Perimeter Defense
02-08-2007, 17:23
OOC: Once upon a time, I was a member of an RP that lasted for four years, and only had three participants. The storyline of said RP was formed as each member desired, and through this procedure came the losses of nine planets, millions of ships, the rises and falls of six factions, the deaths of some 9 characters, including 3 faction leaders, and about 100 years of storyline time passage.
This RP tries to replicate that. Basically, create a character, assign a faction, and run in parallel directions. I'll just be a mediator to post story-element posts that guide the RP along.
Background: There are three factions on the planet Incubator, namely the Jristi Empire of elves, the Gurati Alliance of dwarves, and the Synros Coalition of humans. Jristi/Gurati are allied against Synros, due to its series of evil attacks about 42 years ago. The tech level is PMT, with railgun-toting battleships and the like. The fantasy level...is hardcore magic.
Plasma rifles are build around staff gem cores. "Summon armor" equates to turning into mechanized infantry. There are orbital weapons that are essentially giant oak trees saturated with magical elements, which hundreds of mages aboard use to form firestorms or Soul-Ripper beams from space. Dragonscale shards are the sniper bullet of choice, because they pierce magical kinetic shields. Etc, etc, get the idea, yaddayaddayadda.
Here we go. Play along.
IC:
Battle Magustrate 134, Aliza Stormshadow, of the elven Jristi Empire, slung the heavy, repeating railgun over her shoulder and took a gaze at the glorious sunrise before her. There was much to be said about the sunrise today; with high levels of atmospheric particulate in the air, brought about by the recent conclusion of some epic battle on the plains below the cliff on which she stood, the sky seemed to be ablaze with profound iridescence. Golden spears of light broke through the clouds like lances from heaven striking the ground, and as the sun rose ever higher over the horizon, little streaks of blue began to populate the dominantly yellow and orange sky. Her very dark blue skin was almost light green in the face of this fiery display.
Magustrate Stormshadow took in this beautiful vista before she went around again. The quietude and placidity of her time was interrupted by a beeping sound, unfortunately. The holographic display hovering over her wrist noted that her mana concentration was at 75%. Taking a little blue container from her belt, she had a swig of a deep blue liquid that seemed to glow ever so slightly, and the mana readout returned to 100%. Despairing at the interruption, she left the cliff and returned to her walker, stroking a long, slender ear as she moved about.
"You up for a drink, Magustrate?" a muscled but rather diminutive dwarf said back at the outpost's mess hall, lifting a mug of some suspicious-looking liquid.
"No thanks, Dyno," Aliza said. "Whatever you have in that stuff will probably kill my ass five times over."
"Eh, your damn loss, woman. Best gin in the region!"
"The 'region,' Dyno, happens to be famous for its Cacolypsis airborne fungus growth, and we all know how Cackle-lip can loosen the tongue, the judgement, and the pants and underwear. All it needs is a decade-staled cup of anything to grow, and your gin fits the bill."
"Bah, whatever. Speaking of judgement, what's the news back home?" This was a forward minor base some 4000 miles from the homeland. "Passive radio on the VLF has been screwy since the EMP storm that Synros generated."
"I got mine off the EHF LOS relays. CINCHOB's (Commander-in-Chief, Homeland Borders) been pounding the northeastern corridor with dragonstrikes since SatComms pointed out heavy vehicle movements there. Synros isn't attacking with land anytime soon---"
Deep thuds were heard in the distance. The commonly noisy prefab structure of the mess hall was suddenly immersed in an eerie silence. Aliza broke it:
"Incoming or outgoing?"
Hushed voices aimed to discuss.
"That was six shots. I think we only have five batteries stationed-"
"Didn't Cmdr. Yaladine put them out for maintenance?"
"He put out the MLRS, Daj; we heard smooth-"
"That must have been incoming! Our last sat images saw-"
The last statement was the one confirmed, as massive explosions rocked the base. "Go, go, go!" screamed the second-highest rank present, as dozens of troops, variously dressed in casual or mithril-polymer suits, made a rush for the armory. All manner of heavy weapons was unceremoniously thrown out into the oncoming rush of soldiers, with high-end staves and rifles alike being tossed about. Despite the chaos, people had their guns in two minutes, and soon the air was alive with tracer fire and lightning bolts arcing overhead. The enemy chose to come from the canyon to the west.
Magustrate Stormshadow mounted her walker, which had a 15-foot birch staff encased in tungsten perched on its shoulder. She grabbed the exposed handle of the staff from within the cockpit, and lashed out at the oncoming tanks and infantry with a combination of autocannons and a continuous-beam spell that instantly desiccated any unshielded human. It only took a little chink in their armor to take them out.
