Ch. 16 Rescue in the Ruins

[Jet]

"What am I doing here?" Rai demanded "Why was I transferred back?"
Everyone who hadn't returned to base already had been summoned back to the command room. Everyone was there, save for the two guardians which Elpizo had confined to their rooms until the mission was over. Disobedience was the official reason for the order, but Elpizo couldn't risk them finding out about the baby elves.

"I let you go to your tournament, but now I need you," Elpizo snapped, "As soon as the operators can input the coordinates I'm sending you right back out. Now everybody take a portable trans server and listen."

The resistance members did what they were told and Elpizo continued, "While you were out I sent two squads deep into the jungle on an important mission where they were attacked by Neo Arcadians. They have vital information and it is imperative that they return here safely but Neo Arcadia erected a jamming field and we can't transport them out. That's what the portable trans servers are for, once you find the squad you'll be able to send them back."

"Commander, I can't go, I'm injured." It was Flash. Despite his obvious injuries this time Elpizo wouldn't have it, he pulled back and backhanded the resistance member. "Then get a mop and start cleaning the place," Elpizo ordered, "If you're not going to fight you're going to be of some use to us or you won't be staying here."

The resistance members were taken back by the severity of Elpizo's actions and quickly picked up on the tenseness of the situation. The commander was clearly on edge.

"Transfer commencing," the operator interrupted.

The group materialized in the middle of a dense forest. Out of the trees ran a terrified looking resistance solder. "I'm so glad I've found you guys," he said, "Command sent us here to investigate something called a Baby Elf but we were attacked. The rest of my squad is back there... please help them!"

Raven moved forward and tagged the soldier who was transferred back to base.

[Jet]

Forest Map

[Silver Stryker]

Rioku scoffed to himself as Raven helped the soldier back to base. "Boy, he sure was terrified. I sure would've liked to ask him what we got waiting for us ahead. Traps, ambushes, last known teammate locations, unique landmarks, you know. I mean, we only--"

"Shut up and take point, kid." Vector snapped with a rather grey tone. "Just saying." Came Rioku's response as he readied up his rifle and moved forward. Rioku's eyes and barrel trained on anything considered and opening as well as the tree line itself. It'd be near impossible to tell, but his train of thought began to waver and eventually went to Vector. "Hey Vector? You ever fought in a woodland environment before? What exactly am I looking for here?"

"High-elevated snipers, possibly tripwire, and--" Vector spoke, attention refocusing of the clawed pantheon that leapt from a thicket of bushes at Rioku. Rioku's reaction was quick and decisive as he trained his barrel on the target. Vector, however, was faster. A speedy draw of one of his side arms ensured that a potent energy blast met with the pantheon and guided him to the afterlife, or so to speak. "And ambushes, of course. You're doing fine, kid, just continue to watch all sectors. Don't lose confidence here."

It was smooth sailing for a few more meters until an incessant buzzing noise occurred. "Spread out!" Rioku yelled. He didn't know what it could be, other than the fact that it was obviously another ambush. And then they revealed themselves. "Swaaarm!" Rioku yelled as a collection of bee-themed mechaniloids rained down from the heavy tree line. The two began to open fire and picked a few off, only to see them replaced by more.

[Zanjitsu]

MISSION START

"Come on man, give the guy a break, whatever's ahead is nothing we can't handle anyway", Raven responded confidently, two busters already out and ready. As the team began to advance through the forest, with Rioku on point, the the closedness of the area suddenly became incredibly evident. Every tree could be cover, every part of the canopy could hide foes, though it didn't take long for the enemy to be upon them.

Bee mechaniloids, in the dozens no less. Though they came in swarms... This was definitely his game. Twin busters primed at the ready as the bee mechaniloids closed in. Once they were close enough, Raven began to fire off shot after shot with incredible speed and accuracy. Darting from side to side, it didn't matter how often or how quickly he had to move or reposition, the bees just went down at a proper and brisk pace. The workload was reduced greatly for his allies, these kinds of foes, weak but numerous, was his speciality, and it was also clear he enjoyed this.

"I could do this all day, but I don't think they can hehaha", and sure enough, the swarm was waning after barely a minute.

"That's enough time wasted here, let's just keep moving...", Zanji was all business as usual, he seemed to be keeping to the back. It seems he's waiting for sturdier opponents where his assistance will be necessary.

"Alright alright", as he responded, he didn't even turn to look at the last bee as he shot it down nonchalantly.

"Guess you're on point again Rioku. That seemed to be a small swarm though, there might be a hive or something ahead. Or maybe even one of those queen bee things I've heard about, now wouldn't that be fun?", he was then given looks of almost disapproval. He was making quite light of their mission.

"... What? Stop looking at me like that", and just like that they continued further in.

[Vile]

SUCH INSOLENCE! To be forced away, to show dishonor in the realm of combat! Eplizo WOULD be the one member to have such the nerve to take away the prime in Rai's life. That sword wielding rust and ruin filled woman would soon meet a, less the healthy, demise from this brawler.

Soon enough the group had taken foot inside a humid forest. Definitely not good for the hair. Due the lack of consideration from the commander, Rai was still currently in his black getup, worn solely as a disguise from the Arcadian Army for their own tournament. However it wasn't nearly as stealthy as one might think. The forest was machincal, and black on silver isn't a covert combo. Such rubbish.

