Rungholt

Tera

Tera screamed as he was suddenly shot through the thing's shoulder, sending him flying off its back and crashing onto the ground. His hand immediately went to his chest, feeling around for any injuries; the plating on his torso was cracked in several places and the shard had cut into his skin, exposing some wires. It was a miracle nothing critical had been damaged...

By now, the Imps were either dead or retreating. Gard, the sniper, and Victoire were safe. Relief swept through Tera, and he let out a sigh, feeling the corners of his lips twitch upward. Even as the Warrior pointed its gun at him, ready to fire.

Then its head exploded.

Huh.

Slowly, Tera stood up, stumbling forward. He grabbed a branch to steady himself, whole body aching from all the running and fighting he'd been doing. He felt...exhausted. Could androids feel exhausted? He did, at any rate.

"What the fuck was that?!"

Tera yelped and jerked backwards. Victoire was right in front of him, her glare obvious even under the helmet. "You were out there, just treating that thing like a...like a fucking mount! You could've died!"

"Well—" He paused, grabbing the branch again. "I didn't. Did I?"

Victoire was silent for a moment, then sighed. "Point." She took out her compass again, checking which way was north. "Come on...back on the road..."

"Wait," Tera said, and Victoire looked at him. "Your arm. We should probably...fix it. At least keep it from getting worse."

"That's just wasting time—"

"Hold still."

Tera reached out to remove the remnants of her arm plating, but Victoire immediately jerked away. "Don't look!" she snapped.

"...I can't fix it if I can't look."

"Too bad, oh well, let's go!"

"Just give me a moment—"

Smack!

Tera stumbled backwards, cheek stinging. "What the—?!" And then he saw Victoire, shaking her hand.

It didn't take him long to put two and two together.

"I'm trying to help you!" he yelled, heading back over to her. "Just give me some time, and I'll stop the bleeding!"

"Don't look—!"

Tera grabbed her arm to keep it still, then removed the plating.

Then he noticed the green-black chitin scales in place of skin.

"Huh," he said, tilting his head at them.

Victoire stared at her arm, then at him, then at her arm, then at him. Then, she yelled in frustration and tore off her helmet with her uninjured arm.

It was odd. She definitely had a human face, except the skin was chitin, and the green eyes were a bit too big, and the lips a bit too rigid. She also had rather short black hair, longer on the left side. She was also trying to glare a hole through him.

"Fine. I'm a fucking mutant. Happy?"

"I don't know how to answer that," Tera replied, opening the medkit and taking out two bandages.

"You gonna stab me and leave me for dead?"

He paused, looking at her and tilting his head. "Why would I do that?" he asked. "We've been helping each other all this time. If I betrayed you, it wouldn't make sense."

Victoire blinked, looking genuinely surprised. "You...don't care?"

"Should I?"

She was quiet as Tera pressed one of the bandages against the wound, wrapping another around it to staunch the blood. "Alright," he said, backing away. "That should work until we get back to Rungholt."

Victoire remained quiet.

"Victoire?"

Still quiet. After a few moments of silence, she turned back northward and started walking.

Tera stared after her. "Huh." How strange. He looked up at Gard and the sniper. "Do you two want to come with us? Also, sniper, what's your name?"

Edited by LilyTheLitten on Aug 30th 2020 at 11:52:29 AM

Jagoda

"Commander..." She had so much to report that she struggled to know where to even begin. "I... I..." A strong wave of relief washed over her, followed by an even stronger wave of dizziness. Her knees buckled as everything she'd been keeping at bay with pure willpower came crashing down on her, and as the ground came rushing up to meet her, her only thought was: How amazing. I'm not going to die after all.

She opened her eyes and immediately closed them again. The simple act of moving her eyelids made her head pound like a bear-morph war drum. Still, corpses don't feel pain, so really, this is a good thing.

Even she wasn't quite convinced of that.

Carefully, she opened her eyes again. Her head still ached, but it seemed to be lessening. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out, but it couldn't have been too long, because outside the small circles of light scattered throughout the makeshift camp the Commander had established, total darkness reigned. As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was lying on a standard-issue army cot, surrounded by several others. People were lying on them as well, presumably other wounded; some of them seemed to be sleeping peacefully, others were moaning and writhing in pain, and a few lay deathly still.

A slender cat-morph carrying a clipboard approached the cots, moving between them to check on their occupants. She made notes on her clipboard as she moved among them. When she reached Jagoda, she smiled brightly. "Ah, you're awake! How are you feeling?"

Jagoda attempted to speak, but nothing emerged from her throat but a raspy hiss. The cat-morph medic called to a recruit who was standing guard nearby, and he brought over a pitcher of water. The medic poured some into a glass amd held it to Jagoda's lips. "Slowly," she cautioned. "You'll make yourself sick if you guzzle it."

Jagoda sipped at the water and attempted to speak again. "Head... hurts," she managed. The medic nodded. "That's not surprising. You were concussed. The Commander wants to debrief you immediately. After that, we'll get you something for the pain." She turned to the recruit. "Fetch Cmd. de Maiziére. Tell her Jagoda's awake."

The recruit nodded and ran off. The medic kept Jagoda sipping at the water, and by the time the recruit returned with the Commander, she felt like she could handle speaking again. de Maiziére took a seat next to her cot and gazed at Jagoda, her expression inscrutable. "Tell me everything you think I should hear," she said. "I trust your judgment."

So Jagoda began to speak. She started with how she had used the grav-cushion to land without injury, then described the intelligent metal-eating Zet she had seen at her landing site. She went over her mad dash to rendezvous with Dagfinn, how he had betrayed her, and the strange spore-emitting, armored man who had killed the pig-morph but spared her for some reason. She handed over Dagfinn's weapons, but didn't mention that she had salvaged his terminal. She wanted to look into that on her own before she showed it to anyone else.

