12082090 EOD B-Lima

### **1290 [KF] [NH] [RK] and [AsM]**

*In terms of time and space it may have seemed to everyone in any other dimension that interacted with [KF] that she never left, as [KF] is diligent to reappear in those dimensions exactly at the point she left as not to warp reality itself. When people lose track of her then she tends to be more relaxed about such diligence and will reappear maybe within minutes, hours, or no more than a few days.*
*As of this point [KF] has appeared in different intervals to [VD]'s story but has not returned to the "Aether" since the end of Entry 30, still perplexed as to why she's finding trails of [NH] there.*
[KF]: Welcome everyone to the most important incident in history that will never happen. While Aki plans to fulfill a counteroffer with her associates that is contradictory to her own investments, I had hoped to steal Ashton before she wasted his skills on something so petty. Better yet, to pull off what I am about to reveal we do have to fall to her level. The difference being, while she goes to better her pockets value we are about to save the world. Are you all still interested?

[AsM]: Well I'll be frank, she's a handful but she's still my wife. I'd do anything for her but this sounded real important.

[RK]: For the better of the world, and not ourselves.

[NK]: We got this far working together with who we have, I didn't know much about what your son and his friend could do until we all watched that cult take down itself.

[RK]: Mason and I both still have all four of you to thank for that.

*[NH] waves [RK] off and looks the other way from her*
[NH]: Don't. We don't need it.

[AsM]: Maybe that's why since Kari reformed herself you two have grown back to each other so well. You both refuse credit so stubbornly.

*[KF] stands sternly at the front of the room, an almost villainous meeting room on a far away civilized island as modern as can be. [RK] and [AsM] are sitting across from [NH] all in the chairs closest to [KF]. Once others notice her impatience they all quiet back down*
[KF]: As I was saying, this information was brought to my attention by Dr. Peterson who couldn't do this himself because he knew I was powerful enough to do it on my own, but I won't. He even gave me his AK-5, this right here, as apparently it's "scientifically supernatural". Before I discuss further into the rifle and any plan, I'll provide you all with some context.

[NH]: Nothing that'll surprise me I bet, that's your job.

[AsM]: Yeah he's right about that, in for a dime in for a dollar.

[KF]: The Eclipse project: funded by no one and run by the shadows. So far I don't expect it to sound like anything surprising, but what I've concluded could be mere conjecture if not for one bit of evidence I'd have to see to believe. The group that runs this project has no name, any references of them are revealed purely by luck or by anyone who is found dead within the next 12 hours. I had to spend the last few weeks frantically traveling the world hoping I was going to the right place each time, I had to do it alone as by this point not only do they know someone is on to them but also that it is me who is tracking them. This is why I've enlisted your help. I am a legendary hero known by all and dimensionally more, I am conspicuous if I don't mask myself.

[AsM]: It can't be that bad.

[KF]: You almost never are with me in public.

[AsM]: Yeah?

[KF]: I had to dye my hair, change my eye color, change my name, and provide a fake background just so I could race in an event in Scotland without instantly being overly praised and possibly kicked out of all street racing events.

[AsM]: Huh.

[NH]: So, what is it?

[KF]: Back to the topic at hand, we may be dealing with that splinter group that nearly killed Aki back in April. Something still seems awry and fuzzy about what details I could manage to gather, but it makes some connections I'd rather hope aren't true. Either way, some expert cybersecurity countermeasure navigator among us should be able to shed some light.

[RK]: Me?

[KF]: I simply don't know a better hacker, or a better shot if we should need that. Also with you, despite your more traditional approach to it, I'm not the only stealth artist.

[RK]: I humbly decline your compliments, but I'll do what needs to be done.

[KF]: All this secrecy leads me right to the most important missing detail: true identity. We don't know what kind of establishment they hold or what kind of facilities they operate in, but in order to do anything to the scale of research they have some central unit rather than be on the move. This also means that once we've revealed their location there's nothing they can do other than fortify defenses or abandon the place, all depending on how they're betting their chances against us. What kind of improvised use of force or discretion deployed turns me to the old soldier among us.

[NH]: And here I thought you picked me because we're close.

[KF]: Way Beyond is also very helpful in what possible situations I can imagine. With it, you can never get lost.

[NH]: Alright.

