Godsfall

[Lordxana0]

"This is a bad idea, those beasts are uncontrollable, not to mention their connection to our enemy, they share blood for goodness sakes!"

Natalia Marshak commander of the Chains of Heavens project sighed and pulled out a smoke from her silver cigarette tin and held it up. The woman standing next to her quickly struck a match and lit it for her. She brought the cig to her lips and took a deep drag from it. "Listen up you law school rejects, because I am going to explain this exactly once, I am in charge of this project, we don't need to go through you, even if you think we do. I will not be talked down to like a child and you will damn sure treat me with the respect of an officer of my rank" she barked out. From the outside the women was not imposing, she stood about five foot seven and had a lean body with a bit of muscle on it. She had short brown hair that was carefully kept away from her eyes and she wore a simple military coat with a number of stars along it, showing her to be a full blown general. Her voice was like thunder and when she spoke the voices across the holomonitors were silenced. "Now then, if Operation: Orpheus is a success then all of your worries about the Project are behind you, if it fails then you can put that idiot Cline in my place, now then begone assholes" she waved her hand and disconnected the call, leaving her in a large white room with a single desk.

"They do have a point you know." the other woman was a contrast from Natalia in many ways. The first being that she stood easily six foot five, towering over the commander. She had long red hair and a slim body that one might have described as perfect. "Children of the gods are often unstable, it might be better to just devote our time to the war effort rather then this silly little project"

Natalia sat down at her desk and took a drag off of the cigarette, blowing smoke into the air. "Artemis which one of us won that duel two years ago"

Artemis's jaw twitched. "You did"

"So which one of us is allowed to have the opinion?" Natalia smiled at Artemis.

"My desire to kill you only rises with each day" the goddess said with a low growl.

"Shove it." Natalia put out the cig and sighed. "And I know, these people are crazy, but we have ways of keeping them in line, and if the plan works then we will make the first major advancement in this war in ten years." she leaned forward and pressed the intercom. "All agents working under Project: Godsfall report to the commanders office for briefing on your mission" the intercom rang out across the vast underground base and to the communication devices on all of the agents. "Let the games begin" she said, taking out another cig. "And lets hope that all the points are on our side, otherwise we are screwed on all levels."

[Guyshane]

In parallel lanes across the range, there was the crack of ballistic rounds and the buzzing of beam weaponry. The range was almost never empty; there would always be people practising their sharpshooting.

Astreya stared at the distant target, a hundred metres away, and tried to focus her thoughts. It was a bit of a challenge, considering the little white kitten that was rubbing against her legs. A white, blockish bracelet about her wrist hummed, then split apart into four bits- miniaturised forms of those Starfall utilised, really- which sped across the range.

Steady..

Directing the micro-bits with nothing but intense concentration, they shot a synchronised blast at the target, before returning to Astreya’s wrist and reforming into the bracelet.

“The targeting system’s decent,” she mused, “but I’ll need more practice.”

The kitten mewled.

The latest nanobot infusion she’d received was tapping into her cortex, allowing her to do on the ground what she could do in her engine, sans haptic sheaths. Speaking of Starfall, she ought to see how the fiery engine was. But first, these new micro-bits needed more testing.

With another thought, the micro-bits spread apart, then hovered in front of her in a roughly rectangular formation. Laser threads aligned the bits, then a translucent blue field shimmered into existence within the boundary of the bits.

Whistling, Astreya unholstered a standard-issue laspistol, adjusted it to the minimal lethal setting and fired at the distant target. The beam lanced forward, but at the moment of contact with the blue field, expanded from being needle-thin to a decent thickness, several milimetres in radius. The target board was far enough away that Astreya had a little difficulty making out the details, but she was certain the target dummy had been struck with a much higher power setting. The amplification field was working out. Idly, she wondered what kind of damage Vincent’s death-ray-gun-thing would do if fired through the amplifier. With a thought, she gave the bits new orders.

Adjusting the laspistol to a ‘stun’ setting, she pointed the gun at the shimmering field with one hand, posing as movie stars did before delivering the one-liner. She pulled the trigger and regretted it instantly; the stun-bolt ricocheted off the field and hit her squarely in the stomach, knocking her to the floor, numbing her senses. For a few moments, she lay on the floor, convulsing as if tasered- which, essentially, she had been- before attempting to stand up, while the kitten crawled all over her, rubbing its face and pawing her.

