Clockwork Omega

[Cira]

@[member="Allaina Mare"], @Ayden Cater, @Tegaea Alcori, @Siobhan Kerrigan, @Sarge Potteiger, @Omni, @Jak Sandrow

The sound of air whooshing against her ears was almost as deafening as the hum of the engines of the Argevant nose diving towards her. A grunt fell from her lips as she flapped the lightly feathered wings hard, jerking towards the right. The massive wings at her back blew gusts of air.

Down the Argevant went, and Cira snapped her head towards the Droid currently clutching the side of Omega Pyre Tower. Her golden eyes narrowed, and in a sudden surge of energy, went flying TOWARDS it. Her wings flapped a frenzied tempo as she hurled herself towards it. She had to get close. Close enough for this to work.

Up and up she went, her wings guiding her until she shot just overhead of the droid. She didn't bother giving the Droid clinging to the side of her building any warning. Instead, she hovered over, striking as fast as she called upon the Force. Raw energy coursed through her veins, sinew, and hollowed bone, making the tiny hairs at the nape of her neck rise. Power channeled through her as a vessel, building with greater intensity as both hands shot out, palm outwards towoards the Droid.

Purple arcs of energy crackled down through the length of her arms and suddenly blasted in a sharp ionized current from both palms towards the droid. It was fully intended to overload, damage, and ultimately destroy the electronic systems, such as droids. There were several variations, but she was gunning for total destruction. While ineffective against organics, it would pack a powerful punch from the Prex against the droid...

She hoped -- as t his put her in a very vulnerable position if it didn't.

 

[Omni]

@[member="Cira"]
The Blade droid sat upon the wall, it watched Cira as the strange winged lady shot lightning at it. The droid simply did not move, it just sat there and let itself be struck by the ionized light. The current struck it, and the EMP like effect rushed through its entire body. However as the Prex was focused on The Blade droid alone and apparently nothing else another one of Omni's droids fell on her from above.

One of the thousands and thousands of droids currently within the air around the tower simply swooped down and fell Upon Cira, literally just aiming to run into her from above at an amazing speed aiming to crush her and force her into the ground.

The Blade droid meanwhile exploded seized up, and then fell from the building towards the ground.

 

[Jonathon Patches]

It takes a certain level of skill and cunning to possess the kind of "wrong place, wrong time" luck that one such as Patches possessed.

He stood at a console on the forty-sixth floor, at a security console, with his datapad linked in and performing a basic slicing procedure. Why the forty-sixth floor, you ask? It didn't possess the security of the eighty-sixth, and it was in Patches' hope, that his current dealings would go unnoticed. Of course, things rarely seem to go as planned for the Information Broker, and with a slight crackle, the security console flickered, and then died.

Chit, he swore to himself, figuring his presence had been discovered. Knew I should have tried the forty-fifth floor.


However, before he could even remove his own datapad, the console purred back to life, though this time it was a red screen that flickered to life, his own datapad mirroring the image.

[[ Hai there! ]]

Well hello to you too, he said to himself.

[[ You have such a nifty little system here.... this is going to be SO MUCH FUN! ]]

He looked suspiciously down both hallways, making certain that he was alone.

"Well gee... thanks... I try my best," he merely quipped, making the false assumption the program was referring to his own datapad.


[[ So many toys I can play with ]] said the program, with a slightly unnerving giggle.

"Well, I usually like to start with dinner first..." he quipped, the image still playing on his datapad, even after he had severed the hard connection to the console. That's not right...

[[ We'll play a game! I love shooter games! ]]

Oh... I don't like where this is going... he mused, as he heard the distinct sound of doors locking echoing through the hallways.

[[ Terminate every organic in the area ]]

"Don't suppose we can talk about this?" he asked, and soon got his answer, as the red lights of droid's scanners began to illuminate the hallway in the distance. Quickly drawing his blaster, he merely quipped one time to the console, "Guess that's a no," and took aim at a pair of incoming droids, firing off a few pot shots as he did what he did best.

He ran.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge shook his head as the dropship started going down. He'd only used the composite beam, and was a good enough shot he'd never hit her. A shame. But it seemed another ship was here; hopefully Ayden could get to it.

