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Victory Through Unity! (Planetary Annihiliation Self Insert Multicross)

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Is it weird that your ROBs dont feel ,to me like actual ROBs but more like greek pantheon with Chaos the creator of everything on top(Chaos is part of greek myths, it is a being that crated the primordials). I mean we have ROBs like Drich's who never really was mentioned at that sucks. Then there's Nova's ROB who is kinda carring about him but mostly because he doesn't want to waste time making another commander for his experiments. ROBs always felt like beings from myth of cthulhu. Your ROBS look like some villians Drich could beat. Yes they're still ROBs and that means they can do bullshit on literarly everything but when you introduce hiarchy it's weird for me. Hope i won't anger you because of this its just your Robs don't feel like they belong in that category. I mean if the OverROB is actualy some last progenitor that wants to ressurect the Progenitor Empire back to glory then it would make more sense , a being super powerfull but not actual ROB levels of powerfull. They fell like Percy Jackson if you ever read it greek pantheon. Just thought I'd drop that in here it's been in my mind for some time and I wanted to get it out so sorry if it seems like an accusation or an insult
 
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Dunno if anyone brought this up but are you going to places like 40k gurren lagann or DBZ?
 
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Wait I meant 30k (sine it's easier to fix) It would be funny if he appeared in text to speech verse.(also if you did would you go to 30k,40k,or 50k?
 
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51. A Trade
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    • While Bianka and the rest of the orphans agreeing so quickly to allow me to adopt them was unexpected, it did have its benefits.

    Namely, letting me focus on how I was going to interact with XCOM.

    Now, I knew that XCOM had access to Alien Alloys, Elerium (why did we have to give that awesome element the bland name of Moscovium?), handheld laser and plasma weapons, and psionics. Those were common developments across both the original timeline and the new one Firaxis made in 2012. The thing that worried me, though, was that those were the only techs that were constant in both timelines. If this universe was the original, then they could have access to Molecular Control, Zrbite, Sonic and Gauss weapons, and Aqua Plastics. Potentially, they could also have access to the things from XCOM: Apocalypse, but unless they had easy access to Earth, that was unlikely.

    On the other hand, if this timeline matched up with the Enemy Unknown timeline, then XCOM would have access to magnetic weapons, SPARKS, and the Avenger (instead of many avengers). Oh, and they would also have gene mods and MEC troopers. Can't forget those. While that was a lot less technology for me to acquire, all of those techs were ones I wanted.

    So, then, how should I proceed?

    Well, I suppose that sending a message indicating my willingness to negotiate would be a good start. After that, though, something else would need to be done.

    Time to call on my aides.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    "Don't try to intimidate them," cautioned Kathi. "They're used to fighting overwhelming odds, so it won't work."

    "Though, you could easily manipulate them, if you wanted," noted Synais.

    Both Kathikon and myself stared at him.

    "You have laser and ballistic weapons technology well beyond XCOM's level regardless of what universe this is, and similar level armor. Careful distribution of the tech could easily put them on your side."

    "..............good point," noted Kathi.

    "From Miss 'Follow The Rules', I take that as a great compliment."

    "Screw you, Synais."

    "And now we're back to normal."

    I sighed. I guess I was going to have to wing this.
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    WARNING: UNKNOWN USER ATTEMTPING TO ACCESS XCOM COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

    USER IDENTITY: CMDR FLAME

    USER GRANTED PERMISSION TO COMMUNICATE, PATCHING USER INTO PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS SUB-NETWORK

    XXXXXXXXXXXX

    CMDR FLAME: Greetings!

    CMDR XXXXX: Hello. So, you wish to speak with XCOM?

    FLAME: Yes. Thank you for the assistance in dealing with those criminals.

    XXXXX: It was nothing. We were already going to raid that base. Our goals aligned entirely by chance.

    FLAME: Fair enough. Still, I appreciate the assistance. Is it possible we could look into working together, perhaps as allies?"

    XXXXX:..............You are being very forward with your intentions.

    FLAME: I prefer being blunt with people I respect.

    XXXXX: I'll take that as a compliment. As for your offer..... Maybe. Not everyone trusts you, Commander. At least some are worried that you will try to enslave us, as the Ethereals and Tasoths before you have attempted, and as the Micronoids are attempting right now.

    FLAME:.............................................................I understand. Perhaps I could offer a gift?

    XXXXX: Explain.

    FLAME: My forces can make a nanite repair system, which allows me to fix damage on any of my machines in a matter of seconds, and it was relatively easy to adapt this to a human biology. I am willing to offer this to you, and I demand no recompense for it.

    XXXXX: That is.....surprisingly generous of you..........I believe that is permissible....Though, I believe that we could arrange a larger agreement.

    FLAME: Elaborate.

    XXXXX: If you would be willing to offer up weapons and armor technology, I would be willing to offer you a gift from XCOM's arsenal. Any tech you offer, we shall make a return offer.

    FLAME:.......So, if I were to offer you the alloys that compromise my machines...

    XXXXX: We will offer you the Ethereal Alloys and Aqua Plastics.

    FLAME:......That is very generous of you.

    XXXXX: You have proven yourself to be trustworthy. We do not wish to abuse this.

    FLAME: Understandable........... I am willing to offer you the alloys used to build my forces, laser and advanced ballistics technology, advanced torpedo technology, intelligence regarding my aerial forces, and, lastly, some of my energy generation technology. What are you willing to offer in exchange?

    XXXXX:....We will offer the Ethereal Alloys, Aqua Plastics, Laser, Gauss, Plasma and Sonic Weapons technology, Elerium, Zrbite, and a Manta and Firestorm Fighter. Is that fair?

    FLAME:.......Completely.....though, I do have one last request.

    XXXXX: And that is.

    FLAME: I recently adopted several orphans that I found in a vehicle that was trespassing on my territory. The vehicle in question set off the events that led to our alliance of convenience. As for how this concerns you........the children have stated that they possess psionic powers, and I can confirm the presence of those powers in at least one of them. I have heard rumors that your organization utilizes psychic powers. If so, may I request, for lack of a better word, a tutor?

    XXXXX:........Very well. We will send you two of our specialists.

    FLAME: Thank.

    CMDR FLAME HAS TERMINATED THE COMMUNICATION

    XXXX1: So, you sure this is a good idea, sir.

    XXXX2: Yeah, we are giving him a lot of our aces.

    XXXX3: And if he's not as trustworthy as he appears, we could be shooting ourselves in the feet.

    XXXX4: Plus this guy could be a shape changing alien, like the faceless.

    XXXXX: Your concerns are noted, but the decision stands. We should not antagonize a party that has only shown us respect. If he is an alien, well, we have been fighting aliens for long enough. Perhaps, finally, we can make peace with another civilization among the stars. If not, then we can examine the technology he offered us and discover its weaknesses, letting us level the playing field when the war begins.

    XXXX1,XXXX2,XXXX3,XXX4: Understood, sir.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    Huh. Wow, I didn't expect them to be that trusting. True, studying my stuff to see if it had weaknesses was expected, but XCOM preferring the pen over the sword, well, that's new.

    Well, might as well start compiling my trade offer to them.

    XXXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Next chapter will detail the trade and Flame's integration of XCOM tech. After that, plot relevant things will begin.

    Read, Review, and Ask me any questions

    This is Flamea15k, signing off!
     
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    • I feel like the great commandy one will betray him because there is no human being this trusting no mattter how good their intentions are, or I've been reading too much When in doubt blame the eldar
     
    Once again, I'm open for trivia. I've got five hours to kill, so if you want any non-spoiler questions answered, FIRE AWAY!
     
    52. A Standoff
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    • It didn't take me long to compile the items I was going to give to XCOM. All I had to do for the weapons was examine the designs used in my units, then produce the weapons separate from the platforms they were to be mounted on. Modifying an alloy foundry allowed me to create sheets of the stuff for usage by XCOM, which I eventually planned to spread to the rest of mankind. The aircraft data was easily fitted onto a tablet. The trickiest thing to package was the energy tech, as I had to mount a reactor onto a tank chassis in order to move it to the trade location. Still, it wasn't too hard to do, all things considered.

    XCOM had designated a specific set of coastline be our trading site, and had arranged for the exchange to occur five hours after our meeting. I arrived with half an hour to spare.

    Much to my surprise, XCOM was already there. Well, that was rather impressive.

    Let the meeting begin.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXX

    Ricardo Torres watched as the aircraft touched down. It resembled an Old Earth dropship, though far slimmer. External appearance of the area where the cockpit should be implied it was a drone of some sort. It deposited its cargo before immediately evacuating the area. Three more repeated this process, before a final craft landed. This one matched the design specifications of the ship that this Commander Flame had used to arrive at the Summit some time ago. Sure enough, the foreign commander emerged from the ship, accompanied by a cadre of marines. Oddly, he was wearing a black helmet, with white eyes and several lines on it, with the lines being red, blue, or yellow. It looked rather ridiculous in Torres' opinion.

