Rogue Chaos- Friendship Raid: Fight and Flight
It took a short amount of time to not only get a chance to get a drink and something to eat, but also to find someone that wasn’t necessarily doing anything in order to come help Discord. Luckily, the only person that seemed to be available for the job that Reyna had in mind for them was actually Orendi. Shayne and Aurox, along with Eris, needed to get a chance to sleep, Whiskey was out chasing down Oscar Mike, and some of the others were working on various different projects around the base on Bliss and the headquarters that they established on Ekkunar. But one of the Battleborn that they did happen to get on board that wasn’t extremely busy was actually Phoebe.
Especially when they were being briefed on the details by Reyna as she was piloting the Fortune’s Favor along the outer edge of the Detritus Ring while everyone else was in the ship’s loading bay as they could hear her over the intercom. “Alright, so is everyone ready?”
“I believe you were going to tell us what exactly are we doing out here…” Phoebe then stated as she looked back at her swords and looked to be playing some sort of holographic slot machine. “And also why you need my assistance as well. Time is valuable to some folks.”
“Hold on just a minute and I can fill you in on the details,” They heard Reyna speak up, shortly before the three of them soon saw what looked like a large fleet of ships that were along the edge of the Detritus Ring. “We’re about to drop you off on factory ship convoy that’s racing through the Detritus Ring at unthinkable speeds… just, try not to think about it.”
“Already did… now I can’t un-think about it.” Discord spoke up, using what appeared to look like a conjured up version of Rath’s blades in order to trim the claws on his paw before having it disappear. That had Reyna sigh for a moment, before continuing with what she was saying.
“The reason why I’m asking for your assistance Phoebe is that the fleet was stolen by a rogue LLC Employee… and based on the information we know, we learned that he’s trying to build an army to take over Solus.” The Valkyrie then added.
“How were you able to find this information though?” Phoebe then added, while noticing that Discord and Orendi were doing a game of ‘Patty Cake’ with all four of Orendi’s hands.
“That’s the thing. We had Toby track some whereabouts related to this guy on Bliss, but we lost contact with him. Now, we’re getting signals from his communications device on somewhere in the convoy.” Renya informed them, which immediately caused Orendi and Discord to stop what they are doing the moment that they heard Toby was somehow involved.
“We gotta rescue Toby!! He’s too adorable to die!”
“No one is dying, Orendi.” The Valkyrie sighed again. “So simply put, we need to find out where this LLC reject is, find out what his plans are and also where Toby is and stop him! Valkyrie out.” That is when the holographic projection of the fleet of ships disappeared as all three of them soon heard dead silence.
“ …… So what exactly happens now-”
“Approaching target. Bay doors opening.” They all heard Nova say at once. Which soon lead to them realizing that Reyna was opening the cargo bay doors of the ship… as they were moving just as fast as the convoy and they only had one option of how to get to the fleet.
Jump. “SUPERHERO LANDIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!”
Phoebe was startled not just by realizing what Reyna’s plan was… but also the fact that both Discord and Orendi immediately dived into the fray as she soon groaned and facepalmed herself. “…… If this is some sick idea that Kleese had wanted for me to do unintentionally, then I’m strangling him after this is all over.”
Once the chaos witch, the draconequus and the blade dancer all landed safely on board the ship, Nova took a few seconds in order to calibrate, track and record their surroundings. That way, the three of them were aware of anything strange or out of the ordinary that just happened to pop up out of nowhere as well as record as much information as possible so she could use the information to create Ops Missions for other Battleborn to attempt later.
Right now though, the focus was on something else entirely once Reyna patched back into the team. “Okay guys, my tracker’s picking up signs of Toby… Toby, are you there? What happened?” The Valkyrie asked, hoping that the penguin heard her and would speak up in response.
Soon, they did get a response… but not all of it was rather… tame, so to speak. “A maniac seal ambushed me on Bliss! When I woke up, I was cold and alone… Reyna… HE STOLE BERG!! I’m freaking out here! I FEEL SO NAKED!!!”
Orendi herself giggled at that, while for Discord, he felt like his uncle was trying to kill his hearing. “But you’re always naked… Look at me! All Nat-Ur-All!”
