Making Allies and Enemies: Xelots impede Demai Mission (03-04-2403)

Having already met with the current leader of the Kai’en, Serif, the Demai proceeded from their location in Sezgard to the location of their mission in the Syre’s Abyss.  Little did they know however that they were being tailed by some of the Knights of the Council of Xelots.  As they arrived in the Syre’s Abyss and departed Tiana’s massive Zeta Hyper Elixer, they went over their plan one last time, leaving the Heavy Assault Vehicle in the care of two of the R.E.D. Agents while they moved into the Abyss to deal with whatever it was that Serif was actually interested in the area.

The preparation for the mission was a rather extensive one with Jais further getting a feel for all of the Astral presences of their entourage, including that of Serif and the three Kai’en researchers that seemed to be taking quite an interest in the area.  Once this was done, they would then go about attempting to replicate the effects of John’s particularly unique bonus skills and implement them into the design of a barrier.  This was ultimately an exercise in futility however, as even with their combined technical capacities and unique expertise, understanding and duplicating the effects of Bonus Skills, even on a simple level was quite a complex task.  The team would have to settle for utilising some of John’s and Kyo’s defensive techniques as a part of the barrier, before they went about fortifying it against spiritual and psychein assaults as well.  Tiana raised an eyebrow at this now, wondering exactly why the team went to so much effort to erect such a massive barrier when it would only attract more entities to their location.  Even with Alyssa’s stealth abilities, this was still a large number of channelers and a great deal of energy utilised, a single ability would just not be enough to mask them all.

A quick shrug from Tiana would draw a great deal of amusement from Jayce and Kaili, who instantly noticed Tiana’s particular brand of tough love, ensuring that this particular team of three was near to the entourage at all times, while Rule remained on the Zeta Hyper Elixer with the R.E.D. Agents due to his low technical capacity.

Once all the small details were worked out, the team would move off into the Syre’s Abyss allowing Serif and her party to run the necessary scans while they kept a look out for particularly menacing creatures.

Back near the arrival point, Rule and the two R.E.D. Agents were relaxing in Tiana’s ship when the scanners on the ship picked up an incoming energy signature. Rule raised an eyebrow as a wide grin broke across his face, zooming in on the incoming ship to see the massive Xelot insignia plastered all over it.

“I love the fact that Knights don’t do stealth.” Rule laughed now, as he capitalised on the two and a half kilometre scanning advantage that his Field Leader’s ship had on Deacon’s Rhyno, giving him ample time call Tiana and give her the heads up.  “Hey Tiana, we’ve got Xelots incoming...”  Rule sounded over the comm. link, causing a number of the Demai agents, Rueben in particular to become extremely agitated.

“Which ones?” She inquired now, causing Rule to pull up an information sheet.

“Demai intelligence tells us that we’re looking at about 5 of them, Deacon, the Talon... that dude Bobby and their resident minions.”  Rule replied now.  “Should I blast them?”

“No Rule...”  Tiana replied with a sigh.  “Rhyno’s are nearly indestructible to anything within tier... it would be a waste of ammo.”  Tiana explained.  “Monitor the situation and keep me informed... if they make themselves a nuisance, end them.”  She replied before turning her attention back to the entourage.

Having modified their formation to allow Jais’ plan to go off while acting on her better judgement to keep the entourage safe, Tiana was now forced to question whether or not that was the best idea considering that the Xelots were now incoming.

“Okay, everyone stop moving.”  She started, causing her entire team to pause.  “Drop the barrier, it’ll attract too much attention.”  She commanded, much to the surprise of her subordinates.  “Lower your outputs and cap your forms, and split up into three groups.”  Tiana’s commands continued, splitting them into three tactical groups.

Tiana, Jayce and Kaili would protect Serif and one of the researchers, while Rueben, John, Jais and Thales guarded another.  This would leave Kyo, Alyssa, Rayne and Razak to guard the other researcher as they split up to separate their energy signatures, and make them a less enticing meal for the creatures in the area.

On the outskirts, Deacon had moved close enough to the Hyper Elixer for it to enter his scanning range, drawing a long sigh from the French born Xelot.  “We’ve already been detected.”  He reasoned to Bobby, drawing an equally long sigh from the usually laid back Xelot Knight.

“This is seeming like a bad idea.” Bobby reasoned now, drawing a mused look from Nikolai.

“Do we proceed or abort this action then?”  The Oyan born noble inquired, looking to Deacon who just turned his gaze to Bobby.

“For now, this is still Stryder’s mission, command will only defer to me should things get out of control.”  Deacon replied, turning to Bobby now.

“Okay, let’s do this... the plan is just to mess them up... not  to actually defeat them anyway.”  Bobby explained.

“As that would be impossible...”  Nikolai stated, drawing a glare from Bobby.

 “Hey Tiana, Xelots are here...” Rule stated as he watched the Xelot ship land.  “But I don’t sense anything coming out... I’m not sure what they’re up to.”  He continued.

“That’s interesting...” Tiana stated.  “Keep me informed Rule.”

“Yeah, I got it.”  He replied, lounging back in the pilot’s chair and resting his feet on the main console.

Little did Rule know that the Xelots had actually disembarked the Rhyno utilising the stealth capabilities of the Venom Suits which they had acquired from Paco, and was quickly making their way towards the location where the Rhyno had last sensed the Xelots.

By now however, Rueben had begun to get a bit ansy, causing him to message Jais.  “Do you sense any guardian souls in the area?”  He inquired now, causing Jais to pause and begin the Astral Scan of the area.”  This would take some time, allowing the Xelots to further close the distance before Jais actually completed the scan.

“Yeah, I can sense Synchros in the area... but I can’t track it to a physical location.” Jais replied before the sound of a single round cutting through the air was heard.