From there, she spoke of her seemingly endless trek through the wilderness, how she had fully expected to die. Finally, she described the strange, ritualistic fight she'd witnessed between the Elder-Imp and the Warrior. She gave as much detail as she could muster, feeling that this was the most important thing that she'd seen. She hoped de Maiziére could make more sense of it than she could.

Finally, she ran out of story to tell. The cat-medic handed her another glass of water, and she sipped at it gratefully, her eyes on the Commander. The latter sat still and silent, her eyes locked on Jagoda, her expression as unreadable as ever. Jagoda grew nervous as she waitefor de Maiziére to speak.

Tera

Gard watched the argument between the two with interest, as he went around checking that no Zet pretended to still be alive. One or two shots later, he considered them secure. When Victoire stomped away, he approached Tera.

"Yeah, that's mutants for you. Politeness isn't their thing. Still, looks like we got one of the good ones, instead of some backstabbers.", he joked, though seeing Tera's confused face his laugh died down a bit. "Eh, you'll get what I mean eventually."

He turned to the hill-top and gestured for the sniper to come down. She did so, holstering her rifle. When she reached Tera, she pulled off her helmet revealing a gorgeous face, tanned skin and red hair that was shaved short on one side. A tatto in the form of a purple vine coiled down her cheek. It was the Admin-girl from the bus. "Greetings, Android. My name is Amelia de Romanet. I appreciate the aid you provided in this fight.", she said politely, though there was a stiffness in the way she said it. She let her eyes wander over Tera's exo-suit and then looked over Victoire. "Even if your aid and choice of ally was...unconvential."

Gard cleared his throat awkwardly. "I stumbled upon Amelia and her sister, while they were hunted by Zets near the canal. We headed for the hills, thinking we just faced a few Imps. Turns out...that wasn't quite true." He chuckled a bit. "Close call, that was for sure."

Amelia gave him a glare through her helmet. "Unlike you, wolf, I do not see enjoyment in battle. My sister is wounded, because of your call.", she snapped. Gard raised his hands.

"Hey now, we survived. I didn't see you coming up with a better idea.", he shot back.

"When you're done squabbling, I have something for you!", yelled Victoire suddenly from the forest edge. Behind her stood a Warden in a hulking green suit, gesturing for them to follow him. "Looks like we were finally found by the right people."

Astrid

Bromsfjord stopped in his tracks, causing Karolina to bump into him. Though she wasn't exactly a lightweight, she stumbled like she had just hit a wall, while the old bear didn't even notice the collision. Instead, he just stared at Astrid intently.

A few seconds passed....

"I have no idea, Andersdottir.", he finally said, chewing on the words. "Zets don't communicate with us humans. If we hadn't already picked up reports of someone having compromised our communication-channels, I wouldn't even believe you."

"S-Sir..." Karolina flinched, when the commander looked at her. "Me and my-my squad met a strange exo-suit pilot. He definitely spoke our language and he....he shot us in the back. Killed my...my companions." Her hand pressed against the hole in her side, as she said this.

"How did you survive?", asked Bromsfjord.

The girl didn't answer for a moment, not meeting his gaze. "I....I fled the field, sir.", she finally confessed.

Bromsfjord said nothing, just grunting and turning around. They walked a few minutes in silence, before he adressed Astrid again. "Someone has fucked up, thats for sure. Either its Wille not doing his goddamn job, like the damn mutant he is, and forgetting to tell us about some new Zet-Infiltrator unit. Or...or we have a traitor here. Not sure which is worse.."

He shook his head. "But thats for us to worry about. Now, lets get both of you to the safe-zone, such as it is. Getting you recruits out of the fire is priority number fucking one, right now." With that he marched on.

Signal-Tower Safe-Zone

By now it was deep in the night. A nearby clock said it was close to midnight. Tents had been put up and shelter was created for everyone. Looming over the camp was the signal-tower, a skeletal metal-structure with a single beacon on top, that was not active at the moment. It had been built in an old, abandoned solar-plant and broken, overgrown panels dotted the surrounding area. Most of the Wardens had put up shelter in a building that housed power-converters and generators, both of which had been plundered a long time ago. A small house stood nearby, no doubt used in the past as an office or living space for the workers of the power-plant.

Only a few Wardens still wore their exo-suits, standing on guard and patrolling the perimeter. The rest had stripped off their suits, to safe energy. Most of the recruits were wounded, some barely responding to any treatment, having been carried here by their companions. Food and Water was given out, but it was in short supply. Morale was at a low-point for many.

De Maiziére sat in front of Jagoda and calmly listened to her report. She had stripped off her exo-suit as well and wore just her red-white jumpsuit. The left sleeve dangled empty from her shoulder. Her face did not have the warm smile from earlier, but instead was calm and inscrutable. On closer inspection, Jagoda could see now where her bionic parts were. Pretty much only her head was still flesh and bone. Down to her neck, the skin was threaded into plastic plates and then vanished completely into the completely synthetic body. It was a stark contrast to her doll-like appearance. An almost visceral reminder of her accident, that had almost killed her all those years ago.

When Jagoda finished, the commander was quiet for a moment, before nodding. "Thank you, for your report, my dear. I'm sorry for what you went through. We will look into why Dagfinn decided to attack you, once we are back at the Aegis.", she said, holding Jagodas hands re-assuringly.

Then heavy steps approached them and Bromsfjord stepped into the sterile light of the lamp. He too was out of his suit and one could see that his grey jumpsuit was stained with encrusted blood on his right side. His expression was grim and tense. "Anything new?", he asked de Maiziére brusque.

"Confirmation on the Stray. Also witness to the Zet behaving....erratically.", she answered. She nodded to Jagoda and stood up. "You should rest, while you can. No sudden movements and please listen to the medics, alright?"

