Tanis Six, 3,520 years after the Battle of Tanis.

[albatross]

The Knights of the Scroll vs. the Pirate Captain

Everyone touching Sapphire is transported to another world. On the way, they can hear a voice, which is familiar to those who have heard Fakir speak.

"Sapphire, you are free. I place no burden upon you and have no expectation of help from you. Do as you will.... Well, I'm suppose I'm forcing you to appear - but after that its all up to you."

Everyone appears atop a canyon in the midst of badlands littered with petrified tree trunks. Canyons, ravines and gullies snake in all directions.

Below them in the canyon, they can see Fakir and about two dozen of his bunny girls facing off against King Talon and a couple dozen of his warrior nuns. But even the most dense person realizes that there is far more to this battle then what is currently visible.

Magic users can feel spells winging this way and that - and not just any spells - spells of legend are being cast. Most of the castors cannot be seen: invisible, shadow meld, chameleon, or simply hiding in the terrain someplace. There has to be hundreds of magic users - most of them either powerful or equipped with magic items that make them seem so.

Martial arts can feel chi being gathered and put to use like waves crashing upon the ocean. Although the vision of Fakir's master didn't reveal it, they can tell merely by looking at Fakir and his companions that they are Chi masters - Ora looks grimly as she watches Fakir gather the power from the natural surroundings into himself.

Psychics can feel the hair on the backs of their necks stand up from all the ISP being expended nearby.

Overhead, dozens of stubby winged hovercraft duel in the sky above the battle, but even many of these ships are using TW invisibility and other hiding methods.

However, despite all the power being thrown about, little evidence is seen just yet. There are no fireballs crashing or lightning booming. These spells and abilities are building people up - armoring them, strengthening them - they can see the visible fighters glowing with various spells and abilities.

Then Sapphire is teleported right in front of Fakir, just as a streak of light launches towards Fakir. Romidus checks himself before he hits Sapphire, but he flies right through some spells and hits the ground - stunned.

The old warbird lets loose a fierce cry and launches in to the air, diving at the nearest of Fakir's minions, a curvy little women who vaguely resembles a cat down in the canyon below.

The messenger bird also takes wing, darting down a side gully. The blood hawk remains where it is, cocking its head sideways to watch the action.

Ora begins bounding down the canyonside, readying a boomerang, but she watches the action carefully as she goes curious to see Talon and Fakir's opening moves. She moves cautiously and calls back over her shoulder, "The visible ones are like a mountain buried in sand, there are fighters all around us - be careful!"

Tesla puts on his multi-optics goggles and says, "Good advice, maybe I'll watch for a bit before charging in. My senses tell me we are in the middle of a huge battle and its very likely hundreds of people are going to try to kill Fakir and I'm guessing he has a few tricks up his sleeve to prevent that." Telsa looks around, "I recommend being the second or third person to go after him...."

[shiivster]

Aki's attention splits up as she observes the warbird go into battle. a grim smile shows as she almost feels the pride it feels in its attack, then she's off following the messanger bird to see what he's after.

'i cannot approach the battle. they will drain me of energy to fight. my skills are not clever enough to battle them. perhaps a prisoner will arrive with Thunderwing? perhaps he wishes to depart doing something he knows'

*the mongoose settles by the feet and chirps once in a while as she makes some unknown comments about the scents in the wind. Aki hopes that she can figure out what the messanger bird saw, and wishes him luck and strokes the bloodhawk now. she is getting an education in raptor bird hunting tactics watching the warbird.

[albatross]

As the spells and abilities charge up all around, King Talon and Captain Fakir continue to summon allies.

"The Blue Paladin!" King Talon says vindictively. A Rahu-man giant appears in flaming blue armor, wielding magical tomahawks, a round shield marked with holy symbols and a mace and chain which burns pure white.

Fakir turns to a minion, "I don't believe I've met him." The minion says, "He is a judge, similar to the Green Knight. Fights friends." Fakir grimaces. "The Porter's Gigante!" Three gigante giants and two huge wolfen appear. All are dressed in clean, shining armor and armed with high quality magical weapons as if they were knights or perhaps the bodyguards of royalty.

Before the Rahu-men and the Porter's Gigante can close with each other, Talon smirks and says, "Duke Etienne." A knight on arbolyte wearing camouflage armor appears. He rides at Fakir and the Porter's Gigante hail him and change direction to attack Fakir as well, for they are Duke Etienne's loyal servants.

"Hananel," Fakir says in answer and another person riding an arbolyte appears, only this one is wearing camouflage armor shaped for a woman.

