Late Chapter is Late.

This one fought me for a bit, and after some consultation with the advice column (read: CF discord and writers) I just rewrote the whole thing. As such, this is admittedly of...poor quality. Be warned.

According to Janus, Harry had been missing for over 72 hours now. Normally this would not be a big deal, as groups or cells going dark for a bit were expected to happen every so often, and a system for discreet check-ins was used for those few that had need to be disappeared for a bit to let their comrades know that they weren't in a ditch somewhere or being processed into corpsedust.

Harry, however, was different. Being connected to a ranking Augmek the way he was, and being a sanctioned information broker for the house at that, meant that he had a much stricter check-in schedule than most, and was generally required to verify his existence in one way or another every week, Circumstances being what they were, and Harry being part of the investigation team, this was more than reasonable.

Whatever incident this was that I had missed due to my isolation must have been freaking huge if they were considering a 72 hour blackout a big deal.

Time for some Q&A.

"So what exactly happened that makes you think he's been compromised, then?" I asked. "Isn't the normal check-in schedule once a week?"

Janus was quick to reply. " Normally, yes. However, the nature of the...incident required that all members of the house with leadership roles or connected to them check in within a 72-hour timeframe before being declared missing." He moved into the living room area of the maintenance shop that served as my home, and took a seat. "Agent Cain has yet to use any of the normal methods to signal that he is alive and well, and our normal spy network has yet to find any evidence that he was captured."

I nodded along, slowly putting together a barebones picture of what might have gone down. "You have any details that I can use? What exactly happened, anyway?"

Janus gave a slight grunt of assent. " I can tell you that much, at least, as it was connected to you." He stopped a moment to collect his thoughts, then continued."What do you know of the current investigation?"

I shrugged. "Not much, really. From what I understand the investigation is stalled out for lack of any real leads or obvious culprits."

Janus nodded. "Close enough. What we have managed to find out is that one of the houses is potentially compromised, which one and to what level we're not sure, by an unknown third party. This faction appears to be the driving force behind the attacks.

"What complicates matters is that there is another faction involved. And they may have screwed everyone."

I blinked. I'd expected a crock of bullshit and shadowrunning shit, not someone flipping the table.

"We have no clue who they are, what they want, or why they chose to get involved. All we know is that they exist." Janus let out an annoyed sigh. "And quite frankly, it is pissing most of us off."

Yeah, I can see that being the bane of a lot of planning. Problem is, it left a lot of questions in the air. For example…

"And how exactly did Harry get caught up in this shit anyway? I thought he was doing rear-line work, more as an analyst and processor than anything that close. Why the hell was he even in a position to get got?"

Janus shrugged. "He was in a defended location. It's what makes this whole incident weird as all hell. We still have the raw information, nothing got lost, but for some reason he appeared to be a target of the actions that day, along with a copy of the intelligence that he was working through. We still do not know WHY."

Well shit.

"So do you have any way of at least confirming that he's even still alive, then? Some kind of beacon, maybe? Or even a vox signal to home in on?" I was reaching for straws asking this, but any port in a storm...and for some reason my trap senses were tingling…

Janus' reply was not encouraging. "We don't, really. All we have is a general timeframe of where he was and where he could be given the normal movement channels available. It isn't much, but we used it to secure all of the likely routes out of the area. Hopefully this keeps our mystery aggressors occupied long enough for us to catch a lead."

I stopped myself from replying right away as I crunched at the problem. Missing operative, no clue as to location, all normal means of tracing him are lost. Likely still in a preset area or areas, and is prevented from moving out of said area through monitoring of the exits.

Two major problems: unknown capability of aggressor, and unknown operations area of the same. Because we don;t know what they can do, we have no way of knowing if our planning and strategy is effective until already in the field. Because we don't know their operations area, we have no way of being sure that the enemy is actually contained and not getting clear with our missing VIP his was going to be rough...but I have to plan around it.

"Alright, I think I might be able to lend a hand, but I'm gonna need some things." I began. "First, I need several auspex scanners, preferably handheld but if you can get some of the stronger ones that works too. Second, I'll need around 48 hours to get ready. After that we're going to do a search and rescue...and possibly a search and destroy while we're at it, if this threat turns out to be bad news. Any objections to my plan so far?"

Janus shook his head. "None on my end, although getting that many auspex on short notice might be a bit difficult. I'll see what I can get going. As for you being in the search, while I cannot directly prevent you from involving yourself, I would strongly recommend you sit this one out. Don't want to lose another one of our guys to this mess."

Huh. I was touched that they considered me as one of them. All the more reason for me to not sit back and stay idle.

"I appreciate the gesture, but not happening. Where I'm from, we take care of our own."

Janus could only give me a solemn nod at that statement, before leaving to begin his preparations.

Alrighty then. I had 48 hours to put together something that could not only find Harry, but stand against whatever crazy BS managed to get the drop on him in the first place. This meant that I had to take the kid gloves off and go to town on everything that I had access to, getting as much ready as possible in order to ensure the maximum chance for success. That meant I needed to triage all of my projects and tech, just to see what I could get out the door on short notice.

Another brief sensation caught my attention. It would seem that I had some new toys to play wi-oh dear god.

So, Remember how I was talking about the whole triage of projects, needing to prioritize what would get out the door fastest?

Yeah, that's gone now.

Because I had just picked up what by all rights looked like a goddamn tinker ability from Worm. The same Worm tinkers known for being stupidly fast in construction using what amounts to PAPERCLIPS to create weapons of mass destruction. That was bad enough on its own, but the specialization I had received was just outright devastating.

Miniaturization and Efficiency.

Best part? No limits, no caps, no black boxing, and no weird pulls to do stupid things. Just a massively broken power that would let me build fusion reactors the size of watch batteries with all of the output. To start.

In retrospect, that other ability to increase nearly every aspect of anything I built by a flat 15-20% across the board was very paltry. Even the minor boosts to durability and efficiency were outperformed by my other abilities...

Oh, and I also had the theoretical data on Tau energetics and plasma tech. So there was that too.

But that big part? That meant that the capacitor project just got a massive break added to it. I might even be able to get around whatever stupid limitation was holding me back before. And then?

I would equip my frame, and set out to find my friend.

And woe betide anyone who stood in my way.

In the end, I stuck with the basics instead of going full ham, keeping it simple while still allowing for some tricks up my sleeve if needed.

Janus had managed to come through in providing the auspex units with shocking speed. I then used them as a basis for my own custom scanner system, primarily intended to be upgradeable in the long term but for now just a smaller and slightly more efficient unit for Thoth to integrate.

Weapons wise, I was sticking to the classics, in the form of some lasguns that had the power output boosted, and a few slugthrowers of various calibers added into the mix for variety, all integrated into Thoth as part of a basic weapons compliment.. I considered pushing into the new areas provided by access to the Tau energetics, but decided against it due to time constraints.

Similarly, I didn't really do much with my limited knowledge of photon technology beyond building a basic photon rifle to use as Thoth's primary armament. I had considered going for a photon launcher, but decided against it due to lack of prep time in learning how to use it properly.

Even the breakthrough potential that I had available to me in the magic capacitor project was set aside in order to simply improve upon what was already there instead of throwing new shit into the mix...the result being a significantly streamlined and optimized 16-core Operations Orb waiting for my use as an emergency measure should I need it. In fact it was even more streamlined than it should have been, considering my skills and abilities.

Guess the stereotypical German Engineering is paying dividends after all.

As for my "mundane" gear, I had my usual complement of Alliance N7 gear, now reworked and optimized for the kind of close-in work that was likely to occur here. I had FINALLY decided to give my omni-tool another rework, mostly to streamline what was already there rather than add new equipment or programs to the gear itself, and had linked it to one of the refurbished auspex units that I would be using along with the search party. With any luck I would be able to use this to process the incoming data faster and "see" around any likely interference that we might come across. Considering our search area came dangerously close to the underhive proper, interference was likely.

