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>>32399084
"No questions?" your temporary commander asks. "Okay, good. We'll be moving out once everyone's teams are ready."

You stand in the command room of Special Unit Zero, somewhere in the main Maverick Hunter tower, surrounded by a few dozen other hunters--all A-rank or higher--being divided into teams. Beside you is Emerald, standing on tiptoe to try to peer around a room heads and shoulders taller than he is.

"Want a boostie?" You offer helpfully.

"Aw, go fuck yourself," he grumbles.

"Hey now, best behavior," you warn. "We gotta make the 4th look good."

"Yeah, okay. Fuck yourself please?" Em corrects.

You snicker. "Better."

"Fourth?" you hear someone call to your left. "Fourth Overland?"

"Yo," you call, raising an arm. A figure begins to make his way over, the crowd clearing before him as he stands impressively tall and broad, shouldering through with surprising care. His front is crossed with two belts of what look like shells, flanked on either side by two tubes. Cabling runs down either of his arms into a shoulder-and-back mount for some heavy weapon or another, giving him a hunched, stocky appearance, crested with two horns over a pair of mild-looking blue eyes. All in all, you put him at around two feet and a few hundred pounds on you.

"Warhead Wisent," he greets. "SA, 15th Artillery. And it's a European bison," he adds as a goodnatured afterthought.

"Hah! Was gonna say," you reply. "I'm Anode, this is Emerald. Ranged defense and melee, respectively."

"Understood. I'm heavy ranged offense and team lead," Wisent explains.

"Gotcha. Where's our fourth man?" Em asks.

"Right behind me," he says as he turns to one side, revealing--

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>>32399146
Bug. Big compound eyes on an insectoid helmet startle you (and Em, who actually hops back a step, having been on the same eye level and closer besides). The helmeted figure--short, heavily armored--looks impassively from face to face for a long moment before letting out the most girlish possible giggle. The featureless helmet tilts back to reveal a cheerful looking woman, looking incredibly amused.

"Flares Firefly, A-rank," she says with a wink and a grin, standing straight to reveal a humanoid frame backed by two heavy, plated wings. "I'll be your fast attack."

"And yes, she loves doing that to people," Wisent adds, noting Em trying to recover his composure (and dignity) without much success.

"R-right," he coughs. "So, are we ready?"

Wisent nods. "I think so. Just a few more teams."

Sure enough, it's not long. Once again, Zero stands before the command chair and waits for the voices to fall.

"Seventh will be sitting this one out," he says calmly. "They might be useful on the approach, but the majority of the facility is built into and under a mountain. Plus, they took a beating on their last deployment." You wince at that. "Unfortunately, the layout also rules out long-range bombardment. No, this one is on us."

"How are we going in?" comes the voice of Web Spider, still sounding more bored than anything. "Last I heard, Recon hadn't set up pads."

"Too dangerous," Zero replies. "And we don't want to tip them off early."

"There's no way we could arrange a HALO drop this quickly. Chasers either--not for a force this size."

"Negative. We're flying in."

Someone you can't see balks. "But you said we don't have any air support," they protest.

Zero turns to regard the complaint, and breaks into another of those grins. "Here's the plan."

-----

AW SHIT
WE BACK

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>>32399188
"So, Anode," Em asks conversationally at your side, "Are you pleased he came up with something so close to your own strategy, or mad that he beat you to it?"

"I'm pretty go fuck yourself!" you call back over the drone of the engines and the howl of the wind. He cackles, hand in the grip over your heads.

"Facility in sight," warns your pilot over the Unit Zero frequency. "Expect turbulence."

Turbulence is a funny way to say "anti-air batteries homing in on your transport." Behind you, Flares flexes her wings just a little, and Wisent rolls his massive shoulders, careful not to bump anyone in the cramped plane. A low-altitude combat drop, parachutes and retros be damned, crashing down directly atop the enemy. Fortunately for you, you've done this before.

Of course, that time, your transport wasn't nosing down, aiming straight for the facility doors, shuddering as the first of the incoming plasma batteries begin to blast away at it. "I guess that's our cue," Wisent observes. "Anode first, then myself, Flares will take off and hang back behind the ship until she's under their azimuth, Emerald out last and lowest. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," someone beside you mutters. You just nod.

"Go on your mark, then," Wisent directs to you.

[ ] Try to drop on something expensive, lance-first. Like one of their AA guns.
[ ] Aim for the ground. Worry about getting down safely before you start wrecking shit.
[ ] Other?

>>32399227
[X] Try to drop on something expensive, lance-first. Like one of their AA guns.
No sense to waste energy, besides the point is hitting hard and fast.

>>32399227
[X] Aim for the ground. AA guns aren't going to be a problem for you by the time you're down, and any gun you might take out is just one of (probably) dozens.

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I STILL HAVEN'T CAUGHT UP WITH THIS QUEST, YOU FUCK. BUT HAVE AN ANODE ANYWAY.

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>>32399395

>>32399227
[ ] Try to drop on something expensive, lance-first. Like one of their AA guns.
lets make it a fun entrance.

>>32399395
You've had like two months, get your ass together.

That said, very nice. The smile in particular captures the Anode spirit.

[x] Try to drop on something expensive, lance-first. Like one of their AA guns.

Dragoon leap their shit.

[x] Lick India's soulgem.

Hi Hunter Command!

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>>32399587

Hot damn, and I just finished archive binging. Sup HC? Thanks for running such an awesome quest, the ride's been great.

>>32399227
>[X] Try to drop on something expensive, lance-first. Like one of their AA guns.
We need to make a reference while we do this. Major Kong?

>>32399705
You. I like you.

[X] Drop on something expensive. Lance first.
[X] WOO! WOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

>>32399227
>[ ] Try to drop on something expensive, lance-first. Like one of their AA guns.

TIME FOR SOME HIGHLANDER BURIAL

>>32399227
>[X] Try to drop on something expensive, lance-first. Like one of their AA guns.

We're usually reckless, plus if it explodes it might charge our coils a little more than just landing on the ground would.

>>32399227
[x] Try to drop on something expensive, lance-first. Like one of their AA guns.

Kain ain't got shit on us.

you motherfucker I was about to sleep

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>>32399560
>>32399443
>>32399277
>>32399705
>>32399789
>>32399859
>>32399997
>>32400025
"Hey Em," you ask--over comms, as the whipping wind is too loud to shout over as you lean out the door. "That GPS shit still work?"

"Yessir," he replies.

"Tell me when to jump to land on..." you spy a gun, slowly swiveling to face you, even as the barrel tilts up and aligns. "That thing."

"Two, one--"

Shit, you're going fast. You bug out just in time, and all at once, you're in freefall. You spin awkwardly, end over end, before you manage to stabilize yourself and draw your lance, taking a two-handed grip and angling yourself down at the massive gun, even as the charger assembly begins to draw power.

"Hey Em, do me another favor? Toss down a cowboy hat for me to wave around."

He snickers. "Dingus."

From this high up, you have a good few seconds to look around--a dark, craggy canyon, devoid of any plant life. Built into the walls are these firing positions, some of which are springing up from recessions designed to blend in with the cliff face. Smaller guns turn and track you, straining to scythe you out of the air as tracers of plasma sweep over your head. Fortunately, you're just too small for them to keep up with, and you fall with impunity towards a rather sudden stop.

You take the gun straight through the top, lance leading, all your weight and force behind it. Shielding flashes, sparks, and fails completely as you slam through the gun emplacement, driving your lance through the heart of the machine. Your capacitors jump up 40% from the impact, and you feel your legs protest even as you rip your lance free and leap back and away as the turret begins to shudder, half-charged plasma crackling as it loses cohesion before it all goes up in a chain of secondary explosions.

First blood: Anode.