Rioku and Victor hastily took to the front lines, an opening line of long range offence, and defense. More then well enough, Rai was rather beaten from the tournament rounds and was in tremendous need of repairs, which were so tantalizingly close.

The group had moved slowly, and Rai could hardly keep up. The swordsman Zanji was keeping to the rear, which made a perfect ally for Rai in the time of need. One iron vine however was slightly uprooted from the diamond plated ground, and this disoriented lighting rod didn't take notice of it. His toes brushed against the edge of it, causing him to loose balance and instinctively grasp for a nearby tree. To the touch he accidentally let out a surge of electricity, similar to his spread technique. The jolt was in no way enough to folly harm to anyone, other than perhaps some of the trees possessors. It was as if Rai could feel everything the current touched. A RADAR!

However this discovery was short lived, a pantheon lunged at from what appeared to be no where. Rai gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. Those..... It was a green Pantheon, armed with claws. Its red eye gleamed with what Rai took as excitement. It was a funny thought, as Rai had no idea if Pantheons were sentient, or just a hive controlled by some mother unit. Research for later. However this dunderhead was of the same model that oh so gracefully, and by gracefully we mean viciously, scared his face. Through that .12 millisecond of sight Rai had felt like the twos eyes met with a mental exchange of disgust for one another.

That exchange however was soon lost as Victor the victory gunman shot down the vile bot. Victory Gunman, that's a keep for nickname Rai thought. About this time Rai spoke up.

"I can tap into the machinical life here, and get a slight reading of whats to come ahead without disturbing the Arcadian sensors. The range is small, but it'll if nothing else grant us the elegance of surprise." Stealth tactics were quite crafty and required finesse. "I would only wager that I can feel about 15 feet. It isn't much, like Zanji's haircut, but it'll keep us from being harmed from grounded forces." Rai said with a grin as he shot Zanji a playful look.

The team moved on, Rai forming a current with each footstep keeping the 'radar' going. Nothing was picking up, which was good, but also discerning. A fallen Pantheon was off to the teams right. At the vary least Eplizo's alpha team did something of use. No Resistance remains yet, positive outlook ensured. Well no wonder! Arial units buzzed in. For a woodland machinloid who's purpose wasn't really clear to Rai(after all bees make noise and these units were extremely frail, as they also relied on close quarters) they made such noise! Raven swiftly displayed his precise aim, as well as his overall agility. Showoff, such dramatics were extremely unnecessary.

The mission here was to rescue the other members, and none had been found. Perhaps a heightened look would do the trick.

"Hold up, give me like, 2 minuets..." Rai announced. Normally he'd command the team, a position that held some weight, weight that the battered body wouldn't hold forever. Taking aim above at a limb roughly 15 feet up, Rai shot of his chain rod. A cling sounded fallowed by a wiz as the rod retracted, pulling Rai with it. Atop the limb Rai activated his magnetic outlets and began to climb. A metal forest would be heaven for combat he though. If only that fashionably late woman had challenged him here. If only.

Thankfully the tree was rather tall. A few leaves floated down, but mostly the climb left the oak-wanna-be unchanged. From above he surveyed the area. A pillar was head, northeast. From there, if they continued that direction there was a blotch without trees, it looked to be a small rock formation. Perhaps there was where the recruits went to attempt to get out of some signal jamming from the trees. Worth a shot if nothing else. Rai rested his thumbs on his waist armor right next to his love-handles, or would they would be if he wasn't so fit HA!, and calmly walked down the tree.
"There's an outlook a little northeast of us currently, and if we continue in that direction there's some rock formation. Judging by all the landscape here, I would argue it isn't a natural formation. Whatever the case, I'd assume our ally's took refuge there."

[VirusZero]

OOC:
I don't remember how much damage I'd had Andraia take... Soo I'm presuming not much at all.

Also, if memory serves I had Andraia wearing an alternate costume also... (A black coat with white shoulder guards, black gloves and a plain black open backed bodysuit.)


IN:
Andraia smirked as she watched Flash get slapped across the face by Elpizo. (She almost wanted to ask Elpizo to do it again... But it probably wouldn't have been good to interrupt him right now.) How Flash was still with the resistance after everything he did Andraia didn't know.

Soon however they were whisked away to the area where Elpizo needed them to go.

A forest of all places. She didn't stick out here at all. All black in the middle of the forest. Though not that even if she were wearing her normal coloured clothing she would have been much better off. Since she still had silver hair which stood out a bit. And her old armour was grey, red and blue. Tactical advantages wasn't exactly in her style anyway though.

A resistance soldier ran out and Raven quickly sent him home.

Others had already started into the forest, which was densely packed with trees... leaving plenty of room for ambushes. A fact which Rioku and Vector had already discovered and prevented.

Raven had also put a stop to the incursion of bee bots. Andraia hung back letting him waste his energy with that. She could have acted, but why waste the effort?

About this time Rai had ascended a tree and figured out where the allies may have ran off too.


Andraia considered just activating her jets and flying over there. But without knowing what exactly was lying in wait it probably wasn't a good idea. And she hadn't really had much time to get fixed up after that tournament. So avoiding any unnecessary situations seemed to be the best plan to her.

