They say that thousands of years ago, the moon started to fall.

There’s no-one alive today who would remember it, but some people think it really happened.

But they say the people who came before us put it back in the sky, even though it cost them everything.

It’s just an old legend though.

…

When you look at the moon, what do you see?

---

The sunlight filtered through the clouds to illuminate the world below.

It was the remains of a city. The fragments, the shattered remnants of old buildings. Vehicles, machinery, war machines, rusted out and left to degrade due to being too damaged to bother recovering. Vegetation having begun to reclaim land that no-one had even begun to consider retaking, vines crawling up the sides of aged buildings and grass overtaking streets.

Signs of the destructive warfare that had rendered the city a shadow of its former self, craters in the earth, buildings collapsed and blown apart...

Sights like these weren’t uncommon in the scarred lands between Embria and Alvad. In some places, nothing grew. In others, nature had begun to reclaim what was left behind.

Regardless of what the future held, it was certain these wartorn places would remain as a monument to the vicious battles that occurred there for years to come.

But that which was left behind by battle was not the only thing that remained in the lands riddled with ashes.

There was valuable technology, old research facilities, military hardware, monsters, all sorts of things designated for extermination or for recovery.

That was what they were here for.

A shadow fell over the ruins below, a few distant creatures startled by the sudden darkness darting into their dens.

The airship was small, but large enough to contain a squad or two of soldiers quite comfortably, the overall shape something like a bird with a flattened upper body and a long, narrow balloon helping to keep it in the air, the lumium-powered magitek engine beneath. The cockpit was towards the front, and on its port side was emblazoned the name ‘Blue Lily’.

Wild Rose had been hired for a new job.

The employer was anonymous. They wanted an item recovered from a wartime Alvadian research laboratory and brought to Embrian territory, so it could be assumed they were probably Embrian themselves, but beyond that very little known about them.

Some mercenaries may not have liked that anonymity. Others cared more about the payout than anything else.

Doubtless, their thoughts were likely on the mission ahead, as they were ferried to their destination on-board the Blue Lily…

“Hey, thought I’d let you know we’re just a few minutes from our destination!” came the voice of a young woman, the Blue Lily’s pilot, over the ship’s communications system. “If I were you, I’d get ready. There must be some reason you were hired to take this on, right?”

It was a valid point.

If there was no threat here, why would someone hire mercenaries to do recovery when they could do it themselves?

@Pyromania99@thecatinaction@Wayward@PKMNB0Y

Unlike how he usually was on a longer mission—that is, to say, completely nonplussed about the job ahead—Derrick was actually fairly intrigued by the job set out in front of him this time around. An Alvadian research facility was seldom a place to visit without any reason, and most of them had likely been stripped of anything valuable by this point in time. In other words, being sent to visit one and retrieve something meant that there was just as likely a chance for something equally valuable waiting besides their quarry.

That being said, if it was a simple retrieval mission, then they wouldn't have needed to ship a team out in the first place; beinging him along meant that injuries were to be expected. Neither was a sign of anything good, but a clean job was rare, and safe, rarer still.

Derrick had spent the last hour reading—a familiar pastime since his younger years—but the announcement from the Blue Lily's pilot swiftly brought him to attention. The young man wordlessly slipped his bookmark between the pages of the book he had been reading before setting it aside on his bed and standing up. Without any sort of flourish or fanfare, Derrick took a hold of his bag and promptly left the room. It was, admittedly, rather empty—other than his tools, most of the empty space was reserved for seeing what else he could... 'Recover' from the site beyond their objective.

With deployment imminent, Derrick raised his hand as he walked towards the staging area. A set of five prism-like objects soon slipped out of his bag and took their positions at his side, each floating in tandem with one another as if they were a single object. With a cursory glance towards each one—Conduits, as they were called—the young man gave a nod to himself before proceeding.

Ideally, the others were prepared for fights to break out once they touched down; Derrick had no doubt that they would be ready to fight, of course, but being prepared and being ready were not one and the same.

