Day 10 from First Contact. 17/06/2011
You may be wondering about the footage, but I'll give you the basics: Having superpowers and being heavily intoxicated would make the Jackass Crew proud.
Anyway, afterwards, I headed out to see if there was anything that needed to be done. None of the higher ups had anything to be done, so I talked with Halley.
"Hey, Halley, I want to ask you something." I began. He then looked at me with a look that said, 'You showed less maturity than me last night, and I am ashamed of you'.
"Yes, you looked like a complete idiot last night, and you should never drink 2 pints in 3 minutes."
"…Thanks for the help." I then looked at the screen. "So, what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to see if I can get access to secure files, but they have 9 AI's protecting them. I did however, find something to do in my spare time." He then showed me some complex computer charts. "These are blueprints for a basic fighter jet. If I get the right materials, I can make several ships."
"So… Expected flight distance?"
"With the basic components, hopefully between any planet in a solar system without the aid for a Mass Effect Relay, or a hypermetric war drive. I could make a Relay, but if this analysis is right, we don't need to."
"How… How come?"
"A Mass Effect Relay is basically a large cannon, with the intended properties to allow large bodies of mass to travel a large distance faster than the speed of light. They were using a pre-existing Relay to go back to the Galactic Relay, so that they could mean that they didn't take it with them."
"Wait, how is that possible?" I asked. "How old is the relay?"
"I don't know, but they called it the 'Charon Relay', and was apparently previously embedded inside a large ball of ice, until they travelled into our system, in which case, it had to be a large ball of ice to conceal the Relay without us picking it up beforehand." Wait a minute…
I just leant over towards the screen, opened up the web browser (Firefox) and looked up this news story that I remember reading. "Or, perhaps, a moon." I then found the story. "Look at this. 'Pluto Moon Collapses'." Suddenly, I ran towards where Hermione was and grabbed her. She was obviously startled, but I had to check this. "Halley, Read that story."
"'NASA reported today that Charon, one of the four moons of Pluto, had for some reason collapsed. The phenomenon occurred on the 20th of May, and scientists are still investigating the strange occurrence. Initially suspected to have been done by a large meteor, this has since been disproved, and other possible theories are being investigated.' The article is dated, 30th of May, 2009."
"Hermione," I asked. "is it possible that, in the event that they warped into the galaxy, could it cause a moon to break up?"
"I don't know…" She said, with a feeling of uncertainty.
"Listen, Lamar said you have wisdom powers." I put my hand on her shoulder. "As long as it was inside a text book, you should know."
"B-But." She was nervous.
"Just focus, and see what you can find. With that, she took a deep breath, as she focused. Suddenly, several pages of light appeared around her, that looked like… Computer pages for an encyclopaedia?
"No, it wouldn't do anything for pieces of rock, mainly because they have a higher melting point. However, a large enough energy source… would melt ice in the sub zero vacuum of cold space." Halley suddenly got busy with the computer. "What are you doing?" Hermione asked the small kid.
"I think I can break into NASA's servers, see what I can find." Suddenly a notice came up. "I've been blocked. Maybe I can work around it." Suddenly, a window appeared for a chat room. "Someone wants to talk to me." After typing into the computer, he looked at us. "He's a scientist, working at NASA, not NASA, he's from the Russian Space Program. We can talk to him."
"Then ask him about Charon." I told him. "Hopefully, if I'm right, that's where they came in." With more typing Halley suddenly looked at us.
"He's going to look through their results, see what he can- Read this." Whoever this guy is, he's willing to help. He showed us that Charon broke into fragments of ice.
"Ice. It's Ice! We have it! That's the Relay!" Everyone looked over at us. Elena came over and gave us looks.
"What's with the yelling?" She asked us.
"The Drophyds came in through something called a 'Mass Effect Relay'. Now, they've been going out, but they have been using an older relay. Old enough to be covered in ice from disuse and being mistakenly called one of Pluto's moons. Now, when they first came here, the ice covering the Relay broke up, and that gives the assumed date of entry to the solar system as May 29th, 2009."
"Oh, God." She caught on to what I was saying. "Does that mean that, they were preparing?"
