OOC X-COM Think Tank (part 4)
- Thread starter DarkGemini24601
- Start date
Taxor_the_First
Well-Known Member
I think he's playing a dangerous game. A very dangerous game.
Dahlexpert
Well-Known Member
That he is, it should be interesting to see what happens to him later on. But so far i'm loving Luke so far, the most fun I had with a character in a while.
Frostlich1228
Well-Known Member
I also came up with Black Psions!But... I had a hard time relating to them, too much slang and popeye's chicken for me to handle. :/
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
As an update I have not really had time to do collabs this week and I will continue to not have time until the weekend. Even the. i'll be a little busy. What this means is I am going to very intentionally and very selfishly keep time from passing in the story. Not quite a disgusting... hiatus ...but it's what I have to do to prevent my characters from improperly developing or becoming irrelevant.
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
So I was exhausted this evening and just enjoyed myself reading Operation Finem Timere, the final mission of XCOM: Story of Defiance (not counting the Four Horsemen epilogue ones though those are great). It's the most awesome finale I could have hoped for and I'll be damned if we don't reach an equally cool one in XCOM2: Liberation of Earth. Enjoy some of my reminiscing and reactions and thoughts if you want. Sincere apologies for notepad format.
I guess Delta came through after all.
-CURSED
The male Ethereal stared at Atka for a few moments,
fists tightly clenched. Then, he hung his head in
defeat, and said, No, Exalted One. She couldn’t have.
My sister was killed by the Path long…
-WAIT... is this Xanatos?
“Kill him!” Aya shouted, and the group opened up.
Phobos threw up his hands, and a massive shield went
up, absorbing every shot and looking like it was barely
scratched.
-You know, when people were talking about how Phobos
was the most powerful psion to date, I questioned that
mentally. This reread has reminded me otherwise.
Phobos lowered his head, as though pondering. After a
few moments, he extended his arms again. Very well. A
different approach will be needed for this, then. Two
more cybernetic arms extended from the back of his
armor, and each hand glowed a different color. A few
moments later, six illusions, each about the size of
Phobos, but with a mask displaying six different
expressions, took shape, then became solid. Meet my six
Psionic Shadows. You may call them Anger, Terror,
Mischief, Pleasure, Compassion, and Exaltation. They
will be your opponents, so I won’t have to soil my
hands any more then needed. Be proud, you are the
smallest group I ever decided to use these on. Phobos
pointed forward, and the six illusions charged.
-The Reflection Chorus
Alice jumped back, Pleasure’s imbued fist creating a
small hole in the ground. She wobbled a bit, off
balance from the missing arm. “Whoa… takes some getting
used to.”
-I'm not even gonna say anything about this Shadow. If
you don't remember what it did with Ayame and Atka you
have a shit memory. Here's a hint though: “If this
really is part of your psyche, Phobos… you’re a sicker
bastard than I even imagined.” - Atka
Indeed, a spray of plasma accompanied the infantry’s
movement, making dents in the form of Anger. “Jeez, and
here I thought I saw the embodiment of pissed-” she
ducked as a psi lance whizzed past her, taking a layer
of her helmet’s armor with it. “Shit!”
I will enjoy taking your corpses and displaying them on
my hull! Anger extended his four arms towards Vee,
firing his psi lances like a machine gun.
-You know how the psionic machine gun was Ira's shtick?
Well I, Anger, can do that and more!
Dodge this, swine! The lance ripped through Vee, and
the destroyer coughed up blood.
“Did you...f-fucking…” Vee sent a stream of plasma into
the psionic construction, disrupting it further from
damage and rage.
Why won’t you die?! Anger screeched, forming up four
powerful lances, but they shifted uncontrollably as if
unstable.
-Vee strong. Did you guys remember I was actually
considering killing her in the final mission? Emma too.
The Indian woman’s eyes widened. “No… don’t…” she knelt
down by the destroyer, using what little electrokinesis
she had learned from Emily to restart Vee’s heart while
she worked on using her biokinesis to slowly multiple
blood cells. “I promised Thomas I wouldn’t let you…”
she said shakily, her usual sarcastic tone absent.
-As shown by this scene where I was indesicvine until I
finally spared her. Oh yeah, her and Tom were a
thing... I remember that 'midnight' post.
A titanic explosion erupted behind Eva. When she turned
back around, White King was crumpling to the floor, a
gigantic hole in its chest. Aya slowly turned to face
Eva, her eyes glowing a deep purple, and she tossed
Eva’s weapon away. “Care to dance,” she asked in a
monotone voice, Exaltations own voice echoing in hers.
-RIP White King. And commence a fight between two
physical powerhouses, Aya and Eva. (Fuck it, Lesser
Gods)
Aya slowly rose to feet, screaming in anger. She
stepped forward, and an outsider jumped on her,
attempting to hold her steady. With another cry of
rage, she grabbed the Outsider by the neck and leg,
ripping it in half in one smooth motion. Of balance and
distracted, a gunshot stopped Aya in her tracks. She
slowly turned around, staring daggers at Chandra. She
wobbled a bit, dropping to her knees and flopping to
the floor. Her skin faded back its original color, and
she was left unconscious and in her birthday suit on
the ground.
-Chandra followed the entire mission in ghost armor,
saved Vee's life, and disabled the Demon Fairy. She's a
class A badass doctor.