@VitaVitaAR@Pyromania99@thecatinaction@Wayward

The things I do sometimes. Mentally sighing, Cadenza had had a rare moment of inner reflection as she grasped her present situation. To put it lightly, her feelings about it all were something of a mixed bag. On one hand, her time for sidequests wasn't exactly in a limitless supply; she was working against a clock, steadily but surely counting down the moment before her main objective was rendered a failure by way of a case of death. Indeed, had she known it would be so difficult to get on a transport to Fort Lionhart, she just might have walked the whole damn way. On the other hand, if she was going to be stuck waiting for the next train out of town anyways, getting out and making some money on the side was a more alluring prospect than just sitting around with her hands under her ass; plus, if she was lucky, she'd have herself early opportunity to exact some joyous justice.

Then, of course, there was the ragtag of personalities among which she presently found herself. She hadn't yet been around them long enough to get a legitimately accurate read on anyone, though it was clear that they were just as much, if not more, of a mixed bag as her feelings about being on the mission. Mages, a healer, a techy wiz of some sort. Then... her... a fighter, a brawler. She could understand why the others were on this mission; all of them had some utility beyond putting the beatdown on man and monsters. She wasn't like that though; if they needed muscle like what she could offer... then they were clearly expecting things to come to blows eventually. "Pfff." Cadenza huffed, rather loudly. As long as they paid up, and got her back into town before the train left like they said they would, it wouldn't be any skin off her back.

She couldn't help but let out a hearty chuckle as the pilot announced their imminent arrival. Stranger still than her feelings about the mission and the people with whom she was sharing it, were the circumstance that had lead them to her; it wasn't everyday that breaking up a big bar fight landed someone mercenary work. Somehow, though, she had managed to achieve just that. Had that one bloke not decided to take a swing at the bartender, the Wild Rose might not have been impressed enough by her verbal interview to contract her for this stint. Oh the things I do sometimes. She mused again, and snorted another chuckle to herself as she pushed out of her seat, preparing to disembark. Wild Rose, huh? I suppose I at least fit half of that.

She clapped her hands, and cracked her knuckles. "Just about that time, eh?" she said, looking around at the others. "Just remember, if shit hits the fan down there, you asked me to come along. So... save your complaints for when we're back at the bar pounding shots down. Yeah?"

@VitaVitaAR @PKMNB0Y @thecatinaction @Pyromania99

Yet another Alvadian research lab it would seem. This would not be the first one she had ransacked and certainly not the last one either. Freyja had been sitting ready with her weapon resting on the floor in front of her and pondering her current situation in more depth. She had mixed feelings. There was a part of her that hoped that the facility they were headed to was the one that she made her great escape from... But... Well, that didn't seem likely. Which also made her glad. She wasn't sure if she had it in her to visit again. Not yet, at least.

She wanted to stop thinking on that. Rather, her attention turned to her comrades. Other members of Wild Rose. First, there was Derrick. He seemed level-headed enough and a magic user of sorts. Well, if she had to guess. He didn't have the feel of a warrior about him. Of course, she had yet to talk to him in depth yet but she had to trust her gut.

Then there was Cadenza. By the limited interaction, Freyja came to assume her a hot-headed individual. Cocky even. If she understands her own limits at least, that much is fine. Really, she worried about the woman's reliability because of her attitude. Well, she had found that she worried about anyone's reliability since the war ended so that didn't speak much of Cadenza in Freyja's mind.

Rather, the one that she was more... concerned might be too strong a word. Regardless, it was Cassidy. He was a bit of a smooth talker. She was somewhat skeptical of him in general. Perhaps it was jut her but he was a small bit shady to her. Something seemed off, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Still, one shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Something that the Alvadian Freyja understood far too well. For now, she would put any preconceptions about these people to the back until she had more knowledge about them. She figured most of them probably didn't trust her either. She wouldn't blame them if they knew she was an Alvadian or even if they knew she fights like an old Alvadian Dark Knight.

As the woman put her thoughts behind her, she grabbed the handle of her weapon and stood. She allowed the compacted weapon to release to its full size to inspect it once before they had to head out. It was like a ritual for her, looking it over for scratches, fractures and other things that might be faulty to a weapon. Well, that was part of the good thing about Alvadian Magitek, even years later it was in near perfect shape. At least, the ones designed to be good. That was when the pilot announced that they would be touching down at the zone soon. "I suppose it's time then. We dance again, Alvad." She mentioned to herself before placing her compacted weapon in a specially crafted sheath on her back. With a sigh, Freyja turned and headed for the disembark ramp.