"Yes, but that means 2 things. 1, they had no knowledge about us, and 2, they had to prepare the attack. Since they prefer sudden attacks, then that means that they underestimated us. Also, Halley might be able to duplicate their technology."
"What do you need?" Elena asked Halley.
"One of their ships." You have control over the supply ship, remember? "Where's the supply ship?"
"The Navy took it to Belfast City Airport." Elena said. "It's being kept near a terminal, just to keep it nearby."
"Wasn't the runway destroyed by the Militia?" I pointed out. "How did you get it there?"
"I flew it." Halley said. "They have adjustable engines, like a Harrier." Wait, you flew that thing? "It had auto pilot."
"Then we need to get photos of that ship." I said. "Anyone know where we can find a camera?" After getting two, I went over to Lizzie. "Hey, want to do a job with me?"
"Will there be any gunfire?" She replied. I shook my head to say, 'no'. "Damn. Alright, but I'm taking a spear, just in case."
"Hey, get good photos, Boris wants to see them too." When Lizzie and I got a car, we drove it to Belfast City Airport. When we arrived, we noticed that there were a large number of soldiers guarding the facility. And then, Zeke came out of the airport.
"What are you doing here?" He asked us.
"We decided to take photos of the Drophyd ship, see if Halley can duplicate it." Lizzie said. "Wanna help? Just grab a camera."
"Nah, I have to get back." Zeke replied. "I went to see how bad the runway is. Completely demolished. However, the access for the terminals is fine. Boarding at gate 53." We waved as we left, and he headed back.
On the ship, we started taking pictures. I decided to start some sort of idle chat with Liz. "So, what are your university plans?"
"Well, I applied for a really good medical school in the US."
"Ah, right, you want to be a doctor. Did you get any word back from them?"
"Yeah, they'll wait for my results for me A2 exams, then they'll decide whether I got in or not." She then put down her camera and walked over to me. "I applied to Harvard Med." She was expecting me to get upset, but I just looked at her.
"Harvard?" I then smiled at her. "That's great. They'll definitely want you now, since you have healing powers."
"…You're not mad?"
"Of course not, you get into one of the best universities in the world, that's brilliant. Hey, if we find a way to duplicate this shit here," I said as I patted the side of the ship, "We can make a long term relationship work."
"You won't break up with me?"
"You're the best girlfriend I could ever want. If you do something that makes you happy, I'll accept it." I then went back to taking pictures. That is a nice engine. "I have been meaning to say, I applied for a game design course in New York City. Got an offer." As she was taking a picture of the mechanics of another engine, I hesitated. "Well, more like a… Scholarship."
"You got a scholarship?" She then ran over and hugged me. "That's great. What are the conditions?"
"I attend all classes, then I work as an intern at Sony Computer Entertainment, as well as a placement year." After we finished on the outside, we decided to head inside. "Look at that."
There was a large metallic orb-like object. I was astonished by it, and wondered what it could be. While I took pictures of it, Lizzie took pictures of the main cockpit.
"So," Liz started. "what do you expect from alien species? Honestly."
"Honestly? I know that there are at least two cat-like species. There are Drophyds, and the Kerchu."
"Yeah, I saw those from the archive footage. My first bet would be big creatures, from a heavy world environment."
"Heavy world dwellers would be more compact, gravity pushing down on them." I stated. "I took ICT, maths and physics, so I know."
"Well perhaps, maybe, water dwellers, would be fish people?"
"Or amphibians?"
"Or big stupid jellyfish." She chuckled.
"Yeah-" I started to laugh, before I stopped. "Wait, what?" I then took out my dad's diary. "I think you're right about them being jellyfish. My father's diary, it said he had absolute knowledge. Look." I then handed her the diary.
"'They're big, stupid jellyfish. To treat Keplar, see TB'?" She then looked up at me. "What do you think it means?"
"I don't know, but that isn't the only thing. Look, '6 minutes'. Chloe is a time traveller, but she can only travel back in time by 6 minutes. Now, I believe that to be a fundamental law about time travel. Now, look at that. 'Time turners ignore your rule, son, but you're right'. I have no idea what a time turner is, but that was a direct message to me."
