Strike sat down in the seat with a sense of dread. He put his face to his hands and sighed as he rubbed his temples.
"I just want to know what made you think this was a good idea, Strike?" Whale paced. The two were in a bathroom in Docks Area-T. After much running and eventual intervention from security the AAA members were sent to their rooms for the day. A day has passed and now the two had reconvened in a makeshift strategy room.
Strike shook his head. "I-I don't know? I thought it'd be funny? I was severely wasted? I didn't think it'd get in or do this much damage?" The pilot deflated in his seat…which was a toilet…he wasn't using it of course, that'd be weird.
"But Arkos? And the Princess?!" Whale stopped pacing and turned to his friend to notice the dreary expression on his face. "I…I hate to intrude, and I know it's not my place to know but…is everything alright between you and the Princess?"
At this Strike tensed up a bit. He opened his mouth but instantly closed it as if to rethink it all. Strike fiddled with his thumbs. After a solid minute of silence Strike finally spoke up. "It's just that…I-since I was found I haven't really felt…all right. Y'know?" He turned from his thumbs to face Whale.
The Whale apologetically shook his head. "I don't, no. I'm sorry."
Strike sighed. "After I was found people told me that everything was fine, that things were going to get back to normal, but it hasn't been so far and everything's been feeling…off. I tried to remember what happened to me, how I went missing in the first place, but everything is blurry."
"It's a common thing that happens to a ton of people in Ship Survivor!" Whale tried reassuring his friend but Strike shook his head.
"No…it's like, I wasn't there…at all. Like a chunk of my life is missing. And I think the Princess knows about it." Strike's mood fell even more. "And I think whatever it is, she feels guilty about it. Like, she blames herself because I don't feel fine. I feel this…distance between us that I just can't remember there ever being."
"And so you thought bringing the Princess here would somehow fix that?"
Strike nodded. "Or at least make it so that she can't avoid me as easily."
Whale looked thoughtful. "I see…Well, I only hope that this opportunity gives you the answers you were looking for, friend. And that we can make amends with the Alliance." Strike looked at the floor in shame at his friend's statement until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to a smiling Whale. "Hey. I mean it. I hope your mind is at rest Strike. When we lost you in Ship Survivor I joined on the first expedition to look for you all the way to the last one, if this War is one that we need to win so you can finish finding the rest of you, then that is a war I will fight tooth and fin for!" Whale held a thumbs up.
Strike exhaled with relief and held a thumbs up too.
Just then, Generic walked in with Venom in tow. "Ah! There you two are!"
"Any news from Rade or any of the Legion?" Whale turned around and faced the strategist.
He nodded. "Yep. Rade said he was willing to forgive you since it was a mistake and that you didn't do it on accident." He deflated a little bit. "Though it did take a lot of convincing…"
Strike nodded and stood up from his seat. "Well then, let's go make amends."
The Head of Security, Orinthia Malus, walked up the stairs to the third floor of the APCM with two coffee cups from the Mess Hall in each hand. She reached the third floor and saw her boss and friend, Melanie Antiqua, seated on the floor typing away at her computer attached to a burned terminal through a mess of wires of all kinds of colors. Around her were books and notes all scattered about, some her own, others information on the latest technological advancement.
"Grand Hostess Antiqua!" Orin made her way through the mess on the floor, careful not to overturn or move her boss' work. She knew that Melanie had a mess, but it was a mess on purpose. Every flung about paper, every book sprawled out, every page flipped to, it was all on purpose to Melanie. "I've brought coffee with me!"
Melanie finally found a resting place in her work and sighed. "Orin, it's just us two, you don't need to do all this 'Grand Hostess' crap with me." She scolded.
Orin untensed a bit. "Right…Mel." She sat down beside her friend and handed her a coffee cup. "I got you some coffee, thought that you might try burning that midnight oil."
Melanie looked at the cup and after a while grabbed it and began taking a quick sip of it. "Thanks."
Orin looked over the Hostess' shoulder and saw a wall of endless code being typed out. "You're trying to fix the HP saver?"
She nodded. "Or at least I'm trying, I can't shut off the machine completely until after the first round and even then, there's no guarantee we'll be able to fix it all the way. I'm trying to get the most basic components to work, namely the ones that don't let people die and the one that doesn't have them stuck in an Anomaly Zone."
"Mel, you ever think about retiring?" Orin thought out loud as she looked at the tiredness in her friend's eye.
