• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

IDS Yīnghuā - Log 2.0: "If you are far from the enemy..."

"Welcome," Reina's avatar says giving a smile and a polite bow, "Thank you for your support Aitana." Space distorts and the cafe table is suddenly slightly larger. An NPC server comes by with a new chair and waits to take the rooster woman's order.

Reina blushes slightly at Hoshiko's remark and fake coughs into her fist, "That's beside the point... and no, I don't feel ashamed of my body... at least not now anyway. My only qualm comes from the fact that most of my augmentations comes commissioned at the direction of the head of my now defunct clan." She sighs, "When we have less pressing things to worry about, that will be on the list of things that I talk to you about."

-----

In reaction to Lady Nimue's explanation, Reina remarks "Outer God? That's news to me... That might explain the energy issue... Why would a god be interested in us or even the convocation in the first place?"

Reina's avatar flicks her wrist and a few books spawn on the cafe table, mostly journals and written works about what the Daqinren know about magic and the Aos'si, with a sprinkling of some of Reina's personal journals on the matter. She seemingly picks up one at random and starts to flip through it. "Gods? Guess when magic is on the table, most things just aren't just fiction anymore." She seems to take particular interest at something in one of the books and then shakes her head, just to set it down and pick up another book, "The energy problem... too much energy is being expended by those creatures in such a short amount of time. Beyond all the useful things you can do with it, magic still follows certain rules. One important one is that the energy has to come from somewhere in order for it to do anything." She gives a frustrated hiss and sets another book down, "I wish I could see what the local mana looked like..."

Something grabs her attention and she flicks her fingers to bring an image feed toward her and looks a the glow coming from the being's center, "Is that a core?... A Heartstone? Wait! Infrared!" The image changes to an infrared overlay, showing different colors for different temperatures. The Ruby show's a bright red/yellow on the overlay in contrast to the rest of the creature's body. "With all that energy being used, there has to be heat somewhere. Guess we don't have to understand it for now... just maybe how to stop them. Aim for the hottest parts of their bodies. If we pinpoint strike them, maybe their regeneration capabilities will get disrupted."
 
Xian didn't need to think too much about what to do next. The Daqin had plenty of beasts that were difficult to keep down. Two more bullets went to the head, two more to the upper chest, another two to the glowing core.

This was perfect range for her sword, but there was no time to pull out that tool.

Even as her right hand was firing, her left hand was pulling out a new grenade and loading it into her weapon From here she could get side-shots on the nearest attackers that were charging towards the central group. She'd start by firing at the creature, looking to determine where bullets were impacting real flesh before following it up with the grenade launcher.

She could have warned the others that their opponents were getting closer but rather than slow them with fire, Xian wanted to see if the Aoi Si wards would hold.



Elsewhere, Jun had turned completely monochromatic and had a dark rain cloud above her. "Maybe it can regenerate my serotonin." Jun said, somewhat proud of herself for not cursing right there because that is how a princess should conduct herself for sure, "I'm not saying we crush the red thing up and do lines but like, this stuff is red. Health potions are red. The synergy is there."

Also she remembered she was a geologist.

"Rubies tend to need intense heat and pressure to grow. These are magic or whatever so I doubt they are just crushed Corundum. Maybe it is compressed Health Potion?"
 
"Ah, thank you... Doctor, I presume," Aitana replied to Reina, as she took her seat. She politely ordered a black coffee and sipped on it while she listened to their conversation. Despite being fairly tall herself, the albatross looked rather tiny seated between the viper and the bull. The near-permanent smile on her face at least brightened the room a little bit. As Reina and Jun called attention to the hot crimson cores of the monsters, she spoke up. "These are good points... and those stones provide convenient spots to target, if nothing else. One moment, please."

In VR, del Valle simply leaned back in her chair and continued drinking her coffee. In meatspace, she switched the gunship's optics to IR vision, and circled around to the flank that Wen and Xian were holding. Prioritizing her targets, she fired the pulse laser intermittently at the creatures that were closing on the two bodyguards, aiming for the hot spots in their bodies, and hoping to at least slow them down to give the ground team some relief. She made sure to not overwhelm the two of them with the whine of the gunship's engines or the snapping heat of the laser, but she still hovered quite close to the battlefield to ensure that she wouldn't miss.

"Right, Captain Sun and... Guanxi? Is that you?" She looked up again in the virtuality, taking a closer look at the individuals around the table, before her eyes settled on the tiger form warrior. "It is! It's wonderful to see you again, mija. We should really catch up once this is over. Anyway, I shall assist you two from here, please feel free to direct my fire." Once again, Aitana's demeanor remained calm and pleasant, as if she was making small talk with old friends, rather than defending royalty from unknown attackers.
 
