>>27715544
Good evening op, glad to have you back.

We can use Cybele's emblem to regain our jettisoned armor while under the effects of the Carnifex by the wording. I had that thought while moving boat docks a few days ago.

Also, now would be a swell time to test drive our upgraded fusion annihilator. Wonder if the charge time is quicker.

>>27715544
Aw yeah, second thread in a row that I've seen just as they show up. Time to make some more unintentionally bad decisions on behalf of the MC.

>>27715544
>you were unable to prevent MIRAGE SYLPHEED from activating the MANIFOLD GUARDIAN.
Oh, so that was him. I'll edit the pastebin.

Your family okay?

Samefagging.

I just noticed OP updated the Annihilator in the pastebin. I think I found a new favorite toy.

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The ground quakes, as the Manifold Guardian unfurls itself - Ambulating on eight blade-sharp legs, each one coming to a needle-point: Blocky, but moving with an eerie, insectile grace, equal parts spider and crustacean. Matte-black, flat slabs of superdense material plating its dull bulk, there's a terrible impetus to it's motions - Slow, almost clumsy, but inherently unstoppable.

The air crackles, as its voiceless electronic shriek shoots static through your sensors; Armaros grunts, clawing at his helmet in distress as his knees buckle, his head swinging from side-to-side as he fights off the emanations - The distortion halo between his shoulder binders flickering fitfully, as the Manifold Guardian wheels to face you.

Physically, it's not *too* different from the Armory Guardian; But larger, standing fifteen meters tall if it's an inch. The carapace is a cross between a cockroach and a bomber; A wedge, a great arrowhead shape with cannons sticking out the front end like fangs. Violet orbs stud that lightless shell, like malformed eyes peering blindly in every direction at once...

It doesn't fire, though. Not at first. The thing *crouches*, and a column rises out of it's back - A red-glowing cylinder, vertically segmented, rising slowly, almost lazily - like someone pulling back on a crossbow before releasing the string-

"Get back-" Armaros rasps, raising his borrowed Graviton Cannon - Rather uncertainly, as if he's not sure *what* to target, or just unused to the alien weapon gripped in his plated fists.


HP: 112.2%
COBALT BOOSTER: 48%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 64.5%
METER: 39%
RIFLE BITS: 5/5

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27715627

(Yep. It wasn't anything serious, fortunately.)

>>27715690

(Ah, my apologies: That upgrade was actually a while ago, from the first Manifold Tower you activated. I should've been more clear.)

>>27715614

(To activate Cybele's Emblem, just state how much Meter/Cobalt Booster you'd like to expend. Alternatively, state what you'd like to regenerate, and the necessary expenditure will be made.)

>>27715709

Oh shit, this is going to be a big attack. I think we better Fortress up in this bitch.

>>27715709

"Shoot it! Fuck!"

Assign 3 Interceptors to defend Silver Baller. Keep the remaining 2 orbiting us. We KNOW Marge is somewhere in this shithole, use the Cobalt Booster to increase the output of the Argus System in order to hopefully gain enough juice to outpower the interference. Once we have Chucklenuts locked, and if we have enough booster available, hit him with our Deathmark to permanently mark him for the remainder of this fight.

>>27715709
Start hoarding Booster, Joker needs to wait for Mirage Sylpheed to decloak, then disrupt him.

Armaros is right though, Joker SHOULD get back, so jump away. Have the Rifle Bits target the rising column, then pull out the Nova Cannon and target it near the base. Tell Armaros to target the center mass; since the Graviton Cannon will warp everything in the area of effect he'll deal more damage that way. Keep the bits out of the pressure radius, if possible.

>>27715844

Ah, shit. I just realized we don't HAVE enough booster for Harrow. Fuck. In that case, if we can lock him with the Argus, LOCK HIM DOWN. He's a fastmover. Our only option for fastmovers is saturation attacks. Hit him with a dumbfire barrage of missiles. No matter what way he goes he will be hit.

>>27715838

No Fortress. Yet. Let's save that trump card.

>>27715844
>>27715899
The Booster doesn't enhance the Argus System. We can run the sensor off of it though. Right now the Argus System is almost completely blind; the distortion is hitting it harder than Joker's base system by the sound of it.

Also, missiles come at a cost of 3 meter each. With 39 meter, that's 13 missiles, which is nowhere near enough to provide that kind of coverage, particularly since they're fired eight at a time. Hold on to the meter, we'll have better things to do with it.

>>27715996

It was mainly an idea to see if it was even possible to run with.

>>27715844

At your mental command, three Rifle Bits zip away from you, circling Armaros in a tight orbit - He stiffens, his posture betraying his surprise; But he doesn't ask questions, as you trigger the Argus System - Probing the Manifold Guardian with millimetre-wave and sonar and whatever sensors still function-

Prognosis: Whatever the thing's *made* out of - It's armour plating is dense, nearly impenetrable. There are weaknesses, however; Seams badly covered by the overlap of two or sections, the ball-joints where the legs connect to the bulk of the central torso, the Manifold Guardian's underbelly, the short haft of the thing's neck...

...Or so you think. The distortion isn't helping: All you can make out is 'impenetrable' and 'slightly less dense'. If the Manifold Guardian wasn't such a massive target, the blurred silhouette still tangible on your fuzzing sensors - You doubt you'd be able to pick up *that* much.

But there's a high-energy reaction building, however. You can sense that much; If not from your sensors, from the coppery tang to the air, the slight crackle of your armour's crimson edges.

>>27715854

You spring back, Tempest Scrander flaring - The sonar sweep of your Argus System rebounding, the wave sketching the dimensions of the vast hemispherical chamber. Something's messing with the sonar: The schematic-image sketched on your HUD from the return is patchy, incomplete...There's a blank spot, one that seems to shift in space - Drawing closer by the moment, as the forearm sheaths for your Plasma Vulcans snap shut...As the Nova Cannon sketches itself into being-

You touch down, your Rifle Bits skimming through the air - Stitching the Manifold Guardian with hissing particle rays. The beams leave no impression against the thing's superheavy plating: But then they lance into the glowing column, smoke rising from the surface as the red glow *pulses*, like the beat of a furnace heart...

(Continued)

>blank spot drawing closer

You son of a bitch you are one crafty fuck.

>>27716141
guess where we're gonna put at least a few plasma blasts?

>>27716042
Which, the missiles or the Argus? We actually saw a momentary distortion from Mirage before he decloaked last thread, if you see a mention again dumb-firing a full rack of eight missiles is a good idea.

>>27716074
>There's a blank spot, one that seems to shift in space - Drawing closer by the moment,
And I had a bit written about Argus System and distortions preventing target locks, but it's possible to find something by looking for what ISN'T there. Hello Mirage. I hope you like missiles.

>>27716153

He's so damn good at hiding himself that he stands out like a sore thumb in these conditions if my hunch is even remotely on the money.

>>27716159

No. BOOSTO~ on the Argus. We've enhanced ourselves and our kit with the Booster, why not a relic?

>>27716188
of course, if you know about enemy tracking abilities, in something like the red, where its practically required to have some form of tracking, projecting a blank spot is possible, and would be very trollish. fill it with vulcan fire and see if that doesnt knock him out of the mirage
or i might be overpredicting to buggery

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Armaros *fires*. The Manifold Guardian actually buckles beneath the impact - Actuators whining in distress, legs flexing to take the crushing force - folded onto itself, vibrating with the strain as the tiles crumple and distort on all sides; There's a groan as the crimson column *crimps*, sparks flying from the segmented pillar - The red glow unhealthy, now, the pulse coming fitfully...

You're just swinging the Nova Cannon up, when the Guardian fires.

It's not a laser, or a ray, or even a projectile.

It's *sound*.

It sounds like-

PING.

The walls explode. The air is filled with a storm of flying sharpenel - Pearlescent tiles turned into a blizzard of shards, dust and daggers and great jagged sheets; Fragmentary rain, sharp and lethal, clanging off the Manifold Tower, splinters clattering off your armour like hail - Doing little more than to gouge the surface.

You see Armaros stagger back; If he had ears, they'd be bleeding. Smoke coils from the joints of his armour-

You *see* it - You're aware of the sound - but you don't *hear* it. The air around you becomes cloistered, densely packed; All sound muffled, like the second/third-hand noise half-imagined in the night.

