TerroirNoir

Arc 8 from our second writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @cranebump's Leviathan 5: Mantle. Mission 1: Glow. So a couple of months have passed since we last saw Leviathan and frankly that suits me fine. Freitag's group has been searching high and low for them, and their boss, Dis. It's a tricky thing since it involves psionics/consciousness (insert tech speak here, I'm not a squint). Engineria has been working for Citadel in the interim (amongst other things, see Wyvern and the Meteors!) Cue a phone call from Pep Becktrees breathlessly asking her to get over to them pronto. Pronto it is! Kings Row is un uproar. A 5th Column attack. No sign of Joe. He's over in Atlas at a meeting about the task force apparently. So Becktrees is taking the lead here. So I'm needed to find out where the main thrust is coming from. And there's some new kids on the block. No, not vills, heroes. Sponsored too. (I still ain't got that medal!) The Vigilant Patriots. Great. Amateurs. So after asking some very polite questions and getting nowhere I ask some impolite ones and get a lead to the sewers. Because of course. Well, let's start as we mean to go on. And two around the corner. I hate those vampires. But with Kinetics at least I pull some of the stuff they drain back. Another one! It's Univeral Studios down here! All I need now is a Mummy. Or Abbott and Costello. And another mesmerist and, hello. Grail is it? You must be one of the new kids. Let's say hello. Hell, you're keen. Eagle Scout back in the day, yeah? I bet you were. There's one of your team, Grail. Victory Maiden. Let's go give her a hand, shall we? Be with you in a minute, VM. Just flattening these creeps and then we can talk. You know how it is, I'm sure. Now, Bastion you say? Scans you say? Well, I reckon that's a good a plan as any. I mean it took me several hours of polite questioning to even find this place, and you're here ahead of me. Shows how efficient your team is. (Note to self: demand a scanner from Pep) And Bastion I presume. What's the deal my friend? VM tells me you were scanning. You've detected NICTUS CTYSTALS? Ah pants. That's not good at all! Ok, it's absolutely most definitely in the 5th Column playbook but still not good. And Savior has gone ahead to check it out. (Savior? Well, there's a name with an ego). There he is! Savior, yeah? Like the wings...mongrels? These mongrels are bringing in automatons, robots powered by their Nictus energy. Why am I repeating what you said? Just making sure I heard it right, is all. (That boy needs to take his head out of his ass or we'll all get killed) So, Nictus Crystals. Any one of you guys see one before? Well, now's your chance! Over there! See it, destroy it. Try to not be too close when it goes up. That REALLY hurts. And then there's a second one. Job done. And JEEZ LOUISE! Wait until I see Citadel! It's gawd damn VANDAL! How did he get out of prison? Never mind, get him! As per usual, Vandal is a tough sonofagun and takes a helluva beating and keeps dishing it back, even with five of us fighting him! We take him down and ...as per usual he TPs out! One day, oh yeah, one day....but for now it's time to get back to Pep Becktrees and report in. Plus see what other madness he's found for me to get involved in. Pep is...distracted. Vandal? Yeah, he'll look into that but there's something more pressing right now. There is? What? [Mission 1 = Lovely little intro to this new team. 5th Column make a good enemy too, thematically with Leviathan. Good stuff] Mission 2: Shimmer. Ok, so the more pressing thing is Freitag is AWOL. Got off at KR station after the big Task Force conference and never made it to the station. Becktrees thinks the 5th Column may have snatched him. Well, having been grabbed by Leviathan myself, that happening is no fun at all. Sergeant Floyd did a phone trace and Freitag's last ping was in the Gish. Looks Like Engineria is on the case. And it's the sewers again! AGH. Though the ping of Freitag's phone can be heard! Ah, what do we have here? Hmm, Joe Freitag's phone. A quick text to Pep and he responds that he figured that would be the case unfortunately. However one of the Vigilant Patriots is on scene, Savior. Has info it seems. Intertwined you say? Well, appreciate the help but my goal is finding Freitag, anything else is gravy on the roast, savvy? So Bastion had isolated 4 locations with Nictus energy signals and you guys split up to tackle one each. Ok, that makes sense. You help me with Joe, I help you with your signal, deal? Ok then. Ok, no Joe or device yet but that's frikkin Bulwark! First Vandal and now him. We're onto some weird crap here and no mistake. Come on, Savior (you really need a different name) let's get him! Empowerment device? Looks like your boy Bastion was on the money, Savior! Time to cause these guys some psychological pain, you know, the type that if they weren't nazi criminals they could sue us for. And Bulwark is down! Hang on, this isn't Bulwark. It's a woman in a suit. Which makes sense because Bulwark, the REAL Bulwark, could have caved my whole head in! Ok, hold that thought! There's Joe Freitag! I'm a comin' Joe! Man, I hate Gun Drones! And I'm standing in frikkin caltrops! OW! Ah, are you actually talking to me, Joe? Or to Savior? You sound weird. However, you may have noticed I totally avoided getting set on fire there! Go me! Joe says he got snatched by the fascists, and then these OTHER fascists showed up. Yeah, that's them with the Gun Drones. New Storm Korps. So he's going to call in back up with their Walkies. Right. Deal's a deal, Savior. Let's find your Nictus stuff and stomp on it. Come on. There's one of those things! Get it before it powers up! I think my traditional "throw a grenade at them" approach is warranted, don't you? Stay back a bit, don't want to singe those lovely feathers of yours. Say, this might be a personal question, but how the hell do you sleep? Do you perch? Ok ok. I'll drop it. Ok, that's that one. Savior? Oh don't sulk! No, it's cool, he's just chasing a runner. And Kapitan! Well hello! Pigs? Ah, that's mean. Counter measures, huh? What would they be? Mass retrograde? Hang on, I've heard that before! Hollow Point said it once. What does it mean? Answer me you rocky road fascist! Ah crap. He TP'd away. Ok, where's Savior got to and has he found the last device yet? Ah, there he and it are. Hold up, Savior. Be there in a minute. And that's your mission ended here, and mine too now Joe is back. Even if he was talking about "Bowing to your superiors". Hmm. Suspicions! And I arrive back to talk to Pep Becktrees to find that ...I'm surplus to requirements? The old Task Force is being disbanded. Seems the higher ups want a more hands on approach. So a new E-SWAT, working with the Vigilant Patriots. Branding and visibility is important! Sure, so is being able to go home and get away from this life every now and then. And Freitag is heading up the new version of the TF. Huh. [Mission 2: Suspicions ahoy! Of course, there are. Liking it though. Good stuff indeed!] Mission 3: Gloom. So this new TF Leviathan seems to be a success, at least with Ainsley Coulter, who is the new anchor on NewsAnon. Yeah, those guys again. Everything is patriotic and wonderful. With much mudslinging at the previous TF, or me actually. Hmmm. Pep Becktrees is of a similar opinion. And then he gets a text message. He goes all conspiratorial, closes doors and whispers. They never found that mole Joe talked about, so he's being extra careful. The text is from Hollow Point. Seems he has found Henry Ruegad, the missing kid from earlier. Time to investigate Hollow Point's claims then. Off book it seems. The TF don't want Engineria or Becktrees around. The kid had turned up dead. But Hollow Point says he isn't! HP's coordinates lead Engineria to the Aqueduct area. Into a regular looking building. And in this job of mine I learn to look for signs. See those circles on the ceiling? People up there. So, stealth