هذه النهاية
Index and Infodump Thread
The first showed up nearly twenty years ago...
Index and Infodump Thread
The first showed up nearly twenty years ago...
- Created
- Status
- Ongoing
- Watchers
- 92
- Recent readers
- 0
- Pronouns
- He/Him
هذه النهاية
Index and Infodump Thread
The first showed up nearly twenty years ago, after the DC Meteorite in two thousand. It was called Juggernaut, and it crippled the state of Georgia in a fit of ultraviolence before a co-ordinated nuclear strike hamstrung it. It was still fighting for nearly a month and a half before a modified cargo plane flew a Tsar into its gullet. Some called the monsters Kaiju, others called them Asura, or Sidhe, or Demons. Officially they were simply The Enemy.
For two years, nearly three, the only resistance to the onslaught of The Enemy was conventional. Entire carrier groups harassed and distracted the creatures, ever larger guns distracted them for precious moments, escalating constantly in power to attempt to penetrate the creatures defensive fields, and enough nuclear weapons to turn swathes of the landscape to glass were used to finally kill them. Billions in research and development was hurled into projects from half a dozen organizations meant to slow or slay the encroaching creatures. Hundreds of thousands, millions died. Resources dwindled from the sheer havoc the things could create, and wars were started over power and necessities. In many countries the refugees began to massively outnumber the citizens. The situation was desperate, and constantly getting worse.
Then Redcap attacked San Diego and JANNAH deployed the results of Project Djinn, a pair of enormous robots called Marida. Their deployment was an unmitigated success, Redcap was slain inside of two hours with minimal casualties to the city, and from there the entire face of the war changed. Other organizations raced to copy and compete with JANNAH, and soon every country and alliance on the planet had someone developing and deploying Giant Robots against the threat of the Enemy.
It's been 17 and a bit years since then, and while the threat of The Enemy is ever present, JANNAH and her sister organizations have been fighting them at every turn.
Of course, none of that's very important to you. You, Jonathan Alvarez, are a high school student in San Jose. 17, plucky, reasonably intelligent, not a social idiot. Your family's pretty normal, mom legged it when you were six, but your dad took excellent care of you, your brother and your little sisters. Sure, you had to learn to drive early because your dad can't keep up with everyone's schedules and work, but that's no biggy. Besides, you got a car at 16, which is pretty cool considering how expensive they've become.
As far as Weird Shit? You've never seen an Enemy Attack (Though you've played the games and watched the movies), you've never seen a Mech close up, beyond what you read online or watch on TV, the only real interaction you've had with JANNAH is the testing everyone undergoes at sixteen.
Which is why you're a bit surprised when you find mail from JANNAH addressed to you when you get back from school with your brother.
Options:
[X] Open it Immediately
[X] Put it off: You have homework to do and vidya games to play.
--[X] Put it off: It's probably just test results, nothing important.
--[X] Put it off: Call Dad for advice.
[X] Write in.
Index and Infodump Thread
The first showed up nearly twenty years ago, after the DC Meteorite in two thousand. It was called Juggernaut, and it crippled the state of Georgia in a fit of ultraviolence before a co-ordinated nuclear strike hamstrung it. It was still fighting for nearly a month and a half before a modified cargo plane flew a Tsar into its gullet. Some called the monsters Kaiju, others called them Asura, or Sidhe, or Demons. Officially they were simply The Enemy.
For two years, nearly three, the only resistance to the onslaught of The Enemy was conventional. Entire carrier groups harassed and distracted the creatures, ever larger guns distracted them for precious moments, escalating constantly in power to attempt to penetrate the creatures defensive fields, and enough nuclear weapons to turn swathes of the landscape to glass were used to finally kill them. Billions in research and development was hurled into projects from half a dozen organizations meant to slow or slay the encroaching creatures. Hundreds of thousands, millions died. Resources dwindled from the sheer havoc the things could create, and wars were started over power and necessities. In many countries the refugees began to massively outnumber the citizens. The situation was desperate, and constantly getting worse.
Then Redcap attacked San Diego and JANNAH deployed the results of Project Djinn, a pair of enormous robots called Marida. Their deployment was an unmitigated success, Redcap was slain inside of two hours with minimal casualties to the city, and from there the entire face of the war changed. Other organizations raced to copy and compete with JANNAH, and soon every country and alliance on the planet had someone developing and deploying Giant Robots against the threat of the Enemy.
It's been 17 and a bit years since then, and while the threat of The Enemy is ever present, JANNAH and her sister organizations have been fighting them at every turn.
Of course, none of that's very important to you. You, Jonathan Alvarez, are a high school student in San Jose. 17, plucky, reasonably intelligent, not a social idiot. Your family's pretty normal, mom legged it when you were six, but your dad took excellent care of you, your brother and your little sisters. Sure, you had to learn to drive early because your dad can't keep up with everyone's schedules and work, but that's no biggy. Besides, you got a car at 16, which is pretty cool considering how expensive they've become.
As far as Weird Shit? You've never seen an Enemy Attack (Though you've played the games and watched the movies), you've never seen a Mech close up, beyond what you read online or watch on TV, the only real interaction you've had with JANNAH is the testing everyone undergoes at sixteen.
Which is why you're a bit surprised when you find mail from JANNAH addressed to you when you get back from school with your brother.
Options:
[X] Open it Immediately
[X] Put it off: You have homework to do and vidya games to play.
--[X] Put it off: It's probably just test results, nothing important.
--[X] Put it off: Call Dad for advice.
[X] Write in.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Be Cautious
You manage not to act too shocked (Or at least shocked enough for your bro to notice), grab a Coke and some Doritos from the kitchen* and beeline for you and your brothers room. You close the door behind you, maybe a bit too hard, drop your bag by your desk, crack open the coke and, ever so slowly, peel open the envelope. You take a breath and dispel all the many, many images that come to mind. Then you reach in and slide out the contents.
Two slips of paper and a small digital screen.
You hesitate, then grab one of the papers and read over it. It details...instructions for the digital screen.
The gravity of the moment rather effectively destroyed by a helpful, step-by-step instruction leaflet on how to turn on a glorified BlackPad you quickly reach for the other paper.
"To the Honorable Mister Jonathan Alvarez,
You are receiving this letter as a result of exceptional results on either the Metaphysical or Neurological portions of your standardized TAQWA evaluation as part of the Ansar program. Your results, qualify you for a lucrative piloting position in JANNAH, where you would play a key part in the safeguard and salvation of our world.
The rest of the relevant information is detailed on the Slate included in this package, including the time that a JANNAH representative will be stopping by your home to discuss our offer with you and your family."
You grab the Slate, turn it on and begin leafing through information. Details on the piloting program, your test results (Ghazali Score of 13.5, whatever that means, and a bunch of other stuff. Evidently a therapist thinks you're psychologically stable, which is, uh, probably good), and, helpfully on one of the easiest pages to access, the time that the Representative will be showing up.
4:35 PM. Today.
You check the clock. 2:56. Your dad gets home at 4:20.
You need a plan.
*Yay product placement!
[X] Write In
Panic
You stare at the screen for a moment, at first the shock paralyzes you. Then you whimper, you stifle it with your fist but it doesn't stop because you can't stop thinking. You're going to be drafted and you've got no training and you won't see your friends and family and you're not even going to make the second date with Sam and you're going to be fucking murdered by monsters or cultists or something and, and-
You run into the bathroom, slam the door and begin to retch over the toilet. It takes a minute, but you begin to feel better and move-
No, wait, it's back. You retch more, then splash your face with cold water and just stare at your reflection. There's a moment of hesitation and eventually, to keep yourself sane, you start to rationalize. There'll be training, they probably won't deploy you too far away. It may even be a year or two before you actually see combat, I mean, they're professionals, and they win, uh, just about every time, they can't just be sending untrained teens at these things, right? And besides, you're a minor, it's not like they'll draft you, yeah?
You've almost convinced yourself that it's going to be, well, mostly alright when your brother knocks at the door.
"Uh, Jon?" he says, "That letter's a joke, right?"
Well look at that, you threw up right and proper this time.
[X] Write In
Man Up Dammit!
You take a moment to pull yourself together. That's your brother out there, and you cannot be terrified in front of him. "I don't think so, it's a bit elaborate for a prank, James," you say, "Uh, give me a minute, Tuna Tuesdays just wrecked my everything." He buys it, or at least you think he did, and you take the opportunity to clean yourself up and re-assure yourself. Your first try doesn't work, you just keep flashing to the worst case scenarios, but eventually you reassure yourself with the promise of a robot bedecked in MANLY PINK and, well, not being drafted into the army.
It doesn't really make you feel that much better, but you don't think you're about to throw up now. Your brother looks kinda apologetic, but is smart enough not to say anything.
You step out of the bathroom and go for the phone, call your dad. It rings twice.
"Hello?" says your father.
"Hi dad," you say, "I, uh, got a letter. From JANNAH."
"Don't worry Jonathan," he says, "It'll be a test result, notification of psychological health. Nothing-"
"I, uh," the panic begins to rise, you squash it down, "I scored well. Really, really well. They want me in as a pilot, they're sending someone-"
"When?"
"Today." You pause, try to recall the time, "Uh, 4:35 or so."
"I'm going to pick up Jess from school and come home early, you grabbed James and Jenn, right?" he asks.
"Jenn is hanging out with her friends, uh, Malory's place, I think," you say, "Uh, James is here."
"Right, I'll grab her too. We'll be there in as soon as we can, sit tight," he says, "Sit tight, play video games or something, don't worry too much. Everything will be OK."
For the first time in your life, you're not sure if he's telling the truth.
[X] He's right, worrying won't accomplish anything. Flip open the XBox and play some WarmaHordes or Breakers Dozen.
[X] You should talk to Sam, sure, it was one date, but she deserves to know.
[X] You are going to have a representative of one of the most powerful non-governmental organizations on the planet in your home. Clean the place up.
[X] Continue Panic Attack
[X] Write-in.
You manage not to act too shocked (Or at least shocked enough for your bro to notice), grab a Coke and some Doritos from the kitchen* and beeline for you and your brothers room. You close the door behind you, maybe a bit too hard, drop your bag by your desk, crack open the coke and, ever so slowly, peel open the envelope. You take a breath and dispel all the many, many images that come to mind. Then you reach in and slide out the contents.
Two slips of paper and a small digital screen.
You hesitate, then grab one of the papers and read over it. It details...instructions for the digital screen.
The gravity of the moment rather effectively destroyed by a helpful, step-by-step instruction leaflet on how to turn on a glorified BlackPad you quickly reach for the other paper.
"To the Honorable Mister Jonathan Alvarez,
You are receiving this letter as a result of exceptional results on either the Metaphysical or Neurological portions of your standardized TAQWA evaluation as part of the Ansar program. Your results, qualify you for a lucrative piloting position in JANNAH, where you would play a key part in the safeguard and salvation of our world.
The rest of the relevant information is detailed on the Slate included in this package, including the time that a JANNAH representative will be stopping by your home to discuss our offer with you and your family."
You grab the Slate, turn it on and begin leafing through information. Details on the piloting program, your test results (Ghazali Score of 13.5, whatever that means, and a bunch of other stuff. Evidently a therapist thinks you're psychologically stable, which is, uh, probably good), and, helpfully on one of the easiest pages to access, the time that the Representative will be showing up.
4:35 PM. Today.
You check the clock. 2:56. Your dad gets home at 4:20.
You need a plan.
*Yay product placement!
[X] Write In
Panic
You stare at the screen for a moment, at first the shock paralyzes you. Then you whimper, you stifle it with your fist but it doesn't stop because you can't stop thinking. You're going to be drafted and you've got no training and you won't see your friends and family and you're not even going to make the second date with Sam and you're going to be fucking murdered by monsters or cultists or something and, and-
You run into the bathroom, slam the door and begin to retch over the toilet. It takes a minute, but you begin to feel better and move-
No, wait, it's back. You retch more, then splash your face with cold water and just stare at your reflection. There's a moment of hesitation and eventually, to keep yourself sane, you start to rationalize. There'll be training, they probably won't deploy you too far away. It may even be a year or two before you actually see combat, I mean, they're professionals, and they win, uh, just about every time, they can't just be sending untrained teens at these things, right? And besides, you're a minor, it's not like they'll draft you, yeah?
You've almost convinced yourself that it's going to be, well, mostly alright when your brother knocks at the door.
"Uh, Jon?" he says, "That letter's a joke, right?"
Well look at that, you threw up right and proper this time.
[X] Write In
Man Up Dammit!
You take a moment to pull yourself together. That's your brother out there, and you cannot be terrified in front of him. "I don't think so, it's a bit elaborate for a prank, James," you say, "Uh, give me a minute, Tuna Tuesdays just wrecked my everything." He buys it, or at least you think he did, and you take the opportunity to clean yourself up and re-assure yourself. Your first try doesn't work, you just keep flashing to the worst case scenarios, but eventually you reassure yourself with the promise of a robot bedecked in MANLY PINK and, well, not being drafted into the army.
It doesn't really make you feel that much better, but you don't think you're about to throw up now. Your brother looks kinda apologetic, but is smart enough not to say anything.
You step out of the bathroom and go for the phone, call your dad. It rings twice.
"Hello?" says your father.
"Hi dad," you say, "I, uh, got a letter. From JANNAH."
"Don't worry Jonathan," he says, "It'll be a test result, notification of psychological health. Nothing-"
"I, uh," the panic begins to rise, you squash it down, "I scored well. Really, really well. They want me in as a pilot, they're sending someone-"
"When?"
"Today." You pause, try to recall the time, "Uh, 4:35 or so."
"I'm going to pick up Jess from school and come home early, you grabbed James and Jenn, right?" he asks.
"Jenn is hanging out with her friends, uh, Malory's place, I think," you say, "Uh, James is here."
"Right, I'll grab her too. We'll be there in as soon as we can, sit tight," he says, "Sit tight, play video games or something, don't worry too much. Everything will be OK."
For the first time in your life, you're not sure if he's telling the truth.
[X] He's right, worrying won't accomplish anything. Flip open the XBox and play some WarmaHordes or Breakers Dozen.
[X] You should talk to Sam, sure, it was one date, but she deserves to know.
[X] You are going to have a representative of one of the most powerful non-governmental organizations on the planet in your home. Clean the place up.
[X] Continue Panic Attack
[X] Write-in.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Clean Everything
For a moment you are about to take your dad's advice. You pop open the XBox, slot in Breaker's Dozen, and start booting up the campaign. You're halfway through the tutorial for Usman Usman and Mameluke Overrun (Based On a Real Mech/Pilot Team!), when you shut down the system. You're about to go and start piloting the giant robots, you don't need to be playing the damn things in your free time.
You begin tidying the house. It doesn't take long, but it occupies you for a bit. James is, rather politely, avoiding you. He starts playing Breaker's Dozen, which is significantly less harrowing than you playing it. You get through the living room, dining room and kitchen before you're satisfied that the house is ready for whoever JANNAH sends.
Then you text Sam. It's short, "Got a letter from JANNAH, might miss date. Sorry."
You start playing with robot ideas, but the idea honestly doesn't interest you. That's surprising, really, until you actually got the letter you would have thought that you'd be thrilled. Then again, dying and leaving your family generally didn't figure into adolescent power fantasies.
You settle for watching James play Breaker's Dozen. He's better than you at it, you would've died at least twice by now, especially against the Redcap fight.
Then the door opens. Your dad and sisters are here. Jennifer looks kinda pissed, guess she was having fun at Malory's. Jess is babbling about her day at school, but for once your dad isn't interested. Your dad...is staring at you.
"Letter?" he says. You run and grab the letter, both pieces of paper and the slate. He grabs them and reads them over. There's a pause. "This is real," he says, "God above, this is real." You swallow, Jenn stops sulking, Jess shuts up, James pauses Breaker's Dozen.
Your father looks you right in the eye. "Jonathan, this is an enormous opportunity," he says, "And an incredibly dangerous one. What do you want?"
[X] I Want To Do It
[X] I Want To Pilot Giant Fucking Robots!
[X] I Should Do It
[X] Someone Has To Do It
[X] I Don't Want This
[X] It'll Help You.
[X] I Don't Know
[X] Write-In.
Indecisive
"I...I don't know, I mean, I should, right? It's the right thing to do. Someone has to, right?" you say, panic welling up again, "But I don't want it to be me. I mean, I'd have to leave you guys, and my friends, and Sam, and I kind of like all of you, and I wouldn't know anyone and I might, you know, die out there and-"
Your dad gives you a hug. Jess joins in and latches onto you after a moment. It helps. A bit. There's a long moment where you calm down, then you worm yourself free and step away, and then peel Jess off of your torso.
"I don't know if I want to do this," you say, eventually, "But I think I have to."
"I can respect that," your dad says, "Now go upstairs and clean up, I'll call when JANNAH's people show up."
Jenn joins James and they start playing Breaker's Dozen again, you head upstairs. You take a shower, change into something formal, and send messages to most of your friends. Better they hear from you then James or Sam, right? Especially if you don't get enough time to say hi to them before you have to go.
You manage to get everyone on the list before the Rep arrives, and are wondering what to do when Sam texts you back.
"JANNAH? Seriously? You Scouted?"
You stare at the screen a moment.
"Yeah."
"Holy shit. You gonna go?"
You stare at the screen for a long while.
"Maybe."
"GL babe. No pressure.
Well, all the pressure. You can always say no."
You try to figure out a reply, but then the doorbell rings and Jenn runs up to tell you that the representative has arrived. You slip the phone in your pocket and head downstairs, it buzzes on the way down, another text, but you ignore it. Destiny to face and all.
[X] Go down there and introduce yourself immediately
[X] Take a moment, plan your intro, walk in.
[X] Sneak up, listen to convo, wait for a break in the conversation and try to slide in unnoticed.
[X] Panic Attack.
[X] Write-In
Decision Time
OK, you can't just walk in there, you'll look like an idiot. You stop at the bottom of the stairs, close your eyes, and begin to think. You should wait for a lull in the conversation, obviously, it'll be more natural then and you'll make a better impression. But wait, that could go wrong. What if you mistime it? What if you interrupt something important and make a bad impression? She's a representative from JANNAH for gods sake, that would be horrifying. You could sidle in, all quiet-like, and announce yourself! It'll be less conspicuous, and you're good at sneaking. But no, you'd look like an idiot. What if they saw you.
Oh, what the hell, you'll just announce yourself and walk in, they can't be expecting too-
This is roughly when a 5-flat brown blur of goth and aggravation slaps you in the face.
"What the fuck, Jenn?" you ask, "I'm planning here!"
"You're pussying out, that's what you're doing," she says, grabbing onto your arm, "Get out there."
And then she pushes you into the living room with strength born of wrestling and karate classes. You stumble into the room and nearly trip over a couch. A persian woman, maybe a bit older than your mother would be and dressed in some sort of muslim thing (A Burqa? You don't know.) and a suit, is talking to your father about your home life. They both stop, turn and look at you as you catch yourself.
"Uh, hello," you say, "I'm Jonathan Alvarez. I'm the potential pilot."
"Ah, a pleasure," she says pleasantly, "I'm Fatima Khan, JANNAH's recruiter. I was just talking with your father about your home life. Please, take a seat and I'll tell you the perks of piloting." You shakily take a seat and she launches into a well-rehearsed sales pitch. She's good at it, a professional, and frankly the pitch itself is pretty nice. Health benefits, pay for you and your family, education while you're there, training, generous scholarships and, as she says, nothing quite closes a college application like piloting giant robots to save the earth. There's a bit on the dangers, evidently the Type 1s had pretty atrocious casualty rates, and the generous life-insurance program exists for a reason, but she points out that the majority of teenage pilots survive to either muster out or sign up as permanent additions to the team. Eventually, she reaches the end and asks whether or not you want to give an answer now or if you want to think on it for a while.
[X] I'm in.
[X] I...Yes.
[X] Well, I don't really have a choice, do I?
[X] When do we leave?
[X] Will my family come with me?
[X] I'll think on it.
Family Matters
"Well, I don't really have a choice, do I?" you say.
"Of course you do," says Fatima, "We'd never draft a pilot against their will."
"No, I mean, yes, but 'let other people die because I'm scared' or, well, 'don't', that's....not much of a choice, yeah?" you reply, "It's not much of a choice. I'm in. Just, uh." You turn and look at your dad, and at Jenn and Jess who are watching from the hallway. You can't see James, but he can hear everything in this room from his, you know he's there. "Do they come with me? Or do I at least get visits?"
"We'll pay for a visit every month, and if any of your family members secure employment in Cairo or wishes to move there we will handle ensure that the paperwork is dealt with swiftly and effectively," says Fatima, "However, no, we are not going to displace your entire family to Cairo unless more than half of your siblings end up as pilot candidates." She fishes a packet out of her bag and slides it over the table to you. "That contains all the relevant information you'll need, including a provisional JANNAH ID. There'll be an escort around in two weeks to take you to Cairo. The world thanks you for volunteering, Mr. Alvarez."
And then she says her goodbyes and leaves, leaving you with a packet, a vague sense of unease and the absolute certainty that you are going to pilot a giant robot.
*
You have two weeks before pickup. What do.
[X] Write-In.
For a moment you are about to take your dad's advice. You pop open the XBox, slot in Breaker's Dozen, and start booting up the campaign. You're halfway through the tutorial for Usman Usman and Mameluke Overrun (Based On a Real Mech/Pilot Team!), when you shut down the system. You're about to go and start piloting the giant robots, you don't need to be playing the damn things in your free time.
You begin tidying the house. It doesn't take long, but it occupies you for a bit. James is, rather politely, avoiding you. He starts playing Breaker's Dozen, which is significantly less harrowing than you playing it. You get through the living room, dining room and kitchen before you're satisfied that the house is ready for whoever JANNAH sends.
Then you text Sam. It's short, "Got a letter from JANNAH, might miss date. Sorry."
You start playing with robot ideas, but the idea honestly doesn't interest you. That's surprising, really, until you actually got the letter you would have thought that you'd be thrilled. Then again, dying and leaving your family generally didn't figure into adolescent power fantasies.
You settle for watching James play Breaker's Dozen. He's better than you at it, you would've died at least twice by now, especially against the Redcap fight.
Then the door opens. Your dad and sisters are here. Jennifer looks kinda pissed, guess she was having fun at Malory's. Jess is babbling about her day at school, but for once your dad isn't interested. Your dad...is staring at you.
"Letter?" he says. You run and grab the letter, both pieces of paper and the slate. He grabs them and reads them over. There's a pause. "This is real," he says, "God above, this is real." You swallow, Jenn stops sulking, Jess shuts up, James pauses Breaker's Dozen.
Your father looks you right in the eye. "Jonathan, this is an enormous opportunity," he says, "And an incredibly dangerous one. What do you want?"
[X] I Want To Do It
[X] I Want To Pilot Giant Fucking Robots!
[X] I Should Do It
[X] Someone Has To Do It
[X] I Don't Want This
[X] It'll Help You.
[X] I Don't Know
[X] Write-In.
Indecisive
"I...I don't know, I mean, I should, right? It's the right thing to do. Someone has to, right?" you say, panic welling up again, "But I don't want it to be me. I mean, I'd have to leave you guys, and my friends, and Sam, and I kind of like all of you, and I wouldn't know anyone and I might, you know, die out there and-"
Your dad gives you a hug. Jess joins in and latches onto you after a moment. It helps. A bit. There's a long moment where you calm down, then you worm yourself free and step away, and then peel Jess off of your torso.
"I don't know if I want to do this," you say, eventually, "But I think I have to."
"I can respect that," your dad says, "Now go upstairs and clean up, I'll call when JANNAH's people show up."
Jenn joins James and they start playing Breaker's Dozen again, you head upstairs. You take a shower, change into something formal, and send messages to most of your friends. Better they hear from you then James or Sam, right? Especially if you don't get enough time to say hi to them before you have to go.
You manage to get everyone on the list before the Rep arrives, and are wondering what to do when Sam texts you back.
"JANNAH? Seriously? You Scouted?"
You stare at the screen a moment.
"Yeah."
"Holy shit. You gonna go?"
You stare at the screen for a long while.
"Maybe."
"GL babe. No pressure.
Well, all the pressure. You can always say no."
You try to figure out a reply, but then the doorbell rings and Jenn runs up to tell you that the representative has arrived. You slip the phone in your pocket and head downstairs, it buzzes on the way down, another text, but you ignore it. Destiny to face and all.
[X] Go down there and introduce yourself immediately
[X] Take a moment, plan your intro, walk in.
[X] Sneak up, listen to convo, wait for a break in the conversation and try to slide in unnoticed.
[X] Panic Attack.
[X] Write-In
Decision Time
OK, you can't just walk in there, you'll look like an idiot. You stop at the bottom of the stairs, close your eyes, and begin to think. You should wait for a lull in the conversation, obviously, it'll be more natural then and you'll make a better impression. But wait, that could go wrong. What if you mistime it? What if you interrupt something important and make a bad impression? She's a representative from JANNAH for gods sake, that would be horrifying. You could sidle in, all quiet-like, and announce yourself! It'll be less conspicuous, and you're good at sneaking. But no, you'd look like an idiot. What if they saw you.
Oh, what the hell, you'll just announce yourself and walk in, they can't be expecting too-
This is roughly when a 5-flat brown blur of goth and aggravation slaps you in the face.
"What the fuck, Jenn?" you ask, "I'm planning here!"
"You're pussying out, that's what you're doing," she says, grabbing onto your arm, "Get out there."
And then she pushes you into the living room with strength born of wrestling and karate classes. You stumble into the room and nearly trip over a couch. A persian woman, maybe a bit older than your mother would be and dressed in some sort of muslim thing (A Burqa? You don't know.) and a suit, is talking to your father about your home life. They both stop, turn and look at you as you catch yourself.
"Uh, hello," you say, "I'm Jonathan Alvarez. I'm the potential pilot."
"Ah, a pleasure," she says pleasantly, "I'm Fatima Khan, JANNAH's recruiter. I was just talking with your father about your home life. Please, take a seat and I'll tell you the perks of piloting." You shakily take a seat and she launches into a well-rehearsed sales pitch. She's good at it, a professional, and frankly the pitch itself is pretty nice. Health benefits, pay for you and your family, education while you're there, training, generous scholarships and, as she says, nothing quite closes a college application like piloting giant robots to save the earth. There's a bit on the dangers, evidently the Type 1s had pretty atrocious casualty rates, and the generous life-insurance program exists for a reason, but she points out that the majority of teenage pilots survive to either muster out or sign up as permanent additions to the team. Eventually, she reaches the end and asks whether or not you want to give an answer now or if you want to think on it for a while.
[X] I'm in.
[X] I...Yes.
[X] Well, I don't really have a choice, do I?
[X] When do we leave?
[X] Will my family come with me?
[X] I'll think on it.
Family Matters
"Well, I don't really have a choice, do I?" you say.
"Of course you do," says Fatima, "We'd never draft a pilot against their will."
"No, I mean, yes, but 'let other people die because I'm scared' or, well, 'don't', that's....not much of a choice, yeah?" you reply, "It's not much of a choice. I'm in. Just, uh." You turn and look at your dad, and at Jenn and Jess who are watching from the hallway. You can't see James, but he can hear everything in this room from his, you know he's there. "Do they come with me? Or do I at least get visits?"
"We'll pay for a visit every month, and if any of your family members secure employment in Cairo or wishes to move there we will handle ensure that the paperwork is dealt with swiftly and effectively," says Fatima, "However, no, we are not going to displace your entire family to Cairo unless more than half of your siblings end up as pilot candidates." She fishes a packet out of her bag and slides it over the table to you. "That contains all the relevant information you'll need, including a provisional JANNAH ID. There'll be an escort around in two weeks to take you to Cairo. The world thanks you for volunteering, Mr. Alvarez."
And then she says her goodbyes and leaves, leaving you with a packet, a vague sense of unease and the absolute certainty that you are going to pilot a giant robot.
*
You have two weeks before pickup. What do.
[X] Write-In.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Goodbyes
Two weeks passes incredibly quickly.
You stopped playing video games on day one, you had a minor panic attack when you died against Facemelter in Breaker's Dozen, which freed up a prodigious amount of free time. A truly enormous amount of which you spent alternately worrying staring at your ceiling in apprehension and worrying about who, exactly, you should be telling about this. It takes you the better part of a week, but you end up with a short list. Madison and Alex and Jake from school, Maninder from the soccer team, Feng at church, Vladimir (Mostly because you tell Vladimir everything, best friend perks and all), and, uh, Sam.
School helps with the panic, it gives you something to do for most of the day, and sure, you spend a lot of time feeling sick to your stomach, but having to deal with math class and soccer practice is...grounding. You still search for anti-anxiety meds at some point, which, eventually, leads you to a google search on The Enemy, which, uh, makes the anxiety several times worse.
Did you know that Rama ripped two pilots out of their cockpits and ate them? Now you do!
There may have been more stress vomiting involved.
After that, well, you managed a last party with the friends you told, had a trip to the zoo with your family that didn't end with James or Jess causing a scene, read through a primer on The Enemy and had another panic attack, and, uh, managed a last date with Sam. You saw about half of Berlin Gold, a romcom that was way worse than the pretty-cool trailers, and then walked out, had a pretty decent dinner and watched the release of Torkaizer in the US, which was pretty enjoyable for all involved.
You got a pretty sweet kiss at the end of it and the only breakup in the history of breakups where 'no hard feelings' was well and truly meant by all involved, and your dad was nice enough not to yell at you for staying out after midnight. It was, as last weeks at home go, pretty good.
And then it ended, and a full escort of JANNAH security forces and US soldiers watched you give your family your last goodbyes, and then escorted you to an incredibly comfortable jet to go to Cairo. You passed over Juggernauts carcass on your way out of the US, you managed to spot it out the window, which was...slightly harrowing.
The jet only took you to Wamala Station, a metaphysical research station overlooking the lake and that shared its name, where you and your baggage were ferried to a rather large helicopter with seven seats. Six in two rows, and one off to the back by itself. You were the first one in the copter, and for a moment you thought you'd be the only one, but then the others started arriving.
First was a thin-as-a-rail Indian kid in clothes two sizes two big, unlike you he had a nametag (It was in some other language, maybe Urdu?), but he looked about as freaked out as you did. He sat on the opposite side of the copter from you and, well, stayed silent. He is probably a year or two younger than you, but couldn't be younger than 15.
He was followed by a thick (Not fat) white kid, maybe a year older than you, who was practically shivering in excitement. No nametag. He took the loner seat.
A black girl, tall, with a demeanor that made you think 'military' followed him. She sat in your row, but left a seat between you and her. She gave everyone an...appraising scan, like she was judging you, but didn't seem to give any indication whether or not she liked what she saw. She's maybe your age.
Then a, uh, vaguely asian dude (You don't know which, you don't want to be racist) showed up. He was pretty obviously ecstatic, and was at least a bit older than you. He sat next to you and was very pointedly avoiding looking at people.
A girl with one of those muslim things that Miss Fatima wore when she visited (Except it covered the lower half of her face) and some full-body thing followed him. She glared at white kid for taking the solo seat and then sat opposite the black girl, an empty seat separating her and the Indian kid.
Then a, uh, vaguely asian girl, again, maybe a bit older than you. She looked, well, not excited like white kid, but proud. She was the shortest of your group, and desperately tried not to look awkward as she sat between the muslim girl and the indian dude.
And then the helicopter lifted off, and you had to figure out how to spend a flight of god-knows-how long with these people.
[X] Introduce Yourself to Someone.
[X] Stay Silent
[X] Write-in
Raj and Dirk
You fidget for a bit and decide that, if these people are going to be your fellow pilots (And you can't think of any other reason that they'd be stuck in a helicopter to Citadel Cairo with you) you might as well introduce yourselves. For a moment you try to plan a thing, sketching out responses and how to make yourself look, well, at least decent in the conversation.
You get a flashback to Jenn slapping you for being indecisive, however, and decide that planning out the entire thing is stupid, so you go ahead and, well, wing it.
You extend a hand to the Indian Kid, mostly because he looks about as nervous as you do. "Uh, hi," you say, "I'm Jonathan Alvarez, you can call me Jon. Uh, I'm an American. San Jose. What's your name?"
Everyone simultaneously stares at you for breaking the awkward silence. There's a short, very awkward pause.
The Indian Kid grabs your hand and gives it a weak shake. "Raj Rai," he says in heavily accented english, "From the Mumbai Refugee Camps."
"Nice to meet you Raj," you say, "You get scouted to?" It's a dumb question, but, well, there's not a hell of a lot you can build on with some kid in a Camp. Not like he's watching movies out there.
"Yes, my baba paid to have me tested," he said, "And, uh-" He clams up. You don't think he's very social. "-Sorry. I, uh, yeah. I got scouted."
"Nervous?" you say. He nods. You lean forward and whisper, almost conspiratorially, "Me too."
You get something that looks a bit more like a smile than a frown out of Raj, which lasts all of five seconds before the white kid scoffs at him. Then it's back to nervous wreck for Raj Rai.
You glare at the white kid. "The fuck, dude?"
"No-one wants to listen to the sob story of a kid who's here for money," he says. His accent is thick (You saw a dude talk like that in a movie once, but you don't know where from. German?), and his disdain for you and Raj is palpable.
You, and everyone else, glare at him a moment. "Dirk Manderly. South African," he says, "I'm here because I want to save the fucking planet, not win some cash for my poor dad."
[X] Cuss the asshole out.
[X] Move the conversation and shun him.
[X] Try to explain things to him.
[X] Write-in.
Meet and-Oh Dear Lord is He Real?
"Anyways," you say rather pointedly, "How about-" Your eyes settle on the black girl, "You? You wouldn't mind introducing yourself, right?"
She shrugs and gives everyone a polite smile. "Amina Usman, I'm from Morocco. Casablanca," she says. Her accent is crisp, and the name seems familiar for some reason. You'd kinda thought she was american though. "I was in a training program when the test results came back, family has a history of high testing scores, and when we saw that, well, the decision was...pretty obvious, I think." There's a moment of silence as you parse what she just said, and then you realize where you heard the name before.
Usman Usman, Moroccan Pilot of Mameluke Overrun. Enormous celebrity, killed Lakshmi and Rama, beat Facemelter to death with its own skull. He's done ads, talk shows and public speeches. There are movies about his exploits, there are video games either featuring him or having him as a character. He is one of the most recognizable pilots on the planet, to the point where you were playing him in Breakers Dozen two weeks ago. And that is his fucking sister.
You manage not to say anything about it, figuring that if she wanted it mentioned she would have gone ahead and mentioned it. Dirk's staring at her like she grew a second head. Raj waves hi, but doesn't seem to get why that is important.
Then the asian dude says, "Wait, aren't you Usman Usman's sister?"
There is some glaring and Amina stares the asian dude straight in the eyes. You can see the poor guy wilting underneath it. "Yes, yes I am," she says, "And now that we've established that let's never mention it again. OK?"
"OK," squeaks the asian guy.
"Good, your turn," she says. He whimpers a protest but The Stare squashes it.
"I'm, uh, I'm Tang Ying," he says, unable to avert his gaze from Amina, "I'm from Hong Kong. I got the letter, and, I always thought the program was really cool, and, uh, I tested well. Please don't hurt me." Amina, satisfied, lets the stare drop, and Tang Ying breathes a sigh of relief.
There's a pause as the muslim girl and the other asian girl stare at each other. There's a short exchange of gestures and 'do you want to go firsts?', but eventually the muslim girl turns towards the rest of you.
"I'm Khadijah Khan," she says, "I'm from Tehran, Iran. I got the test results and decided that I was morally obligated to accept." Her english is pretty good, though she seems a bit uncomfortable with it. Maybe she's new to the language?
"Kim Hyun-Soon," said the asian girl, shifting in her seat as she speaks, "From Seoul. My, uh, dad works for JANNAH, and when the results came in...not much of a choice." She's a native speaker, you think.
"See," you say, "That wasn't so hard. Now, uh-" You pause for a moment, your normal go-tos for conversation won't work. Way too diverse a crowd, and you can't rely on everyone having seen even the most international of movies. So... "I think my phone gets internet in here, what music do you all listen to?"
The flight, from there, goes reasonably smoothly. Eventually Dirk manages to join the conversation on a less hostile note, and you manage to spend the flight being a bunch of teenagers instead of child soldiers being ferried to your base of operations.
The Citadel Cairo comes into view and the conversation stops. It is enormous, a series of military installations that dwarf anything you've seen before. Even the sets in movies and games only ever really show portions of it. There are seven titanic, minaret-adorned domes surrounding the main base of operations, each one big enough to house an army, and the main command center is a monstrous, mosque-like facility that spans the Nile. The entire facility glistens in the evening light as you approach, and you can't even begin to comprehend the cost of it.
The others, save for Amina, are as amazed as you are by the site, and stare out the windows as the helicopter descends and touches down. You hear safety checks being finished from the cockpit, and after a few seconds the door begins to slide open. Tang unbuckles his belt and begins to stand and-
Holy shit this dude is pretty. Standing at the door to the helicopter is an egyptian man you can only really describe as absolutely gorgeous. He looks like he was sculpted, not born, some sort of genetically engineered superhuman made to be prettier than any mere mortal man could ever hope to be. He's lean, tall, has a smile like the sun and his voice-dear lord, you think you might swoon.
