Magic: The Resistance *Still Recruiting*

[ArlEammon]

The year is 2357, common era. The Month, January, the day, the 31st. It's 12:00 AM, just barely ending the last day of the first month of the year. It's time for a gathering. The various rebels and members of the resistance are meeting at an indisclosed location, called The Hub. A pocket dimension which is shielded from the outside world, and guarded by powerful wards and mages from around the world. It's nearly time to strike. In mere moments, the Resistance will finally unleash it's first assault. Despite being a lair of magic users, The Hub is still futuristic, and metallic, owing to the fact of the times we live in.

OOC: It's up to the non Resistance members where they need to be. Sympathizers may either be at The Hub or in their head quarters.

[Darkstorm]

Cold Aria thinks, as if empowering the chill that was spreading along her skin. Almost palpable. Almost true.

She takes a deep breath, and looks at it, waiting for it to materialize and become visible, but no. She knew the cold wasn't there. She knew the cold was inside her, was in the darkness that covered her. The shadows were a friend that she knew well. They were cold, taxing, demanding but they were there for her, always, for as long as she remembers.

A sad grin appears in her face as she starts to move again. She was a mage, and if others had flashy, elemental displays of it, she had access to the deep shadows, she had glimpses of the fabled shadow world and connection to the deep ley lines of power. The scholars called this kind of magic shadowmagic, but she knew it as a sense. Natural as breathing or walking. As she looked she could see the veil, and if she wanted, the veil parted and the shadows were there. As putty, ready to be formed into what she wanted - but it was taxing, it was hard to manipulate sometimes, but especially it was cold. As she used magic it started to creep into her body. She felt it. Numbing her. She was her but she was her shadow too. And her shadow was filled with blood an death.

A chill goes through her but she doesn't aknowledge it. She continues to move in the Hub covered in a coat made of shadows and using her natural stealth to disapear. She was there to look, she was there to learn and she was there to profit. She was a mercenary, and life as a mercenary was knowing how to find the best deals and how to chose the winning side. And if this so called resistance wanted to have a chance, they would need to spend a lot a money to get there. So she was there to grab an opportunity or to live to the next one.

But a thought kept bugging her along with her chilled skin. She stops, looks around and voices it to see how did it feel out loud "Have I entered the wolfs mouth?". As she looks at the people starting to appear and gather, she couldn't shake the feeling that the answer was "yes" and that at anytime, if things went for the worse, the wolf would start chewing...

[Aleph Null]

Well, there's certainly no shortage of people here. And they're all wearing shirts. Ugh. Well, hopefully freeing them from these evil overlords will get them to open up a bit...
The very handsome, very well-built, and very shirtless fairy boy with spiky crimson hair and insectile wings that will slap you in the face by accident if you don't pay attention is currently flitting back and forth anxiously, using the conveniently high ceiling to not bump into anybody whilst doing so. His shimmering skin is also starting to crackle with electricity, as the anticipation is tangible not just by his behavior but by the solid 3 or 4 volt electrical potential difference between his space and the ground that is more than likely messing up the hair of at least a few resistance fighters.
The individual resistance members would likely know little about this individual other than that he's responsible for the fact that the Resistance base has managed to run electricity and water and other power-based utilities completely off-grid from the rest of the world, which is certainly helpful when you're orchestrating a worldwide effort to upend the status quo. Looking at him he certainly does seem to have a virtually endless supply of energy in just his own body, so it's not unreasonable that he also could be a perpetual energy source for an underground organization.
"It's been so long already. What exactly are we even waiting for?" Leikirian asks nobody in particular, potentially hoping someone will fill him in. Whether they do or don't, he doesn't press the issue any farther as his attention turns to some of the light fixtures, his nimble fingers setting in place bulbs that have shifted and cleaning off gunk that might reduce efficiency as he darts around like a man-sized wasp on a significant dose of amphetamines and coffee. Afterwards he makes a brief quip of, "Whoops, forgot something!" and disappears with a faint crackling sound and a small flash before reappearing a few seconds later carrying a knife (or really a short sword) with a curved, jagged blade about 18 inches long and made of bluish-green metal. He looks quite proud of himself for remembering this, despite having originally forgotten.

