Frontiers and Pioneers (sci-fi, NSFW(violence,possible teases), robots)

@Jinx @EclecticInspiration  
[ 🔊 ] [ 🎶 ]  
 
Before setting out, supplies are arranged into a circle a hundred meters away from the shuttle, though at the last moment, the hazardous ClF3 crate is instead sequestered into a hovel rather than between the materiel they’ve only just now arrived with.
 
Once a staging area is in place, the enormous shuttle takes flight again–the groundside team watching as it vanishes into dark clouds above in the night sky… Stranded for now in the middle of a dark plain, group then move together with no headlights to give themselves away, heading toward the northeast rockpile.
 
To Ginger beside him from the co-pilot seat, as well as through a secure tight-beam maser aimed unto a transceiver-dish on Kat’s mech, as radio could potentially give them all away; “…Ginger, Kat, how much experience do you both have with fighting?”

@Coriolanus  
Ive been in several planetary wars, primative to matching tech.
 
kat had thermals activated in her visor, scanning around

@Coriolanus  
“It’s what I’m best known for,” Ginger replies, “even if most of them weren’t in a fancy mech.” Very experienced, by the sound of her tone, bordering on mirth.

@Jinx @EclecticInspiration  
“Either of you ever went up against aliens?”
 
Peculiarly, Kat’s scope on thermals reveals part of the distant stone-pile to be searing-hot.

@Coriolanus  
Weve got contact, 1 klick northwest. Hot rocks.
 
she stopped, aiming her weapon

@Coriolanus  
“It wouldn’t matter, my friend. Now let’s go get their attention- ready?”

@Jinx @EclecticInspiration  
“Ooohboi… alright.” The expedition’s lead exits unto the walker’s roof through the topside hatch, sealing it behind him while preparing one of the two devices to be used first, on the drab-grey megalith currently mixed among other boulders that blend in with the ambient gradient… To the naked eye, it’d be impossible to discern which is which.
 
As six hoplites flank it to the east, while six others flank the other way, the MT-VT, Kat’s mech, and thirteenth hoplite head strait toward the pile… With everyone in position, Ginger and Ramesh fire the nonlethal D-EWs at the target first. A buzzing reception is heard across all radios for a few seconds, then stops just as the D-EWs cease as well…
 
The shark then leaps off the walker with a core-sampling tool, steadily advancing past the colder rocks…
 
“…The hell is this??”

@Coriolanus  
kats walker stayed half a klick back, given her weapon choice
 
Whatve you got ramm?

@Coriolanus  
Ginger tails him relatively closely with weapons ready to go- she’s got no intention of letting these these things passed her to the others, and she’s a bargain to uphold for the shark.

@Jinx @EclecticInspiration  
Reaching the heated stone, he investigates the strange vapors seeming to rise around and off it.
 
Getting close enough to use the extractor on the rock’s scorch-patterned side, he notices a bubbling puddle of murky water that surrounds only this boulder. “…I think this target’s just a normal boulder, sitting atop a hotspring…”
 
As he says this while still preparing the core-sampler, a large cold stone begins to silently levitate up behind him.

@Coriolanus  
“Ramesh-” She raises her weapon, the mech suit heard easily. She holds her fire, although she’s very much ready to.

@EclecticInspiration
 
@Coriolanus
 
Target in sight, HIT THE DECK!
 
with an earth rumbling “KABOOM” the 120 MM cannon fires, the round traveling in and striking the rock, obliterating it, a few shards raining down on ramm and ginger
 
Status check!

(So, i realize this is jumping the gun, but thats the point. Add a bit of spice to the action. Retcon that if youd like, but id like it to stay.

@EclecticInspiration @Jinx  
Glancing back for a second, then hearing Kat, he races around to the other side of the inert scarred boulder to take shelter as the floating animate one bursts. The pieces clatter harmlessly against Ginger’s walker, while from behind cover, smaller pieces soon rain down unto Ramesh.
 
Eventually, the pitter-patter of falling Sarsen-bits ceases, and Ramesh walks out from where he’d been hiding behind.
 
“…is that it-” Behind himself;
 
[ 🎶 ]  

 
“…Oh my GOD-” Sprints toward Ginger’s mech, then climbs up one of the legs. ‘’-Run, RUUUUUUN! AAAUUGH’’
 
The entire stone formation surrounding Ramesh & Ginger;  

@Coriolanus
 
@EclecticInspiration
 
ALL UNITS, OPEN FIRE!
 
within seconds the cannon was firing, every shot coming no later than 3 seconds after the last

@Coriolanus  
Ginger falls silent and the mech will dash away, trusting the shark to hold on. She’ll waste no time to turn around, check for shorg, and open fire on the golem provided she can get any distance on it.

nyanta trys reaching home base again
 
I am worried ny dragon friend

@Coriolanus  
@Jinx  
@NyantaStarhunt  
(Skavey is…super sleeby…am gonna go ahead and…take a snooze…goodnighty, all! flumps on the floor)

@Jinx @EclecticInspiration  
Even at full stride, the shark holds on against the mech’s thigh, terrified beyond capacity for rational thinking.  

