Slider Zero
Not too sore, are you?
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okay, Just a heads up, you get a chapter tomorrow when I wake up. so expect goodies then.
Until that time.!!
Until that time.!!
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The Ringing of a Forge of Stars [Warhammer 40k/ Celestial forge V3||OC...ish]
Chapter 28
Slider Zero
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2018
- Messages
- 254
- Likes received
- 9,871
Time had an odd quality to it when you were in combat.
It could move both incredibly slowly and at the same time impossibly quickly, or even vary from one moment to the next, swapping between extremes with no rhyme or reasoning whatsoever.
It was something that Harry was long since used to dealing with, even before you added in Chaos influence to the mix. Because, unsurprisingly, the forge world of Ryza was under attack from all sides, seemingly every ounce of firepower not already directed at Mars itself being focused here.
Harry didn't even bother wondering why. He already knew full damned well what was going on. The heretics and Xenos had figured out that one of the STC copies was here, and wanted to remove it from the picture by any means necessary.
It was rather unfortunate that they were not having a good time of it.
The Speranza, commanded by the AI Silent Lightkeeper, was basically controlling entire swaths of the void as Chaos warships attempted to break past it, to no avail. The Ark Mechanicus continued to prove it's worth, even as the damage piled on and systems began to strain under the pressure. Had she been alone, it would have been a noble, if ultimately futile, gesture of sacrifice before the planetfalls and bombardments began.
Unfortunately for the aggressors, the Speranza was most definitely not alone. And the ships accompanying her had just finished their refits under the new processes using the full STC documents and databases.
The result was a slaughterhouse of epic proportions as the forces of Chaos attempted, to no avail, to grind their way past the wall that was the Speranza and her escorts, the escorts each wielding weaponry of a like that had not been seen since the Dark Age of technology. Lances of photonic energy and miniaturized antimatter warheads found their mark with ruthless efficiency and calculation, and the shields and hulls of the corrupted vessels broke and shattered under the assault.
The Xenos threat (As usual, the Eldar) was similarly facing the best of humanity and being found wanting. The damnable knife-ears had managed to slip by the initial cordon and were attempting to harass the inner defenses while covering for a planetary drop of some kind. Unfortunately for them, they once again faced the fury of the Adepta Sororitas, and Sister Vanalyn's mission did not disappoint. Their powered suits had been upgraded with superior power supplies and armor plate, and had even been equipped with void shielding at one point, making them all but invulnerable in individual combat. Likewise, their weaponry was even deadlier than before, now sporting the latest in a long line of deadly advancements to come out of the forges of the world below.
Still, for all their fervor and zeal, some managed to break through the line. Far more than Harry would have liked, but it was a reality of war.
Of course, that same reality of war had marked him, stationed onboard a defense monitor, as a form of last line of defense. It was a task that he was executing to his utmost…much to the dismay of the oncoming horde of enemies. Magical blasts pierced the shielding of the Eldar ships with only moderate resistance, and even that was adjusted and accounted for as Harry placed down hundreds of 'turrets' in the line of fire, all unleashing their deadly payload upon the fools who dared test him. His own Siege Wall shielding held steadily, denying the enemy an advance route and any method of a clear shot on his person as well, much to the attackers' frustration. He would have chuckled at the phenomena if it wasn't for the fact that the Knife-Ears were making even grander plays to gain access to the surface and the priceless treasure within.
Once again, he found himself having to thank his friend for the knowledge bestowed upon him that now allowed him to defend Humanity from its enemies.
The destruction of one of the Eldar ships caused him to break out into a wide grin. Why, he could even hear the screams of frustration and despair from here!!
Alaya watched carefully the battle of Ryza as it unfolded. The forces of Chaos were tricky, and she was expecting some form of deception to make itself apparent sooner or later. The addition of the Eldar was not helping things in the slightest, especially as they were intentionally using the ongoing Chaos assault to try and slip in to destroy the STC that was below.
Unfortunately for them, their Farseers had no idea that the Sisters of Battle laying waste to the Chaos forces had every scrap of information contained within the precious machines stored in their frames, nor that several of the Sisters still retained their personal copies of the miniaturized STC that Father had made for them to carry out into the wider galaxy. Nothing the damned elves could do would stop the spread, now, not unless they had the means to utterly destroy the finest soldiers of the Imperium in technology that, in many ways, exceeded even the grandest heights of humanity's potential.
And her Father had granted her permission for the one thing that would tip them all over the top.
Slowly, surely, she threaded the precious few bits of power she could spare around those chosen for her next task…and kindled within them the sparks of something greater.
The process would take time, of course, especially with how stretched she was at the moment, but when completed…
Those humans would be given the opportunity to ascend to something greater than ever before.
She absently noted the large push being organized by Chaos, including a massive world-engine dead-set on annihilating the entire planet, and ignored it. It was for naught, especially since he had fully awoken and was soon to arrive to Ryza's aid.
The fools would never know what happened to them.
Dipomer the Pale King, Whirling Schemer of the Undivided Masquerade, looked on his works with an amused smile. The corpse-worshiping fools had no idea that his world engine was coming to them, and soon would be in position to annihilate that pathetic planet and all it held. They fought the dregs of his fleet and thought it a victory!!
But soon, his work would be completed, and the accursed database destroyed in the name of the Four. And the galaxy would know the true strength of the Gods and tremble at their might.
He was tempted to let loose a dark chuckle at the circumstances, but decided against doing so until his victory was at hand. No reason to tempt the fickle ones in this task, after all.
One of the slaves manning the sensors spoke. "My king, there is an anomalous void contact approaching us."
Dipomer frowned. Such actions now, of all times…"Is it alone?"
"Yes, My king."
He nodded to himself. "Send a scouting team to ascertain its identity, and destroy it if it is hostile. Do so now."
The slave trembled in his chains and tried to shrink himself away from his King's gaze.
"Well? Perform your task, slave, lest I find one who is more adequate!" The threat of what would happen to the slave in question went unsaid.
"...My King…I have already sent the orders. The scouting element will be arriving soon."
Ah. That was the issue.
His most recent batch of slaves was an…acquisition from a rival who had fallen in his bid for ascendancy and left his infrastructure behind in his wake. Dipomer had recovered all of it for his own use, and retrained those who had need of it. This slave obviously feared returning to the conditioning pits for being actually proficient at its job.
"Excellent. Well done, slave. You may yet earn your freedom and serve the gods truly…but not yet. Inform me of any results immediately."
Because actual good help was oh so hard to find these days. No need to punish slaves for having initiative…as long as it stayed focused on the proper paths, that is.
A flash lit up the view screen for a moment as the battle turned in an unexpected fashion…except that hadn't come from the battlefront.
A premonition settled onto Dipomer. "Status Report!! What was that light?"
"Unknown, my king!! It came from the direction of the anomaly…scouting elements have been destroyed!! Unknown cause!!"
WHAT!?!
That was impossible!! Those ships were full Void Cruisers, refitted with the finest in necrotic hull plating! No mere single ship could possibly have dealt with them both that quickly!!
"Anomalous contact accelerating fast!! Heading…directly for us!! It's on a collision course!!"
Another slave piped up. "Sensors are giving out erroneous readings!! They say the contact…is a single man?! No protective equipment!!"
"CONTACT SPEED INCREASING!! BRACE FOR IMPACT!!"
It did no good.
The anomaly slammed into Dipomer's ship with the force of a thousand suns, tearing its way through everything in its path on a direct course towards the bridge. He could feel it, now, the way it was moving, with such a purpose. He silently donned his helmet before the arrival of the odd force, lamenting the loss of his new slaves. They were actually competent…
The expected arrival happened, along with the equally expected destruction. And Dipomer got to see his foe.
And was confused as all hell…as his opponent seemed to be a mere child. And oddly dressed, too, what with the strange almost-but-not-quite void suit and ancient jacket. The Star Crest on the child's chest was obviously decorative, but for what purpose eluded him.
Still, had to keep up appearances. He deliberately laid hands on his scythe, yet unnamed, as he stood to face the intruder. "HAH. A Mere child comes before me, the Pale King?! What fool venture are you on, boy, that you think to challenge me?"
The boy merely stared at him with a blank look, the golden locks of hair doing nothing to soften the intensity of his gaze.
"Ah. Silence it is, then. Know that you face Dipomer the Pale King, Champion of Chaos Undivided!! You shall fall in the name of the gods, and your soul will be devoured for your insolence!!"
The flash of light that followed was disorienting for several reasons, the least of which because he was suddenly missing his arms.
"Nah."
The boy outright scoffed at him!! HOW DARE HE!?!
The strange child waked forward, looking around the bridge while Dipomer fumed, his long, bright yellow-gold scarf trailing behind him. "I don't normally like hurting people. I prefer exploring, honestly. It was what I was made for, after all…" There seemed to be an almost wistful look on his face, then, as he lightly touched some odd talisman on his hip.
What manner of daemon used a golden circle for a sigil? Dipomer wracked his brain for an answer.
"Thing is…" the boy continued, "you guys are kind of an exception to that. Your so-called gods stole the stars from Humanity, would steal all hope and joy from them as well. I…really don't like that."
The child turned back to the fuming chaos lord, who was even now trying to scream obscenities at the boy and failing due to an unexpected malfunction of his vox-caster, with a smile on his face.
And the boy's smile was anything but nice.
"I'd like to show you something, if you don't mind."
Again, Dipomer could not respond, except to charge at the child before him.
Who threw him back at a bulkhead with zero effort. "Sorry, but no interruptions. I want to make sure you get a front-row seat."
And with that, the boy calmly cupped his hands together in front of him, centered on that star crest…which immediately began to shine with light.
And the light burned.
"Normally there's a bit of a process to do this, a whole setup and all, but…I've been asked by miss Alaya to skip that part today."
Dipomer collapsed to his knees in soul-wracking pain as the light scoured him merely by its presence. And it was growing. Spreading, almost like an infection, throught the ship…and everything around it.
"So, quick version it is. I'm sorry I didn't get to show you what you were missing."
The Pale King's screams of agony went unheard as the light grew stronger. Through his helmet, he could vaguely hear the rest of the crew, even the daemons sealed into the hull, being scorched by the light.
Worse, Dipomer knew that light. He'd known it once, as a boy, before he found the gods and the true path, back when he believed there was a better tomorr–
Oh. That's what it was.
"Yes. That's what it is." The boy answered him.
That light…was Hope.
"Don't worry. I'll guide them there, as they asked. I am the vessel of Humanity's Hope and Dreams, after all."
The last thing Dipomer saw was a serene smile before all was washed away in the glaring light of his discarded hope, his own dreams of something better.
And somehow, even as his vision was washed away in light, he heard the soft voice resonate throughout the ship, throughout the very void itself.
"Pale Blue Dot."
Harry stared in awe at the light that erupted in the void, as a then unknown world-engine and its escorts were annihilated in an instant. He heard the desperate calls for more information, the screaming about status reports, and ignored them all in light of the simple truth that somehow his bacon had been saved again by Satori, even if indirectly.
Or, rather, that the annoying being that had been trying to worm its way into his psyche had finally made her point.
'Alright. I'll listen now. What do you want?'
An amused chuckle was his response…along with a slight tug towards a section of space. Simple observation revealed what he was meant to be looking for, as a strange figure materialized itself from the void as if by magic to land next to Harry on the monitor's hull.
The child–no, that was clearly a young man, upon looking further– looked up at him with a beaming smile and bright blue eyes, visible even through the goggles he wore.
"Hi. I'm Voyager, and Miss Alaya asked me to help. Nice to meet you!!"
And with that, the young man extended a hand in greeting.
Harry could only grumble in frustration at what his life had become.
Again.
The joyous laughter of children echoed in the room as Mio and I did our work. It was actually quite therapeutic just listening to it, even with having to deal with newly hyperactive kids causing the ruckus. Their parents were still entirely too shocked (and in many cases, crying tears of joy) to even attempt to stop them, not that it would have stuck.
Administering the medicine that would cure the people of their Oripathy was going off with nary a problem, not even a slight hitch in the program, as eager patients lined up to finally be rid of the curse that burdened them for so long. Many of the adults regaled me of things that they had done in the past, mercenary work or time spent as a contract operator for one company or another before the spread became too much, and they were forced to retire. I listened to them all with no complaints, and if I made a point of ensuring that some of those ex-operators got the dosages that would attune their bodies to originium instead? Well, it was time well spent for a better operator in the end.
This, of course, was excepting the kids' antics, including their making a point of crawling all over me whenever possible and generally treating me as their newest and best uncle ever, as I considered that part of the reward that they could even do so in the first place. The kids, sensingweakness ahem, acceptance, only made a point of playing even more, except where it interfered with my administering treatments.
Mio would normally have been laughing at this, except that she got hit with even more of the kids going for the brute-force adoption method, even going as far as to call her "Auntie Mio".
Naturally, she stood no chance against the weaponized cute, and was wrapped around their fingers in short order.
This is not to say that the adults weren't doing prowling of their own. I had noticed the shift in the emotions of the women of the group, something made even easier because of how many there were compared to the men. And a great deal of them were openly checking me out, and, more to the point, making sure they were seen, by me, in doing so. Combined with the unmistakable feeling of blatant lust mixed with determination I was getting from Anya (who for some reason I had a much easier time of noticing from the crowd–something to look into later) made their intentions practically transparent.
In any other situation, especially if I had been alone, I would have swept them all up and given them what they wanted with a happy heart. Unfortunately for them, I was very much happily married, and Mio held absolute veto power on their getting to "reward" me…something that most of them had not quite grasped just yet. The ones that did were either all already attached, and thus not trying to throw themselves at me (with the exception of one of the mouse girls who made it clear that her entire family was "on the menu" if I was interested–and explicitly did so through her husband) or were old enough that they believed themselves unattractive and thus, not a "worthy" prize.
I was actually more surprised that Mio hadn't killed anyone yet, as this had to be setting off her yan buttons.
'It is, but the fact that you are actively holding out, and I can feel it, helps calm me.'
Well, that was a good thing. At least she wasn't going to go ultraprotective dragon on people for eyeing her man too hard. I really didn't want to explain to the hospital staff why people were dead and Mio was nuking their hospital in a cold fury.
I could feel Mio pouting. 'I am not that bad, and you know it. Stop overselling my bad spots.'
'But it's so much fun to tease you~!'
'Fine. See if you get any more pussy for the next month.'
I didn't bother to hide my mirth. 'Woman, I haven't touched you for nearly ten hours now. I know you are on the verge of jumping me. Stop making empty threats'
She only pouted harder, which I found ultra cute, and thus exploited for full value.
Still, that left me with having to find a way to let down the women seeking to offer themselves to me somewhat gently with the news that I was taken. And, in one particular case, finding a way to make the word 'no' actually stick.
Because Anya Belnades was making it extremely clear in ways I still didn't quite get that 'no' was not a valid answer. And that she was willing to push the issue until she got what she wanted…and I got what she felt I deserved.
Even worse, little Marcos seemed to be well aware of his mother's plans and was not-so-subtly cheering her on, while simultaneously trying to wear me down on accepting the idea. It was looking to be a rather nasty snarl if it kept up.
The weird part is that, unlike with the rest of the women, who were at best being opportunistic (and the zalak family, who were just perverts and proud of it), Mio's protective streak wasn't threatening to erupt and cause problems with Anya's advances. If anything, Mio seemed amused at my flailing in trying to get her to back off, though she made a point of not actually showing it…physically, anyway. I had complete access to her mind, and thus front row seats to her personal comedy theater, starring myself.
Let that be a note for others: sometimes it is not worth it to be connected so intimately to your lover, especially when they are seeking to extract their revenge from you.
The worst part is that Anya never actually said anything. She just made sure that she was in a perfect position to make sure that she never fully left my awareness for any reason, and the subtle gestures she was making only accentuated the effect even further. It was almost as if she was somehow awakening as a Newtype or something…but that was impossible…right?
The feeling of an amused giggle from a direction vaguely defined as 'down-left' and a distance of 'yes' did not soothe my fears. Seriously, I did not need to add Newtype BS to everything I was dealing with right now, especially not the weird harem aura effect that the stronger ones like Kamille tended to get. I was married, dammit!!
More giggling, somehow even more amused. Guess there was no help coming from that direction. Whichever of the women on the other side was playing at being god this time was going to hear it from me the next time they decided to come close enough. (the distinct sensation of feathers and something that for some reason mentally translated itself to me as 'Challenge Accepted' had me briefly thinking I may have messed up ever so slightly, though.)
Still, the process completed itself in short order, the people rejoicing in their newfound freedom from the stain of Oripathy on their lives.
I decided to at least leave out on a good note. "Alright. Anything else we can do for you guys before we head out? Aside from what most of you ladies want, anyway?"
The theatrical groaning from the women aside, there was only one request that we got from the group was to head down to the refugee shelter that had been set up for the newer arrivals awaiting the usual government BS and check over them as well, as many would try to hide their infected status or play it off until the symptoms became severe or obvious enough to draw attention. It wasn't an unreasonable request, by any means,
Naturally, Anya volunteered herself, and by extension, Marcos, to show us the location of the current setup, much to the dismay of the other women who hadn't thought of it first… or maybe it was because Mio was projecting her aura now, and the others could feel the displeasure of the stupidly powerful dragon in their midst.
Still, there was one thing that needed to happen before we left the hospital proper.
The nurse guiding us was friendly, though a bit strained due to having been strongarmed by the suits, who had finally managed to beat the hospital administration into submission. "This is the on-site morgue. We've got the bodies of the few deceased stored in biohazard isolation, just in case there was an infectious agent we missed. The bodies were scheduled for autopsy in a few days, but…"
I nodded in appreciation. "Don't worry, we understand. The problem with infected is that...well, the bodies need to be disposed of properly to prevent spread of Oripathy due to how the damned thing works. Cremation is generally the safest avenue, depending on how soon you get to the body, but there are a few other methods you can use if need be."
The cliffs' notes of my little rundown on Oripathy was already making its way into the greater medical knowledge base, mostly by miss Nadia having transcribed everything into an email and shooting it off to her superiors, who then passed it up the chain and around the country. Thoth was noting in the background that a lot of traffic on that subject was getting fired off to multiple locations, including the CDC and WHO. Unsurprisingly, there was an immediate push for various medical agencies to obtain the treatments for their own use as soon as possible…and several instances of messages that Thoth flagged as being from potentially malicious actors about trying to weaponize Oripathy in general.
My workload got ever larger the more I tried to do, I swear…
Anyway, at least in the short term, the benefit was that the local docs and nurses now knew how to deal with most cases of Oripathy and the attendant side effects. Sure, Mio and I were the only ones who could actually create the medicine, mostly due to factors that I was still hashing out the fixes for, but the treatments were easily applied and fast-acting for all but the most extreme cases, and even then a bit of basic medical guesswork would tell you most of what you needed to know to make a decision.
The inspections of the bodies was a brief and somber affair, expedited by my need to contain the potential originium dust spread from the disintegration of the bodes themselves…at least none of the dead here were exploding, unlike what some infected would do upon death.
Did I mention Oripathy was a nightmare? I may have missed that part.
"So, all you need to do is follow these instructions for dealing with the bodies, and you should be able to minimize exposure hazards." Mio stated, finishing a simple writeup of the instructions on a loose sheet of paper, complete with clipboard. "You shouldn't have too many problems with that, but if you do, please contact…er…" she turned to me with visible confusion. "Is there an actual centralized public affairs office over there? I can only find the individual tenant offices. Should I just have her call the Air Wing?"
I shrugged. "That might be a bit high level, but I don't see why not. The 147th Medical Group should be abler to redirect to the proper people, even though they are part of the Air Guard Wing." Mio nodded and scribed the requisite contact numbers before handing over the entire clipboard to the still slightly overwhelmed nurse. "Thank you for your time, and hopefully we see you again under better circumstances. Have a nice day!!"
I kept my snickering to myself. The poor woman did not need any more abuse heaped upon her.
Nearly an hour and a ridiculous amount of paperwork later (as the Hospital still wanted to get paid, not that I blamed them), Mio and I were escorting the Bellnades family out of the hospital and towards the location of the refugee housing, our intelligence minders in tow. Marcos was as excitable as ever, while his mother was far more subdued and somber…and just as unrelenting in her still unspoken stance that I was going to be tapping that ass of hers.
Fortunately, I had the sights of Houston to distract me from her ongoing slow-roll seduction efforts. Unfortunately, the reality outside the vehicle was not one I had expected.
It must be noted that the Houston I know was a vibrant city, full of people and life and energy, even in the wake of an unprecedented pandemic event that forced the city to effectively shut down. It was a kind of strength that kept moving forward, no matter what, and it was a great deal of how Houston had become the fourth-largest city in America by population, in my old home.
This was in stark contrast to what I saw laid out before me. Row upon row of abandoned buildings, many of them old office buildings that had gone unused for far too long. Businesses shuttered, never to be reopened. Houses, even here, closest to downtown, that laid barren and empty. The city was literally a shell of what it could have been, what it should have been, even when compared to how things were in my time. The disconnect was quite jarring for me, and I think it was the primary factor in my recognizing something else that I had been subconsciously ignoring.
I'd already known that my senses were enhanced significantly as a result of my transformation and augmentation into a fluffy fox dude, and boosted even further with the advent of chakra, but having my conscious attention suddenly called to it by the mental bump that was the current City of Houston was…unpleasant. It made me suddenly and painfully aware of everything that I had been shutting out almost on reflex, the smells and sounds that all but shouted at me in their intensity as we moved towards our destination. I could literally smell the level of desperation and hopelessness from many people, the distinct odor of not having been able to bathe in multiple days mixed with the acid stench of urine standing out clear as day to me…and I was nearly a hundred feet from the person it was wafting off of, and upwind no less. Likewise, the sounds of people and the city echoed around me, the slow shuffling steps of the many, many homeless lining the streets adding their own sound of despair to the mix of already depressing noises and sounds.
The only saving grace was that despite my enhanced senses, I seemed to be filtering out the more annoying things, like that screeching noise coming from the trains as they braked, and the other background bullshit that would have likely driven people crazy if it didn't get filtered out.
Mio, as always, picked up on my mood shift. 'You alright?'
'Just adjusting a bit to what I'm seeing. The Houston I know was not this bad…'
Mio was not fooled, even if I did tell her the truth. 'So you're not getting overwhelmed by everything you're picking up?' I could feel the metaphorical flat look she attached to that statement, and couldn't help but flinch at being caught out.
"Mio, I'm fine, at least for now. I'll get used to it."
My speaking this aloud eased her concerns, and she let the subject drop…for a moment.
I noticed her attention shift to our surroundings. "Still…this place is so run down. Odd for a major city to be this bad, isn't it?"
I sighed. She was right, but the reasons why were…annoying. "Well, most of it has to do with parahumans and the bullshit that surrounds them. Then there's the Endbringers, specifically Leviathan, knocking out cities every few months as they move along. Between the two elements, most places don't stand a chance, which has caused a bit of an exodus to the suburbia and countryside for people as institutions break down and things start falling apart."
Mio frowned, then quickly shifted her concentration to something else. I vaguely felt her 'brush' by me in the digital aether, and then she was off and gathering data. It was mere seconds before she was finished, after which she quickly crunched the numbers, compared them to historical notes from her own dimension, and then started riffing my memories of what should have been.
The spike of fury nearly destroyed the entire block from sheer pressure alone, and I only just managed to counteract the external effects of her rapidly growing aura as it flared. She simply glared forward for a long moment, and the poor sods who happened to he in her line of sight nearly had heart attacks at thinking that it was aimed at them. In an attempt to calm her down, I looked over her digital shoulder to see just what had set her off so badly…and only barely managed to not lose control of myself in the process.
Earth Bet, based on Mio's data gathering, had, at it's most optimistic, twenty to thirty years before total societal collapse. The combination of the advent of parahumans, the breakdown of global trade as a result of Leviathan's presence and attacks, and the overall effect of the Endbringers in general on the world as they attacked–no, surgically removed–critical cities and infrastructure around the world was damning.
The worst part? It wasn't for a lack of effort on the part of the remaining organized nations. The US alone was experiencing the kind of problems that would have crippled almost any other country on the planet, and somehow still chugging along, if only just. This was despite having several major cities openly listed as Hives of Scum and Villainy, a label that was an outright admission that the rule of law had failed in those places and there would be no further attempts made to take the place back.
The fact that Houston itself had only escaped that fate due to being the main posting of Eidolon, the world's strongest parahuman, was not lost on me. Nor did it slip by that by the criteria listed, several other cities in the US were effective Hives of Scum and Villainy despite not having the label attached to them.