[MaltholLoth]

Bernard looked about. With most of the magic users assembled at a highly secretive rendezvous, the headquarters seemed to be eerie with the atmosphere of those who were still present. There was a palpable sense of tension. Everyone knew there was something big happening, not all knew exactly what.

"I would never have imagined seeing this day even a few years back" he quietly said to himself.

Sitting back in a large armchair, he rapped his fingers on the end of the rest as it curved down.

[Batcathat]

Checking all systems...

All systems operational at 98.4 percent capacity. Margin of error 1.6 percent.

It was the thirty-fourth systems check Baraskar Et Vat had conducted in the last power cycle. Eight point five times the recommended frequency. To a casual observer, the non-stop movement of its tentacles might appear random but was actually a sped up interpretation of the Serpent Men swamp mages weather dance. Estimated effectiveness on their home world was thirty four point one percent. Estimated effectiveness in a weatherless pocket dimension was zero point zero percent.

As the unusually electrically charged person reappeared, Baraskar Et Vat spoke for the first time since the gathering began. "Do you know what they say about men with big knives?" It paused for two point five seconds. "That was humor."

Checking all systems...

[Drwily1987]

meanwhile, far away from the hub as the resistance plotted it's first attack little did they realize was that their assault was not the only one being plotted, between the city where the plutocrats reigned supreme and where the nomads roamed was a small domain of evil that also doubled as a trading post and a supervillain lair. overall a small humble domain of evil. The same could not be said of it's master, a being from the planet mars that shared a name with an infamous roman emperor that had reigned centuries ago.

"ophidio! what is the status of the superweapon!?" the martian known to his minions as emperor Nero barked in the mind of his second in command, a serpent man named ophidio, who knelt before the wicked emperor inside the latter's throne room.

"w-well my liege you're going to like this news, the weapon's actually been completed, all we need to do is test it out. our agents inside the resistance have revealed the base for their movement in some sort of pocket dimension. may i recommend testing the weapon on their base?" ophidio explained to nero.

"yes, we cannot have this so-called resistance ruin our plans for world domination, take me to the battlestar's hangar!" the emperor ordered his normally calm and collected but now terrified lackey as said lackey casted a spell to send the two of them to the aforementioned hangar, within sat a huge grey sphere the size of queens with landing gear adorning it's sides and enough ordnance to flatten the eastern seaboard even without it's piece de resistance, a powerful superlaser that was strong enough to punch a hole in reality at full power but in exchange would enter a lengthy cooldown state that would last for 18 hours at anything above 50% of it's power.

"master nero!" an elf woman runs up to the two, "i trust you are aware that the battlestar is complete?"

"yes, i am aware." the evil tyrant responds. "is the ship ready for launch?"

"yes, the boarding ramp is thataway, we only await your command." the elf woman points to the aforementioned ramp. which all three immediately head towards.

"hahahaha, this is perfect, i now possess the ultimate power in this star system. No one will be able to stand in my way," Nero gloats aloud as he boards his new battlestation, "NO ONE!!!" Nero declares before launching into evil laughter as he sits in his reserved chair on the bridge, and who could blame him? as far as he was concerned he had every base covered? even the battlestar's only weaknesses, the conveniently placed vents had a plan to prevent said weakness's exploitation, all his underlings that the evil emperor even slightly mistrusted had plans for the battlestar on their person, plans that they thought were accurate to the design of the station, whichever vent was the correct one depended on the plans. but only nero knew where the actual correct vent was, and that was knowledge he was not giving out anytime soon.

"Now, LAUNCH THE BATTLESTAR!!!" Nero commands as his underlings scramble to open up the hatch to the hangar

"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1 prepare for takeoff!!!" an automated voice says as the landing gear retracts into the station and the thrusters start blazing, lifting the battlestar into the air before it proceeded to fly forwards. leaving the trading post behind.

