Okay, so I lied ... been scribbling this down in between bouts of studying since this morning. It's good stress relief.
I beat back the sudden urge to jump in and get some comeuppance. That would definitely fall under the header of 'Unwise tactical decision'. It would also likely lead to my acting out of a comic book cliche, which I was more than happy to be able to avoid.
After doing that, I repressed one to go find myself a tuxedo, cane, top hat, and start throwing foliage around.
As to what I was doing, and where I was? Mm. Watching, and up a tree, respectively.
The latter, because it was a good lookout perch.
The former ... well, it was more recording than watching. Specifically, a fight.
Though running battle could have been applied without stretching the definition very much.
And I was there because my earlier plans had been massively derailed.
First, by a surge of Materialization ripples that had resonated clearly and solidly with my Field harmonics.
Second, by the fact that the people I'd been about to go and surprise/annoy/deliver information packets to had gone out of town and towards said surge before I could do so - dragging along an APC's worth of Aries soldiers who'd been stationed in town for the duration of the President's visit and whom I'd managed to avoid when coming in last night. This morning. Eh.
And finally, because in the wake of the solid signatures of those Materializations, which felt a bit off from what a Slave's did, though not glaringly so, had come the all too familiar ripple blip that I'd last felt on the Remulus/Romus border.
Once I'd swung back by the office and borrowed one of the two Frames in its garage - like I said, we didn't exactly have manpower to spare in this town, though crew rotation kept runners from getting complacent - I was on the way, trailing both the Materialization signatures and the Aries vehicles doing same. The latter from a safe distance, though.
Which meant that, when the bulk of something I was pretty sure was a Slave - because the local fauna didn't include what looked like an, and I shit you not, giant flying facehugger-slash-fish - crashed through a corpse of trees some thirty or so meters ahead of the APC, tumbled, and then lay inert on the ground, I was cresting a wooded rise off to one side of that forest road and had a decent view of the proceedings.
The gnarled looking tree I'd stopped the Frame by and leaned it against provided a perch.
I was watching again by the time the APC and its trailing all terrain vehicle had both come to a rapid halt.
The woods beyond the treeling from where the Slave had been thrown suddenly physically rippled, a bulky dark clad form leaping up and away from the distortion and alighting on higher ground. Which wasn't hard with the sort of rocky terrain we were in.
I was distracted from observing the figure's actions further by the brilliantly glowing chakram flashed through the air, slammed into and through the APC's front, and erupted from its opposite side before arcing back the way it had come.
The image that came after that made me pause and make sure I was double backing the binoc's recordings. It would have looked amusing in any other circumstances. Two metallic forms, one barely managing to keep on its feet, the other supporting it though little taller than a kid itself, and with the chakram from earlier hovering above his/her head like a halo.
The taller one moved like she - well, the curves were right, armor covering every inch of the body aside - barely managed to put one foot in front of the other, and when she reached the Slave she reached out, placed a palm against it ...
The Materialized beast shuddered as what looked like a wormhole shot open above it, pulling its beaten corpus in and snapping closed immediately thereafter.
Which was when everybody's attention was riveted to the area where the ripples had occured. With good cause, since the trees there were abruptly uprooted and thrown into the air as another Slave charged. This one far more massive than the fish-facehugger-thing. A giant of grey, gold and red that seemed a fusion of a beast of some sort with a chariot. Which could fly. And was charging through the air, massacred woodlands in its wake, towards the still black clad figure.
Definitely one of those - you have to have seen it to believe it - things.
There and then, I felt the characteristic ripple I had when still back in Lutetia, centered on the figure. The zoom of the binocs was enough to let me see that all the bulk it carried, which had seemd oddly angular before, was some sort of armor. Solid, flat black colored, cumbersome looking ...
The air around it was momentarily speared by scores of ice spikes, which simply snapped into being ... feeling like they were Materializing around it ... before shooting forward with a wave of its hand.
The charging Slave wasn't stopped by the onslaught, though. It was hardly phased ...
... which was when I noticed the figure wasn't where it had been standing, but rather ... in the air, leaping towards the attacking beast ...
There was a flash of metal against metal, and I realized there had been someone riding the beast, and the the figure and that someone were now in the process of duking it out on top of the flying Slave, twin swords against armored gauntlets.
And a moment later, the figure's right arm was severed cleanly at the shoulder, the twin short sword wielding red-head who'd done it - the Slave's Lord if I guessed right - grinning in triumph ... before being bodychecked by her opponent's far greater mass when said opponent refused to as much as flinch at the loss of a limb.
Later, when rewatching the footage, I'd see the figure's remaining hand snatch something from the red-head's belt as said red-head went tumbling from her Slave.
The signatures of Materializing Robes flared, even as the falling red-head hit the tree-line, Slave diving down after her.
Yes, Lumen and Ketos got the shit kicked out of them, and the Aries and Garderobe contingent only arrived to see the ending theme of that particular battle.
