Only Human (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI)

[Nomad-117]

Well damn.... guess he'll have to try harder this time.

Improvise, adapt, overcome.

 

[JD91B]

"Indeed," Mustang agreed. "While I was not present to anywhere near the same degree as you were, Andersen, us three had our des moments together. This most recent incident being but the latest instance of déchaîné tomfoolery!" The Adonis chortled in a high-pitched tone cheerily. "As I said, it was as though I'd been flung back in time! The only thing missing was Red Hood catcalling us all the while!"

…Man, Mustang knew exactly how to get Joe gooning. Yeah, they knew each other. Of all the people in the world, Joe had never expected that Andersen, Mustang, and himself had been the boys a century prior.

Click to shrink...

This is fucking awesome. I love that Joe found his own boys to hang out. Bros ftw.

Also, lmao Red Hood.

 

[TheScottishlad]

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Since he clearly didn't do it right the first time, this must be fate.

Joe. Fuck em up. Fuck em aaaaaallll up.

Doro, watching Joe burn everything to the ground: ...if I was wearing panties, they'd be sodden. But since I don't, we can move onto the main event~

Joe, in the midst of strangling the CG: Suddenly, I feel a great danger. As if a million pelvises suddenly screamed out in terror... and were promptly crushed.

 

[JamesAsmodeus]

Man, Joe, Andersen and the Chad Mustang were the Boys? Yeah, that tracks lol. And it looks like Joe was the essential Boogeyman to the higher ups, something I can't wait to see come in action. The CG apparently feared him that much lmao. Also, Rapi's going to have an interesting day the moment she's told of what she'd actually done. Also, Red Hood didn't like Joe at some point, right? Wonder what's the reason for that.

 

[Gideon020]

Red Hood was hit with an early form of Corruption midway in the war. She didn't want Goddess to be sad or look for her before it killed her, so she decided to be a bitch to everyone.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 35 - The Rebel Path
===

The elevator rumbled around them, steadily ferrying the pair up towards the main building, the air between them charged unlike anything ever before.

There was nothing more to say between them - they'd gone over the plan, simple as it was. They'd both agreed to no theatrics, no bullshit, no fucking around. They had a job to do, and they'd do it as efficiently, quickly, viciously as possible. And moreover, they were being given the opportunity to make the attempt in the first place, by that most unexpected of allies…

"I will time a district-wide electric and communications blackout shortly after you emerge from the elevator," Enikk intoned into Joe's comms equipment. "Along with a structure-wide system short-out to ensure the Council cannot escape the building by any efficient means. You will both need to brute force your way through the building's security gates as you progress to your ultimate objective."

"Fine by me," Red Hood declared in a low intone as she adjusted Wolf's Bane, the massive anti-material rifle chambered in .50 Ultra at rest upon her deceptively slim shoulder. "Won't even slow us down." The Nikke's long, wild hair was blazing red, her almond-shaped eyes like golden beacons in the dim light of the Central Government HQ's main cargo elevator. Her normally breezy, lackadaisical features drawn back into an uncharacteristic frown.

"Any common Nikke would be slowed by such barriers. However, yes, your incredible strength should grant you more than enough raw physical power to overwhelm and muscle through what they could not," Enikk declared. "Commander: I would advise that you allow Red Hood to force open all oncoming security gates. The Hoplon you've commandeered may be able to manage the task as well, but with nowhere near as much efficiency that she can."

Standing tall, nearly twice the height of the average man, looming outright alongside the red-and-black bedecked Grimms Nikke was a bulky, bipedal machine. Its hull, both angled and rounded, was a dull monotone grey, the shoulders adorned with white stripes marred only by a newly applied coat of paint to announce the intimidating machine's newfound purpose: ACPU RIOT CONTROL.

These machines dubbed Hoplons, once hopefully the shells for the next generation of Nikkes, then reduced to emergency last-ditch mechanized armours that would allow the unaugmented and unaugmentable, dubbed Hoplites, mere cannon fodder next to the Goddesses of Victory, to directly take up arms against the Raptures… For as briefly as they'd survive direct conflict with those extraterrestrial horrors even with the aid of such seemingly mighty armour.

Even man-sized high-mobility exoskeletons served the common human better against Raptures. But after a point, when no more production facilities existed, you had to make do with what you already had on hand.

Because of course, what other purpose would a looming mecha serve than as an anti-riot vehicle? Not that Joe was surprised in the least, given how the Central Government had just tipped its hand to him. They were fascists. Fascism ruled through fear. Terrify the populace so that they would never think to risk fighting back in the first place, and the best place to start with that? Militarizing the police, of course. Arm the average officer like a soldier, make it clear to all civilians that the men and women that should have been their protectors were, in fact, an occupying force ready and willing to engage in overwhelming force to bend and control them.

Hence the belt-fed machine cannon slung under the Hoplon's arm. A weapon that would have reduced a main battle tank into a glorified cheese grater, was, of course, the perfect peacekeeping tool for a police officer and not at all gross and shameless overkill in every conceivable way.

But, it would serve their purpose well enough. Where these machines had proven far and away but a step away from worthless against the Raptures when piloted by mere humans, it would carry Joe far enough through the hailfire the CG's blackshirts would throw their way in their feeble attempts to defend themselves from their righteous retribution.

"Understood," Joe answered matter-of-factually, adjusting his position in the cockpit of the machine. The Hoplon itself moving with deceptive, almost human-like grace as it adjusted its footing, owing to his man-machine neural interface implant implanted at the base of his head, where the spine met the skull, physically tethering his nervous system into the control systems of the machine - the robot was effectively an extension of his own body while piloting it. A grim necessity for a front line Commander in the war against the Raptures: no sane military would ever deploy unaugmented humans into battle against the Raptures without some form of mechanical support, after all. Even this titan did little beyond mitigate a human's chances of instant death under those conditions, and only because of the sheer increase in traversal adaptability and speed they provided. Never could their chances of death be reduced to anything even approximately approaching zero.

But against weapons meant to be used against other humans? Against bare flesh, perhaps armoured in little more than a centimetre or two of ballistic plates rated for no more than a single bullet? Inches of steel and titanium would make him effectively invulnerable, if only for a short while.

And what few of the otherwise untrusted Nikkes the Central Government would have allowed to protect them over baseline men and women, Red Hood would handle with contemptuous ease.

"Just to reiterate, so we're all on the same page," Red Hood started, turning to face the glowing, slit eyes of the Hoplon towering over her. "No prisoners, all of them die today, yeah?"

"Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself," Joe's voice projected from the bulky machine's speakers, nodding in affirmation once. "As they would destroy Goddess: so too, shall we destroy them in turn."

"Fuckin' A," came the young woman's forceful reply, the reminder of their purpose visibly renewing her fire and anger.

"Anyone that gets in our way, is an enemy of mankind defending those who would compromise the survival of our species for their own short-term gain," Joe declared as the elevator gradually neared the main promenade of the CG HQ. "They have forsaken the purpose of the Ark to instead use it instead as a gilded cage. This alone, would have been enough to earn them righteous damnation…"

"Then, they made it personal when they decided to fuck with our squad," Red Hood snarled, nose wrinkling as she she snarled as a wolf might. "We gut these bastards like fish and hang them up to dry as an example to all would-be-tyrants, then we bring the rest of Goddess down here to fix this shit. Clean up the mess and set it all right."

"Should you succeed at this juncture, I estimate mankind's long-term chances of survival increasing by a factor of no less than twelve times," Enikk asserted. "The Central Government's current planned policies critically diminish the species' survival rates, and will allow the Rapture threat to fester and grow effectively unimpeded. The hydra's head must be decapitated at once, to create an opportunity to remove those allied with the Council's will with minimal danger posed to the Ark's stability as a whole. Furthermore: I will reiterate that all men and women present and accounted for within the confines of the Headquarters have sworn oaths of devotion to the Central Government. For the greater good, you both must assume that any you encounter who present resistance are hostiles and ongoing risks to mankind's ongoing survival."

"Message received," Red Hood darkly replied as she worked the charging handle of her veritable shoulder cannon, loading a round into the chamber as she prepared herself. "I'm ready. How 'bout you?" She asked, turning to face Joe.

In response, as the elevator finally came to a jerking stop, Joe replied, motioning to the opening gates: "Come on. Let's remind these fucks just who it was that won them this Ark in the first fucking place."

The Central Government Headquarters was as lavish and ostentatious, yet soullessly corporate as ever. It was taller, wider, more spacious than it needed to be across the board. So spacious that they wound up having to incorporate one of the military garages' cargo elevators into the fucking thing's design where it wasn't supposed to link directly into the main building before. A testament to the wasteful lack of forethought these fuckers operated with. So large was the interior of the building, that a goddamned battlefield mech intended to be deployed into open fields could comfortably step into and and move around generally unimpeded.

But not so spacious as to allow one to go unnoticed in so doing. The guards wearing those obscenely ostentatious black uniforms with their emblazoned armbands - visual evidence that they were die-hard loyalists - had noticed the machine stepping into the promenade, and were immediately on-edge.

Notably, it was just armed and uniformed men present. No civilians to speak of. All 'non-officials' were required by law to attend the Sealing Celebration - to be proper 'patriots' and celebrate the Central Government's 'glorious victory.' The proceedings of which were being broadcast on the televisions lining the hall.

Joe wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. It would make what came next far easier and cleaner.

"H-hey, the Hell is this?" The nearest man started, well within arm's reach of Joe, jumping in place and staring up at the Hoplon with widened eyes, his peaked cap looking about ready to slip off of his over-greased back hair. "The fuck is going on here!? Identify yourself!"

"General comms are out," Enikk informed Joe. "Electrical blackout to follow shortly…"

Gazing down at the man through the glowering green slits that made this mech's eyes, Joe bid for time by speaking up with a question of his own. "You'd do anything for the Central Government, right, soldier?"

Pausing, the guardsman blinked, cocking his head in some measure of recognition. "...Commander Pholus?" he started, clearly recognizing Joe's voice. "I- yes, of course! The Central Government is justice, it knows what is right, and what is best for all."

"And if the general populace protested the Central Government? If the Central Government commanded you to remove the dissidents?" Joe further asked.

The elite guardsman looked confused, as though he was being asked the most obvious question in the world. "We give terrorists what they deserve. What are you getting at, Commander-" Brows furrowing, he noticed Red Hood standing alongside the Hoplon, and asked, "What the Hell is that thing doing off its leash-?"

At that moment, the Headquarters went dark. Emergency lighting kicking on, barely providing enough dim red light by which to see with the naked eye.

"A power outage?" another guardsman cried out in naked annoyance. "Seriously? First we gotta miss the party, now this-?"

Stepping forth, unimpeded by the dark on account of the Hoplon's night vision systems, Joe just casually remarked to the nearest guard, responded to the casual discrimination towards one of the women that had given him and his ilk a chance of survival, "Well, that makes this next part a lot easier, at least," as the Hoplon's free arm tensed up before it, and lashed out to strike the blackshirt with a terrible backhand - a meaty crash from the nearby wall announcing the man's fate to all.

Scrambling, with startled cries of "traitor!" and "terrorists!" the remaining guardsmen lifted their rifles and opened fire without hesitation, even as Joe levelled the barrel of his auto-cannon on one, firing off a single shot which turned the man into a mess of gore. Red Hood brought Wolf's Bane on target, not even bothering to avoid the rounds fired off her way in a blind panic, responding too with a single report which turned her attacker into a red mist along with a horrible thunderclap; a bullet hole the size of a basketball left in the metal-plated reinforced concrete wall the guard had been standing in front of.

Screams could be heard coming from deeper in the building. Comms and electricity blackout or no - their monstrously over-powered weapons had been heard, and from here on out, it would be a running battle against every individual that took up arms in defence of the treacherous fascists seeking to place all that remained of humanity under their thumb.

Reaching up, the Nikke used her crimson jacket sleeve to wipe away the metallic residue from where a bullet harmlessly struck and deflected off of her cheek. "Best get started for the Council chambers, then," she grimly declared as she marched on, taking the lead as her hair and eyes very literally glowed in the dark like a burning torch.

With thunderous steps which tore up the fine flooring of the promenade, the Hoplon followed shortly behind, striding past the mutilated remains of the CG HQ's front most guards. "And thus, shall we walk the rebel path," Joe declared as he further steeled himself for the bloodshed to come.

"And pay the Devils in charge their due," Red Hood replied, chambering the next round of Wolf's Bane for emphasis as her heels click-clacked onward, bathed in a dark red hue as the building's emergency lights painted their battlefield in a poetically appropriate light for their grim work.

The Central Government had bit the hand. And so, it would receive the stick.

---

Hands firmly set on his forehead, Joe's eyes had gone wide, his breathing uneven and ragged.

"Pholus?" Andersen started with audible worry, leaning forward in his seat. "Joe? What's wrong?"

While Ingrid had risen to her feet and taken a step towards the Commander, Mustang had pivoted in his seat and brought a hand up to lower his aviators, critically staring Joe's way.

After a moment, coming back into the present, Joe's hand slowly traced around his skull, eventually settling on the spot where he had been physically plugged into the Hoplon nearly a hundred years prior… and there, he found skin - but skin that felt wrong. Like scar tissue, a scar he knew didn't belong there, so precisely placed…

"...I remember," Joe declared quietly. "That… my and Red Hood's attack on the Central Government." A declaration which caused Ingrid's eyebrow to quirk noticeably. Meanwhile, Andersen and Mustang each simply looked resigned. "...My implant," he started. "What happened to it?"

There was a beat before Andersen responded. "I had it covered in a layer of pseudoskin, when you were brought out of stasis. Only a precious few people in the Ark are cleared to have Hoplite implants in this day and age… I'd wager that you could guess that you are the reason why."