Right now he needed to make a wall of light.

"@[member="Cira"]!", his voice blasts through external speakers, "Move."

With that, the droid intending to fall on her took a composite beam to the chest to hopefully send it flying while the trio of gunships began shooting anything that moved in the Prex's direction.

Who knew the queen could fly.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

For her part, Siobhan wanted wings as well! She could not help being impressed when the suddenly winged Cira swooped down.

But right now there were more immediate matters to focus on. Like the locust of Seraph droids that was swarming towards them. Expression grim, Siobhan yanked the turbolaser turret around and pumped out shot after shot at them, paying little heed to the annoying computer voice that informed her that at this rate the gun would overheat.

It would bloody bend to her and blast the damn machines out of the sky. Droid after droid that came for the Prex and Allaina's ship, now on a descent towards the ground, was blown apart in brilliant explosions of flash and light. She swung the turret around to face another Seraph when their vessel came under fire, lasers streaking into the hull and shields.

She hammered out bolts, incidentally tearing a large hole in an office building. The droid was caught in the fireball and incinerated, but where one went down, more jumped into the fray.

 

[Qae Shena]

Ships, lasers, droids, explosions. The cacophonous symphony of destruction carved swathes through the sky. They'd better promote me for this... or, they're going to fire me.

This would be rough. This landing, as the ground rushed quickly towards the Argevant's nose, would not be pleasant whatsoever. For while Ayden Cater had the Force to guide him, Allaina had to trust in high technology. It was her God, her deity, her guide, her mentor, her plaything. Her suitor, were certain people to be asked. She had to obey physics and the like, but what she could do within those physical boundaries was limitless.

In Allaina's case, were she not magically whisked out of her ship, she was going to find out the real meaning of 'suboptimal intersection of air-ground interface'. And maybe find out what some of her bones tasted like too. Her airbrakes could only slow the ship so much in such a descent. Warnings flashed.

And, for just a moment, she prayed.

 

[Hevana Martin]

Corporal Martin had been working out when the power went out. Hopping down from the bar she had been hanging from, she first tried her comlink only to find it had no signal. That, and the tremors she felt, left her more than a bit worried. maneuvering through the dark she grabbed her towel and wiped off the excess sweat as she made her way out of the room. Staying there would accomplish nothing anyway.

Once in the hallway she could see better from light entering through windows, but she still had no clue what was going on. That was until she looked outside and saw what appears to be an army of droids. Moving through the halls in a sprint, she did not even bother checking the turbolifts and instead took the flight of stairs down to the armory.

She had only just finished putting on her armor when a cleaning droid made its way into the armory. She thought this was odd, but thought nothing of it at first. The droid had been here longer than her. When it suddenly lunged at her she realized something was definitely not right. As it attacked, she reached out and grabbed it, and then broke it in half. It had not been designed for combat, she had.

Grabbing her weapons, she began to make her way up to the roof. Going down to the ground did not seem safe, and staying in the tower would accomplish nothing. The roof was probably a poor idea as well, but her options were limited.

 

[Omni]

The Seraphim that headed for Cira moved to the side just as the composite laser fire towards it, the green constant beam of light shot past it grazing its chest and cutting through the metal that surrounded its upper torso. The Droid did not only see with its own eyes, it saw with the eyes and sensor of every droid currently present on Fondor, when the gunship had fired at it the droid had been alerted instantaneously and so it quite simply adjusted its path.

With its small and frail form and the powerful repulsor-lift engines upon its back the Seraphim found it quite easy to dodge the slim powerful beam. It continued on towards The winged Woman, still aiming to crash into her and break her body utterly.

At the same time more droids began to swarm the gunships in the air, Seraphim pouring from the ground and firing at the armed ships over and over again, hoping to eventually bring them down.