I had also managed to get the kinetic barrier modules set up in a way that didn't require my armor to function, meaning that I could wear imperial standard stuff and not stand out like a goddamn sore thumb. With that accomplished, I tossed the Armor into Thoth's storage for him to integrate whenever he felt like it.

One very notable improvement to my gear was my Eagle heavy pistol. After giving it a very thorough inspection and maintenance, I had managed to improve it's workings to a surprising degree, especially since I didn't actually do a rebuild of the weapon itself, Just a disassembly for maintenance.

These perks of mine are bullshit. Really.

That took care of the tech side, and had barely taken a day.

The rest of that time was spent on any and all forms of information gathering, ELINT operations, and general planning for the op than anything else. Yes, I could have spent more time tinkering with the tech, getting more gains and better returns, but it was completely and utterly wasteful in the time frames involved.

Technology may indeed win the day, but only because of those who wielded it. And I would rather use what I had to maximum effect than bring in completely new and unfamiliar stuff and pray the edge holds. Skill trumps most things, after all.

But even with all of the preparations, all the gear, all the psyching up possible, nothing could prepare you for what would come once things got started. No operations plan in history has ever survived contact with the enemy, and this one would be no different.

And at last, the time had come, and the search team was assembled at the rally point, an old factory of some sort or another, long since abandoned due to the deteriorating conditions from what I could see.

The search team was a mixed lot, and seemed to pull a bit from everyone and everything that was available at the time, from low-level gangers with improvised armor (if any) and basic weaponry, all the way up to what I would guess were Van Saar officers or at least superiors of come kind, given the more advanced armor rigs and higher-end weapons. (one of them even had a weird shield made out of an odd energy field, probably a form of plasma. I reminded myself to get a sample later to reverse-engineer)

One of the leadership types spoke up once it appeared that everyone had arrived. "Welcome, one and all. We're here today for a search team to locate one of our own...and to deliver vengeance upon those who dared to strike against us.

"We will be doing a coordinated sweep of the area, with the intention of either flushing out our prey or locating the hole that they are hiding in. Handheld auspex units will be provided to each team to assist in the search. Our objective is to locate and either retrieve our comrade, or confirm his death at the hands of our enemies. Killing said enemies is secondary, but highly encouraged.

"Any questions so far?"

Shocking to me, there were none. My mental estimate of the competence of the locals raised itself another notch as the leader, who I was now designating in my mind as a Sergeant, continued.

"Alright then. The teams are pre-assigned, with each of you going to be running with your normal crew plus one of my boys here," He motioned to the well-equipped group, "as backup and a bit of stiffening. Before you complain," and there were already some of the groups starting to grumble about it, silenced for a moment as he shifted tacks, "this is not a mark on the ability and competence of your people, this is instead a statement of just how seriously the higher ups are taking this. I don't think I need to elaborate any further than that."

Again, much to my surprise, there was no need to elaborate any further for them, although this time it was for more obvious reasons. The potential to gain favor with the brass was always tempting to those who were unaware of just how mercurial that attention was. It could just as easily turn bad as be good.

"If there are no further questions, let's get started."

I ended up "assigned" to the command group of this little operation, likely a move to keep an eye on the low-level VIP more than anything else. I didn't fight the issue, even though I would have had a better chance out on the front lines. (I'd thought about sidling in with one of the reserve teams, but decided against it for the time being.)

Instead, I used the assignment to more or less take control control of the sensor feeds being relayed from the auspex units the teams were carrying around, using it to create a composite picture of the area we were in. (the operators of said net did not mind in the slightest, as the setup they intended to use had certain flaws to it that my setup avoided)

And the results of the initial scan were not promising.

Despite being an old factory, the place was an absolute warren of tunnels both old and new, some seeming to be old waste tunnels leading off to one of the processing plants, others possibly being piped to the outside to join the rest of the filth that usually built up outside of longstanding hive cities. Add in the fact that we were extremely close to the structural layer separating the hive proper from the "true" underhive and it created a nightmare situation where anything and everything could be hidden within. And even with the limited improvements that I had made to the auspex units as part of the refurbishing I'd performed, they still could not penetrate through all of that ferrocrete, meaning that searching the tunnels had to be done manually. This was quickly turning into a recipe for disaster.

