So I'll be the first to admit that this chapter is a little…fillery. Had to have something to do in between rescuing Cyn, Doll and Tessa as well as reveal a bit more of the cult…and have fun antics along the way. Let's get going!
"So this is the group?" Dev thought to himself as he looked at the people who had agreed to come on the mission to destroy the first of the shield generators defending Shepard's main base of operations. Along with himself, Levi and Lucy, Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, his darker counterpart, Gooey (strangely), the Animal Buddies, Hyness, Uzi, the three Disassembly Drones, the pet sentinel of one of them and Thad had all agreed to come. He nodded. Their fighting skills were…certainly worth being impressed by.
"So what's the plan?" Uzi eagerly asked as she rubbed her hands together.
"As you know, Shepard's home is guarded by three shield generators scattered around this 'galaxy'." Dev began as he gave a nod to Jude, prompting him to pull up a series of images on a nearby monitor. Each one was of a decently guarded base. He then pointed to one of them, prompting Jude to zoom in on it. "This one is the closest. I feel it would be best to attack here first since we have yet to really thin out the cult's numbers. Not to mention, it would be easier to escape should things start to go bad."
"You are quite wise, Dev," Meta Knight commended the drone, causing him to smile.
"Any ideas what the defenses are like?" J asked as she crossed her arms.
"We don't know for sure," Dev admitted nervously. "But we do know that, considering that it guards one of the generators that protects Shepard, it's likely heavily guarded."
"Do you think stealth is better?" Kirby asked.
"I'm not sure," Dev admitted. "While stealth would be a good idea, thinning out the members of the cult and their defenses is a smart idea."
"Uh, what if we did stealth and attacked head on?" Thad offered. When everyone turned to him, Thad considered trying to deflect. But he wanted to prove he could stand the warriors and heroes. "Like, we split into two groups and one group draws everyone away by attacking and one sneaks in and destroys the generator."
"Crikey! That's brilliant!" Rick commended Thad, even giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"Not the worst idea," Lucy agreed with a nod. Everyone else seemed to like Thad's plan, causing a sense of pride to shoot through the jock's servers.
"Then if everything is settled…" Dev smirked as he adjusted his sunglasses. "Shall we go?"
The answer was unanimous.
"You know, I'm actually excited," V admitted as her group-consisting of herself, N, J, Kirby, both Meta Knights, King Dedede, Rick, Kine, Nago, Hyness and Levi-got ready to mount their attacks on the cultists defending the shield generator. "I kinda miss hunting workers. But these ones have it coming!"
"You can say that again, mate," Rick agreed. "No offense, Hyness, but cults usually have a bloody beatdown coming!"
"None taken!" Hyness assured his fluffy ally. "I did deserve a good beatdown when in the depths of my insanity!"
"So do we have a plan or are we just attacking?" Kine asked as he swam/floated closer to the group.
"Considerin' the plan, I vote we just start clobberin'!" Dedede chimed in as held up his hammer.
"I agree with Dedede!" Kirby agreed eagerly.
"So…what are we waiting for?" Dark Meta Knight asked for the group. He and V were the first to exit the group's hiding spot, cleaving through a passing patrol like butter. Kirby wasted no time inhaling one of the severed limbs, allowing him to gain the Mecha Ability.
"How did you do that!?" N asked in shock. Next to him, J said nothing, but she was just as shocked.
"It's my Copy Ability!" Kirby declared as he launched a few missiles at some arriving drones. "If I inhale certain things, I can gain powers based on it! Maybe I can show you more later!"
"I'd love to see it!" N replied as he impaled a cultist who attempted to attack him from behind with his stinger tail. "But, uh, let's focus on the cult guys first?"
"Sounds good to me!" Kirby agreed as he and N joined the others in attacking the cultists.
"All guards! Stop the heretics!" Someone called out, which only summoned more cultist drones to try and fend off the attackers. Said attackers, even though they were vastly outnumbered, but they weren't worried.
After all, they weren't the ones trying to get into the generator building.
