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

[Strider]

"Research, obviously. Win the war not the battle." Harry muttered, quickly packing away his gear, and offering a shoulder to Rachel as he began to head back to the Firebrand.

[Yours Truly]

Alan quickly packed up all of his belongings and ordered the Sectopod to follow him back to the Firebrand as he says, "Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I am going to order my giant death robot to follow me back to base; as it is currently under my command. The both of you can decide where your giant death robot goes if you ever get one."

[Powder Miner]

As Nader watched, the Sectopod ground to a halt, and as he listened, the group was told to retreat immediately. With these events considered, it had not been difficult for Nader to make a decision, and he had without hesitation turned on his foot and booked it back in the direction of the shop. Nader certainly didn’t want to get bombed to smithereens by aircraft, and he equally certainly didn’t want to see what would happen if Alan’s control suddenly turned out to be temporary.

 

”Damn...!” Rachel’s anesthetic was beginning to war off. Nader was, of course, still bleeding heavily, but he really still couldn’t afford to let that stop him — it was just something he would have to have looked at in the Firebrand... so he just kept running towards it.

[StormLord]

Frigus stood up from his cover as the gas around him cleared, he heard the call to evacuate and saw people starting to run.  With a shout he mustered up another healing spell, targeting the two who looked the most wounded, Rachel and Nader.  This was getting exhausting, he really needed to improve his spells.

With that he started trying to push towards the front of the group in case ADVENT decided to lock the bulkheads in an effort to keep them from escaping.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Frigus heals Rachel and Nader for 13 HP!

 

As the entire group ran out of the crashed ship, they could see that Firebrand was beginning to activate its engines, sand flying out in waves as it prepared a quick get away. Lazarus himself made it to Firebrand, only to look out and shout something to Database before running back out to meet the group… Specifically to give the still heavily wounded Rachel a hand in getting to the ship.

 

(83) Meanwhile, just as the Sectopod stomped its way out after its new controller, the first of ADVENT’s Transports could be seen on the horizon, speeding their way to the ship. Due to their distance, it would be a bit of time before they managed to make it over.

 

(30) As the group started to make their way towards the ship though, a large crack of a rifle filled the air… A red outline of a bullet barely grazing Rachel’s armor before scattering to the side. The culprit in question was a tall alien crouched on the top of the ship, strangely similar to the one with a sword that they met at the Alien Facility, except clearly male, wearing a hood, and lowering a large sniper rifle, smirking at the group as they retreated, “And THAT there, was a warning shot XCOM” he stated, his voice crackling into XCOM’s communications so everyone could hear, “You should really learn to keep your fingers out of the Eldar’s stuff. It gets annoying having to deal with the messes you cause them” with that, the alien gazed at the retreating party, including the Sectopod, “And I see you’ve gotten new friends! How exciting. Let’s see if they’re any fun sport…” he began, raising his rifle again and aiming it at the group.

 

In the Avenger, the closest to the party could see another sniper aiming at the alien. Specifically, the Reaper, somehow managing to get ahead of the group and back into the ship without being scene…

 

(67) Then, with two individual cracks of rifles, both snipers fired… At each other. Almost instantly, the Reaper was thrown back as the alien’s bullet hit him square in the chest, slamming against the seat behind him and causing Database to cry out in shock before running to his aid. The alien, on the other hand, found his shoulder being thrown back as the Reaper’s bullet collided with his rifle, glancing off the outer shell of the gun and into his shoulder. 

 

Needless to say, this gave the group enough time to get onto Firebrand as it began to slowly take off. Despite its size, the Sectopod managed to get itself inside, lowering itself to the ground and carefully entering the ship, managing to leave enough room to squeeze around it.

 

(33 vs 23) Then, with everyone on board, the doors of Firebrand closed, the ship beginning its escape as bullets began to collide with the outer hull, “Evading ADVENT ships now, hang tight everyone!” the pilot yelled. Shortly after, almost everyone in the ship was thrown around by the emergency maneuvers employed by Firebrand, ones that were likely not expected to be performed by a transport ship.