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>>32400517
All around you, other hunters drop, some soaring along on wings and guiding their flight paths, others falling straight down like armored meteors. Several mechaniloids are caught out and utterly destroyed as they reveal their positions. Wisent hits the earth a few hundred feet away, kicking up massive plumes of dust and rubble and a shock you feel from here. As you jog over to link up, an explosion rocks the transport above you as more hunters spill out of it, one wing blazing a trail of fire as it struggles to stay lined up. It's only a few hundred feet from the ground now, still moving at full speed. You see a last handful of hunters bail out at the last second, mere instants before it crashes into the facility's massive doors, recessed into the canyon wall. A thunderous explosion, a burst of static in your protesting ears from the incredible noise, and an enormous ball of flame as the jet-turned-siege-weapon fulfills its last duty.

When the smoke and dust clears, though, the doors still stand, none the worse for wear beyond a modest scorch mark.

"Stack up," Zero's voice says from your comms. "Front gate."

You find Em and the pilot--seemingly armed with nothing but a pistol--as you and Wisent reunite with Flares, who touches down beside him. A few hunters are staring up, clearly demoralized, at the facility entrance, having withstood the massive troop transport's kamikaze ram.

"My weapons are unlocked," Wisent reports to Zero. "If necessary, I can..."

"No need," Zero says, taking a few steps toward the doors. "I've got it."

You notice a good few number of the hunters near him have given him a wide berth. On second glance, you realize all of them bear the Zero unit insignia.

You and Em share a glance, and then take a few generous steps back yourselves.

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>>32400561
The first blast rings out as the doors bend inward with a screech of metal. The second shatters the giant metal hinges as they snap under the force, the gates buckling under the strain.

And then with a swing of his saber, Zero smashes the giant doors in, twenty-foot-tall doors sent tumbling end over end with (yet another) thunderous crash.

There's a moment of stunned silence as he sheathes his weapon coolly. "Go."

>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.
>Adopt a more cautious lance-and-buster stance. You might get jumped as soon as you step inside.
>Other?

>>32400576
>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.

Let's act like our role at least until shit hits the fan.

>>32400576
>>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.
Let's play the role we were sent in with for now.

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>this entire sequence
Pic related.

>>32400576
>>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.
Let's go with what we're built for until it's time to do something crazy.

>>32400576
>>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.
We've got enough charge to compensate if the situation changes.

>>32400576
>>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.

You've got plenty of support, unless the mavs really have a buster up their ass about you personally compared to, say, Zero, you should be fine.

>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.

>>32400576
>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.

That said, let's not be stupid about this, expect that we're going to get lit up the moment we poke our head in there and be ready to either dodge or fire a tummolt shell (that's what they're called right? it's been so long...)

>>32400576
>You're ranged defense, start out ready for it. Both barrels out.
It's so good to have back HC. My long weekend vacation needed this to get me right for tomorrow

>>32400576
Both barrels out. Act our role until we have to adapt.

Heads up, thunderstorms coming. If I vanish, power loss happened.

>>32400576
both barrels out, we were literally built to play interference, its nice we are getting a chance to do so.

>>32401046
Shit you east coast HC? Made my day even better.

>>32401134
Strictly speaking we were built to let our sister shoot us in the back with lightning so we could shoot enemies in the face with lightning.

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>>32400576
>>32400638
>>32400651
>>32400653
>>32400681
>>32400730
>>32400751
>>32400754
>>32400798
>>32400804
You opt to breach with busters up and ready, taking up position beside Wisent as Em draws a single saber, keeping it disengaged. Flares clenches her fists and thin rings extending from her gauntlets start to take on a green glow. "Any damage?" Wisent asks.

"Clear," Firefly responds.

"I'm good," Em adds.

"Same here," you nod.

"Then move in. Flares, standard close defense ranges. Emerald, weapons free, but when I engage, advance on my targets--from the sides, please. Anode, call out incoming threats and cover our melee as best you're able." With that, you're off.

http://youtu.be/sQgxfG8-sZA

Zero strides ahead slowly as hunters charge past him on either side, meeting the first of the maverick resistance with buster and saber. You see Emerald sprint past the Commander, ducking a swing overhead as he brings his own blade up and through his first target. On his other side, Flares rockets ahead on a trail of glowing exhaust, shouldering into a maverick gunman and carrying him out of sight with her powered tackle. And all around them, two dozen hunters spring into action, opening up on their opposing number with sheer, overpowering force.

For your part, all you really have a chance to do at the breach is open fire with paired, charged blasts, hitting two mavericks that are down, but not out. It helps keep them that way long enough to be finished off and free up two more hunters to engage more targets. You advance near to Zero, keeping pace with Wisent and trying to follow your teammates--Em is relatively easy to keep your eyes on, but Flares zigzags up and down, left and right, keeping herself a set distance away from Wisent and no further.

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>>32402188
"Lots of Reploids," Wisent observes--and you notice he hasn't opened fire yet.

"Yeah. So what was that about unlocked weapons?" you ask, advancing alongside him. The large entry room you're clearing is largely emptied already, and you notice the free teams hanging back rather than moving into the dividing hallways ahead.

"Codelocked," he explains. "Can't use them in civilian areas. Artillery Command has to authorize activation on the field."

Right--and it goes unspoken but understood that it probably serves as a precaution should he go maverick. "Can't wait to see them in action."

"You will. Just mind them when I fire."

"Big blast?"

"Big? No. Effective? Yes. I don't fancy your chances if you take a hit."
>After Saetos, I feel like I could take it. Not that I'm offering.
>What's the story on your weapons, anyway?
>Seems like Flares has worked with you before.
>Commander Zero, any more intel?
>Other?

>>32402206
No need to brag, so...

>What's the story on your weapons anyway?

>>32402206
>>After Saetos, I feel like I could take it. Not that I'm offering.
Don't be boastful about it though.

>I'm build pretty sturdy, managed to not completely melt myself plugging into the omega cannon's powergrid, plus that mess with Saetos.

>>32402206
>What's the story on your weapons, anyway?
>Commander Zero, any more intel?

Get all the intel!

>What's the story on your weapons, anyway?
>Seems like Flares has worked with you before.
>Commander Zero, any more intel?
Any of these three, no may as well be aware of our teams capabilities, and if anything has changed in our situation

>>32402326
>>32402413
Any of these work

>>32402206
>>Seems like Flares has worked with you before.
I like backstory

>>32402206
>After Saetos [and channeling the Omega Cannon], I feel like I could take it. Not that I'm offering.
>Seems like Flares has worked with you before.
Who's she with?

>>32402206
>What's the story on your weapons, anyway?

Knowledge is survival. I'd like to know more about what this guy can and can't do.

>What's the story on your weapons, anyway?
>Seems like Flares has worked with you before.

Knowing about our team can't hurt.

>>32404236
It can hurt our feelings, when they die

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>>32402294
>>32402326
>>32402396
>>32402413
>>32402548
>>32402687
>>32402736
>>32403187
>>32404236
"After some of the crap I've been through, I feel like I could probably take it," you say with a shrug, switching to Tumult Shell in case a surprise salvo comes in. "Not that I'm offering."

"You might," Wisent replies, amused, "but I doubt you'd be happy about it."

"Well, two missions ago I was with the Seventh when they took those losses the Commander mentioned. A while before that...well, it's still classified, but I almost melted myself from the inside out."

The SA-rank looks at you, appraising. "It sounds as if you've had a very full career."

"For all of two months, yeah. What's the deal with your weapons, anyway?"

"Kinetic missiles. They don't care overmuch about shielding or ablative materials."

Well, that would explain the collateral damage thing. And the danger to their targets. "So what, they just chew right through it?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

"So what about Flares? You two work together before?"

"Yes, on a few occasions. We're both 15th, after all. Her usual job is to guard our positions if anything gets too close."

"If," she replies, touching down beside you. "We're clear for now, but I'm sure that won't last."

"Mm," Wisent nods. "The rear lines had almost nothing to do, but that's going to change. We're sweeping this facility in teams next, if I remember right. That means splitting up."

"And no more overwhelming force, right," Em adds as he trots back to rejoin you.

You turn to look at Zero, just finishing up a muted conversation over comms. "What's our next move, Commander?"

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>>32404671
"We're splitting from here on out. First, though, some quick information." The teams gather around, with a few people keeping watch for ambush as Zero speaks. "As you saw, we're expecting predominantly Reploid opposition. That said, we know this facility is well-armed and supplied, so heavy mechaniloids are a definite possibility."

