Starlance

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

Rachel was momentarily taken aback by John’s display, never having came into contact with a high magic user before. Though she was glad she wasn’t the only one going out of her way to reduce the bodycount. After all, all carving a bloody path through the known universe would accomplish is bring the hammer down on them sooner.

With both the Ascendancy soldiers and the tank preoccupied by John, she took the opportunity to take a good look around. But aside from fallen soldiers, many still alive, but out of the fight due to numerous fractures courtesy of her favorite fighting technique, there wasn’t much that could be used against the tank. “Maybe next time you should do the stuff you actually were quite good at during the war, not the stuff they had you do when your abilities didn’t turn out to be to their liking.” a voice in the back of her mind nagged at her. No doubt the infiltration team was enjoying their stroll through the ship. If only they’d hurry up. Unless…

Rachel’s gaze fell upon a soldier shuffling away from the fight, missing his helmet and dragging his leg behind him. Best candidate around. She reached out and watched with slight amusement as the poor sod tried to grasp why the gravity suddenly shifted from ‘downwards’ to ‘backwards’. Upon realizing he came to rest at the young rebel’s feet, he scrambled for his sidearm, only to have it break free of his shaky hands and land in Rachel’s palm. Her hand swooped down at his unprotected face and he braced himself for another painful strike. Except it didn’t come. Instead, the young insurgent just touched his forehead, there was a brief strange feeling and that was it. Little did he know she’d just relived half his memories since he entered boot camp.

“Thanks,” she said, tapping her temple with her left index finger, triggering her mind control spell. “Now scram.” The soldier pulled himself up without a word and limped away. “Tank’s CO has got a blind spot between the turret’s fifth and eighth o’clock. Probably the best way to approach.” she called to her teammates. She used the fact that most people were paying attention to the unchained mass of white liquid instead of her and moved to a different, slightly elevated position. In addition to ‘reviewing’ the basics and learning the orders of the local Ascendancy forces, she learned from the soldier’s mind that the tank was equipped with incendiary infantry suppression charges. The soldier she ‘questioned’ seemed to believe it would prevent anyone from getting close to the tank, a view likely held by the tank crew as well. They wouldn’t like it when the anti-personnel lining would not ignite upon firing. She only wished she could influence the tank commander’s mind directly. “Think one of you can open that tin so I can get to the crew?”

Stargate Tempest - Maiden Voyage

Larry Pickett

Race: Human
Age: 34

appearance

Height: 167 cm
Weight: 70 kg
Hair: Black
Voice: Sean Chapman (Michael Sykes, Crysis)

Title: Major
Role: Military, Away team leader
Organization: Corps of Royal Marines
Skills and qualification:

• Leadership (company-level).
• Small unit tactics
• Mountain, arctic and expeditionary warfare.
• Rapid response.
• Communications technician
• Mountain leader officer

History: Larry grew up near Plymouth, in close proximity to the Stonehouse Barracks of the 3 Commando Brigade. After gaining his bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications at the University of Plymouth, where he also gained an advanced PADI qualification offered by the university, Larry joined the Royal Marines and passed the Potential Officers Course and entered the Royal Marines Officer training. During this time, he’s shown impressive endurance and an uncanny ability to navigate almost any environment.

It was for this reason he was approached after completing the training with an offer to take part in the Atlantis Expedition. The then-Second Lieutenant Pickett was sent to Atlantis via the McKay-Carter bridge and served in Pegasus between 2006 and 2009 as a member of Atlantis Reconnaissance team 9, a team focused on exploration and rapid response. In 2007, he was promoted to Lieutenant. When the Atlantis’ hyperdrive failed during the escape from Lantea and the city collapsed the shield to save power, his team leader was killed by vacuum exposure while escorting a pair of scientists trying to repair the city’s power grid. Command of AR-9 fell to Larry and he kept the post until Atlantis returned to the Milky Way to intercept the Superhive.