Instead they continued through the forest. It wasn't long before the sound of more bees could be heard over head. A routine patrol probably making it's way around. Especially since it likely heard buster fire (and then the crashing of metal into ground) and had to go investigate. Provided they remained quiet the patrol would likely pass right over and away from them.

Except the a green coloured claw pantheon that burst through the forest too in search of intruders landed right in front of them. A buster shot ripped through it's eye and the bot crashed into the ground and spasmed a bit before it died. The sound of metal clanging off the trees with metal components was loud.
A faint wisp of steam curled off Andraia's buster and she quickly slid it away.
"No time for standing around now. If those surveyors didn't hear the buster shot the metal clanging had to attract them."
And certainly enough the sound of the bees grew louder as they turned around and started to head back to investigate this new sound.

Andraia pushed to the side and slid around behind one of the trees to get out of view of where she had been while still able to keep heading towards the ultimate goal. Though what she didn't count on was the fact another of the green clawed pantheons was right there. It cocked it's head as it scanned the unknown entity before it. A second later it unleashed a pulse to let the bees know it had found something. Then it attacked. It swiped with it's claws and caught Andraia across the back. The claws dug across her back though did relatively little damage. But did alert her to the issue at hand.

She charged a bit of a reaction blaster in her fist then reached out and stuck her fist into the pantheon's chest. The energy having cut into the pantheon's armor like a hot knife through butter. The pantheon fizzled and then died. It's lifeless body hit ground with a dull thud. Though it wasn't the only issue they had to worry about.

More bees.

[Silver Stryker]

It was a little ways out of sight, but Rioku saw Andraia's ordeal. Slight damage to the back, she was still fine. Deep down, he failed to feel sorry for her though. That was exactly what he took point for; to absorb all direct attacks. "Yo, you okay uh..Andrii....Andryer,Andrea-- Lady? Hey, make sure we all give ourselves several meters apart if we don't wanna travel as a pack anymore. We'll be able to deal with ambushes more effectively! Right Vector?"

"Eyes front, kid, more scrap metal." Vector responded, grey tone and all, as more of those pesky bee-drones invaded. There were a lot more this time, and Rioku's meager potshots weren't as effective. Vector didn't even bother drawing his sidearms. A fierce snag from the air, and a squeeze obliterated a drone. A calm, but stern straight-punch saw the end to another. A carefully executed roundhouse kick for one more. They failed to remove Vector from his spot. In stark contrast, Rioku took on the brunt of the swarm. Starting off with a dodge-roll and then a slide-tackle, Rioku's entrance to the fight gave him a low silhouette for the enemy to target, thereby having the early bees buzz right over him. As he quickly came to a halt, one stomp pounded into the earth and Rioku leapt into the air. The bees were abundant and it seemed an arduous task to target a specific enemy. Luckily for Rioku, there seemed to be so many, that targeting wasn't even required.

Stepping off one bee, and another, Rioku slung his rifle over his back and drew his sword. Rioku was new to the world, and never had the time for training in the ways of swordsmanship. Such was clearly evident as the boy hastily swung at all bees he deemed was in his reach. A miss, another miss, one more miss, and another. And with a sharp metal "twang!" for the ears, Rioku's blade finally connected with a bee. The swing of the blade was rough and had no focus, thus creating a giant gash in it and batting it away more than anything. A sudden front flip by Rioku inadvertently allowed him to axe-kick a bee before he came down to earth.

Raven's words echoed through Vector's mind for a second, "...Or maybe even one of those queen bee things I've heard about, now wouldn't that be fun?" and he looked up to the dense greenery above. "Of course. It'd only make sense to deploy drones whilst in hiding. Kid! Get rid of these trees!" Vector snapped as he punched down another bee. "But that's!....So immoral!" The boy whined. "Fine, guess I'll just blow the whole damn forest up and--"

"Wait, wait, wait! Alright I'll do something, hold on!" Rioku shouted at the top of his lungs over the increasing pitch of Vector's cannon's charge up whine. "Dammit, so much for preservation!! UGH, SONIIIIIC...." Rioku roared as he cocked a fist back. High-pressured steam escaped from various inconspicuous ports on his body, his fist gleaming a bright ominous red light. "FIRESTOOOOOOORM!!!" Rioku's fist slammed into the ground. A mild earthquake shook the land and dark clouds formed in a perfect circle where the group was. Fireballs began raining from the sky, burning away foliage as the impacted wherever they pleased. And sure enough, bigger, more prominent bees revealed themselves, now that there was nowhere to hide. Vector drew a pistol and aimed--pistol-whipped an annoying bee real fast, aimed, then offed one of the queens. There were several. How peculiar...

"Off the queens. They intended to keep us busy here for reinforcements." Vector spoke calmly as he holstered his weapon. A chain of summersaults, a couple of pivots, and some juking maneuvers quickly navigated Rioku from the fray. He readied his weapon, and took apart another queen. His rounds severely pelted the enemy before it had enough and crashed to the ground in a blaze of fire. Meanwhile, fireballs still rained down. A few bees managed to get caught up in its effect, but sonic firestorm largely remained ineffective as an attack here. It didn't matter, it served its purpose well here. The lack of dense foliage gave a clear view for several yards. "Those fireballs will hit anything, watch out, guys!" Rioku warned to his allies.

