With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

better then it
Missing end quote.

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th May 2284
20:58 GMT -7

I nod at the fallen Black Paladin as the members of my group trained in power armour maintenance finish stripping him of his armour. According to Rhett, the power armour they have over in New England is build on top of a standardised frame and opens at the back; you press a button and step into it, whereupon it seals up around you. You can mix and match pieces, or just bend metal into shape if you're missing a piece. Sounds like that was an idea that had potential.

"Did you know him?"

In the rest of America, power armour units are integrated units that need considerable time to get on or off or calibrate, because if the slightest thing goes wrong with the myomer then you get to re-enact the failed power armour test scene in Iron Man 2. I saw an Enclave Iowa National Guard soldier who could jump and do flips in Advanced Power Armour, and I can't see someone managing that in a loose-fitting frame. To say nothing of the plumbing issues.

I mean, the guy's sergeant tore him a structurally superfluous new behind afterwards, but he managed it.

Abel looks him over carefully, and then checks his torso for… Tattoos? Scars?

"Nah. See this?" He lifts the ex-paladin's arm, pointing to a series of crude nautically-themed tattoos on his skin. "Port Maw. Probably a pirate who got on the wrong side of Captain Granger Storm and got handed over as tribute."

"Port Maw?"

"Oh, right. Ah, it's a bunch of pirates and their slaves, based out of the pre-War town of Brownsmead."

One of the other former slaves, a man who'd been disarming the brain jars, frowns as he walks back in. "'Brownsmead'? The fuck's that?"

"The pre-War town where Port Maw is now. I dunno. Port Maw's big enough it's probably outgrown it. Anyway, they've got a whole stretch of the coast down to where the mirelurk worshippers live. They pay tribute to The Immortal in exchange for him not enslaving all of them."

"What do they offer him? I'd have thought that if they had advanced technology-."

"Hah!" Abel shakes his head. "No, that isn't it. They raid where he tells them to raid, ship his soldiers around and hand over anything fancy they find. That and the slaves and he's happy. The ghouls east of here got a similar deal."

The brain drainer grimaces. "Yeah, burned.. fuckers…"

I raise my eyebrows. "Personal experience?"

He nods. "Used to be part of an outfit called the Wardens of the White. We kept order 'round these parts. Kept the pirates away, dealt with mutant wildlife, all that stuff. When these Brother fuckers-. No offence, Abel."

"It's fine."

"When the Immortal's Brother fuckers turned up and kicked us out, my company headed east. Made a deal with the ghoul vault. We could live there if we handled stuff for 'em. It sucked, but it was something. We were there for years, even fought a war against the normal humans they kicked out of their vault for 'em. Then when the Immortal came knocking they couldn't hand us over fast enough."

He turns around, looking at Torland on the slab.

"Speaking of people on my list, we interrogating this guy, or you just gunna brain-zap him?"

Hm. "Abel, can you wear this armour?"

"Yeah, probably. Can't plug this stuff into my brain, but we can probably tie it down or tear it off. The rest… Looks like the cyborg stuff was added to a normal A.T.A. suit, so it should all work fine without that."

"Alright. Get suited up. We'll find out where we're going from the Head Scribe."

"Chief Inquisitor, actually!" Torland smiles cruelly. Even deprived of his outer vestments, his slave soldier and his weapons, he still looks completely confident. "The Immortal felt that a change of titles was required to reflect my new duties."

I raise my eyebrows. "Which are?"

"Oh, overseeing people being tortured, using their confessions to perpetuate his reign of terror, and generally terrifying people too badly to even think of rebelling. Honestly, it's all I can do to grab a few hours a week to work on the Black Paladin system. I'm particularly proud of it."

I nod. "Yes, I'd spotted that. You wouldn't know anything about the large electromagnetic pulse we experienced in California a couple of days ago, would you?"

He frowns. "Electromagnetic-? Oh! From the high altitude fission detonation! Of course! I'm glad to know that things are going so well."

"You didn't notice anything here?"