Which would, admittedly, make you slightly better off than Ying, Raj and Kim who've gone ahead and done just that.
[X] Gawk
[X] Gawk, then ask questions.
[X] Gawk, question own sexuality
[X] Swoon
[X] Write-in.
Dammit, You Were Straight Thirty Seconds Ago
Staring at, uh, the man you try desperately to reassure yourself that you're straight. You had a girlfriend until about a day ago, you had crushes on girls, you fantasized about girls, your porn was entirely about girls, you were, in every respect, a perfectly hetero dude. All the evidence pointed to it.
And all the evidence kind of looked at the man waiting outside the helicopter and gave up in futility. As it evidently had for everyone else in the helo except for Amina.
He said something in a voice like birdsong, and you once again have to resist the urge to swoon. Your brain slowly starts to reboot, however, and you begin to get control of the bits that control speech enough that you stop making awkward little squeaky noises.
"Uh, sorry," you manage to say, "But could you repeat that?"
"Oh dear, this does seem to keep happening," he replies, giving his short, supple beard a single stroke, "I am Baibars Ahmed, I'm the Senior Deployment Director at Citadel Cairo and will be in charge of your training and early deployments. I've already met Miss Usman, but I don't think I've met the rest of you."
You're about to say something, but Amina interrupts. "Jon, Dirk, Khadija," she says, pointing at each of you in turn, "Raj, Kim, Ying. I'll wake them up."
"Thank you Amina," says Baibars, "If the rest of you would join me while she does that?" You, Dirk and Khadija get up and out of the helicopter with awkward speed, and you damn near trip over Dirk as you exit. "There we go," he says, "Now, I'm going to be giving you a tour of your new home, and by the time we're done your luggage will be ready and I'll show you all to your rooms. We will be at least visiting every part of the facility over the course of the tour, however I would love to know if there's anywhere in particular you'd like to pay more attention to, or anything you'd like to see first."
[X] Cafeteria, I'm famished.
[X] Where are the Giant Robots.
[X] The Command Center looks cool in all the games, can we see it?
[X] So, do we have tutors, or go to school or what?
[X] Where do we live?
[X] So do we get to actually use those VR sims in the movies? Or do those come later?
[X] Write-in
Two weeks passes incredibly quickly.
You stopped playing video games on day one, you had a minor panic attack when you died against Facemelter in Breaker's Dozen, which freed up a prodigious amount of free time. A truly enormous amount of which you spent alternately worrying staring at your ceiling in apprehension and worrying about who, exactly, you should be telling about this. It takes you the better part of a week, but you end up with a short list. Madison and Alex and Jake from school, Maninder from the soccer team, Feng at church, Vladimir (Mostly because you tell Vladimir everything, best friend perks and all), and, uh, Sam.
School helps with the panic, it gives you something to do for most of the day, and sure, you spend a lot of time feeling sick to your stomach, but having to deal with math class and soccer practice is...grounding. You still search for anti-anxiety meds at some point, which, eventually, leads you to a google search on The Enemy, which, uh, makes the anxiety several times worse.
Did you know that Rama ripped two pilots out of their cockpits and ate them? Now you do!
There may have been more stress vomiting involved.
After that, well, you managed a last party with the friends you told, had a trip to the zoo with your family that didn't end with James or Jess causing a scene, read through a primer on The Enemy and had another panic attack, and, uh, managed a last date with Sam. You saw about half of Berlin Gold, a romcom that was way worse than the pretty-cool trailers, and then walked out, had a pretty decent dinner and watched the release of Torkaizer in the US, which was pretty enjoyable for all involved.
You got a pretty sweet kiss at the end of it and the only breakup in the history of breakups where 'no hard feelings' was well and truly meant by all involved, and your dad was nice enough not to yell at you for staying out after midnight. It was, as last weeks at home go, pretty good.
And then it ended, and a full escort of JANNAH security forces and US soldiers watched you give your family your last goodbyes, and then escorted you to an incredibly comfortable jet to go to Cairo. You passed over Juggernauts carcass on your way out of the US, you managed to spot it out the window, which was...slightly harrowing.
The jet only took you to Wamala Station, a metaphysical research station overlooking the lake and that shared its name, where you and your baggage were ferried to a rather large helicopter with seven seats. Six in two rows, and one off to the back by itself. You were the first one in the copter, and for a moment you thought you'd be the only one, but then the others started arriving.
First was a thin-as-a-rail Indian kid in clothes two sizes two big, unlike you he had a nametag (It was in some other language, maybe Urdu?), but he looked about as freaked out as you did. He sat on the opposite side of the copter from you and, well, stayed silent. He is probably a year or two younger than you, but couldn't be younger than 15.
He was followed by a thick (Not fat) white kid, maybe a year older than you, who was practically shivering in excitement. No nametag. He took the loner seat.
A black girl, tall, with a demeanor that made you think 'military' followed him. She sat in your row, but left a seat between you and her. She gave everyone an...appraising scan, like she was judging you, but didn't seem to give any indication whether or not she liked what she saw. She's maybe your age.
Then a, uh, vaguely asian dude (You don't know which, you don't want to be racist) showed up. He was pretty obviously ecstatic, and was at least a bit older than you. He sat next to you and was very pointedly avoiding looking at people.
A girl with one of those muslim things that Miss Fatima wore when she visited (Except it covered the lower half of her face) and some full-body thing followed him. She glared at white kid for taking the solo seat and then sat opposite the black girl, an empty seat separating her and the Indian kid.
Then a, uh, vaguely asian girl, again, maybe a bit older than you. She looked, well, not excited like white kid, but proud. She was the shortest of your group, and desperately tried not to look awkward as she sat between the muslim girl and the indian dude.
And then the helicopter lifted off, and you had to figure out how to spend a flight of god-knows-how long with these people.
[X] Introduce Yourself to Someone.
[X] Stay Silent
[X] Write-in
Raj and Dirk
You fidget for a bit and decide that, if these people are going to be your fellow pilots (And you can't think of any other reason that they'd be stuck in a helicopter to Citadel Cairo with you) you might as well introduce yourselves. For a moment you try to plan a thing, sketching out responses and how to make yourself look, well, at least decent in the conversation.
You get a flashback to Jenn slapping you for being indecisive, however, and decide that planning out the entire thing is stupid, so you go ahead and, well, wing it.
You extend a hand to the Indian Kid, mostly because he looks about as nervous as you do. "Uh, hi," you say, "I'm Jonathan Alvarez, you can call me Jon. Uh, I'm an American. San Jose. What's your name?"
Everyone simultaneously stares at you for breaking the awkward silence. There's a short, very awkward pause.
The Indian Kid grabs your hand and gives it a weak shake. "Raj Rai," he says in heavily accented english, "From the Mumbai Refugee Camps."
"Nice to meet you Raj," you say, "You get scouted to?" It's a dumb question, but, well, there's not a hell of a lot you can build on with some kid in a Camp. Not like he's watching movies out there.
"Yes, my baba paid to have me tested," he said, "And, uh-" He clams up. You don't think he's very social. "-Sorry. I, uh, yeah. I got scouted."
"Nervous?" you say. He nods. You lean forward and whisper, almost conspiratorially, "Me too."
You get something that looks a bit more like a smile than a frown out of Raj, which lasts all of five seconds before the white kid scoffs at him. Then it's back to nervous wreck for Raj Rai.
You glare at the white kid. "The fuck, dude?"
"No-one wants to listen to the sob story of a kid who's here for money," he says. His accent is thick (You saw a dude talk like that in a movie once, but you don't know where from. German?), and his disdain for you and Raj is palpable.
You, and everyone else, glare at him a moment. "Dirk Manderly. South African," he says, "I'm here because I want to save the fucking planet, not win some cash for my poor dad."
[X] Cuss the asshole out.
[X] Move the conversation and shun him.
[X] Try to explain things to him.
[X] Write-in.
Meet and-Oh Dear Lord is He Real?
"Anyways," you say rather pointedly, "How about-" Your eyes settle on the black girl, "You? You wouldn't mind introducing yourself, right?"
She shrugs and gives everyone a polite smile. "Amina Usman, I'm from Morocco. Casablanca," she says. Her accent is crisp, and the name seems familiar for some reason. You'd kinda thought she was american though. "I was in a training program when the test results came back, family has a history of high testing scores, and when we saw that, well, the decision was...pretty obvious, I think." There's a moment of silence as you parse what she just said, and then you realize where you heard the name before.
Usman Usman, Moroccan Pilot of Mameluke Overrun. Enormous celebrity, killed Lakshmi and Rama, beat Facemelter to death with its own skull. He's done ads, talk shows and public speeches. There are movies about his exploits, there are video games either featuring him or having him as a character. He is one of the most recognizable pilots on the planet, to the point where you were playing him in Breakers Dozen two weeks ago. And that is his fucking sister.
You manage not to say anything about it, figuring that if she wanted it mentioned she would have gone ahead and mentioned it. Dirk's staring at her like she grew a second head. Raj waves hi, but doesn't seem to get why that is important.
Then the asian dude says, "Wait, aren't you Usman Usman's sister?"
There is some glaring and Amina stares the asian dude straight in the eyes. You can see the poor guy wilting underneath it. "Yes, yes I am," she says, "And now that we've established that let's never mention it again. OK?"
"OK," squeaks the asian guy.
"Good, your turn," she says. He whimpers a protest but The Stare squashes it.
"I'm, uh, I'm Tang Ying," he says, unable to avert his gaze from Amina, "I'm from Hong Kong. I got the letter, and, I always thought the program was really cool, and, uh, I tested well. Please don't hurt me." Amina, satisfied, lets the stare drop, and Tang Ying breathes a sigh of relief.
There's a pause as the muslim girl and the other asian girl stare at each other. There's a short exchange of gestures and 'do you want to go firsts?', but eventually the muslim girl turns towards the rest of you.
"I'm Khadijah Khan," she says, "I'm from Tehran, Iran. I got the test results and decided that I was morally obligated to accept." Her english is pretty good, though she seems a bit uncomfortable with it. Maybe she's new to the language?
"Kim Hyun-Soon," said the asian girl, shifting in her seat as she speaks, "From Seoul. My, uh, dad works for JANNAH, and when the results came in...not much of a choice." She's a native speaker, you think.
"See," you say, "That wasn't so hard. Now, uh-" You pause for a moment, your normal go-tos for conversation won't work. Way too diverse a crowd, and you can't rely on everyone having seen even the most international of movies. So... "I think my phone gets internet in here, what music do you all listen to?"
The flight, from there, goes reasonably smoothly. Eventually Dirk manages to join the conversation on a less hostile note, and you manage to spend the flight being a bunch of teenagers instead of child soldiers being ferried to your base of operations.
The Citadel Cairo comes into view and the conversation stops. It is enormous, a series of military installations that dwarf anything you've seen before. Even the sets in movies and games only ever really show portions of it. There are seven titanic, minaret-adorned domes surrounding the main base of operations, each one big enough to house an army, and the main command center is a monstrous, mosque-like facility that spans the Nile. The entire facility glistens in the evening light as you approach, and you can't even begin to comprehend the cost of it.
The others, save for Amina, are as amazed as you are by the site, and stare out the windows as the helicopter descends and touches down. You hear safety checks being finished from the cockpit, and after a few seconds the door begins to slide open. Tang unbuckles his belt and begins to stand and-
Holy shit this dude is pretty. Standing at the door to the helicopter is an egyptian man you can only really describe as absolutely gorgeous. He looks like he was sculpted, not born, some sort of genetically engineered superhuman made to be prettier than any mere mortal man could ever hope to be. He's lean, tall, has a smile like the sun and his voice-dear lord, you think you might swoon.
Which would, admittedly, make you slightly better off than Ying, Raj and Kim who've gone ahead and done just that.
[X] Gawk
[X] Gawk, then ask questions.
[X] Gawk, question own sexuality
[X] Swoon
[X] Write-in.
Dammit, You Were Straight Thirty Seconds Ago
Staring at, uh, the man you try desperately to reassure yourself that you're straight. You had a girlfriend until about a day ago, you had crushes on girls, you fantasized about girls, your porn was entirely about girls, you were, in every respect, a perfectly hetero dude. All the evidence pointed to it.
And all the evidence kind of looked at the man waiting outside the helicopter and gave up in futility. As it evidently had for everyone else in the helo except for Amina.
He said something in a voice like birdsong, and you once again have to resist the urge to swoon. Your brain slowly starts to reboot, however, and you begin to get control of the bits that control speech enough that you stop making awkward little squeaky noises.
"Uh, sorry," you manage to say, "But could you repeat that?"
"Oh dear, this does seem to keep happening," he replies, giving his short, supple beard a single stroke, "I am Baibars Ahmed, I'm the Senior Deployment Director at Citadel Cairo and will be in charge of your training and early deployments. I've already met Miss Usman, but I don't think I've met the rest of you."
You're about to say something, but Amina interrupts. "Jon, Dirk, Khadija," she says, pointing at each of you in turn, "Raj, Kim, Ying. I'll wake them up."
"Thank you Amina," says Baibars, "If the rest of you would join me while she does that?" You, Dirk and Khadija get up and out of the helicopter with awkward speed, and you damn near trip over Dirk as you exit. "There we go," he says, "Now, I'm going to be giving you a tour of your new home, and by the time we're done your luggage will be ready and I'll show you all to your rooms. We will be at least visiting every part of the facility over the course of the tour, however I would love to know if there's anywhere in particular you'd like to pay more attention to, or anything you'd like to see first."
[X] Cafeteria, I'm famished.
[X] Where are the Giant Robots.
[X] The Command Center looks cool in all the games, can we see it?
[X] So, do we have tutors, or go to school or what?
[X] Where do we live?
[X] So do we get to actually use those VR sims in the movies? Or do those come later?
[X] Write-in
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Grand Tour!
"Well, I was kind of wondering what our school situation would be like," you ask, "And, uh, if we could see our rooms and get some food after that. I'm famished."
"Excellent questions," says Baibars, flashing you a winning smile that makes you a little weak-kneed, "I'll make sure to prioritize them." Dirk asks to see the robots, and Khadija says that you already got what she was going to ask about.
Then Baibars turns towards the formerly unconscious members and begins to introducing himself to them, giving you time to question Amina. Once you peel your eyes away from Baibars, anyways.
"...Amina?" you ask, "What the hell happened to us?"
"You know that thing where you see a really pretty person and go all speechless and stupid?" she says off-handedly, "Like that. Happens to everyone the first time they meet Baibars or Umar. You'll get used to it.
Oh, word of advice...don't share a gym with either of them. Or a swimming pool. And avoid them when it rains."
There's a pause as you process that. "There are two of them?"
"Yuuuup." She looks almost...sympathetic to your plight.
"Oh fuck." Yeah, that's definitely sympathy.
The tour is pretty pleasant. The base is large enough to have its own school system, and JANNAH went out of its way to ensure that its teachers and professors were excellent at their jobs, with facilities to match. Evidently there's actually a pretty large population on base, so the schools serve the families of the staff as well as the younger pilots. They've got professors on everything from Metaphysics to Ma'Jooj Studies (which is evidently some jargon JANNAH uses when referring to The Enemy) to stuff like English Literature and Religious Studies. It's, well, on par with some top-tier universities in the US. Which, considering the amount of money poured into Citadel Cairo, isn't that surprising.
Next stop's the cafeteria, where you have a delicious dinner of arabian food and meet some of the staff members. Raj eats a seemingly impossible amount of food. Then the apartment complexes. The apartments are pretty nice, not particularly large, but comfortable and well furbished and beautifully decorated. Though, uh, that might have been because Baibars was showing off the decorations. Oh, each apartment complex is also connected to a four story entertainment center. Which is really cool, as perks go. Khadijah just about has to be pulled away from a gaming PC on your way out.
There's some relatively boring stuff from there. Command center, military bases, mass transit stations, on-base airport, more stuff than you can count, really. Some of the others are wowed by it, but the only thing that really catches your attention is a movie theater complex and some restaurants.
Then...you get to The Launch Bays. They're enormous. Cargo elevators and launch rails line the walls, as do hundreds of techs of various description. They're a hive of activity, swarming around mechs and spare parts and racks of weapons larger than houses. Security guards, obviously professional soldiers, and even a few Power Armor suits guard and patrol the hangar, moving out of your way in deference as you pass. And in the bays themselves? Nine Marida, each unique, and upwards of three dozen smaller mechs are in the massive hangar. You know that you've been chosen to pilot the Marida, it's something you realized on an intellectual level, certainly enough to panic over it, but the sheer, awe inspiring size of your warmachines had simply escaped you until you saw them in person.
"Well then, ladies and gentlemen," says Baibars, "This is Launch Bay Thani, where your Marida are stored. If you want I can simply give you a brief, but if you all want to check out your Marida, I can have some of my fine compatriots give you a tour."
There's a resounding yes from the assembled pilots, you join in.
"Then the people have spoken, form yourselves into three groups, I'll grab some guards to show you to your Marida."
[X] Pick one or two of your fellow pilots to go see the giant robots with! No more than two, however.
Brother Issues:
You look at the others. Khadijah and Kim Hyun-soon pair off near-immediately, and you're pretty sure that Dirk wouldn't want to be in a group including Raj, considering the Helo. You call the scrawny teen over, and then glance at Amina and Tang Ying. You're tempted to grab Tang, he's looking with some apprehension in Dirk's direction, and doesn't look like he wants to pair up with Amina either. You're probably the poor kids best choice but you're a bit more familiar with Amina, and would rather someone who knew about, well, people like Baibars at your side. You turn towards her, only to find her right next to you. You yelp and jump slightly.
"You two are in my group," she says, "I'll lead." Raj nods and you aren't really given a chance to disagree before she turns around and starts sliding down a ladder to the ground level of the hangar. Raj looks at the ladder with some apprehension before he starts climbing down after her. You look around for a moment, and after a quick search take an elevator down. Amina beats you to the ground floor, but you're both stuck waiting for almost a minute and a half for Raj, who, between the tour and the climb, is pretty visibly out of breath.
"Did we need to do that?" asks Raj, "I-" He collapses into a coughing fit. You slap his back helpfully, which staggers him, but after a minute he recovers. "I think we would have been fine if we stayed up there," he says finally. Amina's looking a little bit guilty, and you feel kinda bad for not telling him about the elevator. He manages to stand straight again and then says, "I am OK. Let's go."
You make it the better part of three meters before this asshole skids into your path in a screech of sliding metal and hydraulic servos.
"Halt pilots!" bellows the man on top of the mech, "And kneel before the emir of overrun maintenance costs! Bow before your ill-budgeted overlord!" Amina kicks Raj as he tries to bow, and the mech slams its pole-lance into the ground. "I do not jest! Bend the knee or-"
Amina interrupts and yells something at him in arabic. You're reasonably sure, based on the yelling, that his name is Pierre. Primarily because it was the only word you understood. The reply is also in arabic, and there's a short shouting match before the mech lowers itself and extends a stairwell for boarding.
"Get on," said Amina, "And if Pierre bothers you, shout at him a bunch."
"Shout at me? You accuse me of being a craven, who bows to mere yelling?" yells Pierre as you approach the top of his mech, "Hah, save for yourself, I bow to no man or woman due to mere loud words!" You step onto the cradle, coming face to face with a short, portly frenchman with a giant staff and discolored robes. He gives you and Raj short waves. "Hello there young sirs, I am Pierre Paget, I run logistics and repairs for yonder giant death robots, and I inform you how pleased the populace is that you've rammed two hundred meter tall biohazards through their homes, schools and refugee camps. Ah, but today we do not worry about that, no, today I have the dubious honor of introducing you wonderful little child soldiers to your very own giant death robots. Mister Rai's first, I think."
He pushes his both into gear, trundling across the factory floor like the demented cross between a tripod and a roller blader. It zips past two Marida and several smaller mechs, you're pretty sure you see Dirk and Tang as you pass, and then slides to a halt in front of an absolutely enormous red Marida. It's got titanic shoulders, oversized arms and claws that look like they could rip their way out of the Launch Bays. The cockpit looks almost like a helmet, and its banded armor like a rippling abdominal muscles. You've honestly no idea what all the holes and bumps in its frame are for.
"This is Kshatriya Intercept, Raj's Ride. It's a Mujahid specced, soul amplifiers are tailored to Raj Rai, claws'll focus a Siege Field damn well, and it's designed to be as intuitive as possible to control. Not much for shooting, claws don't handle guns well, but you might be able to mount something in the forearms or pauldrons. I'd recommend gas or shock systems, in case ya need to bail. The boys were thinking a flamejet system or spare fuel to supplement that crap power system, but that'll have to wait on cash flow. It's got a full Ma'Jooj neural cortex mounted for Loadwork, so be careful in there. Don't want computer systems deciding you're the enemy on us."
You stare at the Intercept as Raj marvels at it. It's not your mech, and you don't think you'd be quite as shocked as Raj even if it was, but it's still damn impressive.
Yours is next. It's white, with red trim and black underneath the armor. It kind of makes you think it's half-finished. It has the oversized shoulders so many Marida have, but their armor only really covers the edges, and you can see the superstructure beneath it. The armor on the legs and knees is incomplete, leaving wiring and joints entirely exposed. Its chest bulges outwards, for some reason, and like Kshatriya it's entirely devoid of inbuilt weaponry. Unlike Kshatriya it's also missing built-in claws. Still, the mech...feels right to you. It calls to you, and you have to actively resist the urge to run to it as you appraise it in awe.
"And that is Righteous Penitent, Jonny Boy's own giant death machine. Emir Specced, with bits of Shahid design philosophy added in after your psych eval came through. Which is why the armor's almost half-missing. It's got a massively oversized projector set, to take advantage of your obscene Ghazali Score (Who scores a 13.5 anyways?), and you can pick up and use just about anything in there. Bit of a learning curve, I should warn you, Emir's are a bitch to use in the best of cases, and hybrid designs are worse. Still, Umar runs an Emir, he'll teach you the ropes. Bit of a quirky design, but I think it'll suit you. If you survive. God knows it'll be causing me a headache."
And hyped on your giant robot to near panic attack in one monologue. You're pretty sure that's a new record. Amina's looking at you like you did something impressive, though. You wish she'd stop doing that, it's really not helping the panic about your robot being a fucking deathtrap.
You're halfway to the other side of the hangar, and Amina's robot, when a tall, lanky black man slides down a ladder in front of Pierre's mech and leaps onto the deck as you pass. He pulls himself over the railing, rolls forwards and springs, enveloping Amina in an enormous hug. Amina returns it with a smile, and you recognize him as Usman Usman. There's a small amount of panic as you realize that an international celebrity just gave your teammate an enormous hug on account of being her brother, and oh god you're going to make her look like an idiot and he will never respect you and it will be horrible on so many levels-
"So, Amina," says Usman Usman, global hero, Marida ace and all around total badass, "Who are your friends?"
"This is Jonathan Alvarez. His Ghazali score's high enough for manifestation. He's pretty OK," she says. Usman Usman looks vaguely impressed in your direction, "That's Raj Rai. Careful, he collapses at the slightest provocation." Raj says something offended sounding and Usman chuckles in amusement.
"Don't torment the poor boy, Amina," he says, "He'll yell and panic the engineers. Pierre, if you could double-time to Starlight Corsair?"
Pierre begins to mutter under his breath in french, only for Amina to chastise him in french, which slows him down for all of half a second as he switches to german. You pass Mameluke Overrun on the way to Amina's mech. It is...severely cool, even from what little you remember of it. Regenerative metal, inbuilt weaponry, flight capable, a surface that shifts as you pass, seemingly reacting to souls approaching it. It's a mech that isn't very subtle, even just standing their in the launch bay.
Then you reach Starlight Corsair. It's strange, the surface shifts in ways that remind you of Overrun's, and the half-skirt at the back seems to transparently be some sort of flight device, but you've barely any time to analyze it properly before Pierre starts to talk.
"And this is, of course, Mademoiselle Usman's death robot. Starlight Corsair. It is-"
"Dervish specced. Flight Capable. Azhari Modification, with tissue ripped from Nidhogg or Fenrir, threw in some of Rama or Lakshmi to pretend who I was mattered? Melee focused, probably has reactive armor and deployable melee weapons. Exactly like his," interrupts Amina, visibly livid. She turns on Usman, who opens his mouth to say something, and promptly knocks her brother down with a punch to the face. "And fuck you too Pierre, you could've warned me," she says. She hops off of the robot and stalks off, no-one stupid enough to pursue her or stop her. Usman pulls himself up slowly, rubbing his jaw but seemingly unwilling to pursue his sister.
[X] She's not taking this well, go after her
[X] You'll make it worse, stay put.
[X] Write-In.
Possibly Not Your Best Plan
You hesitate for a moment. You look at Usman and realize that you really don't want to get punched in the face, especially since Amina has far less reason to spare you than she has to spare her brother.
You go after her anyways. You jump over the railing and try to slide down the side of the robot like Amina did. It goes less than well, but after peeling yourself off of the floor (Thankfully without real injury) you sprint after her. She's faster than you and has a head start, and you're forced to follow her into the twist of unfamiliar corridors outside of the launch bays. At which point it becomes dreadfully obvious that she's more familiar with the geography than you. You lose her three times, and only lucky guesses keep you on her track, and you damn near give up on the chase more than once.
Then you round a corner and she's right there staring you in the face. "First: Why are you following me," she says, afixing you with a downright paralyzing stare, "Second: How the hell are you keeping up with me?"
You wilt for a moment, that gaze is unpleasant, it's like, a decade of anger and disappointment being beamed right into your forehead. "I, uh, wanted to talk?" you say lamely.
"So you chased me through the launch bays."
"Yes."
"And through a bit over a mile of corridors."
"That long?"
"Yup."
"Then, uh, also yes."
She raises an eyebrow at that, but stops that horrible glare. "Alright," she says in a voice like a murder threat, "Let's talk." You get the distinct feeling that you are going to be the target of no small amount of rage if you fuck this up. You also realize that you didn't actually expect to get this far and have no plan at all for an actual conversation.
[X] Write-In.
Not Quite as Bad As it Could Have Been
You freeze up, Amina is terrifying like this and you really, really do not want to get punched in the face. You sputter a bit as you try to organize your thoughts and say, "Uh, well, you seemed upset about your-" Your brain cycles through ways to end that sentence, and after spending what feels like an age finding no solutions that do not end in grievous bodily harm being inflicted on you, decides to abort while Amina's merely suffering from incredibly intimidating eyebrow twitches. Your sentence screeches to a halt and you backtrack slightly. "Err, about what happened. And, uh-"
"And?" she says, staring you down.
"-I just wanted to see if you were doing okay," you finish. There's a short, awkward pause. "Uh. Are you?" you finish lamely. There's a blur of motion and your entire gut is pain.
"I'll deal," says Amina, withdrawing her fist from your gut. She gives you something vaguely resembling a smile, which might've been more reassuring if she hadn't just fucking gutpunched you. "But thanks. Seriously," she finishes, "I appreciate it."
"You just punched me in the gut," you wheeze as you double over. Dear god does that smart.
"It was an appreciative punch in the gut," she replies, "Come on, only thing left on the tour is the sim-chamber, and that's honestly pretty boring. We'll hit the apartment, you can unpack and I'll give you first choice of what we play or watch or whatever."
[X] Watch a Movie! You feel like Romcoms.
[X] Watch a Movie! Let's get some mindless action going
[X] It's War Week on Discovery, isn't it? Let's watch a documentary on The Enemy!
[X] The History Channel's pretty solid! Let's watch a documentary about medieval warfare!
[X] Vidya Gaems! You wanna play some Star Wars, and co-op will do just fine.
[X] Vidya Gaems! Let's play a brawler. It's probably the only way you'll be able to get revenge for that gut-punch.
[X] Vidya Gaems! They've got to have some FPS in here, yeah?
[X] Vidya Gaems! Let's fly some planes!
[X] Write-in
Let's Rumble
"Super Smash Bros?" you say.
"...I don't know what that is," says Amina.
"Definitely Super Smash Bros," you reply.
The trip to the apartment doesn't take too long. You unpack for a few minutes while Amina waits in the entertainment center. Evidently she has already had a room set up for her. After you're satisfied with the state of your room, you meet her in the Entertainment Center, where she's busy familiarizing herself with the Smash Bros' rulebook. "You ready?" you say.
"Naturally," says Amina as she boots the console.
You play for almost an hour, during which you manage to maintain an impressive lead, possibly due to her never having played the game before. Still, it's fun. You talk, you play, eventually you switch to Baldur Brawlers, which is a bit of a fairer fight since both of you've played it. You still manage a lead though. The entire experience is enjoyable and relaxing, and for a bit you're just a couple teenagers hanging out and shooting the breeze.
The rest of the pilots, plus Baibars and Usman, show up after two hours or so. Khadijah tells Aminah that they're about to pray Ishah, which you guess is some muslim prayer, and she quickly runs into her room and then runs out with one of those muslim things on her head. Then Amina and Usman and Khadijah and Baibars leave, which leaves you alone with, well, the rest of the pilots.
[X] Talk to one of the other pilots.
--[X] Write in Pilot of Choice
[X] Invite someone to play Vidya Gaems with you.
[X] Put on a movie
[X] Suggest putting on a movie
[X] There are two asian people in the room, obviously you should put on some animes.
[X] TV.
[X] Retire to room.
[X] Write-in.
Dirk Dastardly Wins-OH GOD THERE ARE TWO OF THEM.
You grab a couple more controllers and put smash bros back into the console. By the time you turn to ask who wants to play Dirk has already leaped over the couch and grabbed a controller from your hand in mid-air. Tang and Kim follow, while Raj watches in mild amazement from one of the rear couches. There's a short argument over what to do, Dirk insists on Final Destination, which you're not a fan of, and Tang and Kim hate Final Destination and want smashballs on, you think smashballs are stupid, especially since Tang is playing Sonic.
Eventually you agree to all items, random map. You're playing Metaknight, Kim's playing Fox, Tang's playing Sonic and Dirk is playing Ike.
Inside of ten minutes you agree that Dirk isn't allowed to play Ike anymore, so he switches to Jigglypuff, which is somehow worse. Not because he's better with it, no, the rest of you stand something approaching a chance now, but because, 3 games out of 5, you're getting your asses kicked by a little pink puffball.
After another twenty minutes or so you hear the door open. You slam the pause button, everyone turns, Khadija and Amina enter the room. You brace yourself for Baibars and-
Oh my god there are two of them. Baibars and what you can only describe as mini-Baibars (He's 16 maybe 17) walk into the room. Kim's opened mouthed and it takes you a few seconds to stop gaping at the dude. Another few seconds tell you that he's probably Umar, the guy Pierre and Amina had mentioned. He's wearing some sort of cream-colored robe with Enemy Kill Sigils decorating the shoulders. You're pretty sure Dirk notices them at the same time you did because now he's gaping. Umar taps Baibars shoulders and there's a short exchange in arabic between the two. Baibars steps out of the room and suddenly everyone is breathing much more easily.
"Salam," says Umar, "I am Umar Ahmed, your training supervisor and the last member of your Marida Team. While I've read your files, it's a pleasure to meet all of you for the first time-" Amina opens her mouth to interrupt. "-Yes, I know Amina, don't start with me, and I'm glad you've joined us. As much as Usman is a pleasure to work with it's nice to have someone who isn't in their mid twenties around-" Amina opens her mouth again. "-as I was saying, it's nice to have someone who isn't in their twenties around on a more permanent basis. Anyways, there's an entire thing, but I've got to ask, is that Smash Bros?"
"Yeah," you say.
"I'm in next game," he says on his way to the fridge, "You guys want a meal or snacks and soda?"
"They gave us dinner at the Cafeteria," says Amina, very pointedly not getting up to help out.
"Cool, cool," says Umar, "Hey, Raj, help me with the food?"
Someone unpauses the game and suddenly you're forced to look back at the screen as the spectators do...whatever they're doing. Presumably preparing and eating snacks, you're a bit busy trying to not be massacred by a Jigglypuff to care.
The evening turns to night, and one game of Smash Bros turns into an FPS brawl, a go at Djinn Ops and eventually some reruns of some arabian sitcom that the muslim members of the team had to perform a running translation on. The snacks were pretty good, though.
Eventually Umar told everyone to go to sleep, and warned you that you'd be woken up early for simulation testing.
Which brought you to approximately God Knows AM the next day. You'd been woken up by a godawful alarm while still horribly sleepy, groggily changed into something decent, opened the door and were promptly chased to the Simulation Chamber by an angry arab soldier armed with a sandal. Everyone else except Tang Ying arrived before you, and he showed up sprinting at full pelt within a few minutes, similarly chased by a sandal wielding man.
The Chamber is, fundamentally, a large holographic projector arena with a faux-command center sits at the far end, for command crews to practice commanding Marida Teams, an Operators Tube for the team running the simulation suspended above the field, and several faux-cockpits and spectator screens are parked on the close end, for the pilots benefit. The arena itself simply serves to simulate the projection the command crew would normally receive.
After a minute Baibars turns on the PA system and tells you to check the spectator screens for the order you'll be entering the training simulator. You walk over and find that you're in the
[X] First Team In with Kim Hyun-Soon.
[X] Second Team in with Dirk Manderly.
[X] Last Team In with Tang Ying and Raj Rai.
"Well, I was kind of wondering what our school situation would be like," you ask, "And, uh, if we could see our rooms and get some food after that. I'm famished."
"Excellent questions," says Baibars, flashing you a winning smile that makes you a little weak-kneed, "I'll make sure to prioritize them." Dirk asks to see the robots, and Khadija says that you already got what she was going to ask about.
Then Baibars turns towards the formerly unconscious members and begins to introducing himself to them, giving you time to question Amina. Once you peel your eyes away from Baibars, anyways.
"...Amina?" you ask, "What the hell happened to us?"
"You know that thing where you see a really pretty person and go all speechless and stupid?" she says off-handedly, "Like that. Happens to everyone the first time they meet Baibars or Umar. You'll get used to it.
Oh, word of advice...don't share a gym with either of them. Or a swimming pool. And avoid them when it rains."
There's a pause as you process that. "There are two of them?"
"Yuuuup." She looks almost...sympathetic to your plight.
"Oh fuck." Yeah, that's definitely sympathy.
The tour is pretty pleasant. The base is large enough to have its own school system, and JANNAH went out of its way to ensure that its teachers and professors were excellent at their jobs, with facilities to match. Evidently there's actually a pretty large population on base, so the schools serve the families of the staff as well as the younger pilots. They've got professors on everything from Metaphysics to Ma'Jooj Studies (which is evidently some jargon JANNAH uses when referring to The Enemy) to stuff like English Literature and Religious Studies. It's, well, on par with some top-tier universities in the US. Which, considering the amount of money poured into Citadel Cairo, isn't that surprising.
Next stop's the cafeteria, where you have a delicious dinner of arabian food and meet some of the staff members. Raj eats a seemingly impossible amount of food. Then the apartment complexes. The apartments are pretty nice, not particularly large, but comfortable and well furbished and beautifully decorated. Though, uh, that might have been because Baibars was showing off the decorations. Oh, each apartment complex is also connected to a four story entertainment center. Which is really cool, as perks go. Khadijah just about has to be pulled away from a gaming PC on your way out.
There's some relatively boring stuff from there. Command center, military bases, mass transit stations, on-base airport, more stuff than you can count, really. Some of the others are wowed by it, but the only thing that really catches your attention is a movie theater complex and some restaurants.
Then...you get to The Launch Bays. They're enormous. Cargo elevators and launch rails line the walls, as do hundreds of techs of various description. They're a hive of activity, swarming around mechs and spare parts and racks of weapons larger than houses. Security guards, obviously professional soldiers, and even a few Power Armor suits guard and patrol the hangar, moving out of your way in deference as you pass. And in the bays themselves? Nine Marida, each unique, and upwards of three dozen smaller mechs are in the massive hangar. You know that you've been chosen to pilot the Marida, it's something you realized on an intellectual level, certainly enough to panic over it, but the sheer, awe inspiring size of your warmachines had simply escaped you until you saw them in person.
"Well then, ladies and gentlemen," says Baibars, "This is Launch Bay Thani, where your Marida are stored. If you want I can simply give you a brief, but if you all want to check out your Marida, I can have some of my fine compatriots give you a tour."
There's a resounding yes from the assembled pilots, you join in.
"Then the people have spoken, form yourselves into three groups, I'll grab some guards to show you to your Marida."
[X] Pick one or two of your fellow pilots to go see the giant robots with! No more than two, however.
Brother Issues:
You look at the others. Khadijah and Kim Hyun-soon pair off near-immediately, and you're pretty sure that Dirk wouldn't want to be in a group including Raj, considering the Helo. You call the scrawny teen over, and then glance at Amina and Tang Ying. You're tempted to grab Tang, he's looking with some apprehension in Dirk's direction, and doesn't look like he wants to pair up with Amina either. You're probably the poor kids best choice but you're a bit more familiar with Amina, and would rather someone who knew about, well, people like Baibars at your side. You turn towards her, only to find her right next to you. You yelp and jump slightly.
