- - -Still-Defiant- - -
The suit jostles with the turbulence, descending towards our drop point. Opposite me, Lodestar is strapped in and armoured up. She's clutching her harness tightly, silent. Dragon's voice comes over the comm. "Go in twenty, get ready." We unstrap, walking towards the ramp, holding the handles along the ceiling of the hold.
"Engage seals." With a hiss, my suit seals itself. I don't expect anything dangerous to be in the air, but there's no point in not being cautious. Lodestar follows suit, her own armour hissing as the seals engage.
The ramp lowers, giving us a view of the still-flooded and well-overgrown ruined streets. We're in Kyushu - one of the areas where there's still some land left above water. Civilization has abandoned the islands entirely, however. The ground is swampy, and the air is thick with tropical insects.
The suit slows, the ramp hanging over the roof of a building we'd identified as stable. "You're clear to disembark." We jump from the ramp, falling the short distance onto the roof. "Good luck."
The ramp closes, the suit turning and returning to the sky. I turn to Lodestar. "Keep an eye on sensors. Intel has it that there's ferals in the area - both animals and people." After Leviathan, some people had simply refused to leave. I've no doubt that at least some of them are the sort to prefer life in a lawless wasteland.
She clicks her comm in acknowledgement, and we start moving. Our drop point isn't far from where we determined Masamune to be located, but we will have to move down to ground level first.
Dropping down from the fire escape, we move onto the street. The muck slows our movement - our feet sink into the mud, and the knee-high water has us wading through all the scum and slime that's accumulated.
Rotten power poles laying across the street and rubble from destroyed buildings slick with slime ensure our footing is unstable. The rusted shells of ruined cars block our path. Cattails grow in the muck, and moss covers everything it can cling to.
It's treacherous footing - I wouldn't want to fight on it. Thankfully, things are quiet. Lodestar and I spot a few animals, but they keep well away from us. It's astonishing just how quickly nature has reclaimed this place - just a decade ago, this was a bustling city. Now…
I shake myself from my thoughts. We're approaching Masamune's location. The ground starts sloping upwards, the water getting shallower, the mud getting thinner. Our intel suggests he's been living in a community center for the past few months. Aerial photography has spotted evidence of Tinkertech fortification, and thermal imaging has confirmed only a single inhabitant.
It isn't where we found him last time, but it's nearby.
We crest the hill the building is situated on top of.
"Wait." Lodestar holds up a hand. "He's seen us."
I look to where she's indicated. Standing on top of the roof of the centre is Masamune, hunched over and with a wispy dark grey beard trailing down his front. He's unmasked, and looks almost anemic. His eyes are wide, and I can see his mouth moving, muttering to himself. His hair is long, fuzzy from the humidity. He's wearing traditional robes, tattered and stained. Lining the roof are guns, mounted on tripods - turrets.
"He's… not all together." observes Lodestar. "He's confused why we're here - he realises that we're not Japanese."
"He recovered well enough once we got him back to civilization. Should we approach?"
"No - let him ask why we're here first. He isn't hostile - just confused."
A minute passes as we stand in silence. Masamune paces back and forth across the roof, still muttering to himself. Eventually he turns on the spot, facing us. He yells something, the words indecipherable to my ears.
Dragon translates. "Who are you? Why are you here? Explain yourselves!"
I yell back, letting Dragon translate my words and play them through the speakers in my suit. "Armsmaster and Lodestar. We're with The Guild - American Heroes. We want to offer you a job."
His eyes narrow, looking at us for a moment. Shaking his head, he mutters to himself more, resuming his pacing. Seemingly coming to a decision, he calls out to us in heavily accented English. "Come! Speak inside!"
He turns, walking inside the building. I give Lodestar a look. She gives her thoughts. "He's receptive. I don't think he gets to speak with many people these days." No - I can't imagine he would. He's been living as a hermit for more than a decade.
We approach. The turrets remain inactive, and we walk through the door. The inside of the building is a steamy mess. Scrap, piled high on tables. Partially assembled devices strewn about, boxy machines, whirring away at their tasks. A generator, humming away. In the corner is a fire, a boiling pot on top - soup?
In the middle of it all is Masamune, hobbling towards us. His eyes are sunken, a wild look in them. "Power armour! Good - very good! I like it!" He looks us up and down, taking in every detail. His English is almost indecipherable, his accent mangling the sounds unfamiliar to him.
By the looks of things, he's been hard pressed for technology. When we first recruited him, he'd fallen into an intense fugue - I imagine he'll be going through the same this time. "Masamune? We're with The Guild. We've got a project we believe you could do a great deal of good for."
"Yes, yes - I'm Masamune. You're a Tinker? You made this?" he turns to Lodestar. "Or was it you? No - no, definitely not." He shakes his head, turning back to me. "So? You're the Tinker?"
"That's right. The project also aims to recruit many different Tinkers with a varied range of specialities."
His eyes snap up to me, his hunched posture straightening. "You have more Tinkers? Who? What do they do?" his voice becomes more frantic, desperate to know.