[KF]: Then lastly we have to assume since now this enigmatic force knows I'm following them that they will always be one step ahead. Forward preparations and stealth tactics aren't mutually exclusive but those who plan ahead either make the silent path more difficult or totally impossible. For that and for getting us there, wherever it may be, we have he who remains.

[AsM]: Save the best for last, hmm?

[KF]: I will be taking the armor from here and engineer something more adaptive and responsive for that purpose.

[NH]: Been a long while since I've seen you tinker on something like the old days.

[KF]: Clearly then, you haven't seen this.

*Before everyone [KF] stands holding seemingly a black box. Seams travel polygonally around it symmetrically when its longer sides are held vertically. On one side, assumed to be the front, the seams are circular as if something cylindrical should protrude out. On the opposite end the seams all connect around to an indent. [KF] presses the indent and throws the box onto the table in the center of everyone, which in the air it extends out from its seams to reveal legs, two hugely extended P90 box magazines, a shrouded barrel and muzzle, and a mechanical pivot joint connecting the legs to the double magazine fed auto-targeting micro sentry gun.*
[KF]: I plan on jeopardizing all of my mechanical creations to stop what I hope isn't true about this Eclipse Project. I was asked by the United State Department of Defense of their purchase of the patent rights to this lightweight automated sentry gun, to which I claimed they would have to make the patent to begin with. Ashton and Ren would recognize these from the issue in New York City.

[NH]: Uh, what else have you done?

[KF]: I'll also present to you something I will have to request that none of you speak of ever in your lives so help your souls. I made it in a time of desperation and it saved myself, to which upon realizing its power I locked it away.

*[KF] pulls forth an average rifle carrying case, and opens it facing her in a way that no one else can see the contents inside as she prepares to unveil it. Lifting it up and closing the case, she holds what seems to be a strange looking rifle. A coil pulsates a one-way signal from some kind of battery that appears to be a detachable magazine, towards the stock on the weapon, and into a chamber that seems to just be one nearly yard-long hexagonal barrel. Down the barrel it appears like there is thick magnetic rifle boring but only on the very top and very bottom, leaving enough space to fit some kind of projectile, honestly seeming the most like a conventional railgun. A box holographic-like mid range optic rests on a smooth rail that travels the length of the barrel as it overall appears like the whole weapon is ergonomically satisfying. The whole unit glows a feint purple.*
[NH]: What is that?

[KF]: I haven't come up with a real name for it yet, but I tend to call it the Destruktiv Gewehr 5.

[NH]: The DG-5? Like-

[KF]: Yes, like those weapons.

[AsM]: I'm almost afraid to ask, what does it do?

*[KF] smirks, then aims the weapon down range to the opposite end of the table aiming at a potted plant there. She fires the weapon once which produces a pulsating yet booming warble that reverberates around the room, producing a momentary feint purple glow where one would expect muzzle flash. Seemingly having fired projectiles in a two-round burst like an Hk rifle, all witness as the projectiles hit the plant with great force. The first one hits a leaf and seems normal enough other than a purple haze on impact rather than shooting right though. However the second shot expands and produces a momentary black hole which sublimates the plant and explodes greatly, also leaving a purple haze. The explosion creates wandering orbs that seek out the other targets, but do nothing other than explode themselves in a similar fashion not so much as harming the pot, nearby chair, or the table.*
[KF]: This is the potential of the DG-5, to which Katya insists in her incessant nonsense she's seen before. She calls it the "Graviton Lance" but I care not. It will only chain those homing orbs if it manages to seek out other organic targets, but only sublimates other organic matter if the organism is close to death, in which it will continue to chain creating even greater explosions. A plant is weak enough to instantly dematerialize with this weapon, to use a more morbid example a younger living person would still not be weak enough, it takes roughly two or three bursts to sublimate a living being. This is an incredibly dangerous weapon and I plan only to use it if need be. In any worst case scenario I'd rather it be destroyed than stolen.

[NH]: Okay, pretty concerning weapon.  Any other pet projects you're not telling us about?

[KF]: There are a lot, I'm as old as you at this point.

[RK]: I know first hand the power of weapons of mass destruction, my cybernetics the result of the very robotic warfare the world now outlaws for its cruelty and uncertainty. What justifies your announcement now of this rifle you made?

