WAR FOR THE GRAIL - Part 1: World Of Origin

[Aralonia]

I'm with canned crab^

[-Desert-]

At least we'll be able to beat Rider, but this stuff isn't right. Maybe just find out what we can, kill Master and Servant, blow up underground shit. Sounds like a plan to me...

[natan_j]

Deathtraps are my favorite.

[-Desert-]

Then that would be for the second bit of my plan, for the master. That way we can help Asassin with Rider (in necessary) since a deathtrap usually triggers automatically.

[Anna]

Okay, Desert, you're really all over the place. Can you explain in one clear and concise post exactly what the hell you're voting for or something? 'Cause right now it seems like you're trying to vote for "do everything at once", which makes no sense.

[-Desert-]

Sorry, I'm just thinking of a large plan. The most important is that we deal with the Master, therefore D is my vote. I had some other ideas but they can wait. This is what you'll usually see when I get enthusiastic, but I'm currently trying to stop doing that because it's just stupid.

[Latooni]

I vote for A. Even if Assassin doesn't kill Rider, it can make enough of a distraction that we can get a good snipe off.

[Lukasmah]

You're forgetting about all other mechs in there.

I say we just kill the master and then get out of there. Fast.

[Latooni]

You're forgetting about all other mechs in there.

What, you mean the empty, unpiloted mechs? Not an issue.

[Necrontyr1998]

I'll stick with my first vote.

[Lukasmah]

You're forgetting about all other mechs in there.

What, you mean the empty, unpiloted mechs? Not an issue.

Maybe.

Anna, how long does it take those enemies to get into those mechs and activate them? Does it take a bit or do they just hop in and they're set?

[Anna]

Well, for starters, there'd need to be someone in them. Considering how the hangar appears to have nobody in it except for Rider and a single human, that's not really much of a concern. But of course, like all machines, they have a startup sequence that lasts a few moments.

[Lukasmah]

Then I'll go with A, then pilot the Guardian type mech and destroy the other mechs if possible. Finally, make the Guardian destroy itself or have Assasin destroy it. The less toys these people have, the better.

[Anna]

"Get in position to attack Rider. I'll take out the Master." I say.

"Already in position, Master."

I smile, "I knew I could count on you."

I line up the shoot. It's a clear one. That blonde man, who I can only assume is Rider's Master, is standing with his hands in his pockets, a cocky expression on his face as he speaks to Rider about something. He's hardly moving, making it almost upsetting how easy it is to aim right for the brain. Poor Rider will be without a Master in just a moment, and out of the Grail War.

Letting out a breath, I squeeze the trigger.

A flash of incandescence bursts from the barrel of my sniper rifle, disrupting my suit's stealth systems temporarily, and hit the man's head. Then a moment later, the glow from the weapon fades and reveals the man standing there, completely unharmed, turned away from Rider now, and facing me. Seeming to be staring directly at me.



"Hoooo... it seems you have a visitor, Rider! I suspect this dog thought I was your Master!"

He bursts into laughter, his voice loud and filled with arrogance. I clench my teeth. How could I have missed that shot? Staring down my scope, I fire again. It's a direct hit. Right to his chest. There's a hole the size of my fist burned right through his jacket and shirt, revealing utterly unblemished skin beneath, and provoking even louder laughter from the tall, blonde man.

Rider's holographic image has disappeared, the Servant rising to her feet and turning her head towards me.

"Rider, we need to run!" I hear a young girl's voice cry out.

I finally see her then, a young girl with long white hair and purple eyes, sitting inside Rider's cockpit, before the cockpit becomes opaque, and armored plates slide into place to protect it. Rider shifts, starting to move, and that's when Assassin attacks. A flurry of knives burst from nowhere, deflected by a chain that bursts from Rider's body. The purple servant holds two long, nail-like knives, each connected to her arm by a chain, and when Assassin appears and slashes at her with a pair of hard-light daggers, Rider is quick to block the attack.

