Category one were three are just annoying (no matter how catchy the jingles on the latter), but two elicited a sigh from Sunburn. That kind of language didn't come from anyone except deranged cultists. The Forged had been spitting the same propagantastic lines during her time in the Uniend cluster. She didn't have fond memories of that. The Forged were stronger than average and either too full of their shit and/or lobotomized to know when to run. The whole thing turned into a drawn out campaign until they finally managed to corner Shockwave.
It's either a coincidence or something more sinister that these 'Augmented' speak Binary. If she wasn't a Mini-Con Sunburn'd have a much harder time understanding them. But that name, combined with the whole 'hateful flesh' thing implied cyborgs. So this was either a Gargent universe or somewhere completely off the map. Maybe Lukas at a stretch. It didn't really matter which one it was, because all three options were so far at the edge of her master's influence that rescue was unlikely, to say the least. Sunburn may have been worth a small army of Dead End drones, but Unicron had enough drones that her going missing was just a drop in the bucket. She wasn't really expecting much from a job that included 'Being nommed last' in the employee benefits, but the thought of how utterly replaceable she was in the grand scheme of things hurt.
Sunburn did her best to block out the previous train of thought by focusing on the music. The first message was obviously a status update of some kind, probably by the 'fascists' the radio talked about. The whole 'augmented' thing was probably the Metal Consortium mentioned and they struck her more as the 'commies' in this scenario. Cyborgs tended to go for neural networks and links. It lent itself well to the whole 'greater good' ideal.
Hmm.... So North or South? North would probably mistake her for the enemy but might be convinced otherwise, but South might dissect her to figure out how she worked and improve themselves if they didn't value the individual over the whole. Not to mention the possibility that the radio station was part of some unknown third faction.
Screw it. Taking a page from someone who should never be a role model, Sunburn transformed and set off North. When in doubt, start with the faction less likely to take you in. Then you have a back-up when shit hits the fan.
The trip North is an interesting one. The oceans around you slowly become shallower until you're able to see the seafloor and the small shoals of strange fish that call this shallow sea their home. You also begin to see wrecks both large and small dot the seafloor. They all share a certain look to them from the exposed steel 'ribs' to the strange eyeless skulls of metal that sit proudly on their prows to the uncomfortably organic lines that make up their metallic hulls. They dot the ocean floor in various stages of destroyed from the ones that have holes blown clear through them and lay on the floor in halves or smaller pieces to the ones with obvious scorch marks and twisted bulkheads from internal explosions.
Though there are those that rest in the sandy seafloor and look untouched. The only evidence that they are unoccupied is their sedentary nature and the presence of both seaweed and small amounts of coral resting on their hulls.
That idea is quickly shattered as you pass over one of those hulls and it lurches to life. The empty sockets of its prow skull flashing to life as the entire ship heaves itself nearly vertically at you. A sound like metal on ceramics smashes into your audio receptors event through the water and a strange Radio beacon appears. A simple three-tone signal, a high note and then two low notes.
An alarm it seems as you see several nearby hulks that look similar to this one heave themselves off of the ocean floor.
Skip's eyes almost leap out of their sockets as the report came in. A plasma cannon on a vessel this size? That probably explained why her sponsor was willing to pay exorbitant fees and committed his sizable fleet to that Remnants grinder. It sounded almost magical, but a lot of pre-Collapse wonders are like that.
The signals were a cause for relief. That meant she was on an inhabited planet with civilized people, even if she couldn't find a clue as to which. Perhaps this was a fledgling colony founded by settlers trying to escape the core systems' dramas. They popped up often enough, though none ever had a happy ending. Regardless, this should hopefully mean she could get this relics fixed up and returned to orbit. Most likely her old ship and crew are all gone to the cold embrace of space in that disastrous battle, but she had a fair sum in the bank and this ship was worth five times what was lost.
The distress signal, though, opened up some interesting prospects. She didn't recognize the IHS initial or this "Bortherhood", but if this colony was so unstable that new factions are popping out of the woodwork and openly raiding each other, then it should prove to be a lucrative one. In fact, the usual problem with planet like these was that they are so lucrative that they attract the attentions of people so big Skip had to leave or risk getting crushed.
