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#Post#: 32--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:11 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 28
Mr. N lead DJ, Sask, Sparkle and PsychoPikmin into another room
attached to the living room.
It was mostly empty, apart from the wide array of computer
equipment against one of the walls. There were two monitors,
each with a keyboard and a mouse.
There were large entaglements of messy wires sitting beneath the
large desk that the monitors sat upon.
One of the screen showed a desktop with a screensaver of a
monkey jumping around the screen.
The second monitor showed a camera feed, tinted green with
night-vision.
Upon closer inspection, DJ could see that it was an aerial view
of the grasslands outside.
"My UAV," said Mr. N.
"Found it online several years ago. It was bashed up, but the
engine was easily fixable and the camera only needed replacing".
Saltybob moved closer to the screen.
"This is how you stop people from getting eaten?"
"Pretty much," said Mr. N.
"I've programmed it so that it alerts me when something moves on
the camera that isn't a kirbilot. They're about the only thing
that lives out here".
"Do you study them?" PsychoPikmin asked.
Mr. N pointed at a stack of binders.
PsychoPikmin opened the top one and looked through it.
DJ came over too.
It was full of skeletal sketches of kirbilot.
"You've done all this on kirbilots?" DJ asked.
"Yeah," said Mr. N.
"I've compiled every biological and cultural fact on them
possible",
Sask looked at him.
"Cultural?" she asked.
"Oh yes," said Mr. N.
"They are immensely intelligent creatures. They might still be
classed as savage, which in many cases, they are, but they are
just as smart as we are".
"Seriously?" Saltybob said, looking unconvinced.
"Trust me," said Mr. N.
"I've spoken with them".
DJ remembered the kirbilot that had approached him and spoekn to
him.
"They speak?" Sparkle asked.
"They have their own language, many spoken through barks and
grunts," Mr. N explained. "But they can speak like us. Not very
well, but they can".
"That's a load of BS," Saltybob said, shaking his head.
"I don't believe you".
"It's true," said DJ.
Everyone turned to him.
"Say again?" Sask said.
"They spoke to me," DJ said. "Well, one of them did".
"What did it say?" Mr. N asked.
"It asked me if I was...the Searcher or something," replied DJ.
Mr. N seemed aroused by this.
"Searcher?" he asked.
"Are you certain?" Mr. N asked again.
DJ nodded.
"What does that mean?" Sparkle asked.
Mr. N looked at DJ for several seconds and then turned to the
monitor with the monkey screensaver.
"Kirbilots," he said while scrolling through files.
"Outdate humanity. They were here long before we were, long
before the jump from Old ONM to this world. They tell me that
their origins came around thanks to this".
A picture came up on the screen.
It was a blue-green rock.
"That's awesomotanium," said Sask.
"Awesomotanium ore," corrected Mr. N.
"Kirbilots believe it is sacred".
"Sacred?" said Saltybob, looking unconvinced.
"They say," said Mr. N, scrolling through more files.
"That awesomotanium came from this".
Another picture came up.
It was a strange, primitive drawing, etched in dirt.
It was some kind of giant object, surrounded by scribbles that
looked vaguely like clouds.
"What's that?" Sparkle asked.
"They call it the Arc of the Ancients," said Mr. N.
"It's some kind of monolith sitting in the ground somewhere in
ONM. The kirbilots say that it crashed down upon the earth and
relinquished them from dark, meaningless lives".
He sat back in his chair.
"And it's made entirely from awesomotanium".
Sask's eyes bulged.
"You serious?" she asked.
"It's what the kiribilots tell me," he said.
"Where is it?" Sask asked.
"They don't know," Mr. N said.
"It's location is lost in memories of their ancestors".
"We could use it to defeat the ghosts," Sparkle whispered.
Saltybob looked round at her.
"How would that help?" he asked.
"Ghosts can't exist in the same dimension as pure
awesomotanium," PsychoPikmin said.
"That's what the attack was on the Capture The Flag final: mercs
working for the ghost got rid of the trophy, which was made of
pure awesomotanium".
Saltybob shrugged.
"Alright then..." he said.
"But wait," said DJ.
"If the Arc is made of pure awesomotanium...then why are the
ghosts still here?"
"It would've been here for so long," said PsychoPikmin.
"It might have reacted chemically with its surroundings. It's
one big compound".
"That makes sense..." said Mr. N.
"What makes sense?" asked Sparkle.
"The kirbilots spoke of the Arc stopping a great evil...but it
neede to activated".
He looked up at DJ.
"By a 'Searcher'".
Everyone looked round at DJ again.
"Aw, come on," he said.
"I can't be the Searcher".
"You're the only person who's been asked if he's the Searchr,"
Mr. N said.
"They think you are".
DJ shhok his head.
"But I-"
"The ghosts must be the great evil," Sparkle said.
"Indeed," said Mr. N.
DJ shook his head.
"I'm going to sleep," he said, walking out.
#Post#: 33--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:12 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 29
The sun had risen over Rules.
The sky was blue with long, wispy traces of clouds stretching
across its vast expanse.
It was a fresh, spring morning with a slight layer of mist that
hung over the grasslands.
Kirbilots in the distance barked and yelped like a natural alarm
clock, their cries piercing through the light, morning air.
DJ lulled slowly out of Mr. N's house and yawned, looking out at
the grasslands from the raised porch.
You could be disconnected from the rest of the world here.
You wouldn't even know there was a war going on.
But DJ did know there was a war on; he'd had a troubled few
hours of sleep.
His dreams had been plagued by ghosts and angry kirbilots,
forcing him to awaken suddenly. And every time he'd woken up,
he'd been tormented by trying to reach 25, 25, 32 and by what
Mr. N had told him about being the Searcher.
But hopefully he'd be able to sleep easy soon.
Saltybob had used a modified radio Mr. N had given him to
contact Stoccatae Base, who had replied and said they'd send
people to pick them up.
They'd be here soon.
Soon enough, everyone else was awake.
The marines seemed fine with their uncomfortable sleep in Mr.
N's sitting room, as did Sask. Sparkle had been offered the
guest room, so she had slept on a proper bed. Yet she still
seemed bedraggeled by sleep.
PsychoPikmin hadn't slept.
DJ was unsure whether he was insomniac or that Observers didn't
sleep at all.
He'd heard PsychoPikmin say something about the kirbilots and
he'd left the house.
But he reappeared from nowhere in the morning, not explaining
where he'd been and what he'd been doing.
For such a tall man, DJ was surprised how easily PsychoPikmin
could move around unnoticed.
While eating toast, DJ had asked the Observer about the giant
flaming dragon that he'd summoned up the night before.
PsychoPikmin said it was called Falnaxus, a fire spirit of
immense strength. He'd shown DJ his left hand, a long URL code
that locked the spirit inside of him.
Just like his daughter, PsychoPikmin was also able to conjur up
magical needles in the air and command them at will.
And then, after they'd finished their toast, a large vehicle
pulled up on the road next to the house.
Soldiers climbed out of it, all of the holding ACR assault
rifles and wearing full body armour.
The vehicle was a T-65 Rhino, a heavily armoured APC vehicle. It
had 6 inches of awesomotanium-steel armour plating, with a pulse
tuuret on the top side and a mounted machine guns on either
side. Not only that, but it could move at up to 70mph.
Essentially, it was small fortress on wheels.
As they all came out of the house, one of the soldiers
approached them.
"Any of you the person who radioed in?" he asked.
Saltybob stepped forward.
"Captain Saltybob, Autumn Unit," he said. "I made the call".
The other soldier stood to attention when he realized Saltybob's
rank.
"Sergeant Hiruko, sir," the soldier said.
"At ease," mumbled Saltybob.
Hiruko lowered his hand and looked at everyone else.
"This everyone coming?" he asked.
"Yes," said Saltybob.
"Not me," announced Mr. N.
"Why not?" asked Sparkle.
"I have duties to keep here. I cannot abandon my post," Mr. N
replied.
"With respect, sir," said Hiruko.
"I strongly recommend that you come with us. It's not safe
around here anymore".
"It wasn't eaxctly safe anyway..." mumbled PsychoPikmin to
himself.
"I've lived out here on my own for ten years," said Mr. N cooly.
"I'm fine".
"I don't think you understand the situation, sir," said Hiruko.
"The ghosts have crossed into GNC".
The marines became unnerved.
"They crossed the GNC-Retro border this morning...we lost a lot
of men".
Saltybob looked round at DJ, a fearful look in his eye.
"Then they'll be coming for Stoccatae," he said.
"Not only that," said Hiruko, folding his arms.
"But Stoccatae is the last line of defence here. There are no
big military bases north of Stoccatae, and all the officials
that are still alive are in GNC City right now...and it looks
like Omega Contingency is our only hope".
"Why?" asked Saltybob.
"What's Omega Contingency leading to?"
Before Hiruko coud answer, one of the other soldiers called to
him from the Rhino.
"Sarge! Command's on the line! They want a sitrep!"
Hiruko went to the Rhino and disappeared inside.