up and grenades ready! Turns out that's Hollow Point with some of our mutual friends! I wade in and within a second I'm hit by one of those damn Gun Drones and reeling. Don't worry, I'll shake it off and give it right back to them. Ok, that's those guys dealt with. Now, what's the deal, HP? huh? Hang on, let me kick some of this scrap outta the way. That's better. You were saying? So, Fawkes Brigade are here for a makeover? Like new togs and suchlike? And the Ruegad kid is here, along with a few others I might be interested in. Ok then. Looks like I'm going investigating. You're staying here? Oh, we're quits now? Right right. I'll see you around, HP. Hmm, someone talking over there. Serum? Oh, it's damn supersoldiers, isn't it? Course it is. Fascists love a supersoldier. Trick or treat, fascist! Aw, no candy? Well, it's bad for your teeth anyway. Then again, so is a punch in the mouth and I aim to give you a few of those, so you may as well eat you candy. Tsk, you don't have any. Sad. Hmm, that temporal field that guy is generating is negating my Kinetics Repel. I'll have to remember that. In the meantime, Mr. Someone in Charge is out cold. Ok, this guy has a datapad. Definitely prisoners here, like Hollow Point said, but is the kid one of them? And that makeover! Fawkes Brigade = Storm Korps. Well I can't say I'm 100 percent surprised actually. Henry Floyd. Wait a minute. Is that Sergeant Floyd? But he's been working with us for ages! That must mean this is the real one and "Floyd" in the PPD is the mole! Confirmed. Well, confirmed that "Floyd" in the PPD isn't the real one. This one says he's been here for months! Moving in further. And there's Henry Ruegad, the so-called dead kid. I wonder why his death was faked? Guarded by the Sacco-Vanzettis too. What took so long? Well, we normally don't keep searching AFTER we've found a body. It's a little quirk of the system I know, but it's normally ironclad. Might have to have another look at that rule actually, considering the current situation. And I knew it! Ok, I didn't know it, but I suspected it. Joe was definitely acting weird when I rescued him from the sewer, and the fact Pep and me were left off the new task force. Well, let's get old Mr. Grumpy out of here as fast as we can, yeah? Yeah. Yep, good kid that Pep. And that sounds like a great plan, Joe. Right behind you! We can regroup and plan then. Joe sets up a rendezvous with Pep at an off book safe spot. Freitag's in a bad mood. Can't say I blame him. Pep thinks he knows what's actually going on though. So Engineria and Joe wait for the, aha, Pep Talk. It's all a bid to bring in a new version of the Might for Right Act. Not cool. [Mission 3 = The plot moves and twists and we're getting to the bottom of things, kinda. This is possibly bigger than just chasing Leviathan. Good stuff indeed] Mission 4: Burnish Pep puts it all together. Dis, the Leviathan boss, is controlling both sides of this equation, and that includes our new "allies", the Vigilant Patriots. So, it's time to technically commit a crime. (Yeah, doing stuff in the Rogue Isles might also count morally, but not legally) So we're off to kidnap someone, the fake Joe Freitag. We grab him, get Positron or whoever to conduct a public test and badabing badaboom, exposed. Except that guy spends all his time these days at the Heritage Assembly, the sponsors of Vigilant. So yeah, those guys. This might be rough. O, I'm in. Time to redirect the CCTV. And done. Nice place this actually. Be a shame if anything happened to it, yeah? And I have some company, nothing I can't currently handle though. Regular facility security it seems. No sign of the Ubermenschen yet. And frankly I don't want to see them for a bit. Let's find that Fake. Damnit. New Storm Korps are everywhere. They know they're deaf and blind digitally so they've sent in the troops to patrol and sweep alongside the regular security guys. Well, when I get my breath back I'll show them a thing or three! Oh my but there's a LOT of these guys. A helluva lot. Another patrol has passed by to the left and a further one is coming into view on the right. I'll just let them go by I reckon and then slip further into the building. Once at the elevator I'll head up. Grail. And I've seen this guy fight. He's tough. So, I'm taking no chances here. There's a lot at stake. One PPD radio and spirit amulet later and I have my needed backup (someday I'll tell Pep and Joe about these, but not today). Now, spirit or not, that's not something this girl would ever say to frikkin STATESMAN. I mean what now? This guy is seriously deluded. Let's relieve him of his delusions, boys. I'm sure he'll appreciate that. Well, I know I will! Oh I think you'll find we can. And we will. And we did. Now, who's next? Ah, Savior. You know, I DID say this guy had issues. The name itself for one thing. And that initial meeting where he talked about "mongrels". I mean who talks like that? Ok, yes. Fascists do. You got me. A thorn in your leader's side? Well, glad to be of service. In our modern capitalistic world you're only lucky I didn't charge you for that. Hope Heritage Assembly has good insurance because you're going to need it. And a lawyer. Not as tough as your friend Grail. Which to be fair, I'm thankful for. Getting low on grenades. Note to self: Get more grenades. And then there's a panel. Breaking the code doesn't take long. It leads to a hallway. There's a sliding chute at the end. Time to follow them and finish this. Calling Pep, he asks am I sure because they won't be able to get back up to me in time. No choice. They can't be allowed to escape. [Mission 4 = This is part 1 of a 2 part finale. And it bounds along in terms of action and so on. Looking forward to the last mission. Nice] Mission 5: Shine. And the chute drops Engineria into...a Rikti base? Weird. What do we have here? Unrefined Gel, yeah? Part of the supersoldier serum you've been developing, Dis. Well, boom! Burned away! And that goes in there, yes? Well, more boom on the way, Mr. Technician! Heh. There's another one of those to deal with. And done. Ok, what's next? A strange spike? Ok, that's ...odd. No prior reference in my work for Freitag and Pep for this thing. So a new thing. And the troops here aren't sure what it is either it seems. (@cranebump, the info on the spike reads as a snake egg. That's probably wrong.) Ok, time to find the resequencing data. And here it is...and of course there's a code lock. Siege has it. An unseen member of the Vigilant Patriots perhaps? Well, let's find them then. And there she is. Well, let's me and my two compadres give her exactly what she deserves. Maybe not what she wants but who gets what they want anyway? I still want that medal. Old history. Never mind. Jeez Louise! She's tough! Just lost half my health in one shot! Hit her, guys! I need to combine some inspirations because my Kinetics Heal is missing! The master? Hang on! Who the hell is the master? Right, shes's down. Got the access to the resequencing data and opened it up. That just leaves kidnapping the Fake Joe Freitag. Which is why I came to Heritage Assembly in the first place! Ah, there he is, with his fake E-SWAT. Bye bye E-SWAT. I see Briggs-Hughes isn't among your number. Like me and Pep, huh? Not in the circle. Well, good for her. Pep's reinforcements finally arrive and start the clean up. For now at least Dis's plan is shut down. And then things quieten down for now in Kings Row. But Fake Joe Freitag's warning/threat is still there. We will be back. Yeah, we'll be waiting. Bring it. [Mission 5 = Part 2 of the 2 part finale and a fine one at that. Siege was particularly strong. And while we've sealed off one tunnel, the rats' nest has more. Good stuff indeed] Verdict. Deep state conspiracy theory politics meets hard working officials. Loved this arc. Next up on the channel is @cranebump's Mobius 1: Full Circle. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is @Darmian's Darkest Before Dawn: Part Two.

She's bringing her PPD radio with her!

I did not! Thank you! Broadening the entire world view again. Honestly, between the three of you there's so much stuff just crammed in in terms of game lore.

Thanks! I had no idea who he was.

Arc 8 from our first writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is, @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 3.2: Suspicious Maneuvers in St. Martial. Mission 1: Ante Up. Ok, the Doctor is on call and in the house! She's joined Wyvern and is looking a bit better (new suit!) Still coming to terms with her Protector-originated powers but happy to be alive again. (I still have issues with that. I think that the real Doctor is dead and this woman is just convinced she's her. Like I say, I'll keep that to myself. She's nice and I'm not going to upset her) Anyways, she's been researching Langston and when she was still Zeroes and Ones, she came across someone else in the cloudworld, a guy called Network. He's affiliated to Wyvern and gets paid for intel and so on. He's got a lead and I have to go meet him. Time to visit the Double Sixes in St. Martial. Network also does work for the Family. Great. Another bunch of people that hate me. Off I go! And there's Network. Chatting away with those Family guys. Let's see what he wants. Oh you total piece of crap! Emil Marcone frikkin hates me! ARGH! Hang on, Network slipped a piece of paper into my hand. Well, I suppose paper can't be hacked so it's safer that way. What's it say? An address and time for a hit. I wonder of who though? No time for that! Emil Marcone wants to kill me! But before he sees me, I'm just gonna open this safe. I say open, Network already opened it, I'm just checking. No time like the present. I love presents. And lookee here! That's useful intel! NOW I need to deal with Emil. Ha, "Deal with Emil". It rhymes. Shut up. My life is one long saga of odd misery and Advil, with the occasional nice bath every now and then. WOW but he's packing some serious weaponry! OW OW OW! At least I'm not on fire! Did I mention the OW? OW! I really need a new line of work. Say on the Nature Channel, where I can swim with sharks or something pleasant like that. Mediporter is activating. Only trouble is he's very near the door, so I better have Stealth up when I get back in here. So stealth back in, drop his remaining minion and turn and...shot! Why? Why not? You're all scumbags, Emil. I know it, and you know what, so do you. You know, right now Emil, I don't give a rat's ass how Recluse runs the Rogue Isles. Why don't you, I dunno, call an election or something? No? Then stay down and stay outta my way! (ow ow ow staggers out of the Double Sixes) The Doctor tells Engineria that Network was probably just keeping his cover. Sure, sure. I am not trusting that guy. First impressions count! Looks like everyone in the Mob is using Praetorian style weapons now. Doc reckons the Mooks are selling it. Time to check that out too. I suppose this all leads back to Langston anyway. [Mission 1 = Well, you did warn me, @Ankylosaur! It does say it contains an EB! But still a great start. Good call back to earlier actions with Emil. Nice] Mission 2: Opening Bets. Ok, the Doctor has checked the address of the hit, and it's an old ConDev/Langston warehouse. Looks like that might be where the Mooks are shipping the Praetorian weapons out of. At least according to Network. He also says that there may be medical equipment there and the Doctor is hoping it might be Revenant tech. We will see. Ok, time to go scope the place out since the hit is on! Ok lookee, the door is smashed in. Party has started without me. Well, I've always wanted to be fashionably late. So, clues to find. And "remove from use" any equipment they have. Oh, there's a "Cap'n Walsh" here too. Wonder does he have a wooden leg? I mean as part of his anatomy, as opposed to having one on a shelf somewhere. Forget it. Stuff to "remove from use"! If you really want to break a thing then the old Nemesis staff is an ideal tool. Just sayin'. Oh there's a LOT of boxes and crates. I mean a LOT. Helluva lot. Oodles. Plenty. And a Goldbricker with Praetorian Warworks stuff? Oh, no. That's not a good thing. I need to take that from you before you hurt yourself. Or me. And I dunno exactly what is happening here but the clear things is, let me emphasize it now, they are ALL shooting me! No fair! Concrete Bill, huh? You ain't Cap'n Walsh! You're Family. And you're here to mess up the Mooks. I swear to god, if Emil Marcone is here I will fry his head with radiation. That might sort out Port Oakes. Jeez Louise do these guys hold a grudge! And they're running RIGHT AT ME! Only one thing to do! I take to the air and keep moving fast, popping Break Frees as I go since they're managing to stun me every now and then. After a minute or so Bill's minions are down and he...runs off? Weird. I chase after him, though navigating through a warehouse while flying is tricky. Come back you coward! Got him! It looks like he was running to get help! Clever! (Yeah, I know AI NPCs don't do that, but it sure looked like it! That's why I have some more goons to take out now) Ok, there's a LOT of goons in here. And lots of them with Beam rifles. And who all knows what. So, having recently gotten a PPD radio, I call in some back up! And I am very glad I did. My armored friend is very useful. He appears to be jumping on a Mook's head here! The fight rolls across the entire floor of this area, sweeping through other Mooks and I'm hit numerous times, as is the PPD guy, but we keep going! GRENADE! And finally! Cap'n Walsh! Time to take out the trash. What the hell is he firing at me? Blue beams of something rather painful! STOP THAT! As well? Nah, I was pissing off you Goldbrickers WAY before I pissed off the Family. Get your facts straight, bud. Interdimensional pirates? Well, if he's been to Praetoria then maybe. Again, I was under the impression that place was an irradiated Devouring Earth infested hellhole these days. But, grab the tech, stick in the dishwasher, new coat of paint, and bingo, dollars! Yeah? Nevertheless, as the Rutles sang, nevertheless, down you go, Cap'n! If you had a ship I'd sink it. And with that, it's time to get back to the Doctor and report in. Job done. I think. So, putting it all together, the Mooks and the Family have the same weapons. Teleporting Goldbrickers (Did I not mention that? Yeah, Walsh TP'd around me!) supplying the Mooks with the weapons. Where from? No one knows. And Langston were there with odd tech. Seems old Network's intel was on the level. [Mission 2 = Now that was great. Wonderful fights, and the rolling fight across the main concourse was so fun. Good stuff] Mission 3: The House Always Wins? (The Doctor's heard from Network (still don't trust that guy) that the Family itself has been investigating what their enemies, the Mooks, and Langston are up to with the medical stuff. He wants ANOTHER in person meet (oooh, I do NOT trust that guy!) and this time it's in Bamboo Kat's, because the Double Sixes are off limits to me. And I'm to be wary of Bamboo Kat herself. Ok, ok. Off to Bamboo Kat's then. Off to a great start when a horde of people run past me on the way OUT as I I try to get in. Someone in there is a cheater. Network. Betcha it's him. And lookee. There he is. He certainly looks caught. THEY think he's a cheater at least. OW! Those shuriken or whatever they're called really hurt! Never mind, Proton Blast drops these guys, and finish the last off with the Nemesis staff. Now, Network, what do you have to tell me? This better be good! I have to get you to a safe? You're just playing us here, ain'tcha? It's going to look like I was forcing you to do stuff, I reckon. At least that's how you'll spin it. But to who, my sparkly friend? And there's Bamboo Kat herself. The Doctor warned me not to...and you've already pissed her off, Network. You know, first the Family, then the Mooks (Goldbrickers too) and now Kat and the Tsoo, I won't be able to set foot in the Rogue Isles without being shot at. ARGH. Well, let's get this done and I can trudge back to get my next assignment. I'm regretting hooking up with Wyvern. (Then again Joe Freitag has me hunting fascists and Madame Maven got me involved with time travelling Arachnos, so you never know WHEN you're actually doing ok in this super hero life) JEEZ LOUISE, Network! What the hell sort of a gun is that? I mean come on! We beat her up, we don't need to