*BLORP*

In the virtuality, Xian would partition off a small sub-Xian. The Chibi-like Xian sitting on the original's shoulder with a call center headset on as it focused on relaying her own awareness of 'things to hit with a laser' to the gunship with 'the laser'.

"As soon as the Princesses are safe Commander Del Valle." Xian replied.

The situation for Xian had changed. She didn't wait to finish reloading her weapon and moved from a flanking position on their antagonists to a full sprint directly at the enemy. Her free hand would switch up from reloading to going for her sword that had previously been used to cut through the jungle.
 
With Xian taking over the target designation, Wen focused on his own ground performance. He gave a quick nod to Captain Del Valle, before he returned his virtual form to the task at hand. Staring down the enemy beast closest to him, he reprogrammed his gyrojet rounds to a delayed fuse, ensuring that they were explode a few milliseconds after they pierced the target's body. Then, he fired off a burst of the gyrojets vertically down the best's body to make sure all of its vitals were going to be met with explosive force.

At the same time, part of his brainpower noticed Xian charging into melee range. "Xian, fall back, your rifle is more capable than your sword!" He admonished her, at the same time perplexed that the officer was making such a suicidal tactical move that went against tried and true infantry tactics.
 
Xian Guanxi fired her gun, exploding the head of the twitching creature into a pile of gore, only to put a few more rounds into the chest and the glowing core. The vision of her flesh and blood eyes, encased within her protected helmet, sparkled with brilliant crimson static as she felt a gush of wind blowing through her.

Just as quickly as it came, it went.

"I'll be looking forward to hearing all about you then," Hoshiko's eyes gleamed at Reina. Between the blue scaled woman's scientific observations and the heifer whining though, that gleam dimmed, but just a little bit. "The mana flow is red," the princess admitted to Reina. She physically looked around inside the howdah. "So far, it's...like radiation noise or film grain, but at the edges of your vision." She shrugged in the virtual cafe and glanced at Jun, who was now apparently going through her Suicide Tuesday already. "Wait a second...you'd probably recognize catonite if we find it," Hoshiko realized. With the arrival Aitana, she quickly gave the fist-in-palm salute before continuing, "You guys heard the doctor! Kali-ma!"

"That. Is the correct question," Nimue replied to Reina, her voice clipped from concentration. "Their goals, whatever they may be, are impeded by your, my, or our arrival at the Convocation." For a moment, she turned her golden eyes on the serpentine woman, a feverish jitter staring her down. "Tell your compatriots. Tell them to capture the Heartstones."

Xian stopped reloading, her deft hands quickly clicking the launcher round back onto her suit before drawing her vibroblade in one swift motion. Charging towards the creature that was clockwise of the howdah, the tigress fired bursts from her smartgun, easily probing out the illusions before peppering the creature from the side. The arm facing the tigress was torn to ragged shreds, and another found its head in a burst of grey matter, but it outright ignored her as it kept sprinting at a more meandering course - a bolt of lightning struck it, and Xian's eyes following the next errant shots, saw the Aos'Si maiden guard taking pot-shots from the building atop the testudine.

The creature kept charging at the howdah.

Desipite his words of warning, Wen knew better than to charge after Xian, and quickly turned to the second charging thing that was counter-clockwise to the howdah's opening. Like before, his shots appeared to hit their mark, only for the creature's true location to show offset from where it truly was. Quickly following up, once, twice more, the creature was ragged and riddled with holes before another burst came straight down into its head, neck and chest. Riddled with more holes, blood and gore explosively vomited out of the creature's mouth before its half-ton of mass tumbled onto the ground.

It was still twitching, jerking as its blood flowed back to its body.

Taking aim, Aitana's gunship spun around to quickly bring its weapon to bear. Air cracking with the pulse laser's strobe, chunks of its legs disintegrated in a burst of UV light as blood splattered across the grass. its upper half crashed into the ground like an olympian athlete tripping up, flipping end over end. It kept crawling forward with its arms, but she didn't stop there, and kept hammering away, this time at one of the creatures further away.

By now, some of the other creatures turned from their fight with the maidenguard and began their charge for the Howdah!
 
"Isn't the red stuff Catonite? And aren't health potions also made of mana?" Jun asked lacking serotoninaly. "If we see film grain in our own vision doesn't that mean we're going to die in a day or two as our DNA becomes soup? I got the anti-radiation drugs but like, those both taste awful and its still supposed to be bad for you. We're going to end up like the-"

Jun quickly shut up and looked around in the virtuality.

Once she confirmed there were no Aoi Si around she continued, "-You know, the Aoi Si when you did the thing."


--

Xian would file away that image for later. She didn't have time to think about it in this moment. Xian hated the idea of leaving her current target for someone else to kill but the proposition was simple. If she closed the distance then she'd be in the line of fire of the Maidenguard on top of the Howdah.

