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The Mark of the Atlas

THE MARK OF THE ATLAS

Into the heart of the city you go.
Down below the lowest levels of the city, somewhere beyond the twisty maze of passages, several of the paths converge in a huge underground cavern. Here the air is blissfully cool compared to the desert above. A single shaft of light shines down from somewhere on the surface; motes of sand drift lazily as if suspended in the light. Elsewhere, the cave is lit by small clusters of glowing fungus that live off the moisture collected down here. Dim but navigable for most.

But perhaps the most striking items in the area are the monoliths. Great fragments of stone over three meters long, too smooth to be natural but too jagged to be whole either. Several of them glow from the pulse of energy running through them. Others, while dark, have recessed notches large enough for a person’s hand. And still another group seems nearly shattered, a larger fragment surrounded by smaller ones. All of them react when the interlopers draw close enough...

LIGHT

Upon closer inspection, the lit monoliths have a curious pattern worked into the tone. The symbols are rather arcane, but perhaps they make sense if one tilts one’s head and squints. This one has strokes that resemble tongues of flame. That one is covered in cascading, fluid lines. Another … well, that look more like a warning sign than anything else.

Interacting with these monoliths results in a warning crackle and the scent of ozone before the monolith opens. Something comes pouring out of it in response. Gushing water is the most common, matching up with the cascade monoliths; others open to flame or greenery or other odd things. And one definitely opens up into a vacuum. Careful with that unless you want to have something sucked out into space.

Whatever connection they make is brief and non-traversable, but whatever comes through stays on this side.

DARK

The unlit monoliths aren’t nearly as flashy as their glowing brethren, but they have their own stories to tell. With the help of a little light (and the suit), the interlopers will find that these monoliths are covered from top to bottom in alien script. Most have at least one solid crack or chunk in them - at the juiciest parts! - but there may be enough left to be intelligible, given a little luck.

VISION

The last set hum with an ominous energy that belies their dilapidated appearance. Interlopers who approach these monoliths trigger strange images that float in the air. No two visions are alike, though they all share common themes. Silhouettes descending to the surface of the planet and spreading out across it. Exploring and interacting with an alien environment. There’s something deeply familiar about these shadows despite the variety of body types represented by them. The shape of their clothing is reminiscent of your own suit...

Other snippets are set in space. Here the silhouettes are a darker patch of black against the darkness of space. The mood in these images is strangely pensive, somewhat tense. These figures are searching very desperately for something.

There is one, though, that’s different from all the others. No silhouettes, no searching, no space. Only a shaft of light starting from a point beyond this planet’s moon. At first it’s a too-bright star; then, a solid beam stretching down to the planet itself. The light increases in intensity and breadth exponentially until it impacts physically with the surface of the planet itself. The eruption kicks up huge clouds of dust that race towards the city with all the heat and speed of a pyroclastic explosion. It rises up like a wave...and then crashes down, burying the city.

Eventually, each of the images go dark once again.

BROKEN

Amidst the myriad of strange monoliths and now-flowing water? Is some sort of chassis. The ruined frame of an old robot of some kind, easily as large as a cement mixer's chamber and just as tall. Most of it lies buried beneath the sand, stuck near the far end of one particularly large chamber within the caves' network. It takes a bit of walking to get there, but there's a reward to be had for those who find it:

The room is not empty.

Standing in the exact middle is a strange, hulking figure. It stands at eight feet at least, a massive frame encased in black. Whether it's carapace or suit is impossible to tell, and whether or not it's alive is another story altogether. It stands perfectly motionless, skull-like face staring ahead at the robot's husk as water pools in through cracks and recesses, giving the ground a glass-like appearance through which tiny grass-like eels can be seen rising from tiny holes in the sand.

For all intents and purposes the figure seems nothing more than a statue.

Eerie.

OOC

There will be an 24-hour event encounter which runs from Nov 26th at 8:00am EST to Nov 27th at 8:00am EST. Feel free to let characters toy around & thread in the innermost areas of the city before the main event! Sections will go up in this entry and will be linked here when they are ready.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, they wanted to know why they shouldn't be down here. Guess that's as immediate of an answer as they're going to get.

