Micheal "Captain Runemold" Garig's Story

Wing City's mammoth Gateway system, and central arch were a magitech marvel, a calling card, a landmark, a historical relic given to the public. It was the purest, simplest symbol for the prosperity of the city imaginable, and as such it was heavily guarded. Abjurations, nanite technology to self-repair, sensors every ten cm to report on structural integrity, it was all considered a waste of Terra's governmental budget though.

"Who would ever be so foolish as to try to attack the gate?" They said.

"No one would be so moronic as to cut themselves, and a slew of Gods off from their planes." They said.

"Micheal, you're being paranoid." They said.

They'd thank him for the features he'd insisted on, and hopefully for the one he installed in secret....


SHOWTIME!

---

The second the great Gateway of Wing City cracked, all of Terra seemed to change. Time seemed to move a little slower for the average citizen, the sky roiled in rage, The once calm winds now whipped, and whirled, howling harshly in the form of a morbid gale. All the while dark, heavy clouds screamed through the sky at unnatural speeds, belching out tremendous thunder calls. Something had been brewing since the first cracks in the arch, and now, as the massive stone, and steels fell away, it erupted.

Without warning the sky let lose a singular bolt of massive, steel-blue lightning. The jagged electricity illuminated the entire blackened mass of clouds, painting the whole city in it's hue, before unleashing a deafening thunderclap. In the wake of this, for a singular, split moment, the hero known as Captain Runemold could be seen in the skies.

"Hope has arrived."

It was hard for Micheal to see the moment he materialized, time was racing hyper-fast for him, which had an adverse effect on human perceptions at first. Even if they were the one's who caused it, but once it cleared he drank the scene in instantly. His accelerated mind allowing him to assess, and move in a blink.

The Gate was in ruins, massive shards falling to Terra, blotting out entire streets, lanes, and even districts. Fires had begun to sprout up left, and right, people were trapped, crushed, buildings shifting, weakened from the recent earthquakes. Havoc reigned supreme. There was no time to deal with the instigators, a dragon-god-thing, a witch, some Imperial Troops, all were meaningless. Right now stemming the body count was the goal.

---

With another flash of steel blue, a massive chunk of reinforced Star Steel found itself suspended, mere inches above the hospital it was about to demolish, held aloft by Captain Runemold.

"ATTENTION WIN-AAARRGGHHH-WING CITY!" Rune's voice boomed over the sounds of destruction, and fear, magically altered to project to each person individually, no matter how many, and pull their focus. The only problem was his usually silky-smooth voice was heavily strained, and a hell of a lot less reassuring than usual. He was a little worried he might be projecting his strain, instead of calm.

"THIS I-GRRRAAAHHHH!" He couldn't help but scream, the weight of the debris was too much for him, even with his body augmentation spells. It was slowly, slowly crushing him. "THIS IS...IS CAPTAIN RUNEMOLD.." Panting and struggling really pissed him off, it dug into his hero vibe pretty harshly. "The W...Wing City A-Angels have arrived!"

The mass of metal eased down a little, closer to the roof of the hospital. There was no way Micheal could keep it up, or land it safely. While bodily augments, and rune implants were his specialty on paper, they weren't in truth. This was bad, dire, and setting a bad image. Every second he wasted with this one building, thousands could be dying.

There was no time. He pushed as hard as his enchanted body would allow, but the best he could do was shove the thing aside, letting it crash into the ground below. Still killing plenty of people just by probability. It wasn't good enough.

"Where the fuck is my back up, the dropship can't be more than a few minutes out...But I can't..I can't hold on long.." The thought died pretty quickly, his eyes flashing a ghostly blue as the machine on his back revved, and whirred into life, lightning sparking from it in all directions. No more talking, no more trying to be an emergency warning system.

His thinning lips creased into a grim smile.""Strike."

A well of lightning bolts flew forth from the machine, each massive, steely-blue jolt surged forward violently, colliding into falling debris, and obliterating them entirely. They jerked from side to side, dodging danger, intact buildings, and seemingly moving with intelligence. Micheal's intelligence.

"Now.." With a labored motion he let go of the mass of steel he held, before taking the shape of massive lightning bolt himself, shattering it.

The pure-silvery bolt that was Micheal rushed in countless directions at once, splitting down the slab of Star Steel again, and again, until in the blink of an eye it was mere dust.

When the Jinhai told him his shiny new psimech Maximus could easily sustain leaping from altitude to the target zone that awesome notion immediately went on his bucket list. A short talk with the pilot after they got deployed to the gate centered him over a decent landing zone as he waited for the pilot to give him the go-ahead to jump.

The pilot's voice that came over comms was nearly drowned out by Dwyn's grin, "Bombs away, Dwyn! You're over a dirt median! Say hello to the captain on your way down!"

