The Hunted (IC) (GM)

[Avenger Assembled]

Lor Interstellar Encyclopedia, Ed. LXCV

[Alphans]

Native to Tiernan XIII, the sole habitable planet in the Rigelian sector, the Alphans migrated throughout the Lor sectors of space during the fall of the First Republic some 5000 years ago. A matriarchal race, standing taller and broader than the humanoid average and possessing advanced technology, the Alphans ruled a pirate empire stretching across some two dozen star systems for centuries before the rise of the Second Republic broke the back of the Alphan raiding fleets and liberated many of their hunting-worlds from their would-be rulers. With their hearthworld garrisoned by the Lor and their colonies lost, many Alphans abandoned their ancient culture and traditions with the reverence for Fang-Mother and the divine glory of the hunting and killing of sentient life, together with a strict and rigorous code of honor, passing into historical memory even among the Alphans themselves. However, in recent years there has been something of a revival of [Fang-Mother] worship among both certain Alphans and humanoid settlers on their former homeworlds. Though [Neo-Fang Mother] worshippers proclaim the 'spiritual' nature of today's hunts, Lor messagespace is rife with scandalous allegations of renewed hunts directed against kidnapped non-Lor on certain isolated colony worlds in the Rigelian sector, despite vigorous denials of the same by local government officials...

...exo-historio-linguistic evidence for the Alphans having influenced many sentient races in localspace is quite high, particularly given recent archaeological evidence of ancient Alphan hunting activity stretching from the Kinigosi homeworld deep into the heart of Grue space...

[Avenger Assembled]

January 3, 2012

Mintaka II

Murdock's eyes snapped open as he felt the rush of atmosphere against his bare skin, taking in the scenery below him in a moment of raw confusion as he sussed out where he was and what had happened. He'd taken a double-shift at HAX, overtime in the local word, and collapsed into bed as soon as he'd returned home. He'd gone to sleep and woken up here, thousands of feet above an unfamiliar sub-tropical jungle, the blue and white stars in the sky instantly telling him he was nowhere near Earth-Prime, and probably nowhere near Earth at all. (That there were stars in the sky and not the red glow of the Terminus was a relief so welcome he forgot for a few moments about the incipient fall). He'd been brought here for a purpose by beings possessing a powerful technology; the feral surroundings below him suggesting he'd been brought to be used rather than interrogated for his knowledge of the Terminus. He hated being used.

A few moments later, Terminus armor exploded from his skin, shielding his body from the cold and rushing winds that had otherwise threatened to take his breath away, his armor's sensors reaching out to the jungle below and trying to get a better grasp of what he saw: a mountain range in the distance, a heavy jungle of massive trees like Earth's palm trees but twice as large, a purple-dyed river...he used his jets to slow his fall, but not to change his landing site, guessing that he was still under observation and the less intelligent, less resourceful his unknown enemies thought him to be, the better it would be when the time came to prove them wrong.

Looking up, Harrier saw three rifts in the purple sky; spatial vortexes or other anomalies, perhaps like the one that must have transported him from Earth to this planet. Standing all alone in the jungle of an alien world, the sounds of unknown animals in his ears, he tensed, his pike crackling to life in his hands as he looked up at the sky and waited. If that _was_ the enemy up there, they would find him not such an easy mark awake as he had been asleep.

[Fox]

One of the vortexes winked shut and for a moment there was silence...until something could be seen falling at a rather disturbing speed. Whatever it was didn't even try slowing down, speeding like a thin, silver missile toward the ground and tearing through trees and ground as it impacted with a resounding THOOMPH.

Wraith, a little dazed but largely unhurt as she flowed upright in her small crater and looked around, was sure - she was certain - that just a moment ago she'd been leaping from one building to the next. She hadn't been hunting criminals so much as she'd been stretching her legs...or, rather, pretty much her everything. Being stuck on school grounds made for boring--

She hunched down, body shifting into something low and sleek with clawed feet and a pair of wicked scythes on tentacles that extended from her back. Three black eyes narrowed to slits and the lower part of what currently served as her head pulled back inside itself, leaving a mouth filled to the brim with rows of razor-sharp teeth. Said teeth parted as she let out a rattling hiss that no creature in the world would mistake for anything but 'don't touch'.

[Ecalsneerg]

Jeni Frey was in a place called the 'Amazon rain forest', studying Earth lifeforms. So many of them, so deadly. It had been touch and go for a few days when some small legless creature had bitten her and poisoned her badly.

