#(Eyeless MAG | Echo)

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

((MAG Agent Echo

Can’t see, has to rely on sound and scent to find their targets. The top half of their face is falling apart and cracking, so they have to wear bandages to stop it. Remove them, and they will go on a rampage.))

[askmalal]

Brother-Captain Kirek had been tracking this... thing... for hours. And now, here it was. In the one place it hadn't been seen on the sensors. And where, even now, more than a dozen false sensor images were being displayed across the reticles of his Tartaros model terminator helmet. So far, it had killed half a dozen Astartes, twice that many serfs, and slashed through eight servitors.

There were many other Legionaries available to the Captain, of course. Twenty of them. In their defense, the Astartes here aboard the frigate had hardly been prepared to repel a boarding action, and two were wounded men hardly in a position to defend themselves. Those who remained outside, unable to exit the Thunderhawk berthed in the hangar in the traditional way, had now cut their way out of the gunship and were now working their way through the bulkheads that lead to the autolift. But it was slow, laborious work, particularly with no access to breaching charges.

The beast-thing crouched in a corner of the great hologram chamber, its clawed hind legs resting on top of what appeared, distressingly, to look a great deal like what had once been Brother Velian. It almost certainly -was- Brother Velian. A section of the control panel had been sliced neatly in half by what could only have been Velian's chainglaive.

Nicolai snarled and leveled his combi-bolter at the thing. The walls of the precious, nearly irreplaceable holo-chamber, erupted in a hail of mass reactive rounds, flaking paint, and cracked glass. The beast thing darted away in a blur of motion, the rounds tracking it as if the Night Lord was firing a point defense mount at a flitting attack ship. None seemed to find purchase, though some struck Velian's body. That seemed undignified, even if Nicolai Kirek hadn't much liked Brother Velian.

When it was over, when the magazine was empty, Nicolai stood in the center of a cloud of debris and a thoroughly ruined holo-chamber. He growled, and slapped another magazine into the combi-bolter. As he did so, the thing was a grey blur, slamming into him with the force of a power maul. He was thrown to the floor, the beast-thing now resting atop his chest, regarding him curiously. Regarding him? Was that the right word?

For, while it had a fanged mouth, which remained impassive, there were no eyes to speak of. Leathery wings and a tail rose up behind a smooth, grey, animalistic form that was somehow a cross between a gargoyle and a cat, or was it a wolf? He wasn't certain. All he knew was that the thing had to die. Damn his temper. If he'd approached this with more guile and less ferocity, he might not find himself where he was just now, pinned beneath a thing that seemed far too light to have him pinned as he was.

"What... are you?" He growled, "And what are you doing on my ship?!"

The beast thing cocked its head at these words. A clawed, disturbingly humanoid hand traced an arc across the ceramite of his gorget, cutting a clear line across the lightning heraldry he had painstakingly refreshed countless times over the centuries of his service. A creature like that could easily kill him, in this position. That it was not, that it seemed to be playing with him, now, was a cruelty truly to the standards of the Eighth Legion.

"Your ship." The voice that came from the thing's small, fanged mouth was an uncomfortably close echo of his own, Nostraman accent.

Except... that the thing wasn't talking. And the thing wasn't coming from the beast-thing's mouth. It was coming from the ragged mouth of the thing that had been Brother Velian, or some approximation of it was, echoing through the cracked remains of a vox grille. It was not true, an actual lie, in fact, that Astartes were immune to fear; they simply processed the experience differently. Now, the ghost of fear began to play across the corners of his mind. He could very easily be dead in a few minutes. There was no way to get to the combi-bolter. Perhaps, if he could reach the vibro blade mag-locked to his cartridge belt...

"Velian..." Nikolai questioned, "are you..."

"...Velian... is not in any condition... to speak. It is fortunate that... the Night Gaunt left his vocal chords intact..."

Nikolai growled his displeasure. "You are wasting your time if you think I'm going to seize up with fear. Just get it over with if you..." he almost had his hand to the pommel of the blade. If he could get a grip....

"Spoken like every self-righteous Legionary I have ever encountered. No. You will live, Captain. If for no other reason than the need to ensure that My Master's message is understood."

"-My- Master's message..." Nikolai frowned, "will soon be very clear. Once the rest of my platoon enter this space, you will die. As painfully as is possible for..."

"At what point," the ragged vox grille continued, "did the sons of Konrad Curze choose to acknowledge Masters? Was it before or after you sold your Legion sold its souls to Abaddon the Despoiler?"

"I am no puppet of Abaddon. And I will..." Now his hands were on the pommel of the blade. If he could use the right leverage, he could easily....