>>27716159

Four missiles. You launch them, your Triskelion Launchers spinning up; Even as you turn, your left arm forming the Plasma Caster-

On dumb-fire, the first three shots go wide; Closely-packed, expanding into roiling balls of flame - But you make out Mirage Sylpheed's speeding shape, as the last missile corkscrews down right in front of his half-glimpsed silhouette...

...And then he comes through the flames, and hits you with three right hooks and an uppercut. His opal armour is scorched, charred by the explosion - He looks burnt, in the blink-and-you'd-miss-it glimpse you have of him - but it doesn't stop him from *hitting* you.

He hits *very hard.*

(Continued)

>>27716188
Because unlike the items or Relics the Cobalt Booster can enhance, there's no Special section for the Argus in the armory.

>>27716246
Ow.

Joker seems to have finally met someone that actually may kill him.

Yup.

Best time of the week right here

>>27716283
Pfft no. Pazuzu could have killed Joker (with help from his magic cards, Rust Kaiser and Joker falling over six stories before they started fighting). Bardiel could have killed Joker, when Joker lacked Relics and was in the Red World physically.

Mirage, even with the singing killbot, is in for a nasty shock. Remember what the Scrander Bolt did to the last super fast Player with an invisibility field?

>>27716188

(Quick clarification: You're still using the Carnifex, but the Booster surge has been expended.)

>>27716246

Without the Carnifex's enhanced speed, you'd never even see him. But with it, you can *think* the world into slow motion - And you swing the Sinistral in the way, the punch meant to crack your helm detonating the hard-light structure like a short-fused bomb.

Within the stealth field he's generating - The one that smothers all outside sound - you can actually *see* the rings of the concussion, like a ripple within gelatin; He's thrown back, his boots scraping up a long line of skidding sparks - sound returning in a rush, as you hear the Guardian begin to fire.

Something blurred streaks past overhead: A railgun shell, or a gauss gun. You hear Armaros swear, blue light flaring at the edge of your vision as he unleashes his distortion halo, making space bulge and fold, reality drawing taut...

As Sylpheed comes towards you again. He's vanishing as he closes the distances, fading out - Until all that's left is a speed-distorted phantom.

HP: 98.5%
COBALT BOOSTER: 58%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 53.4%
METER: 36%
RIFLE BITS: 5/5

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27716341

Yeah. We have a giant killbot sitting there though. We may luck out and it act as one giant lightning rod.

>>27716358
scrander to the left, try to get some distance, open up with one vulcan to keep him moving and stop him from closing, while keeping the sinistral ready with the other

>>27716358

Fuck, he's fast and NEARLY INVISIBLE. I say we fire the Nova Cannon straight down, so he can't dodge it, or Tempest Crash.

>>27716386
booster the vulcan once he gets close, and gun-turtle, but be ready to scrander-evade once he goes behind us, as he will do.

Blind him with the Booster. He's coming straight at us. Follow up with a punch straight to the face with the Crisis Arm. That'll leave a mark.

>>27716341
>Remember what the Scrander Bolt did to the last super fast Player with an invisibility field?

We need to Deathmark him asap for its target-location powers, and/or Disrupt his avoidance/stealth powers

>>27716358
Scrander Bolt him. I'd like to see him dodge lightning. He probably COULD, but probably not when he's running straight at it. Make sure to lead him with the Argus system, wouldn't want to point the Scrander charge at where he was.

Hang on a sec, a sound based invisibility field? He's using the Sotto Voca, or something similar.

>>27716466
seconding this, blind speedsters dont enjoy running into a fist

>>27716466
>>27716478
These two.

>>27716358
>As Sylpheed comes towards you again. He's vanishing as he closes the distances, fading out - Until all that's left is a speed-distorted phantom.

Exec_Harrow him asap. Get that deathmark on him right away.

THEN we can use our carnifex speed to full effect when we know what he's up to, where he is.

>>27716512
Insufficient Cobalt Booster charge.

>>27716466
Good thinking. How about Tyrant Flash+Scrander Bolt+Crisis Arm? I think that equals a dead speedster.

>>27716466

Your Tyrant Burst system whines with gathering charge - Only for a heartbeat, just an instant - before *light* erupts forth in a flaring explosion, a furious photonic surge that bleaches all colour in the chamber to a dull white. Armaros is caught on the fringes of it - He lets out a muffled oath - as the Manifold Guardian's head flinches violently away from you, visual sensors momentarily blinded...

-But Mirage's the most surprised off *all* of them. The brilliant *flash* - It momentarily illuminates his stark silhouette, in that single strobing burst; His arms coming up, over his helm, as an inarticulate cry wrenches from his voxponder. He doesn't fall - He's too well-practiced for it - his heels scraping deep furrows in the ground as he tries to break, to wrench himself aside-

...And then the Tempest Scrander at your back cuts out, as a whiplash of lightning splits the air.

Lightning. Bright, urgent, overwhelming. It burns through the air, in a flaying lash - It actually makes a brittle sound, a sound like a SNAP as it uncoils; *Curving*, in the brief instant you can actually see, as the polarized lens that auto-deploy over your vision retract - before it slams into Sylpheed's careening form.

It burns into him. The cising charge crackles over his opal armour - Segments of his armour blow out, vile-smelling gritty smoke gusting out from scorched and blackened components. He judders, convulsing even as his legs buckle - A speeding bullet, still locked on his first and final course...

-But you're *ready* for him now.

(Continued)

>>27716565
flying crisis arm into blinded sanic? i like it. especially, if he does manage to dodge, we can hit the big hulking manifold guardian thats hanging onto amaros

>>27716565
>Insufficient Cobalt Booster charge.
>>27716358
>COBALT BOOSTER: 58%
>http://pastebin.com/hkqzGUwZ
>(COST: 50% COBALT BOOSTER for primary function, 10-20% for secondary.)

There is sufficient energy for a deathmark

>>27716596

We need to shout "Homerun!" after we knock his block off into the ceiling.

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>>27716633

Fuck you 4chan for eating my image.

>>27716600
Turns out we had the name wrong; the Tempest Crash is the electric tackle. I'm calling the lightning attack that drains the Scrander "Scrander Bolt" to put a name to it.

In this case, we blinded sanic, then electrocuted him, and his forward momentum is bringing him into Red Joker's wind-up punch.

>>27716628
Argh, too much time in the old threads means that I remember the old codeburst costs better than the Helix Gauntlet adjusted ones. I think whether or not he's Harrowed is going to be just slightly academic now.

Somehow, dazzlingly, he manages to turn as you swing the Crisis Arm in a punch - Not a clumsy haymaker, or one of those over-extended stage blows. It's a short, sharp jab; An explosion of force, like the lethal impact of a battering ram-

It's a motion you've honed to obsession, through the grim expedient of practice. You've punched through armour with a motion like this. Crushed helmets and skulls. Mirage Sylpheed has his arm in the way, his form hunching over...But that just makes him a bigger target, as his skidding feet bleed off his momentum.

The effort isn't wasted, though. At this speed, your powered fist would've driven into his torso, and out the other side.

Instead, your blow cannons into his left side - His arm snaps like a twig, his armour crumpling as the impact lifts his aerodynamic form off his feet, and hurls him ten yards through the air. He weighs nearly nothing: Hitting the ground, tumbling, in a rolling, skidding blur - Shedding rotating fragment of metal spalling and myomer fibre, before he can arrest his momentum...

As in the same motion, you bring your arm up, and trigger your Plasma Vulcan. The searing bolts explode against his armour, as Sylpheed struggles to his feet: You catch him with one long, satsifying burst that pummels him like fists of searing energy, as your other hand comes up, your gauntlet smoldering with the fires of EXEC_HARROW...

(Continued)

>>27716782

-But then slicing rays slash across you, across the ground, superheated vapour boiling up into the air; Searing lines of energy, in fractal trajectories, your armour bubbling and beginning to slag. Drones hover in the air, shimmering with the heat-haze of refractor fields - Ice-white rays lancing from the emitters that stud the Manifold Guardian's form, rebounding off the Refractor Bits, a beam web that cuts across you, the Sinistral fizzing as you bring it up.

