Desecrator Descretation

It’s some distance to the next village and the Trent contingent and Psi-Stalkers haven’t been following the roads exactly. Well, what they think of as roads are more like tracks through the moutains and forests but that’s not what they’re following entirely. They’d followed the path that had been cut through the forest to its origin point and had another look around before turning to find the way to the next village. Natsu had ‘fed’ the psi-stalker lad before they’d set off.

They’d stopped overnight, just outside the village and got some sleep. Natsu is just waking, stretching and wincing as she does which might be reasonable given she’s … never really piloted anything before.

“Sore?” Jericho says, stretching a little. He’s not doing it nearly as much as she, clearly being much more used to sitting in a chair that keeps bouncing and moving for hours at a stretch. There is a certain amount of physical ability to piloting a bot… which is why bot pilots tend to be rather fit. It helps, particularly on long stretches like this one.

“You’ll have to get used that, I’m afraid.”

“No. Not at all…” the dusky skinned woman says dryly as she looks over to Jericho, standing up to stretch out again. She’s still in the jumpsuit she set out in, they hadn’t been expected to be out overnight. “I’m used to sleeping in awkward positions and spending my day being jostled around…”

In a way, that could be true. Or it was.

“And if it’s all the same, I’d rather not get used to it. I’d rather give the bot over to you …” She’s not letting go of that one as she moves herself across the cabin to place a kiss on the now Baronets cheek.

“And good morning … I won’t ask if you slept well. We didn’t get to talk much last night, what do you make of all this?” That she’s uneasy is clear, at least to Jericho. Anyone else, apart from Zelda, wouldn’t pick it up from her composure. “I take it, you want to look around in the bot again?”

“If by this you mean what’s going on up here, I don’t know. I don’t think we have enough information. It’s bad, but I don’t know how bad and for whom.” At the moment, that it affects their allies is enough. They can help this tribe and perhaps make some friends in the mean time. As to the larger meaning… there might not be one, really.

“Soon as our allies are up and ready to go yes. This whole expedition is on their behalf. I’m still not entirely sure what they hope to accomplish in truth.”

Natsu smiles faintly at Jericho’s preoccupation and turns to look out the window. “If what I heard when I was helping the lad last night is any indication, they were hoping for something they could fight.” That might makes sense in some ways. It’s unusual, though not unheard of, for the psi-stalkers not to be able to counter a magical threat. They thrive on magic and psychic energy after all.

Outside the bot, the camp is stirring and through the window they can see the psi-stalkers stirring. The young man they’d found hidden in the last village is still leaking peaked but he’s a touch more colour to him now.

“Looks like our friends are up and judging by the way their congregating, they’re as eager as you are to go.”

Natsu might not be. This is completely foreign to her and she’d never imagine she’d up doing … this.

Natsu smiles faintly at Jericho’s preoccupation and turns to look out the window. “If what I heard when I was helping the lad last night is any indication, they were hoping for something they could fight.” That might makes sense in some ways. It’s unusual, though not unheard of, for the psi-stalkers not to be able to counter a magical threat. They thrive on magic and psychic energy after all.

Outside the bot, the camp is stirring and through the window they can see the psi-stalkers stirring. The young man they’d found hidden in the last village is still looking peaked but he’s a touch more colour to him now.

“Looks like our friends are up and judging by the way their congregating, they’re as eager as you are to go.”

Natsu might not be. This is completely foreign to her and she’d never imagine she’d end up doing … this.

Jericho glances out the window and waves. “It’ll take them a little bit to get ready to march.” Any group of people doesn’t just get up and go. There’s always things to be organized, cleanup to do. The psi-stalkers are experienced travellers but even they have to take some time for this.

“Are you ready to go? We’ll have to power up the bot and so on.” That’ll take a few minutes. Systems checks always do, but they have time.

“What do YOU think of all this?”

It will take the psi-stalkers time to get ready but not long and Natsu watches them as they work. Bedrolls, such as they are are rolled up, packs put together and weapons checked. The part-elf shudders a little as she see’s the knives on their belts.

“I would love some coffee and to spend some time in my bed, or yours, wrapped around you …” she gives the Baronet a flirting look before glancing over to the instrumentation “… but given I can’t I have either of those, then I’m ready to go. I’ll start the checks in a moment.”

