Saltwater Thief

Neo Sorairo

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Things had gone swimmingly at the second sensor. Akari had taken the backpack up to change the battery while Lucia and R.R. had stood watch, and nothing had happened. Not a single invader in sight, not even an incidental wandering one. It had been quiet and easy. Eerily so, in fact. And it was bothering Lucia. True, the mission was meant to be a simple and direct one, but given the invaders they'd fought off earlier, for there to be no presence at all here... something wasn't right. She had no evidence toward that, but her gut was rapidly pressing the notion upon her.

"R.R, do you suppose-" she started to say, before a large explosion in the distance tore her attention away. Within seconds she was switching to the global comm channel. "This is Lucia of Team Novae, what just happened?!" A dozen seconds passed, with no sign of an answer coming in. Now she was beyond concerned. Something had DEFINITELY gone wrong, and if her ears weren't mistaken as she trained them in the direction the faint, but continuous noises of explosions, impacts, and plasma fire indicated it was still going wrong.

“Holy shit, whatever that is, it sounds like it has fucking power!” R.R. said with a grin. It didn't take much to guess what she was going to do.

There was no time for doubts. "And our help may be needed against it. Allons-y!" she declared with a look around at her team and their guest before turning and taking off at a full run in the direction of the explosion. As she ran, Lucia recalled the map of the sensor range; based on the direction and volume of the blast they'd heard, she had to guess it was one of the more distant beacon sites from them. It would take time to get there; she only hoped it wouldn't take too much. Sounds of active combat grew louder and louder as she moved, and eventually she started running past, around, and occasionally through a fleeing invader scrambling to go the opposite way. Eventually, however, she started to get a glimpse through the trees she was traversing of what the commotion was; a more powerful Invader had happened upon the operation site, larger than the small fry and much more aggressive, and most of the other teams had converged to try and deal with it.

Fashionable lateness it was, then.

As she cleared the tree line to bring the entire field of combat into view she turned her attention to what the other teams were doing. Particularly Falk, who'd indicated he was using heavy ordinance, and anybody else who was throwing wide area attacks. While they commenced their barrage, Lucia turned and bounded up some exposed girders in a destroyed building nearby. Once she was atop the roof she looked down to double check her bearings, watch for a gap in allied fire, and try to get a read on the BIg One's movements. When she saw a chance to strike she long jumped over the edge with her sword drawn, and with a burst of energy from her boots she was flying toward the Invader from above, her sword poised to plunge straight into it!

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

Alexander blinked. A giant squirrel? He probably shouldn't have been surprised, given his association with gigantic birds, but somehow a squirrel of that size seemed hard to imagine, let alone one that could cause harm. But the whole idea was swiftly ruled out regardless; fairies it was. Maybe. Whatever fairies were. "I'm pretty set as far as tools are concerned," he said as he patted the small of his back where his dagger still was. He'd been in plenty of fights before, he was sure he could handle anything the in between might throw. And if it turned out to be something he couldn't fight, well... there was always the oldest and noblest of pirate traditions, wasn't there?

"What about weather? Should we be ready for cold, hot, rain, sleet, typhoons, all of the above?"

On the Verge of War, new leaves spring.

@KillBox Since it seems like Abigail is not able to post for this round, I think our squad is ready for a GM post

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

And then there was seven of them. Well, Alexander thought, smaller crews often did better. It seemed they were headed for a place called the In-Between. Astrid suggested heading to Boston to get there, apparently she knew of the place by a different name, but Kade... Kade seemed entirely unenthused about the prospect. "Kade?" Alexander asked, "Everything alright? Or is the In Between something we should all be worried about heading into?"

Neo Sorairo

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@TheWindel@Mr Nim@MsMorningstar

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"That sounds fine to me," Lucia replied as Kuni mentioned the shortest route would involve a moderately steep hill, "A little hill workout won't do us harm."

Another transmission came in on the global channel, and this time R.R's name came up. The Striker replied by practically begging them to keep quiet about her presence, though for what reason Lucia couldn't say. She glanced to her Gunner and Linker for a moment, and when neither one of them seemed to have any objections Lucia spoke up.

"Alright then," she said, "We'll keep our mouths shut for now. Let's keep moving, shall we?"

She set the backpack with the batteries down near Akari, since it would be her turn to change the next one, then started walking toward the hill. When she got to the base of it she quickened her pace to a mild jog to get up it, and at the top she took time to survey the area from the slightly increased height.

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

It didn't take long for Alexander to turn around after hearing Sumi offer a quest. He'd heard about them once, when he'd asked Kade why it said that over the door, but he'd never understood the aversion. Going on adventures was how you got things done, after all. And now here Sumi was, asking if anybody wanted to join one with her. Naturally, a dozen of the younger kids immediately volunteered- nothing was more attractive than things you'd been told to never do, after all. Also, he noted out of the corner of his eye, was that Astrid was set on going.

