The elevator locked in place with another nice, solid kathunk, but I wasn't on it. I was already halfway across the level, having flown up the shaft and burnt open the elevator gate seconds after hitting the button.
I landed on the other side of the level... and barely stopped myself from slapping my forehead in chagrin. Where's the ambush? I was expecting an ambush. Shouldn't these guys be setting up defensive positions?
There were only three guards on this level- three highly bored guards, sitting in a breakroom off to one side of the unloading area. When they saw me, they jumped to their feet, fumbled for their Devices... and then got blasted back into their chairs, unconscious.
Okay, that was just sad.
Now, my objective is on the top floor. What's the best way to get up there? Elevator's too easy to take out or shut off, so maybe the stairs?
A quick examination of the floor revealed a clearly-marked stairwell, off in one corner. Only goes up four levels? Hooray for the first well-thought-out bit of security this whole trip.Eh, why not? I floated up the stairwell, took up a position to the side of the door to L4, and threw it open with a burst of grav-mana.
...wow, that's a lot of fire. Registering... five different colors of mana there. Not getting through that door without a shield up, and even then I don't like my odds.
So how do I beat this? Frontal assault's risky and/or doomed, I don't have the time to play it safe and snipe them, and I need access to that level.
Never mind. I've got an idea.
The door flew open again. In the quarter-second or so before the soldiers on the other side reacted, I got a good look at the room on the other side, and then pulled my head back out of the line of fire. Holding the door open (keeping it falling back into the room, technically), I waited for the mages on the other side to stop firing, and then yelled in "You couldn't hit the broad side of a planet if you were on it, assholes!"
Then I ran down the stairs before they could shoot me through the wall.
Level three was, fortunately enough, undefended. The rooms on either side of the hall looked for all the world like a call center I'd been in once- lots of cubicles, each with a headset and a basic terminal in them, and very few walls.
Okay, the barricade was 6.7 meters back from the door. That makes it... here. Thirty missiles ought to do it. [Fire when ready, Mal.]
[FIRING.]
After the dust cleared, I was faced with a slight problem. Okay, the light's gone, and so are the panels around it. Floor's still intact, though.[AMF DETECTED. MODERATE IN STRENGTH.]
Oh, really? Sensible of them. Guess I'll need to burn through it. [Arcane Buster, Malleus. Half power. Verify non-lethal.]
[NON-LETHAL MODULE VERIFIED ACTIVE. CHARGING BUSTER.]
The whine of my spell filled the hallway. If there was anybody left on this floor, there was no doubt they'd heard it... but I was willing to bet the solid metal floor of L4 was thick enough that they couldn't hear me from there.
[Fire.]
[FIRING]
If anybody on L2 didn't hear me charging the buster, they definitely heard me fire it. A torrent of blue light erupted from Malleus, slamming into the ceiling with a deep boom. For a few seconds, the edges of the beam sparkled, power dissolving off of the spell into the air... but then the core of the beam cut through the AMF, and bit into the ceiling. One second later, I cut power to the beam, and threw a light inverted-grav zone on the floor.
Once all the rubble had floated up into the hole, I lifted my right arm, pointing Mal up into the hole I'd made, and began to focus.
[Arcane Blast. Non-lethal.]
The ball of light that appeared over Mal's barrel was small, in comparison to the Buster I'd just used. It was, in fact, the smallest Arcane Blast I'd ever produced. That said, it was still enough to make me grin viciously. Time to clear the room.
Even at the lowest setting I could manage, the resulting explosion shook the building a bit.
I floated into L4 cautiously, with a shield up and my barriers as strong as I could make them... only to find unconscious bodies strewn across the area, and a gaping hole in the ceiling....I think I just accidentally my way up to L7, and I'm fairly sure that's another AMF up there. Cool.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
I landed on the other side of the level... and barely stopped myself from slapping my forehead in chagrin. Where's the ambush? I was expecting an ambush. Shouldn't these guys be setting up defensive positions?
There were only three guards on this level- three highly bored guards, sitting in a breakroom off to one side of the unloading area. When they saw me, they jumped to their feet, fumbled for their Devices... and then got blasted back into their chairs, unconscious.
Okay, that was just sad.
Now, my objective is on the top floor. What's the best way to get up there? Elevator's too easy to take out or shut off, so maybe the stairs?
A quick examination of the floor revealed a clearly-marked stairwell, off in one corner. Only goes up four levels? Hooray for the first well-thought-out bit of security this whole trip.Eh, why not? I floated up the stairwell, took up a position to the side of the door to L4, and threw it open with a burst of grav-mana.
...wow, that's a lot of fire. Registering... five different colors of mana there. Not getting through that door without a shield up, and even then I don't like my odds.
So how do I beat this? Frontal assault's risky and/or doomed, I don't have the time to play it safe and snipe them, and I need access to that level.
Never mind. I've got an idea.
The door flew open again. In the quarter-second or so before the soldiers on the other side reacted, I got a good look at the room on the other side, and then pulled my head back out of the line of fire. Holding the door open (keeping it falling back into the room, technically), I waited for the mages on the other side to stop firing, and then yelled in "You couldn't hit the broad side of a planet if you were on it, assholes!"
Then I ran down the stairs before they could shoot me through the wall.
Level three was, fortunately enough, undefended. The rooms on either side of the hall looked for all the world like a call center I'd been in once- lots of cubicles, each with a headset and a basic terminal in them, and very few walls.
Okay, the barricade was 6.7 meters back from the door. That makes it... here. Thirty missiles ought to do it. [Fire when ready, Mal.]
[FIRING.]
After the dust cleared, I was faced with a slight problem. Okay, the light's gone, and so are the panels around it. Floor's still intact, though.[AMF DETECTED. MODERATE IN STRENGTH.]
Oh, really? Sensible of them. Guess I'll need to burn through it. [Arcane Buster, Malleus. Half power. Verify non-lethal.]
[NON-LETHAL MODULE VERIFIED ACTIVE. CHARGING BUSTER.]
The whine of my spell filled the hallway. If there was anybody left on this floor, there was no doubt they'd heard it... but I was willing to bet the solid metal floor of L4 was thick enough that they couldn't hear me from there.
[Fire.]
[FIRING]
If anybody on L2 didn't hear me charging the buster, they definitely heard me fire it. A torrent of blue light erupted from Malleus, slamming into the ceiling with a deep boom. For a few seconds, the edges of the beam sparkled, power dissolving off of the spell into the air... but then the core of the beam cut through the AMF, and bit into the ceiling. One second later, I cut power to the beam, and threw a light inverted-grav zone on the floor.
Once all the rubble had floated up into the hole, I lifted my right arm, pointing Mal up into the hole I'd made, and began to focus.
[Arcane Blast. Non-lethal.]
The ball of light that appeared over Mal's barrel was small, in comparison to the Buster I'd just used. It was, in fact, the smallest Arcane Blast I'd ever produced. That said, it was still enough to make me grin viciously. Time to clear the room.
Even at the lowest setting I could manage, the resulting explosion shook the building a bit.
I floated into L4 cautiously, with a shield up and my barriers as strong as I could make them... only to find unconscious bodies strewn across the area, and a gaping hole in the ceiling....I think I just accidentally my way up to L7, and I'm fairly sure that's another AMF up there. Cool.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.