Zeus slithered out of Sam's meditating body, and streched his coils. "Nnngh."

Sam opened an eye, and ran it along his seemingly exhausted counterpart curiously. "You okay? You seem rather... pooped."

"I mussssst admit, I am rather... fatigued. It ssssseems that last battle left you quantum structure ssssssignificantly less... flexible."

"That's a... shame." Sam's keen ears couldn't help but pick up Zero's exchange with Phantasm. "What Phantasm did certainly was odd wasn't it?"

"Yessss, but I find your little fit of laughter moreso."

"Hey at least I can laugh at the right things, mister 'there will be blood'."

"Mmmm. Regardless, it sssssseems the others are prepared to leave. Let'ssssss join them."

"Alright." Sam said with more than a little annoyance. ~Can't just stay in one place, can we?~

With Comstock, Sam, Phantasm, and Zero crammed into the car, there was precious little elbow space.  Comstock kept looking at the ground.  "Guys ... I need to admit something.  I'm a bit afraid of heights."  He did his best to avoid reflexively increasing in mass as a fear response.

Zero's information gave them an edge Comstock hadn't expected to have.  Between them, fabricating simple pumps and generators for available materials wouldn't be a great trouble.  Direct access to the local government and powers reduced fumbling about time.  Coordinating defense and recovery efforts would be dramatically sped along.  Even if there wasn't a great deal of fighting, they could do some good while they were there.

"How we doing, Imp?  Ah, fuck he can't hear."  He clicked on his headset. "Impetus, this is Comstock: how we doin'?  Are we there yet?"  He leaned back to face the others in the car.  "Alright, I think Utopia ought to get us a jet if we're gonna keep doing this.  Do you want a jet?  I'd like a jet."

Solitaire waves as the crowd in the car departs, trying very hard not to laugh at the absurd sight. "Buh bye, Play nice with the other kids now, I'll have dinner ready for when you all get back." She cackles, before returning to shouting at people. There was a lot of rubble to get out of the way, and she damn well wasn't going to move all of it when she had a whole bloody army that was being so obliging. A nice change from taking orders all the time, isn't it? Still, can't say I want the job full time.

"God, yes." Adds a cramped Zero. It fumbled with tweezers and wire as it dissected and cannibalized several cellphones for it's new addition to it's head set. "This is ridiculous. And if they don't give us one, we'll just build the damn thing. And not give them the blueprints."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Tue 14 July 2009.

"Wassamatter, Comstock?  Gotta hit the head?"  Imp grinned to himself.  "The route that I plotted out for us was about 800km.  We should be traveling at 1000kph so the total trip time should be just over 45 minutes.  So, what's the plan when we get there, adn where am i putting us down?  I didn't have time to get the details back there."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:37, Wed 15 July 2009.

"Not sure. I was thinking about talking to some of the people in the know, and then seeing if we can ferret some of the mercenary Nova's out, but that might take a while. Hmmmm... what if we fix some of the infrastructure, let it leak, and see if the mercenaries return to blast it again? There seems to be no standing army to back them up. We can talk to some of the suggested contacts while we work to make sure we know the full situation. Would that work?"

"I'm pretty sure I'll be alright.  There shouldn't be any complications, they don't really seem capable of influencing me from inside, but if there are you can feel free to disable me."

Phantasm boards the "plane" with everyone else and prepares to make a construct... just in case.

The European HQ is large and well appointed, though in a way that makes it feel clean and modern rather than lavish.  The architecture is a work of art, and the entrance is spotless.  The surfaces are all smooth curves, flat planes, and sharp edges; no plush chairs or homey comforts here.  Anyone with knowledge of such things (hell, even anyone without) can tell that the building is designed to create a feeling of futuristic harmony, and to subtly intimidate.

Pax waves at people, and workers come out to help him clean up and and towel off.  They even provide a nice chilled drink.  They give Gravitas cursory attention as well, though they are uncertain of exactly who he is.  The receptionist gets a sour look on her face that quickly goes away, as she opens the mag lock on one of the doors behind her.

Pax escorts Gravitas through corridors, arriving eventually at a series of laboratories.  He takes you into one, and you are greeted by a large green man, busily performing experiments while he occasionally addresses telemetry or incoming messages from the battle front on a large touch screen monitor nearby. Pax says "hey Anteus, here's the intel you wanted, I'll leave you to him."  Then Pax walks out.

The green man stares at Gravitas for a brief moment, until Caestus Pax is gone, and then he nods. "It's amazing how little respect people seem to give us sometimes.  We solve their problems, plan their battles, but the majority of the Nova community seems too busy acting like rock stars to actually consider how little they would be without us.  Nice to finally meet you Gravitas, I've read your files, and am impressed.  I think you will be a boon to Utopia...  So, what do you think of the situation in Africa?"

))))))))))))))))

The trip to Bunia is... different.  Wind rushing around you at roughly 1000kph, while you ride in a ruined car rather high in the air... well, non-flyers are likely a bit nervous.  And the car isn't exactly made for such high speeds.  From the start the car shakes like a freight train, and about 15 minutes in pieces start coming off.  It takes a quick landing and some impromptu streamlining to get it to where it will fly without too much wind resistance, but between all of you, you manage to only lose about 15 minutes off your flight.

You arrive to a controlled disaster area.  Abandoned cars on blocked off freeways, a destroyed power lines around the power plants, and the pipes around the water purification centers dug up and shattered (along with several tons of dirt).  The capital building is in ruins, though from reports most of the city government wasn't there when it collapsed under the weight of nova attackers.

Before the team landed, Comstock got their attention. "Guys, anyone who can speak the language get ready.  We don't know if they are going to be gunshy and attack on sight, and the faster we can assure them otherwise the better."  His skin had darkened to a reddish brass sheen, suggesting there might be some emotional influence on the metals most prominently presented by his second skin.

He had felt every agonizing strain on the car's metal frame, and seeing the wrecked power and water centers elicited a plethora of strange feelings.  "Impetus this is Comstock: look, I know you've just been flying, but can you do the once around the city, looking for troublemakers or stray aircraft, once we land?  Over."

"Roger that Comstock.  Anybody in the upper class will be able to communicate with us in French, lower classes may very well be able to communicate with us as well, this area of Africa uses an English based pidgin as a trade language between the different tribes.  Don't know if they'll wanna talk, just look what the last group of novas that blew through here did.  Keep your eyes out guys, the locals may be unfriendly. Also, if you do get confronted by the locals let me know and I'll come back and do PR."  Assuming there are no rockets or assault rifles being fired at the car he sets it down on the street outside what's left of the capital building.  No sooner is the car on the ground than he powers skyward again, spiraling outward with a GPS unit in his hand, ready to radio in and tag any hotspots or suspicious activity.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
spent another 2 quantum for flight.  Quantum total 20.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 02:07, Fri 17 July 2009.

From the sky, Impetus can see most of the city.  While there are no outside attackers, there are several areas of rioting.  People are breaking into stores for food supplies, and are fighting over some of the goods.  The area where the car was set down is deserted, as the baselines want as far away from the novas as possible.  Far in the distance it looks like there's something on the horizon... dust... perhaps jeeps traveling over the savanna?  It will probably be several hours before they make it to the city though.

Imp radios it in. "Imp to team, rioting and looting at the following co-ordinates."  He punches the sites in on his gps.  "There appears to be some sort of convoy or dust storm or something on the horizon moving this way.  Moving to investigate."  Imp picks up speed and heads up until he is more than a mile up, his acute senses should compensate for the distance, and, he figures, they'll be much less likely to spot a person at that altitude.  He also makes his eufibre become a full length body suit as close to the color of the sky as he can.

It is in fact troops, heading slowly toward the city.  Jeeps and troop transports.  Troop composition will require a closer look however, as even your nova eyes won't pick up a whole lot of detail from your altitude (Sam's might be able to, if he wanted to do a flyby).  It looks like it's mostly soldiers though, with a bit of heavy artillery as support.

Comstock stepped out and did his best to look ... to look like a good guy.  He didn't know exactly what that meant, but he stuck out his chest, looked around, and then, embarrassed, nudged Zero to do his thing.  "I ... don't know where to go."

Quentin resists the urge to glare at Pax's back as he leaves, even as Anteus obliquely references his disrespect. "Yeah, tell me about it," Quentin put thoughts of Pax out of mind and focused on the question he was asked, "Africa... is... Well, its a mess. They've got nova mercenaries all over the place. We just repelled a group out of the capital of Uganda[Private to GM: If I'm wrong and that was the DRC, let me know and I'll edit or whatever. I couldn't find the exact reference.] and there's word of fighting elsewhere as well. Burnia, DRC, its all going up in flames currently. It looks like the local military dictators have rummaged up enough cash to appeal to novas who will do their fighting for them. If we're not careful, this whole thing could end up being fought by nova proxies - hell, it already is to some degree - with baseline civilians being the major casualties."

He shrugged somewhat helplessly, "I'm more of a scientist than a strategist, I'm not sure what the best move is. From a personal standpoint, fighting other novas is scary shit - they were messing with our minds out there. It would seem to me like if we want to stop this sort of proxy fighting, we need to come down hard and fast on those that would hire novas to fight their wars in the first place. I'm just not sure how practical something like that would be, either strategically or politically. We, as Utopia and T2M, stand to lose a lot of face if this operation backfires."

"Comstock, the column moving towards the city is composed of troops, unsure if they are friendlies, an occupying force, or some warlord wanting a piece of the gold mines in the area. Also, this city has shite road access.  If you want to open it to international aid a good place to start would be the airstrip. Over." Imp toggles his headset. "Frostburn can you read me?  There is what appears to be a column of troops moving toward Bunia. Do you have any intel on troop movements in the DRC? Where would a column of troops coming up the main road from Butembo and Goma? The rainy season should have left most of teh roads to here impassable.  Over."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
if Frostburn doesn't respond Imp will move 5 km or so away from the troops, then drop to about 20m off the ground, then will do a flyby over the troops at a few hundred kph to try to get a look at their weaponry, composition, and, most importantly, to see if they are fresh troops, or look battered.  Fresh troops may very well be an occupying force, battered troops may just be a column heading home.  In theory.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 02:18, Fri 17 July 2009.

"Ha! Ha! Nether do I. Let's figure this out..." Zero quickly whips out a city map it snagged from the troops back at the capital and compares it to it's notes taken from it's contacts. "Here we go. I'm guessing repairing the damage to the electric grid and plants will help us get water to the people. Would everyone agree to looking at the damage first? The nearest power station should be... there." Zero points down one of the roads. "I'll call some of the local officials and media and ask what they think needs attention first. We can act as surgical as possible, than." Zero makes the necessary calls.

Comstock keyed his headset.  "Impetus, this is Comstock: if those guys start shooting, return and drop me off ahead of their column.  I'll stop them.  Over."  He turned to the others.  "Anyone know how to say 'turn around and go home' in French or Swahili?  If all they've got are basic firearms I could probably route them myself while you guys help the city recover."  Holding the column up wouldn't be a problem.

After getting a look at the city from overhead, and then listening to Zero and Comstock, Phantasm speaks up.
"Science and engineering and stuff used to be a hobby for me in school, and since I got the big brain thing going after my eruption... Well I may be able to come up with some quick ways to fix the damage.  Still gonna need to have someone to actually make the repairs though, and some way of getting the materials we'll be needing..."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Science/Engineering: You rolled 2 successes using 12d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((2,10,6,5,6,5,3,2,7,5,3,5)). 2 mega
=4  The joys of bad rolling... At least I had a 10 on the mega.

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This message was last edited by the player at 09:17, Fri 17 July 2009.

Phantasm comes up with a few methods of repairing some of the damage, though doing it in a timely manner will require building materials, and the strength/ingenuity of the rest of the team.

))))

On the flyby Imp sees that the troops are fresh, and that there are a lot of them, probably enough to occupy the city.  They are older, the kids could actually pass for almost legal age, and they are supported by units of hardened soldiers in their 20's and...

THUD

Impetus is falling from the air, skidding along the ground, rolling to a halt... 5 miles from the troops... What the hell just happened?  And someone's on top of him, yelling at him... Seems familiar somehow...

Impetus shakes himself out of the daze he was in, and realizes he's pinned under a large and angry flaming man, a man whose wife he slept with... This is apparently not Imp's best day.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
10 successes to hit.  Guy is on top of you and has you in a hold.  No damage yet, but he hasn't turned up the heat on his Immolate... an you know enough about the guy to know it gets a lot hotter.  He was probably hidden by the same person that cloaked the movements of the rest of the unit.

---

))))

Back at the capital things seem pretty calm, until 3 explosions rock the city, one right under the capital building itself.  Bombs?  Novas?  The cause is unclear, but everyone is panicked, and the recently achieved organization and peace in the city is shot to hell.  Apparently someone still has plans for the city.

Frostburn's comm system is destroyed in the blast, so the team is cut off from the capital for the time being.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:37, Fri 17 July 2009.

Frostburn replies to Impetus:
"There aren't any reports of DRC troops in the area, and there's nothing going on with enemy troops... Wait, getting a report that there is a large convoy of some sort coming in.  We shouldn't have missed that, but they may have been cloaking them somehow.  Not sure on composition...  Go in for a look if you can do it without danger.

I'd advise watch-"

The line cuts off in mid sentence, and goes dead.  Attempts at re-establishing communication fail.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:40, Fri 17 July 2009.

At HQ Europe, Gravitas is having a friendly, and pleasant, conversation with an intellectual peer.  An altogether rare occurrence for both participants.  Anteaus of course pumps Grav for information on their last conflict, but he goes on to talk about plans for bringing life to the deserts of the world, cleaning up the environment, and dozens of other things.  He talks about a few of his failures... but only briefly, and seems very interested in Gravitas' input.

After about two hours, Pax comes back in.
"So, are the two of you done screwing around?!  We do have a war you know."

Anteaus looks irritated, but seems to acknowledge that the man has a point.
"...Yes.  We've both been working on the data, not just "screwing around", but then again I wouldn't expect you to understand the manner in which we process multiple problems at once...

But, to the situation at hand. From the data I've got, I would advise caution in the capital, it looks like you still have one nova left, and that he is probably the leader.  Likely with matter manipulation powers, given that the others aren't known for creating ablative shields of glass or toxic gas.  The situation throughout the rest of the country is more problematic, as it appears that the forces you faced earlier this morning were not the same ones you faced in the afternoon.  That means you have another team of novas, probably still actively fighting.  Bunia fell, and several others.  They will likely be reinforcing the city with baseline troops, probably shielded by a few novas... though probably not the ones you faced this morning.  Those are their attack force and are probably busy hitting other locations.

Hmm... we have new data coming in. One of our spy drones has picked up troop movement from out of nowhere, roughly 200km out of Bunia.  Has all the markings of a nova of some sort."

He moves to the computer an speaks into a microphone.

"Frostburn, you have troops incoming at Bunia, about 200km out.  Be aware.  There may be a nova with them, it isn't certain however.  If your team went there, which I anticipate they did, you should advise them."

Pax looks confused, then angry.
"WHY WOULD THEY BE IN BUNIA?!"

Anteaus answers "Because they had the forces, and from the profiles we have on them, they wouldn't be satisfied with waiting.  After you left, they had the leeway to do as they liked... And now that I've gotten all the information from Gravitas, instead of your sorely lacking reports, I am inclined to agree.

Oh dear...

I to looks like we've lost connection with the capital.  Well, I did say there was another nova that could cause trouble..."

Comstock helps lift debris and rubble, then follows Phantasm's instructions.  Time passes without word from Impetus.  "Impetus, this is Comstock: how's that flyby going?  Over."  A minute or two later he repeated the message.

"Hey guys," he turned to the rest of the team.  "No word from Imp.  What do you think ... trouble?"  His voice betrayed his worry, though he was trying to remain commanding.

In reply to Comstock (msg #224):

Zero cracks it's neck. "Definitely. Let's go." Zero will take any lift that is offered, or commander a vehicle and floor it.

The wheels in Imps head started spinning faster than they'd ever spun before.  His mind flashed past half a dozen ideas, pulling them up, considering them, then discarding them as unfeasible.  Fighting was right out.  Crimson Dawn was able to throw tanks then melt them into slag before they hit the ground, no way could he deal with that.
Heading up into outer space was also similarly unworkable, he wasn't fast enough to breach the atmosphere before getting crushed to death then burned to a crisp then dropped into the jungle.  Anyways, he didn't know if Crimson Dawn could survive in outer space.
Other ideas zipped past until he found one that might enable him to survive.  Why hadn't CD killed him before?  Why had he chosen to tackle Imp instead of punching him or tearing him in half?  Honor.
CD was a stand up kind of guy, had been born and raised in a god fearing, moral values kind of household.  His father was a career soldier, decorated for valor.  His mother lead the Sunday school in CD's home town.
Imp went limp.  Didn't fight or twist or squirm or hid CD with Quantum bolts or anything.  Limp.  Flaccid.  He also looked CD right in the eyes, and, when CD briefly confused by the lack of resistance hesitated, spoke in a voice filled with weary disappointment.
"Have you fallen so far, brother, that you now work for child killers?" The question, simple, direct, had the full weight of all of Imp's quantum fueled insight into humanity, general affability, and unnatural voice modulation control.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
spending 1 quantum on analyze weakness to find the way to defeat CD, 1 more on natural empathy to know the best way to come at him, 1 more on pursuader for I don't know how many sux.  Spending 1 wp for a success.  dice roller don't fuck with me now...  Woot!! 8 sux +1 to 3 from persuader

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This message was last edited by the player at 08:30, Sun 19 July 2009.