Eva shakes her head “You know what, I think I reached a
point where I think I’m in a anime TV show right about
now.”
Chandra shrugged, pulling Aya to the side and covering
her up. “That’s X-COM for you. You better join the
others before you run out of power.”
-More like ANIME-COM! (Anyone who has watched beagle
recently will get the joke)
Terror took little time to try and get straight to the
point. Using a rift to tear a pillar apart, it lifted
the pieces one by one, hurling towards his opponent.
You will beg me for death by the time this is over. You
will fear me more than your own mortality!
-Phobos may have been red-orange, but orange was
immortalized as his superior color in my mind. Did I
mention he was this badass before we ever thought of
the 'master psionic powers' of which I still haven't
revealed many yet?
Avanix paused, her servos locking up. “Multiple errors
registered… attempting to
compen...compens….unabletodiagnoseproblem...error...wha
t is...whatishappening?”
-Oh, if I had that text mess up website more than a
year ago...
Modya’s eyes widened, visions of his past failures
flashing before his eyes, and a potential failure as
well. An image of Jessica and the twins, piled dead in
a heap before him, forced the Russian to his knees,
holding his head. “N-no… please ...n-not them…” he
whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks.
-Oh, the Timid Lion/Dragon that Modya was. But in the
end...
Modya slowly snapped out of the psi panic after being
launched, and shakily reached for his rocket launcher.
“F-Fuck you, bespolezny ublyudok,” he said harshly,
firing off the rocket straight for the psi shade.
You will not beat me! Terror swept away the grenade,
and looked up, just in time to see the rocket slam into
him. As the dust settled, a sudden surge of energy shot
out, the flickering illusion seething. You… w-will…
not… b-beat… me!
-He comes through. Thanks for the save that made that
possible Desmond.
Mischief giggled childishly as it split into three.
-Enlightening. I never said Finem Timere was immaculate
and flawless. But it was an awesome mission, and that's
what counts.
Right behind you, silly! Mischief fired a psi lance,
hitting Ammy in the rear before vanishing again. It
appeared in front of her, inches from her face. Boo!
-Who are you Mischief, Insane!Catherine?
Mischief did as predicted, and received a face full of
plasma for it. The mask reforming into a more annoyed
expression than before. Fine… you don’t want to play,
we won’t play… The shadow started blinking rapidly left
and right, its energy fading a bit from the expenditure
as it closed in on the group.
-Mischief was hard to hit and durable. Yikes. As scary
as Terror's raw power. That's what it was.
Ammelia nodded, gazing at Phobos, “Of course. This war
ends today.”
-Badass line leads into the fight with Phobos proper.
-CURSED
The male Ethereal stared at Atka for a few moments,
fists tightly clenched. Then, he hung his head in
defeat, and said, No, Exalted One. She couldn’t have.
My sister was killed by the Path long…
-WAIT... is this Xanatos?
“Kill him!” Aya shouted, and the group opened up.
Phobos threw up his hands, and a massive shield went
up, absorbing every shot and looking like it was barely
scratched.
-You know, when people were talking about how Phobos
was the most powerful psion to date, I questioned that
mentally. This reread has reminded me otherwise.
Phobos lowered his head, as though pondering. After a
few moments, he extended his arms again. Very well. A
different approach will be needed for this, then. Two
more cybernetic arms extended from the back of his
armor, and each hand glowed a different color. A few
moments later, six illusions, each about the size of
Phobos, but with a mask displaying six different
expressions, took shape, then became solid. Meet my six
Psionic Shadows. You may call them Anger, Terror,
Mischief, Pleasure, Compassion, and Exaltation. They
will be your opponents, so I won’t have to soil my
hands any more then needed. Be proud, you are the
smallest group I ever decided to use these on. Phobos
pointed forward, and the six illusions charged.
-The Reflection Chorus
Alice jumped back, Pleasure’s imbued fist creating a
small hole in the ground. She wobbled a bit, off
balance from the missing arm. “Whoa… takes some getting
used to.”
-I'm not even gonna say anything about this Shadow. If
you don't remember what it did with Ayame and Atka you
have a shit memory. Here's a hint though: “If this
really is part of your psyche, Phobos… you’re a sicker
bastard than I even imagined.” - Atka
Indeed, a spray of plasma accompanied the infantry’s
movement, making dents in the form of Anger. “Jeez, and
here I thought I saw the embodiment of pissed-” she
ducked as a psi lance whizzed past her, taking a layer
of her helmet’s armor with it. “Shit!”
I will enjoy taking your corpses and displaying them on
my hull! Anger extended his four arms towards Vee,
firing his psi lances like a machine gun.
-You know how the psionic machine gun was Ira's shtick?
Well I, Anger, can do that and more!
Dodge this, swine! The lance ripped through Vee, and
the destroyer coughed up blood.
“Did you...f-fucking…” Vee sent a stream of plasma into
the psionic construction, disrupting it further from
damage and rage.
Why won’t you die?! Anger screeched, forming up four
powerful lances, but they shifted uncontrollably as if
unstable.
-Vee strong. Did you guys remember I was actually
considering killing her in the final mission? Emma too.
The Indian woman’s eyes widened. “No… don’t…” she knelt
down by the destroyer, using what little electrokinesis
she had learned from Emily to restart Vee’s heart while
she worked on using her biokinesis to slowly multiple
blood cells. “I promised Thomas I wouldn’t let you…”
she said shakily, her usual sarcastic tone absent.
