Mission01- Coolant Run
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that Capcom owns. Demons nest in their bones, and dead men destroy their cookies. Ha. Ha. Right.
The tune up fixed my hand, though now it was off-white. The technician-bot set up a corde to charge me.
"Your hardware is so old, that I had to actually custom make a plug for you, you know!" he complained as I sat there. Deca was standing there the whole time, next to the table. I wasn't trying to move, but I suspected I could if I wished, now that I was getting charged. I was still scuffed and dented all over. That damned war-machine was pretty damned good.
"Is he going to be okay?" Deca asked the technician. I spoke up, "Hey, I'm right here you know!" I tried to get out more, but Mick spoke as if I weren't there.
"He just needs a charge. His old cell was charged, and its just fine for working around the base. I'll work on a quick charge system later, but that should do for now." His arm was now the standard hand, a little more scuffed than I was at the moment, but it seemed to function just fine. "How long?" Deca asked.
I couldn't get up; there was a cable coming out of my chest. I didn't want to risk a power-surge by detaching it too quickly. So, I just sat there, frustrated that I couldn't get their attention. They were being rude, even among bots this was seriously against protocol, as far as I knew.
"Maybe ten minutes. And yes, I knew you were there, X," he said to me, apologizing. "I'm just doing my report. Now that it's finished, I'll get to work on your buster," he said.
I looked at him like his sprockets had flown off. "Do you have a short circuit? My buster is just fine," I snapped.
"No it's not!" he snapped right back, as he sat down next to my right arm, "It's wasting more energy than a screen door on a submarine!"
He pulled off my armor plate without preamble and began turning screws and connecting wires. A sensation ran up my arm. I didn't like it. It…hurt. It felt like what humans describe as pain. I tried to pull my arm back, but his scuffed arm clamped down on my elbow, dropping my attempt to escape in one fell swoop. I had to grit my teeth as he poked around in a place I didn't think he should.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pain stopped. I looked at the plate as it was returned. "There, now you should be able to use that overload thing you like so damned much," Mick said as he concluded his modifications.
"How did you know I…huff…used overload?" I asked. He laughed a little. "It's obvious, if you look at the wire damage," he said, holding up some burnt wire-ends. I looked over to see that Deca was still standing there. She looked like she wanted to cry, even though I knew she had no valves for it. What was going on? Reploids don't feel emotion…do they? I knew I did, but how could a reploid. What data I could access suggested that they were all war-machines.
I felt a pang of something I couldn't describe…it was like pain, but I wasn't damaged at all. Why did I feel this…feeling every time I remember stuff about reploids? Why? What is this…feeling?
"Hey!" I heard Mick, jarring me out of my concentration. It was strange, but I came back to reality. "Okay. This is my advice, android: don't push yourself unless you absolutely have to. The report I made was wrong," he whispered. "You were pretty banged up, total refit of your hand servos. That hand will be a bit stronger, because your previous ones were old Dx's, where as I put in Gd-12's Feel free ta do watch ya have to do, but don't forget to weigh the consequences. If you go beyond warranty limits, even I, the master engineer 'ploid, won't be able to fix you!" he said the last part in jest, but the look in his camera's told me he was serious. He pulled out the cord and closed my open chest cavity.
I hopped off of the table, and walked with Deca to her 'quarters.' As we walked, she told me of the history that had happened in my absence, since I'd apparently been gone for the last fifty years; even if I didn't remember it.
"First, the virus spread, according to records we recovered. We don't know the original source, but we know that it spread from one source. The "Sigma" virus infected almost 70 of all reploids, before it decided to strike. Nearly 60 of the human population was killed that day…" she said. She paused, seeming to want to cry again. I saw the expression on her face. Titanium or not; she was in some kind of pain. "And my Mono…he was destroyed that day as well. Killed by Mavericks, before we even called them that.," she said. She turned, and looked at me, and our eyes met. "You remind me of him, battle bot that he was. I though he would always…" she stuttered for a moment, and then, she…she hugged me.
