Author's Note: Hey everybody, sorry for the wait. Anyways, here's the next chapter. Hope you like it!
Chapter 13: Lock and Load
Naruto and his lieutenants, Gaara, the other Sand Siblings and their lieutenants, as well as the Protoss Executor and Praetor were all together to discuss their next move. There were so many of them now they couldn't all fit in Naruto's office, so they were forced to move the meeting to the Gantrithor's bridge. The Suna shinobi's jaws had all dropped upon seeing the massive ship. They all clustered around the holographic map in the center of the room. The map was zoomed out to almost orbital view, showing a mini Konoha, mini Gantrithor and mini Protoss base, and the whole landscape to the Zerg base. Unfortunately, the whole Zerg base was black, seeing as the Protoss had no intel on the hives thanks to their spore crawlers.
"How are we going to fight back against these ugly monsters?" Kankurō asked aloud, "Do we even know anything about them?"
"Well we should ask them," Gaara pointed at the Protoss, "seeing as they brought the beasts here in the first place."
"That was completely unintentional," Xelios looked over at him, "Bringing them here, or ourselves for that matter, was never in our plans."
"Here's one thing I don't get," Ino said, "If you guys have so much experience fighting these aliens, why aren't you capable of coming up with something that actually works?"
"You should consider yourselves lucky that we don't have the technology required to use our preferred means against the Zerg," Executor Selendis glared at the girl, "If we had the capabilities, we would have purified the infection by incinerating the entire area and you with it."
"How and why no longer matters, so there's no point in bickering about it," Naruto told them sternly, "All that matters now is that we work together and eradicate these things as soon as possible. Now, how do we do that?"
"We now have the strength to mount a full-scale assault upon the main hive cluster, but I am unwilling to risk lives unnecessarily due to lack of intelligence," Xelios stated.
"We might have to though considering our observers can't get inside far enough for us to actually see what is going on," Thanatos spoke up, "With the new colossi supporting us, we could try a frontal assault upon the main defenses while the colossi and phoenixes flanked."
"It would work, but the number of casualties we would sustain would be unacceptably high," Shikamaru contemplated the map in front of him, "We only have the strength for one real push against them, so it needs to do as much damage as possible if not wipe them out entirely."
"Without any information though we'd be walking in blind," Kakashi argued, "If they have any remaining tricks up their sleeve I'd like to know beforehand."
"Agreed," Xelios and Naruto nodded at him.
"Well the question still remains 'How do we get the intel we need?'" Gaara said.
"Wait, I think I have an idea," Sai suddenly spoke up, "Their spore crawlers can see and destroy your observers even when their cloaked right? So they can't get through. But my ink creatures can. The spore crawlers won't be able to attack them, and even if the Zerg did attack them, they're just ink; they can't be harmed. I'll draw a couple thousand of them and tell them to scout the entire base. When they return they'll converge into a 3-D model of the whole place that the Protoss can scan and recreate on this table."
"Brilliant!" Shikamaru smiled, "Get to work on that right away, and if you can, draw extras so they can show the creatures themselves too."
Sai nodded and left the room.
"Okay, now, what about our attack force itself?" Kakashi asked, "Even with perfect intel we need the firepower to use it to destroy the enemy."
"There will be no need to worry," Tenten leaned forward, "I've got that part well covered."
"How so?" Gaara asked.
Come with me to the robotics bays and forges, then I'll show you," Tenten told them.
Inside the forges…..
"Okay, will you show us your creations now?" Xelios asked Tenten.
Tenten nodded, smiling.
"The first thing the engineers and I tackled was our weaponry; so far through this fight we shinobi have been wielding weapons that are largely ineffective when used against the Zerg. So, I redesigned our kunai and other weaponry to be stronger and more suited for armor piercing, so they should now be more effective."
Tenten picked up a kunai and a spear for them to see the new designs. They were all thicker and heavier, and had serrated or barbed edges. All in all, the new weapon designs were very wicked looking.
"Good! Finally we can actually do something against these monsters!" Shikamaru admired.
