TERRACE Draft - Remaining Days

[lucetimods]

Who: All Draftees
What: All hell breaks loose
When: From the 27th to the 1st.
Where: TERRACE!
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post covers the second to sixth day! Be sure to check the info post on the timeline to know what's up. At 2AM on the 27th, the attack will break out while most people are sleeping. Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Some random NPC quotes about the island itself.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

Comments

[thisismylife]

Oh look. Another party.

[Her voice is dry as she readies an arrow, casting a glance over her shoulder to gauge how much time she can take to aim. The answer is not enough, so she aims for the center of the nearest bundle of of cultists and lets loose. It's not one of her trick arrows this time - she doesn't want to risk hurting allies in the chaos - but her aim holds and she sees a cultists fall.

There's too much chaos down here, people everywhere, people that could get in the way of her shots. It would almost be easier if they were all enemies because then it wouldn't matter, but she didn't want to risk that now. Her gaze swiftly skims their surroundings and she finds a half-collapsed building nearby, one she can scale with relative ease and speed.

She veers off towards it, calling over her shoulder to her unexpected rescuer as she goes.] I need a better vantage point.

[endgames]

[And the droids from behind them are incoming.]

How troublesome... [Aaaand there she goes taking off] -oi!

[Building's good enough place to detour from them, so he goes along too. The shift hunter, meanwhile, is nowhere as good at scaling high buildings as they are. It can't climb at all, actually. It gets the idea, though, and slinks off into the rubble.]

[thisismylife]

[She hops up staggered rubble with relative ease and a determined sort of haste, scrambling to get atop half of what had once been a wall, or so she assumed. It gives a clearer view of the open area where most of the fighting's taking place and where she won't have as much risk of shooting through an ally who got in the way. The draftees seem to be holding their own, outnumbering the cultists, but there are still droids and no sign of a shifter. Did that mean there were two?]

Still no sign of what's controlling them, is there? [There was frustration in her voice as she shot off an arrow, then another, trying to pick off some of the cultists to give the draftees more of an advantage. She flicks a glance to where their pursuers had just appeared, waiting to see if they would keep tracking them or join the fighting in the square.] ...Do you think those robots can climb?

[endgames]

[He whispers, just harsh enough that the words can still be made out.]

Keep low and quiet and we won't have to find out.

[They'll probably go join the fight over there-- oh. That gives him an idea. He angles himself just enough that he can watch them without being spotted.]

Hold off on shooting anything for a second.

[thisismylife]

[She obeys without question, because he's obviously got an idea, and she can only do so much against about half of their number. She ducks down, hiding behind the cover they have for the moment, her gaze flicking over to where he's watching, waiting.]

[endgames]

[They gave up searching after a bit. Or it'd be more accurate to say that after a moment they go straight with new orders.]

It's like I suspected. They're being called back.

[Still looking serious, he sounds pleased about that. He moves again to watch better, motioning to her. It's probably all right to sit up again so long as they're careful.]

[thisismylife]

[She shifts, getting a little more comfortable and lifting her head enough that she can peek up over the edge of a broken bit of wall. He's right, the droids that had been tracking them are retreating. Which leaves them with a choice...]

So. Do we help the other draftees or follow those back to the shifter controlling them?

[endgames]

[She picked up half of what he was thinking there. Pretty smart.]

Depends. [He eyes her arrows.] Can you snipe the Shifter from here?

[thisismylife]

Depends. [She shoots him half a smirk as she flicks a glance sideways at him, then returns her gaze to the retreating patrol.] If he's not out of my range and I can get a clear shot of him? Yes. How close does a Shifter need to be to control a patrol? Any idea?

[endgames]

One hundred meters.

[Right off the top of his head too. His Luceti's memory is getting better...]

When they're halfway there, they'll be in his range again.

[thisismylife]

A hundred meters still covers a lot of ground. And a lot of places to hide in this mess. [She shifted her gaze from the droids to her quiver momentarily, searching for just the right arrow.]

[endgames]

Shifters are strong. They like to shield themselves with other cultists, but they wouldn't be effective hiding like we are now. He'll probably use the droids.

[The way she's going through arrows implies some are different. He watches, trying to figure out what each might be used for.]

[thisismylife]

So we just wait for him to show himself? [She flicked a glance up at his face, her expression curious.]

