EVENT#08 VINDESS LIBERATION MISSION LOG

[vivalamods]

EVENT#08 VINDESS LIBERATION MISSION LOG

Content warnings: Blood, Gore, and Cannibalism

The Corsairs strike quickly. As soon as Gaurus the Bleeder steps off the Imperial airship, Corsair airships emerge from hiding around the settlement and take to the air, peppering the Imperials with a salvo of cannonfire. Corsairs leap from the deck and emerge from hiding within the settlement, weapons drawn and battle-ready.

For his part, Gaurus the Bleeder meets the charging Corsairs without surprise. The man’s immense bulk is imposing enough on his own, but he carries an unmistakable stench of blood, death and decay about him. His enormous body is toned with heavy muscle, and his hands seem to permanently drip blood as he unleashes a feral belly laugh.

“Take them! Capture them! Flay them alive!” he bellows, his voice ringing out across the city. “Their corpses shall decorate my table, their heads my wall! Come lads, let us punish these rebels and teach them the pain and despair of standing against the Empire!”

The stench of blood seems to spread, thick and metallic as the eyes of the Imperial soldiers seem to dim, blood beginning to trickle from every pore like sweat and seep from their mouths in the place of drool. They surge forward, a beastial hunger consuming them as terror quickly spreads among the civilians who turn to flee. For good or for ill, the battle is joined. With Gaurus at its head, the axe of the Empire descends, and the Corsairs will need to bring their all to bear, lest they be ground underfoot.

All logs have full sign-ups, but characters are still welcome to join any open logs. Additional participants will boost the potential for the log’s success and potential bonuses. Outside of Closed logs, all logs can be as many open threads as the participants desire, involving as many of the total participants as they wish.

Consequences
There is the possibility of consequence, depending on the logs characters take part in and the amount of participants.
Serious Injury: A character is seriously injured and will require bed rest and intensive healing. If they choose to participate in an active and intensive log the following month, their injuries will impede them to the point that it may disrupt the log (but not necessarily make the log fail).
Minor Injury: A character is injured, but not badly. They will require some healing to recuperate but will otherwise be fine for logs in the following month.

MISSIONS

Vindess Raid: The Corsairs face off against Gaurus’s Bloodfrenzied Legion.
Status: Open
Description: Gaurus’s mastery of life ether allows him to manipulate blood within willing and unwilling targets. The Bloodfrenzied Legion are soldiers whose blood and hunger have been set aflame. They fight with more ferocity, move faster, and hit harder. They consume their own blood to fight harder, and thus are overwhelmed with a hunger for more blood, driving them to consume their fallen foes, ripping them apart and drinking their blood.

Bloodfrenzied soldiers are extremely dangerous, while a powerful Corsair may be able to take 3 in a straight fight, more is exceptionally dangerous. Corsairs will need to rely on high pressure and exceptional tactics if they wish to succeed. The Corsairs are buoyed by the local militia, Corsair support allowing some people to fight to the last for their families to ensure they escape.
Current Participants: Donnie, Raph, Rezo, Kanna
Log Leader: None
Anticipated Result: The Bloodfrenzied Legion is held at bay, and the Corsairs emerge relatively unscathed.

Escape Vindess: The Corsairs must cover the escape of the airships as they evacuate the civilians and keep themselves alive against the Bloodfrenzied Armors.
Status: Open
Description: The Bloodfrenzied Armors are armors piloted by soldiers under Gaurus’s Bloodfrenzied Legion. In this case, he uses his magic upon the armors as well as the pilots, so the armors enhance themselves by feeding off the blood of their pilot, compelling the pilots to fight aggressively and target large crowds of fighters on foot or civilians to bathe in their blood and enhance their combat prowess.

Additional details will be sent to the Log Leader.
Current Participants: Shu, Terra, Kanna, Harlock
Log Leader: Shu
Anticipated Result: With the placed traps, the Corsairs will emerge unscathed, their civilian charges maintained safely.

