Chapter 13: Factory Raid
"We have a location!?" IF cried.
"Indeed," The Guild clerk informed her. "We have received an anonymous tip that a factory has been discovered, hidden in the wilderness, claiming that it was producing the robots that have been causing trouble. We've already sent someone to scout ahead, to confirm the legitimacy of this rumor. And it seems to be true. So now, we just need a team to go in, and shut it down."
"A raid, huh?"
"Yes, and I understand that you have been tasked with leading the investigation with these machines. So, we want you to lead this task."
IF turned to Compa. The Guild Agent had immediately come to the Guild when she received an urgent request on her phone, Compa coming along to help her friend.
And as luck would have it, she now had a lead on the whole robot situation.
"Should we ask Neptune or Venus to come?" Compa asked.
"No, not this time. Certainly, Purple Heart should be informed of this, but I don't want to endanger Venus again. And I think we can handle this without them. I still need a team though," IF said.
"Well, the scout who found the factory already plans to meet up with you. She's one of the transfers from Leanbox's RRoD. I believe her name was Cave," the clerk told the pair.
"Oh, awesome! She's a friend of ours. Anyone else on joined up yet?"
"Not yet. But a request has been sent out, so it shouldn't be long-"
"U-uh, excuse me?" a shy voice spoke up.
Looking over, they could see two girls, both with blue hair. One had purple eyes, and wore headphones, a black top giving a lot of midriff, which had a musical note tattoo, a black skirt with a pink belt, and black stockings with black shoes, one stocking had stylized tears on the top, the other had a fish-net top. The other girl had blue eyes, and wore a black witch-style hat with gear designs, a white coat with a gear-like trim over a uniform with a red tie and skirt, and black heels with grey thigh-high socks.
"Well, what a coincidence," IF exclaimed as they arrived. "Mages! Lyrica! Good to see you!"
"Greetings, IF," Mages, the girl with the witch's hat, responded.
"H-hi, IF!" Lyrica, the girl with headphones, also known as 5pb, nervously greeted.
"So, are you here for the factory mission, or is that too much to ask for?" IF asked.
"Well, yes we are," Mages replied. "Lyrica heard from Cave about a raid, and she wanted to help her. And of course, I can't let my older sister go out alone."
"Well, she won't be alone, me and Compa plan to go, along with Cave. But we appreciate your help!"
"Yeah, it's always fun to go out with friends, blasting meanie monsters apart!" Compa exclaimed.
"O...kay," IF sounded. "Alright, I think we could use one more person..."
"We have another transfer on standby. Perhaps another person you know?" the clerk spoke up. "God Eater of the Lastation Defence Force?"
"Sounds perfect!" IF agreed.
"Great, we contact her and have her meet up with you and Cave."
"Excellent. So... where's the target?"
God Eater had gotten there first to meet up with a Cave, a girl with short-ish pale brown hair in twin pigtails and with a black sigma hairclip, and stormy blue eyes, wearing a black vest, mostly unzipped from the bottom and still connected at the top below a red ribbon, fingerless gloves climbing up to below her shoulders, a single big red bracelet, black short-shorts with a white belt, and black and red boots with red thigh-highs.
IF, Compa, Lyrica, and Mages approached the last of the members of their little crew, near the Planeptune and Lastation border.
"Cave! God Eater! Good to see you guys again!" IF called out.
"Iffy!" God Eater cheered, and she ran up to hug her.
As the Guild Agent returned the hug, she said, "nice to see you, too."
They broke up their hug, and God Eater hugged Compa next, as Cave approached IF and Lyrica.
"Miss 5pb? Interesting to see you here," the RRoD Member noted.
"W-well, I wanted to help!" Lyrica said, trying to sound confident.
"Very well. I hope that you have been briefed?"
"Of course. We need to take down this factory, and attempt to recover any data on the computers," IF replied, detailing the briefing they received before they left.
"And where is this factory?" Mages asked.
"Past this hill," Cave replied. "We are out of sight. The plan is to catch them by surprise."
"Are you sure they haven't seen us?" Compa asked as God Eater let go of her hug.
"I would hope not," Cave said. "Unfortunately, the only activity we've seen is mechanical. No signs of life."
"So, we're not likely to meet whoever is responsible for this," IF noted. "But hopefully we can find out some more information about them. And taking down with factory should hurt them, as well. Even if this isn't the only one they have."
"So... shall we?" Mages asked.
IF nodded. "Everyone ready."
"Yeah!" Everyone else replied.