literally vaporize her head fergawdsake! Oh you got some of the new tech, didja? Dollars to donuts you didn't pay for it! Just point it AWAY from me, thank you so much! And she's down. Frankly I'm surprised she's not crispy! What's that? Doing good? Yeah, I'm not buying that. And I check out the safe. What do we have in here then? some cash, business documents about something called "Infini-Life" from Langston, and not much else. Network took the rest. And left me a note saying "Cubism". Cryptic much? Oh. CUBISM. Right, the painting behind me. Because you couldn't just tell me, could you? What is it with these people and their predilection for "mystery"? Hmm, a packet containing brochures for the "Infini-Life" business. "Opening soon in St. Martial". Again, he could have just handed us that! Right, let's get back to the Doctor and see what's what. I make my protests about Network's ridiculous "The Shadow" routine but she's more interested in this Infini-Life thing. She thinks it's an extrapolation of the Revenant stuff. She worried by it. Her suggestion is we slow down the opening and expose their true aim. Well, that'd be nice if we knew what it was. Oh don't mind me, that Network guy pisses me off is all. [Mission 3 = Short and to the point! Just pounding along there with plot. And Network, even though I've only met him twice, comes across as a self serving asshole. The map is small, so he goes gun crazy almost immediately, which actually adds to the fun. Nice] Mission 4: Jackpot! So, I'm going to the Red Rook. On the "unfashionable" west side of St. Martial. Old place, not even a sign. Rooks. The ConDev insignia was a rook if I recall correctly. And Langston are opening this Infini-Life thind there. Coincidence? I think not. Mooks and Rooks. Time to spike their punch. Red Rooks here I come. I step in and MUZAK fills the air. There's a Ms. Doula and a Mr. Serenity bot. Ms. Doula? I dunno, I don't have kids, well this life is not conducive to relationships, just ask Manticore and Sister Psyche. Well, just Manticore I suppose. Anyway (yeah, I know Statesman was married and blah blah, I'm not in that league, ok?) the POINT is, a human doula is what I'd prefer. Now, where was I? Oh yeah. So I drop their guards, and in hindsight that might have been a bad idea. Mr. Serenity is tough but he's going down, serenely in fact. But Ms. Doula is made of tougher stuff! See? And they think this bot is going to be helpful to new moms and so on? Crazy. And then she runs up the stairs and away. Weird. I follow up carefully. Taking out a few Mooks along the way. Ah, there she is. Or maybe it's another one? Hard to tell with bots. That'll probably be some sort of discrimination in the future probably. For now, I just have to worry about her killing me. Let's check. Mediporter primed? Yeah. Ok, let's go. Oh so glad that I primed that mediporter. Little Ms. Doula is nasty. So very nasty. Right, you're never getting near a new mom, Missy! Right, TP out and get bandaged up, then back in here to sort this mad bot out. Got her! Ok, time to take out some of these machines and cramp their style in setting up Infini-Life. And that's the last of them. Well, the ones that are here at least. Now, to deal with Jimmy "The Mug" Composano. He's the Chief Mook here. Mook-in-Chief? Whatever, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and whup his ass. Despite his toughness he's still just a man. So he fights well but he's reeling! Yeah, you're fighting back but ultimately, you're a criminal, Jimmy. Back to the Doctor to debrief. She's putting it together. Infini-Life will be the ability to upload human consciousness into a bot body. Immortality. Sort of like Citadel maybe, except he's never been a human. Ok, forget that. I get it though. It's fascinating but in the wrong hands, and it IS in the wrong hands, it could be very dangerous. The Doctor is going to check with Network to see if he's uncovered anything else. [Mission 4 = Another tough mission, tough bosses but good fights. Again a feeling of seeing the puzzle pieces swim into view but not quite seeing the bigger picture yet. Nice.] Mission 5: Flipping the Table: According to the Doctor, Infini-Life will be officially launched in Kallisti Wharf soon. Well, it's newly rebuilt and shiny, it's like a model house version of Paragon so of course Langston will want to display its new toy. In the meantime, Network needs an extraction. The Family types (Mooks included I assume) have started acting different towards him. My fault somehow. Sgt. Schorr (he's Network's usual Wyvern contact) doesn't want it known that Network is a Wyvern associate. So it's me gets the job of rescuing the shmuck. As soon as he crosses the bridge into the Flush and goes offline so he can't be digitally tracked, they'll get suspicious and come looking. Annnnd the Doctor REALLY wants his tech suit. Great. Ok, I get in a truck and Schorr drops me off. Now to find this toad and get him back here, without getting killed by Freakshow or hoodlums or Wailers. I didn't tell you about Wailers? Nah, they're pussycats. Don't sweat it. So we grab Network, dress him as a generic Wyvern operative and he goes out, no one the wiser. Arachnos are here too. Wonderful. Well, I know how to deal with Arachnos. And down you go, my black clad pal. And stay down. A headache is all you'll have. Oh you have GOT to be kidding me! Emil Marcone may be a grudge-ridden maniac, but he's not ACTUALLY insane. Mordrogar! Round 3 then. I think. (I don't think fighting the Duchess counts, so this is Round 3 for Engineria vs Duke Mordrogar) And he has Wailers with him? Oh, he's getting desperate for allies I suppose. Do Wailers do magic? Or just that really painful sonic attack thing? Hmm, I wonder is there any connection between Goldbricker sonics and Wailer sonics? The latter is "natural" I suppose, so maybe not. Never mind! That sonic stuff can really play havoc with a girl's aim! Well, it's been a hot minute or two, but hey! Look at me! I'm on fire again! NOT COOL! (Ha, I see what I did there) I need to back the hell up fast! And I do! And by "up" I do mean UP! Fortunately it is enough to make a difference and I drop Mordrogar into a slightly radiation crisped heap not far from the old dried up fountain. His Wailer pals can sing him some healing lullabies maybe. Still have to find Network! Yeah, we're on the WRONG side of Easy Street over here. The Giza sure is pretty in this light though. I imagine the view from their side is not so good. Then again, why would they even look out? Mooks and Freakshow battling it out. I think I'll leave them to it and keep searching. JEEZ LOUISE! Look at the SIZE of that thing! The smaller ones are already doing me damage with their sonic-y powers. I am NOT going near that....wait, that's the truck I have to get Network to! Maybe I'll take the LONG way around, yeah? Plan? Plan. And there you are, Network! Let's get you outta here. I don't like it one bit. And I reckon you don't either. That'll be a definite NO, if it's all the same with you, Mr. Wailer. Or is it Ms? Never mind, have some Proton Blasts in the face. Right, Mr. Woozy, let's get you on your feet and out of here. Save the thanks for later, we're taking a rather circuitous route to our escape vehicle. Why? Oh, just look to your right when we get to the truck. Don't scream. Then get in and change into the Wyvern uniform. Right, we're here. You didn't scream. That's good because the WAILER LORD is just over there. Come on! Get in before anyone sees you! And so Schorr drives us outta here toot sweet. And Engineria reports back to the Doctor. The Doctor is happy to have Network's suit. Network is not so happy he doesn't have it, but that's offset by (a) not being dead and (b) actually being pretty wealthy from all the deals he spun along the way. Infini-Life is still scheduled to open in Kallisti Wharf so that's next on the agenda. For now, bath time, extra bubbles and a glass...bottle, of prosecco! [Mission 5 = Fun. Again, well populated and gives a feeling of life to the map. Avoided the Wailer King because I could! Here's to the next instalment!] Verdict: Slow building world building is paying off. Lovely callbacks to tie your character in to previous events. Anyway, don't forget to tune in for our next episode which will be All that Glitters 3.3: Calamity in Kallisti Wharf. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is, after the commercials, @cranebump's Leviathan 5: Mantle.