"Well, no. We're in a shielded bunker. If there was enough electromagnetic activity to affect us down here then the atmosphere being on fire would be more of a concern."

"But you knew it was going to happen."

"I knew that it was going to happen eventually. The Immortal is campaigning north of here. We members of the Brotherhood of Steel do like our pre-War technology."

"In Alaska?"

"Of course! The Alaska campaign required all sorts of fortifications and supply dumps to be constructed, and it was the best place to build nuclear missiles intended to strike Siberia."

I frown. "Why did they want to strike Siberia? Russia was effectively just a drain on Chinese resources at that point, they weren't an active participant in the Great War."

"Ah… Some records implied that the Chinese used Siberian facilities as the jumping off point for their invasion. It could have been a retaliation attack, or one intended to destroy Russia airfields or what was left of the Russian fleet. Personally, I suspect that they wanted to send troops to Siberia and then transport them down the coast to attack China from the north."

"So the Immortal altered a missile?"

"I doubt that it was him personally, but someone on his staff, yes."

"Why? You're clearly not planning on attacking California."

"Not yet, no. No, we aim to seize all American war materiel from Alaska, and then cross over the Bering strait to Siberia and continue our reclamation work. So much Russian materiel is just sitting there due to lack of fuel! Once we convert their fleet to nuclear fuel cells, we'll be able to sail anywhere we choose! And then their tanks, their aircraft…"

"I see."

"Most of the conventional munitions will probably have decayed beyond use, but high quality alloys and hulls are always useful. And once my method for creating Black Paladins is perfected, we can turn whatever survivors there are in the area into perfectly disciplined soldiers and thralls!"

I turn to Abel. "I admit, I'm not a great theologian, but using technology to violate people like that goes against Roger Maxson's teachings, doesn't it?"

He stares at me for a moment as his attendants fit his boots. "You bet your ass it does."

"It most certainly does not!" Torland looks genuinely offended. "Ignorant savages with weapons beyond their comprehension burned this world! By taking away their ignorance, we place them in a state of-."

I draw my pistol and shoot him through the head.

Pzzzt!

I take a moment to make certain that he's dead, and then turn to the group.

"We don't have the equipment for a mass uprising. Unless any of you are deeply committed to carrying out a guerrilla campaign, we need to get out of here. My best idea is stealing a boat and then heading south down the coast until we reach friendly territory. Anyone got anything better?"

"Yeah." The former Warden nods. "I think I do."

 

[Alan975]

stop writing fallout good, I can feel that old obsession trying to claw its way back to the buttons and levers behind my eyes

 

[Graeme]

"once my method for creating Black Paladins is perfectly,"

"perfected" or perhaps "perfectly finished" or similar, as it is clearly meant to resonate with the second part of the sentence

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

19th May 2284
20:58 GMT -7

I nod at the fallen Black Paladin as the members of my group trained in power armour maintenance finish stripping him of his armour. According to Rhett, the power armour they have over in New England is build on top of a standardised frame and opens at the back; you press a button and step into it, whereupon it seals up around you. You can mix and match pieces, or just bend metal into shape if you're missing a piece. Sounds like that was an idea that had potential.

Click to shrink...

A convenience introduced between games, wasn't it? Or at least, that's the Doylist reason. Krono here basically covered the Watsonian side. I can imagine the process relies a lot more on internal computers to calibrate and adjust for random wearers.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"Did you know him?"

In the rest of America, power armour units are integrated units that need considerable time to get on or off or calibrate, because if the slightest thing goes wrong with the myomer then you get to re-enact the failed power armour test scene in Iron Man 2. I saw an Enclave Iowa National Guard soldier who could jump and do flips in Advance Power Armour, and I can't see someone managing that in a loose-fitting frame. To say nothing of the plumbing issues.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, that armour should never have had the articulation range to turn that far anyway, much less that quickly. Completely in character for Justin Hammer ordering the designers to skip a logical safety mechanism like that in the name of quick profits.

