• 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.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

"Decontamination mode?" John asked, looking at Tatiana as the team jogged down the hall. "You mean, like, it's gonna burn everything?" He asked.

"Set the air on fire," Tatiana replied curtly, not turning around to look back at John. "This facility has things in it I would rather not think about, and if it falls, they want it all very gone. The boss wanted us to destroy the facility, that's what I am doing," She shrugged.

Hilda looked at Joshua, concern across her face. "What about the natives they are doing tests on?" She asked, stopping in her tracks. "And the Chongwu that are trapped here?" She asked, looking at Tatiana. "I know there are other elves here. Aren't you worried they are going to die?"

Tatiana shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it."

Joshua however, had stopped letting out a long sigh, looking at the rest of the team. Then he activated his radio. "Hey, there are a bunch of natives and chongwu down here who are gonna die if we don't save them," He said, receiving only static back. "Cleo, what do you want us to do?" He asked, still only static, swearing under his breath. "Radios are out, which means the Imperial Army is over head," He said, turning back to the team. "So, we're going deeper. I remember hearing Cleo talking about how the DaQin are digging. The way I see it, we walk out, we all die for this attack when the Imperial Army finds us. Or, we take the risk, bring as many civilians with us, and hopefully prevent a slaughter," He explained, starting to walk back into the facility.

"Tatiana," Joshua pointed. "Get me information on the deepest points in the facility. "Hilda, help her figure out where the DaQin were most likely digging. You know them better than anyone else here, and we are running out of options," He said, grabbing John by the shoulder. "And you're going to come with me and see what we can do to add a little extra time to those bombs. Knowing Cleo, she wouldn't give you anything that could actually be defused."
 
Joshua first makes sure to keep John from getting killed as they get back to the server room, again ready to shoot anyone that looks like they're ready to shoot or attack them. He's complaining all the way there about why no one, including him, thought about what to do to help out the Chongwu in the facility.
Once they get to the server room, if John doesn't come up with any better ideas, Joshua tries to remember any EOD training he got while in the military and do that. (Irony is that it probably boiled down to run the f*** away from the explosives, idiot lol)
 
"W-wait!" Hilda called out after their squad leader. Clad in Daqinese body suit and lab coat, she sprinted after Joshua with pistol in hand. "Can we even save them?! I-I don't know if we can without being incinerated alive," she pointed out to the man, her legs wobbly at the idea. Despite her protests though, the blonde Tigress placed her hand to steady herself as she tried accessing the system, following the same route that their hacker had already blazed to try and avoid setting off any more red flags. Information coursed through her mind as she put whatever she found onto the screen for the others to see.
 
Joshua and John ran down the hall, leaving Tatiana and Hilda in the hallway.

W-wait!" Hilda called after Joshua. "Can we even save them?! I-I don't know if we can without being incinerated alive!"

"We'll just have to try!" Joshua called back, vanishing back towards the server room.

As Hilda scanned through the systems, dealing with what was left of the security, Tatiana looked down the hall, shaking her head. "Fuck this," She said, starting to walk away. "You all want to commit suicide, fine, I'm getting out of here," She said starting to run down the hallway. She turned the corner, and gunfire filled the hallway, leaving the elf a bloody mess as the Gyro rounds slammed through her body.

"Oh dear..." Hilda muttered, having initially been filled with ecstasy at being abandoned in this hallway, the feelings warping as she watched Tatiana get turned into swiss cheese. "That should have been me..." She muttered, turning on her radio. "Joshua! I'm so sorry I failed you! Tatiana ran off, abandoning me to my fate, and then got shot! Shot so many times! Joshua! It should have been me!" Hilda wailed, footsteps starting to fill the hallways. "But don't worry Joshua! The Imperial Army will be here soon! To do to me what should have been!"

"God dammit Hilda!" Joshua's voice came from over the radio. "No, we need you! Get back to the Server room, we are almost done!"

Hilda shook her head, holstering her pistol. "Nay! I shall hold them off! Buy you time!"

"There are worse deaths coming Hilda," John quickly piped in. "You won't get to protect us from them if you don't come help me!"

