yamato5
Drop of Nelson's Blood
* January 29 2011 19:25 hours*
Taylor looked over her equipment and decided how to handle this.
Her HUD flicked up identifications quickly.
[Villain (Group) - Undersiders]
[Silent Alarm at Ack's Pet Supplies.]
[Extra large bag of dry dog food.]
"Detail on Undersiders," said Taylor.
[Undersiders is villain group known for small petty crimes. PRT database indicates low priority on apprehension.]
[Considered to be nuisance group by BBPD.]
Taylor flicked her Stealth on. There was a flicker as panels switched from one appearance to another, with a slight visual distortion that would be visible in bright light. As it was night and she was flying, it was much less obvious.
[WARNING: Analysis of known interactions with villain Tattletale indicates Thinker rating dealing with observational powers. Stealth measures likely to be ineffective if within range.]
"Yeah, let's go elsewhere, Yamato. I'm not getting into a fight with a supervillain gang over stolen kibble. Unless anyone was injured or killed when they broke in?"
[No reports of injury or fatalities. BBPD is on the site and investigating.]
[WARNING: hypersonic individual is tracking your progress - street level. Tentative identification: Velocity.]
"Open comm channel. Protectorate forces. Criminal group 'Undersiders' detected. Sending their current location and apparent direction."
[Sending message and data. They are requesting identification.]
"Independent hero Positron. Tentative name. Initial flight. Testing abilities."
[They are sending warnings about independents survivability, making a recruitment attempt.]
"Hang up on them. Ready for stage 2?"
[Sending data on projected flight to relevant authorities. Checking on flight paths of currently operating vehicles. Projecting safe path on your HUD.]
"Roger," said Taylor, thinking that the appropriate response based on what she'd seen in the movies. "Slowly bringing up speed."
[300kph. 350kph.]
"Miles per hour please," said Taylor.
[250mph. Deflection field holding steady. Attaining cruising speed of 510mph/820kph in five, four, three, two, one. Cruising speed attained at an altitude of 5000 feet. Suggest raising altitude to 10,000 feet.]
"Good. Okay. Ready for the next bit?"
[Green across the board. Ready for Stage 3. Transmitting altered flight plan.]
"Well, we're out over the Atlantic so no worries about a sonic boom. Let's go. I feel like I should have something pithy to say. 'One small step' kind of thing."
[Preparing. Ready. Prepare for high-g thrust.]
"Inertial damper active. And accelerating and raising altitude. Anti-grav is so handy."
[1000mph. 1500mph. 2000mph. Boosting. All systems green. 4000mph. 8000mph. 16000mph. Approaching escape velocity at 25000mph. Four, three, two, one. Escape velocity. All systems green. Continuing to increase speed and altitude. We have escaped Earth's atmosphere. At maximum distance for continued communication.]
"Wow. It looks so... awesome up here. Oh well. Time to go home."
[Affirmative. Plotting return path to avoid other flight plans and minimize detection. Displaying.]
"Okay. We're getting some pics of this for Dad, right?"
[Video recorded.]
"Cool."
* PRT ENE HQ *
"Complaints from the FAA, from the local Air Force Base, from one 'Save The Whales' group - not sure WHY, and an e-mail from the Chief Director demanding answers," said Director Piggot.
"They did file a flight plan, adjusted their course to avoid crossing anyone else's flight plan, and stuck to it," noted Armsmaster.
"They left the atmosphere. Reached speeds that could take them nearly anywhere in the world within hours." Director Piggot's gaze swept the room. "Do we have any idea who or what this unknown was?"
"Tinker," noted Armsmaster. "Specialty high-energy systems or something similar. Not restricted."
"What do you mean, 'not restricted'?" asked Director Piggot, still sounding quite grumpy.
Armsmaster's voice was very much grudging when he spoke. "It has been noted among Tinkers that we tend to focus on our specialties and that there are areas we simply can't make work. The tendency of Tinkertech to break down and require constant maintenance is one of those restrictions that define Tinkertech. Another, that became obvious was that Tinkertech intended to go extra-atmosphere doesn't exist. Even the few Tinkers that have high-speed transport as their focus can't build anything intended for higher than short periods of Low Earth Orbit."
"So this supposed-Tinker either addresses this issue with their focus or lacks that restriction," said Director Piggot. "Anything else?"
