Tyler

We can do that or PMs here on Val, either work. I don't know Notmuch's discord, but here's mine: Ty294#1397

One moment, Cordoza and the soldiers escorting her had been standing silently in the lift, tense, but still wholly unaware of the threat that lurked mere inches away from them. The next minute, one man was recoiling backward as blood sprayed from the side of his face, the result of a bullet skimming the skin off of his cheek. The reactions of the soldiers were varied, with some unable to even get their rifles off their shoulders before they were cut down by the decloaked infiltrators. Others were not so easily eliminated, and the exchange of short-range gunfire was deafening and chaotic. The sergeant screamed something unintelligible, before his chest was ripped apart by a spray of automatic fire by one of the two infiltrator mercs. Two more men were taken down in the same barrage. The man with the wounded cheek had stumbled and fallen over. A fifth Norkotian had their head shattered by a magnum round a second after that. Cordoza dropped to the floor with a cry, as she felt slatters of wet, hot liquid and slime splatter on her. She knew it all to be parts of the men who had been standing next to her a second before. One of the remaining Norkotians, this one equipped with an SMG, began spraying the opposite side of the lift with a continuous street of bullets, the flashes of his gunbarrel lighting up the room enough for everyone to get a vague visage of where everyone was standing. *click* “Son of a--- AHH!” the man’s frustration at his clip running empty was ended abruptly by a magnum bullet shattering his leg, dropping him to the floor. Two of the survivors, both equipped with rifles, had managed to get their weapons up and were firing now as well. But bolt-action rifles were only suitable for long-range sniping in modern warfare, and in the dark, chaotic conditions, none of their rounds struck home. There was a dark flash of shadow across their vision, followed by one being struck in the face by a thrown weapon; the automatic rifle that one of the mercs had been holding. The impact busted his nose and sent him reeling backward, causing the other to instinctively turn toward the movement of his comrade falling over. Unfortunately, that put him in a poor position to defend against the merc, who had closed the distance in the midst of the distraction, plunging some sort of wrist blades right up the poor man’s chin and through his brain. The merc with the wrist blades then turned to finish off the staggered soldier, the sound of steel ripping through fabric and flesh, and a sharp sting on his right arm, forced him to change targets. One of the other soldiers, the one female member of the squad, had drawn out a combat knife and slashed the merc across the bicep. His arm now hung limp, the wound having been deep enough to cut his tendons and make that arm useless. Even so, this merc was a silent one, and only a soft grunt escaped his lips as swung his wrist-blade at her. The woman jumped backward, but the swipe still landed a shallow laceration across part of her chest, eliciting a hiss of pain as she backed into the railing. Seeing that she had nowhere to go, the wrist-blade merc was about to move in and finish her off, when suddenly an arm wrapped around his throat from behind. The staggered soldier from earlier, fighting through the blood and tears caused by his busted face, had recovered enough to lunge forward and grab the wrist-blade mercenary from behind. This soldier was strong, that much the mercenary could tell, and if allowed, he would simply strangle him to death right there. He needed to be disposed of quickly. Pivoting his wrist blade, the mercenary performed a simple punching motion at the space behind himself, the sound of bone and flesh giving way to his vibroblade being all the confirmation he needed to have that he had succeeded. But only a split-second later did he realize the folly of that move. Even before he could pull the blade out of the skull of the soldier behind him, the soldier in front of him had struck, her blade slashing across the merc’s other exposed bicep. His other arm now had been rendered useless, and the pain and unexpected horror of the situation caused a slightly more audible reaction from the mercenary. “S-shit.” The soldier behind him slid to the