Which is why I'm still sitting here tense as all hell, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and equally surprised that it hasn't actually done so yet.

The teams were using relays for both comms and sensor data to be passed back up to the base station, so there was that much, at 't stop me from being paranoid as all hell, though.

The teams were encountering very minimal resistance as they progressed, and all of it currently from the "wildlife" of the hive proper instead of any organized resistance. I was concerned that we might have had the wrong place, but the Sergeant assured me that this was the place.

Still, something had me on edge. I didn't like this one bit. Thoth seemed to agree, as he was straining constantly at the seams, trying to badger me into letting him send out an active ping, which I kept denying, mostly on grounds of EMCON, but also so that we didn't look odd with having advanced scanning gear in the area with no obvious source to the auspices currently in use.

What I did do, however, was direct some of Thoth's attention to upgrading our passive scanning abilities. I did not want to get ganked because I didn't see the asshole coming. So far, there was nothing new under the Hive, but if my hunch played out, that would be changing soon.

I was sorely tempted to deploy a few drones from my omnitool, but I held off, just in case. The drones themselves wouldn't draw more than a curious eye from some of these guys, but it was best to keep a potential trump card unknown, and thus available, just in case.

So all that I could do was wait, and keep the data streams coming so that the command team had all the info they needed to make a decision, should one become necessary.

I decided to start the check-ins early, just to assuage my paranoia.

"Team one, check in".

"Team one here, nothing so far."

"Team two, check in."

"Team two, nothing to report."

The same responses kept coming through. No new information, all quiet, grumbling about the lack of action. It was kind of nostalgic, in a weird way.

"Team twelve, check in."

"..."

Well then, I guess it's starting.

On reflex, I checked team twelve's last known position, a series of what looked like access shafts to an even older factory complex that had been buried as the hive continued to grow. None of the area appeared on any of the maps I had available to me, so I was more or less blind in topography for the area beyond what we had mapped in our sweeping process..

"Team twelve, check in."

More silence. I started backtracking the routes that they would have to have taken to get there, and didn't see any connecting tunnels or anything that would have allowed for something like an ambush, at least not a traditional one at any rate. Concerned, I double checked the feed from their auspex, and the current reading was nothing out of the ordinary.

My paranoia spiked yet again, and I found myself fighting against an adrenaline surge. Need to think back to training. When in doubt, put more eyes on it.

"All teams, team twelve is unresponsive. Require visual check on last known location."

The Sergeant glanced at me with an odd look on his face. I ignored him as I used the remote link to reset team twelve's auspex to try to get a better look at the situation.

"This is team ten. We are moving to investigate." "Team eight, same."

Auspex still showed clear, even with me having just reset the unit remotely. What the hell? If there was a clear board, then why weren't they responding?

I absently fingered my Eagle as I continued to try and tickle answers out of the auspex relay…

"Understood. Be advised, auspex twelve shows clear. Be on the lookout for gas or bad air pockets." This got me another look from the Sergeant, which I again ignored.

"Roger." "Understood."

I grimaced even as I mind whirled. Because of the way the tunnels and other warrens were set up, we were deliberately limiting the use of active scanners to extremely short range stuff, only good for doing a detailed scan on a given room or section of tunnel than anything major. This was done to reduce the amount of backscatter and interference caused by our own units as we did our sweep and clear, and also to limit the potential exposure to any threat receivers set up inside of the tunnels proper. Not that I thought that would be the case, but the Sergeant insisted when I questioned him about it, so I didn't push the issue.

I was beginning to think I should have pushed harder.

The teams eight and ten were approaching the last known position of team twelve at a rather rapid pace now, and would be there in less than a minute. I was hoping that it was just a pocket of bad air or something similar that caused this breakdown, because if it wasn't…

Another hunch, this one fueled by a combination of bitter experience and rampant paranoia, prompted me to switch the auspex of team twelve to active mode for a brief ping of the surroundings, an action the sergeant noticed and attempted to stop.

His rebuke died on his lips as we beheld the sheer mass of contacts around the area, none of which I could resolve properly.

