[FIN] Dangerous secrets (Talon and Shun)

[PuddleInk]

Talon observed the modified Sniper go on high alert. He frowned softly and followed suit. Obviously the thing knew more of what was going on than what was face value. Then again, It was able to roam around and communicate without a pilot and seemed far more sentient than any other he came across ( which was simply none. Blaze just set a high standard for Talon.) Still, Talon was concerned with the shifting sand, Tyrant wasn't as much anymore as it started picking up lots of heat.

And lots of moving heat.

"No. But it could be in the near future... And I'm pretty sure that the source of the heat is a bad thing that'll hurt. "

Though he was curious to what it was. Darn curiosity battling his common sense of run away.  

[GunSniper]

"Obliterateors...." Both Zutnic and Atelius spoke to their pilots in unison. A slight fear on their voice.

"That would explain the increase in heat withing the depths of the temple... Obliterateors can spew fire from just about every inch of their body. They are also quite powerful when it comes to brute strength. Their job is to 'cleanse' and perhaps the most vicious of us all. They take their task quite seriously."

"Bigger child of the great mother with lots of hot fire!" Zutnic added to Atelius' description. He also took the liberty of latching harder onto the Zaber's neck and sending a hive signal to the oncoming threat. They would think of Shun as a striker when they finally breached.

Blaze lept away from the temple and the bubbling sand mass. There were a lot down there, but his pilot was not among the surfacing crowd. His claws dug into the dirt as did his silver hand. The perfect anchor. The scythes dug into the ground as his tail and head aligned.

-The ground below us immediately is secure. The temple is far too deep to cause any complications in your own ZOID's movement.- The air hummed as the beam in Blaze's gaping mouth begun to charge. -Avoid the mound and your ZOIDs will be safe from collapse.-  

[Blade Kuroda]

The fear in the two's voices was faint, but noted. The descriptions given of the creatures below added to Shun's wariness as well. His guess, judging the size of the strikers and seekers, these obliteraters weren't much bigger than them. But that didn't mean that they couldn't pack a punch, especially if there were a large number of them.

"I find myself wondering why the hell the Ancients went through the trouble..." he muttered to himself.

With a frown, he glanced over at the Green Tyrant momentarily before jumping away from the sinkhole as well. He thought of ordering Bent-Tail to fuze with Fang, but decided against it. A little bit of concealment wasn't likely to be of much help here.

"Any last minute tips on how to handle these little bastards?" he shot out. Off to the side, he noticed a glowing coming from Blaze's jaws. A particle beam cannon perhaps? That'd be something for sure.  

[GunSniper]

"Not get burn.." Zutnic answered with a hiss. It was simple, but good advice.

Atelius circled above and studied the bubble of sand. There was something not right about it... It shouldn't bubble like that.
"Keep away from the bubble. When it explodes it will be hot."

Blaze let loose the lesser particle beam at the mound as soon as it was ready to fire. The dark purple beam struck the mound, but did not penetrate it. It was as if the sand were a large shield.

Steam hissed from the vents in his tail and arm as he returned to a combat ready position frustrated. The beam was not as strong as a regular CBP, but it should have done more to sand and those creatures.

Than the sand burst in an intense inferno. It was as if a bomb had gone off under the sand. There would also be a second's hind of an energy shield that was broker under the sand. From the inferno the Obliterators emerged and begun to swarm the ground like a legion of ants. Not as tall as an organoid still, but longer and larger the the seekers and Strikers.

-Do not let them crawl on you... simple enough yes?-

Thirty three of the hundreds took an immediate target for Talon and his ZOID. Their eyes brightened and the flamethrowers on their tails readied for combat. Atelius immediately sent a warning to Talon of the numbers who target him directly. Their intentions were clear, kill the human, destroy the ZOID.

Nineteen took an interest in Blaze and charged him aggressively.

All the hundreds that begun to pour out of the hole in the ground ignored Shun completely, taking him for nothing more than a cluster of strikers.  

[Blade Kuroda]

It indeed was good advice. Over all it seemed best to just try and deal with whatever the things were from a distance more or less. If his experience with discovering the strikers was anything, there likely would be a lot in that bubbling mound.

Shun was rather disappointed when the beam Blaze fired seem to do nothing to the mound. It didn't appear to be a full on charged particle beam but it should have done something in the least. Either way it wasn't a very good sign.