With everyone in agreement, they began to climb the hill. The factory was built into a tall cliff wall by a clearing, going underground. Outside, it was nothing more than a large set of double metal doors and some factory windows above it. Up close, it was kind of obvious, but this deep in the forest, it was pretty well hidden.
IF motioned the group to sneak around behind the edge of the clearing, and come up the side of the cliff. She couldn't see any cameras outside, but that didn't mean they were safe.
Once they reached the doors, IF asked, "okay, Mages, think you can break this open for us."
The mad magician nodded, pulled out her staff, and began to prepare a spell.
"Get ready, once she breaks the doors open, all h*** should break loose," IF warned, and everyone pulled their weapons out.
"Conflagration Dust!" Mages called, casting a flame spell that created a cross of flames on the doors, before a pillar of flames blasted them open.
Alarms sounded from inside.
"Now or never!" IF called, and everyone charged inside.
The first things to approach them were spider robots. IF remembered these from the ambush on her, Compa, and Venus. It did not make her happy, and was more than pleased to get back at these things. She pulled out her katars, and began slicing through them.
"Super Pressure!" Compa called, as shot pressurized liquid from her large syringe, blasting several of the spider bots. Lyrica and Mages began to send out magic and sound blasts as backup, along with Cave, commanding her own bee robots to shoot the spider bots, while fending off any stragglers trying to sneak up on her with her scissor blades. God Eater ran up to join IF, swinging her massive sword around at incredible speeds and helping her tear through the mechanical swarm.
It didn't take long for them to break through, and get past the first room, into what was clearly the main floor. It was a wide-open room, with a large generator in the center.
And of course, there was the main force waiting for them, a few still mobilizing. Countless U-nits, as well as a new type of robot. It was a flying bot, a long, thin, cone-like bot with the tip pointing down, and wings on a spherical head on top.
A few of these new "spear" bots pointed their cones at the group, which opened up, and charged up an attack.
"Ah, c***," IF said, as a spear bot fired a beam of light, which created a large energy blast where it struck. IF narrowly dodged, but a U-nit flew up and swung its sword downward at her. The Guild Agent was able to pull up her katars in a cross formation, blocking the strike. But it was a much larger sword pushing down on her, and she couldn't keep this up.
"Mechanical Paradox!" Mages called, as she created a gear-like magic circle, and launched several magic missiles, which blasted the U-nit off of IF.
And thus, the chaos began.
IF opened up with "Demonic Inferno!", causing numerous explosions, followed by a flame pillar, blasting apart a large chunk of the robots, and giving the girls an opening.
And they all charged in. IF began to cut through metal, leap up to strike the enemy, time and time again. She began to get scuffed up from dodging all of the slashes and lasers, and could see her friends isolated in their own scuffles.
"Arcane Shell!" Compa called out, firing a pink energy ball from her syringe into the air, which began to blast robots with energy shots and a laser.
In the distance, IF heard, "God Arc Combo!" as God Eater called it out, and then transformed her God Arc into a large gun, firing several shots into her opponents, and then followed up by dashing in with her weapon back in its sword form and dealing multiple slashes, cutting several mechs apart.
Protected by her bee bots, Cave called out, "Malicious Heaven!" creating a magic circle below her that shot a bunch of wind spheres spiraling above her, which crashed down on the robots, creating a tornado that blasted them away.
As Mages watched her sister's back, Lyrica prepared her own Skill, "Plasma Oven!" An orb of energy flew in past the guitarist, which Lyrica smacked with her guitar, and sent it into the robots, causing it to get stuck in them and discharged a massive amount of electricity, shocking them down.
As the enemy thinned out, and group regathered to work together to break them down. This is when Mages found something.
"IF!" she called out, and pointed out a windowed room at the other end of the room. They could see several lit screens.
"A computer room! Perfect!" IF called out. That was their goal. They just needed to get there...
...So, as she dodged another blast from the spear bots laser blasts, she turned her attention to the generator.
"Mages, if we broke this generator, would it blow the entire cliff side apart, or just this room?"
Mages quickly inspected the large machine, the best she could while using magic to blast apart robots.
The scientist and mage said, "based on its construction, and the heat from its energy output, I'm confident in saying that it'll be mostly contained in this room. However, we'll need to make a mad dash to get out of its blast range, and then set up a protective barrier, which I can do. However, it's also looked pretty well fortified."
"Okay, everyone, if they're ready, unload your EXE Skills on it the generator!"
"Got it!" Compa and Lyrica shouted, and Cave added, "understood."
The girls slipped between robot attacks to get into position, and one by one, unleashed their EXEs.