He's still shaking off the leaden feeling the message (memory?) he just watched gave him, hadn't even had time to fully process it before the ground started to give way— but self-preservation kicks in just in time for him to scramble back, narrowly out of the way of the first shower of debris. He casts around wildly for the people who were near him when shit went south— the Last included— and ends up following in Breq's wake once he gets his bearings. Fighting a giant murder robot is not on his mind right now; he's preoccupied with getting everyone out before the whole goddamn room collapses.

"Fine. I'm fine— fuck." He knew it, he knew there was something fucked up down here. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

The Overseer Drone doesn't carry any visible projectile weapons on its body. but then again it's highly likely that this thing was designed to be able to engage its targets without needing to; the claws on its massive hands alone shear through the solid rock of the city's infrastructure like it's butter as it breaks its way to the surface and swivels it's head around. Its optics blink as it scans the area and it hardly takes more than a second for its internal monitors to pop up with the interlopers.

Its head snaps towards those nearest to it on the city's main level right before it raises one massive hand up and slams it down with the intent to skewer, pierce, and most importantly?

Destroy.

Okay, well this is great. Cayde's first thought is that they really don't wanna be in an enclosed space with this thing, but it seems to be taking care of that for them.

"So... Most of us are up there, right?" It's not much of a question, and he's already moving to try and get out of here and up top as quick as possible. There's no mistaking intent this time, that thing's out for blood.

"Yes, and this time, we should try to work defensively instead of offensively. Protect our supplies. If someone can dismantle it, they can be on that task, but we should be prepared to observe." While Lexa knows that might be a matter of "more easily said than done," she still thinks it might be a good idea.

... But then another idea occurs to her. "Unless we lure it to the tree. Do you think we can?"

Someone who wasn't so lucky when the debris started crashing down? This guy. Something slams into the side of his head and knocks him out cold.

Right, then, no, everyone is not ok. Breq is no medic, but she can check whether someone is unconscious and not dead, and more importantly, easily fireman carry them out to the surface. She notes, quietly seething, that this is yet another person who looks to be in their teens. Whoever collected them all has a lot to answer for.

As she's gathering up Hunk to sling over her shoulder she says, "The tree could work as a trap, yes. If one of our sturdier members is willing to be bait."

The drone, meanwhile, continues to move. A low hum fills the air as its back lights up with an odd, circuit-like pattern. It turns lightly, seeming to focus sense is feeding it information - vision? hearing? - over the assembly of interlopers. And then it seems to come to a decision.

The hum grows painfully loud as the lights on its back flare into brilliance. A split second later, some blue-tinged wave of energy goes out in all directions, including the place where the interlopers have stopped to plan. Anyone hit by the light - which is anyone remotely within visual distance of the drone - finds that the suit power responsible for supernatural powers has dropped to zero. (Their regular power cells are unaffected, however, so no one is going to freeze. Yet.)

Zack's already a little too busy grabbing Cloud by the arm to pull him away from more falling debris, so planning hadn't really been up his alley at the moment. And then planning gets put on the down-lo when there's that sudden flash.

He tries to shield his eyes, but it doesn't seem to matter. Not when he feels like what energy he usually has has been sucked out of him. Zack shakes his head at the sudden onset of weakness, but he forces himself to look up. Doesn't matter if it cast a time spell or whatever. They still need to stop it, don't they? His eyes are on Breq without hesitation.

"You mentioned sturdy?"

"If you see a girl with blonde hair when we step out—blonde and curly, a little shorter than me, bring him to her. She can help." Of course, she says this assuming that Breq can carry Hunk out, as Lexa is not affected by the blue light. (There are no supernatural abilities to turn off.)

"But we should move swiftly and out of here as quickly as possible," she adds, mentally plotting out a path to the tree ahead. "If it comes down to me acting as a lure, until we find someone better, I will." Again, it doesn't occur to her that the blue light may have done something.

Breq stumbles until the weight she is suddenly much less equipped to carry, but manages not to fall completely over. Gritting her teeth, she slowly gets back onto her feet.

"I don't know what just happened," she says, voice falling flat except for a hint of strain. She looks to Zack. "Sturdy may not matter now."

And with that, she's on her way out with Hunk, moving far more slowly than she likes, but determined to get out from underground before her ordinary human strength gives out.

There's something happen underground; Max had been outside, resting, when she heard the start of the commotion, something large breaking through rock, the ground shaking. For a second, she thinks it might be an earthquake, but it doesn't feel quite right, it's too focused on one area.

Which probably means something's gone wrong.