"s**t" he exclaimed as the ground exploded with the obliteraters. With as many as there were, it was a little difficult to make out specific details of any individual. But he supposed that didn't matter so much at the moment anyway.

The soldier was mildly surprised when not a single one of the metallic creatures came after him. He then recalled what Zutnic was able to do, as he had done something very similar when he had his run-in with the Jury. He thought of asking Zutnic if attacking the group will change their status but he decided to try and help the others in any case.

"Zut, let me know if you spot any of them coming after us."

Seeing how Talon was getting a larger swarm, he jumped back to distance himself from the obliterators before firing at the ground near the Rev Raptor.  

[PuddleInk]

Talon really was dumbstruck by what happened. The ground bubbled, was shot at, exploded and now there were what looked to be thousands of these --for lack of a better word-- salamanders crawling over the desert floor. A group seemed to break off and head straight for him. This didn't make him feel at ease at all... And the Tyrant let out a defiant roar at these small creatures.


Combat system was turned on, the scythes moved to their places, and he realized that these were small beings... Well, small, but not really considering that if the lean was right he could take out a good chunk of them he brought the blades forward enough. Ion charges were fired at the more grouped Obliteraters charging him... The only thing really heard over the comms from Talon would be the squeaks, chirps and screams of Moe panicking...and the occasional squelch of Cuddles as he tried to see what was going on.


"Not. Dying. Here. " Talon snarled as he continued to fire and back away from the approaching legion, pretty much oblivious to everything else. Hey..he was busy. The others could deal with whatever was at them themselves. Right? Right.  

[GunSniper]

The obliterators combusted upon impact of the beams, but it would seem as though two more took the place of the one that was exploded.

They charged forward in a mass toward Talon. Fire poured from their mouths and legs as they neared the raptor. Revenge was now on the mind for their fallen brothers.

The shot from the assumed Striker came as a surprise to the horde. Six of the obliterators diverted from the mass going after Talon to teach the 'strikers' a lesson.

"Ah, master, they not like that. um..." Zutnic tried with no results to count the oncoming threat. He wanted to impress his master with a number, but could not count. "they.. enough of them.. come punish you?"

Atelius sent Talon an overview map of the battle ground. They all seemed to attack in masses with no coordination with each other. They all had a goal, but their own way of achieving it. Luckily a good portion, more than half of the ones coming out of the hole begun to turn north toward the unknown territories.

Blaze let loose and emptied his missile pods on the hole directly.
-I will focus on the hole, keep an eye on those who escaped. Request back up and I will be there. -  

[Blade Kuroda]

It was little surprise that the Obliterators came running after him after he fired, but at least there weren't many of them compared to the total numbers. They seemed to be less coordinated than the strikers, which might be a good thing.

"Damn straight you better not die," he growled at Talon. It'd be a little harder to have to deal with the report later on if he did. Oh, and there was also the fact that he'd have one less 'ally' when it came to the whole Judge mess.

"Let them try..." he replied to Zutnic as Fang hopped back once again while firing off a few more rounds at the oncoming group from the cannons on his belly. His guess was that their flames were hot enough to melt through most Zoids' armor so he had to try and keep his distance if possible.  

[PuddleInk]

The map was helpful. So was the branch that seemed to attack Shun. HA HA HA...oooh that made Talon snicker just a bit. Silly Tiger didn't know it was better not getting involved, but alas... some people just don't see a good thing until they've gone and spoiled it. Zut must be angry. Just that thought made Talon laugh louder. "If I do, I'm taking that metal shredder of yours with me. "

But he had to pay attention to the battle at hand, not imaginary broken sentence a Zoid had. Fire was close and sensors screamed that he should do something or else Tyrant was gonna kick Talon to the flames. In a quick motion, Talon brought the Raptor's tail around to pretty much knock the first and second row of Obliterators, digging the long talons of his stabilizing claws into the dirt to kick up a rather nasty wave of the stuff. It wouldn't do much damage, but it would most likely buy Talon some time to at least get away far enough to start firing rounds again into the middle of the mass to cause more anger and confusion.

Seriously...did the Seekers get all the logic ? "Affirmative, Blaze. " he said in reply to the text that scrolled across the bottom half of his monitors. Ranged combat wasn't his strong point, and if he recalled he did beef up Tyrants cooling system... Though he had doubts the machine could keep up with the many flames here.

