Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mugiri lowered his head, and frowned slightly. He hadn't known any of these people that this person had mentioned, or had even known Mastema had a child, let alone this "Thanatos." He not only was tired, but felt lied to, or at least sheltered away from Mastema. Like he was only a pet yet to be trained. Maybe it had been his long departure, but he was here now, and where was Mastema? In another part of this steel beast that Mugiri had barely laid eyes on. "I have seen none of these things. I have been gone for a long while, with a child I rescued from a mechanical... beast. I returned only a day ago at the most. Though, I would like to see all of them. I would like to talk to you after I see them, after I have a chance to judge them. I agree, Mastema doesn't need this city, or this dome... but maybe I am naive enough to hope he does not want conquest."

Mugiri almost fell down when he heard Kaiden's name. "Y-you are his father? I tried to save Kaiden... to a semi-effective victory. I drug him with me to... or rather through the gates of Hell. I accidentally warped there because of my contract with the devil. He is the one who kills me. No questions asked. It was an accident to bring your son, sir. We got out though. We parted way at the plains. He about tripled his size and was perfectly able to care for himself. I was gone to get help, but when I got here, I had no way of getting back to him.. not even to send word..." Mugiri hung his head, ashamed of himself. "I am sorry, sir, I would kill the man who did this to my child."

Mugiri thought slightly, and an idea hit him, but he hid it away. "Sir, I do not even know what this place is, or how they make the steel this way. I came from a simple place without mechanical things, and this was beyond my imagination... I cannot let you in, and if I could, I may have to think about it. People here are with Mastema, and they must be spared. If he has children, he must have a wife. You've lost many bodies, many children, and surely wives, so you must now how it is to lose them. I wish this to be one thing that would not happen to Mastema. You may let him think it has been so, but his children and wife must be spared unquestioningly, and in a way I agree to. If this is promised... I will learn how to manipulate this dome soon... Knock when I am ready, and you may be let in."

Mugiri scowled. "I must think. I will not act until I have come to a decision. I am sorry, but I feel loyalty must have a more than certain attachment to one thing, and I must sever my loyalty to Mastema before I come to you. I will see what he plots with my own eye, and will come to you if you truly are the truth." Mugiri felt resolute about this. He had an impenetrable wall between them, what power did the man have over him?

Lily's appearance was the only thing Than expected less than Kai to laugh at this point. The smoke from Lily's appearance hid her from Than's vision long enough to grab Kai and activate her teleportation device. "Who a-- Yamete!" Than shouted as he reaches to shove Lily away, but all he got was an ear full of thunder and an inhalation of the smoke. That disabled him for several moments before he was finally able to breath and realize that both of them were gone. He only had a short time to observe, but he had seen Lily's face and heard Kai's hostility to her, not to mention Lily spoke in garbled english."Kaiori!? Kaiori-chan!" Calling out his old name for Kai, Than confirmed, reluctantly, that Kaiori had been taken again. "Chikuso," he grunted to himself and bolted back to the citadel. This encounter proved he'd been hiding for too long. It was time to reacquaint himself with some old friends.

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Mastema continued to explain the last part about the vanguard units in more detail. "The RCG-01L. Full height: five point five meters. Primary function: mid-range to extreme-range precision combat. Main color: Crimson. Powerplant: Ultracompact Energy Battery. Armaments: Ultra-long range "Orthros" positron cannon, mid-to-long range "Xiphias" rail gun, two back-mounted missle pod launchers, four leg-mounted "hell dart" missle launhers, left-shoulder mounted spiked shield, chest-mounted CIWS array, hip-mounted fragmentation grenade launchers, and foot-mounted multi-directional wheel maneuvering system. Special notes: Bipedal, high speed unit despite heavy equipment."

