[IC] Broken Skies: War in the Eversky

[Deadnaut]

Aura carefully peered through her scope, her huntress's eye surveying the street before her. She didn't see anyone, at least not yet, but was soon aware of the sound of her fellows coming up behind her. All in all, she was a little surprised only Ekaterine had mentioned that she didn't look the part. Still peering down her scope, Aura smiled and said aloud to the whole group "Eka is right, I never introduced myself huh? My name is Aura Lockheart, a pleasure to meet all of you! I can't wait to have tons of puns and fun with you all!" And so, Aura now carefully considered Cole's words, would it be possible to make it out without a fight? Well, of course it was possible, they just had to be really careful! As such, without turning away from her scope, she cheerfully added to the elf "Well we could, but it woodbe pretty risky! After all, I bet they're hunting for us, so we have to treet the situation accordingly. Don't worry though, we'll all be fine! I'll definitely make sure we're completely safe!" At that, Aura removed her rifle from its perch and carefully opened the door, saying "Well, let's go guys! The ship is waiting, and we need to get there fast!" At that, Aura took off at a trot, humming cheerfully as she lead the party forward at a double time.

[Bazmund]

Daniel peaked over the top of the airship's wall, and cringed visibly when he saw the first pair of Heavens' Eyes enforcers marching down the ramp to the docks.

Dressed in dark, sanguine red, the white symbol of the Eyes on their lapels and epaulettes - an angular, rigidly stencilled eye, with a vertical slit for a pupil.- they came trooping towards him, rifles shouldered, as of yet unaware that they were being aimed at.

Gently, Daniel inhaled, and began to apply pressure to the trigger, preparing to take another life in the name of the IRIO - when they turned sharply to inspect the first jetty.

The Eyes didn't know where they were yet - a result, no doubt, of the misinformation and failsafe tactics employed by Ponta. A double edged sword, however, considering that rather than using a single, condensed force to strike at a known target, they would be out in force all across the city.

The others were going to have a hard time getting here.

But at le-

Before Daniel could finish thinking, there was a sharp shout from the end of the docks - a man barking orders. Not an officer, it was too... far reaching. Echoing in a way it shouldn't be.

Daniel turned his eyes towards the ramp again, and caught view of a tall man in a long black coat, with white trim, and the White Eye on his lapel.

An Inquisitor.

Fuck.

[vietmyke]

Sam had tumbled down the steps with the others, roughly pulling on his boots as he hopped down the stairs. Grabbing his sidearm from his side, and throwing a bundle of shoddy coats and jackets on the floor, he looked at the others. He'd never felt so relieved to be in the company of trained killers. Glancing around at the others as they spoke their piece, and nodded.

"Ariah is right, being inconspicuous is the the thing to do- at least, I'm pretty sure thats what the other spies would say. The dock is only a short walk away though, so there are only so many routes we can take." Sam said as he pulled on a tough leather coat and pulled a cap over his head. Aside from his sidearm, he now looked the part of every other dock worker in the city.

Hiding his sidearm within his coat, Sam nodded his head at the bundle of shoddy clothes. "Heavens Eyes' Enforcers are trigger happy, but they don't make a habit of gunning down random civilians in the street. With these, they'll at least stop you and tell you to identify yourselves before shooting at you- and if it comes to that, you lot look like you know your way around a fight." "

Now come on." Sam said as he slowly opened the door and walked out.

---

The trip to the docks took Sam but a few minutes, but he stopped before walking onto the wide planks. Enforcers were at the docks already, their jackets blood red against the orange lamplight of the docks. Sam wasn't much for stealth, and didn't imagine he'd be able to sneak past them to get to the ship- which despite being only a couple dozen yards away, felt like miles away. His hand gripped at the handle of his sidearm. All he needed was five minutes on the ship and he could get them out of there.

[CollectorOfMyst]

Cole grabbed a cloth cap from the pile of clothes, and pulled it down over his head, covering the tips of his not-so-pointed, not-so-rounded ears. That took care of that. Now... to figure out a safe path to the docks. He really hoped that it wouldn't have to come to a fight. Even if Samuel thought that Cole knew his way around a fight, it wasn't exactly true.

