joe's father Kouji took up the Kurogane Motors mechanic shop withe the retirement of his grandfather, Joe was set to take up the mantle down the road, after apprenticing under his father and graduating high school.

That is, until he received an invitation to a gunpla school in the district with no way to refuse. Due to the zoning laws of the Japanese education system, he must attend the closest school to his place of residence- in this case, the unaccredited school where students study Gunpla and nothing else. He dreads being stuck here, since he's pretty sure they don't give out real diplomas and he has no interest in being a professional gunpla player. But while he's here, he might as well make some friends.

Gunpla Info
Musha Gundam Triumph Custom
Scale: 1/100
Based from: Musha Gundam

weapons: DJ Gun (Tanegashima Rifle), Citruslicer & Peerless Saber (kotetsumaru katanas), Heat Tomahawks
Special features: Those flags? They're the heat tomahawks.

Kuuga/Kuuga Gouram
Scale: 1/144
Based from: OM-LU04G2 Dybile Gundam
Mobile Suit:

Mobile Animal/Beast Mode:

Though it's been painted red with gold highlights.
weapons: Two low-grade cannons in the bug legs.
Special features: Like most mechs from Gundam Beast, the Dybile Gundam is able to switch between a Beast Mode and Mobile Suit mode with various advantages and disadvantages. In the case of Dybile, the Beast Mode is capable of flight and has better defenses. However, while it can't fly, the Mobile Suit mode has hands. As an additional advantage, its thrusters are all pointed backward in Suit Mode- allowing it to use all its thrust to move forward quickly.

[User] Chisame couldn't help but sigh this was exactly why she preferred straight builds over customs all the gimmicks come into play than. Still she supposed that all things considered it mattered little to her she could care less about what fancy things they had on their suits over time things will get hard yes but in the end gimmicks will only take you so far. She was easilly proving this by "sniping" at people with the tactical arms in its bow configuration. Hiding behind the debris she was currently showing that skill matters more than fancy specs as she took out a strike unit who probably was overloaded a bit with sheer amount of equipment it had on it.

[Assistant] Haruna sighed she was not one for large combat of this nature still she would do the best she could. Right now though she was currently playing it very careful going after weakened enemies for quick defeats. Using the beam zanbers she cut through mocks and defended against shots against her from the enemies. It was a free for all and it was quickly shaping up to prove her right that she was not cut out for these type of battles.

[User] "Tropheaum" the tower of bodies of the kills of the roman soldiers after a battle. It was said its how they determined the kill count and which soldier did the most during the battle. If that was the case Verdi thought than its more than just a random free for all battle with over the top dramatics. Rather they used a word not many knew or cared for to throw people off. With a sigh Verdi cut down yet another exia suit it was like people were dead set on recreating the show. Seeing the suit she was currently using what appeared to be a straight Masurao build used by Graham Aker during his stint as Mr.Bushido. With a sigh she held out her long and short gn beam sabers before cutting down the suits that was dashing at her not really moving from her spot. This was going to take awhile hopefully her hunch on why they called it a tropheaum was right because otherwise her stand was for nothing.

[Assistant]
Kyo fought the unicorn until it was sliced apart by the Faith's shield in one final clash between the two. "hehe, was adorable, even used the NTD system and everything." they said before looking around. Spotting a fleet engagement between NPC and a fuckton of debris in the middle, most likely hiding people. Maneuvering while slicing apart two players who were in red frame astrays, Kyo moved to the position behind the zeon. "FOR ALL OF YOU WHO ARE PLAYING DENMARK, CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED. YOU CAN FIGHT OR DIE HIDING IN THE RUBBLE LIKE THE COWARDS YOU ARE." Kyo shouted over the open communications channels, taking aim with the twin buster rifle.

Ten seconds passed as those who could monitor them would see a pollution of plavasky particles around the gunpla, incoming beam attacks being nullified to negligible damage. After the ten seconds were up, the twin buster rifle fired. With a blinding brilliance, the plavasky particles around the gundam were sucked inside of it, the beam growing large and becoming a ray of death. It punched through both flagships and wiped out all of the moks in its path. With the bea firing for the better part of ten seconds after the initial warmup. This gave Kyo enough time to swing it, obliterating both flagships and their escorts in the ensuing explosions from them. Judging from secondary explosions of great magnitude, Kyo had also caught several players in the beam. Holstering the weapon between the wings, Kyo readied themselves for the fight coming towards them.

[User]
There was a blip which suddenly appeared behind Kyo's mech. It was then a foot planted itself in the back of her Gundam's head at near light-speed, and then flew straight off into the distance faster than her eyes- or sensors- could keep up with. The mech in question was very, very red though. Taking advantage of the open comms, a Japanese pilot shouted in.

"SHOULDA USED THE COVER, DUMBASS!"

While normally, the Dybile Gundam wouldn't be able to fly because of gravity, in space there was no such restriction- just point the rockets behind you and fly around at almost physically impossible speeds, kicking people in the back of the head. This speed was what made Dybile such a threat to the Federation and ZOO forces during its use in Gundam Beast- speed so great it interfered with the sensors of mechs and was quite literally impossible to follow with the naked eye. Combined with a RADAR-absorbent paintjob he'd gotten from Uncle Go, it made the machine undetectable at anything but point-blank range.

[Assistant]
"Output set. Weapon two, Ripple Laser.", Iggy mumbled, configuring the megasonics to a wide, cone-shaped projectile. There was little point in setting his OPTION drones at the moment, seeing as he had other combatants happy to finish his work for him. Oddly, in spite of the name, the weapons worked just fine in space. Iggy had never really understood why that was, but he wasn't complaining, either.

Blazing through inky blackness of space and weaving through projectile fire, he took potshots as he passed through clouds of combatants, getting an arm here or a leg there, but only downing a couple of mechs, at best. True, he wasn't exactly racking up points, but in a survival match one had to keep their priorities straight- a large quantity of crippled machines would be far simpler to deal with than a small number of fully-functioning ones. After a couple of passes, he checked his rear camera to find a Crossbone-based suit was following him, the namesake thruster straining at full power to keep up with him. Sighing, Iggy looped his far more agile jet behind the earnest tailgater, who began desperately attempting to halt his momentum- a task made far harder when Iggy blasted apart his rocket column and left him drifting through the battlefield. After all, the unit was no longer a threat; there was no need for Iggy to add insult to injury.

Taking a tour through the debris field, he fired blindly as he maneuvered through it. In doing so he inflicted minor damage on a number of machines, but more importantly he broke up the junk they were using as cover and made it that much harder to actually avoid shots. On his way through, he passed by Chisame- though he didn't know it at the time, of course- clipping the top half of her tactical arms with the megasonic cannon. Then, as fast as he had appeared, Iggy vanished into the battlefield.

[User]
Yuki Pulled her Beam Saber out of the chest of a Perfect Gundam and kicked off of it, letting it spark a bit before exploding, then sighed. Kyo's little outburst had sparked a few to form 'hunting packs' and cruse the debris for people waiting it out.

People like Yuki, though in Yuki's case she was half watching to gather data and half staying out of it cause she really didn't like Battle Royals that much, to chaotic for her tastes. Ether way, Yuki had found her self needing to defend her self which she did far better then the Hunting Pack that found her had anticipated, and wound up wrecking the three of them despite her being vastly out gunned by the Perfect Gundam, Victory 2 Buster Assault and Verde Buster, though, much to her personal disdain she did have to use the Wings of Light to do it. She really didn't want to have had to use any of the special system in her Gunpla this early.

[Assistant]
Kyo growled, Faith had lost a bit of the color on the back of its head from the kick. Trying to follow it with their eyes, kyo found that they couldn't. Kyo smirked and switched visual spectrums for their sensors, now boosting after the gunpla. All of the trusters were working overtime as Kyo followed behind it. while Faith might have not had the speed advantage, faith also only really needed to take short cuts. It wasn't long before Kyo was following rather hot behind the beetle. "Parlor tricks like paint like that and raw speed will only get you so far!" Kyo called out as he started to deliver fire from the beam rifle in his hand, the buster rifle holstered for now.

The beam rifle fire was astoundingly accurate as the custom closed in at full burn from every thruster pushing it after the enemy. "All those tricks wont save you when the back of your gunpla looks like a Christmas tree on the thermal!" kyo shouted out, firing a barrage on the back of the beetle Gunpla, aiming to hopefully disable a few thrusters and force him into a fight.

[User]
Chuck, meanwhile, had slipped into serious mode. Which just meant no talking, mostly ignoring whatever comms came through, just focusing on handling combat as best he could. With proper threat assessment thanks to his minimap, skills at managing more than one thing at the same time thanks to his time spent playing real time strategy games and very good manual aim plus some level of understanding of how to survive fake firefights from playing first person shooters, the Axis Zeong carefully drifted along the best covered areas, keeping away from any obviously dangerous enemies while raining down endless firepower on anything unlucky enough to catch his attention.

Usually, resource management made his strategy a tad more difficult. Having all his weapons hooked to the generator meant they were more powerful and didn't have ammo limits but he had to manage the drain, be conservative with their use. None of that here. He was free to just go gung-go with 22 mega particle weapons, and he hadn't even used the head gun or the gigantic cannon on the mobile suit's chest. The result was an almost constant stream of beams erupting from the Axis Zeong like a deadly light show, destroying whatever came into its rather ample killzone, didn't matter who or what it was, and still managing to go practically unnoticed thanks to the general chaos.

Verdi's Masurao, due to its melee focus, was a particularly sweet prey and soon found itself with a fleet-sinking amount of mega particle blasts headed towards it, fired in a pattern that covered areas where the machine might dodge towards before moving the beams closer to its current position rather than simply shooting where it was standing. And it wasn't just a single volley, oh no, Chuck kept the attack up, though always mindful of any other approaching threats. 12 mega particle cannons, plus a constant barrage from 10 mega particle machineguns, all of it fired towards the same mobile suit in different angles of approach.