Dwyn hit the button on the inside of his cockpit and the retaining field swallowed under ferroplasm and durasteel. The engineers weren't entirely clear on what the button started but the cockpit was both there and not there. Dematerialized into its own space Dwyn leaped the musclebound psi-mech out of the back of the dropship chainsaw in its gigantic hand. The faceless grey torso actually had several crimson reinforced eyes and sensors running from crotch to shoulder and saw the bolt leaping from debris to debris as Dwyn piloted Maxiumus to earth. He could feel the thing drifting side to side with some sort of reactionless thruster from behind the armor. This was the first field test already turning Maximus out to be a damned awesome beastie!

He could feel Maximus moving with its own intelligence faster than he could move the muscles himself. The legs applied braking force from the instant they touched grass. He only stuck his feet into the grass median up to the ankle. Maximus's tail compressed to its hind end and wagged the little flexing tail with grapnel inside the impact furrow.

Dwyn stood up straight and waved with Maximus' free hand and looked around. The woven tapestry proclaiming the WCA's emblem on his back bright and proud. The man and muscled beastie both neural grafted to the pilot core shared the executive thought of one and the powered reflexes of the other. While Dwyn in some respects knew what he was doing when informed instinct pulled an action from the man as his wide field of vision peered at a falling piece of debris. Training nearly dragged Dwyn forward toward injured Mankind before finding himself pounding across the divide to get underneath the debris astride a pedestrian vehicle. His mind finally caught up to see where the Wen's arcane sight mounted to the eyes with CVS nodes and saw the telltale breath of the living. This time when the building hit it was the building's back that broke. Dwyn fired up his chainsaw and hacked through the support to free the hollow structure to thump into the street. he could lift the other side gently out of the way.

Parades of people began to drop from the ships wearing the latest in technology. They flew with help of powerful jet packs with hours of fuel so even the worse of situations could be handled. They were trained in the most exceptional of skills, from medical knowledge verging on Doctorates, mechanical and architectural knowledge that allowed them to assess the stability of any structure they were within. Equipped with head torches, UV, Heart-rate sensors, Heat Signature among others. They were the WCA (Wing City Angels) formed to handle the worse of disasters that seemed to plague Wing City on a communal basis. Always there, recognised and adored.

Flying around they darted like bees picking up people and destroying unstable structures to prevent further damage or collapsing foundations crashing down. Veronica was one of them, she had been informed as had the others, let Captain Runemold handle the girl causing the destruction. In truth, the guy was an egotistical prick, but he was also genuine about wishing to help others. He may be a celebrity but he never endangered others.

The quake was now official ten on the Richter scale. It was impossible to land and not be harmed so swooping in and grabbing people before herding them into the waiting drop ships was the only option. Nonetheless, it was downright impossible, worse people had now seen who was causing this and though approaching cautiously, they were approaching the girl, "CAPTAIN, CIVILIANS ARE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR EPI-CENTRE, WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?" the others had noticed too and appeared to be waiting for Veronica to hear back on her communicator.

"What in the name of the Empeor...Seargeant, new signatures in the area...whatever that voice was it seems this city has its own civil force. Orders?" A guardsman spoke as the Chimera continued to drive. "We are almost at the EPI-Center, once we near it expect to bail the vehicle once the ground become unstable. We gun it for the witch and open fire."

"Really wish we had one of those Vindicate Assasins...Just one would have stopped this witch without having to send us..."

"Well when you wish for the Adeptus Astartes to drop in during an invasion. It usually is not answered. Regardless we do this and perhaps we got on the Commisars good side, more menial duty and less executions you know..."

"Roger that sir, we are almost there." The guardsman spoke as he slammed a power pack into his Las-gun along with everyone else. For a witch, just a few shots were needed.

In the air above the city, the cobalt glaive hovered above the devasatation caused by the earthquake.

Emily, normally highly professional, was wide eyed and stunned. "What a horrible nightmare, first an invasion from evil shadows, now an earthquake."

Ean had a different thought about it. "Emily, start scanning for anyone trapped beneath the rubble, and get Fiedy ready in case we need some heavy lifting, call the arsenal and prep for rescue scenario. I want field shelters, medi platforms, and excavators loaded and ready to drop at a moment's notice."

As he said this, he pulled his coat over his shoulders and clamped his hat on over his head. He turned to Akio "your in charge till I get back. I know your not familiar with the ship, but just tell people where to be and they'll know what to do. We'll do the tour when I get back."

Emily was less than thrilled about this decision. "Captain its a hell storm down there! Just what exactly is your plan?"

He turned and pointed down at his feet, and supposedly at the scene below. "This city lies landlocked on a continent with few to no fault lines. It does not just suddenly suffer an earthquake strong enough to shatter a moon. Something or someone is down there doing this, and I'm going to stop it before they and everyone else down there get killed."

And with that he turned and charged off to the drop bay.

...

