Week 6 Hunt - The Corpse of Alice Clegg

The Lion's Pride and the Silver Falcons arrive over Marduk, to find Clegg's Bloom Ship disabled.
Aboard it is an EEF, Uloh, and Blackheart security boarding party, Ryuk, DPrisoner00200 and their boarding party and an unknown number of E-strain Manslayers.
Both know their squads and loadouts from the previous mission, and are Limited to them.
They both have a chance of removing the corpse and bringing it back to their masters. Who gets it and gets out is based on their plan.

This is primarily a rivalry between Ragman, Blackheart, and Lions of Earth vs. Ryuk & DPrisoner00200 who have home court advantage on this mission.

This mission is open to All Players, but players can only send in squads not fleets. Squad is maxed at 7 members, six troops and one lead unit for other players.

Post your plan to this mission on either the defenders or attacker's side here on this thread only. First person to post gets a single extra repost later to launch secret attacks, ambushes etc. All other players get one post only. This thread will be locked at 11pm E.S.T. on Friday June 10th. Only actions listed on this mission thread will count as locked in for player actions.

You are encouraged to set up threads in your own factions to discuss this matter.

Slowly shadows started to shift in the room, as the EEF, Uloh, Blackheart, Ryuk, and DPrisoner00200 forces looked back and forth from each other and the twisted visage of Clegg and her lover the shadows slowly gathered at the entrance. Slowly as not to be noticed the shadows began to take shape, From the shadows formed four Horned Hounds, they flexed their claws and began to stalk toward their target. Behind them three more shadows formed, as these shadows lay quietly in the distance, far from the notice of the people on the ship, there were here not for the body, in fact none of them could care less about Alice Clegg, anyone could have her bloated corpse as far as they cared. They were here for a very different target.

The Horned Hounds charged forward toward the Kasanthian forces. Rending flesh with their claws, ramming their horns and tearing with their teeth. The enemy would fear the hounds of the Quall N'Drone

The First assassin crept forward, using the stealthy techniques he was taught during his long training he brought up one of his throwing knives. He thrust his arm forward into his own shadow the hand sticking up from his target's shadow as he let go of the knife it flew straight toward its intended target. The knife wouldn't be enough to bring down the victim but it didn't need to. It was designed to collapse any leyas shields protecting the victim and if it hit the enemy would be vulnerable to other attack.

The Second retreated to the entrance and brought out his Artificed sniper rifle, an excellently crafted weapon from the vaults of Fort Lendil, a shame the man thought, if he had that perfect round that Fort Lendil used this would be over quite fast, but sadly that would kill far more then his target. He took aim, slowly exhaling as he pulled the trigger from his prone position just as he was taught, there was nothing else, only him, his rifle and his target. If the throwing knife connected this shot should injure the target making them weak, this shot wasn't meant to kill just slow the enemy down.

The third assassin was creeping toward the wall, with the knife thrown and the shot fired he leaped through his own shadow. Popping out from the targets own after the knife thrower removed his hand he brought his blow gun to his lips and blew the dart forward into the body of the target. The dart was coated in a poison designed to render the victim unconscious.

If the target is injured and or unconscious the four Horned Hounds would grab the body of their target and drag him into the shadows and out of the room while the warriors all fought each other. Once they were separated from the group they would open up energy bridges into the lands of the Quall N'Drone. (Their target was not intended for implantation)

CPT Grant led the charge the way the Lions do. He and his heavy squad took the lead in a highly efficient rolling T formation. They blasted or kicked over the pathetic obstacles they found. The lions plasma weapons easily tore through the bodies of the rabble.

The other squad provided a rear guard to ensure no ambushes occurred.

When they got to the bridge the Lions staged ready to breach. If negotiations failed the Lions would charge in with trained efficiency and violence of action. The heavy Lions would act as the point men and step into the room and shield the doorway so the the STRIKE Operators could clear the room and recover the body.

Once they had the body or were forced to retreat they would head back to their SAV's and head back to the Lions Pride. If that failed they would link up with the fighting 5th and extract with them. If that failed they would link up with Strykkers Goliaths and extract with them. Either way the heavy lions would be the last ones out to cover all other forces retrogrades. If that failed as an absolute last resort they would head to the engine room and overload the reactor annihilating whatever caused the first three options to fail.

