Tarvek had reverted back to his orcish form…well, back to his fully power armoured orcish form amidst the vast hanger of one of the interior bays of the supposedly secret base. It had all the standard 'human secret base' design imprints of course, from the metal and concrete layout, and signs meaning nothing plastered about everywhere. Or, rather, in the secret code that some understood, though it wasn't intended as such usually, because hiding the base's tavern from its warriors was rarely a useful thing in his opinion. Didn't matter what his opinion was though, not here, and certainly not now…when a planetary invasion was taking place, and he couldn't entirely trust these humans.

Now with the added bonus of them having hidden some not-Asgard craft they'd captured…somehow…many decades ago…

'How they did so…well that is hard to grasp it' he wondered as he looked at the, supposedly restored, not-Asgard fighter craft. It had been shielded, and they'd, without understanding it, fixed the shielding systems like unthinking engineering savants. Just as they'd restored the craft without gaining much understanding of its underlying systems. Considering the technological disadvantage of now versus a craft, and technical progress had been incredibly rapid beyond the norm in this century for humanity…it was odd they'd managed to take it down with significantly inferior weapons decades past.

"You are attempting to engage the problem from the incorrect direction" Tarvek had found himself telling the humans, as Janet stood near him after he had reverted to his current, armoured, bulk "Attempting to back-engineer a solution in the time given is not viable, even with our aid. You simply do not have production facilities to create a hard-copy solution. Your President's option to attempt to overwhelm enemy shield systems based upon accurate readings is viable, and perhaps the system attack option as offered by thine experts"

The mad scientist, for the man had the mould of one such, protested that, gesticulating at the 'miraculous' breakthroughs they had made in mere minutes thanks to Tarvek's systems accessing the not-Asgard space-fighter-craft. Problematically the access did not reveal a name of the species, for they simply referenced simple things, like Hive and People/Drones/Hierchy rather than species names. It did reveal that the not-Asgard were incredibly self-centred, in ways even some arrogant enemies of the League were not, as they simply classified themselves in a us-versus-them in regards everything, and only 'us' mattering. In the greater sense of a Hive structure.

"But we've made so much progress! In mere minutes we…know what everything does! How it works now! Even basic principles, and…"

"And you can't mass produce them, and one active craft will not turn the tide" Tarvek gave back the obvious to a being he suspected, like many humans in such societal models as this…that felt knowledge and technology could solve all problems. A delusion of course, but a difficult one to battle "What this grants is confirmation of system access to the invaders systems, as well as that mine own systems can translate sufficient to understand what systems are. Therein lies the only benefits of these devices. Direct access to their systems, to either gather information, as you use now, or to attack them directly in that realm"

In the time that he and Janet had arrived here, and then been shown around…and feeling that the senior leaders of this nation were also only learning of this place now…it had been clear this humanity was attacking frantically with what weapons it possessed. Global systems designed to hit cities were less useable against mobile targets, the crude systems of this earth insufficient to even create a Moriarty-system as in the days of the early League. Even retargeting the great missile platforms took time, thought well over a hundred such devices had already been detonated on the grand screen now showing the planetary map within the hanger. Re-aiming at cities was, supposedly, relatively easy for such intercontinental, as missiles rose from side of the globe towards the other as craft over New York and Vladivostok were targeted by their opposing nations.

The use of the weapons had gone as Tarvek had expected-feared. In that they had proven insufficient to take down the shields of the invaders city-sized starships, with only one exception to that in recent hours with the deployment of a truly ridiculous sized atomic weapon above the artic after mass striking with smaller non-atomic missiles. The true benefit was the invasion by the not-Asgard had grown disordered by the unexpected resistance, and that the heavy usage of atomics had forced back the not-Asgard starfighters to within their starships after heavy losses. That was significant help in his warrior's mind was that such restrictions cut down on long-range starfighter attacks that could truly disrupt any attempts at resistance by the humanity of this earth he was upon.

No. Such wouldn't work in the long run, but the not-Asgard had given a vulnerability thanks to their own greed as Tarvek gestured at the ring shape being assembled against the wall "No, thy forces will lose a standard clash of arms upon the field of battle. This foe is too strong, and while you can ruin thine world to hold them back, it is still a defeat of a different kind. Here is your best option, though it is only useable once"

"I'm surprised you can…without a gate?" Janet queried curiously, tired mind voicing things she probably would not otherwise "Why not upon…"

Tarvek shrugged his armoured shoulders, the pip-boy wrist-comp bright and flashing as the various parts he'd transmitted to the natives earlier were assembled "I had not scanned than gate till we found it, and this is…not ideal, but temporarily accessing the gate once known was likely always known to its builders in that distant past they lived in. We accessed the gate, my mag…my systems scanned it, and within lies the knowledge of its usage"

He paused, gestured at the icon now flashing on the screen "Thankfully the device is within range yet, better even as the foe descend from orbit to seek battle"

It was impolite, and verging on arrogant, to state the enemy were acting somewhat idiotically in this fight by literally charging into the missiles of the humans. That it was working then…wasn't a pleasant thought for said human morale Tarvek suspected, so he did not wish to envision doubt arising from his words. Already a wave of large settlements were being destroyed across the globe, while others were a mass of panic, military mobilisation, and every other sort of madness he'd have to guess at. So time was of the essence, and Tarvek wanted to exploit that foolishness, and the other foolishness, to the best of his abilities;- launching comp-plague attacks along with an attack through the gate.

"How long will this…gate…" the ruler of the Americans asked-demanded in as polite a tone as likely could be maintained in these circumstances "Be active?"

"Minutes at most…four-to-five of your standard" Tarvek replied tapping at his pip-boy wrist-comp, showing the calculations as he'd burn out the local power generators as well as a fusion core to achieve this "In truth. You have a standard minute to launch your comp attacks through the craft and portal, and then to get the atomic device through the event horizon. After that point they may react in ways unpredictable. They will be aware of this location rapidly in the aftermath"

That was a statement, but also an unspoken question: are you willing to lose this facility?

The answer, seemingly, was yes as the human engaged in rapid-fire words with his general, then nodded "You will be evacuated with all vital personnel once the device has used. If it works…it should eliminate their leadership?"

"Yes. It should cripple their command and control, and severely degrade their combat ability" Tarvek motioned at the humans own systems displaying not-Asgard transmissions being translated by two comps that he brough forth from his Compass inventory. Acceptable losses if things turned against him and he yet had to flee the dimension "They are a dominant foci Hive-mind, which is good, as they are vulnerable to disruption due to hierarchy"

All indicators were there for a hierarchical hive-structure with a 'Queen' directing control, rather than more dangerous and much harder eliminated true hive-minds that were merely impaired by losses. If it worked…then there was the potential of a base-camp here, with support and allies even for a future bridging location. If it worked…

"It will work" he stated simply, glancing at the screen, then at the gate "But we had best begin, now. Time is against us Mister President"

For in the time of setting up the crude ring-device, that would fry out, badly, once it had achieved its single use potential, more than a hundred more atomics had been used it seemed. That and the enemy were beginning to move on from their initial strikes against thirty-five native cities, changing strategy it seemed to seek out the most comm-active locations rather than the largest population centres. It had rapidly shifted from them viewing the native humans as easily dealt with, to seeking more aggressive solutions within the combat culture they seemed to be formed from. Tarvek watched as the human ruler was evacuated as a bomb was brought forth on a trailer, as the crude ring made of box-shaped segments began to flash lightning arcs as he prepared the initialisation of the arcano-tech device. They had one shot at this after all…