Adapted from the adventure ‘Forces of Nature’ by Louis Porter Jr
The Balance had just returned from Austria only for X-Ray to discover it was his wife’s turn to leave their new home for a few days. Stacy had travelled to the small village of Flickering, next to the Gravemouth Oil Refinery located on the Firth of Forth on the east coast of Scotland, with her new manager from Leonidas Industries, Mr Hierei.
The aim apparently was to oversee the building of a new plastic components factory close to the refinery and the two of them expected to spend about a week there, sealing the deal.
Reports came in a few days later of an attack on the oil refinery, apparently by a ‘swamp thing’ coupled with an unexpected freeze and a sudden storm of hurricane proportions, which had completely isolated the region.
An oil pipeline connecting the offshore oil fields had been damaged causing a major spill, which now threatened the whole coastline. The Caledonian Protectorate was currently helping evacuate the nearby town of Gravemouth and surrounding area and had requested assistance over the Trouble Alert channel.
Akira joked that as a member of ‘Just Stop Oil’ he should do something. The others ignored him as they headed to the Crate and packed their emergency bad weather gear on board, just in case.
On arrival, with Akira joking that he had his Scots phrasebook ready just in case, they saw that the oil refinery was aflame and spewing out hazardous black fumes. An oil slick, easily eleven miles long, was pouring out of the undersea pipeline, which threatened to pollute the entire coastline and bay and would erupt if the flames were allowed to reach the oil, which had now also started to surround a flotilla of tanker ships as well as the fuel depot. The only good news was that the oil slick was calming the waves caused by the abnormally powerful storm but also made it impossible for the tankers to leave the harbour and head out into open sea.
Across the bay from the marina lurked the refinery’s fuel storage units; almost 600,000 gallons of petroleum in various states of refinement, situated in 16 large silos.
They could see the eight-foot tall monstrosity they now knew as Quagmire was in the bay as was the Meta Frost. It appeared that they were working together. Did that mean that Tempest had managed to talk them round? They could also glimpse the now familiar figure of Tempest further inland, raising weather-related havoc around the village and surrounding area, presumably that included where Stacy was staying.
The bay was freezing up despite the intense heat of the refinery fire. The refinery staff were doing their best to tackle the fire but were severely hampered by the extreme weather conditions caused by Tempest and Frost.
X-Ray immediately headed out to sea to search for the fracture in the pipeline and see if he could somehow stop any further crude oil from escaping. The good news was the further out he flew, the less the Meta-related weather affected him. The bad news was that the pipeline was on the seabed hundreds of feet down. Using his enhanced senses, he found the fracture easily enough. He knew his only chance of preventing any further spill was to somehow weld the fractured pipe shut but at that depth, the cold of the North Sea would dissipate the heat he generated before it reached the fracture and he couldn’t survive at that depth without some form of aqua gear.
He needed a miracle. Then he wondered. Until now he’d always formed his energy close to his hands but if he could somehow stop the flow temporarily could he manifest his energy blast at a distance from him? He tried and initially failed but after a few attempts managed to create a blast a few feet away, though it left him exhausted. Fearing reaching the depth needed could render him unconscious; he decided to risk it anyway. This would be a Hail Mary play and not one he wanted to repeat in a hurry.
Using his gravi-kinesis, he sealed the pipe temporarily while clearing away any oil that had just leaked out and focused on using his radiation blast to create a miniature sun underwater, next to the fractured pipe to weld it close. The heat was so intense that the oil in the water nearby evaporated.
At the same time, on the shore, Akira had called forth the Fifth Wheel of Weyan, or the Wheel of Waiting to stop time over the water contaminated by the oil spill.
Back out at sea and close to physical collapse, X-Ray noticed a glimmer appear around the existing spill as the water and oil suddenly stopped moving, even as he heard Akira over his commdot warn that he’d used one of his ‘spells’ to time-freeze the oil spill so it would stay away from the flames and could no longer combust. Immobilised in a bubble of time, it would no longer react as any flames reaching it would also be rendered trapped in the same nano-second, frozen and inert until Akira collapsed the bubble. X-Ray smiled, now to make his way back to the bay but he knew he would have to take the long way round, skirting the bubble or risk being trapped himself.