It didn't stop there. Multiple aspects of critical infrastructure of the US (which actually had available and public statistics, unlike other nations outside of North America) were in severe disrepair, and being openly left to rot. Mio pointed out the semi-infamous Brockton Bay Boat Graveyard, an entire east coast port closed down and blockaded due to the simple fact that nobody wanted to actually take the time to fix the issue, even with the multiple thousands of tons of scrap metal up for grabs in the area. The port of Los Angeles only remained operational due to the destruction of the Panama Canal (actually, the entirety of Panama itself) by Leviathan creating a shipping bottleneck at the remaining hub, and even they were in dire straits.
And this was before you got to the fact that the vast majority of Florida, as well as nearly the entirety of Mississippi and Louisiana, were completely underwater, including several major ports and Naval bases. The US Army Corps of Engineers, already dangerously short-staffed due to forced drawdowns and budgetary re- allotment to the PRT, was backed up for over 18 months on critical tasks, and more were being added to the queue practically every hour.
And this was just in the States. The World picture was even worse the further out you got, with only a bare handful of stabilizing influences managing to hold things together despite the oncoming crash that people had to see coming.
And this was all from public databases and figures, what little bits were available, anyway. But, this was not the end of it. No, not at all…for this data didn't take into account the effects of the bleedover, or the introduction of a brand-new landmass in the Atlantic Ocean.
Her second set of calculations and observations had taken the disruptions into account, and what it showed was nothing less than apocalyptic.
Earth Bet, without direct intervention, had less than five years before total societal collapse of all remaining nations, nation-states, and/or polities. And depending on what happened between now and then, like some dumbass setting off scion or something, the timer could drop even lower.
Wait. Why had that thought just popped into my head?
My train of thought having been interrupted, I finally noticed the small nudges that the Force had been giving me, pushing my insight into certain directions and allowing the proper conclusions to form.
Unless we acted, and Right Fucking Now, Bet was doomed.
Well then. Good thing I was here, then, wasn't it?
I Immediately opened up another 200 or so process threads in my head and got to designing shit. Right now the single biggest limitation we had was that Mio and I could only be in two places at once, and with Mio being pregnant I was very much not willing to risk her on some of the more intense jobs, regardless of her skill. (I ignored the mixed annoyance/exasperation/love from Mio over my protectiveness, as she knew damn well why I was thinking like this.) This meant that I was going to need assistants who could be where I wasn't, and do things to standards that the people of Bet could not…at least, not yet.
An old games store caught my eye, along with a faded poster for "the latest imports from Earth Aleph!!"
And featured on the front was none other than the Master Chief himself. The sight calmed me a bit, bringing back good memories of better times…and a bit of curiosity as to whether any more forerunner-related technology was present within the forge. I could use an Engineer or two about now–
I could feel Mio's smirk. I could feel the Force smirking just as hard. Hell, I felt that odd being that felt like flame and feathers smirk too.
Time to get a revolution going.
"We're here!!"
Anya watched her son run around the refugee shelter that had been hastily built for the arrivals from their world as they filtered in, his tail swishing wildly as he ran. It was not the worst of places, by far, but it was still a refugee camp, with all that came with it. The tents were sturdy enough, and held up well to the elements, but it was obviously meant as a temporary measure…at least, officially.
She knew all too well how things of this nature could go, and was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It would, soon enough. It always did.
Still, the fact that her son was moving around, completely carefree, was an ever -soothing balm on her weary soul. She tried to ignore the greater balm of having been restored to her own health and wellness, but certain itches prevented her from ignoring it, or the reason why.
Satori was a strange enigma, handing out priceless treasures riches like they were worth less than nothing…and expecting nothing in return for services that would have otherwise incurred life-debts. The lack of crystals on her stomach and breast was proof enough for that. It was part of why she had resolved to make sure that he was the first to give her a, ah, test drive, as it were.
And her target was nowhere near as naive as he seemed. He'd caught wind of her intentions almost as soon as she had formed them, and had been doing his best to softly deflect her from her goals, using nearly every trick in the book, including pointing out that the Draco that was his partner was in fact his wife. She had, of course, ignored all of them in favor of making her intent even clearer without crossing any more lines, which he had also understood despite having never actually spoken on them in any capacity.
She giggled softly to herself. It would seem that whatever interesting things were following him around had decided to bless her even more. All the more reason to make sure that he blessed her newly healed womb.
After all, his wife didn't seem to mind too much her flirting and silent propositions, despite otherwise being a jealous lover. Still well below the norm for a draco, almost permissible in fact, but noticeable all the same.
Still, he seemed to be in contemplation on something as they had traveled to this place, along with gaining a newfound resolve that shone forth from his soul like a bonfire. It was almost blinding in its intensity…
"Mom, come on!! I wanna see if Mr. Fawkes is still here!!"
Marcos' exuberance snapped her out of her near-trance. As usual, he seemed to be everywhere at once, and even now was all but bouncing off the surroundings with boundless energy.
She couldn't help the smile on her face, nor did she want to. "Alright, Marcos. I'm coming. Give me a moment." She turned to her companions. "So, this is the place. I'm assuming you are going to run treatments for the people here as well?"
Satori nodded. "That, as well as some other things that need to be taken care of. See that building over there?" He pointed at a run-down building that was likely slated for demolition, across from what looked like a grocery store (interesting name, this "Fiesta" though). "That right there is going to be your new home once we're done with it. I'll bully the city into letting it happen if they try to complain. After that, we can clean up the camp and get everyone situated. How's that sound?"
Anya blinked. Then blinked again, just to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. Rubbing both sets of ears confirmed that yes, her hearing was just fine, and that she had indeed heard the man who had saved her life, saved her son, had just promised them a new home for nothing.
And you wonder why I want you in my panties?
He at least had the decency to feel embarrassed at her not-declaration, even as he continued along. "This is, of course, after we finish treating the people here. I'm assuming that the vast majority of you were infected?"
Anya nodded. "As far as I know, it was everyone. The few who were uninfected tended to be runners to the towns and homesteads for food and supplies."
"Well, you aren't going to have to worry about that for much longer. I'm gonna get in touch with some people and set up a few things while I work. The food issue should be solved in short order. Clothes are going to be a different matter, because of the needed modifications, but we'll get to that later. If I need to, I'll just fix everything myself."
Anya turned to Mio with a look of absolute shock. "How."
The remainder of the question went unsaid: how did you manage to catch him?
Mio's oddly demure shrug told everything. More he caught me…
The moment was interrupted by Marcos pulling his mother away insistently. "MOM!!"
She allowed it with undisguised mirth. "Alright, alright, I'm coming. Now where was he at again?"
"He was over here somewhere!! I think he was trying to fix one of the purifiers or something–"
Mio looked over the refugee camp as they performed their duties, focusing more on the people than the obvious temporary nature of the camp itself.
Prior to their arrival, there was an air of guarded optimism amongst the occupants, a clear thread of "we made it here, but aren't sure if it's really what we want". It was an understandable reaction, based on the bits and pieces she was pulling from their surface thoughts simply by being nearby.
They'd had it rough, getting to this point. It would be some time yet before they believed that the worst of it was over.
Still, that left her with the amusing task of how to upend their world even harder than her Satori already was doing by being himself. That man simply had no idea just how powerful he really was, and She had no inclination on informing him of it just yet.
There were still too many things to fix that needed a blunt instrument to fix, as opposed to his preferred precision. Better to let him build a power base with these people while they were still new and unconnected to the rot festering within the systems of this world, that they could be ready to step up when the time came to excise it.
She suspected that the time would come far sooner than expected.
Her patients were quite the mix. It was a different blend of the various races of their world that she treated, this time, with some new ones added to the mix that were…unexpected. The various people with horns were new to her (when asked, some responded with being either a Caprinae, Elafia, or Forte) as were the mixture of birdlike people (Liberi, they were called. The old man whom she'd asked was slightly confused at the question, but went with it anyway, to ensure he got cured…not that she was withholding it) that dotted the place, in the usual mix of elderly and children. If anything the only standouts were the three unique people she had met: one, a young man who stayed to himself as often as possible, and refused any and all questions about his race (she sent him to Satori's pile to be treated there instead), the second, an oddly youthful elderly gentleman who seemed to take entirely too much mirth in her confusion over his species ("Kirin, young lady. We're a bit rare, as you can see.!!"), and the last…
"Ha!! I knew it would be one of ours that finally cracked the code. I owe you a drink after this, don't let me forget about it!!"
The last was a pair, father and daughter, of literal Oni. For the refugees of the camp, this was nothing new, but the city's residents, and specifically the asian population, was oddly transfixed by their presence…and some of them very quietly terrified.
As it turns out, her change had caused her to inherit some of the traits of these oni, something she had not known until she came to them and almost immediately felt a kinship of sorts.
"Papa, You said that we were going to give her the good stuff, right? Not the piss that passes for alcohol around these parts!!"
Mostly because they were extremely brash and blunt, not really caring about harming people's feelings or pride or anything at all. It was downright refreshing to be able to interact with normal people again.
Still, she had to pass on the offer of a drink…for now. Besides, there was still an as-yet unused sake jug needing to be broken in back Home…
Huh. She thought of the Moonbase as her home, now. That was…no. That wasn't it. It wasn't the moonbase that was home. It was the man that resided within it.
She smiled to herself at yet another realization. My Satori is Home.
Naturally, she was filled with energy at the pleasant thoughts, and the remaining treatments completely flew by with her newfound good mood.
Which she didn't mind at all. More time to help set up and deploy her husband's newest project…
The standard Oripathy treatments went off without a hitch, with only two people needing to have the second variety to not die, one of them being a Sarkaz desperately trying to hide his identity at all costs. A nudge from the force had me use the third batch instead, which I'd hoped would help in some way with the inherent Sarkaz weakness to oripathy, above and beyond even normal Terrans…
Huh. There it is again. I seem to be getting a whole HELL of a lot of bleedover in various forms of information and knowledge in relation to this world. It wasn't completely unusual, except in the fact that it had waited until now to start fully integrating into my head, unlike the rest of it, which usually started right off.
Eh. I'd deal with it later. Right now, with the treatments finished, and my somehow not getting swarmed by the bunches of extremely grateful people (and the Oni girl who had outright shouted to everyone that if I wanted her to just bend her over and go, which got some raucous laughter from the more perverted crowd, and even her own Father, not that I was surprised in the slightest, even though his daughter couldn't have been more than 14), I could instead work on getting the first of my helpers online.
I'd taken the plans for the Orb repair robot that had been a part of the crash dump, and then started modifying from there. Everything, and I mean everything, was modified to be the absolute best that it could be within my skill set, and Mio had then run over it with the proverbial millimetric fine-tooth comb for any slack before we repeated the process again, just to make sure that nothing got left out.
The end result was something that previously would have scared me to death if I'd come across it in any capacity: it was, for all effects and purposes, a Forerunner Engineer on steroids, granted super soldier enhancements, and then boosted to all hell and back…before then giving it psionic and magical capabilities on top of that. It had access to nanoscale manipulators to work on any substance possible with the precision it would need, a built-in recycler/fabricator combo alongside a sub-pocket storage space for carrying around raw and refined materials, and more scanners and analyzers than the most invasive laboratories. The power core itself was a bit of a prototype wonder, using the properties of synthetic kyber crystals and their energy amplification abilities to overcharge everything else. That it also served as a useful method of storage for supernatural energies when formed and prepared in a certain way was a mere bonus feat, as I'd already figured out how to bypass that part using modified mana capacitors.
The 'housing' was intentionally set up to be a combination of as much protective gear as possible to shield the delicate innards and enough propulsive ability to get around in any environment and under any conditions, which created an interesting little design element that I took advantage of when doing the final design phase: making the things as cute as possible to avoid being destroyed by unaware people. That this involved making it a quasi-organic structure was beside the point, it just had to be harmless-looking and cute.
The final product ended up looking like a flying six-legged turtle with retractable tentacles, but the design worked wonders. Even better, the overall design was directly intended to be reproducible in the field by the cute turtle itself, meaning that all I had to do was direct them at a source of materials (or let them find them) and they would take care of the rest.
Of course, that was just the hardware. The software side was even more insane.
I'd had at least thirty of my multitasking elements working on the Shiekah script in order to not only understand what it did and why, but to break it down into something that I could then put back together even better with my 'mad coding skillz'. It was easier said than done, and I ended up putting another sixty or so instances on the problem before it cracked open and yielded fruit, but yield it did. The resulting combination of Shiekah script, magical mathematics, and general abuse of enchantment systems for the software side was downright silly, and then I tossed a T'au AI that I had specially prepared, and personally coded, into the mix.
It was everything that it needed to be and more.
Building the package was a non-issue using Thoth's onboard systems, and I built four more just to be safe. These should help in getting things back on track.
Some final programming was done: One of my new builder boys (which needed a name, but the obvious ones were either taken or really taken, and I didn't want what was left of Nintendo to come after me in futile fury) was going to be sent back to Miakoda and was specifically programmed to interface with the central database and download everything inside, then send the relevant data to the rest so that they had it as well. The others would be hanging around and doing various tasks while I dealt with more important things.
The sounds of an altercation caught my attention before I could deploy my new toys. As usual.
A brief investigation turned up…okay, seriously?
"Hey, you furry bastards!! Time to pay up!"
Yes, seriously. A fucking gang is trying to hustle the refugee camp.
Apparently, there was a small group of thugs at the entrance, demanding to be let in to collect 'rent'. I suspected that the only reason they were not dead yet is that the people here liked them or something, because there were at least ten semi-retired operators just hanging around the place, not to mention the Oni pair who could rip them apart with zero effort.
I decided to check closer just in case I was missing something.
But no, it really was just a random group of gangers showing up for protection money, nevermind that the refugees don't have any money that would work on Bet. There was a strange undercurrent of excitement coming from the kids, though, as well as from a few adults.
I took a moment to get a quick look in their heads before pushing forward, and what I saw stopped me in my tracks.
The 'gangers' were completely phoning it in. not a one of them had actual hostile intent, and in fact had managed to round up what amounted to the local charity basket of several neighborhoods to bring into the place, but were making it look like it was a mugging for the sake of their public reputation. The gangers would come in with the bags of loot, and mysteriously "forget" to take the same bags with them when they left, instead leaving with other things. Meanwhile the camp got desperately needed supply from a source that the Police and possibly even the PRT would not approve of, even thought they were actively helping.
It still didn't explain the kids' anticipation though…
"HOHO!! Evildoer stand away, or else you shall pay!!"
I blinked, and the kids' enthusiasm reached a fever pitch. Apparently this is what they were waiting for.
And sure enough, on top of the dilapidated building to our north, there was a distinct shape standing there, cape swishing in the wind.
Honestly, the Mouse ears gave it away, but I was playing along for now.
"Behold, the might of the Knight of Mice!!"
Because of course she had to be as cheesy as possible, probably with a side of ham somewhere in there as well. I could hear the groans from here, and even some of the 'gangers' were groaning in frustration as well.
I got the distinct feeling that the gangers were in on this and doing it mostly to humor the kids, but I refused to voice the statement lest I break the moment.
Mouse Protector, because of course it was her, proceeded to show off in the most over the top and silly way possible in "defeating" her opponents, complete with the mouse puns (don't squeak too loud boys! This party is only just starting to scurry!) and cheesy lines with extra ham (in the name of the Cheddar, I shall Punish you!!). Worse, she was intentionally being bad about it, which only added to the groanfest that was going on.
The gangers were taking their "defeat" in stride, making sure to set up in such a way to make Mouse as entertaining as possible for the kids while still accomplishing their goals. And man were those guys good…they got in and out almost like a trained genin team, just with less stealth.
And all the while the kids were going nuts as MP showed off as hard as possible.
Of course, nothing in life is ever perfectly good. Another group decided that now would be a perfectly good time for therm to interfere and remove the first group for whatever reasoning they had, and with lethal force. I didn't bother even looking at the faces as I removed them from play, and the show kept going on regardless.
Or at least, it should have. Somewhere between my mopping up the second group and moving back MP had disappeared and not returned. Mio, who had been watching the show as it went on, was just as confused as I was, and we were both scanning the possible angles for her to have used to escape with little success.
I couldn't help but admire the skill. "So, this woman literally vanished from an actual ninja. that takes some doing…still, Where did she go?"
"Where are you looking?"
I immediately snapped back to a building that I knew I'd just checked, to see that Mouse was standing atop it…and holding my hat? How the hell?
I specifically hadn't worn my hat because it was hot as all hell outside, being a downright frigid 94 degrees in the sunlight, which for Texas in June is practically subzero. So I, an actual card-carrying Touhou, was moving around without a hat and Mouse Protector somehow manages to get a hold of it. Great.
"I'm up here, Satori. Right up here." She spoke it with a strange calm and cadence, one that reminded me of something…but there is no way–
Her stance shifted, her demeanor more stern. She even threw my hat back at me. "Now, ANSWER ME SATORI!!"
She wasn't.
"THE SCHOOL OF THE UNDEFEATED OF THE EAST!!!'
Oh. My. god. She was actually doing it!!!
I had no choice.
My response was clear as day, my precious hat being placed back where it belonged, as was appropriate for such a moment.
"The Winds of the King!!"
We were actually doing this.
The two of us moved.
The sounds of fist meeting fist filled the air as we danced.
"ZANSHIN!!"
"KEIRETSU!!'
"TENPA KYORAN!!"
We met on the ground, fists meeting, complete with epic lightning in the background as we posed dramatically.
"LOOK!! THE EAST IS BURNING RED!!"
I didn't care that the kids were going absolutely nuts. I didn't care that the "gangers" had used the opportunity to escape, conveniently leaving behind the last of the supplies as they "beat feet to save their skins" I didn't care that Mio was recording this to use as blackmail later.
The fact that someone else, on Earth Bet of all places, understood the glory that was G Gundam, to the point of recreating the greatest bro fist of all time, was a reward all on its own.
I could ask Mouse about how the hell she knew so much about me later on, after all.
So, this chapter fought me for a number of reasons, mostly because events IRL sapped me of the will to write, and then I came back with other shit on my mind. This is the result, and if it got silly at the end, blame Mouse Protector.
She does that to everyone.
Also, meet Voyager. he's super cute, very kind, and absolutely more powerful than anything short of a major daemon and then some. Pale Blue Dot is rated as anti-star when Voyager is still new and not quite into his power. This one...is not so new.
I also apologize for the delay, but certain events and the handling thereof have been pissing me off greatly, which fed into my lack of will to write.
More Arknights Lore and Races:
Caprinae have the traits of goats (Capra sp.) and sheep (Ovis sp.), which can be seen from the shape of their horns.
Elafias have the traits of deer (Cervidae), which can be seen from the shape of their antlers, though not all Elafias have them.
Fortes have the traits of artiodactyls or even-toed ungulates, which includes bovines and camelids. For the former, their bovine traits can be seen from the shape of their horns. For the latter, their camelid traits can be seen from the shape of their ears and they have the ability to survive in hot arid deserts.
Kirin have the traits of the qilin, a chimeric legendary creature from the Chinese mythology, which can be seen from their draconic horns and equine tails. The qilin is usually depicted as a creature having the head of a dragon and body of a horse.
Liberi have the traits of birds, which can be seen from parts of their hairs that resemble feathers. They also possess structures resembling tail feathers on their torsos, which are often used to cover their bodies.
Oni closely resembles our world's humans, but with a taller, bulkier, and muscular stature for both men and women and one or two horns on their foreheads. They are even well-known for their rough nature due to their body strength. (Mio is part Oni, which is a reason for her unusual strength, aside from being a fucking Dragon.)
It could move both incredibly slowly and at the same time impossibly quickly, or even vary from one moment to the next, swapping between extremes with no rhyme or reasoning whatsoever.
It was something that Harry was long since used to dealing with, even before you added in Chaos influence to the mix. Because, unsurprisingly, the forge world of Ryza was under attack from all sides, seemingly every ounce of firepower not already directed at Mars itself being focused here.
Harry didn't even bother wondering why. He already knew full damned well what was going on. The heretics and Xenos had figured out that one of the STC copies was here, and wanted to remove it from the picture by any means necessary.
It was rather unfortunate that they were not having a good time of it.
The Speranza, commanded by the AI Silent Lightkeeper, was basically controlling entire swaths of the void as Chaos warships attempted to break past it, to no avail. The Ark Mechanicus continued to prove it's worth, even as the damage piled on and systems began to strain under the pressure. Had she been alone, it would have been a noble, if ultimately futile, gesture of sacrifice before the planetfalls and bombardments began.
Unfortunately for the aggressors, the Speranza was most definitely not alone. And the ships accompanying her had just finished their refits under the new processes using the full STC documents and databases.
The result was a slaughterhouse of epic proportions as the forces of Chaos attempted, to no avail, to grind their way past the wall that was the Speranza and her escorts, the escorts each wielding weaponry of a like that had not been seen since the Dark Age of technology. Lances of photonic energy and miniaturized antimatter warheads found their mark with ruthless efficiency and calculation, and the shields and hulls of the corrupted vessels broke and shattered under the assault.
The Xenos threat (As usual, the Eldar) was similarly facing the best of humanity and being found wanting. The damnable knife-ears had managed to slip by the initial cordon and were attempting to harass the inner defenses while covering for a planetary drop of some kind. Unfortunately for them, they once again faced the fury of the Adepta Sororitas, and Sister Vanalyn's mission did not disappoint. Their powered suits had been upgraded with superior power supplies and armor plate, and had even been equipped with void shielding at one point, making them all but invulnerable in individual combat. Likewise, their weaponry was even deadlier than before, now sporting the latest in a long line of deadly advancements to come out of the forges of the world below.
Still, for all their fervor and zeal, some managed to break through the line. Far more than Harry would have liked, but it was a reality of war.
Of course, that same reality of war had marked him, stationed onboard a defense monitor, as a form of last line of defense. It was a task that he was executing to his utmost…much to the dismay of the oncoming horde of enemies. Magical blasts pierced the shielding of the Eldar ships with only moderate resistance, and even that was adjusted and accounted for as Harry placed down hundreds of 'turrets' in the line of fire, all unleashing their deadly payload upon the fools who dared test him. His own Siege Wall shielding held steadily, denying the enemy an advance route and any method of a clear shot on his person as well, much to the attackers' frustration. He would have chuckled at the phenomena if it wasn't for the fact that the Knife-Ears were making even grander plays to gain access to the surface and the priceless treasure within.
Once again, he found himself having to thank his friend for the knowledge bestowed upon him that now allowed him to defend Humanity from its enemies.
The destruction of one of the Eldar ships caused him to break out into a wide grin. Why, he could even hear the screams of frustration and despair from here!!
Alaya watched carefully the battle of Ryza as it unfolded. The forces of Chaos were tricky, and she was expecting some form of deception to make itself apparent sooner or later. The addition of the Eldar was not helping things in the slightest, especially as they were intentionally using the ongoing Chaos assault to try and slip in to destroy the STC that was below.
Unfortunately for them, their Farseers had no idea that the Sisters of Battle laying waste to the Chaos forces had every scrap of information contained within the precious machines stored in their frames, nor that several of the Sisters still retained their personal copies of the miniaturized STC that Father had made for them to carry out into the wider galaxy. Nothing the damned elves could do would stop the spread, now, not unless they had the means to utterly destroy the finest soldiers of the Imperium in technology that, in many ways, exceeded even the grandest heights of humanity's potential.
And her Father had granted her permission for the one thing that would tip them all over the top.
Slowly, surely, she threaded the precious few bits of power she could spare around those chosen for her next task…and kindled within them the sparks of something greater.
The process would take time, of course, especially with how stretched she was at the moment, but when completed…
Those humans would be given the opportunity to ascend to something greater than ever before.
She absently noted the large push being organized by Chaos, including a massive world-engine dead-set on annihilating the entire planet, and ignored it. It was for naught, especially since he had fully awoken and was soon to arrive to Ryza's aid.
The fools would never know what happened to them.
Dipomer the Pale King, Whirling Schemer of the Undivided Masquerade, looked on his works with an amused smile. The corpse-worshiping fools had no idea that his world engine was coming to them, and soon would be in position to annihilate that pathetic planet and all it held. They fought the dregs of his fleet and thought it a victory!!
But soon, his work would be completed, and the accursed database destroyed in the name of the Four. And the galaxy would know the true strength of the Gods and tremble at their might.
He was tempted to let loose a dark chuckle at the circumstances, but decided against doing so until his victory was at hand. No reason to tempt the fickle ones in this task, after all.