"Approach the distress signal, then dive and cloak up." She ordered the ship, "Scan both sides for their hull and weapons. I want to know my odds."
Your ship is fast even with its phase drive and it hones in on the signal easily. What you see on arrival is a pitched battle between two groups of ships.
One group is a line of what looks to your, relatively, untrained eye for water ships to be Cargo ships of some kind. Gray, Squat, and Ugly ships with Prow and bow cannons and smaller guns and rifles on the sides in small casemates. The names that you can see are IHS Kittak, IHS Millnoin, and the IHS Malloten that you had received the distress beacon from. The reason that you haven't recieved on from the other two is fairly obvious as the burning flames coming from the conning towers and bridge areas would have probably made any attempts to radio for help from them less than useless.
The other side seems to be a large group of 14 small fast torpedo boats and four gyrocopters of some sort. The Pilots of the gyrocopters are exposed to the air and sit in between missile and gun pods as they dodge incoming fire and strafe the decks of the cargo ships. The Torpedo boats aren't firing their torpedos in fact they seem to be attempting to get close enough to board the IHS Malloten and from the look of it, they are barely being kept back.
Neptune
Unknown Waters
Unknown Time
Too bad Greenpeace is not here
What the goodness?!
Too bad my face isn't the most expressive. Did someone just try to impale me with a harpoon? It has a horror-movie appearance too, the stuff of butchers.
Harpoons are what people use to catch whales. And I happen to look like a whale right now. The waters remain crystal-clear, so it can't be a case of collateral or misfire.
My instincts guide me towards self-defense. I just wanted to say hi, and they reply with an attack! That makes them the aggressor, and now they try to do it again!
Using my power over water, I direct an underwater current to shield me, by deflecting the second harpoon to the side, away from me. Then, glowing blue orbs surround me, firing azure beams of focused energy at the boat's keel. It's an Origin Pulse, intended to break the keel and prevent the hostile whaler from further attacking me.
The water pulse slams into the side of the Whaler crumbling the hull and slamming into bulkheads behind it you see that in the newly made rent in the hull several bodies and a large amount of what is probably oil spills out into the sea around the vessel. Another harpoon launch into the water and when you manage to evade it easily two strange canisters are land into the water and begin to float serenely down they smell of fish oil and actually smell appetizing to your more animalistic senses almost like a finely cooked tuna steak if you had to compare it to something your human form would know. Though there is a strange chemical tinge to it the longer you take in the smell.
Silently Jenny was thankful that there was a berth large enough in the ruined port for Itter to dock at, not many ports back home were able to dock School ships and if they had been forces to perform an amphibious landing then things would have been a lot more complicated...not to mention making their escape route more hazardous. Even now she was nervous about the situation, this entire thing reminding her way too much of a dozen different zombie movies.
Looking at the other girls in her Firefly's crew, all mirroring the determined worry that were in her eyes, before putting her fingers to her throat mic, "Okay girls we're moving out, remember this is a live fire situation so be careful. Josie are the defensive girl's ready?"
"Roger, moving my Panzers into position. Once you leave we'll dig in as much as we can and hold this area until you return." came the voice of her sister over the radio. They knew that they couldn't send all their tanks into the city, or else they'd leave the ship practically defenseless. So they'd both agreed to split the team, with Jenny taking the Shermans and Locusts into the city while Josie dug in at the docks with her StuGs and Panzers.
"Understood sis, if anything nasty shows up give 'em hell!" Jenny responded before signalling her group's tanks forward, "Locusts group move ahead and scout out our path to the beacon's location, Lance group your with me, Sword and Shield groups you have our flanks. Remember this is a city fight so watch for ambushes from the buildings."
A chorus of affirmations sounded over the radio as her detachment began moving out. While she was nervous about what they might find there was a part of her was thrumming with anticipation.
--------------------------------------
Josie was worried, her sister had always been the more reckless of the two of them and she didn't like the thought of her cute little sister running headfirst into a ruined city to save someone that she didn't even know....but she supposed that was what made Jenny such a charming person. Still Josie had a job to do and she wasn't going to let Jenny down.