"You two are in my group," she says, "I'll lead." Raj nods and you aren't really given a chance to disagree before she turns around and starts sliding down a ladder to the ground level of the hangar. Raj looks at the ladder with some apprehension before he starts climbing down after her. You look around for a moment, and after a quick search take an elevator down. Amina beats you to the ground floor, but you're both stuck waiting for almost a minute and a half for Raj, who, between the tour and the climb, is pretty visibly out of breath.
"Did we need to do that?" asks Raj, "I-" He collapses into a coughing fit. You slap his back helpfully, which staggers him, but after a minute he recovers. "I think we would have been fine if we stayed up there," he says finally. Amina's looking a little bit guilty, and you feel kinda bad for not telling him about the elevator. He manages to stand straight again and then says, "I am OK. Let's go."
You make it the better part of three meters before this asshole skids into your path in a screech of sliding metal and hydraulic servos.
"Halt pilots!" bellows the man on top of the mech, "And kneel before the emir of overrun maintenance costs! Bow before your ill-budgeted overlord!" Amina kicks Raj as he tries to bow, and the mech slams its pole-lance into the ground. "I do not jest! Bend the knee or-"
Amina interrupts and yells something at him in arabic. You're reasonably sure, based on the yelling, that his name is Pierre. Primarily because it was the only word you understood. The reply is also in arabic, and there's a short shouting match before the mech lowers itself and extends a stairwell for boarding.
"Get on," said Amina, "And if Pierre bothers you, shout at him a bunch."
"Shout at me? You accuse me of being a craven, who bows to mere yelling?" yells Pierre as you approach the top of his mech, "Hah, save for yourself, I bow to no man or woman due to mere loud words!" You step onto the cradle, coming face to face with a short, portly frenchman with a giant staff and discolored robes. He gives you and Raj short waves. "Hello there young sirs, I am Pierre Paget, I run logistics and repairs for yonder giant death robots, and I inform you how pleased the populace is that you've rammed two hundred meter tall biohazards through their homes, schools and refugee camps. Ah, but today we do not worry about that, no, today I have the dubious honor of introducing you wonderful little child soldiers to your very own giant death robots. Mister Rai's first, I think."
He pushes his both into gear, trundling across the factory floor like the demented cross between a tripod and a roller blader. It zips past two Marida and several smaller mechs, you're pretty sure you see Dirk and Tang as you pass, and then slides to a halt in front of an absolutely enormous red Marida. It's got titanic shoulders, oversized arms and claws that look like they could rip their way out of the Launch Bays. The cockpit looks almost like a helmet, and its banded armor like a rippling abdominal muscles. You've honestly no idea what all the holes and bumps in its frame are for.
"This is Kshatriya Intercept, Raj's Ride. It's a Mujahid specced, soul amplifiers are tailored to Raj Rai, claws'll focus a Siege Field damn well, and it's designed to be as intuitive as possible to control. Not much for shooting, claws don't handle guns well, but you might be able to mount something in the forearms or pauldrons. I'd recommend gas or shock systems, in case ya need to bail. The boys were thinking a flamejet system or spare fuel to supplement that crap power system, but that'll have to wait on cash flow. It's got a full Ma'Jooj neural cortex mounted for Loadwork, so be careful in there. Don't want computer systems deciding you're the enemy on us."
You stare at the Intercept as Raj marvels at it. It's not your mech, and you don't think you'd be quite as shocked as Raj even if it was, but it's still damn impressive.
Yours is next. It's white, with red trim and black underneath the armor. It kind of makes you think it's half-finished. It has the oversized shoulders so many Marida have, but their armor only really covers the edges, and you can see the superstructure beneath it. The armor on the legs and knees is incomplete, leaving wiring and joints entirely exposed. Its chest bulges outwards, for some reason, and like Kshatriya it's entirely devoid of inbuilt weaponry. Unlike Kshatriya it's also missing built-in claws. Still, the mech...feels right to you. It calls to you, and you have to actively resist the urge to run to it as you appraise it in awe.
"And that is Righteous Penitent, Jonny Boy's own giant death machine. Emir Specced, with bits of Shahid design philosophy added in after your psych eval came through. Which is why the armor's almost half-missing. It's got a massively oversized projector set, to take advantage of your obscene Ghazali Score (Who scores a 13.5 anyways?), and you can pick up and use just about anything in there. Bit of a learning curve, I should warn you, Emir's are a bitch to use in the best of cases, and hybrid designs are worse. Still, Umar runs an Emir, he'll teach you the ropes. Bit of a quirky design, but I think it'll suit you. If you survive. God knows it'll be causing me a headache."
And hyped on your giant robot to near panic attack in one monologue. You're pretty sure that's a new record. Amina's looking at you like you did something impressive, though. You wish she'd stop doing that, it's really not helping the panic about your robot being a fucking deathtrap.
You're halfway to the other side of the hangar, and Amina's robot, when a tall, lanky black man slides down a ladder in front of Pierre's mech and leaps onto the deck as you pass. He pulls himself over the railing, rolls forwards and springs, enveloping Amina in an enormous hug. Amina returns it with a smile, and you recognize him as Usman Usman. There's a small amount of panic as you realize that an international celebrity just gave your teammate an enormous hug on account of being her brother, and oh god you're going to make her look like an idiot and he will never respect you and it will be horrible on so many levels-
"So, Amina," says Usman Usman, global hero, Marida ace and all around total badass, "Who are your friends?"
"This is Jonathan Alvarez. His Ghazali score's high enough for manifestation. He's pretty OK," she says. Usman Usman looks vaguely impressed in your direction, "That's Raj Rai. Careful, he collapses at the slightest provocation." Raj says something offended sounding and Usman chuckles in amusement.
"Don't torment the poor boy, Amina," he says, "He'll yell and panic the engineers. Pierre, if you could double-time to Starlight Corsair?"
Pierre begins to mutter under his breath in french, only for Amina to chastise him in french, which slows him down for all of half a second as he switches to german. You pass Mameluke Overrun on the way to Amina's mech. It is...severely cool, even from what little you remember of it. Regenerative metal, inbuilt weaponry, flight capable, a surface that shifts as you pass, seemingly reacting to souls approaching it. It's a mech that isn't very subtle, even just standing their in the launch bay.
Then you reach Starlight Corsair. It's strange, the surface shifts in ways that remind you of Overrun's, and the half-skirt at the back seems to transparently be some sort of flight device, but you've barely any time to analyze it properly before Pierre starts to talk.
"And this is, of course, Mademoiselle Usman's death robot. Starlight Corsair. It is-"
"Dervish specced. Flight Capable. Azhari Modification, with tissue ripped from Nidhogg or Fenrir, threw in some of Rama or Lakshmi to pretend who I was mattered? Melee focused, probably has reactive armor and deployable melee weapons. Exactly like his," interrupts Amina, visibly livid. She turns on Usman, who opens his mouth to say something, and promptly knocks her brother down with a punch to the face. "And fuck you too Pierre, you could've warned me," she says. She hops off of the robot and stalks off, no-one stupid enough to pursue her or stop her. Usman pulls himself up slowly, rubbing his jaw but seemingly unwilling to pursue his sister.
[X] She's not taking this well, go after her
[X] You'll make it worse, stay put.
[X] Write-In.
Possibly Not Your Best Plan
You hesitate for a moment. You look at Usman and realize that you really don't want to get punched in the face, especially since Amina has far less reason to spare you than she has to spare her brother.
You go after her anyways. You jump over the railing and try to slide down the side of the robot like Amina did. It goes less than well, but after peeling yourself off of the floor (Thankfully without real injury) you sprint after her. She's faster than you and has a head start, and you're forced to follow her into the twist of unfamiliar corridors outside of the launch bays. At which point it becomes dreadfully obvious that she's more familiar with the geography than you. You lose her three times, and only lucky guesses keep you on her track, and you damn near give up on the chase more than once.
Then you round a corner and she's right there staring you in the face. "First: Why are you following me," she says, afixing you with a downright paralyzing stare, "Second: How the hell are you keeping up with me?"
You wilt for a moment, that gaze is unpleasant, it's like, a decade of anger and disappointment being beamed right into your forehead. "I, uh, wanted to talk?" you say lamely.
"So you chased me through the launch bays."
"Yes."
"And through a bit over a mile of corridors."
"That long?"
"Yup."
"Then, uh, also yes."
She raises an eyebrow at that, but stops that horrible glare. "Alright," she says in a voice like a murder threat, "Let's talk." You get the distinct feeling that you are going to be the target of no small amount of rage if you fuck this up. You also realize that you didn't actually expect to get this far and have no plan at all for an actual conversation.
[X] Write-In.
Not Quite as Bad As it Could Have Been
You freeze up, Amina is terrifying like this and you really, really do not want to get punched in the face. You sputter a bit as you try to organize your thoughts and say, "Uh, well, you seemed upset about your-" Your brain cycles through ways to end that sentence, and after spending what feels like an age finding no solutions that do not end in grievous bodily harm being inflicted on you, decides to abort while Amina's merely suffering from incredibly intimidating eyebrow twitches. Your sentence screeches to a halt and you backtrack slightly. "Err, about what happened. And, uh-"
"And?" she says, staring you down.
"-I just wanted to see if you were doing okay," you finish. There's a short, awkward pause. "Uh. Are you?" you finish lamely. There's a blur of motion and your entire gut is pain.
"I'll deal," says Amina, withdrawing her fist from your gut. She gives you something vaguely resembling a smile, which might've been more reassuring if she hadn't just fucking gutpunched you. "But thanks. Seriously," she finishes, "I appreciate it."
"You just punched me in the gut," you wheeze as you double over. Dear god does that smart.
"It was an appreciative punch in the gut," she replies, "Come on, only thing left on the tour is the sim-chamber, and that's honestly pretty boring. We'll hit the apartment, you can unpack and I'll give you first choice of what we play or watch or whatever."
[X] Watch a Movie! You feel like Romcoms.
[X] Watch a Movie! Let's get some mindless action going
[X] It's War Week on Discovery, isn't it? Let's watch a documentary on The Enemy!
[X] The History Channel's pretty solid! Let's watch a documentary about medieval warfare!
[X] Vidya Gaems! You wanna play some Star Wars, and co-op will do just fine.
[X] Vidya Gaems! Let's play a brawler. It's probably the only way you'll be able to get revenge for that gut-punch.
[X] Vidya Gaems! They've got to have some FPS in here, yeah?
[X] Vidya Gaems! Let's fly some planes!
[X] Write-in
Let's Rumble
"Super Smash Bros?" you say.
"...I don't know what that is," says Amina.
"Definitely Super Smash Bros," you reply.
The trip to the apartment doesn't take too long. You unpack for a few minutes while Amina waits in the entertainment center. Evidently she has already had a room set up for her. After you're satisfied with the state of your room, you meet her in the Entertainment Center, where she's busy familiarizing herself with the Smash Bros' rulebook. "You ready?" you say.
"Naturally," says Amina as she boots the console.
You play for almost an hour, during which you manage to maintain an impressive lead, possibly due to her never having played the game before. Still, it's fun. You talk, you play, eventually you switch to Baldur Brawlers, which is a bit of a fairer fight since both of you've played it. You still manage a lead though. The entire experience is enjoyable and relaxing, and for a bit you're just a couple teenagers hanging out and shooting the breeze.
The rest of the pilots, plus Baibars and Usman, show up after two hours or so. Khadijah tells Aminah that they're about to pray Ishah, which you guess is some muslim prayer, and she quickly runs into her room and then runs out with one of those muslim things on her head. Then Amina and Usman and Khadijah and Baibars leave, which leaves you alone with, well, the rest of the pilots.
[X] Talk to one of the other pilots.
--[X] Write in Pilot of Choice
[X] Invite someone to play Vidya Gaems with you.
[X] Put on a movie
[X] Suggest putting on a movie
[X] There are two asian people in the room, obviously you should put on some animes.
[X] TV.
[X] Retire to room.
[X] Write-in.
Dirk Dastardly Wins-OH GOD THERE ARE TWO OF THEM.
You grab a couple more controllers and put smash bros back into the console. By the time you turn to ask who wants to play Dirk has already leaped over the couch and grabbed a controller from your hand in mid-air. Tang and Kim follow, while Raj watches in mild amazement from one of the rear couches. There's a short argument over what to do, Dirk insists on Final Destination, which you're not a fan of, and Tang and Kim hate Final Destination and want smashballs on, you think smashballs are stupid, especially since Tang is playing Sonic.
Eventually you agree to all items, random map. You're playing Metaknight, Kim's playing Fox, Tang's playing Sonic and Dirk is playing Ike.
Inside of ten minutes you agree that Dirk isn't allowed to play Ike anymore, so he switches to Jigglypuff, which is somehow worse. Not because he's better with it, no, the rest of you stand something approaching a chance now, but because, 3 games out of 5, you're getting your asses kicked by a little pink puffball.
After another twenty minutes or so you hear the door open. You slam the pause button, everyone turns, Khadija and Amina enter the room. You brace yourself for Baibars and-
Oh my god there are two of them. Baibars and what you can only describe as mini-Baibars (He's 16 maybe 17) walk into the room. Kim's opened mouthed and it takes you a few seconds to stop gaping at the dude. Another few seconds tell you that he's probably Umar, the guy Pierre and Amina had mentioned. He's wearing some sort of cream-colored robe with Enemy Kill Sigils decorating the shoulders. You're pretty sure Dirk notices them at the same time you did because now he's gaping. Umar taps Baibars shoulders and there's a short exchange in arabic between the two. Baibars steps out of the room and suddenly everyone is breathing much more easily.
"Salam," says Umar, "I am Umar Ahmed, your training supervisor and the last member of your Marida Team. While I've read your files, it's a pleasure to meet all of you for the first time-" Amina opens her mouth to interrupt. "-Yes, I know Amina, don't start with me, and I'm glad you've joined us. As much as Usman is a pleasure to work with it's nice to have someone who isn't in their mid twenties around-" Amina opens her mouth again. "-as I was saying, it's nice to have someone who isn't in their twenties around on a more permanent basis. Anyways, there's an entire thing, but I've got to ask, is that Smash Bros?"
"Yeah," you say.
"I'm in next game," he says on his way to the fridge, "You guys want a meal or snacks and soda?"
"They gave us dinner at the Cafeteria," says Amina, very pointedly not getting up to help out.
"Cool, cool," says Umar, "Hey, Raj, help me with the food?"
Someone unpauses the game and suddenly you're forced to look back at the screen as the spectators do...whatever they're doing. Presumably preparing and eating snacks, you're a bit busy trying to not be massacred by a Jigglypuff to care.
The evening turns to night, and one game of Smash Bros turns into an FPS brawl, a go at Djinn Ops and eventually some reruns of some arabian sitcom that the muslim members of the team had to perform a running translation on. The snacks were pretty good, though.
Eventually Umar told everyone to go to sleep, and warned you that you'd be woken up early for simulation testing.
Which brought you to approximately God Knows AM the next day. You'd been woken up by a godawful alarm while still horribly sleepy, groggily changed into something decent, opened the door and were promptly chased to the Simulation Chamber by an angry arab soldier armed with a sandal. Everyone else except Tang Ying arrived before you, and he showed up sprinting at full pelt within a few minutes, similarly chased by a sandal wielding man.
The Chamber is, fundamentally, a large holographic projector arena with a faux-command center sits at the far end, for command crews to practice commanding Marida Teams, an Operators Tube for the team running the simulation suspended above the field, and several faux-cockpits and spectator screens are parked on the close end, for the pilots benefit. The arena itself simply serves to simulate the projection the command crew would normally receive.
After a minute Baibars turns on the PA system and tells you to check the spectator screens for the order you'll be entering the training simulator. You walk over and find that you're in the
[X] First Team In with Kim Hyun-Soon.
[X] Second Team in with Dirk Manderly.
[X] Last Team In with Tang Ying and Raj Rai.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And Away We Go.
You and Kim are up first, Dirk and Amina are next, and then Khadjiah, Tang and Raj. You turn towards Kim, who nods in acknowledgement from the next screen over.
Dirk bops you on the shoulder as you walk by. "Don't fuck up," he says.
You ignore him, walk over to Kim and extend a hand. "You ready?" you ask.
"I think so," says Kim, giving you a firm handshake, "Just, uh, good luck." The two of you turn and head for the simulation cockpits. The doors to the nearest two cockpits slide open as you approach, then slide shut as you enter. The cockpit is large and conspicuously blank, there's a helmet dangling from the ceiling and a barebone pilots seat, but it's not what the media made you think the inside of a Marida cockpit would look like. Slightly confused, and maybe a bit disappointed, you sit in the chair and wait for instructions.
"Excellent, you're both in, now, we're going to be doing a pretty basic simulation today. Some basic walkthroughs on how to pilot your Marida and weaponize your Soul, and a short drill on Type 1 Ma'Jooj Raids," calls Baibars over the comm, "There's no pressure to somehow excel here. The entire point of this is so that you make the mistakes now instead of on the field. You don't need to worry about being able to actually deploy for at least two weeks. So don't show off.
Now, with that in mind, kindly don the helmets above you and confirm readyness, then we'll begin."
You grab the helmet above you and pull it over your head and everything changes. The cockpit is vibrant and busy, viewscreens line the walls, readouts on ammunition, structural integrity, power and half a dozen other things sprawl across your control board. You have an honest-to-god mini map, the entire thing hums with life, and you can feel the raw power of piloting a two hundred foot tall warmachine. "Jonathan Alvarez, Righteous Penitent, ready," you say, doing your best to mimic the pilots you've seen on TV.
"Kim Hyun-Soon, Shockwave Cascade. Ready," says Kim, a bit on the nervous side.
"Excellent, deploying Soul Amplifying Solution. Penitent, you'll be receiving type-P, Cascade, you'll be receiving type-M. It's a bit more disconcerting than in the movies, and far worse than a BMI game in an arcade, but you'll be fine," says Baibars, "Don't panic, try not to choke."
You nod, then realize he can't see you and open your mouth to talk, then realize that they have a video feed to the pilots and can see you and half-close your mouth, and then your helmet is flooded with a thick, viscous blue liquid. You cough as it floods your nose and then try to control the reflex. It takes you a minute, but you stop coughing up the stuff and swallow a good few mouthfulls. You can feel it displacing air in your lungs, which is...less than pleasant, and then there's a kind of disconcerting feeling and things change immensely. You can feel what makes you you, the thing behind the eyes, your sense of self, your soul expanding and becoming more there. Admittedly, you can't sense much. The sim hasn't spawned an environment or any of your mech beyond the cockpit, but you can 'see' Kim's cockpit out to the right a few hundred feet, and can 'feel' her soul being there. It's honestly a bit difficult to describe.
"This is kinda cool," you say.
"It is, isn't it?" says Baibars, "Hyun-Soon, are you having any issues?"
"No, just...disconcerting, is all," she says.
"Excellent," says Baibars, "Now, here we go."
Very suddenly you're inside of Righteous Penitent in the middle of what you think is the Sahara Desert. You can see another Marida off to your left, presumably Shockwave Cascade. It's the most human Marida you've seen on base. It's bone-grey with splashes of blue around its oddly shaped helm and shoulders, it's got armor plating over its legs, torso and head but you can see techno-organic muscles on its arm and between the plates. It's got a pair of inbuilt weapons, long, thin boxes attached to the bottom of its forearms. You focus on them and a readout identifies them as Pilebunker Attachments.
Baibars opens the comms and is about to say something when you pre-empt him by taking a cautionary step forwards. You promptly, well, trip over your massive bulk and hit the desert floor. Hard. Kim moves to assist, but swiftly runs into the problem that both of you really only know the media version of piloting a Marida, and soon she joins you on the desert sands.
"I was about to tell you how to walk," says Baibars, "But as you seem to have pre-empted me, so let's work on how to get back up."
The next hour and a half are a quick crash course on movement and using your soul in an absolutely staggering variety of ways. Shields, barriers, weapons, more things than you can count, really. Evidently you, in particular, were going to get lessons from Umar on how to fully take advantage of Righteous Penitent's Emir type specializations during some future training session.
Eventually the quick-and-dirty training session ends, and Baibars generates a Launch Bay around you, complete with simulated dock workers and an entire wall of weapons of various sorts. "Right, grab what you like," says Baibars, "We're going to start combat tests. A recommendation, Shockwave Cascade is heavily melee-optimized, while Righteous Penitent has more developed ballistic targeting systems. And we're only going to be dealing with a raid, multiple Type 1s, normally those would only merit an Ifrit Deployment, you shouldn't need anything too heavy."
[X] 24 CM Mark 3 Assault Rifle
[X] Fiber Blade and Shield
[X] 44 CM Mark 1 Railgun
[X] Hyper-Exothermic Gauntlets
[X] Impact Gauntlets
[X] Fiber Spear
[X] H-Ex Knuckles
[X] Swarm Missile Launcher
[X] Payload Hammer
[X] Pilebunker Spear
Someone on IRC made me realize I forgot something therefore, edit:
[X] Tesla Sword and 30 CM Handcannon
[X] 30 CM Gatling Cannon
I Mustn't Run Away
You are torn between choices for a moment, there are so many guns and they all look really cool. You're tempted to go for the railgun and the gattler, but Baibars' words ring in your mind. Something light and ranged. You delay for a moment, you don't know much about how these actually work, and sure, it's a sim but you don't want to choose something wrong, right?
"I'm, uh, ready to go," says Kim, "Grabbed the fiber sword."
You grab the assault rifle, you don't want to be the one holding up the simulation after all, and state your readiness over the comms.
"Excellent," says Baibars, "Once you dock with the Cargo Elevators we will begin the combat simulation. For all intents and purposes we will be treating this as an actual attack, so I'm afraid the tutorial's not going to be much use."
Treating it as an actual attack. Right. You can do that, except for that entire 'no relevant experience' thing. And the 'hour and a half of training time' thing. But besides those you can do it.
...Pity you can't think of anything you've got going for you.
Still, uh, no pressure, right? Worst comes to worse, you fuck up a bit, try again after some more training. And a crippling sense of self-doubt.
You shake yourself out of your reverie, decide that thinking about it is really only going to make it worse, and step onto the cargo elevator. After a moment Kim does as well, and they start moving. One of your viewscreens flares to life, four screens displaying on its surface. Baibars is in one and three people you don't recognize, an asian woman, a white dude and another arab guy, all in uniforms identical to Baibars'. Your viewscreen identifies them as bridge officers Wong, Adams and Abdul Raheem.
"Pilots, there is a Type 1 Ma'Jooj raid against Palermo. TEMPLAR forces in the area have either fallen or are failing to hold them off, and we are moving in to assist," says Wong, "TEMPLAR reported at least eight type one Ma'Jooj inside of the city before they went down. Civilian reports claim that they are currently rampaging without any obvious objective. Your primary objectives are twofold, eliminate all Ma'Jooj in the city and protect the civilians and city of Palermo. There will be minimal conventional assistance in this battle."
"Ghazali scores are steady. Penitent is operating at 40% efficiency, effective score of 5.4. Cascade is operating at 63% efficiency, effective score of 6.3," says Adams, "All Marida are at operational levels."
"Cargo elevator is approaching surface, Pilots prepare to engage," says Abdul Raheem. He says something vaguely comforting in arabic afterwards, and then counts down from three and sunlight floods the cargo elevator. It's a beautiful mid-summers day in Palermo, and were it not for the destroyed tanks, burning buildings and screaming civilians the simulation had generated might even have been pleasant.
"Penitent, Cascade, you are 500 meters from each other. There are skyscrapers separating you," says Wong, "We do not have signs on any of the Ma'Jooj. Link up and keep an eye out for the Ma'Jooj." You wonder for a moment how the hell you're supposed to know where Kim and Cascade are, then remember that you've got a minimap on one of the viewscreens.
"Got it," you say. You push forwards, stepping gingerly around cars and fleeing civilians and destroyed tanks. You can vaguely sense Cascade's projected soul with your own, way at the edge of your perception, and turn to meet up with it.
"Contact! UAV saw two Ma'Jooj heading south for Cascade before they blasted it. Low level soul manipulation confirmed, estimated at 2.3," yells Wong.
"Cascade, hold position, Penitent, move to assist. Smash any deflective barriers they have before opening fire," says Baibars, "And keep your fields up."
You turn down a street and start running for Cascade, the pavement cracking and splintering beneath you as you leap over cars and destroyed vehicles. You sense movement and turn on reflex. A third soul is approaching, far tinier than Cascade's or your own. You bring up your gun and round a corner.
It's a Ma'Jooj, maybe half your height. A vaguely-humanoid thing covered in bone-white carapace with a mouth like an alligator. It's hunched over and is running after a school bus on two legs, occasionally striking at the bus with its clublike forelegs. One of the cities defense turrets fires as you stare, ninety millimeter rounds simply deflecting off of its soul-shield.
It's terrifying. You've never seen one in person, never saw them casually rip through a building in their chase, never saw them sheer screaming civilians in half as they chased their prey, never felt the raw malevolence streaming off of their soul in waves. It's not even important, as Ma'Jooj go, but it represents Rama, who killed two pilots, and Juggernaut, who killed an entire state, and The Order of Saint George, which died to almost the last man when London Base was stormed. It represents something you know will kill you.
It notices you and stops caring about the schoolbus. Another burst of ninety millimeter rounds bounces off of it. You hear Kim muttering in the comms, something about retreat or running, you hear Baibars urging you on, Wong yelling, but it's all you can do not to run.
The Ma'Jooj leaps, and you reflexively lash out. Your flailing misses, but your panic directs the raw might of your soul more effectively than you'd hoped, you spike the Ma'Jooj into the ground and hear its shell crack. The reverie's broken, you yell in a mix of triumph and adrenaline and open fire, full auto, on the prone Ma'Jooj. The creature's soul simply cannot withstand your raw presence and cracks as you fire. Rounds punch through defenses that withstood a conventional army and rip into it, shattering its shell and spine and eliciting monstrous shrieks. Eventually you stop and watch viscous black ichor drain from its body.
"Vital signs are critical, Ma'Jooj is unable to maintain Soul Cohesion," says Wong, "Good work."
"Jonathan, Hyun-Soon has engaged her targets," said Baibars, "I recommend you move to assist."
Combat Summary: First Turn
Dagonspawn 1 wins initiative! Dagonspawn one charges and attacks!
Dagonspawn 1 rolls a botch (99). Dagonspawn one deals itself 8 damage and falls prone!
Righteous Penitent uses Full Auto Burst on Dagonspawn. Righteous Penitent automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score. Righteous Penitent scores two hits, dealing 7 damage. Dagonspawn is down to -5 critical, Dagonspawn is crippled.
[X] Finish it off, move to assist Shockwave Cascade
[X] No time to waste, move to assist Shockwave Cascade
[X] There was one that just about ambushed you, move to find others.
[X] Write-In
She Didn't Run Away
You watched the movies, you're not going to fall for this trick. You stomp over to the Ma'Jooj and stomp on its everything until it dies.
It doesn't take long, but the screaming's a bit disconcerting. "Right, so, uh, how do I reload?" you ask once you're done. None of the bridge crew are paying attention, they're saying...something, hurriedly, you can see that, but they're not talking to you. Which means they're transmitting to Kim, which means-
You take off, sprinting towards Shockwave Cascade's icon on your mini-map. "Kim, this is Jon, I'm on my way," you say, "How, uh, are you-"
"Slightly busy!" says Kim, "Wait, nonono-" There's incoherent yelling from the other end of the line. You start sprinting, taking strides that propel you thirty meters at a time as you try to make sure you aren't there too late. You start worrying yourself sick, imagining how badly the fight is-
"FIRING LEFT PILEDRIVER!" yells Kim over the line. Then Shockwave Cascade comes into view, holding a Ma'Jooj in one hand before slamming it into a skyscraper. There's a sound like a thunderbolt and the Ma'Jooj's head explodes.
"That's three down," says Wong, "Good work, the both of you. Now, surviving Templars have pinpointed four of the remaining five Ma'Jooj, we need you to-"
"Uh, question?" you say.
"...Yes Jonathan?" asks Wong.
"How do I reload this?" you ask.
"You reload it like a normal rifle, just scaled up. The ammunition's in your storage-"
"I, uh, don't know how to load those," you say.
"Adams, give him a tutorial," says Baibars, "Wong, please finish."
"Right, four of the remaining five Ma'Jooj have hidden themselves in Pretoria Square," said Wong, "We've got a rough route, but the approach is all on you. You have until Jonathan successfully reloads his rifle, we want these things gone before they can cause too much more damage to the city."
Combat Summary: First and Second Turn (Kim Hyun-Soon)
Kim Hyun fails fear roll, Shockwave Cascade loses her first turn!
Dagonspawn 1 sieges Shockwave Cascade's soul and attacks! Dagonspawn 1 misses entirely.
Dagonspawn 2 sieges Shockwave Cascade's soul and attacks! Dagonspawn 2 also misses entirely.
Dagonspawn 1 maintains Siege and attacks! Dagonspawn 1 misses entirely again.
Shockwave Cascade attacks Dagonspawn 1 twice with its tesla sword and once with its handcannon! Shockwave Cascade automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade scores two hits, dealing 17 damage (Missing the handcannon shot)! Dagonspawn 1 is at -7 critical and dies instantly!
Dagonspawn 2 makes a called shot for Shockwave Cascade's tesla sword out of frustration. Dagonspawn 2 hits by the skin of its teeth! Shockwave Cascade fails to parry! Dagonspawn 2 deals 9 damage and destroys the Tesla Sword! Dagonspawn 2 takes the rest of its turn to run the fuck away!
Shockwave Cascade charges Dagonspawn 2 and attacks it with its inbuilt pilebunkers! Shockwave Cascade automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade deals 16 damage, threatening Overwhelm! Shockwave Cascade automatically succeeds on Overwhelm test due to piledriver and deals an additional 1 damage! Dagonspawn 2 is at -7 critical and dies instantly!
Havocfett weeps for the absurd ineffectiveness of his enemies!
Combat Summary: Second Turn (Jonathan Alvarez)
Righteous Penitent executes Dagonspawn 1! Righteous Penitent moves to assist Shockwave Cascade! Jonathan Alvarez finds that Shockwave Cascade already killed all of its enemies!
Bridge Bunnies pick up remaining Dagonspawn on radar! Bridge Bunnies inform Righteous Penitent of how to reload its assault rifle!
[X] Write-in a plan.
A Certain Ma'Jooj Railgun
Under Wong's advisement you trail behind Cascade, one street to its right and checking left hand crossroads. You ping periodically, trying to ensure that you aren't ambushed, but the four don't really move much as you close.
Three hundred meters. The area's devoid of civilians, though wrecks of tanks, turrets and cars litter the streets. You catch yourself hoping that everyone made it out OK before you realize that it's just a simulation.
Two hundred meters, they've taken cover behind the buildings, you don't have a good shot. You raise your assault rifle, following Abdul Raheem's instructions to switch to semi-atumatic fire. Cascade advances. You move. The Ma'Jooj move. You swing towards them and flare your soul, trying to track them. Three are staying still, you barely see the fourth before it rams into you and knocks you flat. It hurts like hell.
You rise almost reflexively, firing off a shot that forces the Ma'Jooj to scurry behind a building as you try to figure out how it moved so fast.
"Pilots, be aware, the Ma'Jooj are working together and using their souls to...slingshot themselves at you, we're unsure how exactly it works," says Wong, "But they seem to be able to propel each other at incredibly high speeds.
You have just enough to realize that they've got what amounts to a Ma'Jooj Railgun before the next one zips down the road, skims off a building and spins you around. Thankfully your armor took that one, and the Ma'Jooj doesn't look all that well off.
Worse off, once Cascade vaults off of a building and starts beating its face in.
Combat Summary: Operation Ma'Jooj Cannon!
Dagonspawn 1 uses Kinetic Jolt on Dagonspawn 2! Dagonspawn 2 doesn't defend, Dagonspawn 1 rolls 3 DoS, flinging Dagonspawn 2 a full 130 meters at Righteous Penitent! Righteous Penitent fails to dodge and takes 3 damage to the chest! Dagonspawn 2 fails its Agility Roll to negate fall damage and takes 4 damage!
Righteous Penitent stands from prone and shoots at Dagonspawn 2 with a single shot! Dagonspawn 2 dodges successfully!
Dagonspawn 3 uses Kinetic Jolt on Dagonspawn 4! Dagonspawn 4 doesn't defend, Dagonspawn 3 rolls 2 DoS, flinging Dagonspawn 4 a full 120 meters at Righteous Penitent! Righteous Penitent fails to dodge and takes 0 damage to the chest! Dagonspawn 4 fails its Agility Roll to negate fall damage and takes 7 damage!
Shockwave Cascade charges Dagonspawn 4 and attacks it with its inbuilt pilebunkers! Shockwave Cascade automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade deals 6 damage! Dagonspawn 4 is at 3 critical and can only take half-actions for 3 rounds!
Dagonspawns 3 and 4 spend their turns getting up and moving to melee.
[X] Write-In Reaction!
Splat!
As Cascade continues to beat its Dagonspawn to a bloody pulp with piledriver smashes, you take a step behind a tall building and keep your eye on the two Ma'Jooj still in the plaza. That railgun thing they were doing hurt, and you're not planning on letting it happen again. One of the Ma'Jooj near your maneuvers, trying to get around your cover for a clear shot. You ignore it.
Movement from the plaza, you twist and...not think, too intellectual, but project, focus your metaphysical defenses and slam them into a solid wall in front of you. The Ma'Jooj is launched at you and smashes into the projection of your soul. Its carapace cracks in three places and it falls, injured. You level your rifle, allowing your targeting computer to guide you as you line up a shot. You fire and its head detonates like an ichor-filled watermelon.
Then you move again, the closest Ma'Jooj is maneuvering around the barrier. It raises an arm and its clublike hand unfurls, revealing something like a stinger. It glows and you dive to put your barrier between you and the Ma'Jooj. You make it behind the shield just in time, and a lance of plasma refracts off of it, melting the road around the barrier. You yell in triumph and hear Wong yell a warning and then everything is pain. You scream and twist and fall, trying to slam away the blur of claws and clubs smashing into your massive torso. Armor peels away and you feel lances of muted pain as it rips something important out of your-Penitent's, chest. You twist, the plug's assistance system relay orders, and you manage to force the Ma'Jooj off of you with the butt of your rifle.
Then you unload into it at point blank, shoving your gun into the monster's chest before pulling the trigger and holding it down. Rounds rip through carapace and flesh, shredding organs and sending ichor spraying. By the time you're done, it's so much meat. You nearly collapse, and rest your rifle butt on the ground to support yourself. You spot Cascade, it's standing over a mangled Ma'Jooj, one massive boot embedded in the things spinal cord. Its head armor is peeling and the blue paint's been scorched away by...something. There's another corpse behind it, the one that it charged earlier, you think.
Which means...one Ma'Jooj left.
One of the viewscreens flickers to life, Kim appears in it. She doesn't look hurt, maybe a bit rattled. "Hey, uh, Jon," asks Kim, "You OK?"
"I think I'll live," you say, putting on a brave face, "Dirk beat me worse in Smash Bros yesterday. Uh, look, there's only one left, so I think I know what we should do."
Combat Summary:
Dagonspawn 1 uses Kinetic Jolt on Dagonspawn 3! Dagonspawn 3 doesn't defend, Dagonspawn 1 rolls 1 DoS, flinging Dagonspawn 3 a full 110 meters at Righteous Penitent! Righteous Penitent activates Insha'Allah, deflecting the attack! Dagonspawn 3 fails its agility roll, which is hilariously improbably at this point, and takes 9 damage, which is just absurd!
Righteous Penitent shoots at Dagonspawn 3 with a single shot! Righteous Penitent automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Righteous Penitent deals 7 damage! Dagonspawn 3 is at -6 critical and must make a toughness test or die! Dagonspawn 3 fails its test and dies!
Dagonspawn 2 attacks Righteous Penitent with a Plasma Lance! Dagonspawn 2 fails to siege through Righteous Penitent's Souls Might due to Insha'Allah!
Shockwave Cascade attacks Dagonspawn 4 with its inbuilt pilebunkers! Shockwave Cascade automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade deals 4 damage! Dagonspawn 4 is at -7 critical and dies!
Dagonspawn 5 ambushes Righteous Penitent and attacks with its claws! Dagonspawn 5 sieges through Righteous Penitent's Souls Might due to deployment of Insha'Allah. Dagonspawn 5 deals 5 damage and threatens Overwhelm! Overwhelm succeeds, Dagonspawn 5 does an additional 3 damage! Righteous Penitent is at 1 critical on the body and loses 2 AP to all sections due to peeling armor!
Dagonspawn 1 full action moves towards Shockwave Cascade! Dagonspawn 1 moves 90 meters and is not yet in melee range!