“That was.. a bad idea,” she muttered, rubbing her torso, then picking up the little cat and hugging it. Almost as if on cue, her stomach growled. She should probably go to the cafeteria and have some food, but-

She knew the message a moment before she heard it.

<All agents working under Project: Godsfall report to the commander’s office for briefing on your mission.> the intercom blared.

Slinging the cat onto her shoulder, she returned the bits to their place about her hand. The deflective field was working too, but the weight of these micro-bits were an unfamiliar sensation. Certainly, these were heavier than a regular bit on this scale, but it had to be, what with their independent generators and more complex hardware.

“Godsfall. That’s us,” Astreya patted the kitten. It mewled softly in response, attempting to scramble up onto her head, but unable to because of her horn. “I’m bringing you along- if only to irritate Raithrus- so you better be on your best behaviour, alright?”

Another mewl brought on a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, just as the kitten was supposed to do and Astreya smiled. “Godsfall..” Her smile grew predatory. “Let’s pray- no- let’s hope we live up to that name.”

Returning the pistol to the quartermaster and signing out, Astreya began making her way to, as the intercom put it, the commander’s office.

-

Somewhere on the base a man was sitting in his quarters on his computer. Every now and again he ran his hand down his scarred face. This is interesting, it seems that activity has increased lately, this usually indicates a presence of a greater being, I wonder if this is one of them or simply another servator. I grow tired of servitors.

The man sighed and switch over to the files of the others in the same “project” as him. They were a motley crew hailing from many different pantheons as far he could tell. He had already met some like Astreya and her adorable kitten, he had also encountered the irritating Raithias. However there were also some new arrivals as well as some that he had never met before.

This subject 66 is quite....something, in addition despite him not being the product of Kronos no time god is particularly kind and caring. The best one can hope for with one of those is ambivalent. This Nemain may be quite useful as a partner to my abilities as well as a healer. However I cannot believe the nonsense of letting this Patrcia into the program.

The soldier sighed and hacked into the internal security feed of the base. he spent several minutes simply observing the other staff around the base before switching to the internal feed on the project director’s office. He suspected she knew that he could hack her office camera because there had been several times when the feed was blocked out. Apprently they had what most called “an understanding”.

Today was one of the days she allowed him access but even then there was a substantial amount of static covering one side of the screen. He watched the director converse with someone for a moment before she activated the intercom. Then the intercom rang out across the base: "All agents working under Project: Godsfall report to the commanders office for briefing on your mission"

He stood and put on his coat, pulling up his hood to conceal his face and arming himself with a large gun. Vincent was ready to go to work. He left his room and headed to the meeting place arriving there several minutes later. Apparently I’m early.

The door slid open with a pneumatic hiss and Astreya stepped in, blinking her pale green eyes.

“Oh, hello Vincent! ‘s a pleasure to see you.” she smiled pleasantly.

Vincent nodded. “Astreya” he replied by way of greeting.

“It’s all starting up now, hm?” she commented, pulling the warm kitten into her arms. “I’m pretty excited about this myself.”

“Its not all that surprising, there has been a greater flux of activity lately. No battalions flash-fried though so apparently no gods have taken the field yet.” He crossed his arms. “Also going active means we have to deal with Raithias.”

“Raithrus,” she corrected idly, then continued. “Observant as ever, aren’t you? It’s gonna be helpful since.. well, I’m sure we’ve both read the reports. You’re probably the one taking charge. Maybe. Please not Raithrus. Just not him.”

“No one can control him and for all his bluster about wanting command he hasn’t made any real efforts to do so. The best we can hope to do is point him in the general direction of a target and hope he kills it.”

Astreya giggled. “He’ll probably take offense at the pointing, though we can always throw this darling kitten at him.” The kitten mewled in protest. “But 66.. I’m interested. Since we’re the engine drivers, I’ll probably be covering him from afar. This oughta be fun. And that.. Patricia, was it? The noodle-arm sounds positively hilarious. I’d love to see it. The last member.. Nemain, right? Shapeshifting’s pretty cool.”