floor lifelessly, his arm releasing the merc’s neck, but it was immediately replaced by the hand of the female soldier, who used her left to hold the mercenary in place, then used her right to thrust her combat knife into the mercenary’s gut. Not once. Not twice. Not even three times. The mercenary lost count of the number of times that knife pierced his abdomen in those few seconds, but each stab was a not-so-subtle reminder of how one little slip-up was the difference between life and death. At last, she relented, giving the dying man in front of her a shove-kick to the floor. That victory turned out to be short lived, however; as she turned to the right to find a magnum pistol leveled with her forehead. “My only regret is that I don’t have time to make you suffer for your insolence, bitch,” the fourth mercenary growled, the last standing Norkotian falling dead in the background behind him. “Guess we can’t always get what we want, can we?” the lady soldier replied in a defiant, though slightly shaky voice. “Hmph, indeed,” the mercenary’s scowl turned into a smirk, as he heard his burly comrade beating-down Zack somewhere in the opposite corner of the lift, “Buh-bye bitch!” *BANG* The lady soldier jumped, but quickly realized the flash and sound had come from her left, not from the gun barrel in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one last soldier, the man who’d been shot in the cheek at the start of the skirmish, holding a rifle that was pointed at the magnum-merc in front of her. “Uaghh... ahh… err…” the mercenary moaned, trying to fight through the burning sensation in his innards and pull back the trigger of his pistol. Instead, the woman jumped forward, forcing the pistol from the man’s limp grip, pushing him back, blasting him square in the face with his own weapon, then turning it toward the burly man who was laying the epic beatdown on Zack. *BANG* *clink* *BANG* *clink* *BANG* *clink* Each bullet struck the brute’s armor, ricocheting away uselessly. Even the magnum handgun could not penetrate it. “Damn it!” The armored van carrying Tynes, Krieger and Clive had been speeding its way through the southern industrial district, a region that had been passed-through by Norkotian forces earlier, but was largely empty now. The Southern Column, which contained some of the Norkotian experimental units, had largely proceeded directly to its objective; the lifts. In the smoldering shadows of the smoke billowing from the destroyed hydro plant, the industrial district was a prime place for the mercenaries to launch their ambush. However, because it was largely empty, it was the fastest way to the lifts for Tynes, which was why the van and its escorts had taken this route instead of staying in the center of town. The river could be spotted to their left, whenever there was a gap between buildings. For the sake of speed and to try and avoid attracting too much attention, the escorts assigned to the van were relatively minimal. An armored car, fast enough to match speed with most normal civilian vehicles, took up the point, while a jeep with a mounted machinegun followed behind the van. These were quickly shown to be adequate when the Tin Man’s mercenaries struck, however. The small column was moving fast enough that the armored car did not have time to react and was already past the intersection when the android struck. The men in the jeep, surprised by the sudden appearance of a humanoid assailant, at first turned their weapons toward the android, only to be cut down from the opposite side as the jeep entered the intersection and moved right into the line-of-fire of the gathered mercenaries. The armored car immediately began turning around, its turret-mounted .50 caliber machinegun being the most significant firepower the Norko column had available. But it had barely opened fire and cut down one mercenary before the entire vehicle was turned into an inferno by another merc with a portable rocket-launcher. The slight delay caused by that, along with the walk over to the damaged van, was enough time for a bunch of things to happen. First was Krieger coming to his senses once the vehicle stopped rolling. Despite the impact, the metal frame had protected those inside from being crushed, though they had all been thrown around considerably. Clive had struck his head and been knocked unconscious as