The Niraya Complex [NSFW, GORE]

@Coriolanus  
OW ow total wimp meows out…is honestly just enjoying this time
 
he smiles sure if that makes you happy and my body dont get angry with it. If it helps your research this thing felt as natural as my…well er old arm.

ratto on a robo d0ge  
what will he do  
…  
keep ridin’ :P
 
It had been odd, being a mere rat in the company of a cat with a big gun, a dragon, a literal beast, and now a machine person, but at least he remained with Val and co.. It wasn’t like he’d wanted to know what strange place they’d came from, anyhow. It’d surely mean more oddities- and likely unfriendly ones…  
At least he hav his gud loper tho :D pet pat

@NyantaStarhunt  
“It’d all be completely painless, of course… I mean, you’ll feel some pins and needles for a minute or two, but no worry.”
 
“‘ere, lookeh.” Getting up from her seat, she picks a glass-windowed box off of a shelf, opening the side of it to reveal the inner space large enough to fit one’s entire arm into. “Put your arm in here, and you’ll feel something odd for a moment, then nothing, then normal again, I promise.”
 
“It’s like, the Gom Jabbar test from Dune, only not coercive, or painful… sooo, really not much like it at all, I guess.” ^{%(. . )%}
 
 
@EclecticInspiration  
As he pets, the loper seemingly grazes on bare soil as it walks… As he pets its flank, looking behind, he notices a thin glimmering chain stretching far back, until disappearing across the ground. Looking to where it connects to the loper, the ratt realizes the chain is made out of dispensed paperclips made between grazings… Maybe the loper’s making a trail?
 
Looking ahead just to check if the paperclips aren’t just a mysterious trail being followed, far over on a hill they’ll surmount in a few minutes, he sees a shadowy figure with a hunched posture standing atop it… His body appears pitch-black, but his face looks pale-white, the latter very bright under the desert sun.

@Coriolanus  
“Wh-what the hell is that? There- on the hill,” says the startled ratt, peering to try and see the figure better.

@EclecticInspiration
 
[ 🎶 ]  
Sitting beside Benko, Val hands him a pair of binoculars to get a better view.
 

 
 
@Cerebrate @Jinx
 
Rather than speak through radio, a message is relayed down the caravan, alerting everyone of the stranger eavesdropping from upon the hill ahead.
 
 
@NyantaStarhunt
 
Anna, dropping the transplant-box to the floor as she sees the silhouette on the hill ahead of them through the windshield:
 
_{^{”Oh god…“}}

@Coriolanus  
Imos: “well, it seems questions must wait after all.”
 
 
@NyantaStarhunt  
Midnihgt: “huh, i didn’t even register that as foreign… i thought we were the clone that left, and the original is still in the complex?”

@Coriolanus  
Upon accidentally getting a closeup of the thing’s face, the rat just about jumps out of his fur. Once steadied on his loper, he offers the binoculars back. “It looks…nosey, and not very friendly…there’s only one, though. How’d we miss his face…”

@Cerebrate  
Nyanta: please don’t remind me that might be the case.
 
@Cerebrate  
Hm whats wrong? he looks out to where she is looking is everything okay?

@NyantaStarhunt  
“i believe we are about to run into locals, of the unfriendly kind.”

@Cerebrate  
Nyanta oh! he stretches and smiles where is lé big gun he looks around

@EclecticInspiration @NyantaStarhunt @Cerebrate @Jinx  
After the caravan slows down a bit, fountains of earth punctuated by explosions chase toward from the front, seen past the baserunner’s top. Two people sitting up on it slump off the vehicle, hitting the ground but not getting back up, with blood rapidly trailed from their bodies indicating their fatal state.
 
Past the baserunner, the stranger on the hill along with nothing else can be seen, obscured by the dustcloud suspended up from the blasts… Suddenly, the caravan instinctively splits left and right, beginning to circle both ways around the hill ahead.
 
 
@NyantaStarhunt @Cerebrate  
Just as he finds his AT-rifle stowed next to his seat, through the front-windshield, a loper with everyone aboard disappears within a dirt-fountain suddenly erupted next to them, right before the baserunner… As the dust dissipates and settles a bit, they’re nowhere to be seen.
 
Despite the prevalent danger, Anna disembarks by herself, headed for where the explosion occurred before searching around confusedly. “…Kazimierz? Addalyn?! Where are you guys, c’mon, we gotta go, now!…”
 
“Where’d they go?!? They were just right in front of us!!!”

