Mal---"Guide to the dead"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Mal lashes out with his power, quickly distorting the guard's perceptions of the world around him. Colors shift, lines twist, and shadows become light as light becomes shadow as the sound of a thousand snakes hiss within the ears of the guard.

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Damn. I was hoping there wouldn't be anyone here. Oh well, ladies, that is your cue.

The two Aspects of Fury blaze towards the opened entrance, stopping just outside the soldier's reach.

"Die," they say in perfect synchronization. They each hold up a hand and narrow their eyes at the guard. Jets of white-hot flame shoot forth, streaking mercilessly towards the guard...

[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Before the fire spirits immolate the unwary guard Mal is aware that there was something not quite right with his aura, and that is more than just the effect of the confusion power washing over him. Before Mal has time to analyse it further the flames lick across his armour and the ammo in his gun ignites and the group outside the door is forced back by the brief intensity of the cooked off grenades…

Mal---"Guide to the dead"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Mal looks carefully for any signs of trouble before beginning to lead the way deeper in to the facility...

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

"Bloody hells," grumbles Tris, "It's probably too much to hope that nobody heard that." He glances over at the spirits, each of whom have a sinister grin playing across their faces.

"We'll move onward, carefully."

[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Despite the noise of your abrupt entry nobody comes running. Apart from the emergency claxons you can hear in the distance the place seems worryingly quiet with very little activity.

You have to restrain yourselves from blowing away a cleaning drone as it bustled out of somewhere that such creations come from and began to mop up the charred remains of the luckless guard. It ignores you, its sensors clearly not equipped to deal with squirrels or chameleon coated soldiers.

You move deeper into the complex and your unease grows...it is too damn quiet! You follow the tac map's suggestions for the quickest route to the command central tower, passing by disturbing Azzie hieroglyphs that writhe when looked at in AR. Their significance seems to be limited however as a translation program draws a blank, even when referenced against the more obscure magical texts you have available to you. You feel keenly the loss of the matrix as a whole...surely out there somewhere would be someone who could make sense of these things, but with the collapse the chances of getting a stable link to a node outside the immediate area is remote indeed.

The background count is imperceptibly beginning to climb above the low level miasma of fear that you would expect from a corp facility. Much higher and it might begin to impinge on your abilities.

In perfect bounding overwatch you proceed down the broad corridors, easily big enough to accommodate the mechas. Finally you reach a core, still without seeing anyone, and you are certain that the stairs or lift will take you up to the main command room and its associated facilities...

Mal---"Guide to the dead"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Mal glances at the lift for a moment, then gives a squirrelly snort and moves over to the stairs and stares back at the others expectantly, scratching lightly at the door. Once it's opened for him, he begins scaling the stairs, jumping up to the hand rail and slipping between the balusters, skipping the landings between flights. Each time, he'd poke his tiny head out between the balusters, look up and down the stairs for trouble, and then signals the others before he continues on up another flight.

[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

You proceed cautiously up the stairs. The silence makes the hairs on the back of your necks stand on edge. Even the hum of machinery grates in an unnatural way. This place should be a war zone, buzzing with activity – where the hell is everyone?

At the top of the stairs you emerge into a wide corridor lined with life size figurines of Aztech warriors. Thermal scans confirm they aren’t drones or anything sinister and to Mal’s astral sight they are inert stone, no threat other than to the nerves. The corridor is lined in ferrocrete panels designed to mimic stone, damn Azzies are so predictable in their architecture it’s almost a joke. You know that they could be concealing innumerable sensors but hopefully the wifi disruption coupled with the mayhem outside will give you sufficient time to bypass any obstacles before serious reinforcements can turn up.

At the end there is a set of blast doors that are partially open, a sickly greyish lights spilling into the corridor…time to take the control centre and complete your mission…the Stillwater column should be in position very soon!

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

"All right, have two men keep watch on our backs. If the Azzies are coming after us, I'd rather not be surprised. I can send the spirits in to wreak havoc on whoever is in that center, or I can have our furry friend here take a quick look inside. The first option will hopefully overwhelm them. The second will let me know where to toss in area spells before unleashing the spirits." Tris looks at the others.

