Techbot Alpha

Meh, I'd much rather see NPCs we see a lot of (CIVILIANS! Damn you, you hideous pixely crimes!!) need the love a lot more. And no, I like the transition from the old look to the Incarnate look. Numina and Di get away with it more, due to being mostly see-through.

Meh, Wardens would already be doable if they would give us a Longbow spandex option, with a baked in pattern and FP logo, along with the hip detals and helmet hat.

Rikti AT: Superior: Always

I have my Villanous sources....the news I hear makes me grin like crazy

Bah, didn't get to see the page before it went down. Oh well.

I honestly don't know, but it's hacking me right off, I know that -_-

G'luck Woot.

I admit, even my cold, bastid heart went mushy for Booth and Judy
How old is she meant to look, anyway? I'm guessing just past teenage, early twenties-ish? Albeit with skeletal hands and lower legs?
Tempted to do some fan art, curse me

....
Ducked in to do something with it while I remembered.

You know what IS too damn sodding much?

Every, EVERY fething smeg-headed time I try to get into my account, it asks me to do the whole damn 'Verify Account' schtick.

How many times do I have to do this sodding thing for the bloody system to remember? What muck futhering idiot tech monkey do I have to slap to get this thing to work for once? Seriously?!

NC's web design staff are monkeys. One-handed brain-dead monkeys. I am honestly sick of this....

Oh good, it's not just me who misclicked that little feth.

Please, get rid of it. We KNOW you or marketing have an unhealthy thing for the market. Please, stop trying to cram it down our throats everywhere. One button is MORE than enough, thank you!

I'm actually less fond of the new BP. The female members look so out of place. I mean, the Tsoo additions work. Know why? Because the Sorceresses have the same hat and the same belt, they fit seamlessly into the Tsoo style. Same with the other girls, they all have the tattoos and other Tsoo parts.

The BP noticably don't. That style of loincloth? The big, feather boa collar things? Nope, none of that. They look like something thrown together randomly and with the BP chest detail slapped in. Also, where the heck did the addiction to the bio-lum pieces come from? Seriously.

Wish granted

Doesn't help that I think he was butt-hurt over the fact he didn't/doesn't like the Retake Mass Effect movements goal... Just saying.


Besides, a lot of money would possibly need to go into development costs. I don't have any hard numbers, so just guessing. Probably not over 9000 though

Dark Astoria, Arachnos DZ

"This place...we shouldn't be here."
It was barely a whisper amongst the ranks, but Commander Marien King rounded on it instantly, grabbing the offending trooper by the armoured collar and hauling him in.
"Where would you rather be, whelp?" she snapped. "Sitting in a nice safe bunker, leaving the fate of the entire planet to those milk sop 'Heroes'? So that eventually there is nothing anyone can do, and we're all dead by default?"
There was no immediate answer, and in that pause everyone's attention was drawn by the sound of metal on metal.

Lord Recluse was stood a little way off, just past the three remaining and waiting Patrons. The sound came from his spider arms, the metallic blades being scraped against one another to remove the more solid matter from them. They were already stained red up to the first joint.
"So...tell me about gods, 'priest'," he said calmly, blazing eyes fixed on the Pantheon Shaman he held aloft by the face with one hand and no apparent effort. The man struggled, although it was like water trying to break down a mountain.
"The pantheon....our Gods....will return," he managed to hiss through Recluse's fingers. "Mot will devour you, the barriers will fall...and we shall be restored, as servants of the one true order...!"

Recluse stared at him for a moment longer, before huffing.
"How...contemptable."
The Lord of Many Arms tightened his grip, energy coursing down his arm. With a sickening crunch the body went limp, landing in a headless heap a second later.
"Or, more importantly," King took the time to add to the soldier she held by the throat, "Do you want to explain to him how you suddenly feel the lack of nerve, and need your spine removing to match up?"
"Nossir."
"I thought not."
"Commander!" Recluse snapped, kicking the lifeless body aside and striding past the ranks of Arachnos troops. "Get them into position. When we kill this thing, I want the name of Arachnos to be the last thing burned into it's abominable mind. This world, these people, all of it...belong to me!"

To be fair, I think they need to revamp genuine eye-sores like the Trolls, Outcasts, Hellions, Skulls and such first. The Vahz at least look unique.

