Troubling Heaven

[NavyGuy7]

((So what's next, lol? I have writer's block...))

 

[TheCheat1]

((Mr. Brilliand... save this RPG! ))

 

[Brilliand]

As the Gold palace rose into view, Iban swooped upward, aiming for a second-floor window. Entering a cloud bank, he circled a quarter of the way around the palace and flew in through a window other than the one he had entered through. Iban stopped on a dime forty feet inside, and walked at a normal pace toward a storage room door.

------------------------------------------------------

Within the master control room, the Black King blanched. "Iban is here! Gresholm! Gresholm!" Janem pounded at some keys and succeeded in causing some damage to the window he thought Iban had entered through.

Gresholm appeared in the middle of the room. "What is it?"

"Iban is in the palace! I'm sure of it! I couldn't keep track of him, but he was coming straight here!"

"Calm down, we'll prepare for battle. This is a momentous opportunity. In all the years of the Gold Kingdom, we were never able to catch Iban in a closed hallway. We will prepare, and kill him when he comes."

Janem calmed down, and began sending orders as Gresholm determined which artifacts would be needed.

 

[TheCheat1]

Ethian followed Iban inside the window and stopped a dozen feet behind Iban. "What's so important that it's in a storage room?" Ethian took a look around, "listening" to the energy signals of everyone inside. He could almost feel their heartbeats in his own chest. He felt a strange energy signal-- three actually-- coming from one being, but he couldn't identify it.

 

[NavyGuy7]

"Hiyaaaah!" Lance cried, as he opened the cockpit, and allowed the ship's momentum to carry him through the window. Once inside, he rolled, and rolled, before crashing against a wall. His ship would retreat until needed.
"I don't know how you two do that at that speed..." Lance said, shaking his head as he dusted himself off. He checked to make sure his rifle was functional, having grabbed it from his ship.
"So...is this where we can destroy Hollowstar?"

 

[Brilliand]

"The master control room is on an upper floor. If I only wanted to find that, I would start at the top. But the storage rooms in this palace carry a variety of powerful intstruments unmatched, to my knowledge, anywhere else in the galaxy." Iban grabbed an orb off the shelf. Within it was a vague image of an eye, like a watercolor painting on the center of the orb. "This instrument neutralizes a very effective class of attacks called Bypass attacks. I think that this will prove useful." Iban scanned the room, looking across the shelves of unfamiliar artifacts for another that he recognized.

 

[NavyGuy7]

"Anything here that can help me be stealthy? Like....an advanced cloaking device or a sound dampener? Or something that can improve my accuracy?" Lance asked, curious. He was always looking for new ways to be efficient at what he did.

 

[Brilliand]

"There's a perfect-accuracy artifact somewhere, but I don't think it's in this room. I've never seen a stealth artifact, but I'm sure there is one... perhaps in the K's. We're in No right now." Iban grabbed another artifact off the shelf, noting its four-letter code in case he could identify it later. "Nofu" he said aloud.

 

[NavyGuy7]

"What's your plan once we're done here? I don't think I was completely undetected earlier...and they MAY have traced my ship if their technology is more advanced, though it's hard to track that dogfighter. It was built to throw off any radar or sensors, to confuse other dogfighters." Lance shouldered his rifle across the back of his neck, both arms hanging over it, dangling in front to either side.
"Ironically, I want to destroy Hollowstar as well, but I might have different reasons than you. You seem to have everyone looking at their own shadows, though."

 

[TheCheat1]

Ethian had been looking around the room until Lance said "destroy Hollowstar" and his ears perked up. "You do, do you?" He said, sitting down an artifact, but as carefully as he could. "What're your reasons?" Then he quickly turned to Iban and said, "I think Janem will be expecting you, at least. I never thought I'd be the one to say this, but I think we need a plan."

 

[Brilliand]

"I do not know the inner layout of the palace. Before we can form an attack plan, we will need more information."

 

[TheCheat1]

Ethian held up his hand, a ball of energy floating above it. "Then let's get our information," he said, a devilish smirk forming on his face. "Where do we, uh, get it?"

 

[NavyGuy7]

"If you can get me to a terminal plugged into the main systems of the palace, I can hack the information for you. I'm the second best hacker in the galaxy. The honor of best would have to lie with a teenage boy named Tek. But I'll do as good as him with the implant I recently received."
Lance was pretty sure he could do it, anyhow. He had the technology...

 

[Brilliand]

"There are computers all over the palace. I don't know exactly where to find one, but if we wander around, it shouldn't take long." Iban tucked the orbs under his arms and jumped out of the room into the middle of the hallway. He incinerated a guard that happened to be nearby, glanced both ways, picked a direction and started walking.

 

[NavyGuy7]

"You certainly don't waste any time killing the enemy," Lance said, amused. He walked past the charred remains as if it was just another event in a normal day.

 

[TheCheat1]

Ethian stepped around the burned guard's body and let out a quiet "Yuck." He continued to follow Iban and Lance, though moving at this pace was like torture.

 

[NavyGuy7]

"Hey! What about that one?"
Lance pointed to a computer that looked a lot more important than the other one he had used earlier.
"'If it looks important, and there are guards around it, chances are it's VERY important'. That's what my father always said."

 

[Brilliand]

((I guess that's what I get for not describing the scenery.))

Iban rocketed into the clump of guards grabbing one and using his energy to blast the other guards. Amazingly, one guard survived, completely unaffected by the blast. Iban hovered over the spot the first guard used to me standing and watched as two glowing orbs rose into the air on either side of the guard.

((The computer is a communication device for guards. It contains maps of the palace halls and information on the location of every guard. With some work, Lance should be able to get the names of the rooms. However, this computer is not directly connected to the artifact database, so it can't be used to identify artifacts.))

 

[NavyGuy7]

((Gotcha. And yah, be a little more specific once we get to a new area. This is obviously the guard area... lol.))

"Alright, just watch my back, and I should be able to hack into it... luckily my wrist computer managed to download a basic "Rosetta's Stone" of the runes used here in the palace, so I should be able to translate it as I'm looking at it."
Lance went to work, looking for an access panel or ANYTHING he could use.
"Crud. I guess I'll have to do it wirelessly," Lance said. His stuff wasn't up to par with Tek's, as his could connect anywhere without wires and rarely needed an adapter plugged into the computer he was hacking.
His wrist computer popped up with a holo-window, and Lance began to connect to the computer, attempting to bypass the systems.
"I'll be in the system in about five minutes. Keep me alive until then," Lance said. He activated his cloak, just in case someone decided to take a potshot at his back.

 

[Brilliand]

Having decided that the orbs were purely defensive and couldn't mount any nasty attack, Iban floated between Lance and the guard and waited. The guard eyed the computer nervously, wanting to call for help. After several seconds, he took off at a run down the corridor, planning to alert other guards of the threat.

((The master control room is on the second-highest floor with a horseshoe of hallway around it. There are no other rooms on that floor. The highest floor is a hangar for a sort of aircraft. The database terminals are downstairs from where we are, and storage rooms are littered throughout the palace with cryptic two-letter names.))