Smith didn't show up to snatch what Aswad grabbed from the ruins because ... well, why bother when you've got someone else to do it, and they needed a better field test than just playing with normal troops anyway.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
I beat back the sudden urge to jump in and get some comeuppance. That would definitely fall under the header of 'Unwise tactical decision'. It would also likely lead to my acting out of a comic book cliche, which I was more than happy to be able to avoid.
After doing that, I repressed one to go find myself a tuxedo, cane, top hat, and start throwing foliage around.
As to what I was doing, and where I was? Mm. Watching, and up a tree, respectively.
The latter, because it was a good lookout perch.
The former ... well, it was more recording than watching. Specifically, a fight.
Though running battle could have been applied without stretching the definition very much.
And I was there because my earlier plans had been massively derailed.
First, by a surge of Materialization ripples that had resonated clearly and solidly with my Field harmonics.
Second, by the fact that the people I'd been about to go and surprise/annoy/deliver information packets to had gone out of town and towards said surge before I could do so - dragging along an APC's worth of Aries soldiers who'd been stationed in town for the duration of the President's visit and whom I'd managed to avoid when coming in last night. This morning. Eh.
And finally, because in the wake of the solid signatures of those Materializations, which felt a bit off from what a Slave's did, though not glaringly so, had come the all too familiar ripple blip that I'd last felt on the Remulus/Romus border.
Once I'd swung back by the office and borrowed one of the two Frames in its garage - like I said, we didn't exactly have manpower to spare in this town, though crew rotation kept runners from getting complacent - I was on the way, trailing both the Materialization signatures and the Aries vehicles doing same. The latter from a safe distance, though.
Which meant that, when the bulk of something I was pretty sure was a Slave - because the local fauna didn't include what looked like an, and I shit you not, giant flying facehugger-slash-fish - crashed through a corpse of trees some thirty or so meters ahead of the APC, tumbled, and then lay inert on the ground, I was cresting a wooded rise off to one side of that forest road and had a decent view of the proceedings.
The gnarled looking tree I'd stopped the Frame by and leaned it against provided a perch.
I was watching again by the time the APC and its trailing all terrain vehicle had both come to a rapid halt.
The woods beyond the treeling from where the Slave had been thrown suddenly physically rippled, a bulky dark clad form leaping up and away from the distortion and alighting on higher ground. Which wasn't hard with the sort of rocky terrain we were in.
I was distracted from observing the figure's actions further by the brilliantly glowing chakram flashed through the air, slammed into and through the APC's front, and erupted from its opposite side before arcing back the way it had come.
The image that came after that made me pause and make sure I was double backing the binoc's recordings. It would have looked amusing in any other circumstances. Two metallic forms, one barely managing to keep on its feet, the other supporting it though little taller than a kid itself, and with the chakram from earlier hovering above his/her head like a halo.
The taller one moved like she - well, the curves were right, armor covering every inch of the body aside - barely managed to put one foot in front of the other, and when she reached the Slave she reached out, placed a palm against it ...
The Materialized beast shuddered as what looked like a wormhole shot open above it, pulling its beaten corpus in and snapping closed immediately thereafter.
Which was when everybody's attention was riveted to the area where the ripples had occured. With good cause, since the trees there were abruptly uprooted and thrown into the air as another Slave charged. This one far more massive than the fish-facehugger-thing. A giant of grey, gold and red that seemed a fusion of a beast of some sort with a chariot. Which could fly. And was charging through the air, massacred woodlands in its wake, towards the still black clad figure.
Definitely one of those - you have to have seen it to believe it - things.
There and then, I felt the characteristic ripple I had when still back in Lutetia, centered on the figure. The zoom of the binocs was enough to let me see that all the bulk it carried, which had seemd oddly angular before, was some sort of armor. Solid, flat black colored, cumbersome looking ...
The air around it was momentarily speared by scores of ice spikes, which simply snapped into being ... feeling like they were Materializing around it ... before shooting forward with a wave of its hand.
The charging Slave wasn't stopped by the onslaught, though. It was hardly phased ...
... which was when I noticed the figure wasn't where it had been standing, but rather ... in the air, leaping towards the attacking beast ...
There was a flash of metal against metal, and I realized there had been someone riding the beast, and the the figure and that someone were now in the process of duking it out on top of the flying Slave, twin swords against armored gauntlets.
And a moment later, the figure's right arm was severed cleanly at the shoulder, the twin short sword wielding red-head who'd done it - the Slave's Lord if I guessed right - grinning in triumph ... before being bodychecked by her opponent's far greater mass when said opponent refused to as much as flinch at the loss of a limb.
Later, when rewatching the footage, I'd see the figure's remaining hand snatch something from the red-head's belt as said red-head went tumbling from her Slave.
The signatures of Materializing Robes flared, even as the falling red-head hit the tree-line, Slave diving down after her.
Yes, Lumen and Ketos got the shit kicked out of them, and the Aries and Garderobe contingent only arrived to see the ending theme of that particular battle.
Smith didn't show up to snatch what Aswad grabbed from the ruins because ... well, why bother when you've got someone else to do it, and they needed a better field test than just playing with normal troops anyway.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm