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

[GodofGamingRWBY]

At Contagion’s question, Ao turned her head to look at the armored man, “Dr. Tygan is figuring out how to make plasma weaponry, since several of ADVENT’s forces use those types of weaponry. I’m sure he’d take any assistance he can get” she answered.

 

“As for these ‘Lasguns’, if they’re as effective as you say, our Chief Engineer would want to take a look into these to manufacture herself” The Reaper added, turning to Alan, “ADVENT’s AI is one of the few things they actually get right. Shen and Tygan can tamper with their AI however and shut off their tracking and signal producing capabilities. That would give you the ability to test around with it. And we do have equipment to reduce psionic manipulation” he answered himself.

 

Not long afterwards, the intercom came to life again, “Alright, we’re landing now. Welcome home” the voice said on the other side before cutting off. After two seconds, the ship shuddered slightly as it set itself down, before the back hatch began to open with a loud hiss.

 

As Firebrand’s back hatch opens, the party could see a rather large platform, lighted with spaced out lights in the ground, with a large door not far off of it. In addition, there were multiple guards standing around, keeping an eye out while two figures began to approach the platform. The first was a rather tall man in a very militaristic outfit, with a noticeable grey 5 o’clock shadow, and short brown hair, folding his arms as the operatives stepped out of Firebrand.

 

The other was a much shorter woman, clearly about Satomi’s height, appearing as an asian woman with lightly greyed, medium length black hair and black circles under both of her eyes. Her outfit was a bit more casual than the man next to her, mainly being plain tan pants and a tan sweater, though she did wear a trench coat with a strange symbol imprinted on her left shoulder. In addition to all this, she had a plain white coffee mug, which was currently steaming in the night coolness.

 

As the operatives approached, the woman took a long drink from her mug, before beginning to walk forward, “Again, good work out there troops. Phantom, get some more medical assistance for that scar. Lazarus, I would like you to come to my office in 10 hours, once we both get some rest” she said, getting a “Yes ma’am” from both in return as she walked past the operatives, the man at her side the entire time as she approached the party, 

 

“Greetings to all of you. I am Zhou Hua, Commander of XCOM and unofficial leader of the Resistance” she greeted, gesturing to the man next to her, “This is Central Officer Bradford, my second in command” she added.

 

In response, Bradford raised a hand a little bit, before putting it back into his fold, “A pleasure to meet you all as well. It’s good to see more faces willing to help us” he said after a quick pause, with his gaze lingering on Proditor for a bit before going back to the group. As he did so, there was a small hissing sound from the sides of the platform… Right before it began to descend, bringing Firebrand and everyone on the platform down into the ship as a hatch began to close above them. Around the group was now multiple levels of small rooms, each seeming to be related to store tools and other material to repair and keep Firebrand functioning.

 

The Commander herself simply gestured around with her hand as the platform continued to go down, “Welcome to the Avenger, one of the last true bases for Humanity’s Resistance” she stated as the platform reached the bottom, allowing two new people to step on, another asian woman in a orange shirt with the same symbol as the Commander’s on the trench coat, along with a simple vest and black gloves, and a bald man with a clear scientist’s outfit, along with a datapad in his hand.

 

As the two approached, the woman scanned the group before looking at Proditor, her face turning into that of shock, “Wow… You weren’t joking when you said that we were bringing in an Ethereal…” she whispered.

 

The man himself stared at Proditor, though in less of a shocked way and more of a wondered way, “Fascinating… I’ve never seen one of their kind in person. I shall have to ask the operatives on the field how they brought him in…” he stated, quickly writing something on his datapad.

 

Once the two talked, the Commander turned her head to look at them, before looking back at the group and gesturing to them, “These two are our Chiefs of Technology Departments, Chief Engineer Lily Shen and Chief Scientist Tygan” she said before taking another drink from her mug.
 

Edited January 7, 2018 by GodofGamingRWBY

[kj1225]

Aquila stared down at the small woman in amazment. Mainly because of how small she is. Like, if he had to guess she'd say she's about a foot and a half shorter than him. If he wasn't so polite he'd probably have said something rude, but instead he just nodded to the gathered people before pointing a thumb at himself.

"I'm Aquila Aurelianus, they call me a Conqueror where I come from."

[Powder Miner]

In the Firebrand

For the remainder of the flight in the Firebrand, Nader's attention (except for a small smirk behind his mask at Harry's annoyance) was focused on the primer that he had been given by Rachel. He flipped through the other sections of the primer quickly, as he only had a little interest in skimming them, but they did provoke a couple of reactions nonetheless; the fact that he recognized some of the tunes in this futuristic empire's hymns made him softly chuckle, and the bits on battlefield fortification and sanitation got a quick "hmm" out of him and nothing more. They seemed practical enough, he supposed. The bits on aliens made him laugh a little bit more derisively, with a mutter of "So that's a constant, huh?" and then, as he read on, a nervous pat of his Sorraia -- the existence of these creatures wasn't very comforting, especially with the possibility of certain multiversal threats and all. "...will have to keep this all in mind for if the interdimensional assassins decide to bring any of these beings along..."

 

The bit that he was the most interested in, though, was obviously the bit on the lasgun, which he had wanted to see in the first place. Though a lot of it was essentially Greek to him, seeing as he was an engineer, not a scientist, and most certainly not from the future, Nader noted that once you got past all of the machine-spirit nonsense and the stuff about the "Emperor" (a godlike emperor? Nader couldn't help but disapprove) it started to make a lot more sense. Underlying the bits that he couldn't understand or that made him roll his eyes was a remarkably simple approach to putting together one of the Empire's lasguns; he wouldn't be able to make the components, but Nader was willing to bet that if he got his hands on some he could apply his own training and what he'd seen here to put one together, and that he could repair some. Really, some of the structural insights and pieces of modularity in here were useful for all purposes, and Nader felt a distinct satisfaction in the thought that he was improving.

 

Nader's Gunsmithing trick has been upgraded to: Gunsmithing (Trick): Nader has years of experience with working on guns, it wasn’t a huge surprise that he started to apply it here. Nader adds an extra 15% to INT during checks involving making or upgrading guns.

 

Outside of the Firebrand

The first thing that Nader did as the Firebrand landed was to walk up to Rachel and extend the Primer towards her -- for all of the nonsense that even she admitted surrounded it, the book has actually been profoundly useful to Nader, and his tone reflected this as he spoke to her, as he spoke with respect in his voice. "Thank you for this -- I genuinely got something out of it. The section on the lasgun is as useful as you said it would be," even if that usefulness took some rereading to glean on occasion.

 

While the commander and her staff introduced themselves, Nader held back from comment -- he didn't have any negative thoughts about the commander being a woman, since his own country had the legendary female air general Tereshkova in charge of much of its military, and though he found the woman's diminutive height admittedly a bit funny, it struck him as likely a terrible idea to actually bring any sort of vocal attention to it. When they finished their introductions, however, Nader decided to follow Aquila's example (words he hoped never passed through his mind ever again) and reiterate his own introduction for their benefit. "I'm Nader Jabal. Weapons engineer for the Republic of United Forenia, and recently some sort of dimension-traveling soldier... slash... helper? Whatever you call someone who fights insane bomb men, horrible cyborg koalas, fixes pipelines, and apparently also now fights space alien colonialists."

 

He put his hand to his shoulder, lightly moving around the loosened armor and damaged backing. "...do you have any basic supplies such as military fabric? My armor's taken damage and I'd rather it be at peak condition in case of attack by interdimensional assassins or angry flying alien things or, well, whatever I end up fighting. I do not like the idea of going around with reduced structural integrity on this if I can at all avoid it."

[Strider]

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."

[StormLord]

After collecting his notebook and supplies from thr Firebrand Frigus followed the others out to meet XCOM's leaders.

He stepped forward and spoke politely and respectfully to the four standing there.

"My name if Frigus, I am a Journeyman of the Keyblade.  Which basically means I've been trained since childhood to go to other worlds and protect people.  Harry, Proditor, and I are part of a larger group dedicated to preparing worlds to better defend from external threats.  I don't know exactly what you've got or need, but we're versed in both tech and magic of several descriptions, and this other group--" He gestured to the other group of world travelers. "Seems to be similarly prepared, having already talked about weapon designs on the ride here."

[Yours Truly]

Alan ordered his DOOMBOT to carefully pick up its minigun and drag the MEC's wreckage out of the Firebrand as he absentmindedly wiped off some of the dust that had accumulated on his suit and picked up the Codex brain with his own two hands just before he stepped into the limelight. It took a few moments before he realized that he still had his mask on, which was a fact that he hastily tried to rectify by awkwardly attempting to take off his head covering mask with just one hand. 

