>>33489282
Take his hand.

>>33489282
>Take him up on his offer

>>33489282
>>Take him up on his offer
its getting late here so I'm probably going to fall asleep soon, if I do before the next update, good luck all, don't get us killed and gain some brouzouf

What if this is a trap?
What if he doesn't offer his hand, but wants us to give something to him?

>>33489323
>>33489334
>>33489338
You eye the individual suspiciously. For all the repeated sermonizing that the "Jians are our brothers", the deer-in-headlights look on his helmet has always left you negatively predisposed towards him. That, and his expertise on the area of puppeteering sods with deprecated cyberbain firmware. Still, you're in the halfway-to-ruins of New Damascus, where Streums roam about in hordes of death and destruction, and your two actual friends are off the Secreta knows not where.

You take his helping hand, and he deftly yanks you out of your hole. Quietly, he hands you your lost KA93. The automatic rifle must've slipped from your grasp somewhere during the fall.

"We accomplished the mission. Due to shifting conditions, we are to secure personal extraction unsupported." Namely, E.Y.E left you out to dry. How exactly did you accomplish the mission..?

"The objective was retrieved?"

"Positive. You managed a psi-translation of the objective towards the extraction vehicle upon surface collapse." Of course. When your conscious fails, your subconscious picks up the slack, and this time it bullied your synapses into psi-throwing things.

You fight off the urge to reminisce on that one time you knocked Slavoskivich out with a large vase of china psi-thrown at high speeds during a training exercise. Right not, a more pressing concern is at hand. Extraction. Thinking of which, he and Dhul-Saif will most likely be trying to rescue and lead whatever civilians they can find towards whatever strongholds the Federation still holds. It will complicate matters of getting out of this forsaken piece of rock, but at least you'll be there for your team mates if the worst comes.

>Try to find your friends and team mates
>Head straight to the star port and let them finish what they started

>>33489434
>At this stage Culters and Jians are not yet at each other's throats. At least not openly. That you know of. Maybe.

>>33489571
We already trusted our team.
No reason to worry. Go to the extraction point as planned.

>>33489571
>Head straight to the star port and let them finish what they started

>>33489571
>>Try to find your friends and team mates

>>33489571
>Try to find your friends and team mates

>>33489571
>Try to find your friends and team mates

>>33489839
>>33489818
>>33489770
>>33489701
>>33489622
Assuming no samefagging has occurred, finding your m8s wins by 1 vote. Writan

>>33489906
Tempted as you are to let them stew on the pot they dove themselves into, the three of you had been through enough hard times together that you can't easily abandon them. Besides, if there's an evac point, there's an evac shuttle.

Now, the matter of finding them is altogether more complicated. In other circumstances, following the sound of Excidium detonations would lead you back to your team, as you've done before in other missions. Alas, the number of Deus Ex Machinas firing off rockets at hapless barricaded Feds makes that choice impracticable. You need a plan.

>Try to follow the trail of Streum corpses and hope it leads back to your team. 1d100 for tracking.
>Find a vantage point somewhere, attract the attention of a Deus Ex and shoot it down. Hope they see you and signal you.
>Attempt to follow the general direction where they left off to and try to get in radio contact with them. There's a non-negligible chance of running into agitated enemies.
>Other

Rolled 17

>>33490078
>Try to follow the trail of Streum corpses and hope it leads back to your team. 1d100 for tracking.

>>33490078
Don't we have some way of sending out signals for this situation? Can't we just fire something flashy into the sky?
Are we capable of Dragon-hopping (as in: use dragon to teleport into enemies as a means of movement) or would it utterly exhaust our stamina supply?

Can dogfucker use possession to hop through viewpoints and find everyone?

Rolled 10

>>33490078
>Try to follow the trail of Streum corpses and hope it leads back to your team. 1d100 for tracking.

>>33490095
>>33490157
well we're rolling like champs so far...

where's all those anons from the previous vote?

