It's a monday.Msg to Spazytak: Greetings. i think we both no by now that the people who we saw in the last turn is each other. I'm not really to interested in fighting you because my super soldier build is geared more towards a support role than straight forward combat. I want to propose a strategic alliance in order to take down everyone else. Interested?
Response: Sure, we can work together. I'd be happy to have some help, just let me make some repaires and reload my weaponry. There are some heavily armed and armored cat drones north east of here moving away, and likely a lot of people to the west.Taken one hostile super soldier out earlier and no doubt damaged the lion bots. I also took out several drones earlier. We have air superiority for now.
Carry on with reloading drones and repairing legs, arm, and chest.
Keep drones up above the crate to help protect starwars and I.
Try and scavenge use one of the broken particle drone cannons to replace my broken one.
If I have an extra broken particle drone left over, work to make that into a cutting laser
Make sure starwars knows everything I know
You drop out of stealth because you need your various sensors for this. Though reloading grenade launcher drones doesn't require eyes because there's not much to reload them with. Just ensuring each has one concussion and smoke grenade. Perhaps you should bring a stockpile of grenades for next ground? Anyway, you move drones circling above the container. Oh, and new hydrogen canisters for cannon drones!
Fixing your armor is something much harder. You give mental order to unscrew things keeping the chest plate in place and pull it off, revealing your more fragile insides to the world. There's no penetration, but the dents are annoying. You bang it with your fist, but despite of your mechanical strength you fail to straighten it. If anything, you manage to break one of the autoscrews used to lock the chestplate with your hasty hammering, which means it won't quite exactly fit back in as snugly as before. The bullet hole on side is even worse case; your futile effort to pinch and pull edges back into proper shape ends up with you tearing armor plating off your fingers. *sniff*
Fixing the arm is basically out of question. You can detach it, but because data and power lines are cut off by the damn arrow still stuck in it, that's about the extend of your ability to repair it. You don't have the tools required to anything about it. Might as well keep the arm on, at least it will serve as additional armor should someone attack from left. Starwars takes a look at it, but his support brains are drawing blanks on how to access those damaged lines even if he would have ability to fix them. Feet prosthetic you can do at least, by cutting metal strips with your only functional monoatomic blade. It's nowhere as good as your first one and in all likelihood it will break on its own before too soon.
You use your monoatomic blade to separate cannon from its damaged generator. Couple of well aimed slashes cuts the reactor in few pieces, releasing highly corrosive liquid from inside as well as still molten uranium. Eh, isn't it nice to be a robot? Little bit of radiation won't hurt you at all. Ignoring that you actually thankful for its positive glow. In light of atom you can easily sever last unnecessary parts of the cannon and produce yourself a handheld version which actually works perfectly as soon as you connect power cables hanging from your back on it. The only problem with it is the fact that it doesn't have those handles normally used to carry it, so you have to carry it in your armpit like a badass hunter. Another problem is that you have only one arm. Aiming it will be frankly very, very difficult.
And you can forget those cutting lasers too, you don't have enough arms to carry two particle cannons. Even one is proving rather troublesome.
Did you see what those insane people in south east are doing? You may be hardened veteran, but that's some really nasty shit! And starwars is just eyeing it with casual curiosity like one would scan an obituaries in sunday newspaper for familiar names.
((the intent is that I am saying this aloud so all is well))
Use my tech brain to see if I can help fix anything.
Also make sure that Spazytak knows about the explosives rigged to the building with the high power weaponry.
Peek freely into spazy's spoiler. Explosives are rigged to the container he was carried in, not to a building. And yes, he knows because he's one who did it in first place.
Fixing spazy's arm would be easy (or so your electronics brain thinks) if you were able to get those pesky armor platings out of the way. However there's no tools to cut the armor and internal locking bolts are out of order, so you are both out of luck.
Oh hey, is that molten uranium? Cool! If you had geiger counter it would probably scream like a tortured pig, but you don't and those insane people are screaming just like tortured pigs anyway. Speaking of insane, they are getting naked and half are bashing their heads against walls in neat rhythm. As soon as they crack their skulls open rest assists them fully opening their minds for greater universe. And by that I mean literally tearing their brains out of skulls and starting to paint walls with fresh gray matter. Wonder what they are painting this time... Seems bit larger than usual.
Snipe the sniper!
Check out what's on each of the cameras ("Touching the controller proves that the video source is still operational."). See if I can locate where they are.
