Faction Coordination: Xelots and Rogues investigate a hunch in Morocco (16-02-2403)

The Xelot contingent consisting of Deacon, Raen, Nikolai, Karl and Jubei met up with Tyler, Roderick, Hyaku and Erika of the Rogue special forces in Morocco, quickly exchanging information on their developments so far before they moved off to the area specified by Alexander Drago.  On their way there, Jubei didn’t hesitate to voice his theories on the corruption that Alexander Drago himself represented, speaking to his alliance with the evil that was the Demai and the hired guns known as the Mercenaries.  Tyler was greatly amused by this as she too knew of Drago’s less than legitimate dealings, but as a Rogue she maintained a far less philosophical stance on the matter, dealing purely in facts and the letter of the law.

This conversation didn’t interest Hyaku one bit however, as the young channeler was concerned with neither Drago nor this current ‘power-user’ terrorism, finding it all to be unnecessarily in-depth given the fact that they could simply telefrag the culprits once they found them.  Hyaku’s non-indulgence did not go unnoticed however, drawing even more suspicion of the already suspicious Jubei and interestingly enough, the young Synchros guardian Nikolai Anan.  Hyaku wasn’t oblivious of this but chose to simply ignore it, hoping that they could just deal with the task at hand and let him be on his way.

While they are waiting for the Xelots, Hyaku and Tyler had pounded the pavement somewhat and had managed to track down the shipment to a single address, that of a cosmetics company on the outskirts of one of Morocco’s main towns.  This in itself was of particular interest to the two Rogues since cosmetics companies were among those companies which would have lost a considerable amount of business after the fusion... after all, channelers had little need for.  Further investigations had revealed that the shipment which they received actually contained a newly developed form of technology from Drago Enterprises which would replace their cosmetic lines with something slightly more practical.  These components were critical in the development of their new external ethereal amplification appliers, which allowed them to mass produce amplification similar to those utilised in the Liora Program.  Interestingly enough however, these same devices, when applied differently could have been very useful in creating the same disruption bombs that shook and eventually destroyed the Burj Al Arab.  Up until this point however, the Rogues had been unable to secure a meeting with the company’s C.E.O. who had been far less accommodating that Alexander Drago, leaving the Rogue-Xelot team to take a more direct approach.

On this day, the hired security would note as two massive Heavy Assault vehicles landed within the bounds of their premises, causing a massive armed force to proceed to the exit bays of the ships and await their occupants to disembark.  Unfortunately, their occupants would not simply disembark their ships, but instead make their demands.

“This is Tyler Cage of the Rogue Special Forces and I am accompanied by Deacon DeSaint of the Knights of the Xelot Council, we are formally requesting a meeting with your C.E.O. in an attempt to proceed with our investigations into the incident in Dubai on New Year’s Eve.  Your assistance is required and highly suggested.”  Tyler stated, waiting patiently within her Maglyte for the reply.

“Don’t you think that was a bit much?”  Deacon inquired now as his face flashed across Tyler’s comm. screen causing her to smirk.

“Maybe, but they’re not being very cooperative... sometimes these things need to be done.”  Tyler sounded, causing Deacon to nod in consideration.

“Very well, you have our support.”  Deacon stated formally, causing Tyler to laugh lightly.

“Don’t worry Deac, I won’t do anything drastic like open fire on them or anything... this is just a massive bluff.”  Tyler laughed, drawing an invisible reaction from Deacon.  “And it seems to be working...”  Tyler laughed lightly as she saw a small team exit the facility with an extremely well dressed man or apparently Terran decent.  “Erika, you stay here and man the weapons, just in case they get out of hand, the rest of you come with me.”  Tyler ordered, causing Hyaku and Roderick to exit the Maglyte.

They were met on the outside by the Xelots, forming a single greeting party for the C.E.O. and his personal guards.

“I’m glad that you were able to make time in your busy schedule for us.”  Tyler stated in a somewhat patronising tone, causing the Terran man to scowl.  “Don’t worry, we only have a few questions for you before we’re on our way.”  Tyler stated now as the scowl faded slightly.

