Private/Closed Bootleg Bros. Ultimate - The Banished Campaign (Act 1)

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six

Blake had managed to grab the Brute's weapon, eliminating the two grunts. But to the Courier's surprise, the brute had survived the grenade explosion! Blake turned, firing off a shot at the Brute, but it was too late. The molten spike ricocheted harmlessly off the energy barrier. What the shit? What type of shitty grenades did these Banished aliens make, that couldn't even kill their own guys? Blake sighed, shaking his head and lowering his weapon.

The brute spoke, laying against the wall across from the entrance to his cell. Blake seemed to be ignoring the alien, turning his attention to the Defiler he had been trapped in. That was, until the Brute mentioned the island was going to be glassed. Blake paused, giving the brute an interested glance, before looking back to the defiler. Using the blade of the Spiker, he attempted to pry open the base of the torture machine's control panel.

"Well, that sure sucks for me, don't it?" Blake said to the Brute. The wastelander was hard at work. This defiler was able to inflict an incredible amount of pain, while keeping him suspended in trapped. Clearly, it was using a lot of energy. Energy that Blake would attempt to redirect back towards the energy shield that was keeping him trapped here. If he could overload it, it could give him yet another moment that he could use, an opening that could allow him to escape!

"So, can I know the name of the clever enemy that has doomed me to such a fate?" Blake asked the Brute over his shoulder as he worked.

 

[comic]

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

Keyes’ lips noticeably tightened together at Copen’s question. The captain gave a glance at Kazaaak, then back at Copen. “M.I.A. right now. Kazaaak didn’t find a body, so I can only assume the kid was reacquired. Only place he could be taken to is our primary target: the Apex.”

Jacob let out a slight sigh. While his team was certainly faring a lot better than anyone could have expected from them in such tilted circumstances, without only three KIA’s and one MIA, they still had a metaphorical mountain to ascend after this, and the bulk of their force would likely run out of steam before the well-rested, well-prepared enemy did.

They needed to stay focused. But with the assault on the apex drawing nearer... There was an opportunity here. Keyes took a brief moment to mull things over in his mind, standing idly at parade rest for its duration, before his chest swelled as he drew in a deep breath. “Okay, our situation isn’t FUBAR just yet. Copen, you’re my fastest. If we’re going to get everyone still in this pit, and rescue Guardian, then we’ll need to split up one more time. I need you to take a fireteam and scout ahead, test the walls of the Apex. You can pick your team.”

With that, Jacob turned toward David and Kazaaak. “You two, you’re nimble. We’ve got a secret entrance here, and my gut instinct says we can use it. You have JULIAN to thank for its discovery,” as he spoke, the captain moved toward the wreck of Kazaaak’s ghost. “I need the two of you to investigate it, see if there’s a way inside the facility. Banished have dug in behind that blast door. That machine you all brought could knock it down, but it’s a fortified position. We’ll lose too many trying to get inside that way. If there’s any way to flank...”

He shoved a chunk of metal aside and dug into the destroyed ghost’s internals, before pulling out some kind of long black tube. It usually operated as a ferry for plasma energy from the ghost’s reactor to the machine guns, so it could withstand immense punishment, while also being generally plyable and elastic. Unburdened it was only five feet in length, but it could easily stretch up to five times that before the tube became too taut. “Use this as a safety device,” Jacob brought the tube toward the pair. “I’ll let you decide how best to use it.”

Now, the captain turned to address the rest. “Dig in marines. Banished reinforcements will arrive shortly, so we’ll hold off on busting those doors to deal with whatever they send our way. Can any of you pilot that machine?”

“Sir, I can,” Kaminski quickly raised a hand.

“Then get on it, private.”

Kaminski gave a toothy grin and waggled his eyebrows at Copen. “Aye aye, captain.”

As he hurried over to the Mantis to take its controls, the other marines began to distribute the new weapons and equipment David and Bisenti had brought back for everyone. “Same goes for everyone else,” Keyes called. “No rest stops for us yet, get moving!”

Finishing giving his orders, the captain moved his way toward one brute corpse. He thought he’d seen something just a moment ago, something useful, and his observation proved fruitful. He scooped up a Banished communicator, giving it a look over, before he turned to JULIAN and tossed it to him. “Won’t offer us any two-way communication, but that’s a back door into the Banished subnet. Think you can tap it, hear their comms channels?”
​

Blake focused on his resourcefulness, digging the spiker into the control panel to dig out its cover as he spoke. The brute outside had left a streak of navy blue blood down the wall, almost black it was so dark. Despite his grievous injuries, he still clung on, at least for the moment to give a bloody sneer. “The Chieftain ordered it so... but don’t flatter yourself... it’s not for you...”

He coughed up some more blood down his front, starting to slump over as his orange eyes closed.

Blake was successful in prying off the console, exposing the innerworkings of wires and tubes. It seemed both familiar, and alien. Familiar in that universal need for wires to connect components, but unfamiliar in that each one connected to a spherical mechanism deep in the side of the Defiler. The purpose of each wire was unknown if they all connected from and led to the same place.

Regardless, it was clearly the power core of the Defiler, its own battery or reactor.​

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six

Success! Blake was able to access the inner working of the defiler. How ironic, that the instrument of his torture and containment would be working towards his freedom from this place. The brute responded to his question, and Blake shook his head as he worked.
"I was talking about you." Blake said to the brute. "The one that survived a point blank grenade just to fuck me over. Tell me, which is it. Are you one particularly tough bastard, or do you folks just make some shitty bombs?"

It was likely that the brute was unconscious or dead, but Blake kept talking to him anyway. The cowboy sorted through the wires of the machine, nodding.

"I mean, if you're a tough bastard, I get it. I'm one in the same. You know one time, I sprinted 200 yards through mortar fire? That fucking sucked, let me tell you. I ended up hopped up on so many drugs I was seeing shit for weeks." Blake said as he worked. The wastelander stood up and stretched, shaking out his limbs and trying to get his blood moving. If he could just redirect the energy from the defiler to burn out the energy field...

