"I don't plan on hurting anyone, much like I didn't plan on hurting anyone earlier..." Rubbing the back of his head Darius sighed as he looked down.
"Look, I could apologize till the end of the world but its not going to change the fact I nearly killed someone despite my warnings. Even so I should have known better. But what I'll do for now on is regulate the fight or find someone who is at my level. Hell I ight even wait until he gets stronger before we spar again and just stick to sparring more experienced hammers." He gave a light smirk and a nod before turning off to grab his gear and headed back to the training room for some practice on his own. If there was one thing that Darius could do to preoccupy his mind when situations like this arose, it was train. It had become a known thing around the base that if Darius was alone training, he was alone thinking or remembering something. Taking his mind off of situations through working suited him since he wasn't one to truly show emotion and the only time he ever did was when his "father" passed away.
Hallway, Chroma Knight Base December 19, 2016 - ~10:30
Darius's sudden change of demeanor took Laura by surprise. He had seemed to be getting aggressive less than a minute ago, but now he seemed to change. But then, she had also been angry but then suddenly changed, so perhaps he had been acting that way because of her. Could she be that unpleasant? Enough to make others take the offensive?
She tried not to think about it too much, taking his words as a sort of apology. He admitted that he should have known better, and agreed to be more careful or find someone on his level. It satisfied her, but before she could perhaps apologize about her behavior or tell him that his words put her more at ease, he walked away. And with a smirk too.
She watched him go, standing there looking after him even after he had disappeared out of sight. After a minute or two, she shook herself. She had things to do too. Turning on her heel, she headed back towards her room. She would finish reading that chapter, then she should check to make sure everything was in order back at the infirmary. It was one of her jobs, and one that she took seriously.
< < Time Skip > >
Office room, Chroma Knight base Dec 25, 2016 - 10:12 am
The office had been occupied since early that morning, by one person who alternated between sitting at a basic drawered wooden desk, to jumping up to pull stacks of papers out from the many shelves and cabinets that lined the room. The head of base, to put it lightly, was busy. He was busy every day, but the past few weeks had found him in this room for longer hours at a time.
There had been more requested visits from family and friends to approve the scheduling of, and more organization and scheduling to be done in order to make sure that the knights who were to have visitors could get their belongings to the rooms above the Cafe in time... and still, despite this organization, there were last minute rushes with Cartesians and Butterflies dispatched to help teleport furniture and decorate the rooms. All this hassle in addition to his usual work to keep the base up and running and supplied. And it wasn't even a very big base.
Taking a moment to lean back in his chair and run his fingers through his light brown hair, he sighed. All this extra work for him and his two helpers, because of the holidays. If he would have attempted to do this alone things would have been even busier, so as much as he hated to pile work on the two, he was grateful for the help.
Taking a gulp of tea from his cup, Alfred leaned back over the the desk to continue his work. At that moment, an amaranthine ball of light sped through the closed door, coming to a sudden stop right next to him. He recognized the sprite because of the color it was, one of the sprites that he was often in contact with. Now, he could immediately tell that something was not right by the way it had rushed in. As he turned to face the sprite, it began to speak quickly without greeting.
"Severe threat spotted at Times Square, Manhattan. Known breed of Man-eating Spiders, quantity of ten. They have begun feeding on humans within the area."
Shit. Alfred acted immediately, reaching over on his desk to slam down the small red button that was placed near the public address system. An alarm began to sound through the speakers placed all around the base, a signal for the Knights to stop whatever they were doing at the moment and stand by for instruction. While the alarm blared, he jumped up from his seat to grab two thick binders from the surrounding shelves. The first was labeled CK Members, and the second Known Threats.
Opening the one marked Known Threats and scanning down the contents page with a practiced eye, he found the page number for Man-eating Spiders and flipped to the section. He knew much of the information listed there about the monsters, but wanted to make sure he hadn't forgotten any details. It had been more than a month since the last attack on areas this base was in charge of, and even longer since an attack from this type. Using the other binder to double check the power levels of the different squads, he formed a plan in his head.
