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.
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.
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.
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.
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 hotblood 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.
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.
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.
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 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
[]: 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.
So I'm thinking that our top priorities should be wiping out tha Nazis and finding out what they came here for.
Thankfully we no longer need to worry as much about squishy teammates, unfortunatly we now have squishy friendlies to worry about. Particually these friendlies might have important info on why the Nazis attacked so we want them to live.
I'm tempted by the idea of spliting with one team assulting the anti-autobot holding force from behind and the otherdealing with the group attaking the facility guards. What do people think?
I support Lupercal's ideas as an addeum if we capture any surviving bigwigs we can interrogate them on why they attacked this area. Its probably because of the chozo/allimbic tech which would be a gamechanger.
[X]: 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.
[X] Advance through train tunnels
[X] Ask for relative stat readouts for new enemies.
Assist facility guards
Eliminate enemies
Gather additional Nazi clues
Find Virus clues
Find third party clues
Protect more vulnerable team members
Enter heart of facility
Assist autobots
Priorities (Arne)
Assist autobots
Eliminate enemies
Gather additional Nazi clues
Find Virus clues
Find third party clues
Protect more vulnerable team members
Enter heart of facility
Assist facility guards
[X]: 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.
[X] Advance through foot tunnels
Tactics (Arne):
[X]: 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.
[X] Advance through train tunnels
[X] Ask for relative stat readouts for new enemies.
Assist facility guards
Eliminate enemies
Gather additional Nazi clues
Find Virus clues
Find third party clues
Protect more vulnerable team members
Enter heart of facility
Assist autobots
Priorities (Arne)
Assist facility guards
Eliminate enemies
Gather additional Nazi clues
Find Virus clues
Find third party clues
Protect more vulnerable team members
Enter heart of facility
Assist autobots
[X]: 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.
[X] Advance through foot tunnels
Tactics (Arne):
[X]: 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.
[X] Advance through foot tunnels
[X] Ask for relative stat readouts for new enemies.
So after further research it turns out that the autobots will probably be fine for I'm shifted things so that Samus and Arne team up to smash the nazis in the foot tunnels.
Gonna trial a simpler to follow plan system next post.
Also as a note; I use the kriegspiel system where I referee the outcome of plans with my housemates. It works faster than trying to figure out a dice system that doesn't have too much swing and wouldn't require me to have to make stats for everything and tends to be fairer.
The D10 dice will be reserved for background stuff like NPC casualties, random events, or other stuff that has less impact on the narrative itself rather than for the results of major actions.
Durability: Good
Strength: Decent
Firepower: Good
Speed: Acceptable
Combat Skill: Good
Type of Combatant: Elite Line-Infantry
(Elite Officer Standard)
Durability: Very Good
Strength: Very Good
Firepower: Decent
Speed: Very Good
Combat Skill: Very Good
Type of Combatant: Stealthed assault infantry
(Minion, Lieutenant, and Officer Standard)
Durability: Good
Strength: Good
Firepower: Acceptable
Speed: Good
Combat Skill: Decent
Type of Combatant: Disposable robotic assault trooper.
Samus
"KIll that Defender!" One of the armband wearing soldiers shouted, raising his weapon in the direction of your group. The SS soldier seeming to for once, take his attention away from you and towards something he understood, one of the two close to you.
"Ah shit they mean me!" Nightcaster said as he fired up a spell of invisibility to quickly make himself scarce as a series of purple particle bolts streaked towards him, yelping as the sides of the tunnel were rapidly being gouged out with torso sized molten chunks being left behind by the soldiers of the SS.
"Arne, we need to stop them from concentrating their fire on the fragiles." You said, vaulting over the cover and ducking beneath a particle blast after it had already been fired, striking the sender with one of five missiles released from your arm cannon; curling contrails following the rocket propelled warheads as they assumed their normal size and found their targets. SS Ageten reduced to smears and Nacht Elites mangled beyond recognition were your reward; the pyronic warheads engulfing others in plasma flame that not even the specially treated concrete could withstand.
Missile Count: 165/170
You hoped at least that their demise would be swift, Arne leaping ahead to catch a Panzerhunde trying to get in flamethrower range of Nightcaster and then throwing it into one of the thundering Wachroboter hard enough to reduce both to scrap. Prism light emerging from his cannon and bouncing off of walls in complicated calculated angles and the guidance of his willpower to deflect between the Walkures trying to hose Assault down after he had been injured by a cryolaser from a specially modified drone.