 

After he spent a few moments making sure that his appearance wouldn't horrify any small children/make him look like an insufferable dickhead, he finally made his presence known by clearing his throat just before he said "Well it is good to finally meet you in person Commander Zhou. My name is Alan Tsar, I am a freelance roboticist, hacker, and quantum computer programmer who specializes in drone design and assembly...I also have a highly experimental personal shield generator that I could use really some help with reverse engineering and some experience with infiltrating highly secured facilities and not dying horribly in a firefight. And that is basically all I have to offer, other than-". Alan swiftly raises the Codex brain up and taps its side with his right index finger "This Codex brain that I found within the wreckage of an ADVENT MEC".

[Projeck]

Contagion scanned the few individuals in front of them, taking note of their names, position, and the way they stood. He nodded to the Commander, before speaking up.

"I go by my codename Contagion. Pleasure to meet you Command. As well as you, Dr. Tygan, and Lily Shen."

With introductions out of the way, he approached the two aforementioned Chief Technology Officers.

"My services are yours. I'm an engineer and chemist. And I believe I can assist you with-" Contagion pulled out his Plasma Welder, flipping it one. "-plasma weaponry. I heard you were working on it currently. Hopefully I can speed along your progress."

[DragonRage]

"I am Sister Celestian Rachel of the Argent Shroud.  May the blessings of the God-Emperor be upon you, defenders of Holy Terra," Rachel slams her right fist into her left pauldron in the Imperial salute.  "My decades of experience battling all manner of xenos scum and healing the wounds they inflict are at your disposal.  I understand your tech-priests might wish to examine the Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and the lasgun schematics within?

 

"I also am well versed in the less martial rites of the Ecclesiarchy.  It has been a while since I have given a sermon or had the luxury of easing a dying man's passing to join the Emperor.  But the fortitude of a soldier's soul is as important as his body, if not more so, and in this manner as in all others it is my honor, duty, and privilege to serve the defenders of humanity."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

At Harry’s proposal, Tygan stepped forward, taking the rifle in one hand and examining it, “Ah… Yes, similar in design to their previous models, but in pristine condition. It might reveal more about ADVENT’s technology” he said, looking up at Harry and nodding, “I would be glad to start disassembling some of their grenades as well” he added, turning to Contagion, “Your help would be much appreciated as well. Especially if you were to lend me that for examination.”

Bradford himself raised an eye at Harry’s mention of “the Trespassers”, right before he closed his eyes and sighed, “Great… Not like we don’t have our hands full with ADVENT” he muttered. Right after he did so, he opened his eyes, looking at Rachel as she introduced himself, her introduction managing to confuse him a little bit, and going by the face of Lily, it confused her as well, though Tygan didn’t seem to take notice.

Not a second after Rachel finished speaking, the Commander began to speak herself, having taken a pause to take another drink of coffee, “Yes, we do have quite a bit of fabric left over. Most civilian grade, but we have several crates stored aside that hold our military grade supplies” she replied, turning to face Rachel, “I’m sure Shen would be delighted to take a look at some new weapon schematics for our troops, right?”

At the Commander’s question, Lily seemed to snap out of her confusion, going into a quick nod, “Yes, that would be a good side project for the ones I’m already working on” she replied, before looking at Alan’s Codex Brain that he held, “... Wait… You got that from a MEC?” she asked, walking forward to get a closer look, “That’s… Not normal… These are never found in one of their mechanized infantry…” she muttered, thinking on it for a second, “Hm… It must be a test ADVENT is trying to do to enhance their units…”

“Considering the amount of processing power and intelligence a Codex has, I wouldn’t be surprised if ADVENT was beginning to use the Codex as their permanent AI” Bradford threw in, “... Either way, it’s not often we get a group with as much new skills as you all. Tygan, Shen, you may want to inform your teams that they’ll be very busy soon” he said, getting nods from both Shen and Tygan.

The Commander, however, was now staring at Proditor, her tired eyes looking at him critically, “Bradford, I want you to direct this group to whatever station or area they wish to go to. I need to speak with this Ethereal” she stated, causing Bradford to turn, already looking like he was going to object before a sharp look from the corner of her eyes stopped him, “Follow me Ethereal” she ordered, turning around with another drink, before walking off, with Proditor silently following shortly after.