Thanks! You didn't have to but thanks!

Arc 7 from our third writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is, @Darmian's Darkest Before Dawn: Part One. Several weeks later. No sign of what Madame Maven is calling the Weaver Faction of Arachnos, as opposed to the Spectra version. Or the "normal" version. Maven calls a meeting in the Hotel Geneva suites. Apparently she's decided that we need to go off book. Not sure what that means. Go vigilante maybe? Anyway, since Axios rescued the real Chris Jenkins he's been very helpful. He's even officially appointed the Meteors (and me!) as representatives of his firm to help him in reclaiming his company. So we're going to raid several of his offices and clear out any Arachnos there. We don't know which office we're looking at but Madame Maven has a line in sage wisdom, something about shaking apple trees and seeing what we get. Ok, we split up and each go for an office. Engineria is getting Chris Jenkins to go with her! HA! Mission 1: 1-555--GET-RICH. In we go into one of Chris Jenkins' offices. One of the glitzier ones. I cause lots of distraction and old Jenky downloads the data stored in his DB, so we can see what additions there are and so on. AH! Spotted. Ok, let's deal with them. Ok, up the stairs and there's Jenkins, all ready to go. He's being surprisingly brave actually. For a civilian. Yeah, I know his grandmother is a super, but...anyway. Ok, Mr. Jenkins. Let's get to the security system and get Jenkins access. And while he's doing that voodoo tech thing of his, I'll be tackling the security summoned by me turning the alarms off. Oh trust me, there'll be security. There's ALWAYS security. Give him time to get this done? What part of the plan has he not been listening to? Never mind! I have company! Didn't I tell ya? OH! Right in the chest! Fortunately the new togs are armored up pretty well. And here come his back up! OK! Ok, Jenkins! I can hear you and I'll be with you as soon as I can. I just need to deal with Esmos here first. Lyons? Well, that's another complication that will have to wait for a bit. So much to do and all at once. Blowing cover? Ah, well that's a thing! Wish I'd recorded that. One of Esmos' minions has a code block in his pocket. Careless! You just can't get the help these days it seems. Despite being captured by the security, he's still doing pretty good for a civilian. Ok, looks like I'm rescuing him then. BOOYA! There you go, Mr. Jenkins. Time for you to skedaddle and get back to the Hotel Geneva to meet the Meteors. I have someone called Lyons to deal with to cover your escape. You understand. Right, Lyons. And there you are, you hidden little spider you. Oh that's your suggestion is it? Nah. We've got different plans. Very different plans. LOL. You guessed right, Lyons. Now you stay down and I'll get out of here. And trust me, when we come back ("we" should not include Engineria, she's had it with law offices!) you better not be here if you know what's good for you. Engineria makes her way out, tackling more security along the way, before regrouping with the Meteors in the Hotel Geneva. She beats Madame Maven back actually. Maven arrives supported by Blue Spectrum. Apparently PPD psi cops got the drop on her and Blue Spectrum just bailed her out. She's pleased to hear that Engineria and Jenkins were successful getting the data. And volunteers Blue Spectrum to go through it tonight and make a report in the morning. He seems THRILLED by that prospect. [Mission 1= An interesting way to restart the investigation after wrapping up the Arachnoid plot in the previous arc. Liked it. Liked Chris Jenkins in this too. Good stuff] Mission 2: Dog Day Afternoon. 9.55 am next morning. Blue Spectrum used the code Block on the Jenkins' data. Cracking that has given the team access to several files that would have taken a lot longer to crack otherwise. Madame Maven decides to do an info dump. She even calls it that! The Weaver faction of Arachnos is fighting itself, with the Spectra version determined to detonate a Chronal Bomb, while the ones that didn't time travel want to stop them. Plus both sides are STILL fighting Recluse's Arachnos, which they see as usurpers. And fighting all of us too. Busy little bees all of them. Tessitore's Side, the non-time travel gang, don't know where the Spectra ones are but have tracked their funding and frozen it. Von Horn then interrupts. Spectra need funds, so they'll hit a bank. When that angle is examined, it's found that several branches of the Long Shot Savings & Loan have been cased by them. So, the team again splits up and covers a branch each. Looks like Engineria is making a withdrawal. Right, and when I get to the bank it looks deserted. No staff. So something is happening here. And from further in a voice. Jackpot! Time to go crack some heads/spines/knuckles/insert applicable whatevers. Damn it! I keep forgetting about these invisible bastids. You do a quick scan and only see the Arachnos trooper, and then some transparent monster hits you with psi! Oh great. There's two of them. Well, you know my motto (well, not so much a motto as a semi battle-cry) "GRENADE!" And down they go like pins. More of them! Well, they go down too. Seems only fair that they don't feel left out. I continue down into the vault and turn a corner to run into the Chrono Leader, or whatever nonsense name these guys give themselves. That's the trouble with paramilitary style groups, all the "leaders" and "troopers" and "Envoys", ego getting the better of them. Well, you're a Spectra acolyte. Or whoever leads them. Oh, nasty! Have to remember not to get in a corner again. Yeah, whatever. I'll get to you in a minute. As soon as this stun wears off. Of course I could use a Break Free, but I tend to keep those for desperate occasions. Might need it in a bit! Ok, time to finish this up. Repel comes up and these guys bounce back and hit the ground. And once down I take advantage and rad blast their helmets. A little bit of brain frying can't hurt that much, surely? Hang on, EVIDENCE? Of what? Curious. Ok, what's this? A matchbook in the debris. I didn't even know they still made matchbooks! Lou's Garage. Hmmm. Then again that place closed a few years back. And in the next vault there's a safe. Let's have a look. Emptied out. So the Chrono Leader and his men were the last of the raiders. Seems they got what they wanted. OHO! Company. Looks like the local Skulls have spotted that this Long Shot Savings & Loan is a viable target. Well, I am NOT a viable target. Time to get out of here. And the Skulls have been followed by the PPD! Right, stealth up and vamoose! Engineria steps out of the bank just in time to see... Getting back to the Hotel Geneva Engineria is nodded at by Axios who is on a video call with someone in a Vanguard uniform. Madame Maven looks up hopefully. It seems that the others struck out. She immediately gets Bullet Streak to search for CCTV around the old Lou's Garage and see if a truck with the right description and number plates arrives there. [Mission 2 = Short and sweet but again driving the plot forward. Like it!] Mission 3: Yesterday's Papers. I'm assuming there's a hot shower, and then coffee before Madame Maven calls us all in to have a look at the CCTV. There's an image of the old Lou's Garage, only the outside though. Maven freezes an image on a man entering the place. It looks like one of the Spectra! So one survived, or was kept in reserve? Madame Maven is bothered. She thinks she is missing something. Anyway, time to go investigate that garage. Halox Von Horn and Engineria are to infiltrate and see what's going on. In we go. Von Horn stays and duct tapes the unconscious guards into a dumpster while I continue forward. Well, we're in the right place at least! There's a patrol or two and I deal with them. After pursuing these guys for a while I'm getting the hang of their beam rifle shtick. Ok, let's have a look at this pinboard. Apart from faded