One of the slaves manning the sensors spoke. "My king, there is an anomalous void contact approaching us."
Dipomer frowned. Such actions now, of all times…"Is it alone?"
"Yes, My king."
He nodded to himself. "Send a scouting team to ascertain its identity, and destroy it if it is hostile. Do so now."
The slave trembled in his chains and tried to shrink himself away from his King's gaze.
"Well? Perform your task, slave, lest I find one who is more adequate!" The threat of what would happen to the slave in question went unsaid.
"...My King…I have already sent the orders. The scouting element will be arriving soon."
Ah. That was the issue.
His most recent batch of slaves was an…acquisition from a rival who had fallen in his bid for ascendancy and left his infrastructure behind in his wake. Dipomer had recovered all of it for his own use, and retrained those who had need of it. This slave obviously feared returning to the conditioning pits for being actually proficient at its job.
"Excellent. Well done, slave. You may yet earn your freedom and serve the gods truly…but not yet. Inform me of any results immediately."
Because actual good help was oh so hard to find these days. No need to punish slaves for having initiative…as long as it stayed focused on the proper paths, that is.
A flash lit up the view screen for a moment as the battle turned in an unexpected fashion…except that hadn't come from the battlefront.
A premonition settled onto Dipomer. "Status Report!! What was that light?"
"Unknown, my king!! It came from the direction of the anomaly…scouting elements have been destroyed!! Unknown cause!!"
WHAT!?!
That was impossible!! Those ships were full Void Cruisers, refitted with the finest in necrotic hull plating! No mere single ship could possibly have dealt with them both that quickly!!
"Anomalous contact accelerating fast!! Heading…directly for us!! It's on a collision course!!"
Another slave piped up. "Sensors are giving out erroneous readings!! They say the contact…is a single man?! No protective equipment!!"
"CONTACT SPEED INCREASING!! BRACE FOR IMPACT!!"
It did no good.
The anomaly slammed into Dipomer's ship with the force of a thousand suns, tearing its way through everything in its path on a direct course towards the bridge. He could feel it, now, the way it was moving, with such a purpose. He silently donned his helmet before the arrival of the odd force, lamenting the loss of his new slaves. They were actually competent…
The expected arrival happened, along with the equally expected destruction. And Dipomer got to see his foe.
And was confused as all hell…as his opponent seemed to be a mere child. And oddly dressed, too, what with the strange almost-but-not-quite void suit and ancient jacket. The Star Crest on the child's chest was obviously decorative, but for what purpose eluded him.
Still, had to keep up appearances. He deliberately laid hands on his scythe, yet unnamed, as he stood to face the intruder. "HAH. A Mere child comes before me, the Pale King?! What fool venture are you on, boy, that you think to challenge me?"
The boy merely stared at him with a blank look, the golden locks of hair doing nothing to soften the intensity of his gaze.
"Ah. Silence it is, then. Know that you face Dipomer the Pale King, Champion of Chaos Undivided!! You shall fall in the name of the gods, and your soul will be devoured for your insolence!!"
The flash of light that followed was disorienting for several reasons, the least of which because he was suddenly missing his arms.
"Nah."
The boy outright scoffed at him!! HOW DARE HE!?!
The strange child waked forward, looking around the bridge while Dipomer fumed, his long, bright yellow-gold scarf trailing behind him. "I don't normally like hurting people. I prefer exploring, honestly. It was what I was made for, after all…" There seemed to be an almost wistful look on his face, then, as he lightly touched some odd talisman on his hip.
What manner of daemon used a golden circle for a sigil? Dipomer wracked his brain for an answer.
"Thing is…" the boy continued, "you guys are kind of an exception to that. Your so-called gods stole the stars from Humanity, would steal all hope and joy from them as well. I…really don't like that."
The child turned back to the fuming chaos lord, who was even now trying to scream obscenities at the boy and failing due to an unexpected malfunction of his vox-caster, with a smile on his face.
And the boy's smile was anything but nice.
"I'd like to show you something, if you don't mind."
Again, Dipomer could not respond, except to charge at the child before him.
Who threw him back at a bulkhead with zero effort. "Sorry, but no interruptions. I want to make sure you get a front-row seat."
And with that, the boy calmly cupped his hands together in front of him, centered on that star crest…which immediately began to shine with light.
And the light burned.
"Normally there's a bit of a process to do this, a whole setup and all, but…I've been asked by miss Alaya to skip that part today."
Dipomer collapsed to his knees in soul-wracking pain as the light scoured him merely by its presence. And it was growing. Spreading, almost like an infection, throught the ship…and everything around it.
"So, quick version it is. I'm sorry I didn't get to show you what you were missing."
The Pale King's screams of agony went unheard as the light grew stronger. Through his helmet, he could vaguely hear the rest of the crew, even the daemons sealed into the hull, being scorched by the light.
Worse, Dipomer knew that light. He'd known it once, as a boy, before he found the gods and the true path, back when he believed there was a better tomorr–
Oh. That's what it was.
"Yes. That's what it is." The boy answered him.
That light…was Hope.
"Don't worry. I'll guide them there, as they asked. I am the vessel of Humanity's Hope and Dreams, after all."
The last thing Dipomer saw was a serene smile before all was washed away in the glaring light of his discarded hope, his own dreams of something better.
And somehow, even as his vision was washed away in light, he heard the soft voice resonate throughout the ship, throughout the very void itself.
"Pale Blue Dot."
Harry stared in awe at the light that erupted in the void, as a then unknown world-engine and its escorts were annihilated in an instant. He heard the desperate calls for more information, the screaming about status reports, and ignored them all in light of the simple truth that somehow his bacon had been saved again by Satori, even if indirectly.
Or, rather, that the annoying being that had been trying to worm its way into his psyche had finally made her point.
'Alright. I'll listen now. What do you want?'
An amused chuckle was his response…along with a slight tug towards a section of space. Simple observation revealed what he was meant to be looking for, as a strange figure materialized itself from the void as if by magic to land next to Harry on the monitor's hull.
The child–no, that was clearly a young man, upon looking further– looked up at him with a beaming smile and bright blue eyes, visible even through the goggles he wore.
"Hi. I'm Voyager, and Miss Alaya asked me to help. Nice to meet you!!"
And with that, the young man extended a hand in greeting.
Harry could only grumble in frustration at what his life had become.
Again.
The joyous laughter of children echoed in the room as Mio and I did our work. It was actually quite therapeutic just listening to it, even with having to deal with newly hyperactive kids causing the ruckus. Their parents were still entirely too shocked (and in many cases, crying tears of joy) to even attempt to stop them, not that it would have stuck.
Administering the medicine that would cure the people of their Oripathy was going off with nary a problem, not even a slight hitch in the program, as eager patients lined up to finally be rid of the curse that burdened them for so long. Many of the adults regaled me of things that they had done in the past, mercenary work or time spent as a contract operator for one company or another before the spread became too much, and they were forced to retire. I listened to them all with no complaints, and if I made a point of ensuring that some of those ex-operators got the dosages that would attune their bodies to originium instead? Well, it was time well spent for a better operator in the end.
This, of course, was excepting the kids' antics, including their making a point of crawling all over me whenever possible and generally treating me as their newest and best uncle ever, as I considered that part of the reward that they could even do so in the first place. The kids, sensing
Mio would normally have been laughing at this, except that she got hit with even more of the kids going for the brute-force adoption method, even going as far as to call her "Auntie Mio".
Naturally, she stood no chance against the weaponized cute, and was wrapped around their fingers in short order.
This is not to say that the adults weren't doing prowling of their own. I had noticed the shift in the emotions of the women of the group, something made even easier because of how many there were compared to the men. And a great deal of them were openly checking me out, and, more to the point, making sure they were seen, by me, in doing so. Combined with the unmistakable feeling of blatant lust mixed with determination I was getting from Anya (who for some reason I had a much easier time of noticing from the crowd–something to look into later) made their intentions practically transparent.
In any other situation, especially if I had been alone, I would have swept them all up and given them what they wanted with a happy heart. Unfortunately for them, I was very much happily married, and Mio held absolute veto power on their getting to "reward" me…something that most of them had not quite grasped just yet. The ones that did were either all already attached, and thus not trying to throw themselves at me (with the exception of one of the mouse girls who made it clear that her entire family was "on the menu" if I was interested–and explicitly did so through her husband) or were old enough that they believed themselves unattractive and thus, not a "worthy" prize.
I was actually more surprised that Mio hadn't killed anyone yet, as this had to be setting off her yan buttons.
'It is, but the fact that you are actively holding out, and I can feel it, helps calm me.'
Well, that was a good thing. At least she wasn't going to go ultraprotective dragon on people for eyeing her man too hard. I really didn't want to explain to the hospital staff why people were dead and Mio was nuking their hospital in a cold fury.
I could feel Mio pouting. 'I am not that bad, and you know it. Stop overselling my bad spots.'
'But it's so much fun to tease you~!'
'Fine. See if you get any more pussy for the next month.'
I didn't bother to hide my mirth. 'Woman, I haven't touched you for nearly ten hours now. I know you are on the verge of jumping me. Stop making empty threats'
She only pouted harder, which I found ultra cute, and thus exploited for full value.
Still, that left me with having to find a way to let down the women seeking to offer themselves to me somewhat gently with the news that I was taken. And, in one particular case, finding a way to make the word 'no' actually stick.
Because Anya Belnades was making it extremely clear in ways I still didn't quite get that 'no' was not a valid answer. And that she was willing to push the issue until she got what she wanted…and I got what she felt I deserved.
Even worse, little Marcos seemed to be well aware of his mother's plans and was not-so-subtly cheering her on, while simultaneously trying to wear me down on accepting the idea. It was looking to be a rather nasty snarl if it kept up.
The weird part is that, unlike with the rest of the women, who were at best being opportunistic (and the zalak family, who were just perverts and proud of it), Mio's protective streak wasn't threatening to erupt and cause problems with Anya's advances. If anything, Mio seemed amused at my flailing in trying to get her to back off, though she made a point of not actually showing it…physically, anyway. I had complete access to her mind, and thus front row seats to her personal comedy theater, starring myself.
Let that be a note for others: sometimes it is not worth it to be connected so intimately to your lover, especially when they are seeking to extract their revenge from you.
The worst part is that Anya never actually said anything. She just made sure that she was in a perfect position to make sure that she never fully left my awareness for any reason, and the subtle gestures she was making only accentuated the effect even further. It was almost as if she was somehow awakening as a Newtype or something…but that was impossible…right?
The feeling of an amused giggle from a direction vaguely defined as 'down-left' and a distance of 'yes' did not soothe my fears. Seriously, I did not need to add Newtype BS to everything I was dealing with right now, especially not the weird harem aura effect that the stronger ones like Kamille tended to get. I was married, dammit!!
More giggling, somehow even more amused. Guess there was no help coming from that direction. Whichever of the women on the other side was playing at being god this time was going to hear it from me the next time they decided to come close enough. (the distinct sensation of feathers and something that for some reason mentally translated itself to me as 'Challenge Accepted' had me briefly thinking I may have messed up ever so slightly, though.)
Still, the process completed itself in short order, the people rejoicing in their newfound freedom from the stain of Oripathy on their lives.
I decided to at least leave out on a good note. "Alright. Anything else we can do for you guys before we head out? Aside from what most of you ladies want, anyway?"
The theatrical groaning from the women aside, there was only one request that we got from the group was to head down to the refugee shelter that had been set up for the newer arrivals awaiting the usual government BS and check over them as well, as many would try to hide their infected status or play it off until the symptoms became severe or obvious enough to draw attention. It wasn't an unreasonable request, by any means,
Naturally, Anya volunteered herself, and by extension, Marcos, to show us the location of the current setup, much to the dismay of the other women who hadn't thought of it first… or maybe it was because Mio was projecting her aura now, and the others could feel the displeasure of the stupidly powerful dragon in their midst.
Still, there was one thing that needed to happen before we left the hospital proper.
The nurse guiding us was friendly, though a bit strained due to having been strongarmed by the suits, who had finally managed to beat the hospital administration into submission. "This is the on-site morgue. We've got the bodies of the few deceased stored in biohazard isolation, just in case there was an infectious agent we missed. The bodies were scheduled for autopsy in a few days, but…"
I nodded in appreciation. "Don't worry, we understand. The problem with infected is that...well, the bodies need to be disposed of properly to prevent spread of Oripathy due to how the damned thing works. Cremation is generally the safest avenue, depending on how soon you get to the body, but there are a few other methods you can use if need be."
The cliffs' notes of my little rundown on Oripathy was already making its way into the greater medical knowledge base, mostly by miss Nadia having transcribed everything into an email and shooting it off to her superiors, who then passed it up the chain and around the country. Thoth was noting in the background that a lot of traffic on that subject was getting fired off to multiple locations, including the CDC and WHO. Unsurprisingly, there was an immediate push for various medical agencies to obtain the treatments for their own use as soon as possible…and several instances of messages that Thoth flagged as being from potentially malicious actors about trying to weaponize Oripathy in general.
My workload got ever larger the more I tried to do, I swear…
Anyway, at least in the short term, the benefit was that the local docs and nurses now knew how to deal with most cases of Oripathy and the attendant side effects. Sure, Mio and I were the only ones who could actually create the medicine, mostly due to factors that I was still hashing out the fixes for, but the treatments were easily applied and fast-acting for all but the most extreme cases, and even then a bit of basic medical guesswork would tell you most of what you needed to know to make a decision.
The inspections of the bodies was a brief and somber affair, expedited by my need to contain the potential originium dust spread from the disintegration of the bodes themselves…at least none of the dead here were exploding, unlike what some infected would do upon death.
Did I mention Oripathy was a nightmare? I may have missed that part.
"So, all you need to do is follow these instructions for dealing with the bodies, and you should be able to minimize exposure hazards." Mio stated, finishing a simple writeup of the instructions on a loose sheet of paper, complete with clipboard. "You shouldn't have too many problems with that, but if you do, please contact…er…" she turned to me with visible confusion. "Is there an actual centralized public affairs office over there? I can only find the individual tenant offices. Should I just have her call the Air Wing?"
I shrugged. "That might be a bit high level, but I don't see why not. The 147th Medical Group should be abler to redirect to the proper people, even though they are part of the Air Guard Wing." Mio nodded and scribed the requisite contact numbers before handing over the entire clipboard to the still slightly overwhelmed nurse. "Thank you for your time, and hopefully we see you again under better circumstances. Have a nice day!!"
I kept my snickering to myself. The poor woman did not need any more abuse heaped upon her.
Nearly an hour and a ridiculous amount of paperwork later (as the Hospital still wanted to get paid, not that I blamed them), Mio and I were escorting the Bellnades family out of the hospital and towards the location of the refugee housing, our intelligence minders in tow. Marcos was as excitable as ever, while his mother was far more subdued and somber…and just as unrelenting in her still unspoken stance that I was going to be tapping that ass of hers.
Fortunately, I had the sights of Houston to distract me from her ongoing slow-roll seduction efforts. Unfortunately, the reality outside the vehicle was not one I had expected.
It must be noted that the Houston I know was a vibrant city, full of people and life and energy, even in the wake of an unprecedented pandemic event that forced the city to effectively shut down. It was a kind of strength that kept moving forward, no matter what, and it was a great deal of how Houston had become the fourth-largest city in America by population, in my old home.
This was in stark contrast to what I saw laid out before me. Row upon row of abandoned buildings, many of them old office buildings that had gone unused for far too long. Businesses shuttered, never to be reopened. Houses, even here, closest to downtown, that laid barren and empty. The city was literally a shell of what it could have been, what it should have been, even when compared to how things were in my time. The disconnect was quite jarring for me, and I think it was the primary factor in my recognizing something else that I had been subconsciously ignoring.
I'd already known that my senses were enhanced significantly as a result of my transformation and augmentation into a fluffy fox dude, and boosted even further with the advent of chakra, but having my conscious attention suddenly called to it by the mental bump that was the current City of Houston was…unpleasant. It made me suddenly and painfully aware of everything that I had been shutting out almost on reflex, the smells and sounds that all but shouted at me in their intensity as we moved towards our destination. I could literally smell the level of desperation and hopelessness from many people, the distinct odor of not having been able to bathe in multiple days mixed with the acid stench of urine standing out clear as day to me…and I was nearly a hundred feet from the person it was wafting off of, and upwind no less. Likewise, the sounds of people and the city echoed around me, the slow shuffling steps of the many, many homeless lining the streets adding their own sound of despair to the mix of already depressing noises and sounds.
The only saving grace was that despite my enhanced senses, I seemed to be filtering out the more annoying things, like that screeching noise coming from the trains as they braked, and the other background bullshit that would have likely driven people crazy if it didn't get filtered out.
Mio, as always, picked up on my mood shift. 'You alright?'
'Just adjusting a bit to what I'm seeing. The Houston I know was not this bad…'
Mio was not fooled, even if I did tell her the truth. 'So you're not getting overwhelmed by everything you're picking up?' I could feel the metaphorical flat look she attached to that statement, and couldn't help but flinch at being caught out.
"Mio, I'm fine, at least for now. I'll get used to it."
My speaking this aloud eased her concerns, and she let the subject drop…for a moment.
I noticed her attention shift to our surroundings. "Still…this place is so run down. Odd for a major city to be this bad, isn't it?"
I sighed. She was right, but the reasons why were…annoying. "Well, most of it has to do with parahumans and the bullshit that surrounds them. Then there's the Endbringers, specifically Leviathan, knocking out cities every few months as they move along. Between the two elements, most places don't stand a chance, which has caused a bit of an exodus to the suburbia and countryside for people as institutions break down and things start falling apart."
Mio frowned, then quickly shifted her concentration to something else. I vaguely felt her 'brush' by me in the digital aether, and then she was off and gathering data. It was mere seconds before she was finished, after which she quickly crunched the numbers, compared them to historical notes from her own dimension, and then started riffing my memories of what should have been.
The spike of fury nearly destroyed the entire block from sheer pressure alone, and I only just managed to counteract the external effects of her rapidly growing aura as it flared. She simply glared forward for a long moment, and the poor sods who happened to he in her line of sight nearly had heart attacks at thinking that it was aimed at them. In an attempt to calm her down, I looked over her digital shoulder to see just what had set her off so badly…and only barely managed to not lose control of myself in the process.
Earth Bet, based on Mio's data gathering, had, at it's most optimistic, twenty to thirty years before total societal collapse. The combination of the advent of parahumans, the breakdown of global trade as a result of Leviathan's presence and attacks, and the overall effect of the Endbringers in general on the world as they attacked–no, surgically removed–critical cities and infrastructure around the world was damning.
The worst part? It wasn't for a lack of effort on the part of the remaining organized nations. The US alone was experiencing the kind of problems that would have crippled almost any other country on the planet, and somehow still chugging along, if only just. This was despite having several major cities openly listed as Hives of Scum and Villainy, a label that was an outright admission that the rule of law had failed in those places and there would be no further attempts made to take the place back.
The fact that Houston itself had only escaped that fate due to being the main posting of Eidolon, the world's strongest parahuman, was not lost on me. Nor did it slip by that by the criteria listed, several other cities in the US were effective Hives of Scum and Villainy despite not having the label attached to them.
It didn't stop there. Multiple aspects of critical infrastructure of the US (which actually had available and public statistics, unlike other nations outside of North America) were in severe disrepair, and being openly left to rot. Mio pointed out the semi-infamous Brockton Bay Boat Graveyard, an entire east coast port closed down and blockaded due to the simple fact that nobody wanted to actually take the time to fix the issue, even with the multiple thousands of tons of scrap metal up for grabs in the area. The port of Los Angeles only remained operational due to the destruction of the Panama Canal (actually, the entirety of Panama itself) by Leviathan creating a shipping bottleneck at the remaining hub, and even they were in dire straits.
And this was before you got to the fact that the vast majority of Florida, as well as nearly the entirety of Mississippi and Louisiana, were completely underwater, including several major ports and Naval bases. The US Army Corps of Engineers, already dangerously short-staffed due to forced drawdowns and budgetary re- allotment to the PRT, was backed up for over 18 months on critical tasks, and more were being added to the queue practically every hour.
And this was just in the States. The World picture was even worse the further out you got, with only a bare handful of stabilizing influences managing to hold things together despite the oncoming crash that people had to see coming.
And this was all from public databases and figures, what little bits were available, anyway. But, this was not the end of it. No, not at all…for this data didn't take into account the effects of the bleedover, or the introduction of a brand-new landmass in the Atlantic Ocean.
Her second set of calculations and observations had taken the disruptions into account, and what it showed was nothing less than apocalyptic.
Earth Bet, without direct intervention, had less than five years before total societal collapse of all remaining nations, nation-states, and/or polities. And depending on what happened between now and then, like some dumbass setting off scion or something, the timer could drop even lower.
Wait. Why had that thought just popped into my head?
My train of thought having been interrupted, I finally noticed the small nudges that the Force had been giving me, pushing my insight into certain directions and allowing the proper conclusions to form.
Unless we acted, and Right Fucking Now, Bet was doomed.
Well then. Good thing I was here, then, wasn't it?
I Immediately opened up another 200 or so process threads in my head and got to designing shit. Right now the single biggest limitation we had was that Mio and I could only be in two places at once, and with Mio being pregnant I was very much not willing to risk her on some of the more intense jobs, regardless of her skill. (I ignored the mixed annoyance/exasperation/love from Mio over my protectiveness, as she knew damn well why I was thinking like this.) This meant that I was going to need assistants who could be where I wasn't, and do things to standards that the people of Bet could not…at least, not yet.
An old games store caught my eye, along with a faded poster for "the latest imports from Earth Aleph!!"
And featured on the front was none other than the Master Chief himself. The sight calmed me a bit, bringing back good memories of better times…and a bit of curiosity as to whether any more forerunner-related technology was present within the forge. I could use an Engineer or two about now–
I could feel Mio's smirk. I could feel the Force smirking just as hard. Hell, I felt that odd being that felt like flame and feathers smirk too.
Time to get a revolution going.
"We're here!!"
Anya watched her son run around the refugee shelter that had been hastily built for the arrivals from their world as they filtered in, his tail swishing wildly as he ran. It was not the worst of places, by far, but it was still a refugee camp, with all that came with it. The tents were sturdy enough, and held up well to the elements, but it was obviously meant as a temporary measure…at least, officially.
She knew all too well how things of this nature could go, and was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It would, soon enough. It always did.
Still, the fact that her son was moving around, completely carefree, was an ever -soothing balm on her weary soul. She tried to ignore the greater balm of having been restored to her own health and wellness, but certain itches prevented her from ignoring it, or the reason why.
Satori was a strange enigma, handing out priceless treasures riches like they were worth less than nothing…and expecting nothing in return for services that would have otherwise incurred life-debts. The lack of crystals on her stomach and breast was proof enough for that. It was part of why she had resolved to make sure that he was the first to give her a, ah, test drive, as it were.
And her target was nowhere near as naive as he seemed. He'd caught wind of her intentions almost as soon as she had formed them, and had been doing his best to softly deflect her from her goals, using nearly every trick in the book, including pointing out that the Draco that was his partner was in fact his wife. She had, of course, ignored all of them in favor of making her intent even clearer without crossing any more lines, which he had also understood despite having never actually spoken on them in any capacity.
She giggled softly to herself. It would seem that whatever interesting things were following him around had decided to bless her even more. All the more reason to make sure that he blessed her newly healed womb.
After all, his wife didn't seem to mind too much her flirting and silent propositions, despite otherwise being a jealous lover. Still well below the norm for a draco, almost permissible in fact, but noticeable all the same.
Still, he seemed to be in contemplation on something as they had traveled to this place, along with gaining a newfound resolve that shone forth from his soul like a bonfire. It was almost blinding in its intensity…
"Mom, come on!! I wanna see if Mr. Fawkes is still here!!"
Marcos' exuberance snapped her out of her near-trance. As usual, he seemed to be everywhere at once, and even now was all but bouncing off the surroundings with boundless energy.
She couldn't help the smile on her face, nor did she want to. "Alright, Marcos. I'm coming. Give me a moment." She turned to her companions. "So, this is the place. I'm assuming you are going to run treatments for the people here as well?"
Satori nodded. "That, as well as some other things that need to be taken care of. See that building over there?" He pointed at a run-down building that was likely slated for demolition, across from what looked like a grocery store (interesting name, this "Fiesta" though). "That right there is going to be your new home once we're done with it. I'll bully the city into letting it happen if they try to complain. After that, we can clean up the camp and get everyone situated. How's that sound?"