"No." With unnerving speed and bizarre grace, the Beast-Thing traced a claw under the seam of Nikolai's helmet, uncomfortably close to his jugular vein. "Keep the blade where it is. It is a pretty thing. Crafted by true artisans. It would be a shame to waste it. No. You are no puppet of Abaddon, are you? Your Master thinks themself greater than the Warmaster. Curses his name. Do they not?"

"Your message, then," the Captain growled. "Out with it, then."

"The Night-Gaunt's Master wants -your- Master to understand something," the vox crackled. "And there should be no ambiguity in The Night Gaunt's message. The Night Lord will listen to The Night Gaunt. Understood?"

Nicolai Kerik swallowed hard. Furious. Unable to act. Humiliated. When he had the chance, if he had the chance, he would tear the thing to ribbons with his bare, bloody hands!

The Night Gaunt extended its free, right hand, and displayed the 'thumb' and 'index' finger thereof. Clutched between them was.... no. That was impossible, really. An illusion. A trick of the mind. It was very much like a miniaturized, perfectly created model of the Gloriana class battleship that his Battle Company called home.

"This frigate is not your ship," the Night-Gaunt, for that's what it seemed to call itself, echoed via the unfortunate Velian. "It was never your ship. It originally belonged to the Fifteenth Legion, if memory serves my Master correctly. You stole it from a party of rivals. Loyalists, you'd call them. No, even then, it wouldn't be your own ship. This..." The Night-Gaunt cocked its eyeless face toward the miniaturized battleship, "this is the ship that you, and your band of renegades call home. The center of your fleet. This, of course, is a mere toy. And to My Master... the same can be said of your home. Is that clear?"

"I..."

"I do not seek to intimidate you. Nor do I seek to instill fear. That is not my Master's wish. No, The Night-Gaunt wants you to understand the truth. You conduct yourselves like gods. But you are not gods. You are self-righteous, post-human abominations. Do you understand?"

Nicolai said nothing.

"You all think yourselves so pretty. So powerful. You throw proud challenges out to all who will hear them. You spit on the names of Primarchs and Gods alike. And yet, you are nothing like your gene-father. And yet, he was nothing compared to -my- Father. Do you understand?"

Again, the Captain did nothing but grit his teeth.

"To My Master, your home is but a toy and these can be thought of as his fingers. Never forget." the fingers closed down, crushing the toy as if it were a bundle of dry matchsticks. "Remember your place."

"What... is the point of..."

"Arrogance is misplaced in a band of genetically flawed post-human abominations living in a stolen battleship, using stolen weapons. Brave, are you? My Master suggests that you take yourself to Terra, and display that bravery. Or perhaps you would rather return to the fold of the Black Legion, to challenge Abaddon for his title to Warmaster."

"I am not interested in pithy nothings. You have delivered your message. Have you not? If you aren't going to kill me, then..."

"I have delivered my message. My Master now informs me that you may slay me, if you wish. My purpose has been fulfilled."

The claw was withdrawn, and within a second, Nicolai had drawn his vibro-blade, slashing the grey flesh of the Beast-Thing as if it was so much tissue paper. His armor was spattered with gore. And still, the thing gazed at him impassively, its chest a ruin, the color leaving its form. It whispered something as he kicked it away.

"What was that?!" He growled, "More threats?!"

Verian's vox grille gurgled and spat. "...It said..." the voice of Brother Verian choking on his own blood, ".... Ave Malice..."

[warframeshorts]

Mag Lore

We sat strapped in, safeties off, waiting for the punch. Waiting for death. Through my filthy porthole I saw stars among the outlines of the other Splinter ships queuing for the Solar Rail. It would soon grip us with an incomprehensible power and cast us through the void into the mouth of our enemy.

I watched the ships one-by-one bending and gone. Each crammed with zero-tech soldiers sucking stale air, white knuckling their percussion rifles. Each filled with a desperation that comes from extinction. Our ship would be the last to cross the gap. Our ship had special cargo.

It was essentially empty. Just ten men, like me, strapped in with the best zero-tech suits and weapons the empire could build... and "it". "It" stood in the aisle, a slender and eyeless metal form. A Tenno inside its Warframe. Vaguely human, vaguely feminine. Was this armor or some ornate carapace for the monster that lived inside? I strained against the harness as the ship yawed for final approach. I could see the Tenno standing there freely. Solemn and gold-gleaming, oblivious to the inertial force.

I had been, until then, a Tenno denier. They were ghosts, propaganda, twisted casualties of the void era. Not possibly real. Yet here it was in the flesh. The Empire, in their desperation, was going to turn the demons loose and hope for the best. Who did we fear more, the enemy or this monster? We had our safeties off, could we trust it? Then it didn't matter anymore. The punch came - and our windows became blinding. When we could see again our ship was somewhere else, shattered and dead in an instant.

