The Ruins

[blackout]

The western half of town lies in ruins, after the war. BR vehicles are cleaning up leftover bits and pieces from wrecked vehicles on both sides, as well as cleaning up the rubble from buildings. The Noddies have apparently cleared the area, with no sign of a base. Things appear to be very peaceful for once.

[Shabal]

((...
But can we trust it? :smalleek:))

[blackout]

((:smalltongue: Hey, one way to find out.))

[Shabal]

Faihrk, still in the general area of the warzone/ruins, begins wandering around them, helping the BR troops whenever he can, and mending parts of buildings.

[metakirb]

Tral sits on the wreckage of a building, watching it all, firing high pressure blasts at large chunks of rubble to clear them

[blackout]

"Ok, warm up the winch, Jimmy."

A technician gives a soldier the thumbs up and hits a button on his vehicle's control panel.

A large piece of rubble is dragged out of the way.

:smallconfused: Man. This place is a MESS.

[fatninjacow]

((are the space marine's still here?))

[blackout]

((Yes. :smallannoyed: ))

[Nightwing]

*A robot that looks like Samson walks up to the ruble*

Anarchy! Anarchy! Anarchy!

*It starts lighting the ruble, and the SM, on fire. Then it fly off*

[blackout]

Only it doesn't.

((:smallannoyed: ))

[Nightwing]

((Its the anarchist Robot. Barracuda built it to cause trouble in the town))

[metakirb]

Tral Jumps down and heads over to the earlier mentioned technician

[Kriken] need any help?

((oh, i'd be careful nightwing, Tral is the greatest of the elite kriken snipers, he NEVER misses a shot...))

[blackout]

Technician: :smallsmile: Nah, we got this area under control. Thanks, though.

A few more technicians are building what looks like a stage and a podium.

[metakirb]

[kriken] you understand our language?

[blackout]

Technician: Translator helmets. :smallsmile: Well, I gotta get back to work.

[metakirb]

[kriken] hmm...

He heads off, blasting more rubble as he passes it

[Shabal]

As Faihrk passes, he looks up at the stage and podium with curiosity. "Now, what's that?..."

[blackout]

Nukular walks over to the technicians at the stage.

:smallconfused: Stage ready yet?

Technician: Almost, sir.

Good. :smallamused:

[Metis]

Mortessa comes into the ruined area and begins looking around, seeking a place where there are fewer to no people but just as much sign of wreckage.

[blackout]

Sadly, the entire area is apparently covered in BR cleanup crews.

[Emperor Ing]

The cloaked man steps out of a building. He ignores everything, and just plain walks away.

[Metis]

Mortessa frowns and thinks about it.
Well, there was one place they couldn't go... otherwise they wouldn't BE here.
She turns incorporeal and slips down into the rubble and begins searching for bodies, or possible trapped and still living people.

[Shabal]

Faihrk turns to one of the technicians as he levitates rubble and tosses it out of the area. "What's that stage, over there?"

[blackout]

There are plenty of dead bodies. Mostly BR and IG soldiers, and the occasional alien. Most civilians were hit by Disintegrators.

The technicians finish the stage, and Nukular steps up onto it.

Technician: Oh, we're about to get a speech. :smallannoyed: Jerk.

[metakirb]

Tral leaps his way back onto a building and watches

[Metis]

Mortessa thinks about it, then begins teleporting any loose and mostly incomplete pieces of people, along with the aliens, to a special area she had prepared a while back.
That'll be the stuff people won't miss. A resurrect spell will take care of it, after all. As for the aliens... who cares? They were the enemies.

[Shabal]

Fairhk sighs and collapses onto a rather large piece of debris, watching the stage.

[blackout]

Nukular activates the microphones, and soldiers line up in front of the stage.

Today, we have fought against another great threat to the Town, and TRIUMPHED! The stage shows the wreckage of a Scrin Tripod behind Nukular, on a large screen. As of today, the Scrin invasion has been put to an end, and a new era has begun! We are strong! We are invincible! We are the future of the Town's survival! We will continue to uphold the ideals that we have shown in the Scrin war! For the Town!

Soldiers: *chant something quietly, it's kind of hard to tell what their saying*

FOR THE TOWN!

The soldiers chant 'For the Town' over and over.

I could get used to this. :smallamused:

[Shabal]

Faihrk laughs quietly to himself at the part about the 'new era' and resumes picking the debris up.

[Metis]

Mortessa tilts a head and listens, then shakes her head and laughs silently. Though tempted, she refrains from making a horde of undead on the spot and sending them out to show just how invincible they were.
There were plenty of dead here... invincible indeed.
She continues with her work.

[metakirb]

Tral Contemplates firing at nukular, then decides against it

[blackout]

:smallannoyed: Now, BACK TO WORK!

The soldiers mutter and go back to work.

[Metis]

Mortessa continues her slow work of gathering up corpses and pieces of them.

[LordVader]

Mortessa's lucky she didn't try to create a horde of undead, as she would have died on the spot, along with her undead.
Several stormtroopers picking up body parts notice some of them randomly disappearing.
"What the hell?"
"HQ, we got us someone invisible here!"
Copy, sending backup.
The stormtroopers activate their speakers.
"Whoever you are. You can have the aliens. But leave our soldiers alone."
Several squads are running towards them, along with a psyker. They appear to be holding some kind of box.
The troopers raise their guns.

[Shabal]

As the clean-up commences, there are a few crow calls from the edge of Town, that seem to be getting louder. Nothing unusual, nothing that noticeable.
Faihrk shakes his head. "Right on time..."

[Metis]

((Ah... well she won't be stupid enough to have been picking up body parts right in front of people. She was within the rubble, incorporeal, teleporting bodies that people couldn't see.
And only body parts of soldiers/civilians, mind you, not whole ones. But I'll say they saw an arm sticking out of something vanish.))

Mortessa beats a hasty retreat, literally moving through the rubble as she hopefully gets out of range of anything they're doing.

[LordVader]

Two squads go to investigate the calls. There have never been crows in Town before.:smalltongue:
((There's nowhere she can go where there won't be people. The whole place is crawling with soldiers, and any collapsed buildings and suchlike are already being searched for bodies.))
They open fire at the disturbed rubble. Probably missing, since they can't see her.

[Shabal]

The two soldiers find the crow calls coming from an abandoned building, but that doesn't seem to be the main source of them. There are other screeches, higher in the air, coming from the south side of Town.

[Metis]

((...errr... so the guard have burrowed into the midst of the very solid rubble that they are trying to remove? That is what incorporeal means, you know. She doesn't have a body. She's moving through places they can't go unless they pick up the massive pieces of rubble in their way.))

The shots ping off the rubble and around her, missing since she is literally in the ground. Even if they 'hit' they'd probably miss, since she lacks a body... but she doesn't feel like risking it, or getting seen.
She attempts to wait it out.

[LordVader]

The two squads split up. One enters the building, weapons raised, on alert. The other squad heads towards the south side.
Commander, we have crow calls coming from areas around Town. Bit unusual, since there's never been any crows here before. They could be signals for the Noddites. We're investigating.
Very good. The Emperor Protects.
((They have machines lifting the rubble. Any large areas of rubble that could have buried soldiers will be searched for survivors. They'll notice if bodies start disappearing.))
Actually, they don't start shooting, since Mortessa is incorporeal.
((Sorry, forgot.:smallredface:))
They remain there, wary for any more body-snatching. The reinforcements arrive as well.

[blackout]

:smallconfused: This is getting...odd. I want two battalions of infantry sent to the southern edge of town, keep an eye out.

[Shabal]

The inside of the building is literally covered in crows. Hundreds of them. perched on the walls, on furniture, crawling over each other. At the sign of light from the door, they all start shrieking and fly for the door.
Meanwhile, on the south side of Town, the soldiers can see a black cloud moving across the sky. It's definitely smaller than most clouds, it seems to be made up of moving bodies...