It’s a good question he asks though and Natsu just shakes her head. “We’ve lived with demon incursions our entire lives, leannan, and seen D-Bee’s boil out of these mountains from time to time. This has thrown me and I don’t know what to make of it. After your Father and what I saw the psi-stalkers do, I didn’t think anything could scare them. And yet they are…”

“Much like you, I don’t know what to make of it. But if it drains the area of magic and leaves the tribes hungry …” there’s going to be more than just that monster, whatever it is, to deal with. Hungry psi-stalkers will hunt where they can feed.

“Every time that has happened historically, they come down into the lowlands and attack Dogwood and Vesper.” Jericho says quietly. “And usually they’re lead by someone who has managed to unite a good portion of the tribes.”

In the greater appalachians area there are probably half a million stalkers. They’re spread out but if even a portion of them unite, it’s a lot of hungry and very aggressive warriors to deal with.

“They’re men, like us.” Well not quite like Jericho or Natsuki but still men. “They hope, they fear. Just like us.”

He rolls his shoulder slightly. “Whenever you’re ready we can get started.”

“Exactly.” The part-elf says just as quietly “And I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this. If they’re pushed from their homes and someone does unite them, we’ll have a fight on two fronts at least. I wouldn’t wish that on you and Lady Zelda.” She doesn’t even consider that she might enter the fighting, that hasn’t been role at all.

Clearly Jericho isn’t in flirting mode and it makes Natsu smile slightly to see him so focussed. He’s … different when he’s working like this whereas for her, to flirt and tease is like breathing.

“I suppose you’re right. That they’re like us, that is. We might need to speak to Vos about the politics that are in play out here.” Knowing who’s influencing what will be useful.

She turns then, trailing her hand down Jericho’s arm, to her console. She doesn’t take a seat, not just yet – she’ll get enough of that shortly. “Starting system prechecks now. You might want to check what I’m doing …” Her console springs to life and data starts to show. She might know what some of it means.

Jericho smiles and leans in to plant a kiss on Nat’s cheek. Then he sits down and straps in to his own seat.

“You know I’ve used these as many times as you have right?” Zelda, really, is the expert here. But he does have more experience than she in bot operation, she’s right about that.

“Power curve is steady. This fusion reactor is really something else. They literally do not make them like this anymore. Mobility system coming online. Check the controls and make sure they’re still responding.”

Natsu smiles and leans over to accept that kiss giving the Baronet a hooded look. She’d really make a terrible CorSec. “You’ve done far more systems prechecks than I have, leannan. Whilst the system might differ, I’m fairly sure the procedure doesn’t and you can make sense of this gibberish …”

Is it really gibberish to Natsu? Possibly not, she might just be teasing Jericho.

“Do you think you could reverse engineer the reactor?” she looks over as she finally takes her seat and straps herself. He can feel the Cat jog a little as the part-elf tests out her controls.

At one point, he feels it ‘sit’ back on its haunches and the front ‘paws’ come up – from outside it might look like the big metal Puma is begging. “I think they’re working well.” She says deliberately not looking at Jericho – at all!

“Let Greth know we’re ready to head out …” she says, finally moving the cat slowly towards the village just up ahead.

“Are you seeing any damage like the last village, Jericho?”

Jericho shakes his head. “Maybe we could but not without taking it apart and even then odds are likely that we don’t have the facilities to make them anymore. Golden Age technology requires advanced precision manufacturing techniques that…” He trails off, realizing the technical explanaiton probably isn’t very interesting.

“It’s more valuable in the bot, really.” Is what he says finally.

“Greth, we’re ready here. We’ll follow you out.” Well, Natsuki will. Jericho eyes Natsuki at the ‘pose’ the bot adopts. The people outside will be laughing, he’s sure.

*** OOC Time: Sun Jun 24 13:22:51 2018 ***

Natsu raises an eyebrow as Jericho trails off. “If I wasn’t interested, I wouldn’t have asked…” She knows what he just did. Maybe she sensed it in that connection they share. “But alright. We don’t have the techniques that the ancients had. Maybe we could find that place that kept trying to recall us…”

She does bat her eyelids as he looks at her though “What? Don’t all good pilots have a signature move?” They don’t, she knows that but she likes to tease and Jericho’s response was all that she hoped it would be.