Vector got what he wanted. But his mind was onto more pressing matters. "There are far too many enemies here. The enemy had already controlled this forest. We're not going to find those troops at that hill." Vector spoke. Rioku glanced his way before drawing his attention back to the bees, hopping backwards to gain some distance and spraying his weapon rather unskillfully. It was clear he had given up on precision shots. "We have to hope! And we gotta look anyway! It's worth a try, so we can't give up!" Rioku responded. "Shut up and let me finish, kid. I doubt we'll find the troops up there, That's probably an enemy forward operating base that blonde boy found up there. But I can almost guarantee that we'll find that field jammer over there. We find it, smash it, and screening the damn forest for a few shitty joes won't be necessary. Got it?" Vector finished, his last question blaring out towards everyone in general.

[Zanjitsu]

"Maaan, there must be something important in that place, if there are so many damn enemies here", he commented. Raven was having no trouble just gunning down the bees, their waves didn't end, but neither did his gunfire. Rioku and Vector handily took care of some of the queens, while Zanji cleaned up some of the ones on the flank once Raven had thinned out their numbers.

"Not to mention right out in the open... Hm?", Raven had just lowed his busters to continue onwards again, but he spotted something.

"The hell are these?", it was a strange mechanical plant. As he got closer, he was quick enough to take a step back when it suddenly shot up and tried to bite whatever it could. After a few failed snaps, it slowly lowered itself. Raven blasted it with a couple shots, but it seems it's implementation in this forest was going to be permanent unless someone could physical uproot it... He looked up ahead, and the ground was covered in leaves, everywhere. The one he spotted was at the start of this...

"Hmmm... This might be tricky...", the problem was he couldn't see all of them, and neither could his allies, unless someone could blow the leaves away.

"Hey guys, should we find another way around?", he asked. Every would turn and recognize the problem also... Some of the plant traps were only partially hidden, but that led way to likelihood of a larger number being completely hidden.

[itano123]

Life was looking up for Xmand, he had gained a new home, found a new 'job' and was accepted even though he was human, he had even been sent on his first mission with the resistance... which probably showed how serious the situation was as he wasn't only human but also new.
but where was Xmand now? he had transferred with the rest of the group but he wasn't with them at the moment.. he was laying against a tree upside down, why? he was keeping up with the group using hoverboard mode but due to this being a mechanical forest... and the fact he still had little control of the mode he soon found himself crashing into a tree.
"damn this is cold" Xmand complained as he got himself up off the ground and ran after the sound of fighting.

"*huff huff huff* why...can't....you slow dow- DEAR GOD NO" as he was trying to catch his breath from running towards the group Xmand had looked up to find fireballs raining down.
"WHY WHY WHY WOULD SOME ASSHOLE DO THIS" he screamed as he weaved through the fiery balls of doom. As he rolled around some bees attacked him but they didn't last long as Xmand moved his hands as if he was playing a video game which lead them to being shot down by the Exia nodes following Xmand.
"oh yes this is suddenly so fun" he commented before hearing a comment from one of his group members... his name was... crow? no, magpie? no, Hawk? no wrong bird names... oh wait i think it was Raven.
"Hey guys, should we find another way around?"
Xmand looked around to see what he was talking about, there where some plant traps partially hidden, but thanks to stuff like leaves you couldn't see much which would lead even Xmand to assume there was more, but fear not for Xmand has an idea that would solve the problem, it was the newcomers time to show what he could do..... he just wanted to show them his cool attack.

"oh oh I have an idea, we need a leaf blower, but i have something better, a leaf annihilator" Xmand spoke to raven while raising his hand... but the hand was closed, so was the other and suddenly as if following standard procedure the Exia nodes moved in front of Xmand and started spinning around while charging up.

"I call this move absolute leaf blower railgun" Xmand said as the charging intensified and he suddenly opened his hands, releasing the burst.

[VirusZero]

OOC:
Just a heads up Itano, since we haven't played together before, my character... Andraia is not a nice character. (She's a pretty messed up character with a ton of anger issues and just a little bit psychopathic. She's killed numerous humans already and has no issue with carving them up. So if I write that she says or does something insulting or rude or etc... that's who she is and it's not a reflection of what I think.)

IN:
Andraia heard Rioku call out to her, seemed like the first time he'd actually tried to call her by name.
"I'm fine" she called back. Though she also heard Vector's warning and certainly enough there were more enemies ahead, coming right for them.

Bees. Little flying annoyances. She readied her buster and fired into the oncoming mass of enemies. Her shot ripped through one of the small machines and spread parts all over the ground. She fired again and took down yet another.

Another of the resistance members, Raven, was going very trigger happy and taking out everything. Andraia stopped firing, figuring to let him waste his energy. She started to move away when she heard the sound of Rioku's power building up. Fireballs broke forth from the sky and began to rain down. Rioku's warning came late as one of the fireballs crashed down nearby and nearly hit Andraia.

She intended to snap at him, but the sound of incoming pain and fire made her leap to the side instead (as another fireball impacted the ground).

Andraia looked up and saw several more of the fireballs careening towards her. She spun to the right and dodged two of them but the third grazed her leg, leaving a nice burn mark on her leg. Which would have been more apparent had she not been wearing black.

Though, as luck would have it, those two fireballs that she had dodged collided with a group of bees and exploded them all in a single volley.