Bromsfjord looked at Jagoda, his expression unreadable. "Found your friends out there, too. Vanleer picked up the rest. I told them, where they can find you.", he said to her.

Then the two commanders turned around and left Jagoda alone for now.

Edited by TheNohen on Sep 1st 2020 at 8:04:12 PM

Tera

Gard's words gave Tera pause. "That's...that's mean, Gard," he said. "You can't go around saying things like that."

When the sniper girl approached, Tera waved at her. "Hello," he said. "Sorry for not saying hello earlier, but we were in a rush."

Then she—Amelia, apparently—called his aid "unconventional". He was fine with that. He was less fine with her calling Victoire "unconventional".

"Is this because she's a mutant?" Tera asked, looking between the two. "Why does that matter so much? It's not that big of a deal."

He never did get his answer, because at that moment, Victoire shouted that they'd been found by the Wardens.

He supposed he could just ask again later.

They reached the safe zone at around midnight, a large signal tower with plenty of tents set up. Victoire had put her helmet back on at some point during the trip, her gaze locked to the ground. Tera had tried to start a conversation, but she seemed lost in her thoughts.

"So...we're here now," he said, trying to break the ice. "How...how do you feel about that?"

She remained silent for a few seconds, then looked up at him. "You wanna know something?"

"...yes?"

"I was wrong about you." She tilted her helmet upward to show her face, flashing a smirk at him. "You're weird. But you've got a good heart."

"Thank you," Tera said, even though he was pretty sure not insulting someone for no reason was more "being a decent person" than "having a good heart".

Victoire pulled her helmet back down. "See you around." With that, she headed off. Probably to get better treatment for her arm.

Tera stood there for a moment, then started heading...somewhere. He really wanted to see Astrid and Jagoda again. Maybe they were here?

"Um, excuse me," he said to a passing cat-hybrid, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention. "Have you seen a really tall, fluffy cat-hybrid woman anywhere around here? Or a short Tinkerer girl with blonde hair? Their names are Astrid and Jagoda, if that helps."

"Oh, yeah," the hybrid said, jerking her thumb behind her. "Tinkerer's back there getting medical attention. Don't know about the other—"

Before she could finish, Tera was off, running through the hallway to where she'd pointed. He must've gone every which way, passing a few recruits and Wardens as he went (hey, was that Bromsfjord?) before finally flinging a door wide-open to see some kind of makeshift medical bay. Several recruits were lying on the cots, all in varying states of injury—

"JAGODA!" he cried, charging over to her and wrapping her in a hug. "You're— you're alive!" Relief—warm, glorious relief—swept through him.

Vanleer

Damon had been doing his normal duty of setting salvage beacons on dead recruits when over the channel he heard one of the officers.

"All units the PCC has crashed I repeat all units the PCC has crashed, please head to the crash site we're setting up camp nearby"

He stopped and paused trying to imagine what could've taken it down. Had a major Zet presence moved in? Well, it would explain the high number of dead recruits he was already down to 3 salvage beacons. He then picked up his comm unit to see the direction of the signal and became trekking to it.

After a while, he could tell it was a lot stronger but he still would be walking for quite a while. He hadn't realized but he was already at the edge of a forest. Seems he had spaced out that much. Though there was a likely chance of ambush there was also a good chance of remaining undetected and possible some loot to make this back trek worth it. So he decided to trek through trusting in his heavy green-plated exosuit to protect him and hide him.

A later hour he came across what appeared to be an old road tunnel. Though there was a problem of a giant wall of roots in his way. It wasn't a problem as he ignited his exosuits fits and set it ablaze as it quickly burned away and ran out of fuel at the top, He continued. At some point, he heard talking ahead and saw a group of recruits as he motioned them to follow. After another hour he finally reached the camp site. Over the comms, he heard another transmission.

"All units camp has been set up and secured please bring all recruits back the crucible has been compromised."

He finally turned around and spoke with the group of recruits.

"Well crucible just got canceled head into camp and get your selves patched up"

He silently headed in and looked for his officer.

Edited by Immortalartisan on Sep 3rd 2020 at 2:41:15 AM

Astrid spent the first five or ten minutes after arrival in camp doing everything she could to stay inside Judah Reborn a little bit longer. She thought it was too good to be true, that the Zets were just waiting for the highest possible number of rescued recruits to get there before swooping in. Ten more minutes of her sitting in her jumpsuit immediately outside Judah's opened skeleton. She stood up at minute 23 though. Something got her to her senses. Maybe just because the ambush seemed less likely by the second. Or seeing everyone else getting their shit together. Embarrassing, to be honest. Or she recognized one of the suits coming in.

Astrid barreled into the infirmary. No orderlies could stop her. She was going to get that normalcy back. She skid to a stop around a corner, slowed to a walk, and jerked her head up at Tera and Jagoda. Tears welled up in her eyes—sloppy.

"H-hey guys." She said, voice cracking horribly even as she crossed her arms and tried to give them a cocky smirk. "Took you long enough."

Jagoda

She laughed and wrapped an arm around Tera, waving at Astrid with her other hand. "You're alive. We're all alive. That's damn near a miracle." She sobered slightly as Tera pulled away. "Well... not all of us."

She quickly related the story of Dagfinn's betrayal and subsequent death. "It was him or me, and honestly? I'm very happy it wasn't me. But that's still one less potential Warden keeping Rungholt safe. And... if you two saw half of the crazy stuff I saw out there, you know we need every Warden we can get." She beckoned Astrid closer and whispered so that only she and Tera could hear. "I took Dagfinn's terminal. Once we get out of the combat zone, I'm going to see what's to be seen on it. I have a hunch as to who hired him, but I'd rather not say who just yet, because it's a hell of a thing to be wrong about."

