Disclaimer: I don't own Worm or Uber – they belong to their respective creators and/or copyright owners. I don't make any money from this story. It's not for sale or rent.

A battleship in the bay

Prologue: Welcome to the future

=BB=

Part 1: A ripple in the pond

Voice 1(VO1): Your first deployment. It wasn't tactically or strategically sound.

Voice 2(VO2): True. Ideally we needed a few more months to find, activate and train more Ubers.

VO1: Why then? While cleaning up Brockton Bay did make sense, it wasn't a good target for a single mission. It lost us the element of surprise.

VO2: Again, true and very much irrelevant. The first BB deployment was inevitable.

VO1: How so? You were in charge of the project?

VO2: The Merchants killed Claudia's husband and daughter.

VO1: It's understandable. Her anger that is – not the mission you authorized.

VO2: She wanted to go… and we didn't have another active battleship at that time. We couldn't call heroes against her either – it would have been a slaughter if she decided to go anyway. Besides, most of us lost someone to villains who got away with a slap on the wrist. Our program was meant to change that. We had either a disaster on our hands or opportunity. I chose the latter.

VO1: The fallout nearly tore the country apart. It still might.

VO2: What did you expect? Our purpose was to reign in the parahuman by any means. We did so.

VO1: That remains to be seen.

=BB=

08.12.2010

Docks

Brockton Bay

"Tempest one, Overlord. We have eyes on the targets." A genderless modulated voice spoke from Major Claudia Pierce's earpiece. "You have green light."

"Affirmative." She sub-vocalized. "All Tempest Elements, Tempest One. The package has arrived. We'll service it now."

Claudia smiled for the first time in the last four months. She looked down at her body, which was almost three times larger than she was before… and she had never been a small woman. The first American Battleship class posthuman barely fit in the back of the gray van – one of a pair that contained her strike team.

"Tempest Two confirms. We're on overwatch and awaiting orders." That was her XO and team's sniper – lieutenant Clark West. While he was a Tank-man and deadly enough thanks to that, tonight his role was that of a backup – he wasn't to engage with his powers unless something went terribly wrong. Instead, Tempest Two had a high-powered tinker-tech sniper to play with.

West had a spotter too – a "Longbow" - a tank-man who had two Halo activations.

The rest six members of the team were already moving to surround the warehouse containing their targets, so they could ensure that no one was going to escape.

"Tempest Four, we're in position."

"Tempest Five, on station."

"Tempest Eight, ready."

"Tempest One to all elements. I'm going in." Claudia all but purred in her comm.

Finally it was time. She opened the back doors of the van – very carefully at that to avoid damaging them by accident – and stepped out with agility belittling her huge form. Claudia glanced down at herself – she was carrying a black body-fitting suit made of expensive tinker tech material. The thin armor was supposed to increase even her durability, at least some more exotic attacks.

Claudia gently patted the SAW slung over her back – the light machine gun was just in case, she didn't anticipate needing it tonight. After all, very few things could withstand her Halo and none of those could be found in Brockton Bay.

The battleship calmly walked towards her target, while keeping to the shadows. Thanks to West, she was well aware where the outside guards were – just a pair of junkies standing near the main entrance. Fortunately for them, Claudia didn't need to use it. Instead she walked towards the side wall of the warehouse and smirked. It was solidly built – brick instead of the more flimsy and cheaper materials often used in construction.

It didn't matter. It wouldn't even if the wall was made of solid tank armor.

"Tempest Two, Tempest One. I'm engaging. Take out the guards.

"Willco." West whispered.

Claudia activated her deadliest power and her head was surrounded by a bright blue lights. At the same moment, West put a subsonic HEAP round in the head of the first guard, which blew up like a watermelon struck by a sledgehammer. Before the second junky could react, Claudia shredded the wall and walked inside. A moment later, another Merchant lost his head.

Claudia smiled when she saw the interior. They were here – Skidmark ans Squealer. The Merchant Capes were leaning over a row of opened barrels and examining their contents when the battleship burst in. They had twenty or so henchmen armed with various small arms – nothing that Claudia would feel, much less hurt her.

"What da fuck? Who da fuck are ya, shitstain?" Skidmark was as eloquent as ever.

Before he could react, Claudia smiled and unleashed her halo in a carefully controlled manner. She could have killed the bastard with a thought, but that was far too good for the scum. Skidmark screamed as his flesh boiled and twisted as if it was made of burning wax. In a heartbeat, the leader of the Merchants was converted into a grotesque figure that barely resembled a human any more… and he was still alive – screaming.

Squealer was lucky. She drew a tinker-tech gun, while shouting obscenities. Claudia acted on reflex and simply disintegrate the younger woman's torso.

That brought the ordinary gang-bangers out of their stupor. The smarter of them threw down their weapons and tired to run. The rest, drew guns – mostly pistols and the odd SMG – and opened fire. Most of the fire was inaccurate – just spray and pray that hit anything but the huge woman who observed the gunmen with an air of professional disgust. Merely couple of dozen bullets – at best – struck her huge figure. The couple that hit her face deformed under the impact and fell harmlessly to the ground.

Claudia barely felt the gentle taps of the 9mm AP rounds.

Her halo flashed again and the interior of the warehouse was rent asunder. The gunmen who stood their ground became twisted ruins, who were all mercifully dead.