The thing about using ancient, deep-rune magic to turn yourself into a bolt of endless lighting is that, well. You go fast. Really fast. Faster than the standard human nervous system could possibly handle. Fast enough even the most disciplined, and focused of minds struggle to hold back the affects of controlling a body screaming through the air at 220,000mph.

Fast enough that any distraction - "CAPTAIN! CIVILI-"

The crackle of Veronica's voice through his telepathic link to the WCA comms line shattered his intense focus. All at one the silver bolt vanished, leaving only Captain Runemold suspended in the air, doubled over in agony, and clutching at his sides. The force of the speed was catching up, and subjecting his body to an intense crushing sensation.

He could barely form a thought around the pain, and the burning in his lungs as they started to collapse.

For a split moment Micheal honestly thought he was going to die. Somewhere between the fading consciousness, lack of air, and sudden falling feeling as his Overland Flight spell wore off, he forget that just as he had warded the Gate...


...CCCRRRAAACCCKKKKKKK...

He had warded himself.

A massive bolt of pure, sizzling mana shot out from his chest, streaking through the sky like a reverse lightning strike. It ripped through layer, after layer of deep, black clouds until finally, with a deafening clap it broke in a brilliant explosion. The added force that his body couldn't handle had been converted into pure mana, far to much for a human body to safely contain, so another rune-ward had triggered a violent release, seeding the skyline with tiny blue crystal-like flakes.

Flashy display over, and gasps for breath subsided, the Captain shook the echoes of the pain off, and sighed internally, contacting Veronica.

"Let the Imperial Guard handle the Witch," He hoped she didn't have a snippy comment about him forgoing glory, he didn't have time for it, this was a crisis like no other. "I want you, and everyone else to focus SOLELY on evacuations. Get everyone out of here. Now." There was none of the usual charm, or levity in his voice, none of the pomp or play.

Sparring no more focus, he closed the telepathic connection with the WCA, and quickly set about restoring his flight; teleporting off towards the clouds his mana had seeped into. Between over-saturation with his own, personal connection to magic, this would be an easy task. He had more than a few weather-control spells under his belt, and just enough spare juice for a little Epic Polymorphing. With a few gestures, some booming deep chants, and a little spilled blood his body dissolved into the clouds.

---

The dark skies above Wing City swirled around, and around as if pushed on by some fierce wind. They gathered, and pushed at each other, some merging, some dropping, until in short order a titanic funnel-cloud, nearly the size of a city block, had formed. Immediately it whipped, and whirled faster, and faster, the pace always rising until it seemed to form some kind of suction, drawing more dark, angry clouds into it.

As more cloud-matter was sucked in, a shape began to form under the funnel. At first, just a blip of cloud, really, but as the seconds rolled by it grew. Nominally at first, but then in leaps, and bounds, until it became clear it was making a person, of course.

Easily twenty-five foot tall, the being of black cloud came to stand rather casually under the funnel, banishing it away with a flick of the wrist. He looked, more or less, like a human. Legs, torso, arms, head, complete with cloud-beard all present, but it was still obvious he was a Jinn. His voice boomed through the City, a sound like gravel, and thunder.

"You Witch, who seeks to meddle with nature, now face it! I, Hsaharaan, Jinn of The Northern Gale stand before you!" He paused for a moment, it seemed like the angry Jinn thing to do. Micheal honestly didn't expect this bluff to work at all, having come up with it on the spot, but you never knew. It's amazing the things a primordial force of magic can get somebody to do. Or somebody with enough power to try and fake it, and a damn good Polymorph spell for looks.

It also hopefully kept the Witch's attention distracted enough to buy the IG some time.

"I warn you but this once, Witch!" A fierce sound, like the very clouds roaring echoed for a moment, before a deluge of countless lightning bolts rained down. Carefully aimed in a massive circle, in an attempt to cut off as many civilian roads into the epicenter as possible. "Cease meddling in the affairs of those above you, mortal. Or my next volley strikes home.

Despite having no faith in his gambit, he did feel rather prepared to fight the Geo-Witch in this form.

"We are nearly there! Just...Oh frak! Bail now! Bail now!" The driver yelled as the section of street they were on had destabilised and began to sink thatning to bury them in rubble. The squad of eight, accompanied by a psyker bailed from their transport which slid down a slop and crashed into rubble before slowly being buried. "Keep a move on men! We are only a yard away from our target! Work hard and fast!" The seargent called out as the squad carefully but quickly traversed the unstable ground.

As they closed in on the location, the Psyker could feel the energy everywhere. "Close!....CLOSE!...we are near...This power will break the planet!...It must be stopped!..." The psyker rambled on as it could feel the danger this possessed. The guardsman now aware of the risks doubled on their efforts, Las-guns switched to full auto. They were now just a few feet away, they pray this would be quick.

