Three long years had passed since our arrival here. The city is now thriving. We managed to complete the lift and even power it with geothermal energy. Most of the volcano has already been transformed, and I increased the production of different units to staff most of the facilities. The now-named Citadel is a giant megastructure, almost half the size of UA. The hive city's main purpose is the mass production of the supplies needed to arm and make the puppets viable. Nezu and Power Loader helped us through the whole process by giving me the proper knowledge and resources to accomplish this. I was especially grateful to Power Loader, as he kept Mei motivated and had already begun teaching her for almost two years, since she finished junior high. Thankfully, she was able to talk to us through the connection established by the satellites. She missed us a lot, so after we survived our first winter, we wanted to invite her here. We asked Nezu if she could visit just for her birthday so we could celebrate it together in April. He agreed, as long as her parents were okay with it. They were a bit concerned at first, but after Mei pleaded with them for days, they let her come.
When she got here, she was ecstatic. Mei was so happy to finally be with us physically that she didn't even talk about anything related to support items or the wonders of UA. She just spent the entire time with us. Overall, her 15th birthday was pretty good, despite the circumstances. We even "pleased her," deciding it would probably be the best gift she could receive from us at the time. She absolutely loved it and wanted even more, but since it was a one-day trip, she had to go back home. To avoid disappointing her, we asked Nezu if she could come for our birthdays as well. He agreed, on the condition that we helped him with a few of his projects. I knew he only made us do something so we wouldn't feel more indebted to him, but I accepted nonetheless. That's how the Citadel was expanded to include UA's secret new R&D department.
Before Mei left, we finally figured out that deep physical affection seems to be the cause of the wings appearing, as Mei sprouted one almost instantly after we "satisfied" her. I also felt another tingling sensation behind my back, but in a different place, though there was no physical change, so I shrugged it off. When the time for Mei's departure came, we said our teary goodbyes and sent her off.
Last year, we met up again much sooner—first in September to celebrate Momo's 15th birthday, then on my birthday in March, and finally once again on Mei's 16th birthday in April. Overall, it was a great time for all three of us, but this year is the one that will be interesting, as we've decided that on my birthday, we will finally have sex. Currently, it's still only October, not long after Momo's 16th birthday. I'm the last one of our group to turn 16. I honestly can't wait, and judging by the amount of temptation and complaints coming from the girls, neither can they. They even asked me to do it with them on Momo's birthday last month, but something deep inside me whispered that I wasn't ready. I even asked HJack about the feeling, but he didn't sense anything out of order. To honor our deal and avoid messing with things I don't understand, I managed to keep myself in check. The girls were really disappointed, and so was I, but we moved on.
Last year, Thrawn also wanted to expand our city under the lake as a kind of secondary base for us. We came up with the name Rapture. The Protectors have already almost finished clearing out the lakebed, and the factories have begun producing the necessary materials to complete the job. We plan to start construction next month when this year's storm hits. In the meantime, we're working on expanding our reach on the island by building underground railway systems all over. This is not just to make transporting goods easier for future projects, but also for defending the island itself. Last summer, we picked up search parties of yet unidentified personnel in Area 13. Thanks to Nezu's investigation, we found out it's once again the HPSC, and for some reason, the Chinese government is working with them to possibly capture us. These are obviously off-the-book operations, but it's almost certain they're looking for us, as a lot of their agents and heroes got killed or hurt during our escape. Fortunately, it seems they don't fully know if it was me or Momo in the group, but they certainly suspect it, since the helicopters that come to deliver supplies are the same model Nezu uses, for obvious reasons. I even asked Nezu why he made it so obvious. He replied, "That's the great thing about being brilliant. Even if you're super obvious, people are more likely to question themselves than you. How could I be so dumb as to not notice these things? So they'll jump to other conclusions, like someone trying to frame me or it being stolen. While if I tried too hard to cover it up, one slip-up and it's game over for you." I had to praise Nezu for his ingenuity, since apart from having Power Loader in the same uniform as us during the escape and having ever-changing takeoff and landing zones, he hadn't done anything to cover this up. The bad part is that the HPSC found the general area where the helicopters go when they leave Japan.
