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the-bad-batch-baroness · 3 months

Text

Infectious

TBB & Fem!Reader

Chapter 3: Rumors on Scorro

Summary: You're completing your final practicum on Kamino as part of the experimental non-clone Combat Medic program. After graduating top of your class, and being inducted into the prestigious 407th Medic Unit, you get assigned to Clone Force 99. Neither of you are excited to be working together and tensions run high. However, those tensions dissipate when the Bad Batch unexpectedly falls ill while on a covert mission. Running against an unknown clock, it’s up to you to figure out what’s causing the illness before it ultimately kills you all.

Pairing: TBB & Fem!Reader

Characters: Hunter, Echo, Crosshair, Wrecker, Tech

Tags & Warnings: BAMF fem!reader, enemies to friends, humor, action, angst, hurt/comfort, canon typical violence, mild suggestive themes, explicit medical descriptions, whump

Word Count: 5.7k

Author's Note: WE'RE BACK BABY!!! Yeah, that's right. Finally. After all of this time, the next chapter has arrived 🥳 I told y'all I would be updating my other series fics in the new year, and I meant it. This chapter has some Echo angst in it, because why not. FYI, since it's been 9 months, I went back and edited the first two chapters to match my current writing style. No plot elements changed, just style, grammar, word choice, etc. As always, please enjoy 💚

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3

As the ship leaves the stormy atmosphere of Kamino, you turn your head to look out the transparisteel viewport and are greeted by the sight of endless stars twinkling brightly across the ebony horizon. You smile wide knowing this view will never get old. The galaxy is vast and beautiful, and getting to see it up close and personal, while also doing something you love, is priceless. This really is a turning point in your life. A new chapter to be written and explored.

When the ship levels out, you unstrap from the jump seat and start exploring the Marauder. You have a feeling you’ll be spending a lot of time aboard this ship, so you want to familiarize yourself with it as much as possible. You walk back towards the stern, where Wrecker is, and look around, but there's not much to see. Then make your way back up toward the bow and step aboard the bridge. You weave between Hunter and Crosshair, and stand behind Tech.

“So, where are we going?” you ask while looking over Tech’s shoulder at the controls.

Without turning around, Tech answers. “Agamar. It’s a rather barren planet found in the outer rim. The terrain is inhospitable to most, but we will manage.”

“What’s the mission?” you ask further, excited by the prospect and intrigue.

“There’s a separatist base they want us to route,” Hunter says. “A simple in-and-out mission.”

You nod your head at the explanation, but he makes it sound like routing a heavily guarded separatist base is a walk in the park. You have to remind yourself that they are an elite force of clones and are genetically modified for the toughest conditions. It amazes you that such clones can even exist and your fascination with them grows. You wonder how they look in action and if they live up to all the rumors the regular clones whisper about on Kamino. Only time will tell.

Hunter rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck. “Get some sleep, all of you. We’ll be there in a couple hours.”

You want to say something funny, like 'aye aye captain', but decide not. Instead, you simply nod and make your way back to the bunks. Laying down on the flat rack, you stare up at the ceiling. There are too many pre-mission jitters vibrating through your body to fall asleep. Even after shutting your eyes and calming yourself, it's just not enough. So, you toss and turn, getting more aggravated that your body won’t drift off, since being tired for your first mission is not an option.

You sigh and sit up, then peer around at the others who are soundly asleep in their bunks and chairs. You’re not sure how they can fall asleep so fast. It’s either a genetic thing or a military training tactic, but whatever it is, you don’t have it. You decide to get up and pace around to try and wear yourself out, and when you do, you hear something. The ship is quiet and your ears perk up immediately at the sound. Wanting to investigate it, you quietly slip around your squad.

One by one, you pass by them, waiting and listening to hear who made the weird sound. Not Wrecker. You move on. Not Crosshair either. You check the next one. He’s making noise for sure, but not the sound you heard. It’s not Tech either. You move towards Hunter, a little nervous that he might wake up and catch you staring at him, but you pause and listen. Nope, not him. You purse your lips. That only leaves Echo. Carefully, you tip toe over to him, wait, and listen.

He's not making a sound, and with a shrug, you turn to leave, thinking you’re a level of crazy for hearing things on a quiet ship. Then it happens again. You turn back around and look at Echo. He’s sleeping rather soundly, with soft rhythmic breaths and gentle rises and falls of his chest. No breath obstructions, you note to yourself. You wait and watch for a moment, then he says it again. It’s faint, breathy, and almost unrecognizable as a word, but you hear it regardless.

Fives.

You knit your eyebrows at the odd utterance, and wait a little longer, listening to see if what he mumbles changes or if he’s repeating the same word. After a couple standard seconds, Echo says the same breathy word again. Fives. You wonder what it means. Maybe it’s a special numerical sequence from his time back on Skako Minor? You shrug at the mystery, but are happy that it’s not a breathing issue. You turn to leave him be, but he mumbles something else.

Fives come back.

Oh. Your heart drops. It’s a person. He’s dreaming about someone he knows, or maybe someone he once knew. You sigh and let your eyes turn soft, knowing exactly what it’s like to dream about loved ones. It’s been several years, but you still dream about your parents. Sometimes you can’t fill in all the gaps of your dreams as you slowly forget things, but it still pulls at your heartstrings every time they show up to give you a hug in the realm of sleep.

As your thoughts wander a yawn escapes past your lips. Finally, feeling tired and ready for sleep, you return to your bunk and crawl onto the hard surface. Laying on your back, you close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to settle yourself. You still wonder who Fives is and what they mean to Echo. Your psychology books tell you that dreams can be a subconscious escape or a subconscious desire. Knowing next to nothing about Echo’s past, it could be either one.

You take another deep breath and exhale slowly. Closing your eyes, you let yourself drift off to sleep, but in a split moment, a rough hand shakes you back awake. You shoot up and hit your head on the bunk above you. Ouch. Nursing your newly formed bump, you use your other hand to rub the sleep out of your eyes. When you come out of your groggy haze, you can hear snickering coming from the rest of the squad. Ha ha, yes, very funny. You think to yourself.

“Rise and shine,” Hunter mocks as he walks away from your bunk. “We’re here.”

Gathering your composure, you swing out of the bunk and head over to the cockpit for the landing. You look out the viewport as you enter the atmosphere of Agamar and your face lights up with excitement. This is it. Your first mission. You want to squeal, but something tells you that no one else is going to appreciate it, so you keep it internal. The ship lands on the rocky surface of the planet with only a slight wobble. Tech wasn’t kidding when he said it was inhospitable.

Your excitement grows as the squad gears up with their packs, and you follow suit the same way. You double check your pack to make sure you have all the medical necessities and do a mental headcount of your supplies. Once satisfied with your inventory, you sling it across your back and toss your bucket snug on your head. You’re all set to go on your first mission. The ship door opens, light beaming in, and your heart begins to race. This is it. This is your moment.

You take your first steps forward to leave the ship when Hunter stretches an arm out to stop you. “Not you,” Hunter says. “You’re staying here.”

“What?” you question. “But what about the mission?”

“Your mission is here,” Hunter says. “You’re staying on the ship with Echo.”

“But, sir!” you argue. Your feelings of excitement crumble. “I belong in the field!”

“You belong where I tell you you belong, medic,” Hunter snaps back. “Or are you ignoring an order from your commanding officer on your first mission?”

You huff and clench your fist. “No, sir."

“I didn’t think so,” Hunter says, then turns to face Echo. “We may need a quick extraction, so keep your ears on.”

“Understood,” Echo acknowledges with a nod.

Hunter nods back and heads out of the Marauder with the rest of the squad, well, the rest of the squad except you. You remove your bucket, plop down on your bunk with an angry grunt, and lean your head back against the wall. This entire assignment has been one big pissing match, and every time you think you’re making progress, you get sidelined. How are you supposed to make Kix proud if you don’t see any action? You release another angry grunt and cross your arms.

“Careful,” Echo says. “You’ll lose your voice if you keep grunting like that.”

You roll your eyes. “Aren’t you upset being stuck here?”

“No,” Echo answers. “It’s not unusual for someone to be left back with the ship. Keeps people from stealing it.”

With such a small squad of men to work with, you guess that makes sense, and since Echo is your unofficial chaperone, it makes sense that you were left on the ship with him. However, even though you try to explain it to yourself in those practical terms, you still think it's to spite you. You sigh. At this rate, you’ll never get to prove your worth as a Combat Medic to any of them. To these special clones, you’re just useless dead weight and not worth their time.

As the planetary rotation moves forward, you find odd things around the ship to busy yourself with, but you’re still bored. Echo is not much of a conversationalist and he hasn’t moved from his spot in the cockpit. You end up sprawling yourself across the seat in the gunner’s nest and looking out the window at whatever draws your attention. There’s some trees, a little snow on the ground, and a few stray wildlife that come into view. Nothing too spectacular, that’s for sure.

Finally, after hours of sitting by yourself, you decide to go back to the cockpit and sit with Echo. You're still curious about this Fives person he mentioned in his sleep, and you think maybe now might be a good time to ask him about it. You walk into the cockpit and sit down in the chair across from him, bending one leg up onto the chair and resting your chin atop your knee. Echo silently acknowledges your presence and returns to looking at the setting sun over the horizon.

You fidget with your fingers as you mull over whether to ask him about what you overheard last night. It might be private, and he may not want to tell you, but your curiosity is getting the better of you. “Echo,” you ask. “Who's Fives?”

Echo shifts uncomfortably in his seat and stays silent for a couple of minutes. “How do you know that name?” he asks. His words hang heavy in the air.

“You…” you begin, then pause, unsure of how to tell him. You don't want to sound creepy, but honesty is the best policy. “You said it in your sleep.”

Echo sighs, but doesn't turn his gaze from the orange sunset. “Shouldn’t you have been sleeping too?”

“I’m not used to sleeping on ships,” you answer. You can tell by the tone of his voice that this is a sore subject and you're starting to regret bringing it up.

Echo swivels his chair to face you and worries his lip. His eyes are full of sadness and his countenance is engrossed in pain as he searches for the words he's looking for. A small smile flashes across his lips. You wonder if he's thinking about a memory.

“He was my brother,” Echo says, his voice quiet at the strain of saying his thoughts out loud.

You can tell by his choice of words and his tone of voice that this brother isn’t around anymore and you feel a twinge of sadness settle in your gut. You understand a thing or two about the loss of a loved one. “What happened to him?” you ask.

“He was murdered,” Echo says, his fist tightening as he looks back out the viewport. “By one of our own.”

Your expression turns from sadness to shock and then confusion. A clone killing a clone? Does that even happen? Why would a clone do that? Your mind rushes a mile a minute trying to wrap your head around the idea, but you cannot seem to reconcile it. It’s too bizarre of a concept to comprehend. Every clone you've ever met was a brother to the one next to him. So, for a clone to kill another clone, it’s like a family member killing another family member. It’s unheard of.

“I’m sorry, Echo,” you offer as a consolation. “You must miss him.”

“Yeah,” Echo says, his voice distant. “I do.”

“I miss my parents all the time,” you say, trying to bridge the gap and build a connection.

“I remember you mentioning they’re dead,” Echo says as he turns to face you.

“About ten years ago,” you add. Now it's your turn to look out at the sunset.

“I’m sorry,” Echo says.

“It’s fine,” you shrug. “It hurts, but it doesn’t hurt like it used to. I know they’re out there watching over me, somewhere.”

Echo snorts. “You believe in that Jedi force stuff do ya?”

“Not really,” you answer with a small laugh. “But everyone needs to believe in something.”

“That’s fair,” Echo says.

“When I look up at the stars,” you begin with a smile while staring fondly out at the horizon, “it’s almost like I can feel them with me, you know? Watching over me as I make my way in the galaxy.”

“Sounds nice,” Echo says.

“I bet Fives is watching you too,” you say, then look at Echo with soft eyes. “He hasn’t left you alone, just like my parents haven’t left me.”

“Maybe,” Echo shrugs, then chuckles. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he came back to haunt me.” His brief small smile fades as his countenance reverts back to a frown.

“We’ll see them again some day," you say, trying to stay hopeful. “I just know it.”

“That would be something, wouldn’t it?” Echo half-jokes, but you can hear the part of his heart that wants what you're saying to be true.

He wants to see his brother again, desperately. So much so that he calls out to him while he sleeps. He must agonize over Fives’ death. You understand because you’ve been there. You’ve stared death in the face, the kind of death that leaves you thoroughly alone. You don't need to understand psychology to know what his subconscious thinks about on a daily basis, and your heart hurts for him, but you know there's nothing in your medpack to mend a shattered heart.

You and Echo stare out of the cockpit in silence and watch the sun fall beyond the horizon, sharing in this solemn moment and appreciating the company. The veil of night arrives and the stars begin to shine in the dark sky. The billions of bright burning lights feel comforting. The stars aren't very visible on Kamino, but here, on this planet, they are bright and beautiful. You relax your shoulders and lean back, thinking that maybe this assignment isn’t so bad after all.

However, your sweet moment is interrupted by Hunter’s voice over the comms. He’s calling in that quick extraction now and by the amount of yelling and blaster fire in the background, this is going to be a hot one. Echo relays the affirmation, sets the coordinates, and lets Hunter know that both of you are on the way to pick them up. You're slightly surprised that Echo included you in the transmission, but now is not the time to be celebrating your first taste of inclusivity.

“Civvy, strap in,” Echo orders as he starts pressing buttons and flipping switches to get the ship going. “This is going to be a bumpy ride and I don’t need you falling out of the ship.”

Ah, there it is. You sigh and head back towards the jump seats and strap yourself in for the wild ride ahead. Echo expertly maneuvers the ship to the squad's location and brings it in low so they can climb on board. You can hear the blaster fire outside and as the door opens to the ship, you watch them file in while firing off blaster bolts to cover each other. It’s the first time you’ve seen any of them in action and you're a little awestruck. They don’t move like other clones.

Tech next to Echo and Hunter yells for them to get them out of here. The ship moves again, this time more aggressively, as the enemy continues to fire at the Marauder. Wrecker moves to the gunner’s nest and shoots down the vulture droids that are following behind. You tightly grip the bars on the jump seat as the ship rocks from the blasts. Thankfully, the shields are up. The ship flips upside down, sideways, and every other way you can think of to out maneuver the droids.

At long last, the ship breaches the atmosphere and moves into space. Tech initiates the hyperdrive and pulls the handle down to enter into hyperspace. Once safe in a hyperspace lane, you let out the breath you were holding in, then flick the safety release on the jump seat and push them over your head. You get up from the seat and wobble forward, not realizing your legs turned to jelly from all of the excitement, and let your feet stabilize before trying to walk.

“Woah, that was fun!” Wrecker hollers as he brushes by you and moves towards the cockpit. “Echo, you should have seen this place. It was crazy.”

“Not as crazy as being sling-shot across a ravine,” Crosshair grumbles and pushes past you. He sits down in one of the swivel chairs and starts cleaning his rifle in silence.

“I said I was sorry,” Wrecker apologizes. “But we won!”

“Correction,” Tech says as he lifts a pointed finger in the air. “I won.”

Crosshair rolls his eyes and pulls a few credits from his pocket and hands them to Tech.

“Much obliged,” Tech says as he stuffs the credits in one of his many satchels.

The exchange has you lost in bewilderment. Clearly, something happened during the mission and you’re curious to know the details. You look at Echo, hoping he'll ask for more information about it, but he doesn’t, leaving you more curious. You do find it odd, however, that they had some form of amusement out on the battlefield. From your time on Kamino, most clones don't find blaster fire fun. Clone Force 99 really is different compared to the rest of the clone forces.

“I assume your mission was a success?” Hunter asks while walking by you, breaking you from your thoughts.

“Yes… sir,” you answer with a twinge of hesitancy, a little unsure of what your mission was other than staying on the ship with Echo.

“Good,” Hunter says. He reclines in one of the empty swivel seats and clasps his hands behind his head. “Glad to hear it.”

You can’t tell if he’s being serious or if he's trying to make fun of you. Either way, you brush it off and focus on more pressing matters, like what's next on the mission agenda. Will you go back to Kamino? Or will you wait for more orders? That’s what good soldiers do, isn’t it? Follow orders? You’re still unfamiliar with all of this, so you’re not sure what to ask or what to do with yourself. Rather than make new issues by asking more questions, you retreat back to your bunk to relax.

But the boredom of waiting creeps in and you start to doze off. Your eyelids are heavy even though you barely spent any energy this rotation. It doesn't take you long to remember that you didn’t get much sleep the night before and now that the adrenaline is wearing off, your body is telling you it needs rest. You don't fight it and let your body go to sleep, hoping you won’t be woken up. As a medic, you must get rest whenever you can so you can be at your best at all times.

This time you wake up on your own terms, when your body feels rested. You’re not sure how long you were out, but no one bothered you so you assume everyone is still waiting for new orders to come across. You sit up in your bunk, without hitting your head this time, and stretch out your arms. You roll your shoulders and crack your neck. The bunks aren’t exactly soft, but they do their job. Swinging your legs over the side of the bunk, you get up to use the refresher.

As you head towards the refresher, the rest of the squad is huddled around and speaking amongst each other. Hunter looks serious and has his arms crossed, which can’t mean anything good, and Echo is arguing with him, again. You forget the refresher for a moment and walk over to add your presence to the mix. Hunter notices and glances at you before turning back to Echo. Not realizing where you are standing, Crosshair gives you a small jab on your behind with his rifle.

The sudden touch startles you. “What was that for?”

“You’re blocking my view,” Crosshair hisses. “Move.”

You roll your eyes. “You could've just asked me to move, you know. That's borderline harassment.”

“If you looked more like a window than a door, I wouldn’t have to borderline harass you,” Crosshair snarks and flicks his toothpick in your face.

Your nose scrunches and eyes close when the little wooden projectile hits your face. As your frustration builds, you take a deep breath to calm yourself. You want nothing more than to tell that sniper where he can shove his rifle, but you won't. It's not worth it because it will only fuel his bullying further. Instead, you choose to let it go. This time. There are points where you will cross the line, and he keeps dancing around that line. If he ever crosses it, you'll let him know.

“Can we get back to more important things?” Hunter asks, shifting his gaze between you and Crosshair.

Echo huffs and shakes his head. "I don't like it."

"We don't have to like it," Hunter says. "Orders are orders."

"What orders?" you ask.

Hunter swivels to face you. "There's rumors of an imperial base operating out of Scorro." Tech pulls up a holo of the planet and Hunter continues his explanation. "According to our intel, the GAR sent a squad of clones to scout the base, but their comms suddenly went silent. Another squad of clones were sent after them with the same result. Now they want us to investigate."

"Do they know what happened to the clones?" you ask, curious as to what's causing Echo's skepticism.

"No," Hunter crosses his arms. "They were never recovered."

"No one went back to get them?" you ask.

"It would be a waste of resources," Tech adds. "Besides, based on the trend, sending another clone squadron would yield the same results."

"But aren't we another clone squadron?" you ask, this time your nerves bleed through.

"Stop worrying!" Wrecker exclaims. "We can take on whatever they throw at us!"

