I Don't Own Worm nor Hearts of Iron
I snuck past some Empire thugs as made my way back home. I realized early on in my life that life was a constant war between the Endbringer assaults and the ever-increasing threat of gang warfare plus all those villains like the Slaughterhouse Nine roaming about. One would think a force equal to those forces would rise to counter such threats on everyday civilians but we were left to rot with the rest in dredges of civilization and the those 'heroes' like the PRT who are more than content to leave us in the hand of the empire or some other gang.
I clenched my hand in frustration as I realized my brooding will not get me anywhere. I sighed as I finally made my way to my house.
Mother dearest looked my way and said: "How was school today?"
I turned to face her and I saw the hint worry etch itself through her face.
"The same as always" I replied. "Some girl got shoved into a locker, some ABB ch-"
"Young man what have I said about using derogatory terms?" She yelled at me as her blue eyes turned cold for second signaling to me that I should be careful about what I say next.
"That proud German nobility should not use such uncouth words" I replied as I dumped my back on a chair and took a seat as mother dearest sighed before taking a seat as well.
"Son-"
"Don't... the ABB are thugs. They deserve all the hate they get." I replied firmly.
"That does not mean you should despise the Asian people." She said steadily as she wiped off a loose strand of blonde hair." I remember distinctly when you were 12 years old you said had a crush on a girl named Sarah and she was Asian.
"I do not despise the Asians I just hate the gangs." I sighed as I felt a growing weight on my shoulders.
"I know but just don't use it please...for me...for your father." She said as she hugged me.
"I won't mother but it's so hard..."I whispered to her. The ABB assassinated my father and his death only strengthened the Empire.
"I know...I know." She replied softly.
I continued to hug her as I tried to calm down, but deep inside me, I knew that It won't go away that easily.
I began my march down the road to Winslow high school with a slight grimace as I smelled something funny. I looked around and found a corpse riddled with bullets.
"Empire..."I said to myself as I backed away from the dead thug.
I looked around to see if anyone was around and decided to ignore what I saw as I wasn't interested in getting entangled in gang affairs.
As I began my trek to school I suddenly felt something pierce my lungs and I suddenly collapsed on to the street as a pool of blood began to form beneath me.
"Is this really cough..the..end" I coughed out as I tried to claw my way out of the streets until I felt another searing pain shoot through my leg.
"Another Nazi bites the dust" I heard vaguely as my head swimming in pain confusion. "ABB..." I muttered in spite as I realized who my killers where.
Mother, I am sorry, Father I failed you, I thought to myself as everything was beginning to fade away until I heard a Gong like noise and a click.
Completed
Trigger: your powers have activated after a traumatic event.
Effects
Restoration back to 100% health
Gain K98k Bolt action rifle
Gain 10 rounds.
Suddenly I found myself wide awake in a pool of blood with a gun right next to me. And that sign? Ugh..., interface thing was still in my face.
"Is this my power?" I asked myself. I pulled myself out of the pool of blood and picked up the gun before making a dash out their just-in-case those ABB scum found out they didn't finish me off.
After I found a safe spot between two trashcans I decided to figure what the hell my power was.
"It healed me and gave me a rifle. It also has this really annoying hologram thingy in my face that won't go away after I read it." I said to myself as I took a peek out my hiding spot and found an ABB thug dragging away a corpse.
Shit, they're close...ABB should not be operating here and where the hell are all the Wards and cops? Did anyone call 911 yet? If they won't save me then I'll just save myself!
I pushed the safety and get ready to shoot a thug. I tried to stay calm but the fact that they almost killed me 10 minutes ago, did not help. As the man that was dragging away the corpse of the dead empire skinhead got closer to my spot I aimed my rifle and had my trigger finger slowly inch towards the trigger. While that was happening that annoying pop-up disappeared and the man was now only yards away.
He had a submachine gun and a knife on him which made me realized it would be either me or him, so I took the shot and watched the man who was potentially responsible for my near-death experience collapse on to the cold hard ground like a puppet whose strings were cut.
