The Song of Steel

Ryan made sure everyone was prepared, and said, "Hold your breath, I'm opening the door." Activating the panel, the ramp slid down, filling the shuttle with water. Holding his breath, Ryan slowly swam out, careful to avoid the dangerous lifeforms under this lake.

Ethan used his magic to create an air bubble around him and allowed himself to be pushed out of the shuttle by the water. As he broke the surface he started talking.

"Guy's, whats the plan, I think we should head to the Urthan Military outpost"

Swiming upwards, Ryan punched one of the strange eel like things as it was trying to take a bite off of his arm. Surfacing, Ryan took several deep breaths and looked around, seeing several poeple pointing weapons at him. Blinking, Ryan broke from his trance, then dove for the nearest rock, drawing his pistol as he did so.

Ethan looked around and froze, he had not seen the men with guns around him. He sunk back of the water into his bubble, and attempted to pull Ryan and Kohma down with him.

"Who the hell are they."

Isaiah was meditating behind a tree near the lake when he heard the commotion.

"Ah, they must have finally escaped.." He said, leaning out from behind the tree to observe what he thought to be the small ragtag squad... but it turned out to be a rather formidable-looking group of soldiers in addition to said squad.

"This is Commander Thundrice." He said into his wrist-communicator. "Have squads Alpha through Iota descend around the lake as quietly as possible, with Iota's descent just behind me. And keep an eye on us, I have a feeling an engagement is to follow this message."

Isaiah crawled stealthily from one tree to another, and drew a pair of binoculars to observe the unfolding situation.

kadin swam up to the top of the lake he peered around and saw some men with guns pointing straight at his head

"ummmm... we come in peace?" said kadin with a dry chuckle

"Goddammit!" Burbled Kohma, who had been immediately accosted in the jaws of a strange creature the second the murky water swept him from the emergency shuttle. It was hard to see much of anything, but Kohma ascertained by the pressure on his hip that the creature had him by the armoured plating along his waist. Since swords weren't going to do him much good under water, he did the next best thing he could: He felt around the creature's face as it thrashed, until Kohma found an eye.

Pushing with all of his might, he felt a gooey warmth on his thumb, followed by an enraged bubbling noise. The creature quickly let go and swam off. Judging by how quickly the other shadows vanished, Kohma assumed that the other water-creatures had chased after their wounded comrade in the hopes of an easy meal.

It was at that moment that Kohma remembered he hadn't breathed for at least forty seconds. Promptly kicking towards the surface, and breaking through with a much-needed gasp of air, he was quite surprised to see people pointing guns at his face. "Goddammit!" He shouted again, but his shout was muffled by the air bubble that surrounded him, dragging him under.

Meanwhile...

Ekko'fors whistled as he walked, as cheerful as ever. His bastard swords clinked merrily as they shifted on his back with each step he took. "Oh what a wondrous day to be alive!" He declared enthusiastically to the jungle that surrounded him on all sides.

And it had been a rather good day for him indeed, despite having been attacked by no less than six gigaphants in the past hour alone. He licked his lips at the thought... Ekko'fors had been rather loathe to leave such exquisite meat rotting in the reeds, but time was not presently his friend.

Suddenly and quite unexpectedly, he heard the sounds of man, or at least some sort of sentient life. Twas a hard sound to mistake, what with the shouting, swearing, and the clinking of weapons and armour. Stepping lightly through a thicket, he was greeted by the sight of a group of Abh. From the looks of things, they were rather interested in something under the water.

Ekko'fors quietly sat down on his thighs, and watched.

Ryan had just positioned himself behind a small boulder on the beach, when, quite suddenly, he was yanked back into the water by an invisible force. Just as quickly, he found himself in a very large air bubble underwater, with Kohma and Ethan. Blinking and grumbling, Ryan said, "Hell, if it aint a goddamn planet exploding, it's some sumbitch's trying to shoot us. Why can't we just go to a damn bar in peace?"

Ethan rubbed his temples.

"I can only hold this bubble for a little longer, we need a plan now"

Dante tilted his head to the side pondering.

"To kill or not to kill," he said walking towards the edge of the water spinning his blade in his hand, "That is the question."

