War on Var

[Boltgun]

((In previous episodes...))

Var caught a cold. It's the worst rain season for the last decades. A lightning strike in the wrong place started a fire in the high security jail, and created so much confusion that I managed to escape. I swear the planet is alive and have a sense of humor. It's been a month since I'm out.

Usually officials and rebels alike would look for escaped prisoners, but they are dealing with floods while research teams are dealing with the weather. I spent the last days in a ruined house, it almost look like a home. With junk there and there... Reminds me of Newland.

It seems that the planet changed a lot in the last years. Ex employees formed little rebel groups, and ex rebels are officials. Sol Banking still owns the place officially, but their presence is symbolic at best. Outside of the main cities, Var look like an anarchic post war zone were brute have a rendez vous with brute security.
If I knew, CARED, that I was helping a bunch of m'as tu vu bullying the world, I would have attended my management classes instead.

I thought of running away and going back to Rubi Ka. But I promised that investigator that I'll play around with Var if I'm free. I can't turn down on that!

Now to understand the purpose of that battlestation up there.

[Boltgun]

I found a package left in a bush bundled with an emitter. I wouldn't have found it if it wasn't emitting in my communicator's frequency, still attuned to Rubi Ka. Obviously it was meant for me.

Inside I found an encrypted datadisk, it was easy to decrypt and contained the rules of a wargame I played when I was a teenager. It's a game were two players meet in front of an holo table and used strategy and wits to win small scale battles between two armies.

I knew what that meant, I decrypted the rule book again and got the following message.

"A pirate ship will wait for 3 days behind one of Var's moons. -A."

It happens that someone out there appreciate me enough to looking forward seeing me again! I'm glad to have an exit door but on a moon? I don't know how I will call for a lift or even get up there by myself.

There is a few houses on the countryside and I know some of the inhabitants are in contact with ex-employees-turned-rebels, I'll try to have them pave me a way out. I'm sure I'll have a way to convince them if- when they will be unhappy about helping me.

[Boltgun]

Diary, last days were pretty busy. I took contact with a few guys who were eager to help me and they could help me to find an hideout in Nikaia city.

These frappés seems eager to prepare another coup d'état and started gathering lunatics around the planet over me. I don't like any of them, they gave me prophetic powers of sort. And this is dangerous.

I had plenty of time to realize why my brother was quick to forgive me. Most of what happened may still have happened if I didn't join the revolution. I may even have joined the body count. Everything we just a matter of luck, and better equipment.

I met a pirate who moved on the planet to monitor my moves, it seems that the ship left but it will stay nearby to pick me up when needed. I think I know why they are giving me time, and I'm afraid that Astralsky unintentionally sent HER to pick me up.

There isn't a word about me in the news. And people still believe I'm a sort of super soldier. So far so good, because I got a good reach. The weather is getting better however and I expect researches to start after the floods are gone. I need to move my pieces before investigator Bergondi.

[Boltgun]

Oh my, I screwed up big time.

Diary, I was contacting rebels groups there and there to organize a planet wide party. Unfortunately they keep disappointing me as they are not really giving me a word to say about their actions. I'm afraid it will just snowball into a big punching contest.

Anyway, on the advice from a rebel chief I met a small cult. A dozen lunatics in a "The end is near!" delirium. I smacked their guru good and got them to crown me king of Boltgunia. With training they would be perfect for surgical strikes but the problem is they kept following me wherever I went, and it was getting on my nerves.

I spent the evening with a few old friends from the coup d'état. We opened quite a few bottles for new year and told each other about our lives, it seems that it didn't went so good for them too. Grand CEO Duval isn't such a grateful guy and the old rebels who didn't join the militia were bullied around as traitors.
But unfortunately these cultists bugged me so, in my drunken stupor, I told them to go die in a fire. La boulette...