[LordVader]

"Send three companies of the 111th as well."
((That's the name of my 40k Guard army.:P))
The 111th Valenian dispatches three mechanized Stormtrooper companies along with the battalions.
"Could be Noddite signals. Be on alert."

[Metis]

((Right, but she is going down and staying one step ahead of them. Suffice to say, they might catch a very small glimpse, and I let that happen to explain their sighting, but she is being extra cautious. She won't remove a body that is in an open area. She is looking for places that haven't been uncovered yet and are below the surface.
Sure there are cranes and machines everywhere, but they can't have done all the work already, right?))

Mortessa starts going deeper and searching for the very trapped and secluded underground areas that the machines haven't reached.

[blackout]

The battalions decide to set up some light gun emplacements and bunkers, thinking it might be a major Nod attack. Men armed with rocket launchers and rifles take cover in the bunkers, and seem nervous. They don't know what's coming, but whatever it is, it's coming, and it's bad.

[LordVader]

The men flick on the box. An Antimagic Field appears and radiates out in a 50-ft sphere.
There is probably one or two really deep areas, but that's it. And they won't have many bodies.
((There isn't going to be a lot of deeply buried places, it wasn't that kind of battle. There'll be a few, though.))
The stormtroopers pull up, and jump out. They look amused by the nervousness in the BR soldiers. They take cover as well, though. They're brave, not stupid.

[metakirb]

Tral watches this, laughing slightly, then mumbling about typical humans

[blackout]

Soldier: *turns to one Imperial stormtrooper* ....So, you guys get dental, right? :smallconfused:

[Shabal]

The huge cloud of crows lowers to right over the Town, and the crows from the building swoop up out the door and join them. Some of them fly higher, splitting up and navigating above the Town's streets, while some fly lower, through the alleys and pathways, right above the ground.
None of them seem particularly interested in the soldiers.

[metakirb]

Tral aims his elite imperialist sniper at one of the crows and fires, the laser shooots out at incredible speed

[LordVader]

((Shabal, just for the record, our fleet would have seen the army coming.:smalltongue:))
"Hell yes we do!"
Dozens of Hydra SP-AA guns begin firing into the crows.

[Metis]

((Ah, okay. Well, she'll do minor picking then.))

Mortessa curses silently as the incorporeality spell is suppressed, but she has a hiding spot at the moment, so she stays put.

[PirateMonk]

((http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWgssRWMD6o&mode=related&search=
Crows.))

[Shabal]

((The army is still twenty or so miles away.
This is a scouting force.))
Tral's laser blows the crow to pieces. It plunges towards the ground and lands in a mass of feather.
Scores of crows are taken down, and land amongst the soldiers. The crows still don't take much notice of the soldiers, except to avoid them.
They quickly move throughout the Town.
((Yeah...crows. :smalltongue:))

[blackout]

Soldier: :smallannoyed: You lucky bastards.

((For the scouting thing, you'll want to use the streets. The Ruins are now part of the streets, I just wanted to do the speech. :smalltongue: ))

[LordVader]

Lightning fighters will launch missiles that will detonate in the middle of the crows. All of the Hydra AA batteries are now firing at them as well.
((That's what Raneus figured, that they're scouts. But he thinks they're Nod scouts.))
The soldiers open fire at the crows as well. Thousands of lasgun shots fly up at them. Any that land wounded will be dispatched. Usually via curbstomp.:smalltongue:
The Antimagic Field Squad Leader requests a scanning crew. There will be one there in five minutes. If Mortessa can get fifty feet away from the box, she'll turn incorporeal again.
((She's "underground", right?))

[Metis]

((Yeah. Kinda stuck under some rubble.))
Mortessa is extremely close to the 50ft border of antimagic, but can't quite manage to get away.
There is one possible exit... but it leads closer to the team.
She frowns and considers her options.

