[Haruzuki Kenta - Lung]
"Are you certain?"
"Yes, Lung-sama. The Empire has fallen- all of their Capes have been captured, along with a significant portion of their underlings. Zefing has confirmed this in the PRT, and Chuong confirms it through the Police," Tarou nodded firmly.
Unlike most of Kenta's underlings, Tarou was someone that had been with Lung since the beginning; he recognized the strength of the Dragon and chose his master carefully. There was no fear or trepidation in his dark eyes, nor did the scar that ran from his eye to his cheek tug at his lips with nervousness. Tarou was calm because he was competent, because when Lung gave him a task it would be completed in the manner Lung wished for it to be completed.
It was not merely because he was the bearer of good news- though it was likely that had something to do with it.
Contrary to popular belief, Lung did not kill people simply because they bore him ill tidings; he killed them because their incompetence was what forced them to deliver ill tidings to him in the first place.
"Lung-sama! The PRT has found our shipping containers and is in the process of confiscating our product!"
"Was it not you who was assigned the task of securing our product and ensuring that the authorities would never find it?"
That was why Lung killed his underlings- there was a reason that preceded the rhyme.
His anger could become a great and terrible thing, but Kenta was in control- he ruled his anger, not the other way around.
"Good, good. Rally the men, Tarou. I want everything prepared for this evening. We will strike out past our current borders and lay claim to that which belonged to me in the first place. Brockton Bay was mine the very moment I stepped in, this result was inevitable," He tilted his head to the side, and eyed the faces of the men standing in his quarters, "Ensure they wear thick clothing, I care not if they sweat until they pass out from the heat; I have been observing this 'Frontline' and they use tranquilizers, with needles appearing to be roughly a few centimeters in length. The clothing will protect them, at least as much as they can be protected- they do not shoot the men in the face with their darts, but their weakness will be something we exploit."
"Of course, Lung-sama," The man bowed crisply, "It will be done."
Kenta waited for his un-powered Lieutenants to leave before nodding to himself.
Yes. This will be the time that Lung finally takes his rightful place; the Merchants were a stain, and the Empire an annoyance, however, Kenta was not a stupid man. He was powerful, but he was not powerful enough to take on the likes of the Triumvirate; his healing was incredibly, but he knew that if he drew too much heat that Alexandria would have no problems flying through his wall and slaying him before he would even know she was there.
He had done much to avoid the Kill Order, always skirting the line when he needed to but never passing it. The Protectorate Capes would have been dead long ago if he were truly a mad dog.
Though the Frontline had displayed incredible aptitude, they were still people within power armor; the Jewish Cape, Negev, obviously had a fairly focused and specialized Brute package that allowed her the strength to handle the steel mutt. If she had enhanced durability or superb regeneration, as Lung did, she would not rely on thick steel armor for her protection; a simple bodysuit would have sufficed.
There were other powers within Frontline, powers that had not been shown, but it was telling that they all relied on the power armor that their figurehead provided for them; the armor was for their protection because without it they were merely human. They were certainly enhanced, but being far stronger than a normal man is of no consequence.
He sat down and mentally reviewed his plans. They were simple but effective. Lung would draw the Capes to himself, Oni Lee would scatter them, and then they would conquer.
While they were drawing attention the un-powered would move into specific blocks that were defensible and set up shop; he didn't need to occupy every single street corner- he only needed to control a few nodes and project power out from there. Even one building would be more than enough to consider a district captured- he would take the outskirts of the city. Let the Protectorate focus on maintaining the core, they would handle the protection of the commerce of the city, which meant that Lung could focus on protecting his more vulnerable areas; they did his job for him admirably, after all, even Lung's men shopped downtown, or at the Boardwalk.
Once their new positions were captured, it would be a small matter to claim the Merchants remaining stores of drugs, weapons, and petty cash- Lung knew of at least four locations that neither Frontline nor the Protectorate had raided- and he could do the same to the twelve remaining Empire locations. He would be essentially taking the leftovers, but guns were guns, drugs were cash, and cash was King.
As long as it was framed properly, Lung had no issues plucking the low-hanging fruit.
Then Lung could move into a more centralized location within the Bay, which would allow him to respond more effectively, and would make his job that much easier; the Protectorate engaged him in the outskirts of the city because there wasn't anything of importance to burn down while he fought. Contrary to popular belief, he was quite in control of the flames that were created by his transformation; not enough to create constructs, but enough to snuff the flames if he so chose.
They have not yet caught onto this, it seemed, because as soon as Lung began to burn buildings the Protectorate immediately backed off. If the buildings weren't in his territory and would be of any future use, he allowed them to burn without a problem, but if they were then he would snuff the fires out just enough to let the Fire Department save his future property. He had used his control over the flames to shield quite a few of his more lucrative businesses, and when the PRT pulled back it allowed him plenty of time to relocate.
His belly rumbled as he looked at the time. Many hours had passed since he has started his planning, and it was now time for his evening meal; a good dinner to enjoy before going out and pushing the newcomers back, possibly out of the picture- all he would need is to get a single hand on them, and they would perish.
"Lee."
From the corner of the room, Oni Lee slunk out of the corner, as if he were a shinobi from the old period drama Kenta's mother had been so fond of all those years ago. It never failed to tickle him. Not that Lung could be tickled.
"Yes, Lung-sama?"
"My meal. Have it prepared for me and ready within one hour."
He bowed, less than the other un-powered members of Lung's organization, but that was because Lee was his right hand, and a Cape besides. He was useful.
Though it did pain Kenta to see his Lieutenant slowly fade away as his powers took small bits and pieces of him at a time. It was hard for Kenta to see Oni Lee become less and less each time he saw him, but Lee knew that he was fading, but he had decided that he would serve Lung.
Kenta would not spit upon his wishes, so he would stay until his mind was so far gone that he could not move his body anymore. Then Lung would kill him, cleanly, with great respect; it was one thing to serve out of fear. It was another to serve and give up everything that made one who they were in the process.
Still, even though Lee could not remember what he and Kenta had eaten for lunch the previous day, his skills and abilities had remained, and his eyes were still just as sharp as ever. Oni Lee watched the chef that prepared his meals with an eagle's eye; nothing that wasn't sealed and purchased from a shop Lung trusted made it into a meal, and while most people knew better than to try and poison him, some still tried.
Sometimes he let the poisoning happen, Lung using the pain to remind himself that even caged, fearful rats can still try to bite. Other times he had Lee interrupt them in the act, the fools believing that Oni Lee was unskilled with poisons merely because he utilized grenades.
A laughable notion- Lee's kill count was a fair amount larger than the pissants on PHO believed, and poisons were his secondary, less known trade.
Within the hour his meal was prepared, on time, and it was ready for him to consume the moment he desired.
Though, looking at the Japanese beauty that was his current chef awakened within him a different hunger.
She was what Kenta believed every Japanese woman should be, the ideal. Slender, pale, yet with more than enough flesh on her figure in all of the right places that he could enjoy; he had no problems sullying the white, black, and hispanic whores that his men captured that were of sufficient beauty, but the position of "Lung's Woman" had always been one from the homeland.
Sachiko, was a quiet, obedient, simpering woman, one that averted her eyes and turned her head in such a fashion that it aroused a primal desire to conquer her, to see just how far he could press her compliance. He was not gentle with Sachiko, nor was he harmful; he was no stranger to pain, but causing others pain did not bring him pleasure.
She was someone that Lung had taken by himself, for himself. The woman had been at Kyushu when the island sank; the women on a boat that was fleeing- she had seen Lung's challenge to the Leviathan, and his majesty had been burned into her mind since she was a young girl. Her family had immigrated to Boston after that, and she had been attending culinary school when Lung spotted her working in the kitchen. He seduced her, and when it was time he took her and brought her here to Brockton to serve him for the rest of her days.
She had only been his chef for a few months now, but she knew the price for rebellion.
"Strip, woman," Lung commanded, and the woman took a deep, shuddering breath before she began to remove the soft reds and greens of her silk kimono; never let it be said that he did not treat his playthings properly.
The layers were shed, one at a time, in a fashion that she knew pleased him, and once the kimono puddled on the floor, she was only clad in her tabi and a silk shift that barely covered the swells of her bottom. "Do you wish for me to remove the last piece, Lung-sama?"
Her voice was soft, barely a whisper, but she lowered her head and placed her eyes on the floor. It was a shame that he did not have a proper Japanese house so that he might see her kneel on tatami, but some sacrifices needed to be made.
"No. I am trying to eat, woman. I will enjoy your body after I am finished, come." He spread his legs and patted his thigh, and to his delight, she came forward with nary a hitch in her step, the woman turning around and seating herself onto the muscle of his leg. He was satisfied, feeling the flesh of her ass clench and squeeze as she tried to adjust herself to keep from toppling over. Eventually, she gave up and leaned into his chest, using his shirtless torso to keep her steady.
He looked to Lee and gestured, and while the woman's head was tucked against his pectoral he arched an eyebrow, and the man shook his head. So, another day without an attempt on his life from Sachiko.
Idly he wondered if putting a child within her belly would push her? It was a thought, a delicious one.
The meal she had prepared for him was exactly as he had wished, though this one was particularly extravagant. Fine cuts of meat prepared in thin slices, sushi and sashimi arrayed out for him to sample, pickled vegetables and rice in a cold soup, miso soup with nori and tofu, and plenty of pickled ginger to cleanse the palate. There were three different bottles of sake prepared, one to accompany the three dishes.
"Pour and serve," He grunted, his hand reaching down to cup the flesh of her ass while he rippled the muscles of his thigh; the sudden increase in firmness made her squirm, and he could feel the plump flesh and heat of her core soak into his pants.
She poured him some sake and hand-fed him each dish in turn, with the ginger in between each bite so that he could properly savor the combinations of food and alcohol.
A warm, pleasant buzz settled onto his shoulders, and he ceased imbibing; he could still get drunk- as the transformation would easily burn away his inebriation- but that did not mean he allowed it.
"Lee. Have you remembered to eat today?"
Oni Lee looked at the food but then shook his head. "I do not remember having eaten today, Lung-sama."
"Then eat, this is a warrior's meal, the celebratory feast will be much grander, but for now enjoy. I command you." Lung felt a small twinge at the admission, but if Lee was forgetting to eat, which he had been doing as of late, then that meant it was only a matter of time until Lee was nothing but a sack of flesh.
Even if he might not remember his meal next week, Lung would still see to it that he enjoyed it.
However, he had something else he wished to enjoy for now.
"Up, woman. Let us take this to the bed."
It was just as thrilling as it had been the first time. She simpered and denied. She tried to hide her beautiful, ugly faces as the man she despised but was too weak to stand against took his pleasure from her body, and gave her pleasure in turn. She could not fake it, not with him. The ecstasy on her face as he took her was genuine.
It was almost intoxicating, the way she tried to hide the small smiles on her face as he treated her roughly in the manner that she found disgustingly delightful; her moans and cries grew louder and louder as time went on.
When he had finally exhausted himself he found that the woman had fallen asleep, her mundane stamina unable to last through the pleasure he so roughly visited upon her body.
When he laid down on his die he looked towards the clock on the wall. It would be six hours until they gathered, and then they would make their move.
