Scene #996: Automated Armament

Owner	Pose
Zwei	A series of precise planetary coordinates lead to a stereotypical spot in the middle of the Nevada desert; a choice location for post apocalyptic fiction to unfold. The place of interest is what is clearly a nuclear missile silo, with an adjoining base for stationed military personnel; the kind that satellites gloss over and show blank sand on world maps. Just before arrival, anyone for miles can see the flash that occurs up in the cloudless, bleach blue sky, but the sight is too distant for the sound to reach the earth as more than a faint, muffled thump. What must be the remains of the ship go streaking slowly towards the horizon, letting off tiny comets of burning debris. Unfortunately, it must have already deployed its payload, because the silo is a mess. The smouldering hulks of wrecked tanks and APCs sit outside the compound gates, punctured through with gaping holes that paint lines of fresh blood over the ground for meters away from where the crew must have sat. The butchered remains of US soldiers can be found nailed to the ground and facility walls by spikes of metal, or else simply blown into wet pieces in the midst of scorched craters. The missiles haven't launched yet, which means the type-4s haven't penetrated deep enough inside to hack the system yet; too far underground to access wirelessly from outside.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell would normally arrive, blasting in, shouting, on a rocket broom. You thought I was about to say he isn't today, though, didn't you? /Twist/. Arthur is kicking up a huge volume of dust as he scorches his way over the nevada desert, riding side-saddle on a massive broom that bristles with a multi-stage clustered-thruster rocket setup. He is shouting. Purging one stage of his multi-stage rocket, his broom disappears as he slows, and he skids at dozens of meters per second on his feet over the smooth desert and straight through the front blasted-open front gate, striking a properly heroic pose as he finally skids to a stop with perfect balance. He then immediately has stomach troubles, because of seeing CORPSES NAILED TO WALLS. He is, after all, still just some teen, and he's choking down a revolted reaction as he sees the massacre here. "Alright." He pounds one fist into the opposite palm dramatically. "Let's make this shit happen." And without a further word, and without waiting for any other arrivals, Arthur Lowell madly dashes forward into the many holes in the facility, intending to follow the trail of bodies to the source of the deaths here, figuring that that's the most direct way of dealing with this problem.
Alexis Maaka	An unmarked VTOL decloaks out of the sky, landing in the middle of the tarmac. Instead of a whole squad of Navy SEALs, however, just one person emerges. Stepping out, her helmet folds into place as she carries with her a railgun sized for her use, and an HK 416 slung across her shoulders for starters. She sees the carnage before her, and she swallows something with a sigh and shake of her head. Alexis can't imagine how long this could've lasted for these men and women, but the best she can do is make sure they didn't die in vain. Rifle in hand, she takes off after Arthur when she spots the Syndicate head slam into the earth, following at as fast a pace she can manage. With her cybernetic enhancements, she can certainly haul some ass.
Staren	The Star Hawk speeds down out of the sky, arms and legs unfolding in a blur of tiny transforming pieces before it slows to a stop after completing its flyover of the base. It flies around and lands by a building amidst the destruction, the canopy opening and Staren jumping out in his armor, taking off after Arthur as well. Sadly, he's no stranger to scenes of mass death after so many years in the multiverse. Now to prevent the entire /world/ from looking like this.
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer's beat up old hovervan came screaming across the Mojave at a good clip of a few hundred kilometers per hour, kicking up a hell of a dust cloud behind it. "Alright you lot drop your cocks and grab your socks, we're about to make touchdown." Switchbait, Reder, the Servitor Alter, and Nettle all nodded their little heads while kicking back in their seats, waiting for their sergeant to set down. The van touches down not far from where Arthur makes his landing, and they all start piling out. Once everyone is out, Mortimer rattles off some quick orders for them. "Switchbait, Nettle, you two start looking for survivors. If you find anyone alive you render triage and any first aid you can to keep them alive. Take the servitor with you to do heavy lifting. Reder! We're going on a /hunt/." The wartortle's mouth turns into a toothy, sneering grin. <About time we got back to what we're good at..> The butterfree and shuppet flew off with the lobotomized cyborg in tow, hurriedly getting to work on their appointed task. Even if there was no hope, there might be ONE grunt, jarhead, or desk jockey still alive here. And that was worth the effort. Mortimer started jogging toward Arthur, just as he pounds his fist dramatic-like. "Couldn't agree more, son. Let's ruin someone's day." <Huntin' time..> Reder tortled out, bounding for the nearest wall hole.
Kirito	This sounds bad. Kirito hasn't had a chance to get a full grasp of how bad, but the bits he was hearing on the radio are pretty damned bad. So he follows the coordinates in a rush. ARTHUR? Someone's been tailing you. It's a Spriggan with both black wings thrumming up to MAX SPEED. Which is enough to match Arthur well enough that he's pretty close. Close enough that he spins around in the air and goes skidding across the ground with his front facing Arthur and glancing over a shoulder to make sure he doesn't ram into something. This just adds to the sudden dust cloud Arthur kicked up--- ... by running past. Okay. Kirito blinks. He sees all the gore and devastation, but can only harden his heart against the rising disgust. He can throw up later, right now lives are at stake!
Zwei	Switchbait and Nettle find the situation outside is hopeless. Aside from the marines that have obviously been explosively killed, the number that have been done in by physical projectiles were terminated with deliberate, pinpoint accuracy. Every shot is straight through the throat, heart, lungs, or brain, without a single round misplaced into non-vital tissue. The number of corpses outside, dismembered or otherwise, is less than the total number of staff that should be on-site however, and so there is a significant probability that some are still alive inside. The first floor is pretty much exactly the same as outside, with the addition of casualties amongst technicians, scientists, and janitorial staff. Nobody has been spared. More perplexing, there isn't a whiff of gunpowder on the air, nor is there a single shell casing to be found on the ground. Everyone seems to have been killed before having the opportunity to so much as squeeze a trigger, though this should be unsurprising with a name like 'stalker'. A handful of what look like insects, so slim and whispy that they are barely even there, silently scuttle across the walls and ceiling, each barely more than silk-thin legs with pea-sized sensor nodules for bodies. There is an extremely good chance that the group is being scanned by now. It is only after the first staircase; a deep, iron spiral down a shaft of solid concrete; that sounds of activity can be heard. Sharp, electric cracks followed by wet splattering, and then a low, digitalized growl.
Maya	Maya was armed and loaded today she was even packing /extra weapons/, Her Normal rifle is slung across her back and cradled in her arms is an Imperial Patterne Bolter, Maya's bringing the heavy fire power it seems to day and Runner's hot on her heels the hulking mecha dog seems reay for combat as well. She's hauling tail her self using a haste spell andf seems very much ready to fight. "No quarter for these thing, we purge evey last one." Maya is a healer but right now the nukes have to be dropped at this point as she moves in hot after Kirito maya's disturbingly not as phased as one might think. She is bothered uyes but she's seen ... such before. "Let's move keep an eye out for surivors within as we go. Kirito? Let's go."