Evacuate Citizens: The Corsairs within the town will evacuate civilians, helping them flee the Bloodfrenzied Legion.
Status: Open
Description: The Bloodfrenzied Legion fights ferociously aggressively, specifically targeting civilians with an aim to tear them open, drink their blood and feast on their organs. They are the core of why Gaurus inspires such fear and obedience within the populace, and it will be difficult to maintain calm.

Corsairs will need to calm their charges and efficiently move them through the town, employing the maze of homes, pulling down break lines, and doing whatever they can to keep the soldiers away from the civilians.
Current Participants: Emery, Matt, Shu
Anticipated Result: The Corsairs will successfully evacuate the civilians, keeping them mostly safe from harm.

Tend Citizens: The Corsairs will need to tend to the wounds of the evacuated civilians, preventing as much death as they can.
Status: Open
Description: It’s rare for a civilian to survive a run-in with even one Bloodfrenzied soldier, but any who do will be brutally maimed. Additionally, in an escape wreathed in fire and devastation, injuries in the flight are common. Corsairs will have a range of injuries, from people torn open by soldiers to people crushed by falling, flaming debris.
Current Participants: Tsuyukusa, Matt, Thomas
Anticipated Result: The Corsairs will successfully heal and save a majority of those who can be saved, although casualties will still happen. Their success frees up the local militia to fight harder, aiding the Corsairs in their fight.

Entrap the Imperials: Before the arrival of Gaurus the Bleeder, the Corsairs set up traps around the town, ensuring they had many ways to entrap both the man himself, and his ships and armors.
Status: Open
Description: Corsairs will spend this quiet pre-battle time laying out traps meant to take down Gaurus the Bleeder and hamper the armors and airships upon landing. Corsairs have access to heavy explosives and enough poison to kill several large monsters, which may even be enough to slow down the man who can manipulate his very bloodstream with his ether.
Current Participants: Ilphyl, Aira, Natalia, Atom
Anticipated Result: The Corsairs will lay so many traps that they can target both the Assassinate Gaurus the Bleeder log and the Escape Vindess log.

Assassinate Gaurus the Bleeder: The Corsairs will face off against the head interrogator and Bloodfrenzied Legion commander Gaurus the Bloody.
Status: Closed, this log will be a single thread between all four participants
Description:Gaurus the Bleeder is an enormously powerful fighter who can manipulate blood on a wide scale. Those who face him in combat can hold their blood to a point, but if Gaurus manages to come in physical contact with a person he can begin to turn their very blood against them. Gaurus is exceptionally dangerous to approach, and must be handled with utmost care.

Gaurus is a huge, barrel-shaped giant who stands at 10’9” and wields cruel cleavers, hooks, knives, and spikes. He wears a bloodied apron over thick, high-quality leather armor, and his body is heavy and muscular. His combat power and ether control are further enhanced by the Empire’s drugs, making his capacity truly beyond belief.

Additional details will be sent to the Log Leader.
Current Participants: Link, Natalia, Atom, Ilphyl
Log Leader: Ilphyl
Anticipated Result: Voting will occur in a sub-thread at the start of the log. Either Gaurus will be captured and the team will be seriously injured or Gaurus will be killed and the team will escape with minor injuries.

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Comments

[bearsperminute]

Kanna nods, inside her own Armor, hastily strapping into the harness. She really, really wishes she could stop fucking doing this, but she was needed on the front lines of the raid... and when it came to combat, sometimes, no one less would do. "Confirmed. On sortie now."

She, and her custom Zepter, stride forward, breaking almost immediately into a run out of Terra's paling, crashing one clawed hand into the waiting torso of her immediate opponent, and landed a spiked elbow into another. She beckons them both, a bit cockily, and has almost certainly bitten off more than she can chew, but the evacuees are safe... For now. "Get them into the ships! Quickly!"