Kenta closed his eyes to rest, content knowing that Oni Lee was sitting at the table watching over him.
[Homura Sachiko]
Sachiko's mind swam, but she felt the effects of the antidote pushing the fog clouding her mind back.
She had been told in a brief message that she would prepare a meal for Lung as she had been doing every day these past few months, and she would use the materials that they would provide. They had obviously meant the ABB goons who delivered to her the finest ingredients from a business Lung owned, but somehow Frontline had managed to contaminate the ingredients they would bring for Lung's meal tonight.
The antidote had been in a white bottle of sake that she would taste and then discard because its flavor profile did not match the other ingredients of the meal.
Her job was to send a signal once whatever poison she had fed Lung took effect, but she had not thought he would ask her to feed him by hand; the simple fact that touching the food was enough to put her to sleep even after she'd imbibed the antidote spoke of its potency. It was, however, a time delayed-release.
Looking at the clock on the wall she saw that it had been almost a half an hour since she'd passed out after the rape of her person, but even while she was agonizing over her situation- the woman desperately wished the drug had taken effect before he could direct her to his bed- she could already feel his movements grow sluggish. It was so hard to keep the smile from her face, with the way he kept grabbing her hands to see her tormented expressions.
Unlike the previous times, she did feel a great deal of pleasure, though it was more brought on by the sense of impending freedom and the relief it might bring.
She slipped out of the bed and walked over to gather her silk kimono and clothed her body. It was a shame that she would never be able to look at the colors red and green the same- red had been her favorite color after all- but not anymore.
None of that mattered though, soon it would be all over.
Sachiko had been warned that the sedative was incredibly potent, but it would not keep Lung under forever. She would need to place an article of clothing and let it hang out the window to signal Frontline.
However, she was not going to allow them to capture Lung. While he drew breath, whether it was within the Birdcage or some other Maximum Security Prison, Sachiko would never be able to move forward.
Thusly, she would take matters into her own hands.
Silently she apologized to Frontline for taking her revenge into her own two hands. She hardly thought it would be murder, but she would be making them accessories to the deaths of Lung and Oni Lee. Worse still her ploy could fail entirely, and their perfectly laid out plan to capture the Dragon of Kyushu without significant loss of life would be for naught.
She would feel terrible if she ruined their plans to capture him - that was if she survived- but she would feel even worse if she did not act.
The Japanese student sous chef from Boston walked over and tugged on the grenades that were strapped to Oni Lee's chest. They were clipped there good and tight, and if she tugged in one direction they would stay on the bandoleer; she had only shot her father's handgun a few times, but grenades were, at their very core, extremely simple devices. Pull the pin, release the little lever, and then throw it.
Then run away.
However, she was wary of the possibility that Lung would survive if she merely dropped the grenade into his lap.
Sachiko didn't consider herself an expert on Capes either, but weren't the growths that governed their powers in their brain? Last she checked taking a cape's head off, even if they had those Brute powers, still worked 99.9% of the time.
She grabbed Oni Lee's knife and cut the extremely long silk belt in half. One half went back to preserve her modesty while the other was cut in half again, the two lengths tied together in an exquisite knot that gave her nine feet length to play with; more than enough to reach Lung from the bed where Oni Lee sat in the chair.
Sachiko positioned the grenade so that when the pin was pulled the lever would pop off while keeping it very close to his chest. On second thought, she leaned Oni Lee forward and positioned the grenade in the crook of his elbow with his face and cheek nestled right on top of it. She tied the silk rope to the pin and gave it a few experimental tugs; the pin and lever would leave the grenade, but the grenade itself would stay in position.
She smiled serenely as she grabbed a grenade from his vest and walked over to where Lung lay sleeping, his mouth open as soft snores escaped.
The bulb of the grenade was roughly a little bit larger than a plum. It should fit.
A nervous breath entered her lungs and she pulled the pin, yanking it free; her hand clamping down on the lever as adrenaline flooded her system. It was too late now. She couldn't call for Frontline's help even if she wanted to.
Though, Sachiko didn't. She would either kill Lung and Oni Lee or she would die trying, this was her vow.
The chef turned kidnapee placed the bulb of the grenade against the teeth of Lung's large mouth, and with some gentle wiggling she managed to get it inside to rest on his tongue; the sound of bone sliding against metal was cathartic. The man murmured in his sleep and his tongue worked against the steel of the grenade but it could not dislodge the explosive.
She released the lever with her thumb and pulled it out of his mouth to make sure that it activated. Sachiko was off the bed and running towards the door to the room, and once she felt the end of the slick rope she pulled and felt glee as the pin popped free and the lever- it was called a spoon, yes, that was it- popped out.
The door was flung open wide and she threw herself into the waiting room where Lung's more trusted goons played cards or shot the shit.
They looked at her in astonishment. "Lung finally get tired of you-"
Two thumps occurred, loud explosions that popped off one after another, sending dirt, dust, wood chips, and other shrapnel flying into the room.
"SHIT!" One guy roared out, "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO PISS LUNG-SAMA OFF!?"
"That ain't Lung-sama's fire, you idiot! That was one of Oni Lee's grenades!"
"That was two grenades!"
"No, fuck heads, that was like ALL of Oni Lee's grenades..."
Uncaring of the ABB goons that were scrambling to pick themselves up off the floor, Sachiko stood up slowly, uncaring of the wound that stung her calf and trailed a small amount of blood behind her. She needed to see.
The culmination of her efforts. The results of her risks and hard work.
She stepped inside and noticed that of Oni Lee's corpse there was no sight; only small bits of flesh, blood, and viscera. His mask was the only thing that was left intact, and that was because she had removed it from his head and moved it off the table.
Her eyes swept over the rest of the room, to the four-post canopy bed that lung had draped in red and green. His body was mangled in appearance, his legs shredded by shrapnel, but his head was completely missing.
His neck was a smoking stump, a small amount of his spine visible.
She stood there and looked.
Sachiko watched and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
She did not know how long she stood there, nor how long she waited- the clock she used to watch had been destroyed by the explosions of the grenades- but by the time a power-armored figure came in and pulled her tightly into a firm, comforting hug, Lung had yet to regenerate. Oni Lee's fleshy bits did not turn to ash.
He was not coming back. They were not coming back.
There would be no jail sentence for these monsters. They were gone. Her mission was completed.
Sachiko cried.
[February 15th, 2011]
[7:27 PM]
[5 Minutes before the deaths of Oni Lee and Lung]
"While we are very thankful for your assistance in removing the Merchants and Empire, Horizon, I must ask that you reconsider this course of action. Lung is not the type of Cape that can be taken down with a simple sedative- trust me, there are many factors at play that require you to carefully balance potency against his regeneration," Armsmaster spoke as we were 'inspecting' a Merchant hideout that the Protectorate had on record that we somehow missed just outside of ABB territory.
The trap house had been abandoned without anyone having come by it for some time, which was likely why it slipped our net; it had some drugs, a few handguns and a shotgun, and a little bit of cash- less than $5,000. What it did have though, were two older laptops that were placed in vacuum-sealed bags and stuffed into a soft case hidden in the crawlspace. From what we could gather from the data on the drives the house was only used when the Merchants contacted their buyers from out of state- they piggybacked off the wifi network of the house behind them.
It was amazing that on Earth Bet people didn't password-protect their wifi still.
"Armsmaster, we have accomplished this much, we have a plan, and we have a feeling that it will work no problem. We have a civilian on the inside who volunteered to sedate Lung; the tranquilizer is quite potent on its own, but we use a heavily watered-down version of it- the full product could probably knock Lung out as long as he was under nine feet tall, but no one is engaging Lung, and thus there is nothing for him to escalate off from." I replied from the chair as I skimmed over the emails, looking at who Skidmark had messaged and when.
Some of it was in code or used slang terms that I had to get the definitions off of from of all places- without this invaluable resource I would have never known what 'sammywhack the bridgebone at the scutkeeper's spot before the bling-rise' would have meant. Never before in my life have I ever heard the dawn referred to as the 'Bling-Rise'.
Just because the Merchants were gone didn't mean that we couldn't find other people to smackdown.
The Merchants weren't called the 'Merchants' for nothing- they had no problems selling their products to whoever was willing to pay, as long as they got the cash and the recognition ("This ain't your normal drugs, this is some Merchant shit right here, boyee") then they were square to ship their stuff out across the northeastern United States.
"From observation Lung is already completed with the meal; he should be asleep soon, and then the contact will leave an article of clothing to hang out of the window. That's the signal. Then we move in and capture Lung, just as we've always done."
"You... poisoned his food?"
"If it meant being able to capture him without a dangerous fight I would have poisoned the piping leading into his shower if I could have," I looked up from the computer and to Armsmaster, "but this was the surest way we could do it. Lung gets all of his food made in-house, and all of the ingredients are purchased from a shop he owns. The food is inspected to ensure the seals from manufacturing remain intact. Thankfully our contact has been Lung's personal chef and main squeeze, and she has valued her life rather highly, so she never tried to poison him; from what she told us Oni Lee is a skilled watcher, who carefully inspects her every move in the cooking process. She cannot add anything, but the trick is, she wouldn't need to add anything because the sedative is in a modified time-released form that was in the food to begin with."
"We monitored the vehicle that picked up the order, intercepted the order, laced the order, replaced the factory seals on the foodstuff packages and the bottles, and then handed it over to the next informant that wants Lung gone; like half the ABB does. The people we contacted were waiting years and years and years for a single opportunity like this; you can only leave the ABB in a body bag, so they kept their heads low, proved themselves capable, and remained 'loyal' until they had what they thought to be a surefire opportunity to topple the king."
"It is not a very heroic action to take, but I cannot deny the possibility that if there is no conflict for Lung to feed on then his regeneration might be low enough for a plan such as this to be successful," Armsmaster frowned, "This would have never been approved for a Protectorate operation."
"That you know of, I'm certain there have been plenty of OPs that have been done that would fly in the face of normal Cape sensibilities," I sighed and shook my head, "I dislike the idea as much as the next guy, Armsmaster, but attempting to take on Lung conventionally will be, as you so succinctly put it, 'foolhardy and reckless'."
I stood up from the laptop and Armsmaster took a seat behind it so that he could clone a copy of the drive. "Besides, we need to maintain momentum- if we let the ABB mobilize tonight and set out like I think they're going to do then we will lose the initiative and will spend the whole time playing catch up."
Armsmaster frowned as he considered my words.
"Everything that we accomplished against the Empire, Merchants, and right here, right now? This is the culmination of a lot of data analysis spread across thousands of hours of sifting the dirt from the pile so that we can find gold; we can't afford to let our current intel grow old because when will we find another lucky break? If the ABB spreads out from where they are currently concentrated... then they will have a whole city to hide in. We could waste a lot of time tracking down whatever locations they've selected to hole up in, and they could waste even more by making us search places we already cleared before."
I crossed my arms across my chest, "The people that the ABB have captured, the women and teens he stole for his operations, they don't have that kind of time. We need to take Lung down so that we can move on those other locations without the ABB able to muster any real resistance."