Melanie let out a chuckle. "Always. But I won't do it."
"…Why not?"
Melanie picked up a book and continued to type out a code written on the pages with a purple pen. "Because I'm not sure if anyone else would do this." She sets the book down and begins typing two times as fast. "I'm not sure if anyone else would be able to handle this much responsibility, if they can keep the legend alive." a silence between the two as Melanie kept typing away at her computer.
Orin looked at her sleep-deprived friend's face and knew that only one thought was racing across her mind. 'Don't let anyone die.' Which is why she was focusing on the HP Saver herself when the Shortcut maker had received more damage. Orin reached into her uniform's breast pocket and pulled out two ID's. Hers and Melanie's.
She looks from the creepy looking piece of tech to her tired friend and tossed Melanie's away into the corner of the room.
As Strike walked into the AAA conference room he saw all three Legion members sitting in their usual seats. Rade in the front of the table with Slip on his right and Torrasque on his right. Jannis was in his seat in the back of the table with McDouggal and talking to him until they noticed the entering group's presence.
A long moment of silence filled the conference room.
Generic leaned towards Venom standing to his left. "Geez, this moment is so awkward, makes you almost want to say something just to break the silence, huh?" he whispered but with the silence of the room everyone heard it.
Rade sighed and stood up. "Look, I know what we're all going to do. You're going to say you're sorry begrudgingly, I'll be angry but I'll forgive you because it was out of your control and you had no idea that it would take White Knight's place, so can we just skip that with a handshake?"
Strike was surprised. "I-I-I…sure." He extended his hand out.
"You must be crazier than I thought if you think I'm standing up all the way just to shake your hand." Rade puts his hand forward.
Strike, with no hesitation, walks around the table to shake Rade's hand. Everyone stares in shock and silence as the Arkosian Oligarch clasps the sergeant's hand and firmly shakes it. After noticing everyone's shock he looked around. "W-what? Do I have something on my face?"
McDouggal broke the silence. "Uhm, well, you see…"
"It's just that there's a stereotype of the prideful Arkosian for a reason!" Jannis cuts in, holding back a smile.
"Er..yeah. What Jannis said." McDouggal finished.
"What? That's crazy, Arkosians can be humble!" Vaniellis, who still sounded a little raspy but was definitely recovering his damaged vocal cords from a Karaoke Night.
"Yeah! I'd even say some Arkosians are humbler than some-okay, I see your point." Cayde stopped mid-sentence.
Strike rolled his eyes. "Well if that's true, then you know how much this means to me."
Rade smiled, stood up, and returned the handshake back with much enthusiasm. "Alright then, now that that's settled let's hurry up and finish this meeting. The White Knight Minute-Troops arrive today and I'd like to meet them!" He releases the handshake and walks towards one of the seats on the side.
"Wait, you still called The Legion? Even if they're not gonna participate?" Venom asked as he walked to his seat.
Torrasque nodded with a smile. "Yep, Rade sent the message out prematurely a few days ago so we can't exactly turn them back." He turns to Generic. "So we'll just go ahead and skip a step in your plan and have our Minute-Troops docked up in Pink Rose Gold's Docks."
Everyone made their way to their seats except for Strike who made his way to the front of the table where the Net-Comm was. He pulled out a Net-Pad and swiped up to project a hologram of the Bracket. "So far, we only have one big issue right now. And that is misinformation, I see a few new ships that weren't here last year. We don't know their preferred weapons, how it's forces adapt to Anomaly situations, how much Bragg each Nation brings in on a yearly basis and-" Strike stopped talking after seeing many confused faces around the table. "…I forgot that for many of you, this is new information."
Everyone but Jannis and McDouggal nodded their heads.
"I see. Then that's a lot of misinformation. Okay, looks like I'll have to explain how this competition works. Melanie only gave a brief explanation because she assumes that everyone who does this has an advanced intelligence scouting program or are returning representatives. Well, let's start with-HEY!" Strike stopped mid-rant as he noticed McDouggal and Jannis sneaking out the door.
The two straightened up. Jannis coughed into his fist to clear his throat. "Eheh…Look, Strike, this Alliance is very important to us buuuu-"
McDouggal rolled his eyes. "But we already did the Tutorial stage!" he cuts in.
"Yeah, what McDouggal said. Our troops arrive today and we have to meet up with them. So while you explain what we already know, how about instead we go meet our troops?" Jannis proposed.
Strike nodded. "Fine. Go, I would've appreciated the help, but whatever."
