Crowvette

Royal Rumble!

Andras

Andras nodded to Brutus. "I've got responses for anything!" She lowered her voice and added, "I can also just send summons forward without ever endangering myself..." She struck a triumphant pose. "I leave the defense to you, Aram!"

Inhaling deeply, Andras rose her voice to a yell, starting with a loud peal of laughter. "Kuhahaha! You foolish mortals would be best off surrendering now! Lest ye suffer the terror of a demon's magic firsthand!" Pointing dramatically with her holy spear, she ordered her angel towards the corridor exit, into enemy territory. "Be careful. They will be waiting for you."

The angel stepped into the doorway, on alert for any sudden attacks.

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Stella was slightly relieved that the killings became more creative as they continued. She thought that the work looked similar to what she did, but by now it looked closer to some kind of cultist murder-suicide party. Only missing a large assortment of poisoned drinks.

Though it was certainly a change from what she was used to, it was just another pile of bodies in the end. She had seen plenty of that already. The instant replays of the deaths was novel at first, but it had began to wear thin for her. She regulated her senses to tune things out as best she could without compromising her awareness.

She stopped at the sight of the robe. It was floating, with no points of contact with the ground at all. 'Ah. One of them didn't get to the "suicide" part of "murder-suicide."' Stella kept still, even when it turned with its red eye glowing. She had trained herself to not react to the sudden movements of people when she was invisible - a lesson she learned very early on in her life. Falling over in surprise or losing her footing would ruin everything.

She didn't have enough training to not react to a voice in her head. She instantly checked her hearing, but she knew before she even got the data that it was a voice that made no sound. Stella grit her teeth. It angered her. Nobody was allowed to touch her mind. It was all she had left now.

She gripped one of her knives. Under less distressing circumstances she may have waited for another party member to give an intention to fight, but this was over the line. There was no way this... thing at the end of a hallway of mutilated bodies was a friendly. She sheathed the blade of her knife in hardlight, and with a flick of her arm, she threw the knife towards the center of the robe. As it left her hand, the glimmering light of the knife lit up the corridoor briefly as it streaked towards the figure.

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Stella nodded at Kelan's goodbye. She felt like she should have said something more - probably complaining about being so sneaky about what the 'gift' was - but she couldn't think fast enough for that.

Stella clicked her tongue at Natasha's use of the word "kids." She wanted to snap something at this space hotshot, but she was on a mission. Arguments were the opposite of stealth. Stella after all preferred to end arguments before they began. She regarded Eldrid's statement instead. "A mage... Not our problem, as long as we grab Realist."

Stella felt a pang of apprehension. 'No doubt this mage will make himself our problem, though.'

She melted back into the scenery, turning invisible as the group began making their way through the ship. She took advantage of the metal corridors to walk on the walls. Being invisible was good, but not walking the same way as anyone else made someone much harder to detect. 'Another perk, then. I used to have metal plates in my shoes and gloves so I could do this. Now my entire chassis-' Stella caught herself saying something a human wouldn't say. 'Skeleton is metal.'

They didn't get far before they started seeing blood. As they progressed close to the core, the blood escalated into bodies. Stella dropped from her place on the wall to examine the scene. "This..." she muttered to herself.

'Looks like my work.' Stella finished her sentence in thought only. The sprays of blood, slashing and stabs...

"Looks like Kelan was right about there being others here." Stella spoke, not bothering to drop her cloak. The dead guard's arm briefly rose up, then dropped with a soft thud. "Do we have any ideas on who would be interested in this ship other than us?"

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Stella nodded. 'This guy is at least more professional than some of the others. Kind of a mixed bag on this ship...'

"I'll take point then. As for anything you need to know about... I don't think so. Unless you've got stuff inside you that is magnetic. I'll warn you if anything else comes up." Stella had already checked out the approach before finalizing the mission plans. Even though she didn't account for the extra person, that one could fly and stealth like her, so it was just a matter of leading by example. "We're starting the operation." Stella said calmly to her team.

Even without her stealth, Stella figured she could make it to the ship without being spotted by anyone. "If we see anyone on our way to the AI, make a note of their position and move past them if we can. No point in starting a fight until it's absolutely necessary." With that, she showed a quick demonstration of her cloak for Cole to reproduce before setting off. Even with her invisibility, she had to stay aware of other things. Her footsteps, breathing, disturbances of the environment. It was just like old times. Stella felt herself slipping back into the mission mindset.

It was fortunately fairly clear in this area and Stella managed to lead the group to the gaps in the ship's armor. Keeping her voice as low as possible, Stella spoke up. "This is it. Looks like they didn't even consider this as a potential ingress point." She attuned her palms and feet to magnetize to the armor, and climbed into the gap with ease.

Dropping down onto a steel floor, Stella looked around quickly. "It's clear... Enough." She didn't have any scanners or anything, so she couldn't be certain. Being able to turn invisible had changed Stella's perspective on what a "clear" room is, after all.