He came out several seconds later with a walkie-talkie.
"Captain, it's Major Twi. He wants to speak to you".
Saltybob stepped forward sand took the walkie-talkie.
"Hello...? Yes, sir...yes...I can't say right now...no, sir, but
we have one wounded...stable, sir...yes...I have four civillians
who wish to speak with you, sir...yes...I can tell you now that
it is important, sir...yes, sir...thank you, sir".
He handed the walkie-talkie back to Hiruko.
"Major Twi wants to see these civillians," he said, looking
round at DJ, Sask, Sparkle and PsychoPikmin.
"Very well," said Hiruko.
"And you, sir?" he said turning to Mr. N.
Mr. N looked indifferent.
"Mr. N," said Sparkle.
"We've seen what the ghosts do. If they can destroy a megacity
in one night, then you have no chance when they get here".
Everyone looked at Mr. N.
"...okay," he said.
"I shall go. But I need to gather up my research and download
all my UAV protocals to a laptop".
Hiruko nodded.
Mr. N retreated inside the house.
"You all might as well get in the Rhino," said Hiruko.
DJ, Sask, Sparkle and PsychoPikmin climbed into the heavily
armoured vehicle.
It was surprisingly spacious inside. The sides of the vehicle
had seats with seatbelts, and there was a hole in the ceiling
which allowed usage of the topside pulse cannon.
The other marines got in with them.
DJ put his head back on one of the decidedly comfortable seats
and closed his eyes. He was inside a heavily armoured vehicle,
with a load of well-trained marines.
Surely, he would be able to sleep now.
He smiled at the prospect.
"What's so funny?" asked Sparkle.
DJ just shook his head.
And then, out of nowhere, his ideas of a bit of peace where
contested.
"Sergeant," one of the other soldiers said.
"We have an incoming bogie".
"From where?" Hiruko asked.
"South," replied the soldier.
"Is it land or air?"
"Land, sir. It's approaching fast".
Sask climbed out of the Rhino and went to find the soldiers.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Don't know, but it isn't one of ours and it on a direct route
to our position".
"Ghosts," Sask said.
"We have to hurry up".
DJ breathed out noisily in frustration as his prospect of a
decent sleep collapsed.
"Mr. N!" Sask yelled.
"Hurry up! We have incoming!"
PsychoPikmin looked out of the open back end of the Rhino.
The road was completely straight, but the layer of morning mist
covered it to a certain extent, negating view.
Sask, Hiruko and the other soldiers climbed into the Rhino.
"Come on, Mr. N!" Sask called.
#Post#: 34--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER THIRTY
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:12 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 30
Mr. N appeared and climbed into the Rhino, the pile of folders,
a laptop and a mains cable balancing in his hands.
As he climbed in, Hiruko banged the side of the Rhino and
followed Mr. N.
The door slowly closed as the Rhino began to move forwards.
"How far away is it?" Hiruko asked as soldier who was holding a
radar tablet.
"Less than a mile, sir," the large man said.
"It's right behind us".
DJ looked out the window on the door at the back.
Mr. N's house had passed and the sides of the road were lined
with the tall grass.
The wall of morning mist still obscured what he could see of the
road.
"Less than half a mile," the soldier said.
"There's still nothing," DJ said.
"Speed up!" yelled Hiruko to the driver.
The Rhino gradually began to pick up speed, the sound from its
engine getting louder and louder.
And then something came into view.
It was still relatively far away, but it was speeding up the
road.
"There!" DJ yelped.
Sask looked out the window.
"What the hell is that?" she mumbled.
Sparkle peeked out as well.
"Is that a kirbilot?" she said.
"No," said Sask. "It's metal".
It looked like some kind of metal panther or leopard, it's body
and limbs covered in dark, spiny armour.
And it was fast.
Very fast.
"Is it hostile?" asked Saltybob, peering out of the window over
DJ, Sask and Sparkle.
As he asked this, a pair of small rocekt silos appeared on the
metal panther's back.
Two miniscule missiles twsited into the air and soared towards
the Rhino.
One hit the road behind the vehicle, exploding and missing it by
inches.
The other one hit the opposite lane, forcing the Rhino to move
over.
"Yeah," said Sask.
"It's hostile".
"Corperal, get on the pulse cannon," ordered Hiruko, speaking to
one of the other soldiers, who nodded and climbed up through the
hole in the top of the Rhino.
He aimed at the metal panther as it got closer and closer to the
Rhino.
He pulled the triggers, firing a burst of red energy in the
panther's direction.
The burst missied the panther and flew over its sleek body,
exploding far behind it in a red explosion of sparks.
The soldier aimed at the panther again.
But before he could pull the trigger, the panther came right up
behind the Rhino and leapt up onto it.
As it moved through the air, its body changed, literally
shifting in shape.
Metal became skin, armour became clothing.
The panther had changed into a woman, with a pretty face and
flowing brown hair, wearing a black coat.
She held a black shotgun in her hand.
She pulled the trigger.
The soldier on the pulse cannon was dead before she landed on
the roof of the Rhino.
She kicked him down into the Rhino and tried to follow him.
But before she could get inside, she was kicked in the face.
She was knocked off guard and stumbled backwards.
The woman fell off the back of the Rhino towards the road.
Before she got there, she'd already changed back into a robotic
panther.
Inside the Rhino, PsychoPikmn, the person who'd kicked her, got
up and climbed up onto the roof.
"Dad, what the heel are you doing?" Sparkle yelled, grabbing his
coat.
"Don't worry," he said, getting up out of the hole and handing
her his beani cap.
The spring wind blew his hair forwards as he climbed onto the
roof.
He stood and pulled round his crossbow.
The panther noticed him and snarled.
It fired two more small missiles at him.
One landed on the other side of the road again, but the other
one continued towards the Rhino.
But it never got there.
PsychoPikmin fired a single, well-aimed crossbow bolt at the
missile.
The bolt pinged off of the missile, diverting its path
downwards.
The missile hit the ground and exploded, tipping the Rhino
forward slightly.
Inside everyone jerked to one side as the back of the Rhino left
the ground.
PsychoPikmin stumbled, but remained on the roof.
He looked up to see if the panther was still there.
The road behind them was engulfed in a veil of smoke from the
missile.
And then the panther leapt through the veil and sped towards the
Rhino.
PsychoPikmin fired another bolt in its direction, but the
panther crisscrossed across the road, making it hard to aim.
The panther approached the Rhino again and leapt up, once again
morphing into a woman with a shotgun.
She fired at PsychoPikmin, the shotgun's spread of pellets
covering the entire area of the roof of the Rhino.
But PsychoPikmin was unhurt. His hand was curled into a fist.
In the air around him, glassy needles had formed in the air,
each one trapping a shotgun pellet inside.
PsychoPikmin spread his fingers, his fist uncurling.
The needles sliced through the air towards the woman, who
avoided them as she rolled across the roof and then leapt up
again towards PsychoPikmin.
A pair of serated blades had appeared from her coat sleeves on
each arm.
She leapt at PsychoPikmin and kicked him hard in the chest.
He flew backwards and landed painfully on the metal roofing.
The woman leapt at him again, blades held high.
She landed on PsychoPikmin, the blades going straight through
his chest.
She grinned as she looked down at her kill.
But then she realised that his face was smiling.
PsychoPikmin's body literally disintergrated into fire and
disappeared from around her.
He reappeared behind her and grabbed her coat, swinging her
entire body over his head and slamming her down onto the metal
roof of the Rhino.
She recovered quickly and rolled backwards, standing back up.
The woman and PsychoPikmin aimed their shotgun and crossbow at
one another from either end of the Rhino.
The woman studied her foe with unrelenting blue eyes.
PsychoPikmin suddenly lowered his crossbow slightly.
"What happened to you, Zero?" he said to the woman, somehow
knowing her face.
The woman, Zero, tilted her head, not lowering her shotgun.
"Have we met?" she asked.
"Before that incident on the Emperor's airship, I mean?"
She remembers that much then, PsychoPikmin thought.
"Apparently not," he said, a tinge of grief present in his
voice.
Zero smiled.
"Well if we haven't met," she said.
"Then there's no reason for me to have interest in you".
She dashed forward at incredible speed, firing her shotgun.
PsychoPikmin dove under her and her shot and leapt at her from
behind.
She swung round with one of her wristblades, narrowly missing
PsychoPikmin's shoulder.
He spun round her and pulled up his crossbow.
He pulled back on the bow and allowed a sword to appear and a
hilt to shift into use.
He swung at her and she blocked.
They slashed and parried on the roof of the Rhino.
And then Zero got the advantage.
She feinted, catching PsychoPikmin off guard.
She grabbed his shirt by the chest and swung him upwards, over
her and then down, straight towards the hole in the roof.
PsychoPikmin crashed staright down and through the hole, with a
painful crash.
"Dad!" Sparkle yelled as he came down.
He slowly sat up, his eyes fluttering.
"Call for air support..." he mumbled.
At that moment, Zero tried climbing inside the Rhino again.