 

Due to requests, here is a list of places one can go to:

 

Science Division: Tygan's Domain. Lots of scientific crap where you can help advance XCOM's scientific knowledge/reverse engineer things.

 

Workshop: Shen's Domain. Lots of building, as the name suggests.

 

Armory: Where XCOM keeps their weapons, supplies, and troops. This is where you can help train up XCOM's troops or get trained yourself.

 

Psi-Labs: Exactly what it says on the tin.

 

Propaganda Division: Where XCOM's Propaganda is made.
 

Edited January 9, 2018 by GodofGamingRWBY

[kj1225]

Aquila will go to the Armory.

[Strider]

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.

[DragonRage]

Sister Rachel goes to Shen's workshop, for now at least.  She'll almost certainly want to visit the armory for some training and the propaganda division to spread the word of the God-Emperor at some point.

[Projeck]

Contagion heads to the Science Division.

 

He likely walked along with Tygan, explaining the mechanics of his plasma torch, and how it resupplies from areas with atmosphere.

"If you're having to fight in areas without an atmosphere, there might be a way to improve the design to not need it. I just haven't looked into it."

Contagion pondered for a moment, before turning back to Tygan.

"I'd like to have a look at your power supply while we're at it. I have a plasma battery design, that just recycles through the atmosphere, like the plasma torch. Granted, it's on a smaller scale, but with the help of your scientists and engineers, I'm sure we could handle any power issues you may be having. If any... and if you might need any assistance on any of your current research, I'm more than happy to help in the meantime. It'll bring me back to my youth."

He chuckled, one hand massaging his neck.

[StormLord]

Frigus heads to the Workshop, while there and on his way he keeps his eyes open for any invisible Moogle-shops.

Edited January 10, 2018 by StormLord

[Yours Truly]

Alan heads to the Workshop to ask Shen for help with using the alien alloys to strengthen the DOOMBOT's armor, and perhaps obtain some more help from the woman with improving the DOOMBOT's AI and fine motoric control....and let's just say that he is going to bring up the subject of improving the Minigun some more by perhaps abandoning Nader's admittedly primitive modification at some point in the future by getting started on researching a lighter way to wind up the minigun's barrels faster(Sorry Nader).

[Powder Miner]

Nader will head to the Armory to (figuratively) sniff out the military fabric supplies so that he can repair his armor backing.

[Hal Henderics]

Blue goes to the Psi-Labs.  He might learn a thing or two.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Harry, Nader & Aquila

As Tygan began to move away, he turned to address Harry’s question, as well as take the grenades, “The Proving Grounds are where we experiment with our weapons” he stated. 

Not a second afterwards, Bradford spoke up, watching as he others began to move with Shen and Tygan, “The Armory and Proving Grounds are this way. Follow me” he stated, gesturing for the three to follow him.

Essentially, Bradford led the two through the Avenger, leading Aquila and Nader to the Armoury, while leading Harry to the Proving Grounds before heading off himself, saying that there was some things he needed to deal with at the Central Hub.

The Armory was mostly a broken up area of several different functions, from a large training ground that had two people already sparring in it, dorms, a break room, a storage room, and then a bar (that had a memorial lined up with pictures).

The Proving Grounds, however, was much smaller, essentially coming up to be an engineering room with plenty of tools and spare parts to work with, with a separate room for testing the effectiveness of each type of material made with multiple dummies.

Workshop

Unfortunately, Frigus was unable to find himself a Moogle Shop inside of the Avenger as Shen led the people going with her to her workshop, revealing a place filled with machinery, tools, and weapons being manufactured. She herself did say that she would be willing to give Alan some assistance with upgrading his DOOMBOT, as long as she could use it to up XCOM’s own mechanized units, but for the most part, she began to go over the schematics for the Lasgun, quickly becoming absorbed into the read as she absorbed the information from the Primer.

Science Division

“I believe we can figure out a way with the basic design of a plasma power source. The only complication is figuring out how to make one. And do not worry… I believe the Avenger has enough power to keep itself running three times over” Tygan replied to Contagion as they approached the science lab, the door opening to reveal a large room situated a large power generator, clearly creating a massive amount of power while remaining almost completely silent,

“Currently, the Commander is wanting a way to increase our sniper’s effectiveness on the field, and right now, she has tasked us with creating a plasma rifle, or what we refer to as a ‘Plasma Lance’. I would always appreciate new minds on the team to assist” Tygan added, continuing to lead Contagion through the labs to where most of the ‘action’ was for XCOM’s scientists.

