[IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Deadline

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EnigmaticOne
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by EnigmaticOne »

Peter Ezima
HP: 1
COND: -1, Staggered

One thing Ascendance did not eliminate was fatigue. Peter took the suggestion and began locking the wheels. "No thank you. I must endure." He told Iona in response to her offer - it would run counter to Null's continued instructions. Peter clambered up and closed his eyes, hoping for an unconscious respite from the aches and myriad concerns.

Would there be more dreams?
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: -2 toughness
Form: mist


She couldn't die. Not again. "Fortify the entrance! Don't just stand there like babies. Use the egg heads as shields if you need to.", barks Diego. Given his two recent ploys success in this cycle, he hoped he had earned at least a little respect. He also gave a quick look around the room for anything that might be useful or give hints on the objective, but Costas current state was a bit distracting.

Now was the time to ask the question. Before it would have been rather poor timing, but given the real possibility of the cycle starting again he threw caution to the wind. "Colonel, stay with us! What next? What do we need to do? Please tell me and we will make sure this wasn't all in vain.", pleads Diego with desperation in his voice. It might reset the cycle with just him asking, so be it.
Perception 14 to get hints of an idea.
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Sakuro
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by Sakuro »

Getting close and looking at Silvia Diego can hear her repeating the same word over and over again 'I ... I ... I ..'. Why was she refering to herself as the objective, Diego might wonder. He found himself looking at the hole in her helmet's face plate. Inside the protective headgear there was still illumination from her HUD playing off of her face. He was able to get a gruesome glimpse of the damage. What that bullet had done to her eye. Her eye. Not 'I' as in 'me, myself, and I'. But 'eye', the optical organ. When Diego lifts his gaze from the Colonel and casts it out about the room he sees a scene in disarray. It looked as though the people who had occupied this place were hastily moving in or packing up things to move out. On one of the tables Diego sees an armored case with an strange symbol on one face of it. It looked like an eye.

Image

The case was opened, filled with dark gray padding. At it's center was a smooth, roughly spherical, gem. It was milky-gray, like clouds on an overcast day, and perhaps it was a play of the light, but something inside it seemed to move. Like rolling fog churning in a gentle breeze.
OOC wrote:Used the wrong dialog color for Costa in my last post, pointing that change in color out in case it caused confusion.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: -2 toughness
Form: mist


That was it. Some jewel or maybe something with power was the reason all of this was happening. If Null could pull things from somewhere that defied any known physics, why couldn't there be a gem or something on the opposing side? If that was the case, Diego probed the depths of his memory if someone he had talked to might have eluded to it, even in passing he hoped. A little detail he was usually so keen to pick up on might slipped his attention over drinks to get any information he could that was dismissed at the time as drunken ramblings of a scientist. Perhaps one of the crackpots he dismissed off handily was right. He could also be racking his brain, however fast it was, to no avail.

Over history, there had been stories of mystics or people claiming to have magical items. Sometimes they were just technology. Maybe this was one of those things and like the more outlandish stories of Rasputin, Diego just wrote stories of this object off as fiction.
Well Informed Via Persuasion 25 to see if anything immediate triggers from something he might have heard
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Sakuro
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by Sakuro »

OOC wrote:MrDent, you are thinking about Diego delving into mysteries that even top tier espionage agencies wouldn't catch wind of. The realm of unknowns that Imperator stepped out of without warning. The type of information you cannot get from a mere roll. Diego also does not have any Expertise that would help in identifying the symbol or the object.

However, I'm going to count your roll as a straight Intellect check and allow Diego to put some pieces together.

Some days prior, Diego talked with a Major that called Colonel Costa "Odin". A possible call sign, or nickname. Odin is a norse god with one eye. The Colonel, since you first met her, only had one eye. In this moment, there is a lot revolving around that eye element. Silvia has just lost her eye. There is an eye-like symbol on the container with the gem. The gem itself, looks about the shape of an eye.