"Why so many Reploids? These aren't personnel of any stripe," asks a short woman with a heavy cannon slung over one shoulder, nudging a body with her boot. "Other than combat, anyway."

"We think the facility is producing a Maverick army, and equipping them with advanced weaponry, built right here in-house," Zero says. "Your orders stand as stated--take out all hostiles, and be ready to retreat if you run into one of the Philosophers. If you come across foundries or assembly lines, go ahead and wreck them. Any questions?"

>

>>32404701
>questions?
Anything else we should be on the lookout for? If someone should be so lucky as to find an un-wiped terminal?

>>32404701
So we think theyre manufacturing Mavericks here, and we should take out any combatants...what about any offline or unfinished reploids we find?

Oh it's so good to be back in action.

I've got some fun new things in the works for this round.

>>32405030
Probably safest to destroy them all.

>>32404701
"Are we going to capture or just scrub the place?"

>>32405223
wait, nevermind. reading comprehension GO.

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>>32404873
>>32405030
"What about any offline or unfinished Reploids we find?" you ask.

He shakes his head. "Anything coming out of here is built viral. Destroy them. If you find parts, just make sure they can't be assembled, but anything and everything on this mission is acceptable collateral."

That answers your other question. No concerns about intel opportunities.

Zero looks from face to face one last time. "If there's nothing further, command goes to your team leads. Move out, and remember to comm if you run into trouble."

There are at least three hallways, and you file down the rightmost after Wisent. There's another split not long after, sending a team on your heels the opposite way. "Expect constant fighting from here on out--especially because they'll have had time to bunker up." With that, he punches the door button at the end of the room and a hail of gunfire puts a period on his sentence.

You fire a tumult shell over Wisent's shoulder, soaking up an opening volley as Flares and Em sprint past you--one flying by on your side and the other vaulting your shoulder and using you as a springboard. Wisent charges in right after, opening fire with torpedoes down his chest, incoming fire pinging off of the shielded hulls. You're last in, sizing up the area and looking for stray targets.

You see one barreling down on Flares only to catch a boot to his face, slowing him down enough to buy her time to follow it up with a full-body haymaker, led off by a streak of green from the ring over her fist. He stumbles back, shields flashing, just in time for you to open up on him with a spray of buster fire. He hops back, giving Flares time to dispatch her first opponent. You fire another tumult shell toward the back of the room to free up some maneuvering space on that side of the room.

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>>32406641
Meanwhile, Em ducks and weaves, plasma whizzing over his shoulders as he closes in on a maverick firing paired busters much like yours. He wheels his saber, slapping one buster out of the way before coming up with the reverse-swing to rake him across the chest. The wounded maverick grabs a saber off his belt and tries to jam it into Emerald's midsection, only to bark in surprise as his hand closes around the igniting blade and shoves it up and back, driving the blade through his neck.

"The hell was that?" you comm, sending yet more shells down--one to cover Wisent (who seems to be doing fine with those torpedoes he's using to block incoming fire), and one to buy Em some room to break off.

"Remember that gauntlet I made? Finally taking it for a spin," he replies, wresting the saber free from the Maverick's now-dead hand and catching it as he flips it 'round. "Heads up, someone's coming your way--"

Sure enough, a maverick barrels toward you, dashing through the space between two of Wisent's torpedoes, going for the saber on his back--clearly trying to take out the defense. Covering his approach, two turrets unfurl from the ceiling, opening fire--with solid projectile bullets, one blasting a flying T. shell to ribbons.

>Stand and fight. Wisent can support.
>Try to gun him down on the move. He can't catch you.
>Move in to engage him in melee, and get under those guns before they lock on to you.
>Other?

>>32404701
Any chance they'll be manufacturing advanced Reploids? What sort of materials had been shipped here?

>>32406706
>Move in to engage him in melee, and get under those guns before they lock on to you.
Remember the basics of CQC! We can phase those turret shots on the approach probably too!

>>32406706
>Move in to engage him in melee, and get under those guns before they lock on to you.
Someone's getting shredded by those solid mass guns, and it ain't us.

>>32406801
What part of solid projectile aren't you getting?

>>32406706
Move in for melee. Get him between us and the turrets.

>>32406706
>Move in to engage him in melee, and get under those guns before they lock on to you.

Bonus points if we can try to take out or severely cripple those guns out before they try to do any more damage.

>>32406706
>Move in to engage him in melee, and get under those guns before they lock on to you.

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>>32406801
>>32406905
>>32407160
>>32407195
>>32407876
If he expects a soft melee target just because you're playing point defense, he's got another thing coming. You snap-fire a salvo of buster fire into him as he jumps, catching him in midair--his shielding (Christ, do they all have it?) absorbs the later hits harmlessly, but it throws him off long enough for you to bring your lance up and catch his saber on it. His momentum slides him over you, and you help him along with a quick flip, pushing him up and over. He twists and manages to bring up his buster to fire at you as he falls, but you quickly weave the lance through them and cut them short. He scrambles backwards as you advance, bringing your lance forward, tip up and at the ready to defend or attack.

"You take him," Wisent says. "I've got the guns."

The maverick snarls and lunges, trying to bring his blade up and push yours out of the way--you reply by rolling it to the side and leveling your buster, catching him with another burst that his shields protest under. He moves to thrust--unfortunately, the motion reminds you of Cathode's rapier technique, and you've had plenty of practice foiling (heh) that particular move. You take a twohanded grip as you sidestep, using your weapon's superior reach to drag the blade across his midsection in an upward swing. He stumbles back, grimacing as his shields flicker and fade.

He takes a moment to collect himself, realizing he's been put in the corner. A moment later and he comes in with one last, wild overhand, using his dash.

>Use yours back. Disengage, avoid, and come back in for the finisher.
>Meet his charge head on.
>Dodge away and counter again.
>Buster to the face solves all problems.
>Other?

>>32408302
We don't know how much punishment he can take, even if his shields are down. Disengage and come back in for the kill.

>>32408302
>Other: deflect with lance, fatality with misercorde.

>>32408302
>Use yours back. Disengage, avoid, and come back in for the finisher.

>Buster to the face solves all problems.
would also work for theatrics.

>>32408370
This should work.

>>32408370
It's too early in the battle to blow our mesicorde load here.

I vote we
>Use yours back. Disengage, avoid, and come back in for the finisher.

>>32408419
Wait, doesn't it re-charge? does anyone have a link to the stats sheet? I'm really feeling the fact that I haven't looked at it in ages.

>>32408302
>Use yours back. Disengage, avoid, and come back in for the finisher.

Don't block if you can dodge, isn't that what emerald told us?

>>32408492
only partially if we retract it we can salvage some of it it is like quick boomerang use some and you can get a small fraction back if we recover the line

>>32408632
derp I was thinking t coil
The misercorde recharges as long as we don't use the liquid nitrogen that is a one off. the blade can recover though even if we use the LN

>>32408492
I wish I had a way of being completely sure a google doc wouldn't reveal my identity information, because I'd use them for a persistent Anode character sheet.

The misericorde's LN reservoir does recharge extremely slowly--enough that you usually don't get more than one priming of it in a single mission. The blade itself is just a hibeam knife, which remains functional even without the LN.

That said, it would need to be reworked to allow you to engage it normally without activating the reservoir.

>>32408792
Ah. Dang. I thought the LN was optional. Scrap that idea then. Changing my vote to
>Use yours back. Disengage, avoid, and come back in for the finisher.

>>32408792
In that case, save the misericorde and counterdash.

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>>32399188
>Bug. Big compound eyes on an insectoid helmet startle you (and Em, who actually hops back a step, having been on the same eye level and closer besides). The helmeted figure--short, heavily armored--looks impassively from face to face for a long moment before letting out the most girlish possible giggle. The featureless helmet tilts back to reveal a cheerful looking woman, looking incredibly amused.
Hah.

>>32408792
If you wanted to use a google doc, you could create an account just for/under the name of Hunter Command (I think) and no other information for a doc file. That or a pastebin of some sort could work. Even something on one of the many free sites could work if needed.