“MY SUIT IS MY CLOTHES!!! THIS JACKASS STOLE MY CLOTHES!!”
Yet, it was when Reyna spoke up that she soon had things simmer down to an extent. “And there goes my left ear… We’re coming Toby, hang tight! Take that elevator down to the hangar.”
“That would be wise… but I do believe we have company.” Phoebe spoke up, pointing her sword at what looked like the group of thrall that was starting to shoot at them.
“Wait…… You said that this ship was run by an LLC reject, right Grandma?” The draconequus asked as he conjured up Reyna energy pistol. “Then why are there Jennerit thrall here?”
“According to Jennerit Records, many of the Thrall that once served under Rendain either still follow him or went their separate ways,” Nova then added on as Orendi had pillars of Shadowfire erupt from the Thrall’s feet. “From the looks of them, these ones are likely to be contracted mercenaries working for that… Reject.”
“Wow… honestly, I expected for the LLC to not hire physical labor to do the dirty work. Isn’t that what Minion Robotics is for?” Discord asked, turning towards Phoebe for a moment as he spoke up.
“At one point, yes… but that’s an entirely different discussion,” The blade dancer replied as the swords she sent out soon returned to her. “Though, we should have no problem with using the elevator now that we don’t have any mongrels shooting at us.”
“Can I operate it-?”
“NO!!” Came the collective response of everyone to Discord’s question. Especially since they remembered what exactly happened when he operated the platform back at the sanctuary of the sentinel on Ekkunar.
“Aw man… You’re no fun at all.” He pouted, just as the group soon activated the elevator. Yet… as it slowly went downward (and when Discord went to collect some shards that were hidden in the elevator shaft by those he called the ‘level designers’), things didn’t really go so well for them.
“Oooh! Shiny red light thingy!” Orendi said… seconds before a loud ringing soon echoed the ship and the elevator came to a complete stop. Not to mention that mechanical minions were soon flooding the room.
“You tripped the alarm! Take out those security bots!!”
“Can’t we just disable the alarms?”
“They already know we’re here,” Phoebe pointed out to Discord. “It would be pointless to try and hide ourselves now.”
“Well, so much for trying to do a perfect stealth run.” The Draconequus sighed, arming himself with a pair of Reyna’s handguns as he looked back at the minions and began to fire at them like crazy and turn them into nothing but scrap metal. “Say hello to MY LITTLE FRIEND!”
“I BAKED YOU SOME SCREECHING PAIN!!!” Orendi called out from the other side of the room as she casted a pair of Shadowfire pillars by the feet of another set of minions. All while leaving Phoebe in a rather… bewildered state.
“Should I assume that this is… normal?”
“Only when he’s with Orendi.” Reyna commented on the matter. “There’s a few more minions on the upper ledge above him that are blocking the controls to the elevator. You can proceed further if you get them out of the way.” The blade dancer herself soon noticed the minions the Valkyrie was talking about and used her Phasegate in order to catch them off guard and cut them down so the elevator could be functional again.
And it was once everyone got back to the elevator that they soon got another earful. “Reyna…”
“Toby, I-”
“HE STOLE MY MECH SUIT, Where are you!? WHERE ARE YOU?!!” The penguin shouted, which even threw Discord for a loop as his ears began to ring.
“And there goes my other ear…” Reyna groaned before trying to speak back up. “Toby!”
Unexpectedly though… and unfortunately for them… a different voice soon cut in. “Hardly, this is Thaddius Wishingbone. Future Emperor of Solus. Doesn’t my spiffy new death suit make you want to pee all over yourself in a whirl of jealousy and fear?”
“Uh, no-?”
“This suit’s going to be handy when I take over Solus, but you won’t be around to witness that historic moment because you’re all going to be dying… momentarily.” That was when the elevator soon landed at the bottom floor and all of them soon stepped off it.
“Did… that guy just tried to use sass?” Phoebe spoke up. “Because that was just… awful.”
“Is his name recognizable at least?” Reyna then asked.
“Not entirely, but I can check the LLC’s records once we rescue your comrade,” Phoebe replied back. “What’s the next step?” That was when the hangar doors soon opened as they were greeted by multiple mercenaries and minions waiting for them.