Nodding in appreciation, the redhead pushed himself back up as dark energy nursed his injury, repairing damaged flesh and uniform while a dozen soldiers around him tried to strangle each other.
"Any of you guys hurt?" Arne asked of the soldiers defending the barricade to his right, which made you smile. He was learning to make sure more vulnerable people on the battlefield were taken care of so well.
"We'll be fine, thanks for the assist." One of the Commanders said, eyeing Demons tossing fireballs down range to roast Soldaten who flailed and screamed as they ignited before teleporting out with a clearly nervous demeanour.
"They're friendly, don't worry!" You said with a thumbs up before firing off a charged wave-spazer beam directly into a mass of elites; letting the orbs of lightning seek and obliterate, the sounds of jittering cancelled out by your helmet as you kept on rushing forwards.
"...Who are these two?" One said, getting a shrug from the other.
"Uh...not important right now." Arne said, even in the midst of reducing a Wachroboter to scrap with a quick counter from his cannon, swinging it to strike the machine across the head after jumping up just as it lurched forward at him with its grabbing claw. Yanking it in with his grapple beam and then extracting his wrist sword; he impaled it through the eye and sliced it in half, while you had thrown yourself into the midst of a dozen Elites.
You shrugged off the impact of a fist that could have flipped a tank, reinforced not simply through sheer strength but through esoteric martial art skill that compounded the power of the palm strike. But with an eye towards the technique used you figured you got the gist of it.
Energy 08(97)
You responded in kind, channeling inner energy forward and palm striking back; rippling bone and tissue and a sickening crack making you wince as the supersoldier flashed away with a teleport. Ducking beneath a swarm of kicks and punches thrown in synchronous harmony to try and catch you with their martial arts mastery; you threw yourself onto your left hand and made a spinning break dance kick; twisting around and cracking bone, armour, and flesh alike before boosting yourself up, tagging Assault to pass him some kinetic energy, letting him uppercut a Mekman sky high afterwards.
You fired off the blink pack, appearing behind an Ageten who was in the midst of charging his particle rifle. Your Cryolyte fired off, freezing him solid before you smashed him with an elbow, teleporting out of the way of the return fire of his officer before switching your wrist-sword to a reverse hand grip and striking twice; once to break through the shield, the second to run him through. He moved out of the way just in time to avoid death, but you smashed him across the head with your cannon, sending him crumpling to the ground.
Rapid-fire particle blasts sparked against you, Arne kicking a Roboter through the mass of soldiers you were busy with just as you teleported out of there, letting him curl into his alt mode and let loose with the winding coils of electricity to tear his way through the machines in his path. This felt good, natural. You weren't sure on what everyone else was doing at times; besides Nightcaster resummoning some of his living shadows as they were banished with weapons fire from the enemy; drawing energy for a healing spell to sap speed and strength from the foe so that an injured Serp; overwhelmed with a thicket of powerful enemies; could stand back up, throwing aside those around him.
Energy Count 08(95)
"+We need reinforcements. This group is unstoppable!+" An Elite Oberst shouted before Winterpyre personally punted him across the train tracks, roaring in exultation as he soaked up the weapons fire thrown his way like so much rain. Lethal frost exploded from his body, engulfing the Ageten who had sought to overwhelm him and freezing them solid for you to shatter with a seeker burst of missiles over their heads.
Missile Count: 160/170
"+WIthdraw your forces. Consolidate with other troops herr Oberst.+"
Irinna was already in the thick of it, laughing at the misfortune of her foes. She was thrown back into a wall by the impact of a particle cannon that should have vaporised her were it not for Eudaimonica's mystic protections, but she looked at herself with a coy smirk and pushed herself up while Arne spun through the offending robot and cut it into pieces. Taking a healing spell of flame from Eudaimonica; Irinna surged through her foes, blows like hammers smashing into weaker enemies and sending debris in all directions.
You sawed through the mess of Walkures with your beams while Eudaimonica cracked her fire whip and lashed it into the optic of a Wachroboter. It stood still for a moment, turning its attention towards her while shades crawled around its feet, pulling at it to try and force it down, possessed soldiers raking it with bullets. But the Incarnate of Flame was also at her command, and the swirling mass of Arcane flame that covered you in the face of incoming missile fire from the Walkures surged forward like a tidal wave as Eudaimonica smirked.
"Looking the wrong way?" She said in a mockingly sweet voice before the Avatar melted its hand through the robot and carved it in half.