She'd started running as soon as she'd pinpointed the direction, slowing down to shift sharp claws and sharper teeth, because she doesn't know exactly what's happened, but it's good to have some minor defenses ready. It's probably a good thing, because it means she misses that wave of blue light; it's already passed by the time she comes careening down the stairs.

And sees the giant robot.

"What the fuck is that?"

The giant robot swivels its head, taking in the group once again. Passing over the one that had been affected properly by the EMP ... and settling on this newcomer with sharp claws. With a dull whirring noise, it coils itself into a ball and begins rolling at Max with alarming speed. Clearly its aim is to crush her, but either way it's going to hit the stairs behind her - bringing down another layer of rock from above.

There's not a lot of time to plan, but Max is used to working on the fly and she knows instantly that any teeth and claws and bone aren't going to be enough to hurt this thing, but maybe there's something that can.

It's the quickest and sloppiest shift she's ever done, and she's going to feel awful after all this is over, because she just lost a kidney to replace it with a Hunter's organ. She doesn't go running, waiting until the last second to leap slightly to the side, though she doesn't go too far.

What she wants is to get a hand on the thing, so she can flood her body with acetylcholine and give it a nice 900 volt shock. If she takes a knock in the process, that's fine with her. Bodies always heal.

Edited 2016-11-27 00:12 (UTC)

Jim wasn't knocked out completely, but he did get some weight landing on him, enough to leave some scrapes and cuts on his face, and nearly making him lose his senses. He ended up stumbling around for a short while, and only now has he managed to regain his balance and full awareness of what's happening.

Somewhere at the back of his mind, he really wishes he'd been knocked out cold. But then he also feels the need to help somehow, and that's what has him running to where Max is, though he's too far away to even do anything. "Look out!"

Doesn't seem to make much of a difference, anyway. He's just relieved she manages to get out of the robot's path. Wincing, he cups the side of his head, then shakes off any lingering dizziness.

"About time we do something," he says more to himself than anything, then looks around, trying to find Lexa in the middle of the mess. He just shouts instead and hopes anyone at all will answer. "That tree— where is it? I think I can give it a good run." Someone to tag along is always welcome, though. Just for the record.

Clara was hit when the debris fell and had been knocked out for a few short moments, but is quick to come back to and climb back up to her feet. She's out of sorts at first, but manages to stumble her way over toward Jim. His shouting causes her to give a jump, and she blearily reaches up to press a hand against her head. She's got one hell of a pounding headache, but as her eyes regain focus and she's able to stand on her own feet properly again she finally takes notice of the giant robot in the room.

Adrenaline kicks in, causing her senses to be on high alert. Dizziness fades as she makes her way over to stand near Jim. "I know how to get there, if we can get out of here in one piece." She's useless when it comes to strength, but she's fast enough and good at playing bait.

"If we're gonna do this, we need to go now." He doesn't know what happened with Max and the machine on the other side of the room, but he did feel its collision with the stairs. More rocks falling is not a good sign. "We stay in here much longer, that thing's not gonna need to kill us, it'll just bury us."

Or just straight-up trap them, which he feels like would be worse, somehow. If Max managed to get them some kind of opportunity here, they need to take it.

"We can figure out the details on the way there. Whoever knows the way, just go!"

Max's electric shock hits home, rippling through the drone with a brilliant arc of light. It seems to pause for a moment as if temporarily stunned. But the effect only lasts a moment; its armor is too thick for the electricity to do much real harm. It does back off for a moment, though, retreating from Max to get a better bead on the group as a whole.

Anyone watching their regular suit power levels may notice something alarming: they are starting to drain. A few percentage points have dropped since the start of the fight, and the rate of depletion doesn't seem to be slowing. And anyone who was within that first blast still doesn't have their powers back.

Satisfied with its distance, the drone slows to a halt. A compartment opens on its back, revealing an enormous laser canon. It takes aim at the group as a whole and fires a concentrated laser at them. Wildly painful even with a near miss, and capable of removing limbs if it intersects with someone directly. The beam starts on the left of the group and moves across in one swift motion.

Jim's eyes widen as the massive canon comes into view. Yeah, never mind suit power levels, it's not like those matter if this thing slices them up in half. Which, apparently, is what it's aiming to do.

"Shit!" Before thinking twice, he grabs Clara and lunges forward and towards the ground, a few feet closer to the robot but hopefully enough to get them both out of the laser's way before they lose any limbs.