a result of that, and Krieger had not the time to figure out if he was living or dead. Instead, he grabbed the dazed but conscious Joseph Tynes and hauled him toward the rear of the van. Luckily, one of the rear doors still responded, and he was able to force it open and pull the Executor with him. Meanwhile, the co-pilot of the van, his driver having been killed in the crash, was pushing open the door facing toward the ceiling and attempting to climb out. Krieger did not stop to help him, though he hissed a command to follow. The soldier gave a soft acknowledgement, managing to pull himself out of the vehicle and limp after his superiors. The voices of the enemy mercenaries could be heard as they came down the stairs into the factory, but amidst all the industrial noise, not much could be made out. At least, not until Skull cried out his taunt. Tynes, who had finally recovered from his initial stupor, clenched his fist in rage at the insinuation the mercenary was making. Even so, Krieger ushered Tynes and the soldier to follow him deeper into the facility, finding a spot behind cover and cloaked in shadows to try and come up with a plan. Tynes, tempted to just turn the corner and shoot skull in the face with his pistol, reluctantly followed the colonel. “We likely won’t have any radio reception at this level,” Krieger began, speaking quickly, “There are too many and they have enhanced soldiers, so fighting alone will be futile. However…” He handed Tynes his personal radio, in case Tynes’s was broken. “If you get to the roof, you may be able to signal reinforcements. It’s risky, so stay out of site up there, but it’s our only hope.” “What about you?” Tynes asked. “The guardsman and I will hold them here and keep them busy while you make for the roof. Don’t worry about us, sir. Worry about getting those reinforcements called-in,” Krieger responded. Tynes thought about insisting on staying with them to hold off the enemy, or having them all come with him, but he realized that the best chance for all of them to survive was for him to do as Krieger suggested. And while Krieger was a veteran, and the other soldier a member of the elite Executive Guard, Tynes himself was more activist and politician than soldier. Sure he had been trained in the basics, but he was far more a strategist than a fighter. This was not his arena. “Did you see the way to the upper levels?” he asked. “No, you’ll have to find that yourself,” Krieger shook his head, “Get moving. We’ll draw their attention.” With that, he nodded at the guardsman, and the both of them moved out from cover to start stalking the mercenaries. Tynes clipped Krieger’s radio to his belt, then put both his hands on his pistol. It was a unique moment for him now, alone in the dark against a small army of mercenaries hell-bent on killing him. He had always surrounded himself with the right people, fellow strategists and learned advisors, guards and associates. Even though there had already been two attempts on his life previously, he had never been alone. Now he was. There was a sudden explosion of weapon fire, as the guardsman’s SMG began spraying bullets at someone else, and return fire was sent back at him. It was time to move, and so Tynes moved. He crossed shadows cast by one machine to the next, the red-orange glow of facility creating a nightmarish landscape of black and grey shapes, illuminated by fire. The lights of the factory had been cut when the hydro plant was destroyed, and the workers had evacuated hours ago, but the automated machines continued to run, likely powered by on-site generators. The air was hot and thick, and was left to wonder if this whole place would not suffer a disaster if it were allowed to continue to run unsupervised. That moment of distracted thought was enough that he didn’t see the the shadows of movement, nor hear the footsteps just around the corner he was approaching. Both he and the mercenary surprised each-other, and in the hurried seconds that followed, dozens of bullets were thrown through the air to deflect aimlessly off of metal machinery, brick walls or concrete floors. Tynes heard his pistol click empty, prompting him to hurl it at the mercenary rather than attempt to reload. The mercenary was struck in the hand, causing his aim to fail (again) for just a couple seconds, by which time the Executor had closed the