The RCG-02J. Full-height: six meters. Primary function: Multi-angle heavy assault combat. Main color: blue. Powerplant: Ultracompact Energy battery. Armaments: Eight anti-air and ground small ion blasters, two hand-held particle beam rifles, wide-spread high-heat beam cannon, four belly-mounted mine dispensers, multi-type clamps on feet, and treads mounted on underside for high speed movement. Special notes: A hybrid hexapedal, 'insectoid' main body with humanoid mechanical torso mounted on top and can be rotated like a turret. All six legs contain high power hydraulics, allowing the unit to leap to enormous heights and distances in a single bound, and the clamps can attach to various surfaces, allowing the unit to attack from none ground surfaces.

"The RCG-03A. Full-height: two point five meters. Primary function: high agility blitzkrieg strikes. Main color: green. Powerplant: Ultracompact energy battery. Armaments: two back-mounted gatling guns, extended length plasma axe, two folding "Schneider" knives, two high power hand guns, six small fragmentation grenades, and thrusters placed on mutiple body parts to allow excellent maneuverability. Special notes: This unit was designed to make strikes to damage quickly accessible enemy positions or to distract attention from the RCG-01L and RCG-02J. The unit is also designed to implement hand-to-hand combat with help of its thrusters if necessary. It is also capable of drawing and avoiding fire. Perhaps its most notable feature is the ability to transform into a quadrapedal form capable of even more agility at the cost of less combat ability."

"And the RCG-04S. Full height: two point five meters. Primary function: provide support for the attacks of the first three units and hinder or disable the defensive and offensive capabilities of opponents. Main color: orange. Powerplant: Ultracompact energy battery. Armaments: two shoulder mounted solid shields, multiple launcher pods on entire body, chest-mounted EMP cannon, chaff projectiles, floating magnetic field pods, napalm missles, poisonous gas grenades of various types, flash grenades, hand-held sub-machine gunds, a heat saber, and a zenogais class cloaking device. Special notes: Unit is designed to disable both biological and artificial competition of non-specific species. As well as functioning independently, the equipment used on this unit can augment or alter the effects of weapons used by the other u[/color:8652

"That will be all I have to say about the vanguard units for now. The fifth unit is not entirely complete yet and I have not determined the final armaments. However, its performance will likely far surpass that of even these units. And with that, I conclude my presentation."

The general reception of these units seemed to fit well, if not curiously with the others. They just wanted to see what these things could really do. Mastema called off his projections of the units and relaxed in his throne. In the middle of her mumbling, Trilla would feel Mastema's hand gently pat and stroke her head.

"A most impressive display for sure, my friend," Slayer suddenly spoke up, "but even with these units I believe there is much to be done about the potential of what we already have. I don't deny that anyone in this room is well skilled, but our opponents are equal in that skill." Slayer stood up to his full height, making his appearance more pronounced and commanding. "Therefore, I put forth my proposal and challenge. I propose an invitation to a sparring and training match with everyone here. I myself may no longer be capable of what I used to, but everyone in this room could benefit from honing their skills with me. In essence, I'm offering a chance to improve the skills of anyone who cares to try." Slayer was by far the oldest being in the citadel and had millenia after millenia of skills and experience to pass on, and now he wanted to craft the other warriors of the citadel to be even more fearsome than they already were. Even with his death relatively close to him now, he was still going to push himself to the limit to show what he and the others could accomplish.

::Tyrsais would continue to not only write his own notes and comments on the units that were presented but would also have the voice-recognition software on his PDA record Mastema's dissertation. He was impressed with the overall designs of the robots which were obviously designed to assist each other. He was taking a few moments to finish up his own notes on the new additions to the citadel defenses when Slayer spoke. He would look up and narrow his eyes sligthly at the Elder Vampire::

Shouldn't you be taking it easy old man? Now you want to go play with the boys when you could very well burn yourself out? Regardless if you want to show me some new tricks I'll make some time to play...

I concur...and technically, Solaris, he's not wasting your time. You have all the time in the world. Need I remind you? We're in the past... *Sundel stuck her hand on the desk and made it fade away. She then let go of her scythe and let it levitate horizontally in the air and sat on it* Continue...