Portal World : Crossing Over Free Form

[ArlEammon]

Whoever Wins, We Win?

Sometime in the future, Beijing

Skynet has been deployed to deal with the alien menace that has caused total panick and chaos near Beijing. Most of the city has been evacuated, and now occasional raids from xenomorphs have been made into the city. Already a make shift, quasi hive has been made near Beijing at the site of the alien vessel's crash.

[whoiam]

At what was, technically, a coffee shop in one of Beijing's tourist-oriented areas, a lone Terminator sat at a table with her drink.

It was, indeed, a coffee.

She was not drinking with any real enthusiasm - she was, after all, highly unlikely to ever experience thirst - but just slowly sipping.

Around her were a handful of suitcases. They contained a selection of outfits, a disassembled sniper rifle that she had smuggled all the way from the UK, and the limbs of a T-600 terminator that had tried to evacuate her from the city not an hour beforehand.

It turns out that killing an early model terminator is really easy if it is facing away from you and you've got the roasting spit from the restaurant next door in your hands.

Dismantling a terminator using nothing but cooking tools can be a little awkward, however. Few kitchens keep a decent set of screwdrivers and wrenches on hand.

She should probably loot one of the nearby houses for some proper tools before trying to salvage anything from the torso... maybe a factory.

With an incongruously cheerful smile on her face, Andeo watches the near-silent city go about its lack of business...

[ArlEammon]

Wayne Industries

You find that the government has agreed to keep Wayne Industries secure. . .

[industrious]

There was a man, and he was perched on the wall of a skyscraper. Without visible means of support, he was there, as casually as an ordinary man would sit at a cafe.

He was dressed in black, from the top of his pointed ears to the soles of his rocket-powered boots. Across his chest was emblasoned the red symbol of a bat in mid-flight. He was not vengeance. He was not the night. But he was still Batman.

"Terry...what's the situation?"

White eyes squint as the cutting-edge technology enhanced the distant image, and ran it through several different filters. The two most important: Thermal, and X-ray.

"She's not human. Definitely some sort of replica biodroid. I'm taking a closer look."

"Be careful. You don't know what you're dealing with."

"I always am."

One hand removes itself from the outside wall, and lightly taps the center of his belt buckle. The man fades from view; a slight scorch mark on the wall indicates that he has left.

The terminator hears something approaching her. Footsteps. Somebody attempting to be quiet. But she can hear the man's heartbeat, and the pounding blood circulating through his veins. A snick as some sort of weapon is draw. And she sees nothing before her.

A voice.

"What the hell are you?"

[Randel]

Ironside 3

A large gray van drives towards one of the military bases made near the city of Beijing. Soon, it parks near the entrance of one of the buildings where military personnel are waiting.

Doctor Steven Bracewell, grandson of Edwin Bracewell the old british scientist of World War II (and apparently no relation to Ronald Bracewell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_N._Bracewell), the physicist who proposed the idea of intelligent intersteller probes) An elderly looking man steps out of the passenger side of the van, squinting a little from the sun shining off of his glasses before heading to the side.

"Doctor Bracewell." says one of the officers who was waiting along with a few other military men and scientists. "I trust you've had a pleasant flight?"

"Oh certainly, a wonderful trip." Bracewell says as he circles round to the side and slides open the van to reveal a tall metallic form that some would say resembles a pepper pot made of metal with a slightly elongated base. "And my friend here has had one as well, hasn't he?" Bracewell pulls out a remote control and flips a few switches, the machines 'eyestalk' rotates around and nods up and down in seeming agreement.

"Gentlemen, meet the Military Armored Ironside Diplomat... the uh... MAID who is going to help us clean up this mess. Heh heh... sorry, the people I've talked to told me my robot needs a nice short name and that Ironside wouldn't cut it in this day and age." Bracewell steps back and hits a few switches as the machine slowly lifts into the air, moving apparently on some sort of jet-assisted hover unit. With a fluid grace, it lands on the ground near the van and drives forward on wheels.