...

A little while later...

"Okay, let's give it a shot!" Blake said, standing up and clapping his hands. He had done his best to change the energy feed system from the defiler's battery to its external points. A lot of the energy had been focused on his wrists and ankles. With the changes Blake had made, hopefully the overflow of the energy would be focused not on the points where a prisoner's limbs would be, but instead towards the energy barrier keeping Blake trapped here!
"One, two, three... Ice Cream!" Blake exclaimed, switching in the defiler to its highest setting!

 

[comic]

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

The brute didn’t respond. His wounds had overtaken him, so there was nobody to hear about Blake’s drug habits, unfortunately. Maybe Chubub or Wikpit, if he hadn’t KILLED them!

Not that Blake minded, though. He passed his [Science: 80] check in working on the alien technology, reversing the projected energy to be a little more external than its original intention. Cranking the settings on high, the Defiler started to produce its energy, crimson light shining brightly, glowing brighter and brighter - before the machine overloaded, releasing a great pulse of energy as the battery shattered.

It was enough to throw Blake back off his feet, heat washing over by proximity.

But it had worked.

The one-way barrier dissipated, falling away and leaving Blake with nothing in his way to the exterior.
​

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six

The resulting explosion of energy knocked Blake off his feet. He landed on his back, but quickly sat up.
"Oh, yippee!" Blake said, seeing that his little science experiment was a success. Dr. Klein and the Boomers would be proud. Blake stood up, brushing himself off.
"Tell me what's in a kiss, if your heart's not in it?~" Blake hummed to himself, picking up the Spiker. He stepped out of his cell, and holding the automatic weapon at his hip, fired a shot through the head of the dead brute. Blake didn't want to take any chances with that. Chubub and Wikpit were definitely dead, so Blake didn't feel compelled to double tap them.

"We could have wedding bliss, if we'd only begin it~"
With practiced and nearly reflexive movements, Blake searched the bodies of the three aliens. Not much. A pair of plasma pistols from Chubub and Wikpit, and some more ammo for the Spiker from the brute. Blake picked up the pair of plasma pistols, nodding cheerfully to the corpses of his alien guards.
"I'm feelin' low- Gee, thanks fellas!" Blake said, interrupting his own singing as he pocketed the pistols, sliding them into his waistband. "I'm feelin' low down. You know what I'm talkin' about!"

Blake topped off the ammo in his Spiker, pocketing the rest of the ammo. And with that, he was ready.
"You let the blues move in, now I'm movin' out~"

Blake crept down the hallway. His footsteps completely silent, the shadowy corners of the hallway seemed to mask his presence nearly perfectly. The Courier's senses were on full alert for the sounds of any Banished troops in the area. If he made it to the Generator Room, he'd try the door to peek inside...

 

[ArmedBlue]

Copen
​

M.I.A... he was afraid that'd be the case.

Copen listened carefully to Keyes' report and directions. With Guardian captured and having less and less time to work with, the captain called for iX to lead a squad towards the Apex. It was a way to get a head-start, evaluate defenses and pathing, and potentially set up an ambush or infiltration in tandem with the rest of the group's arrival.

He was given free reign to choose his allies for the scouting operation, something he mulled over momentarily. A small team would be ideal, no more than five people total, Copen figured. Aside from speed, which Keyes had pointed out as one of the cyborg's strengths, there weren't many standout skills he thought would be useful for the mission. The marines were sure to be reliable all-around, with dexterity and experience suitable for the job.

With Kazaaak and David set to investigate the secret entrance, Copen's idea to bring mostly marines along seemed to be correct. Kaminski wouldn't be joining this time, clearly eager to have his own turn putting the Mantis' firepower to use. Without much to go off of in regards to any of the other UNSC members, he began to take his picks mostly at random.

"Alright, I'll take..." Copen spoke up, pointing a finger at Matthews, then Toomes, then Willis. "...you three."

He then glanced to JULIAN, the AI just having received an assignment from Keyes. His robotic body didn't seem necessarily built for stealth, but...

"Keyes. Would it be alright if JULIAN joined us? I believe we may have a better understanding of the Apex's systems and defenses if he's able to remotely tap into their network."​

 

[comic]

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

Now a free man, the courier set his way down the hall. While stealthy, his humming kind of made that moot - not that anybody appeared to stop him. It seemed his jailbreak had gone unnoticed, for now. Blake decided to stop at the first door he found, the mechanism sensing his approach and sliding upward quickly with a light hiss. Immediately, heavy scarlet light poured out of the room.

In the center of this room was some kind of energy source. A strange platform was raised from the ground, connected to an identical one above it, as seven pylons were erected around it. The sound of rumbling power emitted from the centerpiece spectacle, as between the two platforms was the source of the scarlet, blinding light. Energy caught between them, shimmering and pulsing, only some kind of reinforced alien glass sealing it away. The surrounding pylons seemed to act as conduits for the energy, keeping it under control. Blake’s hair all over his body started to stand on end the moment the door opened, and he could feel his stomach starting to churn at the proximity to this power source.

Touching it wasn’t recommended, if he could bypass the glass.

Powerful technology. Strange that it was practically unguarded. Either this kind of power was commonplace, or the Banished were simply that confident in their own defenses. Of course, the third option was that it had been abandoned, given he’d just learned the entire place would be glassed soon.

Undoubtedly, this generator gave power to the facility - maybe even the entire island. Destroying it would certainly cause quite some damage - though it could also trap Blake down here with no way to escape. Remote detonators or an equivalent would certainly be welcome, if destruction was desired.

Nothing else occupied the room.

If Blake were to pay any attention to his looted plasma pistols, he’d find that their batteries had suddenly been fully charged just by proximity.
​

Copen’s chosen marines shared glances with one another. Being fresh to this ragtag group, they were no doubt conflicted about taking orders from what they’d consider a civilian. Copen certainly didn’t look like UNSC, nor did he bear any insignia. Still, it was under the captain’s command, so they hesitantly assembled.