"Hold on." Suddenly, Lizzie went and took out her ARI glasses. "Hey, Hermione, I want to ask you something. What's a time turner?" After a short while, and a few pictures, "Okay, thanks. A time turner allows a wizard to exist in two places at once, however, they can not under any circumstances allow someone to change the past."
"So… The 6 minute rule is the safe region to change the past?"
"I think so. Is there anything else that's in that diary?"
"Hold on, 'Pikachu is a cute creature'?" I just looked at Lizzie, confused. "What the hell?"
"If that means that Pokémon are real, I want to ask, can you get me an Eevee?" She said with a look in her eyes like a small child asking her parents for a puppy. Only if I get a Machop. "Okay."
"Well, this is strange… Do you know anything about Greek Mythology?" A small bit, why? "'In Greek mythology, Cerberus, the three headed dog, was the guard of the underworld, whose duty was to keep souls of the dead and alive separate'. Do you know who took souls into the Underworld?"
"The Ferryman… What was his name?" She then realised what I was going at. "…Charon?"
"Well, that means that we need to copy these notes, and hand them around." I then took the last picture that we would need, a large circuitry network. "Let's head back."
When we got back, we gave the cameras to Halley and went to an available office. I asked Lizzie if she wanted to have a meal with me later, a Chinese dish that I would make, and she said yes. I created as many copies as possible, and Lizzie reported it to Zeke, Cole, Elena, Nathan, Chloe and Sully. When I came back, I handed everyone a copy, and told them to keep it safe. Afterwards, I saw that Ron was talking with the other wizards, and was anxious.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Ron then handed me a letter. As I read it, I was shocked. "How many students attend Hogwarts?"
"About 1000, I think." Hermione said. "We have to get to Hogwarts."
"How, Hermione?" Asked Harry. "How do we get to Wales, let alone Scotland?"
"We could fly." Seamus said, jumping up. "Charm a car, maybe."
"Short answer: No. Long answer: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"I can help." We all turned around to look at Halley. "I think that I might be able to create a craft for you to use to get to Wales, but there's a few problems." Suddenly, he took out an iPad, and held it up. "I can recreate a couple of Mass Effect cores in order to allow you to ride across the Irish Sea, like a hovercraft. However, you'll need 8 car batteries to make it work, and then, you can only ride it for 5000 miles before all batteries have to be replaced. Also, I need specific items, including a solder, some capacitors, a circuit board and about 500 RAM processors."
"Okay, where can we get those?" Ron asked.
"Cole and Nathan are looking for the processors, I have all the capacitors, Zeke went to a nearby factory to print a large circuit board. Get me some solder and something for tinning."
"You can find them in a High school," I said, "in the Technology and Design department, and I'm going to get some supplies for a date with Lizzie." As Ron and Hermione went to raid a nearby high school, I got ready for my date.
Ron
Me and Hermione arrived at a nearby school, which is where we would find the supplies we needed for Halley. "So, where do we go?" I asked Hermione.
"We should probably try the ground floor." Hermione said, taking out a gun. "Raphael told me that we should look for a room with large, wooden tables, and filled with Muggle tools." As we walked into the door, we saw that it was in a complete state. The trophy cabinets were smashed open, the trophies were everywhere, and blood was everywhere. There were no corpses, so that was lucky.
"Hey, Hermione, you used 2 blast cores, right? What powers did you get?"
"I can pinpoint what I need to find…" She said as she looked down a hallway. "This way."
"So, is it just instinct?" I asked.
"Yes, I can't know which room it is in unless I just look around, also, when I find the room, I can't use it to pinpoint a location."
"And, your other power?"
"I can speak and read any language."
"…Really?" She then said something to me in a foreign language, I think it was French, but I had no idea what she said. "…Right, where do we go?" As we walked down the corridors, Hermione lead the way, following her instincts as to where to go.
When we found the Technology and Design classroom, Hermione went over to a cupboard and opened it up. "There are a large number of drills here, but nothing that we could use for soldering." As I opened up a cupboard under a sink, I saw some strange metallic wand-like items that had long cables coming out of them. "That's the soldering irons, that's what we need."
"Okay, what about this tinning stuff we need?" I asked, as I placed a soldering iron in my pouch.
