WAR FOR THE GRAIL - Part 1: World Of Origin

[-Desert-]

^Count me in for Latooni's plan (might become the first unanimous decision!)

[Ristyo]

Latooni's plan sound good.

[Anna]

Well, looks like it's a unanimous vote, then!

*********

I look around the landscape. It's nothing but sand in every direction, but if Assassin says there's a bunker beneath us, I believe her.

"Can you get us inside?" I ask, "Quietly?"

Assassin tilts her head towards me, placing her hands on her hips, her glowing eyes behind that skull mask narrowing their focus, "Can I get us inside? Really? I'm the greatest thief to have ever lived. Of course I can get us inside."

She shakes her head and makes a noise of exasperation, holding out a hand. A holographic image appeared, a display of the complex apparently beneath us, "I've already hacked their systems." She says, staring at me pointedly, "They've disabled all the surveillance and security systems, probably predicting that I'd be able to use them against them. At least they don't question my abilities."

"I wasn't questioning your ability, I ju-"

"You just don't want to make any assumptions. Sure, I get that." Assassin says, "But if you want to know if I can get into somewhere, silently and undetected, the answer is always 'yes, effortlessly'."

I say nothing for a moment, giving a small nod in response finally and turning my attention to the holographic display, "Understood. I won't question your abilities in that regard. If you say you're the best, I'll hold you to it."

Assassin gives a firm nod of her head, seeming satisfied, while I focus on the job ahead of us. The rotating graphical representation of the facility below shows a deep bunker, with two entrances. One was a passenger elevator that descended around a hundred meters down before stopping in a central lobby, which lead to various facilities - mostly gathering areas, gardens and meeting rooms, according to the map's labels. There were stairs and elevators that traveled down even further, to barracks, sleeping quarters, some research labs, and the command center at the very bottom.

The other entrance was a single large freight elevator that lead all the way down to the hangar, on the lowest floor.

"It would be easier if we could get in through that elevator." I say.

Assassin gives a small shrug, "It would, but that would be like screaming 'here we are, please come murder us'. Defenses and security systems or no, that elevator goes straight down, and the other Servant is almost certainly down there. They wouldn't fit anywhere else in the facility."

She's right, of course. It's disappointing, but I was expecting it.

"So, if its Master is anywhere else in the bunker, then the Servant won't be able to protect them..."

"That's correct. And I can disassemble my main body and infiltrate the facility with numbers." Assassin says.

I raise a hand to rub my chin. This seems like it could be a trap, and yet... it's just too perfect. There's only one room large enough for a Servant to occupy, there's only one exit they could use, and there are numerous other areas in the facility that their Master could potentially be in, rendering themselves defenseless. Both should be easy targets in this situation.

"Alright then, let's d-"

"Wait." Assassin holds up a hand.

The hologram in front of her shimmers, changing. Blue dots appear all over it, a handful of larger, red dots, and in the hangar, a single very large red dot, and a few that are smaller, as well as a single blue dot.

"Is that what I think it is?" I ask, frowning.

"If you think it's a sensor system so well hidden in this old tech that it took me ages to find it, and so the people inside almost certainly don't know about it... then the answer is yes." Assassin replies, "The blue dots are human lifesigns. Red are mechs. There are quite a few. Probably some security bots in the main complex. The ones in the hangar are likely piloted combat mechs. And the Servant... is obvious."

"Mmhmm..."

Damn, that's more than I was expecting. Still... whoever they all are, they're definitely working for the Master who has set up base here. This is an abandoned facility, definitely not TAC, and listed as abandoned in AIM's records. Anyone here is a participant in the Grail War, and likely to kill me on sight if given the opportunity.

"So, we go in quick and quiet. Take out anyone you need to, but try to minimize casualties. That shouldn't be a problem with your stealth systems, right?"

"That's right, Master. I'm glad you're having more faith in me now." Assassin says.

I place a hand on her shoulder, smiling, "So, we'll go in through the main complex as quietly as possible, then infiltrate the hangar. That's almost certainly where the Master is. Once we're down there, we can stay hidden, watch the Servant and its Master, and determine the best course of action to eliminate them."

Assassin seems content with this plan, nodding her head. She stands up straight, and her main body becomes visible not far away, disassembling itself into dozens of smaller units, varying in size and shape. None of them look as human as the body standing beside me though, who is so elegant and curvy that I often find myself forget she's a robot and not a woman in a suit. The separate bodies soon disappear again, however, rendering themselves utterly invisible, and the sands shift, an elevator shaft rising up out of the ground and opening up.

"Here's our ticket inside. Let's go, Master." Assassin says, disappearing as well.

Fortunately the elevator is large. I doubt all of her can fit inside, so it'll likely take her at least two trips to fit all the separate parts of her into the elevator and get them down into the complex below, but not as many as it otherwise would have, on a more standard size of elevator. I pull on the helmet of my armor and activate its stealth field. It doesn't render me utterly invisible like Assassin, but it does allow me to blend into my surroundings, albeit with some visual distortion if I'm moving.

I step into the elevator and soon we start to descend. I draw my sidearm in my right hand and check the combat knife in the left arm of my armor. It might be necessary to silence people on our way down, and a sniper rifle is not an effective close-quarters weapon.

When the elevator doors open I step out slowly, crouched down. Two men are standing to either side of the elevator doors, one of them thumbing a radio, "Affirmative, there's someone here. Taking them out now."

His gun is trained on my head, but before he has a chance to pull the trigger, his head is separated from his shoulders with a brief, bloody spray, and then sent flying across the room, impacting against an empty aquarium. Glass shatters loudly, the headless body sprawling limp as water rushes out. I only catch the events in my peripheral vision however, as I immediately spun to tackle the other guard to the ground, pressing the muzzle of my pistol against his head and blasting a hole the size of my wrist through his skull, scorching the reinforced floor with the power of the shot.

"Nice work, Master." Assassin's voice murmurs, "They were down here when the elevator activated, there was nothing I could do to stop them from noticing, but I intercepted their communications. Nobody else knows we're here."

"Thanks, Assassin. I knew I could rely on you." I say, smiling a little and getting up.

Following the memory I'd made of the layout that Assassin had shown me, I make my way out of the lobby and head towards one of the stairwells that descended further into the complex. It was a long way down to the lowest floor and the entrance to the hangar, but it was best to be careful after all.

We're able to descend half way down the complex without any trouble, barely passing through frequently trafficked areas at all. I feel somewhat concerned when I see researchers and scientists - and children with them, strange, quiet children in hospital gowns - walking through some areas. I'm never spotted, however.

Half-way down, things get trickier. The lower floors have narrower, more densely packed rooms and corridors, and opening doors risks giving away our presence in these more populated areas. There are more soldiers down here as well, men wearing strength-enhancing armored suits and carrying high-powered plasma rifles. That sort of firepower would be enough to render my armor meaningless at the sort of close ranges we were in.

I hear, vaguely, the choked sounds of soldiers being quietly put down by Assassin. Unwilling to risk our exposure, she avoids killing where she can, but I suspect more than a few of those soldiers are ending up choked unconscious or with small punctures in their skulls where a knife or blade has been buried neatly into their brain.

We're on the final floor when we come to something of a problem. There's only a single door that leads into the hangar, a large and rather obvious door in the middle of an equally large and open room, with several soldiers around. A pair of scientists are wandering through, one of them gesturing to the screen of the data tablet he was holding.

"Units 304 through 422 are showing promise. Their Originator Circuits are developing at a reasonable pace, and they all generally show a degree of control." The young, dark-haired woman said.

The other scientist, and elderly, grey-haired man gave a small nod of his head, "No doubt it's impressive, but it may all prove unnecessary if Unit 143 accomplishes its task."

"With all due respect, Professor Revia, I'm not entirely sure that Unit 143 is stable. They are showi..." They get too far away, heading through a pair of doors, and I can no longer hear.

In that moment, there's a thump and sound of weapons fire on the other side of the large, open room. All the guards turn in that direction, many moving towards the sound of the noise. Immediately, the doors to the hangar start to open, and I slip through. Other doors start opening and closing randomly, and I hear one of the soldiers yelling.

"Damnit, we're suffering more system malfunctions! Gregory got spooked by a fucking maintenance bot and tripped over it, and now a bunch of doors are going haywire. I thought we disabled all the maint bots anyw-" That's all I manage to hear before the door closes behind me again.

I'm left standing on a catwalk, looking down on the hangar. What I see amazes me. Who ever's running this facility, they've got some shiny toys. IKG-Industries mechs, in bold black and white designs with orange stripes emblazoned upon them are arranged in rows. A dozen of the 8 meter tall X-006 "Wolverines", three larger M-AU 07 "Rapiers", an assault unit made more urban fighting, and a single massive X-008 "Guardian" unit - at 14 meters tall and carrying some of the most powerful artillery ever mounted on a mech, easily one of the most majestic things I have ever seen. I could swear I heard Assassin let out a delighted little gasp beside me at the sight of all those robots.