Among droids, hugging is akin to kissing in human standards. She was not only kissing me, she was practically declaring me as her own. Because we don't reproduce by the organic way, usually we didn't pair off. Maybe that had changed with reploid design, but this was still weird for me. And a little uncomfortable.
But I didn't want to give her a bad impression, but…
A zap went over my positronic brain, that same old pain I'd been feeling so much recently. What was going on? Why! WHY SLAG IT! Why did I have to feel this pain?
I hugged her back, and then pushed her out of our embrace. She looked a little hurt, but my offer of a hold on my elbow wasn't denied. "Is it…too soon?" she asked, as we walked. I nodded, "I don't know, but when I look at you, I feel I'm forgetting something, someone. I just…I've-"
I was interrupted by Cain who said, "You've got a mission! Get the coolent, don't get yourself scrapped, save humanity, all that jazz." He shoved a data cartridge in my face and kept walking. Jerk.
I looked down at the cartridge, and back after him. Now I glanced between the cartridge and the bot at my side. "I've…gotta go." I tried to say something, but my will faltered when it came to saying something. What was going on? Why did I feel this way? Why did I 'feel' at all?
I came to the transport room, got a battery refit, and took the plunge.
I arrived in a place that was frozen over. Wait, wasn't I just in a near tropical setting? Say, 35.2C ? I couldn't imagine how they got to where they could reach the poles…so…
Run TEMPSTABLIZER6-2.EXE
I decided it was a good time to actually read my briefing. I looked at the cartridge, and clicked the button on it. It burst into millisecond long flashes of light at different parts of the spectrum. I read the data quickly, not bothering to understand it until I had it all.
When it was done, in those few moments, I began to actually understand it. "Objectives: Seal the coolant line
Secure the pump-station
Current Situation: Coolant is leaking; since it is a gaseous one, it has influenced the weather. It is currently gathering in a cloud, the cool convection of the leak itself keeping it in its present location.
Hazards: Wind, Ice, and Mavericks.
Maverick Types:
Snow clearing bots (Animal-Bunny)
Emergency Suit Op's (Operate Suits)
Arial Recon/Mine-Setter (Insectoid)
Arial Distraction (Mammal-Bat)
Tower/Turret (Avian-Ostrich)
Arial-Mace (Mech-Chopper)
Recreational-Snow (Mech-Stationary-Single Arm)
Arial Recon/Explosive(Insectoid)
Recon: Suggests that a General is currently supervising the repair of it as well. It is an Unkown Reploid Design. We believe that he was manufactured for this purpose. His abilities and specs should conform to arctic-tactical archetypes, though we are unsure as to the method of their design. Good luck, and Light's Speed."
Okay, so I've got to clear out the enemies and fix the leak. I can do that. But if they didn't know the stats on the general…
If you have a human general, with human troops, taking out all of his troops usually renders them helpless. Not with a reploid general and army. Usually a General is not just designed to be smart, but also to be an effective weapon. And he was designed for just this mission; he should be freaking perfect for it.
So, he'll probably be faster, stronger, and have a better strategy than me. And my suicide check list is complete. Yay. I'm so ecstatic, my circuits are frying.
And then there was Deca. She'd probably be whining about how she couldn't use a blaster, let alone a buster for herself.
Well, gotta go secure the pump-station. The primary goal may be the line, but I wasn't stupid. I had to have at least a defensible position before I began fixing the line at all, or I'd just end up giving the enemy a free coolant-line.
I started walking. The dampening field was quite a bit stronger here; and the wind was beginning to dry up my seals. I'd have to get those fixed.
I walked for miles, hoping that the chill didn't freeze my systems before the mavericks did. My inferred sensor registered a faint signal. I heard a little buzzing…SLAG!
I dived down into the snow, rolling as best as I could, trying to cover my reflective surfaces. I thanked the Programmers that I hadn't had the scarring on my back buffed out; it would hold enough snow to make me look like a wreck.
SetTemperature(-20);
…
Temperature reduced.
I dug myself into the snow bank as best I could, and hoped that I wouldn't be noticed.