[singlemilletgrain]

The problem with being a small upstart band of feisty rebels against an evil empire is the empire part. Even as Kanna impales one of the Armors, two more take its place. There is no tactic, no greater plan here. The bloodlust of the enemy - or perhaps the Armors themselves? - is a compulsion too powerful to ignore. Like a swarm of insects, they advance, seeking out the weak and the vulnerable. They seek blood. The pulsing of the blood through the terrified civilians' veins is a siren song; the rhythmic beat a drum call to arms.

There are three ships of evacuees in total fleeing the airspace. Terra's shield around the rearmost vessel holds as the Armors swoop in; one holds in place and begins to torch the barrier with arm mounted flamethrowers as others dive in with spear strikes and blade swings. The other two vessels are yet to be accosted, but more Armors are beginning to give chase. Harlock's attack hardly draws any attention whatsoever. Even as his bullets strike the reinforced steel, they continue to hone in on the civilians.

Shu, not a combat expert by any means, can still recognize when strategies need to be modified.

"Their attention cannot be diverted. These are not rational beings. Though I am loathe to say it, I wonder if spilling their blood might cause them to frenzy upon their allies."

[freearcadia]

His fingers curled tightly on the control, jaw clenching. Cold logic and hot anger threaded as he switches from a gun to a sword. An enemy that schemes, that plans, they're more dangerous, more threatening in the long term - but he knows how frightening an enemy that responds only to instinct and blood lust can be - they can't be reasoned with or intimidated.

"Those damned Imperials - inflicting this on their own soldiers..." He swung his blade, his voice growing icy. "If they wish to drink blood - then let it be their own."

With that, he lunges the Feder into the fray in hit and run strikes, trying to aim for vital points on the Armor before immediately withdrawing out of range.

[esperbuthuman]

Terra is hardly thrilled for the prospect, but she certainly understands the necessity. As such, she starts channeling her ether into the unfamiliar armor.

"Thunder Beam!"

A burst of lightning and concussive force emerges from the Zepter, targeting the cockpits of the armors seeking to engage Kanna.

[bearsperminute]

Kanna takes a hasty step back as the Thunder Beam tears up the cockpits. That's close! That's very close! They barely slow down, even as the shrapnel showers Armors behind them, but at this point, a reinforced foot slams into their Armor's leg.

Kanna racks her memory, trying to remember where the traps were laid. "Then if we can't lure them all, two to five will have to do. The rest will follow once they scent blood."

Of all the things most dangerous to a pilot in normal operation, few things are as casually and incidentally deadly as a fall. It's meters to the ground, and the harness, while it'll help you from breaking your body, won't stop you from hitting hard, dislocating limbs, and concussion.

It's vicious, and she hates it, but if there's anything that will cause pilots, even the Bloodstained Legion, to bleed and fear, it's that-- And it's something her Zepter is alarmingly good at. She grabs hold of the remaining stripped berserker and sets her output to high, dragging the Armor with her, leaving a trail of... what she hopes is machine oil, but knows probably isn't. Fucking Gaurus.

[singlemilletgrain]

((I think the traps are for the Vindess Raid or Gaurus log, just a quick note! Not sure if they've decided where to use them yet.))

The bolt of lightning toasts the circuitry of the robotic frames, leaving them momentarily stalled as Harlock and Kanna lunge in for close combat strikes. With their defenses completely stripped, they are destroyed in a matter of seconds. Shu closes her eyes as she watches the spurts of dark liquid splatter out from the crushed Armors. As Kanna, she does not entertain any delusions about what has just happened.

Harlock finds himself next to the Zepter targeting flames on the Protect, which is now joined by two more. Of course, they are outputting lighting and cryokinetic beams, because why wouldn't they? As he watches, Terra's barrier flickers and shatters, leaving the civilian airship open for the Zepters to board.

Kanna, dragging the disabled Armor leaking fluid and launching herself far away, is set upon by the nearby Armors. Something strange is happening if one observes closely - the fluid, rather than falling to Earth, seems to be pulled towards the tracking Armors, as if they are absorbing its essence... A ghastly thing. Two Schwerts and Lanze stab at her from different directions, their strength and speed seeming much greater than they had just moments before.