This morning, Sol Police found 12 burnt bodies. I didn't wait and with my pals we moved in the mountains near Nikaia. The Old Mines are... terrible, but safe and in reach of civilization. Thankfully the bad reputation this planet have greatly hurt the tourism and the mountains, popular this season, are quite empty.

This afternoon, investigator Bergondi was on the news. With the same abruti attitude he made my evasion public. So much for stealth, I have to make a move before they do.

[Boltgun]

My good friend diary, CEO Duval have increased patrols in all cities and is parading mechs to display that he's the real deal. I need to press up, I have a good idea of who's who now and linked smalls but slightly reliable rebel teams.

I got support but I needed equipment. There is a small base right outside Massalia city where they stock up seized weapons and armor. We prepared a robbery, a simple plan to sneak inside from the sewers, quickly take hostages and leave with containers, all within 15 minutes. Another team would inspect the situation outside and annoy reinforcements.

I ended wearing a Var class metaplast armor and using an old FAMAM assault rifle. I'm used to the best Rubi Ka have to offer. Plus without Notum everything feels heavier, less effective. I'm still well equipped compared to anyone on Var, but I don't feel on my best.

It didn't went so good as the scout team decided to do a frontal attack, just for the kick of it. I think no one on this planet knows what war is about. They're still at who's the last one standing, they yelled something about honor on radio. I gotta look that word on the dictionary.

Soldiers ran outside to help, so we quickly detained the workers inside to get the containers out. Hopefully, we could use the base itself as a cover, shooting outside to spread the guards and gain some time.

It's quite a waste of intelligence, now Duval knows that I'm also the real deal. And I lost some mens, but they deserved to get their ass kicked for having a twitchy trigger.

Now we are hacking the locks on the container, lets see what late gifts Santa Leet have for us.

[Alexanderw]

Alex sits down at his desk and goes over his latest messages.

The usual things really some stock reports in he's fathers business, shipment projections for the next mouth and some contact quotes for prospective clients... oh and the odd RUR message asking if I wanted a bigger cyberdeck...

All normal for a days mailbox except for one encrypted message from what was thought a long lost friend' handle Boltgun. Alex quickly decodes the message with a common cypher that Bolt and he had developed and starts to read... War on Var... Need help... Need Notum.

Alex sits back and thinks how can he help... starts looking over the shipment projections and sees the result. There is a small surplus in the off world shipments for ICC and Omni mining ... not much to big corporations like them... really they'd write it off as a acceptable loss but combined the two surplus amounts would be just enough to turn the tide of War on a small planet like Var.

Alex quickly looks over ships in his fathers docks, finds that there is a small carrier that is not being used for about a week or more... perfect but no plot is available. Yes this could present a problem... well I am due for an other off planet trip, thinks Alex, and I can justify it in the budget... ok it's settled, Bolt get ready because I'm coming for you.

[Boltgun]

I have more info about the battlesation stationed on the stratosphere of Var. It was used in vehicle research, and is not ready for firing. The OFAB forge is deactivated and hopefully not producing any armor or weapons.

We finished to hack the locks open, the riches! One of the containers had my equipment, taken away when I reached Var: my shark, a full set of ofab armor and all my tools.

The armor feels heavier and I triangulate targets slower then on Rubi Ka but it beats plasteel. Now all I need is notum and I'll be beyond anyone on this planet. I hope Alexander got my message.

[Alexanderw]

It took some planing in the books and a lot in contacts but he did it.

The ship was prepped and loaded, Alex had said his good byes to his sister and had a message send back to Bolt via his Brother Chainsword telling him he was on his way.

Alex starts to plot the route taking note to avoid all Sol Banking trade routes until he is almost upon Var... also taking the time to retro-fit the carrier with some basic stealth technology that happened to be "laying around".