An opportunistic veteran commando, however, took the time to sneak up under the effect of a Thoughtcloak spell that concealed him from nearby people and sensors at the conceptual level. You could see him coming up on thermal, but you'd never give it a second thought if you were under the influence. He clambered up the legs of Stormshadow's walker, and froze to near-zero kelvin the torso area. The now-extremely brittle matter collapsed beneath its own weight, and the vehicle came crashing down with Stormshadow inside it.
She popped open the canopy, looked around for all of point five seconds, and charged head-on into the thick of it all - making sure to waste the idiot who took her down first, of course. What were the odds today? Ah, there were 310 of her people, and 290 of them, plus a few vehicles.
"This is Magustrate Aliza Stormshadow to local command!" she screamed over what remained of her walker's radio. "Trace my signal, you'll get my ident sig. Get me some dragons and bombers on my location NOW!"
"This is Delta 1-3 of the DR squads, we have six Bluefire 'gons headed your way as we speak. Got word of an ensuing land war and we've been in transit since half an hour ago." This was great news. Bluefire dragons were genetically enhanced to spew out 6,000 degree flames, as opposed to traditional 3,000 degree ones that were a dime a dozen these days.
"Say what, 1-3? You knew about these bastards?"
"No, we had a tactical Seer over here just a few hours ago. Said she saw the outpost in ruins."
"Well, hell, that isn't happening under my watch! All right, on arrival, concentrate fire on the western canyon! Our lines haven't merged with the enemy's yet, but we're pretty damn close, so watch your fire trail!"
"Got that, Magustrate. You heard the lady, boys, let's move!"
Aliza quickly swung around from the radio to see some melee drone charging at her. With a rapid flick of her wrist, the mana stream within her body was channeled through the crystalline elements in her mech suit, and exited her palm in the form of a gun-like shape. Through the glowing assault rifle in her hands, she unleashed a thunderous barrage of pure kinetic energy, piercing the drone's armor at every point until its power source was torn up and it crashed to the ground.
Now she was out of mana, though. She was forced to use up a lot of energy to boost the walker's radio signal. That weapon summon too was irritating; she only meant to tear out its sternum plate to expose the power core, but she wasn't thinking straight and expended mana on a high-end weapon spell. Still, this one would last four minutes, and she made the most out of this by "taking a walk..."
This RP tries to replicate that. Basically, create a character, assign a faction, and run in parallel directions. I'll just be a mediator to post story-element posts that guide the RP along.
Background: There are three factions on the planet Incubator, namely the Jristi Empire of elves, the Gurati Alliance of dwarves, and the Synros Coalition of humans. Jristi/Gurati are allied against Synros, due to its series of evil attacks about 42 years ago. The tech level is PMT, with railgun-toting battleships and the like. The fantasy level...is hardcore magic.
Plasma rifles are build around staff gem cores. "Summon armor" equates to turning into mechanized infantry. There are orbital weapons that are essentially giant oak trees saturated with magical elements, which hundreds of mages aboard use to form firestorms or Soul-Ripper beams from space. Dragonscale shards are the sniper bullet of choice, because they pierce magical kinetic shields. Etc, etc, get the idea, yaddayaddayadda.
Here we go. Play along.
IC:
Battle Magustrate 134, Aliza Stormshadow, of the elven Jristi Empire, slung the heavy, repeating railgun over her shoulder and took a gaze at the glorious sunrise before her. There was much to be said about the sunrise today; with high levels of atmospheric particulate in the air, brought about by the recent conclusion of some epic battle on the plains below the cliff on which she stood, the sky seemed to be ablaze with profound iridescence. Golden spears of light broke through the clouds like lances from heaven striking the ground, and as the sun rose ever higher over the horizon, little streaks of blue began to populate the dominantly yellow and orange sky. Her very dark blue skin was almost light green in the face of this fiery display.
Magustrate Stormshadow took in this beautiful vista before she went around again. The quietude and placidity of her time was interrupted by a beeping sound, unfortunately. The holographic display hovering over her wrist noted that her mana concentration was at 75%. Taking a little blue container from her belt, she had a swig of a deep blue liquid that seemed to glow ever so slightly, and the mana readout returned to 100%. Despairing at the interruption, she left the cliff and returned to her walker, stroking a long, slender ear as she moved about.
"You up for a drink, Magustrate?" a muscled but rather diminutive dwarf said back at the outpost's mess hall, lifting a mug of some suspicious-looking liquid.