Groaning, Tiff tried to speak, but found her body fighting even this simple act, "It hurts... it hurts..." she wailed, "I... I... can't... stop it... I'm sorry... if I hold it back... it will kill me..." coughing she drooled blood out, there was obvious danger her rib had pierced her chest, "Please... please... make it stop..." her eyes were full of tears, and her arms and muscles were covered in fleshy veins... suggesting she had tried to hold back magical energy earlier... In fact, she appeared rather mutated in sense her arm muscles and leg muscles were too big for her body type.

The pain evident on her face, she tried to speak again but once dripped blood from her mouth, "Hel..." she could not finish that word...

The WCA intercom crackled and a new voice came through, one not heard on this planet for a few months. "This is Jedi Kinara of the Obsidian Eagle. I came to Terra as soon as I felt the disturbance in the Force. There is a lot of ash, what happened?" there was a pause as she waited for an answer. Then to that, she responded, "I'm going to set the Obsidian Eagle down in low atmospheric geo-sync orbit over the city's Main gates, please do not attack." she asked. From the cloud of ash, a massive ship, similar to a Star Destroyer, came rumbling down into the atmosphere quickly. Seven more ships, smaller in size but similar in shape, also entered, but hovered higher above the ground, using their bulk to both catch ash and any falling large rocks that may be hurtling towards the city. The sight was both ominous, and welcoming. Four smaller ships, Tartan Patrol cruisers, also appeared and then hovered nearby, closer to the Eagle as they were her main support ships. They were in a defensive position, making no moves to attack.

"Designate Landing Zones for my Transports, I can load 30 people at a time on each transport, and I've got a lot of them, from all eight of my ships. We'll use the main hangar of the Eagle as a sort of refugee camp. How copy?"

A great buzzing sound became apparent as the hangars of the Valliant Class Star Destroyer (the 'Eagle) and her seven Venator Class Star Destroyer Escorts opened. A large swarm of transports descended upon Wing City. Piloted by old reprogrammed Battle Droids, they flew steady and slow, in a non-threatening way. The last thing anyone needed was for what was supposed to be help get shot down.

((Retracted post pre-reply.))

...

As the Guardsman opened fire, they would begin shouting orders and moving around as they fired upon the ninja clones. "Damnation! Slippery like an Eldar! Keep firing men! One lucky shot and it's over!" The sergeant shouted as he and the squad moved around. With the ground unstable and breaking, the soldiers had to take cover in craters on the verge of sinking in the ground or near the unstable ruins of buildings.

The situation went south quick, and there was still the witch they had to kill but with what's going on they would not be able to kill her easily. The operation was bad. "Commisar! The situation has went south! Unknown forces engaging us! We can't elimate the witch! We are requesting immediate assistance!" The Vox operator spoke under the wizz of Lasgun. "Don't fear yet guardsman. Keep fighting. I will get artillery crews to bomb the area.This situation is not lost yet!" The voice spoke however another Vox fluency came up.

"Astartes codes? By the Emperor...Vox it through! Open fire!" The squad continued to open fire, the Psyker in the mean time kept his head down and channeled his psychic powers through the guardsman to help their accuracy even if in the end they were not going to achieve much.

"Commisar, Guardsman come in, this is Imperial Fist Strike Cruiser 'Fist Of Dorn'. We are here to assist." The voice boomed. For many the ship was just a name of a ship. However this name truly had importance.
"By the Emperor...The Fist Of Dorn!?...Impossible..."

Soon from the skies came a dropship, it blazed through the atmosphere. Coloured with yellow and white with a symbol of a black Fist. Just a single dropship made its way. "Brothers, unknown mist up ahead. Prodded with caution and assist local guard forces in the termination of the witch. Assault teams prepare...My Lord, we are ready for your orders."

As the ship navigated through the mist, relying on blueprints of the city and the grace of the Emperor to guide them to safety. Soon the transport however above the ground and a squad of five dropped out.

Four armoured figures, cladded in Astartes power armor and armed with Boltguns. Their armor bore the same yellow and white along with the same Fist like symbol. They were each ten feet tall and held a rocket propelled ballistic weapon, each capable of firing .75 caliber rounds in four round bursts. The fifth figure was larger than the rest. Two feet taller than the other and holding a sword with serrated teeth the size of a normal man perhaps eight feet tall. In his other hand was a Bolt Pistol. The figure was huge, and they had all dropped near the Guardsman as the transport took to the skies dissapering into the mist.

The guardsman fell onto their knees as a sign of respect. "By the Emperor...Rogal Dorn...You grace us my lord..." The seargent of the squad spoke, almost cowering in fear by his mere presence alone. "Rise Guardsman, we have no time for formalities. Your job here is to eliminate the witch then do so. We will cover your squad, you move ahead to the witch's last known location and open fire. No doubt the unknown forces will assault you. Now move." the man spoke. His features hidden under his armor.