He sits in the cockpit and smiles the grin than so many falling enemies and comrades in arms have seen.
"well" Alex says to himself, "looks like it's going to be like old times Bolt, you better have a hell of a party planed when I get there"

[Boltgun]

And now the news, CEO Duval tightened his martial law after our "atrocious crimes". Militia is everywhere kicking doors looking for whoever is suspected of rebellion. I getting reports of people disappearing in all major cities and many arrests. Yesterday the news channels became silent and most communications are filtered. Var is now a combat zone.
So much for freedom...

Anyway, I moved in. We attacked the militia in Massillia. It was quite a fight but as we went straight to the control center. We gave them quite a bloody nose and eventually they had to leave a good portion of the city for us.

My concern is where does Sol Banking stands. Duval is sure not getting support from the corporation, Sol Troopers are parked in their bases and not moving. I need to clarify that situation, will they help Duval control the planet? Help me kick his ass? Or nuke all of us with battleships and claim the planet for good?

If tomorrow I take all the city, I'll assume Duval isn't in Sol Banking's heart.

I found a late leetmas gift. I followed a squad cleaning a police station, among the survivors I found Bergondi, in his office, trying to hang himself. We detached him and took him as prisonner.

I learnt in the Newland council to not kill my prisoners. That way you can keep them in a cage, poke them, make fun of them, throw things at them, ask them questions, all kind of fun. Strangely people seems to dig people doing that, all the best.

[Alexanderw]

It's been a few days but they seem to bleed into each other, Alex's days are filled with looking over trade routes and adjusting courses to avoid contact with Sol Banking ships. This is not really a hard task seeing the level of technology is no where near what he has experienced on Rubi-Ka or the Shadowlands.

Waking hours move slow and sleep is short, but in time his target is with in sight. It's small and faint but it's a star the star that Var orbits.

Alex sends a message to private channel of Boltgun's comm, it's a shot in the dark and Alex hopes it's still working and still on his person, but just to be safe he'll send something that only a member of The Kindred would know .

"Lets hope you get this friend, because I don't know where to land this heap of junk"

[Boltgun]

I got hailed by Alexander today. I'm sending him the coords of a little camp where we could unload the cargaison. Not only I may have notum but I got him here !
I may just go ahead and walk into Lutece HQ to take that government down.

We took over Massillia, not without loss but it's ours. However I denied celebration and ordered immediate looting. I want to move whatever goods we can find away. What the rebels don't know is that there we can't keep the city. Duval will regroup his forces and come back en masse. Civilians are moving out of the city, I'm making windows of retreat for them.

The goal is to have more gears and more vehicle, I'm targeting armories, Yalmaha and Phasefront shops. So I have vehicles, with guns wielded on it.



Okay the situation so far :

The forces on Var
- The rebels, with me loosely at their head. I have a reliable core and "contacts" with more radical groups who lead a guerilla. Anyway that rebellion is causing enough chaos for me to do what I have to do. They will have to disband at the end of this coup.

- The current government, led by my ex general Jaques Duval. He seem to have done a poor job leading the planet, explaining the presence of all these rebels. I found several flaws, his biggest is that he doesn't know what nano technology can do.

- Sol Banking, officials and troopers. The corp made a deal with Duval and get to maintain a few troops and officials. But they are not moving, they are parked in their camps while the planet fall apart. I need to know what's going on.

- The ICC, extraordinary mute. Mich is strange because Var is an economic disaster now. I'm afraid them or Sol Banking will support Duval to estalish order. I need to know more.

- Pirates, a ship hidden behind one of Var's moon. They have sent a few agents and fixers on the planet who provide me with tactical data. Very helpful. Now I'm sure that SHE is leading them. I don't want to meet HER.

- The neutrals of Var : civilians who didn't asked for that much, I'm leaving space for them to evacuate and at least I try to not be the cause when there is casualties.

The main zones
- Lutece, capitol city. My objective is there.
- Massillia, currently mine
- Nikaia
- Carseus island, main city Bastiaccio, great hiding place
- Alpes Mountains, main city Val Azur, great hiding place too
- Telo Martius
All these cities besides Lutece and Val Azur have access to the sea, which is handy because Duval closed the whompahs and grid.