“Bright mind, son,” Keyes pointed at Copen, giving a nod. “The less damage JULIAN takes, the better. Can’t exactly make repairs here.”

Jacob handed off the component to JULIAN. “If you can, tap it on the way to the apex.”

With that change, everyone had their orders.
​

 

[Fraseandchico]

JULIAN

So, their allies had rejoined the team. What joys - And now, plans were being made, it seemed they were splitting again.

While discussions were ongoing, JULIAN looked upon the communicator Keyes had tossed him with the question of tapping into Banished communications.
Normally, this would be a simplistic task. For a larger system, there was the possibility of entering the system itself and essentially brute forcing the program. Or, he could use the BIT for remote hacking and a simplistic format and preset codes he could insert. Neither was truly an option here, but there was a key advantage - If they wished to tap into Banished communciations, and this was a communicator used by the Banished, pretty much all he had to do was find a way to disguise the fact it would be listening in.

Alien technology...
"Haha... Not one force I've met has done a competent job of keeping communications encrypted and secret. This will give me zero issue. Perhaps 1 percent." He boasted to JULIAN when the Captain had told him to hack into it on the way to the apex with Copen, Matthews, Toomes, and Willis.

"Luckily, too, I think there's a loophole here - Since you," The words were directed to Copen, based on where the head of the SPARK tried to turn. "Are in charge of this 'mission' on orders of Keyes, even though we won't be able to communicate with him I believe that means the orders giving is delegated to you. Lucky you," The AI gave an impression of a snort, though to be frank this was a rather necessary loophole in this circumstance.

So, during the trip, JULIAN would spend his time attempting to tap into the Banished Subnet through the backdoor he had been handed - Sure that, just like ADVENT, just like XCOM, the Banished would have little protection on communications. From that, there would be so much that could be gathered - Locations, potential weapons, names to look out for...
And hopefully the location of JULIAN's own weaponry and equipment, considering he had lost the chance to find out everything beyond the fact that his equipment had been taken by the warden of the prison. However, that was not what was needed just yet. It wasn't what he was supposed to look out for. Not that such a thing stopped him from opening a file on it.

 

[PaprusTeuton]

Kazaaak

Keyes answered Kazaaak's question, saying that he could fit, although he'd need to swim. "I haven't swam in a long while, but I'm good enough at it," answered the mantis. Regardless, Keyes selected him and one of the humans to investigate the flank. The captain grabbed some kind of long tube from the wreck of Kazaaak's ghost and gave it to the two of them, offering them to use it as a "safety device".

Whatever that meant.

Kazaaak took one end of the tube, handing the other end to the human- David, if he remembered correctly. "Let's get going, yeah?"

 

[ArmedBlue]

Copen
​

Despite their hesitation, the marines joined Copen – and with Keyes' approval, JULIAN was to join them as well. The AI appeared confident in his ability to access the Banished subnet, claiming that past groups had been highly susceptible to data pilfering. Whether that was because of his own hacking ability or due to low software defenses was unknown to Copen, though he hoped it was the former. Cybersecurity back in Grakken Prison had been moderately difficult to bypass for the cyborg, and that was in part due to having to deal with unfamiliar technology and languages.

JULIAN also mentioned having to receive orders from him, reminding iX of the apparent limitations of the AI. Ones he had not gotten the chance to ask about or comprehend fully, but could at least infer to be somewhat similar to those of the Workers he'd seen at the Grave Pillar. Some manner of system block preventing their bodies from acting counter to an established 'mission'. Unlike Workers, however, it seemed JULIAN's objective could vary greatly, and changing it depended on a chain of command rather than strictly human orders.

Well, assuming his systems didn't detect him as a human to begin with.

"Got it," Copen nodded in response to both JULIAN's words and the captain's advice. "I'll work on any repairs I can once we have enough time to spare."

Gesturing for the others to follow, the cyborg turned away to lead the squad further north towards the Apex.

"We'll see you soon."​

 

[Psymallard]

David Kavarr
A welcoming party was always nice. They'd been expected, David and Copen, and looking at the carnage around Keyes's men, it seems as though they had a metaphorical red carpet rolled out for them. Made things simpler.

Still, Kavarr acted as if he'd just come back a war hero. On the edge of the pit, he hopped off the mantis and slid down the side. When he reached the ground, he casually transitioned into a stride, his smile and wave rather haughty in presentation.

He approached with the aforementioned vibe about him, and threw almost all of the items he had on him in a pile at the soldiers' feet. He kept the machete, the flashlight, and a plasma pistol.

"I suppose your birthday came early this year, Captain."

He overheard that the Guardian had gone MIA. Besides a little twitch in his smile, though, he didn't react to the news. Of course, David knew what it probably meant, but that's just what the stakes were here. No use crying over everyone- though without the knight's powers, that meant their failsafe option was gone. There was that much less room for error.

The swordsman's task was clear, and it was an important one. He and the Martian-Axin lovechild were expected to go into a small hole to try and find a secret passage into the base. Well, he much preferred that route to the option of walking headfirst into a reinforced position, like they had been in the prison. In response to Keyes's orders, Kavarr mimicked the salute he'd seen the other soldiers give him with a smile on his face.

"Yes Captain, o my Captain!"

He made his way over to the hole. The insectoid joined him, offering him one end of the tube. David halfheartedly pushed it away. If they got into trouble, he imagined the tube would be more of a hinderance than anything. The spaceman pulled out his flashlight.

"I wonder if this thing is waterproof..."

With that musing, he crouched down and shone the beam of light into the small cave. If it seemed safe, he would put his machete in-between his teeth and go prone, not wasting any more time. After all, he excelled in tight spaces.