She would fire her remaining smart-rounds at the target closest to the Howdah, aiming for center mass, as she dropped her sword blade first into the ground so that she could reload her main weapon again. She only bothered to replace the smartgun ammo before grabbing her sword again and turning to face the target that was further away but running towards her. A series of shots would aim for the creature's head, trying to keep the thing from perceiving and chew through its defenses as she closed the distance.
 
At the cafe, Reina sighed and grumbled to herself, "I did think about getting the Heartstones, but the situation seems a little too dicey at the moment to risk it." To the rest of the party at the table, "The Lady says that she wants us to get the Heartstones. Do that what you will since our group on the howdah aren't getting up close and personal with these creatures and I'm personally not going to ask you to go out of your way. Lady Nimue might be able to provide insight on who or what sent them after us though if we can snag a few."

Back in physical space Reina nods to Lady Nimue, "I relayed your want of them, though I don't think they'll risk themselves unless an opportunity presents itself. I personally wouldn't want to get close enough to attempt it with all that electricity flying around."

Seeing more of the creatures beeline for the Howdah, Reina swears under her breath and considers her options. Coming to a decision, she concentrates and feels a slight pressure in her chest as her body starts to generate chemicals at an accelerated rate... even if she doesn't end up using it, she's gonna be sore later...

She grips her pistol tightly in prep to fire on any of the creatures coming in a close enough range, "They seem to be rushing us. Just so you know, I'm not that good of a shot. I'm a doctor, not a markswoman..."
 
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Aitana leaned forward in her virtual seat, with a hint of frustration visible on her otherwise calm face. "These are tenacious opponents," she remarked, her eyes rapidly analyzing the battlefield in virtuality and meatspace alike. "And they're pressing the attack. Xian, Sun, if I may, I advise that you rally in front of the howdah to hold them off. I shall slow them down for you."

The gunship strafed to starboard and gained some altitude, positioning itself above and behind the howdah and continuing to fill the air with crackling UV light. Commander del Valle shifted her aim from the creatures' heartstones to their arms and legs, attempting to incapacitate them as they rushed toward the VIPs. "I agree that these heartstones may be difficult to capture, but I am willing to hold these things down as long as necessary. Now, while I am... unsure of the efficacy of those cavaliers, we may need them to close in and prioritize these more aggressive attackers."
 
Wen would take the senior captain's advise. Instead of charging straight at the next enemy, he drew back to the front of the howdah, taking a defensive position alongside the other Aos Si guards, using the walking turtle's large body as cover as he fired a burst of gyrojet rounds at the nearest creature charging towards them. He made slight variations with each bolt's fuse, experimenting with to see the most effective timings for penetration, then maximum damage inside their bodies.
 
As the maidenguards' steeds galloped across the grassy planes, their deft hands held their lances steady. Barbs of crystalline venom hissed by, and in reply, they let loose bolts of light and fury. Their Lady was in peril, and yet, they too were being harried. Hoshiko however, was unconcerned about those Aos'Si. "You're thinking about regular white film grain, not this weird magic red one," she reminded Jun. "And I'm sure we'll be fine! We just gotta get this done right, so get your gun out!" As Hoshiko kept her handgun at the ready in meatspace, she pointed something else out to Reina. "Think of it this way, if those Heartstones are their power source, tearing them out should from regenerating, and we get some loot to show The Empress. One arrow, two eagles!"

"That is perfectly reasonable," Lady Nimue replied to Reina in meatspace. Even as she said this though, two of the mounted maidenguard closed, letting loose bolts of light. By chance or by good aim, several seemingly struck the creature Xian had turned her attention to, only for it to seemingly shift, unharmed. Seeing some of the illusion dispel, a quick follow-up burst from her rifle peppered its right arm and torso, its grin quickly planting into the ground as its face dug a furrow into the grassy soil. But this meant that the first creature Xian had injured got away.

Despite one arm being mangled, it quickly leaped up the testudine's shell and landed before the Howdah!

"Doctor or not Reina, you have your combat programing and training. Being worried now is just one hair of nine oxen," Hoshiko tried to smile. Like the Mother Empress, the smile was not a happy one, but unlike the Mother Empress, the princess looked like she was very genuinely trying to encourage the serpentine woman. In meatspace, the howdah's four maidenguard cried out as one and thrust their spears as the creature sprung forward. As the two maidens on the side were knocked down, gunfire began to ring out as spears desperately tried to hold the sheer mass of the grinning creature back!

Despite the struggle below, Aitana and Wen still had their own battle as well. As the two shifted their attention to the uninjured creature, the maidenguard chasing after it let off bolts of energy. An illusion was smote in the back before Wen hammered away with his rifle. His rounds were offset still as the image of the creature flickered. Blood and chunks of a ruined arm splattered onto the grassy plains, but not before its semblance vanished. Gunship pivoting, Aitana brought her pulse laser to bear, chunks of flesh suddenly vanishing under the barrage before its upper torso slammed into the ground. With only one arm left, it continued to crawl.