"good, i have you now resistance scum." nero smiled fiendishly "ophidio! what sort of defenses should we be expecting from these fools?"

"plenty of powerful mages who have set up powerful wards to block any potential attackers, without the superlaser we would have a difficult time quickly breaking down the wards, even with the superlaser i'm not sure how effective our attack would be." ophidio responded.

"We have enough ordnance to render the eastern seaboard lifeless, no amount of wards can be that strong, FIRE THE LASER!!!" Nero shouts over the intercom.

"Roger Roger." the android in charge of the superlaser responds. "prepare the superlaser for firing." said android announces in a monotone voice.

"Roger Roger," the androids assigned to the superlaser respond as they activate the superlaser. "how much power should we put into the laser?" an android asks the superlaser manager. who asks nero over a portable hologram device.

"put 100% full power into the laser." nero orders the android manager.

"but sir, that would put the superlaser into a cooldown state. We would not be able to use it again for 18 earth hours." the manager responds

"we have enough firepower to flatten the eastern seaboard, we would not be defenseless during that time. NOW FIRE!!!" Nero yells at the android before ending the communication.

"put the superlaser at 100%." the android manager orders the other androids who immediately scramble to activate the superlaser, anyone who saw the battlestar would see eight laser beams combine into one before the superlaser fired at the base. tearing a hole into the pocket dimension where the hub was and hitting the wards.

[ArlEammon]

Battlestar Fires
The interdimensional lasers fired on The Hub. At first the wards seemed to hold, somewhere in The New Mexico desert, nearby a nomadic settlement, the flash of light could be seen instantaneously afflicting various individual's eyes with minor discomfort. The weapon's fire could be strong enough to "Eradicate the Eastern Sea Board", if not for various safe guards taken by the governments such as gravitic shields. Still, even such safe guards could only hold back The Battlestar's canon fire for so long. The wards raised in the bunker entrance To The Hub, seeming to hold strong against the powerful weaponry. These wards, out right superior to such safe gaurds were still not enough.

Meanwhile, in The Hub, the lights seemed to flicker on and over for a few moments. Confused, some individuals at their computer panels experienced a strong jolt of power and were knocked off their chairs, dead, or more likely, some were instantly incinerated. Of the army in The Hub, one thousand men on duty were killed. The "Red Alert" function surged throughout The Hub.

[Darkstorm]

As if fate had been tempted, the metaphorical wolf closed his mouth, and things went sideways really fast. “Damn Aria. You had to do it, didn’t you?”

Seconds seemed to stretch into hours. As she heard the sirens, she instinctively deepened her connection to the shadows. If before she was grazing the surface, slightly touching the murky dark "waters", now she dived into the stream, against the veil. The veil of darkness became thinner, and the darkness came rushing in into her body.

If she felt cold before, now she felt the shadows creeping into the marrow of her bones, deep within her skin as the numbness augmented into a sense of time. Of time being frozen, and her body starting a never-ending battle with the mana. Harnessing it, containing it, like a dam. A constant mental struggle to just keep it. With her senses heightened by the dark mana she tries to spot what’s happening and like a sculptor starts shaping the mana into daggers, ready to be thrown if needed.

Each mage had a preferred form of doing the same spells. Some joked that you could ascertain the school and even the teacher of each mage by the shape of their “magic missile” and even by the hand gestures used. If the missiles from the order of Merlin was like a plasma shot, the templars was shaped like a fist, and Terra were arrows. It was all part of the creation of the projectile. Of the shaping, of the visualization. To Aria they were the familiar, comfortable shape of dark obsidian daggers.

[Aleph Null]

"Heehee, time for the light show."
Leikirian has a giddy, mischievous, and almost maniacal grin as he zips forward in a rather erratic pattern leaving purplish sparkles in a trail behind him (he doesn't have to do that, but he chooses to because he thinks it's pretty, and he will zap you if you tell him it's childish).
Mortals call it The Long Step, but to a Faerie the idea of being bound by such silly constraints as distance is more of a thought experiment, and Leikirian is likely the first Resistance-allied being to be outside to survey the damage and fight off any invaders...