But even then, most of the forces were still aimed towards you, skittishly backing off and raking your position with their weapons. Some particle shots winged you, or struck Arne as he flung himself between formations, but you pushed through, beam fire cutting its way through the Robots thrown your way and hand crushing the throat of an Elite. They were trying to withdraw in good order, laying down covering fire. But while they were doing poorly against your ambush; they could be a problem for others.
Energy Count 08(94)
"You remember Ergyll station right?" You asked, taking potshots at some of the Soldaten, one of them falling to the ground missing most of his body from a casually aimed shot from yourself; leaving you quite sure that not even the mediporter was going to be saving him.
"You mean the thing that relied on power bombs...which we don't have? And would be very dangerous here?" Arne said, clearly concerned beneath his helmet as he shot at one of the Wachroboter, sending it falling to the ground in a heap after a pair of missiles put paid to it.
Missile Count: 168/170
"No, not that thing, the other one!" You said, shaking your head. Was he ever going to let you live that one down? Probably not. It wasn't like anyone got hurt, but you felt bad that he wasn't a huge fan of what you did there. Still, this seemed like the best time to do it.
""Oh that one. Right, I thought we were gonna...well, glad we're not!" Arne said, drawing a head tilt from Irina as she panted after having intercepted a railgun slug, shaking her hand as if it had been punched and then spitting the kinetic energy back to the sender, launching the trooper through a railing with a shout in German about the state of his leg.
"What is he referring to? It sounds...exciting." She said before Arne jumped down, disregarding the fire he was taking and reaching his hand out towards you before you hit the ground and grabbed it firmly. He gave you a nod as weapons fire disintegrated against your shielding and he started to spin himself in a circle while you started to run in a circle.
"Eh...what is this? We're not at the merry go-round!" Serp said as he swung his sickle, slicing a Robotsoldaten in half after Eudaimonica cast an armour degrading spell that weakened its chassis.
Winterpyre was already in the midst of the foe in a fiery and frost filled blaze of power. Scrap metal flew into the air around him, a Panzerhunde in one claw while the Demon Lord engulfed the Walkures with a gout of frost from his mouth. Battery kicked down on the foot of an elite, knocking him slightly upwards before she "bounced" him with a fist to the face; letting Assault tap into the energy released to dive into the nearest mob of Soldaten and knock them skywards as they levelled machine guns in the direction of shades charging towards them.
All that though, was almost immediately drowned out by yourself glowing red before being engulfed in a comet. As Arne's armour was tagged as friendly, the energy of the speedbooster posed no threat to him, but it was always a massive rush to activate this power. You didn't really bother to count the machs you were going at, beyond that it was a lot. Breaking the speed of sound was easy enough under your own power; this was something far more extreme than that. You could vault past the surly bounds of gravity altogether if you wanted, but you just needed to make some room.
"Ready!"
"Go!" He shouted, his voice loud in your helmet as he released you before you could carve out a trench in the floor with nothing but your bootsteps in an eyeblink. You raced forwards fast enough that the railgun slugs of the Nazi mass drivers seemed virtually still to you, while the charged particles of their ion weapons moved at a relatively glacial pace. Projectiles that brushed against the comet of your speed boosted form simply disintegrated or were nullified by its power, and you just ran past all obstacles. Or rather, through them.
People disintegrated, robots were reduced to plasma, most of them didn't even know what had happened before you ran through each and every one of them, coming to a sudden halt and dragging your feet to a halt, letting out a sigh of satisfaction as the top part of a Wachroboter fell to the ground, its bottom half disintegrated early on in your rampage. You looked behind y
"Get a load of Synapse over here, yikes." Nightcaster said as the survivors mediported out in green flashes.
"Who's Synapse?" Assault said, looking on with some concern as Battery seemed to be busily jittering and the facility guards kept their weapons trained firmly on the demons and shadow spirits that were now infesting the room.
"Speedster, zappy powers too." He said; a Mekman trying to crawl to its feet and take a potshot at you before you, without even looking, shot it once with your beam and vaporised it.
Arne
With things cooling down, you looked towards the Guards as they gathered their wounded, Eudaimonica stepping forward clapping her hands. "Come on up for some healing hands!" She said, smiling beneath her mask as she conjured up her infernal and pyronic magics to restore the injured as best she could, reattaching limbs and regrowing missing organs as well as repairing damaged tissue.
You looked towards a commander who pulled off her helmet and sucked in a breath, her dark skin dimly lit by the tunnel's lamps while she slumped forwards; clearly drained of stamina.
