Welcome to Gaia! ::

"The briefing isn't my problem. Apparently that screen is going to be used instead of an actual, uh, briefing room or meeting. Good luck if you have questions, I guess." With that, Gallagher took possession of the claws and left.

The screen displayed the words BREACHING LEYLINE IN FIVE MINUTES, then returned to the area map as they approached said leyline.

Then, BREACHING LEYLINE IN THREE MINUTES. PREPARE FOR COVEN ANTI-AIR FIRE

They felt a vague sensation of acceleration with none of the actual inertia as the speed indicator increased to 200 kilometers per minute.

There was the sensation again, of feeling movement they weren't experiencing.

Then, the world imploded.

Travelling across a single Tier was always a jarring experience. Travelling across several was nauseating.

Breaching one of the few points that allowed inter-Pillar transfer was vomit-inducing, as Morgan demonstrated to them when their senses returned.

"Never get used to that," he spat. "Oh hey, it's the briefing. Nice of them to finally tell us."

It was disturbingly brief. It had pictures of Hiveling strains, a brief explanation of their networked mental system that was too technical to be easily understood and too short to be particularly interesting, a few threat assessments, and a picture of the queen, explaining that it, as the hub of the networked intelligences of its hive, was the key thing to capture. Without it, the briefing declared, the independent intelligences of the Hivelings will be separated, so the threat of direct violence to the queen should be enough to force a surrender.

Report to the shadow portal deployment zone in 0:06:00.
0:05:59
0:05:58

Anolani felt a little sick. That's odd. I haven't felt sick in years. Her poison training left her unable to feel sick. Pain? Yes. Queasy? No. She put a hand to her stomach and raised an eyebrow. "That was fun." It settled quickly enough, so she walked gracefully to the portal.

"For exceptionally loose definitions of fun, aye," Morgan agreed. "I'm getting water down at the Thaumasynth, I'll catch up."

Jace went with Anolani and Victor, his face strained. "C'mon," he reminded the others. "Your stomachs can settle on our way there."

The portal zone was a large, dark room with shadow runes engraved in the walls and ceiling, with a large empty circle in the middle. A Shadow Mage "technician" was awaiting them. "Onto the circle when you're ready, ladies, gentlemen, and otherwise. Emergency recall devices and weaponry in the corner. The recall devices are the toothpicks. Apparently, the Captain finds them a convenient tool for mass one-shot thaumaturgy. Snap them and you'll get yanked back here. Just keep the consequences of failure in mind before you do that."

Johnstone bent down to get a number of toothpicks for himself. He pushed them into a jacket pocket before retrieving a handgun. That would probably be all he'd need. A Type 77B - an older handgun. Only a 9mm, but he didn't need anything more than that. 9 round magazine, so he decided to grab a pair of holsters - one for the pistol, one for the magazines. He grabbed four magazines, loaded one into the pistol and operated the action, and holstered all of them.

"Let's go," Johnstone declared through a grin, standing on the circle.

Victor, meanwhile, seized a Shadowknife, a seven-inch blade that he could channel his magic into for brief periods, for a multitude of purposes. He also picked up a Type 73 magnum revolver that fired cobalt rounds (along with two boxes of ammo) and a medium-sized Type 21 Model Z submachine gun. 45-round clip, rather low-caliber but fully automatic.

"Rose, right?" the shadow technician addressed the werebeast. "Captain cooked up something special for you." He opened a leather sack on the ground next to him and pulled out her greaves and gauntlets from earlier. Victor blinked at the harsh glow from them. "One-twenties are pretty good, from what I hear, but Machillius did these custom for you. They'll synchronize into your aura, so enemy magic won't work on them without breaking your own mana fields; because of that, they'll also adjust to your morph as part of the process. There's one of Captain Mack's custom-done magic hijackers in them too, so if you use them to block a magic attack you'll be able to spit it back out later. Gallagher sends his regards."

