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Post by Rising Dragon on Jul 17, 2008 13:24:10 GMT -5
Under the cover of the rain, a two-prowed reddish-orange ship soared over the canopy of the rainforest, making a low hum as it traveled. Within, Samus checked the coordinates to make sure she was nearing the reported location, and began searching for a suitable location to land her Gunship. Within moments it was spotted, and Samus guided the ship down into a clearing, landing gently in the grass on its two prows. The ramp set down and Samus disembarked, allowing the Gunship to lock itself up so no one else may enter it.
Rain beat down on the red-tinted visor of her black Phazon Suit, and the mirage created by the energy shielding gave for a strange effect as the rain struck it. Looking down at her arm cannon, a circular panel on the inside joint spun to reveal a small control panel, and Samus touched a few portions to ready the beam weapon. Shifting her hand within the arm cannon, an orange light spread up along the length of the barrel and receded, and suddenly the beam cannon extended forwards, revealing a glowing red, molten interior as the Plasma Beam was armed. Aiming the weapon forward, Samus proceeded into the depths of the silent rainforest, her boots making soft footfalls in the grass as the Hunter made her way through the trees. She kept a watchful eye on her radar, making sure there were no nearby enemies. The threat assessment bar was lowered completely, showing that there were no nearby traps or hazards that could damage her shielding.
She had to find the cult of Kasdim and learn what they know of this Eridanus Psi and the horrific golem entity, Tsindary. It would not do to get preyed upon by the native wildlife--or any of the cult that happened to find her first. Renewing her resolve, Samus pushed forward through the dense underbrush.
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Post by Ribitta on Jul 17, 2008 14:17:05 GMT -5
"Are you sure this isn't at least a little overboard, Chief?" Cortana's voice broke through the internal speakers of the Master Chief's helmet. "Honestly," she continued, "I don't see how you could move even smoothly with all of that."
"I will in a second," he grunted, shaking his head from the teleport he had just taken from Traicen all the way into the Rainforests of Cher Plek. Clearing his throat he ordered, "Activate: Mark VI MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/S variant." Another burst of yellow light enveloped the armor and a moment later the Spartan stood invisible with the dense camo over the scout armor. The fox shaped helmet of the lightweight armor spun quickly, making sure that all his equipment was still there and concealed. "This is completely necessary, Cortana. After what Tsindary did to me, I can't take any chances."
Cortana's voice sighed through the speakers. "You're right. This PM from Gahm also complicates things. I'll be cross-checking everything to make sure this fills out... If it does, it'll be our top priority. If Dragonheart has done something with Lumiya, he could be much more dangerous than Tsindary."
The Master Chief nodded in agreement and began to move around, checking the mobility of the new armor transformation. Despite two large weapons now slung over his back, two weapons magnetically attached to his thighs, an energy sword handle on his belt, and two bubble shield generators on his belt as well, his mobility was relatively normal. A gauntleted hand shot at a blinding speed to his back and perfectly unslung the beam rifle that had been by the side of the Spartan Laser on his back as well. "Let's get moving then," he grunted.
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Post by Rising Dragon on Jul 18, 2008 0:48:35 GMT -5
After many long minutes of traveling the path, Samus began to hear the sounds of the wildlife start up again as they acclimated to her presence. Birds chirped, small creatures scampered beneath the brush and danced through the trees. A large snake slithered up around the trunk of an exotic-looking tree. The rain still continued, but Samus ignored the drops that struck her visor; they were obliterated in seconds anyway. The path showed evidence of being one of the old pathways towards a ruin; likely some temple of worship or an ancient city. Such things were common out here in the rainforests, making them ideal locations for the hideout of dark cults. And magnets for treasure hunters and adventurers. This portion of the forest, however, seemed to be relatively peaceful.
Stopping for a brief moment, Samus activated her Scan Visor, and looked down at the pathway, which showed the traces of stonework. The entire path became highlighted in blue, and she locked onto it as the Scan Visor analyzed it. The results came back within seconds, revealing that the path was frequently traveled, though not constantly, and when cross-referenced with location maps, seemed to be one that lead to a small ruined city, half-consumed by the rainforest itself. Perfect place for a cult to settle in, Samus mused as she returned the visor setting to the Combat Visor, activating her arm cannon once more. The path was turning up ahead, and Samus followed it, and was granted a brief, cliff-side view of the rainforest valley. There was a waterfall at the far edge, cascading down into a river that traveled through the valley proper. In the middle were what looked to be the roofs of stone buildings; her destination no doubt.