"Oh..." Hilda said, thinking about the proposition. "Fair point, be there soon!" She said, turning and sprinting down the halls.

~~~~~

John and Joshua got to the Server room, looking at all the bombs. "Anything you can do," Joshua ordered, taking cover by the door as John went to the explosives. "Any time you can get us, hopefully Cleo planned ahead like she normally does," He groaned, praying that Cleo still lacked just enough faith in his ability to perform to give him this way out. He'd accept it graciously. She was just smarter than he was.

"I think..." John started, looking over the detonator. "I can get us an extra fifteen minutes... But then these things are on a hair trigger," He continued, looking over at Joshua. "And for all we know the Daqin are sending their bomb experts here now, and they even touch these thing it'll set them off no matter how much time we've got," He finished, frowning.

"Alright, set it to max," Joshua said, looking both ways down the hall. "We'll assume we've only got five minutes from when we leave here," He explained as Hilda's voice came over the Radio.

"Joshua! I'm so sorry I failed you! Tatiana ran off, abandoning me to my fate, and then got shot! Shot so many times! Joshua! It should have been me!" Hilda wailed. "But don't worry Joshua! The Imperial Army will be here soon! To do to me what should have been!"

"God dammit Hilda!" Joshua snapped back, punching the doorframe. "No, we need you! Get back to the server room, we're almost done!" He ordered, looking at John. "Hurry it up back there, things are about to get a little too hot for comfort," He said, as Hild finally responded.

"Nay! I shall hold them off! Buy you time!"

Joshua was about to throw his gun when John rolled his eyes and picked up his radio. "There are worse deaths coming Hilda," He said, looking at Joshua and pointing at the hallway again. "You won't get to protect us from them if you don't come help me," He added, almost as if trying to goad a child into doing something.

"Oh... Fair point, be there soon!" The Radio went silent, and Joshua just stared at John while John went back to work on the explosives.

"How did you..." Joshua started to ask, when John shrugged.

"She keeps talking about how it should be her instead of us," John explained, getting to the last bomb. "She practically needs to change her panties every time something bad happens to someone, both wanting to be raped by the Daqin soldiers and eaten by the Siortalun," He added, standing up and putting his gear back on as he readied to run. "I made an educated guess."

Joshua nodded slowly at John,looking down the hall again just as Hilda came sprinting down it. "I like you," Joshua said, covering the other direction. "Remind me to trust your judgement a little more," He added, looking at Hilda. "You get that map Hilda? We need to know where we are going."

Hilda skidded to a stop and nodded quickly. "Yep! Keep following me!" She said, continuing to run, Joshua and John following suit. The three ran through the halls, Quickly dispatching any guards unlucky enough to run into them, picking up weapons and ammo as they went. Lord knows they might need them soon. The run lasted about two minutes as Hilda managed to open the doors they needed and keep the doors they didn't need closed, eventually leading them into a room with multiple unclothed male Chongwu, standing together with lost expressions on their faces, and a single woman with a cybernetic eye sitting against a wall, cradling a pistol.

"Don't move a muscle," Joshua snapped, rifle already well and leveled against the woman with the pistol. "Hilda! This all the Chongwu?"

"I don't know!" Hilda said, distracted, obviously, by all the impure thoughts she was having standing in a room surrounded by naked animal people. "I hope there are more though..." She whispered as a door on the other side of the room opened up and a giant red headed woman walked through.

"Well about time!" The woman said, her voice far lighter and high pitched than looked to be natural from the over 7 foot woman, accent heralding from the Emerald Isle. "Cleo told me you'd all be round eventually, though was getting worried when I lost contact. Hilda? Joshua?John?" She asked, pointing at everyone, before looking at the girl with the pistol. "An you're not Tatiana I don't think. I'm Ivy, I was here to get information on the Chongwu Factory, I'm glad to see ya!"
 
  • John is focused in getting the chongwu ready to escape.
    • even giving a pep talk to some
  • Relieved that we have some back up his optimism kicks back into gear
  • "Wait we were getting info on the facility and you were getting info on this place here?"
  • is there any problems with these chongwu?
    • are they traumatized, deformed, or dead?
 
  • Joshua tells/reminds everyone that they have less than 15, probably more like 12 at point, minutes until the bombs go off.
