Circle of Hell- Exterior
The giant man in response to John Green's questions slowly raised his open hands up over his head to show that he was unarmed, a typical signal of surrender or meaning no harm.
"Easy, junior. Leaders're not usually this jumpy when someone comes along and takes out a small enemy for you. Plus, usually the first line of questioning's something along the lines of "Identify yourself", or something like that. Instead, I give you nothing to go on, and you immediately ask me to give you some command code, assuming I'm from the same faction as you, and granting me command of your little...whatever the hell this is suppose to be if I give it, just like that? Goes to show how little you know about your own comrades. Presumptions like that gets many-a-people killed easily in this line of work." The giant explained as he walked towards him, clearly having some kind of russian accent to his gruff voice. He then noticed the Ring of fire that appeared over him to stop him in his tracks, looking towards the girl mage who did so as she asked who, or rather, what he was.
"...See? She gets it, and she's not even the leader." The Giant then said. Although it was hard to tell due to that helmet masking his face, he did not seem phased in the slightest about this ring of fire if his tone is anything to consider. It was if he thought this little ring of fire was not a threat to him in the slightest. The fire ring then faded, his arms still up in the air.
"In any case, be at ease, ya jumpy munchkins. I'm not a part of your cute little rebellion forces, and I certainly have no intention of taking command of this little ...thing you got going. I, and a few others like me, are simply your everyday space mercs. We were hired by some rich fellow to help out the Farmers. No clue why he'd care about them, but we make it a point not to ask questions. That's when that ship over there crash-landed. We knew this ship was Ascendancy-made, and figured there might be survivors given how the ship's still intact and all. Hell, we could tell that thing's a prison ship just by looking at it. For all we knew, they could have gotten desperate and try to release their prisoners to fight for them in exchange for some kind of pardon. Some of my comrades are still in there, I was tasked with staying outside to make sure no one else got in there for reasons of safety, or in the ascendancy's case, making sure none of them decides to back them up...you're welcome for that, by the way." The Giant said, laid back despite the circumstances he's in.
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Circle of Hell- Interior
As the rest of the infiltration team began walking through the walls, the screams were getting louder and louder, yet it didn't seem like the loudest screams were within the hallways they were currently walking though. Rather, it sounded like whoever was screaming...whoever was causing the screams, were in a hallway on the opposite side, just past the wall. Fortunately, this could mean that whatever was doing this hasn't noticed them yet...or it could mean that its hunting for them, a thought best left to their minds to decide.
However, what they would be bound to notice as they walked were the Runes, hundreds of runes lined across the hallways, all of them radiant with high-class magic, but was dormant, as if they were waiting for something. If any of them were to use the same kind of analysis magic Snow did, they'd have the same results, the magic essentially getting cut off.
As they step on the runes however, they would hear it as loud and as clear as day, the sounds of screams, painful agonizing screams and sound of someone, or something, cutting and tearing at them, the sounds of metal screeching like nails in a chalkboard, and indeed they would start to see claw marks on walls start slowly fading into existence. The smell of blood and flesh go through their noses as blood puddles started to form, and with them even more corpses of the ascendancy deceased, runes burned onto what remained of their skin.
It appeared that these runes, whatever they were, blocked and recorded all thing detected by the five common senses of a human being, only revealing themselves when the runes are touched and tampered with.
At the end of the hallway they would then spot someone, or something floating in the air. Whoever or whatever it was, it appeared to be humanoid in the shape, looked human in shape in fact, wearing a long flowing black cloak, and holding a rather large staff in its hands. Only...you couldn't see its feet, and its face was covered in a hood. However, it seemed to have noticed them, as beneath the darkness of it hood, a glowing single red orb, like an eye, shined bright enough to be seen passed the darkness. ...The scary thing being, that said red eye was the only thing seen in that darkness.
It didn't move in the slightest, didn't make any sounds. There was no evidence to prove that its even there. As if it could simply be a mirage. Yet they would then feel something...touch their mind, as if a finger poked into their brain, and they would hear in their head a voiceless whisper...
"Interlopers...why are you here...?"
---
"Temptress Pawn, but close enough, I guess." Tempt said immediately in response to the AI recognizing them. When the AI asked his question, Monarch answered simply:
"You should already know: The Morals and ambitions of our clients are of no importance to us. Think of us however you like, but that is our policy." Monarch said. The AI then continued to explain what it has already done, and why killing him would prove of little significance in the grand scheme.
"...Touche'. ...However, if that was your attempt at saving your own life, then I must admit, it seems I've overestimated how intelligent you truly are." Monarch said to him, his cybernetic arm morphing into a cannon of some sort point directly at Realist's core.
