[Quest] Lost Singularity - Fimbulwinter

[DRFan]

Should we just go down the same route and select 1?

[Rafflesiac]

Is there only one window on the top floor they're on?

[Bird of Hermes]

My first thought was Try and jump out of windows orgo through the ceiling to the rooftops, we need more mobility right now - but rockets make big booms so...

Javier: Use fire magecraft to target rockets and detonate them before/mid launch, afterwards Maria engages when their heavy artillery is down and they're disoriented.

[Daneel Rush]

Is there only one window on the top floor they're on?

There's a single man-sized window (pretty much a skylight) in the penthouse, and a smaller (let's call it Golden Retriever-sized) window in the bathroom.

EDIT: The bathroom faces north (towards the sea; opposite to the visible truck).

[Rafflesiac]

Maria: Climb onto the roof to intercept the rockets.

Javier: Use Fireball to make a flashbang by the visible truck.

[SleepMode]

Maria: Climb onto the roof to intercept the rockets.

Javier: Use Fireball to make a flashbang by the visible truck

[Daneel Rush]

Taking into account the small amount of votes, I'll wait at least one more day before I start working on the next scene.

[34]

My first thought was Try and jump out of windows orgo through the ceiling to the rooftops, we need more mobility right now - but rockets make big booms so...

Javier: Use fire magecraft to target rockets and detonate them before/mid launch, afterwards Maria engages when their heavy artillery is down and they're disoriented.

+1

[SpoonyViking]

Maria: Climb onto the roof to intercept the rockets.

Javier: Use Fireball to make a flashbang by the visible truck.

I'm with Raff.

[Draconic]

Bird basically summarized my plan
Javier: Gather as many of our supplies as I can shove in a bag, then climb onto the roof of the house, and give the enemy just enough of an indication that I’m there for them to focus on me. The tank firing will be Maria’s signal to move. The house itself however is useless to us now that the Nazis know it’s a point of interest for us. I may not be a match for a crowd of Nazi soldiers, but I might be able to expedite the house’s collapse and take a few of them with it by adding to any blazes that the first and second missiles started. It’s possible that the tank will fire if they notice the whole house burning too, so I’ll need to get out if there fast. I’ll take the hole that Maria should have made to follow her. The tank firing for the second time will be Maria’s next cue. The rest is up to her.

Maria: When the tank fires again, I’ll use the noise as a cover to conceal the sound of an attractive girl crashing through two exterior walls into the house directly south of us, from the second floor, because I’m just awesome like that. Then Javier will bait our new friends and start a fire. When I see that, or when the tank fires again, I’ll jump through a second floor window, and ideally land on top of it. I can take some heat from the mooks if it means I can get inside the tank. Once I do that, well, the guys inside probably don’t have a hope in hell of fighting off a Demi-Servant.
The result, if we aren’t both dead, is that we have a fancy new car with lots of killing power that can be listed among our assets. If we’re really lucky, we might even be stealing someone’s Noble Phantasm.

Lets commandeer that tank!
If there’s combat, Arts is the way to go since Javier’s strategy can probably count as a big Arts buff.

Tell me if I’m missing anything here. Improvements on Operation Grand Theft Cyclone Cannon would be more than welcome. Alternatively, if Maria can make the jump from this house, even better, we can skip the part about her jumping into the second house.

Alternatively, there’s always the option of Maria just charging through the walls of the nearby houses until we get to the road at which point we just pray we don’t get hit until we can get to cover again.

Also, the tank is a portable private space, it's no bed, but it'll work for mana transfers in a pinch. And there is literally no downside to this plan since we're right at the save point. in two sentences.

My first thought was Try and jump out of windows orgo through the ceiling to the rooftops, we need more mobility right now - but rockets make big booms so...

Javier: Use fire magecraft to target rockets and detonate them before/mid launch, afterwards Maria engages when their heavy artillery is down and they're disoriented.

+1, but let's also try and commandeer that tank while we're at it. We have nothing to lose by trying. Like Bird and the Ass Fairy said, GO BIG OR GO HOME!

[Daneel Rush]

Hotel Manoir Atkinson, Atkinson Promenade 165, Valparaíso
Day 03
Afternoon Phase – 02-B
Severe Cold (-21 °C/-7.5 °F)

Character Status

Health: Good
Sustenance: Good
Warmth: Good
Stamina: Good
Regression Level 1

(BGM)

This is no time for careful planning. This is the time for prompt, decisive action.

“Maria, stop those rockets, then, just, go rampage out there!”

The girl laughs brightly at that, but she does not waste a second, stepping through the large window frame before I can even set a foot out of the bed.