The psi-stalkers start towards the village ahead. There’s no damage like the last one in fact it’s very quiet. The reason for that soon becomes obvious – there’s the bodies of warriors strewn everywhere.

“Baronet…” Greths voice comes over the comms as his psi-stalkers spread out “These are the warriors that stayed behind to try and fight.” Jericho’s instruments show a flattened space just outside the walls, it looks like a rift might have opened there. “The way the bodies are, they … appear to have been fighting each other…”

Jericho just looks at Natsuki as she bats her eyelids. He knows what she did just as she knows what he did. Though they are slightly different things. “Usually the signature move is coming home alive.”

Would Jericho like to pilot this bot? Of course he would. But the computer has been stubborn about handing over its registration and he may just have to resign himself to rebuilding his… or buying one from Northern Gun or Titan.

Though those are a bit expensive.

“Explain, Greth. How’s that possible?” As he’s on the comms he motions to Natsuki to do a radar/lidar sweep of the area so they can get a better idea of what they’re looking at.

Jericho just looks at Natsuki as she bats her eyelids. He knows what she did just as she knows what he did. Though they are slightly different things. “Usually the signature move is coming home alive.”

Would Jericho like to pilot this bot? Of course he would. But the computer has been stubborn about handing over its registration and he may just have to resign himself to rebuilding his… or buying one from Northern Gun or Titan.

Though those are a bit expensive.

“Explain, Greth. How’s that possible?” As he’s on the comms he motions to Natsuki to do a radar/lidar sweep of the area so they can get a better idea of what they’re looking at.

If Natsu can’t force the computer to hand over the pilot seat to Jericho, he might find himself the recipient of another gift. He must have a birthday or something coming up. “Well, maybe I’ll have two. We both know I like to overdo some things …” she says glibly, though he may feel the ‘warmth’ she sends him.

The puma stalks along behind the rest of the contingent, letting them set the pace as they move. And stalking is right. Whatever has happened, the computer has adjusted its programming to cater for the lack of Natsu’s skill.

“I … don’t know, Baronet. But we can see that they’ve tried to tear each other apart. It looks like they were crazed or … something.” he sounds worried.

As the camera’s sweep across the compound, Jericho will get the full horror of what’s happened. Possibly of most interest are the bodies at the outer edge of the carnage – their chests have been torn open and the hearts … missing. That’s enough to cause Natsu gasp in horror but she doesn’t anything more.

The sweeps paint the picture they might expect. The walls of the settlement, the forest and mountains beyond. What is out of the place are the large footprints imprinted in the ground. Humanoid, but from something tall and heavy.

There’s a howl from one of the buildings as a door is thrown open. Two psi-stalkers, their eyes wild, launch themselves at those nearest them, intent on causing harm.

Jericho pulls up the picture on his console, peering at the way the bodies have fallen and their relationship to the footprints. He’s about to say something when the audio resounds with the sound of crazed men. “Nat, knock them over. Quick!”

She has to move before they can get on top of those nearest them. There’s a very small window, and then there won’t be anything the robot can do without hurting their allies, which means… nothing they can do at all.

The footsteps are leading away from the settlement and Jericho’s right to be assessing the relationship to the bodies. They seem to be a direct line from there. At least, that’s the what the dark stains on the earth behind them indicate.

“Do what?” Natsu starts as Jericho speaks, moving the bot perhaps a little more slowly than he wanted. It shudders and then it quite literally pounces, a paw swiping to to try and knock the aggressors flat as it does.

The psi-stalkers respond more quickly than Natsu did and as the pair fall, the non-crazed stalkers try to secure them.

“Let me go…” one of the growls at the others. “… you’re just going to sell us out to Dogwood and they’ll be the end of us….”

“You … perhaps should go down.” the part-elf says quietly.

“Yeah. Don’t wander off.” Jericho teases a bit distractedly as he unstraps himself and goes to the back hatch to get down onto the ground.

He cuts a slightly less imposing figure in his pilot’s coveralls and without his sword. He does still have a pistol strapped to his side though and a vibro-knife.

“What’s going on?” If he sounds like he’s in charge, well, that’s because he is in many ways. A hundred CorSec and Mercenaries plus the bot… puts him in charge.

“And where would I go?” Natsu asks dryly not making a move to follow him. Maybe she’s seen enough for the moment.