-As shown by this scene where I was indesicvine until I
finally spared her. Oh yeah, her and Tom were a
thing... I remember that 'midnight' post.
A titanic explosion erupted behind Eva. When she turned
back around, White King was crumpling to the floor, a
gigantic hole in its chest. Aya slowly turned to face
Eva, her eyes glowing a deep purple, and she tossed
Eva’s weapon away. “Care to dance,” she asked in a
monotone voice, Exaltations own voice echoing in hers.
-RIP White King. And commence a fight between two
physical powerhouses, Aya and Eva. (Fuck it, Lesser
Gods)
Aya slowly rose to feet, screaming in anger. She
stepped forward, and an outsider jumped on her,
attempting to hold her steady. With another cry of
rage, she grabbed the Outsider by the neck and leg,
ripping it in half in one smooth motion. Of balance and
distracted, a gunshot stopped Aya in her tracks. She
slowly turned around, staring daggers at Chandra. She
wobbled a bit, dropping to her knees and flopping to
the floor. Her skin faded back its original color, and
she was left unconscious and in her birthday suit on
the ground.
-Chandra followed the entire mission in ghost armor,
saved Vee's life, and disabled the Demon Fairy. She's a
class A badass doctor.
Eva shakes her head “You know what, I think I reached a
point where I think I’m in a anime TV show right about
now.”
Chandra shrugged, pulling Aya to the side and covering
her up. “That’s X-COM for you. You better join the
others before you run out of power.”
-More like ANIME-COM! (Anyone who has watched beagle
recently will get the joke)
Terror took little time to try and get straight to the
point. Using a rift to tear a pillar apart, it lifted
the pieces one by one, hurling towards his opponent.
You will beg me for death by the time this is over. You
will fear me more than your own mortality!
-Phobos may have been red-orange, but orange was
immortalized as his superior color in my mind. Did I
mention he was this badass before we ever thought of
the 'master psionic powers' of which I still haven't
revealed many yet?
Avanix paused, her servos locking up. “Multiple errors
registered… attempting to
compen...compens….unabletodiagnoseproblem...error...wha
t is...whatishappening?”
-Oh, if I had that text mess up website more than a
year ago...
Modya’s eyes widened, visions of his past failures
flashing before his eyes, and a potential failure as
well. An image of Jessica and the twins, piled dead in
a heap before him, forced the Russian to his knees,
holding his head. “N-no… please ...n-not them…” he
whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks.
-Oh, the Timid Lion/Dragon that Modya was. But in the
end...
Modya slowly snapped out of the psi panic after being
launched, and shakily reached for his rocket launcher.
“F-Fuck you, bespolezny ublyudok,” he said harshly,
firing off the rocket straight for the psi shade.
You will not beat me! Terror swept away the grenade,
and looked up, just in time to see the rocket slam into
him. As the dust settled, a sudden surge of energy shot
out, the flickering illusion seething. You… w-will…
not… b-beat… me!
-He comes through. Thanks for the save that made that
possible Desmond.
Mischief giggled childishly as it split into three.
-Enlightening. I never said Finem Timere was immaculate
and flawless. But it was an awesome mission, and that's
what counts.
Right behind you, silly! Mischief fired a psi lance,
hitting Ammy in the rear before vanishing again. It
appeared in front of her, inches from her face. Boo!
-Who are you Mischief, Insane!Catherine?
Mischief did as predicted, and received a face full of
plasma for it. The mask reforming into a more annoyed
expression than before. Fine… you don’t want to play,
we won’t play… The shadow started blinking rapidly left
and right, its energy fading a bit from the expenditure
as it closed in on the group.
-Mischief was hard to hit and durable. Yikes. As scary
as Terror's raw power. That's what it was.
Ammelia nodded, gazing at Phobos, “Of course. This war
ends today.”
-Badass line leads into the fight with Phobos proper.
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
The of last Phobos’ shadows faded from sight, and the
X-COM soldiers turned to their main target, tired but
ready to finish this. The Exalted Commander seethed,
the anger practically dripping off of him, and an aura
of pure malice and contempt around him. This… has gone
on… long enough! The air around him warped and rippled,
and his aura extended out from him, farther and
farther. It washed over everyone, and gripped at their
chests as the very air seemed thick with fear. In a
matter of minutes, this will all be over. I do not care
how much resolve you have! The longer you stand within
my aura of fear, the more it will tear at your hearts!
Soon, any of you still breathing will be paralyzed with
fear. He extended his hands again, the glow returning
to each of them. Though… to be honest… I’m going to
test myself to see how many of you I can kill before
that happens.
-So I dunno how much this was talked about, but I came
up with some of Phobos's powers. The Fear Aura was the
thing I was most proud of. The personality/character
was ENTIRELY ZombieSplitter's though. Make no mistake
there.
Phobos slowly looked over as the android quickly
approached. Hmm… Fear Aura won’t work on you. I don’t
like that. A massive telekinetic field formed around
Phobos, then erupted in flames. It surged towards the
approaching embodiment of Legion, and the machine
crumpled to the ground, a charred, smoking wreck.
Phobos wobbled a bit. Huh… must have lost more power on
the shadows then I thought. I’ll just use your energy.