Rose, getting the impression that neglecting to take those would be an unwise idea, exchanged the Type 20s for the customized greaves, and was pleasantly surprised. They were incredibly heavy at first, but once she finished strapping them on they felt light as air - it seemed the captain had integrated some sort of mass/inertia manipulation so only her enemies would feel the effects of the heavy metallic plates. Their mana, furthermore, smelled like... Roses.

It seemed Captain Machillius' skill in thaumaturgy was matched by a flair for the artistic.

"Right. Have fun everyone, and good luck. Your target will be in the direction all the bugs are attacking from!"

"This is your idea of a briefing you wh-" Morgan yelled. Their vision went black.

"-ore! God damn it," Morgan finished as they found themselves on an orange-ish dusty field with a yellow grass-like plant scattered around the area. "I hate them sometimes," he commented as he looked upwards at the Dominator overhead.

"One good thing though, we're in Crossover so all our magic is gonna be overclocked," Jace pointed out.

"I'm a thaumaturge," Morgan reminded him with a dirty look. Jace smirked.

Anolani landed on the ground in a crouch. The canteen bottle was open and a small water rope was held between her hands. Seeing that no one had attacked upon arrival, she stood up and had the rope change into a whip. She gave Morgan a smirk and said, "I think you and I are going to get along quite well." I'm starting to understand the need for drinking. It was annoying how the crew was being treated. Not the time to think about it. Focus on the Queen.

When Victor's shadow spikes came out, an ice shield formed around Anolani. She barely moved an inch and the water came to her protection as though it had it's own conscious. You train long enough and it becomes an unconscious thing I guess. It melted back into the canteen once Victor calmed down some.

And when she heard Victor's question, she had to laugh. "I'm sorry. I thought you said you'd go straight for the Queen and leave us all back here to be your lackeys." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Not going to happen." She crossed her arms. "Rose is the heavy hitter of us all. My bet is on her being the first to get to the Queen. Rest of us keep the bugs busy."

She smirked. "Or we could go rushing and destroy all the bugs in our way till we hit the Queen."

Needless to say, Rose was stunned by the gift. Machillius had made them specially for her? Gauntlets and greaves to give her the magic she faced... they were exactly what she needed. And... she lifted one up to her face and sniffed. A delicate scent of magic wafted through her nostrils. Half a smile worked its way onto her features, slowly defining what had almost become a placid gaze in light of all the strangeness around her and giving it color.

"I will be sure to thank him properly when I have the opportunity," she said with a grateful nod. "Thank you, sir."

She calmly observed all the others receiving their equipment, seeing how competently and self-assuredly they gathered and equipped themselves, but kept in the back of her mind that she had special weaponry. Even knowing that the others likely all had personalized equipment of her own, this was her first. It would come back well-used.

Once on the ground, Rose observed the landscape around her. The colors were mildly offensive and the smells were strange, as was expected. The shape of the land was pleasant enough, though dry. Would have been nice to find some cover somewhere, but, well, from the sound of things, this was going to be more of a whole-sale slaughter of cannon fodder, so hiding behind things was unlikely to be terribly effective.

And then, after a little experimental magic from the local thaumaturges, Rose's name was put forward to spearhead a rush for the queen. She hid a flinch behind a fierce, subtle grin of pleasant challenge. There was some validity to the claim; she was likely the fastest of the lot of them, and if a path could be cleared for her, she could certainly take it. Instead of responding to the suggestion, she drew herself up and softly asked, "so the Queen will be in the center of the hive, right? They could collapse tunnels or clog them with bodies to prevent entry. If I can offer my opinion, I think there should be two together in the front - one to detonate, the other for quick work and sprinting - and the rest behind for fallback. I think... my species is best suited to be the sprinter, if I can put myself forward for that position."

By the end, her voice, though steady by training, was nearing a whisper. It was easy to suddenly be promoted by a single rank. Rose was now a member of the elite, and it had not been easy to step forward that way. However, she held her head high and waited for critique.