As Jericho approaches the group, they give way to him. Maybe he’s not quite as imposing but he //is// imposing and they recognise who and what he is. Greth is standing over the two who are trussed up and snarling. They’re eyes are wild and their bodies sport cuts and bruising. It’s clear they were here for at least some of what went down.

“Dogwood scum.” The one says. “Here to destroy us. And you…” he looks around “… are all in bed with them…”

“She… she was beautiful.” the other one whimpers. “Arrived at the gates and we let her in …” He doesn’t seem as affected as the other one. Though he’s trembling as well. “… set Hyraj and Vethrum against each other…”

Greth frowns. “Those were two of our senior people. They would have been leading the group here…”

“She.” Jericho looks at Greth. “Not one of your own I’m assuming. None of your own would turn your people against one another. Psi-Stalkers are resistant to telepathic tampering. Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

He’s not asking the two captives because he doubts he’s going to get anything useful out of them. They’ve determined he’s the enemy so it’s going to be all insults and threats.

“He looks less agitated.” He says pointing at the one who is shaking.

“The women are … ” Greth looks out over the compound “… all accounted for. I don’t think that’s who Chev is talking about.” He’s frowning still, looking over towards where the two bodies that have laid open lie.

“Who was she, Chev? Will you tell the Baronet, he’s come to help us.”

Chev shudders again, looking at Jericho, clearly fighting something before he speaks. “She’s was beautiful, came to the gates and asked for help. We let her in and she started talking. Soon, we fighting amongst ourselves about trading with Dogwood and how it was bad for us.”

“The footprints look like someone was watching a fight and not participating in it.” Jericho says, pointing bck to where the large depressions in the moist earth are. They’re human-ish prints. Maybe from boots. It’s hard to say. Whatever it was, it was big and heavy.

“This feels like magic.” There are magicks that can turn friend against friend and brother against brother but they’re not common. And they’re not wielded by just any demon either. Some demons, though, have… abilities that transcend normal magic. Things more innate to their nature. Something on this scale, though, is just frightening.

“Something clouded your people’s minds.” He glances back down. “What are you going to do with them?”

The information he’s getting is frightening, but it’s not especially useful. There’s nothing here that tells him what he’s dealing with or how to stop it. Or even where it is. Which means there isn’t especially anything he can do but make a show of support of his allies and head home when the errand proves to be ultimately futile. And unless something changes, that is what it will ultimately be.

“Clouded their minds, yes. It might be magic, but it would have to be a powerful magic to affect those that were here.” It is frightening and Greth looks worried. “We’ll take them back with us and see if they come out of this. Maybe being away from this will be enough. If not…” He doesn’t really want to think on what might happen if they can’t be recovered.

“Wasn’t watching. She turned into that … when we started fighting each other. Stood in the middle of it all and laughed. Skin the colour of light moss and claws … oh god. She ripped out their hearts and ate them as we tore each other apart.”

“Which way did she go?” There’s rumbles amongst the psi-stalkers as Chev words filter through.

“Towards the caves…” he gestures to where the footsteps were.

The Baronet looks towards those caves. He frowns slightly and motions to Natsuki. It looks big enough to fit the bot in, if it crouches a little. Which means that whatever this thing was – it was big when it went in there.

“Natsuki follow me in.” Everyone else can stay here. Or, well, all of his people can stay here. The psy stalkers can come or not but they might need to take care of their crazed compatriots.

“Jericho…” Natsuki responds but doesn’t say anything more. He’s not in armour and he only has that pistol and vibroknife though she knows how good he is with them. The puma starts forward, following the Baronet, it’s pilot focussing intently. Greth and most of his psi-stalker follow as well.

Yes, it does have to crouch to enter the caves but there’s enough room for it to manouevre … just.

The passage isn’t long and as he walks, Jericho can see the footprints and the splatter of blood that accompanies them. Whatever this is, humanoid or not – they must be tall for the size of the print and heavy to make such an impression.

The Puma is several steps behind Jericho as he approaches the cavern this passage empties into. He can hear the scrape, scrape of claws on rock and hear the sibilant hissing that accompanies it.