"What are you guarding here?" You asked.
"Classified." She breathed.
"We are here on Otmolsoza business, we have clearance." Serp said, giving a quick stand to attention salute.
"...Molotok and Serp huh? Well if you're on this side of the curtain...sure." She said with a sigh.
"You two have clearance?" Battery said, cracking her neck and then looking at Nightcaster with a smirk as he gave her two thumbs up and a nod.
"Da, quite high." Molotok said as she looked at the removed head of one of the robots and turned it around, trying to figure out how it worked and then yelping a bit when it blurted out a kill order in German before tossing it down the tunnel and spitting out a "Blyat!" to the giggling of some of the demons whom she swiftly hissed at to shut up.
"I would recommend giving the Azure Cyclops here the details quickly before he hacks into it first." Assault said, folding his arms and smirking confidently.
The nickname made you cringe. A Cyclops was a deformed monster, either rejected for its ugliness and valued only for what it could produce for the Gods or for their lesser kin; living a life of barbarism and sheep herding on islands harassing mythic heroes. It wasn't glorious, it was...demeaning. It made you feel gross. Like a thing. It was imposing and frightful, but you didn't want to be a monster.
"...You're not calling me that." You said, scowling beneath your helmet and giving him a withering glare that made him bring his hands up in defence and an apology in short order.
"So you've got a tinkersuit like that and you haven't decided on a codename?"
You recalled your callsign at Magnus and then looked towards her.
"Sigtyr." One of the more obscure names of Odin. God of Victory, fitting for the greatest warrior to ever be born of the Grendakal clan. At least, that's what people told you. You didn't feel like you truly surpassed your mother some times. But Solveig kept on telling you that you had made good progress.
"Aine." Samus said, the Celtic Sun Goddess; a reference to the solar colour palette that made up her favourites. Also, Ian trying his best to make himself look smart to impress her.
"Right..." She said, seeming to study you for a bit and muttering something about people getting taller every year that you didn't quite understand. It was a pretty common inaccuracy, but you were kind of exceptionally tall even among the Grendakal.
"I'm not exactly privy to a lot of the details here, but ever since Scion disappeared we've been getting a massive increase in UFO and USO sightings all around the world. That has many people very nervous. I think they've got some alien devices here they are trying to study, but most of it is way above my qualifications." Right, that would explain it. Though you weren't sure what they could mean by alien. There was a very broad range of alien societies whose technological capacities would probably be impressive to this place.
"Is there anything you can say about it?" Samus asked, leaning in curiously.
"Looks kind of Egyptian, not as pleasant as the Bird Stuff though. Very...sinister look to it. Keep on needing to escort tinkers out of here when they try to study it too closely and it scrambles their brains somehow." She said.
"What, driving them insane? Like "oooh the fish foot prints stand on two legs?" Assault said.
"No, no. Well...I'm not sure if it's because it's too much for their brains to handle or if it's because it's some kind of defense mechanism. But the scientists say it was placed some time in the cretaceous era and got buried by tectonic plate shifts." Okay, that was pretty old even the way Alimbics reckoned time.
"Ah that stuff is cursed, keep on finding flesh stripped skeletons left behind every time someone gets brave enough to poke it and god, the sounds of awful stuff skittering in the background." One of the soldiers complained, shaking his head.
"Yeah, I swear I see ghosts in the corner of my eyes here sometimes. Passing through the walls. And the whole place feels like a graveyard." A third complained.
"Will you guys be alright here?" You asked. They certainly looked like a pitiable sight, seemingly resigned to defeat despite your rescue. Shellshock probably.
"Yeah, we can hold this position." A lie, you didn't even need to be psychic to know that was a bald faced lie.
"No, you can't." You said, getting stammering out of her as you confronted her on her words. She seemed shocked, offended, and then ashamed all in quick succession, looking back at her soldiers and then at you.
"We can't just leave this place." She said.
"And we can't split up either." You said before Samus tapped your shoulder and then looked at Molotok who was busy signing some autographs from a few fans among the soldiers; or at least, people who said they were parents of fans. Some of them seemed to be interested in her of their own accord. Some of them for reasons that made you queasy.
"Molotok." Samus said, getting the ravenette to turn her head in your direction before zipping towards you in the space of a normal human eyeblink, making a mock salute while Eudaimonica rolled her eyes and muttered about speedsters.
"Can you get Jetfire to spare an Autobot or two to guard this place?" Samus asked.
"Ah! Hold on!"
"...Who's Jetfire?" One of the soldiers muttered.
"+Hey Jetfire, can you groundbridge us in some spare autobots, we have ah...low-grade combatants in need of evac but this position is too important.+" She said over the comms.
"+Bleedin' me fer' every shilling of botpower eh Molly? Right, can scrounge up some in a jiff. 'Old on.+"
"You're being reinforced." You said, gesturing to where you came from so that the facility guards could leave in a hurry.
"Right...thanks I guess." The commander said before she whistled to get everyone's attention and order a roll out, the bedraggled remains of the soldiery pulling out just before another groundbridge could open and another pair of Autobots could roll on out, with two minicon companions to help them cover smaller spaces and give them the chance to powerline as necessary.
Hot Shot is a relatively Young Autobot and a longtime companion of Bumblebee. Part of the Autobot Scouting corps, Hot Shot is sometimes criticised for a habit of not looking before he leaps, but is regarded as extremely dependable and reliable despite this. Compassionate if sometimes inattentive and inventive if often absent-minded, Hot Shot greatly enjoys working with less advanced indigenous cultures and has typically refused transfer out of sectors with human civilization, considering protecting indigenous life to be one of the most important duties of the Autobots. He is a fast and versatile combatant with a preference for hit and run combat and a preference for high-speed civilian vehicle alt modes.
Samus' Notes: Well, if his heart's in the right place, who cares if he's a bit forgetful right?
Arne's Notes: I like the colour scheme honestly, but I might be a little biased.
Arcee is a long-time member of the Autobot Special Forces unit known as the Scalpel. Comprised of autobots trained in Cyber-ninjitsu and with a preference for nimble, small alternate modes able to fit into smaller spaces. Nimble, agile, and equally at home both up close and at a distance, Arcee is deeply committed to final victory for the Autobot revolutionary army against the Decepticon State and other hostile factions in the long running Cybertronian civil war. Accustomed to working on Earth, Arcee is adept at finding her way around various locales and is heavily familiarised with most human cultures. Exceedingly adept at both close and midrange combat and able to make use of tight spaces that many other cybertronians would struggle in, Arcee packs a varied and potent arsenal and millions of years of battle experience.
Samus' Notes: Oh I'd love to get a chance to work with her some time, but right now, I'm glad she's guarding this spot.
Arne's Notes: Hrm, size changing huh? She's as tall as bumblebee despite her alternate mode being a motorcycle. Interesting
"Right, thanks." You said, Serp offering a salute as you turned away and Samus made a "follow me" gesture to get everyone going into the foot passageways after picking up some leftover data from one of the fallen nazi commanders.
The contents of this facility are far more than simple parahuman studies. A wealth of relics both extraterrestrial and extradimensional reside within here. So far the inferior minds of this facility have been unable to crack many useful secrets from it, but once our Aryan minds are able to properly examine these relics we will doubtlessly solve the riddles they cannot. Eliminate anyone who attempts to pose an obstacle, and then be ready for deployment to Brockton Bay. The relics located beneath there will also be of significant importance to us and our cause.
The Coming Storm is almost here, Oberst. We must make ready ourselves for all of humanity's fates hang in the balance. Not just in Primal Earth or this reality; but all realities connected to them. Advance without remorse or hesitation or our race will be swept away by the tide of xenos that descends upon it.
Believe in our inevitable triumph, or be crushed with the rising tide of the Herrenvolk.
Deutschland Uber Alles.
- Bose Hexe.
...Wicked Witch? That's a ridiculous codename, why would anyone openly call themselves that? Gods of your clan these people are absolutely absurd. Do they think this makes them look cool? Or do they just not care what other people think of them anymore?
Putting that out of your mind, you descend down into the foot tunnels, leaving the prior tunnel behind and taking point with your group while the minions of Eudaimonica and Nightcaster follow behind; the two Primal Earthers riding atop his Umbral Beast to keep pace without having to run after you.
The stairs and pathways wound in a descending, angular spiral pattern, sort of like a hedge maze which left you pitying people who had to navigate this place without access to either an eidectic memory or a map built into armour they wore around everywhere. The sounds of combat were audible through the walls, but those weren't what was holding your attention for now.
Your armour informed you of unknown energies within the facility starting to build up, but you didn't really need the armour computer to tell you that. Something just felt off in here, something malignant and very old.