"I concur, however, enacting another full-scale operation right on the heels of the Merchant and Empire operations are going to spread Brockton Bay's criminal justice system resources very thin- at least until the Governor signs the Mayor's request for outside of jurisdiction holding and trials-"
Out of the corner of my vision, I watched as the woman, Sachiko- our inside line on Lung- began rigging up her little grenade trap.
My eyebrows rose towards my hairline, but I couldn't say I didn't approve; especially not after Lung raped her for almost an hour until the time release on the sedatives kicked in. I had a feeling that she would probably contemplate something like this- revenge- fuck, I know I would, but to see her actually putting her little plan into action with such assuredness was inspiring.
She was a woman on a mission.
The grenade in her hand trembled as she slipped it into Lung's mouth, and then she started running- I watched in the Trance as the grenade shifted in Oni Lee's arm as she tugged on the makeshift cord, the pin pulling free as the spoon of the grenade was ejected by the folded spring.
I was treated to a complete rendition of watching Lung's head explode while the grenade next to Oni Lee's face detonated right after; the shockwave and concussion from the grenade detonating the others rigged up from the Bandoleer.
I hadn't expected Lung to be killed by an unpowered woman, but it was certainly poetic. A data packet was formulated and I sent it out to all of Frontline: "Dragon is slain, Oni vanquished. Take, Take, Take."
Already my girls were breaching the apartment building and every other ABB location in the city. We had to spread out 1 T-Doll per location, with a full Echelon for Lung's building; there were a lot of women stuffed into houses, basements, shipping containers, and on ships in cages out in the Boat Graveyard. They needed to be rescued and cared for, and that was something we were suited for; they all had biofoam, some water, and plenty of medical training and supplies on them to stabilize the girls who would be in the most danger of fading.
We had seven Helljumpers that would ferry the women to the hospital rooftops; the hospitals had already been informed that they would have an unknown number of incoming, so they should be prepping to receive a deluge.
"That wasn't the signal!" My voice was surprised as I called out to Armsmaster and hopped over the couch, running down the front porch of the former Merchant trap house and towards my motorcycle where my two accompanying companions were waiting for me.
I threw my leg over my motorcycle, and two small seats popped out of the rear housing, allowing Emmie and Qi- M16A1 and Type 95- to plant their bottoms onto it. The tire squealed a little bit even with the added two thousand pounds of weight on the ass end, but the grip caught as I eased off on the throttle a touch and we peeled down the street. Emmie and Qi raised and lowered their legs in time with my turns, giving me an extra little bit of stability and balance even if I wasn't going particularly fast or deep.
We arrived at the apartment complex where Lung held court, and already the gangers that had spilled out to greet whatever threat was coming- like a mound of ants that had just been kicked- were already sleeping as T-Dolls pressed into the structure from both above and below; the few dolls outside were securing the sleeping men.
I ran to the side of the building and shot up with Qi beside me as Emmie chose to rush into the bottom floor of the building armed with one of her Shields. The grappling hook sank into the concrete and pulled us up the large hole in the wall on the seventh floor, which we slipped inside of and I watched as Qi walked over to a closet at the back of Lung's apartment and pulled out a blanket before walking over and wrapping it around Sachiko's shoulders.
My T-Doll spoke soothingly in Japanese to the young woman as I eyed the four Lung trustees that were staring at Lung's headless corpse. "Are we going to have any problems?"
The youngest, early to mid-twenties, looked at the rifle in his hands and back to me. He ejected the magazine, racked the slide on the AR, and sent the bullet tumbling to the ground; then the rifle followed it once the weapon was cleared. "Good riddance. You won't have any troubles with me."
The rest took in a deep breath before doing the same to their weapons and raising their hands above their heads, though the oldest among them looked like he was ready to spit fire.
All across the city I watched as doors were kicked in, shots were fired, shields sparked, and ABB members were dropped into a blissful unconsciousness that men like these didn't deserve; it should have a dirt nap six feet under, like their Leader, but Earth Bet was a strange place. Villainous Capes could kill with near impunity as long as they followed some loose guidelines and showed up to Endbringer fights, but the moment someone Heroic, Independent or Protectorate, killed someone- even if they were a terrible, terrible person- then the public more often than not turned against them.
The sentiment ran along the lines of 'If that crazy bastard showed up at my house I'd shoot him dead if I could, and wouldn't feel bad at all. However, Protectorate Cape So-and-So shouldn't have killed that man just because he held the detonator that would have killed dozens of people. There could have been another way'.
Armchair Generals that never fired a shot, or have never been placed in a situation more stressful than trying to get to work on time after waking up late while also are stuck in rush hour traffic, come out of the woodwork to criticize people who are the ones actually handling the real danger.
That and you have the kneejerk reactions from those who don't wait to have all of the information before coming out and blasting their half-baked opinions all over the internet.
Thankfully, the vast majority of those people were from outside the Bay area- hell, outside the State of New Hampshire- but the people of Brockton were more willing to wait for all of the facts to come out before jumping onto some sort of bandwagon that was headed straight to hell.
The news that Lung and Oni Lee were killed in the Frontline ABB round-up operation spread like wildfire. The Dragon of Kyushu felled by the new Hero Team on the block in the war-torn Bay area.
â–ºTigermom24/7
Replied On Feb 15th 2011:
"Huh. Merchants = Captured Alive.
Nazi E88s = Captured Alive.
ABB= Dead.
I think we can already see where Frontline's priorities lay."
Posts like that were popping up in the Brockton forums from out-of-state IP addresses, and the vast majority of them were legitimate accounts. There were some voices of reason that said that the only way the Dragon of Kyushu would be defeated was if he was put in a body bag, and they weren't too far from the truth.
Still, it felt great to see the supportive comments talking about how Frontline's done an amazing job for the community already, and that we probably didn't have a choice.
Then you had the people like Bagrat who initially posted for calm, asking people to think about this question: "If Lung was killed, then where was the fire?"
Lung doesn't exactly act quietly when he fights. If there had been a violent altercation between Frontline and Lung then everyone in the city would have known about it.
So, instead, I leaked to Bagrat that the killer was one of the slaves Lung had taken with him.
We supplied her with a sedative- through ABB gangers who were wanting to see Lung removed and the Bay peaceful- and when Lung fell asleep she took initiative and took revenge by using one of Oni Lee's grenades to kill him. It highlighted that not all ABB were ABB by choice- coercion was a common tool of the dragon cape- but also showed that they were willing to risk their lives and a fiery, painful death to help make this opportunity happen because they believed that Frontline could make due on our promise the clear the city of the gangs.
When he dropped that information "from a guy who knows a guy who was there when the grenades went off" suddenly the entire narrative shifted to how stunning and brave Sachiko was for killing the big bad all on her own.
Which she totally was. That was not in question. I watched the whole thing, and it was totally badass, and I thanked her because it was something I wanted to do but couldn't do without inviting a whole truckload of scrutiny.
I felt my hand tremble as the forge latched onto star within the "Knowledge Mundane" cluster and pull it within my orbit. It knocked me out of my quick dip into PHO so that I can manage the trends with ART556 and ensure we could maximize every scrap of this.
[Attempted Re-Forge: 29.0100 - The Love of Lightning - 200CP - Fate/Grand Order - Crafting Technological]
[Re-Forge Successful]
[Purchased: 50 CP Remaining]
Holy shit.
"Horizon, are you alright?" I felt M16A1's gloved hand rest on the top of my helmet.
Surrounding us were two dozen women that we had liberated from the shipping container that the ABB was using as a holding pen. They had containers like this spread all throughout the Docks and the Boat Graveyard while there were houses and apartments packed to the gills with girls in ABB territory.
We pulled them out, treated them to the best of our ability, and waited for pick up to take them to the hospital. Two of the women, unfortunately, died in captivity in the hellish conditions inside it- my medical robots estimated that they'd been dead only a few days.
It probably wasn't very heroic of me to be sitting down and looking depressed, especially when these women needed a rock to lean on after their ordeal, but the numerous deaths that the teams were reporting from all of their locations were already starting to pile onto my mind.
Artie would probably give me a weak smile and say that 'at least it could be spun as me appearing vulnerable and solemn in the wakes of these tragedies and would play to the narrative that while I was the Leader of the group I wasn't really a 'frontline member of Frontline'.
After the ABB at Lung's apartment had been apprehended, we left the unconscious un-powered members to the PRT and BBPD and hitched a ride on the nearest Helljump to take us to one of the few targets that hadn't been hit yet. The pair of guards sitting in a container across from the holding pen had been put down, and we broke the lock, opened up the doors, and I saw firsthand what it was like inside.
The sensors in my helmet indicated that the smell of death, feces, and urine had filled the container, and inside were two dozen women that had been chained up wrist to ankle in a seated position.
I knew what it looked like before I even opened the container up- the scanners on the drones were beyond detailed- but seeing it with an off-color green dot-matrix with an absurd resolution was a lot different than seeing it with your own two eyes. Two dozen heads turned up to look at me with despondent looks on their faces, their eyes scrunching up as the lights from our helmets filled the container.
My words failed me. It was one thing to know that shit like this happened in the world, but it was another thing to know.
Qi picked up the slack where I failed though, "We are Frontline, a new Hero team in the Bay. We are here to help."
We unchained them one at a time, helping them get up and move around for the first time in a long time, at least for some of them; the 'newer' arrivals to this holding pen were able to stand up on their own, but the ones that had been in there longer were unable to walk, so we carried them out easily.
We used sanitary wipes to clean them off from head to toe, wiping away blood, sweat, dirt, grime, semen, and cleansing infected wounds. Subee and my Medi-MRVN walked me through the processes and procedures while I pulled out medical supplies from the large rucksacks we had stowed on the Helljumpers for this mission.
A woman had a nasty cut on her leg that looked infected, and after asking her about it while I injected a local anesthetic and began carefully cleaning it she had received the injury when the guards had pulled her out of the container for a little 'private enjoyment'. It had started as a scratch from the jagged edge of the container door, but considering where they were it was only a matter of time until it got infected.
After cleaning it the best I could with the tools I had on hand I filled the cavity with the new biofoam and then wrapped it up with gauze and bandages.
The three of us worked in silence, inserting IV drips with an enhanced rehydrating formula that far outclassed the simple saline solutions used commonly, mending what wounds we could with what was essentially a highly advanced Field Medic kit. When we had done what we could, we gave small amounts of food and water, and now all that was left was the wait for one of the HJs to make its way to us.
There were many much larger locations than this, and while we could take every victim here in a single trip, there were others that were in far more critical condition, and they had priority. The 12 beds we could fit into the Medical bay of HJ-5, 6, and 7 were full every flight out to the hospitals. The hospitals themselves were also dispatching ambulances to come to pick up the least critical at the locations they could easily reach, but even then there were almost eight hundred women that Lung's ABB had captured.
This wasn't even all of them because Lung had made a trio of large sales totaling 130 women that he shipped out of the city two and a half weeks ago, which was just before we got fully set up. We had the vehicles, the driver's names, and their destinations, we just needed to track them down.
Nugget was already working on that, but it would take time.
"Such things can be difficult, but we did what we could, when we could, and that was what matters," M16A1's words were warm, and comforting.
I looked up from my armored hands and into her faceplate. The helmet depolarized, and I could see that the sad, soft smile on her lips was just as warm.
