Plan Acquired:
Mavrick attempts Need For Speed Quest
again. (25/08/2403)
For his second attempt at the quest
Mavrick would actually have a couple of ideas for getting into the facility.
Mavrick and Concept utilised their Unique class abilities to interface with the
door in an attempt to determine how to open it. From what they could actually
understand about the locking mechanism it seemed to be out of order. It seemed
to be somehow warped and possibly permanently fixed into it locked mode. Concept
would take note of traces of what appeared to be Magic but due to his low
awareness he could pick up nothing more. Mavrick would notice what appeared to
be crystallised fragments of Ki embedded into the mechanism and traces of Zeta
which was still active. From this Concept theorised that the lock had been
corrupted during the Fusion and the only way to open the door was to repair the
locking mechanism. Unfortunately none of them possessed the necessary knowledge
to repair this foreign construct or the Technical to aid them in possibly
figuring out how to do so. The two then attempted to Console with the facility
itself but there was nothing to interface with in this manner, thus their
attempt proved futile.
Seraph then let Mavrick know that his
plan involving her summon Lionheart would not work. For even if the summon could
make it into the facility via an alternate path, the door still could not be
opened. She also let him know that attempting to take them with him would be
incredibly unpleasant to say the least and should not be attempted. However,
always willing to ‘try a thing’, Mavrick was still open to attempting this act
but Seraph and Lionheart eventually managed to change his mind.
At this point Mavrick was all out of
ideas was about to just blast away at the door again. Fortunately Seraph
intervened.
“Maybe we should try a more manual
search of the facility and utilise our scanners to look for specific things. If
the lock is damaged maybe some other part of the facility is too.” The Summoner
suggested.
“Didn’t we scan this place last time
and found nothing like that?” Mavrick queried.
“Well last time you didn’t say what
sort of scanning you wanted me to make so I just made some random scanners which
weren’t all that great. Also, instead of buying me these Omni Scanners you
should have upgraded my Hard Point scanners. Due to their interfacing nature
they would have done a better job of boosting my awareness. Furthermore even
your own scanning attempt was hardly comprehensive.” Concept revealed.
“Let’s
search again then.” Mavrick replied with a shrug.
After some time they would eventually
locate a small part of the facility that was significantly damaged.
“Ohhh well!” Mavrick exclaimed at
realising he could have just done this before.
The Phalanx then instructed Concept to
unload his Exo-Frame’s payload on the area while applying a conceptual
shattering effect. Mavrick would charge his Immortality Drive and unleash a
probability blast coupled with Infernal Break’s destabilising energy. It would
take some time but the two would eventually manage to blast through the damaged
area. Fortunately Seraph was on hand to replenish the significant amount of
stamina expended during the process.
As the three activated their various
means of stealth, Mavrick smirked before tossing to Concept the Liquid Armour
that had been donated by Davius Dark.
They then crawled through the hole they had created.
Mavrick decided to turn left through
the corridor they appeared in, utilising his Probability Mastery in an attempt
to guide him. Utilising her Force Armour to spread her body throughout her AoI,
Seraph would move ahead to serve as the group’s scout. The initial trek through
the facility would be uneventful until they eventually came upon the entrance of
a long hallway, at the end of which was a door.
Their scans of the room revealed
nothing threatening but they still entered with caution. Just as they did so two
large compartments on either side of the hallway would slide open and out came a
single automated unit from each. The units immediately began firing on the
trio’s location, showing that they could actually detect them. In Seraph’s
current state it was difficult to affect her whole body without utilising AoE
abilities but the nature of the weapons still made for quite a problem. As the
solid state rounds impacted, the Summoner found parts of her diffused body
caught in some sort of stasis. Mavrick and Concept would also be caught by the
stasis rounds, temporarily making them sitting ducks for the projectile blades
which followed. At this point the Mercenaries abandoned their stealth and fully
powered up.
Concept and Mavrick broke free of the
stasis while Seraph dissipated the small Force Armour constructs that was her
body. Mavrick’s initial combat plan went right through the window as he realised
these things were not actually alive and thus had no organs like hearts, brains
and spines for him to exploit. His Universal Scanners would reveal the output of
each unit to be barely Boss level but the automated constructs were also heavily
reinforced.
Concept wasted no time in unleashing
his Particle Cannon on one of the units while Seraph unleashed her spectral
energies upon the same unit. The unit evaded the particle beam while the
spectral energies went to work. As Mavrick underwent his Ashura Morph, both
units emitted a pulse through the ground which knocked back the three
Mercenaries. To Mavrick’s surprise the units quickly linked to each other to
form one bigger construct with an output equivalent to a level 30 channeler and
a marked increase in structural stability.
The Unsealed Ashura rushed the huge
construct while his team backed him up from afar. The Ashura grabbed one of the
construct’s limbs as it swiped at him and poured all the great might it could
manage to manifest on this plane into attempting to break the limb.
Unfortunately, despite the Ashura’s greater power and somewhat increased
channelling force he still could not break it and would frown as a blade sliced
open a large gash on his chest. He would be unfazed by the wound however and
unleashed a massive blast of his Infernal Break and Chaos Break upon his
adversary. This was coupled with Concept’s Particle Cannon and Gatling Guns
while Seraph continued in trying to weaken the unit’s impressive structural
integrity with spectral energies. The combined attack managed to break off a
chunk of the unit’s frame.
The Ashura would then proceed to
engage the material construct in melee combat, exchanging blow for blow in what
amounted to a slug fest. With Seraph restoring the health and stamina of the
monster that was the Ashura and Concept just blasting away, the battle began to
take its toll on the unit. However its sensors had picked up on the healing to
his main foe’s body and the A.I. quickly determined that Seraph must be
eliminated immediately. A large projectile blade would then quickly slice the
Summoner’s body in half. At this point the Ashura activated his host’s Omega
Drive, increasing his power further and began to bombard the unit with energy
infused blows. Soon the construct’s body could take no more and it collapsed,
going offline.
The Ashura then withdrew from this
plane, leaving his servant low on stamina. Soon after Seraph formed a new body
courtesy of her Force Armour, revealing that she had not been reverted. However,
the shock from the pain of her Force Armour being cut in half had put her out of
commission for a while. She would replenish Mavrick stamina before proceeding
on.
The three examined the door at the end
of the hallway to realise it was locked. However this door was far less
reinforced than that of the door to the facility and the firepower from
Concept’s Exo-Frame would be enough to blast through it. They made their way
down some stairs to stand before what appeared to be a vault. Mavrick and
Concept Consoled with it but without some sort of code they would not be able to
unlock it. So they resorted to more forceful means. They refrained from outright
blasting the vault in case they managed to blast right through and damage what
was inside. Instead they focused their energies in a more precise manner in an
attempt to cut through it. However the vault was way too reinforced for them to
breach and there was no way they would be able to simply take the vault with
them.
Having run out of ideas the group
decided to call it a day.
Outcome:
The Mercenary trio has dispatched the automated defences but cannot access the
vault. They would have to look for a way to open it. Quest incomplete.
Mavrick:
360 Exp (healed)
Seraph: 350
Exp (healed)