Dark Reign - Insurrection: Chapter 3 - Nexus of Chaos

[Aidan]

Grenadine stepped up to the door, alchemical light flaring from her hands as she created a large hole in the blast doors, revealing a gap some ten feet across between their section of the airship and their target - another set of blast doors. Kapp stepped up, unleashing a twisting ball of frozen air across the gap and directly into the center of his target, coating the steel in rimefrost. Yuki, with far less theatricality but with equal effectiveness, cast tendrils of frozen energy into the door immediately after Kapp, coating the steel in ice, fog spilling out into the air between the two ships.

[Uberwulf X]

As soon as Grenadine was able to give them a sliver of a path, Metzli's shadowy influence spread to the other side of the door, her hands slamming downward to give pause to anybody that was unlucky enough to be on the other side, and thus make them watch as the team infiltrated. She remained to the side and rear, not wanting to get anywhere near the firepower her brother was about to throw at that room.

The aforementioned firepower came from Damien who braced his wrist. His eyes only glanced at the bracelet he was wearing, before his focus went back on the target, the door the others had begun to pry open. After holding the energy just enough to get a good charge through the others' efforts, Damien snapped open wide his hand, releasing the red ball towards the portal to finish the job.

[Resonance]

Reson was the first to bolt towards the opening, having crouched down like an olympic runner to get a powerful start. She sailed across the gap, landing with a slide, ready to throw Blades if her friends needed cover.

Mei followed swiftly after Res, giving herself an extra 'oomph' with a thrust from her Solid Shadow to propel her further. She landed and righted herself, ready to catch the others.

[Kokinyu]

Kapp whooped and hollared, punching the air as the blast door was torn asunder. "Oh hell yeah, oh he- Oh hey! Watch the gap!" He ducked low and leapt through one side of the torn opening and into the other, following Mei.

Grenadine caught her breath for a moment or two. Or so it seemed. Eyes closed, she nursed the prosthetic hand with knitted brows and mentally pushed against the noise in her mind. The alchemy, the magecraft, it was taking its toll and she was thankful for the narrow column.

It meant she could take her time and fall back to the rear. At least, until Damien inevitably told her to get her ass into gear. She would be among the last of those to flit through.

[Aidan]

Damien's fireball slammed into the frozen blast doors and blew a hole inward amidst an explosion of shrieking metal shrapnel. Metzli had difficulty using shadows to sense what might have been on the other side, given the gap of daylight separating the two ships, but the shrapnel explosion was surely a surprise...

[Kyt]

Yuki flinched at the explosion, but hurried after the otheres as soon as the way was clear. She ran towards the gap, launching herself at the last moment with a burst of ice underneath her. Landing, she slid as Reson had, one hand ready to slam on the floor and create a slippery surface under any enemies nearby.

[Aidan]

Resonance and Metzli were the first to pass through the jagged hole in the blast doors, finding a pair of eggpawns just rising up from where they had been knocked down by the explosion of shrapnel. Reson's blades flashed out, driving into them, knocking one over onto its back as it twitched and malfunctions while the other staggered backwards, shielding itself with its arms.

Kapp and Yuki were the next ones through, Kapp landing in a tumble that brought him back up to his feet, Yuki with a slide that brought her up to Mei and Reson, allowing her to cast a sheet of ice beneath the one Resonance was driving back, the robot loosing his footing and finally toppling over.

The outer hull of the separating airship began to move, panels slowly sliding toward the blast door - in moments, the entrance would be sealed. Damien, Metzli, Grenadine, Aidan, and Elyas were still aboard the Dreadnought.

"Time to go!" Aidan shouted as he dashed toward the opening. Elyas was right beside him, and as he neared the opening, Aidan twisted and shouted the magical command to unleash his wings. He grabbed Elyas' hand with his left and would reach out his right for whomever wanted to join him before leaping into the open air between ships, swinging his passengers forward and through the hole in the blast doors before tucking his wings in and diving through himself.

Elyas hit the floor and rolled, coming up with a smokebomb in one hand. He tossed it forward, beyond the two eggpawns, where it bounced across the hallway floor and detonated, filling the hallway with smoke and blocking line of sight of any defenders - the Raiders had enough sensory metas on their team to be able to pierce the smoke without using their eyes.

[Resonance]

Reson continued to hammer the Eggpawns while her allies joined her, trying to keep the landing zone as safe as possible while everyone righted themselves.

Mei crouched close to the door but off to the side, her shadow tail coiled and ready to whip out and catch any of their remaining friends who had trouble bridging the gap.

[Kokinyu]

Numerous eggpawns, slippery floors, and smoke enough to pull some bullshit. Kapp was on it. Bringing his arms forward, he crossed one over the other and created a dome of ice before him. With a few loping strides, he thrust himself forward across slippery terrain to charge into of the top-heavy consumer model eggpawns with the brunt of his weight, the momentum of his charge, and a forceful explosion of icy shrapnel and frozen air. The burst of ice sent him backwards in a controlled tumble, allowing him some space to scramble, fall back into the group, and prepare to rinse and repeat.