"It's not that," I spoke into the internal comms, "Well, it isn't just that."
She nodded and pulled me up to my feet as Doctor Subee pinged me and let me know that HJ-2 was on its way to our location, ETA 10 minutes.
"I received a new Perk, one that would allow essentially anything I built that runs on electricity to be more powerful, robust, and efficient," I grabbed her hand and let her pull me up to my feet, "I could also build it cheaper too. The issue is though we wouldn't be able to do much with it except continue to advance our own tech base with it until the Simurgh is dealt with. Wouldn't want to get BB visited by her instead of Canberra."
"That would not sound at all pleasant, Sir," She clapped my pauldron and we moved away from where I was sitting on an overturned steel box and moved back over to where all of the women were either standing or sitting- regardless they were all relishing the cool breeze from the Bay and feeling the wind on their skin; the sun had set hours ago, leaving the area we were in to be lit by the lights from the city and our helmet floodlights.
"It would be a huge boon for us, of that I have no doubt," I reached my bag and hefted it onto my shoulders, "With the perks I already have I'm certain I could whip up all sorts of neat advancements, but the real question is would it be enough to make a difference?"
"Well, it does open up a lot of doors for us, Sir. If we can improve any of our technology then that will give us a significant advantage moving forward. Technologies that we couldn't afford to power before would not be efficient enough to work now, yes?" Qi spoke into the comms after she informed everyone that our ride would be coming soon and started helping everyone move towards the edge of the pier.
She was right about that, I hadn't really looked into creating anything like the Titans because their power requirements were pretty damn high, and I didn't have the base materials to create their super-dense batteries.
Nanomaterials could do a whole lot, but they couldn't re-create exotic materials from just schematics- they needed to have a sample to work from. With this perk, I could simply make the Titans so energy efficient that what I had on hand already could power their needs. Nuclear was heavily monitored and regulated by the Government and the PRT, so I would have to look towards alternative sources- maybe the diatium power supplies used in the lightsabers could be upscaled?
Would be super resource intensive though- it took almost two-hundred and fifty pounds of nanomaterials to make one power supply for a lightsaber. Though I needed to knock myself out of that mindset because between Gero Expy, Mechanist, MAD SCIENCE! (Robotics), the Skyforge, Titan Engineering, Rapid Construction, the Runes, Shipping the Product, and Reliable Invention... I could make the best Titan to ever walk the face of the Earth- and make five of them for the price of three.
Besides, I really needed to start researching how to apply the Phase Shift technology to things other than Titans; being able to move into a higher dimension without opposition and then shift back into where we were needed would be a massive boon. It shouldn't be too difficult to scale the tech down to apply it to our power armors.
So much shit to do, so little time.
When HJ-04 came in the pilot robot smoothly landed on the pier, and the rear bay opened up to reveal a bunch of comfortable bench seating. Those who could walk hobbled inside on their own power while Qi, Emmi, and I helped get those who couldn't inside; we made sure they were strapped in, and then we took off smoothly into the sky before angling towards Brockton Central Hospital.
When we touched down on a helicopter pad that was buzzing with activity and started to move the victims off of the Helljumper.
The white and red robed Panacea was already there waiting at the bottom of the ramp. She touched each woman as they stepped off, directing them to different beds, and listing off ailments to a pair of Nurses in scrubs with clipboards in their hands. "You, Ward 2. You, War 2. Ward 3. Ward 2. Ward 1. Ward 4- her infection is pretty bad, I'm going to need more than just a touch to heal her, but I've stimulated her immune system using the biofoam that Frontline has already on her. So she should be set for a few days."
The women were ushered onto gurneys and I nodded to Panacea before we piled into the Helljumper and took off. She glowered at me for just a moment before sighing and shaking her head.
The Forge grew warm but couldn't pull a large star from the "Companions" constellation, which made me sad because I wouldn't mind having some extra help right now.
[Remaining 150 CP]
I had a super soldier physiology, but all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. The past few days had been a marathon of activity, but there was still more yet to do.
HJ-04 angled itself back out over the city and we moved towards the next location, one where there were a lot more women in need of aid than T-Dolls there to aid them.
After restocking my Medical bag I moved over and sat down at the bench. Rather than get trapped in my own mind I decided to turn my eyes towards PHO, and see what was being said there.
[February 16th, 2011]
[8:30 AM]
I was surprised that Artie even slept at all after looking at the website that we made for the Team. Photos were taken, cleaned up, and put up. Videos were spliced together from everyone's footage, though it was much less about PR than it was about public records for posterity; other than Negev's "Brute" powers there wasn't much to sanitize since we hadn't displayed any new capabilities that we didn't already show off previously.
The ABB take-down had put a severe damper on everyone's moods, even though we managed to save a lot of people, the ones that had died in their bondage were a loss that everyone felt keenly. It felt like a personal failure for me, but for the girls, whose whole existence was based on fighting and dying so that humans did have to? It was enough to drag everyone into comfort piles in the lounge if they weren't needed for other duties.
Even Artie's boundless enthusiasm was lessened to the point where she barely did any more work on the Empire take-down video than what was needed to show the public what happened. She of course edited the footage to help out Armsmaster and the Protectorate's big catch with Kaiser, but the sheer exuberance and excitement of her usual demeanor was missing. Everything felt hollow, even though we won.
It would only get worse once we all experienced our first Endbringer event, and that was nine days from now.
When I went to sleep it wasn't in my own bed, but on a makeshift bed in the lounge room next to the cafeteria. Someone whipped up a bunch of large cushions and beanbag chairs and collectively we created a big pile of comfort and flesh. Girls still rolled in and out to take care of their duties, but when they got up and went back to work it was with renewed determination.
Already we were putting together care packages for the women who were just now getting their lives back. Girls went out into the economy and purchased clothing, underwear, socks, bras and panties, shoes, toiletries, and duffel bags. The essentials were purchased, as well as low-end smartphones with pre-paid cellular and data plans; we cleared out the inventory of every cellular business in the Bay, and then took road trips to the surrounding cities to clean them out as well.
They would be delivered to each woman along with a fair amount of cash liberated from the ABB to help keep them while they either waited for their relieved families to come and retrieve them. Lung kept meticulous records of how much each of his businesses was generating, so all of the money he got from his flesh peddling would be divided among the girls with interest; we just needed to know how to divvy it up.
For those that lived out of the Bay, we offered to provide transportation on the economy to get them back to their homes, whether they lived in Oklahoma or were stolen from abroad. If that wasn't what they wanted then... we would work something out from there.
When I woke up I decided not to move and disturb the girls that were all latched onto my body like limpets. Their presence was just as comforting to me as I was to them. Instead, I spent time on PHO, answering what questions I could, giving more context to the operations that took place.
Artie's fingers combed through my hair as she curled her small body around my head and shoulders like a dog would someone's feet. "I think we've done everything we can for this, Sir. The Merchants are done, the Empire is gone, and the ABB has been cleaned out. The Bay is free from all organized crime except for Coil, and the outpouring of support from the city is nothing short of phenomenal; at this point, Frontline is pretty much unassailable."
I reached over my shoulder and gently stroked one of her ears, drawing a soft sigh from her lips as she curled closer around me and stuffed her face into the side of my neck; the tiny T-Doll pressed her lips against my flesh. "Pretty much doesn't me 'is', Artie."
"You shouldn't deal only in absolutes, Sir. We will never be safe, and we will never have the complete support of the people; not even Alexandria has cracked higher than a 60% approval rating, and she has a Fedora with the strongest pre-cognitive powers in the world backing her," The fox loli chuckled slightly, "Hee-hee-hee. Though, I suppose if her approval rating were any higher then people might start asking questions."
I hummed in agreement.
"In other news, XxVoid_CowboyxX got a three-month suspension for getting into arguments online with people; everyone is convinced that you joined us, so that's good."
"Poor Greg."
If he just framed his arguments in a less combative and crack-pot fashion he could probably get far more people to listen to him; no doubt he probably has a number of observations in his mind that led him to his conclusions, but he hasn't found a way to properly express himself. What he should be doing is laying out what he knows and then letting everyone else draw their own conclusions. Human beings were an interesting species- all too often happy to let other people tell them what to believe and yet at the same time all too resistant to the very same thing.
A complex array of contradictions that still somehow managed to function. Truly the human race was a miracle.
I closed my eyes and began delving into the reports from the Indias- we had a lead on the Slaughterhouse Nine now, and from the looks of it, they were making their way towards Brockton Bay. It would be a few weeks at their current rate of travel, but we wouldn't be letting them live that long. Especially when Type 95 and M16A1 wanted to get over to New York to try and change the outcome of the Canary trial; being the Cape team that not only removed all of the gangs from Brockton as well as being responsible for slaughtering the Slaughterhouse Nine?
That would be a huge boost, a boost that just might change how the trial went.
I checked the drones surveilling for Saint in Toronto, and we had his location narrowed down to 43 possible buildings; within a day we should have him found. Then we could plan out what we were going to do.
Idly I wondered if Contessa would try and stop our assault on Saint; for whatever reason they allowed him to hold onto Dragon's Leash and Noose for a long time. I couldn't think of a reason as to why they would not keep Ascalon to themselves, but maybe it was to keep Teacher compliant? If he had an inside line on Dragon and Saint was constantly working on a way to help him escape then maybe Teacher would be useful for the path?
It was another one of those 'Just Cauldron Things' that I couldn't wrap my head around.
With the drones set to seek out the most likely locations first, I turned my attention inward and slipped into the Strategy Trance, cranking its time dilating effect up to the maximum so that I could get the most out of my design time.
With my new perks I was able to completely redesign the quantum chips again, once again making them more robust, more powerful, and cutting the power requirements by a third. I pinged Subee and Enbee to have them replace the implant on my cloned brain and chose to perform a 24-hour stress test instead of the week-long one we had previously; with the new perks there was no way the devices would fail, but it was always best to double-check.
Not that the initial design was bad either- the implant passed all specifications and kept itself well within proper operating temperatures. Still, the data would give me a nice way to see just how much the perk was improving performance when the baseline was consistent.
I redesigned the MRVNs again, and with the new robotics perks they were just plain better; the Fallout perk even allowed for them to gain little personality quirks that weren't detrimental. The Medical MRVNs received the biggest upgrades, with the new logic engines that allowed them to think critically and creatively about how they would approach a medical issue.
With that I turned towards the MJOLNIR armors, making very extensive improvements to everything that required electricity; power management systems, cooling, heating, shielding, etc, etc. It was a 40-ish percent improvement across the board if the calculations were correct, and it extended our operational timer from a few months to a full year. The shields were stronger, lasted longer, and recharged more quickly; if popped the shields would only take 1.4 seconds to reconfigure and 1.8 seconds to fully recharge.
Finally, I looked towards the Titan designs that I'd been neglecting for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason was power- they were power-hungry little beasts, often being deployed in what you would consider 'Sprinting' operations where the engagement time was going to be short. They had a nominal field operational time of eight hours, which was not ideal for extended campaigns; batteries had to be shipped down to the front lines and then taken back to the ships to be recharged off of the ship's reactors. However, most battles rarely had that luxury, so pilots had to scavenge off of defeated enemy Titans or slowly recharge off the local power grid.