"Thanks." McDouggal says as he walks out of the room and Jannis follows after waving goodbye.
"Alright, first thing you need to know about Ship Wars is that none of the fighting happens on our sub," Strike pulls up a blank hologram and begins using it as a whiteboard. He draws a circle and colors it in purple. "Anomaly Portals are naturally occurring things that happen in sub-space. Each Portal leads to an Anomaly Zone."
"An Anomaly Zone?" Slip Snap asked, he had a notepad out in front of him writing down notes but upon closer inspection they were propaganda meme ideas.
"Yes. Anomaly Zones are…interesting. I believe The Grand Hostess once said that there are as many Anomaly Zones as there are stars in the night sky. Each Anomaly Zone is different in terrain and weaponry. One Zone may have you in the seas fighting each other as Pirates, one could be in space with high-tech weaponry! Other than in Melanie's contest, it is damn near impossible to predict what these Anomaly Zones hold. So while they hold vast amounts of Bragg, the Mod Council has banned travel into these Portals."
Generic raised his hand.
"Generic, you don't need to raise your hand, just ask your question." Strike wiped the drawing of the Anomaly Portal.
"Earlier you said something about Pirates, and then something about space? How is that possible? Why do we need to sail the seas when we have personal ships that can float well over 60 ft in the air?"
Strike smiled. "If it were that easy, all the battles would be the same, in one way or the other." Strike drew four stick figures. "When one goes into the Anomaly Portal, their weaponry and other technologies also change." He drew a lazer-gun on the first one, a revolver on the second one, a bow and arrow on the third, and a club on the last. "The best I can explain it is like actors getting the correct props for the setting. If you're in a futuristic setting, your technology stays relatively the same." He draws an arrow from the first to the second one. "Go into a Wild West setting, your outfit gets traded out for spurs and assless chaps. Your personal ships become wagons and horses; your guns become whatever gun was available at the time." He draws an arrow from the first to third.
"So, then why have all this advanced tech in the first place? Why not just go in holding sticks and driving carts? Won't they be the same?" Rade's brow furrowed.
Strike winced. "Not exactly. Take the new introduction of Ship Survivor, for example. We're finding that around the same time, every year, one large anomaly portal envelopes the sub into an Anomaly Zone and reverts it all into a medieval setting. We've found that this new Anomaly keeps some semblance of what you previously had in value."
Venom took a sip from his flask. He leans towards Generic. "I'm telling you it's fun. Every time he says anomaly, take a shot." He hands him an extra flask. The Strategist politely sets it on the table.
"Wait, what?" Slip looked slightly confused.
"Think of it as an equivalent exchange, you have a high-tech gun here, the Anomaly gives you an advanced Cross-bow over there." Torrasque turned to the second-in command.
"Oh."
"Another reason these Portals are banned outside the Ship War is because they may have negative affects to your brain…and maybe body." Strike called everyone's attention again. "There have been reported cases of people forgetting everything once in the Anomaly Zones, they seem to believe that their lives are those Zones. Like, when Ship Survivor comes around, it hits us, scrambles our memories, and we fight. Once the war ends, we're back here with minimal recollection of what happened." Strike seemed uneasy at those words.
Whale noticed this and rushed up to the stage. "I think we get it from here, before a "War" begins Representatives present their cases and appeal to public support to increase their weapons and forces using the Ship Hall's built in Net-Communications device. And once a match begins The Grand Hostess uses her machine to open a shortcut portal to the nearest Anomaly. We get the stats and whoever-"
"Whomever!" Slip interjects.
"…whomever it is, sends in their Minute-Troops and they fight until back-up is sent!" Whale finished up with a smile.
Rade's Net-Watch goes off and he stands up, that cues everyone else to stand up. "Thank you for the history lesson, Strike. But my Legion is here and we need to go make the allotted arrangements for that. You're more than welcome to come." Rade offers up.
"Uhm, no thanks, Rade. I need to contact the Princess and tell her that she's participating in this messed up war." Strike hops off stage. "I need to give her the run-down on the AAA and the situation with Arkos."
Rade turns around and begins walking towards the door.
"…Rade." Strike calls out to the man, stopping him in his tracks but not making him turn around. "I want to thank you. For still fighting even if your ship got knocked out early."
Sergeant Rade Blunner turned his head to look back at the Oligarch who was thanking him sincerely. "There's no need to thank me. There's a fight to be fought and we still have a stake in this match, so we'll damn well help keep it in!" Rade laughed as he walked out the door with Slip Snap in tow.