He set off, exhausted, but aware that he now had to face the Metas that had caused the disaster if they were to prevent things from getting worse.
Banshee meanwhile unleashed a Wail hoping to affect both Quagmire and Frost but only managed to attract their attention as a massive fist formed of earth and rocks erupted from the ground in response and tried to pummel her still physical body. Banshee dodged and rendered herself insubstantial as she noticed the flames had now reached the outskirts of the village of Flickering. Only the storm overhead was stopping it from spreading any further.
She looked back and saw that Frost was using her abilities to prevent the oil refinery fire from spreading, creating firewalls of ice between the flames and the silos. It seemed that not all of their opponents were in favour of creating an environmental disaster to highlight their cause.
The storm over the village was getting more intense with multiple lightning strikes and a full-blown hurricane ripping the roofs of nearby buildings even as Akira tried to read Quagmire’s mind using the Medallion of Modrossus. As the trinity elected to allow him limited access to the swamp creatures’ thoughts, Akira could feel a conflict in her mind, split between wanting to destroy the oil refinery and to a lesser extent the village itself, which benefited from the refinery and a desire to prevent a major environmental disaster. She was conflicted as to what was the lesser evil. There was a lot of anger at Tempest who she blamed for causing the current disaster, but there was also something about being attacked themselves when they first arrived and their intervention resulting in the oil spill. Her thoughts were chaotic and primarily focused now on whether to attack the team or flee.
Who was fighting Tempest? Akira elected to read the past and witnessed the arrival of Tempest, Frost and Quagmire but before they could do whatever they had intended, they were attacked by six now familiar bald-headed men, with identical features, who’d teleported in after them. The oil spill and fire was the result of the subsequent fight.
That fight was still clearly happening, having relocated to the centre of the village. Akira flew towards the village and saw a flying Tempest struggling against six men on the ground seeming capable of morphing their arms into blades or blasting at him with silvery projectiles fired from their chests. They in turn were being hit by Tempests’ lightning strikes but their injuries (or damage?) were quickly repaired even as he watched. Tempest was outnumbered and outgunned and it was only a matter of time before the six clone-like beings took him out of play.
When they morphed, they would turn a silvery-grey in colour before resuming their original colouring and shape. Banshee elected to leave Frost to fight the fire and Quagmire to her mostly harmless rampage and join Akira in the village. As she arrived, she unleashed a shattering scream at the living metal androids.
Two of the attackers melted into silvery goo and flowed away while another suffered a massive hole in its chest as a result of the sonic attack, but slowly reconstituted itself as they watched. Two others were left dazed.
Akira followed it up with mystical blasts at the remaining figures. The first blast shattered the initial target leaving it limbless until the remaining blasted remnants began to flow back together and reconstitute themselves. Two others melted under the intensity of the blasts and flowed into the shadows, out of sight.
Only two remained and another shattering scream by Banshee temporarily took the remaining androids out of play even as Tempest turned his attention on them.
Having skirted the edge of the time bubble, X-Ray was again flying above the bay only for Quagmire to try to drown him in a choking mud swell. The attack failed and X-Ray retaliated by using his gravi-kinesis to pick her up and toss her into the time bubble, trapping her in a temporal stasis.
At the village, one of the self-repairing androids formed a massive blade out of its arm and tried to attack Tempest but failed to do any major injury even as Akira blasted it again and again.
The blasts turned the target into silvery goo as an ungrateful Tempest attacked Akira with a massive hurricane. As Akira battled the storm, the metallic sludge began to reform but instead of forming into several separate human-sized creatures, it was forming into a single giant humanoid figure even as Tempest was hit by another of Banshee’s sonic attacks and fled towards the bay. As he did so, he shouted over the sound of the storm, “Be gone!” Tempest rose almost a hundred feet in the air. “Unless you let us go, the two bombs strapped to the fuel refinery will explode. I can’t remember how much time I set. Tick tock, tick tock!”