Kirito	Scanning Kirito will result in some pretty weird readings. He's clearly got body heat matching normal humans, but it's too uniformly spread out over his flesh. He doesn't seem to have bones on X-rays... there's all kinds of anomalies at work here that make him a perplexing thing to figure out, but he is definitely Alive by most notions of the word where sensors are concerned. The extra heat Maya's packing is recognized quickly though. "Imperium weaponry?!" He wasn't expecting THAT, that's for sure. As usual, he's only got his swords. Now that they're indoors, he cannot fly, but he can run pretty fast... and it's down the staircase he goes, leaping and sliding and taking all kinds of acrobatic shortcuts. He's probably been watching some of Tomoe's manuevers if the sudden improvements to his wall running are any indication. A pity Salamanders are too heavy to Wall Run like Spriggans!
Alexis Maaka	Alexis's eyes can't help but notice the precision with how some of the soldiers on-site were disposed of. THere's machinelike efficiency in each shot and slice, every one intended to end the target quickly as possible. Grim, but Maaka can't deny whoever made these robots wasn't fucking around when it came to combat programing. Rifle raised, Alexis cooly creeps through the facility as she makes her way down towards the stairs. Her cloak is engaged, allowing her to blend into the shadows as she moves further down to the next level. The growls...they drive a chill up a spine of steel, and Alexis tightens her grip on the 416, the rifle gently nudging open a door there and there.
Arthur Lowell	"They shoot FIRST, and it's ALL HEADSHOTS." Arthur says, muttering as he dashes through. There's a quick nod to Alexis, who he's roughly familiar with, and to Staren and Kirito, who he's moreso familiar with. Then Mortimer gets a grim nod. "Yeah. Looks like THEY already started doing some of THAT plenty." And a grin to Maya. "Now THAT sounds like a plan." Arthur looks up at the little scanners and gives them a rude gesture with his hand while he heads down the first staircase. He makes no attempt to hide who or what he is! If they can discern it naturally, anyway. "Hearing some BOGUS NOISE. Get your shit LOCKED AND LOADED, we 'bout to walk in on a TANGO as bad as goddamn DANCING WITH THE STARS." He says, a metallic battle-broom suddenly in his hands. He suddenly leaps onto the spiral's handrails, expertly grinding down quickly, intending to land skidding. If those things were Whispers, then /that/ noise must be a Stalker."Knock knock, fuckers! We got some COMPLAINTS from the NEIGHBORS!" He's intending to bring his broom up bristle-end first, releasing a powerful shockwave of gravity magic forward into whatever area looks to be the one occupied by whatever just made that noise. Zwei said they use stealth. So he intends to flood the immediate area of wherever he's landing, and wherever that thing is coming from, with a heavy bit of SPATIAL WARPING to stun it! Nonlethal, Because who knows, maybe there's survivors? Arthur hopes there's survivors, and refuses to believe otherwise.
Staren	Staren isn't surprised by the lack of gunpowder smell. When his sensors pick up the scanner bugs, he shouts, "Get back!" Drawing his magitech staff and blasting that area with a fireball. It's easier than trying to hit them individually. Then he collapses it and puts it back in the bag, heading down the stairs. "Hey, robot guy! We're a threat to your objectives! You better come fight us!"
Mortimer Balman	It's easier for Reder to see the little robots than it is for Mortimer- and he notices them right quick as they scuttle about like a bunch of little bitty pods. He tries to hop up and grab at one but it gets away from him well before he can nip at it. <Sarge, I don't think it's common for a facility like this to be infested with crawlies.> "What? Wher-what the fuck?" Mortimer himself was more focused on the lack of anyone getting to fight back. Whatever these 'Stalkers' were they were damned fast and damned efficient. He put a hand to his ear when Alter started bothering him. "Lord, there are no survivors here." Whrr-click. "All personnel in this area have been terminated." "Great. Okay get Switch and Nettle and move in behind us. Stay well behind though to avoid getting caught in potential crossfires." "Yes, Lord." Scanning Mortimer will of course, reveal FIRE. Lots of fire. Extremely high internal temperature reaching that of an active volcano's hottest magma at the core, which is somehow extremely well contained to a mere 110 degrees on the surface of his flesh. There's also some sort of bizarre radiation he seems to be /soaked/ in, but unless the machines understand magic that well they probably will write it off as some kind of irradiated individual. Scanning Reder will reveal some sort of peculiar amphibian creature that looks like a tortoise but is remarkably fast, has an incredibly tough shell, and is extremely /old/. Also there are some odd low-temperature fluctuations. "The hell are these thi-" Mort pauses when he hears the growling. And then he draws his knife- looks a lot like a ka-bar but it's got some wicked nasty ripping barbs on the back, and starts moving after Arthur. Reder bares his fangs and starts hopping fowards ahead of him, shouting out an eager challenge to whatever's down there. <C'mon c'mon c'mon! You want a fight let's fight! I'ma break your legs off and skullfuck you with'em!> Reder always does love a good scrap.
Maya	Maya says "Yes given what's up the extra firepower's needed I think." Maya's rifle's good but the basic firemode does not have the armor breaching ability of the bolter which she's got a feeling she'll need that extra kick. "So lets get to it Arthud and ya that does sound like a plan." Maya's heading in after Arthur with her heavy weapon's ready. "This grey goo is /not/ being spared." Fates that incident from so long ago still haunted her because stuff like that does stuff like this she keeps her weapon ready for whatever Arthur flushes out.
Zwei	Unsurprisingly, the whispers are wiped out by the fireball. They're made of so little material that you would need a million of them to fully thread a spool of twine. They simply can't absorb the heat, and disappear in little puffs of smoke. There are likely more way ahead, possibly even in the launch room, in order to paint a realtime map of the facility, but at least none are actively watching the Elites anymore. Arthur may have just saved the entire group. As the gravity blast travels through a specific, narrow corridor - a perfect choke point - something anchored to the ceiling suddenly fizzles as the wave hits it, causing a faint, transparent shape to fly down the hallway and harshly impact the opposite wall. Whatever it was, it was certainly big, and clearly planning to drop behind the party as soon as they went through. The spatial warp however, doesn't appear to have permanently disrupted its cloak. A series of percussive thwacks bounce from the concrete walls in rapid succession, but they are well behind the tungsten slivers being hurled at Arthur, Staren and Kirito, well into hypersonic velocity; aimed precisely for center mass in bursts of three. The scans must have been useful if it already knows that the those three won't die from a single headshot. Alexis, Maya and Mortimer are likely to be next, and being shot at point blank range from a target they can't see is likely something they want to avoid.
