Serion Invasion: Chapter 1 - The Last Remnant

Gaige watched the machine land. "My my, quite the upgrade you've gone through there. Fascinating technology. I dont suppose you'll power down and let me dismantle you? No? A pity." She said. She wasn't worried, though the thing was a good deal stronger than her. But could it maintain the form, she wondered? She had a relatively good understanding of the Serion powercore, and this one's original power output compared to now was much smaller. The core probably couldn't maintain this for long. She knew this because her Valkyrie could remain active indefinitely, where as her overdrive, which was a powerhouse machine, would eat through the same core in a few hours.

What she didn't know was, how long this would last. That was the danger here, really. She might not be able to outmaneuver him long enough for it to run out. Not with this suit. Gaige lowered the helmet and smiled. "Alright, then. Lets have some fun." She said, deactivating the suit, and activating her overdrive. Her own power output would be felt increasing greatly too, not as much, but the gap in power was much smaller. The left arm gained a powerfist, and the right a large plasma cannon. The copper armor also had a energy shield, a rocket pack on the left shoulder and something special on the right. She might have to use that today.

Kaytlyn watched the two combatants prepare for battle. Gaige utilized a new suit, which boosted her power output considerably. However, this new suit was also running on a limited power supply. Though Kaytlyn could not tell how long either of them would last exactly, she she could surmise from her scanner's readings that Gaige's new suit would last far longer than RedBlu's, though her power output was still considerably less than RedBlu's. Kaytlyn knew that Gaige simply had to wait it out, defend smartly and endure until RedBlu's power failed and the battle would be hers. She had faith in the human, but Kaytlyn remained ready to intervene nonetheless.


RedBlu surveyed the enemy's new form with all of its scanning equipment. The new form was elegant, with a longer-lasting energy reserve. It was still inferior of course, but RedBlu knew it had to act quickly. It pulled out 5 small devices and threw them at Gaige. The didn't actually hit her though. The devices took up position around the human, each about 5 meters away. Then, RedBlu charged up its upgraded thruster assembly. It shot forward towards Gaige with unbelievable speed, slahing across her chest as it passed. It then hit the first device and was propelled even faster towards the next device, slashing Gaige across the chest again. This continued for the remaining devices. Each one propelled RedBlu faster, making each successive strike harder to react to. If Gaige tried to fly out of the center of the devices, she would find that the devices were projecting a shield net between them, preventing transit. Once all of the devices had been hit, RedBlu hit the ground and rolled into a ball, an energy field forming around it. The devices would then explode inwards at the two combatants, each with the force of a cero. RedBlu then unfolded, protected from the explosion by its energy field. It readied itself for the retort.


Kaytlyn had seen enough. She began to descend the scraggly slope down to the battle, removing the sniper attachment from her rifle. She stopped at the bottom, making sure to remain out of sight. She decided to give Gaige more time. She stayed low, consulting her scanner to observe the battle that she couldn't see with her eyes.

Giage scanned the objects as they were thrown, expecting them to explode, instead the robot rubot charged her and she side stepped it. She seen his path, directly towards one of the five orbs, and figured what was about to happen next. She parried the blade with her own as he shot back at her. The next time, he came back even faster. she calculated it, she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid the next one. She braced against it, the sword cutting into the armor of her left arm, the robotic one. The ruturn hit hit in the right shoulder, cutting into her arm. she was hit two more times, each blow leaving a long gash in her armor and blood trickling forth from underneath, though it stopped quick enough.

The robot stopped and rolled up into a ball, as the orbs around her beeped. The explosion was blocked by her overshield, which ended up shorting out from the power of the blast but it left her armor untouched by it. She folder her rail gun, the barrel inches from the machine's face as he unfolded. "You damaged my suit, you bastard." She growled. She didn't bother bracing herself, she fired the rail gun at his chest, and was thrown back by the massive discharge of power as it fired the 9 inch long, 3 in thick solid metal slug.

