NationStates Jolt Archive

The whole business back home had left Lorain without a focus in her life, more specifically, without any long-term means to feed herself. Though what she could carry would sustain her for a while yet, she had to look for something real, something tangible. Something more...normal than acting as the magical enforcer for a race of giant cats. Iuthia, as it is, with its strong antimagic theme would suit her needs perfectly. She would never have to deal with such things as her previous 'career' again, nor the consequences of her actions in the past several thousand years. She would be...average, only out of the ordinary to someone who knew who she was, and that was unlikely given her destination. And thus she packed away her belongings, her armour, sword and all the things related to her former life (save for of course the stone, but that would just be a pretty purple rock from now on) and boarded a train bound for Iuthia...to a new life, and a fresh start.

~~~~

Slowly winding its way through Iuthia, the train: and the journey itself were a good time and place for her to think, to ponder her past accomplishments, and deeds. She adjusts the top of her decidedly ordinary grey suit, sighs and collects her things. First things first, check into some sort of temporary accomodation, before even thinking of aqquiring a job. Her unfamiliarity with the nation would show through, though she would do her upmost to try and fit in. Her means of purchasing said accomodation was limited to a small amount of precious gems and gold, and she would have to do something about that fast. She wouldnt lower herself to be homeless, after all.

~~~~

Several days later, the train jerks to a halt, having arrived at their station, and she gathers her things.
Swiftly stepping through the doors and onto the platform, she takes a deep breath. There were so many things about this nation that were different from what she was used to,
and the air was just the least of them. Nothing she couldn't handle, though. Trying not to act like too much of a tourist, though for a few days there would be much to see and do for the first time.

The Benevolent Dictatorship of Iuthia, land of the concrete jungle and what many more traditionalist nations often concider to be 'loose morals', but was in reality a different outlook on life. Travelling to Iuthia had always been an interesting affair as travel advise often informed tourists and visitors of the laws they are expected to follow, from reporting into a hotel directly after leaving the airport to the notifications that the privacy laws are much more lax when it comes to monitoring tourists. There were even little booklets saying "you are being watched" informing you as to your 'rights' in Iuthia. It was a wonder that anyone came, but the more adventurous soon found out that Iuthia treated it's tourists very well, providing they weren't found to be commiting any serious crimes.

And here she was, Armaton, one of Iuthia's smaller cities just a little distance away from the Iuthian-Anarchotopian border where the train stopped and Lorain would likely be expected to start her immigration process. The station itself was unsurpisingly secure as one of the first stops into Iuthia, with security likened to that of an airport, there were even a few armed guards. However, once Lorain had finished her security checks, things seemed to wind down back into the normal dull Iuthian gray with large skyscaping buildings in the close distance and the concrete Iuthian highstreet just up ahead. Hotels were near by especially for visitors to the country and undoubtably even in Iuthia one could find a jewelers eventually.

The scene outsider is fairly calm, it's early afternoon and the autumn sun is warm on the skin and as such some of the people outside for reasons other then business have taken to talking topless, both men and women with the odd person or even child wearing nothing but sandles on the warm sidewalk. Other people clearly going about their daily jobs, returning to the office are wearing appropriate clothing; shirts, ties and trousers. No one thinks anything of it, knowing full well that it's mearly a matter of comfort and they've seen it all before. All in all, a normal day in Iuthia.

(Sorry about the lateness of this one, hope it's not too generic but I've had nothing but distractions as of late.)

Carefully checking her belongings through security, Lorain notices, offhandedly, the abundance of nude citizens. Hrmm. Not so different from before, then. Though the naked humans certainly outnumber anything else here.
First things first, though. Food and hotel.
Reading the booklet that had been handed to her by one of the guards, she quietly grumbled about the lax privacy laws.
-Certainly- not home. Still, I wanted normalcy and this is as close as I'm going to get to it. "You are being watched" indeed. Will obey the laws as much as physically possible, though I cant be held responsible for anything happening born out of people recognizing me.
There are many and varied careers I could pursue here, but I will stick to..bah, something...basic. All I can do for now.

Catching a glimpse of a familiar someone out of the corner of her eye, she silently fumes. Is it too much too ask that I have a nice, normal life? no? Too bad. this shall be dealt with, -after- I change. It has been a long trip.
She quietly makes her way to the nearest, affordable hotel/currency exchange centre, trying not to look too suspicious, though rubbing the purple stone between her fingers, nervously. Repeating Must not use this..Must not use this.. time and time again in her head. Her harmless tourist status wouldn't last long if that happened.

Exchaning all the hard wealth she had brought over into Iuthian currency hadnt been as hard as she thought, though now she had to deal with storing said currency safely, and for a relatively low cost. She then takes a long look at her next stop, a nearby hotel, and the restaurant with a 'Help Wanted' sign in a window next to it. Though, she felt compelled to buy a suitable something to safeguard the stone first, and the closest location to purchase such a thing was through an alley in a gap between two buildings and the crowd.