>>32408792
Create a new google account. I have three; one for my real life and two for online identities.

>>32408792
Most quests I'm aware of use pastebin, but there's no reason you couldn't use another Google account.

>>32409448
>>32409491
>>32409519
Yeah, I was thinking that, I just wish they didn't make it such a pain in the ass to disassociate them.

>>32409448
I could've sworn there was a pastebin... or am I just making shit up now?

>>32409553
There is, indeed, a pastebin with Anode's full loadout.

>>32409570
Link please? Anyone?

>>32409633
Here's a fresh up as a temporary stopgap.

http://pastebin.com/Qke6PABF

>>32409660
Awesome! Thanks HC.

>>32408302
>>Use yours back. Disengage, avoid, and come back in for the finisher.

This is probably going to be a long one, we should minimize the risk of damage. Otherwise I'd vote to set the lance and meet him head on.

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>>32408359
>>32408382
>>32408419
>>32408557
>>32408835
>>32408840
>>32410086
You size it up in an eyeblink--from his dash-jump into you, you know he's got nothing on your own upgraded systems. Rather than risk whatever trick he's got for his final stab, you backdash, getting far and away out of his reach and leaving him raking his hibeam through empty air.

You're back on him in a split-second, bringing your blade in for a thrust of your own, knocking his own hasty attempt to block aside as you skewer him. A chain of explosions tears through his body as he tumbles off the end of your blade and back into the corner where he dies indignantly.

You turn in time to see Wisent bring down the final turret with what looks like a dumbfire missile (along with a hefty chunk of roof around it). "Clear."

"Nice," Em notes. "You were listening."

"Figured I had him in the corner and he couldn't outmove me."

"Good, because he was going to do the stutter-switch with that blade," he says. "If you'd tried to block he was going to pass his blade right by you."

"Focus," Wisent says. "We need to make sure we progress at the same rate as the rest of the teams. Any damage?"

Once again, you all come up clear. "How are we doing?" you ask as you fall back in line and prepare to breach the next room.

"No reports yet, but we're not jammed," Wisent says. "Zero unit has a few counterintel units along that are keeping our airwaves clear."

"Now that is a fucking relief," you mutter. "Bad experience."

"I hear you," Flares says. "It's a bit scary, being off on an intercept and suddenly your line goes out."

You're about to breach the next room when the next room breaches itself. A huge explosion kicks up and sends the four of you sprawling backwards through clouds of dust and rubble.

Through the haze, you see two blue-white embers begin to burn.

>Dodge left.
>Dodge right.

>>32410271
left

>>32410271
left

>>32410271
Don't see why not.
>>Dodge left.

>>32410271
>>Dodge right.
You always go right in a Megaman game from this era.

when in doubt go left

>left

>>32410271

>Go Right

Listen to the wise Anon from >>32410364

>>32410271
>Dodge left.

Also fire a tumult shell to be in between wherever we are and the about-to-discharge weapon that's pointed in our general direction. Because I don't know what it's going to shoot, but I like existing in a non-perforated state.

>>32410364
>>32410387
To progress sure but if you want to dodge left and up are the answer.
also second>>32410389

>>32410389
while this is a good idea, we're blowing through our shells pretty fast.

>>32410541
Better to use them than to lose them. Because of being dead.

>>32410541
Tbh I know and it bugs me, but by my count we'd still have 12 left after this, and personally I think that any enigmatic weapon glowing through the fog (or dust in this case) is dangerous enough to merit our full attention and the considerable defense that comes with it. That said, it's just my opinion.

>>32410416
Shit, you're right. We should only dodge right if the enemy is coming at us from behind.

>>32410389

Going with this

>>32410271
>Dodge left

If we dodge right, it is over to quickly

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>>32410684
>>32410416
>>32410389
>>32410368
>>32410360
>>32410335
>>32410313
>>32410850
You snap-fire a tumult shell down the middle as you dash-boost to the left, throwing charge into a Raikousen--good thing you do, too, as two lances of blinding energy carve through where you were just standing, filling the air with a static whine and the smell of ozone. Your shell had all the effect of a single sandbag against an entire hurricane. The roof groans and collapses, all integrity lost, splitting the room in half and dividing your team into pairs.

And, lucky you, your attacker strides through what's left of the door to your side of the collapse. Taller than you or even Wisent, who dodged across the breach and away from you, the maverick steps surprisingly lightly for his size, two massive heavy weapons of some kind held in the top pair of four arms. The two plasma cannons he nearly killed you with still glow within their barrels, each hovering near his bottom hands' fingertips at either hip--one beside a massive beam saber hilt--and you think you see a third mounted on his back. His head is crested with a crown-like headdress that makes him look all the more imposing as he steps atop the rubble. Cast in shining blue and bronze, you realize this is the figure you saw destroy the Hoover dam in one strike. The Philosopher, Shiva.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you wonder if you'll come face to face with the third in the set--assuming you survive this one. As the dust settles, he looks down at you, almost assuredly realizing you're the one who lobbed that shell his way.

Without a word, those two plasma cannons cease their almost languid float through the air and level off as they warm up again.
>Run.

>>32411028
RUN ERRATICALLY

>>32411028
SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT DON'T RUN STRAIGHT!

>>32411028
RUN ERRATICALLY WHILE CALLING FOR BACKUP!

>>32411028
>Run, but make sure our teamate is going to make it out with us
>and call it in, obviosly
>Throw a charged grenade at him while we're at it

>>32411028
Oh shit, just caught up with the thread

>>32411028
Call it out and the hell out of there, dump whatever you can behind you as a distraction. Ideally a chaff missile or two, but don't bother aiming too much.

>>32411028

Haul ass, survive, call Zero

>>32411028
Did we bring Chaff on this mission? I forget. If we didn't haul ass, make sure the others are hauling ass with us.
If we did, CHAFF AND RUN. I don't care that it probably won't help, chaff and ruuun!

>>32411028
I NEED AN ADULT

>>32411133
Chaff sounds like agood idea

>>32411028
If Em is the one who's on our side, tell him to use his GPS(assuming that works indoors) to track Shiva's location, and relay the Wisent, so he can fire through the walls.

>>32411028
Don't panic. Run erratically and call this in to everyone.

If part of the roof collapsed then it should be weak, try to bring down even more with a missal or highball skipper to obscure his vision and, possibly, his movement.

Also, who's the other person who ended up on this side?

SHIT

fire a chaff missile at the guys legs to fuck up is sensors and run like your ass is on fire. Call him out to your team so they know to get the hell out of dodge and grab your teammate on the way out. Dash out if you have to just don't get hit.

>>32411028

>Run

>Seriously, JUST FUCKING RUN HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!

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>>32411076
>>32411081
>>32411088
>>32411099
>>32411117
>>32411122
>>32411133
>>32411165
>>32411180
>>32411212
>>32411287
In your peripheral vision, you see the bright green of Em's armor. At least you know who's on your side.

Both of you turn tail and bolt at the same time.

"Anode?" Wisent comms. "That's--"

"Copy!" you exclaim. "Need to call it in! We're running!"

"We'll try to double back around and meet back up when we can," he replies, voice still calm--probably for your benefit. "Good luck."

Good luck. Yeah. Great.

There are times when you should meet Very Certain Death with a smile and a quip. This is not one of those times.

"Zero, come in! Commander, are you there?"

"I'm reading you," he replies. "What is it?"

"Confirmed sighting of Shiva! He's on our tail, we're falling back!"

"Understood. I'm breaking off my attack to link up."

"Are you--" your query is swallowed up by the electrical droning of a massive plasma beam exploding behind you, superheating the air at your back as you flee. "Are you near the entrance?"

"Negative," Zero says. "Head deeper into the facility. Look for the most damage."

"Most damage is BEHIND us!" Em adds, somewhere in the thick of it.

Shit, at least he's alive. "Em!" you call. "Can you keep up?"

"Don't worry about me," he yells back. "Just go as fast as you can! Split up or stay together?!"