"Tempest One, Tempest Eight. Three tangos neutralized."

"Tempest One, Tempest Four. Four enemies down."

"Tempest One, Tempest Five. Two down."

"Good job. Exfill. I'll be along shortly." Claudia ordered and walked over to Skidmark. She reached down and picked up the pathetic little man, then looked him in the single remaining eye.

Claudia stared at her handiwork for a long moment. Her halo flashed and she let the headless corpse fall to the ground.

"Overlord, Tempest One. The Package is serviced. We're going home."

"Tempest One, Overlord. Good work."

By the time the local Protectorate and PRT arrived, there was no sight of who slaughtered twenty five people in such a way that would have made the Slaughterhouse Nine proud.

=BB=

Part 2: How it all began

11.04.2008

Blackwatch HQ

Location classified

"Those are bold claims." General Jonathan Meinard mussed aloud. He was holding a heavy metal binder filled with sheets of paper that went beyond secret. The short former armor officer was the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs – a prestigious title, one that meant much more a few decades ago when the United States armed forces were still relevant.

That was a long time ago - before Scion arrived and heralded a new age. Before the Endbringers started rampaging.

"If I saw this when I was younger, I would have called you a madman, Colonel Vandenberg."

The only other man in the room shrugged. He was a tall and athletic pale man with a crop of receding short black hair. His hawkish features made him appear gaunt, even if his forest green uniform was nicely filled up by his muscled frame.

"Well, all of our research is based on the work of a Nazi general who everyone thought to be a madman."

"Sankt. That doesn't win you any points." Meinard sighed. "What about the subject?"

"Well, he's the main reason why we didn't disregard this whole idea as another useless wunderwaffen." Vandenberg shrugged. "He was found three months ago in Sweden – within a secret chamber bellow abandoned Nazi facility that had been left to rot ever since the war ended."

"He's still alive then?"

"Indeed. He's actually four levels below us. We tried running various scans using normal and tinker-tech medical equipment. The results are more than promising."

"That man is the only success that Sankt had and yet, he's been sleeping for more than sixty years."

"True enough. Yet… the subject haven't been fully activated yet – that may be the cause. Despite that, he's already a high level brute. We estimate that only a direct hit from AT weapon or equivalent blaster strike can harm him. Even if the only thing we get from this project is soldiers as durable as him, it will be a net win. However, the notes we recovered and decrypted show much higher potential. Unfortunately they aren't complete."

"You want additional financing and test subjects." Meinard snapped.

"The piece of the puzzle showing how to acquire viable candidates is among the missing parts. By the time Sankt devised a viable test, the war was over and we did lose almost all of his research."

"Even after New York, I don't believe that human testing will be approved."

"We need to get a single unactivated viable candidate – that should be enough to create a test."

"One in about five thousand or so." Meinard glared at the colonel.

"Small price to pay in today's world. More people die daily in the US thanks to cape related 'accidents'." Vandenberg looked unconcerned.

"I'll bring it to the rest of the Joint Chiefs and the President."

"Good. We'll continue testing the subject."

"What about activating him?"

"While that's our best way to awake him, we simply don't know enough about him. For all we know, he could be a fanatical Nazi and we have enough of those fools running around as it is."

=BB=

15.12.2008

Blackwatch HQ

Location classified

Since the meeting with General Meinard, Colonel Vandenberg had to concentrate on projects that had nothing to do with Woden's Blood. The subject continued to be unresponsive in one of the underground labs and while the substance that was the heart of the Achilles project could be easily and simply synthesized, there simply weren't candidates for human testing. Simply adding Woden's Blood to a blood sample was useless – some kind of catalyst was needed for the test. Unfortunately, months of blind experiments had revealed nothing.

That left Vandenberg dealing with much more boring prospects for enhancing US soldiers. While there was great potential in both cyber and genetic upgrades – the mere fact that they were unviable without thinker tech, was troubling. There actually was a short platoon of US special forces who were practically cyborgs, however they were high maintenance and not something that could be practically replicated. The fact that most relevant parahumans could take them out reasonably easy didn't help matters.

What America needed was for the rank and file – both soldiers and law enforcements to be enhanced to the point they could effectively police most parahumans and that was a long, long way off.

The colonel sighed as he opened another folder containing expense reports on the ongoing projects. He was stuck in his office in one of the upper levels of the Blackwatch HQ, dealing with almost useless paperwork. Unless the boffins made a breakthrough or a someone friendly triggered with really useful tinker power, Vandenberg simply couldn't show any useful progress. He leaned back in his rather comfortable chair and looked over his bland office – the usual things you could see into an officer's place of work simply missed from his. The utter secrecy of the facility and the people who worked inside was to blame. There were no personal effects in the office – just a desk, a pair of visitors chairs, his seat, a computer and two rolls of armored and tamper proof document lockers.

A phone too – a large, old fashioned land-line. At least it was reasonable secure. And it was ringing.

"Colonel Vandenberg." The officer spoke calmly after he picked up the phone.

"It's Meinard. You have green light. Test subjects will be shipped to your location after January fifth."

"I understand. We'll be ready." Vandenberg answered and smiled when the line was cut off from the other side. He pressed a button on the phone and called his adjutant – she was indispensable in running the damn place.

The Colonel allowed himself a small smile. He was sure that Woden's Blood would be a game-changer for his country and with a bit of luck – for the world too.