Maya	Maya gets the idea on the smaller units she make maya swings hte bolter and lets off several shots at where the thing likely hit. Maya takes a moment as an idea gets an idea to handle thi but they got osme other problems first comming their way. She's force to shoulder the bolter on it's strap, why? she's got a pair of fate fards in hand one od the card of Dogo the other is the card of cloak when mixed they would revew rather than cloaking thing it might make the hidden be no longer able to hide hopefully this works.
Staren	Staren follows up Arthur's spacial warp with a pair of quick particle beam shots, then his forcefield flashes into visibility, the slivers shattering small chunks of the outermost layer. Staren then quickly draws his laser pistol and fires a full-powered, double-barreled pulse at where the thing was before ducking around the corner of the corridor.
Arthur Lowell	"YEAH!" Arthur calls out, following the thwacks. "GET SOME!" He tanks the tungsten square on the chest, grunting falteringly in pain, but his echeladder-reinforced body resists suffering more than a hefty bruise. "I'mma bout to show you some REAL assured destruction, MOTHERFUCKER!" He saw that flicker, and this is a narrow hallway. He's got to get to it before it gets away, whatever it is! He immediately swings his battle-broom back, his engine blasting exhaust back up the stairs just a little as he slams forward, projecting a FLASH of brilliant magical starlight. He didn't see any survivors in this hallway. They have to be elsehwere. He's sure that, wherever they are, he'll find them eventually. For now, he takes it as a sign to cut a little more loose, projecting the flashing wave of white fusion-light out. It's like your traditional sci-fi laser-blast, but in many directions! Arthur intends to just run that thing down, potentially exploiting Maya's cloak disruption, and he intends to stun it just as Staren follows up with his laser pistol, hopefully giving the scientist an improved shot.
Alexis Maaka	! "Contact!" Alexis quickly picks up hostiles as her suit's software brings up their signatures. She gives a snarl of annoyance before letting loose with a few bursts of fire, her optical software sensing for cloaked stalkers. "You wanna play? FIne by me, but I play for keeps." She continues to track the Stalker's sigs, making a beeline for cover to avoid getting her head taken off by tungsten projectiles for good measure.
Kirito	BULLETS are nearly impossible for Kirito to manage. He sees only a glint of light, and knows only that these machines are aiming specifically at vitals. "Huap!" So he doesn't need to see the bullets to know where they'll be going. He brings Lucent Arrester, his gleaming blade of JOtunheimr metal down with the flat guarding his head and vitals - just in time. He WAS paying attention to those corpses earlier, and this proves how much attention he pays even without talking about stuff. But the incredibly velocity's enough to blow him backwards and almost off-balance! "How do you deal with THIS thing?!" The Spriggan grunts out. Chances are these can be rapid-fired, after all, and the machine's likely smart enough to try alternate tactics. So Kirito extends an arm and begins chanting out awkward old norse words. Writing matching the words spins around him and glows as he picks his phrasing out, and finally... Space ripples and... And the Corridor is filled with a flood of charging images of everyone present. All Illusions, all decoys that can only take one blow. But that should be enough to strike the machine before it mows everyone down!
Mortimer Balman	Mort and Reder's ears swivel at the sound of the percussive thwacks which were most likely legs. Invisible enemies, crawling along the walls. No wonder the base defenders never got off a shot. They probably weren't trained to fight what they can't even begin to detect. But the pokemarines were. Mort only barely managed to get his eyes closed just as Arthur was setting off his MAGICAL SOLAR FLARE and so was partially blinded, but that was fine. He shouldn't be relying on his eyes to fight an unseeable foe anyway. Reder fortunately did not get blinded, which was important because he needed his eyes open for what he was going to do. As Mort advances down the corridor at a steady clip, listening for the sound of movement so he can make a dodge or tank the slivers if he needs to, Reder is using his sergeant as a shield and- once the flare passes- watching for the faintest hint of a distortion, or the source of noise. If he can spot one his right eye will start glowing blue, a small whirl of ice circling around it, before it is suddenly sucked into the eye- and then beams of razor sharp ice will start firing out of it. All Anima-style, but with less bleeding. And suddenly thanks to Kirito there's a shitload of Mortimers and Reders all meandering down the corridor, firing ice beams and looking mean.
Zwei	Alexis is just fast enough to avoid an extra needle from strafing right into her helmet, ripping through the air by her ear and punching straight through the iron staircase, tearing a disproportionaly wide hole through it on both ends. In such a narrow hall, it is nearly impossible for Arthur, Staren, or maya to miss. The particle beam and laser shots seem to diffuse a few inches from their intended target, bending subtly until they crater the wall behind it, and the fusion beam hits a physical wall, splitting as though washing over a solid object and scorching the concrete all around. Alexis' rounds deflect off of an invisible hard surface, and the bolter shots strike dead on, but detonate prematurely, momentarily filling the corridor with smoke as Reder's ice beam penetrates through and leaves crackling shards of rapidly disintegrating frost striped across mid-air. Maya's cards finally seem to do the trick, washing over a shimmering image that flickers through several solid colours before resolving into a visible shape. The type-4 stalker is vaguely feline, or perhaps even canine, in shape. A hulking creature of carbon black metal interlocked into a smooth, organic, nearly featureless design, like the exoskeleton of an armoured insect. Its face is completely eyeless, and a flexible shaft of segmented metal serves as a tail, mounted with what looks almost like a scorpion stinger. Arthur and Alexis are now likely able to sense the beam of alpha radiation serving as a laser sight emitting from this appendage. With the cloaking field down, they are also able to see the remains of what looks to be an energy shield, likely close to overloading judging by the coruscating arcs of power crackling across it, but not quite down despite the abrupt pounding it had taken. Another scraping, electronic growl issues from the automaton as its body visibly tenses, as if ready to pounce. Ports flanking its spine open in parallel, and then /four more/ weapon-tipped tendrils jut out of its back, weaving like snakes before firmly fixating on their targets, targeting beams sweeeping the corridor and planting themselves firmly on chests and foreheads. Kirito's illusions are right on time by a split second, as the stalker instantly refocuses on the charging images, firing a blinding flurry of glittering metal spines that fills the hallway with a storm of flash craters and bouncing chunks of shattered concrete. As the illusions disappear, the drone suddenly sprints down an adjoining corridor, tearing up the cement under its feet as it moves at a ridiculous speed; bounding off the wall and bolting out of sight to buy time for its shield to recharge and cloak to reform.
Staren	Staren, from around the corner, draws his raiser rifle and holds it around the corner to use the smartlink -- but the Stalker leaves before he can draw a bead on it. So instead, he pulls out his magic staff again, casting Haste on the group and then taking off in hot pursuit!