"Unless someone has a better plan. I'm open to suggestions."

Mal --- "Guide to the Dead"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Mal stares down the hall, pausing to address the watcher. Inform your master that this screams 'trap' to me, and ask him if he as a means of allowing the mortals to pass through without touching the floor.

Once the message is delivered, he begins studying the walls, floor, ceiling, and door on the far side of the hall. He wouldn't be surprised if those cursed mages set magical traps...

[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

To Mal's astral senses this place is quiet, far too quiet! There are no hints of wards or other astral entities...only that open door that calls to you...

There is a feeling of menace in the air but that could just be down to the nature of the place, the collapse of the world outside and the Azzie predaliction to do nasty things with blood...

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

I don't...but I can if we need to. One of the nice things about simulations is that there is zero training time.

Mal --- "Guide to the Dead"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Mal continues staring down the hall, the squirrel equivalent of a frown on his face. I shall enter first. Prepare to move once I begin my actions.

His plans set, Mal begins a squirrelly dash down the hallway, dancing back and forth in an effort to avoid getting shot at as he approaches the open doorway.

[Central Command Tower, Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

The ajar door to the command centre beacons to you…luring you in. The friezes on the walls seem to follow you with their dire, blood drenched eyes as the small figure darts in an erratic pattern down the corridor.

A pause at the door and Mal enters to find…nothing…the place is empty…blinking machines greet your astral sight with a meaningless jumble of half visible nothings. Despite that the aura in this place is like walking into a soup of darkness. You feel your power drained away as the miasma seeps into you…

Something begins to move…thick, cable like appendages writhe over the controls and you see that they are coming out of the floor…out of the floor in a way that looks like they have punched through it…and they seem to be the source of the pervasive taint…cracks appear in the floor and race towards the door, accompanied by a grinding sound like the giant maw of some mechanical digger…

Mal --- "Guide to the Dead"
[Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Mal leaps backwards out of the room and begins sprinting back down the hallway, his tail up in the sign for Danger. He also prepares to abandon the squirrel to its fate if it appears he will not be able to escape.

[Corridor outside the Central Command Tower, Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Mal scurries frantically out of the command room. From in the corridor outside Tris and the others hear a dreadful grinding shriek and suddenly cracks begin to appear in the ghoulish statues lining the walls. The doors to the room implode as if some horrific hand had swung them open…they tumble into the dust and swirling debris of…something…something metallic that is moving in there…segmented tentacles burst forth, carving through the floor like a shark fin through water, and with the same deadly intent. The floor begins to cave forwards, sucked into the maw of whatever is below…you get a whirling impression of cogs, spinning machinery and intense, impossible heat…


the thing…it’s vast, impossible to comprehend…

you can’t think…



darkness…





<<Go, go, go>>

The air beats against your armoured visor as you plunge out of the drop ship towards the jungle canopy beneath you. Tracer fire whickers out of the trees and you see the craft hurtle away above you. Below and to your left you can see Mal’s combat homunculus as it streaks down barely cocooned by the spell that is dropping you in to the shit storm below. The others of your team are spread out around…let’s just hope the drop mage can sustain the spell long enough for you to land…let’s hope there’s somewhere to land…

[Corridor outside the Central Command Tower, Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Mal takes a sudden tumble through the air, spinning out of control for a moment before correcting and re-aligning his feet downward.
This is impossible! How could... Bokor! There's a strong Petro presence here. We shouldn't be falling from the sky...

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Corridor outside the Central Command Tower, Aztech Facility Fox Island - The Bay]

Sitting comfortably in the command seat of his mecha, Mal's warning catches Tris by surprise.

"You mean...we're not supposed to be attacking? That seems to be...highly irregular."

Though, to be honest to myself, I don't know what in the world I am doing in one of these things...