[KF]: It may not seem like it, given my timeline is different than any of yours, but I made this weapon decades ago. I've had a lot of time to contemplate when I should stop hiding it, I have my doubts about my own plan on this Eclipse project and with great secrecy either means grand resistance or utter fragility. When we find them, if we get there, I would expect heavy resistance. What justifies using such a dangerous weapon? I fear it may be our only option the more resistance we meet. I'm planning on something big even if it does turn out to be the other possibility when we get there. Since we have nothing for now to go on I'm using experience to gauge a plan.

[AsM]: You seem to adapt well to the train wrecks we get ourselves into, like that time with Grace.

[KF]: I'd rather atomize many living people than have to distort time itself, as cruel as that is to say.

[NH]: You did use SDR for that, right? Sounds like it. Why not just use some new function of hers?

[SDR]: 'Cause she's worried I won't be enough.

[KF]: To use abilities like that are really taxing. Stopping time is the most exhausting thing I can do with SDR, and accelerating time is the next most. After what happened with the cult two months ago I'm much more aware that people are finding ways to suppress or counteract SDR. It taught me that I can't fully rely on her, that I must remind myself of what I'm already skilled at and hone it in.

[NH]: I get that, but, there must be something else you haven't thought of. I can't exactly say what, I don't think any of us really fully know what you two can do as much as yourselves do.

[KF]: That solely depends on the situation. Ren, just do what you can to give us a bit more to go on. Location, history, background, faculty, anything.

*[RK] has seemingly already been working on finding more information, having inserted some kind of small data card into the square-ish shaped area on the back of her cybernetic right hand. Before her is a slightly dim holographic interface projecting from the palm of her hand as she uses her left hand to tap and swipe around*
[RK]: Give me some time and some space to focus.

[AsM]: Woah, that's new.

[RK]: It's also not built-in as anyone could not only trace it back to me but it would quite literally trace back to my person. Now let me focus.

[AsM]: While she's up to that, Kari may I have a word?

[KF]: Alright.

*[AsM] gets out of his seat and with [KF] steps aside, leaving [RK] to her work and [NH] still seated quietly*
[AsM]: You said you were taking the armor from here and modifying it?

[KF]: For you, you're going to be our heavy lifter and machine gunner so you'll need it.

[AsM]: Armor like, like Walker's?

[KF]: The plate carrier, yes. The set I've been tinkering with during my hopeless research in the last few days has more than just that. Pauldrons, shin guards, knee pads, upper arm guards. All that, and while I have been using Nate as a test figure since you two are of similar build and same height I can't guarantee the programming is all there yet.

[AsM]: Programmed armor?

[KF]: Notice where it's taking the most hits and adapt, shift its scale-like form to cover areas taking heavy fire but not leave you exposed on the other areas. When it all retracts it makes it easier to move freely and feel less stiff. AI enhanced armor.

[AsM]: When you say AI, you mean like it can talk to me or something?

[KF]: AI isn't always sentient, it's exactly as it says it is. Artificial intelligence. It has the ability to adapt and respond intelligently, you don't have to make it think.

[AsM]: I think I get it now.

[KF]: However AI can have a base of which its intelligence is used. There was an incident back in the 1960s or 1970s where AI was implemented on one of the first walking weapons in history, given a process of thinking based on a fallen hero. By the end of all military efforts to stop it, its "personality" deemed the best course of action was to drown itself rather than fire a nuke like its orders stated. AI wasn't always made to stimulate the Uncanny Valley, but rather to make decisions intelligently.

[AsM]: I didn't think that kind of technology existed over a century ago, figured that was in our millennium. You gonna do that to this armor?

[KF]: I've been trying to make it respond similarly to your interests, to make decisions like you. That would be the point, right? For it to do exactly what you and solely you want.

[AsM]: Certainly would make things easier.

*[KF] motions for [AsM] to rejoin to group signaling there is nothing more to say, and [AsM] returns to his seat*
[RK]: You weren't kidding, at this time I would say, "All hacking feats are challenges and I've simply overcome them" but no. A lot of people are really easy to hack and I'm beginning to understand your difficulty gathering any information on this group.

[KF]: Hacking is not my forte but the issue was more of finding anything to breach to begin with. That's your current problem, isn't it?

[RK]: Yes, it would seem so. Tell me, is this place important to this operation?

[KF]: No, if the original owners were alive to see us they would shoot Ashton and I on sight. This place is in their name even still, because their benefactors have yet to replace such a great force and also have yet to eliminate me.