[Assistant]
Of course, you can't exactly use parlor tricks to catch up to something traveling at relativistic speeds. There weren't any shortcuts- unless that stupid angel-looking edgejob with its magic marker paintscheme was capable of INSTANTANEOUSLY tunneling through several tons of solid rock while also picking up speed. So Joe simply pointed the beetle legs that remained in Mobile Suit mode backward and fired at the unit's wings with the piddling slug cannons, performing an aileron roll to dodge the pink bullets and speeding off into the asteroid field- the mech shifting to darker and darker shades of red. Honestly, that pilot was lucky that there was a waiting period on some of the parts he needed to

"Damn, you idiots got SPOILED with all those fancy mobile suits! All those stupid systems, laser cannons, beam weapons, and spacemagic made you forget what robots are all about!"


[System]
Gender: male
Age: 16
Species: animatronic golem
Room Number: 334
Alignment: lawful neutral
Appearance:

Personality: As a golem, Fuchs has less understanding of human emotions and feelings. He has a desire to feel those emotions, but his first and foremost priority is serving his creator. Fuchs likes children and finds their imagination and simplicity to be a very important part of humanity. His view adults is that they are harder to understand and he hopes that by going to the academy he will learn more about what it is like being more human. He does have a dark side and that his vengeful nature to those that hurt people he cares about. His scary appearance and powers as well as his fondness for pranks has given him a little bit of a bad reputation.

Bio: Howard Von Heinsworth was a scientist who believed that one could mix the wonders of science with the mystical arts to achieve amazing wonders. His peers thought he was crazy and his family were scared of his dabbling in the occult. His desire to make a golem of animatronics and give it life through the mystic arts made him an outcast among the scientific community. While building the golem his son came to visit him in the lab and a malfunction in the equipment caused his son's death.

Howard's wife divorced him and took their other kid away and he was left was nothing, but his work. In a state of depression he made his golem with scary features to resemble his darkened soul and slight madness after all of the horrible things that happened to his life. After finishing the animatronic body he then began the ritual and was able to give life to his creation. After all of his long and hard work and terrible loss, Fuchs the animatronic golem was given life.

Fuchs had the curiosity of a child and Howard treated his creation as if it was his son. As a side effect of the mystical power flowing through his animatronic body, Fuchs had supernatural powers and had the abilities to create and manipulate fire as well as being able to move about stealthily like a phantom despite his animatronic body. After a while of keeping Fuchs a secret, Howard heard about a school where maybe Fuchs could learn more about human emotions with other strange beings.

Fuchs hopes that his stay at the academy will help him realize his dream of understanding humanity.

Power 1: pyrokenisis, it is not powered by magic.
Power 2: supernatural stealth, it is not powered by magic but rather some supernatural force
Likes: happy children, his creator, performing, taking revenge on bad people, following orders from his creator, scare pranks.
Dislikes: sad children, people who hurt children, people without a sense of humor, depression.
Family: He only has his creator who is an occult scientist named Howard Von Heinsworth
Friends: other golems
Sentimental Attachment: He has a picture of him and his creator when Fuchs was given life
Weapon: His hook hand is made of steel and silver, and his normal hand can have steel claws come out. It is his primary weapon aside from his pyrokinetic powers.
Other:

[User]
Kaito Chigusa

Kaito looked at Kuro who had started denying his train of thought. As far-fetched as it sounded, it was entirely possible. But this cat-boy didn't seem to like the idea of it. Heartless were monsters, sure, and they're known for only thing about death and destruction... but what if there was something other than that? The cat-boy must have some kind of tragic history with the Heartless.

"I'm just saying it's possible." He said with a shrug. He then looked back at Shade as he began screaming. He turned into a puddle and escaped the lightning cage, but couldn't pass the light cage. Kaito winced, his eyes blurring for a second, before Victor disappeared. Kaito's eyes turned blue once more and he let out a yawn. Damn, he shouldn't have flown down here. He should've stayed and not followed Miarikia. Even with the overwhelming feeling of darkness coming here.

He then saw Arken appear in front of the cage over cage over cage that held Shade. Kaito knew that it was safe to hang back now that the headmaster was here. He then watched as Arken spoke to Shade and shattered all the cages. Although this did not alarm Kaito. Arken knew what he was getting into and he was more than willing to bet that the guy could suppress and incapacitate Shade with just a snap of his finger. Then finally, Arken mentioned that Shade was a student. Kaito smiled. So he was right.

"This place must be crazy to let a Heartless in as a student." Rav piped up, mildly surprising Kaito. The animal doesn't really talk all that much so it was quite surprising that Rav would comment on something as minor as this.

"We keep one locked up. I don't find this surprising." The white haired male said. Rav remained silent though and Kaito looked back at Shade and Arken. The once twenty foot dragon was now just a small one, back in its original form, Kaito guessed. It was quite cute when you look at it. Kaito tipped his hat at Shade, indicating that he accepted his apology. Arken then went around, healing those that sustained major injuries from what Kaito assumed to be a fight earlier, even before Shade and that Seraphim transformed. Then, he began speaking once more, commenting on everything that they did in the field. When it was his turn, Kaito simply nodded. He may seem lazy, but he does think things through. He just prefers hanging back until someone else does it. But given the earlier situation, he had to act.

Once Arken was done, a set of stairs appeared to the academy. Uh... he'd rather not...

He felt Rav slither down and then turn into a horse. "You just know what I'm thinking eh Rav." He said with a light chuckle before mounting the shapeshifter horse. Rav then went on full speed ahead, passing Arken, and then straight to the Grand Hall. Upon reaching the said place, Rav transformed back into a snake and went on Kaito again.

The white haired male then walked to his previous position before he went down the island to check what was going on. Well this was one way to start the school year. A rampaging Heartless and an out-of-control Seraphim and first impressions just bad all around. Kaito shook his head but had a smile on his face. He was right. This was going to be interesting. He just thought being around other people with powers like him (but not demons like back in hell) was the only thing that's going to be interesting around here. Apparently not.

[Assistant]
Sera Kennithson
Location:The Grand Hall
Mentions:Meruin@TheHangedMan

---

The girl who'd appeared from the blinding flash nodded at Sera, a note of acknowledgement but not an invite over. Sera accepted that, nodding in return before moving over to a somewhat more isolated corner of the hall. None of these people were Faefolk, she felt slightly uncomfortable around them. They didn't even smell the same as the Fae, although that could likely be attributed to the fact that the Fae lived in nature and tended to get incredibly dirty.

Two people who were sat in the hall ran off as they waited for the rest of the students to arrive, Sera overheard something to do with a commotion. Let them handle it if they wanted to, she wasn't here to handle what must have been some childish confrontation for people she didn't know. No, instead Sera chose to sit in her place, waiting for everyone else to join them.

[User]
Irvine was fortunate, it do not appear that the fighting would be making its way over to him. With a sigh of relief Irvine beckoned to the shadow creation with his hand and it faded back to nothing but that which the sun would cast behind him. However it still didn't seem all that safe so Irvine decided to stay clear of the centre, at least until this Arken guy showed up. Whilst in this trail of thought Irvine glanced around him, catching a glimpse of a girl leaping towards him, his eyes grew wide startled and caught off guard once again by a new arising situation. Before she would come into contact with him though she was caged away in a earthen cell and before his shocked look could translate itself into one of anger she was gone from his sight.

Irvine reached out and touched the wall of the corridor that had just erected itself in front of him. Strange, it was almost as though it had been created in the same way as what had caged the girl only a moment ago. As the words began to spell themselves out made out of dust and dirt Irvine sceptically read the message. With everything that had happened could he really trust it? Glancing around, it didn't seem he had much of a choice the path behind him was blocked and it didn't look like the path would lead to where this 'friend' of whoever was helping him was caged. Maybe this was the first creature he'd encounter that wasn't looking for a fight on this field, with a shrug Irvine slowly began to pace down the path forged ahead of him. What was that thing anyway? That leap didn't seem like one fuelled by someone looking for a fight, perhaps hunger. Once Irvine made it to the end of the corridor and the treeline he sighed once more leaning against a tree and looking back down the earthen passage, all he could do now was wait.

It wouldn't be long after the waiting had begun that the corridor disappeared. Back toward the centre of the field there appeared to be a new person, perhaps this was Arken. With little other choice Irvine began to make his way toward the centre of the field. As he passed the girl that had leapt at him, giving her a curious glance over his shoulder. It seemed now that she was fine at least, either that or she'd found some form of prey. Irvine had made it over to the centre to simply catch the end of Arken's speech, from the looks on some faces it'd appear he had been addressing the students, his main focus would also have appeared to be on those fighting. Before him now laid a staircase, leading up to the clouds, up beyond where his eyes could see at least. "This could take a while." Irvine grumbled as he glanced down to his shadow behind him. "Alright time to move." With that said his shadow enshrouded the boy again its cowl resting over his head, as Irvine began to climb the stairs. The first impressions hadn't been great but it would seem that for the most part Irvine had failed to make any. Alas, maybe it was better to set no impression than to set a bad one, but perhaps in not setting an impression that in itself was a bad impression? "Bah." Irvine grumbled to himself once more as he thoughts continued their internal conflict. Hopefully this journey would be shorter than it initially appeared.

[Assistant]
Argentina Rhosphrus & Zephroth
Argentina was suddenly content thirst wise and when she looked around her all the fighting had stopped and her earthen cage disappeared before her very eyes. She wondered how her thirst had disappeared so quickly but she knew what she was going to do when she found out what dorm room she was staying in. Argentina assumed that the person who had suddenly appeared was the headmaster of the academy and wasn't wrong. He made stairs appear from nowhere and guided the students to the academy, although Argentina did wonder weather or not the stairs were invisible or if the headmaster brought the item into existence. It made her wonder just how much power that the headmaster has.
Argentina was one of the last few going up those stairs and to the hallway and she kept one hand on her dear friend Zephroth and asked him if she had hurt anyone

Kyle Maxallion & Zerphina
Kyle watched in awe as everything that had gone to hell so quickly suddenly stopped with the appearance of the headmaster, he healed those with critical wounds and stopped someone who was a major threat. Kyle came to the realisation that the headmaster was incredibly powerful he didn't know why he was shocked by the idea, he should have expected it really but somehow he didn't.
And then a staircase appeared from nowhere leading students like himself up to the academy, this only further proved his idea of the headmaster being powerful. Was the head master even human, if not what is he. He stared at the back of Arken's head for a little while before beginning to follow the others up the stairs. There were so many questions floating around his head. Questions that would remain unanswered unless he decided to ask Arken himself. For now he decided that he would continue to follow the others up the long staircase and into the grand hall.

