Event | Turtle Dive | January 20 - 23 | Underwater zombies crave your briiiiiines

[ironwood]

Characters: Any and all PCs
Date: January 20th - 23rd
Location: All Sectors
Situation: Tu Vishan continues swimming along the ocean floor after his monumental dive, but it turns out there are a whole bunch of undead that want in on the party!
Warnings/Rating: Underwater situations, violence, potential gore; to be updated as noted.

>See the comments of this post for various situations and areas available for tagging.
>Each header will be set for a date and/or area.
>Feel free to start your own header for specific situations.
>The Palace subplot will be run in a separate log.
>Refer to the two OOC posts for further details. 01 | 02

Comments

[dragonswag]

[ Lina's not all that familiar with guns -- the ones she's seen are pretty basic -- but she gets the idea, nodding. Shepard's magic, or whatever it is, looks like it takes an awful lot of energy and it's...mostly just throwing them around or pushing them back. ]

Look, I'm sure you want to play the hero and save the townsfolk, but you're hardly even making a dent in them. Can you do anything with your magic except knock them around?

[cmdreffingshepard]

[Shepard looks at her with a raised eyebrow.] It's not magic. And I don't have enough firepower to kill them - the point is just to find civilians, and help them get to safety. Keep the husks away long enough to do that, and we're golden.

[dragonswag]

[ Not magic? Lina's eyebrow goes up, but this isn't the time to indulge her curiosity. She'll get some answers later. ]

Well, you're not going to help anybody if we don't clear out some of these undead. All you're doing is knocking them around, but fire seems to actually stop them for good. So I've got an idea -- how about you cover me, keep them at a safe distance, and I'll take care of 'em so you can help get people to safety? We can't risk letting them get too close. Not unless you wanna end up zombie dinner.

[cmdreffingshepard]

Fine. [The mark of a good soldier - knowing when to take the lead, knowing when to follow. Shepard knows a decent plan when she hears one.] Just be careful where you're aiming that stuff. Collateral damage isn't acceptable.

[dragonswag]

[ oh Shepard if only you knew who you were talking to

Lina actually lets out a laugh as she blasts away another couple of zombies, shaking her head. ]

You're kidding me, right? Look, it's not like I want to destroy the city or anything, but these things are everywhere! You want to make an omelet, you're gonna have to break a few eggs, you get my drift?

[cmdreffingshepard]

I'm gonna say this just once. [Shepard puts on her stern, Commanding Officer voice, the one she's used to cow Alliance soldiers under her command, the one she used to turn Zaeed away from his path of revenge.]

Clear civilians out before you set fire to anything, and then only as a last resort.

[dragonswag]

[ Lina cringes at the tone of voice, and she throws her hands upas if in defense. ]

Jeez, give me a little credit, will you? I'm not aiming at the civilians! And you won't be able to clear out anybody if we don't take care of these undead. Fire's the only thing that works.

[ And then she looks quite a bit more serious, looking critically at Shepard. ]

Look, you obviously know what you're doing. I'm not here to rain on your parade, just to lend a hand. I'm trying to save them too! Besides, this is what I do. So just trust me, okay?

[ "Just to lend a hand" might be an exaggeration, but whatever. Lina can demand payment for her services from the civilians later, and only if they survive. So she's at least...invested. ]

Can your magic -- whatever it is -- can you make a barrier with it?

[cmdreffingshepard]

Like I said, getting them to the palace or some other safe, secure location is the first priority. If destroying the zombies is how we get there, fine, but I'm not risking more life than we have to. [It's a point she won't budge on. No matter how high her personal body count gets - and to be fair, it's really high by now - she won't sacrifice innocent life if she can help it.]

I can do some barriers, but they won't slow them down for more than a couple of minutes. Long enough for us to duck down another street, maybe.

[dragonswag]

All you need to do is keep them at a safe distance. If you work on the barrier, that means I can keep all my focus on my attack spells, which means I can get rid of these things a lot faster -- and safer. Just don't let them get close, okay? One bite is supposed to be fatal, and I don't think I've got any spells that'll fix that.

[cmdreffingshepard]

Fine. [That's a plan she can accept - even though the powers this girl seems to wield are pretty... unbelievable.

It's just a matter of focusing some of her energy, and she erects a biotic barrier - the blue field is faint, but clearly there. She keeps it in place, and waves with her free hand to get the civilians to cover.]

lmk if this works okay? :O

[dragonswag]

[ It might not be magic, according to this lady, but Lina knows a good barrier when she sees one. She cocks a grin at Shepard. ]

For not being magic, that's not half bad!

[ And then she turns smartly on her heel and starts flinging out spells. Fireballs take care of crowd control, but they carry a much bigger risk for property damage -- Flare Arrows work just fine on single targets and don't crumble buildings in their wake. And normally, Lina wouldn't care so much, but okay, there's only one city here and she probably shouldn't destroy too much of it. And not that she'd admit it, but something about Shepard's righteous idealism is a little infectious. Only sort of. Whatever, Lina's just humoring her.

The jiangshi keep coming, of course, but with Shepard running support and Lina blasting anything undead that moves, their numbers are definitely thinning a little. Lina calls back to Shepard over her shoulder, never missing a beat. ]

Hey, how much longer can you keep this up?

Yep!

[cmdreffingshepard]

[It's draining, for sure, and Shepard knows she's not the most qualified biotic to be doing this - she has visions of Jack holding of the Collector swarms, but that doesn't help her here. This isn't as bad a situation.]

I don't know. Not that long, the faster we get these people to a safe place, the better.

[dragonswag]

[ Well, Lina's not surprised. Shepard had been looking pretty ragged when she'd arrived on the scene. ]

Yeah, yeah, I haven't forgotten about the people. Look, I think I've cleared out enough of them that we might have a shot if we move quickly. If we cut through straight ahead, we've got a chance at getting these people to safety. If you can get them to move, I can take over putting a barrier up so nobody gets hurt.

[ Okay, okay, Lina really doesn't go for the charity cases, but man, the undead are bad news for everybody. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to have a few kedan in her debt. Ah, yes, that's the best thing to have on somebody else, when they owe you their life. ]

[cmdreffingshepard]

[Shepard is thinking in an entirely altruistic fashion, on the other hand - she waves the kedan forward, to the edge of her barrier, ready to make a run for it as soon as she drops it.]

On my mark - NOW!

[dragonswag]

[ True to her word, Lina quickly erects a barrier as soon as Shepard says so -- she keeps it wide enough to accommodate a fair number of civilians, and to keep the jiangshi from getting too close. She looks over at Shepard as they hustle forward at a run, the barrier surrounding them as they go. ]

If this doesn't work, we are totally lunchmeat, you know?

[cmdreffingshepard]

Wouldn't be my first brush with death, but you don't have to stay. [Her voice drops a little, so the civilians hopefully won't overhear.] If you're taking the risk, it's your choice. I can't and won't make anyone do it.

[dragonswag]

[ Lina actually laughs at that, shaking her head as she moves alongside Shepard. ]

Please! I've gone into battles with way worse odds. Besides, compared to my big sister, these things are downright cuddly.