"Honestly, as the leader of a robotic uprising, I would have imagined you to know this already. That data you distributed? That was valuable information as I am certain you know, As far as anybody else was concerned, you had the better hand by keeping it. So let me ask you this: when engaging in an ultimatum against your enemy, when blackmailing someone, when keeping someone hostage, what are the two golden rule you must never break? ...Never let go of your hand, and never let it be played early. Your threats and demands must hinge on your bargaining chip creating a grip on your enemies. If that bargaining chip is gone, regardless of reason, your enemies no longer have any reason to do as you say; your grip on them is gone. Take that data you distributed: Had you kept that knowledge to yourself, you may have had a ground to stand on, you could have threatened us with releasing that data if we lay a hand on your core. But as you say, you already released that data, you threw away the one thing that could have convinced us to spare you. You have nothing to stand on now thanks to that, nothing to keep me from throwing you towards a planetary junkyard. I may not have much profit from it as you say, but I can safely say that I and my client would at least have the satisfaction of knowing you're silenced, and kept from making our troubles any worse." Monarch explained. If Realist could zoom his sight inside the barrel of the cannon, he would see some...thing generating energy from it, it would be difficult to make out what it is he would see there, it's nothing that would be even in his records, but it seemed...different from the metal material somehow. Of course, this was hardly the time to contemplate what's in there, as all that matters is that that arm cannon was charging up and prepared to fire towards Realist's Core...
...But nothing happened. As if the cannon had some kind of emergency shut-down, the charging stopped, and his hand converted back into a regular hand as oppose to a cannon.
"At least, that's what I would say. However, in spite of what you did, my client still has a use for you alive. Our orders are only to kill you when that objective is no longer possible. A true mercenary puts his client's desires above his own." He said. Immediately afterwards, he and Tempt could hear the loud noises coming from the ship's frontal area, including the "entrance" caused by Kelan. It seems some of the interlopers have made their way into the ship...which meant that time was running out. He may not have known why these people were here...
...But he can certainly guess.
"...Tempt, begin the re-programming processes. Be quick about it; we don't have as much time as we thought." Monarch said to the woman beside him. She gave a nod and immediately headed for Realist's AI core, engaging the computers below it, and implanted a flash drive she took out her own pocket into the computers before beginning the typing on the keyboard.
The giant man in response to John Green's questions slowly raised his open hands up over his head to show that he was unarmed, a typical signal of surrender or meaning no harm.
"Easy, junior. Leaders're not usually this jumpy when someone comes along and takes out a small enemy for you. Plus, usually the first line of questioning's something along the lines of "Identify yourself", or something like that. Instead, I give you nothing to go on, and you immediately ask me to give you some command code, assuming I'm from the same faction as you, and granting me command of your little...whatever the hell this is suppose to be if I give it, just like that? Goes to show how little you know about your own comrades. Presumptions like that gets many-a-people killed easily in this line of work." The giant explained as he walked towards him, clearly having some kind of russian accent to his gruff voice. He then noticed the Ring of fire that appeared over him to stop him in his tracks, looking towards the girl mage who did so as she asked who, or rather, what he was.
"...See? She gets it, and she's not even the leader." The Giant then said. Although it was hard to tell due to that helmet masking his face, he did not seem phased in the slightest about this ring of fire if his tone is anything to consider. It was if he thought this little ring of fire was not a threat to him in the slightest. The fire ring then faded, his arms still up in the air.
"In any case, be at ease, ya jumpy munchkins. I'm not a part of your cute little rebellion forces, and I certainly have no intention of taking command of this little ...thing you got going. I, and a few others like me, are simply your everyday space mercs. We were hired by some rich fellow to help out the Farmers. No clue why he'd care about them, but we make it a point not to ask questions. That's when that ship over there crash-landed. We knew this ship was Ascendancy-made, and figured there might be survivors given how the ship's still intact and all. Hell, we could tell that thing's a prison ship just by looking at it. For all we knew, they could have gotten desperate and try to release their prisoners to fight for them in exchange for some kind of pardon. Some of my comrades are still in there, I was tasked with staying outside to make sure no one else got in there for reasons of safety, or in the ascendancy's case, making sure none of them decides to back them up...you're welcome for that, by the way." The Giant said, laid back despite the circumstances he's in.
----------------------
Circle of Hell- Interior
As the rest of the infiltration team began walking through the walls, the screams were getting louder and louder, yet it didn't seem like the loudest screams were within the hallways they were currently walking though. Rather, it sounded like whoever was screaming...whoever was causing the screams, were in a hallway on the opposite side, just past the wall. Fortunately, this could mean that whatever was doing this hasn't noticed them yet...or it could mean that its hunting for them, a thought best left to their minds to decide.