I heard the buzzing get louder. It rose in volume, until I could feel wind across my heat vents on my back. It just hung there for a while. Slag! The standard procedure was to conduct an intensive scan! Wait! I had an idea.
StandbyMode(30000);
…
…
…
Rebooting System…
System restored.
When I came to, the buzzing was fading away. I waited until it fell off my inferred to confirm visually. The trick had worked. By setting my systems into standby, even for just thirty seconds, my readings had been just too low to detect. And I didn't know if it was going to work. I felt like draining my coolants after that stunt.
SetTemperature(+22);
…
Teperature increased.
"Deca, when I get back, I swear I'm gonna make you tell me why you guys send me alone on these damned missions!" I cursed. I dragged myself out of the snow before the moisture fried something.
I managed to avoid detection a little longer, and made good time to the factory. I looked at the open expanse that guaranteed detection if I went in. There was a tall ostrich-bot standing watch, eyes scanning the entire horizon. Wait…scanning one direction at a time….that meant that there was a time of weakness.
The head didn't orbit a full circle, instead favoring to move back and forth between one wall and the other. I studied that motion. I calculated the full turn, and the visibility cone that I had to avoid.
It took the head almost three minutes to move from one wall to the other. So if I ran along a wall until the head came back, I should have five minutes to get past it.
I repositioned myself next to the pipe-ridden structure, and waited. The eyes turned closer and closer toward me. I ducked below a piece of debris and dropped my temperature again. I counted to twenty seconds, and peeked my head out of my hiding place, just enough to spy the bird. I saw it turning away, not looking at me.
FULL POWER!
I sprinted from the hiding place a full seventy feet. The head hit the other wall. I pushed harder, using the thrusters on the tops of my pedals to get better traction.
The head kept turning.
I wasn't going to make it; just too much distance for my outmoded hardware. Why didn't I do the calculation before?!
In a desperation move, I kicked my feet out in front of me, and slid on my pocked back down the icy wall. I slid right under the legs. I grabbed something to stop myself and froze. I looked back out the doorway…
The bird was unchanged. Just scanning. I moved silently toward the inner reaches of my objective.
The station was a large structure, and there was far too much ground to make it economical to have a full contingent of guards. So, the place was mostly empty, with a few guards that were easy enough to spot.
The echoing place made my circuits wimper. The icicles hanging there looked like they were spikes of some garbage disposal from the slag-heap, coming for me.
I was a little on edge as I walked in that first hallway. So much that I jumped when I saw a wheel drone, like the ones I'd seen were standard Mavericks in the manual, rolling toward me on patrol. I jumped to the side, hiding behind a support columb. I charged my weapon; I'd have to take him out in one shot.
These things were kamakazi runners. They ran right into you, and exploded.
He rolled closer. I kept myself in cover as much as I could. This shot had to hit his detonation coil, or the explosion would alert the entire complex. There was probably a small army in here, that was just powered down and waiting to get turned on and scrap my chasse.
I took aim. He came closer. I double checked my aim. He rolled closer. I fired.
BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!
I took off running past the black mark on the floor. Damn it! I had just made this a whole lot harder.
I ran as fast as I could down the complex's route map in my mind. I had almost another three hundred feet of running before I could expect to meet the general. If I took him out, I'd be in a better position to..
BAT!
I ducked and slid on the ice. The ground slide back behind me and I nearly fell into a deep pit. What in circuits? I reached back and broke my damaged hand through the ice, and grabbed onto linoleum. I hit the back of the crevasse hard. My eyes pointed in the wrong directions; I felt dizzy. I waited for my cameras to realign.
I looked to the right and left, and found a huge crack in the earth. What was going on? Why hadn't the Mavericks prevented this?
I let the questions die in my mind. They'd have to wait.
I pulled myself up, only to see a cloud of bat-bots floating toward me, knives hanging in their claws. Hatred gleaned in their opticals. A kind of hatred I'd never seen.
I aimed and fired, blowing one out of the sky. Another, another. They just kept coming.