Though Rioku and Vector were having good luck clearing through the enemies regardless.

Then she heard the sound of that new recruit... his breathing as he struggled to keep up. Human? Andraia wondered. If so what would compel a meatbag to get into the fray and fight with reploids? To say he was outclassed would be an understatement.

Though his little toy had managed to stop some of the fireballs and seemed prime to handle this new situation with leaves obscuring the ground traps. His burst of wind was effective at clearing leaves.

"Congratulations, if we need to clear old people's lawns to thwart Neo-Arcadia we'll call you first. But if that's the best you have you might want to go back to mowing lawns or whatever you kids do." Andraia stated, rather coldly.

Even though the traps had been largely revealed, Andraia still didn't feel like just walking through them. If they were willing to plant defences that could tear into their armour, what would stop them from burying a few landmines or other explosives around too? And she really didn't want to deal with that. So instead of walking she decided to fly.
With that the jets on her boots engaged and she ascended. She kept her speed stead and rather slow to conserve energy for now. But she still raised herself above the treeline, just enough to see what was around.

It seemed like the bees were gone for now, possibly they had fled to alert those ahead that they'd been attacked. Either that or they had actually managed to take out most of them in this area. Andraia bet the former.

Then she spotted smoke from up ahead. She descended somewhat quickly so that she was several feet over the ground.
"I'm going ahead" she announced.

And with that she kicker her thusters into higher gear and took off deeper into the forest. She wove around a tree, banking and swerving to ensure that she wouldn't crash. Though a forest wasn't exactly an ideal place for flying.
The only way it could get better was if an enemy showed up and they had to fight while flying through it. Thankfully no such enemy appeared.

A few minutes later Andraia slowed down. She had reached a clearing. The area was burned with the unmistakable charring of buster fire on the ground and foliage. Someone had fought here and lost. A small rock rose from the area off to the side and laying up against it was one of the resistance's soldiers.

Andraia moved over to him, he seemed to still be online. But he didn't look in the best shape. Missing most of his left side, vital fluid all over the place and sparking at random.
He noticed her and attempted to speak.
"Guuhzzzz" was all that emanated from his vocal system at first. But a second attempt managed to fair better.
"Watzzzch... owwt... for... " and then his voice system failed entirely.

"Go home." she muttered and tagged him to send him back to the resistance base. If nothing else they could use him for spare parts.

[Zanjitsu]

Raven | Forest of Dysis

"Ooh, well that's better", Raven commented. As Andraia flew right over, Raven was ready to take a shot through this. He leapt into the air, and diving kicked the first plant, bouncing off of it before it could snap it's jaws around his leg. This repeated as he went leaps and bounds over the field of trap plants. The problem was he couldn't see them, not that they were there. He had full confidence in his abilities.

He turned and waved back yelling something.

"I'll find another way around from here, just stay right there kay?", there was no way some of the party were going to get through this field of traps.

From the other side, Raven could spot a collapsed path... Possibly what the resistance soldiers used prior to their arrival. It was collapsed now, and he didn't have the means to clear it. He walked up to inspect it anyway, and after deciding this wasn't an option, he turned around, and standing over him was a pantheon with a giant spiked ball and a shield.

It's swing was slow, so it was easy to avoid, but he witnessed just then how easily it crushed the rubble.

"... Well, that works", he said to himself. He dashed back in towards the pantheon, skirting around the shield and quickly repositioning himself in front of the rubble, mocking and taunting the heavy pantheon. Very quickly though it attacked, clearing the rubble bit by bit. Just as he was about to make it lay in the last attack that would completely clear the path, three more charged in from the sides of the path, and very quickly he was pushed out and back with everyone else. Following closely behind were 4 shield and swing mace pantheons.

"So yeah guys, I found a path. Just gotta take care of these guys first", he stated confidently, spinning his busters and then setting them in front as he rejoined the party.

[Vile]

Vector was taking command, Raven was clearing out a path, Andraia was doing her own thing as the norm. While the team kept down below Rai had moved back into the trees, swinging or hopping from limb to limb. Being able to magnetize himself was useful in this situation. He could survey from the trees both from physical eyesight and his pulse as the current would fallow whatever roots the bio-plant had.

Thankfully from above he didn't encounter, or perhaps was noticed, by the opposing mechanioids. Great for his condition! He was however trailing on Raven who seemed to have found some trouble. Having made a tactful retreat to the squad these pink brutes of a pantheon fallowed. Each one had a shield that was clearly well reinforced. Rai grinned at the plausible out come. He shot his chain rod at one of the behemoths, catching its shield as well as off guard. A surge of electricy zipped through the chain, and caused a short circuit throughout the pantheons arm. Going limb, it leg go of the shield, which was then retracted to Rai's location. Now if things were to go smoothly, he'd have a shield and the ability to move to another location. Things however are not so smooth when you're up against three other immediately responding beasts who all know how to flail their.... flails.... at the threats location.

