Page 4 of 4 FirstFirst ... 234
Results 31 to 35 of 35

Thread: [M] War in the Shadows - Patriots IC

  1. #31
    The Replicant
    Azazeal849's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    7,608
    Mentioned
    84 Post(s)
    Rep Power
    470

    Default

    Spoiler: Konstantin Burakgazi, Vizkop, Enki Volkner and Omikron Zahir - Skorgulian 
    Last edited by Azazeal849; 10-26-2020 at 09:26 PM.
    Spoiler: My RP links 

    PM me for novelised versions of any of my RPs, or ones that I have participated in. Set by the awesome Karma.


  2. #32
    Sanity's Eclipse
    Atrum Daemon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    The Totally Secret Moon Base
    Favourite Roleplay Genres
    Fantasy, Sci-Fi
    Age
    33
    Posts
    3,715
    Mentioned
    35 Post(s)
    Rep Power
    125

    Default

    Enki was rather nonplussed as the action began, easily tuning out the noise of baseline voices to focus on weapon signals and sounds. The massive Magos seemed oddly…bored by everything that was going on. A benefit of having a fully mechanical form was how heavily armored he was particularly against heat and explosives. He tilted his head up at the sound of the voice directed at him and remained impassive as Zahir responded to the immediate threat to his master, sending a blast of electricity accompanied by two voltgeists that disrupted the attempted attack on Enki.

    The Magos Reductor threw his arm out to the side, segments clicking and whirring as a heavy rotating canon of his own shifted out of his bulky arm. He swung around and brought it to bear against the floating woman.

    In a shadowed corner of the chamber, Vizkop (or rather the poor soul wearing his face and memories) watched the unfolding scene before him. He was gauging when best to intervene himself, if at all, once his head stopped spinning. The headaches lately were getting worse but so far had not interfered with his actions. He scanned the battlefield and noticed the hulking tech-priest swinging his unfolded weapon arm around and firing a searing volley from the rotary gun normally hidden in his limb.
    Hit me up on discord: Mags#3126
    I'm just easier to get a hold of there. Just lemme know who you are

  3. #33
    The Replicant
    Azazeal849's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    7,608
    Mentioned
    84 Post(s)
    Rep Power
    470

    Default

    Spoiler: Alyss Ravensmore, Sarna Astros - Coseflame 
    Spoiler: My RP links 

    PM me for novelised versions of any of my RPs, or ones that I have participated in. Set by the awesome Karma.


  4. #34
    The Last Remembrancer
    dakkagor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    the luminous Aether
    Favourite Roleplay Genres
    Modern times or Sci-Fi games.
    Posts
    2,035
    Mentioned
    61 Post(s)
    Rep Power
    198

    Default

    Sarna watched the man leave, and scratched her head.

    "Well, now what? We've got three options. We can try to cut the queue, head to Van Kessel, or Karnak."

    "Karnak is outta the picture." The Jotunhel, Lokir, said from over her shoulder. He was a stringy looking bastard, ratfaced with a too-long waxed moustache that only made him look more like a particularly ill kind of rodent. He wasn't particularly popular in the Jotunhel ranks, despite his skills, so that was why he had pulled the shit-job of escorting the witch and the scary girl with the sword. The two soldiers with him, a stolid, brickfaced woman called Frieda, and a teenager from the retinue called Lars to whom bathing seemed to be a mystery, or possibly a sin, were the bottom of the barrel when it came to the Jotunhels normal barrel-bottom scraping. Lazy, sullen, bitter like all the Jotunhel, but defeatist rather than blazing with righteous fury. "The defence lasers. . ."

    "I heard you the first damn time." Sarna snapped, irritable. "But we don't have any good options right now! And in the chaos of an invasion we might be able to sneak out on something with an eagle on it and avoid detection!"

    "Assuming they don't just drop orbital artillery down the gravity well, and flatten the whole site before they roll down!"

    "They need the port facilities, and if Karnak is that soft they won't glass them!"

    "Would you both, please, shut up?" Alyss hissed. She had turned on her seat and was using the bench Sarna had vacated to dish out a tarot hand. Sarna's skin prickled, and her hair stood on end as the temperature in the carriage dropped.