“Clear out that hangar! It’ll lead us straight to the engine room!” Reyna replied… which, in turn, gave Discord an idea. Getting on all fours, he decided to run around the room, having all of the thrall and mechanical minions try to chase him as he got them in one large group. That too, was also when Orendi saw a chance to attack the moment they were in a triangle shaped formation.
“One, two, three…… BOINK!!!” She shouted, firing out her chaos magic in a forward spiral as Phoebe noticed what they were doing and sent her sabers flying in the same direction. In that moment was when they all exploded afterwards as Discord soon appeared behind Orendi while wearing what looked like a bowling t-shirt.
“STRIKE!” He cheered, before high fiving Orendi and moving his head just in time so he wasn’t hit by a random bowling pin that appeared out of nowhere.
“Well, that’s one… clever way of doing it, I suppose.” Nova calmly mentioned while the three of them began to figure out a way to try and get to the room above them. Even though there wasn’t any jump pads or makeshift elevators to bring them up, the main problem was that one of the doors to a separate hangar was not working properly. So instead, Discord had to improvise and personally teleported them onto a series of moving crates that was going upward.
Which brought them to right where they need to be and lead them to immediately destroying any enemies that stood in it’s path. “Nice work! Now keep moving!”
And also lead to more useless chatter from the ship’s new owner. “Mmm by the way, when I stole the ship, I renamed it the ‘Pinniped’s Lament’. I thought you would want to know because you’re all going to die here…… ‘Kay.”
“Who cares!?” Discord asked in frustration.
“Easy Discord…” Reyna then spoke up, trying to calm him down. “He and this ship will have nowhere to go once we take care of what we need to do next.”
“Next! NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT!!!”
That… left Discord and Phoebe a bit confused as they went through the next set of mechanical doors that opened up. “And pray tell, what exactly is the next step of the plan?”
“Simply put, we need to slow this ship down. Destroying the engines and whatever’s powering it should do the trick.” The leader of the rogues told them. “There’s one directly in the middle, the left and the right. If you split up and meet back in the middle afterwards, you can cover more ground in less time that way.” Discord, Orendi and Phoebe immediately agreed to the plan. Mostly because Reyna was right about not using up so much time by splitting up as they found the right engine compartments and shut those down quickly.
As they moved to the next area though… that’s when things got weird for them. “Ooh, good to put a face to the name, Reyna Valeria. Nice command glove, fine craftsmanship.”
“Oh I aint got time for you right now… whatever your silly ass name is.”
“I think stupid ass name seems more fit,” The draconequus added on to what Reyna said. “I mean, who the hell does he think we are anyways?”
“Judging by the way this… Thaddeus is acting and treating the situation… Possibly uninvited guests?” Phoebe asked as Discord and Orendi turned to look back at her. “What? You asked. I was just giving an honest guess.”
“Fair enough.” He said, shortly before hopping onto a conveyor belt in order to easily get to the other side. “Whee!!”
Which was followed by Orendi doing the same thing. “WHEE!!!”
Which had Phoebe feel like she was a mother watching over two very energetic kids on sugar. “How do you handle their shenanigans on a daily basis?”
“Patience… Lots and lots of Patience… and sometimes Coffee.” The leader of the rogues sighed. “Originally, I would say beer, but I figured that wouldn’t be much of a positive influence on Discord.” That was soon followed by maniacal laughter at the other end of the hall as Discord was now using a conjured up pair of Orendi’s arms to cause even more mayhem. “Though, I’m not sure if that’s helped any because of… well… Orendi.”
“Get up!! HaHAHA!! PLEASE, GET UP!! I’M NOT DONE HAVING FUN WITH YOU!!!!” They heard Orendi scream from the other end of the hallway, prompting Phoebe to catch up with them as fast as she could before both of them do anything else that was reckless.
What they found in the next room though, caught all of them off guard. Especially Discord as his jaw was hanging open a little. “Woah… is that-?”
“A factory line for mass production…” Phoebe then said afterwards. “I would’ve thought this was used for mass producing worker bots, not combat ready robotics.”
“What’s worse is that this guy is using Toby’s Mech to build an army! We can’t let that happen!! Find a way to shut down that production line and quick!” Reyna ordered, shortly before adding onto it. “We’re coming for you Thaddeus, and we’re going to wreck ya!”