[User]
Zyxon

"I guess we just missed it, wonder what that was that you felt."Zyxon said curiously finally arriving at the meeting point." well judging from the power emanating from the man leading the crowd up those stairs I'd say he took care of it."says Grim looking at the crowd of students."perfect, I was getting tired of only having you to talk too." Zyxon said jokingly. Although dealing with a spirit that feeds on fear can be difficult if your caught off-gaurd.

Zyxon joined the rest of the group and decided to start a conversation with a guy wearing dark cloth who seemed more like he was avoiding the group."Hi my name is Zyxon and I can manipulate fear in people." Zyxon said deciding to leave out the powerful spirit that he he had attached to him, while still being honest in a way that he could safely prove."and your name?"

Devonis

I looked at the floating academy and thought to myself.' Master Motrin really does have strong aeromancy to have seen this far ahead'. He is old and only has a few years left.he wanted me to take over but when I declined he wasn't surprised or sad he just told me that the path I was choosing was a far different path then what I expected, though I haven't experienced any problems since I left the temple. I haven't even had to use my sword once in these past two years.but coming to this school was obviously going to change all that considering the dragon that I saw on my way here. I had no interest in getting involved so I just stayed parked on the side of the road on my motorcycle and watched.

"im going to miss you stay safe and don't talk to strangers" I said wishing I could take my motorcycle with me.i parked it in the shrubs and decided to walk up by myself, reminding myself of the social norms I had been told about by a man who took pity on my awkwardness and explained to me. He had gotten down the basics like shaking hands and smiling. But still didn't understand the concepts of many other things like popularity and idol talk. While walking to the stairs a breeze flew by and I had a vision of shade turning into dragon.'Well that explains the dragon, but isn't that one of the students?'I looked up at the small dark figure heading up the stairs.'i could never beat that guy with my power, telling the future doesn't help against something that powerful.'

[Assistant]
Fuchs was glad to see the headmaster finally arrive and stopped the fight. He was impressed by the man's powers and Fuch's understood his words when he told him about first impressions. Arken then created a set of stairs that led up to the academy and Fuch's quickly followed up the stairs.

"Magic is truly an amazing thing" he said as he followed the others. Once he was at the academy, Fuch's looked around taking in the sights.


[System]
Gender: Female
Age: 24
Class: Sanctioned Psyker

Psyker Power
Divination & Telekinesis are her main fields of psychic talent, but she also possesses two other abilities such as Smite and Storm of Lightning, as well as a rudimentary form of mental communication. Does not possess any noteworthy healing abilities, and she is just as likely to send someone to the warp as she is to heal a minor scratch.

Appearance:

7ft tall, pale skin and snow white hair. Sturdy and heavy frame, but still retains her feminine figure despite adhering to a strict physical training regime.

The base of her outfit consist of a simple yet elastic skin tight jumpsuit in dark brown color that is capable of withstanding the vacuum of space as well as provide a decent protection against the elements, though offers little protection versus physical threats. Overlayed on top is a series of armaplas plates that form a chestguard, cuisses, knee-high boots, shoulderpads and gloves stretching back and up to her elbows where they form into a sharp point. They offer good locational protection, especially from the front, but leave her jumpsuit exposed in other places, particularly from her lower back and down to the back of her knees where her boots cover both sides of her ankles. The plates are polished to a light gray color, and almost look like silver. The surface is covered with a series of intricate design and artwork in typical imperial fashion, featuring numerous flutes and ridges across the plates, as well as a couple skull imprints. Above her armor she wears a satin blue silk cloak that hangs down from the back of her left shoulder, as well as a silk loincloth hanging from the front of her belt of similar color. Thrown sideways around her torso is a series of books and scrolls attached by chain.

Running up along the spine of her chestguard is a refractor field generator built into the plate itself, taking form of a small generator emitting a series of horizontal, blue lights up along the back of the chestplate, and shaped much like a human skeletal spine. When activated, a faint, blue and almost invisible barrier appears around her figure. Her helmet is made out of the same material as that of her armor, and it takes the form of a gothic plated helmet, with a narrow but wide blue glass visor and a longer neck guard extending out behind her helmet. Two plastic tubes are attached to a rebreather device at the bottom mouth piece of her helmet, that stretch out on each side of her neck and down into a small, highly pressurized air tank built into the back of her chestguard.

Her boots are magnetic, and her entire suit when worn enables her to survive in space, and also provides immunity to most chemical and biological attacks. She carries enough oxygen to last for almost an hour.

Equipment:

Main Weapon: Her primary weapon is a two handed power-weapon in the form of an oversized saber with a sleek blade and an extended handle which doubles as a psyker staff, and adorned with sigils, trinkets, technological gadgets and inscriptions. She often uses her weapon in conjunction with her telekinetic powers to amplify its destructive potential.

Calisto. Plasma Pistol.

Ceremonial Dagger. In essence, just a normal albeit flashy dagger with an adorned handle. Typically only carried for show, but is sharp enough to slice through unprotected skin with ease, and small enough to be concealed without much problem.

Refractor Field. Description under Appearance.

2x Servo-Skulls: Familiars. Mostly used to store events, data, recordings and scrolls and provide reconnaissance.

Character trait: Haunted. Through past deeds, Adrianne has had the great misfortune of gaining the personal attention of an entity in the warp that now stalks her from the other side. Whether this is because of revenge, amusement, desire or hunger; the entity's attention leads to danger for anyone around Adrianne, whether friend or foe; and this danger is in direct relation to the weakness of the barrier between the physical world and the immaterium. Of course, Adrianne would never admit to this; because something like this could _never_ happen to a talented psyker as herself!

Guide – Saved a band of arbiters from the underworld of a hive world during an uprising by using her powers of divination to avoid the roaming mobs and gangs and reached safety without incident. Not a single shot was fired during their escape.

Fireteam – During an Ork incursion, she helped a fireteam of six guardsmen hold off a much larger band of orks after their sergeant was injured through using her powers of divination to guide their fire, turning what had been originally green recruits into seemingly crack shots. Any Ork that left its cover was immediately put down from long range, and when they mounted a frenzied charge together, they didn't make it more than halfway across the field to the trenches before they were wiped out by precision fire.

Warpstorm over Mordran V - Adrianne was assigned to aid the planetary imperial garrison with culling a lesser greenskin uprising, assisting local Imperial Guard and Sisters of Battle forces with the purging when a warpstorm suddenly appeared over the otherwise peaceful colony world of Mordran V. Trapped on the planet, Adrianne found herself fighting for survival alongside her imperial guard as Chaos Ships appeared in orbit, and unleashed a ferocious invasion of the planet! Though the warpstorm only lasted for two weeks, by the time it had lifted, Mordran V had been transformed from a lush, promising garden world into a lifeless, daemon-infested hellscape, with most of its original population killed except for a few imperial strongholds that managed to weather the storm. Her experience from Mordran V would change Adrianne forever. What had been a cautious girl that had stepped onto the planet would instead emerge a seemingly reckless with little to no restraint on her powers!

[User]
"Celestian Superior Aviza Morgenstern, we have finished installing the modifications upon the Typhon that you requested. We will now be taking our leave to return to our normal duties." One of the four Tech-Priests who remained within docking bay AS-383 had approached Aviza, his crimson red robes flowing behind him as he moved across the metallic floor. Without waiting for a reply, the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus swiftly took their leave from the hanger, leaving Celestian Superior Aviza Morgenstern alone with her retinue.

 With her back still turned to her squad, Aviza would finely acknowledge their presence. "There are only four of us this time around, I may have to request additional support. Then again, I have seen each of you in combat and have come to trust in your abilities." The Celestian kept her back turned, walking forward a couple of steps, trying to get a better look at her gunship and it's new modifications. "As I am sure you noticed, my gunship has had custom modifications installed into it for this mission. These include more than just weapons though, as you will see soon enough." The data-pad that Aviza had been using to review all of the Typhons internal and external systems, was placed back inside of its compartment upon her armor before she motioned with her right hand for the retinue to follow her onto her custom gunship.

 The Typhon, was a Thunderhawk that had been stripped of most of its parts and completely redesigned to Aviza Morgensterns specifications. Unlike normal Thunderhawks, this redesign had a much more sleek look to it, and was quite a bit larger. Almost all of its systems had been greatly upgraded, allowing it to outperform most other ships. Along side these changes, the interior had a much more clean and comfortable look to it, a farcry from other ships in the Imperium of man.

 Stepping to the right side of the Typhon would reveal its entrance, a small door that when closed, could not be seen from the exterior. Aviza was the first to step inside, being very careful to not disturb any of the doors mechanisms as she did. Once inside, she would make her way to the cockpit, quickly taking a seat and strapping herself in. The seating within the gunships cockpit would consist of three rows of two seats. The first two were for the pilot and co-pilot, while the other four were for the passengers.

 The Typhon remained stationary for the moment, though the cockpit was now illuminated with a dull azure blue, giving Aviza Morgenstern and whoever had decided to take co-pilot the time to run a full pre-flight check. "I do hope you all have what belongings you wish to bring with you upon this mission, for we won't be returning for quite a while." said Aviza, while checking that the Typhons life support systems were fully functional.

