Arc 1: Fourfold Endeavour. Mission 1: Nazi Punks Fuck Off! Part 6
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Okay for real after this I'm going for shorter posts ahh why do these keep on turning out to be doorstoppers?
[X]: Arne should split from the Autobots but rejoin Samus' team because he's human sized. Clues will be gathered en route.
The Alimbic Statue's amethyst, onyx, and topaz colouration glowed briefly after you had claimed your prize from it, turning its head in acknowledgement of a Knight of the Order and briefly making a salute before it resumed its prior position and became far more rigid, its tri-pronged crest extending outwards and the singular eye glowing a fierce yellow as you stood up and then looked back towards the autobots.
"+Samus, I'll catch up with you shortly. Just need to gather a few facts.+" You said over the comm with Samus.
"+Great! We'll scout out the area a bit, don't think there's going to be a whole lot to worry about by the time you get here.+" She said with a chipper tone back.
Now...
You were curious about how this thing got here, and quickly filched your way through the data of the room. Your scan visor casually going through security systems even the best hackers here wouldn't be able to brute force their way through.
You overheard Strongarm and Bumblebee's chatter behind you, well not heard so much as poked a bit into their conversation via your armour's signal intrusion systems.
Strongarm: I really don't like the way that Statue seems to always be looking at me out the corner of its eye.
Bumblebee: Feels like something a Decepticon would leave behind, doesn't it?
Strongarm: Yeah, super egotistical sort of stance to it.
Bumblebee: Arne seems to have gotten something out of it though.
Strongarm: Well, he's wearing armour from the same culture as whoever made this. Just...human shaped.
Strongarm: And you know that's weird. His armour doesn't really tell you that there's a human wearing that suit. Except maybe his arms and legs I guess.
Strongarm: I dunno, it feels a little dehumanising? Like the modifications Shockwave was forced to go through.
Bumblebee: Hey, I'm sure he has a reason for it. Besides, does it really matter how his armour looks as long as he can use it?
Strongarm: Says the bot who complains whenever his finish gets damaged.
Bumblebee: Hey, it takes work to manually polish my chassis.
Bumblebee: But to wheel back around to the statue...Arne's great! But the statue doesn't make me feel the same way.
Bumblebee: Like, I swear by Primus that whomever made that statue didn't exactly think highly of the planet's humans.
Strongarm: If there even were humans when they set this down. This thing's older than any of the other samples they collected to compare its age to.
Strongarm: Arne's got a strong heart, he'd have to to just jump out to save those civilians like that. But I'm not so sure on the Alimbics if this is what they leave behind on worlds they find.
Bumblebee: Hey, if you had to judge our species off of Megatron what would you think of Cybertron?
Strongarm: That we suck exhaust fumes and need to be stopped at all costs?
Bumblebee; Exactly! Besides, they left a present for him.
Strongarm: Fair I guess.
Bumblebee: Relax Strongarm, everything's going to work out fine.
Strongarm: And what do you think of this mission so far?
Bumblebee: Primus knows that cross-multiversal travel's weird enough already. I'm very concerned about this Earth though, everything's just falling apart and there's now all this heading its way.
Bumblebee; But Prime entrusted us to protect the Earths linked by these faultlines. And we're gonna do that, no matter what. Because we're Autobots, and Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings.
Strongarm: Yeah I'm not used to fighting so many humans. Didn't expect to have to fight so many non-cybertronians when I joined the revolutionary cause you know?
Strongarm: But Prime is right, these people need to be protected. And well, I'm glad to have a human who can help out with that. Two or more even.
Bumblebee: You know, when I was first posted here I thought Optimus was just typecasting me because I get along with humans so easily. But I'm starting to see why he thinks fronts like this are so important.
Strongarm: Why's that?
Bumblebee: Well, I see kids like Arne who've been put through our kind of stuff. War stuff, and then I just think about how many other young people hurt like does. How many people get victimised by more powerful invaders that we could be helping.
Strongarm: With how old Optimus is, I think he's come to feel the same way.
Interesting. It was strange to see them speak in so...familiar a manner, despite the enormous gulf in age between the two of them and yourself, they felt like people you could approach and call peers. Not quite like the tremendous gulf in lived experiences and circumstances that characterised your interaction with the progenitors. They might be older than mother Elmorni sure, but they carried themselves in a way that was so...young. And they were talking about you
You pinged a request to join the conversation to Bumblebee's surprise as he turned his head from strongarm towards you and widened his big blue optics and made a beeping warble of shock; his equivalent of a gasp you figured. Then he looked back at Strongarm busily quirking her...why does a robot have a brow? You have so many questions about Cybertronian physiology and there are so few answers to be found. You still weren't exactly sure why they had gender identities or corresponded so much to human anatomy despite being so removed in time and space from humans...did you even want to know the answers? Were some things just not meant for the human mind to understand.
Arne: Hey, mind if I intrude?
Bumblebee: Hey how did you...oh well, since you're here, sure!
Arne: What is...Optimus like? You speak of him like he's your father yet, you're not related to him are you?
Bumblebee: Primus no. He's just the Paramount Leader of the Autobots. Of well, our movement. On the military side of things anyway.
Strongarm: The Congress of the Supreme Council's more of our well; Civilian Leadership. But Optimus well, he's been guiding the war effort since its began.
Bumblebee: He's the wisest and nicest person you'll ever meet, even if he's kind of sad about all the stuff that's happened.
Arne: Two hundred and twenty five million years of war can't be easy on his conscience. But, is there any way I could meet him?
Bumblebee: He's a very busy bot but...I think I could arrange for you and Samus to talk to him when Jetfire gives him his personal report? I think he'd like to speak to you two honestly.
Arne: You could do that for us? I...
Strongarm: Prime's always got along with kids. I guess he feels bad for never getting a chance to have any of his own with the whole war and how hard his job was before the war.
Arne: What did he do before he became your leader? Some great theorist? A guerilla leader? Explorer?
Bumblebee: Nah, he was a Librarian.
Arne: Just...that? No prior combat experience or anything?
Bumblebee: No, I guess the Matrix of Leadership might count but, he wasn't a warlord before he became Prime. He was just a regular bot.
Arne: That sounds like some sort of artifact, presumably something to augment someone into a leadership role?
Strongarm: Smart! It's a talisman from our God, containing his offered wisdom and some of his power to anoint well...one of us he thinks is particularly noble into someone able to fight for justice.
Strongarm: Primes are chosen because of their virtue, you aren't just born one.
Arne: I...ah I think I get it.
Arne: He sounds great, I'd really like to meet him! I think Samus would too.
Arne: I just hope he doesn't mind all the lethal force I've been using.
Bumblebee: Hey, Arne. He'll understand. These kinds of people are the exact kind that drive Prime's gears to a halt.
Bumblebee: Honestly, I can't wait to find something to shut these creeps down for good.
Arne: Yeah.
Not exactly the strongest conclusion to that line of thought, but Bumblebee stopped to take a look at the Statue and then turned his attention back to you, seeming to be concerned as he did so. You definitely felt concern radiating off of him. Disquiet, unease. Like he was worried for you. You imagined this would be a little like having an older brother, but being an only child made an imagination all you had to work off of to figure out how that could work. It was strongarm who spoke firs though, and you could figure out why; Bumblebee wasn't sure if the topic was something he should poke into at all. Strongarm had no such hesitations.
Strongarm: So these Alimbics, why didn't they make your armour look human at all?
Arne: I...I don't know? I've been working on some modifications to my armour to make it look less hostile, a new helmet for one thing. But it's on my ship at the moment.
Arne: I think it's because I'm supposed to represent the Tetrarch Order, not myself. So I don't have any personal insignias on my armour or zero suit.
Strongarm: What is your personal insignia?
Arne: For my family it'd be a Shield Knot and sun cross. For myself, an eagle spreading lightning from its wings.
Strongarm: Those would look pretty good on you honestly. Why not try those looks out?
Arne: Well...
Strongarm: What are the Alimbics even like?
Arne: They're, complicated. They're people. What are Cybertronians like?
Bumblebee: Hey, he's got you there.
Strongarm: Okay, what are the ones that raised you like?
Arne: My primary mother, Elmorni is really nice to me. Secondary-Father Mortirk and Secondary-Mother Ygrak are also nice. Tertiary Mother Agrama and Tertiary-Father Ildimi also have been good to me.
Strongarm: What about Primary-Father? You seem to have a really big family.
Arne: All the Alimbics of Sentus Primaris are Mother and Father to me. Yes, so there is the crew of a battlecruiser and a few stasis awakened remnants to help raise me.
Strongarm: Oh interesting, but you still haven't talked about Primary-Father.
Bumblebee: So how many are we talking about?
Arne: Oh about nineteen point seven three million individuals. Slowly rising as they collect more stasis locked populations and reawaken them. There aren't a huge number of them though.
Strongarm: Arne, is there something about Primary-Father you don't want to talk about?
Arne: He's...someone I don't like to think about.
Bumblebee: Arne, what happened?
Arne: Zurvduat is...someone I...have very complicated feelings about. I'd really prefer to not have to think of him.
Strongarm: What did he do to you?
Arne: Please, not now. I don't want to think about it now.
Bumblebee: Hey, Strongarm; let it rest a bit alright? We've got a mission to do.
Strongarm: Right.
Bumblebee: Hey kid, you okay?
Arne: Yeah, I'll be fine.
Arne: It seems that the nazis have evacuated the premises though.
Strongarm: Must have cleared out some of what they were looking for already though, can't find a whole lot of leftovers from their experiments.
Bumblebee: Which is why we should hurry before these goons get away.
Arne: Yeah, I agree. But, we should split up.
Arne: Samus' group needs a second person to take hits from them more than either of you need me.
Bumblebee: Hey, Arne; you were great out there, don't talk yourself down like that. But well, I get it.
Arne: Thanks.
You ended the text conversation there, wanting to get some more usage out of your actual vocal cords. Partly because you found bumblebee's odd way of speaking to be rather intriguing and wanted to see more of it in action.
Well, no sense in continuing to tag along with them when they weren't going to be able to fit into the primary pathway and Samus probably could use another person to run interference for the sake of the less durable members of the team. They were able to handle themselves quite nicely as well, and with the amount of damage already done to the facility not bringing around the robots who would tear apart the innards of the building by their evasive manoeuvres seemed to be the best idea.
"You two should be able to find your own way through the facility. I should probably help Samus out. And well..." You started before Strongarm gave an understanding nod. She hadn't known you long but it wasn't too hard to guess that Samus and yourself were very close. After all, you wouldn't fall out of the sky together with just anyone. And of course, you were rather visibly reluctant to part ways from Samus when the time came to split up into separate groups.
"Hey, if you want to join up with your partner that's fine with me. Just uh, one question." She said, kneeling down towards your level and resting a hand on her knee.
"Yeah?" You asked, eyes occasionally glancing towards Bumblebee as he examined the statue, tracing his fingers along it and then backing away slightly and playing a sound clip that simply said "-Wack.-"
"I'm not the biggest expert on humans and I'm not at all rated for psych duty, but. You said you were Jewish right?" You nodded in response as she spoke with some concern, like a big sister more than a giant robot.
"You going to be alright? I know what...people like this represent to you." She asked.
"I'll be fine. There's plenty of distance between now and then anyway. Just...people I need to deal with, that's all." You said back as she gave a nod of understanding.
"-Break a leg kid!-" Bumblebee said, playing another clip and throwing you a thumbs up that you swiftly returned before dashing out the door, though not before picking up two more scan logs.
The statue was about what you expected. But the report that was left behind on some materials abandoned in their haste by the rush to evacuate the facility when they realised they were losing made your blood both boil and your sense of worry flare up. There were wheels in motion in this plan, and your arrival to this planet had set off a cascade of events that would likely decide the fate of this and many other worlds. You almost felt sick at the thought of so much weight on your shoulders, and you came to a brief halt as you rested a hand on the wall outside of the door to the containment room. You breathed in, breathed out, closed your eyes and then concentrated.
You had dealt with crises of high magnitude before. You held the fates of numbers of people more easily written in scientific notation in the palm of your hands so many times before hand. You could do this. You had to do this. Too much was at stake if you couldn't.
You swallowed your anxiety as Bumblebee beeped in your direction and sent you a message, noting that you had stopped.
Bumblebee: Something wrong?
Arne: Just...a lot to think about, I'll send you the scan log.
Bumblebee: By the Primes...I'm going to need to report this to Jetfire as fast as I can. And that's really fast.
Arne: I don't doubt it.
Bumblebee: Meanwhile, I'm looking at the layout of the underground part of this university. Seems like there should be a way for Strongarm and I to link up with you.
Arne: Good to know.
Bumblebee: And Arne.
Arne: Yeah?
Bumblebee: You and Samus are doing just great. You've got this.
Arne: Thanks.
You took those words of encouragement like Nectar, praise rarely was sent in your direction by people that much older than you than Bumblebee was. And with those honeyed words, you dashed down the halls, moving through the eerily quiet facility with seemingly nothing else in the facility save for more hallways. The lights were a bit helter-skelter with the damage done to the facility, but you weren't really afraid of the dark.
Your hearing picked up something else though, the faint thrush of objects being moved around in the distance, little tumbles of disturbed paper or shifting chairs. Your armour picked up communication signals nearby that didn't belong to your group, but only some of them were speaking on frequencies the Nazi alliance had been known to use; or even speaking in German for that matter.
Out of curiosity you decided to take a look at the wifi in the campus, your armour tapping into it and then screening through. It warned you of that omnipresent malware and almost invisible even to your own scanners packets of data being sent somewhere. Someone was watching the datafeeds, and given that the Nazis did not act as if they had that much prior warning of your movements; you don't think it was them. At least, if it were; they weren't sharing that intel with everyone which to be entirely fair, was a common problem with darwinian management.
Perhaps even more curiously though, the signals weren't going on similar frequencies to either set of frequency chatter. So that left two mysteries. Who was making the second set of frequency chatter, and who was monitoring all the feeds? The maker of the virus was certainly clever enough to guise their tracks. Countless dummy signals, dead ends, duplicates. Whomever had made it had done a ton of work in making their monitoring so omnipresent that not even your suit could properly pinpoint where it was coming from. It was everywhere, and thus nowhere. Perfectly distributed across several timelines. Technologically inferior to what you could do, but done so skillfully you couldn't help but respect it.
The second set of signals wasn't speaking in German or English but in a language your suit hadn't encountered before. The speakers were probably some sort of humanoid based on the sounds they made, but altered somehow. You'd need to examine them more closely to get a proper analysis unfortunately, and none of them seemed to be in viewing range for now. But they disappeared soon enough and you were left to the sound of water being displaced by someone's boot dropping down into the water. You paused briefly and picked up more German communications.
Kommando #1: Target spotted.
Kommandant: Urge caution, the blue figure is extremely potent.
Kommando #2: Of course, we will observe for now.
Kommando #3: What can be discerned of this one and the orange one?
Kommandant: Agents within the PRT reported them falling from orbit following the detonation of the cloaked gate in the vicinity of Brockton Bay. They were reportedly unharmed and engaging Rikti forces with ease.
Kommandant: The PRT believes them to be children, human at that.