A Direct hit would be akin to taking the full brunt of two cero oscuros, while just being hit by the wave of force around the slug would be equivilent to two gran rey cero. A thick cloud of dust was thrown into the air as Gaige flew backwards. She managed to engage mobility thrusters and stop herself from hittig the ground in a rather devestating backwards collision. She watched the cloud of dust for activity, ready to keep fighting as the railgun folded up and locked itself. In the distance, a spire of rock slowly collapse, a 3foot hole through it.

Kaytlyn looked on as RedBlu launched into the familiar Multi-Vector Assault attack that she herself had been subjected to before. The explosion cleared and Kaytlyn saw Gaige standing in front of the unfolding RedBlu, looking seriously damaged now. The young human seemed legitimately angry now. She pointed a lethal-looking shoulder mounted weapon at the deploying Serion. Kaytlyn's scanner identified it as a weapon that fired magnetically propelled slugs at tremendous speeds. There was no way RedBlu was going to survive. Or so she thought.


RedBlu unfolded to see the nastiest, most lethal-looking gun barrel pointing at it's chest. In the split-second available to it, RedBlu moved to the side and pushed the barrel. The shot was diverted to its left arm as opposed to its chest. The shot took the arm clean off, and sent RedBlu hurtling away. It landed face-down on the ground, several yards away from where it stood before. It stood slowly, taking inventory of its systems. Its left arm was gone, but it had managed to save itself for the most part. Before continuing, it came to another decision. RedBlu's objective was updated. The new objective was to not suffer the new enemy to leave.

Using the cover of the dust cloud, RedBlu stretched out its remaining hand. The shrapnel and debris that remained of its left arm converged on it, jamming into the socket where once there was a limb. The metal twisted and groaned as it took its required shape. Having been hit by the railgun, RedBlu was now attempting to replicate the attack. It will not hit with anywhere near as much force, given the lack of tungsten in the area. However, RedBlu felt it could at least come somewhere close with the velocity of the projectile by projecting a magnetic field through the metal of its shattered arm. The slug would only be as strong as the alloys used in RedBlu's construction. The modification completed just as the smoke cleared. Using its superior targeting computer, RedBlu instantly acquired Gaige and fired. The shot would travel at the same velocity, but all of the damage values would be reduced by half.


Kaytlyn shielded her eyes from the dust that was thrown up by Gaige's weapon. Kaytlyn was impressed with the effectiveness of the device. The humans might stand a chance after all. But then she spotted RedBlu, missing an arm, but still functional. She was more concerned by what he was doing. He managed to replicate the gun Gaige used. Kaytlyn swore. That's the last thing they needed. While Kaytlyn had already innovated a weapon like that, albeit with plasma instead of solid slugs, the Serions had not yet managed to assimilate the information from their conflicts to create one. However, if this one managed to escape and return to the Arc Mechanica, the threat they would pose would be grave indeed. RedBlu had to die.

Gaige scanned the energy readings and cursed. It survived. She watched the dust clear, and the machine stand up. Tough bugger, a human would have been missing his torso taking a hit like that to the arm. Gaige noticed the power surge as it began to do something, and realised what he was planning. "How dare you replicate my tech, you rust bucket." She growled. He fired, and she dodged. The slug clipped her side, sent her spinning across the battleground.

Her armor took the brunt of the blow, but it still fucking hurt. She landed face down face in the dust. lips pulling into a growl, she'd finally had enough. She pushed herself to her feet, flipping away. Her side ached, she'd probably broken a rib or two from that, but it wouldn't stop her. She'd endured worse. Xion was in her right hand suddenly and she was charging towards the machine.

5 smoke rockets burst from her shoulder launcher, exploding around the machine creating a cloud of smoke around the machine. Gaige locked onto his energy signature, and burst towards him with thrusters flairing, smoke rippling from the speed of her approach. She shot past, slashing at the leg on the same side as his broken arm, her side groaning in pain. She spun and shot back at him, slamming her left arm power fist at the machines back.

She twisted around him, slashing under his armpit as she passed, attempting to destroy the railgun that had offended her so much. Then she burst backwards, 5 more micro missiles deploying from her back pack. each was the power of a cero and honed in on the machine through the cloud of smoke.

Kaytlyn's grip tightened on her rifle grip. Gaige had now sustained considerable damage from the combo-bot's attack. While she had faith in the human, she had a feeling she would have to act soon...