And that leaves about three miscellaneous Armors continuing to chase after the other two departing evacuee ships. Shu urges her ox to follow, and though she has no Armor, she at least has the advantage of being a tiny target in comparison. As she closes her eyes and exhales, a bolt lightning crashes down on one of them with precise aim from a now-stormy sky.

...A now-stormy sky that is a bit too shadowed despite it being the product of her own abilities. Shu squints upwards.

"Airships!"

And through the clouds descends a warship that immediately begins to lay fire on the Corsairs, unimpeded by bloodlust. This was becoming a multi-front battle. To focus on protecting the civilians meant leaving their backs exposed; to meet the airships meant leaving the civilians to their fates. Neither was acceptable.

[freearcadia]

Of course, it's never one thing. It was a sound tactic, though a despicable one. Harlock made a quick calculation, before making his decision, he knew he's putting himself in harm's way, but what pirate shies from danger?

"I'm intercepting the Zepters," he announced to his comrades.

The pirate again wished his ship was in flying condition, but no use dwelling on it when he had the Zepters trying to board the civilian ships. He races after, springing to stab down. It meant exposing his back - but he wasn't going to let civilians die in the cross-fire.

Not again.

[esperbuthuman]

"Shell!"

Terra casts another barrier, this one around Harlock and specifically reinforced against magic. Seeing the trio close in on Kanna, she whirls her own armor. With little time to fire up the controls, she instead channels her own ether directly.

"Fira!"

A wave of fire sweeps over the enemies as she tries to burn them out of the sky, or at least damage them enough for Kanna to respond.

[bearsperminute]

She spots the gun flashes first, while using the damaged armor as a shield against the fury of the others around her. Ranging shots. Counts. One. Two.

The ground behind her explodes into fury. Two second shell delay. Okay. Let's do this.

She tears off the arm of the damaged Armor, watches the fire spread through the ranks of the Berserkers, and uses the arm as a club to make sure she's keeping their attention and, in fact, protecting herself. When she sees the muzzle flash again, she breaks to flank.

They're berserkers. They're watching the blood in front of them.

Not the artillery pattern of the airships above as they follow her directly into the field of fire while she leaves it.

With any luck, this will leave her clear to help Harlock. "You think I don't know this plan, you over-wrought cannon jockeys!?"

[singlemilletgrain]

The civilians have thankfully had the presence of mind to get below decks, leaving the top-decks occupied primarily by the navigation crew. Though not entirely geared for combat, the Corsairs present are at least marginally more capable of self-defense than those huddled below-decks. There is quite a lot of shouting as men and women heroically stand in the path of the Zepters. And here, the bloodfrenzied Armors will finally slow as they find what they believe to be some easy targets.

A blast of fire begins to consume the wooden beams of the ship as the fire Zepter indiscriminately lets loose. The Zepter wielding lightning begins to tear through the deck itself to reach the civilians below, to the sound of terrified screams. It is the cryo Zepter that Harlock stabs in the back and with miraculous aim, he can feel the visceral crunch of his blade sinking into flesh. That pilot tries to turn, even if injured, and an aura of frost ripples out to try to freeze Harlock in his tracks.

Terra's Shell comes just in time. Though it does not, perhaps, protect against the wave of gunfire that strafes the deck, sending Corsairs diving for cover.

On the other front, the wave of Fira washes over the melee Armors and disrupts their attack patterns enough to throw them off-balance. Steel rings against steel as Kanna deflects the swords and lance and though they strive to find an opening, she is just too precise in her defenses for mindless berserker strikes to pierce through. There is a moment when her movements are like a perfectly choreographed dance - thrust, pivot, spin, glide. And in the space where she occupied just moments ago, a cannon blast detonates the Schwert who had followed her, sending its shrapnel flying every which way.

Meanwhile, Shu urges her mount onwards to chase the remaining Armors. Reaching into her pocket, she takes out a handful of seeds and -- tosses.