    "I'll admit I'm surprised to see you here so early."

    "Best to make sure that we've had time to roll out the red carpet," came the response of his C.O., Jerome Davis.

    And to make sure that you aren't laying any traps for us.

    "Fair enough," replied Commander Flame. "I've numbered the crates 1-4. The first one has laser and ballistic weapons tech in it, the second torpedo technology, the third one of my energy generators, and the fourth contains the alloys I use to build my machines. As for the aircraft data-"

    The foreign commander seemed to fumble around with his attire for a moment, before fishing out an electronic tablet and offering it to them.

    "-it's all on here."

    The team's ranger and designated point man - er, point woman, Louise DuPont, cautiously approached the Commander, not that Torres was complaining. Even if this Commander Flame had been nice, they weren't entirely sure that he was trustworthy. He might be hiding important facts from them.

    Like, for example, thought Torres, How he knew about the Ethereals, Tasoths and Micronoids.

    Now, normally, someone being left speechless when they learned mankind had been attacked by alien races three separate times (four, if the rumors about an invasion in the sixties taking place), the fact that their new acquaintance had stopped speaking for about ten seconds had been worrisome. Most of the staff back at base felt that their acquaintance had been silent for so long because he knew of those beings, which raised a whole new set of questions: How did he know about them. Was he an ally of one of those species? An enemy? Merely an acquaintance? Did he seek to conquer mankind? We're his intentions to help Chiron and man as a whole sincere?

    All of these questions were worrisome, but for now, all they could do was wait and see what happened. Backing out now would be an insult to this new Commander and could push him to violence, if that wasn't his intention already. The last thing XCOM wanted to do was give an unknown enemy a pretext for war.

    As soon as she was close enough, Louise took the tablet from the commander and began reading it.

    "......Data checks out - it's on aircraft and the designs match up with what we've seen you use."

    "Well, then, can we commence with the trade?

    "I don't see why not."

    With that, both the Commander and Torres' squad got to work: the commander had several robots move his weapons and equipment up to the dropships they'd assembled to make the trade, while SPARK units began moving XCOM's offer to the Commander's aircraft. As for the Firestorm and Manta, the Commander recalled two of his dropships and managed to hitch the sub and fighter up to them. Overall, the actual trade was a boring affair.

    Before each container was loaded, the dropship crew and SPARKs examined them for an unauthorized equipment - namely, armed explosives. Better safe than sorry, regardless of how the Commander had acted toward them. Ultimately, everything did check out. Once the last container had been loaded, XCOM assisted the Commander with taking back his new toys, carefully loading their technology into the Commander's very spacious ship.

    It took only half an hour to complete this process, ironically meaning that the meeting had ended when it had been set to begin.

    "Well, it looks like our business here is finished," noted the Commander.

    "Not yet," responded a new voice. Specifically, that of Hassan Al-Assad, the squad's sharpshooter. "We've still got one last thing to offer to you."

    'Mostly just a goodwill gesture,' noted Torres, 'as it's doubtable you forces will need it.'

    Carefully, a quartet of SPARKs pulled out a final equipment container and loaded it into the strange vessel, provoking a perplexed response from the Commander.

    "May I examine this?" he questioned.

    "You allowed us that courtesy, so we see no reason to deny it to you," was Torres response.

    The Commander merely nodded curtly and, after opening the container, reached in and removed one of the items contained within. He eyes widened in shock at the sight.

    It was a sword, of all things. A primotive one, but still undeniably effective as a weapon. A quick glance Inside revealed that the container carried several more swords, some with blades that could be superheated or ignited, as well as powerful drills. Archaic weapons for an adavanced age, but still able to perform admirably.

    "....well, this is an unexpected, if welcomed, gift."

    "You're welcome."

    "Thank you. Now I must be going-"

    Could you spare a moment? Command has one question they want answered," interrupted Torres."

    "Of course. What is it?"

    "Are you familiar with the Ethereals, Tasoths and/or Microphonoids?"

    "....what?"

    "You were silent for a long time after those names were mentioned, and XCOM would like to know why."

    "......I've heard that they command armies of other aliens, but beyond that and the fact that they possess psychic powers or something similar, i cannot go into details on them."

    'He's telling the truth,' noted Davis. 'That, or he's really good at controlling his thoughts. Pretty sure that he's honest, though?", because his first experience with psychic powers was a few days ago.'

    Well, that did help to alleviate some of their fears.

    "Well, I believe it is time I take my leave," remaked the Commander. This time, no one bothered to stop him. "Farewell."

    "Safe travels."

    Soon, the Commander had boarded his ship, which quickly ascended into the sky. XCOM followed suite, leaving the shoreline calm once more.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXX

    Ugh. The psychic had been unexpected. My cover could've been smashed open if i hadn't taken advantage of the fact my brain was essentially a computer and forced my thoughts to conform to what I wanted the psychic to see.

    Still, the rewards had been worth it: I now had guns and equipment from two different conflicts in my arsenal: the first from the First Alien War, and the second from the Second Alien War, which I assumed took place some time after that. Based on XCOM's remarks, the events of Apocalypse were taking place right now on Earth, though that begged the question of how XCOM maintained communication with Earth.

    That, though, was a topic for later. For now, it was time to start integrating my gains into my arsenal.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Read, Review, and Leave Criticism for this story. Criticism is especially appreciated!

    This is Flameal15k, signing off!
     
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    • 53. Integration
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    • Once I was safely back at my hub world, I started examining all of the technology I had acquired. Most of the regular XCOM stuff only amounted to minor improvements to what I had, if at all. Well, aside from the plasma weapons - apparently, barring the weapons mounted on a Commander, Planetary Annihilation units didn't use plasma weapons, being more dependent on lasers, missiles, or good old fashioned bullets (often fired out of railguns). Part of me wished that I could've had access to the Fusion Lance technology, but that was not to be. For now, at any rate; I could likely procure one later if I played my cards right.

    What really interested me, though, was XCOM's marine technology. The gauss weapons had great potential for their versatility, as they could be used on land, in the sea, or, as I soon found out, even in space. Sometimes Kinetic weapons really are just better than energy weapons. At least, they were right now. As for the Sonic weapons, I started integrating a few heavy sonic oscillators into everything I had, but especially into my subs. A few sniper bots also received sonic weapons, because sonic attacks leave not bullets behind, so no tracing a sniper attack back to me.

    As cool as sonic weapons were, though, they did have their weaknesses - namely, that they were useless in space. Well, there were ways I could remove that issue, but they would be ridiculously impractical, not to mention wasteful, as I could just use weapons that did need special conditions to work in a vacuum. Like, for example, the already available lasers, plasma cannons and gauss weaponry. As a rule of thumb, if you have two options, and one is cheaper, more efficient, and just as effective as the other, go with the more efficient one. Thus, only use sonic weapons in engagements in areas that have atmospheres or are underwater, with priority for marine engagements.

    In regards to the new alloys, well, I was pretty surprised at what XCOM gave me. Now, they did give me samples of ethereal alloys and aqua plastics, but they also gave me practical examples of their applications. Said examples were functional sets of armor, ranging from carapace and plastic aqua armor to Titan suits and Ion armor. They even had a few archangel and Magnetic Ion Armor sets in there, as well as some cloaking tech. The only things that were missing were armors that influenced psionic abilities or molecular control, likely so that they still had some aces up their sleeves against me. While machines were immune to mind control or panic, Enemy Unknown had taught me that lacking any will whatsoever left you wide open to directly damaging psychic powers, which would probably wreck my bots in a fight. I'd need to work on fixing that later, but for now, I'd just have to make do with it.

    The Elerium and Zrbite weren't really all that special, though they were very good fuel sources. Combining them with my existing reactors managed to skyrocket their power levels up 200%, which I was definitely going to exploit the hell out of. The UFO and USO tech I received was pretty interesting, though more so the USO tech, since I didn't have a base to compare it to. How would enemy feels when they were attacked by flying submarines of all things? Though, given that I only had access to fighter sized flying subs/UFOs, at least for now, I'd need to do a little innovating before I could really get mileage out of them.

    OF course, what really had me interested was, of all things, the most archaic set of weapons I'd been given, which were a set of swords and drills that compromised XCOM's close quarters arsenal. I don't know why, but these weapons made me extra giddy. Probably because I really liked hack and slash games. Whatever the reason, I was definitely going to use them in my armies.

    It didn't take me long to design a human sized robot equipped with a basic sword, which I'd codenamed the Fencer. Thanks to XCOM providing me with three different sword types, I was able to create three different variants of the Fencer: Alpha series used traditional swords, Beta used an Arc Blade (for fighting other mechanical forces, and yes, it was grounded), while Gamma series was equipped with the Fusion Blade, for fighting zombies and other things vulnerable to fire.

    Of course, there was one problem with using swords: robots didn't exactly know how to swing a sword. Fortunately, I had a workaround.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    Slash left, dodge right, duck, stab, parry up-GAH

    I tumbled to the floor, chest stinging with pain.

    "Get up," ordered Goliath. "We have much work to do."

    Training robots how to use a sword was not easy on this planet, as there weren't any videos to teach it. Fortunately, I had an alien warrior with me who was a master swordsman, not to mention part machine himself, that I could work with. All I needed to do was hook up motion capture equipment to him and start filming. Problem was, I wanted to learn how to use a sword, too, because it looked awesome and because it would be helpful if I ended up in a fantasy universe. So, I'd put mo-cap gear on, pulled up a training sword (easily made out of wood) and started swinging at Goliath.

    Unsurprisingly, I'd lost fifty times already, and was unlikely to win anytime soon. Of course, what would you have expected? The only thing the greatest warrior in the world should fear is the novice, but only if the battle is to the death; otherwise, they become predictable. I was definitely predictable right now, hence my losses.

    "I'm getting up.....did you have to punch me in the chest?"

    "A real foe will not fight fairly."

    "True enough," was my response, before charging at him.

    Swing left, duck right, parry above, side step to the right, strike from aboveOHGODIHITHIM-oh.

    [AVATAR PAIN SENSORS REDUCED TO 10% EFFICIENCY]

    "......Did you have to kick me between the legs?"

    "No real fight is fair."

    "Touché. Though I did hit you."

    "You are correct. Now get up."

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    We continued on until, thanks to my body being able to conserve energy better do to optimization (thank you promethean genome), I finally won a battle against Goliath. Now my Fencers had the data that they needed to fight.

    As for the drills, well, I was able to integrate them onto existing bots chassis without issue. These bots duel-wielded their melee armaments, giving them two drills a piece to battle with. To achieve this, I'd had to increase the size of their torso and legs, with the head essentially fusing into the shoulder area. I also made the optics unit larger, for better sight applications. Finally, like my previous melee drone, I'd commission three different production lines for the robot: Alpha, which wielded the Vibroblade, meant for light assault and skirmishing, beta, meant for general purpose use and armed with the thermic lance, and gamma, which was meant for sieges and heavy combat and was armed with the Heavy Thermic Lance. Overall, the design was reminiscent of a certain type of armored diver, which contributed heavily to my choice of designation for these new bots.

    Henceforth, this model would be known as the Levine.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
     
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    • 54. Oddity
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    • Once I finished setting up the Levine, it's variants, and a training program involving motion capture and most of my Sentinel genetic heroes (which I only briefly participated in), things calmed down again. So far, no one was making any problems for me or the majority of the people on this planet, and the blind eyes had apparently decided to keep quiet for the time being. Hopefully, they'd slip up soon, but in the mean time, things were, quite simply, quiet. Too quiet for a Progenitor Commander to deal with.

    So, I decided to look beyond Chiron. I already had a few orbital factories up and running, so it only took me a few minutes to construct a trio of exploration fleets, equipped with fabbers, fighters, kill-sats, probes, Omegas, and at least one Artemis apiece. I set them on a course a couple of distant systems, so that I wouldn't end up poaching on any worlds the natives would like to settle. I hadn't picked up communications from any other colonies yet, so it seemed like, for now, I could focus my efforts on Chiron. Things would probably start picking up again in about a month, though, because apparently Vadim and Fielding were almost finished with the Emancipation Gate, while Elodie was working on a warp gate and the various harmony affiliated factions banding together to get the Mind Flower to open up. Considering that all of these scenarios were win conditions for Civ:BE, and tended to make everyone unhappy, tensions were probably gonna ramp up soon. All evidence I'd acquired suggested that the factions of like minded ideologies would band together to accelerate the completion of their respective ultimate structure, with the results likely to be a massive cold war that could easily go hot. I could understand why, of course: the various affinities on this planet had a fair number of extremists in them, and any indication that one affinity had an undisputed advantage against the others could lead its extremists to violence. I'd already started defanging several of the more militant groups, but I still needed a few weeks to disable all of them.

    Additionally, I was also stuck with the rather annoying issue of waiting for my psychic aides to show up; XCOM hadn't decided on who to send to me prior to my trade with them, so I ha offered them more time to decide. Hopefully, they wouldn't abuse it.

    On a more uplifting note, the kids were finally up and about in force. At first, they'd asked to have some privacy, so for their sake, I'd allowed them to stay solely in their quarters, with barely any contact between myself and them. This had lasted about a day before they decided to go exploring. Right now, they were headed toward Wraith's quarters. Out of all the Necro-genesis genetic heroes, he was the nicest, and would probably be one of the best to introduce them to the genetic heroes. Just to be safe, though, I asked that Andromeda be nearby if the kids got scared.

    For now, I was content to wait. I could make do with spending the next few days with the kids, let everything else go on as normal, hope my enemies slipped up and gave me leads to their locations. Sometimes, you shouldn't focus on moving new mountains, and instead, you should sit back and take pride in the ones you have already moved.

    Unfortunately, today was not the time for that. As I was about to get back into my avatar, I noticed something strange had happened. Apparently, some of my units had started to experience programming glitches. These sorted themselves out quickly, but the funny thing was, they always kept resurfacing at roughly even intervals. A quick examination of these units revealed that they consisted of fighters, scouts, and bombers that I'd deployed to patrol my territory. More importantly, these ones had been patrolling over a valley that I'd recently added into my territory, which, given that the planet still had plenty of unclaimed land, was steadily expanding each day. Not that anyone seemed to mind that much. My bet was that nobody really care what I did as long as I didn't start randomly shooting up people. If that line of thought was what kept people from attacking me, then so be it.

    Among the glitches that my planes were experiencing were camera issues, preventing me from seeing if there was anything in the valley that could be causing the issues. Since the issues only started to occur around a certain range from the center of the valley, I decided to move in a Hermes probe to see if I could get a look at just what was down there.

    Were I in my avatar, I would've choked at what the probe revealed: an unmolested set of progenitor ruins.

    I just couldn't believe my luck: before we was a gold mine of technology that was light years beyond anything else on this planet, and no one had noticed it? Well, it was in a deep valley. Still, that seemed pretty odd.

    Then I pulled up maps and found out that apparently, the area had been a source of sensor interference for as long as there had been satellites and planes flying over it. The only difference was that the planes the colonists had flown over the area hadn't just had minor glitches, like instruments going on the fritz or turbulence. No, their aircraft had just flat out crashed. The numerous wrecks I could see using the Hermes validated those claims.

    Attempting to bring in bots to examine the ruins would be pointless - they would start to malfunction when I reached the interference zone. The same was true of vehicles. I'd have to take a different approach and use something that couldn't be interfered with. Something that wasn't a machine. Something Alive.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    The travel over with the Envoy was brisk, though I still had the opportunity to watch the beautiful sight of the planet beneath me. Once I arrived at the safe distance, I exited my craft. From here, as my vehicles were glitching out, I'd have to walk. Even with highly durable shoes, socks, and feet, a mile of walking was not exactly something I was looking forward to. Then I remembered I could teleport thanks to the E-DNA mutations my avatar had. Suddenly, the walk didn't look so difficult.

    It took me about 10 minutes to cross the mile, leaving me on the outskirts of the city. Hopefully, it didn't have any killer security systems inside it.

    Just as I was about to enter the city, though, I noticed something: near the walls were four humanoid figures. Ones that, thanks to my Promethean traits, I could recognize by smell.

    "Gamma Squad? Is that you?"

    "........"

    ".............I can smell you. You're standing right next to the cracked section of the city wall."

    ".....Well, aren't you perceptive," noted Gamma 3. Her relative lack of surprise was expected, as Promethean humans were fairly common across Chiron, though still a minority. "So, what are you doing here?"

    "I noticed my aircraft were experiencing issues in flight around this area, so I came to investigate. Why are you here?"

    "Sorry, but while we may be allies, you aren't cleared to know that."

    "Fair enough. Would you be wiling to help me find the source of this interference?"

    "Find with us."

    With our temporary alliance active once more, the five of us began to enter the city. It soon became readily apparent that, despite any attempts to Ragnarok-proof this city, it had seen better days. Collapsed buildings were a common sight, as were the skeletons of large beasts. How they had got here, as well as the cause of their demise, eluded me, but it was rather ominous.

    Eventually, we reached the city center. Here, a huge building stood, resembling a cross between a pyramid and a radio tower. Curiosity got the best of us, as we soon entered into the structure. Though, to be fair, my own improved senses indicated that this was the source of the interference my machines dealt with.

