Unknown Milky Way Planet (Space and Planet Side)

[SiphonTalvesh]

The Nasara dropped out of hyperspace some distance away from the planet, well outside normal sensor range. After a few moments, a small ship launched from her hangar bay, and then cloaked, flying off towards the planet.

A short few minutes later, the jumper began returning sensor and visual readings, indicating a large scale firefight ongoing, with a number of varying ships attacking what seemed to be some kind of massive outpost on the planet. The Jumper wasn't getting a clean reading on the outpost, but it was indicating what appeared to be a failing shield protecting it. The image panned over to the opposing ships, and as they did, Siphon leaned forward in his chair, shaking his head.

"Hatak ships. Gou'ald, from the insignia it looks like Ba'al's fleet, or part of it. That moron never learns, I swear to god. The outpost's shields seem to be failing though. Ba'al is probably trying to take it. He's not going to be happy in a minute. Shields to maximum, weapons on standby, jumping into battle now. Surprise asshole."


He blinked for a moment, then sheepishly turned back to the group of Lilith's crew on the bridge with a grin on his face.

"Oops, did I say that last part out loud?"


((I'll give ya a chance to respond before joining the fight.))

[Seretis]

((Adding in a bit of my own description here, assume it's readings from the Jumper.))

The outpost itself is massive... Easily the size of Atlantis, if not slightly larger. Most of the Hataks seemed to be focused on a trio of cannons towards the highest parts of the city/fortress. The target cannons themselves seemed to be firing back with some kind of round that seems to have a destructive force similar to that of the Gou'ald Naquadah Bombs... Which likely accounts for the attempts to disable them. Numerous other weapons emplacements could also be picked up, mostly directed at establishing a kill-zone just in front of what appeared to be the main gate. A few other emplacements seemed to be clearing off Death Gliders and Al'kesh.

[Copper]

Siphon's attempt at innocence gets a varied degree of snorts from the Normandy crew, though they're also taking in the situation around the outpost. Grunt pretty much sums up the feelings of the crew with a "This looks like a fight worth getting into." Suffice to say, they're going to be backing up Siphon and his crew if they chose to engage. Lilith seems to be scanning the warzone for a good place to set up if they take the fight to the ground. More than likely, Jack, Grunt, and James will probably be taking a more 'in your face' approach to the fight.
"Give us a quick rundown on the enemy before we get involved here."

[SiphonTalvesh]

Siphon paused for a moment as he manipulated the ship into combat, the shields flaring up as they took a few shots from the enemy, before they would witness on the viewer twin beams of brilliant blue energy lash out from the Nasara, literally cutting one of the pyramid ships in half. The largest of the ships, likely the command ship turned towards them briefly, and then suddenly made a jump to hyper-space, getting a laugh from Siphon.

"Coward ran. Typical of Ba'al."

As his ship started auto firing, he turned to the others and sighed, knowing at the very least Jack wasn't going to like it.

"Gou'ald, or more specifically, rogue Gou'ald. Most of them signed a treaty some time ago and renounced their old ways, but a few of them are rogue, and some, like Ba'al, can't seem to decide who they want to play nicely with, or not at all. If you'll recall on the planet when Talvesh spoke, think of that same situation, only in this case the host's mind is completely suppressed, not in control. That's what the rogue Gou'ald do. Ba'al is one of the last who oppose the new collective system lords and the alliance, though he's also one of the more intelligent ones unfortunately. Ground weapons consist of Zat guns, electric like based weapons that can disrupt the nervous system, and can scramble bionic systems effectively too. One shot will stun, and cause extreme pain. A second shot shortly after will kill the target, and a third ... well let's just say there won't be a body to hide. In addition, they use plasma based staff weapons, and sometimes cannon emplacements. Powerful weapons, but not exactly accurate, though if they hit you, they'll usually kill you in one shot, unless you have some kind of shield to stop the blast. Beyond that, be wary of any that have fallen, if they aren't entirely dead, we have seen the Gou'ald, even larval ones like the Jaffa carry, jump from a host body into another, and at mid range distances. General rule of thumb, take whatever you think would kill a normal human and triple it."

Now he stood, indicating two spots, one near the neck area, and the other in the belly region.