I mean, the guy's sergeant tore him a structurally superfluous new behind afterwards, but he managed it.

Abel looks him over carefully, and then checks his torso for… Tattoos? Scars?

Click to shrink...

I'm sure the sergeant did. Between the risk of injury from a mishap, that armour was probably expensive as hell and seeing a soldier risking that in order to show off? The guy's probably lucky he didn't get thrown in the stockade.

"Nah. See this?" He lifts the ex-paladin's arm, pointing to a series of crude nautically-themed tattoos on his skin. "Port Maw. Probably a pirate who got on the wrong side of Captain Granger Storm and got handed over as tribute."

"Port Maw?"

Click to shrink...

And I am totally picturing something akin to an Ork sea-port: Rusted metal formed into defensive walls with jagged teeth along the top as crenellations and rickety tower with gun posts, surrounding warehouses and barracks as ramshackle as the walls...

"Oh, right. Ah, it's a bunch of pirates and their slaves, based out of the pre-War town of Brownsmead."

One of the other former slaves, a man who'd been disarming the brain jars, frowns as he walks back in. "'Brownsmead'? The fuck's that?"

Click to shrink...

A little town in Oregon. And presumably a well-defended little inlet the pirates can use as a base.

"The pre-War town where Port Maw is now. I dunno. Port Maw's big enough it's probably outgrown it. Anyway, they've got a whole stretch of the coast down to where the mirelurk worshippers live. They pay tribute to The Immortal in exchange for him not enslaving all of them."

Click to shrink...

...Well, that doesn't sound pleasant at all.

"What do they offer him? I'd have thought that if they had advanced technology-."

"Hah!" Abel shakes his head. "No, that isn't it. They raid where he tells them to raid, ship his soldiers around and hand over anything fancy they find. That and the slaves and he's happy. The ghouls east of here got a similar deal."

Click to shrink...

With the threat of the Immortal's forces wiping them out entirely as a lever to keep them in line, of course.

The brain drainer grimaces. "Yeah, burned.. fuckers…"

I raise my eyebrows. "Personal experience?"

Click to shrink...

Definitely personal, with that much fury.

He nods. "Used to be part of an outfit called the Wardens of the White. We kept order 'round these parts. Kept the pirates away, dealt with mutant wildlife, all that stuff. When these Brother fuckers-. No offence, Abel."

"It's fine."

Click to shrink...

There's Brotherhood, and then there's Brotherhood fuckers, after all. Not all bands are created equal in power or character.

"When the Immortal's Brother fuckers turned up and kicked us out, my company headed east. Made a deal with the ghoul vault. We could live there if we handled stuff for 'em. It sucked, but it was something. We were there for years, even fought a war against the normal humans they kicked out of their vault for 'em. Then when the Immortal came knocking they couldn't hand us over fast enough."

Click to shrink...

Okay, that definite sounds worth the ire he feels for them.

He turns around, looking at Torland on the slab.

"Speaking of people on my list, we interrogating this guy, or you just gunna brain-zap him?"

Click to shrink...

Why not all of the above? Reap his brain for useful information, ask him about anything Krono couldn't get a clear picture of, then apply the thumbscrews for comfort?

Hm. "Abel, can you wear this armour?"

"Yeah, probably. Can't plug this stuff into my brain, but we can probably tie it down or tear it off. The rest… Looks like the cyborg stuff was added to a normal A.T.A. suit, so it should all work fine without that."

Click to shrink...

Sounds like a useful trojan horse to get them out of there safely.

"Alright. Get suited up. We'll find out where we're going from the Head Scribe."

"Chief Inquisitor, actually!" Torland smiles cruelly. Even deprived of his outer vestments, his slave soldier and his weapons, he still looks completely confident. "The Immortal felt that a change of titles was required to reflect my new duties."

Click to shrink...

This guy really doesn't grok his current circumstances, does he? Evidently he's assuming 'oh, yes, an entire squad will walk in at any moment and kill all these fools and I can get back to my important woks.'

