silo

OOC: Onaku, Kathok didn't need to turn round; he never changed the way he was facing... IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes His opponent seemed to have sustained no damage whatsoever despite the fact that Sunmaker had brushed against his cockpit with extreme velocity. Something like this should have ripped the cockpit clean off, Kathok remarked. Oh well. Must have miscalculated. Now Kathok glanced at his opponent. Contrary to what his enemy seemed to think, he had not made it 'far ahead'. He had not even got ten seconds worth of space away. So while he appeared to aimlessly skim the ground where Silvana was standing - maybe having a little chat, and apparently oblivious to the jetrax moments away from him - Sunmaker lunged towards the maggot. In the space of a heartbeat, the jagged spear of iron death had screamed towards the drunkard's ship, a inescapable barrage of shrieking, devastating, roaring, dooming death hammering down at him. Kathok, heart leaping at the imminent victory, had released a storm, a barrage of force bolts at his slow, dull-witted opponent. His opponent, who even now didn't see him coming. His opponent, so arrogant and self-assured that he wandered above the ground like a fat, lazy fly. His pompous opponent, whose death was predetermined by this howling, shuddering monsoon of projectiles. His opponent, who would not, could not escape. In the millionth-of-a-moment before the bolts make their final descent, smothering and drowning his enemy in an infernal tsunami of unavoidable oblivion, Kathok feels it. He feels the feeling he always gets before he wins. Deeper than delight, subtler than satisfaction. The sublime consciousness of supremacy. This storm of attacks on the unwitting fool truly is unpreventable. His ship will be slaughtered in fire, maybe he will be shredded too. In the nanosecond that remains, Kathok debates whether he will let him hobble back to a settlement or not. And then it happens.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes, heading for Cliffside Kathok doesn't chicken out - he never would - he just keeps his eyes on the pilot. Still moving backwards at high velocity, he nudges Sunmaker upwards in the split second before the impact Its rocket jets and armoured underside just skim the other ship. The damage could be anywhere between a few cockpit spokes being ripped off to the entire pilot's area being gouged out of the enemy fighter, Kathok reckons. In any case, Kathok feels a jolt - but of course that might just be the turbulence. Sunmaker continues falling past its opponent. At last, in the moment before it seems Kathok's harebrained maneuver will send him plummeting to the fractured ground, Kathok fires up the main engines. But he does wait till the last moment - the feeling of distilled exhilaration is truly priceless. With a lurch, Drukann's ship comes back into view - now in front of him. Kathok primes his weapons as his eyes glance up to see whether his enemy is falling from the sky or just inconvenienced. Honestly, Kathok hopes it's the latter. It'll be more fun that way.