Vincent nodded. “Shapeshifting will be useful, also she seems to have an ability similar to my own but according to her file it only extends to battle situation. Patricia is.... I’m not even sure what we’ll do with her. And 66.” His eyes flashed for a moment. “We need to be careful with him, very careful. Not many can successfully deal with Raithrus.”

“Fair point,” Astreya acquiesced, “but we’re on the same team, so I guess we play nice with each other. Ah, but I’ve been working as a solo pilot for so long I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to work with a team. If I, uh, screw up now and then, feel free to yell at me or something. Truth be told, I’m a little nervous about this, not just excited.” She paused, cocking her head to the side as if listening to something he couldn’t hear, then grinned. “You’ve got access to the commander’s room feed? Awesome.”

“Sometimes. Apparently she does it so she doesn’t have to upgrade her security net everytime I break the encryption key. She’s especially clever in my experience.”

“She has to be; she’s the commander, after all. Though, it’s funny, isn’t it? Using us as weapons against our.. parents? I’d have thought they’d mistrust us a whole lot more.”

Vincent brooded some more. “Yes well they weren't terribly far off the mark in trusting me to get rid of....Him.”

Astreya gave her fellow demigod a wry smile. “You think? We both are, and I bet most of the others probably feel somewhat like this too. Its revenge. Whatever any of us say- except Raithrus, he doesn’t count- its revenge, in the the end.”

Vincent shrugged, “Fair enough.” He reached over and began scratching the kitten under its chin.

[AMimsyBorogove]

Two scarlet eyes snapped open within the darkened room, and the black shape that had lounged idly upon the floor slowly sat up, raising its brightly glowing hand and pushing itself to its feet. "You again," The shadowed warrior said. "I do believe I told your inferior underlings that I did not wish to be disturbed, did I not, Overseer?" Glowering at the far wall, Raithrus was rewarded by a small mechanism sliding open with a quiet hiss and a figure in a lab coat appearing projected upon the edifice, the darkness entirely obscuring the man's features.

"Should I take your acknowledgement of my presence to mean that you intend to pardon the intrusion?" The Overseer said calmly, giving a slight smile.

"Tch," The warrior-king spat. "I will tolerate it, this time." The Overseer merely nodded, and then cocked his head slightly to the side, as though wishing to say something but refraining from doing so until it was permitted. Although they both knew that he would be able to inform Raithrus of whatever it was he had intended to from the beginning of this conversation, the routine that both went through was the Overseer's means of getting his way without disrespecting the King. Although a more temperamental man than Raithrus would have found this sort of forced courtesy insulting, the warrior-king was actually rather amused by the obligatory ceremony, and, more importantly, by the manner in which the Overseer went about it. It showed that he was fully prepared to do whatever was necessary to fulfill his goals, both in negotiation and in force. He was ever efficient, composed, and calculating, all of which were values that the King appreciated much more than sycophantic veneration. "You contacted me for a reason," Raithrus said calmly. "State it."

"As you wish," The Overseer said, giving a slight smile that one might have been surprised to find mirrored on the face of the King. "Then, if I may, allow me to explain the situation. Project Chains of Heaven has recently begun assembling a task force of elite demigods in preparation for a counterattack on our divine enemies. However, in order for any such offensive to be successful, we will need nothing but the very strongest warriors we have to offer."

"So you want me to finally take to the front lines," Raithrus finished, giving a proud smirk. His words were not spoken as a question, but rather as an indubitable fact. The Overseer gave a calm nod, prompting a short laugh from the King. "Why, I should think you'd be happier, Overseer," Raithrus said sarcastically. "It looks like you finally get to do your job."

"So should I take this to mean that you accept?"

"Naturally. If the hunt is only just beginning, then by joining it, I have the chance to find for myself the very finest of prey before a lesser man should have the time to steal the glory that is rightfully mine. Idleness suits neither a ruler nor a warrior, in any case, and I am quickly tiring of this tedium. Rejoice, Overseer. You asked for the king of men to fight by your side, and you shall have your wish granted."

"Perfect. Since time is of the essence, we'd best not delay, then, no?" The Overseer smirked, the polite facade the conversation had continued under previously beginning to fall away.

