Gameset: Rogues attempt Gaining Favour mission (14/07/2403)

All of the duo’s police work had led them to two conclusions, their targets were either after specific items or a specific person, or their targets were part of a much larger scheme, attacking and ransacking the rivals of their employer.  Upon Tyler’s arrival, Paco would inform her of their theories and bring her up to speed on what they had done and what they had learned so far.

Given these two theories the Rogues would be left to do a great deal of research into their targets, first attempting to ascertain whether or not they were any particularly out of the ordinary items produced in or transported to Serek within the last few months which may have been mixed up among the more common items which the stores that had been vandalised carried.  This would take a while as it required the investigation and analysis of a number of documents, both digital and physical, which detailed manufacture and transport schedules and logs.  Unfortunately, they would come up empty in their search, forcing them now to look into their second theory.

The Rogue Operatives would split up into teams to facilitate their investigation as they tried to determine whether or not there was some corporate rival to businesses that had been vandalised.  This too would take some time as it would require them to re-interview most of the persons who they had already talked to in their previous investigation, and compile a list of potential market rivals.  Once this would do, they would all meet and compare their findings.

It wouldn’t take long for them to realise that prior to the establishment of the commercial ‘common land’, primary trade in the area was facilitated by the travelling nomadic clans native to Aianores, including the Odu.  Though these clans still managed to make a living by selling their commodities in these areas, all of the competition had reduced their profits gained from Serek considerably.  Paco sighed deeply, realising how simple the problem was and noting that had he gone through with his original plan of actually speaking with the Odu, his problem could have been solved by now.

Upon realising that their targets were simply bitter because of the increased competition, Tyler suggested that the best way to get their attention would be with a shop which specialising in those things which the Odu in particular are known for, that being the unique clothing and synthesised cloths based on the clan’s reptilian skin.  It would take them hours to set up shop before Yasmin and Tyler would go to work, posing as the shopkeeper and assistant while Paco and the others spread the rumours of shop’s existence.

Of course, as Tyler expected, their targets would not strike while the shop was open or when it was surrounded by people, so Paco’s plan for the Rogues to lay in wait would prove to be fruitless.  Their targets would wait until later in the night when the marketplace was no longer bustling with people and after the shops had closed to make their move.

Tyler and Yasmin would remain close to the shop, each utilising stealth to stay out of sight, while Paco and the others utilised the Venom Suits to and stayed out of sight to maintain their stealth.  Tyler would be the first to note as the channeler who had been identified as the scout appeared, forcing her and Yasmin to retreat and power down their abilities as much as possible to avoid detection.  Once he was sure that the area was secure, then the others would proceed towards the area and begin to vandalise the stalls.  Tyler would watch momentarily, observing their abilities before she ordered the commencement of the strike.  Paco would go to work releasing a massive blast towards their targets, watching as they were all engulfed in water before they vanished allowing his blast to do the rest of their work for them, setting the stalls on fire as the appeared some distance away.  Tyler’s eyes would open widely as she now vanished from her position, utilising her Sashay Steppe to close the distance between her and her opponents.  This would cause the others to descend on their targets as well now.  Tyler would make a quick break for the Komodo Dragon based bruiser as she summoned her Rogue Lance into her hand, allowing Nicola and Yasmin to each engage one of the crocodilian bruisers.  Paco would do his best to avoid the water based Energy user, instead taking aim on the other blaster while leaving the water user for Reana, Daniel and Jessica.  Tyra and Aggy would be left to locate and neutralise the stealth based scout.

Tyler would already have her hands full with her target, whose fighting style was based heavily on his form’s ability to generate a myriad of toxins.  Luckily given her ability to scan and understand forms, all Tyler had to do was stay out of his attack range while she assimilated his abilities and devised a technical counter for them.  Yasmin and Nicola on the other hand would be having a much more difficult time.  Nicola’s Genesis Break and Overwhelming Force would help to narrow the effects level gap between her and her opponent, but  there was little that should could do to make up for his superior skill, which gave him the advantage in the battle.  Yasmin would also find herself at a combat disadvantage in terms of skill, being forced to rely on the power of her Blui Dragon form, while her Back Up assisted Tyra and Aggy in searching for their stealthed target.