Sask pulled out her USP and fired her entire magazine at Zero's
hand that was showing through the hole.
The hand recoiled.
PsychoPikmin got back up and climbed through the hole again.
He was lifted straight out as Zero grabbed him and forced him
upwards.
Sask turned to Hiruko.
"You heard him!" she said frantically. "Call air support!"
#Post#: 35--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:14 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 31
Zero continued to smash PsychoPikmin against the roof of the
Rhino.
Simply being an Observer with an immense fire spirit inside you
body didn't make you unbeatable.
Zero swung him overhead and slammed him down onto the roof.
PsychoPikmin's line of vision blurred.
He saw two of Zero reach down and grab him by the shirt.
She lifted him up by the shirt with one hand and held him over
the side of the Rhino. The road sped by underneath as the Rhino
reached its top speed.
"Shame," said Zero.
"You could have enlightened me to who you really are".
PsychoPikmin lifted his crossbow-sword and jammed it straight
through Zero's chest.
She looked stunned and winded.
But she wasn't human, obviously. She could not be defeated with
a single impalement.
She recomposed herself and looked down at the blade that was
stabbed through her chest.
"Ouch?" she said sarcastically. "Was that supposed to hurt?"
"Kind of," mumbled PsychoPikmin.
Zero shook her head.
"Pathetic," she said.
Just then, Sparkle's head appeared from the hole in the top of
the Rhino.
"Dad!" she yelled as she saw Zero holding PsychoPikmin over the
edge.
Zero whipped round her free hand, the shotgun appearing out of
nowhere, and firing at the hole, just as Sparkle ducked down and
avoided her attack.
"So," she said turning back to PsychoPikmin.
"You have a daughter?"
She grinned.
"Goodbye, Observer".
There was a sudden burst of gunfire.
Zero was knocked to one side, her grip on PsychoPikmin's shirt
loosening.
He fell towards the road, but vanished in a flash of flames
before he hit the ground.
Zero looked round to see where the gunfire had come from.
Saltybob had climbed out of the hole and was advancing on her,
emptying an entire magazine from his MA2000 into Zero.
The bullets had practically no effect one her: her skin had been
modified with a heavy cell weave, making her nearly bulletproof.
But the force of the gunfire pushed her backwards like the water
from a powerhose.
Saltybob slowly walked forwards as Zero was slowly pushed
backwards.
"Get the hell off!" he yelled.
And then the magazine ran out.
Zero saw her chance.
She grabbed PsychoPikmin's sword from her chest and yanked it
out.
There was a clean hole that ran straight through her body.
You could see how her inner organs had been replaced by metal
and wires, with a red, blood substitute feeding her organic
brain.
Zero lobbed the sword at Saltybob, who saw what she was doing
and leapt downwards to avoid it.
It skimmed and cut through his shoulder.
The sword continued to fly through the air and off the back of
the Rhino.
The was a flash of fire.
PsychoPikmin reappeared in middair, grabbed the sword and
disappeared in another burst of flame.
And then he reappeared again, right in front of Zero.
She just managed to hold up her wristblades to block his attack.
PsychoPikmin pushed her away and swung horizontally.
Zero rolled backwards to avoid the attack and produced her
shotgun.
PsychoPikmin held up his blade to try and block the oncoming
burst of pellets.
But it was a futile attempt.
The pellets plowed into PsychoPikmin's right arm.
He yelled in pain and stumbled backwards.
Saltybob pulled his G5 handgun from his belt and fired at Zero,
once again having no damaging effect on her.
DJ poked his head out to see what was happening.
Zero noticed him and raised her shotgun.
But then she realised that DJ was staring at something.
Something behind her.
She turned.
Something was quickly flying towards them.
Air support had arrived.
It was a gunmetal-grey jet fighter, its wings reversed and
facing forwards.
It was an F4 Carnifex, a newer form of military fighter jet.
As it approached the Rhino, its wings shifted fslightly and two
reversed jets moved round and forward.
It had moved into engagement mode.
It circled round the Rhino, but not attacking.
Zero knew that the carnifex's machine guns wouldn't damage the
Rhino, but it wouldn't fire while PsychoPikmin and Saltybob were
still on the roof.
She turned to her two downed foes as they both tried to stand up
against the wind.
Saltybob clutched his shoulder and quickly moved back towards
the hole.
Zero fired her shotgun at him.
Saltybob's body armout shielded him from harm against the shot,
but the spread of pellets still knocked him forwards.
He fell, banged his head against the roof with a painful
sounding thud and fell into the hole, again banging his head on
the edge.
PsychoPikmin grimaced at this, his arm hanging limp as blood
soaked into his coat arm.
Zero turned to him.
"Why aren't you dead already?" she asked.
PsychoPikimn didn't waste time.
Several needles materialised around him and flew towards Zero,
who swept her arm round, smashing them into tiny, glassy
fragments.
His sudden pain had weakened the strength of the needles.
But they had been a distraction.
PsychoPikmin dashed forward and leapt past Zero.
He swiped with his crossbow-sword, making a thin cut across the
back of Zero's neck.
He jammed his fist forwards, striking her where he'd slashed
her, his hand coming away red with blood-substitute.
Zero stumbled forward, knocked off guard.
PsychoPikmin shoved past her and painful fell through hole.
As he landed inside, he clutched his arm in pain.
"I'm getting too old for this..." he mumbled.
"What's happening?" asked DJ.
"Air support's here," he said.
He noticed Saltybob's unconscious body.
"Is he okay?" he asked.
"He has a head concussion," said one of Hiruko's soldiers.
Up on the roof, the carnifex opened fire.
The heavy machine gun bullets pelted into the top of the Rhino,
not doing any damage.
Zero ran to the end and leapt off, shifting to predator mode and
once again becoming a robotic leopard.
She might be now outgunned, but she'd be back for them: it
wasn't like her to give up.
She dashed into the tall grass and disapeared.
The carnifex moved after her, firing air-to-surface missiles in
the direction she'd gone.
DJ breathed out a sigh of relief as he watched the jet from the
window.
Hiruko picked up the walki-talkie and spoke to the carnifex's
pilot.
"Thank you, Raven 1, proceeding to Stoccatae, over".
#Post#: 36--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:15 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 32
The rest of the trip to Stoccatae was pretty much silent.
Everyone had relaxed and gotten over the fact of imminent death
by metal panther, but the dark reality of the dead body slumped
in the corner of the Rhino had struck them all to silence, his
front bloodied and broken by Zero's close range shotgun attack.
Hiruko's soldier seemed to be taking his death pretty badly.
In the ONM military, you were put into a squad and you stayed
with that squad. You formed bonds with each other as you looked
out for each other in and out of battle. You practically became
brothers and sisters...and to them, this was the loss of a
brother.
"I'm sorry," Sask said to Hiruko.
She'd seen these bonds being created and stretched when she had
trained with soldiers several years before and understood how
bad it felt.
"It's okay," Hiruko replied. "He was good man...he won't die in
vain".
DJ admired Hiruko's valience, and the valience of his soldiers,
and the valience of Saltybob, Yinga, HelloSkitty, Toonix and
Sheikah, the valience of every soldier he'd met recently since
the invasion began.
He suddenly realized how determined they all were to not let ONM
fall into destruction, how determined they were to defend their
homes and families and the homes and families of everyone else
on the planet.
And they'd already failed (seeing as most of ONM's southern
hemisphere was now wartorn), yet they continued to fight in the
name of what had been destroyed and what was left to defend.
DJ thought it was brilliant, and smiled slightly as he looked at
the soldiers in the Rhino.
And then his eyes came to PsychoPikmin.
He was twiddling something in between his thumbs.
It was small, metal and covered in what looked like blood.
"What's that?" DJ asked him.
"A neural inhibitor chip," replied PsychoPikmin darkly without
looking up.
"I got it from her".
"What the hell was she?" asked Toonix, who sat to DJ's right.
"Cybernetic," PsychoPikmin said, still not looking up.
"A human brain in a robotic body".
Toonix scoffed.
"Aw, come on," he said. "That's all sci-fi movie crap, right?"
PsychoPikmin looked up at the marine, who's sudden grin of
disbelief disappeared.
"Oh my God," he said.
"She was damn robot".
"She wasn't just cybernetic, was she?" said Sask.
"It was something else".
"What do you mean?" asked DJ, looking from Sask to PsychoPikmin
like a dissillusional dog.
"It was cyberfication," said PsychoPikmin.
Sask grimaced at the thought. Yinga and Mr. N also seemed to
know what they were talking about, the faces wearing dark
expressions.
"What's cyberfication?" asked Sparkle.
"They didn't just take a brain out of a human and put in a
robotic body," said Sask.
"She used to be a human...that's what she looked like".
DJ caught on.
"You mean...they...changed her?" he asked.
"They will have taken out her organic innards and replaced
them," said Sask.
"With robotic parts...her bones, her blood, her heart, her
lungs, her nervous system, her eyes-"
"Not the eyes," said PsychoPikmin all of a sudden.
"They didn't change the eyes".