But now she had managed to sneak up on one of them, moving towards it slowly and cautiously, with an eye to acquiring a small DNA sample by touch in order to add its form to her repertoire. Carefully, ponderously, she took one slow soft footstep...

... and fell through the air, wind whipping her hither and thither as she plummeted towards the ground. Don'tthinknotimetojustchangeCHANGECHANGE

Her body began to shrink in upon itself, legs shrivelling away as her feet shrunk into talons, mouth and nose melding into a harsh beak as her arms expanded forth and sprouted feathers. The peregrine falcon swept down into the clearing, landing on a log and reverting back into a blond human-like form in a silver jumpsuit.

One looking in horror at the scene before her. A horrifying silver mass of fangs and eyes stood before her, squaring up as if to fight. Fight... oh no.

"<DESTROYER!>" she snarled in Kaironian, the simple elegant syllables twisted and spat out into harsh, distorted platitudes of hate. Almost immediately, her hair was sucked back into her head before promptly spilling out across her skin in patterns of black and orange and white. She fell forwards onto her hands as her limbs morphed into strong, powerful legs with great clawed paws.

The Siberian tiger arced its head and let loose a savage roar into the jungle.

[JackgarPrime]

His usual night patrol going as quietly as it often is (at this point, most petty criminals know that they'd be seen more often than not if they tried anything out at night if Victory's on patrol), Victory's sensors suddenly start to blare at him. The silver hero stops in his tracks mid-flight, trying to backpedal, his gauges showing the telltale signs of an unwanted warp signature. It is to no avail, though, as before he can get anywhere, he finds himself suddenly falling through the air, his jets having been cut out on him as a purple flash envelops his vision and clears out once again.

"Oh crap, not again!"

Having been caught mid-flight in unwilling teleportation once before, Victory was able to gather his senses at least a bit. He thinks fast, instinctively trying to cut in his jets. It only works so well, however, as his fall is simply slowed. That said, he was still descending very, very quickly, his attempts at changing direction hindered by some manner of unseen force. He was heading down, whether he wanted to or not.

He could only be sure to brace himself, the jets softening his landing as the AEGIS super-soldier lands with a heavy sound in the land below. He looks up after his landing, to find the sight of an Omegadrone facing off with two strange creatures. While others would immediately react with either fear or violence to the sight of a Drone, Victory's profile storage told him exactly what he was hoping. This was Harrier. As for the others....he wasn't too sure. From some last glimpses he had before their current forms, he could see they were some manner of shapeshifters. Which means they were intelligent. And hostile towards the Omegadrone, as most would be.

With so little information about where he is or why, he knew a fight starting would only make things worse. Quicky he blasts forward, finding that although his flight didn't work as well as he'd hoped, he was still extremely fast. Before the others could even see his movement, Victory was between them all, letting his jets flare in an attempt to get all eyes on him.

"STOP!"

[Ecalsneerg]

The Siberian tiger coiled up like a well-oiled spring, muscles rippling in places that most other animals didn't even have muscles. Lips curled back over dagger-like fangs, a deep growling sound coming from her throat.

"Stand aside," rumbled Scholar's voice from the animal's throat. "I've had enough of the Terminus's duplicity. I will not suffer letting one of those foul Drones continue to blight this universe." The tiger took one step forward. "Will. Not."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I am not responsible for our location," replied Harrier, his voice the flat echo of a man speaking through circuits never designed for human speech. An Omegadrone speaking any language was novelty enough that the others let him finish. "This is clearly not the Terminus," he added, tilting his faceless head towards the sun-filled sky, "nor am I familiar with any dimensional axes where those stars have replaced Earth's sun." There was still no trace of expression in his mechanical posture, and no sign of the face inside his armor.

He didn't argue with the attitude the two shapeshifters were displaying, it was an entirely reasonable response to the sight of an Omegadrone. His hands tightened automatically around his pike, the double-headed haft that had snapped into place at the sight of Wraith and Scholar shifted back to a singular point. He could feel the phenomenal light from the two suns on the horizon, casting vivid shadows and warming him through his armor. "It is good to see you again, Victory. I am Harrier," he added to the other two.

[Fox]

The silver alien's hostility and fear were replaced with confusion awfully quickly, the menace of her scythe-bearing tendrils ebbing somewhat as she tried to catch up with what was going on.

She took a moment to collect herself - rather literally, really, her body flowing upright into something more humanoid and less overtly threatening. "I am Wraith," she introduced in her humming voice, gesturing. "I...think that I believe you, but I do not know that I can trust you. I hope that you are not offended."

