The Burden

[Rocket!]

[ Closed plot/roleplay with myself and Ryu only. ]

The sun hung heavily above the stormy air. A drab circle, with no warming nor bright touch on the ground ravaged by the nightmarish clouds raining purple fire and darkness at the long dead grass below with blows unmatched by the largest variety of hail.

And silence ran rampant across the felled soaring plains, with no soul in sight, no walls left standing.

A solitary sight spiraled upwards in the far distance, a mass of black and purple. It was the remains of some long forgotten castle, for all appearance's sake left uninhabited.

Save for the roofs.

Where no walls stood, a dizzying array of staircases and roofs, floating tiles from the long dead castle, stood midair. The nightmare storm dared not touch this seemingly sacred place.

Floors of tiles and platforms of haphazardly smushed together plaster tiles slid through the air, hiding columns and rooms, hidden passages, and whole halls of the castle altogether from view.

But every so once and a while, a shifting shape stood out among the shifting ruins. A stone chair, made in cube's style and unfriendly to the human flesh, stood out and among the ruins in a hidden throne chamber... long forgotten.

And a shadow in the dark, moving with the curse of the living on it's very heartless being.


This was Ravaged Citadel.

----

brCRNKKK! bCRNK--CRNKK!

"Mother of a----"

Hands slammed against dashboards as furious words flew about the metallic walls of the soaring tank of a Gummi Ship. Equally furious energy was thrown at the engines, shocking the ship forward at an extremely dangerous rate.

But at this point, it was a necessity. Everyone gripped floorborne handholds on the military vehicle tightly, avoiding windows if at all possible.

Light did not enter these windows. Darkness, the burning, eat-your-arm-off-in-seconds kind, did. One of them could speak from experience.

He didn't. He chose to curse.

The pilot, shaking and hiding behind the security blanket that were his goggles, was the only person that had to look out among the scarred world.

A grey drab light was all that was visible in this hazy cloudspan. Razing balls of purple darkness could come out of nowhere while in these clouds, with no warning at all.

Needless to say, the passengers shared his white knuckled grip.

This was the advance party. A scouting mission, to investigate the world at hand.

This world was ripe for the taking, though you wouldn't know it by looking at it. All this darkness, if rumor was to be believed, has a source. Defeat the source, and you've got an uninhabited, but fully liveable, world.

An easy win, was the original definition of this invasion. This is currently under review-- we'll get back to you on it.

Lucky for all of them, Gummis were made up of stronger stuff than you'd think. So far, the barreling balls of dark power hadn't managed to get through the hull. Though... they were getting louder and louder with each blow-- something no one missed.

One of the leaders of the mission, Major Kelvin Roesch, was particularly confused. On one hand, wearing the large silver suit of armor was infinitely helpful in tuning out the cursing and banging of dark fireballs. On the other, with the ship twisting and turning so, it was particularly painful. His two fine eyebrows rubbed against each other in thought, allowing his body to be thrown about with the ship's movement.

But his hand stayed on the metal rig. Roesch's hands did not leave the safety of the grip. Doing so would result in very immediate, and possibly permanent, pain.

No, thank you.

His dark eyes wandered over to look at the mission's fellow leader. Seira Sanada, a Baron along with Roesch's commander Lt. Colonel Engram. Roesch didn't know much about the girl-- and she was a girl, and plenty younger than Roesch himself-- save for her being a magic user, something in the way of annoying, and many names.

She didn't have much respect among the Barons' defending knights.

Roesch didn't respect nor disrespect her just yet, though. He had the wisdom to wait and experience the Baroness in person before jumping to any hasty conclusions.

All he knew was that she was supposed to be the Lt. Colonel's equal in some way, what with that Baron status. It'd take a lot of work to get the Lt. Colonel's troops to respect anyone to the same degree as him, though.

Such was experience. Times shared, hasty and dangerous, made for bonds. A fact any experienced warrior knows.

Major Roesch gritted his teeth as his suit of armor bashed into a fellow's own armor.

This-- ow! Get off, you heavy blunderhead!-- would not be fun.

[Ryu-star!]

Seira Sanada was not a happy camper.

In any sense of the word.

It was bad enough that her quote-unquote ‘superiors’ wanted her to go off and conquer some random world in the middle of nowhere that nobody had even heard about until now. The fact that it was some godforsaken, destroyed, pathetic excuse for a kingdom didn’t make things any better.

But here’s the real kicker.

They’d chosen to send her here with a bunch of lackeys.

Not even a single Baron or Baroness.

A bunch of insignificant peons who deserved a swift kick in the pants for the amount of courage they were showing. As a member of the Barons -- even in the case of pathetic creatures such as these -- it was generally expected that they show some sort of courage and strength in the face of overwhelming odds.

But these guys were barfing into helmets, giving her a headache with their knees knocking together, or clattering their teeth in a manner that just made her want to jump up and go feral and show them what real fear was.

But she refrained from doing so.

After all, she had to at least try to be cordial.

Moments later, the Gummi Ship and landed with the slightest of thumps on the world below. Getting to her feet and quickly putting her hair up so as to keep it out of her eyes, she turned to address the various lackeys.