Terex and his squad of STRIKE Operators moved behind the rolling meat shield of death that was the heavy lions. The obstacles they encountered were usually stacked furniture and crates, though what did you expect from a bunch of in debt gamblers turned untrained “combat engineers.”

His squad and him tried to block the uplinks of the rabble they found, hopefully breaking their morale and causing them to flee or surrender. If they did the latter they would be quickly ziptied and left for the marines to grab.

The rabble were lightly armed and armored and were no match for the heavily armed and disciplined Lions, and Blackheart, And the ferocity of the Uloh.

If the Uloh delivered on its attempt to negotiate with the manslayers on board then the TRILAT would be the only resistance between them and the bridge turned bedroom.

As they reached the door Terex shouted in, “We just want the body Ryuk, its of no use to you. We will let you leave once its in our custody.”

If Ryuk is willing to agree to trade us the body Terex will also try to bargain for DP2's release. “We are taking a number of your forces as POW's we will be willing to trade them for Prisoner DP2.”

“LT Ryuk what do you say?”

***
The other half his squad would link up with the fighting fifth marines and start jamming the Rabbles uplinks so they can rationale decisions about where they wanted their lives to go. They would be offered a choice, surrender and 3 hots and cot as a POW, or become kibble for the E-Strain.

The half the squad with 5th would extract with them, the squad with the Lions would follow their extraction plans. As a last ditch resort the Silver Falcons would punch it and find a way to get the objective and the STRIKE team off the ship. Or provide the SAV's with cover fire.

MSgt. Timmons, one of the only magnavore to finish the Special Forces Crash course, followed the Lions of Earth and the BlackHeart Security people thru the ship. he had order Uloh M239992 to link into the Bloomships commsystems and offer the Estrain a deal. If they would aid the EEF forces in gaining the corpse of Alice Clegg and repeling the Trilat who had betrayed them, Uloh would offer them asylum. M239992 was also supposed to attempt to send a message to DPrisoner00200 letting him know of the Toxin to kill his larva if he would switch sides.

Timmons was unsure how well the offer to DPrisoner would go over. The Toxin was a closely gaurded secret. If he hadn't been breifed on it to offer to the IR for use on Alice Clegg, he doubted that he would have been given clearence to even know of it.

Timmons thought "at least if everything goes south, TechSgt Johannson has the bag of BrainBombs. Gods, i hate the headache those damn things cause, but those greenhorn KFed-Unity punks have never felt that kind of feedback before, should just Screw the Pooch on thier day."

He had the Manslayers running gaurd on Johannson with the lamia Prepared to gun down anything that looked like it would get in behind them.

"Now, to see if these Humies are as good as they think they are," he muttered under his breath as he keep listening to the chatter of the Ships mind.

It began with an encrypted broadcast to Ryuk from Viggo himself.
" My ...fuh.... fellow Kasanthian, I will do for you as you had ...dir... done for me. Ryuk, I would like to ...tuc...thank you for offering the assistance of your Rabble squad during my time of conflict. It is ...sof...surprising that we should have to be so wary of our own allies, but i hope that i can provide some backup with others ...gur....gunning for you. Please provide me with cooridnates to my usual dwellings, some sort of cavern or even a broke down building so that i can have an eye on the situation. I will not be there in person, but will send just one of my trusted apprentices to guide your way. She has ...gomm... given her life for the Kasanthians before, and asked to work with you after your show of support. I look forward to wworking with you again. Viggo ...oh... out."