Everyone in the Rhino looked strangely at the Observer with
curiousity of his small outburst.
PsychoPikmin shifted his eyes and looked back down at the chip
in his hands, hiding behind his hair.
"...would have all been replaced with artificial parts,"
continued Sask, her gaze still on PsychoPikmin.
"She would have had parts added, like weapons and scanners and
the the ability to turn into a metal creature like that. Her
skin will have been strengthened so she's harder to kill...a
cybernetic nervous system would have been attached to her
brain...and that chip would have been put at the base of her
brainstem".
PsychoPikmin held the chip up so that everyone could see it.
"I slashed the back of her neck," he said.
"It came out".
"What does the chip do?" asked Sparkle.
"It stops all the memories from her previous humanity from
resurfacing," explained PsychoPikmin.
"But that's just a side effect on the mind...it regulates and
locks away her conscience, so that she can kill without
hesitation...her intelligence will have been increased beyoned
the natural level of a human...her emotions will still be there,
because they allow her to be that much smarter and more
dangerous, but they'll be controlled so that she doesn't contest
whoever controls her..."
DJ thought of Gostalt.
This was obviously their work.
"All because of this chip..." finished PsychoPikmin.
Everyone on the Rhino looked in subtle horror at the chip.
Even the seemingly unfeasable HelloSkitty looked unnerved.
"That's...horrific," said Sparkle slowly.
"It's inhuman," said Sask.
"Only the Emperor would have mades someone do this...hell, I bet
whoever did this was uncertain whether they should've done it".
"But now she doesn't have it," DJ pointed out.
"If she doesn't have it anymore, what will happen to her?"
"She'll begin to revert back into a real person," said Sask.
"But it'll hurt...she will have to come terms with the fact that
she's not really human anymore. Her memories will begin to
gradually return and she'll often get headaches...she'll be cold
all the time since the robotic parts have messed up her internal
temperature...the fact that she's killed will dawn on her as her
conscience returns...you could pity for her".
PsychoPikmin dropped the chip on the metal floor of the Rhino.
Sask stamped down on it, hard and in anger.
The pieces of the chip scattered over the floor of the Rhino.
The rest of the trip was completely silent.
Stoccatae was massive. It sat in the middle of a great, grassy
plain several miles after the thick grasslands of Rules ended.
It was surrounded by a high, metal fence with barbed wire
running across the top and automatic sentry guns entrenched just
outside of it, beeping as they moved from left to right.
The ground was concrete and many dozens of soldiers, engineers
and scientists walked across it. Carnifexes sat being repaired
and modified on the far side of the base and Dragonfly
helicoptors whirred in the air.
There were many buildings on the base, several of them being
barracks with rounded roofs; a large vehicle hangar containing
Rhinos, Carnifexes, Dragonflies, Tyranno bipedal mechs,
Centurion tanks and Snowhare quadbikes; a large rounded building
with a massive radar dish and many anntenae on the roof; a
massive building with raised walkways leading to most of the
other buildings and several sections that jutted outwards.
As the Rhino entered the base through the front gate and
everyone climbed out, a soldier with an ACR and full body armour
approached them.
"Sergeant Hiruko," he said, saluting Hiruko.
"Major Twi wants to see the civillians you brought, sir".
"Autumn Unit have beds et up for them in Barrack 3. You and your
team are to relax for the next few hours and then proceed to
debriefing".
Hiruko nodded.
"We have one with a shot up leg and one unconscious...and one of
my men is KIA".
The soldier looked past him at the Rhino, as Yinga and Toonix
helped Sheikah out of the back.
"They will be taken to the med-bay, sir...your man will be taken
to cryo".
Hiruko nodded, looking slightly defeated.
The soldier turned to DJ and the others.
"The rest of you follow me," he said.
Before following the soldier, DJ turned to Hiruko.
"Thanks," he said. "And sorry".
Hiruko nodded in approval.
DJ turned to Yinga, Toonix, HelloSkitty and Sheikah.
"Thanks to you guys too," he said. "Tell that to Saltybob when
he wakes up".
"Find the birds," said HelloSkitty.
"Kick some ghost ass".
She was smiling. Dj hadn't seen her smile yet.
DJ grinned, nodded and ran after the others.
The soldier lead them across the base and into the largest
building with the jutting out sections.
As they entered through the front, they walked past lines if
lockers and an indoor Capture the Flag court, several soldiers
were looking through their lockers, pictures of half-naked women
pasted to the inside of the doors.
One man sat on a bench on the far side of the room, pushing
rounds into a shotgun. He looked up and gave DJ a snarling,
maniacal look as he passed by.
They walked up a flight of stairs and into a corridor with
engineers and scientists walking backwwards and forwards like
traffic on a road.
They entered a large, glass elevator and begin to to rise
upwards.
DJ could see what was happening on each floor that they passed
by.
They passed a kitchen, with many cooks using fire magic to heat
pots and dicing vegetables; they passed a loud firing range with
soldiers firing Submachine guns, handguns and assault rifles at
target boards; they passed the medical area, with many soldiers
being treated, one with both arms missing, another who's face
was half-frozen by an attack from a ghost claw.
And the they reached another, high up corridor.
The soldier lead them into a large room with many people working
at consoles and large windows that gave a view of the entire
base and the plains beyond.
The soldier lead them to a tall man wearing a camo suit, heavy
boots and shaved grey hair, wearing a blue military beret. The
patch on his arm showed his rank: a major.
He turned as the soldier saluted him, his eyes pale and blue
with valour and knowledge.
"Major Twi, sir," the soldier said.
"These are the civilliasn that Sergeant Hiruko brought from
Rules, sir".
The Major nodded.
"Well done," he said, in a gruff voice.
The soldier left and the Major turned to the rest of them.
"Well, I think it's appropriate that we get the pleasentries out
of the way first. Welcome to Stoccatae GNC, I am Major Roderick
Twi, commanding officer at this instiution" he said.
#Post#: 37--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:16 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 33
"And who are all of you?" Twi asked.
"I'm DJ," said DJ, a slight hint of being intimidated present in
his voice.
Twi looked down at him and tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.
"...have we met before?" he asked.
DJ slowly shook his head.
"I don't think so..." he said.
Twi scanned him unnervingly for a few more seconds before
offering his hand in greeting.
DJ shook his hand and Twi looked up at everyone else.
"Judging by your face," he said to Sask.
"I shall assume that you are his sister. Am I correct".
Sask nodded, her expression calm like an ocean and near
unreadable.
"I'm Sask," she said.
Twi then turned to Mr. N, who introduced himself and they also
shook hands.
Then Twi turned to Sparkle and PsychoPikmin.
"I can definatly tell here," said the Major.
"That you two are related...father and daughter presumably".
Sparkle smiled brightly and nodded.
PsychoPikmin's expression remained as unreadble as blank page.
"Anyway," said Twi, hands behind his back.
"I have been informed that you people believe that you have
information that could end this war we have found ourselves in".
His expression of greeting had changed into a dark, serious
look.
"I have lost many men these past few weeks. They've died in many
horrific ways in attempt to defend our world and I do not-"
He sat down in a nearby chair.
"...intend to let their deaths go in vain. Now, please tell me
that you have something useful for me".
DJ looked round at Sask, who glanced at him and back to Twi.
"Well, Major," said DJ.
"I know it'll sound really, really stupid, but we have a sure
fire way of stopping the ghosts".
"This being?" questioned Twi.
"The Sacred Chickens," replied DJ.
Twi blinked.
"Beg your pardon?" he said, sitting forwards slightly.
"The...Sacred Chickens," repeated DJ, nervousness creeping into
his mind.
Twi sat back again and looked at him.
DJ couldn't tell what would happen next.
Would the Major laugh? Would he declare them insane and tell one
of the doctors to take him away? Would he think they were
wasting his time and order them off the base before he shot
them?
Twi did none of these.
"Go on," he said.
DJ continued to tell him everything, about Gostalt and the
Emperor, from the imprisonment of Helmaroc to the fighting in
the streets in Music Country and even about the Jeptu and then
about the coordinates.
By this point, a lot of people in the room had stopped what they
were doing and were listening to DJ was saying.
When he had finished, Twi looked at him for several seconds in
silence.
He stood up and walked towards one of the windows and watched
the people and vehicles move around the base.
"So, lemme get this straight," he said.
"You're telling me...that creatures from bedtime stories that my
own father told me about, are at some coordinates that...aliens
gave to you...and now you have to find these birds and wish away
the army that outnumbers and outguns our own?"
He turned back to DJ, an amused and disbelieving look on his
face.
"And to top it off, you're saying that an ONM war hero who died
50 years ago is leading this army and that he has mercenaries
with robot panthers out to get you?"
Nobody said anything.
Twi walked back to his chair and sat down again.
"That does sound pretty farfetched," he said.
"I realise that," said DJ.
"But it's true, trust us".
Twi chuckled. "That's kind of the point here," he said.
"I just don't think I do".
"You should," said a voice from the entrance of the room.
It was HelloSkitty. She still wore her body armour but not her
helmet, allowing her hair, dyed a slight shade of purple, to run
down over her shoulders.
Twi smiled as he got up and turned to her.
"Corperal HelloSkitty," he said.
HelloSkitty walked over and saluted to Twi.
"At ease," he said.
"They aren't lying, sir," she said.
"Everything that's DJ said is true. The Chickens are real,
Chandra is leading the ghosts, there is a cybernetic panther and
aliens really did give us coordinates to where the chickens
are".
Twi looked down at HelloSkitty, sudden uncertainty appearing on
his face.
"Check the coordinates," said Mr. N.
"Send a UAV to see what's there".
Twi raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, well as much as I might believe you," he said, sitting
back down.
"I'm afraid we can't do that. All our UAVs are in use".
"I have one," said Mr. N.
Twi grinned in amusment.
"You have a UAV?" he said.
"Oh yeah," said Mr. N nodding, pulling up his laptop bag and
pulling out his laptop.
"I just need to...ah yes".
He took out a charging cable and plugged into a mains plug and
the laptop.
He placed it down on a table and brought up a camera feed from
his UAV, looking down at what looked like forest.
Twi's smile disappeared as he realised that he'd just been
defeated and he got up to see the feed.
Mr. N's UAV had flown off on its own course over the night and
was currently looking down on the forests of Poke Country.
"Hold on," said Mr. N.
"It's just over the Poke-GNC border...I'll just redirect it".
He typed the coordinates 25, 25, 32 into the laptop and the UAV
quickly began to fly south.
"That's faster than a normal UAV," said Twi.
"I modified it," said Mr. N.
The terrain below the UAV began to change fro m green forest to
grey, rocky landscape.
"That area's the northern part of GNC," said Sparkle.
"It's all mountains".
DJ looked at the coordinates readout in the corner of the
screen.
It read 25, 23, 29.
What would be there?
A nest? Perhaps some kind of floating island or something?
And then the UAV reached the coordinates.
The screen turned a shade of dark grey.
"What the hell?" said DJ.
"Stormclouds," said Mr. N.
"Hold on..."
He typed a few things and the camera feed began to changed as
the UAV began to descend through the wall of puffy grey.
And then it all came into view.
In the centre of the screen, was a large blue shape, its colour
dampened by the clouds above and many years of obvious age.
Is the UAV continued to descend, the camera shifted to the side
so that the entire object was in view.
Many strange symbols lined the side of it.
Mr. N's face was suddenly gormless and atonished.
"Oh my God," he said.
"It's...the Arc".
"What?" said Sask looked at Mr. N and then at the screen again.
"The Arc," he said again.
"The Arc of the Ancients!".
#Post#: 38--------------------------------------------------
ONM TIMELINE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:18 am
---------------------------------------------------------
THE ONM WORLD TIMELINE
PS = Pre-Shift (before humanity's dimensional jump from Old ONM
to current ONM)
AS = After-Shift (after humanity's dimensional jump from Old ONM
to current ONM)
300 PS- The approximate time that humans are believed to have
made first activities in Old ONM.
276 PS- The approximate time that the first structures created
by humaity are believed to have been built.
252 PS- The first proper rulers of Old ONM, the twins Wreck and
Rule came to power, intending to share the land.
250 PS- Wreck and Rule argue over their kingdom and agree to
duel for it. Rule loses and is sent away in exile. Wreck is the
King of Old ONM.
246 PS- Wreck's monarchy is challenged by a group called The
First Subscribers, the first known weilders of magic. They
believed that their King is powerhungry and that somebody else
should rule the land. Wreck fights them off and they too are
sentenced to exile.
244 PS- Wreck is assassinated by the son of one of The First
Subscribers. Riots break out in the small towns as to who should
now be ruler.
243 PS- One of the First Subscribers, Noodle Link, is appointed
King. He sets up the first proper, if primitive parliament and
magic is introuced throughout Old ONM.
223 PS- Noodle Link's new army frees the land from the bandit
armies, Old ONM is now peaceful, without war for many years.
201 PS- Noodle Link dies of old age. His daughter, SaiSan, is
appointed the first Queen of ONM.
189 PS- SaiSan proves herself to be a promising Queen as she
manages to fully rid Old ONM of bandits.
170 PS- The first deaths by trolls happen in northern towns.
165 PS- Massive troll infestations happen all across northern
Old ONM.
163 PS- The famous inventor, Jedi Metroid, creates the first
bolt-action rifle.
160 PS- Troll populations decrease rapidly thanks to the mass
production of Jedi Metroid's rifles. SaiSan offers him
knighthood.
153 PS- There are now 40 different variations of Jedi Metroid's
original rifle in Old ONM.
140 PS- SaiSan dies of lag disease. Her son, Piplup, becomes
king.
138 PS- Women given proper rights in Old ONM and are allowed to
fight, vote and work.
120 PS- Piplup is approached by the newly formed Ghost Empire
that has begun to stir in the deep south.
117 PS- Piplup forms an alliance with the Ghost Emperor in order
to fight off another, colossal troll outbreak.
115 PS- Despite the help of the Ghost Empire, one quarter of Old
ONM's population become trolls.
110 PS- Ghost Empire manages to grow onto the southern shores of
Old ONM. Villagers there are unnerved.
105 PS- Troll outbreak defeated, but Piplup is infected. Kills
himself before he beomes a troll. His son, Chris, becomes king.
104 PS- The Ghost Empire moves fully into southern Old ONM,
killing everyone in the towns and villages there.
103 PS- After year-long tensions that Chris' armies cannot beat
the Empire's, Chris meets with the Emperor and demands that the
Empire move out of the south. The Emperor refuses and trie sto
kill Chris and fails. Chris declares war on the Ghost Empire.
89 PS- Chris and the Empire's armies are near-equal in strength.
As a result, there is no clear winner as to who will win the
war.
75 PS- A peace treaty is signed between Chris and the Emperor.
The war is over.
2 PS- after 73 years without war, the Emperor decides that
Chris' old age will have made him frail and therefore will not
be able to defeat him. The Empire's armies unleash an
overwhelming attack upon Old ONM.
1 PS- Chris decides that the Empire cannot be defeated this time
around, and consults his chief mage, Tom, on ways of escaping
the wrath of the Empire. Tom says he can manipulate a mass
server shift and allow the surviving population of Old ONM to
jump from this dimension to a new dimension.
0 PS- The population of Old ONM go through the shift, leaving
their world to be ravaged by the Ghost Empire. The new dimension
they reach is named ONM as the one before it, which is
officially titled Old ONM.
1 AS- The 16 nations of ONM are established: GNC, Wii Country,
DS Country, WiiWare Country, Poke Country, Retro Country, Online
Country, Music Country, TV Country, Film Country, Book Country,
Quiz Country, Sport Country, Graphics Country, Art Country and
the Off Topic Islands.
2 AS- Chris dies of old age. His final act is to name the first
moderators of ONM: Wrathy, Slayso, Rawie and Alessandro. The
mods are given responsibilty of defending ONM, their souls
intwined with the planet. Monarchy is removed in favour of
democracy. Tom is named president of ONM.
3 AS- Technology in ONM advances significantly.
7 AS- A new Mod, Gofthick, is appointed after he single-handedly
created and introduced revolutionary turbo-trains to ONM,
allowing many people to travel quickly and efficiently across
the world.
15 AS- Technology increases to a massive landmark. (Think 1950s
in our time)
100 AS- A PMC named Foodking attempts to overthrow the
governement. It is defeated single handedly by a young police
officer named Emperix. Emperix becomes a mod and a weapons
manufacturer is named after him.
115 AS- A massive rogue mercenary group called MEGASPAM seize
countol of TV Country. They threaten the rest of ONM with
nuclear weapons. In reltaliation, GNC go to war with "New TV".
116 AS- MEGASPAM's leader is captured by Chandra and Bretteh and
a band of metalheads from Music Country. Chandra died in the
process and is named a war hero. Bretteh becomes a Mod and the
leader of the metalheads, Jonowev sets about clearing up
MEGASPAM's remnants.
120 AS- The Metal Knights are set up in Music Country, now the
most technologically advanced country in ONM. Jonowev is the
leader.
127 AS- A group of magicians unknowingly summon the powers of
four elemental spirts: Tontyral of Water, Falnaxus of fire,
Shikotellus of Lightning and Regnerrik of Earth. Rewards were
promised to whoever found them.
128 AS- All the spirits, except Shikotellus, are found by
seperate people: Tontyral by a sailer named MysteryPass,
Falnaxus by a journalist name PsychoPikmin and Regnerrik by a
miner named RexFactor. The spirits managed to lock with their
souls, causing them to be classed as a threat to ONM.
129 AS- Shikotellus is found by a rogue, unamed magician who
changes it into the demon Shikokyrion. Shikokyrion goes on a
rampage in Retro Country, but is defeated by the three who found
the other spirits. They are applauded, but the Mods believe them
to be still too dangerous. The three who found the spirits agree
to reside just outside of the dimension as to keep everyone else
safe. From here, they watch what happens in ONM and are thus
named "Observers". Shikokyrion's whereabouts is unknown.
134 AS- A politcal dispute in Graphics Country leads to a civil
war, killing many thousands of people. Strangely, only two
people's where never found, that of soldiers ZeroSuitSamus2 and
Metaknight2.
140 AS- Sparkle is appointed as a Moderator when she impresses
Slayso with her intelligence and combat abilities. Later that
year, the Ghost Empire returned, and ONM is currently at war.
#Post#: 39--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 34
They all stared in awe at the great, grey-blue monolith on Mr.
N's laptop screen.
"It's...real," Mr. N whispered.
"It's really real".
"And it's in the same place as the Sacred Chickens," said
Sparkle.
DJ spoke up.
"Which means that we could..."
He stepped away from the screen and looked into space in awe.
The enourmity of the task ahead suddenly seemed less daunting.
"We could actually stop the ghosts".
Suddenly, everyone, except from Twi - who continued to look at
the screen in curiousity, was smiling.
Even HelloSkitty, who's expression was often thoughtful and
unreadable, had brightened up amazingly.
"What is that exactly?" Twi asked.
"The Arc of the Ancients," said Mr. N.
"It's a massive structure made entirely from awesomotanium".
Twi looked indifferent.
"So?" he said.
"Ghosts physically cannot be in the same dimension as pure
awesomotanium," explained Sask.
"That thing could be the key to getting them out of ONM".
"But how come it hasn't worked already?" Twi asked.
"It's been here for several thousand years," said PsychoPikmin.
"It's most likely reacted with the substances in it's
surroundings," said PsychoPikmin. "It's a giant compound".
"So...what do we do with it?" Twi asked.
"That's the hard part," said Mr. N.
Everyone became solumn as they realized this.
"We have to seperate the awesomotanium from everything else,"
said Sask.
"How do we do that?"
"...wait," said DJ, faint memories of school experiments and
science lessons appearing in his mind.
"There's that process...with the water and the electrodes...you
use it to seperate...er...magnisium-"
"Chlorine," said Mr. N.
"Electrolysis".
Sask frowned.
"Does that work on awesomotanium? Don't you need water for
electrolysis?"
"Usually," said Mr. N.
"But awesomotanium
"Awesomotanium is different to every other element...In theory,
electrolysis could be used to seperate it from other substances,
but in truth I don't know".
"Why not?" asked DJ.
"To be honest, I'd have to spend at least an hour explaining it
to you," Mr. N said.
"I can merely say that...there is a 70% chance that electrolysis
could activate to effects of the Arc".
"That's a pretty good rate," said PsychoPikmin.
"But there's a problem," said Mr. N.
DJ's heart sank.
"The Arc, as you can see, is huge," he said, pointing at the
screen.
"We couldn't just do it with simple laboratory
electrodes...you'd need a massive electrical energy source, or
at least something that produced enough power".
Everyone looked at each other in disbelief, unable to think of a
solution to the problem that had revealed itself as quickly and
as unwelcomingly as a shoal of pirahna fish.
And the Twi spoke up, grinning.
"What if I told y'all right now," he said.
"That I can think of a way of seperating them substances?"
"Well I'd want your babies, Major," said Sask sarcastically, her
arms folded.
"But it's like Mr. N said: it's huge. How is that possible?"
Twi sat down in his chair, ignoring Sask's pessimistic comment.
"Back in my Metal Knight days," he began.
"When I was out in Film Country following a lead about rogue
mercenaries, me and my patrol came across a group of miners
trying to extract magnesium from a massive chunk of rock they'd
gone dug up.
"It's just like you said: it was all magnesium soloride, and
they had to seperate the magnesium from the solorine".
Soloride was another element in ONM that could be removed from
other elements through electrolysis without the need for water.
"Now they this here device that allowed them to literally force
the two elements apart, without using water".
Mr. N raised an eyebrow.
"Isn't that not really electrolysis?" he asked.
"They called it that," said Twi.
"What was the device called?" asked Sask.
"The miners called it a thundrafang," said Twi. "And I believe
that the superfoundry in Quiz Country may well be able to make
us one".
"Well then we do that," said DJ.
"We ask for one and take it to the Arc! We can activate it and
get feathers from Ho-Oh and Helmaroc at the same time!"
Twi shrugged.
"I still don't know about them birds," he said.
"But that stuff about awesomotanium sounds a lot more logical.
I'll send a special request to the foundry later...however you
might find that getting that thing to work ain't your biggest
problem".
Everyone looked round at him.
"What do you mean?" asked Sask.
"How are you going to get there?" asked Twi.
DJ blinked.
Sask looked at him and back to Twi.
"That area is entirely mountain," said Twi.
"I would send a Rhino to take y'all there, but it's all too
rough".
"Couldn't you spare a large aircraft?" asked PsychoPikmin.
"No," said Twi.
"I can't spare a single large aircraft right now. You might
not've heard, but the ghosts broke the southern GNC border
earlier. Our outposts are already going quiet and I need every
big aircraft to collect survivors".
The unwelcome shoal of metaphorical pirahna had returned again,
nibbling on the situation at hand.
"Sir," said one of the people at the consoles.
"We got a video call from the security cells again".
"Goddammit," mumbled Twi, getting up and going to the console.
"What is it now?" he said, looking at the monitor, where a video
feed was coming through from somewhere else in the base.
"They're demanding to see you again, sir," said a guard on the
screen.
Then another voice yelled something from the screen.
"Dammit, Twi! Let us outta here or so help me-"
The voice was gruff and familiar.
Very familiar.
DJ walked over to the screen and looked to see who was on it.
Behind the guard in a cell with a carbon fibre wall and airholes
in the front was a tall man with a wild look in his eyes, a dark
coat and a badly shaved beard.
"D-Mash?" DJ said, moving closer to the screen.
"DJ?" said D-Mash, practically pasting his face to the
carbon-fibre cell wall.
"What?!" exclaimed another familiar voice.
PixelF came into view, as did Hammer Bro and Rai13.
"What the hell?! DJ, what are you doing here?"
Sask came over.
"Hey! It's Sask!"
The guard looked confused.
Twi turned to DJ and Sask.
"You know them?" he asked.
"We've...crossed paths," said DJ, nodding.
"How come they're here?" asked Sask.
"They were violating our airspace in a giant metal chicken,"
said Twi.
"We warned them, and brought them down. The chicken had an
onboard AI with an attitude so we locked that in a hangar and
locked them up".
"Attitude?!" yelled Hammer Bro.
"You fired a damn missile at KD! You can't blame him for being
angry!"
"Can we go down there?" asked DJ.
Twi frowned.
"We can't let them out," he said.
#Post#: 40--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 35
DJ and Sask had been allowed down to the security cells to meet
the pirates, who were definatley overjoyed to see them and
annoyed at being put into a carbon-fibre prison cell.
Other than supposedly violating airspace, the pirates had not
done anything wrong, and the skeptical Twi had been persuaded to
let them out.
KD King had also been let out of the hangar that he'd been
locked in, but not before they'd walked in on him flirting with
a nearby Carnifex, which he had told that he would "send her to
ecstasy and a bit and back".
D-Mash had spent the morning asking DJ about what he'd been
doing since they'd dropped him off in Music Country and DJ had
told him everything, from the attempt on Flash7's life to the
encounter with the Jeptu and the kirbilot in Rules. D-Mash
believed everything DJ said: he was very open minded. The
pirates had also been introduced to Sparkle, whom they were
slightly wary of, considering she was a Mod and they were
pirates.
D-Mash believed everything DJ said: he was very open minded.
And then, to everyone's delight, D-Mash had offered to fly them
to the Arc once the thundrafang arrived at Stoccatae, which was
a big relief.
DJ had spent the rest of the day in the firing ranges with
Autumn Unit, who were teaching him how to properly use guns,
considering it was worrignly possible that they would at some
point encounter more ghosts.
Gradually, DJ had improved using an M9 handgun, but Sask had put
him to shame by firing an entire magazine and hitting the
bullseye in the exact same place every single time.
It had been a fairly relaxing day, and DJ had gone to bed in the
barracks smiling, not worrying about trolls or assassins or
ghosts as he fell asleep.
He felt safe here.
He felt happy for once.
Zero trecked across the grassy plain.
Darkness had fallen, and a night wind was blowing. Stoccatae was
about a mile away from where she was, a towering, shining object
that lit up the horizon.
Earlier that day, she'd managed to get away from the Carnifex
jet that had chased her away from her battle with PsychoPikmin
on top of the Rhino.
Her automated repair systems had fixed all the wounds in her
reinforced skin, including the painful one on the back of her
neck.
Well, it wasn't so much as pain as it was annoying.
Zero had then left the grasslands of Rules and entered GNC, and
had walked across the plains to where she had been told to
rendevous with allies.
She couldn't run across the plains as a metal panther because
she knew that the Carnifex pilot would say that he had been
unable to kill her, and now any aircraft that might fly overhead
would be on the lookout for such a thing.. Naturally, there had
been no overhead aircraft as she'd circled around Stoccatae, out
of the path of all incoming and outgoing aircraft, which would
all be heading for the new battle raging against the ghosts in
southern GNC.
Besides, she had been instructed to meet up with the others at
nightfall, so the day's walk had given her a chance to think.
Ever since the battle with PsychoPikmin, she'd been questioning
whether she really did know him or not. And then, at about
midday, images had started to flash up in her mind, two
different images.
An image of PsychoPikmin, standing in a doorway, wearing the
same dark clothes he'd been wearing today, another image of a
small girl with dark hair and bright eyes wearing a blue dress,
waving to Zero.
Zero's head hurt as the images flashed up.
This was very strange and worrying for Zero, as pain wasn't
supposed to happen often to her, she was cybernetic: her senses
of pain had been dampened...supposedly.
At one point, the pain had been so great that she'd fallen to
her knees, yelling, the images of PsychoPikmin and the small
girl practically tormenting her.
But as night had fallen, Zero had started to feel strange.
Different.
Cold.
She had shivered at one point, subconsciously rubbing her arms
with her hands, which she noticed and stopped doing.
But as she'd approached Stoccatae, she still felt cold.
It wasn't the was the nighttime wind that made her cold, well at
least Zero didn't think it was.
It was almost as though...she had always been cold, and she was
only realizing it now.
Something moved in the darkness before her.
She whipped her arm up, the shotgun appearing in her hand.
Her eyes switched to night-vision mode and looked around.
A tall man in a dark coat with a machine gun in his hand stood
before her.
She lowered her shotgun.
"Bit far out aren't we, Meta?" she asked.
The other cyborg lowered the machine gun.
"I was told to search for you," he said solumnly.
"SamuriFerret thought you had malfunctioned or something".
Zero shook her head.
"I never malfunction," she said.
But as she said this, her thoughts went back to the images of
PsychoPikmin and the girl and how she was trying not shiver in
front of Meta.
"I didn't think so," said Meta.
"SamuriFerret and Swixer are closer to the base. Come on".
The cyborg turned away and ran off in the direction of Stoccatae
at incredible speed.
Zero followed him, leadping forwards and shifting into her
panther mode.
She sped past him and dashed torwards the base, but he leapt
several metres into the air and passed by her.
The raced towards the base and slowed down when they got closer.
Meta lead Zero to a small hill, about 200 metres away from the
high metal fence.
"Are they supposed to be here?" asked Zero.
At the top of the hill, something shifted.
A blanket, similar in colour to the grass moved away, revealing
the figure hiding beneath.
SamuriFerret stood up and approached the two cyborgs.
He pulled down a pair of night-vision goggles as he looked at
them.
"Ah," he said, grinning as he noticed Zero, his tail trailing
behind him.
"So you're alive, then".
"Are we going in there?" Zero asked.
"If you say that the coordinates are in there," he said.
Zero nodded.
"I heard them speaking," she said.
"When I was voice matching on the mountain".
"And it's true that the ones the Emperor wants dead are the ones
who have the coordinates?" SamuriFerret asked.
Zero nodded.
"And the Observer".
SamuriFerret raised an eyebrow.
"Who is he?" he said.
"And what's got the Emperor so angry about him".
"He's an Observer," said Meta.
"He most likely knows how this campaign will end and the Emperor
believes that he sees the Empire failing".
SamuriFerret nodded, turning back and climbing the hill.
"If it's true that they're in there," he said., lying down on
his front.
"Then we can hit two birds with on stone".
Zero and Meta climbed the hill behind him, going prone as well.
Next to Zero was another camo blanket, the end of a silenced SVD
sniper rifle sticking out of the end pointing at the base.
"Swixer here," said SamuriFerret, pointing at the blanket.
"Says there's automated sentry guns all around the perimeter".
"If your insider could hurry up then we wouldn't have to worry
about that," said an annoyed voice from under the blanket.
"Relax," said SamuriFerret.
"She'll be in soon".
In the women's barracks, there was single, white light on down
the far end of the long building.
It was near silent, the only sound being the distant sound of
trucks carrying things on the far side of the base.
Yet HelloSkitty awoke all of a sudden.
She'd heard something, like a harsh whisper.
She sat up in her bed and looked around.
Nothing.
She held her head in her hands and breathed out heavily.
Milk. That's what she needed.
She climbed out of bed, pulling on a pair of jeans and walking
down the baracks, rubbing her eyes.
The lights automatically came on as HelloSkitty entered the
small kitschen area.
She opened the fridge and looked through to look for the milk,
found it and went to the kitchen top, grabbing a clean glass
from the cupboard.
She filled it with the milk from the carton and gulped it down
in one go.
There was another harsh whispering noise.
HelloSkitty looked up.
Still nothing.
Then she saw movement.
Something dark and...whispy.
It had moved through the open kitchen door and had slipped
behind the fridge.
HelloSkitty looked at the fridge and stood up.
Was it a rat? No. These barracks were clean. No rodents. Never.
She stepped back to a pull-out draw behind her, not taking her
eyes away from the fridge.
She opened the draw and grabbed a sharp knife, weighing it in
her hand and flipping it round in her hand.
She stepped towards the fridge, knife forwards.
Then there was more movement.
The same dark, whispy object slid across the wall and behind a
coffee maker.
HelloSkitty stared at the coffee maker for several seconds.
Then, slowly, she reached out with one hand, the knife held up
in the other.
She bit her bottom lip and breathed in.
She grabbed the coffee maker and stabbed down.
The knife thrust into the kitchen top, hitting nothing and
merely splintering wood.
HelloSkitty blinked and let her arms fall to her sides.
She was tired: she must be in some kind of sleepwalk.
She pulled the knife out of the table top and put the coffee
maker on top of it to hide it.
She put the milk next to the washing machine and reached out for
the milk to put it back in the fridge.
Something wrapped swiftly around her neck and pulled her back,
covering her mouth. An arm in a leather coat.
HelloSkitty tried to lash out at whoever had grabbed her but was
restricted as another arm held back her hands.
Her eyes darted around in terror, andrenaline rushing about her
body.
She looked up to see her attacker.
It was a blonde woman, a faint scar running over one of her
eyes, which were black were they should be white, the irises
blood red.
The woman grinned.
"Shhh..." said the woman quietly as HelloSkitty continued to try
and fight back without victory.
The woman's body began to dance with small, red sparks, which
leapt across HelloSkitty.
To her, it was incredibly painful, as though the sparks were
stabbing her with a thousand needles.
But the woman's gloved hand denied HelloSkitty of screaming for
help.
Her arms and legs went limp.
Her eyes started to close as she gave into the sparks.
She fell unconscious.
The woman layed on the ground and her body dematerialised into
dark smoke.
The smoke swooped towards HelloSkitty, flying in through her
mouth.
Once all the smoke had entered her body, there was no movement
whatsoever in the kitschen.
And then HelloSkitty's eye's opened.
Just like the woman who had attack her, her eyes had changed
frighteningly.
The whites were now black and her once bright green irises had
become blood red.
She grinned maniacally, standing back up.
She quietly chuckled and left the kitchen.
#Post#: 41--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:20 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 36
HelloSkitty silently walked through the barracks and opened the
door, stepping out onto the concrete.
She breathed in deeply, the maniacal grin still on her face,
which, alongside the strange, demonic eyes, made her face look
like a twisted mask.
She looked around what she could see.
There were trucks way over on the far side of the base, and a
two-man patrol several hundred metres away.
The light from the closest watchtower was scanning the grasses
outside of the base.
HelloSkitty continued to smile.
Major Twi obviously didn't expect anyone to infiltrate the base,
even with heightened security with ghosts now in the region.
She heard voices.
Her crazy grin disappeared as she noticed two soldiers wearing
body armour and holding ACRs walked towards her on their patrol.
They hadn't noticed her.
Then she had an idea.
She was unarmed. She needed a weapon if this got ugly.
HelloSkitty slipped into the shadows between several large metal
crates.
The soldiers were chatting to each other about capture the flag,
arguing about who's team was best.
They approached HelloSkitty.
"I'm tellin' you," one of the soldiers said to the other.
"Reavers are the best team in ONM".
"Nah," replied the other.
"Your head must be screwed up or somethin'."
The soldiers passed by HelloSkitty's hiding place.
Quick as lightning, she grabbed the closest soldier and pulled
him into the darkness.
She jabbed him in the back of the neck, knocking him out
instantly.
The other soldier was explaining how Retro Fireballs were the
best team in all of Capture the Flag and hadn't noticed that his
companion had disappeared, until he turned round.
"Hey...where'd ya go?" he said.
He got reply.
"Jones...? JONES?"
Still no reply.
He raised his ACR and stepped forwards.
"Jones...? You...you there?"
He looked round the corner, suddenly quite nervous.
"Jones? Come on, man, this ain't funny".
"Really?" said HelloSkitty raising the ACR with one hand at the
soldier from behind.
"I find it quite amusing".
There was a difference in her voice, a slight bass.
The soldier whirled round.