Kommando #1: Aryan?
Kommandant: According to the files we are able to access they are classified as white. Thank God for American record keeping.
Kommando #2: Possibility of recruitment?
Kommandant: Unknown. Stahlschadel had some intel concerning the blue one's racial characteristics but has suffered memory loss.
Kommando #1: Concerning.
Kommando #3: Do we engage?
Kommandant: Avoid conflict. We are at an intelligence disadvantage.
Kommando #2: We have some other busybodies poking around our business here.
Kommandant: Identification?
Kommando #2: Uncertain. Will monitor.
You turned your head briefly at the sound of more splashing and briefly caught a glimpse of one of the soldiers who seemed to realise that you had pinpointed his location and disappeared into another dimension as soon as you met his gaze. But not before you managed to get off a scan on him.
Experimental soldiers created by the Weltreich exposed to extradimensional energies after undergoing numerous augmentations. The extradimensional energy exposure process induces berserker like psychosis in the soldier in question but results in a wide variety of extreme physical augmentations that have lead to the Waffen-SS deeming the price worth it, particularly for the purposes of cultivating supersoldiers without relying on the other major organisations of the Reich. Ungehesen are named for their particular variety of powers which include the ability to teleport, become invisible, phase through objects (though you yourself cannot be phased through), and other ghostly abilities. They can also project this energy into directed blasts, augments to their melee attacks, or blades emerging from their wrists.
Tracking them is possible through X-ray spectrum or multidimensional visor technology (warning: User lacks capability), and while in a phased state, a non-elementally stacked beam or similar weapon remains capable of damaging them. Due to their berserker condition, they are also easily prone to being baited out of position by taunts or targets to work their aggression out against. This will also typically lead them to abandon ranged combat to try to close in melee as soon as possible and will also cause them to abandon other targets to focus on the last irritant to have gained their attention.
Samus' Notes: I would pity them if they hadn't so gleefully accepted becoming monsters themselves. But luckily dealing with them should be easy enough even without the visor technology to track them. Especially if they decide to get close.
Arne's Notes: Not a big fan of mentally scarring sophontic experimentation I'd have to say. They're going to be a problem when it comes to protecting other people though, I'll need to get out a warning about these types of troops in particular.
You squinted your eyes but carried on through, taking a look at the now heavily ransacked facility's innards. Executed personnel lay around in all directions, those deemed not worth capturing simply silenced to prevent them from speaking of the raiders' plans. A momentary glance told you most of these people were simply executed at point blank range with a swift bullet to the head and then left to rot. That they didn't even bother to dispose of most of the bodies was a sickening reminder of their power here. They could get away with murder and nobody would do a thing about it.
Well, you weren't nobody.
You looked briefly at a young intern's corpse, face in shock as the cause of death lay plainly apparent in their forehead. A young life full of passion for the future cut down at the flower of adulthood. Their nametag smeared with blood and defaced by a bayonet to cut out their name. Turkish you figured, probably an immigrant. Someone who moved with hope of being accepted only to find their grave. You held back some bile and took note of dozens of other bodies laid across the room in similar ways.
One a young French woman, another a Jew, a third a Namibian, a fourth a young man with a picture of his boyfriend still in his locket, with the faces stabbed inwards by a bayonet, a fifth a Korean emigre woman, the sixth someone burned in such a way that their wheelchair had melted into their charred flesh. This pattern repeated. The undesireable, the unwanted, the overly young and inexperienced, the politically disagreeable, the simply deemed not useful. It brought back unwanted memories of Cylosis and how the mysterious skull-masked soldiers simply lined up people to be shot, row after row; or dragged them from their homes and burst their skulls with their munitions; or simply set fire to their homes and locked them inside.
You shivered at the sensation. Your breath was shallow and panicked. You were just three years old, there was hot blood on your face from the ruptured heads of the slain, the armoured figure of your parents and their squadron clearing a path out of a world on fire.
You tried to clear your mind, focus your thoughts on what mattered, swearing vengeance for the slain. The shriek of aircraft like daggers in your ears, the hellish quintuple cackle of the Golden Hydra so close and inescapable, bell-like cackles following you like the shadow of death itself, it's so loud. Why is it so loud?
You would have to be their knight and their warrior. You would need to face the terror with pride and strength, clenching your fist and hitching your breath as you tried to walk forward. And the dead lay everywhere, unburied, unmourned, unwanted. All of them dying in helpless terror, all of them looking to you, why couldn't you help them? Zurvduat was right...you were weak, useless, you couldn't save anyone. Dead stares all accusing you of weakness.
No! You wouldn't let yourself be lost in the nightmares now. You were brave, you could do this. You had done this so many times before. You clenched your hand and repeated a mantra taught to you by Elmorni.
"Fear is welcome, terror is not. I may be afraid, but I shan't be terrorised. I can fight the dark, and the dawn will come again." Sweet words by your adoptive mother, her blue carapace so gentle and affectionate you could almost feel its warm embrace now, and found yourself longing for her guidance even now.
"I won't let any of you down." You said to the bodies, then upwards; wondering where your adoptive Alimbic mother was relative to you. "Especially not you, mom." You said, returning to the gathering of evidence.
Doors leading to experimental facilities were still opened, showing rooms stripped bare of their belongings and functions. Looted of what was surely a significant quantity of scientific and technological wealth meant to analyse the parahuman phenomenon and other esoterica of interest to the academia of west Germany and much of Earth as a whole. But the process was partial, not yet complete; your arrival had spurred them into action as some of the devices they were studying came to life, but the battle had alerted them to the fact that they had not enough time to finish their theft.
One thing that was only partially disassembled was a device that your scan visor informed you was being used to study ways to understand the source of powers. A crude dimensional drill device, ingenious with the methods used to create it despite the limited means, but this team was starting to go onto the right track of understanding where parahuman abilities were coming from. While some of the components were stripped out, you needed only a few seconds to figure out how to get it operational again. The most important component of course, being something you could supply with a shot of your quantum beam.
Something you'd have to come back to later though, your suit was telling you Samus was relatively close. You moved out of this laboratory wing and rushed over towards Samus' position, going through a few doors that you needed to hack through to open without damaging the building. Samus hadn't kept still herself, her group still moving cautiously through the much emptier facility, but you were dashing towards her faster than any of her companions could even see. They perceived you not as a blur; to them you just teleported into position next to Samus, a thunderclap following you and the sound of your movement lagging well behind yourself as you stood yourself up.
"Sorry for the delay, there were some...distressing detours I had to make." You said, standing up as Samus was busy eating something a peach gathered from the cafeteria she was now in and offering a fresh one to you while she chewed; her helmet off and cheeks chipmunked out with fruit.
"You want some?" She offered, and out of courtesy you dismissed your helm and obliged, smiling a bit.
The statue glowed briefly as it cradled you in its outstretched hands before it lowered you onto the ground and resumed sitting on its throne, the Far Ranging Statue's body encased in a graceful explorer's armoursuit. Whereas the overall headshape of Zebesian Chozo was closer to parrot like, the Far Rangers called that of a Crane to mind, with a long, thin beak and a lengthy, sauropod like neck. However the head behind the beak called to mind a Brachiosaurus more than any winged bird from earth. The visor was wider than your own suit's; a simple C shaped curve providing vision for the wearer, and whereas many Chozo were robed, this statue instead wore a cloak and tunic over its armour instead, setting you between its impressive legs as tall at their knees as you were at full height.
Its task done, the emerald, gold, and azure statue seemed to become inert once again, silently watching ahead. Its hands turned to grip the armrests of its seat, and its head straightened as if something just in front of it had caught its full attention. The glow it had made when it was gifting you had faded into duller background lights, and the instrumentation in the room stopped having a minor crisis of confidence brought about by the statue's ministrations.
You could immediately tell though, that what you had just done came off as magic to the people in front of you, and smiled reassuringly to them before giving them a thumbs up.
"So uh, what was that?" Assault asked, deciding to broach the topic after the requisite silence.
"it was a Chozo statue offering a gift to me! So I just...accepted it. It's no big deal." You said, confused as to why he seemed to be so...mystified by what had gone on. Was it really all that strange to him? You just accepted a modular upgrade offered to you in good faith. Hardly anything to get all up in arms or confused about.
"How do you know that it was offering a gift to you specifically?" Battery interjected, raising a hand now to let it be known she wanted to speak.
"I mean, I found it here. If they didn't want me to find it, they wouldn't have put it where I can find it." You said, this line of questioning was all quite bizarre to you. Did they not get that the Chozo were prescient? Or was the idea of that degree of precognition just out of their normal frame of reference.
"This thing looks like it was around for the Dinosaurs!" Viktor said, gesturing towards the statue and then back towards you, pulling off his helmet and wiping off his brow with a cloth as he seemed envious of your armour's superior climate control and body waste disposal systems. Something you couldn't fault him for, it must be awful to be stuck in a suit full of your own sweat.
"That's an exaggeration, it's only a hundred thousand years old." You said, beaming with pride and then being confused about why Irina was sniggering out loud before she doubled over and had herself a riotous belly laugh. There was that sensation of not being sure if you said something wrong once again. You racked your brain over what could have been the cause and came to the conclusion that...oh right that was still a very, very long time for humans.
"You are a very funny Irish girl you know?" Irina said with the biggest grin on her face as she set down her helmet and made a confident smirk before she looked to the statue and seemed about ready to poke it before she retracted her hand and frowned slightly.
"Irish?" Viktor asked.
"Samus Eabha Aran is a very celtic name Vitya. Makes me think of IRA songs." She said with a smirk.
"Up the IRA eh?" Assault said with a grin before being elbowed by Battery and making an "ow" sound after taking the hit to his side, rubbing it and looking towards her with an apologetic frown.
"What did I say about cheering on terrorists?" Battery glowered, which got another confused look out of you. From what you remembered of your homeland's history, the PIRA were celebrated heroes who fought one of the most evil pre-spacefaring societies to have ever existed to liberate their sundered homeland. You were about to bring this up but stopped yourself when you sensed that this would likely make Assault mad. An unpleasant snarl in the future.
"So ah...who made this? Bird people?" Irina asked.
"I...wouldn't call them that but it is non-human yes! Chozo, the species that raised me after I...was on my own when I was little." You hoped they'd be able to get that without you having to elaborate.
"Oooh so you were basically raised by alien monks da?" She said, taking a swig of her flask of electrolyte water to replenish her fluid supply and cleaning her forehead of accumulated sweat. My goodness how these people were in need of some upteching if they were going to handle some space pirates.
"Uh-huh. They can see the future! So they must have known that I'd be coming here at some point. Maybe it was even left by my mamas and papas?"
"Communal parents huh? Very interesting!" Irina said with a nod.
"Why are you so far from home exactly?" Battery asked pointedly.
"Because I left for a boarding school to get socialization training." You said proudly.
"...Why aren't you in school right now?" She asked, seemingly suspicious of the motivations of your caretakers in a way that made you frown beneath your helmet. How could anyone think of the Chozo as anything other than the epitome of benevolence? To raise someone they barely knew from the ashes of K-2L, to love and care for you so strongly and to make you one of their own without condition or expectation of repayment and to indulge your wish to become an adventuring hero. How could that be anything but the purest love?
"Because I was following some evidence trails with Arne that lead us to that wormhole station. We had to clear out some Space Pirates and some...other combatants that I don't know much about but Arne feels the same way about them that I do about the Pirates." You said as if this explained everything, mystified as to why you needed to explain so many basic things. It felt like having to educate a baby honestly.
"...And they just...let you do this?" Battery was clearly completely baffled.
"Well, they know that when I go out on that sort of adventure its something important!" You said happily.
"...I am going to have a headache." Battery said, grabbing at her head and rubbing it while Irina patted her on the back.
"Don't worry, I don't get half of it either!" Irina said with a beaming smile to your laughter.
You hadn't seen much of interest as you made your way deeper into the facility, it seemed that a lot of the fight had just gone out of the Nazis altogether. You, of course, picked up on a number of important scan logs here and there. But it seemed that the bulk of the fighting was over and all there was left to do was gather clues and figure out a few puzzles for the benefit of your team mates who couldn't traverse things as quickly or as well as yourself; repowering some bridges and opening some doors that lead to paths they could take but you didn't need to move from point A to point B.
A few interesting bits of information presented themselves to your scan visor as you dug through yet another terminal, taking a look at the plans of the raiders of this facility.
It seems that they've already gotten at least part of the way through with their objectives. You worried you might be too late, but you cracked into their communications just to be sure that there was still a chance. Their signal discipline was poor, especially given that you knew you weren't the only one listening in and you bet they were aware of at least some of the other signals. But their laxity was to your benefit.
Kommando #1: We are approaching the primary target, advise.
Kommandant: Await for the arrival of Gheist team. That target is extremely valuable to the Gruppenfuhrer's desires.
Kommando #2: All this security for the layabouts from this dimension?
Kommando #3: The last of the security here is quite stubborn. Foolish, but stubborn.
Kommando #1: I believe they have what they call "Tinkertech" and a number of Parahumans.
Kommando #4: Certainly brave to still be holding out now. What a waste of good Aryan life.
Kommando #2: Bah, I counted several non-Deutsch in their ranks, plenty of women too. They pollute the Fatherland.
Kommandant: Focus, the last of the obstacles will be a high grade hero quartet who are veterans of multiple endbringer encounters.
Kommando #5: Primal Earth had plenty of famous heroes to kill. We shall be fine.
Kommandant: Contempt for your enemy is healthy, but do not allow it to lead you to the grave.
Kommando #5: What they are guarding must be of tremendous importance if they are willing to commit so much to it.
Kommando #1: Must be why they chose to hide it beneath a university. Hoping their "unwritten rules" will offer them protection from the more squeamish.
Kommando #2: What dishonour they bring to Deutschland with their degeneracy. Death is a mercy to most of these filth, better to give them an easy death than to let them wallow in this filth.
Kommandant: The cleansing will come soon enough. Keep pressing, the armoured duo is approaching your position according to observers.
Kommando #5: Scheisse, is there anything that can be done to slow them down?
Kommando #2: Send more Gesellschaft scum their way, maybe bother the 5th Column to spare some men too.
Kommando #1: Do we have an extraction plan should they catch up to us? And what of the large robots?
Kommandant: Mediporters should still work to pull you out of the situation if your task becomes too risky, Grauer team. You are valuable to our Reich, fine men of the Waffen-SS. You will not be allowed to die uselessly.
Kommando #4: Comforting.
Kommandant: Have you forgotten the teachings of Himmler so quickly? Comedy is a useless distraction for our Spartanist way. Focus on your mission absolutely, and you will have victory. Banter is for lesser men.
Kommando #4: How close are they?
Kommandant: Based on the security footage, the human sized members of their team are far away. However the robots are quite close. Expect them to run interference shortly.
Kommando #1: Deploy teams to intercept them immediately; we must complete the objective.
Kommando #2: We already have the second objective at least, and many of the secondary and tertiary objectives.
Kommando #1: These objectives are of high importance. That vault must be cracked.