Because of this, Thrawn declared a general emergency, and Breen increased the priority of every project that could boost the Citadel's defensive capabilities. Many bunkers and trenches were built. As a result, the railway system is halfway finished and now connected to the Citadel. The volcano's exterior walls are filled with defensive positions and large mechanical doors that give direct access to the complex where the prototype helicopters are made and stored. The Citadel's manpower is now close to 15,000 units, mostly utility, but more than 5,000 combat units are fully operational. We currently have three working prototype vehicle models: the General Purpose Light APC, the modified Hunter-Chopper helicopter, and the Razor Train built for the underground railway. The APCs are the easiest to produce, so we have 15 of them. The Hunter-Choppers are trickier to make, so we only have 6 of them in combat-ready states, and due to the current lack of need and the resource-intensive requirements of the Razor Trains, only 2 of them were made, along with their carts.
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[6 weeks later]
All the preparations, it seems, were justified since we picked up the movements of the scout party moving towards Opportunity on the satellite images. They will arrive here on boats in about 6 hours after nightfall. Thrawn sounded the alarms, and the Puppets and we began to prepare. We first needed to suit up in proper protective clothing, so we could survive the toxic storm. Momo stayed with Breen to help him with logistics, and I went with the ground troops so I could act in case of an emergency. Every Puppet is now dressed in a variant of an armored and heavily padded hazmat suit with built-in gas masks. Their weapons are simple SMGs and assault rifles. We will split into three different groups and make our way to where the enemies will land on the shore. The Sharpshooters and Gunslingers will head there by chopper. The general Combat Engineers, Toxins, Heavies, and Jammers will head there via APCs under the general command of Makima. The third group, which I will join, will go by train. These are the heavy hitters—the Artilleries and Harvesters. The other units that cannot come with us due to a lack of transport will bunker down and protect the Citadel.
When we heard the update that a group of more than 20 people had begun landing on our south shore, we began mobilizing. The large door of the train closed on us as we began moving. Due to the overwhelming size of our numbers, we planned to capture them so we could get their battle plans and have a better idea of what kind of information they have.
With the satellites, we are monitoring and recording both our movements and theirs while also sending the live footage to UA straight to Nezu's personal computer, since he wanted to have a laugh at the footage. He plans to show it to the students as a "simulation" of what not to do when you are operating as a hero with little to no information on your enemies. This is all fine since he is one hundred percent sure that none of the HPSC agents will return from there to tell the tale, and even if they do, this mission didn't happen, so they can't do anything to him regardless.
The first unit to come into range of the intruders was the choppers, but per my command, they didn't open fire on the group caught with their pants down. The Overwatch Dispatchers began to speak through the loudspeakers in the choppers with their almost robotic voices: "You are currently in a restricted area of Opportunity. Comply with us, and we will not open fire."
