[IC] Tengoku no Owari CT, Chapter 1.2

[Ragnarok97071]

"INDEED. WHAT'S MORE, FROM WHAT YOU HAVE SAID, THEIR POWER WAS NOT NEARLY ENOUGH TO BE A THREAT, WHICH BEGS THE QUESTION OF WHY BOTHER ARMING SO MANY IN THE FIRST PLACE INSTEAD OF A SINGLE UNIT THAT MAY ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING. PERHAPS THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO LULL US INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY, OR ACTUALLY WANT TO KILL ALL THEIR FOLLOWERS FOR SOME BIZARRE REASON. OR PERHAPS THEY SPECIFICALLY DESIRE TO 'PISS YOU OFF'"

[Yours Truly]

"While I wish that we could just dismiss the card emperors wholly and entirely, their recent failure at obtaining the epithet card might actually lead to them trying to put in the effort required to get it the next time they try, and in all honesty I don't want to try and fight off an entire army of highly armed Mononoke and deal with the second coming of the idiots two. Although this does make me wonder, judging by your prior experience with fending off the Card Emperors, would you say that the actually dead Card Emperors who were being puppeted by their almost mindless exoskeletons were any better or any worse at this than usual?."

[Zetaark]

"Heck if I know. If they were competent, that just makes their decision even more baffling. And if they weren't...why not use automatons in the first place?" Sasha answers, still miffed by the myriad design flaws in those exoskeletons.

 

"Anyways, enough about the Card Emperors. About these mononoke. From the general info I got before coming here, they had assault rifles or something. And your recent briefing having them as just mundane doesn't exactly give me a great idea on what the heck I'm supposed to be expecting. For all I know they could have some weird tricks like those luchadors from last week. So, got any more info on them by any chance?" Sasha asks, leaning back in her chair.

[Yours Truly]

"Well that's what we're all here for, the only other things I could tell you is that we are supposed to head over to the uptown district to find the world's least well protected entrance that leads to a moving fort equipped with guns big enough to not be much of a threat for anyone who isn't floating around in an aircraft carrier and fight off or sneak our way past waves of an armed militia of mononoke equipped with standard modern day armaments, possibly charmed armor, and an unknown substance that our host has yet to identify, to try and find out more about well... practically everything. As we are lacking an unsurprising amount of information about the fort, the fate of the last squad the card emperor's sent in there, the exact nature of the mysterious substance the mononoke are using, why these 'epithet cards' are important enough to risk losing a whole squad over, and much more importantly."

Immanuel took a deep breath before he finally continued with, "'How in the hell do we take this fort down before any more civilians wander in and get shot to death by a trigger happy Mononoke?' And of course there's the equally important question of 'How are we supposed to do that without endangering civilian lives or losing our own, and getting everything else we needed from the fort's heavily guarded insides?'"

[Chevaleresse]

Crow had been ready to interject, but fortunately Immanuel had seen fit to rectify the lack of information provided. "The fort isn't the primary objective. It's a target of opportunity, and the city would be best served if it were taken down, but your main goal is to get intel on these Epithet Cards. Where they are, what they do, everything you can find. I have a list of them that I can provide you with; they're mythologically and historically connected, should be hard to miss. 

 

I should note a couple other things. The 'standard armaments' are assault rifles with what appear to be underbarrel shotguns. The substance they have with them is, as he said, unidentified; I would suspect some sort of alchemical concoction, whether it's a stimulant of some kind of has a more offensive purpose is anyone's guess. Also. . . I wouldn't have asked you to do this if I didn't believe you were capable. If all else fails, I have ways to bail you out." 

[Ragnarok97071]

At this point, Chise seems to relax, if that's the right word, going silent and simply... waiting.

 

She'd answered the question asked of her, and would wait until another order is given.

[Empiricist]

Sometime Later

 

[Now Playing: Overture]

 

Preparations are made, contacts are called, provisions acquired. You head uptown, to the bars, the malls, and the target. You find it soon enough.

 

Light gives way to darkness, bustling crowds to utter desolation, the Sanctuary a twisted mirror image of the city it prowls. A nightbound world lit only by moonlight neath a clouded sky, a world of solemn silence soon to be filled with flame and gunsmoke. Your target is two blocks away, a congeries of fortifications floating at an intersection, a broken jigsaw of a japanese castle edges cauterized with steel and retrofit with naval cannons. If you're keen of sight you can see them already, the personnel, the adversary, figures resembling kannushi, shinto priests, robes in grey, inscribed cloth veils covering their faces, assault rifles cradled in their arms. They man the fortifications, they walk between the pieces, boots touching nothing but thin air.

