August 12 63 AE (military calendar)August 12 2086 AC (global calendar)AceSentinel matryoshka Brain / Sol Heliosphere Walking down a catwalk I note how much I prefer my frame to a flesh and bone body. I’m sure some of the other sentinels feel the same but I know Kell and Bear feel different for two very different reasons.

  I prefer it because it offers greater freedom. In a dogfight I'm unmatched, I can pull hundred gee turns with no issues and can walk around inside a star like I was at a beach.

  Freedom… it’s astonishing how many think they have it when they are just another sve. Though I guess not everyone can just leave this reality at will.

  I simute a deep sigh and watch my ship get its new sensors put on. It’s nothing I didn’t already have but it is significantly more sensitive, according to the local quantum physicist Varian I should be able to actively detect each particle in a bck hole.

  Probably overkill. While I have the Traveler in dock I check armor weapons and other systems. They all come back as perfect. Not surprising.

  Not wanting to be stuck here any longer I rift aboard connect to my ship and then retract the docking cmps and after doing a final check that nothing is going to spot me I throw my thrusters to max and ride a fir out of the heliosphere back into the empty void and immediately rip open a rift to a random point to start.

  Now begins the fun part. What sights will I behold? what creatures will I discover? So many epics to explore.

  I make sure to record everything in absolute perfection down to the quarks for Nyx to add to the afterlife. Now what’s this that’s an interesting rock.

  Nyx“Heaven” R'lyehIt’s a lovely rainy day in the city as I walk through the streets. Maybe today I’ll visit some people it’s been a while since I’ve st seen them. Now who to visit first?

  Let’s start with Hephaestus and see what marble he’s made recently. In a blink, I’m inside his shop. Though calling it a shop is an incredible disservice. It puts many factories to shame.

  I amble through nes of molten metal and automated forges creating standard parts. Let’s see where was his corner.

  I seem to go through half the building before I find him. He’s nose-deep in some pns “It seems I came at a good time” I state. He looks up “Oh hey to what do I owe the pleasure”

  I shrug “Just visiting” he nods “Right. Anyway how are things on the outside I’ve heard some rumors. Some soldiers passing through wanting the best gear and gossiping”

  I can guess what he’s fishing for “There has been some heavy fighting but for now, it’s over. A saint was appointed a while ago by mortal standards” he nods “The fighting makes sense but why the saint”

  I make a clean table and some chairs appear then gesture for him to take a seat. He chuckles a little “It’s always time to drink tea with you isn’t it”

  I sit down “Of course. Now as for your question it’s out of practicality not any sense of vanity” he nods “I never took any of them as vain” I continue “It’s to prevent or at least head off any new religions their previous methods were cking”

  A cruel smile spreads on his face “Spero doesn’t want to put down any more dogs so he’s trying to nutter the source” I nod “Exactly”

  “So what were you working on” I ask with genuine curiosity. He gnces at his drawing table “Something I’ll probably need to get some help for to have it work the way I want it”

  I use some ‘puppy dog eyes’ as Spero called them to get him to tell me more. He sighs “They said they were from the 104th. It’s actually their second request the first one was interesting”

  “Anyway, I guess they regrouped once they got here and have taken a liking to your war games so they requested a walking fortress. I thought it would be fun so here we are”

  I gnce at the table and he silently says I can look at it. If I’m reading the scale correctly it’ll be huge. One hundred meters in height to be exact. In each foot is a barracks with weapon empcements to defend against ‘light targets’ What is a one hundred millimeter cannon doing in there?

  I only gnce at the rest of the armaments it’s true insanity. “How can they afford all this,” I ask him. “Far as I know they’re acting like a mercenary company they are surprisingly loaded”

  I strike my tentacles in thought. “You said this was their second request what was the first” he gets up and moves over to a different workbench and uncovers an astonishingly exquisite sword.

  I personally believe that swords have such symbolism in humans because of Spero. After all the weapon used by your savior would become fairly ingrained in one’s self.

  The one before me is a perfect blend of ceremonial and practical. “This is magnificent… who’s it for” Hephaestus’s body nguage changes to something like awkward or embarrassed “They said their leader a uh general I think they said”

  I nod my head “A shame then that the recipient will never see it” I turn to face him “Not that you need my permission but please request whoever you need to finish that project I hope to be back to see the finishing touches”

  With that, I add a person to my list to visit and leave to see them.

  GriffinElysium primeI’m sitting in my bed reading while the guys watch old movies. Today is monster fights. Surprisingly rabbit pokes his head in “Hey got a second” he asks.

  I set down my book “Sure” he gnces at my guitar sitting on its stand “Jed’s having a depressed moment can you help us distract him for a bit” I stand up “What did you have in mind”

  He gestures to my guitar “Can you py my curse” I nod “Perfect just come out and start pying don’t worry about singing”

  I head out and before Jed spots me I begin to py and to even my surprise Wraith begins to sing. I knew Rabbit and Barbosa could but Wraith doesn’t join. He’s got a deep baritone that hits the lead singer parts perfectly while Rabbit joins in as backup, him preferring to wreck his vocal cords.

  This utterly confuses Jed until we hit the chorus then he decides to just enjoy the show as the guys get more and more into it.

  Once we finished that I decided to start four walls and just hoped they would know it. Thankfully they all did and we just rocked out.

  That is until I got a call from Tanya. When I answered the guys were just singing together gimme gimme gimme.