She glanced around. "Did Gard make it? I tried to radio all of you constantly the whole time we were separated. Never got through to anyone but Dagfinn, and I just told you how that turned out."

Vanleer

Damon found Sgt. Hartmut sitting together, with the rest of the squad, near a half-broken wall. They were outside their exo-suit, who had been left standing nearby. In reach should they need to suit up quickly. A small portable stove was idly cooking a small pot of protein-stew. Hartmut looked up, his hard features relaxing, as much as the chitin on his face could do that.

He was a grim man. Growing up in the Lost Sectors lead to that. A veteran among Wardens, the old mutant struck a grizzled figure. Having lost his left eye years ago, he refused to cover up the empty hole with an eye-patch, leaving the cracked chitin visible like a scar. His lips were rigid and hard and he had no teeth behind them, instead chewing on his food using his lips like clamps.

Still, for all this meant that he rarely showed any expression beyond stoic determination, Damon knew him well enough, to know when he was glad to see him. "Vanleer. Good to see you are still in one piece.", he said, his words underlined with clicking of his hard lips.

"Catch!" A small plastic vial landed in Damons hands. It came from Annika, the youngest member of the squad. A young woman from West-Quarter, who had decided a year ago that it would be preferable risking her life as a Warden, rather than work for the Comadres. She still had a deep, visible scar on her cheek, from when she cut ties with her "mother", who had decided to ruin her pretty face, as to ensure Annika wouldn't find work as a stripper ever again.

Not that Annika really cared. She was as cheery, as the Sergeant was stoic. She grinned and flipped another vial in her hand. They were filled with grilled locust, a small delicacy out here beyond the Wall. Salted, crunchy and certainly not part of the typical rations.

"Figured, now might be the best time to share. After all, the Zet will certainly not let us leave without a fight.", she mused, seemingly not to sad about the prospect of a firefight.

Neither Sanchez, nor Carlos commented much. The two brother were more intently watching the stove, their eyes greedily watching the grey protein-mush bubbling. They came from South-Quarter and used to be gangers, as evident by their fading gang-tattoos and scars. Sanchez was the elder brother and had lost his left ear during a streetfight. He kept his black hair long as a result. His younger brother Carlos had a short buzz-cut instead. Where Sanchez looked still a bit like a ganger, Carlos had assimilated heavily into the Wardens lifestyle, behaving more like a real soldier.

Nonetheless, both brothers were known for their never-ending craving for food, even as something as tasteless as protein-stew. Starving as little kids in South had drilled into their minds to eat whenever possible. It had certainly led to some...interesting dishes, whenever the squad needed to improvise provisions out in the wild.

Last was Bael. The pig-hybrid leaned against the wall, a bit to the side of the squad and was busy dismantling and cleaning his guns. A muscled beast of a man, Bael was the second-longest serving Warden in the Squad and certainly looked the part. A nasty burnmark down his neck, from where an acid-throwing Centaur nearly had melted away his throat. It had left him with a voice that was comparable to sandpaper and glass-shards. A long tusk peeked out from his lower lips, giving him a perpetual snarl. His nose was broken and healed in three different places.

Bael was the heavy-hitter, the weapons-master. And if one thing was certain, it was that he loved his weapons. His babies. His precious treasures. Collected, modified and maintained to utter perfection. He barely looked up from his work, to give Damon a slight nod and then returned to polishing his scope.

"So, how did it go?", asked the Sergeant.

Jadoga, Astrid and Tera

"Yes, I made it.", said Gard appearing in the doorway and leaning against the frame. He looked sweaty and exhausted, but little worse for wear. A smile was on his lips, relief etched on his face.

"Made sure that the mutant and the sisters are in good hands, by the way. Looks like we are finally in the clear, huh?", he added, looking at Tera and Astrid. "Sorry about Dagfinn. If I had any idea what he would do, I would have never let him be on the team. Any clue, why he might have done it?"

It was both worry and not a bit of morbid curiosity in his voice. "Oh, I also heard some rumors, that the Zet are behaving weirdly. Like, fighting each other and shit..."

Tera

Tera pulled away from Jagoda and looked over at Astrid, an enormous smile on his face. "What she said," he said. "We're alive."

...actually, wait. "Where's Dagfinn?"

Jagoda's story caused the smile to slip off his face. "Oh," he said, unsure of what else to say. "That's...sad."

Maybe if I'd been there...

Tera shook his head to clear it. "Gard's alive," he said quickly, then launched into the story of crashing into a tree, meeting with Victoire, fighting a Warrior, radioing Gard, and then heading to the hill he'd been on to save the day. He left out the part about Victoire being a mutant, though. He hated not telling them, but given Gard's reaction...

Oh, here was Gard now.

"Fighting each other?" Tera asked, tilting his head. "Back at training camp, everyone said the Zets were a hive mind. Why would they fight each other?"

Astrid had her own theories. She didn't think the long siege was a two-party affair, not by a long shot. The Zets couldn't have such staying power and be spread thin enough that they couldn't just consolidate themselves and roll over Rungholt before getting on with stripping the planet bare. Either there were other Rungholts out there, or other Zets out there, answerable to or in conflict with local Zets. She would not tell anyone any of this.

"You heard me on the radio. There was someone talking shit to me. Maybe a Zet." She grimaced, wiping her tears. Focusing on tactics was great at clearing her head, and she took a deep breath before continuing, keeping her distance at the edge of the tent. "Pretty sure it wasn't Dagfinn. And a squad of Zets tore apart a pretty well-equipped team too. One survivor, a Karoline, pig-hybrid woman. Actually wanted to ask, you all recognize this guy? Haven't turned it over for analysis yet." Astrid held up the photo she'd taken off of the anonymous human. She'd handed off the dog tags as soon as she landed, but that photo was asking to get lost and shredded to pieces in the churn of bureaucracy. "Pulled it off a merked John Doe."

