Tier ... threat

Johnathan doesn’t waste time; he gets on his ship and orders Sasha to head out to the war-torn planet. He takes half a day to get from Vrak and then to planet A-12. Once there, the scars of war are visible from space. The planet is a green world. Green worlds are worlds that have been cheaply terraformed. The surface is breathable and has a means of sustaining life but wasn’t further developed to make it into a Gaia world. A portion of the planet is cracked and floating into space. If it weren’t for some hastily made gigantic wires to tether that portion of the planet, it would have flown off. On top of said portion is one of the 6 void piercers. Cannons made to fire light-years away well before the planet is in view. Having 1 is hard enough, but 6 is truly a sight to behold. The empire cannot advance without losing a fatal portion of their armada, and then taking over the planet would still not be guaranteed, let alone the rest of the sector. So they send in smaller ships to make some headway, and it has been successful. Planet A-12 is still well within Gorthian control, but the attrition is adding up. the Gorthian battle ships surrounding A-12 hail Johnathan and warn him to go away. He  tells them his name and reason for heading here. They get conformation from ground command and let him through. Once he gets within view, he spots Cammy and her squad. He lands, and a man wearing armor styled like mid-evil plate armor but with an ethereal low white glow. It also has power diffuser plates in key areas — chest, upper and lower legs, arms, crotch, and butt only the most important areas. His coat of arms on his rightmost shoulder, a square with a simple insignia of a black pen on a deep red background. Seeing as his armor is clean with not even a speck of dust means he doesn’t fight. In a deep voice and with proper manners, he speaks to Johnathan. “welcome Nanid Ascendid. My name is Clause von Inka of House Scen. I thank you for your assistance and will be brief. We have three problems. The first is the two AA encampments. They have successfully halted our advance and The second problem is the fortifications, the third-.” Just then, a convoy of fresh enemy troops flies past and lands in the enemy encampment. “and see that. That is our third problem, time. The void piercer will not last long. We would rather destroy such a wondrous armament than let it fall into imperialist hands. If we cannot lessen the load the Void Piercer will be overrun. I can only ask that you please destroy the encampments.” Jonathan nods. He then points to the men who are slightly injured. Their armor is similar to the commander’s except that their armor is dull and has a jetpack attached to the back. Parts of the armor are destroyed and exposed, showing their extensive cybernetic enhancements. “All your men look worn down. who can I take with me?” “All my men are ready for battle! This is nothing to them.” All the knights stand in a line behind the commander and stab their archian swords into the ground, turning the hard rock surface into small pools of magma. These swords are specially made only in Gorth and on only one planet. said planet is unknown and kept a secret, and the swords are not allowed to leave the Gorthian sector, with the minimum penalty being death if caught trying to do so.

“My ship can only handle an extra 6 more people. Make your choice and send them to the ship. I’ll be waiting.” Johnathan leaves. The commander looks over everyone and makes his decision. Karl, Vernan, Norman, Verk, Borthi, and Jack. They all salute by outstretching their arms at an angle and then make one hard, and loud clap they then pick up their archian swords and sheathe them in a special scabbard made with each knights house insignia. The six men stand in front of Johnathan’s ship, and Jack steps up. “Sir, Honorable Jack reporting in. You are now our commander, and I am your assistant and lieutenant for the duration of the mission.” Johnathan nods and waves everyone into the ship. They salute and run in.

Once inside the back door closes, and Johnathan barks out commands. “Sasha make a copy of the ship and send it to the enemy to distract them. Then refract light and make us invisible, well be going in quietly.” “yes sir.” Johnathan then calls Cammy. “Cammy, can you hear me?” Cammy all the while was sitting in her ship, relaxing but keeping an eye out. She gets the call and answers. “loud and clear. What do you need from me?” “Stay back here until I give the go ahead. Then rush in and destroy the AA guns.” “Got it. Will keep the ship nice and warm till then.” Johnathan then turns off the communications.

Johnathan's ship then clones itself using Johnathan’s nanites. The commander and the rest of his squad watch in awe as it splits in two never witnessing the power of a Nanid. Once done Johnathan’s actual ship cloaks using the remaining nanites to bend light to make a decent cloak. If you look hard enough you’d be able to spot it, but while distracted in the heat of battle it might as well not exist. The cloned ship takes off and surprises the enemy. It fires weak shots to get the attention of the enemy, and it succeeds. They fire at the fake ship, and the ship has to take some serious maneuvers while at such a close range. Johnathan uses the fake ship to see, Johnathan sees they are distracted and begins his assault.

He flies over to the encampment and gets a clear view of what he’s dealing with, a pair of Hellion splitters. Hellion makes massive but cheap pre-built structures. Homes, space stations, fortified bases, you name it Hellion probably makes it. Hellion, for when you need something big done fast. Splitters are Massive disposable cannons made to be deployed whilst also giving a fortified firebase. They fire a payload that can go well into low orbit and are filled with Kamakazi swarm drones that burst out mid air near a target. They then seek and destroy. If it wasn’t for the fake nanite ships myriad of guns all over its body shooting down the swarm, and its maneuverability it would have easily been destroyed.

Johnathan’s ship managed to get through without being spotted. Behind enemy lines, Johnathan makes note of the ground forces. The two splitters are miles apart from one another, and once the operation begins in earnest the main ship has to leave since they will now know to look out for low-level light refraction camouflage. The splitters are well defended, but he can already see they put heavy emphasis on keeping enemies as far away as possible. The splitters have no walls built near them, and for good reason. Each splitter has two towers on its left and right, and on top each tower is one Blender brand “The Wall” mini-guns. They fire shotgun shells filled with high explosive. A single shot from “The Wall” can easily turn a squad outfitted with basic modern-era protection into fiery mist, and it can fire 10,000 rounds per minute. Its insane fire rate coupled with its area of denial make it very good at keeping things at bay, but god forbid it aims a little too close to the ground. For that reason it has inbuilt hard stops that disable it from moving in certain angles and can be tuned to stop it from firing in angles not already pre-installed.

The soldiers outside have no significance. They have no medics, no specialists and garbage gear they might as well come in with civilian clothing. They are disposable trash, nothing more, but the inside is unknown.

With everything laid out Johnathan makes a plan. “Jake.” The lieutenant stands at attention with his head held up high. “Yes sir.” “you and 4 others will take out target A while I and one other take out target B. I’ll leave you near the target, stay out of sight until I give the signal to advance.” Johnathan then produces a small ball of nanites and hands it to Jake. “what’s this for sir?” “hold on to it, I’ll give further instructions when the time is right.” Jake does the Gorthian salute and nods. “Karl, Vernan, Norman, and Borthi. you're with me, Verk go with the commander.” All the men salute in unison.

They land behind one of the splitter, and the 5 men leave and hide as close to the splitter as possible. Johnathan and Verk fly off to the other splitter and land. Johnathan arms himself with his plasma pistol and gauss rifle. They get off the ship, and the ship flies off without them. “alright Verk ill take out the guy on the left. You take out the one on the right.” “yes sir. I’ll get into position.” Verk then runs off to the right of the splitter. Johnathan calls Jack. “Is your group set up yet.” “yes sir. Just need your command.” Johnathan sees Verk waiting and ready. Johnathan then aims his gauss rifle and powers it just enough to get a silent shot into the back of the head of the gunner. He dies standing upright and holding onto the turret. In the back of the gunners head is a small hole. The projectile is lodged inside the gunners brain, hitting the stem. “commence the operation.” With the signal given the knights go with blazing speed. They use their jetpacks to quickly vault and split open the gunners on the towers.

The soldiers on the ground are surprised and try to fire at the knights. The ground soldiers were mainly a distraction and were never equipped with armaments capable of killing knights in full diffuser plate. They get overwhelmed so quickly they barely fired back. On Johnathan's side he lets Verk do the fighting. He knows he can handle it and lets him go wild.

With the outside secure the second layer of defenses kick in. an outer dome that protects the main guns from archian swords. Most things can't defend against an archian sword, but it can be delayed. The dome is quick to open and close and has multiple layers to cover for a layer that has been breached. Once a hole is made it detects it and makes a new layer pop up, making use of its size to not immediately go all the way up but just enough to cover the hole again and again and once it fully reaches the top another layer stops them. The dome can then momentarily open to let the cannon shoot and then immediately close. Jack calls in to inform Johnathan. “sir we have successfully taken the outside of objective A. should we invade the structure?” “no stay outside and destroy the cameras near the entrance then place that ball I gave you anywhere near the entrance of the base.” “Yes sir.” Johnathan turns off his communications and destroys the cameras. He goes to the entrance of the splitter. It’s a heavily secured door, but it wasn’t made with a Nanid in mind. A swarm of nanites crawl like tiny ants from his arm onto the wall. Verk sees what Johnathan’s doing and looks away, it freaks him out and makes him shudder.