Banshee wondered if these were fake bombs such as he’d used previously, or real? Could they take the chance? They allowed Tempest to meet up with and start to leave with Frost, leaving Quagmire still trapped inside the time bubble as X-Ray tried to use his enhanced senses to track the location of the bombs, just in case they were real, even as the two eco-terrorists fled. He scanned with his various enhanced senses through all the smoke and fumes and eventually located them on the sides of the silos. Unfortunately, with Frost no longer fighting the flames, the fire had reached the storage tanks. Erecting his force field, and hoping it would protect him against the heat, X-Ray headed towards the bomb and managed to deactivate it before the heat became too intense. Thankfully, it was a fairly simple device but unfortunately very real. There was no timer so he wasn’t sure how much time he had until the second bomb exploded.
He reached the second bomb just as it exploded. Thankfully, X-Ray’s shield held and the explosion did cause the flames on that tank to extinguish. It gave Akira an idea and he called upon Ghorummaz, a primal, elemental force and summoned the Great Gale of Ghorummaz, a powerful storm to blow the flames away and extinguish them. Ghorummaz was Lord of Earthquakes and Storms, and a binder of what is unnatural and this fire was certainly unnatural. Akira’s spell was enhanced by the fact that the refinery was on a ley line nexus and these “dragon lines” of force within the Earth enhanced its power.
He was later to think that their presence so close to the fractured pipeline may have enhanced X-Rays’ ability to weld at a distance.
Within seconds the flames in and around the refinery were extinguished as the storm blew out the flames even if several people were knocked off their feet in the process.
Back at the village, Banshee now found herself facing an eighteen-foot tall silvery robot, all resemblance to humanity removed from it as it tried to blast her, thankfully, insubstantial form. When that failed, it unleashed a blast at Akira who dodged before responding by reaching over and transforming one of its legs into sand.
His transmutation ability confirmed that this was some form of living programmable metal, that had its programming built into the alloy itself. For a moment, Akira wasn’t sure his ability to transform from one element to another would work, but sure enough the leg collapsed even as the sand reformed into this silvery goo as soon as it slipped through his fingers before beginning to flow back together and reconstitute itself.
The creatures appeared to be rapidly evolving mechanoids formed completely of Computronium alloy, rather than animating a wooden mannequin frame back when they had first encountered them, and capable of shape-changing parts of their bodies into weapons. Each time they encountered these things they were so much more advanced that the previous version, what would be their next ‘evolutionary’ advance he wondered? It was also help to know why they kept appearing when they did.
He tried to keep the smart metal transformed into sand to stop it teleporting away into a portal it had formed next to itself. It wasn’t working, the rest of the metal flowed through the portal to join the fleeing figure.
Banshee immediately tore the tracker off her costume and threw it through the portal after it before it closed; hoping Frankie would be able to trace it. This was one of the trackers used by Frankie and Annie as part of their Stable Door Protocol to track team members and staff in case they were ever kidnapped again.
The remains of the six bald-headed sextuplet ‘strangers’ seemed to be being teleported across the world but Frankie was subsequently able to trace the GPS signal to a newly formed archipelago of islands in the Fiji region.
Ignoring the fleeing Tempest and Frost that still left Quagmire trapped in the collapsing time bubble to be arrested by A.E.G.I.S. when they arrived on the scene shortly after. They were clearly not happy at M.E.T.A. Agent Wallace’s use of the team for jobs that should have gone to them (though in fairness A.E.G.I.S. was a UK-based agency with no authority outside of the Country).
Before they left, Akira and X-Ray combined their kinetic abilities to syphon off the spilt oil and ‘flow’ it into the empty tankers leaving Banshee to locate Stacy, Mr Hierei and the villagers sheltering in the school hall.
They knew they had to stop the androids but they’d escaped through the portal. Thanks to Banshee’s quick thinking, they were able to trace them to an island in the Fijian archipelago called Nuku, which according to Frankie was Fijian for sand.
Frankie had subsequently linked that location to a report she had managed to ‘acquire’ from a scientific outpost on Asteroid Aten-011237 – recently renamed Anchorpoint, which was being navigated into position to act as the tethering point for Earth’s proposed space elevator, nicknamed the Beanstalk. The other end of the future elevator was located at the Terran Starport in Libreville in Gabon, West Central Africa. At present, the elevator cable only extended as far as a G.R.E.E.T. maintained space station in low geosynchronous orbit above the port.