Behind you, even without turning, you can feel another plasma salvo warming up, itching between your shoulders like a looming specter. And he still hasn't fired those fucking other guns...

>Split up. He can only chase one of us.
>Stick together. We need to get to Zero.

>>32411640
Stick together, our bro may need us to lightning dash our asses out of the firing line or we may need him to cut a path.

>>32411640

>Stick together. We need to get to Zero.

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>>32411691
Stick together.
If our bro's gonna die, we'll at least keep him company on the way to the scrapyard.
That's what bro's do.

>>32411640
>>Stick together. We need to get to Zero.
Splitting up gets you killed in every movie there is

>>32411640
Bros before plausible survivability. Stick together. Don't get yourself killed worrying about Em though.

fuck it, he's small and we can dash like the wind stick together and pick his tiny ass up and haul ass out of there.

We need to channel us some Joseph Joestar, here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BgqFYrD8UM

Anyone got an idea for a grenade trick?

>>32411640
>Split up. He can only chase one of us.

>>32411640
>Stick together. We need to get to Zero.

DON'T SPLIT THE PARTY! YOU NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY! (well granted we kinda sorta already split the party, but they aren't from the 4th anyway so it doesn't count)

>>32411640
>>Stick together. We need to get to Zero.

The only way out of this is to lead him into Zero, and we have a better chance of making it if he has two targets to shoot at instead of one. Besides, his brother and sister would kill us for leaving him alone in the middle of a maverick base.

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>>32411691
>>32411703
>>32411721
>>32411724
>>32411728
>>32411917
>>32412070
"Stick together," you call back as you take the first hallway split, deeper into the base. "We're heading the same way."

"Only by the broadest--" whatever Em was going to say is cut off as a pair of missiles streak by you, blasting the wall in front of you to chunks and collapsing the ceiling with it. You're close enough to the surface that a sheer slab of raw stone comes down with it, breaking down as its weight destroys it, and soundly blocking you off. You skid to a halt in time to see Em catch himself on the wall right beside you, as Shiva rounds the bend in the hall. Your comms are alight with other teams' voices, calling in confusion.

"What was that? An earthquake?"

"Jesus, I FELT that, he's close--"

"Did they just launch something?"

You and Em share another glance and edge away to either side. There's no way you're getting past him if he doesn't want you to. "Em?" you ask faintly. "Game plan?"

"Dodge until something he shoots blasts a hole in the wall," he mutters grimly. "I know you're used to taking hits on the chin, but--"

"Don't get hit by the death beams," you reply, feeling the tension in your voice. "Yeah, I got it."

Shiva doesn't grace either of you with a word as he levels those missile launchers again and the third of his plasma cannons floats from his back to put yet another gun on you.

"Don't telegraph if you can help it and don't wait for him to fire before you move," Em adds.

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>>32412572
"How the fuck do I do both of those at the same ti--" You move only because he did--two missiles carve gouts out of the sheer face behind you, raining down stones, clattering off the ceiling, the floor, and your armor as you vault to the wall. Your reflexes aren't as sharp as Em--he's already dodging again as a cannon sweeps a beam of pure destruction across the wall space he just occupied. You trigger another Raikousen and use raw speed to overcome what your agility falls short on. It's like fighting Bloodhound again, except Bloodhound couldn't kill you in one hit. Probably.

You're lucky you dropped in by air--you still have a good 50% after the fighting and moving. You're luckier still your instincts are faster than your senses--if you had looked up to see if he was firing at you, the beam that chased you across the side of the room would have landed.

You slide down to the ground, gritting your teeth. Shiva's not stupid. He's not going to blast open an escape route for you easily. You just hope it happens before your capacitor runs out, or you may find yourself watching the charge percentage dwindling down to a fateful zero.

"Anode?" Em calls--over comms, you can't see him in the soot and debris--or Shiva, for that matter, obscured in thick smoke and fire. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I can't see you."

"It looks like he has to hold on to his cannons, their recoil is stronger than their locomotion. The third one is back in the frigging hallway. Expect 2/3 salvo patterns."

"What about those missiles? I can't see them before they're through the smoke."

"I'll yell if he fires. You do the same if you see it and I don't."

>Try to force him to destroy the wall and let you escape. Position yourself in the middle.
>Stay near a wall. He'll be moving to track you and the wall gives you more options.
>Other? (Make it good.)

can't we fire a chaff rocket at him so he has to fire blind. I mean if the guy isn't going to willing shoot us an exit then the least we can do is make sure he can't aim at 100%. Hell we might get lucky and hell shoot us an exit, or at least stop firing for a few seconds buying us more time.

>>32412582
>Try to force him to destroy the wall and let you escape. Position yourself in the middle.
To tired to figure out any good writeins, but this also seems fine >>32412658

>>32412582
I'm trying to think of a way out of this. He shouldn't be able to see, there must be some way we can use that.

>Try to force him to destroy the wall and let you escape. Position yourself in the middle.

>>32412582
>Try to force him to destroy the wall and let you escape. Position yourself in the middle.

>>32412582
Well, Tumult aint doing shit other than 'maybe' making the missiles go off early.
Try charging up a Lockon and shoot his cannons right into their barrel, preferably right after he fires them.. Otherwise keep moving.

If we're confident they won't lower our own visibility, shoot some Blackouts between his feet and hope it buys us a little time.

>>32412582
Does 2/3 salvo pattern mean he fires the two in his hands, then the one in the hall? Because if so, and if we could switch places with Em, then we could wait for the hallway cannon to charge up the tackle it so it shoots where we want it to.

>>32412769
Assuming he doesn't stagger his fire, Em means Shiva will fire in alternating two beam/three beam patterns.

>>32412818
That could still work. We'd need to get past him without him noticing first. That thing is hovering but it probably has really good anchoring, so Em probably couldn't throw if off as little as he is. But if we could bamboozle the philosopher for a moment, just long enough for Em to take our place, then we could slam into the thing as hard as possible, turn it, make our own damn door. Or, hell, make it hit him. Maybe both, we saw how powerful these things are.

I'm just spitballing, though. This plan is stupidly suicidal. Maybe if we were better than we are and were starting out in Em's position it might work.

>>32412895
So we Have Em attempt to grab the floating one and aim it at him/the wall while we be annoying as possible as we act as a decoy?

>>32412943
I thought stage one was shooting Shiva in the face with a blackout rocket.

>>32412963
pretty sure that's part of being an annoying distraction

>>32412988
Personally i think rying to grab the cannon is a very bad idea. Even if he's distracted, it probably has some sort of automation to keep away from oncoming targets/ field around it to keep us from touching it.

Also still suggesting getting some artilery support from Wisent. He said his main weapons will go right through stuff, didnt he? If the wall isnt to think, this is a perfect sucker punch oppertunity

>>32413051
Yeah, I can only see it working if Anodes the one that tackles the cannon anyway. Even if it dosen't have those things, Em's just too damn small.

I honestly think we're better off just chaffing him then dodging until he makes us a door or Zero shows up.

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>>32412682
>>32412701
>>32412707
You slowly move through the clouds of dust and smoke, watching for the next sign of impending doom, as those plasma cannons cast an eerie blue hue through the haze. You feel like a deer in the headlights, or a fish in a barrel, or a dead animal in a dead animal container. Goddamnit. You and your best friend stuck in a room with a murderous G-class. How the fuck does this keep happening to you?

The haze relents, leaving two angry glowing pinpricks through the wisps. And it's here you say to hell with it, and try something stupid.

Well, several successive things, in a row. First, you aim between the two hellish death-lights and plant a chaff rocket right down the middle.

You don't wait to find out what happens with that, instead relocating as fast as possible in anticipation of an answering torrent of directed energy, clearing the smoke cloud as you move through and up onto a wall as you take aim with a lockon hunter.

Shiva is standing amid the chaff cloud, eyes closed--not in pain, but annoyance, judging by his expression. Without looking up, he aims one of the plasma cannons your way. Before you can fire, you're on the run again, dashing off the wall with an angry beam of death trailing after.

"Hey, Anode," Em radios. "If you use those lightning dashes, you can probably get by him and--"

"No!" You interrupt. "No no no no! We're not having this conversation. No heroic sacrifice movie bullshit."