With a shallow nod, Joe acknowledged the statement.

"Then I'm sure that you understand why it was important for you to not have a visible illegal implant which would have called all sorts of unwanted attention onto you," Andersen added. "You still have it - it's just… inaccessible, for the time being. And no, we won't be able to arrange to have you 'acquire' a Hoplite implant either. Commanders are strictly barred from the means to operate Hoplons. While the Central Government would assert that it's for their own safety, because 'piloting them onto the surface alongside their Nikkes only decreases their chances of survival…' again, I'm sure that you could reasonably surmise that, no, it's actually simply to minimize the potential for any single Commander to get access to significant personal power - again, on account of you."

Jesus fucking Christ.

A few moments passed in silence, and afterwards, Ingrid spoke up. "Pholus, what, exactly, do you 'remember?'"

"The attack Red Hood and I committed on the Central Government Headquarters," Joe elaborated as he leaned forward in his seat, overwhelmed by the influx of information from this memory. "Where I commandeered a Hoplon from the Ark's military garage, and… Enikk actively provided Red Hood and I support in the attempt to kill the Central Government Council, pull out and burn away the fascism at the roots before it could take hold…"

There was a very pregnant pause, and looking up, Joe saw Ingrid, Andersen, and Mustang all staring wide-eyed at him.

"Enikk helped you two!?" Mustang cried out in open shock.

"That… actually explains a lot," Andersen suggested. "God, how bad of a fuck-up was it, to not get them all at the time if Enikk was willing to back that attack, but all of our ongoing plans keep being deemed 'too risky' in the modern day…?'"

Ingrid, meanwhile, reached up and ran a hand through her hair in open shock. "The… the Sealing Day terrorist attack on the Central Government HQ? That attack, the one that the original incarnation of Triangle was formed in response to, that was you and Rapi!?" Stepping back, Ingrid practically fell back into her seat, covering her eyes in naked desperation. "Holy mother of God…"

After a few moments of quiet, Andersen spoke up again. "Pholus, if you can, please, relay how you remember that event to us. We haven't actually had any first-hand perspectives to refer to in this regard - everything we know, we've had to piece together using detective work, effectively."

Taking a few bracing breaths, Joe centred himself, then firstly relayed the opening moments of the assault to his fellow conspirators.

Then, he continued on to the rest of the attack.

 

[Masayume]

Wake up Doro, we got an ark to burn.

 

[JamesAsmodeus]

HOOOOOO, whee! Joe previously had the essential equivalent of a super-soldier implant, one that's meant to give him control of a powered exoskeleton, and gave the CG one hell of a black eye with his past two allies. Of course that's not exactly in effect considering its not active atm, but that's absolutely sick!

 

[Masayume]

Man I am so hyped now to see Joe and Doro's reunion. She would be absolutely desperate to believe he's real, but there is going to be that nagging feeling that what if he's a CG plant sent to finally screw her and Eden once and for all.

I have this image of Joe contemplating of pulling a rebel path 2.0 again but he has shoulder voices this time. Snow white telling him to cut it out its a bad idea on his right shoulder, and Dorothy on his left telling him to kill, rip and tear until its done.

 

[TempestZeta]

Seeing how the chapter started, I cued up some Doom music in anticipation of the slaughter. Unfortunately, we only got the prologue. Hopefully in the future we can get a full on redo with the rest of the Goddesses there to ensure the job gets finished. Thanks for the chapter as always.

 

[Shukkun]

P-P-Poggers

 

[palacesound]

"God, how bad of a fuck-up was it, to not get them all at the time if Enikk was willing to back that attack, but all of our ongoing plans keep being deemed 'too risky' in the modern day…?'"

Click to shrink...

The current plans probably take too long or leave too many loose ends behind, giving them time to fuck humanity completely one last time

 

[EX143]

The current plans probably take too long or leave too many loose ends behind, giving them time to fuck humanity completely one last time

Click to shrink...

I suspect that was the problem with the first attempt. Too many places to run and not enough fire to seal the rats all in.

Sure they got a lot of them, but enough escaped to form the CG to the modern day, and Enikk learned from that mistake.

Doro would probably criticize Joe's attempt and stop him from doing it again... if only to make sure that they got everything lined up properly to do things thoroughly next time

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 36 - Our Crusade
===

Bursts of ultra-violence wrecked the Central Government Headquarters. Perfectly polished marble floors and walls, rent, shattered, burned and pocked. Skilfully upholstered furniture blown apart, the shredded fabric stained red and embedded with fragments of bone. A lone Hoplon and Grimms Nikke left a terrible trail of destruction in their frenzied rampage.

The lumbering machine was littered with dents, tears, and gouges. The evidence of far more Nikkes than had been expected guarding the CG's Council, those who could not attack Joe directly, but sure as shit could attack the armour he was encased in. Reaching up, the Hoplon's great mechanical hand latched onto a Mass-Produced Nikke that had been attempting to tear the machine's head from its core with her bare hands, and flung her bodily onto the floor at his feet.

Not missing a beat, he brought the foot up, and before she could react, brought it down upon her midsection.

Torso flattened in a sickening display of shredded but no less real-looking artificial flesh and the metallic skeletal systems within, the MP momentarily screamed in agony before falling silent, left where she had been crushed underfoot. Injured, likely traumatized - but alive. A Nikke could, and likely would survive being reduced to a disembodied brain. Joe hated being forced to brutalize these girls, hated even more that not all could be spared without risking himself and Red Hood before their mission was done… but such was the cost of walking the rebel path.

"Commander," Enikk started through their comms, "You are coming upon the Council Chambers - I am injecting targeting data for your Hoplon so that your machine's systems will register them as hostiles. I would advise that you share this data with Red Hood."

Wasting no time, Joe did so at the speed of thought: his Hoplite implant allowing him to engage with the machine's operating system and hardware using nothing but his capacity to think.

"Got it," Red Hood declared as she drove her hand into another looming emergency bulkhead - titanic blast doors built to tank anti-material rounds and armour-piercing explosives. Fingers penetrating the metal nearly a foot in its depth with ease, she started dragging the entire thing open as though it were little more than a stubborn sliding door. This despite her diminutive size when compared to the slab of metal blocking off a hallway wide enough to drive a tank through.

Screaming in metallic protest, the blast door gave way inch by inch, even as Joe stood sentry over the way they'd come. A stun grenade bounced around the distant corner, and Joe readied his Hoplon's autocannon. The machine's anti-flash systems negated the need to so much as shield the armour's eyes, simply tanking the burst in the second before more Nikkes spilled into the passageway, raising their weapons and moving to shoot past the Hoplon and at Red Hood.

Step-jumping to place himself between the CG Nikkes and Red Hood, the Hoplon dropped to a knee to shield her - the shots immediately going wild and glancing off the extremes of the machine's form at this distance. They knew there was a human at the controls of the armour, and thus couldn't deliberately aim for the centre of mass and risk hitting the pilot within.