"Very well, then. Speak, and I shall hear your requests."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a sudden flash of violet light, the air outside of the briefing room abruptly split apart as the King emerged from his Hollow Gate, his boots giving a quiet clank as they stepped down onto the floor, metal brushing against metal as Raithrus became fully visible, his Hollow Gate fading out of existence as he exited it. His crimson eyes scoured the corridor, and his expression swiftly took on a quite visible attitude of disgust as his gaze fell first upon Astreya, then Vincent.

"So you inferior demigods are the elites that man spoke so favorably of? How insulting."

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Patty lay on her cot, head propped up on a pillow leaned against the wall, looking up at the beer bottle. It was, well... barley just wasn't the same as wheat, was it? At least, she didn't think so. How was she supposed to know; she spent more time with archaeology than with botany, when she bothered to pay attention to anything at all. Still, she was pretty sure that buzzed on alcohol was not the same thing as drunk on power. Of course, it couldn't hurt to test the theory a little more-- wasn't that what the guys here were all about, gathering accurate evidence?

She had heard the message calling her to the commander's office at least ten minutes ago, but COME ON, what was the deal with people being so uptight about timing in the military? Honestly, everyone should just chill out and take things a little easier. No one was going to win a war or anything if they were busy being STRESSED about it all the time.

With an expert flick of her fingers, Patty one-handedly twisted the lid off the bottle, flipping it up into the air. It was a move she had long since perfected, even though there weren't many people here who would act impressed with her party tricks. She was impressed, and that was really all she cared about.

Downing the drink, the dirty-blonde looked around. Well... it wasn't like there was much else for her to do around here, anyway. Like... she could surf the net, she guessed, but there wasn't going to be anything NEW and interesting to look at since ten minutes ago. Might as well go see what Ms. Stiff-bottomed Commander wanted.

...Of course, there were ways and ways of going there. Patty always preferred the fun way. Lazily, she waved her mechanical noodle in the general direction she wanted to go and wandered off, smashing through every wall she could possibly find in an as-the-crow-flies route from her room to the commander's office.

Hey, if people like me don't do stuff like this every now and then, the guys who do wall repair or whatever would be out of a job in no time! I'm practically a saint, smashing their walls up for them!

[eli_gone_crazy]

Nemain sat back in the chair afforded to her by the agency. Most of the agent's didn't bother to speak to her, which was well enough, considering she'd killed most that had tried. Putting in a pair of earbuds, she closed her eyes and listened to the music.

Some buzzing in the background interrupted her quiet meditation. Damn, intercom she grumbled internally, wishing for the thousandth time that Aerton had given her a greater span of abilities. She tired of rotting in this cell. Glancing around the room, she spotted a camera the commander had been so kind to install. I hate this place. Shrugging her shoulders, she induced the change she habitually went through every morning. There were several skins she liked, but today she decided on being an older woman with grey hair. She had stolen this skin from her mother, and the older woman's inner strength and fate-speaking could be useful today.

Taking care to grab her cane and mp3, she slowly made her way out of her quarters and began walking towards the conference room.

[Sicon112]

"...and 66... We need to be careful with him, very careful. Not many can successfully deal with Raithrus.” I open my eyes within my room, four minutes, fifteen seconds into the past and 78 meters away from the location of their conversation. I suppose it is 'disappointing' that my teammates trust me so little. That suggests that it will be statistically more difficult to keep the situation under control. That is what disappointment is, is it not? Just another variable that turned out to be an unfortunately difficult value. Perhaps it is not. It doesn't matter, though. If that is incorrect, the calculation matters little to the overall situation, so I can simply ignore it.

I fail to see how Raithrus is at all difficult to deal with. He simply asked for my cooperation, and I gave it in such a way that the status quo remained unaffected by my participation. Perhaps they merely find themselves 'intimidated' by him. How 'disappointing'. They will be hostile, and only serve to rile up Raithrus and make him more difficult to reign in before he inadvertently sets into motion things of which he is ignorant. However, there are times that might call for an upset demi-god. I must only delay the inevitable explosion until an opportunity shows itself.

Well, I'll have to make final decisions after watching how they interact. I am their guide in a sense. Miscalculations are simply unacceptable. Therefore, I will make none.

