Thirty-six hours earlier:
"So apparently we have a soldier trying to defect from the Nemesis Army,"
Alice said. "A high ranking officer there, but oddly, he's requested Vanguard instead of Longbow, and us in particular.
"Someone intelligent working for Nemesis? That's a first," Gamma noted
from where she was leaning against a wall next to Rhea. "I didn't think he could stand competition."
Alice chuckled. "Yeah.
If you can't figure out Nemmy's an arrogant jerk, you're perfect for his forces."
Inyme, teleporting in beside Alice, got an affectionate hug that she returned
awkwardly, choosing to ignore the amused and fond looks from the various other women. In particular, she tried to avoid the knowing smile from Amberlee, who
she hadn't noticed until it was too late to equip her jamming armor without looking suspicious. She tried to remind herself that the woman's immense
telekinetic ability was her prodigious talent, not her telepathy, even though almost every Rikti born with much telekinetic talent was a prodigy at telepathy
as a matter of course. Putting that out of her mind, she turned to Alice. "So we're extracting him?"
"Yeah. He gave us this contact point, but sounded like he was being pursued,"
she said, stepping inside. "Captain Sherman, I think it was."
"I think I can confirm that he was followed," Amber said, pointing ahead at
where several groups of Nemesis troops were loitering about in clear guard positions.
"If they've caught him, who knows what'll happen to him. We've got to
get him out of there," Alice said, drawing back her bow as she closed one eye. Amber reached out into the men's minds, subtly turning them against
each other as Gamma leaped into the fray, already putting out enormous levels of radiation to weaken and disable soldier and automated Jaeger alike. Slowly
battling their way through the waves, Inyme lost track of anything but the combat until she felt a surge in Alice's emotions as she noticed something.
"There!" she said, pointing to an above ledge where a disarmed Nemesis
soldier was facing a Warhulk, several more Nemesis Troopers, and one of Nemesis's fake automatons of himself.
"The crime is treason against the Nemesis Army, and slander against the good name
of Lord Nemesis himself!" the officer nearby said.
The man on trial sneered behind his own armored mask. "Good name? You have no idea
how ridiculous you sound."
The officer scowled. "Vile cur! You'd dare besmirch the name of a loyal
automaton of the Nemesis Army?"
Sherman shook his head sadly.
"If you knew even half of what I've learned…."
The massive brass representation of Nemesis moved forward, staff crackling with energy.
"And that is why you must be silenced! The sentence is death! To be carried out immediately!" The Warhulk stepped forward at this announcement,
before dozens of Nemesis soldiers and the Warhulk itself staggered as a rain of arrows attacked every exposed area they could penetrate. Sherman looked over at
the heroes coming up the steps in open relief. "Purrfect Archer! You're here!"
Sherman dived out of the way
as a crackling Nemesis staff nearly took his head off, the Fake Nemesis advancing. "The Nemesis Army will suffer no betrayers!" it announced, before
being bowled over as the Warhulk was slammed into its side by Amber's telekinesis. A blast of radiation blinded it as both Inyme and Alice took aim,
another swarm of arrows impacting the two mechanoids at the same time as a tornado of telepathic and telekinetic force hit, forcing both off the edge of the
elevated platform to crash down below, the Fake Nemesis ending up stuck in the shattered dome of the Warhulk.
Rhea ran over to see to the captain's wounds as he nodded at Alice in gratitude.
However, the sound of lockstep boots from the next room over indicated that they weren't safe yet. Before anyone could realize, Sherman'd grabbed a
rifle from a fallen Nemesis trooper, firing an explosive round into the oncoming ranks. "They're coming for me! We've got to get out of
here!"
Alice fired a spread of shots
across the oncoming troopers along with Gamma's blasts as Sherman dived towards the enemy, taking cover behind a set of ruined Jaegers. "Idiot!"
Alice growled. "We're trying to get him out of here! Why's he running TOWARDS them?!"
"On it," Amber said, sending the immediate set of Nemesis troopers to fight
their comrades behind them, as the first pair of psi-immune Jaegers that made it through the doorway were sent flying into a nearby wall and crushed by
Inyme's telekinesis. Alice darted forward, jerking Sherman back the other way as Inyme and Gamma provided cover fire and Amber just provided plain cover,
shots bouncing off the telekinetic fields protecting them. Rhea ran up ahead to help protect Sherman as more Nemesis flooded in ahead of them.
"Kill the traitor!" a Fake Nemesis ordered, temporarily driving the group
back around a corner. The sheer volume of fire pinned them down for a moment, Sherman sliding in next to Alice.