About one and a half minutes after the alarm had been sounded, it switched off as Alfred began to speak through the announcement system. "All of squads two and three. All of squad four except Hannah, you're sick. All of squad six. All of you head to the Base meeting room. Royle and Elena from my squad, you two join them. Help to teleport since you aren't going out to fight."
Giving the members some time to grab their equipment and gather in the meeting room, he turned to the open laptop on his desk and opened the Discord. Sending out a message to the two Cartesians on his squad containing the coordinates they should bring the squads out to, he frowned at the screen for a moment before sending out another message.
Alfred W. : Can u handle that? Teleport as many as u can, those going out need to conserve energy.
While waiting for a response, he flipped through the files on the squads he was sending out once more, making sure he wasn't overlooking anything. The response came from Elena a good half minute later, no doubt she was occupied making sure everyone was ready.
Elena H. : ofc
Elena H. : Almost everyone's here now, ready? Royle's off getting one of S2 from work.
Not bothering to close the laptop or type out a reply, Alfred got up and half ran out the door and into the hallway, coming into the nearby meeting room less than a minute later. It was so close by, after all. As Elena had said, it looked like all the squads had arrived and were suiting up. As he walked in the door, Royle teleported in along with a man Alfred knew as Robert, still dressed up in a formal suit. Alfred didn't need to watch to know that Royle would go off teleporting some more to bring the man's gear to him faster.
Hurrying to the front of the room, he cleared his throat before beginning to speak in a calm and clear voice, a voice that did not reflect how he was really feeling inside. It was never easy to send out his comrades out to fight, especially when he wasn't going with them. But this time, he had decided it would be better for his squad to remain in base.
The Knights that were making small talk amongst themselves while getting ready fell silent immediately as he began to speak, all ears for the commands he was issuing. He kept his instructions brief and to the point, for at this very moment humans could- no, were being preyed upon by those monsters. He ended with a heartfelt "Good luck" that conveyed everything he could not put into words.
Silently, the squads gathered around Elena and Royle and soon disappeared into thin air, leaving only Alfred behind.
10:29 am
It was hard to focus when thoughts of the battle filled his head despite his efforts to focus on the work he had yet to finish up. Alfred trusted the squads that he had sent out, knew they worked well together. The squads that had left had contained mostly more advanced Knights. He hadn't wanted to take chances by sending out inexperienced squads, death was the last thing he wanted. Death was never welcome, it being Christmas or not.
Still, that unfortunately meant that his squad was the only advanced one left, the rest were pretty much either intermediate or newbies. An unwelcome fact. Yet another sigh escaped him as he got up from his chair, grabbing his mug. He needed more tea.
Before he could reach the door, though, he was interrupted by the sight of a familiar amaranthine ball of light entering, causing dread to spike through him. Was it news about the ongoing battle? Had something gone wrong? Or... he dared to hope, was the battle over? His hopes plummeted as the sprite spoke.
"Severe threat spotted at Central Park, Manhattan. Same breed of Man-eating Spiders as earlier this morning, quantity of eight. Have begun feeding on humans within the area."
No. No, no no. This couldn't be... not occurring so close together. There weren't enough squads in the base to handle this properly, but they had to try. "What about the squads I sent out earlier?"
"Still handling the threat. No casualties."
"Estimate as to when they'll be done?"
"Hard to tell. Five spiders are down, four wounded."
Not welcome news, but considering that the four squads were facing ten spiders, five down and some wounded in less than 15 minutes was good. He tried to take comfort in the "no casualties" part, but it was not time to worry about those squads.
Just like he had done so recently, he sounded the alarm, slamming his mug down on the nearest surface as he lunged for the cabinet in the corner that contained his equipment. It was always being moved by him from his dorm over to this office, for he always made sure to keep it near him. Slipping a vest over his shirt, he continued to don his equipment as he spoke into the intercom.
"My squad and squad five. Get ready to go and meet up. Hannah, are you able to come? We'll keep you in the rear, but we could use your shielding."
A few seconds later, a ping came from the computer and the Discord that was still open.
