Geez3r Posted October 3, 2010 Posted October 3, 2010 Title: Opening Shots Archeville and the others finally had a chance to catch their breath following the harrowing ordeals of the Grue infiltrators at the AEGIS headquarters. The situation was dire indeed, but these were the things that tested true heroes. "Herr Danger, I believe you vould do de most good here. Doctor de Havilland und I are best used elsevhere. Doktor de Havilland," he continued as he adjusted the controls on his teleportation device, "I know vhat you haff done, und vhat you are uniquely qualified to do, so you are coming mit me!" Before any objections could be voiced, the two disappeared in a flash. The Doktor's mini-wormhole spat them out at the front door to his home in Hanover. Moments later, Archeville teleported again, first to drop Gossamer and her new package -- samples of Atlas' DNA, collected when he'd come to the Doktor's home eight months ago -- off at her lab at ASTRO, then himself to his office in the ArcheTech facility in Hanover. He knew de Haviland had worked with Grue biomaterials, and she could use that experience and the samples he'd given her to whip up something that could 'reboot' Atlas' genetic code to an earlier state, and allow him to break free of the Meta-Grue's mental control. The ArcheTech building had not been too badly damaged (thanks largely to the force screens he'd had installed a week prior), and the people within weren't panicking per se, but there was clearly a lot of confusion going on. Panicky idiots! They can do much, they just need some guidance. They can do some things. I can do much, much more. "Achtung! Attention, please!," Archeville's rich tenor commanded across the intercoms. In some rooms, his full image appeared, via concealed holographic emitters. "Freedom City is under attack by de Grue! De large creatures outside are Grue bioveapons! Do not panic! Ve are better dan dis -- ve are scientists! Und plans are already in place for such events." Which was, in fact, true. Archeville had personally overseen the hiring of everyone at the Hanover ArcheTech branch, making sure to hire those who could handle themselves in crisis situations (whether they themselves realized it or not). This was the facility under the most attacks, so it needed the best staff. Plans had been written up in cases of assorted emergencies, both mundane (fires, floods) and extraordinary (dimensional breaches, extraterrestrial invasions, mutagenic plagues, and so on). "Your department heads vill split you into teams, to either monitor de situation und communicate mit local authorities, maintain trauma stations for de vounded, or vork on defenses against de threat. Do not engage -- dose who go out should do so only to retrieve de vounded!" "ArcheStern," he said, and instantly an image of the bustling C&C of his space station appeared on a wall to his left. "Somevon, report!" A young redhaired man, seeming barely out of high school, was the first to approach. "Sir, sensors picked up several contacts approximately ten hours ago," he replied in a noticeable brogue. "Ja, Grue vessels. Dere is an invasion on, Herr Patrick." "That's th' thing, sir -- there aren't tha' many craft up 'ere." A second image appeared on the wallscreen, showing several alien craft. "Enough to put up a good show, but... well, not enough for a full invasion, I would think." I didn't hire you to think! No, actually, that is exactly why we hired him. ... bah! "Dat... is slightly more troubling dan I had anticipated. I am coming up." Moments later, he was 22,000 miles up, in the ArcheTech orbital facility, ArcheStern. The quietly humming, cool metal corridors were filled with activity, as people raced to either secure their projects, or gawk at the viewscreens showing the fleet. "Status? Positions? Talk to me, people!" Archeville commanded as soon as he appeared in C&C. "They're holdin' position, sir, but long-range sensors show a powerful charge building up." "Jump drives as sey prepare to leave, seeing how de superhumans of Earth haff vonce again routed sem?" Archeville shook his head, "No, no, dere is still much fighting going on, too soon to tell von vay or de ozher... ah-ha!," he exclaimed, then the sound continued rising as he realized the full implications of his thoughts. "Dey are charging a massive veapon... und mit does readings... it could crack de planet!" Gasps and murmurs rippled across the room. "Can we do anything?" "What can we do?" "We've got defensive lasers!" "Don't be daft, man, those thins only have a range of thirty six kilometers! We're over the Amazon Rainforest, 3800 kilometers away!" "We've got positional adjustment jets!" "Aye, that push us about forty kilometers an hour!" Enough of this! Let me amp up the adjustment jets, I can get us to the fight in no time -- they won't know what hit them! And risk all these people's lives? Not to mention, all the work we have done up here? ... fine. If you want something done, you must do it yourself. "Quiet!" the super-scientist's voice rang out. "Herr Patrick, Frau Mondy, please see vhat you can do to jam deir communications; ArcheStern's own communications system should be up to de task. Herr Kelchin, Herr Tcho, get us moving; I do not vant us to be simply sitting here. Und raise shields, too. Now, Doc-" "Sir, ve... do not have shields," replied Kelchin, the Russian intern who'd shown surprising skill with the facility's positioning systems. "There vere incompatibilities vith the systems and our power sources." Archeville cursed, and gave a resigned nod. "Doctor Simon, find out more about dose ships." "And what of you, Herr Doktor?," Doctor Simon, one of the satellite facility's chief science officers, asked. "Me? Oh, I am just going to compare deir veaponry..." Archeville replied, his voice fading as his cloaking system engaged, "mit some of mein own." Archeville's cloaked form slipped between the ships in the Grue armada, which were all aiming potent energy weapons at Freedom City below. Fortunately for humanity, Archeville had his own potent energy weapon, though one that carried a great risk to use. Up here, away from bystanders or cherished buildings, he could unleash the raw power of the gravity-manipulating devices he wore as a belt. Gravitic shockwaves tore through several of the vessels, rending hull plating, distorting cannon barrels, reaching out nearly three miles from Archeville's position... which was now clear, as pulling this stunt shut down his cloaking field, as well as his primary force field. (He'd switched his life support functions to a set of entirely separate, triply redundant systems months ago, so he wasn't in danger of immediately freezing or suffocating in the void of space.) The ships, while definitely damaged, were still quite capable of attack, and of making Archeville quite dead. "Right... time to see who is de better flier: me, or sem."
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