    • He wonders if he should trust Ivy, but decides to, since if she is a double agent or whatever, they're already screwed if she knows everyone's names.
  • He asks Ivy or anyone else about possible escape routes, picks the nearest one, and tells Hilda to start moving the Chongwu.
  • He also questions the pistol-wielding lady, since no one knows who she is. He'll essentially give her a pass, since she didn't fire at them when they entered the room. And he'll worry more about her when they aren't about to die from explosions.
  • When the group starts going, he'll stick in the back, making sure none of the Chongwu get left behind while watching behind the group, making sure they don't get sneaked up on.
 
As the group busted through the doors leading into the show room, Crystal remained quiet with her pistol in hand. She waited for the chaos to settle and quiet down before she noticed that a rifle had already been trained on her chest. Crystal kept one hand up in hopes that it didn't alarm anyone as she placed her pistol back into it's holster before she brought both hands back up and waited.

Her attention was brought back to the show room door as the woman had walked through. She listened carefully and valued her options before speaking out in the crowd. "No... I am not Tatiana... aside from the klaxon alarm that went off earlier and the group of you three busting in... I am gonna assume this is a break out of the chongwu?" She had asked out more into the open than at anyone in particular, She looked back at the remaining males. She was so close to having a chongwu in her grasp only for it to be taken away.

crystal had slowly dropped her hands and crossed her arms under her bust once she had felt things had calmed at least a little bit in the show room. Since she was caught in the middle of this break out, the most she could do is wait and listen.
 
"Well. Us meeting like this means you fucked up pretty bad, not that this isn't horribly obvious. Nice to see Cleo hires such competent lil' saboteurs! Let's get the fuck out of here before the DaQin catch us and either mow us down or torture us so hard we're thankin' them for it."

  • She points out that she could just leave through the front door with that other woman, and mocks Joshua for not having several escape routes planned pre-mission. She doesn't tease for too long- for lack of time- and offers to lead the group out.

  • She turns her attention from the group of will-be-saboteurs to the lonely woman who was just there to get herself a Chongwu, "Your options are either to come with us, or to leave through the front door alone- when they get to clearing the building of bodies. Your choice, love!"

  • Ivy finally makes good on her offer to help the group escape.
 
"Who's this Ivy?!" Hilda's feline tail bottle-brushed up. Gun pointed at the seven and something foot tall redhead, she added, "Cleo didn't say anything about an Ivy!" Realizing that they all had a point about the stranger that was definitely not a danger, Hilda let out a groan as she bit her lip. "Totally screwed if she's a double agent," her voice trailed off. "And then there's this person!" she pointed her gun at Crystal next. "So screwed," she muttered to herself, lips trembling slightly. Despite that though, all the Chongwu immediately stood at attention as something tugged at their thoughts. "I've filled them in - they'll follow us out to safety," the blonde caught them up. Still, Hilda continued to grumble a bit more, with a quick, "All the guards we've been running into were injured...you're not going to lead us right into the main forces are you?" she narrowed her eyes at Ivy.
 
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"Who's this Ivy?!" Hilda asked, training her pistol onto Ivy. "Cleo didn't say anything about an Ivy!" She added.

Joshua lowered his rifle, placing his hand on Hilda's shoulder. "I've got my questions for her too, but it doesn't matter,"He explained. "Cleo doesn't tell us about everything, and she knows our names. If she was about to screw us, then there isn't much we could do about it," He said, looking to the rest of the party. "Look, we've got at max 15 minutes left, probably closer to 12, and I'm going to assume 5 because things never actually go our way. To the Chongwu, follow us. We're going to get you out of here." He said, starting back towards the door.

Not a single Chongwu moved a muscle, looking between each other. John walked over and grabbed one by the shoulder, and the Chongwu dug it's feet in, not wanting to move from where it had been ordered to stay. "You guys are going to die if you don't come with us," John said, looking at the Chongwu. "If you come with us, you'll have a chance. Stay here you'll die in a horrific fire," He said, but still, not a single Chongwu moved a muscle.