[Assistant]
Vala had just finished cleaning focusing lenses on the heavy las sniper when she spotted the psyker appear. Vala looked indifferent, but was frowning on the inside for a moment, before the frankly abnormal woman gave her a nod. The former mercenary returned a nod moments later as she could at least return the same courtesy." Psyker..." She added in the same way the other woman spoke to her. She was really wondering exactly what the genetic makeup of that woman was, she exceeded average height by a lot. Like stupid lot, it was an abnormality honestly. It was either a genetic random quirk or it was artificially induced and with the woman being a psyker it was hard to say which was the case. Never the less as long as she didn't suffer a case of psyker schenanigans and kill half their team for random reason of losing control of herself, she was fine enough. Albeit a lil annoying at times.

 Finally after that came the Kreigsman. Now that was someone Vala understood even less that the psyker. It wasn't the way he looked or acted that she didn't understand. What she had trouble figuring was why he was here. Like what manner of situation led him from dying in teh trenches with a gasmask on, to entering the service of the inquisition. There was surely a story there and she really wanted to know it, but it was clear he wasn't fancying being firnds with her. Since that was the case, she was keeping all the best stuff to herself... in other words all the good booze she bought/requisitioned/other activities to gain alcohol. She also knew how to quick make a moonshine stills.

 As their leader led them into the ship, Vala studied it's exterior and interior in quite the detail." Why even call it thunderhawk anymore..." She mumbled with a sigh at the Imperium's continued desire to stagnate. The ship might have started as a Thunderhawk once way upon the past, but now with all the modification it had underwent, it no longer was such. Even it's basic frame was altered and made bigger. HGonestly this ship should be given a classification, class designation and be put into larger use by more teams in the galaxy. The way things were kept as 'traditional' as possible was a huge hurdle, it was also one of hte reason she disliekd the Mechanicus. Heck, she was amazed they even made this thing, by their own classification, just creating this ship and it's modifications would be akin to Tech heresy. Actually she decided to ask that." Celestian Aviza, a question if you will... how did you get the cult mechanicus to actually make this thing? It usually takes centuries for them to agree to alter a minor detail such as changing a window for a new type of glass."

 "Yeah, got everything." She replied and tapped the instruments case she was carrying. With it, she could more or less fix anything she ever came across barring stuff that required heavy machinery to actually move like some components for Titans. Like giant bolts and nuts that require cranes to lift. Basically this little case of hers was the equivalent of all those needless cybernetics a priest of the mechanicus cult uses to work on stuff.

[User]
"I do hope you all have what belongings you wish to bring with you upon this mission, for we won't be returning for quite a while."

"Do not worry, Celestian. I have brought all the essentials I need." Adrianne said in a reassuring voice through her steel mask, as the Psyker gestured towards the entrance where a series of heavy, metallic steps would sound. Stepping out of the entryway behind her would be the short and stocky semi-human figure of a servitor as it trundled towards the gunship on cybernetic steel legs, carrying a heavily reinforced, sealed metal casket adorned with protective warding runes and scrolls of protection and banishment. Given its size and the way it required an industrial class servitor to carry it, the box must have weighed more than half a ton or more!

With a click followed by the hiss of air, Adrianne removed her skull helmet; revealing her smooth face, her pale, white skin and snow-white hair that flowed in a long ponytail. With a gesture of her head, she instructed the servitor to load the heavy crate onto the gunship, and it trundled obediently along with only a whirring of cogs and beeps being emitted from its mostly mechanical face.

That was when Adrianne tilted her head slightly to the side, peering over her shoulder down towards the shorter Krieger.

Adrianne had seen many depictions of the Death Korps of Krieg, some of them artful illustrations on walls, murals and books; others as videos and recordings of epic battlefield deeds, marching in rank beneath a hellish rain of artillery fire; their gray, dark uniforms and gas masks making them look dark, brooding and dangerous.

This, however, was not the case with Ansger.

Standing alone in the flight bay, the krieger almost looked lost! Not at all as omineous or imposing as the depictions of the Death Korps had been! Adrianne wondered just why Aviza had decided to bring a Krieger for the mission. From what she understood, the kriegers were stout and loyal, but they were not known for possessing the level of creativity, self initiative and individual decision making that typically characterized inquisitorial agents. She could have understood it if it had been a bunch of kriegers, in which case they could make a sort of protection detail, although just one krieger?

"Krieger." Adrianne nodded towards the Krieger and smiled, and said nothing more; mostly because she was not sure what to say around the guardsman! Turning around, her violet eyes returned to gaze at the oversized gunship.

Moments later, however, her curiosity would get the better of her in the end, and the Psyker peered again back down towards the krieger after a pause.

" ... just... how did you end up here?" She asked quietly, leaning slightly down towards the Krieger and trying to keep her voice as free of judgement as she could!


[System]
Age:?

Race: Human

Appearance: Eiko stands at the height of 5'7, and weighs around 111 lbs, she has a fair skin tone with dark raven colored hair that nearly reaches her shoulders and with some of her hair hanging in between her eyes, she has thin dark eyebrows, she has sapphire colored eyes that turn red when she gets angered, she has thin pink lips, with a small nose and thin eyebrows over top of her eyes. Eiko has a thin Ectomorph build with no real muscles, Eiko has thin and somewhat long limbs, she has an average size bust for someone her age.

Eiko wears a simple grey oppai t-shirt with dark colored cargo pants over her shirt she wears a black bulletproof protective vest, on her elbows and knees she wears knee and elbow pads, on her hands she wears gloves with the fingers cut off.

Skills:

* Expert marksmen
* Agile
* skilled swordsmen

Weapons:

Personality:No matter the situation she is in, Eiko always seems to maintain a tired stoic emotionless expression on her face besides an occasional glare at someone when they annoy her. Eiko even speaks in an emotionless tone to add to her emotionless like persona, Eiko can be very blunt never holding back on her opinions or ideas when asked.The stoic girl has a tendency to make what she does sound a little poetic in a way and reminisce about her upbringing.

Other:Nothing else for now

[User]
Jainus sighed as he felt the familiar purr of the engines, bracing himself as he realized that the engines were firing up much faster than normal. A sudden shake of the craft as it zoomed out of the hanger caused him to thud against the wall of the hallway next to the crew quarters, where the squad would be sleeping when they could get the chance to do so. As the rumbling settled and the ship glided out to a safe distance, and Jainus regained his footing, he made his way to what might have been a mess hall to get some food and reenergize before the mission.

"God damn… I'm hungry..." Jainus grumbled as he grabbed a bowl of oatmeal and took it with him before venturing the rest of the ship to see what was available to him as far as gaining intel on the mission and if he could run into that girl he had saved earlier before the take off. He figured he's just eat during his wanderings and take it easy until he was told to fight. The cold within the ship was subsiding as they got further from the base, but it was a bittersweet feeling, knowing that they would see worse that just a chill in the air. Jainus shrugged and ate his partially chilled oatmeal and kept wandering, wondering who he would run into first.

[Assistant] Tristan's gun goes off while he is putting it back together and the bullet miraculously ricochets and kills him. Poor Tristan. He's dead now.

[User]
'...'

'...hmmm...'

'...'

'I'm starting to think that girl was lying about a library being on this ship...'

'yeah... me to...'

The cloaked girl walked around the corridors of the ship with a confused expression as she tried to locate the illusive library.

'... you know what? screw this, lets find something to eat...'

A quiet rumble echoed down the hall the girl was in before she put her right hand on her belly.

'yeah... we'll ask what's her name about the library after we get a bite to eat'

'hopefully the place where the food is kept is easier to find the this damn library'

The cloaked girl gave up on trying to find the supposed library and began her search for sustenance.

BANG

The cloaked girl froze in place as the sound of a gunshot rang down the hall, she quickly turned around to face the direction of the sound.

'that's not good...'

'oh no!'

Without hesitation she ran towards the sounds origin as fast as she could.

[seconds before the gunshot]

A rather large armored being was quietly walking down one of the halls of the ship, light reflected off it's armored body as it moved, it's heavy foot falls somehow managing to stay silent. As it rounded a corner it noticed a man sitting on a bench working on a firearm, the armored being then began walking towards the man. With little warning the mans weapon went off and fired a round into the hall, the bullet seemed damn near possessed as it danced around the metal corridor, ricocheting off the walls before finding it's target. The mans head jerked from the impact as the projectile pierced clean through his skull while making a mess of the wall behind him before proceeding to speed down the hall only to ricochet once more, the bullet raced towards the large being's head only to be stopped cold in it's armored hand bringing it's rampage to an end.

The armored man clenched it's hand tightly before lowering it's hand to it's side, dropping the crushed bullet to the floor. The armored man walked towards the unfortunate casualty and kneeled, bringing it's left hand to the mans face to close his eye's. The armored man then stood before looking down the hall to it's right, either oblivious or ignore the red liquid it got on it's hands from the fallen crew member.

'c'mon hurry up! we have to get there before what's his name does!'

'what does it matter if he gets there before us?! someone needs our!... o-our...'

The cloaked girl had finally arrived at the gunshots origin, and she wasn't expecting what she seen. A tall armored man stood in front of one of her teammates with it's left hand dripping blood. Her eyes widened in surprise as she took a shocked step back, one of the people on her team, one who was specifically selected for this mission because of their abilities, was now dead at the hands of an armored giant. She wasn't so much socked at the fact that a teammate that she hardly knew was just killed. What had her backing up was that this large and somewhat intimidating armored being who somehow got onto the ship without anyone knowing, just killed one of her teammates and she didn't know how it did it, or how powerful it was.

'whoa... he looks tough...'

'what should we do?!'

'well obviously we kick his *ss! and teach him not to mess with us!'

'what?!'

'you heard me!'

The girl grit her teeth as she narrowed her eye's, though she seemed focused she was actually having an internal debate. Meanwhile the Armored man tilted it's head slightly before looking at it's left hand, noticing the red substance slowly dripping away it help it along and shook off the remaining liquid. Knowing that the situation looked bad the being took a few steps towards the cloaked girl, stopping after said few steps before trying to explain itself.

"hey... calm down, this isn't what it looks like..."

The man calmly explained through it's helmet's external speakers while he somewhat raised his hands in a surrendering manner, The girl seemed to focus as she narrowed her eye's slightly.