Send some drones into the airspace above the insane part of the city and see if I can spot what is causing the insanity.
Does my anti-dazzleball tech work on all stuff that I shouldn't look at?
Anti-dazzle tech is just that; anti-dazzle. It is programmed to identify your specific dazzle effect and blur it ineffective. It works on everything that uses "colorful dancing light patterns" type basilisk effects, but if it is something else... Well, you have to try it yourself.
Locating where this camera is hovering requires a bit more context than it is currently displaying. Using the control device you make it lift higher and higher together with your other drones until you finally see something that matches with viewport of your drones. It appears to be near the sniper you are targeting with other pair of eyes, near a largest and probably only roundabout in this city. Little south perhaps, and east from your one drone around there.
In regards of the area of insanity you detect nothing that could pass as a rational explanation, though the nutcases are steadily being weeded out by each other and thee groups of humanoid lizard monster mutants, one of which is like thirty meter west of your minaret of solitude.
Now, this sniper that totally have not seen you yet. Time to show who's the boss! You aren't in any hurry, so you take your sweet time aiming its head and press the trigger button slowly. The coilgun kicks your shoulder softly and a crack of supersonic steel slug fills you with happiness. However the sniper doesn't go down. You are pretty sure you aimed right, perhaps a little too low, but that should have been a certain hit! Only reaction you get from the sniper is him turning his head to look something on floor next to him and picking that something up. And, of course, dropping low out of sight.
Recall what I'm doing and defend against any threats to myself. Increase ammo supplies if possible.
Alright. You have four clones of yourself here. Number zero, that's the most original you, is down on the road hiding next to wall ang getting ready to shoot local military in west with your laser should they come out of hiding anytime soon. That firefight of thunder gods further in west behind them may have dissuaded them from whatever plan they had. And maybe also the fact that your ground killer hunter drones lasered another half of their group down a little while ago.
Clones 1 and 2 are east of zero other side of the road, inside whatever buildings there are. They were just finishing whatever mutants and half eaten civilians there were left. Now they are more or less chilling there.
Clone number 3 perished some time ago in a massive explosion equivalent of tactical nuke.
Clone 4 is on higherst rooftop around here, a four story building. He's in sniping position and shot at a group of possible supersoldiers in west with a gray goo scatter shot. He has no idea if he killed them or not because they covered their escape with a smoke grenade of some type. The smoke has fallen now and rooftop is mostly gone, thanks to gray goo eating everything there. And just now you head a supersonic whipcrack or similar from behind followed by a metallic clink as something falls of the floor. Your turn to look what it was and find a neat metal slug rolling. You pick it up and find it is warm. Hmm, no reason to waste perfectly good steel, you think and have your nanites absorb it. Now to think about it, you were probably shot at by someone. Probably from southeast. Now, getting shot is not a very good idea even if your Confundium Harmonizer shield will stop almost everything that's not hypersonic.
What else? You have two separate swarms of swarmbots hovering around. One is above the building clones 1 and 2 are in, and second is southwest of clone 1 observing sand. There used to be few cars full of armed people, but they drove away as soon as Thor wannabe started making a mess of local soundscape. Also two flying killer hunter drones left, likewise in similar positions. And full five ground based killer hunter drones. Two on roads by clone 2, and three near clone zero.
Otherwise it has been rather quiet few minutes. Except this latest invasion on your personal space. And some sudden screaming and howling from northwest.
Recover some more. More able bodies keep an eye on the doors of the building we're in. Do an inventory of what equipment we have currently. We're gonna make a break for the edge of the city once we're fully recovered, either to wait out the rest of the supersoldiers killing each other or forfeit the contest. We just too dang fragile.
Sorry Curious George.
Gratefully no one comes bother you. Yet.
As for inventory, last sniper aka Zane Tolouse hasn't used anything yet. That's two mines, four full clips for your rifle and a telescope. Trapper likewise hasn't used anything, so that's silenced pistol with three full clips, blowpipe and 30 darts, three mines and one functional drone hovering somewhere high above. The two recons are in worst all around; binoculars, blowpipe and 30 darts each, two knives each, 3 flash grenades, 3 smoke grenades, and two full clips for pistols and one half used. Plus few mutant skulls and limbs.
David/Henry:
So many layers of protection... nothing short of a direct hit should have been enough. Maybe they're not gone? Broken, disabled, but not destroyed?
