The Changeling Crew
@thedman
"Hrm, we have a problem."
"Yeah I can tell, whatever they hit us with might not have torn us up, but it managed to hit something important didn't it?"
"Er... yes, they punctured a few of the transfer lines, we're venting stored energy like a sieve, and at least one struck the engine itself, we're not sure how deep the damage is yet, but it's misbehaving already."
"Great... Alright, seal the punctures, whatever way it takes, I don't care if we build up some pressure risks, we can't let it all just leak out. Start powering down nonessential modules to spare what we can, and take us in for a landing, we don't have much of a choice if we want to get things fixed up, preferably before we crash 'un'willingly. Pop off a lightning ball at minimum charge too, we should be able to manage that before we power down the cannon. I want 'some' kind of show for the shadowbolts that shows we attacked the rabid ones too."
"That's... we're discarding the veil entirely then?"
"Not much choice, their shots would've revealed us eventually anyway, and we can't hide so well from the shadowbolts, even if we escape this scenario entirely somehow... I'm sure it helps that they seem to have caught on we weren't hostile and focused on the other targets."
"Aye, looks like life is about to get 'really' exciting again."
Back in the ship, those strange creatures that had been failing to claw their way through the marine's armor tended to crack when they hit the floor and... deteriorate, before their eyes. They seemed to shrivel up and rapidly develop additional holes, quickly resembling the gray things that had been crawling through the walls, only to begin falling apart within moments.
The adjutant reacted quickly *Beep!* "Command acknowledged, priority targets shifted, acquiring targets." It blinked on a screen in it's commander's visor, sufficiently out of the way of his primary view, demonstrating what it was attacking... The sky in view was littered with small buzzing quadrupeds similar to those disintegrating on the floor at the moment, though they weren't quite as thick as a swarm of zerg tended to get *Beep!* "Primary target positions too low for full effective fire, targeting secondary threats with remaining turrets." The small ones were easily minced whenever struck by the larger turrets, though they were far smaller targets than the guns were meant to hit. Two on the correct side of the ship were unloading on a variety of much larger creatures with obvious resemblance, they were still dwarfed by an ultralisk's incredible mass, but they somehow contained enough strength to jostle the ship. Unfortunately very few were in a position to be fired upon by the upper guns.
*Beep* "It appears that several of the smaller unknown signatures are engaging our enemy." The video feed showed something not quite as large land in a blur that left it's target broken, then showed something impossibly resembling a creature from utterly 'ancient' human mythology, a griffon tearing into the next nearest behemoth, although it was well concealed by a bodysuit, mask, and armor, something that should give a clear idea of civilization of 'some' kind existing here. The air-space of the video-feed also occasionally revealed much smaller creatures zipping by too fast for a clear picture, but flying bodies tended to fall in their wake.
*beep* "Warning! Unknown ship had discharged it's weapon again." Another feed opened to show the ship itself, though there was smoke drifting out of holes in a 'wooden' hull, and it was clearly listing towards the ground... Still, there was what looked like a ball of electricity soaring away from it, and into the air-space over the ship... It didn't actually seem to be aimed 'at' the ship this time, and instead cast bolts of lightning into nearby targets, sending fried swarmers falling out of the sky... a clearly limited capacity existed though, as it dwindled in size before vanishing entirely.
Something else of note in the video feed, there was only 'one' type of creature crawling over the hull, the small fragile little monsters, there wasn't a single instance of the more horrific monstrosities that had been pouring through the walls. Alas, there wasn't long to observe this fact, as the Adjutant piped in again *Beep!* "Sergeant! Many of the large creatures are too low for the turret's Firing angles. Recommend immediate direct intervention by ground forces. The small aliens have not demonstrated the capability of damaging our armor thus far."
For Specialist Lee though, his attempt to 'vanish' might have brought a more unusual reaction than expected... Upon his disappearance every creature in the room froze in place, not a single one so much as twitched, it was a horridly creepy thing that left the bridge looking like it had been decorated with the images of horrors... Undoubtedly it creeped the fuck out of the bridge-crew that remained there...
Unfortunately that didn't last long, the adjutant chimed in for someone other than the sergeant for the first time *Bweeoop!* "Warning, Specialist Lee, Unknown Psionic wave-form nearing the bridge at high speeds." Though it sent the same warning to the sergeant as well, and provided him a third video feed of the bridge, which he might note appeared to be devoid of threats at the moment.
A moment later a beam of energy blasted through the window of the bridge and struck the deck, it appears something 'could' damage the ship here, though rather than an explosion it only left a sizzling and incredible heat wafting into the air as it melted a piece of the deck, and out of the landing point crawled... something. It was another instance of a larger version of the creatures the Sergeant had encountered, It was as tall as a human standing up, quadrupedal, but very lithe, almost sickly thin, it had a much longer horn than the others that was coated in a thick green glow and emanating psionic energy freely. It also behaved a lot less feral than the little ones did, moving it's mouth in a fashion that seemed to indicate speech, though all it produced was a horrid wasp like buzzing noise.
It was also worth noting that the alarms had exploded into activity with the presence of actual damage to the ship, and oddly the undulating red lights of the alarm seemed to cause the still frozen creatures to haze in and out of clear view.
The responders
@rune_alchemist@lugia@Ninja
It was important to remember, that there was a large volume of chasm surrounding the plateau on which the castle was stationed, though it was quite possible to find the obviously deliberately crafted ramp-surface that would lead down to the bottom of the chasm and up the other side, it would likely take far too long to make it back up without being caught in a vulnerable position... that said, going down 'would' give a chance of reaching a more suitable ground to fight, or evade, on, or perhaps a suitable place to hide.