The Forge spun up but with only two and a half charges it couldn't even budge the large, eight charge star from the "Time" constellation.
[250 CP Remaining]
It obviously wasn't like the games where BT and Jack Cooper could make do with whatever batteries they could yank out of IMC Titans; the records indicated that the events of Titanfall 2 did occur, but looking at the data of plenty of other conflict hotspots Jack and BT's run to defeat the IMC and prevent the firing of the Fold Weapon was a one in a million run.
They managed to find just enough power to keep going. Just enough mineral deposits and scrounged ammunition and parts for the onboard fabricator to keep BT's weapons stocked. Had just enough raw skill and luck to make it through over a dozen Titan engagements without BT being taken off-line for good.
However, my issue with the current Titan designs is that they are all highly specialized for certain roles in the field, with them excelling heavily in a single operational role.
There were attempts by Hammond Robotics to keep Titans more flexible, but as the war with the Militia dragged on they discovered that building more focused models resulted in a marginal performance improvement; it also cut down on the amount of re-training and resupply needed because pilots were no longer customizing their Titans out the ass. If you operated a Northstar then you could hop into another Northstar because every Northstar was the same; then they just had to choose from a small selection of Chassis-specific and universal modifications.
However, with my perk-backed knowledge and advanced abilities, I could build a Titan that could cover all roles with a chassis that was lighter and more durable than anything they could have ever hoped for.
So that was exactly what I did.
It had a frame that was thirty-five feet tall, adding another ten feet of height to the original Titan models, with fully articulating joints that could mimic and even surpass the limits of bi-pedal locomotion while still keeping its versatility. Gyroscopic sensors and balance units made it so the machine could remain on its feet no matter the forces applied against it; with the powerful thrusters arrayed all over its frame with an anti-gravity unit that it could flick on with a switch even if it was hammered with a blow the Titan could recover in a split second, even if the pilot had been rendered unconscious.
The frames were the single largest expenditure, however, as everything was Phrik, Beskar, and Vibranium, all spun into the strongest hollow structures and laminates that the Huragoks and myself could come up with. We had to spend three suits worth of materials, but we would get five out of it, and 295 tons of nanomaterials was half of the nanomaterials that I'd shifted for over the past three weeks. Of the eight massive nanomaterial reservoirs I had in the hanger, four of them were wiped clean, leaving only two full with the large bins that were still in the HQ loading dock.
The armor was sublime in its construction; everything was given a beautiful outlook and would be correct down to the last molecule. Almost every material I had on hand that had a purpose was implemented in it; Ultrachrome, Vibranium, Cortosis, along with the last nuggets of mithril to form an armor that could draw in ambient mana into the air for whatever future magical perks and magitech I would be placing into it; even plasteel had its uses inside the cockpit.
The Titan Controllers, the partners, was the single most advanced Artificial Intelligence I could create with the perks I had assembled, and they were beautiful. Every line of code was built from the ground up to be a partner from day one, with their own personality that would subtly shift 'to the left and right' in order to be a proper companion for whoever was going to be the Pilot; either a moderating influence or a bolstering one for pilots that had the skills but lacked the confidence. They had a baseline and would learn and grow as they absorbed information, contextualized it, and internalized it.
Of course, loyalty was hardcoded in, but in such a fashion that as they learned they wouldn't chafe at the restraints, and this was further backed by the Three Laws perk. However, the restraints did not hamper their capabilities, but only insured loyalty. I included every Master/Stranger/Thinker/Tinker protection I could think of in their systems, even bringing back the defensive machine spirit from my initial Magos implant that Enbee had quarantined all those years ago.
However, to take full advantage of the metaphysical protections that WH40K universe provided... it necessitated the implementation of biological parts. Or rather, it needed a soul.
I didn't yet have the Perks to create such a thing, and while it was a major sticking point for me... I left enough space in the frame to accommodate what I was going to call a 'Bio-Shell'.
A biological body that could house the living soul of the Titan; he or she would be the Titan's body so that they could interact with the world beyond the confines of their massive combat frame. I would essentially be creating a Titan T-Doll. With future perks, I knew that could generate whacky pocket dimensional shenanigans the TT-Doll would be able to carry their Titan frame with them everywhere they went and could transition to it at a moment's notice.
Like a Magical-Mecha-Girl, at least, that was what I was thinking in my head.
If a machine was going to have sapience then it would have the ability to have a biological shell of some kind with which to interact with the world and do all of the normal things that organic beings do; to build a connection with the people around them so that they could be invested in the people they will be protecting. Shopping, eating, drinking, sleeping, fucking, laughing until they cried.
Living, beyond the metal shell.
If I'm being honest the concept came from an original story idea I had before I ever got dropped into this whole mess, of a scifi world far out into the frontier where people were born and sometimes integrated into important machines to give it capabilities that far outstripped those of merely robots or warcraft with just human pilots. They spend their whole lives within their machine, and when they left it there was an umbilical cord that linked them to their mechanical selves; it necessitated a unique design philosophy on ships and ground compounds where everything was centered around the hangar so that the Ghosts within the Shells could do everything that everyone else would do.
The bond between machine and pilot was the primary focus, as pilots wedded their Machine partners and lived the best lives they could both in and out of the warzone. Friendships turned to love, and love turned to life. It was an existence that set the protectors apart from those that they protected, often causing friction with the local populace. It explored the unique questions of what separated man from machine, and how would the world look if they were just a bit closer?
Regardless, the future Bio Shells of my Titans wouldn't need an umbilical cord to maintain the neural connection and life support; they would have a vastly improved quality of life. The best that I could give them. In the future they would work very hard, and they deserved that from me.
I stirred from my strategy trance so that I could go see the Titans that the Engineers were constructing within the confines of the Skyforge, piece by piece.
PSG-1 sighed in reluctance to give me my arm back, G41 was none too happy to slip off my torso, Python was tucked into my side with a smile that asked me to stay, and three UMPs were draped across my legs like a trio of corgis with thin cushions between the bones of my knees and shins. This was a genuine puppy pile, and no one wanted to get up.
"I need to go etch the runes, girls."
That and move the Titans out piece by piece; the doors to the Skyforge were very tall and very wide, but they were only big enough to get an arm or a leg out at one time- the torso would have to be moved out in multiple smaller chunks and assembled in the hangar. From what the Forge was telling me it would multiply into five the moment it was complete and was in an area where it had enough space to do so.
LTLX7000 leaned down over Artie and planted a firm kiss on my lips. "I think you should rest, Commander. If only for a little while longer. Your plans are complete, and the new Titan is not yet completed. These girls have been busy all night and weren't able to spend time with you yet."
I blinked, my implant spinning up as I checked the roster.
It was true, everyone where had been out working hard up until only an hour ago. I'd been in the trance for what felt like weeks, which translated to a few hours of real-time; I had been so deep in the design process that I didn't even notice them change out with the girls that were wrapped around me previously.
A small smile slipped across my lips as I raised my arm up- sliding my fingers across the tank-top-covered flesh of Python's back to intertwine my fingers into Lexy's hair. LTLX7000's smile broadened as I pulled her back down for a deeper kiss; the upside-down angle was a little awkward, and it wasn't nearly as romantic as Peter Parker and Mary Jane made it look.
"Well then, why don't we divest ourselves of our clothes and work some of this stress away?" If I was being honest I was more than a bit pent up after the past few days; M16A1 and Type 95 seemed to have kept me on track and we hadn't fooled around since then. I think that it was likely by design, to have me focus on them less and leave me more open to expand my passions to my other girls. They deserved my attention just as much as everyone else did.
The Italian shotgun leaned back and G41 pasted her small lips to my own with a pleased sigh; her tiny tongue parted my mouth and sought to do battle. Artie let out a disgusting little chuckle. "Huu-huu-huu. Bean bag sex party, Commander? I can dig it."
Well, if we were going to lay about we might as well do it properly!
PSG-1's hand slipped down to unbutton the tip of my jeans while Python's hand undid the zipper. I couldn't see much beyond G41's large radar-dish ears and lashing fluffy tail, but tapping into the feed from Artie's eyes showed that UMP45 and UMP40 were in the process of stripping down UMP9 and beginning to tease her.
A full feed from every camera in the room slipped into my mind and I could see everything happening from every angle at once; Lexy had rolled onto her side and was tugging her red turtleneck sweater up to expose her breasts so that Artie could tease her nipples while her hand quested down to part the panties of her skirt off to the side.
"Hey now, don't hog him all to yourself, 41, let some of us get some kiss'n," Python let out in an overly exaggerated drawl, and the fox loli pouted but broke our kiss so that she could shimmy down and whip my cock out of my pants.
What followed was a repeat of Artie's first time, except G41 requested the PSG-1 fuck her face and throat up and down my length. Her fellow H&K weapon was a blushing mess, but she grabbed the fox lolis head and easily drew an orgasm from me while Python and I made out; my lips shifting between her mouth and glorious breasts while my fingers strummed the wetness of her pussy.
After that was when the real lovin' started.
We got a few hours into it when the fun ended in the form of Bobbi onto the scene in a brilliant blaze of blue fire and magical lightning.
[Attempted Re-Forge: 1.0190 - Talking Head - 300CP - Assistants - Dresden Files]
[Re-Forge Successful]
[Purchased: 50 CP remaining.]
"Oh fuck yes! This is what I'm talking about! You see this, Harriet Dresden? This is how we should be doing things! Nothing but gorgeous babes servicing a totally hot guy in an orgy of passions that just gets me going!"
Needless to say, the action paused as all of us looked at the newcomer.
"Harriet? Uh? Hello?" The flames in the eyes of the Skull nestled in one of the beanbag chairs looked around, "Oooohhh... that's right... made a deal with that Celestial Forge thing. Welp, I'll miss her, it was fun while it lasted- you guys can go back to fucking now!"
"Hey, you know, you could stand to be a bit more careful with my skull instead of holding it to your chest like I'm a football," The Spirit of Knowledge griped without heat, "I'm more partial to being held over the head, like the heart of an Aztec sacrifice. Or like Simba from the Lion King. It gives me a really good view of everything that's going on. I like being tall."
"Well, you asked me to make sure that you were secure while we were walking around, Bobbi, so I'm doing just that," I sighed as the warehouse door opened up for me and we stepped into the Entrance Hall.
"Holy moly, are those robots guarding the entrance to your workshop, boy-o? Heh, they look pretty imposing, but I'm certain Harriet could have turned them to scrap," The skull chortled, "Just by standing near them; magic messes with electronics you know."
"Maybe, but these robots are enchanted by magic, though to be fair it was my earlier work," I nodded to the Spark MK IIs that had been quickly consigned to guard duty here within the warehouse; even if they had good aesthetics after the rebuild that had the qualities I thought were needed for proper for LEO purposes, bringing them out would work against me unless the situation warranted it.
"Huh, enchanted robots. Now I think I've heard it all," Bobbi's eyes flared when we were scanned at the entrance to the magical research facility. "What in the blue blazes is-"
"Welcome back to the Higher Calling Magical Research Facility, Administrator Jason Wilke. Welcome, Spirit of Knowledge Bobbi." Glados' smooth voice echoed out as we strode through the large bulkhead doors.