His words don't make you feel better about the situation. While Echo is the only one openly objecting to the new mission, Hunter's facial expressions tell a different story than what he's leading everyone to believe. Your first inkling was the fact that he hasn't shoved you aside for this conversation. In fact, he's answered your questions without issue. He's serious about this in a way he hasn't been since you've met him. The fact that Hunter is worrying, has you worrying.

"I still don't like it," Echo frowns. "How'd they lose two clone squadrons without so much as one distress signal?"

"Maybe a new type of droid?" you offer. "Or their signals were jammed?"

"Groundbreaking ideas," Crosshair says.

"Everything is a valid option," Echo adds.

Crosshair rolls his eyes.

"Enough," Hunter says. "We're going to Scorro to investigate the rumors and to find the missing clones. Double-check our supplies and prepare for anything."

With the sergeant's final words, everyone scatters to prepare for the mission, except for Tech who punches in the new coordinates and sets the course for Scorro. You linger in the cockpit, silently observing Hunter as he pulls out his knife and twirls it around his fingers. The mission makes you nervous even though it shouldn't. You'll probably end up staying on the ship again, but maybe that's not a bad thing. You shake your head at the thought. That's not why you're here.

"Sergeant–"

"You too," Hunter says before you get a chance to ask. "You're coming with us."

You smile and nod. "Thank you, sir."

"Don't get the wrong idea," Hunter adds. "I need Echo for this mission, and I'm not leaving you alone on the ship."

"Yes, sir," you frown then turn back towards the bunks to get yourself situated.

Of course it would be too good to be true. For a second, you thought he actually wanted you on this mission, but he just wants to keep an eye on you. As a medic, you can help the missing troopers if they need medical attention, which you're confident they will. Your presence on the mission should be vital, not just an afterthought. Although, you shouldn't be upset that you're going on a mission, but you wish it was because of merit and not for the sake of babysitting.

Regardless, you will do your best on this mission and prove to Clone Force 99 that you are a good medic. That they need you. You're not sure how, but you will. When you get back to your bunk, you triple-check the supplies in your pack and stock as many bacta patches and stim shots as you can fit, plus some essential fluid and mineral packets, ration bars, and a few medical odds and ends that make sense to bring along. You want to be prepared for anything.

With your preparations made, it's another waiting game until you reach Scorro. You don't remember reading about that planet in your studies, but apparently it's rather primitive in nature, which is why no one has settled on it. It's an abandoned planet, making it a great outpost for mercenaries, pirates, and separatists. Pulling out your data-pad, you do a little more research to see what you can find out, but come up with the same dismal results that your holo-texts had.

It's not much longer before the Marauder drops out of hyperspace and the olive-green planet comes into view. When the holo-text said that Scorro was primitive, it wasn't kidding. It looks new and unabused by modern progress, and its vegetal hue is highly alluring. Your curiosity has now surpassed your trepidation about the rumors and missing clones. You're excited. This is a great opportunity, even if it's dangerous. The closer you get to the planet, the faster your heart beats.

“According to the scanners, there are no active fauna on this planet,” Tech states. "But the air is breathable."

“Just because the air is breathable doesn’t mean it’s good for you,” you point out. “Carbon monoxide is breathable but you’ll die before you figure out it’s bad for you.”

“Correction,” Tech adds. "The air is non-toxic towards human life-forms."

"Glad we could sort that one out," Crosshair says. "Any more words of wisdom?"

You narrow your eyes at him. "No."

"Take us in," Hunter says. "Land just outside the coordinates of the last clone squadron."

"Affirmative," Tech says, then flips a few switches before piloting the ship into the planet's atmosphere.

Once the ship has landed, Hunter addresses the group. "Our mission is to locate the two missing clone squadrons and investigate the rumors about an separatist base of operations. We'll use teams of two and spread out in an 800 meter radius from the last known coordinates. Keep the comm lines open and have your blasters at the ready."

Everyone nods and gears up, including you. Before you put your bucket on, you glance at the medic mark on your shoulder pauldron. No matter what happens, you have a job to do. You're a medic first. These men, your squad, are in your care and it's your responsibility to make sure they all survive. Steeling yourself for what's to come, you bite back every lick of fear that tries to take hold in your mind. You've trained hard for this, and you're not going to get cold feet now.

The side loading ramp opens and the bright sunlight of the planet blasts into the dimly lit ship. No turning back now. You follow the rest of the squad out of the ship and step onto the fresh earth of Scorro. For someone who grew up on Coruscant and spent the last cycle on Kamino, this much vegetation is mesmerizing. The sun is so warm, and the earth beneath your feet is so soft. This virgin planet is breathtaking. You take a few more steps forward, then Hunter stops.

"Tech, Crosshair, go east," Hunter says while pointing in that direction. "Wrecker and I will go north. Echo and Civvy, you'll go west.

The group nods and heads out in their respective directions.

"Stay frosty men," Hunter says over the comms. "There's no telling what we'll be up against out here."

You and Echo silently walk towards the western end of the perimeter, keeping your eyes peeled for any signs of the clone troopers or separatists. After a couple minutes, the silence grates on your nerves, but Echo seems focused right now. A little too focused. You know this mission bothered him from the beginning, but there seems to be something else about the way he carries himself that indicates it's not just about the mission being odd. There's something deeper.

As you continue forward, your foot kicks something hard. Looking down, you catch a glimpse of the familiar white plastoid clone trooper helmet, which is attached to a body shrouded by tall weeds. Your stomach flips. You weren't expecting to find one of them so quickly.

"Sarge," you say in the comms. "I found a trooper." Crouching down, you check for a pulse, but as you expected, there is none. "He's dead."

"We're making our way to your position now," Hunter says. "How'd he die?"

While your medic training didn't have an autopsy course, you inspect the body for the usual suspects. The armor is still intact and there's no signs of a struggle, which you find odd. There's no blaster marks, claw marks, bites, or scratches on the armor either. The black bodysuit isn't even ripped. He must have died from something. You pull back some of the black bodysuit and notice the tissue is necrotizing, but you don't see anything suspicious. Then you scan the body.

"Civvy, status," Hunter interjects over comms.

"I'm not sure how he died," you admit while reviewing the results of the scan. Echo looks over the body too, but doesn't come up with anything substantial. Not that you needed a second opinion.

"What do you mean you're not sure?" Hunter asks. "You're a medic, you should know how people die."

"There's no wounds," you explain. "He looks normal. Fine, even. Besides being dead." You don't mention it, but the fact that there are no organisms feasting on the clone's flesh also baffles you. You'd figure there would be more decay markers, but there's not even a single worm.

Hunter and Wrecker make it to your position and Hunter looks over the body, confirming what you said. "Then how the kriff did he die?"

You look up at Hunter from your crouched position next to the body and shrug. "We'd need a full autopsy to determine that, but the scans indicate no internal injuries either."

"So, he died from nothing?" Echo asks.

You shrug again. "Maybe he had a heart attack. That doesn't show up on portable scanners."

"Eighteen clone troopers died of a heart attack?" Hunter asks, his voice sounding distant.

"No," you rebut. "But maybe this one did."

Hunter points past you and you stand up to see what he wants you to look at. You tilt your head from side to side, scanning the area he's pointing at, when a glint of white pops up on your HUD. Then another. And another. Your eyes widen and your mouth gapes. The ground is littered with seventeen more troopers half-covered in tall weeds. The first squad and the second squad, dead mere meters from each other. You've never seen so many dead bodies before.

You feel your stomach grow queasy, and you rip off your helmet to vomit. As a medical student, you've seen cadavers, held organs in your hands, been bathed in blood, but nothing prepared you for the sight of a mass death. There's something menacing and sickly about it. You know most clones are never retrieved from battlegrounds and you know most clones will never see a proper burial, but knowing and witnessing are two different things. It's heartbreaking.

"You all right?" Echo asks.

You pant from the spasmic exertion, but find your voice. "I'm fine."

Tech and Crosshair arrive at your position soon after, and take note of the bodies. Everyone feels it now, the pressure looming thickly in the air. Something happened on this planet. Something killed these eighteen troopers and it killed them silently. There's an anxiety that creeps in as you wonder what it possibly could be. What is the silent hunter? How does it find its victims? And how can you and your squad escape from it? Perhaps, it may even be too late.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Echo says to Hunter.

Hunter sighs. "Me too."

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3

Masterlist

A03

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jordanianroyals · 5 months

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11 January 2024: Crown Prince Hussein, accompanied by Princess Rajwa, attended the launch of the Jordan-Singapore Tech Alliance Forum.

Speaking at the launch, Crown Prince Hussein highlighted the forum’s importance in unifying the two countries’ efforts towards technological excellence.

He stressed Jordan’s keenness to become a rising force on the international tech scene, highlighting the importance of digital transformation and entrepreneurship in nurturing creativity and turning ideas into reality.

The similarities between tech talents in Jordan and Singapore can be a bridge that connects the two countries and enhances cooperation in service of mutual interests, the Crown Prince said at the forum, held by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship and Jordan’s embassy in Singapore, in cooperation with the Singapore Business Federation and SG Tech. (Source: Petra)

His Royal Highness invited business people, experts, and CEOs to visit Jordan to learn more about the ICT and entrepreneurship sector, which is full of promising Jordanian talents.

Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Ahmad Hanandeh said that with more than 8,000 students graduating from IT-related programmes each year, Jordan’s digital economy continues to flourish, noting that Jordanians are making an impact that is attracting businesses from around the world.

He expressed the ministry’s keenness to continue helping Singaporean companies find the perfect home for their business in Jordan, highlighting the Jordan Source programme, which is helping businesses capitalise on Jordan’s exceptional potential as a global IT and business process outsourcing hub.

The Jordan-Singapore Tech Alliance Forum saw the participation of nearly 150 representatives of tech start-ups in Singapore, in addition to six Jordanian start-ups that provide technical support to international companies in sectors like gaming, digital education, and creative industries.

During the forum, key Jordanian tech companies gave briefings on their work, and participants engaged in discussions to attract international firms to Jordan by showcasing the competitiveness of the ICT sector in the Kingdom and success stories of Jordanian start-ups.

The forum also featured a presentation on the Jordan Source programme, launched in 2021 during a ceremony attended attendance of the Crown Prince, to promote Jordan as an international hub for innovation and investment in ICT and communications.

The forum is part of a series of Jordan Source promotional tours to attract investments and build partnerships with international companies seeking to expand into the Middle East through Jordan.

On the sidelines of the forum, a memorandum of understanding between Jordan’s Institute of Banking Studies and the Singapore FinTech Association was signed.

Planning Minister Zeina Toukan, Jordan’s Ambassador to Singapore Samer Naber, and Director of the Office of the Crown Prince Zaid Baqain attended the forum.

#crown prince hussein #Princess Rajwa

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genericpuff · 1 year

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my thoughts on tears of the kingdom (on a non-zelda blog)

so here's the thing, I love Zelda.

I've been playing the series since I was a child, practically raised on it by my oldest brother whom I have a 10 year age gap with. One of my most cherished childhood memories was when he got me Wind Waker on the Gamecube as a birthday present, I would have been around 7 years old and he would have been 17. Zelda was and still is a huge part of our lives.

So skip to today, we both got Tears of the Kingdom on launch day. We're both busy adults now who live far away from each other so we've just been updating each other on our progress and sending memes.

But I've got a lot of thoughts about the game that I really want to get out, as someone who's been with this series for two decades. My brother started with games like A Link to the Past and that was practically my first exposure to the series as well as it's what I would watch him play, alongside Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

There will be mild SPOILERS ahead concerning the gameplay and story, so don't click the jump unless you've already played the game or don't mind getting spoiled!!! LONG POST AHEAD!

So I guess let's just get on with this, yeah? I'm not gonna separate it into "good" vs. "bad" because I find everything in this game has good shit that comes packaged with bad shit. It's a lot of pros with cons attached, so trying to separate it cleanly between "good" and "bad" isn't going to be a very productive approach.

I've seen TOTK described as "DLC" for Breath of the Wild (derogatory) while on the opposite end, Breath of the Wild has been described as the "tech demo" for Tears of the Kingdom (positive). Frankly, I can see where both sides are coming from. There are lots of elements in TOTK that feel like they could have been in BOTW, whereas other elements can confidently stand on their own separate from that of BOTW.

One such example is the new Sheikah Slate, aka the Purah Pad. While there are some features from BOTW that are surely missed (Cryonis, sigh) others have been replaced with far more beneficial features such as Ultrahand and Fuse (the bread and butter of this game) and Recall, which - controversial I'm sure - is far more functional and has way more opportunities to be useful than BOTW's Stasis ability. The Ultrahand ability alone is a massive upgrade, allowing you to go wild with the game's physics engine. The shrine puzzles are a lot stronger in this respect, having more to work with by combining the Ultrahand ability with thematic Zonai devices, often times taking you through a gauntlet of rooms with similar puzzle-solving, each more challenging than the last. There's nothing more satisfying - and doubly frustrating - than seeing the solution to a shrine you've already spent three days on and going "Wait, I could have done that???" It just goes to show that the inventive creativity necessary to solving these puzzles from BOTW has carried over twofold into TOTK.

However, I feel like these new features are less rewarding as the game goes on. While mechanics like Cryonis and remote bombs made exploring feel unique and accessible in BOTW, the lack of these features in TOTK have made exploring feel far more difficult than it should be. What used to be an easy - albeit slow - endeavor such as crossing a river by creating ice block bridges with Cryonis has now turned into an exercise in futility and physics knowledge. You can't just cross a river, you have to build a boat out of whatever resources you can find or use to cross said river. And while this is a very inventive feature that has really stretched the creative bones of its players, it's a feature that becomes draining. Sometimes you really do just want to cross a river without having to build a spaceship or a ferry. Sometimes you do just want to be able to get up to the top of a cliff without needing to build a hot air balloon. Even with the Autobuild ability, these new mechanics do really start to feel grating after a while, especially for someone such as myself who struggles with executive dysfunction and doesn't want to build yet another boat or flying car just to travel 10 feet.

Regarding that last statement, I think the inclusion of the Ascend ability helps to combat tiresome climbing, but it never seems to be an option quite as often as it could be. I've seen people praise the ability stating that it helps them avoid climbing cliffs entirely, but more often than not, I've found the ability is only usable for a third of a rocky mountain where it happens to have a platform jutting out that's close enough for Ascend to reach - with the rest of it encouraging you to just climb up naturally, or, you guessed it, use the Ultrahand ability to build your way up. The Ascend ability - like Statis from the game's predecessor - is very specific and not accessible enough in the world's design to make it actually helpful. You know exactly when and where you're supposed to use it, and trying to use it outside of those instances won't get you anywhere. Of course, I'm not going to judge this ability too hard because it's still more than what we had in BOTW, but I find its application isn't quite as useful as it could be.

And boy, there are a lot of things in TOTK that don't have as strong an application as they could. I think there's no truer place this could be said than the expansion of the game's map, through The Sky and The Depths.

Disappointingly enough, just like in Skyward Sword, which suffered for having a strong premise but weak delivery with an open sky that had nothing to do in it, Tears of the Kingdom has barely fleshed out its Sky and Depths areas enough to make them feel memorable or worth going out of your way to explore. Once you've explored 10% of either, you've experienced all of it. While the Sky and the Depths each have their own dungeon, neither of them really feel justified enough to explain why they had to be there. The Depths don't add anything to the nature of the Fire Temple - by the time you're finished with it, you'll forget you're even in the Depths - and while the Water Temple does have the addition of lowered gravity up in the Sky, no other islands have this, so it feels like a random addition in the way of a gimmick that doesn't actually play much of a role in the dungeon's puzzle-solving.

As for the Depths, I do have to say that the game introduced it in the best way possible. No one spoke of them, outside of an NPC in Lookout Landing sending you on a quest to find a nearby one, but they still don't describe to you what you're about to come upon. It wasn't in any of the gameplay trailers. You see a big hole in the ground with gloom coming out of it, you know you can jump down into it, but it's not until you actually do that you realize you're diving down into the belly of a completely different beast. Link keeps falling and you're realizing how dark it's getting and hoping you can pull out your paraglider in time to hit a ground that you realize you cannot see - when the music shifts and the horns blare and your stomach sinks realizing just how dark and vast this place is.

The Depths are what I truly fell in love with in this game. I was struck with that primal fear in my gut that I hadn't felt since playing Majora's Mask as a child. For the first time in forever, I felt like the smaller species, like a speck of dust in unfamiliar territory. It was a welcome feature for a game that - if you had preceded it with Breath of the Wild - needed something to shake things up.

But, unfortunately, that initial thrill wears off eventually. The Depths become just that - a vast expanse with nothing in it. Aside from the odd treasure chest containing a piece of gear, the Bargainer's Statues, and a couple main story quests that take you down there, the Depths have nothing. Mapping them out is a feat in and of itself, even more daunting than mapping out the above ground with its tens of lightroots, but once you get at least 50% through the map, you realize that there's really nothing else to it. In fact, the map of the Depths exactly mirrors that of the map above you, with even less to do due to its lack of notable landmarks (outside of a central mining area, the Korok Grove, and the aforementioned Fire Temple), lack of biome distinction between areas (aside from the Eldin area created specifically for the Fire Temple), and lack of shrines. Once you figure that out, mapping out the rest of it is an unfortunately boring cakewalk.

I think both of these new inclusions in the game are unfortunately half-baked, making TOTK in and of itself feel like a tech demo for something that could have been more expanded upon. That said, it's a tall order, to ask for the game to run an in-depth open world map on three separate levels - the hardware itself already often struggles to load the Depths if you dive down into them too quickly, as the fall itself is its own cleverly hidden loading screen - but it's a shame to see it essentially repeat the mistakes of Skyward Sword, and it's where I feel that "this could have been DLC" complaint comes from.

There are features that feel like mild downgrades from BOTW, such as its new Fuse ability to fuse together weapons. While it seems inventive at first, the amount of inventory being carried over from BOTW makes the gameplay grind to a halt as you scroll through your pop-up inventory list to find the right thing to attach to your arrows or weapons, often times mid combat. While you can sort your menu into different sections - such as 'most used' and 'most powerful' - such a thing could have been fixed by allowing the player to create their own custom lists of items or just reducing what is and isn't capable of being fused. It feels like an unnecessary extra step thrown in to BOTW's weapon degradation mechanic just to make it feel more unique.

Moving on, this is where I want to talk about the game's story. Like the last game, it asks Link to piece together the memories of companions already gone. The story woven within these memories is a tragic one, with an emotional depth to it that I found myself relating far more to than in BOTW, which asked us to sympathize with characters who we had never met and were already gone. On the flipside, TOTK manages to tell a similar story with a lot more emotional depth, now using Princess Zelda as the tether between the present and the past, in a way that I feel works much better than in BOTW. Its climactic twist felt like something you would find in Spirited Away, and its one that I felt was appropriate for the game's setting and themes. That said, I still do not find myself compelled by this game's version of the Champions, similarly to what I experienced in BOTW. At the very least, it brings back cast members from BOTW for us to connect through, such as Purah and Lady Impa, who I was happy to see return.

And then there are the Sages.

I have a lot to say about the Sages.

The Sages have to be the single worst inclusion of this game. And that's not to say they ruin the game, but in a game full of wonderful moments and amazing gameplay, they definitely feel like a tarnishing C- on an otherwise perfect report card. Just like in Breath of the Wild, the game's main story gameplay is the weakest part of Tears of the Kingdom. While BOTW had Link conquering the out-of-control Divine Beasts, TOTK asks Link to unearth ancient temples and awaken the spirits of sages long gone for their powers to be reborn through their descendants, three of which happen to be the successors of BOTW's Champions: Riju, Sidon, and Yunobo. While the development team and press surrounding this game called these temples "traditional dungeons", they are fundamentally the exact same as the Divine Beasts, following the same 4-beat structure in which you have to activate 4 'locks' (themed around the dungeon's setting) to unlock the dungeon's boss. I found these dungeons were often even easier than the Divine Beasts of BOTW, essentially asking Link to solve four separate shrine puzzles to get to a boss that follows a simple mechanic loop. While the bosses are far less repetitive than the Blights of BOTW, they are also far less intimidating or punishing, barely requiring any extensive thought to figure out how to overcome them. The hardest boss in the game - the Gibdo Queen - ironically had one of the easiest dungeons out of the four.

But here's the thing - Tears of the Kingdom is built the exact same way as Breath of the Wild, giving the player freedom to choose the order in which they complete dungeons, if they even choose to complete them at all... but unlike past Zelda games which offered this freedom, TOTK fails in how it delivers these dungeons and the narrative surrounding them. I was miffed upon completing my second dungeon - the Fire Temple - and realizing that the cutscenes it presented were the exact same as the first one I did - the Wind Temple - and sure enough, that same cutscene played out from its respective sage for the following Water Temple and Lightning Temple. They are all the same. While one could argue this was their way of navigating around the freedom of choice - to allow the player to experience neutral cutscenes that won't be out of order or out of context - the memories themselves are also out of order and out of context so having the dungeon cutscenes be varied should be a feature, not a bug to patch out. Currently, with its repetitive cutscenes and what you gain from completing a dungeon, it makes them far less enjoyable to do, knowing you're essentially just doing one big shrine with a giant enemy (one you can find in the Depths for farming, which makes them feel far less unique or imposing) with the reward of a heart in the end.

Of course, I'm forgetting to mention the other reward you get after completing a dungeon. Sage abilities. The biggest downgrade from BOTW by far.

In BOTW, upon completing a Divine Beast, you would be granted with an ability from its respective Champion, typically a passive one - meaning, if you had the ability enabled, it would activate on its own or you could trigger it a specific way, such as Mipha's Grace which would automatically revive you once in between cooldowns (basically a fairy you didn't have to catch) and, the fan favorite, Revali's Gale, which could be triggered by holding down the jump button and would grant you so much more ease of exploring.

Tears of the Kingdom, instead, asks "What if we made all of the Champions their own characters who could run around you, get in your way, and offer even less useful abilities?"

The present Sages - Yunobo, Tulin, Riju, Sidon, and Mineru - are akin to a teenager taking way more dogs than they could handle out for a walk. They are five nuisances who will run away from you when you need them, and run around you when you're just trying to pick up an item, causing you to accidentally trigger their abilities which are simply mapped to the A button. Too many times I've had them trigger a fight with enemies I was trying to avoid, blow away loot I was trying to grab, or blow up explosives that I wasn't aiming at, killing me outright. While they can be turned off, I feel like it could have been far easier to implement them in a way that wasn't so distracting and obtrusive - currently, the way they're implemented basically demands you keep them turned off until you absolutely need them. Considering a map of the Switch controller buttons comes up with the A button highlighted, it begs the question, why even have the other three buttons visible onscreen if they can never be mapped? Why not make use of different buttons for different companions? Or make them passive abilities similar to that of the Champions from BOTW? Overall, their inclusion feels clunky and not well thought out, and their abilities aren't near beneficial or useful enough to justify this much headache. At most, Yunobo is helpful in blowing up rock walls when you don't have Bomb Flowers, and Tulin is helpful in gusting you towards a landing spot while gliding through the sky, but that's about where their usefulness ends. Unlike in BOTW, the efforts required to gain their abilities barely feels like a reward, but more of an obligatory chore, making the dungeons feel even less rewarding to do.

With all that said, unlike in BOTW, Tears of the Kingdom never becomes a smoother experience to explore. The effort you put into completing the dungeons and gaining better weapons and gear never feels rewarded with anything substantial or worth working for. The Sage abilities are a burden and give very little benefit to exploring or combat the same way BOTW's Champion abilities did, the dungeons themselves aren't experiences worth writing home about, and the story is so milquetoast and repetitive that once you beat one dungeon, you've experienced all of them.

That said, while I've done a lot of complaining, there are a lot of things about the game I'm enjoying compared to Breath of the Wild. One such thing are the sidequests - there are a LOT more of them in this game, and many of them feel far more engaging and rewarding than Breath of the Wild. Accessing the Great Fairies requires an actual sequence of quests now, in which you bring a travelling band back together, and from that point forward, you can always hear them playing their music at the stables scattered throughout Hyrule. Hateno has its own questline that rewards you with what's possibly Link's greatest piece of fashion ever, Cece's Hat. Even the small quests feel more rewarding to do because TOTK feels far busier than BOTW did. There are far more NPC's, and the world itself just feels more lively; I wouldn't expect any less in the sequel to BOTW which experienced a cataclysmic event that wiped out the population of the kingdom. It's nice to see the difference in how the towns operate in TOTK because you can feel it through its sidequests. There are still Yiga Clan members in disguise on the surface, but it's far less now compared to BOTW where you couldn't talk to an NPC on the road without getting shanked.

Of course, it wouldn't be a BOTW sequel without one of its most daunting sidequests of all - the Korok Seed quest. This time, there are 1000 Korok Seeds to find, with new puzzles to find them, most notably the escort quests, which require you to build whatever godforsaken Roman-era torture device you need to build to get wandering Koroks from Point A to Point B.

That said, the unfortunate news I have to break to you after finally seeing someone complete the quest themselves - all that awaits you in the end, once again, is "Hestu's Gift" which I have to say, isn't as quite as funny the second time around. While in BOTW it felt like a funny nudge at completionists, in the vein of "Haha, look at you! You worked so hard to get all those seeds and all that awaited you was a pile of poop! It's all in good fun! The real prize was the adventuring you did along the way!" but having that be the end prize again in TOTK where we're exploring regions we've already explored before feels far more passive-aggressive, like it's making fun of you for really doing what the devs expected you to do a second time, with a snarky, "Seriously? You're that stupid? You really thought there'd be something new this time?" Especially considering the Koroks exclusively populate the Sky and the Surface - giving players even less incentive to want to explore the Depths, further robbing this new expansive area of less identity. Ironic that the Depths, an area so big that it requires its own hidden loading screen, would end up having even less to do than the Sky itself, which barely covers any surface area in the game's overall map by comparison. It's a damn shame the devs couldn't be bothered to think of something to reward the player with for all their work. At least in BOTW it could be said the reward was the exploration, as so much of BOTW's map goes untouched by its main story and its world was brand new to us back then - it's not brand new now, though, and the areas that are new are going completely unused.

I realize this review is getting quite long, but I want to close it with one final point - Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's place in the Zelda franchise.

There's a startling lack of one specific thing that makes a Zelda game truly Zelda, despite the dev's best efforts to return its old school elements such as traditional "dungeons" and its nods to previous games in the title through its referential gear sets implemented right into the game (vs. exclusively as DLC in BOTW) - and that's the Triforce.

It's said that a true Zelda game can't contain its core triad of characters - Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf - without containing the Triforce in the center of all of it, and yet Tears of the Kingdom did this, and frankly, it just proves that point.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not good at singling out a 'favorite'. Whenever people ask me what my favorite Zelda game is, my mind races through all the titles I played as a child - Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess - and yet I rarely think of Breath of the Wild and likely won't think of Tears of the Kingdom either. It's not for lack of trying or consideration, I do think both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are respectable games, both inclusive and exclusive of one another, but rarely does my mind go to them because to me, they don't feel like true Zelda games. And I didn't realize why until I recalled that the last game we had featuring Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, and the Triforce as core setpieces... was Twilight Princess. A game that will be turning seventeen this year, and will likely be twenty by the time the next mainline Zelda game releases. And one could argue even Twilight Princess doesn't count because Ganondorf was a last second addition - if we want to be really obtuse about it, technically we haven't gotten a game featuring Link, Zelda and Ganondorf as our main characters since Wind Waker, a game that turned twenty years old last year!

I felt its absence especially in Tears of the Kingdom, seeing Ganondorf manipulate his way into stealing the sigh 'secret stones' (I'm sorry but that name is so fucking cringe, please just call them "sacred stones" or "mystic stones" or SOMETHING more interesting than "secret stones", we don't even get any sort of lore or hinting towards where they came from, they're just magical McGuffin's with a stupid name) but not once mention his true motivations prior to finding out about the stone's existence. There was no emotional motivation such as what can be seen in The Wind Waker through a Ganondorf scorned by his lost culture and the kingdom that he just wanted to see wiped out to make things even; or Ocarina of Time Ganondorf who sought to access the Sacred Realm and take the Triforce and all its power for himself. Shit, there wasn't even a mention of Demise, the massive plot-twister of Skyward Sword, which Nintendo attempted to make the ultimate explanation as to why the games and their stories experience the same warring cycle from generation to generation; an explanation that could have worked, if they had actually followed up on it through BOTW and TOTK - yet, despite having the opportunity to do so, seem to just be whistling around the issue, pretending like it's not there. Despite having an Ouroboros in its title art, this cycle of death and rebirth is noticeably gone in Tears of the Kingdom.

Look, I get it. The developers have already stated that they're intent on moving forward with its open world format in future Zelda games. It's making them a lot of money. It's refreshing. It's bringing new fans into the franchise. And it's bridging the gap between generations by re-introducing classic exploration elements of retro Zelda while trying to also balance the narrative elements that modern post-N64 Zelda fans have come to expect.

But when you tear apart all the original components of a franchise, of its themes, its characters, its stories, and replace them with new components only slightly reminiscent of the old... can that franchise really be called the same thing anymore? When people ask me what my favorite Zelda game is, I don't think of Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom because to me, they're just not Zelda games. They're just what they are - Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo had a huge opportunity to make Tears of the Kingdom into a game that could tie its predecessors together with a neat little bow, and yet it still took the half-baked way out, layering it instead with its own story that doesn't even really work or take advantage of the foundation it's standing upon. They're their own games, and that's okay, but I can't help but feel that the further we go down this road, the less it'll encompass what made Zelda what it was to begin with.

And yeah, I'm sure I'm just being a typical 'old Zelda fan' who's complaining about the exact same thing that people complained about in games like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. But when your Zelda game featuring Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf does not mention a word of the Triforce, I think both retro and modern Zelda fans can agree to even a slight extent that you can't have Legend of Zelda without the Triforce. That would be like having Super Mario without Power Stars (or some equivalent of them) or Kirby without its existential nihilism or Sonic without Chaos Emeralds. Sure, you can have games in their franchises without their respective trademarks, but do it enough times and people will start to notice something's seriously off. I think we can all agree that while Twilight Princess and Wind Waker may be, aesthetically and thematically, completely different games, you can't deny they're Zelda games at their core because they still have that signature cast fighting over those pesky golden Doritos.

In this respect, Tears of the Kingdom feels like it's suffering from the same problem Star Wars is suffering from - it exists to spite the titles that came before it, but knows it won't succeed without the fans of those titles so it makes as many cheeky references to those titles as it can without paying actual respect to them. It even opens the game with references to things that retro gamers will recognize - Rauru, Ganondorf recognizing Link's name, etc. - but then all those elements are later revealed to be unique to TOTK, such as Rauru being the first King of a Hyrule that's exclusive to the BOTW timeline, or Ganondorf only recognizing Link's name because a time-travelling Zelda told him his name, not because it's the same Ganondorf of titles' past. It feels incredibly disappointing to have all this setup and so little payoff especially for these games that are claiming to be the 'next step' for the franchise. It feels less like a 'next step' and more like a complete reboot for a different audience. These games are not reminiscent of what pulled me and my brother into the franchise way back in the day.

But I dunno, maybe it's a weird hill to die on. I don't want to be one of those "not my Zelda" puritans but when the games don't even contain elements of what made them distinctly Zelda back in the day, down to its trademark features, it makes me wonder what exactly where the series is headed.

Anyways. That was a lot. I do want to make it clear that I am enjoying this game, very much so, but like many games that top the charts with solid 10/10's on release, I feel like there are definitely still places the game could have been further refined, despite the extra year it took to polish it. From the inconvenient gameplay halters like the inventory fusing, to the obtrusive butchering of the Sage abilities, so many things could have been tightened up just a bit more to further improve on what Breath of the Wild started, rather than trade out what BOTW did for weaker alternatives. It's a game of gimmicks, rather than one of substance. While Breath of the Wild lacked substance itself in many regards, it at least had the benefit of being a brand new format, with a vast world one could spend hours exploring - with that same world returning in Tears of the Kingdom, with very little done to flesh out the attempts to expand it, it very much feels like it's simply riding off the coattails of Breath of the Wild, and in that regard, I can agree to an extent with the "DLC" arguments, while also agreeing that there are things in TOTK that very much improve on BOTW and make it look like a tech demo.

One thing I will recommend in the end to those of you who might be reading this - do not play Breath of the Wild right before Tears of the Kingdom. Whether it's your first time playing BOTW or you're wanting to revisit it, don't do it. I was fortunate enough that my last time playing BOTW was several months ago, but I've seen loads of people not enjoying TOTK because they replayed BOTW in the days before its release, and let me tell you, this game is far less of a unique or fun experience if you play BOTW right before playing TOTK due to the world design. If you play them one after the other, you'll burn yourself out on it and not get to appreciate what TOTK adds to BOTW's world as much as if you had gone in partially or mostly blind.

And that's all I'm gonna say on that. Tears of the Kingdom gets a 8.5/10 from me. I am excited to see where the franchise goes next in terms of its open world concept, I hope Nintendo can at least stray away from this version of Hyrule so we can get something new like we did in BOTW. Tears of the Kingdom was by no means a negative experience for me, and I'm planning on getting back into it tonight and tackling more of its sidequests, which are probably one of my favorite parts of the game. I could very well be way too hard on it, so this opinion could change over time as I spend more time in its world, but these are my general experiences that have come up in the back of my mind over the past couple weeks since its release.

Thanks for reading!

#tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom review #long post #tears of the kingdom criticism #legend of zelda #TOTK #zelda #breath of the wild #BOTW #review #game review

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bearmemesreviews · 2 months

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FotW: SDMI - In Fear of the Phantom

Welcome back to Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated, and now we're getting into a problem many reboots and adaptions face - what happens when you try something different. Today's episode isn't really that special, serving as a bridging point between the next stint of episodes focused on the gang's love lives.

Except for featuring the Hex Girls of course.

Not to overshadow the main villain, which would be extra funny considering their backstory, but come on that's what y'all are here for.

Yeah, they got a bit of a redesign since their last few appearances in the two billion direct to DVD films. Fans DID NOT like this, and in a later episode they had to actually address the backlash while also scrapping these outfits for the original ones. They also steal Luna and Dusk's hair dye and gave Thorn's highlights a diminished role.

My personal opinion? Eh, I would've preferred a middle ground between the two, but for reboots I encourage designers to go all out since it's their own thing. So for Mystery Incorporated I would've either kept the redesigns or gave them completely brand new looks a second time. The OGs have a more cohesive aesthetic, but I like how MI experiments by giving each girl their own Alt style. It's probably Dusk who could probably use a new outfit though, since her Tank Girl getup doesn't mesh as well as Thorn's "Pagan School Girl" and Luna's "Lesbian Thespian" outfits do. Actually, maybe one of those Scene Kid reconstructions of School Uniforms would've worked better?

Oh yeah, this nerd.

Backstory: Like most lesbians Velma is a massive fan of The Hex Girls, snagging front row tickets for the Scooby Gang just in time for them to witness a "Phantom" try to murder Thorn on stage. As with every mystery the gang decide to take it upon themselves to do the cop's job to keep the concert going while protecting the band.

This leads to an exploration of the show's two main ships, Fredphe and Shoob - again, yes really.

This show is really good trust me on this.

Scooby outright calls Shaggy a cheater for going to prom with Velma instead of hanging out with him like they always do, and replaces Mathew Lillard with a wooden dummy much to Shaggy's chagrin.

Fred meanwhile comes out as nonbinary a teenage boy with emotions as he finally grasps Daphne's romantic interest in him. All thanks to an entire song written by Daphne where she uses Fred's special interest to get through to him.

Behold, one of the best songs made for a television show in history.

youtube

Before this spectacular moment of audio interposed with occasional Zelda CDI-level animation (to be fair are you even looking at the animation in the first place) we got some Phantom shenanigans. Mostly him responding to Scoob and Shag's ability to warp time and space by just setting them on fire, probably the most effective thing one these guys have attempted so far.

Design: Obviously a homage to The Phantom of the Opera, and as we go through the series, you'll start to notice a lot more homages that Wikipedia will kindly point out for you. Though you can also see a bit of Comic Supervillain in his design, so much so that he doesn't seem to fit with the show's own aesthetic. He wears a black full body suit with a gigantic, taller than his own head, Dracula collar and grim reaper-esque hood. He has a fabricated piece of his outfit that goes over his shoulders like Football Pads, but with a sleeker design as it attaches his cape to the main costume. His cape is black but its interior is lined with a sparkling holographic material.

His mask, belt, boots, and glovers are all made of golden mechanical pieces, as they actually allow him to charge up bolts of electricity to fire at the teens in our show. This tech is never explained, and he really only uses it a few times before forgetting he has these weapons at his disposal.

His mask is the best part of the outfit, legitimately cool while evoking a gas mask. It's almost like it was made out of several pieces asymmetrically stuck to each other with large bolts, like if C3PO was mangled in an accident and put back together with recolored bits of R2-D2. There are several short, cylindrical ports on his gauntlets, boots, belt, and mask that occasionally glow green.

Reveal: Shaggy, with an extensive knowledge of obscure musical groups as we'll be shown time and time again, recognized the shiny material of The Phantom's cape as belonging to a One-Hit Wonder named Fantzee Pantz. And once that's discovered it's pretty obvious that the other suspect, The Hex Girl's manager, is not the culprit as he was just as responsible for Fantzee's obscurity as THG.

No, the true culprit is the girl's songwriter, who first attempted to sabotage them through badly written songs but was thwarted by the girl's talent and popularity - So he then turned to just trying to kill them, and Daphne. He ends up taking Scoob's dummy to jail with him, but the original duo patch things up by then - letting us look back at Velma who got sidelined so badly this episode.

2/5 Goofy as hell design for a goofy character, probably the most "Villain of The Week" we've encountered so far. In fact, he'd probably fit in better in Miraculous Ladybug than this show. Not that bad otherwise, just not as impressive.

#bmoreviews #scooby doo mystery incorporated #scooby doo #mystery incorporated #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #the phantom #phantom of the opera #the hex girls #Youtube

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cherrylng · 5 days

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Gears & Analysis - Manson 007 aka Blackie [STYLE Series #004 - Muse (August 2010)]

Black Peace [Correct name is Manson 007 aka Blackie] A jet-black bomb-making machine fully armed with a number of unique ideas.

The Manson custom model, known as the ‘Black Peace’, was introduced in 2001 and has been used to this day. The body shape and other basic guitar features are similar to those of the earlier Delorean, but the specifications are quite different. In other words, it is a further updated model based on the ‘DeLorean’. The specs shared with the Delorean at the time of production included front and rear pickups (the rears have now been replaced with bare knuckle ‘Mississippi Queen’ pickups), a piezo pickup system (which has also now been removed), and a built-in effects unit. However, the truth about the effects of pedals are not clear due to mixed accounts. It seems to have a ‘Phase 90’ and a Zvex ‘Fuzz Probe’ (or ‘Wah Probe’)…… In any case, the key point is the copper plate on the right side of the unit. It is a fact that by holding your hand over it, you can freely change the oscillation sound, just like a theremin. Therefore, there is no doubt that one of the ZVex ‘Probe’ series is incorporated. There is also a MIDI controller on the top left of the unit. This was a result of Matthew's question: "Can we mount a “Whammy” on it?" According to Hugh Manson, the original idea was to have a built-in ‘Whammy’ itself, but this was abandoned due to power supply problems, so only a MIDI controller was built in, which would be used to control the ‘Whammy’. The controller itself is a transplant of the ribbon controller originally set on the Roland ‘JP-8000’ keyboard. Incidentally, it can be assigned to any MIDI-compatible device other than the ‘Whammy’.

Pickups & Controllers The sustainer pick-up is located between the P-90 type front pick-up and the fingerboard. The rectangular object located to the left of it is a MIDI controller that works like a touch sensor. The toggle switch next to it is a kill switch. The copper plate located on the left side of the unit is the oscillation controller.

Controls The control system is as complex as that of the ‘Delorean’. There are many switches and knobs. The two knobs and switches at the bottom of the body are probably for the ‘Fuzz Probe’ (a sibling of the ‘Fuzz Factory’). The knob next to the bridge is the controller for the ‘Phase 90’, the mini-switch to the right of it is ON/OFF, the three mini-switches in a row vertically are switches for the sustainer, and the three knobs on the far right are controllers for normal guitar sounds. There is a strong theory that there is a ‘Wah Probe’ built in instead of a ‘Fuzz Probe’, but since Guitar Tech describes it as a ‘theremin’, it is probably not a ‘Fuzz Probe’?

SIM L.E.Ds On the side of the fingerboard, there is an LED that indicates the position. This is a system developed by Sim's Custom, a brand founded by Martin Sims, an engineer originally active in the field of Formula 1 racing cars, and is called Sim's L.E.Ds. Various specifications can be selected, including the colour and shape of the LEDs. The Dodd markers on the top of the fingerboard can also be illuminated, but Matthew seems to have opted for the side-only version.

Translator's Notes: I don't know why this typo error was never corrected by the STYLE editors. I thought I knew the guitar looked familiar to me, yet I've never heard it being called the Black Peace at all. To fans and Matt alike, the Manson 007 had always been 'Blackie'.

#Matt Bellamy #Muse #Manson Guitar #Manson 007 #my scan #translation #STYLE Series #STYLE Series 004

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thinkrp · 22 days

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today's preview is a more introspective look at the larger of our two locations - remington, georgia. while it has the glitz and glamour that sable grove could never aspire to, there are some who can't stand the hustle and bustle of someplace that always seems to be in motion. take a peek under the cut for it's full history alongside the six neighborhoods waiting within. if you have any questions, you know where to find us!

✨ explore remington, ga ✨

the city of remington was founded in late 1829 during the georgia gold rush. it was a larger settlement for the prospectors that used to travel to sable grove to strike it rich. today, it is a thriving metropolis home to such prominent tourist attractions such as the great rapids amusement park, the barlowe botanical gardens, and distillery drive. it is also home to remington university and the official home of nfl team the remington prospectors, nhl team the remington gold hawks, and the mlb team the remington 29ers. remington is also known to be a festival city during the summers, hosting events such as the taste of remington and the street buskers festival. to the world, remington seems like a city of promise, however, if you look a little closer you’ll see dilapidated buildings with graffiti protesting the oppressive hold of corporations, you’ll see broken swing sets in seedy neighborhoods, and you might just be able to see deals being made on street corners. remington proves that even the shiniest of exteriors can have the grimiest of secrets lurking within.

barlowe reef

population - 20660 | price point - $$$ to $$$$

home to the barlowe botanical gardens and the great rapids amusement park, the neighborhood of barlowe is known as a tourist haven. the northernmost peak of remington, you’ll also have access to the barlowe bridge which connects remington and sable grove across bennington bay. it also houses the shorefront which showcases the pier and harbor. housing in the area is middle tier and largely populated with airbnbs and hotels.

camden

population - 17486 | price point - $$$ to $$$$$

camden is a historic part of remington that was once lined with bootleggers and secret speakeasies between the 1920s to the 1930s. now, it is widely known as the fine arts and cultural district. it is home to the remington art gallery and theatre alley which is home to the remington ballet company, the remington philharmonic, and the remington players. it is also home to jazz clubs, piano bars, and of course your good ol’ country music bars. some casting agencies, modeling agencies, and production companies also call camden home. the neighborhood also has a series of small man-made parks and trails that are a runner’s paradise. this area houses a lot of trendy apartment buildings, brownstones, and houses with old world charm that tend to be perfect for those in the middle-income or higher income brackets.

crestmont

population - 10576 | price point - $$$$ to $$$$$

crestmont is remington’s financial and governmental neighborhood. you’ll find city hall which houses city council offices, the mayor’s office, and all the major courthouses. it is also home to the remington police department and the sheriff's station. crestmont also has easy access to remington memorial hospital and the remington firehouse. around the corner from city hall is market street which is home to well known financial institutions, major real estate developers, and also larger tech and entertainment-focused companies. homes in this area are relatively pretty expensive and swanky and feature penthouses, brownstones, and luxury apartments.

cromwell

population - 14177 | price point - $$$ to $$$$$

cromwell is perhaps one of the busiest neighborhoods in remington featuring all the major sports arenas and stadiums as well as the larger concert venues. it is home to palladium square which is full to the brim with street performers and buskers. during the weekends, there is a large farmer’s market and craft and book fairs. it is also a hop skip and jump from remington public library and cromwell park. due to its resemblance to many popular cities, cromwell is a popular filming location. you’ll find mid-tier to high-tier housing in the area, and it is home to many families with young children.

snakeleaf

population - 20101 | price point - $ to $$$

back in the 1800s, the snakeleaf area used to be swampy marshy lands where only the underlings of the city used to congregate. it still maintains its “seedy” reputation with its collection of motels and other shady businesses. unlike the rest of the city, the snakeleaf area is not prim and pristine. however, some would argue that this is where the real deals in the city happen and not in crestmont or cromwell. the main highlight of this area is the abandoned shoe factory which is a popular venue for raves, outlandish parties, and general debauchery that is rented by more elite hands than you would think to imagine. housing is cheap here, but it comes at the cost of your safety and sanity, quite frankly.

yearwood

population - 30000 | price point - $ to $$$

yearwood widely known as the education district, yearwood is home to remington university spanning ten whole city blocks. around the corner from remington university, you’ll also find the yearwood mall and tucked in a corner is distillery drive which features bars, clubs, taverns, cafes, and restaurants that are popular with students, remington residents, and tourists alike. at the end of distillery drive, you’ll find the wall, a skate park with a massive brick wall that is frequently tagged with graffiti, murals, and messages. housing in this area is relatively cheap and largely occupied by students or early career professionals.

#thinkrp #preview #remington #setting

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neon-junkie · 2 years

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The Essentials

Summary: It’s your time of the month, and Tech will ensure that everything goes smoothly.

Pairing: Tech x gn!Reader (they/them)

Tags: Periods, Cramps, Comfort, Fluff, Established relationship.

Word count: 1.1k

Notes: This has been in my drafts for a while, so I figured I should finish it up.

A sudden weight appears on your bed, pressed against your legs, causing you to roll over with a heavy groan. Your eyes flutter open, and blink a few times after rubbing the grogginess out of them with the side of your fists. Once your vision comes into focus, you find Tech looming over you, his weight awkwardly shifting from one leg to the other.

"Did I wake you?" he stutters.

"Kinda," you groan, peering up at him through your thick bundle of blankets and pillows.

Tech, bless his soul, had ordered you to bed the second that you complained about your cramps. That word alone - cramps - can only mean one thing, and Tech was quick to rush to his feet, and inform the others that he'll be "heading out on a supply run."

"But we already have supplies," Hunter had sputtered back. "We're waiting on our next set of orders-"

"-I'm not on about those supplies," Tech scoffed with a wave of his hand. "I'll be back in twenty. Don't let them leave their bed," Tech pointed at you, and ushered you inside your private quarters.

Twenty minutes was a perfect estimate, and now, Tech is back with the 'supplies' that he went out to retrieve. Your eyes flick down to see several shopping bags plopped on your bed, their content peeking out, but not revealing enough to easily show what they are.

"What's in the bag?" you ask, your gaze meeting Tech's.

Tech puts on a smug grin, and raises his index finger as he begins. "Now, let's see..." he plainly states before dipping into the first bag. "We have the following items to provide comfort and support over the next few days."

The first few items are pulled out - the true essentials, things that you need when times are tough between your legs. "An array of menstrual products, seeing as I am uncertain of your preferences."

Tech hands up two classic choices - tampons and pads, before picking up a third item. His brow raises as his spare hand pushes his goggles up the bridge of his nose, not that they were slipping off to begin with. "I've not seen this item before," he states. "It's called a Mooncup. I figured we can always give it a try," he comments with a soft shrug.

"We?" you question. "I didn't know you were on your period too, Tech."

Tech rolls his eyes. "Your problems are my problems, darling," he explains, feigning irritation - as if you didn't realise that you're in this together!

"Of course, my love," you bounce back, earning a soft laugh from your partner.

He returns to his bag of goodies, and fishes out the next series of items. "Your favourite snacks and drinks," Tech states as he passes them over to you, knowing that, no doubt, you're eager to feed your hormonal demon. "The holoweb also stated that Meiloorun's are high in vitamins, which can have a beneficial effect on menstrual cramps. I picked one up, but I understand if you choose to stick to your favourites."

"It's impossible to say no to a Meiloorun," you nod, knowing that no creature throughout the galaxy can resist such flavour.

"I agree," Tech nods with you. "Now, on to your physical comfort items..."

Tech pulls open another bag, and pulls out a series of fluffy items. "A hot water bottle, a classic choice," he says with a firm nod before placing it down on your bed. "Along with fluffy pyjamas and socks," Tech passes them over to you, and you smile as your palm comes into contact with the soft fur.

"So soft," you coo, before flicking your gaze down to the bag. "What else is in there?" you question, noting another fluffy item partially sticking out.

Tech shifts his weight as his tanned skin turns a deep shade of red. "I..." he sputters, and with a guilty look, pulls out another pair of pyjamas. "I purchased myself a matching pair. I found it hard to resist the adorable tooka print," Tech explains as he points to the cute print, little tookas wearing their own pyjamas!

You can't help but laugh, in awe of Tech's shameful expression. He has no issue diving head first into battle, following and commanding orders, doing what he has been bred to do - but as soon as Tech wants to indulge in something cute, he feels embarrassed?

"I can't wait to see you in them," you comment with a laugh.

"Later, dear. But I must warn you, you will not see me in them ever again if you dare utter a word to the others!" Tech curses, both with a joking and serious tone.

"I wouldn't dare!" you gasp, pretending to be disgusted that Tech would even consider you doing such a thing.

Tech sends you a sarcastic glare before dipping his hand in the bag to retrieve the last set of items. "If you require them, I have retrieved medication," he states as he holds up a box of tablets. "If not, I have read that herbal tea may also ease your cramps," Tech explains as he shows you a box of herbal teas, with a wide range of flavours.

"I have also downloaded all of your favourite holoshows and holofilms onto my datapad, ready to play. You are free to pick whatever takes your fancy," Tech continues as he unhooks his datapad from his tool belt, and places it in your grasp for you to begin scrolling through.

Your fingertips brush over the screen - you never thought Tech would ever trust you to hold his prized possession, but this was long before you two became an item. Everything is on there, including the new season of a holoshow that you're yet to snuggle down and enjoy.

You look up at Tech, still wrapped in the warmth of your bed. "And what are you going to do during my time of woe?" you question.

"Well," Tech begins as he places his hand on his hip, his other hand pointing in his usual, generic fashion. "I am, of course, going to provide any form of comfort and support that I can. Whether that be a massage, stomach rubs, cuddles, or my exceptional presence."

A soft smile appears on your lips, "you make it sound like you're going to magically make the pain disappear."

Tech matches your expression, softly smiling at you - his sweetheart. "Darling, if it were possible, I would have already done it."

There's a warm feeling growing in your chest, and little do you know, that Tech has the same warmth growing in his. You slowly shuffle upright in your bed, glossing over the series of items laid out for you, deciding which ones to start with.

"Well..." you begin as you pick up both sets of pyjamas. "I think we should put these on, and get comfortable, don't you?"

Tech agrees with a swift nod of his head, his hands already finding the clasps of his armour, removing each item piece by piece. "On one condition," he states.

"Go on," you urge.

"That the goggles stay on."

#tbbwriting #the bad batch #tbb tech x reader #tech x reader #the bad batch tech #tbb tech #tw menstruation #menstruation tw #fluff #comfort #the essentialy #star wars #tbb fanfic

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shitpostingkats · 2 years

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The 5Ds is stored in the hi-tech city of the future sitting next to the island of recycled junk. It’s in Yusei using a battle city duel disk and being petrified by the grief of the past, it’s in Kalin fleeing to a worn down town stuck in the 1800s, its about every dark signer being a shadow of the past, a memory, fighting for an evil older than the earth. It’s in the ghosts and the remnants and the ruins and the trash.

And it’s in the middle seasons, the ones that get written off, the day-to-day mundanities of the garage. An old man finally giving up his scrapyard. A gravestone finally visited. Ghosts put to rest. Giving up and moving on and remembering, but also living. It’s in the landlady and her son, the clockmakers. It’s in the two of them putting aside both the past and the future to just enjoy the time they do have.

It’s in Team Taiyo and Team Ragnarok!! It’s in the stars of Illiaster and Bruno wanting so, so much to have a future with the team, it’s in the fall of man and the villains from the future so focused on breaking the past. It’s the anachronism of the broken bridge, the bikes that fly, old and new fighting for a hold on the now, it’s about Z-One choosing to let the stars fade and burn out, giving up on clinging to memories of hurt. Just to see what the younger generation will build if they’re given the chance.

It’s in the series ending where it started, a conversation between Yusei and Trudge. The same as ever. Yusei alone. Looking to build something. His family scattered to the wind.

But he’s not scared anymore. He looks out over the lights of the city. And he dreams.

Fuck yeah I love it when the curtains are blue!!!

#yugioh #yugioh 5ds #ygo 5ds #I would like to known when this show will stop living in my mind rent free #yusei fudo #poetic nonsense drabbles

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script-a-world · 5 months

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Submitted via Google Form:

I know I sent you something else about a plane you haven't answered yet but I have a completely separate question now. I was thinking about building long and massive 10 storey skybridges between buildings in a very flat oval and the flat part goes across the 1km long river. The biggest problem is how much the bridge weighs. There are shops and stores along the bridge, even a cinema and a large sports complex. I have not seen skybridges of that length and size before, and while there are plenty of long bridges over the river, none of them need to hold anything heavier than vehicles and I'm gone way past that. So I'm not sure about what I need for this?

Tex: Bridges are at the mercy of gravity, and gravity is not a forgiving force - it’s why there’s upper limits on everything from the evolution of species to architectural developments. At some point, it becomes cost prohibitive to attempt broaching the upper boundary of what’s possible within the restraints of gravity on a planet. If you’d like to do some handwaving and suspension of disbelief in your readers, you could use some anti-gravity generators on larger structures that would reduce the building cost of architectural features due to an artificially-raised boundary on what gravity will tolerate until it brings everything down.

Addy: So first off, a 1km long stretch of river is different than a 1km wide river. How many pillars and support sections do you have on this bridge? Because at this point, you're not really building a bridge, you're building an elevated plaza with roads on it. And, assuming you don't have antigrav, there's no way that (with modern or modern+50yrs tech) that you can support 1000m (~3000ft) of moderate-heavy commercial development with only two supports on the far ends.

You could, however, have something that's suspended on a series of arches, with some small shops or food areas along that length. After all, if people are walking between buildings, go ahead and put some places for them to eat. If this is a tourist attraction, also put some places for them to buy trinkets (either on the bridge-plaza or at the ends)

For a sports complex and a cinema, I'd say that it'd be cheaper (and more feasible) to have them inside the buildings, and to have the skybridge as a sort of public park.

If you're looking for a plaza 1 km long, and looking at a river that's more like 50-150m wide, then you could have a long, long skybridge-plaza that's supported by multiple buildings along its length. It could wind along the course of the river, with glass-paned areas to shed light to the river underneath, if that's something you want.

If you've got antigrav, like Tex mentioned, then you could replace pillars with anti-grav repulsors. That'd allow you to build something more like what you're envisioning, I think, with a wide stretch of space above and beneath the 10-story skybridge. If you don't want to have antigrav in the rest of your setting, maybe antigrav requires a bunch of power and can't change quickly to different amounts, so they're mostly static. Or maybe they're heavy/large and have a lot of inertia, like spinning (in a circle) a tube of wrapping paper while holding it in the middle vs spinning it while holding it at the end. Or bending an eraser on the thinner side vs bending it on the thicker side (mass vs area moments of inertia, but whatever). That could make them hard to incorporate into things like cars or planes, while still giving you your cool building structures.

It's all up to you and how you want to design your world.

#google submitted #technology #structure #construction

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el-im · 1 year

Photo

The first thing you notice about the sickbay department on board the NX-01 is the overwhelming feeling that you really are in a high tech ER. So much so that it is actually uncomfortable, in a primal sort of way, to spend time in it. I think that’s as it should be. The brushed aluminum consoles that line the top of the desk are highly reminiscent of some of McCoy’s portable medical bio-comps. Overall, one can see what will evolve into the workstation lab on board 1701. This sickbay, unlike its predecessors, sports the hard edge of reality. One thing that remains constant is the distinctive circular configuration. There were some found items in the sickbay, most notably the incubator looking arrangement to the left and right of the MRI. As I understand it, they were left over from one of the Mission Impossible movies. Part of the set’s reality owes itself to Denise Okuda. Denise is a registered nurse, and paid her dues in real hospitals and emergency rooms. It may have been Denise who pushed the idea of privacy curtains between the beds. The privacy curtain helps create a sense of anxiety, as we have all seen them before, and we connect them to trauma. Mike Okuda and I were always pushing for ladders. They say multi-leveled. ladders were used on the original series to suggest that the size and scope of the Enterprise. Here is something you’ve never heard. On the NX bridge, to the left and right of the MVS are two hatches. Inside are ladders. The distinctive double glass doors that open into the network of extensive corridors built for Enterprise. These doors were very unusual for a Star Trek set. I see a connection to the doors into Ten-Forward on the Enterprise D, with their distinctive dual portholes and frosted vinyl logos. Interstingly enough, the Ten-Forward door ended up being used in the Starfleet Medical facility in the Enterprise pilot. The real fun of these doors is that you could get a “Trek-on” by walking the slick ship’s corridors, passing these see through doors, and peeping the complete sickbay inside.

#trek #ent

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fiadorable · 2 years

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46 Great Things in Strange New Worlds (S1E01)

I decided to write down all the things I loved from each episode of Strange New World's first season.

Pilot episode things to love include:

Seeing first contact with the Federation from the POV of an alien species with Una's log overlaying the opening

Star Trek tradition of character being in love with really old American television/movies continues, this time with The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Pike's pancakes look divine - and the gentle way he spatulas them onto the plate! This is a person who is skilled and takes great care with delicate things.

I oddly love Pike referring to Batel as "Captain Batel" during breakfast and have this headcanon that he does so while she's in uniform to kind of draw the line between the personal and professional relationship they have

But also like shame on her for saying the pancakes were good BUT STILL LEAVING MOST OF IT ON HER PLATE

Calling the communicator a phone is weird - but I appreciate the effort they are making to bridge the way life imitated art and gave us cell phones before warp drives

Loving the way they are showing the relationship between Batel and Pike here, the friend/coworkers with benefits, call me when you get back in town but with no expectations thing - it feels realistic given their careers

Good god I love the music in this series please give me a soundtrack

What an absolutely gorgeous theme song and title sequence. It feels very Lower Decks visually, but definitely pays homage to the TOS sequence.

Say what you want, but I love seeing playful Vulcans. Tuvok had some excellent lines on Voyager, but seeing T'Pring and Spock dance around the engagement question is delightful.

"I'm going to have to ask you two to do that somewhere else." 😂😂😂

"Matrimony and duty. The two will complement each other." "I remain skeptical." As you should, girl, as you should

Oo, I do like the communicator plugging into a video display though. Nice blend of the 60s tech with modern tech.

Pike reviewing La'an's file and the Gorn report on the way to the Enterprise. Weird thing to like, I know, but this comes up later in my list.

I love that Enterprise is a learning ship and the cadets rotate through the departments

Pike has a goddamn fireplace in his quarters. He has a kitchen.

I love Pike's conversation with Spock on the way to Kiley 279, questioning how the knowledge of his accident will live in him and direct his actions in the years leading up to it - and the season finale answers that question which makes for a nice narrative circle shaped thing

Bridge troubleshooting sessions are the best

I love Nurse Chapel - she is the manic pixie dream girl of the show while still being extremely competent - and I love her introductory exchange with La'an and how Pike is just sitting back and watching them circle each other

"Well there's surviving and then there's living." I like that he left the decision to take the sedative up to La'an (and now knowing her backstory it makes sense but the first time I saw this episode I was like goddamn girl)

Obligatory "history of the United States" reference

Also loving the rivalry between Spock and La'an down on the planet… new coworkers are hard

Delta Scorpii Seven

"Always when I'm in the captain's chair" - This whole exchange is when I knew Ortegas was gonna be one of my favs

I love that Uhura is the one who is able to settle the rabbit - bonding through sports is the fastest way to get your alien captive to relax

The flirtatious lady in the elevator who sees Spock morphing while Pike pretends he has no idea what she's freaking out about - this man is a complete awkward dork around women how the hell did he get Batel into bed 😂(

"Somehow I figured you might" 😍 I don't ship them I don't ship them

"Can you not jinx it?" More of Una and Spock, please, I beg of you

Also the way Pike is holding her 😍 GODDAMMIT I DO NOT SHIP THEM

Spock screaming as his genome reverted was intense and I like it because it means my girl La'an is a fucking BEAST because she went through all of that without a sound on the ship which is horrifying

Shades of Janeway and the Caretaker's array in Pike's decision to interfere despite General Order 1 because without their original unintended interference there would be no secondary interference necessary - it's a parallel I am comfortable with

La'an calling Spock "the science officer" 😂

What a power move bringing Enterprise into lower orbit and I love the air raid sirens on Kiley that go off as it descends

"The true cost of a civil war is abstract"

"Right up until the very end life is to be worn gloriously"

Ok, ok, we get it, this is the bad place 🙃

The Kiley montage is weird like what is even happening in it are they worshiping the Enterprise at the end there with their paper doll cutout of it?? Aliens.

Renaming General Order One the Prime Directive

I like Admiral April - he is a solid dude

Pike knowing exactly what La'an is about at the end of the episode is the best. He's read her file, he knows all of this already, but he's letting her come to him and tell him in her own words and that's great.

"Other people are challenging for me." me too girl me too

Ugh this musiiiiiic 🥰

I just like watching this crew doing their jobs. The set is pretty, the people are pretty, the dialogue is crisp.

We are all Uhura saying "Cool!" on the bridge

Pike's almost knee-high boots

Ending credit music!

#st:snw #star trek strange new worlds #why is the pilot the name of the series #there's a lot that could have been done better this season #but there were also some really good things too #i want to focus on good things right now #ignore me #snw great things

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the-gravestone-saga · 2 years

Text

Chapter 9: The Golden Cathedral - Part 1

Angel Fallen: The Chronicles of the Legion has been canned and will no longer be updated

A few hours had passed since the destruction of the Stronghold of Dominion, and night had since fallen over the airship as it cruised through the star-speckled sky. In the bridge, Rudra, Larimar, Noir, and Anita were gathered, looming over the main console as Larimar flipped through the war plans he had stolen from Satan’s archives.

Larimar clicked his tongue as he thumbed through the pages, his face bathed in neon blue light from the computer’s monitors. “Looks like ol’ Luci spent a long time on these plans,” Larimar remarked curtly, carefully turning over the crinkled papers. “Some of these diagrams are dated to the outbreak of the Black Plague in Europe, and others go as far back as 4000 years ago.”

“He’s been preparing for the Rapture for a long time. It looks like he was trying to compile every scrap of information he could to ready his armies,” Rudra added, gently holding up a series of battle plans that had been scribbled on aging, yellowed parchment.

“And he did a lot. According to these plans, it looks like Lucifer was planning on attacking some kind of stronghold near the end of the Rapture - he calls it the Golden Cathedral,” he said, jabbing his forefinger at a haphazardly doodled diagram of a chapel.

“The name doesn’t ring any bells,” Rudra remarked, closely examining the pages. “Is there anymore information on it?”

“Uh…not much. It looks like Luci didn’t know much about the Golden Cathedral either. Look.” Larimer quickly flipped through the plans and gathered up the pages that mentioned the cathedral before dangling them between his thumb and forefinger, revealing only two or three pages. “See? This is nothing. There’s some schematics of the stronghold’s interior, but it’s mostly just speculation on what’s being held inside. But whatever this stronghold is, it was important enough for Luci to make plans to take it.” He pressed the plans flush against the console and continued reading.

Rudra leaned down and squinted at the scribbled writing. “It does say this cathedral is strategically located. It was built in a valley between two mountain ranges and has easy access to several ore deposits, including…” Rudra paused, then blinked. She squinted, then leaned down to reread the last sentence. Did that say what she thought it said? “A Sparx deposit?”

“What?” Larimar grasped the papers and briskly skimmed the pages, and his hundreds of eyes widened in surprise. “Wh - how? Sparx can only be harvested from Great Beasts! How is there a deposit of this stuff!?”

Noir rubbed her neck, staring at the crinkled pages when an idea came to mind. “Were Great Beasts common to the area?”

“Yes, there are records of Great Beasts living in this valley,” Rudra answered. “Why?”

“I think I know what Noir is getting at,” Anita interjected with her characteristic wry grin. “It’s simple science. Petroleum - oil and natural gas - comes from a process that started millions of years ago. Small plankton lived, died, and sank to the bottom of the oceans. As debris settled down through the water, it covered them and microbes dined on some of the dead. Chemical reactions further transformed these buried materials, and eventually, two substances formed: kerogen and a black tar called bitumen, one of the ingredients in petroleum.”

“…what we’re saying is that maybe the same thing happened to the Great Beasts that used to live here. They died and a Sparx deposit was formed from their decaying bodies,” Noir clarified, raising an eyebrow at Anita. “And Judgment’s lackey’s somehow found it and are using it. Kinda like how we humans use fossil fuels.”

“Exactly,” Anita beamed.

“Well,” Rudra cleared her throat. “That’s good news for us. We could use Sparx. Anything else?”

“Uh-” Larimar stammered, turning back to the plans. “Well…there’s also a stockpile of weapons in the cathedral and advanced tech. These plans don’t exactly explain what kind of advanced tech, though. But I could have missed something,” Larimar explained, thumbing through the pages.

“This place sounds like the perfect stronghold,” Rudra nodded. “If we can get rid of Judgment’s forces, we can take this cathedral for our own. We’d have everything we need for the war effort going forward.” Rudra sharply tapped the diagram of the cathedral, a grin spreading across her face. “This is our next stop. Larimar? You know what to do.”

Larimar nodded and pushed the plans aside, activating the ship’s computer. “I’ll have us there by dawn.”

“Perfect,” Rudra hummed. “In the meantime, we should rest up. We need all of our strength for this siege.”

***

In the lower decks of the airship, Anita and Talon were toiling away in the Engineering Department. Tools and metal parts were haphazardly strewn across the workbench in front of them, and behind them, Net was laying belly-up on a gurney Talon had brought in from the Medbay, her metallic body having been partially disassembled. In the center of the room, a hologram of Net’s body was suspended, displaying a rudimentary blueprint of her mechanized anatomy. On the other side of the room, Skyla was silently scribbling something onto the surface of her chestplate and Ofia was doing the same, occasionally leaning over Skyla’s shoulder to surreptitiously copy her work.

Talon had removed one of Net’s arms and had the unusually long mechanical appendage laid out in front of her, carefully taking it apart to see how the limb ticked.

“This is significantly more advanced tech than what Shadiel put in me,” Talon remarked curtly, turning the metal plating of the arm over in her claws. “He just fused Cloud Steel with my body. But here? He’s practically made a robot out of her.”

Talon set the metal plate aside and took the upper forearm in her hand. She steadily ran a claw through the plating until she came around to the wrist, where the metal plates partially separated. Gently, she began pressing against the crack until the plating came apart, revealing the wires and circuitry underneath. She bent the forearm until the palm was facing up and peered into the wires. There was a small socket in which the hand and wrist rested, and there was a button just below it. Talon brushed a few wires aside with her thumb and pressed down on the button, and the socket came loose. The hand and wrist came apart from the arm with a pop and slumped lifelessly against the workbench’s surface.

“So the limbs can be taken apart with a button? Not a very advanced locking system…” Talon hummed. She turned her attention to the crook of the elbow and found a similar crack in the plating. By pressing on it and separating it from the arm, she found another socket and button. Pressing on the button, the forearm came loose from the upper arm and slid out of place.

Anita watched closely as Talon took the arm apart, silently taking notes of the entire procedure. It was like watching a surgery - every movement was methodical in nature, and Talon disassembled the limb with all the precision of a surgeon, using her lethal claws like dexterous scalpels.

“Hey, Anita? You said you could make Net a new face. How’s that coming along?” Talon asked, laying out the pieces of Net’s arm.

“Fine. I just need a scan of her face so I can reconstruct what it must have looked like.” Anita dragged her bag of tricks across the table and peered into it. Rummaging around for a brief moment, Anita produced a helm-like device. A wire was connected to the back of it and was coiled into a tight ball, held together by a single zip-tie. She popped the zip-tie off and unraveled the wire. “You have somewhere I can plug this in?”

“The Holo-Caster,” Talon answered, throwing her thumb over her shoulder at the hologram projector in the center of the room.

Anita nodded and plugged the device into the machine, and the hologram displayed the word Searching in bold red letters. Anita then unfurled the device and carefully removed Net’s porcelain mask, revealing a face and head that was half-gone, sloping inward towards the back of the skull. Anita internally shuddered before affixing the device to what remained of Net’s face. A holographic projection surrounded her head, and the Holo-Caster displayed an in-progress reconstruction of Net’s face. A flurry of rapid beeps came from the computer as the reconstruction was completed, displaying a narrow, sharp face with dark, imposing eyes. The facial reconstruction was mostly human, save for the visor that was built directly into her temples and the long, silicon locs that made up her hair.

“Wow…it looks just like her…Almost,” Talon added, staring pointedly at the visor. “How is that device doing this?”

“3D printing mixed with technology I’ve already developed that mimics bodily functions.”

“Amazing…what else have you created with this device?”

“Noir’s current leg, for one. I’ve mostly dabbled in making prosthetic limbs with it. This is my first time reconstructing a face.”

“It’s looking good so far,” Talon replied, marveling at the reconstruction.

“Now I just need the printer…Look in my bag, there should be a hotbed inside with a 3D label on it. Just hook it up to the Holo-Caster and the magic can begin,” Anita instructed. She patted Net’s shoulder as she left her side to activate the 3D printer.

Talon momentarily rifled inside Anita’s bag and produced a small, flat metal plate with a cable attached to it. Once the plate was hooked up to the Holo-Caster, it unfurled and extended outwards, spontaneously transforming into a 5-by-7 inch 3D printer, much to Talon’s surprise. Anita carefully prepared the 3D printer and provided Net’s facial reconstruction to the program before translating the design into coordinates for the printer to read.

“Alright, I need one more thing. Talon? Could you possibly provide some Cloud Steel filament? I’ll need some to accurately reconstruct her face.”

“Uh,” Talon stammered, looking awkwardly at her hands. “I guess?”

“Just wrap it around this,” Anita explained, tapping the spindle attached to the side of the printer.

“Alright, here goes.” Talon squeezed her hands together and began twisting, as though she was pulling sugar. A thin, silvery strand of Cloud Steel slowly slid out of her hands and she carefully wrapped it around the spindle before creating more filament. She repeated this for several minutes, twisting and stretching out her hands like a skilled candy maker to produce more of the filamentous metal for Net’s facial reconstruction.

Once the spool was full, Anita activated the printer and watched as the machine sprang to life. The motor whirred softly like a purring cat and the extruder dropped to the hotbed as the printer swiftly got to work, etching out layer after layer of a metallic skull.

“How long will this take?” Talon quizzed, following the extruder with her eyes.

“30 minutes, give or take. Then I’ll have to affix the reconstruction to her skull.” Anita rolled up her sleeves and picked up her toolbag. “Speaking of, how’s the arm reconstruction going?”

Talon clicked her tongue and returned to the workbench. Taking Net’s detached arm in her hands, she clicked a button near the shoulder and sat back and marveled as the abnormally long arm began to twist in her hand, sending out a flurry of whistles and pops as nuts and bolts turned within. The metal plates of the arm slid over the plates behind them, then slid over the plates behind that. Like a retracting needle, the segmented arm steadily shrunk itself into a compact shape - joints and metal tendons stretched and compressed, squeezing themselves into a smaller form as Net’s mangled limb began to take a natural, humanoid shape.

Then, the air popped. Air quickly escaped from the limb as the last of the plates slid into place. With that, the scraping and whirring finally stopped, and a robotic human arm sat in Talon’s hands. Talon grinned at her handiwork, beaming like a proud parent.

“I think it’s ready,” Talon said with a lofty smile. “Let’s get these on Net.”

Talon and Anita carefully affixed Net’s reassembled limbs back onto her body, first by reattaching her legs, then by locking her robotic arms back into their sockets. Net, although rendered silent without her facial plate, hummed softly as she was gradually reassembled.

Once her arms were reattached, Talon gently tapped her claw-tips against Net’s shoulder to get the faceless angel's attention. “Hey, Net? How’re you holding up?”

Net’s arm twitched briefly, but the faceless angel managed to give her metal sister a silent thumbs-up. Then, she let out a deep hissing noise that must have been a sigh. She steadily curled her other hand into a fist and rapped her knuckles against the gurney, as if to confirm to herself that she still had feeling in her body.

The movement eventually slowed to a halt, and Net unsteadily raised her hand, unfurling a single finger to point at Ofia and Skyla as the two angels continued to doodle in the corner of the room. Net jabbed at the air a few times, then angled her faceless head back towards Talon, who tried to hide an involuntary shudder at the sight.

“Hm? Oh, are you wondering what they’re doing?” Talon asked quickly, following Net’s still-unfurled forefinger. Net hummed and nodded in the affirmative. “Uh, well…actually, I’m not sure what they’re doing.”

“We’re making some new chest plates!” Skyla called, a great deal of exuberance in her voice.

Net made an inquisitive sound, leaving Talon to decipher what her mechanized sister meant.

“Making new chest plates? It looks more like you’re just doodling on the ones you already have,” Talon remarked dryly, folding her metal arms.

“Oh, we are. We’re just making some adjustments,” Ofia clarified.

“Like what?��

“Like this!” Ofia sprung up from her seat and shuffled over to the operating table Net was laid across, chest plate in hand. Ofia turned her verdant chest plate over to reveal the face to Talon, and the disorderly image she had scrawled onto her armor made Talon freeze for a moment, as if her brain had stopped to catch up with what she was seeing.

“...Ofia, what is that?” Talon blurted, staring blankly at the haphazard doodle.

“It’s supposed to be Rudra,” Ofia clarified. “Since Rudra is already the face of the Legion, we thought it would be cool to make her the actual face of the Legion, y’know?” Ofia chuckled lightly, but briskly stopped when she noticed Talon’s continued blank stare.

The image on Ofia’s chestplate was lopsided - it was clearly supposed to be a face, but of whom was lost on Talon had Ofia not spelled it out for her. The eyes were severely off-center, the nose was crooked, and the mouth was creased like a wrinkled piece of paper - it was difficult to tell if the visage of Rudra was supposed to be smiling or scowling.

“Uh…” Talon winced, nervously rubbing her neck. “Yeah…that’s a no for me. Good luck trying to get Rudra to approve of that for the Legion.”

“A Picasso you are not,” Skyla remarked, earning a glare from Ofia. “But I sure am!” Skyla scampered up from her seat and displayed her own chest plate to Talon, a huge smile on her face as she presented a much cleaner and sleeker image, one that perfectly encapsulated the visage of Rudra.

Talon’s expression brightened and her brows perked up. “Wow. Skyla, I didn’t know you were an artist.”

“Eh, I dabble,” Skyla hummed, brushing off the compliment as though she wasn’t extremely flattered.

Ofia simply rolled her eyes. “Please, you’ve just had more experience than me!”

“...You’re several millennia older than me,” Skyla stated matter-of-factly, much to Ofia’s chagrin.

“Oh, come on, don’t tell me you’re jealous of the kid,” Anita butted in, leaning over the Holo-Caster to look at the gathered angels.

“No I’m not!” Ofia huffed, exasperated. She then stopped for a moment, and sighed. “Ok, maybe a little bit. It’s just - how can someone so young already be so skilled?”

“It’s easy! I just picked up a pencil, and spent the next 3000 years teaching myself how to draw!”

Ofia blanched. “That’s a joke, right?”

“Haha…No.”

An ungainly quiet came over Ofia, all while Net silently moved her head around to follow the conversation to the best of her abilities. Net then gave a hissing sigh and tugged on Talon’s white dress to get her sister’s attention.

“Huh? What is it?”

Net lifted her hand awkwardly and pointed at the Holo-Caster, where her facial reconstruction was nearing completion.

“Hm? Oh! Right, hang on, I’ll get to that. Anita! Is her face done yet?” Talon inquired briskly, shuffling off from the operating table to rejoin Anita at the workbench.

“Almost. It just needs to finish making the hinges and-”

Ding!

“Oh. Nevermind, it’s already done. D*mn, this thing works so much faster than the Holo-Caster I have at home!”

“What was that?”

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” Anita unplugged her 3D printer from the Holo-Caster and wrapped the cord up, tying it together with a zip-tie. She then carefully brushed off her hands and gingerly took the 3D printer in her hands, lifting it with all the gentleness of a motherly feline. Steadily, she then carried the 3D printer over to the operating table and softly set it down on the side-table with such intense care that the reconstructed face inside barely bobbed or shifted. The mad scientist then let out an earnest giggle, carefully removing Net’s brand new face from the printer's frame.

“And now, for the moment of truth,” Talon breathed. She walked around to the other side of the operating table and, together with Anita, gently placed the new face over Net’s head, pushing the perfectly sculpted countenance into her metal skull until it clicked into place. Talon and Anita promptly pulled back their hands, watching in anxious anticipation to see if Net would acclimate to her new face.

Net’s visor lit up, buzzing with energy as a thin green line appeared across the visor, blinking like a heart monitor. Anita and Talon held their breath, watching in amazement as the synthetic muscles in Net’s face began to twitch, flexing and creasing like laminated paper. Ofia and Skyla looked on as well, left in awe as Net’s new face came to life.

Net groaned and pulled her mouth into a fine line, then raised her hand to shield her eyes - or rather, visor - from the operating lights around her.

“Woah…this is amazing,” Net breathed, her voice coming out in a deep, smooth tone. Talon smiled in delight and gently touched her sister's arm.

“How do you feel?” Talon asked.

“Better than ever,” Net chuckled, a relieved smile crossing her face. She looked at her newly formed hands and arms: words failed to describe the child-like delight that came into her beeping visor. Pure astonishment and relief washed over the mechanized angel, comforted in knowing that, finally, she had regained some semblance of control over her body once more.

Ofia was deeply touched by the sight, and a warmness crept into her smile. Despite what her focus on making a haphazard doodle on her chest plate might have suggested, she had been deeply engaged with Net’s reassembly. Like a nagging fly that buzzed at the back of her mind, Ofia couldn’t take her attention away from her sister’s wellbeing, not so soon after finding Net alive after centuries of never knowing what had become of the Cherubim. It was a relief, truly. To not only see Net alive, but to see her repaired and given back what had been taken from her. It warmed her heart to see Talon and Net reunited, bonding over the shared trauma of being among the doomed angels who were forced to march into Shadiel’s visceral game of chess - and the relief of finding a home among the ranks of the Legion.

A trauma and relief that Ofia was an outsider to.

Talon took Net’s hand and helped her sister off the operating table. Net clumsily dropped to her feet, wobbling slightly as she tried balance on her heels for the first time in centuries. “Woah, this is incredible. For the first time in ages, I can finally walk upright!” Net laughed, steadying herself against the operating table.

“And I also added something extra to your arsenal,” Talon added. “There should be a button on your wrist.”

“What?” Net rubbed her wrist until she found a small blue button resting in the socket. Upon clicking it, two slim bars of steel popped out from her arm length-wise, creating a silver bow out of her own arm. Net jumped back in alarm, her mouth agape in surprise and awe. Then her mouth turned up in an elated grin. She briefly pulled back her long, silicon hair, and the visor where her eyes should have been blinked pleasantly. “Holy shit, a built-in bow! That’s awesome!”

“And you should be able to create your own celestial arrows at will!” Talon added triumphantly, playfully tapping her sister's arm with the back of her hand.

“Oh, that’s so much easier than hauling around that old quiver. What else does this new body have?” Net inquired exuberantly, looking over her body in barely contained excitement.

Talon chuckled mirthfully. “Well, we had to replace your wings. I think you’ll like the changes we made.”

“Eh?” Net looked over her shoulder and peered at her metal back. “I don’t see anything.”

“There’s a button on your collar,” Anita clarified.

Net hummed in the affirmative before clicking a small silver button on her collarbone. Not a second later, Net’s astounded “oooh” filled the air as metal plates in her back slid open with a hiss. Then, much to her amazement, four long, luxurious sheets of fine lavender silk flowed out from the openings, unraveling like a red carpet. Net practically squealed in delight, pure unbridled joy in her visor as she watched the fine silk sheets floating aimlessly in the air around her: her new wings.

“This is amazing, this is amazing - I HAVE SILK FOR WINGS!” She cackled, a metallic squeal creeping into her voice. She happily clapped her hands together, and her infectious joy made its way to the rest of her friends, making them laugh alongside her and join in her glee.

All except Ofia, who had quietly crept back to her seat with her chest plate in hand. When she plopped down, she heaved a sigh and watched her sisters laugh together. Two siblings separated by torture, finally reunited under a shared banner. It filled Ofia with so much happiness and hope - and yet, when the joy faded, it left her feeling alone and guilty; hollow as a rotting tree.

“Are you ok, Ofia? You ain’t looking too hot,” came Skyla’s concerned voice. Ofia momentarily tore herself away from her intrusive thoughts and cast her gaze up to the young angel. “You just kinda sulked off. Are you feeling ok?”

Ofia sighed and propped her elbows against her knees before resting her head in her hands. Skyla’s brow furrowed, and the young Virtue took a seat next to the forlorn Ophanim. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“It’s-” Ofia started, not sure how to put words to her confused, conflicting emotions. “It’s about Talon and Net,” she managed. She pulled her hands away from her face and gazed at her tawny palms. She scowled, then turned her hands over to look upon her knuckles. Her chestnut skin was as perfect as ever - a bronze glow seemed to dance across her cheeks, as though she were made of the very same precious metal. Her complexion was unmarred by the brutal touch of Shadiel and his hellish machines - unlike her sisters, who had suffered so much under that man’s tyrannical thumb.

Skyla’s brow furrowed further, and she rested a concerned hand atop Ofia’s shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Look at me, Skyla,” Ofia implored, turning to the Virtue. “Do you see anything different between me and my sisters?”

Skyla stammered, taken aback by Ofia’s inquiry. She pressed her mouth into a thin line and looked back and forth between Ofia, Talon, and Net. “...You don’t have Cloud Steel in your body?”

“Exactly. Look, Skyla, I was lucky enough to be cast down alongside Jori after the Split happened. I walked the Earth with Mom and I lived in the Sanctuary for most of my life.”

“Ok…where are you going with this?” Skyla asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I was spared from Judgment’s super soldier program. I was spared Shadiel’s experiments. But Talon and Net? They weren’t so lucky. They got the worst of it. Talon’s almost completely made of metal now, and she can’t even change her human form to something else. And Net? Almost her entire body was mechanized by Shadiel. There’s barely anything left of her original form, and we had to reconstruct her body just to give her some control again.” Ofia’s hands dropped, and she hung her head low, her crimson hair falling in front of her sullen face. “And it was all just bad luck. Just some freak accident - it was all up to chance. I was thrown out, while my sisters were trapped inside Heaven, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I was lucky enough to be spared while they had to suffer for nothing…”

A disquieted, almost inaudible gasp left Skyla’s throat. She could feel a sting in her chest - a palpable wave of sadness coming off Ofia in such potency that it physically hurt the young Virtue to her core.

“It should have been me,” Ofia whispered, her stifled voice beginning to break. “It should have been me going through that. I should have done something. I should’ve stormed the gates to Heaven and got them out of there myself. If I could switch places with them, I would take it. I would do anything if it meant they never went through that.”

Ofia set her jaw and stiffened her neck, watching her sisters as Talon continued to cheerily show off all the upgrades she made to Net’s new body, a wide, toothy grin on her pale, gypsum face. “They’ve suffered and fought long enough. Now it’s my turn to protect them. And I can do just that,” Ofia declared, a firm resolve in her voice that reminded Skyla of Rudra. “Starting now, I’ll do everything it takes to keep them safe. When we siege the Golden Cathedral, I’ll make sure my sisters don’t get hurt, no matter the cost.”

“And I’ll help you,” Skyla announced, a resolute grin crossing her rosey face. “I’ve seen what Judgment does to people - it’s horrible and it makes me want to throw up ichor everytime I think about what he did to Rudra…I want to prove that I can stand up to his army. I want to protect Rudra just like you want to protect your sisters.”

“Then we’re on the same page,” Ofia smiled, ruffling Skyla’s dark hair.

“That we are. During this siege, I’ll show Shadiel and his lackeys everything a Virtue can do. He has spent his whole life running from consequences. I would love to meet him on the battlefield and become the consequences. For the Legion, for Rudra! …and maybe a little for me…”

Ofia pursed her lips in amusement, her mouth turning up in a cocksure grin. “What was that last part?” She quizzed, propping her hand on her hip.

“Well…I was hoping for something else,” she admitted sheepishly, awkwardly brushing her onyx hair out of her face. “I’ve seen Rudra fight - the way she moves like lightning and strikes like thunder. The way she can just slice through people like butter: And not just that! Have you seen the way she uses her emotion in battle?” Skyla inquired with increasing exuberance, her crimson eyes flashing like neon lights. “Her anger is like an inferno that mows down her enemies, her spite can sabotage everything that comes after her! It’s like she knows how to wield her emotions just like she wields her sword…it’s awe-inspiring, y’know?”

“Heh, yes, I know, I’ve seen her in action,” Ofia smiled.

“Well…I’ve decided that I want to be like that. I want to fight like Rudra, and I want to use my emotions like her, too! If she can do all this crazy shit, then I can do the same thing if I just do whatever she does!”

A doubtful grimace crossed Ofia’s face. “Eh…I dunno about that, Skyla. I mean, have you ever even fought like that before?”

“Uh…” Skyla blanched, pursing her lips. “Well…no, not really. I’ve never even picked up a sword before. I mostly just stick with my elemental powers.”

Ofia raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Then how are you gonna fight like her during the siege?”

“I’ll just copy what she does! If it works so well for her, then it’ll work for me!”

“What will work for you?”

Skyla and Ofia jumped at Talon’s cutting voice, their armor rattling in unison. Turning to face the metallic angel, they saw her standing by the Holo-Caster with her large claws hooked on her hips, her lips pursed and her brows raised as she pensively waited for an answer.

Skyla seemed to shrink, having forgotten about everyone else in the room in her eagerness. “Uh…Well, it’s just - y’know, I want to fight like Rudra and all, but I don’t really know how to do that.”

Talon and Net traded uncertain glances, and Anita’s eyes became cloudy with bemusement. “Uh - heh, Skyla? Are you sure about that? I mean, you’ve never even picked up a sword! What makes you think you can fight like Rudra?”

“Easy! I just do whatever Rudra does!” Skyla said, springing from her seat. “I just gotta train for it, and I can fight like her, no problem!”

“Ofia, you gonna say anything about this?” Talon asked.

Ofia shrugged. “I tried to talk her out of it. She wouldn’t listen. But hey, if she wants to go ahead with it...”

Talon let out a mirthless laugh, shaking her head as she waltzed up to the overeager angel. “Skyla, honey, it’s not that easy,” she said, a tad bit mystified by the young Virtue. “For starters, Rudra is much larger than you, and she’s been training as a soldier for most of her life. She’s built like a tank. But you…well, you, unfortunately, are not.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Skyla asked, confounding Talon with her bullheaded stubbornness.

“It matters because you are not a tank. You’re not a bruiser like Rudra is. Rudra can handle head-on collisions, you can’t. Think about it, your powers are designed for craftier tactics. You’re small, fast, and agile. You can easily get underneath larger opponents and then use your elemental powers to sabotage them,” Talon explained carefully. “You can do things that the rest of us can’t. So why do you suddenly want to fight like Rudra? Where is this even coming from?”

“I just thought I’d be a bigger help to the Legion if I could fight like its leader,” Skyla offered, brushing her hair with her hand. “Me and Ofia were talking about doing things for the Legion, and I thought this was a good way to help.”

Talon gave a relenting sigh. “Alright, fine. If that’s your prerogative. But you’ll need at least a little training. You can’t go out into a siege with no idea how to fight.” Talon shut off the Holo-Caster and gathered up her things before heading for the exit. “Meet me and Jori in the barracks and we’ll see what you got.”

“Ok, thanks!” Skyla waved. A grin spread across her face as she wrung her hands together in excitement. “I’m gonna show ‘em what I got, and they’ll see that I can do exactly what Rudra does!”

“Good luck with that,” Ofia smiled, giving Skyla a strong pat on the back. “And I’ll join you. I could use some practice before the siege.”

“Then let's go!” Skyla grinned. She took Ofia by the arm and hurried out of the Engineering Department, leaving Anita and Net to continue running diagnostics on Net’s new cybernetic body.

***

The barracks of the airship were made up of a series of large, spacious multi-purpose rooms that all smelled vaguely of rubber and cold steel. The rooms were constructed from smooth, polished ceramic and quartz, mixed with a veritable grab-bag of clay and terrazzo. Each room came equipped with a series of specially designed tracks tailored for individual training regimens - strength, speed, agility, defense, and magic.

Skyla stood before Talon and Joriel in the bright white barracks, squinting through the blinding fluorescent lights that shone overhead, harassing her ears with their incessant hum-buzz. Ofia sat on a nearby bench, her golden lance comfortably laying across her lap as she patiently waited for Skyla’s brief training regimen to begin.

Joriel and Talon spoke briskly, quickly going over Skyla’s impromptu training. Joriel, although surprised by Skyla’s request, and initially reluctant to participate in Skyla’s unfitting choice of fighting style, ultimately resigned herself to helping after the young Virtue badgered her into it.

“Alright Skyla. As you’ve repeatedly told me, you want to fight like Rudra,” Joriel began, neatly folding her arms behind her as she started towards Skyla. “Unfortunately, we can’t exactly teach you everything in the limited time we have. So instead, we’ll focus on how you approach an enemy. With that in mind, how would you normally start an attack?”

“Uh…well, normally, I hang back and use my powers to attack. I used my nature magic to pull Lucifer off his feet when we went down to Hell. That was fun,” Skyla chuckled, smiling at the memory.

Joriel brought a hand to her face and slowly stroked her chin, as though analyzing Skyla. “Ok, so you’re unfamiliar with frontal attacks. How are you with weapons?”

“Uh…” Skyla pursued her lips, making a short ‘pbbt’ sound. “Well, I have my lance.” She drew her lance and held it aloft, albeit clumsily as the lance balanced unsteadily in her hands like a seesaw. “But I don’t have too much practice.”

“I can see,” Joriel said tersely. She took the lance and carefully weighed it in her hands. She squinted at the long, conical blade and steadily ran her fingertips against it, following the ornate grooves etched into the metal. She then clicked her tongue and handed the lance over to Talon. “A lance might be a bit too much for what you want to accomplish. Let’s try something closer to what Rudra would use.”

Talon nodded and pushed a metal service cart over to Skyla. When the kart stopped, Skyla saw an assortment of weapons scattered about its tiers, ranging from a menacing mace, to a tiny and meek pocket-knife. Skyla hummed curiously, her eyes darting quickly between each weapon.

“How good are you with swords?” Joriel inquired, watching with amusement as Skyla ineptly picked a shortsword out of the pile, her lack of finesse abundantly clear to anyone watching.

“Not very? My training mostly revolved around my powers, and a bit of practice with my lance. I’ve never even touched a sword!”

Joriel heaved a despondent sigh, glaring back when Talon stifled a laugh at her expense. “Dear Mom, she doesn’t know how to use a sword…” she muttered under her breath. Joriel inhaled sharply and briskly returned to form, for all she tried to hide her incredulity.

“Alright, then forget the sword,” Talon interjected. “We’ll just show you very basics - how to charge an enemy bare-handed.”

“Alright! I can do that!” Skyla grinned, dropping the shortsword back onto the service cart with a clatter.

“You sure about that? Didn’t I beat you the last time you tried to fight bare-handed?” Joriel said, a needling grin crossing her face.

“Hey, no! Mom broke up that fight! You didn’t win it!” Skyla bit back incredulously.

“And had she not, I still would have won,” Joriel replied, a short laugh escaping her throat. “But I’ll go easy on you this time.”

“I won’t!” Skyla bit, bouncing from foot to foot, raring to go.

“Rudra wasn’t kidding when she said you were feisty,” Joriel remarked, pointedly raising a brow. “I like that energy. Keep it up.”

Joriel turned on her heel and took 20 paces from Skyla. She then stopped, and wheeled around on her heel once more to face her, standing stalwart in the center of the room. Skyla shook herself off, readying herself. A mix of excitement and nervousness whirled around in her chest and made her shake, even as she tried to remain steely in the eyes of Joriel and Talon.

“Pretend I am an enemy!” Joriel announced, bracing herself. “You’re charging me! Either I get out of your way, or you mow me down! Begin!”

An electrified shout was let loose from Skyla’s throat, and she barreled forward with surprising speed, charging directly at Joriel. Skyla huffed and puffed as she ran, and she drew back her fist as she closed the distance between them. Once she finally reached the Seraph, she roared and threw her punch with all her might.

That is, until Joriel sidestepped clear out of the way, seized Skyla by her wrist, and - using her own momentum against her - spun Skyla around and hurled her back the way she came, sending her skidding across the floor. When Skyla finally skidded to a halt, she found herself standing right where she had started.

“What the-!?” came Skyla’s bewildered squawk. She spun around and stared at a grinning Joriel, mystified. “What just happened!?”

“Well, it’s simple,” Joriel started, brushing her hands off. “You gave away your attack too early, and you left yourself open to be countered.”

“Wha-” Skyla’s disbelieving eyes darted between Talon and Joriel, and then to Ofia when the Ophan began laughing hysterically at Skyla’s misfortune. Skyla scowled at Ofia. It’s not like Ofia’s plans for the siege were much better…

“Skyla, honey, that’s the oldest trick in the book!” Ofia guffawed, her golden feathers puffing up in amusement.

Skyla grumbled something and folded her arms. “What did I do wrong? I charged, I tried to attack, and then you just threw me like a ragdoll!”

“Skyla, listen,” Talon said, raising a clawed hand. “There’s this thing you have to understand about battle, and it’s how to properly telegraph an attack.”

“Telegraph?”

“Yes? It’s like the wind-up to an attack. When an attack is easily telegraphed, it’s easy to dodge or counter it because you know exactly what’s coming seconds before it happens. That’s what Jori was able to do. You drew your fist back too soon and gave away what you were going to do, which allowed Jori to react appropriately and counter you.”

“Exactly,” Joriel nodded, folding her arms over her chest. “And any good warrior knows how to hide those wind-ups from the enemy.”

“Oh…Huh, I never had to worry about that when using my magic…” Skyla said frankly, gazing down at her hands.

“...Mother of Mom, you barely have any melee combat training, do you?”

“Uh…no, not really,” Skyla shrugged. “Like I said, I was trained to attack from afar and stay out of close-quarters combat. It wasn’t until recently that I started using a lance.”

Talon blinked a few times, trying to soak in what Skyla had said. “Skyla, if you have no melee combat training, then why are you trying to fight like someone who has had thousands of years of it?”

Skyla opened her mouth to answer, but Joriel raised a hand. “Don’t answer that, I already know. ‘You want to fight like Rudra.’” she sighed, rubbing her golden eyes in exasperation. “Skyla, I think this is a really bad idea. You barely have any training to build off of, your powers aren’t designed for this, and you’re not exactly built for power,” Joriel explained carefully, resting her hands on Skyla’s shoulders.

“Rudra is a soldier who’s been trained to blitz through her enemies. She has the strength to overpower her opponents, and she knows how to survive head-on collisions. The woman is built like a tank and fights like one, but you? Skyla, you’re much smaller than her. You don’t have the same capacity for brute strength that she has. Like I said before, you have a completely different skill set than Rudra, and trying to fight like her anyways is only gonna end in disaster,” Talon said gently, a dour expression crossing her pale face when Skyla hung her head, dejection in her scarlet eyes.

Talon’s expression then softened, and she rested a clawed hand on Skyla’s back. “Look, I get it. You look up to Rudra. You were willing to fight Joriel to defend her. But you need to understand that taking this line of thought to the battlefield isn’t going to end well for you.”

“But I want to be like her,” Skyla retorted emphatically. “She’s been looking after me for centuries! I want to return the favor!”

“And you can return it by being you,” Talon replied, a gentle firmness in her voice. “You’ve got a lot of passion, that much is clear, but I don’t know if you’re directing it in a good way. Don’t fight like Rudra. Fight like Skyla. I’ve seen your powers in action - you bring something to the table that the rest of us can’t. Don’t forget that.”

The burning eagerness in Skyla’s eyes seemed to dim slightly, and the Virtue nodded quietly, her onyx hair hanging solemnly over her face. “Alright,” she said, a hint of doubt in her voice. Just because she couldn't use a sword didn’t mean she couldn’t still fight like Rudra, she thought - but Skyla was wise to keep that to herself.

A moment later, Talon’s Emitter Stone began to buzz. Upon answering the call, she clicked her tongue with conviction and started for the exit. “Rudra wants us in the bridge. We’re only a few minutes out from the cathedral, and she needs to relay the plans for the siege.”

“Aw. I guess no practice for me,” Ofia grunted comically, jumping up from the bench after slapping her knee. “No matter. I’ll have plenty of Judgment’s goons to practice on instead,” she said with a grin, twirling her golden lance about in her hand with the kind of prowess that Skyla wished she possessed.

With a frown, Skyla retrieved her lance from the service cart and turned the conical blade over in her hands. The lance was dark like ebony, save for a currant spiral that snaked down the entire length of the blade. Power sizzled from within the lance, glowing faintly with crimson stars. Skyla stared into the false starlight, gazing into the red spiral as her faded reflection gazed back at her. Her eyes shimmered vividly, reminding her of the bold red facets of a ruby.

She then squeezed the hilt of her lance and set her jaw, her brows curving downward into a scowl, but her mouth pulling upwards into a thorny but resolute grin. “I can teach myself how to fight like her. I’ll show ‘em,” she declared boldly, marching towards the exit with all the overeager stubbornness of a bull.

***

With all the angels gathered in the bridge, Rudra directed them all to the Holo-Caster at its center. A projection of the treacherous landscape around the airship was lit up, and mountains quickly zoomed past as the airship cruised above the snow-laden peaks. The soft blue light of the projection caressed the faces of the gathered angels, clinging to their skin like burrs to cloth.

“Woah…are those the Alps?” Styna gasped, a wondrous glint flashing in her remaining eye like an ember.

“Indeed they are,” Rudra replied curtly, tucking her arms behind her back. “And the Golden Cathedral is tucked away in a valley at the base of the mountain range. We believe it’s somewhere within Switzerland’s borders.”

“Amazing. I’ve always wanted to visit this place,” Styna smiled, tenderly raising a hand as if to touch the glistening hologram. “Mom sent me on rescue missions near this mountain range, but I never got the chance to visit it myself.” Styna then seemed to frown, pursing her lips. Then she gave a humorless laugh. “And the only reason I’m seeing them now is because of a siege. Go figure.”

Rudra leaned down and punched a command into the Holo-Caster. “Shadiel has chosen this place for more than just a nice view. The Alpine Mountains are the highest and most extensive mountain range in the world, and the valleys that run through it are difficult to get to on foot. It’s the perfect hiding place for a stronghold.”

“And the perfect holding ground for Great Beasts,” Joriel added dryly, chewing the inside of her cheek. Her brow furrowed, and her golden eyes momentarily lost their incandescent glow, as if a dark memory had reached out to extinguish the light.

“The Great Beast Taming Program. GBTP,” Rudra spat with a shudder. “Judgment used these valleys to hold the beasts for testing. There used to be entire facilities dedicated to the study of these creatures.”

“And when the program was terminated and the beasts were put down, their bodies must have congealed into the ground and created pockets of Sparx,” Joriel finished, lightly tapping her chin. “But what about the Golden Cathedral itself? I don’t remember that being part of the GBTP.”

“That’s because it wasn’t.” Rudra cast her glowing eyes to the ground, a brief flash of dejection passing by her face. “I worked in these facilities when GBTP was still active, and the Golden Cathedral was never part of the program. This is more recent, and we still aren’t quite sure what it is.”

“But one thing is for sure: they are definitely harvesting that Sparx,” Anita piped up, absentmindedly chewing on yet another candy cigar. “If I were an evil empire, I’d want to focus my resources on getting as much fuel as possible. It’s like Evil 101.”

“And it appears to be a stronghold of some kind,” Larimar continued, parsing through the papers he had stolen from Lucifer. “After looking through these diagrams some more, I noticed this list of resources that Lucifer believes are being held in the cathedral. Weapons, ammunition, empire-class airships, ground tanks - you know, normal military things. But while I was going through these plans, I found something else. Something called O.R.I.G.I.N. The ‘Omniarch Radiancy Inheritance Grid for Ideality and New beginnings.’”

The gathered angels all stared blankly at Larimar, each one of them at an utter loss for what “O.R.I.G.I.N” could possibly be. It sounded alien - unnatural and otherworldly, even for the angels. Like a humming monolith, it was eldritch and arcane, yet still hid something more uncanny and aberrant beneath its mystifying surface - something that was far darker and apocalyptic than the angels could barely comprehend, much less put into words.

“I’m…not entirely sure what that could possibly be referring to,” Larimar stammered, inhaling sharply as the atmosphere in the bridge quickly became tense. “But considering that it’s bolded, underlined, and circled in red ink? Whatever O.R.I.G.I.N is, it can’t be good for anyone. But, if I had to hazard a guess…” Larimar adjusted the papers around in his arms and meticulously flipped through the crinkled pages. “I believe it has something to do with a super computer that’s being housed inside the Golden Cathedral.”

“A super computer? I haven’t seen one of those since I overthrew TF Industries,” Noir remarked, folding her arms.

“If Lucifer’s notes are to be believed,” Larimar continued, squinting at the haphazard handwriting on the papers, “Then the Golden Cathedral itself is powering the super computer. Granted, this does just appear to be speculation on Luci’s part, so it's hard to say where fact ends and paranoid rambling begins.”

“Then we proceed with caution,” Rudra said. She deftly punched in another command to the Holo-Caster, and a projection of the entire airship appeared. “Lumina has offered to help us in this siege. She is capable of creating energy shields that can withstand well over a megaton of force. That makes her our most valuable defensive option. She is currently waiting in the central courtyard for my command.” Rudra pulled up the central deck on the hologram, revealing a massive atrium within the airship that superficially resembled a park. Lumina was sitting inside, her legs pulled up to her chest and her wings folded snug against her back. “When we reach the Golden Cathedral, we can expect an immediate attack from Shadiel, and Lumina’s shields will keep us safe while we deploy our own forces.”

“So what exactly is the plan?” Skyla asked eagerly, shifting from foot to foot.

“It’s simple. When we arrive at the cathedral, our first move is to take out their artillery units. This will prevent them from blowing the airship out of the sky in the event that Lumina’s shield fails. Then, once the artillery units are cleared, we deploy our soldiers.”

“The plan is to drop all angels into the central courtyard of the cathedral. The idea is to force ourselves behind enemy lines and remove Judgment’s forces from the equation, either by killing them or forcing them out of the cathedral,” Joriel added. She punched yet another command into the Holo-Caster and brought up a recreation of the Golden Cathedral, showing the gathered angels exactly where the Legion intended to strike.

“Quick question,” Noir interjected, raising a hand. “But why don’t we just break down the walls?”

“If we plan on capturing this stronghold for ourselves, we need to keep as much of the cathedral intact while we make our assault,” Rudra clarified, bracing herself on the console with one hand. “After we force our way inside, we need to secure the interior. If Larimar is right about this super computer, then we’ll likely need to take control of it. Anita? CB? Do you think you two can handle that?”

“I can hack into state-of-the-art Spytech computers with my eyes closed. This’ll be like child’s play to me,” Anita chortled, flashing Rudra a toothy grin.

“And I can handle things remotely from here,” Larimar assured.

“Good. Once we secure the interior stronghold, the fight still isn’t over. We’ve already destroyed two of Shadiel’s prized machines, so it’s likely that he won’t let us take the cathedral without a fight.”

“Which means we gotta defend the cathedral!” Skyla finished, an overeager grin on her face.

“I guarantee it,” Ofia piped up, absently cracking her knuckles. “Once we take this place, we’ll probably be defending it well into the night if Shadiel’s still around. He’ll probably try to drag the battle out as long as he can to take back the cathedral. I say we kill the bastard before he gets the chance.”

“This is if he doesn’t slither off again,” Rudra scowled. “Once we secure the stronghold, we’ll also have to be on the lookout for the Great Beast egg Shadiel escaped with when we destroyed The Construct. If there’s one thing we have to keep out of his hands, it’s that. And if he really does plan to use it against us, the Golden Cathedral is the best place to keep it,” she deduced.

“Unless he has it in some kind of vault,” Noir added. “There’s always a vault with these kinds of people. A really big, heavy vault that has at least 10 layers of security.”

“Then we’ll have to turn the place upside down to find it!” Skyla concluded jauntily, earning a perplexed look from Rudra.

“If he’s hiding it anywhere, it’s probably beneath the cathedral,” Styna chimed, pointedly gesturing beneath the glistening hologram. “And like Noir said, it’s probably guarded by layers of security. But if we can get past it, the egg is as good as ours. And I can do just that,” Styna added, much to the surprise of the gathered angels. “I mean, think about it. I’ve been on countless recon, rescue, and retrieval missions. I know my shit when it comes to this. If you want that egg, you can send me in.”

Joriel set her jaw and raised a hand to the young Power. “Styna, that’s way too dangerous. I can’t allow you to put yourself at risk like that.”

Styna’s face suddenly became flush, and an irate glimmer burned in her violet eyes, which seemed to glow a darker shade than normal. “I’m not a child, Jori! And my eye has already healed! I had to sit out when you guys tore down the Stronghold of Dominion, I’m not sitting out for this! I know I can help and I know I can do this!”

Styna’s reaction came as a surprise to everyone about the Holo-Caster, stunning the angels into mystified silence. The angels had never seen such indignance from Styna, and the outburst left them wondering where quiet Styna had found such wrath.

“...Woah, ehehe, where the Hell did that come from?” Ofia chuckled nervously as she gave the young Power a startled once-over.

Then, just like that, the indignance vanished from her eyes, and the irate glint that had made her eyes glow such a dark violet was gone. Styna blinked, then stared at a stunned Joriel, her mouth slightly ajar. She stammered for a moment, then cleared her throat, a flush of embarrassment coming into her face that turned her cheeks a bright red, her own words becoming clear to her moments too late. “Uh…sorry, sor - I don’t know what came over me,” she coughed out, averting her eyes in a desperate bid to avoid eye contact.

Joriel simply continued to stare at Styna, her hand still raised, too stunned to put it down. Her eyes were fixed on Styna, flicking back and forth as though she were searching Styna’s face - it was like she had seen something, something beyond Styna’s harsh words and sudden temper. Joriel then slowly lowered her hand, and unease crept its way into her golden eyes.

Then, realizing that the other angels were staring at her, Joriel cleared her throat and hastily wiped away her unnerved visage, hoping her impenetrable eyes and inscrutable countenance would give little away. “...My apologies, Styna,” Joriel said quietly, resigning herself to Styna’s wishes. “You have the skills to retrieve that Great Beast egg, and the only other person here who has those same skills is Noir, but we’ll need her on the battlefield. If you are confident that you can safely retrieve the egg, then we will be grateful.”

An overjoyed, but nonetheless reserved grin spread across Styna’s face, and the feathered ornaments in her hair seemed to quiver in excitement, for all she tried to hide it with her disciplined stance.

“Thank you. You brought me along for this mission, and I want to show the Legion that I can do more than stand on the sidelines,” she said, her entire body practically buzzing with fiery enthusiasm. “I mean, think about it. Rudra, you successfully managed to absorb Hellfire to counter Judgment’s forces and helped me understand exactly what it is we’re fighting for. Noir, you disabled Shadiel’s broadcast over Evo City and gave us an opening to destroy that relic. Larimar, you finally got the chance to get back at Shadiel by destroying The Construct. Talon, you were pivotal in the destruction of the Stronghold of Dominion and freeing Lumina. And as for the rest of you, you’ve all done awesome things in just the past few days! But me? All I’ve done is steal an angel’s cape, and I haven’t exactly been much help ever since I lost my eye. I just…I want to do something to help,” Styna explained emphatically, gesturing to all the gathered angels in turn with a great deal of heart in her lilting voice.

“Styna, you have been a great help,” Rudra assured gently, giving Styna a reassuring pat on the back. “Don’t sell yourself short - you didn’t just steal an angel’s cape. You also stabbed Lucifer, and you’re the one who stopped Moraine’s self-destruct sequence. Your contributions may not have been the flashiest, but you’ve nonetheless helped us.”

Rudra’s warm words seemed to put Styna’s mind at ease, and the young Power bashfully brushed a pink loc of hair out of her face.

“And don’t worry, you’ll get your chance to do something big and flashy during this siege!” Ofia announced boisterous, pulling Styna into a playful headlock, much to Styna’s abashed protests.

“Well you’re in a good mood today,” Talon remarked, smiling at her sister.

“How can I not be?” Ofia inquired with a vibrant gusto. “We’re on a winning streak, and we’re on our way to our biggest victory yet! I’m gonna go down there, and I’m gonna show Shadiel what happens when he hurts my sisters!”

“Save the energy for the fight,” Rudra chided playfully, shaking her head with a smirk.

“I’m with Ofia on this,” Skyla announced, still bouncing from foot to foot with barely contained energy. “I’m ready for this! This is gonna be the fight where Shadiel sees what we’re really capable of! I’m gonna show him what I can do!”

“Wow, you guys have got a lot of energy today! I like it!” Anita laughed, a spirited grin on her face. “Personally, I’m right there with you.” Anita reached into her seemingly endless bag of tricks and produced an intimidating weapon that appeared to be an unholy hybrid of a rocket launched and a minigun. “I, for one, can’t wait for the fight,” she said, a gutsy, borderline bullheaded grin plastered on her face. Rudra could practically see the insane glint in Anita’s eyes beyond her tinted goggles.

“Alright, alright,” Rudra said, clearing her throat. “That’s enough dawdling. Let’s go over the plan once more. We destroy the artillery units, we deploy our soldiers into the central courtyard, we take the cathedral - and try to take over the supercomputer if Lucifer’s notes are to be believed - and then we defend it until Shadiel’s troops are completely wiped out. During this time, Styna will begin searching for the Great Beast egg, and Skyla, Noir, and Myself will search the cathedral for anything we can use to aid in our defense. From there, our victory should be guaranteed. And if our plans fall through, all Legionnaires will be expected to return to the airship while I order a Hellfire bombardment on the cathedral. Does everyone understand what they’ll be doing?”

Everyone all nodded in the affirmative, clearly voicing their desire for the battle to commence. Rudra gave each of them a resolute smile, her chest swelling with determination. She could feel the electrifying energy in the air, and she couldn’t help but partake in it. It was just like Ofia said: They were on a winning streak, and this would be their biggest victory yet.

“Then let's not waste anymore time. We have a cathedral to win!”

***

As the airship crested over the final snow-capped mountain, the dense clouds finally receded and turned to droplets over the airship's plated hull. As the sky was pulled back, a lush, verdant valley came into view, juxtaposed against the frozen mountain peaks of the Alps that surrounded it on all sides. Nestled between the mountains like an egg in a nest, the valley stretched far and wide, sprawling out beyond the horizon.

In the center of that alluring, picturesque landscape was a rocky bluff that rose away from the gently rolling hills. And atop that bluff was the Legion’s target: a mighty, beguiling palace that was too fantastical to exist. It was ethereal, almost too perfect to be real. It was as though it were a painting brought to life by a myopic artist driven by psychedelic visions of utopia, gleefully drawing his brush across a canvas, unknowingly scraping a nightmarish wound across the land, puncturing the earth and bringing forth an insular fortress of madness that housed the angels of a tyrant who were disposed of an insatiable thirst for blood - a thirst that could only be satiated by the most powerful weapons ever conceived by the divine.

A Great Beast egg, a supercomputer, and what the Legion could only guess to be a hyper-intelligent AI bound to malicious code - O.R.I.G.I.N. But before the Legion could confront those pressing matters, they had to take out the cathedral’s artillery and get behind enemy lines. From there, they could secure the interior of the cathedral and set their plans into motion.

As the airship steadily descended into the valley like a sharp-sighted hawk, Styna and Skyla stood alongside each other in front of the bridge’s glass canopy, watching as the snowy mountainside zoomed past, disappearing out of view as the rocky cliffs gave way to the lush green valley. They were mesmerized by it, having never seen much of what the Earth had to offer.

“Wow…I’ve always wanted to see this place. It’s so beautiful,” Skyla whispered, her crimson eyes aglow.

“I know. The Sanctuary is gorgeous, but…I dunno, there’s something about Earth’s natural landscapes that always seemed more…genuine, I guess,” Styna added softly, quietly grasping for words to describe her innermost thoughts. “Mom can just speak it, and a mountain range will appear like that-” Styna emphasized her words by snapping her fingers together. “-But this? This took years of work. Two continental plates collided here, moving across the Earth so slowly that it's almost imperceptible. Both plates were similar in thickness and weight - neither one sunk under the other. Instead, they crumpled and folded until the rocks were forced up to form a mountain range. And as the plates continue to collide, these mountains will get taller and taller…and then erosion will chip away at them, grinding them down over thousands of years until they are merely small hills for children to play on…”

Skyla pursed her lips and stared at Styna, both amazed and perplexed by the Power’s sudden fascination with mountains. What an odd idiosyncrasy, Skyla thought. But it got her thinking. There was undoubtedly something elegant about the process. Skyla found it difficult to properly describe it, but she found herself overcome with a sudden, profound sense of…well, she wasn’t sure what it was. Insignifiance, maybe? The understanding that she was tiny. Infinitesimal. Incalculably trivial and inconsequential. That she was just a tiny speck of stardust in a greater universe beyond even her divine understanding.