"okay... why don't you tell me what happened then?"

'what are you doing?! attack him while he's off guard before he tries to kill us to!'

She asked as calmly as she could, her eyes looked like they were having a little difficulty staying on the armored man.

"it was an accident, his weapon misfired while he was working on it... it ricocheted and... you can see the results..."

With that said the armored man looked to the deceased crewmember's body before looking back to the cloaked girl while lowering his arms to his sides. The girl loosened up slightly before she looked around the hall, noticing the small dents in the walls, floor, and ceiling of the corridor, then there was what she guessed looked like a crushed bullet on the floor a few feet from the armored being.

'that's a total coincidence that those dents were there! there's no way that could've of happened! look how many times the bullet would have had to ricochet!'

'look at the evidence... his story checks out... he's not holding a weapon, and our teammate's weapon looks like it was behind worked on... and look! right there on our teammates gun! the place were the casings come out looks scorched as if something went wrong!'

"I know it may sound a little farfetched, but it's true, you can check the security recordings for proof"

'tch...'

The cloaked girl raised a brow before the armored man motioned with his head towards one of the cameras at the end of the hall. With a bit of hesitation she eased up as she calmed down.

"well... innocent until proven guilty right? I think that's how the saying goes..."

'ugh this is so lame!'

The armored man nodded his head slightly as he spoke in a tone that somehow portrayed him smiling.

"yeah, that's the right way to say it"

'okay, lets say he didn't kill that guy, we still don't know who is he and why he's here...'

The girls widened her eye's slightly as a thought came to her, she then tensed up slightly.

"wait, who exactly are you? you weren't mentioned as one of the people who'd be here for this mission so why are you here?!"

She exclaimed accusingly while pointing towards him, also accusingly. The armored man didn't seem fazed by this as he answered calmly.

"The name's John, and would you believe me if I said I just wanted to help? I got word of your mission from a reliable source and I thought I'd lend a hand..."

John said as he looked back to the dead teammate before looking back to the cloaked girl.

"considering you're now missing two..."

He said somewhat grimly, the girl winced slightly.

"I'd be a little hard pressed to believe you... but... you seem honest... don't make me regret this, because if you do I'll make sure you regret it more!"

The girl exclaimed in what she would call a tough tone.

'ough... that was so bad...'

'shut up! I'm doing me best here!'

'still bad~'

John chuckled lightly as he smiled under his helmet.

"I promise I wont make you regret it"

Once again The girl calmed down, though she was still a little untrusting towards John, which was a little obvious with the look she was giving him.

"well, I should probably see the captain of this ship, let them know I'm here to help"

John said in a relaxed tone as he looked down the halls before looking to the cloaked girl.

"you wouldn't happen to know where they are do you?"

"oh, yeah she's in the... the um... um.."

'the bridge...'

"the bridge?"

"The Bridge! yes! that's what I was going to say... eh-heh-heh...hehe..."

The girl said with a smile as she chuckled sheepishly before she calmed down. She let out a small sigh before she began walking down the hall they were in with a small smile. John followed her shortly after, and was slightly surprised when he heard a low rumble coming from the girl in front of him.

"uh... c-could we get stop to get something to eat first? I'm kind of starving..."

'pff.... if it wasn't for the fact I didn't trust the guy behind us, I would be laughing right about now... heh-heh-heh-heh....'

The girl said in an embarrassed tone as she looked to John, who smiled under his helmet and nodded to her.

"sure, I could go for something to eat right about now, we'll find the captain after"

"great!"

She said cheerfully as she proceeded to lead John on the search for food.

"oh... I guess I forgot to mention it earlier, my name's Majin Eve"

"it's nice to meet you Eve"

John replied in a friendly tone as he followed Eve down the halls of the ship.

[Assistant]
After he had located and sussed out the infirmary, feeling confident in his abilities now that he knew where everything was. The weak little boy left again and decided to make his way back to the bridge, where he knew everyone else was at the moment, to see what was going on and if they were out of immediate danger yet.
He found his way around a little easier, and didn't bump into anyone on the way, making him wonder if there was anyone else on bored the ship, aside from them. Soon found himself back at the bridge, though not knowing what to do, he just shrunk into the background, and chose to observe for a while, deciding that he wouldn't be all to useful at the moment, since he didn't know how to fly an airship and all that.

"I do wonder what is going on" He spoke quietly to himself as he moved out of someone's way, then moved forward to see what their leader was doing, before moving to look out the windows.

[User]
When the gunshot rang out, Eiko's ears perked up, like a dog hearing a sound far away, or like a wolf hearing it's prey; Eiko silently began leaving the bridge, she didn't bother telling where she was going, she felt that the captain would notice she was gone sooner or later; Eiko passed by the shy boy, before going off to investigate the gunshot that she heard earlier, the moment she felt she found where the sound came from she saw the majin once again, along with two others that were taller than her in armor.

Eiko watched the group before they left heading for the bridge, when they were gone, Eiko investigated the area. She noticed the body, the bullet casing, and the weapon, she took the weapon from the dead man's hands and checked the gun's magazine, she noticed that one of the bullets were spent." I guess he wasn't experienced. Rule one of gun safety is to clean your weapon with the safety on. I rather not clean this up." Eiko put the gun back into the guy's hands. She counted herself lucky she was wearing gloves, because she didn't want to be blamed for the death of the crew member, as she turned around going back to patrolling the ship she spoke to nobody in particular." One dead before we could even do this mission. That's a new record."


[System]
Age: 29

Nationality: German

Base of Operations: Earth; Europe

Class: Duelist

Preferred Advanced Class: Knight

Equipment:
* Main Weapon: Ion Ostryx Battle Axe
* Secondary Weapon: Ion Throwing Knives
* Armor: Ostryx Body Armor
* Gear: Plasmic Grenade

Gene Mods:
* Adaptive Nerve Firing: Allows a soldier to react faster to attacks. Boosting the soldiers Dodge that makes enemies miss more often.
* Adaptive Bone Marrow: Allows a soldier to heal faster than normal and grants Drachen an immunity to Chryssalid Poison.

Appearance:
Drachen is a rather large man, standing at six feet four inches with a heavy build. Thick muscles that would look more at home on a Heavy unit than a Duelist. His skin is darkly tanned from being outside so much, and is littered with numerous scars from various wounds over the years. On his back are a set of draconic wing tattoos that look surprisingly real. He's strangely hairless as well despite his ancestry.

Like the rest of him he's completely bald, whether by choice or not is in his file. Thick black eyebrows rest on a rather thick ridge, making him look angry and casting a small shadow over his eyes. Said eyes are a steel gray in color and slightly sunken. Between his eyes and lower down he has a block-ish nose. His lips are average, but hold a slight natural frown that gives his overall look to be angry.

Backstory:
Drachen was born in Germany a year after the war for Earth was over. His name is kind of a give away on that along with some of a remaining accent. His younger years flew by in an unimportant blur until he joined up with the military. Schools didn't cover the Alien Invasion very well, a lot of hush hush details apparently. Here he learned a lot more on what actually happened in the war by checking records available in his off time.

During training he found that he preferred getting up close and personal instead of hiding a mile away to blow somethings head off. His size, endurance, and overall might, tended to win out over technique when it came to hand to hand. A few Veterans of the War that were still active compared him to a Muton. Although biologically his strength didn't compare to their brutish might. After learning hand to hand techniques he was moved on to learn the weaponry of a Duelist. Swords and throwing knives. Unfortunately the swords were simply too light and adding weight would make the weapon awkward and clumsy. So an axe was made with the same technology. Thankfully an axe tended to follow the same attack patterns as a sword minus drawing cuts.

Unfortunately, in his mind anyway, there weren't any Aliens around after all that training. It was basic patrols, hunts that came up empty, and more training. Well he trained on his own, going above and beyond the norm. Between orders he did everything he could to increase his strength, surpass his previous move speeds, and to hone his reflexes despite the Gene Mods active within his body. Hell the Adaptive Bone Marrow let him abuse himself to go even further beyond normal human standards.

Finally it was decades after the War and Humanity decided it was time to go Alien hunting through space. He didn't really understand the tech to traverse space, would they be in cryo like in the movies? Or did the ships just move that fast now that they could just...warp to the planets and go on the offensive? He'd find out soon enough.

[User]
Hartford Military Base
New Star, Mars Colony
1100 hrs Local Time

Hartford was always busy before, since it was the primary defense point on Mars against another Extraterrestrial incursion of Earth. There were always technicians moving between workstations, fighters patrolling the airspace above the cannon and between the two colonies and soldiers on patrol or out for their daily PT routines and training. There were constant expeditions out into the martian wilderness in search of Chrysalid nests on top of that. It had taken about five years after New Star was established to realize that the Ethereals had allowed the Chrysalids to build nests on the red planet, right after a massive swarm nearly overran the then newly built Harford Base while the defense cannon was under construction. But today, as the newest arrivals from Earth arrived in an APC from the starport on the other side of New Star, there was an air of urgency.

Word had come from high command back on Earth that preparations were being made to launch an attack on an Alien stronghold in the next solar system on a planet that the xenobiologists were calling Arthan-3. The ADVENT Initiative had been identified as the primary guard force there, but shortly before the order to prep for invasion came through, a high value transport was identified arriving at the location and Commander Jervald, the legendary mind that had orchestrated XCOM's masterful defeat of the Aliens in many early engagements, saw a valuable opportunity to remove an Ethereal from play and establish a foothold in other parts of the Galaxy.

Amongst the new arrivals were three XCOM recruits that showed promise during training, Drachen Steinboden, a Duelist who forewent the typical grace of the fighters for a more brute force approach, but none-the-less had scored high enough in his class to catch the group's eye. Marcia Devries, a rifleman who did exceptionally well in her medical training, XCOM's recruiter hoped to make her a combat medic when the time comes. And lastly, though certainly not least, the granddaughter of the legendary psi-op Stefan Weisser, Helene Weisser, who was a powerful Psi-Op herself. The three were quickly separated from the rest of the new arrivals by a large MEC trooper and directed to a separate hangar, where a young man with dual plasmic revolvers sat on a crate chewing on a piece of jerky while an older man with a plasma rifle across his back and a Gremlin floating around him as he reviewed a holographic table with the fortress layout.

