Ranger
Chapter 241: Papillae
By Wanderer D
The entrance to the base was protected by an assortment of MECs, specters, and andromedons, opening into a large bay area, almost as big as a warehouse. It was mostly empty, save for the occasional vehicle or check-up barrier preventing access further into the facility without being checked by security. The Warlock had clearly not expected the main entrance to be the point of entry for any serious enemy attack, and thus the defenders weren't as many as could fit in there.
Four MECs flanked the metal separators in the middle of the room, while the specters and andromedons were paired to each side in the far end, guarding mirrored entrances into different rooms of the structure, while a pair of turrets stood at either end of the large doors that would allow vehicles further into the base.
As soon as the heavy metal doors of the entrance were shredded, the specters took cover, shuddered and turned invisible, while the MECs braced themselves in place and shot a barrage of missiles straight at Fugue and Sonata, while the Andromedons charged forth and through the walls so they had a clear shot at the invaders.
The moment the explosions began, the two andromedons' weapons spat large blobs of acid that exploded on contact. Fire and acid spread through the entrance to the room, scorching the walls and ceiling, the heat and debris barely affecting the mechanical defenders.
They stopped their barrage, allowing the smoke to clear… and reveal that there was nothing there. It was then that the two andromedons stopped completely. Their exo-armors remaining still as the aliens within twisted and screamed silently… before they exploded within the machines, their blood hardening and bursting out of their destroyed armors and then splashing down together to pool in the middle of the floor.
One of the doors to the side opened and several ADVENT soldiers rushed in, including three priests, their psionic energies already flowing the moment the first shot blew a MEC's head off.
Sonata came around the thick doors, half spinning around them, a large, sleek black gun held in her hand, her face grinning as she spun and shot another MEC, blowing its leg, and causing it to collapse. The mechanical soldier wasn't done, however, and started shooting at her before a second shot got it right in the head optics, causing its body to shake and smoke before falling into a pile of scrap.
The ADVENT troops spread out, taking cover behind the barriers and covering the whole entrance area in plasma and gun fire, while the crazed siren-turned-chosen laughed and spun, jumped and cart-wheeled across the room, dodging bullets like some crazed dancer.
A specter emerged behind her, ready to attack, but her quick reflexes and her hook had her already on the other side of the room, atop a parked truck, her rifle aimed at the nano-creature. "Gotcha!"
The blast blew right through its chest.
She flipped down from the roof, and rolled behind a piece of wall to get behind cover as another door opened, allowing another pod of ADVENT troops into the room. Shield Bearers stomped in, their armors flashing with energy as they smashed the floor and force fields surrounded all of the ADVENT troops in the room.
Vipers took cover on the edges of the back of the large room, where they could spit venom and shoot plasma… in a few seconds, the truck was riddled with shots and soon it exploded.
The speakers in the room crackled and Tirek's voice filled the sudden silence. "Sonata, your queen is gone. Give yourself up. Join me once again. There's nothing you can do here today but die otherwise."
The words, boosts, and the additional troops and force-fields made the ADVENT soldiers bolder. They advanced, mercilessly shooting Sonata's last location—until a trooper stepped on the blood spilled on the floor.
"You stand no chance. You have seen the true power of the Elders. You have seen what lies beyond the edge of the Galaxy. Isn't this why you and Aria betrayed Adagio? To survive? The Elders will forgive you, Sonata—"
"Surrender?" Fugue's contemptuous voice filled the room. "Tirek, I've come to teach you despair!"
The blood exploded into the air, thin tendrils wrapping around the neck of the trooper, slicing through it and, as his head tumbled onto the floor, a large, thick tentacle made of glistening orange blood sprouted from his neck as his body convulsed and shriveled under the grotesque apparition, somehow still standing.
The sound of a voice slowly rose from somewhere, a haunting melody clear to everyone despite the disgusting crunching and squelching sounds coming from the convulsing body of the trooper. One of the ADVENT Captains wasted no time in ordering his troops to attack, shaking them out of their surprised stupor.
The bullets, however, were completely useless, bursting through the tentacle without doing any apparent damage. As if the violence had given it sentience, the tentacle twisted, as the rest of the body split in half and the blood joined the puddle on the floor. It lashed out—quick as lightning—and pierced through the armor of a nearby ADVENT Lancer.
Its body convulsed as well, but unlike the previous trooper, it wasn't a single large tentacle that emerged, rather, needle-thin spikes of its blood impaled in place the ADVENT Captain that had given the order to shoot. He stood there mouth-agape, before blood oozed out of his pores and trickled down to the puddle in the middle of the room.
The puddle rippled, and two clawed wings slowly pushed out of the surface, followed by the horned head of Fugue, smiling viciously as her body shone wet and pliable with blood. Surprisingly white and solid fangs greeted the soldiers in front of her as she fully emerged, terrible, bloody and singing a wordless song, her long, prehensile tail the last thing to ripple out of the blood, not a single drop fell back into it.
As she hovered three feet over the floor, her wings opened, revealing her gem glowing eerily in her chest. Sonata jumping out of the building through the destroyed door was all the warning that the ADVENT troops had.
The blood on the floor expanded, covering the whole room, and—as if the gates of hell itself had opened—sharp spikes shot out from within, the largest ones at the edges, with smaller, human-sized ones closer to the center, like a gigantic mouth of a leather-back turtle, hellish fangs and tentacles that ensnared the troopers, ignoring the shields, ignoring their screams and then simply crunched down, splattering blood everywhere.
When it was done, all that was left was a lone terrified viper, coiled in a corner and hissing in horror, it's mind having snapped out of the control of the Elder's by what it had witnessed. Even the other viper had been sliced to shreds.