"Any idea where these freaks put the generator?" Uzi asked as she crossed her arms and tried not to think about how jealous she was that she couldn't fight the cultists outside with the others. Still, she knew that her group needed some more metaphorical muscle. Besides! It meant she could pretend she was a super cool anime ninja sneaking into an enemy base!
"Probably the center," Lucy offered.
"Yeah! That's where all evil people stash their important stuff!" ChuChu agreed from her spot atop Sparky. For its part, the sentinel didn't seem to mind, mostly focused on keeping an eye out for more prey.
"...So if it's not too much to ask, how did V tame the sentinel?" Dev asked, still somewhat wary of the dinosaur-like robot. "From what I can gather, they don't seem like they'd be easy to tame."
"We don't actually know," Thad sheepishly admitted.
"And she's so smug about it!" Uzi complained as she threw her hands up in annoyance before letting out a groan. "Everytime we try to ask, she tells us how awesome it was and how cool she was and then just walks away!"
"You have a…very strange friendship," Dev replied after a few seconds.
"Oh come on Uzi! You guys are friends!" Thad protested. Uzi said nothing, but flashed a small smile.
"Hey, what's that in there?" Pitch asked as he pointed a wing towards a room with a glow emanating from it.
"Looks suspicious," Coo said as he raised an eyebrow.
"Let's check it out!" ChuChu agreed as she floated over to the doorway. Peeking inside, she saw a strange piece of machinery. "Hey, do you think this is it?"
"Either way, let's smash it!" Uzi said eagerly as she used the Solver to grab a nearby piece of scrap and hurled it at the machine.
Only for it to suddenly reflect it back at her, forcing her to quickly dodge out of the way.
"What the hell?!" Uzi exclaimed as she climbed back to her feet.
"It looks like a forcefield of some type," Coo noted as he flew around it, tapping his claw against it a couple times, making said forcefield appear for a few seconds each time. "Dang cultists must have been prepared. Still, this must be what we're looking for."
"So how do we break it?" ChuChu asked as she floated around the machine, looking for some type of weakness.
"Could we try to overload the shield?" Thad offered. "Like, if we hit it hard enough, it would short out?"
"Too risky," Dev said. "We could risk hurting or killing ourselves."
"Then…could we try to cut the power?" Thad tried again.
"Not a bad idea," Lucy chimed in with a nod.
"No doubt the power sources here are heavily guarded and likely hidden," Dev pointed out. "It might take hours-time we don't really ha-"
"Tingly…" Gooey said as he happily licked at an exposed wire.
"Gooey…" ChuChu trailed off. She really worried about Gooey sometimes.
"Uh…I don't think he should be doing that," Lucy nervously pointed out.
"It doesn't bother him. Not much does," Pitch said with a complete and utter lack of care. Concerned as they could be about Gooey's lack of basic understanding sometimes, the Star Allies were both used to it and knew not much really bothered him. Gooey, for his part, was completely uncaring and likely unknowing of all the starring. Soon, however, everyone's attention was turned to the wire Gooey was licking, which was beginning to spark violently. Soon, said sparks turned into a series of small yet violent explosions. Said explosions began to spread, blowing parts of the floor hiding more wiring away. Soon, the explosions both spread up the wall into other rooms, knocking out power throughout the building.
"...well that works," Was all Dev had to say.
"Good job Gooey!" ChuChu eagerly cheered for her less than observant friend.
"Yay…hugs," Gooey happily said, even hopping up and down a little.
"Well, since that's dealt with…" Uzi trailed off as she readied her sick as hell railgun to fire. Sure, she could just use her Solver powers, but she liked blasting stuff with her railgun. "Let's blow this thing to bits!" Everyone stood back as Uzi pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
"Guess they just finished up," V noted as she enjoyed some oil from a limb of a cultist she tore to shreds. Oil from low life scum really did seem to taste better.
"Look!" N called out as he pointed towards what everyone guessed was likely Shepard's base, judging by the forcefield around it. Said forcefield promptly flickered a little and became far less bright, showing it now had less generators protecting it.