"For Gou'ald, and you'll know them by sight, their eyes will glow, they'll talk as I did, and they'll be better dressed than their Jaffa, aim around the neck area as a double tap measure to ensure the parasite doesn't survive. For the Jaffa, the stomach region is where to aim after dropping the host. Beyond that ... should be a walk in the park, at least compared to earlier anyway."

[Copper]

The Normandy crew listens to his explanation. Grunt simply snorts. Jack listens quietly, arms crossed, her posture not giving any indication that she's bothered by the intel on the enemy. James and Lilith exchange a look before the Commander puts her attention on Siphon. "So these...hosts. There any way to separate them from the parasites or should we just put 'em down and out of our misery?" It's a roundabout question, but she's essentially asking if they should outright kill their opponents or not, since Siphon knows them better than they do.

Regardless of his answer, her orders to the crew are essentially the same. "You heard the man. Hit 'em hard. Hit 'em fast. Don't get hit." She grins at the last part. "Jack, why don't you see if you can't tear up any artillery they might have. James, Grunt--" "Leave the leg-work to us, Lola. You just keep us covered." "Just remember to stay out of my line of sight would you, Vega?" "Hey, that was one time..."

Sounds like they're ready to go, if they're falling into snipe-banter.

[Seretis]

As the banter started, a shimmering line appeared on the Nasara's bridge, expanding like sliding doors, revealing just a prismatic, shimmering glow. About as soon as it reached what seemed to be a full open, what appeared to be a robotic panther poked its head out, and fully emerged. "Heads up, this way to get planetside. Lauter's blocking transports." The cat turned to leave back through the "door", but stopped and looked back. "Oh, and don't try to dial your Stargate while this is open... That's close enough to Ground Bridge tech that I think the same problems would happen... It's bad news."

[Copper]

Of course, the appearance of the glowing portal interrupts them, putting them on alert because Siphon failed to mention this being one of the Nassara's features.  Thankfully for Ravage, the crew can hold their fire until they've determined something's dangerous or not.  Given he talks instead of lunges, they don't seem inclined toward hostilities.  "What's a Lauter?"  James looks between the retreating cat and Siphon.

[Seretis]

The robotic cat's tail flips around, making a couple of jabbing-like motions towards the viewscreen, and the planet, as if pointing. "Lauter's the fortress these morons decided to try to shoot up."

With that, the cat hops back through the "Ground Bridge", as it called the open portal.

[Copper]

((Just wanting to make sure Lil gets an answer on whether to kill their opponents or not, but otherwise...))
If the fight's through the door, then that's where Lil and her crew are headed. Siphon can take the lead if he wants--in fact, it's probably for the best, at least right now--with the rest following shortly after.
Grunt's the first one through, showing no sign of hesitation. James hangs back a little, gesturing to the door and his squadmates.
"Ladies first."
"What's-a matter, Vega? Scared?" Jack throws back at him.
"Hell no. I just know better than to get between you and a fight."
"You keep telling yourself that, princess."
He clacks his jaw shut as she heads through the door, right on her heels. Lilith is the last one through of her group, which will give her team time to spread out and get into their own positions while she finds a spot for herself to set up with her sniper rifle.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Siphon opened his mouth to reply when Ravage appeared, and instead let out a sigh.

"Standby Ravage, I'll 'bury' the gate. Would suck to have it dial IN from somewhere after that explanation. Guessing it'd be similar to Attero then."


THAT got a shudder from Aya, so clearly Attero hadn't been a good thing.


Siphon just nodded at the description of Lauter, it making sense why Baal had been here now. Turning to the others he added, "honestly at this point, shoot to kill. They won't surrender at this point thanks to what Baal has done to them."


After speaking that, he stepped through the portal, Aya right behind him.

[Seretis]

Once the group passed through, they found themselves inside a large metallic room, dominated by a giant hovering metal sphere with holograms, symbols, and fairly briefly flashing image displays encircling it. A circle of some manner of consoles formed a ring at a short distance around the sphere. Ravage was sitting near one of the consoles, apparently reading something on it. Near the cat was something resembling an inverted teardrop. A ring of four metallic tendrils ringed the narrow end of the body, with a short energy stream seemed to be keeping it afloat. A number of mask-like affairs ringed the body's wider upper section. Two of the tendrils, the ones closest to the console, had glowing energy-based manipulators working on the console. The closest of the masks spoke up, mouth moving. "Hey, ma..." Suddenly, the teardrop-being stopped, spun a bit, and a different mask faced the newcomers. "My apologies. Welcome to Lauter."