We never did test what happens to a synth-mind when it is cut off from power. We'll have to extract their bodies anyway. Might end up pioneering synth-necromancy later.Alex/Gunther:
He is double-timing his rearward advance. Our attack may have been more effective than we thought.
Our shadows are lagging. If they don't catch up we'll be in trouble.Ben/Carl:
*unintelligible stream of back-and-forth exchange of raw data consisting of inhumanly complex equations and increasingly impractical gadget schematics*The usually prevalent but currently largely outvoted rational part of the scientist mind will attempt to point out to Ben and Carl that there are two more weapons exactly like this one, but functioning and flying, being currently used by the enemy. And if they take out the commanding unit before Henry and David need to shoot those weapons down, they'll be actually able to take apart an intact one.Re: "yell at Ben and Carl": They can't actually hear, so "yell" over the radio. However at the same time, actual yelling might be useful. Just
don't bother with speech. We want the enemy to give away their position and/or be afraid, right?
G and A continue tracking while the two snipers get into position. Yell at Ben and Carl to stop messing with that stuff and hide it so we can come back later and grab it. They move to support.
Basically stick to the plan from last turn.
Henry and David are close enough to listen in what Ben and Carl are communicating, and also stable minded enough to tell them that intact weapon would be far more interesting to inspect than a broken one. Team shadow's eye's shine figuratively as their interest is suddenly moved on to obtaining intact possible particle cannon and its flight systems. Dust is already falling so they kick themselves into motion, drooling over the idea of obtaining quality technology for reverse engineering. Think about that cloaking technology too! You could make it better! Perfected stealth recon units, fully invisible and silent! The possibilities! Oh, that reminds you, there should be pair of invisi drones you shot down somewhere. Well, for now shadow team follows same trail as hunting team did.
In meanwhile hunting team continues their hunt. First intersection to east was clearly a combat zone. You can see traces of explosion here, fragments embedded deep in walls. In east along the road is telltale signs of this particle cannon; few collapsed buildings, a crater on the road. Also if you recall right, this was also the scene where you first time saw that radar blocking cloud. You do also detect fresh tyre tracks. Three cars going south, or maybe north. (At end of the turn shadow squad reaches this spot.)
Further south you trace your target, weirder you are starting to feel. Something's not quite right. You are not sure what it is, but... something's slightly off. Anyway, the road turns into alley, and eventually opens to open plot. Little bit of undeveloped land and an asphalt road. Here traces turn east again, towards hot smoke pillar similar to the one you saw from helicopter crash in north. Twenty meters in east there's sudden stop in tracks you are following. Judging how gravel has moved you think the cannon man very suddenly stopped, and then continued forwards slower, but still at brisk pace.
As soon as you reach that spot, you have a fairly good idea why the supersoldier stopped. A largeish open plot of land circled by gravel roads. In middle of it sits lonely building with a transport helicopter crashed into it, happily burning. Bit north of it is a cargo container like the one you were carried in, crashed and in odd angle. Next to it stands three soldiers, wearing a desert camo combat armor and wielding an assault rifles in their hands, tomahawk axes resting on their belt. Their equipment is on completely different level from the local military you have seen so far. These people look like professional soldiers. Their kenyan or perhaps ethiopian heritage is obvious. However what troubles you is their expression. They are... how to put it? They are not really looking at anything, just staring emptily forward.
Closer them you get, greater the sense of utter wrongness grows. It's palpable, utterly wrong! However traces leads straight past them to far side of the container. No other signs of the supersoldier nor his drones. Are those soldiers cause of this feeling, or are they suffering as well? Should you kill them, or should you wait?
Roll to resist? Or just...ride it out. Try to not die.
You got roll to resist when it started, and it wasn't good. Permanent damage to your mind is unavoidable, just how much your mind is gone after this we will find out after this test ends. Maybe all of it? Stay tuned for another episode of rats feasting on your eyes and chorus of bigoted angels screaming into your ears all your sins in past life as Josef Mengele, Maximilien Robespierre, Tomas de Torquemada and Judas Iscariot. And man, aren't that list long? Yes, it's very long, and extremely detailed. Guilt would crush your soul, but horde of crawling, wriggling, squirming and burning insects just ate it along with your stomach. Terrible glory of God of Gods sears your flesh. Its eyes larger than entire galaxy stare deep into your existance, cutting and burning your very self.