[IC] Trespassers of the Multiverse DC; XCOM 2 Subplot: Return of the Traitor

[GodofGamingRWBY]

XCOM

 

"INVADED, is the correct term" the Templar corrected at Harry's statement, glaring at Proditor, "That things race is the entire reason we're still having to fight this war, and personally, I wouldn't be against gutting it right here and now, rebelling against ADVENT or not" she added with a shake of her head and a heavy sigh, "Our Commander, however, wants it taken back to our Headquarters, so we have to hold off on that until she can get what she wants from it" she stated, turning to Harry, "I wouldn't trust it though. No matter what, they're liabe to stab you in the back for their own goal. I wouldn't doubt for a second that it had been planning how it would kill you ever since-"

 

"Ao" the Reaper suddenly interrupted, looking over at the Templar with his arms folded, his deep Russian voice covered up by his mask, "Do not underestimate how common decency can change a creature. After all, Lazarus worked with ADVENT too before joining the Skirmishers" he stated, causing Ao to roll her eyes,

 

"Yes, but he at least comes from an organization that handles this type of stuff. When's the last time you ever heard of an ETHEREAL defecting ADVENT?" she asked before shaking her head, "Never heard of."

 

Lazarus, on the other hand, merely kept quiet, listening to the two as they spoke to each other. The woman, on the other hand, waved back at Frigus before responding to Harry, "That's wonderful, after our luck so far we could use the help. I'm sure the Commander would love the help."

 

"She would" Lazarus instantly added, straightening as he spoke, "Though I believe the Doctor and Chief Engineer would be getting the most help from them."

 

 

Proditor

 

For about a second, Proditor remained silent, staring at XCOM before he looked down at Frigus, "I am one of those that took over the planet not 20 years ago. It is not a surprise that XCOM is uneasy around me, but I do know that they are in the right, and are those that we must help" he said, his voice coming out rather strained for Frigus (who was the only one who could hear him), "... I shall do my best to explain more in detail when I'm a bit more safe."

Edited January 3, 2018 by GodofGamingRWBY

[Powder Miner]

When Nader had entered the vessel, he of course hadn't taken off his damaged armor, nor had he taken off his helmet or mask. In fact, though he had placed his normal-sized rifles and his Horsekiller (because it wouldn't fit well in the cramped space) on his back, his Sorraia machinegun remained mounted on his right arm. The mangalloy-armored man kept said arm carefully placed across his lap in a way unlikely to accidentally pull the trigger-handle, but he wasn't looking down: he was looking right ahead, turning his head this way and that so he could keep a careful watch of everywhere in the vehicle.

 

People were talking, and Nader was keeping an ear on the conversation, but given that he was both feeling quite paranoid about the influx of mysterious armed people, AND given that he wasn't presently panicking, he decided to keep quiet, just in case he riled himself up; he was perfectly willing to open up on anything that threatened him, but he didn't exactly want to needlessly shoot someone. ...but then one of the new people said something about demons and magic, and he couldn't help but speak up, his voice colored by a particularly bizarre Arab accent further tinged with what sounded like Russian influences. "We did meet that one demon-summoning woman in the Australia we went to... ...if any demons appear here, I am going to shoot them. Several times. Be forewarned."

[kj1225]

Aquila turns to look at the templar.

"So what are you supposed to be, some kind of glowy... samurai? The Chosen don't have that where I'm from yet."

[Strider]

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?"

[Yours Truly]

Alan hadn't really payed any amount of attention to the conversation happening all around him, as he was too busy with carefully dismantling and inspecting every single component of the alien drone that he could access and divine the use of inside of the cramped and sometimes unsteady confines of the transport they had all found themselves in. And after he spent a few moments by hacking away at the MEC's extremely dense armor plating with an extremely useful miniature welder; before he ordered his DOOMBOT to ever so gently pry the weakened armor plating open with its bare hands as part of an extremely successful attempt to break through the MEC's dense armor and reveal an almost completely intact and obviously highly advanced central processing unit shaped in the form of a mechanical brain...that Alan immediately took from the MEC's chassis when the armor plating seemed cool enough to not burn his skin on contact.

 

Alan then gingerly raised the Codex brain up to place it in full view of everyone before he finally decided to say "Alright so I just have to ask, how is XCOM faring these days? And what do you actually do to try and defeat Advent other than by blowing their facilities up?". He turned to stare at the mechanical brain for a few seconds before he pointed at it with his free hand's index finger and said "Also does Advent usually outfit their expendable walker form drones with expensive looking mechanical brains?".

[GodofGamingRWBY]

XCOM

 

For a few seconds at Harry’s statement, the operatives were silent as they thought about it. After that silence “That was an Avatar, yes. The second we’ve encountered since we’ve started this rebellion. The first we managed to kill about four months ago, and I expect ADVENT has been making upgrades to them since then” he stated before what sounded like a sigh came out of his mask, “As for the Ethereal… Well, if the Commander is giving them a chance, then it is my duty to do so as well. Which is what we all are doing” he said, gesturing to the others in the crew, "I find it harder to believe that it would go through all of this trouble just to risk an infiltration, however. ADVENT isn't that smart" he added, voice dropping more to a whisper so Proditor couldn't hear (which the Ethereal still could, and he silently agreed with the Reaper).

 

As the Reaper talked, Ao looked back at Aquila, looking taken aback at the words 'The Chosen' before remembering his status of coming from another world than her, lifting up one of her hands to show Aquila her gauntlet, “Not really. I am a Templar, one of humanity’s psionic warriors, one of the best, actually. I don’t believe a normal samurai would be capable of doing what I do” she stated, closing her hand into a fist as bright purple, psionic energy began to envelope her fist and glow from her eyes, “Creating spectral mirrors, small storms, and blades from sheer force of will isn’t something most are capable of doing, even if they have psionic potential” she added, letting the psionic energy fade away. It was rather clear that she was proudful of her own powers.

 

Lazarus, on the other hand, took to himself to answer Alan’s question, “XCOM has been doing as well as we can these days. We managed to make some critical hits against ADVENT, such as taking some of their VIPs prisoner, assassinating a few of their generals, and raiding their supplies. That’s on our end though, the more technical aspects of our rebellion have been making steps towards using ADVENT’s own tech against them. Though, even with all of those successes, we’ve been losing some good men and havens lately. That… And…” he explained beginning to trail off when he laid eyes on the brain in Alan’s hand.

 

Not long after Lazarus noticed it, the woman leaned forward to get a better look at it, “Yeesh… That’s a Codex Brain. Those don’t generally come with ADVENT’s Mecs… I think they might be doing some kind of field tests with better AIs. The Commander might know more about it though, she’s generally up to date about these things.”
 

[Strider]

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?"

[kj1225]

Aquila's eyebrows shoot up at that. He takes a moment to think before responding.

"Well, everyone has stories about the greatest of their champions that could probably rival that. But you're right, you do seem to be a cut above normal people where I'm from... By the way, did I say something wrong when I was asking you that? Should I refer to The Chosen by their other name?"

[Projeck]

Contagion idly sits, until Templar begins showing off some of her powers. He leans forward in his seat out of interest.

"Fascinating... how is it that you're able to do that? I know you said psionics, but how is it that you unlocked that part of your neural network? I'd done studies in the past, but to no avail, where I come from."

[Strider]

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.

[Projeck]

Contagion turned to the doctor, his voice warm in tone.

"Not quite a background neuroscience. I have a PhD in Engineering, as well as one in chemistry. However, I did have opportunities with my superhero agency to help with some of the studies. Mainly the chem side of things, and the machines we made to test the subjects. Never quite got fully into the field. At least, before I had to go full-time hero."

Then the doctor started levitating the bullet.

"Intriguing. I'll have to consult you and your group as to how you managed to unlock individual psionic potentials... ah, how rude of me. I go by Contagion."

He leans forward, and extends his hand.