"Bread Crumbs!" After a spin and tumble, Compa shot a beam from her syringe into the air, causing a firework of a heart and Compa's C symbol, which then fired down lasers onto the generator.
"Blasphemous Theoretical!" Mages prepared numerous magic circles surrounding her, and unleashed a series of dark magic blasts and a black hole.
"5pb LIVE!" As if performing for one of her concerts, Lyrica performed a dance while playing her guitar, attacking with good vibes.
"Black Label!" Assisted by her bee bots, Cave spun around and unleashed an unfathomable barrage of various projectiles onto the machine.
"Blood Rage!" God Eater created wings of blood-red energy on her back, and charged forward with an unrelenting series of slashes, before the blade of her sword turned into a black maw and bit into the large core.
"Apocalypse Nova!" IF finished by swinging her katars and sending out numerous blades, before slamming into the ground, causing a large pillar of light to burst out, and finishing with a single powerful slash.
With all of the punishment dealt to the generator, it began to spark and break down.
"Okay, everybody, go!" IF shouted.
Everyone made a mad dash for the computer room. IF and God Eater took the frontal charge, so they could cut through robots still coming after them, and help clear a path through, while Mages quickly cast a speed spell to get the girls to get away quicker, and Lyrica strumming her guitar to create sound waves to push the robots back.
Cave sent her bee bots to fire lasers blasts to break open the door in their way, and everyone slid inside as Mages quickly conjured a magic barrier along the wall...
...Just as the generator blew up. It exploded in blinding light and flames, quickly filling the large room. Mages' barrier barely withstood the blast, as all of the robots got vaporized.
IF panted as she tried to catch her breath. "...Ha... whoo... we did it..."
Mages fell to the ground. She had exerted herself the most in this endeavor, having casted so many spells. God Eater, still with a spring in her step, offered the mage some of her oden bread, which she gladly accepted. God Eater then began to munch on her own bread, with an audible "nom, nom, nom."
"Band-Aid Kit," Compa called out, casting a quick healing spell she knew for combat, and patching up everyone's wounds.
"Thanks, Compa," IF said.
"You're welcome," the nurse cheerfully replied.
Cave brushed herself off, and looked over. "Hm, the computers are still on. They must be running on auxiliary power."
"Huh?" IF sounded, and looking over, indeed, the PCs were still on. "Well, that could be a problem."
"I-it is?" Lyrica asked.
"It shouldn't be a big deal," Mages said, as she finished her meal and got her energy back. She was both a scientist and magician, though computers weren't her exact specialty. Even still, this shouldn't be too hard.
Mages cast a quick spell on what looked to be the main computer, and various numbers and other characters began to appear and rapidly changed, before she got a "logging in" screen.
"Hm, easy. Security on these computers isn't very tight," Mages noted.
"Perhaps it's not the biggest concern," IF replied. "This was supposed to be a secret factory. They might've thought that was secure enough." And she began to dig into the files.
"So, IF," Mages started, "I want to know. I've heard that these robots may have attacked the new CPU Candidate?"
"Venus? Unfortunately, yes. That's the main reason Neptune is so concerned, among others."
"Well, I've begun to wonder... They seem h***bent on this. Perhaps... these robots could be responsible for Nepgear's disappearance as well."
IF stopped for a moment, taking this in, before getting back to the file searching. "Maybe, but it seems odd that they were able to off Gear without anyone finding out, even in the search afterward, but they are not so secretive with Ve. But... I suppose it's possible."
"Maybe now they're getting arrogant," Mages continued. "Or desperate. They must have a reason to want to get rid of Planeptunian Candidates."
"What about the other CPUs?" Cave asked. "Do they have plans to target Purple Heart? Or the Candidates and CPUs of the other nations? I am concerned if they choose to attack Lady Green Heart."
"I'm not sure. Hopefully, these computers will give the info we need," IF replied. "Until then, that's something the CPUs need to worry about. I'm willing to help, but right now, there isn't much I can do."
"It seems so cruel..." Lyrica stated. "Nepgear always loved robots. To think that maybe the very thing she loved was what took her down."
Compa got wide-eyed, as she thought of something. "What if... Ge-Ge is the one who made these robots?"
"So she is a traitor," Mages responded. "Or was offed by her own creations."
"More likely she was brainwashed," Cave added.
IF finally found something of use: Robot schematics. "I don't think so... Nepgear loved robots, but she had a certain... style." The Guild agent, watched by Mages and Cave began to look through the different schematics. There were the common U-nits they had to deal with since they first appeared, the spider bots, which apparently were called "Swarm Crawlers", and the new spear bots, called "Breaker Lances". IF continued, "these robots don't look like anything the Nepgear would've made-"
Then she stopped when she got to the next schematic. It seemed unfinished, but it was looking humanoid. But its title was what caught IF's eye.