@Coriolanus  
“By the horned one, WE GOTTA GO! GET SPACE! Anna get back inside,” the ratt says hurriedly. Shaking, he racks a shell out of his shotgun and loads a slug, then racks another shell out to load the slug.
 
(With shaky hands, this’ll take a sec so I split it up over 2 “moves” + other fool-things need to respond)

@Coriolanus
 
@NyantaStarhunt  
“pull her back or we used to have a friend catboy!”
 
 
@Coriolanus  
@EclecticInspiration  
Imos corsed as a few shrapnels did find their way through his scales, then grabs the nearest available gun, knowing his fire was no good on range.

@Coriolanus  
he grabs her arm and meows out quickly! we need to go come on!
 
he holds her Anna pleaze. I cant lose you

@NyantaStarhunt  
Relenting the search, she tears up and follows, dropping aside a freshly-scorched helmet she’d just found off the ground.
 
@Cerebrate @EclecticInspiration  
Grabbing a brush-gun found way back in Niraya’s ops center, Imos aboard Grimm along with Benko & Val aboard a nearby loper surmount the hill ahead as the caravan instead circles around both flanks. At the peak, the stranger they’d seen is nowhere to be found…
 
Looking down the other (northwest-ish) side of the hill ahead of them however, they see eight people; all in black bodysuits and wearing noh theatre masks, appearing to operate a cluster of mortar-like tubes, with small rifle-looking objects set beside them.
 
Caught unaware, they seem to be too busily reloading something into the sides of the mortars.

@Coriolanus  
Imos hisses out what a member of his species would understand as a damnation to his soon to be victims, then opens up on the mortar teams as soon as he’s confident in his shots connecting.

@Coriolanus  
“No!” The rat raises his shotgun and aims the slug. After which, he’ll just slamfire the buckshot, to include the two he’d racked out earlier after loading them back in.

@Coriolanus  
he meows out and takes aim with his rifle, (and if I am understanding correctly( aims to destroy the enemy mortars before targeting the people

@Cerebrate @EclecticInspiration  
Staggering back from the shots, they seem mostly unaffected. A scattered pellet from Benko’s bursts however strikes one of their masks, with the wearer slumping unto the ground. Once lain supine, the broken mask falls off, revealing a naked face underneath.
 
 
@NyantaStarhunt  
Shooting the mortars directly, one detonates from the shot, just before the blast concatenates with the others into a clustered explosion that rips the noh-wearers to pieces… as the dust settles again, in the distance, the one they’d seen on the hill they’re now on is running away, toward another hill marked by what looks like a dark tumbleweed perched atop a cone.

@Coriolanus  
….HAHAHHAHA BOOM!!! anna can hear his voice cackle a little. Must be his little blood rage he was talking about
 
Everyone okay?!

@Coriolanus  
He loads more rounds of shot with fumbly hands, making to get to his loper to chase the mask-wearer with a vengeance- especially in case there are more mortars.

@NyantaStarhunt @Cerebrate  
Looking around, Imos can be noticed bleeding through a few points where small debris had penetrated through his suit, while Anna back at the baserunner still looks distraught over what just happened to her family. As the caravan regroups however, the coast seems clear for now… In the distance, Benko can be seen running after the straggler headed for the strange landmark.
 
 
@EclecticInspiration  
Reaching the lead noh-actor, the loper almost slashes at it before backing up a bit, as if there were something dangerous suddenly realized about directly contacting it… Above them, the dark tumbleweed on the hill lights up like a christmas tree at the frond/branch-tips, slowly beginning to sway and move, even though there hasn’t been any wind since this morning…

@Coriolanus  
He shoot it, becuz it spookin’
 
(a’ight brb, gotta nom)

@EclecticInspiration  
Turning around just as he shoots, the lanky stranger takes a facefull of lead, mask and face beneath getting blown off. Collapsed, oil-like liquid drains out from the wound, forming rivulets in the dirt… With the odd tumbleweed meanwhile,
 

 
the cone it’s perched atop begins to blow air out from the bottom, while from the dense bush itself, a trio of obvious missile-tubes seemingly materialize out from nothing between the twigs and fronds, before extending out the sides like ripened fruit.

@Coriolanus  
Going in this order in case something doesn’t work,  
shoot the cone  
shoot the bush + toobs  
“C’mon boy,” he ride his loper away becuz sp00k