Righteous Penitent opens up on Full Auto at Point Blank on Dagonspawn 5! Righteous Penitent sieges through Dagonspawn 5's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Righteous Penitent scores 4 hits on full auto, dealing 25 damage! Dagonspawn 5 is at -15 critical and dies horribly!
Dagonspawn 2 attacks Shockwave Cascade with a Plasma Lance! Dagonspawn 2 sieges through Shockwave Cascade's Souls Might due to Breach and Degrees of Success! Dagonspawn 2 deals 4 damage to the head! Shockwave Cascade has 1 wound left on the head!
Shockwave Cascade charges Dagonspawn 2! Shockwave Cascade sieges through Dagonspawn 2's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade deals 11 damage to Dagonspawn 2! Dagonspawn 2 is at -5 critical and must make a toughness test or die! Dagonspawn 2 succeeds on its test! Dagonspawn 2 is stunned for a round!
Shockwave Cascade executes Dagonspawn 2!
[X] We're damaged, but we've got almost all of them. Keep shooting!
[X] We're badly off, we don't want to risk taking more damage than we have to. Play it safe.
[X] Fuckit, we'll kill him before he can do something clever. Melee some fools.
[X] OH FUCK OUR CHEST THIS IS ALL THE PAIN WHY ARE WE BLUSTERING HERE OH GOD WHY.
[X] Write-in.
Endgame
You and Kim take cover behind a building and start plotting. "I'm pretty badly damaged, I think it broke something in my chest," you say, "And, uh, your head's peeling a bit." Kim paws at her head for a moment, feeling out the damage to her Marida.
"Huh, I hadn't noticed," she says, "Thanks, I guess."
"Yeah, so, I really don't want to go down on the first run," you say, "I was thinking, since there's one left, we do it like Wong had us do for the approach? Move up slowly, try to hit it without getting ourselves killed?"
"Sure," says Kim, "I like not dying."
You break from cover, you've got your rifle leveled towards the plaza and Kim's got her handcannon ready. You advance slowly, trying to avoid showing too much of yourself at once.
A plasma lance leaps out from the plaza, cutting through a building to your right. You line up the shot, following the auto-targetters instructions, and let a single, massive round fly. It rips through a building and then there's a crunch and a scream from the plaza. "Hit it!" you say, "I think it's down!"
That's when the plasma beam replies and rips across your chest. You recoil and yell, no major damage but it stung and you weren't expecting it.
Shockwave Cascade drops its pistol and simply charges. It barrels through a block of houses, through the buildings surrounding the plaza and drives a pilebunker into the last Ma'Jooj's head and fires.
The cockpits go dark and the, uh, fluids drain from your helmets. You cough and splutter as you get used to breathing air again.
'Mission Successful' says the viewscreen, 'Simulation terminated'.
Combat Summary: (Truncated for brevity)
Righteous Penitent takes aim and fires a single shot at Dagonspawn 1! Righteous Penitent sieges through and deals seven damage. Dagonspawn 1 still has wounds left!
Dagonspawn 1 takes aim and fires a plasma lance at Righteous Penitent! Dagonspawn 1 sieges through and deals 0 damage. Righteous Penitent thanks its lucky stars for working armor.
Shockwave Cascade charges Dagonspawn 1 with a pilebunker attack! Shockwave Cascade sieges through and deals 13 damage. Dagonspawn 1 is at critical 10 and fucking explodes.
Combat ends successfully! Havocfett must now redownload GIMP to make the little achievement icons!
[X] Congratulate Kim Hyun-Soon on a mission well done
[X] Wait for evaluation
[X] Get out, ask how you did.
[X] SO MUCH PAIN GOD WHY I HATE THIS THING
[X] Write-In
You and Kim are up first, Dirk and Amina are next, and then Khadjiah, Tang and Raj. You turn towards Kim, who nods in acknowledgement from the next screen over.
Dirk bops you on the shoulder as you walk by. "Don't fuck up," he says.
You ignore him, walk over to Kim and extend a hand. "You ready?" you ask.
"I think so," says Kim, giving you a firm handshake, "Just, uh, good luck." The two of you turn and head for the simulation cockpits. The doors to the nearest two cockpits slide open as you approach, then slide shut as you enter. The cockpit is large and conspicuously blank, there's a helmet dangling from the ceiling and a barebone pilots seat, but it's not what the media made you think the inside of a Marida cockpit would look like. Slightly confused, and maybe a bit disappointed, you sit in the chair and wait for instructions.
"Excellent, you're both in, now, we're going to be doing a pretty basic simulation today. Some basic walkthroughs on how to pilot your Marida and weaponize your Soul, and a short drill on Type 1 Ma'Jooj Raids," calls Baibars over the comm, "There's no pressure to somehow excel here. The entire point of this is so that you make the mistakes now instead of on the field. You don't need to worry about being able to actually deploy for at least two weeks. So don't show off.
Now, with that in mind, kindly don the helmets above you and confirm readyness, then we'll begin."
You grab the helmet above you and pull it over your head and everything changes. The cockpit is vibrant and busy, viewscreens line the walls, readouts on ammunition, structural integrity, power and half a dozen other things sprawl across your control board. You have an honest-to-god mini map, the entire thing hums with life, and you can feel the raw power of piloting a two hundred foot tall warmachine. "Jonathan Alvarez, Righteous Penitent, ready," you say, doing your best to mimic the pilots you've seen on TV.
"Kim Hyun-Soon, Shockwave Cascade. Ready," says Kim, a bit on the nervous side.
"Excellent, deploying Soul Amplifying Solution. Penitent, you'll be receiving type-P, Cascade, you'll be receiving type-M. It's a bit more disconcerting than in the movies, and far worse than a BMI game in an arcade, but you'll be fine," says Baibars, "Don't panic, try not to choke."
You nod, then realize he can't see you and open your mouth to talk, then realize that they have a video feed to the pilots and can see you and half-close your mouth, and then your helmet is flooded with a thick, viscous blue liquid. You cough as it floods your nose and then try to control the reflex. It takes you a minute, but you stop coughing up the stuff and swallow a good few mouthfulls. You can feel it displacing air in your lungs, which is...less than pleasant, and then there's a kind of disconcerting feeling and things change immensely. You can feel what makes you you, the thing behind the eyes, your sense of self, your soul expanding and becoming more there. Admittedly, you can't sense much. The sim hasn't spawned an environment or any of your mech beyond the cockpit, but you can 'see' Kim's cockpit out to the right a few hundred feet, and can 'feel' her soul being there. It's honestly a bit difficult to describe.
"This is kinda cool," you say.
"It is, isn't it?" says Baibars, "Hyun-Soon, are you having any issues?"
"No, just...disconcerting, is all," she says.
"Excellent," says Baibars, "Now, here we go."
Very suddenly you're inside of Righteous Penitent in the middle of what you think is the Sahara Desert. You can see another Marida off to your left, presumably Shockwave Cascade. It's the most human Marida you've seen on base. It's bone-grey with splashes of blue around its oddly shaped helm and shoulders, it's got armor plating over its legs, torso and head but you can see techno-organic muscles on its arm and between the plates. It's got a pair of inbuilt weapons, long, thin boxes attached to the bottom of its forearms. You focus on them and a readout identifies them as Pilebunker Attachments.
Baibars opens the comms and is about to say something when you pre-empt him by taking a cautionary step forwards. You promptly, well, trip over your massive bulk and hit the desert floor. Hard. Kim moves to assist, but swiftly runs into the problem that both of you really only know the media version of piloting a Marida, and soon she joins you on the desert sands.
"I was about to tell you how to walk," says Baibars, "But as you seem to have pre-empted me, so let's work on how to get back up."
The next hour and a half are a quick crash course on movement and using your soul in an absolutely staggering variety of ways. Shields, barriers, weapons, more things than you can count, really. Evidently you, in particular, were going to get lessons from Umar on how to fully take advantage of Righteous Penitent's Emir type specializations during some future training session.
Eventually the quick-and-dirty training session ends, and Baibars generates a Launch Bay around you, complete with simulated dock workers and an entire wall of weapons of various sorts. "Right, grab what you like," says Baibars, "We're going to start combat tests. A recommendation, Shockwave Cascade is heavily melee-optimized, while Righteous Penitent has more developed ballistic targeting systems. And we're only going to be dealing with a raid, multiple Type 1s, normally those would only merit an Ifrit Deployment, you shouldn't need anything too heavy."
[X] 24 CM Mark 3 Assault Rifle
[X] Fiber Blade and Shield
[X] 44 CM Mark 1 Railgun
[X] Hyper-Exothermic Gauntlets
[X] Impact Gauntlets
[X] Fiber Spear
[X] H-Ex Knuckles
[X] Swarm Missile Launcher
[X] Payload Hammer
[X] Pilebunker Spear
Someone on IRC made me realize I forgot something therefore, edit:
[X] Tesla Sword and 30 CM Handcannon
[X] 30 CM Gatling Cannon
I Mustn't Run Away
You are torn between choices for a moment, there are so many guns and they all look really cool. You're tempted to go for the railgun and the gattler, but Baibars' words ring in your mind. Something light and ranged. You delay for a moment, you don't know much about how these actually work, and sure, it's a sim but you don't want to choose something wrong, right?
"I'm, uh, ready to go," says Kim, "Grabbed the fiber sword."
You grab the assault rifle, you don't want to be the one holding up the simulation after all, and state your readiness over the comms.
"Excellent," says Baibars, "Once you dock with the Cargo Elevators we will begin the combat simulation. For all intents and purposes we will be treating this as an actual attack, so I'm afraid the tutorial's not going to be much use."
Treating it as an actual attack. Right. You can do that, except for that entire 'no relevant experience' thing. And the 'hour and a half of training time' thing. But besides those you can do it.
...Pity you can't think of anything you've got going for you.
Still, uh, no pressure, right? Worst comes to worse, you fuck up a bit, try again after some more training. And a crippling sense of self-doubt.
You shake yourself out of your reverie, decide that thinking about it is really only going to make it worse, and step onto the cargo elevator. After a moment Kim does as well, and they start moving. One of your viewscreens flares to life, four screens displaying on its surface. Baibars is in one and three people you don't recognize, an asian woman, a white dude and another arab guy, all in uniforms identical to Baibars'. Your viewscreen identifies them as bridge officers Wong, Adams and Abdul Raheem.
"Pilots, there is a Type 1 Ma'Jooj raid against Palermo. TEMPLAR forces in the area have either fallen or are failing to hold them off, and we are moving in to assist," says Wong, "TEMPLAR reported at least eight type one Ma'Jooj inside of the city before they went down. Civilian reports claim that they are currently rampaging without any obvious objective. Your primary objectives are twofold, eliminate all Ma'Jooj in the city and protect the civilians and city of Palermo. There will be minimal conventional assistance in this battle."
"Ghazali scores are steady. Penitent is operating at 40% efficiency, effective score of 5.4. Cascade is operating at 63% efficiency, effective score of 6.3," says Adams, "All Marida are at operational levels."
"Cargo elevator is approaching surface, Pilots prepare to engage," says Abdul Raheem. He says something vaguely comforting in arabic afterwards, and then counts down from three and sunlight floods the cargo elevator. It's a beautiful mid-summers day in Palermo, and were it not for the destroyed tanks, burning buildings and screaming civilians the simulation had generated might even have been pleasant.
"Penitent, Cascade, you are 500 meters from each other. There are skyscrapers separating you," says Wong, "We do not have signs on any of the Ma'Jooj. Link up and keep an eye out for the Ma'Jooj." You wonder for a moment how the hell you're supposed to know where Kim and Cascade are, then remember that you've got a minimap on one of the viewscreens.
"Got it," you say. You push forwards, stepping gingerly around cars and fleeing civilians and destroyed tanks. You can vaguely sense Cascade's projected soul with your own, way at the edge of your perception, and turn to meet up with it.
"Contact! UAV saw two Ma'Jooj heading south for Cascade before they blasted it. Low level soul manipulation confirmed, estimated at 2.3," yells Wong.
"Cascade, hold position, Penitent, move to assist. Smash any deflective barriers they have before opening fire," says Baibars, "And keep your fields up."
You turn down a street and start running for Cascade, the pavement cracking and splintering beneath you as you leap over cars and destroyed vehicles. You sense movement and turn on reflex. A third soul is approaching, far tinier than Cascade's or your own. You bring up your gun and round a corner.
It's a Ma'Jooj, maybe half your height. A vaguely-humanoid thing covered in bone-white carapace with a mouth like an alligator. It's hunched over and is running after a school bus on two legs, occasionally striking at the bus with its clublike forelegs. One of the cities defense turrets fires as you stare, ninety millimeter rounds simply deflecting off of its soul-shield.
It's terrifying. You've never seen one in person, never saw them casually rip through a building in their chase, never saw them sheer screaming civilians in half as they chased their prey, never felt the raw malevolence streaming off of their soul in waves. It's not even important, as Ma'Jooj go, but it represents Rama, who killed two pilots, and Juggernaut, who killed an entire state, and The Order of Saint George, which died to almost the last man when London Base was stormed. It represents something you know will kill you.
It notices you and stops caring about the schoolbus. Another burst of ninety millimeter rounds bounces off of it. You hear Kim muttering in the comms, something about retreat or running, you hear Baibars urging you on, Wong yelling, but it's all you can do not to run.
The Ma'Jooj leaps, and you reflexively lash out. Your flailing misses, but your panic directs the raw might of your soul more effectively than you'd hoped, you spike the Ma'Jooj into the ground and hear its shell crack. The reverie's broken, you yell in a mix of triumph and adrenaline and open fire, full auto, on the prone Ma'Jooj. The creature's soul simply cannot withstand your raw presence and cracks as you fire. Rounds punch through defenses that withstood a conventional army and rip into it, shattering its shell and spine and eliciting monstrous shrieks. Eventually you stop and watch viscous black ichor drain from its body.
"Vital signs are critical, Ma'Jooj is unable to maintain Soul Cohesion," says Wong, "Good work."
"Jonathan, Hyun-Soon has engaged her targets," said Baibars, "I recommend you move to assist."
Combat Summary: First Turn
Dagonspawn 1 wins initiative! Dagonspawn one charges and attacks!
Dagonspawn 1 rolls a botch (99). Dagonspawn one deals itself 8 damage and falls prone!
Righteous Penitent uses Full Auto Burst on Dagonspawn. Righteous Penitent automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score. Righteous Penitent scores two hits, dealing 7 damage. Dagonspawn is down to -5 critical, Dagonspawn is crippled.
[X] Finish it off, move to assist Shockwave Cascade
[X] No time to waste, move to assist Shockwave Cascade
[X] There was one that just about ambushed you, move to find others.
[X] Write-In
She Didn't Run Away
You watched the movies, you're not going to fall for this trick. You stomp over to the Ma'Jooj and stomp on its everything until it dies.
It doesn't take long, but the screaming's a bit disconcerting. "Right, so, uh, how do I reload?" you ask once you're done. None of the bridge crew are paying attention, they're saying...something, hurriedly, you can see that, but they're not talking to you. Which means they're transmitting to Kim, which means-
You take off, sprinting towards Shockwave Cascade's icon on your mini-map. "Kim, this is Jon, I'm on my way," you say, "How, uh, are you-"
"Slightly busy!" says Kim, "Wait, nonono-" There's incoherent yelling from the other end of the line. You start sprinting, taking strides that propel you thirty meters at a time as you try to make sure you aren't there too late. You start worrying yourself sick, imagining how badly the fight is-
"FIRING LEFT PILEDRIVER!" yells Kim over the line. Then Shockwave Cascade comes into view, holding a Ma'Jooj in one hand before slamming it into a skyscraper. There's a sound like a thunderbolt and the Ma'Jooj's head explodes.
"That's three down," says Wong, "Good work, the both of you. Now, surviving Templars have pinpointed four of the remaining five Ma'Jooj, we need you to-"
"Uh, question?" you say.
"...Yes Jonathan?" asks Wong.
"How do I reload this?" you ask.
"You reload it like a normal rifle, just scaled up. The ammunition's in your storage-"
"I, uh, don't know how to load those," you say.
"Adams, give him a tutorial," says Baibars, "Wong, please finish."
"Right, four of the remaining five Ma'Jooj have hidden themselves in Pretoria Square," said Wong, "We've got a rough route, but the approach is all on you. You have until Jonathan successfully reloads his rifle, we want these things gone before they can cause too much more damage to the city."
Combat Summary: First and Second Turn (Kim Hyun-Soon)
Kim Hyun fails fear roll, Shockwave Cascade loses her first turn!
Dagonspawn 1 sieges Shockwave Cascade's soul and attacks! Dagonspawn 1 misses entirely.
Dagonspawn 2 sieges Shockwave Cascade's soul and attacks! Dagonspawn 2 also misses entirely.
Dagonspawn 1 maintains Siege and attacks! Dagonspawn 1 misses entirely again.
Shockwave Cascade attacks Dagonspawn 1 twice with its tesla sword and once with its handcannon! Shockwave Cascade automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade scores two hits, dealing 17 damage (Missing the handcannon shot)! Dagonspawn 1 is at -7 critical and dies instantly!
Dagonspawn 2 makes a called shot for Shockwave Cascade's tesla sword out of frustration. Dagonspawn 2 hits by the skin of its teeth! Shockwave Cascade fails to parry! Dagonspawn 2 deals 9 damage and destroys the Tesla Sword! Dagonspawn 2 takes the rest of its turn to run the fuck away!
Shockwave Cascade charges Dagonspawn 2 and attacks it with its inbuilt pilebunkers! Shockwave Cascade automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade deals 16 damage, threatening Overwhelm! Shockwave Cascade automatically succeeds on Overwhelm test due to piledriver and deals an additional 1 damage! Dagonspawn 2 is at -7 critical and dies instantly!
Havocfett weeps for the absurd ineffectiveness of his enemies!
Combat Summary: Second Turn (Jonathan Alvarez)
Righteous Penitent executes Dagonspawn 1! Righteous Penitent moves to assist Shockwave Cascade! Jonathan Alvarez finds that Shockwave Cascade already killed all of its enemies!
Bridge Bunnies pick up remaining Dagonspawn on radar! Bridge Bunnies inform Righteous Penitent of how to reload its assault rifle!
[X] Write-in a plan.
A Certain Ma'Jooj Railgun
Under Wong's advisement you trail behind Cascade, one street to its right and checking left hand crossroads. You ping periodically, trying to ensure that you aren't ambushed, but the four don't really move much as you close.
Three hundred meters. The area's devoid of civilians, though wrecks of tanks, turrets and cars litter the streets. You catch yourself hoping that everyone made it out OK before you realize that it's just a simulation.
Two hundred meters, they've taken cover behind the buildings, you don't have a good shot. You raise your assault rifle, following Abdul Raheem's instructions to switch to semi-atumatic fire. Cascade advances. You move. The Ma'Jooj move. You swing towards them and flare your soul, trying to track them. Three are staying still, you barely see the fourth before it rams into you and knocks you flat. It hurts like hell.
You rise almost reflexively, firing off a shot that forces the Ma'Jooj to scurry behind a building as you try to figure out how it moved so fast.
"Pilots, be aware, the Ma'Jooj are working together and using their souls to...slingshot themselves at you, we're unsure how exactly it works," says Wong, "But they seem to be able to propel each other at incredibly high speeds.
You have just enough to realize that they've got what amounts to a Ma'Jooj Railgun before the next one zips down the road, skims off a building and spins you around. Thankfully your armor took that one, and the Ma'Jooj doesn't look all that well off.
Worse off, once Cascade vaults off of a building and starts beating its face in.
Combat Summary: Operation Ma'Jooj Cannon!
Dagonspawn 1 uses Kinetic Jolt on Dagonspawn 2! Dagonspawn 2 doesn't defend, Dagonspawn 1 rolls 3 DoS, flinging Dagonspawn 2 a full 130 meters at Righteous Penitent! Righteous Penitent fails to dodge and takes 3 damage to the chest! Dagonspawn 2 fails its Agility Roll to negate fall damage and takes 4 damage!
Righteous Penitent stands from prone and shoots at Dagonspawn 2 with a single shot! Dagonspawn 2 dodges successfully!
Dagonspawn 3 uses Kinetic Jolt on Dagonspawn 4! Dagonspawn 4 doesn't defend, Dagonspawn 3 rolls 2 DoS, flinging Dagonspawn 4 a full 120 meters at Righteous Penitent! Righteous Penitent fails to dodge and takes 0 damage to the chest! Dagonspawn 4 fails its Agility Roll to negate fall damage and takes 7 damage!
Shockwave Cascade charges Dagonspawn 4 and attacks it with its inbuilt pilebunkers! Shockwave Cascade automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade deals 6 damage! Dagonspawn 4 is at 3 critical and can only take half-actions for 3 rounds!
Dagonspawns 3 and 4 spend their turns getting up and moving to melee.
[X] Write-In Reaction!
Splat!
As Cascade continues to beat its Dagonspawn to a bloody pulp with piledriver smashes, you take a step behind a tall building and keep your eye on the two Ma'Jooj still in the plaza. That railgun thing they were doing hurt, and you're not planning on letting it happen again. One of the Ma'Jooj near your maneuvers, trying to get around your cover for a clear shot. You ignore it.
Movement from the plaza, you twist and...not think, too intellectual, but project, focus your metaphysical defenses and slam them into a solid wall in front of you. The Ma'Jooj is launched at you and smashes into the projection of your soul. Its carapace cracks in three places and it falls, injured. You level your rifle, allowing your targeting computer to guide you as you line up a shot. You fire and its head detonates like an ichor-filled watermelon.
Then you move again, the closest Ma'Jooj is maneuvering around the barrier. It raises an arm and its clublike hand unfurls, revealing something like a stinger. It glows and you dive to put your barrier between you and the Ma'Jooj. You make it behind the shield just in time, and a lance of plasma refracts off of it, melting the road around the barrier. You yell in triumph and hear Wong yell a warning and then everything is pain. You scream and twist and fall, trying to slam away the blur of claws and clubs smashing into your massive torso. Armor peels away and you feel lances of muted pain as it rips something important out of your-Penitent's, chest. You twist, the plug's assistance system relay orders, and you manage to force the Ma'Jooj off of you with the butt of your rifle.
Then you unload into it at point blank, shoving your gun into the monster's chest before pulling the trigger and holding it down. Rounds rip through carapace and flesh, shredding organs and sending ichor spraying. By the time you're done, it's so much meat. You nearly collapse, and rest your rifle butt on the ground to support yourself. You spot Cascade, it's standing over a mangled Ma'Jooj, one massive boot embedded in the things spinal cord. Its head armor is peeling and the blue paint's been scorched away by...something. There's another corpse behind it, the one that it charged earlier, you think.
Which means...one Ma'Jooj left.
One of the viewscreens flickers to life, Kim appears in it. She doesn't look hurt, maybe a bit rattled. "Hey, uh, Jon," asks Kim, "You OK?"
"I think I'll live," you say, putting on a brave face, "Dirk beat me worse in Smash Bros yesterday. Uh, look, there's only one left, so I think I know what we should do."
Combat Summary:
Dagonspawn 1 uses Kinetic Jolt on Dagonspawn 3! Dagonspawn 3 doesn't defend, Dagonspawn 1 rolls 1 DoS, flinging Dagonspawn 3 a full 110 meters at Righteous Penitent! Righteous Penitent activates Insha'Allah, deflecting the attack! Dagonspawn 3 fails its agility roll, which is hilariously improbably at this point, and takes 9 damage, which is just absurd!
Righteous Penitent shoots at Dagonspawn 3 with a single shot! Righteous Penitent automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Righteous Penitent deals 7 damage! Dagonspawn 3 is at -6 critical and must make a toughness test or die! Dagonspawn 3 fails its test and dies!
Dagonspawn 2 attacks Righteous Penitent with a Plasma Lance! Dagonspawn 2 fails to siege through Righteous Penitent's Souls Might due to Insha'Allah!
Shockwave Cascade attacks Dagonspawn 4 with its inbuilt pilebunkers! Shockwave Cascade automatically sieges through Dagonspawn's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade deals 4 damage! Dagonspawn 4 is at -7 critical and dies!
Dagonspawn 5 ambushes Righteous Penitent and attacks with its claws! Dagonspawn 5 sieges through Righteous Penitent's Souls Might due to deployment of Insha'Allah. Dagonspawn 5 deals 5 damage and threatens Overwhelm! Overwhelm succeeds, Dagonspawn 5 does an additional 3 damage! Righteous Penitent is at 1 critical on the body and loses 2 AP to all sections due to peeling armor!
Dagonspawn 1 full action moves towards Shockwave Cascade! Dagonspawn 1 moves 90 meters and is not yet in melee range!
Righteous Penitent opens up on Full Auto at Point Blank on Dagonspawn 5! Righteous Penitent sieges through Dagonspawn 5's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Righteous Penitent scores 4 hits on full auto, dealing 25 damage! Dagonspawn 5 is at -15 critical and dies horribly!
Dagonspawn 2 attacks Shockwave Cascade with a Plasma Lance! Dagonspawn 2 sieges through Shockwave Cascade's Souls Might due to Breach and Degrees of Success! Dagonspawn 2 deals 4 damage to the head! Shockwave Cascade has 1 wound left on the head!
Shockwave Cascade charges Dagonspawn 2! Shockwave Cascade sieges through Dagonspawn 2's Souls Might due to high Effective Ghazali Score! Shockwave Cascade deals 11 damage to Dagonspawn 2! Dagonspawn 2 is at -5 critical and must make a toughness test or die! Dagonspawn 2 succeeds on its test! Dagonspawn 2 is stunned for a round!
Shockwave Cascade executes Dagonspawn 2!
[X] We're damaged, but we've got almost all of them. Keep shooting!
[X] We're badly off, we don't want to risk taking more damage than we have to. Play it safe.
[X] Fuckit, we'll kill him before he can do something clever. Melee some fools.
[X] OH FUCK OUR CHEST THIS IS ALL THE PAIN WHY ARE WE BLUSTERING HERE OH GOD WHY.
[X] Write-in.
Endgame
You and Kim take cover behind a building and start plotting. "I'm pretty badly damaged, I think it broke something in my chest," you say, "And, uh, your head's peeling a bit." Kim paws at her head for a moment, feeling out the damage to her Marida.
"Huh, I hadn't noticed," she says, "Thanks, I guess."
"Yeah, so, I really don't want to go down on the first run," you say, "I was thinking, since there's one left, we do it like Wong had us do for the approach? Move up slowly, try to hit it without getting ourselves killed?"
"Sure," says Kim, "I like not dying."
You break from cover, you've got your rifle leveled towards the plaza and Kim's got her handcannon ready. You advance slowly, trying to avoid showing too much of yourself at once.
A plasma lance leaps out from the plaza, cutting through a building to your right. You line up the shot, following the auto-targetters instructions, and let a single, massive round fly. It rips through a building and then there's a crunch and a scream from the plaza. "Hit it!" you say, "I think it's down!"
That's when the plasma beam replies and rips across your chest. You recoil and yell, no major damage but it stung and you weren't expecting it.
Shockwave Cascade drops its pistol and simply charges. It barrels through a block of houses, through the buildings surrounding the plaza and drives a pilebunker into the last Ma'Jooj's head and fires.
The cockpits go dark and the, uh, fluids drain from your helmets. You cough and splutter as you get used to breathing air again.
'Mission Successful' says the viewscreen, 'Simulation terminated'.
Combat Summary: (Truncated for brevity)
Righteous Penitent takes aim and fires a single shot at Dagonspawn 1! Righteous Penitent sieges through and deals seven damage. Dagonspawn 1 still has wounds left!
Dagonspawn 1 takes aim and fires a plasma lance at Righteous Penitent! Dagonspawn 1 sieges through and deals 0 damage. Righteous Penitent thanks its lucky stars for working armor.
Shockwave Cascade charges Dagonspawn 1 with a pilebunker attack! Shockwave Cascade sieges through and deals 13 damage. Dagonspawn 1 is at critical 10 and fucking explodes.
Combat ends successfully! Havocfett must now redownload GIMP to make the little achievement icons!
[X] Congratulate Kim Hyun-Soon on a mission well done
[X] Wait for evaluation
[X] Get out, ask how you did.
[X] SO MUCH PAIN GOD WHY I HATE THIS THING
[X] Write-In
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Great Success.
"Way to go Kim!" you call, "We kicked ass and took names! Uh, well, they didn't have names, but, well, if they had names we totally would have taken them! And that was our first go too!" You kind of slow to a stop, realizing that you're coming off as, uh, kind of a thick.
"So, uh, yeah, win for the team!" you finish, feeling a bit silly, if entirely unable to wipe your smile off of your face. Yeah, it hurts, but that's a rush.
There's a resounding silence over the comms.
"Uh, sorry," you say, utterly unapologetic, "But, uh, you know, we did pretty good in there."
"We did," says Kim, a bit more cheery than usual, "It was, uh, neat."
You smile, and then wince in pain, and are honestly a bit glad she can't see you.
"Don't worry about the pain, it's simulated and it'll fade in the next few minutes," calls Baibars over the comms, "And, as for your performance, the simulation estimates the casualties at close to twelve thousand, approximately forty percent more than the actual battle, and damages at close to six hundred and fifteen million dollars, conservatively, which is seventy percent more than the actual battle. Righteous Penitent lost sheets of armor which will take weeks, at best, to replace, nevermind the damage to the skeleton and Shockwave Penitent has lost almost all structural integrity to the head. On top of that you lost significant portions of your combat gear and were...less than conservative with ammunition. Nevermind the stray rounds that ripped into the city."
The adrenaline fades rather quickly.
"You exceeded expectations and made me proud to be your director," he finishes, "Excellent work." The pod doors pop open, revealing the far-too-bright-lights of the simulation room. "There are snacks and refreshments outside, as well as icepacks and aspirin if you're sore. Feel free to talk or watch as the next group does their thing."
Pick Two:
[X] Let's hang out with Kim! We did have this entire dramatic battle scene with her, yeah?
[X] Let's talk to Dirk before he goes in. See if he was impressed.
[X] Let's talk with Amina before she goes in! She's kinda-sorta a friend, right?
[X] Let's talk with Raj Rai, dude could use some encouragement
[X] Let's talk with Khadijah. We don't really know her very well.
[X] Let's talk with Tang Ying! Dude seems confident, yeah?
[X] OH MY GOD FOOD I WANT ALL OF IT.
[X] Write-In.
Meet Mr. Kim
You meet up with Kim on your way out of the cockpits and offer her a high five, saying, "Hey!" She kind of stares at your outstretched hand for a moment, indecisive. Eventually she nods, raises a hand and is promptly pre-empted by Amina giving you an arm-shattering high five on her way to the cockpit.
"Good one Jon!" she says, smiling, "Was cool seeing you two murder the fuck out of those guys." Kim's kind of staring at Amina, somewhere between surprised and annoyed at the interruption.
"Oh, thanks!" you reply. You can't help but smile, being validated is nice, "It was pretty badass, right?"
"Was adequate, considering" says Dirk. And there go all the warm, fuzzy feelings.
"Adequate?" demands Kim
"Yes," replies Dirk, there's a pause, you think he's wrestling with english a bit, "If you had more experience, then you would be expected to have done better, but as you are not-trained, it is, I think adequate."
Kim just gapes at him. "The hell!" you say. Dirk seems slightly confused for a brief moment before Amina elbows him in the gut, which elicits something that sounds rude in some language you don't recognize.
"Why!" he says as he punches Amina in retaliation.
"Tact," replies Amina.
Dirk sighs and turns away, and Amina waves to you and Kim, then the pair leave for the cockpits.
You wait for a moment before turning back to Kim. "Anyways," you say, "Uh, I was gonna get some food, and, like, maybe a painkiller or something. And I was wondering if you wanted some?"
"Sure," says Kim, shrugging, "Could you pick up some Aspirin or something for me? Head's ringing a bit." You have a moment of mild, entirely irrelevant epiphany.
"That's why they have aspirin," you say brightly. Kim gives you a very patronizing look. Your head hangs low as you fetch snacks for the two of you (And painkillers for Kim).
Raj has camped himself by the food table, he doesn't stop you, though he greets you in some language you don't know, and you greet him in english and then it's back to Kim with two plates drizzled liberally with snacks, fruit, and a couple of aspirin pills, with a pair of glasses of water balanced precariously on one plate. She's sitting by the back wall, away from the others (Admittedly, everyone not in a simulator plug is 'away from the others'. You and Kim make the largest group in the room. Well, outside of the command deck and observer box), patiently waiting for her food.
You kneel next to her, offering the food with a 'Yo'. She grabs the aspirin and water first, then goes for some melon you don't recognize. You put the plates down and start munching happily on a chocolate bar. There's silence for a moment, which is really, really awkward. You decide to break it.
"So, uh, Jon, what was your home like?" Kim asks, she pauses for a moment, thinking, then continues, "San Jose?"
Nostalgia and homesickness hits you all at once, the adrenaline and rush of arriving at Citadel Cairo with all of the pilots and people had helped you just...not think about home, but bringing it up? You freeze, you miss your dad, and you miss Jess and James and, hell, you miss Jenn despite all of the violence, and you miss your friends, and Sam, and your room and your bed and your life, and playing soccer and-
Right, Kim's staring. You compose yourself, manage not to do anything too embarrassing. You think.
"It was home, you know? Had a brother and two sisters, plenty of friends," you say, "My mom walked out on us when I was young, but that was-" You gesture. "-A while ago. It's fine. Dad took care of us, wasn't always comfortable, but he's pretty great, as dads go. Did well in school, played soccer, every video game I could get my grubby hands on. Cool girlfriend, well, I guess ex now, awesome friends, tolerable siblings-" The nostalgia wave has lessened, now, and you realize that you're kind of rambling. And probably sound like an ass, considering how Raj lived in a refugee camp. You sputter to a stop in a fit of self-awareness and then kind of work yourself up to finishing the conversation. "Uh, yeah, normal teenager stuff. I had it pretty good, I guess," you say, "How about you?"
Kim freezes. Wrong question, you think. She stares off for a moment, maybe going through the nostalgia you did, maybe just figuring out what to say, maybe, uh, flashbacks. Shit, what if her home life sucked, like, you could have dredged up her parents dying or a Ma'Jooj attack or some really shitty-
"I lived with my uncle and his husband," she says, "Father was always busy, up north after Avalo, in China after they joined JANNAH. I didn't see him much, once every three or four years. No mom, I'm a first gen vatter. I, uh, school was OK. Good grades, I can play violin, I think I was doing-"
"Hyun-Soon," says a deep, booming voice to your right. You turn and stare at an enormous bear of a korean dude. His hair's beginning to gray and he's easily forty and he resembles a brick shithouse more than a human being. There's an exchange in, uh, a language (Probably Korean, but the dude was in Beijing so maybe he knows Chinese?). You don't need to be told that he's her dad. That much's obvious.
The conversation finishes. Kim grabs some food, waves goodbye and walks towards one of the viewscreens. She looks...less than happy.
Her dad, meanwhile, walks away from the room without a backwards glance at his daughter.
[X] Kim needs her space, let's not bother her while watching the second round.
--[X] Pick an unoccupied screen, go solo, as it were.
--[X] Join someone else at one of their screens.
[X] Uh, Kim doesn't seem to be taking that well. Stick with her, see how she's doing?
[X] "The fuck, dude?"
[X] Let's hang out with anyone else right now. Less depressing.
--[X] Pick an unoccupied screen, go solo, as it were.
--[X] Join someone else at one of their screens.
[X] Write-In
Well, At Least You Didn't Get Punched.
You debate whether or not you should go after Kim. She doesn't seem that social but it doesn't feel right just leaving her alone after, uh, whatever the hell her dad said. You waffle for the briefest of moments, then go after her. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
Besides, Kim doesn't look like the 'gutpunch' type.
You walk over, she's leaning on a railing, watching one of the viewscreens. Baibars is running Dirk and Amina through the setup stuff you did, so the screen is displaying their mechs and technical specifications instead of blank, not-yet-simulated cockpits. You know Starlight Corsair, but Dirk's mech is new. It's lithe, blue, with splashes of grey in the joints, shoulders and hip. Its neck is a mass of exposed cabling and carbon muscles, and its head has a trio of distinctive horn, a grey, triangular thing spire out of the back of its head and an almost crownlike protrusion attached to each side of its head. The screen marks it as Onslaught Armiger, a Shahid, like your secondary specialization, multi-role.
"Hi," you say. Kim ignores you and watches the screen mutely. "You OK?" you ask.
"I'm fine," she replies tersely. You don't buy it.
"So, uh, that was your dad?" you say.
"Yeah," she replies. It's like getting blood from a stone, this conversation.
"How was your conversation," you ask. You manage to guess her response before she speaks.
"It was fine," she says. Maybe this wasn't the best idea.
"Uh, look," you say, "If you want to-"
Kim turns and stares you down. "I don't want to talk about it," says Kim, "Back off. Please."
This hasn't gone anywhere near as well as you'd hoped. "Right, uh, sorry," you say, stepping away from Kim and the screen.