"On the flipside, the Protoss have also improved their weaponry; their psionic blades are stronger, and now they burn as they cut. As in, they literally light the wound it creates on fire."
"Excellent," Thanatos would have smiled if he could.
"That' not all we did," Tenten grinned, "Wait until you see our new defensive equipment."
The girl pulled out a standard shinobi flak jacket. Only it wasn't the same. The jacket had a sheet of overlapping plates of what looked like Protoss metal.
"I've been studying our enemies, especially the flyers," she explained, "I noticed how as a mutalisk's attack bounces from target to target, it gets weaker and weaker. By incorporating Protoss material into our flak jackets, I've managed to redesign the piece to be more anti-projectile oriented. It's not strong enough to stop a direct hit from a hydralisk or a mutalisk, but it is strong enough to stop the mutalisk ricochet no matter whether it's the first bounce or the third."
"So, if a mutalisk hits the guy next to me, it'll hurt him, but the armor will protect me?" Sasuke asked.
"Unfortunately yes."
"What do you mean 'unfortunately'?"
"Anyways," Tenten continued, "Clearly the jacket does not protect the limbs, so it's not like we'll be completely invulnerable to mutalisks, but we'll at least have something to help keep them from ripping us apart."
"Not bad, not bad," Shikamaru nodded approvingly, "Nothing's foolproof, and any edge we can get we need to take."
Tenten smiled at him.
"What about defenses for the village itself?" Sakura asked, "We can't just leave it defenseless when we launch our attack."
"We've been working on that," Thanatos told them, "The Praetor and I added extensions to your walls so we could add photon cannons for extra defense. The cannons are placed in such a way that enemies will be caught in overlapping fields of fire, and the height advantage should keep them from falling too quickly."
"The Protoss have also given us a plasma shield generator to replace the main gate," Tenten told them, "The new shield can power up and down in a rapid enough manner that it can act as a gate, as well as allow us to see what the enemy is doing without exposing ourselves."
"The shield is generated by one of our own prismatic cores," Xelios explained, "The prismatic core is a self-sustaining energy source, so unless the core is destroyed, the gate can withstand extreme damage from hostiles and still remain functional and replenish itself. The replenishing speed of the shield is also much faster than most of our own, especially when not under attack, so bringing the shield down will prove very difficult for the Zerg."
"What about the roaches? They tunneled under the wall last time. Even if the photon cannons can detect them when they're burrowed, they might not be able to reach them when they're so far underground," Hinata brought up.
"Addressed that issue too," Tenten smiled and held up an odd looking box, "Seeing how the Protoss store their energy within crystals, I started to experiment with storing chakra in external devices and how it could help with our combat techniques. In the end I came up with this; it stores chakra internally then uses it to create jutsus when enemies get within a 60 meter radius."
"What jutsu will the things use?" Sasuke looked at the box, interested.
"The box leaks the chakra stored out into the ground, turning it into large spikes of rock. The spikes of rock then propel themselves at the intruder, impaling them from all sides. After the target is impaled, the chakra inside the rock spears expands outwards at the speed of sound, causing the rocks to explode, sending splinters of rock through the target from the inside out."
"Okay, that's definitely on the list of most painful ways to die," Ino commented.
"Are you sure that isn't a little overkill?" Sakura asked.
"Actually, it's perfect, considering roaches regenerate and heal much faster underground. The fact that the device is a one-shot-kill is definitely a good thing," Xelios told them.
"Not to mention those disgusting infestors," Sasuke added, "If you ask me those things deserve a painful death more than any of them."
"For once I actually agree with you," Shikamaru looked over at them.
"Alright, with these new upgrades, we should definitely be able to even the odds a bit," Naruto looked at the array of new weapons and armor again.
"What, you think that's all I've done in the past few days?" Tenten looked over at him, "I am offended that you think so little of my innovative abilities."
"You mean you've done even more than this?" Temari asked her incredulously.