Once there, Cadenza mentioned something about shit hitting the fan and pounding shots down. Well. She certainly was cocky in the way she said it. Freyja eyed her for a couple of seconds and shaking her head lightly. "So long as you keep the drinks relegated to when we're not on a mission." She just assumed that Cadenza was more than happy to take care of herself. As was she, for that part. Perhaps she would need to keep an eye on Derrick or Cassidy, or perhaps not. That was to tell at the moment. "I, for one, don't plan to join you on that, Cadenza." Freyja added, ready to get to work. Perhaps searching the lab would give her some time to not think about the things that haunted her.

“Hey, thought I’d let you know we’re just a few minutes from our destination!”. A voice exclaims over a loudspeaker. A man with medium length hair sits in a sleek trench coat, shuffling a deck of cards in between his hands.

“50..51..52..”

A glow shines from every card that the man touches as he counts each one with a very particular awareness of each card in his hand. As the voice comes over the loudspeaker, the man stops shuffling his cards, and stands to his feet, revealing a compact Bo-Staff. “Perfect timing.” Cassidy whispers to himself, as he stashes his cards in a pouch on his belt, and places one hand on his Bo-Staff, as to make sure he is battle ready.

Walking at a steady pace toward the doorway, Cassidy sizes up his soon to be comrades. No stranger to reading people in a quick manner at the card table, Cassidy can make a quick judgement about his fellow Mercs. Body language says more than words, most of the time. Nonetheless, Cassidy is focused on other things - his payout. All he has to do is make it through this mission, and he’ll likely never see these kids again. Though he realizes he has seen, or heard of, at least a couple of these kids before now.

Cassidy speaks in a soft tone as he approaches Freyja “Ah..I’ve heard about you. It’ll be interesting to see what you have to offer out there.”. Cassidy winks at Freyja as he continues walking. Passing by the others, there’s mention of shots at the bar. “Hey kid, how about you put a couple shots in the pot of my card table when we get out of here? You look like you can handle yourself.”. Cassidy places a hand on Cadenza’s shoulder as he strolls past. As Cassidy reaches the opening of the doorway, he stops to turn to his comrades.

“Who wants to place bets on what waits for us outside this airship? Cassidy let’s a slight grin cross his face as he surveys the room..

"We're coming in for a landing!"

A slight tremor ran through the Blue Lily as it began to descend. From this distance, it was possible to see their destination. A somewhat imposing but degraded structure, resembling multiple boxes stacked upon one another with a taller rectangular tower extending from the top, it possessed a utilitarian look common in Alvadian research facilities. Of course, due to five years of abandonment, it was adorned with vegetation and rust. But otherwise it seemed mostly intact, at least from this distance, though the fencing around it certainly wasn't.

With a steady humming sound as its propellers slowed, the Blue Lily lowered towards the ground. Going by the position of rubble, structures, and plants, this was one of the clearest spots to land in the area.

"I'll be waiting to pick you up," the pilot added, "Try not to get hurt too badly out there, okay? Transporting the injured always makes me nervous."

The rear of the airship slowly opened.

The path to the complex seemed relatively clear at the moment, but that didn't mean that it was.

@PKMNB0Y@Wayward@Pyromania99@thecatinaction

"Back at yet another Alvadian lab." Freyja mentioned to herself as she ignored Cassidy and disembarked from the ship. She couldn't count the number of Alvadian facilities she had visited in her time both as a sword for hire and soldier. There was always dangers lurking in these places. Rogue experiments, bandits, monsters... It was never a question of if there was danger but more a question of what it was.

As she touched the earth and let the dirt, debris and rubble crunch beneath her boot, the woman grabbed the handle of her weapon and unsheathed it, allowing the mechanisms to put the sword to full length. It was only a few seconds that the mechanisms took, but sometimes those few seconds were the most precious. She didn't really pay much heed to those behind her as she scanned her surroundings for anything suspicious.

As Freyja moved forward, she would be met with a sudden whirring sound. Immediately, emerging from the nearby tall grass, a quartet of machines emerged. Each was mounted on retractable wheels, two legs supporting a rectangular body. With a clicking sound, a pair of small turrets folding out from the upper surface of their main bodies. Almost immediately, they had already trained their weaponry on the Dark Knight, preparing to fire...!