"Atelius, where's the weakest ground point? " Naturally, he forgot his comm was on when he asked this...which probably was a good thing, right? Right! Ahh.. if only he had more heat resistant armor...and maybe better range fighting capabilities. Buut... at least he had maneuverability. That was a plus.  

[GunSniper]

More Obliterators exploded as a result of being hit by the saber's beams. More begun to turn toward the fang enraged. Twenty this time joined with the three remaining. Their bodies ignited with an intense blue flame this time.

Atelius searched the land for the point when the temple would be closer to the surface.

"There." A red dot appeared three miles north or their position. "That is where the back exit to this temple is and where the halls are closest to the surface."

Blaze lept backwards twice to avid being attached to by the infernal things.

-My pilot is still in there. If that is the only exit I prefer if you did not destroy it.- Blaze's anchors again dug into the ground as he readied another charge at the hole. His pod shots did little to slow down the advance. There seemed to be an endless supply coming from the hole in the ground.

The Obliterators crouched low to the ground as the massive Raptor's tail lashed above them. One was careless and tossed aside like a rag doll, but not destroyed. In fact it was not long before it re-joined the assault on the Tyrant.

"Ah.... master... pilot... great mother is not happy about this.." Zutnic whimpered. "Can hear her not happy...."

Atelius screeched. "Great mother has fused with Jury, they are returning to this temple to extract the Iron Judge." A world map was sent to all three ZOIDs highlighting the massive fog bank migrating toward their position. The speed was incredible.
"She is accompanied by both seekers and strikers..."

-Estimated time of arrival: 27min.

A timer appeared in the corner of the screen quickly counting down the seconds.

"They have been given new orders from the great mother to all attack... but keep the humans alive. Rival Seekers are sending out some strange signal blocking communications to any nearby base. There is no chance at a request for back up."

The horde that was previously retreating to the unknown territory begun to back track toward the group. The map reveled their plan, enclose them in a large circle.  

[Blade Kuroda]

More of the Oblitertors were headed his way, and they seemed rather furious. Shun was now finding himself wishing Fang was equipped with a more rapid-fire weapon or at least something that could deal with a large number of targets more easily.

Squeaking nervously, Bent-Tail peered over Shun's shoulder to stare at the screens of information. This was not the type of attention he liked. This was very bad in fact. To an extent he wished they were hiding in some dark hole far away so they didn't have to fight these creatures.

"Easy guys," the pilot gruffly said to both rat and striker to try and calm them somewhat. The situation wasn't ideal by any means but worrying too much wasn't going to get them much further right now.

Glancing at the information Blaze and Atelius provided, he grimaced while having his Zoid jump to the side to keep up this little dance he apparently was having with the attacking Obliterators. He couldn't let them get too close, not without the imminent threat of being overwhelmed.

So Nick was still around, and the Jury was fast approaching. It seemed that escaping wasn't much of an option here. If they did get away from this area, most likely they'll continued to be chased down. If that was the case, retreating to base would be a horrid idea lest they wanted to bring the horde home with them.

"Well that's just great," he muttered while trying to think fast, "Talon, keep moving and try to get them to round them up if possible. They should be easier to shoot if they're clustered together."

There wasn't much sense in them trying to tackle the lot individually at all. As much as he didn't really want to admit it, some teamwork may be what they need right now.  

[PuddleInk]

The Tyrant was pretty much fed up by the time the information came. Yeah, they were going to be boxed in but not quite boxed in yet. Too bad they couldn't just blow the entire place up and call it a done deal. It hissed and snarled as it pranced, deciding that if these things are going to take it down, it was going to squish as many as it possibly could.

"Last resort then, Blaze. I don't like the idea of trapping her down there either, but she seems like she can take care of herself and its not like these things will attack her. " He mumbled something about her alter ego being quite the life of the party, but it probably sounded something like Moe had stepped on the microphone. Moe was clinging to Cuddles at this point, leaving a cuttlefish very confused indeed.