distance and tackled the merc. Both grappled for the rifle in those few seconds, before the awkward angle of his arm caused the mercenary to accidentally pull down and hold the trigger, firing the rest of his clip uselessly into the ceiling. With his weapon useless, the merc promptly released it and threw a first into Tynes’s face, knocking him away. The mercenary then quickly stood up, as Tynes stumbled to do likewise. Luckily, the merc was a man who relied on strength alone, and had no hand-to-hand or martial art training, and so his next attempted attack was predictable. Tynes simply juked to the side, then landed an uppercut into the mercenary’s gut. The merc was a bit surprised by Tynes’s physical strength, but he quickly reciprocated. Several more back and forth blows were exchanged, some blocked, some dodged, some taken. Suddenly, the mercenary lunged forward, slamming Tynes’s back into a vat of molten steel, while at the same time he reached for Tynes’s throat with his hands. “Don’tcha worry about a thing, little man. I’ll put ya to sleep an’ ya’ll just never wake up!” he laughed, attempting to choke out the smaller man with his muscular hands. However, Tynes still had one more ace to play. With each of his hands, he grabbed the arms of the mercenary and tried to pull them away. At first, the mercenary just grinned at what seemed like a futile effort, but soon his grin turned to a frown as he felt his arms being pulled apart. “Tha’ hell!?” “You’re not…” Tynes coughed as his throat was freed, “The only ones… with enhancement…” If only the room had been a bit more silent, the mercenary might have heard the soft whirring in Tynes’s left arm, which was slowly and painfully forcing his own back. “Wait, you’re…” the mercenary’s eyes bulged in realization. Suddenly Tynes released one of the merc’s arms, balled up a fist, and sent it crashing across the man’s lower jaw. The merc gasped and spat out blood and broken teeth, stunned as Tynes used that moment of confusion to pivot himself behind the merc in a quick, though ungraceful motion. With his right arm pinning the merc’s left behind his back, Tynes grabbed the back of the merc’s head with his left hand. “Burn in hell, asshole.” With that he shoved the mercenary forward, plunging his face right into the molten steel, the man’s scream of shock being promptly smothered by a horrifying hiss of flesh meeting liquid fire. Tynes’s arm felt little pain, despite the proximity to the heat, for it was nothing more than a metallic prosthetic covered in rubbery faux-skin. The rubber itself began to melt off, but that didn’t stop Tynes from holding the man’s face down until his body stopped flailing and twitching. At last, the Executor stepped back and exhaled, his breathing heavy and ragged. Never in his life had he killed a man directly, until now. And he could not have done it if it weren’t for the last two people who tried to kill him; the two people who, for completely separate reasons, had caused enough damage to Tynes’s arms that his left had to be replaced completely with a prosthetic, and his right had to be surgically rebuilt. Those occurrences certainly had an effect on the man, but nothing was quite like being the killer yourself. He had taken his first step into a larger world. And, in releasing all that pent-up anger and frustration, after years of being misunderstood, lied-about, resisted at every turn, assaulted and even put in the hospital, and now having the integrity of his very nation threatened by some double-crossing foreigner, Tynes found that… he had actually enjoyed it. Even so, he took another couple steps away from the body, as it fell to the floor with only a charred remnant of its head remaining. It was both horrifying and empowering to know what he was capable of, and that left a conflicted feeling in Joseph Tynes’s soul. He didn’t set out to be a killer, that wasn’t his goal. If he had to have other people kill for him on occasion, in order to bring about a better future, then that was one thing. This… was something else. “Radio, right…” he said aloud, shaking himself back to reality. Checking to make sure the radios were still attached to his belt, he retraced his footsteps and found his dropped pistol, replaced the clip, and then went on again. He had to reach the roof, or more than just himself and Krieger would be doomed...