It was easy to recognize the machines as a model of fairly cheap scout robot, but that didn't remove the potential threat of their weaponry!

@PKMNB0Y@Wayward@Pyromania99@thecatinaction

The sounds of conversation from inside the waiting room had caught Derrick slightly by surprise; he had expected the call to action to have been the cue for everyone to start gathering, not to have already been waiting in the wings prior to them. It was, admittedly, a bit embarrassing to arrive last. He was the youngest person on the team, after all, and the young man was fairly certain that at least one or two of the others with him would treat him as such. For what it was worth, though, he didn't actually know any of them all that well beyond their names and whatever little introductions they had been given during the briefing... And given how he hadn't actually spent much time socializing, getting any feel for them would have to wait until after they hit the battlefield.

Trying not to draw too much attention to himself, Derrick slipped into the room and took a seat as the airship began to descend. There had clearly been an invite of some sort, given what little he had caught from the tail end of their conversation, but he simply pushed the thought out of his mind as the door outside slowly opened up. The Conduits at his side moved into position as he rose back up, nodding towards the rest of the group before following Freyja outside.

With wary steps, the young man kept his distance from the woman in front, his eyes darting to and fro as he watched for any sort of ambush. The immediate activation of some automated turrets as the vanguard slowly pressed forth at least confirmed that there was someone trying to stop them, but as to whether they were recently activated or not...

Well, that required disabling them first.

Without missing a beat, Derrick ducked for cover before sending four of his Conduits towards Freyja; immediately, they began to glow, forming a cylindrical barrier around her.

"I'll handle the defense," he said, looking around to make sure he wasn't going to get flanked from his current position, "so just clean up here and keep pushing forward."

Hopefully the others would take that as less of an order and more of a suggestion.

@VitaVitaAR@Wayward@Pyromania99@thecatinaction

Finally, something reared it's ugly head. A robotic scout. She had seen plenty of them in her time fighting. That said, these things were rather cheap. She wondered if they were old units that never saw action back in the day or reprogrammed for use later. Well, these things were rather fragile as far as a Dark Knight was concerned. Their weapons could be a bit on the dangerous side but, well, she's fought worse.

Derrick had made the suggestion to clear these and move on. That seemed a good idea to her and she had thought the same of course. His barrier around her was helpful against the firepower of these robots. Before they started opening fire, she charged at them. Her sword moved from on her shoulder to down towards the ground. She carried the lower stance of her sword as she closed the distance until she was just about on top of the first one. She then jumped up and a small film of darkness covered the outside of her sword as she raised it high up, using just her left hand the bring it towards the robot. One good hit would be more than enough to destroy one of these things. At least, for the type of weapon she had.

"Heh? Suit yourself then." Cadenza scoffed towards Freyja's response; that one seemed to be something of a stick in the mud. "We all gotta have a way to cut loose after a hard day's work though." She chuckled heartily. "Don't worry," she added, "I'll show that I'm worth the gil you offered out there... Whoa!"

She shrugged her shoulder with a quick, aggressive jerk as a hand set down on it from behind. Cassidy walked by; a charmer. "Damn right I can," she said. "I can manage myself just fine." She smirked in return to his suave demeanor. "After the payday we'll have, I can certain take a chance at the card table. Just don't pull any fast one's on me."

"We're coming in for a landing!"

The pilot's voice called from the front of the ship. A bright-eyed Cadenza strode closer to the bay door at the craft's rear, situating herself next to Freyja. She was a brawler, after all; she wouldn't get much accomplished sitting behind the line. A moment or two of turbulence was followed by the rocking sensation of the aircraft setting upon the ground. The fighter bumped her fists together and broke into a tooth-bearing grin as the door opened. Serious as the situation may have been, she saw no point in not having fun.

Freyja was the first to deboard the Blue Lily. Cadenza followed next to her and practically at her heels. As if on cue, a foursome of mechanaloids emerged from out of the accumulating brush and industrial rubble. The grin on Cadenza's face turned to a grimace just as quickly as the machines had arrived. It was an old Imperial scout mecha. One such model had been set upon the Compound Cadenza had lived on during the war. The base was still being fortified at the time, so even such a light weapon had been able to cause significant harm; a handful of deaths and more than enough wounds to go around.