Before the team could mobilise, a hail of rounds impacted Rueben’s form, scoring a clean hit and taking Rueben easily beneath half of his health quote, stunning him as well as sending his party into disarray.  “Niice.”  Bobby smirked to himself before reengaging the Venom Suit to make his presence and moving to another location.

This did not go unseen by Tiana, who was now forced to make a difficult judgement call.  “Rule, bring the ship.” Came the command from Tiana, causing the young Agent to quickly power up the Hyper Elixer and begin making his way to their location, while she redistributed the formations.

“Kyo and John, I’m leaving you two in charge of the situation, reunite the teams and guard Serif and her researchers.”  She commanded, drawing affirmations from the two Demai members.  “Rueben and Jais, you will come with the three of us and engage these Xelot nuisances.”  She stated, breaking away from group and moving outwards.

“Rueben, use your mist to locate them and relay their positions to us... whatever stealth systems their using won’t save them for very long.”

As Rueben shifted into his mist form, he was able to avoid a great deal of the damage from Bobby’s next assault, saving him reversion as Jayce’s Scattered Particles picked up Bobby’s location.  A blast would take Bobby clean off his feet, using up one of his Trials instantly.

“He de-cloaks when he attacks... they won’t take long.” Jayce stated calmly, allowing the Demai to quickly close the distance while Bobby recoalesced after the Trial.  This would allow Tiana to easily launch one of her Prism Shots, forcing Deacon to step in and actively shield the attack as his Venom Suit also retracted.

Rueben would waste no time imposing his Psychic dominion over the weaker minds in the team, forcing Nikolai to now vanish from the battlefield as he activated his Alter Travel and engaged Rueben on the Psychein scape, to lessen the effects of his Psychic Assaults.  As would be expected, being the two most power channelers there, Deacon and Tiana would quickly clash with their respective weapons of choice, allowing a loud clang to resonate through the environment as the Xelot’s broadsword impacted her forearm mounted katar.

Bruiser would waste no time emerging and rushing forward, only to be intercepted by the petite Kaili Smith, who utilised her code morph to deal with her opponent on the basis of code rather than trying to go toe to toe with his ridiculously abilities.  This left Bobby and Raen to engage Jais and Jayce, a match up that did not at all seem to go in the favour of the two Xelots.

Luckily for the Xelots at least, their plans did draw a great deal of attention to the area, making life extremely difficult for even the Demai members some distance off, forcing Kyo and John to maximise their abilities to effectively protect their Kai’en allies.  This would push the two resident tanks to their limits, once again showing off John’s particular resilience as his Absolute Firewall shielded him from the mental corruptions of the resident creatures.

Back on the battlefield, Rueben was practically on his last breath as Nikolai’s psychein assaults dealt him in, while Jais and Jayce pushed Raen’s healing abilities to the max as they exhausted Bobby’s Trials one after the other.  Deacon and Tiana would stalemate as usual, while Bruiser’s frustrations started to result in the destruction of the environment as Kaili’s anomalous abilities pushed his very low tolerance to the limit.

Fortunately for the Demai however, Raen managed to close the distance with his Hyper Elixer.  A single blast warning shot would be enough to force the Xelot to retreat, allowing them to activate their Personnel Teleporters to pull them back to the Rhyno.  Rueben snarled now, turning to Tiana to ask why Rule didn’t just revert them.

“And risk blasting us all?” Tiana inquired casually before turning her attention to Jayce now.  “Locate the rest of the field team.”  Tiana reasoned, but Jayce was far ahead of her.

“Cap your forms I will transport you now.”  Jayce stated, causing the entire team to oblige, before he utilised his Dimensional skills and Dias transport the five channelers into the fray, where his other teammates were engaged.

Jais would waste no time going about the healing process, starting with Rueben while he expanded his abilities to counter the psychic assaults.  Tiana and Jayce would shift their positions and turn their offensive prowess towards the battlefield, allowing Jayce to begin to quickly charge towards his Maximum Controllable Energy.  This would be greatly accelerated by his Omega Drive and his R.E.D. mode.  It would only take a few seconds for him to reach this state, before he Flash Converted all of the energy to give Tiana Control over it.

“Perfect guards ready.”  Came the command, alerting the team to her plans.  Instantly a unified Perfect Guard would be erected to protect all present before Tiana Genesis Broke the energy and exploded the area in her Solar Flare.

The attack instantly vapourised all of the weaker entities in the area and disoriented those strong enough to withstand the power of the attack.

“We leave now.” Came the call, as Rule positioned the Hyper Elixer above them allowing Tiana to evacuate them all to the safety of the Heavy Assault Vehicle.  There the Demai would await the results of their mission as Serif analysed their performance.

Outcome: The Demai have proved that they are capable combatants, but their performance against the Xelots have brought their effectiveness against that particular faction into question.  The Kai’en are therefore only considering a tentative alliance until they can be convinced otherwise.

Demai Entourage
Tiana: 410 Exp  (fully healed)
Jayce: 380 Exp (fully healed)
  Kaili: 320 Exp (fully healed)

Alyssa: 310 Exp (fully healed)
Jais: 470 Exp (fully healed)
John: 350 Exp (fully healed)
Kyo: 350 Exp (fully healed)  
Rayne: 300 Exp (reverted)
Rueben: 340 Exp (fully healed)

Razak: 270 Exp (reverted)
Thales: 290 Exp (reverted)

Xelots
Deacon: 380 Exp (fully healed)
  Raen: 380 Exp (fully healed)
Nikilai: 380 Exp (fully healed)
  Karl: 300 Exp (fully healed)
Bobby: 320 Exp (fully healed)