I think either of those sound good to me, I'll base the opportunities on how your character proceeds. I expect any secondary objective will become more difficult for her since security will start getting more suspicious by then, so be prepared for the possibility of needing to make a hasty/violent escape.

Makes sense, at least for the first part. Though I noted in my post that this particular building is not a production facility, but more of an administration and lab facility. I'm not smart enough in business practices to know for sure how I should do this, but it strikes me as wiser to keep a production facility, especially a chemical one, in a separate structure from its labs and corporate offices, for safety's sake. Perhaps a better alternative would be to sabotage and/or steal/destroy some sort of ongoing experiment? That or I can retcon there to be a production building on the same lot (since I don't think I specified there being one there), just as a separate structure from the main HQ.

Sorry if there doesn't seem to be much in the post, I realized as I was writing that I don't know what she's even after, so I can only describe things as far as the main lobby.

Luckily, Dave didn't question why Jeff was attempting to go inside to relieve himself; anyone assigned to door duty had realized that the indoor restrooms were far nicer than the portable toilets kept in the yard for easier access to the outdoor crew. As such, Delphinia entered the building without issue, finding herself in a fairly complete-looking lobby area. There were several hallways splitting off in various directions, along with four elevators across from the receptionist desks. There were also stairwells visible at the ends of some of the hallways. The room was well-lit and had the artificially inviting atmosphere you'd typically expect to find from businesses or banks. There were a couple of guards patrolling the main level, though they didn't seem to find "Jeff" out of place, nor did any of the regular civilian employees. The next level above featured a balcony that overlooked the lobby, and notably there was a guard posted up there as well, gazing down at the room below. It was otherwise difficult to tell what was on the second level, though it was probably more offices and hallways. A couple of people wished "Jeff" good morning as he proceeded along, which indicated that the man Delphinia was impersonating at least had the name recognition of a few different people at the company. There were numerous signs hung about that offered directions to various locations, and there was even a large and handy floor map on one of the walls. Next to it was a list of the different floors and what services were available on each. Most of the lower floors were offices for paper-pushers, including sales, finance, human resources and several other such departments. The higher levels appeared to be labs and experiment chambers. It didn't appear that there were currently any production facilities built into this building, but that would likely be kept in a separate structure for safety's sake anyway. Now that she had an idea where everything was, it was up to Delphinia to decide where she intended to go and what she intended to go after. She likely had a fifteen minute window at the most before Dave began to notice that Jeff wasn't coming back, at which point the disguise would likely become a problem because people would be looking for him.

@Phoebe My company does arms, armor and can do uniforms and tactical gear: Technically speaking though, I plan on retailing through Notmuch's org, so you could still make the deal to buy from him, and it could still technically be me on the manufacturing end.

Drat, I was about to point it out, then I realized there was a page 2 and I was beat by 35 minutes. BAH! FOILED AGAIN!

That post was a great read! Very entertaining lol I guess to contribute to the discussion again, I will highlight the lore of my pal @Zashiii Ever since the first time I shot RP'd with one of his characters, I've found them intriguing, for better and for worse. I remember seeing him in some of the early Legion threads, and I most distinctly remember how his folk were involved in the raid on Last Chance, then the very next time I saw them, Middy had suddenly switched sex, leaving me like "Eh???". I also seem to recall one of his characters showing up with a bunch of penguin minions in Ceyena while everyone else there was getting murdered by shadow beasts. Only Zashiii! There is plenty about Zashiii's lore that does confuse and/or annoy me, so it's not like this is a puff piece (he knows well enough that I consider his characters OP lol), but I do find the shared database consciousness of the BlackSpear cartel to be a neat and interesting concept in and of itself (it's just that the characters have too many other abilities on top of it). Also Zash might have the character with the most actual canon names/titles on Val. For that matter, Zash has been one of the most active players in general, at least in terms of thread involvement. He's been involved in so many major events, artifact hunts and misc canon threads, that just that level of involvement in canon roleplay on Val is worthy of recognition. In fact, you could say Zashiii and his characters have become a Valcure meme, and memes are a good thing! lol

Sorry if there wasn't enough detail; I was imagining door duty meant basically just having to stand guard at the door. I figure some days the guards might have shifting positions, like two to four hours standing guard, another two to four on patrol, etc. However for simplicity I was imagining "Jeff" got unlucky and had to do a full day of "standing guard" duty at the door instead. Unrelated, but your interpretation of Dave's attitude toward women is the exact opposite of what I initially had in mind. lol It's closer to what I was shooting for with Cody. Anyway, if you want to add more, you can, otherwise I will attempt to post when I am next able, work permitting.