IC: Torch - Over the water I start the journey in silence. I'm going to say something, but I think the other rahkshi won't be able to hear me, so I don't. I'm not much good at conversations.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes, heading for Cliffside Kathok growls as he sees his new enemy firing. What exactly is him motivation? Kathok had been chasing a suspicious looking situation, but this concentrated compound of stupidity and ineptitude was firing for literally no reason. Unless it was some old rival of his, Kathok considered, but the other pilot wouldn't be able to see him clearly from this distance. Kathok breaths as he remembers the blasts. Cause and effect slows to a trickle. Kathok's mind, a slow-motion spark, decides to try a maneuver he learnt years ago. He sees the swarm of angry projectiles vomiting towards him in an unhurried lull... Instantaneously, Sunmaker shudders upwards to avoid the string of force blasts and their fast-following fire bolt kin. Consciousness cycling and spinning, eyes following the projectiles like those of a hawk, Kathok flicks a switch, cranks a lever and blasts Sunmaker down and back, down and back, down and back, and over the projectiles. With main thrusters off, he spinning vortex of the land and sky in front of Kathok lurches, disconcertingly shrinking and coming into focus as it slows to a standstill and starts to fall away from him. Now comes the hard part. The perfectly timed 'jump' has missed the cloud of projectiles, nimbly hopping over them with the aid of Sunmaker's extra jets. But, after a split second of stillness the ship is swinging back and down - gravity giving it a helping hand. Main engines are off, now the jetrax's agile auxiliaries will have to execute the movement. Still Sunmaker falls backwards, eating away the space between it and its pursuer. The timing must be precise. Speed increasing. Space decreasing. Collision imminent. The whole act takes a handful of seconds, the jostling movements shaking Kathok in his seat. From Drukann's perspective, the Sunmaker briefly leaps upwards in its trajectory, the projectiles skimming or missing it. After a moment it drops back down, except now it's coming straight at him. Extra engines sizzling with searing heat, Kathok's ship plummets towards Drukann, ready to scrape the pilot out of his own seat as its armoured hull brushes the cockpit of its pursuer.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes, heading for Cliffside Kathok spares a fleeting glance downwards to see the force bolts biting the ground. On their journey back upwards, Kathok's tuquoise eyes flicker across one of the mirrors on his dashboard. In it lies a pursuing ship, appeared as if from nowhere, which is even now firing at him and-- With hardly a conscious thought Kathok sets Sunmaker's auxiliary maneuvering thrusters downwards, launching the ship upwards in a blur of motion and sending the projectiles spitting past below him. Heart racing, adrenaline pumping into his blood, Kathok's eyes follow the blasts as time seems to slow. They arc down, down, down, down towards the scene below. Time seems to slow, cliche as it sounds. On their current trajectory they miss Silvana by quite a long way, but still they fall. And... The bolts from the other ship, blurs of motion, slam into the ground some way away from the scene below. But anywhere is too close. The far off explosions of flame are followed by a noise so deep and subtle that it can hardly be heard, especially over engines. It sounds like the creaking of trees in a storm or ice under a boot. And it's succeeded by a cobweb of hair-thin cracks scrawling over the landscape. Kathok doesn't have much time. In an instant, Kathok has loosed a volley of football-sized force bolts at his pursuer. Hopefully the heavier, clumsier jetrax won't be able to dodge as easily. Kathok knows he'll have to pick up his prize before the ledge collapses, but landing now would only make him a sitting taku for the maniac attacking him.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes, heading for Cliffside A quick sweep over and Kathok has spotted Silvana clambering out of her ship, even without the aide of his farsight. Still holding his frustration at the situation within him, he relishes the opportunity to take out some of his anger: he sweeps over the stranded pilot, letting loose one or two force bolts near them - dangerously close in fact, but not intending to actually hit. Of course this might also manage to knock out the other pilot with the shock-waves, but Kathok is more interested in the satisfaction. The leer returns to his jagged skakdi maw. He'll stay in the air for a few more seconds before descending to get his prize. He can bear to let the feeling of anxiety mount within his prey for a moment longer.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes, heading for Cliffside Kathok glances viciously at the compass on his control panel. Kathok knows he can't let the pilot reach Cliffside, otherwise the chase will descend into one of those irritating street fights - something he isn't in the mood for right now. Kathok suddenly feels a hot wave of anger rush over him, for the first time today. This rat has denied him his hunt, denied him his weaving pursuit through the jagged canyons of the wastes. No, no, they've taken the easy route. Haven't they got any sense of adventure? Kathok curses in the language of old Zakaz. Couldn't they have just decided that it would be beneficial to go the other way, at least? Clearly not. Kathok feels frustrated. The only reason he did this was out of a two part blend of curiosity and adrenaline-junkie reflexes. I mean, he suspects something else might be going on...but that's just an excuse to himself to do this. But now the fun is over. Now the game is over. Kathok will go to Cliffside, he decides, but he'll drag this mundane weasel with him by the scruff of their neck. Hands scrawling the metal savagely without warning, Kathok unleashes a barrage of force bolts at his foe, the volley aimed with white-hot rage. At the same time two lines of superheated death lance out from either side of Sunmaker, ready to cleave his opponent's engines clean off. Kathok grimaces in a self-satisfied way. He expects he'll soon see a poor helpless being appear stranded on the sand. His conscience won't let him pass without picking them up...

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes Kathok's mind spins on a thousand axes and then realigns, computing the hundreds of inputs to keep pace with the chase, the world of the chase. Sunmaker darts after its quarry, still keeping a distance - at this point Kathok isn't sure what his prey will do next. But regardless of the specifics, its gonna be fun. OOC: I'm disoriented...have we missed the cliff face entirely? And which direction are we heading?

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes Sunmaker adjusts its course slightly, cutting the newfound corner but keeping its distance. Kathok, heart still racing, gives a metaphorical shrug. Might as well weaken his enemy in preparation for the final hunt: he lets loose a volley of force bolts intended to damage his quarry's engines but not take them out of the fight. Surely this wasn't Kathok's style? Surely he wants a fair fight, a challenge? Well, yes, but Kathok also likes to cultivate fear in his prey. Desperation is more amusing to deal with, and more importantly, desperate pilots make mistakes... OOC: I'll be gone for two days, soz...