[RK]: That's a bit much of an answer, but it is an answer. Good, that makes it safer if I fail assuming I even get a lead to follow.

[KF]: I wouldn't count on that. The aforementioned armed force Ashton and I eliminated has stragglers, and its benefactors are still more than operational. Try not to have their attention peaked.

[RK]: Tell me about them. For all things considered, they may have a connection.

[AsM]: Well, they are buy-off mercenaries with enough training to be a mighty force but not enough training to see Kari lurk in the shadows hunting 'em one by one. Over-armed with all the drone equipment on the island but not as far as re-mobilizing the illegal bipedal war AI. They do have something pushing it though, although I'm pretty sure those have just claimed themselves with no masters.

[RK]: Name, I need a name. Base headquarters, that type of thing.

[KF]: Sentinel. Their HQ is on a different island in this archipelago.

[RK]: Interesting. Looking at recent actions on their server grid it seems like they do a lot of buying and not a lot of selling for themselves. Whoever got them here must have had a big single paycheck for them. All informational, merchandising, and service transactions are logged across many data centers around that island, that's a bad idea if you don't want someone storming in with a gun and a grudge. Hmm.

[NH]: Find something interesting?

[RK]: I did. A recent transaction details the unlikely: selling. This group recently sold-

[AsM]: Wait, you hacked one of their data centers remotely from several miles away?

[RK]: Are you finished?

[AsM]: Damn, sorry.

[RK]: As I was saying, Sentinel recently sold human resources such as armed protection and with them military equipment to a buyer in Zürich, Switzerland that was escorted to a remote location further south towards the Alps. All assets, including human assets, were to be kept at this unlisted location according to the digital invoice. On it features the buyer as "FFG" with multiple references to the word "Finsternis" on the document.

[KF]: Finsternis is German for eclipse. We may have found our lead.

[NH]: I'm trying to wrap my head around what "FFG" means, assuming one of the F's is Finsternis.

[KF]: Possibly "Finsternis Forschung Gruppe", sounds basic enough.

[NH]: "Eclipse Research Group"? I guess so.

[RK]: I've closed the connection for now, they've probably found out by now that someone has snooped in their system. While remote hacking is easier it also makes it easier to find the culprit.

*A fizzling sound comes from the entry door, as an exothermic breaching charge blasts the side retracting doors into the room. A squad of heavily armed units, all male, rush in and to the sides with someone less armored wearing a beret instead of a helmet walks down the center towards [KF]*
[CO]: What an amusing attempt at-

*Just as the assumed commanding officer speaks he recognizes [KF], and while maintaining his face he becomes noticeably pale*
[CO]: I see we're not dealing with the typical leftovers of Walker's purge this time. Squad, we're dealing with the only two to prove themselves. We've seen many of their type walk away from that incident and wreak havoc on our assets but today we've come face to face with the woman that sold the world. Today we come face to face with Lieutenant Ashton Mason and the "Legendary Hero" ex-SOCOM agent Kari Frost.

*[CO] walks closer to [KF] and all are still as [KF] simply stares daggers at [CO] and around the room in her direction*
[CO]: You know, there's something quite intimidating about being "ex-" something in military action. It means they either found something bigger or got bored with how simple work got, if you'd have outlived your usefulness you wouldn't be here right now. Pay attention men, this is the one that killed Walker and destroyed his organization. A little background check shows a lot in the rest of them too. Lieutenant Mason was the wreck that shook up the Army's reputation in Dubai, and just like Frost he was in Bolivia too.

[RK]: They did their homework just to appear as if they have any idea what they're doing.

[CO]: And that one right there is Ren Kimura, the only one to make contact with Keener after the Manhattan incident and possibly one of if not the best long-distance marksman in the world today. We could talk all day about Colonel Nate Hamilton, could we? But we won't.

*The [CO] walks around as he continues his speech, getting face to face with [NH] with his next utterance*
[NH]: Because that might just make his head hurt something awful.

[KF]: I hate to sound like exactly what you expect to hear, but leave now with your lives if you value anything true. After what you said to Nate I'm inclined to use lethal force when I already have been against your organization. Even Nocturn has enough honor among thieves when compared to the pointlessness of Sentinel.

[CO]: Oh am I threatened. In training for these grunts they're now instructed to take special precautions against you specifically, saying if you've been sighted to not engage alone and call for a special protocol for backup. You're a dangerous woman, Frost, and Sentinel recognizes it.