It quickly turns into an all-out fight, with Rider staggering under the speed and force of Assassin's blows, staying on the defensive as my agile Assassin leaps over inactive mechs, launches herself off walls, disappearing and reappearing all over the hangar and generally making herself a very difficulty target, while launching knife after knife. Rider's having trouble keeping up with it, and starts to launch herself up towards the hangar's exit, only for Assassin to appear in front of her, driving a thick-bladed knife into Rider's shoulder and slamming her down into the hangar floor with enough force to make reinforced concrete crack, the room shaking and unsettling decades of dust.

I don't have time to sit and watch, though, as that golden haired man had made me a target. Despite my thermoptic camouflage he is staring straight at me, his eyes narrowed. His right arm seems to dematerialize, an armored golden substitute - clearly machanical - appearing moments after, like gold dust coalescing into a new arm. He flexes the clawed, armored fingers of his new hand, watching me with a grin as I sling my gun over my shoulder and start to run.

He aims his arm towards me, a red, crystalline sphere in the center of his palm flaring as blasts of red light begin to rain down around me. I'm hit in the leg and stagger, my armor fortunately absorbing the brunt of the impact, but it slows and disorients me enough that the next shot blasts a neat hole in the catwalk beneath my feet, causing it to collapse and send me falling to the ground.

It's a long fall, but gentle, invisible arms wrap around me, cradling me and slowing my descent, allowing me to land safely on the ground. Behind that golden-haired man, Assassin and Rider are still battling, neither one gaining the upper hand, though Rider remains on the defensive, seeming unable to maneuver well in the enclosed area.

Assassin's green-haired gynoid body appears next to me, staring down that golden haired man, and he chuckles, "Really? Begone, mongrel. This is between your Master and I."

"Not likely."

A knife flies from her fingertips before I even see her hand move, but the man simply snatches it from the air, closing the distance between himself and Assassin in the blink of an eye and ramming the blade into the skull mask she wears. Assassin's body locks up, spasming, her back arching, and she lets out a pained scream.

"Assassin!"

I scream her name in disbelief. She's still alive, I see her larger body still battling Rider, though she seems to have slowed, but hearing her scream like that sets off some protective instinct in me, and I whip out my pistol, firing at the man. Each shot scorches and disintegrates his clothing, leaving blackened marks on his skin that fade after a second, and he turns to me, tossing aside Assassin's limp body and raising his hand.

I raise my own hand in response, my robotic right hand, shaking a little. The sphere in the center of his palm glows.

"Trace, on." I say in a firm tone.

Time stops for a moment, as I feel a jolt of energy shoot through me. It's not as intense as before, not as uncontrollable. Rather than feeling like it's about to tear me apart, it simply feels empowering, like liquid courage was pouring through my veins. A blast of crimson light erupts from the gold man's hand, and a solid barrier of purple energy radiates out from my fingertips at the same moment. Rather than a shapeless vortex of pure energy, I'm instead - I understand on a subconscious level - creating a shaped and localized electromagnetic field. It deflects that bolt of light, and the man laughs.

"Ohhh, very impressive. Those are some nice Circuits you have there. Under-developed, but very powerful." The man says, firing another blast as he steps slowly towards me, "I'll be sure to take good care of them, after I tear them from yo-"

"You talk too much."

My green-haired Assassin appears behind him, her mask cracked down the middle, but still in place. The sight of the shock on his face is quite satisfying, and when he spins to face her, she uses a hard-light knife to sever his golden, armored arm at the elbow. Energy bursts from the wound, and he lets out an indignant roar, kicking Assassin away and turning. A violent tear in the fabric of space appears, a swirling, light-less vortex, and he steps through it before it closes behind him.

I rush over to Assassin's side, helping her up, and she raises a hand to her damaged face, "Master, that... was..."

"Not normal? I know."