Arthur Lowell	Arthur fires off another shotgun-blast wave of gravity energy, trying to throw the damn Stalker off of its run as it heads down the ajoining hallway. "FUCKER, GET BACK HERE!" He calls out! Though thankfully, this time, the illusions gave him the chance to deftly dodge the storm of awful spines! "Alright, I'mma find the other one! Can't let EITHER get to the damn NUKES!" He shouts, jabbing a hand off to where the first one went as he runs, suddenly hastened by Staren! "GET GOING!" Arthur himself intends to do what he did before: Follow the bodies. His keen mind analyzes the environment, seeking potential defensive points that the facility may have been defending, and seeking out where a trail of bodies might lead elsewhere! His objective, of course: Hunt down the second Stalker that Zwei said would be deployed here!
Alexis Maaka	"Shit," Alexis finds her bullets won't do anything useful to these things, but she does have something else in mind. Letting the rifle hang on its sling, she transitions to the railgun mounted on her back. It gives off a powerful hum as it boots up, the sides of the weapon glowing bright blue as Alexis shoulders the rifle-based railgun and takes aim. When the rifle boots up and synchs to her optic-implants, Maaka doesn't hesitate in pulling the trigger. The rifle kicks against her shoulder, and she grins a little behind her visor. "Assimilate that one, you ugly fuck!" She taunts, before firing two more blasts of hyper-velocity slugs, a little taste of the stalker's own medicine as it were.
Kirito	Kirito's smart at least. He takes advantage of the fact that all those projectiles are heading towards CHARGING Illusions, meaning very few will be going for... upwards. SO when the corridor becomes a madhouse, he WALL RUNS over most of it at tremendous speeds, pushing it for many, MANY more meters than any Spriggan would normally manage. He really HAS been watching Tomoe very carefully, on top of his own great grasp of balance and crazy tricks! "Uuuuuuoooooooooooohhhhhhhh!" He does spot the retreating machine, but like hell if he's gonna let it get away. He springs back and forth across the walls, finally lands again, and takes off using his fully boosted sprinting speed, courtesy of a maxed skill. WHOOOOOOOOOOSH! He's going to find that thing and SWORD IT TO PIECES
Maya	Maya Seems to have managed to expose a few o the machine she's got lucky at this point and has not been filled full of holes. She says three words. "Runner sick em." the hulking mechanical hound barrels a head at the hostile unit seeing the cat like nature it's AI is thinking Cats the enemy of all life destroy. Or it's thinking maya said get them whatever happens they come under assault by him and Maya's covering now with fire form her bolter as she's attemping to push through, or try to.
Mortimer Balman	<Got a target, Sarge.> "Let's fuck it up." Mortimer crouches low and bursts into a sprint, still having his eyes closed as he follows the sounds of battle. After a moment he's right alongside Maya's big ol' doggies and using them to cover his approach. Well trained muscles tense and, following the trail of cold from Reder's ice beams- oh yes the wartortle is still firing them off, creating a trail to lead Mortimer to the Stalker- he suddenly vanishes from sight. A sudden burst of incredible but brief superhuman speed creates an optical illusion of him flat out disappearing- granted the robots can probably see through that well enough and just track him anyway- but he's a lot closer to at least one of them now and that knife of his is just as capable of ripping through metal as it is through flesh.
Zwei	Alexis strikes with her first shot, causing the energy shield to flash and pop brilliantly around the target before collapsing completely, but it is two fast for the latter two, leaving smoking craters behind it. Unfortunately, stopping to aim and fire will probably leave her last in line as the party advances to chase after it. Arthur's magic craters the wall just shy of the stalker as it runs straight along it rather than slowing to skid around the corner. With the direction it's retreating in, it seems safe to assume that it intends to regroup with its companion unit, so following a parallel corridor and mirroring its movement inwards is an easy bet. Kirito, especially with the benefit of Staren's haste spell, has little difficulty keeping up with its speed and agility in such a cramped environment, able to use the surrounding walls as efficiently as it does to redirect his momentum. This keeps it on the run for a considerable length of time, trying to break line of sight so it can turn invisible again, but not succeeding. Runner trails closely behind, easily able to track it simply by the noise Kirito makes as Mortimer is doing, arriving just behind Kirito with his burst of extreme speed. Maya herself can't quite seem to get a good window to shoot in. Though a bolter is exceptionally powerful, the shells are a little too slow to travel from her to the target in the brief flashes it is visible, leaving her to chase it along with the others. It seems the second stalker isn't waiting for the first to catch up with it, because as Arthur rounds a corner, he is instantly blindsided by a tackle that would pulverize every bone in a regular human's body. The body check sends him all the way up against the opposite wall, where razor sharp claws dig into his flesh and what feel like blunt, mechanical teeth suddenly clamp around his neck, before buzzing to life like a chainsaw; adding to the kind of head shaking that a dog does when trying to shred a prey animal's throat. As if that weren't bad enough, all five of the unit's rail weapons unload on him at point blank, riddling him with shot after shot in a swift and unbelievably vicious attempt to end his life. The other five manage to corner their quarry in an open command deck, dangerously close to the launch control room itself. As they pass through the doors, the stalker suddenly leaps straight up and backwards, flipping through the air to anchor itself to the ceiling above them, and then spraying indiscriminately into their formation in a ripping hail of hypersonic metal. Short barrels extend from the unit's shoulders to either side of its head, emitting blinding twin flashes as they discharge raiser rounds into the heavy metal blast doors ahead, where the bonded ryberg bolts punch straight through the thick steel-titanium like paper mache and explode in the center of the airlock, instantly melting both ends to pools of sizzling slag. Any moment now, it's going to sprint right through that open passage, and then it will be at the silo controls within moments.
Staren	Staren is following Arthur, so he has a front-row seat to seeing Arthur get tackled! Silently, immediately, he raises his arm and fires the particle beams and laser cannon -- but then, he wonders if maybe weapons from its own world are the key to piercing its shields, so he draws the raiser rifle, sets it to the 'chunky salsa' setting from before, and fires at the stalker -- careful that the angle won't hit Arthur if it misses, of course.
Mortimer Balman	Irritated at how quick these things are, Mortimer calmly- but rapidly- announces a change of tactical approach to deal with the Stalkers. Shouting to Maya first- "Stop shooting at them, Maya! Get in close! C'mon! It's too fast to get a good beat on it! Reder, back me up!" The flames on his head suddenly shrink down considerably, and he starts pouring out tremendous amounts of ugly black smoke- which makes it hard as hell to see, and perhaps easy for the Stalker to go invisible again.. But that really doesn't matter. With the benefits of being hasted up on his side, Mortimer's not trying to carve the machine up anymore. He's going for what one might call the Goku approach- dashing in as fast as he can to just GRAB it and wrap his arms and legs around it so that his allies can proceed shredding it. And, following suit, Reder is skittering along the floor roaring a delighted roar as he leaps for the robotic killing machine, teeth bared, looking to dig into it and start tearing it to shreds. If Mortimer can hold the beast still, or even just slow it down sufficiently, Reder's going to get all Mad Gearz on this thing's shiny metallic daffodil ass.