Anya blinked. Then blinked again, just to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. Rubbing both sets of ears confirmed that yes, her hearing was just fine, and that she had indeed heard the man who had saved her life, saved her son, had just promised them a new home for nothing.
And you wonder why I want you in my panties?
He at least had the decency to feel embarrassed at her not-declaration, even as he continued along. "This is, of course, after we finish treating the people here. I'm assuming that the vast majority of you were infected?"
Anya nodded. "As far as I know, it was everyone. The few who were uninfected tended to be runners to the towns and homesteads for food and supplies."
"Well, you aren't going to have to worry about that for much longer. I'm gonna get in touch with some people and set up a few things while I work. The food issue should be solved in short order. Clothes are going to be a different matter, because of the needed modifications, but we'll get to that later. If I need to, I'll just fix everything myself."
Anya turned to Mio with a look of absolute shock. "How."
The remainder of the question went unsaid: how did you manage to catch him?
Mio's oddly demure shrug told everything. More he caught me…
The moment was interrupted by Marcos pulling his mother away insistently. "MOM!!"
She allowed it with undisguised mirth. "Alright, alright, I'm coming. Now where was he at again?"
"He was over here somewhere!! I think he was trying to fix one of the purifiers or something–"
Mio looked over the refugee camp as they performed their duties, focusing more on the people than the obvious temporary nature of the camp itself.
Prior to their arrival, there was an air of guarded optimism amongst the occupants, a clear thread of "we made it here, but aren't sure if it's really what we want". It was an understandable reaction, based on the bits and pieces she was pulling from their surface thoughts simply by being nearby.
They'd had it rough, getting to this point. It would be some time yet before they believed that the worst of it was over.
Still, that left her with the amusing task of how to upend their world even harder than her Satori already was doing by being himself. That man simply had no idea just how powerful he really was, and She had no inclination on informing him of it just yet.
There were still too many things to fix that needed a blunt instrument to fix, as opposed to his preferred precision. Better to let him build a power base with these people while they were still new and unconnected to the rot festering within the systems of this world, that they could be ready to step up when the time came to excise it.
She suspected that the time would come far sooner than expected.
Her patients were quite the mix. It was a different blend of the various races of their world that she treated, this time, with some new ones added to the mix that were…unexpected. The various people with horns were new to her (when asked, some responded with being either a Caprinae, Elafia, or Forte) as were the mixture of birdlike people (Liberi, they were called. The old man whom she'd asked was slightly confused at the question, but went with it anyway, to ensure he got cured…not that she was withholding it) that dotted the place, in the usual mix of elderly and children. If anything the only standouts were the three unique people she had met: one, a young man who stayed to himself as often as possible, and refused any and all questions about his race (she sent him to Satori's pile to be treated there instead), the second, an oddly youthful elderly gentleman who seemed to take entirely too much mirth in her confusion over his species ("Kirin, young lady. We're a bit rare, as you can see.!!"), and the last…
"Ha!! I knew it would be one of ours that finally cracked the code. I owe you a drink after this, don't let me forget about it!!"
The last was a pair, father and daughter, of literal Oni. For the refugees of the camp, this was nothing new, but the city's residents, and specifically the asian population, was oddly transfixed by their presence…and some of them very quietly terrified.
As it turns out, her change had caused her to inherit some of the traits of these oni, something she had not known until she came to them and almost immediately felt a kinship of sorts.
"Papa, You said that we were going to give her the good stuff, right? Not the piss that passes for alcohol around these parts!!"
Mostly because they were extremely brash and blunt, not really caring about harming people's feelings or pride or anything at all. It was downright refreshing to be able to interact with normal people again.
Still, she had to pass on the offer of a drink…for now. Besides, there was still an as-yet unused sake jug needing to be broken in back Home…
Huh. She thought of the Moonbase as her home, now. That was…no. That wasn't it. It wasn't the moonbase that was home. It was the man that resided within it.
She smiled to herself at yet another realization. My Satori is Home.
Naturally, she was filled with energy at the pleasant thoughts, and the remaining treatments completely flew by with her newfound good mood.
Which she didn't mind at all. More time to help set up and deploy her husband's newest project…
The standard Oripathy treatments went off without a hitch, with only two people needing to have the second variety to not die, one of them being a Sarkaz desperately trying to hide his identity at all costs. A nudge from the force had me use the third batch instead, which I'd hoped would help in some way with the inherent Sarkaz weakness to oripathy, above and beyond even normal Terrans…
Huh. There it is again. I seem to be getting a whole HELL of a lot of bleedover in various forms of information and knowledge in relation to this world. It wasn't completely unusual, except in the fact that it had waited until now to start fully integrating into my head, unlike the rest of it, which usually started right off.
Eh. I'd deal with it later. Right now, with the treatments finished, and my somehow not getting swarmed by the bunches of extremely grateful people (and the Oni girl who had outright shouted to everyone that if I wanted her to just bend her over and go, which got some raucous laughter from the more perverted crowd, and even her own Father, not that I was surprised in the slightest, even though his daughter couldn't have been more than 14), I could instead work on getting the first of my helpers online.
I'd taken the plans for the Orb repair robot that had been a part of the crash dump, and then started modifying from there. Everything, and I mean everything, was modified to be the absolute best that it could be within my skill set, and Mio had then run over it with the proverbial millimetric fine-tooth comb for any slack before we repeated the process again, just to make sure that nothing got left out.
The end result was something that previously would have scared me to death if I'd come across it in any capacity: it was, for all effects and purposes, a Forerunner Engineer on steroids, granted super soldier enhancements, and then boosted to all hell and back…before then giving it psionic and magical capabilities on top of that. It had access to nanoscale manipulators to work on any substance possible with the precision it would need, a built-in recycler/fabricator combo alongside a sub-pocket storage space for carrying around raw and refined materials, and more scanners and analyzers than the most invasive laboratories. The power core itself was a bit of a prototype wonder, using the properties of synthetic kyber crystals and their energy amplification abilities to overcharge everything else. That it also served as a useful method of storage for supernatural energies when formed and prepared in a certain way was a mere bonus feat, as I'd already figured out how to bypass that part using modified mana capacitors.
The 'housing' was intentionally set up to be a combination of as much protective gear as possible to shield the delicate innards and enough propulsive ability to get around in any environment and under any conditions, which created an interesting little design element that I took advantage of when doing the final design phase: making the things as cute as possible to avoid being destroyed by unaware people. That this involved making it a quasi-organic structure was beside the point, it just had to be harmless-looking and cute.
The final product ended up looking like a flying six-legged turtle with retractable tentacles, but the design worked wonders. Even better, the overall design was directly intended to be reproducible in the field by the cute turtle itself, meaning that all I had to do was direct them at a source of materials (or let them find them) and they would take care of the rest.
Of course, that was just the hardware. The software side was even more insane.
I'd had at least thirty of my multitasking elements working on the Shiekah script in order to not only understand what it did and why, but to break it down into something that I could then put back together even better with my 'mad coding skillz'. It was easier said than done, and I ended up putting another sixty or so instances on the problem before it cracked open and yielded fruit, but yield it did. The resulting combination of Shiekah script, magical mathematics, and general abuse of enchantment systems for the software side was downright silly, and then I tossed a T'au AI that I had specially prepared, and personally coded, into the mix.
It was everything that it needed to be and more.
Building the package was a non-issue using Thoth's onboard systems, and I built four more just to be safe. These should help in getting things back on track.
Some final programming was done: One of my new builder boys (which needed a name, but the obvious ones were either taken or really taken, and I didn't want what was left of Nintendo to come after me in futile fury) was going to be sent back to Miakoda and was specifically programmed to interface with the central database and download everything inside, then send the relevant data to the rest so that they had it as well. The others would be hanging around and doing various tasks while I dealt with more important things.
The sounds of an altercation caught my attention before I could deploy my new toys. As usual.
A brief investigation turned up…okay, seriously?
"Hey, you furry bastards!! Time to pay up!"
Yes, seriously. A fucking gang is trying to hustle the refugee camp.
Apparently, there was a small group of thugs at the entrance, demanding to be let in to collect 'rent'. I suspected that the only reason they were not dead yet is that the people here liked them or something, because there were at least ten semi-retired operators just hanging around the place, not to mention the Oni pair who could rip them apart with zero effort.
I decided to check closer just in case I was missing something.
But no, it really was just a random group of gangers showing up for protection money, nevermind that the refugees don't have any money that would work on Bet. There was a strange undercurrent of excitement coming from the kids, though, as well as from a few adults.
I took a moment to get a quick look in their heads before pushing forward, and what I saw stopped me in my tracks.
The 'gangers' were completely phoning it in. not a one of them had actual hostile intent, and in fact had managed to round up what amounted to the local charity basket of several neighborhoods to bring into the place, but were making it look like it was a mugging for the sake of their public reputation. The gangers would come in with the bags of loot, and mysteriously "forget" to take the same bags with them when they left, instead leaving with other things. Meanwhile the camp got desperately needed supply from a source that the Police and possibly even the PRT would not approve of, even thought they were actively helping.
It still didn't explain the kids' anticipation though…
"HOHO!! Evildoer stand away, or else you shall pay!!"
I blinked, and the kids' enthusiasm reached a fever pitch. Apparently this is what they were waiting for.
And sure enough, on top of the dilapidated building to our north, there was a distinct shape standing there, cape swishing in the wind.
Honestly, the Mouse ears gave it away, but I was playing along for now.
"Behold, the might of the Knight of Mice!!"
Because of course she had to be as cheesy as possible, probably with a side of ham somewhere in there as well. I could hear the groans from here, and even some of the 'gangers' were groaning in frustration as well.
I got the distinct feeling that the gangers were in on this and doing it mostly to humor the kids, but I refused to voice the statement lest I break the moment.
Mouse Protector, because of course it was her, proceeded to show off in the most over the top and silly way possible in "defeating" her opponents, complete with the mouse puns (don't squeak too loud boys! This party is only just starting to scurry!) and cheesy lines with extra ham (in the name of the Cheddar, I shall Punish you!!). Worse, she was intentionally being bad about it, which only added to the groanfest that was going on.
The gangers were taking their "defeat" in stride, making sure to set up in such a way to make Mouse as entertaining as possible for the kids while still accomplishing their goals. And man were those guys good…they got in and out almost like a trained genin team, just with less stealth.
And all the while the kids were going nuts as MP showed off as hard as possible.
Of course, nothing in life is ever perfectly good. Another group decided that now would be a perfectly good time for therm to interfere and remove the first group for whatever reasoning they had, and with lethal force. I didn't bother even looking at the faces as I removed them from play, and the show kept going on regardless.
Or at least, it should have. Somewhere between my mopping up the second group and moving back MP had disappeared and not returned. Mio, who had been watching the show as it went on, was just as confused as I was, and we were both scanning the possible angles for her to have used to escape with little success.
I couldn't help but admire the skill. "So, this woman literally vanished from an actual ninja. that takes some doing…still, Where did she go?"
"Where are you looking?"
I immediately snapped back to a building that I knew I'd just checked, to see that Mouse was standing atop it…and holding my hat? How the hell?
I specifically hadn't worn my hat because it was hot as all hell outside, being a downright frigid 94 degrees in the sunlight, which for Texas in June is practically subzero. So I, an actual card-carrying Touhou, was moving around without a hat and Mouse Protector somehow manages to get a hold of it. Great.
"I'm up here, Satori. Right up here." She spoke it with a strange calm and cadence, one that reminded me of something…but there is no way–
Her stance shifted, her demeanor more stern. She even threw my hat back at me. "Now, ANSWER ME SATORI!!"
She wasn't.
"THE SCHOOL OF THE UNDEFEATED OF THE EAST!!!'
Oh. My. god. She was actually doing it!!!
I had no choice.
My response was clear as day, my precious hat being placed back where it belonged, as was appropriate for such a moment.
"The Winds of the King!!"
We were actually doing this.
The two of us moved.
The sounds of fist meeting fist filled the air as we danced.
"ZANSHIN!!"
"KEIRETSU!!'
"TENPA KYORAN!!"
We met on the ground, fists meeting, complete with epic lightning in the background as we posed dramatically.
"LOOK!! THE EAST IS BURNING RED!!"
I didn't care that the kids were going absolutely nuts. I didn't care that the "gangers" had used the opportunity to escape, conveniently leaving behind the last of the supplies as they "beat feet to save their skins" I didn't care that Mio was recording this to use as blackmail later.
The fact that someone else, on Earth Bet of all places, understood the glory that was G Gundam, to the point of recreating the greatest bro fist of all time, was a reward all on its own.
I could ask Mouse about how the hell she knew so much about me later on, after all.
So, this chapter fought me for a number of reasons, mostly because events IRL sapped me of the will to write, and then I came back with other shit on my mind. This is the result, and if it got silly at the end, blame Mouse Protector.
She does that to everyone.
Also, meet Voyager. he's super cute, very kind, and absolutely more powerful than anything short of a major daemon and then some. Pale Blue Dot is rated as anti-star when Voyager is still new and not quite into his power. This one...is not so new.
I also apologize for the delay, but certain events and the handling thereof have been pissing me off greatly, which fed into my lack of will to write.
More Arknights Lore and Races:
Caprinae have the traits of goats (Capra sp.) and sheep (Ovis sp.), which can be seen from the shape of their horns.
Elafias have the traits of deer (Cervidae), which can be seen from the shape of their antlers, though not all Elafias have them.
Fortes have the traits of artiodactyls or even-toed ungulates, which includes bovines and camelids. For the former, their bovine traits can be seen from the shape of their horns. For the latter, their camelid traits can be seen from the shape of their ears and they have the ability to survive in hot arid deserts.
Kirin have the traits of the qilin, a chimeric legendary creature from the Chinese mythology, which can be seen from their draconic horns and equine tails. The qilin is usually depicted as a creature having the head of a dragon and body of a horse.
Liberi have the traits of birds, which can be seen from parts of their hairs that resemble feathers. They also possess structures resembling tail feathers on their torsos, which are often used to cover their bodies.
Oni closely resembles our world's humans, but with a taller, bulkier, and muscular stature for both men and women and one or two horns on their foreheads. They are even well-known for their rough nature due to their body strength. (Mio is part Oni, which is a reason for her unusual strength, aside from being a fucking Dragon.)
theaceoffire
Versed in the lewd.
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See the problem I have with Deadpool like interludes is that this world is chaotic enough. I mean actual literal chaos and multiple extra dimensional gods are poking in his brain all the time, not to mention the force and the spirit of humanity and who knows what else.
So trying to figure out what's fourth wall breaking and what's just reality itself breaking can be quite tricky.
I still like the story, but characters who can break the fourth wall are very tricky to do well.
So trying to figure out what's fourth wall breaking and what's just reality itself breaking can be quite tricky.
I still like the story, but characters who can break the fourth wall are very tricky to do well.
Slider Zero
Not too sore, are you?
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Um...I didn't make a fourth wall break though? At least, not one that was intended?
kinda weird that you saw that, but it's probably something I need to pay attention to.
Thanks for reading, though (and for reminding me to catch back up on your stuff...)
Slider Zero
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It's coming. This chapter was just focused eslewhere. But trust me, It's coming.
Thine Spree
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Oh god, of course MP would be a G-Gundam fan, that is so entirely on brand for her 
souvikkundu
Versed in the lewd.
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Is Starchild fused with Voyager?
Slider Zero
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Normally I am willing to let you guys stew for a bit in speculation, but I'm gonna stop you right there. The Starchild has his own thing going on. Voyager is Voyager, and happens to be ultra-powerful because he is the last of the Heroic Spirits in that universe/timeline, owing primarily to being his own fucking class and thus outside the rules that normally govern things. Alaya is just directing him around to help out as needed, which is possible in the first place only because of his own core abilities.
Also, a reminder that Voyager's Pale Blue Dot has been classified as being "Anti-Star" level in some media, and that was when he was brand spanking new.
Do the math.
I felt it fit with her style and personality. As I'll be getting into next chapter, this version of Mouse Protector is actually quite the geeky girl and is unashamed of her proclivities, nor in using them against people as needed.
Real Talk? That's a not insignificant part of why I had her show up. She got done absolutely dirty in canon, and avoiding that should be an objective of anyone who has the ability to do so. That it also opens up an avenue for other things is a bonus.
She has to go through Mio first, and Mio is a known yandere. Knowing MP, she'll probably worm her way in regardless.
ImmortalEmperor34
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Is the next tech base going to be G Gundam
souvikkundu
Versed in the lewd.
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Can Alaya not use dead Primarchs as servants? I mean if she lack throne in those verse can she not use dead heroes of warhammer verse?
ImmortalEmperor34
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the throne of heroes exists out side of time and space as such it is everywhere and nowhere
Garreon
Horny Overlord
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I mean, makes sense that Pale Blue Dot is so strong now. Current day servants are very young and they don't have as much Mystery and mysticism as older Servants do, so they tend to be less powerful.....
Makes sense that after 19.975 years after his recording into the Throne of Heroes, and a lot of forgotten history, now Voyager is a an incredibly powerful servant.
Makes sense that after 19.975 years after his recording into the Throne of Heroes, and a lot of forgotten history, now Voyager is a an incredibly powerful servant.
Mgunh1
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Ah yes, Zone of the Enders. The game that put the cock back into cockpit.
I don't care how strong those mechs are, I just cannot get over the fact that the entire series is an overly elaborate penis joke.
ImmortalEmperor34
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With all that is happening in Warhammer 40k I wonder how the Tau are reacting to humanity regaining its old strength
Chapter 29
Slider Zero
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Advance Note: I am using a new page break style for ease of posting, so the formatting is slightly different. Otherwise, please enjoy.
Rebecca Costa-Brown was a hard woman. She'd had to be, in order to do what needed to be done for the sake of humanity, to stop the entity known as Scion from destroying everything. It was a road that had robbed her of anything approaching proper empathy, for such weakness could not be tolerated while the threat still existed.
She, along with her comrades-in-arms at Cauldron, had for decades now been fighting the good fight, doing everything possible to prepare for the inevitable final confrontation while still maintaining some semblance of normality in the world, aided by Contessa and the Path to Victory, which could ensure any task but the one most important above all.
At least, that was the case, until things abruptly changed for the worse when suddenly the very planet itself was warped beyond recognition, with an entirely new landmass added into the Atlantic Ocean. If that had been the only change to happen, she would have called it unusual and moved on…but then the signals from the moon started up. Followed by activity that Cauldron could not trace, nor get a proper read on, mostly due to the limitations on parahuman powers reaching out to the Earth's satellite.
From there, came another horror, the specter of an opponent that was on par with Endbringers themselves, and a fight so brutal that it was visible from the ground in broad daylight. But even with all of this, there was still hope that Cauldron could take advantage of the situation, and turn things to the proper path.
Until that goddamned fool showed up and ruined everything.
Satori Green, Formerly a technical Sergeant of the United States Air Force in another, stranger dimension not part of the set that Cauldron could access, had appeared wielding powers and technology beyond anything that the world had ever seen, and announced himself as the proud owner and renovator of the newly-renamed Miakoda base on the moon. Under normal circumstances, this would be a useful distraction, a means to show once again that normal people were not the solution, and that the world had to trust in the power of parahumans to steer the course, which in turn would give them more soldiers for the final battle.
And then the bastard's wife went and killed the Simurgh in about as non-climactic a way as possible, while one of his allies at his precious moonbase was still live and on air with NASA. Her attempts at damage control had then failed spectacularly, leaving him with even more clout and a blanket ultimatum that he could and would pack up and move elsewhere if the US Government didn't put the PRT back in its place.
The initial "reprimand" from the President still stung her pride, even now.
Further attempts to place Green under their nominal control had failed spectacularly, as he then proved to have the ability to not only analyze but repair tinkertech, including one of the specialized scanning devices that were kept on hand to implicate potential outside context problems as parahumans and thus place them under the proper jurisdiction of the PRT.
The Military was having a field day watching her get utterly destroyed by the President, again, over poking at the golden goose. And there was nothing she could actually do to put a stop to the bastard, because he was earning goodwill wherever he went now, and had been openly giving out his wonder technology to everyone he came across–-and not to the PRT.
In fact, this very meeting that she was attending was day three of her current barbecue session, courtesy of the President of the United States having taken a greater interest in certain issues with the Greens' arrival…including the issue of the dimensional refugees.
Cauldron had been able to use the people's physiology to have them mistaken as Parahuman Case 53's, and had used that to apply pressure where they could to make inroads on their own projects. Some had even been taken to a series of labs on a different Earth in order to learn more about their new friends.
Current data was still inconclusive, but the project was still new. She was certain that Cauldron's scientists could figure out the mystery in due time.
The problem was that both of the Greens matched the general profiles of these refugees, and because all medical tests performed on them so far showed that they were both still human, even if heavily augmented with large amounts of both mechanical and biological technology. Combined with the fact that they seemed to be aware of whatever it was that the refugees were hiding regarding the odd growths on their bodies, and were moving to do something about the issue, said everything.
The worst part? Both of them were completely unpathable, and Contessa didn't have enough to work with to try and use a general profile to predict their actions.
Cauldron was losing control, and the results could be disastrous for everyone if they didn't find a way to get back on top before it was too late.
"Director Costa-Brown."
The President's voice pulled her out of her ruminations, not that she had lost her place in the conversation at any point. "Yes, Mr. President."
President Gillen was not a happy man at the moment. "I am hearing more about the PRT interfering with the dimensional refugees that are being pulled in. Things about the conditions of the camps, restrictions on housing, and lack of available aid despite both my own Executive Orders and a Congressional bill authorizing just that. What exactly are your people up to this time?"
Rebecca once again thanked her power for allowing her to suppress the grimace that wanted to form on her face. Gillen had become extremely confident as of late, and willing to push back against Cauldron influence. "We are working with local aid groups in prioritizing treatment for the new Case-53 parahumans–"
"I'll stop you right there, Director." Gillen thundered. "Those people are not Case-53s, and most certainly not parahumans of any sort!! Your people have overstepped the line once again, just like the last time, and I am finding myself wondering just why that is."
Plans whirled through her head, anything that would let her retake the initiative and defend the actions of her subordinates. She quickly settled on a course of action. "Mr. President, we were operating under the assumption–"
"No. No more of the games and "but we assumed" bullshit. Your people have been overstepping their bounds for a long time, and while I admit I have allowed it in the past, it will not happen here. The last time I let you play your little games, we almost lost the greatest asset this country has ever seen to fucking Mexico. As it is, I am still getting phone calls from them asking about when the setup is going to start. And all because you had to try and play power grab.
"I am, quite frankly, sick and tired of dealing with your bullshit and the fallout, especially when it could cost us all too valuable human resources and otherwise loyal soldiers because you will not just leave well enough alone. So now, I am putting my goddamned foot down like I should have two years ago.
"So, here's how this is going to go: These refugees are not your concern until and unless we have a confirmed trigger event, and then and only then will you have or be allowed any authority in the matter. This is not up for discussion. Do I make myself clear?"
Rebecca could say nothing to that, except one thing. "Yes, Mr. President."
Gillen nodded, satisfied. "Good. I have reports coming in that Mr. Green has found a treatment for whatever it is that has them sick, and right now the CDC is asking for some assistance in moving people around so that the critical cases can be seen to as quickly as possible. I want to have these people, who or whatever they are, on our good list for when things get worse…and they will get worse, what with the frequency of attacks stepping up."
Rebecca had to think about it before she could place the reference…and had to once again thank her powers. Because the President was referring to a particular wrinkle that made itself known a few months back, in the form of unidentified flying objects that even most parahumans could not deal with. All Cauldron could find on the subject without tipping their hand was that there was someone on the problem already. Contessa was intentionally being vague about her guidance in that area as well, and had told the rest of Cauldron to not worry about it. If the situation was getting worse, however…
"Mr. President. I ask again: may I know what steps are being taken to combat these attacks? It would assist in keeping my people prepared."
"You do not have a need to know such information at this time, Director. Leave it at that."
Rebecca seethed internally as the President continued on with the meeting. She literally could not get a break…
In deep space, a fleet moved.
Their target was certain, their purpose nothing more and nothing less than holy writ: the search must continue.
All obstacles to this goal were to be eliminated or subsumed into their cause for the greater good, or used to facilitate the same. Nothing could interrupt them in their task, for it was one of the utmost importance. Triply so, now that they knew that the planet they were targeting held what they had sought all this time.
However…there was a complication.