 

However, it only took a minute of this before the intercom went live again, “We’re all clear. No ADVENT ships in sight. Heading back to the Avenger”
 

[Strider]

For the first small portion of the ride, Harry worked on patching up the more wounded, checking for internal damage in Reaper, patching presumably his lung, and then working on sealing up the exit and entrance wounds. Alan seemed somewhat interested, so Harry said, "Well, if you want to watch, come on." A few tips and pointers. Disinfect of course, when to stitch and when to glue, pressure on the wounds, etc. When he was done, Harry stepped back, and turned to Database.

 

"You know that can I grabbed? Know what it is?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

XCOM

 

It was surprising, but the Reaper wasn’t as wounded as one would expect from getting shot in the chest. Most likely because of the odd material making up his inner armor. It only took Harry a few minutes to patch him up… Though it was obvious he would need a bit of time before he was able to get back onto the field.

 

When he asked Database his question, she shrugged, “I don’t really know myself. The Commander said it was something called ‘Meld’, but I’ve never heard of it before. Might want to ask her once we make it back to the Avenger” she stated, looking at the Sectopod, “Gotta say… We’ve never managed to bring one of ADVENT’s heavy armored units intact before. Dr. Tygan would love to examine it. ”

[Strider]

"You willing to let them take a look at it, Alan?" Harry didn't have a great read on the man currently, so he was genuinely curious what the answer would be. In addition of course, to his curiosity about this meld stuff.

 

"So, they've probably encountered meld before, on missions you weren't on I guess." Harry mused. If other soldiers had picked it up on a mission, and it had shown promise, Database would have known about it from passing conversations. Since she had not, it was probably inert until investigated. And, it must have shown something interesting in investigation, or else the commander would not have recognized it and had a name for it. So the conclusion was that information on the substance was classified, or at the very least, only available on a need to know basis.

[StormLord]

After stepping into the Firebrand and seeing that Harry was already tending to the wounded Frigus pulled out his notebook and tried to write a report of the conflict.  However due to some less than timely writing combined with combat maneuvers the report ended up below average quality.  So he decided to cut his loses on that for now and try something else, a new Keychain maybe?  Using one of the alien crystals from before?  Sounded like a good plan, so he pulled it and a few other materials out of his pocket and got to work.  By the time he was done they were nearly back to base and he had shiny new crystal wrapped in dull greyish wire and chain.  He would have to test the effects later in a more controlled environment.

Thinking of, he was definitely ready for whatever debrief they had waiting back at the base and something more productive to do afterward.  As much fun as almost dying in a crashed ship was they really needed to get down to actually helping these people in a meaningful way.

[Yours Truly]

Alan straightened out his sleeves a little as he listened to what Database had to say about the mysterious substance the doctor had managed to acquire, and he slowly took off the clown themed ballistic mask he usually had on his face as he visibly started to relax, his eyes blinked a couple of times as they adjusted to the dimmer lighting, "As long as they don't frag the whole damned thing trying to put humpty dumpty back together again because someone hosed it at the last moment. I mean no offense to Dr. Tygan, but I almost got de-rezzed trying to blow code into the damned thing, before I finished blowing code into the whole damn thing, wouldn't want it all to go to waste for a scan." He then placed his mask down on his lap and leaned back to tidy up his more than a little sweaty hair, "But anyway how quickly can XCOM produce their Drones and Psionic blockers anyway? I have grand plans for the MEC frame and Codex Brain I've got, and I don't want any Gibson to be able to get in the know or get in my head alright?."

[Strider]

"Fair, I guess that's the best they could have hoped for." So, the man was a little self interested, but willing to help when it didn't hurt him. Not admirable certainly, but not the worst. And his skills were powerful. "Say, about your drones, think with the right tools, we could make a basic medic drone? Or even something a little more advanced. It'd be nice to have something to patch myself up if I'm incapacitated, and maybe even let me perform operations on myself." Specifically his brain, but he didn't mention that. People might get the wrong idea, and he didn't really want to list off all the precautions he had in mind right now.

 

"It's a little bit hard to set a bone with one hand, or re-fuse nerves in your own spine when your lower body is paralyzed."

[Yours Truly]

Alan turned slightly to get a better look at the doctor before he said, "Well if XCOM's robotics division is halfway competent I can get you a working medical drone before you can figure out the proper way to pronounce antidisestablishmentarianism. Although I must say that I would need quite a bit of time to brush up before I even try and kludge something together, especially if you want me to make one that is precise and sophisticated enough to perform anything other than simple aesthetics and first aid...especially since I'm not a trained surgeon."

[Strider]

"I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out. I just need something basic for now, and I'll tackle problems when I get to them." One idea Harry had was the possibility of transfering his consciousness to an XCOM drone, though he'd have to consult with Proditor on the feasibility of that. "About that robot, did you get any links to ADVENT through it? Or any important intel?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

At Alan’s statement, Database frowned, folding her arms as she turned to him, “We’ve been dealing with ADVENT’s mechanized units for months now. If we’d been screwing up with our Engineering Division then we’d be dead by now with how much we rely on them reverse engineering ADVENT’s stuff” she stated, “But we can make our Drones and Blockers in less than an hour with the correct materials. Don’t have time to work long on these things” she added before turning to Harry, “We already do use medical drones, however. Mine’s just a field medic. The doctors use them all the time for assistance. Though it would probably take a while in order to get one to do entire surgeries on their own” Database finished.

 

Sandman, for the most part, remained as still as possible, letting his wound rest instead of disturb it. He didn’t expect that zhopa to be around, especially not when they were trying to retreat. He’s taken multiple wounds in his career working for XCOM, none making him this close to death before. He probably should’ve shot a bit sooner, risked the miss instead of…

 

Suddenly, he noticed Lazarus moving to sit in the chair he was leaning on, holding his rifle in one hand as he leaned over to look at Sandman, “How are you holding up Colonel?”

 

“Ischenzni…” the Reaper muttered out in response, remaining silent for a few seconds before speaking up again, “I’ll live. Don’t worry yourself for my sake, Lazarus. I did my job” he stated, staring ahead of himself and at the closed ship door. He’d live, but he wouldn’t be on the field for quite a while.
 

Edited May 4, 2018 by GodofGamingRWBY

[Strider]

"You don't say?" Harry nodded thoughtfully. "That'd be pretty damn useful, I'll see if I can trade something for one when we get back to base or something. The surgeries, well that's a long term goal. Just need something with the precision and durability that maybe it could be modified for that eventually. Probably try to get it to do the complex stuff with some combination of psionics, random advanced materials we pick up, Alan's coding skills, and my knowledge. And a boatload of time, I'm guessing. But quite the boon if I can get it working."

 

"Say, what're the medical testing facilities like on the Avenger? Anyway to test effects of substances on stuff like human tissue, bone, that sort of thing? Be best if there was some form of molecular interaction simulator, but I'll make due with what I can. I need to test something to see if it's safe for human use."

[kj1225]

Aquila stares at the drone distastefully. He doesn't know what fell magics power it but they can't be good. His gaze briefly turns to the one who wants to further fuck with it with a similar look of distrust.

[Powder Miner]

Nader raised his eyebrow a little behind his mask at the Reaper's choice of invective towards Lazrus; being a weapons engineer of United Forenia, he understood Russian fairly well. However... that damned thing had lit him up pretty badly too. Even with the protection of his armor, that wound had not been ignorable, and it had taken the intervention of Rachel to keep him fighting and the intervention of Frigus to make the wound manageable. All in all, the trilingual man could pretty well agree with the Reaper's mood.

 

But considering that he had been the one to detect the tank, Nader felt the need to impar some information to the Russian that hopefully would spare him a wound or two in the future. Suddenly smacking his clenched fist against his other palm with a thwap and a metallic clink, Nader spoke in the direction of Sandman. "This is why vigilance must be neverending. No matter if you think somewhere's been cleared of your enemy, the possibility always exists that they have some manner of stealth or ingress that you didn't see coming. That's why I was listening, and that's why I heard the sound of the metal -- because I am always listening.

 

Unless you have a place that you can truly, honestly call secure and fortified, with your armaments within easy reach, and enough firepower around the perimeter to alert you before they get in, then you are never completely safe. It's a hard fact, and an even harder one to respond to thoroughly, but it is true, ESPECIALLY when involved with transdimensional transport, and it can go a long way towards preventing your ambush."

