SILENT HORIZON - [Part 2: Facing the Faceless/Escape] [modplot]

[letsgolegion]

Who| Everyone in Silent Horizon plot
What| Fighting the Faceless, a perilous escape, and a chance to have a breather
Where| In the In-Between, the Silent Horizon, and then the Legion Cruiser
When| Chronologically, only hours have passed in the outside world from when the team disappeared, but it's up to players whether their characters perceived it as being hours or days
Warnings/Notes| Gore, blood, body horror, all the usual


They hear the voice again, calling out to them. Not the Faceless, not the dark whispers of this world. It's the same tinny voice that warned them, that told them not to give into the Faceless' offer. It's the voice that told them their Phalanxed teammates can still be saved if the Faceless is killed in time before they die.

It calls out again. Wherever they are, whatever the landscape is doing, they can hear it.

"I know you have no reason to trust me. I know you've been probably hearing lots of voices in this place, telling you all kinds of things. But I'm trying to help you. There's a way to end this, to stop the Faceless. Just follow my voice. My language synthesizer is broadcasting in the telepathic range like telepathic earplugs and I've managed to reconfigure it to broadcast through the entire In-Between. You should be hearing it wherever you are and you should be able to use its broadcast strength to navigate. I think I've managed to secure it from the Faceless and his Phalanx but there's no way to be sure."

How loud the voice is changes as they get closer or farther away. They can use it to navigate, albeit very crudely. And now that it's clearer, it's far more recognizable: it's the voice of the Robotican in the horrible footage that played before they were taken -- the one that had his head knocked off.

"My name is N-45LEN/Keth Series. My organic crewmates call --" He pauses, and sounds distraught. "--called me Lenny. I was a crew member of the Silent Horizon. This entire dimension is called the In-Between. It's made up of the body of the Faceless and I'm currently trapped at its core. I can see you Legionnaires from here through...what appears to be some kind structure for processing what equates to ocular stimuli for the Faceless. If any of you get lost, I can see enough to guide you here."

If they need it, they'll find that he can give them individualized directions, no matter what the landscape does, and he can give them to multiple people simultaneously. Having a complex processor for a brain has its perks.

"My organic teammate and I managed to discover the core of the Faceless and its nature, but I'm currently incapacitated and Bob...he just lost it. He nearly destroyed what was left of me and ran off before we could stop the Faceless. I saw him eventually accept the Faceless' offer and turn. If you make it here where I am, you may be able to destroy the Faceless' body enough to kill him, save your teammates, and destroy this dimension once and for all."

A pause.

"And if you could maybe take me with you when you leave, uh, I would appreciate that. Like, a lot."

[ooc post here]

Comments

LENNY'S HEAD

[whyarewehere]

[OOC: Plum did get the RNG for this, but she suggested Grif starting with Lenny on plurk so that's what we're doing!]

Grif is on his last legs. He supposes that's lucky, because it looks like some of the people on this ship have come out of the experience with entirely too many of those. He's limping by the time he reaches the Faceless's apparent throne room. He's been running almost the entire time they've been aboard, he's exhausted and the only thing propelling him now is adrenaline.

He doesn't want to deal with seeing reality bent and broken by transdimensional horrors right now. He doesn't want to deal with anything at all. Fuck this.

Grif comes out of the Faceless's memory with ears ringing and head pounding, and his eyes settle on two points of light in the murky chamber.

To his right, lying suspended on a pair of bony prongs sticking out of the wall, is Lenny's head.

"...Please tell me you're going to pick me up?"

Shit, he has a job to do, doesn't he? Fuck jobs. But Grif still grabs Lenny with a sweaty, blood-grimed hand.

Oaths really are bullshit.

"C'mon dudes," he says. There are fifty-five of them in there and they are all "dude" to him. He tucks it under his arm like a football.

As soon as he does, something moves.

The prongs that were holding Lenny jut forward as a phalanx creature peels itself out of the wall, leaving what looks like a bloody internal mess in its wake as Grif staggers back. Its sightless head remains trained on Lenny, and it opens its maw to screech.

Fuck.

Grif takes off in a circuit around the room, nearly bouncing off Legionnaires phalanxed and non as the beaked creature tries to close with him. Grif's fast, but he's tired. His nerves are basically shot. And as a bonus, Lenny's apparent guardian is after him on seven legs because honestly, why wouldn't it be?

He wants to say something biting to Lenny, something like "your buddy needs to fuck off!" but he's already panting and can't afford to.

Then he trips.

Lenny sails through the air and the beaked creature comes to a hault over Grif, watching it with an almost curious tilt of its eyeless head.

Someone has to grab that. Someone. Anyone. Grif sees a figure in brown armor.

"MONTANA! CATCH!"

The creature's four front claws are on either side of Grif's head. If this gets its attention back and it kills him, they can say he died saving fifty-five people. At least there are worse eulogies.