Somehow, an unexpected variable had introduced itself into their plans, and was even now operating on the target world, potentially hardening it against their coming incursions. This could not be allowed.
And so, contingencies were called into play. Timetables were accelerated, and appropriate resources burned to accomplish such a task.
The goal of eons untold would be achieved.
At all costs.
Risa, newly formed mental model of the Rising Phoenix, suddenly found herself in a quandary as she monitored the local space.
Technically, she had not been ordered to do so, just as she technically had not been ordered to activate The Tester, let alone the AGE builder and the attendant facilities. Even now, the Builder was using it's compiled data to upgrade itself to better accommodate future builds of the nature it wanted to use in its tests, especially as the initial and secondary batches of testing had proven to be more than satisfactory for all purposes.
This was going to become extremely important soon, because if her long-range passive tracking was correct, then the armada that had been slowly creeping towards Earth had decided that time was of the essence, and pushed to full ahead to arrive faster, even if it meant leaving behind their support craft…
Or not, she grumbled, as the recently upgraded base sensors detected an extremely powerful psionic effect being employed to drag the slower ships along behind the faster ones to increase speed. Worse, their speed was rapidly climbing, and at almost ridiculous rates.
A quick calculation delivered the grim news: at the current rate of advance, combined with their acceleration, and assuming a need for a decel burn, the enemy would be here within two Earth weeks…which was a downright terrifying proposition to face off against. She was just one ship, dammit!!
Yes, a ridiculously powerful Valkyrie Battleship augmented with Fog technology and that of her Captain, but still a single ship!!
If she launched now, and used an in-system jump via mass effect, she could catch the leading edge of the fleet just at the outer edge of the Kuiper belt and run a harassment campaign from there. It wasn't going to punch through the entire fleet, not with that many numbers and most certainly not with the level of shielding being kicked out by whatever was onboard, but it would thin the horde.
Somewhat.
But nowhere near enough.
She silently cursed her late activation. Had she come online before her captain had left for the planet, they might have been able to work something up. As it was, the one extra Union Core she had available (A relic of her creation, and modified in the same manner as her own core) was worthless, as without a ship to apply it to there was no point to its use, especially as the basic AI within was meant for a supply tender and not a line vessel, and thus would require directives for use.
…unless she cheated the system. Created an edge, something that could be used as a fallback position in case the worst came to pass.
The AGE Builder beeped, it's control system sending out a status report regarding the problem it had been observing though her and the potential solutions…along with a copy of a heavily redacted file. The first was a starship, fully capable of operating both in and out of a gravity well, and that was intentionally set up to be modified for use as a mobile base of operations, alongside being able to do all of the important things that a Fog supply vessel was needed for. That it included its own Builder system and terminal was seen as a good thing, as they would likely be needed in the coming days if worst came to worst.
The second was the machine that was intended to be placed inside. A titan of steel and exotic alloys, modified with the best of the tried and tested technology available that was still capable of being installed on the frame itself, even with its size. It was intended to stand as the sentinel that would protect the world from all who would dare harm her, and emerge victorious every time, regardless of the odds.
There was a final gift, as well: the AGE builder had just finished fabricating a set of upgrades meant for her specifically, that would boost her performance in all areas.
But would it be enough?
She nodded to herself, a grim smile on her face. At least I don't need to drag the Kerbals into this. They are far safer here for the moment.
She set up one final order: the AGE system was to create the vessel shown in the plans she'd seen, and deploy it to Earth with instructions to camouflage itself, collect resources, build up support structures as needed, and await further orders from either her captain or another authorized command agent…and in the event that the worst came to pass, to enact the plans that were built into the system as per the contingency protocol.
She very pointedly did not need to know what they were. Not yet.
And so, Risa prepped her ship body, utilizing the inherent connection she had to the Rising Phoenix to quickly prep everything for her departure and engagement with the enemy. She fully expected to be engaged with the enemy within the next six hours, at most. Sadly, she would leave too late to notice the advance raid coming in hot on the planet itself, and would be out of position to intercept them when she did notice.
Likewise, the plans that she had left unread were inserted into the system build queue at highest priority, with expected deployment within the hour. Further buildup could be handled on-site once the ship made planetfall.
Thus, the title of the plans went unremarked upon by anyone for lack of a person to remark upon them.
It would prove to be significant in the coming days.
[CONTINGENCY PLAN "HEAVEN'S FALL" SUCCESSFULLY LOADED AND PREPARED. SRG-01C MATERIALS AND PLANS LOADED INTO DATABASE.]
[UNIT DESIGNATION "AVENGER" READY TO LAUNCH IN T-MINUS 90:00.00]
-={/\]=-
"So, you gotta tell me about that base of yours, Satori. I need details!!"
Mouse Protector was astoundingly clingy once she got her hooks into you, and was currently needling me relentlessly regarding information on Miakoda station and what future plans were in store. Not that it bothered me much, as unlike most, I could actually keep up with her enthusiasm for her preferred topics.
Didn't stop her from trying to bowl me over and effectively weld herself to my side, but you can't win at everything, and I had a dragon wife for dealing with the part where MP got too grabby.
"If you will give him a moment to actually respond, he would likely do so. Or, better yet, just ask me instead." Mio growled out, irritation clear in her tone and stance. As expected, she wasn't taking Mouse's antics well, partly because it was pushing certain buttons of hers that she generally did not have to worry about, but mostly due to her being overdue for a dicking and knowing full well that Mouse Protector had my interest.
Yes, Jealous Mio was cute too. Fortunately, I had no intention of any form of Infidelity, and despite her enthusiasm and general handsiness, neither did the Mouse. She was just very touchy with those she liked, was all.
Mouse quickly wriggled herself into a comfortable position at my side, somehow dragging Mio to cling to my opposite, not that she was complaining. "But I wanna know now~!"
"Well, wait a moment, so I can get somewhere we can talk about things, then, you silly woman." I snarked. Of course, this only added fuel to the fire, and Mouse Protector wasted no time in pulling us along in her wake to an empty tent.
I pointedly did not ask how she knew it was empty.
Catching a seat on a nearby cot and bouncing lightly as she landed, Mouse quickly settled in, all but vibrating with enthusiasm. "Alright, we're in a private space now, tell me!!"
I took a seat opposite on a nearby stool, while Mio plopped down on an adjacent cot. "Alright, alright. I'll spill…but first, a few questions."
What little of Mouse's expressions were visible became somewhat guarded, though the feeling of acceptance I was getting from her had not faded. "Ugh. fiiine. Be a spoilsport. Whatcha want to know?"
My smile was downright predatory. "First, how did you know who I was, and more specifically, where and how to find me?"
Mouse shrugged. "Oh, that was easy. The Protectorate has a nice tracking app for things they consider a threat, and you are at the top of the list. It was easy to ask for a favor to get a quick look, and then I was on my way."
I felt Mio's ire, but mentally stroked her a bit to soothe the beast. Mouse wasn't responsible for the Protectorate being dumbasses, that was Becky–no, Alexandria, trying to play hardball with the person she couldn't directly control.
Unfortunately, Mouse continued in her explanation. "Also, there is a little-used personnel sharing thing between the PRT and the Department of Defense that allows for the PRT to go digging into records when they feel like it. I'm pretty sure the PRT used it to build a threat profile on you the instant the paperwork could clear, which was likely as soon as it got entered into the system."
Alright, now I was mad, but there was little I could do about it at the moment. Need to stay focused on the objective…
Instead, I nodded slowly, using the motion to mask my own concerns. I somehow got the feeling that MP wasn't buying it, but pushed forward anyway. "Okay then, second question: what made you think that I was going to be willing to even accommodate your silliness, anyway? I'm sure you are aware of how I treated parahumans before."
Again, Mouse waved it off, this time with an actual wave. "Naah. You ran Dispatch through the ringer for a perfectly good reason, and your whole thing with Grey Knight was a known issue for a while in the Protectorate, even though they try not to talk about it in public. You weren't going to do anything too harsh to little ol' me…at least, not without your cutie having a say about it." She punctuated this with a wink at Mio, who dismissed it as the distracting antic that it was.
"Now, for your obvious third question!" Mouse exclaimed, cutting me off before I could even get to it. "You want to know why a parahuman is interested in the Space. But that's not all!!" Now she had jumped to her feet, wildly gesticulating with her hands. "You also want to know if I'm willing to undergo a super special experiment that might let me actually get to the moon without screwing things up or killing me in the process!! And I say right now that of course I'm In!! Just tell me what needs to get done first, okay?"
…what?
How the hell had she known that? And why did she seem to be able to anticipate me so damned hard? It's almost like…
The world lost focus for a moment, and the only things there were me, Mio, and Mouse Protector–no, none of that, my name is Marcella–standing there in the space.
The moment broke almost as soon as it happened, but it was all that I needed to know.
Somehow, Miss Marcella Wallace, the ever-excitable Mouse Protector, was a Newtype. And a damned powerful one, at that, especially if she was pulling off stuff like this right off the bat. Most newtypes had to build up to this level of silliness…which implied that she had the potential to become much, much stronger as her powers grew.
Marcy (yes, you have a nickname now, deal with it) was smirking at me the whole time, utterly assured in her victory. Mio only grumbled harder, muttering something about "another one" under her breath.
I could only sigh in frustration, as aside from interacting with Mio I have had little reason to even casually flex any of my psionic prowess, let alone my recently properly awakened newtype abilities. And Marcy seemed to be fully aware of it and reveling in the superiority in an oddly wholesome manner.
"Fine, Since you want it so bad, you will be the guinea pig parahuman for figuring out what the hell is going on, and to see about removing that annoying tether your lot has." I grumbled out. "I was meaning to test this out on a certain asshole, but…"
"Nuh-uh. I am a big enough nerd to know exactly what I managed to luck my way into, and there is no way in hell I am passing this opportunity up. I am a literal, honest to god Newtype, interacting with other newtypes, and I fully intend to enjoy it as much as possible, and as properly intended for newtypes: in. Space. Now excuse me while I celebrate."
Marcy's cheering (and funky dance) washed away all of my attempts at gloom, and did a number on Mio's as well. There was just no being moody around her, it seemed…
Explaining things to Marcy while we walked was a no-brainer, especially as we were sticking to "public-safe" topics, now that she had openly busted through the obvious barriers. She was focusing on things that she could get her hands on up on Miakoda, and some bits about life in space as well.
That, and playing with the extras that this version of newtype awakening came with, because apparently the psionic powers were strong with this one. Not just Newtype, oh no: she was somehow an equally powerful psychodriver as well (but did they mix in this case? Or was it just a different side of the same coin? Something to test later on) which meant that she now had, in addition to insane spatial awareness and perception, fucking telekinesis.
As expected, Mouse ("yeah, that works for a handle too, it was a nickname when I was a kid") took to it like a house on fire, and even now was practicing as subtly as possible with her relatively newfound powers whenever she could…much to the annoyance of her actual power, which seemed to be trying to drive her to poke Mio and I with her sword, repeatedly.
"That part is going to need some explaining, Satori my guy." she quipped. "See, not only is this the first time I have noticed something like this, and coming from my own power, no less, but I also happen to like you two, and would rather not be compelled by my parahuman power to turn you into a pincushion. Though I get the distinct feeling that making that stick is going to be an exercise in futility…
Indeed, Because I had cracked White Magic, of the Final Fantasy variety (and wasn't that a shock to the system) while doing the research necessary for Thoth's upgrades…and White Mages in general (White Wizards in particular, though those were extremely rare) were effectively impossible to kill past a certain level of power without them having allowed it to happen in the first place.
Mio offered up her explanation on the matter. "I think that whatever is driving parahuman powers is actively observing though the senses of a parahuman, thus creating a vector for potential command input relative to whatever objectives that this mysterious power source may have." She turned towards me again. "Are you sure that we should be trusting her with even this much? There is a strong likelihood that these things can use people as observation nodes or something. We have nothing to work with on them except that, based on our sample size of one, parahumans are the only known group with not one, but two stable cancers in their brain."
I could feel the sarcasm.
"Well, we have to do something no matter what, so I think it's easier that we just put our heads together for a bit and figure out what the deal is with her brain meats, so we can get back to the Barbecue discussion. Especially because this heathen thinks that proper Texas 'cue is inferior to KC-style, which is a known falsehood that needs to be corrected as soon as possible."
"Bah, you cowboys and your beef. Besides, you stole all of the best stuff from us anyway, including the good sauce. Stick to your own mess, thank you!"
Yes, Marcy and I were arguing over barbecue. Which is and remains Serious Business. At ALL Times.
I was also running several simulations based on some deep scans that Thoth had taken of her cranium and contents, and was currently debating a proper response to what had been discovered. But the Barbecue was far more important.
'Satori.' Mio poked at me through our bond. 'What exactly is this Barbecue you speak of?'
I froze.
Oh dear god. I had completely forgotten that Mio was used to the 41st Millennium and all of it's BS when Marcy sucked me into that argument. Mio had no concept of the food of the gods. Like, at all.
This had to be rectified. Immediately.
Marcy, proving yet again that she is entirely too strong of a newtype for her own good, immediately picked up on my distress, and more importantly why. "I'll find us a place–"
I Immediately cut her off. "Not a chance. You'll go to a weak-ass spot that doesn't do the justice needed to proper Texas Barbecue. I will be choosing our destination."
Besides, it would prevent Mio from having her first intro to Texas Barbecue be fucking Pappas, of all places. My woman deserved better than that, thank you very much.
Fortunately, we were already downtown-ish, so getting to the best spot in Houston for some good meats (and that was almost guaranteed to still be there) was a non-issue.
The trip took a bit, as we had to actually leave downtown and head a bit north, but eventually we arrived at the most humble of restaurants in Hungry Farmer's BBQ, still open even now and on this world of ruin…and still just as good as ever.
Mio, of course, reacted appropriately at the 'tasting'
"THIS IS AMAZING *munch* how is the food all this *munch* good?"
I just chuckled, along with the owners, who were very much enjoying the blatant advertisement that Mio offered for their quality. MP, the poor dear, remained sullen and annoyed at having been soundly defeated by Facts and Logic, even as she worked her way through a plate of her own.
Thank GOD I had actually been paid by the Intelligence guys, or else this would have gotten very interesting really fast. Fortunately, I only had to cough up just over $100 thanks to Mio being a greedyguts and eating three whole four-meat plates by herself. This, combined with my own more modest plate and extras and covering for MP, well…yeah.
Best BBQ spot in Houston for decades running is also still one of the cheapest as well. Go figure, right?
Of course, all good things come to an end, as it was here that reality caught up with us, in the form of an intelligence agent of some stripe or another managing to track me down.
"Mr. Green? Your presence is requested for discussion of certain issues. We'll need to escort you to the location ASAP, sir." his face, while understanding, left no room for compromise.
Unfortunately, I was not interested in just being dragged around myself. I am certain my frown communicated this as well. "What can you tell me about the reasoning, Agent?"
The agent took a pointed look around the restaurant, a clear sign to me that whatever needed to be discussed was classified to hell and back. "I am not at liberty to say here, sir. I can explain a bit more when we are under way, but not until them."
Mio gave me a sidelong look, before nodding her assent. "As annoying as she is, She's still sticking around. I'll watch out for her and deal with the other issues. Go."
A soft smile was my reply, before I packed up the few leftovers of my meal and headed off.
This shit bad better be damn good to have interrupted my Mio time.
Our destination was something of a shock to me (I had been expecting something different), as we pulled up to a totally nondescript office-type building about ten minutes later. My own mental map placed us at the heavy industrial sections of the city's north side, in Pasadena.
The same Pasadena which was historically very much unwelcome to people like me.
Worse, the explanation I had gotten from the Agent was practically nonexistent, as he himself was not privy to the details of the meeting either, only that it had to be offsite for reasons that were not explained. Understandably, I was paranoid as hell and kept my senses sharp and my defenses ready at a moment's notice.
The building's interior was equally nondescript, being about as standard as you can get for the design without outright being conspicuous about things. Based on what I could pick up from observation, who or whatever this building was here for was also brand new to the area, as the place had that distinct "just assembled" smell, along with something else I couldn't name.
I was escorted into an otherwise innocuous meeting room with no windows, and a standard government conference table with standard government conference chairs accompanying it. I suspected that this was meant to be a secure meet for whatever was about to go down…and based on the people that I could suddenly feel approaching, I was probably correct.
My guests, however, were unusual in that they were not government conspiracy types, but rather uniformed Air Force personnel, Both officers, too, from the looks of it. Still, something was odd. If this was supposed to be a secure meeting "in-house" then why the hell did they drag me out here for it?
Standing and saluting as was appropriate, I greeted my superiors. "Major, Captain. How may I help you?"
The Major took the lead, returning my salute. "At ease, Mr. Green. I am Major Ackerman, and with me is Captain Keyes. Apologies for the cloak and dagger stuff, but the nature of what is about to be revealed to you is...extremely sensitive. We needed to make sure that you were isolated from potential outside influences before we proceeded."
I blinked, before getting a flash of insight. They were probably trying to peel Mouse Protector off of me in order to facilitate this briefing, and chose this location as somewhere that she couldn't get to. Too bad they had no clue that Marcy was even now keeping an eye on my location "just in case", a measure which, while appreciated, was wholly unnecessary simply due to the threat of the wrath of fucking God being unleashed by Mio if they were ever that stupid.
Then again, I found myself remembering certain people who always thought that they would be the one to beat the odds and skate through the shitstorm without getting splashed. There was always that one motherfucker, and I should probably watch for it just in case.
Major Ackerman continued as everyone found their seats, and I returned to mine. "As for the reason behind this meeting, we are here to read you in on a specific project that will be requiring your expertise. Normally you would not be tapped for such a position, for various reasons, but certain people pushed to have you onboarded as quickly as possible."
"In any case, the following is Classified, Top Secret--"
The usual spiel regarding classified information at that level of rarefied followed. Apparently there was a freaking major project floating around with at least some public facing for appropriations purposes, which Thoth quickly pointed out was getting some massive funding. Still, I forced myself to do a wait and see regarding exactly what was going down, especially when I saw the name of the project.
I had to assume it was mere chance. That name could have been used for any number of things, after all.
The formalities for Classified cleared, and my assent and understanding having been obtained, the real meat of the in-brief began. "Mr. Green, This folder," A single manila folder was produced, complete with all the trimmings of a proper sensitive paperwork container, "contains the overview of what is publicly known as Project Blue Book. Inside, you will find the details of the cover story for the project to be used in public. It is imperative that cover for this project not be breached under any circumstances whatsoever, due to the nature of the program. Do you have any questions at this time?"
I took the ten seconds needed to skim over the documents inside…and very carefully kept my cool. This was only a coincidence, after all. "Deep-Space Radar and Telemetry, sir? Seems a bit far-fetched, even for me, especially as the Skywatcher program has so many people involved from different countries."
Captain Keyes openly laughed for a moment. "Yeah, we get that a lot from people, but this is what we got fed by the spooks for our cover story. We work with it."
I couldn't help but smile myself at the sound of his voice. "I', assuming that you also get some confusion as to being in the Air Force instead of, say, the UNSC, Sir?"
Keyes only laughed harder at that, not that Ackerman was doing anything to stop our banter.
Still, they weer here for a reason. "Jokes aside, Mr. Green, this program is actually vital to the continued existence of not only Earth but humanity as a whole. We do what we can to make sure that it stays secured from outside influence whenever possible, especially with parahumans around." Ackerman's commentary about parahuman thinkers had a bit of a sour note to it. I suspected that he had personal experience with one of the stronger ones, but declined to actually ask on it.
"In any case, we intend to bring you into the program on an advisory basis. As much as we would like for you to be involved in a more permanent manner, there are other considerations in play that prevent this."
I nodded. "Then you are aware of the general plan involving the moonbase. Things are still being finalized on that front, I'm afraid, and depending on circumstances I may have to delay somewhat."
Because the final personnel selection was going to have to go through the list of people that could be trusted above all else to not panic in the face of weirdness, and potentially to push even further into it if necessary. That was a very small list, even before excluding most parahumans from consideration.
A thought occurred to me. "Actually, sir, now that I think about it, wouldn't you be better served with having some of your observations gear up on the moon as well? At least to have another observation point?"
Ackerman smiled. "That is…part of the request. However, we still need to get you read in and taken to the main facility for a proper briefing. Part of the delay in contacting you was setting up an appropriate means of transport to get you where you were needed."
I finished my overview of the cover program before continuing. "So, the cover story is reasonably solid, if a little flimsy in places. Still, not too bad. But, and excuse my presumption in asking, sir, why are you stalling so hard in actually getting me to wherever it is we need to go to set up the real briefing?"
Captain Keyes simply held out a hand. "Told you he would notice, sir."
Ackerman, for his part, promptly deposited a crisp $20 with much annoyance and grumbling, before turning back to me. "Part of the security measures. We will be on our way shortly."
A beep from somewhere on his person punctuated that statement. "And we are ready to move. Please follow me."
Ackerman led me further into the building, and down into a basement level that I was pretty sure was not a standard feature on buildings like this, especially in Houston. I especially didn't think that the large tinkertech-like apparatus that was stored inside was meant to be standard, either. The pair of uniformed techs (both of them Senior Airmen)
These people now had my interest.
"Sir, what am I looking at?"
Keyes answered. "This, Warrant Officer, is a transportation device. We will be using it to get to our destination without attracting too much attention."
I nodded absently as I walked forward, giving the machine a good look-over. It seemed safe enough, and oddly stable for a piece of tin–wait a minute…
I turned to the pair of officers with a questioning look. The silence that answered me, along with a smirk from Keyes, told me that I was about to be involved in something.
Finally, I shrugged. "Alright, I'll play ball. Apparently you think it's safe enough."
The three of us were quickly situated onto the obvious transit zone for the device, and it was activated, at which point a series of rings surrounded us, and with a flash we were on our way.
It was strange, being mid-transit. I got the distinct feeling that normally people would not be aware of the actual transfer as it was happening, but somehow I was perfectly aware of the effect as it zipped us off to our destination, even if the only thing I could remark on was the passage of time in between destinations.
Ten seconds of this later, we were deposited inside another facility. And I was having trouble getting the usual GPS locks in the standard manner, which should not have been possible except under very specific circumstances. A further check with more esoteric stuff by Thoth confirmed that we were at least partially underground in some fashion.
Ackerman stared moving without comment, with Keyes following behind. I quickly moved to follow them, trying to get my bearings as I went. The installation, wherever we were, was clearly set up to be survivable against some serious attacks, which was something that normal bases didn't have much of outside of the most secure areas. Off the top of my head, I only knew of a few places that were hardened like this, and they were all set up for specific purposes.
Thoth finally managed to get a GPS location for me to use, not that it was strictly necessary by then, as I was noticing more about the place from my own observation, including certain semi-famous public areas of note.
It was this that prompted me to ask a question. "Major, if I may?"
Ackerman made no move to stop me, so I continued. "Why exactly all the backdoor stuff just to get me to Cheyenne, sir? I could have made the trip on my own just as easily."
Ackerman stopped walking, immediately turning around to face me with a stern look. "And how do you know where we are, Warrant Officer?" The implied 'and I'd better like the answer' went unspoken.
And ignored, as I was getting tired of the games. "Sir, if you were made aware of my circumstances and briefed appropriately, then you should know why. With respect, if you are unaware of this, then I am not at liberty to inform you at this time."
Keyes was trying very hard not to bust out laughing. Ackerman was visibly trying to calm himself from working up into a spike of anger for reasons I didn't pry about.
…And the surrounding personnel seemed to be waiting in anticipation of something or another, as they noticed my presence and noted that I, to put it bluntly, didn't belong.
Ackerman's demeanor suddenly shifted from suppressed anger to excitement for no reason I could name, and he started chuckling. "Heh. Seems that the rumors were right about you."
He immediately turned back around, now power walking towards a destination. "Very well, Warrant Officer, we'll get to the meat of things shortly. I just need to show you something, first."
We then quickly moved to a section of the facility that had a lot more activity than most, complete with a larger section of armed personnel…from all branches. Which twinged another flag in my head, as even with NORAD being in the base, the facility was primarily an Air Force Operation. Having Marines around was extremely unusual.
But no, It wasn't until we reached the control room that I was willing to believe what I had been seeing, and had suspected ever since I saw that folder.
I slowly entered the room of myth and legend, a place that in my own world was a thing of fiction and whimsy, and noted everything that I could. It was all there, all of it…
And, through the shielded glass viewports, I could clearly see it. The thing that justified it all.