Someone who looked like the group's leader stepped forward and dared to order us: "Stand down. This is neutral territory, so your words hold no weight. So once again, do as I say—stand down. We are here on behalf of the Chinese government looking for dangerous Japanese terrorists. And since you guys perfectly fit this description, how about you come out here and go with us without us needing to call the whole army?" The guy's posture looked smug, obviously overconfident behind the true weight of his words. The Dispatchers didn't even entertain the idea and replied in the same tone: "Understood. Then we are sorry for your losses." The metaphorical smile quickly froze on his face as the choppers began to move, obviously getting ready for a fight. The agents, realizing the gravity of their situation, instantly began heading for cover or using their quirks to start their own attacks. One of the choppers took a hit from a bolt of lightning, but it didn't crash. The others in the unit began shooting with the machine guns mounted on the helicopters, but one of the agents had a quirk clearly related to mirrors, as they began to appear in the air and deflect the bullets by making copies and sending them back perfectly. However, three of the agents were gunned down nonetheless. They managed to take down one of the choppers by cutting off one of its wings and tail with high-powered water blades. Another had to fall back after being covered in more and more snow. Despite its frost-resistant coating, the sheer weight of the condensed snow almost made it crash—probably also the work of a quirk. The chopper hit by lightning also began to break down, so it crash-landed a bit further away from the fight. Since we were almost there to support them, and Makima's group wasn't far away with their APCs, the Hunter Choppers began strafing runs, dropping bombs on the agents. They weren't prepared for that, and five agents were literally vaporized upon first contact, with two more most likely crippled. Since we had managed to weaken them for now, the choppers then headed toward the invaders' boat to destroy it, so they couldn't escape or send messages from there. While they were heading toward the boat, the agents, slowly pulling themselves together, tried to escape, but they were out of luck. The tear gas being pumped out of the approaching APCs reached them, and since their protective gear was damaged during the fight, the radiation and gas easily stopped them from running away. This was our signal to move out, and the Harvesters quickly dashed toward them and cut off all of their hands so they wouldn't cause problems while we transported them to the Citadel on the trains. Since they weren't needed for now, the artillery units just moved toward the crash site to look for survivors. Unfortunately, the mangled and burning chopper held no survivors, but we took their remains nonetheless to cremate them and add them to the memorial graveyard. When the APCs arrived not long after with the crew of the crash-landed chopper, I ordered them to collect the survivors and the intact corpses of the agents for transport. The Toxins then switched to knockout gas so the prisoners wouldn't wake up. When everyone was gathered in one place, I asked the artillery androids to cauterize the agents' wounds so they wouldn't bleed all over our train, and I suppose also to give them a chance to survive.
The journey back to the Citadel's train station was almost silent. When we arrived, we were all cleaned by the Jammers to remove any radiation. We quickly handed off the prisoners and bodies to the medics and rescuers to treat, but I specifically ordered them not to give the prisoners their hands back since I wanted to keep them somewhat harmless. I also ordered some of my common units and Toxins to keep an eye on them. After that, I headed toward the giant main elevator to head up to the main command room to speak with Thrawn. On my way, Makima, who had just arrived back, joined me on the lift. When we arrived, I saw the Hivewings running around the place in a hurry, making reports. We then joined Thrawn, Breen, and Momo, who were sitting around a large conference table while speaking with a rather giddy Nezu on the main screen.
"Before we make fun of the HPSC and their incompetence, I want to make this very clear: this is another declaration of war from them, and I won't take it lying down. Nezu, we need to do something about this, or we could possibly get into a conflict with China and potentially Russia due to their meddling." I quickly brought down the mood so we wouldn't stray away from the important bits of this problem. Everyone sobered up as they realized the true problem that lay underneath this conflict. Thrawn, Breen, and Nezu nodded to each other as if they all had the same idea: "We will make Opportunity into a city-state led on paper by Breen, since he is less known between the two of your top commanders and since his capabilities are better for public speech. We won't reveal that you two are here, but we will reveal our forces and rebrand as the..." Nezu began to speak, but I cut in with a throbbing headache: "The Combine." The others just looked at me, confused, but Nezu eventually continued: "Sure, that wouldn't have been the name I suggested, but I guess it fits." Breen also held his head in pain, the same as me, but soon enough, we were alright. The others had questions, but we concluded our session with my final declaration: "Alright, our country will be named the Combine. Our head of state will be Breen, and our capital city will be Opportunity itself. Our cover story will be that we are the descendants of the quirked and quirkless who were nuked. We regrouped here after the catastrophe and have been living underground to avoid the radiation and weather. Nezu found us not long ago and has been helping us with supplies and technology. We will paint ourselves as the victims of this attack today, and our escape will be played off as a really big misunderstanding and mistake due to the overreaction of the local heroes. We will do this so the HPSC won't feel backed into a corner and lash out at us for now. Nezu will fake reports and other evidence to further support our claim. We will make one of the high-ranking but already dead HPSC agents take the fall and create a story about them being overzealous and not reporting their findings to their supervisors. Is everyone okay with that?" Everyone nodded, and we declared together: "To our great future and the succession of the Combine Empire!"