Based on the map of the facility you had, it would primarily be up to Bumblebee and Strongarm to run interference against these Kommandos, which left you feeling frustrated but you couldn't exactly leave behind all of your allies to rush off and join them. They could handle themselves anyway, and so you just sighed and kept on advancing; letting your friends follow suit.
Now deeper into the facility, you stopped the group at one of the cafeterias meant for the underground staff right before Irina could complain about being hungry. Once of your precognitive hunches and perhaps a more frivolous use of your prescience than usual; but definitely useful all the same.
You yourself were craving something sweet, and decided to help yourself to some of the fruits and sorbets present. You couldn't touch the meat out of knowledge of where that flesh came from and the agony that the animals lived in before they perished; and for that matter the dairy was also out of the question for similar reasons. Some poor cow's baby was stolen from it to steal its milk from it and you just couldn't be part of that. It would make you sad and give you flashes of the memories of the animal as you consumed its produce.
"So how did they fit this whole place beneath a famous university?" Assault asked as he helped himself to some of the ice cream.
"Probably parahuman assisted construction if I had to guess." Viktor said, taking a moment to do some deeper repairs to his armour while you restrained yourself from pointing out all the ways he could do it more efficiently or improve that woefully obsolete armour he wore. It wasn't something he designed so you weren't sure how much of your advice he would actually be able to understand. And it might be rude to lay into him with so much criticism, however honest it was. Still, it was definitely a struggle and your eyes kept on turning towards Viktor's suit multiple times until Irina poked you.
"Do you want to kiss him or something?" She asked with a smirk.
"Well...either of you would be fine. Both at once would be great!" You figured that this was an attempt to fluster you, but honestly why would people be ashamed of admitting their attractions? It made no sense. Hiding it only seemed to make more trouble than it was worth when everything would be so much simpler if people were just honest.
Viktor just about choked on his tea in response and Irina turned an interesting shade of red before looking away from you and harrumphing loudly. You had sensed that the two thought you were pretty since the first time you met them, and you weren't quite sure why they found you showing interest in them caught them off guard. People without psionic or mystic senses could be so weird sometimes.
Assault let out a laugh while Battery seemed like she was on the verge of having a stroke. Something she really should get checked, allowing herself to be stressed so often couldn't at all be good for her. Especially when she was eating food like that burger which had been processed and preserved with such primitive techniques you wondered how anyone could eat it without vomiting immediately.
Arne appeared like a bolt of lightning, dropping down from his sprint and jump and landing hard on the ground, standing himself up to his rather considerable full height to the surprise of the others, with Viktor almost falling out of his seat in sheer surprise as Arne's sound caught up to him with a thunderclap that rang across the room.
The two of you shared what you'd learned with each other as everyone quickly finished up what they had to eat to waste as little time as possible. Arne's revelations made you ponder in ever greater concern. This was clearly the first stage of some greater plan, yet there was the question of who else was watching events unfold. You had both found references to the Reichblock believing that a greater conflict was soon on the horizon, and Arne's discovery that the foe was trying to monitor you with special forces heightened your sense of healthy paranoia.
There was a sense of unease in Arne's heart that you decided to prod him a bit about, no sense in going into this with doubt in the mind of your closest compatriot here when you'd be facing increasingly heightened danger. You were sure that the opposition you'd be facing would take the fight with far more gravity than your prior opponents and would be better prepared for your abilities.
"Arne, is something wrong?" You said quietly, too quietly for the others to hear.
"I...I'm fi-" He stopped himself when you placed your hand on his shoulder and straightened him to face you, looking into each other's eyes; red into blue. You pouted a bit and let him know that you weren't going to accept the "everything is fine" lie.
"...I saw so many corpses just left on the wayside like trash and had some flashbacks. You know how it is." He said, sighing and closing his eyes as if he was too ashamed to meet your gaze. Fear of his weakness and seeming like he was unable to keep up with you always ate at him. You understood the poison of self-doubt and the coils of past trauma very well, and you laid a finger on his chin to turn his head up towards you; letting him look down at you. He was starting to get visibly taller than you; but he never stopped being soft beneath his shell.
"Arne, we're going to stop them from doing stuff like that for good. No more early graves will have to be dug when we're done here." You said reassuringly. To yourself as much as to Arne while he gave an understanding nod, your infectious confidence helping to restore his own as he breathed in and out.
"Are you going to take your own advice into heart?" He asked, a wry smile on his face.
"Obviously...when have I ever been a hypocrite?" You said before he started to make a catlike smirk that made you roll your eyes, already anticipating his playful needling coming before Irinia butted in.
"Oy! You two can make out and do the horizontal ballet when we are done! We have fashishty to break! Davai! Davai!" She said, pushing the two of you out the door to Battery's sniggering while Viktor snapped his helmet onto his head and Assault made a quick check.
"Everyone ready?" He asked.
"DA! MOVE FASTER HAMBURGER EATER!" Irina shouted.
"...Ow...personal much?" Assault said, miming being shot in the heart.
You all moved in a hurry, your visor catching the sight of a recently dislodged panel that had been hastily moved back into place; probably in an attempt to guise the fact that some of the enemy had just moved through here recently. You breathed in and then punched a hand outwards, smashing in the tinkertech augmented sliding like cardboard even though it was meant to resist a direct impact by thermobaric bunkerbuster munitions. Hardly a challenge for you, but then; when was the real challenge in ever just entering?
The sounds of a firefight greeted you as soon as you passed through a soundproofed door, the remaining guards of the facility being swept up by a team of Reichblock troops. Nacht Elites, Stahl walkures, Soldats, Panzerhund, Wachrobots, Mekmen, and a new force of SS soldiers from the weltreich; teleporting into flanking positions to eliminate the facility guards who were trying to pin down the advancing nazis with tinkertech weapons.
Fast moving robots bounced from target to target, harassing or simply crushing those in their way, and your slicing into the security camera feeds in the facility showed that this was only part of what was increasingly obviously the real offensive thrust of the Nazis. They were pouring into the lower levels of the facility, coordinated combat groups engaging and eliminating the outnumbered and outgunned guards of this place.
The primary fight was in a central access tunnel that was meant to move supplies underground well beneath the city of Munich's conventional underground infrastructure, allowing for shipments to be shipped without anyone on the surface being the wiser. But instead of a shipment, the guards of this facility were met with an assault train full of nazis; an attack locomotive whose cars cut through the guards to the side and disgorged dozens of squads at a time; clearly having some sort of teleporter to shift large numbers of soldiers around.
The train had reached its destination, unleashing a frenzy of nazis who were slicing their way through the most heavily guarded part of the facility; including an A team of four high-grade parahumans who were the ace in the hole of the facility's defences; those who could be expected to hold the line against endbringers until reinforcements came. Along with an assorted bunch of also-rans and powerless...fodder would be a generous word for them.
The four and their entrouge were seeming to do okay until a masked figure in a trench coat and a woman in some manner of medieval looking armour that formed over her SS uniform arrived followed by six others. The Trench coated figure extended blades from his wrist and moved at speeds that impressed even you, reducing dozens of guard troops to red mists not even through force but by simply slicing them so often that no whole chunks of them were left before any part of their body could hit the ground.
Weapons fire aimed his way was futile as he easily deflected the incoming rounds, carefully aiming the rounds back to their senders, killing dozens more soldiers while his help got to work; including another speedster who resorted to more...electrically blunt methods of dealing with his foes. The woman was spitting spellfire from one hand while her sword in the other hand carved through foes by the dozens, mystic cutting arcs expanding outwards and reducing guards and guard robots to shreds with each swing while sinister magics danced around; burning many from the inside out or other, crueller fates.
The four retreated deeper into the facility; while the autobots were driving down the tunnel as fast as they could; stopping as they were pinned down by large amounts of fire to the point of having to call in added reinforcements. While the superhuman nazis had already advanced in, the two autobots were not taking chances with the assault train nearby while it chugged forward once more. But a ping from bumblebee at least gave you some comfort.
Bumblebee: Wow okay this is way more heat than I expected from these creeps.
Bumblebee: We'll be calling in some reinforcements from autobot HQ. Doesn't look like we'll be able to meet back up for a bit.
Samus: Who are you calling in?
Bumblebee: Windblade and Bulkhead, gonna need the Cityspeaking support and Bulkhead's...Bulk. Gonna bring in some of our minicons too; human sized support and power links should come in handy.
Bumblebee: For you though; Eudaimonica and Nightcaster should help out a lot.
Bumblebee: Good luck Samus, I believe in you
Samus: I believe in you too. Now come on, show those Nazis where they belong!
Bumblebee: My pleasure!
The large form of Bulkhead and the agile body of Windblade emerged from a groundbridge along with four human-sized cybertronians, weapons blazing out straight away to try and break the blockade of nazis and their hastily set up defensive positions. The tunnel was massive to say the least; more than a hundred meters wide, opening into an even larger docking area in what was rapidly becoming apparent as a massive scale research facility hidden in plain sight. Likely some lynchpin of west germany's R&D, but was now target number one for the nazi assault.
On your end though, Eudaimonica and Nightcaster came tumbling out of another groundbridge; the boy falling on his face and giving a thumbs up and the girl riding on the shoulders of winterpyre as he came roaring into the fray; Eudaimonica's summoned demons and Nightcaster's spirits of darkness coming rushing out along side them. On one hand this meant you had a lot more fodder to throw into the fray, on the other hand; the Nazis immediately turned their attention towards you and shouted "OPEN FIRE!" almost instantly.
You jumped out ahead while Eudaimonica cast out magic shields with her fire magic and laid out her usual array of buffs as she filled the battlefield with fiery control spells; dividing squads from each other or entrapping foes in cages of fire; Nightcaster pushing himself up and throwing out some of his hexes to thwart the foe's ability to fight properly. Rounds that should have hit going astray, coils of darkness grabbing at foes or possessing spirits hijacking the bodies of those who seemed suitable to cause them to fight amongst each other or petrifying visions of fear trapping them in their worst nightmares.
"Hey, sorry we were late! The autobot base is suuuuuper fun!" Eudaimonica said with a cheer as a black coloured upgraded Wachroboter turned to your direction and let out a burst of deadly particle cannon light; taking a chunk out of the wall when it missed that seemed to go for dozens of meters through reinforced concrete.
"Jesus..." Assault said as he ducked behind some cover; demons and spirits of darkness throwing out magic projectiles while being peppered by German made weapons fire in return.
"I love this job. No such thing as an ordinary day." Irina said with two thumbs up while you shot down a trio of Robotsoldats jumping towards your group at mach speed with power blades extended, Serp rapid firing grenades to reduce some of the Soldats to pulp and swearing profusely under his breath; describing in exhausting detail the sexual anatomy of his opponents' mothers and how he'd prefer them to engage in intercourse with them.
With the magic augmentations flooded into her though, Battery chanced a charge; and to her surprise found that she could go above the limit she normally expected of herself. Quite considerably beyond. Whereas she could normally store sixty seconds of power after a twelve second charge session; she drew on the magic enhancing her physiology and...twelve seconds would give her about twelve minutes now. She let out a laugh and jumped into the fray, smashing a large Mekmen with her fist into dozens of pieces while even direct hits from laser cutters just skimmed off of her.
"Wow I haven't seen this many Nazis since the last time I read a youtube comment section!" Nightcaster said as he tossed a torso sized sphere of darkness down range that exploded in the midst of a bunch of soldaten, the dark energy seeming to suck the warmth out of them until they froze into blackened and purpled statues wreathed in inky tendrils.
"....I am never moving to Paragon City if this is all just normal to you." Assault said.
"Eh it's not that bad...sometimes." Eudaimonica shrugged.
"Good day to you once more mortal. A pity we have to meet in such circumstances." Winterpyre said to Assault.
Now...what could you two do?
(Pretend that they have the double lightning bolt of the SS rather than the Swastika)
Waffen-SS Dunkel Ageten make use of advanced power armour, superhuman augmentations, high end weaponry, and metaenergetic enhancements to turn them into powerful basic special operations soldiers for the Schutzstaffel of the Weltreich. Making use of ETC assisted mass driver weapons, missile launchers, charged particle rifles, and directed energy guns; the Dunkel Ageten fight with lethal firepower augmented by micro-thermonuclear grenades, plasma cutters, power knuckles, and shock bayonets for pressing in assaults. Teleporters also allow them to redeploy extremely quickly, while chameleon systems allow them to cloak to evade fire. Dunkel Ageten also make heavy usage of drug based augmentations that allow them to completely ignore pain, regenerate injuries at incredible rates, and push their bodies to extremes. More esoteric enhancements based on magic can also be detected. Thrusters and energy shields also allow them to defend their present positions and quickly move to new ones or rush down enemies who stick to cover.
The SS distrusts the NSDAP, the Wehrmacht, the Corporations, the Sturmkorps, and the Nictus to a significant degree; resulting in the fragmentation of the Weltreich into fiefdoms ruled by the organs of the National Socialist state and de facto dividing the Weltreich into a number of competing state bodies with a significant degree of mutual distrust and hostility. As such the SS has increasingly taken to completely internalising its procurement process, research and development, and its training courses to be wholly independent of other organs of the Weltreich. While this prevents outsiders with access to the SS' files from deciphering what the other bodies of the Weltreich are planning; it also inhibits coordination with the rest of the Reich. As such, Dunkel Ageten will very rarely call in reinforcements from other subfactions of the Reichblock.
Dunkel Ageten are best combated by freezing them. Pain based debilitation will be largely ineffectual and their armour is well suited to resisting extreme temperatures or chemical agents and is strongly insulated against electricity. Your weapons will be able to overpower this resistance, but metaenergetic defenses will still allow them to punch above their weight. Dunkel Ageten are coordinated but also contemptuous of perceived racial inferiors and when in a drug haze, tend towards extreme overconfidence. The user is to be cautioned that should a Dunkel Ageten suffer a mortal injury but not have their body be sufficiently destroyed to force a mediport out, the Dunkel Ageten will activate their drug-haze and put self repair nanites into overdrive; engaging a berserker rage that will revive them and allow them to continue fighting. Freezing them inhibits this process.
Samus' Notes: Now I'm really wishing I had my ice beam right about now. The cryolyte should be able to do the job though. I should have guessed that the Weltreich would have better soldiers thanks to its resources.
Arne's Notes: Keeping myself between their fire and the more fragile parts of the team is going to be absolutely vital. They can't hope to consistently take the kind of firepower theyré going to dish out besides maybe the Kinetic weapons.
Designed for the needs of the Waffen-SS of the Weltreich in the Parisien Mechanic facility in Ordenstaat Burgund, the Robotsoldat takes to the fight with extreme agility and a wide array of built in weaponry with aggressively modular chassis. Reverse engineered from the work of the Sturmkorps, the Robotsoldat is considered the Soldier's comrade of the SS, and is designed to distract enemies from its flesh and blood soldiers, take the fight to where living soldiers might have trouble, and deal with enemies close up that other troopers might hesitate with engaging in short distances.
Robotsoldat are most vulnerable to electric weapons and attacks, due to their relatively poor insulation as a sacrifice to gain more speed and agility. However as they require high temperature tolerance to withstand the energy generation of their reactors, pyronic weapons are generally poorly suited to dealing with them. Also fitted with teleporters, thrusters, and a combination of physical and energy weapons including shields, blades, mauls and more; the Robotsoldat will seek to disrupt threats to the flesh and blood soldiers of the SS.