It wasn't of a similar signature to the strange Virus. Which it seems that none of the computers you were able to crack through were able to tell you anything about. It seems like they just didn't know about the degree of software infiltration that their society had suffered. Perhaps it was just always there for them. Troubling, that'd make finding the origin point of the infection harder.
"Samus, are you getting that too?" You asked.
"Yeah it's...creepy." She said with a hiss at the end of her sentence.
"It's not magic whatever it is, definitely gives me a bad vibe though." Nightcaster said, rubbing his arms a bit before looking towards Winterpyre who tapped at his skull like head as the Demon stalked through the halls with seemingly impossible grace for something of his size, crawling along the ceiling to give everyone more space before skittering downwards like some manner of demented four legged spider.
"I am unfamiliar with these energies, sadly. My apologies Eudaimonica." He said with an almost apologetic bow to his charge.
"Hey, it's fine. We'll handle it when we get there, right guys?" She said, brimming with confidence and folding her arms as a chorus of approval came from the demons and fire elementals who accompanied her just about everywhere, barking and hissing voices of every pitch and volume audible throughout the room.
"Well, I like their spirit at least!" Samus said as she pushed ahead, humming slightly beneath her helmet while Assault muttered under his breath about never seeing any of this in the brochure.
However, as you kept advancing, you saw a door where some of the Nazi forces were piling on inside; shouting as they sought to reinforce the position ahead of them where it seemed that someone was fighting them quite vigorously. Quite a few someones based on their shouts of "eight metas!", but it seemed that; at least based on the nazi robot flung through one of the walls, they had a good handle on it. To the left were some hostages being taken as the Nazi soldiers started shouting at scientists to speak up; shouting and gesturing towards a locked door while they had dedicated machines try to slice through it. A process they were clearly rather impatient with given their demands for the scientists to spill the codes already.
Ahead, you saw a large chamber where the Nazis had already passed through; and where sounds of active battle were still going on. Fading, some of the sounds clearly being parahumans giving their all against superpowered combatants, but one where the guards were almost certainly losing. And to the northeast, was an eerie hallway where one of the skeletons mentioned before was laying there, wholly stripped of meat and dumped down like garbage. It seemed that based on the abandoned weapons, the Nazis had tried going down that route but then quickly thought otherwise. It was a straighter shot towards the heart of the facility, but seemed to be a dangerous route that many of your allies would likely refuse to take. Especially with Assault furiously muttering "nope" beneath his breath.
To the northwest was the distinct trail of ectoplasm and the unnerving stench of necrotic magics and the sensation of a nearby Chozo and Alimbic reliquary along that route. A fast path towards an upgrade that you could likely immediately use. But there were other situations that needed your help. So much to do. But there was one thing both you and Samus agreed on.
"Hostages first." You said in unison, getting a look at you from Battery.
"Those people are in immediate danger, we can't just stand by." You said, looking towards the situation where Nazi soldiers in purple and black armour were moving from one side to another, probing the minds of the scientists to try and tear the information from their memories while hooded and robed figures bearing the circular swastika symbol of the Thule society clad in black and white waited impatiently for the results.
Ghostly figures of Teutonic Knights and skeletal undead clad in somewhat decayed but dark magic strengthened germanic barbarian armour holding ancient weapons milled around, sniffing for weakness while fanged thule society officers looked at the scientists like so much cattle; giving dirty looks to more Nosferatu like creatures that a glance could tell you were not true undead; merely altered to resemble them; beings who seemed to return the disdain of their true vampiric cousins. Perhaps most intimidating though were hulking figures in plate armour encrusted with magic alongside larger versions of the Mekmen, the armour exaggerated parodies of teutonic, gothic, and germanic armour worn by supermen with glowing medieval weapons.
Clearly the Nazis thought that the simply superpowered was not enough to seize this facility, they also brought the supernatural out in force. So far though, it seemed that they were so concerned with breaking the will of the staff, including two women in damaged costumes who were likely parahumans, one blonde, one redheaded; that they had failed to notice you. However the Nacht Elites and even taller, stronger 5th column soldiers clad in black would likely let rip on the hostages if you surprised them. A vexing issue to be sure, but Winterpyre grinned a bit.
"It should be a simple matter to pull the hostages to safety with a gate spell. I could rescue them quite easily, but once I do; they're going to turn all attention our way immediately. Shall I take the fire then mortals?" The Demon Prince offered.
"Yeah I'm...fine with letting the big scary hellbeast take hits." Assault said, looking up towards Winterpyre who snorted in appreciation.