 

[comic]

RUBIKIS ISLAND​

—Tiberium Woods, Day 2 Early Morning—​

Contrary to what JULIAN had assumed, he found cracking into the Banished airwaves... surprisingly difficult. No simple channels to tap into, no signals or invisible waves to hijack. In fact, the longer JULIAN tried to crack the encryption, the less it started to look like it was Banished in origin. It didn’t seem to be the same kind of software encountered earlier by Copen.

The possibility that there was another force, not of the Banished, improving their technology, at least their software, seemed likely. That also probably meant a breach could potentially alert the Banished, or their support, of what he was doing. If that also revealed his location was impossible to determine.

Regardless, the SPARK-confined AI still had potential to crack the code to the communicator device with just a little more time and effort. It wasn’t impossible.

With Copen taking the lead, followed by JULIAN and the three marines, they disappeared into the trees headed north, roughly in the direction of the apex.

As they walked, nobody seemed willing to say much, if anything at all, which was fine as that kept the group moving quickly. While Kaminski had stomped his way around, these three marines seemed to be decent picks in the stealth department, as they at least made an effort to try and not stomp around, or on noisy leaves and rocks.

Here, the forest began to thin somewhat. The mossy ground gave way to more dirt, the trees to thicker trunks and fuller branches. While it wasn’t a total shift, the change was somewhat noticeable, and did offer some discrepancy. The biome shift was just different enough, in such a short time, that it gave the impression that this strange world was also not likely adherent to hemispheres and seasons, among everything else already strange and mysterious about this land.

“Patrol,” one of the marines suddenly hissed, experienced eyes and ears picking up the Banished phantom before it had a chance to appear. Its search lights combed across the trees as the marines moved under the canopy of a large tree.

Two other phantoms backed it, all three waving their search lights about as they moved slowly overhead. Beside that patrol, two large, beetle-like aerial craft also appeared, chugging through the air much faster, quickly passing the phantoms as they headed in the direction of Arcturus Pit and the others.

The phantom patrol, meanwhile, was only just now starting to reach directly overhead the group.

And one of them slowed to a stop, hovering still in the air. Not a good sign.
​

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

David’s rejection of the tube, which was intended as a sort of anchor to pull the first man back in case the small passage was unsafe, proved to be well-placed. The caution, at least this time, wasn’t necessary. David passed through the lip of the semi-hidden entrance to find that almost immediately the ceiling raised back up, making the dive relatively short-lived. Just up ahead, he could see that the water took a right turn, disappearing into another wall, though straight ahead, stone actually rose up, making a path clear out of the water and further down the cave on dry land. Either that was the way to reach the secret entrance, or the water continued elsewhere, though once again, where it led was up in the air.

He did discover that his flashlight was, in fact, waterproof. He sure was doing a lot of spelunking this morning.

As Kazaaak moved after David, once he’d disappeared from view, the captain quickly got to work on fortifying their position with the few marines he had at his disposal, and properly arming further up with the equipment brought back by the away teams.​

 

[ArmedBlue]

Copen
​

Their trek through the forest was quiet and efficient, the limited time keeping the group pushing forward as they transitioned into a notably different environment. Considering his previous experience with the Nexus, the shift wasn't particularly surprising to Copen – though it was also far less extreme than what he'd witnessed back then. Perhaps its activity had grown less erratic over time?

His thoughts were interrupted by the marine's warning, iX moving beneath a tree across the marines as the patrol arrived. Searchlights swept throughout the thinning forest, with one of the Phantoms completely stopping in the air, possibly aware of any surrounding targets. Although Phantoms seemed primarily built for troop transport, there was no telling whether they possessed any additional scanning technology, much less what specific type.

With their use of searchlights and the marines simply going into hiding, however, Copen was inclined to suspect that their means of searching were purely visual. As such, he remained still behind his hiding spot, hoping the Banished vehicles would soon lose interest and hover away.

Should that happen, he would continue to head towards the Apex – though if the Phantoms continued to linger nearby, he'd attempt to move forward from tree to tree whenever a gap in the searchlights' sweep presented itself.​

 

[PaprusTeuton]

Kazaaak

David didn't take the tube. Annoying, but Kazaaak could carry it himself. He entered the cave, holding his breath as he swam under the lip and into the area where the stone rose up. The way Kazaaak saw it, there were two paths- a dry one straight ahead, and a wet one to the right. From experience exploring (recently-created) ship wrecks, the mantis knew that the dry path was probably better.

"We should probably go straight. It'll be hard to go back through the water once we're in it," the mantis thought out loud. "What do you think?"

 

[Psymallard]

David Kavarr
The tunnel was... much shorter than the swordsman expected. He was happy for it. He was no spelunker, after all. Up ahead the path split into two: one path down a more suitable passageway, one through a tunnel just as small as the entryway they had just crawled through.

David stuffed the plasma pistol back into his belt and took the machete out of his mouth. A grin crept up on his face- it was almost laughable how much more comfortable he was now with a simple blade in his hand.

The decision seemed easy enough at first glance. If this was a secret entrance, the wider, drier path was the only sensible option. Nobody would hate themselves enough to crawl back and forth through a long, waterlogged crawlspace. However, the aliens of this world had some peculiarities about them. There seemed to be little trinkets in any otherwise inconspicuous nook or cranny. Copen had noticed that before, though David still believed the cyborg's curiosity was misplaced while they were still actively escaping a prison. Besides, this was a cave, and caves were storage places for a certain species.

"We take the high road. But first..."

David waded through the stream. Water lapped into his boots, but they were already waterlogged by crawling through the stream. Before that, they'd been ruined by stumbling through an alien forest in the dark. They'd been expensive, so it hurt, but the Spaniard did not put his material possessions above his own life. Well, debatably one, but it wasn't his boots.

He got to the mouth of the watery route and knelt. David shone the beam of light into the mouth of it. He was looking for anything that was shiny- or otherwise stood out against the water and stone.