The battle between Assassin and Rider is becoming more one-sided. It's become obvious to both Assassin and I that Rider is so focused on defending her cockpit from attack that she will leave openings in her defense elsewhere, in order to protect it, and no doubt her Master. Now, Assassin is using that to her advantage, hitting Rider's arms and legs each time the elegant, slender-limbed Servant gives an opening.

"Rider, you need to use your Noble Phantasm!" I hear the girl in the cockpit cry out, choking back a sob.

Rider's voice, by contrast, is soft and quiet, "It will place too much strain on your Originator Circuits, Master. Do not fear, I'll protect you."

Rider's left arm shot out, hurling that nail-like knife at Assassin, but Assassin knocks it aside dismissively and closes in to strike at the opening Rider had left by making that attack. Neither of us expected for that knife to twist and turn in mid-air, spinning around Assassin's neck and wrapping that chain tightly around it. Rider spins, swinging Assassin around with the force of her turn, smashing her through several robots and into the wall.

Assassin staggers, raising a hand to grab at that chain around her neck, but before she's able to reach it, Rider's other nail is driven through Assassin's right hand, and the purple Servant has Assassin pressed up against the crater she had made in the hangar wall.

"You fight well, Assassin. But you are a danger to my Master, so you will die here."

Assassin said nothing, her right arm detaching from her body and falling to the ground with a crash. In the split second afterwards, while Rider is frozen with shock, Assassin twists free from the chain around her neck, rips the right arm off the X-008 "Guardian" unit, and attaches it to her own shoulder.

Rider gasps, turning and launching herself into the air. Assassin raises her new arm, the giant particle cannon attached to it glowing blue for a moment before firing. The sound is deafening, the blast hitting Rider in the back and blowing a neat hole right through her midsection. I hear the young girl in the cockpit screaming.

"I don't care if it's dangerous, Rider! You have to live! Use your Noble Phantasm! That's an order!"

Rider remains flying, despite the hole in her body, dodging aside from Assassin's second shot, "Affirmative, Master. Activating Noble Phantasm: Bellerophon."

Bellerophon? That's the name of the ship that brought me to this planet. That can't be her Noble Phantasm. The air in front of her ripples, and the starship Bellerophon can be seen, a flickering image. The giant spacecraft seems to disassemble itself, chunks of it tearing away from its hull, and warping through space to appear on Rider. Rider transforms from a slender, elegant woman into something akin to a fighter jet, and more pieces of Bellerophon's hull adorn her body, until she is three times larger, layered in white armor, with two pairs of elegant, beautiful, 'feathered' white wings and two capital-ship weapons aimed directly at Assassin.

"Master! Run!" Assassin yells.

I turn to run. There's no point. Weapons that powerful are capable of leveling this entire complex. It's absurd. But still, I start running. I feel Assassin's gynoid form placing her hand on my shoulder, and it seems as though a bubble wraps around us. The heat of a Pegasus-class Battleship's heavy plasma cannons warms my back, dozens of meters from before they impact, and then...

I fall onto the ground, landing in the sand hard. We're above ground again, just near the entrance to the complex. Assassin is at my side, holding me up and keeping me from collapsing completely. The ground shakes violently from an explosion beneath us.

"Master, we should go, now. I'm no match for a Noble Phantasm of that magnitude. Yet." Assassin's tone sounds awed.

Another blast, closer now. Moments later, a brilliant explosion not far from us, and emerging from the molten sand and shards of steel comes Rider, flying high up into the sky. Sunlight glints off her sleek, white form, as feathered wings arch and she turns gracefully in the air, aiming her weapons down towards us.

I...

A) Follow Assassin's advice. We need to escape.
B) Try to work out a means to defeat Rider right here and now.
C) Try to ask Rider's Master to stop fighting and talk.
D) Other

First post has updated Servant profiles and stats. You should check it out. It's got important stuff!

[natan_j]

Abscond.