“What is it that you need to know?” The man inquired.

“We tracked a shipment that we believe contained materials which could have been used in the Dubai incident.  Our tracking led us to your company...”  She explained, causing the man’s brow to narrow.  “So, would you still happen to have those parts lying around?”  Tyler inquired.

“No, the parts were faulty, we had to get rid of them.”  The man replied causing Tyler to smirk.

“Yeah, I got the feeling that was the case.”  Tyler’s smirk grew.  “So would you mind if we came inside and took a look around?” She inquired, drawing a firm and swift “no” from the C.E.O. of the company.

“Unless you have an official search warrant, I don’t believe that I am obligated to let you into my facility.”  He stated, causing Tyler’s amusement to peak.  Unfortunately, by now Hyaku and Jubei had grown tired of this back and forth banter, a sentiment that was even mirrored, albeit to a lesser extent, by the Oyan born Nikolai.

“Enough of this... your security forces aren’t anywhere near equipped to keep us all out of this facility, let us in now or we will make our way into the facility by force.”  Hyaku stated coldly, drawing a slight glare from Tyler.  Instantly the security forces armed themselves, causing the channeler contingent to instinctually power up, the most noticeable change amoung them being the transformation of Karl Brusner to the massive Bruiser. 

“Your resistance is unnecessary if you have nothing to hide, we do not wish to make unnecessary trouble for your establishment.”  Deacon now explained as the Maglyte powered up its weaponry as well.

“Would you open fire on innocent civilians?” The man inquired smugly, causing Hyaku to summon his Fulcrum Blade instantaneously.

“The Rogues are not your local police, we are not bound by arbitrary legal procedures...”  He started, walking towards the C.E.O. “...we instead have the obligation to go the lengths necessary to get the job done.”  Hyaku finished, causing the man to realise that he really had two choices, allowing them into his facility or continuing this banter indefinitely.  Hesitantly, he would give the order of his security forces to repel these forces, an order that came as a genuine surprise to all present.

“This is new...” Tyler stated as she vanished from sight now, leaving the Xelots to engage their defensive abilities to shield themselves from the massive influx of laser based weaponry.  “What is it that these people are trying to hide?”  Was all she could question as she went to work seeding the battlefield with her summons, setting up for her usual combat style.

Deacon would do a similar level of summoning, flooding the battlefield with his agents, which were now joined by Jubei’s summons who began to inflict the massive drain on the battlefield as well as they set up to neutralise their attackers.  Hyaku on the other hand had far less concern for his enemies, easily slashing through them as he appeared and vanished from point to point, dispatching enemies as fast as he could.  This drew raised eyebrows from all present, Rogues and Xelots alike, but none would have the time to contest it as they tried to save their own skins.  Between Tyler and Jubei, the battlefield became thick with energy, those which Tyler had built up and those which Jubei had liberated.  This thickness of energy boosted the forms of all present, aiding them in their tasks, allowing Roderick to coordinate their efforts and minimize casualties for the most part, while the others went to work neutralising their enemies, a task that they made relatively short work of ethereally drained users, incapacitating them all.

Tyler now turned her attention back to the C.E.O of the company, who was now dragging himself up off the ground in an attempt to flee.  The Rogue Captain just walked slowly towards him, being followed by the others present, watching as the man struggled to his feet and slipped between the two large doors that led to the facility’s store room.  Tyler sighed now as she picked up the pace, dashing towards the door.  Her eyes would widen now causing her to dodge the door as it exploded off its hinges, but she would not be fast enough to dodge the powerful strike to her stomach before he attacker grabbed her by the neck.  Unfortunately for her attacker, he would not see as Deacon Glaze Stepped in and severed his hand from his body with the Vanquisher.  This caused the user to exclaim in pain as Tyler’s feet were allowed to touch the ground again before a blast which removed the second door and sent her flying back towards the others impacted her.  Roderick would catch his Captain now, cancelling her momentum with his abilities before Deacon moved forward to take command of the situation once more. 