[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

You plunge down through the hail of fire towards the jungle canopy. Branches whip about you and suddenly you are into the gloom of verdant rain forest. Dimly you can see the other members of your team as they come to a rapid halt in the undergrowth at the base of the mighty trees. The spell winks out and you hear the whine of the drop ship engines as your last hope of escape wings its way back towards base.

Down here the sounds of gunfire are muted by the dense foliage and the ever present drip drip drip of water. Your target is ahead of you, you may vaguely wonder how you know that, and why you are here…

<<Move out>> the command crackles across the tac link. Even Mal picks up the barely audible whisper in his ears…

In front of Tris a blistering array of digital data washes across your vision but thankfully the mecha seems to be handling the actual driving part of the operations. Helpfully large AROs allow you to select targets picked up by the impressive sensor suite that has views on almost all parts of the spectrum…

A deer charges out of the undergrowth and almost gets vaporised by the various heavy weaponry that tracks its progress. Then you all see something oozing through the trees ahead, something that seems to suck the light into it and leave a sticky miasma behind…looks like the Darkness is here too…

[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown]

Mal lands hard and begins extending his guard power to envelop as many of his comrades as he can.
My last recollection is of us being within the blood mages' base, bokor. No matter, though. We are here now. Extend my offer of a Life Pact to our comrades once more, please.

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

Tris glances over at the phenomenon emerging from the trees.

My God...it's beautiful...

Stay focused on the present, Animus. Rend and destroy your enemies. Show it your power, Animus, and then perhaps The Darkness will take notice of you. Anima's words pull him back into reality, and Tris begins checking over the interface.

Now...how do I start figuring out targeting solutions...

When Mal mentions the Life Pact possibility again, he sends out a message to the troops in his group.

<<[Trismegistus]: Our resident disembodied spirit offering to make a Life Pact. Given the dire circumstances we face, some of you might consider it. It might help you make it out of this alive.>>

[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

The jungle noise has gone eerily silent as the darkness approaches. Small patters of fleeing feet and the whir of wings pass your unit by but the cries and chirps are absent, as if the wildlife knows the horror that is behind them. Even the trees seem to be trying to lean away from the thing that is oozing through them.

Your forward scout’s nerve breaks and he begins to run back towards your position, his mechanical exo suit covering the ground with mighty strides. Tracer fire whistles from the machine gun on his shoulder unit to disappear into the enveloping night. A pseudo pod lunges out and suddenly his robust machine is torn asunder. The armour that should deflect anti-tank rounds parts like wet paper under the things assault and his comm channel goes abruptly dead…

[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown]

Mal curses to himself.
The fool... Bokor! It's ire has been drawn. We would be hard-pressed to deal with it by normal means. Shall we evade?

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

"Impressive," Tris whispers aloud to himself.

Very impressive.

I'm thinking that it's time to fight, Tris replies to Mal via the watcher, and bring the Darkness to the Aztlaners.

<<[Trismegistus]: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we follow orders. Now that both the Aztlaners and the phenomenon know our location, I would advise taking the fight to the Aztlaners. Maybe we can draw the phenomenon after us and have it target both of our groups. With any luck, we can leave our enemies to its wrath.>>

And watch what happens to them...

And witness its power...

And what of us? ask the Aspects of Fury through the link.

Keep yourselves alive to unleash your fury upon those who oppose us.

Haruko -- Heavy Weapons Support
[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

As the comm link whispers <<Move out>>, Haruko drops towards the other members of her team. Fully immersed in the VR, her meat body hardly notices the shock as the drop mage stopped maintaining the spell 20 foot above the ground, and the 12 tall Anime Princess mech's knees bend to take the shock of landing.

Flickering AR targets showed possible targets. Expert systems tagged the fleeing wild life as "no danger", while checking their path in case of magical possession and sudden redirection. The biggest threat was the clearly the darkness and its pseudo pods that had casually wiped out a scout. Hard to make out the darkness though.