"Myself and Caustos should be ample protection for you." He said with a grin.
"Well, first we should probably analyse the perimeter and take them out just as Winterpyre finishes his power usage. You have that fancy scan device da?" Serp asked.
"Magic." Winterpyre corrected before Serp stared at him.
"You know, this day is very strange, so I won't contest that. But yes." Serp said, Viktor pacing a bit as he thought.
"Arne, we should probably take point again, don't want to let these poor guys take all the hits." She said, stroking the head of one of the demons who purred at the touch of her hand and smiling beneath her helmet. She really could find it in herself to show kindness to just about anything, and honestly; they were pretty cute in an unconventional way.
"Spellcasters should probably go down first. Necromancers can do all kinds of fucky stuff you know. Won't hit the hardest but they'll make life hell for a lot of you guys and I'd be stretching my spells thin keeping up with them all." Nightcaster said, grimacing beneath his mask and adjusting his goggles and producing a proper staff from his pocket. Definitely some sort of dimension he could access from his belt, pretty handy spellcraft to have. He clearly thought this was going to be difficult enough to need a bit of extra help to pull off. As did Eudaimonica, based on her procuring a rapier...wand...was that a wand or a sword? It was sharp for sure, but the arcane sigils written on it were more like a wand. Maybe both?
"Psychics first Nightcaster. You know how much of a pain in the ass those holds they can lay down are? Or the mind control they can drop down on our summons?" She said, based on your knowledge of this era; it seemed that in her reality, video game lingo had leaked rather heavily into superheroics. Which...wasn't too unsensible you guessed?
"Okay this hocus pocus stuff is making my head spin, those two parahumans should be able to help us out if we can rescue them early. That would make everything much easier. But yeah let the...Demon guy do his thing first. Get civvies out of the way." Battery Said, looking nervously at Winterpyre who waved back to her, getting a brief cringe of fear from her as she shook her head and looked forwards.
"Assault, Molotok, your opinions?" You asked.
"Uh...right well...nazis are bad, so I'm just going to punch any of them I can get close to." Assault said.
"Da, good plan." Irinna said, giving him two finger pistols and a wink that he quickly returned after making and "eyyyy" sound.
Situation:
To the West is a LARGE force of Nazis of unknown composition engaged with an UNKNOWN Metahuman team, the Nazis seem to be LOSING but the team is moving away from your objective.
To the EAST is a hostage situation with a LARGE force of Nazis, including several new enemy types who are likely of SIGNIFICANT THREAT to team mates; attempting to access an important Vault in the facility.
To the NORTH is a significant BATTLE going on between the facility guards and the Nazis, the GUARDS are losing.
To the NORTHWEST is a high concentration of ECTOPLASM suggesting a powerful spectral entity as well as Progenitor relic signals leading towards immediately useful upgrades.
To the NORTHEAST is a quiet but INTIMIDATING path that leads straight towards the facility core, but this path is likely very dangerous.
Samus and Arne are PROTECTORS and so will not take actions that will put the hostages in harm's way. Thus they will go EAST.
To the EAST is a VERY LARGE force of Nazis with significant SUPERNATURAL assistance and guards including at least one boss level enemy which will provide a reward for defeating them. New unit types have yet to be scanned.
You have at least one free round to SCAN new enemies to add another round bonus to planning, but the Nazis might kill hostages in that time.
The Nazis have weak perimeter guard forces, with most of their ranged troops currently menacing the hostages. Their guards are MELEE oriented and will be vulnerable to being sniped.
Winterpyre can TELEPORT out hostages, but this will immediately initiate combat.
The Nazis have NECROMANCERS who can provide SUPPORT and SUMMONS for their forces.
The Nazis have PSYCHICS who can read the minds of unshielded allies.
The Nazis have multiple HIGH GRADE melee combatants who can pose a problem for characters who are vulnerable to them.
Actions:
[]: Take a round to scan enemies and get a detailed idea of the layout and composition of enemy forces to add to preparation bonus, risk losing hostages
[]: Act immediately, giving the Nazis no time to kill hostages.
Tactics (Specify whether Samus or Arne can take them. Both can take the same action, which provides a bonus due to their strong cooperative bonds. The exception is lead, which only one char):
[]: Mobile assault. Using a combination of the speedbooster, melee attacks, space jump, and alt-mode, rapidly clear out chaff that can't respond to your speed, make heavy usage of melee attacks as well as short ranged combat as well; prioritise support enemies and keeping other foes focused on you.