    The first level of the building was rather dull, merely having rooms that I assumed were meant for day-to-day activities when this building was still in use. The next floor contained, of all things, what appeared to be a library. Still rather boring, especially since it appeared that all the books had been removed before the city was abandoned.

    Things got interesting on the third floor. Here, while there wasn't much of interest to me, strange sets of cables began to fill the room. Cables I recognized to some degree, though where wasn't something I could remember. The fact that I could recognize them, though, set off alarm bells. Cautiously, I tightened my grip on the laser rifle in my arms.

    The higher the five of us went, the more the cables seemed to entrude on the rest of the structure, making it appear even more Alien than it already was. Occasionally, we came across some Progenitor artifact, whoch was quickly pocketed, either by myself or by Gamma Squad. Oddly, the sheer number of artifacts we found was far larger than normal, to the point I had the entire set of Progenitor relics before we reached the final floor of the building. Idly, I wondered if a ROB was to blame for this luck. Gamma squad never commented on this, but they seemed to have been making a point of not talking at all, though given how quiet the ruins were, any forewarning of an attack was a vital edge.

    Finally, we reached the top of the building, or at least the limit of where we could ascend via stairs.Here, the cables and smaller wires created some kind of metallic canopy, forcing us to duck and, at times, crawl through the available passages, which lead us to the center to this floor.

    There, the source of the disturbance revealed itself. It took the form of an obelisk, which occasionally released a pulse of red energy, causing the HUD for my helmet to glitch over for a moment after each pulse. Oddly, the obelisk wasn't Progenitor.

    What it was, though, made me worried.

    Why was what that? Well, it probably had to do with the fact that the obelisk was covered in symbols that matched with the box I'd found on the Grox homeworld.

    Three universes. That was how many I'd encountered these stupid artifacts on. What vision would I receive next? One that showed that the Machines the boxes had shown were allied with the Ethereals? Or perhaps they had aligned with the Micronoids? Either way, I was fed up.

    "Gamma 2, advance on the Artifact."

    Gamma 2 moved in close to the Artifact, readying to pick it up..... until he was knocked backwards by an electric shock, leaving him injured but alive. Gamma 4 four stared at this for a moment, before advancing on the box and suffering the same fate. The other two refused to advance on the Artifact.

    Sighing I walked forward, hoping my natural control of electricity would allow me some resistance to the shocks. To my surprise, the machine never struck me, allowing me to walk right up to the Artifact an touch it.

    Wow. That was easy. Too easy. Where's the twist?

    Before I could move the relic, the marking on the obelisk glowed red, before suddenly furring up a beam of light into the roof. As it did so, I felt immense power radiating off of the obelisk, and felt that if it were not made up stone, I'd already be set aflame.

    This lasted a whole minute before the beam ceased, allowing me to remove the Artifact from its resting place. From there, it managed to compress itself into a much smaller version of itself, someohow.

    Turning to leave, I finally noticed that Gamma Squad was staring at me.

    This was gonna be a long day.

    And one that would have long reaching consequences.

    XXXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Between Worlds
  • Threadmarks
    • The vessel had traveled for a long time. Longer than human civilization had existed. In its time here, it had witnessed civilizations rise, grow, reach their apex, and then fall. It had noticed a vessel man would one day call the temple ship travel through the void, occasionally stopping to conquer a world and its inhabitants. It knew not what the fate of the strange ship was, nor did it care. All that mattered was that it wait for the signal.

    It had arrived here from beyond the edge of this universe, in order to keep it hidden from its pursuers. Thinking about them brought back memories: of fear, of sadness, of rage, and of regret. What had happened in the past, though, was beyond the vessel's ability to change. Only what happened now would matter.

    Idly, the vessel noted how lonely it was, devoid of fellow vessels or a crew. True, crew were vulnerable to the trials of age, while other ships posed security risks if one was caught while its compatriots fled, but that did nothing to relieve the burden of loneliness on the vessel's non-existent shoulders. Occasionally, when it had met another vessel in this infinite void, it had attempted communication, and rarely, it had received a response. Those times had been happy ones, but they had become few and far between.

    Relatively recently, the machine had noticed an influx of ships that belonged to a race known as humans, a race it had heard much about prior to its self-imposed exodus. Occasionally, it passed a world where one of these ships had landed, where it found the crew beginning to build new lives for themselves. Equally common were worlds where the ships had suffered some error, leaving only the husk of their vessel as proof they had existed. Sometimes, it even found the shattered remains of a human vessel floating through void, crew either floating around it or missing. Best not to wonder where the missing people had gone, too many worrying possibilities there.

    Deciding to discard these thoughts, the vessel continued on its course, waiting for the signal to come. With that signal, its hundred thousand year wait would finally end.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    Then, one day, the signal came.

    Instantly, the vessel perked up, or at least did the mechanical equivalent. The pulse came from a nearby planet, one which the signal confirmed was inhabited by humans. It had sent when the signal artifact had been touched by what appeared to be a male human. Examination done on the being while they held the device confirmed that it was male, but also revealed that, though human in appearance, its genome contained traits from quite a few different species, including several that were not native to this universe. Additionally, genetic markers indicated that this being had great psychic potential, though this had yet to be tapped.

    Most interesting of all, though, was the discovery that this being had encountered their artifacts before. Analysis of his memories revealed that he had, on two separate equations, encountered artifacts of their design, which it now stored on in its home. These structures had been connected to a kind of scanner of some sort, designed to scan universes.

    So, it seemed the plan had been a success. Well, best to help it along.

    Thrusters fired as the ship slowly adjusted course and began heading toward the source of the signal, a world that was called Chiron. Normally, the distance would take a few months to cross at sub-light levels, but the vessel could easily accelerate beyond light speed, which cut down the travel time to a few hours.

    However, this was not to be.

    As the ship neared the planet, it began to slow down, but it was still moving at a speed which massively inhibited maneuverability. Unfortunately for the vessel, it's projected course was sending it bow first toward a meteor cloud. Desperately, it tried to change its path, but to no avail. The collision happened 10 seconds later, with dozens of meteorites and space debris pieces impacting on the vessel's hull. Normally, these pieces of space debris would, at best, cause only scratches to the vessel, but it had impacted them at half the speed of light, meaning that any impact would have catastrophic consequences. Dimly, the vessel's mind raged against the fact that its primary defense against the impacts, a high powered energy shield, had stopped working a century prior, age finally taking its toll.

    The debris was able to cause moderate damage to the ship, but it still endured. Unfortunately, it was now unable to control its movements, and was locked onto a terminal orbit with planet Chiron. In any other case, the vessel would be fine with this - it could survive atmospheric reentry, even with the damage it had sustained. Unfortunately, it's defense systems had been activated during the impact, and had become stuck in this active mode.

    Unable to change course, or disarm its defenses, the machine merely awaited the inevitable crash. Idly, it wondered what would happen next.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • 55. Introductions
  • Threadmarks
    • After that little incident with the artifact, Gamma Team wanted answers. Specifically, they wanted to know what I knew about the artifact. Admittedly, that was a rather difficult subject for me, but then again, there was nothing I could tell them that would create problems for me in the future.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXX

    "So," began Gamma One, "you've encountered machines like that one before, but all they do is give you strange visions or messages and then just lock up?"

    "Yes," was my response. "I don't even know what the visions mean. There's NOTHING I've experienced that even offers a hint about what they are referring to."

    "I see. Well, hopefully, nothing comes of this."

    "For both our sakes, I hope you're right."

    By this point, we were out of the ruins. Idly, I watched as one of my patrol aircraft flew overhead, carefully maintaining its programmed course.

    .....wait, it was experiencing errors?

    Instantly, I turned my mind toward all of the aircraft I had patrolling over the city. Three of them, including the scout I had just seen, were inside the area where the glitches had been occurring. None of them were reporting any issues, though.

    Cautiously, I made an Ant Tank move toward the city. When it entered the error-zone, nothing happened.

    My question answered, I turned my attention back to my avatar and was silently thankful that Gamma team had only just noticed that I was lagging behind while signaling an Envoy to pick me up.

    "Something happen?" That was Gamma Two.

    "Yes. You know the big field around this city that screws up electronic systems and kept vehicles from working?"

    "That's common knowledge," deadpanned Gamma Four.

    "Well, it's gone."

    "......you're serious?" This time, it was Gamma Three that spoke.

    I merely gestured forward. Unseen to the team, my Envoy had been making its final approach.

    "If that doesn't convince you, I don't know what will."

