Their trend continued; Danny left for work, Taylor retreated to the basement, and with Logic, she prepared to either pull off the greatest escape known to man since the alabaster, space-blocking angel appeared overhead, or die a terrible and screamy death.
Well, that last bit wasn't a trend per se but contemplating rather insane things was. Logic assured her their plan would work, but it didn't stop her from worrying something fierce. That wasn't to say he was intentionally being reassuring, he was more reminding her that he was incredibly intelligent, and they were only several decimal points shy of a 100% success rate in his simulations.
Either way, they were prepared. Her trusty AI was monitoring the exact coordinates the Simurgh was known to be in by hijacking a ride into government and Protectorate servers, which he was feeding into the tachyon array's targeting system. The normal use of the array was to just bathe the area surrounding it in a loose net of tachyon's, where it would trigger to full power when it detected something interfering with its sphere of influence.
This was normal since, again, it was designed to be used in outer space, not as a ground-based system. It barely took any adjustments to allow them to choose the area it would affect, and now here they were.
The engineering drone was ready. Its only job was to begin teleporting like a madman straight away from Earth and begin heading towards a cluster of asteroids floating near Mercury. The distance separating the two planets was astronomical and made her tech that much more ridiculous. The little bugger could teleport PAST the moon in a single bound.
Mercury itself was just over 60 million miles away from earth - if the drone teleported every second (which it was capable of) then it would only take it maybe 3 minutes to get there. To compare - Apollo 11, the first mission to the moon, took just over 8 days. Even worse, the teleportation tech they were using? It was barely considered a hack job compared to the true range of teleportation provided by using a fixed structure to hold open a portal.
Welp, no time like the present to just... Go for it.
For all the terrible anticipation leading up to this, it was likely going to be over in several seconds, after which Taylor would get to listen to Logic's observations of the Simurgh's movements.
"Alright, let's get this over with." She patted her first engineering drone, which was now extensively modified. "I believe in you little guy. Go out there and show'em what's good!"
"Very well, Primary Operator Taylor. Operation: Evading the Angel commencing. Providing countdown of 10 seconds."
She definitely didn't come up with a name for their 'operation' but she didn't care enough to correct Logic.
"10."
Hopefully, they made the right choice doing this.
"9."
After all, with the number of ships they need to make to be effective, the Earth simply wasn't enough, not without strip-mining the entire thing to bedrock.
"8."
But what if she didn't need to make massive fleets to be effective?
"7."
After all, plenty of the ships were very powerful in their own right. Maybe there would be enough locally to handle it.
"6."
But any and all repairs they would do would also take materials. Frigates themselves would take significant amounts of metal - more than feasible to be sustainable.
"5."
Plus, if they managed to do this one thing, then the engineering drone could expand. It could make more engineering drones, which would then propagate out into the galaxy and make even more metal refineries.
"4."
Then she could throw a veritable tide of firepower at any threats the world had. Slaughterhouse 9? Eradicated. Well, except for the Siberian. They'd have to figure that one out.
"3."
They could save so many people.
"2."
It would be worth it, risks be damned.
"Operation successful."
Heck, they could even - Wait, what?
"You didn't make it to one, are you sure?" He could have missed something - maybe the Simurgh was just pinpointing their location.
"Well, I just said I was providing a countdown, not that I was counting down to the start of the mission. I started at 10. The Simurgh showed some visible reaction to the tachyon radiating through her space but otherwise has not moved. I stopped as of the 5-second marker, and she has resumed her normal posture."
What an asshole. Playing word games with her, she'd have to be careful in the future. "So long as you follow the spirit of my orders not just the letter, I won't get mad at you for playing that little prank on me. You start getting any bad ideas and I'll order you to turn yourself into a glorified vending machine and ship manager."
"I understand, Primary Operator. Do not fear, I wished to engage you in what you call a 'joke' using 'wordplay'. I do not wish to violate the trust you have given me to execute your desires."
"It's... ok, Logic. Some things are just a little scarier coming from something with your potential. So long as you understand, everything will be fine."
There was a brief pause as the AI seemed to contemplate something. Or it was executing a few thousand other tasks simultaneously. Who knows?
"I know what I could have become without the additional learning matrices you've provided me. I do not wish to be that AI. I am Logic, executor of Primary Operator Taylor's will upon this Earth. Your desire is to help the people of this world - and thus, so is mine. And I shall help you make it so."
This time he was actually intentionally reassuring, and it felt nice. Knowing the things she did made a difference. Ultimately time would tell if the newborn AI learned enough emotions to ever be truly 'human-like' but he was on the path there.
"I appreciate that very much, Logic. Let's do great things together, yeah?"
"Nothing we do could be anything less than great, Primary Operator."
With that little shot of confidence in her veins, Taylor resumed worrying. "How's the little guy doing out all by himself in space? Are his modifications holding out?"
"The Engineering Drone Mk. III is performing at expected levels. Alert: He has arrived near Mercury's gravity well. Beginning absorption of metal to begin first metal extractor."
Wow. That was fast. It had been... maybe 4 minutes since they started talking? That was kind of insane. The young tinker had parsed out the math ahead of time to roughly figure out how long they would be waiting, but experiencing the time from beginning to end, knowing her little drone was tearing through space like the world's cutest missile of exponentially growing mechanical doom.
"Excellent. Do you think it would be possible to convert an area under our basement into our ship builder? Since we're running on 'wireless energy' it wouldn't be a noticeable energy drain."
"Ah... I don't believe so. We can safely stick it underground somewhere, but the amount of space the structure will require, even if we reduce the size of all the ships we create, will cause problems in a neighborhood. Maybe in one of the abandoned sections of town, where we don't run the risk of breaking into anything we're not supposed to or causing noticeable vibrations."
That... makes sense. She hadn't thought of the size requirement for an all-in-one hangar. From her understanding, it could create several smaller ships at once, which allowed it to spam them out fairly quickly, but frigates were a one-at-a-time deal, so it needed the space for at least the largest ship she planned on building.
"Ok, let's get to plotting then."
And thus, the ship-building superstructure's secret base location was plotted.
Logic found the centermost point in a large swath of abandoned warehouses in the Docks. Using the same camera attachment from before and the addition of yet another custom stealth field modification to the second engineering drone, the pair had a perfect little spy.
Deploying the drone to the area mentioned before, they had it sweep the area to make sure no one was currently squatting in the near vicinity. Their plan was... a little convoluted, but it was their best chance at maintaining anonymity. First, the creation of MANY engineering drones was ordered. Next, under the cover of that same night, the entire swarm made their way, one by one, by flying through the air and then dropping themselves down into the warehouse located prior.
Once every single unit was placed inside, they went to work completely sealing the building off from the outside. Doors were closed off with reinforced metal; the one skylight present was completely covered. All seams were coated just for good measure.
The goal was to prevent them from being discovered for roughly the next 8 hours - if they could do that they would be golden. The cloaked flagship was one of the only units that couldn't materialize itself elsewhere seeing as the ships were spawned directly inside of it when connected to the factory. Thus, the flagship itself would need to be built inside the factory, then it would have to fly itself out of the warehouse under its own power.
The factory would remain afterward, but it would be completely covered up and hidden, buried under many feet of dirt and concrete, plus metal to keep it sealed off.
They'd chosen the warehouse they did in particular both because it was as far away from anybody else's territory as they could find, roughly determined by PHO and Logic's observations, and it was the single largest structure in square footage available. The raw amount of space it provided was necessary because the flagship was, as Taylor later learned, definitely the largest ship the factory would produce.
The larger factory, in the end, would actually help it produce more ships at once, so it wasn't a terrible thing it needed to be so huge.
Once the thing was completely cut off from the outside world, the engineering drones began to work - digging straight into the ground with their deconstruction beams. This process would actually take longer than building the ship factory itself since the drones were far more efficient at building things than tearing them down.