What took him most by surprise, however, was Eleanor. He'd glanced at her for the briefest of moments, to see how she was reacting to Sumi's forwardness... and the school matron was smiling at the back of her head. It was only for maybe a second, and then the smile was gone, perhaps because she'd seen him looking. But it had been there. Alexander sighed briefly, then calmly raised his right arm. Elbow bent and with only index and middle fingers extended, the raising had the tone of 'What the hell, might as well' rather than any kind of excitement.

"What?" he asked as a few of the younglings looked at him quizzically, "Someone has to help keep you fledglings out of trouble."

On the Verge of War, new leaves spring.

Shimura Kanzaki

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@FourthKing@KillBox@Kurisa@AbigailTenshi

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Yarin seemed like a nice girl, if a little shy. That was nice. Pity she would only be with them for this mission, but perhaps they'd meet again as journeymen shinobi. It was something to work toward if nothing else, Kanzaki decided as she returned Yarin's smile. Once they were outside, the shape and scope of this mission became clear- a test, it seemed. Well, this was nothing new to Kanzaki, her sword teacher liked to give her one of these every couple of years. In this case it was a matter of retrieving a kunai deeply embedded in the tallest cliff in the village. Judging by his words and the extremely recent formation of their team, this would be a test of cohesion and how well they could work together immediately to solve an issue.

Shikkaru was already heading off, keeping himself to a low pace so they could catch up shortly. Kanzaki could handle him taking the lead, she decided. Rather than follow immediately behind down the street, however, she quickly hopped up a stack of crates in a nearby alley and began running along the rooftops, keeping her eyes open for any signs of tricks or traps ahead. She offered Shikkaru a nod once she caught up with him, then turned her attention back to watching her own footing.

On the Verge of War, new leaves spring.

@KillBox So, not to be a pain, but is there anything of note as far as the terrain between us and the cliff in question? Is it mostly buildings and the like, or is there something else?

I'm also assuming our next posts should consist of taking off on whatever approach we pick, but shouldn't talk about reaching the thing yet?

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

There wasn't much that needed to be lit up on the ground floor. Nobody would be in the classrooms, although he stuck his head in each one to check anyway, and Eleanor's room wasn't something he would need to worry about. So, with the third floor taken care of, Alexander took one trip up to his own room on the second floor to make sure everything was okay- thankfully it was. Something nagged at him a bit, however, and he carefully slipped his dagger through his belt on his back and pulled his shirt down over it. Then made his way to the Dining Hall.

A lot of the students had already filed in by then, and there was already a large cleared space in the middle. So, with the handful of candles he had left, he placed and lit a couple around the various tables along the edge of the cleared space, then went over to find Kade.

"Candles are placed and lit," he said, "Brought the spares down here, they're about. What's wrong?" he asked, noticing Astrid looking in a very concerned manner at her phone.

Neo Sorairo

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@Mr Nim@TheWindel@MsMorningstar

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Lucia grimaced as R.R. responded to them. The girl's speech was always so vulgar. But, she was technically ranked above them, so Lucia kept her tongue in her mouth on the matter. And, regardless of her opinion of the girl, R.R. had a proven record in combat; the mission at hand would really only be smoother with her tagging along.

"Very well," she said as she strode over and picked up the backpack containing the new batteries where she'd dropped it before the fight broke out (Writer's Note: *cough*), "Let's continue then. After you, R.R. Kuni, if you could continue scouting... and make sure we're going the right way? Let us be off."

It didn't take long for the first of the two sensor arrays to come into view. The trip there contained no further troubles, any scattered Invaders being scarce if they could be found at all, and nothing at all close to a size or number large enough to be a threat. While they were walking, however, a call came in on the global channel and Lucia called a brief halt to listen to it.

"This is Tian-Gui Jian of Team Afterglow. Our Gunner, Cellica Karris, has gone missing. If you find her, check to see if her comms are working, and reply to us immediately. We will be heading to Point D-4 right now. Thank you, and have a nice day!" That gave her pause. Cellica was missing? Had something happened? Was it possible she was hurt? What if-

Lucia mentally slapped herself. Fretting about this would do her no good, and neither would bolting out into God knows where trying to find Cellica. Her roommate couldn't have gone far, and regardless of that she was still in the middle of a mission. The first step, she reasoned, would be to finish her own tasks. Then, if Cellica still hadn't been found, they could switch to a search and rescue. But nothing good would come from abandoning the current task. So she quickly relayed the information to the rest of Novae, resolved to look deeper at the surrounding areas for a missing Linker, and kept moving. Soon they were at the foot of the array.

"Alright," Lucia said as she laid the batteries down again and took one of them out, "I'll only be a moment. Akari, R.R., if you'd keep watch? Merci." With an almost playful tapping of her heels together she boosted herself up to to the top in a single bound, and quickly made her way to the power hatch. It was really no different from changing the batteries in a smoke alarm or a digital clock, just all the pieces were a bit larger and heavier. She was done in less than five minutes, and soon was leaping off the edge to land on the ground with a heavy thud.

"And that's that," she stated as she put the old battery beneath the second new one in the backpack, "Where to for the other one?"