    The team stared at my ship for a moment, surprised, before quickly pulling out a radio and requesting their dropship come in for pickup. As for, I quickly boarded up onto my ship, making sure to secure the artifact before strapping in for the coming flight. As my ship began to take off, the Skyranger finally arrived to pick up the team. I waved them off and bid my farewell, and just before I faded from view, they seemed to return the gesture.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXX

    The flight back was relatively uneventful: no equivalents hitting the Envoy, no surprise attacks, just a normal flight. Though, to its credit, it did give me an unmolested view of Chiron's surface. My arrival back at my home base was equally dull, but that was to be expected. Soon I was back on my hub world, ready to examine the artifacts I'd acquired from the Progenitor ruins and see what I could make from them.

    However, when I began examining the camera feed from my tower, I couldn't help but balk at what I found: apparently, the kids had gotten sidetracked while exploring the tower and STILL hadn't met Wraith. The fact that it had taken them an entire hour to examine everything they were interested in was baffling. Though, it appeared that finally, they were approaching Wraith's quarters, something I was glad I'd be able to watch. Hopefully, they wouldn't end up getting too scared.

    XXXXXXXXX

    Konrad stared at the door. This one wasn't like the others. First off, it appeared to be made out of a wood, whereas all of the other ones leading up to it were made out of metal. Additionally, this one had an inhuman skull on it (albeit one that was clearly a fake), likely meant to intimidate any unwanted guests. Konrad's power told him that someone was on the other side of this door. The appearance of the door, the skull on it, and several other bone decorations lining the nearby walls warned him that whoever lived behind the door probably didn't want visitors.

    Konrad told his friends as much. They agreed with him, but at the same time, they wanted to see who lived here. In this unspoken argument, he was the minority.

    Reluctantly, Konrad turned the knob on the door, then pushed it open. Slowly, light began to enter the room, revealing a surprising interior. Most of the Inside was crafted from purple-black metal, but a few items stood out: a wooden table, a comfortable looking sofa..... and a weapons rack. Adorning it were a huge collection of axes, of types that transcended categorization. Nearby, a rather motley set of armor had been placed around a rather inhuman-looking mannequin.

    With the coast appearing clear for the moment, the group began to fan out, trying to observe what they could and perhaps learn more about the room's inhabitant.

    "Any idea's who might live in here?" was the biggest question on Konrad's mind.

    "No," was Bianca's response. "Though I doubt it's human."

    "No kidding," replied Elisha. "Any ideas on where they might be?"

    Konrad' response was to feel around with his powers, searching for minds. All of the children had empathic powers, allowing them to sense when others were nearby, at least up to a certain range. While empathy wasn't Konrad's specialty, he could use it well enough.

    Oddly, though, right now he couldn't sense any minds near him besides his companions. That alone set off alarm bells in his mind, as he had just sensed a mind earlier. The fact that it had disappeared was....worrisome.

    "I'm not picking up anything," he spoke, "maybe it left?"

    "Or maybe he is above you, wondering why a bunch of children are sneaking into his room," answered a deep, intimidating voice from above them.

    Looking up, the children gasped at the sight of the voice's owner. He would've been a giant among men, though his purple skin and odd-looking head quickly dismissed any guess that he was human. Despite his size, he was easily balancing between a pair of support beams, watching the group like a bird of prey.

    "......w....w....who are you," croaked out Percival, shaking in awe and Terror.

    "I am Wraith, The Spectre of Vegeance. I presume you are the Commander's newest charges?"

    "......yes," was Bianka's sheepish response.

    "Well, it is nice to finally meet all of you. It has been a long time since I have seen children."

    "Why's that?" Questioned Konrad.

    "I have spent many years fight monsters, facing beasts from the worst of nightmares. I haven't had the time to seek out civilization."

    "So you've fought in great battles?" asked May, had terrified, half curious.

    "Yes."

    "Could you tell us about them?"

    "Perhaps, but I would like to leave those for another day. What I tell you may not leave you for a long time, and I do not want you to lose sleep over what you hear."

    "...........I see," replied May, sounding crestfallen at the response.

    "I glad that is the case. Though, I would like to give you a piece of advice."

    "And that is?" asked Bianca.

    "There are others like me, and you would do well to acquaint yourself with them. One of them is named Andromeda."

    "Like the Queen form the Greek Legends?"

    "..........yes."

    "Where can we meet her?"

    "She's waiting in the hallway."

    ".......oh. Well, it was nice to meet you, Wraith."

    "As it was to meet you."

    Reluctantly, the group left. They had sensed some annoyance coming from him once he had revealed himself, and they dared not increase it any further. Another time, pwrhaps, they would ask him more questions, but for now, they would let himself him be.

    As soon as the left, though, they found themselves staring at a new being. It resembled a woman in appearance, especially if her attire and m her.....rather generous chest size were anything to go by. Konrad could tell from his powers that everyone, especially the girls, were weirded out to see such a human body type on such an alien being. Said powers also told him that said being was happy to see them.

    "Hello," she began, "I am Andromeda, and it is a pleasure to meet you."

    XXXXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Read and Review. Also, Mannfred Von Carstein, my ex beta, finally replied and told me why he was ceasing contact. I'm more offended by the fact he actually assumed all of the posts I put on his profile were based on the assumption I wanted him back as a beta than by the fact he flat out admitted he didn't care how I felt about him ceasing contact. Also, please don't give him flak about that: I don't want him to hate me for that.

    This is Flameal15k, signing off!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • You put up Orbital Stations with Sensors and shit, how come you've yet to spot the derelict spaceship crashing towards the planet?
     
    56. Mind Over Matter
  • Threadmarks
    • I have to admit, I found Andromeda's interactions with the children to be very endearing. The fairy like being was easily able to hold the children's attention, and her general niceness and compassion really helped win them over. Though a part of me believed she was so successful because they were entranced by her mastery over gravity. Not that I could blame them: my gravitic wave attack was powerful, but Andromeda could do that and more. Her powers even let her fly without flapping her tiny, if admittedly cute, wings.

    Eventually, though, I had to break my attention from the children and return to other, more important matters. Namely, examining the artifact. This one was the first one that had reacted beyond just showing me a vision, as it had shot a pulse up into the air, likely as some kind of transmission. Furthermore, it was the only device that I had encountered so far that possessed the ability to compress itself into a more compact and easy to carry form. Lastly, it was the only device of its kind that hadn't sent me a vision of some sort. My best guess was that I simply hadn't interacted properly with it, though the possibility it didn't have any information to impart on me was still present.

    Briefly, the fact that I may need to re-examine the artifact with a different tool or stimulus bought up another important detail that left me puzzled: aside from the odd vision, there was nothing I had been able to glean from either of the two artifacts I had acquired prior to this one: no internal workings, no composition details, nothing. That was....rather worrying, for a number of reasons. One of them was just how resilient they were: these artifacts were composed of the same materials there containers were composed of, and were virtually indestructible, even with the commander technology that I possessed. Somehow, they even managed to cause a locust I used on them to experience terminal errors and shut down with no hope of reactivation. That spoke volumes of whoever had made these devices, and not in a good way. It suggested that what I was dealing with was beyond the capabilities of the Progenitors by leagues. That did not bode well for me if I got on these beings' bad sides. At this point, I decided on a new goal: advance my capabilities as fast as possible, in order to be able to fight these beings if necessary.

    Feeling the need to calm my nerves, I pulled out a glass of cold milk to drink. Alcohol was not exactly the best thing for a troubled mind, and besides, I didn't want to deal with even a minor amount of intoxication just yet. A few seconds of pouring and the glass was full, leaving me to put the gallon back in a nearby fridge. However, instead of walking over to pickup the glass, I held out my hand and concentrated. Sure enough, the glass levitated through the air and into my open palm, which quickly closed around it.

    In hindsight, I found it rather surprising that, though I had met XCOM a short while ago, it had only occurred to me now that my body, created from the apex of the human genome, might possess psionic powers. I mean, come on, they weren't even a secret anymore in this universe! Apparently, there were in fact plenty of psionic humans living in all the colonies on this planet, and they didn't really get a lot of flak about it. I guess a couple hundred years and three world changing events will do that for them. Idly, I wondered if any of the gene mods that were created during the war were hereditary, but shelved that thought after a moment. That was probably a secret that only XCOM knew.

    Speaking of XCOM, before I could attempt any further analysis of the artifacts, I received a notification that XCOM had finally decided on who would be the children's tutors. To my surprise, I would be receiving three tutors, instead of two. Unexpected, but useful. I swiftly gave them directions on where to land and made my way to Chiron to welcome them.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    I will admit, I was surprised by who they had chosen as the children's tutors. The first one to exit the Skyranger looked like a normal soldier, albeit with an interesting set of armor and a strange looking device in his hand. I recognized it as an XCOM 2 Psi Amp. I hadn't expected to encounter that, but it was something worth noting. Seeing it also made me decide to begin checking to see if any of my creations were psionic. It was fairly likely that at least some possessed the gift, and psionics was a field that offered unprecedented opportunity to work with.