In the middle of the battlefield of a level 10 Earthquake on the Ritcher Scale, Jack Walters manifested via unknown means. After buying a shotgun and ammo just mere minutes ago, he went to change his clothes and acquire new ones. But that all went to shit. First was the voice. Then there was the Light. Now Jack found himself in a warzone, with only his Elemental Gauntlets and a shotgun with 40 rounds.

Ok... Teleportation powers that could kill you? Check. Anymore Yithian powers that I don't know about?

Jack remarked as he looked around for cover.

Noticing some armoured figures talking with the Guardsmen, Jack walked towards them, hoping that they would be friendly.

Excuse me? I'm wondering if one of you guys could tell me what is happening? I just got teleported here for unknown reasons, and I'd like to know what you're fighting.

Jack asked as he approached the group.

Ean made his way into the drop bay, and therein quickly slid into a pod. He started punching in coordinates and prepping for drop, when Emily came in over comms.

"Sir, you got that look in your eye, so I'm not going to try and talk you out of this, but please be careful. As if the earth quake wasn't enough, we have volcanoes, dust storms, and all sorts of other chaos down there. To top it off, theres the madness of evacuation. Looks like local police or security forces are moving in help who they can, I'm going to coordinate with them and see if we can't assist with the grav platforms. We can get civilians onto them, and off the ground, while they wait for evac to get them somewhere safe."

Ean nodded, before realizing that she couldn't see him. "That's good thinking. Keep the platforms as close to the heavier population areas as possible, but out of harms way. Also see if there's anything that can be done about that volcano, a dispersion charge or something like that."

"Roger that captain. One more thing..." And here Emily paused, hesitant to speak. "Theres uh.... Imperium forces on the ground. They seem to be fighting an unknown force at the epicenter. I'd bet my months next salary that they intend to destroy or kill whoevers responsible for this."

Ean scowled, having an inherent dislike for the Imperium. "Bloody fanatic oxymoronic plebians, spouting on about faith, without even knowing the depths of the damn word." He ranted a bit. "Keep our boys clear of em, I don't wanna deal with any headaches today if I can help it."

Emily sighed into the microphone. "Yes sir. By the way I found out what's causing this, scans just came in. It looks like-"

"It's a girl, geomancer, who's power is going out of control." The Captain cut her off, his hand hovering over the launch button.

"Yes... how did you..."

Ean never heard what the rest of her sentence would be, as he launched the pod. A magnetic charge ran through the tube, and the pod was shot out at terminal velocity to the surface. He couldn't drop to close to the epicenter, it wouldn't be safe. But, barring unseen hindrance, he shouldn't take longer than fifteen minutes to reach the girl. In the turmoil of sound and noise that filled the pod as it fell from the sky, Ean muttered aloud. "I hate it when I'm right."

The closer the young woman got to the epicenter of the earthquake the worst the ground shook, and the stronger the violent nature had become. yet where she walked, it was as if nature itself ripped from its violence and sept itself under her feet in a fresh clean path untouched or damaged as she walked along. She saw dozens of men ahead, dozens more fighting something, or someone, yet she saw the cause of it all.

A young woman... who looked like a bodybuilder with arms much too big with bulging muscles unlike anything Crane had ever seen outside of those bodybuilding magazines her brothers used to get just to laugh and make bets on who took the most steroids to bet muscles the size of mature cement trucks on their arms and legs.

She saw a man going towards what looked like a bunch of clones of some form. But she didnt care about that, no, she was simply curious of what was causing the earthquake, and ash to fall from a volcano. Which simply meant so much trouble. Possibly far too much trouble for her to like if that. She saw then the men, all of them armed, trying to take aim and fire at the woman causing the earthquake, Crane could see clearly the woman had no control because of something. The Spiritpearls within Crane spun madly the closer she got to the epicenter, where the violence of Nature was the strongest.

Finally she was there. Staring curious, as the guardmen opened fire, None of the bullets or las shots hit their mark, stopping mere inches from her as she walked in front of them to get to the young woman, the cause of the earthquake. However she stopped, reaching out a hand she gently plucked one of the bullets fired from the air and looked at it, Ok, this was most interesting indeed. Then she heard it, a voice, angered, and yet calm. A mans voice. She felt his shadow first before his hot breath was near her and she turned.... and looked up at him. Whoa. But Crane kept herself calm, her slender six foot tall figure appearing even smaller compared to Dorn's emense size. Without thinknig it she drew her sword. She had no idea if she even stood a chance against this armored man.

Somehow she knew she had gone out of her balance. Yet her thirst for knowing what was going on might be the only thing to blame at that moment.

As the Marines got ready to move out and Guardsman carefully, slowly but purposefully moving forward soon were stopped by the psykers mad rambling. "I!...Feel it!...It's going to explode! Fiery death upon us all!..." The psyker filled with an image soon caused his mind to give out before collapsing dead on the ground. But not before pointing in a direction. Soon the ground shook and the Imperial soldiers soon turned in the direction the psyker aimed at...