---

Cole stopped when he saw the docks. That was far enough. This was as far as he would go without knowing who was there. And if they had been on their way to the Ham Sandwich just as he and the others escaped... then the Heaven's Eyes would most certainly be here at the docks sooner than later.

[Deadnaut]

As the others grabbed clothes, Aura continued on her merry way happily, though allowing Sam to take the lead from her. It was pretty early, so she wasn't too worried about people seeing her rifle, but she did need to hide it from any Heaven's Eye soldiers, she supposed, so she tried to stay in the middle of the formation. Sure enough, they reached the docks with little trouble, though she was occasionally forced to cradle her rifle close to her chest to hide it in her jacket. Though, when they arrived, they were quickly forced into cover, a group of Enforcers seen in front of them, pulling guard duty no doubt. As they huddle low, Aura quietly whispered "Hey, guys, I can handle this! If one of you wanna make it easier though and take some down, that'd be great." At that, Aura carefully lifted her rifle to her shoulder and looked down the scope. Due to their close distance, she was forced to dial it back to its lowest magnification, but at least with that she was able to draw her bead. Releasing a careful breath, the weapon sight coming to rest on the heart of the man in front of her.

As she always did when preparing to take lives, Aura mentally repeated her prayer for the soon to die. "May your spirit be embraced by the nature around you. May you dance and sing with glee for the rest of time." It was hardly as solemn as many people thought necessary, but Aura thought it was good enough for her purpose. With her intonation complete, Aura began mentally rehearsing how she would do this. She picked her targets carefully, starting with those farthest from the group and working her way closer, prioritizing anyone with something sterner than a basic rifle. She looked around, picking out the places she figured she'd run to for cover, and resolved to try and cover them, also point them out to her friends, noting "I bet they lay their roots behind those crates to the left, or the warehouse to the right." The ambush was planned, and so Aura took aim back on her original target, uttering "I'm ready to shoot whenever yew are."

[Bazmund]

However, before anyone could reply or take up aim, the Inquisitor froze, and turned around.

"Brothers... we are being watched." His voice came, echoing through the space of the dockyards ethereally, carrying further and deeper than any voice should.

He shifted, his gaze drifting between the ramp down to the docks - where the crew were - and the ship itself.

"Hunt. I should have known." He snarled, as he raised his hand, pointing to the Ascendo.

"That is the ship our dissidents are using! Board it immediately! I will deal with our friends in the IRIO personally." Cunningham growled, turning back to the crew, and striding up the ramp towards them, his fist clutching a talisman inside his jacket.

"You cannot escape the Heavens' Eyes."

[13org]

Ekaterine Volkov

"You don't seem heated. Come on though, at least be a little ready. We've got a place to be and by the sounds of it we should really think about getting there soon." Ariah answered, joining her and the others on the hall.

"Things are still calm, don't worry. I may look like this, but when the guns start blazing, I'll be ready." She answered him giving a tap on the rifle on her back.

Eka is right, I never introduced myself huh? My name is Aura Lockheart, a pleasure to meet all of you! I can't wait to have tons of puns and fun with you all!" The delicate sharpshooter answered.

"Aura Lockheart huh? She definitely seems to be an interesting one." Ekaterine thought to herself. The girl certainly didn't look the part. Cheerful, easygoing and happy, she seemed to be just a normal girl.
It would be interesting to see how that delicate thing would deal with death, blood and the cruelty that they would face while working together.

"Let's get going Ariah. The others are already on their way... Oh, and keep your weapons ready. We will probably have to spill some blood when we get there." She said, walking out without even trying to hide her appearance, after all, if they were smart enough to get the head behind all the operation, the probability of them knowing who was working with him were high.

---

When they arrived on the docks, it was just like she foresaw. A bunch of Enforcers were already there, probably on guard or searching for the Ascendó.

Spotting Aura and the other ones, taking cover from some forcers, Ekaterine and Ariah went near them, also taking cover.