At this point, a large armored suit walked in from a different angle. The helmet split open, revealing Victor's face. "So, the automated message did trigger."

((Will be updating the OOC post showing the fonts in use for Quint's various faces with pictures once the face is seen speaking.))

[Copper]

The Normandy crew knew better than to bring up subjects that obviously caused Aya distress, so there weren't any questions about that. Once they're through the gate, Lilith holds in a grunt as she collides with James' back, the marine having stopped only a few steps through the portal.
"Somebody wanna tell me what I'm lookin' at?"
"You're blocking traffic, Vega. Gawk later." She gives him a shove and he sidles a bit to the side, his gaze not lingering too far from Quint.
The approach of the suit does tend to put them on alert, though. Clearly power armor--or an equivalent thereof--is cause for slight concern among these folks. The fact that Victor isn't powering up weapons at least helps things, though seeing as he's Siphon's ally, it's mostly up to him to do the talking.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Siphon paused for a moment, seeming to puzzle at least parts of things out.

"So THIS is Lauter. Interesting. And ... Quint I believe?"


At Victor's words, he turned again, nodding.

"IT did, although admittedly it took some time to decipher. Had Aya not said something about the visual reminding her of you but older, I might not have put it together. Have to thank you on that one Ravage, I'd have never figured out how to decode that if not for our previous conversation. So let me guess, you powered something on, and Baal decided to play capture the base? Boy I'd have loved to have seen his face when we showed up."


That drew a laugh from Aya.

"Probably something along the lines of 'screw this, I'm done', while crapping himself."

[Seretis]

The multi-faced being turned, slowly this time, to another face. "Yes, I am Quint." After saying that, the face that spoke turned back to the console.

Victor shook his head. "Actually, we had to power down to work on a system, and the optical camouflage stealth fields went down. That's when derpnugget started attacking. I'm fairly certain that he might have been here for some other reason, though."

One of Quint's other faces that happened to be facing the Normandy crew responded to Vega's question. "This is, in essence, the control center for Lauter."

[SiphonTalvesh]

Siphon frowned slightly at Victor's comment.

"Strange ... this is well outside of his normal territory. If he didn't pick up on a powering up signature and come ... why the hell was he here to begin with? And how'd he even find this planet? From orbit the planet basically appears to be uninteresting. Cronus used to control this area of space, and even he left this system alone, and he was well known for taking control of even the most desolate of rocks if there were some kind of military value to it. It's part of why he remained a System Lord until the replicators killed him."


Aya sighed.

"Well whatever the reason he came here, he had a ton of ship with him. You don't send that many ships just to check something out that might not even be worth the time. No, he was definitely looking for something, or someone, and thought they'd be here. And whatever, or whoever it was ... he felt he needed a huge fleet for it, which gives me pause for concern. From what you've told me, Baal wouldn't commit this many resources to something unless he truly thought it would be needed. But why continue the attack when the city started shooting back, and he'd determined nothing of what he was looking for was here?"

Siphon snorted.

"Greed. He may not have found what he was looking for, but seeing something like this decloak? Too much to pass up, he had to try and take it. Got a hell of a lot more than he bargained for I'll bet too. Still, Aya's right, why so many ships to begin with before he even knew about this place? What, or who the hell was he looking for?"

[Seretis]

Victor shrugged. "Well, we can..."

Suddenly, the giant sphere in the center of the room lit up, with a number of different symbols and images in the section near Victor. A brief flicker of the symbols and images flashed directly facing the group from the Nasara.

Victor shook his head, then spoke again. "Okay, slight change in plan. According to Lauter, we're going to have to re-route power from the weapons block in front of the main gate to finish integrating the new parts. Ravage, plug in and take control of the Bridge, get Siphon and the others down to see about getting some extra support down there. I'll see about getting down there myself once I can."

What happened next probably caught the attention the members of the Normandy's crew. The robotic cat leaped into the air, changed shape into some manner of high-tech looking data storage core, and plugged into the console ring at one point. The Bridge Portal shut down, and then re-opened. Victor turned to head back through the doorway he'd come from earlier.