"We need a long metal wire," Hermione said. "I think this is it." As we grabbed the supplies, we headed outside, and almost got hit by a speeding vehicle. "Hey, watch it!" Hermione yelled at them.
"Sorry!" one of them supplied. "We're, ah- We're heading to the Odyssey, we heard that the Navy's there. Need a ride?" They were driving a large minibus, so there were at least 12 seats. There were 4 people in the car, so we decided that a ride would be okay.
"So, what are your names?" Hermione asked the group. "Surely you just came into the city."
"I'm Jamie," the driver introduced himself, "the guy next to me is Liam, that's Kevin next to the ginger guy, and Joe behind both of you." Jamie was quite scarred from acne, had short, light brown hair, and was wearing a grey T-shirt and dark navy jeans. Liam had dark greyish-brown hair, and wore a light white shirt and some light blue jeans, that had the right leg below the ankle torn off. Kevin was very spotty, had short, curly, black hair, and was wearing a light shirt, which was slightly torn, and some grey trousers. Joe had a much darker complexion compared to the rest, probably a tan. He had a nasty cut on his left cheek, and braces. He was wearing a zip up hoodie, a red shirt that had white sleeves sown into it. All of them were carrying some sort of industrial equipment, probably as makeshift guns.
"So, what's with…?" I asked, pointing at the weapons.
"Oh," Liam said, beginning to answer. "the nail guns? We just grabbed them in case we needed to fight."
"We're here." Jamie said.
Ezio
As I was sitting with Lizzie, we had already finished the meal. We had it in the Chinese restaurant in the Odyssey, which was mostly used to keep medical supplies. As I washed the dished, Lizzie dried up.
"So, Ezio, I want to ask…" Wonder what it's about. "With everything that's going on… Are you thinking about the future? I mean… Getting married?" Well, I might as well come clean.
"Yeah, I have." I then turned to her. "When this is over, I'm going to propose."
"Well, why not now?" She asked. "You could always steal a ring from a Jewellery store."
"I want to make sure that, if I have to fight, I can get it over and done with. I want our marriage, if we do get married, to be one where we don't worry about the other one dying on a daily basis."
"Okay." Lizzie said, as she hugged me. "And, by the way, just so we're clear, yes."
"You're supposed to wait until I get on one knee." OUCH! She kneed me in the crotch. "Why the…?"
Hey, Lamar projected at us. When you're done, you two, Ron and Hermione arrived with a few survivors. I think they know you. As we headed out, we saw… are you kidding me?
"Ezio!" Jamie? He's alive? And Kevin, Joe, Liam too. Jamie was quite scarred from acne-
"I've done the physical descriptions in my perspective!" Ron shouted from across the room.
"Thank you." I replied.
"Did you just break the fourth wall?" Joe asked. "Doesn't that damage the thread of the universe?"
"No," Kevin jumped in. "It just means that we'll eventually meet Bugs Bunny."
"Or the Animaniacs." Lizzie said. "What happened to your cheek, Joe?" She then walked over to Joe and looked at his injury. "Hold on, I'll fix that up."
"Wait, it's okay." He tried to get away, but Lizzie already started healing him. "So, you were serious about those powers?"
"Of course I was!" Lizzie accosted him. "Why would I lie in a time like this?" I'm a psychic. I projected. However, Jamie didn't particularly like it.
"Never do that again, or I'll eat your brain." He threatened, angrily.
"Of course, Sylar." I replied.
"Sylar doesn't eat brains." He replied. You watch past season one? Nerd. Jamie tried to throw something at me, but I held it in the air. "Telekinesis?"
"Yep." I grinned at him. "So, you met Ron and Hermione. No trouble, then?"
"Not really, Hermione was cool, but Ron was slightly nervous." Liam said. "Do they have powers, too?"
"Well, they're wizards." I replied.
"Do you have to tell everyone!" Hermione, Harry, Ron and Seamus all yelled across the room.
"It's the end of the world, do you really care in upholding stupid laws!" I replied. "So, what have you all been up to?" I asked. Well, they were busy. They travelled around the countryside, looking for survivors, but there was no luck. Everyone they found was dead, or were insane, either suicidal or violent. They had to fight off both maniacs and Drophyds, so they were pretty battle dreary. "You guys need therapists."