Deciding to depart for the meeting, as time indicates that my actions there will be more important than my continued presence and observation here, I exit my room and take the shortest path to four minutes and fifteen seconds in the future. Perhaps that statement sounds odd, but it shouldn't. Time is merely a subjective phenomena. From a temporal perspective, I did nothing more complex that place one lower limb, or 'foot' of the body that I inhabit in front of the other, moving at one second per second for exactly two hundred and fifty-five seconds. From an a-chronal perspective, however, it was simply a matter of making the decision to be somewhere, and then arriving there after a negligible walk through time and space, so small as to not even register on my consciousness.

Now that I am located four minutes and fifteen seconds into the future and 78 meters away, I approach the door of the room and pause for a moment so that the Raithrus of 6.7 milliseconds into the future can arrive without the hindrance of me walking into him as he appears. Once he arrives and makes his predictably offensive comment, which hardly required me to look .7 seconds into the future to foresee, I quietly slip into the room behind him and take my place. Now that I have arrived, all conversation is about to be cut short by the entrance of the commander, so attempting to begin one anew is futile. Content with that, I shift my to the time of the commander's appearance, 14.03 seconds after my arrival.

[Lordxana0]

Natalia watched as another figure stepped into her office and leaned back in her chair, taking the cigarette out of her mouth and blowing a line of smoke through the air. "About time you guys showed up... except one of you is missing" she counted off each of them and sighed. "I would say wait for Nemain but I don't give two shits at this point" the woman snapped her fingers and the room went pitch black for a moment. After a few seconds the room changed to give them a birds eye view over what used to be London. "As I am sure you all know during the opening days of the War the various God's of death came together and decided to make a Kingdom out of London, unleashing undead hordes upon city" to illustrate this point three massive skeletons roamed through the streets, knocking aside buildings. "The skies are protected by Vayu and Cihuatecayotl, whose winds knock aside our ships and missiles before we can do any real damage"

"Low class filth" Artemis grunted.

"Rrrrrright" Natalia pulled out her gun and shot Artemis, sending her to the ground. "Now for the part where you guys become useful" Artemis pulled herself up, not a wound on her body but anger blazing in her eyes. "Operation: Orpheus, we will be flying you guys high above London, outside of the air God's full control and drop you down in transports, we are hoping that the acceleration from the drop should break through their winds, that and we will be launching a small offensive to take some of the heat off of you" she put out her cig on her desk, which automatically disposed of it. "After you touch down you will need to break into three groups, one for distraction, and two to hit these" she snapped twice and on the left and right sides of the rooms two temples appeared.

"These are the God's temples, if you can destroy them then their hold on the area will break and we can retake it much easier, the temple on the right it owned by Hades, and it guarded by Hercules and Achilles, backed by a small army of undead Greek soldiers. on the left is the temple of Hel, you know the Norse Goddess. Her temple is guarded by Beowulf and possibly Thor... okay most definitely Thor but eh" she shrugged. "Didn't say this would be easy" she smirked at them. "After you destroy the temples you will need to find Hades, the one actually running the joint, and when you do" she pulled out a metal collar from under her desk. "Clamp this around his neck, it is our newest and greatest weapon for fighting against the Gods, it nullifies their powers and makes them human, human enough to keep contained and controlled at least" she tossed the collar up in the air and looked at them.

"Now you might be wondering why I am trusting this mission to a whole bunch of halfcrazy assholes like yourselves" she smiled lightly. "Well the answer is that it wouldn't matter if anyone else did it, humanity fights Gods and gets a small bit of land back, big whoop. But imagine if the headlines read 'Demigods turn against Gods and reclaim London" she grinned widely. "We have action figures, Saturday morning cartoon shows, breakfast cereals, and video games waiting to be made of you guys, we are going to make you the freaking face of the war, the PR machine that drives humanity back on the front lines to reclaim the world" she tossed over the collar. "So then you have your mission, take time to meet your partners and then report to the hanger, there is a Rider class Battleship waiting to take you to your destination" she looked at them. "Well what are you waiting for maggots, get out of my office and let me get back to my business"

[AMimsyBorogove]

It happened in an instant.

Although the reborn Sumerian monarch had maintained his composure throughout the condescending mortal's briefing, this facade of patience was merely for his own convenience. It would have been troublesome to extract the information he needed from her by force, so, although he wasn't known for his lenience, he was willing to put up with her insults long enough to determine his next course of action. In fact, he was even feeling generous enough to forgive her ignorance in exchange for getting the information he wanted. But, on the other hand, there were some things that a king could not simply let stand. Her insulting him so brazenly after her usefulness had ended was one of them.