Looked like she still had a long way to travel, if she wanted to get down there. Her Chozo suit could take the jump easily and she'd come out unharmed, but that'd still be risky and would alert all kinds of creatures to her position. Best stay on the path, the Nintendo Administrator thought as she continued along the ancient road.
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Post by Ribitta on Jul 18, 2008 2:00:01 GMT -5
The Master Chief continued on, following a navigation point Cortana had set that appeared a couple of kilometers away. "Remind me again," he grunted as he pushed his way through some thick brambles, his shields flaring slightly as they tried making contact with the armor's surface, "why I couldn't simply teleport there." A soggy tree bent precariously as a large strip of wood-like ivy was ripped out the Spartan's way. "Because," Cortana said in a voice that seemed to imply he should know this by now, "we don't know exactly what's in the region. The images from the satellite could be old. For all we know what used to be clear could now have a building or a newly formed river or where a landslide ocurred or--" "All right," he cut her off, "I get the picture. How do we even know where to go? Did I miss something when I got impaled by that oversize pointed object?" Cortana gave a low chuckle, "Well, that all depends. Do you recall entering a deathtrap in a chapel just to retrieve a book for me? Or those books I had you look at in the library?" The Master Chief silently reached to a pocket on his belt and removed the small cultist book. "Page 19, third paragraph," Cortana said with a hint of glee in her voice. The keys of the gods.
The keys of the gods lie scattered across the terrible abyss the world has spun into. Never the same some say. Under guardianship and other locks and keys, each one must remain so that their terrible power must not be misused. Must not be misused, especially against the holy ones who wish only the safe keeping of these items. One must be collected before and after another if they should ever wish to be used to unlock. The glades create rays from distant days, into the depths of the fearful maze. Creviced and cradled, cloaked and crippled, the first key of the gods lies west of the middle. Above the depths but into the mires, riddled in tomb by unleashed fire. Pensive and polite with once peaceful protectors, the powers of purpose produce the discrepant-- The Master Chief shut the book with an annoyed flick and spoke as he returned the book to his belt pocket. "I'll take your word for it," he muttered. |
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Post by Rising Dragon on Jul 18, 2008 20:08:29 GMT -5
The path was elevating, coming up a hill where it was nearly invisible thanks to the rough terrain. Up ahead, Samus noted that most of the brush blocking the path, making it so that enemies could be hidden anywhere. She aimed the Plasma Beam at them as she carefully maneuvered up the slope towards it. She saw a shift in the bushes for a brief moment and fired a shot, launching a streaming blast of fire at it and incinerating the bush in one searing wave. As it did, some sort of beast was also disintegrated by the streaming ions, and its body disappeared in a cloud of ash.
Unconcerned, Samus continued through the brush, turning back to her Scan Visor to relocate the path. It was, however, gone, or at least undetectable through the foliage at the moment. She let out a breath, and looked in various directions, searching for possible pathways. Hopefully one that would head down towards that overgrown city down below. One particular path caught her eye, and Samus made her way towards it, arm cannon trained forward as she pushed through the brush. The sound of the leafy branches scratching up against her armor were the only sounds, as she had scared off a number of avian wildlife when she had attacked the creature within the bushes.
Before long, the path curved again slightly around a steep hill. It was too hard to climb on her own, and she didn't want to use the Screw Attack, so she ignored trying to scale it. Following the path around, she came upon a cliff wall. Two mounds, one larger than the other, protruded from it, and above those two mounds was a large hole; a natural cavern. Looking up at it, Samus made her way to the wall and made leaped up onto the first mound, then leaped again towards the second one. The thrusters in the back of her armor ignited as she began her descent, and she "jumped" again and landed on the ledge. One short jump later, and she was within the cavern. The sound of rushing water could be heard; an underground stream, no doubt.
She checked her map system. It seemed that the cavern was really a tunnel, one that branched off into dead ends twice. Wouldn't hurt to check those ends out before leaving the tunnel, the Nintendo Administrator decided as she made her way in deeper.
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Post by Ribitta on Jul 19, 2008 2:30:14 GMT -5
A few more minutes passed with a steady fall of footsteps from the Master Chief as he wound his way through the thick rainforests, sometimes removing the energy sword from his belt to slice threw a particularly dense portion of the forest. The meter counter of the nav point seemed to drop painstakingly slow as the Master Chief continually took the long way around one thing or the next. Finally after a few minutes he spoke in a half jocular tone to Cortana, "What if I bounced."