Apparently my shock and awe was noticeable, as there were smiles and smirks all around from the passing personnel, each one radiating that same smugness of knowing that they were introducing someone to something amazing.
Ackerman took the time to finally drop the bombshell that he'd been holding for so long.
"This is the place. This is what we want your help with."
"Warrant Officer Green…Welcome to Stargate Command."
Mio was only moderately annoyed that her pseudo-date with her husband had been interrupted by official business, but she could tolerate it. Part of it was enjoying the amazing Barbecue entirely too much, part of it was knowing that she now had a bit of leeway to enact certain plans that were outstanding, like deploying the engineering turtles (which her Satori had given the moniker "Umahki" for some reason, not that she minded the name.) while people weren't looking too hard.
It still amazed her that the government thought that Satori was the important one, the man behind all of the technology, and completely dismissed her as a factor. It was equally amusing to play into the stereotype, which was why she was letting him take the lead and just acting as a glorified bedwarmer in public.
Of course, Mouse Protector here was not fooled, not in the slightest. Which was both good and bad, as she was the primary reason why Satori didn't need to be around at the moment. Certain things were best not discussed around men, after all.
As she expected, Mouse Protector was well aware of her intentions. "So, what'cha need, sister?"
Mio smiled. It was not a kind smile. "Just need to make sure of some things before we move forward, is all."
Mouse Protector scoffed. "Don't be such a worrywart. I'm not going to bite…unless you like that kind of thing, that is, in which case we can talk rates later…"
Despite the attempt at deflection, Mio was not fooled. "Alright then. We'll start with the real reason you sought him out."
To her credit, Mouse didn't flinch at being caught out. "Figured you would notice. Well, It's still mostly the reasons I mentioned. I really am interested as hell in space, and I am willing to kick down as many doors as possible to make sure I get there if the opportunity arises. As for why I was willing to go so far, though…well, it was unintentional, but that hubby of yours kind of saved my life."
Mio remained silent.
"Alright, alright, I'll explain. I have a bit of a…rival, let's call her, in the name of Ravager. She's…well, she needs help, help that I can't give her no matter how much I want to. But, I didn't actually realize this until after he blew up the weird eldritch thing that was coming to eat our minds. There was a…call it a backlash, from that event, you know. A lot of people started waking up to things that they would have otherwise been blind to."
Mouse Protector sighed. "And…for my part, it was a retaliation that Ravager couldn't be saved, mostly because she didn't want to be. It was a bad realization for me to have, and I would never have had it if he didn't accidentally force everyone to just…wake up. I wouldn't trade it for the world, not for anything, but…I wanted to be able to help her. And, now that I think about it, my powers kind of reinforced that. But now? Now I know that I can't. That I never will be able to. So…yeah."
Mio snorted. "Right. You had a better setup with the first story, stick with that one. Also, there are no such things as eldritch shapeshifting horrors out to eat your mind, and they most definitely are not a type of psionic creature that would have consumed the entire planet. Please come up with better lies next time, eh?"
Marcella all but bristled in fury…before she actually processed what she had just heard.
Mio continued as if the other woman hadn't just had her worldview rearranged. "Besides, that alone is not really why I am interested. After all, You are after my Husband. And I already have one woman trying to worm her way in as it is. A second is likely to be…problematic."
Mouse Protector blinked…before smirking. "Oooh. Afraid that the competition will take away from your quality time?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Mio snapped back. "I have needs, after all, and the fact that my Satori is actually capable of sating them properly is part of why I put up with him."
Mouse Protector's smirk remained. "Sure, you keep telling yourself that. We all know the truth."
Mio ignored the comment. "...So, I might as well get you familiarized with some of the tests we're going to run to help you out. First off.."
Because, they both did indeed know the truth of the matter, as much as Mio refused to admit it out loud.
Marcella really was entirely too strong with her abilities…
Washu, at the moment, hated life.
Yes, being one of the almighty goddesses above even the gods of the gods themselves was a thing for her, as was her own constantly seeking out the limits of the universe and how it operated, but she still currently hated life.
And the root cause was the goddamned Celestial Forge. Because of course it couldn't just break in a way that was easy to fix, oh no. It had to be complicated.
The easy parts were already dealt with. Those most damaged nodes had been clipped and safely removed so as to not affect stability. Those shards of knowledge and ability were, sadly, lost, and outside of some very extreme levels of temporal bullshittery were completely unrecoverable without going back to the origin worlds, which kind of defeated the purpose if you asked her. Besides, she was able to use the raw materials to help repair everything else.
The actually recoverable pieces were much harder. The abilities contained within were still stable, but their 'containers' were in the way of the actual fixes that needed to be performed on the inner workings, and thus needed to be placed into a form of quarantine. That this would also preserve the conceptual 'shells' of those nodes of power was an added bonus that she was not looking too hard at lest it broke something. Space was a freaking pretzel in this place as it was, no need to make things even worse.
This meant that she had to remove them from their places in the grand constellation of stars and temporarily set them aside to get to the inner guts of the system, which was both extremely time-consuming and brutally difficult. It was a shock to her that nothing had gone majorly catastrophe yet, even though she had prevented several dangerously close calls prior.
It was because she was focusing on the safety aspects of maintaining integrity that she missed the energy surge that puled though the system until it was nearly too late. The blocks that she had set up to ground out those surges had somehow failed in the worst ways possible (completely and yet also temporarily) which had a near catastrophe in the making working its way through everything.
Fortunately, she was a super genius and had planned for even those safeguards to fail, and was quickly in battle against the forces trying to destroy her masterwork!!
And of course, it was precisely because of her focus in preventing one disaster that she completely missed the other one that was in progress. Several of the nodes she had been working to disconnect had, unknown to her, still had varying levels of residual charge to them, almost as if they were awaiting their deployment and activation. The rogue wave of energy, despite never actually reaching them, somehow granted just enough power to one of them to finish the process that they had started an unknown amount of time ago, and complete its activation.
This was also the single worst way that it could have activated: completely unshielded and leaking everywhere.
Washu turned to the node in shock, knowing full well what was about to happen.
The node finished charging, and activated itself with a massive pulse that warped spacetime itself in ways unfathomable to a mortal mind. It took everything that she could spare to mitigate the effects, and even then it was still having a massive backlash effect on the rest of space-time. Somehow, the small section of it that they were in held up…but it now had some very, very unintended connections to places outside of that bubble, and even outside of the galaxy itself.
And the horror show was still not done. The pulse of power had knocked itself into another set of nodes, one of them a cluster set that had delayed its own activation due to potential overload and was now surging out of control. Abandoning the already lost cause of the first node for fixing the imminent disaster that was the cluster, Washu quickly managed to section off part of the cluster from influence, which was a somewhat good thing…but the other part still surged wildly. She did at least shield the effects from propagating any further than the solar system itself...for all of the good that would do, as for reasons unknown the damned thing decided to just apply itself as hard and as liberally as possible.
And it had managed to drag a friend along with it. And that friend was trying to drag another friend.
Isolating the mess took entirely too long, and she was pretty sure that she missed at least one instance of something going wrong…but she had still done it. The forge system was still safe and stable.
And then she actually checked the damned souls they were connected to and winced. That had to have hurt…
Watts saw the incoming wave before it hit and shielded us from most of it. That is the best I can say about what happened.
It still hurt like all fuck for an infinite and short amount of time, distracting me for just long enough for other people to make their way into the control center of Stargate Command.
At their head was a man I considered one of the greatest Generals to have ever served, both in fiction and real life. I Immediately came to attention, and snapped off an absolutely fucking perfect salute, my petty attempt to convey as much respect as possible to the greatness of that man.
Major General George Hammond (of Texas), returned my salute with just as much respect and gravitas.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Green. I am General George Hammond, commanding this facility, and the Stargate program as a whole. Apologies for the runaround, but we make a point of trying to keep things here under wraps, for obvious reasons." his nod towards the inactive Stargate. "Nonetheless, allow me to welcome you to the program. We're hoping that your unique expertise can assist us here in our own endeavors."
It took a moment for me to shake the awe off. "Y-yes sir. I'll try not to be too much of a burden on your command, especially with how many ways I'n getting pulled at the moment."
The General smiled. "I'm well aware of the feeling, son." he stated, no unkindly. "Still, we all have our jobs to do. I'd like to introduce you to my staff. With me is Colonel O'Neill, my second in command and leader of our first-line exploration and reconnaissance team–""
"SG-1."
There was a slight pause in the room as I interrupted the General's speech. "Er…Pardon, me General, but…I'm actually quite aware of this program, though the method may be…a little unbelievable, sir."
Hammond merely gave me his usual hard stare, while Colonel O'Neill, who I was really expecting to have cracked a joke about now, finally spoke up. "Lemme guess, something about a parallel universe version of the SGC? Something like that?"
"Actually, sir, you were all part of a Sci-Fi television series. Still considered some of the best TV ever made, in fact."
To my shock, neither of the men even so much as flinched at this reveal. In fact, Hammond almost seemed...amused? "Please elaborate, if you would."
Recognizing the (gentle) order for what it was, I continued on. "Well, the series covered the adventures of SG-1 throughout a period of ten years of operation of the SGC, sir. It's a lot of ground. The show itself was named for SG-1, sir, and even managed to get two separate spinoffs based on happenings later on."
"Is that so." O'Neill (I refused to call him Jack, even in my own mind, without permission) commented, his usual sarcasm on display. "Well, were we at least looking good?"
I nodded. "You are all the spitting images of those I'd only known through a TV screen, sir. If anything, you were one of my inspirations to enlist in the first place."
Hammond openly laughed at that. "That matches up with what we were told to expect, then. Looks like things are working out so far."
Wait, what?
"Yeah, you aren't the only one playing around with weird timey-wimey stuff, Green. It has to do with why we wanted you here. Come on, I'll show you."
A brief glance at the General for permission, and we were on our way to the research labs of the SGC, with O'Neill happily (and sardonically) pointing out places of interest. It was oddly…fun? (From an officer? A Colonel, no less? Blasphemy!!)
Still, three minutes later, we were there, and I could immediately see what it was they wanted my consultation for.
The Artifact (because that's what it was, no doubt) stood out among everything else in the room just by its presence, a strange, holographic object with a single point seeming to be more solid than the others. The surrounding space had obviously been cleared out to avoid it doing anything stupid, but it seemed to just sit there, waiting. There were a few techs milling around, mostly keeping an eye on the obvious anomaly, but otherwise the place was empty.
"This thing here came with a note, pretty much letting us know the guy to track down. Since this isn't the first time we've had to deal with…issues of this nature, we decided to just call you in." O'Neill stated, handing me the note in question. He seemed amused by the whole process, honestly.
As for the note?
Track down WO Satori Green after he makes planetfall and clears quarantine. You'll need his help later. Look for the tails.
–Jack O'Neill
Oh great. Another piece of time travel BS that SG-1 usually gets into.
I couldn't help but comment on it. "I'm assuming that you got a lot more than this note as information, then, since you were expecting me to show up."
"Yeah, pretty much. So, whatcha make of this thingamajig here, huh?"
Right. The potentially dangerous artifact sitting in the middle of the SGC labs was not kosher. Just need to get a bit closer to check it out–
It happened so fast that even I couldn't react. One minute, it was fine just sitting there. The next? It had all but zoomed directly to my person and somehow melded with my person.
No…wait. It was melding with my frame?
[Error: unknown artifact is attempting to interface with systems. This one has a header attached. I am reading back now:
Child of the Forge, accept this boon immediately. You have little time.
Message ends.]
…Fuck. I was almost certain of what that was now, but I had no way of confirming without forcing an issue that I had been holding off on…and no choice but to go for it.
The multitasking instances that had been working on the upgrades for Thoth quickly compiled everything into a singular package executable for Thoth to run a self-update with, and then sent it off, pending execution on a few last tasks.
I turned to the Colonel, who was still slightly shocked at what had happened.
"Jesus Christ…You okay, Green?"
I nodded my assent, stretching out all six limbs as an example. "Yes, sir. You were right to bring this to my attention: the artifact here was literally addressed to me…but I can't access the rest of it just yet. I need a bit of open space to work with. Preferably where you can move things around."
O'Neill quickly looked around the lab, seeing a good amount of clear space available. "This enough?"
In response, I unloaded my Recycler/Fabricator into the empty space, next to a wall. The sudden appearance of the machine startled everyone who was in the area as a result.
Fortunately, it fit. Unfortunately, It currently didn't have any power to work with. Which was currently not my problem. As I had more stuff to dump from my storage.
I moved to an empty table and started dumping weapons. My old photon rifle, now massively upgraded and even more deadly, hit first, followed by all eight of the multiple dual-mode cannons ( I was going to call them rifles, but the upgrades…), and the smaller Launcher system as well. The missile canister hit the table next, and then I started dumping all of the person weaponry I had picked up while on Necromunda. Lasguns, Volkite pistols, that one Hellgun that some idiot had left behind, Laspistols, every kind of slugthrowner imaginable, you name it, it was in there.
I was a little confused at finding a Q-Beam inside, though. I didn't remember specifically picking one up while we were on Talos, but that could probably just be my overlooking it. The GLOO gun and spare canisters I set on the floor next to the table, and my ever-trusty Hefty wrench followed.
I was…tempted to let out the spare parts and materials for the Selsenia-pattern armors that the Sisters of Battle wore into combat, but I relented on count of it not being worth the effort. Besides, I was shocking the people that actually were here as it was.
I left the STC Minibox in a corner after slapping a giant warning label on it to be careful when perusing the database, then did a final check. Looked like there was nothing left in my Impeller storage but junk and recycler cubes, the Hypervelocity cannons, my suite of fabricators, the Medical suite, and the frame's reactor unit. All of which were fully expendable, even with the upgrades that Thoth had applied. Oh well, it's not like I couldn't create better anyway.
[the standard loadout will be safe, as it is technically frame equipment. Only the reactor will be affected.]
And there we go for confirmation on goodies.
Now, to do the last bit: Running the batch file that would start the process…and there we go.
I felt the odd sensation of Thoth doing a massive desync while he finalized the setup process. Part of that was going to be annoying in about eight seconds.
O'Neill was there first. "Wha…where did all of this come from? You were unarmed when you came in!!"
I was watching the clock intently. "Impeller storage, sir. Think of it like a portable hole. I had to empty it out for what needed to happen."
And the last of the setup finished, as a green/blue beach ball-like object fell into my outstretched arms, right on schedule. "And this is going to be the part that gets annoying, as I have to reset everything with my suit to figure out what that Artifact does. One more moment, please, sir."
I quickly started the initial access sequence, and was met with status messages of several things happening at once. Including the Artifact decrypting.
I read the message contained within…and Immediately swore.
"Language!!"
"Apologies, sir." I demurred, "But this is not a good thing. Where did you find this Artifact, again?"
O'Neill was unimpressed. "We didn't. It found us."
Yeah, Thought so.
"Yeah, I was afraid of that." I looked the colonel directly in his eyes. "We have a problem, sir."
Something had drawn their attention away from the endless squabbling and jockeying for over that was the great game. The Four found themselves curious as to what could have been so important as to have reverberations even deep within the empyrean, and all moved to investigate.
And what they found was wondrous beyond all description.
Methods of travel between worlds gateways between the stars…and ways of punching through even to other galaxies if need be.
And hidden within this bit of information was an odd message, addressed not to any one of them, but the Four as a whole.
And the contents had them bursting with malicious glee.
Yes. Soon that annoying interloper with the forge of stars would be dealt with…or even better, would be claimed as their own…
And failing that?
Well…there were so many worlds to choose from. Even across dimensions…
-={|||||||||||||||||}=-
-={|||||||||||||||||}=-
Alrighty then, that is this chapter. It's only slightly a mess, so bear with me.
The later bits are several hanging plot threads coming into play all at once, along with a reasonable reaction to an unintended consequence of a particular action set.
Also, Stargate Command exists on Bet. All of the key personnel are present, in various capacities, and will be represented when Satori has time to do so (as was stated, He's getting pulled in several directions at once by just the military alone at this point, and adding in other concerns is a non-starter) so don't worry too much about character bloat, as he doesn't have time to really interact with people here yet.
Secondary note that Sam, Danny, and Teal'c are all on an unrelated assignment off-base and were intentionally unavailable for the meeting, leaving Jack to do it solo. So far it's a mixed bag.
As for the Artifact? I think I gave enough hints, but one more will suffice: Truth will be found by those who truly seek it.
Mouse Protector…is special. That's all I can say about that. She lucked out HARD on the awakening side, having a stupidly strong set of newtype powers to go with her just appearance, as well as aslo gaining the abilities of a Psychodriver from, Chouki Taisen SRX, a mecha series which is exclusive to the Super Robot Wars games.
Psychodrivers are kind of a parallel to Newtypes in abilities except focusing more on Telekinesis and direct manipulation instead of just enhanced sensory stuff. How these will interact with each other is still undecided and even in story it is not known if they are even a separate ability.
Last part: I have Finally had an excuse to drop the last of the perks I have had sitting on the shelf for just this moment. One of them was used to create an incident that would let me do a thing more easily, and the rest just flowed along. Each one is a perk that I have rolled previously and decided to delay implementing for story reasons. Also note that due to the way the forge itself is messed up, notice that the perks have been activated in the first place may be…delayed, despite their affect on reality.
The perks are as follows:
-={/\]=-
Rebecca Costa-Brown was a hard woman. She'd had to be, in order to do what needed to be done for the sake of humanity, to stop the entity known as Scion from destroying everything. It was a road that had robbed her of anything approaching proper empathy, for such weakness could not be tolerated while the threat still existed.
She, along with her comrades-in-arms at Cauldron, had for decades now been fighting the good fight, doing everything possible to prepare for the inevitable final confrontation while still maintaining some semblance of normality in the world, aided by Contessa and the Path to Victory, which could ensure any task but the one most important above all.
At least, that was the case, until things abruptly changed for the worse when suddenly the very planet itself was warped beyond recognition, with an entirely new landmass added into the Atlantic Ocean. If that had been the only change to happen, she would have called it unusual and moved on…but then the signals from the moon started up. Followed by activity that Cauldron could not trace, nor get a proper read on, mostly due to the limitations on parahuman powers reaching out to the Earth's satellite.
From there, came another horror, the specter of an opponent that was on par with Endbringers themselves, and a fight so brutal that it was visible from the ground in broad daylight. But even with all of this, there was still hope that Cauldron could take advantage of the situation, and turn things to the proper path.
Until that goddamned fool showed up and ruined everything.
Satori Green, Formerly a technical Sergeant of the United States Air Force in another, stranger dimension not part of the set that Cauldron could access, had appeared wielding powers and technology beyond anything that the world had ever seen, and announced himself as the proud owner and renovator of the newly-renamed Miakoda base on the moon. Under normal circumstances, this would be a useful distraction, a means to show once again that normal people were not the solution, and that the world had to trust in the power of parahumans to steer the course, which in turn would give them more soldiers for the final battle.
And then the bastard's wife went and killed the Simurgh in about as non-climactic a way as possible, while one of his allies at his precious moonbase was still live and on air with NASA. Her attempts at damage control had then failed spectacularly, leaving him with even more clout and a blanket ultimatum that he could and would pack up and move elsewhere if the US Government didn't put the PRT back in its place.
The initial "reprimand" from the President still stung her pride, even now.
Further attempts to place Green under their nominal control had failed spectacularly, as he then proved to have the ability to not only analyze but repair tinkertech, including one of the specialized scanning devices that were kept on hand to implicate potential outside context problems as parahumans and thus place them under the proper jurisdiction of the PRT.
The Military was having a field day watching her get utterly destroyed by the President, again, over poking at the golden goose. And there was nothing she could actually do to put a stop to the bastard, because he was earning goodwill wherever he went now, and had been openly giving out his wonder technology to everyone he came across–-and not to the PRT.
In fact, this very meeting that she was attending was day three of her current barbecue session, courtesy of the President of the United States having taken a greater interest in certain issues with the Greens' arrival…including the issue of the dimensional refugees.
Cauldron had been able to use the people's physiology to have them mistaken as Parahuman Case 53's, and had used that to apply pressure where they could to make inroads on their own projects. Some had even been taken to a series of labs on a different Earth in order to learn more about their new friends.
Current data was still inconclusive, but the project was still new. She was certain that Cauldron's scientists could figure out the mystery in due time.
The problem was that both of the Greens matched the general profiles of these refugees, and because all medical tests performed on them so far showed that they were both still human, even if heavily augmented with large amounts of both mechanical and biological technology. Combined with the fact that they seemed to be aware of whatever it was that the refugees were hiding regarding the odd growths on their bodies, and were moving to do something about the issue, said everything.
The worst part? Both of them were completely unpathable, and Contessa didn't have enough to work with to try and use a general profile to predict their actions.
Cauldron was losing control, and the results could be disastrous for everyone if they didn't find a way to get back on top before it was too late.
"Director Costa-Brown."
The President's voice pulled her out of her ruminations, not that she had lost her place in the conversation at any point. "Yes, Mr. President."
President Gillen was not a happy man at the moment. "I am hearing more about the PRT interfering with the dimensional refugees that are being pulled in. Things about the conditions of the camps, restrictions on housing, and lack of available aid despite both my own Executive Orders and a Congressional bill authorizing just that. What exactly are your people up to this time?"
Rebecca once again thanked her power for allowing her to suppress the grimace that wanted to form on her face. Gillen had become extremely confident as of late, and willing to push back against Cauldron influence. "We are working with local aid groups in prioritizing treatment for the new Case-53 parahumans–"
"I'll stop you right there, Director." Gillen thundered. "Those people are not Case-53s, and most certainly not parahumans of any sort!! Your people have overstepped the line once again, just like the last time, and I am finding myself wondering just why that is."
Plans whirled through her head, anything that would let her retake the initiative and defend the actions of her subordinates. She quickly settled on a course of action. "Mr. President, we were operating under the assumption–"
"No. No more of the games and "but we assumed" bullshit. Your people have been overstepping their bounds for a long time, and while I admit I have allowed it in the past, it will not happen here. The last time I let you play your little games, we almost lost the greatest asset this country has ever seen to fucking Mexico. As it is, I am still getting phone calls from them asking about when the setup is going to start. And all because you had to try and play power grab.
"I am, quite frankly, sick and tired of dealing with your bullshit and the fallout, especially when it could cost us all too valuable human resources and otherwise loyal soldiers because you will not just leave well enough alone. So now, I am putting my goddamned foot down like I should have two years ago.
"So, here's how this is going to go: These refugees are not your concern until and unless we have a confirmed trigger event, and then and only then will you have or be allowed any authority in the matter. This is not up for discussion. Do I make myself clear?"
Rebecca could say nothing to that, except one thing. "Yes, Mr. President."
Gillen nodded, satisfied. "Good. I have reports coming in that Mr. Green has found a treatment for whatever it is that has them sick, and right now the CDC is asking for some assistance in moving people around so that the critical cases can be seen to as quickly as possible. I want to have these people, who or whatever they are, on our good list for when things get worse…and they will get worse, what with the frequency of attacks stepping up."
Rebecca had to think about it before she could place the reference…and had to once again thank her powers. Because the President was referring to a particular wrinkle that made itself known a few months back, in the form of unidentified flying objects that even most parahumans could not deal with. All Cauldron could find on the subject without tipping their hand was that there was someone on the problem already. Contessa was intentionally being vague about her guidance in that area as well, and had told the rest of Cauldron to not worry about it. If the situation was getting worse, however…
"Mr. President. I ask again: may I know what steps are being taken to combat these attacks? It would assist in keeping my people prepared."
"You do not have a need to know such information at this time, Director. Leave it at that."
Rebecca seethed internally as the President continued on with the meeting. She literally could not get a break…
-={/\]=-
In deep space, a fleet moved.
Their target was certain, their purpose nothing more and nothing less than holy writ: the search must continue.
All obstacles to this goal were to be eliminated or subsumed into their cause for the greater good, or used to facilitate the same. Nothing could interrupt them in their task, for it was one of the utmost importance. Triply so, now that they knew that the planet they were targeting held what they had sought all this time.
However…there was a complication.
Somehow, an unexpected variable had introduced itself into their plans, and was even now operating on the target world, potentially hardening it against their coming incursions. This could not be allowed.
And so, contingencies were called into play. Timetables were accelerated, and appropriate resources burned to accomplish such a task.
The goal of eons untold would be achieved.
At all costs.
-={/\]=-
Risa, newly formed mental model of the Rising Phoenix, suddenly found herself in a quandary as she monitored the local space.
