Vatican [Open]

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

Once Atom had read the initial comm post, he headed over to the closest place where he thought people would be -- the Vatican, once converted into a fortress against outside attack. It had since been mostly restored to its original state, but some fortifications still remained -- hopefully, some food and supplies, too. He'd heard people had used it as a safe area before, so maybe some of them would head there now. As he touched down within its limits, his rocket boosters kicked off. His footsteps seemed to echo through the tall construction as he walked along the paved stone... but for now, he seemed to be alone, in the midst of dead silence.

Or was he?

"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone there? Does anyone need help?"

[Robutts will be forthcoming 83. I'll bring some Terminators, but if anyone else could NPC some other robots, that'd be great!

P.S. I will be waiting for more people to tag in before I add robots.]

Comments

[theboywhodied]

Atom may have heard a thump outside just now. It was a lump of a human teenager, one who appeared to be very afraid. Surely this building could hide him for a little while, right?

"Come on," Cedric grunted, yanking at the door.

He was useless, less than useless out here. At least someone who'd been a Muggle their entire lives would know how to use their weaponry. The robots closing in were going to kill him, and that would be the end, wouldn't it?

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

Atom brightened immediately at the sight of him. "Cedric!"

Oops, maybe not so loud. He lowered his voice considerably. "You're okay! I was worried something happened to you!"

[theboywhodied]

"For now," he grunted, struggling to catch his breath. "It nearly did. Robots everywhere, a few of them gnawed on me." His clothes were torn in places, but the plantsuit had sprung to life and prevented any deep injury.

"They're coming. I tried to lose them, but I can't hide forever. I'm so sorry," he worried.

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

A robot army. That was what the 39th Central Asian War had been about. That was what his friends had had to face. But not Atom. Atom had come in with the peacekeeping forces later, as the others were mopping up the last remaining armed resistance. Gesicht, on the other hand...

Atom pushed those thoughts from his mind. "Don't worry. It's going to be okay. Did you find any supplies? Weapons, maybe? Anything we could use?"

It was his job to protect the humans here. It was his job.

[theboywhodied]

"This is all I have," Cedric confessed, pulling up a crowbar. "I was too busy running to think. Sorry."

He still looked shaken, but at least he had a friendly face here. That helped.

[Two Knight Stand] (Oh god the pun)

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

Erhart stands, waiting for the coming storm of mechanical foulness. He hasn't spoken to Saber since chosing to make a stand with her in this place. He doesn't need to. His armor, already scarred from a few skirmishes, is burn back to gunmetal gray in some areas, the black paint burned off to gold in others, on the more ancient, relic parts of the armor. The Black Blade crackles fitfully with energy, as he holds it two-handed, already prepared to swing. He has chosen the weakest point in the defenses for their stand. They will be in the breach.

"It has been said of my forebears... Walls fail. Fists do not." Erhart clenches his fist, his Imperial Fist, and brings it against his chest plastron briefly, making a ringing noise. "Hear my oath of moment, Saber. These minions of foe shall not cross this breach. Not a single one, while I live. I have dug my grave in this place, and I will fight until my last breath."

He halts a moment, and then says, much more quietly. "I am pleased that I had another Knight to witness what will likely be my last Oath of Moment, before the end."

[everdistant_utopia]

Legends from her time were filled with noble knights swearing oaths, but they were, in truth, uncommon. The code of chivalry dictated that one's word was one's bond, and to break one's word was a grave offence. An oath was the highest form of a personal vow, and one did not make them lightly; such oaths were sworn only to indicate absolute certainty. When a knight swore an oath of fealty to his king, he was making a declaration to the world that he would never betray his liege even upon pain of death.

"Before the eyes of God, I hear and acknowledge thy oath," Saber replied gravely, giving the swearing the proper amount of weight as both knight and king.

But as the moment passed, the silver-clad Servant summoned her own sword, rendered invisible by the small sorcery she was still able to manage -- Invisible Air -- and even smiled. It was a faint smile, to be sure, but one that might have seemed to carry a hint of warrior's self-assurance.

"All shall fall before our blades."

As tortured as she could be at times, battle alongside those of honour was one of the few things that could be said to bring the King of Knights some small amount of pleasure.

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

Erhart nods, and turns back to the breach, setting his feet into a broad stance, waiting for the robot storm. His purity seals and Crusader seals, those that remain intact after the initial battles, stir briefly in the low breeze of the city.

He considers the past, his previous wars, the tales of Sigismund, the first Champion, and his own stand at the Eternity gate. He wonders, vaguely, if anyone will tell tales of him, if he falls here. If there will be anyone left to tell it.

His red eye-slits glower, as he scans the middle distance, waiting to tag and designate targets within the cogitator banks of his helm.

DA DA DUN DA DUN

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

The first of the robots began to appear on the outskirts of the Vatican where Erhart and Saber had chosen to keep watch. They were humanoid in form, designed to be infiltrators as well as killers, though for now they had no organic camouflage with which to blend in. They walked slowly, deliberately, their cybernetic brains processing the terrain as they approached, appraising stone, mortar... and their opposition.

As tall as a man and sleek in design, they resembled nothing so much as a gleaming, metal skeleton brought to life, though their eyes were not empty sockets but glowing red optics.

They were the first of what would no doubt be many.