Then, because of course, the Commander of that squad rounded the corner himself - blue in the face, chest puffed out with his loyalist uniform on full display, he started barking orders without a moment of hesitation.

Neither did Joe, simply setting the crosshairs of his cannon on the man - the turncoat, the traitor to mankind, and pulling the trigger once.

The Nikkes under his command all froze, heads snapping around to look back over their shoulders at the mutilated figure that fell to the ground behind them, all shocked still. Somehow, none of them, least of all the man himself, had expected the squad's Commander to be targeted.

The Central Government, evidently, was selecting for loyalty above wisdom and intelligence.

Still… Joe was doing his damned best to focus, to be decisive, merciless. Yet… he hesitated, seeing what was left of his fellow Commander fall to the ground so unceremoniously. Images of himself and the girls being put front-and-centre in parades celebrating the first victories mankind had ever achieved against the Rapture threat came to mind unheeded. Being hailed as the saviours of humanity, seeing children, boys and girls staring up at them in open wonder - the girls doubtlessly wishing in those moments to become Goddesses of Victory themselves, seeing the greatest of heroes to have ever walked Earth's surface, walking so tall, so proud; the boys surely gazing upon Andersen and Joe himself as a shared ideal to one day achieve themselves, hoping to become legendary Commanders that led Nikkes into victory one day too.

They were supposed to be heroes - yet here, Joe had taken a dozen human lives himself, and Red Hood no less in turn.

They-

As the hostile Nikkes recovered and refocused, immediately moving to focus fire on the Hoplon, a series of heavy thumps from behind shook Joe from his stupor. Red Hood opened fire with Wolf's Bane, dropping three Nikkes in rapid succession before Joe returned fire at the MP's himself, shredding the remainder of the squad with sustained cannonfire that took several long seconds to drop the augmented women; their bodies having been hardened and built to combat Raptures, as they were.

In the moments of silence that followed, Joe was startled by a heavy metallic 'clang' and a minor impact alert. Red Hood had kicked the leg of the Hoplon and was glowering up at it-

"It's bad enough that you're useless against Raptures, damn it!" the red-clad Nikke snarled at him, visibly infuriated. "Now, of all times, you're gonna just stand there and stare with your mouth hanging open, you fake-ass backwoods rube!?" Loading a fresh magazine into Wolf's Bane, she racked the bolt with no small amount of authority - "This is my last mag, that means I have exactly ten shots left! You get it!? You're the one with a machine gun, not me! So get off your ass and pull your own god damned weight for once! Least of all now, when everyone is depending on us!"

…She wasn't wrong. On all counts, she wasn't wrong.

"The Ark Central Police Unit are minutes away from breaching the building's defences with a unit of Anti-Riot Hoplites of their own," Enikk interjected forcefully. "You have minutes to finish the mission and avert mankind's rapidly encroaching extinction. Both of you must go, now."

Latching onto the declaration, Joe hyper-focused on the necessity of their objective, on the sheer gravity of the cost of failure. Goddess was meant to fight Raptures, not their fellow man. But…

Joe didn't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it was just a chore, like any other. What had to be done, had to be done. Not just for Goddess, but for the sake of all mankind.

Thus, he grit his teeth, and would bare it as he and Red Hood redlined it. The pair forced their way through the partially-opened blast door and charged down the cavernous halls lit only by dim red emergency lights at a full tilt with a cacophonous rancour.

The minutes that passed did so as a terrible blur of yet more explosive violence. Many more humans, many more Nikkes fell. The Commander of Goddess, and the Red Hood pressed on like a wrecking ball rolling downhill.

Shortly, they'd reached the Council Chambers. Mercilessly, without fanfare, without an utterance to any of the lot, they slaughtered the fascist Councilmen who would have seen Goddess butchered that had remained there for whatever reason they had chosen to. Sixty percent of the fascist government's leadership gone, in one fell, bloody, savage swoop. With still no fanfare, Enikk provided the pair with the most likely location where the rest would be hidden - a hardened panic room recessed into the bedrock of the Ark's foundations beneath a hidden door there in that same chamber; one which Enikk was able to easily override the security lockdown on with a hardline connection through the Hoplon.

As the final gate opened, Joe and Red Hood stood ready, almost all they had expended, the Hoplon limping along, but two rounds remaining in Wolf's Bane…

With the ACPU having breached the building, with the severity of the damage they'd already done, with how they planned on capping this all off… there was a very real chance the Ark in general might not consider them heroes. That this would be seen as an unforgivable crime. This could well be their last stand, their final battle.

"Little Red-" Joe started warily with that nickname she was once so fond of.

"Shut up," the Nikke literally aglow with overwhelming power forcefully interjected, however. "Just shut up and do your job yourself, for once."

…As unpleasant as it was to have it hammered home that he and Red Hood simply weren't friends anymore, even despite all this… it was neither the time, nor place. With a pained sigh, he'd just have to hope that there would be another time.

All there was to do was keep focused, and end it.

The Central Government's most elite security had been waiting, braced and ready on the other side. Despite having Nikkes of their own among their ranks, they had never anticipated facing down a rogue Grimms model. It was violent, it was messy. Arms, some guns, some limbs, went flying, scattered all over the final bunker. The HQ still bathed in that fel red emergency lighting, Joe hardened his heart to the pleas of those who had directly informed him of their intent to slaughter those girls he cherished as if they weren't heroes, as if they weren't people. He ignored their cries, their furious bellows, their screams and curses as he, one-by-one, went down the line. Some a single shot, others a burst to account for their attempt to take cover behind something, but each perished as easily as any mere human could be expected to. Heart pounding like a wardrum, Joe did his wretched chore, his terrible duty.

Pressing on, counting down, Enikk reported that only five of the Central Government's fascist Councilmen remained. And thus, as Red Hood finished off the last of their guards, Joe turned to scan for those yet hiding-

At that moment, a terrible reminder was levelled Joe's way. That when pressed into a corner, when presented with no possible outs, even the most cowardly, most docile of beasts would be pushed to lash out in sheer, unthinking desperation, if nothing else. The Hoplon's autocannon had not been facing the Councilman that had hefted a rifle meant for Nikkes at the machine's centre of mass, and so he wasn't quick enough to bring it around before the trigger was pulled by an individual with none of the programmed inability to deliberately harm a human being.

A scream of steel sounded out, a hole punched through the Hoplon's damaged, worn-down armour. The bullet slowed, but not stopped. Joe's vision blurred at once, the mech stumbled back as the pilot's own nervous system momentarily went haywire from sensory overload. The machine crashed into a wall as Joe saw stars, felt intense, warm moisture rapidly wetting his waist and midsection, the breath shot from his lungs as his body locked up.

A scream fought to escape his maw, but it couldn't. All he could do was stare forward; blankly, even as the taste of iron rapidly filled his mouth. Everything became muted. Sounds, colours, sensations - even the horrific pain that had stunned him rapidly dulled and faded. Yet… still, for what felt like hours, or maybe only seconds, Joe lay in silence. Alarms blaring in his ears, the wet gurgling from his own lips going unheard.