"They have a stealth-mode," said Miss Militia. "My contact with the Navy indicates that the radar return cut off abruptly during their return from space. Recordings from long-range observation indicated a visual distortion where a chameleon effect took place - turning the suit dark."
"So the Tinker has tech that gives them a Stranger rating as well as very high Mover rating," said Director Piggot. "Lovely. Does anyone have any other good news?"
"Positron was the name given, but it was listed as a tentative name," said Miss Militia.
"The name means something, positron indicates antimatter - specifically an electron with a positive charge instead of a negative charge," noted Armsmaster. "If this refers to a weapon - that is potentially quite concerning."
"Excuse me," said Dragon's voice through a speaker. "I'm sorry to interrupt your meeting, but I have just received information that might concern you."
"What?" asked Director Piggot, sounding quite irritated.
"Patent Declaration on behalf of Danny Hebert of the Dockworker's Union in Brockton Bay. Manufacturing techniques to produce transparent aluminum."
Armsmaster was the first to react to that, and his voice indicated that he was seriously distracted. "Transparent. Aluminum."
"Another one just filed. Also by Danny Hebert. Material called Plascrete. Concrete styled material that can be held in a pressurized paste form that then hardens within minutes after release. Can be shaped like clay until then."
Director Piggot made a thoughtful noise. "Danny Hebert as in the father of the girl who was attacked by Shadow Stalker?"
"Yes," said Dragon. "That was one of the things that flagged my attention in the first place."
"So maybe he triggered as a Thinker or Tinker?" asked Miss Militia.
"This is non-Tinkertech in processes," stated Dragon.
"True, you can't patent Tinkertech, but you can patent processes derived from Tinkertech," noted Armsmaster.
"Why are we tracking Taylor Hebert anyway - that's not standard practice," questioned Miss Militia.
Armsmaster clicked a button on a gauntlet and a hissing noise began.
"That you just hit an anti-eavesdropping device tells me I'm not going to like the answer, am I?" asked Miss Militia.
* Taylor *
She held one hand out, bracing it by holding her right forearm with the left hand.
An aperature formed, reddish gold.
"Fire."
The whole thing with high-speed testing was for this. Going far far away from Brockton Bay so she could try out what was her actual power. Forming micro-aperatures and pockets of space-time. On one side, there was this testing range in the devastation of Newfoundland. On the other side, the Yamato. In particular one of the anti-air turrets.
Plasma shot out, bolts firing more than once per second, their intensity enough to go through titanium plating.
Her exo-suit walked up next to her, waiting until Taylor stopped.
"I'm getting some odd readings from over there," said Yamato. "One and a half miles distance. Lots of highly encrypted transmissions and multiple power sources."
"Should we investigate?" asked Taylor.
Yamato, currently remote-running the exo-suit, cocked the head of the suit. She released a small drone from the back. "Contacting Guild as we are in their territory. Asking if this is one of their facilities."
* Guild HQ *
"New cape? Oh, Positron. I remember that memo," said Narwhal as she clicked a couple of displays and checked the anti-virus and firewall status. "That doesn't look like a Guild facility. Some of Dragon's tech. Can I zoom in? Oh good. Yeah that's... Dragonslayer insignia? This newbie found one of their facilities? Coordinates. Good. Little surprise present for Dragon later."
* Taylor *
"Narwhal ETA: five minutes," said Yamato. "She states we should stay in place and continue to monitor and update. Apparently they're bad guys."
"That's a long time to wait around sitting," pointed out Taylor.
"I'm using a stealthed drone to map the compound out and select points of attack," said Yamato.
"Why do you have that? You're a battleship," asked Taylor.
"I had Cosmo Marines and Special Forces onboard at various times," pointed out Yamato. "There were times where we needed to rescue hostages or VIPs, disable security measures, or just put an explosive device very precisely. There was even a time when we were being hunted by a dimensional submarine and needed to find out where they were to avoid them."
Taylor sat down on a large rock. "Sounds interesting. Tell me about that."
Choosing another rock to sit down on while her drone continued sneaking about, Yamato began telling Taylor about that encounter on their first mission to Iskandar. Of Wolf Frakken (or Flakken or Fleurken depending on who was translating from the Gamilon language) and the game of cat-and-mouse with the dimensional submarine UX-01 in an asteroid field far from Earth's solar system.
In the meantime, because she was the AI of a battleship, she was directing the drone and deciphering the encryption on the datastreams being transmitted to and from the facility.
"Wait," said Taylor at one point. "Hyperspace has currents?"