"First, thanks for trying to save me. I know they'll try to kill me before
they try to kill you, to keep the secret, but someone has to know."
"Know what?" Alice said, rolling out to shoot off an explosive arrow into the Nemesis ranks, checking as she did where Inyme was pinned down next to
Amber, Gamma and Rhea a few feet ahead behind the ruptured hull of a Warhulk. Sherman fired an explosive bolt from his Storm Rifle before slipping back into
cover with her.
"When I was still loyal to Lord Nemesis, I was overseeing shipments to our main
base in the Shadow Shard. One broke open, and inside was a replica of your Mr. Manticore. Perplexed, I checked the rest of the crates and found copies of your
entire Freedom Phalanx. I kept digging until I found out why they'd been built." He grimaced, continuing. "The Rikti think your people attacked
them first, but it was all staged by Lo…by Nemesis!"
Alice stared at him in shock
for a moment, before both of them reacted to a lull in the firefight, standing up and firing at once. Inyme had sensed Alice's intent and stood up at the
same time, presumably passing along the signal to Rhea, Amber, and Lisa, as the entire group opened fire at once, mowing down a rank of Nemesis soldiers. Inyme
teleported ahead, looking about before waving the rest forward.
As they headed for the entrance, Sherman continued his story. "He sent those robot
duplicates against their world several times to rile them up, then tricked your heroes into following him right into the hornet's nest. As far as I've
been able to discern, his plan was to use one world against the other, then ride in and save the day, the great hero that saved Earth from the aliens. But the
Rikti fought too hard, their new general was too good, and Nemesis could never admit he made a mistake!"
The others looked vaguely surprised, other than Inyme whose face was concealed as
always. As they exited the building, a Vanguard APC was waiting for them, several Rangers on defensive positions about it, waiting to pick Sherman up. The
wreckage of Nemesis weapons, Jaegers, and Warhulks were scattered about. One walked up to Alice, saluting. "We're here to take Captain Sherman into
custody, ma'am."
Alice returned the salute
awkwardly, as Sherman looked back at her. "Thank you, Archer. I can't believe I was ever one of those fanatics. What a fool I was."
Alice nodded in return before
the APC reloaded, driving off in the direction of Vanguard HQ, while Alice turned to look at her teammates.
"That's…what he said's not possible, right?"
Inyme snorted, an uncharacteristic display of cynicism from her. "It's about
as believable as anything else Nemesis is "responsible" for. Especially given how famous he is for double blinds. He wasn't lying, but that
doesn't mean the evidence wasn't planted."
Amber looked at her askance, before crossing her arms. "Perhaps."
Rhea nodded in turn. "Yeah! I mean, everyone says everything is
a Nemesis plot, right?" she laughed.
Alice considered, before
pulling out a communicator. After a short discussion, she turned back to them. "Looks like HQ agrees with you, Inyme. Watcher wants us to investigate the
Shadow Shard base that Captain Sherman's revealed the coordinates for. But to get there, we need to talk to Longbow, get their technicians to help align
our base portal to access it."
"Which means we get to talk to Dietrich," Gamma noted with a sigh.
"Unpleasant woman…" Inyme noted deadpan, getting a giggle from Alice despite
the situation.
***
As they stepped into the Longbow base, Amber frowned. "I've got a bad feeling
about this."
"It's just Dietrich. She's not going to shoot us without any reason. It
may only take a thin reason, but she needs a reason first," Alice noted, still a little sore from facing the Longbow commander during the Renegade Sword
incident.
"No, I think she's right," Gamma said as they looked around "There
should be Longbow in here checking our papers by now."
Inyme stretched out her senses, but had less than a moment to react before an explosive
round impacted a wall behind her, the second exploding in front of her face on Amber's telekinetic shield. Bullets, arrows, bolts of pure radiation, and
mental blasts fired back and forth again as Nemesis troopers opened fire. Which, unfortunately, the group was getting all too used to.
"This is crazy! Why are they following us here?!"
Alice asked.
"Potentially they don't want us finding whatever it is Sherman directed us to
investigate," Amber replied from her position, visibly concentrating on keeping the oncoming fire from shredding them as they fought their way through the
base.
"Or they just want to make it look good," Inyme suggested. "Still,
I'm more concerned with how they knew where to follow us to!"
"Nemesis has one of the better spy networks in the RWZ. All the confusion from the
Rikti's perfect for sliping in automaton spies," Alice grunted.
"Makes sense. He'd be as interested as anyone else in what he could steal from
the Rikti here," Gamma noted as they finally pushed around a corner, coming to a stop near a set of Longbow furiously working on a piece of
machinery.
"Hey! Where's Captain Dietrich?" Alice asked, stepping up behind them.
One glanced at her, then down the hallway. "Further inside the base. We don't
know for sure where. These maniacs blew up the medicomm systems for the base when they hit us, and Sanders is trying to repair it as quick as he
can."
Rhea paled, as Alice blinked, both knowing the result of medicomm being down. Longbow
forces in the RWZ weren't officially supposed to be there, as Vanguard had exclusive purview to operations inside it. Obviously, Longbow ops had their own
medicomm systems for safety, but if the Nemesis Army had disabled it, dozens of soldiers across the zone would be in danger.
"Right, keep at it. We'll clear out the rest of this," she said, getting
a thankful nod from the warden.
"Give 'em hell, ma'am."
"Will do," she said, feeling rather good for the first time since having to
fight Longbow earlier. Part of her wondered how much signing on with Vanguard had changed her perspective on what she'd previously seen as one of the
foremost organizations for helping heroes. Was it just Dietrich? Gaussian'd practically admitted that there were flaws with how the Vanguard ran things,
and as much as Miss Liberty's abrupt condemnation of the Vanguard had been a blow to her opinion of the woman, could she really judge on that? Miss Liberty
hadn't known about the Renegades until Alice had informed Sefu…
Pushing such thoughts aside, Alice lead the group deeper into the base, soon running
across the imprisoned figure of Captain Dietrich. One Nemesis captain went down, his armor streaming steam from the sudden increase in temperature and hard
rads, while another toppled, hands locked onto his head at Inyme's psychic assault. Several more fell to the ground, arrows extending from exposed areas in
their armor with almost preternatural aim as Dietrich looked around at what was left of her guard detail in a slight bit of astonishment. Kicking one soldier
over, she retrieved her rifle and Eagle pack, nodding to Alice. "So these were after you people?"
"Something like that," Amber said before Alice could snap back, noticing the
catgirl's ears going flat at Dietrich's tone. The Longbow officer nodded. "We'll discuss what the Watcher wanted you to ask me later. For now,
we're dealing with these intruders. Sefu's probably still fighting inside the inner base," she said smartly, heading on ahead as the Legendary and
Riot Force members sort of just fell into her wake.
"How does she do that?" Alice wondered.
"She's a commanding officer. They have to be able to do that, or they
don't get a command," Rhea giggled.
Following Dietrich through the inner passages of the Longbow base, it wasn't long
before they fell into enemy attention again. Alice, Gamma, and Dietrich wound up on one side of what looked like a small power plant complex, while Inyme,
Amber, and Rhea were on the other. A trio of Dragoons kept the heroes' heads down as they unloaded rapid waves of machine gun fire, interspersed with
bursts of napalm. Several Jaegers alongside them kept up the barrage as well, the commander in charge of this detachment having apparently realized that the
powerful, but slow firing, Nemesis Rifles were proving inefficient against Amber's forcefields and sought area denial instead. "Damn! Amber, can you
distract them?" Alice asked, as the other telepath nodded, concentrating.
Lieutenant Olaf was feeling fairly good about his squad's performance in keeping
the interfering heroes pinned, down. Looking aside at his companion, he was about to comment on it when he saw it: the green eggshell shape of a Rikti drone.
They must have taken out the Jaegers while he wasn't looking. Jumping back so he didn't catch his squadmate in the fire, he let loose with a burst of
flame from the bottom of his weapon. "Burn, you alien scum!"
Sergeant Branston didn't know what to do as his commanding officer suddenly opened
fire on their Jaeger support units, but then Olaf morphed into a Rikti, and it all made sense. They were under infiltration! Returning fire at the alien
abomination, the confused Jaegers were easy prey as they tried to comprehend their human commanders suddenly firing at them and each other. However, that
momentary confusion was all they got as they exploded seconds later under fire from the heroes, their confused commanding officers following.
"The main control center is just ahead," Dietrich noted, heading forward.
Alice followed her in, a second before Inyme's senses tingled. "Sniper!"
"Down!" Dietrich ordered, pushing Alice to the floor not a second too soon as
several Comet Rifles fired in sequence, hitting the Longbow officer and throwing her over a railing. Alice scrambled to the edge, looking down, only seeing
shrapnel at the bottom where she'd heard the Captain hit.
She's fine, just injured. They got the medicomm operating
properly, Inyme's voice reassured her in her mind, causing Alice to breath a sigh of relief,
before drawing back an arrow. Waiting, she held it until the squad of snipers prepared to open fire again, thinking her plan at Amber and Inyme. Firing, her
arrow hit the explosive round just as it left the barrel of the Comet rifle, just as twin surges of telekinesis crumpled the long ends of the two beside it so
the rounds couldn't exit. The resulting backfire took out the entire group as the group ran forward.
A short run and gun battle later, the Nemesis invaders were pacified. Alice walked
towards where Dietrich was getting a brief bit of attention from the base medic, grimacing slightly as the bandages were tied in place. "That should hold
the rib in place for now, ma'am, but I'd recommend getting to a med tank sooner rather than later if you'd like to avoid surgery."
"Thank you, corporal," she said, before looking up at Alice. "I suppose
I owe my gratitude for your assistance. What was it that the Watcher sent you to request from us, Miss Romanova?"
Alice blinked, before doing a
mental "duh" as she remembered Dietrich's(and Vanguard's) files would be up to date since the adoption paperwork had gone through. She'd
made the "Baker" last name up on her hero paperwork anyway, so this was more natural than anything, really. "Well, it's something to do with
this attack actual-" she stopped as a warden came up behind her.
"Captain Dietrich," he said. "We've...put together the list of
casualties from the attack, before we were able to bring Medicomm back up," he said.
Alice's ears flicked as
she felt a wince of pain from Dietrich that had nothing to do with the broken ribs she'd sustained. "How many?"
"…twelve, ma'am….and….ma'am, I'm not sure how to say this…" he
said, Alice's senses tingling at the feeling of dread emanating from the warden.
"Bluntly, lieutenant. The more you hedge around it, the worse it gets,"
Dietrich noted.
"…it's Lieutenant Tendaji, ma'am…he's…dead,
ma'am."
Alice started, as Dietrich
blanched. "Sefu? That…that's impossible…"
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but….we have the body here. We were just…trying to figure out where to send the dead… I'll see to that then…" he said
softly, before turning away.
Alice shivered as she felt
the emotions roiling beneath Dietrich's shocked expression. "…this is impossible. Sefu was my right hand….my…he was my best friend…he can't be
dead…."
Her eyes shifted, locking on Alice so quickly, the archer felt like invisible lasers
were pinioning her in place. "You said what the Watcher sent you for was connected to this attack. How?"
Alice's fur rose as she
swallowed down the fear Dietrich's tone caused in her. "We recovered a Nemesis Army defector….he had found evidence that Nemesis produced duplicates
of the Freedom Phalanx and used them to provoke the Rikti. We extracted him from an attempted execution, and he gave us coordinates for the main Shadow Shard
base that Nemesis operates out of, where the proof is. We needed your help to attune our base portal to the Shard's frequency…"
Dietrich looked at her, wheels turning in her head as she put the pieces together.
"…I see….walk with me," she said, getting up and heading towards the base entrance where Alice knew the rest of them were waiting for her. "Sefu
was a good man, you know. Always hopeful. Always upbeat. He'd chide me for being so stern all of the time. He…he saw the best in people. I needed him for
that…I needed…"
Alice remained silent, so
totally unaccustomed to this side of Wilhelmina Dietrich that she didn't know what to say as Dietrich continued. "His wife thought we were having an
affair. We weren't, of course. Sefu'd never have done something like that. But to the Nemesis Army, he was just…"
Sorrow sang in Alice's telepathic senses, but hardened, crystallized. Grim
determination became audible to her, but underscoring everything was a cold, violent sense of vengeance coupled with restrained rage. Dietrich looked at her as
they came to the entrance, where the rest of the group was waiting, Amber's face looking worried as she looked at both of them. "If Vanguard needs our
help to investigate this base in the Shard, you'll have it. I'll get it done….that's what his name meant. 'Sefu Tendaji', "'The
sword gets things done'."
Alice nodded, and started to
walk the rest of the way before Dietrich's hand caught her shoulder. Looking back, Alice once again suppressed a thrill of fear at the look in
Dietrich's eyes. "And when you reach that base, I want you to find that information, and I want you to show every last one of those steampunk fanatics
exactly what that means, understood?"
Alice shivered slightly, but
came to a salute. "Yes, ma'am."
Dietrich returned it, then turned, heading back into her base as Alice maintained her
calm for the five minutes it took them to get outside before stepping over to Inyme and curling in tight against her, protocol and appearance be damned. Inyme
held her hand, as the group quietly headed back to Vanguard HQ.
***
Author's Note: Yes, this doesn't quite go as far as I'd planned the first chapter to do so, but it was getting
ENORMOUS, and I figured this made a good point to transition. Also, I'm as impatient writing this as you all are reading it, so there. =P
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
"So apparently we have a soldier trying to defect from the Nemesis Army,"
Alice said. "A high ranking officer there, but oddly, he's requested Vanguard instead of Longbow, and us in particular.
"Someone intelligent working for Nemesis? That's a first," Gamma noted
from where she was leaning against a wall next to Rhea. "I didn't think he could stand competition."
Alice chuckled. "Yeah.
If you can't figure out Nemmy's an arrogant jerk, you're perfect for his forces."
Inyme, teleporting in beside Alice, got an affectionate hug that she returned
awkwardly, choosing to ignore the amused and fond looks from the various other women. In particular, she tried to avoid the knowing smile from Amberlee, who
she hadn't noticed until it was too late to equip her jamming armor without looking suspicious. She tried to remind herself that the woman's immense
telekinetic ability was her prodigious talent, not her telepathy, even though almost every Rikti born with much telekinetic talent was a prodigy at telepathy
as a matter of course. Putting that out of her mind, she turned to Alice. "So we're extracting him?"
"Yeah. He gave us this contact point, but sounded like he was being pursued,"
she said, stepping inside. "Captain Sherman, I think it was."
"I think I can confirm that he was followed," Amber said, pointing ahead at
where several groups of Nemesis troops were loitering about in clear guard positions.
"If they've caught him, who knows what'll happen to him. We've got to
get him out of there," Alice said, drawing back her bow as she closed one eye. Amber reached out into the men's minds, subtly turning them against
each other as Gamma leaped into the fray, already putting out enormous levels of radiation to weaken and disable soldier and automated Jaeger alike. Slowly
battling their way through the waves, Inyme lost track of anything but the combat until she felt a surge in Alice's emotions as she noticed something.
"There!" she said, pointing to an above ledge where a disarmed Nemesis
soldier was facing a Warhulk, several more Nemesis Troopers, and one of Nemesis's fake automatons of himself.
"The crime is treason against the Nemesis Army, and slander against the good name
of Lord Nemesis himself!" the officer nearby said.
The man on trial sneered behind his own armored mask. "Good name? You have no idea
how ridiculous you sound."
The officer scowled. "Vile cur! You'd dare besmirch the name of a loyal
automaton of the Nemesis Army?"
Sherman shook his head sadly.
"If you knew even half of what I've learned…."
The massive brass representation of Nemesis moved forward, staff crackling with energy.
"And that is why you must be silenced! The sentence is death! To be carried out immediately!" The Warhulk stepped forward at this announcement,
before dozens of Nemesis soldiers and the Warhulk itself staggered as a rain of arrows attacked every exposed area they could penetrate. Sherman looked over at
the heroes coming up the steps in open relief. "Purrfect Archer! You're here!"
Sherman dived out of the way
as a crackling Nemesis staff nearly took his head off, the Fake Nemesis advancing. "The Nemesis Army will suffer no betrayers!" it announced, before
being bowled over as the Warhulk was slammed into its side by Amber's telekinesis. A blast of radiation blinded it as both Inyme and Alice took aim,
another swarm of arrows impacting the two mechanoids at the same time as a tornado of telepathic and telekinetic force hit, forcing both off the edge of the
elevated platform to crash down below, the Fake Nemesis ending up stuck in the shattered dome of the Warhulk.
Rhea ran over to see to the captain's wounds as he nodded at Alice in gratitude.
However, the sound of lockstep boots from the next room over indicated that they weren't safe yet. Before anyone could realize, Sherman'd grabbed a
rifle from a fallen Nemesis trooper, firing an explosive round into the oncoming ranks. "They're coming for me! We've got to get out of
here!"
Alice fired a spread of shots
across the oncoming troopers along with Gamma's blasts as Sherman dived towards the enemy, taking cover behind a set of ruined Jaegers. "Idiot!"
Alice growled. "We're trying to get him out of here! Why's he running TOWARDS them?!"
"On it," Amber said, sending the immediate set of Nemesis troopers to fight
their comrades behind them, as the first pair of psi-immune Jaegers that made it through the doorway were sent flying into a nearby wall and crushed by
Inyme's telekinesis. Alice darted forward, jerking Sherman back the other way as Inyme and Gamma provided cover fire and Amber just provided plain cover,
shots bouncing off the telekinetic fields protecting them. Rhea ran up ahead to help protect Sherman as more Nemesis flooded in ahead of them.
"Kill the traitor!" a Fake Nemesis ordered, temporarily driving the group
back around a corner. The sheer volume of fire pinned them down for a moment, Sherman sliding in next to Alice.
"First, thanks for trying to save me. I know they'll try to kill me before
they try to kill you, to keep the secret, but someone has to know."
"Know what?" Alice said, rolling out to shoot off an explosive arrow into the Nemesis ranks, checking as she did where Inyme was pinned down next to
Amber, Gamma and Rhea a few feet ahead behind the ruptured hull of a Warhulk. Sherman fired an explosive bolt from his Storm Rifle before slipping back into
cover with her.
"When I was still loyal to Lord Nemesis, I was overseeing shipments to our main
base in the Shadow Shard. One broke open, and inside was a replica of your Mr. Manticore. Perplexed, I checked the rest of the crates and found copies of your
entire Freedom Phalanx. I kept digging until I found out why they'd been built." He grimaced, continuing. "The Rikti think your people attacked
them first, but it was all staged by Lo…by Nemesis!"
Alice stared at him in shock
for a moment, before both of them reacted to a lull in the firefight, standing up and firing at once. Inyme had sensed Alice's intent and stood up at the
same time, presumably passing along the signal to Rhea, Amber, and Lisa, as the entire group opened fire at once, mowing down a rank of Nemesis soldiers. Inyme
teleported ahead, looking about before waving the rest forward.
As they headed for the entrance, Sherman continued his story. "He sent those robot
duplicates against their world several times to rile them up, then tricked your heroes into following him right into the hornet's nest. As far as I've
been able to discern, his plan was to use one world against the other, then ride in and save the day, the great hero that saved Earth from the aliens. But the
Rikti fought too hard, their new general was too good, and Nemesis could never admit he made a mistake!"
The others looked vaguely surprised, other than Inyme whose face was concealed as
always. As they exited the building, a Vanguard APC was waiting for them, several Rangers on defensive positions about it, waiting to pick Sherman up. The
wreckage of Nemesis weapons, Jaegers, and Warhulks were scattered about. One walked up to Alice, saluting. "We're here to take Captain Sherman into
custody, ma'am."
Alice returned the salute
awkwardly, as Sherman looked back at her. "Thank you, Archer. I can't believe I was ever one of those fanatics. What a fool I was."
Alice nodded in return before
the APC reloaded, driving off in the direction of Vanguard HQ, while Alice turned to look at her teammates.
"That's…what he said's not possible, right?"
Inyme snorted, an uncharacteristic display of cynicism from her. "It's about
as believable as anything else Nemesis is "responsible" for. Especially given how famous he is for double blinds. He wasn't lying, but that
doesn't mean the evidence wasn't planted."
Amber looked at her askance, before crossing her arms. "Perhaps."
Rhea nodded in turn. "Yeah! I mean, everyone says everything is
a Nemesis plot, right?" she laughed.
Alice considered, before
pulling out a communicator. After a short discussion, she turned back to them. "Looks like HQ agrees with you, Inyme. Watcher wants us to investigate the
Shadow Shard base that Captain Sherman's revealed the coordinates for. But to get there, we need to talk to Longbow, get their technicians to help align
our base portal to access it."
"Which means we get to talk to Dietrich," Gamma noted with a sigh.
"Unpleasant woman…" Inyme noted deadpan, getting a giggle from Alice despite
the situation.
***
As they stepped into the Longbow base, Amber frowned. "I've got a bad feeling
about this."
"It's just Dietrich. She's not going to shoot us without any reason. It
may only take a thin reason, but she needs a reason first," Alice noted, still a little sore from facing the Longbow commander during the Renegade Sword
incident.
"No, I think she's right," Gamma said as they looked around "There
should be Longbow in here checking our papers by now."
Inyme stretched out her senses, but had less than a moment to react before an explosive
round impacted a wall behind her, the second exploding in front of her face on Amber's telekinetic shield. Bullets, arrows, bolts of pure radiation, and
mental blasts fired back and forth again as Nemesis troopers opened fire. Which, unfortunately, the group was getting all too used to.
"This is crazy! Why are they following us here?!"
Alice asked.
"Potentially they don't want us finding whatever it is Sherman directed us to
investigate," Amber replied from her position, visibly concentrating on keeping the oncoming fire from shredding them as they fought their way through the
base.
"Or they just want to make it look good," Inyme suggested. "Still,
I'm more concerned with how they knew where to follow us to!"
"Nemesis has one of the better spy networks in the RWZ. All the confusion from the
Rikti's perfect for sliping in automaton spies," Alice grunted.
"Makes sense. He'd be as interested as anyone else in what he could steal from
the Rikti here," Gamma noted as they finally pushed around a corner, coming to a stop near a set of Longbow furiously working on a piece of
machinery.
"Hey! Where's Captain Dietrich?" Alice asked, stepping up behind them.
One glanced at her, then down the hallway. "Further inside the base. We don't
know for sure where. These maniacs blew up the medicomm systems for the base when they hit us, and Sanders is trying to repair it as quick as he
can."
Rhea paled, as Alice blinked, both knowing the result of medicomm being down. Longbow
forces in the RWZ weren't officially supposed to be there, as Vanguard had exclusive purview to operations inside it. Obviously, Longbow ops had their own
medicomm systems for safety, but if the Nemesis Army had disabled it, dozens of soldiers across the zone would be in danger.
"Right, keep at it. We'll clear out the rest of this," she said, getting
a thankful nod from the warden.
"Give 'em hell, ma'am."
"Will do," she said, feeling rather good for the first time since having to
fight Longbow earlier. Part of her wondered how much signing on with Vanguard had changed her perspective on what she'd previously seen as one of the
foremost organizations for helping heroes. Was it just Dietrich? Gaussian'd practically admitted that there were flaws with how the Vanguard ran things,
and as much as Miss Liberty's abrupt condemnation of the Vanguard had been a blow to her opinion of the woman, could she really judge on that? Miss Liberty
hadn't known about the Renegades until Alice had informed Sefu…
Pushing such thoughts aside, Alice lead the group deeper into the base, soon running
across the imprisoned figure of Captain Dietrich. One Nemesis captain went down, his armor streaming steam from the sudden increase in temperature and hard
rads, while another toppled, hands locked onto his head at Inyme's psychic assault. Several more fell to the ground, arrows extending from exposed areas in
their armor with almost preternatural aim as Dietrich looked around at what was left of her guard detail in a slight bit of astonishment. Kicking one soldier
over, she retrieved her rifle and Eagle pack, nodding to Alice. "So these were after you people?"
"Something like that," Amber said before Alice could snap back, noticing the
catgirl's ears going flat at Dietrich's tone. The Longbow officer nodded. "We'll discuss what the Watcher wanted you to ask me later. For now,
we're dealing with these intruders. Sefu's probably still fighting inside the inner base," she said smartly, heading on ahead as the Legendary and
Riot Force members sort of just fell into her wake.
"How does she do that?" Alice wondered.
"She's a commanding officer. They have to be able to do that, or they
don't get a command," Rhea giggled.
Following Dietrich through the inner passages of the Longbow base, it wasn't long
before they fell into enemy attention again. Alice, Gamma, and Dietrich wound up on one side of what looked like a small power plant complex, while Inyme,
Amber, and Rhea were on the other. A trio of Dragoons kept the heroes' heads down as they unloaded rapid waves of machine gun fire, interspersed with
bursts of napalm. Several Jaegers alongside them kept up the barrage as well, the commander in charge of this detachment having apparently realized that the
powerful, but slow firing, Nemesis Rifles were proving inefficient against Amber's forcefields and sought area denial instead. "Damn! Amber, can you
distract them?" Alice asked, as the other telepath nodded, concentrating.
Lieutenant Olaf was feeling fairly good about his squad's performance in keeping
the interfering heroes pinned, down. Looking aside at his companion, he was about to comment on it when he saw it: the green eggshell shape of a Rikti drone.
They must have taken out the Jaegers while he wasn't looking. Jumping back so he didn't catch his squadmate in the fire, he let loose with a burst of
flame from the bottom of his weapon. "Burn, you alien scum!"
Sergeant Branston didn't know what to do as his commanding officer suddenly opened
fire on their Jaeger support units, but then Olaf morphed into a Rikti, and it all made sense. They were under infiltration! Returning fire at the alien
abomination, the confused Jaegers were easy prey as they tried to comprehend their human commanders suddenly firing at them and each other. However, that
momentary confusion was all they got as they exploded seconds later under fire from the heroes, their confused commanding officers following.
"The main control center is just ahead," Dietrich noted, heading forward.
Alice followed her in, a second before Inyme's senses tingled. "Sniper!"
"Down!" Dietrich ordered, pushing Alice to the floor not a second too soon as
several Comet Rifles fired in sequence, hitting the Longbow officer and throwing her over a railing. Alice scrambled to the edge, looking down, only seeing
shrapnel at the bottom where she'd heard the Captain hit.
She's fine, just injured. They got the medicomm operating
properly, Inyme's voice reassured her in her mind, causing Alice to breath a sigh of relief,
before drawing back an arrow. Waiting, she held it until the squad of snipers prepared to open fire again, thinking her plan at Amber and Inyme. Firing, her
arrow hit the explosive round just as it left the barrel of the Comet rifle, just as twin surges of telekinesis crumpled the long ends of the two beside it so
the rounds couldn't exit. The resulting backfire took out the entire group as the group ran forward.
A short run and gun battle later, the Nemesis invaders were pacified. Alice walked
towards where Dietrich was getting a brief bit of attention from the base medic, grimacing slightly as the bandages were tied in place. "That should hold
the rib in place for now, ma'am, but I'd recommend getting to a med tank sooner rather than later if you'd like to avoid surgery."
"Thank you, corporal," she said, before looking up at Alice. "I suppose
I owe my gratitude for your assistance. What was it that the Watcher sent you to request from us, Miss Romanova?"
Alice blinked, before doing a
mental "duh" as she remembered Dietrich's(and Vanguard's) files would be up to date since the adoption paperwork had gone through. She'd
made the "Baker" last name up on her hero paperwork anyway, so this was more natural than anything, really. "Well, it's something to do with
this attack actual-" she stopped as a warden came up behind her.
"Captain Dietrich," he said. "We've...put together the list of
casualties from the attack, before we were able to bring Medicomm back up," he said.
Alice's ears flicked as
she felt a wince of pain from Dietrich that had nothing to do with the broken ribs she'd sustained. "How many?"
"…twelve, ma'am….and….ma'am, I'm not sure how to say this…" he
said, Alice's senses tingling at the feeling of dread emanating from the warden.
"Bluntly, lieutenant. The more you hedge around it, the worse it gets,"
Dietrich noted.
"…it's Lieutenant Tendaji, ma'am…he's…dead,
ma'am."
Alice started, as Dietrich
blanched. "Sefu? That…that's impossible…"
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but….we have the body here. We were just…trying to figure out where to send the dead… I'll see to that then…" he said
softly, before turning away.
Alice shivered as she felt
the emotions roiling beneath Dietrich's shocked expression. "…this is impossible. Sefu was my right hand….my…he was my best friend…he can't be
dead…."
Her eyes shifted, locking on Alice so quickly, the archer felt like invisible lasers
were pinioning her in place. "You said what the Watcher sent you for was connected to this attack. How?"
Alice's fur rose as she
swallowed down the fear Dietrich's tone caused in her. "We recovered a Nemesis Army defector….he had found evidence that Nemesis produced duplicates
of the Freedom Phalanx and used them to provoke the Rikti. We extracted him from an attempted execution, and he gave us coordinates for the main Shadow Shard
base that Nemesis operates out of, where the proof is. We needed your help to attune our base portal to the Shard's frequency…"
Dietrich looked at her, wheels turning in her head as she put the pieces together.
"…I see….walk with me," she said, getting up and heading towards the base entrance where Alice knew the rest of them were waiting for her. "Sefu
was a good man, you know. Always hopeful. Always upbeat. He'd chide me for being so stern all of the time. He…he saw the best in people. I needed him for
that…I needed…"
Alice remained silent, so
totally unaccustomed to this side of Wilhelmina Dietrich that she didn't know what to say as Dietrich continued. "His wife thought we were having an
affair. We weren't, of course. Sefu'd never have done something like that. But to the Nemesis Army, he was just…"
Sorrow sang in Alice's telepathic senses, but hardened, crystallized. Grim
determination became audible to her, but underscoring everything was a cold, violent sense of vengeance coupled with restrained rage. Dietrich looked at her as
they came to the entrance, where the rest of the group was waiting, Amber's face looking worried as she looked at both of them. "If Vanguard needs our
help to investigate this base in the Shard, you'll have it. I'll get it done….that's what his name meant. 'Sefu Tendaji', "'The
sword gets things done'."
Alice nodded, and started to
walk the rest of the way before Dietrich's hand caught her shoulder. Looking back, Alice once again suppressed a thrill of fear at the look in
Dietrich's eyes. "And when you reach that base, I want you to find that information, and I want you to show every last one of those steampunk fanatics
exactly what that means, understood?"
Alice shivered slightly, but
came to a salute. "Yes, ma'am."
Dietrich returned it, then turned, heading back into her base as Alice maintained her
calm for the five minutes it took them to get outside before stepping over to Inyme and curling in tight against her, protocol and appearance be damned. Inyme
held her hand, as the group quietly headed back to Vanguard HQ.
***
Author's Note: Yes, this doesn't quite go as far as I'd planned the first chapter to do so, but it was getting
ENORMOUS, and I figured this made a good point to transition. Also, I'm as impatient writing this as you all are reading it, so there. =P
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."