Hannah G. : coming
Almost done with his preparation, many thoughts ran through Alfred's mind. The entire base would be vacated once he left, but that shouldn't be too much of a concern. Fighting the urge to sink into a chair and put his face in his hands, he buckled on a belt containing a few choice weapons. Eight spiders, two squads. Squad five was a strange mix of fighters, ranging from advanced all the way to a newbie who had only been training for around a month and a half, if he remembered correctly. Our base is too small. I need to plead our case at the next meeting to get us more recruits.
His squad could try to take on the brunt of the spiders, his squad was the most advanced in the base. It would be very hard to hold off six, but they would have to manage. That would leave two for squad six... and Hannah would join them. That would still mean that squad five would remain an incomplete squad, missing a Croscope. Strategy with such a mixed group would be hard. He often left strategy to the squads themselves to figure out, but with the situation they were in, he felt it would be safer to lay things out for them.
Darius would have to be their main offensive power, while Keira could hang farther back for her ranged attacks on the spiders. Hopefully her aim would be good enough to hit some vital points. The Shields would protect the teammates who needed to stand still to execute attacks, meaning that they would form the wall between the spiders and Amelie, Laura, Keira, and possibly Connor. Laura was back up for when teammates got hurt as well as general lookout, and Amelie could distract the spiders away from the attackers using illusions. If Brian was up to it, he could teleport Darius in to points that were harder to access so the Hammer could strike there before being teleported back out. Or else Brian could do it himself, albeit with less force. Connor, however, could perhaps slow time to give his teammates time to think through their movements. God knows everyone here needed more time to think.
Time to brief them on the situation. Instead of going to the meeting room to wait for them to finish arriving, he turned on the intercom again. This way they could listen while preparing.
"Alright, listen up. We're up against eight Man-eating Spiders in Central Park. They're feeding on the humans there, so another side job we'll have is to get them out of the area. All of you know about these spiders. They generate a cover that appears to be a blizzard to all except us Knights and them. My squad is taking on six, while squad five, you will deal with two. More if you finish early.
"Darius, you're the main attacker. Make disabling the spiders your priority, knocking out a few legs should take care of that. Keira, hang back and aim for weak spots and joints in the legs. Laura, as usual you're the healer and lookout. Stay well away from the front lines. Amelie, distract the spiders' attention away from your teammates to give them a chance to make surprise attacks from behind or below. Cayde and Hannah, cover everyone who isn't moving around. Brian, work with Darius to get him in to strike the weak spots, and then back out quickly. Keep an eye out for Keira's arrows, same goes for you Keira, careful not to shoot if your teammates are too close. Connor, try to slow time to give your teammates time to think. Take the opportunity to attack when you can."
Once done speaking, he was out the door and down the hallway to the meeting room. Everyone seemed to be there, including Hannah. She was pale and looked more tired than usual, but had a grim smile on her face. Determination, that's what he liked about her. She didn't give up easily. Striding to the front of the room, he motioned for Elena and Royle to join him. "Once you're ready, gather around Elena and Royle here, they'll teleport us out. Brian, you don't need to help. Save your energy."
As people began to gather around, he added one more thing. "If you have any questions, speak up now. We need to get going."
And... the battle begins. Hopefully everything was written out clearly enough, but if anyone has any questions or wants to know anything in more detail, just ask Canaryrose or me. The PCs make up squad five. General strategy has been outlined for the coming battle (if it can be called a strategy), though it's quite vague due to the sudden appearance of the Man-eating Spiders.
This will also be posted in the gm_notices channel in the discord, but I'll put the link in here too: 1drv.ms/o/s!AkAkKxHUhqqtaRa8CivzGyx7yik It directs you to a document that shows the information the Knights would know about these monsters. These have been encountered before and are not a new species, so the Knights would have been taught about them sometime or another. As they fight new monsters, the information will be added to the document.
Go ahead and write your characters up to the point of gathering around Royle and Elena, but don't write them being teleported yet, just in case anyone's character decides to voice a question.