Now this goes without saying, but the tree Rai was perched in was decimated. Branches fell as did the lighting user here. Falling was more of a slow motion movement here. Leafs fluttered down, metal clanged to attract more guardians of these ruins, and the shield was still coming Rai's way. Not. Good. The retraction did come to a full circle. While one would thing that catching this would be easy, when your whole body has been cut up, incredibly tackyly repaired, and energy is low, this maneuver is not so simple. NO this shield came closing in, and Rai watched in true horror. He knew he couldn't do anything, he also knew this would hurt. The shield came in Smacking him, and with some nice long hair that then covered his entire face due to impact, reminded him how he had no footing. That hit was far more devastating, causing a reverse somersault, which had a full 5 spins before it was ended by some less-than-graceful tumbling on the floor.
"Well hey, one is shieldless at least...." Rai moaned.

[Jet]

Despite being a fresh recruit to the resistance, Jody was transported into the forest alongside who she assumed would become her squad for the foreseeable future. She was surprised by how many of them had fought in the arena and how well they had done. They were so experienced, so far beyond her that she wondered if she'd just slow them down. Her weapons were laughably primitive, a short metal sword and a crudely cut steel shield. A step up from the trash can lid, but it certainly wouldn't hold up against the lazer weaponry that came standard issue to Neo Arcadian infantry.

But mingled with her fears and apprehension were new feelings. Curiosity. Excitement. Wonder. All Jody had ever known were the slums of Neo Arcadia. Who knew that such a vibrant, albeit mechanical jungle lay within Neo Arcadia's boundaries? She'd never been allowed beyond the slums, where she tried to keep a low profile and just survive one day at a time. This job was undoubtedly dangerous, but at least she'd get to see the world before she died. And it wouldn't be alone.

She was shaken from her thoughts by a swarm of robotic bees. Her group opened fire, destroying several, but they kept coming. One had targeted her, Jody raised her shield at the last moment to protect herself, but the mechanical bee's stinger punched through the shield like paper. Jody shrieked in surprise and the bee buzzed angrily, apparently stuck on the shield it had impaled. Jody raised the sword in her other hand and sliced the bee in half through the abdomen, which apparently triggered a detonation. The bee exploded with the force of a small bomb, further fragmenting the shield and throwing Jody backward into the trunk of a tree.

Fortunately her allied had fared better, fighting through the swarm and destroying the hive that had been the source of the bees. The group advanced through the jungle, with some of the allies scouting ahead through the air and through the trees. many of them were exhausted after the fighting in the arena, and despite her handicaps when it came to armor and weapons, physically she was in better condition than many of the resistance forces present. As they headed toward a rocky patch of the forest hoping to find more resistance soldiers, the enemy activity picked up. More bees, and a couple green pantheons here and there, crawling stealthily down from the tree tops. They moved so quietly that one almost got the drop on Jody, it pushed off from the tree trunk and launched itself at her exposed backside, but it was shot out of the air by one of her allies, she didn't know which one.

Meanwhile, someone had started a fire, clearing away foliage and unexpectedly revealing traps. A mechanical venus fly trap of unusual size, it could easily snap off her head, Jody knew, if she let it. It lunged at her with incredible speed, snapping its jaws shut powerfully, but fortunately it wasn't quite within striking range. Then surprisingly, a human boy came to stand alongside her and unleashed a gale of wind at the plant. It didn't appear to damage it, however, the wind forced its jaws up, allowing Jody to dart underneath it and sever the stem from its roots. No doubt there would be more plant traps before they reached their destination, Jody decided she'd stay close to her allies so they could watch out for one another.

Immediately after this a squad of pantheons emerged from the forest bearing sturdy golden shields and powerful spiked flails. The gunman fired a few shots and backed up. A chain rod snaked out of the trees, snagging one of the shields and ripping it upward. The other flails thudded against the tree, felling it and knocking the blond haired resistance member to the forest floor. Jody wanted to defend him, but she looked with disgust at her fractured shield, it wouldn't hold up against those flails. But then she saw something that would. Jody flung her battered shield aside and rushed over to Rai, where she picked up the golden shield he had brought down with him.

"I'm going to borrow this," she said quietly, more to herself than to Rai, and raised the shield up to rebuff the oncoming flails. She felt the heavy impact batter against the shield. When it fell harmlessly at her feet she stepped on the chain link and sliced it apart, leaving one of the attackers with only a shortened chain to work with.

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

Elpizo was monitoring the group's progress, they'd sent back two members of Isos and Pasos' squads. One of them had succumbed to his injuries and died moments after he transferred back in. The other was alive and well but Elpizo was furious with his cowardliness and for blurting out information about the Baby Elves and the true purpose of their mission. For the time being the soldier had been shut up in a med bay, but at the rate the mission was unraveling, the loud mouth probably couldn't make the situation much worse. There would be a fallout, Elpizo didn't know to what degree, but he'd deal with it when it happened. Right now only the mission mattered. Time was short and they still needed to raze the outpost before they could reach the ruins. And even now, Elpizo knew Neo Arcadia was scrambling reinforcements. Once they arrived any hope of escape would be lost.

[VirusZero]

Stark had been off to the side of the group for most of the time. He'd watched others take shots at enemies and even chipped in with a few of his own shots here and there. But for the most part he hadn't really done a whole lot. He hadn't really needed to do a whole lot yet. And his particular moveset didn't really offer much in the way to help out here. Short of knocking down trees and making as much noise as possible.