    The second XCOM operative to exit the Skyranger was female, based on the shape of her armor. Said armor, though, was unlike any I'd seen an XCOM soldier wear before. It resembled a knight to some degree, but at the same time had an almost mystical touch to it. I was awed by it for a moment, but soon that wore off. Perhaps I could negotiate the acquisition of a set of armor not unlike hers?

    The third and final operative to exit the Skyranger, though, truly caught me off guard. First off was their appearance - all that they wore was a cloak. Yet their odd choice in attire paled in comparison to their physical appearance. From the small viewing area the cloak offered, I saw that this being appeared almost translucent, with their skin glowing with comforting green light. Moreover, I could make out tendrils appearing from around where the arm holes in the cloak were. The mere fact that I new what this being was left me absolutely stunned.

    I'd seen this being in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

    It was an ethereal.

    But....but....how? Hadn't all of the Ethereals died after the Uber one bit the dust? Though there was a possibility that this was an ascended one. But then why had XCOM decided to work with them?

    I swiftly quashed these thoughts. Whatever these origins of this odd partnership, now was not the time to investigate it. Best to welcome the new guests.
    "Greetings. May I ask who you are?"

    "I am Aleixo Agre," was the response from the man.

    "Myala," replied the woman. Odd name.

    ".....you may refer to me as Selipsis," intoned the Ethereal. Its tone implied it was female.

    "I will remember those. Now, just follow me and I'll introduce you to your charges."

    XXXXXXXX

    The level of professionalism these operatives displayed was matched only by their stoicism. It was almost impossible to get a reaction out of them. They had felt only a moment of surprise at the realization of how large my tower was before they returned to their emotionless expressions. Not that this stopped me from trying to strike up a conversation.

    "So, not to sound rude, but why are you working with an Ethereal?"

    "Explain," asked Myala.

    "From what I have gathered, you fought her kind in the First Alien War, yet now you stand side by side. I could understand that, except that all evidence I have acquired indicates that not only did the Ethereals try to enslave you, but they were rendered extinct at the conclusion of the war."

    "Not all of us," noted Selipsis.

    "Now it is your turn to explain," was my response.

    "Before the conflict, some of our kind managed to ascend, becoming beings of living energy. Those who did not chose to invade your world ,seeking new hosts, because their unascended bodies had begun to fail. We tried to oppose them, but they enslaved us as well, using us to power their advanced computers. Once the greatest of the Unascended was slain, we were free, and together with the Elder's other thralls, sought peace."

    ".......I believe you."

    By now we had wandered into the room I'd used when creating close quarter combat programs for my melee bots. XCOM noticed the damage from the prior battle, but didn't seem to be bothered by it.

    "So," began Agre, "will we meet the children soon?"

    "Yes, though right now they are listening to stories from one of my underlings. It will only take a moment to fetch them."

    "We can wait, if you desire," responded Selipsis.

    "But they are your students."

    "We have plenty of time to meet them. Besides, I can tell that they are not the only ones who have the gift that live in this building."

    "Really?" Maybe this was my shot at finding out if some of my followers were psychic.

    "Yes. I can sense many in this building who are psychic, but the greatest potential for psionic power here comes form an interesting source."

    "And what would that be?"

    "It is coming from you."

    "Come again?"

    "I sense a great deal of psychic potential from you, yet it is untapped and needing guidance. And while our orders were to teach the children, I see nothing wrong with imparting the gift onto you."

    "Okay then......would you like to start now?"

    "Yes, but I believe that first, we will need to gauge your strength in both body and mind."

    "How?"

    "Perhaps a duel against Myala? The battle will need to be one without guns or other ranged weapons."

    "Are swrods allowed?"

    "....I don't see why not."

    Instantly, a weapons rack moved up to me, and I pulled out a sword and took a fighting stance.

    "I don't expect you to go easy on me."

    "Nor do I expect you to hold back, Commander," responded Myala as she took up a fighting stance. To my shock, a sword of purple energy formed in her right hand.

    Well, may the best human win.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Read and Review.

    Also, here's so Darkspore and XCOM art to help you guys get a better picture of what is going on. I do not own it.

    Andromeda:


    Myala's armored appearance:



    Selipsis (though colored green)




    This is Flamea15k, signing off!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Nightfall
  • Threadmarks
    • Shink!

    Crash!

    Cring!

    The sounds of battle filled the hall, as the two warriors continued their duel. Neither had tired yet, even after five minutes of fighting. Fide found it impressive they had the stamina to continue their confrontation, and idly noted that her creator was doing much better than he had in his training with Goliath. True, he would likely tire before he could win, but that was besides the point.

    Eventually, though, Fide was forced to leave stop viewing the confrontation and move on to other, less interesting issues. For starters, she set about examining Chiron's analogue for an internet, hoping to discover what people on the planet thought about her master. Her reports revealed that most people were still relatively ambivalent about the Commander, something she hoped would change soon.

    An alert soon popped up: it appeared that Synais was attempting to order various items from some kind of online store, analogous to something her creator had called Amazon. She quickly canceled the order, while warning him that they could not attempt to buy things from this planet until they could justify possessing the native currency. Their power production, while effective, could not be used as a mint on this world. Additionally, some of Synais' orders were ridiculous. What usage did he have for women's underwear?! Though she wouldn't be surprised if he wore it on his head; he was rather childish at times.

    A new alert soon replaced the old one. This time, it was a meteorological report: a meteor shower would make planetfall soon. None of their orbital facilities would be harmed by it, so it was something she would normally dismiss, but Fide made a note to tell the Commander about this. Rory had never seen a meteor shower, and she doubted her creator would want to deny him this experience.

    Oddly, a feeling of dread filled her as she thought about the meteor shower, but it was soon quashed. Why did they have to fear in this universe from space debris?

    XXXXXXXXXXXX

    The vessel could feel itself beginning to burn up. With its propulsion systems wrecked, though, it had no way of adjusting so that re-entry would be less painful.

    It had been floating for a few hours since the collision, and knew that the end of its journey was near. Soon it would be on the surface of the world that contained the being it sought. Grimly, it wondered what kind of adversity it's defended would cause for the natives, for while all had been armed, was not a fraction had been activated. Of those that were inactive, though, many were likely to come online following the impact, to prevent unwanted boarders.

    To some degree, the ship was glad that one of its defenses was incredibly effective camouflage, which allowed it to blend in with the space debris so well that not even the best telescopes would notice it. Stop, that might be a problem when it hit the surface.

    Oh well. It is not like the shop had a choice.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXX

    Planet sensed the new mind's arrival.

    This one was.....different from others, feeling more.....mechanical, yet still emotional. Planet knew not how this was possible, only that it was. Besides, she was more concerned with what the new mind would do.

    She had felt it arrive in the system a few hours ago, sensing it's presence in a ship trapped in a meteor storm. Oddly, it appeared that the mind was the ship's, as it lacked a crew. Though a novelty to Planet, she had reluctantly buried her curiosity as she watched the ship break through her atmosphere.

    As it had descended, she had easily determined its emotions: fear, anger, and impotence had been the most common, but they had all given way to resignation, as the ship had come to accept its doom to die on impact with Planet's surface. This had made its survival all the ore surprising. Barring a jolt of discomfort when the ship hit the ground, though, and a ticklish feeling from the impact of the meteorites, the only thing she felt from the vessel was an overwhelming sense of worrying. Why eluded her.

    Then came the pain.

    Indescribable, unquantifiable, OH SWEET CREATOR MAKE IT STOP PAIN!

    At first, the pain made it too hard to think, but gradually, Planet regained her faculties, and as she did so, she noticed that the pain seemed to originate from where the vessel had landed. Briefly, she wondered if the vessel was causing this, before that theory soon became fact: examining the ship's mind proved that yes, it was causing this, but not intentionally. Desperately, Planet tried to search the vessel's mind for some way to stop the pain.

    Then it returned in full force and became the only thing she could think about.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    The Raptor Bug howled as it skull burned.

    It didn't no what was going on. It's pack had been drinking when a huge falling light had impacted some distance away. Knowing that these lights sometimes exposed burrowing prey, the pack had advanced on it to search for food. Now, though, its pack was lying on the ground, simpering from pain that had just appeared without warning.

    They were not the only ones in pain. Other nearby creatures had fallen over and were squirming on the ground, trying to make the phantom pain leave them. Yet strangely, more distant beasts did not seek to be feeling this agony. Instead, a strange bloodlust seemed to have overtaken them, as they were busy tearing each other to pieces.

    All except for one, though.

    A siege worm, for reasons unknown, was heading south. Most animals had avoided the South, as the new being had arrived there sometime before, and had lain the painful sounds that the animals didn't like. Now, though, they were dealing with pain that made even the painful sounds bearable.