"This time, it's different," she spat towards the cold machinery. She took a fighting stance. In a subtle flash, her spirit surged, and not even a second after, she was off at Haste speed. As Freyja trained her blade onto the first of the four, Cadenza beelined slightly out toward the side, intent upon the last one in the line up. As she closed the gap between herself and the mech, she pulled her right hand back to ready for a strike.

She wasn't entirely sure if she could do much damage to the machine's body, but the legs... she threw her punch. The material of her Impact Bracer's rang against the left leg of the mecha. In the instance that her fist connected, she quickly clenched her fist. The gauntlet in turn clicked softly, her adorned weaponry amplifying the kinetic impact against the metallic limb.

The bullets fired by the scout mechs pinged off the barrier created by Derrick, scattering to the sides harmlessly as others careened past the barrier and missed their target entirely. The drones were not created for the purpose of raw power. Rather, the intent of their creation had always been lightweight combatants who were capable of exploration and attack. When encountering a barrier like this, there was little they could do to break through it quickly.

There was a shearing sound as Freyja's sword bit through solid metal and tore its way cleanly through the first of the machine's inner workings, devastating its functions and leaving both haves of the drone toppling to either side, smoke and sparks rising from its innards.

The machine struck by Cadenza let out a low-pitched whine as the joint of one of its legs bent backwards from the blow of her fist, metal twisting and tearing from the blow. It slid backwards on its wheels before toppling sideways, though its weaponry swiftly trained on the pugilist and prepared to open fire!

The other two machines seemed to figure out that their attacks had no impact on Freyja, and instead began to train on Cadenza instead...

@PKMNB0Y@Wayward@Pyromania99@thecatinaction

Freyja immediately turned to the other scout mechs as her blade cut through the first. Cadenza was going to have a whole heap of trouble soon if nothing happened. She stretched her right arm and shot a bolt of Dark magic out at the furthest of the two undamaged mechs while she barked out orders, "Adjust barrier recipient!" She hoped that even as small the impact of that attack might have, it might throw off the machine's aim.

She wasn't sure if Derrick could do such a thing, but she had hope. The ex-Alvadian gripped her weapon and charged the nearest scout mech, intending to tear through that one as cleanly as she had the last one. As Freyja neared the third machine, her blade one again gained the coating of darkness it had before as she swung her weapon with the goal of bisecting the scout. Hopefully, Cadenza or Cassidy would be able to take care of the other two while she managed this one.

As soon as the first volley of bullets had been fired, Derrick trained his gaze on the remaining mecha. It was easy enough to tell that they had refocused their barrels away from Freyja, and it seemed that his companion had noticed likewise.

"Switching!" he shouted out, the Conduits near Freyja quickly abandoning their barrier before flying over towards Cadenza. There were a scant few moments before the bullets would begin to fire, if their retargeting was to be believed...

But if he wasn't able to ward off the shots aimed at the mercenary, then all he could do was try and recover the damage afterwards.

Shaking his head, Derrick quickly poked his head out from behind his current piece of cover before aiming his two remaining Conduits at one of the further machina. A single Ruin would ideally be enough to offset the barrel should he fail to stop the damage in time, but in this case, it was likely better to cover as many bases as he could.

@VitaVitaAR@Wayward@Pyromania99

"Aaagh!"

Cadenza made a primal, rallying growl. Small though her success was, any momentum was good momentum. The mech staggered and toppled under its own weight, and fighter backed two sizeable steps to avoid being caught under it herself. In the proceeding instance, the expected shift in direction came to be. Cadenza found herself set on by the sights of the turrets of both the crippled machine and its remaining cohorts.

It wasn't really much of a surprise; they were basic models, programmed to focus on threats as they presented themselves.

As the barrel of her recent quarry spun around to take aim at her, she listed slightly, in counter direction to its rotation. Drawing back towards the mecha, she reached, taking hold of gun. Heaving another brutish grunt, she manhandled the turret in one-eighty, directing the business end of the weapon toward the next mech in line; she would use the felled walker's weapon against its packmate.