 

Somewhere in there is an Epithet Card. Maybe. Four Card Emperors were sent here for something, and it probably wasn't to sell girlscout cookies. You'd ask them but well, none of them ever came back. Still you think you can see a promising start. Four promising starts actually: the four main subforts. The fortress is mostly distributed, scattered across the air, but there are four larger pieces, which just so happen to be the pieces with the biggest guns. At the very least, it will become much easier to field your spaceships when they're out of the equation.

 

So, how d'you wanna play this?

 

((Please state what your two wishes from Marina were.))

[Yours Truly]

As the group approaches the floating fortresses Immanuel will quietly thank Rosario before he takes out one of the recon drones and sends it out to get a better look at the four sub fortresses from above and find a nice place where it could swoop down and blow itself up when the group is ready/any soft spots or important targets he could hit to make life a living hell for his opponents. He will also attempt to assemble two railguns and place them on his shoulders while he does so and takes out another railgun for him to hold with his hands.

 

((Immanuel will wish for additional maneuverability and the ability to phase through things when he wants to do so))

[DragonRage]

Tor doesn't wish for anything.  He's happy with what he has.

[Zetaark]

As the group approaches the Sanctuary, Sasha grins to herself in the moonlight. The atmosphere is fitting, her equipment is ready, and all in all she feels like having a good time as she tries to find this Epithet Card, along with anything else that catches her eye.

 

"Let me know what you find up there with those drones," Sasha tells Immanuel as she readies her bike with her now present flight and stealth abilities. Wishes weren't something she normally worked with, but she certainly wasn't complaining. Once she finished her initial checks, she turned over to Chise. "So then, are you in the stealthy kind of mood today?" Sasha asks, half expecting some comment about efficiency, but hoping she would go along with her idea.

 

((Wishes are for flight and stealth abilities))

[IntSys]

After granting everyone the wishes they had asked for, Marina soared into the skies with the wings that she had wished for, and began to approach the mighty Sanctuary. However, she noticed something vibrating in her randoseru as she got near. Her phone wasn't in her randoseru, but rather her pockets, so it came as strange to her.

She checked her randoseru, and as it turned out, it was the card she got from the unfriendly transparent jellyfish, Aetherbell. She felt some sort of power in the card, and considering how it was only vibrating when she got near to the Sanctuary, she assumed that it was because of the Epithet Card... And that it would vibrate harder as she got closer, like those metal detectors used to find treasures.

 

She sent a message to Immanuel, telling him that she'd be scouting the fortress for a bit. Then, she wished for her body and everything she was wearing and holding to be "only visible to Immanuel, Tor, Sasha, and Chise." (Read: Selective Invisibility without having to strip)

She then flew in and out of the fractured fortress pieces with Aetherbell's card in hand, looking for the Epithet Card based on its vibration frequency.

[Ragnarok97071]

Chise remains silent for a time after being asked about her intentions, then responds, her head tilting slightly.

 

"THAT WAS MY PLAN."

 

(Her wishes were for a mode of transport that would remain unnoticed and a method of easily and quietly disposing of any bodies they left behind them)

[Empiricist]

[Now Playing: Overture]

 

Immanuel

You already got all three railguns readied. Your drones drift into the cold night air, black metal against black sky. Practically invisible, til it closes in at least. Fortress is dark, no lights, nothing, guessing the denizens don't mind the dark. The subfortresses are mostly enclosed and built around their cannon batteries with a few stubby platforms and terraces extending outwards. Interior, you can't really see without swooping in and risking detection. Still judging by the size, if you're going in there, it's gonna be all close-quarters combat, place is, decently large but not large enough for any long ranged firefights you can tell that much.

 

Marina

No dice, the card's shakes die down soon enough after a while, leaving nothing but a throbbing pulse you feel if you're really looking for it. So much for that then. Cloaking, you leap into the air and glide towards the fortress. You go for a high approach trailing behind Immanuel's drones,  worst comes to worst it's gonna be awkward shooting at you from down there. The cannons, those are more problematic but intel says that they're more anti-vehicle. Might be annoying for that Tor guy, not so much for you.

 

You begin your descent, slowly at first, cautious, ready to dart away or raise a shield. Nothing. You speed up a little. Still nothing. Seems like your wish is working, swooping further down you- Ow!

 

You crash into something, something solid. Smooth, but grooved with rough ridges. Solid, uneven, invisible. At any rate, the impact doesn't hurt, well at least not as far as you can tell, though your ears are ringing slightly.