Samus' Notes: Okay, I think I should be able to command their attention to stop them from getting in close to my friends. I've got the beam weapon to put them down too.
Arne's Notes: I think I should focus on these while Samus deals with the living troops. I'm comfortable close up at least, and absolutely wouldn't mind tearing some Nazi tin apart.
Samus and Arne's group are ENGAGED by a large number of Nazis
The enemy force immediately engaging you is comprised of two companies of Soldats, two platoons of Nacht Elites, two platoons of Mekmen, a Platoon of SS Dunkel Ageten, a company of Stahlwalkure, a platoon of Robotsoldaten, two squadrons of Wachroboter, and two squadrons of Panzerhunde.
You have been reinforced with EUDAIMONICA and NIGHTCASTER who can provide summoned minions, control, support, and primarily ranged firepower. Eudaimonica is focused on MINIONS while Nightcaster is primarily focused on SUPPORT.
Eudaimonica has provided you with one Demon Prince (Winterpyre), a fire incarnate, three Demons, three fire elementals, nine demonlings, nine fire sparkborn, twenty-seven hellfire imps, and twenty-seven flaming imps. Nightcaster provides you with one Umbral Beast, three dark servants, nine shades, and twenty seven living shadows. For simplicity's sake, these will be consolidated into units.
You are FLANKING the enemy along with a platoon of Facility Guards and two squads of Guard robots and a squad of turrets and so have the advantage.
The location of the Ungehesen is UNKNOWN.
The Nazis are ASSAULTING the facility's core to retrieve something of great importance to their plans for North America.
The initial theory of the reason for the attack is only PARTIALLY TRUE. The nazis are more interested in the alien research than the parahuman research.
There are NO CIVILIANS AT RISK at this point in time.
There is still two alimbic and two chozo statues to be found.
The Nazis are deploying multiple NAMED CHARACTER grade enemies for the primary assault.
You are at least three tunnels removed from the primary tunnel where the fighting is at its heaviest.
The Autobots are making DECENT PROGRESS against the weight of resistance in their way.
There is an UNKNOWN THIRD PARTY chattering in the background.
The OMNIPRESENT VIRUS is sending data to an unknown receiver.
The other tunnels between you and the primary objective total to about TWICE the current number of engaged enemy forces. Rescuing them might make the entry into the facility easier.
There are FOOT ACCESS tunnels between the train tunnels that will make entering the heart of the facility quicker but will delay linkup with the autobots and may be awkward with all of Eudaimonica and Nightcaster's summons.
Eudaimonic and Nightcaster have BUFFED your entire team and can provide healing or resurrections; though resurrection spells take a long time to recharge. They can now be expected to take much more damage and will be much more resistant to many of their traditional weaknesses; and will also be able to deal more damage.
The enemies are DEBUFFED and will take more damage, be easier to hit, hit less frequently, and strike for less damaged.
One fourth of the enemy is currently CONFUSED due to Nightcaster's possession spell and is currently fighting itself and the rest of the Nazi formation.
Priorities (Per character)
Protect more vulnerable team members
Eliminate enemies
Enter heart of facility
Assist autobots
Assist facility guards
Gather additional Nazi clues
Find Virus clues
Find third party clues
Target priorities (Per character)
Wachroboter
Soldaten
Dunkel Ageten
Robotsoldaten
Stahwalkures
Panzerhunde
Mekmen
Nacht Elites
Tactics:
[]: Aggressive Melee: Get in close to an enemy and attack them in melee with only limited usage of range weapons, this will focus most of your damage output on the first two priority targets and largely prevent them from engaging anything else while having a good chance of eliminating them in one turn. However it does limit your area of effect damage a bit and your melee options still remain a bit more limited than they could be so your attacks will mostly be blunt force or blade work based.
[]: All out firepower: Focus primarily on getting in shots to damage and destroy enemies while keeping your distance; making use of your ranged weapons, particularly your powerful missiles and charged shots, dealing severe damage, having some risk of collateral damage, being quite the obvious target while blasting anyone who gets your attention and allows you to intervene in other combats, but prevents you from physically intercepting attempts to engage allies in melee if they can survive the hits due to your focus on staying away.
[]: Hit and run: Go from target to target, never letting them lock you into a combat but bouncing from melee to range as needed, attacking most of your priority targets at least somewhat. You will also be in a good position to move and intercept shots meant for allies; tanking them for them and keeping them safe or quickly moving squishies out of harm's way if they're in over their heads as they can quite easily be.
[]: Alt-Mode combat: Use your alt-mode to surprise the enemy with bombs/pulses, boost impacts, dashing in and out of areas only your alt-mode can fit into to cause trouble with pot shots or sneak attacks, lower damage output but very frustrating for enemies and has good AOE due to the heavy emphasis on explosives. This keeps the enemy from being sure who you're going to assist and allows you to frequently gain the benefit of surprise or move to suddenly block shots.
[]: Furious assault: Close in and make use of short range subweapons combined with melee tactics, short ranged beam and missile fire and other high damage techniques to simply destroy everything in your way; you will do the most damage this way and probably command the greatest amount of attention as you fully unleash the frightful breadth of your firepower. However this is likely to make your enemies scatter to get out of the way without having as much chance to lock them down as melee and lacks the command of the battlefield of firepower or the speed of alt-mode and hit and run.
[]: Balance: Engage in a balanced set of tactics not favouring any one particular weapon for a middle of the road approach to battle. No particular benefits or penalties.
Suboption:
[] Advance through train tunnels
[] Advance through foot tunnels
Free option:
[] Ask for relative stat readouts for new enemies.
Write ins are acceptable
Moratorium on votes until I have breakfast tomorrow in about 12 hours; please discuss your strategies and put down your thoughts.
[X]: Arne should split from the Autobots but rejoin Samus' team because he's human sized. Clues will be gathered en route.
Arne
The Alimbic Statue's amethyst, onyx, and topaz colouration glowed briefly after you had claimed your prize from it, turning its head in acknowledgement of a Knight of the Order and briefly making a salute before it resumed its prior position and became far more rigid, its tri-pronged crest extending outwards and the singular eye glowing a fierce yellow as you stood up and then looked back towards the autobots.
"+Samus, I'll catch up with you shortly. Just need to gather a few facts.+" You said over the comm with Samus.
"+Great! We'll scout out the area a bit, don't think there's going to be a whole lot to worry about by the time you get here.+" She said with a chipper tone back.
Now...
You were curious about how this thing got here, and quickly filched your way through the data of the room. Your scan visor casually going through security systems even the best hackers here wouldn't be able to brute force their way through.
This statue makes no sense. It's not made out of anything that makes sense. Spectroscopic analysis gives out gibberish and the energy readouts make my head hurt. It's like it refuses to be understood and I always feel it staring at me, judging me like I'm some pigeon about to make a mess all over it. From what we've been able to discern with the help of Grabspecher, this was given as a gift to the Celtic Tribal King Birucatis by the fair folk; tall and without necks. But then further probing showed that the statue is much older than the Celtic period and that Birucatis just found it buried in the dirt. It's been around for longer than any of the remains Grabspecher has been able to find and probe. Radiological dating has proven fruitless too so we're at a loss for its age.
There's something inside the prism that the statue holds though, some kind of artefact whose energies can't be read by most of our instruments. Parahuman readouts are only a little more helpful, but it might be some kind of technology? I have no idea, this predates any known origins of tinkertech and the sculpture style doesn't match that of any culture known to have had a presence in the area. The subject is also bizarre, some kind of insectoid figure without a neck and tripod legs. It doesn't match any known legends or mythological creatures, and I don't know how any of them could manage the floating but still attached head.
What is unmistakable though is that the statue is incredibly resilient. Even some of the weirder parahuman powers we've tried out don't so much as scratch the thing. The impossibility of getting samples has also made studying it far harder. But at this point I'm willing to concede on the idea that it might be alien. Nothing else seems to fit, but as to why its left here? I have no idea. Could be for any reason really. I'm not qualified to guess at the mindset of inhuman entities or why they leave behind their sculptures. Now I'm sure if you're reading this you're already writing up a complaint about my lack of formality, but honestly at this point I've been studying this thing for ten years and can't tell you the first thing about it. I'm pissed off and feel like a moron wasting my time. Standing around this thing just gives me the worst inferiority complex. Morale in the rest of the team is also low.
- Amanda Strauss
Samus' Notes: I can get their apprehension. It's not a statue meant to make you feel comfortable near it. It's trying to get your submission. Very much the sort of thing Zurvduat would have done.
Arne's Notes: They're being driven away because the statue doesn't recognise them as worthy of its presence. They're lucky its more serious defense systems haven't been activated though.
There's something inside the prism that the statue holds though, some kind of artefact whose energies can't be read by most of our instruments. Parahuman readouts are only a little more helpful, but it might be some kind of technology? I have no idea, this predates any known origins of tinkertech and the sculpture style doesn't match that of any culture known to have had a presence in the area. The subject is also bizarre, some kind of insectoid figure without a neck and tripod legs. It doesn't match any known legends or mythological creatures, and I don't know how any of them could manage the floating but still attached head.
What is unmistakable though is that the statue is incredibly resilient. Even some of the weirder parahuman powers we've tried out don't so much as scratch the thing. The impossibility of getting samples has also made studying it far harder. But at this point I'm willing to concede on the idea that it might be alien. Nothing else seems to fit, but as to why its left here? I have no idea. Could be for any reason really. I'm not qualified to guess at the mindset of inhuman entities or why they leave behind their sculptures. Now I'm sure if you're reading this you're already writing up a complaint about my lack of formality, but honestly at this point I've been studying this thing for ten years and can't tell you the first thing about it. I'm pissed off and feel like a moron wasting my time. Standing around this thing just gives me the worst inferiority complex. Morale in the rest of the team is also low.
- Amanda Strauss
Samus' Notes: I can get their apprehension. It's not a statue meant to make you feel comfortable near it. It's trying to get your submission. Very much the sort of thing Zurvduat would have done.
Arne's Notes: They're being driven away because the statue doesn't recognise them as worthy of its presence. They're lucky its more serious defense systems haven't been activated though.
You overheard Strongarm and Bumblebee's chatter behind you, well not heard so much as poked a bit into their conversation via your armour's signal intrusion systems.
Strongarm: I really don't like the way that Statue seems to always be looking at me out the corner of its eye.
Bumblebee: Feels like something a Decepticon would leave behind, doesn't it?
Strongarm: Yeah, super egotistical sort of stance to it.
Bumblebee: Arne seems to have gotten something out of it though.
Strongarm: Well, he's wearing armour from the same culture as whoever made this. Just...human shaped.
Strongarm: And you know that's weird. His armour doesn't really tell you that there's a human wearing that suit. Except maybe his arms and legs I guess.
Strongarm: I dunno, it feels a little dehumanising? Like the modifications Shockwave was forced to go through.
Bumblebee: Hey, I'm sure he has a reason for it. Besides, does it really matter how his armour looks as long as he can use it?
Strongarm: Says the bot who complains whenever his finish gets damaged.
Bumblebee: Hey, it takes work to manually polish my chassis.
Bumblebee: But to wheel back around to the statue...Arne's great! But the statue doesn't make me feel the same way.
Bumblebee: Like, I swear by Primus that whomever made that statue didn't exactly think highly of the planet's humans.
Strongarm: If there even were humans when they set this down. This thing's older than any of the other samples they collected to compare its age to.
Strongarm: Arne's got a strong heart, he'd have to to just jump out to save those civilians like that. But I'm not so sure on the Alimbics if this is what they leave behind on worlds they find.
Bumblebee: Hey, if you had to judge our species off of Megatron what would you think of Cybertron?
Strongarm: That we suck exhaust fumes and need to be stopped at all costs?
Bumblebee; Exactly! Besides, they left a present for him.
Strongarm: Fair I guess.
Bumblebee: Relax Strongarm, everything's going to work out fine.
Strongarm: And what do you think of this mission so far?
Bumblebee: Primus knows that cross-multiversal travel's weird enough already. I'm very concerned about this Earth though, everything's just falling apart and there's now all this heading its way.
Bumblebee; But Prime entrusted us to protect the Earths linked by these faultlines. And we're gonna do that, no matter what. Because we're Autobots, and Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings.
Strongarm: Yeah I'm not used to fighting so many humans. Didn't expect to have to fight so many non-cybertronians when I joined the revolutionary cause you know?
Strongarm: But Prime is right, these people need to be protected. And well, I'm glad to have a human who can help out with that. Two or more even.
Bumblebee: You know, when I was first posted here I thought Optimus was just typecasting me because I get along with humans so easily. But I'm starting to see why he thinks fronts like this are so important.
Strongarm: Why's that?
Bumblebee: Well, I see kids like Arne who've been put through our kind of stuff. War stuff, and then I just think about how many other young people hurt like does. How many people get victimised by more powerful invaders that we could be helping.
Strongarm: With how old Optimus is, I think he's come to feel the same way.
Interesting. It was strange to see them speak in so...familiar a manner, despite the enormous gulf in age between the two of them and yourself, they felt like people you could approach and call peers. Not quite like the tremendous gulf in lived experiences and circumstances that characterised your interaction with the progenitors. They might be older than mother Elmorni sure, but they carried themselves in a way that was so...young. And they were talking about you
You pinged a request to join the conversation to Bumblebee's surprise as he turned his head from strongarm towards you and widened his big blue optics and made a beeping warble of shock; his equivalent of a gasp you figured. Then he looked back at Strongarm busily quirking her...why does a robot have a brow? You have so many questions about Cybertronian physiology and there are so few answers to be found. You still weren't exactly sure why they had gender identities or corresponded so much to human anatomy despite being so removed in time and space from humans...did you even want to know the answers? Were some things just not meant for the human mind to understand.
Arne: Hey, mind if I intrude?
Bumblebee: Hey how did you...oh well, since you're here, sure!
Arne: What is...Optimus like? You speak of him like he's your father yet, you're not related to him are you?
Bumblebee: Primus no. He's just the Paramount Leader of the Autobots. Of well, our movement. On the military side of things anyway.
Strongarm: The Congress of the Supreme Council's more of our well; Civilian Leadership. But Optimus well, he's been guiding the war effort since its began.
Bumblebee: He's the wisest and nicest person you'll ever meet, even if he's kind of sad about all the stuff that's happened.
Arne: Two hundred and twenty five million years of war can't be easy on his conscience. But, is there any way I could meet him?
Bumblebee: He's a very busy bot but...I think I could arrange for you and Samus to talk to him when Jetfire gives him his personal report? I think he'd like to speak to you two honestly.
Arne: You could do that for us? I...
Strongarm: Prime's always got along with kids. I guess he feels bad for never getting a chance to have any of his own with the whole war and how hard his job was before the war.
Arne: What did he do before he became your leader? Some great theorist? A guerilla leader? Explorer?
Bumblebee: Nah, he was a Librarian.
Arne: Just...that? No prior combat experience or anything?
Bumblebee: No, I guess the Matrix of Leadership might count but, he wasn't a warlord before he became Prime. He was just a regular bot.