The heavily secured door is sealed airtight, but that’s not enough to keep out nanites. he lets through a single nanite. a swarm can be seen, but a single nanite is so small that its invisible to normal human eyes. From behind the door Johnathan sees they were very well equipped to deal with the knights if they managed to break in. A magnetizer and arc guns both made by Clanker. Clanker is specialized in anti-machine warfare. If it makes you angry when it goes beep boop, choose Clanker. The magnetizer is not on, thankfully. It’s the only weapon there that would prove a problem for Johnathan. It makes magnetic waves that can forcibly change the polarity of one or multiple subjects, making it either drag something in or push it away. The arc guns can fire a beam of electricity that can damage or immobilize most machines. To a normal human it can do lethal damage, but most armor nowadays have enough insolation to protect against such attacks.

They wait behind the door with a slim corridor and no cover. Predictably they don’t see the singular nanite, and it goes through without a problem. He goes through mapping the area and finds a much better means of access from one the vents. The bigger swarm heads to the vent and waits there. The singular nanite keeps exploring until it find the main control room. He analyzes the controls and sees that it has both a wireless and wired firing mechanism. He then sends in the larger swarm, keeping in the dark corners to make sure it isn’t spotted. Once in the location he systematically disables the sensors, then the firing mechanisms, and inserting his own to give fake signals. He does the same for Jacks splitter.

With the guns now disabled Johnathan calls Jack. “The guns are down. Retreat to where I dropped you off. My ship will pick you up.” “yes sir.” Jack informs his squad, and they leave. Johnathan makes another call. “Cammy, the guns are down and we’re out. Destroy them.” “Finally! those damn guns have been a pain in my ass, and now I'm gonna be a pain in theirs.” she powers up her ship and flies to the splitters. The operator is informed that the Blaird assault ship is coming and presses the button to fire. The console shows everything is working fine, but nothing happens. He sporadically checks to see if he screwed something up or something was damaged. He uncovers the console to check the inside and sees no damage. He frantically presses any button in hopes of making it fire, but it doesn’t. soon Cammy is over one of the bases and fires all of her guns.

It shreds through the defensive dome and uncovers the main gun. She then fires at the gun and destroys it. The following explosion sets off a chain reaction with the warheads filled with explosive drones and destroys the base. She then flies over to the other and quickly destroys it as well.

Through her communications she celebrates. “oh thank god it’s over. It would have taken forever to make them run out of ammo.” She wipes the sweat off her brow and lays back in her chair and puts her feet up. “yo Johnny I’ll meet you over on Vrak I just need to square off my payment. Section 32 over in the docks is reserved by me. I’ll meet you over there.” “alright I’ll wait for you over there then.” Johnathan flies his ship over to  Clause’s encampment. He lands and opens the back door to let out the knights.

Once off the ship, Clause walks near the ship and puts his hand over his heart and bows. “many thanks, Nanid ascended. I’ll be sure to transfer the payment to miss Tuller as soon as possible. May the throne bless your journey.” Johnathan simply nods and thanks Clause. He then flies his ship over to Vrak and onto Norn’s docks. Once there, he finds a space to dock his ship and looks for space 32. He finds it and waits for Cammy. Not long after Cammy arrives, lands, and gets out of her ship. Johnathan walks up to her. “I did my end of the bargain now you do yours. Where is it?” Cammy rubs the back of her head and looks away. “I don’t eat where I shit dude. Why the hell do you think I have it on me right now.” “please don’t tell me it’s on a different planet all together.” Cammy slowly makes an awkward smile and says nothing. “Bullshit. I get that thing might have costed an arm and a leg to get, but I need it now and I know damn well you bring it with you from place to place.” Cammy looks down and slowly takes a deep breath. “Are you sure you need it. That thing was gonna be my ticket to getting out of this business and into sipping drinks at a pleasure world.” Johnathan is unmoved and gives Cammy the death stare. She cracks and defeatedly tells Johnathan where it is. “follow me… goddammit.” She swears under her breath.