...This does not appear to achieve anything immediate.

High above, the gunfire and cannon fire continue as the airship begins to descend towards their level. Proximity would improve their aim.

[freearcadia]

Brave folks, he observed as he landed on deck - the crunch was unpleasant - he hit the pilot, he thought grimly. His eye widen as frost started to extend out - only for Terra's shell to protect him from another go in an icy coffin. "Thanks Terra..." He murmurs softly, realizing what happened.

He yanks the blade out, as he attempts to kick the cryo Zepter off-balance, flicking the blood and viscera from his weapon as studied it for a moment, before the strafing gunfire forces him to take off to try to avoid getting hit. The pilot of the cryo Armor was certainly wounded, but in their current state, there's only one way to make damn sure they can't go for the civilians again.

"One wounded, there's still two more - using fire and lightning." He relayed. "If you can get here, I'd appreciate it."

[esperbuthuman]

"Blizzara!"

Focusing on the flame-wielding Zepter, Terra unleashes her magic full force at the Armor before pulling her armor upward.

"Fire Beam!"

The Zepter raises its staff and unleashes a ray of fire at the descending airship.

[singlemilletgrain]

The cryo Zepter, dripping fluid, limps away from Harlock as the covering fire gives it some space. And although the pilot is wounded, this only seems to heighten its fury as it sprays indiscriminately in all directions, freezing a few unfortunate Corsair limbs solid. Better take care of it quickly before it loses all control.

The flames on the airship are quelled by the wave of frost, at least for now. The lightning Zepter has plowed through a few of the beams on the deck by this point and reaches down with a metal limb towards the terrified civilians below.

Above, the descending airship does not slow despite the flames, perhaps having expected resistance. Best to meet this threat head-first. Terra has attracted its attention, however, and the strafing fire leaves off Harlock as it pauses for a moment to readjust its aim.

Instead of shooting, the hull of the ship opens a panel as a rain of explosive devices pepper Terra's location.

[freearcadia]

As he suspected, only unconsciousness or death will deter them in this blood madness - and there's no certainty in the former.

As the cryo Zepter sprays, he switches to guns, firing it at both the wounded Zepter and the lightning one, hoping to draw the latter away from the civilians, or disable the arm reaching down - either will work, but he prefer if he could lure it away. Harlock tried to think, considering their options.

[esperbuthuman]

"Protect!"

This time, Terra envelops her own mech in a shield to ward off the attack as she tries to move away and avoid the attacks, strafing the airship with magitek missiles as she goes.

[singlemilletgrain]

The wounded Zepter, frame already partially damaged, splatters more viscous fluid as the bullets riddle its armor. To the last, it casts ice Ether indiscriminately until its own feet are encased in grasping ice, fusing it to the deck. With a whine of gears, it slumps over.

The fluid quickly flows and is absorbed into the lightning Zepter, uninterested in the plight of its brethren. Bolstered by the surge of blood, it lashes down with an arc of electricity that would surely fry its targets - but a chance gunshot swivels the barrel of its scope just enough that the lightning flies wide and shatters the rigging of a sail instead. It is undeterred, however. There is no lure possible with these enemies, and as it continues to dig down into the hold, it is a small group of fearless Corsairs that halt its progress by throwing themselves bodily at the enemy, armed with sword or wrench or broom.

Above, Terra dances around the falling explosives, though the concussive blasts and bursts of light may be disorienting. Even if a few strike true, they almost seem to bounce away from her protective spell. Though surely she cannot know this, it almost seems as if the airship is eager to hone in on her, for it is almost entirely ignoring the fleeing civilian ship now. Could it be, perhaps, that they recognize her...?

Reclaim our asset, she might easily imagine them saying.

The airship is too large to outmaneuver the missiles, but its bulk is such that it takes them with only the slightest flinch. The next barrage may give credence to any fears Terra entertains, for these are lightning-laced harpoons, barbed edges made to latch onto a target, disable it, and reel it in.