The Colonel, after her Ascension, took on a form that looked as though it were a weather-based phenomena with a humanoid shape. Even in that form Silvia was missing an eye. The gem is grey and cloudy. It looks like it contains, or is, some sort of weather-based phenomena itself.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: -2 toughness
Form: mist


Given the connection that fired off in his brain, Diego had an idea. It could be the stupidest idea he ever had or the most brilliant. One that might kill Costas, himself, or many more. Alternatively, it could complete whatever goal she was going for. First, it required some protection and it had to be done fast. "We made it. Let's get this job done and show them what true soldiers of Imperator are like! We have one chance to get the colonel out of here with the gem. I know we have fought through hell and worse to get here, but for the colonel and Imperator we need to fight right back through it and get her to safety with what we came here for. Getting here we faced fire on every side. Leaving here, we face fire on every side. Not all of us will make it and give the final thing we have left to give to the cause, but I know staying here means we will all die for nothing. If even one of us manages to make it out of here with the colonel and the eye all those lives will not have been lost in vain." , begins Diego in his best rallying cry voice.

He wasn't kidding himself. His leadership skills were clearly lacking. This was the right thing to do he felt in his metaphorical bones. It made sense to him. The others in the dreamscape had to feel it too. "If we grab the civilians, alive or dead, and use them as shields we might just make it out of here with what we came here for. If we form up around the colonel and our goal, we will win the day. We are soldiers of Imperator! We fight for utopia! We fight for our colonel! We fight for each other!", rouses Diego as he goes for the case in hopes the others go along with him.

Something in the panicked looks on the soldiers faces told him that it was all for naught, but he had to try. Making a dash for the case, he does the best he can to bring the gem into contact with Costas. At the very least, it might help her to realize it's a dream and at best to unite the energies inside of her and help her to calm the raging storm that was her likely abilities.
Military Expertise 15, yup have a feeling it's going to be a failure.
The idea is to get the soldiers to provide cover for him as he unites Costas and the gem. In addition, to form up around Costas and the gem with the white coats as human shields with them in the middle surrounding Costas as they try to leave the facility.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by Sakuro »

Diego was talking like a madman. A fanatic. A maytr in the making. His strategy, if it could be called a strategy, was crazy. He could feel the panic of the group around his shift to resolution though. The surviving lab coat wearing 'egg heads' as Diego called them, civilian scientists in actuality, were grabed, ruffed up, and used as human human riot shields when the defending forces arrived. They struggled and screamed. There was shouting and gunshot. Diego saw mists of blood as his attention turned away from the fighting to gather the sphere. Bringing it over to Costa, he reached a gauntlet clad hand out for it, and grasps hold of it with the strength of a desperate dying woman.

The next moment finds the Colonel removing the face plate of her helmet and violently shoving the gem into her bloodied vacant eye socket. There is a sound like thunder and the room shakes. A wind current forms in the room and the gem turns into a miniature storm in the Colonel's socket. The storm grows and spreads tearing her flesh apart until there is nothing of flesh left. Only the storm. The living storm he had scene screaming in torment when Diego and his companions fought to pry Costa out of her Ascension chamber. But there were two eyes set in her face now. Brilliant emerald ball lightning that looked like eyes.

Vision blurs amidst the storm that grows out of the Colonel. Diego can feel a moment of clarity. In that moment he realizes this entire ordeal the links he had tried to forge with Silvia. Everything he'd experienced was a lenses of two traumas clashing meeting to form a perfect emotional storm. This was the woman's efforts to answer back. He senses more though. Something beyond words. Pure sensory input. Something borrowed from Colonel Costa, or something that she shared with him. He felt the energy burning at her body. Like it was being drawn to her without controlled from either end. Diego could feel the Eye he had delivered into Costa's hands in the mindscape, but real and powerful. Full of energy. He could feel it pulling at him. Guiding him to a real world location.

Then the storm pushes him away and out. Out of the room, out of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, out of the Colonel's mindscape. Back to the world of the waking, were his eyes open to the laboratory wherein his Ascension had taken place.
OOC wrote:Diego figured out the most important thing he needed to do. He's also using a Skill that I feel is the best suited to dealing with the circumstances. So the difficulty for the check was reduced considerably. If this were a "real world" situation, and not Costa's mindscape, what Diego's laying out as a plan would be pure martyrdom.