Jericho stops, waiting for the Puma to walk up to him. He’s not alone here of course and the Puma has a lot of firepower… and there isn’t a whole lot of places to go. Hissing and sibilance though doesn’t really sound like what they’re looking for. Not surprising, God only knows what the ‘she’ came in here for.

Finding a light on his belt the Baronet turns it down the passage. Whose there?

The bots not all that quiet but it is quiet for what it is and Natsu stops just behind the Baronet. He might have the firepower of the mech behind him, but if he’s targetted directly it could be trouble.

The light when it shines reveals small winged demons all feasting on the bones of … well, it’s probably best not to know really.

There’s also the signs of a Rift that had opened there. It’s closed now but if the debris littering the area is any sign to go on, it wasn’t all that long ago it happened.

“The Desecrator allows us to feed well …” one hisses to the others. “… we can feed off her chaos for weeks before nothing is left.”

As the light from Jericho falls on the room, their wings rustle and they turn to peer in his direction. They hiss, claws scrabbling on the rock as they start towards him in a rush.

Jericho doesn’t even move. Well. He does draw his pistol but there’s a reason they brought the bot in here. “Natsuki, fire.” The bot’s cannons are devastating and in the (comparatively) narrow passage of the cave there isn’t anywhere for the demons to go. Anything that gets through the stalkers can deal with. He’s more interested in the bones.

And the name ‘Desecrator’.

Hopefully something is left when Nat is done.

Jericho might get a talking to later. Natsuki gasps as she sees the demons swarm towards him. Not needing to be told twice, the bot opens fire and mows the winged creatures down. It’s not … pretty and Jericho might well be splashed with some of the carnage.

Some of the creatures are slightly ahead of the cannon fire and one launches itself at the Baronet, cruel talons trying to reach him. The others are met by the psi-stalkers who grab them and throw them against the walls.

The Baronet fades back, firing. He’s not normally in the fight in this manner but it’s just one demon and he’s dealt with the likes of this before. He does shoot it a lot but in Rifts Earth that’s just good sense.

In the aftermath of the brief but rather visceral carnage Natsuki can see her Leannan wiping his face off with his sleeve. He’s got purpleish… spatter on him. Sort of everywhere.

The demon is shot a lot and it twitches on the floor in it’s death throes. There’s not much left within the passage either, except for one or two the psi-stalkers have drained. They’ll be taken back to the others who need to feed and if Jericho wants to try and find out more, he can.

“Jericho…” Natsu says, watching him wipe his face on his sleeve. “… we will talk …” and then she’ll make him wash – though she doubts that jumpsuit will be usuable again.

In the cavern itself, the bones have been dropped on the floor. They’re … human and judging by the knives in the pile not far from there… psi-stalkers. Probably from further into the mountains.

Jericho glances back up toward the big cat and nods. There isn’t much else he wants to say in front of their allies on that. He knows she just had a small heart attack. He could feel it.

The Baronet walks over to the pile of bones and kneels down next to it, frowning slightly. They’re gnawed and picked clean.

“There are an awful lot of these things in here…” The bones are all relatively new, which means that indeed this cave was recently occupied probably by demons who smelled carrion to feed on. Bonepickers like the ones they just killed do that. They don’t even care if their victim is dead yet, so long as he’s helpless and can’t put up a good fight.

“They’re too gnawed to tell how they died or why. Bodies are all scattered on the floor without any care. At least we can probably say there wasn’t any blood magic involved.”

He goes to look over the knives to see if that tells him anything useful. “Will you leave them, Greth or do you want to bury the dead?”

The Cat sits as a sentinel at the opening of the cavern, Natsu watching as Jericho and the psi-stalkers move.

“We’ll honour them, Baronet…” Greth grunts as he bends down next to the kinves with Jericho. “Different tribes, these. See the markings on the hilts …” the psi-stalker shakes his head.

“I’d say they were just taking advantage of whatever happened but we have a couple if you want to … question … them. We can make them talk some…”

He grunts again and gestures to his people to gather up the remains. “They’ll look to this and I think you need to see to your lady.”

They can see what more they can find soon.

“I’ll leave you to it. And yes, I do need to see to my… lady.” The Baronet signals to Natsuki to back the puma out of the cave. He’ll rejoin her once she’s extricated herself. They’ll have some time here while the stalkers see to their dead. Then he’s going to press to turn back. The further they press in, the more danger they’re in.