The Duke stops short as says, "Why do you oppose me? I have sworn an oath." His tone is confused. But the woman says, "Then break it!" She waves her arm towards Fakir, "This man saved our son." Duke Etienne is clearly stunned by the sudden appearance of his wife and merely sits atop his riding creature trying to figure out what to do.

"The Knights of Camelot!" King Talon continues, and suddenly there are two hundred charging knights including King Arr'thuu, Sir Prrcyvel, Sir Dred, Sir Galahad, and other famous knights of Rifts England.

But the Porter's Gigante are sly and cunning and they have noticed their mistress' appearance. They trip the Blue Paladin sending him sprawling and attack the Knights of Camelot from within the charge throwing it into chaos. Bunny Girls close with the knights and an incredible magical battle ensues with spells on all sides and martial arts against swords.

Hananel's arbolyte springs past her stunned husband and towards King Talon, but the King merely utters, "The Death Knight."

When the death knight appears three dozen bunny girls appear out of nowhere to protect Hananel, two of them are killed immediately and the rest fight desperately to contain the deadly litch.

Now the battle breaks out on all sides, with spells flying everywhere and hear and there magically super charged warrior nuns or knights clashing with bunny girls. In the sky above, King Talon's vanships open fire with rail guns and dogfights range across the sky.

Ora has stopped her descent to watch the many fights unfold, and now she creeps forward, watching the Rahu-men and the Porter's Gigante eagerly as if she can't figure out what she wants to do first.

[thorley]

Bellephoebe rolls her eyes and says "I'm *NOT* a big fan of battle magic, but I've been trained for this kind of thing specifically. Individual targets are not my forte, but armies... well that's something else for me. There seems to be a massive tactical flaw with both of these guys, and given that this world is not magically saturated like my homeworld but tech seems to be working fine... I think I could very well end this with childish ease. They have too many eggs in one basket so to speak, despite the hovercrafts".

"Basically my plan is to cast an anti-magic cloud, and then shoot Fakir and anyone who gets in my way with a Naruni plasma rifle. I detest violence, but really... I don't see what he's going to do about it".

If nobody has any objections or sees a flat with this plan, that is exactly what Bellephoebe does. If she's reading this right, and the world is by and large an SDC one (and we're seeing more of a "time of a thousand magics" battle than say a RIFTs one)... Bellephoebe's light MDC armor and Force Field should make her neigh unkillable (though she will cast invulnerable armor for splash damage protection just the same) and with all the magic shut down (no invulerable to energy) she should be able to one shot most of these guys with high yield MDC weapons.

[albatross]

The mournful sound of bagpipes resounds over the badlands, as the battle breaks out in earnest on all sides. Elemental magic, Sword to Snakes, martial arts, psychic attacks erupt between invisible opponents and tenfold between King Talon and Fakir's small bands of visible fighters. Not to mention warrior nuns trying to stab Fakir's minions with knives, though Fakir's scantily clad warriors seem to have some sort of deflection shield.

Here and there are more powerful magics, like Charm, Barriers of Thoth, or Sanctuary, and off in the distance there looks to be at least one Anti-Magic Cloud - though it is far from Fakir and the main battle.

Given the amounts of magic being released, and the relatively low level of magical power in the badlands, its likely many of the castors possess PPE batteries.

The Knights of Camelot appear to be having lots of trouble with the people that Fakir's summoned and Fakir's minions, with battles ranging far and wide. Tesla seems riveted, as if he can't take his eyes off the scene.

Talon turns to the tall woman wearing only a couple bands of silk at his side and says, "Fakir has your sword, does he not?"

The woman scowls, not looking at Talon, as if irritated that anything in the entire field of battle has anything to do with her. Then she launches herself at Fakir and draws a short wide sword and a whip made of leather and thorns.

Fakir meets her in the air with a battered katana in hand and says politely, "Would you like this back?" But the two of them exchange lightning fast flickers of swordplay.

[O.O.C.: Bellephobe should be able to encompass 600ft in an anti-magic cloud. Fakir and Talon are roughly 250 to 300ft away, so they would be well within the radius. Most of the other combatants who aren't with Talon and Fakir are either hidden or flying in hovercraft - the number of additional combatants caught in the anti-magic cloud is unknown - however, the ones in hovercraft would likely be too far out of range. Unless Aki disagrees with casting the spell, it seems to make sense strategically... It does cost 140 PPE, so just confirm in the next post that casting it is what Bellephobe wants to do. Or if she wants to move closer, etc.]