The apprentice, Jezebel will open an energy bridge from the plane of awareness to planet Marduk. Accompanying Jezebel is her usual squad of enslaved nightmares resembling a mockery of EEF soldiers (figure the EEF as the Three Four Stooges, fireman drills and all), two of the elite Black cats of RU V and a shadow cacoon full of old earther grenades. She will sit tight using the leyas to hife herself in shadow form by the energy bridge. It will be the Black Cats job to steer the attackers off track from the escape energy bridge and Ryuks own forces. The Black Cats are moving and working purely in stealth, but if the opportunity is there they will additional flank stray enemies and thin their numbers. It will be the job ofthe enslaved nightmares to act as diversion and fire support. See as any nasty Kasanthian nightmare slaver knows, that his nightmares can be given simple tasks, but without the even present eye of the master they tend to wreck havok of their own and get into lots of trouble. Here, the nightmares will each be armed with a grenade with the pin already removed and their paw firmly holding the clip so that they may get as close to the enemy as possible to draw fire and let the pinless grenade do what it does best. It will undoubtedly take out the nightmare and as much of the enemies as nightmareishly possible. Once the nightmare is taken down, a new nightmare will step out from Jezebel's shadow form, collect another grenade and repeat the process until the enemy is no more or Jezebel is out of grenades. Of course she does has a shadow cacoon full of grenades, so it'll be the former in this case and Jezebel's finger has already been collected just in case she is unable to escape safely. I do ...hurm... hope this provides the cover for Ryuk to make his move.

I am deploying a squad of 7 marines in standard load out with EMP grenades and a single magazine of zela-filled hollow points. We are here to help secure the ship and maintain order.

A Captain should go down with her ship, thought Deer. He was staring at tactical readouts of Alice Clegg's ship.
He turned towards his aide de camp and said, "I want two teams of three Brethren Furies each to take up opposite sides of Clegg's ship. Attach plasma charges, and breaching explosives. One Brethren Drop trooper in nuke armor should make his way to the docking bay and draw the attention of all defenders there. Between all three cut the ship apart and prevent them from stealing Clegg's body.

Screw the TRILAT and their attempts to clone a slave Clegg for their bidding. Those evil fucks, how dare they. The greatest honor a captain can have is to go down with their ship. I am happy I am a Sector General and not a captain."

Le-a Hive Queen has been at odds with her IR allies so she will defend Alice Clegg's body from Trilat's attempt to steal her. She will be sending in 6 of her Red Fist Power Commandos with the 7th being a veteran leader of her hive, Ce'Ndra Firestarter. Le-a's warriors will be using shadow walk and hide in shadows. Her warriors will pop out to defend Alic Clegg's body whenever an attempt by Trilat's forces. Le-a warriors will cast brain fever on the leaders of the Trilat and incinerate on trilat's forces that are not the leaders. Le-a forces will attempt to capture the trilat leaders to hand over to the IR by opening energy bridges to kyrpos under the trilat leaders feet.

Garmin Fe has overheard the conversations from both sides. All-in-all not many people seem to be making any sense. He himself has never been involved with this Alice Clegg, though see seems to invoke a great deal of emotion from both sides. Still, he's been asked to help, and help he will. Though he's not very sure everyone will appreciate it.

[6 Nano-Fusion Sages and a Beacon City Judge will be deployed to the ship. They will be armed with 6 cutting torches, plastic explosives, and extended life-support systems, along with their normal equipment. All Six of the Fusion Sages will be talented in air layes. 3 will also be talented in summoning and 3 in shapeshift. They however will not truly board the ship. Instead they will drift from section to section and rupture the hull of the ship so that the contents vent out into space. As Manslayers helplessly drift away, the Sages will dispatch them with sniper shots or layes attacks. If too many are flowing at once, they will use their talents in the layes to pressurize the hull, then continue venting when they are caught up. Non-E-Strain targets will be bubbled in air and shunted to the side. Non-E-Strain targets that resist will first be suffocated until unconscious, or worse if their resistance is persistent, though no final death, I think. The Beacon City Judge will make contact with their respective factions to arrange safe pick up as well as coordinate the full cleanup of Manslayer remnants. There, everyone is saved?]