"They could be from a possible settlement near this position sir," said Hewwet lowering his gun.

"They could," said Dante know squatting and staring at his reflection in the cloudy waters edge, "They could be hostile. You saw one of them pulled out a gun...

"Wha-" began Hewwet who was interrupted in mid sentence as Dante finished his.

"..Regardless they are under water and obviously have a means of breathing under the water," said Dante still pondering, "There is no doubt they are still there. The question is how do we get them to come up and speak to them?"

"I have no idea sir," said Hewwet thinking slowly about the problem.

"You usually don't," said Dante walking back into the ship

Once aboard the ship Dante walked toward the stash of weapons they had stolen from the ship earlier and grabbed a rather cheap pistol that had little to know market value. After grabbing such a gun Dante made for the kitchen grabbing a white rag and tying it to the trigger.

"I have and idea," said Dante walking back to the water, "The idea is simple. In most combat situations the opposing side will "drop their weapons" when they have been outnumbered or do not wish to fight. This being a symbol of peace we shall drop this gun into the water were we believe they might be nearest too and hope that by seeing the falling weapon they will realize we wish no harm to them until they give us reason. This added onto the fact that a white flag should be more then enough cause for them to come up to greet us."

Dante sat recalling were they seemed to dive back under water at then once assuming their position tossed the weapon into the water.

"Do not lower your guns," said Dante with a tightened grip on his sword, "If they attempt even in the slightest to fire at us. Immediately kill them with no remorse."

"Yes sir," said the troops weapons ready.

"It's quiet... Too quiet..." Kohma grumbled after what felt like days of waiting. "Why is nothing happening? Are they just gonna wait for us to surface...?" Sighing, he continued to wait, his hands twitching anxiously over the pommels of his blades.

Suddenly, the murky view they had of the surface began to thrash around violently. At first, Kohma thought the strangers where about to come in after them, but none ever did. "This probably won't be the wisest thing I've ever done... But I'm gonna go see what's up." he said, cracking his knuckles for reasons unbeknownst to him.

Pushing lightly at first, then harder, Kohma separated from the giant bubble without popping it. Swiftly ascending to the surface, he took in a gasp of air and wiped the water from his eyes. He heard the screams long before he saw the cause. The strangers were being viciously attacked by humongous, bipedal lizards. If Kohma remembered his schooling correctly, they were called Velociraptors.

It was pure carnage. One would think such well armed folks would be well suited against a few oversized lizards, but apparently the beasts had exploited the element of surprise quite admirably. Right before Kohma submerged again, he saw one of the creatures ripping a man's skull and left shoulder from the rest of his body in a single bite. And he was one of the lucky ones that died quickly.

"Guys!" Kohma coughed as he pushed his way back into the bubble, soaking wet. "A gang of raptorfucks were so kind to buy us a diversion... Let's get out of here while we can!"

Without sticking around for a reply, Kohma left the bubble again, and kicked towards the surface. Once up top, he splashed towards the shore, and then ran... Towards a thicket.

Ryan took one look at the carnage, then enjoyed a good belly laugh. Wiping his eyes, Ryan smiled, then followed Kohma into hte thicket, already thinking on how he could use this tale to get a free drink.

"Hurry the hell up, or we're toast!" Kohma shouted angrily at his slowpoke friends as he hurtled towards the thicket. All manner of flora slapped at his face and tugged at his body as he burst through the forest line in an adrenal frenzy. He could have sworn he saw another person next to him, but whoever it was quickly disappeared deeper into the jungle and out of sight.

Turning again to shout at the members of his party, Kohma's voice was completely drowned out by a sudden roar. The thing that made the noise didn't take long to make itself known in a flurry of broken trees and screaming men.

"True Tyrannosaurs." Kohma muttered, noticing the wings and extra pair of eyes on the creature's chest. "Just what we need."

Unfortunately for them, such beasts never hunted alone.

Cursing under his breath, Ryan raised his pistol, aiming at the creatures chest eye, and squeezed the trigger.