She was an angel, a being from on high, and yet…Styna’s strange words about mountains left her feeling something she couldn’t quite express.

It seemed Styna took notice of Skyla’s staring and pulled her attention away from the landscape. “Oh, uh, sorry about that. I kinda get lost in my own head sometimes,” she said, attempting to laugh off her brief moment of detachment. “Mom says I’m a maladaptive daydreamer. Kinda weird for an angel to daydream when Mom can literally make anything you can think of, huh?”

“No, I don’t think it’s weird,” Skyla said, her mind abruptly snapping back to reality. “Sometimes our imagination can do even more than a deity. So, uh…when are you interested in mountains?”

“Since I was young,” Styna explained. “And it’s not just mountain ranges. I think the Earth in general is pretty cool. When you live with a Goddess for most of your life, seeing things just materialize out of nowhere…I dunno, it gets kinda boring. I like that things don’t just appear out of nowhere on Earth. They take time. Mountain ranges can take years to form, a tree can take years to grow…it reminds me that time marches on, and I think we angels tend to forget that, y’know?”

Skyla blinked in surprise, taken aback by Styna’s question. “Uh…I guess? That’s…kind of a weird question, sis.”

“Yeah, sorry. It’s just…I’m not sure. Because we’re basically immortal, it can be easy to take our time for granted. 100 years can pass us by in the blink of an eye and we wouldn’t even notice it. And…I worry that I’ve taken my time for granted,” Styna said, gently rolling her palm across her knuckles.

Skyla’s brow furrowed, an alarm going off in her head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve spent most of my life doing rescue and retrieval missions, Sky,” Styna explained with a sigh. “I haven’t seen a lot of the world and I don’t have much experience with anything other than those missions. So when Jori said I was going to join the Legion? …A part of me was scared? Sad? A bit upset that we were gonna infiltrate Hell and steal Lucifer’s shit? But at the same time, I felt happy and excited. I was gonna do something important. I was gonna help take down Judgment! I was gonna see my sister for the first time! I was gonna do all of this! But…”

Skyla’s crimson eyes flickered. “But?”

“But I'm afraid of what’ll happen.” Styna crumpled down to the floor and rested her chin on her knees, her purple eyes gazing down at the valley as it passed her by. “This war is gonna get more dangerous. Missions are gonna get riskier. And I’m worried that something will happen…to you, me, Rudra, Jori - any of us, and our time on this Earth would end just like that, leaving everyone to wonder…did we take our time for granted? Could we have done something more with the time we had before we left this world?”

Skyla’s heart ached for her sister. She could feel the trepidation and doubt coming off Styna in waves - it was palpable, intense. She could only wonder now; time was seemingly endless, marching towards a distant horizon that stretched far into the distance, too far for anyone to know what was in store for them at the end of that road. Eternity was long - too long, even for immortals.

Skyla dropped to the floor beside Styna and stretched out one of her black wings, draping it over Styna’s shoulders, hoping to comfort her forlorn sister. “Hey, everything’s gonna be ok, alright? We have Rudra leading us, and we’re all ready to kick some major ass out there. Especially Ofia. She’s gonna tear Shadiel a new one for what he did to Talon and Net. You have nothing to worry about, sis. We’re all gonna be alright.”

“I hope you’re right,” Styna sighed, brushing a pink loc out of her face. With that movement, Skyla caught a glimpse of a long, jagged scar going up the length of Styna’s face, stretching across the empty socket where her eye once was.

“...how long has this been on your mind?” Skyla asked, uneasy.

“A few days,” Styna replied. “I didn’t want to bring it up around everyone. I just kept it to myself and let my daydreams sweep me away…I don’t want them to worry, y’know? I want to help - I want to help, and I will gladly go into Shadiel’s dumb vault and get that Great Beast egg if it means he doesn’t get to have it. But at the same time, I’m worried something will go wrong. I feel like something will go wrong.”

“And why’s that?”

Styna pressed her lips into a thin line, and Skyla could practically see the gears turning in her head. “I’m not sure. I don’t know how to describe it, but…I’ve been getting these feelings. These weird thoughts at the back of my head that I can’t explain.”

Skyla blanched. “What do you mean?”

Styna chewed her lip in apprehension. It was as though she was teetering on the edge: should she tell Skyla what had been bothering her, or keep it to herself? Did she risk telling her sister about all the strange occurrences surrounding her, or not? It felt right to say something, but there was a twinge in her gut that said otherwise.

Styna then took a deep breath, steeling herself for whatever would come. Dismissing her knotting gut, she spoke. “...Alright, but you can’t tell this to anyone else, alright? I don’t want Jori to worry about me.”

“Yes, of course. Whatever it is, I promise to keep it to myself.”

Styna inhaled, then began to recount her tale. “Do you remember when we absorbed that Hell energy, but I was the only one not affected?”

“Yes?”

“And how I knew to shoot Moraine when Talon was fighting him in the stronghold?”

“...yes?”

“And just a few minutes ago? When I had that outburst?”

“I…yes? Where are you going with this?”

Styna exhaled sharply, surprised by the sudden rush of adrenaline going through her. “I think there’s something happening to me. I don’t know what, but…I felt some kind of energy going through me when those things happened. Not my energy, but…something else.”

Skyla’s crimson eyes became as wide as dinner plates. “Wow, ok, that’s some heavy shit to just drop on me before a fight.”

“Look, I know, it’s a lot,” Styna hushed, anxiously looking around the bridge before she continued. “This energy protected me from the Hellfire, and the same energy gave me this rush of adrenaline a few minutes ago. But the thing with Moraine…I think…I think someone’s trying to help me.”

If Skyla’s jaw could have dropped to the floor, it would’ve. “Woah, what!? Who!?”

“Shh! Keep your voice down!” Styna hushed, smacking a hand over Skyla’s mouth. “I don’t know who it is. I just know that, when I was sitting in the airship, someone sent me an email. They directed me to Anita’s rifle - the one I used to kill Moraine.”

“Woah…ok, holy mother of Mom…” Skyla exhaled sharply, running her hands through her hair. “That’s insane. That’s insane - do you have any idea who it could be?”

“No idea. That email didn’t have a sender. But I suspect it’s from the same source as this energy.”

“This is really freaky,” Skyla sighed, trying to process everything Styna had told her. “So there’s something - or someone - that’s been helping you from the shadows, but you have no idea who it is?”

“That’s right.”

“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

“I didn’t want to worry Jori - or the rest of you, for that matter. So I just kept it to myself. Honestly? Sometimes I forget it’s even happening to me because I tend to get lost in my own thoughts. It just gets filtered like everything else, and then gets pushed to the back of my head until it happens again,” Styna explained, scraping her nail across the fine gold embroidery of the silk overlay that draped across her shoulders. She then clasped the ruby that held the overlay over her dress and sighed. “Please don’t tell the others about this. I want to at least figure out what’s going on before they know.”

“Of course. Honestly, I doubt they’ve even noticed anything going on. They’re probably more concerned with your tiny wings,” Skyla joked, hoping to ease the tension around them, even as panic whirled around in her head.

It seemed to work, as Styna gave a soft titter in response. “Thanks for listening to me. I know we haven’t really talked all that much. Hell, I haven’t really talked much at all, but it’s nice to know I can come to you with this stuff.”

“Psh, it’s no problem,” Skyla assured. She brought her arms back and planted her palms firmly on the floor behind her, letting her body naturally prop against her arms as she reclined back. “This is admittedly very strange and kind of terrifying, but you’re in good hands, sis. You’ve got Jori, you’ve got Rudra, you’ve got me-”

“Jori said something about wanting to fight like Rudra. What’s that all about?” Styna intercepted.

The color drained from Skyla’s face, and then swiftly brightened with the kind of red-faced abashedness of someone who had been caught doing something brash and thoughtless - like a child going stiff when their parents found them elbow-deep in the cookie jar.

“Uh, she told you that?” Skyla inquired stiffly.

“Mhm. She said she tried to talk you out of it, but you were pretty adamant about it,” Styna said with a flippant smile. “Even Ofia was cracking jokes about it. I thought your whole deal was with elemental magic. Jori even said you weren’t even that well trained with your lance.”

“Yeah? Well-” Skyla’s face drew into a scowl, and she folded her arms across her chest, her bottom lip jutting forward in a sulky pout. “I can still fight like her. Ofia supported me on this, why can’t you?”

“Because I think it’s a bad idea to try and fight like someone else. Shouldn’t you try to fight like you?” Styna suggested.

��What can I do? Make flowers appear? Make ice cubes? Come on, how is that supposed to help in a fight?”

“I think you’re looking at this from the wrong angle,” Styna said. “Also, why is Ofia supporting you? She knows you can’t fight like that.”

“Well…we both kinda agreed that we’d be more active in fights like this.”

“What do you mean ‘more active?’” Styna inquired, raising a brow.

“Y’know…like, getting up in the enemy’s face and punching them in the throat. That kind of thing,” Skyla said, jabbing at the air with great zeal.

Styna quickly raised a hand to stop Skyla. “Ok, you’ve lost me. Ofia, I can see her doing that. She knows how to use a lance, and her whole ring gimmick is always an option if she needs to fall back and attack from a distance. But you? You have all the upper body strength of a limp noodle!”

An unamused glower came across Skyla’s face. “Gee, thanks.”

“Skyla, you don’t even know how to holster that thing properly,” Styna scolded, folding her arms over her chest. “If you try to run in like a bull, it’s not gonna end well for you.”

“Ugh, you’re starting to sound like Jori,” Skyla groaned, accentuating her words with an annoyed eye roll.

“And I’m right,” Styna sighed. “Look, if you want to do this, go ahead. If Ofia wants to go out there and smack some of Shadiel’s goons around, she’s free to do so. I can’t tell you otherwise if you’re too stubborn to see what’s wrong here.” Styna emphasized her point by jabbing at Skyla’s temples, much to the Virtue’s chagrin. “But if you get hurled across the battlefield, I don’t wanna hear you complaining.”

“Just you watch. I’m gonna go out there and kick so much ass that it’ll prove you wrong!” Skyla bit back, her characteristic strong-headed passion flaring up.

“Just like you tried to kick Jori’s ass?”

Skyla promptly averted her eyes, her face turning as red as her currant eyes.

“Alright, fine, don’t listen to me,” Styna shrugged. “Maybe this siege will teach you better than I can. And maybe it’ll knock some sense into Ofia, too. Seriously, why the hell did she agree to this?”

While the two sisters bickered and argued, Joriel and Rudra watched them just out of earshot.

“They’re just a spitting image of us, aren’t they?” Joriel said glibly, grinning at Rudra.

“Yeah - if you were pastel and I was goth,” Rudra bit back blithely. “But I’m glad to see them talking to each other more. After Skyla’s generation was almost completely wiped out by the GBTP, I think it’s a good thing she’s finally able to talk to someone from her generation - y’know, someone that isn’t serving Judgment.”

“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Joriel said, resting her chin in her hand. “Maybe which of their powers are cooler.”

Rudra let out a half-suppressed chortle. “Now they really sound like us when we were younger.” Rudra then pushed off the Holo-Caster and started towards the bridge’s doors, ushering the angels to her as she walked. “Alright, look alive, everyone! This battle is the biggest one yet, and we all need to be vigilant! Does everyone know their roles?”

“Aye aye, captain,” Noir announced jauntily, flipping her sunglasses over her eyes. “I’m finally gonna have a chance to really test out my new powers.”

Rudra lightheartedly rolled her eyes at Noir’s jesting. “Larimar? You’ll remain up here to man the airship. You’ll be our eyes in the sky.”

“You got it, Rood,” Larimar grinned, cracking his knuckles with a devil-may-care glint in his thousands of eyes. “I’m gonna give Shadiel so much hell-”

“As for the rest of you-” Rudra started, turning her gaze on every gathered angel in turn. “I think you all know what to do.”

The angels all gave their resounding affirmation. With the Legion prepared to fight, the angels all marched with Rudra down to the lower decks, where the bottom of the airship would open up and unleash them upon the Golden Cathedral.

***

When they reached the lower decks - which was made up of a large, open chamber similar to a cargo bay - they joined up with the rest of the Legion, who had congregated there to prepare for battle. Noir quickly took her place next to Rudra and waited for the moment where Larimar would drop them into the Golden Cathedral’s central courtyard.

There was an air of tension in the cargo bay. It was the kind of buzzing, barely contained energy that Noir knew well. It was the same electric atmosphere that filled her old team when waiting for the announcer to begin the day’s battle. It was oddly comforting for Noir. Something familiar in an unfamiliar land.

While she waited for the Legion to be dropped upon the cathedral, Noir’s gaze began to wander, and her eyes fell upon the angels she had come to befriend. Anita was doing what she always did - marveling over her own elaborate inventions of destruction, inventions that Noir wasn’t entirely convinced weren’t the precursor to whatever horrifying machines Anita kept locked in her basement.

Ofia and Skyla chatted between themselves, displaying an eagerness for battle unmatched by their fellow angels. However, Noir couldn’t help but notice Ofia constantly looking over her shoulder at her two mechanical sisters. Even though Noir couldn’t see the Ophan’s eyes, she recognized the nervous tic anywhere.

Skyla didn’t seem to take notice of this. Instead, the fiery Virtue was as passionate as ever, pumping herself up for the battle to come. She had unsheathed her ebony lance and held it aloft like a medieval knight, but Noir took notice of the unwieldy way it wobbled in her hand. Either Skyla didn’t notice, or she didn’t care.

Continuing through the angels, Noir’s gaze fell on Styna, and a strange pink glow coming from the small of Styna’s back drew Noir’s attention. Styna’s white dress ended in a frilly pink skirt that resembled a tutu, and a short ribbon was tied around her waist, held together with a ruby clasp. But the ruby clasp held more than just the ribbon, because Noir could clearly make out two serrated daggers resting in the clasp, their rosey, glowing blades facing away from each other.

The daggers were almost completely hidden from view, save for the blades, which, while viewing Styna from the front, gave onlookers the illusion of small, glowing wings that sprouted from the base of her spine. It was an ingenious way of hiding knives in plain sight, Noir thought. They could easily be mistaken as a part of Styna’s outfit, yet they were always within reach.

Unfortunately, Noir couldn’t marvel at the ingenuity for very long before her eyes were drawn to the feathery ornaments in Styna’s hair, which loosely resembled ear muffs - wait, were they moving? Hang on, were those ornaments part of her head?

Noir didn’t get to think about that bizarre realization for long, because just as quickly as it came to her, her eyes were drawn to Joriel as a flash of golden light appeared before her and swiftly materialized into a spear with ornate stained glass embedded in its tip. Then, seconds later, Noir watched Ofia do the same with her lance.

Noir blinked a few times, her mind slowly catching up to what she had just seen. Then she remembered - of course they had strange biology and unusual powers. They were angels.

And Noir promptly gave herself a mental slap for letting such simple information slip her mind.

Noir’s eyes continued to wander, and they finally fell upon Talon and Net, who were oblivious to Ofia’s nervous gaze.

Net was testing her new body out, and repeatedly activated and deactivated a bow that was built directly into her left arm, giddily watching as the metal bars retracted and extended from her forearm. Talon had unholstered her one-handed crossbow and was preparing a bolt, but something strange about the process caught Noir’s eye. Talon stuck her thumb into the arrow track of the crossbow and pressed down on the arrow retention spring: then, in the blink of an eye, the track was filled with a Cloud Steel bolt.

Noir found it odd: Talon already had perfect aim when just throwing her blades, why did she need a crossbow to fulfill the same purpose? But then Noir looked closer, and saw something peculiar in the foregrip of the crossbow. It appeared to be an empty glass chamber with no clear purpose. That is until Talon turned a dial near the crossbow’s trigger, and the glass chamber became filled with a stark blue liquid.

“Interesting,” Noir said aloud, unintentionally catching Talon’s attention.

“Hm? Oh, this caught your eye, did it?” Talon inquired, raising a brow to Noir.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare,” Noir apologized. “I’ve just never seen a crossbow like that! Why do you need it? Don’t you already have perfect aim?”

“I do. But that’s not what this is for,” Talon explained. She held the crossbow aloft to give Noir a better view, wherein she began turning the dial once more. Much to Noir’s surprise and amazement, the liquid in the glass chamber began rapidly changing color.

“Heh, impressive, isn’t it?” Rudra chimed up, flashing Noir a playful smile. “Mom gave her that as a gift before we left the Sanctuary.”

“A gift from a Goddess? Holy shit…what can it do?”

An amused, silky laugh was Talon’s response. “Well, this liquid can alter the properties of the bolt. Watch this. Blue is stun, purple is explosive, red is incendiary, and yellow is shrapnel.”

Noir blanched. “...shrapnel?”

“Yep! Shrapnel. The liquid covers the bolt and causes it to break apart when fired. Hence, shrapnel.”

“Wow…that’s - why am I just hearing about this?” Noir asked, hooking her hands onto her hips.

Talon turned the dial until the liquid in the chamber turned a bright, fluorescent yellow. “You never asked,” came the nonchalant reply.

“Mom wanted us to be prepared,” Rudra assured, patting Noir on the shoulder in an attempt to comfort her confused and perturbed friend.

“I guess this is on me for forgetting that you guys are angels,” Noir remarked. She stiffened her upper lip and raised her fists, summoning rings of purple energy around her arms. “Not that I don’t have a constant reminder.”

“Honestly, we’re closer to the eldritch than you think,” Rudra said emphatically as she drew her blazing sword.

“Well I think that’s a bit mean - wait, you’re closer to what?” Noir stammered, snapping her head towards Rudra with such force that it almost gave her whiplash. Rudra just gave her a knowing look. Then, with her free hand, Rudra reached out and wound her arm around Noir’s waist, pulling the woman close to her chest.

Noir, unfortunately, didn’t get her answer that day. The doors of the cargo bay began to split open beneath the Legion, and the army of angels let loose their cacophonous war cry as the airship unleashed them upon the Golden Cathedral. Noir would have screamed, but the wind tore her voice from her throat as she and Rudra were dropped into a freefall. They passed through the glistening barrier that Lumina had enveloped the airship with, and continued plummeting towards the fast-approaching cathedral with only Rudra’s wings to save them from an intimate meeting with the ground. Noir clung to Rudra’s shoulders like a lifeline, silently pleading that the woman wouldn’t let her go.

In the midst of their rapid descent, Noir could hear the sound of war echoing through the air, even as the sharp whistling of the wind filled her ears and stung her cheeks. The angry scream of Judgment’s forces colliding with the triumphant roar of the Legion, the thunderous boom of artillery fire, the idling hum of the airship above, and the deep, droning buzz of the Golden Cathedral itself. It filled her with a sense of alarm and panic.

And that’s when the adrenaline finally kicked in, and Noir soon found herself whooping and cackling, just like she had during her time as a Spy. This was going to be good, she thought.

It was going to be just like old times.

#team fortress 2 #freak fortress #freak fortress 2 #angel fallen: the chronicles of the legion #rudra seraph #lady noir #Madame Talon #Anita James #Joriel #Ofia #Styna #Skyla #Net #Larimar Prince

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