Strike smiled.
"C'mon Generic, we should probably take this opportunity to check out the Pink Rose Gold Docks, and when we come back we can check in with the Lancaster Minute-Troops." Venom stood up with a bit of a wobble as he gently slapped the Strategist's back.
The Strategist was rapidly writing notes down and copying Strike's drawings as the Pilot began erasing the board. "ALMOST! DOOONE!" He flicked his pen across the paper to finish his notes and began packing up. "I got a little distracted thinking about Wild-West and Medieval war tactics!"
The two left talking to each other alongside Torrasque, and soon followed by Cyan and Sulfur, leaving Strike alone in the room with Blue Whale King.
Strike let out a sigh of relief.
A rather tough looking man sat in one of the corner seats of the bar. The man? LeMuffin, or better known by his mercenary name, LMFN. He had been contacted over the Mercenary Listing, by name, which is odd enough as it is but what took the cake is by who.
Another man walked into the bar, wearing a cloak. The cloaked man walked towards the barkeep and the barkeep simply pointed to LMFN's seat. The man thanked him and tipped him with a Karma as he made his way towards the Mercenary.
"You are LMFN, the Mercenary."
"And I take it you're Inferno." The Mercenary set down the drink he had and turned to the cloaked man. The man removed the hood of his cloak to reveal bright red hair with yellow highlights.
"How very astute of you. Since you're here I believe you've decided to take my job listing?" Inferno took a seat opposite of the man.
LMFN looked around before pulling out a paper. "About that," he set it down. "might I ask, what do you mean by "Save the Sub"?"
Inferno smiled. "Well, this year's Ship War has a rather…unexpected group," He pulled out a vanilla folder and slid it towards LMFN. The Mercenary looked cautious as he opened the file. "They go by The AAA, The Arc Appreciation Alliance."
LMFN pulled out photos taken from a distance of each member, making sure to memorize each of their faces. "Okay, so you want them dead?"
"No, I want them defeated, and it's in yours and everyone's interest that they are eliminated and soon."
The man looked at the faces all spread out. "Okay, you've gotten me intrigued, why would I benefit from their elimination from this stupid competition?"
Inferno's face became deadly serious. He reached into his cloak's pocket and slid another paper over to LMFN. "This is their plan. Their Strategist left this behind in the Archive Library."
LMFN picked up the paper and looked at it. His face slowly shifted from disinterest to shock, then to horror. "That's- that's…"
"Diabolical." Inferno finished for him. "Like I said in my offer, you'll be payed the same as a Champion for Pollination, and I'll grant you a new skill that you can use to eliminate these pests.
LMFN looked at the sheet once more. Most of the information was written either in incomprehensible handwriting or in elaborate codes with numbers and letters and signs. But he could make out a few words and one word that kept coming up: The Arc Empire.
"I'm in. Someone needs to stop these bastards!" LMFN nodded.
Inferno smiled as his uniform started to flare underneath his cloak. "Good, now here," Inferno pulled out a patch-like triangle and sneakily placed it on his palm. He held his hand out. "Let's shake on it."
LMFN shook the Ambassador's hand and instantly a pain shot through his arm. "AUGH!" He let go and found a triangle sinking into his skin. "What the hell?!" He tried to remove it but felt a sensation crawling up his arm, into his neck, and making its way up to his head. He fell out of his seat to hold his head whilst screaming in agony. The other patrons ignored the noise, seemingly unaffected.
Inferno stood up and looked over him. "Stop fighting it, this skill is what you need to save the sub. I gift you the power of clairvoyance, accept it."
LMFN clutched at his head. "HRGAHHH!" He could feel the pain behind his eyes. A scream of pain was heard throughout the tavern until finally…there was a silence.
Sergeant Rade Blunner was leading the remaining members of the AAA to the hangar door of Docks Area Z telling them a joke as he walked.
"-and then I told her, PINEAPPLE!" everyone burst out laughing.
Generic stopped laughing and leaned towards Venom. "I don't get it."
Venom, while still letting out a few laughs turned to Generic. "Me neither, but he has a scary scar and I'm not about to be the guy who doesn't laugh at his joke." The two began laughing again.
Rade wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh, man. That takes me back. But anyway, Slip!" Slip Snap stopped laughing and stood at attention. "Did you send the coordinates to the Legion to land here?" The warrior nodded. "Good, all we need to do is move a few boxes from the last people who were here and then we have and empty place for the Legion's troops!"