As it turns out, blowing fire and going berzerk on something that one knows very little clear information on, isn't always the best course of action... Granted, it 'did' draw it's attention from the retreating ebon, the fire hardly seemed to do more than irritate the giant creature, though it did release an ethereal ground rumbling growl, it was quickly drowned out by the piercing screech of the 'environment', as if the forest itself raged at the continued use of 'fire' against it.
Interestingly, the thing he was attacking prevented the forest from striking out and potentially ruining the whole plateau.
"This one's fear, or was it hatred... for 'equines'?... it is a threat to my charges and will not be permitted to run loose!"
It was lucky that it was such a simple subject to work with as well, he could put forth a far more effective action without having to worry about conjuring something deific... All the easier as this rabid intruder had thrown itself 'into' the mire of darkness to claw wildly at an ethereal being with no physical body to claw apart.
Amidst the darkness would suddenly start coming flashes of color, solid 'bodies' being impacted by the flailing dragon, and more importantly, things trying to cling to him, by the dozens, colorful horrors from unreality had begun to swarm out of the shadowy mass around him, frightful rictus grins on their muzzles, they just giggled and relentlessly tried to shower him in affection... and worst of all, they didn't just cleave or burn when struck, something made them resist the ambient fires or the sharpness of claws.
Somewhere in the middle of all of this was a strange high-pitched sound that grew steadily closer
'eeeeeeEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
' Before it suddenly cut off with the sound of wind suddenly wooshing by... it wasn't particularly visible in all the shadowy mess he'd thrown himself into amidst that blind murderous rage, but something had also caused it to start raining inside the bubble of shadow to start piddling out the fires, hopefully before they could spread further.
@evanist
The forest around the ship was 'incredibly' thick, if anyone climbed up on the ship a bit or if they could get the sensors working well enough, it would be easy to find the other crash-sights, neverminding the smoke plumes rising above them... though, once one was in the forest itself, even with the sun rising unnaturally fast, there was very little light visible through the canopy and spotting distance objects was all but impossible without some way to move the trees, or to climb above them.
That said, sounds could still be heard, something in the distance was shooting something very rapidly, clearly evidence that something with guns still functioning was somewhere. There was also the ever present sound of angry wolves in some distant point in the forest, not entirely clear as to 'where' though.
Given the adorable size of these poor souls, the forest probably looked that much larger and more imposing... as might the creature that lumbered by in view, if far enough not to notice them yet. It was humanoid, twice their height and... appeared to be ridden by a couple of smaller creatures in odd clothing. none of them noticed the avali in the distance entering the forest.
@nevikr1
Alas, even for a native, the forest was a harrowing experience, difficult to see things in a distance, even with a map it could be a challege given that the forest tended to shift about every once in a while, vague directions were still manageable and that was all one needed in order to find land-marks, such as the more recently crashed ship that even he may have gotten to hear on his way to the forest, though all of the same signals could be heard for both new-comers just as well.
Something that only a native would recognize though, the sun rapidly rising to join the moon in the sky, certainly visible from that clearing, was a clear signal something serious was going on, and the princesses were preparing to act on it...
He might also spot a strange figure walking along in the distance, though in this forest 'in the distance' was a lot closer than one would normally expect, something taller than he was by quite a margin, bipedal, and dressed in red, heading off to the south somewhere, quickly likely towards one of the sources of noise.
@Rangingwolf@wanderingdragon
It was quite a show for some, all that fire... They maintained the repeating circular pattern a few dozen more rotations before curving up and into the sky, now that the fire had been intensified enough to last a while and push back the forest's approach, with the stone beneath it heated enough that the roots wouldn't risk pushing through...
One could certainly be forgiven for thinking they saw three in the air at the moment, the heat-distortion around the pair of them was intense enough to create blurs around them, though they hadn't been up there for more than a couple of moments before the fireball was tossed sky-ward to get their attention...
One of them quickly re-acted by aiming themselves towards it and giving a strong beat of their wings, hitting the projectile with a gust that would aim it away from the forest, before following the other towards the ground, though now with a lot less fire allover them, the pair of them landed with visible steam wafting off of them...
The actual third had actually been on the ground already, in the middle of the smokey mess leftover from the lightning bolt landing, and was soon seen stumbling drunkenly out of it, almost cartoonishly wobbling over to the other two.
They were probably an unusual sight, perhaps not 'strange' though, to such a varied collection of aliens though.
A trio of quadrupeds of somewhat varied height, though the on in the middle was the tallest, and the only visible details that weren't identical were colored tails and wing feathers poking out, and otherwise they were identical, clad in tight suits mixing black and purple gold trim, quite obviously armored in the same ways, and completed with a long aerodynamic mask not unlike ancient plague-doctor styles.
The tall one stepped forward a bit, while the one stumbling around actually flopped over onto their belly, earning a roll of the head from the lead, who quickly pretended it didn't happen "You're all quite mad aren't you? Using fire against the Everfree, though I imagine you're as ignorant as you are out of place here aren't you?" He had a feeling they couldn't understand him either way, but he seemed interested in trying anyway.
To them his musical voice almost sounded a bit jazzy, if middling in tone
"Heh, I'm not that big a fool even at my worst times."
"Heeeee... orangey... fire... farts... heeeheeee..." This one they'd heard before, yet even without recognizing their words, the sound was slurred and goofy, and shortly followed by the second one in the back using a wing to snap out and swat the other one on the head, with enough speed to create a small breeze, and only seemed to get maddened giggled out of him.
The lead seemed unphased by whatever had been said and continued on "Although throwing it over the cliff was a big unnecesary, not that it matters, it's still out of reach of the forest, and that makes it something of a bargaining chip."