[Yours Truly]

Alan smiled as he said "Hey no offense," his head tilted slightly to the left as he raised both of his hand's palms up, "But you did say that Doctor Tygan had never worked on a fully functional Sectopod before, and I am admittedly a bit worried that knowing of how to best take ADVENT machines apart and disable them might not translate well enough into putting one back together." After saying that he shrugged just before he turned around to face Harry and said, "But anyway, I can do a whole lot more to help than just coding actually, although if all goes well I wouldn't need to actually make any modifications in the meatspace.. also I honestly don't know if that works any differently where you come from, but I don't think that being a Gibson's going to help you control any drones doc, not unless you're using it to manipulate the drone's manual controls from a distance anyway. Of course there's always the chance that ADVENT had already found a way to do just that in the past and XCOM has already reverse engineered whatever it is they are theoretically using for that, in which case I am just spouting a lot of drek out of my mouth."

 

He then quietly made a mental note to underline whatever note he actually had on his person about never getting on Nader's wrong side, and he found himself wondering what sort of deathtrap (or Asylum) the man must have lived in back on his home world as he said, "Surprisingly enough I actually agree with Nader on this one; you can never really be too careful on a run, never know who's going to stab you in the back or suddenly appear through the corridor you didn't check well enough or decide that they are going to work overtime the one time where your plan  hinges around them not doing that exact same thing and pretending to be the guy who is here to relieve him of his duty, or that one time where an unfortunate series of events that started with not accounting for the presence of a recently placed security camera led to half of the team running into the world's most dedicated security guard."

[kj1225]

Aquila stares at Nader. He tilts his head as he considers the man's words. After a moment he nods to himself, reaching a decision.

"You're a loon aren't you? Perhaps we should have the doctor see about rebalancing your humors friend."

[Powder Miner]

Nader jabs a finger at Aquila in response to the man’s statement, speaking with a voice nearly entirely deadpan. ”You: randomly charged the complex we found when we arrived without even the most basic attempts at caution, refused to run away from the horrible fat man with the hook until it was too late because you were so committed to getting into a duel with an eight foot lizardman over a petty insult, and you literally suicide charged a tank preparing some sort of special ordnance because you wanted to hit it with your fuckin’ medieval flail. The fact that you apparently think you have room to call people crazy is stunning to me.”

 

Aquila wasn’t wholly incorrect, of course, and Nader knew it. The paranoid man was well aware that there was something not right with him, something which tied into the way he lived his life, and he’d known since 1935 at the latest, though he wondered if he’d maybe suspected it earlier. There was something in him that twisted him, that inspired fear in him sometimes and that he realized now was the source of that hellish, horrible Specter of the Moskurg days. The Specter... Nader shuddered and shook his head for a moment. None of these people had to know what was going on in his head (it seemed like a rather profound weakness to be baring), and it was experience talking right now anyway, not whatever was wrong with him.

 

Nader gestured at Alan as he began to speak again. ”See, Alan knows. It’s not a concept I’d expect you to understand, Aquila, but when you don’t show constant caution, or when you... literally don’t show any, ever, Allah save us, then you will pay for it. But when you do make sure to keep your guard up, it can and will save your life. I’m saying this from experience, because I know that being always prepared and ready for a fight has saved my life before.” He could have gone without locking himself in a closet for three weeks, though.

[kj1225]

"None of you were running either might I remind you. As for running to the ship, what did you expect? My armor clearly isn't enough to withstand those "guns" of yours, so staying out in the open would be a terrible idea. And it's not like it could have hit me, the weaponry was clearly underneath it, not on top of it. Besides.... the day we die is already determined, so why should I fear death?"

Aquila leans back in his seat with a shrug. 

[Strider]

"I'm guessing 'Gibson' is some kind of colloquialism for psionics or similar? Yes, there might be a problem there. But remember, this isn't your world, so the stuff's probably a bit different. And, well, even if it doesn't work directly, I've got a few secondary pathways I'd like to explore." Harry then turned to the two metal-clad men.

 

"Hey, keep me out of this. But. . . he's got a point. Sort of, a bit. Never ending vigilance is a pretty quick way to a heart attack." That was generally pretty well known in the military. There was a reason that commanders let soldiers play pranks and crack jokes with each other for the most part when they weren't in a fire fight. And it wasn't simply the physical health risk that constant vigilance caused, it was also the mental issues, the stuff that causes PR problems. "That sort of paranoia's also the fast track to shooting little kids in the head because they looked like they might be hiding a grenade behind their back."

