Setting
All around are shanty cottages, shops and huts, and there is no shortage of beggars and merchants of questionable reputation. Lacking the funds to rebuild this once lustrous sector, the Council decided to condemn the district, allowing those brave enough to live there to do so.
Setting
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How amazing then might it be for these dregs, these outcasts of society, to cast their gaze upon a sharp white vortex that suddenly ripped itself open in mid-air on one of the larger roads. The blinding white light that spilled out caused many a head to turn, reddened eyes blinking blearily at the purity.
Then, all at once, a storm of dark shapes flew from the aperture, each a man-sized prism of black glass floating above the ground. People screamed and scattered, screaming of the manasphere and demon raids, unaware that this was something altogether different and, perhaps, even more diabolical.
The black glass prisms halted in their forward flight, fracturing and splintering to take on humanoid forms, with sharp, angular bodies and flat, featureless crystal faces. Quickly they floated forwards on needle-like feet, chasing down the weak or slow. Their fore-arms, little more than barbed knives, shot forward like jointed, geometric tendrils, piercing hapless beggars' craniums and seeming to pull small, colored lights from their dying bodies...
On the ground, a sortie of Knights rushed to the scene, a flurry of Stallion assault vehicles -themselves loaded down with Knights- rushing passed them. The civilians fled the scene, screaming and crying and trampling over one another. It was horrifying sight to behold, but they had to press on. They hadn't even assessed what the threat was, but they assumed it to be another raid of Manasphere demons coming to finish Sepulcher Town.
However, upon closer examination, they discerned that these things did not appear to be the demons at all. Regardless, they were assaulting their home territory just the same. The Stallion gunners opened fire, their mana-turrets dolling out bursts of magickal energy, seeking to pierce the hides of these new foes.
The Knights, armed with Omisace pulse rifles, unleashed their own mana-powered weaponry upon these malicious entities. Their numbers were strong, their training made them durable. Their armor was sturdy and had pulled them through the most hellish campaigns. Laying down fire onto the invaders, the Knights continued their advance, seeking to blast apart the incoming enemy.
With loud screeching and shattering sounds, their independent bodies and lights merged to form a large tetragonal prism. From this structure unfolded six large pyramids, all of which had a light shining at the tip. Energy seemed to gather and a flurry of ripple-fired energy beams screamed up towards the incoming dropships.
Meanwhile, on the ground, a small detachment of invaders, twelve or so, bottlenecked two streets, forming a line to hold back the incoming Knights while their dark brethren finished harvesting innocent minds for reshaping. The crystalline soldiers had an unnatural agility that allowed them to evade most of the incoming fire, but it seemed as though they could only focus on three or four enemy targets at a time. As such, three or so were shattered to pieces by magickal blasts in the initial exchange of fire. This caused the remaining crystals to revise their tactics and stack up on the two street corners, taking potshots at incoming Knights.
Their primary means of attack seemed to be small, razor sharp shards of black crystal flung from their needle-like hands, which penetrated almost any surface and exploded in a detonation of brilliant energy after just a moment. As the defense forces and their newly formed mini-fortress fended off the Xeraph counter-assault team, the remaining VARIAtech invaders began to move into the buildings, seeking out stragglers for assimilation...
Just then, the cavalry came through.
The Malleus Demonika, the Union's own slayers of Manasphere demons, were sent in to investigate the attack, and to destroy any and all attackers that threatened the security of Rorian Grand and the rest of the Union's territories. Better-trained than the Knights, they burst onto the scene, armed with the very same pulse weaponry, as well as their highly deadly mana lances; large pole-arm weapons powered with magick energies to produce a high-intensity blade capable of slicing and piercing through the hardest of hides and materials.
Charging onto the scene, making their way into the thick of conflict, they met the invaders head on, unloading out of their own Stallions and rushing the mysterious creatures. They weren't like any demons they'd ever seen, but they could die just the same. Moving to cut down or impale the invasion party, as well as obliterate them with ranged weaponry, the hunters pushed hard to beat back the enemy and drive them back to whence they came.
A straight line of hunters charged them, while another group laid down fire from behind them, being careful to aim around their fellows. Utilizing a phalanx, they moved forward, harnessing their shielding systems to protect them as they advanced, their compatriots behind them providing them covering fire to allow them to safely move forward. The hunters moved to impale and slice the crystal beings, seeking to shatter them with their powerful weaponry.
The flying fortress overhead also joined in suppressing the incoming Demonika soldiers, as large, thick square columns burst out of its individual faces, attempting to squash five or so Xeraph reinforcements at a time. All at once, the crystal men that had entered to search nearby buildings flew, literally, from the windows, landing in the street in a cloud of dust. Wordlessly, they ducked back through the portal. Once they were through, the battle-prism overhead fragmented back into individual soldiers, who crowded back in through the white vortex along with the remaining linemen. Five more crystal men were obliterated in the retreat, but that was fine. It had been calculated for. Their black, glassy remains slowly evaporated into nothingness as the white portal slowly wound itself shut with a droning howl.
Then, even amidst the groans of the dying and scared, there was peace again. Unfortunately, in the raid, seventy innocent beggars and peasants had been taken, their minds sucked right from their heads by the cruel needles of the invaders.
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In the stark, blank void that surrounded Nucleus, the VARIAtech home world, the away team arrived through a vortex similar to the one with which they had appeared on the Xeraph world. The remaining forces drifted through dreamily, a host of small, individual prisms herded in the middle of their flock. Seventy new minds to be cleansed and indoctrinated in the great, black world that lingered not far off in the distance...
However, peace returned to the condemned sector once the dust settled and the enemy evacuated. A hunter finish retrieving his mana-lance from the crystal corpse of his enemy. "Load this one up, and be sure to keep it contained. The Sorcerers would likely want to study it." A group of Knights walked over, picking up the slain crystal figure. It was quite heavy, even given the strength-enhancement properties afforded to them by their mana-powered armor. They loaded the creature into a Stallion, and returned their attention to surveying the area: they had to make sure no one was injured.
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