Chapter 1
8:30 AM | Sunny
Rhodes Island Landship, Compartment 1, Briefing Theatre
"...and that's for Team Delta!" Doctor Hypergraph listed, looking up from his tablet. "Once you're with your teams, we'll start the briefing."
With that, everyone dispersed, heading for their respective teams. Folinic smiled as she and Suzuran stood up. "Thank Heavens we're on the same team."
Suzuran giggled. "I think Dr. HG just knows you're easier to work with if I'm with you."
The Feline medic gave her friend an affronted look. "Hey!"
"You know it's true." the Vulpo answered, following her friend to the Team Delta section. "Your competitive streak gives off a certain vibe."
The combat medic wanted to argue but sighed. "Sorry…"
Suzuran patted her on the back. "Well, this is your chance to do it!" she comforted, smiling. By now, they had arrived at their designated table. "You're the Delta Actual this time!"
Before she could answer, someone spoke up behind them. "Initializing message exchange interface: hello Folinic."
Turning, she smiled at her fellow medic. "Hey Ptilo, how are you?"
The eccentric medic operator shrugged, followed by a bored Ifrit. "System scans indicate the body is fully functional, with energy stores at full capacity." she replied, tilting her head towards her. "Ptilopsis is ready for the upcoming mission."
"Auntie, we wouldn't be here if you aren't ready." Ifrit grumbled, flopping down besides Suzuran. "Hey Suzu."
"Hi Ifrit," Suzuran replied before waving at someone behind them. "Hey guys!"
"Heya Suzu, Ifrit!" Gummy greeted, a big smile on her face. Behind her, Rosa waved at them while Zima grunted as she took her seat behind Ifrit. "We're teammates again! Yay!"
"Looks like we're on babysitting duty again, Yato." Noir Corne said, announcing his presence. His partner merely shrugged as the two took their seats behind Folinic. "Alright!"
The rest of the team arrived soon afterwards, Click giving them a hello, Hellagur handing out some candy to Gummy and Suzuran, with Exusia arriving last. "Sorry guys!" she apologized, taking a seat beside Click. "Had to help Texas with Lapp again."
"Everyone settled down." Dr. Hypergraph ordered, taking the podium once more. Dr. Kal'tsit and Amiya were near him, helping with the presentation. By now, Folinic could see that all the teams were seated. "Good, let's start the briefing."
The screen behind the doctor lit up, showing the logo of Rhodes Island. "Rhine Lab has contracted us to protect a testing site they have for a prototype device." he began, the screen changing to show some kind of launch tower. "According to the details provided, it's some kind of lightning rod for Catastrophes. I don't have the full details but what they told us, it sort of stops the formation of one."
Everyone in the room murmured, no doubt intrigued by the device. "Hey Ptilo," Exusia whispered, leaning forward from her seat. "Have you heard about this before?"
Ptilo was quiet, staring at the device as Dr. Hypergraph continued on his briefing. "Internal search queries indicate that I have heard of rumors of such a device though..." she trailed off, shoulders slumping.
Ifrit took one look at her before looking back in front. "Auntie's asleep now."
"At least she answered your question, Exusia." Hellagur said, chuckling.
Folinic ignored the snort the Laterano gave, instead focusing on the briefing. "...attracts normal and infused Originium Slugs, for some reason." Dr. Hypergraph continued, briefly playing a video of Rhine Lab security personnel fending off a bunch of slugs. "They're not sure why, though they theorized that it might have something to do with whatever the machine does."
The screen then switched to a picture of the area, complete with GPS coordinates and a map. "The test site is in Ursus, specifically near the ruins of Chernoberg." The screen then focused on the picture of the test site. "Apparently, if the test goes well, the Empire gets bragging rights. If not, well, Rhine Lab wasted money renting the area."
Behind Suzuran, Zima scoffed. "Of course they'll be doing that…"
On Team Alpha, Provence raised her hand. "Doctor, the Catastrophe Messenger Network reported that there's going to be a Catastrophe within that area in the coming days." she revealed, frowning. "If they're going to test a device that'll stop a Catastrophe, why test now and not earlier?"
"They already tried it in Columbia, Provence." Dr. Kal'tsit answered. "The results of the test showed that they couldn't deploy the tower too early, since it prevents the formation of one all together."
"Isn't that a good thing?" someone further back shouted, though Folinic couldn't see who.
"If the device was mobile, yes." Dr. Hypergraph answered, crossing his arms. "Unfortunately, that wasn't the main objective. Honestly, I don't know what Rhine Labs smokes to make them think the first experiment was a failure."
Everyone laughed at that. "Back to the main point - Rhine Labs want us to protect the device while they test it." Dr. Hypergraph pointed at the screen. Certain places were highlighted. "Teams Alpha and Bravo will be stationed at the outer perimeter. Teams Charlie and Delta will guard the immediate area - the launch site, to be specific."
"Alright, the easy job!" Noir exclaimed, pumping his fist. Dr. Kal'tsit glared at them, making Yato slap him on the head. "Sorry Doc!"
"Why do we always get the easy jobs, anyway?" Zima grumbled, an angry look on her face.
The elite defender merely chuckled, patting her on the head. "Trust me kid, the best jobs are the easy ones."
"Noir's comments aside, he's kind of right." the doctor continued. "Aerial recon efforts have indicated that there are no known bandit hideouts or feral wolf packs. The only thing of concern really are slugs and spiders."
With that, the screen went blank. "We're deploying at 0900 hours. Dismissed."
Just then, Ptilopsis shook. "...I have not been able to ascertain if the details were correct." she finished, looking around. "Huh, it seems my Narcolepsy has prevented me from learning the mission details."
Folinic patted her on the shoulders. "Don't worry, Ptilo, I'll fill you in on the details." she answered, smiling. "Let's move out, team!"
# # # | # # #
10:45 AM | Cloudy
Catastrophe Attractor Test Site, near Device Alpha
"Operator Firewatch to all units. No sign of agitation from present Originium slugs."
"Ambriel reporting in, same situation with FW." another voice drawled.
"Copy that, Firewatch, Ambriel," Dr. Hypergraph said over the comms. "Stay frosty, the technicians are about to turn on the device."
"THIS IS BORING!" Ifrit cried out on the ground, waving her hands and feet around. Folinic snorted, not even bothering to look up from the dissertation she was reading.
"You should have brought something with you, Ifrit." she replied, intrigued at what the paper was proposing. Further away, she could hear laughter coming from Charlie. Both teams were resting under the shadow of the Rhine Labs device, though Delta was closer to the tower's base. "Even Ptilo's doing something."
The flame caster groaned. "I can't sit still and do something boring, Folinic! Mom already has problems with me when it comes to my studying!"
As she continued her rant, Folinic gave a quick glance at her team. The rest were trying to pass time: Click had her camera drone out, flying it around; Zima, Gummy, and Rosa were playing a card game, with Hellagur dealing; Ptilopsis was writing something beside her while Suzuran had her head resting on her lap, sleeping; and Exusia was sharing her apple pie with Noir and Yato.
"Have you considered joining Hellagur's card game?" her aunt asked, looking up from her journal.
Ifrit waved her off. "Nah, too boring."
"At least we're enjoying something!" Zima snipped back. "Go fish."
"Screw you!"
"Language." Noir ordered, though he was grinning. He gestured at the device shading them. "Best enjoy the rest, kiddo. Once this bad boy starts up, you'll be wishing for some RnR."
"Hey guys!"
Turning, she was surprised to see the RI head engineer walking towards them, alone. "Closure, what are you doing here?" Folinic asked, gently extracting herself from Suzuran. "And where's-"
Closure pointed towards Charlie's position, where the imposing figure of Talulah stood before Dobermann. "Sent her to talk to Charlie." she answered. "Girl's been on her best behavior, thought it might be best to give her a chance to get out. Don't worry, both Kal and HG approved my request."
"So why are you here, Ada?" Yato asked, looking up from her seat. "I doubt you walked here just to tell us about our guest."
The chief engineer shrugged. "I just wanted to tell you guys that you might want to move away from the device."
"Couldn't you have just radioed that in?" Folinic asked, giving the engineer a confused look. Sighing, she shook Suzuran gently. "Hey Suzu, time to wake up."
Closure shrugged. The rest of the team started packing up. "I wanted to get out of the-"
Before she could finish, the ground shook violently. Those standing fell on their butts as the tower behind them started glowing. A ball of light started forming at the top of the tower, in the middle of the four prongs. Thankfully, Folinic still hadn't stood up, though her sleepy friend was startled by the shaking. "Folinic?" the Vulpo asked, looking disoriented. "Wha-"
"Charlie, Delta!" their radios crack. By now, everyone could see the ball of light getting bigger by the second. "Get out of there now!"
"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" Noir bellowed, pulling Exusia up. "HAUL YOUR ASSES NOW!"
Folinic wasted no time, hauling Suzuran up to stand. The rest of Delta were also on the move, scrambling to get away from the glowing tower. Unfortunately, before any of them could take a couple of steps away, the large ball of light launched upwards into the sky...and everything froze.
Folinic could only stare in horror as she felt her body freeze. It was as if she held her breath and stayed still, except this time she wasn't doing it voluntarily. Those in front of her weren't any better for the rest - Gummy was about to fall flat on the ground and Hellagur was standing on one leg trying not to fall backwards. She couldn't see the rest but she could assume they were in a similar position.
"Delta, Charlie, come in!" she heard Dr. Hypergraph's agitated voice over her earpiece. "COME IN, GODDAMMIT!"
'We're frozen, Dr. HG!' Folinic desperately wanted to scream back. 'We can't move!'
"This is Alpha Actual! Slugs are coming out of the woodwork!" Provence announced over the radio. "Whatever that thing is doing, it's agita-OH SHIT MOVE!"
"Fuck! I'm seeing a horde of spiders heading to Alpha's post!" Meteorite growled, sounding stressed. "Where's Charlie and Delta?"
"Hold your positions, Alpha, Bravo!" Dr. Hypergraph ordered, the sound of his teeth grinding being heard over the radio. "Something's wrong with Charlie and Delta. Cameras on the launch pad are showing both teams frozen mid-action. I can't raise them and I'm unsure if they can hear me!"
'Come on, come on, COME ON!' Folinic tried to will her body to move, to no avail. Whatever the device was doing, it was capable of freezing movement at an unprecedented scale. 'GODAMMIT!'
Then everything went white.
# # # | # # #
? | ?
?
The next thing Folinic knew, she was lying on the ground. She could feel her body aching, though she could tell it wasn't anything serious. Pushing herself off the ground, sat up and began doing a self-diagnostic of herself. 'I feel like that time I drank Vodka as a dare,' she thought, patting her body to see for anything serious. 'So far, no broken ribs or limbs. No visible wounds as well.'
After making sure her vision wasn't impaired, she spotted veterans like Hellgur and Noir were already on their feet. "Noir, sit-rep!" she shouted, standing up. On her back, the HONEY whirled to life, ready to be used.
"FUBAR, doc!" Noir answered, running up towards her. The grim look on his face didn't ease her nerves. "Radio's receiving static only."
Sure enough, she activated her comm device, receiving only static. "Operators?" she asked, looking around. Thankfully, she noticed that Hibiscus was up and assessing those on the ground.
"Yato was the first one up," he replied, pointing at the elite vanguard looking for threats. "She confirmed no one's dead, though Ptilopsis is unconscious - like eyes closed unconscious."
Folinic nodded. "I'm going to help Hibiscus, tell me when Dr. HG's here!"
Before she could move, Noir winced. "That's gonna be a problem, Folinic." he replied, pointing behind her. "Look."
To her utter shock, she turned to see they were on a huge structure floating on the water, something shimmering covering it. Much closer, it was only now did she notice they were in an empty parking lot with a jetty - similar to the ones she saw in Siesta. "Dear God…" she whispered, noticing the building facing the lot. "Where are we?"
Noir shrugged. "I dunno, not my level of expertise. The only thing I know is we're stuck in the parking lot of...DWU." he replied, his thumb pointing to her left. Sure enough, there was a building attached to the parking lot, with a sign saying 'DWU' in front of the building. "That and the smaller sibling of the device Rhine Labs was testing brought us here."
'Of course it would,' she sighed, turning to face to see a smaller version of the Catastrophe Attractor standing before her. Interestingly, it was firing a continuous stream of light into the sky. Given it looked like it was midmorning at...wherever they were, she couldn't see where the light stream was heading for.
"Hello there!"
Quick as lighting, Noir slid before her with his Dreadnaught Shield at front. Folinic followed suit, her hands wrapping around the joysticks of HONEY. "Identify yourself!" she ordered, HONEY loading in a Compound Drug Shell.
"Easy, easy!" the man exclaimed, hands up in the air. To her surprise, he was speaking in Victorian, though it sounded off. "I mean no harm! Name's Danny - need help?"
"Orders?" Noir whispered, not taking his eyes off the man.
Folinic bit her lip before shouting back "Can you tell us where we are?"
The man must have been surprised by the question, since he wasn't able to reply back immediately. "Uh...you're in Brockton Bay, Massachusetts." he shouted back. "This is the Dockworker's Union parking lot, West Bay street, to be specific."
He paused, staring at them. "Though guessing by your looks, that wasn't the answer you were looking for."
"Well shit doc," Noir drawled a moment later. "Looks like we ain't in Terra anymore."