    Why the siege worm left eluded the Raptor big, and ultimately, it didn't matter. All that mattered now was making the pain stop.

    XXXXXXX

    AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • 57. Beware The Wildlife
  • Threadmarks
    • While I have certainly seen quite a few amazing sights as a commander, I'll still admit that the meteor shower I witnessed on Chiron was one of the greatest. True, I'd seen meteors before I became a Commander, and I'd seen plenty of meteor showers after this one, but my first was the most significant.

    Maybe it was because this was the first big event that I shared with my son. Oh, how happy he looked at the sight of stars shooting across the night sky. His eyes shined at the beautiful vision, his awe impossible to conceal. That sight, in turn, filled me with warmth: it was nice to get to spend time with him, free of any reason for stress.

    Rory wasn't alone in his awe: the children I'd adopted were also taking in the celestial event, and they were definitely enjoying it. Alongside them were the genetic heroes, whose appearance they'd taken rather well. I mean, sure, there was the initial reaction of fear to some of the more intimidating heroes, but that had soon faded. I'd asked my heroic companions to be on their best behavior around the children, but even then, this was above my expectations, especially in regards to some of the more amoral ones, like Arakna and Revenant. Arakna, though, had a reason to be so caring: she was a mother, and I think she was just allowing her instincts to take over.

    "My, how happy you are."

    I went stiff for a moment, before turning toward its source.

    Leaning against a pillar only a few meters away from me was Melissa, a smirk covering her face.

    "What are you doing here?" I questioned, struggling to keep the shock out of my voice.

    "The same thing you are, watching the meteor shower. Isn't that why you built this structure? To get the best seats in the house, or planet, as it were."

    "........You are correct about why I built this place, but I doubt that your motives are true."

    "Well, I might be withholding a fact or two."

    "Like what?"

    "Well, I don't really want to see the meteor shower. But Cassidy does." Melissa followed that with a glance toward the edge of the viewing area I'd made. Sure enough, Cassidy was there, gazing on in silence at the magnificent phenomenon of nature. Quite a bit like Rory, now that I thought about it.

    "....Ok, I believe you. Though, may I ask you a question?"

    "...I don't see why not."

    "Well then, why are you so willing to......interact with me?"

    "Oh. Your were expecting a 'sponsor' that just dumped you into a commander, told you what they expected of you, and then just disappeared?"

    ".......well, yes. Though, I'll admit that view may have been colored by reading a lot of fanfiction."

    "I hardly find that a surprise. Though, I will admit that I am an exception to the norm among Random Omnipotent Beings. Others on my level of power prefer to take a hands off approach to dealing with their pawns."

    "So, I'm a pawn to you?"

    "Indeed. Though, I will admit I have ulterior reasons for being more active."

    "And those would be?"

    "Well, you have been....rather lucky in your travels. You have yet to face any foes who have forced you to use excessive force on just a planetary scale. True, the war against the Darkspore saw your armies deployed without restraint, but you did that out of paranoia and fear, not out of necessity. The issues you have faced are, well, rather dull."

    "So you think I'm boring?"

    "No, but you are rather slow going in trying to fix the issues in this universe. Though that could probably be attributed to the fact that most of them aren't things superior firepower could fix."

    "hmm......."

    Now that I thought about it, I was rather slow going in helping the natives. But I still had one question to ask.

    "May I ask another question?"

    "OF course."

    "Why are you so......friendly, with me?"

    To my surprise, Melissa seemed to deflate at the question, losing any signs of arrogance she'd had when telling me how boring I'd been.

    "....Eh, boredom, I suppose."

    "You're being friendly with me because you're bored?"

    "Perhaps."

    "Perhaps?!"

    She seemed to be lost for a moment, but then a hint of smugness returned to her. "Do you really expect a straight answer from me?"

    "....ergh. Fine, be like that. Just don't overstay your welcome."

    "Oh, I won't."

    She finally got up off of the pillar she'd been leaning against. Now that she was standing straight, I was able to learn a fact that I'd missed in our first meeting: Melissa was taller than me. As in, I was looking at her chin when she stood up tall. A glance downward told me she wasn't adjusting her height with heeled shoes - she really was that tall. Well, her avatar was, anyways.

    "Enjoy the rest of the meteor shower," she said. Then, she began to head inside. Probably wanted to enjoy some of the refreshments I'd arranged for this occasion.

    "Commander, an anomaly has been detected," spoke a feminine voice. Idly, I noted that it was the voice that notified you of all alerts in Planetary Annihilation. I really should ask if it has a name.

    "Elaborate."

    "Strange signals have been detected from the area where the meteorites that survive atmospheric entry are landing."

    "Oh. Well, are there any details you can provide on those signals?" Really, I didn't want to leave this little spectacle. Moments like these were too few for my liking.

    "Only that one of them matches one we have on our records."

    "And that would be?"

    "The one that came from the Progenitor City you just visited."

    Oh.

    Yeah, that was important.

    I quickly sent an air scout toward the signal. True, it would probably experience glitches, but anything I could learn about the source of this signal was important. It would also bring me one step closer to figuring out what the boxes were trying to tell me.

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    I soon found out that, whatever signal the artifac I'd found in that city had done to make my units glitch out, that was a toned down version of this one.

    As in, my air scout didn't glitch our when it got close enough to the signal. It shut down. Well, mostly. It still retained enough functionality to tell me when it crashed.

    How the hell could this signal shut down my aircraft? Progenitor stuff had absolutely broken amounts of anti-hacking software. This should be impossible.

    Well, it had happened, so I guess it was possible now.

    Okay. well, onto plan B: Use the Genetic Heroes to take the artifact. I'd commanded them before, so it wouldn't really be difficult.

    "So, my quiet pawn, what's got your attention? You don't seem to be enjoying the meteor shower, an I know that you'd only be this silent if you're attention was focused elsewhere."

    Ugh, not now.

    "Something came up. An unexpected discovery relating to tonight's lightshow."

    "That's rather vague."

    "Well, if you must know, it involves some kind of alien artifact that I've found on my travels." She probably didn't even know what I was talking about.

    "Oh...Wait, you mean like the one you found on the Grox Homeworld?"

    Or not.

    "Um, yes...."

    I was rather surprised by her reaction to my confirmation, as it was the very first time I'd ever seen an entity comparable to a god lose its temper, or at least come close. Melissa managed to restrain herself to just looking really pissed off and crushing a drink cup in her hand, but considering that said drink cup was made of metal, this was still rather intimidating. This also had the effect of alerting everyone watching the light show to Melissa's presence.

    "...um, what's wrong."

    "Those guys need to know when to stay out of the business of others."

    "What?"

    "That schematic that you got from the first artifact? The one that built a scanner attached to your multiversal gateway? Well, as you might have guessed, it scans universes, and seems to decide which ones you'll arrive at. As you may have also. Priced, every universe you've arrived at so far has an artifact in it. I don't think that's a coincidence, do you?"

    ....She had a good point.

    "Okay, but why are you telling me this."

    "Because as far as I am concerned, I am the only one allowed to determine which universes you go to."

    Wow, you are so possessive.

    "I see. I'm not sure how to take that..."

    "Commander," began the female voice, "it appears forces belong to Franco-Iveria are moving to examine the impact sight. I'm latching you into their armor cameras."

    Soon, I was inside a transport that was rolling up to the edge of where the signal was boradcasting, which a quick change of focus revealed to be interfering with all of my equipment, creating a dead zone around the Artifact. Before it got too close, the vehicle stopped, and the soldiers, including the one whose armor camera I was piggy backing off of, disembarked.

    "Alright," began the leader, "command wants us to see what's causing all of our satellites watching this area to screw up. Keep together, and be careful. No hostiles are expected, but you never-"

    That was all he said before somethinglarge rammed into him and began mauling him. Fortunately, his men managed to wound his assailant, which retreated, allowing the man to get back up. Soon, though, the beast returned.

    Apparently, it was a Raptor Bug, but something was off. The animal looked... sick? Angry? Maddened? Maddened! It looked maddened. It began to assault another man, only to once again feel the power of guns. This time, it didn't get away.

    As the soldiers celebrated their victory, though, more of the bugs appeared and began attacking them. Casualties soon began to mount, until the vastly depleted squad tried to run. Unfortunately, something green hit their transport, destroying it. From there, they were whittled down until the man I wa observing was the only one left. I saw him try to run, only to trip. As he got back up, a Wolf-Beetle leaped at him. The footage stopped a second later.

    Good thing, too. I was starting to shake in my shoes.

    Before I could get the uneasiness, though, new alerts popped up: apparently, what I had witnessed was not an isolated incident. All around the impact sight, teams has been sent to investigate by the colonists, only to be attacked by crazed wildlife. Just when it looked bad enough, an orbital view revealed that, outside of the signal area, lots of creatures were on the move. It looked like a big war was about to begin.