 

[Fraseandchico]

JULIAN

The subnet was proving more difficult for the AI than anticipated, many of his older codes failing to make a dent - So, he moved some energy towards creating new ones, almost like brute forcing it with the aid of past knowledge - Like trying to break down a door after examining the latches in detail.

I'll be damned - There's actual competence in the designs of their systems. But the reference points provided are very different - Someone else wrote this encryption. But it's only a matter of time - And by then it will far from matter if they can tell I have breached, for I will have every backdoor I need.

As JULIAN noted his rather boastful starting point in hacking, it appeared the group had been forced to stop upon spotting an enemy patrol. Copen appeared content to wait to see if it would past - Unfortunately for JULIAN, as much as he would have loved to launch into a surprise attack, he had no true say in the matter - Yelling isn't much help for a surprise attack. The SPARK moved to try and remain out of line of sight by default, though remained mostly in the same location compared to Copen.

 

[comic]

RUBIKIS ISLAND​

—Tiberium Woods, Day 2 Early Morning—​

Copen followed the example of the marines, darting into the cover of the provided foliage, evading the phantom search lights. JULIAN was much less enthusiastic in doing so, nearly being caught by one of the lights as they swept by, cut off from glimpsing him by inches.

The two lead phantoms continued to hover ahead as the third remained stationary for several more moments... before it, too, accelerated after the others, flying away.

Only once it was out of sight did the marines break from cover, one of them giving Copen that same, strange look from before. Still, nothing was said.
​

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

David’s curiosity paid off. There was a glint of something inside. He reached in for the shiny object, hand grasping onto what felt like a rock. When he pulled it close - he’d found himself some kind of cyan-coloured gem. It glistened against the flashlight beam against it, the inside of it sparkling with condensed minerals of some sort or the other. It didn’t appear like any normal gem, and it wasn’t cut, meaning it was probably all-natural. The strangest part, however, was that his skin contact with it gave him a unique sensation, like energy moving through his fingers down to the tips of his toes and up to his scalp. Aside from the feeling it imposed, there didn’t seem to be anything else special about it.

Nothing else was in the mouth of the submerged tunnel. If there was anything more, it would be deeper into the unknown. A faint light shone down from the dry path, however, signifying something likely man-made. Or alien-made more likely.

+1 Nexus Shard (purpose unknown)

​

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six​

"Whoops, pardon me lil' lady. Didn't mean to intrude." Blake said, nodding to the red energy source within the room and tipping an invisible hat. Despite his faux politeness, Blake stood in the doorway and stared into the room for a moment. Impressive, like the nuclear generators at the base of many Vaults he had been in. All this energy, dressed up and nowhere to go. For a moment, Blake pondered the idea of using to destroy the prison. It was a theoretical he quickly discarded. While it was certainly possible, Blake doubted there would be a handy self-destruct mechanism like the Brotherhood of Steel had in their bunkers. Even if they did have that exact same type, Blake would still have to gather the passcodes. The other option, causing a chain reaction from brute force explosions, was appealing. But Blake currently didn't have the resources to safety accomplish an endeavor. That, and Blake was sure he wouldn't feel too great about blowing up the other prisoners here. Sure, maybe some were in here for good reason. But Blake was sure there were others that weren't.

Blake stepped back from the doorway, watching it close on its own. He sank back into the shadows of the hallway again, silently moving further into the facility with the Spiker at the ready.

The wastelander peeked around the corner at the remainder of the hallway. An elevator was on the north wall towards the end of the hallway, but so was another door on the south wall. Blake moved down the hallway toward the door to the incinerator. Just like with the Generator Room, Blake would cautiously peek inside...

 

[comic]

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

Unimpeded, the courier mozied on down the hall to its bend, and toward the entrance of the next room. Like before, the door sensed his approach and automatically slid open. The room beyond was dimly lit, mostly with a red glow, giving everything an oppressive, angry hue. Here, loot could finally be found. The room had piles of what seemed to be junk pushed to the sides and away from the entrance of two other doors, each with a physical locking mechanism, a viewing window, and a console between them. Furnaces, and it was obvious they were, as fire still roared inside the both of them.

This incinerator had been recently activated. It seemed pointless, considering this whole place would be glassed, so perhaps the Banished had sensitive intel they wanted to dispose of early, in case the glassing didn’t ensure its destruction. Or, more likely, the last user of the incinerator just wasn’t smart enough to realize the futility of burning stuff down prior to a glassing.

The junk turned out to be mostly what it was implied to be: just junk. Shredded clothing, broken and/or melted chunks of armor/metal, spent bullet casings, unusable parts of broken weapons, shards of glass, discarded and random wires and cables, what seemed to be the remnants of mostly-devoured animal carcasses, and other various bits of similar junk to fill it all out.

There did seem to be some kind of slate nearby: a discarded datapad.​

 

[ArmedBlue]

Copen
​

The Phantoms continued on their flight path, casting the forest into darkness once again. Copen glanced in their direction as they left, his hunch having seemingly paid off, before he finally did step out of cover in tandem with the marines. One gave the cyborg a look of both confusion and hesitation, which he didn't seem to respond to.

"Let's keep going," he called, looking over to JULIAN as the AI also (presumably) left his hiding spot. "Any luck with that radio?" Copen asked, already starting to move north once again. He hoped they could gain any sort of proper insight before arriving at the Apex – they were on a tight schedule, and the more information they could work with when reaching their destination, the better.​

 

[Psymallard]

David Kavarr
Aha!

There was a gemstone in the opening. David plucked it out and held it in his hands, using the flashlight to illuminate it in all the rock's sparkling glory. It made the Spaniard's fingers tingle. Probably irradiated. Ah, well- it was pretty. A little radiation never hurt anyone. He plopped it in his pocket for later.

David then turned towards the path. He could make out some sort of light flowing from that direction. So, he simply turned off the electric torch. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust before continuing on. Couldn't have the beam of light spoiling his entrance to anything that might be ahead. The mantis would probably do that on his own, the swordsman cynically mused.