"Aw yeah!" Levi cheered. "Can't wait to knock Shepard's block off!"
"That makes two of us!" Uzi agreed as her group came out of what was left of the generator building. She then turned to Dev. "So where's the next one?"
"Glad to see you're still excited," Dev noted with a fond smile. "But let's return to base for now. I want to review our options."
"I also think some rest will do us well," Meta Knight piped up. Several people nodded at that. They had arrived, rescued the miners and now blew up a generator in a single day.
"Fine," Uzi said with a shrug as she picked up a leg that still had some oil leaking out of it, enjoying a meal. "Thanks for saving me some."
"No problem!" N replied as he gathered up a couple limbs scattered around. "Hey, uh, do you have a bag or something for these?"
"Just use some of the robes," J said as she gathered up some of her own snacks into a makeshift sack that was once a robe.
"You guys need help bringing food back?" Kirby asked. "Speaking as someone who loves food."
"Hey, the more we have, the more we have to take back home!" N replied. He and the others knew that the corpse pile wouldn't last forever, so the more oil they had, the better. "Just grab what you can!"
"Tell me I heard you wrong."
Ark flinched a little at Shepard's tone. Still, it was his job as one of Shepard's hands to ensure his leader was up to date on what was going on in his realm. "I'm afraid not, Lord Shepard. The False Host, the human and their allies destroyed Crucifix's mines and one of the shield generators defending your base." With a snarl, Shepard hurled the goblet he'd been drinking from into a wall, causing glass and oil to splatter everywhere.
"I'll make the servant clean it up," Shepard said before Ark could move to do it himself. "Still, we have to stop them before they can get any further."
"And perhaps I could help with that," A raspy voice declared as Faith and Apollos entered with another drone who Shepard and Ark knew very well.
"Preacher," Ark greeted his fellow believer.
"You claim you can deal with our little heretic problem?" Shepard asked, just wanting to cut to the chase. He was already annoyed so he wasn't interested in idle chatter.
"I do…and it has something to do with the gift you gave me…" Preacher began as he revealed his plan. While Shepard and three closest followers eagerly listed, Tessa, who had been summoned by the sound of the goblet shattering (and hoped cleaning it up without being prompted would allow her to avoid another session of Shepard forcibly shocking her with her collar), was focused on the stuff that had been said before. They'd called Uzi the False Host and she'd heard something about Cyn getting shipped off to Crucifix's mines, so if she was free…
Tessa smiled to herself. They'd save her. They'd save Doll. They'd stop Shepard and his freaks.
And the Absolute Solver would never rise again.
"Hey guys!? You need to see this!" Jude called out over the space station's still working intercom system, bringing everyone into the monitor room.
"What's wrong?" Kirby asked for everyone, clear concern present on everyone's faces.
"Preacher is making a public announcement," Jude revealed.
"Who's Preacher?" Khan for all the non-locals.
"He's creepy!" Jessie instantly piped up. "He's always talking about how he only wants new 'brides' to make new 'followers'." Several people shuddered at that. Crucifix was bad enough, but Preacher sounded straight up disturbing.
"I am almost happy I was sent to Crucifix and not him…" Cyn trailed off before shuddering again. N, seeing this, wrapped an arm around her in comfort.
"Uh…it doesn't make it better, but you don't need to be married to make pill babies," Nori pointed out, still grossed out by the mere thought of what Preacher was doing.
"He claims that marriage makes the mixing of your code result in a better follower," Dev revealed, the disgust in his voice clear.
"Looks like he's talking about his newest bride," Levi grunted as he crossed his arms and looked away.
"Oof…wonder who that poor girl is?" Lizzy, for once actually sympathetic to someone's suffering who wasn't her, asked.
"Something tells me we're about to find out," Meta Knight couldn't help but say.
"And now…I'd like to introduce my next bride!" Preacher revealed as if on cue, stepping aside to reveal-
"DOLL!?"
And now we have a new objective! Next time, our heroes head out to rescue Doll! See you then!