"Super Weapon: Project Parallax".
"Parallax?" IF sounded.
"Hm, what's 'Parallax'," God Eater spoke up, having not been watching the computer.
Then Mages face scrunched up, and she looked over the PC... and got a concerned look. "Everyone, get back!"
IF and Caves quickly stopped, looked at the magician in confusion, but trusted her, and quickly stepped back...
...As every single computer there began to spark and smoke, and then blow up!
"D*** it!" IF shouted. "This was why I was worried about the PCs still being on! They must've still been connected to the people behind this, and they gave a kill command. If they were off, we could've unplugged them, taken them back with us, and isolate them to scan their hard drives."
"In that same respect, IF," Mages spoke up, "it's likely those schematics were stored on their online servers, and we wouldn't have been able to see them if we took them with us."
"Yeah, but now we can't find anything we need!"
"At least found out about one thing: Project Parallax."
"Well, that plan is were unfinished. We don't know what it's going to do."
"Perhaps it's going to be a giant robot?" God Eater said. "I mean, that makes sense, right?"
No one replied to that.
After some silence, Cave said, "well, this factory is no longer in operation. We can at least call success to that. We should go back to report this."
"Yeah, that's something, at least," IF replied.
As the girls began to leave, IF then mused, "I have to wonder, though... who was the one who found this factory in the first place? Someone tipped the Guild off, after all."
Steamax was watching from up high, a view over the secret underground market, full of criminals who were trading bootleg games, hacked consoles, and even weapons. Seeing all of this made him sick, and he very much wished that he could inform the CPUs to come and take care of this, but he had to leave it be. This was the only chance he'd get to figure out the robots and find clues about the missing Candidate.
He had already struck out. As the attacks of the mysterious robots ramped up, he was able to trace them back to one of their factories. It was not easy, the robots fought to their death, so he had to catch them as they traveled to their destinations, and scout back the way they came. But between that and rumors he heard among the criminals, he was able to find a factory making them.
Now, he wanted to take down the factory himself, but decided to instead tip off the Guild, so they could take care of it in a more official manner, and shift any suspicion off of him. But he did sneak inside to gather important info.
He was unable to get to the computers, but saw several people inside. They seemed to be low-level grunts, no one important, but they talked about needing to go trade for more materials on the black market.
And thus, he was lead here, to this secret operation. Again, its existence displeased him, but he was also not surprised. It was hidden deep under the slums of Planeptune. Of course, Purple Heart still had favor, due to the people feeling sorry for the loss of her sister, as well as the goddess working hard to placate them. But since she rarely left Planeptune Tower, it was easy to secretly perform criminal activities such as this. The Guild did well enough to keep common crime down, but this could be done right under their noses.
Steamax at least made sure to record everything he saw through his visor, so once this was all said and done, he could once again tip off the Guild. But for now, he was merely watching and trying to gather more information on the robotics operation. Hopefully, he could out find more factories that he could investigate, find someone important to this secret organization, or even the location of their main operations. Anything that could aid him in his mission.
He had yet to find anything, not the grunts from before, but he was watching out for any mechanical parts being traded.
Then Steamax saw something that briefly caught his interest: someone who looked like Nepgear. The robot ninja thought that maybe this was the end of his mission, but after a closer look, along with a bio-scan, he realized that this was not Nepgear, nor a goddess. Just some human girl who LOOKED like Nepgear.
Her sailor's dress was black instead of Nepgear's white, her long, messy purple hair covered her eyes, and she wore a different hairpin than the recognizable D-pad. This one was a red and yellow broken heart.
Steamax recognized this broken heart symbol as the symbol of ASIC, a criminal organization that was defeated and disbanded a long time ago. The organization he used to be a part of, AffimaX, hadn't even been formed yet.
Even still, if this girl was part of the remnants of ASIC, it had nothing to do with him. Realizing that this was just some random girl that had nothing to do with his mission, Steamax was about to move on...
Then another girl approached the Nepgear look-a-like. This one had green hair, pale skin, and a mouse-themed hoodie. "Nepgeo!" she called out.
"Ah, Linda! Good to see you!" the look-a-like replied.
Steamax picked up on this interaction, but was still about to leave, when he heard the mouse girl, presumably Linda, say, "so tell me about this organization of yours. The one with the weird robots?"