"Look man, I'm serious. We still have a job to do, and getting to Zero comes fi--"

"NOPE!"

"I can dodge him better than you can!" he snaps exasperatedly.

"Because he's splitting his fire between two--missiles incoming!" you divert rapidly, bleeding another 10% of your reserve to clear the room before you rain down in bits with the walls.

"Christ, that was close," Em pants.

"Can he see with his eyes closed, or did I just telegraph too much?" you ask, beleaguered.

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>>32413680
"Little busy to properly critique your form, buddy," he replies, equally weary.

Neither of you are exactly run down, but you can't relax for an eyeblink, if you want to keep on having them. Fuck it, you decide, back to doing stupid shit. He hasn't moved from where he stopped, meaning you have a decent ballpark for sighting him through the plumes of ruin he keeps kicking up.

"Anode? What the hell are you--"

You fire a lockon hunter, overcharged, right around for where the barrel of his left missile launcher should be.

For a moment, silence.

"Ano--"

Well, you can't tell whether that did anything, but you sure know it pissed him off. An entire salvo flies your way--missiles, beams, the works. Without that split-second of extra warning from Em, there's no way you would have made it. It takes another half of your capacitors and a moment of serendipitous alignment to shoot you from the back wall to his side as the entire salvo bears down and leaves nothingness where you once stood--and everywhere around it.

And when the noise and flash and thunder fades, you've done it. There's a hole in that fucking wall.

Neither of you needs to tell the other to start running--both only just clearing the hole and continuing down the formerly-blocked hallway before the next salvo collapses it behind you.

"Anode," Em pants, moving at a dead sprint, "has anyone ever told you that you are an insanely ballsy son of a bitch?"

"I think," you return, "I have a notion. Zero, are you still there?"

"Yes," he replies. "I'm moving towards the noise, what's your status?"

"We're good. We just got away, I think he's--" an earsplitting whine of plasma cuts you off as he mows through the entire barricade with one sweep. "--Yes, he is definitely pursuing again."

"I copy. Where are you?"

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>>32413691
"Looks like we just hit an assembly room of some sort," Em answers. Sure enough, ahead is a vast room, maybe larger than a football field, looming into an expansive dark. It's pockmarked with scorches, craters, parts, and other signs of battle.

"A team's been through here," you note. "Conveyor lines, but they're not moving."

"Roger," Zero says, still as cool as ever. "Continue falling back through it. I'm on my way."

"I can't even see the end of this."

"In more ways than one?" Em asks. "I can't fucking believe you shot at a G-class, man."

"And lived!" you add.

"You haven't lived yet," he notes. "And if he's smart--"

He's smart, as it turns out. Beams lance out again, this time cutting through the dark and throwing the entire length of the room into stark contrast. They sweep over your heads and rake across the far wall. A pair of missiles follows, and once again, you're walled in, the exit ahead collapsed under tons of debris and rubble.

"Son of a BITCH," Em curses.

"Focus. We got away once, we can do it again." You try, desperately, to convince yourself what you're saying is definitely true.

Behind you--far enough that you can't see, particularly after the blinding rays--you hear Shiva's slow, measured footfalls.

"Any brilliant ideas this time, Anode?" he asks.
>Alternate annoying him. At least that makes it more likely we can keep dodging until Zero gets here.
>Stand him off here. One on either side should at least limit his bombardment options.
>Try slipping past him. It's a much larger room.

>>32413698
Do those conveyer lines go anywhere? Like, do they convey things to and out of this room?

I suggest we alternate being annoying. That way we can piss him off and stay alive until Zero arrives
And while conveyor belts often go places , it would require us to stay in the same place to go through the hole it leaves through.

>>32413698
I want to say harry him, but the weapons we've tried seem to be only a minor concern to him at best. Maybe lob a few Highballs at him, since the Blackout doesn't seem to be effective, but otherwise just beat a retreat.

>>32413698
Ohhhh boy, this is going to be pain no matter WHAT we pick. Slipping past will likely be bad no matter what. So far he's only used range and our team work has been what's keeping us alive.

We need to keep mobile, try to make sure he cannot get a solid bead on us. Blinding won't work, but didn't we bring grenades with us? Maybe we could use some to knock him off balance? Drop debris on him, alter his trajectory. Hell, if we can snipe a missile in a tube that'd be amazing.

Either way, we NEED to keep moving and use the larger room to our advantage. Dash, swing, distract, do whatever we can to buy us time and hope Zero comes in as a big damn hero.

>>32413698
If we wanna keep dodging him we're gonna need more capacitor charge, see if there's any exposed thing we can siphon from while on the move. Otherwise I think we are just going to have to annoy him, getting past him sounds too much like suicide to try and if we split his fire between the to of us we can probably hold til Zero show.

Annoy him. Blackout rockets seem to have been annoying enough, even if useless (and that should make them double annoying).

What else do we have? The grenades are probably not worth shit.. unless he has some kind of energy or kinetic shielding (that would block energy/conventional gun fire, think Stargate), that a low kinetic power grenade could be thrown through, and then explode on the inside, it's a bad idea to even try.

We can't see if lock-on did anything, but they probably did not.

Tumult shell pffffft.

Entering melee or mid range... technically would mean that we have more time to dodge the attacks we know. But these assholes always seem well rounded, so he probably has something for that too.

So... try to survive and for the love of god, don't get cocky.

>>32413951
Melee is a big no go he has a huge fuck-off saber on his hip.

>>32413994
Plus, he couldn't clear a new path for us with swords.

Though, I suspect he'd be dual wielding on of his plasma weapons and a sword anyway.

>>32414025
He has four arms, I think he could manage drawing it, but it would be harder to cut through the rubble than blowing it up.

>>32413698
Use the highballs as landmines. Throw our some tension coil tripwires. How many Lock-Ons would it take to drop a big enough slab on him? We need to occupy his attention with little shit.

>>32414025
Honestly, as odd as it sounds, we are probably lucky with this particular philosopher. His range attacks are deadly, but he's slow and the things are not homing. Meanwhile, we have speed and mobility saving our asses and we are teaming up with Emmy, our bro who we trust and work well with. If this was a melee G rank or a speedster G rank, we would be BONED.

Let's just be ready for curve balls either way and hope for zero to rescue us from MECHA SHIVA

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>>32413825
>>32413831
>>32413891
>>32413951
"Take turns," you murmur quietly. "Think you can dodge if he opens up on you with everything?"

Em pauses. "Not...really, no. He's learning my moves and I'm running up against melting my own boots with my EAS as it is."

"Shit. Well, okay, next question, do those belts lead anywhere?"

"I couldn't see. Probably not. The back wall is like two hundred feet away, though."

"Grand. Okay, hotshot, are the belts and machines still powered even if they're broken?"

Em frowns. "Should be," he decides. "Unless they just cut power to this entire system."

"Okay, good," you reply. "That's your job, then."

"What is? Fixing them and cranking out a maverick hunter maverick army to bail us out of this?"

"No, cutting them open so I can sap charge off them. I can't dodge like you can without it."

"Right," he nods, as Shiva draws ever closer. "I'm on it. Keep him off me."

"Can't promise shit," you sigh, getting ready to move again.

"Yeah. I understand." Em draws a saber off his back, rolling it once in his hand. Did he have to make that sound so... final?

Christ. You're gonna have to teach the Fourth about death flags.

He opens up with his first salvo and, true enough, he's making it harder to get around them. The beam blasts come in sets now, one, two, three, each on the heels of another. You narrowly dodge left, only to have him cut off your escape and nearly catch you dead on with the third, as Em breaks the opposite way and sprints down the wall, saber snapping alight on the move. He vaults a missile, which sails on by and obliterates a belt at the far end of the room, then ducks and rolls a second, slashing through one of the belt assemblies as part of the motion.

15% charge. That's good for two or three more dodges, or one really big one.
>Play it safe. Go and top up your capacitors.
>Hold out a little longer. He might catch on to what you're doing.