Your Assault Shroud smoulders beneath the assault; The nanomaterial flaring in brief, smoky flames from the impact zones, burning scads of fabric rotating away like dead leaves-

"Damn it-" Armaros recoils, as a ray slashes his Graviton Cannon in two - As he hunches over, his distortion field makes space *bulge* and twist around him, the rays bending around his form - Slicing deep, smoking lines in the ground-

Filleted by the beam emitter volley, two of your Rifle Interceptors are already disintegrating: The last one judders, as it's caught on the fringes of Armaros's defensive field - Crumpling as it's *crushed* by the rising pressures, folded into scrap, with a shearing shriek of metal.

You've momentarily lost sight of Sylpheed - But you can see the Manifold Guardian angling towards you; Panels sliding off the wedge-head, revealing the large-bore barrel of a weapon, a thin line of gathering particles glowing as the charge mounts. On it's back, the cylinder-weapon is buckled and melted beyond use - Still protruding, though the skeletal frames of superstructure show beneath the cracked surface, perpetually locked in an 'activated' position.

HP: 91.3%
COBALT BOOSTER: 13%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 47.8%
METER: 46%
RIFLE BITS: 2/5

YOU HAVE CONTROL

(EXEC_HARROW is activated, but you haven't fired the charge off yet.)

Will our Dearthmark ACTUALLY detonate this time? Or will the dice curse us once more.

>>27716815

(The rules for EXEC_HARROW have been altered, actually. You can now detonate it at will.)

>>27716812
get mobile, stay relatively low, take evasive action. in the meantime, get the ARGUS system working, we might have gotten lucky and friend his cloaker but i doubt it, just look for the fast-moving patch of distortion

>>27716812
Tyrant Burst to blind the Guardian, then use Harrow on the barrel. Detonate it, then track down Mirage.

Those Reflector Bits have to go. Have Armaros take them out.

>>27716853

Testing.

We're back? We're back.

>>27716812

Eh.. we're not as mobile as we once were since we used the Scrander's charge.. Blind the Guardian once more (and try to avoid getting Armaros this time). While it's blinded, pull out the Tau and try to disable the weapon in it's head.

Do we want to blow the deathmark now encase he can remove it? Because, if he can remove it, that's a fuckload of Booster charge wasted.

>>27716912
i'll go with him, i dont wanna use harrow just yet. keep it in the jokers bag of tricks

>>27716827

It has? That's wonderful news! Fry that motherfucker.

>>27716827
Awesome, don't detonate it yet, I want to keep an eye on Mirage with it so he has a harder time doing his stealth gig.

The brilliant, blinding *flash* of your Tyrant Burst triggers - The effect isn't as startling, this time; The Guardian must've adjusted it's sensors, but the searing rays slicing through the air go wild - Slicing through the ceiling, in a cohered storm of slashing light-

You swing the Nova Cannon in line with the Manifold Guardian's skull - Even as the thing lumbers forward, one impaling leg stabbing out at Armaros; It drives through his distortion barrier, flinging him to the side as the weighty blow clubs him away-

And you wrench both triggers, the crosshairs centered on the Guardian's skull. The blurred antimatter round crosses the distance: The crested head glowing with reactive light, the coiled neck juddering...

-Before it explodes.

Not completely - But your shot shivers the black carapace to nothing, the detonation hurling shards in every direction. Rilling, with a shriek of electronic agony, the Manifold Guardian snaps away, more emitters opening up across that pitch-black surface...

>>27716909

Armaros hears you. "Targeting!" he shouts - Pellucid blue spheres shedding distorted light, the backwash of the distortion orbs making the cohered air tremble; Refractor Bits crumple beneath the gravimetric pressures, and you hear his half-choked snarl of triumph at each brittle detonation...

-You're keeping one eye out for Sylpheed, which means you see him even before he drops his stealth field. He only has one arm, but he's still game; Foot-long shearing blades, two of them, parallel to each other like fangs, snap out from his remaining limb, his form momentarily vibrating as you wheel to target him...

Your hand has to travel an inch to bring the fires of EXEC_HARROW to bear.

He has to travel thirty yards.

He still wins.

(Continued)

>>27717034

>He has to travel thirty yards.

>He still wins

...

What. Did he roll a 20?

>>27717034
shiiiiiii
>>27717061
He's sanic, remember? i would say use the booster to speed us up, but too late now

>>27717070

That's still a lot of ground to cover even for sanic. Unless he went super sanic and turned gold. All we haft to do is hit him once and collect the rings.

>>27717061
No, he's that fucking fast. Remember Inox Fang? Take all the speed of the one Joker killed, add it to the survivor, add competence.

Very surprised at how fast he adjusted to being disarmed.

Suddenly, impossibly, he's in front of you - With a sound like a miniature sonic boom. Like lightning bolts, his claws snap down-

...And shear through the Nova Cannon's stock, the blunt ingot of the weapon shrieking as the vibrating blades - Blurring so fast they're still - hack right *through* your gun, like a hot knife through butter. It nearly takes off your arm - Slicing through your thumb and forefinger in a single stroke, chewing through the armoured sheath of your right-arm Vulcan...

Even as EXEC_HARROW hits him dead-on, at point-blank range; Your left hand slamming against his armor, driving him back a step.

"What-" You hear Sylpheed hiss, his voice ragged with surprise - But it doesn't stop him from lunging at you again, his claws ripping through your crimson plate in one whirring stroke, shredding your Assault Shroud even further. Somehow, you manage to deflect it with the Sinistral...But he's *fast*, fast and vicious, as his boot cracks into your knee, hard enough to make the joint flare with sparks.

HP: 84.8%
COBALT BOOSTER: 13%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 39.4%
METER: 50%
RIFLE BITS: 2/5

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27717131
pump the rest of the booster into the afterburners on the scrander, leap back and detonate and then open up with the vulcans as he explodes

>>27717147

Scrander's dead Jim. We used it to fry him.

>>27717147

(Your Scrander's been disabled by the Tempest Bolt, unfortunately.)

>>27717156
how much of a boost does putting the booster into our legs and leaping back give our chances? a flat 13% better, or a set amount? either way, put the boost into our legs

>>27717131
Right arm's out? Hmm... oh, I know. Blow out the Sinistral, but follow him. Activate the Crisis Arm, try and aim for his hips. While the hand is nicely protected in its massive sheath, regenerate that thumb.

>>27717177
Belay that! We might need the Cobalt charge for the Guardian if offing Mirage doesn't stop it.

>>27717131

We are never going to get another chance at this. Put the remainder of our Booster into boosting us to Super Sanic 3. Switch to the Helix Gauntlet and GRAB THE LEG KICKING OUR KNEE. Fucking curl up around that leg if we haft to and hold onto the ride we suck this fucker dry.

>>27717207
13% isnt much, and not being blown up in our own harrow is not exactly fun, especially since we have no armour since we blew it up for carnifex

>>27717207

>if offing Mirage doesn't stop it

It will never be that easy. We got the fucker. Just pull a Dracula and feed him to the Nihl. I kinda want to see what new clothes we get out of him.

So, last thread somebody came up with the idea of implanting hellion a.i. into our interceptors as an upgrade. Could we do the same with the throne and virtue a.i. as well?

>>27717227
Not the Harrow mark, the Sinistral. If he tries to go invisible we blow the mark and pulp his skull.

>>27717236
We'd level up if we destroyed the Guardian, I think.

>>27717243
It's all the same AI, just with different processes available depending on the model it's inserted into.

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"Why don't you just *die-"

Sylpheed's words are accelerated, too, a barely-comprehensible blur of speech.

"-put you out of your *misery*, Joker-"

You have an advantage - He's unbalanced, with only one arm. But he makes the one he *does* have work for him - The slashing track of his claws cutting blurred sweeps through the air, as you parry with the Sinistral; Sparks flaring between the energy field and his charged blades. He's a whirlwind, pressing you relentlessly - Your feet nearly slip, as his next slash rakes under your guard.

If you were any other Player, you'd be dead - You're *reacting*, just barely managing to block the lethal stabs and thrusts aimed to impale you, to decapitate you, to kill you in a dozen different ways - And still he's taking you to pieces, one slash *at a time*-

"-like a sick *dog*-"

Your fist cannons towards him, as you bring the Crisis Arm around in a vicious hook - He twitches his head to dodge the blow, as your fist sizzles past him. The world shrinks to this narrow, point-blank battle - One blade punching through your right shoulder, severing myomer fibres...