At almost the exact same time, the two teams reached the location.

I already knew what was going to happen before it started, and there was nothing that I could do to stop it.

Didn't mean I couldn't get as much intel as possible from the event, though.

"This is team ten, reporting in! We are engaged by...I don't know what the hell these things are! But they're everywhere! Falling back!"

"All teams, contact at tunnel intersection DA33-12, last known location of team twelve. Teams eight and ten are engaged. Stand by for further instructions."

At least I could warn everybody else that it had finally dropped in the pot. I glanced at the Sergeant for any further commands, and found him staring intently at the sensor displays. Did he know something?

Movement on the boards drew my attention back to the situation in progress.

I watched as the teams began to pull back from the damned killbox that was now team twelve's apparent grave…and felt a sudden spike of unease. There was something I was missing.

I took a moment to glance around at my environment, and saw nothing that was out of place...for the moment. Still, that wary feeling refused to leave me.

The teams were now making their way back up to one of the main junctures of the tunnels in an unorthodox but quite effective fighting retreat, and actually doing DAMNED good at reaping a toll on their would-be ambushers. If the limited radio traffic was any indication, then they had yet to actually lose a man to the assault.

Even with the "good" news, I couldn't shake the feeling of something being dangerously off. I glanced around again, just to be sure.

"Team eight, reporting. We've made it to the main junction for this area. Requesting backup immediately!"

The Sergeant had apparently given an order out when I wasn't paying attention, as one of the reserve teams was already headed for the tunnel junction that we had identified prior. A quick glance showed that this was one of the "safe" corridors, with only a small number of ways in or out, of which only two could not be monitored from the "surface". Despite the minimal preparations for this raid, there was a bit more of the competence flowing around, as there was a pretty solid choke point set up for the path back to the base camp.

Teams eight and ten used the fortifications and it's defenders to maximum advantage, gunning down wave after wave of..something or another. I still couldn't resolve anything from the auspex.

The sounds of combat echoed up the tunnel, mostly the din of automatic weapons fire and the alien screams of whatever creatures may have been down there with those men. And even as tense as I was, I had a duty right here and now to provide as much accurate data as possible so as to allow them to get out of that shitstorm alive.

Still, that paranoia was only getting stronger and stronger, some back corner of my mind screaming at me to pay attention before I got killed. I took yet another look around, and saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary at all. I turned back to my board to pre-

What the fuck!?

I replayed the last ten seconds of memories back in my head.

I felt paranoid about something. I looked around, checking my environment, and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

In the middle of an impromptu base camp for a search team with reported hostiles.

In the middle of a high alert.

In the dead smack middle of an area where NOTHING is normal..

Mental Attack.

It was the only explanation, really. Someone had sicced a psyker onto us, and was doing a damned good job of keeping us distracted from noticing them doing whatever they wanted. There WAS, however, one major problem.

I had Thoth. And he was not affected by whatever this shit was.

I finally let my core free to scan as he pleased.

The sensor pulse sent out was simultaneously stupidly powerful as it was tightly controlled, sending up a scan bubble only along the "surface" axes. Still lit up the passive-mode auspices something fierce, though.

I would have laughed at it, but we had far bigger concerns at the moment,

Namely that we were surrounded by some kind of humanoid shapes, and from the movements and postures, they were not friendly.

The odd part was that they were mostly female, though. And as far as I knew, only House Escher ran with gang compositions like that. Which begged a very important question: why the hell was house Escher involved in this shit?

There was also the far, far more important question of how the hell were WE going to make it out of this mess, but I thought I had a workable plan on that front. I would just need to time things just right…

I kept at it with the sensor board, doing my best to get a solid read on whatever the hell that team ten was fighting down there, all the while setting up my improvised counter-ambush.

Step one: tell someone other than yourself.

I waved the Sergeant over to the sensor boards as I continued to monitor the situation. "Sarge, we got these thingies here, here, here, and here, trying to do something stupid and slick with the boys down there. Might need you to send some more backup."