Vanleer

As always his squad was a group of good people. At least compared to the relative coldness of most other wardens.

"Good although I'm nearly out of salvage beacons, thanks for the locust Annika, where did you get this?”

He pondered whether it would be wise to mention the door at a side of a tunnel he found, But reconsidered it. Deciding it best if he were to loot the place on the trip back, without having to split the loot. He set the vial down and got out of his exosuit setting it on standby in case of an attack. Then he sat down and picked back up the plastic vial.

Edited by Immortalartisan on Sep 11th 2020 at 3:28:01 AM

Jagoda

She smiled at Gard, waving in welcome, before he asked his question, which drew a shrug from her. "Someone paid him. He said as much. Didn't say who, but maybe we'll be able to find out when I go through his terminal."

As the conversation turned to Zet infighting, she nodded grimly. "I saw it first-hand. An Imp - an old, powerful Imp - and a Warrior fought it out while their subordinates watched... if 'subordinates' is the right word, but you know what I mean. It didn't seem to be random violence, though. There was some kind of ritual component to it. The Warrior won, and after it did, it painted the rest with the blood of the loser... and it seemed to do something to them, though I couldn't tell you what. I'm a scout, not a xenobiologist." She stretched her stiff limbs. "I'm not a xenosociologist either, but... I've never heard anything about a Zet religion. Have any of you?"

Edited by ChloeJessica on Sep 17th 2020 at 8:29:57 AM

Jadoga, Astrid and Tera

Gard looked at the picture that Astrid held out and scratched his chin. "Geez...family photo and everything. Poor bastard.", he mused, before shaking his head. "Sorry, no idea who that is. Maybe that Karolina knows more? I mean, she was part of that group, right? Then again, I'm sure they will make a tally of the casualities anyway, so we might find out when we get home."

He then leaned against a nearby chair, as the others discussed their own experiences in the field. "Well, I was mostly busy fighting, so I didn't get a good look on any infighting. Didn't meet a Zet who could talk either, for that matter.", he added. Then he grinned. "After all, I had to protect two Admin-ladies from the ravenous horde. Don't want those pretty faces all scratched up, after all."

A bit of silence followed, as he looked around in the hopes of anybody agreeing with him. When the reaction was mostly confusion or apathy, he deflated a bit. "Right...ehm, maybe I should get something to eat for us? Maybe a battery for Tera?", he offered, awkwardly.

Vanleer

Annika gave Damon a cheeky grin, as she popped a roasted locust into her mouth. "Not telling! After all, I want you all shackled to my generosity. Not gonna let you cut into my business there.", she joked and winked. "Altough...I can say, that it involved rubber and me getting reaaal dirty.."

The whole squad groaned and Annika laughed. "I was cleaning toilets, as a favor! Get your minds out of the gutter.", she giggled, clearly enjoying the reactions of disgust around her.

"You're not making that easy.", commented Carlos, stirring the pot. He pulled out the spoon and sniffed at it, before nodding. It seemed like, he had determined that the stew was finished. Sanchez pulled out bowls for everyone and then they gave out small, steaming portions of grey, sludgy protein-mush. Themselves incidentally a slightly bigger portion, Damon noticed.

Before they could dig in though, someone came around the corner. It was one of the Wardens from the 6th, a cat-hybrid medic. He looked tired and had some blood around his sleeves, suggesting he had been busy patching up the wounded. "Sergeant Hartmut?", he asked.

"Present."

"Lieutenant Haluk-E wants you and one of your squadmates to attend a meeting with him. Please head to the signal-room.", said the medic.

Haluk-E was the commanding officer of the squads of 7th Order that were present here. The majority of wardens present were from 5th and 6th, the Orders that usually presided over the Crucible, with their respective Commanders leading the operation. The 7th generally sent a few scouts and a Lieutenant with them, to keep an eye on things. That made Lt. Haluk-E therefore the highest-ranking officer, outside the Commanders themselves.

Hartmut looked at his squad. Carlos and Sanchez looked at their food and then back at him, with pleading expressions. Annika was suddenly busy checking out the stars. And Bael ignored him, still busy cleaning his guns. The old mutant sighed and gestured to Damon.

"Alright. Damon, come with me. Take the food with you, before it gets cold.", he grumbled. Then he stood up and followed the medic.

Tera

Tera looked at the picture. He tilted his head at it. Squinted. Frowned a bit. Squinted some more. Leaned in for a better look.

Then, he pulled away and shook his head. "I don't recognize him. Sorry."

His ears perked up when Jagoda mentioned a "Zet religion", and he turned towards her. "I haven't heard of any Zet religion, but I have heard of...something involving Zet and religion." Tera put a finger to his lip, frowning. "Something about a crusade, I think. I don't know the details, but apparently, the Zet were involved. And also religion."

A pause.

"I wouldn't mind a battery, by the way," he added, briefly glancing at Gard.

"The Zets are smarter than most people give them credit for, absolutely." Astrid said. She still wasn't going to reveal her full power level, but maybe she could tease it out. She hated having to be covert like this though. Why was she playing this game? "Their micro-level decisionmaking contrasts with the kind of stupid decision to not just consolidate their forces and crush us though. It's a bit of a contradiction." Astrid clamped down hard after that though. She certainly had multiple explanations for the contradiction but this felt as cracked to her as if she were to explain the earth was flat. Nobody talked about this shit, certainly not dogs of the military. Er, cats. "They ambushed us good, but for all I know it was a series of extremely good rolls on their part and nothing more."

Vanleer

"Great, at least it isn't more paperwork this time." he said in a tired voice

Damon had always hated the endless paperwork that came with being a scount for the wardens. He wondered why his commander was being called. It seemed strange to call him. They hadn't really done anything notable recently after all.