[Powder Miner]

The masked-and-heavily-armored man (rather, the one not in XCOM) took this moment to chime in rather sardonically: ”I would personally suspect that Contagion here has most of his expertise in applied neuroscience.” It’s then that he turned towards the doctor. ”Name’s Nader Jabal. I’m from 1942, and it’s an easy wager that this place is a few decades in the future from that at the least so I may not be able to be certain about it, but I’ve been a weapons engineer for the glorious nation of Forenia (and its less glorious predecessor) for thirteen years, so I know my guns, especially because they’re one area of my expertise. If you hand that rifle to me for a moment, I can take a look at it and take a crack at figuring it out.”

[DragonRage]

"Psykers.  Why does it always have to be psykers?" Sister Rachel edges about as far away from Harry and the XCOM troopers as she can get, "Not even sanctified, though that doesn't necessarily make it safer to be around them...

 

"Wait, did you say that you've discovered a possible biological basis for psychic powers?  I would be very interested in exploring this.  I am Sister Rachel of the Argent Shroud, ordained Hospitaller.  I've mostly been doing battlefield triage lately, but I have training in all manner of the medical arts.  I have done brain surgery before, though only to treat injuries or extract shrapnel.  I also have extensive in my order's more traditional pursuits of humanitarian relief missions and defensive warfare, though I'd prefer to not need either of those in the operating room.  I could safely explore and study the brain of a living subject assuming a proper medical facility.  I wouldn't want to try it with only my field medicae rig."

[Strider]

"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.

[Powder Miner]

For the largest part, Nader paid little heed to the conversation about psionics, excepting the bit about rearrangement of brains, which saw him putting his hands to his helmet, making sure it was set on securely, and muttering about ”...space alien colonialists messing around with brains...”

 

Nader simply had things more relevant to him to focus on, after all. He had the strange rifle he had been handed by Harry, along with a couple of rounds going with the weapon. At first he scanned the weapon for various inputs and ports, answering Harry as he did so. ”Well, you’re from quite far out, aren’t you? But I wouldn’t be surprised if Forenia simply doesn’t exist where you come from; from what I’ve heard so far, most of the variants of Earth the others come from don’t have The Archipelago at all, much less United Forenia.” Noting a lack of a gas input port, Nader closely inspected a particular section of the gun as he spoke a bit more. ”And, yes, this means I am from Earth, and yes, the Second World War, though they got involved in our war rather than us in theirs.” His attention turned towards the rounds in his hand which he rolled a couple of times, and then brought up towards eye level, closely inspecting its sheen. ”Yep, this isn’t lead. Ferrous, I do believe. Combined with the lack of any sort of input for gas, I am sure this isn’t some sort of air rifle, and I am sure it is not a regular gun, seeing as these rounds are just bullets. You wouldn’t have ferrous bullets unless you were trying to make an electric cannon of some sort, either. What I find particularly notable here is that this doesn’t seem to have any kind of socket that I can recognize, which may mean it is self-powered, and considering that the only versions of electric cannons I’ve heard of are a theoretical design by a crazy Frenchman, and a theoretical design by one of Forenia’s more unique and less successful engineers that would have been designed to be powered with multiple jet turbines... well, even though this thing is handheld and not building-sized, that would be a lot of power.”

[GodofGamingRWBY]

“Concentrated Psionic energy that mimics my own abilities. A bit harder to use due to the amount of focus it requires, but it’s invaluable in combat” Ao replied, “As for the Chosen… I suppose you remember that thing that attacked you and managed to give me this?” she asked, pointing to the still clearly visible scar on her eye, “That was the Assassin, one of the three Chosen, reviving freaks of nature that have the single goal of figuring out where the Commander is. We’ve been dealing with their shit for months, and even though we managed to kill one off for good, we don’t generally like dealing with them. So, to avoid confusion, you may want to use your Chosen’s other name-”

 

“Wait, you managed to kill one of the Chosen for good?” Proditor suddenly asked, becoming instantly alert at Ao’s comment about that one detail.

 

Ao herself, at Proditor’s voice, turned to him, pausing to wonder if she should tell him. However, before she could make a decision, the Reaper spoke up, “The Warlock.”

 

For about a second, Proditor was completely silent as he took in the information. Then, he simply nodded, “Thank you” he replied, turning his head to Harry, “I simply edited you mind lightly to unlock your psionics. That was all I needed to do” he stated bluntly.

 

Ao, however, took notice of this, leaning forward with shock, “Wait, the Ethereal unlocked your psionics on their own? They can DO that?!” she asked. However, before anyone could reply, the intercom came up again, an unfamiliar female voice speaking through it,

 

“Avenger is in sight. We’ll be landing soon” they said, before cutting the intercom out.

 

For about a second, the operatives were silent, before Ao simply leaned back and sighed heavily, while Lazarus decided to speak, “Doctor Tygan may want to see that rifle, actually. We haven’t been able to get our hands on a lot of intact rifles made by ADVENT.”
 

[StormLord]

"Uh, huh."  

Frigus nodded half to Proditor and half to the XCOM group.

"Well I guess we'll talk in detail later then."

With that Frigus found somewhere stable and started writing rather quickly, only glancing up briefly at Proditor's outburst over the "Chosen" being killed.

[DragonRage]

"Xenos technology.  Utterly untrustworthy.  Especially if these xenos have discovered the old trick of putting homing beacons in their wargear in case an enemy loots it.  It's a common tactic against insurgents, back home at least.  Besides, Imperium technology is far superior to some magnet gun," Rachel opines loyally.  She rummages around in her belt pouches briefly, before coming up with a battered, metal-bound book with a golden eagle on the cover.  "If you need better weapons with which to combat the xenos, this will provide the superior option.  The Infantryman's Uplifting Primer.  Granted, most of the book is garbage.  Propaganda and cherry-picked prayers chosen to encourage guardsmen to happily martyr themselves.  But there is one chapter well worth reading.  The one that details everything you need to maintain and repair the standard-issue Imperial lasgun in the field.  It's so detailed, in fact, that you could build an entire lasgun from its instructions.

 

"Granted, the lasgun isn't the most powerful weapon the Imperium ever produced.  But it's inexpensive for the damage and rate of fire it has, nearly impossible to break beyond repair, you can charge the power packs by throwing them in a fire for a few hours if need be, and the technology can be scaled up to tank or even warship use.  Punches right through lighter armors, and focused fire can bring down even the hardest targets."

[kj1225]

"...Shit, what was it again... Oh yeah, the Japanese. Which is weird since I've never heard of a land by that name..."

Aquila scratches his head in though.

[Strider]

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?"

[Projeck]

"Ah, that reminds me..."

Contagion looks to Ao.

"I take it your organization would like a way to form plasma weaponry? Perhaps I can help in that regard. Or get you access to some of my gas that I use to fight."

[Powder Miner]

Nader turned to look at Harry, and though his mask prevented any scrutiny of his facial expression, the nonplussed and rather caustic tone in his voice probably communicated well enough his response: ”A stunning deduction, future-man. I may have a baseline, but it’s the electrifying conclusions like “it has a good battery” and “it doesn’t actually instead have several very small and incredibly silent jet turbines in it” that take us to new and undiscovered heights. Now, I think I’ve got what I can out of this on this plane.” Nader handed Harry back his rifle, and rounds.

 

He then turned to Sister Rachel and extended his arm towards her. ”Could I take a look at that primer? The more knowledge I can get about these various types of futuristic guns, the better I can do myself.”

[DragonRage]

"Sure thing.  The lasgun section is the second dog-ear," Sister Rachel hands the book to Nader, "The other dog-ears mark useful parts.  Everything else is basically emergency toilet paper, not that I've yet needed to use any of it for that, thank the Emperor.  I'll see to it that you get a copy of the useful information once we have a chance, but there's no harm in lending it now."

 

Nader would see that there are six dog-eared sections.  'The Battle Hymns of the Imperium', 'the litany of the lasgun', 'the precepts of entrenchments', 'rites of cleanliness', 'basic first-aid', and 'enemies of the Imperium'.  It seems the last two sections have been heavily annotated with ornate, cursive corrections and suggestions.