"No thanks, Dyno," Aliza said. "Whatever you have in that stuff will probably kill my ass five times over."
"Eh, your damn loss, woman. Best gin in the region!"
"The 'region,' Dyno, happens to be famous for its Cacolypsis airborne fungus growth, and we all know how Cackle-lip can loosen the tongue, the judgement, and the pants and underwear. All it needs is a decade-staled cup of anything to grow, and your gin fits the bill."
"Bah, whatever. Speaking of judgement, what's the news back home?" This was a forward minor base some 4000 miles from the homeland. "Passive radio on the VLF has been screwy since the EMP storm that Synros generated."
"I got mine off the EHF LOS relays. CINCHOB's (Commander-in-Chief, Homeland Borders) been pounding the northeastern corridor with dragonstrikes since SatComms pointed out heavy vehicle movements there. Synros isn't attacking with land anytime soon---"
Deep thuds were heard in the distance. The commonly noisy prefab structure of the mess hall was suddenly immersed in an eerie silence. Aliza broke it:
"Incoming or outgoing?"
Hushed voices aimed to discuss.
"That was six shots. I think we only have five batteries stationed-"
"Didn't Cmdr. Yaladine put them out for maintenance?"
"He put out the MLRS, Daj; we heard smooth-"
"That must have been incoming! Our last sat images saw-"
The last statement was the one confirmed, as massive explosions rocked the base. "Go, go, go!" screamed the second-highest rank present, as dozens of troops, variously dressed in casual or mithril-polymer suits, made a rush for the armory. All manner of heavy weapons was unceremoniously thrown out into the oncoming rush of soldiers, with high-end staves and rifles alike being tossed about. Despite the chaos, people had their guns in two minutes, and soon the air was alive with tracer fire and lightning bolts arcing overhead. The enemy chose to come from the canyon to the west.
Magustrate Stormshadow mounted her walker, which had a 15-foot birch staff encased in tungsten perched on its shoulder. She grabbed the exposed handle of the staff from within the cockpit, and lashed out at the oncoming tanks and infantry with a combination of autocannons and a continuous-beam spell that instantly desiccated any unshielded human. It only took a little chink in their armor to take them out.
An opportunistic veteran commando, however, took the time to sneak up under the effect of a Thoughtcloak spell that concealed him from nearby people and sensors at the conceptual level. You could see him coming up on thermal, but you'd never give it a second thought if you were under the influence. He clambered up the legs of Stormshadow's walker, and froze to near-zero kelvin the torso area. The now-extremely brittle matter collapsed beneath its own weight, and the vehicle came crashing down with Stormshadow inside it.
She popped open the canopy, looked around for all of point five seconds, and charged head-on into the thick of it all - making sure to waste the idiot who took her down first, of course. What were the odds today? Ah, there were 310 of her people, and 290 of them, plus a few vehicles.
"This is Magustrate Aliza Stormshadow to local command!" she screamed over what remained of her walker's radio. "Trace my signal, you'll get my ident sig. Get me some dragons and bombers on my location NOW!"
"This is Delta 1-3 of the DR squads, we have six Bluefire 'gons headed your way as we speak. Got word of an ensuing land war and we've been in transit since half an hour ago." This was great news. Bluefire dragons were genetically enhanced to spew out 6,000 degree flames, as opposed to traditional 3,000 degree ones that were a dime a dozen these days.
"Say what, 1-3? You knew about these bastards?"
"No, we had a tactical Seer over here just a few hours ago. Said she saw the outpost in ruins."
"Well, hell, that isn't happening under my watch! All right, on arrival, concentrate fire on the western canyon! Our lines haven't merged with the enemy's yet, but we're pretty damn close, so watch your fire trail!"
"Got that, Magustrate. You heard the lady, boys, let's move!"
Aliza quickly swung around from the radio to see some melee drone charging at her. With a rapid flick of her wrist, the mana stream within her body was channeled through the crystalline elements in her mech suit, and exited her palm in the form of a gun-like shape. Through the glowing assault rifle in her hands, she unleashed a thunderous barrage of pure kinetic energy, piercing the drone's armor at every point until its power source was torn up and it crashed to the ground.
Now she was out of mana, though. She was forced to use up a lot of energy to boost the walker's radio signal. That weapon summon too was irritating; she only meant to tear out its sternum plate to expose the power core, but she wasn't thinking straight and expended mana on a high-end weapon spell. Still, this one would last four minutes, and she made the most out of this by "taking a walk..."