"Hey again, Aura. Call me Kat." She said with a wink
"You have a very interesting personality for someone who gets paid by killing..." She said again, with a chuckle.

But they didn't have time for keep chating around idly.
"Brothers... we are being watched." The voice of an inquisitor echoed through the dockyard. It sounded... Inhuman and powerful.

"They know we are here." Kat whispered, immediately changing her tone to a serious and cold one.

"Aura, keep your eyes on the inquisitor who just spoke... Something isn't right... His voice doesn't sound... Human at all. I'll try to get him, try to take out the ones getting on the ship." She said her eyes focused on the inquisitor as he walked on their direction. He had one of his hands on his pocket, holding something.

"Get ready, he is coming. Let's see if I can deal with him quickly, before he uses any weird trick." She said, getting her knife in her hand and silently repositioning herself, using the boxes to hide her from the inquisitor coming on their direction.

Ekaterine was literally circling her prey, keeping her eyes on him as he walked up the ramp. Once he passed by her, she would pounce on him with her knife. On that age of guns and rifles, people were always very surprised to see a knife.

[CollectorOfMyst]

"Brothers... we are being watched."

Cole heard the voice, and glanced momentarily out of his hiding place. He found himself gazing at a sight that struck him to his very core... an Inquisitor. Pressing himself back into the shadows, he could feel his heart beating faster. An Inquisitor. He'd had his run-ins with the Heaven's Eyes during his time here, but this? This was already outside what he was comfortable with. He went out of his way to avoid Inquistors!

Then again, going on this mission had practically guaranteed an encounter.

But Cole saw Ekaterine, Ariah and Aura preparing to fight, taking up positions. Presumably Sam would be, too, but he wasn't in Cole's line of sight. Trying to breathe deeply and calmly, he reached inside his coat and pulled out the gun he'd never fired to this day. Carefully checking that each slot was filled, he turned off the safety. That might be about to change.

"...Gods protect me." he whispered.

[Bazmund]

As the enforcers trooped off towards the Ascendo, the Inquisitor's attention turned fully to the crew. Slowly, he raised his hand to his face, and grasped the mask around its temples, squeezing gently, and pulling it away from his face to reveal deathly pale, ashen smooth skin, with his mouth and jaw still covered by a thin veil of dark, opaque silk, and eyes that were so black that to look into them would be to visit an abyss.

He dropped the mask to the side with a tiny gasp of what would have sounded like pain, if it were audible. The world around him grew brighter in a way that only his changed eyes could perceive, and the crew's heartbeats became visible, tiny pulses of light varying only slightly in colour against a background that was coming into focus only slowly.

"You cannot hide from me." His voice came louder than before, reaching into your core and shaking it. "The Eyes can already see all that you are, children, and all that you could ever be."

He took a step forward, clutching the artefact more tightly in his fist, and tearing it from the thin cord that kept it around his neck.

"I can taste the guilt of your pilot, who abandoned his family to the treachery of the Iron Dominion, where gold and blood rule; I can hear the whispers of your scholar's fears of his own loneliness, sharp and biting; I can feel the pinpricks of your Dragonkin's weakness, like a sapling in the wind, or a greyhound on the run, only useful until it can move no longer; and most of all, I can smell the revulsion that your Dryad cannot ignore when she sees my face, my eyes, and knows that I am not a person as she knows it. I know all that you are, and you cannot hope to prevail in your pathetic mission."

"Just... give up." He half growled, half purred, in between a sharp inward breath, taken as if existence itself was just another pain to ignore.

[13org]

Ekaterine Volkov

"You cannot hide from me." The strange Inquisitor said, his voice sounding even louder than before.

"The Eyes can already see all that you are, children, and all that you could ever be." He continued his preaching, walking forward and clutching an artefact that was in his neck even harder than before...

"For fucks sake... There you go with the 'my child' talk again... You guys from the Heavens' Eyes are all the same... I can't deny that you hide some pretty... interesting things that I would love to put my hands into, but I just can't stand some of your more... fanatic members..." Ekaterine said, getting out of her cover and walking on the Inquisitor's direction, with her knife on her hand.