My main concerns is what Sol Banking is up too, will the ICC reinforce someone and how can I set a government that will keep the planet united until it can start rebuilding. Other then that I have enough data about the enemy forces to paralyze them.

[Alexanderw]

Thank the gods, thinks Alex as he receives a replay with the proper encrypt ions and with a landing site.

Deciding to play it safe Alex will come in under cover of night so orbit patrols will have a harder time spotting him.

Form what he can pick up from spying in on basic transmission it appears Bolt has made quite the name for him self here.

Night rolls around to the side of Var that Alex needs to get to so he sweeps out form behind a orbiting piece of space junk and comes in for a landing.

Alex turns on his music player to his favorite song the words ring in his ears.

"The fire in your belly make you move a little faster, The devil in you eyes makes you hit a little harder"

[Boltgun]

I met Paul's mother today. She was quite hysterical when she saw me, like often. I'm not so happy to spend time with my step mother.

I told her about bro, I made it sound like he's having an interesting job for Jobe. She's was mad at me for ruining the world two times already so I guess telling her that her son is now a spiritual knight digging stories to save us all from ancient forces from the origin of life might be a bad idea.

Alexander is landing on the island as I write, gotta meet him and unload the notum. I felt weak since I left Rubi Ka and now I can't wait to have a shot. My symbiants feel it to and that's making my muscles kinda twitchy.

[Alexanderw]

Alex lands down on the pad flicks the engines to cool down and opens the hatch.

Standing there are a rag tag group of soilders and cilivans (you can tell the differance on how they hold their wepons). Out of the crowd steps forward a body that seems stronger and more sure of him self than those around him, Alex picks him out as Bolt (also the Ofab was a dead give away).

Alex smiles and tosses a packet of condensed Notum quickly giving him instructions on how to use it.

"something one of my contrats are working on", says Alex, "not as good as breathing the air on Rubi-Ka, but you wil be able to use your implants and most of the higher class Nanos with it"

Bolt smiles and asks how much Alex brought with him.

"Enough to feild a small batalion for a few weeks" replies Alex with a grin, "along with a few million stim helth packs, hopes that's enough"

Vincent nods and get some men to start unloading the cargo. Him and Alex start walking over to waht seems to be a command centre.

"so tell me friend," Alex says with a grin, "when do we get this party started?"

[Boltgun]

"A few battalions-a for a few weeks ?", Boltgun looks at the packet, "Well, that is-a... more then anough! We'll let these guys unload your cargo, let's discuss busi..."

A small man ran, wearing an armor too big for him, ran screaming on the landing pad. Winded and panicked, he was barely able to speak.

"Ma.. Mama... Massillia is under attack! They brought mechs! Tons of mechs! They blockaded the city, land and sea and shoot anyone standing in their way!"

Boltgun takes a injection of the condensed notum solution, the weight of his armor immediately fade away, and look back at Alexander.

"You wanted to know when the party starts? It started-a without us and I'm offended, but no worry. If we take a boat-a we can still make it and get on their own ship. That may help-a the ones trapped in the city to flee by the sea."

After giving instruction to unload and transfer the notum, Boltgun walks away singing a pirate song.

[Alexanderw]

Well he's only been on the planet for 10 mins and already the action has started.

Alex watches as Bolt walks away singing and smiles, he remembers one time teling his little sister Alice that the best place to be in a battle with Bolt was behind him that way you'd never get shot.

Alex follows Bolt along the path he takes all the while making sure the straps on his Ofab are tightened and his shades are well adjusted.

"well if we are going to be fashionably late for the party we might as well look good and make a grand entrance"

[Boltgun]

The small, armored boat is speeding through the sea between Bastiaccio and Massillia and it doesn't take long to spot the city in the horizon.