<<[Trismegistus]: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we follow orders. Now that both the Aztlaners and the phenomenon know our location, I would advise taking the fight to the Aztlaners. Maybe we can draw the phenomenon after us and have it target both of our groups. With any luck, we can leave our enemies to its wrath.>>

OK so someone has a plan, that's good. Setting your enemies on each other that's good. Being between two groups of enemies...that's know as being flanked...that's bad.

<<[Haruko] Haruko - Heavy Weapons Support reporting in. The good news is that you have reinforcements. The bad news is that I'm all they have. Link me into the Tacnet please. A verbal sitrep of the highlights would be good. And what the frag is that darkness? >>

In the absence of orders and a situation report the smart play was to cover the retreat of the others, and not make the situation worse.

Moving to place a tree between herself and the oncoming darkness, Haruko triggered the mental command that deployed the mini gun and started it spinning.

[Jungle - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

The five remaining members of your strike team begin to divert east away from the Darkness without putting you too far off your target location, a Teocalli some five hundred meters from your current location. You move with as much speed, balanced by stealth, that your heavy mech suits can cope with. Haruko in particular has to forge a way through the undergrowth rather than pick her way.

The entity seems content for now to feed on the unfortunate forward scout giving you the opportunity to slip away. Whatever reservations you might feel about leaving a man down it is not worth tackling that thing for ownership of its meal.

Up ahead your sensors detect a lightening of the green jungle gloom and you see the blocky pyramid rising from the trees around it. The ancient stones are somewhat marred by the anti-aircraft devices that dot its flanks and the plethora of communications equipment secured to the flat roof.

You are in luck, a patrol appears to be leaving the pyramid and the door is open. As you prepare to make your move something incongruous draws your eye. Over to your left, standing on the edge of the clearing you can see a glowing girl, clad only in impossibly long flowing hair and floating a meter or so above the ground. She beacons to you…

Haruko -- Heavy Weapons Support
[Jungle Canopy, near Aztech pyramid - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

Haruko looked at the glowing girl. Some magic trick. If it's an Aztlan trick, why would they bother with this decoy: they have enough troops and weaponry to crush this small force.

What were those orders? Haruko tried to remember, but they were vague and blurry. Well that's no good girl. Get your head in the game! Orders are orders, and if we mess up... It was something about this temple. Was it "get to the temple", "destroy the temple", "loot the temple", "meet a glowing girl at the temple"... so hard to remember.

Haruko waved the others back

<<[Haruko] I'll go see what she wants. Can you magic specialists do that voodoo that you do and keep me safe? >>

With that Haruko moved towards the girl, keeping as much foliage between herself and the temple as possible

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

<<[Trismegistus]: Welcome aboard, Haruko. Forwarding you all of our briefing information, but I can give you a summary-fight the Aztlaners. As for the Darkness, it's a fascinating albeit dangerous phenomenon. I've seen it up close in action a few times, which is not to say magic can shield you from it. However, if you are smart and keep your distance, then there is a good chance of survival.>>

Haruko
[Jungle Canopy, near Aztech pyramid - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

You move cautiously through the undergrowth at the edge of the clearing towards the apparition, at least as cautiously as a several ton giant can. Your sensors still don’t register the girl even as you get closer which certainly imply a mana based illusion but Mal informs you that she isn’t present on the astral so the enigma only gets worse!

She beacons again, more urgently this time and you can see that she is mouthing something. Clearly frustrated by your apparent lack of comprehension she reaches out and drags her finger through the air. It is as if reality ripples around it leaving an after impression like looking at the sun and glancing away

~You are compromised, come with me and I will get you out…~

Trismegistus
[Jungle Canopy, near Aztech pyramid - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

As you watch Haruko stump towards the hovering girl you can see that her attempts at stealth have been in vain. Across the clearing at the doors of the temple one of the Azzie patrol looks up from some sort of device and points across the clearing towards the looming mecha. Frantic hand signals flurry and one of the troopers unlimbers some sort of shoulder launcher and aims into the jungle…

[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown]

Mal glares at the threatening Aztlaner and barks out a command across the Astral to the loa near the patrol.
Loa! Strike that soldier with misfortune!