"What about it?"
"Well, it'd allow me to gain a bird's eye view of the area, it'd be unbelievably faster, and--"
"And you could be seen, you could land in a rock quarry, you could trip an ambush before you ever saw it coming," Cortana's voice was flat and commanding with the all too common feminine tone as if to say 'That's that.'
"Sometimes risks are worth taking," he muttered slightly annoyed with both Cortana for the remark and at himself for suggesting what he knew was foolish. With a stronger voice though he finished, "You're not the one who's had the tables turned on him completely from one attack, and you're not the one who has to do the walking."
"All the more reason to be cautious, Chief. The risks have practically tripled on this mission after what Tsindary did to you. I know it must be daunting, like suddenly receiving an ammo limit in a video game. Let's conserve the ammo though, okay?" The sound of exhaling came from the helmet, and the Master Chief nodded. A few moments later of walking produced a result, however.
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Post by Rising Dragon on Jul 19, 2008 23:34:19 GMT -5
The stream within the cavern tunnel was small indeed, not even enough to be called a creek. It was fed through a hole in the wall, falling down into a small pool at the closest branch-off in the tunnel, and flowed down into the second branch-off, in which it exited out through another hole in the wall. Samus' metal foot made a splash in the stream as she stepped through it, headed towards the other end of the tunnel. Her radar detected no lifesigns in the nearby area, and the exit was already visible up ahead. As she exited, she noticed that the path was downhill, but into very thick foliage. Samus sighed, and it was at times like these where she wished she had a Speed Booster upgrade installed in her armor. Travel would be so much easier with one.
She made her way down a makeshift, winding path down the hill, aiming her weapon downwards. Her radar picked up a single lifesign, appearing as an orange dot on the small radar circle at the corner of her Combat Visor setting. She slowed slightly and went on guard, holding both arms out at the ready, while energy charged into a violent red glow at the barrel of the arm cannon, signalling Samus' charging up the Plasma Beam. As she came beneath the forest canopy, she quickly saw the target--a minotaur, lying in wait. It rushed forward as she came into its view, and she thrust her left arm out, activating the grapple beam. The energy tether latched onto a knot in an overhead branch, and she swung forward, slamming her feet into the monster's broad chest, knocking it down. As she disengaged the Grapple Beam, she turned in the air as she landed, aimed down at the fallen creature, and fired.
A large beam of fire seared through the air and slammed into the Minotaur's skull, disintegrating it into ash on the ground. Samus had already turned back around and began her trek through the forest once more, ignoring the dead monster's annihilation.
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Post by Ribitta on Jul 20, 2008 3:11:28 GMT -5
The Master Chief stopped dead in his tracks and stretched his neck, looking to the very top of the high stone cliff that stood in front of him. "Is this new?" he grunted to Cortana.
After a brief moment Cortana replied, "No. This should definitely be here, and this means we're getting... closer. We're going to need to go up this though; how doesn't really matter I think"
"Reassuring," John muttered. Taking a step back, the Spartan broke into run toward the rock wall and jumped. He quickly found a hold in the rock nearly thirty feet above the ground, and as it began to crumble from the weight of the Master Chief, the Spartan pushed himself away from the rock and headed straight for the ground, activating his super bounce technique. A moment later he rebounded with a near sixty foot bounce, and again making it to the with a bounce of 120 feet. With a crashing roll, the Spartan landed relatively gracefully after canceling the technique and came to his feet now over a hundred feet above where he had once been. "No rock quarries, no traps, no one watching," he said with a hint of triumph in his voice.
"Indeed," came a cool reply from Cortana. "Just walk a little farther, and I think your progress will show a little bit."
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Post by InZanety on Jul 20, 2008 20:05:12 GMT -5
Too bad Cortana and the Master Chief dismissed that one coldspot in the area due to it representing the opposite of heat, or life. The Shade of Xoquoxitill floated about a foot off the ground with a strange black aura a few yards from the Master Chief, its strange lightning streaks crackling with power amidst the rain. If Cortana notices him, she'll only see a faint glow up ahead.
As the administrator grew near, the eyes of the entity glowed with a purple golor. Once he saw the Master Chief, he spoke to him through the mind, therefore Cortana can't pick up any speach from him. "Do not go further," the Shade said these words in a strange language, yet somehow it was understandable. "Do... not go... further." There were hints of confusion and sadness in his voice, along with anger and rage...