>>33490112
>Don't we have some way of sending out signals for this situation? Can't we just fire something flashy into the sky?
Your mission was originally a quick insertion and extraction affair. Flares didn't seem necessary at the time..
>Are we capable of Dragon-hopping (as in: use dragon to teleport into enemies as a means of movement) or would it utterly exhaust our stamina supply?
You are capable, and yes at some point it will exhaust you.
>Can dogfucker use possession to hop through viewpoints and find everyone?
He can, but he'd have to find a signal first. It might complicate matters if you possess a Fed currently helping your friends though.

Do you wish to commit your vote to Jian Possession Protocols?

Rolled 72

>>33490200
Yea. Have him follow the trail of corpses through possession.

>>33490200
Yes, have him use possession lookout.
Once he finds something, we use dragon once or twice at opportune moments to increase our speed.

>>33490095
>>33490157
>>33490246
>>33490264
Multiplexing your votes. Writan procedures engaged.

captcha: whatrad process

>>33490321
The raddest of processes.

>>33490321
You reason there will be a lot of distinctively carbonized carcasses lumped in together with hacked and headshotted corpses wherever your friends saw the need to do battle. At the same time, you reason that having an extra set of eyes would only serve to broaden your search. Even if it might leave their original owner somewhat indisposed towards you afterwards. To make an omelet and all..

You are about to call out Dogfucker, when you realize.. That's not really something you should be calling your "brother" in arms outside the rush of battle. On the other hand, you can't remember his name either. Cao... Something? Or was it Liu. Or Wu? Freaking weebs. "We're going to attempt to follow the trails of corpses back to our team mates. Track those bearing Excidium radiation burns and BOSCO wounds, as well as katana lacerations." Nice, you managed to avoid saying his name.

"Understood." He shifts his gaze to the ground. "Also, attempt to find a signal and take possession of its visual feed. Broaden the search." "Understood." He's starting to piss you off again... Maybe you've just grown to dislike entities too close to artificial at some point in your life, being more inclined towards psi-abilities after all.

There are plans that look good on paper. In practice, they fall short of expectations. You come to realize this, as you cut corners and cybercloak to avoid roving bands of perigrums hopping about, hoping to conserve ammo. The beasts, in their hunger, have been devouring corpses of their own fallen. What packs of carbonized and barely identifiable Manducos you have found, have not actually lead to any trails; perhaps Dhul-Dhul had taken them out as a distraction, perhaps as a preemptive strike of some manner. You're vaguely aware of actually trailing away from where they might have gone..

"Signal found. Federal." Chink Chong Hackerwang, mutterer of technogarble announces. "Position suggests a retreat of some kind." [1/2]

>>33490944
You can make out sounds of screeching claws battering a metal surface to the north. "Signal has stopped movement. Still strong." The target may have taken refuge upon a safehouse of some sort. Exactly the kind of structure that your friends would've lead survivors onto. "Attempt possession."

"Initiating protocols..." He performs a strange hand signal and grows quiet, muttering some sort of hexes that rekindle the sentiments you held for him at the start of this mess.

You await tensely for him to succeed. And then, his cybercloak wears off. That's just what you needed, an agent out in the open and spacing out while hacking! The Streums have not -yet- noticed you at least, but with the vigor with which they're running around, detection is inevitable. You have to think fast.

>Move out and try to intercept patrols
>Summon your clones and form a defensive "wall" around the Jian
>Order him to cancel out the process and try to get to what might be the safehouse some other way

>>33491087
>Move out and try to intercept patrols

>>33491087
>Move out and try to intercept patrols
Never let him lose our sight. We want to be able to summon clones to protect him quickly if necessary. Just don't want to do it now. One being is less visible.

>>33491087
We don't need a possession, we need a location.
>Tell him to knock it off and whether he knows where the signal originated from. Track that.

>>33491087
Summon clones.
Tell them to run into random directions and draw attention.
Take safe instakill shots whenever the opportunity arises. Don't do anything that might notify them of our current position.

Also, a carnophage might be useful, considering that we can stop a single enemy far easier than a bunch of enemies.