Diego wakes up. His wounds have recovered by this time. When he wakes he retains awareness of his experiences in Costa's mindscape. As well as having gained some new insights: knowledge of the "Eye of Odin", it's location (can't point to it on a map, but if he follows his "gut" he'd be able to make his way there), and the connection between it and Colonel Costa.

Diego also gets 1 HP for the RP and resolving the challenge.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: -1 toughness(lasting damage)
Form: mist


She wasn't whole. Torn between the trauma of the transformation and her past agony at the failed attack on the Cheyenne Mountain Complex as just too much for her. After seeing it, feeling, and almost being there he understood. While he didn't quite know what Ascension was, aside form the obvious transformation and detachment from humanity was growing ever larger, it clearly reacted badly to Costas past.

Waking up, although the casual onlooker would have no indication given his cloud like form, he looked at the scene before him. Peter and Hitori were resting after what was presumably a harrowing ordeal. Coporal Sanders was vigilant, but doubtless getting herself. Sokolov had gone off to who knows where, but as long as it wasn't to violate Null's orders he wasn't too concerned. Even with the growing detachment from people, Diego saw no reason to have an ego. Iona was working tirelessly it seemed. She was clearly altered in some capacity by Dr. Sokolov to be his tireless slave and who knows what else. There was also the issue of Alex who he hoped would recover soon enough.

Taking up the voice he had before the transformation, he lifts himself up and starts to speak. Thinking it might be less off putting to put on a more familiar face, he commands the particles that make up his body to form up into his old visage complete with the black leather jacket, jeans, and dark blue t-shirt. "Colonel Costas is incomplete. Until she is made whole, her condition will continue to worsen. I presume you have utilized whatever gifts have been given to help control her condition for now, until we can make her whole again?", says Diego plainly and lacking emotion he catches himself and adds some affectations near the end meant to try and put others at ease.

While waiting for a response, he walks over to his comrades and inspects their conditions. He didn't know exactly where, how, or through what means, but he knew he had to get that gem. Also, he didn't think he could do it alone or feel particularly inclined to.
Does he get a sense of about how far the gem is away?
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by Supernaturalist »

Iona
HP:0
Cnd: Normal
PP:0

Iona is surprised to see some of the Ascendants returning to consciousness.Unfortunately, Colonel Costa appears to remain in her state of deteriorating hibernation. The young cyborg continues to monitor the Colonel, glancing over at Diego as he condenses and then congeals into a solid form.
"Colonel Costas is incomplete. Until she is made whole, her condition will continue to worsen. I presume you have utilized whatever gifts have been given to help control her condition for now, until we can make her whole again?"
"She is relatively stable for now. I'm currently trying to assess just how long she can survive at this rate of decline. It's difficult to do when I don't understand which parts of her anatomy are more critical than others.", Iona's frustration is noticeable. "What do you mean by 'made whole?' And furthermore how is she to be made whole?"

She listens to Diego explain while also multi-tasking with her keen intellect. What is the source of "animation" within her physical body? Where do the motor-impulses originate? Head? Chest? Stomach? There must be some 'brain' even if it's not located with in the head.

OOC: There are two things I'd like to try and assess: 1) At the present rate can I get a ball-park figure as to how long she has before death? and 2) Can I locate within her nanite-structure a region where energy impulses seem to originate? A potential "brain"-region if you will
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: -1 toughness(lasting damage)
Form: mist

"She is relatively stable for now. I'm currently trying to assess just how long she can survive at this rate of decline. It's difficult to do when I don't understand which parts of her anatomy are more critical than others.", Iona's frustration is noticeable. "What do you mean by 'made whole?' And furthermore how is she to be made whole?"
"Its simple. She needs her eye to help contain all the energy she contains. It is in or around the city, which would explain the atmospheric disturbances. She is trying to reunite.", says Diego as if it was obvious. He neglected to mention the mindscape, Ascension link, or other secrets. "If the current unit can keep her stable for a little while, I might be able to reunite her with the missing the piece and save her. How long do we have?", adds Diego a bit more hurried now in his speech.