And you smash your head into Sylpheed's, hard enough to buckle his helm, before you trigger your Sinistral to overload.

(Continued)

Rolled 16

>>27717243

They use the same ai.

A morevinteresting idea would be trying to turn individual hellions into bits.

>>27717268

If we don't it'll be close. Very close. We might share xp with Armaros.

>>27717278

Ah, the tried and true headbutt. Don't forget the reach-around Joker! Gotta be polite.

>>27717268
But the flavor text on the seraphim command module states that virtue class units can organize and coordinate lesser hellion units through their superior programming.

>>27717319
The AI is basically the Hellion's operating system. Virtue Commanders come with extra system resources and a LAN, but it's the same guiding OS, optimized.

>>27717279
Putting a Hellion core inside a bit? That would be interesting. The cores would be destroyed with the Interceptors, so we'd have to restock at the Hollow Sun after every battle given their attrition rate. Might be more efficient to copy the guiding programs to the Interceptor System though.

badfsdfsdf

(Ah, there we go.)

The blast hammers him back - He staggers back a step, and turns it into a backward leap, your uppercut cleaving away where he *was*; His remaining arm wrenching back, as his form shimmers away to nothing again...

-He doesn't know. He doesn't know that EXEC_HARROW smolders just over his heart, as he circles you - So fast! - behind you, always behind you-

Green light filters from the Crisis Arm...Schematics sketching themselves into the shape of your undamaged arm, a liminal, twilight state - Half-real, half-complete.

Somewhere, the Manifold Guardian roars. Somewhere close, Armaros's distortion orbs blister the air, hammering into something sensitive - You hear the 'whuff' of his breath as he's hammered into the ground, the groan of his form righting itself-

You barely notice.

> "Why do you want to *win* so badly, Joker?"

Sylpheed's voice comes from everywhere and nowhere at once - It's some kind of trick, because you *know* he's behind you, moving when you do.

> "There's no-one you care about...You don't have *anything* worth living for!"

You hear the shuffle of his feet against the ground - Another feint.

> "-You've been doing this *forever*, haven't you? Don't you get-"

Close now.

> "...sick of this, you miserable bastard?"
> "Why don't you give up?"
> "Why won't you just *die*?"

EXEC_HARROW burns in your field of vision - He's going to lunge, to rip into you from behind; Quick, lethal, a stab that'd impale you, long enough for him to finish his wetwork.

HP: 64.1%
COBALT BOOSTER: 6%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 22.6%
METER: 55%
RIFLE BITS: 2/5

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27717357
"Because... Because I promised them that I'd keep the red sky away. I'd forgotten... Thank you, Mirage Sylpheed. I'll make this quick."

Snap fingers. Then turn around and decapitate him with the level 2 Sinistral.

So Joker just disabled a Super-Pinger and is now battling Nanosuitninja in a fist-fight.
This is glorious. The 4chan server simply can't handle the awesome.

>>27717357
click the metaphorical big red button, leap straight forward, away from him and his high-ordinance heart

>>27717357
There is thirty plus lurkers here. Thought there was less people than that.. Neat what a pastebin post can reveal.

Blow the deathmark. Give him >>27717359

>>27717357
"You're wrong, it's not that I want to win. I'd love nothing more than to let this all end. But it's not enough to fade, I need to make damn sure all of this goes with me. If I'm gonna lose, the game will end permanently. That's why I can't die yet."

"So, you first."

[HARROWING INTENSIFIES]

>>27717357
I just cant work out why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch.

>>27717357
>COBALT BOOSTER: 6%
>>27717357
>RIFLE BITS: 2/5

We know where he is, we know where he will be, and we know where he HAS TO BE to strike us from his intended position.

What this means is that all his speed means shit if we know where to aim.

I DISTINCTLY recall asking how much it costed to boost our rifle bits, and the answer was 'as much as the meter cost'

6% cobalt....
Boost the rifle bits and impale him by surprise.

Lance his knees out with the surprise-mode penetrating/continous beam, then >>27717359
>Then turn around and decapitate him with the level 2 Sinistral.

At the very last moment - Right before his blades tear into you - Mirage Sylpheed...

-Hesitates.

That's the moment he realizes the trap.

He knows he's about to die.

He manages to say: "Jok-" as you bring your fingers together...

-And snap.

Fire roars up behind you, violet-hot, sour. The deathmark erupts, into your own personal inferno - A scorching holocaust fuelled by Mirage Sylpheed's own Essence. He's still invisible, for what it's worth: His stealth field illuminated by the crackling, clinging flames, as he trashes in wailing agony. Codebursts target the Essence core, not just the Player armour - You imagine that what he's feeling is very much like being in hell.

Sylpheed is screaming, as the fire eats away at him - An attenuated ball of flame, almost too bright to look at. The voice coming over the speakers no longer seems human.

You wheel around, the brittle *hiss-snap* of the Sinistral field engaging - Bright and actinic - echoing over your blurred sensors. You drive forward, the sizzling wedge of the hard-light barrier's edge as razor-sharp as only a phase field can be-

...And with one swing, you cut him in half. It's not quite a decapitation - It's more total than that. The Sinistral begins at the left, cleaving down and across; Shearing through him, carving down, a deep gash that finds the seam of weakness in his ruptured armour, and hacks *into* it, with the brutal finality of an executioner's axe.

(Continued)

>>27717357
We still under the effects of the Carnifex's speed boosts?

Split second dodge while raising Crisis Arm for a CROSS COUNTER.
Maybe we can push our Shroud to do one last afterimage?

>>27717474
Nuts, even Red Joker's too fast for me.

>>27717457

Green motes of Essence boil out from the cut - But then you hear something that slices into your mind, like a long, drawn-out death wail; The Hyades mark boiling away, actually *lifting* off from him - It quivers, thrashing like a live thing, struggling to cling fast and cohere...Except it no longer has a host, as what remains of Mirage Sylpheed tumbles downwards in two ragged halves, violet flames licking at the edges-

..And then it's gone.

Behind you, you hear a *crash* - The sound of metal pushed beyond tolerance, crushing inwards on itself - pellucid blue light playing across your armour, as something slams violently to the ground.

When you turn, you see the Manifold Guardian...Or what's *left* of it, really - buckled and twisted onto itself, crushed and folded and spindled - like a toy in the hands of a cruel child. Struts and plates have buckled away from the vague scorpion shape...The distortion glow playing around it, Armaros's arms spread - Then lowering, his wing binders closing at last, the fitful light of his halo dying away as motes of Essence circle him like a swarm of tame fireflies.

"That's done, then," Armaros rasps - He notices your attention, turning to face off against you. He's looked better - There's clear battle damage, the lens of his helmet sparking fitfully, his broad frame displaying the pockmarks of large-gauge shells and the scorch of energy weapons...His left arm doesn't look too hot, either, skeletal structure visible beneath the buckled plate.

"...*And* you took care of that one too, I see," he adds - His posture wary, but not unfriendly. "Good job, Joker."

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27717531
>The Hyades mark boiling away, actually *lifting* off from him - It quivers,

Quick! use CONSUME on it. Follow it to the source

also, can we divert some of our incoming essence to the nihl sphere - its underpowed, needs a recharge, is directly connected to us after all - and we have that 'efficiently processes essence' thing so there should be more to go around.

>>27717531
>[ ] Free
"I'm here for the piece of phantom edge. Don't suppose you have it?"

>>27717531
"Don't worry, I've got no beef with you. I just killed the guy I needed to kill."

"But I would like to know more about what the hell you're doing here. I'd like to think me and Argent Prominence are at least on the same side."

>>27717531
so, that went... a little more difficult than expected. so whats your story, champ? why were you creating armoured ctholian horrors, why did they go mad, and i like your halo

>>27717546
>"But I would like to know more about what the hell you're doing here. I'd like to think me and Argent Prominence are at least on the same side."

Yeeah. This before phantom edge. Remember, this is why we're here, isn't it?

Cybele said someone here had it, right?

its monstrous nature is probably at the heart of the experiments going on here.

Anyway:

[Free]: Re-investigate the manifold tower. See what exactly happened to it, now that the guardian is beaten.