[MaltholLoth]

Bernard continues to wait patiently. It is while he rises to find a book to read over to pass the time, when he notices a person shuffle quickly in turn to a few people. The look on their faces becomes strained, they move off while the first person moves on to another, skipping over some of the lesser people, before then leaving also. He wasn't sure what to make of this this, he took the book back to the chair and sat with it open on his lap though he only thought of what was happening with those people.

[Drwily1987]

After some time passes the superlaser eventually stops firing and enters it's cooldown state, Nero smiles fiendishly, confident that the superlaser's power has rendered the hub a smoking crater. This is not the case however as only 1000 out of hundreds of thousands have lost their lives,

"good, we have reduced the resistance to dust in the wind." Nero says as soon as the superlaser stops firing as if it was a fact. A fact that the scanners onboard were proving wrong, along with the fact that the hub was still standing.

"I-I-don't believe it! the superlaser should have wiped out the entire base even with all its defenses." the elf woman says in shock and disbelief

"clearly you're wrong you incompetent fool!" Nero says angered by this turn of events. "the defenses should have buckled under the superlasers immense power, yet we most likely barely did any damage! You!" Nero barks into a holocom device to an android commander. "begin landing your troops, i want the resistance wiped out in its entirety."

"As you command emperor Nero." the android commander says, this exchange goes on between Nero and all the droid commanders Who began preparing for battle. The android's numbered in the hundreds of thousands at least, even Nero had lost count of how many were on the Battlestar. dropships containing androids and strange spheres also began deploying began flying out of the Battlestar's various hangars, laser fire from the Battlestar began raining down on the hub and its defenses to cover the dropships and spheres along with the occasional missile, this was merely a prelude to the bombardment that Nero intended to finish off the hub with.

"Beware earth, your new emperor has arrived." Nero said with an evil smirk on his face as the first dropships began to land and deploy androids. the spheres began to have weird columns that split into three legs and cannons appear from under them as they deployed. The battle had begun.

[Batcathat]

Baraskar Et Vat increased its elevation from the ground by 32 centimeters while processing input from all sensors. "This is concerning", it concluded.

As with most artificial intelligences, it had consciously or unconsciously been designed to defer to the questionable judgement and initiative of biological beings. "Does anyone have a suggested course of action?", Baraskar Et Vat asked politely.

[ArlEammon]

The mechanical droids and other soldiers stormed the massive fortress. However, there were countless battle mages, well half a million, still inhabiting The Hub. A loss of a thousand of them isn't a big one. Droids were being taken apart with telekinesis, and blasts of undefined energy. Unfortunately for The Overlord, this was a battle he was going to lose badly. However, The Hub's plans to start off the war would be set back behind schedule. For every mage that was injured or killed in the battle, scores of the invaders would be taken out. Most if not practically all the mages doubled as warriors and they were no slouches with the energy weapons of the day. However, The Overlord still had the advantage of surprise, there was no telling what exactly the outcome of this assault would be.

[Darkstorm]

As one of the robots starts moving foward and is about to blast a group of mages, a dark glowing dagger embeds itself into its eye. An explosion follows. Out of thin air, almost, several blue and purple glowing daggers fly through the air crashing into the advancing robot legion. Each a perfect hit. After piercing and smashing the robotic metal, the magic energy daggers seemed to disapear into a wispy smoke, and then into nothingness.

Aria materializes as a shadow next to the AI and hears its question. She looks at it as she heavily breathes and just adds before disapearing into the shadows again, gathering magical energy "Kill the invaders first. If possible keep one "alive" for information gathering.".

[ArlEammon]

The Onslaught
The various droids and mechanoid monstrosities laid siege on The Hub. The fight would last for hours. In the mean time, however, the protagonists were busy fighting for their lives. However, it was still going well.