 

Chise

You get a missile and a mop. The missile resembles that of a bullet in shape with a rocket for a rear and a smiley face and rabbit ears at the front. The mop is well, a mop albeit with a pink ribbon tied in a bow halfway down the handle. 

[IntSys]

"What... Is this sanctuary only half invisible? That's... That's stupid!" Marina exclaimed. She knocked on the invisible wall a few times, confirming its durability, and then she wished for a drilling glove, with a robot face and a drill head that can split into two. (Basically a Drill Dozer but smaller)

 

"Drill Dozer!" She armed the drill on her right hand and punched into the invisible wall, wishing for more drilling power as necessary.

[Zetaark]

"Perfect," Sasha says with a grin as she calls her bike and sets herself and Chise inside of it. Using the abilities of the earlier wishes, she's able to both fly with her bike, and be under the effects of full stealth. Deciding that the other two can deal with their piece of the fortress, Sasha flew herself and Chise close to another one, where she attempted to warp the space in the wall temporarily, just enough to get a quick peek inside before putting it back to normal. A strange gap in the wall that fixes itself could be strange to any observers, even if she herself was in stealth. Sasha would continue doing this at different points of the fortress, trying to figure out what might be where.

[Ragnarok97071]

Chise stays along with Sasha, waiting for her moment to act, a couple of belts wrapped around her and the bike.

[Yours Truly]

 

Immanuel let out a slight sigh as he sent his drone quickly swooping in to try and find out more about the fortress's layout before he even considered charging in with all five (potentially 6) guns blazing and bringing the entire damned fortress down.

[Empiricist]

[Now Playing: Nothing]

 

Sasha and Chise make their way towards the intersection, the fortress, the hum of engines, the rush of wind, all cloaked beneath their wishes. Should be simple enough, should be, but well it never is, is it?

 

Chise, as you near the intersection you feel it.

 

It resounds. The final moments of countless beings, their hope, their despair, their will. Echos, echos of death and conquest, pestilence and famine, countless beings countless stories reduced to their ends. All that they were, all that they felt, distilled down, stripped of all hope, all individuality, all humanity until nothing remains but desperation and hatred. A madness rising from the darkest depths, staining the world so horridly, so intensely that it takes form. It is something like your kin, your rightful prey, but something different still. Myriad curses given form, given life, or some spiteful semblance thereof to drag all who live down into oblivion with it. No higher purpose, no grand ideals, no intelligence even, just a funeral pyre for a thousand stories.

 

What you sense here is only part of it. The whole thing is much larger than you, or at least what you are now. It takes a form ressembling that of a spider's web, formed of fractal tendrils fused together from countless human bones, swaying, twitching, just waiting for a victim. You sense some of the soldiers too, alchemical lifeforms clad in warding robes, robes to hide them from their beast, the bedrock of their fortress, and realize now that they do not fly like what you were told, rather they walk upon walkways of invisible bone, complete with raiings and palisades. This fortress isn't flying, it's invisible, the gun batteries and fortifications nothing more than the tip of the very big, very angry iceberg.

 

Anyway... on a completely unrelated note, Marina, you seem to have a lot of trouble drilling into this thing. Even with your wishes it doesn't even budge. A chill runs down your spine. You don't see anything but you sure as hell just felt something, an overwhelming killing intent come from straight in front of you. Specifically out of what you were just drilling. You don't see what attacks you, but you sure as hell see what it attacks you with. It's this conical blast of dark red-black energy that explodes out towards you. Pure concentrated impurity, distilled ruin, misfortune, disaster, reeking with the stench of death and crashing out in a noise that sounds almost like a twisted scream, y'know, in case it wasn't obviously evil enough. Give it an eyepatch and let stroke a cat and it'd practically be a supervillain. May wanna dodge that.

 

So uh, with that happening, alarms just start ringing through the fortress. Well, not quite ringing, there's no noise, no lights, but well, everyone seems to know what's up. The troops halt their patrols and ready their weapons, sweeping  into cover and sweeping their sights toward the origin of the blast, trying to find the cause. Marina's cloaking holds for now, but it's probably not gonna to hold for much longer.

 

Oh and Immanuel your drone manages to get fairly close before bonking against something invisible.

 

Spoiler

Immanuel

Status: Fine, wishes for maneuverability and wall phasing, 3x railguns

World Line: 5 3 5 4 4 5 1 5 1 6

Alterations: 5

Resolve: 3

 

Marina

Status: Fine, wishes for stealth and drilling and a drillbot, at risk of being spotted

World Line: 3 4 2 2 6 6 5 5 3 1

Alterations: 3

Resolve: 3

 

Tor

Status: Fine

World Line: 1 5 3 5 5 1 3 6 6 3

Alterations: 5

Resolve: 3

 

Mobile Fortress

Status: Fully operational

Spoiler

For the sake of simplicity, I'll assume everyone grabbed a hands-free communication device for this mission in addition to everything else.