[KF]: So then you should realize it is within your squad's benefit to leave.

[CO]: You four are out-gunned and trapped! Your skills won't save you from all of us.

[KF]: I can take you all on alone, in fact I'd prefer it that way.

[CO]: You couldn't possibly! That's impossible to do!

[KF]: If you think you know us so well, you can tell us what happened in Bolivia that made me so feared by the paramilitary forces there.

[CO]: With Lieutenant Mason and Special Agent Belle Isle, you three took out Cipher researchers-

[KF]: Wrong, they were murdered before our arrival and that is not what I asked.

[CO]: There were reports of people "falling into the sky" and all around the world time accelerated from night to day instantly, all operations were in chaos, everyone's schedules were ruined, and the day's errands were taxing on everyone! It was broadcasted on news stations internationally as a freak phenomenon!

[KF]: Yes, exactly. Perfectly said.

[CO]: What's your game, Frost?

[KF]: That was all my doing.

[CO]: Impossible! How can that even be possible? You can't just say that!

*[SDR] appears behind [KF] walking like from behind a wall and poses next to her*
[KF]: All of you can escape with your life, or I will take you all on alone. Your men are shaking in their place, their minds have already been made up.

*A serious moment of tension builds as the [CO] stands sweating in his place grimacing at [KF] who is cool and collected with [SDR] at her side, still staring intensely. [RK], [NH], and [AsM] have all been in their seats, knowing both that standing up would possibly provoke the nerve-shot Sentinel squad and that [KF] most likely has this handled*
[CO]: Enough of this hero bullshit, fire at will!

[KF]: Last mistake.

*All units trapping [KF] in the room begin to fire at her and the rest, but [SDR] simply smirks and pushes a hand forward. All incoming rounds fired stop in their place, as if only that was frozen in time. All stand shocked and confused until [SDR] rotates a bullet 180 degrees and taps on it, firing it back at its original ballistic speed purposefully missing. Before any Sentinel units can panic and retreat [SDR] mends the door back to its locked and functioning state, then repeats the same rotate and fire process on every other bullet frozen in space to non-lethally, yet severely damaging, hit every enemy combatant in the room*
[KF]: Killing you all with that would have been too easy, but today I need an accurate demonstration.

[SDR]: I still think this is a bit sadistic.

[KF]: Your doubts are my doubts, I feel that this also may be a bit much however it will show why I use this weapon in important times strictly.

*[KF] turns to her group, and picks up the DG-5*
[KF]: Now today I will show you why this weapon of mass destruction may be necessary to take down FFG, and I will mercilessly use this wasteful supply of Sentinel's human assets to prove it.

[RK]: This may be a bit much for you.

[KF]: You heard me discuss it with SDR, I realize it is. I'm making an example out of Sentinel.

[NH]: Sounds like you already have if they train their troops to see you as an undefeatable threat.

*[KF] aims the DG-5 at the [CO]*
[KF]: You should have stuck to your backup protocol.

*[KF] fires the DG-5 with its booming reverb, and just like the plant the [CO] sublimates into a nebula gas with wandering radioactive void energy spikes wandering ever closer to the other wounded mercenaries. As the spikes hit them a chain process of supernova explosions continue to detonate and sublimate combatants until all have been reduced to a slightly purple vapor and the remaining spikes minorly detonate after not finding more targets, leaving so much as zero traces of ever having a full room of armed soldiers if it weren't for their rifles and sidearms remaining on the ground.*
[AsM]: Well shit.

[KF]: We might need to resort to something like this, as inhumane as it is, to stop the Eclipse Research Group.

[NH]: I might have to disagree with you.

[KF]: He also foolishly mentioned the splinter group's name was Cipher. Aki should know about that. Now is the time we declare this place unsafe for further operational use. The next time we all meet regarding this issue it will be in Switzerland. I want nothing for them to find us by, no means to prepare for our arrival after this incident and after what we know through Sentinel. Ren will be with Ashton, and Ashton will use Deus Donum once to get to Germany to Nate and myself. I will drive us to Zürich and we will find FFG's facility from there. Until then, no one speaks of this, today's happenings, and especially not of the DG-5.

[RK]: Alright then.

[AsM]: Simple enough.

[NH]: Well, that's that.

*end*