'Better plant this.... thing before anyone shows up.' Stella wasn't sure what the device she was holding in her hand was. She only hoped that if it exploded, it wouldn't go immediately. She primed the device and planted it once she was sure her team was in with her.

Royal Rumble!

Good to see you're safe. Can't wait for your return!

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Stella clicked her tongue, slightly annoyed. "I suppose it's fine, but... This isn't something you just say 'Oh by the way,' about!"

She pushed aside her exasperation with a sigh. 'I guess not everyone operated like I did... To be fair, I rarely worked in pairs, let alone threes.'

Stella briefly pulled Kelan's "gift" from her bandoleer and showed it to the two. "The plan is to sneak aboard the ship and deliver Kelan's device to the hull breach in coordination with the decoy team, and use the distraction to extract that target. If you can replicate my stealth, then we should be fine with you coming along." Stella went over the plan again in her mind. Another person added to it wasn't much of a change, so this would work just fine. Perhaps her brother in arms could even offer something useful for the mission. "Flight could help with this, I suppose."

Stella turned to Reisus. "So, will I be on point, or will you?" Her hand instinctively rested upon her sheathed knives. "I'm not sure if everyone else is ready to start, but I definitely am."

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Stella had managed to rifle through the lockers until she found something she could wear. Not much in the way of armor, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about the mechanics of a skirt or her casual clothes. She pulled over the black tank top and fastened the bandoleer that Kelan gave her, then rolled up the over-large pair of shorts that she had procured. Though she was pretty sure they wouldn't get caught in her cybernetics, she didn't want to test it. Especially if she had to run from something like a tank.

After the touch-down, Stella maneuvered over to Reisus. She actually felt a slight bit of apprehension as she stepped up to the man. He was a little imposing to someone as young as Stella. 'A little different from Kelan, huh... I guess that's an understatement.' She averted her look when she realized she was staring at him. Stella took a deep breath. 'It's a mission. Get a grip.'

"Ahem. Reisus." Stella made the sound of clearing her throat. "Have you been briefed on the infiltration plan?" She patted the pocket where she was holding Kelan's gift absentmindedly.

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Stella had instinctively shirked away from the disembodied arm that had poked her. She wasn't really scared or anything... But personal space was important. She decided to not say anything to it either way. There are probably only so many ways a hand could greet someone.

Handling the "present" carefully, she weighed it in her hands, thinking about how far she might be able to throw it. "Right. So I should try to deliver it to the breach, but barring that possibility... Use it as I see fit."

Stella looked over her uniform and pondered how she'd carry the present before remembering that one of her questions remained unanswered. "Do we have any clothing that's more... practical than what I have currently?" Stella asked Kelan. "I don't even have a place to keep my knives, and we're awfully close to deploying to this mission."

Stella bit her lip. 'I really hope he didn't answer because he knew there was nothing on board. I can't work in this getup.'

Royal Rumble!

Andras

Andras shivered as the wind picked up... Of course, this wasn't any natural phenomenon, considering they were in a dome. That means... "The wind.... Is troubled today. It speaks of forbidden magi-"

That was when the first shell exploded, which totally threw Andras off of her monologue game. She let out a squeak of surprise and quickly scrambled away, clutching her spear. One she deemed she was clear of the salvo, she turned to her angel, and nodded. The angel would use its flight to see what the enemy was doing and quickly report back, before any explosions actually managed to hit someone.

To Andras's surprise, the Angel returned back to her before even reaching the height of the dome. Apparently the blizzard made it both hard to fly that high, and impossible to scope out the enemy's positions. As the angel dusted ice off of its armor, Andras sighed. "We can't see what's going on with that blizzard, so..."

She looked at her hand. If anyone tried a straight shot at the flag, she could stop them with a tidal wave, but that would only work on the defensive side. Using the powerful Furnace of Rath would probably deal with the blizzard, but... The enchantment would cause some serious collateral damage. She didn't want to use her draw spell yet, either. "I'm going to advance! Let's see if all they've got is just bombs and wind!" She nodded to her teammates, and started a brisk jog towards the center of the arena. In between the salvos of artillery, of course. She kept her angel in front of her, just in case.

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Stella grimaced a little at the reaction to the scan Legion gave. 'Even he can't help being surprised.' She tried to keep her cool as best as possible, but she didn't feel like asking any questions either. 'At least he's just reacting to me, and not any glaring hazards to my health... I think.'

She filled out the datapad as well as she could, before curtly excusing herself.

---

Stella had taken some time to prepare for a mission, but it was mainly just playing with some of her prosthetic settings. She didn't even have to stretch. She also didn't have any tactical uniform ready, which she only realized after she had tried to figure out where to sheathe her knives. 'Another thing to ask whoever the armorer is about.'

She strolled over to Kelan's room. She was, after all, the most likely to be able to succeed with his plan. She tried her best to seem professional - or as professional as a girl dressed in casual clothes could be. "Kelan? I'm ready for this mission." She said, knocking on the door. "Or... I may need a few things, actually." Stella muttered an afterthought as she tugged at the end of her skirt.