[shiivster]

Aki is clearly NOT interested in getting closer. she knows the inner powersare atwork, but not having been fully trained in offensive types, she prefers to hold back.

'Aki not go closer. Yumi not want fall sleep again. last time attack Fakir, Yumi and Aki sleep. not aware how he make sleep. not want sleep again. i no attack him. birds do as birds do. one fights for prey . . another went that way . . and this one is watching. do as you wish. Aki go see where messanger bird go . . . '

*it took a lot of concentration to get that out clearly. now that she's had her say, her head turns to follow the small form of hte messanger bird to see why it took off . . . and will move slowly that way, trying to prove she's not a threat, but will go wide in places as her eyesfollow something not seen then is again following the smaller bird. the Warbird is a fighter and this is war. it may be his time. what better way for a warrior to go than in a battle

[thorley]

"It's understandable Aki, to be honest I'm not too fond of the idea of fighting this guy either. I've never even met him to be honest, I'm pretty much taking Daryl's word for things as well as that of the rest of you that he's bad and needs to be stopped. For all I know, despite all apperances this "King Talon" guy is actually the greater evil".

She sighs and says

"Well, here goes my attempt"

Bellephoebe will be fairly low on PPE but she casts invincible armor (to be on the safe side) and then Anti-Magic cloud. Then, while remaining in cover she tries to gun Fakir down with a burst of Naruni plasma cartridges from surprise ( It has like a 1600' range, so umm.. yeah she can probably target him without having to move much closer once she's in range for the AM cloud).

[albatross]

Aki is able to track the Night Hawk through the battle, here and there it feels like the bird is calling out to her, leading her on. No one attacks her, although a few loose spells hit near her. As she moves through the combatants, she notices that Fakir's minions are good martial artists. Most of them seem to know Aikido, but there are a few with leopard style kung fu, dog boxing kung fu, drunken style kung fu, or wing chun. The nuns seem to have truncated versions like the agent hand to hand martial arts - though they certainly have a few moves. Fakir's minions normally have magical protection, or else the deflector shields they saw on Cyber Earth. The nuns wield magic knives with cunning skill and use magic to defeat Fakir's minions shields and to kill them. None of Fakir's minions kill anyone.

Bellephobe's anti-magic cloud encompasses the main visible battle and magic users on both sides let out a groan. Mikalah, Fakir's opponent and former employer, smiles as if at some inside joke. She looks at her short sword and says, "Thank you." As if she has been given some kind of gift. Fakir seems unfazed by this turn of events, and continues the battle. When Bellephobe shoots him with the plasma rifle, the bolts are deflected every which way and wound one of the nuns. His deflector shield is perfect against ranged weaponry, though it clearly can't stop all of Mikalah's sword thrusts.

Looking at the action, Tesla says, "This isn't a battle." Bellephobe is able to see what he means, now that the magic is gone. Fakir's minions are stronger and are better martial artists than Talon's nuns. The anti-magic cloud gives Fakir's minions the advantage, and they could easily overwhelm Talon's forces. However, not a single knight or nun has been killed. Only Fakir's minions have died. Now that the battle is in full swing, its easy to see that Fakir's minions have a rigid code of conduct which prevents them from doing much more than joint locks, body flip throws, or half strength punches to the knights and nuns - while the nuns and knights do not hesitate to run the bunny girls through when they can. Calm minds, neural atemi, and neural maces are the weapons of Fakir's forces. They fight half-a-dozen opponents at once, and well, but sooner or later a knife slips under their guard.

[shiivster]

Aki speeds up her journey following the bird. her inate sense to avoid bodies is in high gear as she bobs and weaves her way. unlike most people, her clothing seems to meld with the natural background as she moves. being made from natural materials helps in this.

*she pauses from time to time to glance behind her to make sure Yumi is following before continuing on. small body and the mammal that travels with her are shortly out of sight. her hunt is on. she only hopes that the war bird doesn't suffer when its time comes

[albatross]

The battle between Mikalah and Fakir is impressive. Mikalah is tall, supernaturally strong and quick as lightning. Fakir uses Dragon Chi to charge up from the surrounding badlands and also Kokyu Body Chi to increase his quickness and strength to compete with Mikalah.

He fights in the Zanji swordsman style, but the Chi powers must come from Aikido (his minions who are using Aikido fight in a similiar way, though none of them have swords or use Zanji). But Mikalah's strength is inhuman, and her skill with a sword, though not as elegant as Fakir's is brutal and cunning.