[Aleph Null]

"That's funny, I didn't hear anything about an emperor. I mean, I dunno why you'd wanna be the emperor of a little ball of dirt floating in space, but you're making people sad. And That's not okay."
Leikirian doesn't appear to notice that there is a large physical distance between him and the source of the announcement (and their megaphone or speaker), but also doesn't particularly seem to care so long as what he wishes to say gets said.
"Anyway, I'll teach you the real meaning of dominance. Eat lightning!"
He casts a cascading lightning bolt over a large swath of the invading droid army, before zipping forward to try and find the landing craft.

[Batcathat]

For 2.4 seconds, Baraskar Et Vat reviewed the spells it knew. 57 percent had no applicable use in combat. 19 percent were non-optimal against the current opponents. 7 percent would likely cause currently unacceptable levels of collateral damage.

Initiating analysis of optimal usage order for remaining options. Just as the process started, Baraskar's equivalent of what a human might call their "common sense" chimed in. Just because you're built for magic doesn't mean magic is automatically the best option, after all. Not just an artificial intelligence alchemist, but a artificial intelligence alchemist.

Adapting malware... Ready for transmit.

Using every frequency and method of transmission available, Baraskar sent out the newborn program to any hostile droids and other mechanical enemies within reach. If everything worked as intended, it was to adapt itself to whatever software controlled them, subvert it, put them under Baraskar's control and spread the code further.

[Drwily1987]

Nero was watching the battle, and much to his fury it was going badly for his army. a fury that he vented by ordering some missiles fired on the hub base where his army was having the most trouble. particularly at Leikirian. With some lasers fired on other parts of the hub. at that moment he received a call over the holo-comm from a droid general

"my apologies sire, it appears that some of our forces are being attacked by some sort of malware." the general stated.

"do the headaches ever cease?" Nero thought to himself. "what type of malware?"

"that, i am not certain of. It's most likely trying to reprogram our troops." the general stated.

"who would dare try such a thing?" Nero barked into the holo-comm

"we'll get to work on that." the droid general stated.

"you better." Nero warned the droid general.

"as you command." the droid general said before hanging up.

[Aleph Null]

Leikirian is fast. Very fast. One could even say lightning fast. Targeting him with a missile is rather futile, since even if the missile can track a target he can simply outrun the missile and detonate it at a distance with a lightning bolt. That said, multiple missiles exploding even at a decent distance would singe his (rather sparse) clothes, which doesn't achieve much other than make him angrier.

"You're paying for the repairs on my kilt, you jerk!"

The next lightning bolt will target the missile bays on the attacking battlestation, chaining from point to point — either leaping from projectiles on the battlefield or the bodies of combat droids until they reach the silos, which is unlikely to go over well for the invaders stationed there. As he does this, he will also channel gales of slicing winds and piercing hail upon the droids below to continue applying pressure on the enemy.

[ArlEammon]

((Sorry, anyone else?))

[Darkstorm]

Aria looks around the battlefield trying to locate the leader or intermediary leadership so she could disrupt the flow of command and gain mommentum for the counterattack.

"There you are" she says as she spots one bulkier larger robot, standing in the back of the action.

She gathers energy in her hand and slams it into space, into the shadow realm, piercing the veil and making it wiggle as if it was made of murky water for an instant. From it she pulls a thin line. A darkness that was more dark than black. Almost a hole in the fabric of reality.

Carefully she shapes shadows around that thread, slowly making it into a small thin spike. She throws it at the commander robot, and as it strikes, the darkness within explodes into nothingness, trespassing reality. A small piece of reality removed into the shadow realm.

[ArlEammon]

The Battle At The Hub
Casualties on the defender's side were light, but serious. Four thousand men and women mages all fell at this one momentous battle. However, the entire invading force was eradicated. The mages had to put their plans on hold. Some defenders were chosen as assassins, and some were now injured or worse. Other defenders were meant to remain behind, and work the machinery of The Hub, some of these were also casualties. Meanwhile, an angry magician behind stroking his beard. This magician would go to the Battlestar and make things right. The shield was easily raised again after the Battlestar's canon partially destroyed it's power generators. "System back up engaged."