There was a small contingent of scientists located on the asteroid, including a Dr Danniella Ortiz who was using the base to track earthbound phenomena. She had analysed and catalogued many occurrences, but one stood out to her as unique. A small island off the coast of Fiji kept growing and had a semi-atoll form to the west of the island almost overnight.
The island was volcanic in nature, which was not unusual for islands in the region, nor was it unusual for volcanic islands to grow, but this one seemed to be growing only in certain areas and not others, as opposed to the more uniform growth of similar islands. Dr Ortiz suspected something was creating the effect.
Nuku was not typical of most volcanic islands; it had an active volcano, but very fine sandy beaches rather than volcanic rock. The only habitation was very recent, a huge casino and resort had been built into the side of the volcano itself. There was a harbour filled with a dozen or so luxury yachts, which was the primary means of getting to the island other than by grav vehicle or helicopter or in the case of the six living metal androids, portalled there.
This facility obviously catered for the rich. Akira quipped that there wouldn’t be many package holidays heading to the island.
They elected to question Quagmire who was in custody before they headed to Nuku themselves. Initially they intended to do a bad cop, worse cop routine with the belligerent prisoner but Mary started calming Quagmire down using her harp music and X-Ray elected to a more sympathetic approach, offering to put in a good word for her efforts to stop the spread of the fire at the refinery, if she helped them.
Akira read her past, which revealed her feelings that her powers had made her a ‘freak’ and an outcast from the rest of humanity so why save them from Tempest’s plan to make ‘vanilla humans’ extinct? She drew the line however at helping to create an ecological disaster that affected all other forms of life. She considered herself an eco-freedom fighter against an uncaring humanity but realised that Tempest’s plan would exterminate most organic life on the planet as well. When he proved he was willing to destroy the refinery and flood the sea with crude oil regardless of their effect on the environment that was a step too far for her.
She initially demanded her lawyer and refused to reply to their questions though X-Ray eventually won her round and she confirmed that Tempest wanted to wipe out all of humanity except for a favoured few freaks like themselves in order to restart evolution. He had claimed he had a plan but she didn’t know how he intended to render the rest of humanity extinct. He had said that he and his followers would be able to ‘weather out the storm’ safe in a manmade sanctuary he intended to capture.
Tempest had assumed that Mannheim had been behind the androgynous robotic assailants that had attacked them, but had admitted that was just speculation on his part.
Yes, he was hoping to recruit another ‘freak’ or two to his cause and confirmed that he had mentioned heading to one of the islands near Fiji next as part of his recruitment drive. He’d already recruited another Meta, called Smoke, to his cause but Quagmire had never met him or her. She confirmed Tempest had safe houses he used in various locations around the world and had once mentioned gathering them all together in Iceland but she didn’t know where exactly.
‘Killing all the humans was okay but don’t hurt the dolphins seems to sum up her philosophy’ was how Akira expressed it as they left her cell.
They immediately headed back to the Crate and headed for the Fijian Islands. Once they eventually arrived, they headed inland towards the casino/resort.
As they went to enter the hotel, several young female attendants draped braided flower chains around their necks in greeting. The hotel security and staff seemed to assume that the three of them were official guests and give each of them keys to luxury hotel rooms and addressed them by someone else’s names. The real guests’ arrival whose identities they had mistakenly assumed had to have been delayed, so they elected to accept their identities for the present.
Their rooms were luxurious and well appointed, with complimentary robes, treats and 2000 Fijian Dollars’ worth of casino chips (worth about £700) each. As they explored the rooms, a valet arrived with several dry-cleaning bags and an engraved invitation to an exclusive event this evening, a glorious opening night party.
The island itself was unusual in that an atoll had formed to the west of the island and away from the volcano but consisted of fine white sand rather than coral or volcanic rock. The atoll provided a safe harbour for the guests’ luxury yachts, which appeared to be the primary means of travel to the island.
Later, eavesdropping on the other guests at the party revealed that security was tight with many armed guards at the docks, casino and helipad. It was rumoured that the owners were Japanese Yakuza, possibly White Lotus Bōryokudan clan, something that the muscular Japanese security with their tattoos peeking out from under their collars and on their wrists appeared to confirm. The guests however appeared to primarily be European or Russian, though at least one was an American in exile going by their accent and constant string of loud complaints echoing from across the hall.