You look around the room, looking for an out. The food's always an option, you could use some chocolate. The other pilots are all watching the training, you could hang with one of them (Or just take a screen to yourself), or maybe you could-
You swing your head around. Usman and Umar evidently showed up while you were talking with Kim (Or maybe they were there the whole time and you just didn't notice?). You could talk with an international celebrity one-on-one! Or with the dude who's going to be teaching you how to do the freaky magic stuff.
[X] No, she needs help, keep going at it.
[X] Holy crap, Usman Usman is at one of the viewscreens, hang with him!
[X] When did Umar show up? Still, he's gonna be teaching you the, uh, manifesting stuff or whatever, yeah? Hang with him!
[X] Let's talk with Raj Rai, dude could use some encouragement
[X] Let's talk with Khadijah. We don't really know her very well.
[X] Let's talk with Tang Ying! Dude's the only one here who seems to be enjoying watching this stuff.
[X] Stay solo, this has you kinda down.
[X] Write-In
Usman Usman
You decide, after a moment of feeling miserable for yourself, to approach Usman Usman next. Because you have questions. And he's a veteran. And would have answers. And maybe could tell you something about Amina. And not because you're a fan of his.
At all.
Honest. Maybe it's a little bit because you're a fan of his
You approach, attempting not to look, well, too nervous or tense. Usman doesn't say anything, he's watching the screen pretty intently, which you go ahead an assume is a good thing. You walk up to him and say, "Hello."
"Salaam, Jonathan," says Usman, he gives you a hearty handshake, "Your talk with Hyun-Soon didn't go so well?" You smile nervously, don't say anything. You get an understanding smile from Usman. "Don't worry too much about it. You're strangers from different cultures, you're going to fuck up a couple of times. They're going to fuck up a couple times. You'll get used to it." That was, well, not quite reassuring, but it was a complement, right? Just, you know, say something not completely vapid and don't freeze up and you're pretty sure you'll have made a good impression.
"Uh," you say smartly. There's a pause as you try to figure out what to say and Amina and Dirk begin their training exercises on in the simulator. They're more proficient than you were, no falling down. Lots of showing off. "You've done this, right," you say after a minute, "Like, the entire piloting with a group of strangers thing? Do you, uh, have any advice?"
Usman looks at you sagely, fakes a wise expression, and says, "The giant robots aren't as big a deal. You'll get training, you'll be ready when you're out there. The important thing is," he pauses for dramatic effect, "Be excellent to each other."
There's a pause as you try to draw profound meaning from the quip.
"Got it," you say. It seems a bit simple, as far as advice goes, but you guess it's good. There's another pause.
"...You didn't get the reference," he says, "I meet one American and they haven't watched the movie."
"Wait, what," you say, slightly startled.
"Ah, not important," he replies, shrugging, "The advice is excellent. Anything else you want to ask? Feel free to ask anything." You think for a moment, and a spike of pain in your gut reminds you of what you really should be asking about.
"Uh, it was... weird. I don't know what I thought piloting would be like, but it wasn't like that," you say as you try to get to your point, "Does... uh, does it always hurt like that?"
You get a sympathy wince from Usman. "They turn the feedback down to fifty percent for the sims," he says, "And they can't simulate some of the nastier feedback effects yet."
It's worse. Well, that's, uh...
Not comforting. The other thing. That is exactly the opposite. Oh, right, terrifying. Yeah. That one.
Fuuuuck.
Baibars voice erupts from the loudspeakers, cutting through your terror. "Well, since you two are so incredibly eager to show us your truly unparalleled skills," he says mirthfully, "How about we turn the training up a notch? We'll skip the rest of the warmup, we'll be pitting you against a Type 3 for our little test, and, of course, it will be under the conditions of the Redcap fight. No starting armaments, armory is two kilometers out, your conventional support is...lacking." You can practically hear his smile from here.
Dirk squeaks a protest. Amina's laughing.
"I apologize, my friend," says Baibars, "Already loaded the sim. But if I may give some advice, don't think of this as a punishment for triple-blackflipping through a sand dune during a weapons tutorial. Think of it as an opportunity to show us what you're made of!" You see Umar laughing his ass off, but Usman...honestly isn't reacting as well.
"What the hell is that dog doing!" he hisses, "He can't just throw Amina into that!"
[X] They're gonna do fine, don't worry about it!
[X] Ohshitohshitohshitohshit
[X] KICK HIS ASS AMINA!
[X] Write-In
"Way to go Kim!" you call, "We kicked ass and took names! Uh, well, they didn't have names, but, well, if they had names we totally would have taken them! And that was our first go too!" You kind of slow to a stop, realizing that you're coming off as, uh, kind of a thick.
"So, uh, yeah, win for the team!" you finish, feeling a bit silly, if entirely unable to wipe your smile off of your face. Yeah, it hurts, but that's a rush.
There's a resounding silence over the comms.
"Uh, sorry," you say, utterly unapologetic, "But, uh, you know, we did pretty good in there."
"We did," says Kim, a bit more cheery than usual, "It was, uh, neat."
You smile, and then wince in pain, and are honestly a bit glad she can't see you.
"Don't worry about the pain, it's simulated and it'll fade in the next few minutes," calls Baibars over the comms, "And, as for your performance, the simulation estimates the casualties at close to twelve thousand, approximately forty percent more than the actual battle, and damages at close to six hundred and fifteen million dollars, conservatively, which is seventy percent more than the actual battle. Righteous Penitent lost sheets of armor which will take weeks, at best, to replace, nevermind the damage to the skeleton and Shockwave Penitent has lost almost all structural integrity to the head. On top of that you lost significant portions of your combat gear and were...less than conservative with ammunition. Nevermind the stray rounds that ripped into the city."
The adrenaline fades rather quickly.
"You exceeded expectations and made me proud to be your director," he finishes, "Excellent work." The pod doors pop open, revealing the far-too-bright-lights of the simulation room. "There are snacks and refreshments outside, as well as icepacks and aspirin if you're sore. Feel free to talk or watch as the next group does their thing."
Pick Two:
[X] Let's hang out with Kim! We did have this entire dramatic battle scene with her, yeah?
[X] Let's talk to Dirk before he goes in. See if he was impressed.
[X] Let's talk with Amina before she goes in! She's kinda-sorta a friend, right?
[X] Let's talk with Raj Rai, dude could use some encouragement
[X] Let's talk with Khadijah. We don't really know her very well.
[X] Let's talk with Tang Ying! Dude seems confident, yeah?
[X] OH MY GOD FOOD I WANT ALL OF IT.
[X] Write-In.
Meet Mr. Kim
You meet up with Kim on your way out of the cockpits and offer her a high five, saying, "Hey!" She kind of stares at your outstretched hand for a moment, indecisive. Eventually she nods, raises a hand and is promptly pre-empted by Amina giving you an arm-shattering high five on her way to the cockpit.
"Good one Jon!" she says, smiling, "Was cool seeing you two murder the fuck out of those guys." Kim's kind of staring at Amina, somewhere between surprised and annoyed at the interruption.
"Oh, thanks!" you reply. You can't help but smile, being validated is nice, "It was pretty badass, right?"
"Was adequate, considering" says Dirk. And there go all the warm, fuzzy feelings.
"Adequate?" demands Kim
"Yes," replies Dirk, there's a pause, you think he's wrestling with english a bit, "If you had more experience, then you would be expected to have done better, but as you are not-trained, it is, I think adequate."
Kim just gapes at him. "The hell!" you say. Dirk seems slightly confused for a brief moment before Amina elbows him in the gut, which elicits something that sounds rude in some language you don't recognize.
"Why!" he says as he punches Amina in retaliation.
"Tact," replies Amina.
Dirk sighs and turns away, and Amina waves to you and Kim, then the pair leave for the cockpits.
You wait for a moment before turning back to Kim. "Anyways," you say, "Uh, I was gonna get some food, and, like, maybe a painkiller or something. And I was wondering if you wanted some?"
"Sure," says Kim, shrugging, "Could you pick up some Aspirin or something for me? Head's ringing a bit." You have a moment of mild, entirely irrelevant epiphany.
"That's why they have aspirin," you say brightly. Kim gives you a very patronizing look. Your head hangs low as you fetch snacks for the two of you (And painkillers for Kim).
Raj has camped himself by the food table, he doesn't stop you, though he greets you in some language you don't know, and you greet him in english and then it's back to Kim with two plates drizzled liberally with snacks, fruit, and a couple of aspirin pills, with a pair of glasses of water balanced precariously on one plate. She's sitting by the back wall, away from the others (Admittedly, everyone not in a simulator plug is 'away from the others'. You and Kim make the largest group in the room. Well, outside of the command deck and observer box), patiently waiting for her food.
You kneel next to her, offering the food with a 'Yo'. She grabs the aspirin and water first, then goes for some melon you don't recognize. You put the plates down and start munching happily on a chocolate bar. There's silence for a moment, which is really, really awkward. You decide to break it.
"So, uh, Jon, what was your home like?" Kim asks, she pauses for a moment, thinking, then continues, "San Jose?"
Nostalgia and homesickness hits you all at once, the adrenaline and rush of arriving at Citadel Cairo with all of the pilots and people had helped you just...not think about home, but bringing it up? You freeze, you miss your dad, and you miss Jess and James and, hell, you miss Jenn despite all of the violence, and you miss your friends, and Sam, and your room and your bed and your life, and playing soccer and-
Right, Kim's staring. You compose yourself, manage not to do anything too embarrassing. You think.
"It was home, you know? Had a brother and two sisters, plenty of friends," you say, "My mom walked out on us when I was young, but that was-" You gesture. "-A while ago. It's fine. Dad took care of us, wasn't always comfortable, but he's pretty great, as dads go. Did well in school, played soccer, every video game I could get my grubby hands on. Cool girlfriend, well, I guess ex now, awesome friends, tolerable siblings-" The nostalgia wave has lessened, now, and you realize that you're kind of rambling. And probably sound like an ass, considering how Raj lived in a refugee camp. You sputter to a stop in a fit of self-awareness and then kind of work yourself up to finishing the conversation. "Uh, yeah, normal teenager stuff. I had it pretty good, I guess," you say, "How about you?"
Kim freezes. Wrong question, you think. She stares off for a moment, maybe going through the nostalgia you did, maybe just figuring out what to say, maybe, uh, flashbacks. Shit, what if her home life sucked, like, you could have dredged up her parents dying or a Ma'Jooj attack or some really shitty-
"I lived with my uncle and his husband," she says, "Father was always busy, up north after Avalo, in China after they joined JANNAH. I didn't see him much, once every three or four years. No mom, I'm a first gen vatter. I, uh, school was OK. Good grades, I can play violin, I think I was doing-"
"Hyun-Soon," says a deep, booming voice to your right. You turn and stare at an enormous bear of a korean dude. His hair's beginning to gray and he's easily forty and he resembles a brick shithouse more than a human being. There's an exchange in, uh, a language (Probably Korean, but the dude was in Beijing so maybe he knows Chinese?). You don't need to be told that he's her dad. That much's obvious.
The conversation finishes. Kim grabs some food, waves goodbye and walks towards one of the viewscreens. She looks...less than happy.
Her dad, meanwhile, walks away from the room without a backwards glance at his daughter.
[X] Kim needs her space, let's not bother her while watching the second round.
--[X] Pick an unoccupied screen, go solo, as it were.
--[X] Join someone else at one of their screens.
[X] Uh, Kim doesn't seem to be taking that well. Stick with her, see how she's doing?
[X] "The fuck, dude?"
[X] Let's hang out with anyone else right now. Less depressing.
--[X] Pick an unoccupied screen, go solo, as it were.
--[X] Join someone else at one of their screens.
[X] Write-In
Well, At Least You Didn't Get Punched.
You debate whether or not you should go after Kim. She doesn't seem that social but it doesn't feel right just leaving her alone after, uh, whatever the hell her dad said. You waffle for the briefest of moments, then go after her. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
Besides, Kim doesn't look like the 'gutpunch' type.
You walk over, she's leaning on a railing, watching one of the viewscreens. Baibars is running Dirk and Amina through the setup stuff you did, so the screen is displaying their mechs and technical specifications instead of blank, not-yet-simulated cockpits. You know Starlight Corsair, but Dirk's mech is new. It's lithe, blue, with splashes of grey in the joints, shoulders and hip. Its neck is a mass of exposed cabling and carbon muscles, and its head has a trio of distinctive horn, a grey, triangular thing spire out of the back of its head and an almost crownlike protrusion attached to each side of its head. The screen marks it as Onslaught Armiger, a Shahid, like your secondary specialization, multi-role.
"Hi," you say. Kim ignores you and watches the screen mutely. "You OK?" you ask.
"I'm fine," she replies tersely. You don't buy it.
"So, uh, that was your dad?" you say.
"Yeah," she replies. It's like getting blood from a stone, this conversation.
"How was your conversation," you ask. You manage to guess her response before she speaks.
"It was fine," she says. Maybe this wasn't the best idea.
"Uh, look," you say, "If you want to-"
Kim turns and stares you down. "I don't want to talk about it," says Kim, "Back off. Please."
This hasn't gone anywhere near as well as you'd hoped. "Right, uh, sorry," you say, stepping away from Kim and the screen.
You look around the room, looking for an out. The food's always an option, you could use some chocolate. The other pilots are all watching the training, you could hang with one of them (Or just take a screen to yourself), or maybe you could-
You swing your head around. Usman and Umar evidently showed up while you were talking with Kim (Or maybe they were there the whole time and you just didn't notice?). You could talk with an international celebrity one-on-one! Or with the dude who's going to be teaching you how to do the freaky magic stuff.
[X] No, she needs help, keep going at it.
[X] Holy crap, Usman Usman is at one of the viewscreens, hang with him!
[X] When did Umar show up? Still, he's gonna be teaching you the, uh, manifesting stuff or whatever, yeah? Hang with him!
[X] Let's talk with Raj Rai, dude could use some encouragement
[X] Let's talk with Khadijah. We don't really know her very well.
[X] Let's talk with Tang Ying! Dude's the only one here who seems to be enjoying watching this stuff.
[X] Stay solo, this has you kinda down.
[X] Write-In
Usman Usman
You decide, after a moment of feeling miserable for yourself, to approach Usman Usman next. Because you have questions. And he's a veteran. And would have answers. And maybe could tell you something about Amina. And not because you're a fan of his.
At all.
Honest. Maybe it's a little bit because you're a fan of his
You approach, attempting not to look, well, too nervous or tense. Usman doesn't say anything, he's watching the screen pretty intently, which you go ahead an assume is a good thing. You walk up to him and say, "Hello."
"Salaam, Jonathan," says Usman, he gives you a hearty handshake, "Your talk with Hyun-Soon didn't go so well?" You smile nervously, don't say anything. You get an understanding smile from Usman. "Don't worry too much about it. You're strangers from different cultures, you're going to fuck up a couple of times. They're going to fuck up a couple times. You'll get used to it." That was, well, not quite reassuring, but it was a complement, right? Just, you know, say something not completely vapid and don't freeze up and you're pretty sure you'll have made a good impression.
"Uh," you say smartly. There's a pause as you try to figure out what to say and Amina and Dirk begin their training exercises on in the simulator. They're more proficient than you were, no falling down. Lots of showing off. "You've done this, right," you say after a minute, "Like, the entire piloting with a group of strangers thing? Do you, uh, have any advice?"
Usman looks at you sagely, fakes a wise expression, and says, "The giant robots aren't as big a deal. You'll get training, you'll be ready when you're out there. The important thing is," he pauses for dramatic effect, "Be excellent to each other."
There's a pause as you try to draw profound meaning from the quip.
"Got it," you say. It seems a bit simple, as far as advice goes, but you guess it's good. There's another pause.
"...You didn't get the reference," he says, "I meet one American and they haven't watched the movie."
"Wait, what," you say, slightly startled.
"Ah, not important," he replies, shrugging, "The advice is excellent. Anything else you want to ask? Feel free to ask anything." You think for a moment, and a spike of pain in your gut reminds you of what you really should be asking about.
"Uh, it was... weird. I don't know what I thought piloting would be like, but it wasn't like that," you say as you try to get to your point, "Does... uh, does it always hurt like that?"
You get a sympathy wince from Usman. "They turn the feedback down to fifty percent for the sims," he says, "And they can't simulate some of the nastier feedback effects yet."
It's worse. Well, that's, uh...
Not comforting. The other thing. That is exactly the opposite. Oh, right, terrifying. Yeah. That one.
Fuuuuck.
Baibars voice erupts from the loudspeakers, cutting through your terror. "Well, since you two are so incredibly eager to show us your truly unparalleled skills," he says mirthfully, "How about we turn the training up a notch? We'll skip the rest of the warmup, we'll be pitting you against a Type 3 for our little test, and, of course, it will be under the conditions of the Redcap fight. No starting armaments, armory is two kilometers out, your conventional support is...lacking." You can practically hear his smile from here.
Dirk squeaks a protest. Amina's laughing.
"I apologize, my friend," says Baibars, "Already loaded the sim. But if I may give some advice, don't think of this as a punishment for triple-blackflipping through a sand dune during a weapons tutorial. Think of it as an opportunity to show us what you're made of!" You see Umar laughing his ass off, but Usman...honestly isn't reacting as well.
"What the hell is that dog doing!" he hisses, "He can't just throw Amina into that!"
[X] They're gonna do fine, don't worry about it!
[X] Ohshitohshitohshitohshit
[X] KICK HIS ASS AMINA!
[X] Write-In
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Pretty Fucking Livid
You remember Redcap, it's been in, well, everything. Movies, books, video games, history classes. I mean, yeah, presumably they were kinda crap as to accuracy, but you know the basics. Point defense energy beams, energy beam arrays, massive claws, some weird blood-draining mist thing. But, well, you're not totally sure how bad that is, as far as Amina and Dirk's situation goes.
"Uh... that's bad, right? Is this something they... you know, do?" you ask. It's not your most coherent sentence ever, sure, but you're honestly a bit confused, "What exactly is happening?"
"He put them in a sim meant for people with two months of experiences, Amina had two weeks of warning before she came here. I've no idea if Dirk's seen a simulator before," says Usman, "There's no point to this but humiliation! I'm going to kill that dog." You're not sure if it's the barely restrained rage or the fact that he just stalked off towards the command center, but you're pretty sure he's pissed off.
You can see the simulation start up as Usman stalks off. Starlight Corsair and Onslaught Armiger are on one side of the bay, and Redcap's monstrous form is in the center. It's the size of a Marida, lizardlike and monstrous. It's got four claw-tipped arms, green-black carapace and vents in its hide you know shoot laser beams or something, and its crocodilian head is topped with the titular red cap. It's a bright red, scale covered bulb that stretches from the tip of Redcap's snout to the end of its tail. You can see the red-tinged miasma that feeds it peeling away from the elements of the US navy that tried to stop the monster. They're dead in the water, you remember a history class that talked about how anyone enveloped in the miasma was exsanguinated. Which sounded...painful. And makes you wonder about exactly how realistic that VR is.
"The horns have knives in them," says Dirk, shifting Armiger steadily from side to side like he was eager to get into melee, "I could arm us and we could rush it."
"As much as Plan Hobo Knife Fight appeals to me on a visceral level," says Amina, "I don't think it's a good Plan A. How about I distract it, you hit the armory and grab some weapons. Bring me a gatling gun. As long as you don't deploy Soul, it shouldn't notice you."
"How do you distract it unarmed?" asks Dirk. Armiger tilts its head inquisitively. Were you doing that when piloting?
"Oh, trust me," says Amina, "I have a trick or two up my sleeve." Armiger nods, Corsair fistbumps it, and the two are off.
You pull yourself away from the screen as the two split. Usman is near the command center and is pretty audibly yelling at Baibars, which seems...bad, but you're not totally sure you should get involved. I mean, yeah, you're worried, but maybe getting involved would just exacerbate things?
And you're not totally sure what you'd do to break that fight up, anyways.
[X] They're adults fighting up there, don't get involved. Watch Amina and Dirk instead.
--[X] And offer moral support!
--[X] And give them a warning, somehow!
[X] Haha, you aren't letting this escalate. Make sure Baibars and Usman are, uh, excellent to each other.
--[X] Besides, Amina and Dirk are badasses with a plan, they can handle themselves. Baibars might be right.
--[X] But Baibars fucked up here, they're gonna be humiliated and it'll suck. Not cool absurdly pretty guy.
[X] Write-In.
Plan Hobo Knife Fight
You decide, very quickly, not to go after Usman and Baibars. You're pretty sure you won't actually contribute anything to that conversation, and you really don't want to make things worse. So you decide to turn your attention back to the simulator and, uh, offer moral support.
Corsair's flying at about sea level when you turn back, narrowly dodging beams of boiling light as she weaves between the abandoned husks of a carrier group. Bits of armor have peeled off of her from grazes, and a supercarrier goes up in flames as she uses it as cover, and then she reaches one of the battleships. It's a new one, and the simulation is detailed enough that you can see the exsanguinated corpses covering its deck and its trio of massive, 40 centimeter cannons. She reaches over as Redcap recharges, it's head-sack becoming slightly less red as it primes its beam-vents, and grabs a hold of two of the cannons. Living metal flows over and into the turrets, and after a moment she rips the two guns from their mounting, as well as their ammunition stores and several decks worth of...stuff, and the living metal practically devours the stuff.
And then a full blast of light-beams hit the battleship and Corsair is enveloped in an explosion and cloud of smoke which swiftly cover the virtual camera. Usman yells something you hear over the intercom, and Baibars says something in a calm tone, and you aren't really paying attention because that looks like it hurt and you feel Amina deploy her Soul, feel her presence, even from all the way over here and you hear her laugh and there is no pain in it.
Starlight Corsair soars out of the dust cloud, cannons fully integrated into its torso, and opens fire on Redcap. Their souls clash and Corsair smashes through Redcap's natural defenses and cannon rounds pepper the monstrous lizard-creature. Most of them bounce off, the rounds are ancient and nowhere near rated for Ma'Jooj hide, even without the defense of its Soul, but one penetrates and explodes, eliciting a roar of outrage. Corsair dodges again as more of the light beams lance out at it, desperately peppering Redcap as Amina whoops in joy. She dodges and weaves through a veritable storm, evading them with nimble-ness you couldn't hope to match, but one hits, burning away swathes of armor, and then another, slicing one of her turrets in half. Her laughing's stopped, but she's still moving, still firing, blasting away at Redcap's massive hide.
"Baibars, what are you doing," bellows Usman over the intercom, "You're ordering a melee type into ranged combat? With Redcap? You've consigned her to be slaughtered! What, it's not enough to just-"
"Usman," says Baibars calmly, "Amina has chosen to fight at range. I trust my pilots decisions enough to respect that. You should too."
"Respect her decisions? She's in a melee type, optimized for being in melee. You're tossing her in to be humiliated by being pinged to death wielding ship guns! You aren't-"
"Shut up Usman!" yells Amina as she dodges the last beams in the barrage, "I'm doing fine."
Redcap prepares to fire again, and Usman yells a word of warning (And Wong yells an evasive maneuver solution) and then Amina dives forwards, taking three beams to the chest and face. She grunts in pain but ignores it, and you can see a cut-away to her cockpit smile. The rest of the barrage turns in mid-air, arcing towards her-
And disappears. Redcap shrieks in pain and Onslaught Armiger pulls its sword out of Redcap's back, stabbing once and then twice. Redcap turns and Dirk says, "Catch!" and a gatling gun flies from next to Armiger into Corsair's hand without any visible cause. Redcap turns, a slow, ponderous affair and promptly assaults Armiger with all four of its massive claws. Armiger parries the first blow with its shield, but the second rips the shield in two, and the third scores a deep gouge in the mech's left flank. The fourth rises, prepared to disembowel the mech, and is promptly dismembered by a hail of shells from Starlight Corsair's brand new chaingun.
"Haha, suck it!" yells Amina. You're not totally sure if that's aimed at Redcap or Usman, actually. "We are kicking-"
"Growing gravitational anomaly on Redcap!" interjects Wong, "Brace!" Dirk promptly digs Armiger's sword into the ground, but Corsair has nothing to brace against. She keeps on firing instead, ripping holes the size of cars in Redcap's eponymous red cap, spending blood mixed with ichor spilling across the streets of San Diego. Redcap's mist draws back into itself, and the leaking, bleeding organ swiftly deflates and turns a dark purple. And then space itself warps around Redcap and everything for nearly two hundred meters is drawn to it. Armiger's sword snaps, its top half coming loose and following Armiger, Corsair lands badly, destroying her gatling gun, and sprawls behind the monstrous Ma'Jooj. Redcap wheels on her and she rolls, dodging one, then two arm slams and then the third connects hard and triggers a series of explosions. Mameluke Overrun's signature move, reactive armor buried in all of its limbs. Redcap recoils, its arm burning and boiling, and Corsair levitates to its feet, clutching its chest in pain. It fires its remaining torso-cannon once as Dirk brings Onslaught Armiger to its feet, but the thing jams and she quickly rips it out of her torso.
"New plan?" asks Dirk, "It'll be back up soon."
"Well, we're entirely out of weapons," says Amina, "I just blew my chest reactives, and our ops director muted himself because my brother is being a titanic bitch in his booth. I'd say we're, uh, kinda short on options."
"Dirk has the knives!" you yell out.
"I still have the knives," says Dirk. There's a pause.
"Starlight Corsair to Bridge Bunny Wong," says Amina, you can hear the sigh, "We are out of options and resorting to Plan Hobo Knife Fight. Feed us melee combat data." Wong affirms, Redcap recovers, Armiger unhooks its horns and passes Corsair a knife. The two Marida jump the wounded Ma'Jooj, and the next minute and a half is an extremely undignified recreation of a back alley knifing at the two hundred meter scale. Armiger takes damage to the head and chest, and Corsair takes a nasty hit to the head, but they lose nothing critical as they, uh, shank a giant monster to death.
"Ma'Jooj neutralized," says Baibars, finally, "Mission successful."
Allied Abilities:
Amina:
Robot Abilities:
Scavenge: The living metal in Starlight Corsair's frame allows it to, ah, requisition and integrate any appropriately sized weaponry it can get its pseudo-metallic claws on. As a half action Amina can integrate any mundane weaponry within her reach onto Starlight Corsair, however, it gains the Unreliable trait if ballistic, the Overheats trait if energy-based and the Risky trait if explosive and the Unwieldy trait if melee. She gets all the ammunition the weapon mount started with.
Reactive Armor: The first time in a battle you would take critical damage to a given limb, halve all damage from the incoming attack, convert it to explosive and deal it to everyone in melee range of you. This causes one collateral damage in any civilized area simply from the debris.
Dirk:
Soul Powers:
Sadaqah: Pick one object within 300 meters less than half your size and without a projected soul protecting it, you can fling it up to a kilometer in any direction. If throwing a weapon to an ally, they automatically catch it and arm themselves with it, no roll necessary. If throwing a weapon at an enemy, test Ghazali Score, if successful deal 1d5-2+Willpower Bonus damage, reduced by toughness and armor normally. If throwing a throwing weapon with this, instead deal damage as if you'd thrown it normally, but add your Willpower Bonus to the damage dealt.
[X] Holy shit, that was awesome! Congratulate the two when they get out!
--[X] With a tribute of snacks!
[X] Congratulate Amina when she gets out, Dirk's still an asshole. If an awesome asshole.
[X] ...Wow, they made you and Kim look like idiots.
[X] Write-In
You remember Redcap, it's been in, well, everything. Movies, books, video games, history classes. I mean, yeah, presumably they were kinda crap as to accuracy, but you know the basics. Point defense energy beams, energy beam arrays, massive claws, some weird blood-draining mist thing. But, well, you're not totally sure how bad that is, as far as Amina and Dirk's situation goes.
"Uh... that's bad, right? Is this something they... you know, do?" you ask. It's not your most coherent sentence ever, sure, but you're honestly a bit confused, "What exactly is happening?"
"He put them in a sim meant for people with two months of experiences, Amina had two weeks of warning before she came here. I've no idea if Dirk's seen a simulator before," says Usman, "There's no point to this but humiliation! I'm going to kill that dog." You're not sure if it's the barely restrained rage or the fact that he just stalked off towards the command center, but you're pretty sure he's pissed off.
You can see the simulation start up as Usman stalks off. Starlight Corsair and Onslaught Armiger are on one side of the bay, and Redcap's monstrous form is in the center. It's the size of a Marida, lizardlike and monstrous. It's got four claw-tipped arms, green-black carapace and vents in its hide you know shoot laser beams or something, and its crocodilian head is topped with the titular red cap. It's a bright red, scale covered bulb that stretches from the tip of Redcap's snout to the end of its tail. You can see the red-tinged miasma that feeds it peeling away from the elements of the US navy that tried to stop the monster. They're dead in the water, you remember a history class that talked about how anyone enveloped in the miasma was exsanguinated. Which sounded...painful. And makes you wonder about exactly how realistic that VR is.
"The horns have knives in them," says Dirk, shifting Armiger steadily from side to side like he was eager to get into melee, "I could arm us and we could rush it."
"As much as Plan Hobo Knife Fight appeals to me on a visceral level," says Amina, "I don't think it's a good Plan A. How about I distract it, you hit the armory and grab some weapons. Bring me a gatling gun. As long as you don't deploy Soul, it shouldn't notice you."
"How do you distract it unarmed?" asks Dirk. Armiger tilts its head inquisitively. Were you doing that when piloting?
"Oh, trust me," says Amina, "I have a trick or two up my sleeve." Armiger nods, Corsair fistbumps it, and the two are off.
You pull yourself away from the screen as the two split. Usman is near the command center and is pretty audibly yelling at Baibars, which seems...bad, but you're not totally sure you should get involved. I mean, yeah, you're worried, but maybe getting involved would just exacerbate things?
And you're not totally sure what you'd do to break that fight up, anyways.
[X] They're adults fighting up there, don't get involved. Watch Amina and Dirk instead.
--[X] And offer moral support!
--[X] And give them a warning, somehow!
[X] Haha, you aren't letting this escalate. Make sure Baibars and Usman are, uh, excellent to each other.
--[X] Besides, Amina and Dirk are badasses with a plan, they can handle themselves. Baibars might be right.
--[X] But Baibars fucked up here, they're gonna be humiliated and it'll suck. Not cool absurdly pretty guy.
[X] Write-In.
Plan Hobo Knife Fight
You decide, very quickly, not to go after Usman and Baibars. You're pretty sure you won't actually contribute anything to that conversation, and you really don't want to make things worse. So you decide to turn your attention back to the simulator and, uh, offer moral support.
Corsair's flying at about sea level when you turn back, narrowly dodging beams of boiling light as she weaves between the abandoned husks of a carrier group. Bits of armor have peeled off of her from grazes, and a supercarrier goes up in flames as she uses it as cover, and then she reaches one of the battleships. It's a new one, and the simulation is detailed enough that you can see the exsanguinated corpses covering its deck and its trio of massive, 40 centimeter cannons. She reaches over as Redcap recharges, it's head-sack becoming slightly less red as it primes its beam-vents, and grabs a hold of two of the cannons. Living metal flows over and into the turrets, and after a moment she rips the two guns from their mounting, as well as their ammunition stores and several decks worth of...stuff, and the living metal practically devours the stuff.
And then a full blast of light-beams hit the battleship and Corsair is enveloped in an explosion and cloud of smoke which swiftly cover the virtual camera. Usman yells something you hear over the intercom, and Baibars says something in a calm tone, and you aren't really paying attention because that looks like it hurt and you feel Amina deploy her Soul, feel her presence, even from all the way over here and you hear her laugh and there is no pain in it.
Starlight Corsair soars out of the dust cloud, cannons fully integrated into its torso, and opens fire on Redcap. Their souls clash and Corsair smashes through Redcap's natural defenses and cannon rounds pepper the monstrous lizard-creature. Most of them bounce off, the rounds are ancient and nowhere near rated for Ma'Jooj hide, even without the defense of its Soul, but one penetrates and explodes, eliciting a roar of outrage. Corsair dodges again as more of the light beams lance out at it, desperately peppering Redcap as Amina whoops in joy. She dodges and weaves through a veritable storm, evading them with nimble-ness you couldn't hope to match, but one hits, burning away swathes of armor, and then another, slicing one of her turrets in half. Her laughing's stopped, but she's still moving, still firing, blasting away at Redcap's massive hide.
"Baibars, what are you doing," bellows Usman over the intercom, "You're ordering a melee type into ranged combat? With Redcap? You've consigned her to be slaughtered! What, it's not enough to just-"
"Usman," says Baibars calmly, "Amina has chosen to fight at range. I trust my pilots decisions enough to respect that. You should too."
"Respect her decisions? She's in a melee type, optimized for being in melee. You're tossing her in to be humiliated by being pinged to death wielding ship guns! You aren't-"
"Shut up Usman!" yells Amina as she dodges the last beams in the barrage, "I'm doing fine."
Redcap prepares to fire again, and Usman yells a word of warning (And Wong yells an evasive maneuver solution) and then Amina dives forwards, taking three beams to the chest and face. She grunts in pain but ignores it, and you can see a cut-away to her cockpit smile. The rest of the barrage turns in mid-air, arcing towards her-
And disappears. Redcap shrieks in pain and Onslaught Armiger pulls its sword out of Redcap's back, stabbing once and then twice. Redcap turns and Dirk says, "Catch!" and a gatling gun flies from next to Armiger into Corsair's hand without any visible cause. Redcap turns, a slow, ponderous affair and promptly assaults Armiger with all four of its massive claws. Armiger parries the first blow with its shield, but the second rips the shield in two, and the third scores a deep gouge in the mech's left flank. The fourth rises, prepared to disembowel the mech, and is promptly dismembered by a hail of shells from Starlight Corsair's brand new chaingun.
"Haha, suck it!" yells Amina. You're not totally sure if that's aimed at Redcap or Usman, actually. "We are kicking-"
"Growing gravitational anomaly on Redcap!" interjects Wong, "Brace!" Dirk promptly digs Armiger's sword into the ground, but Corsair has nothing to brace against. She keeps on firing instead, ripping holes the size of cars in Redcap's eponymous red cap, spending blood mixed with ichor spilling across the streets of San Diego. Redcap's mist draws back into itself, and the leaking, bleeding organ swiftly deflates and turns a dark purple. And then space itself warps around Redcap and everything for nearly two hundred meters is drawn to it. Armiger's sword snaps, its top half coming loose and following Armiger, Corsair lands badly, destroying her gatling gun, and sprawls behind the monstrous Ma'Jooj. Redcap wheels on her and she rolls, dodging one, then two arm slams and then the third connects hard and triggers a series of explosions. Mameluke Overrun's signature move, reactive armor buried in all of its limbs. Redcap recoils, its arm burning and boiling, and Corsair levitates to its feet, clutching its chest in pain. It fires its remaining torso-cannon once as Dirk brings Onslaught Armiger to its feet, but the thing jams and she quickly rips it out of her torso.
"New plan?" asks Dirk, "It'll be back up soon."
"Well, we're entirely out of weapons," says Amina, "I just blew my chest reactives, and our ops director muted himself because my brother is being a titanic bitch in his booth. I'd say we're, uh, kinda short on options."
"Dirk has the knives!" you yell out.
"I still have the knives," says Dirk. There's a pause.
"Starlight Corsair to Bridge Bunny Wong," says Amina, you can hear the sigh, "We are out of options and resorting to Plan Hobo Knife Fight. Feed us melee combat data." Wong affirms, Redcap recovers, Armiger unhooks its horns and passes Corsair a knife. The two Marida jump the wounded Ma'Jooj, and the next minute and a half is an extremely undignified recreation of a back alley knifing at the two hundred meter scale. Armiger takes damage to the head and chest, and Corsair takes a nasty hit to the head, but they lose nothing critical as they, uh, shank a giant monster to death.
"Ma'Jooj neutralized," says Baibars, finally, "Mission successful."
Allied Abilities:
Amina:
Robot Abilities:
Scavenge: The living metal in Starlight Corsair's frame allows it to, ah, requisition and integrate any appropriately sized weaponry it can get its pseudo-metallic claws on. As a half action Amina can integrate any mundane weaponry within her reach onto Starlight Corsair, however, it gains the Unreliable trait if ballistic, the Overheats trait if energy-based and the Risky trait if explosive and the Unwieldy trait if melee. She gets all the ammunition the weapon mount started with.
Reactive Armor: The first time in a battle you would take critical damage to a given limb, halve all damage from the incoming attack, convert it to explosive and deal it to everyone in melee range of you. This causes one collateral damage in any civilized area simply from the debris.
Dirk:
Soul Powers:
Sadaqah: Pick one object within 300 meters less than half your size and without a projected soul protecting it, you can fling it up to a kilometer in any direction. If throwing a weapon to an ally, they automatically catch it and arm themselves with it, no roll necessary. If throwing a weapon at an enemy, test Ghazali Score, if successful deal 1d5-2+Willpower Bonus damage, reduced by toughness and armor normally. If throwing a throwing weapon with this, instead deal damage as if you'd thrown it normally, but add your Willpower Bonus to the damage dealt.