He'd been shot with a Nikke-grade firearm.

Ah. That wasn't good. That was actually pretty bad. Or, really, really bad.

He hadn't thought to bring a medkit. Red Hood probably didn't have one either. Would a medkit even be enough for something like this? Those guns were meant to be used on Raptures. Joe hadn't looked at the wound. Couldn't seem to either. Couldn't really tell what was happening in general… could only kind of see out of one eye. Was his face pressed up against something-?

With a tearing crash, his vision suddenly cleared with a harsh snap as the cable connecting him to the machine popped free from his implant upon reaching the end of its length. Red Hood caught the man as he tumbled from the ripped open cockpit of the Hoplon, a torrent of blood spilling out and splashing on the ruined floor of the building as she did so.

Rapidly, he was reoriented, and, still staring forward blankly, barely registered that the Nikke was coated in a layer of gore she hadn't been before.

This sensation seemed vaguely familiar. He must have been in shock. Aware, barely, but not much else.

Red Hood… her wild, long hair had returned to its natural strawberry blonde hue. Her eyes that dull shade of crimson they held when her Exceed was inactive. She was cradling him, her lips moving, face contorted into… Pain? Agony? Regret? Some distant part of Joe's consciousness barely registered that she was begging something of him. But everything was… going away so quickly, the blur got worse, what little red light bathed their surroundings fading as he watched her, uncomprehending.

Red Hood, despite her cruel words for so long, drew him in tightly. She was hugging Joe, the faint sensation of moisture building on his face as she pressed her cheek into his, pleading with him. He couldn't tell what the pleas were supposed to be, though.

As everything slipped away, a single certainty remained with Joe: desperately, so terribly desperately… He did not wish to leave his girls alone. Regardless of how worthy he really was of their adoration at the end of it all, how truly worthy he was of standing amongst them… He still wished to keep standing with them. Supporting them. Being there for them… Yet here… he was leaving them behind. At the end of it all, he'd failed them.

And even more, he could see the blurred forms of more Hoplons approaching from among the wreckage they'd left in their wake. Here, and now, he'd left Red Hood to face the Ark's Central Police Unit, and likely even the regular Army, alone, unarmed.

Joe's bloodied lips parted as he uttered, a single, pained, partial sentence, so faint, so weak as even the red light went away, that it had almost gone unnoticed by the woman so desperately cradling him as they were advanced upon.

"...I'm… Sorry…"

Red Hood went as still as a statue, fingers entangled with her Commander's limp, clammy hand, clinging to him as if for dear life. She heard his last words.

"...My Goddess… of… Victory…"

And with that final, fleeting breath, in the wake of one last terrible, needlessly cruel mistake which could never be amended…

The last of the Red faded.

 

[Dasneaky]

Nice

 

[Masayume]

Ah shit, no wonder she rampaged and mindswitched.

 

[TheScottishlad]

Damn, that was enlightening but heartbreaking at the same time, but it raises questions and assumptions. Firstly, what happened to make their relationship break way in such a venemous fashion? I get Red Hood was dealing with the corruption, but she never seemed so vicious due to it in the game. Maybe whatever programming the raptures have and is thus corrupting Red Hood has is instilling a hatred of Humanity in her? But that feels like a cop-out answer. It also makes me wonder what their relationship was exactly. The way this portrays the two...it kinda feels like a parent/child relationship or a sibling-esque one. I could just be reading this wrong and Red Hood does love him in a romantic fashion but idk, thats what felt implied to me. I could say that relationship is inferred for pretty much all of Goddess Squad at this point besides Lilith though so maybe its moot

 

[Jekyll]

Oh jeez, that definitely explains the mind switch. Given how the chapter ended, it'd be more shocking if she hadn't experienced a mind switch in that situation. Losing someone close to you, even if you weren't on good standing at the moment, already hurts normally. Losing them like that is bound to be deeply painful. Waking Red Hood back up in Rappi is going to either end really well or really badly.

 

[Slamm-O]

He lived for his crusade, he died for his comrades.

Still if the regret and rage pushed red hood to rampage and mind switch it makes sense.

 

[JamesAsmodeus]

Man, WHAT an ENDING. While they might not have been close at that moment sadly, there is no way that Red didn't feel something when Joe seemingly "died" at that moment. I don't think the relationship between them has been too clear from my perspective (I might be dumb, ngl), but it was definitely close enough. Those parting words likely lit a fire under her at that time, thus leading to the end result we have today. What made their bond turn sour, more likely on Red's end, is up in the air for now.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 37 - The Steep Path Ahead
===

The room was completely silent, Andersen, Mustang, and Ingrid all staring wordlessly at Joe even as he finished. The quiet was allowed to reign for a long few moments after that, but eventually, Andersen broke it.

"So, it was you, not Red Hood, that removed most of the Council from power back then…" the Deputy Chief Commander noted. "I… must admit, I wasn't expecting that."

In response, Joe just looked at the hand with which he'd pulled the trigger. To his recollection, it had been easier than he'd expected. But, he'd been given all the reason in the world on top of being hot-blooded. He knew that he was the sort that could and would act before his thoughts caught up to him under the right circumstances. And, in this case, it seemed that he'd never received the chance to be hit by the emotional whiplash of his actions in the first place.

Even now, he felt… disconnected from these memories, despite knowing they were his, that it was him that had done that. Lucky him, he supposed.

"...Considering Red Hood apparently immediately suffered her Mind Switch and went on a rampage right after I lost consciousness…" Joe started, looking up to meet Andersen's gaze. "Who was it that got me to 'stasis?' You or Mustang, I take it?"

"Non," Mustang denied the question. "You disparu into air raréfié."

Joe blinked and took a moment to process that assertion. "Wait… what?" he asked, looking between his two fellow men with deeply confused eyes.

It was Andersen that answered him. "Mustang was at the Sealing Day Celebration. While I was… recovering," the grizzled figure noted with some wariness. "As far as either of us knew, Joe, you literally disappeared that day. Frankly, I had assumed that your body had been incinerated and your ashes unceremoniously dumped into what would eventually become the Outer Rim. That way, what remained of the Council could take advantage of your legend, without the inconvenient truth of your actions getting in the way of their propaganda."

That… "But, who the hell put me in stasis then!?" Joe asked, openly confused.

"It goes without saying that it was Enikk that did it," Ingrid interjected from her seat, still as rigidly professional as she was before. "We don't know how, and we don't have actual confirmation from her directly, but we'd have to be idiots to think that she hadn't arranged for it in some capacity."

"Which is backed up by the fact that it was her that alerted me to your survival, that day you just…" Andersen lifted his hands, and made a 'poofing' motion with both. "Manifested in that hospital, in the very same condition you'd been in when Red Hood left you on the floor of that bunker, as though close to a century hadn't passed. I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack in a dream as I rushed to you… because to me, you'd been dead and gone for longer than most people get to live to begin with."

