NationStates Jolt Archive

"An area of effect disjunction spell. In the most general terms it makes anything even remotely magical... not be magical anymore."

"That would be rather interesting to implement," Gahlagæer smirked. "Hopefully they won't have too many non-magical traps."

"The only problem," Sevren continued, "is that the spell takes an aggravating amount of time to properly cast, and usually requires the coordinated efforts of ten people in order to manage it. There is also the problem in that it tends to remove the 'un-' from undead. So you might not want your supporters anywhere near if we even consider going to the effort of casting it."

"General Majestatus can cast it faster than any of us," Dalziel commented, "but the spell would still take prohibitively long."

"Wouldn't hurt my vampire supports," Gahlagæer replied. "Best not to take my zombies though."

Katana gave him a look of disgust.

"Though knowing the brotherhood we probably won't have much time in which to cast any spells."

"That is the problem," Sevren replied. "It takes too long to cast, and the caster must be in the center of the area of effect. In order to disable the traps, we would first have to bypass them... a catch-22. We cannot act on that capability."

"So that plan's out the window then," Gahlagæer said.

"Indeed," Sevren replied, then raised an eyebrow. "What about asking the royal family to allocate a ship or twelve towards giving the location a nice long orbital bombardment? Would they not be keen on terminating a group that threatens to disrupt what appears to be an already tenuous peace?"

Daniel raised his hand. "That's very possible," he pointed out.

"Of course it is unknown how long any magical forcefield they'll have can take any sort of punishment," Gahlagæer then told them. "Of course no harm in trying."

"Well, that is step in the right direction." Sevren smiled and sat back in his chair, but Dalziel stepped forward at almost the exact same time.

"Or if questions of whether one side is willing to give the other the benefit of the doubt, there is also the possibility of requisitioning a Mako Destroyer or so to act as a relatively neutral force of destruction."

Sevren snorted at Dalziel's comment. "Always hoping for another chance to practice Godulan Sniping..."

Gahlagæer raised an eyebrow.

"Best not to bring in any of your own ships into this," Eamonn warned.

Dalziel shrugged and gave Dalziel a wry grin. "No matter. If you work it right though, you might be able to use the latent tension between the Royal family and yourself to mask your overall intentions..."

"Any ships firing at a location on Draconis Nightcrawlis should be Draconian," Eamonn then said. "I know just the crew to do it."

"Ship ninjas, or some other thing?" Sevren asked, "Will this require extra expense on my part?"

Eamonn shook his head. "No, they're not ninjas," he replied, "and no it won't be costing extra. It will be a favour on their part."

"Ah. I was about to say that money is no object as we have an expense account to work with. As these things do not happen often, it is quite large."

:OCCcould i get in on this?

:OCCcould i get in on this?

OOC: No.

"Ah. I was about to say that money is no object as we have an expense account to work with. As these things do not happen often, it is quite large."

Gahlagæer grinned, "Not everything has a price based in money," he replied. "Sometimes payment is a favour or in our case help defeating a common enemy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the saying goes."

Sevren smirked. "Money can solve any problem..."

Dalziel finished it as if on cue: "If aimed properly. It i an old Godulan saying. Whether buying the favor or buying the allegiance of the man to whom the favor is owed, there is always a proper mechanism of conversion."

Gahlagæer laughed. "Not always that simple," he replied. "Especially in Dark Valley. Money means nothing to some people here."

"Then we can buy what does mean something."

"There is always a mechanism of conversion."

Sevren waved dismissively. "In any event, DO go on..."

"Some people trade in sols, others in dead babies," Gahlagæer pointed out. "Would you be prepared for that."

"Sick," Katana remarked. "What a fucked up county."

Gahlagæer just winked at her.

"Money, can buy, anything."

"You can get some wierd merchandise going through smuggling channels. People who want to be eaten, people who honestly don't mind selling bits of themselves or even their own essences to whatever person is looking for such... In a galaxy teeming with trillions upon trillions of sentients, one is bound to run into a few that are not exactly right in the head."

Sevren rolled his eyes. "But we digress. When I said 'Do Go On,' I meant about this plan of yours."

Gahlagæer chuckled. "Now that we've narrowed down the number of plans a bit, I propose sending in a horde of my skeleton/zombie warriors," he then said. "That should prove enough of a distraction for the brotherhood so that you might try your idea."

"We can't cast a Reality Sever. It would require the General himself to come, and if he comes, an entire fleet comes with him. It would require a tad bit more wrangling than I am prepared for."