"I get back from my mission and now I've got to deal with a meeting"

Jagoda

"Well, we don't have all the intel the higher-ups do... at least, I certainly hope the Warden Commanders know more than us raw recruits. I hate to think they're as in the dark about this as we are. Maybe they'll be able to make more sense of it." Jagoda smiled at Gard. "Some tea and a salad would do me well. Thanks, Gard."

She returned her attention to the group at large. "Before you go, though... do any of you have any idea who the... whatever-it-was in the suit might have been? He left a trail of spores like a Zet, but I've never seen a humanoid Zet. I've never heard of a Zet just... sparing someone's life the way he spared mine, either. I'm at a total loss." She glanced at Tera. "If you know any more about this 'Crusade', I'd like to hear that too. Anything that might be relevant to what we saw... what I saw."

Edited by ChloeJessica on Sep 27th 2020 at 8:13:36 AM

Vanleer

Hartmut shrugged his shoulders, as they followed the medic. "We lost dozens, if not hundreds of recruits, Damon. PPC got shot to pieces, we are in hostile territory and reinforcements are hours away. Not surprising that CO's are now wracking their brains.", he explained. "Question is...why do they want to talk to us grunts?"

A question that would soon be answered, no doubt. They headed for the old office-quarters of the complex. Several generators had been attached to it and jury-rigged, with the still available material in the abandoned power-stations, to connect to the Signal-Tower nearby. It was one of the few buildings in good condition and therefore used as HQ.

As they entered, the medic led them up the stairs, which were illuminated by sterile LED-lamps. The cold light revealed the numerous cracks in the walls and the centuries of decay, that was everpresent in places like this. Nobody had bothered cleaning up too much, as the Signal-Station had not been intended as a permament base anyway, so stray leaves, spider-webs and the occasional rodent were everywhere. They were pointed toward the second door on the floor.

The room used to be an old office. There was still a rusted cabinet in the corner and sockets in the wall suggested, that this room once had housed several electrical appliance. Of course, all of that was gone by now and the only things in the room were a table and some chairs, which had been brought from Rungholt and were clashing heavily with the ancient building.

Haluk-E was standing over the desk and studied a map on a graphic projector. He was an android, but a relatively young one, with only 35 years to him. His metal frame was still largely original, with only a second-hand shoulder and lower jaw. He had painted his skin-plates black and his electronic eyes were dimmed, so as to not stand out in the dark. His head had several cables fall down his shoulder, tied together in one braid. On his right cheek was a half-moon etched.

Hartmut saluted, as they entered the room. Haluk looked up and his plates shifted into a smile. "Ah, Sgt. Hartmut. Good to see you.", he said and saluted back, noticeably relaxed. Haluk was still fresh as a Lieutenant, but known for being talented, quick with his wits and a strong and sometimes uncompromising faith. The latter had not made him very popular during his time in the 3rd, so he had been assigned to the 7th, where he did much better and rose through the ranks quickly.

Still, there had been a reason why his first assignment as Lieutenant had been the Crucible. Which explained, why his smile looked strained and his fingers was tapping nervoulsy against the desk. Hartmut, wisely, did not comment on it. "Sir. Why did you want to speak to me?", he asked, instead.

"Right..well, I would like if you and Warden Vanleer here could brief me on a particular thing.", said Haluk and tapped at the holo-map. The visual zoomed in and showed their position and the surrounding area. It was mostly forest and wetlands. "Bromsfjord is spitting fire right now and I'm due to head to a briefing with him and Cmd. de Maizire in a few minutes to get my head chewed off, presumably. Allah help me, he seem deadset on blaming this whole debacle on the 7th. Says, our scouting was insufficient."

A tense silence followed. "Was it insufficient, sir?", asked Hartmut finally.

Haluk's head snapped to him and his smile turned a bit more tense. "No! No...I...don't think so. The reports were clear. We sweeped the area and there was no sign of major Zet-activity or any movements toward this region. I'm certain, we didn't miss anything. Even if the Commanders seem to disagree...they really have it out for us now."

Hartmut did not show any expression, which was easy to him, thanks to his rigid chitin-plates. Still, Damon could feel that he was disapproving of their young CO. "The question, sir? About the...particular thing?"

"Right. So, we got multiple reports in from anomynalies and erratic enemy behaviour. There will be recruits present for the briefing, so I wanted to know if you and your squad have stumbled over something like that. Something, that will shed a light on what exactly we are facing here.", said Haluk-E and looked at Hartmut and Damon. "I also have casualty-lists with me, but if you have updates for me there or reports about recoverable equipment, I would like to see them now."

Hartmut scratched his chin and looked at Damon.

Jadoga, Astrid and Tera

Gard raised his eyebrows at both Tera. "Don't tell me, you don't know about the Last Crusade? You're an android, for Christs Sake!" He looked at Jagoda with shock and surprise, whens he confessed ignorance as well. "Are you kidding me!? How can you not know about-"

He stopped himself, closing his eyes and sighing. "Okay, nevermind. Probably the wrong time for history-lesson and I kinda suck at that anyway. I'm just gonna go and get...food and stuff. Later." And with that he turned around and walked out of the room.

Just as he left, a medic appeared in the doorframe. He was a Gent and looked at his terminal, to see if he was right. He was a handsome young man, as to be expected, with blonde hair that curled down to his shoulders and a blue dynasty-marking, that resembled a sword and was tattood from his forehead down his nose. "Andersdottir and Sobczak? The Commanders want you present at the Briefing in twenty minutes. I'm here to check up on you and see if you need any immediate medical help."

His eyes wandered from Astrids bandaged leg over to Tera, with his chest still riddled with tiny cracks and holes and oil leaking from them. A weary expression crossed his face. "Maybe patching up your friend here, too.", he added.