Hilda walked over into the back, room, then shook her head. "The rest of them around moving either," She said, looking at the party. "Their levels of programming must be too high. Without whoever they see as their master telling them to leave," She said, frowning and looking at the Chongwu. "They'd rather die here than disobey..."

Joshua nodded. "Right, let's go then. You two come with us, we need to get deeper into the facility."

Crystal didn't move. Ivy scrowled. "Your options are to either come with us, or, to leave through the front door alone, while they're clearing the building of bodies. Your choice love."

"Won't be any bodies to clear out," John piped in quickly. "The facility defenses are set to light the very air on fire once our explosive go off. At 6000 Degrees Celcius combined with the concussive force? This facility will be filled with ash," He said. "Which means I'd like to go now, even if these guys won't come with us."

So the five started down the hall again, lead by Hilda to wherever she had deemed was where the facility turned into the cave system Joshua was banking was there. Crystal finally spoke. "So, I assume you guys were here to bust out the Chongwu?" She asked, looking around them. "I mean, the alarms, you guys busting in, trying to free the Chongwu? Is this just some failed liberation attempt?"

"No, our mission wasn't to free the Chongwu" Joshua said, keeping an eye peeled. "Our mission went south and as John said, this facility is going up in flames. We want to make sure we give people a chance," He continued as they jogged down the hall.

"Well,"Ivy piped in. "Us meeting like this means you fucked up pretty bad," She said, which got a harsh glare from Joshua. "Nice to see Cleo hires such competent lil saboteurs,"

"Nice to see she sends people down to sit and have tea with the DaQin while we do the hard work," Joshua bit back.

"And yet here I am," Ivy said. "You fucked up so bad, you made my job harder to do! Though, I'd rather this than getting caught by the Daqin and tortured until I'm thanking them for it," She continued as Hilda lead them through yet another door. This room, was filled with Chongwu, Elves, and a lot of science equipment. Several DaQin scientists were also there, frozen as they looked at the group of armed individuals.
 
"I can't believe it - this was for nothing!" Hilda moaned as they left the Chongwu behind. She had even given them orders like a proper Daqinese person would, but they still wouldn't obey, even though it meant they were going to be nothing but cooked meat at this rate. "What are we even supposed to be doing here?" she asked the others, doing her best to lead them along the way out. "We're supposed to just get out before the place explodes, right?" the woman tried urging them on. The thought of the lab-techs pulling a fast one and shooting them while they weren't looking crossed her mind, but she couldn't think of any possible way to have stayed behind to save the Chongwu. "We just...couldn't save them..." she muttered to herself.
 
Joshua ground his teeth in annoyance and frustration. Annoyance he felt with his teammates and the Chongwu they had to leave behind, despite them turning around to save them at the risk of their lives. The frustration was focused on himself and the Daqin, himself for getting everyone into this mess in the first place and the Daqin for creating this mess in the first place and from stopping them from rescuing the slaves. All of these emotions reached a fever pitch as the group entered the lab, full of the offending Daqin scientists.

After taking a moment to look around for the most expensive looking bit of equipment, Joshua pointed his gun at a machine with a lot of glass and computer screens and fired. Once the echo of the shot died down and the debris settled, he yelled, "Alright, you sons of bitches. Tell us where's the nearest exit is or the next one's going through your head."
 
Crystal Could simply follow the group as she remained quite, her pistol was now in her grasp since she had been essentially led through the compound. She looked between scientists in the room then back to Joshua as he had been the one to somewhat explain what had happened. "Alright so if freeing the Chongwu wasn't the mission... what exactly was?" Crystal had jumped a bit at the sudden gun fire made by Joshua as she placed her pistol back into her holster. "Are you really gonna kill scientists? They couldn't harm a fly... all you gotta do is ask nicely.." She had remarked to Joshua again as she waved her hand down to try and calm his tone.

Crystal gave a quick glance to Hilda as she had just gently heard the "all for nothing remark" still a bit lost in what this whole mission was. "And here I was... so close to having my Chongwu in tow..." She had muttered under her own breath.
 
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