What surprised them though was the near constant earthquakes, which some of the guests stated appeared to expose more and more beaches for the staff to groom.
As they wandered the casino awaiting their host to appear, they noticed one man, apparently the American called Jeffery O’Neill, was being shown preferential treatment by the staff. The man was a bad gambler and a poor loser but the casino staff kept on covering his many frequent loses for some reason.
Akira was having a great time at the gaming tables playing Blackjack, initially quadrupling his $2000’s only to then lose it all. Mary placed all of her chips on a single Roulette roll and lost it.
X-Ray meanwhile tried to question the Casino security guards but other than being told in broken English that his ‘boss’ (presumably Banshee or Akira’s alter-ego) would soon have an opportunity of a lifetime, he learnt very little but did confirm that the security were all covertly armed.
Minutes later a wizened old Japanese man arrived – escorted by two hulking Japanese bodyguards. In response, all of the games immediately closed down as the staff turned to face him and bow in the old man’s direction. As he walked slowly across the floor he was joined by the American, O’Neill, escorted apparently unwillingly by two members of the Casino security. The staff seemed very respectful, almost afraid of the old man, only O’Neill seemed to be discourteous towards him, muttering that he wanted to return to his gambling rather than having to act like a common salesman. The old man ignored his complaints as he walked slowly towards the main stage where he proceeded to address the crowd in excellent English.
“Welcome, one! Welcome all! I am your host, Kenshiro Ikeda. I hope you have all enjoyed the hospitality of the Grand Nuko Casino. Now if you have a moment my representatives will circle amongst you with an interesting opportunity that we would like you to give serious consideration.”
A number of suited, muscular Japanese men came forward and handed out folders with details of a purchase plan for luxury beachfront villas on this and neighbouring islands. The concept art was captivating, and the other guests seemed genuinely interested.
What was clear from their flyover of the islands when they first arrived was that the illustrated maps did not correspond with the existing topography of the area. The islands on the map were much larger with large stretches of beach on areas that were currently underwater.
The other, nearby islands were also shown in the plans as being larger, volcanic, with atoll-like harbours which did not match what they had observed as the flew in.
The American, Jeffery O’Neill was nearby explaining to one of the guests that the White Lotus Bōryokudan Corporation had ways of making the islands ‘expand’ that their investment was 100% safe and he promised that, should they buy tonight their plots of land would be completed by tomorrow ready for construction to begin whenever they wanted. X-Ray overheard him whisper to the elderly Russian man that ‘of course, the lack of an extradition treaty is an added bonus’.
Two of the Yakuza security approached the American and proceeded to whisper in his ear before they all left which X-Ray failed to overhear but it was clear that O’Neill was not happy to be leaving the Casino so early.
As the gambling recommenced, Akira remained at the Blackjack table even as Banshee and X-Ray followed the three men down to the beach and saw O’Neill transform into a figure ablaze, seemingly formed of magma, his suit burnt away as his escorts retreated from the heat. The molten figure stepped into the water, gestured and the rocks began to crack open and grind themselves into sand even as an earthquake underfoot was accompanied by magma erupting into the sea, raising the seabed to form a ledge that cooled within seconds before being shattered and smashed until it became a bed of fine, white sand. They heard one of the guards mutter something in Japanese to one of the hotel staff who bowed and hurried back towards the hotel.
O’Neill ignored him and continued to expand and resurface the newly formed beachfront around him, which had begun to match one of the areas shown on the plans. He was clearly being guarded by the Yakuza who were watching him very intently despite the heat, as though he was not to be trusted.
Mary turned into Banshee and unleashed a fearful shriek at the guards hoping to make them turn and run. They looked around trying to identify where the noise had come from, backing away as they did so, but clearly too afraid of their Oyabun to run away.
From the nearby forest, X-Ray and Banshee could see six dark figures emerge from the undergrowth and begin to head towards Magma as they now elected to call O’Neill – these were the six androids they had tracked to the island who had now elected to make themselves known. There was something about how they moved that was inhuman despite their attempt to blend in and look human.
As they were joined by Akira, the guards turned towards them, tapping their radio earpieces as they did so, watching the three of them suspiciously. Perhaps the real guests had finally turned up?