[endgames]

No. [He looks back again.] We wait to see who the droids that were after us go to defend, and target our shots there. That's the best thing we can do to help right now.

[If they take out the Shifter and the droids it controls, the other draftees can easily outnumber them and win.]

[thisismylife]

...So not a clear shot then.

[Artemis purses her lips a moment, then plucks out an arrow with red fletching. It's tip was a rounded oblong shape, rather than a typical arrowhead.]

I'll do my best. Make sure no one's paying attention to us. I'll see what I can do.

[endgames]

[He gives a short salute, then reaches into his pocket for a radio. He tosses it to her and heads back to the edge of the building.]

Use that to keep in touch. If it goes dead, there's another Shifter close by.

[thisismylife]

[She catches it with relative ease, then blinks down at the radio, her lips twitching into a grimace at the warning.] Great. That would be just my luck, wouldn't it?

[She sets it down beside her, then pushes herself up so she can get a clear sight over the wall, her eyes on the retreating droids. She only hoped they provided her with a decent shot.]

[endgames]

[Heh. He jumps down off the building, hitting the ground silently. A low whistle summons the shift hunter from out of the building. The two of them stick to the shadows, moving around for a different angle to provide distraction and a cover from.

He doesn't do anything right away, though. Not until he sees where the droids go. That one, huh?

Well he was mistaken before. Looks like it was a woman, even if he can't see her eyes glowing from here. Her wings are very large though, and she's in the Third Party armor. He talks into his radio.]

See her?

[thisismylife]

[His voice crackles softly over the radio and she presses the button to reply, her eyes not leaving her target.]

See her. Be ready to move just in case I miss.

[Artemis goes carefully still as she takes aim, centering herself until everything narrowed down to her and her target. She can't see all of her, but she doesn't need to, not with this arrow, which will explode on impact and send out a burst of shrapnel to anyone unfortunate enough to be in the blast radius. She only had to land the arrow close enough...

She pauses to take a breath, waits a heartbeat. Two. Then releases the arrow, holding her breath, her eyes locked on her target.

The shot flies true and uninterrupted, sending up a cloud of smoke of dust and debris when it impacts and blocking everything from sight. She's tense, until she hears a shout come up from behind her. She whips her head around to see the draftees making a push, the droids they'd been fighting having dropped to the ground in motionless piles of metal, leaving only the remaining cultists to deal with.

She almost - almost - gives in to the urge to do a little victory dance right there.]

[endgames]

Good shot!

[The cultists are still mobile, meanwhile. The ones that aren't immediately jumped on take higher into the air.

They won't spot Artemis without much looking, so Shikamaru does as promised and draws their attention away, throwing a barrage of exploding kunai at them.]

[thisismylife]

Thanks! [She calls back to him in relief through the radio, but there's not a lot of breathing room, because there are cultists taking to the air, which makes them harder to fight for the ground troops but easier for her to help pick off. She drops the radio again and starts firing, aiming at least for the wings, depriving their attackers of flight and sending them back towards the draftees on the ground. She has to shoot sparingly now, because she'll go through her supply of arrows far too quickly otherwise, and they're still a long way from their garrison.]

[endgames]

[Without a Shifter to worry about, he doesn't have to fear someone turning the off switch on his ninjutsu. His shadow moves again, this time up in the air. Some are pointed, sharp as needles, and others to curl to grab.

Whether or not he's successful in his strikes (and he is with a few, stabbing through wings or grabbing one cultist to throw into another), they're designed to chase the enemy right into an opening with her arrows too.]

[thisismylife]

[She notices - its impossible not to - and she pauses between a reload to stare at the sight, following the shadows to him and trying to figure out how he's doing that. She reaches for the radio again.]

Holy crap. You've got a bunch of handy tricks up your sleeve.

[endgames]

I'm not the one fighting with a bow and arrow. You gotta use the tools you have, right?

[thisismylife]

Yeah, that's just not a tool I've ever seen anyone use before. [He's still tossing about cultists in the air and she sends out another volley of arrows, aiming for bodies, wings, whatever presents her with a clear shot. Their numbers are dwindling now, between the two of them and the draftees working on their numbers and without the droids as backup.

When it looks like the fighting's about over, she leaves her cover, hopping down to the ground to join him once more.]