"Hyperspace is compressed space," explained Yamato. "In some places it acts like a gas, in some it's closer to water. The Dimensional Sea is like water. And there are layers like when used when warping. Which is more accurately called a Jump or Gating but old terms tend to remain in use. So, anyway, the UX-01 was basically creating a micro-fold in the boundary layer of hyperspace to stick a periscope up out of the Dimensional Sea, then generating micro-wormholes to fire torpedos at us. At that point we didn't have any way of striking back or even directly detecting where the ship was..."
Yamato had just gotten to the point where her earlier self had successfully left the asteroid field, having managed to take out the submarine's sensors/periscope when the Guild arrived.
* Guild *
"Commlink traced, they're about a mile and a half away from the Dragonslayer Base. Got a visual. Looks like a Tinker and a cape. Confirmed - Tinker just waved at us."
"Base has just made us. They're scrambling."
"Positron must have some decent stealth tech, the Dragonslayers didn't know anything was going down until we stopped hugging the ground. Confirm on the base's layout?"
"Positron sends that they're about to scramble all communications, suggests going to direct laser communications."
"Direct beam comms active. Confirmed layout and power readings are as indicated. Looks like good intel. Launching missiles. Impacted on forcefield."
"Damn. Everyone using Dragon-designed power armor be on alert, they have ways of causing it to deactivate. We think we've gotten that taken care of, but if they weren't tricky we'd have rolled them up by now."
"Roger that, Narwhal."
"Narwhal, I have a communication from Positron asking if we want that forcefield down. How do you want us to respond?"
"Let's see what our new friend can do. Permission granted."
"...holy mother of mecha..."
"Well, I think we can confirm that Positron's friend there is a high-level Blaster."
"Are we sure the Tinker is Positron and not the Blaster?"
"Go. Go. GO! The Dragonslayers are scrambling. Choose your targets!"
* Dragonslayers *
"INCOMING!"
The startled yelp was immediately followed by the appropriate siren.
Considering that it was a HIDDEN base, concealed by holograms designed to fool aircraft and satellites, just that they were under attack caused the various mercenaries and personnel a moment of frozen shock.
That was followed by the actions they'd all been briefed on, shifting to a more combat-oriented stance as weapons were grabbed and readied.
"Who the hell found us?" asked Geoff. "We should be invisible to Dragon so it's not that."
"Communications just went down all across the board, we lost all outside access," said one of the mercs. Geoff/Saint couldn't remember the woman's name. Just she was supposed to be an electronics expert.
"Find out where the interference is coming from and end it," said Geoff, leaving that room and heading for the laptop. If this WAS Dragon or things looked bad, he could activate Ascalon and get that measure of revenge.
There was a flicker of light from the windows as the forcefield went active. That gave them the time they'd need to-
Blue light, extremely bright, caused Geoff to momentarily stop and wonder what the hell THAT was. Then he scrambled at full speed as the lights went out completely. Fortunately the laptop had a battery, all he had to do was get to it.
It sounded as if Mischa and Mags were active and armored and launching, so whatever was actively jamming their communications would be the first target.
Then the world exploded in fire and shrapnel.
* Taylor *
"Incoming suit. You ready?"
Taylor nodded and braced one arm, sighting along it towards the suit which had just risen up into the air and was obviously looking for her. "Ready."
"Clear. Aim. Fire when ready."
The firing of a single positron cannon to take out the forcefield had been thrilling. And if Taylor were to be completely honest - a bit terrifying. She'd opened the hole in space/time and a burst of energy had gone through the forcefield like it had been made of wet tissue paper. Yamato had commented on how primitive and weak the forcefield had been, improperly anchored and other details, while Taylor had just gaped at the amount of raw power she'd just directed against a group of bad guys.
This was the plasma bolts courtesy of Yamato's anti-air/space defense blisters. Rapid fire and they destabilized and exploded after a set distance.
"Pew pew pew pew pew."
"You know the sound effects aren't necessary."
"...I said that out loud?"
"Yes."
"Oh."
"Yes."
"Uhm. Question. You're a space battleship. How much firepower can you actually put out?"
"I'm not sure I should answer that, or how to put it in terms you'd understand."
"Ah. Should we join a group? The Guild seems to be less on teenage drama at least."
"Subject change noted. And the Guild has no Wards program and you're underage. There is an option available to you that you might consider though, particularly if you want to be of use and get into an advanced school."