"Yeah, well, if we don't come across any maniacs, we'll be okay." Kevin said, sitting down. "Hopefully, we'll join the military. What about you?" He asked, looking at me.
"Well, I might try to lead a normal life after this, if I don't die." I replied.
"Yeah, might join the Military, work in aid." Joe said, as he felt his face, where the injury was. "We'll need all the help we can get if those fish aliens come back."
"Drophyds." Elena said as she came over. "So, any of you guys willing to help?" At that, they all went off to see how they could help. Ron and Hermione had given the soldering equipment to Halley, and after Zeke, Cole and Nate arrived with the necessary parts, Halley and Zeke got to work. I then gave a signal for Harry, Ron, Hermione and Seamus to come over and speak with me.
"Okay," I began, trying to keep this impromptu meeting short and simple. "We have to get you four to England, see how we can help at Hogwarts. Halley is making a hovercraft for us to get to Wales by sea. Is there somewhere we need to go before we head to Hogwarts?"
"We have to go to London." Hermione said, taking out a map. "I live there, and I want to make sure that my parents are safe. Also, we can head to Diagon Alley to buy equipment, and maybe buy floo powder to travel to Hogsmeade, which is right next to Hogwarts."
"OK, we have a basic plan." I said, clapping my hands together. "Get from Swansea to London, then use magic to get to the town next to the school. How do we get in?"
"Honeydukes." Harry said, pulling out a parchment, and holding his wand out to it. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." With that, ink appeared on the parchment, as a notice appeared. 'Messrs. Mooney, Wormtail, Padfood and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers, are proud to present THE MARAUDERS MAP'.
"Cool." Was the reaction of myself, Seamus (Guess that he hasn't seen it before), Liz and Raph, who had come over. "What are you all doing here?"
"You think you can go on some hair raising adventure and not take someone who is your most valuable healer?" Lizzie said as she began to guilt trip me. "Your medic? Your red mage?"
"You're a white mage, or better, a combat medic." I replied.
"Well, besides, Jonathan is in London. I have to check on him." Oh ,yeah, Johnny. I haven't seen him for 6 months.
"And I'm not letting my little bro get killed, and you'll need my strength." Raph said, crossing his arms to say, 'That's final'. OK, it's settled then. 7 is better than 5. And hopefully, we'll add an eighth member to our party.
"Anyway," Harry said, butting in. "There are several hidden passageways in and around Hogwarts. We can get straight into the castle if we use the passageway inside Honeydukes' sweet shop to the third floor corridor."
"Sorry, but no." I said, raising a hand in protest. "We're not heading through a secret passage into the school if we don't know what is in there, be it a group of Death Eaters or a monster. Where is the next entry?"
"The Shrieking Shack." Said Ron, voicing his opinion. "Doesn't lead into the castle, but it leads onto the grounds, under a tree."
"We'll take it." Raph said, leaning over. "It's safer, and it allows us to do recon." Wait a minute…
I grabbed the map, and looked at the names. "Wormtail? The guy we killed?"
"What?" Seamus replied. "Does that mean, if the Death Eaters did attack the school, then he showed them in?"
"I think so," Said Ron. "By the way, give me the map, there's something fitting we have to do." As I gave Ron the map, he took a pen and struck through 'Wormtail', eliminating him from the list. "He doesn't deserve to be on the list. What the…?" Suddenly Ron slammed the map down. "There are two people on the map." We saw two moving dots travelling on the map, heading into a large room marked, the Great Hall.
"Oh my god, Hadrid's alive!" Hermione screamed. "We have to get there as soon as possible."
"Yeah, I know." I replied, sarcastically. "Who's the other person?"
"Malfoy." Seamus said, looking at the other dot. "How come that git is still alive?"
"I don't know." Ron said. "His father is a very influential man, and has great power in the Ministry of Magic. He's also a Death Eater."
"OK, so, where can we rest in London?" Lizzie said. "Or should we just hire rooms when we get there?" When we get there. "OK."
"So, you're all heading to England?" Zeke said, as he came over.
"Yeah, we are." I replied. "So, are you staying here or heading to the US?"