    Sorcerer hissed some awful, rasping voice in the back of Sarna's head, a voice she knew was hers. She ignored it, and stood closer to Alyss, trying to block the view to her from the other curious passengers. Sarna watched as Alyss intently laid and re-laid the cards, frowning. She did five hands before finally sweeping up the cards and stuffing them back into the box.

    "Well?" Alyss sighed, and dropped her mourning veil back over her face. She retrieved a little handkerchief, and dabbed at her face, and Sarna blanched when it came away wet with little spots of blood.

    "Van Kessel."

    "Van Kessel is an active fucking warzone!" Lokir barked. "You can't be serious?"

    Sarna was inclined to agree with Lokir. She didn't like the idea of going into a shooting war.

    "And yet. . ." Alyss stood, brushed down her dress, and started to walk out of the carriage, her little party following after her. "Every reading said the same thing."

    "Alyss." Sarna grabbed her friends arm. "They never say the same thing. You told me that yourself."

    "I know." Alyss smiled a curious smile. "Its a trap, must be. So I'm very interested in knowing who, exactly, wants me at Van Kessel."

    +++++

    They abandoned the yard, and trekked up, out of the canyons, navigating the steam funiculars which were now running a full capacity as a river of humanity abandoned the clogged railways. They hiked up stairs, following Alyss as she guided them. She was touching dozens of minds, lifting local knowledge from passing porters, guards, message runners, so they navigated through every crowd with the ease of someone born in the canyons.

    As they climbed up a long rusty ladder between levels, Sarna reached the inevitable conclusion that she would have to kill Lokir before this was all over.

    "So, you used to work for the Inquisition?" Lokir asked, from below her. His voice was dripping with contempt, and Sarna knew the creepy bastard had been staring at her bodysuit-clad behind the entire climb.

    "Yes." Sarna snarled. "Everyone knows that. So shut up, if you know what is good for you."

    "Well, I'm just wondering why you are so eager to run right back to the Imps, considering. You ever seen what they do to people they take?"

    "No." She answered flatly, and focused on Alyss above her. Her rustling dress was like a little black cloud of lace above her, and the slim psyker was making easy work of the ladder. Probably cheating, she thought.

    Definitely cheating

    "Me neither. Me, Frieda and Lars here?" He panted, sucked in a breath. "We're just traitors, grunts. They'll put us down nice and quick, assuming we get that far. Commissar special to the back of the head. Blammo!" He chuckled, and resumed climbing. "But you, you, I bet they'll take their time with you. Want to pump you for information. How long do you reckon you'll last on the rack when they get the branding irons out? Five minutes?"

    "Longer than you, Lokir."

    "I don't think so. That pretty little ass of yours will squeal like a tundra rat with its leg caught in a trap. Probably better for everyone if I shoot you now, stop you talking."

    Sarna sighed, but kept climbing, refusing to rise to the bait.

    "What, you think you're tough? I bet you've never been really hurt. I got scars that would make you puke, girly!"

    "Yeah, and every woman you every rolled with." Frieda snarked from further down, making Lars snigger.

    "Fuck you, you wall faced, no-tit-having shrew. Anyway, I'm having a conversation with our leader here." Sarna could spy the top of the ladder. She sped up, hand over hand.

    "You ever been tortured?"

    She stopped dead. She let go of the rungs, wrapping her legs around the ladder, flopping down to be face to face with Lokir.

    "Yes." She grabbed his face, squeezed, hard, right in the pressure points. He spasmed, but didn't let go of the ladder. "Do you know what direct nerve induction is, Lokir? Its archeotech, or maybe xeno-tech taken from eldar pirates. No one knows, but the Inquisition use it. And so did the sisterhood that raised me." She drew one of her long, thin knives, and placed it against the bottom of his left eyelid, making him twitch and pant in fear. "Shush, don't move. This will be enlightening. And if you let go now, you'll fall, so I wouldn't draw a weapon either. Wouldn't want an unfortunate accident."

    His eyes flicked left and right, unable to move his head, unable to even nod without being blinded in one eye. Sarna thoughtfully tapped her knife against his quivering eye, watching the tears form there.

    "Its very clever. All a brain is, really, is electrical impulses being fed in from the nerves of the body and sending signals back out to the muscles. Like the signals, right now, flashing through your brain telling you to hold on for dear life, not move, the signal telling you about the sharp dirk pressed against your eye. Blink if you understand."