I stared at his body for another few seconds before picking myself and running as fast as I can before someone found out I shot the guy.
I ran, I ran and I continued to run until I finally made it to the one place I was safe at, home. I dumped my bloody bag on my floor before stripping off my bloody clothes. I walked to the tub and set up a bath and began to think.
"What the hell am I going to do? If the chinks find out they'll kill me and mom, If Empire 88 finds out then they will press me harder to join their morally bankrupt gang." I sighed to myself until realized that I was not powerless.
"Now what can my powers do?" with that thought an entire popup appeared with two tabs that said 'Inventory' and 'Focuses and Research'.
"Inventory is pretty self-explanatory, it just stores stuff but what does 'Focuses and Research' do? "I said to myself while slowly seeking into the tub.
When I went into the tab I found even more tabs so I chose the tab labeled focuses to see what's in it.
As soon as I opened the tab my mind was overwhelmed by the amount of information it contained.
I looked through each 'focus' and somewhere quite interesting such as 'Fate of America' which gives me a casus belli to start a civil war in America to research that could lead to the defeat of the fucking Endbringers but their all gated by all sorts of prerequisite and they take anywhere from a 1 day to 70 days to research a focus. This system also uses a tech tree system of sorts which means I have to go through each one of them if I want to get to the good stuff. What was interesting was each tree is divided into mini subsections however before I research and anything I need to complete the focus that links all the trees together which was Stratagem.
"I need to protect myself from being discovered first though." I said bitterly as those bastards in the ABB caused all this. The PRT and police would send him to jail if they found out I killed that man. This means I could not rely on heroes or legal authorities to protect me and mother.
"There has to be something that would help me right now in this focus tree." I said with harsh determination
Let's see the first focus was Trigger and that's done already. Let see what Strategem does.
Strategem: Brockton bay is filled to brim with different factions with differing ideologies and goals. It is wise to prepare for any situation in case conflict arises.
7 Days
Effects:
Unlocks Resource Tab
Unlocks Personal Stats
Unlocks Map Mode
+100% research speed for one doctrine
This focus doesn't seem like much but it's short and it's required for me to progress. I started the timer to research that focus before moving on.
I went to the research tab and found research was divided into different sections with many subsections.
There was a doctrine section which was divided into smaller subsections like superior firepower and mobile warfare. More sections dedicated to weaponry from vehicles, tinker tech, and small arms. Last but not least industrial techs held some of the more interesting parts of this research tab. Looking through some of the industrial techs it could be easily exploited like mass-producing battle droids to take out my enemies or build some products cheaply to make some money with.
With that in mind, I decided to research the first industrial tech, which was Construction 1. It grants me the knowledge to build a small factory, which will take 14 days.
A small pop-up appeared which said 'Currently you have one remaining research slot left. To Upgrade the number of research slots you have look at your focus tree.'
"Hmm I will keep an eye out for that but now I need something that will help me now." I continue to look through each research tree until I found something in the infantry section. I already unlocked Infantry Equipment 1, which allows me to use and produce Kar 98s, but underneath that there was a section called Special Forces that caught my eye.
"Hmm, Mountaineer? Not useful in the city, Paratrooper nien, Marines nien, Urban Commando? now that seems handy."
Urban Commando 1: Unconventional fighting requires specialist training. We need to ensure that you are ready to handle the chaos of urban warfare.
Effects:
Basic knowledge in urban combat
Gives Urban Combat Fatigues
5% Combat bonus in Urban zones
With that all sorted out, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to take a nap if only to forget my new struggles.
This is my first time writing something that is not a crossover so it will be an interesting experiment. Anyway, I'm having writer's block for quick draw...I have an idea of what I want to happen but it's not materialling into words, so that will be delayed and as for the interludes for A Grand Adventure they're all plotted out I just need to write them. A chapter for Imperial knight is in the works also. Lastly, what do you think of the modified Hearts of Iron system that I'm using?
I've made some minor edits and rewrote a sentence or two- March 18/2020
More minor edits-some additional bolding