I looked to the ceiling…and found my salvation. I threw up my buster and fired at them. I turned my head down.
My armor wouldn't get hurt by falling ice shards this size. But certain things flying in the air had bigger problems than armor. Like maintaining flight.
The falling shards collided with their wings, sending them all to the ground. I took aim, and finished them off.
After dragging myself back up onto the floor, I backed up a bit. I ran, and jumped the gap. I hit the ground, skidded a little, and kept running.
I kept going until I came to an obstacle not so easy to circumvent. There was a wall there. I checked my map, and there shouldn't be a wall there.
I checked my map again. There shouldn't be a wall here.
But there it was, in all of its frozen glory. I looked up in frustration…and found my salvation once again. There was a gap in the ceiling, to another level. My map said there was a route on the ground floor to the general, but that didn't seem to be working anymore.
When in doubt, 'innovate, extrapolate and decimate.'
Where did I hear that? Anyway, it sounded good.
I jumped up, caught the edge, and pulled myself up. When I finally got my feet under me, a wheel drone dropped from the ceiling.
I didn't have enough time or the position to doge it.
It hit me, and sent me down onto the floor once again. I rolled to the side and spit out some coolant. That can't be good.
I shoved myself up, and noticed that my bi-pedal units were a little shaky. I didn't dare use the thrusters now; they'd probably break my legs off.
I resolved to myself that I'd have to get on without them; but I couldn't run anymore. I'd have to elude the bots or destroy them.
Destroying all just didn't sit right with me somehow. I know I shouldn't feel anything for them; I'm a combat android, and their my enemy. But…I couldn't help but feel sorry for them.
So, I was going to have to hide and get by them without getting caught. I climbed another platform, and found a fairly level spot. I heard a thruster fire.
I jumped to the side; a spike threw sparks as it drew across my shoulder's armor. It was a flying bot; something that didn't look like any kind of animal. It wasn't an infected maverick; it was a built combat drone.
The think hung in the air, staring at me; analyzing. I couldn't let it do that; if they got detailed scans, they'd be able to find the flaws in my design, weakpoints in my armor! I was already out-moded.
I aimed and fired. The thing zoomed out of the way and came in for another dive. I dropped to my back and fired my thrusters.
Well, I dropped to my back anyway. I rolled out of the way as the damned thing slammed into the ice and scraped the flooring beneath. I couldn't keep dodging like this; I was getting my can kicked by a drone. Without my manuveuring thrusters, I was boned. I got on my feet and took off toward a corner of the warehouse. If I could limit its movement, I could knock it out of the sky.
I heard the thrusters again. I tried to jump, but one of my legs gave out. The drone zoomed out from under me as I fell to the ground hard. My leg curled up…what was this paralyzing feeling?
I couldn't move; I couldn't run. Move damn you! MOVE BODY!
I rolled to the left just as the thing came for me; it scraped my back, but I avoided most of the damage. This thing was getting better at its job.
I saw a light flicker in the dark; an electronic presence. I scanned; that wasn't broken yet.
I felt, compelled to move over to it. I started crawling over; another feeling; what was it. It was like lightning and fire running up my casing; my mouth was grinding. It was pain. The pain from my damaged leg.
I looked up, and saw the drone readying for another diving run. It wasn't going to miss this time; I didn't have anything to hide behind; and it knew I could only roll fast enough in one direction; it could project where I was going to be.
I felt my hand hit the base of the old electronic device.
I pulled myself in, just as the drone dived.
I began floating; probably the device activated. I saw Dr. Light in my ocular units. The video began to talk; but it soon became corrupted and garbled.
It was a capsule! It was a left by Light! I had a chance! I could-
The drone drove a spike through my chest-plate. I turned and it flew off; but the damage was done. I couldn't go more than ten minutes with a hole in my chest. I could already feel the coolent freezing my hardware.
I looked down; and my legs had changed color. They felt…good. Like new. The infernal helicopter came in for another attack, and I stepped to the side. I moved almost ten feet in a fraction of a second, and it missed by a mile.