He spent a few moments ( while pretty much fancy footing about) studying the screens. The waves of 'Salamanders' running around made a mad dash for freedom sound insane, but then again so did staying here in the throngs. "Then lets pack them together, have blaze shoot the school, then repeat until we have a clear escape. " Talon frowned, "I'm not sticking around for a Court session. And I'm pretty sure that Nick would like to keep her Zoid intact, Blaze... You're going to have to make a bolt for it too. Atelius, counting on updates. "

With that said, he sent a few more rounds at a broad group, then began a combination of sprinting and firing in what could be looked at as an escape. Or a trap... It really depended on how intelligent these dragons were. They seemed smarter than Zut since they seemed to swarm with fire. Though they seemed to lack the ability to coordinate their attacks to obviously they weren't as sentient as Atty. ANYWAYS, it was quite clear that he was trying to pretty much cluster them together by the means of rushing a group and then peeling off, much as a marlin or dolphin would a school of sardines.

Oh..and there was some firing involved. Mainly at the Obliterators that didn't scooch together.  

[GunSniper]

Another dark beam was fired at the hole, this time doing some damage to the oncoming horde. The hole cracked with explosions as the Obliterators whom were hit exploded on contact.

They may be strong, but all that fire they carried made them prone to that kind of death.

-She will be out any moment now, Thank you for your willingness to comply to my request.- The cool down finished just in time for Blaze to hop to the side and avoid being attached to. Despite his eagerness to snatch his pilot up as soon as she was free of the temple, he could not leave these pilots to fend off these things themselves. Nick would not have done such a thing...

-I will not run from my Pilot. Need be I will take the time of the Executioner and Jury wile you both flee. They will have a harder time with my armor and my blades can penetrate the Jury's armor more than yours can. I will shoot the clusters you make with my LCPB, please allow time for the beam to cool. It is still a new ability for me and hard on my core. Apologies.-

The cluster of black fog pushed forward causing the countdown timer to rapidly click down to twelve minutes and continued to drop rapidly. The clusters of Obliterators begin to thin out as they spread apart from each other.

"There are rival seekers giving directions to the Obliterators. Rival strikers are on their way as well." Atelius added another red blip on the map revealing the location of the strikers. Everyone seemed to be coming from the unknown territory.

"Zutnic not scared of other strikers... tear them apart! Strange Organoid and Zutnic tear them good for master!" Zutnic hissed, yet still sounded quite unsure. The rapidly approaching great mother had his voice riddled with fear.  

[Blade Kuroda]

With their little strategy in place, Shun focused on rushing and darting away in a similar fashion that Talon was moving to try and gather up the Obliterators. Occasionally he shot out a few rounds as needed as well. By no means did he think this would wipe them all out but he was hoping it would at least buy them some time.

"Y-yeah! We gonna tear 'em apart!" chimed in Bent-Tail, also sounding kind of nervous still. He couldn't hear what Zutnic was able to, but the situation he saw before them was scary enough.

A faint smirk appeared on the pilot's face as he heard the two speak up. It soon faded as he took note of the timer Atelius had proved them. The Obliterators alone were tough enough to deal with right now.

"Blaze, are you sure you'll be able to pick up Nick without taking too much damage from the Jury? They might have orders to not kill us but as far as I know there's nothing against taking out Zoids."  

[PuddleInk]

New information provided, as well as the confirmation that the Sniper was stubborn as all hell, Talon let out a sigh that was expressed as a frustrated roar by the Tyrant itself. Talon, having grouped a good, fired a few rounds and discovered this wonderful fact that they're easily combustible. This made things easier.

Not that herding flame spitting salamanders was easy to begin with.

"Never suggested running, just strategically advancing in the opposite direction. " He cracked a smile and figured that sort of humor was lost in this situation. Number one, he wasn't sure he should be joking with something that could turn its sights on him and casually blast him out of the water. Why, oh, why did he joke with things that could kill him?

He noted another blip, or Moe did and let out a concerned shriek that was followed by a tentacle pointing in that direction as well. Apparently Cuddles and Moe have patched things up and were working together to make sure Talon noticed every fricking nob, dial, sensor, and blip. The scattering markers was troubling. But Now he didn't have time to really worry about it. The current plan was working just fine, so long as the Opposing seekers didn't catch on. Though, he did raise an eyebrow with mild interest in blasting Strikers. As fun as that would be, he knew the Tyrant, nor the Sabre Cat couldn't hold out against a coordinated attack of both Obliterators and Strikers.

"Blaze seems more capable than we at the moment, Shun. " Talon said as he let the Tyrant casually knock an incoming Obliterator away with a swift kick of the striker talon. "And I'm sure there is more to it than the orders that were translated to us. We need to get out alive before the nearest outpost sends troops. "