This time he was joined by Raen and Nikolai who also moved into the fray, watching as a small user, augmented with ethereal enhancements made his way out of the building, smoke coming from his palms.  Nikolai would sigh lightly as he condensed a Synchros bolt onto his target, locking the glyphs present on his form while Raen powered up his Levin and released a blast that quickly began to degrade his attacker’s forms.  The two would nod to each other, before they now witnessed Deacon going sailing past them as the massive channeler stood their in the ending pose for a hook punch with his recently regenerated arm.  The battle would continue to progress quickly now as a flood of other power users emerged from the facility to engage the Rogue team that was assessing the situation.

“Arrghh!!!”  Would be heard as Bruiser landed in the fray with a double axe-handle and slammed his unsuspecting target, the large power user, into the ground before he went to work pummelling on him.  Unfortunately, Bruiser would quickly lose the upper hand as the massive user-class scrapper began to use Bruiser’s lack of mobility due to the chains which restricted him, to his advantage.

As the others filtered past the three Xelots that made up the frontlines, Deacon and Tyler once again took charge of the situation, while Hyaku, Jubei and Roderick brought up the rear and attempted to deal with the massive influx of power users.  For the first time, Deacon’s gryphon would make its appearance, releasing its frozen breath onto the battlefield to stop their enemies in their tracks, while Tyler summoned her own beast, a large ragnus which went to work with its ice breath to compliment the gryphon.  Jubei was rather pleased by this, summoning Kuro Tenshi onto the battlefield to support his many other summons, utilising her feminine wiles and extensive draining abilities to sustain the other summons while Jubei took on his Raijin form and went to work utilising his extensive electric and light based abilities to dispatch the horde of angry users.  His abilities were further complimented by Roderick, who’s EM mastery was rather entensive and were only enhanced by his own EM morph, allowing the two to combine their abilities for amplified effects.

Unlike Jubei and Roderick however, Hyaku preferred to work alone, and did his best to move quickly through the power user hordes in an attempt to dispatch them before they could become any trouble.  Unfortunately, he would find himself faced by a rather acrobatic biologically enhanced power user who actually seemed to be able to keep up with Hyaku, using two modified Vipers to easily counter the duellist’s nodachi attacks.

Back on the front lines, Nikolai and Raen would find themselves having to retreat as they were faced with simply superior firepower.  Even with Nikolai’s luck and his ability to severely reduce the power of his attackers, the sheer force and the number of power-users with which they were faced left them little choice.  Even as Nikolai released the synchros chains that bound Bruiser, allowing him to fully utilise his form’s extrodinary abilities, they were still repelled from the facility by the purely superior force.

Luckily, Deacon and Tyler would press forwards with their ice based support, immobilising those that they could to allow the three channelers to fall back into a safe position where they could once again switch on their offensive abilities. Raen particularly had now switched his abilities between healing his allies and repelling opponents an action that caused Nikolai to do the same now as he realised just how much damage they were really taking at the hands of their power user assailants.

The battle would wear on for some time before they were forced to retreat, forcing Tyler to actually utilise her trump card.  As the channeller’s simultaneously vanished from the battlefield, the Zeta Amplified Buster Cannons flashed to life, washing over the battlefield and obliterating their assailants in one fell swoop.  The Rogues and the Xelots would then be left to sift through the evidence in an attempt to really assess what had been truly going on.

Outcome: The Xelot-Rogue alliance has uncovered that the cosmetics company located in Morocco was actually a front for an illegal user-enhancement plant and they suspect that this was the mounting point for the attack in Dubai.  A number of non-channelers have been detained by the Rogues and will be transported back to The Garrison for questioning and the user-enhancement facility has been left in the hands of the Moroccan government.

Tyler: 420 Exp
Roderick: 320 Exp

Hyaku: 280 Exp
Erika: 80 Exp

Deacon: 310 Exp
Raen: 340 Exp

Nikolai: 350 Exp
Karl: 240 Exp

Jubei: 280 Exp