They walk through Norn and into the jungles. They eventually come into and empty spot where she then grabs the air and pulls it like a blanket, revealing the deep scanner was hidden by a camo net. The deep scanner is massive almost as big as Johnathan. It’s on its side. The back is cube shaped and is the main component of the deep scanner. It can send out one massive wave of radiation that can scan an entire planet in minutes. The scan can give fully detailed mapping of the entire planets underground and give detailed analysis of its mineral deposits. The front is a drill bit made to dig into the core of a planet.

“There take it.” Cammy looks away not wanting to get angry. Johnathan calls in his ship, and it arrives in mere minutes. Johnathan pushes the deep scanner into his ship, and Cammy decides to help. “you know I can push this on my own?” with a defeated sigh she answers Johnathan. “I’m not some salty bitch, I’ll help. But in return I want to see it in action.” Johnathan smiles, seeing Cammy take the loss of her massive investment well. They both push the deep scanner onto his ship, and they head to Vrak’s lower orbit.

“This thing better be something massive or swear to god you owe me another one of those.” Johnathan gets the deep scanner ready. While doing so he talks to Cammy. “so how did you even get one of these, anyway? One of these is like, what 5 or 3k?” “5k, but the pirate that I got it from was very nice to hand it over for free.” “so you killed him for it?” “yeah. It was that or suck his cock.” She then bites her lip. “And man did have a really nice cock.” Johnathan is confused. “Wait, you sucked him off?” “oh yeah. Gave me the perfect opportunity to shoot him when he was about to finish.” “Damn…that’s cold.” Cammy laughs at the remark. “you want me to show how good it was? I swear I won’t kill you after, pinky promise.” Johnathan laughs. “thanks but no.” after that he finishes the preparations for the deep scanner. “done. Sasha engage the pressure barrier.” “…Pressure barrier engaged.” the cabin is enveloped in a blue barrier. “open the back door.” the back door opens and Vrak is in view. Johnathan then kicks the deep scanner, and it goes out.

In space it orientates itself and flies down to the planet. It hits the crust of the planet and drills down. It sucks in the debris that it makes while drilling and shoots it back out with extreme force, making a long enough hole so that it can keep digging but not get stuck. After a few minutes it finally gets into the core of the planet. Once there it quickly goes off and scans the planet in its entirety and then gets destroyed by the core’s heat.

The data comes back, and they both see what they are dealing with. Cammy is shocked at what she sees. On Vrak’s dark side there are massive tunnels that are not natural at all. “Those are the roots of the core shrooms, or at least what was the roots.” Johnathan remarks. “what do you mean?” asks Cammy. Johnathan points at certain sections and explains. “see how it abruptly cuts off here and here. Those were eaten away, and see this over here.” he points to another empty section and moves. “That connects right to where we first fought these things.” “so everything empty, that is next to that section has to be from the old earth monster.” Johnathan nods. “Sasha. in red highlight the sections that are connected to here and in blue, highlight the core shroom roots.” The map changes showing just how much havoc this old earth monster is doing. Now with a better view, they can clearly see that it’s not just the dark light jungle but nearly all of Vrak is contaminated with the old earth monster.

“Oh fuck. This planet might be condemned soon!” yells Cammy. “yup…but I think I see an answer.” He points to multiple sections that are wide open. “see these. I think this is where the hearts are. We go in one by one and destroy them.” “Fuck that! There is no 'we' I’m out!” Cammy blurts out. “Fair enough. I need people who can handle close quarters anyways, and you can barely hold a gun.” Cammy is hurt hearing this. “hey… I can shoot a gun…when they aren't moving that is.” Cammy retorts. “so what tier of threat is this?” asks Cammy.  “it threatens the planet as a whole, and that can only mean it’s a tier one threat.” Johnathan is excited. he gives a wicked smirk and cracks his knuckles. "haven't dealt with a tier one in forever! oh man am I excited!" Cammy looks distraught. "look man I don't wanna be here when that thing turns into fucking Cthulhu or something! just take me to the docks please." Cammy asks, her voice shaking. "absolutely. Sasha take us to the docks." "yes sir." and with that they quickly make it to the docks, land, and Cammy hurries off to her ship and leaves Vrak.