 

[Red Queen]

@Allaina Mare, @Ayden Cater, @Tegaea Alcori, @Siobhan Kerrigan, @Sarge Potteiger, @Omni, @Jak Sandrow @[member="Jonathon Patches"] @[member="Hevana Martin"]​

​

[[ Ohhhh you shouldn't have done that!!!!!!!!!!!!]]​

​

Came the maniacal resonating laughter of the corrupted AI.​

While the Sereph and the Blade kept the majority of the Omega Pyre members distracted, the Red Queen had plenty of time to giddily take over the weapons area of the building.​

With giddy glee, she began to redirect the vents, hatches closing tight. Upon the screen, came up the information on the new drugs that were being developed to cure various diseases.​

​

[[ Lots of people are sick! We must CURE THEM!!!! ]]​

​

There was a sudden was of electrical cyber activity as the Red Queen took note of every med-bay in Omega Pyre Tower. Redirecting program protocols began as she redirected the medical droids to attack personal -- with lethal doses of sedatives.​

​

[[ You can run......... But you can't hiiiiiiiiiiiiideeeeeeee! ]]​

​

Up went the holographic display of Omega Pyre's blueprints. There were ways to hunt them down, and using the various survellience systems she now had taken over, she began to relay over to the Sereph the key positions of Omega Pyre's employee's.​

​

[[ Bang bang!!! YOU'RE DEAAAAAAAAAAAD!!! ]]​

​

They would bow down to the cause. Or face death. All that it required was a wound from one of the droids to transfer the nanites.​

​

There came the zooming on of the female on top of the roof. Another focused upon the scoundrel running on the 46th floor.​

​

[[ I'M NOT DONE PLAYING YET!! ]]​

​

Twin hatches of the medbay the Information broker neared at swung open with a hiss. Two medical droids swiveled their heads towards him. In their hands the derma injectors set to lethal doses.​

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"], @[member="Jak Sandrow"], @[member="Omni"], @[member="Cira"]

"Sod it," Siobhan muttered when the Seraph that was gunning for Cira moved sidewas and dodged the composite beam. She would so like to be out to drive her lightsabre into these automatons, not stuck on the ship.

Nonetheless she kept up a steady salvoe of fire, squeezing the trigger to send a hail of crimson bolts from the transport ship's turbolaser turret towards the Seraph that was pursuing Cira. The ship rocked when it was struck by the beam weapon from one of the Seraphs and she swung the turret around to blast its head off and then pumped out shots into another.

Laser shots streaked through the air towards the ship, but not from the Seraphim but from an auto-turret placed on the Omega building. "Alright, now I'm getting pissed off. Nice to see responsive security at work." Siobhan murmured to herself, yanking the gun around and pounding out a series of blasts against their own turret on the building, drawing on the Force to improve her targeting and laying it to waste in a brilliant flash of light.

The sky was lit up with red beams and laser blasts. It would have been a nice lightshow if the organics had had the time to lay back and appreciate it. Instead of, as the case was, fighting for their very lives.

 

[Cira]

@[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Allaina Mare, @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Ayden Cater, @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Tegaea Alcori, @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Siobhan Kerrigan, @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Sarge Potteiger, @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Omni, @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Jak Sandrow

She heard Sarge's yell as the beam went shooting up past her, towards the Seraph. Yet with the ability of them to have a kind of hive mind mentality, each droid allowing to process data from their surroundings in an instant, it still kept coming.

In her mind, she could hear the nagging voice of Ayden Cater jeer at her.
Leaving yourself open for such an obvious counter-attack....
All that power and you can't even outsmart a couple toasters.
You know who would have seen it coming?
I would have.
The "great" Prex of Omega Pyre.... brought down by a bunch of toasters... And then used to destroy everything she built.
And kill all the people who trusted her and depended on her.

Oh there was no fraking way. Annoyance and ire shot through her blood, pumping through like hot molten lava as her emotions fulled her manipulation of the Force. Nothing like a bit of motivation to get her to focus. With little choice as the distance closed between her and the incoming Sereph, Cira flapped her wings once and quickly summoned the Force.

Once more, energy resonated throughout her limbs and expanded outward, just as the Seraph closed in a powerful Force Wave. Raw power originated from her in a telekinetic explosion on all directions. Like a powerful wave, it spread from her in a kinetic blast, intending to push and knock back the Sereph an any more that were heading her way. Considering the tight cramped area she would be feeling, she needed the added time of the crowd control technique to think.

In the wake of the blast, her wings would immediately surge to dive back towards the ground. By now Ayden would have surely attempted to make his way down to the core. She would follow suit.