Over the Ascension link with Peter and Alex if she seemed awake he painted a different picture. She is in agony trapped between the trauma of her past and pain of her present. Do not attempt to communicate over this link with her or you be trapped in her mind. If her visions are to be believed, we need to find the Eye of Odin. Do not let her die or Dr. Sokolov or his minion dig deeper than needed to keep her stable., sends out Diego. Pulling Hitori aside, he communicates as much leaving out the part of the Ascension network, but keeping the vision that he saw. While the man wasn't a scientist, he was quite imposing.

After getting a response from Iona, he turns to Sanders who was still in the room apparently. "I will need your assistance getting around the city and getting to the surface. While I may be able to blend into the air and be mistaken for a shadow or patch of darkness, I am not well versed in the city or under ground enough to move quickly. Once on the surface, I will need to know the best paths to take. Are you willing to help me save the Colonel?", asks Diego. He had little fear of being exposed now that he could take any form and become a cloud of particles that should be able to fit into the darkness well enough. It was features that would come in handy later. Now though he needed to know the best paths.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by Supernaturalist »

Iona
HP:0
Cnd: Normal
PP:0
"Its simple. She needs her eye to help contain all the energy she contains. It is in or around the city, which would explain the atmospheric disturbances. She is trying to reunite.", says Diego as if it was obvious. He neglected to mention the mindscape, Ascension link, or other secrets. "If the current unit can keep her stable for a little while, I might be able to reunite her with the missing the piece and save her. How long do we have?", adds Diego a bit more hurried now in his speech.
Everything that Diego says is strange from a classically-trained, scientific perspective. Still, if Iona knows anything, it is the fact that modern science must make room for the new reality. "Her eye...", Iona says with a nod of affirmation, "...yes it makes sense...her eye seems to be the source of stimulation for her whole body. It is quite feasible that what you speak of...this eye...will act as a regulator over these impulses. Right now the energy levels emanating from her eye are still quite destructive to her nanite-body. Though they are oscillating up and down, there is a general trend...and that trend is up. Within 24 hours...give or take a couple of hours, her energy levels will rise beyond our technology to cool them. At that point, her body will begin to disintegrate."

Iona pauses before continuing. "I would ask *how* you know all of this information about her missing eye? But we do not have much time to chat. Suffice to say that I must stay here and guard the Good Doctor's property. I believe my skills are also needed here to keep the Colonel stable. As I said, the limit of her life is around 24 hours. I would strive to take no more than 12 hours if I were you. Should push come to shove, I shall try to think of some other way to slow her destruction further. Of course, those options might be dangerous to her in other ways. At least Peter and I have bought some time for your mission and to think of other possibilities to prolong her body's life."

Turning back to the instrument panel, she utters a few last stoic words. "Take comrades with you. Enemies abound in Hadron City. May Fate favor you."
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Sakuro
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by Sakuro »

Peter's dreams are unnerving. Or they would be if he were still human. If his emotions hadn't faded to shadows and echoes of emotion. He experiances something like the event that recently wounded him. Null was not there, however. Not was anyone, or anything else. Just him, in the dark, being assaulted by barbed tentacles. Crush. Pierced. Torn part. Then their hold on him and the tortures they inflicted lessened. As they eventually relinquished their hold on him he felt himself near wakefulness. Something held prisoner within himself was released, and he felt a connection to what he had lost reform.
OOC wrote:Since EnigmaticOne is back from their trip I'll say that the passage of time since Peter went to sleep has been close to eight hours. So Peter can keep sleeping, head out with Diego, or stick around in the lab. Up to you.

When Peter wakes up he will regain full use of his Powers, and his wounds will start to Regenerate.

Iona and Peter also receive 1 HP for the problem solving and RP during their efforts to stabilize Colonel Costa.
This was unreal. There four inhuman looking beings and five that had demonstrated some manner of extra-ordinary ability. From the beginning to the end of the day, it had been one bizarre and unnerving event after another. Corporal Sander seemed to he compartmentalizing well for now, but unlike everyone else in the room … he was only human. Prone to human frailties. Eventually that woman was going to need to decompress and deal with everything she had witnessed.

"I … Yea … Yes."

… came her initial response when Diego came over to her talk to her after speaking with Iona about things that didn't found natural or scientific at all. Reunite her with her eye? That would fix things? In what world did that make sense, the Colonel only had one! There was a brief pause then Sander repeated herself, this time with certainty in her tone and demeanor.