photos and an old pinup calendar dating to 1997 (though it might count as pornography to guys from the 60s!) there's just gas receipts from Mackie's Gas Station. Ok, moving on. Let's get this door up. WARWORKS! THEY HAVE DAMN WARWORKS! How the hell does a two bit, lost in time group have modern Praetorian-style WARWORKS? Also, I may be losing my mind here, a statue of some hero? Why is that a thing? I mean I hardly think Lou back in the old days would have had one of those, so that means these lunatics brought it here. My current intent is to not fight Warworks if at all possible. I think that's a reasonable goal for a modern woman, don't you? I am however going to see what the deal is with that statue. It had guards! Again, why? And there's a label on it. "2 of 2". Which means there's ANOTHER one of these somewhere. These guys are getting weirder. Ok, maybe not Vahzilok weird but still out there. Right then. I proceed through the next set of roll doors and...get blindsided! Oh that's gonna hurt my back! Ok, dust myself off and crack that guy's helmet open before moving on. And in the main workshop area who do I find but Spectra! He's not wearing his super suit either, some sort of jacket and pants combo. Well, I suppose he's blending in. I drop down and don't give him a chance to get a shot off at me. By now I've fought plenty of these guys and I can't afford to let them drain my endurance with their electric powers or whatever. Interesting, still monologuing even though I repelled him over a machine. Idiots on guard? That explains why I haven't seen Halox since I got in. He must have been caught! Am I sure? No, of course not! But you crazies want to blow up the Rikti Mothership and wipe out Paragon so...not really a choice here. Repel is keeping the minions off me, but now they're keeping their distance and hitting me with psi waves, and the traditional beam rifle blast in the back. Because of course they are. You say I'm not playing fair? Come on, man! Back up now? You think one woman is too much for you? Looks like it to me! You know, this one doesn't speak like the others. No, "Lord Richter this" and "Oh the void and the pain!" He sounds more like a Paragon citizen. Or Rogue Islander too I suppose. Compliments? Sure, thanks, I think. And booya, you are down! Yes I AM tough enough...oh crap. He got up! None of the others did that. This is new! And more minions are arriving. Time to search in my nice new utility belt for those Envenomed Daggers! And now stay down! Oh, running on fumes and they're still coming! And they're dealt with. Rest rest rest. Then search Spectra. A keycard marked "Pearse Building" Right, now to find Von Horn before they kill him, and get outta Dodge! There he is! Ok, I'll come around behind them on the stairs and drop his "friends". Job done. And yeah, I DID see that giant statue. We'll have to figure that out later, HVH. In the meantime we need to fight our way out of here. A little bit of team work later and we are good to go. Time to report in to Madame Maven. Halox says up close you can see that the Warworks are Arachnos origin. The original paintwork has been removed but there's still traces. Back in the Hotel Geneva, Madame Maven deciphers our intel. She's got a theory on the odd Spectra. We had assumed the time travelling gang had arrived this year, but maybe some of them had arrived earlier? Like, early enough to infiltrate Longbow or whoever? Chilling thought. [Mission 3 = Ok, this starts out like a regular infiltrate mission but really ramps up into some great fights and plot exposition. Loved it.] Mission 4: Concrete and Clay. Bullet Streak does his tech search fu thing and comes back with an address for the Pearse building. It's in Brickstown, in the the Midtown district, and Mackie's is just beyond the War Wall in Crey's Folly. So I'll be going there to investigate. Maven herself has a meeting with Tessitore in prison, care of Chris Jenkins' law knowledge(!) and Elliott Burgh is in witness protection. Looks like at least one person got free of all this. Off to Brickstown then. Loudspeaker announcement when I get in. Someone named Clone Unit 56 is speaking. More Spectra? And Thunderclap has been sighted in the building. Who the hell is Thunderclap? Ok, am about to do my thing. What now? (That was it there, the "What now?") Vanguard tech, guarded by Longbow? Ok, we know Longbow was infiltrated a while back, those fakes that tried to free Richter, and obviously there's all the infighting in Arachnos, but Vanguard? No sign of Vanguard personnel though. Appears to be a warhead of some sort. Heavy! Vanguard have high powered tech stuff, they kind of need it to fight alien invaders. So these guys having it is obviously bad, mmkay? And what do we have here? All uniforms to be returned to lockers after use. By order and so forth. Time to find that locker then perhaps. Curious place for a whiteboard though. OHO! Looks like having one of your bases in Brickstown is not the brightest idea for these Arachnos cast offs! I'll just leave the Freakshow and Crey to settle their differences and move on. Ok then. Lockers, one set? Check. So what's in them? Vanguard uniforms. I might have guessed. But that makes sense if they're planning an attack on the Rikti Mothership. I mean they can hardly disguise themselves as Rikti, can they? Well, I found Thunderclap. Hi there, not-an-enemy-so-far! Let's you and I team up on...did you say APEX? Like THE Apex? So Clone 56 is NOT one of the Spectra. And apparently NOT Arachnos either! So who the hell are you? I hope Madame Maven has one of those big wall boards back in the Hotel Geneva, you know, the ones with photos and clues and pins, and lots of red string. I think I'll need it! Also, "prepare to be exterminated"? Seriously? I am not having a good day! OMG this one is tough! She's holding both of us off on her own! Send word to Carnival? Whatever! Hit her, Thunderclap! And yeah, maybe you do need to have a chat with Apex. Why do I feel like I'm the assistant here? I feel like I've walked into someone else's mission! Nevermind that, activate ANOTHER clone? One is bad enough! You said it, Thunderclap. You and me should have a looong chat if we get out this alive. I mean when. Of course I mean when. Ha. And we have Clone Unit 56 down! Of course we don't get time to do a lap of honor, time to get Clone Unit 55! Site to site transfer of Chronal what? That doesn't sound good either! I have no idea what Thunderclap just did but his entire body just converted to some sort of electrical energy! And Clone Unit 55 is going down! She's down. And I retrieve a bypass device for a palm scanner. No clue as to where it is for though. On leaving the building Thunderclap vanishes. Great. Ok, back to the Meteors' place. Maven thinks the final base mentioned by Spectra in Lou's could be in Carnival, which is the western end of Crey's folly, just near the RWZ gate. Too close for comfort. Next job, scope out that place for people who are NOT Freakshow. [Mission 4= Oh, this ramped up nicely! Great fights and more plot. Thicker and thicker! Good stuff] (@Darmian, who is Thunderclap?) Mission 5: If it looks like a duck... Looks like we have a location for that warehouse in Carnival Town. It's officially a Longbow building too, which is worrying! Anyway, time for me to go scope it out and see what's what. HOLY CRAP. That's (a) a lot of Spectra Arachnos, (b) some Longbow, (c) Vanguard, and (d) HOLY CRAP, a HVAS! Now, I'm betting that all those guys are Spectra Arachnos in different uniforms, but that's a real HVAS. I'll just stealth around that, yeah? Yeah. And here's the security system. Shutting off all CCTV, body heat sensors and so on. And their electronic vault is now unlocked. Wait, HVAS online. Okaaay. Back to avoiding that thing then! Damnit, ran into some of the "Vanguard". They're seemingly as tough as the real ones too! Ow! That guy near skewered me! And there's the vault thing. Electronic lock off, just the