Theme:
AoT - Attack On Titan Instrumental Theme
Where there is smoke,
There will soon be a fire!
(Where there's smoke there'll soon be fire) X4
Where there's smoke there'll soon be fire,
Play with fire and you will be burned.
Hidden behind dark blue gauntlets,
Guardian of the innocent.
Even his great Aura may fade,
Grimm attack and darkness closes.
Where there's smoke there'll soon be fire,
Play with fire and you will be burned.
Beware, he will take you down,
With a punch,
Or a kick,
Or a thrown shuriken!
Even although he holds himself back,
He is a force to be reckoned with!
(skip to 02:32)
Where there is smoke there will soon be a fire,
Play with the flames and you will be burned,
Go all out or you're,
All far too easy,
He strikes as hard as a
COMET!
Where there is smoke there will soon be a fire,
Play with the flames and you will be burned,
Go all out or you're,
All far too easy,
He strikes as hard as a
COMET!
Where there is smoke there will soon be a fire,
Play with the flames and you will be burned,
Go all out or you're,
All far too easy,
He will take you all down!
(Where there's smoke there'll soon be fire) X7
(Play with it, you'll burn!)
—
The large, VTOL dropship known as the Skyranger touched down on the alien landing pad, its cargo door falling open. First out were a pair of men with obviously synthetic arms and legs, each holding a large, glowing green weapon. The first was wearing black-tinted armour, with a large thermos hanging from his hip and a fedora on his head. The other was wearing desert camouflage-coloured armour and a full helmet with an opaque, golden visor over the front. After the cyborgs came a girl clad in armoured trousers and what resembled an armoured bra, all tinted orange. Her skin was covered in red fur, and her face was shaped similarly to a fox's. A large, glowing green rifle was slung on her back, and metallic claws extended from her fingertips. The last one out was dressed similarly to the girl, without anything on his chest, in forest camouflage-tinted armour. like the girl, his body was covered in fur, though his was coloured and patterned like a cheetah. His face appeared distinctly feline, and a pair of glowing green pistols hung from his waist. He looked around, taking in just where he was. Suddenly, he felt a presence in his mind, blowing past his psionic defences.
You hear our voice, New One, now listen well…
Long have we watched… and waited. So many promising subjects, so many failed efforts. And now, after untold trials, the New One emerges to face the rigors of our collective… An enduring physical form, paired with an equally adept mental capacity – the rarest of traits, finally within our grasp.
At that, the blast door over the entrance slid open. The boy looked at his teammates, his… friends.
"Looks like we've just been invited in."
—
"Heads up! Sectos!" Aina, the girl and sniper of the team, called.
"Sectos? as in, more than one?" Koby, the brit with the canteen, called back.
"That's the one!" She yelped and swore as a massive red beam slammed into her cover, impacting three times before stopping to cool off. At that, a second beam took its place.
An artificial warrior… created to supplement the limitations of the many… failures. Crafted with a singular purpose… it ultimately contributes little to our cause. Still, there is hope, as the New One approaches…
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Proteus screamed, pouring his hatred and rage into a single, devastating attack. He launched the psionic energy at the sectopods before him, ripping the very fabric of space and time. As it did every time he used his abilities, the rush of power distorted his voice, caused him to laugh, and he spoke the line that the power suggested.
"Reality itself, RIPS you apart!"
The sectopods stood no chance. The devastating psionic storm he had created utterly annihilated the first one and severely weakened the other. Before anyone else could even take aim, Proteus was speaking again.
"My mind, your body. I rip through you with ease."
With that, he threw his hand forward again, sending a bolt of pure force at the sectopod. The poor machine couldn't hand the attack, falling over backward before exploding.
It is as we hoped… the New One has surpassed all that have come before… and with such great confidence… so skilled with the Gift.
"Fuck. Off."
No.
—
Behold the greatest failure… of the Ethereal Ones… We who failed to ascend as they thought we would.
We who were cast out. We who were doomed to feed on the Gift of lesser beings… as we sought to uplift them… to prepare them… for what lies ahead.