The New Vorik assault shuttle settled against the hull of the ship with a muted clang. The dull whooshing sound of plasma torches filled the troop compartment as he and his men did a final check on their gear. "Alright, what are we doing here, Washington?" he asked the goliath to his right.
"We're here to use these trap guns," he held one up, "to make sure that this bucket won't be going anywhere and to make sure that nothing is hiding in the shadows." Shiro nodded.
"Right, and why do we care Ker'ian?" he inquired of the ki'orn goliath to his left.
"This was Alice Clegg's flagship. She's dead and the TRILAT has the body but Blackheart and the Lions want it and the Field Marshall wants us to back them up and get it." Shiro grinned and toothy grin that exposed his tusk like incisors. "Correct," He looked at the goliath next to her, Cole, who was in the midst of cranking his assualt spring shot which he was carrying in addition to the usual acid weapons. "Where are starting our warding and what do we do after its done, Cole?"
"We start by warding the engine room and then we move to meet up with the Lions, Blackheart and UFC troops already on board. If things go well the Unity will run whatever tests it wants and turn the body over so we can get out of here. Shiro nodded. "And why are you two gentlemen with us?" He called back toward two warg armored oni's.
"To cover you if the manslayers on board decide they want to keep their boss." One answered over his armor's external speakers.
"We're also supposed to secure compartments while you ward them." replied the second oni, who hadn't buttoned her armor up yet.
The jump light went from red to yellow. That meant the saws were almost through. Shiro stood up and grabbed his weapons. "I almost forgot, Wulf," he called back to a k'iou who was almost at wide at the shoulders as he was tall. "What happens if this all goes to hell?" Wulf spat a wad of chew into an empty ration can.
"That depends on how far to hell they go. The shuttle will stay here buttoned up so we can fall back to it if we have to. If we get spaced we have darkside rings so we can breath outside if that happens or we're to far away everyone except the tin men have emergency energy bridges back to the fleet. I guess they'll just have to stick close to us." He concluded with a wicked grin at the power armored soldiers. One of them flipped him off which he found no end of humor in. Shiro rolled his neck and shoulders. The Q&A session was a common pre mission ritual for him. He liked to know that the people with knew their business and could take care of it if he went down. The green light pulsed rapidly for a few seconds then stayed on solid green.
"Lets move," He called over his shoulder as he strode forward and undogged the hatch.

***
This team consists of goliath captain Shiro four goliaths armed with standard gear, except each also have a shadow ward trap gun and one is also carrying an assault springshot (spears have been worked with shield break(4), extra earth damage (+2) and dehydrate (4 successes). Each also has a darkside leyas generator (lvl4) and a darkside bone ring
They will use their trap guns in the engine room to make sure that the ship cannot shadow jump. Once that is done they will move forward warding as they go until they meet up with the allied troops already on board. The Oni's (armed with combat flame throwers, 50 cal machine guns and oni pluse laser cannons) will provide cover for the goliaths and will take the front should fighting start. The squad are under orders to not engage unless they are engaged first. So long as Blackheart agrees Prime will be allowed to run scans on the body. Once done he will hopefully turn it over if other groups try to take the body the squad will attempt to stop them. Once the body is secured they will make their way back to the shuttle in an emergency they will use their energy bridges. They have left fingers with the fleet and the oni's have had memory scans and left cloning samples.

The prisoner wondered if they had succeeded or failed.
Alice Clegg is dead, but it wasn't by his hand.
Now they were onboard her flagship, surrounded by enemies.

Ryuk might want to bring her back, but the Prisoner wasn't going to risk their lives to do it.
Escape, escape to the closest shuttle was the only option.

OOC-- he will use his magnavore larva to communicate with Blackheart Strike Operators and use comm crystals to talk to Ryuk.
He will advise both teams about Estrain Manslayers and Manslayer Ambushes, but wants to keep both squads from running into each other.
He will try and distract them from each other and focused on mutual enemies (Manslayers), while in the confusion he escapes to the nearest shuttle. Other people should handle the body situation, as far as the prisoner is concerned.