[Ecalsneerg]

The tiger flowed upwards and forwards, returning to the form of the blond woman in a silver jumpsuit. Her eyes remained that of a tiger, claws protruding from his fingertips. She fixed baleful eyes on the Omegadrone, voice harsh.

"I'm the Scholar, last survivor of the Chrononauts, one of the last of the Kaironian race. Your kin stormed my planet and slaughtered the populace. I retaliated by connecting the cores of the two suns and turning every single Omegadrone on the planet into soot and ash floating in the void." She grinned widely, showing semi-feline fangs. A hint of amusement entered her tone. "So, Harrier. Even if I do believe it is not you who kidnapped us, does that absolve you of your other crimes?"

[JackgarPrime]

Victory, already in between Harrier and the two individuals he is not familiar with, gives Harrier a nod at his greetings. "Same to you. But we'll have to catch up later." His voice was hushed and he spoke quickly, knowing it'll take more than just acknowledgement to calm this situation. He turns back to the other two, and raises his hand to them, trying to play peacemaker.

He notices that the silver one seemed more understanding, so he focused his efforts on this hostile "Scholar". "The Omegadrones have destroyed a great many worlds, to be sure. I do not know your familiarity with my world, but we had been invaded by the Terminus forces in the past, as well, and were only able to repel them after a great many sacrifices....including that of our world's greatest hero. But..."

Victory's hand flashed for a moment, and from his palm showed a hologram of the AEGIS logo, with his registration information beneath it, as his own personal badge. "...this particular one is of no threat to you." His badge flickers a bit, due to being out of his normal range, but his internal power source keeps it up. "Perhaps I should introduce myself. I am Victory, rank Major, special liaison, peacekeeper, and Enforcer of Metahuman Activity, of the American Elite Government Intervention Service. And this refugee is under my protection. If you would harm him, you'd have to deal with me first. And right now, we have far more immediate, pressing concerns. Like finding out where we are, why, and how to leave."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I am unfamiliar with your organization, or your civilization," said Harrier apologetically to Scholar. "I have been freed from the Voice of Omega for some years now, and have lived outside the Terminus for most of that time." He hesitated a moment, confronted with a question that was impossible to answer. "My kin are dead," he finally answered. "A long time dead. If you are familiar with the Terminus, then you are aware that no Omegadrone is capable of planning or organization, much less of the magnitude required to bring the four of us here across interstellar space. And no Annihilist would ever allow a freed drone to live."

After a moment's consideration, Harrier took another risk and turned away, instead assessing the jungle around them. He appreciated Victory's gesture, but part of him wanted to tell the other cyborg to back off. The other cyborg..."Are any of you familiar with this star system? Or with each other?"

[Ecalsneerg]

Scholar stood glaring for a few long seconds. "... Fine. You're right. We have to get out of here. I don't believe for a moment you're intentions are entirely innocent, and like I said already, it doesn't mean you necessarily brought us here."

She sighed deeply, and took a long breath. "Alright," she spat, claws melting away as her eyes returned to their "normal" vivid green. However, they were visibly more amber than they were a few moments ago.

She scanned the area quickly, eyes flickering left, right, up and down, and then back up to the sky. And then down to the jungle. "We're somewhere in the Mintaka system, not entirely sure what planet. This is a hothouse jungle, which means a few things, but the important ones are mainly about how much predators and how big they'll be. Brief summary... a lot of them, and big, and nasty." She took another brief glance around them. "This is an artificial clearing. Which probably explains why none of them have yet come to eat us, but that also means it's not an especially good sign that they haven't. There's definitely a someone, not a something, behind this."

[Fox]

Wraith mused, looking around...and kicking herself a bit for letting her guard down, however harmless it may have been. If there were predators around, it would be best to be on her guard, at least mentally.

"I am afraid that I am not familiar with that system," she admitted, and privately wished she'd paid more attention in those classes. "The area does not seem that bad, and should not be so hard to find our way through unless there are unknown hazards - hazards that are not predators, that is. However, it...might be best if we had a destination in mind?"

[JackgarPrime]

With everyone agreed on their common goal of survival, at least for the moment, Victory is able to concentrate more on their surroundings. While he's not exactly an expert on navigating this sort of environment, his enhanced senses would be a very valuable asset. And it seems that Scholar, despite her previously uncooperative attitude, was able to quickly provide some very useful information. Victory makes sure to record as much of it as he can, in order to add it to his database. It may prove useful someday when he gets off this planet. If he does.