"Wow." I said out loud.
I aimed and shot while it wasn't looking; the bot blew up.
I picked up one of the shards of metal, and held it over my chest. It might buy me a few more minutes of functionality. These legs were amazing, but they had come a little too late. I looked up, and saw several bots coming toward me; in construction lifters. There must have been ten of them, at least. I couldn't fight one, let alone the number they brought.
I had an inspiration…looking down at my legs.
I looked up, and shot a hole in the roof. I jumped up easily; and landed on top. I ran as fast as I could forward. If I didn't get past them, then they'd just come onto the roof, and I'd be caught either way.
I heard a crash behind me; almost thirty feet behind me. How did I get that far ahead? I thanked Light silently; he'd just saved my can twice in less than a minute.
I looked down at my chest; I was leaking lubricant and coolent too; I was going to start overheating if I didn't finish this quickly. I saw the main tower of the complex, and ran toward it. A couple of themepark bots stood guard, but a couple shots disabled them.
I set my blaster on overload; the faster I finish the general, the faster I could get transported out of here. I needed major repairs.
I kicked the door open…and no one was there. Something hit the back of my head; and shards of ice were scattered across the floor. I rolled as I fell, and saw…something strange.
It was a penguin…in the air. It was a flightless bird, in the air. It sucked in some air, and spat another blob of ice. I shot my overloaded blast at it, and they canceled out.
I skidded and got to my feet, just as the penguin landed. "My my, so they send the outdated hardware. You rebels; you don't realize that you never had a chance," the penguin said. It started walking toward me; it was short. But it was wearing stylish winter-wear. A cap and everything a human might need; probably to arm itself against its own power and the environment here.
I felt my head's scanner begin to do what it did best. The power output of it's battery was amazing; I could even detect the wire readout. The reploid was so well made that it could probably run circles around me with it's processor alone.
I started charging another shot. "You'll never get any of the territory we've taken back, rebel, and you can't hold what terf you've got; strategically out matched and outnumbered," it said.
I aimed a shot. The penguin jumped, and fired two more pieces of ice. I jumped at the wall behind me.
And I landed on it with my feet, and pushed off. The penguin followed me with it's eyes; and gawked as I flew above it. I fired my blast and nailed it in its smug face.
It fell down to the ground, and landed on its feet. I landed as well, my other arm still holding the piece of metal there. I turned to see the penguin sliding at me like a battering ram over the ice. I jumped again; dodging. He slammed into the wall, and turned to do it again. I fired a few shots. A couple ricocheted, but one landed on it's shoulder.
The bot slid under me, and I craned my head to see my enemy jump off the wall too. I aimed, but it flew past me before I could fire a shot.
I looked up as it pulled a lever in the ceiling. The temperature dropped 40 degrees in a fraction of a second. I could feel my seals drying up; and after that my hardware would break down.
Crap; he'd seen my one weakness and used it perfectly. I aimed and fired as he hung on the lever.
The shot took out one of his legs; and he fell to the ground.
I landed and skidded into a wall. I breathed out, and the moister from my vents crystallized. If I didn't finish it in the next thirty seconds; I was scrap.
The penguin rolled over, and launched at me. I jumped up; just enough to let him sail under me.
I reached out; and my hand touched his head. A scan permeated his entire weapon system.
I felt my arm reconfigure.
It turned and fired a block of ice. I fired a block of ice; the result was an explosion of shards. It happened right in the general's face; the force of the blast thrust sharp shard after shard into the armor and circuitry. They bounced harmlessly off my armor. "As it gets colder, my armor gets stronger," I said, lying. The penguin's beak dropped open in shock. "We resistance fighters, we'll take back this world, and live in harmony with the humans," I growled. Then the penguin's head rolled back and it stopped moving.
I started walking out. My radio started getting a signal. "X! X! What's your situation; I repeat, what's your situation?!"
Ofcourse; they care about me after I've been beat to hell. "Mission Compete. You guys owe me for this one," I spat back.