Outside the Signal-Tower

A dark shape was watching the base from atop a thick oak-tree. Old bark cracked under metal-clawed boots, as the Stranger took a comfortable position on a strong branch. He pulled out a cracked set of binoculars. His finger flipped on the night-vision.

He began to watch the Wardens. The Intruders. The Heathens. The Failures.

The Thieves...

Tera

"No," Tera said, without a hint of sarcasm. "I've heard about it a few times, but I've never gotten any of the details." He inched a bit closer to Gard. "Do you—"

Before he could finish, Gard had left the room. Tera stared after him. "Hm." He looked over at Astrid. "Do you know anything about the crusade?"

Then, someone else showed up. A medic, with curly blond hair and a blue sword tattooed on his forehead. He'd arrived for Jagoda and Astrid, who the Commanders apparently wanted present for a briefing.

And...hm. Did Tera need medical attention? The Zet from earlier hadn't managed to hit anything major or important, and he only had some scratches on his chest. But at the same time, ignoring your skin led to things like not having half of your face. Like Marko.

...come to think of it, where was Marko?

"I'm not sure if I need medical attention," Tera said, absently wrapping one arm around his chest. "It certainly couldn't hurt, though."

"Oh, yeah, this'll probably need disinfectant." Astrid said, eyeing her leg. She'd gone knee-deep in rainwater and mud, no telling what was going on in there. Judah was a tough bastard, but it wasn't that tough. Not yet, at least. This stuff about the humanoid bug-Zet though, that was interesting. She jerked her head up at Tera. "I can handle the leg later though. Come on, walk and talk, tell me more about the humanoid. Sounds like we've got a brain-bug or something."

Honestly, this was also so that she could maybe avoid a fucking Gent laying hands on her. For all she knew he'd stick her with a tracker, or tranquilize her. You never knew.

Vanleer

“There is a small problem there, I didn't encounter a single damn zet only the bodies of recruits left behind.”

It had been bugging him since the first 5 beacons, which was pretty quick. He had only come across bodies of recruits no living or dead zets. An entire mission with no enemy contact didn't seem so lucky now and more intentional.

“My only guess is that they figured out how we trained our recruits and are trying to stop the induction of any new wardens. Would explain why there was such a peaceful area that we found this year. They cleared out this area intentionally. And as for the salvage most of it was shredded by bullet fire how that happened I don’t know all that’s left of value was the scrap metal.”

Edited by Immortalartisan on Oct 7th 2020 at 1:01:21 AM

Jagoda, Astrid and Tera

The medic took one look at Tera's chest, especially the holes that the shardgun had caused. He gestured for the android to take his shirt off and then began examining the damage. "Hm...looks superficial. No impeded movement? Glitches in the software?", he asked and Tera shook his head.

In the end, the gent pulled out some simple tape and taped over the openings. "To avoid water or other liquids getting into your systems.", he explained. "For genuine repairs, I suggest you seek out a mechanic once we're back in Rungholt." He also handed the android a small battery-cell.

Astrid took a bit longer. The medic said nothing, when he examined her leg, but his furrowed brow hinted at his concern. He took out a spraybottle and began to liberally coating the wound with burning disinfectant. Then he pulled out some strips and pasted them on the wound, waited for a few seconds as the material suddenly pulled taut and then smeared some skin-coloured cream on it. "That is Polysynth-epidermis.", he explained. "It will fuse with your skin and close the wound, preventing bloodloss and infection. Just be careful and don't put too much stress on the wound."

For Jagoda he gave her a few pills, that helped with the headache, but otherwise considered her fine. "Light concussion. You will have headaches for the next week or so. Just avoid getting hit in the head...again. And take some painkillers, if it gets too distracting.", he advised.

After that, he cleaned his hands and looked at them. "Alright, you're good to go. Please follow me to the briefing.", he said and gestured for them to come with him. As he looked at Tera, he thought for a moment, before shrugging. "You can come, too."

A few minutes later, Gard came back. "So, bad luck on the batteries, but I did manage to get some protein-bars and—" He looked up and stared into an empty room.

"Oookay...welp, more for me then.", he said and bit into a rockhard protein-bar, making his tooth crack. His pained cursing could be heard through three doors.

Vanleer

Hartmut nodded, as he heard Damons report. "Same goes for me and the rest of the squad. Zet seemed to avoid us, as best they could. We also found tracks of Lindwurms.", he added.

Lindwurms were mobile artillery. Massive, serpentine creatures, which the Zet used to bomb fortifications and other stationary targets into oblivion. There were a number of different varieties, but the most common ones were Spore-Cannons and Anti-Air.

Haluk stroked his cable-braid. "Hm...you suggest, it was a planned ambush?"

"Probably. It would have taken time to bring the Wurms into position, so they would have had to do it after out scouting, but before the PCC arrived. Thats a tight time-window.", said Hartmut. Concern could be seen on his hard features. It was one thing to suffer losses because of bad reconnaissance. But, if their enemy truly had outplayed to them to this degree...it was worrying, to say the least.

Lieutenant Haluk-E took a second to digest this possibility, before he nodded. "Alright.", he said, more as a way to fill the silence, rather than having anything to say. He paced, looking out of the window behind him, into the darkness.

"Sgt. Hartmut, Warden Vanleer. Accompany me to the meeting. I think, its best if we present our suspicions to the Commanders.", he finally said.

"Sir, I'm not sure, if we really need to...", began Hartmut, but the Lieutenant cut him off.

"I insist.", he simply said and that was the end of the discussion.

Signal-Tower, Main Briefing Room

They all now stood in a scarcely lit room, in what probably used to be an office of a manager for the power-plant. It was a bit more spacious, but with so many people, it still felt crammed.

A holographic projector dominated the middle of the room, with a comms-unit sitting at the back. A warden was currently busy listening for any signals. The Tinkerer had his eyes closed, several cables that spooled from his left ear, inserted into the comms-unit.