“Mmm, agree to disagree.” The Seal responded without a care in the world. Not even sounding the slightest bit amused. As they went through the hall and began to destroy any shard clusters they could find, that was when Discord decided to speak up and see if his Uncle was okay.
“Hey, Uncle Toby! You okay over there?”
“Trying… Ugh, they got me confined in a small round orb and it smell worse than a high school gym locker. I mean, they’re not giving me food, but they are bringing out-” Toby stopped for just a brief second, before yelling so loud that it could almost break the transmission on they communicators. “TAP WATER!?! YOU F**KING ANIMALS!!! IF I COULD GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW, I WILL BEAT YOU TO A ***DAMN PULP!!! YOU HEAR ME?!!”
“Hang on, Toby. We’re almost there!” Reyna told her, just as Orendi was finished with destroying the shards that were powering the assembly line and the way forward. Yet, in the last hallway… they were met by a rather new and tricky obstacle.
Lasers. And ones that would knock someone all the way back to the start of the hallway if they got hit by them. And it didn’t help any that a certain seal had something to add to it once they approached the transport room. “I must admit that I find myself… beside myself-”
“YOU’RE BORING!!!” Orendi interrupted, but the seal still continued on.
“If you continue into my disincentivization hallways, you will find your end uncomfortable and your end uncatered.” Yet… all the words did was just have Discord look back at Phoebe for a minute as he seemed confused and baffled by the seal’s choice of grammar.
“Phoebe, can you be able to translate rich douche?”
“He means that the lasers would push us back and that they’ll hurt you every time you get hit. Get hit too many times and that you would be too beaten up to present in an open casket if you get killed.” The Blade dancer replied.
“Thank you, Phoebe.” Discord told her. “Now… how do we turn these off?”
“If the rest of this ship told us anything, there must be shard clusters in the hallway powering it. Destroy those and you can move forward. And hurry, Toby’s not far from your current location.” Reyna replied back. “Nova, can you verify that?”
“Affirmative, there are shard clusters in rooms along the sides and end of the next few hallways,” Nova spoke up, before adding onto that with one other thing. “Hurrah, I’m being helpful!” Essentially, the group was able to quickly race through all of the hallways and reach end of the winding hall and activating a switch that had all of them drop down below.
To which… they found Toby trapped in a sphere… and blocked off by a forcefield wall… that was guarded by a copy of his own mech suit. “Okay, who thinks that’s kind of overkill?”
“I DO!!!” Orendi answered Discord’s question as she started attacking it.
“Stop that mech!!”
“Already on it, Grandma!” Discord shouted, snapping a finger as Oscar Mike’s rifle appeared in his hands as he began to shoot at it. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!!”
“TEAR APART THAT FAKE!!!” Toby shouted on the opposite side of the wall. All three of them soon immediately focused on breaking down the mech piece by piece, even though it tried to use it’s shield two separate times in order to protect itself from fatal damage.
“Alright, open that up and get that seal out of there-” Discord shouted, only when after disabling the mech that they found out that no one was piloting it. “WHAT!? That little-”
“OOOH!! Counting numbers!” Orendi noted, which had the draconequus realize that it was set to blow as he kicked the piece of junk away. Even though the explosion’s blast wave pushed all three of them back and had them crash through the force field wall.
And directly into Toby. “Oh come on-!”
What resulted afterwards was a full on four person dogpile with Discord, Orendi, Phoebe and the recently freed penguin friend that they just rescued. “T-thanks,” The penguin coughed out. “I thought I was a goner… Come on, the escape pods for the ship are this way!”
Following Toby’s lead as he slid across the floor, they soon emerged into the escape pod chamber and were greeted by a ton of crates as the penguin then spoke up again. “Thanks for rescuing me guys!”
“No problem, buddy-!”
“Now we get out to the next ship, WE GOTTA SAVE BERG!!!” He shouted, which caused Discord to plug his ears. And unfortunately for Reyna… she got the worst of it.
“And now I’m deaf… Glad to see that you’re safe, Toby. Get back to the Fortune’s favor and we can plan out what to do next.”