Trismegistus---"Magic Support Specialist"
[Jungle Canopy - Aztlan, Location Unknown ]

<<[Trismegistus]: Haruko, you've been noticed by the Aztlaners---one with a missile launcher in particular. We'll try to take them out, but get ready for evasive maneuvers.>>

And what of us, Animus?

Kill anything that attacks us.

[Jungle Canopy, near Aztech pyramid - Aztlan, Location Unknown]

Mal

Peering through the screening foliage at the Azzie patrol you feel the acknowledgement of the Loa and as the tube launcher comes up the unfortunate soldier stumbles over an entangling creeper and the weapon goes wide spreading the exhaust gasses back over one of his compatriots as the missile jets from the tube. It wobbles in flight and then disconcertingly corrects itself and streaks towards the dark figure of Haruko back in the trees…

Trismegistus

The Aztlan soldier, Jaguar guard judging by his unit markings, inexplicably launches before the two behind him are clear of the exhaust port. Immediately in your mind you feel the confirmation of your vengeful spirits as they spring forwards in retaliation. The Azzies are clearly momentarily confused but you know that with their level of training that won’t last more than a couple of seconds for you to press an advantage…and then there’s the missile homing in on your Heavy…

[Jungle Canopy, near Aztech pyramid - Aztlan, Location Unknown]


<<[Haruko]: Noted. Well I guess any chance of stealth is past us. You seem to know more about what is happening, are we following the crazy girl?>>


Haruko's mind flashed back to training. The basic rule was "stay alive". When the baddies have you targeted, the most important thing was to avoid getting hit.

Looking around she saw a tree to her left. Pointing the already spinning minigun in the direction of the man with the missile launcher she pulled the trigger while shifting so that the tree was between her and the target. The camera on the minigun was working fine, and that was all that she needed in order to take the guy out. Just like playing Death Ninjas from the 7th Dimension she though, walking the trail of deadly fire onto her target.

[Jungle Canopy, near Aztech pyramid - Aztlan, Location Unknown]

Things begin to happen in a blur. Haruko ducks back and unleashes a stream of fire from the spinning minigun, the little girl waves at her frantically once more and begins to disappear into some sort of rift. Tris’ elementals streak through the astral to engage the foe and at a word from one of the Jaguar guards a hideous apparition made of congealed blood oozes from the walls of the temple and moves to intercept them…

[Jungle Canopy, near Aztech pyramid - Aztlan, Location Unknown]

The battle is frantic as magical forces clash overhead. The mysterious girl disappears with a ‘pop’ and reality seems to shudder. Oozing out of the trees around you the Darkness begins to gather, obviously drawn by the titanic struggle going on around the teocali. The Azzie soldiers are no match for your firepower or magical strength, and certainly not equipped to deal with the gelatinous light-sucking forms that flow over them. Those that don’t succumb fall back inside the temple.

The girl no longer able to influence matters you converge on your target, mainly to escape the astral nasties that also seem intent on getting in, hopefully the wards will be strong enough to repel them…

You reach the door which is no match for Haruko’s might. With Mal taking point, rapidly followed up by Tris, you steal yourselves to the diminishing of your magical power as the aspected domain sweeps over you. The corridor seems familiar somehow, the friezes on the walls depicting Azzie gods sacrificing humans in blood drenched ceremonies…

There is a crack and shudder and the doors ahead of you buckle…you get a dim impression of a vast fiery maw and whirling tentacles made up of metallic segments…reality blurs…

***

You plunge towards the depths as your pressure suits absorb the mighty weight of ocean above you. Ignoring the pings of the active sonar seeking you out you forge your way through the inky waters to the blinking lights of the citadel below you. Weapons hot you engage…

***

The wasteland is almost perpetual…the dusty plain stretching away from you, the shrouded forms of skeletal buildings barely breaking the…tentacles writhe under the dust…it’s…

***

Darkness. No sense of time or position. You hover, somewhere… a little girl’s voice tinkles laughingly at you from somewhere “Good, I found you...let me take you home…oh, and call me Aria…”