"A little hover unit I had built in for truly all-terrain movement. Metal frame and skirt to protect its vital components from damage. Manipulator arm for touching things in the environment." he points to a three-fingered robotic hand on the machine. "Eye camera built in to allow vision and telescopic viewing." he points at the eye. He then points at a seemingly small little device on the front next to the manipulator arm. "And of course, a little firepower in case our little attempts at verbal diplomacy don't work out well against these creatures."

He Bracewell presses a button, and the robot rotates around, targets a cement block several hundred yards away on the targeting range and fires its weapon. A bright beam of light shrieks out and burns a hole straight through the concrete block and a dribble of red molten silicate can be seen oozing out of the hole.

"Heh, a miniature particle accelerator. Really not something you want around delicate equipment or personnel."

Bracewell turns to the military men. "So, how can my creation and I help you gentlemen save the Earth?"

[whoiam]

Initially, the sound of approaching footsteps did confuse Andeo somewhat - Terry would be able to see her glancing up in his direction, frowning, and cocking her head to the right.

But then he spoke. And her eyes lit up.

At first, they sported an unmistakeable red glow, as Andeo switched visual register down into the Infra-Red. A few moments later the colour switched to blue as she tried scanning in Ultra-Violet, and steadied down.

I looked the suit up to see if jumping around the spectrum would get around it's cloaking feature. I know that it can't stop her seeing you in UV, but I'm not sure about IR. *shrug* It's your suit, I'll let you pick.

"What an odd outfit," she eventually remarks. "I suppose offering you a coffee is out of the question?" She gestures back into the coffeeshop proper. "I have hardly scratched the surface of the stock they left behind..."

As of yet, Andeo has not gone for her pistol. Why? Well, firstly, she knows a suit of oddly-styled body armor when she sees one, so she'd likely need to be using her (currently disassembled) sniper rifle to do any real damage at range. And two, it hadn't yet occured to her that the weirdly shaped... hold-out razor?... could pose an actual threat to her. So attacking her mystery company did not appear to be the highest of priorities.

[Jesse Drake]

"Just my luck." Mutters Merrick quietly. "I arrive in this smoghole and not only is my doctor no where to be found, but I'm also surrounded by these creepy robot things."

Merrick keeps to the shadows. Not that he had to- but he'd rather not catch the eyes of the Terminators. He sometimes leaps up onto buildings for a better view/hide spot.

All things considered, he can't help but feel that bit of "Why me?" in the back of his head. Though also, there's the other nagging feeling... this is always better than death.

For a moment, he just sits on the rooftops. Nothings really gonna change if he takes a few minutes for a breather...

[industrious]

Eh. It has to have some vulnerability. Some frequency where it isn't invisible.


The cloaking function takes up a great deal of the suit's power. Enough that turning it off when there is no need to use it is a priority.

Terry fades back into the visible spectrum and continues to stare at the Terminator.

"Sorry; I'm on the clock. We've got an alien invasion going on, and I want an answer...quickly. What. Are. You?"

[whoiam]

According to Wikipedia, it's not invisible in UV. IR isn't mentioned either way. I'm assuming that it's not invisible in either microwave or radio either - because Terry's comms link is probably in one of those two and he can't be invisible to the frequencies he communicates in.

"You are aware of the Skynet program? The mainframe is the famous part, but it also contained a series of autonomous computer controlled human replica combat chassis. The T-600 series Terminators. There are a number of us deployed in the city."

There is a slight pause as her eyes fade back into the visible spectrum, and her head straightens up again. "Possibly my programming was not done as well as my designer thought. So I find myself with no pressing activity draining my time. Oh... except to remind humans they should be evacuating the city. So consider yourself reminded."

[industrious]

"...Right. I'm here to stop the invasion. Your programmers probably programmed you to do the same. Batman."

He holds out his hand to shake hers.

[whoiam]

That gesture she recognised. Her hand extended as well.

"Actually, they did not." And then she shakes. "But I've nothing better to do, so you've got me at least until the planes start running again."