[]: Ranged assault. Use your superior firepower to gun down high priority targets such as spellcasters before they can act, shooting down enemies as they pop up and suppressing them; preventing them from having free movement towards allies.
[]: Tanking: Distract the enemies and engage them in the open, forcing them to divert attention to you due to your intimidating presence and thus keep allies from harm's way; split between close and long ranged attacks as opportunities arise. Will take more damage though, though it advances leadership somewhat.
[]: Support: Remain in a flexible position, support allies in their actions as situations arise and let them take the initiative; especially useful if you want Winterpyre to take the role of primary tank. Keeps allies safe and yourself reasonably out of harm's way. This helps build bonds with current team mates but does not advance leadership.
[]: Be tricky: Find alternative routes to outflank the enemy so you can surprise and pincer them between yourself and your friends, allowing them to be quickly swept aside. This keeps you the farthest away from your allies and minimises support benefits.
[]: Lead: Take a commanding position where you make use of your leadership skills to be a flexible anchor for the rest of the team, whereas tanking is mostly about absorbing hits and supporting is about keeping people's heads above the water and assault is about damage; leading is about guiding allies to their optimal usage. This helps build bonds with current team mates and advances leadership. This is the most flexible Action.
Team Tactics (Battery, Molotok, Assault are versatile melee combatants who are capable of slipping by unnoticed. Nightcaster is excellent support, good crowd control and good ranged damage and good summons. Eudaimonica is good support, great crowd control, and good ranged damage with massive summons. Serp is an all rounder who can be committed to support, crowd control, ranged or melee damage, or even tanking without too much fuss. Summons from Nightcaster and Eudaimonica will respond according to their priorities.)
[]: Advance by Fire: The team will move its tankier combatants forward to help take hits and tie up the enemy in close range combat while ranged combatants and support offer assistance, suppressing enemies, dropping down crowd control, and passing out buffs/debuffs.
[]: Sneak: Thanks to Nightcaster's stealth magic, the team can be snuck into position to surprise the enemy with a sudden attack, though this limits other avenues of support that Nightcaster can give.
[]: Anvil: The team will be the anvil to Arne and Samus' hammer, letting the two do the most damage while keeping the enemy from escaping or properly reacting to them; this puts them at more risk though.
[]: Hammer: The team will take the role of being the primary damage dealers while Samus and Arne occupy the most attention. This puts them at less risk but means they have to be the ones who must be entrusted with the bulk of damage dealing.
[]: Steamroll: The whole team advances forward as one or as close to it as possible to seek to overwhelm the enemy with the most powerful possible advance. This has the highest risk but the highest damage to the enemy and if the steamroll is successful enough, the damage it does is risk mitigation in and of itself.
[]: Bastion: The least risky and most defensive tactic, the team works primarily to guard each other and prevent people from getting hurt as best they can. Low risk but low offense.
It's just four picks. Whether to act now or later (later means you don't vote for the other two), and then if you act now; what Arne and Samus do; and then what the NPCs as a whole do.
[X]: Act immediately, giving the Nazis no time to kill hostages.
[X]: Lead: (Samus)
[X]: Tanking: (Arne)
[X]: Hammer: (Team)
Rationals: We've inadvertently been building Samus relationship with the team more over these votes and I think it would be better to double down on that rather then try and switch things around in the middle of a mission. Arne Tanking both gives him some Ld xp and synergises best with Hammer by the team to my understanding.
If the player charecters are stuck going East where a Boss character is at and the faculity is under attack by another parahuman team that is unknown to us then we have to [X]: Act immediately, giving the Nazis no time to kill hostages.
[x] Samus will take the lead.
[x] Both her and Arne will act as Support
[x] while the rest of the team will will act as Bastions, since we aren't taking a turn to scan in order to sus out the situation, I know this is a conversative strat, but we don't know what we don't know, and it seems the Nazis are banking on whatever is in the faculity to create a 4th Reich so we have to conserve our strength or else this little slice in the multiverse will fall to Nazis and I don't want say the center cannot hold but if we make the wrong choice, welp we're screwed.
If the Nazis lose, and we win then the balance of power is drastically shifted, and just maybe the small -time nazi gangsters would be less likely to start shit, or shift to a new patronage network to start shit. I know we aren't at that level but it''d be interesting as a aftershock.
If we want to keep the hostages alive then our best option is probably a fast, aggressive attack, to take them by surprise and stop them before they can get to the hostages, although I'm not sure which options would be best for that as of right now