Claim it if we can?
May give us leverage to try to find out just WTF is going on here.

>>27717531
Check if the Nihil Sphere can eat off any ambient Essence in the air. Every little bit counts.

Check up on Armaros, see what's really here for.

Make a mental note to talk with Argent about this. This is the second time (third time if you count Bardiel) one of his creations almost killed us.

Lastly, log out?

>>27717531


Same to you. And, that, friend was one of the players allied to a hyades. Glad e we didn't come to blows. Even I'd be hard pressed to counter your moves.

How'd you enjoy the toy? Shame it was destroyed like that. Figured it would have been capable of taking more of a beating.

>>27717575

Hell, power it up with their manifold tower.

Its made to collect/charge/release/manipulate essence, right?

Fuggen plug-and-play that shit.

>>27717575
>Lastly, log out?

Veto'd. We have shit to do while we're here.

>>27717593
Hrn, yeah, scratch that logout command.

On the other hand...

>plug Nihil Sphere into Manifold Tower
>Tower becomes a giant focus
> everything and everyone within a 2km radius is drained of its Essence, including us and Armaros

>>27717531
"Same to you.

"It's funny. For a little while I actually thought that Argent really was trying to be better than the rest of us. But this is why you operate in cells isn't it? Your group keeps the objectionable projects a secret, and if they mess up, if their robot Correctors or whatever kill everyone involved, Argent can blame it on the Smilers or another scapegoat. How extraordinarily *practical*."

>>27717556
>>27717545
Whut? That was Ixion. We had a choice between the Tower and the Fatal Abyss piece and we picked the Tower.

>>27717593
>Its made to collect/charge/release/manipulate essence, right?

we DID have some hecate-related-actions/experiences while using the nihl sphere last thread....

it was while trying to find the link to her body, i think.

If the sphere can find it, and manifold towers can open gateways. then hell, yeah, its worth a shot to scan for her.

Also, argent will owe us *yet again* for actually opening up access to the tower.

Judging by defeating the guardian, and how we used the first one at any rate.

(if this goes through, bewarned the board is shiting itself again)

File: 1381661138470.jpg-(290 KB, 1200x1474, jokerpsyche.jpg)

290 KB JPG

>>27717545

Your Helix Gauntlet opens up, the shutters sliding away to reveal the dull orb of the Nihl Sphere - Swirling motes of Essence drawn to the orb, like iron filing to a magnet, kindling the violet glow within it. Armaros doesn't respond - Or at least, there's no change to his already tense position, hunkered down like a broad-shouldered linebacker.

> Quick! use CONSUME on it.

Your talons snap out - Reaching out for the glowing symbol, the neon butterfly as it shreds away to nothing. There's only a trace of power, but you glimpse the faintest ghost-images, phantom sensations, sense-memories dissipated as quickly as they come.

There's a girl - She's beautiful, a goddess with butterfly wings, her diaphonous gown like a shimmering mist around her lissome form. A garden-

...And then, your vision clears.

>>27717545

"Never heard of it," Armaros says, shortly - Maybe too sharply. It's rather vocal as a dismissal, however.

>>27717546

He relaxes, slightly - His bulky frame ratcheting back into position, the subliminal hum of his fusion core dying down to a sullen murmur. That's not to say he's entirely at ease in your presence; He's still viewing you with - You imagine - a combination of reserve and wariness...

-But at least he's not aiming weapons at you.

>>27717552
> "But I would like to know more about what the hell you're doing here.

"That's classifi-" Armaros begins.

He stops, mid-sentence. He looks around, at the armored shells of the Pretas - The hulking wreck of the Manifold Guardian - the charred remnants of Mirage Sylpheed, succumbing to entropy and EXEC_HARROW'S flames. He decides, apparently, that honesty is the best policy.

He sighs, and the sigh comes out in a blurt of sound.

"Mission Log - #458-D. Search and Denial - Locate mission-critical asset, and deploy Pretas to disable/retrieve."

(Continued)

>>27717556

You take a step towards the Manifold Tower, and Armaros blocks your way. Not really - He's nowhere close - but something in his stance makes it clear he's not going to let you get close.

"...Stay away from it," he says, his voice firming. "-That thing might still be live. We can't risk another activation."

>>27717616

> Your group keeps the objectionable projects a secret, and if they mess up, if their robot Correctors or whatever kill everyone involved, Argent can blame it on the Smilers or another scapegoat. How extraordinarily *practical*.

Armaros stiffens - It's clear that he's taken it as an insult - but common sense triumphs.

"It's...not like that," he answers, reluctantly, grudgingly, as if every secret surrendered has to be squeezed out of him. "We *volunteered*. To do the right thing - To do the *only* thing. This way...It's *better*. For everyone."

He draws himself up, to his full height. "They've been field-tested...before," Armaros allows. "-It's a need-to-know basis, and not *all* truths are palatable, Joker." His flickering gaze settles squarely at you.

"Not *everyone* is reliable. 'To each according to his capacity...Or so it goes.'"

His battered helmet turns, with a slight grind of servoes.

"...You're the one who activated the other Tower, aren't you? Do you have any idea what they are?"

[ ] "Do you always talk like that?"
[ ] "No, not really."
[ ] "That's not an answer."
[ ] "Exactly what do you think you're doing?"
[ ] "Oh, you're going to *stop* me? Really?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27717586

(My apologies, I missed that one. I'll include it in the next post.)

>>27717703
Thats no answer, but you seem unwilling to budge. i'll take it up with argent. i wasn't comdemning, but it was both curious, and dangerous. and as for the others, i have no idea. if it becomes a problem, it ceases to be soon afterwards

>>27717703
>[ ] Free
"I've got a few theories, ranging from a way to bridge the Red to the Real, to a gigantic energy cannon aimed at the sky."
"All of them not so nice."

>>27717627
>we DID have some hecate-related-actions/experiences
That was Cybele actually, two threads ago. The last Hecate experience was Episode 45, unless you're counting finding her body.

>>27717703
"You know what's funny? The last Smiler I talked to said almost exactly the same thing about doing the right thing, the *only* thing. And this was while planting charges to reach the other Manifold Tower.

"And no, I have no idea what the Towers are because people tend to run screaming when they see this." [burn Joker Mark into wall]

>>27717703
>"...You're the one who activated the other Tower, aren't you? Do you have any idea what they are?"

"People are WAY too secretive about how the red world works, as well as too busy trying to shoot the armor off of me to chat."
Followed by >>27717731

>>27717725
>>27717731
>>27717794

> "And no, I have no idea what the Towers are because people tend to run screaming when they see this." [burn Joker Mark into wall]

The violet flames hiss from your outstretched hand - Searing into the wall, leaving a satisfying scorch-mark; Your symbol, stark and smoldering, grinning out from the tiled surface.

Armaros turns his head, with a rasp - He looks, but he doesn't say anything.

>>27717825

"I thought so," he mutters, almost to himself.

> "I've got a few theories, ranging from a way to bridge the Red to the Real, to a gigantic energy cannon aimed at the sky."

He snorts, with the *clunk* of internal mechanisms cycling.

"Oh, it's more than that," Armaros answers. "These things - These towers - They're made to *rend* the barrier between the Red and the real world." His head tilts back. "When they're activated, they don't just weaken it; They tear right *through* it."

His gaze settles on the rising column at his back. "...They're part of a network, you know. There's dozens - Maybe hundreds - of them scattered underground, just waiting to be triggered. Thing is, they're supposed to activate all at once..."

His voice trails off, as if the scale of the apocalypse leaves him at a loss for words.

"-Somehow, you managed to trigger one. Good show."

A pause.

"Better not do it again."

(Continued)

>27717849

"So - That's why I'm here. Find the Tower, disable it. That's the job."

Armaros hesitates. "...This one has gone balls-up, though. It's a...fucking shambles. What a bloody mess." he growls, as if chewing on his words. He kicks at the fallen form of a Pretas, hard enough to make it shift.

"-Argent Prominence is going to be furious."

[ ] "So what happens now?"
[ ] "-How *many* towers have you disabled?"
[ ] "A trigger? What would that be?"
[ ] "You don't seem to be very good at it."
[ ] "It's not actually my fault, you know. Mirage did that."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27717869
[x] "It's not actually my fault, you know. Mirage did that."