Atka held up a telekinetic field with Xifeng briefly to
block the remaining flames that reached the squad,
further away from Phobos than Black King had been. The
hell… was that? A wave of destruction? “Get to Eva
before he has a chance to pull a Desperatio!” the
Colonel shouted, firing off a few shots at the Ethereal
with the others, though they wisely kept their
distance.
-So Phobos had Destructokinesis + Shockwave as
"Annhilation Surge" before either ability existed. HE
WAS BADASS PEOPLE! DRILL IT INTO YOUR BRAIN!
Atka fired off a shot, and glanced at her former
roommate. “I don’t feel that way right now… it just
feels like a dull ringing in my ears, or some sort of
buzz…” Lifting her left hand, a sphere of bluegreen
formed and burst, washing a wave of psi inspiration
over those near to them.
-Oh and original Atka was cool too.
Counteracting to the best of my ability, Avanix intoned, and Emma began to struggle against the control, her implants seizing some body processes and attempting to free others, but so far the best they could do was have her stand still.
-I love how all the Exalts were connected with Avanix
via their mental implants.
More blasted machines! Phobos fired a massive psi lance into the ground in front of him. When the dust settled, he was gone, having moved to behind Ammelia. Try and stop this one! Four of his arms shot violet into her mind. Destroy the machine. Destroy the machine. DESTROY THE MACHINE!
-Phobos was a dick to machines.
What are you up to over there? Phobos formed a rift of his own, sending it flying towards the two rocketeers so he could stay with his meat shield. Modya, Albert, and Mary managed to get over to Christine, pumping a storm of plasma into it, the superheated gases going through the repeating tunnel faster and faster, climbing to terminal velocity.
-Christine's rift portal ability used to its max potential. There may be an enemy unit with a similar ability and I WONDER if they'll do this ever...
Phobos glared at the recovering soldier. Kill him!
-Oh yeah, Phobos's other special ability entailed using biokinesis combined with mind control to bypass Neural Dampening (which would paralyze a mindcontrolled soldier). Wonder if that ability will ever be seen again... so many questions.
The super accelerated plasma shots slammed into his shield, and sent the Ethereal firing back. The feedback from the attack sent a wave of energy into the two puppets, Ammelia getting the worst of it thanks to the multiple attacks. Phobos slammed into a wall, slowly rising his feet and shuddering in anger.
-BANG! POW!
Ayame smiled. “G-good… job… Mary.” Ayame fired at Phobos to try and hit him while he still recovered, but her shot went incredibly high. The Aura taking hold, she barely had the strength to hunker behind her cover before she was completely paralyzed.
-As a refresher, the engame to the Fear Aura is that it paralyzes the victim completely.
As soon as the psychokinetic storm started coming for her, the Colonel was already in motion, running to the side with her afterimage trailing behind her, the leftover from the psionic manifestation that now slumbered once more. A shot screamed from the barrel of her reflex rifle as she moved to avoid the rift, but it merely dented the shield around Thanatos. “Dammit, he’s…” she warned as a tendril of green briefly connected with Ayame, feeding off her terror and using the energy to repair the telekinetic bubble. The storm of energy, still being controlled remotely, redirected itself, pursuing Atka and threatening to catch up with her, despite her speed.
-Oh yeah and Phobos gained a minor psychic drain from victims.
Atka slid to a stop, breathing a sigh of relief. “I thought I felt another presence here, even with the overriding presence of this asshole… thanks for the save, Tiala.” Standing up straight again, Atka formed her two telekinetic helixes around her arms, cutting two gouges into them at weak points in the armor. The blood that flowed forth formed Xifeng anew, this time at normal strength. “Let’s see how you like this!” the Inuit woman spoke through her psionic manifestation, and the helixes wrapped around its own arms, before Xifeng extended her hands, and fired off the telekinetic projections, crossing them as they sped towards Phobos.
-Atka in X2 dresses like Xifeng (her covert op alter ego and Reflection). She also has the same thought color. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!
“Foe sufficiently still,” Fay muttered, a burning yellow glow enveloping the last tungsten slug suspended over her shoulder. “Three point eight kilometers per second, firing.” With that, the yellow glow discharged like a miniature flash-bang, the tungsten slug vanishing in a stream of ionized atmosphere and molten metal, propelled straight towards Phobos.
-Telekinetic Railguns. I forgot Fay had those. Wonder if - NO GEM THAT IS ACTUALLY STEALING.
="Exhorresco" is the name of the fear aura btw. Latin all around.
Atka shakily lifted her reflex rifle, glancing at Jan’Tiala. “Don’t give in! We can still… finish this! We have to!” she shouted, firing off an imbued shot at Phobos.
-This happens as more and more of the squad is lost to Exhorresco.
I-I… I know, I… I’ll keep fighting until the end! Tiala sent some imbued psi lances of her own.
Phobos quickly shot up pieces of rubble, the constant attacks making his shields unreliable. You little ingrate! You know why I told everyone you were dead?
So you could slaughter my saviors without…
WRONG! I DID BECAUSE YOU WERE DEAD TO ME WHEN YOU LEFT! YOU ARE A FAILURE! YOU ARE NOTHING! AND I NEED TO CLEAN UP MY MISTAKE!
-Phobos was a dick to his daughter.