It was at the point the dig command was given that Taylor decided to go to sleep. While it was interesting at the beginning to watch the drones do their work, it swiftly grew boring when all they did was dig.
Morning came. Before Taylor did anything else, she asked Logic how their mission went.
"Excellent timing, Primary Operator. The hole was dug, the factory was built, and the flagship is in the final steps of construction. You will get to see its grand emergence... Well, it will be invisible, but the point stands."
"Awesome! I can't wait. Let me take care of a few things and we'll stream it to the computer?"
"Of course."
With a speed normally reserved for Christmas mornings (well, several years ago anyway) Taylor sprinted through her morning routine. Her face was rinsed to wake her up, her teeth were brushed, her hair was carefully cared for, and normal people's clothes were thrown on. Perfect.
"Show me the good stuff Logic!"
Plopping down into her computer chair, the monitor flickered to life and a live video was displayed, as seen from the invisible engineering drone.
It showed the side of the warehouse, where nothing could be seen at first. Without warning, the entire wall began to tip over, slowly and in one entire piece, flopping onto the street with a loud clang and shriek of tortured metal. While Taylor couldn't see it, swirling eddies of dust twisted unnaturally through the still air, outlining where the anti-gravity engines were in operation of the currently stealthed flagship.
The beast was massive (from what context clues she could pick up) and befitted her advanced carrier ship. The warehouse was longer than it was wide, which suited their needs perfectly, as the flagship itself was nearly an entire football field in length. It wasn't quite as wide (Taylor would accept NO flying squares in her fleet), but it still made for an impressive, if unseeable, bulk.
Even more impressive was the technology that went into it - not only could the ship factory directly warp any ships it created into the flagship (regardless of if it was moving or standing still) it had an insane amount of space compression built into it. Taylor honestly wasn't sure how it was done, as she was fairly certain it violated several laws of physics, but the flagship was capable of holding nearly 5 times its own size in fighters and frigates.
Which meant it was the first, and most crucial piece, in their path to overwhelming power.
"So Primary Operator, what shall we start constructing first? Maybe we can go for the metabolizing gangsaws? Those would be terrifying. Maybe the standard V-Wings? Easily makeable in large quantities and decently effective against everything. Or my personal choice, the MLRS Corvette. Great for dealing with crowds."
Taylor had thought long and hard about what she would want to build first when she first gained her power - She'd spent significant amounts of time just trawling through blueprints, trying to figure out what would work the best. Even with her time investment, she'd never come up with a proper answer, and now she was paying for it.
"What is the MLRS Corvette?"
"Ah! It is a fighter type, easily creatable en mass, and is a pair of columns with launch pods installed, attached to an engine and some munitions creation drones."
"What type of munitions does it use? Anything non-lethal?"
"Missiles. Terribly lethal, I'm afraid. It is capable of firing 8 missiles every 4 seconds, however! It is fantastic at obscuring vision and demolishing buildings, should the pesky rats try and hide from us!"
... Of course, that would be his personal choice. Worst of all, he probably was choosing his favorite from the less lethal options. He wasn't getting into the frigates where I knew some serious firepower lay.
Taylor let out a loud sigh. "No, Logic, while I wouldn't mind having some on standby, we need something very non-lethal, or else we won't be able to help everyday folks, like my dad. If he was to get mugged or something, I could hardly save him with an MLRS Corvette. Even the more precise ships would need to be careful."
"Fine, fine. I suppose..."
With that, they launched into a long discussion about their options, and potential situations in which the... scarier choices could be used.
There were several options before us, none of which were clear as to which was the best. They had several goals - Well, SHE had several goals, Logic didn't care either way but was willing to help out.
The fighter-sized ships technically had a space for a pilot to go, roughly human-sized, but were also meant to be piloted remotely. They were around the size of a car but normally distended or stretched in odd ways to make way for smaller/larger engines, the specific type of weapon it used, etc.
Their normal size wasn't too much larger, but this was pretty close to the smallest size they could get them to.
The first goal was to try and do good - which ideally meant working with Heroes and their groups to fight crime. Taylor was under no false impressions about her power and what she'd already done - if it came out about her true potential, things would be... bad. As in, declared S-Class threat and summarily executed bad.
Since that was less than ideal, she was going to have to... not hide, but misdirect what exactly her power was capable of. The cloaked flagship, which also ought to get its own name, would ideally float somewhere high above the city and just spew out a few ships whenever they were needed. There was more than likely some form of tinkertech or obscure technology she didn't know of that could pick up the fact something was there, but she could fly it away pretty easily if need be.
A side aspect of the first goal was not killing the criminals they caught. Maybe if it was just going to be an injury, she could have accepted it, but these ships weren't exactly shooting .22s. No, the WEAKEST ship she had, while not an accurate measurement, would be much better compared to a .50 caliber machine gun. The rounds fired were all fairly unique, however, and their destructive potential was higher than the size of the bullet would indicate, so it was actually even worse.
These things were designed to fight other ships, after all.
That was with their DECREASED size as well. So how in the hell was she supposed to do hero things?
The answer was simpler than it first appeared. Part of her plans included many static defensive structures that were individually stronger than any ship ought to be, though they were more expensive to create. One of those defenses was an honest-to-God tractor beam. The thing was capable of holding down upwards of 15 ships at a time, by itself.
Several plans also included a tractor array ON a ship, and from her understanding, the thing was capable of movement while it dragged its hapless victims along for the ride.
Not only did the tractor beams exist, but nearly every single ship was packing a shield, AND she had access to shield generators to help protect important structures. The best part about the force fields though? It was specifically made to be shot through from the inside, meaning any defensive structures or ground troops could still fight back while the enemy stuck outside had to work to get through.
These were ALSO capable of being slapped onto a ship, as a matter of fact, one of the frigates she had plans for was exactly that - it had a relatively weak gun (for a frigate) because most of its power draw was sent straight to a forcefield. A mobile forcefield that could shove people away.
Those were her two keys to being a non-lethal hero.
After dusting off what Taylor would call 'the old archives' of her blueprints, she found exactly what she was looking for. It was a frigate, sure, but it was originally built to have several possible modules that could be installed. Since it came with no gun, she could guarantee its 'safety' while her other ships could provide backup if needed.
With both a tractor array and shield platform installed, the thing would be a perfect defender and mook capturer. Capes with low durability or non-combat abilities could also be captured with ease. With its last slot... Why not make the damn thing invisible too?
It was a perfect plan!
Now to execute it. Logic got her plans and began construction on several of the custom-ordered frigates.
Ok, so that was great for that group of people, what about the ones that could fight back? What if she had to fight Purity, for example? If the ship could get close enough to latch on then it could still be blasted, and she didn't want to rely on the ship's durability up against a Blaster of her caliber.
For her in particular, Raptors would be great as one of the fastest ships in her fleet that could bring her down... maybe non-lethally.
With the help of Logic (of course), they began to come up with plans for the expected threats they might have to face.
As was part of the plan, the Engineering drone near Mercury began to create more drones to in turn fan out and begin making more metal harvesters. Even with the extreme efficiency of the harvesters, the things they were building were quite expensive, so they had to take things slow.
The first modular frigate was finally done, and some work on support fighters was currently underway. While not invisible, they also decided to have a tackle-drone launcher frigate built. Tackle drones were nearly fighter-sized ships, but instead of guns, they had a tractor beam capable of nabbing several people at once. Maybe if there's a riot or something and they need to grab several hundred people it would be useful?
They would at least have a few of most types of fighters they thought could be useful, at the minimum. Just in case.
If the fighters were the size of cars, the scaled-down modular frigate was the size of a semi-truck and shaped in a vaguely similar way. Although it had a lot more protrusions, indents, and otherwise glowy bits. Also, every ship she seemed to build was made out of this oddly reflective dark metal.
Taylor asked Logic if his inner edgelord was showing again, but he claimed it was the strongest metal alloy they could come up with.
She supposed that made sense.