"Nothing lies ahead for you, you arrogant motherfucker!" Proteus roared. "Spread out! Focus on the Ethereal in the middle, and rain hell on that fucker!" As his friends complied, the ethereal spoke again.
The hunt draws to a close. It was not a vain undertaking… but a necessity, as our physical form has grown… ineffective. Our search for a perfect specimen was driven by our own crippling limitation, and now, at long last…
"At long last, YOU DIE!
REALITY ITSELF, RIPS YOU APART!
MY MIND, YOUR BODY. I RIP THROUGH YOU WITH EASE.
SUFFER!
THE BELLS OF DEATH, CALL YOU TO YOUR GRAVE!"
Proteus let loose, sending a Rift, a Psi Lance, a Mindfray, and finally an Accept Death at the being. The first three almost killed it straight out, and the Accept Death caused it to willingly fling itself in front of Aina's headshot.
This is not your path! Not your purpose! You need our guidance to hone this power… without us, what are you?
"Free." He fired one last shot from his plasma pistols at the Uber Ethereal, causing it to explode into psionic energy.
—
The Temple Ship shuddered violently, causing dust to fall from the ceiling.
"Go! Go! Go!" Proteus ordered, sending the other three sprinting for the exit. Proteus began to follow before the Gollop Device sitting by the Ethereal's body sent out a spike of information.
The cities of Earth, sucked into the growing gravity well generated by the Temple Ship's collapse. It was behaving like a dying star - increasing its own density at an exponential rate, forming a singularity. The ship had to be stabilised - killing the Uber Ethereal had caused an effect similar to killing a mind-merged Sectoid - the neural spike caused by its death was taking the massive, psionically linked ship with it.
The other members of his team looked back at him. He couldn't let them die with him.
"GO!" he roared, sending a telekinetic wave toward them. To his dismay, however, Koby and Campbell simply anchored themselves, each grabbing one of Aina's arms to help her resist the wave as well. He shook his head.
"Fools." With that, he turned back to the Gollop Device. He could feel the massive ship responding as he placed his hands on either side of the sphere, lifting the psionic control into the air as the ship followed suit. Controlling the ship - The Leviathan, it called itself - was as easy as moving his own arms. It came naturally to him - indeed, the moment he joined his mind with the craft, he felt as if he had become the ship, yet he was also still inside his own body. This sensation would have been disorienting had he not already experienced it - the feeling was similar to when he had "jacked in" to the aliens' hive mind in the Gollop Chamber.
The Leviathan exited the Earth's atmosphere. Now Proteus had a choice. Destroy the Leviathan, or leave the planet. Were he anyone else, the choice would be easy - Destroy the ship, and die rather than spending your life alone. Proteus was different. Had his team not resisted his telekinetic wave, again, the choice would have been the same. But they had. So, he had to take the other choice. He spoke as the others approached him.
"Farewell, sweet mother Earth. Greetings… to the Unknown." The Leviathan's Elerium drive spun up deep inside the monstrous craft, and the stars before them seemed to stretch before the room's blast shields slammed shut and they were flung forward. Away from their universe, and into another.
—
Acceleration…
Acceleration…
Acceleration…
STOP!
—
The three who weren't jacked in to the ship pitched forward at the virtually instantaneous deceleration. The room was dark save for the Gollop device and the Ethereal art scattered throughout the room. Proteus disconnected from the ship, the jump having stabilised its core.
"Strike-One," he began, "sound off."
Koby rolled over behind him, pushing himself to his feet with his polymorphic-augmented arms. "One-Two, all systems nominal."
Aina sat up, quickly checking her plasma sniper for damage.
"One-Three, minor scratches to my gun that'll take hours to buff out, but other than that, fine."
Finally, Leroy pushed off the ground with his hands, jumping to his feet. The Polymorphic MEC seemed fine, but Proteus waited for his confirmation anyway.
"One-Four, ready to do that again!"
And there it was.
"The ship says the area is safe," Proteus began, jacking into the Leviathan again. "Opening the blast shields, let's get a look at what we've got." The massive metal shutters slowly descended, and the first thing that caught their eyes was a large amount of space rock in what looked like a shatter pattern. Their eyes followed it to the source, and they were struck speechless.