"Oh this is nothing compared to the other things we've been working on," Tenten smiled at her, "Wait until you see what we've been working on in the robotics bays."
Temari nodded, impressed. Gaara looked over at his older sister; why was she so close to Shikamaru? Those two were standing way too close together for his liking. He was going to have to keep an eye on those two the entire time they were here. He watched the two of them as they walked down to the robotics bays….. they never left each other's side. Never more than a foot or 2 apart from each other the whole time.
The young Kazekage would have continued to think on it, try to confirm his suspicions, but their arrival at their destination distracted him before he could. The robotics bays were large structures with what looked like 3 large cranes attached to the top. Gaara assumed those were used to lift and support tall and heavy items during construction or something.
"Okay, here we are," Tenten called back to them, "You guys ready for this?"
"Wait, what are we ready for?" Naruto asked.
"Well, which would you prefer to see first? Land or air?"
The group of Protoss and shinobi looked at each other.
"I'd think ground units first," Selendis decided.
The others nodded in agreement.
Tenten smiled and nodded. She motioned to one of the engineers. They nodded, and went into the bay to retrieve something. Everyone was wondering what could this new thing be? It had to be some sort of machine, but what? It wasn't long before they heard heavy footfalls of metal on metal. Out of the bay doors came what looked like a giant golden bug, like a caterpillar or some other sort of similar bug. Maybe a snail with a flatter shell, or a big metal slug, either one worked. Supporting it were 6 thick metal legs clearly designed for holding up heavy weights.
"Is… is that a reaver?" Xelios asked incredulously, "What did you do to it?!"
"You attached the legs for an immortal onto a decommissioned reaver?" Selendis looked at Tenten with a questioning expression.
"Well, why did you guys decommission the reaver in the first place?" Tenten asked her back.
"The reaver was a powerful weapon, but it was slow and cumbersome, and not altogether very versatile. Its lack of speed and mobility is why it was replaced by the new colossus."
"Exactly. When the engineers and I started our experiments we took a look at the thing, but we nearly tossed aside right away. The thing moves so slowly Naruto would be able to beat Shikamaru at shōgi before it finished crossing the room. So, we wanted to add speed to it, but wheels weren't versatile enough to deal with terrain elevation above a certain degree. We also thought about using a smaller version of the colossus' legs, but they were too thin to hold such a heavyset object; how you do it with the colossus is beyond me. So, we settled on the legs of an immortal; strong, sturdy, but still able to move at a decent pace."
"So, it's faster, but did you change anything else?" Xelios asked.
"Yes. As we reviewed the weaponry we have, it became pretty clear our anti-air is lacking. With the destruction of your stalkers, as far as I know of the only real air defenses you have are your sentries. Those sentries I know are not strong enough to deal with the sheer amount of mutalisks clogging up the skies. So then we looked at your old scout fighters; they had strong anti-air, but not good at taking on ground units, and they were too expensive. However, their anti-matter missiles were very powerful, so that gave me an idea. So, we converted the internal manufacturing plant inside the reaver that made the scarab bombs into an anti-matter missile factory."
The sides of the reaver opened up, and a large missile battery extended from the openings.
"Each missile battery contains ports for 16 anti-matter missiles," Tenten walked around the war machine pointing out key features, "So, each volley from the new reaver will unleash 32 anti-matter missiles upon whatever it's targeting. The batteries are placed upon swivels, so they have a 360 degree firing radius. Coupled with a separate targeting system for each battery, the new reaver is also capable of firing upon several targets in the same volley. Between volleys the batteries will retract back within the protective shell of the reaver while being reloaded, to protect the weaker joint sections from counter attacks."
"But that means the new reaver is completely defenseless against any ground forces the Zerg might throw at it," Thanatos pointed out.
"Correct. With the scarab factory gone, the new reaver has absolutely no way of defending itself against ground enemies. The reaver still has heavy armor plating, so it can withstand a decent amount of punishment, but because of the amount of room the missile factory and batteries take up the armor buckles faster than the original. Therefore, they require an escort to protect them during an attack, but our ground forces are more than adequate to handle that. What's more important is keeping our heavy weaponry, i.e. the colossi, from being destroyed by the mutalisks."