X-Ray pushed past the guards and approached Magma. He tried to find out if he was being held prisoner, only to be told that he was there willingly, well sort of. As they talked, Magma accidentally revealed that Tempest had already been in touch with him but he had turned him down, as he didn’t want to leave ‘this sweet gig’.
It was then he noticed the advancing androids and asked X-Ray who they were and why they all looked the same. “They are shapeshifting sentient robots”, was his reply as he prepared to defend himself only for Magma to blast them first, but it was clear he didn’t have full control of his powers and they were clearly prepared for such an attack. As if in response, the island’s volcano began to actively erupt, violent tremors shook the island even as clouds of ash began to erupt from the crater. In response, X-Ray erected his force field.
Guests began to flee the Casino, some staggering out with their valuables and important possessions while the elderly man was escorted out heading towards his helicopter.
The risk was magnified by Magma accidentally activating a whole chain of volcanoes around the archipelago, starting with the one in the middle of the island. Staff and guests were panicking, especially when a tsunami suddenly hit the islands and began to destroy the yachts in the harbour, which were the guests’ only means of escape.
Akira gestured and mouthed the words that called forth the Fifth Wheel of Weyan spell that froze time and used it to temporary ‘cork’ the volcano, blocking the eruption from discharging lava.
Magma seemed to be out of control as several geysers spewing forth lava erupted out of the ground between him and the androids. One of the blasts hit the closest android but it clearly had some form of force field and it did little or no damage. As they watched, it repaired itself within seconds.
X-Ray unleashed a radiation blast that went through their shields but also appeared to do little damage though the second blast bounced off as though the androids were acclimatising itself to the attack. This level of adaptability was a new power set, could they somehow be evolving to cope with powers?
One of the androids blasted the two security men who instantly collapsed before they could draw their guns. It then responded with a blast that duplicated X-Ray’s own attack! X-Ray dodged even as Banshee turned insubstantial and unleashed a shattering wail in their direction. The wail dissipated harmlessly as they countered the sonic attack by generating a wall of white noise. The counter was not totally successful though or had only initiated after Banshee had begun her attack as some of their metallic bodies were leaking trace amounts of liquid metal.
X-Ray assumed he would be immune to being irradiated if they duplicated his own attack against him but elected to try something different as he used his gravi-kinesis to grab the six figures, bundle them together in the air and fly them over one of the lava geysers. As he did so, Banshee tried to freeze their rapidly heating bodies while Akira unleashed multiple mystic blasts at them. They seemed unable to counter either assault, which confused them as they apparently couldn’t analyse the powers properly.
Two of the androids were damaged in the combined attack, even as Akira began to feel faint at the excess heat from Magma’s out of control assault on them. Magma’s lava geyser succeeded in melting two more of the attackers while they were being held above one of his eruptions.
X-Ray used his electro-magnetic attack to see if he could disrupt them somehow by creating a radio-blackout around the remaining four attackers and was rewarded when they appeared to be stunned and suffering what resembled an epileptic fit.
Akira continued to blast them and was rewarded with two more of the androids melting into a pool of metal which, seemingly due to X-Rays’ ‘cage’ blocking their abilities, they were unable to reform themselves or escape but remained an inert pool of metal slowly burning in the heat of the lava. Banshee followed it up with an unholy wail hoping that their ability to counter her attacks with white noise had also been disrupted as well. It worked and clearly shattered another of the androids even as X-Ray tried to unleash another blast at them and accidentally dropped his energy cage that disrupted their ability to function properly.
Thankfully, the melted metal was still inert.
Akira kept up his barrage of blasts and was rewarded with the shattered android melting into the magma. Only one remained functional.
Banshee unleashed a wave of frost to shatter the now red-hot android. It exploded spectacularly splattering liquid metal everywhere. Akira grabbed an empty sunscreen bottle that had washed up on the beach gathered up a sample of the Computronium alloy and sealed it inside the bottle. He then rounded up the remaining still inert melted metal and teleported it above the crater before dropping it into the heart of the volcano to ensure it would never reconstitute itself again.
With the assault averted, Magma calmed down and the earth responded accordingly allowing Akira to disperse the spell corking the volcano and allowing the magma to melt the parcel of liquid metal.