The Sergeant opened the large hangar doors and as the doors lifted several voices could be heard.
"What the?" Rade looked as the doors rose up to reveal a small troop of soldiers.
Slip Slap leaned towards Rade. "Uh, you didn't say what to do with the last people who were here, sir."
Rade looked at him and then shook his head.
The small troop were gathered around in a circle using boxes and crates of different sizes as seats, in the center was a small bonfire. One of the soldiers had a guitar and was strumming a familiar tune to the Arkosian's present. The others were softly mumbling the words while eating some rations.
Rade's eye twitched. "HEY YOU!"
The music stopped as the group tuned to the very intimidating man. A man with blonde hair turned around too and pointed at himself.
"WHOEVER!"
"Whomever." Slip corrected.
"No, I actually think that one was correct." Torrasque added in.
"SHUT IT!" Rade turned around.
The blonde man stood up, making sure to leave his smore on his crate. "Uh, yes? Can I help you gentlemen?" his clothes were simple soldier clothes donning a base green color.
"Who are you people? Isn't this the Docks Area for Pink Rose Gold?"
The man nodded. "Yep! This is it!" he gestured to the group of soldiers behind him. "And these are the Pink Rose Gold Minute-Troops!"
Generic made his way forward. "There actually are?"
The man nodded. "Yep, though our Nation is considered a Principality with a basic government and our military is around a thousand strong. So you can imagine our surprise when we were told we were invited to this year's Ship Wars!"
Generic pulled out a notepad and made his way over to the Pink Rose Gold's fighter ships. "This seems like very basic tech, for a Principality though, this is impressive! Definitely makes our plans much easier!" he begins to take notes about the Ship types and their fighting capability. "So I assume you're their leader Mr.?
"Sam Shazam. Sam works just fine." The man humbly puts his hands up. "And no, I am not anyone's leader! We figured that this is a small enough troop that we don't need one person in charge of a hundred people! So we all do our parts and we go by the book on strategies!"
Generic stops taking notes and begins laughing.
Rade rolled his eyes and stepped forward. "Look, that might work well and all, and your group might do some good damage…if not for the fact you'll be taking on armies ten times your size, at least. So from here on we'll instill some order! Slip!" Rade snapped his fingers and the man came up.
"Make a note: Mr. Shazam here, is now Sergeant amongst the Pink Rose Gold troops." Rade begins walking off and starts talking to his Net-Watch.
Sam was exasperated as the odd Warrior handed him a gold star sticker. "Wh-what?"
"Congratulations Sam! We're here to quintuple your army's size!" Torrasque stepped up and shook the shocked man's hand and then walked towards the remaining troops.
The two Whale-humanoids walked up. "We wish you the best of luck with your new position!" Cyan said. "You will be the best of us! Yet!" Sulfur shook the man's still open hand.
Venom walked past the man, nodded, and handed him a mini bottle of liquor.
"Hold on a second, who the hell are you guys?!" Sam turned to the group that was now ceasing control of the Pink Rose Gold's Docks area. The group all stopped.
"Ah, right! We forgot to introduce ourselves!" Rade laughed as he set down Sam's smore. He pointed to himself "I am Sergeant Rade Blunner! Handsome, charismatic, leader of the AAA!"
"AAA?" Sam looked confused.
"I'm Slip Snap! Assistant Charismatic Leader!"
Torrasque coughed. "Assistant to the Charismatic Leader!" Slip turned to give him a playful glare. "*ahem* I'm the AAA's Tactitian, Torrasque."
"I'm Generic! The AAA's Strategist!" Generic set down one of the rifles that were set near the ships.
"T-there's a difference?"
"Yes." Both Generic and Torrasque said at the same time, yet never elaborated further.
"I am Cyan!"
"And I am Sulfur, assistants to Oligarch of Arkos, Blue Whale King!" the two Whale-humanoids introduced themselves.
Sam looked confused and looked to his right where the man in the fedora was.
"Venom." He simply said and walked towards the bonfire.
"Now wait just one second!" Sam yelled, calling everyone to attention. "What the hells, is the AAA?!"
Rade smiled as he heard a bunch of loud noises outside the Docks area and began walking to the door. He turned around. "We, my friend," a bright flash appeared making Rade a silhouette as the White Knight ship landed behind him.
"are The Arc Appreciation Alliance. And you've been accepted in!"