Daughter? I used my DNA to make this… experiment, nothing more. I put a lot of time and energy into this thing… and now, I take it back. Tiala convulsed as her deep black skin shifted to a pale grey. Phobos casually tossed her to the side, not a bit of psionic energy coming from her. Atka practically felt his smile under his mask as he sent a powerful psi panic towards the scout.
Atka blanched, the combined power of the psi panic and waves of fear emanating from Phobos barely enough to paralyze her halfway, her will slightly overcome. The light blue fires around her eyes dimmed to mere flickers. I… I’m sorry, Jan’Tiala…
-Is all lost?! Even Atka is being paralyzed, with the flames of her willpower finally being dimmed.
X-COM soldiers turned to their main target, tired but
ready to finish this. The Exalted Commander seethed,
the anger practically dripping off of him, and an aura
of pure malice and contempt around him. This… has gone
on… long enough! The air around him warped and rippled,
and his aura extended out from him, farther and
farther. It washed over everyone, and gripped at their
chests as the very air seemed thick with fear. In a
matter of minutes, this will all be over. I do not care
how much resolve you have! The longer you stand within
my aura of fear, the more it will tear at your hearts!
Soon, any of you still breathing will be paralyzed with
fear. He extended his hands again, the glow returning
to each of them. Though… to be honest… I’m going to
test myself to see how many of you I can kill before
that happens.
-So I dunno how much this was talked about, but I came
up with some of Phobos's powers. The Fear Aura was the
thing I was most proud of. The personality/character
was ENTIRELY ZombieSplitter's though. Make no mistake
there.
Phobos slowly looked over as the android quickly
approached. Hmm… Fear Aura won’t work on you. I don’t
like that. A massive telekinetic field formed around
Phobos, then erupted in flames. It surged towards the
approaching embodiment of Legion, and the machine
crumpled to the ground, a charred, smoking wreck.
Phobos wobbled a bit. Huh… must have lost more power on
the shadows then I thought. I’ll just use your energy.
Atka held up a telekinetic field with Xifeng briefly to
block the remaining flames that reached the squad,
further away from Phobos than Black King had been. The
hell… was that? A wave of destruction? “Get to Eva
before he has a chance to pull a Desperatio!” the
Colonel shouted, firing off a few shots at the Ethereal
with the others, though they wisely kept their
distance.
-So Phobos had Destructokinesis + Shockwave as
"Annhilation Surge" before either ability existed. HE
WAS BADASS PEOPLE! DRILL IT INTO YOUR BRAIN!
Atka fired off a shot, and glanced at her former
roommate. “I don’t feel that way right now… it just
feels like a dull ringing in my ears, or some sort of
buzz…” Lifting her left hand, a sphere of bluegreen
formed and burst, washing a wave of psi inspiration
over those near to them.
-Oh and original Atka was cool too.
Counteracting to the best of my ability, Avanix intoned, and Emma began to struggle against the control, her implants seizing some body processes and attempting to free others, but so far the best they could do was have her stand still.
-I love how all the Exalts were connected with Avanix
via their mental implants.
More blasted machines! Phobos fired a massive psi lance into the ground in front of him. When the dust settled, he was gone, having moved to behind Ammelia. Try and stop this one! Four of his arms shot violet into her mind. Destroy the machine. Destroy the machine. DESTROY THE MACHINE!
-Phobos was a dick to machines.
What are you up to over there? Phobos formed a rift of his own, sending it flying towards the two rocketeers so he could stay with his meat shield. Modya, Albert, and Mary managed to get over to Christine, pumping a storm of plasma into it, the superheated gases going through the repeating tunnel faster and faster, climbing to terminal velocity.
-Christine's rift portal ability used to its max potential. There may be an enemy unit with a similar ability and I WONDER if they'll do this ever...
Phobos glared at the recovering soldier. Kill him!
-Oh yeah, Phobos's other special ability entailed using biokinesis combined with mind control to bypass Neural Dampening (which would paralyze a mindcontrolled soldier). Wonder if that ability will ever be seen again... so many questions.
The super accelerated plasma shots slammed into his shield, and sent the Ethereal firing back. The feedback from the attack sent a wave of energy into the two puppets, Ammelia getting the worst of it thanks to the multiple attacks. Phobos slammed into a wall, slowly rising his feet and shuddering in anger.
-BANG! POW!
Ayame smiled. “G-good… job… Mary.” Ayame fired at Phobos to try and hit him while he still recovered, but her shot went incredibly high. The Aura taking hold, she barely had the strength to hunker behind her cover before she was completely paralyzed.
-As a refresher, the engame to the Fear Aura is that it paralyzes the victim completely.
As soon as the psychokinetic storm started coming for her, the Colonel was already in motion, running to the side with her afterimage trailing behind her, the leftover from the psionic manifestation that now slumbered once more. A shot screamed from the barrel of her reflex rifle as she moved to avoid the rift, but it merely dented the shield around Thanatos. “Dammit, he’s…” she warned as a tendril of green briefly connected with Ayame, feeding off her terror and using the energy to repair the telekinetic bubble. The storm of energy, still being controlled remotely, redirected itself, pursuing Atka and threatening to catch up with her, despite her speed.
-Oh yeah and Phobos gained a minor psychic drain from victims.