"US, me and Cole are heading to New York, hopefully everyone else will as well. We have each other's numbers, so if you need me, call."
"When are you heading out?" Asked Raph.
"Tomorrow. You?"
"Same." We all replied.
"Well, get some rest before you go. And good luck." That night, we all spent the night getting ready, packing up gear, reloading weapons. We got some early rest, to make sure that we could remain aware as we travelled, and we were all given a blast core each. How come I only just noticed that the blast cores have batteries?
Anyway, as we were about to head out, we started up the craft to see how it works. It both created an upward force to allow it to float, but also created a force field that would protect us from the water. However, it was a minibus chassis with seats and propulsion engines, and very little cover, so this thing is not useful in a fight, as it would crumble.
"Going without saying goodbye?" Chloe said, as she came over to us. "That's rude."
"We didn't want to cause a fuss." Harry said, before he could get in to the craft. Raph was already in the driver's seat, next to Hermione.
"Well, something happened last night." She said, as she scratched her head. "Somebody invaded my mind, but they wanted me to give you a warning." What the hell? "Find out what a horcrux is immediately. Destroying them will help."
"Okay, thanks, and take care." I said and jumped into the craft. We all gave our regards and headed out. We all promised to keep in contact, as we headed to Wales, not knowing what would happen next.
FILES:
Chatroom:
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3: Who are you, and why are you trying to break into NASA's systems?
Halley_Stark: My name is Halley, I'm a survivor in Ireland. Look, I need to check something that a friend thinks might be able to pinpoint when the alien invaders arrived in this solar system.
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3: Thank god, how bad is it in Europe?
Halley_Stark: The group of survivors that I'm a part of managed to hijack the Drophyds' network.
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3: That was you? You must be a genius. By the way, my name is Boris Grishenko. There are three survivors trapped inside Mission Control of NASA's main base. Do you know anything about algorithms?
Halley_Stark: I can control computers, do you want me to see if I can access the security system? And what's a Russian doing at NASA?
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3: That would be acceptable. So, what do you need me to do? And it was due to an exchange program, two of Russia's scientists for two of America's.
Halley_Stark: We need information about Charon, one of Pluto's moons. We saw a story about it breaking up, and we think that the Drophyds may me responsible.
Halley_Stark: Is the door open yet?
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3: Yes, it's open. Thank you. One of the other scientists, Natalya, is looking at the report about Charon now.
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3: Okay, I got the information. Previously, Charon was believed to be a rock, a piece of frozen lava. However, Charon collapsed into shards of ice, according to the Hubble Telescope. Therefore, it was a large ball of ice.
Halley_Stark: That's it. That's where the Drophyds came in from. In the ice, was a large structure, called a Mass Effect Relay, and if you fly next to it, it should launch you into another solar system or, for more powerful ones, another galaxy.
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3: Halley, I have to say, you are brilliant. I managed to get information from the US state department, and I believe that I could find a way to make their space shuttles, however, information is missing and I can't make a full schematic.
Halley_Stark: My friends are going to get pictures of the ship if it helps.
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3: Okay, I'm leaving now, please send me an email, it will help me get in touch later.
Halley_Stark: Good luck, Boris.
B0R15_d_1nv1nc1bl3 has logged out of the chat room.
Halley_Stark has logged out of the chat room.
Ginny's letter:
Ron,
Something has happened at Hogwarts, and we need you to get back here, now. I don't know the specifics, but everyone there is in danger. Cho Chang managed to escape to Hogsmeade, where she was resting at the Hog's Head inn. She said that everyone else was petrified, and she managed to escape.
Ron, all three of us are Conduits. Fred can see over a large distance, George can hear anything he needs to (And if they are touching each other, can channel each other's powers) and I can create impenetrable shields. Cho can create copies of rooms, and travel between those copies freely.
Cho travelled from the Hog's Head to the Leaky Cauldron, then ran out into the open street. It was after Fred and George met her on the street after she passed out from an injury. They took her to where we're staying, an old house owned by Sirius in London. I charmed this letter to show where it is when held up to a map of London. Please get here now, we need you.
By the way, Fred and George told us about that final battle in Belfast, congratulations.
My regards,
Ginny Weasley.