[short_changed]

It's been hard to catch her breath in the middle of the fight. So many people could use decoys and while she could provide a fairly good one, constantly producing doubles and focusing enough to keep them active was tiring her out. Stepping back from the latest mess of a heart-hole in the wall her head snaps up at the name. It's not hers, really, and the Montana she's familiar with was no where in this world- but she can't imagine who else it might be aimed towards, especially when the voice sounds so familiar.

She spins to stare at the figure on the ground and the monster above- and following their line of sight her eyes widen at the arcing descent of Lenny's head through the air. Shoving her knife back into it's sheath Connie jumps, disappearing from view at the height of it- and reappearing in the air just under the falling head's path.

Opening her arms she clutches the head to her chest, "I GOT IT!"

With a glance back down to the floor she blinks through the air and reappears just above the ground in a solid landing. Looking up at the monster she grins under her helmet.

"Come and get me, bright eyes."

And suddenly a dozen sets of brown armour break away from where she stood, each holding an identical Lenny head.

[whyarewehere]

Grif squeezes his eyes shut in preparation to be gored, but it doesn't happen. The shambling monstrosity lunges after Connie instead. A tail woven from possibly-human spines whipsaws in the fetid air behind it, lashing Grif and knocking the breath out of him for a moment. He really didn't need the help there. Thanks for that, bullshit space monster.

The creature hesitates for a moment, apparently it does have some visual sense it's relying on, before it starts methodically chasing Connie's images one by one. It's relentless in its efficiency as it hunts out the real Connie and Lenny, stalking nearer and nearer with every slash of its beak.

It takes it way too little time for comfort.

Grif, in the meantime, cannot believe he's still in one piece. He's up again. Moving again. Trying to figure out what the monster already has: which one's real?

[short_changed]

Of course it wouldn't be that easy. One by one the decoys disappear under the monster's assault until the last one flickers out of sight. Guess those extra legs aren't just for show. Losing whatever lead she'd managed to get with her trick she's running out of options. Can't fight with her hands full and she apparently can't outrun this thing. Spotting Grif's back up and looking their way she pivots on her heel, drawing back with Lenny's head and volley's it back over.

"GRAB 'EM!"

The momentum's too much for her to balance and she rolls to a stop as the creature finally bears down on her.

[whyarewehere]

The phalanx monster slashes at Connie with one oddly placed leg, knifelong talons scratching at her armor looking for purchase, then it stops.

The head is gone.

It gathers its too-many-legs under it and plunges off across the melee, plowing through anything in its way as it zeroes in on Grif.

Grif fumbles, falling into a wall in his effort to catch Lenny's head, and he has just enough time to breathe out an oh shit as the monstrosity comes galloping toward him. Off he goes again. He can barely summon real speed at this point, he's faster than a person should be but so is his pursuer. The monster uses its sheer size and many legs to drive him forward, cutting him off if he tries to break to the sides, and it nearly has him pinned against the corpse throne when Grif snaps the head back toward Connie.

...Actually, "snap" implies that it's in any way a good throw. Wash would be so disappointed in him, but luckily Wash isn't here to see it.

"All yours!"

This worked the last two times, and he's really hoping it's going to work again.

[short_changed]

Her arms come up to block the raking claws as they slash across her. Luckily her gauntlets take the brunt of the strike even as the hit shoves her back against the fleshy ground- and then just as quickly the beast was gone. Scrambling to her feet she shakes the tingles out from her arms, watching the monster chase the head no matter who seemed to hold it.

Like a bull and a red cape. Her head snaps up at the shout and with a curse under her breath she scrambles forward, teleporting in staggered steps to catch the short pitch.

Immediately casting a glance back to her last location she teleports back and reappears amongst a group of doubles. They need to find a better way to give the monster the ring-around.

"We can't get Lenny out with this thing alive!"

[whyarewehere]

"Then I sure hope you have a plan!" Grif yells back. Unfortunately, only the panicked running aspect of this is in his wheelhouse.

In the meantime, he grabs a long, distorted leg bone (too long to be human, or at least completely human). Speed means he's still fast enough to get close to the creature and shove the femur into the churning whirl of the monster's legs and scramble out of its way as it staggers.

He's delayed it, just a little. Please oh please have a good idea, Freelancer, he's counting on you.

[short_changed]

With the brief lead she can get as the thing stumbles from the strike she looks around desperately for something that would work- and with that moment of clear thinking she finds it. There's more than enough sharp and boney protrusions around the room thanks to the nightmare quality of it, and Connie takes the next sharp turn towards a grouping of sharp, jutting bone in the shape of gnarled teeth, something that looks like it's meant to catch an unobservant runner in a very...piercing way. The footsteps of the beast are still right behind her as she turns on her heel, feeling the solid, sharp threat of the bone behind her back as she watches the beast get closer and closer.

Right as it leaps for her she takes a sharp breath- the talons angled towards her neck swiping down- and hitting air as she teleports into the space directly behind it, spinning as she does to bring out her pistol and unload into the monster's back even as it hurtles towards the giant spike.