[Copper]

"To quote an old phrase, what would be his motivation?" Lilith remarks, listening to Siphon and Victor banter back and forth. "There's obviously something here that he wants or that he thinks is here. Otherwise, he'd have pulled his troops back. Even greed has its limits and you don't leave your fleet to take damage if you're only attacking something for spite."

"Maybe it's something hidden in plain sight," Grunt cuts in. "You folks seem to like that." He was on the bridge when the coded message was discovered. "Maybe it's something so innocuous to you that you don't think it's special." He snorts at Vega, who's giving the Krogan a look. "What? I read. You should brush up on your tactics."

Ravage changing form is definitely something new for the crew, though the call to arms delays any opportunity for questioning. They'll fall in with Siphon, since the suggestion was to get to the front door and keep out the invading soldiers. Plan seems to be remaining the same, though: Grunt and James with their weapons, Jack tearing shit up with her biotics, and Lilith providing cover fire for the rest from a slightly recessed position. Provided the way in allows for that, they'll stick to it as long as they can.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Siphon half shrugged.

"Possibly, but Baal has been known to over commit his forces before, he did it during the replicator war. Didn't take him for being THIS much of a fool though to not change tactics, unless ..."


He trailed off as Victor spoke, sighing.

"Baal 101 will have to wait, looks like we have some morons to punt back to the moon."


He'd move out with the others, some kind of energy crackling around him briefly.


((Copper, we need to talk on if Jack's Biotics are effected by intense electrical charges and fields before I have him do anything major)).

[Seretis]

Once through the Bridge, the group found themselves in a long, open hallway.

They'd be deposited about midway through the giant entry, and there were a few large energy-based emplacement weapons nearby. One of the far ends of the hall was sealed off by what appeared to be a blast door of some kind. The other opened out to a long bridge... One with a large number of Jaffa preparing to cross. Oddly enough, the walls and ceiling had a fair bit of pipes, conduits, and other assorted machinery exposed.

Unfortunately, while the weapon emplacement look like they could easily handle the incoming Y.O.R.G.s, they were offline.

((Size-wise, the entry hall is probably about a 4-lane both-ways highway in width, about 3-4 stories tall, and probably about 3-4 city blocks in length. Entry bridge is same width and length.))

[Copper]

(Biotics are electrically based out of the brain but given the shit that gets thrown at ME characters in combat, I honestly think she'll be okay. And while there are, essentially, somatic gestures that go along with some biotic use, it's still a matter of "they're doing something but good luck guessing who the target is" not like the glowing and the purple isn't a clue either. I mention this due to the whole 'klarnell reading body movements' thing.)

Given the size of the fighting area, Jack, Vega, and Grunt will spread out, each intending to take a portion of the corridor to help stem the tide of the incoming Jaffa. Lilith, on the other hand, hangs back and drops into a sniper crouch almost immediately, using the distance between them and the invaders to her advantage.
"Any suggestions?" James asks before he moves into position.
"Besides 'don't hold back'?" Lilith chuckles. "Give 'em hell, Marine."
"You got it, Lola."
Grunt rolls his neck and chuckles throatily. "This is gonna be fun."
"Just don't get in our way," Jack counters, noting the fact that Siphon seems to be 'powering up' as well and the last thing either of them need is having to watch out for the Krogan in the middle of a blast.
"Little love tap won't put me down for long. You just make sure there's stuff left for me to kill."
Looks like the Normandy crew are ready to mix it up. In fact, unless there's a reason not to, Lilith will start taking shots, preferably looking for those who might be in command positions but she's not particularly picky.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Siphon's voice took a decidedly darker tone to it, though it didn't seem that Talvesh had spoken.

"This is going to be anything but a love tap. Even though I'm pretty sure they won't, I still need to try and get them to back off. I'll be over by that pillar there, stay hidden until the shit hits the fan, which I'm sure it will. You'll know."


Picking his way forward to a point close enough for them to hear him, yet far enough to not betray their position or existence until they opened fire, he crouched down, then poked his head out slightly.


"Excuse me! This is a friend from work's base! We'd like for you to throw down your weapons and surrender please!"