The protagonists were assembled for a meeting. "We're going to the Battlestar." One individual, wearing futuristic tight fitting body armor stated. It was one of the higher commanders. Commander Darren.

[Drwily1987]

On the Battlestar meanwhile, Nero was fuming with absolute rage on his face, these fools had destroyed his entire army? That would not do, he'd make the resistance suffer his wrath for destroying his entire army. His minions were all in various states of terror and fear for their lives,

"Bombard them with everything we've got!" Nero shouted in his rage, "I want no prisoners. Wipe them all out! Let them be an example of what happens when you cross i! Emperor Nero!!!!" The martian despot shouted while making a cow milking gesture. "Ophidio! broadcast the go code to our agents within the base. Tell them to make sure to cause as much havoc as possible!"

"Q-quite my liege." ophidio stated with fear evident in his base as he went to go do so.

[Aleph Null]

Leikirian's skin is literally sparking with electricity at this point. He issues a forceful but genuine apology to an individual standing near him as a spark snaps from his foot to the fellow's left arm, giving the poor sap a bit of a shock.
"I'll go with you. That big metal golf ball is way too ugly. I can't wait to blast it to bits!"
From the fact that his wings are twitching (while faeries don't actually use their wings to fly, it makes talking with humans easier if they at least pretend to be subject to the same laws of physics) and the gestures of his hands he is clearly being serious.

[Darkstorm]

Aria nods to Commander Darren's words and adds in an eerie voice "They will pay."

Looking around at the ragtag band and the subsided rage fuming into reality.

"Do we know who the leader is and where he is at?" she asks.
A flash of darkness crosses her eyes as she imagines it dying.

[ArlEammon]

(Anyone else again? I'll tag you all)

[Batcathat]

As the code spread to new droids and already subverted ones were killed by their former allies, Baraskar Et Vat's consciousness was spread across an ever changing number of bodies. It was like being a puppeteer not only controlling dozens of puppets at a time, but also fighting against the puppets using the strings to control their master. Taxing, to say the least.

Risk of fragmenting personality matrix at 118 percent the recommended safety level. Which is to say, the puppets might be pulling the puppeteer apart entirely.

Baraskar attempted to gather it's thoughts enough for a spell or at least to modify the malware code, but experiencing the battle through 104 – no, 109. 106. 116. – sets of distinct sensor arrays at once made concentration difficult.

"Pardon my language", Baraskar said, echoed through every speech capable unit under its temporary control. "But could everyone please shut up for a moment? I. Need. To. Think."

[ArlEammon]

The Battlestar
"We're going to have to unleash our secret weapon early."
"Our anger!" The protagonists teleported to the Battlestar, and now, with scores of others ready to eradicate the Battlestar. Darren began conjured his soul sword, ready to destroy anyone who got in his way.

[Aleph Null]

Leikirian doesn't particularly wait for any directions and will instead zip and dart about causing as much destruction as he can. He doesn't particularly pay any regard to safety — he is virtually immortal in this plane, and he sort of just assumes everyone else also has sufficient reality-altering BS to survive if this thing goes boom with them still inside — and will focus on taking out critical components such as power generators (damaging and/or destroying them with surges of electricity opposite the polarity of the generator's electrodes), control circuitry (which is easily fried by a sufficiently high voltage), and structural elements (which can be melted by high-temperature arcs and then destroyed by battering gales and objects hurled by gusts). As he moves he's also searching for the command structure...whatever that may be.

[Drwily1987]

To say that Nero was not pleased by the arrival of the Resistance was an understatement, the moment that the alarms had started blaring the evil emperor had ordered his robot minions on the attack and the all security measures deployed to make sure that the resistance was annihilated once and for all, he could not let this ragtag group of morons destroy his most powerful weapon here and now!