"We each had affligé you a long, long time ago," Mustang added to Andersen's point. "To us… you were a lointain souvenir, up until that moment when you simply… revenu."

After a moment of stunned silence, Joe replied, "...Enikk hadn't told either of you that I was alive this entire fucking time!?"

"Non."

"She did not."

What in the fuck.

"In fairness," Ingrid started up, "from what I'm gathering, Enikk considered keeping your survival a secret of paramount importance. The fewer people that know you were sealed away, waiting for the right time to be brought back, the less likely it was that you'd be found by someone who we wouldn't want finding you."

"That was my thought too," Andersen nodded his head in agreement with Ingrid's assessment. "While I don't appreciate that we were allowed to mourn you for nearly a century… I can't argue with the fact that Enikk might've made the right call, given that despite having been brought to the current Council's attention several times since you were pulled out of stasis… nobody in the Central Government today, aside from myself, recognizes you. You were gone long enough for your face and name to fade from the CG's collective consciousness, which is very much to our benefit."

"Okay… bullshit," Joe cut in, brow downturning as he openly glowered in disbelief. "Don't give me that bullshit about Central not recognizing me! Five survived Red Hood and I's attack! They wouldn't-"

"Three," Ingrid cut him off. "Three Councilmen survived your attack, Pholus. And only because they had actually been attending the Sealing Day Celebrations and so weren't even in the building when you and Red Hood kicked in the front door. And she tore the last two in the bunker who you hadn't killed yourself apart with her bare hands after you were shot."

"And the three that were left were disappeared in a quiet internal coup about three months after your attack anyways," Andersen noted. "At least… if I'm remembering correctly?"

"I crois they were gone au moins three months later," Mustang noted. "That was about the time I myself noticed that they'd been quietly remplacé and had disparu from all records. Ultimately, regardless, none who were directly responsible for the betrayal of Goddess survécu to the modern day, mon ami."

There was a long pause before Joe looked around, appearing as though he'd been slapped with a fish, and cried out, "Then what the fuck!?" he cast his arms out wide. "If they were all dead so soon afterwards anyways… Why is the Ark in the state it's in today!? Why does it seem like Red Hood and I just deadass failed!?"

Ingrid, Andersen, and Mustang all stared at Joe very quietly, each wearing some manner of dubious expression on their faces.

"Pholus," it was Ingrid that spoke up first. "From what I understand, at the time, the Central Government was gearing up to line the streets with what were basically their own personal Gestapo, backed with military hardware and mechanized armour. All subjects of the Government expected to project an air of unfettered patriotism lest they be declared 'enemies of the Ark' and made examples of."

"How many Hoplons have you seen in the des rues of the Ark, Joe?" Mustang inquired of the man. "How many men and women in service have you seen wearing those misérable loyalist uniforms since you awoke in the hospital?"

That…

…

Wait, holy shit, wait a minute, they were right! The Ark's cops… just looked like regular beat cops, boys in blue, occasionally wearing stab vests and carrying basic pistols on their hips! Not the police state blackshirt motherfuckers that he and Red Hood had to fight through to get to the Council back then! Hell, Joe hadn't even noticed anything, the ACPU's constables were so ordinary that it hadn't registered to him in the first place.

"You did not stop fascism from taking hold, Joe," Andersen began as well. "But you damn well stopped the absolute worst form of it from dooming mankind within a decade of the Ark's sealing."

At that, Joe recoiled as if struck.

"We've all had chances to speak directly with Enikk, Pholus," Ingrid said. "She will freely provide her ongoing estimates for mankind's long-term survival, and her historic estimates at that upon request from anyone with high enough clearance to hear them. At the time of your attack, had the Council not been decimated and replaced with far more moderate Councillors, Enikk gave the Ark a decade to survive, at the absolute most. The state of the Ark now may seem horrible to you, but this is, by all accounts, the best case scenario we could have hoped for given the circumstances."

That… that was dark. Holy shit.

"Furthermore," Andersen continued as he adjusted his cuffs. "While it disrupted the long-term plans Mustang and I were formulating, it did eventually open up new avenues that I must admit, have given us far more to work with than we'd have otherwise. Case-in-point: the fact that I am among the highest ranking members of the Ark's Armed Forces, with all the insight and influence that comes with that fact. And I barely had to change my identity to do so."

Joe blinked, only now registering that, yeah, Andersen, who had been the High Commander of Goddess during the Initial Rapture Invasion, had somehow slipped under the radar enough to become what was basically a General in the Central Government's Army. That… that was encouraging, if nothing else. Though… "What about your identity did you have to change?"

"My name, and how I presented myself, mostly," Andersen shrugged. "But even then…"

"Oh, this is going to bouleversé you, Joe!" Mustang cried out in delight.

At that, the displaced Canadian just gave a wary look of anticipation.

"My real name is John Andersen-" the Deputy Chief Commander began-

"-Oh you've got to be shitting me…!" Ingrid immediately looked downright furious as she buried her face in a single hand.

"-My name as a Deputy Chief Commander of the Central Government's Armed Forces, is Andersen Johnson."

There was a long pause in which Joe just silently stared at Andersen, during which Ingrid was audibly engaging in breathing exercises to keep her cool.

"...You're kidding, right?" Joe asked tonelessly.

"No," Andersen stated bluntly. "As a reminder, you have been serving using your real name, full-stop. The CG's campaign to erase and suppress as much information about Goddess as was possible after all that business with The New Hope did wonders to cause the current CG to forget what either of us look like, and even our names."

"The New Hope?" Joe asked, the term unsurprisingly catching his ear.

"'The Second Coming of The Legendary Commander,'" Ingrid answered. "He was a Commander that erupted into the Commander Corps, rocketed upwards, and actually managed to enact some reforms in the way the CC operated - yes, they were even worse than they are now back then - he attributed many of his tactics, ideas, and methodology to - well, you," the CEO said, still slumped back in her seat as she was. "He spearheaded the Second Surface Reclamation Campaign. He was ultimately tried for treason in the midst of this, executed, and in the aftermath, all information on Goddess, yourself included, was suppressed. Sometimes violently. Hence Andersen having been able to enlist unnoticed after that, and yourself to operate as an 'unknown' Commander in the modern day."

"You will likely be shocked to learn that, based upon the information I was able to unearth since I joined the Commander Corps myself," Andersen started, adjusting his tie as he did so. "He was framed, both to rid the Central Government of a very real threat to their power, and to scapegoat someone other than themselves for the campaign's utter failure."

"You're right, I am shocked," Joe declared utterly emotionlessly, face completely blank at this casual revelation of the CG's treachery.