>>32414095
Honestly, as odd as it sounds, we are probably lucky with this particular philosopher.
And then this guy happens,

>>32414353
>Hold out a little longer. He might catch on to what you're doing.
Can't tip our hand, have Em hit a different line as well.

>Hold out a little longer. He might catch on to what you're doing.

Depends on how arrogant he is, but I assume the mavs have intel of us, so they know our abilities...

Although, if he sees Em cutting the lines he can figure it out anyway. But if we have enough places to plug into, we can get charged even if he's trying to cut us off.

>>32414353
>Hold out a little longer. He might catch on to what you're doing.

Aw yeah, Mavhunt is back.

>>32414353
>Play it safe. Go and top up your capacitors.

>>32414353
Hold out. It's been shown that we're sitting ducks while we're charging.

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All right, I've got to take a break. I want to sort out some stuff with Cain Labs, and the fact of the matter is I haven't slept a wink.

Probably still won't, since I'm trying to re-adjust my sleep schedule for the next few days, but it's definitely making writing a chore.

In the meantime, though, any questions or comments about the thread thus far?

Oh yeah, and the thread's been archived. Give it an upvote if you're so inclined, and as always, thanks for reading (and for your saintly patience in the long, long delays between threads).

>>32414856
If we go right, would have we left EM to fend for himself?

>>32414856
Yeah sleep does sound really good about now. No real comments but, good thread and thanks for running.

>>32414979
It would have changed your partner for this sequence.

>>32415036
Thank God we chose left, then. We're not nearly as familiar with anyone else's capabilities, and [s]if[/s] when we survive this together then we'll have that many more bro points.

>>32414856
Thanks for running, looking forward to the next installment

>>32414856
Assuming Anode doesn't die horribly, would a movie involving robots in film noire be out of place at this point? Just asking because I can't get GeminEye out of my head...

>>32415147
Honestly, with the amount of bro points we are accumulating, we are probably going to form one of the Maverick Hunter's greatest bromances.

>>32415570
Seriously, at some point in the near future we'll be able to pull of manly combining for real.

This actually brings up two points for me:

1). How much would it suck if we got scrapped by the actual Mecha Shiva?

2). Have their ever been a pair of reploids in the series designed to combine with one another?

>>32415664
>2). Have their ever been a pair of reploids in the series designed to combine with one another?

I think there's one or two that can do that. Maybe in the Zero series?

>>32415804
Bit & Bye from MMX3, for this series.

Also, even older than that : Rock and Rush, who combined into a POWERDOG MECHA SUIT. I think that was MM7.

>>32415915
Also 6, then Bass and Treble.

Bump

Dumb question, where's Wisent gotten to after Shiva's appearance? He strikes me as the kind of guy where if you go "I need a hole so I can get out of this room full of G-class", he'd start punching through walls until he reaches the one you're trapped behind.

>>32417487
I'd think he realizes that he isn't fast enough to outrun a G-class, so he's not making himself a target.

>>32417581
I do not hold that against him.

I can't help but imagine Anode as Joseph Joestar, and the Philosophers as our Pillar Men.

I wonder if they sleep in rock, too?

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GOD DAMN IT I'M ONLY ON THREAD 14 WITH ONE DAY OF READING. time to catch up harder, have an EMERAWD

>>32418944
>hiding the feet
Is that you, liefeld?

>>32419045
hunger cuts an art stream down before its time, and measures have to be taken. desperate measures

>>32419045
Now that you mention it, he also doesn't have eyes.

Emerald may have contracted Liefelditis!

...

j/k, nice work drawfag stove

>>32417663
Holy shit, I see the comparison now. Anode totally is Joseph Joestar. Crazy inventive, prett smart. Plus, in a fight, not only will he win, but he will make you look like the biggest idiot in the world in the process.

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>>32417663
>>32419403

We just need to hope that Shiva is the analog for Eisidisi, so he can be creepy as fuck, but owned within an episode and a half.

>>32418944
Cannot stop seeing Emerald as Gary Busey

This is the best

>>32417663
>>32419403
>>32419491
I think you're missing something vitally important.
If Anode is Joseph Joestar and the Philosophers are the Pillar Men, then who is Dio?

>>32419857
Sigma, obviously. He's the cause of everything.

>>32419857
Sigma
He started all of this, was dealt with before the story started, and will show up after the arc is over.

>>32419819
Holy shit

I can never unsee it now

>>32419916
>>32419922
But Sigma is X/Zero's nemesis, not ours.

Dio'd have to be someone else.

>>32419991
Solstrike then?

>>32420015
Man, he BETTER not come back with his head on someone else's body.

>>32419991
Wait, more pressingly, does this make Emerald our Zepelli? Because that will go bad for him.

>>32420040
The mavericks should totally do this to fuck with Anode. Doesn't have to be an actual attempt to bring the fuckbird back to life, just make copies of his head and weld them onto everything.

>>32420058
Maybe when Anode ups himself to S/G-Class and offs a Philosopher or something.

A-Class Anode probably isn't important enough to warrant that kind of effort.

>>32420050
He could be Speedwagon.

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I THINK I FIXED THE PROBLEM.

>>32420110
Speedwagon'd have to be a human, and we haven't got any human hunters yet.

>>32420015
While we're on the Jojo's comaparisons, Solstrike was actually our Pet Shop.

Because he was BULLSHIT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Fqvd1W358

>>32420058
>>32420040
I just remembered that Reploids can totally have nightmares. Anode's probably had this dream a few times by now.

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HERE'S THE FULL SIZE

>>32419819
By the way that's no slur on your art Stove

You're doin' the LORD'S work, if the lord was a fan of quests and megaman X respectively

And really why wouldn't he be

>>32420128
>>32420331
Still seeing Gary Busey

>>32420412
When he talks to his TV, does it listen?

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>>32420331
>>32420128
Nice work

>>32418944
I recognize that style. Good to have you on board.

I wonder, for all the things we could do with Saetos' DNA, I wonder what sort of things a Philosopher's DNA could provide. (If we'd even get that DNA, of course.)

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>>32421583
We'd become King Crimson.

>>32421583
Instant jump to S-Rank, possibly higher.

>>32414095
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRRY8UWJEUg&feature=player_detailpage#t=142

>>32419045
>Hiding reploid feet
Literally the easiest shit to draw, man.

>>32422548
Shit, I didn't read the whole thread.

We ded now?

>>32420110
>>32420131
No, he's totally our Lisa Lisa. I mean, he's teaching us to melee good and everything.

>>32424560
I hope that doesn't mean India is our Caesar.

>>32424543
Yes, the reason there haven't been any more updates is that we died so quickly that we didn't know what was happening.

>>32420131
Yes we do. That guy we saved from Jagwire who joined the Hunters.

>>32414353
>Hold out a little longer. He might catch on to what you're doing.
Not like we haven't risked our asses against impossible odds before; hell, last time we were outmatched, we wrecked the Enigma when we siphoned off its power to turn Wallaby into so much slag.

>>32424751
But he's not constantly providing commentary and serving as the audience stand-in. He's also not interfering, either.

>>32424543
I hope not.

>>32424654
>>32426172
I was referring to the thread

>>32426220
I know; I was hoping it wasn't, either. Just waiting on a post from Hunter Command, I guess.

>>32426306
I think he's sleeping.

>>32426354
Probably.
>>32426306
HC's threads usually last a couple of days at least anyway, so I wouldn't worry.

>>32426520
Makes sense, I guess.

>>32424895
The navigator, then?

Bump because I can't pull another all nighter.

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Still waitin' for Hunter Command to give me an A-OK to start lootin' and pan-handling for intel again...(Also patiently waiting for the QM to return.)

Goodnight hunters

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Bumping with our salvation, in ridiculously high definition.

>>32432664
>6.48 MB

Moot raised the filesize limit AGAIN? Christ.

>>32432664
Bless you anon for the image

it's been how many months again?
good to see MHQ back online

gorillion death flags, coming up

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Okay, the good news is I'm awake again.

The bad news is I have to run errands today before a doctor's appointment. Can't promise more from this thread, sorry. If I get back (and manage to actually run into Cain Labs sometime today, missed him clean yesterday), I'll try to continue.