Aki slips through the battle easily. None of Fakir's minions bother her, and even beyond the anti-magic cloud, she can smell most of them even when they are invisible: the overpowering, intoxicating scent she smelled at Joy's. The old warbird hunts Fakir's minions, but they don't hurt the noble bird, even after it kills one of them.

The Night Hawk travels all the way to the edge of the battle then wheels and twitters. "Here, here, here," the bird seems to say, clearly excited about a small ditch on the outskirts of the battle.

[shiivster]

*Aki catches her breath after the long scamper and moves to the top of the ditch and looks down. 'yes yes, i am here now . . wait . . . oh what is this?'

She will look about to ensure that she can get back out, then if she can, she will slide her way into hte ditch to gather up and examine what she's been led to. 'good bird. Yumi stand watch . . ' *she has forgotten about the others as she looks over what she's discovered

[thorley]

Bellephoebe pulls a pen knife out of her tool belt and casts "Whirling Blades" and sends it after Fakir. She'll keep directing it to attack him from behind, which should put him in quite the position given that he's fighting an opponent already and back attacks generally suck (and he should be in a position where he has to choose which to defend against).

[albatross]

Several things happen in rapid succession. Aki can't really see what the bird found so interesting - it looks like an ordinary ditch, but she can sense the bird is extremely proud to have lead her there and she knows any minute now...

Meanwhile, Fakir dodges the spinning blades, though the attacks from two directions hamper his ability to strike - he is on the defensive.

Tesla's face drains of color. Some of Fakir's Bunny Girls and some of the nuns and Knights of Camelot start looking around (the psychic ones). The mournful sound of bagpipes that has been echoing over the badlands stops as if the players suddenly threw their instruments to the ground and as some of the Bunny Girls shout out the words, "Blood Oath! Blood Oath!" to each other - drums. Drums like thunder. Like a heavy metal drum solo.

The Night Hawk is twittering at Aki now, "Look up, up, up!" the bird insists, as if huddles into a crevice and stares up into the sky in expectation.

"I think you should cancel your spells," Tesla says to Bellephobe gravely, as he too looks to the sky....

[thorley]

Bellephoebe is guiding the blades and looks up briefly to see what Tesla is talking about. If she doesn't see anything obvious she asks "It seems like we're getting him, as ambigious as I am about this entire battle, I'd need a really good reason to let up... especially seeing as I've used so much power I'm not going to be able to just do this again".

If a good reason materlializes she will however cancel the spells.

[albatross]

The sky tears open. Fireballs, flaming pitch and bombs rain from rifts, from just materilized time spells, from enemies teleporting. Eveeywhere fire. Fire and demons.

Bellephobe cancels the spells, and Fakir's minions try to sheild the knights and the nuns. Barriers of Thoth spring up, spells which make people impervious to fire, invulnerability- just as when the Torchwood team glowed right before their ship crashed on Otataral. Some of the Bunny Girls within the anti-magic cloud don't have enough time to cast spells or are out of magical energy. These sheild nuns and knights with their bodies as fire washes over them even as some are stabbed by their opponents.

Demons are everywhere, all kinds. Flying, wielding dragon shaped guns or wicked magic weapons and wearing demonic armor. The Night Hawk chirps, "Now!" And flies out of the ditch and into the battle where it starts to relay messages as it moves West. The Knights of Camelot and other knights of the scroll are stunned. It is a hard thing for a knight to be saved by an enemy. Even the nuns seem taken aback.

In the sky, with a view of the whole situation and outside the initial barrage, wing commander Claus Valca surveys the damage. "Form up with Fakir's minions and provide cover."

"Sir?!?" A nun protests.

"I'll shoot down anyone who isn't formed up in two seconds." Claus says flatly. All the vanships wheel and thread their way through flying demons to lend air support. A huge space ship blinks out of invisibility, Mikalah's ship which Fakir used to captain, now run by King Talon. The ship blasts demons out of the sky to open a path for the vanships and rains down missiles on areas where the demons have massed their reserves. Fakir's wing commander contacts Claus, "We are with you Commander."

"Status?" Claus asks.

"We've a full compliment of rail gun rounds, not a single shot fired, sir." Her cheerful voice is steady and happy as they dart through a sky filled with magic and tech fireballs.

Claus pauses a moment, knowing if he lives what he has just heard will haunt him to his grave. "But no bombs? "

"No sir."

"Cover us on the first pass, we'll drop fragmentation gernades. On the second pass we all strafe."

Down on the ground everyone has at least two demons to fight, and the good fighters have a dozen. There are so many an so many kinds. A call comes from the nuns, "Frag! Frag!" And they put up spells to protect from gernades, mostly Armor of Ithan.