"Regardless," Andersen continued. "At that point, the Central Government decided that it had become dangerous to allow information on Goddess - on us - to remain in open circulation, given how powerful and influential The New Hope had ultimately become before he was murdered, and how heavily he placed his achievements on having had access to records of you. Consequently… all of us, Goddess, were erased from public record, and over time, my theory is now that Enikk destroyed all internal information on us as well, given how the CG would have been moronic beyond belief to scrub that information themselves…"

"I don't know, given all that we know about the CG at this point…" Ingrid looked deeply unimpressed, not putting such idiocy past the Government at this point. Joe kind of agreed with her, personally.

After a few moments of silence, Joe noted how the conversation had started to lose focus, and at this point, they'd sort of gotten lost in the sauce, so to speak. As interested as he was in this guy that was apparently his 'Second Coming,' it would probably be best to focus on the here and now. "...Okay, but, all that aside… what's next? What's the plan for our next move?" the long-haired man asked, looking between everyone present.

"Currently?" Andersen allowed the topic to shift without issue. "We make contact with Snow White. We're closely monitoring reports from units stationed on the surface, long-term and otherwise. In retrospect, the 'White Pilgrim' whose appearance has been periodically reported on the surface is her - meaning that it's only a matter of time before someone spots and reports her. The moment we receive a report on her location, we'll be deploying Counters to track her down."

"And we do mean the moment," Ingrid interjected. "Consider yourself on call. Catching her means acting as soon as she's spotted, day or night. Understood?"

There was a beat before Joe reached up, making a halting motion at the two. "-Hold up. We just went over how Rapi might experience a Mind Switch if she's confronted with the truth of who she is-"

"That's a risk we have to take," Ingrid declared. "It's unfortunate, but we aren't deploying you without your most powerful subordinate, or worse yet, alone, just to minimize Counters' potential exposure to Goddess and this conspiracy. Frankly, I'm of the opinion that Rapi should have been here and brought up to speed at the same time as you, because if she doesn't learn of it here, she'll learn of it in the field, while likely being overwhelmed by her former squadmate. Which would be exponentially more risky than learning here in a controlled environment."

"...Ingrid has a point, ultimately," Andersen agreed, however warily. "I'm not sure about ambushing her as a group… but, regardless, I think we should leave this up to you, Joe. Talk to Rapi, try to ease her into the matter. Get it done before we have to deploy Counters in pursuit of Snow White. Understood?"

There was a beat before Joe responded, more than a little uncertain. "If we get sent out to track down Snow White… we're just… exposing Anis and Neon to all of this?" he inquired.

"Oui," Mustang nodded once, arms crossed melodramatically over his chest. "However, I might recommander that you let those two learn of this in the field. They will not undergo a Mind Switch for learning the truth of your circonstances - and I would not expect them to croire a word of the truth without the word of a member of Goddess backing it up. En plus, I don't think any of us wish to waste our time attempting to convaincre those two ahead of time, when he could simply confirm everything after the fact."

…Considering how bad she was about the danger they usually faced already, Anis was going to be fucking insufferable after this, Joe realised as he leaned on his knees and buried his face in his hands.

"Additionally, given the context of how you encountered Snow White initially," Ingrid piped up from her seat. "We're assuming that you will run into Chatterbox again. Given how cartoonishly ill-equipped both Counters and Wardress had turned out to be for that thing, I'm officially designating Counters as an Elysion Tyrant Breaker unit; meaning that your team will be qualified to use Elysion-produced heavy weaponry from now on. This'll also make it easier for Counters to be designated a Commando unit in time, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and keep focused. I'll forward you a catalogue after this - and to note: typical manufacturer restrictions won't apply to the squad from here on out. Anis and the Tetra Line Nikkes will be cleared to use Elysion equipment from now on as well."

"Oh thank fucking Christ!" Joe made no attempt to mask his overwhelming glee at that statement. "Logistical sanity! Logistical fucking sanity! Praise be to the Lord!" he cheered to the Heavens, arms stretched upwards.

"-Furthermore," Ingrid continued, smirking at Joe's rapturous glee. "Arrange to have the weapons currently issued to the MP's in Counters sent to Elysion: we'll rechamber and refit them to accept Elysion-produced ammunition and standard Elysion-spec magazines to further simplify your supply chains without necessitating the arduous process of retraining the MP's on a wildly different manual of arms compared to what they're used to. This extends to Anis' launcher. She and Rapi will be able to share grenades from now on, and to note: Rapi will be up-sizing, rather than down-sizing the explosives Anis has been using up to this point."

Joe could damn near fucking cry. He'd looked into the types of ammo Tetra Line firearms used - they were exclusively loaded with weirdo specialized Wildcat cartridges, 'Wildcat' denoting custom rounds that were expensive to produce compared to regular military-grade cartridges. They actually usually outperformed standard Elysion rounds for things like sniping on account of being hyper-specialized compared to the more general-purpose applications of Elysion loads… but they ranged from wasteful overkill to just being grossly misapplied for general usage, to say nothing of being significantly more expensive to produce.

It became nightmarish when one realized that they loaded standard Tetra Line automatics exclusively with Wildcat cartridges too.

If Counters was ever assigned permanent snipers, maybe even designated marksmen, he'd seek to exclusively equip them with high-powered Tetra Line Wildcat loads specifically because that'd overdrive their performance in their sharpshooting roles, with their per-shot application justifying the cost of issuing such rounds in the first place…

But Joe did not want to have to deal with Sunny's assault rifle hungrily demanding what he was pretty sure was some kind of psychotic necked-down developmental descendant of .50 Beowulf if he didn't have to.

"Furthermore, Counters will be issued Ultra rounds for this operation," Ingrid continued. "Think of them as Magnum loads for Elysion cartridges, intended specifically to be used on Tyrants. They'll work on standard Raptures too, but that would be wasteful overkill, as you might imagine. Especially given that they're on average even more expensive than Tetra Line's Wildcat loads. Expect them to even the odds against Chatterbox exponentially if you encounter it, at any rate."

"...You're really going all-out on this mission," Joe noted warily, almost feeling like he was experiencing suspicious pre-boss encounter generosity.

"We're aiming to recruit another Grimms Nikke with this," Ingrid declared matter-of-factually. "If you wind up losing literally every single piece of specialized equipment I assigned completing your ultimate objective, the price will have been worth the cost by several hundred magnitudes."

"We won't be able to bring Snow White 'home,' so to speak," Andersen started, shifting in his seat as he did so. "But, we'll be able to establish communication with her, plan with her, and provide her daily support she likely hasn't had on the surface for an entire century up to this point. In turn, we'll likely have to fight to convince her to not muscle her way in on every deployment Counters is sent on. Being able to call on her… will help. Exponentially. Especially given that she was the general engineer of Goddess. It was her that maintained herself and her fellow Grimms models throughout the Initial Rapture Invasion. Where the Central Government is a sad shadow of the UFH's R&D, Snow White just may be able to give Rapi the proper maintenance she's been denied since the Ark was sealed and allow her to safely utilize the Exceed system again."

"Or, au moins," Mustang interjected, "Our little Snowflake will be able to sand off the burrs little Rapi's edge has développée, if not return her to the former gloire of Red Hood in whole."