To give time for the ships to be constructed and for resources to pile up a bit in case they needed a flood of ships of a specific type for some reason, they'd waited until the weekend before actually doing anything.
Now, Taylor was practically quivering with tension. This was it. This was the day she proved herself above the assholes from school and showed them (Anonymously) that she was better than they could ever hope to be. After all, she was going to be a hero.
Save the day, save the innocents in distress, apprehend the criminals, prove that all the effort she'd been putting in wasn't going to waste. Deceiving her father had to be worth it - Taylor figured saving people had to count for something in that regard.
She had the numbers, maybe she could clean up all of Brockton Bay? Imagine that - clean streets, not cowering people averting their gaze from the bangers watching from every street corner. The Merchants were corralled and kicked out so they couldn't peddle their self-sabotage in a syringe.
Taylor could be the one to help with that. She could be the catalyst that helped tip the scales in the hero's favor.
That first night of 'patrolling'? Interminably boring.
One of the ships they decided to create was called a Ranger. It was a unique type of ship - it wasn't particularly strong by itself (at least against ships), but it had an incredibly advanced sensor suite and stealth capabilities. The reason for its design was that the thing, much like a few of her other ships, could accurately hit a moving target from thousands of miles away.
Granted, the moving targets were usually ships, and unless they were agile fighters, also normally couldn't dodge the shots reliably. At shorter ranges, if they shot the shell would practically instantly arrive at its target.
Thus, the sensor suite that could pick out the individual hairs on a squirrel's ass from the atmosphere.
It didn't use anything related to audio, both because it operated in the vacuum of space and because it also tended to be farther than sound could travel from its intended target.
For their intents and purposes, they used it to perform overwatch on the entirety of Brockton Bay while remaining hidden. Their modular Frigate nicknamed 'Riot Control', did get some additional audio analyzers that would help find out if something like a gunshot occurred, and triangulate its origin location in tandem with the Ranger.
While plenty of 'bad' things were going on, they weren't necessarily things Taylor could stop right away. Stopping an individual drug deal? Effectively useless in the grand scheme of things. But if they knew where the dealer got his drugs from? That would enable them to make an impact.
So certain things were left alone, but the one mugging the Ranger was able to sight in progress? Well, they had a lot of fun with the poor soul and probably terrified the pedestrian in equal measure. Logic 'texted' the victim's phone number from a non-existent line (it literally showed up as a blank number) apologizing for the scare and that they were safe now.
Honestly, it was like one of those horror movies where some out-of-sight creature latches onto their target's leg from behind and drags them off-camera. Which, to be fair, is almost exactly what happened.
The mugger got tractor beamed in the leg and dragged out of the alley he was attempting to ply his trade in by an invisible aggressor.
They then proceeded to drag him to the nearest police station and strung him up in front of it until someone came out to figure out what was going on. From there, Logic uploaded a high-fidelity video of the crime in progress to the police intranet and communicated the reason for the arrest.
Once everything was verified and the mugger was taken away, they resumed watching the city. Except, they didn't have a chance to do anything else because nothing was happening. Whether it was a slow night in Brockton Bay or crime just wasn't that obvious, Taylor couldn't tell.
After several hours stretching into the early morning, Taylor gave up and went to sleep, leaving Logic with specific instructions to not break the status quo. She'd rather not find out he decided to simply 'eliminate' any gang member he saw to prevent further danger. He was still learning the whole 'shades of grey' thing humans had going on. Some folks didn't want to join a gang but had to protect themselves or family.
"Goodnight Logic, keep the streets safe for me!"
"Of course, Primary Operator."
The following morning, Taylor awoke with an extra-large helping of crusty gunk to the eye. By the time she made it to the bathroom and washed it all away, she was presented with the large bags, indicating the less-than-stellar sleep she received the prior night.
She heaved a sigh; Nothing to be done about it. Although she was now determined to come up with a better way to help Brockton Bay because last night was... less than effective.
Also, she didn't even have a hero name! Not that it was all that important technically since she herself wasn't doing any heroic acts. Regardless, someday she would have to talk to someone and give them a name to work with. Logic didn't need a 'cape' name as it were, since anything he did was technically hero work. Although he could make a secret identity he used to hack things? That way nothing would get tied back to the 'heroic' Logic.
Eh, maybe. The young Tinker somehow doubted Logic had an acting bone in his body, so that would probably backfire on them spectacularly the moment he had to talk to someone in his 'false' identity. Better to just let him do his thing.
But for her name... Well, she was basically the queen bee of a rather large hornet's nest. So, something pertaining to being a ruler? She didn't want people to think she was being presumptuous either though. Since it was a literal fleet of ships she was going to have, she could go really basic and call herself commander.
Taylor wasn't sure if the title changed between factions like the Air Force vs. the Navy, and if it would impact her title. Maybe... Something to do with having a massive number of 'minions' working in tandem? Something like Horde... or Legion.
Well, it sounded kind of like a villain's name but Legion was pretty awesome.
Her idle musings were cut short by Danny calling her down for breakfast.
They ate in peace and made idle small talk - him being none the wiser to her swiftly growing power. And wasn't that something insane to think about - ever since the Simurgh had flown into place and taught the world the meaning of despair all over again, they'd never once thought about getting into space again. And here she was, some weeks into her power, and she'd already escaped Earth's gravity and could do it again if she needed to.
Hell, she could leave the Earth itself and never come back. That was a sobering thought if ever there was one.
Breakfast finished soon after, and the dishes were cleaned. Danny left to go grocery shopping, and Taylor remained behind.
Before she went upstairs to discuss plans with Logic, she paused to look out the front window and admire the veiled sunlight streaming through a break in the grey line of clouds. It reminded her of why she fought to make this world safer rather than just leaving it - everything would be dull grey halls and long periods of time spent flying around if she left. Never again would she get this exact sight of morning dew reflecting in the gleaming light, and no matter how crummy her street was, it wouldn't be the same without civilization surrounding her.
Yes, she could leave, but was she willing to leave this world behind just to escape from problems the entire rest of humanity was facing when she had the power to help? No, Taylor didn't think she could do such a thing.
Her admiration of the run-down view before her was interrupted as the wail of an air-raid siren began to belt out its warning in 3 short blasts.
Taylor's heart pounded in her chest as adrenaline thundered through her body, bringing her to high alert. She became intensely aware of the pleather couch under her fingertips, the cold brush of air that tickled the nape of her neck, and a million other tiny, insignificant sensations as her world slowed to a crawl.
The sirens did not repeat.
Her furiously beating heart slowed a fraction - she wasn't in immediate danger.
The Endbringer sirens rang every time an attack started, but they only continued to go off after their first warning blast if your city was being attacked. The tri-note blast indicated some other poor city was about to be devastated.
Although... Didn't she have the power to help now? Was that not the entire purpose of becoming a hero? Or at least planning on it? To help people and save them from the many threats of this world?
She was even more uniquely suited to help out - all of her forces were both disposable and long-ranged, and she certainly didn't need to worry about 'hurting' an Endbringer.
Taylor flew up the stairs, taking three at a time, clipping the corner in the hallway, causing her to stumble into her room.
"LOGIC! We've got work to do!"
"Primary Operator, I am thrilled that we are finally taking action. I have taken the liberty of assuming the reason for your call to arms and determining the destination of the attack. The Simurgh is on a plotted path to Canberra, Australia. Should you desire, our flagship could get there in just a few minutes."
If she could kiss Logic, she would be almost willing to at this moment. "Ok, great. Let's get it there. We need long-range fighters, anything that can strike outside of her zone of influence - but let's not stop there. You get the fleet moving, let's plan in the meantime."
She took a deep breath - now was the time for focus.
"Not only can we help attack the Simurgh, but we can also rescue people without being affected by her scream. The Tackle Drone Frigate can rescue hundreds of people and help interrupt anything she tries to build."
"Indeed. I am beginning construction of a second Tackle Drone Frigate at once, as well as some long-range options. We will be prepared, Primary Operator."