I raise my eyebrows. "Which are?"

"Oh, overseeing people being tortured, using their confessions to perpetuate his reign of terror, and generally terrifying people too badly to even think of rebelling. Honestly, it's all I can do to grab a few hours a week to work on the Black Paladin system. I'm particularly proud of it."

Click to shrink...

...Yeah, he isn't leaving this room alive. And possibly not in one piece, I hope.

I nod. "Yes, I'd spotted that. You wouldn't know anything about the large electromagnetic pulse we experienced in California a couple of days ago, would you?"

He frowns. "Electromagnetic-? Oh! From the high altitude fission detonation! Of course! I'm glad to know that things are going so well."

Click to shrink...

So casual about something that disrupted thousands of systems. He really doesn't have any empathy, does he?

"You didn't notice anything here?"

"Well, no. We're in a shielded bunker. If there was enough electromagnetic activity to affect us down here then the atmosphere being on fire would be more of a concern."

Click to shrink...

...He's not wrong, I suppose.

"But you knew it was going to happen."

"I knew that it was going to happen eventually. The Immortal is campaigning north of here. We members of the Brotherhood of Steel do like our pre-War technology."

Click to shrink...

Oh, so glad to see you enjoying your absolutely monstrous experiments.

"In Alaska?"

"Of course! The Alaska campaign required all sorts of fortifications and supply dumps to be constructed, and it was the best place to build nuclear missiles intended to strike Siberia."

I frown. "Why did they want to strike Siberia? Russia was effectively just a drain on Chinese resources at that point, they weren't an active participant in the Great War."

Click to shrink...

Again, as seen in Operation Anchorage, it was a notable warzone.

"Ah… Some records implied that the Chinese used Siberian facilities as the jumping off point for their invasion. It could have been a retaliation attack, or one intended to destroy Russia airfields or what was left of the Russian fleet. Personally, I suspect that they wanted to send troops to Siberia and then transport them down the coast to attack China from the north."

Click to shrink...

...Why? The war is long over. Is this Immortal guy so obsessed with wiping out China that he'd prosecute a centuries-gone conflict to do so? Or are his eyes on a more mundane prize?
EDIT: Ah, completely misunderstood the intent. And I suppose the pre-war government might have wanted to stage a punitive expedition to punish the enemy for the temerity of attacking Alaska. If nothing else, it would have been a morale-boosting play. Anything more might have been incendiary.

"So the Immortal altered a missile?"

"I doubt that it was him personally, but someone on his staff, yes."

"Why? You're clearly not planning on attacking California."

Click to shrink...

Not yet, I would expect. Clearly all this preparation is in aid of gaining an army large enough to roll over the mainland states.

"Not yet, no. No, we aim to seize all American war materiel from Alaska, and then cross over the Bering strait to Siberia and continue our reclamation work. So much Russian materiel is just sitting there due to lack of fuel! Once we convert their fleet to nuclear fuel cells, we'll be able to sail anywhere we choose! And then their tanks, their aircraft…"

Click to shrink...

Ah, there we go. Weapons and war materiel. A much more logical target than a long-dead government.

"I see."

"Most of the conventional munitions will probably have decayed beyond use, but high quality alloys and hulls are always useful. And once my method for creating Black Paladins is perfected, we can turn whatever survivors there are in the area into perfectly disciplined soldiers and thralls!"

Click to shrink...

Especially if they can find factories they can put to use to mass-produce their power armour.

I turn to Abel. "I admit, I'm not a great theologian, but using technology to violate people like that goes against Roger Maxson's teachings, doesn't it?"

He stares at me for a moment as his attendants fit his boots. "You bet your ass it does."

Click to shrink...

I'm guessing that has one obvious penalty under their doctrine, then.

"It most certainly does not!" Torland looks genuinely offended. "Ignorant savages with weapons beyond their comprehension burned this world! By taking away their ignorance, we place them in a state of-."

I draw my pistol and shoot him through the head.