Despite this small victory, they weren't done yet. The remains of the first creature Wen had dispatched were beginning to rise again. Worse still, the other two remaining creatures that stood to screen the others at the 5 and 7 o'clock were now turning to rush the howdah as well! Even so, one of the mounted maidenguards rode up to the thing that Aitana had first crippled. Leaning out of her saddle, her spear deftly blasted the creature's upper torso. Unable to crawl forward, its flesh writhed as it attempted to regenerate!
 
"More like... hair of the dog... or... " Jun stammered, still in the throws of hating her life as she pulled out her weapon. She wasn't in a mood to construct appropriately flowery language and instead just fired all of her bullets at the closest badguy thing. She didn't even bother to look at it herself, since she could sense where it was through their shared virtuality, simply pointing her weapon at the enemy that Wen and Xian could see was closest to them before firing all of her bullets in a sweeping motion along with the one grenade she brought.

That was probably enough.

"If we all die because our stupid ox guard can't figure out how to kill these things then... " Jun quickly realized she didn't think this through, "I guess I'll be dead but I won't be happy about it."

--

Xian would close the distance with the nearest opponent. She had used up her current magazine of bullets, and so it was time to use her sword. She needed to move fast, so she would make a swipe at the creature's throat, looking to separate its head from its body, and then another swipe through its chest looking to bisect its red 'heart'.
 
Wen glanced behind him. On his left was still an enemy. More pertinently, one of these biological constructs was directly threatening the royalty and other civilian officials. At this angle, he could allocate brainpower to shoot the one to the left, or shoot the one behind him, which risked him to a flanking attack. He considered going after the threatening enemy by attacking it in melee. Instead, seeing that Xian and the others were engaging it, he ultimately decided that it would be an act of overkill. Thus, he focused his attention to the enemy of his left, expending a depleting well of gyrojet ammunition.

Meanwhile, in virtual space, Wen was watching the illusion magic manifest. The suit's sensors were able to capture footage, so it wasn't just hallucinations. How were these images manifesting? Could they be predicted? Wen remained silent while he allocated his remaining brainpower to eliminating the threats. Questions and discussions will have to come later.
 
Aitana's brow knitted in VR as the creatures closed in. The one in front of the howdah was too close to engage now, at least without risk of harming the testudine or the VIPs. "Princesas, Doctor, I apologize," she sighed. "I believe my attention is needed elsewhere." She looked at the two monsters charging through the inferno she had created moments ago, and she planned her next move.

In meatspace, del Valle pushed her gunship into a brief hard spin, rapidly turning ninety degrees to the right and shedding some altitude. The pulse laser fired in anger again, this time alternating between the two southern targets to try and stop them within the blaze. "For now, it seems that prolonged high temperatures will keep them down," she observed. "And we don't need to capture all of them, correct? Does anyone on the ground possess incendiaries?"
 
Reina to Hoshiko, "Well... I do, but its not like I'm proficient in it as yourself or the military personnel we have with us. Just some basics in self defense, which I make a point of trying to avoid using... Which I guess, I'm going to have to use right now."

Reina watches the creature closest to the Howdah. Despite being heavily injured and under pressure from from multiple combatants, it kept making its way forward, giving Reina an uneasy feeling. She takes aim with her sidearm and fires at it a few times, mostly clipping it, but a few make center mass. Despite that, it continues on its way forward.

In the cafe, Reina nervously laughs at Aitana's question, "Funny you should say that..."

Keeping her sidearm ready, Reina curses aloud and says "I... think I can do something about that one... sorry if it doesn't work," and she leaps down in front of it a respectable distance away. She gives a quick warning to nearby combatants that its probably not a good idea to stand next to it.

She takes a deep breath, the pressure in her chest increases dramatically as she does so, and she opens her mouth. A thick, multi-colored stream of fluid sprays all over the creature wide arc from Reina's fangs, covering it in an oily, orange/green gel. At first, nothing really happens, except Reina quickly retreats from the creature. Then suddenly it starts to steam and smoke, heat rising from its body. A conflagration proceeds to engulf it, heat and flame quickly eating into the creature's flesh.

Reina spits in the real, making a disgusted face, but says in the cafe, "I really don't like to do that. Not only is it uncomfortable to make and have inside me, it tastes horrid!" She shoves a few digital bon-bons in her face to try and cover up the real world taste. "I hope that finally puts it down. It'll burn quick and hot. Don't think that the Heartstone would be destroyed by that though... should be easy to pick up after."

She wipes at her fangs, careful not to mix the different substances that leak from them, "Hope our ride doesn't feel it... its thick shell should protect it, but I'm pretty sure its never had to deal with volatile chemicals like this before."
 
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