Thumbing the stone thoughtfully, and walking through the seemingly neverending alley, she spots a familiar subtle red glow under a garbage disposal bin. There being only one thing in the world with that glow, and she had left behind that life many years ago... It cant be...not here, not now...Reaching down to inspect the source of the glow, she hears a 'twang' and the lid of the bin almost snaps shut on her head, by reflex alerting her to a set of whiskers in the shadows. They were here, and the glow had just been a variation on a standard trick of theirs. She curses herself for not realizing this, though deep in the back of her mind she knew she couldn't have possibly avoided it all the same, given her history.

And with a loud -snap- she thrusts her fist into the darkness, connecting with something solid, and fleshy. The 'something' collapses onto the ground, falling fowards and revealing itself to be one of those she had left behind, though the equipment this one carried could only mean it was a part of a team: and the second level of bait, at that.
Knowing this, she dropped to the ground just as a blue streak of energy smacked into the building in front of her, with a loud -bang- to boot. Not wanting to cause undue destruction, or panic for that matter, she lept to her feet and made for the exit of the alley, as a previously subtle wave of shimmering in another part of the alley let out a series of deafening roars, and chased after her, crimson bolts of energy leaping from its mass: providing quite the odd visual spectacle for anyone close enough to notice.

Her hope, of course, was that the local authorities could stall them long enough for her to get away: or that this country had more...experienced response teams. Immediately after her exiting the alley, a few stray bolts hit several people in the crowd, causing great panic and invoking the 'fight or flee' response in anyone not sufficiently experienced in dealing with crisis situations as these. She was fast, and she knew that, but they were faster, and she now wouldn't be able to hide in the crowd, so the only options left to her were to either fight, and cause innocent casaulties, or flee, and risk the same injuries and death among the iuthian authorities...

"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!" sounded the death knell of the man hit by a stay bolt of raw magical power, his body now lying limb on the open pavement as Lorain ran out of the alleyway, her assailants still unseen. Around her the lazy Tuesday afternoon broke out into chaos, the air of normally busy Iuthian high-street filling with the smell of cauterized human flesh as citizen and visitor alike started to flee the scene.

Screams all around her, Lorain lept over a nearby parked car taking cover as more mystical bolts were thrown towards her impacting with force into vehicals side door leaving a sizable hole burnt through the lightweight metal and starting a small fire inside the car. Already many of the able Iuthian's had fled the streets, leaving a desolate battleground, where Lorain was about to make her stand, though a couple locals had been incapacited by the odd stray flash of magic who now lay whimpering as quietly as their injuries would allow to avoid notice.

Observers who had stayed in the nearby shops made an effort to stay both out of sight while keeping an eye on the alley to see what had commited the crime, occasionally looking at the woman taking cover to see if she was responcible. Iuthian Peacekeepers were being called at the back of Joe's Cafe as Joe himself watched the fray while his wife made the call...

"Whats happening now, Joey?" she asked, as loud as she dared.

Joe poked his head around the window for a moment, squinting his eyes to try and see what had happened. "Whatever it is has stopped firing... I can't see... no wait, I thought I just saw something, some kind of glimmer."

"Joey, the operator is telling us to lock the doors and stay away from the windows... they are sending help right away." The wife said, holding the phobe by her busom. Joe nodded, looking back at the window and then back to his wife.

"Come on Clarisa, I'm sure we'll hear about it on the news later, lets get somewhere safe."

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Meanwhile at the cities main Peacekeeper station, a fast responce team were already loading onto the stations only Hippogrith Support Craft, Iuthia's answer to the Blackhawk Helicopter, more for quick deployment then any other combat duty. The FRT team was actually more like two teams in reality as the twelve man squad would break up into two fire squads to properly deal with whatever problem they may face. In reality they hadn't actually seen much real combat, as gunfights rarely ever really happened in Iuthia, but never the less each city had to have something like them in order to deal with the odd occasion they do happen.

The local police near the incident itself were being order to start closing the area off with armed Peacekeepers, but weren't to actually attempt to deal with the situation reguardless as they situation sounded like something they wouldn't be able to contain themselves... Magic, the idea had been thrown around a few times by Iuthia's military and scientific community, but they never could make heads or tails of it. They knew it was potentially powerful stuff and that it did, despite science's best attempts to explain it, exist, just not in Iuthia. No, this would be best dealt with by professionals... the local armed forces had been informed but it was strictely a civil matter for the time being...

The Hippogriff Support Craft started it's virtical take off, it's dark uniform black gleeming with the roar of it's thrusters. "E.T.A one hundred and twenty seconds."

Finding cover behind a car, and the flames growing ever stronger around her, Lorain's options were growing fewer by the second. Not to mention that the car wasn't exactly the sturdiest of cover, either. She knew the Iuthian authorities would be here soon, but not soon enough. She would have to act, in some way, even if she disliked doing so.

As soon as she stuck her head above the side of the car to dash for yet another alley, another volley of bolts hit the car, this time turning it into a pile of ash, leaving lorain with a dirty suit, and an exposed position. Running through the start of the alley just before a round of bolts chews through a significant part of wall, she concentrates, focusing on something she wish she could forget...and is enveloped in a great purple cloud of gaseous energy, something any decent military sensor would pick up from a mile away. This was magic, the thing she was trying to avoid using in -Iuthia- of all places, but she had no choice; no other option. She spread her great, purple wings as much as she could in such a confined space, and rocketed upwards, leaving behind a mass trail of magic sparks, hoping to confuse any of her attackers projectiles. This worked in part, as her only injury was a missing small section of wing.