"Yes. I am good to go when you are. Just as long as someone we can trust is here to watch over the Colonel."
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by EnigmaticOne »

Peter Ezima
HP: 2
COND: -1, Staggered (Regenerating)

Peter woke up to at least have the relief of the two team members freed from their own coma and the restoration of his own powers.

*I agree with Iona's timeframe. I hope you know how to find this Eye of Odin.*

"I would stay here anyway, since I've been working with Iona to continue to slow down the deterioration." Peter assured Sanders.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator:Terrible Purpose

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: -1 toughness(lasting damage)
Form: solid

Iona pauses before continuing. "I would ask *how* you know all of this information about her missing eye? But we do not have much time to chat. Suffice to say that I must stay here and guard the Good Doctor's property. I believe my skills are also needed here to keep the Colonel stable. As I said, the limit of her life is around 24 hours. I would strive to take no more than 12 hours if I were you. Should push come to shove, I shall try to think of some other way to slow her destruction further. Of course, those options might be dangerous to her in other ways. At least Peter and I have bought some time for your mission and to think of other possibilities to prolong her body's life."
In his corporeal form, Diego nods. "There is plenty of time to answer your question, I would not tell you.", flatly says Diego as if Iona was used to this sort of stone walling he routinely got with classified information. Given his decreasing amount of empathy and sill lingering feelings in regards to Dr. Kripkes death at the hands of Dr. Sokolov, he also wasn't so inclined to be willing to divulge too much information to the woman. "It is good you can keep her stable. While I have an idea of the location of the other eye, I cannot pinpoint it or accurately feel how far it is. You are also right the city is full of enemies with the Undercity also treacherous. We should be able to navigate well enough from dangers. We will do our part if you will do yours with Peters assistance of course.", says Diego. His voice is cold and calculating when talking to Iona. Not like he would talk to an asset or subordinate, but like he just assumed the threat of Null taking vengeance was enough to keep her doing her job.

Keep her safe Peter, we cannot lose another of us again in this lab. If possible, also see if you can find out how much information has been gathered about us Ascendants. Dr. Sokolov is a crafty and smart one who would not blink to use it against us., conveys Diego over the link.

Looking over at the others who stay, he gives a look like they should know what to do. "I would not leave the colonel in the hands of Dr. Sokolov or his minions if Peter was not here to watch over her. It is clear Dr. Sokolov can only be trusted if under threat and surveillance.", says Diego. Changing into the form close to an art dealer he once met in Spain, but not too close as to give the cameras in the city pause, he gives a nod to Sanders. "I can keep this form the whole time until I need to change if it is more comfortable for you. All of this today must surely be strange enough to you.", says Diego to the corporal. Despite humanity starting to become puppets to him more than they were in his former occupation, he still felt a connection to Sanders.
I left it open for whoever is going to be going for the gem.
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Hitori Zanzo

Post by Camus »

Image
HP: 1
LP: 1
CND:

To Iona's words Hitori turned and approached her. He leaned in closely, his empty sockets fixing on Iona's perfect face. For most, being so close to the abomination would have halted their hearts, but the young cyborg did not have one "Let me be direct, puppet: Do not confuse my cooperation with friendship. Your master killed my friend, I will not forget that, and neither should you. Your creator is a monster worse than me, but on the inside." with that he turned and was in the oposite wall in a blink, sitting on the floor. He assumed the lotus position and fade from consciousness.

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

Hitori had been meditating on the floor this whole time. His hulking and misshape body was like an otherworldly sculpture that contrasted drastically with the white, immaculate flooring and walls. A black stain on a porcelain plate. Only the shallow breathing permitted it to asses that he was asleep, as his eyes remained opened and empty.
As Diego formulates his plan, however, the beast rose up. He approached, and taking his hands to his hips, he took on a pose that resembled old Hitori "Out alone in a mad chase again? Mattaku, Diego-san, you never learn. Perhaps you are all confident now that you got ascended, but dont let the foam get too high or it may spill from your glass. I will go with you this time. No, it is not up for discussion."
心のコスモ を 抱きしめて 遥かな 銀河 へ
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