Alexis Maaka	With Arthur's attacker handled, Alexis meanwhile makes her way towards the silo, tracking the trail Runner's giving off with a desperate sprint. She keeps the railgun shouldered as she advances forwards. Once she does catch up, the cyborg levels her railgun and slides into a comfortable firing position as she is about to take a few shots- Of course, going through the fog, Alexis opts to put away the railgun in favor of something more intimate as she gets close. Her hand blurs as it reaches down to grab something off her belt, a grip that unfolds a length of wire. Electricity seems to arc through it before the wire straightens out into a knife-esque shape. Alexis draws an FNP .45 in her off-hand, firing at the Runner before she takes a leap and slashes down at the machine.
Maya	Runner was indeed Maya's preunifcations crew's tank and second heavy hiter along with Badu, someday she'll introduce the underlost to everyone, really. Maya presse ahead with evceryone else as they know they have to get though she can't get a good shot off but she's going to keep moving. She's gong to have to keep with the group and ro her best to help she's got some aoe spam but she's saving that to hedge against the hostile technology. She starts buffing eveyrone and a chain of protective barriers go off.
Kirito	Casting Haste on Kirito is like giving a tank even more armor. His speed's one of his best qualities, and with that significantly improved... the Spriggan boy becomes a black blur charging down the hallways. He brings a hand up just as the flechette sprayer's aimed his way, and--- The whole arm's pulverized and pulped. It's severed right below the shoulder and some of his torso gets a few shots, but-- "This is it for you--!" KRZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM Kirito's still got good footing, and that's all he needs. Lucent Arrester's positioned for a thrust and--- And it howls with a windy gale. The next instant, Kirito's GONE. He's shooting forward like a rocket, drawing a sharp line into the robot if all goes well. For this technique takes him flying past enemies from a certain range, delivering a NASTY <VORPAL STRIKE.>
Arthur Lowell	"FUCKER, YOU WANNA WRASSLE?" Arthur calls out as he takes a tumble, his broom taken out of his hands in the melee! It is exceedingly dumb to separate from the main party when there's an alien attack going on, but Arthur relishes these situations! Fired point-blank, the projectiles pierce his side. "You wanna get some shit RADIOACTIVE? I'll get you SPINNING GEIGER IN HIS GRAVE so hard they'll POWER THE EASTERN SEABOARD WITH HIS COFFIN, motherfucker! They'll have to dump your ass in YUCCA MOUNTAIN you FELINE SHIT!" Blood is drawn around his neck, a small spray, alongside the awful injuries that come from the shaking as it pins him down, to say nothing of repeated piercings of those weapons as they tear through his torso despite the resilience that Sburb has given him; the combined spray of blood is best left without description for the sake of taste. He does... Something counterinintuitive. He wraps both arms around its neck and holds it closer to prevent it from getting away, letting Staren take his shot! He's hoping it'll damage or at least stun the thing! Then, he reverses his own gravity, falling up. He still refuses to let go! He attempts to land with one foot planted firmly on the scorpion-like tail! And then he just... Vents copious amounts of radiation into the head of the drone, trying to scour its systems with SOLAR WIND. And as he does, he tries to adjust his grip to yank it off of his neck. Then, trying to plant his foot further up on the tail, and now covered in copious quantities of his own blood, he makes an extremely concentrated effort to tear the creature's head off of its body. At the very least, he does everything he can to ensure it won't /get away/ from his grapple!
Zwei	Maya's barriers are just in time to prevent everyone around her from being skewered by a hundred darts of solid metal each. Though they quickly break under the sustained asault of five seperate guns going off at once, by the time they do, the stalker has either lost interest or run out of ammo, and bolts for the exit. Mortimer manages to tackle it out of the air just in time, forcing it to rocket into the floor instead of the next room, cracking the cement where it impacts. The thing is strong; unbelievably so; in that he can't possibly hope to hold down the much larger, artificially powered combat unit down for long, but Reder gets his chance, and sinks his teeth straight into the outer casing, causing the hard but inflexible material to crack like glass as he begins to savage it. .45 isn't nearly a high enough caliber to deal significant damage to the stalker, merely inflicting superficial potholes in its armour, but the electromagnetic monowire knife slices into it with relative ease, cleanly slashing off one of its 'tails' and down into the shoulder joint, severing vital connections and rendering its front right leg useless. By the time it shakes Mort off, the damage is such that it isn't able to leap aside from Kirito's strike, and so the blow takes it cleanly down the middle. The raging wind carries fragments of shattered metal along in a scathing hail as the stalker's midsection splits open and then spews its innards all along the floor, washing the concrete walls with clear, iridescent fluid. Something spherical falls out of its chest, roughly the size of a baseball, and letting off enough heat that the air around it shivers. Meanwhile, Staren finds that unloading into the second stalker with his standard weapons, while certainly possible, will take too long to overwhelm the energy shield, roughly comparable to his own in strength. Three of the units tendrils swivel towards him and release a streaming torrent of slugs in his direction, but his forcefield buys him just enough time to switch to the raiser rifle. His intuition proves correct. Since the bolt can't bounce or deflect, the stalker's shield absorbs 100% of the bolt, causing both shield and projectile to flash out of existence with a resounding electric snap. Reversing gravity plays to Arthur's advantage, as it allows him the leverage of being on top without having to physically overpower the monster attempting to shred him with its jaws. With its shields depleted by Staren, there's barely anything protecting it from the point blank blast of radiation, and in short order, most of its neural clusters burn out, leaving it barely able to fight back as one mighty wrench tears its head free with much the same translucent gore as the other. The two parties finish their opponents just in time to see the ceiling to the launch controls cave in, letting in a deluge of sand and sunlight as four storeys of concrete and rebar is smashed to pieces in an instant. Pinned to the silo floor is the mangled wreck of something roughly the size of a main battle tank sporting six, twitching legs. Atop of it is the hulk of Asche, fist through its body, which he uses to rip out a much larger spherical object. Weiss simply pops into existence beside him, skirt and hair momentarily fluttering on the draft as she falls the last few inches to the ground. Looking up through the observation deck windows, she waves cheerily to all six Elites. "Sorry! After I shot the engine off the ship deployed into terrestrial mode, so I had to take care of that! Seems you handled it just fine though~"
Mortimer Balman	Mort's race is not widely renowned for being super strong. Typhlosions can however learn the Strength technique, but by the time he's ready to start implementing it the whole thing around him is a clusterfuck and a half. Reder laughing as he rips chunks of metal off with his powerful teeth, searching for wires and gears and bits to rip out. And then that stupid fast kid Kirito is there, carving through it like a Thanksgiving turkey! Good kid he likes this boy already. Sadly, Mort cannot hold it for too much longer, and he can't employ Strength to hold it. Which pisses him off. "GET BACK HERE AND DIE RIGHT YOU FUCKING TINKER TOY! I'M GONNA-" Oh wait. Damn thing fell all to pieces. <I GET ITS HEAD!> Reder shouts out, frustrated at his prey getting away. He doesn't care about the spherical object, only about claiming the robotic creature's head- which unless someone stops him, he is going to drag away with probably half the carcass of the beast. Mortimer, however.. Being super heated himself, cautiously approaches the super-hot object and leans forward to poke at it. "Whoa. Huh. That's pretty hot..." The sounds of battle die down. This gives him the opportunity to redirect everyone's efforts, calling out into his radio to make sure everyone hears him clearly. Best to keep this operation moving quickly because the US Jarhead Brigade is gonna end up getting here soon and they're not gonna be happy when they find their precious facility all fucked up.