The scout drones were simply not equipped to deal with such a focused counteroffensive. The drone that was targeted by Freyja was caught seconds before it opened fire, the darkness-coated sword slicing through its armor like butter and cleaving it neatly in half, sparks flying as both portions of the machine toppled to the side and caught fire.

The remaining drone was unable to pierce the barriers put ahead of its guns, though upon realizing this they seemed to begin adjusting its positioning in a bid to get around the shields. Unfortunately for the automaton, this put it directly in the path of the weaponry of its disabled fellow as Cadenza wrenched the cannon out of place, and the hail of bullets shred through its armor and tore delicate systems apart, a small explosion erupting from the drone as it crumpled backwards.

The only remaining drone was crippled in the pugilistic girl's hands, functioning leg whirring helplessly.

@PKMNB0Y@Wayward@Pyromania99@thecatinaction

"YEAH!" Bullets from the still-upright mecha flew, but helplessly stopped upon colliding with the barrier that had been placed between it and Cadenza. In almost the same instance, the rounds from the turret she had commandeered rained forth as the shield dispelled. The walker had little defense against the firepower of its own kind; the bullets from Cadenza's manhandled weapon ripped through its plating with almost no resistance. "GET SOME!" she bragged, though this was mostly drowned out by the sound of the machine gun fire.

Showing, albeit too late, a sign of restraint against targeting an ally, the automaton that the pugilist had muscled struggled to right itself and train its weapon back onto her. Its fate, however, was already being sealed. No sooner than it's volley concluded, Cadenza pulled up against the barrel of the gun. While the turreted artillery had a 360 rotation along a horizontal plane, the nature of the weapon rendered it unable to do the same along its vertical plane.

The tension of Cadenza's pull on the barrel was joined swiftly by a set of fist strikes against the mounting apparatus that attached the canon to its swiveling base. It was the proverbial breaking of a stick over one's knee; the mecha would, in theory, be left active, but effectively crippled and disarmed, left to rot away as time and nature played out against it... unless, of course, one of Cadenza's teammates saw fit to put it out of its misery.

Freyja gave a small sigh of relief as the last of the scouts went down. They hadn't seemed to have sustained any real injuries today so, that could count for something. Derrick really pulled through for them with his protections. "Alright, that's taken care of." She hefted her sword over her shoulder and started to walk towards the inside of the complex. "We just need to keep moving carefully. We have no idea if there are any other leftovers from the empire here. Or... Other undesirables." She took a look back to her companions. "I'll take point. I've taken my fair share of bullet wounds before, I'm sure it won't be the last." The Dark Knight mentioned with a rather unconcerned look on her face before she headed off, keeping an eye out for her surroundings and her teammates.

Once the last turret had been disabled, Derrick pushed himself back his feet before dusting himself off, the Conduits all returning back to his side without any further fanfare. The make of the machines were nothing particularly special, and though he might have wished to go bring them back for salvageable components, the three of them had a job that they came here to do. Anything extra could wait for the return trip.

"No injuries, then?" he asked, glancing at the two at his side before looking back towards the facility. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that someone was expecting us. But by all means, lead the way."

His job was to keep everyone in combat-ready condition, so there was no reason for him to be part of the vanguard on this team. If they got flanked, then it was the least he could do to block and stall for time as the other two moved to adjust—at least, that was how he saw things.

With the sound of bending steel and tearing metal, the drone's cannon was torn loose from its body. Now the machine was left helpless, letting out whirring noises as various mechanisms inside of the device worked but were unable to achieve anything of note. If one did not know any better, they would likely have described the machine as looking almost crestfallen at its predicament.

But it was unlikely it possessed the programming to experience such emotions.

With that, each of the drones had either been disabled or destroyed. The way ahead towards the facility was clear, or at least seemed as such for the moment.

Approaching the facility, however, would tell a somewhat different story. There did not appear to be any other enemies on the immediate path to the lab, but rather there were the remains of at least six more scout drones.

They lay, smoking, blown apart into pieces. Some were still quite hot, meaning whatever had done this couldn't have done it very long ago. There were a few scorch marks on the ground, as well, though they were less notable then the sizzling remains of the drones.

Still, there appeared to be little else in the way of progress... for now.

@Wayward@Pyromania99@PKMNB0Y