Arne: That sounds like some sort of artifact, presumably something to augment someone into a leadership role?
Strongarm: Smart! It's a talisman from our God, containing his offered wisdom and some of his power to anoint well...one of us he thinks is particularly noble into someone able to fight for justice.
Strongarm: Primes are chosen because of their virtue, you aren't just born one.
Arne: I...ah I think I get it.
Arne: He sounds great, I'd really like to meet him! I think Samus would too.
Arne: I just hope he doesn't mind all the lethal force I've been using.
Bumblebee: Hey, Arne. He'll understand. These kinds of people are the exact kind that drive Prime's gears to a halt.
Bumblebee: Honestly, I can't wait to find something to shut these creeps down for good.
Arne: Yeah.
Not exactly the strongest conclusion to that line of thought, but Bumblebee stopped to take a look at the Statue and then turned his attention back to you, seeming to be concerned as he did so. You definitely felt concern radiating off of him. Disquiet, unease. Like he was worried for you. You imagined this would be a little like having an older brother, but being an only child made an imagination all you had to work off of to figure out how that could work. It was strongarm who spoke firs though, and you could figure out why; Bumblebee wasn't sure if the topic was something he should poke into at all. Strongarm had no such hesitations.
Strongarm: So these Alimbics, why didn't they make your armour look human at all?
Arne: I...I don't know? I've been working on some modifications to my armour to make it look less hostile, a new helmet for one thing. But it's on my ship at the moment.
Arne: I think it's because I'm supposed to represent the Tetrarch Order, not myself. So I don't have any personal insignias on my armour or zero suit.
Strongarm: What is your personal insignia?
Arne: For my family it'd be a Shield Knot and sun cross. For myself, an eagle spreading lightning from its wings.
Strongarm: Those would look pretty good on you honestly. Why not try those looks out?
Arne: Well...
Strongarm: What are the Alimbics even like?
Arne: They're, complicated. They're people. What are Cybertronians like?
Bumblebee: Hey, he's got you there.
Strongarm: Okay, what are the ones that raised you like?
Arne: My primary mother, Elmorni is really nice to me. Secondary-Father Mortirk and Secondary-Mother Ygrak are also nice. Tertiary Mother Agrama and Tertiary-Father Ildimi also have been good to me.
Strongarm: What about Primary-Father? You seem to have a really big family.
Arne: All the Alimbics of Sentus Primaris are Mother and Father to me. Yes, so there is the crew of a battlecruiser and a few stasis awakened remnants to help raise me.
Strongarm: Oh interesting, but you still haven't talked about Primary-Father.
Bumblebee: So how many are we talking about?
Arne: Oh about nineteen point seven three million individuals. Slowly rising as they collect more stasis locked populations and reawaken them. There aren't a huge number of them though.
Strongarm: Arne, is there something about Primary-Father you don't want to talk about?
Arne: He's...someone I don't like to think about.
Bumblebee: Arne, what happened?
Arne: Zurvduat is...someone I...have very complicated feelings about. I'd really prefer to not have to think of him.
Strongarm: What did he do to you?
Arne: Please, not now. I don't want to think about it now.
Bumblebee: Hey, Strongarm; let it rest a bit alright? We've got a mission to do.
Strongarm: Right.
Bumblebee: Hey kid, you okay?
Arne: Yeah, I'll be fine.
Arne: It seems that the nazis have evacuated the premises though.
Strongarm: Must have cleared out some of what they were looking for already though, can't find a whole lot of leftovers from their experiments.
Bumblebee: Which is why we should hurry before these goons get away.
Arne: Yeah, I agree. But, we should split up.
Arne: Samus' group needs a second person to take hits from them more than either of you need me.
Bumblebee: Hey, Arne; you were great out there, don't talk yourself down like that. But well, I get it.
Arne: Thanks.
You ended the text conversation there, wanting to get some more usage out of your actual vocal cords. Partly because you found bumblebee's odd way of speaking to be rather intriguing and wanted to see more of it in action.
Well, no sense in continuing to tag along with them when they weren't going to be able to fit into the primary pathway and Samus probably could use another person to run interference for the sake of the less durable members of the team. They were able to handle themselves quite nicely as well, and with the amount of damage already done to the facility not bringing around the robots who would tear apart the innards of the building by their evasive manoeuvres seemed to be the best idea.
"You two should be able to find your own way through the facility. I should probably help Samus out. And well..." You started before Strongarm gave an understanding nod. She hadn't known you long but it wasn't too hard to guess that Samus and yourself were very close. After all, you wouldn't fall out of the sky together with just anyone. And of course, you were rather visibly reluctant to part ways from Samus when the time came to split up into separate groups.
"Hey, if you want to join up with your partner that's fine with me. Just uh, one question." She said, kneeling down towards your level and resting a hand on her knee.
"Yeah?" You asked, eyes occasionally glancing towards Bumblebee as he examined the statue, tracing his fingers along it and then backing away slightly and playing a sound clip that simply said "-Wack.-"
"I'm not the biggest expert on humans and I'm not at all rated for psych duty, but. You said you were Jewish right?" You nodded in response as she spoke with some concern, like a big sister more than a giant robot.
"You going to be alright? I know what...people like this represent to you." She asked.
"I'll be fine. There's plenty of distance between now and then anyway. Just...people I need to deal with, that's all." You said back as she gave a nod of understanding.
"-Break a leg kid!-" Bumblebee said, playing another clip and throwing you a thumbs up that you swiftly returned before dashing out the door, though not before picking up two more scan logs.
Analysis of the Statue indicates it was deposited here roughly one hundred thousand years ago relative to your own timestream at the height of the Milieu-Order cold war. The Alimbic statue is designed to represent the personification of Triumph, styled after the Alimbic Tetrarch who ordered the sealing of the Old Foe. The statue is conventional by Alimbic standards, with a highly typical array of defences as well as a gift for those who prove worthy of it through discovery and having the proper equipment to make use of its prize. It has been significantly displaced from its point of origin, and appears to have originally been part of a complete set.
Its presence further suggests that the network of Alimbic ruins on this planet is extremely extensive, likely representing continuous low-level settlement over the course of thousands of years. The eventual fate of these colonists remains unknown, but further exhumations might reveal the pertinent details. The statue shows recent signs of attempted tampering, likely by 5th Column agents attracted to its energy signature but incapable of earning its gift. This statue is paired with another nearby statue and once that statue is activated by the appropriate tools, its true function will be revealed.
Samus' Notes: The Alimbics are much more secretive about their presence here than the Chozo are! Their statues keep so quiet and try to avoid communing with each other unless necessary. It's so frustrating! But luckily it shouldn't be impossible to find them.
Arne's Notes: Hrm, if I had to guess there would be at least seven other statues of this set. Probably all built by the same person in the same day. It'd only be a small portion of the statues on the planet, but it'd be a start.
Its presence further suggests that the network of Alimbic ruins on this planet is extremely extensive, likely representing continuous low-level settlement over the course of thousands of years. The eventual fate of these colonists remains unknown, but further exhumations might reveal the pertinent details. The statue shows recent signs of attempted tampering, likely by 5th Column agents attracted to its energy signature but incapable of earning its gift. This statue is paired with another nearby statue and once that statue is activated by the appropriate tools, its true function will be revealed.
Samus' Notes: The Alimbics are much more secretive about their presence here than the Chozo are! Their statues keep so quiet and try to avoid communing with each other unless necessary. It's so frustrating! But luckily it shouldn't be impossible to find them.
Arne's Notes: Hrm, if I had to guess there would be at least seven other statues of this set. Probably all built by the same person in the same day. It'd only be a small portion of the statues on the planet, but it'd be a start.
The intuition of our Nictus allies that there would be more of the incomprehensible artefacts here proved to be a correct one. While Spaltefuhrer Requiem of course is not to be trusted entirely, the Deutschfuhrer and yourself will be pleased to learn that since the anomalous dimensional event these objects have since become active. Though this was not the initial target of our raid, the relics seem to have been waiting for some manner of signal before they would activate their hidden functions. This raises the importance of acquiring these objects before the other forces at play who would seek to take these worlds do so for themselves. Even if it will be yet some time before the keen minds of Aryan science can decipher the secrets of these miraculous alien devices, it would be wise to deny them to the others or to the locals.
We will also likely require higher grade combatants in the near future. I suspect that the race for influence and domination over our objectives will intensify very soon. And it would not do us well to fail to meet this higher grade of war with lesser examples of the Herrenvolk. We must step up the recruitment of those who show promise for our desires, to ensure that our soldiers are both of high quality and the proper quantities. The colonies should be readied for warfare, and our resources turned increasingly towards understanding those foes who have managed to temporarily exceed our understanding of nature through the cheat of having had an earlier start. The foes will bring out heavier weapons in response to greater prizes, and we must beat them to the punch before they can steal our triumph from us.
Though if you would permit me to break with formality my Reichsfuhrer, the calibre of most of the so-called "Neo-Nazis" of this Earth Bet is appalling. Even with some of our superior equipment and metaenergetic augmentations to strike with more ferocity than they should and resist more than they ought to; they still disappoint. Less than one in a thousand seems to fully meet our standards and I cannot abide by the shaved heads and degenerate tattoo work so many indulge in. They also lack proper racial conscious. Far too many believe in the impossibility of accepting Slavs as fellow "whites" or have allowed themselves to be poisoned with Asian entertainment commodities. The time must come for the wheat to be separated from the chaff at some point, and proper discipline should be enforced should we seek to wring the necessary potential out of these failures.
- With faith and honour, Gruppenfuhrer Erhard Rickenbacker
Samus' Notes: So that's why their weapons were able to cause any damage to my shielding at all despite their low firepower. I'll need to update the projectors for these meta-energies then. I'm concerned though, if they're preparing to send more then this planet is in serious danger; they can't fight off enemies of this magnitude.
Arne's Notes: Important revelations about their disproportionate ability to do damage aside, we'll need to find some way to prepare this incarnation of Earth fro what's likely going to be a full scale invasion. These people aren't going to limit themselves to quiet raids in the night for long.
We will also likely require higher grade combatants in the near future. I suspect that the race for influence and domination over our objectives will intensify very soon. And it would not do us well to fail to meet this higher grade of war with lesser examples of the Herrenvolk. We must step up the recruitment of those who show promise for our desires, to ensure that our soldiers are both of high quality and the proper quantities. The colonies should be readied for warfare, and our resources turned increasingly towards understanding those foes who have managed to temporarily exceed our understanding of nature through the cheat of having had an earlier start. The foes will bring out heavier weapons in response to greater prizes, and we must beat them to the punch before they can steal our triumph from us.
Though if you would permit me to break with formality my Reichsfuhrer, the calibre of most of the so-called "Neo-Nazis" of this Earth Bet is appalling. Even with some of our superior equipment and metaenergetic augmentations to strike with more ferocity than they should and resist more than they ought to; they still disappoint. Less than one in a thousand seems to fully meet our standards and I cannot abide by the shaved heads and degenerate tattoo work so many indulge in. They also lack proper racial conscious. Far too many believe in the impossibility of accepting Slavs as fellow "whites" or have allowed themselves to be poisoned with Asian entertainment commodities. The time must come for the wheat to be separated from the chaff at some point, and proper discipline should be enforced should we seek to wring the necessary potential out of these failures.
- With faith and honour, Gruppenfuhrer Erhard Rickenbacker
Samus' Notes: So that's why their weapons were able to cause any damage to my shielding at all despite their low firepower. I'll need to update the projectors for these meta-energies then. I'm concerned though, if they're preparing to send more then this planet is in serious danger; they can't fight off enemies of this magnitude.
Arne's Notes: Important revelations about their disproportionate ability to do damage aside, we'll need to find some way to prepare this incarnation of Earth fro what's likely going to be a full scale invasion. These people aren't going to limit themselves to quiet raids in the night for long.
The statue was about what you expected. But the report that was left behind on some materials abandoned in their haste by the rush to evacuate the facility when they realised they were losing made your blood both boil and your sense of worry flare up. There were wheels in motion in this plan, and your arrival to this planet had set off a cascade of events that would likely decide the fate of this and many other worlds. You almost felt sick at the thought of so much weight on your shoulders, and you came to a brief halt as you rested a hand on the wall outside of the door to the containment room. You breathed in, breathed out, closed your eyes and then concentrated.
You had dealt with crises of high magnitude before. You held the fates of numbers of people more easily written in scientific notation in the palm of your hands so many times before hand. You could do this. You had to do this. Too much was at stake if you couldn't.
You swallowed your anxiety as Bumblebee beeped in your direction and sent you a message, noting that you had stopped.
Bumblebee: Something wrong?
Arne: Just...a lot to think about, I'll send you the scan log.
Bumblebee: By the Primes...I'm going to need to report this to Jetfire as fast as I can. And that's really fast.
Arne: I don't doubt it.
Bumblebee: Meanwhile, I'm looking at the layout of the underground part of this university. Seems like there should be a way for Strongarm and I to link up with you.
Arne: Good to know.
Bumblebee: And Arne.
Arne: Yeah?
Bumblebee: You and Samus are doing just great. You've got this.
Arne: Thanks.
You took those words of encouragement like Nectar, praise rarely was sent in your direction by people that much older than you than Bumblebee was. And with those honeyed words, you dashed down the halls, moving through the eerily quiet facility with seemingly nothing else in the facility save for more hallways. The lights were a bit helter-skelter with the damage done to the facility, but you weren't really afraid of the dark.
Your hearing picked up something else though, the faint thrush of objects being moved around in the distance, little tumbles of disturbed paper or shifting chairs. Your armour picked up communication signals nearby that didn't belong to your group, but only some of them were speaking on frequencies the Nazi alliance had been known to use; or even speaking in German for that matter.
Out of curiosity you decided to take a look at the wifi in the campus, your armour tapping into it and then screening through. It warned you of that omnipresent malware and almost invisible even to your own scanners packets of data being sent somewhere. Someone was watching the datafeeds, and given that the Nazis did not act as if they had that much prior warning of your movements; you don't think it was them. At least, if it were; they weren't sharing that intel with everyone which to be entirely fair, was a common problem with darwinian management.
Perhaps even more curiously though, the signals weren't going on similar frequencies to either set of frequency chatter. So that left two mysteries. Who was making the second set of frequency chatter, and who was monitoring all the feeds? The maker of the virus was certainly clever enough to guise their tracks. Countless dummy signals, dead ends, duplicates. Whomever had made it had done a ton of work in making their monitoring so omnipresent that not even your suit could properly pinpoint where it was coming from. It was everywhere, and thus nowhere. Perfectly distributed across several timelines. Technologically inferior to what you could do, but done so skillfully you couldn't help but respect it.
The second set of signals wasn't speaking in German or English but in a language your suit hadn't encountered before. The speakers were probably some sort of humanoid based on the sounds they made, but altered somehow. You'd need to examine them more closely to get a proper analysis unfortunately, and none of them seemed to be in viewing range for now. But they disappeared soon enough and you were left to the sound of water being displaced by someone's boot dropping down into the water. You paused briefly and picked up more German communications.
Kommando #1: Target spotted.
Kommandant: Urge caution, the blue figure is extremely potent.