"...Yeah, holy shit, this is a pretty big deal," Joe cupped his bearded chin thoughtfully. "Okay, so… will I be bringing the MP's on this operation?"

"I'd advise against it, just now," Ingrid declared. "I'm sure Mustang would assert they can be trusted with anything-"

"Mes filles can be trusted!" Mustang interrupted in an offended protest.

"-But they've just met you," Ingrid ignored the golden CEO's complaint. "Rapi, Neon, and Anis geared for anti-Tyrant combat should be enough to at least deter Chatterbox, if you encounter it alongside Snow White at the same time. We'd love to deploy everything, up to and including Absolute to support you on this, but the less chances for security leaks, the better."

"On that matter, we aren't sure where Snow White will pop up," Andersen added with a nod of his head. "But according to most recent reports, estimates place her as moving in the direction of the Yukon. The Northern Base has been placed on alert to keep an eye out for any signs of 'The White Pilgrim,' but that's where she may wind up. Regardless, I'd advise that you requisition Arctic weather gear just in case, considering the extreme colds that occur up there these days. You grew up in the far North yourself, so I'd expect you to know better how to equip yourself for that than any other living human would these days."

Nodding, Joe paused at the mention of the Yukon. That… "...Hey," he started. "Where is the Ark located anyways?" he asked.

At that, Ingrid blinked owlishly. "You don't-?" the white-clad brunette started before catching herself and letting out a sigh. "Western Canada. Coastal British Columbia, not far from Vancouver."

…Joe had sincerely not expected to learn that they had been in Canada this entire time. If anything, he'd expected the United States. "I see," he nodded. "Okay, well, that'll be… weird, if we wind up deployed up there."

"A familiar environment will probably throw you for a bit of a loop, all things considered, yeah," Andersen nodded in understanding. "Don't let it get to you, though. You'll need to be at one-hundred percent if Chatterbox is nearby. And this is all assuming Snow White doesn't actually turn up in Washington, or that she'll leave B.C. in the first place. Just keep focused on the mission. Alright?"

Taking a deep breath, Joe nodded. "Got it, yeah," he nervously rubbed at the back of his neck. "Well… is there anything else to cover for now?"

"No," Andersen declared simply. "Beyond a suggestion from me, as someone that knew you well: go for a long walk around the Ark before you head back for the Outpost. Knowing you, you're compartmentalizing that memory of you and Red Hood to fixate on your job right now. You were always really good at that, up until you couldn't distract yourself anymore. Work off some of the tension you doubtlessly don't realize you've built up. Tire yourself out, then head back. Going for walks always did wonders for helping you clear your head."

…That was a really good point. "...Yeah, I'll do that," Joe acknowledged the suggestion with little aplomb. "Otherwise, we're done here?"

"I'll message you reminders of everything you should get done before you need to deploy," Ingrid declared. "I'm fairly sure we've covered everything that needs to be covered right now, that aside."

"In that case…" Mustang started as he rose to his feet, reached back, and slapped the massive tail-thing that might've been meant to evoke a bumblebee's rear, suddenly causing… Music to erupt from the man's presence. "I shall take mon congé and return to mes fonctions for the time being! It was magnifique to speak to you again, mon ami! Text me on blabla should ever you find something Tetra Line may help you with in vos efforts!" Prancing to the main door, Mustang bowed to the other three. "With the conclusion of our meeting, I bid you all, adieu!"

The hallway door opened, and just like that, the overwhelming presence of Mustang was gone. The door automatically closed and locked itself behind him, indicating that the office was still secure, as it were.

Joe honestly wasn't even shaken at this point.

After a moment, Ingrid spoke up again. "You go ahead, Pholus. I want to discuss a few things with Andersen while we have the time to spare."

Not finding any reason to protest, Joe rose to his feet, feeling his chronological age as he did so, and let out a heavy sigh once he was standing straight again. "I'll leave you to it, then," he declared, about-facing and moving for the hallway door himself.

"Take it easy, Joe," Andersen called out as he left, a degree of familiarity which… was apparently warranted from the man, all things considered. Joe just waved back in acknowledgement before he was out the door, standing in the spacious hallway.

He took a good minute to just breathe and re-centre himself. There was still a lot on his plate to address before readying to deploy once more, and bringing Rapi up to speed on… well, her identity counted among those things.

"If it's not one thing, it's another," the long-haired brunet mused with a bone-deep breath, ambling down the hallways he'd once rampaged through with his hands deposited into his pockets. "Such is life, on this bitch of an Earth…"

 

[AldariSiradla]

And so the Conspiracy is born anew.
A plan is in motion...
And recruitment will be underway.
Godspeed, Commander, may you usher in Freedom once more.
May Victory be ever ours.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

...Doro Doro plotting intensifies.

 

[Lost4rt]

He was ultimately tried for treason in the midst of this, executed, and in the aftermath,

Click to shrink...

That guy's still alive right? Or is this another change?

 

[Ace of Scarabs]

That guy's still alive right? Or is this another change?

Click to shrink...

In the original game timeline, Johan 'New Hope' Cross was imprisoned and "died" in an escape attempt, making it to the surface and defecting to Eden, where he serves as the human commander attached to Inherit.

In this story's altered timeline? It's very likely he's done the same thing as before, unless the Central Government learnt from Joe and made sure that Johan died for real. (Enikk might still fake his actual death and spirit him away to where he ends up defecting to Inherit though).

 

[JamesAsmodeus]

"We've all had chances to speak directly with Enikk, Pholus," Ingrid said. "She will freely provide her ongoing estimates for mankind's long-term survival, and her historic estimates at that upon request from anyone with high enough clearance to hear them. At the time of your attack, had the Council not been decimated and replaced with far more moderate Councillors, Enikk gave the Ark a decade to survive, at the absolute most. The state of the Ark now may seem horrible to you, but this is, by all accounts, the best case scenario we could have hoped for given the circumstances."

Click to shrink...

THIS was the best case scenario?????

Jesus, it could have been turned into something straight out of Wolfenstein or Warhammer 40k if Joe and Red Hood hadn't ultimately destroyed the previous force from ever taking up the post. Quite lucky that the last Council ultimately died. And now, our guy and his crew is going to need to restart the revolution once more. This time, much more of a rampage. It's going to take some work and a little bit of elbow grease, but hey. Joe can start a miracle once more. Doro's going to be 100% following her Commander's lead once we get to that part, hopefully.

 

[Slamm-O]

Well looks like some questions were answered but others are left.

 

[Stove]

Ah shit, I'm like seven drawings behind on this version of the thread, whoops!

here, have some rapunzel as i reflect on my actions

 

[Xenoxn]

In this story's altered timeline? It's very likely he's done the same thing as before, unless the Central Government learnt from Joe and made sure that Johan died for real. (Enikk might still fake his actual death and spirit him away to where he ends up defecting to Inherit though).

Click to shrink...

Dorothy mentions him in chapter 32, so he's alive.