Oh, it has a secret laser compartment. Cool, great, that's wonderful.

Cayde backs a little more toward the exit, avoiding the laser handily like he hadn't managed with the light, frustrated by how weak he feels suddenly but more by how no one else is leaving.

"Come on! We need to get out of here now." He has his gun out, ready and aimed toward the robot, but somehow he gets the feeling it won't do much. "This thing is surfacing one way or another, we'll figure out what to do about it topside."

Edited 2016-11-27 01:20 (UTC)

Dorian has never seen anything resembling a robot before, so he's having the experience that they're being attacked by some kind of homicidal golem, which is ...no less annoying than being attacked by anything else giant and homicidal. Like Max he misses the blue light, having been in her general vicinity at the time, which is good because he is without magic just a dude with a great mustache.

As things are he both overhears the tail end of this tree-luring business, and witnesses Max do. That thing, that she just did, which he's only known one mage to be able to do, and she was one of the most powerful he'd ever met. He will just have to get all heart eyes over that when there's not an inexplicably ill-tempered slab of scariness trying to smash everything, however.

His initial aim was to cast Barrier on Max, since she's closest to him and had a destination and all, but then there are lasers and it is really hard to be a guy from pseudo medieval Europe right now let Dorian tell you. He at least can easily grasp that whatever that is it equals nothing good, and so flings out an arm instinctively; anyone who might be within his immediate vicinity will find themselves shielded from most damage for around thirty seconds, though it makes the power level on Dorian's suit drop distressingly low, and that's before he notices the life sustaining part of it trickling away.

"Try not to die as you go, please," is the helpful advice he provides, while ....you know, running.

Edited 2016-11-27 01:29 (UTC)

Right, so there's lasers involved now. Nice to know the robot has an impressive bag of tricks to kill them all with. She quickly starts to pick herself up, pulling Jim along with her. Hearing someone shout that they need to get out now, she doesn't hesitate any further. Grabbing hold of his hand, she tugs him along after her and takes off as fast as she can. If he's faster than she is, he's more than welcome to drag him along after her.

"No promises on the dying!" She calls out to Dorian, since she's not sure how they're all going to make it out with debris falling, things caving in, and lasers.

But she's got a lot of incentive to lead the thing toward the tree now, at least. She's feeling a little worn, but hasn't noticed her suit's energy levels draining yet. She's too preoccupied with what's going on around them.

Yep, definitely not sticking around now. Scrambling to his feet, Jim takes hold of Clara's hand and runs right along with her. It doesn't take long for him to catch up and eventually run a little faster than she does, though he tries his best not to drag her along and make her fall over. If they had to stop now then they definitely wouldn't make it out of here.

He does feel weaker in the meantime, and he knows why, but right now they're all out of options. Running is all they can do, while hoping that somehow they can get out of this mess before their suits run out of power.

The laser folds back into its compartment after that blast, heat radiating visibly from the spot. Once again it curls itself into a ball and rolls with deceptive rapidity towards the group. As it goes, it continues to knock down pillars in the forgotten city, and send more of the already fragile floor near the caves spiraling down to the very bottom layer. It's aiming to hit the group that is on the main city level, temporarily ignoring anyone above or below it.

The tree is a decent idea, if they can get the robot inside the field of effect, that should slow it down long enough to make a real plan, although Max is already working on that second part.

She's distracted by the laser, briefly, diving to the side even as Dorian's barrier saves her from straight up dying.

Once the laser has passed and the rolling has started again, she decides it's time to get the hell out of here, because she wants to get her hands on some of those incredibly acidic cacti.

Over the commotion of the rolling robot, she shouts, "Keep it busy, I've got an idea!"

With that, she's going to head in the opposite direction of James and Clara; good luck guys.

Well, uh.

Cool.

This has to be about the 500th time Cayde's wished that they had some kind of comm system out here, but once everybody's moving he doesn't bother to wait. He reaches into his bag for a pearl to crush and moves quick, watching down the scope of his gun as it curls itself up like a pillbug of death and rolls into town.

"We need to scatter!" Cayde yells as he runs, breaking into a sprint and jumps for something tall, (boy does he miss that triple jump,) pulling himself up some luckily unbroken pillar for a clear line of sight and fires off a short round of bullets in its direction. If he can draw its attention, they can lure it.

The Mark of the Atlas

THE MARK OF THE ATLAS

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