From what they saw, a massive explosion was heard. A Super Volcano erupted spewing smoke, lava, and brimstone in the air...with it followed destruction...

The ground had violently shook which was putting it very lightly. Before the Guardsman or even Space Marines could respond to the new figures and event, the Guardsman were flung around like food in a flying pan, they bounced up and down rolling all around now unable to maintain their footing for even a nano-second. "Emperor!...Preserve!...us!" The Guardsman cried out as no matter how they would have tried. They would not even be able to do anything, their weapons had already flown somewhere else. One was flown across the streets impacting a wall as a massive flying chunk of Adamantite slammed into the poor bastard. Chunks soon began raining on Wing City, and it's a wonder when the shields would go on!

The space marines on the other hand fared better, their suits were built for more extreme conditions however even then maintaining their footing on unstable and super shaky land was now going to be a challenge even with their skills. Dorn however seemed more unfazed than before as he stared down the figure in front of him, her balance was off, her sword was raised, she stood in their way actively preventing them from saving this planet.

In this situation, he would show no mercy in removing her from his way. Almost as if he had blinked right in front of her, Fist at the ready he was going to deliver righteous vengeance to make her learn to not get in there way. A fist landed square in her gut, strong enough to easily knock the wind from her lungs and even leave only one shattered bone. She would not fly however, she should have flew away however a roundhouse kick and been planted on her back preventing her from flying away but adding even more damage.

Not done, as she would fly to the ground from the force of the kick. Dorn would full his fist back as far back as he could before launching it forward, fist aimed right square in her face. The fist would connect, causing fragile teeth to shatter from the armoured force of a Primarchs fist, breaking her nose in the process and perhaps a few wheel bones. He was angry but calm, every movement was calculated. He was not simply doing this for fun, he wanted to teach those fighting the Imperium, or even standing in their way would learn the hard way that that would have been the biggest mistake they could make. Father had said to not kill unless needed, this was the sole reason why he had not used his sword to end a life.

As the woman would go flying one last time, he ran right behind her and jumped into the air to deliver one final assault. As she flew into his range he unleashed a flurry of punches at her back as a pace that even a space marine could not keep up with. Perhaps 20 punches had hit her in a span of a few seconds. It was a miracle she would live, but by the will of the Emperor they would keep their word and prevent needless death...however he was close to ending her out of pure hatred for those that dared stop them. He soon landed gracefully on the ground while the woman would fly into the ground full force.

The witch was next...and with that the marines stood back as Dorn charged forward. To hurry to the witch himself as the Guardsman now uselessly floundered around like a fish out of water. Being lucky not to end up crushed. However preparation were nearly complete, City Wide shield generators were soon to be active in just a minute.

The man was fast, bigger, and faster, She lost her footing, and her sword, the blade of the insanely long blade stabbing into the unstable ground and simnply just sticking there as she had the stuffing beaten from her. When he came at her she weakly brought up her fists as she laid flat on her back, He didint aim to kill, but she could ffeel her body already healing thanks to the Spirit pearl of the Void working overtime to keep her alive. She expecting blackness, the welcoming emptiness of death.

But it never came, her eyes sdnapped open as the first echo of the volcano explsoion hit her and washed over her, momentarily rendering her tomnedeaf she sat up, her bones cracking and repairing just as quickly as her clothing did. She rolled over onto her stomach and spat out a motuhful of blood.

She saw her sword, betwee nthe massivem an, and his target, and he was between her and her sword. It rattled in its solid ground where it was spiked when she dropped it. She pushed herself to her feet as ash started raining around her. She reached out a hand, using the Spirit Pearl of Metal to control her sword it wrenched free of its stonework it lodged in and flew hilt first towards her grasp.

Unfortunatly it also caught the eye of Dorn ass it moved and suddenly flew from its stone. How had she gotten up so quickly. She was simply curious of what was going on, whath ad caused the earthquake, what had caused the ash, what had caused all of this. Only to get beaten up for it ?

Her clothing slowly repaired itself, torn in places herright arm bled a seemingly never ending stream of blood, but she didnt care. She held her sword close, almost like a walking stick actually as it was now sheathed. She stared at Dorn, the massive man had briefly stopped next to the woman causing the whole mess and turned towards her as she caught her sword.

The two stared briefly at one another. And out of nowhere he was once next to the woman at the epicenter of the earthquake, and then..... Her amber eyes went wide as the icecold energies of a powersword slammed into her stomach. All the way to its hiltcrossguard as Dorn stared into her eyes. Crane gave off a soft hiss of pain.

Then.... it happened, As Dorn picked her up by tipping up his sword, the second echo of the supervolcano explsion reached them, its sheer power sent Crane flying off the sword towards a mostly intacted piece of pavement nearby as a building fell ontop of her, seemingly buring her, Dorn smirked and turned back to the witch causing the trouble and once again he stood next to the geomancer.

As Dorn went back to deal with the geomancer, Crane dragged herself out of the rubble and limped away...