    "Why are you so quiet now?" questioned Melissa.

    ".....thing seem to be getting interesting right now."

    "Hmph. I'll be judge of that."

    XXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
     
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    • Well, at the moment, it would be better to call Flame and Melissa Friendly Enemies. And that is still pushing it, since Melissa is a bit of a freeloader and will shamelessly antagonize Flame given the chance.
     
    That's weird, you're a PA Commander, you SHOULD'VE detected that it was a ship from Chiron's High-Orbit not when it landed. Again, this isn't considering the fact that you had you're SPORE-Civs' technology.

    EDIT: Then again, this is just my opinion so you can ignore it.
     
    Ryven Razgriz said:
    That's weird, you're a PA Commander, you SHOULD'VE detected that it was a ship from Chiron's High-Orbit not when it landed. Again, this isn't considering the fact that you had you're SPORE-Civs' technology.

    EDIT: Then again, this is just my opinion so you can ignore it.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    The fact I'm not noticing is actually going to become important in a few chapters.......
     
    58. Pest Control
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    • It didn't take long to load up the genetic heroes into a transport and send them toward the impact site, along with my commander unit and, against my better judgement, my avatar. I wasn't initially going to bring the avatar into battle, but the Genetic Heroes managed to convince me otherwise. Personally, I think that they wanted to see how tough I was, seeing how I'd fought both Myala and Goliath and done reasonably well in the former duel.

    Along the way, we'd been rather surprised to see a siege worm headed toward our base. When the siege worm ended up attacking several tanks and bots I'd brought to support the heroes in reaching the impact site, I ended up roasting it with some satellite lasers, leaving a feast behind for whatever the vulture equivalents on this planet were. Part of me felt bad about killing such a spectacular beast, but after I learned via orbital viewing satellites that the worm had traveled toward my base from the impact sight, the feelings had faded. Best not to take any chances.

    Eventually, we finally reached our destination. I quickly used my Commander to set up a perimeter and start fortifying the area, as well as get a few factories up to begin building units. The one's I'd already brought were engaging the hostile wildlife. To my surprise, they were assisted by manticores and a siege worm in these efforts, as well as the survivors of the team's the colonists had sent to examine the anomaly.

    Since these people had direct links to their commanders, I piggy backed off their comms to inform their superiors that I was getting involved, and asked that they avoid trying to enter the signal's effective area. That would just lead to unnecessary casualties. They reluctantly complied, as they had prior evidence from the Progenitor Coty's signal to back up my claims.

    With the colonists dealt with, I could focus on the impact site. My trio of XCOM agents had arranged for XCOM to deploy a team to assist my forces, meaning that the total force entering the area rounded out to 30 people...well, sentient beings.

    "So, ready to advance, you fearless commander?"

    Ugh. This was going to be annoying.

    Melissa had 'convinced' me to put cameras on all of the genetic heroes, as well as on my armor, and link hem to a projector back at the viewing area I'd made so that she could watch the mission, along with Cassidy, Rory, my XCOM liaisons, and my new wards. The alternative was that she would have forced me to do what she asked with her powers. A choice that wasn't really a choice at all.

    Though, I was going to exploit my ability to perceive things more rapidly as a Commander/Promethean to cut the feed of things ended up looking inappropriate for kids. I doubted Melissa would mind, given that she was a(n absurdly youthful) mother.

    "Yes, actually. ADVANCE!"

    XXXXXXXXXXX

    The minute I entered the signal's effective zone, I felt weird. An analysis of my Avatar's biometric revealed that the signal was disrupting my avatar's connection to my commander body. Nothing major, though some memory loss might occur if my avatar died.

    The fact that this signal could disrupt the connection at all, though, made me uneasy. Who the HELL could disrupt Progenitor Hypertech Bullshit? I mean, I could think of some examples, but what I'd seen of these being's tech didn't match any of the candidates I had in mind.

    My thoughts were quickly disrupted, though, by the arrival of a pack of Wolf-Beetles. The hostile Arthropods were swiftly gunned downed, but more soon took their place. Unfortunately for the new comers, we were packing superior firepower. Unfortunately for us, they had superior numbers. Also, they had manticores and Raptor Bugs backing them up.

    The battle toward the impact site was savage, and I'll admit that the only reason I showed it to my son, my wards, and my enemy's daughter was that they all had the mental maturity of teenagers, if not the physical maturity. Though, given that most of them were fighting over snacks, I wasn't worried about them being traumatized at the moment.

    Considering that lots of bugs were getting gutted, flattened, exploded or pulp, and occasionally incinerated, I was glad that's at of my viewers weren't paying attention. Only Melissa, Fide, Synais and Lathikon were paying attention, and the latter three were rather annoyed they had to share the room with my ROB. Apparently, my dislike of her had imprinted onto them. Hooray.

    Back to the battle: I wasn't really a powerhouse in combat, as I didn't really have a weapon that could do a lot of damage and my E-DNA abilities hadn't seen too much combat use, so I mostly hung back and shot at stuff, occasionally gutting an alien with my sword. From time to time, I'd use my healing spires to get a hero or XCOM soldier back on their feat, use my teleport strike to kill a bug, or drain the life out of a creature via my vampiric claws if I gor hurt, but that was about it.

    I will admit I was very surprised to see a Raptor Big pack be annihilated by a mass of green orbs. What date I could get from my units outside the signal's range was that the orbs had come from manticores. In hindsight, seeing that I had seen some manticores helping the colonists outside this area, their artillery support made sense. I gues whatever was making the signal was driving the nearby wildlife berserk, and the unaffected animals had realized this and were helping deal with their mad brethren. Nice.

    Eventually, though, the horde thinned, leaving us to advance further. Soon we were standing on the edge of the crater that defined the impact sight. What we saw was, well, surprising.

    After all, it's not every day that you see an alien starship inside a crater.

    When the shock faded, we advanced toward the remains for the ship, facing little resistance on the way. My now very glitchy link to my Commander told me that most of the bugs were trying to attack the colonists and vehicles that were now guarding the singal's efdective range. Idly, I noted that the signal had practically killed if the effectivenesss of my Progenitor based sensors, meaning that, sensor-wise, this area was a dead zone for me. Oh joy. Also, how did it bust my sensors? And why was Melissa so quiet? Food for thought.

    XXXXXXX

    The vessel watched as the new arrivals made their way into its mangled body, careful to watch for hidden foes. The ship noted that the security systems were already preparing to destroy them. All things considered, said system would likely fail. Still, unnecessary violence was distasteful.

    Then the ship noticed the security-subroutines were examining the biometric scanner. But why? The only being that they would recognize was-oh no.

    XXXXXXXXXX

    As we wandered through the ship, everyone was on edge, for the simple fact that we hadn't met resistance yet. Perhaps the ship was unoccupied? Or maybe the security measures were just gearing up for a big push?

    My train of thought was derailed, though, when a laser ford passed through the room, faster than any of us could react. It zoomed through the room, apparently heedless of the group of strangers in it.

    Island then it stopped when it touched me. A moment later, a whirring noise filled the air.

    I didn't even have time to swear before the floor fell out from underneath me, sending me falling through what I assumed was a vent.

    XXXXXXXX

    Sage watched the commander fall, followed by the door sealing up from under him, seperating him from them. Briefly, Sage aimed his cannon at the floor, ready to blow it open.

    Then a mouse brought Sage's attention to the ceiling, just in time to notice the appearance of several gun turrets, which were now locking onto the genetic heroes and their XCOM allies.

    Then they opened fire.

    XXXXXXXXXX

    Surprisingly, the fall was much shorter than expected, and left me in what I assumed to be a maintenance area.

    More surprising still was that, when I got back up, I found an arrow pointing toward somewhere. Cautiously, I followed it, taking care to watch for threats. The first arrow lead me to another, and then another, until I finally reached a door, which had some strange letters on it. Soon, though, the letters rearranged themselves to say 'Security Control Center.'

    Convenient. And suspicious.

    "Wow, that isn't suspicious at all."

    Thank you for stating the obvious, Melissa.

    Cautiously, I opened the door.

    On the other side, I found a very expansive room, filled with targets and practice dummies. Stuff you'd normally find in a weapons training area.

    Oh, and a ton of gun turrets. All of which were aiming at me.

    I quickly took cover behind a nearby pillar, thankful that I could teleport. A few quick shots took out some of the guns, leaving me feeling rather happy about myself.

    Then I heard the footsteps.

    Reluctantly, I peered around the pillar to look at their source. I almost wish I hadn't.

    Just arriving onto the scene were ten humanoid robots, all carrying what looked like rifles. Laser based ones, at that.

    Well, it seemed I was in for a fight.

    "Good luck."

    "....I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you Melissa."

    XXXXXXXXXXXX

    AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
     
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