"We can always just hit 'em with a tactical PPD bomb," Dalziel mused, "though that might require some paperwork."

Gahlagæer looked toward Eamonn.

"What's a PPD bomb?" they both asked.

"A Plasmatic Pulse Disintegrator bomb. It converts all matter within a specific radius into condensed energy and then detonates in a manner akin to an antimatter device."

"Some call it a Dustbuster. Whereas a reality sever would terminate magical effects in a certain radius, the PPD bomb is what you use if you absolutely positively need to eradicate the enemy right now."

"Requisitioning one is simply a matter of contacting Skye, and ensuring again that we have permission from the resident authority. Getting one into the middle of their forces is not an issue as much as the reality sever, as it does not need anybody to activate it manually."

"So basically it would just wipe out the whole castle in one boom?" Eamonn questioned him.

"And a significant chunk of the surrounding countryside," Sevren confirmed. "All that would remain is a decently sized spherical glass bowl with a small ring of incinerated countryside on the perimeter. One cannot hide in a bunker when PPDs are thrown in."

Gahlagæer thought for a moment. "How much of the countryside?"

"It would depend on the size of the weapon. A suitcase size bomb can demolish a building, while a truck-size bomb can excavate a bowl around one to five kilometers in diameter."

"Well we don't want to have to get permission from Jord to blow up a sizeable chunk of the country side," Eamonn mentioned. "Best to stick to blowing up the castle only."

"Suitcase it is, then. That does make things easier for me. Less paperwork, after all. If I were to try for a vehicular or even ship based version, there would be all kinds of backlash."

"It is necessary to ensure that collateral damage will be kept to a minimum."

Sevren turned towards Dalziel and brought out his communicator.

"I can still get through to the big one, right?"

"Yes sir. We fixed the damage from earlier before working on the embassy itself. They should be able to recieve from you."

"Good," Sevren replied, then set in to fiddling with his communicator with remarkable rapidity...

"How soon can it all be set up?" Eamonn questioned.

Sevren continued to fiddle with his little communicator, then said: "You might want to send somebody back down to the courtyard."

"I'll head out," Eamonn volunteered.

Without waiting for a reply he quickly made his way back to the courtyard.

Eamonn waited down in the courtyard.

A few minutes passed, until much in the same way the first gate had opened, another popped directly in front of Eamonn. A Godulan in a uniform similar to Dalziel's stepped through, bearing what appeared to be some form of toolbox, and a pair of sword handles on his belt. Two wicked pistols, almost the size of shotguns, were strapped to his back.

"Hello, my name is Mercer, callsign 'Mephistopheles'. Somebody ask for something to be blown straight to hell?"

Eamonn raised an eyebrow and nodded.

"Putting it that way, yes," he replied. "If you'll come with me."

He motioned for the new arrival to follow him.

Mephistopheles took a moment to look around the courtyard before following Eamonn.

"Nice digs. Little too gothic for my tastes but hey, I don't build 'em, I just take 'em down."

"..." Eamonn replied and lead him into the room where the others awaited.

"So this is our latest guest?" Gahlagæer remarked.

"I don't consider myself a guest," Mephistopheles replied with a flourish, "I am an artist under contract to produce yet another thing of beauty. It just happens that I specialize in making craters rather than paintings. My commentaries on the transitory nature of life and civilization are nearly impossible to pass over."

Dalziel smirked. "Attention whore."

Mephistopheles didn't hesitate. "Whore? No, But my work gets attention all right."

He placed the suitcase on the table next to Sevren and grinned happily... a smile made all the more disconcerting by the subject matter he put forward. "So! You point at it, and I'll make it disappear."

Gahlagæer raised an eyebrow. "Every visitor is a guest to the castle," he replied. "Especially artists."

He motioned at the castle on the table.

"This is the intended target."

Mephistopheles inspected the castle for a moment, then stepped back with a sigh. "Grody. I will not be as satisfied with this one as I usually am. What about traps and defenders?"

"Traps are mostly of the magical variety," Gahlagæer told him. "Defenders range anything from zombies and skeletons to members of the brotherhood themselves."

Mephistopheles snorted. "I assume that you will be handling the magical traps, though me and Dalziel can take a hit or twelve of arcane energy before we drop... not that we would want to, of course. As for the zombies and other beasties..."

He whipped out the two sword handles and flipped them around for a moment as if testing the grip. He tossed on towards Dalziel, then flicked the handle like a switchblade. With a light *thwum!* sound, a shimmering black sword blade came into existence just off of the hilt. He twirled the sword experimentally, causing little sparkles of light as the blade seemed to cleave molecular bonds and splice photons.