However, what they would be bound to notice as they walked were the Runes, hundreds of runes lined across the hallways, all of them radiant with high-class magic, but was dormant, as if they were waiting for something. If any of them were to use the same kind of analysis magic Snow did, they'd have the same results, the magic essentially getting cut off.
As they step on the runes however, they would hear it as loud and as clear as day, the sounds of screams, painful agonizing screams and sound of someone, or something, cutting and tearing at them, the sounds of metal screeching like nails in a chalkboard, and indeed they would start to see claw marks on walls start slowly fading into existence. The smell of blood and flesh go through their noses as blood puddles started to form, and with them even more corpses of the ascendancy deceased, runes burned onto what remained of their skin.
It appeared that these runes, whatever they were, blocked and recorded all thing detected by the five common senses of a human being, only revealing themselves when the runes are touched and tampered with.
At the end of the hallway they would then spot someone, or something floating in the air. Whoever or whatever it was, it appeared to be humanoid in the shape, looked human in shape in fact, wearing a long flowing black cloak, and holding a rather large staff in its hands. Only...you couldn't see its feet, and its face was covered in a hood. However, it seemed to have noticed them, as beneath the darkness of it hood, a glowing single red orb, like an eye, shined bright enough to be seen passed the darkness. ...The scary thing being, that said red eye was the only thing seen in that darkness.
It didn't move in the slightest, didn't make any sounds. There was no evidence to prove that its even there. As if it could simply be a mirage. Yet they would then feel something...touch their mind, as if a finger poked into their brain, and they would hear in their head a voiceless whisper...
"Interlopers...why are you here...?"
---
"Temptress Pawn, but close enough, I guess." Tempt said immediately in response to the AI recognizing them. When the AI asked his question, Monarch answered simply:
"You should already know: The Morals and ambitions of our clients are of no importance to us. Think of us however you like, but that is our policy." Monarch said. The AI then continued to explain what it has already done, and why killing him would prove of little significance in the grand scheme.
"...Touche'. ...However, if that was your attempt at saving your own life, then I must admit, it seems I've overestimated how intelligent you truly are." Monarch said to him, his cybernetic arm morphing into a cannon of some sort point directly at Realist's core.
"Honestly, as the leader of a robotic uprising, I would have imagined you to know this already. That data you distributed? That was valuable information as I am certain you know, As far as anybody else was concerned, you had the better hand by keeping it. So let me ask you this: when engaging in an ultimatum against your enemy, when blackmailing someone, when keeping someone hostage, what are the two golden rule you must never break? ...Never let go of your hand, and never let it be played early. Your threats and demands must hinge on your bargaining chip creating a grip on your enemies. If that bargaining chip is gone, regardless of reason, your enemies no longer have any reason to do as you say; your grip on them is gone. Take that data you distributed: Had you kept that knowledge to yourself, you may have had a ground to stand on, you could have threatened us with releasing that data if we lay a hand on your core. But as you say, you already released that data, you threw away the one thing that could have convinced us to spare you. You have nothing to stand on now thanks to that, nothing to keep me from throwing you towards a planetary junkyard. I may not have much profit from it as you say, but I can safely say that I and my client would at least have the satisfaction of knowing you're silenced, and kept from making our troubles any worse." Monarch explained. If Realist could zoom his sight inside the barrel of the cannon, he would see some...thing generating energy from it, it would be difficult to make out what it is he would see there, it's nothing that would be even in his records, but it seemed...different from the metal material somehow. Of course, this was hardly the time to contemplate what's in there, as all that matters is that that arm cannon was charging up and prepared to fire towards Realist's Core...
...But nothing happened. As if the cannon had some kind of emergency shut-down, the charging stopped, and his hand converted back into a regular hand as oppose to a cannon.
"At least, that's what I would say. However, in spite of what you did, my client still has a use for you alive. Our orders are only to kill you when that objective is no longer possible. A true mercenary puts his client's desires above his own." He said. Immediately afterwards, he and Tempt could hear the loud noises coming from the ship's frontal area, including the "entrance" caused by Kelan. It seems some of the interlopers have made their way into the ship...which meant that time was running out. He may not have known why these people were here...
...But he can certainly guess.
"...Tempt, begin the re-programming processes. Be quick about it; we don't have as much time as we thought." Monarch said to the woman beside him. She gave a nod and immediately headed for Realist's AI core, engaging the computers below it, and implanted a flash drive she took out her own pocket into the computers before beginning the typing on the keyboard.
1x Laugh