Atka slid to a stop, breathing a sigh of relief. “I thought I felt another presence here, even with the overriding presence of this asshole… thanks for the save, Tiala.” Standing up straight again, Atka formed her two telekinetic helixes around her arms, cutting two gouges into them at weak points in the armor. The blood that flowed forth formed Xifeng anew, this time at normal strength. “Let’s see how you like this!” the Inuit woman spoke through her psionic manifestation, and the helixes wrapped around its own arms, before Xifeng extended her hands, and fired off the telekinetic projections, crossing them as they sped towards Phobos.
-Atka in X2 dresses like Xifeng (her covert op alter ego and Reflection). She also has the same thought color. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!
“Foe sufficiently still,” Fay muttered, a burning yellow glow enveloping the last tungsten slug suspended over her shoulder. “Three point eight kilometers per second, firing.” With that, the yellow glow discharged like a miniature flash-bang, the tungsten slug vanishing in a stream of ionized atmosphere and molten metal, propelled straight towards Phobos.
-Telekinetic Railguns. I forgot Fay had those. Wonder if - NO GEM THAT IS ACTUALLY STEALING.
="Exhorresco" is the name of the fear aura btw. Latin all around.
Atka shakily lifted her reflex rifle, glancing at Jan’Tiala. “Don’t give in! We can still… finish this! We have to!” she shouted, firing off an imbued shot at Phobos.
-This happens as more and more of the squad is lost to Exhorresco.
I-I… I know, I… I’ll keep fighting until the end! Tiala sent some imbued psi lances of her own.
Phobos quickly shot up pieces of rubble, the constant attacks making his shields unreliable. You little ingrate! You know why I told everyone you were dead?
So you could slaughter my saviors without…
WRONG! I DID BECAUSE YOU WERE DEAD TO ME WHEN YOU LEFT! YOU ARE A FAILURE! YOU ARE NOTHING! AND I NEED TO CLEAN UP MY MISTAKE!
-Phobos was a dick to his daughter.
Daughter? I used my DNA to make this… experiment, nothing more. I put a lot of time and energy into this thing… and now, I take it back. Tiala convulsed as her deep black skin shifted to a pale grey. Phobos casually tossed her to the side, not a bit of psionic energy coming from her. Atka practically felt his smile under his mask as he sent a powerful psi panic towards the scout.
Atka blanched, the combined power of the psi panic and waves of fear emanating from Phobos barely enough to paralyze her halfway, her will slightly overcome. The light blue fires around her eyes dimmed to mere flickers. I… I’m sorry, Jan’Tiala…
-Is all lost?! Even Atka is being paralyzed, with the flames of her willpower finally being dimmed.
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
Phobos panted heavily, slowly scanning the scene around him. He slowly floated forward, only to stumble a bit. Having to reserve his energy, he instead did one thing Ethereals found awfully awkward; walking. You… were… close… so close. I hope… that doesn’t upset you. You should be proud. I would never… bring it up… to rub it in… He slowly pointed at Atka. But… you have not suffered enough. You can not die… until you see more of your friends die… Slowly, carefully, Phobos looked for anyone still conscious, as he didn’t want someone to die if Atka couldn’t hear the scream in pain. Knocking the pillar away, he pulled in Mary, along with Desmond, Albert, and Ayame. This… is going… to hurt… any last words for them?
Atka trembled slightly, trying to push herself from her position on her knees, but couldn’t muster the strength to move that drastically. It’s...Toronto all over again… She thought privately, the memories of the civilian hostages in the airport burned into her mind, and her failure to save some of them and quite a few of her squad members as well. I… I won’t let that happen again… I can’t…! A soft blue glow surrounded her body, while a bluegreen one rimmed her head, the combination of psi inspiration and physical enhancement removing the constraints on her mind and body. The Inuit Scout Colonel lifted her reflex rifle again, firing it at Phobos’s weakened defenses. “Get away from them!”
-Callback to Atka's backstory and the beginning of the story. And Atka uses a combo of psi inspiration and physical enhancement to remove the mental and physical paralysis, respectively.
The Inuit woman’s precognition picked up where it would hit, and she jumped to the side, though a piece of debris cut across her forehead, blood running down her face. “The only one… dying here… is you!” She screamed out. The blood around her face solidified, frozen, forming into a mask that was decidedly lupine in nature, like the face of an alpha wolf. The scout ran forward with a cross strike of twin icy helixes.
-Atka enters final badass mode.
Atka stepped purposely forward. The shape of a spear formed in her right hand, telekinetic force wrapping around it as it was imbued, and Atka drew it back. With a powerful boom, she launched it at Phobos, coughing up a bit of blood.
Phobos rose his shield again, and the spear easily punched through. The javelin punching through his stomach, he fell back, coughing violently, blood seeping out from under his mask. He desperately tried to seal the wound, eventually having to simply burn the skin to seal it. He drew power from his fallen enemies, but as the fear aura faltered, so did the amount of energy he obtained. His movements seemed erratic as Fear seemed to panic, and he charged his shield with energy while rapidly firing psi lances. D… Die already, you freak!
-Atka uses her finisher, the awesome Telekinetic Javelin she learned in the siege of alien-controlled New India, but Phobos still stands.
When the dust settled, the grenade had left clear cracks in the shield. Phobos tried to draw in more energy to fix it, but his fear aura was dispersing, the paralyzing effects on Ayame, Modya, Emma, Mary, Albert, Desmond, and even Emily dissipating. Seeing them start to rise, Phobos’ panic rose, and this only made his aura fade more. NO! W… why… just… s-stop!