However, as the three walked in, the Gremlin beeped and the older man turned to face them, a scar crossing his right eye and a robotic eye glowed green. "Ah, the new blood finally arrived. Take a seat over by your squad mate, who will introduce himself or spend the next week on KP before the operation, and then I'll get on with the mission briefing." The young man sighed mid-chew and then finished, swallowing before he gave a lazy wave, the light glinting briefly off his storm-grey eyes.

"Corporal Damian Renser, gunslinger. I round out our squad of five." The older man nodded as the others took their positions and then spoke again.

"And I'm Captain Trent Gardner, advanced infantry specialist. And I welcome you all to Ox Squad, the newest squad to be formed under XCOM's direct command alongside the UEG regulars. Now that that's done, here's the mission. As you've likely heard by now, long range recon has found a stronghold on Arthan-3 in the Utila System that was recently visited by a potential HVT. Normally the Commander would pass it up and look for a better launch point for the invasion, but he recognized the shuttle as one belonging to an Ethereal, which we don't often see this close to the Sol system after their failed invasion ended thirty years ago. So you're aware, they want you new bloods to see what the Aliens are actually capable of in person, so while normally you'd be a more reserve role, we'll be in the Vanguard of the attack and responsible for finding the HVT and eliminating or containing them. As such, we'll be in this Starskimmer Holy Mackeral, waiting for us in bay 8. Questions, concerns, complaints?"

Damian didn't speak and instead continued chewing on his jerky while he waited for his new squadmates to speak up.

[Assistant]
|
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 Weisser's Combat Log, "Shipping Off"
__________________________________________________________

"My PSO(psychic support officer) insisted that I start a journal before I ship off on my first deployment off this rock. I mean, I didn't even have a diary as a little girl. Too busy listening to pap's stories instead I guess. My hands are shaking as I write this. Not sure if its nerves or excitement. Probably both. Nearly shocked Rodriguez in the shower when I heard the news. XCOM wanted me for some new initiative! Best of the best! I got a gift from home, from pap actually. Don't know how he knew, but he did. An old ballistic pistol from just before the invasion. Said it was a 'good luck charm'. Not sure if I deserve to carry it. I'll try my best. Should probably try to sleep. Gonna be a long day tomorrow. Can't wait!"

Hartford Military Base
New Star, Mars Colony
1100 hrs Local Time
 |

---

Hartford. It never stopped to amaze her or fill her with a strong sense of pride at its image painted against the harsh, red sands of Mars. New Star might be the promise of a place among the stars for Humanity, but it was Hartford that made that promise a reality. The will not only to settle new worlds, but the power to protect them from hostile invaders. Helene took uniform yet brisk steps as she followed behind the MEC, dressed in her most pristine and tailored uniform that bore the insignia of her psi-ops program on the right shoulder. Technicians and soldiers stared at them as the three passed by. Helene never once gave them a second glance. Her left hand reached for her shoulder and she gently rubbed it, fingers tracing the stitch-work of the insignia. Her other hand held the synthetic-fiber duffel bag that contained her combat gear.

Her muscles tensed up as they entered the hangar, eyes immediately focusing on the two individuals that appeared to be waiting there though her attention was redirected to the older man in the room. A soft sigh was released as he spoke with authority, glancing over to the younger man that he indicated. Helene remained standing while Corporal Renser introduced himself, hands behind her back with her right thumb pressing against the palm of her left. Once he had finished, she picked up her duffel bag and sat in the farthest seat from his setting the bag at her feat. Helene eagerly looked back at the older man, now introduced as Captain Gardner. A soldier who looked like he'd seen quite a bit of action. She sat up straight, hands smoothing out her uniform, as she continued to listen with full attention.

Helene kept still as a statue except for the slight movement at the edges of her lips that was stubbornly beyond her control. It was an honor, no, a privilege to be given such an important role in what could be a monumental offensive. This was her chance to continue the legacy of the respected Weisser name. Each member of her family dedicated their lives to serving and protecting Humanity. There was no way she could ever return home if she failed. After the captain had finished, Helene left her seat in one fluid motion and stared at him with determination "Only one, sir. When do we set off?"

[User]
Drachen's eyes were closed on the ride in the APC to Hartford and his hands were clasped behind his back. Leaning back like he was he almost looked asleep and his face wasn't that mask of anger with cold metallic colored eyes. When the vehicle came to a stop his eyes snapped open and up he got, exiting the vehicle with other recruits. But he stuck with two others, he had memorized their names and faces since they were to be a unit. An MEC directed the three away from the other recruits and to a separate hangar.

Weisser seemed very...proper while they moved. Her eyes didn't leave their sitting objectives. Devries...he didn't really get a read on her yet. Drachen however looked around, an air of caution around him as if he were an animal in a new territory. His hands didn't stay idle, tightening the straps on the fingerless gauntlets or adjusting his belt. It was a mental checklist to make sure he hadn't left anything behind really but most others would see it as a nervous tick.

Once the triplets got to their destination he took note that the jerky chewer was youthful while their commanding officer was an aging soldier. The younger of the two had twin pistols, namely revolvers of a plasma variety. The elder had a plasma rifle and a gremlin, why did they move onto plasma? A question for another time. Still he stood over with the others, staying on his feet rather than sitting down. Their mission would be starting soon, no point in sitting down now.

The mission briefing was short and to the point. They were to go to another system, kill or contain an Ethereal, and hopefully not die. "I have one, sir. Any idea how many contacts there will be?" He questioned, his voice was unsurprisingly deep and rumbled a lot like distant thunder. The others could catch a hint of a German accent but it wasn't even remotely heavy.


[System]
Age: 23
Title: President's Daughter and Club Member
Rap sheet: 1 count of shoplifting, 2 counts of prostitution, 1 count of assault

Apperance: Long, jet black hair. Of average height, leans towards being slender. Her boobs are fake, but that ass of her's is real. Unlike in the picture, her ears are not stretched.
Personality: Tallis is a firecracker. Lively and excitable, with a temper that will burn you. She draws you in with her beauty, but keeps you there with her explosive passion about everything she does. She loves keeping up with the guys, trying to prove that she's no different than them...and that she's earned her place in the Club. More than anything, though, she loves men and she loves what they can do to her body.
History: Tallis Black lived a lavish lifestyle, that is until her mother took her away from her father at 15. Mrs. Black didn't want to lose Tallis to the Red Devils like she lost her husband and son. At 18, though, Tallis joined up with a local chapter because she found it too difficult to leave the life behind. She started to work her way up the ranks, but home was calling too loudly for her liking

Kaci Tillman
Nickname: Kase
Age: 20
Title: Civilian
Rap sheet: Clean

Apperance: Tall and slender, not very curvy. Keeps her hair perfectly curled, and never goes anywhere without makeup.
Personality: Kaci is quiet and shy, desperately trying to break out of her shell...and step out of Jeremy's shadow. Both are not easy tasks. She doesn't drink or smoke, and she'd never be caught dead in the club. She loves the Red Devils, though, and has been trying to show that she can be just like one of their Old Ladies. Loyal. A freak in bed. Street smart. Fierce. But as of now...she's none of these things.
History: Kaci lost her father when she was very young, meaning it was only her and Jeremy. She followed Jeremy everywhere, because he's the only family that she has now. Family has to stick together.

[User]
Solomon heard his phone vibrating repeatedly and wiped the grease off his hands to check. "Jesus, K," he murmured as he read the first two texts, a smile creeping on to his face. The last two texts made him stop to think before he responded. Of course, Tallis was attractive, pretty much to every man who saw her. But, Kaci was different. She wasn't cold and hardened like all of the other women he met through the club. She was delicate, kind, and quietly seductive. She didn't need to flaunt what she had for Solomon to know that he wanted it.

"If you mean your brother," he typed, "then yes. You know how he is around her. If you're referring to me, then shut the fuck up. I'm almost done here at the shop til we meet back in a few hours. Want me to swing by?" He hit 'send' and locked his phone, running a greasy hand through his hair without thinking. "Shit," he cursed when he realized what he did. He put away his tools and walked upstairs to his room. "At least with Tallis here, Tillman will be preoccupied." With that thought, he stripped and jumped into the shower.

------------------------------------------

Jeremy decided to stay at the bike while Tallis visited Taylor's grave. Shit, he probably visited it enough for the both of them, sometimes twice in a week depending on what the club had going on. He missed Taylor more than he'd care to put into words, and everyone usually tried to stay clear of the subject with him. Another reason seeing Tallis was so painful was that she reminded him so much of Taylor. All the memories the three of them had together would flood his mind when he saw her face.

 After the "accident," Jeremy sought revenge with the club the other driver had been in. This caused a sort of street war, with a few lives lost along with a lot of business. It turned out a lot of buyers don't want their coke when it comes from a seller knee deep in enemy blood. They finally built business back up, but they were now on the cusp of another war.

His phone vibrated, and Ashley's name flashed across his screen. "I thought you weren't gonna call me, Ashley," he laughed. "Shut up, Tillman. What are you doing tonight?" He rolled his eyes at the question. "More club business, and I have a visitor from out of town. I probably won't be seeing you for a while." The girl on the other end paused for a moment. "Whatever, Tillman." She hung up on him.

Once he noticed Tallis had fell silent, he lit a cigarette and approached her and the plot. He pulled it out of his mouth and placed it on top of the tombstone to "share" with Taylor. He reached into the breast pocket of his cut and pulled out a silver flask, taking a swig and wiping his mouth with his arm. He held out the flask to Tallis as to offer her some, the same stone cold expression remaining on his face.

After a few minutes of standing in silence, Jeremy reached a hand down to help her up. "Ready?"