On Shu's end, the seeds she tosses sprout as she continues the chase, covering the afflicted Armor in thorny vines that pierce into its torso uncomfortably. Though it is not offensively strong, it may perhaps disable the pilot with some luck.

[freearcadia]

As the cryo finally falls, he switches back to the sword, rushing the lightning Zepter, before pausing midway through his charge, gripping the edge of the sail with the Feder's arm as the man leaps, attempting to toss it over the armor.

It wouldn't hold for more than a few seconds, but it should buy a few precious seconds to close in for a sharp stab.

[bearsperminute]

Kanna has not been idle. The first thing she did, once she realized that they were focusing on the others, and had forgotten about her, would be to decide to remind them of who they were dealing with:

The woman who took out an entire armored column in detail.

And the woman who had found a nice piece of rock, and was now showing up on their scanners as a very large metal blip SMASHING into one of the ships. She might not be as smart as Kohran, or as coldly tactical as Maria--

She knows that an armor on a ship of this size will cause it to list if not secured properly, and "over the side" is definitely not "secured properly". She claws her way up the hull. She might be enjoying this a bit too much.

She might also be hoping the harpoons will be fouled because of this.

[singlemilletgrain]

It is a bit hard to aim properly when something with the mass of a large boulder unbalances you. Though the first few shots snake towards Terra at a reasonable angle, the remainder go flailing in all directions as the ship tilts back and forth a bit before stabilizing. There is a general outcry and some mild alarm before someone has the presence of mind to peer over the side and see what exactly is wrong.

After an initial exclamation, this is followed by a period of definite unnerving silence.

Down on the escaping civilian ship, the lightning Zepter throws off the clinging annoyances soon enough with a few unpleasant splurching noises and is ready to turn its attention back towards the civilians when something it finds a great white cloth floating up in its face. Though it makes short work of this issue with a few more slashes, it is enough time for Harlock to close in with the sword - if that is, Harlock can aim well enough through the sail obscuring his way.

But after all, he is Captain Harlock.

Time stills for a brief moment before the lightning Zepter's arm slowly slides off the chassis and crashes to the ground.

Back on the airship, Kanna will find that her enemies are a bit more clever than the berserk Armors. The unnerving silence gives way to the equally silent sound of cannonballs being dropped over the side of the ship by multiple crews of men onto her head.

((I'm not 100% sure of what Harlock did so please correct me if this is not right!))

[esperbuthuman]

With the ship off balance, Terra takes the opportunity to launch a salvo of Magitek Missiles at its hull.

[freearcadia]

Harlock exhale - good, he managed to disarm it, but it wasn't enough. He immediately doubled back to finish off the Zepter, attempting to pierce the cockpit.

The shifting shadow told him that the ship above them was moving rapidly - turning... no, he realized as he gave a moment to look up - being forced off balance. "What's everyone's Status?" He asked.

[bearsperminute]

Not that Kanna would be giving them time. She had to do as much damage as she could before they forced her to debark, beginning to climb and digging her claws through the hull almost as soon as her breath recovered.

Not... Quite fast enough, of course, to avoid having to block an explosive shell, on a short fuse, with one of her shields. That's not good for her Armor or the ship. Best be quick. "Oh, you know-- hanging in there, 500 up."

[singlemilletgrain]

((back from my trip and somewhat recovered, sorry for delay!))

"The other airships should be clear to make their escape."

Shu responds from her position out in the nether, where she has slowed down the pursuing armors enough that they cannot easily catch the fleeing airships.

On Harlock's ship, there is one final crashing noise as the Zepter falls backwards, whatever inside too mangled to even attempt to eject. There remains only the flame Zepter which, absorbing the essence from its fallen partner, now aims its flames at Harlock.

Above, Kanna digs into the hull as the cannonballs bombard her from above. If her aim is to reach the engine, it might be slow going to find the right opening on a ship of this size - but Terra's Magitek Missiles will assist in tearing open more of the hull.