[X] Holy shit, that was awesome! Congratulate the two when they get out!
--[X] With a tribute of snacks!
[X] Congratulate Amina when she gets out, Dirk's still an asshole. If an awesome asshole.
[X] ...Wow, they made you and Kim look like idiots.
[X] Write-In
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That Was Totally Wicked!
Baibars is giving them a glowing debriefing, though you can see Usman stalking off behind his back. Presumably he's still pissed.
You decide to celebrate their stunning (And evidently improbable!) success in the best way you know how. Food! Admittedly, you can't cook, since you don't have access to the kitchen you're used to at home (And there's a topic you're not going to dwell on!), but they've got decent enough snacks to make do. You grab a couple plates, make a makeshift platter and approach the plug as the pilots exit. They're both beaming, absolutely giddy at their success, and they're looking at your food platter with hungry eyes.
Dirk steps towards you and gestures at the simulator, "You see that? That was 'pretty badass'." You really want to say something, but it's kind of hard to argue against him here. You instead brandish the food as a peace offering and agree.
Then Tang Ying pushes past you, nearly knocking over your specially prepared, intricately laid out platter of food in his rush to reach the pilots. "That was awesome!" he says with less tact than you thought was physically possible for a single human being, "Just like watching Usman fight on TV!"
All things considered, you think he got off lightly, being pushed out of Amina's way like that. Wasn't a gutpunch, at least. She beelines to you and your snacks, though Dirk just grabbed some food before getting dragged off to talk to Raj and Kim. Or maybe arguing with Raj and Kim. It's, uh, a bit heated.
"That, that was, uh, amazing," you say, offering the snack platter. Amina takes a cookie and munches on it as you continue with mounting enthusiasm, "You could pilot properly from the start, took it on solo for a while, and, like, the thing with the ships guns, and dodging the laser beams! That was awesome!"
Amina beams, "It was awesome! Melee-specced nothing, we rocked in there. And I didn't need a hammer to do it!" There's a suppressed wince, "Though, uh, I don't think my chest is going to forgive me for those reactives going off. Ow. That's going to suck on full blast."
"Yeah, that...wasn't a pleasant surprise," you say, rubbing your own side in sympathy, "Still, you guys rocked the entire 'team hobo' thing."
The smile widens, it's nice, though, uh, slightly scary. "Captain Hobo of Punchdrunk Vagabond reporting for duty," she says, giving a mock, faux-drunk salute, "Where to next?"
[X] Who to hang out with until the next match? (Amina is, by default, with you here.)
[X] Who to hang out with during the next match?
[X] What do you want to do with them?
[X] Anything Else?
Ten Thousand Pounds of Team Kill
"Well, I... uh... guess we could go back down to see how the others are doing, maybe-" you look Amina in the face and quickly reconsider, "...we could look around the place some more? Maybe eat, I know my bout took a lot out of me. It's, uh, kind of weird how tiring it is, yeah? Especially since we were just, you know, sitting around and...yeah." You trail off, trying not to sound stupid.
"Sounds good to me!" says Amina, happily grabbing a chocolate from your plate, "Sit down." You sit, and you both eat for a few minutes in silence before she says anything. "You miss your family," she states, as sure in her random guess as anyone could be, "Don't you?"
You hesitate, it's not entirely comfortable. Two weeks ago you didn't really believe you'd really ever be separated from your family, two days ago this looked kind of like a big, scary vacation. Earlier today you were facing the fact that you were going to die horribly and it'd be thousands of miles from them and they wouldn't hear for days and maybe you'd never see them again and how dare you enjoy yourself here and- "Yeah," you say.
"What were they like?" asks Amina, grabbing another chocolate and chewing on it. She's staring at you intently, suddenly very interested in what you're saying. She's tense, you recognize it, waiting for you to say something, or do something.
You hesitate for a moment, but it doesn't look like this is about to get violent. You think back, driving James to school or sporting competitions, shooting the shit with him over video games. That time he managed to steal beer and you had to hide him being drunk from your dad for five hours. Jenn's bizarre misadventures with Malory or Alex or one of her other friends. That feeling of elation when the both of you scared the piss out of her first boyfriend until he wet himself. Jess' enthusiasm over her first day of school, and all the crap she put you through when you babysat her. Seventeen years, more or less, of being the big brother, the responsible one. "Pretty cool," you say, finally, "We, uh, got along pretty well." Amina's still staring at you, waiting. "I'm the oldest, and, uh, our mom left when I was six. Kind of had to help my dad out, yeah? But, you know, we got along."
"Sounds nice," says Amina, ""Not used to them not being around, have you? You keep thinking they're a few rooms away, even though you know they're not."
You nod, no hesitation there.
"I know the feeling," she replies, "My family runs the big Marida Manufactory over in Casablanca, our parents had to leave us alone all the time. Busy talking about how to save the world." Her speech is energetic, punctuated with gestures and movement. "Left me with Yousuf or some cousins when we were younger. Then Yousuf died and Usman began piloting, they started dropping me off here." She stops, you think of saying something, but you've been on the receiving end of enough of these conversations to know what to do. You stay silent. She eats some of the snacks, you munch on an pear.
"We used to get along great, you know?" she says suddenly, "Best pair of soccer players in Casablanca, I swear. Could play rings around kids twice my height, best forward you could ask for. And no-one could get past Usman when he was playing defense. We made this field in a depression on top of the factory; the giant one where they grew and assembled the robots. We set up goals and you could play soccer and watch them assemble Maridas and Ifrit and whatever."
Another pause, she affixed you with one of those vicious stares. Then, suddenly, she speaks, "Your siblings are fucked, you know? Piloting trends in families. Everyone's going to push them to be You. All their friends, all their teachers, it's-" She cuts herself off, you break eye contact, and she suddenly looks apologetic for the first time. "Just venting," she says, standing up, "Sorry."
"It's OK," you say. It isn't, it's got you thinking.
They're not nice thoughts.
Amina leaves, starts talking to Kim and watching the last group go through their crash course. You debate joining them, then decide against it. You look around again, debating who to go talk to. Usman's arguing with one of the bridge staff (You don't know who, they're not one of the Bridge Bunnies and aren't Baibars), don't want to bother him. Umar and Dirk are on their own, Umar's got a paper and pen out and is taking notes of some sort, Dirk's just watching and being kind of sullen. You debate for a moment, Dirk's kind of been an ass, but Umar's busy, and if you're going to be, you know, relying on him to keep you alive, you probably want to be on at least decent terms with him. And it's not like he's going to take the first step here, you'll have to be the better man.
So, after a moment of psyching yourself up, you stand, steel yourself, suppress your growing regret at Amina's revelation and your vague animosity for Dirk, and walk over to try and make friends.
You approach Dirk, half-empty food platter in hand. He's leaning by one of the screens, lost in thought, and fails to notice you. Or, to be fair, anything else. "Dirk," you say, "You hungry?" He snaps towards you, shaken from his reverie. You politely thrust the food platter towards him.
There's a pause, he scans you, then the food platter, his eyes linger over the shrimp, and then stares you down. "No," he says, "Do you want something?"
"Just wanted to talk," you say. You kind of want to know what the entire argument with Kim and Raj was about, and maybe what he's got against prawns, but you've got some social skills. You decide to go for something he'd be a bit more open to. "So, uh, you were pretty comfortable in there" you say, "That wasn't your first time in a sim?"
"I made my own," says Dirk proudly, "Was not...complete, but it was good enough. I practiced much." It takes a moment for that to sink in.
"You made a functioning Marida combat simulator?" you say. Your mind boggles as you puzzle through the implications. This thing looks like it costs millions. Full VR simulation, pain feedback, comms (Though you guess he wouldn't have had those), soul simulation, Ma'jooj simulation, just designing the cities and situations you fought in must have cost so much. "Wow."
Dirk smirks, evidently sated by your awe. Then he seems to catch himself and goes back to his normal vaguely-superior definitely-surly expression. "Wasn't as..." he waves his arms at the sim, "Extensive. But it was good. I could teach you." There's a short pause, he stares you in the eyes, looking for words, then suddenly looks away. "Because you need the help. Yes?"
"Uh, sure," you say, "I could use the help." You could, really, the sim was terrifying.
"Good," says Dirk, then he turns back to the screen and that rather effectively ends the conversation.
After a moment Tang Ying, Raj Rai and Khadijah Khan's Maridas pop onto the screen, you've seen Raj's, but the other two are new to you.
Tang Ying's Marida is Marauder Valiant, a Shahid, a blocky, steel colossus, with an absolute mess of inbuilt rocket launchers. It is undeniably impressive. More expected than the other designs you've seen in its stocky built, but far more massive and obviously well armed. It's what movies, games, arabian cartoons and even propaganda posters have conditioned you to think of when someone says 'giant robot'. An enormous, heavily armed and armored silver sentinel. It's specced for long range combat, Dirk notes under his breath that it's 'obvious' that it's meant to heavy weaponry, though you're not sure what counts as 'heavy weaponry' for a Marida of all things.
Khadijah Khan's, meanwhile, is Errant Sayyid, an Emir like yours. It's massive, green and inelegant and has what you think is a massive accelerator cannon bolted onto one arm. Its torso and shoulders are a mess of curves, and its semi-transparent cockpit looks almost out of place. Like Tang Ying's, it's specced for long range combat. Dirk says its a sniper, which you guess fits.
The basic training goes well, Khadijah and Tang Ying pick up the basics quickly, Raj seems to take longer and gets tired far easier, even during the basic training exercises, but he picks up quickly enough.
After an hour, the combat sim begins. Sayyid, Kshatriya, and Marauder materialize in the middle of the Italian city. The camera is zoomed out and you can see the three, separated by a few city blocks, as well as the full dozen Ma'Jooj that have been scattered across the city.
Khadijah takes action immediately. She flexes her Soul, something you can feel emanating from her cockpit, and Sayyid leaps into the air and floats, perched on an invisible platform. She opens a comm channel and says, "I've spotted them. Insha'allah I will provide supporting fire to the others." Bridge Bunny Wong acknowledges the order and does…something involving data streams and uplinks. All of the Ma'Jooj glow, outlined with an odd, green glow. You wonder if that's what it looks like for the other pilots, then think that it would've been really nice if all the Spawn got a convenient outline when you were shooting them.
You suppress the thought after a moment, and then Raj Rai pushes Kshatriya Intercept forwards and blitzes the nearest Ma'Jooj. Claws pop out of its massive hands, and the red Marida slams its prey to the ground before simply tearing it to pieces, clawing through its Soul Shield, its arms and then the entirety of its chest as the monster vainly tries to defend itself. Ichor and flesh stain the street and slide off of the Marida's glistening carapace, and Raj gives a near-hysterical cheer at the kill. More Ma'Jooj close, two attempting to bring down Kshatriya in a flurry of blows, Raj's defense is more frenzied clawing, but the Spawn are blatantly not up to the task of fighting the monstrous mech, they leave deep gouges in Kshatriya's left arm, but the crimson Marida squishes another's head like a grapefruit, forcing the survivor to back off before it can take advantage of the injury.
Tang Ying, meanwhile, shoulders the Swarm Launcher. It is a massive, multi-tubed construction, and Marauder Valiant deploys some sort of vacuum-tube looking thing to it as he braces himself. He's saying something in Chinese (Mandarin? Cantonese? You don't know) and one of the bridge bunnies- Abdul Raheem- is yelling at him about it. You'd pay more attention, but Khadijah opens fire as the rest of the Ma'Jooj close on the trio. One of the monstrous railgun rounds goes straight through a building, sending debris flying as it knocks one of the spawn onto its back. It's a direct hit, but the railgun round doesn't kill the monster. She loads, you see a massive shell suspend itself between the twin rails of her arm-mounted railgun, and as she lines up her next shot Tang Ying bellows a final phrase in and lets loose a veritable stream of missiles.
There are ten of them, each the size of a car, slicing through the city on zig-zagged paths. One crashed into a building, sending debris and simulated people flying in a ruinous detonation. Another missed its target by a good twenty meters, then hit an evacuation truck as it tried to wheel in the tight streets. The simulation was far too detailed for your liking, as far as the aftermath of that went. A third was destroyed by its target, the Ma'jooj grabbing a truck and sending it flying into the missile with a flex of its soul.
Seven missiles hit their targets. Three Ma'jooj die immediately, heads and chests reduced to so much pulp and shrapnel by missile-impacts. Another two are wounded, peppered and concussed by near-misses. One, swiftly closing on Kshatriya Intercept, dives forward as the missile detonates, it peppers the monster with shrapnel, but none of it pierces the beasts monstrous hide.
The last missile strikes Kshatriya Intercept and its foe as Kshatriya leaps at the Ma'jooj. The Ma'jooj molds its soul, pulling the barrier in, angling it, and as the missile detonates against it the blast is channeled straight into Kshatriya Intercept's face, warping and melting the layers of armor around the cockpit. You can't do anything but watch in horror as Kshatriya collapses in a heap and Raj Rai screams a strangled scream. Someone in the bridge crew half-stands, but Baibars holds up a hand and they stop. "Kshatriya Intercept is down," announces the simulation, "Pilot Rai is losing consciousness, attempting Hindbrain reversion."
There's a tormented moment of utter stillness.
Then Kshatriya Intercept rises. It's slow, the mech pulls itself up, meter by meter, until it stands once more. There's a primal, deafening roar from the Marida. Kshatriya's oversized gauntlets and pauldrons slough away, its armor cracks as muscle grows and flexes and strains against its confines. For a brief moment, you can see bone and muscle and machinery under the cracks before smooth, brown carapace grows into place over them. Beneath the shattered cockpit a skull, then muscle and carapace, grew into the shattered armor. A grey, cyclopean eye replaced the yellow eye-slits. It blinked, a single eyelid sliding sideways, and then glared at the Ma'jooj across from it. It roars again, a guttural bellow, and the Ma'jooj recoils, stepping back from the Marida's sheer presence.
"Kshatriya Intercept has successfully reverted to Mujahid mode," announces the simulation, "Pilot Rai is stable and in complete control."
As if on cue, Raj raises one of Kshatriya Intercept's claws behind it, parallel to the ground, and steps forward to strike. Kshatriya moves with deceptive speed, closing almost too quick for you too track. One step carries it halfway to the Ma'jooj, the next carries it into melee range-
And it stops, Kshatriya stops, the bridge crew stops, you, and everyone watching the simulation, stop. The Ma'jooj stands, a clawed hand raised, impaling Kshatriya Intercept straight through its head, cockpit and monstrous eye. You can see every bloodstain, every piece of viscera and gore hanging from the claw. Kshatriya Intercept falls, slowly and ponderously toppling to the ground.
"Kshatriya Intercept destroyed," announces the simulation in the same damn monotone, "Pilot Rai confirmed deceased."
Then the shock begins to pass.
[X] PANIC
--[X] Write-In.
OOC:
AFTER OVER A MONTH, I AM FREE.
And, for lulz, a rough summary of combat:
Kshatrya Intercept engages the enemy and kills a Dagonspawn in a horrible manner!
Errant Sayyid uses Buraq to reach a perch and takes a half-aim.
Marauder Errant uses a full-aim to multi-target with the Swarm Missile Launcher!
Ma'Jooj approach! Two attack Kshatriya Intercept, dealing 3 damage to one arm! The rest are still navigating the streets towards the group!
Kshatrya Intercept kills another Dagonspawn in a horrible manner!
Errant Sayyid snipes a Dagonspawn for 10 damage and then takes a half-aim again!
Marauder Errant targets Every Dagonspawn on the map with the Swarm Missile Launcher! 7 hits, 3 misses, Kshatrya Intercept is caught in the blast! Three Dagonspawn are killed outright, one takes 5 damage, one takes 4 damage, one takes 0 damage and one deflects the hits with its Might of the Soul! Kshatrya Intercept is reduced to -7 wounds on the head, knocking out its pilot!
Raj Rai tests to Berserk! Raj Rai succeeds! Kshatrya Intercept rises as a Mujahid! Dramatic music plays!
Ma'Jooj turn! A Dagonspawn attacks Kshatrya Intercept, reducing it to -12 wounds to the head! Raj Rai takes 24 wounds from Cockpit Breach and is instantly slain!
Dramatic Music Stops. Everyone fucking panics.
New Powers:
Khadijah:
Soul Powers:
Buraq: You can move your Ghazali Score x 100 meters in any direction, landing safely at your destination. If this puts you in mid-air you may choose to fall normally, float safely to the ground, or commit an additional point to remain where you are indefinitely. It costs 3 points to use by default, but spending more adds 200 meters per point spent.
Robot Powers:
Remote Targeting: All allies receiving the benefits of Data Uplink gain any aim bonus Errant Sayyid is benefitting from as well as +1 penetration when targeting the enemy Errant Sayyid is aiming at. Errant Sayyid, in turn, can use any ally receiving the benefits of Data Uplink for the purposes of Line of Sight.
Data Uplink: As a Reaction Action, Errant Sayyid can transmit targeting data to the bridge and all of its allies, giving them line of sight to any enemies Errant Sayyid has line of sight to and preventing them from being surprised by those enemies.
Inbuilt Weapon: Errant Sayyid has an inbuilt 130 CM Heavy Railgun with 40 rounds.
Sayyid's Railgun: 1d10+6 Impact Pen 5 Heavy, Accurate, Tearing, Concussive (0)
Tang Ying:
Robot Powers:
Rocket Racks (x6): As a defensive reaction Marauder Valiant can fire a salvo of rockets at an approaching enemy. These rockets to 1d10+6 X Damage Pen 2, and deal an extra 4 damage if the target they hit is entirely unarmored. Each Rack can only be fired once per battle.
Heavy Weapons Guy: Marauder Valiant is equipped with internal ammunition racks that can be filled to the brim with ammunition and connected to whatever weapons Marauder has been equipped with. It does not need to spend actions to reload basic and heavy weapons it is wielding, Marauder is equipped with nine reloads for each weapon it deploys with. Marauder Valiant does not need to brace heavy weapons.
Raj Rai:
Robot Powers:
Astra: Kshatriya Intercept undergoes a mode-change when Berserking. It loses 1 Armor on all locations, heals 3 wounds to every area, gains an additional 10 strength, agility and toughness, loses all Pylon and Inbuilt ranged weapons, and increases the damage and penetration of its melee attacks by 3.
Pilot Powers:
I Do Not Fall: When testing to Berserk, add four to your Effective Ghazali Score.
Terrified: When isolated (Piloting does not count unless communications are down, the Bridge Crew and your fellow pilots provide the re-assurance needed) test against Fear (1) and take -10 on all tests.
Baibars is giving them a glowing debriefing, though you can see Usman stalking off behind his back. Presumably he's still pissed.
You decide to celebrate their stunning (And evidently improbable!) success in the best way you know how. Food! Admittedly, you can't cook, since you don't have access to the kitchen you're used to at home (And there's a topic you're not going to dwell on!), but they've got decent enough snacks to make do. You grab a couple plates, make a makeshift platter and approach the plug as the pilots exit. They're both beaming, absolutely giddy at their success, and they're looking at your food platter with hungry eyes.
Dirk steps towards you and gestures at the simulator, "You see that? That was 'pretty badass'." You really want to say something, but it's kind of hard to argue against him here. You instead brandish the food as a peace offering and agree.
Then Tang Ying pushes past you, nearly knocking over your specially prepared, intricately laid out platter of food in his rush to reach the pilots. "That was awesome!" he says with less tact than you thought was physically possible for a single human being, "Just like watching Usman fight on TV!"
All things considered, you think he got off lightly, being pushed out of Amina's way like that. Wasn't a gutpunch, at least. She beelines to you and your snacks, though Dirk just grabbed some food before getting dragged off to talk to Raj and Kim. Or maybe arguing with Raj and Kim. It's, uh, a bit heated.
"That, that was, uh, amazing," you say, offering the snack platter. Amina takes a cookie and munches on it as you continue with mounting enthusiasm, "You could pilot properly from the start, took it on solo for a while, and, like, the thing with the ships guns, and dodging the laser beams! That was awesome!"
Amina beams, "It was awesome! Melee-specced nothing, we rocked in there. And I didn't need a hammer to do it!" There's a suppressed wince, "Though, uh, I don't think my chest is going to forgive me for those reactives going off. Ow. That's going to suck on full blast."
"Yeah, that...wasn't a pleasant surprise," you say, rubbing your own side in sympathy, "Still, you guys rocked the entire 'team hobo' thing."
The smile widens, it's nice, though, uh, slightly scary. "Captain Hobo of Punchdrunk Vagabond reporting for duty," she says, giving a mock, faux-drunk salute, "Where to next?"
[X] Who to hang out with until the next match? (Amina is, by default, with you here.)
[X] Who to hang out with during the next match?
[X] What do you want to do with them?
[X] Anything Else?
Ten Thousand Pounds of Team Kill
"Well, I... uh... guess we could go back down to see how the others are doing, maybe-" you look Amina in the face and quickly reconsider, "...we could look around the place some more? Maybe eat, I know my bout took a lot out of me. It's, uh, kind of weird how tiring it is, yeah? Especially since we were just, you know, sitting around and...yeah." You trail off, trying not to sound stupid.
"Sounds good to me!" says Amina, happily grabbing a chocolate from your plate, "Sit down." You sit, and you both eat for a few minutes in silence before she says anything. "You miss your family," she states, as sure in her random guess as anyone could be, "Don't you?"
You hesitate, it's not entirely comfortable. Two weeks ago you didn't really believe you'd really ever be separated from your family, two days ago this looked kind of like a big, scary vacation. Earlier today you were facing the fact that you were going to die horribly and it'd be thousands of miles from them and they wouldn't hear for days and maybe you'd never see them again and how dare you enjoy yourself here and- "Yeah," you say.
"What were they like?" asks Amina, grabbing another chocolate and chewing on it. She's staring at you intently, suddenly very interested in what you're saying. She's tense, you recognize it, waiting for you to say something, or do something.
You hesitate for a moment, but it doesn't look like this is about to get violent. You think back, driving James to school or sporting competitions, shooting the shit with him over video games. That time he managed to steal beer and you had to hide him being drunk from your dad for five hours. Jenn's bizarre misadventures with Malory or Alex or one of her other friends. That feeling of elation when the both of you scared the piss out of her first boyfriend until he wet himself. Jess' enthusiasm over her first day of school, and all the crap she put you through when you babysat her. Seventeen years, more or less, of being the big brother, the responsible one. "Pretty cool," you say, finally, "We, uh, got along pretty well." Amina's still staring at you, waiting. "I'm the oldest, and, uh, our mom left when I was six. Kind of had to help my dad out, yeah? But, you know, we got along."
"Sounds nice," says Amina, ""Not used to them not being around, have you? You keep thinking they're a few rooms away, even though you know they're not."
You nod, no hesitation there.
"I know the feeling," she replies, "My family runs the big Marida Manufactory over in Casablanca, our parents had to leave us alone all the time. Busy talking about how to save the world." Her speech is energetic, punctuated with gestures and movement. "Left me with Yousuf or some cousins when we were younger. Then Yousuf died and Usman began piloting, they started dropping me off here." She stops, you think of saying something, but you've been on the receiving end of enough of these conversations to know what to do. You stay silent. She eats some of the snacks, you munch on an pear.
"We used to get along great, you know?" she says suddenly, "Best pair of soccer players in Casablanca, I swear. Could play rings around kids twice my height, best forward you could ask for. And no-one could get past Usman when he was playing defense. We made this field in a depression on top of the factory; the giant one where they grew and assembled the robots. We set up goals and you could play soccer and watch them assemble Maridas and Ifrit and whatever."
Another pause, she affixed you with one of those vicious stares. Then, suddenly, she speaks, "Your siblings are fucked, you know? Piloting trends in families. Everyone's going to push them to be You. All their friends, all their teachers, it's-" She cuts herself off, you break eye contact, and she suddenly looks apologetic for the first time. "Just venting," she says, standing up, "Sorry."
"It's OK," you say. It isn't, it's got you thinking.
They're not nice thoughts.
Amina leaves, starts talking to Kim and watching the last group go through their crash course. You debate joining them, then decide against it. You look around again, debating who to go talk to. Usman's arguing with one of the bridge staff (You don't know who, they're not one of the Bridge Bunnies and aren't Baibars), don't want to bother him. Umar and Dirk are on their own, Umar's got a paper and pen out and is taking notes of some sort, Dirk's just watching and being kind of sullen. You debate for a moment, Dirk's kind of been an ass, but Umar's busy, and if you're going to be, you know, relying on him to keep you alive, you probably want to be on at least decent terms with him. And it's not like he's going to take the first step here, you'll have to be the better man.
So, after a moment of psyching yourself up, you stand, steel yourself, suppress your growing regret at Amina's revelation and your vague animosity for Dirk, and walk over to try and make friends.
You approach Dirk, half-empty food platter in hand. He's leaning by one of the screens, lost in thought, and fails to notice you. Or, to be fair, anything else. "Dirk," you say, "You hungry?" He snaps towards you, shaken from his reverie. You politely thrust the food platter towards him.
There's a pause, he scans you, then the food platter, his eyes linger over the shrimp, and then stares you down. "No," he says, "Do you want something?"
"Just wanted to talk," you say. You kind of want to know what the entire argument with Kim and Raj was about, and maybe what he's got against prawns, but you've got some social skills. You decide to go for something he'd be a bit more open to. "So, uh, you were pretty comfortable in there" you say, "That wasn't your first time in a sim?"
"I made my own," says Dirk proudly, "Was not...complete, but it was good enough. I practiced much." It takes a moment for that to sink in.
"You made a functioning Marida combat simulator?" you say. Your mind boggles as you puzzle through the implications. This thing looks like it costs millions. Full VR simulation, pain feedback, comms (Though you guess he wouldn't have had those), soul simulation, Ma'jooj simulation, just designing the cities and situations you fought in must have cost so much. "Wow."
Dirk smirks, evidently sated by your awe. Then he seems to catch himself and goes back to his normal vaguely-superior definitely-surly expression. "Wasn't as..." he waves his arms at the sim, "Extensive. But it was good. I could teach you." There's a short pause, he stares you in the eyes, looking for words, then suddenly looks away. "Because you need the help. Yes?"
"Uh, sure," you say, "I could use the help." You could, really, the sim was terrifying.
"Good," says Dirk, then he turns back to the screen and that rather effectively ends the conversation.
After a moment Tang Ying, Raj Rai and Khadijah Khan's Maridas pop onto the screen, you've seen Raj's, but the other two are new to you.
Tang Ying's Marida is Marauder Valiant, a Shahid, a blocky, steel colossus, with an absolute mess of inbuilt rocket launchers. It is undeniably impressive. More expected than the other designs you've seen in its stocky built, but far more massive and obviously well armed. It's what movies, games, arabian cartoons and even propaganda posters have conditioned you to think of when someone says 'giant robot'. An enormous, heavily armed and armored silver sentinel. It's specced for long range combat, Dirk notes under his breath that it's 'obvious' that it's meant to heavy weaponry, though you're not sure what counts as 'heavy weaponry' for a Marida of all things.
Khadijah Khan's, meanwhile, is Errant Sayyid, an Emir like yours. It's massive, green and inelegant and has what you think is a massive accelerator cannon bolted onto one arm. Its torso and shoulders are a mess of curves, and its semi-transparent cockpit looks almost out of place. Like Tang Ying's, it's specced for long range combat. Dirk says its a sniper, which you guess fits.
The basic training goes well, Khadijah and Tang Ying pick up the basics quickly, Raj seems to take longer and gets tired far easier, even during the basic training exercises, but he picks up quickly enough.
After an hour, the combat sim begins. Sayyid, Kshatriya, and Marauder materialize in the middle of the Italian city. The camera is zoomed out and you can see the three, separated by a few city blocks, as well as the full dozen Ma'Jooj that have been scattered across the city.
Khadijah takes action immediately. She flexes her Soul, something you can feel emanating from her cockpit, and Sayyid leaps into the air and floats, perched on an invisible platform. She opens a comm channel and says, "I've spotted them. Insha'allah I will provide supporting fire to the others." Bridge Bunny Wong acknowledges the order and does…something involving data streams and uplinks. All of the Ma'Jooj glow, outlined with an odd, green glow. You wonder if that's what it looks like for the other pilots, then think that it would've been really nice if all the Spawn got a convenient outline when you were shooting them.
You suppress the thought after a moment, and then Raj Rai pushes Kshatriya Intercept forwards and blitzes the nearest Ma'Jooj. Claws pop out of its massive hands, and the red Marida slams its prey to the ground before simply tearing it to pieces, clawing through its Soul Shield, its arms and then the entirety of its chest as the monster vainly tries to defend itself. Ichor and flesh stain the street and slide off of the Marida's glistening carapace, and Raj gives a near-hysterical cheer at the kill. More Ma'Jooj close, two attempting to bring down Kshatriya in a flurry of blows, Raj's defense is more frenzied clawing, but the Spawn are blatantly not up to the task of fighting the monstrous mech, they leave deep gouges in Kshatriya's left arm, but the crimson Marida squishes another's head like a grapefruit, forcing the survivor to back off before it can take advantage of the injury.
Tang Ying, meanwhile, shoulders the Swarm Launcher. It is a massive, multi-tubed construction, and Marauder Valiant deploys some sort of vacuum-tube looking thing to it as he braces himself. He's saying something in Chinese (Mandarin? Cantonese? You don't know) and one of the bridge bunnies- Abdul Raheem- is yelling at him about it. You'd pay more attention, but Khadijah opens fire as the rest of the Ma'Jooj close on the trio. One of the monstrous railgun rounds goes straight through a building, sending debris flying as it knocks one of the spawn onto its back. It's a direct hit, but the railgun round doesn't kill the monster. She loads, you see a massive shell suspend itself between the twin rails of her arm-mounted railgun, and as she lines up her next shot Tang Ying bellows a final phrase in and lets loose a veritable stream of missiles.
There are ten of them, each the size of a car, slicing through the city on zig-zagged paths. One crashed into a building, sending debris and simulated people flying in a ruinous detonation. Another missed its target by a good twenty meters, then hit an evacuation truck as it tried to wheel in the tight streets. The simulation was far too detailed for your liking, as far as the aftermath of that went. A third was destroyed by its target, the Ma'jooj grabbing a truck and sending it flying into the missile with a flex of its soul.
Seven missiles hit their targets. Three Ma'jooj die immediately, heads and chests reduced to so much pulp and shrapnel by missile-impacts. Another two are wounded, peppered and concussed by near-misses. One, swiftly closing on Kshatriya Intercept, dives forward as the missile detonates, it peppers the monster with shrapnel, but none of it pierces the beasts monstrous hide.
The last missile strikes Kshatriya Intercept and its foe as Kshatriya leaps at the Ma'jooj. The Ma'jooj molds its soul, pulling the barrier in, angling it, and as the missile detonates against it the blast is channeled straight into Kshatriya Intercept's face, warping and melting the layers of armor around the cockpit. You can't do anything but watch in horror as Kshatriya collapses in a heap and Raj Rai screams a strangled scream. Someone in the bridge crew half-stands, but Baibars holds up a hand and they stop. "Kshatriya Intercept is down," announces the simulation, "Pilot Rai is losing consciousness, attempting Hindbrain reversion."
There's a tormented moment of utter stillness.
Then Kshatriya Intercept rises. It's slow, the mech pulls itself up, meter by meter, until it stands once more. There's a primal, deafening roar from the Marida. Kshatriya's oversized gauntlets and pauldrons slough away, its armor cracks as muscle grows and flexes and strains against its confines. For a brief moment, you can see bone and muscle and machinery under the cracks before smooth, brown carapace grows into place over them. Beneath the shattered cockpit a skull, then muscle and carapace, grew into the shattered armor. A grey, cyclopean eye replaced the yellow eye-slits. It blinked, a single eyelid sliding sideways, and then glared at the Ma'jooj across from it. It roars again, a guttural bellow, and the Ma'jooj recoils, stepping back from the Marida's sheer presence.
"Kshatriya Intercept has successfully reverted to Mujahid mode," announces the simulation, "Pilot Rai is stable and in complete control."
As if on cue, Raj raises one of Kshatriya Intercept's claws behind it, parallel to the ground, and steps forward to strike. Kshatriya moves with deceptive speed, closing almost too quick for you too track. One step carries it halfway to the Ma'jooj, the next carries it into melee range-
And it stops, Kshatriya stops, the bridge crew stops, you, and everyone watching the simulation, stop. The Ma'jooj stands, a clawed hand raised, impaling Kshatriya Intercept straight through its head, cockpit and monstrous eye. You can see every bloodstain, every piece of viscera and gore hanging from the claw. Kshatriya Intercept falls, slowly and ponderously toppling to the ground.
"Kshatriya Intercept destroyed," announces the simulation in the same damn monotone, "Pilot Rai confirmed deceased."
Then the shock begins to pass.
[X] PANIC
--[X] Write-In.
OOC:
AFTER OVER A MONTH, I AM FREE.
And, for lulz, a rough summary of combat:
Kshatrya Intercept engages the enemy and kills a Dagonspawn in a horrible manner!
Errant Sayyid uses Buraq to reach a perch and takes a half-aim.
Marauder Errant uses a full-aim to multi-target with the Swarm Missile Launcher!
Ma'Jooj approach! Two attack Kshatriya Intercept, dealing 3 damage to one arm! The rest are still navigating the streets towards the group!
Kshatrya Intercept kills another Dagonspawn in a horrible manner!
Errant Sayyid snipes a Dagonspawn for 10 damage and then takes a half-aim again!
Marauder Errant targets Every Dagonspawn on the map with the Swarm Missile Launcher! 7 hits, 3 misses, Kshatrya Intercept is caught in the blast! Three Dagonspawn are killed outright, one takes 5 damage, one takes 4 damage, one takes 0 damage and one deflects the hits with its Might of the Soul! Kshatrya Intercept is reduced to -7 wounds on the head, knocking out its pilot!
Raj Rai tests to Berserk! Raj Rai succeeds! Kshatrya Intercept rises as a Mujahid! Dramatic music plays!
Ma'Jooj turn! A Dagonspawn attacks Kshatrya Intercept, reducing it to -12 wounds to the head! Raj Rai takes 24 wounds from Cockpit Breach and is instantly slain!
Dramatic Music Stops. Everyone fucking panics.
New Powers:
Khadijah:
Soul Powers:
Buraq: You can move your Ghazali Score x 100 meters in any direction, landing safely at your destination. If this puts you in mid-air you may choose to fall normally, float safely to the ground, or commit an additional point to remain where you are indefinitely. It costs 3 points to use by default, but spending more adds 200 meters per point spent.
Robot Powers:
Remote Targeting: All allies receiving the benefits of Data Uplink gain any aim bonus Errant Sayyid is benefitting from as well as +1 penetration when targeting the enemy Errant Sayyid is aiming at. Errant Sayyid, in turn, can use any ally receiving the benefits of Data Uplink for the purposes of Line of Sight.
Data Uplink: As a Reaction Action, Errant Sayyid can transmit targeting data to the bridge and all of its allies, giving them line of sight to any enemies Errant Sayyid has line of sight to and preventing them from being surprised by those enemies.
Inbuilt Weapon: Errant Sayyid has an inbuilt 130 CM Heavy Railgun with 40 rounds.
Sayyid's Railgun: 1d10+6 Impact Pen 5 Heavy, Accurate, Tearing, Concussive (0)
Tang Ying:
Robot Powers:
Rocket Racks (x6): As a defensive reaction Marauder Valiant can fire a salvo of rockets at an approaching enemy. These rockets to 1d10+6 X Damage Pen 2, and deal an extra 4 damage if the target they hit is entirely unarmored. Each Rack can only be fired once per battle.
Heavy Weapons Guy: Marauder Valiant is equipped with internal ammunition racks that can be filled to the brim with ammunition and connected to whatever weapons Marauder has been equipped with. It does not need to spend actions to reload basic and heavy weapons it is wielding, Marauder is equipped with nine reloads for each weapon it deploys with. Marauder Valiant does not need to brace heavy weapons.
Raj Rai:
Robot Powers:
Astra: Kshatriya Intercept undergoes a mode-change when Berserking. It loses 1 Armor on all locations, heals 3 wounds to every area, gains an additional 10 strength, agility and toughness, loses all Pylon and Inbuilt ranged weapons, and increases the damage and penetration of its melee attacks by 3.
Pilot Powers:
I Do Not Fall: When testing to Berserk, add four to your Effective Ghazali Score.
Terrified: When isolated (Piloting does not count unless communications are down, the Bridge Crew and your fellow pilots provide the re-assurance needed) test against Fear (1) and take -10 on all tests.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Holy Shit
Dead. No warning, just...gone. Despite the mech, despite fighting a weak enemy, despite all of it. "What just happened?" you mumble, utterly inaudible.
Something in your brain yells at you, you should be running for Raj's plug, or yelling at Tang Ying, or something. Dirk's running, you see, dashing for the cockpits with Umar and someone else. It barely registers, you're just...
You walk for the snack table and just sit in the closest chair.