[Open]

[masterofnun.livejournal.com]

Punchy very rarely realizes how much he cares about his faith until it's threatened. And, well, as much as he loves robots, he doesn't like that they're probably going to blow up the Vatican, and he also doesn't like that the little bastards shot him.

Granted, his costume is more damaged than the rest of him, but there's a nice pea-sized burn through the cartilage in one of his ears, and a larger burn up from his elbow to his shoulder on his left side.

And what's more frustrating, when he tried to punch the stupid robot, Puppet kind of just flopped uselessly in his hand. And then the robot punched him back.

So he's beat a completely unheroic retreat back to the Vatican, laptops from Programming in a bag. He figures it's the only way to fight back, now that he is a totally worthless and pathetic and self-loathing baseline human without his beloved magic puppet. Or alien puppet. Whatever the fuck it is.

His voice echoes through the Vatican when he decides to announce his presence rather than look for other survivors first. "Yo, peeps, what's the DT?"

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

Erhart looks over to him, confused, his helmet removed as he's briefly been anointing himself with an ampule of holy water from the Temple of the Aguila, not far from the Vatican proper.

"Excuse me?"

[masterofnun.livejournal.com]

"Oh, dope, could I use that?" Punchy reaches for the water, fully intending to dump it over his head Gatorade-style. "What's the sitch, dawg?"

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

Erhart will let him, because he's so shocked by the blasphemy he cannot help himself.

"I can't understand what you are saying, young human."

[the-team-sucks.livejournal.com]

Grif had been one of the first people to get here. He leaned, panting, against the leg of one ornately decorated archway. That was much more running than he was used to, and the new burns on his armor were not making him feel much better. He'd been lucky. He also needed to check the comm. Things were definitely starting to move out there.

"Alright," he says finally, having managed to catch his breath. "What'd everybody else see?"

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

Grif, maybe you shouldn't have eaten so much junk food at Happy Happy Fun World.

"I didn't really see anyone so far," said Atom, peering at the new arrival. "I flew here as fast as I could, though, and I was pretty close to here already. What about you, are you okay?"

[whyarewehere]

Grif blinked once behind the visor, then replied. "I'm fine so far. You can fly?"

Nice greeting, Grif. Totally the most personable best possible thing.

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

"Yep!" said Atom. "I'm a robot."

Yes. He was a robot.

Hack-Fu! [Closed to Punchy, Billy and Maxine]

[masterofnun.livejournal.com]

For the last several hours, a couple programmers have been working on an experiment. An experiment that could be a great boon if it works, or a total waste of precious time if it fails. And the chances of it failing are very, very high.

Punchy hands a USB with a virus written onto it to Billy. "So, boss man, you got any ideas on how to boost a bot?"

Re: Hack-Fu! [Closed to Punchy, Billy and Maxine]

[morphitudinous]

Billy turned the virus code over in his hand, staring at their target bot. "It's heavily armed. If we trigger the wrong wire, we could hit a self destruct mechanism and kill us all."

He frowned. "So, no pressure. We just have to find and rewire ourselves a port," he sighed, rolling up his sleeves and sorting through wire. "See anything?"

Re: Hack-Fu! [Closed to Punchy, Billy and Maxine]

[windwitch]

For once, Maxine is still; her powers are barely working, so there are no faint breezes picking up her hair, or anything like that. And, for once, she's mostly silent.

Biting one lip, she's looking it over carefully. She's genuinely nervous about whether she can actually help with this or not-- and admittedly half the reason she's here is she'd been worried about Punchy-- but she intends to do her best.

"I think that's something there," Maxien says, a little quietly and uncertainly, pointing it out. She's a little scared to actually touch. "Or at least, something we could use, maybe."

Re: Hack-Fu! [Closed to Punchy, Billy and Maxine]

[masterofnun.livejournal.com]

"No pressure!" Punchy says. Unlike Billy, he isn't sarcastic. "Shawty, you got enough juice to keep a current running through this bitch? If we overheat it and fry the circuits all we got's some junk metal."

He puts on his goggles, despite them having zero benefit at the moment besides making everything look tinted green. "I got nothing. What kind of port are we looking for, boss? Thinking it's a bit too much to hope for that they use USB and firewire and shit."

[poetrysoldier]

It had taken Ashley a good thirty minutes waiting for Grif's answer on the Omnicomms. While waiting, she had stealthily avoided the robots as a direct confrontation was not a good thing. She had made it to the Vatican without much further trouble though. So she holsterer her assault rifle just in case.

"Grif? Anyone?" She called out ready to shoot if any robots were to pop out.

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel hadn't really seen much of what the Vatican had been used as a defence against, but she still knew that it had been used as one. People made that one pretty clear.

She may not have currently had any powers to speak of, but that didn't mean she was there to be defended. She intended to fight.

[whyarewehere]

"Yo! In here!"

Annnd there was Grif. It was hard to mistake the orange armor. There was Ashley out there, and another person he didn't think he knew? He waved them toward the door.

"It's a little safer in here than it is out there but it's been busy down here let me tell you!"

He was trying to make light of it, but he couldn't keep the fact he'd been pretty rattled out of his voice.

[poetrysoldier]

It was hard to tell but Ashley actually looked relieved to see him. A wry smile was shining through her helmet though. She turned to the teenager near her. There was something about her... The girl looked like she's seen her share of battles. "That's Grif, and I'm Ashley." She greeted. "Do you need a weapon? You look like you've been through hell." She asked as Ashley began to walk towards the door.