"I can taste the guilt of your pilot, who abandoned his family to the treachery of the Iron Dominion, where gold and blood rule; I can hear the whispers of your scholar's fears of his own loneliness, sharp and biting; I can feel the pinpricks of your Dragonkin's weakness, like a sapling in the wind, or a greyhound on the run, only useful until it can move no longer; and most of all, I can smell the revulsion that your Dryad cannot ignore when she sees my face, my eyes, and knows that I am not a person as she knows it. I know all that you are, and you cannot hope to prevail in your pathetic mission." he continued, talking about every single one of the other members, saving for her.

"Ugh... creepy... Are you a stalker or something?" she said, provoking him with a grin.
"Although I must say... I feel quite ignored here... You haven't mentioned my name even once in your entire speech! Is your ego so big that you forgot who is standing in front of you?" she said, spinning the knife in her hand, standing a few meters away from him, blocking his path.

Stretching herself with her hands behind her head, she made a discreet hand signal for the Ariah, who was probably watching, showing three fingers on her hand and then closing it in a fist, shortly after showing only two fingers and joining them together. He would know what she meant by that. While she and Ariah dealt with the inquisitor, the others would deal with the ones who were boarding the ascendo.

"You know... We can be more similar than you may think... We both know that information and knowledge can be sharper than any blade, and more valuable than any jewel. That's why you Eyes are so full of secrets... So desperate to hide this knowledge you have from the rest of the world. Your greed for power is the base of your entire organization, or I should said 'religious sect'?"

"But who am I to judge you? After all, I too, seek for more knowledge, and thus, power. But unlike you, I don't do it with religious purposes, or try to hide it under the guise that I am actually 'protecting' the others from this dangerous knowledge. I do it simply because I like it. I like power, and I like to kill. Its actually pretty simple. I like to know about things. After all, information is not only a weapon for me, but it also means money and even more interesting things to do and know."

"But the biggest difference between us at the moment, is that I'm currently, your enemy." Ekaterine said, stopping spinning her dagger and assuming a combat posture, low on the ground, ready to pounce on the inquisitor.

Before she could attack him, the best thing to do would be try to know which weird magic he would attack with, so she could estimate his abilities and make a plan to evade his attacks. She trusted Ariah. He knew what he had to do. After all, it wasn't the first time that her and Ariah needed to face a strong enemy.

[Bazmund]

The Inquisitor stopped a moment, and narrowed his eyes at Ekaterine.

"Psychopath. A barrier to The Sight, but only a small one - especially considering the simplicity of your own fears. For one who seeks knowledge, you truly know nothing. If you learn nothing else, you should at least learn what it is to be crippled." He snarled, before striking with the talisman through an empty patch of air, with a noise that sounded like sheet metal tearing, and a bright shower of sheer white sparks, appearing from the talisman as if from nowhere.

Meanwhile, Daniel was seconds away from opening fire on the Enforcers, having driven the bolt of his carbine rifle forwards, and caught the first one in his sights. Gently, he squeezed the trigger, and smiled grimly as the first man fell with a scream and a shower of red, the side of his neck torn by a bullet. As he lay on the dock, his whimpering fading as blood drained from his body, the second enforcer looked around in panic for cover, finding none. She too caught a bullet, this time in the head, putting her solidly down on the ground.

The third enforcer, however, was not so easily cowed, opening fire with his service shotgun, pumping and firing in steady cadence. Daniel was forced back into cover as the enforcer and his one remaining partner made their advance, and he looked desperately around for something to surprise them with - all the while, painfully conscious of the fact that neither he nor his newfound companions were even remotely equipped to take on an Inquisitor, let alone Cunningham. Generally speaking, it took magic to fight magic, and they-

- they only had a Dryad, and a Dragonkin.

Aura was their best shot, and if not her then Ariah. Of the two, a Dryad is more spectrally magical - in that the nature of the magic that turns a girl into a Dryad is not physical, but metaphysical. If anyone were to be resistant to anything that Cunningham could throw at them, it would be her.

Now he just needed to tell them. Or hope that one of them knew already.