tumblers to spin and we are good to go! What's in here? Detailed maps of the RWZ and several dossiers. Ok, grab the lot and...HVAS response team activated. HVAS 7! The one at the front was HVAS 6, so that means there's more than one of them! And there it is. I just stop this thing and I can get the hell out of here and back to the Meteors. No biggie. Nuh uh. Oh, this is not going well. What sort of weaponry does it even HAVE? Remember I said it wasn't going well? How right I was. How right. Ok, mediporter on and let's take a little detour. I need to get some supplies. I'll bill the Meteors later. The city's fate hangs in the balance after all. So, a brief visit to the P2W lady and I pick up a Back up Radio to call in the PPD, and some sort of an amulet that will summon a replica Statesman spirit. Yeah yeah, you can mock all you want. What I want is to not die. I'm still just a mid level super, a quasi support corruptor, in a city of people far more powerful than me. I'll take whatever edge I can get! Now, HVAS 7 where are you? Ah, there you are. AH COME ON! HVAS 8 now? Ok, I still have my sidekicks. So, here's the plan, I snipe the big guy then run around a corner and break line of sight. It lumbers after me and runs into my tougher friends. I blast it while they beat the tar out of it. Plan? Plan. Well, to be honest I don't have another plan. So that's it. And the HVAS is down. And even with my hired buddies I stagger out of that warehouse with a single break free as the only inspiration left in my trays. Holy crap. After walking (walking!) through Crey's Folly and getting to Brickstown, then the train back to Atlas, Engineria arrives in the Hotel Geneva to meet Axios. Maven and Bullet Streak are visiting Blue Spectrum in hospital. He was ambushed and left in a coma. Hmm. Takes a lot to knock that guy out. Someone is rattled big time. Axios examines the maps. He says the main target appears to be Little Round Top. He'll inform Vanguard. Now we wait. [Mission 5 = HOLY CRAP. Ok, that was a tough tough mission. I might have lasted longer against the HVAS if I was a different AT, but this isn't a complaint. Great finale to this] Verdict: Loved it. It's building up now completely. Strands are coming back together across all the previous arcs. Great stuff. Tune in for our next episode which will be Darkest Before Dawn: Part Two. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is, after the commercials, @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 3.2: Suspicious Maneuvers in St. Martial.

Sneaky!

Arc 7 from our second writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is, @cranebump's Leviathan 4: Origin. This one is a bit different. Here we take a look outside the frame of reference we've experienced so far. From the blurb on the Title Card: "What makes a super hero? Or, for that matter, a villain? Are they born, or made? If made, then of what? You personally explore the question by seeing the world through the eyes of Kings Row's current nemesis, the inscrutable (as yet unidentified) founder of Leviathan." So, I'll tone back some of Engineria's more glib remarks for now, perhaps putting them in parentheses if necessary. Mission 1: Summoned. There is only mist and fog that swirls. I am lost and not myself. Or maybe I am Who knows what is real in this place, if it even is a place. Then there is a beam of light, or at least a brightening of the dark fog in one spot. Time to go towards it. Why not. Home. 100 percent. And there in the flames is Oma, surrounded by Nightmares. The Nightmares fall easily. Then there is only Oma. Oma free. (Engineria resists the urge to say "I'm Oma free! Home free? Anyone? Back to the Lynch then.) Oma is Annika's grandmother. How do I know that? Am I Annika? Or is she here too and somehow connected to me? Oma's words must be found. In many ways our words are us, or at least our self on the wind where others can hear us. If no one hears us then are we even there? Oma's words tell of the first time, the first thing, the first memory to stick a spike in. And here we are. Inside the spike. It is 1932 and Atlas is a great hero to the City. And in the fire there are bodies. And the building burned and fell. A woman, trapped under the rubble, but later rescued. Except that that did not happen. There was no one to help. Strange light and sounds from the box on the scorched table. Howls. And then there is "HIM". He who needs to be confronted. Who did not save but was called a hero. And now she confronts the sum of her fears. Annika's fears? Or mine? Are we the same? And there he is. Advancing towards me, wreathed in flame. (Engineria here. I do NOT like the sound of that!) This scenario loops over and over. And then we're back in the void. And I know there are two of us, me and Annika. And she is stronger. Then years flash by and we are somewhere else. [Mission 1 = Ok, Cool, love the change of pace. Atmospheric. I have to be careful not to spoiler an arc like this, so just play it, folks. Nice] Mission 2: Smokey. From the void the light breaks through again. Like a siren and you must go. Annika and you, When it ends there may not even be a "you". Still, you go on. Forward into memory. Her memory of another's life. But her memory is not necessarily how it was. Faultline. The Family are out in force. As are others. But who is there to see? Back Alley Brawler. He's the big brother to Paragon. He'll know where mother is. Maybe. But if he doesn't then what? Then what? In the meantime the Family block the way. They must be dealt with. And they are. And ahead, up on the mezzanine, is BABs himself. Let's hope. And now Blue Steel. The hero cop of Kings Row is out here too. He must be consulted. Though advice not necessarily taken. And now there is an Intruder. An Intruder who ...warns? This is not real. Well, I've been having my doubts about this entire thing. I woke up pretty sure I wasn't called Annika. And then I was sure I was. Or not. And there was two of me, then one, then two but...anyway. But Mother has to be found. The Intruder is obviously tricking us/me/us. And there she is and she needs her revenge. Our revenge. Harry Frost! A name from the past/now/past. He must be dealt with. Now! But he seems to know his role better than I know mine/ours. He must die more than once? HE MUST! And this is a fantasy/dream/memory. And he injures me! But he will die. Even Frost knows this is a dream. How does a man from a Dream know he's in a Dream anyway? And then there is the last one. The one from before. Atlas. Or it calls itself Atlas. (I thought Atlas was taller?) I take to the air and he cannot reach me. Intruder watches. Mother has already fallen. Now Atlas falls. And then there is the void again. Mother has been found. There's a voice. "Engineria! We're trying to get you out. Hang in there." [Mission 2 = More of the same. Intriguing. I like it a lot. So hard to not ruin this for future players. Recommended!] Mission 3: Keen Sighted. Back floating in the nothing. Annika's thoughts/Engineria's thoughts. But voices. From outside. Science origins...increase to 2000 ppm...death if too much! The light grows. Time to lie back. Annika knows what to do. She always does. April 2007. World changing. Struggling. And Annika has made a mistake. If she is here then I am NOT her. OMA! Must save her. And we do. We always do. Alan? Do I know Alan? And whether we know them or not, where is he? Alan's notes are found. No Alan. A search for a cure for dementia. Admirable. Admirable Alan, wherever he is. But there's a man over there. It's Joe! Joe Freitag! He says Penny Yin is involved now. And something about pigs. Hard to concentrate. Focus on a memory that is mine, not Annika's. Grab the wheel when the RAPTURE comes! [Mission 3 = I'm just repeating myself now, and probably will for the next few missions. Interesting and curiously humanizing for whoever the Kings Row nemesis is. Good stuff] Mission 4: Upgraded. Strange watery darkness. Murky and