"And to be fair, I didn't even know what the hell the towers did that first time."

>>27717794
>he last Hecate experience was Episode 45, unless you're counting finding her body.

No, i'm referring to
>A strange, shimmery twitchness spreads across your visual field, like water spilled across the floor. Like the ground racing up towards you - Knocked out of the here-and-now, and into...Into-
>You're not sure what you're seeing. Just shapes and silhouettes, stuck in shades of blue and black - Crawling around the very edge of perception. You can taste, dimly, the cloudy flavours of ruin in your mouth; Feel the small, broken body as your smaller hand quests out in front of you-
>There's grit and dust in the air, and it makes your eyes water - Makes your lungs sting. You can feel a sickening warmth dappling your side, a growing sleepy weakness that engulfs everything...
>And above it, the cold, clear orb of the moon.
>So full, so silver-

as a direct response for using/concentrating on the sphere to find a link to her body<->playerstate.
This was in episode 62, and remember we're still in the same place physically - we haven't left her side at the coma ward.

What i'm getting at is there WAS A LINK the sphere picked up on even if it was faint or cut off.

So investigate further, along the same lines, with the tower's help!

(i don't give a shit about relationship stuff either way, but we owe it to her to try to find her)

>>27717869
[x] "A trigger? What would that be?"
[x] "-How *many* towers have you disabled?"

"Is there any indication of a failsafe or deadman's switch in either the code or the towers themselves? If you're going to inadvertently cause this apocalypse, let me know ahead of time so I can skip town."

>>27717849
>They're made to *rend* the barrier between the Red and the real world
I think we found our purpose in life.
Hecate might revive if her real body goes into the Red World.
And Cybele will be overjoyed to be able to enter the real world on occasion.
Also, Mio won't feel weird anymore.
And we can murder anyone who threatens us or our people.
This is a win:win:win situation if we pull it off.

>>27717869
[X] "-How *many* towers have you disabled?"
[X] "A trigger? What would that be?"

Check the Guardian; if it's still around we might be able to feed the last of its charge to the Sphere like we did its little brother.

"So all that needs to happen is the Tower needs to come down? How fast can you run?" Start charging the Fusion Annihilator.

>>27717892
That was Cybele's recollection I thought. We were connected to her at the time. We sure as hell weren't in any shape to be asking questions.

>>27717902
Fuck you no.

>>27717902
>I think we found our purpose in life.

Well.

This brings correctors with it, tho.

So If we wanna do that.....
well, we hit the corrector hive at the center of the world, sic the hollow sun on it, eliminate misfortune, unluck, and chaos in the world - and then merge the two worlds to make the world a nicer place.

Also, uh, when we fired off the manifold towers, there was screaming in the distance.

I think a corretor or two may have slipped through in the *real*.

We should get some purple crystals and go hunting for it in meatspace. I bet its worth SO much more xp in the real, since its doesn't have to be filtered through the medium of the red world.

>>27717933
>That was Cybele's recollection I thought. We were connected to her at the time. We sure as hell weren't in any shape to be asking questions.

It was something we experienced, yes, but there wasn't any talking or hint of telepathy going on.

In any case, worth following up on.

>>27717586

> How'd you enjoy the toy? Shame it was destroyed like that. Figured it would have been capable of taking more of a beating.

Armaros shrugs. "Guns," he says, spined shoulders rising - It's a non-commital sound. You can't tell if he regrets it's destruction, or he's dismissing it.

>>27717878

"You'll have to take it up with the boss," he says, by way of answer. Clearly, that's not his department.

>>27717893

> [x] "A trigger? What would that be?"

"A song. A gesture. A Player with enough access. How would I know?"

There's a trace of blunt frustration in Amaros's voice, as he shakes his head. "...Or," he adds, in a bass rumble - "...The Red Joker's presence."

...He's quicker on the uptake that you thought.

> [x] "-How *many* towers have you disabled?"

Another hesitation.

"-Three," Amaros says, finally. You can't tell if he's lying, or not.

> "So all that needs to happen is the Tower needs to come down? How fast can you run?" Start charging the Fusion Annihilator.

"What-"

Amaros makes as if to step in your way...Then he hesitates, uncertain.

"...Wait," he says. "We don't know wha-"

The Fusion Annhilator hums, pulsing as the chambers cycle. One charge. Two.

"Joker, if you *fire* that-!"

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27717933
>Check the Guardian; if it's still around we might be able to feed the last of its charge to the Sphere like we did its little brother.
Time for new clothes.

>Start charging the Fusion Annihilator.
Can we collect meter by kicking stuff?
We could use our WMD. We haven't done so in way too long.
I'm for causing the apocalypse, but obliterating a tower fully would be worth it.

>>27717947
>"Joker, if you *fire* that-!"
>[ ] Free

Pause the charge and hold it, since we can do that now.

Tilt our head, invite him to go on. Don't AIM it anywhere, just kind of act like he interrupted us.

>>27717960
If he tells us about possible short-circuits and random effects, go with >>27717956.
It can't cause havoc if it literally doesn't exist anymore.

>>27717947
"You're right, we don't know what will happen. Call it science." Melt that blast door he said would take so much time to open with fusion weapons.

"See you around, Armaros. Tell Argent I showed up, that should absolve you of any guilt. After all, Jokers are wild."

>>27717960
Heh.

>>27717947
>"Joker, if you *fire* that-!"
>>27717960

>>27717960
with this, some words to go with it

"Well. I saw you doing stuff with the control panel earlier. "
"Didn't think you would want to show me how the shutdown commands work..... "

"But if we're both here, maybe that's a better way...."

>>27717956
>>Check the Guardian
Hell, maybe we can snag a shielding sphere for our booster, like the armory guardian had.

In any case, the angle i want to play is.... getting him to show us the access panel, and since the tower is wrecked/damaged.....
well, poke around and see what kind of files and messages are in it.

>>27717981
Wait a second. Could we have the Nihl Sphere consume the Tower? Because that would be even better. (Or backfire even worse)

>>27717998
This sounds as awesome as the WMD idea.
Anyway, we need to escalate towards a climax of HOLYSHIT in how we deal with the tower after this fight.

>>27717947
"When. Fire in the hole."

>>27717960
We should blow the thing up anyway.
Causing mass destruction when someone tells us not to seems to always trigger a Kotone Event.

Can we cobalt boost the Quantum Singularity Cannon?

>>27717998

Well, the tower has to be powered by *something*.

I figure that..... either we loot it, feed it to the sphere, or link it to the hollow sun to feed it more energy.

Either way, we should NOT neglect this chance to poke around the manifold tower.

Its endgame/worldcycle/apocalypsescenario content.
Aaaand we want to figure out what the hell Armaros was doing while we were here.

Armaros was here the entire time, hacking the thing to do *something*, while cloaked and right from under the nose of our friend here.
Find out what BEFORE blowing it up!

>>27718020
Veto'd.

No teamkilling argent's men just yet.

Also, if we decide to actually BLOW the thing up using the quantum singularity cannon to *eliminate* it is probably best since it doesn't leave anything behind - even essence.

>>27718033
>Armaros was here the entire time, hacking the thing to do *something*, while cloaked and right from under the nose of our friend here.
>Find out what BEFORE blowing it up!

"... If I fire it, we won't find out why armaros was here in the first place. Come on, you know how these things work, lets find out what that dipshit was doing to sabotage you."

>>27718033
Ok, is everyone in favor of doing *something* with the tower?

>>27718045

(Gentlemen: Just to check - Are you for...
a) Blasting the tower.
b) Blasting the door.
c) Holding off?)

>>27718052
>b) Blasting the door.

Remind us - where did the door lead?

We got locked inside when the alarms triggered, right?

in either case, voting against A in favor of exploration, and some combination of C+B to open up areas of the tower to investigate.

Its dumb/shortsighted to leave or wreck it now.

>>27718052
b) Preferrably with Quantum Singularity
We lower our Fusion Annihilator and tell him "you are right". Then we tell him to walk with us a bit, blast the door and take our big gun once we are at safe range.

>>27718043
This IS Armaros. He's Argent's guy. Mirage was the asshole who was cloaked. He was probably going to let Armaros open up the tower for shutdown, then kill Armaros and take the Pretas and the Tower for himself.