-The friends are able to get back up to help Atka in this final set of attacks. Their lines are all badass, so here:
“Just shut up already,” Albert growled, rising to his feet and flicking a switch on his artificial arm, the hand folding back to reveal the barrel of a pulse cannon. Levelling the hand cannon, Albert fired off the lance of light.
Mary tried to move, but the bones in her arms and legs were very obviously broken. Her limbs glowed emerald green as Mary used her powers to force them to move, fighting through the pain that the jagged shards of bone caused as they tore her muscles. She moved forwards, pulling out her sidearm and firing into his shield, smirking. “Are ye’ ‘ared? eh’ ‘ought ‘ods in’nt ‘ow fear…” (A-Are you scared? I-I thought… God’s didn’t… know fear…)
Emily crawled out behind a small wall that Emma had presumably dragged her behind, clutching her carbine and staring towards her target. Even though her gun was small and her hands were shaking, she tried to contribute the best she could, shouting angrily as she fired.
Ayame simply pulled a side arm, not having the strength to lift a rifle with one hand. She fired, hoping the small contribution would be enough.
---------------------------------------
The combined hits struck home, and the shield shattered, falling over Phobos like shards of glass. He panted heavily as Atka closed in, Phobos slowly shook his head. You… heretics… you have… wasted… your potential. The Gift… its potential… will die with me! My people… will be lost! Please… don’t…
Atka lifted her reflex rifle, standing before the so-called God of Fear, her mask crumbling away into droplets of blood and shards of red ice. “I think… we used our power… I used my power… for exactly what it was meant for. You can take your own failure to use yours with you to the grave.” As Atka pulled the trigger, Phobos desperately fired off one last lance. The jagged psionic sphere punched through the far right side of the Inuit woman’s chest, as the bolt of plasma launched from her gun went through Phobos’s head.
-This was and again is my signature. Atka's line, and she finishes Phobos not on his terms, not with psionics, but with an old fashioned gunshot with a decidedly more advanced weapon.
The Colonel coughed for a moment, and slowly turned her head to look back at the others. “We… did it… then… w-well...done…” She practically whispered the last few words, a catch to her voice, and then fell backwards, unable to stand.
-But wait, is Atka dead?!
Chandra’s eyes widened, and she ran over to the Inuit scout, kneeling down by her. “Don’t you dare...die now…” Pressing her hands down, threads of green started to suture the wound and slow the bleeding. Atka’s breathing, while shallow, didn’t cease, and Chandra sighed in relief. “You’re...all...fucking idiots… Vee needs a new kidney, and now you need a new lung… damn it all…”
-I entertained the idea of killing her and having her die a hero but never followed through)
Desmond finally managed to get himself to his feet, looking over all the people who had come into the throne room, fought the God of Fear, and were going to live to tell the tale. Rubbing his eyes and finally realizing that no one would have made the attempt to yet, the soldier put a hand to his ear and confirmed that Phobos was dead and that medics should be on stand by. Sitting on the ground and looking over his rifle, Desmond didn’t say anything, letting the gravity of their victory fully sink into him before he began to laugh to himself, unable to keep himself from being happy.
-And thus the world is saved. There's an epilogue mission of sorts that Ramma (Emily) performed well on along with Marine (Desmond) afterwards, but the main battle was finished here.
Atka trembled slightly, trying to push herself from her position on her knees, but couldn’t muster the strength to move that drastically. It’s...Toronto all over again… She thought privately, the memories of the civilian hostages in the airport burned into her mind, and her failure to save some of them and quite a few of her squad members as well. I… I won’t let that happen again… I can’t…! A soft blue glow surrounded her body, while a bluegreen one rimmed her head, the combination of psi inspiration and physical enhancement removing the constraints on her mind and body. The Inuit Scout Colonel lifted her reflex rifle again, firing it at Phobos’s weakened defenses. “Get away from them!”
-Callback to Atka's backstory and the beginning of the story. And Atka uses a combo of psi inspiration and physical enhancement to remove the mental and physical paralysis, respectively.
The Inuit woman’s precognition picked up where it would hit, and she jumped to the side, though a piece of debris cut across her forehead, blood running down her face. “The only one… dying here… is you!” She screamed out. The blood around her face solidified, frozen, forming into a mask that was decidedly lupine in nature, like the face of an alpha wolf. The scout ran forward with a cross strike of twin icy helixes.
-Atka enters final badass mode.
Atka stepped purposely forward. The shape of a spear formed in her right hand, telekinetic force wrapping around it as it was imbued, and Atka drew it back. With a powerful boom, she launched it at Phobos, coughing up a bit of blood.
Phobos rose his shield again, and the spear easily punched through. The javelin punching through his stomach, he fell back, coughing violently, blood seeping out from under his mask. He desperately tried to seal the wound, eventually having to simply burn the skin to seal it. He drew power from his fallen enemies, but as the fear aura faltered, so did the amount of energy he obtained. His movements seemed erratic as Fear seemed to panic, and he charged his shield with energy while rapidly firing psi lances. D… Die already, you freak!
-Atka uses her finisher, the awesome Telekinetic Javelin she learned in the siege of alien-controlled New India, but Phobos still stands.