Click to shrink...

It doesn't matter what else he knew, he needed killing.

Pzzzt!

I take a moment to make certain that he's dead, and then turn to the group.

Click to shrink...

And good riddance to bad rubbish.

"We don't have the equipment for a mass uprising. Unless any of you are deeply committed to carrying out a guerrilla campaign, we need to get out of here. My best idea is stealing a boat and then heading south down the coast until we reach friendly territory. Anyone got anything better?"

"Yeah." The former Warden nods. "I think I do."

Click to shrink...

A former Warden facility, I bet. Possibly with vehicles they can repair and make use of to evacuate...

That'll be a decent setback to the Immortal's plans, but I doubt the bad doctor there didn't extensively document his design process. So once whoever gets put in charge of it next gets the hang of it, there'll be more cyborg soldiers rolling out eventually. Still, any setback is going to slow them down and that's what Krono needs right now. Distractions while his allies muster forces...

 

[Duke Long]

In the rest of America, power armour units are integrated units that need considerable time to get on or off or calibrate, because if the slightest thing goes wrong with the myomer then you get to re-enact the failed power armour test scene in Iron Man 2. I saw an Enclave Iowa National Guard soldier who could jump and do flips in Advance Power Armour, and I can't see someone managing that in a loose-fitting frame. To say nothing of the plumbing issues.

Click to shrink...

'Advanced'

"We don't have the equipment for a mass uprising. Unless any of you are deeply committed to carrying out a guerrilla campaign, we need to get out of here. My best idea is stealing a boat and then heading south down the coast until we reach friendly territory. Anyone got anything better?"

Click to shrink...

That seems pretty risky when there's a big pirate port down the coast. I wonder what the better plan is. Stealing a Vertibird? Though they were noted to have AA.

I wonder if Immortal lacked good information about the southern powers. Because if he was well-informed, it seems pretty stupid to antagonise them all like this for the sake of making his northern conquests easier.

I'm guessing there are a lot of ancient military robots in Alaska? That's an obvious reason for a massive EMP to seem desirable.

 

[012345]

My best idea is stealing a boat and then heading south down the coast until we reach friendly territory. Anyone got anything better?"

Click to shrink...

Dont forget about your saucer.

 

[Mr Zoat]

@Alan975 I appreciate the warm regards, but you know what you've done.

"once my method for creating Black Paladins is perfectly,"

"perfected" or perhaps "perfectly finished" or similar, as it is clearly meant to resonate with the second part of the sentence

Click to shrink...

'Advanced'

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

Dont forget about your saucer.

Click to shrink...

He won't, but it can only carry about ten people, and that's it they strap themselves to the outer hull.

...Well, that doesn't sound pleasant at all.

Click to shrink...

It's not too bad, actually. They use the shells of dead mirelurks as armour and tools, and they live around them and smell like them so much that the mirelurks accept them as part of their group. In game, they're the only nation that can take full advantage of the Outsider Warfare doctrine, due to being able to mass produce armoured mutants.

So casual about something that disrupted thousands of systems. He really doesn't have any empathy, does he?

Click to shrink...

Of course he has empathy! If he couldn't understand their feelings he'd have far less fun!

...Why? The war is long over. Is this Immortal guy so obsessed with wiping out China that he'd prosecute a centuries-gone conflict to do so? Or are his eyes on a more mundane prize?

Click to shrink...

Torland is talking about why the Americans built up in Alaska after Anchorage was liberated.

 

[FourthPear]

Are they going to help Krono at any point, or did he magically become perfectly coherent after having his brain scrambled?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Are they going to help Krono at any point, or did he magically become perfectly coherent after having his brain scrambled?

Click to shrink...

Are who going to help Krono? The former slaves broke the jars of brain bits that were keeping him stun-locked, if that's what you mean.

 

[FourthPear]

Are who going to help Krono? The former slaves broke the jars of brain bits that were keeping him stun-locked, if that's what you mean.

Click to shrink...

The people talking in this chapter.