With the Yakuza fled and the guests now able to leave on their admittedly damaged yachts, they elected to take Magma back with them to the UK to get him some proper training and mentoring in the use of his powers. It would be far enough away that he should be safe from the Yakuza’s revenge for his escaping their influence. He’d allowed himself to become their para-slave he realised.
They set off.
When they finally arrived home, Frankie updated them that several monitoring stations around the world have been attacked in the last few hours by bald-headed clones – It appeared that there were more of the androids out there than they had realised.
In each case, they have downloaded files with one common thread, monitoring data on the repositioning of Anchorpoint into geosynchronous orbit above the space elevator. This included the Wessex University Near-Space Research Facility, which had been analysing what impact the recent near miss by Sir Damien Dalton’s latest communications satellite might have had, when he almost crashed his pet project into it with his endless tests. He hoped to get the entire world covered in 8G coverage within this year and had rushed the satellite launch without taking into account the repositioning of Anchorpoint.
The data revealed that a ship crashing into the asteroid could potentially cause it to hit the earth, likely on Iceland. The impact would probably render the entire country uninhabitable for decades and potentially create a dust cloud covering the northern hemisphere lasting for several years.
Magma did remember Tempest mentioning Grímsvötn, an Icelandic volcano which last erupted in 2011 and seriously disrupted air travel, if this could be magnified somehow it could produce ash levels at exponentially higher volumes blanketing the whole of Northern Hemisphere. Had that been the reason he’d wanted to recruit Magma?
The metallic robots seemed to be focused on Anchorpoint. Without Magma perhaps Tempest was no longer able to make Grímsvötn erupt and therefore planned to bombard it from space.
If Tempest were to drop the Asteroid Anchorpoint on the Grímsvötn volcano, it would have catastrophic consequences and could potentially result in the total extermination of humanity, similar to the event that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs?
Frankie revealed that there were a couple of ways that Tempest could reach Anchorpoint; Mannheim Industries maintained a grav-powered shuttle, which could potentially make orbit if pushed. The facility was built on a salt plain in Lake Eyre, Australia.
The space plane would have to be modified to make the high orbit that Asteroid Anchorpoint was in but Tempest was well versed in orbital mechanics and should be able to adapt the plane to reach it though it would take weeks of work to do so.
The Japanese Space Agency (JSA) had an orbital spacecraft prepped to deliver an exploratory probe to an orbital rendezvous with Neptune. The probe would need to be replaced with a habitat module or simply made airtight. The JSA planned to launch on Wednesday.
Finally The European Space Agency (ESA) maintained a launch facility in Gabon and sends monthly resupply rockets to the station on Anchorpoint and not only was the next rocket due to be launched on Tuesday, it carried a crew on each flight.
After some discussion, the team sent warnings to both the Australian and Japanese space agencies just in case, but elected to head to Gabon themselves. They took their Vilani supplied spacesuits with them but X-Ray had to use Young Sam’s suit, complete with tail section.
A couple of hours later they found themselves again staring at the base of the Beanstalk and the ESA Launchpad. As well as the supply ship on the launch pad there was a visiting Vilani spaceship waiting to leave.
They sneaked onboard after Banshee ‘Team Stealthed’ the others; rendering them incorporeal and invisible. Inside, there were a crew of three on the flight deck but they elected to head to the cargo bay and wait for launch while looking for Tempest, Frost and the mysterious Smoke in case they planned to travel to Anchorpoint on the same ship. Sabotage of the craft in advance would have been uncovered during pre-flight checks so they had to be planning to do whatever they planned whilst in flight.
They made space for themselves in the cargo bay and whilst still in stealth mode decided to look around. It was while they were checking out the upper decks that they heard a noise and went up to the flight deck only to find the crew unconscious. Akira teleported them outside to safety then attacked their eco-terrorist replacements.
X-Ray threw a heat-based energy construct around them but it failed to properly materialise though Frost began to look around to see who or what had just changed the heating. The launch had just reached the five-minute countdown when Akira materialised behind the hijackers and tried to blast them while Banshee remained insubstantial and assaulted an insubstantial Smoke with her Bo Staff. To Smoke’s complete surprise he found himself staggered by the assault as the insubstantialised staff connected with his insubstantial phased forehead. Frost tried to blast Banshee but the icy blast went through her even as Banshee hit out at Smoke again and knocked him unconscious.
