Strider

"Got it." Harry followed close behind the operatives, shielding his eyes from the desert sun. As a doctor, he couldn't reasonably rush in, but he sure as hell was going to grab everything he could. Maybe another mag rifle, since he'd forgotten to ask the people in the science wing if they had anything of that sort he could use. From as far out as he could, he started looking for obvious breaks in the ship's hull. If they had to leave quickly, having multiple exits would be a benefit.

The numbers of enemies were slowly dwindling, so Liliya sought out another target for her blade. Liliya stabs Lahmu A. Deals 3d6+DEX unholy fire damage, with a DEX% chance to crit for double damage.

"Probably enough. Thanks." The Doctor muttered, as he ceased his psionic endeavors. His head was starting to hurt a bit, and he didn't really want to push that. Thinker headaches were still on his mind a bit. "Say, how exactly do psionics work? Like, the transmission vector, how it acts at a distance and stuff. You guys figured that out yet?" He wasn't terribly hopeful. Proditor had given a few tantalizing hints, but if someone as gifted as the ethereal couldn't be more specific, it was hard to believe he would figure out much from XCOM.

Harry set the rifle down after a while, back where he'd found it. As much as gunpowder weapons were reliable, and decently powerful in a fight, there were a lot of things he'd encountered already that wouldn't bat an eye at something like this. It was also a rather antique model, and who knew, maybe XCOM would give back the mag rifle to him if they discovered what they wanted to about it. He meandered his way down through the ship, eventually finding his way to a room where Frigus was conversing with one of the XCOM operatives, the psionicly gifted one. He stood patiently off to one side, glancing around the room as he waited for a break in the conversation. When it came, he made his inquiry. "Do you think you could help me out or teach me some stuff about psionics?" No need to dance around the point. If she agreed, he'd go on to explain that as a doctor, feeling around physically (though determining thoughts would also be useful) in someone's brain would be quite advantageous. However, he had a slight problem where he only knew how to burst a blood vessel in his own brain. And he wanted to fix that little snag, and he'd appreciate a safety net and guidance in doing so.

"Good evening. I'm Ena. Who's this Dr. DeQuidt?" Ena asked this, then turned her head away from the hologram to glance around the room. Mainly, she was searching for any odd shaped lines on the wall that might conceal security measures. If they were not allowed to be here, it was reasonable to suspect that their greeter might activate something.

Harry needed comfort with this gun. Nearing five years ago, he’d had completed basic firearm training. He wasn’t an exceptional shot, but he knew the posture, and he knew the procedure, and the trainers had been good. And then, he’d barely shot anything for two years; one rarely does as a doctor. Anyway, he preferred knife work when possible, had a bit more utility. Then came the special operations team, and he’d been retrained: new techniques, some hand to hand, more accuracy, better reaction speed, gunfight tactics. And once again, he’d used barely any of it, save providing cover fire with automatic weapons occasionally, over the following years. Hopefully he hadn’t lost too much. Slide the clip in. Safety on. “Range going hot.” Safety off. Steady stance, stock against his shoulder. Breath out, aim. Squeeze the trigger. Bang. A small hole appeared in the target dummy, five inches from the target center at which Harry was aiming. That wasn’t great for 25 yards. Breath out again. Squeeze. Bang. The report rang out again, and Harry settled into a groove, taking shots at the target’s center of mass, while his mind wandered a bit. He’d been on this mission for about four days now, since that first meeting in the room with Dr. Ebon. Less than twenty minutes in a small office somewhere, and then the assignment of the most important mission of his life. Stakes beyond comprehension. In retrospect, it was unbelievable. But things had moved quickly, and they’d all found themselves on Earth Bet. The doctor adjusted the iron sights slightly. There was also the ethereal. Proditor was at once the most seemingly trustworthy of this group, and simultaneously one of the most disturbing in his capacities. It wasn’t impossible that the being could foster trust in a target’s mind, or even slowly, imperceptibly, twist the motives of the group to his own whims. And it would be almost impossible for anyone to tell, with this alien monitoring their thoughts and their attempts to discover manipulation. But it was useless to think about. Anyway, XCOM seemed to have a way to control psionic power, and they might provide some reassurance that he was trustworthy. For his own peace of mind, Harry would simply have to train his own psionics. He shook his head, muttering, “Pointless thing to worry about.” He then changed his aim to the target dummy’s head. Leaving behind concerns about Proditor, his thoughts wandered to the most recent calamity. They’d messed shit up. Using force to stop Soma wouldn’t have been the correct way to prevent it, but the doctor knew where he’d failed. In his own attempts to convince Julie. in not thinking to contact Proditor or maybe Jun. More importantly, he’d failed in his area of expertise, not thinking to point out to the doctor in charge what Tattletale had repeatedly pointed out to him. That he needed a complete understanding of parahuman powers and physiology before messing with them. Really, he had just not known what to do at that moment. And when things had all gone to hell, he’d had nothing to contribute, nothing he could do. He had been helpless in the situation, and ironically, he empathized with the reasons behind the girl’s choice far more than he had before before. He’d need to improve, to become stronger, if he was going to do right by Soma like he hadn’t been able to this time. Bang.

After arriving at the proving grounds, Harry immediately began collecting items, though he checked with Bradford to make sure that it was alright. He found one remotely activated detonator, a grenade, and an assault rifle. He then headed over to the shooting range, to test out the new weapon. The C4A would have to wait for now. He only had one detonator, and it occurred to him that an antimatter doped reaction would release a not insubstantial amount of gamma radiation.

"I understand. Be ready for anything that might pop out then!" With that, Ena stepped over to the lever, and attempted to pull it into what would presumably be the on position.

Ena pocketed what appeared to be cash, then called out to those behind. "There's a lever marked "Power". Vitor, will turning it on activate some form of defense mechanism? Or simply turn on the lights?" She also grabbed two grenades which were sitting near the boxes. Odd that they'd be sitting out, but neither had their pins pulled, and Ena couldn't see any traps using them.

Harry handed the grenades over to Tygan, then asked, "If I wanted to test the capacity of an explosive--purely a hypothetical--where would I head?" Harry will head where he's directed for this "hypothetical". If this is the science division, Harry will make a stop at the Armory first. Science division comes later.

"Have you discovered anything about this Hyperion, Vitor? And how large is it?" Ena stared down into the darkness, attempting to determine what might not be visible at first glance. "I have a night vision scope obtained from the fight over the derelict, if anyone is unable to see."

Harry didn't have any real opinions on the leadership from this first meeting. They fit the image of a ragged resistance, but there wasn't much else he could glean of use. They were suitably professional, and the base did not disappoint. Harry waited until the 'conqueror' and the gun guy had introduced themselves, then spoke up. "Pleasure to meet you Commander Zhou. I'm Doctor Harry Walters, part of this team to prep worlds for the arrival of world devouring 'trespassers'. I've got experience in field surgery, bioengineering, and some combat experience. So if you need, I can shoot. Pretty well. And on that note. . ." He pulled the mag rifle he had slung over his shoulder off and proffered it to the engineer and scientist. "He," Harry pointed to Lazarus, "said you might appreciate this. Got two grenades from their armory too."

"That's fine, Tim." It would be more tedious to do so, but Ena was confident in her ability to fix some of the more major problems, and her armored plating based on her internal schematics. And that's what she did, using her inbuilt welder, some soldering, and some very small tools built into her left arm. When she was done, she walked over to Vitor, and his discovery. "Will we need to dig it out then? Or should we just cut our way in?"

"Oh, shut up. I've got no fucking clue what your world has tech wise--maybe you do only use jet turbines, and they'll all get miniaturized in the future--, and even for my own, I'm not a god damn historian of the 1940s. Just take it for what it's worth. Small talk, and confirming that from what I know, that you're probably right about the highly compact, and energy dense power source." His tone held slight annoyance, but nothing near anger. Harry took the rifle back without additional complaint, and set it down on the floor. The conversation had shifted away from Harry's interest, so he decided to do a little training with the levitation he was able to do. He simply attempted to levitate and move two, then three, then more bullets, until he reached the most difficult one, where he would continue to try to lift that, until he began to feel fatigue.