Kommando #2: Of course, we will observe for now.
Kommando #3: What can be discerned of this one and the orange one?
Kommandant: Agents within the PRT reported them falling from orbit following the detonation of the cloaked gate in the vicinity of Brockton Bay. They were reportedly unharmed and engaging Rikti forces with ease.
Kommandant: The PRT believes them to be children, human at that.
Kommando #1: Aryan?
Kommandant: According to the files we are able to access they are classified as white. Thank God for American record keeping.
Kommando #2: Possibility of recruitment?
Kommandant: Unknown. Stahlschadel had some intel concerning the blue one's racial characteristics but has suffered memory loss.
Kommando #1: Concerning.
Kommando #3: Do we engage?
Kommandant: Avoid conflict. We are at an intelligence disadvantage.
Kommando #2: We have some other busybodies poking around our business here.
Kommandant: Identification?
Kommando #2: Uncertain. Will monitor.
You turned your head briefly at the sound of more splashing and briefly caught a glimpse of one of the soldiers who seemed to realise that you had pinpointed his location and disappeared into another dimension as soon as you met his gaze. But not before you managed to get off a scan on him.
Experimental soldiers created by the Weltreich exposed to extradimensional energies after undergoing numerous augmentations. The extradimensional energy exposure process induces berserker like psychosis in the soldier in question but results in a wide variety of extreme physical augmentations that have lead to the Waffen-SS deeming the price worth it, particularly for the purposes of cultivating supersoldiers without relying on the other major organisations of the Reich. Ungehesen are named for their particular variety of powers which include the ability to teleport, become invisible, phase through objects (though you yourself cannot be phased through), and other ghostly abilities. They can also project this energy into directed blasts, augments to their melee attacks, or blades emerging from their wrists.
Tracking them is possible through X-ray spectrum or multidimensional visor technology (warning: User lacks capability), and while in a phased state, a non-elementally stacked beam or similar weapon remains capable of damaging them. Due to their berserker condition, they are also easily prone to being baited out of position by taunts or targets to work their aggression out against. This will also typically lead them to abandon ranged combat to try to close in melee as soon as possible and will also cause them to abandon other targets to focus on the last irritant to have gained their attention.
Samus' Notes: I would pity them if they hadn't so gleefully accepted becoming monsters themselves. But luckily dealing with them should be easy enough even without the visor technology to track them. Especially if they decide to get close.
Arne's Notes: Not a big fan of mentally scarring sophontic experimentation I'd have to say. They're going to be a problem when it comes to protecting other people though, I'll need to get out a warning about these types of troops in particular.
You squinted your eyes but carried on through, taking a look at the now heavily ransacked facility's innards. Executed personnel lay around in all directions, those deemed not worth capturing simply silenced to prevent them from speaking of the raiders' plans. A momentary glance told you most of these people were simply executed at point blank range with a swift bullet to the head and then left to rot. That they didn't even bother to dispose of most of the bodies was a sickening reminder of their power here. They could get away with murder and nobody would do a thing about it.
Well, you weren't nobody.
You looked briefly at a young intern's corpse, face in shock as the cause of death lay plainly apparent in their forehead. A young life full of passion for the future cut down at the flower of adulthood. Their nametag smeared with blood and defaced by a bayonet to cut out their name. Turkish you figured, probably an immigrant. Someone who moved with hope of being accepted only to find their grave. You held back some bile and took note of dozens of other bodies laid across the room in similar ways.
One a young French woman, another a Jew, a third a Namibian, a fourth a young man with a picture of his boyfriend still in his locket, with the faces stabbed inwards by a bayonet, a fifth a Korean emigre woman, the sixth someone burned in such a way that their wheelchair had melted into their charred flesh. This pattern repeated. The undesireable, the unwanted, the overly young and inexperienced, the politically disagreeable, the simply deemed not useful. It brought back unwanted memories of Cylosis and how the mysterious skull-masked soldiers simply lined up people to be shot, row after row; or dragged them from their homes and burst their skulls with their munitions; or simply set fire to their homes and locked them inside.
You shivered at the sensation. Your breath was shallow and panicked. You were just three years old, there was hot blood on your face from the ruptured heads of the slain, the armoured figure of your parents and their squadron clearing a path out of a world on fire.
You tried to clear your mind, focus your thoughts on what mattered, swearing vengeance for the slain. The shriek of aircraft like daggers in your ears, the hellish quintuple cackle of the Golden Hydra so close and inescapable, bell-like cackles following you like the shadow of death itself, it's so loud. Why is it so loud?
You would have to be their knight and their warrior. You would need to face the terror with pride and strength, clenching your fist and hitching your breath as you tried to walk forward. And the dead lay everywhere, unburied, unmourned, unwanted. All of them dying in helpless terror, all of them looking to you, why couldn't you help them? Zurvduat was right...you were weak, useless, you couldn't save anyone. Dead stares all accusing you of weakness.
No! You wouldn't let yourself be lost in the nightmares now. You were brave, you could do this. You had done this so many times before. You clenched your hand and repeated a mantra taught to you by Elmorni.
"Fear is welcome, terror is not. I may be afraid, but I shan't be terrorised. I can fight the dark, and the dawn will come again." Sweet words by your adoptive mother, her blue carapace so gentle and affectionate you could almost feel its warm embrace now, and found yourself longing for her guidance even now.
"I won't let any of you down." You said to the bodies, then upwards; wondering where your adoptive Alimbic mother was relative to you. "Especially not you, mom." You said, returning to the gathering of evidence.
Doors leading to experimental facilities were still opened, showing rooms stripped bare of their belongings and functions. Looted of what was surely a significant quantity of scientific and technological wealth meant to analyse the parahuman phenomenon and other esoterica of interest to the academia of west Germany and much of Earth as a whole. But the process was partial, not yet complete; your arrival had spurred them into action as some of the devices they were studying came to life, but the battle had alerted them to the fact that they had not enough time to finish their theft.
One thing that was only partially disassembled was a device that your scan visor informed you was being used to study ways to understand the source of powers. A crude dimensional drill device, ingenious with the methods used to create it despite the limited means, but this team was starting to go onto the right track of understanding where parahuman abilities were coming from. While some of the components were stripped out, you needed only a few seconds to figure out how to get it operational again. The most important component of course, being something you could supply with a shot of your quantum beam.
Something you'd have to come back to later though, your suit was telling you Samus was relatively close. You moved out of this laboratory wing and rushed over towards Samus' position, going through a few doors that you needed to hack through to open without damaging the building. Samus hadn't kept still herself, her group still moving cautiously through the much emptier facility, but you were dashing towards her faster than any of her companions could even see. They perceived you not as a blur; to them you just teleported into position next to Samus, a thunderclap following you and the sound of your movement lagging well behind yourself as you stood yourself up.
"Sorry for the delay, there were some...distressing detours I had to make." You said, standing up as Samus was busy eating something a peach gathered from the cafeteria she was now in and offering a fresh one to you while she chewed; her helmet off and cheeks chipmunked out with fruit.
"You want some?" She offered, and out of courtesy you dismissed your helm and obliged, smiling a bit.
Samus
Some minutes earlier.
Some minutes earlier.
This statue was deposited on the planet roughly one hundred thousand years ago by the Milieu as part of its cold war with the Tetrarch Order. Representing the Far-Strider; this statue offers the gift of instantaneous travel to the worthies who earn its truth and pass the trial of liberation to reach it. It is an entirely standard statue within the design paradigms of the "Ranging Maker" subculture of the Chozo, developed to furnish the colony established on this iteration of Earth. As is typical of ranging maker statues, this statue carries a secondary function that is currently barred from you until you find and activate its twin statue; the Parter of Foes.
Attempts by the 5th Column, Weltreich, and Gesellschaft to study the statue have been noted but have been unsuccessful. Earth Bet instruments have also been used extensively, representing the full range of capabilities of contemporary scientific analysis to similarly negligible effect. The Statue's spirit is currently pleased to have fulfilled its obligation to you, and waits for you to complete further trials on your journey here. Some communication with Alimbic and other progenitor relics have also been detected.
Samus' Notes: Hrm, interesting. I think I have a theory on what the Parter of Foes might be, but I'll need to actually see it in person to know for sure!
Arne's Notes: I like all these colourful if cryptic names for Chozo statuary. It feels so...artsy in a way Alimbic statues often aren't.
Attempts by the 5th Column, Weltreich, and Gesellschaft to study the statue have been noted but have been unsuccessful. Earth Bet instruments have also been used extensively, representing the full range of capabilities of contemporary scientific analysis to similarly negligible effect. The Statue's spirit is currently pleased to have fulfilled its obligation to you, and waits for you to complete further trials on your journey here. Some communication with Alimbic and other progenitor relics have also been detected.
Samus' Notes: Hrm, interesting. I think I have a theory on what the Parter of Foes might be, but I'll need to actually see it in person to know for sure!
Arne's Notes: I like all these colourful if cryptic names for Chozo statuary. It feels so...artsy in a way Alimbic statues often aren't.
Well, we can dismiss the theory that this was Egyptian because it's not made with any substance you could ever find in Egypt. It's also definitely not Roman, Germanic, or Celtic either, being far too old. My best guess would be that it's not of human origin. Definitely extraterrestrial in design but not necessarily origin. Perhaps built by ancient visitors on the planet? I know it sounds crazy, like that wild-haired guy on the History Channel, but all the attempts to make it fit into existing historical models contort themselves into even more impossible leaps of logic and this seems like the only answer that makes sense, especially as there is nothing to indicate it had parahuman origin.
Like the other statues we've been able to recover; none of our instruments are able to tell us anything about it. Even spectroscopes just return babbling nonsense. Something that seems to be common to all statues of this sort of make and time period. We're categorizing this as belonging to Ancient Alien culture A; for Avian. We can't really determine a whole lot about how their culture operated or worked or even much about what it was like. We can guess that they had a strong artistic streak with an emphasis on sculpture based on what they left behind, and that they were extremely technologically sophisticated. Beyond that? Maybe Eva's wild theory about them leaving this here expecting someone is as good as anyone else's ideas.
We can't really tell if this culture was hostile, but those who spend time near this statue report a feeling of wanting to go out on adventures. To wander around and see distant places and they show increased interest in ideas regarding other dimensions or space travel. If you will permit me to get speculative, I think this statue has some sort of mind-altering effect. Which means that it would be best to ensure that any similar such statues in the hands of private collections or curated museums are quickly moved into safekeeping and out of public hands lest one of the recently activated statues cause a serious incident.
- Ayaka Aratani
Samus' Notes: So much in here is wrong. I hope Aratani is still alive so I can explain to her what the Chozo were really like! The Ranging Maker culture was so fascinating in particular!
Arne's Notes: Why does everyone say that the Chozo are like birds? Is it the beak and feathers? Does the carapace mean nothing to them? Maybe I'm not thinking about this with the right perspective.
Like the other statues we've been able to recover; none of our instruments are able to tell us anything about it. Even spectroscopes just return babbling nonsense. Something that seems to be common to all statues of this sort of make and time period. We're categorizing this as belonging to Ancient Alien culture A; for Avian. We can't really determine a whole lot about how their culture operated or worked or even much about what it was like. We can guess that they had a strong artistic streak with an emphasis on sculpture based on what they left behind, and that they were extremely technologically sophisticated. Beyond that? Maybe Eva's wild theory about them leaving this here expecting someone is as good as anyone else's ideas.
We can't really tell if this culture was hostile, but those who spend time near this statue report a feeling of wanting to go out on adventures. To wander around and see distant places and they show increased interest in ideas regarding other dimensions or space travel. If you will permit me to get speculative, I think this statue has some sort of mind-altering effect. Which means that it would be best to ensure that any similar such statues in the hands of private collections or curated museums are quickly moved into safekeeping and out of public hands lest one of the recently activated statues cause a serious incident.
- Ayaka Aratani
Samus' Notes: So much in here is wrong. I hope Aratani is still alive so I can explain to her what the Chozo were really like! The Ranging Maker culture was so fascinating in particular!
Arne's Notes: Why does everyone say that the Chozo are like birds? Is it the beak and feathers? Does the carapace mean nothing to them? Maybe I'm not thinking about this with the right perspective.
The statue glowed briefly as it cradled you in its outstretched hands before it lowered you onto the ground and resumed sitting on its throne, the Far Ranging Statue's body encased in a graceful explorer's armoursuit. Whereas the overall headshape of Zebesian Chozo was closer to parrot like, the Far Rangers called that of a Crane to mind, with a long, thin beak and a lengthy, sauropod like neck. However the head behind the beak called to mind a Brachiosaurus more than any winged bird from earth. The visor was wider than your own suit's; a simple C shaped curve providing vision for the wearer, and whereas many Chozo were robed, this statue instead wore a cloak and tunic over its armour instead, setting you between its impressive legs as tall at their knees as you were at full height.
Its task done, the emerald, gold, and azure statue seemed to become inert once again, silently watching ahead. Its hands turned to grip the armrests of its seat, and its head straightened as if something just in front of it had caught its full attention. The glow it had made when it was gifting you had faded into duller background lights, and the instrumentation in the room stopped having a minor crisis of confidence brought about by the statue's ministrations.
You could immediately tell though, that what you had just done came off as magic to the people in front of you, and smiled reassuringly to them before giving them a thumbs up.
"So uh, what was that?" Assault asked, deciding to broach the topic after the requisite silence.
"it was a Chozo statue offering a gift to me! So I just...accepted it. It's no big deal." You said, confused as to why he seemed to be so...mystified by what had gone on. Was it really all that strange to him? You just accepted a modular upgrade offered to you in good faith. Hardly anything to get all up in arms or confused about.
"How do you know that it was offering a gift to you specifically?" Battery interjected, raising a hand now to let it be known she wanted to speak.
"I mean, I found it here. If they didn't want me to find it, they wouldn't have put it where I can find it." You said, this line of questioning was all quite bizarre to you. Did they not get that the Chozo were prescient? Or was the idea of that degree of precognition just out of their normal frame of reference.
"This thing looks like it was around for the Dinosaurs!" Viktor said, gesturing towards the statue and then back towards you, pulling off his helmet and wiping off his brow with a cloth as he seemed envious of your armour's superior climate control and body waste disposal systems. Something you couldn't fault him for, it must be awful to be stuck in a suit full of your own sweat.
"That's an exaggeration, it's only a hundred thousand years old." You said, beaming with pride and then being confused about why Irina was sniggering out loud before she doubled over and had herself a riotous belly laugh. There was that sensation of not being sure if you said something wrong once again. You racked your brain over what could have been the cause and came to the conclusion that...oh right that was still a very, very long time for humans.
"You are a very funny Irish girl you know?" Irina said with the biggest grin on her face as she set down her helmet and made a confident smirk before she looked to the statue and seemed about ready to poke it before she retracted her hand and frowned slightly.
"Irish?" Viktor asked.
"Samus Eabha Aran is a very celtic name Vitya. Makes me think of IRA songs." She said with a smirk.
"Up the IRA eh?" Assault said with a grin before being elbowed by Battery and making an "ow" sound after taking the hit to his side, rubbing it and looking towards her with an apologetic frown.