Great trails of smoke rise in the air marking the damage the city is going through, this is not a simple fight to retake the city, but a plain show of power. Massillia, the largest city of Var is going to be cut in half to tell what happens to those who help a rebellion.

Boltgun's ocular symbiants zoom in to give him a good view of the situation. A battleship is blockading the sea, shooting regulary at the port, and have already shot most transport boats. Hopefully several touristic ships are still there and the marina is still intact.

Vincent turns back to look at the mens in the boat, 6 reliable soldiers, one engineer, and pirate fixer. Several of them were looking ankwardly at Alex.

"Alright, let me tell you. This is an opifex, a custom breed you find on several Omni Tek planets, any question about his pointy ears, his skin or his acrobatics will be answered with my feet.
Now, me and Alex will go take care of the command deck, you will go silence the cannons."

His ncu warns him of a targeting laser locked on him. He turns around to see an incoming rocket "Leave it to me" the fixer said and he throw a box in the sea and start typing on his datapad. The rocket deviates to crash in the sea.

Soon the ship crew started shooting at them. Vincent loads his OFAB rocket launcher and quickly fire two shots at the deck, the explosions clear the gunshots long enough for the boat to reach its target.

Boltgun smiles as the soldiers throw their grappling hooks, this is going to be fun.

[Alexanderw]

Seeing the chance he has Alex grabs the nearest cable and climbs to the ship with a agility far beyond of those around him. Once on deck he quickly stuns the closets enemies then turns to upload mark of peril into Bolts NCU. Alex looks around and sees this is going to be easy pickings and takes the time to upload Fists of Stellar Harmony, not for the add damage but just to add a little fear to his opponents who have never seen the dangers of Rubi-Ki or the Shadowlands , but just to be safe Alex uploads Reduce Inertia just to make him a bit more quicker.

"sorry I'm late", Alex yells to the enemy, "but it seems my invitation got lost in the mail"

[Boltgun]

Grabbing another cable, Boltgun climbs as fast as others, despite the heavier gear and jumps on the deck.

The other rebels climbed between the soldier and the martial artists and opens an hatch in order to reach the lower decks.

Alex having already paralyzed and isn't having any trouble, Boltgun turns around to face a guard armed with a Vektor ND.

Alexanderw executes Mark of Peril in your ncu.

Boltgun's targeting system increases its focus to the guard's jugular, thanks to the new data provided by the nanoprogram. He starts to concentrate to upload some programs of his own.

Executing Pre Nullity Sphere.
Error : Not enough nano enegry.

Boltgun barely have the time to close his helmet before sparks for energy, from the guard's shotgun, bounces off.

Executing Augmented Mirror Shield
Please wait...

Another shot hit him in the chest without doing damage. Screaming, Boltgun bashes the guard in front of him and unload his clip to other guards hidden behind.

"Alex, you're facing-a the command deck. Open the way, I'm right behind."

Boltgun could hear gunshots from below, it seems everyone is doing their part.

Executing Reactive Reflective Field.
Nanoprogram executing successfully.

[Alexanderw]

Alex hears the command and sets to work noticing the trouble Bolt is having with his nano programs. Martial Artist' ones are much more simpler than his.

Alex quickly tosses off a nano stim to bolt hopping that may help and gets into a Evasive stance and throws tree of enlightenment o the closest foe, a small attack but it does considerable damage to the poor guy, Alex follows up with a simple jab causing his armor to catch fire and thus finishing him off.

Alex quickly looks over his hud seeing what else he can use.
Some one come in too close and Alex by instinct alone snaps his neck and feels a bit of his life force enter him... well at least Disharmony works that's going to make things simpler.

Four more in his way... targeting system shows them to be threat lvl 100 - 160, he runs in and does a dance letting his reflective shield sting them for a bit until he feels a root come upon him. Thinking quick he changes stance and goes through the motion of Upon Wave of Summer. They were not expecting him to break free and now they feel sluggish, Alex quickly disables them and kicks in the door.