"I'm appalled that you gutted the reaver and demolished everything it ever stood for, but I cannot deny that your solution to the mutalisks is a good one," Xelios nodded approvingly at the young shinobi.
Tenten smiled her thanks at the scarred alien. She stood back, allowing the assembled shinobi and aliens a closer look at the new weapon.
Thanatos marveled at the new robot; he remembered how they had used reavers as support for him and his fellow zealots during the Battle of Braxis. Seeing them like this, they actually looked better now in his opinion. The added height made them a little more intimidating than the big hulking snail the original was.
"Okay, if you're done being awed by our amazing engineering skills, I have two more things to show you," Tenten told them.
She led them to an elevated platform area; whatever was on it was covered by a tarp. The group of aliens and shinobi looked curiously at the two shapes underneath the tarps. The two shapes were relatively flat, and had what looked like roughly the same shape.
"Continuing on with our theme of anti-mutalisk, the engineers and I decided to design one more piece of hardware geared towards the eradication of the winged worms."
Tenten pulled the cover off of the first object, revealing a phoenix. This phoenix however, had an odd extension behind the pilot's seat. The extension had a seat of its own, and clearly it was meant to be powered by something.
"So, mind telling us what that weird thing is on the back of that thing?" Sasuke pointed at the odd thing.
"In a moment, sheesh. Be patient for once," Tenten shushed him, "I'm getting there. So, when I first saw the phoenix, I wasn't sure I could really do anything with it; it was so geared towards one specific thing, and it did such a good job of it I was hesitant to mess around with it. However, the recent battles did reveal some flaws I thought I could fix. When I saw how they fought, I saw that they're very maneuverable and fast, but they need to be facing their target in order to be effective. With the number of mutalisks though, the phoenixes were getting surrounded, so they weren't able to out-maneuver due to sheer numbers.
To counter this we added anion pulse-crystals, which significantly increased the range of the phoenix's weapon. But that didn't fix the problem that they can only shoot what's in front of them. So, we added this extension to the back of the phoenix.
What the object does is store and control chakra. When active, it magnifies the power of the chakra, and sends it through the funnel here. So to use it, a shinobi activates it and then launches a jutsu through the funnel. The spinning and magnification of the chakra magnifies the power of whatever jutsu is launched through it, making it at least three times stronger than normal. We discovered that it's most effective with a combination of wind chakra stored in the weapon and a fire style jutsu."
"So, it's a really powerful weapon mounted to the back of the phoenix as a means of defense against enemies around it," Gaara summarized.
"That's exactly what it is," Tenten nodded, "But, there was a problem we just couldn't fix; the weapon, which we named the amplifier, needs to be aimed, which means we had to sacrifice protection of the operator. The shinobi operating the amplifier has almost no protection besides how well that pilot flying their craft can dodge. Also, that means the operator is also exposed to the elements the whole time the craft is in flight. So, in order to protect the weapon operator, the phoenix cannot fly about a certain height, making them a little less maneuverable during combat."
"There's no way around that?" Naruto asked.
"Not without compromising the amplifier's ability to aim, no."
"So, if they're less maneuverable, what exactly is their purpose?" Shikamaru asked.
"These phoenixes are meant to be heavy air superiority; punch through the enemy dealing maximum damage, allowing the other phoenixes to clean up the survivors."
"How long can the amplifier be used?" Thanatos asked, "It would not be prudent to rely on a weapon that could cease working in the middle of battle."
"The amplifier relies on chakra to continue working, and it uses some of it every time it's used, so that is a valid concern. However, the amplifier's chakra storage unit is large enough to sustain power for the length of a large-scale battle. Should the amplifier's chakra supply run dry and lose power, the operator can add their own chakra to bring it back up. So, as long as the operator uses the weapon strategically, that shouldn't be a problem."