Captain Axis relished moments like this. “So many things I have at my disposal that I get to use right now”, he thought. His team would consist of 5 Techno-Brokens, an Uthvalor Oracle and leading this rabble would be one of Captain Axis’ Annihilator Goo Warriors. The Annihilator would be equipped with an artifact with Translate artificed to it so that it can correspond with its team. Both it and the Uth would be given artifacts with Protective Aura, Fly, Easy Breathing and Create Air so they can move in space with the Techno Broken. They have all been installed with the Unity Uplinks so they can communicate should they need to split up or if they need to maintain silence, also to report back anything they see. Their job is to kill any E-Strain they see as well as collect information regarding how Alice Clegg died, her command codes as well as information on the E-Strain such as their chain of command and locations of their command. The Uth will instant recall for this information as well and will also instant recall for any possible traps, E-Strain movements and the locations of Ryuk, his men, and any other parties on board. If the team is able to avoid these other teams, it will do so. Their mission is E-Strain Extermination and Information retrieval. If the team is able to identify Ryuk’s location and locations of any possible allies, they will try to inform them of traps, E-strain and other enemies. The team will also be equipped with void weapons. Axis thought to himself on this last note “it’s not a mission unless void is involved”.

In the very unlikely event the enemies of the IR decide they want to show proper respect to a deceased officer of both my side and their side, a single Gunship will fly in and deposit an honor guard of six Brethren.

They will protect themselves if attacked but are only there if either side wants a respectful funeral ceremony.

Ryuk heard the chatter about the fleets approaching Marduk, at least things could happen beneficially. With some confusion, Ryuk instructed the workers on Marduk to relax, as there was some ships still protecting this world, and the rest of the fleet should be returning shortly. After calming down the workers, Ryuk sent out on his private army channel to all fighters to intercept and incoming ships that are not of the TRILAT, give them one warning to stop and power down weapons until this is over. Any who disobey will be disabled. As the fleet arrives back from previous missions, they will be incorporated into the defense of the skies of Marduk .

Meanwhile, Ryuk was becoming vivid. All his work and Prime decides it is better to talk about everything, than to have some decisive action. Ryuk is wondering when PRime is going to start speaking about his "feelings". Ryuk turns to DP200, and says evidently my work here is done whether I want it to be or not. I am going to support the rabble to clear the ship. while I am doing that you can tell me where you would like to go, and I will make arrangements for you to get there.

Ryuk turns away and starts walking out the door, gathering updates on the battle and giving instructions on how to overcome the obstacles the rabble on board are facing. As he walks away, every who is there notices that ryuks footsteps leave flames every step he take.

Ryuk

The Sanguine Lord Five and an image of Prime, along with three builders, put the finishing touches on the forward lab. Formed from a hollowed out asteroid close to the recent battle, this station could safely examine the bodies, and was insulated from all outside networks. It also included a small launching tube for Five, and three reality drills.

Five understood his mission; his communication with Prime only took 0.37 seconds. Prime's attempts at reasoning with the Disconnected received a somewhat tepid response, and it was unlikely that any were prepared for an E-strain trap. Five would attack quickly, securing the area and providing a node through which the Builders could extract all relevant data from the capital ship. The reality drills would provide extraction for all that required it.

The Sanguine Lord Five was launched, and streaked towards Alice Clegg's flagship. He looked like little more than a a thin red streak, difficult to notice against the din of battle. It smashed through the wrecks of one ship after another, lancing through them and tearing them apart without even slowing down. All it left were drifting husks.

Five drilled into the bridge, not even slowing. He landed in human form, striking an imposing blood red figure. Like other Sanguine Lords, Five looked like a six foot tall blood red humanoid marked with lines of brilliant silver and clothed in flowing red robes. Its grin was almost predatory as it raised one hand. Five drops of blood fell from the hand, mixing with the metal and boiling. They became as five pools of tainted liquid metal, from which erupted five dark shades. As the pools were coalescing, two small twisted metal columns erupted from the floor of the vessel, becoming the hacking/transmission equipment which would take the information Prime had requested. Five transmitted that the body of Alice would be removed from the dangerous ship, examined, and then sent for a proper burial. Palomedes and all others that wished to pay their respects would be welcome

There was little time to wait, as battle was soon joined. Suddenly, two silver blades were in his hands, and he was upon the assailants. His blades struck with blinding speed as he flowed like a formless creature from position to position. He turned, seeing a crowd of foes approach. His mouth opened, and hundreds of red tendrils opened from his wide maw, skewering his opponents. They withered as the tendrils retracted back to the Sanguine Lord.