As Andraia had shot off he debated heading off after her to give her some support, even if the thought of being alone with her kinda didn't sit well with him. She didn't seem the sort to play well with others. But it seemed like the right thing to do nonetheless. But as he went to take off after her, she took off quicker than he expected and was gone before he could follow.

Instead he decided to hang back with the rest of the group afterall. They had managed to deal with some of the traps lain out before them, though several shield enemies made their presence known. Rai had managed to knock one's shield from it's hands and a new recruit grabbed it.

But there were still a few of them left... Stark opened his hands and unleashed a quick shot of energy. It struck the shield as expected and then bounced off to strike a tree branch above and to the left of it. The branch fell and crashed on top of that pantheon. It's head was pushed into it's neck and it collapsed. It wasn't likely destroyed, but it was down for now. Stark closed in and reached down, he grabbed it's skull and with a yank he pulled the pantheon's head off it's body. It shut down immediately.

With the skull in his hand, he spoke.
"Alas, poor Pantheon was too headstrong and only ended up losing it. Perhaps his allies will fare better with it?" He said with a grin, making perhaps too much levity in an otherwise dim situation. Though he wasted no time in throwing the pantheon's head at another nearby pantheon. It bounced off the side of the pantheon and knocked it over onto it's side. Stark raised his palm and fired a single shot of energy from them and blasted a hole in that pantheon's exposed chest.

"Hey... Jody. That pantheon's weapon isn't damaged too much... Perhaps you'd like to grab it's flail too just in case?" Stark suggested.

With those two pantheons gone, and whatever ones the others had also taken down too, things returned to a semi-quiet state.

"Though we should move. The enemy likely knows where we are with all the noise we've been making and they may step their plans up." Stark mentioned.
"And given how angry Elpizo seems lately, I don't want to have to explain to him why we lost these baby elves he's looking for."

With that he turned and pushed forward heading into the jungle further. Though the trees and eventually into a clearing. A lot of vital fluid lay everywhere but there were no bodies to be found. Stark noticed how odd that was. Either it was a good sign in that someone had sent some allies home. Or a bad sign in that some enemy had captured them.

[Jet]

After defeating the pantheon patrol and clearing out a few last traps the trees parted and gave way to an enormous chasm, far to wide to jump across. And even though some of the resistance fighters could fly, they wouldn't be able to carry the other members across.

"There is an outpost just east of your position," Elpizo instructed the team, "It should have a transport skiff large enough to ferry you all to the other side of the chasm. Your objective will be the old ruins on the other side, Isos and Pasos' teams will be in there."

The group followed Elpizo's directions and soon enough found the outpost. It was a small, fenced in compound. It didn't appear heavily garrisoned, but there was a guard-house, a radio tower and tele-pad which could swiftly summon reinforcements if they were alerted. And at the far end of the compound sat a landing platform with the transport Elpizo had spoken of. They just had to get to it.

Jody eyed the fence encircling the compound, it wouldn't keep out a team of reploids but it was their first obstacle nevertheless. "So the fence? Over, under or through?"

[VirusZero]

Stark paused after he heard Jodi's question.
"Over is easiest" He replied quickly. With a quick burst of energy from his boots he ascended over the fence. He gave a bit of a flourish by flipping over the fence and landing facing the group. He landed on one knee with his fist touching the ground.
"Just like that." He stated.

He turned to look at the guard house, just in time to see one pantheon walk out. He dropped to the ground and stopped moving. The pantheon didn't see the motion at all. Though thankfully the ground where Stark was had actually been lowered a bit so he was hidden from view slightly from the pantheon. If that pantheon got close it'd see him for sure. But at a distance he had no troubles.

The pantheon turned and started walking towards the edge of the building. Stark raised his head slightly to see what that pantheon was doing. A second later he turned back to the building in time to see a second pantheon exit and head towards the other side of the building.
He wondered how many pantheons actually were here. If there were only two then taking them down wouldn't be an issue. But if there were more or they were expecting reports from these two then that'd be an issue.

Stark considered simply destroying the radio tower with a few well placed shots. But again, that mean risking them figuring out that their base was under attack when communications ceased.

However while Stark was busy contemplating what to do next, he had let his mind wander and taken his eyes off the Pantheons...

Andraia, however, had not. She had shown up a bit late after she had started to fly across the chasm when Elpizo ordered her to return and help the others. She was a bit frustrated. She could have easily flown over that gap and continued the mission alone.
But Elpizo wanted her to help capture a skiff. So instead of voicing her complaints to the commander, she simply hopped over the fence, rushed forward and stabbed the first pantheon in it's face with her saber and let it fall to the ground with a soft thud.
She didn't waste any time before she was on top of that second pantheon. Her saber blade protruded from the bottom of it's 'ribcage', having been stabbed from behind in the shoulder area. With a gentle spark, the pantheon dropped to the ground when she disengaged her saber.

She looked at the radio tower and engaged her saber again. She started towards it almost single mindedly... right past the guard house with a window facing the radio tower. Once she was close to the radio tower, she raised her saber and cut across some of it's cords to sever them. She wasn't sure what they were for. But they looked important. Once she turned around she spotted a pantheon staring directly at her.

"Shit" was all she stated before she punged her still active saber through the window and into it's chest.
She hoped that it hadn't gotten time to send out a signal to bring re-inforcements along...