Thanks for your patience, as always.

>>32435069
Hang in there, if you're back in time that's great and if not, we can always continue later, not an issue.

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page 9? I THINK NOT

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>>32439677
Keep on holding back the night, anon

While we wait, I'm just going to shamelessly point out that The Megas released their new album recently, and it's fucking awesome. Seriously, if you have any interest in Megaman based rock opera, it's really worth a listen.

http://themegas.bandcamp.com/album/history-repeating-red

>>32439851
I fucking can't get Melody from the Past or GeminEye out of me head.

>>32439947
I've been listening to Make Your Choice a ton. I really like how all the songs can be interpreted completely differently based on the emphasis in the voicing. Personally, I think it's a series of separate conversations between Gamma, Rock and Blues.

>>32440024
Personally I can't decide wether I think it is Blues and Rock talking while Gamma wrecks shit in the background or of it's a three-way conversation.

>>32439851
Unpopular opinion, but I think The Haystack Principle is the best song on the album

All those parallels that Needle Man has to Air Man.

>>32439851

I wish vidya-related rock opera was a bigger genre. There's so much great material to rock about. The Megas and Protomen are a brilliant proof of concept.

>>32440166
Though I do disagree with it being the best song on the album, it is definitely among my top four.

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>>32439851
Shit yes

I wish they actually made this into a rock opera. I would buy like a dozen tickets

>>32439851
THIS THING YOU CALL YOUR WILL I CALL A RUSE

WE FOLLOW A PATH, WE WALK THE PROGRAM

I'VE ACCEPTED THE MACHINE I AM

And then Anode was the Mavericks

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>>32440296
>Imagine Cath going Mav

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>>32440323
>imagine being the one sent to retire her because of your ability to harmlessly absorb her electric attacks.

>>32440296
Cath responds
BROTHER IF WE WALK THE PROGRAM
THEN WHAT SYSTEM DO YOU SERVE
IS YOUR SONG JUST LINES OF CODE
OR SOMETHING THAT YOU HEARD
laced with an auditory antivirus and all was well

>>32440386
Of course Anode would be sent after Cath. Just like Cath would hopefully be sent after Anode.

>>32440323
>>32440386
>Implying Anode wouldn't go Maverick for Cathode

>>32440525
>Just like Cath would hopefully be sent after Anode.
I'd hope that command isn't sufficiently dildos to send a hunter after a maverick that can blatantly negate the hunter's attacks. Anode was literally built to soak up electricity fired by Cathode and then blat it out at bad guys, how do you think that fight would go for Cathode?

>>32440166
do you mean crash man?

>>32440659
She's had time to get new toys installed, I don't know if she's got a good counter against us or not, but it's not unlikely.

>>32440672
Deep underground, ten miles down
A man stands below the city he will destroy…

>>32440296
NOW YOU WANT TO KNOW
WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE
STOP PRETENDING YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE
ONLY THAT WILL SET YOU FREE.
NOW YOU WANT TO BURN THE WORLD
INTO THE GROUND
THIS RAGE IS NOT YOUR DESTINY
ITS HOLDING YOU DOWN

checkmate, mavericks.

>>32440689
ok look at it this way we are an even better counter to her now then we were before and we had a head start i doubt she has closed the gap we had at the time we were built sufficiently that we don't still have a huge advantage. I mean we aren't just immune to her special it makes us better.

>>32440707
Ah i see now but the themes are much more crash man and his desire to fight his nature and stop being destructive and in the end letting rock win.

>>32440800
But it was obviously a mirror to Air Man

He even catches himself starting the speech, that's where the STOP comes in

>>32441447
There are obvious nods to Air Man, but the fact that he admits that he wants to be a better person than his programming allows him to be is an easy parallel to Crash Man.

>>32441641
not to mention he laments that his hands have been replaced with weapons

>>32441817
While both Air and Needle lament how their powers force others to keep their distance
>No matter what I try
>I can’t help but hurt those close to me
and
>Do you know what it’s like to be built this way?
>With only the power to push others away?

>>32441905
I really like Air Man as a character. And that's something I can say about him from listening to a 5 minute song. The Megas are really good at this - All the Robot Masters have a distinct and somewhat deep personality.

>>32441905
so having finally finished re listing to Air and crash-mans songs i totally see your point Needle man is in Air mans shoos but unlike him rejects his position & unlike Crash man his will is less then his program.

So, after this mission, whaddya say we hit the sims? Take on X's simulation again, see how we fare? I imagine a charged up Tumult Shell could soak up a decent chunk of the damage caused by his Giga Crush if the sim X decides to break it out... right?

>>32444201
Wasn't it clear that anything higher charged than a flying lemon would rip right through it?

>>32444231
Was it? I can't remember.

>>32444201
I'm not against running the sims. Though, I'd like to try fighting Em all out. We can't exactly shoot him during a practice match.

>>32444656
X and Zero are pretty much the only non-mav sims that are available for general use if memory serves. The idea being that someone could go mav, hide it, then practice and practice against sims of everyone in their base and have a decent shot at taking the whole place down single-handed.

What about sim-sparring?

>>32445163
Is there a way to do a versus match then?

>>32445247
Hm. Dunno. I don't really remember anything about it, but then that doesn't mean there isn't anything, and also my memory is pretty shitty anyway, so yeah. That might be an option. Though I suspect Em will hand us our asses.

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Tired, distracted, and really, really pissed off, but let's see if we can breathe a little more life into this beast.
>>32414353
>>32414388
>>32414469
>>32414493
>>32414636
You check the urge to run for it. It's too soon. He seems to be shifting his attention to Em, anyway, perhaps trying t--

>Whatever you are attempting will not work.

What the fuck?

"Did he just--" Em starts.

>I will liberate you from every sin, do not grieve.

You don't hear him--he doesn't speak--as much as you simply understand him, lines transmitted to your brain instantly. Your eyes widen as he releases one of those plasma cannons and his hand goes to the saber resting on his hip. "Em--" you warn.

"I see it," he replies, voice taxed, over a hissing garble of static. "It's coming my way, you watch the guns."

How he can tell that you'll never know, but you trust him. Sure enough, as you move around the side, the two floating guns track you and warm, as the Philosopher turns and sweeps his saber out with a broad slashing motion, igniting a colossal blade that's as tall--taller--than you are. He slings it off the hilt in his hand, the blade retaining cohesive form as it flies downrange at Em. You dash clear of the first long, sweeping beam, and jump the second as he tracks ahead to where you would have been, had you tried a Raikousen. Shit, he's no slouch.

You hit the wall and drop, ready to take off again if the third gun turns your way. Instead, you watch Em's breakneck sprint suddenly falter as he stumbles, only just dive-rolling past the saber wave as it crashes through the nearest conveyor belt and into the wall behind it.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Magnetics," he replies after a moment, sounding disoriented as he braces himself against a wall. "I'm fine, but I need my flambard back right now."

>Flamba--You're not thinking of going toe to toe with him.
>He knows what he's doing. Get over there and give it to him.
>Other?

>>32446087
>>Flamba--You're not thinking of going toe to toe with him.
This has Bad idea written all over it

>>32446087

>How the hell is the flambard gonna help you when his sword has more mass than your body.

>>32446087
>He knows what he's doing. Get over there and give it to him.

Also: "Em, this had better just be for defense because if you fight him and die, I'll kill you. Erm... again!"

>>32446087
>>He knows what he's doing. Get over there and give it to him.

Trust Em. Trust him to be smart enough to know he doesn't have a chance. There must be some other reason he needs it.

Also, any chance we get we should Lockon the inside of one of those cannons. Last time that really pissed him off.

>>32446087
>He knows what he's doing. Get over there and give it to him.
No need to deny a man his tool for the sake of survival.

>>32446087
>He knows what he's doing. go and give it to him

>>32446087
He knows what he's doing. Em's not as reckless as we are, so he might need it for something other than getting himself killed.

>>32446087
>Transmissions directly to brain
We're getting cross-examined for possible infection AGAIN aren't we.
If we survive, that is.