RedBlu was confident it had superiority over the new threat. But then, as it prepared to move in for the kill, Gaige became enraged and retaliated with a vengeance. She fired smoke bombs around RedBlu, who switched to thermal vision to counter. She then advanced like a shot, RedBlu being forced to spin with her sword slash at its leg. Her shot on the rebound scored, punching a hole in RedBlu's left shoulder. RedBlu jumped over the power fist attack, somersaulting over Gaige and landing behind her. The human spun, slashing under RedBlu's guard and destroying the makeshift replica railgun. Gaige then burst away from RedBlu, firing 5 cero-powered rockets at it. RedBlu opened its mouth and fired mini plasma shots at the rockets, destroying four of them. The last one hit it directly in the head, blasting its head off.

The now-headless RedBlu initiated Last Resort Protocol. It suddenly lunged forward and wrapped its remaining arm around Gaige, crushing her to its chest. Its arm wrapped all of the way around Gaige and latched into the socket where its other arm used to be. The arm formed a guillotine choke-hold on Gaige. It didn't seem like there was any way to escape. Then, a distorted and inhuman voice spoke from within RedBlu. "Self-destruct in 5 seconds." But then, not three seconds later, the grip released and the arm fell to the floor, severed at the socket. Kaytlyn stood behind RedBlu, Energy Sword drawn, defiant look on her face. RedBlu let out an inhuman screech.

Gaige let out one back, and slammed her power fist into RedBLu's chest so hard it's chest shattered and it was launched back. Gaige lept after it, jumping slightly, she punched it down into the ground, embedding the thing a foot into it. Gaige slammed her power fist into it again and again, the ground shaking with each blow. When she was done, panting heavily from exertion, she scanned the wreckage, and pulled out two things. A still intact powercore, and the compact hardrive. She was surprised they weren't fully destroyed, but like her arm they were clearly made from an extremely tough alloy.

She tossed the hardrive to Kaytlyn but she kept hold of the core. Powering down the suit, she stored the core in her Material packing device, Named, unimaginatively, by her father. She had cuts and grazes all over, her clothes and skin smeared with blood. Her face was still dark with anger, but she was starting to calm down, despite the heavy breathing. She turned to regard Kaytlyn.

Kaytlyn spun her Energy Sword and deactivated it, stowing it away in her Dimensional Storage. She looked somewhat sheepish. "I am sorry I did not intervene sooner, I did not mean for you to get hurt." She examined the memory core.(OOC: Pfft, no-one uses hard drives anymore you loon xD) "I must return to my lab and extract the memory engrams from this. Come, I can repair your damage once we arrive." Kaytlyn stowed the memory core away and headed back to her speeder, making sure to plant a decoy energy trail leading in the opposite direction. A precaution to avoid pursuit and possible detection. Assuming Gaige accompanied her, she set a course for her base.

Once there, Kaytlyn powered down the speeder and helped Gaige out. They entered the lab, and Kaytlyn gestured to a bed with a scanning canopy built over it. "Please lay down on the bio-bed and I will repair your injuries." Kaytlyn opened the scanning canopy and, assuming Gaige complied, closed it over her. Kaytlyn moved around to the side of the bed and activated the console. "Computer, begin medical diagnostic." The console beeped in compliance and began the scan, providing a display of Gaige's body and everything in it. Damaged areas were highlighted with surgical precision. "Most of the damage is external, though there appears to be some damage to your internal organs. I suspect this is caused by your "reiatsu". I will repair the damage."

After the repairs, Kaytlyn stood in front of the main command console. She placed the recovered memory core on the console. "Computer, begin upload." The computer responded in its usual monotone voice. "Upload in progress." The computer beeped as the information was added to the database. After a minute or so, the computer stated blankly "Upload complete." Kaytlyn looked at Gaige. "This is where we find out exactly how long we have. Computer, with the added data, project overall Serion readiness for invasion of Earth, best estimate." The computer beeped as innumerable calculations and algorithms were performed. Finally, the computer replied. "Serion overall readiness rating for invasion of Earth is estimated at ninety-seven percent." Kaytlyn took a deep breath. "How long before complete readiness?" The computer confirmed her fears. "Approximately ninety-six hours." Kaytlyn turned to Gaige with a very serious expression. "It appears we are almost out of time."