Staren	One of the layers of Staren's forceshield shatters completely under the onslaught, but they make quick work of the drone. Okay. So pop the shields with raiser weapons, and then they're almost defenseless. Good to know. After Arthur demolishes it, Staren asks, "Are you alright? That looked like it should have hurt. A lot." And then oh hey here is Asche! And Weiss can teleport. Good to know. "Did we get all of them?" Staren asks. "Also, you could have told us we needed raiser weapons to pop the shields and that they have barely any protection underneath. Would have made things easier."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur flips back off the ceiling, restoring his own gravity while he holds a handfull of head. "FUCK YEAH!" Using a healthy helping of gravity, he dramatically cracks part of the robot's head in his hands, or tries to anyway. "DECAPITATION!!" He holds it up triumphantly! This is the epitome of cool: A guy holding the forcibly-removed head of his enemy up, covered in his blood and theirs, crushing it a little. Wait, no, what's that other thing, not "cool"? Any thoughts on that matter are going to be interrupted; Arthur takes the chance to SPIKE the head into the ground, like a man doing a celebratory football touchdown thing. He's losing some blood, and actually seems little disoriented now. He even seems just slightly startled as Zwei crashes down through the roof nearby, rejoining the other group. He gives a friendly wave to Weiss, leaning back and forth. "DAMN YO." He declares. "Well, looks like you got to have some COMBAT EXERCISES after all, huh?" He gives an approving thumbs-up to the pair. Oh, and one to Staren too. "Man, thanks for the help with the SHIELD, yo." He says, bearing a big, friendly grin. "Oh man, YEAH, it hurt a LOT! That was RAD." He does a quick fistpump. He tosses the slightly crumpled head of the machine he took out over to Mortimer's pokemon. Wait, he has the whole corpse in his Sylladex now, it seems! "Hey, what's up with the BALLS in there? Any VALUE on 'em? Good ENEMY DROPS?" He seems pretty casual about this, for someone about to suffer blood loss.
Alexis Maaka	Alexis dismounts the machine just as it falls apart, calmly holstering her .45 before sheathing the monowire blade with a deft motion. Brushing herself off, Alexis looks up at Asche and Weiss the second they arrive. "You're the voice that took out that ship? Thanks for the support." She says, nodding to them as her helmet folds up to reveal crimson locks cut short into a boyish style, and gold eyes. "Guess we know now what these bastards are capable of, huh?" She eyes the destroyed machines, already reminded of her times running through the slumsectors at night after curfew, evading drones that were gunning down looters and anyone else out at night on the spot, if the more savage hunter types hadn't run them down and torn flesh assunder. Closing her eyes, Alexis shakes her head before she begins to run some perimeter scans, hoping someone managed to avoid getting ripped up by these alien war machines.
Zwei	"I'm reading a bunch of lifesigns clustered in the emergency fallout shelter. I'm assuming the type-4s must have already disabled all the security features if there aren't alarms blaring, so I guess they're hiding there more for psychological comfort than anything else." Weiss blithely responds to Mort over the radio. "It's not like they're especially weak to raisers. It's more that raisers are especially good at penetrating shielding. It seems kind of obvious that they should be, seeing as they were invented to fight civilizations advanced enough that energy shielding is standard." She then replies to Staren. "But yes, that is both of them. The whispers will run out of power in a week or so, and they don't have the broadcast capability to call orbit, so you can pretty much ignore them." Asche seems as though he doesn't intend to crush the thing in his hand like a proper heart-ripping sequence should involve, instead magnetically attaching it to his hip, seemingly unphased by the tremendous heat the thing gives off. Weiss seems to pick up on Mortimer poking the matching, smaller one up on the command deck. "That's a miniature rydelblitz reactor. It's pretty low-grade, nothing like mine, but it'll keep dumping that heat for the next million years. I'll be taking possession of those, since first, I don't trust you to handle a singularity powered generator, and second, because that's proprietary technology!" She then responds to Alexis. "Yes! The type-4 stalker loadout is one of the nastier ones. They have light shielding, but extremely advanced cloaking ability, and they can devour and reprocess metal they find into ammunition. Their raisers aren't very powerful since they're meant to take out large numbers of soft targets. Usually a few thousand of them are deployed in small teams to strategic points around the globe in order to assassinate military leaders, clear out orbital elevators, and launch weapons of mass destruction."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur gives a sort of good-natured eye-roll. Well, he can't put EVERYTHING into an alchemization, seems like. He dumps the other corpse out of his Sylladex obligingly. "Sure, sure, whateeeeev'." He says, chuckling. "Can think of a few THINGS I'd not want getting out of MY hands too, sure." Speaking of which, he's picked up his broom again a while back, now slinging it over one shoulder. This is a command deck, right? Surely there are chairs, one of which Arthur immediately casts a spell to, pulling it over so he can recline in it in a relaxed way. fingers behind his head, next to the giant destroyed machine and the assorted robot corpses. "Didn't expect you to help us out so much, though! Gotta say, it was NICE doin' the whole tag-team deal! Let's get some more WORK done t'gether sometime, yeah? Plenty of ADVENTURES out there worth havin'." A quick wink and a brief double-finger-guns to Weiss. There's also a quick gesture to the corpse, and the head he discarded. "Bee-tee-dubs, that shit's possibly RADIOACTIVE a little, shouldn't hit you hard if you don't SLEEP ON IT or nothin'." His relaxed, reclining posture is letting the blood loss from his gaping torso wounds and neck wound get to him a little more, and he starts to look like he might pass out in a while, but despite it, he moves and speaks with as much upbeat enthusiasm and cool demeanor as ever.
Maya	Maya hs some other plans and the hostiles are still coming for them and she's been withholding her biggest powers for a reason she knows th enemy can adapt she wants it to comit more units to tryin to kikll them at this point, right? That's her plan as she presses on ahead as they keep moving. Runner meanwhile is acting as mobile cover for any ally who needs it at this point. MAya meanwhile is pressing a head and is going to make these things eat more bolter rounds as she pushes on a head. "So they are cut off from addtional troops? Good....a nd that's umm quite the entrance you made there."