She had to go -higher-, to aircraft heights, to avoid any unwanted missile based followers, but she had to avoid causing any more trouble, had to land -somewhere-, and, torn between these two objectives, she hung in the air, everything seemingly in slow motion as the occasional bolt whizzed past her.

Meanwhile, the obvious leader of the pack of glimmering shadows thrust a fist into the air, causing its comrades to slink off into the shadows, for this one had objectives of its own that had to be achieved at any cost...

She was sitting in the corner of a coffee shop, not doing much more han minding her own business. Iuthia was utilitarian, safe, peaceful, boring, and the antithesis of everything Weyrean. She loved every moment of it. There was no need to carry a pair of Eternity guns everywhere in Iuthia, and the lack of the heavy weapons still felt srange, as did the floppy hat she had bought. She had no doubts the locals would stare at someone with foot-long ears sticking horizontally from the sides of her head. Thus the hat. It covered her ears quite well, unless someone really wanted to get in close and personal and risk seven kinds of pain in the process.

Still, the shop was nice, cool, and peaceful, and it didn't look like anyone was about to kick her out. A cup of coffee steamed in front of her, and she was almost dozing while it cooled.

A blue bolt went through the shop's front. People screamed. She turned over the table dove under it. Chunks of masonry and metal bounced off the hard wood. Ash settled on her head and shoulders. She coughed, waiting. Nothing happened, except the screaming. She poked her head out the side.

"Great," she muttered. Her luck never lasted, she knew. Something always had to explode, die, or somehow go bad and make her life difficult. And magic, in Iuthia. "Great." She stood up. That hadn't been meant for her. She wasn't important. She waited for the panicking mob to disperse before coming into the street. Coffee was dripping off her shirt. She sighed, again. At least it wasn't scading hot.

And at least she could guess who was shooting blue missiles. Last she checked, Iuthia was lacking in the shimmering shadow department. Were she the traditional Weyrean alchemist, she would have drawn a sword, charged, and most likely died. She decided to wait and see what would happen. Besides, it was shooting at that giant purple blob in the sky and not at her.

A short distance away the local forces where tighting their grip around the area, following their orders to keep their distance and secure the parameter as the specialists approached their landing zone from above. Unfortunately given the uncertainty of the situation it would be impossible to say if they've completely contained whatever it was as any professional hit-team wouldn't stick around for very long after making themselves known, the road blocks and patrols could only cover so much in so little time, nevermind that the hostiles sounded like they were using some form of advanced camouflage or perhaps even magic itself.

The Peacekeepers who were charged with the task of securing the parameter were Iuthia's twist on many other societies police force, the main difference being that they were officially part of Iuthia's military forces, albeit trained for a policing/peacekeeping role. Generally they were armed with anything ranging from the standard pistol sidearm to shotguns and assault rifles that were made available to them when dealing with something much more potentially lethal. Each of them made a point of yearing their black armoured vests today, unsure of what to expect, each secretly hoping that whatever it was didn't come their way.

Meanwhile, the Hippogriff Support Craft made it's low approach, barely keeping above the buildings with the monotomous loud hum of grav-plates. The craft itself looked a little like the love child of a transport helicopter and a vectored thrust aircraft covered with a dark black sheen. Hovering just above a heavy concrete parking lot a short distance away from the supposed scene, two of members of the Fast Responce Team rappelled down two thin black ropes onto the flat surface and then proceeded into a suitable position to get a good view of the street on the north side of the building.

Continuing it's approach, the craft's sensors made out the fire in the centre of the street, burning away as bolts of heat were literally being thrown in it's direction the other side of the street, hitting both the car and the opposite building. The pilot started to skip the craft over to the next drop point but suddenly the gunner shouted out, outside smoke and sparks rose from the opposite alleyways and a small amount of collapsing could be heard.

"Shit!" he man recoiled from his screen. The craft itself shuck momentarily as the pilot throught for control. "Huge energy spike, Sir... I don't know what the fuck it is, but it's just blinded my targeting systems, I'm not going to be able to provide support for a moment until I've sorted it."

The craft now stablised starting to decend down to street level. "Nevermind McKenzie, just get us to the LZ and we'll do the rest." replied Miller, the FTR squad leader, radioing in from the back.

"Er... what the fuck is that, Sir? It's like some kind of purple gas, but I can see something in it..."

"Just concentrate on keeping us stable, McKenzie." Miller barked into his mouthpiece. Pressing a large green button the slide doors opened, revealing the brightly lit street outside. "Move out men!"

Four ropes were thrown out, two on each side as the two firing team quickly dropped down into position on the street as the Hippogriff hovered in its place, watching whatever the hell it was getting blasted at from what could only be described as a blur...

(Again, sorry about the timing, hard to concentrate lately.)