Already they were piling up sandbags and moving what debris they could to form a makeshift barrier that can act as cover for her defensive forces. They didn't have time to do anything more complicated but every little bit counts and soon they hopefully should be ready to hold out against whatever was in the city.
Satisfied that her orders were being carried out, Josie turned her attention to her other job as leader of the defensive group. Taking the receiver from her radio operator she began to speak, her signal amplified through Itter's main transmission tower over a general channel that should reach the entire city. "This is Vice Commander Josie of the Itter, we have docked and are willing to provide assistance. Please respond, over."
There's a moment of silence and then the radio perks up though the formerly calm voice of Millicent returns. "Thank whoever's up there You got here I can see on the top cams that still exist that you're at the northern docks. Listen you need to take Bechilli Avenue it's the only mostly clear road Topside! But, it's only gonna be able to take you halfway. When you get to the intersection with the collapsed Skyscraper you need to turn right onto Glory Street. My bunker is a half-mile down at the parking garage near Blinco's Bar. Watch out for the tubby fucks and don't run over the ones that look emaciated everywhere but, their stomachs." Her voice is relived but, you can hear the fear creep back in as the sounds of crashing and screaming in the background gets louder and louder and the returning gunfire gets quieter and quieter. "-Please hurry. I don't wanna di-" the signal cuts off with a screech that makes you have to pull the radio bead from your ear or be deafened.
--------------------------------------
As the Defending tanks form up their crews nervously scan the towers of abandoned cargo containers and smaller wooden boxes as the tanks of Jenny team pull out and begin their rescue mission. once their engines fade into the distance it silent but, for the distant screams and gunfire. Until one of the Panzer II's spot movement. As the Figure slowly shuffles it's way out of the shadows of a nearby cargo container the crew is filled with a mounting sense of horror as the figure reveals itself to be a human figure with the arms messily removed at the shoulders and it's lower jaw hanging loose from a single joint and it's throat mostly open to the air. It's eye's glow a light red in the sunlight as it turns to take in the tank.
It then leans it's head back and releases a scream that even within their tanks and through the hearing protection they wear to keep themselves from being deafened by their own cannons is loud. The gunner panics and sends a 37mm shell into the thing's chest tearing it firmly in half but, it only takes a few seconds before several less loud but, still distinct screams begin to answer and move in The Itters Direction.
"Rodger dodger~, I will be on my best behaviour~," Purifier said without transmitting. While she was disappointed she couldn't pick any fights or anything that didn't mean she couldn't defend herself if things came down to it, well that's what she thought at least. She didn't know if it would work that way if she got caught up in things.
But what would her Shikikan think of that, probably adorably exasperated that Purifier got into another fight that she had to break up, well purifier just made herself a bit sad now, she wanted her Shikikan to explore with damnit! Oh well she would just have to take photos and such for them, and find a way to go home.
Oh, right she should go in before they decided she was stalling for a reason, so with a slightly smaller metaphorical spring in her step Purifier sailed towards lands unknown to her
As you pass underneath the rough iron portcullis that was raised for you begin to see small sea mines chained to the bottom of the channel floating randomly. their deep enough that no ships that could fit through this gate are likely to hit them but, you can imagine that if their magnetic fuses where on they would have hurt quite a lot if they went off.
You finally get to see what rests behind the walls of this place and what it is, is both confusing and frustratingly both more and less than you where expecting. Buildings of both stone, brick, and wood are stacked and scattered haphazardly along long wooden docks that just out into the wide river that goes deeper into the township. You can see, well you defintly see humans but, that's not the only species you see and that through you for a loop. Humans brush shoulders with beings that both tower over them and some that barely reach their hips. Green, Blue, Red, all manner of hair and skin colors like a pack Crayola crayons was spilled over a crowd of people. Some work the docks carrying boxes to and from ships and boats. Others shout and yell in all manner of tongues and accents while holding up fish, jewelry, and weapons of all kinds.
Then your radar catches something. A Liberty ship and a few destroyers of assorted nationalities, two Italian and one german Looking over you see that the three destroyers are picking on the liberty ship, mostly pulling her pigtail and name-calling but, they are boxing her in near against the wall of a building with a large smokestack that sits basically on the water's edge.