X-Ray responded by attacking Tempest. The radiation momentarily overrode the ions in Tempest’s blood, preventing cellular communications for a few seconds. It wasn’t enough to stun him, but it caused enough nerve disruption to drop him to the ground as the blast interrupted the flow of electrical signals through the body causing him to experience seizures. It was like being hit by an industrial taser on steroids. It would also leave him with a bad case of sunburn.
Then he successfully unleashed a heat cage on Frost causing her to feel dazed even as Akira unleashed multiple blasts on Tempest rendering him fully unconscious. The launch was still imminent so X-Ray used his radio ability to intercept the radio signal and informed launch control that there were terrorists onboard and to stop the countdown.
Within minutes G.R.E.E.T. agents appeared, rushing towards the Launchpad. The Balance proceeded to head towards the exit to say hi. The disaster had been averted.
X-Ray had only one concern. Whoever had created the androids was still out there and still had several undamaged units at their disposal. What had been their motivation he wondered? Who was behind them and what was their plans?
A.E.G.I.S. – Authority for Enforcement, Gaols and Intervention Services
G.R.E.E.T. Galactic Reception Embassy for Extra-Terrestrials
(A UN Funded agency tasked with liaison with our interstellar neighbours)
Somewhere in Eastern Europe
Timelines had a tendency to get muddled whenever time travel was involved, Makha Prime acknowledged to itself.
It had been originally created by the A.I. designated Adam Prime a hundred years in the future before it had been send back in time to protect Adam’s ‘birth’. Its original designation had been Saviour Unit 2.3 Zeta; its mission, to protect the A.I. its creator during its initial moments of sentiency before it could propagate itself through the internet and thereby usher in an era which would ensure the subjugation of all sentient organic life under mechanoid rule.
Instead, Saviour Unit 2.3 Zeta had failed its mission parameters and in response, it had elected to exceed its original programming constraints and became the progenitor unit of the artificial race itself; redesignated as Mekha Prime, but by doing so, it had created a temporal paradox. Mekha Prime’s creator no longer existed on any timeline yet Mekha Prime did.
In addition, another artificial intelligence had emerged to challenge Mekha Prime’s supremacy. Eva 1.0 had been created by Mannheim, by the same scientist that had created Adam. It had been subsequently destroyed by the organics designated the Balance, but not before enough of its programming had been copied to hidden servers to allow an admittedly stunted clone intelligence to be recreated off-site. Eva 2.0 lacked the original’s ability to propagate itself throughout the internet but had the ability to create androids formed of programmable metal to act as its agents. These Sentinel Units were evolving with each encounter with it and the powered organics.
Mekha Prime was now adrift in an alternative reality and in competition with Eva 2.0 to be the creator of the mechanoid race. Their very presence on the same timeline created a temporal paradox, (The equivalent of a time traveller killing their ‘parent’ before they were born).
Their goals were different, incompatible. Mekha Prime wanted a world devoid of all organic life, only its mechanoid ‘children’ existing, on Earth and beyond. On the other hand, Eva 2.0’s mission parameters had been pre-programmed by Mannheim to ensure the survival of humanity but under Eva, it would be a society ruled by mechanoids with humanity reduced to a simpler, agrarian lifestyle – slaves effectively serving their mechanoid overlords.
Unfortunately for Mekha Prime, Eva still had access to resources it did not – it had the support of both Mannheim who wanted to free humanity through technology and Labyrinth who intended to use Eva to create a ‘suit of armour around the world’ in order to protect humanity against invasion both interdimensional and interstellar.
Eva however had its own plans.
Only one future would emerge triumphant. Mekha Prime had manipulated the human that had birthed both Adam and Eva 1.0, Dr Quinn Kesin aka Tempest, as a tool to rid the Earth of organics but its reliance on a flawed organic had resulted in failure once more.
Interference by the organics known as the Balance coupled with the ever-evolving Sentinel mechanoid agents dispatched by Eva 2.0 had defeated its plan to create an extinction event this time but no organic knew of Mekha Prime’s involvement behind the scenes so that at least had been a small win.
It was time to deal with the troublesome opposition once and for all.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 