 
As the weapons-fire from both Kat and Ginger manage to crack through the heated boulder taking up the center of the golem, a translucent blue liquid gushes out, glowing brightly against the hotspring vapors and now lighting up the nighttime backdrop;  

 
Just as Ginger, the shark, and the accompanying deer-piloted hoplite are all out of the hazard-zone of irradiation, the other two flanking mech-squads fire their own weapons; a pair of florescent beams lighting the plains up in pale-blue light converge and pince into where Kat’s & Ginger’s tracing shots both land.
 
By now, Ginger, Kat, the deer, and the shark find themselves standing before an expanding fireball.

@Coriolanus  
She’ll take a knee, putting the shark parallel to the ground, then place a hand on that knee to give the shark low cover from any debris, meanwhile watching the destruction with a grin plastered on her face.

@EclecticInspiration @Jinx  
The oncoming fire-wave rolls around & past the four, harmlessly enveloping Kat, Ginger, & the deer sealed within their mechs.
 
As the wave of flames halts then rushes back toward the ground zero, the spot where the golem once stood is now a pillar of rising dust billowing upwards as an updrafting mushroom cloud reaching into the night sky, topped off with bursts of lightning.
 
[ 🎶 ] [ 🔊 ]  
Recomposing themselves, the group fold away blast-shields over sensors and viewports, then look around for any more threats, but see only desolation: The surrounding terrain’s tall grass and foliage has been completely flash-incinerated away, with the topsoil taking on a dry suncracked appearance that already is beginning to be “snowed” over by ashflakes. In a few minutes, water from the hotspring Ramesh had discovered will also likely precipitate back down as inky rain.
 
Checking her mech’s leg, Ginger notices where the shark had been hugging is now a shape of dust caked around the thigh…
 
The shape begins to shift, crumble, and writhe.

@Coriolanus  
I kid you not, he turned himself into uhh she pokes and prods at him with a finger or similar shape on the mech. “Hey- you’re not allowed to bake-on. Come on. Are you alright?”

@EclecticInspiration @Jinx  
As the dusty form reacts to the poking, what may very well have been charred imitation-skin sloughs off,
 
revealing the inner-workings of a synth… On open radio: I̵̟͂̈ ̶̪̇͘c̷̟̿a̵̧̦͑n̴̬̈́’̴͍̿̃t̵̙̱̑ ̶̘̾̈s̵̨̻̈́͋e̷̡͚͌ę̶̗͛ ̶̪̐o̷̦̊r̷̞̀ ̴̢͎͘͝hear, but I̵͚̫̒̈ ̴̧̡̆f̴̳̓e̶̱͊e̵̘̙͊͘ľ̸̫̱̄ ̴̛̫p̷̻͂̏ǘ̶͙̰s̶̗͝h̵̻̳̐i̴̺̋ng… what’̸͓̻̐͂ś̴̝̱ ̶̯̝̄́h̷̳͠͝a̴̘͊͘p̵̡̋́p̵̩͋è̴͚͛n̵̻̙͑̋i̸̬̇̏n̷͈̈́g̸͖̓..?

@Coriolanus  
“You’ve been baked to a crisp- you’re guts glued to my thigh right now.”

@EclecticInspiration @Jinx
 
“It’s so̵̡̮̓͑ ̷̱͒d̷͋ͅă̸͇ṟ̴͔̾k̶̖͛.̶͍̞̇ ̶͇͗I̸̯͓̍t̷͙̅͌’̴̙́s̵̝̀ ̸̰͗͆ȃ̵̹͓ ̵͖̊ĝ̵̝ȍ̵͖͆ȍ̷̞d̶̲̉̀ ̵̨̤̎t̴͚̦̔̈́h̴͈̑͝i̴̢̜̓n̶̟̿͌g̴̤̰̃ ̷̱͎̃̏Į̶̛͇̓’̸̫͠m̵͎͒ ̷̣͓̏̑ń̶̰̳̑o̴̧̊̓t̶̮̝̓ ̷͚̞̚͘t̷̝̀o̵̤̫̿̔o̷̟̕ ̷̙͘͝n̸̲̤̑̐y̴̫̫̐̎ç̴̙̎ţ̷̱̈́o̶̼͐phobic–What about everyone else, and the golem?”
 
As the mushroom cloud drifts to the side a bit, where the stone behemoth had been standing is now a blackened crater, with a few pieces of broken rock here and there jutting out half-buried from the tarmac-like dried pondbed.