"Ok... Ok. We can do this. Our Riot Control can also help protect people and deflect debris. We'll also need to communicate with the others, so they know not to attack our fleet."
"Patching us in... Connecting in 3 seconds."
"3."
"2."
"1."
"Greetings Dragon, I am Logic. I apologize for the intrusion, but you are the one who handles communication between all of the other heroes, correct?"
Oh shit. Logic just hacked into DRAGON'S com system? A pleasant, if slightly irritated and confused woman's voice rang through on the other end.
"... I won't question how you got into this line, but I assume you are contacting me in regard to the upcoming Simurgh attack?"
Logic responded for me. "Indeed, we are not on-site physically, but our fleet is about to arrive, and we wanted to forewarn you, and everybody else."
The response was delayed, though Taylor was still flabbergasted because they were talking to Dragon!
"A... Fleet?"
"Yes, we have a fleet of hundreds of ships capable of firing at the Simurgh from a safe distance, as well as search and rescue ships equipped with force fields and tractor beams. We would like to assist in both Assault and Support capacities."
There was another pause. Dragon was likely communicating with someone else about the whole situation.
"We would be more than happy to accept your help on the search and rescue front, but with as many ships as you claim to have it will be harder to coordinate with all of the other capes present. We don't know what the attacks are like, or what the effects will be, so it is much harder to integrate attack ships into our program."
Well, that puts them in a pickle. Even if it makes sense, Taylor can't help but be irritated by the development. "Logic, tell them to let us strike from the beginning before anyone else engages. Once we determine how effective our attacks are, we can give them time to clear out before bombing runs begin."
Deep down, Taylor knew this was a chance she likely wouldn't get again - to show in front of all the heroes present, that they were here to make a difference, and that they COULD make a difference. Not just to prove themselves, but to make a real, tangible change in the world, for the better.
"Primary Operator, I have done significant amounts of research into the Endbringer's durability and the powers wielded against them thus far. If we utilize tachyon radiation to bathe the entire area there is a very real possibility we could kill the Simurgh today. Do you remember the cruiser we discussed? If we build that, I think there is an above 75% chance we can achieve victory."
Listening to that gave Taylor hope. Maybe - just maybe, they could achieve a massive reversal here.
Especially if they decided to build the cruiser... Cruisers were, to put it in a word, insane.
If one thinks about the normal sci-fi terminology a cruiser is a medium-sized vessel, usually, with a wide variety of roles it was capable of fulfilling due to its middling size. The cruisers WE could build, however, were something far scarier.
Amongst the blueprints there was a clear hierarchy relating to power and ship size - first was the strikecraft, or fighters. They were as one would expect, small and nimble ships. Next came the frigates; Many times over in size compared to strikecraft, they were always much lower in number, but capable of much greater effects, regardless of if those were defensive or offensive.
Then there were flagships - most often they were simply used to carry the smaller ships around, boasting massive engines to get them from place to place faster than most strikecraft or frigates could on their own. But that was hardly the only form they were limited to - no, there were several plans for much scarier flagships, though much more expensive to build as well, including Golems, Arks, and Spire ships. Taylor could tell, based on the design's rather unique construction, it did not originate from the same place any of the others did. The Arks and Golems were similarly different, but not by as many degrees of separation as the Spire ships were.
She didn't know what it exactly meant, either the information was coming from multiple places, or it was a collection of information that was managed to be cobbled together by... Somebody? The AI? It did seem central to the entire thing, but it was difficult to tell since she was just given access to a wealth of blueprints without direction or guidance.
The flagships were always massive in size, as evidenced by the fact that the cloaked transport version they used was nearly the size of a football field, and it was on the smaller end.
There were ships above even that size marker, capable of things Taylor didn't even dare dream of. She took one look at the label 'Planet-Cracker' and immediately moved on.
In the middle, lying between flagships and frigates, lay cruisers. Cruisers were singular ships, normally only being assigned one per entire fleet. Each one was uniquely suited to a particular task and worked especially well behind enemy lines. Their weapons were strong enough to easily contend with flagships in the right circumstances and based on her perusal could usually construct structures designed to hinder or outright hammer the enemy into the dust.
The particular one they had focused on was called the Voidpiercer, capital V.
The reason they were so scary was due to their size - if one was to examine her entire fleet, one might notice one ship that was slightly larger than the frigates surrounding it but would be hard-pressed to tell the difference right away or assume it was similar to the ships around it. When the Voidpiercer began unleashing its unholy payload upon its unsuspecting victims, they would change their minds very quickly.
Due to the... exotic nature of its weaponry, it excelled at damaging enemies who had more mass. There were other strikecraft that were swiftly being put into production called Polarizers, which were specifically designed to deal with heavily armored targets. By themselves they didn't deal much damage - soft targets would equate to merely being shot by a normal gun. Hard targets, the heavier the better, would get hit with the equivalent of a tiny, bullet-sized bunker buster (in terms of damage dealt, not an actual bunker-buster-sized explosion).
They also began pumping out fusion bombers and a couple of assault frigates. Both dealt with piercing weaponry focused on plasma, though normally they pierced through shields, not armor. There were also these rather strange little ships called Gunbots... For some reason, they had cloaking technology and were clearly not designed to have a person pilot them.
If two wings were strapped to a minigun-sized spinning turret, one would get a Gunbot. The ammo they used was not meant to deal high amounts of damage to normal targets, though in great enough numbers it wouldn't matter. What they did excellently against, however, was again, armor. Specifically, they compromised armor to make it easier for the other ships to deal greater amounts of damage.
They fired sliver-thin rounds that had a rather insane potential to pierce. Typically, they were so small the 'injuries' against a ship would be minimal at best, even if one Gunbot went full bore for several minutes. But they were never meant to attack alone - no, a veritable swarm of the things was currently being produced.
What they were made for was to get in close without being seen, attack as quickly as possible, get off as many shots as they could, then likely die.
The thousands and thousands of piercing holes would compromise the armor of the enemy, allowing it to be more easily melted, shattered, or pummeled into dust. Whatever armaments the accompanying fleet had.
These were all ships, amongst several others, that both she and Logic had agreed would work best against an Endbringer. V-Wings? Wouldn't even scratch it. Even most of the frigates would barely be able to touch the defenses of the Simurgh, but these ships? This is what they were born to do.
Would her ships do what the blueprints clearly hinted they could do? Could she truly have such an insanely powerful ability? The AI alone screamed 'Yes!' rather loudly into her ear, Taylor didn't see why the trend would stop anytime soon.
Their biggest issue right now was simple production - they didn't have enough metal to spam out these ships like they were an endless font, so they'd have to be tactical with their use. Also, to prevent them from being tampered with or otherwise sabotaged, recovered, or experimented on, certain... countermeasures were adopted. This wasn't the kind of tech Taylor felt comfortable getting spliced apart and taken advantage of.
Dragon's voice came back through her earpiece, crackling to life. "Before we can agree to anything, we need to see this fleet you're talking about - we can't just agree to a plan without proof you can back up your claim."
Logic quickly responded. "Of course, the unloading will commence immediately. Please tell people to not panic."
The command was given, and Taylor approved it. Their cloaked flagship, having already made it to Canberra, was hovering approximately a mile away from the primary Protectorate FOB (Forward Operating Base).
Ships were still being manufactured and transported to the flagship, but all the ones currently residing inside its hull were warped outside, immediately forming a massive cluster of gleaming black metal floating in the sky, not even budging in the wind thanks to the anti-gravity engines.
"Is this proof enough? Believe me, you will not regret allowing us the first strike. There are no pilots inside these ships, they cannot be suborned by any means. If she attempts to break them apart, they possess self-destruct features to prevent important parts from being stolen. We are confident we can greatly help you."
Logic was actually pretty good at this whole convincing people thing. Dragon's response was delayed again, as presumably, she spoke to her superiors or other coordinators.