The group nodded. Shikamaru was already placing these new phoenixes into the plan formulating in his head. If only they had thought of this amplifier before the 4th Great Ninja War- it would have been quite the game changer during that conflict.
"Alright, I have one final model to show you guys," Tenten told them a few minutes later.
She unveiled the last covered object, which turned out to be another phoenix. The difference with this one was an odd protrusion hanging from the belly of the craft.
"Um, what is that hanging from the underbelly?" Thanatos asked.
"Well, first let me explain the reasoning," Tenten started, "During the latest fight, I noticed how vulnerable the phoenix is to anything on the ground. A phoenix can only "pick up" one enemy at a time, and they can't even shoot the thing they've picked up. You need two or more just to handle a single land-based opponent. Considering how few phoenixes we have, that's just not practical at all; in fact that's rather useless.
To combat this, I gave these phoenixes the ability to attack land opponents to a degree. Using some metal scraps, we created a small storage bay on the underside that can hold weapons which can be dropped on targets."
Tenten brought forward a medium sized object covered in paper bombs.
"This is a conical metal shell covered in paper bombs," she explained, "The phoenix 'bomber' can activate and drop these on command upon targets as they fly overhead. The bombs are aerodynamically designed to promote greater accuracy, so 'bombing runs' are hopefully going to be an effective support tactic. The bombs and storage are very light, so the phoenix bomber loses very little speed, and no maneuverability.
The only bad thing that we found is that during the bomber's run, it needs to slow down to make sure it doesn't overshoot the target. While it's moving at a slower pace, the bomber is vulnerable to enemy fire. With practice though, I think whoever's piloting can overcome that, and make the run at top speed."
Tenten showed them all how the upgrades worked, explaining all the concepts to them as best she could.
"Alright, that's what I've got for you," Tenten finally finished, "Using them is up to you guys now."
She was happy to finally be done talking; explaining every single thing had been rather exhausting. Not to mention nerve-racking, having everyone staring at her while she talked. All those eyes on her made her a little self-conscious about the weapons she had created, what if they hadn't been good enough? She wandered over to the towering colossus she now used as transport, leaning against one of its incredibly tall legs. She let out a steadying breath she didn't even know she had been holding.
"Hey, everything okay?"
Tenten turned to see Hinata watching her. She smiled at her friend's concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little bit unsettled from speaking in front of so many people, even if they are all friends. I don't know how other people do it, it's a little scary."
"You don't have to worry about that one bit," Hinata reassured her, "You were fantastic. Even though we knew next to nothing, you made it all perfectly understandable."
"Good," Tenten smiled in appreciation.
Hinata looked up at the massive robot Tenten was leaning against. The thing was so tall even the Jῡbi would have had to look up to see its head. How did those thin legs hold up such a massive construct?
"Tenten, is it just me, or do you seem attached to this giant machine?" Hinata asked, "Isn't this the same one you rode on during that last battle?"
"Yes it is," Tenten looked up at the colossus above her, "This particular colossus is special you see; it's programed to respond to my commands only, so the only one capable of controlling this one is me."
Hinata didn't know how to respond to that statement; what was there to say when your friend tells you she has a pet machine that's almost 200 meters tall?
"Just make sure not to step on me, okay?"
Outside, Xelios stood watching the goings on in his base with his arms folded. Kakashi joined him. Xelios looked at the masked shinobi; the white-haired ninja simply stood there with his hands in his pockets.
"Your student's getting into another fight with mine," was all he said.
"Again?" Xelios shook his head tiredly, "That's the 4th time in the last 2 days. I told Thanatos to be more respectful; I expected he'd listen. What are they arguing about now?"
"No idea. After the dozen fights about Naruto's leadership abilities I stopped paying attention to what they were yelling at each other. I prefer a nice book over an argument between fools."
Xelios laughed mentally. He didn't even need to see Kakashi's face to know he was laughing too.
"Those two will be the death of us won't they?" Xelios commented.
"Oh I'm almost sure of it. In fact, I'm surprised my students haven't already killed me."