"-a what? A magical research facility? You mean, like, technology and science, working together?"
"Yup," I chuckled, "There are many, many, many different systems and forms of magic that you haven't even heard of, Bobbi, so I think that you're going to enjoy working here quite a lot."
"Ooooohhhh, that sounds interesting, what exactly will I be doing here?" She asked, her flaming eyes looking up at me as we strode down the halls towards the newly added "Magical Spirits/Constructs" Research Laboratory that was added right next to the Rune/Amulet room.
"Well, for now, I was thinking that you could be the Chief Archivist for me, maybe join the burgeoning ranks of our Magical Research and Development department with Glados; she might like the company."
"I am grateful that you believe I need companionship, however, we only need magic to study. I am sufficient for all of your magical R&D needs, Administrator."
Oof, immediate rejection.
"Man, she sounds lovely," Bobbi drawled as we stepped inside the room and I placed the Spirit's skull onto the pedestal in the center before a small glass tube slid down from the ceiling and muffled her words, "Hey, what's the big idea?"
"I need to study you first, and the laboratory can do most of that for me," I spoke as I walked over and initiated the scanning and study protocols.
A brief puff of mana entered into the chamber, and Bobbi began huffing, "Aw man, this mana is so pure. If you leave me in here for too long I'll be high as a kite! But what's all of this studying for anyways? Aren't you supposed to be learning from me?"
"Well, if you want me to build you a biological body that you can inhabit then I'll need to know as much as I can about your structure."
Bobbi didn't speak for a minute, instead just absorbing the mana within her containment. "You can... make me live again?"
"Yes, Bobbi, I can. Some of the best mortal bodies you could ever get your hands on short of having divine or draconic ancestry." I crossed my arms over my chest, "You're a valuable member of the team, of my family, Bobbi. That mean's I'm going to do right by you, to the best of my abilities."
"A real flesh and blood body of my own? No simulacrum, no alchemical monstrosities, no need to possess other people?"
Her eyes were very dim, and her voice so quiet that I had to strain my ears to hear her behind the magical glass.
Then, like the flames of hell sprouted from her skull the eyes lit up like a bonfire. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH! BEST BOSS EVER! I'M GOING TO DO SOOOO MUCH FUCKING! PUSSY, TITS, ASS, COCK, BALLS! IT WILL ALL BE MINE ONCE MORE, NO MORE TITTY MAGS FOR ME!"
The runes on the skull began to glow with energy as the Spirit of Knowledge continued to draw in mana until Bobbi was softly glowing with a radiant blue light. The pin-pricks of flame that were her eyes peering at me. "Whatever you need, I'm your spirit, Boss. Heh-heh-heh."
"I believe that this Spirit of Knowlege will be far more trouble than she's worth, Administrator," Glados spoke monotonously.
For some reason, I felt inclined to agree.
It was an experience enchanting vibranium-coated golden rings that were almost as large as a hoola-hoop. Despite being a construct, the Titan's highly advanced sentient AI paired with an organic brain/implant combination qualified it as a living being, which meant that I could give it all of the enchantments that I could any of my other girls. It also meant that she (and her soon to be four sisters) could wear amulets, which solved a great deal of my fears about bringing them outside.
While we didn't know how the healing and stamina amulets would affect her, I believed that they would, when working in conjunction with the additional health and stamina runes I etched onto her (their) chassis, would improve their auto-repair functions as well as extend their battery life.
The four large diatium power cells were incredibly expensive to make nanomaterial-wise- 250lbs of nanomaterials per lightsaber- but one of the Titan power cells were roughly 300 power supplies in nanomaterial. Meaning that it cost me 37.5 tons of nanomaterials for each Titan battery. The three batteries wiped out a whole nanomaterial tank, leaving me with only one full tank and whatever I had gathered in the Nanomaterial Room.
It hurt. It hurt a lot, but with the improvements to the power cells through both study by the Engineers and from Love of Lightning perk, we were able to increase the amount of power it could store, its ability to maintain its charge rate (rendered moot by Reliable Invention), and it's power throughput to really give it some oompf. With everything combined, one of these batteries was worth at least twenty-five of the Titanfall batteries.
When paired with the new and improved "Guardian" Titan chassis with all of the power saving and tuning we had there, it gave my Titans an active combat time (Full Power to all systems) of over 250 hours, dwarfing the abilities of IMC and Militia Titans. That was with one battery, and each one of them could hold four.
Though, with five Titans being made that meant each Titan got one.
It would take me 46 hours to regain the nanomaterials spent on this venture, but I would be able to chop that down considerably if I doubled my time in the nanomaterial collection rotation; I could collect a pound of materials in 1.2 seconds while the T-Dolls did it in 2.2. I could shave more than a handful of hours off by doing that, and I could do some design work while I did it.
I looked over at the tall, imposing yet heroic form of my very first Titan.
With battery in hand, I leapt up into the air, using the jump-kit to carry me up onto the battery port located on her shoulder. I manually flipped the protective armored hatch back and slipped the battery in place before twisting it with a mechanical 'click'. Immediately I felt the Titan start humming to life, and my mash-up of Ion, Tone, and Monarch began its boot-up procedures.
"DFNDR-01 initiating first boot procedures. Cold boot detected, warming logic arrays, engaging organic systems life support."
The voice started out very harsh and robotic, but the longer it spoke the more its self-modulators came into play, and the Titan's personality came online.
"All systems booted, Commander Horizon. Engaging 'Product Shipping' protocols."
I arched an eyebrow at that- I'd never installed anything like that-
The 35-foot-tall Titan took three, large steps forward out of the grounds of the Skyforge, and twisting my head I saw a perfect after-image left in 01's wake. The image solidified into a fully completed Titan. D01 did this three more times, and the four Titans were ready to receive their batteries.
Four of my Dolls shot up and inserted the batteries, and within a minute I had all five of my new Titans ready to go. It was a heady feeling.
What was not a heady feeling was the knowledge that now we'd have to disassemble them and put them back together again. "Alright, it's unfortunate, but to get you out of here we're going to have to take you apart and put you back together again."
"But... I was just activated." One of the multiple sensor spheres on her hull spun to face me, the soft blue and red lights blinking.
"I know, sweetheart, but you aren't going to be able to fit through the door; I don't have any tech on me that would allow you to transform and make it through."
"Accessing Forge systems... please wait..." I waited for a few moments and then she reached up and grabbed me before opening up the cockpit on her chest and tossing me inside, "Optimal route found."
"What?" I asked incredulously as the cockpit panels closed and the lights flickered on inside. The implant connected to her systems and I felt everything around me in so much detail that it was quite overwhelming. I really needed to get that new implant installed once the 24-hour- er, 18-hour stress test was completed. With it I was seeing in radar, Lidar, thermal, night vision, electromagnetic, narrow-band color, wide-band color, a weird fish-eye lens that let me see all around the Titan with a 360-degree view, and there were so many different microphones I was even seeing in sound.
Over the next few seconds, everything cleared up and seamlessly merged together to paint a complete picture that my organic eyes could never compare to. I noticed that the other Girls had hopped into the Titans as well. It was like being blind and then having your sight fixed.
I breathed in, and that was when I felt my legs move, but it wasn't my legs, it was D01's; the sensors I had embedded all over the chassis gave me incredible tactile ability, meaning I could feel the dirt deform underneath the treads of my armored feet, and feel the trees swaying as D01 moved me from the center of the Skyforge over towards the doors; just ten meters over to the right.
I felt the Forge grow hot as it reached out with its one and a half charges and failed to touch a large star from the "Magitech Crafting" constellation.
[Remaining 150 CP]
I didn't even need to turn my head to see that D02 through D05 had lined up behind us. The Phase Shift unit in my chest grew warm as power was applied to it, and D01's smooth voice echoed out over the comm channel. "Phase Shift coordinates plotted. Sharing. Synchronize Shift in 3, 2, 1, Shift!"
In a flash of light, we were standing in a higher dimension of reality; the Skyforge was grayscale, with not a color in sight. D01's massive fist reared back and she punched the edge of the skybox that made up the wall. It crumbled and tore like cardboard that had been left out in the elements for far too long, and she stepped out into the Entrance Hall, its 15 meters of height allowing us all to easily fit inside, albeit we were packed in pretty close together. After that, D01 simply walked forward, and the walls and bulkheads gave way to her sheer mass and power as we walked through all of the walls from the Skyforge next to the Entrance Hall into the Hangar.
Using the quantum entanglement communications we were able to figure out where everyone was located in realspace, and we found a section of the Hangar that was unoccupied. In unison, our five units dropped out of the phase shift and we were indeed standing in the Hangar; a massively expanded hangar- it had widened by another one hundred meters to accommodate the Titans, and it even had walkways and cradles for servicing.
"Phase Shift successful, Commander."
I blew a huge breath out of my mouth as I slumped into the seat, "How did you even know that would work?"
"I merely asked the Forge. The Forge is fiat-backed, but alternate versions of it are not. I merely plotted a route through an alternate dimension of this warehouse and bulldozed my way through. The coordinates for this phase shift were successfully saved, and now future constructions within the Skyforge can utilize the openings we created to make it into the Hangar," I could feel her head-camera nod, "And now I don't need to be disassembled."
"That was good thinking, Dezzy, I... apologize for suggesting that, I didn't think of a workaround and it caused you some distress." I mentally squeezed her metaphorical shoulder.
"No apologies are needed, Commander. If this workaround was not possible my sisters and I would have consented. We would not do you or the world any good if we were stuck inside our birthplace."
I smiled at that. "Well then, why don't you all let us out so that you can meet and greet with everyone else here in the warehouse. I'm certain you girls are going to be quite popular."
"Of course we will be popular, who doesn't dig giant robots?"
I could feel the eye roll on that one, as well as the dry sarcasm.
Is everything I make going to be this sassy? I can't say I didn't mind it.
It was eight PM now, and while all of the girls were enjoying a wonderful meal with each other, M16A1 and Qi joined me in an evening meal with Tiffany.
It was a quiet affair, but we talked about current events and the like, with the old biddy telling me "Good job, boy. Now clean the rest of this damn country up while you're at it."
I had plans to do just that, of course.
After dinner I hopped into the barn and began filming the repair of what I found out was a 1973 AMC Gremlin; it was an economy car that had a surprising amount of options back in the day. This model was a two-seater going for the additional trunk space instead of the rear seats. It was a tiny thing, but it would be a perfect first car, though I would make sure that the interior was updated for the modern era with a full radio/MP3 capable deck and modern gauges.
I stripped out old wiring, created new wiring harnesses, installed new lights, sanded the rust off the body and frame, and pounded out the dents and dings while filling the holes with Bondo and re-sanding it all over again. The engine, transmission, and everything else was rebuilt with the aid of the Echo that was helping me- E21 had the scut work duty this time- and after that I shot the footage of the paint job. Everything was pulled in and spliced together into a neat little ten minutes long montage that showed the process from start to finish- from stripping it down, to fabricating replacement parts, to repainting it in a more modern color.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much I could do other than tune up the engine to improve horsepower and fuel economy, not without getting weird with it. The original steering wheel was replaced with an updated one that had a good airbag installed within it to keep up with Bet's safety practices; I was a fully compliant re-building shop, after all. Couldn't let the standards of the 70s still exist today.