"I agree, there's without question something very interested in having us here. As I was brought in, I was unable to move about as freely in the air as normal. Some manner of invisible barrier actually closed in on me and forced me down here." Victory was about to continue speaking, when he cuts himself off and raises his head up. He looks about, holding a finger up.

"Hold on...I hear something...."

Victory stands for a bit longer, intently listening to the signal he had stumbled on.

"It's a well-hidden signal, but I'm getting at least an approximation of its location..."

Victory points in the direction of a mountain range some ways off, his hand waving in a somewhat vague manner.

"That way. I think we have our destination. Or at least a start.. As for the signal, it sounds like some kind of...speech, perhaps? I'll try to see if I can patch it through. One of you might be more familiar with the language than I am."

[Avenger Assembled]

As soon as they were obliged with a translation, the Omegadrone said simply "We are being hunted." That was something Harrier understood instinctively, for all that most of his experience with being the hunted had been in the grim ghettos of Nihilor, not these lush jungles. "I suggest we head for the site of the transmission," he said immediately. "If they are affiliated with our captors, they will have the resources to get off this world." He turned suddenly, his pike screaming to terrible life in his hands, and fired a bolt of black smokeless flame that blasted a mighty tree in half: good, his weapons did still work. "And we will take them. Good." And with that, trusting that the others would see the wisdom of his actions, Harrier stomped off into the woods.

[Avenger Assembled]

As they all headed into the jungle, the exotic ecology of Mintaka II closed in around them. This was an alien jungle even for those familiar with exotic wildlife from other planets, the twin suns baking hot even through the dark leaves above, the sounds of Mintakan wildlife as thick as the steamy, oxygen-rich air all around them. They were all intruders here in one way or another, even hunters like Wraith, but it was perhaps the two cyborgs who were the most out of place in the jungle. Harrier's great weight meant it was almost impossible for him to walk quietly or quickly as his heavy metaled feet sank into the ground or broke branches beneath his feet.

As for Victory, he had it easier at first, but ultimately it was his exposed flesh that was his greatest weakness: as they walked, suddenly his feet broke through what had looked like a solid piece of earth: beneath him, suddenly a tremendous swarm of massive red and gold insects came boiling out of the ground beneath him, taking to the air with fantastic speed as they flooded over the other heroes, hissing and spitting angrily as they chewed at flesh and bone and even metal, their wriggling insectile bodies as large as a man's finger as they did their best to eat the heroes alive!

[JackgarPrime]

It isn't long before the group of heroes already starts to get overwhelmed by the swarm, trying in vain to swat them all away. Victory, being the one who first broke through, curses his tremendous weight while trying to have the group stay low-profile. It's very easy to set off traps like this when you weigh nearly half-a-ton. While his quick hands manage to get quite a few of the insects, trying to keep going like this would be in vain.

However, he gets an idea. As he's trying to swat the bugs away, deploying his metal mask to keep them from getting near what little exposed flesh he has, Victory feels some of the bugs trying to crawl into his vents. Unfortunately for them, that's just about the most dangerous place on any planet! Victory thinks fast, curling himself up, aiming all of his vents upward, before releasing a tremendous blast of heat from them, all right up into the air and more intense than a jet plane, and hopefully away from the others trying to survive.

[Avenger Assembled]

Victory's blast dealt with the bugs, blasting away at the swarm of needle bugs and sending it into retreat, but it gave the heroes a new problem: a burning forest fire, accelerated by the oxygen in the alien atmosphere, that soon became a lethal threat. They ran, or flew, as fast as they could to evade the blaze, sheer survival stealing the need for conversation as the alien jungle blurred by in their mad dash to escape the flames! Finally, when their flight was done, they stood on the other side of a fast-flowing river, where they could take stock of their injuries (some of them worse than others) and watch the fire burn across the river. Night was beginning to fall, Mintaka's day evidently proving shorter than Earth's.

Pensive, Harrier stared towards the mountains and the signal that offered them a chance off this planet. Assuming they weren't all attacked by the mysterious hunters, of which he was quite sure the bugs were not. "Do any of you require rest, or your injuries tended?" he inquired. "And can you function in darkness in these conditions?"

[Fox]

Wraith was still largely hunched up and quadrupedal from fleeing the blaze. She was still turned back to watch it burn, flames faintly reflected in everything but her solid black eyes.

"I do not sleep, and see well in darkness," the alien finally supplied, turning back to the others. She raised one clawed foreleg, critically inspecting the one bit of real damage the bugs had managed to surprise her with before being driven away. "My injuries are not serious. I will heal, though if we happen across some metal, I would appreciate the...I believe the word is 'snack'."