Kirito	Kirito goes whipping past the others and spins around. For about three seconds he's not going anywhere courtesy of the Sword Skill stuntime, but the moment that's over with he leaps forward and takes a defensive stance in case the machine gets back up. Which it doesn't, so instead... with Zwei barging in, he sighs in relief rather visibly. "is it over?" he asks simply, whilst clearily missing his left arm. The stump, where there should be a bleeding wound, is... weird. There's no exposed gore, instead the innards are just a glowing red wireframe...
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer exhales smoke through his nostrils, adjusting his flame output back to normal. "Don't really give two screaming Fearow shits about your proprietary technologies, but whatever. Long as we can keep these things from spreading global thermonuclear warfare. I'll be taking a couple of those Whispers anyway though- wait, did you say THOUSAND? Do we have more of these things on-planet or did you get them all when you took out that 'Feeler'-whatsit before it could mass deploy? What's our situation here Zwei?" Reder tortles up at the Weiss, "<Fuck it keep your fancy little heat ball. You even think of taking my head though and I'm gonna eat your face.>" Switchbait, having heard Mortimer's calling, flutters in carrying a little medical kit around his neck, hovering around Arthur and setting about bandaging his injuries. "<Do hold still a moment Mr. Lowell. There we are now, very good, half a moment and we'll.. Oh dear me, that is an awful lot of blood. Master Balman! We need to get Mr. Lowell to a proper medical professional post haste! He may be in serious danger of going into hypovolemic shock, sir!>" He tries to carefully staunch the bleeding by using a combination of antiseptic-treated bandages and his own sticky strings to help stem the loss of blood- firmly attaching but careful not to wrap the bandages too tightly, because that could cause additional injuries. "Hang on I'm comin'.. Fuck, Art.." Mort scratches his head. Deep breath. "One of you Union kids call your friends up and get us a medical station ready, or get us a doctor on site, I don't care which! Those of us who ain't fucked up need to check the rest of the facility for surviving personnel and help them if they need it! Nettle! Take Alter and grab us a few of those little robot things, put'em in a jar or somethin'! I don't care if you break'em." He looks at the rest of the group taking stock and catching their breath. "C'mon people, assholes and elbows, we're not done here yet! Switch can you take care of Art?" "<Absolutely, sir. May I ask that Reder stays here with me in case of further violence?>" "Yeah good idea." He'd start trotting off down another corridor. These bases ain't small after all, gotta check everything and make sure it's ALL secure.
Alexis Maaka	Alexis whistles, "Damn. Thought it out all good and proper, eh? Makes sense, these people have to have been at this more than I can count." She says, digesting this information and recording it for later. "So question is, what got them so paranoid about xeno-relations they're content to send these things planetside and let them fuck everything up, then grab the goodies?" A booted foot rolls the Runner's carcass onto its back, and she gives it a careful prod as though it may come back to life and strike her again. Meanwhile, her eyes glance over at the others for a moment, then she just kinda lets things pass by for a while...
Staren	Staren smiles a bit and returns the thumbs-up. "Uhh, are you sure you're okay? You're... bleeding an awful lot there..." He reattaches the raiser rifle to his back, since the fight's over. Staren looks at the assembled group. "Good to see you all." He considers things. "I guess everyone's dead except for in the shelter, but there might be injured there. Those of you who are better with people: Should we, a bunch of obvious aliens from other worlds, show up openly to help them? Or is that likely to just instill panic in people who've been living under a cold war?"
Zwei	"Not a problem!" Weiss beams at Arthur. "I didn't see why I shouldn't! Working with people has been pretty interesting so far! Besides, if The Collective automated military starts becoming a big enough threat to the multiverse, the superfactions might go in through the warpgate and wreck my stuff! I don't personally care what happens to any of this junk until I get my command codes. It's not like I have any higher ups to piss off with destroying them." She sounds faintly somber at that last part. It doesn't last long before her usual cheeriness resumes. "Don't worry about radiation! Both my units are rated to handle it." She teleports through the glass of the command deck to where Mortimer is, scooping up the reactor in one arm, likewise unphased by its heat. "Obviously they don't all deploy from one ship. Normally there are hundreds of millions of these little troop transports that travel from orbit to the surface to deploy an early strike force. They're too fast and small to really intercept, and they carry teams for the purpose of softening up planetary defenses before the main forces arrive." She points stoically in the direction of the emergency bunker where Mort will find the survivors. "You can keep the head for all I care. It's mostly sensors and targeting hardware anyways." Lastly to Alexis "It's not a matter of paranoia, it's a matter of control. The Collective keeps our galaxy in the same way a human keeps their garden. They get rid of the parts they don't like, and shape the parts they do. I'm guessing it attacked here just because this Earth is centuries behind human development in the world it was programmed."
Alexis Maaka	"SHit. Puts things into perspective when you put it that way." Alexis frowns, brow arched. "For all we know this is basically them dumping pesticides and then uprooting the shit out of the plants." She kinda just looks towards the bunker with a semi-sheepish look. "Iiiiii think I'll let someone else handle this one, I don't do 'people' much." Shrug.
Staren	Staren blinks. "Wait, hang on. These things are /loose in the Multiverse/, and they'll attack /any Earth less developed than they were/?! That's... that's almost all of them!"
Kirito	About this moment, Kirito's missing left arm reappears from a sudden shimmering bluish-white light. When the light fades his arm's back, along with the parts of his outfit that went with it. Weird as hell. He pays this almost no mind however, as he's rubbing his chin with his other hand and shows a really careful expression... deep in thought. But his conclusion? "We can't leave them there, screw first contact issues. We're Union members, this is part of our job. Besides, if we don't tell them what's going on someone else will... assuming nothing else stumbles over them." His explanation's fiercely delivered and determined. "All the more reason for them to know what's going on so they can put everyone on high alert about these alien attacks. We can't be everywhere on the globe at once if it happens again. If we're going to stop further crises we'll have to raid the ships that launch these groups."