Gaige grunted. "Its fine. I'm fine. I've been through allot worse." Gaige said. She held her hand over her DDS and an orb of liquid metal appeared in her hand. In seconds it was streaming up her arm to cover her torso, neck and shoulders. It settled, taking the appearance of her normal clothing. The Reactive armor would seal her wounds fully and stop them from opening again, so there was no danger of her bleeding out on the way back.

When they returned to the lab she sighed. She really didn't like being fussed over, it tended to piss her off. Regardless, she did as she was asked. "Not that it really matters, but i've survived worse. You must think humans are soft and squishy, unable to fend for themselves, but we're not. Laura could have ripped that thing in half with her bare hands." She said. Not that she would have. She'd have both red and blu them before they could blink. "Hey you probably just added ten years to my lifespan with this thing. thanks." Gaige rolled off the table and listened to the computer.

When Kaytlyn said they were all most out of time, she shrugged. "Now is not a good time for them to invade. They probably wont if their smart. My sis... I.. My Mother's last gift to the world is currently sitting on an army of 'perfect humans.' If the serion invade now, they're in for a big surprise. Don't get me wrong though, Either way its bad for all of us.... I don't know if your opposing the Serion to help us, or get revenge for yourself, but if you want to rely on my help, Then I need your help with something first."

Kaytlyn looked slightly sheepish at Gaige's remark. "Forgive me. I did not mean to offend. I believe anything has a chance of defeating anything, given the right circumstances. I simply want to give your planet that chance." She regarded Gaige with curiosity. "This Laura person sounds like she is very powerful. I wish to meet her someday." She finished her medical operations and stood back to let Gaige have some space. "You are welcome."

Kaytlyn listened to what Gaige had to say about some army of "perfect" humans. "It is possible they have not detected such a force, or they would be preparing still. Hmm... an army of perfect humans... do you think-" But Gaige's expression told her all she needed to know. "No, I suppose that would be too easy. It seems your world is really in danger, from both within and without. I lost my world to the Serion in the past, but revenge is irrelevant. I can only act in the present to affect the future, so that is where I must keep my attention. My main aim is to keep your world safe. If that would be best served by dealing with these so-called "perfect" humans, then so be it. I will assist. What must be done?"

"I'll start at the beginning, so you understand what's going on." Gaige said. She then told Kaytlyn the whole story of what had happened with her mother and sister, and how there was an epic showdown between some ice queen and two androids. "One of the androids was evil, the other was fighting along side the Ice queen. I talked to the one on our side after. She was surprisingly human like, it was interesting. Close to serion level of intelligence nearly." Gaige said. Then she continued on, explaining about her sister without going into to much detail.

"What my mother did to me years ago, she did to Vyn too. Only she succeeded, to a far greater degree than any perfect human that came before or after her. Before my mother died her control over Vyn broke, and now she's rampaging across the earth leading an entire army of perfect humans. She can't be reasoned with, but I can't just let her be killed either. I need you to help me make the effects of the serion portal permanent, or atleast wipe her body clean of the tainted energy. If we can get her here, where she'll be close to powerless, I might be able to save her. Also I dont think it'll be as simple as pushing her through one, she nearly killed me with a kick. In my armor."

Kaytlyn listened intently to the young woman's troubling tale. She was intrigued by it all. Especially these androids. Especially the one with near-Serion intelligence. Kaytlyn was slightly concerned by this, as it wouldn't take much for a Serion to disguise itself as a slightly less advanced machine. But she held in her inquiry until Gaige finished. "Your mother sounds like she lacks the moral capacity to be allowed to live. Your sister does pose a threat if she leads this army." Kaytlyn went over to her workbench and picked up her rifle. She examined it while she spoke. "Your plan is ambitious, and it could work. If you have an idea on how to pull your sister into the portal, we can have a containment unit ready here. I can also stun her for a few seconds with my beam weapons. We will need to weaken her first, but it will give you an oppurtunity to enact whatever plan you have."