Everyone off the Bus

Four legged bestial creatures ran up the boulevard to the main gate and though fairly sure footed pin-balled off each other's armor. The Jinhai inside these dozen or so Wen numbered easily half a dozen each swelling the creatures to nearly twice their normal size. Almost two stories tall they shrank as Jinhai poured out of them as worms the hovering things ignorant of the shaking darted off to look through buildings for injured Mankind. Other Wen once emptied of all but the last Jinhai to provide motive animus sought injured personnel to replace themselves with. The rear half busied themselves with taking a wide tripod stance before helpless Imperial Guard. While they'd certainly interacted with the Jinhai before a black hand splitting the Wen's chest to reveal an iridescent man-shaped sarcophagus was likely something new. As the Jinhai left the Wen palmed the Guard's chest to ram him inside. There was a moment of unfathomable pain before the Wen's shape took on one that distantly resembled the guard themselves but the size of a space marine. The guard hadn't the particular set of skills to properly direct a transfiguration engine of war.

The instant such a bond revealed such a psyker in their midst a Wen made its way over and the Jinhai disembarked splitting the sarcophagus open for access. A psyker would find its capacity to regulate power a thing that cleared the mind. Its own power supply capable of providing energy to a psyker or merely allowing the psyker to regulate enhanced access to the Warp. The Jinhai simply looked at the Mankind around him before leaving with the body to say, "We will appropriate this psyker for the benefit of the Living Emperor of Mankind and Myrkul's Vein."

The Jinhai as a worm a thing able to rekindle life, especially in husks still suitable, hoisted the body and put it into the sarcophagus. It poured into the wall beside the sarcophagus as the Wen's body closed around it. The Jinhai went to work rekindling the damage done to the psyche as the Wen quietly bounced around and was blasted through things. They were hardy enough and the jostling didn't matter for works of the mind.

Preserve the Unknown

A curious Mankind at the front accosted by the Living Emperor's own gained the interest of the lead Wen. In much the same manner as the guards the Wen thundered up then braced on three legs. The chest split open to reveal the iridescent psionic sarcophagous. Through the side like some hand reaching out an engine block the Jinhai's humanoid form emerged from the black inner surface of the Wen. Though the large armored Wen no longer moved once the Jinhai left it they both largely hovered on legs that quivered largely divorced from the earthquake beneath them as they were. The Jinhai's palm grew a strong grey light as he went about attempting to reconstruct Crane's worst injuries. The Jinhai talked as he worked, "You should wear the Conduit, Mankind. You are grievously harmed."

Boom?

Feidy was about to drop with Alexander when the Volcano blew its top. The pressure wave oncoming he had to hold off just a bit more or potentially hit a building with survivors in it on his way down. Inside the gyroscopically balanced cockpit he just floated while assessing systems to make sure everything was a go.

Hell in a Handbasket

Dwyn couldn't help but watch as some WCA personnel were crushed under falling debris. The ones underneath him working to dislodge the citizens managed to do so just as another building started bearing down on them. He fired the stasis engine inside of Maximus and with a roar of static it consumed both citizens and both personnel into the glowing red lights in Maximus's feet. The bang of the Volcano deafened him and he woke up several seconds later with a click of the mic and screaming in the second sublevel of the city's under works. The damned building hit him like a sledgehammer but Maxiumus was still kicking. He double checked the stasis pods as he felt Maximus was a little hurt by the impact.

Kinara's eyes widened as the volcano erupted. "Brace!" She screamed into the comm's channel open to her own ships. Regardless of the fact that they were piloted and manned by Droids, they weren't the most durable droids. They did as told, and from the shock wave sent out by the volcano, all twelve ships lurched slightly before correcting themselves. "All shields doubled topside! Block the city as much as you can from falling debris!" She commanded.

The Dropships sent to help also lurched many feet in one direction, but thankfully none of them crashed. Kinara patched herself into the WCA Comm network again. "To anyone who can hear me, the Dropships should be close to the surface now, they will set flares down, follow the green smoke to evac everyone. They'll drop rope ladders - there's no way they can land and stay safe."

With that she moved the Obsidian Eagle closer to the Evac-zone, in a large plaza that was mostly clear of debris from the battle and from the earthquakes. Green smoke flew up into the sky for all to see, and the sides of the Dropships opened, many rope ladders flinging down from either side as they hovered there, the hum of their engines a welcoming sound.

As each one was filled with Civilians and refugees, it would close up the sides, and then head off to go and drop them off in the massive hangar of the Obsidian Eagle.

Again into the WCA comm-line Kinara spoke. "If you need any sort of rubble clearing moved or destroyed for the civilians to have safe passage, let me know, I can coordinate with my ships to destroy any rubble that may be blocking their paths to safety. Jedi Out." with that she was moving quickly through the ship to the Main Hangar to greet the refugees and command the droids to do their jobs of setting up make-shift shelters, passing out water and food, as well as getting the numerous medical droids to work on those who were injured.