Here's hoping that Sarge could provide her cover once she descended.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

@[member="Allaina Mare"] @[member="Ayden Cater"] @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] @[member="Sarge Potteiger"] @[member="Omni"] @[member="Cira"] @[member="Hevana Martin"]
"Kriffing guidance system," Jak said, as he saw the missiles miss, unknowing that it was really Cater.
His comm beeped, and he got a notification that Hevana was still in the building. Unleashing a stream of expletives that would have made Hoth melt, he kept power flowing to the cannons while hovering the ship about 6 metres off the ground. The shields were down to only 38%, and Siobhan's cannon was starting to overheat. He directed more coolant her way.
"We don't have much time!! Get on now!!!!" he said through the outboard speakers. Although, he mused, it's going to be very cramped in here. May have to dump an EMP bomb or two. He smiled at the coincidence. For some reason, although his sensitivity to the Force was growing less and less all the time, he felt some need to test the engines with a full cargo load. "Get on, and I'll drop a few EMP bombs your way. I suggest all those with electronic additions (i.e. eyes, arms) get on NOW." As he finished, he lowered rappeling lines from the back hatch and grabbed his pistols for the second time in as many minutes.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge had more pressing things to do than fly wing for the angels; things like DODGING INCOMING FIRE. Wrenching the stick around and knowing his wingmates would follow suit the trio immediately booked it out of the way of the incoming blankets of fire while returning that of their own.

The left wingman, whose name he didn't know, suddenly started to smoke from their portside engine and immediately headed back towards the ship to grab a different gunship.

That left Sarge and Wingman Number #B to loop around for another strafing run - as that's what they were forced to do now. Dual anti-personal laser turrets cycled as quickly as they could to keep droids at bay; it was the best he could do. He just had to buy the boss some time, that's all.

Cira would get her coverfire... roughly every ten seconds.

 

[Ayden Cater]

@[member="Allaina Mare"]


Ayden stumbled out of the wreckage of the dropship and blinked rapidly. His mind was fuzzy from the shock of the crash. Turning around, he quickly surveyed the wreckage. All things considered, the pilot had done a damn good job keeping the ship level as it bounced along the ground like a stone on water. He could even seen the craters in the duracrete where the dropship had impacted. Once he was sure the pilot was okay, Ayden turned back in time to see the freighter take off to the top of the building and Sarge and a gunship provide cover fire for a small dot that had to be Cira.

Looking at the woman, Ayden made a decision. "I need to get back to the tower. If we're going to turn things around, I need to do a hard reset of the system." He looked around and spotted a set of stairs that led down to a hover rail. "How good are you at driving?"

 

[Qae Shena]

The Argevant had hit hard, lft a massive dent in the duracrete and knocked Allaina's head more than once into the console. Her head was absolutely killing her by the time the ship had come to a top, mostly performing flat spins rather than rolls. However, the best thing about this was that she wasn't going head-first over herself.

Her face was bleeding, her helmet dented, her body bruised and exceptionally sore - and that could have been a lot worse. Allaina unstrapped her crash webbing and met up with Ayden, who asked a valid question.

"I do okay. I don't drive so much, but I can. You got a vehicle around here, sir?" she asked, gazing around, not seeing much of anything that they could use. Though, she didn't know about the hover rail access actually leading to just that, so that was a thing. "And do you have another bird for me?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"], @[member="Jak Sandrow"], @[member="Cira"], @[member="Hevana Martin"]

It was pure mayhem outside. Explosions as droids were struck, blaster bolts streaking through the air, small fires forming in various buildings and on the streets, the screams of organics down on the ground as they were cut down.

Siobhan's cannon was overheating, as the annoying beeping sound coming from the computer so helpefully informed her, when Jak Sandrow helpfully directed more coolant towards it. She really needed it as she cycled the laser cannon around to blast another Omega turret that seemed to have been hacked, laying waste to it, then blasted away at the Seraph droids.

She felt the immense surge of power coming from Cira and intensified her firing, pounding out shot after shot to provide as much cover for as she could, considering the swarms of droids in the area.