"That bad?"
"You have no idea. Constant fighting, constant rivalry. Betrayal. The three of them were great together, and yet at the same time they were horrible. Even deadly at times. Being their sensei was truly a blessing and a curse."
Xelios laughed again.
"Still, they're our students I suppose. We have a duty to protect them don't we?"
The two of them nodded at that statement. Besides, they both knew that having their student's best interests at heart was one of the most important parts of being a teacher.
Shikamaru lay on his back on a hill, looking at the girl to his right. Temari stood up.
"I should probably go; Gaara is bound to get suspicious soon. He's pretty perceptive after all."
"Yeah, we're friends and all, but I'd still rather not get into a disagreement with him. It'd be a total drag getting into a fight with the Kazekage."
Temari smiled and left, walking back down the hill. Less than a minute later Naruto stomped past, not even noticing Shikamaru laying there. He punched a tree out of anger, and ended up with a bruised hand. If anything that just made him even madder.
"Problem there Naruto?" Shikamaru called over to him.
Naruto's head snapped up in surprise.
"Nothing really, just frustrated that's all."
Shikamaru kipped up and walked over, "Why? What's up?"
Naruto frowned, "I should have used the Kyuubi at the start of the last battle. I didn't want to in case things got out of control, but I should have just gone in with Kurama and destroyed them. It would have saved so many lives."
"Nah, it wouldn't have been a good idea anyways," Shikamaru shook his head, "Kurama's powerful, but I don't think it would have ended well for you. There were thousands of them; sure you'd kill hundreds with every blow, but you'd be such a big target. The whole time you'd be bombarded by acid eating Kurama, and being hit by hundreds of spines strong enough to go right through 3 inches of metal like it was paper. In the end, I'm pretty sure sheer numbers would have killed the pair of you. And even if you did win, they would know about the Kyuubi, and they'd start preparing heavier things to kill it. We'd lose our only real trump card way too soon; we need to wait to use Kurama until the opportune moment."
Naruto sighed, "I suppose you're right."
Naruto and Shikamaru stood there in silence for a few minutes, just watching the village. The sun was just beginning to set when an ANBU shinobi appeared right in front of them. The shinobi bowed to the pair of them before speaking.
"Captain Sai has returned. The other commanders are gathering on the Gantrithor bridge," they reported.
The pair of them nodded, and headed back up the hill.
"So, what does this mystery hive look like?" Ino asked.
Xelios pushed a button, magnifying the map to show only the Zerg hive cluster. There were huge organic buildings surrounding a massive central one, which was clearly the hive. Spread all around the hive were 15 conical buildings that had similar structure to the hive, only smaller.
"By the gods….." one of the Protoss whispered.
"No wonder the Zerg can mass armies so quickly," Xelios stared at the map, "15 hatcheries and a hive?"
"We need to destroy those hatcheries as quickly as possible," Sakura suggested, "I think those should be priority one."
"No," Shikamaru shook his head, "There are more important targets we need to deal with first. See those buildings over there?"
Shikamaru pointed at a cluster of semi-circle buildings with spikes growing from the edge.
"Those are hydralisk dens. They hold the genetic sequences needed to create the hydralisk strain. If we can penetrate deep enough into their hive cluster and destroy them, they won't be able to make the hydralisk as strong as usual. Destroying the dens would cripple their hydralisk strain almost to the point of uselessness until they create replacements."
"Wait, what's that strange building nearby though?" Temari pointed out a different looking building that looked like it might have once been a hydralisk den.
"No idea, you guys know?"
The Protoss all shook their heads.
"I have never seen its like," Xelios looked at the building hard, "We should destroy it quickly, before some unknown strain begins to attack us."
"Agreed. Now, I have a plan that will deal a crushing blow to the Zerg," Shikamaru leaned in to show them the details.
Author's Note #2: So there it is guys! Hope you enjoyed. Please review if you have the time; I'm always looking to improve. Plus I'm really eager to know what you guys think so far. Thank you, and I'll see you all next chapter.