“Oh Javier, you sure know how to get a lady’s juices flowing!” she exclaims right before shaming the world’s gymnasts and acrobats by effortlessly grabbing to the top of the window frame to pull herself onto the hotel’s slanted roof over our heads, leaving a trail of laughter in her wake.

“God damn it, Maria,” I murmur even as I focus inward, conceptualizing the trigger that switches on my magic. The sensation of steam smothering my face and boiling water scouring my arms; it triggers my nerves as if real, and a current of terror down my spine feeds my magic circuits into awakening. With a long exhalation, the heat searing my skin is replaced with heat building up inside my chest. I command that heat to move to my right hand.

I have a fairly decent idea of where to unleash this fireball.

The air is filled with the sounds of high-pressure propulsion, and the pieces of artillery appear from behind distant buildings at the base of the hill, tracing their deadly parabolic arc. Time flows more slowly.

“Yahoo!” Maria shouts like she’s jumping into a pool—wait, you idiot, why did you jump off the roof!?

I can’t do a thing about that; gotta do my part.

“Take! This!”

My partner in this frozen mess is a golden star, a miniature sun shining over Concepción Hill. With a swing of the blade more like a rookie’s first attempts at batting, she releases a wave of golden light wide as the very building on which I stand. I do not even look at how effective that is at mowing down the rockets in flight; my attention is on the tank, and the cannon aiming for the moment Maria’s feet touch the ground.

Yeah, well, fuck that shit.

The front of the armored truck is too large a target to miss, even at this distance. The explosion adds to the chained explosions in the distance. The cannon mounted atop the truck fires its arcane load: a cyclone of rampaging magical wind that scours the air nowhere near close to Maria’s position.

“Ha!” Maria’s mocking laughter is brief before she rushes in the opposite direction to the truck and out of my sight. From the sounds I hear right afterwards, it seems she caught soldiers around the corner of this building.

Now, what the fuck do I do now? I can hear footsteps inside this building; they’ll be here in seconds—whoa!

They fired! From my left, on the roof of the building next to this one! Fuck!

They missed because I only had my head out the window; a small target at a limited angle. But what do I do now!? I can’t stay here, and there’s no fucking way I can make it to the roof with those guys firing at me. I can’t dodge bullets, not even with Sthūla-Śarīra.

…there’s only one way!

“Maria!” I shout at the top of my lungs right before leaping off the window. I can only grit my teeth as I fall closer and closer to the snow-covered street, hoping to soften the three-story fall as much as I can—

“Gotcha!”

I’m dangling. Like the lioness holding her cub by the scruff of its neck, I dangle off Maria’s left hand by the collar of my thick winter jacket.

“Wait.”

“Oof!” The three-story fall is fortunately reduced to the height of one Maria Westinghouse, but I nonetheless end up tasting a mouthful of snow. Something explodes in the distance; it might have been the roof under the soldiers that shot at me.

“The truck! Javier, get in the truck!”

“What do you mean, get in—”

“Ha!”

Maria throws her sword like a javelin, and the long blade flies through the driver’s minuscule window.

“Come on!”

Aware of the soldiers that could start firing at us from above any second now, I have no choice but to follow. Maria is much faster, leaping atop the truck in an instant and swinging the blade still inside the truck’s cabin along the vehicle’s entire width, tearing through the bridge of metal separating the two front windows.

“Hurry up, you goddamn penguin! Get in!”

Well sorry for needing layers of clothes to stay alive!

When I peer inside, what remains of the crew are eerie black puddles already dissipating into scattered motes of magical energy.

Spoiler:

Holy shit, this is a real tin can. And why are the pedals so tiny!? Nazis have tiny feet!?

“Drive!” Maria demands from the top of the truck, banging the metal as if to further annoy me. Wait, drive!?

“Come on, turn to the left! No, wait—!”

If anything, Maria’s earlier stunt has slightly widened the field of view out of these so-called windows, so I can see another of those golden waves blasting through the window of our (former) resting place—ah shit, we left the bags in there. Fuck.

No, wait, what is that ripping sound behind me. Is Maria…?

“Don’t turn to the left, it’s too narrow!”

“I know that already—aaaah!”

Bullets bounce off the vehicle’s armor, the staccato reverberating inside the truck a nightmare to my ears. Where the hell did that come—Papudo? They’re coming from Papudo Street as well—

CLONK!

“Did you just throw that cannon at them!?”

“Well it fuckin’ worked, didn’t it!?”

“Why!?”

“I have no idea how to use it; you have no idea how to use it; it was literally useless!”

True enough.

“Now, move it!” She insists. “Full reverse!”

“Reverse!? How do I even—there are two sticks! Why are there two sticks!?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake! Come on Spartan, go, go, go!”

