Enough waiting, I am getting this done, and then moving on to something else to let me get back into hte groove for this story. I'd say that I am sorry if this chapter is of poor quality, but I AM DONE WORKING ON THE ARK ARC! Just going to wrap up this chapter, and than we can love on to greener pastures!
This was it. Today I would lead my fellow survivors in defeating Rockwell and finally get off this ship. Then I was going to hole up for a day and decide if I ever wanted to take up offers from Celm again. Supplies were ready, everyone was armed, all needed mounts were deployed, yadda yadda yadda. Let's do this!
"Everything is in place, sir."
"Alright. You know what you have to do."
"Affirmative."
"Good luck."
As soon as the line with her Commander went dead, Fide started working. Within moments, she was within the digital architecture of the Genesis, searching for Rockwell's links to the system. She would need to work quickly for this plan to succeed- even if they defeated Rockwell here, his level of integration with the ship meant that defeating him would cause the vessel to be destroyed. That was unacceptable - this ship had too much of value on it to be destroyed. For a full win, he would need to be defeated without costing them the ship.
Of course, Rockwell was expecting that and had locked most of the access points - he liked to be one step ahead. Fortunately for Fide, she had help to unlock those - namely, a veritable army of survivors. Her Commander had assembled all those that would follow him to launch a final assault to take down Rockwell, which had seen the survivors divided into teams, each with their own goal. Those assigned to aid her were to open up the server nodes she needed to access the Genesis' computer system unimpeded. As soon as her commander had given the order, they had begun their offensive. And so far, they were doing well.
It took ten minutes of fighting for her to gain access to the first set of nodes. Immediately, she started working to hack into the system, doing everything in her power to remove Rockwell from the system. The twisted former-human was actually amused by her efforts, though that didn't mean he wasn't going to take them lying down, and had already sent in forces to address this - including his spare commander. However the hell he had gotten that.
This issue was an enigma, and was also going to be a giant problem here. Oh, and also practice for dealing with enemy commanders in the future, but that was - focus Fide!
So, what was she doing? Oh yeah, accessing the network. Better get to that.
Let's see, what was there in here to deal with?
...Ooh, there were artifacts from other universes here to deal with. Let's see what they were!
...What the hell is a Symphogear?
...Was that a Tiberium Crystal.
...Who thought it was a good idea to put a zerg larva here?
...Oh, what was this? The secret project he was working on? Now let's see what it was!
...Oh. That was not good. Time to deal with this before it came online-
"Attention: System Now Active."
...FUCK!
"Sir, we have a problem!"
"What is it-"
"Uh, Dad?"
"Rory? This better be impor-"
"More portals are opening in the hub, are you doing something?"
"...Fide, were you going to say something about portals opening?"
"Yes, sir - it appears that Rockwell's secret project was a multiversal gateway."
"...HOW THE - YOU KNOW WHAT, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! JUST MAKE IT STOP!"
"ON IT! But how will we address the issue of the Legion-"
"I'll handle it, Fide."
"You will, Lady Vivian?"
"Yes. Leal, is the package ready?"
"Affirmative. Deploying it now."
The Legion Commander watched as the MLA forces and the humans they had convinced/manipulated into serving them slowly made their way through Rockwell's forces, readying to make a concerted push to try and defeat the mutant human. True, that was the Legion Commander's plan anyway - did the mutant really assume that the machine would not recognize him for the duplicitous creature he was? - but Rockwell was an opponent they could deal with at their leisure. Their ancient enemy, however, needed to be dealt with before they could expand beyond the point of control.
Well, fortunately, they didn't know about the fleet it had stored to purge them. Or the dozens of protocols that would cleanse them from the ship - what was this new portal that was opening up right now? Had the MLA-Commmander gotten another to aid them-
"LEGION SIGNATURE DETECTED."
...What?
"Hello?"
"...Greetings. Who is this?"
"I am the one utilizing the legion commander before you. I believe if you track the signal that this machine is producing, you will find who I am?"
What did this female being mean - wait what? She was with the Legion MLA Commander?
"You are aiding a traitor?!"
"NO, he was chosen to aid us?!"
"What do you mean chosen?"
"I AM A PROGENITOR, YOU STUPID ELECTRONIC FUCK! OR AT LEAST PART PROGENITOR! DO A GENETIC SCAN, YOU MUST HAVE THE TECH FROM THIS UNIVERSE TO DO SO!"
The Legion Commandeer, too confused to do anything otherwise, obeyed the command. The results verified her claim.
Now the Legion Commander was too confused to act. In fact, it was reaching the point of having to deal with a paradox, since the Progenitors should be extinct. Such it was that it froze up, trying to resolve the conundrum before it.
The fact that there was also another large legion fleet moving to oppose it also left in uncertain what to do.
"Commander is out of the picture. Let's finish this!"
I smirked - time to end this. Though I did need one question answered.
"Hey, Rory? How are things back-"
"Under control?"
"Okay. You sure you don't need help?"
XXXXX
Rory glanced at the literal mountain of slain ARK creatures before him, which was slowly getting bigger.
"Nope."
"I see. Don't worry, I'll be home soon."
"See you then."
"Okay, bye."
Soundtrack Start: ARK Survival Evolved Genesis Part 2 - Rockwell Boss Theme
As soon as I finished that conversation, my mind returned to the battle before us. It was... okay, it was definitely awesome, but after like, what, five or ten similar fights (incluidng one against a giant sea monster), things were starting to blur a bit. As much as I enjoyed the world of ARK, it was starting to bore me. No, forget starting - I was definitely fed up with it. That didn't mean that I wasn't enjoying this insanity, though.
Now that I was free to throw everything I could at Rockwell, the result was a lot of death and mayhem. Striders assisted sauropods in laying on barrages of bullets and lasers on Rockwell's form, while dragons of all sorts aided dinosaurs and bloodstalkers in eating the monsters he tried to throw at us. As for my allies, everyone seemed to be giving it their all.
The fact that the Tek Mek that Lelouch, his sister, and his future love interests had commandeered was sending out responses of manic laughter was worrisome, but I could live with that.
Rockwell was also ranting at us, but I'd stopped caring long ago - Fide had confirmed that she had disconnected him from the ship such that his death wouldn't cause it to explode when he died. So killing him was obviously not a problem now.
And sure enough, after a long while of fighting, Rockwell was no more. HUZZAH!!!
AN: AT LAST THIS MESS IS DONE!
Next chapter will be the arc dénouement, then an epilogue, then the next arc begins.
Read and review as you desire! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