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes The race has almost reached its finale now, and Kathok's blood runs white hot in anticipation of the endgame. A glance in his mirrors tells him that the other ship really is out of the fight. Kathok doesn't feel guilty, but he does feel a little sorry for the other pilot: in his position, he would have been seething to have his chance of victory snatched away so close to the conclusion. Still, it's nothing personal. But now Kathok's mind is back in the present. His prey is going to try and lose him in the maze of crevasses and canine fangs of blasted rock ahead, but she has obviously not anticipated the skill and talent of Kathok, pirate-king of the seven skies. For now, he holds off firing: he wants his quarry alive.

IC: Torch - Halls>Causeway "Yeah, yeah..." I say, and I'm pretty sure I'm right: it might take a a while, but people hide all sortsa stuff in the cauldron if you know where to look. The ponderous stone of the main archway slides past above me and I glance behind to see if my new companion is ready to fly across the causeway.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes Kathok smiles savagely. He honestly hadn't expected his attack to be so effective. He's aware of the cliff wall approaching, so he needs to decide whether to take down his opponent before Sunmaker reaches the landmark or risk the winding passage through the rocks. The latter is certainly more exciting, but Kathok is aware of his damaged thruster. He really should just get the assault over with. He really should just take the other ship out of the fight, then land and find its occupant. Come on, does he want his prize or not? He should really just fire now. Kathok decides to wait. Keeping his distance, Kathok braces for quick maneuvering as the ship between him and Silvana's slowly descends with the damage. Kathok's mind shimmers into a cold hard line pointing at its target. Wind smites the skin, a scornful curse Begets a cutting blow returned As metal cuts the sky adverse The air itself by engines burned

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes Now flying behind the other two, Kathok's heart is a blur of elated agitation and eager anticipation. Almost without thinking, Kathok's hands, as if connected by taught strings to his racing heart, flicker over Sunmaker's brutal metal control panel. In an instantaneous singularity of a moment, twin beams of slicing, searing doom materialise from either side of Sunmaker's hull, inescapable spears of agony capable of tearing ships apart with deadly clarity and blistering intensity. The dual projections of withering light are fixed in place, but Kathok seals the deal with a coincident up-down motion of his ship - the whole apparatus is acting like an oversized saw, incising the vehicle in front over and over and over again. A side effect is Sunmaker's damaged engine spluttering defiantly with the stress, and dipping in power irregularly. The auxiliary engines - those that are actually performing the maneuver - are fine. Kathok hasn't got to the point where he's willing to risk throwing away a chance at winning to for a chancy move - not yet at least. This is why he doesn't try firing the force cannon as well, in case it drains Sunmaker's energy banks entirely. However, the end of this stanza is fast approaching and it may well get the win-or-die stage fairly soon...