Or until I can work out how your optic camoflage system works... that and a bomb shelter and I'll be set come judgement day...

...Wait, invasion? Civilian flights are usually suspended during invasions. Oh, well. I didn't pay for the tickets with my money.

[industrious]

"Then let's go."

Batman activates his boots, spreads his wings, and takes to the air once more. He then activates his comm.

"Bruce. Any info on the xenomorphs?"

[ArlEammon]

"Bruce. Any info on the xenomorphs?"

Batman I
"Sure do. These things have acid for blood, so make sure to try and avoid cutting them up close. They've got extreme strength, speed, agility and toughness. Don't mess around with them, and be sure to watch out for their intelligence. They may be somewhat like animals, but they are like The Joker's little babies. Surely you've heard of that old cartoon show about the animals and Teamwork? Well, xenomorphs are like that, except their team work kills."

[Randel]

Ironside 3

Ironside 3 waits at the military base, his android Dr Bracewell was talking to to the military officers while some of the engineers were hooking up the 'controls' to their own equipment. Naturally, that little box didn't control Ironside 3's Travel Machine, it just gave him some instructions and let those puny humans think that he was under their control.

Of course, the control box and video feed relied on primitive human technology, so there would be points at which they would loose the connection. That was were Bracewell would tell them that Ironside 3's "AI" would kick in and he would be free to operate independently.

Those new Daleks that his fellow Daleks had created... that his brothers had sacrificed themselves for... they would surely ridicule him to see a Dalek of any sort reduce himself or pretend to be a human servant.

But it was necessary, it was necessary to work undercover like this and gather whatever resources or information he could. Then maybe some day he will meet up with those "new" Daleks and see if they were truly worth it.

[whoiam]

Andeo looks a little non-plussed as she watches Batman take to the air again.

"Well, that is going to make trailing difficult." A comment delivered, by default, to herself. Still, she notes his direction of travel and follows along a couple of minutes later. She used that couple of minutes reassembling her sniper rifle, improvising a strap for it, and then collecting her luggage. It never hurt to be prepared. After all, she may need to shoot this flying man-ish-thing in the back. Or whatever the flying thing was hunting in the front. Either was good - she was simply looking forwards to getting to shoot something.

[ArlEammon]

"[COLOR="DarkOrchid"] Either was good - she was simply looking forwards to getting to shoot something.

She got her wish. . . a scrawny, scorpion thing immediately leapt onto her face after Batman took to the air. At the same time, a couple of drones appeared just outsidee the door where the Terminator was located. They were apparently waiting for something. It was almost as if they were just watching for anything to come, incase they would try to "save' the Terminator. As if it needed saving.

[industrious]

Batman

"Roger that."

McGinnis continues flying towards the wreck, and searches for hostile activity. The xenomorphs were out there. Somewhere.

[ArlEammon]

In No Time At ALL
Batman arrives to find swarms and swarms of xenomorphs rushing lines of Terminators. At least 300 xenomorps are attempting to kill the Terminators. These Terminators are still firing their weapons as Batman arrives. One of them looks up to see Batman in the air, turns and continues firing. At the moment, the Terminators have not seemed to suffer any casualties as far as Batman could see. One of the A.I's motion for Batman to land.

[Jesse Drake]

From the roof he sat on, Merrick witnesses the two leaving. He hops down, and stealthily follows. The Batman intrigued him, and definitely made him think they might be somewhat similar.

[whoiam]

[vision] One foe detected. Small, multi-limbed. Currently obscuring further observation in several spectra. Penetration possible at longer wavelengths.
[audio] Two or more heard moving in the vicinity. Larger units, type unknown.
[taste] Nothing important.
[smell] Unknown stimulus, probably from smaller hostile. Filed for later reference.
[touch] Small hostile appears to be attempting to penetrate head.
[balance/acceleration] Currently upright. Impact force could have staggered a human: not sufficient to cause damage.
[temperature] Remains at normal levels for Beijing.
[kinesthetic] Left hand is low to the left hand side and slightly behind the torso. Right hand is low to the right hand side and slightly behind the torso. Both hands are holding luggage handles. Left leg slightly forwards, right leg slightly back. Both feet are planted on the floor.
[pain] Damage to organic coating around the mouth. May require several days to regrow.
[direction] Unchanged by impact.