The first section is full of hymnals that appear devoted to glorifying the God-Emperor of Mankind and his 'Angels' the Space Marines.  These hymns seem to have mostly been cribbed from other songs, some of which Nader recognizes.  The second section describes how to make a lasgun, spread through a lot of religious procedure, talk about keeping machine-spirits happy, and maintenance advice.  While the science goes over Nader's head mostly, the actual procedure is really simple.  Heck, Forenia could have mass-produced them if they'd known the designs.  The third and fourth sections are a highly practical guide to battlefield fortifications and sanitation respectively.  The fifth seems to as written advise praying and walking off wounds a lot, which is annotated with actually helpful medical advise, though it sometimes calls for supplies that Nader doesn't recognize by name.  The sixth section reads remarkably like a Soviet propaganda piece as written, making the enemies talked about within seem incompetent and weak.  The annotations turn it into a businesslike guide to fighting extremely dangerous enemies called 'Orks', 'Tau', 'Dark Eldar', 'Eldar', 'Necrons', 'Tyranids', and 'Heretics'.

[Yours Truly]

On 1/4/2018 at 10:11 AM, GodofGamingRWBY said:

XCOM

 

For a few seconds at Harry’s statement, the operatives were silent as they thought about it. After that silence “That was an Avatar, yes. The second we’ve encountered since we’ve started this rebellion. The first we managed to kill about four months ago, and I expect ADVENT has been making upgrades to them since then” he stated before what sounded like a sigh came out of his mask, “As for the Ethereal… Well, if the Commander is giving them a chance, then it is my duty to do so as well. Which is what we all are doing” he said, gesturing to the others in the crew, "I find it harder to believe that it would go through all of this trouble just to risk an infiltration, however. ADVENT isn't that smart" he added, voice dropping more to a whisper so Proditor couldn't hear (which the Ethereal still could, and he silently agreed with the Reaper).

 

As the Reaper talked, Ao looked back at Aquila, looking taken aback at the words 'The Chosen' before remembering his status of coming from another world than her, lifting up one of her hands to show Aquila her gauntlet, “Not really. I am a Templar, one of humanity’s psionic warriors, one of the best, actually. I don’t believe a normal samurai would be capable of doing what I do” she stated, closing her hand into a fist as bright purple, psionic energy began to envelope her fist and glow from her eyes, “Creating spectral mirrors, small storms, and blades from sheer force of will isn’t something most are capable of doing, even if they have psionic potential” she added, letting the psionic energy fade away. It was rather clear that she was proudful of her own powers.

 

Lazarus, on the other hand, took to himself to answer Alan’s question, “XCOM has been doing as well as we can these days. We managed to make some critical hits against ADVENT, such as taking some of their VIPs prisoner, assassinating a few of their generals, and raiding their supplies. That’s on our end though, the more technical aspects of our rebellion have been making steps towards using ADVENT’s own tech against them. Though, even with all of those successes, we’ve been losing some good men and havens lately. That… And…” he explained beginning to trail off when he laid eyes on the brain in Alan’s hand.

 

Not long after Lazarus noticed it, the woman leaned forward to get a better look at it, “Yeesh… That’s a Codex Brain. Those don’t generally come with ADVENT’s Mecs… I think they might be doing some kind of field tests with better AIs. The Commander might know more about it though, she’s generally up to date about these things.”
 

Alan wisely decided to put the extremely valuable piece of currently unusable alien equipment down on a nearby chair before he turned towards the woman to say  "Ah, so do you know how advanced these AIs tend to be then? And how connected they are to ADVENT themselves? Since I might try and run some experiments on it later and I don't want to accidentally activate some hostile cutting edge AI made out of a novahot hacker's choicest hacking 'ware or have it send out a long and easily identifiable GPS signal that flat out says 'XCOM IS RIGHT HERE AND WAITING TO BE FRAGGED' to them you know?". As he waited for an answer he turned slightly to face the Templar and asked "Does XCOM have a way to block or reduce the effects of psionic influences over the mind? Because I think I speak for at least one other person in this room when I say that I want to have one with me on the field at all times for obvious reasons".

[Strider]

"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.