It was utter chaos, everyone they saved another twenty perished because the WCA could not be everywhere at once. Even attempts to limit this led to a mass amount of death. It was gruelling and so self-defeating. Just attempting to prevent further casualties often they were stuck with extreme choices. Choices where they would need to stare at two people and decide who was far more important to save. If these people did survive they would feel like monsters by the end. True they had made the best choice, but it was disturbing, to say the least. Wing City Angels were a symbol, a symbol that meant they would help no matter what.

They took calculated risks and endangered themselves, but the devastation occurring was heart-wrenching. So preoccupied were they in this orgy of pandemonium, Penelope did not pick up the message until minutes afterwards. Just as she was about to respond, a horrible earth-shattering sound reverberated all over.. Everyone in the WCA stopped and eyes timidly turned towards the source, huge sound waves came crashing forward.

The explosion sent many of the WCA flying violently into foundations of buildings. Often so aggressively that when they collided with the hard surface their body was crushed in the impact... Stains of dark crimson covering many structures. Screams of horror and shock. Those flung back not crushed by the sudden impact, instead, their jetpacks exploded leaving them screaming in terror as they crashed to the ground.

Further flaming hot adamantium was cascading through the sky crashing down and further adding to the madness. Ships were desperately trying to avoid, but the problem was it was harder to predict such movement. Especially for larger ships.

Icy Peak had gone off, Penelope knew this was beyond anything they could handle now. First, she patched through to the Star Destroyer, "Yes, do what is necessary we must preserve as much life as possible. My fellows can't stay here any longer this is beyond even our expertise." sending that reply she then patched to Captain Runemold Intercom, "Sir, we need to call a retreat, that blast took our half of our squad alone. But I need the official order, what do we do? And where do we take survivors, just give the word please!"

Aboard the Cobalt Glaive
The madness that held wing city in it's grip is the enemy we must defeat. So thought Emily as her practiced hands danced across the command panels. It wasn't known to most, indeed only two people, the captain and the former first mate, knew that before the time when she needed to be saved by Ean Falcor, Emily was a prodigy with the Piano. A wonder how fate bends and warps those who walks it's pathways.

And like a Pianist, The Helmswoman played a symphony. The notes brought forth by her hands took the form of the ships and soldiers that followed her commands without question or hesitation. The Captains had been the first pod, and to those below who were floundering in the chaos, they would look up and see the halo of the pod landing.

It's so strange that we are called angels, just because of that. She mused to herself as she played. The energy field that the pods produced made it seems like a falling star was coming down at first, but when the brakes deployed, that falling star would then look to all who saw it from a distance very much like the biblical angels.

The captains was first, but behind him were hundreds of these pods. Launched also were hummingbirds, fighter craft, and troop transports. From the arsenal came floating platforms that were encased in a shield, protecting all within from the chaos around them.

And so on when the Symphony of Salvation, that only Emily could hear, though all could see. Soldiers landed in the madness and chaos, and using their repulsar arrays they created small zones of forced stability. Only about five or six meters in diameter, these zones were made immune and safe from the earthquakes, debris, and general madness. The IMPs scattered, deploying these zones around the WCA personel, civilians, and everyone they could reach. Troop transports then ran along these zones, where the IMPs would work to get civilians aboard to safety.

The Transports then would deposit those people at the floating platforms, where they would be safe until other evac ships could take them further to safety.

To that end, Emily opened beacons on the platforms, and directed those signals to the star destroyers and the Jedi. To them it would be impossible to miss, akin to a big neon sign saying "save us, were here."

And still on the IMPs worked, using their equipment and gear to rip into ruined buildings, and revive those there, performing first aid to seal wounds with such speed that, in one instance at the least a man who had been impaled through the heart by a piece of steel, was revived and his wound patched, so that he would survive long enough to get more in depth care.

And still the girl played on, every keystroke a life saved. For it was this that he had gathered them all, it was this that Ean had forged the IMPs, had crafted the Cobalt Glaive.

She spoke then the motto they held aboard the ship. "Nothing is Hopeless, and all can be saved."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Into the madness

The Captain Lands.

Ean was about five seconds from impact with the shockwave hit and threw his pod off kilter. The landing was rough and it took him precious minutes to climb out of the wrecked pod. When he did, he braced his legs against the shaking and looked up, holding his hat to his head. He grimaced. "Damn.. Too late." He said, before opening contact with the Cobalt Glaive. "Emily, send a drop ship to the epicenter."

Emily sighed softly, glad he had survived. "Got it, I'll have medical waiting to-"

"Don't bother. Won't be anyone to save." He cut her off, then shut off comms, and began stalking towards the epicenter. The quaking and clattering all about him, but he moved smoothly, as though he knew just how to move to avoid trouble.

(Null for things that are happening))