She dared not move, testing the air with its tongue as Fugue hovered over to her shivering figure. The demon leaned in, caressing the viper's face. "You remind me of my Angel," she whispered gently, pulling the unresistant snake-woman up to her and embracing her, looking deep into her eyes. "But you are not her."
The viper's eyes widened and it started struggling, twisting and fighting, trying to bite Fugue as her skin seemed to bubble under the scales. She clawed feebly at Fugue, who leaned in and pecked her nose.
The blood rushed out, like a primal fountain of life essence, flowing into Fugue's mouth. When the outpour ended, Fugue dropped the still-twitching body and licked her claws. She sighed as all the blood in the room flowed into her, making her shiver in pleasure.
She hugged herself, letting the ecstasy run its course and flow through the very center of her being. When she had stopped shaking in orgasmic bliss, she moaned in disappointment, but glanced up coquettishly at the camera. "I'm coming for you."
o.0.o End Chapter 241 o.0.o
yeah if I were Tirek I would be shitting bricks right now.
so I wonder what his exit strategy is, cuz he doesn't seem the kind to stay and fight against a stronger opponent, nor the kind to go down with the ship.
Oh my. Lol
"including three of priests, their"
"including three priests, their"?
"and shot another the other MEC"
"and shot the other MEC"?
See, stuff like this is why we invented golemancy and necromancy. Blood magic doesn't do anything to wights or animate piles of rock.
He's screwed.
Blood tentacles?
Blood tentacles!
Yeah, he is going to need more mechs, and even more mechs, like all the mech's! And Sectopods, and he might want to ask if any cyberdisks are still around... Maybe some of the old drones too...
Do Faceless have blood? If they are as much like Clayface as they seem they might work to.
But I'm rather sure he is beyond screwed, unless he can stay out of Fugue's range, and we, nor he, have any idea just how long that range is!
I wonder If blood coagulatins would work against her? Go all Shin Godzilla in her, if possible.
9696152
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Well that was a bloody massacre.
Even in madness, Sunny still wants her snake-bae.
Phrasing!
Alright, very nicely setting the stage here ...
Now then:
since, I assume, you're describing their layout here, 'mirrored' would probably be clearer here.
keep your tenses straight. Either is fine, but both words need to match. Either 'shuddering and turning' or 'shuddered and turned'
inconsistent numerus here. Is it one door or two? I'd recommend fixing this by making it 'around one of the thick doors'
I really don't think this one needs explanation.
...We need to hide Angel somewhere far, far away.
-GM, master of nik.
three of the priests?
Blowing off its leg?
Heck of a time for the codices to be out of commission. Fugue OP. Plz nerf.
Shame she killed the poor recently freed snek. Well, at least she died free... And giving us the hope for snek pone foals
That shall happen even if I have to commission so!!!
Man, that's a lot of blood.
Poor snek that made the mistake of not being Angel.
Wait, that doesn't make sense. I think you made error in continuity WD.
Why would Tirek send in Priests to attack either Siren.
He's very likely been privy to the results of psionics vs innate magic users by now. If not from dealing with the Sirens directly, than from the rescue of Twilight. Even if he's completely ignorant ( against his character really ) he would have at least suspected something after he attempted to battle Fugue and felt the backlash from using Psionics on her in the first place.
I don't believe he would use priests at all. Or any any organic's if possible just to keep blood away from Fugue.
The continuity error is, i'm pretty sure you had this conferentation planned out before hand, and got his character's current knowledge mixed up with and older planned conferention.
Blarg, moving on. Poor snake. I forsee main character deaths in the inevitable Fugue / Xcom confrontation. Likely the sacrifice of someone who loves her. Angles chances are not looking good. Jane is too hate filled to love Sunset at the moment, and the reaper is too distant.
9698948 If you notice, the Priests didn't attempt to attack Fugue directly. They served as support for the troops.
9699015
Ah, I was mistaken. Upon rereading the chapter, it seems I didn't catch that.
However, the first thing the comes to mind anytime a priest is mentioned is their head exploding. I guess the previous chapters sort of locked me in that state of mind for them regardless of how their used. Come to think of it, once again, even after rereading the chapter, I still can't really think of anything useful a priest does except explode comically.
Perhaps, in a future chapter, you could have a little focus on them. Just to remind the reader that they are still a threat, and not balloons full of red paint. We get alot of mec exposition though Julian. Advent troopers though Mox (rip), and so on and so forth. But really nothing on Priests. I think even Andromdons have had their character explored more. I never really associated Priests with templars, and with luna/lat change, she doesn't really lend exposition to them.
Anyway, just a thought.
A day in the life of a Advent Priest. Mind controlling a civy, boosting a trooper, eating a nutrient bar, wondering why there's 3 types of VAN's, and then having its head pop by being too close to a Siren having an Orgasm.
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have no fear! Tis a short read. It only took me a little over 2 days to read from start to current end. Granted, that was non stop 2 days.. and there's some gray areas in my memory.. So I did it again!
Enjoy. hope you like snakes.
(Team snake/pon baby's ftw!)
Wait. No Andromedon phase 2?
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His exosuit's AI? Probably shorted out by that burst
I'll say it, at this point the Doom Slayer may be required.
Well, Tirek's definitely despairing right now.
Believe it or not it took me more than a few months to fully read your story! And then there's more!
I mean, I agree that there should only be one Angel, but damn. Didnt need to kill the snek.
She could have been...
But her chance is gone now...
Mohg, Lord of Blood
Angel was a Afvent soldier once... Very sad... No Viper sandwich for Sunset Shimmer.