Harry watched with mild amusement as the armored man inspected the gun. "Yeah, I don't think they use jet turbines here. Probably just an advanced battery. I mean, you had to have had some of those in at your time, right? Just think those, but a lot more compact, with more energy." Harry added as an afterthought to the XCOM people, "No problem with handing the gun over to one of your scientists, after Nader's done with it, though I might ask to be equipped with something of yours later." In response to the XCOM operative's bewilderment, Harry shrugged, then said with a small chuckle, "Apparently so." "It's weak, yes, but there are some neat tricks I've figured out. Erasing myself from someone's senses, extending my own over three meters or so, bursting a blood vessel in my brain at will, and communicating psionically." He hurried over the blood vessel one. Finally, he glanced over in surprise at his fellow medical practitioner. It sounded as though she had some form of working laser weaponry? Those were always troublesome in atmospheres. "Might be a good idea to see if this world's got the resources to make one of those 'lasguns'. Hell, if they've got the supplies to make them, you could just photocopy the whole chapter for their troops. These guns are meant for in atmosphere use, right?"

"Harry Walters. Gregorian Calendar? World War II, assuming you're from sort of earth?" Harry had never heard of a nation called Forenia, but it's possible it was a briefly lived state in the twentieth century? There were a few of them, and he didn't know them all. "I'm from 2678. So. . . yeah. The future, and not quite as Verne and Wells would have you believe." Harry then took a moment to shake both Nader's and Contagion--an obvious alias if there ever was one. He then checked to see if any rounds were chambered, and checked the safety, mainly as a formality, before handing the rifle over to the weapons engineer. "Presumably magnetically propelled, based on the projectile shape. Best explanation I can give would be that it either uses two rails with the bullet between them, and then has electricity run through to push it out, or it uses a coil of wire to do a similar thing. I don't think anyone had proposed these thing in the 1940s, but no offense if they did." He turned towards the woman who'd last addressed him. He was slightly baffled by how she started to edge away only suddenly be seized by interest, and by the fact that she was a combat medic. She certainly didn't fit with what he would have expected, but to each world their own. "I believe there is a genetic basis, and of course some type of expressed phenotype in the brain, used by XCOM and ADVENT. I didn't have it done that way for myself though. Proditor did it psionically by. . .uh. How'd you do that? Was it physical manipulation of my brain, or did you take the place of whatever organelle this might be?" It was unnerving that he'd not asked that. Understandable, with the number of distractions that had occurred, but unnerving all the same.

"Excuse me, Tim? Does that magic only effect the living?" Ena had taken some surprisingly strong--still minor in the grand scheme of things--hits in that battle, and she was a bit concerned about both armor integrity, and some smaller servos and circuitry that seemed to have been damaged. If the magic was tailored only to biologicals, Ena would have to make do herself, and attempt to fix the problems on her own, but that seemed rather time consuming.

Harry glanced in surprise at the man in the gas mask. "So you've got a background in neuroscience then? Got a bit of an interest in that myself, as a doctor. Doctorate in synthetic biology, focusing on genetics and retroviruses, but I had more than a decade and a half aboard a transport to delve into surgery and applied medicine. So, I might take advantage of your knowledge in the field at some point, if you're willing to give it." So they possibly had a neurosurgeon or neuroscientist here? That would be extremely helpful, especially if they returned to Earth Bet. They might be able to do something interesting regarding the integration of parahuman powers. Harry pulled one of the mag rifle magazines from his pocket, and popped out one of the projectiles. "If you need someone for psionic experiments, of much weaker power, I'd be willing to help." He levitated the bullet for just a moment, rotating it around above his palm, before letting it settle back. He was still weak, and while lifting something so small was not difficult, the effort was noticeable to Harry. He would need to work on that, perhaps once they'd landed.

It probably wasn't necessary to tell the unit that he'd summoned the alien supersoldier, Harry decided. The one woman, identifying herself as a Templar, seemed well versed in psionics, an important fact if XCOM wished to keep Proditor in captivity, or somehow restrained. "So, what's a spectral mirror? Guessing it's not where ghosts put on their makeup." The doctor's cursory inspection of the mag rifle had revealed no power source that he was aware of. He wasn't an engineer of course, but if something like this were intended for even mildly prolonged use, they'd probably want an easy to remove and replace power source. Possibly in the magazine? "Grabbed this from the armory in the base. It's obviously a nongunpowder weapon, magnetic or gas propelled? Do you guys know much about it? Does it have any value?"

Harry nodded along as he received his responses. The XCOM operatives were understandably suspicious, but surprisingly less than he would have anticipated. "I'd point out, why would an ethereal make a show of ditching ADVENT? For some kind of infiltration ploy? From what I hear, it sounds like most of the world's been conquered. If this was a plot, it'd be a stupidly elaborate one, based on how long it takes, and everything that it requires you to do." Harry flipped over the rifle he'd grabbed. Earlier he'd noticed that the bullets in the magazines didn't have shells, so it was likely magnetic or gas propulsion. What he was absentmindedly searching for now was the power source. As he did this, Harry thought back to the conversation on the bus with Proditor, when he'd been unlocked. There'd been mention of a project, to create psionicly gifted bodies to house ethereals. ". . .Guessing that last thing was an Avatar?"

"That's Proditor. An ethereal, one of the alien species that's invading. From what he's said, he seems to have abandoned his species, and while I haven't known him long, he's proven trustworthy thus far, and a level head." Harry shrugged, hands resting on the rifle he'd grabbed. "He's worked with us well, and been quite helpful, on the team me and Frigus were on." Harry nodded in Frigus' direction just to let the others know who he meant.

"Pretty sure." Harry replied to the man with the antique armor. "Think they're genetically engineered troops, mostly expendable. If you wanted a fight, I'm sure the last thing that appeared would have been able to deliver." He could have gone on about how he'd been able to feel the huge psionic power even with his untrained abilities, but that seemed unwise currently. XCOM would hopefully work with them, but at the moment, they were an unknown factor. However, Harry soon ran across another question that he felt safe in asking. "You all from a different trespasser defense team? Don't really match the aesthetic of XCOM. And yeah," Harry added as an afterthought to the woman with the drone, "we're from other worlds, a ragtag bunch of. . .people sent to help out places and get them prepared." He leaned back, considering a quip about their track record, but ultimately decided not to.

Overall, things were going decently, it seemed to Edmond. Saber had just unleashed what should have been her most powerful card. But, it was distinctly underwhelming. . .These servants aren't stupid. I don't think she'd have used that unless there was something to be gained from it. Either it's something that gives her an edge, or something we'll have to worry about taking effect on Snow. "We need to keep focusing the support! The spider things aren't going to last much longer, and we should be able to send the dragons off soon too. Healers, keep the goddess up and moving, along with aanyone else who needs help." Edmond glanced around the field, the visor on his helmet helping him rapidly sort through the many people. No one really seemed terribly injured, though Gabriel and Soryn could probably use a little help, and Magnum's bus was feeling a little bit of wear. Edmond uses Weld on Lahmu A (or Wyvern B if it dies), dealing basic damage (2d6+INT) and adds 1d4+INTx1.25 to the next attack on the same target. Also regains 2 health, due to emerald font bauble. ((OOC: Not a detailed plan, because I'm busy, and things are going decently: As usual, we want to keep Mitsu up and protected as a priority. After she's handled, heals should go to Soryn and Gabriel, and possibly Snow, since she's probably going to have something bad happen due to that status on her. Taking out the supports is a good idea for the damage dealers, since numbers mean a lot. . . .I've got nothing else, but feel free to ping with ideas and fears.))

"Well, fuck!" A few rapid thoughts flew through Harry's head as the pillar of energy disappeared. One, why the hell had he picked that thing up? Next, what had he actually done to set it off? And finally, quite a few variations of "Oh shit." ". . .Think this might be yours. Bye." Instinctively, Harry tossed whatever this beacon was back into the room, kicked at the door to try to close it, and turned to run. Not before checking to make sure that Frigus was coming along, and had hopefully tried to lock the door. Basically, get to the plane.

These enemies were admirably strong, for all their primitiveness. Perhaps they gained their strength simply through bloodlust and insanity, but still, they were decently powerful. Ena was somewhat surprised when one of those armed with clubs managed to damage some of the circuits in her leg with just a club. The green image projected on her glass faceplate contorted just slightly, before she took aim at another of the clubbers. They seemed like a threat, and it appeared that others were intent on taking down the newcomer. Take a shot at one of le clubbers. Deals 2d6+INT damage, with a 2*INT (16) % chance to deal double damage, ignoring armor. Also has a +6 to perception checks, and ranged damage.