His only reply was several staff blasts fired in his direction, hitting the walls and doing no damage to them, or to him. Grumbling, he spoke loud enough that if the energy weapons fire hadn't told the team the fight was on, his words would.

"Ok, so that's a no then right? Your funerals!"


The sudden release of energy was powerful enough to hit and kill several of the Jaffa instantly, frying them to a crisp, although it seemed his energy didn't electrocute through the walls. It did however created a nice little flash bang on the Jaffa, blinding them for the moment and allowing the others to make their moves, especially those who were more melee oriented. They'd be able to close the gap with little issue as their foes were blind for the moment, shaking their heads and unable to fire.

((Could not resist a modified Colonel Mitchell quote here.))

[Copper]

None of them are specifically melee-based, but range is a thing. That, and Grunt seems to like being in the middle of swarms of enemies...whether that's a good thing or not. He and James will charge the distance, the Krogan actually ramming full-bore into one (or possibly several) of the front line troops before there's the echo of his shotgun resounding in the corridor. James is a little more tactful, keeping enough distance that he doesn't have to melee with his weapon if he doesn't have to, keeping to any cover he might make use of, despite it seeming relatively sparse in the hallway. Jack's hanging back, not for want of staying out of the fight but to make the best use of her powers. Instead of the throwing around she was doing in the crashed Normandy, she instead punches toward the ground and a series of impacts seem to strike the ground in a line in front of her, barreling into the oncoming enemies like a train. Over all of those kabooms, there's the steady CRACK of Lilith's sniper rifle, the woman taking the time to line up her shots while the others (hopefully) keep her from getting swarmed.
((Worth noting, Lil and Jack are probably doing the most damage. Lil is taking the time to line up headshots, especially on anyone that looks important. Jack's using her Shockwave power which "sends out a series of explosive biotic impacts in front of the player ignoring any obstacles. It can be unleashed along the ground to launch all enemies in its path into the air and, most notably, will instantly kill any unarmored Husks or Abominations it hits. Given I'm not exactly sure how armored the grunt Jaffa are...Jack might be shredding these guys.))

[Seretis]

((I'm just going to speed this up a bit...))

After a few minutes of fighting, various lights flare to life around the hallway. The silent defense emplacements also open fire, rapidly clearing out the hallway, even as the ones outside clear the long bridge.

Once the entry hall and the bridge are clear, though... The guns fall silent. And even as the Jaffa start to regroup just past the far edge of the bridge, a loud rumbling fills the air. Then the gun emplacements retract, and the sides of the hall start... shifting... before opening up. The bridge also seems to be splitting apart and lowering. All of this is followed by a series of loud clunks as large metal cones, slightly angled towards the inside of the base, begin snapping out from the floor and ceiling, along the outer edges of the hall. Through the opened sides, the group could see that the whole fortress-city was starting to change, as well as the hall felt like it was lifting...

As if on cue, a ground bridge opens up between the open space that leads outside and the defending group... Even as the entry hall seems to start to lift into the air. Ravage's voice comes over a secure comm channel.

"Express route back to the center, exit now!"

[SiphonTalvesh]

As the lights began flaring up, Siphon grimaced.  When the guns went active, he let out a short harsh laugh, watching the things shred the Jaffa to pieces.

"Well ...  that was effective."


However, once the rumbling started and the shifting began, his demeanor changed.

"I don't like the sounds of that ..."


As the entry hall began lifting, and the portal, and Ravage's voice called to them, he began to have an idea of what was going on.  After Ravage finished speaking, Siphon turned slightly to the others, his expression one of disbelief, and a slight mix of having an oh shit moment.

"Move!"


Whatever was going on, even he clearly knew it was time to leave.

[Copper]

The guns coming into play seem to relegate the Normandy folk to cleaning up stragglers, not that they mind too much. Lilith and James seem to be handling most of that, since their weapons are the most effective for it. When the rumbling starts, though, there is that pause in the combat, just about all of their attention drawn to the way things seem to be moving around them. Seeing the city moving appears to unsettle the group a little bit but the call to evacuate spurs them into action and it's a dash to the exit after that.
"You know, I'm sick of running away from shit like this," Jack calls to Lilith.
"Join the club, sweetie," is the good-natured retort. Lil's bringing up the rear with regard to her people, making sure they get a move on ahead of her before she bugs out herself.

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