  “Uh what am I hearing” is the first thing she says “Don’t worry about it what did you need”. Rabbit grins and grabs Jed around the neck and they both sing louder.

  “Well I’m sorry to interrupt your well-earned vacation but a situation popped up and I could use your team and probably zombie bate”

  I sigh knowing that it’s a part of life while in service so it’s best not to Cary about these things. Instead, I ask “Can you give me some details so I can grab them if needed”

  The pause is telling. This is from very high up. “A sight was discovered in the Rocky Mountains we’ve been asked to investigate and secure it by any means including erasing it if necessary”

  My wide eyes stop the guys singing instead they stare at me “Yeah we should take ‘em with us when’s the brief” The reply is a snort “As soon as you guys can get here you can gear up after”

  With that, she hangs up. “Well shows over we have a mission. Just make sure you're dressed we’ll gear up ter” As testimony to our professionalism no one groans or whines as shirts are put on and we make ourselves decent.

  We stop over at Zombie Bates's house to collect them. Unfortunately, I can smell the alcohol from the outside but I have to check. I knock on the door and an absolutely piss-faced Prince answers. “Is everyone in your state?” I ask him. And like I suspected he mumbles a yes.

  I turn and leave. In the end, just our squad is going I guess. A short while ter we are outside the briefing room and Tanya is waiting. “No zombies,” she asks

  I shake my head “they were uh preoccupied”. She nods “We’ll make it work” She opens the door and steps in. We follow behind and I’m a little surprised to see Ori and Kell here as well as Captain General Bliss and Casper. I expected the st two.

  We sit next to Casper while Bliss stands in front of a screen “Thank you, gentlemen. It is my hope that we can do this quickly and quietly so you can resume your time off”

  She points to a map of North America “Here in the Rockies we detected an energy surge. Given recent events we can’t leave it be so we are going to investigate the source and take appropriate action”

  The screen shifts to a drop pn “We’ll perform a high atmospheric jump and nd south of the suspect location then pound ground the rest of the way”

  “There might be grunts inside the facility but outer defenses should be minimal as we believe this facility was trying to stay hidden”

  I raise a hand and once she gives the go-ahead I ask “If it was trying to stay hidden why would they give off an energy fir like that”

  She smiles and shrugs “You’ll have to ask them that yourself. As for equipment whatever you can reasonably carry otherwise I trust your judgment. We lift off in an hour”

  I ask a final question “How are we going to demo the pce if necessary” All I get back is “That has been taken care of so don’t worry about packing a nuke in”

  With the sparse briefing, we file out and gather our gear. Once we arrive in the hangar it's strangely empty, it's just my squad, Tanya Casper and Ori, and Bliss and Kell. Bliss, kell, and Ori have some extremely custom armor on as well.

  I shrug and walk up the ramp of the dropship. We do a final check that everyone has parachutes and that they are attached correctly and then we are in the air. We sit in silence all of us having realized this operation isn't as simple as we thought. I can understand Bliss coming along and kell but Ori? She's not active I thought.

  Somewhere over what used to be Mexico, I think Jed breaks the silence. Over our private squad channel of course. “I just have to say as we might all die you all suck at singing” I ugh and resist the urge to punch him. “Rabbit has the voice of an angel and you know it”

  The rest of the guys join in on the ughter and crack a few jokes before Tanya breaks in “Drops coming up get ready” As one we stand up and I stretch to get the stiffness out of my muscles as we wait the st few moments.

  The ramp drops and once the light goes green we run and dive out. Some of us with more fanfare than others. When in war have fun. After a short ride down and a soft nding in a forest, we regroup and walk to the facility.

  Once we arrive I'm surprised it isn't shooting at us. It clearly has a lot of defenses and they are tracking us but nothing else. Ori walks right up to the door and shouts with all the confidence of someone whos certain they will take everyone to the grave with them “Open up” After a few moments a voice comes out over an intercom “Identify yourselves”

  Our reply was simple “We're an investigation team from the Elysium Republic” After another few moments we got a response “The doors will open once a representative arrives” That got a few sideways gnces from us but in the end we shrugged.

  The doors open a while ter and there are some guys in armor that look to imitate ours and an unarmed man all of them have the same logo on the shoulder. “Please keep your weapons lowered and on safe. The boss would like a meeting”

  This is getting weird. We are led through the underground facility and assuming the transtion software in my bucket is working correctly the first five levels are for servers. Then living quarters and other things below that. We go to the habitation and on that level the offices.

  The one we arrive at is beled Newell. Our guide knocks and I hear a reply from inside but it doesn't sound quite right. Regardless, the door is opened and we enter. What I see stops me and the rest of us. The room isn't an office. Well it is, it has chairs and a desk but the side a man should be sitting at is a wall of machines and what amounts to a corpse that talks.

  “Welcome I am Gabe Newell you might have heard of me” Jed speaks over our private comm “I thought he was dead it was a big deal” The rest of our entourage don't hear this and carry on. Ori taking the lead “a pleasure. This is quite the facility you have here. We came to investigate an energy surge but seeing this it's easy to expin”

  Gabe smiles “To hear such high praise from the experts in living underground. I visited your capital once long ago and thought that would be perfect to safeguard my company”

  Ori nods along “I see. Now I have to ask, America is gone what do you pn to do now” Gabe smiles wide “Isn't it obvious? The servers are spun up, there aren't any troublesome people to try and forcefully shut me down. Now is the time to reunch Steam and to celebrate it I think we'll have a sale”