It was indeed a bit of a surprise to the goons inside when Sera simply bashed the door down with her own body, ripping the metal door off its hinges and carrying it into the next room. However, they had been anticipating the possibility of an breach charge or even an explosive, so most were a distance away from said door. What this meant was that Sera did not immediately ram into anyone, instead charging right into a semi-circle of armed thugs. "Blast 'em!" someone barked. Sera's forward momentum sent her crashing into a couple of unfortunate goons who could not move quickly enough, but it had otherwise exposed her on the flanks and side to enemy fire. Bullets and plasma bolts were soon pelting down Sera, and every hit would at the least slow her down and knock her back, if not cause damage like it realistically would when striking human flesh. Shane hesitantly stepped through the door, finding most of the enforcers distracted by Sera's entry. This gave her the opportunity to start picking them off while they were not paying attention to her, but even that was temporary. There seemed to be a lot of goons in this particular room, and there were even a pair of auto-turrets mounted on the ceiling. A bolt singed Shane's arm, forcing her to duck back into the tunnel and out of the line-of-fire. Seeing as the duel between Khaki and the Melee Enforcer had turned into an unending succession of prequel memes... "You fool!" the enforcer shouted back, "I have been trained in your psychic arts by Count Dooku Count Kudu!"* As Khaki launched her attacks, her enemy began to retreat up the hill, but this was merely cover as he began to use a technologically-enhanced telekinetic ability (based on implants shipped in from overseas) to lift up nearby rocks and debris and hurl them at Khaki from behind and from the side. * - to avoid copyright infringement "You calling me a fucking monkey?" Mara growled at the AI, "Whatever, let's see what we got here." She seemingly had access to just about everything in the Da Villa's internal server, including a good and proper layout of the base, including where the main vault was located. "Perfect. Hey, robo-fairy, download that schematic or whatever into your... internal whatever. We'll use that to get to what we came for." She continued searching through the various things she'd been granted access to, finally coming across the thing she originally was looking to find. That being the camera feed and security controls for the basement room that Sera and Shane had just stumbled into. By now, Sera was already in the thick of it, and Shane was cowering behind cover again. "Why don't I just play nice and give you girls a little gift..." she located the power control for that section of the mansion and deactivated, "There." The lights immediately went-out in the basement, and the auto turrets shut down. The goons, none of which were prepared for fighting in the dark, were left in momentary confusion. Shane was too, but she wasn't actually able to do anything right now anyway, so the advantage belonged to Sera, at least in the sense that she wasn't being accurately blasted anymore. Satisfied, Mara backed out of that screen and was about to resume pilfering through the data, when a flash of movement across one of the hallway monitors caught her eye. When she looked up, there was nothing, but she was certain she had seen something. Her artificial eyes did not play tricks. Someone was here. In fact, she could tell they were already in the room with her. She lowered her right arm off the keyboard, to pick up her revolver, while the other remained in place to pretend like she was still typing. "Turn around," she heard an oddly young voice speak. She hesitated, then at once whirled around, her pistol primed and ready to fire. *FLASH*

I suppose you could, though the physical part of any of these is definitely the funnier one to me. Also, what's "no longer viable" about her body? Is she just a floating spark of consciousness now? lol

Whenever that first manifests IC, give me a buzz and a link; I absolutely wanna see it. lol

Lol. New character or are you applying this to an existing character? That does remind me, something I have not touched on is "reversion" conditions. Basically what causes the were-transformation to wear off. For stuff like "full moon", I think it's obvious that it just wears off after the full moon is gone. But other conditions, like the one Malintzin has there with the first name, require something else to prompt a reversion. Maybe it's just a set amount of time... or maybe it's someone saying their first name again... or maybe their first name backward... or saying their last name? Interested in people's take on that. Should every transformation condition also have a corresponding reversion condition, or should the reversion condition be left to the interpretation of the author of the affected character?

First and foremost, that gets a yes from me. I thought it was a good storyline and the ending was handled fine, imo. I think I would argue for more opportunities to interact with the setting and elements though, and if possible more reason to feel that they can be interacted with in different ways, if that makes sense. (For the record, I am absolutely terrible at that myself as a GM.)