Perhaps before any in the room has even realized that he had opened a Hollow Gate, Raithrus had already torn the space time between himself and the worthless mortal trash to shreds, crossing the distance in a span of time faster than mortal comprehension could discern. Breaking back out of his own dimension and into reality just mere inches behind the so-called "commander," Raithrus lunged forward with his crystalline arm. A faint, seven-colored aura of light shimmered around him as his blazing hand phased cleanly through the woman's torso, erupting from the front of her body without so much as scratching the surface of her skin and immediately rising up to take hold of her throat, clamping down on her windpipe with carefully calculated force - just enough to cut off her supply of oxygen without actually crushing her neck, as would otherwise be inevitable when one took into account the freakish strength of his artificial arm.

The flames of his crystalline hand blazed brightly, licking the surface of the arrogant, presumptuous mortal's neck, yet strangely failing to burn it - another show of the king's generosity towards this ignorant mortal. Had he wished it, he could have reduced her throat to ashes in an instant, and saved himself the displeasure of having to hear her disgusting voice.

"I advise you watch your tongue, worthless woman," The king hissed, his mouth only inches away from his victim's ear as he snarled with disgust and only barely-controlled anger. "You have dared besmirch the name of your king. You are not the first to have done so, and you will not be the last. But although others have come before you, I assure you, none of them have survived to boast of their good fortune. You will be no different, should you try my patience again. Understand this: I am not one of your spineless underlings. I obey no one, let alone an arrogant whelp such as yourself. If you would have me act, then you can grovel at my feet like the trash you are, or else you will suffer the consequences. Were you and your cohorts not useful to me, then I would have killed you where you now stand for your insolence. So, heed this warning well - it shall be your last. Respect your king, for I need not even bare my blade to slay a weakling such as you."

With those words, just as suddenly as he had appeared, Raithrus released the commander, stepping back and vanishing in a flicker of purple light, re-appearing next to the door.

"Consider yourself fortunate, worthless woman, for I will deign to accept your request today. I have heard a great deal of this supposedly invincible Myrmidon warrior. Perhaps this 'Achilles' shall prove worthy of facing me in battle... although I have my doubts. In any case, I shall be inspecting the transport you have provided. Pray that it meets up to my standards, or you will know your king's displeasure. And as for the rest of you... I advise you do not make me wait." Then, once again finishing his acidic diatribe, the king flickered out of the spatial plane, vanishing from sight in a momentary flash of purple fire.

Within the depths of his own world, Raithrus smirked. A duel with an immortal and his divine allies, hmm? Perhaps today wasn't going to be as pointless as he had expected. No, on the contrary... this actually sounded like fun!

[Lordxana0]

Natalia held out her hand, which Artemis put a coffee cup in and filled it with freshly brewed tea. "Well, that was exciting" she took a slow sip of tea. "Anyone else want to threaten my life or are we good here?"

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

"Yeah, I have a question." Patty raised a hand in a mock-respectful gesture, eying the supervisor's coffee rather than bothering to look at her new companions. "Are there going to be snacks?"

[agoraoptera]

Astreya eyed the gratuitous display put on by Raithrus, then harrumphed and rolled her eyes, and scratched the cat. As its soft mewling filled up the abrupt silence, the horned girl glanced around, ignoring the disturbingly lascivious stare the spaghetti-armed woman was giving the commander's coffee.

"Three teams of two. Well, let's get going guys," Astreya said as they began to make their way out. Cheeks turning a faint rosy pink, she asked, "Vincent, if you don't mind, I'd like to work with you. Is that, um, okay?"

[eli_gone_crazy]

The door slowly creaked open as an elderly woman entered the room. She was stooped and slow, and her back was hunched painfully high, tortured spine straining under the slight efforts. Loud punk music played in her earbuds, and she bobbed her head slightly to the screams. Glancing up at the meeting, she smiled wickedly, "'lo all."

Turning to sit in one of the free chairs, she added, eyes glittering with vengeful amusement, "Artemis, I hope you're fine with an elderly woman being so late. I had fallen, but there was no one around to help me up."