"Don't fall behind now. Vamos."

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six​

The room was empty of alien life. Or so it seemed. Blake relaxed, carrying the spiker at his hip as he entered the Incinerator Control Room. His eyes lazily passed over the piles of trash as he walked around the room. He casually reached down into a pile of trash, pulling out a piece of raw meat. Food. Real, actual food. Of all the rotting pieces of food and meat, this one seemed the least decomposed, and that was good enough for Blake. Without hesitation, Blake tore a bite out of the meat and continued his casual stroll around the Incinerator Control Room.

His eyes next fell on a piece of tech; a data pad. Blake dropped the chunk of meat, picking up the data pad. He leaned with his back against the west wall of the Incinerator Control Room, keeping the spiker trained on the entrance to the room with one hand as he read through the content of the data pad in the other...

 

[comic]

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

The destination was close. As the tunnel curved slightly to the left, it came to an abrupt stop - there was a Banished door in the way. Thick steel snapped shut like the jaws of an alligator. The source of light was the small light atop the doorframe, emitting a soft yellow glow to illuminate what was presumably an exit out of the main facility.

Small animal bones littered the cave floor underfoot. They seemed old. Rust had started to develop on parts of the door, and the light seemed particularly weak. This hadn’t been used for some time, meaning opening it was going to be difficult. There was a power cell container nearby, though lacking the cell itself.

The doors were shut too tightly to open through brute force, most likely. Their unused condition made that an unlikely scenario, though not completely impossible with enough effort and ingenuity, perhaps.
​

————————————
​

>DATFILCORR_SOURCE---UNKNOWN

RETRIEVE>>

>[1]FILE_SUCCESS​

LOADING . . .

TRANSMISSION DATE=>ERROR
UNSC GATE OF DUSK
UNKNOWN SLIPSPACE RUPTURE DETECTED
UNKNOWN ENERGY SOURCE DETECTED
UNKNOWN STARMAP LOCATION
SCANNING...
!ERROR!
PLANETOID(?) FOUND
STATUS: HABITABLE
ALERT - STELLAR FLUCTUATION
COSMIC MEGAFAUNA LIFEFORM
A.I. SOPHACLES RECOMMEND ABORT
!ERROR!
SYSTEMS MALFUNCTION
TOTAL STARSHIP BREACH
CAPTAIN IFF - CONFIRMED K.I.A.
HOSTILE MEGAFAUNA CONFIRMED
A.I. SOPHACLES RECOMMEND TOTAL EVACUATION
ALERT - !ERROR!
ALERT - !ERROR!
ALERT - !ERROR!
ADAPTIVE PARASTIC LIFEFORM DETECTED
DO NOT LAND
DO NOT LAND
DO NOT LAND
!ERROR!
A.I. SOPHACLES RECOMMEND FUSION REACTOR CASCADE
APPROVE=>YES
!ERROR!
!ERROR!
A.I. SOPHACLES NO LONGER DETECTED
PLANETFALL IMMINENT
SYSTEMS MALFUNCTION
SYSTEMS TOTAL MALFUNCTION
SYSTEMS UNABLE TO OPERATE
SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN
​

>END FILE

There was nothing more to glean from the datapad recovered. The pad itself seemed to have sustained plenty of damage to it, the screen cracked, some scorches along its front and back. It was probably a miracle it had made it this far - only to be incinerated by the Banished soon.

The room felt hot. The dual furnaces were hard at work, burning away everything behind their doors.

No sounds came to Blake during this time. No obvious signs of more Banished forces coming down, not even to check on why the brute was taking so long. Maybe they had more to worry about.
​

 

[Fraseandchico]

JULIAN

He was almost hesitant to admit to Copen that he was having issues with the encryption when asked, but relented after a tense second.

"Either my references are all wrong, or, more likely, they had someone else handle their encryption here." He explained loosely, not going too far into detail. "It's not impossible to break, I'll get through." He elected not to inform Copen about the possibility of getting found out when breaking through, though followed with the group to go north.

In his time on his own world, JULIAN had learned that when one writes code, oftentimes it will be easy enough to pick out who did it - At least, if they're competent. With this kind of encryption noted, it would be much easier to spot it's creator's handiwork in future, and thus get through it. For now, though, it was a test of trying lines of code, passkeys, digital battering rams that would slam into the encryption's metaphorical barricaded doors over and over.

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six

Hm.

Disturbing.

But ultimately, unhelpful to his situation. It had a lot of information, but none that helped Blake at this moment. But it was something to remember and think about, just in case it did become important. Blake pocketed the Data Pad as he casually walked to the Incinerator Control Panels. He switched off of the incinerator, then turned his attention to the various piles of junk around the room. Acting like he had all the time in the world, Blake parsed through the piles of junk as he kept eating the raw meat he had found.

His search was successful! More ammo for the Spiker, and a plasma grenade! These little guys were funny, Blake had been hoping to get his hands on one. A grenade that stuck to their target, hilarious.

Blake pocketed some of the spent bullet casings as well. Planning ahead, maybe he'd need them in the future.

By this time, the incinerators had cooled off enough that Blake felt comfortable opening them. He looked inside them. A little disappointing. Nothing but ashes, and... a dead Brute. Curious. It was burnt enough, Blake couldn't tell what had happened before he found it.

Still, he wanted something. Blake reached into the pile of scrap, picking up a rod that was protruding from the melted pile. It reminded Blake of the handle of a Super Sledge, so it was probably the handle of some sort of weapon. Curiouser and curiouser. Now why would they be burning the body of a grunt, and its weapon? Something to think about, but Blake couldn't make the connection.

Blake was getting tired of all this thinking. He wanted to kill something.

The sixth courier grabbed the Spiker, walking out of the Incinerator Control Room. He walked to the elevator, pressing the button to call it before stepping back so his back was against the south wall, and aiming his Spiker at it. The moment the doors opened, if there was any sign of Banished life in there, he'd unload on the whole thing.