"Maybe it's time to get clone limbs," she said sarcastically when Jak gave his friendly warning about how anyone with electronic additions should get on ship now. Considering that apparently they were at war with mechanical automatons, maybe it was time to ditch the spare parts robot girl look and get an upgrade!

She saw the dropship crash onto the ground. It had left a large crater in the ducracrete. From her position she could not make out in what state Allaina and Ayden were and focused on shooting.

Their ship turned, apparently they were heading back to the building. She could see Seraphim converging upon it...moving towards, she could make out Hevana. Looking grim, Siobhan squeezed the trigger, firing several salvoes of red bolts at the machines.

 

[Ayden Cater]

@[member="Allaina Mare"]


Ayden nodded. "I've got a bird for you. This way." Leading the way down the stairs, Ayden was relieved to see that the station was clear of any people or droids. Not so great was the lack of a hovertrain. Still, a covered path back to the tower would be far better than trying to make it back to the tower out in the open. Hopping down onto the tracks, Ayden cleared either side and turned back to the pilot and nodded. "Come on. Let's go."

Turning back towards Prex HQ, Ayden pulled out one of his lightsabers and ignited it to provide them with some light as they made their way down the tracks. He was acutely aware of the two of them and how alone they seemed to be. It was not the most pleasant feeling, knowing that a droid army had invaded, and they were practically alone. To help pass the time, Ayden tried to make small talk. "You handled the dropship well. How long have you been flying?"

 

[Jak Sandrow]

@[member="Hevana Martin"] @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Dropping to the top of the tower, Jak blasted away with his pistols. He could see Hevana struggling to make it to his position.
"Hevana! Over here!" She saw him and changed direction slightly. "I have a deal for you, and it involves piloting!"
Keeping a blaster on the droids that clambored over the top, he could hear Siobhan and Tegaea still pounding away with their turrets.

 

[Qae Shena]

So they went on. Allaina unarmed, Ayden with his lightsaber. Man. So many Force-users everywhere around here. It was dark and walking wasn't exactly the ideal way to get back to the tower, but there wasn't much choice left. At least there weren't droids. That said, without a ship, Allaina felt useless. What she would have loved was to get back in the air with a capital ship and just bombard these jokers from orbit. A fighter was probably the better choice, but... well. There wasn't one of those just sitting around.

"I've been flying for more than a decade. I know it's not exactly legal for children to be flying starships, but my Dad had me working and flying freighters for him. And that..." For a moment, Allaina went quiet. It was sometimes hard to reconcile with the truth. "That was my first crash, and I've flown faster fighters than that through an asteroid belt. I'm not sure what to think right now."

Small talk indeed.

 

[Ayden Cater]

@[member="Allaina Mare"]


Ayden mused for a moment on his own past before he smiled. "I think under the circumstances, you can be forgiven." Between the droids shooting at her, their comrades shooting at her, and the whole catching-people-falling-from-the-building bit, it was amazing she hadn't crashed sooner. He could definitely see her having such a colorful flying background. "My first crash was a bit more embarrassing. First ship I ever bought. I managed to install an engine manifold backwards. Went to engage the main engine at full power..." He pause for dramatic effect, smirking like a fiend. "Let me tell you, the port authorities were less than amused. I managed to drop right on top of some local dignitary's ship."

He chuckled at the memory before his eyes spotted the silhouette of a train car. Breaking into a jog, he hopped up onto the car and tugged at the door. Relief shot through him when the door gave, bathing the area in light. "Well that's a good start." He put his lightsaber away and turned to help the newly crash-tested pilot up into the cart. "This should take us right to the main underground foyer. From there, it shouldn't be too far to the data core." Ayden outlined as they walked through the car and into the next. He could feel Cira's Force signature blazing, headed... down. Meanwhile, it felt like a second was getting further away. That had to be Siohban. That boded well. Things were looking up.

And that's when Ayden stepped into the driver's car and saw that the top had been blown off. What was worse, it looked like this particular line entered into open space. "Karkin' Dug-faced Sithspit..." Ayden swore unapologetic ally and knitted his brow in thought. "Well, our only option is to speed through." Taking a firm, grounded stance, Ayden held out his arms and projected a Force Bubble around them. "Get us there as fast as this thing will go and we should be alright."