"What did I say about cheering on terrorists?" Battery glowered, which got another confused look out of you. From what you remembered of your homeland's history, the PIRA were celebrated heroes who fought one of the most evil pre-spacefaring societies to have ever existed to liberate their sundered homeland. You were about to bring this up but stopped yourself when you sensed that this would likely make Assault mad. An unpleasant snarl in the future.
"So ah...who made this? Bird people?" Irina asked.
"I...wouldn't call them that but it is non-human yes! Chozo, the species that raised me after I...was on my own when I was little." You hoped they'd be able to get that without you having to elaborate.
"Oooh so you were basically raised by alien monks da?" She said, taking a swig of her flask of electrolyte water to replenish her fluid supply and cleaning her forehead of accumulated sweat. My goodness how these people were in need of some upteching if they were going to handle some space pirates.
"Uh-huh. They can see the future! So they must have known that I'd be coming here at some point. Maybe it was even left by my mamas and papas?"
"Communal parents huh? Very interesting!" Irina said with a nod.
"Why are you so far from home exactly?" Battery asked pointedly.
"Because I left for a boarding school to get socialization training." You said proudly.
"...Why aren't you in school right now?" She asked, seemingly suspicious of the motivations of your caretakers in a way that made you frown beneath your helmet. How could anyone think of the Chozo as anything other than the epitome of benevolence? To raise someone they barely knew from the ashes of K-2L, to love and care for you so strongly and to make you one of their own without condition or expectation of repayment and to indulge your wish to become an adventuring hero. How could that be anything but the purest love?
"Because I was following some evidence trails with Arne that lead us to that wormhole station. We had to clear out some Space Pirates and some...other combatants that I don't know much about but Arne feels the same way about them that I do about the Pirates." You said as if this explained everything, mystified as to why you needed to explain so many basic things. It felt like having to educate a baby honestly.
"...And they just...let you do this?" Battery was clearly completely baffled.
"Well, they know that when I go out on that sort of adventure its something important!" You said happily.
"...I am going to have a headache." Battery said, grabbing at her head and rubbing it while Irina patted her on the back.
"Don't worry, I don't get half of it either!" Irina said with a beaming smile to your laughter.
A little bit later
You hadn't seen much of interest as you made your way deeper into the facility, it seemed that a lot of the fight had just gone out of the Nazis altogether. You, of course, picked up on a number of important scan logs here and there. But it seemed that the bulk of the fighting was over and all there was left to do was gather clues and figure out a few puzzles for the benefit of your team mates who couldn't traverse things as quickly or as well as yourself; repowering some bridges and opening some doors that lead to paths they could take but you didn't need to move from point A to point B.
A few interesting bits of information presented themselves to your scan visor as you dug through yet another terminal, taking a look at the plans of the raiders of this facility.
While the sudden arrival of the unexpected interference has proven to be exceedingly costly in lives and materiel for our operation, we have managed to procure much of what our allies have asked us to. The research on parahumans was largely standard issue, little that we do not already know and most of it served to confirm what we have told many of our allies. More intriguing is the research done on aliens and other dimensions. The artifacts of the highest technological grade have awakened spectacularly and now shimmer with energies we can scarcely comprehend. A power that taunts us with our lack of understanding of it and demands our rightful harvest. But one day we shall master it, as is the destiny of our nation.
It's all quite fascinating, but sadly so much of the staff had nothing of value to learn from and so had to be liquidated for operational security reasons. The staff who had valuable information, as per orders; were taken away for interrogation and await your careful ministrations. While I don't doubt that many will struggle to give any information of note, that we could not figure out ourselves, their greater experience with working with these curiosos should prove useful. Particularly for our operations in the United States and Canada where what we gain here will doubtlessly allow us to outmuscle the competition and bring the PRT to heel for good once we show to the Yankees just how deep our roots go into their protectors.
Some of these finds could make even the Dragon quail before us and perhaps even humble the Endbringers themselves; and will doubtlessly allow us to make ready for a higher form of war. Which will certainly be necessary, if our nation is to survive what the 5th Column tells is will be an Oncoming Storm of terrible proportions and magnitude unlike anything the Earth has ever seen. Humanity will survive what is to come, under a glorious Weltreich devoid of the degenerate and the impure. Our Volk will triumph, and soon our Empire-88 assets will be in place to make their play. Our glorious allies will lead us to the inevitable triumph of the Aryan race over all of its foes. And when the world sees only our way shall save them from the fire that will come, they will praise us!
Glory to the Kriegsfuhrer! Glory to the Spaltefuhrer! Glory to the Weltfuhrer! Heil Dreher! Heil Requiem! Heil Ziegler!!
- Johann Schmidt
Samus' Notes: I should get this to the Americans as soon as possible but I don't know who might already be compromised. Might be best to deliver it in person once I'm sure that I can get it to someone I can trust.
Arne's Notes: If these people think that their Kriegsfuhrer is at all on the same level as Weltfuhrer Ziegler, then they're going to be in for a very unpleasant surprise when they outlive their usefulness.
It's all quite fascinating, but sadly so much of the staff had nothing of value to learn from and so had to be liquidated for operational security reasons. The staff who had valuable information, as per orders; were taken away for interrogation and await your careful ministrations. While I don't doubt that many will struggle to give any information of note, that we could not figure out ourselves, their greater experience with working with these curiosos should prove useful. Particularly for our operations in the United States and Canada where what we gain here will doubtlessly allow us to outmuscle the competition and bring the PRT to heel for good once we show to the Yankees just how deep our roots go into their protectors.
Some of these finds could make even the Dragon quail before us and perhaps even humble the Endbringers themselves; and will doubtlessly allow us to make ready for a higher form of war. Which will certainly be necessary, if our nation is to survive what the 5th Column tells is will be an Oncoming Storm of terrible proportions and magnitude unlike anything the Earth has ever seen. Humanity will survive what is to come, under a glorious Weltreich devoid of the degenerate and the impure. Our Volk will triumph, and soon our Empire-88 assets will be in place to make their play. Our glorious allies will lead us to the inevitable triumph of the Aryan race over all of its foes. And when the world sees only our way shall save them from the fire that will come, they will praise us!
Glory to the Kriegsfuhrer! Glory to the Spaltefuhrer! Glory to the Weltfuhrer! Heil Dreher! Heil Requiem! Heil Ziegler!!
- Johann Schmidt
Samus' Notes: I should get this to the Americans as soon as possible but I don't know who might already be compromised. Might be best to deliver it in person once I'm sure that I can get it to someone I can trust.
Arne's Notes: If these people think that their Kriegsfuhrer is at all on the same level as Weltfuhrer Ziegler, then they're going to be in for a very unpleasant surprise when they outlive their usefulness.
It seems that they've already gotten at least part of the way through with their objectives. You worried you might be too late, but you cracked into their communications just to be sure that there was still a chance. Their signal discipline was poor, especially given that you knew you weren't the only one listening in and you bet they were aware of at least some of the other signals. But their laxity was to your benefit.
Kommando #1: We are approaching the primary target, advise.
Kommandant: Await for the arrival of Gheist team. That target is extremely valuable to the Gruppenfuhrer's desires.
Kommando #2: All this security for the layabouts from this dimension?
Kommando #3: The last of the security here is quite stubborn. Foolish, but stubborn.
Kommando #1: I believe they have what they call "Tinkertech" and a number of Parahumans.
Kommando #4: Certainly brave to still be holding out now. What a waste of good Aryan life.
Kommando #2: Bah, I counted several non-Deutsch in their ranks, plenty of women too. They pollute the Fatherland.
Kommandant: Focus, the last of the obstacles will be a high grade hero quartet who are veterans of multiple endbringer encounters.
Kommando #5: Primal Earth had plenty of famous heroes to kill. We shall be fine.
Kommandant: Contempt for your enemy is healthy, but do not allow it to lead you to the grave.
Kommando #5: What they are guarding must be of tremendous importance if they are willing to commit so much to it.
Kommando #1: Must be why they chose to hide it beneath a university. Hoping their "unwritten rules" will offer them protection from the more squeamish.
Kommando #2: What dishonour they bring to Deutschland with their degeneracy. Death is a mercy to most of these filth, better to give them an easy death than to let them wallow in this filth.
Kommandant: The cleansing will come soon enough. Keep pressing, the armoured duo is approaching your position according to observers.
Kommando #5: Scheisse, is there anything that can be done to slow them down?
Kommando #2: Send more Gesellschaft scum their way, maybe bother the 5th Column to spare some men too.
Kommando #1: Do we have an extraction plan should they catch up to us? And what of the large robots?
Kommandant: Mediporters should still work to pull you out of the situation if your task becomes too risky, Grauer team. You are valuable to our Reich, fine men of the Waffen-SS. You will not be allowed to die uselessly.
Kommando #4: Comforting.
Kommandant: Have you forgotten the teachings of Himmler so quickly? Comedy is a useless distraction for our Spartanist way. Focus on your mission absolutely, and you will have victory. Banter is for lesser men.
Kommando #4: How close are they?
Kommandant: Based on the security footage, the human sized members of their team are far away. However the robots are quite close. Expect them to run interference shortly.
Kommando #1: Deploy teams to intercept them immediately; we must complete the objective.
Kommando #2: We already have the second objective at least, and many of the secondary and tertiary objectives.
Kommando #1: These objectives are of high importance. That vault must be cracked.
Based on the map of the facility you had, it would primarily be up to Bumblebee and Strongarm to run interference against these Kommandos, which left you feeling frustrated but you couldn't exactly leave behind all of your allies to rush off and join them. They could handle themselves anyway, and so you just sighed and kept on advancing; letting your friends follow suit.
Now deeper into the facility, you stopped the group at one of the cafeterias meant for the underground staff right before Irina could complain about being hungry. Once of your precognitive hunches and perhaps a more frivolous use of your prescience than usual; but definitely useful all the same.
You yourself were craving something sweet, and decided to help yourself to some of the fruits and sorbets present. You couldn't touch the meat out of knowledge of where that flesh came from and the agony that the animals lived in before they perished; and for that matter the dairy was also out of the question for similar reasons. Some poor cow's baby was stolen from it to steal its milk from it and you just couldn't be part of that. It would make you sad and give you flashes of the memories of the animal as you consumed its produce.
"So how did they fit this whole place beneath a famous university?" Assault asked as he helped himself to some of the ice cream.
"Probably parahuman assisted construction if I had to guess." Viktor said, taking a moment to do some deeper repairs to his armour while you restrained yourself from pointing out all the ways he could do it more efficiently or improve that woefully obsolete armour he wore. It wasn't something he designed so you weren't sure how much of your advice he would actually be able to understand. And it might be rude to lay into him with so much criticism, however honest it was. Still, it was definitely a struggle and your eyes kept on turning towards Viktor's suit multiple times until Irina poked you.
"Do you want to kiss him or something?" She asked with a smirk.
"Well...either of you would be fine. Both at once would be great!" You figured that this was an attempt to fluster you, but honestly why would people be ashamed of admitting their attractions? It made no sense. Hiding it only seemed to make more trouble than it was worth when everything would be so much simpler if people were just honest.
Viktor just about choked on his tea in response and Irina turned an interesting shade of red before looking away from you and harrumphing loudly. You had sensed that the two thought you were pretty since the first time you met them, and you weren't quite sure why they found you showing interest in them caught them off guard. People without psionic or mystic senses could be so weird sometimes.
Assault let out a laugh while Battery seemed like she was on the verge of having a stroke. Something she really should get checked, allowing herself to be stressed so often couldn't at all be good for her. Especially when she was eating food like that burger which had been processed and preserved with such primitive techniques you wondered how anyone could eat it without vomiting immediately.
Arne appeared like a bolt of lightning, dropping down from his sprint and jump and landing hard on the ground, standing himself up to his rather considerable full height to the surprise of the others, with Viktor almost falling out of his seat in sheer surprise as Arne's sound caught up to him with a thunderclap that rang across the room.
Present
The two of you shared what you'd learned with each other as everyone quickly finished up what they had to eat to waste as little time as possible. Arne's revelations made you ponder in ever greater concern. This was clearly the first stage of some greater plan, yet there was the question of who else was watching events unfold. You had both found references to the Reichblock believing that a greater conflict was soon on the horizon, and Arne's discovery that the foe was trying to monitor you with special forces heightened your sense of healthy paranoia.
There was a sense of unease in Arne's heart that you decided to prod him a bit about, no sense in going into this with doubt in the mind of your closest compatriot here when you'd be facing increasingly heightened danger. You were sure that the opposition you'd be facing would take the fight with far more gravity than your prior opponents and would be better prepared for your abilities.
"Arne, is something wrong?" You said quietly, too quietly for the others to hear.
"I...I'm fi-" He stopped himself when you placed your hand on his shoulder and straightened him to face you, looking into each other's eyes; red into blue. You pouted a bit and let him know that you weren't going to accept the "everything is fine" lie.
"...I saw so many corpses just left on the wayside like trash and had some flashbacks. You know how it is." He said, sighing and closing his eyes as if he was too ashamed to meet your gaze. Fear of his weakness and seeming like he was unable to keep up with you always ate at him. You understood the poison of self-doubt and the coils of past trauma very well, and you laid a finger on his chin to turn his head up towards you; letting him look down at you. He was starting to get visibly taller than you; but he never stopped being soft beneath his shell.
"Arne, we're going to stop them from doing stuff like that for good. No more early graves will have to be dug when we're done here." You said reassuringly. To yourself as much as to Arne while he gave an understanding nod, your infectious confidence helping to restore his own as he breathed in and out.
"Are you going to take your own advice into heart?" He asked, a wry smile on his face.
"Obviously...when have I ever been a hypocrite?" You said before he started to make a catlike smirk that made you roll your eyes, already anticipating his playful needling coming before Irinia butted in.
"Oy! You two can make out and do the horizontal ballet when we are done! We have fashishty to break! Davai! Davai!" She said, pushing the two of you out the door to Battery's sniggering while Viktor snapped his helmet onto his head and Assault made a quick check.
"Everyone ready?" He asked.
"DA! MOVE FASTER HAMBURGER EATER!" Irina shouted.
"...Ow...personal much?" Assault said, miming being shot in the heart.
You all moved in a hurry, your visor catching the sight of a recently dislodged panel that had been hastily moved back into place; probably in an attempt to guise the fact that some of the enemy had just moved through here recently. You breathed in and then punched a hand outwards, smashing in the tinkertech augmented sliding like cardboard even though it was meant to resist a direct impact by thermobaric bunkerbuster munitions. Hardly a challenge for you, but then; when was the real challenge in ever just entering?
The sounds of a firefight greeted you as soon as you passed through a soundproofed door, the remaining guards of the facility being swept up by a team of Reichblock troops. Nacht Elites, Stahl walkures, Soldats, Panzerhund, Wachrobots, Mekmen, and a new force of SS soldiers from the weltreich; teleporting into flanking positions to eliminate the facility guards who were trying to pin down the advancing nazis with tinkertech weapons.
Fast moving robots bounced from target to target, harassing or simply crushing those in their way, and your slicing into the security camera feeds in the facility showed that this was only part of what was increasingly obviously the real offensive thrust of the Nazis. They were pouring into the lower levels of the facility, coordinated combat groups engaging and eliminating the outnumbered and outgunned guards of this place.