 

[Psymallard]

David Kavarr
Light could indicate a lot of things. David stayed alert.

Perhaps disappointing the swordsmaster, there was no movement, sound, nor danger. Just a static door. Doors had been the bane of his existence this morning. First the puzzle doors that had caused him both stress and the loss of his shirt, then the door outside that would leave the group vulnerable to the incoming reinforcements, and now this rusted piece of shit. His eyes glanced over what was in front of him- he'd seen Copen use an alternative energy source to open the door back in the prison. Maybe that'd work here, but first, he looked back to his insectoid companion.

"Bah, what a shame. I left my breaching charges in my other pants. ...You know, I once knew a smuggler who would hide such explosives up his culo. You may inference how he met his end."

David chuckled and scratched his cheek as he reminisced on the absurd story. His eyes once again glazed over the mechanisms he had in front of him.

"...I could perhaps get the door open, but it may be difficult this oxidized state. Unless you have any thoughts?"

 

[PaprusTeuton]

Kazaaak

David went into the stream, and shone a light into it, seemingly looking for something. He soon found it- a cyan gemstone of some kind. Not like anything Kazaaak had seen before. Probably very valuable, if they could find anyone willing to buy it. David quickly moved on, jokingly telling the mantis not to fall behind.

"Hey, I'm not the one who stopped to grab treasure!" responded the mantis, neglecting to mention that on several occasions he had risked his life to access the scrap safes of trade ships. Regardless, they moved onward, finding a rusted door, with bones littered about and a slot for some kind of power source nearby.

David turned to Kazaaak after studying the door for a moment. "Bah, what a shame. I left my breaching charges in my other pants. ...You know, I once knew a smuggler who would hide such explosives up his culo. You may inference how he met his end." The man chuckled, although Kazaaak didn't get it. What did he me-

Oh. That's what he meant. Before the mantis could say anything, David spoke again. "...I could perhaps get the door open, but it may be difficult this oxidized state. Unless you have any thoughts?"

Kazaaak thought for a moment. "No idea. There's the power cord, but I got no idea how we'd use that, and unless you think that gem's gonna be useful, I don't have any ideas."

 

[Psymallard]

Arcturus Pit
David pursed his lips.

"Then I suppose I will leave the menial labor up to you, sir. To get the... er, corrosion out of the crevices to the best of your ability. Meanwhile, I..."

David first took out his flashlight, flicked it on, and put it in his mouth. As he did, he drifted over to the power cell container. The light from the flashlight washed over the metal, and the vagabond's brow knit together in focus. He took out his plasma pistol and popped out the fully-charged battery. The gun itself had mostly been spared from the stream's wetness, but just in case, the swordsmaster knelt to rub the battery in the dirt. Afterwards he stood up and blew on it.

Finally, David twirled his machete and popped open the panel. He took a moment to gaze over the electronics- to take in the big picture of what did what and led where. Then, he slid the machete back into his belt and began to try and hook up the battery. While he was no expert engineer, he had his fair share of experience with repairing the electrical systems of starships. It was worth mentioning that most of the time he had the assistance of manuals and an AI, but he had certainly retained some of the basics. Besides, it was just as simple as hooking up a power source.

If he could figure it out before Kazaaak was finished with clearing out as much rust as he could from the door, the Spaniard would wait for his companion to finish before completing the circuit.

 

[PaprusTeuton]

Kazaaak

"Then I suppose I will leave the menial labor up to you, sir. To get the... er, corrosion out of the crevices to the best of your ability. Meanwhile, I..."

"Gotcha," said the mantis, extrapolating the rest of the sentence. David got to work on the battery, sacrificing the plasma pistol's power source for the door. Meanwhile, Kazaaak got to work on the door. While simply scraping off the rust from the front probably wouldn't do much, the mantis began removing it from the crevices between the door and the walls, ceiling, and floor.

Additionally, if hinges of some kind were visible from this end, the mantis would attempt to clean those too, in an attempt to make moving the door easier. While it wasn't exactly something he had much experience in, the mantis had occasionally had to clean rust from various objects- mostly weapons and scrap parts. The result was that it wasn't too difficult to clean off a large amount of the rust.

 

[comic]

RUBIKIS ISLAND​

—Tiberium Woods, Day 2 Early Morning—​

JULIAN continued his attempts to brute force the encryption, making slow progress. The harder he pushed, the more he understood the encryption scheme. Who needed such tight encryption for a communications device, anyway? Though the coding started to look more and more like it had been developed by an A.I. not unlike JULIAN himself. Another true artificial intelligence.

“Holy shit...” one of the marines, Matthews, muttered as they walked, his head craned to look up. Overhead the cosmic blanket above them was being blotted out as something large descended gradually and soundlessly toward the island. Distant lights glistened on it, thought to be stars but now clearly artificial. A starship was coming down, settling itself in a position over the island. “It’s a Light Cruiser...”

“They’re not gonna glass us are they?” Toomes asked in a hushed tone. “I mean...”

“They ARE evacuating,” Matthews muttered.

“Shit. Shit,” Toomes hissed. “We need to pick up the pace.”

A tinge of faint, navy blue was beginning to brighten the black sky, though the dark sun itself was obscured behind the Banished Light Cruiser. Daybreak was nearly upon them.
​

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

The button in question he’d pressed was the touch screen scarlet surface of a wall-mounted panel, very similar in design to the door controls and Defiler controls he’d already seen prior. In fact, buttons and levers seemed to not exist among the Banished. Everything was just panel-touching nonsense and it seemed to work just fine.