>>33491087 here
changing vote to seconding >>33491174

>>33491174

second

>>33491250
derp, meant >>33491095 here

>>33491174
>>33491284
>>33491250
Writan

I'm out.
Try not to die.

>>33491878
It's just a dream, we can't die! Although the psychic backlash of dying will probably fuck up our mentality quite a bit. So probably best not to court fate.

>>33491415
>Sorry about the delay, I did mention I'd squeeze these updates out though..
>I almost forgot to add: Carnophages are Streums, and so are your enemies. I don't think you'd want to upgrade whatever enemies come at you.

A distraction will prove the most useful, you reason. You recall what today's quote of the Codex was: war is deception. And misdirection is one of your favored tactics. You summon your clones, focusing on weaponry that is loud and boisterous and will drown out the sounds of your own weaponry. True to form, five of your replicas materialize, and you send each to a different corner, to divert attention from your partner.

Cloaking away, you jump to a vantage point on top of a wall, monitoring the procedures. One of your clones valiantly goes down against one of the perigrum packs, fortunately diverting their route towards another street. He did his job. A few more take out an utterly unprepared mob of Manducos. Lastly, one self-sabotaging moron of a tulpa gets into a shooting match with a patrol of Synicles. You bring your own gun to bear and dispatch them while they're distracted. So far so good.

"Possession initiated. The target appears to have locked himself in." The comms blare out with the annoying accent of the Jian. Just wonderful.

"So this was all for nothing?"

"Negative. The room has documents detailing mission parameters. I shall extract all information I can-"

The sound you've come to associate with a whirling vortex tearing a fabric on reality to birth Metastreumonic entities thunders nearby, louder than anything you have ever heard. For a brief moment, you feel your mind break apart under the stress of an overpowering threat manifesting itself in a sudden manner, before your psycho-indoctrination procedures kick in. The sound of an unsettling rhythmical stampede is heading towards your position.

(choices inc)

>>33492192
>Move in to engage, you only need to distract it for a moment longer
>Make a run for the safehouse and procure entry the hard way

>>33492201
Where the fuck is this safehouse anyway? Any way we either need to kill these things or distract them or they'll follow us back to the safehouse.
>Move in to engage, you only need to distract it for a moment longer
Put some emphasis on the =distract= part, use Madness.

>>33492334
>It's a few meters north.

>>33492201
>>Move in to engage, you only need to distract it for a moment longer

>>33492374
That close? Fuck it, eradicate these manifestations of the mind THEN continue to the safehouse.

Brb shower time

>>33492421
>>33492383
You can take out a bunch of abominations, you reason. With gun and sword, and your powers and implants, you are many times a match to the wretches of the Metastreumonic force, and you've proven as much countless times before. Steeling your resolve for whatever comes ahead, you dash out to face the source of the ruckus. "Proceed with the information gathering!" You shout a standing order, just in case.

You cloak up as you turn a corner, and you are glad that you have done so. Before your eyes lies the most gargantuan Metastreum you have ever seen. The bloated, cyclopean head of a Manduco, in a stretched out body covering half of the street. Along its flank lie several pair of arms, each as think as an oak tree, stomping along as they guide the centipede Manduco beast towards your location.

Something attracts its attention. Not halting its stride, one arm rises up and summons a ball of flame, hurling it towards whatever unlucky sod earned its wrath. It detonates unlike any ball of fire from a Manduco you've witnessed before.

At least you retain the surprise advantage. You take stock of your gear. KA93, Bear Killer and Damocles. You have your doubts regarding the efficiency of the assault rifle, however the other weapons have seen you through tough spots before. Not quite as stunning as this, though.. Someone dropped the ball hard in their assessment of the Metastreumonic threat here.

No point in thinking about it now. It's time to conjure up a battle plan.

>How will you fierce down the Beast of New Damascus?

>>33493973
We require a full assessment of =ALL= our capabilities before we can engage such a monstrous threat.
> List of all our Psi/Cyber abilities and augmentations. Don't forget the armour too.