I then whispered the next part under my breath, but still loud enough for Sarge to hear."We are being surrounded by an unknown force, attempting a classic ambush, need to get ready asap."

The Sergeant nodded, and then turned and briskly walked away, grabbing one of his Corporals as he did so. I focused back on the sensor screen, directing Thoth to monitor the real-world situation in case he had to act.

Team ten was still holding their own, as was team eight. But there was another horde of whatever those weird things were rushing down the tunnels like a living swarm, and from appearances they cared not for what stood between them and their meal.

A second point began to bug me: these things are dropping like flies. Why the hell did team twelve go dark?

Our would-be ambushers were almost ready, from what it looked like. We needed-

I moved. No thought, no hesitation, nothing but ACTION. One moment I was there, the next I had completely vacated the space where I once was, having dived for cover completely without thinking.

The multiple lasbolts hitting RIGHT where I would have been standing not even a mere second ago convinced me that I had made the right call..

It did confirm that I was something of a priority target for whoever these people were. Either that or the comms gear and electronics that had been set up for our use. I quickly glanced over to where the Sergeant was located...only to see a pair of shots connect with deadly accuracy, leaving behind only a rapidly cooling corpse.

...OR they could be targeting the apparent and obvious leadership…

Fortunately for our defense, the newly created deader was not the Sergeant, but one of his minions, likely acting as a runner for the news and battle plan. The bad part was that we had been caught in a conflux of the laws of attack, namely that we were being attacked both when the enemy was ready to do so...and when we were not ready to defend.

I really wanted to try and whip up a defense, but whoever the fuckers on the las were had some downright disgusting aim, punishing even the slightest misstep with terrifying ease. I needed to try and get some counter-fire on those bastards so that the rest of the crew could actually defend themselves before the main push of that ambush force comes in.

I heard the Sergeant shouting orders above the din of battle. Seems he'd had the same idea, and was using his team of heavies to shield from the las fire while trying to locate the firing position. From a quick glance (that nearly got my head taken off), he was not having much in the way of any fortune. We needed some way to break the logjam we were in, or we were all going to die.

A primal scream echoed all around us.

I quickly turned to the source of the noise, almost directly across from the current ambush forces, and saw something downright terrifying. It was something grotesque, a mockery of the human form, it was simply...Alien.

Nevermind that the damned thing looked like a fucking Xenomorph to begin with.

Worse, it had brought buddies, four in all, for a grand total of five. And they did not look happy. At all.

As if things weren't already bad enough, I heard over the vox channels that the search teams were getting HAMMERED by something down in the tunnels and were either doing fighting retreats or were pinned down at the nearest defensible location and trading fire. If what I was hearing from the garbled messages was correct, a group of whatever those subterranean things were had broken loose and were on the way to the "surface" area.

FAST.

And we had maybe ten guys up here in fighting condition. Maybe eleven, if I could get to that-no, ten. Fucking sniper bitch…

I needed another option to get us out of here in one piece, or we were all going to die here.

Again, Difficult chapter. I'm splitting it into two chapters for that reason.

Perks for this chapter:

-Fun in the Sun (Warhammer 40k - T'au Empire) (100CP)

Plasma, radiation, and antimatter are all similar in that they relate to exotic and high energy states of matter, whether it is stellar mass or individual particles of subatomic size. You now are a master of T'au technology as it relates to manipulating these high-energy states of matter and the physics that underpin them.

-German Engineering (Smash Up) (200CP)

Everything you build seems just a bit more. More durable, more efficient, more precise. Call it a 10-20% difference across the board?

-Miniaturization/Efficiency (Worm) (400CP)

You can miniaturize anything down to levels that any sane man would consider impossible. A fusion reactor the size of a watch battery would be the absolute minimum of what you are capable of, and you'd be able to make it far smaller than that. Your power also makes you a master of technological efficiency, anything you make needing barely any energy to run compared to what it should and continue to do so for a very long time. These specialties also make you a master of nanotechnology and similar pursuits. Of course you aren't barred from building something big like a giant robot, just that it'll be impossibly efficient and crammed full of more weapons and subsystems then should be possible