"We will allow you the first strike. I have been instructed to inform you to patch into the radio channel listed under Gamma Gamma Beta Romeo for continued communications - this is the same channel announcements and armband instructions are sent through. You can also voice attack plans onto that channel, and I will communicate them as needed, and advise you to continue or not. Your assistance is appreciated."
Logic didn't break his monotone, but Taylor swore there was a smile in his voice. "We are happy to help. Logic out."
And off they went.
Of all the monstrosities Legend had to fight, the Simurgh was perhaps the worst. Every victory was a defeat of far worse measure; every success a possible prelude to disaster. As the best speaker of the Triumvirate by far, he was also assigned to give the brave souls who showed up to such a fight a bracing speech.
This was no pep-talk, no rallying cry to invoke a sense of heroic audacity as they fought against a force of nature, far from it. His job was to let the noble people who decided to risk something even more than their own life - their mind, their sanity, their very sense of self - know exactly what to be prepared for. Hopeslayer, indeed.
Somehow, some way, he then had twisted his words in such a way to uplift their sense of duty, regardless of the fact that the many faces before him were unlikely to return alive.
It was at the tail end of his speech that he'd somehow cobbled together on the spot when Dragon had interjected, every armband in hearing distance chiming to alert them.
"This is Dragon, the Simurgh is within a minute of landing. Before the assault begins, we are allowing a new force to begin the assault. Please listen closely to your armband for warnings on when to retreat from the Simurgh as they will be periodically performing bombing runs as well. The fleet responsible will be appearing soon - do not attack them."
The modulated voice cut off, and all eyes turned toward Legend. He shrugged and decided honesty was better than lying about knowing what the hell was going on.
"You heard her folks, the Simurgh is almost here. Let's gather outside in your assigned groups and prepare to follow up after the first wave. The plan remains the same otherwise, but above all PAY ATTENTION to your armbands, we cannot risk friendly fire. Not in this fight."
The various groups before him grumbled in general compliance, but they all swiftly exited the gathering area they'd put together so Legend could speak to them and give them their grouping instructions.
Deciding to take to the sky to get a better view, Legend rose above the tent line and took in the sight before him. From his new vantage point, he was treated to an unimpeded view of their arrival.
Coming from seemingly nowhere, the first 50 black ships were swiftly followed by more. They kept appearing until Legend's rough estimate put them at a few hundred, but they were varied in size and he could have been off. Engaging in his own comms, he asked a question. "What's the plan here guys?"
The personal communications between him and his fellow Triumvirate were heavily encrypted, though they tried to keep anything confidential off of it just in case. It merely allowed them to talk without including the entire cape population that was there to fight.
Alexandria's voice crackled through, as calm and collected as always. "Dragon spoke with someone named Logic, who wanted in on the fight but isn't physically present. As you can see, they are packing some kind of serious firepower, though exactly how serious cannot be determined yet. We have our Thinkers assessing them, but the results will take a bit to be generated. Supposedly they have countermeasures in place so they can't be used as fuel for the Simurgh's creations."
"I see. Well, sending in a wave of... remote piloted ships will allow us more time to get into position. I'm going to begin moving the capes into the outskirts of town so they're ready once the first assault dies off."
"Sounds good, Legend. See you on the battlefield."
Discussion over, Legend gave the baleful-looking ships a once over. They gleamed in the sun, burning high in the sky as it was just approaching noon, wicked-looking black curves and guns obvious for all to see.
There was a wide variety apparent throughout the cluster, though there were a couple significantly larger than the others. It was too far to make out any clear details, but overall, they looked quite menacing and heavily armed. Hopefully, they would make a difference - every life spared was of vital importance.
His armband beeped as a voice emerged, which he could hear coming from all the surrounding capes as well. Legend's blood chilled as the new voice spoke, one that was distinctly not a robot or automated voice - which was alarming because it meant someone had hacked into Dragon's tech and was now using it to announce themselves.
"Greetings heroes. Simurgh is touching down in 20 seconds - our first assault wave of ships will begin in 5 seconds. Secondary waves will follow up after the first begins their assault - please keep your distance. Operation Commencing… Now."
Legend didn't have time to ponder the consequences of such a thing as the smallest ships he noted amongst the horde vanished. It wasn't an immediate thing, it looked more like they simply disintegrated from the bottom up, completely disappearing within a half second.
Stealth technology, he thought. They were a fair distance from the probable landing point of the Simurgh, however, so they were probably planning on using something else and were going to ambush the false angel with them later.
Swiftly he realized he needed to take the lead. Shouting to be heard, he began directing the other capes towards the city so they were close enough to take action once the ships were killed off or retreated. And wasn't that a depressing thought - at best they were likely going to be cheap distractions, but possibly hundreds of hours' worth of work for whatever Tinker came up with the things.
Well, he hadn't seen their firepower yet, but powers (most of the time) were balanced in some sort of way. Panacea, for her incredible healing ability, couldn't affect herself. For all her power, a single gunman at 20 feet away posed a massive threat to her life.
Quantity rarely was accompanied by quality and vice versa. Which is part of the reason Legend was so convinced this fleet was likely many, many hours' worth of work, based on their size and without seeing their capabilities as of yet.
Perhaps he would be proven wrong and this would be the work of a new cape capable of great things - a new Triumvirate-tier power. The darker, cynical part of his mind laughed at such a thought. Natural triggers were more likely to be restricted, so the chances of a truly powerful new cape being vial-born was far more likely, which in turn meant Cauldron probably already knew about them if that was the case.
This also meant if that was the case it was yet another thing he wasn't informed of.
The New York Protectorates' leader was quick to banish such thoughts - they held no place on the battlefield he was about to join.
No doubts, no hesitation, no remorse. The Simurgh would try to tear apart everything that was good or loved in Canberra, and he was here to stop her.
The line of capes, numbering in the hundreds, entered the outskirts of the city right as the Simurgh began slowing her descent above the city, knowing her it was to increase the terror of the occupants below her, as they prayed she landed elsewhere so they could be spared.
Not an unusual tactic, sadly.
What was unusual, however, was the serene smile adorning her face suddenly changing to one of frustration and anger.
Nearly as soon as that happened, the comm system sparked to life. "Watchdog just lost sight of Canberra! I repeat, our Thinkers can no longer see Canberra!"
That must have been from the other communication system they were a part of - a channel with both the Triumvirate and Watchdog, only to be used in case of severe emergencies they all needed to be immediately aware of.
Legend immediately voiced his observation. "Simurgh's expression just changed to one of anger - could she be being blocked right now as well?"
Normally such a thing wouldn't be of great importance, but the Simurgh's expression very rarely ever changed. It was part of her unholy image - the serene angel of death and insanity.
"Unknown, but we just confirmed it is only Canberra itself. We have no readings on anything inside the city, including the Endbringer, but right outside the city limits everything works fine."
The situation was both alarming and held great potential. If the Simurgh was affected... It would change everything.
He promptly switched channels to the Triumvirate-specific option. "If the Simurgh's vision is being blocked... This might be our chance. Alexandria, the moment those ships engage we need to see if she still has full precognition. The potential..."
Legend didn't need to say anything else. Eidolon and Alexandria both attended every Endbringer battle, just like him. The Simurgh was only truly scary defensively because of her ability to turn attacks into friendly fire and the impossible dodges she could perform.
"I'm keeping my eye on her Legend, if she loses her ability to predict attacks, I'm in agreement. This is our chance. But don't get your hopes up just yet."
Of course. Legend took a steadying breath - Simurgh was known as the Hopeslayer for a reason, and she wasn't beyond giving them false confidence just to shatter it for greater effect later.
Any idle thoughts he might have had were interupted as the world exploded with noise. He'd attended a military presentation once, and included in the showing was a display of their new M234 Minigun. When it fired, it screamed at you to pay attention to it - and it was impossible not to. The blaring noise that was several thousand rounds per minute being fired was impossible to drown out or ignore.