Kaytlyn set the rifle down and returned her gaze to Gaige. Her mind wandered to another place. The android that Gaige had spoken of. If it was a Serion agent, it would need to be tracked down and eliminated. "That android you speak of, I would like to receive a chance to analyse her. What was her designation?"

Gaige nodded. "The device is simple really. It opens a portal when activated, creating a powerful gravity field around it and anything its touching. It then drags anything its touching through the portal. I'll probably need a serion power core to create a field strong enough to hold her, which is why I grabbed the core out of the serion I destroyed. I just need a little help building it. I'm brilliant, but your tech is better." She said. She was asked about the bot she'd met.

"I didn't get her name. The other one was called christine. She was definitely human built, I found the schematics for her on my mothers computer system and her power core was... Less than impressive. It was gigantic, but it was only twice as powerful as Any serion core I've salvaged before. As for the other Girl.. Its possible. I didn't think of it at the time, because she was working with the coalition. Laura's boyfriend vouches for her integrity, but she could be lying to him.." Gaige considered it for a moment. Then cursed.

"I'm an idiot." She snapped. "The first time I seen a serion was my first encounter with a fully sentient machine, and I had a feeling they weren't human made... Then another android pops up within a few weeks, as part of the coalition? I should have known better than to just dismiss that. I think we need to go to New York, today." She said.

She did some manipulating of her Artemis, and an image of the machine in question popped up. She had half black, half white hair that fell well below her shoulders, and wore a similar outfit of flowing black and white cloth. "Thats what it looks like. But we'll need to be careful. The coalition isn't fond of people attacking its members, and they're not likely to believe me over it since i'm just a mercenary to them, meaning we'll have to expose it for an enemy first, or take it out when no one's around."

Kaytlyn raised an interested eyebrow. "Your plan is... ambitious. But it could work. Timing would be critical in this plan, but we are both calibrated with the necessary precision to succeed." She then listened to Gaige's description of the androids she had fought alongside. This Christine model was irrelevant. But the other one, the female that was operating as part of the Coalition, had piqued her interest. Kaytlyn's eyes lit up and she wore an expression of concern on her beautiful face. "If your Coalition has been infiltrated, then it's possible that they will be receiving intel on the "perfect Human" situation. The countdown will be altered if they are considered a threat to the objectives of the Arc Mechanicus. However, they will also receive intel on any defense plans that are implemented."

Kaytlyn studied the image for but a second before reaching a decision. "I see. Its current appearance is irrelevant for now. If it was made for espionage, it is most likely outfitted with disguise protocols. They wouldn't be able to tell unless they cut it. Your suggested course of action is prudent. I require approximately three minutes to get outfitted, then we should leave for New York."

Kaytlyn returned approximately three minutes later. She was wearing her newly repaired body suit and she checked the readout on the HUD, before pushing a control on her forearm which caused her helmet to fold away, revealing her head and hair. "Reporting for duty. Reiatsu Shielding is fully functional. Weapons are charged and ready." She walked over to the main console and tapped a few commands. The holo-globe popped into view and the area of New York was highlighted, along with tactical info on the city. "According to your information, the city is heavily guarded by gun and missile emplacements. We should place our exit aperture outside of the city limits, so as not to trigger them."

"It is, though for once I'm not going trying to be Ambitious for the sake of flare... My sister is like this because of my mother. It was my responsibility to put that bitch down before she could cause more harm, but I failed. So I'm responsible to for Vyn, and I'm not able to stand back and let the coalition or the gotei Kill her. I owe it to her, to atleast try to save her, even if it costs me my life. Thats what big sisters do, right?" She said.

Gaige nodded, but frowned... "Unless they cut it? But what if they already know its an Android, I mean I didn't figure it out by accident. She did change. The coalition said nothing about it to me though, I figured she was one of theirs. It's just like them to mess with things they don't understand after all.." Gaige said. She shrugged. "Well, lets be careful about this. at the very least, I'm going to get you some human clothing so that you can blend in. Then we'll go check her out. I dont want the coalition noticing you, and deciding to capture you. Set the portal for my house. We'll travel to New York from there."