[assessment]
Damage so far is cosmetic only. Small unit appears incapable of causing damage beyond the cosmetic level. Larger units represent a greater but unknown level of threat. However, smaller unit is blocking photo-reception is most available spectra. Far IR and Microwave imaging both penetrate satisfactorily. Target locks are possible: However, such modes allow skeletal targetting only.

Sniper rifle is loaded. Pistol is loaded.

[planning]
Drop luggage. Draw rifle and pistol. Sniper rifle shot to the right-hand target. Double-tap pistol to the left hand target. Center-mass shots in both cases. Reassess.

Thinking time: 11ns.

Execute? Yes.

Execution time: 0.93s.

Reassessing...

[industrious]

Batman lands, and disengages his wings.

Looking at the mass of xenomorphs, he flicks his wrist to produce an explosive Batarang. He aims towards the nearest mass of xenomorphs, and throws the device.

[Randel]

Ironside 3

News of the xenomorphs attack on the lone terminator quickly travels to the military base and they respond.

"Lets test out this MAID thing of yours, Doctor. The Terminators are are being held up by a swarm of Xenomorphs" the general says.

Within moments, Ironside 3 gets data on the location of the lone Terminator with a sniper rifle. He activates his flight mode to get to reach the top of a nearby building before bringing his weapon down and firing repeatedly into the group of xenomorphs.

"Enemy Xenomorphs located. Initiating recomended protocol... exterminate. Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!!"

Ironside 3 fires off a volley of weapons fire, acting like a point defense system and systematically kills off every Xenomorph that gets close to the Terminator with the sniper rifle. Despite the robotic appearance of his machine, he is a living thing inside it. A living thing that has never touched or lived outside this shell in decades... for practically all of his life. Seeing these big armored insects explode from the impact of his weapon... this is one moment he truly feels alive!

[ArlEammon]

What Batman and Ironsides realize at the same moment is they attacked just in time to give enough help to the Terminators that the xenomorphs gave up the assault. Few xenomorphs from the waves escaped.

Meanwhile the massive ship, which was around 3 kilometers in area, seemed like a haunted house just outside of Beijing. Someone is watching, above it all. Someone is watching, and everyone on Earth is threatened.

[whoiam]

Cycle Two
[vision] Two larger targets confirmed. Right-hand target shows preliminary signs of dropping. Left hand target appears to be approaching despite pistol shots.
[taste] Nothing important.
[smell] Unchanged.
[touch] Unchanged.
[balance/acceleration] Upright and immobile.
[temperature] Remains at normal levels for Beijing.
[kinesthetic] Both hands are waist height, several centimeters wide of my hips and extended forward by 20cm from the centerline. Left leg slightly forwards, right leg slightly back. Both feet firmly planted on the floor.
[pain] Damage to organic coating around the mouth. Lips appear to be missing. Further damage in surrounding tissues.
[direction] Unchanged.


[assessment]
Damage remains cosmetic. Suspected corrosive secretions from the smaller hostile. Larger hostiles appear resistant to small arms fire: Sniper rifle is effective.

Sniper rifle is unloaded. Pistol is loaded. One large hostile appears to be attempting a charge. Second large hostile appears not to be in control of its body.

[planning]
Retreat. Drop pistol. Reload sniper rifle. Shoot second large hostile. Reassess.
Thinking time: 9ns.

Execute? Yes.

Execution time: 1.4s.
Andeo droppped her pistol and started jogging backwards. This bought her time to reload her sniper rifle and shoot the second alien.
Cycle Three

[vision] Right-hand target is definitely on the way to earth. Left hand target appears to be falling as well.
[taste] Nothing important.
[smell] Unchanged.
[touch] Unchanged.
[balance/acceleration] Upright, negative Y acceleration. Velocity low, rising to medium.
[temperature] Remains at normal levels for Beijing.
[kinesthetic] Left hand thirty centimeters in front of centerline, at waist height, holding Sniper Rifle. Index finger on trigger. Right hand approaching right trousers pocket for a new cartridge.
[pain] Damage to organic coating around the mouth. Lips appear to be missing. Further damage in surrounding tissues.
[direction] Unchanged.