This fully grabbed Steamax's attention. Was this look-a-like, Nepgeo, part of the group behind the robots? And was this a member initiation? At least an interview, probably.
"Ah, straight to the point I see," Nepgeo replied. After their greetings, the two of them quieted down as they began to have a more private conversation, walking away to a different location. Steamax was unable to hear what they were talking about, but now he was determined to eavesdrop.
The ninja began to follow after the two, trying to get close enough to hear them over the sounds of the illegal market, without being seen. It took a bit, but finally, he found the perfect point to listen in, as they were about to enter a private room.
"...Wow, this leader of yours..." Linda sounded. "...He's something else."
Steamax noticed that she sounded... horrified, and was trying to hide it. The faker purplette didn't seem to notice. To the Steamax, this seemed suspicious. This girl was just suspicious in general. But she did seem to be the sneaky criminal type, plus he didn't know who she was, so he knew he didn't have the place to judge.
"Yes. He's now heading to our bunker base. It's an important location, you know," Nepgeo replied.
Bunker base, you say... Steamax thought.
"...And where is that?" Linda asked.
"Oh, we're going there now, but it's hidden deep in northern Planeptune, in the mountain valleys."
"Well, that's cool. And this guy was able to-" Linda's voice cut off as the pair disappeared into the room.
Steamax was not familiar with this location, so he didn't know if they would walk back out. More importantly, he could no longer gather info from their current conversation. Nor was he able to get a lot of it.
But he got something important. There was a base in the mountains. An important one. Even their leader was going there for business.
Steamax had already been to the mountains, but hadn't done a serious search there... Perhaps it was time for a more thorough look. He wasn't sure if he could encounter their leader, but if he could break into this base, and search through it... he might find what he was looking for.
The ninja left his perch, and made his way out. Time to find a secret bunker.
Author's Note: Yes, I know it's "Mages with a period". I really don't care. That just doesn't make sense to me in writing.
So, this was intended to be a smaller chapter, but it came out just a bit longer than I planned. I didn't plan on writing the second half of the story with Steamax and Linda. I'm going to be quick on that to explain that it's mostly to establish that these characters operating behind the scenes are still a part of the story, and to give a little foreshadowing.
"Parallax" was also something that I didn't intend to foreshadow right now, but well, I wasn't even planning on foreshadowing this. Thing is, Parallax was planned on being somewhat of a big deal, like one of the final threats in the story (not the only one, or the biggest one, just one of them). However, I originally only planned on Parallax having a small part in the story, but realized that if Parallax was going to be a big deal, then I should expand on this, and make this a more involved part of the story. This foreshadowing is actually the second expansion to Parallax's involvement in the story.
Now on to the main part of the story. I really just wanted at least one chapter to focus on the Markers. IF is the main character here, with Compa by her side, as I see them as main characters, but I did want to get a few more characters involved.
Since I had established the Leanbox's RRod and Lastation's Defence Force was teaming up with Planeptune to deal with the robot issue. So, it made sense to add the most prominent members, being Cave and God Eater respectively, in this raid group. And I just kind of wanted to add in Lyrica (a.k.a. 5bp) and Mages. I mean, Lyrica does have a connection with Cave, and I just really like them, especially Mages (period aside).
I still want to focus more on the Goddesses than the Makers, as that's just where my mind goes, but I did feel the need to add something for them in the story. Plus, this helps me keep the A-Plot going, when I've been focusing on the B-Plot. Those robots are still a problem.
My main goal here was to give each member of the raid group a big moment. I think I ended up giving Compa the most, and of course, IF was leading the charge, but everyone had at least one chance to use a Skill. I made a split decision to have Cave primarily use her bee bots that you see in some of her moves (ones that look suspiciously like the Buzz Bomber and Buzzer enemies from Sonic, strange, since Cave representation is not related to Sonic), and I actually almost forgot that she had an actual weapon.
And of course, there was everyone using their EXE Skills on the generator. Reckless, yes, but I thought it would be cool to see everyone go to the max together. Of course, with everyone using their Skills together at the same time, I couldn't go into great detail about what the different Skills did, as I didn't want to drag them out.
But did you notice? The names of the EXE Skills of four of the six characters present all started with the letter "B" (and then one "A" and a number). I don't know how that happened, that wasn't intentional.
I guess maybe that's how Cave got her bee bots... *snicker*
Okay but seriously, the next chapter will finally be the two-parter I've been talking about, the one that will end the B-Plot (for the most part), which will be the Lastation Ball. Both parts will be posted on the same day as their own individual chapters, so look forward to that!