    He blinked.

    "Good. So, DNI works by interfacing directly with those signals, hijacking them. They strap you to a table, wire you up, and they dial in the machine. Its a bulky bit of kit, expensive, difficult to produce. It would almost be easier to install an MIU port into a prisoner and directly interface with their brain. But it isn't invasive, it isn't visible. No scaring, you see? On the outside, you look completely normal. But inside. . ."

    She stretched down, languid, so she could whisper right into his disgusting face.

    "They can program your nerves like a gearhead with a cogitator. They can make you feel so much pleasure you'll want to die to make it stop. They'll make you feel so much pain that it becomes transcendent, that you leave your body and float away. And they can apply it, for hours, flipping between the two until you crack. And everyone cracks."

    She smiled.

    "Now, Lokir, I know the question you're asking: did they ever use this on Sarna? Well, not like that. The sisterhood want to train you to resist pain, fight through it. So they use a limited variant. Throw in a little legerdemain, and you have a way to push someone past the limits they thought they had, and do no permanent damage."

    She let go of Lokirs skull, and peeled the glove of that hand, holding it in front of Lokirs face, before two fingers from the bare hand hooked into his nose, catching him like a fish on the line, tugging him into the knife and making him inhale sharply.

    "They teach you, very quickly, not to disobey orders in the sisterhood. So when they told me to stick this hand in a blazing forge, I didn't hesitate. I didn't hesitate as I felt it cook, burn, the flesh flake off. I used the hand currently holding a knife to your eye to hold my arm in the fire, until the bones charred to ash. Until I was sure all that left was the slowly cooking stump. Then they let me take it out. Only when they were sure that I could follow orders. Only when they were sure I could resist pain. That was my gift for my thirteenth birthday. More pain than you have, or will ever, feel."

    He gagged, snorted.

    "Now, you can clearly see, at least for the moment, that this hand is fine. The DNI, a little holo-flame, and a heater unit at full blast. Clever, right? Especially as we had all seen that forge being used to make knives. This knife, in fact. The one that has just drawn a little blood from your eyelid."

    She leaned in a little closer, and licked the bead of blood from his face, smiling.

    "So, the question you need to ask yourself, Lokir, and Frieda, and Lars, is exactly what would someone trained to that standard be willing to do to avoid capture? How quickly would she kill someone she decided was a liability, when she would willing burn her own arm off? How much restraint must she be showing, right now, to not plunge this dagger into your stupid brain, and stop all those little. signals. dead."

    "Does that answer your question, Lokir? Blink if you understand."

    There was a watery eyed blink.

    "Good man. Now, shut the fuck up, and do as I say." She released Lokir, and looked past him.

    "Any problems down there?"

    Two pale, terrified faces stared back at her, shaking their heads.

    "Excellent. Now lets get to the top of the ladder, shall we?"

    +++++

    Alyss was looking at her curiously as she made the ladder top. A depot sat nearby, with some over-land trucks for taking the few road routes between the chasm cities. They were crude things, but better than walking all the way to Van Kessel.

    "Was that really necessary?" Alyss asked, eyebrow cocked.

    "It made me feel better." Sarna responded, stretching lithely. "It helps to remind the Jotunhel from time to time who exactly is in charge."

    "I'd rather not have our security detail trying to kill my best friend right now."

    "I would never kill Lokir!" Sarna pouted, hands up in protest. "Though I didn't realise you liked him that much. Its the moustache isn't it? I should try growing one." Alyss chuckled as Sarna put a few strands of hair between her stuck out lip and nose.

    "Come on. We need to get moving, before our window of opportunity closes."

    "You heard the lady!" Sarna yelled as the Jotunhel climbed up onto the platform. "We've got a truck to steal!"
    Last edited by dakkagor; 12-09-2022 at 01:36 PM.

  5. #35
    The Replicant
    Azazeal849's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    7,608
    Mentioned
    84 Post(s)
    Rep Power
    470

    Default

    Spoiler: Alyss Ravensmore, Sarna Astros - Coseflame 
    Spoiler: My RP links 

    PM me for novelised versions of any of my RPs, or ones that I have participated in. Set by the awesome Karma.


Page 4 of 4 FirstFirst ... 234

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •