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**robkelk** · 05-30-2013, 12:12 AM

Ah, well. Natsuko's next line is "Drat."

But it's probably for the best, since I read

Cobalt Greywalker Wrote:Gunbunny Honey

as "Gunbuster Honey"...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Cobalt Greywalker · 05-31-2013, 11:51 PM

As I can't decide, I'm spoiler-blocking the entire chunk just to be safe. It probably doesn't need it, but...

Spoiler

**robkelk** · 06-01-2013, 01:23 AM

"Yuu?"

"Yes, Yayoi?"

"I think mother will need someone to spin-doctor that away, if she doesn't want everyone to treat her like a Boskonian."

Noah sighed. "A.C.'s always been like that. I think Yuu's mother got it from her."

Yuu looked cross for a moment. "If you're trying to goad me into helping you..." Then she smiled and stood. "... it's working. Nobody's going to answer the phone while this is going on, so I'll go see what Public Relations can do to help without being obvious."

Noah waited for the door to close behind Yuu before turning to Yayoi. "Why did you get Yuu to leave?"

"I know how mother thinks just as well as you do, Noah. I didn't want Yuu to realize A.C. put the capability for that sort of behavior in our base programming, especially since our ethics routines aren't part of her core code."

Kohran shook her head ruefully. "Good intentions, but I think she already knows. Think back to the first Cosmic Party."

Yayoi winced. "Oh, right."

"Even without those routines," Leda pointed out, "she's turned out pretty well. Yuu learned her ethics the same way Helen will learn hers."

Takami suddenly cleared her throat. "How much of what A.C. is getting is going to come out of the game with her?"

"None of it could..." Noah started, then thought for a moment. "Or could it? I could probably build them bodies, and so could the Professor, so it would be a cinch for A.C. Maybe she'll want Safety's plans for Phobos and Deimos - I'd better make a copy of those for her. After this is finished."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Dartz · 06-01-2013, 02:56 AM

No worse than most COD players.... or just about any FPS or online game. Based on my understanding of what was explained earlier, most of what's happening is just for show to the viewers - the actual victim doesn't really feel it.

Actually rather makes me curious about having A.C. and Jet spar at some stage in the future....

Anyway, submitted for consideration. Based on how I'm reading it anyway, I might've gotten the wrong impression.....

---------

"She's getting frustrated. She's getting angry...."

"Hmm.... you don't like her when she's angry?"

"It's dangerous. You know what happens when you get frustrated and angry like that?"

"You think she's going to lose?"

"I've seen her fight, I'd never bet against her. Especially when the OpFor are about as competent as base Boskone footsoldiers anyway. But if they'd had much training, they might've been able to to use that pause to get some good hits in. They almost did."

"All I know is, I'm glad I didn't sign up for the thing. That landmate pilot's going to have nightmares."

"Nah. I think it's got safeties to prevent that sort of thing. Besides, you'd do better than half of these clowns. They're just all the gear, no idea."

"Yeah, but I hate being the strong one on the team. It's as good as painting a target on your back and really, having an entire enemy team go balls out to shoot me first each round really takes the fun out of the game. In a game like this, that's really not going to be fun."

--------
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

Cobalt Greywalker · 06-12-2013, 12:00 AM

Yay! I got a little bit of attention from my muse, so I have two more finished scenes.

Dartz, A.C. and Alita had what was supposed to be a friendly spar (Alita calling in a couple of favours to get to that point) in Mid-Feb 2014.

It ended very poorly for both sides. This considerably cooled their relationship, and is the reason A.C. even knows (not directly, I hasten to add) of the existence of such a high-level technique as Hell and Heaven.

(I've got to try and clear up my timeline to 2022.)

Next part up...

**27**

“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting

Once again, Saber revised her expectations of her master. Already she had manipulated the link between them to boost Avalon and share in its effects. Admittedly, that may have been down to the raven-haired woman’s twin fairy companions.

“Aww, c’mon Attim-sama. Think of all those big, strapping, young colts to ride!”

Even if the blue clad one reminded her of some disreputable knights she’d encountered that were fond of wenching.

“Deimos.” The woman in white and red said calmly. It was all she needed to say in rebuke. The fairy slumped in disappointment. It was a little too exaggerated to be true though, and Saber fancied she saw the slightest twitch upward at the corners of her master’s mouth.

“Kagutsuchi Dear? Can you come out?” A.C. asked empty air. Saber wondered what this would mean before a ball of fire about the size of her head span into existence in front of the mage before seeming to spin itself apart.

Saber blinked.

Floating where the ball of fire had been…was a cat. A white cat, with stubby wings. And a collar with a large bell and a wide red necktie thing almost as long it was.

The servant of the Sword watched nonplussed as the cat floated forward with a pleased meow to nuzzle against A.C.’s cheek and purr.

“Hello again.” A.C. smiled and scratched the top of the cat’s head. “I didn’t get to make a proper introduction.” Kagutsuchi looked up at the red-clad fairy. “Everyone, this is Kagutsuchi.”

The cat meowed a hello.

“Kagutsuchi,” she continued, pointing to the fairy the cat was looking at, “this is Phobos.”

“Good day to you Noble One.” Phobos bowed, receiving a nod in return.

“Deimos is her sister in blue.” The mage pointed to the blue-clad fairy.

“Only the best for our mistress.” Deimos said cheerfully.

“Deimos!” Phobos scolded.

Kagutsuchi looked at the grinning fairy in blue, before solemnly nodding.

A.C. rolled her eyes.

“Laevatein, my Device.” She held up the sword.

Möge unser Feuer brennen hell zusammen. [May our fires burn brightly together.]

A.C. blinked at the unusually verbose greeting as Kagutsuchi meowed in response.

“Last but not least, Saber and her Device Vivian.”

Good Day to you. Vivian said. Saber said nothing, given that Kagutsuchi was staring at her.

Then he was nuzzling at her and purring.

“I think he likes you.” A.C. said dryly.

Saber didn’t respond, still considering whether to try and stroke the fey creature.

“He doesn’t bite you know.” A.C. paused. “Well, not friends and allies anyway.”

Saber finally raised her right hand and gently patted Kagutuschi on the head.

“Now then,” A.C. said brightly with a clap of her gloved hands, “time to consider more upgrades. Too bad the Barrier Jacket fields aren’t fully realised in sim, so that leaves acquiring armour. Hum…”

Giving Saber another nuzzle, Kagatsuchi floated into the open and started to wash himself.

“What about active shielding spells Mistress?” Phobos asked.

“Active anything is easier to pick up,” the cybermage replied, “and glowing only makes you a better target.”

The floating cat started to hack and cough and finally spat out a golf ball sized fireball over Saber’s shoulder. Turning to watch, they saw it fly down the corridor and slam into the end as a group of Op-For sprang round it.

As the explosion took out that group they turned back to the floating cat, who meowed and ducked his head bashfully.

“Hairball. Riiight.”

***

“That SO going on a T-shirt.” Greenpeace observed.

Lebia shook her head, simultaneously watching the video feed, monitoring the Gauntlet system, counting the hits on the KoFen web page (after further highlighting the FAQ section, especially the bit about the safety systems), and pinging a response back to the Underspace thanking them for the offers of help but turning them down.

“At least A.C. seems to have calmed down a bit now.” Adonis commented.

“Oh my, I hope so.” Kasumi replied.

Cobalt Greywalker · 06-25-2013, 11:15 PM

And the next scene...

“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting

**28**

There were many things A.C. would consider beyond her (dancing, for example. Or Tea Ceremony), but being able to see the way the wind was blowing wasn’t one of them.

Admittedly, when you have to dodge railshots from an A4 type hardsuit you kinda get the point (or not, as the case may be).

Of course, making a point like that has its downsides as the hardsuit pilot found out in response when she lost her head following A.C.’s mono-ribbon sword counterpoint.

Saber was hacking her way through another group of Otome, Vivian maintaining watch for anyone drawing a bead.

Like the Sentinel at the back.

Stinger Blade.

A sword construct of blue energy formed over Saber’s shoulder and launched itself downrange, causing the Sentinel to dodge and loose target lock.

Phobos and Deimos were sticking to the roof, then diving into the thick of things and shaking up groups as they tried to form.

Still, A.C.’s tactical processor noted from the map her orientation system had built up (given the variability of the environment) that the mass of fighters were probably moving to one of the larger caverns in the tunnel system where the increased manoeuvrability would benefit the Op-For group more than Team Peters. The warning bounced around the tac-net.

Saber recommended telepathically.

A.C. sent back.

Saber replied.

Deimos cheered, triggering a Bolt From the Blue.

A.C. shot back as she carved a mage in two.

Phobos suggested.

Deimos added.

The green-eyed Magi-borg snapped back, stepping into the attacking Otome’s reach to catch her outstretched arm and snap it. With a spin she tossed the figure into the fire of a Knight Saber.

As Saber smashed in the chest plate of a Silver Sentinel with a swing of her sword, A.C. pulled out a canister-shaped grenade in her off hand and threw it down tunnel while completing her spin.

One of the Spartans let the ‘goalie’ (point defence software) take over and shot the grenade out of the air.

What followed was a cloud of rapidly expanding goopy foam tracing the grenade’s trajectory to splash against the group and cover them in blobs and solid strands of hardening foam that reached all around the outline of the tunnel.

With the Type 17 blocking one end of the tunnel, Phobos dropped again from the roof to unleash a Blazing Meteor Kick and clear a section of the remaining troops.

Now Team Peters peeled backwards to the cavern. Saber wasn’t very secure with this technique, which slowed them down a bit until they had enough space to allow Saber to charge into the cavern as the cyber-mage and her guardians covered her.

After A.C. fell back to leave Phobos as point, she brought her Demon Blood Talismans into line.

"Lord of the Darkness and the Four Worlds, I call upon you, grant me all the power that you possess!"

The muttered activation key brought her a surge of energy and she turned back to the pursuing force.

”Dark Mist!” She called, and a rolling cloud of black coloured fog sprung into being and swamped down the tunnel. Once the spell was cast, she pulled the M4A1 out of storage, grabbed a ‘Jingle Bells’ 40mm grenade from her limited supplies, and in a smooth motion slid it into the M203 under-mounted from the rifle and fired to cause additional disruption.

Then her two fairy companions broke and shot to catch up to Saber. The Lady of Fire brought up a Belken shield facing towards the Op-For squad and followed.

Saber had charged out of the tunnel on the wings of a Flash Move and immediately ran into a second group mostly set up to ambush them. She counter ambushed, ripping apart six of the ten person team before they could react.

A Spartan with the stripes of Master Chief came at the blonde knight with a covenant plasma blade, forcing her to block. Sparks flew as the Spartan’s blade tried to eat into the shrouded blade.

Red and Blue streaks shot out of the tunnel mouth like bullets, slamming into two Mages attempting to cast binding spells.

The final member of the team, a Landmate who’d been knocked over by Saber’s charging assault, managed to get ready to shoot the King of Knights with his weapon when he got to experience being hit with a tank shell via a full speed flying kick courtesy of a temporarily Martian cyborg Flame Priestess.

Stinger Ray.

The Spartan was blasted off his feet by the sudden spell, letting Saber get inside his guard and disembowel him.

Glancing to her sides, she noted the Master’s fairy companions had finished off their opponents and were keeping an eye of the other entrances as her Master’s flaming blade finished carving up the Landmate.

The emerald-eyed warrior sent, pointing to where Deimos was hovering.

Phobos called from her position, before falling back to her twin.

A.C. could hear the roar of turbine engines echoing up the tunnel, knowing that at least two motoslaves and riders were coming.

“Ugh.” A.C. grunted, letting Laevatein be taken by one of her ribbons. Then she made the motions of someone drawing back on a bow, her talismans still glowing. “Freeze Arrow!”

The bolt of icy energy struck inside the entrance and creating a jagged blockage, followed by the sound of screeching tires as the incoming bikes tried to stop. There wasn’t enough time for that however. With a crash of shattering ice and a double explosion, a Knight Saber was flung flailing head over heels into the chamber to land with a clatter on her back before tumbling.

The remaining mobile members of the first squad came out of the original tunnel at a charge, and Team Peters opened fire with spells. The chamber lit up as attack met shield, energies cancelling as the distance between them closed.

The mouth of the second tunnel exploded once again, this time because the group behind the fire blocking it wanted said fire out of the way. Bits of wreckage shot behind the recovered Knight Saber as she dashed to join the front running group.

Schlangenform.

The twin fairy Guardian Senshi almost literally blasted off over the heads of the group in front of them to smash into the group emerging from the scorched second entrance. The cybernetic knight-priestess of flame also shot forward, snapping the bladed chain of Laevatein’s Schlangenform ahead of herself to intercept her attackers.

Behind them the Knight Saber leapt to take to the air, but the tip of Laevatein’s chain-whip scored a deep gouge across the flight control thrusters, leading to them exploding as they engaged and the armoured figure to spiral out of control and crash.

A.C. sliced her way through the rest of the group to the fallen figure, now struggling to get up. It took a few seconds to cut down the mage between her and the hardsuited figure, and then she delivered a palm strike to the head of the armoured woman to stagger her. Her extended hand clamped on to the faceplate of the Hardsuited figure, and the muscles of her arm bunched under her gauntleted gloves as she lifted her enemy to throw her back at the survivors.

“You really shouldn’t assume we’d be sleeping!”

The Knight Saber slumped, as did all enemies in front of her.

“Damn, that worked?” A.C. asked aloud, noting that the talisman on her wrist wasn’t glowing.

Dropping her captive she turned to the remaining enemies, watching as Phobos’ Blazing Meteor Kick took out two more Otome.

Her Element manifested and she tossed a fireball at the roof of the second entrance over a group recovering from the twin’s attack. The concussive blast knocked them to the ground.

In a burst of speed she shot over and recast the Sleeping spell to knock them out as well.

A flick of her wrist deployed the ring pull of the Lamp of Fire, which the raven-haired woman quickly put to use. Then she pointed the Device down the tunnel as her Elements span into rings of energy. Flame ran down Laevatein’s blade, blue and purple-tinged red, to stop and swirl at his tip and gather into a ball of plasma.

“Starbolt!” His master named the attack, and it shot down the tunnel to explode and block it.

She turned, letting the blast wave ruffle her hair as she sheathed her Device in her rear bow.

~ Waste not, want not. ~ A.C. mused as she began stripping down the unconscious Op-For and stuffing anything remotely useful into one of Laevatein’s pockets of Holding.

~ Barbie doll anatomy? ~ The cyberneticist noted as she stripped the black and white innersuit from the downed Knight Saber. ~ Doesn’t seem to be privacy mode, but I suppose the limiters would catch being too correct. I wonder what the spare processing power is going towards, or should I take the Blue Pill? ~ With a mental shrug she moved away from the question, knowing she’d find out. ~ And I might as well take the opportunity to clear out some junk. ~

As Team Peters sped away, Saber asked a question.

“Why did you not end them afterwards? It is not as though in this realm it would matter.”

“Because they are now the Op-For’s problem.” The emerald-eyed cyberneticist replied. “Either they have to be re-equipped, or the Op-For has to respawn them. And until they make that decision it means there are almost a dozen less Op-For around. And they were helpless. That’s not something that matters much in here, but there’s no need to be ruthless if we don’t have to.”

“Ah.” Saber acknowledged, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

**robkelk** · 06-25-2013, 11:51 PM

Yayoi smiled (as did Yuu down in Public Relations).

Noah just nodded. "That goes a long way to undoing the PR problem she just gave herself."

***

Natsuko checked what was left of her loadout. Yes, she could re-equip by re-spawning, but she hadn't been killed yet - and if she could stay alive all the way through the game, she'd get almost as much game rep as A.C. would for winning.

As she looked at her ammo reloads, she blinked ... then she remembered. Infinite ammo.

Oh, she'd been an idiot. She was treating the game as if it was real life! Well, not any more.

She pulled out the toy she'd been saving for an extreme situation. Patterned after the one in the old movie Murderers' Row, the Gyrojet Pepperbox was clean, not-at-all shiny, and in perfect working order for a half-century-old sidearm. The rockets, however, were brand new - and waved to be heat-seeking.

Natsuko took careful aim, held her breath ... and fired off all twelve rounds at once.

(You were looking for a challenge, if I recall. I believe a dozen .50-cal heat-seekers might give A.C. at least some mild concern... especially if they're followed by another dozen a minute later. )
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Cobalt Greywalker · 06-26-2013, 11:42 PM

ARGH! Rob, why do you keep coming up with things I wish I could include but after research I probably have to turn down?

OK, in this case my problem is the ammo itself. From what I've read, the propellant will run out after at most an eighth of a second. While I could possibly see the rounds manoeuvring in the 70 metres or so that gives them in a straight line, a) I doubt they can manoeuvre radically enough to be effective, and b) all that manoeuvring would slow them down enough to be more easily dodged than normal bullets for beings with A.C.'s reaction times.

They aren't UF Thunderbolts with Ion sustainer engines, after all. (For those wondering, that's a no to 12-guage photon torpedoes appearing.)

I'm willing to be convinced on the gyrojets however.

One more thing, I had the current scene (28) written for a couple of months, well before the reaction shots for scene 26.

**robkelk** · 06-27-2013, 12:55 AM

They're waved rockets, though - there's plenty of precedent for waved engines using a lot less reaction mass than unwaved engines do.

And I expect A.C. to dodge most of them... but can she dodge them all?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Proginoskes · 06-27-2013, 01:41 AM

I imagine Team Peters will opt for some point defense, if dodging is dodgy.

Cobalt Greywalker · 06-27-2013, 10:49 PM

I've not seen someone waving solid-fuel rockets however, and the Deathwind project states the original rounds only had 3 grams of smokeless powder for a 185 grain projectile. That's a little over half the weight of a .50 cal Action Express round.

We're talking a lot of dev work (probably by Kohran) for a limited market.

Gyrojets are cool though, which boosts them in probability for Fenspace. If anyone (other than Eddie and Kohran) did micro-missiles, I'd go ahead and try and write up a scene involving them.

As to point defence, either Team Peters will tweak the autoguard routines in the Devices or A.C. could put up a pebble shield with Schwalbefliegen.

**robkelk** · 06-28-2013, 12:39 AM

Quote:We're talking a lot of dev work (probably by Kohran) for a limited market.

Definitely by Kohran - it says so in the wiki - for a market that includes her father. It'll happen...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Cobalt Greywalker · 07-03-2013, 09:50 PM

Here, have a treat.

“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting

**28.1**

The scream of warning Leavatein punched into A.C.’s mind over the wireless neural interface caused her to wince as she snapped round to see twelve micro-missiles turn a corner as her device snapped up a shield.

“Who the frack brought micro-missiles?” She snarled as they impacted.

Deimos darted up to the corner just in time for her to see a figure dart behind yet another corner a distance up the corridor while trying to reload.

The raven-haired beauty frowned as she took in the image the fairy projected back at her.

She ordered telepathically, putting thought to deed. To her that looked like a revolver based Gyrojet launcher, but no-one she knew who used one (pretty much all Stellvians) would be interested in a KoFen game any way.

So who could it be? And why would they play bait like that?

**robkelk** · 07-03-2013, 11:48 PM

META: I'm trying to have Natsuki give A.C. a very hard time in the game, but not actually win... unless Cobalt wants A.C. to lose. And Natsuki is in the game for training purposes (which is why she'd been treating it like real life up to this point).
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Cobalt Greywalker · 07-09-2013, 10:53 PM

And back to our (sort of) regularly scheduled programming.

This has a bit of wall-o-text-itus, and this is after I've broken up the actual wall-o-text that it was. Any help would be welcome.

Now I need to write faster than a slow crawl...

“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting

**29**

Saber kept an eye out for trouble as her Master worked on the armour she’d captured. Her twin fairy companions were fluttering around somewhere as scouts.

“What precisely are you doing?” The Servant asked as her raven-haired master fiddled around inside it.

“The problem with Barrier Jackets or Knight Armour is they are mostly geared to defence against magical attack, with physical attack a secondary consideration.”

The white-hat Mad Scientist shrugged, not looking up from her examinations with the mini-toolkit taken from a Landmate survival kit.

“Not like you have much problem with that in the first place. Shield spells help, but they divert some concentration and you haven’t time to learn to manage that mental split. This on the other hand is physical armour, and designed for physical attacks. As a plus, it has flight capability and built in weapons.” A.C. shot a wry look at her Servant. “Well, it should have.” She glanced at the damaged backpack. “If you’re wondering why this compared to the Silver Sentinel armour, while with proper tools I could suit you up in one in about ten minutes, I don’t HAVE the proper tools. There’s also the fact that I’d have to spend at a guess about three hours re-tailoring it from maybe a dozen others. THIS is easier to fit to you with what I’ve got. Admittedly,” The cybernetic lady mage knight indicated the feet, “the high heels may be a problem but I’m fairly certain I can teach you how to wear them quickly enough.”

The sultry smile on the Cyber Knight’s face worried Saber.

“On a more technical level, I’m preparing the systems to use your Device’s processing core as its main CPU. I’m also readying the Otome system to take a bit of your Device’s core as its GEM. I’m hoping, based on what I know and what I have observed, that linking all of this through your Mage Device will synchronise all the component systems, giving you armour that will cover all the defensive necessities while boosting your offence considerably. Plus the flight mode and putting more ‘omph’ into your appearance. Wouldn’t want you to appear…inadequate…you know.”

The Mad let out a breath.

“I still need some bits and pieces to get this done, so I suppose we need to do some raiding. And once we get the defensive niceties out of the way, we can go on the offensive.”

***

“’Go on the offensive’? Is she serious?” Lebia asked.

“Yes.” Eddie replied. “With Saber’s upgrade, the tactical situation will be even enough for them to do so.”

“And here we can’t do anything until it’s over.”

“Guys?” Greenpeace interrupted. “If I’m reading the specs right, it’s possible to induce a temporal compression to the scenario…”

“To finish things early? Won’t work.” Lebia told the green-skinned bioroid. “Ultra-realism mode for the Challenger, remember? Besides, the un-augmented human brain can only stand so much of that before seizures start due to cross-firing neurons.”

Cobalt Greywalker · 07-24-2013, 12:03 AM

I really need to get a move on with writing. It's...sitting there in my head but...ARGH.

Anyway, next scene

“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting

**30**

“OK.” A.C. looked around, keeping a mental eye on her twin fairy guardians as they scouted around. “Time to do this.”

“Do I have to?” Saber wouldn’t do anything as undignified as whining or pouting, so any evidence to the contrary was an illusion. Thus A.C. didn’t find the not pouting Saber adorably cute and want to cuddle the blonde to her chest. As such, she didn’t have to exercise her considerable skills as a mistress of her own desires to resist.

“Yes you do, unless you want to end up a bloody smear the way the power levels keep rising.” The cyberneticist had Laevatein release the hastily modified Sylia Type Three Hardsuit from its extra-dimensional pocket. “I COULD make it an order you know.” The Martian Senshi observed. “And I’ll be *creative* with my wording.”

Saber shuddered, her experience with the beautiful magically-enhanced combat cyborg showing just HOW creative said woman could be.

“…all right…” The blonde swordswoman acquiesced.

“Don’t worry.” A.C. smiled, pulling out the large therm-optic cloak she’d picked up earlier. “Nobody but me will see a thing.”

Saber tried not to think about the amused gleam in her Master’s eyes.

“Vivian, mode release please.”

Yes My Lord. The Device confirmed, dropping to her normal armour and collapsing back to card form, floating into Saber’s gauntleted hand.

“And the rest.” A.C. said, picking a thin fabric bundle from inside the open Hardsuit.

Saber frowned, dismissing her armour reluctantly to reveal a semi-smart blouse, sensible skirt, leggings and flats.

“Let’s go.” A.C. told her, striding up to the slim figured blonde and whipping the cloak over the two of them, activating it.

Just because the two were invisible, didn’t mean they were silent.

“H-hey! I can…” Saber’s embarrassed voice came out of nowhere.

“No fast enough Dear.” A.C.’s voice was sultry and amused.

“Eeeep!”

“You’re really a cutie, you know that?”

“P-please don’t-ahh!”

“Good, I got your sizes correct.”

“Do you HAVE to look at me like-HEY!”

“They’re safe. Now, step in here.”

Squeak.

“It’s tight…”

“Has to be Dear.” Squeak. “There, other foot.” Squeak. “And…” Squeak, squeak. “Now pull.”

“Urg.” Squeak. “Could you PLEASE-”

“Have to make sure it’s skin-tight. No wrinkles.” Squeak. “Now comes the tricky bit.”

“WHAT ARE YOU-EEEK!”

“Plumbing connections, don’tch know.”

Squeak. “G-g-gently…” Groan, squeak, squeak, groan. “AHHH!”

“There we go.” Slap.

“EEEEEK!”

“All done down here. Up we go.”

Growl.

“Sleeves now.”

Squeak, squeak. “Please stop TOUCHING me-AHH!”

“Almost there, now the neck.”

“If this wasn’t necessmumphble.” Pop-snap. “I hate you.”

Chuckle. “No you don’t.” Squeak, groan, squeak, squeak, groan, squeak, groan, pant, pant. “You’re so ADOREABLE with death-glare. The blush is really becoming.”

GROWL.

“Now for the ear stud.”

“…”

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“…”

“Awww, do you want a hug?”

“Mumph!”

“Ooo, feeling frisky? I suppose it’s fair. Mmmm, a swordswoman IS good with their hands I see. You have promise, but I suppose the fun has to stop.”

“Pah! WHY I NEVER-”

“Distracted you from the sensations?”

“…”

With a ‘whap’ of air, A.C. whipped off the camouflage cloak, revealing one terribly amused cyborg senshi and one small blonde in a skin-tight black-and-white body stocking glaring daggers at her companion.

“I REALLY hate you.” Saber growled.

“Kiss and make up?” The taller woman asked teasingly, emerald eyes twinkling in mirth.

“…You WOULD, wouldn’t you?”

“You’d enjoy it, I guarantee.”

Saber’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Fine, get me into this armour.”

“It’s fairly simple. Step in one leg at a time. It’ll be cold at first touch but will quickly warm up. Make sure the connectors match up.”

Repressing the sigh she felt, Saber stepped into the armour, flinching slightly but otherwise showing no reaction to the cold.

“Grab the hips and pull up, watching the connectors again.”

With a click, the bottom half of the Hardsuit sealed together.

“Right then.” A.C. came forward. “Vivian please.”

Saber reluctantly handed her Device over. A.C. carefully fiddled with the blue gem that made up its processing core. Withdrawing her hand showed two small fragments smaller than the nail of Saber’s little fingers. Saber snatched back her Device and examined it carefully, unconcerned with how protective she appeared.

I am fine My Lord. Vivian told her Master.

“You’ll see a portion of the padding popped inward over the area of your heart on the inside the chest piece.” A.C. said. Saber nodded. “Slide Vivian between the padding and armour, gem facing towards you, then push the padding flush with the rest.”

Giving A.C. a cautious glance, Saber did so. The padding portion clicked into place.

Stand By confirmed. Vivian said, relaxing Saber.

“Arms next.” The cyberneticist prompted. “Make sure they’re fully in.”

Doing so, Saber felt a brief touch of alarm as the gauntlets locked around her wrists.

“Now, pull the front up flush until it clicks, then push the chest piece together.”

The moment she did so, the Hardsuit whirred and tightened around her

“OK.” A.C. relaxed. “To speed things up I’ve adjusted the balance system to take account of the heels of the suit. Don’t worry if you seem to swish across the ground. Take a few steps.”

With the characteristic ‘boi-clip” of the shock absorbing system, Saber walked around the small area and felt horribly conspicuous.

“Everything seems good to go.” A.C. noted with pleasure.

“It wobbles.” Saber complained. “And it’s far too light.” She lifted her hands and scowled at the bulky manipulators.

“The lightness is slightly misleading. Even not fully activated the power-assist is working, and anyway the armour’s designed for manoeuvrability.”

The area rocked with an explosion.

“And the wobble is just you not being used to walking in high heels. And as we don’t have much time we’ll have to move on.” A.C. quickly moved over to the Hardsuited Servant and fiddled with the recently pierced ear. Saber felt the slightest shock as the GEM was fitted.

Ready. Vivian announced.

A.C. fussed with Saber’s hair for a moment, then grabbed the Hardsuit’s helmet from her tail ribbons.

“Now, wait until the armour is fully booted up before Materialising.” The Belkan Senshi kissed the GEM before fitting the helmet on Saber’s head.

The Servant had a few moments of complete darkness as the helmet sealed, then the HUD lit up and flowed with activity. Another few moments and the HUD flashed up ‘SYSTEM READY’ before stabilising.

“Ready.” Saber’s voice was automatically distorted to prevent voice print matching, not that it mattered in the simulation.

A.C. nodded. “Go.”

“Materialise!”

Set Up.

Out of sight inside the helmet the GEM displayed the following:

A.S.P
Connected
A.P

Then it cleared and showed:

ROBE: ROYAL BLUE
HOPE DIAMOND

MATERIALISE
Standing by

And ‘Standing by’ changed to START.

Flare compensation and her incredible reaction speed prevented A.C. being blinded by the transformation. Less than a second later it was over.

The Hardsuit was visually seamless and melded tightly like a second skin to Saber’s form; the only indications of seams were at the joints where they bulged under the Robe material. The wrist and ankle bands that were the signature of Otome didn’t exist, only the light bands inset into the armour at the appropriate places. The same was true of the belt, only Vivian’s core jewel sat in the position of the buckle with the inset light band. And detailed across her chest were the familiar designs of her normal armour.
The manipulators were now finely wrought Gauntlets, again covered in Robe material. At Saber’s hips sat a split skirt seemingly made of the armour plates that had covered Saber’s usual dress skirt, and trailed golden tassel-ribbons.
The armoured shoulder guards linked to the now green glowing wings of the flight pack A.C. had cobbled together from Landmate Damocles flight system blades and four salvaged Arc Reactors taken from downed Silver Sentinels, all traced by another light band which seemed flow through the neck guard to link with the helmet visor.

The helmet which now sported an enamelled coronet design.

The biggest change was the fact the Hardsuit had gone from a light grey to royal blue, the armour trimmed, embellished, and detailed in gold.

Finally Saber pushed up the visor of the armour (more like a morph really, the Robe material invisibly separating to allow the movement and reversing when it stopped) as the glow faded to reveal her confident and slightly smirking expression.

A.C. didn’t have the heart to tell her about the beautifully elegant makeup she was now wearing, or the fact the shape of the armour had given her a lithe but far more womanly figure than Saber was probably comfortable with.

“I think this will do.”

The Scarlet Angel matched her smirk.

“Care to try it out?”

Saber’s smirk turned into a predatory grin.

“Yes.” And the armoured Otome Servant dropped her visor.

***

Approaching the enemy, Saber felt uncomfortably comfortable in the powered armour suit her Master had fitted her in. She felt contradictorily naked and covered, her senses both muffled and incredibly sharp. Every move was pleasurably smooth, sure, and light even though she could feel the weight and resistance.
Of course, it was the differences between armour she knew and this one that were the things that unnerved her. The high heels were merely the greatest difference, but the blank visor that showed her the world with the same clarity (or better) as no helmet at all was the one that she couldn’t ignore. And it showed more, Vivian manipulating the HUD to provide lots of useful information.

A red arrow pointed to an upcoming side passage, moments before a group appeared from it. The warning had been enough for Saber to dodge the bullets of the Spartan, and close to sword range and sweep three of them to the side with the massive strength granted to her by her armour. The stroke cleaved through an Otome and most of the way through a Knight Saber before stopping. Her left hand came off her sword’s pommel and the blaster in her gauntlet’s palm barked, smashing into the Arc reactor of a Silver Sentinel.
Using her sword’s pommel as a balance point, Saber lifted herself up to kick the Spartan in the helmet. It wasn’t until just before impact that she saw the light band solidly glowing at her ankle, and watched as the helmet caved in as if a massive war hammer had crushed it.

Vivian brought up a map, a flashing blue dot at the centre with red dots shown to be down a tunnel around a blue dot.

The blades on her back glowed green as she took off at a run, cancelling most of her weight and letting her dash round the corner like a bee. And boy did this bee have a sting in its tail.

Even through the mystic sheath of wind hiding the blade, the surge of prana Saber unleashed left a glowing streak as she carved the group up.

The Servant muttered softly as Phobos hovered by her.

A.C.’s voice sounded in her ears, surprising her as she didn’t know she was transmitting,

Vivian reoriented the map to an isometric line view and plotted a course.

Saber nodded to Phobos and they both flew off.

**robkelk** · 07-24-2013, 12:45 AM

Natsuko was vaguely annoyed - A.C. wasn't even noticing the mini-missiles any more.

And a vaguely annoyed Natsuko was a vaguely dangerous Natsuko. Or so she told herself.

She was sure this trick wouldn't kill A.C. or any of her party - but there was always a chance. Besides it would at least slow her down for a couple of seconds, which might be enough to take her out some other way while she was distracted.

No, wait - of course A.C. wouldn't be distracted.

This was just Natsuko being petty.

But it kept her busy while she thought of something else.

Natsuko carefully set the mercury switch so that the claymore mine on top of the cache - with its "front" pointed downward, toward the cache - would go off if it was jostled at all, then she carefully tiptoed away ...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Proginoskes · 07-24-2013, 05:52 PM

I am greatly amused by your bits, Rob: Natsuko seems to be the only person in the simulation not included in the hyperinflation of power levels (or rather included to a much lesser extent: I doubt she started with claymore mines, but even the rest of the OpFor is getting power armor and magical toys, and Natsuko is making do with totally mundane military technology). This makes her very easy to sympathise with for those on the outside, and she's turning into a sort of Wile E. Coyote/Straight Woman figure in my head.

Not that I'm not appreciating your writing, Cobalt. AC is starting to creep into "Boring Invincible Hero" territory, but it's still entertaining. And even if I became largely disenchanted with your parts, I'd still read them because they're what make "Natsuko Coyote" work.

Cobalt Greywalker · 07-24-2013, 06:50 PM

*Eyes Rob suspiciously*

*Picks up Acme catalogue*

I know I saw a telepathy shield in here...

Proginoskes, your comments on A.C.'s development have been taken aboard. This may delay the story as I try and re-level things...

**robkelk** · 07-25-2013, 01:43 AM

Proginoskes Wrote:I am greatly amused by your bits, Rob: Natsuko seems to be the only person in the simulation not included in the hyperinflation of power levels (or rather included to a much lesser extent: I doubt she started with claymore mines, but even the rest of the OpFor is getting power armor and magical toys, and Natsuko is making do with totally mundane military technology). This makes her very easy to sympathise with for those on the outside, and she's turning into a sort of Wile E. Coyote/Straight Woman figure in my head.

Not that I'm not appreciating your writing, Cobalt. AC is starting to creep into "Boring Invincible Hero" territory, but it's still entertaining. And even if I became largely disenchanted with your parts, I'd still read them because they're what make "Natsuko Coyote" work.

Considering that was half of Natsuko's role in Re: Cutie Honey, it's good to know I'm writing her in character...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Cobalt Greywalker · 08-07-2013, 12:03 AM

Right, I've had this ready for a while. I couldn't see how to rework this to seem less overwhelming, so I eventually gave up and moved my focus into the next parts. On the other hand A.C. *did* decide to go for Overkill back in Part 19. Hopefully I can show more of the effects of that later on, and get the levelling back to where it should be (which I need to get my endgame to work).

“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting

**31**

Squad 7 swept down the corridors of the underground manufacturing plant trying to keep eyes in all directions, including down even though the ground was ‘solid’. It didn’t help that due to the ‘skylight’, shadows caught the eye more readily than they were comfortable with.

Deep within the simulated earth, there was a rumble. Squad 7 glanced at their maps, making sure they were in the blue of the safe zone. Far above there was another, far sharper rumble.

A mage to the ‘east’ of the squad snapped round to see nothing, then fell back to the landmate centring the squad.

Red-19 groused from the Landmate. While they’d all been doing it, Purple-12 was far more jumpy.

Blue-4 bit back a retort. Given their respective levels of protection, Purple-12 was being properly paranoid. It wasn’t like he was wearing MJOLNIR armour as Blue-4 was. And Red-19 had the cooling fins for his Lambda Driver deployed.

Green-8 on point in an A3 Hardsuit swept round what appeared to be a drop-forge, then reappeared flying backwards, chest plate smashed in, to crash against the girder on the other side of the corridor.

Blue-4 did the smart thing and tossed a plasma grenade round that corner.

Red-19 called out.

Grey-9 powered up his sensor array and pinged the area.

The Silver Sentinel shrugged his armoured shoulders.

The ‘Contact’ alarm from Squad 6 sounded over the Tac-Net.

Red-19 ordered.

Blue-4 disagreed.

The Landmate replied.

Purple-12 tossed the Landmate a nervous look before following the armoured figures.

A quick check showed Red-19 that Green-8 hadn’t taken a lethal hit, which was getting to be a worrying sign from the Scarlet Angel’s team. Sighing, he put a round through Green-8’s head and turned to move out.

The Landmate was thus caught by surprise as A.C. appeared from under her therm-optic cloak to the side of it and thrust her ribbon-sword through the edge of its cockpit seal, the sword just long enough to penetrate the skull and cause brain death. The raven-hared cyberneticist, holding Laevatein in her ribbons, triggered the external release of the Landmate. Once the Landmate opened, A.C. quickly pulled the dead pilot out, stripped him of anything vaguely useful (frowning at the smiley face boxers and wife-beater tank top) and fitted herself into the mech, sliding her Armed Device into the gaps in the fit, before closing the hatch, deploying the Damocles system, and flying out of there.

The cyborg cyberneticist sent, tapping into the Landmate’s computer systems.

On her HUD, Saber noted that a progress bar appeared but otherwise ignored it. She had enough problems with the Otome she was facing. Vivian was more intent on the download, given that A.C. was uploading the encryption schemes, codes, and co-ordinate systems in use by the Op-For, and the up to date version of the arena map.

The two armoured members of Squad 7 rounded a corner at speed and quite literally ran into Deimos’ Bolt from The Blue.

Purple-12 froze as the fairy looked at him.

“Oh, hey! It’s cutie-pie!”

“Blaze Cannon!” Purple-12 shouted, pointing his staff at the fairy. The blast of magic raged down the line.

“Ooo, cutie-pie wants to play rough.” The blue-clad fairy said cheerfully from beside Purple-12 head, causing the mage to recoil and pull his staff around.

“That could be fun.” A sultry voice said from behind him as he was wrapped in a hug. A red ribbon entangled the staff and yanked it out of his grip. “I wonder how much though?” A.C. continued, pressing her chest to Purple-12’s back as one of her hands wandered a little too low. “What do you think, sleeping beauty?”

Purple-12 slumped in her arms, and the raven-haired cyberneticist let him drop.

“Ah well, time to get back to work.” A.C. smiled as she tapped into the Op-For’s comm net.

***

The ‘Oh Crap’ feeling that the Forge Crew had when seeing their boss smile was born out as Team Peters went to town on the Op-For.

The Op-For, for their part, started to panic as ambushes were completely turned against them. Team Peters was smashing into the Op-For defences like a tsunami.

Then the monitoring A.I. struck back with an earthquake that forced Team Peters to back off.

The 'sharper rumble' is the cache going up. Putting a motion sensor on a hair-trigger in a seismically unstable region was a bad move Natsuko.

Cobalt Greywalker · 08-25-2013, 09:07 PM

Yeah, late I know. Work's been...well, work. Life is life. That and I forgot something.

Once more into the breach...

“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting

**32**

Frowning at the tricorder, A.C. turned back to the stripped down Lambda Driver equipped landmate she’d stolen. Putting together what she’d learned of the modifications to the mech to fit and use that device with what she had planned came up with several serious shortfalls in energy production and transmission, computing power and control, and thermal flow.

~ Damn it, looks like I’ll have to start raiding them again. ~ The cyberneticist thought glumly.

***

The Forge Crew watched (along with everyone else) as Team Peters went to a raiding strategy, hitting groups all over the map and stripping what the Mad needed for her project. Several times the left-overs were used to bait traps for further groups.

Every now and again, A.C. would let the rest of her team distract the Op-For as she worked on the Lambda Driver, modifying it to be worn by herself, before moving again to prevent the Op-For catching her.

***

It had been a long time since she’d needed to kludge together something like this, what with A.C. having the Forge at her disposal. On the other hand, finding this equipment dump was something she’d not expected from the stolen map.

Besides the ammo (prefilled magazines in boxes even) and enhanced weapons (smartguns as far as the eye could see), there were spare mage and Goa’uld devices (very useful), boxes of GEMs (not very useful at the moment), Covenant energy blades, grenades of various types, what looked to her as armour deployment pods (all empty, giving her a hint at the current thoughts of Op-For command), power packs, and various unopened boxes.

It screamed trap to her.

Of course they’d hide the bomb, but given that the jamming to hide that would also interfere with radio signals they’d either use lasers, or direct command via wires. Unless the monitoring A.I. was playing silly-buggers, the continuous small earthquakes would affect vibration triggers so those were out.

This meant surveillance.

She scanned around the area, looking for likely places for spotters, cameras, relays, passive sensors, or the disarm switch. There was nothing on the Op-For’s frequencies to indicate coms relays. In fact there was a general lack of radio signals, even if they’d completely changed their crypto schemes.

That didn’t make things any better. If the Op-For had upgraded to coms equipment that didn’t use the EM spectrum like some of the weirder ‘wavetech out there… Thankfully Interwave equipment was still FAR too large for individual use.

A.C. blinked as her neural interface’s wireless transceiver picked up distinctly artificial clicks in the background. Nodding to herself, she moved off towards where the clicks had come from.

***

Several minutes later, a pistol appeared from behind a wall. Underneath its barrel was a Smartgun system, allowing the user to take a look around without exposing themselves.

Satisfied they were clear, the pistol was withdrawn. Then a figure in a complete FESWAT armoured spacesuit emerged, long barrelled rifle at the ready. Sweeping cautiously for any sign of a counter trap, the figure moved forward, letting anyone experienced enough in martial arts watching to realise the figure was female from the way their weapons hung.

Carefully she kept to the edge of the clearing, using what cover there was available.

Deimos ploughed into the ground at their feet, sending the sniper flying.

Directly in to the middle of the trapped supply dump.

The female figure scrambled to get up and dashed at a rock to deactivate the bombs. Slumping in relief as she disarmed them, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Turning her head, she saw a grinning Deimos floating at head height.

“Thanks!” The blue-clad fairy said cheerfully before slamming a roundhouse kick into the side of her helmet and tossing her to the ground. The guardian senshi then dropped a literal flying kick into the sniper’s gut, folding the larger figure around the blow and allowing the fairy to grab hold of her helmet with both hands.

“SLEEPING!!!”

The armoured figure slumped.

“HA! How’d you like them apples, huh?” Deimos crowed.

A load explosion sounded in the distance.

***

Natsuko woke up and growled at the memories as she sat up, given her internal clock said she’d been out for fifteen minutes. Then she noticed her lack of dress, being wrapped in packing cloth and automatically holding the fabric up.

The fabric crumpled in her hands as the Chief Inspector controlled her emotions. She’d selected Privacy Mode when she joined the Gauntlet, so she was using a generic female model as her appearance. A.C. didn’t know who she was, and wouldn’t even know she’d participated unless she looked up the records.

Given how messed up this Gauntlet was turning out to be, that was more than likely.

As she shifted, she felt something under her rear click.

“FU-“ She got out, then the universe filled with fire and noise momentarily before she hit the waiting room.

The holographic clock counted down like a stopwatch to the side of her load-out screen, but she didn’t notice as she turned the virtual air blue. It was just after her vocabulary, and just before the timer, ran out that her attention was caught on the message floating in front of her.

‘Congratulations! You have WON!

You have lasted longer than any other Opposing Force Member before dying. For this remarkable achievement you will now receive an upgrade!

May the rest of your game be enjoyable!’

~ Upgrade? ~ The android wondered as the respawn timer expired.

came the answer as a message in her head.

As I said to Rob when I asked permission to use Natsuko, now do you see why I though I needed Psi-Shields? Wink

I'm getting short on buffer now. Hopefully I'll manage to stay ahead...

Cobalt Greywalker · 09-10-2013, 10:15 PM

OK, I'll start with an apology. While RL did play a part in why I'm late on the next part, the truth is I got a little involved in the latest Fen Infinities branch (unfortunately, after a second read that didn't play well so it got scrapped).

As it stands, the current buffer doesn't have a good stopping point compared to the current point. I only have two scenes left in it, with a third somewhat towards completion. I AM getting towards the end of the story however, but stitching it together is proving more difficult than I expected (and I knew it'd be difficult).

So what I'm doing is putting releases on hold until I can get a good next stopping point (or, heaven's forbid, actually finish this sucker).

Sorry to anybody who was waiting for more.

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