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes Air whistles through Kathok's fangs as the plasma bolts stab down past him. When the blast erupts below him, he knows he has to get up as quickly as possible - Sunmaker crawls upwards towards its moving targets, but Kathok knows he hasn't completely outrun fate when he hears the detonation below him, a shock wave rippling through Sunmaker's hull. A conflagration of hot grit and glass dust billows upwards, streaming and scraping over Sunmaker like a dense, abrasive whirlwind. Though his vision is mostly obscured, Kathok traces the enemy ships' movements in his minds eye, continuing on his course blindly: it all adds to the excitement, you see. When the thick dirt has cleared, its bitterly hostile passage scratching both Kathok and his vehicle, the sellsword skakdi can once again see his quarry. Unfortunately they are ahead again. Kathok is done messing around. This chase is reaching his end game, and there'll only be one victor. Sunmaker draws level with the other two ships.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes Kathok's eyes dart backwards and forwards, gaze flying between the mirrors and view in front of him, vision flickering wildly, detail taken in at nauseating speed, focus and re-focus spinning time and space together into a set of open doors, tapestries of colour, form, shape, light and dark, presented and whipped away a thousand times a heartbeat, and, and, and-- Time slows, the rapids changing to treacle-slow tributaries. Kathok's eyes swing heavily around on their sponsons, soaking up the images they brush through. He sees a few things. First, the metal glint of the mirror sends him a painting of Silvana's ship. She isn't advancing. That means she must be getting ready to fire. Either that or she's waiting for him to destroy her other enemy. Or vice versa. Kathok realises that the pilot of the other ship has stolen his plan. Continuing on their journey, Kathok's eyes focus on a closer target. With almost comical slowness, the picture trickles into Kathok's brain from the outside world. The rockoh's pilot is a cartoon of rage and vicious vitriol. And Kathok can see the launchers' mechanisms slide into place with dull, cold inevitability. Their pent up energy is being released, unstoppably pushing their destructive cargo towards their objective. All these facts coagulate in Kathok's mind to form one simple solution. He has to copy the other jetrax. The consciousness sends its messengers to the workers of the body. Ripping, rippling waves of energy course outwards, through Kathok's cells and circuits, muscle fibers and metal pistons. They reach the fingertips, mechanical convulsions sending them towards their goal. The hands grasp and scramble for the cliched big red lever. When they find it, power pours into the downwards movement. After a thin slice of a second peels past, the muscles relax. Kathok, through his adrenaline-fueled hyper-awareness, is conscious of Sunmaker dropping, the feeling of gravity pulling him upwards, grabbing at him with incorporeal hands. His eyes widen intuitively, body lifting and bracing with a subconscious preservation instinct. But it won't be quite fast enough, he realises. Not to achieve all objectives, at least. He sighs. He's jolted back into awareness when one of the discs skims past him, splitting the air. A moment later, the other disc punches into the top of one of the main jets at a narrow angle, taking off the armour plating and shredding one of the thruster cells within. If Kathok had been paying attention, he would have realised it must have been a fairly high-level weakens disk. But still Sunmaker plummets, its course barely changed by the collision with the projectile. Kathok always finds great satisfaction in waiting until the very, very, very, very, very, very, very last moment to turn his engines back on when he performs a stunt like this. Today is no exception. Just as the injured jetrax seems to have its fate sealed by the endless expanse of dust and grit, it hops back upwards, skimming the desert like a stone skims water. With part of one of its main thrusters damaged, Kathok will have to pour even more power in to keep pace. But he doesn't care about that right now; as he rises behind the other two, his hopes once again rise in unison.

IC: Torch - Halls I nod earnestly, and begin walking in the direction of the main entrance. "They have all sortsa stuff in the cauldron, if you know where to look." It feels good to be helpful.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes Kathok feels his nerves tighten, each a sharp line of exhilaration. He's prepared for the wild attack this time: the panicked spray of projectiles is combated with an unbridled corkscrew spin from Sunmaker. Kathok screams in ludicrous, chaotic elation while the world flips around him, once, twice, thrice. Despite his zeal, he has the perception to realise that a weakens disc has struck the back of his vehicle, no doubt making the metal more brittle and fatigued. In fact Kathok can feel a loss in power: one of the auxiliary thrusters must have been damaged, some of its jet exiting it in a less-than-linear fashion. Kathok grabs the controls with savage brutality, returning the attack with yet another volley after a short intermission. He can't keep this up forever, but the danger is putting off annoyance or boredom.

IC: Kathok - Above the Wastes With Kathok momentarily distracted, Taurek's disc manages to strike one of Sunmaker's engines - the metal casing groans as the cold fatigues the metal and coats it in ice. "Piraka!" Kathok curses. Luckily, the disc doesn't seem to be high-level enough for its icy impact to penetrate the motor's inner workings to a significant degree. A smile returning to his barbed features, Kathok returns the attack with another volley, this time aiming for the pursuing rockoh's rider. Kathok is also aware of Silvana's movements. If she has front facing weapons, which most jetrax do, he'll need to maneuver evasively quite quickly. Still, moving before the last moment will alert his other pursuer to the danger if he hasn't spotted it already, as well as simply causing the other two to follow him. Kathok, through the haze of adrenaline, is aware that he needs to get behind the other two ships for maximum effect. He'll try and do that when he gets a chance.

IC: Torch - Halls "I'd be up for that." I say. I've never really had a proper friend before, but it seems my luck is on the rise. "How about we go to the Cauldron?"

IC: Kathok - Near Tesera Kathok hears Taurek's engines behind him, and then hears their power increasing with an exponential whir. He can guess he'll be under attack, so he uses his auxiliary thrusters to tilt, one way and the other, making his engines harder to hit. The positioning of a jetrax's engines means that they are quite difficult targets anyway, despite their size: it's hard to hit the thin structure connecting them to the hull, for a start. One of Taurek's freeze disks whizzes past Sunmaker's right engine, while the other skims it, glazing the metal in supercool ice - but causing no lasting damage to the internal machinery. Kathok chuckles maliciously; using a disk launcher at this range is a stupid move. At the same time, he whirls round the force blaster on Sunmaker's underbelly, lobbing a succession of destructive bolts at his pursuer. Of course, looking in his side mirrors, his concentration on the target in front of him has a temporary lapse. Sunmaker continues to cannon forwards for a split second before Kathok realises that Whisper has descended. Kathok chuckles: smart.