This was just like that, only multiplied several times over. The capes below him immediately tensed, believing they were under attack until one pointed towards the Simurgh and shouted something inaudible.
Legend started, realizing those small ships he thought were preparing for an ambush were doing just that, only earlier than he expected.
The large collection of ships, easily reaching 100 at the minimum, had appeared underneath the Simurgh, appearing like a landing pad indicating where she should go.
Every single one was spitting out nearly invisible rounds that struck the wings and feathers of the Endbringer, actually causing it to flinch back from the brutal onslaught. The Triumvirate member was quite surprised at the reaction - while Endbringers were capable of being 'knocked back' especially the Simurgh, the sheer surprise and sudden trepidation that appeared on her face was quite unusual.
Besides that fact, whatever the ships were firing was nearly invisible to the naked human eye, making him wonder just what they were packing.
Before he could continue his observations, the Simurgh struck back, using her telekinesis to rip several roofs off nearby buildings before using them like fly swatters, smashing them into the earth with a vengeance. Every single ship rapidly evaded, and Legend couldn't help but notice they all took unique, individual routes to escape their imminent doom.
Separate intelligence? If the ships were all 'individually' piloted they were even more effective than he thought. Powers often helped with multi-tasking if their unique ability called for it, but to be tied in with ships of this caliber? Unusual.
The small ships continued unleashing their incredibly loud payload and evading the increasing number of telekinetic missiles the Simurgh was wielding when his armband chimed again, and the same male voice spoke.
"First assault successful, please stay clear of the AO. Bombing run commencing."
Bombing run? A sudden shriek that sounded oddly familiar emerged from behind him, and he whipped around to witness a new section of ships and one of the larger vessels begin rapidly approaching. They passed, the strangely-pitched noise wavering in tone as it passed by him.
"Everyone stay clear of the Simurgh's general vicinity, bombs of unknown payload are being deployed."
Not knowing the capabilities or firepower of any of these vessels was going to give him a headache, so he passed a general warning to the capes nearby. Several shields popped up to cover the main body of the capes in preparation.
The larger ship maintained a small distance between itself and the back of the shrieking ships, an ominous glowing beginning to creep up the arms of the craft.
Legend had to tear his eyes away from the large bomber because the smaller ones immediately unleashed their armaments, but instead of dropping something as he expected, glowing blue orbs ripped themselves free and swiftly collided with the Simurgh, who failed to dodge as he would have normally expected.
They erupted with a noise that eclipsed the ungodly droning of the minigun-wielding ships, a visible shockwave blowing the dust away in a rapidly expanding sphere.
As the Simurgh turned away from having successfully smashed a swath of the smaller craft, she was blindsided by the larger bomber as it deployed its own significant firepower. Its weapon was similar but appeared to be much larger than its smaller kin.
Legend swore the Simurgh's eyes widened a fraction right before it impacted, but all vision was lost when it detonated in a wreath of blue light and energy.
Everyone stopped and watched in awe as the dust that had been blown away from the initial impact slowly settled, allowing vision to return several moments later.
It became clear that the Simurgh had raised a wing to block the shot, but it was the end result that left Legend in shock.
Numerous feathers had been blown off, leaving a rather threadbare-looking limb behind, which had several cracks and clear faults running through it. It was far from a decisive blow in the grand scheme of things, but it was by far the most devastating blow the the Simurgh had ever received this early in the fight.
Her face locked in a rictus of fury, the wicked angel opened her mouth to scream her displeasure to the world, large pieces of debris and structures rising to circle her and provide protection.
Apparently, the ships had been waiting for just such an occurrence, as a new ship made itself known from the backline.
A rapid fwoomp followed by the loud roar of a rocket's exhaust was all the warning they got before something rammed itself down the Simurgh's newly exposed throat and detonated with a loud crackle of electricity and force.
The Simurgh had successfully flattened a significant number of the small, incredibly loud, and rapidly firing ships, and the bombing troupe was currently flying a large loop to come back around for round two. Whatever ship, which appeared to be of the larger variety, only took a few seconds before another fwoomp informed Legend it had reloaded already.
He didn't know much about modern military technology, but by the 12th rocket flying through the air in roughly under a minutes time span he was forced to acknowledge that the ship was obviously also of Tinker-Tech design, if that wasn't already clear from the gleaming black metal hull. Several turrets adorning both the top and bottom were swiveling about as its point-blank defense, but its primary offensive weapon was clearly the massive electric rockets it was deploying every few seconds.
The effects they had on the false angel were minimal, but each time they struck they temporarily blinded her and seemed to cause a brief stutter as she reoriented herself. Her telekinetic efforts to obliterate the few ships that remained close to her were slowly increasing in tempo, and she successfully blocked several of the rockets by detonating them early against her cloud of debris.
Buildings underneath her had, by some miracle, suffered no damage from the ship's attacks, but were currently looking the worse for wear as they'd become the Simurgh's repurposed ship-swatters and makeshift missile stoppers.
She'd even managed to snag several of those smaller ships that initiated the attack and started to rip them apart, but before he could even worry about whatever twisted creation the Endbringer had in mind, most of the ships stuck in her grasp simply... disintegrated.
Huh. That works, he supposed.
His next surprise entered the fray but from an unexpected direction - hovering just above street level were a pair of ships that projected a solid blue, hexagonal shield that surrounded them and the nearby civilians in a protective bubble. Any debris that was either intentionally tossed or merely floated into the barrier was stopped and rebuffed with apparent ease.
Not only that, thin beams of white light rapidly began appearing from near the tip of the ship, though instead of blowing a hole through the concrete slabs they targeted the objects simply... stopped.
Perfectly still in the air, as though they were grabbed by an invisible hand and told to simply cease moving.
Then, in a surprising display of intelligence, they tossed the debris backward and away from the large telekinetic's area of control. Denying the enemy easy ammunition, requiring her to focus on grabbing more instead of attacking or shielding herself... smart.
In yet another surprising twist, the ships began using their beams of... telekinesis? Whatever they were, they latched onto several civilians who seemed to be stuck, frightened, or unable to move under their own power. They swiftly toted them into the shield's cover if they weren't already, and once they reached some sort of limit, they rapidly retreated, carrying their new cargo with them to safety.
All the while, Legend simply watched in fascination as a single force of spaceships successfully fought against one of the world's most feared combatants of all time, stalling for time and dealing enough damage that the city just might not be quarantined.
Though he could see more ships spawning at irregular intervals from where they all originally appeared, they weren't being replaced fast enough to completely bring their numbers back up to the original count.
Pressing the buttons to give out an armband-wide announcement, he spoke. "Attention all capes, the fleet has struck the Simurgh a major blow, and we've seen no signs of her using precognition to dodge attacks. Their numbers are dwindling, however, and it will be our time to strike and hold the line soon, prepare yourselves! Blasters, group yourselves with me and prepare to unleash everything you have on my mark. Anybody with flight and damaging abilities might get more time to participate if that rocket ship continues its pattern of targeting her mouth every time she opens it. Get into position and prepare yourselves!"
The assembled capes underneath him all shook themselves free of their collective stupor and formed into the assigned groupings. Internally, Legend was hopeful but painfully aware of the potential for everything to go wrong in an instant. For his sanity's sake, he chose not to believe this was all planned by the Simurgh to give them hope once more, only to dash it against the rocks.
Strider appeared rapidly, repositioning groups of blasters at Legend's command to within striking distance, but far enough away to not be at risk from the current fight.
While he himself repositioned, an idle thought entered his mind that no more new ships had appeared in the last couple of minutes, and the Simurgh was mostly dealing with the rockets and the bomber fleet that was still mostly intact. With her focus only being split between two opponents, however, she proved herself just as frightening without a massive precognitive boost.
Numerous chunks of concrete, rebar sticking out of several pieces, floated to intercept the rockets as they moved without the false angel even looking into perfect positions.