[Vile]

"It should have a transport skiff large enough to ferry you all to the other side of the chasm. Your objective will be the old ruins on the other side, Isos and Pasos' teams will be in there."

Oh please, as if sneaking in was hard enough, why not just active a lift that will endubly send tremors throughout this forest for all mechanical life with the directive of locate-and-erase to feel. That's smart. Elpizo may be Rai's brother, one of the few people he held complete respect for, but sometimes his plans were not as failproof as one thought. One could fly, another could leap, he had a grappling hook, they were not made of flesh. There were ways around this seemingly five-watt lightbulb idea. Rai could only shake his head in annoyance.

A light crackling of compressed air broke the mold, snapping Rai back into reality from his focus on the commanders faulty plans. The sound was nothing more than the teams ogre displaying his "alpha male" side trying to one-up the rest by taking the scene as his own. His landing however was less graceful and nearly blew the only cover they had. Way to go, you scarlet harlequin.

Truth be told, Rai didn't even notice Andrea come into the scene with her full display of badassary. A good indication of just who the alpha was... well beta. Rai was the alpha and everyone knew it. How could they not after the past mission of unfinished business. Distracting thought! Low on power, injury's not treated, mind not where it needs to be. Focus.

Rai at that point was able to rekindle his thoughts. He resurveyed the tower, noticing Andrea striking through a window. Great. Wasting time wasn't an option anymore, and that meant the whole team. With an unforeseen burst of energy Rai darted out towards the fence, grabbing Jody from her waist as he moved next to her.
"They gave you your answer, over it is." He said, pretty coldly. Not the intentional sound but they have fooled around enough. His right foot nearly pierced the ground as he stopped, and spun using his running speed momentum to hurl Jody over the fence like a weighted disk. Thankfully that worked.... and it was pretty exhausting. No matters, Rai didn't miss a beat and regained his full footing after the hurl and leaped over the fence himself. After landing he made a dash for cover behind one of the radio towers base poles. Jody was likely hot at this point, but that didn't matter. The team was at bay.

"I'm over, as is Jody, who had a graceful landing might I add. Currently in position to take out the tower if need be. Any signs on enemy activity?" He causally called out over the radio

[Jet]

The team wasted little time, jumping over the fence, or in Jody's case being thrown like a piece of luggage, and swiftly dispatched the pantheons patrolling outside. Rai was reporting in as the team pondered their next move, collectively holding their breaths as they waited to see if they'd been noticed. They had.

Andraia's swift executions had taken out the first two pantheons quietly enough, but after the third had fallen inside the guard house the outpost was put on full alert. A shrill alarm sounded, echoing through the quiet jungle. The door to the guard house exploded outward as a squad of pantheons marched out, armed with shields, flails and rifles. One of the rifle pantheons spotted Jody and Rai. Jody raised her shield, absorbing the first round of shots, but she'd have to count on Rai to retaliate, having no ranged weapons of her own.

So far nothing had warped in on the tele-pad, but unnoticed by the resistance members, the alarm's cry had drawn reinforcements from the forest. No fewer than a dozen green pantheons had crawled out of the treeline and were silently scaling the outer fence, preparing to leap down on the distracted resistance.

[Vile]

OOC: posting via phone. Expect typos.


IN: Rai ducked behind the towers piller, letting it absorbe the fire. He survayed the region. the fence was drawing in foes, the teleport pad was currently inactive. While ducked, he slowly formed an eelectric sphere. Once the firing squad took a breather he swiftly jolted towards Jody, hurling his sphere at the squad and activating a shield on his arm in expectation of retaliation. Gracefully he stoped his movement with his mouth hovering just an inch from Jody's ear. He began his command.
"Leave them to the other two. they can handle them. Take a glance at where we entered, its crawling, literally, with reinforcements." Rai paused them as it poined with his free hand at the fence, firing a Thunder Javelin at the fence with the hopes of it spreading through the likely conductive metal. "We have to divide and conquer, and I'm pretty beat still. Keep that shield and chin in up, we'll have this battle."

[Jet]

OOC: Dammit Vile, I said unnoticed, way to ruin a perfectly good ambush to our flank.

IN: Rai hurled a ball of electricity, momentarily stunning the pantheon guards before pointing out the pantheon crawlers which had boxed them in. Jody let out a cry of surprise, the creepers moved so silently that she hadn't even heard their approach. She supposed Rai was able to sense them through whatever sonar trick he'd used on the metal trees earlier. It didn't make sense, but she was glad not to have been jump tackled from atop the fence and have her spine ripped out of her back by a feral mob. Rai fired a jolt of electricity at the fence knocking a few of the climbers down, but several had already made it into the outpost.

Jody took point and engaged the creepers, counting on Stark and Andraia to handle the outpost guards. She wasn't nearly as injured as her allies, which meant it was her duty to protect them. She sidestepped away from the first creeper's claw swipe, taking off its head with a swing of her sword. The next one came flying through the air at her, only to be rebuffed by her new shield. The thing landed a few yards away on its back, hissing. Jody stepped forward and plunged her sword into its gut before it could recover.

But more were coming. Now leaping over the fence, or down from the treetops, there just seemed to be no end to them. "We need to retreat," Jody decided. "Keep the canyon at your back and slowly move toward the skiff!" It seemed like their best shot, so long as she didn't inadvertently fall off the ledge.