You May Call Us ----- ARCHVILLAINS!

Chili Penguin, Thundar v.2, Azrharn, Dark Tzadkiel, Chaud Comme L'enfer, Bringer of Death, Lady Shadow Star stand over the fallen Liberty
Please cue up the Queen song because We Are the Champions, my friends!! That's right! You heard me correctly, we beat the Lord Recluse Strike Force and are the proud new owners of shiny badges and an SHO!

It was a slow start. But patience is a virtue and since we waited this long to do it, a few dances on Recluse's conference table will keep us entertained until we all arrived. We had 7 of the crew (and extended crew) there. Your truly, Azrharn (necro/dark MM), Chaud Comme L'Enfer (fire/thermal corr), Dark Tzadkiel (energy/dark corr), Chili Penguin (fire/cold corr), Thundar v.2 (EM/Inv Brute), Lady Shadow Star (stone/inv brute) and Bringer of Death (??/inv brute). Yes, that's right. There were 7 of us. We started with 8 (an /ela brute) but he was impulsive, annoying and a whiner and fortunately he left when things got a bit difficult! But I shall name no names because we perservered and stomped States and company into the pavement! Oh and did I mention we had no rad, no kins and no stone brutes?

The first mission is to defeat Crimson, escort a scientist to a computer and defeat a few longbow chasers. It was definitely mayhem with the ambushes and when I was knocked off the bridge, the scientist followed me over the side and we thought we were goners. He somehow managed to stay attached to my leg and we got him safely inside and forced the codes from him while beating Crimson to a bloody pulp for sending our alternate selves on all those Malta missions. Please note: you must lead the scientist with no stealths on the team at all, especially shadowfall!

With our codes in hand, Recluse sent us off to Warburg to steal the Orestes Rifle from the Malta group. Upon arriving, we run into the infamous Kronos Titan. We dispatched him and entered the facility and made our way to the back where The Slinger (AV) lay awaiting us. The Slinger is a MM and summoned waves and waves of bots to repel us, but alas, they were no match for Strike Force Tarantula. We get the rifle and head off to Nerva to dispatch with some heroes.

So here is where it starts to get a bit iffy. Our /ELA brute keeps running in before we are ready. We defeat Malaise and chase Swan and Mynx all over the complex. Valkyrie is last and rezzers and hits MoG, but alas, even she cannot stand against the 8 of us.

Fast forward to the future, where Back Alley Brawler, Sister Psyche, Manticore and Numina lay in wait. It is the future destroyed map of Atlas with random phasing of players (especially me). No real problems here.

And at last, we arrive to the finale. The clash we have all been anticipating: The Freedom Phalanx! Eight level 53 Heroes clustered under the globe in Atlas Park: Statesman, Positron, Manticore, Sister Psyche, Numina, Synapse, Back Alley Brawler and Citadel.
Azrharn looks down on the Heroes
We set up and Dark Tzadkiel makes the best pull on Numina ever. Synapse comes with her but Lady Shadow Star taunts him and keeps him busy while we hammer on Numina. At her last drip of health, she nukes and takes all of us out and our evil plan has been FOILED! We reassemble and try to pull again. She brings all her friends with her and we get pounded on. Positron farts and we all eat dirt.

Again, we reassemble with our friend the /ELA brute being negative all the while. We fire up some vengeance on his dead body, get a nice pull on Numina and are getting some really good kicks to the face in when Back Alley Brawler peers over the staircase wall and says "What are you kids doing down there?" They proceed to beat us to bloody pulps, with Chaud eating the end of a Knockout Blow and getting popped up 20 feet in the air! (I had a good view of this from where I lay on the ground!)
a view of the dead
At this point the /ELA leaves. We'd been talking about him relentlessly on the Friends channel and all hooted in delight when he quit the team. Amazing how one sourpuss can bring down the moral of the entire team. But the pulling isn't working. Dark Tzadkiel recommends rushing the platform. We will pick a target and Lady will taunt off the other 7 Heroes. Chili Penguin commits suicide in a pack of longbow so we can hit Vengeance on the team and our shivans. We rush the platform, Cap DCs, and we drop a bunch of nukes, some Serafina Shard and holding our breath, drop Numina!! We run for the plane, out of inspirations, and exit the mish!

Panting, we restock and head back in. We hit our groove with this method and whittle down the Heroes one by one. Sister Psyche is the next to go, followed by Positron, Manticore, Citadel, Synapse, and BAB. We had a couple of team wipes but nothing serious really. Even the pets seemed to stand up okay with a glowing red head.
Bringer of Death stands alone

But then -- the last man standing, the mighty Statesman

We are out of nukes. We are out of Shivans. I even used my last vial of DE bees! Ol' Blue and Red is hovering under the Atlas globe like a dark cloud over our heads. With a tightness in our throats, the penguin sacrifices himself yet again. We vengence up and then we charge. Cap wonders aloud, "Who'd have thought States was a runner?" We chase him here and there and when he overloads, the pets and corrupters die. I try to rez them with Howling Twilight but they are too far apart. Cap and Bringer chase States up Atlas's leg while I try to TP everyone into a pile for the next rez. States sees me, charges over and punches my face in. I drop instantly.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Back we go into mission. It's getting late, but victory is so close we can nearly taste it. We clash with States again. Again many of us die. I use an awake and just popped the break when the lightning falls from States' fist, killing me instantly. Only the brutes and Chaud are left standing. Cap yells that Unstoppable is dropping. He runs over and drops a wake to me, "Get up Azr. We need your help"

"Use me as vengeance bait!" yells Dark Tzadkiel, "use me!" It's cast, I turn on my debuff and my leadership toggles and then rez him. The team is getting back on it's feet. I'm running out of end and can bring forth no more pets. I am running into melee to heal the brutes praying "No lightning, no lightning, no lightning!!" Chili brings forth one last fireball and our powerful foe drops in a heap at our feet. We stand victorious!! We claim our synthetic hamidon enhancement (I get dam/range) and exit the mission with our shiny new badges and a spring to our step.

I'd like to thank all my friends who participated in the Strikeforce for the fun and the perseverence to overcome this challenge. This one is going down in the history books.

/em victory

Oh and here is where I am bragging about our win on the CoH boards! You'll see mention of our /ela brute a few posts down sine he hit 50 on our SF