[CollectorOfMyst]

Cole felt his teeth physically hurt as the metallic sound rang out through the air, clenching his eyes shut at the same time. He didn't miss that flash of light, though. Which meant one of two things. The Inquisitor had a light of some kind - or he had just used magic.

Cole had seen the talisman, briefly, but he'd never actually studied magical artifacts... the Heaven's Eyes had as much of a handle on those books as they did on books about the Ground. The closest he'd ever gotten was Biology, with a brief mention on how certain races were resistant to magic.

Maybe even resistant enough to fight back? He whipped his head around, searching for where he'd last seen the red-headed Dryad. She might not even know his name yet, but she needed to know this. A life might depend on it.

"Drya- Aura! You need to help Ekaterine! You - your biological make-up can fight off magic!"

[Deos Morran]

Ariah Lusias

Location: City of Solace - The Docks

Ariah heard the words of the Inquisitor and before long heard something that he wasn't too cheery to partake in. How he was only useful while running and what not. 'Damn bastard, who does he think he is? Nothing more than some pasty white, obnoxious, douchebag. That's what.' He thought to himself. Though shortly after that he watched as Kat left their hiding place at the Inquisitor's request, facing him head on and rather casually at first, but that mean he was given a signal to watch over.

Ariah watched Kat's signal from his hidden place and as she proved to once again be both long winded and already ready to pick a fight. Though when her fingers were done and she was ready for him to move be took his chance, drawing his blades and while staying low he kept to the side before dashing out of cover on the other side to flank the Inquisitor. Closing the gap quickly to see the intruder already ready for a fight and reaching for an attack.

In this moment he wanted to stay mobile and make sure that Kat wasn't in harm's way either. So dashing ahead he drew his blades wide and lunged for Kat, opening his arms and basically hugging her to spin and rotate around with her to stay away from the arc of the Inquisitor's wrath. From there he slowed and steadied himself to let Kat go, opening his arms and aiming his blades at the enemy. Yet to continue the fight he kept his distance, looking to avoid being too close when that Inquisitor did anything else he started to circle him like a hunter, "Don't worry Kat. I have your back. Now let's fuck this guy up." He said, continuing to pace around him, looking to spread his attention to make him vulnerable.

[13org]

Ekaterine Volkov

"Psycopath? Me? Well, I cant lie. I am a simple woman. I like to kill, so I will kill." she answered to the Inquisitor, licking her lips.
"What will you do to me? Come on, i'm waiting for yo-" she was going to say, but was interrupted by a terrible sound of metal and a rain of white sparks appeared to cover her.

For a brief moment, she saw nothing but white. The terrible metal sound piercing her ears. But thankfully, a very known voice and touch made her come back to her senses.
"Don't worry Kat. I have your back. Now let's fuck this guy up." Ariah said, holding her.
But something was wrong with her, she couldn't feel her legs. She couldn't even stand up. A terrible fear boiled up deep within her, her eyes widened when she realized what was happening.
But instead of terror, her eyes showed only rage. A deep hatred burning into her eyes, consuming every single ounce of her being. Every single cell of her brain screamed with rage.

"Ariah... I can't feel my legs... Take me at to inquisitor. Throw me at him, I don't care, just let me get near him." she said, with an unnaturally low and menacing tone. Her voice was trembling with rage as she put her arms around Ariah's neck, to sustain her now limp legs.

Her eyes fixed on the inquisitor. They weren't eyes of a human. Piercing eyes full of rage and bloodlust.
"I will make sure that your death is not a quick nor a clean one. I will tear you limb from limb, slowly watch you scream as I gouge your eyes out of your skull with my knife. I'll hear you scream I will break every single bone of your body. You will wish for death, but you will only die when I say so..." She whispered to the inquisitor looking to his eyes, with such rage that she couldn't speak normally nor scream.

"I"
"WILL"
"MAKE"
"YOU"
"SUFFER!!!" Ekaterine shouted to the Inquisitor, without even blinking her eyes, in a clearly insane stare.
Whatever it was that he had done with her, made her completely mad with hatred.