[assessment]
Damage remains cosmetic. Suspected corrosive secretions from the smaller hostile. Larger hostiles appear resistant to small arms fire: Sniper rifle is effective.

Sniper rifle is unloaded. Pistol is lost. Both large hostiles appear to be inactive.

[planning]
Halt retreat. Reload Sniper Rifle. Shoot smaller target. Discard carcass.
Thinking time: 2ns.

Execute? Yes.

Execution time: 1.7s.
With the second alien also appearing to be in the early stages of a collapse, Andeo reloaded the sniper rifle once again and shot the facehugger with it. She pulls the corpse off and casually tosses it aside.

It had taken Andeo 4 seconds to kill the two aliens and a facehugger. Her face did look a mess, though. Her lips were missing and some of the flesh around them had been burned down to the endoskeleton, and acidic blood splashes had left holes in her clothing down much of her height.

Cycle Four

[vision] All three targets appear to be inactive. Visual range restored.
[taste] Nothing important.
[smell] Strange target scent reduced. Nostrils now free of obstruction.
[touch] Face now uncovered.
[balance/acceleration] Upright, positive Y accelleration. Approaching 0 velocity.
[temperature] Remains at normal levels for Beijing.
[kinesthetic] Left hand thirty centimeters in front of centerline, at waist height, holding Sniper Rifle. Index finger on trigger. Right hand approaching right trousers pocket for a new cartridge.
[pain] Damage to organic coating around the mouth. Lips appear to be missing. Further damage in surrounding tissues.
[direction] Unchanged.


[assessment]
Damage remains cosmetic. Suspected corrosive secretions from the smaller hostile. Larger hostiles appear resistant to small arms fire. Sniper rifle is effective.

Sniper rifle is unloaded. Pistol is lost. All hostiles neutralised.

[planning]
Cencel Termination Mode. Reload Sniper Rifle. Recover and reload pistol. Stash both. Perform anatomic analysis of all three targets. Store target profiles. Increase regular alert level. Aquire semi or full automatic rifle. Follow Human's exit path.
Thinking time: 13ns.

Execute? Yes.

Andeo's eyes flash through several shades of red and blue as she checks her eyes are undamaged. The sniper rifle is reloaded, and slung on her back. The pistol is picked up again, reloaded, and dropped back into a pocket. From her luggage, she extracts a large carving knife 'liberated' from the restaurant next to the coffee shop and takes a few moments to slice open one of the larger aliens.

She does not get through much of the dissection due to the blood dissolving the knife. The handle is discarded and Andeo returns to her luggage. A further look at the aliens, apparently just to fix it in her mind, before she takes up the handles once more. This time, she hurries. Somewhere out there were additional Terminators, and the main battleforce would have modern or prototype rifles. She'd be able to take one from them.

[Randel]

Ironside 3

"Enemies designated Xenomorps have been defeated. Survivors are minimal and fleeing."

Ironside 3 turns to see the lone terminator with the sniper rifle. Zooming in, he switches through the spectrum to get a look at the metal endoskeleton under its organic skin.

He then turns to see the spot where he had earlier heard a sound like a small explosive device going off. He hadn't gotten a good look, but he had seen a flicker of a large black flying thing a bit before the firefight.

Ironside 3 levitates down to the ground and approaches the Terminator.

"Greetings, soldier. You appear damaged. Do you require assistance?" The eye stalk looks at her for a moment before he rotates to scan the surrounding area.

(to anyone looking at Ironside 3 in other spectrums)
If you look at Ironside 3 in other spectrums you will have trouble seeing through his force-field and armor. You might be able to see that he has a force field, some sort of energy weapon, and levitation capacity, but his high density armor and EMP shielding prevents you from seeing anything below the surface.