Following the dissolution and subsequent reformation of the expedition at the hands of the IOA, he did not return to Atlantis. Instead, in addition to the annual winter training in Norway, he took part in several exercises in Belize over the course of the year, gaining further experience with jungle operations. In 2011, Larry was sent to the middle east as part of Operation Herrick, adding arid environments to his resume and going on to serve several tours until the end of 2014 when the British forces pulled out of Afghanistan.

In the four years following the end of Larry’s involvement in Afghanistan in October 2014, he attained the Mountain Leader Officer qualification and was promoted to the rank of Major.

Stargate Tempest - Maiden Voyage

Another Person, checking in.

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

After spending her childhood on a subterranean colony without ever seeing the sky, half a war on planets with alien ecosystems and the other half on human planets torn apart by a losing war, Rachel enjoyed the trek through an ecosystem close to her ancestral home that, although in the middle of a revolution, showed no signs of carpet, or worse, orbital bombardment. Yet, anyway. And so, as they walked towards the wrecked ship, and possible death, she quietly begun to hum a tune she knew from long ago, back when she’d go to a small club a couple levels above her home every Friday and leave several hours later with the possessions of several strangers in her pockets. Good times, all things considered. Maybe when this was all over, those times could return. She could affect people’s minds, stealing stuff has never been easier.

She stopped when she started to hear distant sounds of the enemy encampment. As they got closer, more could be picked apart - conversations, some machinery. Getting into the bay was far easier than expected. The tank crewmen must have been looking the other way. Oh well, their loss. She took stock of flammable things in their surrounding, but was interrupted by a shift in the behavior of the troops. No way they’ve been found. Whoever was watching them, according to John, must’ve alerted the garrison to their presence. That’s done it, the first person to see them would become a meatshield, the others would become smears on the walls. And then they were upon them.

The first poor sod to lay his eyes on the group would quickly find himself suspended head down in midair between the rebels and his Ascendancy comrades. His armor and body should protect them from fire from that particular direction, but just in case meatshield’s friends had enough wits between them to realize what their grenades were for - especially since the three of them threw proper spacing out the window like a bunch of amateurs - she telekinetically grabbed one of the other soldiers and used him to sweep the others in that group off their feet. They would be back up in a few seconds, time to start cleaning house and hope the Ork, or anyone, for all she cared, would deal with that tank, and fast.

“Sniper fire.” she warned her compatriots, throwing one of the Ascendancy soldiers into the tank with bonecrushing force. Maybe the armor protected him, she wasn’t familiar with that model, but the lack of movement didn’t look good for the man. “Don’t know where it’s coming from, but we’re not the target.” If the round came at them, they’d hear the characteristic crack as the supersonic projectile passed by, but she only heard a distant *pop* of a rifle. Since Reisus heard her hushed ‘elevator’ comment across a busy room when they first met, she suspected he would be able to hear the shot, and thus saw no need to warn the other team. After all, if they were the targets of the mysterious marksman, they’d all know beyond any doubt. In the thick of the fighting, she paid no attention to the muffled explosion as the jammer exploded above the wreck.

Having cleared their left side, the meatshield has outlived his usefulness. Turning him around, Rachel checked his rank. “Aww, a common grunt, I hoped to snatch an officer.” she muttered, disappointed, and sent the man flying towards the tank. The end of his semi angered, semi panicked scream accompanied by a hollow thud indicated the end of his short flight. “Everyone else doing OK?” she checked the rest fo the group, particularly concerned for the Ork due to his size.

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

If Legion wasn’t a machine, she would have to buy him a drink. Well, she’d have to steal money to buy him a drink, old habits and all. Since he did some tech magic to her ears, all of a sudden she started noticing sounds in the background noise of the ship she was previously not aware of. Chances of being flanked by anyone while out on the job just went down significantly.