Technically, she had not been ordered to do so, just as she technically had not been ordered to activate The Tester, let alone the AGE builder and the attendant facilities. Even now, the Builder was using it's compiled data to upgrade itself to better accommodate future builds of the nature it wanted to use in its tests, especially as the initial and secondary batches of testing had proven to be more than satisfactory for all purposes.
This was going to become extremely important soon, because if her long-range passive tracking was correct, then the armada that had been slowly creeping towards Earth had decided that time was of the essence, and pushed to full ahead to arrive faster, even if it meant leaving behind their support craft…
Or not, she grumbled, as the recently upgraded base sensors detected an extremely powerful psionic effect being employed to drag the slower ships along behind the faster ones to increase speed. Worse, their speed was rapidly climbing, and at almost ridiculous rates.
A quick calculation delivered the grim news: at the current rate of advance, combined with their acceleration, and assuming a need for a decel burn, the enemy would be here within two Earth weeks…which was a downright terrifying proposition to face off against. She was just one ship, dammit!!
Yes, a ridiculously powerful Valkyrie Battleship augmented with Fog technology and that of her Captain, but still a single ship!!
If she launched now, and used an in-system jump via mass effect, she could catch the leading edge of the fleet just at the outer edge of the Kuiper belt and run a harassment campaign from there. It wasn't going to punch through the entire fleet, not with that many numbers and most certainly not with the level of shielding being kicked out by whatever was onboard, but it would thin the horde.
Somewhat.
But nowhere near enough.
She silently cursed her late activation. Had she come online before her captain had left for the planet, they might have been able to work something up. As it was, the one extra Union Core she had available (A relic of her creation, and modified in the same manner as her own core) was worthless, as without a ship to apply it to there was no point to its use, especially as the basic AI within was meant for a supply tender and not a line vessel, and thus would require directives for use.
…unless she cheated the system. Created an edge, something that could be used as a fallback position in case the worst came to pass.
The AGE Builder beeped, it's control system sending out a status report regarding the problem it had been observing though her and the potential solutions…along with a copy of a heavily redacted file. The first was a starship, fully capable of operating both in and out of a gravity well, and that was intentionally set up to be modified for use as a mobile base of operations, alongside being able to do all of the important things that a Fog supply vessel was needed for. That it included its own Builder system and terminal was seen as a good thing, as they would likely be needed in the coming days if worst came to worst.
The second was the machine that was intended to be placed inside. A titan of steel and exotic alloys, modified with the best of the tried and tested technology available that was still capable of being installed on the frame itself, even with its size. It was intended to stand as the sentinel that would protect the world from all who would dare harm her, and emerge victorious every time, regardless of the odds.
There was a final gift, as well: the AGE builder had just finished fabricating a set of upgrades meant for her specifically, that would boost her performance in all areas.
But would it be enough?
She nodded to herself, a grim smile on her face. At least I don't need to drag the Kerbals into this. They are far safer here for the moment.
She set up one final order: the AGE system was to create the vessel shown in the plans she'd seen, and deploy it to Earth with instructions to camouflage itself, collect resources, build up support structures as needed, and await further orders from either her captain or another authorized command agent…and in the event that the worst came to pass, to enact the plans that were built into the system as per the contingency protocol.
She very pointedly did not need to know what they were. Not yet.
And so, Risa prepped her ship body, utilizing the inherent connection she had to the Rising Phoenix to quickly prep everything for her departure and engagement with the enemy. She fully expected to be engaged with the enemy within the next six hours, at most. Sadly, she would leave too late to notice the advance raid coming in hot on the planet itself, and would be out of position to intercept them when she did notice.
Likewise, the plans that she had left unread were inserted into the system build queue at highest priority, with expected deployment within the hour. Further buildup could be handled on-site once the ship made planetfall.
Thus, the title of the plans went unremarked upon by anyone for lack of a person to remark upon them.
It would prove to be significant in the coming days.
[CONTINGENCY PLAN "HEAVEN'S FALL" SUCCESSFULLY LOADED AND PREPARED. SRG-01C MATERIALS AND PLANS LOADED INTO DATABASE.]
[UNIT DESIGNATION "AVENGER" READY TO LAUNCH IN T-MINUS 90:00.00]
-={/\]=-
"So, you gotta tell me about that base of yours, Satori. I need details!!"
Mouse Protector was astoundingly clingy once she got her hooks into you, and was currently needling me relentlessly regarding information on Miakoda station and what future plans were in store. Not that it bothered me much, as unlike most, I could actually keep up with her enthusiasm for her preferred topics.
Didn't stop her from trying to bowl me over and effectively weld herself to my side, but you can't win at everything, and I had a dragon wife for dealing with the part where MP got too grabby.
"If you will give him a moment to actually respond, he would likely do so. Or, better yet, just ask me instead." Mio growled out, irritation clear in her tone and stance. As expected, she wasn't taking Mouse's antics well, partly because it was pushing certain buttons of hers that she generally did not have to worry about, but mostly due to her being overdue for a dicking and knowing full well that Mouse Protector had my interest.
Yes, Jealous Mio was cute too. Fortunately, I had no intention of any form of Infidelity, and despite her enthusiasm and general handsiness, neither did the Mouse. She was just very touchy with those she liked, was all.
Mouse quickly wriggled herself into a comfortable position at my side, somehow dragging Mio to cling to my opposite, not that she was complaining. "But I wanna know now~!"
"Well, wait a moment, so I can get somewhere we can talk about things, then, you silly woman." I snarked. Of course, this only added fuel to the fire, and Mouse Protector wasted no time in pulling us along in her wake to an empty tent.
I pointedly did not ask how she knew it was empty.
Catching a seat on a nearby cot and bouncing lightly as she landed, Mouse quickly settled in, all but vibrating with enthusiasm. "Alright, we're in a private space now, tell me!!"
I took a seat opposite on a nearby stool, while Mio plopped down on an adjacent cot. "Alright, alright. I'll spill…but first, a few questions."
What little of Mouse's expressions were visible became somewhat guarded, though the feeling of acceptance I was getting from her had not faded. "Ugh. fiiine. Be a spoilsport. Whatcha want to know?"
My smile was downright predatory. "First, how did you know who I was, and more specifically, where and how to find me?"
Mouse shrugged. "Oh, that was easy. The Protectorate has a nice tracking app for things they consider a threat, and you are at the top of the list. It was easy to ask for a favor to get a quick look, and then I was on my way."
I felt Mio's ire, but mentally stroked her a bit to soothe the beast. Mouse wasn't responsible for the Protectorate being dumbasses, that was Becky–no, Alexandria, trying to play hardball with the person she couldn't directly control.
Unfortunately, Mouse continued in her explanation. "Also, there is a little-used personnel sharing thing between the PRT and the Department of Defense that allows for the PRT to go digging into records when they feel like it. I'm pretty sure the PRT used it to build a threat profile on you the instant the paperwork could clear, which was likely as soon as it got entered into the system."
Alright, now I was mad, but there was little I could do about it at the moment. Need to stay focused on the objective…
Instead, I nodded slowly, using the motion to mask my own concerns. I somehow got the feeling that MP wasn't buying it, but pushed forward anyway. "Okay then, second question: what made you think that I was going to be willing to even accommodate your silliness, anyway? I'm sure you are aware of how I treated parahumans before."
Again, Mouse waved it off, this time with an actual wave. "Naah. You ran Dispatch through the ringer for a perfectly good reason, and your whole thing with Grey Knight was a known issue for a while in the Protectorate, even though they try not to talk about it in public. You weren't going to do anything too harsh to little ol' me…at least, not without your cutie having a say about it." She punctuated this with a wink at Mio, who dismissed it as the distracting antic that it was.
"Now, for your obvious third question!" Mouse exclaimed, cutting me off before I could even get to it. "You want to know why a parahuman is interested in the Space. But that's not all!!" Now she had jumped to her feet, wildly gesticulating with her hands. "You also want to know if I'm willing to undergo a super special experiment that might let me actually get to the moon without screwing things up or killing me in the process!! And I say right now that of course I'm In!! Just tell me what needs to get done first, okay?"
…what?
How the hell had she known that? And why did she seem to be able to anticipate me so damned hard? It's almost like…
The world lost focus for a moment, and the only things there were me, Mio, and Mouse Protector–no, none of that, my name is Marcella–standing there in the space.
The moment broke almost as soon as it happened, but it was all that I needed to know.
Somehow, Miss Marcella Wallace, the ever-excitable Mouse Protector, was a Newtype. And a damned powerful one, at that, especially if she was pulling off stuff like this right off the bat. Most newtypes had to build up to this level of silliness…which implied that she had the potential to become much, much stronger as her powers grew.
Marcy (yes, you have a nickname now, deal with it) was smirking at me the whole time, utterly assured in her victory. Mio only grumbled harder, muttering something about "another one" under her breath.
I could only sigh in frustration, as aside from interacting with Mio I have had little reason to even casually flex any of my psionic prowess, let alone my recently properly awakened newtype abilities. And Marcy seemed to be fully aware of it and reveling in the superiority in an oddly wholesome manner.
"Fine, Since you want it so bad, you will be the guinea pig parahuman for figuring out what the hell is going on, and to see about removing that annoying tether your lot has." I grumbled out. "I was meaning to test this out on a certain asshole, but…"
"Nuh-uh. I am a big enough nerd to know exactly what I managed to luck my way into, and there is no way in hell I am passing this opportunity up. I am a literal, honest to god Newtype, interacting with other newtypes, and I fully intend to enjoy it as much as possible, and as properly intended for newtypes: in. Space. Now excuse me while I celebrate."
Marcy's cheering (and funky dance) washed away all of my attempts at gloom, and did a number on Mio's as well. There was just no being moody around her, it seemed…
-={/\]=-
Explaining things to Marcy while we walked was a no-brainer, especially as we were sticking to "public-safe" topics, now that she had openly busted through the obvious barriers. She was focusing on things that she could get her hands on up on Miakoda, and some bits about life in space as well.
That, and playing with the extras that this version of newtype awakening came with, because apparently the psionic powers were strong with this one. Not just Newtype, oh no: she was somehow an equally powerful psychodriver as well (but did they mix in this case? Or was it just a different side of the same coin? Something to test later on) which meant that she now had, in addition to insane spatial awareness and perception, fucking telekinesis.
As expected, Mouse ("yeah, that works for a handle too, it was a nickname when I was a kid") took to it like a house on fire, and even now was practicing as subtly as possible with her relatively newfound powers whenever she could…much to the annoyance of her actual power, which seemed to be trying to drive her to poke Mio and I with her sword, repeatedly.
"That part is going to need some explaining, Satori my guy." she quipped. "See, not only is this the first time I have noticed something like this, and coming from my own power, no less, but I also happen to like you two, and would rather not be compelled by my parahuman power to turn you into a pincushion. Though I get the distinct feeling that making that stick is going to be an exercise in futility…
Indeed, Because I had cracked White Magic, of the Final Fantasy variety (and wasn't that a shock to the system) while doing the research necessary for Thoth's upgrades…and White Mages in general (White Wizards in particular, though those were extremely rare) were effectively impossible to kill past a certain level of power without them having allowed it to happen in the first place.
Mio offered up her explanation on the matter. "I think that whatever is driving parahuman powers is actively observing though the senses of a parahuman, thus creating a vector for potential command input relative to whatever objectives that this mysterious power source may have." She turned towards me again. "Are you sure that we should be trusting her with even this much? There is a strong likelihood that these things can use people as observation nodes or something. We have nothing to work with on them except that, based on our sample size of one, parahumans are the only known group with not one, but two stable cancers in their brain."
I could feel the sarcasm.
"Well, we have to do something no matter what, so I think it's easier that we just put our heads together for a bit and figure out what the deal is with her brain meats, so we can get back to the Barbecue discussion. Especially because this heathen thinks that proper Texas 'cue is inferior to KC-style, which is a known falsehood that needs to be corrected as soon as possible."
"Bah, you cowboys and your beef. Besides, you stole all of the best stuff from us anyway, including the good sauce. Stick to your own mess, thank you!"
Yes, Marcy and I were arguing over barbecue. Which is and remains Serious Business. At ALL Times.
I was also running several simulations based on some deep scans that Thoth had taken of her cranium and contents, and was currently debating a proper response to what had been discovered. But the Barbecue was far more important.
'Satori.' Mio poked at me through our bond. 'What exactly is this Barbecue you speak of?'
I froze.
Oh dear god. I had completely forgotten that Mio was used to the 41st Millennium and all of it's BS when Marcy sucked me into that argument. Mio had no concept of the food of the gods. Like, at all.
This had to be rectified. Immediately.
Marcy, proving yet again that she is entirely too strong of a newtype for her own good, immediately picked up on my distress, and more importantly why. "I'll find us a place–"
I Immediately cut her off. "Not a chance. You'll go to a weak-ass spot that doesn't do the justice needed to proper Texas Barbecue. I will be choosing our destination."
Besides, it would prevent Mio from having her first intro to Texas Barbecue be fucking Pappas, of all places. My woman deserved better than that, thank you very much.
Fortunately, we were already downtown-ish, so getting to the best spot in Houston for some good meats (and that was almost guaranteed to still be there) was a non-issue.
The trip took a bit, as we had to actually leave downtown and head a bit north, but eventually we arrived at the most humble of restaurants in Hungry Farmer's BBQ, still open even now and on this world of ruin…and still just as good as ever.
Mio, of course, reacted appropriately at the 'tasting'
"THIS IS AMAZING *munch* how is the food all this *munch* good?"
I just chuckled, along with the owners, who were very much enjoying the blatant advertisement that Mio offered for their quality. MP, the poor dear, remained sullen and annoyed at having been soundly defeated by Facts and Logic, even as she worked her way through a plate of her own.
Thank GOD I had actually been paid by the Intelligence guys, or else this would have gotten very interesting really fast. Fortunately, I only had to cough up just over $100 thanks to Mio being a greedyguts and eating three whole four-meat plates by herself. This, combined with my own more modest plate and extras and covering for MP, well…yeah.
Best BBQ spot in Houston for decades running is also still one of the cheapest as well. Go figure, right?
Of course, all good things come to an end, as it was here that reality caught up with us, in the form of an intelligence agent of some stripe or another managing to track me down.
"Mr. Green? Your presence is requested for discussion of certain issues. We'll need to escort you to the location ASAP, sir." his face, while understanding, left no room for compromise.
Unfortunately, I was not interested in just being dragged around myself. I am certain my frown communicated this as well. "What can you tell me about the reasoning, Agent?"
The agent took a pointed look around the restaurant, a clear sign to me that whatever needed to be discussed was classified to hell and back. "I am not at liberty to say here, sir. I can explain a bit more when we are under way, but not until them."
Mio gave me a sidelong look, before nodding her assent. "As annoying as she is, She's still sticking around. I'll watch out for her and deal with the other issues. Go."
A soft smile was my reply, before I packed up the few leftovers of my meal and headed off.
This shit bad better be damn good to have interrupted my Mio time.
-={/\]=-
Our destination was something of a shock to me (I had been expecting something different), as we pulled up to a totally nondescript office-type building about ten minutes later. My own mental map placed us at the heavy industrial sections of the city's north side, in Pasadena.
The same Pasadena which was historically very much unwelcome to people like me.
Worse, the explanation I had gotten from the Agent was practically nonexistent, as he himself was not privy to the details of the meeting either, only that it had to be offsite for reasons that were not explained. Understandably, I was paranoid as hell and kept my senses sharp and my defenses ready at a moment's notice.
The building's interior was equally nondescript, being about as standard as you can get for the design without outright being conspicuous about things. Based on what I could pick up from observation, who or whatever this building was here for was also brand new to the area, as the place had that distinct "just assembled" smell, along with something else I couldn't name.
I was escorted into an otherwise innocuous meeting room with no windows, and a standard government conference table with standard government conference chairs accompanying it. I suspected that this was meant to be a secure meet for whatever was about to go down…and based on the people that I could suddenly feel approaching, I was probably correct.
My guests, however, were unusual in that they were not government conspiracy types, but rather uniformed Air Force personnel, Both officers, too, from the looks of it. Still, something was odd. If this was supposed to be a secure meeting "in-house" then why the hell did they drag me out here for it?
Standing and saluting as was appropriate, I greeted my superiors. "Major, Captain. How may I help you?"
The Major took the lead, returning my salute. "At ease, Mr. Green. I am Major Ackerman, and with me is Captain Keyes. Apologies for the cloak and dagger stuff, but the nature of what is about to be revealed to you is...extremely sensitive. We needed to make sure that you were isolated from potential outside influences before we proceeded."
I blinked, before getting a flash of insight. They were probably trying to peel Mouse Protector off of me in order to facilitate this briefing, and chose this location as somewhere that she couldn't get to. Too bad they had no clue that Marcy was even now keeping an eye on my location "just in case", a measure which, while appreciated, was wholly unnecessary simply due to the threat of the wrath of fucking God being unleashed by Mio if they were ever that stupid.
Then again, I found myself remembering certain people who always thought that they would be the one to beat the odds and skate through the shitstorm without getting splashed. There was always that one motherfucker, and I should probably watch for it just in case.
Major Ackerman continued as everyone found their seats, and I returned to mine. "As for the reason behind this meeting, we are here to read you in on a specific project that will be requiring your expertise. Normally you would not be tapped for such a position, for various reasons, but certain people pushed to have you onboarded as quickly as possible."
"In any case, the following is Classified, Top Secret--"
The usual spiel regarding classified information at that level of rarefied followed. Apparently there was a freaking major project floating around with at least some public facing for appropriations purposes, which Thoth quickly pointed out was getting some massive funding. Still, I forced myself to do a wait and see regarding exactly what was going down, especially when I saw the name of the project.
I had to assume it was mere chance. That name could have been used for any number of things, after all.
The formalities for Classified cleared, and my assent and understanding having been obtained, the real meat of the in-brief began. "Mr. Green, This folder," A single manila folder was produced, complete with all the trimmings of a proper sensitive paperwork container, "contains the overview of what is publicly known as Project Blue Book. Inside, you will find the details of the cover story for the project to be used in public. It is imperative that cover for this project not be breached under any circumstances whatsoever, due to the nature of the program. Do you have any questions at this time?"
I took the ten seconds needed to skim over the documents inside…and very carefully kept my cool. This was only a coincidence, after all. "Deep-Space Radar and Telemetry, sir? Seems a bit far-fetched, even for me, especially as the Skywatcher program has so many people involved from different countries."
Captain Keyes openly laughed for a moment. "Yeah, we get that a lot from people, but this is what we got fed by the spooks for our cover story. We work with it."
I couldn't help but smile myself at the sound of his voice. "I', assuming that you also get some confusion as to being in the Air Force instead of, say, the UNSC, Sir?"
Keyes only laughed harder at that, not that Ackerman was doing anything to stop our banter.
Still, they weer here for a reason. "Jokes aside, Mr. Green, this program is actually vital to the continued existence of not only Earth but humanity as a whole. We do what we can to make sure that it stays secured from outside influence whenever possible, especially with parahumans around." Ackerman's commentary about parahuman thinkers had a bit of a sour note to it. I suspected that he had personal experience with one of the stronger ones, but declined to actually ask on it.
"In any case, we intend to bring you into the program on an advisory basis. As much as we would like for you to be involved in a more permanent manner, there are other considerations in play that prevent this."
I nodded. "Then you are aware of the general plan involving the moonbase. Things are still being finalized on that front, I'm afraid, and depending on circumstances I may have to delay somewhat."
Because the final personnel selection was going to have to go through the list of people that could be trusted above all else to not panic in the face of weirdness, and potentially to push even further into it if necessary. That was a very small list, even before excluding most parahumans from consideration.
A thought occurred to me. "Actually, sir, now that I think about it, wouldn't you be better served with having some of your observations gear up on the moon as well? At least to have another observation point?"
Ackerman smiled. "That is…part of the request. However, we still need to get you read in and taken to the main facility for a proper briefing. Part of the delay in contacting you was setting up an appropriate means of transport to get you where you were needed."
I finished my overview of the cover program before continuing. "So, the cover story is reasonably solid, if a little flimsy in places. Still, not too bad. But, and excuse my presumption in asking, sir, why are you stalling so hard in actually getting me to wherever it is we need to go to set up the real briefing?"
Captain Keyes simply held out a hand. "Told you he would notice, sir."
Ackerman, for his part, promptly deposited a crisp $20 with much annoyance and grumbling, before turning back to me. "Part of the security measures. We will be on our way shortly."
A beep from somewhere on his person punctuated that statement. "And we are ready to move. Please follow me."
Ackerman led me further into the building, and down into a basement level that I was pretty sure was not a standard feature on buildings like this, especially in Houston. I especially didn't think that the large tinkertech-like apparatus that was stored inside was meant to be standard, either. The pair of uniformed techs (both of them Senior Airmen)
These people now had my interest.
"Sir, what am I looking at?"
Keyes answered. "This, Warrant Officer, is a transportation device. We will be using it to get to our destination without attracting too much attention."
I nodded absently as I walked forward, giving the machine a good look-over. It seemed safe enough, and oddly stable for a piece of tin–wait a minute…
I turned to the pair of officers with a questioning look. The silence that answered me, along with a smirk from Keyes, told me that I was about to be involved in something.
Finally, I shrugged. "Alright, I'll play ball. Apparently you think it's safe enough."
The three of us were quickly situated onto the obvious transit zone for the device, and it was activated, at which point a series of rings surrounded us, and with a flash we were on our way.
It was strange, being mid-transit. I got the distinct feeling that normally people would not be aware of the actual transfer as it was happening, but somehow I was perfectly aware of the effect as it zipped us off to our destination, even if the only thing I could remark on was the passage of time in between destinations.
Ten seconds of this later, we were deposited inside another facility. And I was having trouble getting the usual GPS locks in the standard manner, which should not have been possible except under very specific circumstances. A further check with more esoteric stuff by Thoth confirmed that we were at least partially underground in some fashion.
Ackerman stared moving without comment, with Keyes following behind. I quickly moved to follow them, trying to get my bearings as I went. The installation, wherever we were, was clearly set up to be survivable against some serious attacks, which was something that normal bases didn't have much of outside of the most secure areas. Off the top of my head, I only knew of a few places that were hardened like this, and they were all set up for specific purposes.
Thoth finally managed to get a GPS location for me to use, not that it was strictly necessary by then, as I was noticing more about the place from my own observation, including certain semi-famous public areas of note.
It was this that prompted me to ask a question. "Major, if I may?"
Ackerman made no move to stop me, so I continued. "Why exactly all the backdoor stuff just to get me to Cheyenne, sir? I could have made the trip on my own just as easily."
Ackerman stopped walking, immediately turning around to face me with a stern look. "And how do you know where we are, Warrant Officer?" The implied 'and I'd better like the answer' went unspoken.
And ignored, as I was getting tired of the games. "Sir, if you were made aware of my circumstances and briefed appropriately, then you should know why. With respect, if you are unaware of this, then I am not at liberty to inform you at this time."
Keyes was trying very hard not to bust out laughing. Ackerman was visibly trying to calm himself from working up into a spike of anger for reasons I didn't pry about.
…And the surrounding personnel seemed to be waiting in anticipation of something or another, as they noticed my presence and noted that I, to put it bluntly, didn't belong.
Ackerman's demeanor suddenly shifted from suppressed anger to excitement for no reason I could name, and he started chuckling. "Heh. Seems that the rumors were right about you."
He immediately turned back around, now power walking towards a destination. "Very well, Warrant Officer, we'll get to the meat of things shortly. I just need to show you something, first."
We then quickly moved to a section of the facility that had a lot more activity than most, complete with a larger section of armed personnel…from all branches. Which twinged another flag in my head, as even with NORAD being in the base, the facility was primarily an Air Force Operation. Having Marines around was extremely unusual.
But no, It wasn't until we reached the control room that I was willing to believe what I had been seeing, and had suspected ever since I saw that folder.
I slowly entered the room of myth and legend, a place that in my own world was a thing of fiction and whimsy, and noted everything that I could. It was all there, all of it…
And, through the shielded glass viewports, I could clearly see it. The thing that justified it all.
Apparently my shock and awe was noticeable, as there were smiles and smirks all around from the passing personnel, each one radiating that same smugness of knowing that they were introducing someone to something amazing.
Ackerman took the time to finally drop the bombshell that he'd been holding for so long.
"This is the place. This is what we want your help with."
"Warrant Officer Green…Welcome to Stargate Command."