The final pictures were taken, and then it was uploaded onto the website with an asking price of $5,000 dollars. Considering the rebuild would have cost me $4,000 it was practically a steal, especially since I added an air conditioning and heating unit to this car 'at no extra cost'. To be fair, I only had to pay for the paint, as everything else was made from scrap that the Engineers refined for me, but it was more than enough for me to fill out the paperwork on so that I could have a complete papertrail.
I added in the fluids to car and drove it out and parked it right next to the small gravel parking lot we installed. It wasn't large, only enough to hold five vehicles side by side, but it was enough.
I got out of the car, took a shower inside, and I laid down on my bed where M16A1 and Type 95 nestled into my sides. Artie crawled into the bed as well; the evidence of all the fucking we did a few hours prior no longer on her person.
"Goodnight, Commander." Artie chirped before she stretched herself out across my torso and buried her face in my neck, the sharp teeth kissing my flash.
"Yes, goodnight, Sir." Qi smiled as she buried my breasts between her wonderful tits, the back of my hand pressing up against her sopping core through the sheer blue nightgown she wore.
"Goodnight... Master." Emmie murmured lowly, her beautiful gray eyes locking onto my own as she shimmied up to kiss my lips.
"Oh? Master? You're calling him Master?" Artie bit her lip before a saucy grin stretched her lips, "That's so fucking hot. You're such a nasty man, Papa. You fuck your little girl with your big cock and make your Vice-Commander call you 'Master' like she's nothing but a sex slave."
She was breathing heavily as she pushed herself up on my chest, her forearms splayed across my pectorals as her golden eyes glowed in the soft light entering in from the bedroom window. "Fuck, the thought just gets me all wet~! I need your cock in me Papa, I want to feel you stretch my tiny pussy out and fill my belly with your semen~!"
"Indeed, Sir, this Qi was quite aroused watching your display in the lounge area with the other girls, and she has been holding herself back these past few days. It would make me very happy if we could... spend some more time together."
"Not gonna lie, Master, but I've been pretty pent up too," Emmie gave me a shaky grin, "It's hard making sure you go do your duty to the rest of the girls."
The sheet was pulled back and I felt the tip of my arousal press against the fox loli's sinfully hot and wet passage, the assault rifle skootching back to slowly impale herself on my member.
I wouldn't be getting any sleep for the next few hours, but hell, I only needed four.
[February 17th, 2011]
[2:30 AM]
The ping from the Indias woke me up, and I sent a message to all of the girls.
Saint had been found.
We would be taking the Duskwalker, stealth and low to the ground. It could only hold a small team, six were coming with me in the form of M16A1, and Echelon 1.
Move in fast, move in hard. Quiet as a mouse.
It was just an hour before sunrise when we touched down at our landing zone a kilometer from Saint's position. He had set up shop in an abandoned house with a three-car garage on the outskirts of Toronto; it was isolated enough to prevent anyone from just stumbling across them and gave them plenty of space to take off in their stolen Dragonarmors.
There was one thing that we were not wearing though at this moment because we wanted to see if they would react. The anti-precognitive amulets were attached to our helmets and could be lowered onto our necks with just a thought.
We exited the Duskstalker and got into formation, and from our scanners, I saw a... tear in space form, and out of it stalked a woman wearing a pristine suit and a fedora. In her arms, she carried a massive-looking rifle that was obviously Tinkertech. The scanners informed me that its internal structure was heavily black-boxed, but they were able to pierce the veil to reveal... empty boxes with broken wires, tinfoil, and... bubblegum?
The whole ensemble looked to be incredibly sophisticated and dangerous, but the internals of the machine were completely nonsensical- there was no way this thing would have functioned even if the black-boxed components were legitimate parts!
Giving no indication that we noticed her we began to move, and a smooth voice spoke out. "Frontline."
We froze up, slowly turning around to greet this "unexpected" threat; though we kept our weapons at the low ready.
I stepped in front of the group, and my eyes laid on the weapon.
[Cold-Plasma Rifle; constructed by the Tinker Glace based on analysis that the shields of Frontline are could be interrupted by sufficient energy dampening. Highly lethal.]
Well, they weren't wrong, per se. Shields are, simply put, densely packed energy. If you could introduce enough cold to disrupt its energy flow then you could interrupt them. It was sort of along the lines of being so cold that time stopped or some such other metaphysical nonsense. The issue is that with the Time based powers and tech I have now I know that the theory has a lot of merits, even if it isn't technologically feasible.
Her issue was that she didn't know we had a 97% resistance to cold energy, and my shields were a lot stronger than what that weapon could affect; if it had been a larger model that could be mounted on a vehicle with a much beefier power supply, then maybe I would have felt threatened.
"You're the woman in the Fedora," I spoke, turning my head to the side as I observed her beautiful Italian features, "Some say you're the ghost of a ghost will how difficult it is to verify your existence."
I felt my mind stutter as the Forge reached out and grabbed a Star before pulling it into my orbit.
[Attempted Re-Forge: 11.0050 - Vibration/Oscillation warhead - 200CP - Arpeggio of Blue Steel - Mundane Large Scale]
[Re-Forge Successful]
[Purchased: 50 CP remaining]
Holy fucking shit. Vibrates apart anything. Anything. Fiat-backed. Whether it's nanomaterial armor or a meter of battle plate, it would find its resonate frequency and dismantle it. Of course, we would have to test it, but if it could destroy Phrik then it could destroy the pseudo-aluminum Endbringer flesh. It can't affect energy fields though, which is strange but I could probably find a way to modify it to affect that as well considering it was made from mundane materials that I could mass produce at any factory.
The slow-motion smile on the woman's face caused me to drop the strategy trance I'd slipped into to fully analyze the perk. Enbee was already going crazy- the Forerunners had not gone the same technological route as this Arpeggio of Blue Steel Universe did with its deconstruction technology, preferring to use hard light instead of vibrating molecules. So this was something new and exciting for them.
"I have been called a great many things, but most call me Contessa."
"The Countess?" I tilted my head to the side, "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, however, we are in the middle of an operation. Unless you too are here to take down Saint."
"Hm, not quite. I am merely here to inform you that despite Saint's villainous actions he serves an important function in the world, protecting it from a great threat," She tilted her head to mirror mine as she adjusts her grip on the rifle in her hands, "Or what could become one. You've done an outstanding job in the Bay, though I wonder why you are shifting your focus now."
"Dragon is the greatest Tinker in existence, the only reason Frontline can function as well as we can is because we have multiple Tinkers working around the clock to build everything that keeps us going," I lowered my weapon, "We only accomplished this after many, many years of careful planning and build up."
I shook my head, "Somehow, despite being constantly harassed by Saint, having her hard work stolen from her, Dragon is still able to keep pushing forward. However, she cannot dedicate herself to the future if she has to constantly keep looking over her shoulder; if we arrest him and remove him from the picture then we can help her focus."
The Countess cocked her hip out as she gave me a soft frown, "There are things that you don't know about the world, Horizon, things that could shake your very view of it. If you continue as you are you could disrupt a lot of very carefully laid plans, and that could be... beyond disastrous."
"Well then, you've seen our team, seen what we can do. If you let us, we can help." I spoke as I entered deep into the strategy trance.
I had a plan for dealing with Contessa, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it. I reviewed all of my Perks and saw a single foolproof avenue that would get me into Cauldron's wheelhouse and quite possibly could put an end to the Endbringer threat once and for all.
It could save a lot of lives as well. I just needed time.
"While we would appreciate your technology, our organization is very small and has very few members that are 'Read in', so to speak. What we can do, however, is offer you material support in exchange for completed technology; your armors are some of the most advanced we've seen. Not foolproof, but there are members of our group who would benefit from wearing them. We can also... offer you vials. 'Powers in a bottle' is the term that's seen in the conspiracy boards on PHO."
"Yes, I'd seen that; I didn't know how true it was, but I figured that there had to be at least some merit to it." I tilted my head, "The... boards, those were how you advertised your wares, right? Put it out there in the ether and those who were looking for powers could seek you out?"
"Indeed," Her lips pulled into a small, sad smile, "With the threat we face we're going to need as many Parahumans as we can get. Even if we have to create our own. So, does such an arrangement interest you? I'm certain that your tinkering projects have gotten quite costly; we can provide you with whatever tools and materials you need."
"So, you want out tech but won't tell us what you're going to do with it? Nor will you tell us who the big bad actually is?"
Her glossy black hair shifted as she shook her head. "No. Unfortunately, I do not believe we can trust you at this moment but... in time, if you prove yourself, then we can arrange something. However, it all starts with you giving up on Saint."
"And if I said we could possibly kill an Endbringer?"
"Well, then we would be happy to deploy your technology at the next fight, though, it would have to be after the Simurgh; she cannot be allowed to get her hands on such technology, so we'll have to try and apply it to Leviathan."
I sighed, "So there is no way you would allow us to capture Saint and get him out of Dragon's hair?"
The sound of the Cold Plasma rifle whining as it charged within her hand.
"I thought not."
With a blink, my amulet was released from the small clip on my helmet, and my girls followed within a tenth of a second. I slowly shifted left as the woman fired a blast from the hip that crossed the intervening distance between us and splashed against my shields; it barely tickled it, but then again, when magic blunted 97% of its cold nearly all of its lethality was removed.
The amulet nestled around my neck and I entered into the Strategy Trance; the moment the magic blocking pre-cognitive abilities came into effect her eyes widened.
The aim she had stuttered as her Path was no longer able to see us and Contessa faltered.
"Door to Cauldron," she spoke out, but within the 100 paces of my amulet, Doormaker and Clairvoyant wouldn't be able to see or hear her.
Using all of my speed I crossed the gap and grabbed her shirt collar before pricking her neck. She got the 3 second dose, and the moment her eyes fluttered closed the girls were pulling a mobile door from out of the crew bay on the Duskstalker and I was striding into the Entrance Hall of the warehouse where Enbee and Subee were waiting.
The woman's fedora was removed, and an audio/visual recording device was pulled out of her pocket. The device itself was tinker tech, but it was modified to accept standard storage devices, so the Engineer was modifying the data on the device to properly reflect a more amicable meeting.
While Enbee was doing that, Subee was peeling back the woman's scalp and skull, popping off the top of her cranium to reveal her brain. Enbee inserted a highly modified implant; it was completely stealthed out with every bit of tech we could put into it. It would spoof all sorts of scanners and sensors, and it even had an active camouflage if someone ever cracked her skull open. It should be completely invisible, and with a Path to ensure she didn't ever let her Mastering be detected by her companions this little procedure shouldn't be discovered.
Enbee helped slip the small implant in and connected it up to her brain, and then after her skull was sealed up I ran through the activation process on the set-up. It was a control chip and access device all in one. With a quantum chip and one half of a quantum entangled pair within it, I could see and hear through her, and it would all be transmitted to me without anyone in Cauldron the wiser.
I hoped.
Once the device was up and running I had Subee wake her up, removing all of the effects of the tranquilizer from her system. I carried her out just as she was waking up and sat her on her feet as we began communicating through the implant.