My lungs were flattened, eyes full of death. Ship debris glittered like a night snow. The alien blue star was dark and blinding beyond us. The countless articulating worm-ships of our enemy, ringed in glowing discs, undulating and heat-bursting the surviving soldiers like me. This is where I died. I was in R-disc, sweeping over my right and setting my blood on fire. My vision flattened, the hearing muffled and buzzed. I could feel the side of my face going slack and wet.

I was in a dying dream. I saw a bright spot blurring and weaving toward me. I felt a tug toward it from the metal clasps on my suit. It reached me, rising up - a gleaming beast, a plume of golden wings rising and unfolding behind it. An angel. It snatched me from my death. I could feel my lungs fill as it wrapped me in its wings. Its Void Shield shimmered blue, strained under the enemy beams. I felt a suddenly tug of acceleration. I closed my eyes and held on it like a child.

I awoke on the floor, the sting of crisping flesh on my face and side. It was standing over me, the wings gone. I heard the cracking of weapons echoing down the corridor. Maybe the mission would be saved, but I was dying and so I waved my hand to send it away. I felt a pistol thrust in my hand as I was heaved to my feet. The angel had saved me, pulled me from hell, but it would not pity me. I was to die on my feet, by its side. I turned my good side toward the gunfire and raised the gun. It nodded, its outstretched metal hand surging and pulsing in ancient shapes as blue shimmered around me. It turned, drawing its blade and together we surged headlong into the hailstorm of death and fire that awaited us.

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

((*holds up my Madness Combat OCs* yo ask my dorks something))

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

They scratched their head a bit. “My face is kinda... falling apart up there. Can’t see too well, either, so...“

Doom Slayer looked around this place was new to him the red sky the strange armless beings it was kinda to him a nice change of pace.

Echo was nearby, tilting their head when they caught the Doom Slayer's scent. Well... this was definitely a new presence.

The MAG Agent stepped towards him. They looked to be about... twice and a half the size of the beings. But judging from the wrappings around their eyes... they seemed to be blind. "Rrr?"

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

“Eh... it’s more like the Auditor’s a dark angel or something. Same with Employers in general.“ He shrugged. “And I don’t think any Nevadean I know of is a demon.“

Doom Slayer looked around this place was new to him the red sky the strange armless beings it was kinda to him a nice change of pace.

Echo was nearby, tilting their head when they caught the Doom Slayer's scent. Well... this was definitely a new presence.

The MAG Agent stepped towards him. They looked to be about... twice and a half the size of the beings. But judging from the wrappings around their eyes... they seemed to be blind. "Rrr?"

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

“Well... yeah,” he said. “We’ve... pretty much got a living portal to it.”

Doom Slayer looked around this place was new to him the red sky the strange armless beings it was kinda to him a nice change of pace.

Echo was nearby, tilting their head when they caught the Doom Slayer's scent. Well... this was definitely a new presence.

The MAG Agent stepped towards him. They looked to be about... twice and a half the size of the beings. But judging from the wrappings around their eyes... they seemed to be blind. "Rrr?"

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

Echo tilted their head. “...so... why are you here?”

Doom Slayer looked around this place was new to him the red sky the strange armless beings it was kinda to him a nice change of pace.

Echo was nearby, tilting their head when they caught the Doom Slayer's scent. Well... this was definitely a new presence.

The MAG Agent stepped towards him. They looked to be about... twice and a half the size of the beings. But judging from the wrappings around their eyes... they seemed to be blind. "Rrr?"

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

They didn’t seem to notice him looking around. “Yeah... Don’t touch the wrappings.“

Doom Slayer looked around this place was new to him the red sky the strange armless beings it was kinda to him a nice change of pace.

Echo was nearby, tilting their head when they caught the Doom Slayer's scent. Well... this was definitely a new presence.

The MAG Agent stepped towards him. They looked to be about... twice and a half the size of the beings. But judging from the wrappings around their eyes... they seemed to be blind. "Rrr?"

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

They blinked at that. “More work?”

Doom Slayer looked around this place was new to him the red sky the strange armless beings it was kinda to him a nice change of pace.

Echo was nearby, tilting their head when they caught the Doom Slayer's scent. Well... this was definitely a new presence.

The MAG Agent stepped towards him. They looked to be about... twice and a half the size of the beings. But judging from the wrappings around their eyes... they seemed to be blind. "Rrr?"

[corruptedbunny-multimuse]

Their mouth twisted into a confused curl. “...like, Nevada Hell, or something else?”

Doom Slayer looked around this place was new to him the red sky the strange armless beings it was kinda to him a nice change of pace.

Echo was nearby, tilting their head when they caught the Doom Slayer's scent. Well... this was definitely a new presence.

The MAG Agent stepped towards him. They looked to be about... twice and a half the size of the beings. But judging from the wrappings around their eyes... they seemed to be blind. "Rrr?"