[Guyshane]

Yes well this meeting is...interesting

Vincent shook his head. He had wasted enough time as it is, there was a target to destroy and that was that. He preformed a quick check of his weapons before looking up at Astreya. "Yes it will be fine. In fact I welcome it as I at least know you're both competent and stable." he replied the last bit mostly as a barb against Raithrus.

Then he grabbed her by the arm and whispered in Astreya's ear as he pulled her along. "Quickly let's get out of here and down to the launch bay before we are delayed by the firefight that's about to break out here."

[Lordxana0]

Artemis looked toward the Natalia. "May I?"

The Commander nodded with a small smile. "Yes"

Artemis summoned her bow and fired two arrows, cutting the cords to the headphones. "Sorry I wanted to make sure you heard my answer before I started speaking to you" she gave her a small grin. "After all hearing is the first thing to go with old bats"

The Commander chuckled lightly and looked toward the old woman. "Get out of my office before I decide to not have a new pair of headphones delivered to your room, also get to the hanger bay with the rest of the team"

[eli_gone_crazy]

Nemain glared up at the archer, face twitching up into a grim smile. A stiff breeze blew through the room, and the old woman became a young girl, twin swords naked in her hand. Once rheumy blue eyes now sparkled in the light, and when she spoke, her voice was carefully inflected to minimize her British accent. "You'll die alone."

Smirking rebelliously at the commander, she tipped her main sword in a mock salute before walking out of the boardroom, red hair streaming as she called back. "Hope you all enjoy death. You'll be meeting him soon enough."

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

The strawberry-blonde girl, leaning back bored against the wall, glanced at the new arrival. “Yo,” she called, smirking at the altercation with the so-called authority figures.

Nemain glared up at the girl, pulling out a new pair of headphones with a long-suffering sigh. Without speaking to the other demigod, she slipped the earbuds in, screams echoing into the hollow chamber.

Patty casually walked over, pulling one bud out of the woman’s ear and sticking it in her own. Nodding in approval, she reached into a pocket with the tip of her noodle-arm and deposited a cookie in her right hand. Making the treat dance deftly between her fingers, occasionally tossing it into the air to catch it again, she nudged Nemain. “You want?”

“I don’t take food from strangers.” Nemain replied, blue eyes piercing the other’s brown.

Patty gave a half-shrug, tossing the cookie into her own mouth and crunching vigourously. “Y’r loss.” She tapped her foot along with the beat of the loud music as she finished eating. “Yo. So. We teaming up or what, man?”

“You don’t want to be on my team.”

“That statement is eighty-eight percent false.”

Nemain glanced over disapprovingly, “You’ll die a bloody death.”

“Mmmm… ninety-seven percent false. Not buying.” Patty waved her metal arm in abstract patterns through the air around them. “Dude, just bite.”

“I’d rather die.”

“Okay, sixty-nine percent true. I’ll still take my thirty-one. I like your taste in beats.”

Nemain rolled her eyes. “Your parent?”

She rolled her tongue around in her mouth, probing for stray cookie crumbs, before answering. “Someone totally lame. More importantly, I’m Patty.”

Nemain’s face twitched into a smile before returning to her earlier, more carefully controlled expression. “The Morrigan.”

“Your name, or your lame-o ‘rent?”

“My Mother might be upset with you for that.” Nemain twisted into a semblance of a smile. “My name is Nemain.”

“Awesomesauce. Gimme five, Nemain.” Patty offered her metal arm instead of her normal hand for the gesture, grinning lightly.

[Lordxana0]

Once the various Demigods arrived in the hanger they saw the massive battleship that awaited them, already loaded with the weapons and crew needed to fly it. Various workers buzzed across the hanger, getting things ready and triple checking all of the equipment for any flaws. This would be the first real offensive against Divine territory in years, and no one wanted to be the guy who messed up his job and screwed the entire mission over.