OOC: Oops soz nato... IC: Kathok - Near Tesera Kathok isn't particularly irritated when he sees Silvana's ship emerge in tact - after all, the longer this interaction takes, the more satisfying its eventual resolution will be. Kathok isn't a sadist, but he enjoys being the hunter, instilling fear in his quarries. Seeing them scramble to escape, trip and stumble in their panic, gives him a wild sense of power. It's like this now, as Sunmaker shoots through the sky after Whisper, setting the very air ablaze with its engines - all of which are at full power. As the distance closes between Kathok and the damaged ship, he prepares to fire again...

Hahahahaha--(groan) But yeah I'd actually completely forgotten about that group - if Keeper is still around perhaps we can get them moving too in conjunction with the Outsiders.

IC: Kathok - Near Tesera Adrenaline rushes through Kathok's body as Sunmaker surges forwards and up even further in its flight away from the destruction. The air itself drums a shuddering rhythm on the jetrax's hull, while the wind whipping through the open cockpit bores a hole in Kathok's soul - a hole filled by ecstatic exhilaration. His hands writhe uncontrollably over the control panel, his inner eye feeling every flex of the creaking metal construct around him. Hawk-like, the Sunmaker reaches the pinnacle of its climb, slowing as it banks around an imaginary corner. Kathok is focused, but his eyes are wide - each a searing turquoise point in a viridescent sea. Lazily, his aforementioned oculi swing round to fix on the scene below him. A multitude of creatures are swarming Kathok's enemies, locust-like. His thoughts drip into place as time slows with concentration. Kathok is impulsive but not reckless. He decides he will destroy Silvana's ship simply for the satisfaction if nothing else, but in this case his motivation is twofold. He sees that if he destroys that aircraft, the bruiser who was so desperate for answers will take the vortixx with him. Yes...in fact, as his eyes see the scene with unnatural sharpness, he realises that this is happening now. Wonderful. The prize is saved, but neatly tied up for the taking. And if the worst comes to the worst, he can just kill them both anyway. In an instant, the moment is gone and Sunmaker is lunging downwards, piercing the atmosphere. Its shape is a jagged black blur against the sky, engines thundering - cacophonous - while its weapons crackle with energy. Kathok braces himself, a control clutched in each hand. Sunmaker lacerates the air with its sickeningly quick approach, ground and aircraft wrenched together with exponential speed. And at this moment, the force blaster is activated again, a wall of inescapable annihilation sweeping like a flood towards Silvana's ship: Kathok aims for the engines, but any important bit will do. But Sunmaker continues its hurtling nosedive, getting closer and closer by the nanosecond, the blur of its form coalescing into shapes whose advance is frighteningly rapid, until, until, until-- Just as inevitable doom looms for everyone involved - Sunmaker close enough for the grounded combatants to see Kathok clearly - the deadly-fast vehicle swoops slightly upwards, plummet curtailed as it curves back into the sky. when whisp'ring shadows are all but washed away a sense of victory doth claim the day when crooked brutes do steal such shadows' heart presented with thy prize thou surely art

IC: Torch - Halls "And, uh, where will we find these things?"

IC: Kathok - Near Tesera "Very well." he replies to the vortixx, as he hears the bruiser to his left mutter something and climb into his vehicle. Kathok lowers his arm, sitting back down into his seat, hands brushing the controls. Kathok takes a second to evaluate which of his options would be most...interesting, but he's bored. In this case a more direct approach is needed. He exchanges a glance with his other adversary, the steltian, briefly flashing a smile. Then he abruptly starts Sunmaker, using the auxiliary engines to lift off near-vertically for a few seconds, pivoting a few degrees in the moments before forwards thrust would be required to keep the vehicle aloft. He grabs a joystick in one hand wrenching it forwards. In an instant, two searing beams of blisteringly hot cutting energy project from either side of the ship's main hull, slicing succinctly though anything in their path. Meanwhile, a thudding, eardrum-splitting blaster ejects a constant hail of unrelenting force at its objective. The eruption, the utter barrage of heat and force unleashed by Sunmaker in those few seconds before it surges forwards and up have only one target, of course: Silvana's Jetrax. Though Kathok doesn't mind terribly if she gets caught in the fire.