”So, I’m guessing setting fire to the entire area of a planet with a potentially friendly population, not to mention the ship some of our mates have to get to and then out of is not a good distraction. No guarantees for the bad guy mooks though.” she quipped upon John’s arrival. Damn shame there was no time to properly set up. Even the most humble foxhole would have been better than being stuck with whatever concealment or cover the environment provided, hoping they would focus on the poor Ork and pay no attention to her. She could already smell more drinks would need buying when they were done here. “And no offense to the big lad here,” She gestured to Orky following John’s comment about not being able to withstand damage, “but I doubt the tanks will care either way. How do we approach this, divide and conquer?”

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

Rachel knew her prosthetics were sensitive to specific environmental conditions and electromagnetic interference, but she didn’t expect to be forbidden from taking part in the mission. It would seem her captors made sure she was healthy, then got lazy and the lack of maintenance while she was imprisoned must have taken its toll on the tech. “That bad? Well, if you have time to do it, please do. I don’t see a reason to wait, especially if it was to get worse. I’d like to avoid turning mostly deaf again, believe it or not it kind of blows.” She hoped it wouldn’t go that far, the four days after the accident were enough for one lifetime.

---

Although ‘a few AT coilguns’ could only do so much against an organized group consisting of a tank, or an entire platoon, and the infantry escorts, at least they would not be completely defenseless once the sixty ton death machines got a bead on them. Merely knowing they had them made marching into no man’s land so much easier. Something recoilless would have been nice, but not every day was Sunday.

She didn’t mind being on the decoy team all that much. Despite her wartime squad’s primary purpose being reconnaissance and information gathering, the latter courtesy of her abilities, they had been tasked on many occasions to make as much noise as possible so others could go about their business undisturbed. It was only a shame they had to walk all the way there. And the return trip would be even worse, tired and potentially in contact with the remaining enemies, maybe even QRF.

“At least we’ll have surprise on our side at the start of the fight.” she thought out loud, “Bad guys likely won’t expect more than pissed off peasants and it will be too late when they learn the hard truth.”

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

@Stern Algorithm

Rachel took her time going to see Legion. At first she didn’t see a point in fixing something that isn’t broken, especially since the Rau’ve were quite thorough in their examination at the end of the war, but on second thought she had to admit there was some sense in getting a checkup when going to a new doctor. After all, Legion was a machine - it has literally done the math.

“Hi there!” she waved to Legion when she entered the sick bay, looking around the room. A habit drilled into her head over the years. A chair slid across the room, coming to rest at her side “If you don’t like tuning up cybernetics, you’ll be pleased to know I don’t have too many of those. Just some biotech in my eyes and cybernetics in my ears. The latter gets a bit wonky from time to time, it was an afterthought.” As a child, she imagined force recon units would work as a cohesive, disciplined team, or so she thought until that breaching charge went off without a warning and messed up her ears. Some training accident that was.

“Aside from that, I grew up in a dry and dusty environment if that’s of any concern.” she sat down, remembering all the seemingly unimportant things the previous doctors seemed interested in. “And had an irregular sleep schedule. Anything else you’d like to know?”

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

“Getting in and out of places undetected was my wartime bread and butter.” she turned to Kelan. Not that it always worked, but in hindsight, her failures to remain undetected accounted for nearly half her combat experience, proving once again the adage that every cloud has silver lining. ”Getting into the ship should be easy enough, provided we can get a lay of the land first. It’s getting anywhere once we’re in the ship that worries me. Since it’s a prison ship, I wouldn’t rule out internal security checkpoints, maybe even interior turrets, anything to hinder unintended movement inside, howevermuch of it is left following the crash.” Alternatively, the interior itself could be an obstacle depending on the severity of the crash and the damage that brought the ship down in the first place.

“That armored support could present a problem, though I should be able to create fires hot enough to white out their thermals once our cover is blown.” She scratched her chin thoughtfully. “Unless I can have a brief talk with some of the infantry escorting them. Outside of magic or equipment captured in the field, do we have anything that could be used against armor? At least for a mobility kill?”

TFL: Defiance

Ditto.

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

Blood for the blood god?