“R-Right!” I have no idea what she’s rambling, but one does not argue with stomping that leaves dents on the roof of an armored truck.

And this is how the strangest ride begins. Soldiers rush out of corners, windows and rooftops, only to be blown away by mowing waves of golden radiance. The truck moves slowly, because of course it does—it really wasn’t made for urban warfare, and the streets in this part of the city are narrow.

“Wait, wait, wait! Why are we going to the promenade!?”

“Because I can’t figure out reverse right now, so we’re going forward!”

“Bu-but we’ll be in open sight! That’s just asking to get rocketed!”

“Then we can only count in the awesome Maria Westinghouse!”

“Oh, fuck you! I can’t even be the Arbiter with a sword! I need a goddamn machinegun!”

“What are you even—ah, whatever!”

Making a hard left turn, the armored truck roars its way into Atkinson Promenade. The bad is that, as Maria implied, anybody north of the hill all the way to the ocean can see us in here. The good is that I can drive in a straight line and put the pedal to the metal, pumping out all the glorious 40 km/h this thing seems to be capable of.

I happen to glance to my side, to the assault rifle resting almost defiantly on the passenger seat. It probably belonged to one of the soldiers until Maria’s sword sliced through its head. More importantly, I really need to figure out where to go from here; I mean, the Nazis don’t even need Assassin to know where we are: in the fucking armored truck.

What do we do now?

Choice Time

Where to go?
1. Go the Drake residence as originally planned.
2. Go somewhere else (write-in).

Let Maria become the Arbiter?
1. Absolutely fucking yes.
2. Hell no. The assault rifle stays where it is.
3. Hell no. Let’s just throw this thing away.

[Rafflesiac]

Nuts, I was hoping Javier would get another chance for action to collapse the floor on incoming Nazis with Ekhtros. Given that they're buff enough to leap over buildings in a single bound, it probably wouldn't have worked though.

1. fine whatever save the squishy human yeesh
1. Let Maria Cast Gun

[SleepMode]

We're driving a goddamned tank in a frozen city chased by Nazi Zombies.
Not what I expected when joining the Quest but beautiful nonetheless.

Where to Go: 1

Let Maria Become the Arbiter?: ​1

[SpoonyViking]

Heck with it. +1 to the above for me.

ETA: Alright, I bow to peer pressure! 1 and 1.

[Spartacus]

1
1

[King Prussia]

+1 ticket on the bandwagon, please.

[Draconic]

FUCK YEAH, WE GOT THE TANK!!!


Javier: 1 - If we don't get to the Drakes' house right now, everyone there is definitely going to die!

Maria: 1 - FOR THE GLORY OF SANGHELIOS!!

[Bird of Hermes]

Let’s be fair, we were only ever going to pick one choice here
1
1

[Draconic]

Wait, you're with them? After all we've done to try and save Alicia?

- - - Updated - - -

The decisions we've been making make no sense! We go in a certain direction for weeks and then ditch them the moment before we reach the goal! We can save her this time! Maria's with us! We'll be able to do it! She'll be paralyzed for a while, but maybe the ascension mats we get from the mobs she kills will take care of that.
If that isn't a good enough motivator, here's one: Going to the Drakes' house takes us through a bunch of Nazis who will drop certain items. If we kill the Nazi soldiers I very strongly suspect that we will get one or more of these

Hero's Proof

And here are some of Saver's stats:

Skills

Counter Hero – D+
A Skill that reduces the parameters of the statistics of 'heroes' that the Servant faces in combat. A Class Skill of the Saver Class. At this rank, one of the physical attributes of an enemy engaged with Saver is reduced by one rank for the duration of the fight.
(Additional Information Locked – Requires “Hero's Proof”)

Defiant Virago – B+
(All Information Locked – Requires “Hero's Proof”)

Nemesis – A++
A Skill suitable for Servants whose legend sets them as an adversary to a specific another. It represents a figure that opposed, challenged and harassed their destined archrival, becoming the agent of their downfall. It grants the power and willpower to maintain ceaseless pursuit of the destined opponent, which to a degree makes this Skill related to Stalking. Furthermore, this Skill modifiers the Servant’s other Skills, boosting their effects when used against the Servant’s fated rival.
(Additional Information Locked – Requires “Void’s Refuse”)

If we run over any zombies on the way, we'll get Void's Refuse too.

[SpoonyViking]

We have until sometime before sundown. It's not a lot of time, but it's better than simply leading the Nazis - including their Servants - to the Drake manor. I'm hoping we can release the Herald and let her hold Lancervenger and others off long enough for Maria to help Javier release Alicia.