Paco on the other hand would have his hands full with the high speed blaster that he faced off against, finding it hard to concentrate his energy fast enough to hit his opponent with his low accuracy, and being unable to suppress the quick energy user with his area of effect blasts.  Raena, Jessica and Daniel would be forced into their Omega Drives in the early as they combined their abilities in an attempt to neutralise their blaster opponent.  Raena would hang back and lend long range support while Jessica utilised her probability manipulation to assist Daniel in mounting the primary offensive strike.  Unfortunately for this small team, their opponent proved to be the strongest of the lot, leaving them out of their league from the beginning of the match up.

As things progressed, Tyler would be the first to gain the upper hand on her opponent as her Blade Symphony and Buster Melody constantly kept the Komodo Dragon offguard while she charged the energy for her Operatic Rush to deal massive amounts of damage.  When this was combine with her ability to erect her Standing Waves, which drained energy, at anypoint within her area of influence and her ability to switch places with any of these structures at any given time, this made it a nightmare for the considerably weaker poison based bruiser to actually get close and deal damage to his opponent.

Nicola on the other hand would be struggling, being forced into her Corona form rather early in an attempt to even the odds.  This form would give her the energy boost that she needed to make her hits count but she still found herself at the combat disadvantage in that situation.  Yasmin would also find herself having a hard time with her opponent, who seemed to be more accustom to fighting dragons than Yasmin was accustomed to being a dragon, giving him a rather significant tactical advantage over the Phalanx.  This seemed to be the case for most of the Rogue squad who seemed to, despite their power advantage, be suffering from a considerably high tactical advantage at the hands of their opponents.

Luckily for the group, Tyler would finish her opponent first, neutralising him in time to lend assistance to the group of player tier channelers that was taking on the water based blaster.  By the time she arrived to lend assistance, Raena’s health was already approaching critical, forcing her to Omega Flash from the battle to avoid reversion.  Tyler would now take point, allowing Daniel to fall back from the front lines as Jessica now switched her abilities, focusing them on enhancing Tyler’s chance of winning.

Paco had by now given up on reverting his target, and used his dimensional manipulation ability to switch locations and targets with Yasmin, whose Blui form was more capable of keeping up with and dealing damage to the high speed blaster, while Paco could maintain his range and pepper the crocodilian bruiser with flames to whittle down his health.  This tipped things further towards the Rogues’ favour, before things went downhill.  The stealth based channeler among the Odu, had finally managed to track down and defeat Yasmin’s Back Up.  This finishing blow would force him to emerge from his stealth to deal the attack, allowing Tyra and Aggy to score a few clean hits, but the backlash which the destruction of her binding summon gave Yasmin was more than enough to allowing her opponent to bring her health down to critical.  Paco would curse now as he blasted his opponent away, using his energy to teleport a stunned Yasmin to his location as he erected a flaming shield to guard the long range assaults that resulted.

Nicola on the other hand had finally managed to start making some headway against her opponent with the engaging of her Omega Drive.  This her gravity affinity as well as the gravity based abilities of her form and her hammer would provide just enough environmental control to allow her to start evening the odds against her melee opponent, slowing his movement and increasing hers considerably, while adding to the amount of damage that she could deal to him with each blow.

On the other end of the battlefield, Tyler would order Daniel to retreat as well, causing him to Omega Flash from the field as his health reached critical.  A similar order would go out to Aggy, causing her to comply with reluctance as the battlefield started to look more even.  Nicola would be the next to finish her opponent, but would be in little shape to actually lend assistance to anyone else.   Tyler would receive the warning as Nicola too retreated from the battlefield, to avoid reversion.

Paco would manage to finish the powerful crocodilian bruiser next, followed quickly by an Omega Driven musical overload, which, amplified by her opponent’s water based abilities, made quick work of Tyler’s ranged opponent as well.  This would leave Paco and Yasmin to deal with the high speed blaster, while Tyler assisted Tyra in dealing with her stealthy target.  The battle would draw on for some time more before the Rogues managed to overcome their targets, neutralising the final two Odu clan members.  Tyler would perform a quick round up of their targets before leaving Yasmin and Paco in charge of handing them over to the De’rak clan, while she made her way back to the ship to check on their injured teammates.

Outcome: The six Odu clan members have been apprehended.  Mission Complete.

Tyler: 410 Exp (healed)
  Nicola: 350 Exp (healed)
  Raena: 450 Exp (healed)

Paco: 290 Exp (healed)
  Daniel: 270 Exp (healed)
  Jessica: 280 Exp (healed)
  Tyra: 320 Exp (healed)

Yasmin: 330 Exp (healed)
  Aggy: 290 Exp (healed)