>>33494194
You currently have Medium Armor. All cybernetic implants have been added to your "chassis". Despite your skill with Psi-abilities, your instructors have not yet taught you the Gates disciplines. You are still highly adept with the remaining spells. Assume your enhancements are the equivalent of 6th rank all around.

>>33493973
>Utilize CyberCloak/K.A. 93 combo to manoeuvre Mega-Manduco away from the safehouse/Dogfucker.
>>Utilize Polycloning if needed.

>Use Target Assist/Bear Killer combo to inflict damage from afar.
>> Utilize Boost Sprint to keep away from it's attacks.

>>33494630
Seems like this is the only option, I might as well second it.

>>33494630
Writing then.

post lost.... fucking fuck

rewriting

>>33495936
Shit son. Sorry for your loss. Might want to write it up first in notepad then copy-pasting it over. Would help when 4chan eats your posts.

>>33495936
Happened to me too. Twice in the same thread. The trick is to hover your cursor over the text box.

Finally caught you live, old chap.

You allow yourself a sigh. Well, that beast isn't going to kill itself. You cloak up and dash the direction opposite of where its headed. You pass undetected past it, getting a good view of its gargantuan form. As soon as you're out of swatting range of its limbs, you turn around and spray it with your rifle. Time to earn your Brouzoufs.

As expected, the bullets from the KA93 don't do a lot more than some superficial puncturing. Your surprise attack works, the titanic beast is momentarily stunned. Flanked by buildings from both sides, it thrashes sideways without success. Your glee turns to dread, as its headmost limbs propel it upwards, from one tip of its body to the other, forming a great arc staring ravenously at you. You snap a shot off of your Bear Killer at its head, cursing as it blocks the shot with one of its arms. The limb is blown away, but alas, there are many more from where that one came from. The beast roars out deafeningly.

It turns around itself with unexpected agility as it falls down, and as it lands you break into a dash, feeling both relief that your distraction worked and dread over the predicament you put yourself into by doing so. As fast as it might be, you are still faster. You cloak up and jump towards a window frame as it hurls a fireball at you, feeling the blastwave behind you as you enter. You summon up your clones, and hastily instruct them to dart off of the building in a different direction each. For now, you remain in your spot, judging the reaction of the thing. As expected, the sudden arrival of several sources of fire confuses it.

Jumping out, you activate your targeting system and shoot three remaining Bear Killer rounds at its exposed skull on the run. They shatter the thing's skull on impact and turn it into a mess of wet chunks, falling apart on the street. Its limbs fail, and the beast flops down on the ground. Your joy is short-lived; the set of arms just below its head spasms to life. [1/2]

Rolled 38

>>33495936
>>33495073

Do we, say, need to roll?

>>33496840
>In a moment
>>33496671
It grabs hold of the segment in front of it, and rips it out, revealing a bloodied and infuriated head gasping for air, and staring murderously at you. Ignoring your clones, the beast shoots straight at you. Limbs along its sides hurl a rain of explosive firey projectiles in your direction.

You rake your head for ideas on what to do in this situation- right now you're willing to follow with the craziest of plans.

>Shoot the fireballs away. You've done it before; those were of regular-sized Manducos though
>Block the fireballs with your Damocles' shield. You might even make it if you activate your Dermal Sheath.
>Dash in with your sword under the rain of fire and hack at its underbelly.

>Roll 1d100 for each. Hidden modifiers apply

Rolled 60

>>33497022
>Dash in with your sword under the rain of fire and hack at its underbelly.
Time to show off our solid brass balls.

Rolled 67

>>33497022

>Dash in with your sword under the rain of fire and hack at its underbelly
Go big or go home.

Rolled 53

>>33497022
>>Dash in with your sword under the rain of fire and hack at its underbelly.
Are we not Culter? Is not our mission to destroy the metastreumonic wherever it appears?

>>33497074
>>33497083
>>33497146
Must resist urge to link rules of nature.

Writing.

>>33497700
You better not forget about all our cyber-enhancements!