When the elevator doors opened, Blake was greeted with the formidable defense of—

Nothing. The car was empty. The platform awaited him, and attached to it was another panel on a pedestal. Three white dots marred the crimson surface of the panel, with the bottom one blinking slowly, obviously indicating he was on the bottommost floor, with two others above him.
​

Alas, no hinges. The future doesn’t have those. Or the Banished, for that matter. Everything’s automated and slides up or down or left or right. Or multiple of those. Still, Kazaaak got to work on scraping away what rust he could. The door wasn’t an unfamiliar design, he’d already seen a few yesterday, so he knew that it split open vertically in two, the left going left, the right going right. He focused on cleaning that split, as well as the crevices where the door halves would slide into. Outside of that there really wasn’t much else he could do.

David meanwhile familiarized himself with the old wires. This door and its controls seemed strangely old. Outside, everything seemed relatively pristine, if a little battered and jagged. Here, it was like this door hadn’t been touched in years. He had to be careful with the wiring, as the elastics were surprisingly brittle to the touch, flaking away at the poke of a finger. It wasn’t clear if it was even capable of carrying a good flow anymore, if the inside conductive materials had decayed badly as well. They likely hadn’t, but oxygen was never very kind to most metals.

Once he inserted the plasma battery, there was a slight sputter of noise somewhere in the ground, like something was waking up. After nearly ten seconds, a red light finally winked on in the middle of the door, though its light was faint and somewhat flickering. Red meant it was locked.

Another annoying obstacle.
​

 

[ArmedBlue]

Copen
​

"Holy shit..."

Matthews' words broke the silence as the squad continued, bringing everyone's attention to the structure descending upon Rubikis Island. A 'Light Cruiser', he called it. A ship seemingly meant for glassing, something brought up by Lorens hours earlier. The Banished had the capability to destroy a place like this from orbit, and it looked like the time for that was approaching.

Like Toomes said, they had to pick up the pace.

Copen began trudging through the woods faster, periodically glancing up at the growing navy light overhead. They were nearing the Apex, but a weapon such as this...

"Matthews," he called. "What do you know about this Light Cruiser? How long would it take for it to fire? Is there any way to delay or disrupt its operations from down here?"

That last one was a reach, but he'd take whatever he could get if it meant getting everyone off the island in time.​

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six​

The lift was empty. Blake relaxed, lowering the Spiker. He walked into the lift, carefully looking around. Two floors. Choices, choices... Blake decided on the lower of the two levels. He pressed the button on the panel, then got himself ready.

Blake moved to the southwest corner of the lift, crouching in the shadows of the corner and aiming the spiker on the entrance of the lift. When the doors opened, he'd move methodically and with intention. He would use a technique he had read about in his favorite Old World Magazine, Milsup Review. A technique called "slicing the pie". It was a tactic he had used many a time while clearing many a vault. Moving slowly, and at a distances from the door, he would move laterally across the elevator, visually clearing the unknown room beyond piece by piece. Slice by slice. The goal would be for him to use it to see an enemy before they could see him, while using the doorframe itself as cover against possible enemy attacks.

 

[Psymallard]

The Door at the end of the Secret Tunnel in the Pit on the Island in Augur
...What?

David blinked. That was supposed to work... but it didn't grant him entry despite clearly having had some sort of reaction. ...Was it locked? Why was it locked?! What was the point of that when this was already a secret entrance that had its power source taken? Maybe the bones on the floor had actually belonged to some sad sap that had gotten locked out of this entrance however long ago because these bastards couldn't afford the forward thinking to make their secret entrance accessible in the first place.

The swordsman took a deep breath. There was still a way to do this. David sauntered up to the door as he centered himself and calmly nudged Kazaaak out of the way. After a moment...

BANG BANG BANG!

"Raaaugh!"

David hit the door hard enough to make his fist hurt and made his best impression of a Brute's roar. Not that it had to be accurate, since the door would muffle it, but the closer the better. He just had to hope there was one soldier that heard and was either fooled by the impression, or thought it wise to try their luck with their enemies in a tighter chokepoint. What came next was his favorite part.

Whichever the case, he readied his machete and his battery-less plasma pistol.

 

[comic]

RUBIKIS ISLAND​

—Tiberium Woods, Day 2 Early Morning—​

“From down here?” Matthews scoffed at the notion. “Sure, yeah. If you’ve got a few 30 megaton nukes to spare, maybe we could crack its shields long enough to fly in there on a pelican going mach 2, find some nonexistent port hole, and board from there.”

“Can it, Matthews,” Corporal Willis said, slapping the back of his hand on the private’s shoulder. “Short answer’s no. If we’d have found a way, maybe we would have actually started winning against the Covenant.”

“We DID win,” Matthews said.

“Not without divine intervention,” Toomes muttered under her breath.

“Doesn’t matter,” Willis huffed. “We can’t fight that thing. We CAN run, so getting a ride that flies is our best bet of getting out of the blast radius and not suffering fifty LD’s of radiation poisoning.”

It was at that moment that JULIAN finally made a breakthrough. A recursive code he managed to loop right out of itself, breaking the barrier and tapping him right into Banished local communications. Finally, a breakthrough. Immediately, the communicator flashed with a green light around its circular projector on the top of the device. It continued to flash - there was an incoming communication to accept.
​

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

As David banged and roared, nothing happened. No underlings and ape-like bears came to answer the call. The total absence of response, combined with how old the door appeared, gave the impression that it might have been abandoned and/or forgotten. It clearly hadn’t been used in a while. Nothing answered on the other side because there was nothing to answer.

There had to be another way through the door, but what lay behind was impossible to know. More skeletons and dust, likely.

His impression really was impressive, though.
​

Blake emerged out into a hallway that stretched two ways. To the left, it stopped at a door. To the right, it also stopped at a door. Both were closed. Nothing came to greet and meet, not yet anyway, but this floor was undoubtedly populated with someone or something.

The ambient lighting was mostly of dim reds, like the elevator shaft, and like the floor below. While there were certainly pockets of genuine white light that allowed sight, most of this place was doused in crimson. Psychologically, the ever-present color instilled energy into those in its light. Usually aggressive energy, but energy nonetheless, which befit the brutes in particular.

Nothing occupied the hall in any capacity outside of the courier himself.
​