After a bit, Raj is sat down next to you, he's visibly shuddering. You should do something. Umar's standing off, heading back for the cockpits and waiting. Dirk's standing a few feet away, evidently as unsure as you are.
[X] Give him a hug. You might need it more than he does, but maybe he needs it a bit as well.
[X] Don't, just..you need more time.
[X] Ask if he's OK.
[X] Offer food.
[X] Write-In.
The Kids Aren't Alright
"Are...are you OK?" you ask. He shudders, shakes his head and squeaks something inaudible. "Sorry?" you say.
"Messed up," he manages. You give him a second glance. How did he mess up? That doesn't make any sense.
"You did fine," you say, hesitating. There's a moments pause, and then you give him a pat on the shoulder. He starts, and you immediately pull away. You begin to stand. "Sorry," you say, "I'll, uh-"
"Don't leave," he manages, staring at you with those sad, sad eyes. He's like an abandoned puppy, except possibly more adorable.
"I won't leave," you say, lowering yourself back into the seat, "It's alright." You give him another attempt at a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "You did fine, they're probably just-" And then, without warning, Raj envelopes you in a hug and kind of sobs awkwardly into your shoulder while mumbling that he doesn't want to go home.
There isn't really a hell of a lot you can do, so you kind of return the hug and awkwardly try to radiate re-assuringness at him. Mostly you just make vaguely comforting noises and let him cry into your shirt.
After a few minutes, rescue arrives in the form of Umar with a pair of adults. Fatima, the recruiter that came to your house, and a doctor you don't know. "Raj. This is Doctor Ali," says Umar, pointing at the doctor. "And that's Doctor Fatima." He points at Fatima. "They're going to make sure you're OK and talk you through this, alright?"
It takes a moment, but Umar and Doctor Ali manage to coax Raj off of you and lead him away while Dirk stares.
"Hey, Johnathan?" says Umar, sitting next to you. His voice is kind and lilting and he has just a touch of an accent which is just that much more noticeable without a video game playing in the background.
"Uh, yeah?" you say, turning and looking deep into his rich-
Woah, bad train of thought. Bad.
"Thanks for comforting Raj," he says, "It doesn't seem important, but, well..." He catches your gaze again, its warm and approving and just makes you feel good. You've stopped listening to what he's saying, you can't bring yourself to avert your eyes and you start to lose yourself in his deep-
dammit.
By the time you regain your bearings, there's a lull, you could totally use this to bail.
Or, uh, you know. Talk to Umar.
About things.
...Valid things, even!
[X] Abort Conversation!
>[X] Write-in
[X] Actually, this is a good time to ask about the Ghazali Score and Manifesting things.
[X] Ask about our Performance
[X] Ask if Raj'll be OK.
[X] Talk about something else entirely. You don't want to talk about work right now.
Yer a Wizard Johnathan
You know, because he's an interesting dude. And you have things to ask. Things you need to now.
Like, uh...
...
If Raj'll be OK! Or the Ghazali Score! Those things.
And nothing else.
"So, uh," you say, "Is Raj going to be alright? I mean, mines hurts and I didn't get too badly hit and what he took just..." You shudder, it's still uncomfortable to think about.
Umar puts a re-assuring hand on your shoulder, it's comforting and wonderful and you have to resist the urge to shiver. "He'll be fine, Johnathan," says Umar, "The sims can't do permanent damage, it's not pleasant, he's not going to feel well for a few days, but he's not in any danger. Don't worry."
"I, uh," you struggle to actually say anything besides gibberish with his hand on your shoulder like that. You take a moment to compose yourself (You're a professional now, right? You did OK in the sim, you can do this. You can have a totally normal conversation and impress him. You can totally do this.) "That's good to hear," you say finally, "I was, uh, worried."
"It's entirely normal," says Umar, "You don't need to worry." And, well, you're not sure if it's the tone of voice or the words or just him being him but, uh, it works. The fear just kind of...melts a bit.
"Thanks," you say. You think for a minute again, you don't want to stop talking yet, but what to talk about? You rummage your memories for a bit, throw a few things out as too personal or just weird, and then go for, "Uh, right, so, I know the basics of what Ghazali scores are and all, but what exactly is manifesting? And what's an Emir class? And why is 13.5 so impressive, exactly? I mean, I know you need 8 to pilot, but, uh, I didn't really think it mattered much after that?" You're not sure if that last sentence was supposed to be a question, but it's a bit late to change it now.
Umar's hand leaves your shoulder, which your subconscious silently mourns, and he thinks for a moment before answering. "Right, so I'm going to be giving you and Khadijah more detailed lessons on this later, but basically, a higher Ghazali Score can be useful, it means you can break down a Ma'Jooj's defensive Soul more effectively and use your Soul more...potently. Uh, once we do the lessons I can show you some of the neater stuff. An Emir is meant to take advantage of that, it doesn't really show up on the simulation, but piloting an Emir means you can actually use more of your Soul to, you know, do stuff. Or protect yourself. As for Manifesting, uh...
Think 'wizard'. Except you need this two hundred pound mechanical cradle and you can't actually move in the current prototype. And it uses your soul. Or maybe faith, we're not totally clear on that bit. It's really useful for practicing using an Emir, though.
It's kind of neat, but, like, I know eight people, including you, me and Khadijah, who actually have a Ghazali Score high enough to use it effectively."
Oh, OK, that makes sense, you're a fucking wizard. That, uh...
Actually that isn't that much of a surprise, considering. It also sounds like a really lame wizard. "I think I've got it," you say, "Uh, thanks. Seriously."
"Not a problem Johnathan," says Umar. He gives you a hearty handshake before saying, "Uh, I'm supposed to handle the debrief, so I've got to go, but if there's anything else you wanted to talk about we could do that first."
At some point during your conversation, Khadijah Khan and Tang Ying exited the simulator. You honestly hadn't noticed.
[X] Keep talking with Umar!
->[X] Pick a topic
->[X] ...You aren't actually basically a religious wizard, right?
[X] Talk with Tang Ying
->[X] Yell at him. What the actual fuck, dude.
->[X] He feels bad enough, probably, ask him how the rest of the match went?
->[X] Tell him that Raj is going to be OK.
->[X] Talk about Something Else (Specify)
[X] Talk with Khadijah.
->[X] Ask how the rest of the match went.
->[X] You don't know her at all. Talk about Something (Specify)
->[X] Tell her that Raj is going to be OK.
->[X] Does she do the manifesting thing too?
[X] Talk with Dirk.
->[X] Ask about his education, he had to go somewhere nice to pull off what he did.
->[X] Did he leave anyone at home, like you or Raj did?
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
[X] Talk with Amina
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
->[X] Usman and Her
->[X] How is she the only new pilot who's immune to Umar and Baibars, exactly?
->[X] She wasn't...serious about the thing with your siblings, right?
[X] Talk with Usman
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
->[X] Better advice?
->[X] Amina and Him.
[X] Talk with Hyun-soon
->[X] Apologize for pressing her earlier.
->[X] Maybe she's a bit more willing to talk about her dad now?
->[X] Uh, you weren't watching the match, ask how the rest of it went.
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
[X] Talk with Baibars
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
->[X] Ask if the sims are normally this...brutal.
->[X] This is inhumane! Rant about what happened to Raj.
->[X] Advice?
[X] Write-in
There's Always Someone Cooler Than You
"No, I'm good," you reply, "You go, uh, handle that debrief. I'll go tell Raj's team that he's going to be alright."
Umar smiles warmly and gives you a tender pat on the shoulder. Your heart flutters a bit. "I'll go then," he says, "Thank you for telling Raj's team, it's good of you." He turns and leaves, and you think very hard about Sam until he's out of sight.
Then you have to deal with the team. You're tempted to talk to Tang Ying first, he seems more accessible, but you have a sneaking suspicion that you wouldn't be able to do much besides yell at him. It's Khadijah then, and, well, the girl's kind of an enigma to you. She didn't really participate when you were playing video games last night, she hasn't said aword to you, and under her scarf-thing you can't actually see any of her face except for her eyes.
But it's not like you have a better choice, and Umar said she was also a wizard-y thing so maybe that counts as common ground?
With that in mind, you approach Khadijah. She doesn't seem to take notice of you until well past the point where it's obvious that there's nothing you could feasibly be doing except for approaching her. Then she kind of gives you a once-over, all judging, folds her arms over her chest, and stares at you. It's not a pleasant stare.
You decide to be friendly anyways. "Hi," you say, extending a hand, "Uh, just wanted to tell you that Raj is going to be alright. In case you were worried. Yeah."
Khadijah kind of stares at your hand, and gives you a look you can't quite decipher (Due to the entire 'veil over half her face thing', you imagine). "Thank you," she says. Then she keeps staring at you.
Shaking off the feeling that she mostly just wants you gone, you decide to press on with your entire 'decent human being' schtick. "So, uh, Umar mentioned you qualify for the entire wiz-" you catch yourself, stumble over your words for a moment, and then continue under Khadijah's glare, "Uh, Manifesting thing. I'm kinda clueless, I was wondering if you knew any-"
"No," she says, gaze unwavering.
"Oh, well, uh, that's cool," you say. You falter for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase the next bit, but Khadijah decides to interrupt you.
"I should go," she says. And then, without waiting, she turns to walk away.
"Nice talking...at you, I guess," you say to her retreating form. You think you hear a snort of amusement, but you're not sure. She stops halfway across the room, at another stretch of railing, leaning on it and seemingly content to just...be, on her own.
With Khadijah having rather rudely ended your conversation you turn to approach Tang Ying, but Kim intercepts you and says that it's your team's turn to Debrief with Umar. Guess he'll just have to wait.
OOC: So, between my relatives and, uh, certain developments I haven't had much time for this. But now I do! Sorry that this isn't complete, Sloppy Workouts tomorrow at 6 AM+Midterm Shit to do, don't have a lot of time.
So you don't have to wait till tomorrow/whenever my schedule clears to vote, here's the last vote before the time-skip:
[ ] Calm down before telling Tang Ying. You don't want to yell at him.
[ ] Fuck calmness, he could've gotten Raj seriously hurt, rage at him for a bit.
[ ] Try not to be rude, but, uh, what the fuck Tang Ying.
[ ] Write-In
Dead. No warning, just...gone. Despite the mech, despite fighting a weak enemy, despite all of it. "What just happened?" you mumble, utterly inaudible.
Something in your brain yells at you, you should be running for Raj's plug, or yelling at Tang Ying, or something. Dirk's running, you see, dashing for the cockpits with Umar and someone else. It barely registers, you're just...
You walk for the snack table and just sit in the closest chair.
After a bit, Raj is sat down next to you, he's visibly shuddering. You should do something. Umar's standing off, heading back for the cockpits and waiting. Dirk's standing a few feet away, evidently as unsure as you are.
[X] Give him a hug. You might need it more than he does, but maybe he needs it a bit as well.
[X] Don't, just..you need more time.
[X] Ask if he's OK.
[X] Offer food.
[X] Write-In.
The Kids Aren't Alright
"Are...are you OK?" you ask. He shudders, shakes his head and squeaks something inaudible. "Sorry?" you say.
"Messed up," he manages. You give him a second glance. How did he mess up? That doesn't make any sense.
"You did fine," you say, hesitating. There's a moments pause, and then you give him a pat on the shoulder. He starts, and you immediately pull away. You begin to stand. "Sorry," you say, "I'll, uh-"
"Don't leave," he manages, staring at you with those sad, sad eyes. He's like an abandoned puppy, except possibly more adorable.
"I won't leave," you say, lowering yourself back into the seat, "It's alright." You give him another attempt at a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "You did fine, they're probably just-" And then, without warning, Raj envelopes you in a hug and kind of sobs awkwardly into your shoulder while mumbling that he doesn't want to go home.
There isn't really a hell of a lot you can do, so you kind of return the hug and awkwardly try to radiate re-assuringness at him. Mostly you just make vaguely comforting noises and let him cry into your shirt.
After a few minutes, rescue arrives in the form of Umar with a pair of adults. Fatima, the recruiter that came to your house, and a doctor you don't know. "Raj. This is Doctor Ali," says Umar, pointing at the doctor. "And that's Doctor Fatima." He points at Fatima. "They're going to make sure you're OK and talk you through this, alright?"
It takes a moment, but Umar and Doctor Ali manage to coax Raj off of you and lead him away while Dirk stares.
"Hey, Johnathan?" says Umar, sitting next to you. His voice is kind and lilting and he has just a touch of an accent which is just that much more noticeable without a video game playing in the background.
"Uh, yeah?" you say, turning and looking deep into his rich-
Woah, bad train of thought. Bad.
"Thanks for comforting Raj," he says, "It doesn't seem important, but, well..." He catches your gaze again, its warm and approving and just makes you feel good. You've stopped listening to what he's saying, you can't bring yourself to avert your eyes and you start to lose yourself in his deep-
dammit.
By the time you regain your bearings, there's a lull, you could totally use this to bail.
Or, uh, you know. Talk to Umar.
About things.
...Valid things, even!
[X] Abort Conversation!
>[X] Write-in
[X] Actually, this is a good time to ask about the Ghazali Score and Manifesting things.
[X] Ask about our Performance
[X] Ask if Raj'll be OK.
[X] Talk about something else entirely. You don't want to talk about work right now.
Yer a Wizard Johnathan
You know, because he's an interesting dude. And you have things to ask. Things you need to now.
Like, uh...
...
If Raj'll be OK! Or the Ghazali Score! Those things.
And nothing else.
"So, uh," you say, "Is Raj going to be alright? I mean, mines hurts and I didn't get too badly hit and what he took just..." You shudder, it's still uncomfortable to think about.
Umar puts a re-assuring hand on your shoulder, it's comforting and wonderful and you have to resist the urge to shiver. "He'll be fine, Johnathan," says Umar, "The sims can't do permanent damage, it's not pleasant, he's not going to feel well for a few days, but he's not in any danger. Don't worry."
"I, uh," you struggle to actually say anything besides gibberish with his hand on your shoulder like that. You take a moment to compose yourself (You're a professional now, right? You did OK in the sim, you can do this. You can have a totally normal conversation and impress him. You can totally do this.) "That's good to hear," you say finally, "I was, uh, worried."
"It's entirely normal," says Umar, "You don't need to worry." And, well, you're not sure if it's the tone of voice or the words or just him being him but, uh, it works. The fear just kind of...melts a bit.
"Thanks," you say. You think for a minute again, you don't want to stop talking yet, but what to talk about? You rummage your memories for a bit, throw a few things out as too personal or just weird, and then go for, "Uh, right, so, I know the basics of what Ghazali scores are and all, but what exactly is manifesting? And what's an Emir class? And why is 13.5 so impressive, exactly? I mean, I know you need 8 to pilot, but, uh, I didn't really think it mattered much after that?" You're not sure if that last sentence was supposed to be a question, but it's a bit late to change it now.
Umar's hand leaves your shoulder, which your subconscious silently mourns, and he thinks for a moment before answering. "Right, so I'm going to be giving you and Khadijah more detailed lessons on this later, but basically, a higher Ghazali Score can be useful, it means you can break down a Ma'Jooj's defensive Soul more effectively and use your Soul more...potently. Uh, once we do the lessons I can show you some of the neater stuff. An Emir is meant to take advantage of that, it doesn't really show up on the simulation, but piloting an Emir means you can actually use more of your Soul to, you know, do stuff. Or protect yourself. As for Manifesting, uh...
Think 'wizard'. Except you need this two hundred pound mechanical cradle and you can't actually move in the current prototype. And it uses your soul. Or maybe faith, we're not totally clear on that bit. It's really useful for practicing using an Emir, though.
It's kind of neat, but, like, I know eight people, including you, me and Khadijah, who actually have a Ghazali Score high enough to use it effectively."
Oh, OK, that makes sense, you're a fucking wizard. That, uh...
Actually that isn't that much of a surprise, considering. It also sounds like a really lame wizard. "I think I've got it," you say, "Uh, thanks. Seriously."
"Not a problem Johnathan," says Umar. He gives you a hearty handshake before saying, "Uh, I'm supposed to handle the debrief, so I've got to go, but if there's anything else you wanted to talk about we could do that first."
At some point during your conversation, Khadijah Khan and Tang Ying exited the simulator. You honestly hadn't noticed.
[X] Keep talking with Umar!
->[X] Pick a topic
->[X] ...You aren't actually basically a religious wizard, right?
[X] Talk with Tang Ying
->[X] Yell at him. What the actual fuck, dude.
->[X] He feels bad enough, probably, ask him how the rest of the match went?
->[X] Tell him that Raj is going to be OK.
->[X] Talk about Something Else (Specify)
[X] Talk with Khadijah.
->[X] Ask how the rest of the match went.
->[X] You don't know her at all. Talk about Something (Specify)
->[X] Tell her that Raj is going to be OK.
->[X] Does she do the manifesting thing too?
[X] Talk with Dirk.
->[X] Ask about his education, he had to go somewhere nice to pull off what he did.
->[X] Did he leave anyone at home, like you or Raj did?
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
[X] Talk with Amina
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
->[X] Usman and Her
->[X] How is she the only new pilot who's immune to Umar and Baibars, exactly?
->[X] She wasn't...serious about the thing with your siblings, right?
[X] Talk with Usman
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
->[X] Better advice?
->[X] Amina and Him.
[X] Talk with Hyun-soon
->[X] Apologize for pressing her earlier.
->[X] Maybe she's a bit more willing to talk about her dad now?
->[X] Uh, you weren't watching the match, ask how the rest of it went.
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
[X] Talk with Baibars
->[X] Talk about something. (Specify)
->[X] Ask if the sims are normally this...brutal.
->[X] This is inhumane! Rant about what happened to Raj.
->[X] Advice?
[X] Write-in
There's Always Someone Cooler Than You
"No, I'm good," you reply, "You go, uh, handle that debrief. I'll go tell Raj's team that he's going to be alright."
Umar smiles warmly and gives you a tender pat on the shoulder. Your heart flutters a bit. "I'll go then," he says, "Thank you for telling Raj's team, it's good of you." He turns and leaves, and you think very hard about Sam until he's out of sight.
Then you have to deal with the team. You're tempted to talk to Tang Ying first, he seems more accessible, but you have a sneaking suspicion that you wouldn't be able to do much besides yell at him. It's Khadijah then, and, well, the girl's kind of an enigma to you. She didn't really participate when you were playing video games last night, she hasn't said aword to you, and under her scarf-thing you can't actually see any of her face except for her eyes.
But it's not like you have a better choice, and Umar said she was also a wizard-y thing so maybe that counts as common ground?
With that in mind, you approach Khadijah. She doesn't seem to take notice of you until well past the point where it's obvious that there's nothing you could feasibly be doing except for approaching her. Then she kind of gives you a once-over, all judging, folds her arms over her chest, and stares at you. It's not a pleasant stare.
You decide to be friendly anyways. "Hi," you say, extending a hand, "Uh, just wanted to tell you that Raj is going to be alright. In case you were worried. Yeah."
Khadijah kind of stares at your hand, and gives you a look you can't quite decipher (Due to the entire 'veil over half her face thing', you imagine). "Thank you," she says. Then she keeps staring at you.
Shaking off the feeling that she mostly just wants you gone, you decide to press on with your entire 'decent human being' schtick. "So, uh, Umar mentioned you qualify for the entire wiz-" you catch yourself, stumble over your words for a moment, and then continue under Khadijah's glare, "Uh, Manifesting thing. I'm kinda clueless, I was wondering if you knew any-"
"No," she says, gaze unwavering.
"Oh, well, uh, that's cool," you say. You falter for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase the next bit, but Khadijah decides to interrupt you.
"I should go," she says. And then, without waiting, she turns to walk away.
"Nice talking...at you, I guess," you say to her retreating form. You think you hear a snort of amusement, but you're not sure. She stops halfway across the room, at another stretch of railing, leaning on it and seemingly content to just...be, on her own.
With Khadijah having rather rudely ended your conversation you turn to approach Tang Ying, but Kim intercepts you and says that it's your team's turn to Debrief with Umar. Guess he'll just have to wait.
OOC: So, between my relatives and, uh, certain developments I haven't had much time for this. But now I do! Sorry that this isn't complete, Sloppy Workouts tomorrow at 6 AM+Midterm Shit to do, don't have a lot of time.
So you don't have to wait till tomorrow/whenever my schedule clears to vote, here's the last vote before the time-skip:
[ ] Calm down before telling Tang Ying. You don't want to yell at him.
[ ] Fuck calmness, he could've gotten Raj seriously hurt, rage at him for a bit.
[ ] Try not to be rude, but, uh, what the fuck Tang Ying.
[ ] Write-In
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
London Town is Falling Down
It began with a celebration.
The Order of Saint George had been doing incredibly well against the threat of the Enemy since their founding in 2006. Wawel, their first test of the Watchtower Line, had been defeated with minimal casualties, Type 1 through Type 4 assaults across western europe had been repulsed with relatively little damage, and their public image was sterling. France was in negotiations to have the Order's third base opened outside of Paris, while Spain was in the process of phasing out their support for the Templars as the Order began to construct their second base at Madrid. The Watchtower line had exceeded expectations, and the Galahad line had been doing incredibly well in the prototype phase.
It was with this in mind that the Order held the Round Table Parade. It was meant to be the unveiling of the Galahad line and a display of their might and valour. All of their Knight teams, the entire watchtower line (Save 3, which was undergoing retrofit in London Base, and 5, which had been damaged in the fight against Facemelter and was undergoing repairs on Gibraltar), even most of their conventional forces were mustered to parade through london. The queen, the prime minister and the head of the Order all gave speeches from a podium at the base of the first Galahad-class mech, thousands upon thousands turned up to show support, and the event was broadcasted all over the world.
It all went wrong approximately half an hour before the naming ceremony for the Galahad. A type-6 Enemy was detected by the Order's London Base mere moments before it burst from the ground, spewing flame and molten rock barely a kilometer from London Base. It immediately made a beeline for the effectively-undefended London Base, and in a desperate move the half-retrofitted Watchtower 3 and several prototype Galahad units were deployed to intercept with no real information on the foe, save for the name 'Glaurung', the callsign that the MERLIN supercomputer had assigned the monster. Though they fought valiantly, the deployed mechs were destroyed in short order, and all their pilots killed in action. The parade turned to chaos, the assembled mechs and soldiers scrambled to arm themselves and leave the city in a desperate bid to save London Base.
They would not make it in time. The very nature of the parade meant that the streets were packed with both mechs and humans, and none of the Order's forces could effectively escape London's confines as Glaurung ran rampant through London Base. And run rampant it did. It burned through the massive armored dome of the base, pulled itself inside of the facility and razed it. Well over eighty percent of the staff died as it smashed through bulkheads and barracks and mess halls, melted escape routes to so much slag, and turned the centerpoint of the Order's military might into a burned out ruin.
Then it took flight, its ire aimed at the city of London. Entire city blocks melted into slag from single, massive, firey breaths. Knight squads and tanks and more planes than could reasonably be counted were crushed like insects by claws the size of buildings. Millions burned, the queen, the prime minister, most of parliament and the entirety of the command staff of the Order among their number. The entire Watchtower line attempted to drive the beast off, firing on it with gatling cannons and railguns, charging with lances and swords, and were each utterly destroyed. The city was razed to the ground, much of the destruction broadcast live to the world, and there wasn't a damn thing anyone could do about it. The functioning Galahad unit attempted to sortie, to protect evacuating civilians, save something from the disaster, but Glaurung flew into it at almost four times the speed of sound, ripped its cockpit from its chassis, and took it back to the ruins of London Base. It's not known if the pilot somehow survived the kidnapping, but as it's been five years...no-one has high hopes.
Since then, Glaurung has remained elusive, though less destructive. It's attacked nuclear submarines in the arctic, ripped apart any attempt to rebuild london, occasionally harassed seemingly insignificant sites, and has killed and flown off with at least one Type 4 Enemy, but no-one has been able to harm it or find a pattern in its attacks, and no-one has breached the slagged entrances of London Base and lived to tell the tale.
Vatters
Before JANNAH made the breakthrough that would be the first Marida, research into Enemy biology gave fruit in the form of half a dozen projects, among which were the Vatters. Though originally conceived as a supersoldier program that would make men capable of utilizing the often bizarre powers of the Enemy, the first generation of quick-matured Vatter supersoldiers were plagued with physical and psychological defects, and, frankly, could not do anything that the programs hoped for. While their lives (And tragic deaths due to an assortment of horrible ailments) were important to fully realize the nature of the Soul and the Ghazali score, the program was a failure and is generally not referred to as the First Generation Vatter program.
What are currently known as First Gen Vatters began to appear in late 2002 and early 2003, while this project began at the same time as the Supersoldier project, it allowed itself far more time to grow and perfect its subjects. This was, in part, because it's goal was not the Ubermensch that the supsoldier project desired, but instead a method to ensure a reliable source of pilots without resorting to eugenics. Vat-grown children, made as genetically modified clones of their fathers or mothers, seemed an excellent middle ground, and by all accounts the project was an astounding success. The children were normal, in basically every respect, and though fantastically expensive they showed none of the horrible side effects that the supersoldiers suffered from.
The ethical issues began to spring up the moment the first gens became public. While they were quickly declared properly human, the morality of simply mass-printing humans was, and still is a thorny issue, and debates about eugenics and attempts to make a 'better class' of human raged well into the mid 2010s. You even had a thing on it in social studies once, the teacher was pretty vehemently anti-vatter, he thought they were basically a go at making a caste of better humans. The ethics of using them to supplement declining populations due to giant monster attacks never really came up as an issue, Vatters are expensive to grow, and are not really economical to grow in the tens of thousands or millions.
While Vatters technically do not have to register, they are monitored as they grow up to track health, psychological or metaphysical tendencies among Vatters. While so far nothing of note has come up, some researchers believe that Vatters are the cause of the growing average Ghazali scores among the population born after the DC Meteorite. Public vatters do suffer from some discrimination in much of the world, but as none have hit 18, and they tend to be rich or upper middle class, it's not as bad as fiction makes it out to be.
Currently Vatters are legal, but their cost means that they're primarily grown by the rich, or upper middle class families unable to have children. There are, of course, conspiracy theories and tales about new accelerated growth and super soldier programs, but those are hilariously illegal just about everywhere, as is the use of false and implanted memories (A technology that is, frankly, entirely theoretical). The conspiracy theories are, well, just that, conspiracy theories with no basis. You can safely ignore them.
Dragonslayer
2012 had started out a bad year for humanity. In addition to the massive casualties sustained in the fight against Vrimana in the Indian Ocean, the maiming of Baibars Ahmed that left Mameluke Overrun unpiloted until Usman Usman took the helm in 2014, the Templar's horrific initial casualties against Mab and Whitewater, JSOC-Mechanized closing after being utterly unable to recover from DC, the Order of Saint George's first deployed Knight squad being wiped out almost to the last man taking out Grendel, and much of the Cape Floristic Region being effectively destroyed as a result of the onslaught on Cape Town by Warhead, morale was, perhaps justifiably, horrifically low.
Morale was low, to say the least, when the Order's MERLIN supercomputer found the Type 4 Wawel swiftly approaching Edinburgh, with Templar reinforcements nearly nine hours out, the Knight Squads devastated and miserable, and the first Watchtower mech days away from being combat ready, Edinburgh seemed doomed.
Then Gabriel, the pilot of the incomplete Watchtower-1, snuck into his mech, got his bridge crew to open London Bases gates, and charged to the rescue anyways in a half-complete mech. There was some yelling, and an abortive attempt to retrieve the half-finished mech, but eventually Commander Arthur overruled the Field Commanders and told them to go ahead with the deployment.
Wawel was two hundred and fifty meters tall, armored, fast, incredibly dangerous, and focused like a razors edge. It had ripped apart the army that had stood in its path with dragons-fire and poison breath and sheer mass, and had managed to enter Edinburgh before Watchtower-1 reached the city. Wawel immediately shifted focus, aiming to burn its half-finished opponent to so much scrap before it could enter melee. Watchtower-1 lost enormous sections of its torso armor to breath that could melt steel, Gabriel suffered a concussion and a broken arm during the opening minutes of the fight, and one of the mechs exothermic gauntlets was rendered entirely inoperable.
Then Watchtower-1, armed only with a single exothermic gauntlet, entered melee with the closest thing England had ever seen to an honest to god dragon.
All things considered, it went pretty well. Played on every news channel for weeks, turned into a blockbluster movie (Complete with shoehorned in romance plot!), instant celebrity status for Gabe, instant reputation boost for The Order of Saint George. That sort of thing.
(Minor Retcon: Scaling everything with Marida at 100 meters now, not 200 meters. I'd kind of borked my estimation of the heights of the things I was comparing them to. I should be editing stuff to comply over the next few weeks)
The DC Fiasco
There have been five salvage major salvage missions sent to the sunken ruins of Washington DC. They've recovered everything from government secrets to corpses, and without fail have been plagued by attacks from the Enemy.
Of these Operation Nautilus, later known as the DC Fiasco, was the largest, the most ruinous, and the last. It was a massive operation, spearheaded by the Second Carrier Strike Group and nearly half the might of JSOC-Mechanized, aimed at retrieving the meteorite that destroyed Washington DC for reasons that are still classified. The force was designed to weather attacks from at least two Class 4 Enemies, possibly with support from Class 1 and 2 Enemies while the recovery operation was underway, an assumption consistent with Enemy reactions to previous expeditions.
Things seemed to be going well, JSOC Corsair mech squadrons cleared a swarm of Type 1s that were nesting in the city, while Titan Rouge and Jersey Devil drove the Type 3 Enemy 'Desecrator' away from the recovery site. Several other contacts were marked on radar, but had not approached the site and the Admiral in charge of the operation (One Admiral Walker) decided not to engage or deploy Ironbound Monitor. The CSG moved into position without incident, and the recovery barge, guarded by Yankee Doodle, parked over the ruins of the White House without coming under attack.
It was thirty minutes into the recovery itself, as the barge began its extraction of the meteorite, when the contacts attacked. Desecrator, with a veritable horde of its Type-1 spawn clinging to its hide like mites, charged Titan Rouge and the Corsair squadrons while an unidentified Type-4 deployed an electrical storm that disrupted electronic sensors and communications. From there, the precise nature of events is unknown to all, save possibly the Enemy. What is known is pieced together from survivor accounts, wreckage analysis and the few remaining recordings from surviving Corsair mechs.
After all communications went down, Yankee Doodle came to Titan Rouge's assistance unprompted, which resulted in a friendly fire incident as panicking pilots assumed that the massive shape was an Enemy. Yankee Doodle suffered from significant damage, injuries the horde of Desecrator-spawn seemed to detect and take advantage of. Eventually Desecrator and its Spawn were defeated, but Yankee Doodle was crippled and Titan Rouge significantly damaged. From there the force split up, Yankee Doodle and a pair of escorts retreated to the CSG to report and repair, Titan Rouge and roughly half the remaining Corsairs deployed to protect the barge, and the rest went to find Jersey Devil.
Titan Rouge and its escorts found the Barge already sunk, and were then ambushed and destroyed or routed by a single, type-6 Enemy. Testimony from surviving pilots and analysis of the bio-acid traces on the barge indicate that it was Facemelter, but the Type-6's identity was never positively confirmed.
The Corsairs who found Jersey Devil found it already dead, its cockpit peeled open and pilot missing. The manner of death fit the modus operandi of Rama, which would bring its count of devoured pilots to three, however the Ma'Jooj's identity was never positively confirmed. The Jersey Devil was intact enough to recover, but went missing before recovery operations could come underway. It is believed that one of the unidentified Enemies took the mech as a war trophy.
Yankee Doodle and its escorts reported to the CSG, but soon suffered a hit-and-run attack from the Type-6, which cut through the CSG, sinking seven ships, destroying the undeployed Ironbound Monitor and killing almost the entire command staff before escaping into the atlantic.
Though Yankee Doodle survived the Fiasco, its pilot succumbed to his injuries before debriefing. The mech was repaired and served another three years, before being converted into the first Valiant line Marida.
Between the morale hit and material cost of The Fiasco, JSOC-Mechanized never recovered. The loss of half of its veteran pilots, nevermind tens of billions of dollars in lost equipment, put it into a death-spiral, both against the Enemy and in the eyes of the public. Eventually, in 2012, JSOC-Mechanized gave up the ghost and was voluntarily absorbed by JANNAH. The Corsair line of mechs served as the basis for JANNAH's Ifreet model mechs, and the Mech Bay in San Diego was converted into JANNAH-San Diego in 2014.
The signal-jamming Type-4 never resurfaced.
Let's Get Vedic
((No picture because I couldn't find anything with the correct scale))
In January of two thousand and twelve, the largest Ma'jooj ever recorded rose out of the the indian ocean. Swiftly named Vrimana by NIRVANA, satellite analysis of its massive bulk revealed that it was, fundamentally, a flying, monstrous city populated by spawn ranging from the size of humans to massive, Type 4 monstrosities with crude mimicries of Marida Scale weapons. NIRVANA command realized that they could not possibly fight it alone, and promptly hit it with every nuclear weapon they could in an attempt to slow it down as they petitioned other organizations for help.
Once everyone realized that they were dealing with an Enemy that dwarfed Citadel Cairo, they swiftly agreed to help bring Vrimana down.
Within five days, forty Marida scale mechs and two hundred Ifreet scale mechs from NIRVANA, JANNAH, Los Salvadores and The Templars, three naval fleets from India and China, the combined air force of China, India and Pakistan, and a prototype Brahmastra class satellite were assembled on (or over) India's southern coast. On day six, as Vrimana approached to within two hundred miles of the Indian Coast, the coalition attacked.
The assault was preceded by high-altitude bombing campaign, meant to cripple the relatively unshielded AAA and smaller Ma'Jooj that covered the outskirts of the City-Ma'Jooj. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing the Insertion Team, every single flying mech available to the coalition forces dove for Vrimana's surface in an attempt to secure a beachhead to land the rest of the mechs and forge a path into the city.
This is roughly when everything went horribly, horribly wrong.
Vrimana turned out to have more AAA weaponry than the absolute worst case scenarios predicted, over half of the Insertion Team was crippled or killed before impact, and all of the fragile, Marida Scale artillery pieces were destroyed before they could be used. With less than half of the Insertion Team alive, Commander Park was forced to prioritize either eliminating the Ma'Jooj infesting the landing zone or taking out the missile launchers so that reinforcements could land. With the mission swiftly going straight to hell, she chose to take out the missile launchers. The reinforcements were able to land, but arrived in a pitched battlefield instead of a cleared beachhead. Several transports were crippled, making them utterly useless as escape routes.
Still, they fought, cleared the Ma'Jooj from the landing zone, and then the next thing went horribly wrong. As the next wave of reinforcements begin to approach, Vrimana rather unceremoniously legged it. The transports were simply unable to catch up to the maneuvering death-city, and so an already bloodied force of less than half of the Marida slated for the operation with almost none of their support gear was effectively stranded. Their options were, in short, a likely incomplete and bloody evacuation or a suicidal attempt to continue the assault.
Commander Park opted for Suicide.
She decided that, obviously, the original corridor was untenable, especially with only intermittent Rods from God instead of dedicated artillery support. Instead, a token force (primarily made up of crippled mechs) stayed behind to guard the transports while everyone else simply blitzed into the city as an arrowhead, without bothering to leave an escape route open behind them.
After all, at the time none of them expected to survive long enough to use it.
Though they took casualties, the concentration of force allowed the group to penetrate into the most-likely region for the location of Vrimana's heart.
Where they found a truly enormous amount of Ma'Jooj. And, rather depressingly, no heart at all.
Mameluke Overrun and Dragon Grasa lead the rearguard as the rest of the force pulled out to hit the next most probably location of the heart. Most of the rearguard was killed, Dragon Grasa suffered permanent injury during the battle, and Mameluke Overrun suffered a breach that resulted in several human-sized Ma'Jooj entering the cockpit and crippling Baibars Ahmed.
Fortunately, the assaulting forces finally hit a run of good luck on their way to the next location. Not only was it the actual location, but a few transports with a second wave of reinforcements, equipped with all-important artillery managed to land at the beachhead in a daring maneuver and provided fire support and targetting data for the Brahmastra Satellite and the assembled fleets as the vanguard pressed on. With some difficulty they managed to cut through Vrimana's defenders, place a nuke inside of its heart, and then leg it as the nuke counted down and detonated.
This led to the issue of evacuating from a crashing, city-sized Ma'Jooj covered in now-berserk smaller Ma'Jooj with no open evacuation route.
It was, to say the least, tense.
Still, by some miracle, the evacuation was a resounding success. Everyone who survived until the nuke went off was successfully evacuated from Vrimana before it crashed, even though some of the flight-capable mechs literally had to grab their comrades and try to fly them back. Indeed, many mechs were forced to wait on sandbars due to a lack of fuel, and were force to await pickup by ship.
Vrimana's corpse crashing into the ocean caused flooding across the coast of Sri Lanka and southern India.