"I doubt that even mystical creations can resist getting sliced in two by swords forged from the very fabric of reality itself."

Gahlagæer closed his eyes briefly.

"I have scouts out over the castle," he then said, opening his eyes once again. "They will pinpoint the various traps and then it would be possible to know how to disarm them."

He watched the swords with interest, wondering about the properties of them.

"Of course, but then again skeletons and zombies are rather easy to overcome but the problem is that they tend to come in huge numbers."

Mephistopheles snorted again, then turned around and walked towards the wall behind him... then up the wall... then along the ceiling... then into the ceiling. After a moment of only his head showing, he reemerged with a smile, though still standing on the ceiling as though it were firm ground.

"We have ways of bypassing resistance."

Gahlagæer raised an eyebrow, "Interesting," he replied. "Should easily bypass them with that."

"We ain't special forces just cuz we can make big booms. We can make big booms in places that are REALLY hard to get to."

Gahlagæer smirked. "Of course," he replied.

"So when's this shit goin' down? Can't be late for the big unveiling, after all."

"As soon as you are ready," Gahlagæer replied.

Mephistopheles grinned. "Now? How 'bout now? What about now? Now?"

Gahlagæer smirked.

"Now is good for me," he replied and looked toward Eamonn.

The black-haired Jounin nodded. "How do you wish to get to the target?"

"How would you go about it?" Mephistopheles asked in return. "I usually get dropped in from orbit, but we don't have ships for that right now, do we?"

"Well I have a ship of my own," Gahlagæer mentioned.

"Does it have a rig conducive to opening an airlock at 25 kilometers up and just letting me hop out?" Mephistopheles asked with a raised eyebrow.

Dalziel snickered. "Bare Bones Hyperdiving rocks."

"Preach it!"

"There are airlocks yes and I suppose you can leap out if you wished to," Gahlagæer replied.

Mephistopheles hee-hee'd with a wide grin. "Paratroopers can be shot down. Guys who just hop out of airlocks from low orbit are somewhat more difficult to target."

Eamonn looked over at him. "We have ways of dealing with them actually," he replied. "If you know the ship is there, but if it's cloaked then it is harder."

"Hehe, yeah," Mephistopheles mused, then snapped his head up. "IS the ship cloaked?"

Gahlagæer nodded. "It can be."

"How close can it get to the surface without sensors detecting it?"

"Generally above the clouds," Gahlagæer explained. "When the clouds start being disturbed by the ship going through, people usually get suspicious."

"That'll work," Mephistopheles said with a grin. "I won't have to worry about that annoying part of the atmosphere that's over 300 degrees..."

"Of course it is possible to get the ship into the cloud so long as you don't break through the bottom," Gahlagæer then added. "But it is still better to avoid clouds all together."

"It won't need to go too far down. Just through that annoying portion of the atmosphere that is entirely too hot for my tastes. You should not need to go below ten kilometers in altitude."

Gahlagæer nodded. "Plenty of airspace to use then," he replied.

"Indeed," Mephistopheles commented, then looked around. "Well? What are we waiting for? I wanna express my artistic side and send those punks straight to hell!"

"If you'll follow me to the hanger then," Gahlagæer said, looking toward the door. "Since the ship is in orbit, they won't notice anything but a small shuttle take off to which I would doubt they'll take any notice."

Mephistopheles rather obediently followed Gahlagæer to the shuttle, occasionally breaking into a fit of giggling for no apparent reason. From the look on his face after each small episode, it was clear that he had no clue as to why they happened, and that he had grown used to them.

Gahlagæer gave him a strange look everytime he giggle, but he was used to strangeness like that in people. He knew some very strange people after all. Within the space of ten minutes or so, the shuttle safely landed aboard the ship. Katana had gone with them to keep an eye on Gahlagæer.

"So, do you wish to get it done right away?" he asked.

Mephistopheles raised an eyebrow at the question, then looked around awkwardly.

"Um... if I say 'Burn, baby, burn,' and subsequently break into a fit of insane cackling, would you take that to mean 'haul ass'?"

Gahlagæer nodded and took him to the airlock from where he could jump out. Already they could see the planet drawing nearer as the ship began it's decent. After a few minutes they could see clouds in the ships windows.

"We are fortunate to have such cloud cover today," Gahlagæer said. "We are directly over the target."