When the dust settled, the grenade had left clear cracks in the shield. Phobos tried to draw in more energy to fix it, but his fear aura was dispersing, the paralyzing effects on Ayame, Modya, Emma, Mary, Albert, Desmond, and even Emily dissipating. Seeing them start to rise, Phobos’ panic rose, and this only made his aura fade more. NO! W… why… just… s-stop!
-The friends are able to get back up to help Atka in this final set of attacks. Their lines are all badass, so here:
“Just shut up already,” Albert growled, rising to his feet and flicking a switch on his artificial arm, the hand folding back to reveal the barrel of a pulse cannon. Levelling the hand cannon, Albert fired off the lance of light.
Mary tried to move, but the bones in her arms and legs were very obviously broken. Her limbs glowed emerald green as Mary used her powers to force them to move, fighting through the pain that the jagged shards of bone caused as they tore her muscles. She moved forwards, pulling out her sidearm and firing into his shield, smirking. “Are ye’ ‘ared? eh’ ‘ought ‘ods in’nt ‘ow fear…” (A-Are you scared? I-I thought… God’s didn’t… know fear…)
Emily crawled out behind a small wall that Emma had presumably dragged her behind, clutching her carbine and staring towards her target. Even though her gun was small and her hands were shaking, she tried to contribute the best she could, shouting angrily as she fired.
Ayame simply pulled a side arm, not having the strength to lift a rifle with one hand. She fired, hoping the small contribution would be enough.
---------------------------------------
The combined hits struck home, and the shield shattered, falling over Phobos like shards of glass. He panted heavily as Atka closed in, Phobos slowly shook his head. You… heretics… you have… wasted… your potential. The Gift… its potential… will die with me! My people… will be lost! Please… don’t…
Atka lifted her reflex rifle, standing before the so-called God of Fear, her mask crumbling away into droplets of blood and shards of red ice. “I think… we used our power… I used my power… for exactly what it was meant for. You can take your own failure to use yours with you to the grave.” As Atka pulled the trigger, Phobos desperately fired off one last lance. The jagged psionic sphere punched through the far right side of the Inuit woman’s chest, as the bolt of plasma launched from her gun went through Phobos’s head.
-This was and again is my signature. Atka's line, and she finishes Phobos not on his terms, not with psionics, but with an old fashioned gunshot with a decidedly more advanced weapon.
The Colonel coughed for a moment, and slowly turned her head to look back at the others. “We… did it… then… w-well...done…” She practically whispered the last few words, a catch to her voice, and then fell backwards, unable to stand.
-But wait, is Atka dead?!
Chandra’s eyes widened, and she ran over to the Inuit scout, kneeling down by her. “Don’t you dare...die now…” Pressing her hands down, threads of green started to suture the wound and slow the bleeding. Atka’s breathing, while shallow, didn’t cease, and Chandra sighed in relief. “You’re...all...fucking idiots… Vee needs a new kidney, and now you need a new lung… damn it all…”
-I entertained the idea of killing her and having her die a hero but never followed through)
Desmond finally managed to get himself to his feet, looking over all the people who had come into the throne room, fought the God of Fear, and were going to live to tell the tale. Rubbing his eyes and finally realizing that no one would have made the attempt to yet, the soldier put a hand to his ear and confirmed that Phobos was dead and that medics should be on stand by. Sitting on the ground and looking over his rifle, Desmond didn’t say anything, letting the gravity of their victory fully sink into him before he began to laugh to himself, unable to keep himself from being happy.
-And thus the world is saved. There's an epilogue mission of sorts that Ramma (Emily) performed well on along with Marine (Desmond) afterwards, but the main battle was finished here.
Frostlich1228
Well-Known Member
You know, I had plans for this attack to carry over into VoF it was so essesive... I had ideas that this attack was so unessicarily powerful, four high power mind controls from the greatest psion in the universe at once, that it rewrote Ammy's brain in a way, giving her light purple psionics that she never really discovered because she never bother to try to unlock them.
Then that rewrite gets passed through DnA into Camellia, giving her the powerful psionics she loves so much and in a way, keeping Phobos's power alive.
Never got around to throwing this idea Gemi's way because... Well it doesn't make too much sense... But I still thought it was a cool idea.
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
Today is the day that I finish some collabs I've been working on and get the story back on track - hopefully.
Short notice, but if anyone wants to go on a Guerilla Ops tomorrow let me know. (I already know at least one person that wouldn't be able to make it so rip but I can't do a mission today. Maybe next weekend we'll do something on saturday or something new).
Short notice, but if anyone wants to go on a Guerilla Ops tomorrow let me know. (I already know at least one person that wouldn't be able to make it so rip but I can't do a mission today. Maybe next weekend we'll do something on saturday or something new).
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
I've yet to test out this mod but this unit looks cool enough to make it into the story in some form. The ADVENT Titan.
Isnt that basically an ADVENT Juggernaught?I've yet to test out this mod but this unit looks cool enough to make it into the story in some form. The ADVENT Titan.
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
No, that would be the Shieldbearer. Though only until we get delicious, delicious exosuits to match theirs. Then... Then we go beyond that.
Because war... War never changes...
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
People still always die in the end.
Sure. Sure it doesn't.
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
In a world where warfare is done through simulations and no one has to die... war has changed.
True... But have you ever seen CoD fanboys get mad?
DarkGemini24601
Well-Known Member
Must contain... urge to make a teacher joke about conjunctions...
Frostlich1228
Well-Known Member
What is this No Game No Life?