 

Immanuel and Tor start off with 5 Alterations because they had time to prepare for this mission. Marina would've started with that too but then she got jumped by the invisible angry skelefort. Chise and Sasha don't have to worry about world lines and alterations until they get discovered or choose to go loud.

 

To pre-empt the question, yes you can wish to be able to see through the fortress' cloaking and yes Tor can Swords of Revealing Light it (well to reveal it at least, no guarantees it will be rendered completely incapable of attacking).

 

Also I'm completely open to any suggestions for what to name this fortress. I'm partial to "Fort Jackass" myself 

 

[Ragnarok97071]

Chise is... well. She doesn't know how to feel.

 

Excited? Scared? RAVENOUS?

 

All apply. This isn't prey. But it is close. It would provide similar sustenance, likely.

 

She is hungry. But information comes first. Ready the communicator. Belts unwind, allowing for speech.

 

"Be wary of anything that appears to not be visible. This area appears to be... infested by something similar to an Aramitama, but significantly different in base aspects. Details follow:

Being composed of an unknown quantity of individual curses or spirits, rended down into hate, despair, and other negative emotions, and fused together into a single non-sentient mass used as a dumb guard dog to hunt anyone that comes into contact with spiritual, thus, invisible, walkways and structures constructed around the fortress. Construction is like a spider's web, I am unable to describe with precision, but do not attempt to dig through or remain in prolonged contact with any invisible surfaces you may come in contact with, as it will summon the malice."

 

She would then ready herself, focusing and speaking to Sasha.

 

"As I currently am I am unable to directly interface with your mind to create a visualization of what I perceive. Therefore, I will have to guide you verbally, or perhaps through pointing with my belts, to prevent coming into contact with anything that might trip us up and try to keep away from the soldiers I can sense. Be careful."

Edited June 28, 2018 by Ragnarok97071

[Yours Truly]

Immanuel rather helpfully decides to add, "That sounds like a Gashadokuro, which means that I have good news and bad news, which one do you guys want to hear first?"

[Ragnarok97071]

"The order likely doesn't matter."

[Yours Truly]

Immanuel nodded and said "Well the good news is that if we can find a way to remove the wards the Mononoke are undoubtedly wearing and put them on ourselves we could just..... let their own fortress kill them in a stunning display of being hoist by their own petard, and that I am fairly sure that the five of us can destroy this whole thing by ourselves with very little effort if we can disable the power source they presumably have somewhere inside of each of their fortresses and just.... wait for it to starve to death as it consumes more power than it gains. The bad news is that as it is right now the main fortress is both practically invincible and extremely willing to kill any living creatures that so much dares as exist in its general direction with... am I saying this right? kegera based blasts that will curse the shit out of you and call down all sorts of natural disasters on your ass, but you can pretty easily tell if it is targetting you hear ringing inside of your ears."

[Ragnarok97071]

"Understood."

[Yours Truly]

"But wait! There's more, Gashadokuro are humanoid giant skeletons, which means that if we don't tread lightly and poke the giant enemy skeleton too much before we manage to disable the subfortresses... we uh, we might have to face off against a kaiju sized heavily armored giant skeleton armed with cannons big enough to fuck up anyone bold and foolish enough to try and get it to take on someone it's own size in a sanctuary that constantly emulates the only conditions where such an Aramitama... which is why we should honestly just have Marina or Tor dispel this damned thing's invisibility or grant us eyes that can see before we even consider opening fire." 

Immanuel started to slowly drift towards the nearest subfortress as he ordered his drone to circle around towards the massed line of mononoke and try to find an entrance into the subfortress, "Also I highly recommend that you avoid getting any blood spilled on you or letting them spill blood anywhere, since we really don't want the damned thing to wake up any more than it already has".

Immanuel will then quickly move upwards to get a better vantage point/take better aim at the mononoke residing down below.

[IntSys]

Marina quickly propelled herself backwards, away from the approaching tendril of malice. She responded to the calls of the others. "I don't think I want to see what the thing's actually like, but I got a better plan... " 

 

She discarded the Drill Dozer, and wished for a red rocket launcher. From it, she fired a multitude of rockets of various colors - indicating the color of the paint they contained. She fired the rockets at the invisible wall before her, and everywhere else for that matter, as she throttled through the Sanctuary as if she was playing paintball... only with the paintball equivalent of a WMD.

"See? Way more fun!"