[Shabal]

Entire groups of crows are utterly blown to smithereens, landing on the ground and being quickly stomped to death. The lasguns blow apart many of them, but several have already made it out of the ruins to the Streets.
Let me just remind you, there's thousands of crows. Like, in a cloud. Almost blotting out the sun and flying really low. It may be a tad disturbing to most people.

[blackout]

The BR soldiers fire their rockets and rifles into the air, aiming at the crows.

"These are some freakin' smart animals! :smalleek: Their everywhere!"

"Relax, Bill, their just crows! :smallamused: "

[LordVader]

Let me remind you there are tens of thousands of Guardsmen, and even more BR soldiers.:smalltongue:
The Guard soldiers aren't freaked. They've seen worse, much worse. It's a little annoying, though.

[Shabal]

The crows suddenly dive for the soldiers, hissing. They try to slash at them with their talons and wings, then fly off.
The rockets and rifles thoroughly decimate many of the crows.

[Metis]

Well, Mortessa decides, the best way out is to blend in.
As much as she hated doing it... better than getting caught. She'd be fine in a few hours anyways.
She gets out her knife.

[blackout]

":smalleek: I take it back, Bill, I take it back!"

"Holy crap! :smalleek: The Noddies must have some damn good animal trainers!"

The soldiers keep firing their weapons at the crows, trying to avoid the crows.

[LordVader]

The soldiers laugh, and their armor protects them from the crows. Most of them. The guardsmen will get a few scratches. Stormtroopers will be fine, though.
"What the hell? Gerroff!"
Many soldiers pull out meltas or flamers as the crows close. The meltas will utterly disintegrate any crows caught in its short-range AoE blast. As for the flamers...roasted crow, anyone?:smalltongue:

[Shabal]

The crow threat, while bizarre, isn't really intimidating. However, most of the crows have accomplished what little they set out to do, and they try to soar off.
The meltas and flamers do exactly what their names imply.
Most of the crows are either driven off, or shot down.

[metakirb]

Tral makes a small motion with his arm, and the imperialist sniper becomes an imperialist sniper minigun, firing at the rate of minigun but wih enough accuracy to be used for sniping, and fires at the crows, setting it to spread so he hits more

[Metis]

Before taking the most drastic step to get out, Mortessa again attempts to scoot away, then gets an idea.
She peeks out, looking at the black box while keeping well hidden.

((how big/heavy is it?))

[Shabal]

The crows are all driven off by the remainder of Tral's shots.
As quickly as it began, the crow attack ends. Crows flying away at high speeds are visible in the distance.

[blackout]

"The Noddies have some damn good animal trainers. Follow those crows, they'll lead us to the Noddie base! :smallsmile: "

[LordVader]

Lightning fighters pursuing them at even higher speeds flash by, raking them with heavy bolters and missiles.
((It's about the size of a shoebox, and made out of metal. There's 22 troopers there, plus a psyker, who acts as a spellcaster.))
ALL UNITS, HOLD POSITIONS! DO NOT PURSUE! IT COULD BE A TRAP!
The Lightnings fire a final few missiles and break off. A small group of high-flying, fast-moving scout planes are sent in the direction of the crows.

[Shabal]

The crow legions are blown apart by the missiles. About a hundred of them dive straight towards the ground, losing their updraft.

[Metis]

Mortessa frowns. Too many people... and the box was probably too heavy anyways.
She gives the rubble next to her a hefty shove, and it budges slightly, almost out of the way... a little more and she'd be out of range. She grins, glad at her extra effort.

((bbs, deadtime/lunch))

[LordVader]

((Alright. They wouldn't notice the rubble shifting, correct? Also, she doesn't know what the field's extent is!:smalltongue:))

[blackout]

"Scouts, what kinda Noddie camp are we lookin' at?"

[Metis]

((Knowledge Arcana and Spellcraft for the win! She can determine the exact effects of something like this since it is in place and she knows where it comes from, since she has so many ranks.
They may notice the rubble move.

And now I'm really gone.))