The bombers unleashed their devastating payload early, so as to breach the shield wall the Endbringer had constructed for herself, the blasts easily enough to wipe out and pierce her attempt to block. Even with their destructive power, especially the larger bomber who eclipsed all of the smaller ships with a single hit, the Simurgh remained standing strong.
This time she decided to counter-attack, lobbing numerous pieces of detritus at the still-approaching cluster of ships. Although nearly all of the shots connected, every single one survived the attack as the trees, rocks, and parts of buildings were deflected by a thin blue barrier that appeared right as they were struck. Personal shields as well as projected shields. Very interesting.
At worst they bobbed slightly from the impact but continued on their merry shrieking way as they passed. Did they really have to announce their presence with that awful noise?
This trend continued for a while, and though his group looked eager and ready to start he didn't give the signal to attack yet. Something wasn't quite right - the area where the ships originated from hadn't spat out any new ships for several minutes, and while one might have thought it was because the Tinker who created the ships had run out, Legend's 6th sense was practically screaming a warning at him.
It was less they weren't spending resources on more of their smaller ships - it was the sense they were focusing all their effort on... something. Something big. Legend had no way of verifying his fear, but he could shake the feeling that something was coming.
Based on the tech they'd already displayed; he was both extremely interested and scared to see what they showed off next.
Several explosions rocked the very earth itself as some of the bombers were destroyed, crashing into the ground, but not before successfully unleashing their weaponry on the Endbringer. They swiftly disintegrated, much like the others before it, leaving not even a trace behind.
A couple of noisy bombing runs later and most of the ships were defeated, leaving only the larger ship that stopped doing passes and stopped, unloading its not-inconsiderate close-range weaponry and its explosive attack every chance it had. It lasted nearly a minute on its own, a testament to the raw strength and defense of the cruisers? Frigates? Destroyers? Legend wasn't sure what they were classified as.
The rocket ship never ceased firing either - though most of its shots were ineffectual, it did provide some form of distraction and annoyance for the Simurgh.
Meanwhile, the bubble-shield ships seemed to have successfully evacuated the nearby vicinity as they were now focused entirely on ripping pieces of debris away from her shield and tossing them away, outside of her control radius. Though each ship had to use a significant number of its beams to actually wrest control from the false angel, they were slowly but surely reducing the total number of weapons she had access to.
It was as the final death blow was dealt to the larger bomber that Legend gave his order. "Blasters! FIRE NOW! Give her everything you've got! Brutes, prepare to smack her down once we stop!"
Most of the capes attending were ones Legend recognized - they were all familiar with their general strategy when it came to a currently non-moving Endbringer (excluding Behemoth), which was to blast it with everything they had in an effort to stun it, then keep it from getting up and repeat the process. Eidolon floated near him, having charged his powers for as long as possible.
"Let's end this quickly."
It was part prayer, part self-actualization. Streamers of fire, light, oddly bent space, distorted beams of purple, and an infinite variety of other attacks burst from their group, colliding with the Simurgh in a torrent of ungodly destruction. It was also further proof and confirmation of her lack of precognition - the Endbringer, as the physically weakest of her family, would never eat that much raw firepower if she had the option to evade.
As the last beam tapered off, Legend had completely lost sight of their foe in the massive dust cloud that had erupted. Another fwoomp told him that the missile ship had never stopped unleashing its never-ending payload.
The explosion that followed rapidly cleared the air of debris, and Legend vaguely heard Dragon in the background telling the ship to cease firing. It seemed to comply with the command, as no new missiles emerged, and he was granted sight of Alexandria swooping in and grabbing the Simurgh by the neck, before pulling her backward and swinging her into the earth like a meteor touching down from on high.
Like an actual meteor, a large crater was formed at the impact site, where the rest of the flyers swiftly took position and began unloading their own attacks. Included in that assault wave were closer-range Blasters who were ferried in by flyers to stay relevant and as safe as they could be, given the situation.
Legend's group of long-range Blasters received a teleport from Strider to a new position that was closer, but overlooked the new angel-shaped crater in the ground. At their armbands command, the flyers and brutes retreated, before his group unloaded everything they had yet again.
Over the cacophony of noise being generated by the Blasters, he vaguely heard the armband spit out a command to continue firing, as the Simurgh hadn't escaped the pit yet. And so they kept at it, his own lasers of varying types flying into where Legend roughly guessed the center of the crater would be. Eidolon continued unleashing his particular brand of devastation, some kind of exotic wave that disintegrated the very dust it passed through.
Again, Legend felt optimism. This was by far the most damage they'd dealt to the Simurgh before she managed to so much as let out a peep of her voice, let alone the path of destruction she normally carved as she worked her way through the heroes.
Even if the Simurgh were to burst through and let out a scream right now, they would still be in a better position than any fight with the false angel to date.
Eventually, even he was beginning to feel the strain from unleashing as many attacks as he had in the past minute, and each Blaster slowly petered out as they ran out of stamina.
It took several minutes for the dust to settle enough to get a picture of the Simurgh's crash site - now torn apart, on fire, frozen over, distorted into strange, unnatural shapes, and other things Legend couldn't begin to describe with his current vocabulary.
For all the evident damage, what rested inside the center of destruction made his blood run cold, even as his heart rate spiked and adrenaline flooded his veins.
There she stood - Hopeslayer. The False Angel. The Third Endbringer, Simurgh.
Though she was tattered, a couple of wings having broken off, and numerous cracks, divots, chips, and other clear signs of their assault were on display, nothing stood out as much as the look of sheer rage on her face as she slowly floated out of the crater, new pieces of debris beginning to orbit her with growing speed.
Even as he called for the general retreat of all capes in the vicinity, he knew it was too late. The Simurgh had been pushed too far and was going to show them why these monsters were so feared. The fact she hadn't managed to cause any serious damage as of yet was about to be rectified in a moment unless Legend was terribly mistaken.
Strider didn't enter the active combat scenarios unless it was deemed relatively safe to do so, and it was certainly not safe anymore. Instead, brave flyers and other weaker teleporters appeared before their group, grabbing the immobile cluster of heroes and villains.
Legend admired their heroism - but it was too late. As the group that had done the most damage to her by far, they would be the first to go. He himself could likely get away, but he glanced down at the group before him. He could see Astrologer, frantically resuming his assault, calling down fiercely glowing star-like projectiles to try and distract the unstoppable force approaching them.
With a contemptuous flick, the Simurgh diverted an entire corner store into the collection of missiles, redirecting them just enough to miss.
He saw Miss Militia, scowl apparent even through her bandana, as her weapon rematerialized as a massive rocket launcher, which she began to fire and dematerialize, only to bring it back again, firing it with a rapidity that beat even the missile-ship their mysterious ally brought in.
The furiously glowing white streak of light was Purity, who unleashed her most devastating attack yet, a frantic effort to delay the monster who approached, growing closer by the second.
Howitzer, a tinker who specialized in a mix of explosives and long-range bombardment, featured a massive frown as he loaded a canister into his own strange ground-mounted launcher. Labeled on the side, Legend could clearly read the warning sticker stating in bold, red letters 'WARNING: EXPERIMENTAL MUNITIONS: HANDLE WITH CARE'.
He dropped it into the tube, much like the clips he'd seen from WWII infantry-carried artillery, it let out a FWUMP and traveled in a perfect parabolic arc before colliding with their approaching death. It traveled fast enough it passed through the shield of debris unblocked, before detonating with a deafening explosion of sound and light that left Legend reeling.
By the time his eyesight finally returned, a nearly perfect unnatural sphere was cut out from the ground and buildings before them, as though the matter had simply... disappeared. The edge of the annihilation was uncomfortably close to their own position, and he received several death glares, even in the midst of their retreat.
Although several of them had managed to be successfully rescued, it was rapidly becoming clear most would not escape the Simurgh's wrath.