"E...excuse me..." a rather nervous looking young man with a clipboard walked over to them, pushing the glasses up his nose and swallowing, clearly a bit more then scared by the various people in front of him. "S..special unit A... if you will uh...follow me..." he turned around and walked toward the battleship. "Your various weapons and mechs have been loaded onto the ship, and the flight should only take about five hours from here under cloaking. Once near the city an offensive will be launched from the other side, drawing the attention of the Gods away from it, once we draw enough fire we will be sending you in via rocket pods along with your weapons, then...well... you already know the targets I guess" he walked onto the ship and turned back to them. The area they would all be waiting in was quite lavish, set up with a small bar and comfortable waiting arrangements. They had been set up to keep the rather insane squad content until they could be unleashed upon the enemy. The commander had complained about 'wrapping a missile in a sweater' but the higher ups had forced her into it.

"So uh...be comfortable and another agent will be send to take you guys to the launch pods when we reach the drop zone... any questions?" the man still looked nervous, but he was putting on a bit braver of a face now.

[eli_gone_crazy]

Nemain stared at the man for a moment, before sighing and walking close to him, cruel smile on her face. She slid close enough to whisper to him, words soft and threatening. "Tell me, do you know what death smells like, private?"

[Lordxana0]

The young soldier gulped and took a rather hefty sized step back from the old woman and put his hands up. "I uh... well thats to say" he coughed into his hand and got out of her way. "P...please enjoy the ride too the battlefield, good luck ma'am" to say the private was creeped out by the various people in front of him would have been an understatement.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

"Hey, I have a question, nerdy-dude," Patty called out lazily. "Can I have some more snacks?"

[Lordxana0]

The boy nodded and pointed into the airship. "I...in the ship" he managed to stammer out as he began to write some stuff on the clipboard. He might have been a little less nervous if Project Godsfall didn't rank him as 'expendable interactor' when it came to dealing with the Demigods, meaning that if one of them snapped and killed him another person would be send to step on his body and take his place. It was a bit disheartening but it was what needed to be done to win the war.

[Guyshane]

Vincent made a noise of irritation in the back of his throat. "We are wasting time with this nonsense." He said, speaking up.

First he turned to Nemain glaring at the young woman. "You, on the ship. I will not have you unnecessarily threatening and/or killing our batman. You'll have plenty of enemies to reap in a few hours you feckless savage."

Then he turned his glare on Patty. "And you, stay away with anything with wheat in it. I've read some of that reports on you. I still don't know what the whole "Noodle incident" was about but I'm sure I don't want a repeat experience occurring mid-flight."

Turning his back on the two dismissively the demi-god looked at the soldier in front of him. "Now then Private. I know you said that our weapons have been loaded onto this ship. However in spite of this I would like some ballistic weapons and explosives brought to me while we are in transit so I can work on improving them for my personal use. Is this arrangeable?" He asked firmly but respectfully.

[Lordxana0]

The Private nodded, marking a few things off of his clipboard and looking toward the man who seemed to be advocating his not murder. "Y..yes, high command got your request and has already loaded your equipment into the room so you will be able to do all you need to in order to raise the missions success chance" It seemed like the more crazy ones had already gotten out of the way, he might actually have a chance of not dying here after all. Which was wonderful news to him, and probably to the project too, seeing as the insurance pay off for his death would be enough for his family to buy a mansion.

[eli_gone_crazy]

Nemain turned to look at him slowly, tilting her head. "I'll threaten who I please. Especially when the only one in my way is a man too afraid to show his own face."

Turning to the soldier, she smirked, "I need a vial of dead man's blood. Fresh corpse, no more than an hour old. Can you get it? Or should I--" she smiled wolfishly-- "Make my own?"

[Guyshane]

Vincent turned to loom over the smaller demi-god. "Yes, I do hide my face from the world. It hardly looks as good as it once did. And I suppose you really want to see my face? Just like everyone else who was so foolishly curious?"

He leaned down, his eyes glowing green from within the hood. It provided some clarification to his features but not much, only the vague hints of a savage attack. Then the glow ceased and he stood up straight. "However it is hardly polite to do so in public." The soldier reached down into a pouch of his BDU's and produced a vial of dark red liquid which he hand to Nemain. "Here is your dead man's blood. It pays to be prepared."

Vincent turned on his heel and strode upwards towards the opening in the ship, before entering he turned. "Just so you know I've read every file that could be made available to me on each of you. Some of you could fight me on equal ground," the faceless hood swung towards the Celtic demi-god once again. "However, you Nemain are not one of those. Do not test my patience."

With that he turned and entered into the ship.