The primary fight was in a central access tunnel that was meant to move supplies underground well beneath the city of Munich's conventional underground infrastructure, allowing for shipments to be shipped without anyone on the surface being the wiser. But instead of a shipment, the guards of this facility were met with an assault train full of nazis; an attack locomotive whose cars cut through the guards to the side and disgorged dozens of squads at a time; clearly having some sort of teleporter to shift large numbers of soldiers around.
The train had reached its destination, unleashing a frenzy of nazis who were slicing their way through the most heavily guarded part of the facility; including an A team of four high-grade parahumans who were the ace in the hole of the facility's defences; those who could be expected to hold the line against endbringers until reinforcements came. Along with an assorted bunch of also-rans and powerless...fodder would be a generous word for them.
The four and their entrouge were seeming to do okay until a masked figure in a trench coat and a woman in some manner of medieval looking armour that formed over her SS uniform arrived followed by six others. The Trench coated figure extended blades from his wrist and moved at speeds that impressed even you, reducing dozens of guard troops to red mists not even through force but by simply slicing them so often that no whole chunks of them were left before any part of their body could hit the ground.
Weapons fire aimed his way was futile as he easily deflected the incoming rounds, carefully aiming the rounds back to their senders, killing dozens more soldiers while his help got to work; including another speedster who resorted to more...electrically blunt methods of dealing with his foes. The woman was spitting spellfire from one hand while her sword in the other hand carved through foes by the dozens, mystic cutting arcs expanding outwards and reducing guards and guard robots to shreds with each swing while sinister magics danced around; burning many from the inside out or other, crueller fates.
The four retreated deeper into the facility; while the autobots were driving down the tunnel as fast as they could; stopping as they were pinned down by large amounts of fire to the point of having to call in added reinforcements. While the superhuman nazis had already advanced in, the two autobots were not taking chances with the assault train nearby while it chugged forward once more. But a ping from bumblebee at least gave you some comfort.
Bumblebee: Wow okay this is way more heat than I expected from these creeps.
Bumblebee: We'll be calling in some reinforcements from autobot HQ. Doesn't look like we'll be able to meet back up for a bit.
Samus: Who are you calling in?
Bumblebee: Windblade and Bulkhead, gonna need the Cityspeaking support and Bulkhead's...Bulk. Gonna bring in some of our minicons too; human sized support and power links should come in handy.
Bumblebee: For you though; Eudaimonica and Nightcaster should help out a lot.
Bumblebee: Good luck Samus, I believe in you
Samus: I believe in you too. Now come on, show those Nazis where they belong!
Bumblebee: My pleasure!
The large form of Bulkhead and the agile body of Windblade emerged from a groundbridge along with four human-sized cybertronians, weapons blazing out straight away to try and break the blockade of nazis and their hastily set up defensive positions. The tunnel was massive to say the least; more than a hundred meters wide, opening into an even larger docking area in what was rapidly becoming apparent as a massive scale research facility hidden in plain sight. Likely some lynchpin of west germany's R&D, but was now target number one for the nazi assault.
On your end though, Eudaimonica and Nightcaster came tumbling out of another groundbridge; the boy falling on his face and giving a thumbs up and the girl riding on the shoulders of winterpyre as he came roaring into the fray; Eudaimonica's summoned demons and Nightcaster's spirits of darkness coming rushing out along side them. On one hand this meant you had a lot more fodder to throw into the fray, on the other hand; the Nazis immediately turned their attention towards you and shouted "OPEN FIRE!" almost instantly.
You jumped out ahead while Eudaimonica cast out magic shields with her fire magic and laid out her usual array of buffs as she filled the battlefield with fiery control spells; dividing squads from each other or entrapping foes in cages of fire; Nightcaster pushing himself up and throwing out some of his hexes to thwart the foe's ability to fight properly. Rounds that should have hit going astray, coils of darkness grabbing at foes or possessing spirits hijacking the bodies of those who seemed suitable to cause them to fight amongst each other or petrifying visions of fear trapping them in their worst nightmares.
"Hey, sorry we were late! The autobot base is suuuuuper fun!" Eudaimonica said with a cheer as a black coloured upgraded Wachroboter turned to your direction and let out a burst of deadly particle cannon light; taking a chunk out of the wall when it missed that seemed to go for dozens of meters through reinforced concrete.
"Jesus..." Assault said as he ducked behind some cover; demons and spirits of darkness throwing out magic projectiles while being peppered by German made weapons fire in return.
"I love this job. No such thing as an ordinary day." Irina said with two thumbs up while you shot down a trio of Robotsoldats jumping towards your group at mach speed with power blades extended, Serp rapid firing grenades to reduce some of the Soldats to pulp and swearing profusely under his breath; describing in exhausting detail the sexual anatomy of his opponents' mothers and how he'd prefer them to engage in intercourse with them.
With the magic augmentations flooded into her though, Battery chanced a charge; and to her surprise found that she could go above the limit she normally expected of herself. Quite considerably beyond. Whereas she could normally store sixty seconds of power after a twelve second charge session; she drew on the magic enhancing her physiology and...twelve seconds would give her about twelve minutes now. She let out a laugh and jumped into the fray, smashing a large Mekmen with her fist into dozens of pieces while even direct hits from laser cutters just skimmed off of her.
"Wow I haven't seen this many Nazis since the last time I read a youtube comment section!" Nightcaster said as he tossed a torso sized sphere of darkness down range that exploded in the midst of a bunch of soldaten, the dark energy seeming to suck the warmth out of them until they froze into blackened and purpled statues wreathed in inky tendrils.
"....I am never moving to Paragon City if this is all just normal to you." Assault said.
"Eh it's not that bad...sometimes." Eudaimonica shrugged.
"Good day to you once more mortal. A pity we have to meet in such circumstances." Winterpyre said to Assault.
Now...what could you two do?
(Pretend that they have the double lightning bolt of the SS rather than the Swastika)
Waffen-SS Dunkel Ageten make use of advanced power armour, superhuman augmentations, high end weaponry, and metaenergetic enhancements to turn them into powerful basic special operations soldiers for the Schutzstaffel of the Weltreich. Making use of ETC assisted mass driver weapons, missile launchers, charged particle rifles, and directed energy guns; the Dunkel Ageten fight with lethal firepower augmented by micro-thermonuclear grenades, plasma cutters, power knuckles, and shock bayonets for pressing in assaults. Teleporters also allow them to redeploy extremely quickly, while chameleon systems allow them to cloak to evade fire. Dunkel Ageten also make heavy usage of drug based augmentations that allow them to completely ignore pain, regenerate injuries at incredible rates, and push their bodies to extremes. More esoteric enhancements based on magic can also be detected. Thrusters and energy shields also allow them to defend their present positions and quickly move to new ones or rush down enemies who stick to cover.
The SS distrusts the NSDAP, the Wehrmacht, the Corporations, the Sturmkorps, and the Nictus to a significant degree; resulting in the fragmentation of the Weltreich into fiefdoms ruled by the organs of the National Socialist state and de facto dividing the Weltreich into a number of competing state bodies with a significant degree of mutual distrust and hostility. As such the SS has increasingly taken to completely internalising its procurement process, research and development, and its training courses to be wholly independent of other organs of the Weltreich. While this prevents outsiders with access to the SS' files from deciphering what the other bodies of the Weltreich are planning; it also inhibits coordination with the rest of the Reich. As such, Dunkel Ageten will very rarely call in reinforcements from other subfactions of the Reichblock.
Dunkel Ageten are best combated by freezing them. Pain based debilitation will be largely ineffectual and their armour is well suited to resisting extreme temperatures or chemical agents and is strongly insulated against electricity. Your weapons will be able to overpower this resistance, but metaenergetic defenses will still allow them to punch above their weight. Dunkel Ageten are coordinated but also contemptuous of perceived racial inferiors and when in a drug haze, tend towards extreme overconfidence. The user is to be cautioned that should a Dunkel Ageten suffer a mortal injury but not have their body be sufficiently destroyed to force a mediport out, the Dunkel Ageten will activate their drug-haze and put self repair nanites into overdrive; engaging a berserker rage that will revive them and allow them to continue fighting. Freezing them inhibits this process.
Samus' Notes: Now I'm really wishing I had my ice beam right about now. The cryolyte should be able to do the job though. I should have guessed that the Weltreich would have better soldiers thanks to its resources.
Arne's Notes: Keeping myself between their fire and the more fragile parts of the team is going to be absolutely vital. They can't hope to consistently take the kind of firepower theyré going to dish out besides maybe the Kinetic weapons.
Designed for the needs of the Waffen-SS of the Weltreich in the Parisien Mechanic facility in Ordenstaat Burgund, the Robotsoldat takes to the fight with extreme agility and a wide array of built in weaponry with aggressively modular chassis. Reverse engineered from the work of the Sturmkorps, the Robotsoldat is considered the Soldier's comrade of the SS, and is designed to distract enemies from its flesh and blood soldiers, take the fight to where living soldiers might have trouble, and deal with enemies close up that other troopers might hesitate with engaging in short distances.
Robotsoldat are most vulnerable to electric weapons and attacks, due to their relatively poor insulation as a sacrifice to gain more speed and agility. However as they require high temperature tolerance to withstand the energy generation of their reactors, pyronic weapons are generally poorly suited to dealing with them. Also fitted with teleporters, thrusters, and a combination of physical and energy weapons including shields, blades, mauls and more; the Robotsoldat will seek to disrupt threats to the flesh and blood soldiers of the SS.
Samus' Notes: Okay, I think I should be able to command their attention to stop them from getting in close to my friends. I've got the beam weapon to put them down too.
Arne's Notes: I think I should focus on these while Samus deals with the living troops. I'm comfortable close up at least, and absolutely wouldn't mind tearing some Nazi tin apart.
SITUATION
Samus and Arne's group are ENGAGED by a large number of Nazis
The enemy force immediately engaging you is comprised of two companies of Soldats, two platoons of Nacht Elites, two platoons of Mekmen, a Platoon of SS Dunkel Ageten, a company of Stahlwalkure, a platoon of Robotsoldaten, two squadrons of Wachroboter, and two squadrons of Panzerhunde.
You have been reinforced with EUDAIMONICA and NIGHTCASTER who can provide summoned minions, control, support, and primarily ranged firepower. Eudaimonica is focused on MINIONS while Nightcaster is primarily focused on SUPPORT.
Eudaimonica has provided you with one Demon Prince (Winterpyre), a fire incarnate, three Demons, three fire elementals, nine demonlings, nine fire sparkborn, twenty-seven hellfire imps, and twenty-seven flaming imps. Nightcaster provides you with one Umbral Beast, three dark servants, nine shades, and twenty seven living shadows. For simplicity's sake, these will be consolidated into units.
You are FLANKING the enemy along with a platoon of Facility Guards and two squads of Guard robots and a squad of turrets and so have the advantage.
The location of the Ungehesen is UNKNOWN.
The Nazis are ASSAULTING the facility's core to retrieve something of great importance to their plans for North America.
The initial theory of the reason for the attack is only PARTIALLY TRUE. The nazis are more interested in the alien research than the parahuman research.
There are NO CIVILIANS AT RISK at this point in time.
There is still two alimbic and two chozo statues to be found.
The Nazis are deploying multiple NAMED CHARACTER grade enemies for the primary assault.
You are at least three tunnels removed from the primary tunnel where the fighting is at its heaviest.
The Autobots are making DECENT PROGRESS against the weight of resistance in their way.
There is an UNKNOWN THIRD PARTY chattering in the background.
The OMNIPRESENT VIRUS is sending data to an unknown receiver.
The other tunnels between you and the primary objective total to about TWICE the current number of engaged enemy forces. Rescuing them might make the entry into the facility easier.
There are FOOT ACCESS tunnels between the train tunnels that will make entering the heart of the facility quicker but will delay linkup with the autobots and may be awkward with all of Eudaimonica and Nightcaster's summons.
Eudaimonic and Nightcaster have BUFFED your entire team and can provide healing or resurrections; though resurrection spells take a long time to recharge. They can now be expected to take much more damage and will be much more resistant to many of their traditional weaknesses; and will also be able to deal more damage.
The enemies are DEBUFFED and will take more damage, be easier to hit, hit less frequently, and strike for less damaged.
One fourth of the enemy is currently CONFUSED due to Nightcaster's possession spell and is currently fighting itself and the rest of the Nazi formation.
Plans:
Priorities (Per character)
Protect more vulnerable team members
Eliminate enemies
Enter heart of facility
Assist autobots
Assist facility guards
Gather additional Nazi clues
Find Virus clues
Find third party clues
Target priorities (Per character)
Wachroboter
Soldaten
Dunkel Ageten
Robotsoldaten
Stahwalkures
Panzerhunde
Mekmen
Nacht Elites
Tactics:
[]: Aggressive Melee: Get in close to an enemy and attack them in melee with only limited usage of range weapons, this will focus most of your damage output on the first two priority targets and largely prevent them from engaging anything else while having a good chance of eliminating them in one turn. However it does limit your area of effect damage a bit and your melee options still remain a bit more limited than they could be so your attacks will mostly be blunt force or blade work based.
[]: All out firepower: Focus primarily on getting in shots to damage and destroy enemies while keeping your distance; making use of your ranged weapons, particularly your powerful missiles and charged shots, dealing severe damage, having some risk of collateral damage, being quite the obvious target while blasting anyone who gets your attention and allows you to intervene in other combats, but prevents you from physically intercepting attempts to engage allies in melee if they can survive the hits due to your focus on staying away.
[]: Hit and run: Go from target to target, never letting them lock you into a combat but bouncing from melee to range as needed, attacking most of your priority targets at least somewhat. You will also be in a good position to move and intercept shots meant for allies; tanking them for them and keeping them safe or quickly moving squishies out of harm's way if they're in over their heads as they can quite easily be.
[]: Alt-Mode combat: Use your alt-mode to surprise the enemy with bombs/pulses, boost impacts, dashing in and out of areas only your alt-mode can fit into to cause trouble with pot shots or sneak attacks, lower damage output but very frustrating for enemies and has good AOE due to the heavy emphasis on explosives. This keeps the enemy from being sure who you're going to assist and allows you to frequently gain the benefit of surprise or move to suddenly block shots.
[]: Furious assault: Close in and make use of short range subweapons combined with melee tactics, short ranged beam and missile fire and other high damage techniques to simply destroy everything in your way; you will do the most damage this way and probably command the greatest amount of attention as you fully unleash the frightful breadth of your firepower. However this is likely to make your enemies scatter to get out of the way without having as much chance to lock them down as melee and lacks the command of the battlefield of firepower or the speed of alt-mode and hit and run.
[]: Balance: Engage in a balanced set of tactics not favouring any one particular weapon for a middle of the road approach to battle. No particular benefits or penalties.
Suboption:
[] Advance through train tunnels
[] Advance through foot tunnels
Free option:
[] Ask for relative stat readouts for new enemies.
Write ins are acceptable
Moratorium on votes until I have breakfast tomorrow in about 12 hours; please discuss your strategies and put down your thoughts.