Ethan ran along side his two comrades in arms, until the creature in front of him stopped him. With out thinking he tapped back into his magic, he used the flora around him to stab into the creature likes spikes, some nearly 5 inches thick.

"We got to get out of here if we are going to live."

Thrashing around in violent spasms of pain, the creature overturned the stranger's spaceship, painfully crushing those on the other side.

Although he had always been fond of fighting, Kohma wasn't about to go swinging a close range weapon at a forty foot tall carnivore. Instead, he hung to the side, watching his companions batter the beast from afar.

"Alright. Let's make ourselves scarce before it's friends show up." Kohma suggested shortly thereafter, making towards the jungle.

Shaking his head, Ryan said, "Ya, lets go. Do you know if the natives around here make liquor?"

Kohma was starting to suspect that his eldest companion was some sort of alcoholic. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, though.

Oh yeah.

"Now is not the time to be worrying about booze!" Kohma shouted, pointing with his thumb in the general direction of the gigantic lizard with a penchant for human organs.

"Just run!" He finally suggested, quickly heeding his own advice. The foliage broke and snapped before them as they barreled forward, until something rather unexpected sent Kohma into a skidding halt.

"Great! Dandy!" He shouted at the gods as he looked down the sheer drop before them. The trees below looked only slightly bigger than ants.

Suddenly, he heard a rustling coming from the brush to the side. "Something's coming this way!" Kohma shouted, drawing his blades.

Ethan saw the drop in front off him and just kept running as he barreled into his friends he attached to MAG grab magnets to both of them, the magnets attached to high yield cords that came out of his armor.

"Sorry no chance to talk"

He then pulled the ripcord of his parachute, then started sending gusts of air up into the canopy.

"Every one OK"

"As OK as one can be whilst being manhandled around the stratosphere by an invisible magical force of unknown reliability." Kohma responded, trying his best not to look down. Instead, he looked over at the cliffside they'd just escaped. A lone figure with blond hair stood where he'd expected to find a hungry lizard.

" holy... what the fuck? what the ? where" kadins sentence was cut short by a gun but to the face.

"where am i?" kadin said aloud as he examined the area around him he was surrounded by a vast jungle.

"do i hear 380?" said the man standing next to him at a podium.

"oh fuck" kadin realized he was being auctioned off as a slave as he looked around he noticed nearly every intelligent species from the furthest corners of the universe.

kadin could hear grumbling in the crowd of things shouting out words witch he could not understand. everything went black again.

kading woke up to realize he was being drug away from the stage he was just at. he looked up to see a closed in building in witch he could hear gunshots coming from

"oh shit" kadin grumbled as he was dropped and handed a mac-10 and a Beretta M9.

Dante sighed slowly and looked down at the ground. Such a random change of events caused him distaste for the current planet he was on.

"Is there anything we have to have on the ship," said Dante watching and wondering how a smaller creature managed to flip a ship three times its size.

"No," said Hewwet scratching his head, "We will be losing a good bit of weaponry though."

"Lets just go," said Dante drawing in the chain of his blade and slashing it through the air to wipe off the blood.

"Mort," said Dante looking up at his pet Raven who glared back with anger in his eye; for his favorite bird crackers had been lost in the ship, "Scout ahead and see if you can find that group that ran past us."

"KAAAA!!" Shouted Mort in anger at the Tyrannosaur and then flew off into the sky.

"If you want to keep your life then lets get going," said Dante picking up a grenade off the ground that had rolled out of the ship, "If not stay here."

Dante triggered the grenade and threw it into the open door of the ship.

"You've got about 20 seconds to get away from that," said Dante picking up a pace and running towards towards the trees.

A large cloud of dust leaped into the air fallowed by a ear shattering explosion. When the dust settled sounds of pain could be heard from the vicious animals that stayed too close to the ship when it blew up.

"Fucking dinosaurs," said Dante smiling shouldering his blade and picking his way through the dense trees.

When suddenly, all four directors were exploded and killed by The Bravery*

*Any members old enough to understand this reference get a cookie


Congratulations! You guys won the RP. I declare it officially.

fin.

Aye.

'til the next one.

*Crosses space travel and giant dinosaurs off the list of things to put in medieval RPs*