"...Skitty?" he said.
"What're you doin'? What's with your eyes?"
"Shut up," she said. "Put down your gun and walk".
The soldier put down his ACR and put his hands up.
"Where do I walk?" he asked.
"Get me into the main building," HelloSkitty said.
The soldier slowly walked to his left.
HelloSkitty followed, gun still aimed.
"Where's Jones?" the soldier asked.
"Just walk," said HelloSkitty.
They encountered nobody else as they walked to a door in the
main building.
"Open the door," growled HelloSkitty.
The soldier took out a keycard and slid it through the slot.
The door opened with a hiss.
"Okay," said the soldier. "I got you in, now tell me what the
hell you're-"
HelloSkitty swung the ACR round, smashing it into the side of
the soldier's face.
He hit the ground with a thud, knocked out before he hit the
ground.
HelloSkitty dragged him into the building and slumped him in the
corner, out of sight in the darkness.
She stoled his keycard and walked into the building.
She looked round the corner.
Nobody was in the corridor.
She slipped down the hall, the cold metal on her feet getting
her to move faster.
She continued down the empty corridors and climbed several
staircases like a cat between gardens at night.
Then she passed a map of the building on the wall.
She looked at the schematics of the base until she found the
icon that read "DEFENCES CONTROL ROOM".
She grinned again as she noticed that it was on the same floor
as her and moved off in its direction.
She found it and slowly stepped through the open door.
There was a single technician in the room, reading a porn
magazine.
HelloSkitty crept up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.
He jumped and looked round.
"I promise I found it and-"
She bashed round the face with the butt of the gun, knocking him
out.
She then closed the door and turned to the controls.
On the wall in front of her was a large hologram layout of the
base.
There were small red lights around the edge of the base, each
one representing an automated sentry guns.
HelloSkitty reached out and touched all the red lights on the
left hand side of the base.
Each light went out.
SamuriFerret watched through a pair of binoculars on the hill as
each sentry gun on their side of the base suddenly drooped down.
"They're out," he said. "Move".
Swixer leapt out from under the blanket and dashed towards the
fence, SVD in hand.
SamuriFerret, Zero and Meta followed him.
Swixer pulled an laser-enforced sabre and swiped a hole in the
fance.
He moved through, followed by the others.
Swixer shouldered the SVD and pulled out his silenced M9s,
hiding behind a large crate.
SamuriFerret pulled out his ranger shotgun, which had a
specialised silencer attached to the end.
Zero and Meta followed through, ducking behind a large section
of crates.
Their side of the base was still practically empty, but there
were a few soldiers on the opposite side of the crates they hid
behind.
The main building was several dozen metres away.
There were soldiers, parked vehicles and engineers dotted across
the route to the closest door.
"Swixer," said SamuriFerret.
Swixer nodded.
He pulled a small object from his belt which looked vaguely like
a pen.
He knelt round the side of the metal crate and pushed a button
the side.
It was a small laser.
But, as with most of the technology Gostalt had, it was modified
to a dangerous extent.
Swixer shone it at the back of a truck carrying a payload of
barrels.
The small green dot that hovered over the joints keeping the
back of the truck closed wasn't just a simple laser point.
Smoke began to appear on the joint, unbeknowst to the soldiers
and technicians nearby.
Swixer continued to shine the laser, until the heat it created
did its job.
The joint on the back of the truck weakened and collapsed.
In turn, the immense weight of the barrels crushed the other
joint, causing that one to also break.
The barrels rolled off the side of the truck with tremendous
crashing sounds.
Every soldier and technician looked round suddenly or dove out
of the way of the unstoppable barrels.
As everyone looked round, Swixer leapt up and dashed across the
space between him and the door.
He dodged past parked trucks and under a Carnifex, at one point
even straight past and behind two soldiers.
He reached the door and quickly pulled out a small machine, with
wires attached. One the other end of the wires was a white card.
Swixer slotted the card into the slide and activated the
machine.
Numbers and letters flashed and changed on the screen, working
out the code that opened the door.
The seconds passed by agonizingly slow as Swixer looked from the
machine to the soldiers and technicians, with the fear that
either the door would open from the other side and someone would
walk out, or that one of the soldiers would turn around.
Time continued to pass like a sleepy snail until the machine
bleeped and the door opened.
Swixer turned back to the crates and gave a thumbs up.
Almost instantly, SamuriFerret materialised before him,
literally falling out of the night.
His hands were on the shoulders of Zero and Meta, who had
teleported with him.
They all rushed through the door and out of sight.
"Okay," said Swixer.
"Where's your insider?"
"She'll hopefully still be in the defence control room," said
SamuriFerret.
"Judging by the workings of the wires and radiowaves on the
base," said Meta, eyes closed.
"...the defence control room is on the third floor".
They moved quickly through the metal corridors, encountering no
resistance.
Zero found an elevator and they all got in, selecting the third
floor.
The glass elevator moved upwards two floors, everyone inside
worried that someone would seem them through the glass door.
They reached the third floor and got out.
There was movement to their left.
Swixer raised his M9s.
A woman with slightly purple hair, a dark t-shirt and jeans with
no shoes was aiming an ACR at him.
As Swixer noticed her strange, black and red eyes, he lowered
his M9s.
SamuriFerret grinned.
"Meet our insider," he said.
HelloSkitty lowered the ACR, still grinning maniacally.
"Hello," she said simply.
"What's with your...your eyes?" asked Swixer.
"Brainwave patterns and metabolic scans suggest that the subject
has been posessed" said Meta solumnly.
"The eyes are a side effect".
"Nice robot," sniggered HelloSkitty.
"We don't have time for pleasentries," said SamuriFerret,
slightly more serious now.
"The coordinates will be in the central command room. They will
have asked Twi for help and if he agreed, they would have told
him the coordinates and he would have set up a mission brief for
when it goes ahead. We can get the coordinates from there".
"Where's the central command room?" asked Swixer.
"Fifth floor," said HelloSkitty. "I checked ahead".
They all got into the elevator which moved upwards the fifth
floor.
When the door opened, they were in the large room that DJ and
the others had met Twi in, with the wide windows and all the
consoles.
"Find the coordinates," said SamuriFerret to Swixer, who went to
the closest computer, hacked it, and searched through the menus
and records.
SamuriFerret walked through the room and found Twi's chair.
He pulled out his sword and swiftly swiped it through the chair
in one swift movement.
The chair split in two with a clean, straight cut through the
middle.
"Oops," said SamuriFerret, resheathing his sword.
"Found the file," said Swixer.
"But it's encrypted".
"So decrypt it," said SamuriFerret.
"No, it's really encrypted. I can't do it...maybe KrikenKing
could, but it would take a few days".
SamuriFerret paused.
"Okay," he said.
"Copy it and we'll decrypt it later".
Swixer nodded and pulled a USB stick from his belt.
There was a loud bang that echoed around the room, a gunshot.
The screen in front of Swixer smashed into a million pieces, and
he flinched.
Everyone aimed their weapons from the direction of wear the
gunshot had come from.
"Show yourself," said SamuriFerret.
There was movement in the shadows.
A figure stepped out, with a black coat and a USP.45 handgun in
their hand.
It was Sask.
"Well, well, well," said SamuriFerret.
"Look who it is. The defient one".
Sask said nothing to him and looked at HelloSkitty.
She noticed her strange yes.
"Get whatever's in her out," she said.
SamuriFerret shugged.
"We were done with her anyway. Let her go".
HelloSkitty suddenly fell to her knees, moaning in pain.
Her eyes changed to normal and closed as she fell fowards,
dropping the ACR.
The smoke-like body that had posessed her swooped into the air
and solidified into a blonde woman with dark clothes and a scar
arcing around one of her demonic eyes: the result of a shuriken
attack.
"Mariofan," snarled Sask.
Mariofan smiled.
"No autographs," she chuckled.
"I thought you died at the flag game," said Sask.
"Not quite," said Mariofan, grinning.
"I've take measures to survive. This body is...different, hence
the eyes. I'm more spirit than person".
"Shikokyrion," muttered Sask.
"I already said no autographs," giggled Mariofan.
Sask looked round and noticed Zero and then looked suspiciously
at Meta.
"I knew it," she said.
"Only the Emperor would make someone do something as sick as
cyberfication".
Meta looked indifferent.
Zero's eyes shifted ever so slightly.
"That might be so," said SamuriFerret.
"But they are relevant to the Empire's goals".
"What, the destruction of humanity?" asked Sask.
"To find the birds," said SamuriFerret.
"You do know what the Emperor wants with the feathers right?"
said Sask.
"He's going to wish away mankind. Apart from that tail of yours,
I'd say you were part of mankind, wouldn't you?"
"The Empire could do so much better for this world than humans,"
said SamuriFerret, arms spread wide.
"Well, call me closed-minded," said Sask.
"But I don't find that idea very appealing. And I think you'll
find that not many others do".
"Kill her," said SamuriFerret to Meta.
The cyborg leapt forwards, brandishing a kukri from out of
nowhere.
*****************************************************
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