She paused for a moment before adding, "....while it is good to cover our tracks, it may be best to not heavily damage an ecosystem to do so, in the future, perhaps?"

[Ecalsneerg]

Scholar tore one of the bugs from where it had burrowed into her skin in the confusion. She held it up before her face, and concentrated upon it. Her eyes blurred momentarily, and then she crushed it in her hand and tossed it behind her as she gazed balefully into the fire.

It painfully reminded her of home. Only the Drone's questions drew her forth from her reverie. "No, I'm competent enough to heal myself," she snapped. "You know, without burning the jungle down around us." Her flesh began to run and warp around her injury, snapping back into place fresh, whole and unscarred.

"I won't need to sleep for a few more hours yet, I can sustain my faculties by rotating which trisect of my brain rests, and I've got some species I can take the night vision from." She eyed the other aliens warily. "Besides. I wouldn't sleep around you two." She nodded curtly at Victory and Harrier. "I said I'd help, not that I'd trust you. The odds of us surviving the night if we stop to rest are minimal anyway."

[JackgarPrime]

"I probably wouldn't be able to sleep here if I wanted. It gets...difficult with all the whirring if I have to keep the gear on. And I'm not about to remove it in a place like this."

After that huge exhaust, Victory's voice had a tinny value to it, which starts to very slowly normalize itself as he speaks. His jets, if any are behind him, are blowing red at the edges from the sudden blast of heat. He takes a few steps in the direction that they were planning to head, and a close eye would see the ground singe in his footprints.

"I think we should all be fine, vision-wise. I mainly see in terms of heat. Although...we don't know very well what's hiding in here."

The comments about burning the forest down and "ruining the ecosystem" don't get a rise out of Victory, but he does have to at least address the accusations.

"Something tells me this place may not be meant to be here in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if burning it down does more good than harm. But hopefully, none of this will come to something that drastic."

[Avenger Assembled]

The heroes plunged again into the darkened forest, ever-watchful now of the jungle and the dangers it posed to them. Unable to be as stealthy as the two shapeshifters, Harrier took the lead as beater for himself and the other cyborg, hacking away at the jungle with the energized edge of a power pike with a faint sizzle. Eventually the staring sun overhead slipped past the mountains, the true night settling in all around them. His nerves on a razor's edge, Harrier kept his ears open, the roar of the jungle around them masking any approaching threats. They could all see well enough in the darkness, but for all that he was acutely conscious of how vulnerable they all were.

After hours of silent trekking, they found signs they weren't the first to walk that way: across the flank of a nearby thick, heavy tree was a sheet of thick, heavy ash and fibers in a vaguely humanoid shape, one that Harrier had to only study for a moment before knowing what it looked like all too well. "Grue. Killed by energy weapons."

[Fox]

"Hmm." Wraith circled down the ash-stained trunk, growing a mane of little tendrils that wavered like they were tasting the air. She'd been using the trees to travel, more comfortable where she could be mobile and could ambush anyone who tried to ambush the cyborgs. "It is difficult to say how impressive that is. A single unarmed Grue drone would be poor prey - a metamorph would be a greater challenge, I suppose."

She turned her head up in a particularly spine-less way, still clinging upside-down to the side of the tree. "But it is useful information. Our hunters will be well-armed to do this much damage."

[Avenger Assembled]

"If they are hunters, this is too obvjous," said Harrier doubtfully, with no small experience of beings that hunted each other for sport. "This is some sort of..." And then, at Harrier's word, the sky suddenly turned dark as overhead a starship swarmed into life as its stealth systems disengaged, the massive silver saucer that had once been part of the Grue space fleet decades earlier showing the rust and scars of its decades of life on the second and third-hand space market.

In a staccato series of flashes, a half-dozen hunters appeared at ground-level, fearsome-looking, towering bipeds in heavy body armor: some clearly had humanoid lines beneath their black armor, others bulked too tall and had faces too wide to be built anything like a man. As they appeared, Victory's radio piped out to all of them: ""

[Fox]

Wraith wasn't terribly inclined to let these so-called hunters - beings she didn't consider worthy of even the washed-out alien translation of the word - get the drop on them. Starships and some kind of dimensional portals were advantage enough; everything else stopped here.

She was a silver blur, hugging the ground as she made a beeline toward one of the 'guides'; not five feet from him she leapt into the air, hands melting together into a single massive hammer that came down on the Alphan's head like...well. Like a huge metal hammer. "" she observed, in lightly accented Lor. ""

Having an enemy she could hit did wonders for her nerves, though she was still going to have to be careful around those suits....