Ferraphim1tp: Ooooo. Shut down! >:D
Bode: That was hardly fair, @Sarahphim probably just heard that line out of context, if she thought Errant actually wanted her it would have been very different.
Dominus: NAH. THAT WAS JUST REGULAR BRUTAL
Angel-IKA: It's so cute that Ferra is knitting that duck ^.^
Dominus: DUCK?
Locker: idk looks like a sweater
Angel-IKA: It's purple, grey and green! Those are duck colours!
Dominus: WHAT KIND OF WEIRD DUCKS ARE YOU LOOKING AT?
Bode: Wikipedia says ducks are bright yellow, or grey-brown, or sometimes white.
Angel-IKA: photo4848.jpg
Angel-IKA: See! Look! Ducks, from right outside my window!
Locker: i think u have weird rich ppl ducks


Ever heard of a chain rifle? They're nasty weapons - basically you get a long thin chain cord and run it through a magnetic accelerator. Bursts out into a huge shrapnel spray like a superheated blunderbuss. They're not particularly deadly weapons - slow rate of fire due to the chunky ammunition, short range, basically zero accuracy - and they're also super illegal because they're so indiscriminate they'll blow away anything in front of them. But they are cheap and they require no skill to use. Exactly the sort of thing you give to a civilian wearing a gas mask that's pumping them full of mental suppressant drugs.

It's pretty clear that the Crown&Slate guard post was blown away by half a dozen chain rifles at short range. It's still standing, reinforced plastiplate studded with still-warm metal shards, but everything inside is shattered, burned and shredded. There are no signs of the guards, living or dead. If they're unlucky they'll be wearing a mask and carrying a chain rifle of their own. Sabrem's stockpile of prisoner management technology means that her soldiers and her hostages are the same people.

Quote Originally Posted by Balmas View Post
"This is hell," he murmurs, and starts to scan the lab for... Something. Anything. Bombs, technology, friggin' ninjas, don't ask him. "You should take point, Errant. You and Ferra are our most durable combatants, so if something's gonna jump us, we want you to be the wall they hit."

[Assess the situation: 13. What here is the biggest threat? How could we best end this quickly?]
The biggest threat, as always, comes from within, Victor.

I mean, like, not from disharmony and poor teamwork. I mean in an evil robot usses sense. There's an open reality breach which is currently attuned to the evil dimension and the fact that you are here now means that evil you is also here, now, but in the other dimension because that is how this works. This is all probably very scientific and you are good at that because you are basically a scientist.

But, by the same token... if you stop then so does your double. He thinks like you do, after all. And you've got an edge that he doesn't have - Ferra's cosmic viewpoint showed her that she doesn't have a dimensional double anywhere in the cosmos. She alone can go up to that portal safely.

So the optimal plan is as you just said it: you and @Sarahphim hang back and hunt for Hsien remnants amidst the foliage, and send Errant and Ferra into the heart of the lab to close the portal.