"It’s time. I have not had a chance to hear what we should expect on this world. Therefore, I shall be going in first. I’ll probably last longer than you… people." With that said, she turned to walk away, only to have a change of heart last minute. "You," She began, pointing at Rosech, "Come with me." And with that, she took her first step into a new world.

Her first step towards her possible doom.

[ Aasdadaj. Baaaaaaaaaaad post. ]

[Rocket!]

[ All in the character, neh? ]

Major Kelvin Roesch turned a raised eyebrow towards his comrades.

Obviously, Baroness Sanada had no idea just how close they got to death.

And, subsequently, just how much she owed the pilot running for the nearest toilet on board.

The knee knocking knights on board the vehicle could only sweat, swear, and give their commanding officer a loaded look regarding the officious baroness.

Point made, Roesch thought as he went had someone go help the pilot up from the john. Miss Sanada needs a reality check.

It certainly wasn't going to come from and of Engram's men, though. Where the Baroness Noble was stuffy and far too self conceited, Baron Founder Bryce Engram raised his troops with a stronger sense of respect.

And timing.

"Jarson, stay on the horn." Roesch ordered the nearest recruit. "We may be in the clear near this place, but it'd be stupid to press our luck in this mess of a world.

"Belmont, look to the armle-- right, Farland. Once he and the pilot's able, get this boat afloat and stay in the air-- like attract like, and I don't much like this darkness parade."

Nods went about the Gummi Ship's interior.

Roesch nodded in kind. "Here's hoping we see tomorrow!"

Chuckles followed.

Roesch turned to the open hatch door.

Ah... what he'd give to be lazing back in Highborn Citadel, beating the socks off the Lt. Colonel at chess. So much more fun then tagging along behind the princess here.

Roesch gripped the hatch edges and pulled himself through, to the outside world.

Wind was rash and harsh. A suit of armor didn't show it, but the wind was definitely going to be a hazard if he tried to pull out a weapon in this buffeting breeze.

Roesch looked to the Baroness girl. No doubt she was about ready to give him serious rubs for waiting to get out of the ship so long. While half of him was ready to go off on a "patience is a virtue" rant, just to prickle her a bit, his sensible side wore on, urging him to get the two of them to the building.

How he did wish he could ask a few more of the men over. Orders, however, were orders. Apparently, the Baroness had decided this would be a stealth mission before all else.

Alas. Such wisdom!

Major Roesch started forward. Whether or not Seira Sanada had already started for the paved ground atop the grassy hill, the major certainly intended to get out of this wind right fast. Communication-- whether it be shouting it to an underage girl or the comm unit in his helmet-- was a necessity. In this wind, it was also an impossibility.

So. Moving uphill, and fast. If the wind changes before they're under the conveniently floating roofs, they'd be caught mid-dash by the darkness.

Something very clearly shown by the dead grass underfoot.

mmmm. Roesch decided running might be a good idea.

[Ryu-star!]

Sometimes, Seira wondered whether fellow Barons had a sense of humor.

Not a good one, mind you, but at least a minor one.

For example, they seemed to have been under the impression that they could bust into the castle of a hideous beast, take on a Keyblade wielder who seemed to be under the impression that he was in his sixties, what with the white hair and over-dramatic personality, and still stand a chance of winning.

And they wondered why she hadn't decided to join them in their failed attempt.

They seemed to have been under the impression that a disco party where the only people invited were those constantly striving to wrest control from each other was a good idea.

And once again, they wondered why she hadn't graced them with her presence.

But now -- and this one was just the icing on top of the cake -- they expected her to not only come to this world with lackeys, but treat them as if they were her equals. Yes, she understood the logic behind the whole thing -- depend on the strongest, most capable member of the group to explore a new, and possibly dangerous world, but that didn't prevent it from irritating her.

Sure, she'd have understood if their quote-unquote 'leaders' weren't comfortable coming on such a mission themselves, but they could have spared at least one of the actual members, could they not? Rather than sticking her with this batch of failures.

She spared a glance at the man walking alongisde her -- some manwho's name sounded like 'roach' or something, which was fitting, considering that she was sorely tempted to just move on over and squash him like a bug -- and sneered.

He looked like a fifteen-year-old girl to her, albeit one with smaller muscles and a smell about twenty times more terrible. Why had she chosen him? Well it was mainly because, out of the men she had chosen to bring with her, he was the least disgraceful. Still a disgrace, mind you, but not quite as bad as the others.

"I'm not sure whether our superiors," She felt a snarl rising at the word, but kept it below the surface, as she didn't need some lackey to go running to said leaders and rat her out for basically speaking badly of them, "Thought you were important enough to know what we're going to be doing here today. But, as you're coming with me, and I don't want your idiocy to slow us down or get us killed, I figure you deserve to know what we're up against."

Clearing her throat and continuing up the nearby hill -- allowing Rosech to go a few steps ahead, in case anything attacked them, she continued. "We are here to overthrow the ruler of this... kingdom. I don't quite understand why we'd want a place like this, but I'm sure there's a method to this madness." Eyes raking over a nearby piece of rubble, Seira sighed, returning her sights to the task at hand.

She sincerely hoped there was a reason for sending her here.

Otherwise, someone was going to get hurt.