Whenever you leave the temple on a mission, a period of contemplating death, and the many ways by which it might come is standard procedure. Some would call this a morbid self-defeating practice, however it has helped you make hard choices where concern for your own mortality would've hindered you. As you charge forwards at the gargantuan monstrosity in front of you, you realize you have raised the bar in insane spur of the moment decisions yet again.

As expected, the beast's projectiles are way off their mark as you advance towards it, diving under their arc. You activate your cloaking device as you approach, not willing to give the creature an easy target to swat at. Instead, it continues its bullrush, as if assuming it would catch you in its jaws if it just keeps advancing. As far as you care, it has another thing coming. You slide into a tackle under its head, and bring up your sword. The blade sends its power discharge straight into the innards of the beast, and you carry on your run beneath its armlegs, slicing through flesh and manging its insides with a continuous discharge.

A wave of agony ripples across the length of the monster. A score steps later, the Damocles' charge runs out, and the blade becomes little more than a sharp piece of metal until its next recharge. A few seconds seem like an eternity, when a limb the size of a tree trunk is moving in to catch you. Instinctively, you activate your Dermal Sheath, glad that you did as you feel your endoskeleton strain under the pressure of the hand. You feel lightheaded, as the power source preventing your body from experiencing fatal injury is drained fast. Finally, you are tossed away like a rock towards a wall. The impact rattles your brain in spite of your protection.

That one actually hurt, you muse. In fact, you're aware that your biocharge is at dangerously low levels, following that encounter. Your own foe isn't faring so well, however. A stream of blood pours out of the wound you made.[1/2]

>>33498491
"Team leader, I have the location of the Federal evacuation plans." Your old friend Chingchong interrupts you enlightened discourse with the creatures of another world. Took him long enough, the little fucker. You can hear the sound of a Schproutz being fired over the radio. "Will return to you upon terminating the Perigrums that slipped past your watch." Ungrateful dog fucker star chink...

Whatever, you succeeded in your goal. Time to-

>>33498660
AW SHIT

You awaken with your head in Mei-Zhen's lap with a startle. Feverish, sweating profusely and with several improvised cloth bandages keeping your wounds from bleeding out. You wish you were still dreaming of facing down gargantuan beasts, even if the pain felt as real as it does in your awakened state.

"Ivan..." She calls out. In different circumstances, you'd consider her voice melodious. Right now, the headache you're feeling is almost a rival to the pain you're experiencing everywhere else.

"Where are we..?" You ask.

"In a building, in the tunnels." You wonder how she managed to carry you that far, small thing that she is. "Those things are roaming about.." Her voice bears a perceptible quiver of fear. You can imagine what the 'things' she's referring to are.

>Thread over. See you next thread, and sorry for the update times.

>>33499155
What tunnels are these exactly? I remember that it was faster for us to go to our apartment then hers from the brothel, so how far away are we?

Also thanks for the thread and don't worry too much about the update time, if it takes you more than an hour to write an update =THEN= you can start worrying.

>>33499304
To get from Moonshine Ave. to Vodka Street, you have to go through a few tunnels running beneath an abandoned terraforming station. At least until the Metro's back online.

Thinking about the quality of your posts per thread? I can give you the number of story posts in a thread and their cumulative word count:
>1: 25 posts, 5807 words, ~232 words per post (wpp)
>2: 15 posts, 3038 words, ~203 wpp
>3.5: 19 posts, 4120 words, ~217 wpp
>4: 16 posts, 3692 words, ~230 wpp
>5: 15 posts, 3300 words, ~220 wpp
>6: 12 posts, 3016 words, ~251 wpp
>7: 12 posts, 2641 words, ~220 wpp

Don't think that this has any bearing on the actual quality however, My Immortal was fuck-long and full of shit. A story could be limited to just a thousand words and stir strong emotions in the reader. I could also try and find out your avg. time between story post to see how fast you update, though update times are subject to so much bullshit (Real-life, waiting for players) that it doesn't really matter, as long as the updates are good.

>>33499362
Semi-important question, can we modify our weapons through any way other than using different ammunition?