>>27718052
Holding off. Though devouring the Tower would be amusing.

>>27718066
Out.

>>27718076
>This IS Armaros. He's Argent's guy. Mirage was the asshole who was cloaked. He was probably going to let Armaros open up the tower for shutdown, then kill Armaros and take the Pretas and the Tower for himself.

Right.

Pretend I said 'mirage' in those above plans where appropriate.

IE investigate WTF he and his hyades were doing causing trouble here - starting fights, hacking, etc.
he -knew- we were coming also and was here the entire time. i wonder if he saw his own demise.

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>>27718076
Er, I mean the door leads out. Probably will force a log off or something similar.

>>27718071
>Blast a door with Quantum Singularity Cannon.
Pic related.

>>27717956

The Guardian, unfortunately, has been entirely wrecked - So twisted and crushed it's been folded into scrap. There's a low hiss as it begins to decay; The inherent entropy of the Red World eating away at it, a little at a time, the Essence charge exhausted.

...So much for that, then.

>>27717960
>>27717994
>>27717972

The Fusion Annhilator's charge mounts - Four, then five.

"*Anything* could happen," Armaros rasps, something close to panic in his voice. "-When the Spire was destroyed, we had new Hives *all* over the city. If that thing's destroyed - There might be a chain reaction. They might *all* turn on-"

He hesitates, but honesty seems to be a weakness of his.

"-Or shut off." It's clear that he'd really rather have you *not* fire. He hastens to add - "We don't know *what* could happen."

Armaros speaks quickly, the sound of a man with little time. To his credit, he doesn't gabble...Though the situation's enough to erode anyone's nerves.

"Look, leave it the way it is - And I'll call in it. *Another* squad, to make sure it's disabled...We *don't know what could happen.*"

His words hang in the air, warring with the rising hum of the Fusion Annhilator - The charging rings rotating, as you level it at the tower's superstructure.

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>27718106
>Pic related.
I accidentally chose the wrong letter.
It's partially right - We blast the door with the Annihilator and then wreck the tower with the cannon. So we do both and use the cannon.

>>27718116
"Would it be okay to entirely remove it from existence?"

>>27718116
We don't have enough meter to do it, but swapping to the Quantum Singularity Cannon to do the job instead would be amazing.

Since we probably can't, use the Annihilator on the door, and use the Sphere to gorge on the Tower's spark, and whatever else it can reach in the Tower network.

>>27718116

I vote that we blast the door, for now. That's probably the best option. He seems serious about not tampering with the tower.

>>27718052

Aww, the armoury guardian doesn't have anything? Damn, he gorged himself on all that sweet essence. Fine, let's just shoot the door then.

>>27718122

Why the hell are you so fixated on blowing the tower up?

Lots of good ideas up above to do before we leave..

>>27718146
>Since we probably can't, use the Annihilator on the door, and use the Sphere to gorge on the Tower's spark, and whatever else it can reach in the Tower network.
This seems like a good plan to start with - we can tailor it on the fly depending on what we find.

>>27718116
>[ ] Free
*stop charging, hold fusion charges. Consider what he's saying. "I suppose you have a point. Still, I want out, so I'm going through that door. Coming? "
*beam-mode fusion to cut through the door*

>>27718177
>Why the hell are you so fixated on blowing the tower up?
Because I haven't been able to blow shit up in quite a while.
Also, I'd love to see how the dude reacts.

Other than that, I fully agree with Watashi's course of action.

>>27718192
>Also, I'd love to see how the dude reacts.

Okay, that actually kind of agrees with the motivation i was going for.
Which was 'red joker violence-teasing the truth out of him' just to mess with him.

Like, everyone is always surprised we're pretty easy to talk to, when we have this GIANT REPUTATION as the scariest red-world bogeymurderer.

>>27718146
>>27718154
>>27718169
>>27718177

You swing around, and *fire*.

The Fusion Annhilator shudders, in your grasp - The barrel cycling into final alignment - motes of light shimmering in space...Before the pure white light of annhilation spews forth, a shaft of cohered radiance that sears through the air in an expanding line of destruction.

The light is, if anything *more* brilliant than the flare of the Tyrant Burst: You can only, dimly, make out the wrist-thick beam, as it blasts forth - Your magnetic clamps deploying, as the raw power pours out of you-

It hits the far wall, and the door. For a moment - Just an instant - the barrier *holds*...holds...*holds*-

-Gives.

You don't see the *effect*, as the corona of destruction atomizes all matter before you - You are, dimly, aware of the tiles giving way, dissolving in the backwash of power - Of Armaros's muffled yell, as he shields himself from the radiance...

-And then the world begins to disintegrate, around you. You see motes of substance rise from your armour, like smoke; The reality of the Red dissolving, dissipating little by little, giving way beneath the sheer destructive energy chewing into it, *through* it...

The light grows. It *swells*, like a living, hungry thing - Filling your world, engulfing your vision, even as you disintegrate before it. It's a race, to see which one wins first; The wave of destruction, or your fading form-
.
.
.
.
Oblivion.

(Continued)

>>27718265

We broke it

Rolled 15

>>27718265

Aw sheeeet

>>27718265

-You wake up. Beneath you, the floor is cold, hard - The steady drip-drip-drip of meltwater echoing in your ears. Every muscle aches, as you get your feet under you...Managing to get to your knees, before a wave of vertigo assaults you. You're in...

For a moment, nothing makes sense. You can't tell *where* you're at, but there's a foul smell - A stench that makes your gorge rise, that sends a wave of nausea coiling through your guts. It's choking, sickly-sweet in it's freshness - The smell of char, of *burning*, coming to you from somewhere *close* by-

-It's dark.

Dark, with only a faint, fitful light - A bare bulb - flickering overhead. You hack and cough, tasting something vile, something awful, at the back of your throat - The curved walls of the passage momentarily confusing you, as you struggle to make out which world you're in...

You smell...Ozone. Ash. Char.

Your questing fingers encounter a gritty black residue. Your coat is smeared with it, the powdery dust of a recently-quenched fire almost making you choke. There's smoke in the air...

You're in the Old City: The City *underneath*. Behind you, a flight of stairs, the hard edge jabbing into the small of your back. And before you-

Your eyes finally focus, and the nausea returns again.

Before you, wisps of smoke still rising from the surface - the floor marked with a circle of char - a huddled form curls upon itself, charred black, then shrunken white, from the intense heat. Great arcs of ash coat the ground, as you struggle to your feet-

As whatever remains of Mirage Sylpheed continues to burn from within.

From where you stand, the scorched blackness - The looping arcs seared into the wall, as if melted into place by a blowtorch - almost resembles a butterfly's wings.

JOKER QUEST

EPISODE 64

TO BE CONTINUED

>>27718365

(Gentlemen: My apologies for the delay. We've had some technical problems this round - Which affected the pace a bit, alas.

You've been a wonderful audience, and I appreciate you putting up with the delay. I'd love to continue - But this looks like a natural end-point, and I'm exhausted.

As always: Good night, and god bless - And I hope to see you again, soon.)

File: 1381667802979.jpg-(162 KB, 990x646, j5HDZ.jpg)

162 KB JPG

>>27718365
Bugger me
>>27718376
Thanks again for running.

>>27718376
Question: Did we fail to receive Essence from Mirage due to blowing the deathmark? Or did I just miss the part where Joker gained experience?

>>27718401

(Yes, you got Essence from Mirage.)

>>27718376

Thanks for the gam!

Question - are we still transformed?

Also, a request - you've been skipping time when we resume, lately. I want to know what changes, if any, our red world actions have on the coma ward we're in - you hinted that ./` bad things ./` did due to feelings, but I'd like a chance to see them first hand when we finally exit the red world.

>>27718449

> Question - are we still transformed?

(No.)

> I want to know what changes, if any, our red world actions have on the coma ward we're in - you hinted that ./` bad things ./` did due to feelings, but I'd like a chance to see them first hand when we finally exit the red world.

(I'll keep that in mind. I'll state, though, that the nature of the Red World is such that you have a tendency to 'wake up' later in our own life - Effectively losing time - and later piecing together the events of what happened.)

>>27718430
Ah, good. See you next time.