Cmd. Bromsfjord sat on a chair, that was way to small for him and buckled under his weight. His expression was a mixture of grim determination and barely constrained anger. Cmd. De Maiziére looked more relaxed, her doll-like features marred by sweat and mud. Her missing arm was concealed by an empty sleeve. With them were each one Warden, that seemed to serve as Adjutants to them. A woman with a cybernetic eye, for De Maiziére, and a quiet, but muscled Militar-Gent for Bromsfjord.

Lt. Haluk stood with Hartmut and Damon in one corner, trying not to look nervous and failing. "I apologize, that we called you here, instead of letting you rest, but there are some things we need to discuss.", began De Maiziére, smiling at Tera, Astrid and Jagoda.

"We managed to contact the Aegis. Evacuation is on its way.", growled Bromsfjord. "Which means that unless something happens, in three hours this nightmare will soon be over."

"We also now have the casualty-numbers. From 865 recruits, we have lost around 623 since the crash. Among the 43 Wardens that were present, 4 have been killed or gone missing." Following these words from De Maiziére a grave silence filled the room. Over seventy percent casualties. That was hard to stomach.

"I don't have to tell you this is beyond a fuck-up. Question is just who fucked up and by how much." Bromsfjords eyes wandered to Haluk and it was pretty clear, who he considered responsible.

The Lieutenant blinked, trying to not let the accusation get to him. "Judging from the reports of my subordinates, there is a strong possibility that the Zets ambushed us."

"No shit! Did you think, the crash was a freaking accident, or what!?", barked Bromsfjord and rouse from his seat, causing Haluk to instinctely take a step back and raise his hands.

"I mean, that this wasn't just an opportunistic strike! We found tracks of artillery-organisms nearby. It is possible they brought them in after our scouts had surveyed the area.", he hastily added.

"This still means you didn't had your eyes on the place! If you had kept one or two Wardens in the field, this would have never gone unnoticed!"

De Maiziére laid a hand on Bromsfjords arm, who now looked like he was ready to rip Haluks head off with his jaws alone. "We will have time for this later. What concerns me more, is that the Zets evidently knew where the Crucible would be held. They knew our schedule and probably had a grasp on our numbers, too.", she said, her calm voice slowly bringing the tension down. "This is highly unusual."

"But not impossible. Zets have sprung such elaborate traps before. There are no strangers to complex tactics.", argued Haluk.

"Yes, but usually with a higher organism in the field, like a Queen or Baron. We have not spotted either. In fact, outside this Teardrop-Knight, only Imps and the occasional Warrior were seen." De Maiziére activated the projector, showing blurry pictures of the Zets, that had been identified. A common theme was the smooth, jet-black chitin-plates, as well as the rounded carapaces and skulls.

"Which brings us to the reason you three are here.", she said and looked at Tera, Astrid and Jagoda. "As we heard, you may have information, that might help us find an answer to this. Some mention of a voice on the comms and an encounter?"

All eyes now went to the trio.

Tera

"Thank you," Tera said after the holes were taped over.

And then it was off to the briefing.

The first thing Tera wanted to ask was if he should really be here, since his story likely didn't contain anything of value. But then the casualty numbers were brought up, and the words died in his throat.

Six hundred and twenty-three. Out of over eight-hundred. Doing the math, that would be...seventy-two percent. Tera swallowed hard, feeling as though he'd failed even though logically, none of this had been his fault.

De Maiziére mentioned that most of the Zets' smarter tactics came from on-field generals, and an idea sprung to mind. "Maybe not on the field," Tera said, "but someone might be calling the shots from the safety of...wherever Zets live. There's no rule that a general must be in the thick of combat, after all."

When they were prompted to tell their stories, Tera did so. He quickly relayed the tale of how he jettisoned from the plane, crashed into a tree, met Victoire, walked a few miles, fought a Warrior, walked some more, assisted Gard and Amelia, and were then found and taken to base. "I'm sorry it's not very helpful," he said. "I was too focused on making it back to Rungholt to notice things like mysterious voices on the comm or mysterious...people..."

His eyes widened, as a realization suddenly struck him. "You don't suppose...the voice on Astrid's comm belonged to Jagoda's mystery Zet?"

Astrid relayed her own story of the voice talking shit over comms and of her own crash, meeting Karolina. "The knight chased me down when I stood up to it, which is interesting. In general it seems we were detecting behavior thought to be exclusively..." Her ears twitched. Humanoid was a fucked-up and incorrect word for what she meant. "Behaviors of our side. Competition, spite, deceit." The floodgates were broken. Astrid had the platform she'd always wished for and the pretenses to get away with the shit she never could say before.

"I don't think the Zets are simply moderately more competent, or lucky, this one time. They're talking, and interacting at a higher level not only with us but with one another." Astrid continued. She had to get this out now. "You're going to have to face up to the fact that the Zets might be people like us. The competition displayed earlier today might even explain how they haven't been able to consolidate themselves coherently enough to flatten Rungholt..." She ground her teeth. This was the one she always hung onto. "Rungholt, which is allegedly the only holdout of native Earthlings left. It makes you wonder if either they have things other than us to worry about, from without or within, which they're just now handling, or something happened that made them get their shit together. Both are equally terrifying."

Vanleer

Damon nearly coughed back up on the cup of water he was drinking as the recruits suggested the zet being not a hive mind and also feeling a bit sorry for the recruits he decided to speak up.

• cough*

“Sir, if I may propose something more plausible? Perhaps their queens and mating castes are perhaps intelligent? After all there has to be something behind the hive mind maybe it is just like how ants and bee queens split after a point and begin attacking each other for dominance.”

[Break]

“And frankly I think the recruits are just in shock, Sir”