Psi-Labs

Blue himself was practically drawn to the Avenger’s Psionic Labs, discovering a rather small room with several machinery, a computer, and a resting room inside of it. Sitting in said resting room was the familiar face of Ao Toshinori, still in her Templar uniform. Seemed she was the only person inside of it.
 

[Hal Henderics]

Blue uses obvious and slow movements in tandem with his glowing aura to make himself visibly apparent.

 

"Greetings."  He says.

[kj1225]

Aquila goes to get a drink, finally. And then he goes to watch the people sparring.

He figures that's the area of expertise he's most able to help with.

[Strider]

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.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Psi-Labs

Ao herself seemed to pause even before Blue even began to start trying to make himself more noticable, her eyes slowly moving across the room until she saw the small speck saying “Greetings”.

Needless to say, that got her to stand, moving nearer to Blue before crouching down to get a better look, “... Greetings?” she replied, obviously a bit confused at the psionics she was feeling from the speck, along with the fact that it was even speaking.

Aquila

Aquila himself was able to grab himself a nice glass of beer from the bar rather quickly, as it seemed the bartender was rather quick with getting drinks ready. When he made his way back to the small training room, he found one person standing in there, his opponent having left already. Specifically, the armored form of Lazarus… At least, without his helmet on, revealing an inhuman, wrinkled face.

Lazarus was simply sitting down on one of the benches, relaxing after his spar. He did quickly take notice in Aquila, straightening a bit at the sight of the armored Crusader, “I take it you’re looking around the Avenger?” he asked, resting an arm on his knee as he stared at Aquila.
 

[Hal Henderics]

"I'm with the other newcomers.  I heard this area specialized in Psychic ability."

 

"My name is Blue Occultist.  What is yours?"

[kj1225]

Aquila shrugged.

"Kind of. I was hoping to see if I could catch some of the troops training or sparing since I feel I'm most qualified to give pointers on stuff like that. You wouldn't believe how many people I've seen not watching properly during a fight."

Aquila gestures to show it's a number bordering on pretty much all the people he's seen fight.

[Powder Miner]

Nader wasn’t planning on wasting any time now that he knew where the fabrics were, because his armor had to be back at peak condition as soon as he could manage it — giving potential surprise enemies the chance to pull off the armor near his shoulder in melee combat would be a terrible risk, and he didn’t want to take it. Accordingly, the Forenian walked into the armory, perused the crates, grabbed a couple scraps of fabric (one blue piece of civilian cloth, and a grey piece of military-grade fabric), some sewing tools, and proceeded to walk out of that area of the armory, looking for a small room to isolate himself in.

 

Once he found what he was looking for, a tiny little storage closet, Nader entered it, shut the door, locked said door, and propped the Horsekiller against it plus a corner of the room, so Nader could grab it out of the air if someone burst in. It was dimly lighted in here, and maybe he was being a bit suspicious, but privacy and safety were paramount for the task he was undertaking. After all, if he was going to render himself vulnerable at all, it wouldn’t be in front of other people. Slowly, he unhooked the chest plate of his armor, and then the back plate, shuddering as he deposited them on the ground. ”Urgh...” Then he removed his gloves, the muscled man carefully working his fingers out of them, then the plates around the damaged shoulder of the armor.

 

Now, his bare hands and the fabric backing of his armor (looking like a thick jumpsuit of military fabric around the torso where the plates were now gone, with a zipper around the hips and one down the front) were visible to him, and he frowned behind his (still on) helmet, but he’d have to deal with it. Unzipping the zippers, he removed the torso section of the jumpsuit to reveal his purple undershirt, with a ragged hole around the shoulder in it as well.

 

Sighing, he first took the blue scrap of civilian fabric and sewed it (very very carefully) to the undershirt (which he was still wearing so that he didn’t have to take his helmet off). Then, with that patched, he moved on to fixing the hole in his armor backing, a lengthier process that saw a couple of extra straps down on with the military fabric he’d taken, in addition to patching it. He put the backing back on, then reattached his plates, then tested his motion and its integrity... Perfect, it was back in working order.

 

With that done, Nader put his guns back onto his back, clutched the needle and thread between three fingers, and walked out of the closet he’d been in for the past several minutes.