Dark Astoria, Midnighter portal 'safe' zone

The wind should have howled, the Chief felt. There should have been something, some movement, rain maybe.
There wasn't. In this place everything seemed dead. The trees hung and drooped, branches like claws. The wind was dead, the air still, heavy and lifeless, choking and muggy. Everything about the atmosphere here was oppressive, even for a synthetic being.

"Don't blame Vix for not coming," a voice muttered beside him. The towering robotic soldier glanced down to the power-armoured young man by his side, face hidden by the full-face helmet he wore. X21 Ice Wolf had his rifle ready, and Chief Centurion Z1 could sense the tension in him.
"Agreed. This place would be a mental death-trap for an empath. As it is, we need to get people out as much as possible."

The Chief turned, watching a small, bedraggled group of civilians being escorted to the portal by a group of 'off-duty' Vanguard Rangers. There were far fewer than he had hoped. The reports had been proved correct; only those most recently arrived seemed able to break away with some persuasion and counter-warding. Those who had been here longer were unable to bring themselves to leave. Even though the Chief knew they could take them out bodily, he also knew that it would arguably even worse for their mental state. Not to mention the possibility of endangering more outside the walls.

Right now, he begrudgingly admitted, the best they could do was try and halt Mot's rise and push this new threat back.

The pair looked around as a shadow loomed over them, Wolf even jumping slightly, Fortunately it was the familiar form of an HVAS, piloted by Colonel Lyndon.
"We're going to have to pull out, Chief," he said, voice given a metallic edge over the suits vox. "There's more mental pressure on our lot every second, and we've got what looks like Talons coming in fast on radar."
"Acknowledged. We've done what we can."

---

While the other Vanguard troops were beginning to move out, the Chief paused, glancing back over his shoulder. Something was nearby, he knew. Something...
He adjusted his optics, filtering out the darkness down the road. Further away, he could see a mob of Talons moving slowly down the street. They were not alone. Bound by glowing rune shackles, two sobbing civilians were dragged along in the middle of the crowd. The lead Talon raised her head and shrieked, a harsh, taunting call taken up by the whole mob.

"Done what we can...?" the Chief muttered, fists clenching. Wolf and Lyndon looked round at the rising hum of power. Without looking round, the Chief reached up and un-clipped the clasps of his cape, folding and passing it to Wolf.
"No point getting this torn and messed up," he said wryly, as both fists began to glow red and the humming reached a fever pitch. "Hold the door for them. And don't wait up for me."

"Chief, what are you-?" Wolf began, but the towering robot had already set off, feet slamming into the concrete as he ran. As he closed on the crowd of Talons the creatures spread out, drawing weapons and hissing.
No regrets. No holding back. No mercy for the cruel and merciless.
The Talons and Knives of Vengeance leapt, weapons and claws scraping and scratching off the white synthetic shell. The response was swift and brutal. One be-winged creature had her twin blades torn from her hands, before being rammed straight through her gut. Another, less twisted individual had her giant two-handed sword turned upon her, the massive blade cleaving whole ranks in half before being used to impale another Talon leader against the concrete.

The Chief fought silently and with a fluid ferocity. There was a pause, the Talons withdrawing with shrieks and hisses, while he snapped the shackles on the prisoners.
"Run for the portal. Do not look back."
They nodded, eyes wide and terrified, before bolting down the road. One Knife lunged after them, before a pinpoint laser blast punched a hole straight through her back. The Chief turned back, optics glowing, staring down the ever-growing mob of Talons and corrupted Knives.

"You cannot defeat us all! We will never cease until all sinners and oathbreakers have been brought to justice!" one shouted from the roof of a nearby building.
"That is as may be. But it should only be one without sin to cast the first stone," the Chief snapped back. "You are all by your natures sinners and murders. And my oath is to the people of Earth, to safeguard them and fight for them when the unjust and cruel come for them." He looked up, optics and fists flaring. "There are others out there doing their best, standing against you much as I stand here now. Your malice and cruelty will not continue. Not while I and the soldiers and Heroes of Earth still have energy left to stand. Entor' Thalos!"

With that he charged, slamming into the mass of shrieking, lashing and clawing bodies, flinging shattered foes to one side and no longer holding anything back.

It's I23. Beta is offline till the I23 Beta goes live. Word o' Zwill.