[LordVader]

ALL GROUND UNITS PULL BACK TO THE MAIN FORCE! DO NOT FOLLOW THE CROWS! I REPEAT, DO NOT FOLLOW THE CROWS!

[blackout]

"Dammit." The BR soldiers pull back.

:smallannoyed: Raneus, I don't recall giving you authority to command my troops.

[LordVader]

"Yeah, well, when they're being idiots I'll tell them to do whatever I want. That could easily have been a trap, and they follow on foot instead of falling back and letting the scout planes take over!:smallannoyed: "

[blackout]

:smallconfused: They didn't follow. :smallannoyed: And, no, you don't.

((The soldiers were talking to the scout planes over the radio. Should've clarified.))

[Metis]

Mortessa gives another hard shove on the rubble and it is almost out of her way.

[LordVader]

"Nukular, don't tell me what to do. They were about to go chasing off after those crows."
Scout planes have found nothing yet, and those soldiers wouldn't have known they were sent out.:smalltongue:

[blackout]

:smallannoyed: My men may not be the best soldiers out there, but dammit, their smarter than that. You've got scout planes, right?

[LordVader]

Raneus plays back the transmission one of the Stormtroopers recorded.
"The Noddies have some damn good animal trainers. Follow those crows, they'll lead us to the Noddie base!"
"Yeah, I sent some planes out."

[blackout]

Well, have them follow the crows. My men aren't stupid enough to follow a horde of animals. They figure you guys would handle the 'follow the crows' part.

[Metis]

Mortessa manages to shove the rubble out of the way and get out of the antimagic zone, then teleports.

[LordVader]

*snort*
:smallamused: "Nukular, that's the lamest cover-up I've ever heard. But whatever."

[blackout]

:smallannoyed: You know, your only two Ion Cannon bursts from having your flagship destroyed.

[LordVader]

Raneus's face grows deadly serious.
"Don't threaten me, Nukular."
((Even the Ion Cannon's not that strong.))

[blackout]

((This is not the C&C 3 Ion Cannon, this is my homemade one. It's the main gun on the Baseship for a reason. :smalltongue: ))

:smallannoyed: Just reminding you of what you'll have to deal with if you attempt to command my men again. You lead your men, I lead mine, we stay allies, I pay for drinks at Trog's. That's our arrangement, I'd like to keep it that way.

[LordVader]

"So basically, you'd rather have them walk into a trap then have me tell them to avoid it? Fine by me.:smallannoyed: I know if my men were going to do something fool like that, I'd want you to tell them to stop if you were there."

[blackout]

I already told ya, their not THAT stupid.

[LordVader]

He shrugs.
"Well, sorry, but it sure sounded like that. Let's go find that Marine guy and the guy who leads all these white-armored clowns, we need to discuss this."

[blackout]

Yeah. Y'know, I'm surprised, Raneus, I expected you to go all fanboy-ish when that Marine guy showed up. :smallamused:

[LordVader]

:smallconfused: "Why? Sure, I'm gonna show him respect, but I'm not going to kiss his ass all over the place!"

[blackout]

:smallannoyed: Mostly because Imperial Guard do exactly that sometimes. Sure, it's not all that common, but, y'know, I've seen it happen.

[LordVader]

Three squads of stormtroopers hustle, along with Raneus, towards the station.

[BRC]

SR enters the ruins and approaches Nukular
"Hi, I'm S/RC IV from the Town Times, mind if I ask you a few questions about a reported incident earlier today involving" SR checks his notebook "Crows?"

[blackout]

:smallconfused: Erm...Not at all. Well, I'm General Nukular, of the Town Defense Initiative. We thought that the crows were under the command of some kind of religious zealot/terrorist organization, known as the Brotherhood of Nod, but we don't know for certain if that is the case.

[LordVader]

Nukular. Trouble at the Station. They're using weapons you sold them.:smallannoyed:

[blackout]

:smallannoyed: Fine. Dispatching 368th battalion.

About 2000 well-equipped men march out towards the police station.

[BRC]

((blarg, forgot to post deadtime))
SR records the answer and leaves.