From the catwalk, we could easily see down into the hangar, which was completely empty aside from all those mechs, and one other one. A purple, slender and feminine machine, not much taller than Assassin's robot form, kneeling in front of a human. They're talking about something, but I can't hear them from up here. A fuzzy holographic picture is standing in front of the human, no doubt representing the Servant.



Holstering my sidearm, I pull out my sniper rifle, looking down through the scope at the holographic image. Strange, that an AI's holographic representation should look so... human. And pretty. Then again, Assassin's gynoid body is quite feminine and attractive as well, so perhaps it's not that strange.

I take a closer look at her true body, scanning her capabilities as best I can at this point.



The person she's speaking with is a man in his twenties with short, messy blond hair, wearing casual clothing, a black jacket and pants, with white stripes on the sleeves. He has a cocky grin on his face as he speaks to Rider's holographic representation.

"This is the perfect opportunity to attack, Master." Assassin tells me quietly, "What do you suggest we do?"

A) I'll kill the Master with a shot to the head while Assassin deals with the Servant.
B) I'll commandeer one of those mechs and use it to distract Rider, giving Assassin an opportunity to land a definite strike upon the Master without outside intervention.
C) We'll watch and wait, and try to sneak closer.
D) Set up traps and explosives on the exit and detonate them when the Master leaves.
E) Other

[-Desert-]

Jeeze, this is hard. I'm thinking A would be too easy. Rider's endurance is crap, so that might provide us with a weak spot. Just what exactly is endurance in this case?

[Anna]

Endurance means what it normally means. How resistant something is to damage. Note that Assassin's Endurance is even lower than Rider's, however.

[-Desert-]

Well that sucks. Maybe setting up some kind of trap/trick for the Master works. Rider might be harder to take down instantly, but Rider's too large to fit into certain smaller places. That could be a way to get rid of the Master. Without a Master a Servant's no good right?

[Latooni]

Ask Assassin how she rates her chances in combat with Rider, and then make a decision based on that.

[-Desert-]

IIRC Asassin has already told she's not too well at handling a fight with other Servants. Remember, she's one to surprise-kill enemies, she's not very resistant to attacks.

[Latooni]

That's a general statement, not a specific. Rider looks like she might be manageable, assuming whatever A+ noble phantasm she has doesn't come into play.

[-Desert-]

Good one. Assasin's surely got to have some kind of surprise in store for whatever tries to kill her.

[Lukasmah]

Good one. Assasin's surely got to have some kind of surprise in store for whatever tries to kill her.

If that was the case she would have probably used it by now. In the battle with Saber, for example.

[Lizzie]

Honestly my vote is D. Be sneaky, kill the fucker before he has the chance to react.

[Necrontyr1998]

For the sake of the story line I say we take C, whatever is going on here is certainly not natural, we need to hear more. However, that doesn't mean we should take our crosshairs off that master. And have Assassin in position to execute the servant should things turn ugly.

[Anna]

"Assassin, how would you rate your chances against Rider in a straight fight?" I ask quietly.

Assassin's voice whispers beside my ear, "I'd say I have good odds. She might be stronger, but I'm faster, and in close quarters like this I have the advantage. Rider-class Servants typically rely heavily on having lots of room to maneuver. In a hangar like this, she can't assume her vehicle form and use that to her advantage. And her Probability Distortion is terrible."

"Probability distortion? I've been meaning to ask what that is..."

"It's like... luck. Most Servants have a probability distortion engine of some degree. Rider doesn't have an active one. With a Rank of E, if she tossed a coin, she'd have a fifty-fifty chance of getting heads or tails." Assassin says.

I tilt my head, keeping Rider's Master in my sights, "And you?"

"With a Probability Distortion rank of B, I can turn a 50% chance into an 80% chance. It might not sound like much, but it's a very useful thing to be able to alter probability to work in your favour. Reducing the randomness of the Universe, making specific outcomes more likely... it's handy stuff." Assassin murmurs, "And against her, my biggest advantage. But I also have some tricks up my sleeve."

"Alright then." I say.

My choices remain the same, but at least now I have more information.

[Siber]

Well, if we're gonna kill her, lets snipe her and get it over with. A