-={/\]=-
Mio was only moderately annoyed that her pseudo-date with her husband had been interrupted by official business, but she could tolerate it. Part of it was enjoying the amazing Barbecue entirely too much, part of it was knowing that she now had a bit of leeway to enact certain plans that were outstanding, like deploying the engineering turtles (which her Satori had given the moniker "Umahki" for some reason, not that she minded the name.) while people weren't looking too hard.
It still amazed her that the government thought that Satori was the important one, the man behind all of the technology, and completely dismissed her as a factor. It was equally amusing to play into the stereotype, which was why she was letting him take the lead and just acting as a glorified bedwarmer in public.
Of course, Mouse Protector here was not fooled, not in the slightest. Which was both good and bad, as she was the primary reason why Satori didn't need to be around at the moment. Certain things were best not discussed around men, after all.
As she expected, Mouse Protector was well aware of her intentions. "So, what'cha need, sister?"
Mio smiled. It was not a kind smile. "Just need to make sure of some things before we move forward, is all."
Mouse Protector scoffed. "Don't be such a worrywart. I'm not going to bite…unless you like that kind of thing, that is, in which case we can talk rates later…"
Despite the attempt at deflection, Mio was not fooled. "Alright then. We'll start with the real reason you sought him out."
To her credit, Mouse didn't flinch at being caught out. "Figured you would notice. Well, It's still mostly the reasons I mentioned. I really am interested as hell in space, and I am willing to kick down as many doors as possible to make sure I get there if the opportunity arises. As for why I was willing to go so far, though…well, it was unintentional, but that hubby of yours kind of saved my life."
Mio remained silent.
"Alright, alright, I'll explain. I have a bit of a…rival, let's call her, in the name of Ravager. She's…well, she needs help, help that I can't give her no matter how much I want to. But, I didn't actually realize this until after he blew up the weird eldritch thing that was coming to eat our minds. There was a…call it a backlash, from that event, you know. A lot of people started waking up to things that they would have otherwise been blind to."
Mouse Protector sighed. "And…for my part, it was a retaliation that Ravager couldn't be saved, mostly because she didn't want to be. It was a bad realization for me to have, and I would never have had it if he didn't accidentally force everyone to just…wake up. I wouldn't trade it for the world, not for anything, but…I wanted to be able to help her. And, now that I think about it, my powers kind of reinforced that. But now? Now I know that I can't. That I never will be able to. So…yeah."
Mio snorted. "Right. You had a better setup with the first story, stick with that one. Also, there are no such things as eldritch shapeshifting horrors out to eat your mind, and they most definitely are not a type of psionic creature that would have consumed the entire planet. Please come up with better lies next time, eh?"
Marcella all but bristled in fury…before she actually processed what she had just heard.
Mio continued as if the other woman hadn't just had her worldview rearranged. "Besides, that alone is not really why I am interested. After all, You are after my Husband. And I already have one woman trying to worm her way in as it is. A second is likely to be…problematic."
Mouse Protector blinked…before smirking. "Oooh. Afraid that the competition will take away from your quality time?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Mio snapped back. "I have needs, after all, and the fact that my Satori is actually capable of sating them properly is part of why I put up with him."
Mouse Protector's smirk remained. "Sure, you keep telling yourself that. We all know the truth."
Mio ignored the comment. "...So, I might as well get you familiarized with some of the tests we're going to run to help you out. First off.."
Because, they both did indeed know the truth of the matter, as much as Mio refused to admit it out loud.
Marcella really was entirely too strong with her abilities…
-={/\]=-
Washu, at the moment, hated life.
Yes, being one of the almighty goddesses above even the gods of the gods themselves was a thing for her, as was her own constantly seeking out the limits of the universe and how it operated, but she still currently hated life.
And the root cause was the goddamned Celestial Forge. Because of course it couldn't just break in a way that was easy to fix, oh no. It had to be complicated.
The easy parts were already dealt with. Those most damaged nodes had been clipped and safely removed so as to not affect stability. Those shards of knowledge and ability were, sadly, lost, and outside of some very extreme levels of temporal bullshittery were completely unrecoverable without going back to the origin worlds, which kind of defeated the purpose if you asked her. Besides, she was able to use the raw materials to help repair everything else.
The actually recoverable pieces were much harder. The abilities contained within were still stable, but their 'containers' were in the way of the actual fixes that needed to be performed on the inner workings, and thus needed to be placed into a form of quarantine. That this would also preserve the conceptual 'shells' of those nodes of power was an added bonus that she was not looking too hard at lest it broke something. Space was a freaking pretzel in this place as it was, no need to make things even worse.
This meant that she had to remove them from their places in the grand constellation of stars and temporarily set them aside to get to the inner guts of the system, which was both extremely time-consuming and brutally difficult. It was a shock to her that nothing had gone majorly catastrophe yet, even though she had prevented several dangerously close calls prior.
It was because she was focusing on the safety aspects of maintaining integrity that she missed the energy surge that puled though the system until it was nearly too late. The blocks that she had set up to ground out those surges had somehow failed in the worst ways possible (completely and yet also temporarily) which had a near catastrophe in the making working its way through everything.
Fortunately, she was a super genius and had planned for even those safeguards to fail, and was quickly in battle against the forces trying to destroy her masterwork!!
And of course, it was precisely because of her focus in preventing one disaster that she completely missed the other one that was in progress. Several of the nodes she had been working to disconnect had, unknown to her, still had varying levels of residual charge to them, almost as if they were awaiting their deployment and activation. The rogue wave of energy, despite never actually reaching them, somehow granted just enough power to one of them to finish the process that they had started an unknown amount of time ago, and complete its activation.
This was also the single worst way that it could have activated: completely unshielded and leaking everywhere.
Washu turned to the node in shock, knowing full well what was about to happen.
The node finished charging, and activated itself with a massive pulse that warped spacetime itself in ways unfathomable to a mortal mind. It took everything that she could spare to mitigate the effects, and even then it was still having a massive backlash effect on the rest of space-time. Somehow, the small section of it that they were in held up…but it now had some very, very unintended connections to places outside of that bubble, and even outside of the galaxy itself.
And the horror show was still not done. The pulse of power had knocked itself into another set of nodes, one of them a cluster set that had delayed its own activation due to potential overload and was now surging out of control. Abandoning the already lost cause of the first node for fixing the imminent disaster that was the cluster, Washu quickly managed to section off part of the cluster from influence, which was a somewhat good thing…but the other part still surged wildly. She did at least shield the effects from propagating any further than the solar system itself...for all of the good that would do, as for reasons unknown the damned thing decided to just apply itself as hard and as liberally as possible.
And it had managed to drag a friend along with it. And that friend was trying to drag another friend.
Isolating the mess took entirely too long, and she was pretty sure that she missed at least one instance of something going wrong…but she had still done it. The forge system was still safe and stable.
And then she actually checked the damned souls they were connected to and winced. That had to have hurt…
-={/\]=-
Watts saw the incoming wave before it hit and shielded us from most of it. That is the best I can say about what happened.
It still hurt like all fuck for an infinite and short amount of time, distracting me for just long enough for other people to make their way into the control center of Stargate Command.
At their head was a man I considered one of the greatest Generals to have ever served, both in fiction and real life. I Immediately came to attention, and snapped off an absolutely fucking perfect salute, my petty attempt to convey as much respect as possible to the greatness of that man.
Major General George Hammond (of Texas), returned my salute with just as much respect and gravitas.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Green. I am General George Hammond, commanding this facility, and the Stargate program as a whole. Apologies for the runaround, but we make a point of trying to keep things here under wraps, for obvious reasons." his nod towards the inactive Stargate. "Nonetheless, allow me to welcome you to the program. We're hoping that your unique expertise can assist us here in our own endeavors."
It took a moment for me to shake the awe off. "Y-yes sir. I'll try not to be too much of a burden on your command, especially with how many ways I'n getting pulled at the moment."
The General smiled. "I'm well aware of the feeling, son." he stated, no unkindly. "Still, we all have our jobs to do. I'd like to introduce you to my staff. With me is Colonel O'Neill, my second in command and leader of our first-line exploration and reconnaissance team–""
"SG-1."
There was a slight pause in the room as I interrupted the General's speech. "Er…Pardon, me General, but…I'm actually quite aware of this program, though the method may be…a little unbelievable, sir."
Hammond merely gave me his usual hard stare, while Colonel O'Neill, who I was really expecting to have cracked a joke about now, finally spoke up. "Lemme guess, something about a parallel universe version of the SGC? Something like that?"
"Actually, sir, you were all part of a Sci-Fi television series. Still considered some of the best TV ever made, in fact."
To my shock, neither of the men even so much as flinched at this reveal. In fact, Hammond almost seemed...amused? "Please elaborate, if you would."
Recognizing the (gentle) order for what it was, I continued on. "Well, the series covered the adventures of SG-1 throughout a period of ten years of operation of the SGC, sir. It's a lot of ground. The show itself was named for SG-1, sir, and even managed to get two separate spinoffs based on happenings later on."
"Is that so." O'Neill (I refused to call him Jack, even in my own mind, without permission) commented, his usual sarcasm on display. "Well, were we at least looking good?"
I nodded. "You are all the spitting images of those I'd only known through a TV screen, sir. If anything, you were one of my inspirations to enlist in the first place."
Hammond openly laughed at that. "That matches up with what we were told to expect, then. Looks like things are working out so far."
Wait, what?
"Yeah, you aren't the only one playing around with weird timey-wimey stuff, Green. It has to do with why we wanted you here. Come on, I'll show you."
A brief glance at the General for permission, and we were on our way to the research labs of the SGC, with O'Neill happily (and sardonically) pointing out places of interest. It was oddly…fun? (From an officer? A Colonel, no less? Blasphemy!!)
Still, three minutes later, we were there, and I could immediately see what it was they wanted my consultation for.
The Artifact (because that's what it was, no doubt) stood out among everything else in the room just by its presence, a strange, holographic object with a single point seeming to be more solid than the others. The surrounding space had obviously been cleared out to avoid it doing anything stupid, but it seemed to just sit there, waiting. There were a few techs milling around, mostly keeping an eye on the obvious anomaly, but otherwise the place was empty.
"This thing here came with a note, pretty much letting us know the guy to track down. Since this isn't the first time we've had to deal with…issues of this nature, we decided to just call you in." O'Neill stated, handing me the note in question. He seemed amused by the whole process, honestly.
As for the note?
Track down WO Satori Green after he makes planetfall and clears quarantine. You'll need his help later. Look for the tails.
–Jack O'Neill
Oh great. Another piece of time travel BS that SG-1 usually gets into.
I couldn't help but comment on it. "I'm assuming that you got a lot more than this note as information, then, since you were expecting me to show up."
"Yeah, pretty much. So, whatcha make of this thingamajig here, huh?"
Right. The potentially dangerous artifact sitting in the middle of the SGC labs was not kosher. Just need to get a bit closer to check it out–
It happened so fast that even I couldn't react. One minute, it was fine just sitting there. The next? It had all but zoomed directly to my person and somehow melded with my person.
No…wait. It was melding with my frame?
[Error: unknown artifact is attempting to interface with systems. This one has a header attached. I am reading back now:
Child of the Forge, accept this boon immediately. You have little time.
Message ends.]
…Fuck. I was almost certain of what that was now, but I had no way of confirming without forcing an issue that I had been holding off on…and no choice but to go for it.
The multitasking instances that had been working on the upgrades for Thoth quickly compiled everything into a singular package executable for Thoth to run a self-update with, and then sent it off, pending execution on a few last tasks.
I turned to the Colonel, who was still slightly shocked at what had happened.
"Jesus Christ…You okay, Green?"
I nodded my assent, stretching out all six limbs as an example. "Yes, sir. You were right to bring this to my attention: the artifact here was literally addressed to me…but I can't access the rest of it just yet. I need a bit of open space to work with. Preferably where you can move things around."
O'Neill quickly looked around the lab, seeing a good amount of clear space available. "This enough?"
In response, I unloaded my Recycler/Fabricator into the empty space, next to a wall. The sudden appearance of the machine startled everyone who was in the area as a result.
Fortunately, it fit. Unfortunately, It currently didn't have any power to work with. Which was currently not my problem. As I had more stuff to dump from my storage.
I moved to an empty table and started dumping weapons. My old photon rifle, now massively upgraded and even more deadly, hit first, followed by all eight of the multiple dual-mode cannons ( I was going to call them rifles, but the upgrades…), and the smaller Launcher system as well. The missile canister hit the table next, and then I started dumping all of the person weaponry I had picked up while on Necromunda. Lasguns, Volkite pistols, that one Hellgun that some idiot had left behind, Laspistols, every kind of slugthrowner imaginable, you name it, it was in there.
I was a little confused at finding a Q-Beam inside, though. I didn't remember specifically picking one up while we were on Talos, but that could probably just be my overlooking it. The GLOO gun and spare canisters I set on the floor next to the table, and my ever-trusty Hefty wrench followed.
I was…tempted to let out the spare parts and materials for the Selsenia-pattern armors that the Sisters of Battle wore into combat, but I relented on count of it not being worth the effort. Besides, I was shocking the people that actually were here as it was.
I left the STC Minibox in a corner after slapping a giant warning label on it to be careful when perusing the database, then did a final check. Looked like there was nothing left in my Impeller storage but junk and recycler cubes, the Hypervelocity cannons, my suite of fabricators, the Medical suite, and the frame's reactor unit. All of which were fully expendable, even with the upgrades that Thoth had applied. Oh well, it's not like I couldn't create better anyway.
[the standard loadout will be safe, as it is technically frame equipment. Only the reactor will be affected.]
And there we go for confirmation on goodies.
Now, to do the last bit: Running the batch file that would start the process…and there we go.
I felt the odd sensation of Thoth doing a massive desync while he finalized the setup process. Part of that was going to be annoying in about eight seconds.
O'Neill was there first. "Wha…where did all of this come from? You were unarmed when you came in!!"
I was watching the clock intently. "Impeller storage, sir. Think of it like a portable hole. I had to empty it out for what needed to happen."
And the last of the setup finished, as a green/blue beach ball-like object fell into my outstretched arms, right on schedule. "And this is going to be the part that gets annoying, as I have to reset everything with my suit to figure out what that Artifact does. One more moment, please, sir."
I quickly started the initial access sequence, and was met with status messages of several things happening at once. Including the Artifact decrypting.
I read the message contained within…and Immediately swore.
"Language!!"
"Apologies, sir." I demurred, "But this is not a good thing. Where did you find this Artifact, again?"
O'Neill was unimpressed. "We didn't. It found us."
Yeah, Thought so.
"Yeah, I was afraid of that." I looked the colonel directly in his eyes. "We have a problem, sir."
-={/\]=-
Something had drawn their attention away from the endless squabbling and jockeying for over that was the great game. The Four found themselves curious as to what could have been so important as to have reverberations even deep within the empyrean, and all moved to investigate.
And what they found was wondrous beyond all description.
Methods of travel between worlds gateways between the stars…and ways of punching through even to other galaxies if need be.
And hidden within this bit of information was an odd message, addressed not to any one of them, but the Four as a whole.
And the contents had them bursting with malicious glee.
Yes. Soon that annoying interloper with the forge of stars would be dealt with…or even better, would be claimed as their own…
And failing that?
Well…there were so many worlds to choose from. Even across dimensions…
-={|||||||||||||||||}=-
-={|||||||||||||||||}=-
Alrighty then, that is this chapter. It's only slightly a mess, so bear with me.
The later bits are several hanging plot threads coming into play all at once, along with a reasonable reaction to an unintended consequence of a particular action set.
Also, Stargate Command exists on Bet. All of the key personnel are present, in various capacities, and will be represented when Satori has time to do so (as was stated, He's getting pulled in several directions at once by just the military alone at this point, and adding in other concerns is a non-starter) so don't worry too much about character bloat, as he doesn't have time to really interact with people here yet.
Secondary note that Sam, Danny, and Teal'c are all on an unrelated assignment off-base and were intentionally unavailable for the meeting, leaving Jack to do it solo. So far it's a mixed bag.
As for the Artifact? I think I gave enough hints, but one more will suffice: Truth will be found by those who truly seek it.
Mouse Protector…is special. That's all I can say about that. She lucked out HARD on the awakening side, having a stupidly strong set of newtype powers to go with her just appearance, as well as aslo gaining the abilities of a Psychodriver from, Chouki Taisen SRX, a mecha series which is exclusive to the Super Robot Wars games.
Psychodrivers are kind of a parallel to Newtypes in abilities except focusing more on Telekinesis and direct manipulation instead of just enhanced sensory stuff. How these will interact with each other is still undecided and even in story it is not known if they are even a separate ability.
Last part: I have Finally had an excuse to drop the last of the perks I have had sitting on the shelf for just this moment. One of them was used to create an incident that would let me do a thing more easily, and the rest just flowed along. Each one is a perk that I have rolled previously and decided to delay implementing for story reasons. Also note that due to the way the forge itself is messed up, notice that the perks have been activated in the first place may be…delayed, despite their affect on reality.
The perks are as follows:
-Xenoarchaeologist (Stargate SG-1) (600CP)
For whatever reason, understanding the civilizations of old means you're able to understand alien technology a lot better. You may not know everything off the bat, but upon first sight you have an idea of what it was meant for... and the longer you look at it, the more information you can glean. Fiddling with it will let you familiarize yourself with it more quickly.
For whatever reason, understanding the civilizations of old means you're able to understand alien technology a lot better. You may not know everything off the bat, but upon first sight you have an idea of what it was meant for... and the longer you look at it, the more information you can glean. Fiddling with it will let you familiarize yourself with it more quickly.
-Mega Bomb | Guru (Chrono Trigger) (1200CP)
Mega Bomb (600CP)
Magic and Technology are both capable of some pretty fantastic things. So why not put them together, and see what happens? You now understand the secret to integrating magic seamlessly into your mechanical devices, enabling you to create devices like bombs powered with fire magic or medkits that use healing magic. While initially your devices will be one-shots that rely on a magical charge you have to deliver, in time, you'll learn how to make much more advanced fusions, such machines that run on magical power sources, or automated spellcasting devices. In the end, the only limit is your skill with machinery and magic.
Guru (600CP)
Back in the glory days of Zeal, Guru was a title reserved only for the most skilled and knowledgeable of their mages and scientists. You might not be there yet, but when I'm done with you, you'll be well on your way to deserving the title. Magic is akin to a science to you, letting you delve into the secrets of sorcery the same way a physicist would unlock the secrets of the atom. This also includes learning how to apply magical knowledge like an engineer does the sciences, letting you come up with breathtaking magical wonders. The Blackbird, the Mammon Machine, the Ocean Palace - who knows what you'll add to that list of legends.
-Fuinjutsu Prodigy (Naruto) (600CP)
You are one of the very few who are talented in the art of Fuinjutsu, an esoteric discipline combining all the complexities of calligraphy and physics. Despite the difficulty in learning fuinjutsu, skilled practitioners find it well worth it. Fuinjutsu, or sealing, is at its most basic storing something within something else through symbols to be released at another time. More advanced techniques still follow this same principle, but to great effect. Seal masters can seal away the elements, chakra, form summoning contracts, teleport, or even summon and bind souls using these principles. It's only downside is that this art is massively difficult to learn even for the talented, and will take years of intense study to master. You start off knowing how to make the two most basic of seals: The storage seal which allows you to store items in slips of paper much smaller than they are, and the explosive seal which is basically a few glyphs on a piece of paper the size of a greeting card that explodes like a small amount of plastique.
-Material Synthesis Science | Exotic Compatibility (Gundam - After Colony) (600CP)
Material Synthesis Science (200CP)
You know a few things about getting your own materials, but you also have a bit of know-how about how the people here get such quality materials. Normally, you know how to forge, quench and mold materials into more high quality specimens, but you have a specialization in Zero-Gravity Material Synthesis as well-in microgravity conditions, you can create much more effective materials thanks to the limitations of gravity being removed.
Exotic Compatibility (400CP)
You have a way of working with quirky and strange materials-in your hands and machinery, it assumes the forging and abilities of plain Iron until you begin building with it. You also can integrate exotic materials into your constructions a lot easier, and if you don't know what a material is or what it can do, you're very good at researching applications and properties of said materials. This research could also go into things such as improving production numbers and similar.
Mega Bomb (600CP)
Magic and Technology are both capable of some pretty fantastic things. So why not put them together, and see what happens? You now understand the secret to integrating magic seamlessly into your mechanical devices, enabling you to create devices like bombs powered with fire magic or medkits that use healing magic. While initially your devices will be one-shots that rely on a magical charge you have to deliver, in time, you'll learn how to make much more advanced fusions, such machines that run on magical power sources, or automated spellcasting devices. In the end, the only limit is your skill with machinery and magic.
Guru (600CP)
Back in the glory days of Zeal, Guru was a title reserved only for the most skilled and knowledgeable of their mages and scientists. You might not be there yet, but when I'm done with you, you'll be well on your way to deserving the title. Magic is akin to a science to you, letting you delve into the secrets of sorcery the same way a physicist would unlock the secrets of the atom. This also includes learning how to apply magical knowledge like an engineer does the sciences, letting you come up with breathtaking magical wonders. The Blackbird, the Mammon Machine, the Ocean Palace - who knows what you'll add to that list of legends.
-Fuinjutsu Prodigy (Naruto) (600CP)
You are one of the very few who are talented in the art of Fuinjutsu, an esoteric discipline combining all the complexities of calligraphy and physics. Despite the difficulty in learning fuinjutsu, skilled practitioners find it well worth it. Fuinjutsu, or sealing, is at its most basic storing something within something else through symbols to be released at another time. More advanced techniques still follow this same principle, but to great effect. Seal masters can seal away the elements, chakra, form summoning contracts, teleport, or even summon and bind souls using these principles. It's only downside is that this art is massively difficult to learn even for the talented, and will take years of intense study to master. You start off knowing how to make the two most basic of seals: The storage seal which allows you to store items in slips of paper much smaller than they are, and the explosive seal which is basically a few glyphs on a piece of paper the size of a greeting card that explodes like a small amount of plastique.
-Material Synthesis Science | Exotic Compatibility (Gundam - After Colony) (600CP)
Material Synthesis Science (200CP)
You know a few things about getting your own materials, but you also have a bit of know-how about how the people here get such quality materials. Normally, you know how to forge, quench and mold materials into more high quality specimens, but you have a specialization in Zero-Gravity Material Synthesis as well-in microgravity conditions, you can create much more effective materials thanks to the limitations of gravity being removed.
Exotic Compatibility (400CP)
You have a way of working with quirky and strange materials-in your hands and machinery, it assumes the forging and abilities of plain Iron until you begin building with it. You also can integrate exotic materials into your constructions a lot easier, and if you don't know what a material is or what it can do, you're very good at researching applications and properties of said materials. This research could also go into things such as improving production numbers and similar.
FourmyleCircus
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2021
- Messages
- 20
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- 245
But enough about her head.
(Samuel L Jackson voice)What does Marcella Wallace look like?
Of course not, (Samuel L Jackson voice) does Marcella Wallace look like a bitch to you?
Do forgive the Pulp Fiction jokes, the moment I read the name all I could think was that scene.
Thine Spree
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2021
- Messages
- 272
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- 2,300
Jesus, crap just keeps on piling up for Satori, first with the Elders speeding up their time table and now The Four getting access to the multiverse via forge-backed fuckery of the stellar gate kind and then what ever that artifact was (Something backed by the backers of the forge its self given the wording of its warning) aaaand "Heavens Fall" getting activated (Naming and comments is making me think its either PA/TA/SubCom level shenanigans or Super Robot level shenanigans)
Cheetored20
Versed in the lewd.
- Joined
- May 31, 2020
- Messages
- 1,672
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- 5,603
Ok so that's an chozo upgrade of some sort based on what it looks like, probably an aeon ability from the second game.(can't be bothered to get the name right, about to go bed) my guess is the stupid fast gun.
GamertagzFTW
Creative Writing in Progress
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2020
- Messages
- 53
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- 345
I liked this story, but it's hit the point where there are so many crossovers I can't keep track of the actual plot. This seemed interesting, but it's gotten far too ridiculous for me.
Slider Zero
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2018
- Messages
- 254
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- 9,871
I actually am limiting things. Based on the criteria I set for this section of the story, I should actually have at least seven other franchises active at this very moment. Instead I am sticking with the things that are or can be relevant.
Apologies if it's getting a bit overbearing.
Well, I cannot dictate to all tastes. My apologies for having lost you.
At least, I hope that you enjoyed reading this until now, anyway.
Thank you for reading, and I hope that you find a fic more to your taste somewhere nearby.