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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2016 21:46:13 GMT
Alexander also had no idea for why reason those mutants would want their brains, but right now, they had some bigger problems at hand. Now ,with the enemy mutants gone, the attention of the natives once again seemed to be attracted by the ones they called the Federals, with some of the natives even aiming their weapons at them again. Strangely enough though, the same native girl, who seemed to have some sort of a larger authority, motioned to her kin to keep their weapons lowered.
"I've seen those types of mutants before. They mainly come from the Great Dead City, but this is the first time I've seen them here. I don't understand why they would want your brains, Federals, but I guess that you will have enough time to explain that.."
At her sign, the other natives aimed their weapons at the three "Federals" again. "Thank you for your help in the battle, but even so, we have a mission. Will you come to meet with our Elders, or do we have to force you?"
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2016 10:47:26 GMT
"If you put away your weapons, and stop threatening us, we might come to meet your Elders. But if you continue to point those weapons at us... this might get messy.", Alexander said, seemingly serious. The native girl remained quiet for a few moments, probably thinking about what to do, before she motioned to her people to lower their weapons.
"Alright Federals. We aren't going to threaten you. But you will come with us to our Elders.", the native girl said. Alexander slowly stood up, his right hand still on the handle of his sheathed sword. "I see no problem with that."
A couple minutes later, Alexander, Haruna, and Prinz followed the natives, as they led them through the many streets of the dead city, through rubble, alleyways, between ruins. Alexander chose to remain quiet, trying to be as careful as possible at the way they were taking, so that if they would ever need to run away, they would know in which direction to take. Considering the poor state the city was in, it was now very similar to a labyrinth. Eventually though, the reached a small building that looked like something vaguely familiar, at least to Alexander. The entrance to an underground bunker. A very old one, above that.
Entering there, they climbed down on the stairs, as the elevators were clearly old and damaged. As they continued to descend, Alexander slowly realized how some of the original population of Terra Nova might have survived- in the bunkers. Even if the Federal Government claimed that there was no chance for any living thing to have survived on the planet, after the radioactivity stopped any Colonial attempt to revisit the planet, maybe some did in fact survive the initial blasts, living in the bunkers, slowly mutated by the increasing radioactivity.... waiting for a help that never came. As they arrived though, Alexander shrugged of any of those thoughts, focusing on what was going to happen. "Be careful.", he whispered to Haruna and Prinz, as they passed through the bunker's large, metal doors.
As they arrived in the main entrance room of the bunker, Alexander, Haruna and Prinz noticed that the place was organized almost tribal, not showing many resemblances to how it looked like, with primitive tents, places to make fire, and so on. Right about in the middle of room, five persons were sitting on what initially must have been a couch, probably the Elders the native girl has spoken about. Of course, they didn't seem to be that old, probably about ten years older than the rest of the natives, spotting the same mutations. Most likely, with their mutations, and living in a hellhole like this, their life expectancy wasn't exactly high. One of these Elders, a male by the looks, seemingly the oldest native around, started to speak.
"What are you doing here, Federals? Why have you returned? What are you looking for?"
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Post by Relikai on Feb 13, 2016 14:15:38 GMT
Haruna saw that the place was well renovated accordingly to the needs of its inhabitants. Old bunkers, the resilience of humans again showed in the underground cities of Terra Nova.
"We are here on a search. We seek the Archive which was here a long long time ago. We need to find it." Haruna explained, giving the Elders a bow.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2016 11:25:17 GMT
"The Archive...", the same Elder said, looking at Haruna with his light orange eyes."You're talking about the big building in the Great City, Federals. The way to there will not be easy... but judging on what my niece has just told us about your power, you might actually be able to do it.". Looking more closely, it would have been possible to discover certain similarities between the elder and his so called niece, the native girl from earlier. They both had mostly black and white in their hair, with only a little orange, and their orange eyes had a similar nuance of color."But first of all, I want to hear it from you, Federals. Why did your kind abandon our ancestors here, on this hellhole of a planet?"
Alexander took a deep breath. Ever since they met the natives the first time, he knew that they were eventually going to come to this... it was time to put his history knowledge at work. The Colonial looked right at the Elders as he started to speak.