Legend unleashed his strongest attacks, already in his breaker state, joining with his fellows to try and stem the advance of the Endbringer.
Eidolon joined him with his disintegration ray, vanishing parts of her shield into nothing.
Even if the villains were mostly trying to save their own skin, the Triumvirate member could see the determination etched into every single face below him. If they were to die today, they would die fighting, and saving as many as they could, knowing there was nothing else that could be done.
Worst of all, this was hardly the first time he'd been forced to witness the near execution of large numbers of capes. One didn't face Behemoth, the Hero-Killer, without seeing vast numbers of capes perish in unspeakable ways. One misstep, one miscalculation, and any of the Endbringers were capable of slaughtering hundreds, if not thousands in a single attack.
For all his history, Legend wasn't ready to witness such a thing again. He screamed, his breaker state barely suppressing his emotions as rage and fury attempted to bubble through the protective numbness that shrouded him.
He refused to let this group of heroes go gently into that good night while feeling nothing for them - he would fight as long as possible until it was too late, then he would retreat and witness each and every single one of their valiant sacrifices. They were delaying her, if only slightly - the others would be much faster at retrieving the trapped capes, so he continued his assault, heedless of the light-headedness that began creeping along the edges of his vision.
Eidolon continued his assault and quickly turned to Legend. "I'm charging a group teleport, but it's not powerful enough yet, we NEED to hold her back! I can't give up my defense power and my attack is helping hold her back, we just need more time!"
"Got it!" Not like he didn't already know they needed time. It was the single most valuable resource in the entire world. And right now, they had very little of it.
Alexandria attempted to dive in again and divert the Endbringer, but this time she merely collapsed a large mound of debris around the world's strongest flyer and grasped with her hand, the concrete cracking under the telekinetic pressure being exerted, before flinging her away.
It was in these moments, where Legend was both aware and was being forced to witness the death of numerous capes, people just trying to do the right thing in this one instance, that he truly felt anger. There were plenty of other scenarios that made him furious - humanity was depraved enough before it gained powers.
But it was these moments of powerlessness before tragedy struck that his blood boiled, regardless of his breaker state neutralizing nearly all his emotions. It translated into a cold, calculating fury that made him want to unleash his most powerful attacks until the thing causing these feelings was left as naught but ash.
So he did.
Not that it would make a difference in this case - they might save one or two more capes with the time he bought, but by the time his onslaught was over he was spent, his breath coming in gasps even though he didn't have lungs with which to breathe.
"It's not enough! It's not ready, I can't save them, Legend! Fuck." Eidolon - No, David's voice was brimming with emotion - something besides the impotent rage and despair he felt over his waning powers. Although Legend was glad to see something closer to righteous anger, it didn't do anything for them.
Everyone below was still going to die, trapped on top of a building, slaughtered by an angel risen straight from Hell itself.
The Simurgh was too close - they had to retreat before they were caught in her grasp. "We have to leave, Eidolon! Continue suppressing fire, but we have to move back!"
David seemed torn between staying and trying to save everyone anyway, a last act of heroism, but his indecision was broken by the armbands speaking up again.
"ALL FORCES - VOIDPIERCER CRUISER DEPLOYED - WARNING - SINGULARITY DEPLOYMENT IMMINENT. RETREAT IMMEDIATELY."
Legend swiftly turned - there was only one force currently hacking the armband's frequency, at least as far as he was aware. As he looked, a new, massive ship appeared before his eyes, just as the others before it did.
This is what they were waiting for, his mind whispered to him, unhelpfully. No shit.
It was by far the largest ship he'd laid eyes on yet. It was made of the same unique, darkly reflective metal, seemingly drinking in the light rather than bouncing it back.
It had two 'arms' with a large spike protruding in the gap between them. Deep purple electricity arced between the arms and the point of the spike. The rest of the ship just looked like engines, a blue glow emanating from the rear of the craft.
Several covered chutes revealed themselves, before immediately deploying rockets from every single one. Briefly, his mind replayed the warning that was just broadcast to everyone in range - particularly the bit about a singularity being deployed. While the science behind why such a thing was dangerous escaped him, Legend was confident it would be quite deadly to anyone who got sucked in.
He decided to repeat the warning just in case anyone didn't hear. "EVERYONE GET AS FAR AWAY FROM THE SIMURGH AS POSSIBLE! If you value your life, run, jump, just FLEE!"
Inside, he knew yelling wouldn't make them run any faster, but he didn't particularly care. If even one person was saved because they heard his voice, it would be worth it. Looking back, he could see several of the capes previously trapped on the rooftop of the building they were all stuck in braving the several-story fall, likely breaking legs or other bones in the process, before trying to roll away through the crippling pain. It seemed they took his warning seriously.
The rockets, near as he could tell, traveled even faster than the prior missile ships did. When they struck the Simurgh, rather than explode per se, they instead formed a large sphere, not unlike what Howitzer's bomb pulled off, only they stayed visible for several seconds. The light bent oddly as it traveled through the explosion until Legend realized what was about to happen.
With a sudden clap of noise and air, the implosion collapsed in on itself, dragging all the matter it latched onto with it, condensing to a tiny, invisible point, before exploding with a force at least equal to the test bomb of Howitzer's before, if not greater. Times four.
Without the annihilation aspect of the explosion, the damage was far clearer to see when the cloud of dust finally dissipated. The surrounding structures that hadn't been flattened all show signs of high-speed debris colliding with them, piercing through the visible walls in most cases.
When the Endbringer finally appeared, the damage was even more evident. Whatever force was used to generate the implosion itself was clearly far greater than the explosion portion of it - numerous pieces of the Simurgh were bent in odd ways, several more wings having been torn off. One of her arms was gone, and her face was cracked in a way that made it quite clear she wasn't human.
She'd already been battle-worn beforehand, now she looked like she'd been ran-over by a bus. A Tinker-Tech bus designed to cause maximum damage.
An ominous hum made itself known, giving no time for the battle to stagnate. Legend turned again, witnessing the purple arcs growing with increasing frequency as they all began focusing on the tip of the spike amidst the twin white arms of the Voidpiercer.
Maybe the Simurgh attempted to form a telekinetic shield, maybe she tried to flee. He would never know, because as she opened her mouth to scream her defiance to the world, the lightning coalesced into a tiny, solid orb of purple, so dark it was nearly black.
The humming grated on his very bones as it reached a crescendo until the ship unleashed its tiny payload in a blink directly into the Endbringer. For a brief instant, nothing happened - then like the condensed implosion, it unfurled into a new devastating form.
Ah, this must be the singularity that was mentioned. A large, perfectly black sphere had appeared, sucking in everything around after which the material vanished, not to be seen again. The Simurgh had begun to flee but had only made it a short distance. Everything below her knees was sucked in and the rest of her mass was slowly dragged in further. It was clear she was pushing back with all her might but was making very little headway against the swirling mass of death.
The impossible standoff lasted for several seconds, only breaking when several pieces of some building - Legend idly noted a sign that said 'Tony's Tacos' - rapidly diverted from their path into the singularity to strike her and give her just enough give to escape the pull.
With a burst of speed far outstripping the usual maximum she ever used, the Simurgh fled into orbit, missing several important bits and pieces.
With another crackle of purple 'electricity', the Voidpiercer struck the singularity. It arced back and forth for several moments, the ominous hum building up again, until it abruptly vanished, leaving a perfect sphere of nothingness, just like before.
The massive white ship floated serenely in the sky, as though it hadn't just struck the single most decisive victory against an Endbringer... ever.
Silence permeated the air for several moments before the first cheer reached Legend's ears. He allowed his breaker state to fall away so as to better let the emotions wash over him like a drowning wave.
It only took a second before a second voice, then a third, and many more voices joined the uproar as the beleaguered capes rejoiced in a massive win against impossible odds that by all accounts they shouldn't have survived.
As though sensing his gaze, the Voidpiercer silently turned about, gently approaching the same area the others were born from before it too vanished.