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Mayu_Zane · 10-03-2016, 10:32 AM

(09-19-2016, 02:54 AM)Dragon Fogel Wrote: »Grab the weather machine, shoot the power cable for the portal device, and run. If the portal shuts down, we'll only have a few bodyjackers to deal with and can better prepare ourselves to fight them before coming back later.

You: Laser fire on the portal’s cable!

One of your troops complies and shoots the wire. The portal immediately fizzles out of existence, and the last Bodyjacker to pass through is cut in half. There are now fifteen Bodyjackers in the room.

All of the enemy’s personnel who surrendered earlier have willingly (and sensibly) let themselves be carried out of the lab. A sergeant grabs the Weather Device and evacuates. Your troops continue attacking as they run backwards, throwing grenades and flashbangs. 9 Bodyjackers remain.

You come to the realization that your soldiers cannot possibly outrun the Bodyjackers. Not only do they move faster than anyone can run, anyone who gets caught soon becomes one of them.

Your laser-rifle bearing troops take the initiative to risk a cave-in to destroy their pursuers. They form a line, and open fire. The monsters quickly go down, and within seconds the threat is gone.

You: Confirm, are we clear?

Lt. Malino: Confirmed, all hostiles neutralized. Prisoners are secure and co-operative.

WEEK 6 DAY 5

== After-Action Report ==

Battalion 1 has taken casualties: 30 dead, 10 critically wounded. 960 soldiers remain.

Weather Device secured. Currently being examined by R&D.

Gargoyle and Bodyjacker remains have been retrieved. We have placed the Bodyjacker eggs in a vault with an incinerator installed. Guards will activate kill-switch if the eggs somehow hatch on their own.

Gained New Intel: Pioneer Base hidden trap

Pioneer Base has incendiary bombs hidden in the officers’ barracks, set to destroy all documents and digital information if the entrance has been compromised.

== End of Report ==

The R&D team have sent you some autopsy reports.

== BODYJACKER ==

Analysis of the creature’s DNA reveals that they are an artificial hybrid of human, lobster and salmon. They also carry Pretender worms, acting as ‘pilots’ that control the Bodyjacker’s behavior. However, this strain of the Pretender parasite is completely immobile, sacrificing muscle mass for the ability to endure extreme kinetic impact.

The Bodyjackers have no digestive system. No mouth, no stomach, nothing. They have a store of fat, and that’s all the fuel they will have, which would last for two weeks at the most. Defectors tell us that Bodyjackers are fed intravenously through the small gaps in their armor.

Their egg chambers serve no purpose other than to store eggs. They do not have any real reproductive capability on their own; Bodyjackers cannot breed without prey. The eggs themselves contain both Bodyjacker DNA and Pretender eggs, and they react immediately upon contact with animal flesh. Fortunately, if the egg touches meat that has insufficient mass to form a Bodyjacker, the result will be malformed and far weaker than a ‘proper’ Bodyjacker.

The eyes are specialized to spot movement, with excellent peripheral vision. The glowing irises are an unintended side-effect of the genetic engineering involved in their creation.

Bodyjacker muscles are very dense, and clearly designed for short bursts of speed. The armor is made of an altered form of chitin, which can deflect kinetic weapons far better than any natural shell. It can also regrow and reform if it has access to glucose.

We believe that we can use the Bodyjacker shells to provide regenerative armor. Imagine: body armor that can withstand small arms fire and can repair itself, and far easier to mass-produce.

Research Project: Regenerative Armor added to list

====

== GARGOYLE ==

Another artificial creature, made from a modified human base with genes taken from bats and the scaly-foot snail. Their primary purpose is to serve as guards, but their design seems to hint that they were created before the development of the Bodyjacker due to their weaker armor.

Though capable of flight and possess fast reflexes, Gargoyles are still vulnerable to small arms fire and are incapable of reproducing in any way. Their other advantage is their massive field of view, with numerous eyes looking in every direction. However, these creatures have no ears and are almost completely deaf.

Like the Bodyjacker, they have no digestive organs. They are completely reliant on a food pack attached to their spines, which also stores their waste. Defectors tell us that there are cases where the food pack gets damaged, and the nutrients end up being contaminated with fecal matter.

After the dissection and analysis was complete, we in R&D believe that its only usable advantage is flight. We might be able to create a pair of wings based on the Gargoyle’s design, which has proven to be quite agile and sufficiently sturdy while at the same time not too heavy for a person to carry.

Research Project: Personal Wing-packs added to list

===

You then notice there’s another autopsy report. It’s about the Author-like creatures your forces encountered at Barbarossa as well as the pilot found in the black chevron thing.

== THE POLLUTED ==

Thanks to Intruder, the Author allied with us, we are finally able to understand The Polluted, creatures that were killed and then altered by Author-built technology.

As it turns out, The Polluted are not an intentional effect. Rather, it is the result of a form of energy radiated by Author-created machines that then reacts with carbon-based life. As we know, Authors are natives of a different universe that obeys a different set of physical laws. They cannot physically exist here without creating a tiny version of their home dimension along with them, and the same goes for their inventions.

Without generating this extra-dimensional field, their machines would simply disintegrate the moment it arrived here.

Their starships and computers generate a pocket universe by creating extremely tiny portals that switch out the space in this universe with theirs. These portals are so small that they cannot be immediately detected with our current technology.

Unfortunately, while invisible to the naked eye, these portals can harm a living person by converting pieces of their body into ones that are more Author-compatible. The process is irreversible, and after enough parts have been converted, the person dies and their remains are resurrected as a creature that would be more at home in the Authors’ home universe.

The resulting creature, which we have dubbed ‘The Polluted’, is a completely different individual but retains some memories of the previous host. The Polluted, confused and panicked by its own memories about a place it has no real connection to, becomes hostile towards anything that it considers alien, which is why they immediately attack anyone they can find.

Despite this aggressive behavior, The Polluted can be tamed by someone who has read the Art of Domination. The Polluted can sense an Author’s presence, and will obey. According to Intruder and human defectors, The Polluted are intelligent enough to serve as pilots.

Now, with regards to its anatomy: Its body structure would not work if it were to follow our laws of nature, but it works fine in the Authors’ homeworld.

Here is a diagram of their anatomy, with organs labeled.

The Heart is a power generator that constantly supplies the body with energy, and also provides cells that regenerate missing limbs. It is the only organ that cannot be repaired.

The Stomachs (green orbs) convert matter into energy for the Heart. Destroying the Stomach may severely impair the creature, but the Heart will easily regenerate it in seconds.

The Portal exists to summon other creatures to serve as weapons. Their primary means of self-defense, the Portal can bring in creatures from their home dimension that then hunt down any threat. These may be referred to as ‘Author-Pets’.

So, where is the central nervous system? According to Intruder, the brain is in a separate location, just like an Author’s. In fact, much of their anatomy behaves like the Authors’.

An Author’s actual brain is separated, floating in outer space because one brain is the size of the average galaxy in our world.

Their brains are huge out of necessity; they are storing the memories of billions of lives, to be used as fodder for their own stories. However, to prevent confusion they need to consciously activate a precise location in their brain to access memories belonging to another individual.

The portals also work like antennae; they connect the body to the brain, as well as transporting energy into the brain. This is why if the Heart dies, the brain dies along with it. Traditionally, when an Author dies the brain will be dissected and then given to the nearest brains as an attempt to preserve history.

With The Polluted, their brains are not that large, but the same principle applies. However, unlike Authors, The Polluted can actually tear out pieces of their brain and throw it at their targets through the portal as a form of self defense. The sheer amount of energy contained in a ‘neuron’ can easily destroy a person’s body through explosive force.

The Polluted are capable of repelling metallic elements, but their bodies are still vulnerable to heat. Organic matter can also harm them. Ironically, fighting one with your bare hands is more effective than with a gun.

PLEASE NOTE: Do not fight an Author with your bare hands! The Polluted lack the ability to manipulate organic life. The Authors can do it very easily, and can just turn your hands into a flesh-eating bacterial colony.

====

You: Ghulls, do we have a report on the Weather Device we recovered?

Ghulls: Sorry Vora, they haven’t finished writing it but we do know that the lighthouse itself is the actual machine. The box is just a control device.

You: I see. Any idea when we can use it ourselves?

Ghulls: R&D says we should be able to activate it tomorrow.

HQ: Commander, this is planet-side HQ.

You: What is it, HQ?

HQ: Region 5 refugees are setting up some kind of relief hub at the border with Region 4. It’s the Freedom Group, they’re sending out a call to anyone with expertise or resources to come to the border. There’s a problem, though. Most of them arrive okay, but a few have been followed.

You: Followed by what?

HQ: Monsters, ma’am. Bodyjackers have started appearing in Region 5, as well as Fedora Stalkers and Sprinting Brainbeasts.

Fedora Stalkers. Shapeshifters that can hide, move and kill in total silence, their only weakness being that they need to transform into a coat and fedora-wearing figure to pursue prey, negating their camouflage abilities. Bullets are no issue to them; fire and glue are the only things that can reliably harm them.

Then, the Sprinting Brainbeasts. They can mind-control people and make them commit suicide. The older versions were big, lumbering creatures. The new ones can run. Good thing they don’t have much in the way of armor.

HQ: Commander, we’re getting requests to send a battalion or two to the border to protect civilians. There are over 60,000 people there now living in tents and huts made of zinc. There’s a trickle being sent through after background checks and inspections, but the enemy’s monsters are coming in bigger and bigger waves.

Lagan: Vora, maybe it’s time we just let the refugees through into our territory, and then set up a proper defensive line.

Rainhar: Wait. Where exactly are these monsters coming from? Are they coming in by sea, from Region 1?

HQ: Negative, sir. Eyewitness reports indicate that there’s some kind of walking factory travelling-

Rainhar: Wait, a WALKING FACTORY?

HQ: Yes, sir. Here is its ‘patrol’ route. It’s the loop in Region 5.

Link to Map

HQ: The walking factory is protected by Braintrees, delivering lightning bolts onto anyone who comes near. The factory is currently moving in a circle, but it’s creating more and more units every day.

How should we respond to this new threat?

- Get all the refugees into Region 4, and set up a defensive perimeter along the border. Two battalions need to be committed to guarding the area while construction of walls, turrets, mines and radar facilities are begun.

- Send in an invasion force to travel into Region 5, set up a supply line and begin a sustained campaign against the Walking Factory.

- Send in Spec Ops to investigate the Walking Factory first. Get as much information as possible.

- Send a Seeker drone to observe the Walking Factory.

- Order an airstrike on the Walking Factory.

- Attempt communicating with the Walking Factory.

- Something else.

>_

YOUR CURRENT FORCES

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