spartan-joe371:

phazonhuntress:

saviorgoddessastrid:

astrids-templars:

Isabella and the Templars would follow the green light, their vehicles still going at a slow pace. As for Shlaereen, she went with the green path, but opened up a more private channel to Astrids mind. This was so no one else but themselves could talk. “Astrid… you’re acting a bit… odd. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed the casualties, but your disregard for them has gotten the Templars… worried.” Shlaereen spoke through her mind.

@saviorgoddessastrid

“Hm? Oh, I did notice them, I just didn’t make mention of it,” Astrid replied to Shlaereen telepathically.  “They’re fighting for a good cause, and I’ll make certain that those who die are given a hero’s burial, and their souls will be given a good place in New Heaven.”

Nora would remain silent, her arms crossed, staring intently at the screen,”Understood Joseph…however, in the unlikely event that they do have it all memorized” She whistles five concise high notes, and a series of holograms appear on Joe’s arm, ending with a short dagger,”Next demon you encounter, stab that blade into its brain, and you’ll have access to all the information it has access to, in terms of location data, in case the map room ends up being a bust”

@spartan-joe371

“Sure, lemme just find a random demon to stick the brain probe into and not get murdered in the process, that’s sure to help us,” Joe snarked, clearly having fun with the idea that Nora came up with.  “At least I’m not giving them a rectal examination.  Does this make me a brain surgeon though?”

Jokes aside, Joe was intent on following Astrid’s directions to the map room first, since randomly shanking demons for information didn’t seem very reliable to Joe.

@fleet-admiral-red

As had been his custom in battle and operations in hostile territory, Red remained silent, reserving communications for subvocals and telepathy in the case of Ruler.

Speaking of Ruler, she had moved ahead of him, positioned to swiftly take a defensive front if they were ambushed again. The white-clad Servant picked up on his thoughts, voicing out her concerns through their telepathic link.

“Are you alright, Master? You seem somewhat uneasy.”

Behind his helmet’s opaque faceplate, Red smiled a bit. Always so observant, she was.

“Admittedly a little, Jeanne. This place…there is an aura all around. A dark presence. I don’t like it.”

Though Ruler outwardly made no change in expression, her telepathic reply was warm and resolute. Her faith was, as always, unwavering. Something he did admire about Ruler, really.

“Fear not. I am your shield, Red. Don’t forget that.”

Red made a small sigh of acknowledgement, cradling his rifle at the ready.

The incoming data from the scout drones he’d sent off remained unchanged, a high concentration of anomalous Hell Energy.

He had a bad feeling about it.

@astrids-templars

spartan-joe371:

phazonhuntress:

saviorgoddessastrid:

astrids-templars:

Shlaereen had taken notice of Astrids awful cherry nature at the death of demons, and Isabella was a bit confused. She had just lost good men, and she was too busy being cheery about the death of demons? Suffice it to say, the grunts that overheard her weren’t so happy, as they sat in their vehicles, with a few new empty seats. “Either way, we should move now. No point in standing around.” Shlaereen commented. The vehicles began to slowly move forward, staying at support speed so the other could easily catch up, while the mounted turrets kept their eyes peeled to for more ambushes, and traps.

@saviorgoddessastrid

Astrid chuckled.  “I think there’s a map room not far from your current location,” she mentioned, creating some green arrows that the party could see to help guide them to said map room.  “Just follow the arrows to get there.”

@phazonhuntress​

Nora had been watching the landscape of Hell for a while, trying to find some hidden details or ambushers,”This entire operation doesn’t seem off to a flying start, considering they’ve taken far fewer casualties than we have… We might need to rethink our strategy here” She tells the group, creating a series of blue arrows leading in a different direction,”I’m detecting a high concentration of Hell Energy that way, should you feel it necessary to investigate” She explains

@spartan-joe371

“Map first, mysterious and likely hazardous to our health source of Hell Energy later,” Joe declared, following the green arrows.  “I’d rather not blindly stumble around Hell without a map, y’see, and I’m sure some demons came up with a mapping system since I doubt they all have memorized Hell’s layout themselves.”

@fleet-admiral-red​

Whatever Hell Energy was, a huge concentration of it certainly meant something.

Though Joe was right in that if they investigated it themselves, it was likely to not end well.

So Red took the safer option. Redirecting the scout drones to discretely head in the direction of the blue arrows, he hoped there wasn’t anything dangerous over there.

Although it would have been awfully convenient if the source of that concentrated Hell Energy was the very person they sought.

In the meantime, though, he would follow the green arrows. “Let’s find that map for now.”

@astrids-templars

spartan-joe371:

phazonhuntress:

saviorgoddessastrid:

astrids-templars:

Isabella only took the orb from them, her eyes examining the small device, and knowing that her own dead were in it. Had she kept the Templars in formation, she could have saved these grunts, they died because of her actions. Though the only Templars suffered from were a few scrapes, and broken bones, that Shlaereen quickly healed. It seemed that her decision had also saved the Templar line, when that hellknight slammed down, the explosion only hitting a few of them. “Mount up.” She ordered. She would give Red a nod, before having her Templars form up again, with the grunts moving to remount their vehicles.

@saviorgoddessastrid

“Well, there goes our first random encounter,” Astrid commented.  “How many more times do you think we’ll get ambushed before we reach Adam’s Palace? Not like I’m bothered any.  More demons to get rid of, after all.”  Astrid’s voice seemed unusually cheery about mentioning that she’s not bothered at murdering demons in large quantities.  This draining really seemed to affect her mental state.

@phazonhuntress​

Nora, making certain she is behind Astrid, so she can’t be seen, narrows her eyes. ‘this seems…suboptimal’. shrugging it off, she shakes her head,”You’re asking the wrong question. the question is not ‘how many Encounters will there be until we reach the palace?’  the question you should be asking is ‘how far until we reach the palace?’.” She explains

“The farther the distance, the fewer attacks there will be. The closer we are to the palace, the more encounters we will face consecutively. They’re not stupid. They know we’ll overwhelm whatever grunts they send at us… they’ll probe our defenses again and again until they know every inch of our tactics, and then they’ll send the heavier stock”

@spartan-joe371

Joe noticed Astrid’s unusual cheeriness.  He’s definitely gonna need to talk with Astrid about this once this mission is done.  “Let’s…try and find whatever equivalent Hell has to a map room in this place,” he suggested.  “If Hell does have something like that in here, I can use it to upload the coordinates of our objective to my Power Suit.”

@fleet-admiral-red​

Honestly, Red doubted Hell had such a map conveniently waiting for them.

As an extra measure, he fabricated a few tiny scout drones, the little spheres being just about the size of a ball bearing as they zipped around silently.

Sending them out ahead, Red returned his attention to the group as Ruler scanned the area for an additional safety check. “Just in case there isn’t a map. I’d rather we have some form of reference, at least.”

@astrids-templars