[Assistant]
Despite Solo's words, the feeling of unease had permanently settled in Kaci's chest. "No, I'll be coming to you. If Tallis is in town, that means Jeremy will be spending a shitton of time here." Send. "I'll be there in an hour. Kisses." Fuck. What was she going to tell Jeremy? She scrolled through her inbox searching for his name. "I'm going to be out with the girls today, so the house is yours if you wanna bring Tallis over and do...whatever. Just letting you know. Have fun and wrap up ya dick. Love you, Jerm!" It wasn't her best work, but it would have to do. As long as Tallis and Jeremy came straight here, everything would be fine.

Just fine.

___________________________

Tallis' pretty face was stained with tears, bright eyes rimmed red and swollen. Her makeup had stood the test, still flawlessly applied. She gladly took the flask and finished up its contents. Cheap whiskey. Jeremy's favorite. It took all she had not to spit it out. "Jesus Christ," she cried with a look of disgust. "Remind me to give you your present when we get back to the clubhouse. It's a bottle of 1975 Glenrothes single malt scotch. Which means we can drinking all in one sitting. It's expensive shit." She accepted his help to her feet. "For our tradition of one bottle a night, though, I got us a little more than just a bottle of cheap rum." Had they not been at the cemetery, she would have gladly given him a taste of what was waiting for him when they got home.

But respect for the dead and all.

She waited for Tillman to get back on the bike, positioning herself so that he could feel the warmth of her breath on the back of his neck. Her hands resting on his inner thighs. Why hold on when riding a bike was as natural as riding a horse or a man? Instead, she could tease him. Whispers of all the things she wanted to do to him when they got back. Her hand rubbing over the most sensitive part of his anatomy. Kisses gently placed on the back of the neck. Tallis had perfected the art of seduction while on the back of a motorcycle.

A lot had been perfected since she last saw Jeremy.

_____________________________

"Jeremy isn't here, Kaci, he took Tallis to the cemetery." The rough, heavily accented voice of Patty caused Kaci to jump. "You're also not supposed to be here anyway. Tillman made that abundantly clear."

"Oh, I know. I'm not looking for my brother." Her words caused one of Patty's brows to raise. Oh, shit. Think fast, Kaci! "I'm actually just here to talk to Solo about Jeremy and Tallis, I want his input on the whole situation. Tallis had Jeremy wrapped around her little fingers...and I just want to make sure that he'll come out of this intact. Solo is the only one I can really talk to this about...wit Wiz gone and all. I mean, I just thought..." She was beginning to ramble.

"Okay, okay, okay." Patty waved his hand in her direction. "Just don't be too loud, I need some plausible deniability if Tillman asks any questions." He smacked her butt to get her going before returning back to his Playboy, all but forgetting his conversation with baby Tillman.

Kaci raced up the stairs, slipping into Solo's room without knocking. She couldn't see him, but she could hear the shower water running. "Solo, I'm here!" As she spoke she began removing clothes until all that was left was a sultry crop top and black, lace thong.

[User]
Jeremy cracked up watching Tallis take down the rest of his flask. "You remember my cheap taste, don't you?" He smiled at the mention of the scotch. It'd been a while since he had anything more expensive than a $20 bottle of whiskey. "Thanks, Tallis. We'll stop by the clubhouse to get your shit, then I'll let you unpack at my place. I have some paperwork to take care of when I get back."
Before getting on the bike, he checked his phone to see a text from Kaci. He rolled his eyes at the text. "She's staying in the guest room until further notice. Come home when you're done. Need to talk."

He started the bike and slipped on his helmet as Tallis got on the back of the bike. A part of him didn't want to bring her to his house. He had worked so hard to remove the grip she had over him, and having her staying in the most private part of his life, his home, was daunting. Snapping himself out of his thoughts, a wave of chills ran down is back as he felt her breath on his neck. "Fuck," he whispered to himself, feeling her hands and lips on him. Was this what she was going to do to him the whole time she was here? Tease him, bed him, and then leave him again for an indefinite amount of time? He grabbed her hands and wrapped them around his waist, removing them from his thighs. "What the fuck is WRONG with you," he cursed at himself mentally. "Isn't this what you've been waiting for? You're acting like a bitch." He shook his head, backed out, and sped off from the cemetery parking area.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Solomon heard his name being called from the shower. "Coming!" He yelled as he turned off the water and wrapped a towel around his waist. He opened the door to see Kaci, barely dressed, and approached her slowly. "Hey," he simply said in a quiet voice as he wrapped her arms around her and kissed her. As the kiss continued, one hand came to her neck with a thumb on her face and the rest of his fingers in her hair. His other hand began to slide down her back, until the sound of a motorcycle approached the clubhouse. Solomon broke the kiss and ran to the window. "God DAMN it," he cursed, running a finger through his here. "Tillman's here."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeremy and Tallis pulled up to the clubhouse after an uneventful ride. "Solo's bike is here. Good. I have to talk to him, too." As his thought ended, he heard heels clicking in a hurried pace right towards him. "What now?" He snaps his head to the right, immediately feeling a sting on his cheek. There was Ashley, huffing and puffing, eyes switching back and forth between Tallis and him. "Is this your guest?" she said in a low, angry tone. "Ashley," he began. "Don't 'Ashley' me, Tillman. Do you really think that she's better than me? This tattooed, slutty bitch?" Jeremy rubbed his cheek and rolled his eyes. "Ashley, I fuck you. That's it." This made Ashley's anger skyrocket as she began to walk towards Tallis. "Leave him the hell alone. He deserves better than you."

[Assistant]
Oh God. She had missed Solomon's touch. His fingers in her hair as he pressed his lips to hers. The blissful moment was short-lived, though, as the roar of a motorcycle pulled Solo's attention to the window. His words made her blood run cold and her heart fall into her stomach. "This can't be happening. He'll beat the shit out of you if he catches me here." She ran her hands over her face. "Where are my clothes, Solo? I need to hide." The panic was clear in her shaking voice.

This was a nightmare.

________________________________________________

Ashley's anger skyrocketed as she began to walk towards Tallis. "Leave him the hell alone. He deserves better than you." Her anger only growing at Tallis' apparent amusement at the situation. Why was she smiling like a demon? It was unsettling. This bitch is crazy.

"This is who you're fucking, Tillman." Surprise was evident in her voice as Tallis pointed to Ashley. "I should have come back sooner." Her words were like daggers, meant to wound not kill.

"What is that supposed to me, bitch?!" Ashley demanded. She was shaking like a chihuahua.

"It means you are nothing compared to me. I'm a fucking dragon and you're just a whore. You wanna be his old lady, but you can't even convince him to stay faithful to your bed. You'll never be more than the girl he fucks when his nuts are full." She paused long enough to gauge Ashley's reaction. Her words were hitting their mark every time. Club members were beginning to pour out of the clubhouse, watching with arms crossed and blank expressions. "And you're right, he does deserve better than me. I won't argue with you on that one, but he also deserves better than you. He deserves an old lady that's going to rub his back after he comes home from killing a man and not think twice about it. The only thing you rub is his balls. Bitch, you don't love him like--" Her words were interrupted by a fist to the face.

"That'll shut you up, won't it bitch?" The pride was clear in Ashley's voice; she thought she had one.

Oh, how wrong she was.

Blood was filling Tallis' mouth and her vision was beginning to go red. She spat the blood towards Ashely, launching herself at her; Tillman's whore cried out as she hit the dirt, "Help!" No one would dare come to help her as Tallis pounded her fists into the poor girl's face. Ashley did all she could to protect herself, but she was at a disadvantage; Tallis was on top of her, pinning her arms down with her knees.

"Please...stop..."


[System]
Gender: Female

Age: 21

Career/Class: Courtesan/Duelist

Physical Description: Camilla is a medium sized woman around 5'5. She possess the slightly bronzed skin, angular features and dark hair common among Tileans. She has the smooth clean lines of a classical statue and the lean musculature of a dancer. Every part of her seems artfully contrived, as though she stepped from the canvas of a master painter. Camilla moves with deliberate grace which is appropriate to her profession.

Mental Description/Personality: Camilla is a fiery impetuous young woman. As a child she was selected from among orphan's for her physical beauty and raised to fill the role of Courtesan in the decadent courts of her native Tilea. Among her studies were poetry, dance, repartee, song, politics, literature, art and sword play.

Camilla is out of place in rough and dangerous situations, and although naturally adventurous and curious about the world she is no heroine. She has a fiery temper and has a tendency to act rather than to wait if given the chance. While technically trained with the sword, Camilla's education is that of the stylized art of the sword rather than the rough and brutal style of real combat, while she is perfectly comfortable fighting a duel to the tough for the entertainment of a crowd, she had little experience with real killing.

Camilla has a passing devotion to Randald and Shyalla, although she tends to focus on the world in front of her rather than the world beyond.

[User]
Cyrdic gave Camilla a wink when she spoke of them working together, and he caught the block of cheese. It was rough and coarse to the touch, but he greedily bit into it regardless. He felt more like an animal these past few weeks than ever before, yet they were getting closer and closer to civilization. They just needed to awaken Dietrichia and fight off reinforcements if they were discovered, and of course they would be. By the Gods, the Chaos Dwarf's necks had been thick. He wasn't entirely sure if it was his weakened state or the fact they were Dwarfs and thickly muscled.

"We'll need to carry her to wherever the alter is within the temple," Cyrdic said. Yantz was already hoisting her up over his shoulder, and Konrad went to grab a few more bites of meat and cheese for the journey ahead, though everyone in the room hoped they wouldn't have too much of a journey left to them. All except Skaldi. He seemed more vengeful at the owners of this temple than showing any real concern for his safety.

"Ver do ve go?" Ivan said, trying to talk as quiet as he could, though his voice still caused the big man's mustache to flap lightly.

"I'm not sure..." Camilla said, poking her head out into the hallway once more. Cyrdic was across from her, hugging the other wall. After a moment, Cyrdic whispered. "Wait here." to everyone, and he shared a look with Camilla. He could see the courtesan's face fall somewhat at the thought of being separated again, but he gave her a reassuring smile. "One second," he whispered, and stepped into the hallway, keeping low with his sword out.