"Okay," Proteus began, "first off, the Leviathan did not do that. That was something else. Second, holy shit."
"You can say that again, Actual," Leroy replied. The moon was shattered. The shields lowered to their fullest extent, revealing the land below them.
"My god…" Aina began, "those landmasses resemble…"
"Dragons," Koby finished, taking a sip from his thermos with his little finger extended.
"We've got more pressing issues," Proteus interrupted, gazing at the stars with his now-glowing purple eyes. "Stellar mapping puts us in the same location we left from, at roughly the same time." The others turned to look at him.
"What."
—
The four soldiers stepped toward the disc-shaped ship. Koby turned to Proteus.
"Did you have to make it this one?" he asked, "lotta bad memories from that mission." Proteus nodded solemnly.
"Sorry Koby," he replied, "I know Hannah meant a lot to you, but I have no clue how to operate the alien flight computers. The psionic interface is the only thing I can use, and only the Overseer class has a Gollop device installed. Then again, I'm not even sure this one will work as well as the Leviathan's. Different ships, different links, maybe different psionic interface. I dunno - the one back home didn't retain anything from the Overseer other than the name." Aina tightened her grip on her precious rifle.
"At least the Sectoids seemed happy to build this for us."
"Yeah," Proteus nodded, "I think since I'm the one who flies the ship, I'm the one in control of this section of the hive mind now - the highest authority, so to speak. I already deployed some Thinnies to infiltrate the major cities and act as information brokers and the like… Our first port of call is called Vale, and we'll be meeting up with TI-907682, a Thinnie who took the name 'Junior'. Try not to kill him on sight please, he's a treasure trove of info he'll give immediately thanks to the whole 'controlling the hive mind' thing." The others nodded. Proteus was the boss - he told them to shoot, they shot. He told them to act friendly with a Thinnie, well, they could do that too.
"Come on, let's get moving. Hope I don't crash this thing, or we won't be coming up here for awhile…"
—
The door beneath the Overseer irised open, revealing the planet below them. The craft within the bay dropped out like a stone, the door irising shut again as they hit the atmosphere. Within the circular ship, Koby looked his commanding officer in the eye as he placed his hands on either side of the Gollop device and his eyes flashed purple again.
"Are you SURE you can fly this thing?" Proteus let out a dark chuckle, before speaking with a psionics-tinted voice.
"I have NO IDEA!" The soldiers blinked, then quickly grabbed hold of the nearest bolted down object as the craft began to shudder and shake. Proteus laughed maniacally as they neared the ground.
"Pull up! Pull up! Pull up pull up pulluppulluppullUUUUUUUUUUUP!" Suddenly, their fall converted into horizontal flight.
"Okay, that was 'level out', now where's pull up…" The ship shot forward at a ridiculous speed.
"That's not it! That's not it! THAT IS NOT THE PULL UP COMMAND!"
"Mountains," Aina stated.
"What?" Aina grabbed the feral psionic and shook him screaming "MOUNTAINS!"
"Oh. Shit. Booster off! Come on, how do I turn the booster-OH SHIT!" The craft shot forward even faster, forcing Proteus to quickly manoeuvre the large saucer through a series of valleys to avoid turning them all into human - and feral - Pâté.
"Okay, we're through the mountains, now-"
"Skyscrapers," Leroy pointed out.
"Oh for fuck's sake!"
Proteus tried. He really did try to manoeuvre them between the skyscrapers at Mach 3. But the gaps were just a little too small, the skyscrapers a little too closely packed.
Left. Right. Left. Right. Left-oh shit! clipped that one… Oh fuck, pull up pull up pull up pull up - oh, so that's how you pull up - shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! The Overseer finally lifted up - but nowhere near fast enough, smashing through the middle of a skyscraper and almost severing it in two before the Elerium cores shut down for 'safety purposes' and the ship began to descend.
—
They bounced. Five times before they came to a final, screeching halt by crashing into a storefront.
For the second time in as many hours, Proteus called out for them to sound off as he disconnected from the now-pointless Gollop device.