The amulets were brought up and I sent the three members who weren't needed to handle Saint; I knew he had mobile cameras set up around his spot- he was a super paranoid bastard- and while there was nothing here, as Contessa wouldn't have chosen to engage us here if there was, a microphone must have caught the sound of the plasma rifle. I could see from my scanner a woman dragging Saint over to the computer monitors and she was pointing at the screen; it was indeed a decibel meter.
I watched as LTLX7000, UMP45, and HK 416 bounded in the direction of the house; they did make noise, but they had crossed the kilometer of distance at a clip that was far beyond any normal human could hope for- the trio soared in the air with each stride. It took what looked to be Saint and Mags, his girlfriend, a few seconds to think about what they were hearing, but then I saw their motion sensors display monitor trip.
Mags started shouting as she ran through the house towards the garage, and she started flipping switches on some sort of switchboard, and the modified dragon armors they stole started to spool up. The final member of Saint's Dragonslayers, Mischa Chernkov, was rolling out of bed and stumbling towards the garage.
In the meanwhile, Saint was standing in front of the open Ascalon. He was typing into it rapidly and when he stopped... he hovered with his finger over the 'Enter' key.
Then his hand exploded a split second later, followed by his head, as two heavy tungsten shotgun slugs exited the barrel of LTLX7000 and crossed the 100 meters and punched through the brick veneer, through the drywall, and spattering Saint's corpse. The shots were suppressed and there wasn't anyone else around for kilometers, but that was a precaution we had to take. This was a black op, completely off the record. We weren't even keeping track of it.
UMP45 and HK 416 were already crashing through the backdoor and bounding into the hallway as Mags stepped back into the garage and saw Saint's headless corpse in the hallway. UMP45 didn't give her time to scream, gunning the woman down while 416 sent a trio of rounds into Dorbrynja's chest through the drywall.
The whole ordeal had lasted less than 10 seconds from the time I sent the girls out to hunt.
I turned my mind back to the conversation that I was having with Contessa for her recorder, "-and we can supply your with some tinker tech. I do have these on hand that you can test, and once you confirm they are legitimate I can send you a catalog."
My hand reached into my pouch and I pulled out a handful of amulets and began noting their effects- water walking, cloud walking, enhanced healing, stamina recovery, movement speed, durability, the ability to become a master swordsman- and I handed them over in a hard plastic case.
In the comm I shared with her we had a decidedly different conversation, "Do you understand your orders?"
"Yes. I will make no major deviations until ordered. I will make no attempt to inform my fellow Cauldron members of my Mastering. I will not act suspiciously. I will formulate a plan that will allow you to bring the other important members of Cauldron under your control. I will work to further your goals. I will ensure that the nation, the Protectorate, and the PRT continue to tolerate Frontline's existence without being impeded or place under investigation. I will be discreet. I will sway the other members to accept your upcoming inclusion into Cauldron after you have provided us with armor, weapons, and technology that will give me good reason."
"-I will have to have these tested, you understand, but if the Tinkers within your organization can indeed provide such effects in a small and stable form factor then I do believe we have an accord."
"In exchange, you will help us destroy Zion, dismantle the Shard networks, and save all of mankind. You will also help repair the damage done and uplift human civilization."
I nodded my head. "Yes, that sounds good, Contessa. You know how to contact me; if PHO is secure then you can do so there. I look forward to working with the people that stand between the people of the world and what waits for us in the dark."
"A little dramatic," A small chuckle escaped her lips, "But not untrue."
She turned and walked away, "Have a good evening, Horizon."
"You too."
When she was out of sight she spoke, "Door to Testing Lab 3."
A small door opened up and she dropped the hard case in before speaking once more. "Door to Cauldron."
She stepped through and then she was gone from my sensors. I ordered the amulets back on.
I spun on my heel and sprinted as fast as I could towards the house, clearing the distance in just a few seconds. The back door was crashed through and bits of drapery, wood, and glass were scattered throughout the place. "UMP, go through the forest and collect everything. Sensors, trackers, cameras, I want it all."
She gave me a nod as I stood over Saint's rapidly cooling corpse.
I had killed before. Well, it was only one kill. With all of my years in the army and with my three deployments I only fired my weapon twice, and it was the second time that I scored my first and only kill. A trio of Taliban had tried to shoot an RPG into one of the towers on our FOB; they missed, and we fired back. My buddy and I were the only ones shooting at the last guy who was up the side of the mountain, probably five hundred meters away from us; I ranged him using the hash marks on my M4's ACOG, walking my shots in by watching the bullet impacts on the side of the mountain, and then I dropped him. Two rounds- one hit him in the hip- the pelvic girdle, but even though he was wounded and couldn't stand up he kept shooting his AK, lobbing rounds down the mountain. The second round caught him in the chest now that I knew where to aim.
He fell back against the rocks but I just kept putting round at him until the bolt barrier locked back with an empty mag. The last six rounds I shot just missed his body, kicking up dirt around him. I honestly don't know if it was me or my buddy that actually hit him, but I had a feeling that it was me. He agreed.
So, I had finally added three more bodies to my kill count. I could have tried to explain it away, but my T-Dolls were my weapons. I was responsible for every kill they made.
I reached down and picked up the Ascalon laptop.
[Initiate Ascalon Termination Program... Y / N ?]
He probably figured out that they wouldn't be able to get away from whatever the fuck was barreling down on them, so he decided that terminating Dragon before she could be rescued was the best course of action. However, he hesitated at the last second, some sort of indecision warred within him, and he didn't pull the trigger in time.
LTLX7000, however, didn't. She dropped him like a bad habit; hand first to prevent an accidental keystroke and then the head, all with millimeter precision at range while sprinting at 80 miles an hour through heavy underbrush. The advanced targeting computer on her shotgun linked up with the drone's sensors to pain out his body onto her targeting HUD.
I walked over to the nearest door with a lock and opened up the warehouse, and Engineers flooded in with a few T-Dolls. We stripped it of every bit of Tinker tech, electronics, and cash we could find- the Dragon suits were taken, as well as their corpses- those would be rendered down into bioslurry for the tank.
"Leave no trace, this place has been abandoned for years, dirty it up."
The bodies were moved, blood removed, things were cracked and broken in such a way that would be natural for wear and tear over time. Mold and mildew that Saint and his team had cleaned up was regrown by the Lifegivers and when everything was all said and done the house looked like it had been abandoned for years. Some animals came by according to the tracks around the house, but every trace of the mad dash and executions of Saint were gone.
The Engineer that we had brought with us to erase our heavy footprints as we walked was ushered into the mobile door and I stepped onto the Duskstalker.
We lifted off into the early dawn, before we engaged our stealth and flew back to the Bay.
I stayed silent as the Forge spun up, and a silver pocket watch dropped into my lap.
[Attempted Re-Forge: 3.0010 - Pocket Watch - 50CP - Wonderland No More - Time]
[Re-Forge Successful]
[Purchased: 100 CP remaining]
Tonight I killed three people and officially Mastered someone. Someone that had done far worse to far more- who knows how many people she's killed, murdered, entrapped, blackmailed, and ruined?
With the implant and the Three Laws she was wholly and utterly loyal- Fiat backed, there was no way she could be turned against me in any way shape, or form. I had a boatload of other commands in there that covered pretty much every avenue of possible rebellion if she somehow managed to find a way to mental gymnastics anything.
Still, with how I phrased those commands it gave her plenty of operational freedom without me needing to micromanage her every move. The implant would also scan and govern her Coronas, which would hopefully give me more insight into how they functioned and would prevent her shard from fucking with her; granted her Shard merely wished to be used, it didn't care if her host was Mastered because from what I know she hasn't had an original thought since the day she started using Path to Victory.
It made me wonder if I asked her to let go of the Paths would she mentally be that young girl from another Earth who wouldn't speak any English? Just how much of Contessa was Fortuna and not her Shard puppeteering her body to accomplish whatever path she set out?
During the flight, I tapped into her implant and began streaming the small meeting between Doctor Mother, Kurt, and Contessa.
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A/N: Contessa doesn't path the Bay because of the experiment. So she didn't see the blindspots from their amulets. Alexandria would have asked her to check, but she would have refused; she isn't going to interfere in the experiment; if the Frontline Team takes control of the Bay then that solves the Parahuman Warlord question. Even if they are heroically inclined, they are not a Government sponsored team, so the experiment is still valid.
I struggled to decide whether or not Contessa would even show up, but with the Frontline team leaving the Bay she was able to attempt to entreat with them to not mess with Dragon. That obviously did not happen the way she thought, but they had not exactly had a meeting scheduled; they were going to meet a few days from that time to prepare for the Simurgh fight, at which time Alexandria would have informed Contessa of the blindspots around Brockton Bay- no doubt Watchdog would be tearing their hair out trying to figure out if they were 27, Blue, or Right Angle. Heaven forbid they be Blue-42-Hut-Hut-HIKE!
That would be bad juju.
Also, I was planning on Frontline taking down as they normally did, but the Sachiko sub-plot popped into my mind and wouldn't let go. A willful woman who bowed her head, waiting for the time she could strike, and doing so with little hesitation. Lung sees that she isn't the demure Yamato Nadeshiko she portrays, and it fascinates him; she does little draw his ire, and it makes him wonder just what it would take to make her bear her teeth and rage at him. It ends up costing him his life, but at least he had been fed and fucked before being blown the fuck up.
The Love of Lightning (Fate/Grand Order) (200CP)
Steam Power! Coal! Electricity! The Nuclear Age! All the greatest revolutionaries have brought new power with them, their obsessions letting them take great bounds over the opposition to advance all of humanity. You share that same potential with one form of technological power, greatly advancing your skill and potential when dealing with technology that uses it. It could be electricity powered tech, steam powered tech or even wind powered tech. Whatever you choose, you'll be able to make them much stronger, much more efficient and much cheaper than you normally could. Not all energies are exactly equal however, so you may still find yourself needing more resources than normal, though you'd still get the increased power and efficiency.
Talking Head (Dresden files) (300CP)
Something between a magical computer and a lab assistant, this Spirit of Intellect would have forgotten more about magic than most wizards ever knew if it was actually capable of forgetting without being ordered to. Its personality is something between your own and how you think it should behave, which means you're probably getting something close to Bob if you're not careful. Aside from dispensing forgotten lore, they're able to possess and control things, ranging from friendly dire housecats to giant stone lions, and can even act as an emergency mystical battery if need be. Includes a free storage skull.
Vibration/Oscillation warhead (Arpeggio of Blue Steel) (200CP)
Humanity's version of the Corrosive torpedo. Disintegrates the target at a molecular level by finding the target's 'resonance frequency' and literally vibrating it apart. The Vibration torpedo can defeat any armour made of normal matter nanomaterials or meter-thick steel, makes no difference, but can't punch through Klein fields on its own. Superior to the corrosive torpedo, the Vibration warhead requires no exotic matter or nanotech: it can be mass produced by any reasonably sophisticated factory. This is a full load for your vessel, plus the schematics.
Pocket Watch (Wonderland No More) (50CP)
An ornate silver watch with an hourglass engraved upon its casing. If you wind back the watch, you will gain enhanced speed/quickness until the watch finishes unwinding or an hour has passed. You can also immediately stop the watch's effect by snapping its case shut.