Grenadine saw the growing gap. Less time think, even less time to do. She took a few steps backward, darted forward and sprang across the open air below. Landing in a tumble behind the others, she looked back to the growing space between the two ships. Soon that 'gentle breeze' of decompression would turn into a violent vacuum- this would soon be a problem. With a clap of her hands, she planted both palms into the ground and proceeded to transmute the jagged hole into something a little sturdier. "Covering out backssside-" She grunted. "It isss a long way down."

[Uberwulf X]

Damien saw Aidan at the gap helping people across, and decided it was a great idea. With a couple of the others covering the entry of those crossing, Damien helped whoever needed to cross-- and it looked like the only person left was--

Metzli, who was already running to cross the gap. She stumbled into the new part of the ship, and immediately dropped to her fours, using the time others were giving with their cover fire to shapeshift.

With everyone having crossed the gap, Damien flew in the hole, giving Gren the ability to start closing the hole. Still in midair, Damien dove forward into the smoke and slammed his sword into every bot he could find.

[Kyt]

It seemed like more of the heavy hitters had this, so Yuki stayed ready for back up, and ready to follow as they started moving.

[Aidan]

The Raiders collected themselves beyond the blast doors of the new ship, clearing out what few defenders happened to come across them as the doors were sealed behind them. The ship shook slightly and hummed, but they no longer had any view of the outside world to gauge how the battle against Argus was currently going.

As they began to press forward, their advanced sheltered by smoke and ice, Avatar would be able to pull up the limited information she had on this new ship to use as a guide for their advance. While some pieces of the schematic had been inaccessible, the information she pulled up for their review showed that at the heart of the ship was a large, open chamber just behind the command deck dominated by a central pillar of some kind - the Ascendance Engine, Demandred's ultimate endgame.

This ship was not as large as the the complete Dreadnaught had been, the hallways narrower, with doors that slid open at random to allow eggpawns to swarm forward to keep the Raiders distracted. The Raiders, meanwhile, were able to cleave and freeze and blast their way forward, moving ever closer to the final confrontation with the man who had so thoroughly upended their life.

The Raiders fought their way to a hallway that ended in a set of closed blast doors. According to Avatar's information, beyond that door was the large, multi-level Ascension chamber, as well as the command deck connected to it.

Elyas paused in the hallway, panting lightly from the effort of fighting their way forward, and checked on the Raiders around him. "Everyone alright? No one hurt?"

Aidan was feeling the fatigue of the hard push forward through the Dreadnaught, but he still had plenty of fight in him for Demandred. Glancing over at one of the running lights in the corner of the hall, he reached a hand toward it, the light glowing brightly before the glass shattered and arcing tendrils of power leapt from it to his fingertips, giving him a little jolt to keep himself forward.

"I'm good. Once we get in there, we'll need to be careful. We haven't seen Nexus yet, but I'm betting she was behind all those 'bots. We've also seen no trace of Anastasia. Demandred's going to be a handful... remember that he can copy any active meta abilities, but can't copy magic."

[Resonance]

Reson was panting a bit, and wiped her brow. "Yeah, I'm alright... catch my breath for a moment and I'll be good to go." It seems like they regularly had to do endurance runs now, and at least they'd been pacing themselves and rotating the vanguard to conserve energy. She was confident they all had a lot of fight left.

Similarly, Mei was catching her breath and nodded to Elyas. "What's the plan?
Stick to physical combat as much as possible until we can take Demandred down?"

[Kokinyu]

Kapp frowned and nodded at Aidan. "Yeah, he can copy magic. I'm counting on it this time." His expression darkened as he rolled his shoulders and squared himself. "I'm with Mei. The dude's smart and trained better than all of us- except maybe for Elyas. We're going to need to be smart about it."

Grenadine rubbed her brow slightly before shaking off the fatigue which was setting in. "Keep him busy and watch the room. He isss cunning and well armed- expect weaponss, grenadess, suppression foam and live ammunition. Remember that he iss fighting to win and he will not hessitate to kill. If He can copy our natural born powersss, he'll likely take the besst healing factor in the room and anything he can to enhance his agility. Duplicating commander Elyas' abilitiesss is a poisson pill- it may be more trouble than it's worth, but expect it in a pinch. If we keep him in a position where he needs to use meta abilitiesss, he will have to refrain from becoming a dampener. And every ssecond he iss not a dampener iss a ssecond he can be hit by a sspell."

She adjusted the straps on her gear, pushed a few stray hairs from her face, and looked ahead. "I sssuggest we hit him hard and fasst, but avoid a dogpile- tag in and out will keep pressure on him and force him to change hiss abilitiess often and quickly."

[Uberwulf X]

"Meta abilities, and not magic..." Metzli, now in her shifted form and with barding covering all of her body but her head, nodded. "I'll be sure not to do anything he can use against us. I'm good to keep going, though."

"I'll be sure to use my claws and sword to beat the hell out of him when we get to him." Damien grit his teeth at the seemingly endless onslaught of chaff sent to their location; it was more the sheer number than anything else that was starting to wear Damien out, but the pause was welcome. He had the chance to slam back a few blood caps to top himself off, and nodded firmly.

"Let's do this."