Damn, came late.
Oh well, after having read through the entirety of Joker Quest over the past few days I've got to say, bloody beautiful work OP, this quest is amazing, both in writing style and the amount of freedom given to us. Also, bloody well done thus far to Watashiwa, and all the lurking anons that are making this great.

Would it be a good tradeoff for the XP/Essence we got from Mirage if we turned his soul into clothes back at the Hollow Sun?

I mean, a ECM suite or simply a stealth camo upgrade for the Assault Shroud would work wonders against anyone trying to shank us at any range.
Not to mention the long range + stealth = initiative bonus we can get...

Rolled 16

>>27718558

It might be that or speed.

But good point. His equipment should be of a high standard.

For the next upgrade though, should we attempt one more essence reducing upgrade?

>>27718558
>stealthed sniper Joker
Woah.
Too bad that we rarely get the chance to fight at such ranges.

>>27718573
>For the next upgrade though, should we attempt one more essence reducing upgrade?
I really don't know.
On the one hand, I want to FINALLY get another tangible upgrade. More meter might be awesome, for example.
On the other hand, another essence upgrade would be the smarter long-term choice... As long as we get the chance to upgrade more often.
We don't know how much essence we will get in total and it takes time for the essence upgrades to pay off.

>>27718573
Speed, lots of guns, multilock capability, high speed flight, regeneration, attack drones...

Forget about the Sinanju or the Sazabi, it's like we're turning into the Freedom Gundam.

A red Freedom Gundam laced with DG Cells.
With a murderboogeyman Kira Yamato in the cockpit.

>>27718558
>Would it be a good tradeoff for the XP/Essence we got from Mirage if we turned his soul into clothes back at the Hollow Sun?

We run into problems where stuff is mutually exclusive in terms of options.

What we really want for stealth is the Sotto Vocca artifact, and that just takes time to accumulate charge to manufacture.

What we really want to do is invest in a system that lets us siphon the hollow sun's essence into us.

>>27718573
>For the next upgrade though, should we attempt one more essence reducing upgrade?
In for a penny, in for a pound. fast-processing essence is a property of the joker armor, i want to see what happens when we get it to 5. That would be a 100% discount in leveling xp, since its 20% per level.

That makes it worth it imho - delayed powerup, gambling we'll make it that far.

>>27718631

It's really more like the Sazabi, though. We even have the monoeye!

>>27718620
>On the one hand, I want to FINALLY get another tangible upgrade. More meter might be awesome, for example.

Things we want:

More Essence, for 100% discount reasons
Tier 5 weapons, which we know exist but not how to unlock (either more Meter, like it used to be, or completing our arsenal because our tier 4 weapon uses bits from everythign to assemble itself and its reasonable a tier 5 weapon would build on that)
Lucifer Bits, because our rifle bits are kinda lame these days.
Carnifex upgrade - its our go-to oh shit button and making it better seems nice.
Defense/Guard ability - new abilities are always welcome

Am I missing anything?

>>27718655
>That makes it worth it imho - delayed powerup, gambling we'll make it that far.
The question is how strong the other Hyades fuckers (...is this literal?) are. This one almost murdered us and only lost because we had ways to specifically offset his strengths.
But first we need to aquire a nice hat.

>>27718631
We are Iron Man operated by Spiderman with Deadpool's attitude towards combat.

>>27718620

Thing is i'd like to ask JokerOP how far along in the game we are.

If we're not going to be able to make use of the essence reducing much, we really should be bothering with it and instead get tangible upgrades.

>>27718677

I don't think it's physically possible to do anything with the hyades girls. Remember, the armour gets in the way.

If they could actually have sex, things would be so much simpler. The girls seem to be anatomically correct, anyway. At least I hope so , for Hecate's sake.

>>27718671
>Lucifer Bits
But isn't that a Hollow Sun artifact and unrelated to our tech tree?

I'm in favor of Defense upgrades, because it would be entirely novel for us. Maybe we'll get the ability to remove knockback or something.
And Carnifex is definitely something that needs to be upgraded.
Our arsenal seems to still be adequate, except maybe for the fact that we need Kalamari guns when we meet the Hyades Kalamari.
A Meter upgrade would really helps towards Fusion Annihilator and missile spam, as it's currently our only real limiter for murderfuck firepower.

>>27718719
>>Lucifer Bits
>But isn't that a Hollow Sun artifact and unrelated to our tech tree?

THere was an idea for some hollow-sun inspired upgrade, but we've also had the option to upgrade our rifle bits to level three in the past, and not taken it.

Either way, we NEED confirmation on whether or not the hollow sun uses our upgrade tree:
The last time we leveled, we had a choice to unlock a Primary Ranged weapon (we chose tier 2.5)
And in the hollow sun we had a choice to unlock the Immolator Pistol.

What's not clear is whether they are one and the same.

If they are, then.... leveling up what we can via the Sun is absolutely what we should do, while at the same time saving our class-dependent level up choice for things we can't get from the hollow sun

>>27718898
>Either way, we NEED confirmation on whether or not the hollow sun uses our upgrade tree:
I don't think so.
Immolator Pistol doesn't sound like a Joker-specific weapon. Our weapons are all integrated into our armor.
And Lucifer Bits are pretty explicitly foreign to our armor's characteristics. They are basically mods with non-standard design.

>>27718941

I thought that those items were the Relics of the Hollow Sun. I wish they were labelled, though.

>>27719060

Yeah, I have no idea what the Skyshaper or the Sotto Voca does. Does anyone else wish that there were 'special techniques', too? We've got a lot of loot, but no special skills.

>>27719144
>We've got a lot of loot, but no special skills.
We can fly, ram people, electrocute people, activate bullet time, eat souls, make hats out of souls, regenerate by eating souls, regenerate, blind, mark and explode, disable equipment, steal elemental aspects, punch, slice, knock back, snipe, annihilate, cast illusion, use full defense once, amplify any single physical movement, invade the automatch system, activate most devices and cause unlikely scenarios of collateral damage. We are also a suave motherfucker and tend to mark our territory.
I'd say we have plenty of special skills. And that's without the less special abilities, like our shotgun, missiles, mine drops, suppressive vulcan fire, single-shot fuckyou base weapon, chestblaster and the ability to amplify most weapons with secondary effects like napalm missiles and homing mine drops.

...This post made me realize that we have more abilities than we know to use. Did we ever cobalt boost our body, for example?

>>27719259
Remember that time when we surrendered the Scrander and the Shroud to Argent? That time where we chose to jump into a Corrector hive that housed a enormous Corrector Worm and barely slew it?

Besides copious amounts of our pilebunkershield and help from Cypher, we pretty much pushed the limits of our body with the Booster just by surviving and jumping from cracked platform to cracked platform.

It's an auxiliary adrenaline gland that works on almost anything we're carrying.

>>27715544

OP pic is Rex Cavalier from Hellsinker.

File: 1381676178328.png-(2.15 MB, 850x2578, hecatequestionmark.png)

2.15 MB PNG

>>27719628

What does that mean? I don't get the reference.

By the by, does anyone have an image for what Tsukimi looks like? That is, girl-that's-probably-hecate. We know that she's pale, older than us, and has long black hair.

So something like this?

>>27719628
And the machine that we fought was likely inspired by this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qz3V7aBTHg

>>27719692
So lazy! But here is your vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlYXbOvHBb4

>>27719692

I don't know if she is, but I approve 100%.

>>27719765
For a moment I thought she was Ume from Ben-To.
A character that made me drop a show that I actually enjoyed.

But she's actually one of the girls from Kämpfer.
The show about the densest man in the world becoming a woman and having a female harem. He instead fights for his true love, the lesbian rapist girl who hates his male form and tried to murder his harem. And then he married himself and had children.

>>27719908

Sounds utterly surreal.

>>27715544
I can't tell what I'm looking at here

Is it various bake wear that has melded together and formed an ur-mind talking into two old fashioned trashcans with the lids cracked open?

>>27720016
I'm not even sure if it's a parody.
It's really retarded, but played fully straight. I enjoy it because I'm of the "this isn't meant to be taken seriously" crowd.
Unfortunately, there's fanservice without full exposure. I hate that kind of teasing.

>>27719692
She looks like Hecate. Just paler, scarred and malnourished.