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Post by BD on Jul 21, 2008 23:34:12 GMT -5
This was the part of the forest Tsaul hated to cut through. There was always something he had to avoid one way or another. He sighed as he looked around, noticing he hadn't made a detour yet. It was like the path in front of him was cleared out when up ahead he saw an armored suit that brought back memories of his time living in the core. What was the staff doing in the forests? He couldn't decide. Regardless, he would be found sooner or later, so it would probably be best if he figured out what staff could be doing here. But did he want to leave his solitude? He wouldn't have a choice; the staff would level the place at this rate. Maybe they were looking for him. It was obvious, he had no choice but to do this, even if they weren't looking for him, they could use his help. At least he remembered who it was behind the armor from the times he spent in the core where he had met the other administrators besides his brother. Even if it wasn't the normal color, he was aware Samus Aran had been deployed. He kept his pace until he was a good ten feet behind Samus before stopping and leaning against a tree.
"Mind explaining why staff if in the middle of the densest and least populated forest in Ymaggion? "
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Post by Rising Dragon on Jul 22, 2008 2:05:08 GMT -5
The radar on her Combat Visor quickly picked up an approaching lifesign, and Samus slowed down in her travel, though didn't quite stop. She was waiting for the being to get close enough where she could ambush it. Eventually, she spun around and aimed the Plasma Beam directly at the person, only to lower it a few moments later when the being came within range enough where she could make out the details. She switched to the Scan Visor and scanned the person just to make sure.
Seconds later, the Scan Visor registered the person to be none other than Tsual, the younger brother of her old mentor, Blane. She waited until the teenager had stopped and begun leaning on a tree, then listened to his question.
"You know what my job is," she said simply. "I explore hazardous areas in the game when the Staff become interested in them. Nothing more. So why are you here?"
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Post by BD on Jul 22, 2008 10:47:48 GMT -5
"Well, I started wandering after the Kuro incident, and I haven't really stopped. I'm going to guess then that you're here for something only native to this region...which isn't much, a few tribes and some weeds here and there maybe. So which is it, the weeds or the people?" Tsaul asked thinking about what was unique to this forest as he listed the possible answers to what Samus was after.
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Kasdim-Ur
Quasit
Right Hand of Kasdim
Carpe Diem
Posts: 141
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Post by Kasdim-Ur on Jul 23, 2008 22:00:12 GMT -5
"My guess is that the staff isn't here for weeds or people." Kasdim-Ur said, a smile streached across his tan face. He leaned against a tree nearby, and gazed at the party of people ahead of him. He knew there would be some confusion as to why he was not detected. What he wouldn't do is explain that he is intentionally having an out of body experience, and currently is present only in spirit, and in a highly altered appearance at that. Illusions, got to love 'em.
What he was here for though, that was another story entirely. For the time being he might as well dabble in conversation, and enjoy maintaining his illusion. That is the sight of the large tan man, who he used to be, standing before these humans. A slight sound as he breathed in and out, lungs expanding. Heat radiating from his endodermic body. And a slighty putrid smell coming from the caked sweat and dirt of one who spends time in the jungles of Cher Plek.
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Post by Rising Dragon on Jul 24, 2008 21:23:55 GMT -5
The radar alerted Samus only moments before the interloper appeared and spoke, interrupting her conversation with Tsual. Looking at the being, she switched to the Scan Visor and quickly accumulated the data on the person. It was readily apparent to her that the person was not who he seemed; either a magically created illusion or a hologram. Likely the latter, as it had every appearance of being real, considering the heat levels and fumes wafting off of him. Threat assessment stayed at a minimal level, indicating that it was no threat to her. She did not train her weapon on it as she switched back to her Combat Visor setting.
"What I'm here for is of no importance to either of you," she said, looking back at Tsual. "You have two choices here, Tsual, seeing I doubt you'll just go back to whatever you're doing now that you've seen me. You can return to the Administration Tower for a debriefing, or you can follow me. If you do follow, stay close and stay out of the way. Follow my orders when I give them."
And with that, the Chozo-enhanced woman turned back around and made her way deeper into the rainforest, trudging past foliage at a steady pace.
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Post by BD on Jul 24, 2008 21:45:39 GMT -5
Tsaul gave her a very dry look.
"Always with the debriefing junk, my brother wasn't kidding when he used to say you were the procedure stickler of the group. I'll go. You'll need someone with knowledge of the area."
He kept a wary eye on the illusion. There was just plain something unsettling about it, but he was more worried about dealing with the administrator than with some third party right now.
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