Veterans of Vrimana can largely be divided into three groups:
By far the most numerous are the Second Wave, who saved the mission with their well-timed artillery support and who were largely responsible for getting everyone out alive. Quite a few of them launched after Vrimana began moving away, in the knowledge that they were putting themselves at serious risk of not being able to get through the smaller-than-planned hole in its defenses once it was turning and maneuvering. They did it anyway. Not all of them survived, but those who did can generally expect to have a drink or a meal bought for them wherever they go in exchange for their tales of the mission.
The First Wave survivors were the first ground-pounders on the scene, who made up the majority of the strike-force that cut to the heart of the city and then fought their way back out. They kept going into what seemed like suicide even when their only escape route was destroyed, and the title of "First Wave survivor of Vrimana" is one that carries a healthy amount of respect.
Far and away the most respected, though, are the handful of survivors of the initial Insertion team, who were the most skilled, took the heaviest losses, fought the most horrible skirmishes and were, to a pilot, equipped with flight-capable mechs from the outset. They, unlike the First Wave, could have given up and retreated when it became clear the plan had failed. They did not.
The six surviving Insertion Team pilots are:
Ahmed, Baibars
Madrigal, Benito
Sahrawi, Jamil Abdul-Muqtadir
Sarja, Anuya
Roosevelt, Elizabeth
Naaz, Gowri
The massive casualties sustained during the fight against Vrimana resulted in JANNAH and NIRVANA merging. Each organization has claimed that it absorbed the other, which has resulted in odd conversations and some inter-departmental friction.
JSOC's inability to participate in the fight drew much criticism, and according to some contributed to its closure later that year.
Enemy Classification System
The International Standardized Enemy Classification System (Whose acronym is a dirty joke across the anglosphere) was devised in 2003 based on the combat data gleaned from the first three years of combat against the Enemy. It was based on the rough nuclear response needed to reliably kill an Enemy based on its size. Though technically the scale is based off of volume and weight, these generally scale rather reliably to length, which is generally used due to being easier to identify.
Type Ones, the smallest type, are Ma'Jooj that would likely require minimal deployment of a nuclear arsenal to dispose of, while Type Sevens, the largest, are those deemed so powerful that nuclear weaponry is unlikely to be of real use. While the original use of the System was obviated by widespread deployment of Marida and similar systems, it is still used as a rough measure of a Ma'Jooj's strength and is used as a guideline for the scale of deployments.
While previously reliable, there has been mounting pressure to revamp or replace the System. The system only directly measures size, not threat, and as such is not a truly accurate guideline when used to determine the scale of a military deployment. In addition recent Enemies are increasingly disporportionate in size or strength. The overdeployment against Dagon cost billions and resulted in vast shortages in refugee camps, while the underdeployment against Rama resulted in massive casualties. Suggested replacements involve classification based on the strength of the Soul or supercomputer analysis.
The Scale:
Type One: Smaller than sixty meters in length or height.
Examples:
Dagonspawn (Fifty meters)
Vrimana Leapers (One point eight meters, on average)
Vrimana Screechers (Twenty three meters)
Vrimana Defenders (Nine meters)
Type Two: Sixty to one hundred meters in length or height.
Examples:
Vrimana Sentinels (Eighty one meters)
Type Three: One hundred to two hundred meters in length or height.
Examples:
Juggernaut (One hundred and seven meters)
Redcap (One hundred and fifty meters)
Vrimana Guardians (One hundred and ten meters)
Type Four: Two hundred to three hundred meters in length or height
Examples:
Shantideva (Two hundred and fifty meters)
Mardukth (Two hundred and three meters)
Type Five: Three Hundred to six hundred meters in length or height
Examples:
Rawhide (Five hundred and fifty one meters)
Gig (Three hundred and twenty eight meters)
Simurgh (Four hundred and fifteen meters)
Type Six: Six hundred to a thousand meters in length or height.
Examples:
Facemelter (Six hundred and fifty meters)
Glaurung (Eight hundred and ninety three meters on original appearance. Has grown to nine hundred and five meters as of a transatlantic flight in 2019)
Dagon (Eight hundred meters)
Type Seven: Anything larger than a kilometer in length or height.
Examples:
Vrimana (47 kilometers)
Leviathan (1.2 kilometers)
It began with a celebration.
The Order of Saint George had been doing incredibly well against the threat of the Enemy since their founding in 2006. Wawel, their first test of the Watchtower Line, had been defeated with minimal casualties, Type 1 through Type 4 assaults across western europe had been repulsed with relatively little damage, and their public image was sterling. France was in negotiations to have the Order's third base opened outside of Paris, while Spain was in the process of phasing out their support for the Templars as the Order began to construct their second base at Madrid. The Watchtower line had exceeded expectations, and the Galahad line had been doing incredibly well in the prototype phase.
It was with this in mind that the Order held the Round Table Parade. It was meant to be the unveiling of the Galahad line and a display of their might and valour. All of their Knight teams, the entire watchtower line (Save 3, which was undergoing retrofit in London Base, and 5, which had been damaged in the fight against Facemelter and was undergoing repairs on Gibraltar), even most of their conventional forces were mustered to parade through london. The queen, the prime minister and the head of the Order all gave speeches from a podium at the base of the first Galahad-class mech, thousands upon thousands turned up to show support, and the event was broadcasted all over the world.
It all went wrong approximately half an hour before the naming ceremony for the Galahad. A type-6 Enemy was detected by the Order's London Base mere moments before it burst from the ground, spewing flame and molten rock barely a kilometer from London Base. It immediately made a beeline for the effectively-undefended London Base, and in a desperate move the half-retrofitted Watchtower 3 and several prototype Galahad units were deployed to intercept with no real information on the foe, save for the name 'Glaurung', the callsign that the MERLIN supercomputer had assigned the monster. Though they fought valiantly, the deployed mechs were destroyed in short order, and all their pilots killed in action. The parade turned to chaos, the assembled mechs and soldiers scrambled to arm themselves and leave the city in a desperate bid to save London Base.
They would not make it in time. The very nature of the parade meant that the streets were packed with both mechs and humans, and none of the Order's forces could effectively escape London's confines as Glaurung ran rampant through London Base. And run rampant it did. It burned through the massive armored dome of the base, pulled itself inside of the facility and razed it. Well over eighty percent of the staff died as it smashed through bulkheads and barracks and mess halls, melted escape routes to so much slag, and turned the centerpoint of the Order's military might into a burned out ruin.
Then it took flight, its ire aimed at the city of London. Entire city blocks melted into slag from single, massive, firey breaths. Knight squads and tanks and more planes than could reasonably be counted were crushed like insects by claws the size of buildings. Millions burned, the queen, the prime minister, most of parliament and the entirety of the command staff of the Order among their number. The entire Watchtower line attempted to drive the beast off, firing on it with gatling cannons and railguns, charging with lances and swords, and were each utterly destroyed. The city was razed to the ground, much of the destruction broadcast live to the world, and there wasn't a damn thing anyone could do about it. The functioning Galahad unit attempted to sortie, to protect evacuating civilians, save something from the disaster, but Glaurung flew into it at almost four times the speed of sound, ripped its cockpit from its chassis, and took it back to the ruins of London Base. It's not known if the pilot somehow survived the kidnapping, but as it's been five years...no-one has high hopes.
Since then, Glaurung has remained elusive, though less destructive. It's attacked nuclear submarines in the arctic, ripped apart any attempt to rebuild london, occasionally harassed seemingly insignificant sites, and has killed and flown off with at least one Type 4 Enemy, but no-one has been able to harm it or find a pattern in its attacks, and no-one has breached the slagged entrances of London Base and lived to tell the tale.
Vatters
Before JANNAH made the breakthrough that would be the first Marida, research into Enemy biology gave fruit in the form of half a dozen projects, among which were the Vatters. Though originally conceived as a supersoldier program that would make men capable of utilizing the often bizarre powers of the Enemy, the first generation of quick-matured Vatter supersoldiers were plagued with physical and psychological defects, and, frankly, could not do anything that the programs hoped for. While their lives (And tragic deaths due to an assortment of horrible ailments) were important to fully realize the nature of the Soul and the Ghazali score, the program was a failure and is generally not referred to as the First Generation Vatter program.
What are currently known as First Gen Vatters began to appear in late 2002 and early 2003, while this project began at the same time as the Supersoldier project, it allowed itself far more time to grow and perfect its subjects. This was, in part, because it's goal was not the Ubermensch that the supsoldier project desired, but instead a method to ensure a reliable source of pilots without resorting to eugenics. Vat-grown children, made as genetically modified clones of their fathers or mothers, seemed an excellent middle ground, and by all accounts the project was an astounding success. The children were normal, in basically every respect, and though fantastically expensive they showed none of the horrible side effects that the supersoldiers suffered from.
The ethical issues began to spring up the moment the first gens became public. While they were quickly declared properly human, the morality of simply mass-printing humans was, and still is a thorny issue, and debates about eugenics and attempts to make a 'better class' of human raged well into the mid 2010s. You even had a thing on it in social studies once, the teacher was pretty vehemently anti-vatter, he thought they were basically a go at making a caste of better humans. The ethics of using them to supplement declining populations due to giant monster attacks never really came up as an issue, Vatters are expensive to grow, and are not really economical to grow in the tens of thousands or millions.
While Vatters technically do not have to register, they are monitored as they grow up to track health, psychological or metaphysical tendencies among Vatters. While so far nothing of note has come up, some researchers believe that Vatters are the cause of the growing average Ghazali scores among the population born after the DC Meteorite. Public vatters do suffer from some discrimination in much of the world, but as none have hit 18, and they tend to be rich or upper middle class, it's not as bad as fiction makes it out to be.
Currently Vatters are legal, but their cost means that they're primarily grown by the rich, or upper middle class families unable to have children. There are, of course, conspiracy theories and tales about new accelerated growth and super soldier programs, but those are hilariously illegal just about everywhere, as is the use of false and implanted memories (A technology that is, frankly, entirely theoretical). The conspiracy theories are, well, just that, conspiracy theories with no basis. You can safely ignore them.
Dragonslayer
2012 had started out a bad year for humanity. In addition to the massive casualties sustained in the fight against Vrimana in the Indian Ocean, the maiming of Baibars Ahmed that left Mameluke Overrun unpiloted until Usman Usman took the helm in 2014, the Templar's horrific initial casualties against Mab and Whitewater, JSOC-Mechanized closing after being utterly unable to recover from DC, the Order of Saint George's first deployed Knight squad being wiped out almost to the last man taking out Grendel, and much of the Cape Floristic Region being effectively destroyed as a result of the onslaught on Cape Town by Warhead, morale was, perhaps justifiably, horrifically low.
Morale was low, to say the least, when the Order's MERLIN supercomputer found the Type 4 Wawel swiftly approaching Edinburgh, with Templar reinforcements nearly nine hours out, the Knight Squads devastated and miserable, and the first Watchtower mech days away from being combat ready, Edinburgh seemed doomed.
Then Gabriel, the pilot of the incomplete Watchtower-1, snuck into his mech, got his bridge crew to open London Bases gates, and charged to the rescue anyways in a half-complete mech. There was some yelling, and an abortive attempt to retrieve the half-finished mech, but eventually Commander Arthur overruled the Field Commanders and told them to go ahead with the deployment.
Wawel was two hundred and fifty meters tall, armored, fast, incredibly dangerous, and focused like a razors edge. It had ripped apart the army that had stood in its path with dragons-fire and poison breath and sheer mass, and had managed to enter Edinburgh before Watchtower-1 reached the city. Wawel immediately shifted focus, aiming to burn its half-finished opponent to so much scrap before it could enter melee. Watchtower-1 lost enormous sections of its torso armor to breath that could melt steel, Gabriel suffered a concussion and a broken arm during the opening minutes of the fight, and one of the mechs exothermic gauntlets was rendered entirely inoperable.
Then Watchtower-1, armed only with a single exothermic gauntlet, entered melee with the closest thing England had ever seen to an honest to god dragon.
All things considered, it went pretty well. Played on every news channel for weeks, turned into a blockbluster movie (Complete with shoehorned in romance plot!), instant celebrity status for Gabe, instant reputation boost for The Order of Saint George. That sort of thing.
(Minor Retcon: Scaling everything with Marida at 100 meters now, not 200 meters. I'd kind of borked my estimation of the heights of the things I was comparing them to. I should be editing stuff to comply over the next few weeks)
The DC Fiasco
There have been five salvage major salvage missions sent to the sunken ruins of Washington DC. They've recovered everything from government secrets to corpses, and without fail have been plagued by attacks from the Enemy.
Of these Operation Nautilus, later known as the DC Fiasco, was the largest, the most ruinous, and the last. It was a massive operation, spearheaded by the Second Carrier Strike Group and nearly half the might of JSOC-Mechanized, aimed at retrieving the meteorite that destroyed Washington DC for reasons that are still classified. The force was designed to weather attacks from at least two Class 4 Enemies, possibly with support from Class 1 and 2 Enemies while the recovery operation was underway, an assumption consistent with Enemy reactions to previous expeditions.
Things seemed to be going well, JSOC Corsair mech squadrons cleared a swarm of Type 1s that were nesting in the city, while Titan Rouge and Jersey Devil drove the Type 3 Enemy 'Desecrator' away from the recovery site. Several other contacts were marked on radar, but had not approached the site and the Admiral in charge of the operation (One Admiral Walker) decided not to engage or deploy Ironbound Monitor. The CSG moved into position without incident, and the recovery barge, guarded by Yankee Doodle, parked over the ruins of the White House without coming under attack.
It was thirty minutes into the recovery itself, as the barge began its extraction of the meteorite, when the contacts attacked. Desecrator, with a veritable horde of its Type-1 spawn clinging to its hide like mites, charged Titan Rouge and the Corsair squadrons while an unidentified Type-4 deployed an electrical storm that disrupted electronic sensors and communications. From there, the precise nature of events is unknown to all, save possibly the Enemy. What is known is pieced together from survivor accounts, wreckage analysis and the few remaining recordings from surviving Corsair mechs.
After all communications went down, Yankee Doodle came to Titan Rouge's assistance unprompted, which resulted in a friendly fire incident as panicking pilots assumed that the massive shape was an Enemy. Yankee Doodle suffered from significant damage, injuries the horde of Desecrator-spawn seemed to detect and take advantage of. Eventually Desecrator and its Spawn were defeated, but Yankee Doodle was crippled and Titan Rouge significantly damaged. From there the force split up, Yankee Doodle and a pair of escorts retreated to the CSG to report and repair, Titan Rouge and roughly half the remaining Corsairs deployed to protect the barge, and the rest went to find Jersey Devil.
Titan Rouge and its escorts found the Barge already sunk, and were then ambushed and destroyed or routed by a single, type-6 Enemy. Testimony from surviving pilots and analysis of the bio-acid traces on the barge indicate that it was Facemelter, but the Type-6's identity was never positively confirmed.
The Corsairs who found Jersey Devil found it already dead, its cockpit peeled open and pilot missing. The manner of death fit the modus operandi of Rama, which would bring its count of devoured pilots to three, however the Ma'Jooj's identity was never positively confirmed. The Jersey Devil was intact enough to recover, but went missing before recovery operations could come underway. It is believed that one of the unidentified Enemies took the mech as a war trophy.
Yankee Doodle and its escorts reported to the CSG, but soon suffered a hit-and-run attack from the Type-6, which cut through the CSG, sinking seven ships, destroying the undeployed Ironbound Monitor and killing almost the entire command staff before escaping into the atlantic.
Though Yankee Doodle survived the Fiasco, its pilot succumbed to his injuries before debriefing. The mech was repaired and served another three years, before being converted into the first Valiant line Marida.
Between the morale hit and material cost of The Fiasco, JSOC-Mechanized never recovered. The loss of half of its veteran pilots, nevermind tens of billions of dollars in lost equipment, put it into a death-spiral, both against the Enemy and in the eyes of the public. Eventually, in 2012, JSOC-Mechanized gave up the ghost and was voluntarily absorbed by JANNAH. The Corsair line of mechs served as the basis for JANNAH's Ifreet model mechs, and the Mech Bay in San Diego was converted into JANNAH-San Diego in 2014.
The signal-jamming Type-4 never resurfaced.
Let's Get Vedic
((No picture because I couldn't find anything with the correct scale))
In January of two thousand and twelve, the largest Ma'jooj ever recorded rose out of the the indian ocean. Swiftly named Vrimana by NIRVANA, satellite analysis of its massive bulk revealed that it was, fundamentally, a flying, monstrous city populated by spawn ranging from the size of humans to massive, Type 4 monstrosities with crude mimicries of Marida Scale weapons. NIRVANA command realized that they could not possibly fight it alone, and promptly hit it with every nuclear weapon they could in an attempt to slow it down as they petitioned other organizations for help.
Once everyone realized that they were dealing with an Enemy that dwarfed Citadel Cairo, they swiftly agreed to help bring Vrimana down.
Within five days, forty Marida scale mechs and two hundred Ifreet scale mechs from NIRVANA, JANNAH, Los Salvadores and The Templars, three naval fleets from India and China, the combined air force of China, India and Pakistan, and a prototype Brahmastra class satellite were assembled on (or over) India's southern coast. On day six, as Vrimana approached to within two hundred miles of the Indian Coast, the coalition attacked.
The assault was preceded by high-altitude bombing campaign, meant to cripple the relatively unshielded AAA and smaller Ma'Jooj that covered the outskirts of the City-Ma'Jooj. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing the Insertion Team, every single flying mech available to the coalition forces dove for Vrimana's surface in an attempt to secure a beachhead to land the rest of the mechs and forge a path into the city.
This is roughly when everything went horribly, horribly wrong.
Vrimana turned out to have more AAA weaponry than the absolute worst case scenarios predicted, over half of the Insertion Team was crippled or killed before impact, and all of the fragile, Marida Scale artillery pieces were destroyed before they could be used. With less than half of the Insertion Team alive, Commander Park was forced to prioritize either eliminating the Ma'Jooj infesting the landing zone or taking out the missile launchers so that reinforcements could land. With the mission swiftly going straight to hell, she chose to take out the missile launchers. The reinforcements were able to land, but arrived in a pitched battlefield instead of a cleared beachhead. Several transports were crippled, making them utterly useless as escape routes.
Still, they fought, cleared the Ma'Jooj from the landing zone, and then the next thing went horribly wrong. As the next wave of reinforcements begin to approach, Vrimana rather unceremoniously legged it. The transports were simply unable to catch up to the maneuvering death-city, and so an already bloodied force of less than half of the Marida slated for the operation with almost none of their support gear was effectively stranded. Their options were, in short, a likely incomplete and bloody evacuation or a suicidal attempt to continue the assault.
Commander Park opted for Suicide.
She decided that, obviously, the original corridor was untenable, especially with only intermittent Rods from God instead of dedicated artillery support. Instead, a token force (primarily made up of crippled mechs) stayed behind to guard the transports while everyone else simply blitzed into the city as an arrowhead, without bothering to leave an escape route open behind them.
After all, at the time none of them expected to survive long enough to use it.
Though they took casualties, the concentration of force allowed the group to penetrate into the most-likely region for the location of Vrimana's heart.
Where they found a truly enormous amount of Ma'Jooj. And, rather depressingly, no heart at all.
Mameluke Overrun and Dragon Grasa lead the rearguard as the rest of the force pulled out to hit the next most probably location of the heart. Most of the rearguard was killed, Dragon Grasa suffered permanent injury during the battle, and Mameluke Overrun suffered a breach that resulted in several human-sized Ma'Jooj entering the cockpit and crippling Baibars Ahmed.
Fortunately, the assaulting forces finally hit a run of good luck on their way to the next location. Not only was it the actual location, but a few transports with a second wave of reinforcements, equipped with all-important artillery managed to land at the beachhead in a daring maneuver and provided fire support and targetting data for the Brahmastra Satellite and the assembled fleets as the vanguard pressed on. With some difficulty they managed to cut through Vrimana's defenders, place a nuke inside of its heart, and then leg it as the nuke counted down and detonated.
This led to the issue of evacuating from a crashing, city-sized Ma'Jooj covered in now-berserk smaller Ma'Jooj with no open evacuation route.
It was, to say the least, tense.
Still, by some miracle, the evacuation was a resounding success. Everyone who survived until the nuke went off was successfully evacuated from Vrimana before it crashed, even though some of the flight-capable mechs literally had to grab their comrades and try to fly them back. Indeed, many mechs were forced to wait on sandbars due to a lack of fuel, and were force to await pickup by ship.
Vrimana's corpse crashing into the ocean caused flooding across the coast of Sri Lanka and southern India.
Veterans of Vrimana can largely be divided into three groups:
By far the most numerous are the Second Wave, who saved the mission with their well-timed artillery support and who were largely responsible for getting everyone out alive. Quite a few of them launched after Vrimana began moving away, in the knowledge that they were putting themselves at serious risk of not being able to get through the smaller-than-planned hole in its defenses once it was turning and maneuvering. They did it anyway. Not all of them survived, but those who did can generally expect to have a drink or a meal bought for them wherever they go in exchange for their tales of the mission.
The First Wave survivors were the first ground-pounders on the scene, who made up the majority of the strike-force that cut to the heart of the city and then fought their way back out. They kept going into what seemed like suicide even when their only escape route was destroyed, and the title of "First Wave survivor of Vrimana" is one that carries a healthy amount of respect.
Far and away the most respected, though, are the handful of survivors of the initial Insertion team, who were the most skilled, took the heaviest losses, fought the most horrible skirmishes and were, to a pilot, equipped with flight-capable mechs from the outset. They, unlike the First Wave, could have given up and retreated when it became clear the plan had failed. They did not.
The six surviving Insertion Team pilots are:
Ahmed, Baibars
Madrigal, Benito
Sahrawi, Jamil Abdul-Muqtadir
Sarja, Anuya
Roosevelt, Elizabeth
Naaz, Gowri
The massive casualties sustained during the fight against Vrimana resulted in JANNAH and NIRVANA merging. Each organization has claimed that it absorbed the other, which has resulted in odd conversations and some inter-departmental friction.
JSOC's inability to participate in the fight drew much criticism, and according to some contributed to its closure later that year.
Enemy Classification System
The International Standardized Enemy Classification System (Whose acronym is a dirty joke across the anglosphere) was devised in 2003 based on the combat data gleaned from the first three years of combat against the Enemy. It was based on the rough nuclear response needed to reliably kill an Enemy based on its size. Though technically the scale is based off of volume and weight, these generally scale rather reliably to length, which is generally used due to being easier to identify.
Type Ones, the smallest type, are Ma'Jooj that would likely require minimal deployment of a nuclear arsenal to dispose of, while Type Sevens, the largest, are those deemed so powerful that nuclear weaponry is unlikely to be of real use. While the original use of the System was obviated by widespread deployment of Marida and similar systems, it is still used as a rough measure of a Ma'Jooj's strength and is used as a guideline for the scale of deployments.
While previously reliable, there has been mounting pressure to revamp or replace the System. The system only directly measures size, not threat, and as such is not a truly accurate guideline when used to determine the scale of a military deployment. In addition recent Enemies are increasingly disporportionate in size or strength. The overdeployment against Dagon cost billions and resulted in vast shortages in refugee camps, while the underdeployment against Rama resulted in massive casualties. Suggested replacements involve classification based on the strength of the Soul or supercomputer analysis.
The Scale:
Type One: Smaller than sixty meters in length or height.
Examples:
Dagonspawn (Fifty meters)
Vrimana Leapers (One point eight meters, on average)
Vrimana Screechers (Twenty three meters)
Vrimana Defenders (Nine meters)
Type Two: Sixty to one hundred meters in length or height.
Examples:
Vrimana Sentinels (Eighty one meters)
Type Three: One hundred to two hundred meters in length or height.
Examples:
Juggernaut (One hundred and seven meters)
Redcap (One hundred and fifty meters)
Vrimana Guardians (One hundred and ten meters)
Type Four: Two hundred to three hundred meters in length or height
Examples:
Shantideva (Two hundred and fifty meters)
Mardukth (Two hundred and three meters)
Type Five: Three Hundred to six hundred meters in length or height
Examples:
Rawhide (Five hundred and fifty one meters)
Gig (Three hundred and twenty eight meters)
Simurgh (Four hundred and fifteen meters)
Type Six: Six hundred to a thousand meters in length or height.
Examples:
Facemelter (Six hundred and fifty meters)
Glaurung (Eight hundred and ninety three meters on original appearance. Has grown to nine hundred and five meters as of a transatlantic flight in 2019)
Dagon (Eight hundred meters)
Type Seven: Anything larger than a kilometer in length or height.
Examples:
Vrimana (47 kilometers)
Leviathan (1.2 kilometers)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And now we're officially rehosted. Future updates will be on this site, feel free to tell me how the foreshadowing is more obvious on re-read or how I borked copy/paste or w/e.
Minusmagnus
Open Lurker
How many times have this one come back to life, again? It's been a while.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Twice, one due to family issues, one due to school (And other projects).
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I should have time to write for it.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*ksshhht* "...adow Cabal's scenario is proceeding as planned, repeat; the Shadow Ca..." *ksshhht*
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It is 8 people who are still alive and known to JANNAH. They're disproportionately young, too.
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/They
As far as I can tell, this is the bastard child of Adeptus Evangelion and Pacific Rim, and it looks amazing. Since it's been fully rehosted, do we vote now?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I am currently working on the next update.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You're Gonna Go Far, Kid
You and Kim are directed towards Umar's office by a rather encouraging guard with a passing familiarity with the english language. It's surprisingly spartan, not much in the way of the decorations you'd expect from a teenager, even for a workplace. There's a desk in the middle of the room, four chairs on your side, one on the other (With Omar sitting in it), a prayer rug in one corner, a small filing cabinet, and a whiteboard that's overflowing with notes and post-its and papers in at least five languages (You recognize english, spanish, arabic and french, and know that there's at least one far-eastern language that you can't identify mixed in).
Umar motions for the two of you to take seats, and pushes a pair of folders into the center of the desk. You hesitate, just a moment where your mind bombards you with how badly this meeting's going to go, all those little things you must have messed up that he's going to yell at your for. Then you squash those feelings (With difficulty) and sit down next to Kim.
Umar steeples his fingers, fixing the two of you with his (rich, brown, deep) eyes for a long second. There's a confused moment where you waver between apprehensive and ap-nothing else before he sighs, looks up, and says, "Please stop looking so nervous, I'm not going to yell at you. You did fine."
"Oh," says Kim, "Really?"
"Absolutely," says Umar, "You didn't do anything catastrophic, you didn't have an adverse reaction to the humours, and you managed to complete the objectives. Below-expectations combat performance, sure, but you're high schoolers. That's what we have training for. Hyun, no matter what your father tells you, you did nothing wrong."
A treacherous part of your mind wishes he'd reassure you like that, but you quash it while Umar talks. There's more detail on the combat statistics (It doesn't mean a lot to you, to be honest) and when you'll be doing your first test deployments, but nothing really notable. Then, after a couple of minutes, it's over. Umar hands you and Kim a copy of your training schedules (They are...disturbingly full), thanks you for your time, and tells you that you can go.
You pass Amina and Dirk on their way in, Amina gives you and Kim high-fives (You don't really have a choice in the matter), while Dirk just nods.
Then Kim's off again, and you're in the sim-chamber with the unenviable job of explaining things to Tang Ying. You want to yell at him, he could have fucking killed Raj, he had no-one else to blame, but....
It feels wrong. As much as you want to just scream at him the idea doesn't sit right with you, and as you stop, breathe deeply, and do your best to calm down it becomes increasingly obvious why.
Tang Ying fucked up, yeah, but he was an unprepared kid, like you. He had no idea what he was getting into, and he made a shitty call, and he probably feels like crap about it. And it isn't on you to call him out on that, since he probably feels terrible enough without you contributing to it.
And so, rage firmly suppressed, you walk over to Tang Ying. He's sitting, alone and forlorn, on a bench to one wing of the room, pointedly avoiding looking at anyone. He doesn't seem to notice you, and you take a seat beside him; wincing slightly as your tailbone hits the bench at a crude angle. The realization dawns on you that you're not quite sure what you're doing here or what to say. You default to a whole lot of nothing, and the two of you sit for a handful of moments, eyes downcast.
"I really screwed up." Tang finally announces. You glance up, meet his face. It's unreadable. Not quite remorseless, just... lost.
"...yeah." You say, finally. There wasn't much else to say about it. Tang's eyes float back down to his lap.
"Is he okay?" He can only mean Raj, of course. It's a question you'd be an idiot not to expect. Still, the question was sudden, and prompts a very unfortunate 'uh'. Tang's eyes widen a bit.
"He's, uh, he's fine. Little shook up."
Tang nods, and both of you cast your attention to the floor.
"It was just..." he trails off. "Heroes, they don't-" his voice hitches. He's saying it like he's pleading guilty. "-they don't screw up."
You pause, utterly unsure of how to react to that. Like, do you just say they fuck up all the time or try to reassure him or what?
Fortunately, you are saved from the pitfalls of amateur psychotherapy by the speaker system calling Tang Ying and Khadijah Khan in for their meeting. Tang gives you a half-hearted "Thank You" on his way out, and that was basically the end of your inaugural simulation session.
Redoing the timeskip vote due to the move to SV. I encourage stunting your chosen options, as it allows you to define (at least partially) how the interaction goes. Feel free to ask for help on characterization notes, or make up minor characters throughout the base.
Focus:
Pick Three (You can pick an option more than once):
[X] Workout! You need to get fit to survive these things. (Your choice of Sports or Hitting the Gym)
[X] Hangout! You want to spend more time on your social life before you start fighting life or death battles (Each time you pick this you can Hang Out with another person during the socialization stage)
[X] MOAR SIMS! You need dem simulation hours.
[X] Weapon Training. You mostly shoot things, so you should practice at the range.
[X] Sparring! You need to get more skilled at CQC. Even if a disturbing amount of the melee training is 'Turkish Oil Wrestling'.
[X] Education! Can't fall behind on your learning.
[X] Therapy! You don't have psych issues, but you could maybe use someone to talk to.
[X] Cradle! You're basically a giant robot wizard, so you should practice your wizardry.
[X] Write-In (I can, and likely will, veto)
Socialization:
Pick Two:
[X] Baibars Ahmed
[X] Umar Ahmed
[X] Usman Usman
[X] Amina Usman
[X] Dirk Manderly
[X] Tang Ying
[X] Raj Rai
[X] Khadijah Khan
[X] Kim Hyun-Soon
[X] Sam (Yaaaay Skype)
[X] Vladimir (Yaaaaay Skype)
[X] Dad and the Siblings. (Yaaaaay Skype)
Your father's renting a massive screen for a big Videochat back home midway through the month. Anything in specific you want to talk about?
[X] Amina mentioned pressure on your siblings, that isn't happening, is it?
[X] Write-in
Your first actual deployment is two days before your family visits! It's only a training run, though. You're basically going to be walking around and practicing actual piloting instead of sim piloting for a few hours. Who are you deploying with! (Pick Two)
[X] Umar Ahmed
[X] Amina Usman
[X] Dirk Manderly
[X] Tang Ying
[X] Raj Rai
[X] Khadijah Khan
[X] Kim Hyun-Soon
And, finally, thank you Nyxistence for providing most of Tang Ying's dialogue.
You and Kim are directed towards Umar's office by a rather encouraging guard with a passing familiarity with the english language. It's surprisingly spartan, not much in the way of the decorations you'd expect from a teenager, even for a workplace. There's a desk in the middle of the room, four chairs on your side, one on the other (With Omar sitting in it), a prayer rug in one corner, a small filing cabinet, and a whiteboard that's overflowing with notes and post-its and papers in at least five languages (You recognize english, spanish, arabic and french, and know that there's at least one far-eastern language that you can't identify mixed in).
Umar motions for the two of you to take seats, and pushes a pair of folders into the center of the desk. You hesitate, just a moment where your mind bombards you with how badly this meeting's going to go, all those little things you must have messed up that he's going to yell at your for. Then you squash those feelings (With difficulty) and sit down next to Kim.
Umar steeples his fingers, fixing the two of you with his (rich, brown, deep) eyes for a long second. There's a confused moment where you waver between apprehensive and ap-nothing else before he sighs, looks up, and says, "Please stop looking so nervous, I'm not going to yell at you. You did fine."
"Oh," says Kim, "Really?"
"Absolutely," says Umar, "You didn't do anything catastrophic, you didn't have an adverse reaction to the humours, and you managed to complete the objectives. Below-expectations combat performance, sure, but you're high schoolers. That's what we have training for. Hyun, no matter what your father tells you, you did nothing wrong."
A treacherous part of your mind wishes he'd reassure you like that, but you quash it while Umar talks. There's more detail on the combat statistics (It doesn't mean a lot to you, to be honest) and when you'll be doing your first test deployments, but nothing really notable. Then, after a couple of minutes, it's over. Umar hands you and Kim a copy of your training schedules (They are...disturbingly full), thanks you for your time, and tells you that you can go.
You pass Amina and Dirk on their way in, Amina gives you and Kim high-fives (You don't really have a choice in the matter), while Dirk just nods.
Then Kim's off again, and you're in the sim-chamber with the unenviable job of explaining things to Tang Ying. You want to yell at him, he could have fucking killed Raj, he had no-one else to blame, but....
It feels wrong. As much as you want to just scream at him the idea doesn't sit right with you, and as you stop, breathe deeply, and do your best to calm down it becomes increasingly obvious why.
Tang Ying fucked up, yeah, but he was an unprepared kid, like you. He had no idea what he was getting into, and he made a shitty call, and he probably feels like crap about it. And it isn't on you to call him out on that, since he probably feels terrible enough without you contributing to it.
And so, rage firmly suppressed, you walk over to Tang Ying. He's sitting, alone and forlorn, on a bench to one wing of the room, pointedly avoiding looking at anyone. He doesn't seem to notice you, and you take a seat beside him; wincing slightly as your tailbone hits the bench at a crude angle. The realization dawns on you that you're not quite sure what you're doing here or what to say. You default to a whole lot of nothing, and the two of you sit for a handful of moments, eyes downcast.
"I really screwed up." Tang finally announces. You glance up, meet his face. It's unreadable. Not quite remorseless, just... lost.
"...yeah." You say, finally. There wasn't much else to say about it. Tang's eyes float back down to his lap.
"Is he okay?" He can only mean Raj, of course. It's a question you'd be an idiot not to expect. Still, the question was sudden, and prompts a very unfortunate 'uh'. Tang's eyes widen a bit.
"He's, uh, he's fine. Little shook up."
Tang nods, and both of you cast your attention to the floor.
"It was just..." he trails off. "Heroes, they don't-" his voice hitches. He's saying it like he's pleading guilty. "-they don't screw up."
You pause, utterly unsure of how to react to that. Like, do you just say they fuck up all the time or try to reassure him or what?
Fortunately, you are saved from the pitfalls of amateur psychotherapy by the speaker system calling Tang Ying and Khadijah Khan in for their meeting. Tang gives you a half-hearted "Thank You" on his way out, and that was basically the end of your inaugural simulation session.
Redoing the timeskip vote due to the move to SV. I encourage stunting your chosen options, as it allows you to define (at least partially) how the interaction goes. Feel free to ask for help on characterization notes, or make up minor characters throughout the base.
Focus:
Pick Three (You can pick an option more than once):
[X] Workout! You need to get fit to survive these things. (Your choice of Sports or Hitting the Gym)
[X] Hangout! You want to spend more time on your social life before you start fighting life or death battles (Each time you pick this you can Hang Out with another person during the socialization stage)
[X] MOAR SIMS! You need dem simulation hours.
[X] Weapon Training. You mostly shoot things, so you should practice at the range.
[X] Sparring! You need to get more skilled at CQC. Even if a disturbing amount of the melee training is 'Turkish Oil Wrestling'.
[X] Education! Can't fall behind on your learning.
[X] Therapy! You don't have psych issues, but you could maybe use someone to talk to.
[X] Cradle! You're basically a giant robot wizard, so you should practice your wizardry.
[X] Write-In (I can, and likely will, veto)
Socialization:
Pick Two:
[X] Baibars Ahmed
[X] Umar Ahmed
[X] Usman Usman
[X] Amina Usman
[X] Dirk Manderly
[X] Tang Ying
[X] Raj Rai
[X] Khadijah Khan
[X] Kim Hyun-Soon
[X] Sam (Yaaaay Skype)
[X] Vladimir (Yaaaaay Skype)
[X] Dad and the Siblings. (Yaaaaay Skype)
Your father's renting a massive screen for a big Videochat back home midway through the month. Anything in specific you want to talk about?
[X] Amina mentioned pressure on your siblings, that isn't happening, is it?
[X] Write-in
Your first actual deployment is two days before your family visits! It's only a training run, though. You're basically going to be walking around and practicing actual piloting instead of sim piloting for a few hours. Who are you deploying with! (Pick Two)
[X] Umar Ahmed
[X] Amina Usman
[X] Dirk Manderly
[X] Tang Ying
[X] Raj Rai
[X] Khadijah Khan
[X] Kim Hyun-Soon
And, finally, thank you Nyxistence for providing most of Tang Ying's dialogue.