More came, and suddenly Five erupted into a fine red mist. It moved among the squamous crowd, and they were shredded to pieces as the mist coalesced behind them. The Sanguine Lord moved like this, shifting from a blindingly fast fighter to a cloud of murderous mist. Five was helping all allied forces, even the EEF and Blackheart agents against the ambushes they might face, backed by the Oblivion shades.

The Sanguine Lord gave the signal of all clear, noting there was little time before the traps detected by the Builders would be sprung. Those who came in peace would be escorted through the rip in space which was made by the reality drill. Five would go through as well.

The forward lab the portals led to was a hastily hollowed out asteroid. On it were two Builders who were transferring the ship data to an isolated server for further study. Once the Lovers were brought on, they would be given a forensic examination to determine the time and method of death. The nature of their death, murder or suicide, would also be verified. Once the forensic evidence was collected, the Builders would use advanced surgical techniques to repair the disfigurements caused by Alice's mutations. While doing so, they would check for any nasty traps, biological or technological, that might have been left in either body. In this way; she could have a proper open casket burial. She would then be given to those who insisted she have a proper burial.

Hortus Pelgrum smiled to himself, the target wasn't aware that he was the one they were after, he smiled as the target began to walk out of the room away from the protection of his friend the Magnavore, that one would have been tough to take down. He eyed the sights of his rifle right at the target, he could see him clearly. Walking away from the battle leaving flaming footsteps as he attempted to leave the room, Leftanent Ryuk.

As they would move in to take him they could feel the shadow wards spreading throughout the ship, someone was either wise to them or they were just scared of the ship shadow jumping out of there. No matter, with their target captured they would no longer need the shadows. They would activate their armor's final ability, opening up an energy bridge to Kyrpos, to a small deserted island where his torture could commence. A few hours screaming and then he would be sent home.

(the attack plan is the same one as in the first post, i will repost it here just so to be clear )

(The First assassin crept forward, using the stealthy techniques he was taught during his long training he brought up one of his throwing knives. He thrust his arm forward into his own shadow the hand sticking up from his target's shadow as he let go of the knife it flew straight toward its intended target. The knife wouldn't be enough to bring down the victim but it didn't need to. It was designed to collapse any leyas shields protecting the victim and if it hit the enemy would be vulnerable to other attack.

The Second retreated to the entrance and brought out his Artificed sniper rifle, an excellently crafted weapon from the vaults of Fort Lendil, a shame the man thought, if he had that perfect round that Fort Lendil used this would be over quite fast, but sadly that would kill far more then his target. He took aim, slowly exhaling as he pulled the trigger from his prone position just as he was taught, there was nothing else, only him, his rifle and his target. If the throwing knife connected this shot should injure the target making them weak, this shot wasn't meant to kill just slow the enemy down.

The third assassin was creeping toward the wall, with the knife thrown and the shot fired he leaped through his own shadow. Popping out from the targets own after the knife thrower removed his hand he brought his blow gun to his lips and blew the dart forward into the body of the target. The dart was coated in a poison designed to render the victim unconscious.

If the target is injured and or unconscious the four Horned Hounds would grab the body of their target and drag him into the shadows and out of the room while the warriors all fought each other. Once they were separated from the group they would open up energy bridges into the lands of the Quall N'Drone. (Their target was not intended for implantation))

(just in case the shadow wards reach us before we can do this for some reason, the actions will be the same, except without the shadow walking, the last Burning Shadow will leap onto Ryuk's unconscious body nad activate the energy bridge on the floor benieth him so they just drop through then close it when the three Burning Shadows are through, they will not wait for the Horned Hounds unless there is no danger in delaying things)

If the Sanguine Lords try to interfere throw the remaining Horned Hounds at them or if they are all dead already toss a chill bolt at it to slow it down for a second and use that time to grab Ryuk and flee

Five Shadow Assassins will arrive on the ship and deliver a platinum chased, pistol with a stock made from corrupt Khaz'gha wood. It was a Deaths Head Magi Cannon, a gift from his Admiral. It had a vial of Djinni blood in the stock to keep it always powered.
Along with the letter that said, "Let your rage grow inside. On the Kasanthian path it will grant you great strength."