"Alright. I'll give you tell the count of ten before I come down there. And if you try and scare me at all I will hit you. And it will not be fun for either party." Karena spoke loudly, letting her voice echo down the stairwell of the bunker. Over the next ten seconds, she would shout a number down the stairwell, as she promised, before slowly descending the staircase her muscles and senses at the ready.
The numbers ring out in the deafening silence. The words echo down the stairs and deeper into the bunker. Nothing answers. The first step is slightly shaky as the step gives slightly but, it's the second one that's the doozy as it and the next three break sending you falling 15 feet onto hard concrete. Wheezing slightly as the breath is knocked from your lungs you manage to stop gasping just in time to see a shadow dart from one corner of the room you've fallen into and out the door. It's movements disjointed and inhuman as it seems to scramble and scrap at the air as it moves.
It also had too many limbs for comfort.
The room you've fallen into has concrete walls and a strange open slit in the wall that it takes a second to realize probably had glass of some sort in it and that the overturned table two feet to the left of you and the handcuffed skeleton with the caved-in skull that this was some form of an interrogation room.
"H-hello?" Willie nervously asked
There's quite for a moment as Willie's words leave her mouth, complete and total silence no waves, wind, or birds. Even Willie's on breathing sounds quieter. Then a soft smooth voice whispers a soft "Hello." into Willies ear.
"Alright" I say with a smile. Now, what would be a good false name to use? Can I even be held for my crimes back on Earth? Well, they could also find out I was lying about not being a pirate soo...
Grabbing the slate and pencil, I jot down the name....Edward Read on the dotted line and the initials ER where needed. Satisfied with my false, but very creative, identity, I hand the slate and pencil back to the old captain.
The Port Worker nods and hands you the small black box that he has been motioning to through the conversation and explains that once you're in a berth you just input your name and the berth number into the small touch screen on top. He then nods to you and motions the Port side of your ship. "And with that a good day to Mister Reed. If I may the berths between the Fishermans Stagger and the Dock Workers Union building-" Pointing to first a smaller squat wooden building on the docks and then to a larger brick and mortar building roughly directly in front of your vessel. "- are Currently mostly empty given the time of day and year so, you may be able to find a large to medium berth easier over there."
With that final piece of advice the Port Authority worker steps of your ship and back onto his own.
"Do you have any idea what this thing is? It looks artificial to me, which means that something made it. And that something is probably more interesting than open ocean, so your job is to figure out how to get us there."
Of course, he doubted the Navigator has any more idea where they were than Raldirm did, but he figured if he gave the young worker a job he couldn't succeed in the fellow Kleptan would get them somewhere interesting.
And hopefully with food. Unlike the plant-sacks, Raldirm could not survive forever without something to eat.
The Navigator nodded in reverence to the Don before freezing and looking at the Pillar strangely for a moment before pointing. "Sir, Who's that?" your just about to reprimand him for referring to the plant clones as people when you notice that he's pointing to a figure that was not their a moment ago. Dressed in a yellow rain slicker and with a grey sea bag by their feet a single arm is extended to the side with a single thumb pointing up in the universal sign for hitching a ride.
More worrying is the complete absence of the Plant-Sacks that the Don had sent out to investigate the Pillar.
With the obvious wear of the dock in mind, I take out a length of leather rope and secure my boat as best as I can to the sturdiest thing I can find. A large stone, an intact piece of the dock or a tree are all possibilities if they exist.
After that is done, I turn to the plaque. its grimy surface cloaking whatever is written on it. after trying to scrape off the majority of the salt and grime with only my knife I stop. near the beach, I find a small, smooth stone before returning to the plaque and using my knife as a chisel to get the majority of the grime off, even if I take care not to scratch the actual wood or metal. Then I get a bucket from my boat filled with seawater and start using it to wash away as much of its remaining coating as I can so it will hopefully become readable.
Though, if I could actually read the language is up in the air: I know some letters and numbers but I am a fisherman, not a wiseman.
It takes a while and the door nearly falls in a few times when your scrapping but, manage to get a good amount of the accumulated rust and mold off of the plaque.
You still can't read most of the words as when you scrapped you took off parts of them. But, you can read what's left. "Ho?? O? Deleth. Kee??? Of Th? Ligh???se ?f Laufey.