[whoiam]

Andeo strolls almost casually over to the Ironside. She had never seen anything quite like it, but a little logic suggested some kind of AI or drone. Several weird attachments, including one with a focusing array of some kind on the extreme end. That had to be the weapon, (or perhaps some form of industrial tool or multi-function device), so it merited a closer look.

...a closer look which suggested the external part was essentially just the focusing array, and that such important components as the power source and controls were located in the main case of the unit. Faced with the option of trying to dismantle unknown tech or just mugging one or two of the T-600s, Andeo went for the latter.

Even when we have missions, our programming suggests the most effective course, not the quickest.

"No, you cannot help me." Came the reply, before Andeo just carried on walking. She had heard the firing, and therefore knew where the other Terminators had to be massing. An assault rifle or machine gun would hit the spot...

[ArlEammon]

It was only a matter of time before Andeo had stumbled on Batman just waiting for her. Meanwhile, everyone and everything that was alive outside the ship had the distinct feeling that they were being watched from inside the ship. One of the Terminators turned towards Andeo and Batman, wondering exactly what they were doing there. "State your business." They automotoned.

[whoiam]

When queried by one of the older model Terminators, Andeo briefly paused. Her head, as it was wont to do as she thought, cocked lightly to the right.

All terminators, from the oldest models to the prototypes like Andeo, shared a handful of common phrases. Quirks of the master programming, as it were.

This was one of them.

"I need your gun. Give it to me."

It meant 'Give me the gun or I'll kill you and take it.' And the T-600 would have held no illusions about Andeo not being a terminator. She had enough of her skull exposed by the facehugger to remove any doubt on that point.

[industrious]

Batman just stares at the Terminator units.

"I'm Batman. Move."

[ArlEammon]

Batman just stares at the Terminator units.

"I'm Batman. Move."

"Citizen. You are not authorized." Just as the older model had responded his face flashed in a series of red flashing lines moving with incredible speed over his face, as his eyes also changed into a blood red color. He stepped aside, "Please enter with Caution." The other model willingly gave Andeo her weapons.

[Randel]

Ironside 3

Ironside 3 moves towards the ship while sending visual and auditory feed back to the military base.

"I will pass to examine the alien vessel." he says to the Terminator blocking his path. If it offers any resistance, he opens a channel so that Doctor Bracewell and any military personnel can speak through his speakers to grant him authorization.

He turns to see Batman, his singular eye giving him a look-over scanning the suited superhero in multiple spectrum and transmitting the visual feed back to the military base via his radio link.

Then, without saying a word, Ironside 3 continues on towards the alien ship, broadcasting data back to base and ready to get inside it to deal with its contents.

[whoiam]

I did not expect it to actually comply.


...I was looking forward to that fight. Stupid obedience routines!

Andeo needed a moment (only a moment) to take stock of her increased armoury - adding the Terminator's Best Friend, a repeating pump-action shotgun, to her inventory, as well as a fairly average assault rifle.

"It is a long time since I owned this sort of gun, " Andeo notes, not adding that it is technically a negative amount of time. "because they're too difficult to smuggle into all of the places I've been."

YOU try building a shotgun in the reign of Vlad the Impaler...

A glance each at the Ironside coming up behind her and the Batman already alongside. "Logic suggests the most heavily armoured of us should lead. The one with the focused energy weapon appears to carry the most armor. More importantly, it will have soon left without us if we do not follow."

[ArlEammon]

*Bump*
Andeo notices that it is unusually hot in the destroyed ship.

[Randel]

Ironside 3

The armored Dalek enters the ship and rotates his head section around to get a good look at the area. He continues broadcasting back to the military as long as the radio signal holds out.

"Scanning area for hostiles or alien technology. Orders are to eliminate hostiles and prepare all alien technology for later recovery or analysis." Ironside checks the first room for anything of interest and then proceeds to move to the next room, following a systematic pattern of always taking the leftmost door or passage unless something of interest comes up.