Arthur Lowell	"NOPE!" Arthur says, to Staren, grinning. He's not okay! But he will be, apparently. Then there's a grin and a wink to Switchbait. "Don't worry, pal! I'm made out of MANGRIT AND YELLING. I need, like, HALF the blood most people do. THANKS though, APPRECIATED!" It's not entirely clear how serious he is about this, but he seems, at the very least, confident that he'll be okay. What this actually is, is a manifestation of Arthur's intense relief that there are, at least, SOME survivors here that were saved. As long as one person got saved, Arthur could avoid getting into one of those grim, horribly stressed moods he sometimes gets into after massacre incidents like this. It is nearly impossible to discern from his normal coolkid mannerisms, but incidents like these actually are affecting him rather deeply. Then, abruptly, he stands, pointing dramatically to Staren. "YOU don't know how this WORKS! Of COURSE we should go obviously help 'em! We're HEROES! If we just go and be HEROIC at 'em, there's a solid NINETY PERCENT chance of it working out fine. I mean, we're, y'know, HUMAN-ISH." He gestures dismissively in the vague direction that Mortimer is either at or left through. "You know, MOSTLY. Here, if it comes down to some BIG DIASCO, just let ME do all the TALKING! If there's ONE THING I can do well, it's be REALLY, REALLY HUMAN." He jabs a thumb at his chest to punctuate the statement. "Anyway we seem about wrapped up here! I'll keep that in mind, ZWEI. Sounds HEAVY. I don't like it, pretty sure you can tell why." He makes a brief sick noise. "In the meantime, any FOREWARNING you can give? I'd LOVE to hear it, myself. You wanna do us a HUGE SOLID, I'd love to get some TRACKING set up with the SYNDICATE. You know, if that's alright with your PRIORITIES, I guess. Meantime, this is JUST ABOUT CLOSE ENOUGH." Despite his voice and expressions remaining upbeat, he has the look of someone tempted to doze off from that blood loss and such.
Maya	Maya pauses at the words and is now quite conerned about this but she'll have to worry about it she haklts for a moment as she hears th mention about radtion this could be a problems. "Sounds like other empires I'm aware of. So annhilateing a /world/ just because it's behind the tech curve?" Maya does not approve at all. "I am a junker after all. If it is My friend? I do think it's time we fire the gardener." She looks at Staren for a moment with a serious expression on her face. "We need to track this back to the source and Staren? Let this be a lesson to you in your presuit of sicence how somethings might be abused."
Arthur Lowell	"NOPE." Arthur is suddenly not drowsy. "NOPE." He jabs a finger at Maya. "NOPE." He now points it at Staren. "NOT THIS TALK. NOPE."
Maya	Maya nods to Arthur, it's for the best she looks to Mort for a moment. "I'm ... a healer I'll get to work if the fighting's over until more can arrive." Maya's got a lot of work cut out and man there's going to be some confused surivors magic everyone.
Mortimer Balman	Okay. First contact. Deeeeep breath, Mortimer. "Hey! Anyone in there?" He starts trying to open the bunker's doors, and barring that just pounding on it. "Hey if you can hear me in there! Crisis is over! Friendly personnel are on site! You need to open the doors and let us get any wounded you have to medical! Is there a commander in there? An officer? Hell I'll even take a freshly minted lieutenant if you can spare one!" Military humor- lieutenants are notoriously unreliable, especially newbies- that ought to help calm their nerves at least a little bit. "Please open the doors and let us make sure you're all okay! We're working on securing your facility and getting into contact with your superiors right now!" Switchbait frowns. "<No, Mr. Lowell, you will not be doing any such things. Half a moment, let me see.. Where is it.. Aha here we are.. MR. LOWELL WILL YOU PLEASE CALM DOWN AND SIT BACK BEFORE I KNOCK YOU RIGHT THE BLOODY HELL OUT?!>" Switchbait does NOT like his patients suddenly doing stupid shit that can start making them bleed worse. He pulls a needle out of the kit and sticks it into Arthur's arm. "<This is dopamine. It will help keep your blood pumping properly for a brief period- small dose, not a large one- thus buying us more time to get you proper medical care.>"
Staren	Staren gives Maya a >:\| look. "Did you notice how I'm not giving the tech for immortality to every world I can find? It's partly because people will freak out, but it's /also/ because it could be /terribly/ misused for other things in the wrong hands. I'm not an idiot." He turns to Arthur, "Alright, let's go..." but Mort is trying to get him to be a good patient. Staren sighs. "I'll talk to them..." he makes his way to the indicated shelter. He knocks on the door. "Those were bad aliens that killed your troops. We're good aliens. WIll you come out and talk to us and let us see to any injured, or do you just want us to leave?"
Zwei	"Correction." Weiss says to Staren. "It doesn't have to be Earth." She lets that sink in for a moment. "Of course it could be a while before another one finds the warpgate. The automated armed forces are busy conquering other galaxies in my universe, since the Milky Way is entirely under its control. It's unlikely they'll divert resources into the multiverse, since there's no way to actually realize it's infinite unless you're told. I expect they'll just pop up from time to time, drop a virus bomb here, crash a space colony there, et cetera." She waits even longer for THAT to sink in. "Of course, I'm technically the sole remaining representative of my race here! I can't let the Union or the Confederacy get it into their heads to smash my inheritance! I'm already programmed with all the necessary flight codes and mass signatures to know one of my own ships, and since I already have comprehensive knowledge of every aspect of their code, so I'll go about setting up some monitor stations around all the warpgates that I know of in my galaxy, but it could take a while. It should be pretty easy for me to intercept them every so often, as long as I'm not busy at the time!" She says that with the clear expectation of someone being thankful for it. It seems this particular Earth has already been multiverse integrated for a while, because those inside don't question the idea of 'good aliens'. The blast doors pop open shortly after Staren and Mortimer speak through the intercomm, and reveal the insides. The bunker is actually mostly full, being reserved for the silo staff rather than the army soldiers stationed outside. Roughly a quarter of them are missing, but the survivors comprise a healthy portion of the original crew. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any real military types here. It seems anyone of sufficient rank was terminated first, likely in order to throw the base into disarray and prevent calling for help.
Kirito	Kirito's rubbing his face at the approach Mort and Staren are both using, but in the meantime his attention glazes over. No doubt, he's checking through radio with Yui in her special server with extra net access and making the calls Mortimer wanted... "Alright. A medical dispatch is coming, along with a trained first contact team... the Union can handle the details with the governments, we just focus on keeping everyone alive and those missiles grounded."
Staren	When Weiss gives examples of what her civilization does... "Great." Staren mutters. "Like another frikkin' Samael." Staren offers a smile and a wave to the survivors. "Alright, Mort and Arthur, do your things and talk to them 'till the contact team gets here. I've got... my thing to do." Staren takes a deep breath, and then concentrates for a moment, he and his support AI reviewing the footage of his flyover and his trek through the facility, picking out bodies with intact heads, prioritizing rank insignia. Then he nods, and hurries through the facility, calling Arthur for gates. Less than a dozen will be saved, but it's better than nothing, right? He's soon gated back to his lab and begins the hours of work that will be needed to upload these minds and construct the healing tanks needed to repair their bodies.
Maya	Maya has a lot of work a head of her at this point and she does hear what Weiss has to say she can. She debates noting an old saying but choses better than to do so. She listens for a moment and grimces. She hears what is said it's simple if they can not be noegating with. She's already wary but it just gets even worse. She's starting to wonder yes. She's got work to do and she's moving to help heal those who can she can help at this point.