"As of now, Dragon and myself are the only two Tinkers on the team. My specialty lends itself to tightly integrated systems. Dragon is capable of reverse-engineering any Tinkertech she can get her hands on." Both are understatements, but it seems to have caught his attention anyway.
He slips into Japanese, muttering to himself. He turns, walking towards the fire. Picking up a bucket of water, he dumps it on top, extinguishing it. He walks out the door into the next room, still talking to himself.
Lodestar gives her analysis. "He wants to come with us - desperately. He was completely sold once he got a look at our armour - he doesn't even care what the job is. I don't think he's been able to properly use his power out here. It must be driving him crazy."
That's about the impression I got from him last time, too. "Dragon, I think we're ready to go - bring the suit in for pickup." We hadn't landed here out of respect for him when we arrived, but if he's eager to go we won't bother trekking back to the landing zone.
"Affirmative, coming in now."
He walks back into the room, his previous hobble gone. Over his shoulder is a burlap sack filled with loose items, all clacking together as he moves. "I accept your offer. Let's go now. Scavengers will have seen you and be here soon - best leave quick."
The sound of Dragon's suit landing rattles the junk stacked on the tables. At Masamune's panicked look, Lodestar explains. "That's our ride."
We move out of the building. When Masamune sees the suit, his mouth hangs open. "You have mecha! Dragon mecha!" He rushes forward, circling around the craft to get a better look at it.
"Armsmaster - we've got people incoming. Thirty seconds out." Dragon's voice rings over the comm.
We've got to go. I grab Masamune, bundling him onto the craft. "You can look at it later - those scavengers are here."
He relents, and Lodestar follows us onboard. The ramp closes and the craft jolts as it lifts off. Masamune stumbles, grabbing a hold of a handle. After he gets his balance, he starts to jabber to himself in Japanese, eyes flitting about the craft, taking it all in.
I end the call, leaning back in my chair. I just heard back from Gelid, and Corona had called earlier this morning. They'll both be moving up here in about a week. We haven't heard back from Hardcase yet, but Lodestar is confident he'll accept.
Pulling up the in-progress report, I continue where I left off. Narwhal leaves the specifics of The Project to me, but she does want to be copied in on our activities. Thankfully, the mission was a total success. Masamune had been all too eager to agree to work with us, and is working through his fugue now. Dragon's keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't overdo it too badly.
Right now we've got him working over some of the more complex parts of my spear and suit. Thankfully, I'd made spares, so my gear isn't out of commission. If he can crack them, I'll have a much easier time maintaining everything. Ideally, we'll want him to make a start on gear for the Dragon's Teeth, but the work he's doing now will help with that regardless.
Lodestar accounted herself well on the mission - her insights were relevant, and assisted in achieving our objective. She kept her composure, and stayed focused on the task at hand. We didn't see combat, so it remains to be seen if she can handle herself there - I expect she'll do well, but we don't want to go throwing her in the deep end.
At some point I'll need to make a prototype set of Dragon's Teeth gear for Masamune, but I want to hold off on things for now - I figure giving the Protectorate Tinkers we're recruiting some input would be a good idea. PRT troopers have already been tapped, so we're just waiting on their gear to be ready. We'll want training to start as soon as possible - adjusting to fighting with my combat prediction software isn't a small task.
The software is coming along nicely - I've chipped away at it in my spare time, and I know Dragon has been helping work out the kinks, too. It needs some time to stew - to take in data and learn how the big threats fight - but it's getting close. I'd be hesitant to use it on an Endbringer - even if it were complete - but it's getting to the point that I could do it if pressed.
I'm making progress on cracking Ascalon, too. I don't think Dragon has caught on, thankfully. I'm nowhere near ready to try to change anything, but I'm starting to understand how the backdoor works - and how I could use it to get undetected access to her code.
Keeping her in the dark troubles me. I don't like doing it, but it's ultimately necessary. Changing her without her permission isn't something I'm happy about, either. In the other timeline, she'd all but told me outright that she hates her chains - this Dragon surely feels similarly.
I drag my thoughts towards something more optimistic. Things are starting to come together. Flechette is due to arrive in the next few days, which leaves us with a total of seven confirmed capes on The Project. Our next move will be to pursue Blasto and Leet. We don't expect trouble on either of those missions, either - they'll be a good opportunity to help get Flechette, Lodestar and I into the groove of working together. Ideally, we'd also have Bastion as a member of our field team, but it's looking unlikely that he'll accept.
We'll have to look into recruiting someone else. Narwhal isn't an option - she's too busy with other Guild commitments. Maybe an android body for Dragon? No - I don't think she's quite there on the technology front at this point in time. In the future, perhaps, but right now it makes more sense to find someone else. One of the Tinkers, maybe?
I push the thoughts from my head, finishing off the report and sending it off.
- - -Ω- - -
"We're in agreement, then?"
Around the table, everyone nods. The capes in the group are unmasked. The harsh white walls reflect light from the overhead bulb, leaving the room uncomfortably bright.
"It's decided. In light of the new information, we will adjust our path. Our strategy moving forward is outlined in the documents in front of you. Ensure your actions do not compromise this new approach."