"One-Two, minor damage at best. Functioning within acceptable parameters." Koby dusted himself off. With the loss of primary power, the only available light was the thin beam of sunlight streaming in through the rear doorways. This was definitely not enough to easily see anything. Proteus waited for a moment, then spoke up when Aina failed to respond.
"One-Three, sound off!" No answer. "One-Four, sound off."
"One-Four, damage negligible. I'm fine, One-Actual." By this time the two polymorphic MEC troopers and Proteus were all searching through the partially destroyed room, trying to locate Aina.
"Two, Four, turn on your searchlights," Proteus ordered. Humming sounds and a pair of simultaneous responses of "yes sir" heralded the sudden illumination of the room and the crumpled form in the corner. Proteus immediately hurried to her side, placing a hand on her exposed midriff. A steady tingle told him all he needed to know - her bioelectric fur was working, so she was still alive. He sagged in relief.
"One-Two is stable, looks like she just hit her head. Provided no-one takes a shot at her, she should be fine. Let's get moving before we attract too much unwanted attention." He pulled his fellow Feral into a fireman's lift before heading toward the door. A shadow flitted across the illuminated doorway.
"Shit," he muttered. "Searchlights off, go stealthy," he ordered. He carefully placed his subordinate behind cover so she was unnoticeable from the door, then triggered his mimetic fur. Fading from standard vision, as well as heat sensitive sensors, he stealthily slid along the floor to a covered position next to the door. His ears swivelled to catch the conversation outside the ship.
"What is it?"
"Some kind of new airship?"
"Not Atlesian, you see any weapon mounts on this thing? Even their civilian sector ships have spots for guns."
The sound of sirens cut off any further chatter. Proteus was perfectly positioned to see the police convoy halt in front of the downed craft. He risked a communication with his team.
"Two, Four, the authorities have arrived. We can't get out without making far too much noise. Looks like we'll have to face the music this time around. Two, get Three and follow me out. Four, come after Two and don't be a Leroy."
"Two copies, retrieving Three now.
"Four copies, following Two and not being a foolish imbecile, SIR!" The final word was shouted loudly, alerting everyone outside the craft. The officers outside immediately drew their weapons and aimed them at the craft. The door of the centremost car opened and a man who looked to be at least as tall as an old-style MEC trooper in battlesuit stepped out. He took one look at the craft before his eyes zeroed in on Proteus behind his black sunglasses.
"I can see you, kid."
Damn. Proteus stepped out from his hiding spot, mimetic fur cycling through the colours of the rainbow before settling back on his good old cheetah colour scheme. His hands were raised above his head, plasma pistols held by the barrels between two fingers each.
"Yeah," he began as the officers tensed, "hi. Can my friends come out now?"
"That depends," the massive man replied, "are your friends anything like you?" Proteus laughed, dropping his plasma pistols and doubling over in mirth.
"Anything like me?" he managed to get out between bouts of insane-sounding laughter. "My friend, nothing is like me. Three is close, but of the four of us, I'm the only psi. Two and Four are ineligble for that thanks to their augs." The man cocked an eyebrow. The kid was good at giving answers that dodged the question.
"Very well, call them out." Proteus turned on his heel, suddenly looking every bit the commanding officer he was.
"Two! Four! get your butts out here now!"
—
Lord Ashwood had not been expecting this when he woke up this morning. A spacecraft sharing a colour scheme with a now-nonexistent interstellar entity called the Covenant, carrying four beings unlike any he had ever seen before - which was saying something, he'd seen almost everything under every sun in the universe - who appeared to act as if they were part of a military? Yup. He never saw that one coming. Literally - the massive craft they came from appeared out of nowhere. Furthermore, the ship they had 'landed' in had been flying quite low and erratically - either it was already damaged, or the pilot was useless. Ash wood didn't know which one was true, but he was more inclined toward the first option considering their militaristic attitude.
After a long conversation with Colonel Proteus Deleo and his associates, he had developed a suitable cover story for them to attend Beacon, as that was the nearest combat school catering to their age group, and the only real excuse they could have for their appearance, equipment and abilities. He did want to get his hands on some of their technology - instant communications would be incredibly effective - but he could only do so after truly earning their trust.