 

"Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that preparedness and awareness don't have their place, just that they shouldn't be all consuming. When you're going on a mission, by all means, triple check all the crawl spaces, shoot the enemies in the head when they're down. Have backup comms. But if you're not in battle or walking through the rougher parts of a city, well, it can hurt more than it helps."

[DragonRage]

"I knew a guy a lot like you, Nader, back when I was serving with the Guard," Sister Rachel, having finished up applying first aid to the wounded, sits down next to Nader, her powered armor creaking as she leans against the bulkheads, "He thought if he gave us his real name, the orks could find him easier, so we just called him Twitch.  Best demolitions tech I ever worked with.  His traps saved hundreds of lives when a bunch of chaos cultists snuck through our lines and tried to hit the hospital tents, when everyone else thought our wounded were in a safe position.  He also only avoided maiming dozens of allies because his friends were handy with a tranq dart and good at talking him down when he had an episode.

 

"Point is, he was an excellent Guardsman and a true hero of the Imperium.  He had twelve traitor Astartes kills to his name.  The angels of the God-Emperor, if fallen into ruin, and though human he removed twelve of them from the world personally.  Twelve!  But I greatly doubt his life held much happiness.  He saw enemies around every corner, in every place, and even at times under the skins of his closest friends.  When I met him, he looked half again his actual age.  We have not known each other for long, but I have seen you to be a skilled and stalwart defender of humanity in the face of great danger, and a path where enemies lurk in every shadow...  I do not think that is a path you wish to see the end of.

 

"And for the record, if you have not a power weapon or melta, as I do, taking an armored vehicle on in melee combat is a spectacularly terrible idea.  You won't harm it, and it will almost certainly harm you.  Everyone dies someday, but to meet the God-Emperor before he calls you is a great sin.  It deprives him of the service you might have given humanity before your death."

[Yours Truly]

16 hours ago, Strider said:

"I'm guessing 'Gibson' is some kind of colloquialism for psionics or similar? Yes, there might be a problem there. But remember, this isn't your world, so the stuff's probably a bit different. And, well, even if it doesn't work directly, I've got a few secondary pathways I'd like to explore." Harry then turned to the two heavily armored men.

 

"Hey, keep me out of this. But. . . he's got a point. Sort of, a bit. Never ending vigilance is a pretty quick way to a heart attack." That was generally pretty well known in the military. There was a reason that commanders let soldiers play pranks and crack jokes with each other for the most part when they weren't in a fire fight. And it wasn't simply the physical health risk that constant vigilance caused, it was also the mental issues, the stuff that causes PR problems. "That sort of paranoia's also the fast track to shooting little kids in the head because they looked like they might be hiding a grenade behind their back."

 

"Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that preparedness and awareness don't have their place, just that they shouldn't be all consuming. When you're going on a mission, by all means, triple check all the crawl spaces, shoot the enemies in the head when they're down. Have backup comms. But if you're not in battle or walking through the rougher parts of a city, well, it can hurt more than it helps."

"It's a slang word for a psychic or someone who can predict the future, I think it's based off of the last name of a certain William Gibson, who popularized an entire genre of books that served to predict exactly how fucked the world I used to live in was, which is part of the reason why I agree with Nader so much," he looked around slightly before he lowered the tone of his voice and said, "It's kind of hard to not be at least a little bit paranoid when all of the world's nothing but a 'rough part of the city', especially when that hypothetical kid you thought had a grenade could always be some hostile fire spirit under the command of an extremely dickish poindexter who wants to kill you or an extremely lifelike attack drone," Alan's expression darkened for a moment as he said, "This is all of course barring the possibility that some demented fragger made damn sure that the kid is the grenade."

 

He let out a little sigh before he turned back to face Harry and asked, "But anyway I have a question, can you actually project your concious self out of your body or was that just a load of drek the info bro kept insisting was true?."

[kj1225]

Aquila shrugs at the minor scolding. It didn't help that he has no clue what it was that she was talking about. Probably would be something useful to look into though.

"You're probably right. But I didn't have anything better to use, so I figured it'd be more useful to try and distract it and maybe wound it."