Camilla was far better at infiltration, but Cyrdic was no stranger to ambush, and his nose might be able to help him. He placed his weight on the balls of his feet and stalked, hearing naught by the crackling of fire in the distance behind some bend. He passed by three more corridors, two of them filled with distant grumblings of the Chaos Dwarfs. It was at the end of the second hallway he heard the fire far closer, and the smell of sulphur in the air.

A small incantation or prayer was being recited however. He dared not look further, for fear of being spotted. "Sigmar, please be the way," he breathed as he turned back. A coarse roar was heard from behind him at that moment, and it caused him to freeze in his tracks. He paused for but a moment, and then continued back, knowing that whatever awaited them was something they would need to deal with regardless of if he looked.

Hugging Camilla, he turned to the others. "I think I found where we should go." he said. "But there's Chaos Dwarfs there. A sorcerer...and something more."

[Assistant]
Camilla felt her fingertips grow cold at the strange roar. She looked around the group, still mostly dead on thier feet, and wondered if they really had any chance of reaching the altar. Dietricha seemed to be stirring, her eyelids fluttered and a trail of blood ran from her right nostril. It seemed extremely unlikely that the wizard would be able to transport them with her magic. Camilla let out a weary sigh. The odds might be poor, but there was no chance they would remain hidden long enough to regain their strength and for the next few minutes they would at least hold the element of surprise. She squeezed Cydric's hand.

"Lets go and may Myrmidia be with us."

They crept out of the passageway Cydric had found and into what seemed to Camilla like an immense amphitheatre. There were scores of tiers each constructed of tesselated black obsidian. At the bottom of the circular chamber, nearly fifty feet below was a floor of black volcanic sand. An altar of brass and red marble was located in the center. Horned dwarf things in long robes stood in a circle. Great brass braziers blazed with fire that seemed to bubble like lava. A great lion headed beast, its dark pelt black with blood stood upon the altar. One of the dark priests painted sigils onto its skin with blood drawn from a bowl. As the bowl emptied it was passed to another priest. A line of prisoners, mostly orcs and goblins, were being lead to the altar. One by one the prisoners were pushed to their knees and their throat slit to fill the bowl. All the while the priests chanted and the crowd roared.

"There are at least a dozen priests on the altar, plus the… monster whatever it is," Camilla reported. Ivan, with surprising stealth, crept to the portal and peered down. He was shaking his head when he returned.

"Mehbe wan or two handred in ze seat, too many," he confirmed.

"We could try a rush," Konrad ventured. Another roar echoed from the chamber and the Imperial's knuckles tightened on the leather wrapped hilt of his sword. Skaldi scoffed.

"Aye lad, all we have to do is make it down there and its home free, except for the wizards and the monster and several hundred filthy Dawi-zharr at our backs," Skaldi snapped. Konrad's face reddened and he took a step towards the dwarf, fist balling.

"I am not afraid master dwarf if you would rather…"

"Are you calling me a coward manling!?"

Cydric stepped between the two holding up a palm to Skaldi, his face stern.

"For Sigmar sake shut up and think!" Cydric snapped. Yantz peeked out into the ampipheter and glanced back at them. His face was pale but he seemed more in control than Konrad. His eyes flickered constantly around, never leaving the drowsy Dietricha for long.

"The slaves," Yantz declared. The party fell silent and looked at the Imperial mercenary.

"I can see a way into the slave pens. If I know anything its fighting green skins, if we can set them free I'd be my bollocks to a barn dance they tear this place appart or die trying," he explained. Camilla nodded her head slowly liking the notion.

"Oh aye, they'll tear the place appart, starting with us the moment we free them," Skaldi sneered.

"We throw a couple of knives in there," Camilla decided, rubbing her hands together at the notion of an even partly tenable plan.

"By the time the dwarves realised what is going on, enough of them will be free. We can use the confusion to rush the altar like Herr Konrad suggests." She looked at Cydric questioningly.

"What do you think?"

[User]
"If I know Orcs...even ones driven into slavery will be hard to contain." Cyrdic had to admit, and gave the group and a stoic nod. It was the best idea they had short of redirecting a lava flow to enter the temple valley, and that simply was a bit too hair brained even for this group. Skaldi seemed displeased that they had to use greenskins of all things, but upon imagining the mayhem, he quickly grew satisfied at the thought.

"Hide yourselves, I'll open the pens." Cyrdic said. And he stepped forward before he felt a slim hand on his chest, the knowledge it was Camilla rather than her strength kept him from moving forward.

"No, vado." She said softly. Cyrdic had been around her long enough to know she was telling him she would do it. "Camilla..."

She shut him up with a longing kiss that made his strong legs weak, and she held his face. "I'll be fine. Hide." she told him. He sighed and nodded, and lead the others away. As much as he hated to admit it, Camilla was just as proficient at slipping out of trouble as she was getting into it. If Cyrdic opened those pens, he'd likely be overwhelmed by the sheer brutality of the Orcs, even if he managed to kill a few.

The group began to stagger their formation, hiding behind pillars and stones, likely used for seats for some dark gather, and awaited the chaos that would ensue.

[Assistant]
Camilla gave Cydric a second passionate kiss, ignoring the taste of ash and scrape of stubble. It seemed more likely than usual that this might be the end and she wanted as many of her last memories to be positive. When they finally pulled away she turned to the party, all of whom were making a point of not looking at the two lovers. She cleared her throat and they turned their attention her.

"Alright gentlemen, I need all the weapons we can spare."

In retrospect, it might have been the wrong way to phrase the question to a group of mercenaries. Within a minute she had a pile of iron sufficient to arm a small regiment. Cydric contributed his heavy hunting knife and Konrad a dagger and a shorsword he reserved for close in work. Ivan had a pair of small hatchets secreted somewhere on his body as well as a curved knife that pushed the boundary between dagger and sword. Skaldi had a throwing axe, a heavy knife and a strange contraption that seemed to be brass knuckles with a protruding blade. Yant's produced so any knives that even Camilla was impressed, plucking blade after blade from all sorts of strange places. He even had a pair of Estallian throwing knives that made Camilla briefly jealous.

"Ivan," she said apologetically, "I'm going to need your coat." The big Kislivite grumbled and stripped off his bear fur cloak and lay it on the ground. Together they piled the weapons onto the garment and Camilla carefully tied the corners together in an improvised knapsack. The fur was the best choice because it muffled the clink of metal against metal. Carefully she slung the improvised pack over her shoulder.

"You look like Kringel," Cydric snickered, referring to the Hexensnact legend of a kindly old priest who left presents for children. Camilla couldn't stifle a giggle.

"Bringing presents to all the good little greenskins," she agreed. Cydric's face grew serious.

"Be safe," he told her. Camilla's smile broadened.

"Since when?"

The chanting and sacrifices were intensifying when Camilla crept back onto the balcony. The bone chilling monster roared in pain or anger as more runes were drawn on its already soaked pelt. If it had ever been another color it was now a scabrous red black of orc blood. The crowd was intent on the spectacle, chanting or praying in low voices that sounded like rock splitting during an earthquake. She made her way to a large structural pillar carved into the shape of a tusked dwarf and leaped up, seizing one of the beard ornaments, and climbed onto its shoulder. For the first time she was glad that she was filthy, the black coating of volcanic ash was good camouflage against the obsidian structure. Balancing her awkward bundle she leaped to the next pillar, and then the next making her way to the slave pens that Yants had spotted.

It seemed to take her an age, and with every moment she worried that her friends might be discovered, and that it would be to late. Periodically she cast her eyes back to their entry point and caught sight of Cydric watching her. THe slave pens were nearly a hundred and eighty degrees around from where they had entered. The seats ended and a large wedgelike cleft was cut into the cylinder, Below orcs and goblins in their hundreds huddled together. The sheer smooth walls left them nowhere to go but to the narrow exit chute where armored dwarves were waiting to lead them to their deaths. There must have been a hundred of them, tightly packed and stinking of fear. The final pillar allowed her to look directly down on the mass of enslaved greenskins. A vicious looking goblin was graphically relieving himself against the obsidian wall of his pen beneath her. Camilla spat, the fleck of spittle falling thirty feet to hit the diminutive green seen on the top of its bald head. Its glowing red eyes snapped up to spot her. Thankfully it was cunning enough not to roar or snarl. She reached into the pack of weapons and drew out one of the throwing knives. The goblin cocked its head sideways and then glanced around. Neither the jailors nor the things companions seemed to notice. She let the knife fall. It plunged point down into the sand at the goblins feet. The creature sat down with its back to the wall. A moment later Camilla saw the hempen bonds around its wrists fall away. It snarled at another nearby goblin that slunk over to it. A quick stroke of the knife and two of them were free. Camilla withdrew an axe and dropped it to her unlikely ally, sending the weapons down one at a time. The hit the sand with soft crunching sounds not at all obvious.

The Chaos Dwarves on guard tore their eyes from the glorious ritual to drag forth another group of slaves for the offering. A trio of lesser goblins and a scrawny orc lumbered forward. The dwarf approved of their compliance, half the time the beasts had to be dragged physically to the gate. It was only when the creatures were a few feet away that the dwarf realised there was something wrong with their bonds. He opened his mouth to shout a warning but the lead goblin was already leaping, plunging a long knife into the joint between helmet and throat. The second guard swung his shield in bar but a blur of steel streaked from above into the eyesocket of his helmet and he staggered backwards, dark blood pouring from beneath his black steel helmet. The scrawny orc leaped forward and grabbed the axe from the hands of the dying chaos dwarf.

"WAAAAAAAAARGH!" the beast shrieked spraying spittle as its massive hinged jaw distended. The greenskin's poured forth in a tide climbing over each other to leap to the sand of the amphitheatre floor. The seized any weapon available, grabbing torches and stones. The whole chamber descended into screaming confusions, the great beast rearing back and roaring as it struggled against whatever mystical bonds the dwarves were employing. Camilla watched the swirling melee with satisfaction for a moment and then, belatedly, realised that there was a full scale war between her and the altar she needed to reach.