"What you call the Twilight... the Battle of Nova Terra.. it happened almost two centuries ago, in 3014 after the Human Standard Calendar. During the celebrations on the Armistice Day, the United Republics of Earth cowardly attacked and broke the armistice, jumping with their main force in the Nova Sol System. The Colonial forces were taken by surprise, but they were still ready to fight.. however... because of a treason, Terrans sneaked in a cybernetic virus in the Colonial Network, infecting every last military computer. They simply shut down every last Colonial military unit in the system.. and slaughtered them all. The destroyed ships, wrecked, are still everywhere in the system. The graveyard of the initial War Fleet. After that, the forces of Earth and its allies... they used all their nuclear armament to attack the defenseless civilian locations in the system. Every last planet was attacked, destroyed. Nuclear bombs destroyed the main objectives, dirty warheads made sure that no one else would survive. That day.. one of the worst genocides in the history of Mankind happened. The Twilight of Terra Nova."
The Colonial than made a short pause, before he continued. "After that, the war began. The Colonial forces were pushed down, and it took a miracle for the Colonies to survive. That miracle was the Battle of Xalion. At Xalion, the united forces of the Federated Colonies defeated the Great Fleet of Sol. After ten years, the Second Secession War ended. Too late for the Colonies to attempt to rescue anyone from this planet. The Federal Government returned here after ten years, and attempted to land on the planet. The powerful storms in the radioactive atmosphere stopped that. Eventually, after many failed attempts, it was determined that it was impossible for anyone to survive. Terra Nova.. it experienced one of the worst nuclear apocalypses in the history of the human race. No one believed anyone could have survived. The Federal Government didn't abandon your ancestors on purpose. They had no idea people still survived here... if we go back and announce them of your existence, they'll try to do anything to get you back. If we return, I promise that we'll do everything to take you and your people out of here. Nobody should live in such a hellhole."
"And we should believe you, Federals? You abandoned us once. Why would anyone trust your words?", the native girl from earlier said, resentment in her voice. It was clear that after being raised in a hellhole like this.. she probably really hated those "Federals." "Prove it to us, prove us that we can trust you. Fight me. Fight me in the way of our tribe, not with your magic sword, but with knives. If you can beat me, we''ll trust you and your promise. If not.. well, you'll see."
The other natives really seemed to like the idea, as they started to shout. "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"
Alexander sighed as the situation took a little of an unexpected turn. But even so.. he had to do that, if it mean that he had a chance to win the trust of these natives. Turning around to Haruna, he gave her Mosrael, together with its sheathe.
"Please take care of it while I fight... If I lose, run away with Prinz, and try to reach the Capitolium. There is a former military base here where you could find a fighter to return to the ships. If I lose.. run, and don't look back, okay?", he whispered to Haruna.
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Post by Relikai on Feb 14, 2016 12:55:42 GMT
Haruna and Prinz looked at Alexander as he explained the histories of the Colonial conflict with Sol. Of course, this was all new to Haruna, as she absorbed every bit of detail explained by Alexander.
She was surprised when Alexander was challenged to a fight, probably a Trial of Honour, but Haruna knew that it was futile to protest. The call for combat echoed in the air, and as Alexander handed Mosrael to her, Haruna looked at him as she listened to his instructions.
"Rubbish... You will not lose." Haruna whispered as she closed in to Alexander, ignoring everyone around them. "You'd think that I'll run away, and leave you here? We'll win here, we'll get through all this together... Win, Alexander, win it for us..."
With that, Haruna gave Alexander a kiss. A deep long kiss as she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. She kept at this for several seconds, before breaking off, wearing a soft expression on her face. "And... I have prepared something special... When we get back to the Prinz Eugen... Would like you to experience it..." Haruna said with a shy smile. Stepping back, Haruna held Mosrael with her left hand as she placed her right over her heart, a Jupiterran Salute.
"Go kick that girl's butt, Great Admiral Alexander Werther!"
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2016 15:01:21 GMT
Looking at Haruna and smiling, Alexander responded to her salute through the Colonial salute, before he turned around and took a deep breath, ready for the fight. The native girl in front of him was also ready, smirking, and having her knife ready. The Colonial also unsheathed his knife, who was slightly shorted than that of the native girl, but it spotted the characteristic black color of the veranium made blades, meaning that it was much more resistant, light and sharp than a common knife. Even so, the native girl clearly had the advantage. As a member of the War Fleet, Alexander had only briefly been instructed in the usage of knifes and other melee weapons, and even if he had used during the.. more dangerous parts of his childhood, it had been a long time ever since he had used a blade as short as this. Maybe if he would have been a Star Guard, the situation would have been different, but right now, he was a little stressed because of that. Using a knife was completely different from using a longsword like Mosrael. The native girl on the other hand, clearly had to use short melee weapons in every day of her life, usually in fights in which she had small chances of winning. This was going to be one hell of a fight.
As the fight started, Alexander hesitated to attack, and the native girl quickly took the advantage, aggressively attacking, forcing Alexander into parrying and avoid her quick, fast strikes and slashes. Using a knife was clearly more difficult to use than a longsword, and the Colonial was in a clear disadvantage, being slowly but surely pushed back. The native girl was also a little too fast, more likely because of her day to day experience. Eventually, as she moved too fast for Alexander to parry, she managed to cut him on the arm, and taking advantage of the momentum, continued her attacks. She didn't seem to be too eager to win, as the objective was to make the other combatant unable to fight. She was now trying to lightly cut him as more as possible, seemingly mocking him. Like that, slowly but surely, Alexander started to accumulate a large number of small cuts, unable to hit any cut on her. Even if none of the cuts were directly threatening his life, they were clearly annoying and painful.
Seeing that he was starting to lose though, Alexander remembered what Haruna had told him. He.. he had to win this. Not only the possible fate of the mission was at stake here, but also the fate of Haruna and Prinz. This wasn't a fight he could afford to lose. He had to remember his lessons of close combat. This wasn't a fight in which he was using Mosrael. A knife wasn't a longsword. He had to fight... differently.
Quickly parrying one of the native girl's slashes, Alexander used the force of his parry to push her back, gaining the momentum, and also starting to strike. Before she was able to defend herself, he slashed the knife at her, but unlike her, he wasn't aiming for annoying little cuts. The native girl tried to hit him, but he caught her knife's blade with his left hand, ignoring the pain, he stabbed her in the belly, before pushing her, and hitting her arm, making her drop her knife, before she fell on the ground, in pain, and bleeding.
"Good Federal. You did it. Now kill her, and claim your victory.", the same Elder said. But Alexander simply dropped his blood stained knife. "We had to fight this until one of us would be unable to continue the fight. She is unable to continue the fight, so I won. Killing her now, while she is defenseless, would be nothing more than murder."
The Elder remained quiet for a few moments, thinking. Everyone else remained silent. "Very well, Federal. You have won. We're going to trust you and the other Federals. You've fully earned the trust of our tribe, through combat. " The natives started to cheer. Alexander simply smiled, before he knelt next to the bleeding native girl, trying to help her. Even if he had won, and refused to murder her, that didn't mean that he was going to let her bleeding there. The first part of their mission on Terra Nova had been accomplished.
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Post by Relikai on Feb 14, 2016 16:06:44 GMT
With Alexander winning and sparing the girl, Haruna and Prinz quickly approached the wounded native. Taking out some of her replenishment paste, Haruna applied it on the girl's wounds, as a cooling sensation could be felt.
"There." Haruna said, looking at the girl. "It should be much better now. Just rest some, you'll be fine."
Turning to Alexander, Haruna clicked her tongue at the numerous cuts he suffered, while taking out more of her paste.
"You scared me for a moment back there..." Haruna whispered. "I'm so glad that you made it out well. That's some impressive knife work, I might need you to teach me how to spar like this in the future." Haruna said with a smile as she gently cleaned and patched up Alexander's cuts.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2016 20:22:37 GMT
"Th-thank you.", the girl said in a low voice. While her wounds weren't necessarily life threatening, having a knife piercing your belly certainly wasn't a pleasant feeling. While the paste was surely going to help her heal, and the cooling sensation was nice, her wound was still going to hurt, at least for a little while.
"Well, to be honest, I was mostly improvising.", Alexander said, smiling while Haruna was taking care of his wounds. "Fighting with a knife was a little bit hard, but I managed to pull it off, apparently. Don't worry, I had no intention to lose. Sorry for scaring you.". After the golden eyed girl took care of the many small cuts he had received during the fight, Alexander stood up, looking at the worried Prinz. "Don't worry Prinz, I'm okay. Sorry for worrying you too.". The blonde girl smiled, relieved. "No problem, Herr Admiral! I'm glad you're okay.", the ship model said in her usual way. Alexander then turned around and looked at the main Elder, who strangely enough, didn't seem to be worried at least for his niece, who after all had just been stabbed. But yeah, the Colonial imagine that after living in such an environment, where death could come from everywhere, people would eventually try to become as emotionless as possible. It was better than getting hurt by someone dying.
"Very well Federals, we trust you now. First of all though, me and my kin would like to know exactly who you are, and why are you searching for the Great Archive. Me and my tribe could help you.", the orange eyed Elder said.
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Post by Relikai on Feb 15, 2016 3:40:28 GMT
Haruna stood up to acknowledge the Elder, bowing respectfully as befitting of his station.
"My name is Shimazaki Haruna, Vice Admiral of the Jupiterran Star Fleet, liaison and second-in-command to Great Admiral Alexander Werther of the Federated Colonies. This lady here is Prinz Eugen, ship model of the CMS Prinz Eugen, which we came in with. The Milky Way has come under attack by the Invaders again, and this time in numbers greater than ever before. We seek the Great Archive for information, information which might be the turning point for the Colonial Forces in this war. We need to access the Archive and bring it's data back to the Colonies. Perhaps we can also help to get your tribe out of this planet."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2016 8:05:56 GMT
"The Invaders? Those from the old nightmare stories? They exist?", the Elder said, obviously surprised." Well, at least, that explains why the Federals would be so desperate to come to this hell.".
The Elder then remained quiet for a few moments, as his niece finally managed to stand up, staying next to him.
"Well, Shimazaki Haruna, Alexander Werther.", the Elder said, having clear difficulties in pronouncing the names." My name is Tohtu, and I am the Chief of the Council of the Elders of this tribe, the Eagles. My niece, the one you first met, is Waya. We and our tribe will help you get to the Archive and bring back the data. So say we all."
"So say we all", all the tribe members repeated, including Waya. Of course, Haruna couldn't know, but that saying was an old religious tradition in the Colonies, that probably evolved into something the natives were saying when promising something. The Elder then continued.
"However, the way to the Great Dead City is dangerous. The Great Dead City is the home city of those mutants that attacked you on your way here. Do you know why they attacked you? I believe they say that they wanted something from you.."
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Post by Relikai on Feb 15, 2016 9:26:32 GMT
"I could... I could sense them as they are near. Why, I do not know. From what they said, it was evident that it's our... brains... which they are focused on. I..." Haruna looked at Alexander as she was unsure if she should reveal everything, but her commander nodded. "In Jupiterra, I'm known as a Cybergenius, someone who could... control entire warships by myself. I'm suspecting that they had something which could sense our presence, thus we were attacked by them. Alexander was not affected but... the last attack..."
Remembering how she was disabled when the mental overload broke into her mind, Haruna slowly exhaled, fearing that a Flayer or two might have escaped, or even worse, was placed in this hellhole years ago by the Jupiterran Government. It was highly unlikely tho, with their lifespan of 24 hours out of cyro.
But what were they?
"No matter." Haruna said, with conviction in her voice. "No matter who or what they are, or what they want, we will succeed in this mission. And we will ensure that we redeem ourselves by honouring your assistance. We will find a planet where everyone can live together again. On my word as a Jupiterran."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2016 15:34:12 GMT
"Hmm... after saying that, I could understand why someone would want your brains..", Tohtu said, looking at Haruna and Alexander with his orange eyes. "But even so... what you call technology has been missing from this planet ever since the Twilight.. did they discover something in the Great Dead City? Or are they working with someone? I don't know, but you'll have to be careful.". The Elder then remained quiet for a few more moments.
"I'm going to send the best warriors of my tribe together with you, led by my niece itself. They will lead you to the City at the Sea, where you can find something to take you to the Great Dead City. May the Gods help you in your journey. ". The Elder than made another short pause."Well, I guess that we'll see how much your Jupiterran word will be worth... Good luck..."
Roughly four hours later, Alexander, Haruna, Prinz, and their new native friends had just arrived near the so called City at the Sea, which according to Colonial records, it used to be called Tyrenium. Apparently, the sun was setting, but since it was covered by the same dark radioactive clouds, the only way the realized that was through the fact that it was quickly becoming darker and darker. But unfortunately, that wasn't their biggest problem.
Laying on top of a hill, Alexander, Haruna, and Waya were looking at something through their respective binoculars... more exactly, at more things. Even more specifically, at four automated machine gun turret bunkers, guarding the entrance to the city port. Probably going on even after so much do to their generators, loaded with automated targeting systems, the turrets had been activated recently, since the natives could swear that they weren't like that last week. But now, they were blocking off the only major way to the city.
"What do you say..", Alexander whispered to Haruna. "Should we try our luck and attack them, or try our way through the city's former metro system?"
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Post by Relikai on Feb 15, 2016 16:39:20 GMT
Turrets... bunkers... bad news for a lightly armed and armoured infantry force trying to enter through them.
"The Metro would be better... We do not want a massacre on our hands so soon..." Haruna whispered, observing the guns on the bunkers. Even though technology has long advanced past these gadgets, simple primitive weapons like spears and arrows would never cease to be fatal to the human body. Machine guns remained as such.
"We might encounter more creeps below... but it's better than taking a suicidal path, I feel. What about you, Great Admiral?"
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2016 14:37:53 GMT
Alexander remained quiet for a few more moments, observing the turrets, before he sighed."I don't like this.... the metro system might be dangerous... but even so, we can't hope to get rid of those turrets without some heavy support.." Using the small holo projector on the wrist of his suit, the Colonial projected a small map of the local metro system. Waya clearly seemed a little scared of the hologram, since this was clearly the first time she had seen one, but Alexander smiled reassuringly.
"We don't know how many of the tunnels collapsed... we'll go through them and through line C. It should take us right next to the port. Can you find the entrance, Waya?", Alexander asked, pointing at a point of the map. Since the maps were pretty old, and since the Twilight had changed many things, finding the entrance could be a little difficult...
"Yes, we know where the building that takes to the underground is.", Waya said, smiling, and some of the natives also nodded. "Follow us.."
Led by the natives, the two Colonials and the Jupiterran girl went back to a village that was roughly one kilomter back, and there it was. A fairly large building, easily to initially miss, since it was covered by other two buildings that had collapsed above it. But with a little bit of attention, there it was, visible. Written above the entrance, in the old Gothic letters popular before the Twilight. Terra Nova, U-Bahn System. "This is it... let's go..", the black eyed Colonial said, before the entered, heading for the underground.
Following Alexander and his map, the others tried to find their way through the old metro system, that hadn't been used for centuries... luckily, just as always, it seemed that the Colonial engineering managed to resist admirably to the test of time, and even if some tunnels were partially collapsed, nothing too big managed to stop them from continuing to follow die C Linie. It was dark, quiet, and creepy... and they had to use their flashlights. Unfortunately though, once again, they caught a strange... signal.. again... Hesitantly, they decided to follow it first. It was a Colonial military signal after all.
Strangely enough, Alexander simply failed to decipher it. And even as they continued to walk towards the source, he was deeply thinking, until he finally realized something. "Wait a moment... Terra Nova or expedition... they simply couldn't have used our new military codes... is this an older one?" Remaining quiet for a few more moments after that. "This should do it..."
GOD SAVE OUR SOULS..
"That's a... kinda.. pessimistic message...", Alexander said, trying to maintain everyone's calm. They were in a dead, abandoned, lost metro system... what could go wrong..?
Finally, they found the room from where the source of the signal seemed to be, and strangely...it was very cold.. It was a small maintenance room... the door was slightly opened.. "Alright let's do this..."
With that, Alexander opened the door, and they suddenly realized why it was so cold... the room was covered in a strange, grayish ice. And right in the middle of the room, there was a young man, wearing and older nano suit, with the emblem of the Colonies visible on an armband. The stars, the eagle, and the war cross.. The boy's body was conserved by the ice and the cold perfectly... but even his opened, blue eyes, and blonde hair looked alive... he was dead, with a strange looking black metal spear piercing his chest. It seemed that he was frozen right when he was killed.. as his terrified expression still seemed to look at someone.. or something, that had come from the door..
"Holy Gods..", the usual not very religious Alexander said, noticing something else. Next to the boy, also partially frozen, was something that looked like a computer, what was on its screen frozen. "Colonial Expedition to Terra Nova, 3148..."
Other bodies also seemed to be similar frozen on the ground, behind the boy. This was where the expedition had reached its end... but.. how?...
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Post by Relikai on Feb 16, 2016 16:33:17 GMT
"I... I think that... the reason will find us soon..." Haruna said as a pounding came to her head. Screeching and clicking filled the air as the door was suddenly swarmed by mutated cockroaches, the strange humanoid creatures, and a spider-like creature with eight legs and a humanoid body in the middle. Just as the humanoids dismounted and charged them with their spears, the cockroaches charged the group by running along the walls and ceiling.
Azarael flashed and severed the claw of a giant cockroach, with her other hand placing a molten slug into it's head. It's death cry seemed to attract more to Haruna, especially when the spider creature pointed it's arm at her. Gritting her teeth, Haruna thrust Azarael into another cockroach's head, before parrying off the blue feelers of another. The cockroach might have jumped on the Jupiterran has it not been for Prinz, who placed a precise shot into it's head. The natives were charged by the spear-wielding humanoids, with Waya and her group fending them off as the humanoids moved from cover to cover.
"Alexander!" Haruna cried as another two cockroaches jumped on her, pinning the girl on the ground as the claws and feelers again tried to break her suit apart. Azarael swung again, bisecting one of them, when fangs clamped onto her shoulder. Prinz was busy with her cockroaches, and Alexander was fighting his own bunch of enemies. A shrill cry, and more humanoids and cockroaches came in, threatening to overwhelm the small party...
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