filled with voices. Annika! Not Engineria. Then the world EXPLODES. Engineria staggers and drags herself out of a Leviathan resequencer pod. Ick. I'm me. Me, not Annika. Advil please! And someone is going to pay for this. Time to go a stalking! Time to contact Joe Freitag. Hello Joe! Leviathan snatched me on my way somewhere and dumped me into a mind scrambling machine? Yeah, I kind of figured that. And the signal cuts out, which means Leviathan is coming for me. Well, time to roll up the sleeves and kick their butts. Who the hell is this? Well, whoever you are, brace yourself! Incoming! And down you go! Right. Contact Joe. Ok, I have to drop the security grid so they can get in and raid the place. Off we go. Two generators to switch off. Who the hell are you? Oh, I don't care. I'm kicking your head in too, my friend. Ok, there's the first one. And a squad responds after it goes dark. And then the second one is done. And the security grid is down and the PPD invade and arrest all they can find. Time to chat to Joe Freitag then. [Mission 4 = Yes, repeating myself. More excellent story there. Nice] Mission 5: Mystic Queen. Things are supposed to be fine now. Penny Yin has warned Engineria that there may be some residual whatever going on, echoes maybe, of what just happened. But Engineria can still hear, faintly, Annika's voice. And she's asking for help. There's a light. Dunno if anyone else can see it but it leads to an old building in Kings Row. Let's see what's in here. Something is being guarded here, a vessel. And some sort of vat thing? What's in here? Is that a body? Well now. And the Facility Chief has a key I need. So, let's ask him for it. I'm sure he'll be amenable. I mean why wouldn't he? Oh, looks like I definitely hit a nerve there! Well, lots of nerves. I'll do it again in a moment. I drop the Facility Chief, grab his key and then download the facility's database. Time to get the hell out of here. And here we go: [Mission 5 = Enlightening. It'll be interesting how this plays out in the following arcs. Good stuff] Verdict. @cranebump changes up the narrative style in an interesting and drastic way. Like it! Tune in for our next episode which will be Leviathan 5: Mantle. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is, after the commercials, @Darmian's Darkest Before Dawn: Part One.

He said there was. I'll look for it when I get there!

Arc 7 from our first writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is, @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 3.1: Extractions in Eden. Mission 1: A Golden Paradise. Engineria hears a PING! from her computer and checks her email. I wonder what Delia wants now. Ollerus probably needs rescuing. Anyway, turns out the email isn't from Delia or Wyvern but from the mysterious hacker known as "The Doctor". Or to give her her full name, Dr. Carole Friedkin. I wonder why she's getting in touch and not Delia/Ollerus/Hornet? Seems Langston Corps. has a production facility in...wait for it....wait for it...no, not the Rikti War Zone, that would be crazy. No, it's in the FAR more sensible location of Eden. Yes, FAR more sensible. WHAT? Friedkin suspects that setting up there, despite their altruism as told to the mayor, they must be hiding something. Can I check it out? Yeah, I wasn't doing much else today anyway. Eden. Ok then. Wyvern are busy repairing their base but Hornet will drop me off. This place is actually beautiful. However, it is ALSO full of monsters. And I have to be careful here. Very careful' Ok, take to the air and scout around. See what's what. OHO. Crey have a base in this place somewhere. And they've captured a Goldbricker. That's a bit strange. Let's see why. Just a few well aimed blasts and drop those Crey goons as fast as I can. Surprised they haven't any tank types here as protection against the Devouring Earth actually. Or maybe they had and the DE got them? Possibly. Yikes. I may have been ever so hasty in freeing this Goldbricker. He's got some issues. Not to mention some sort of thorns growing out of him. That is not a good sign. Raaaawwrrr? Yep. Definitely hasty! Oh so mind numbingly, hit with toxic thorns, knocked out of the sky and poisoned hasty. Yep. Mediporter? Ya, mediporter. Ok, let's try that again, shall we? (@Ankylosaur, that Bloomer guy is frikkin LETHAL!) But with some tactics and LOTS of grenades, and keeping my distance, he does, finally(!) go down. OHO. A "Gaian" was he? Looks like he got infected by something. Oh that's not good. Devouring Earth? Maybe. But I break their beacon. You know, just for something to do. Since I'm still all riled up about "Chris" trying to turn me into a shish kabob. OH hell. I am avoiding this guy like the proverbial plague! I got murdered by a turned Goldbricker, I ain't going near THAT! Ah, Dr. Steffee I presume. (Who wears name tags out in the field?) And you're investigating these Gaians? Well, I'm going to poke you for some more answers. Did I mention I'm riled up? I am though. Totally. And this guy knows squat. Or at least nothing that I want to know, to phrase it a little better. Ok, the beauty of the place is starting to wear off. It's just getting creepy now. So, time to kick in Afterburner and fly around a bit faster. And another Crey scientist. And this one knows who I am! FAME AT LAST! Or is it infamy? I can never tell which one it is when the "bad guys" treat you like this. Notorious, maybe? I'll go with Notorious. Which reminds me, there's a Cary Grant marathon on PTV I need to record. Why am I interested in your Gaian research? I didn't even know there WAS such a thing until "Chris" attacked me, there were some Geode-Kin and friends that I had to put down and now you ranting about it. So, shut up and stay down. Capice? (Might be a typo in his speech there, @Ankylosaur) Searching him I find a keycard. And he was all chatty Cathy earlier about a transformation lab and coming up for air from some factory. That's gotta be somewhere in this hellhole. I collect a few more crates for destruction and then head back to the flyer. Hornet takes me home. Talking to the Doctor again and filling her in. (She responds far better than I can summarize it) (I actually saw no Big Brother bots at all, @Ankylosaur) And all that's ancient history for now. Right now I need to restock on an empty utility belt and get some rest, then I have to find this "Transformation Lab". I'm sure the Doctor will give me another history lesson later. [Mission 1: HOLY CRAP THIS PLACE IS DANGEROUS! Just goes to show you can't get complacent. Interesting start!] Mission 2: The Candy Lab Pinata. Ok then, looks like I'm going to Nerva since I'm on Fountain Island. The keycard gets me inside and I stealth around. Lots and lots of scientists in here. Plenty with sonic abilities/powers/weapons. And those things are lethal. Seems to be a feature of the Goldbrickers and Langston. OHO! A Dr. Butterworth. And delivering weapons to the Family. Seems that Langston is adding to their allies in some way. I did get on the wrong side of the Verandis a while back, having already got on the wrong side of the Marcones! So that'll be interesting later, I don't think! Frankly they have enough of an "edge" if you ask me. I may need another costume grade, and maybe cave and finally get a mask! Everyone seems to know me! Hmm, ponder color schemes later, fight now! You're not the only one wishing they'd been more secretive, Butterworth! I wish I'd never read my email this morning. Oh it's usually spam spam spam, eggs, beans, sausage and spam, but today...ow ow ow. Ok, I drop Butterworth and their Family goons. Ah, it's the little things in life that cheer you up. Now, what's in this box I found around the corner? A beacon for attracting Gaians? Oh no. Hmm, partially successful as it also attracts Devouring Earth. I wonder what happens if you set it up in a place with neither? Will they home in on it like pigeons or something? So if I activate flight and stealth and float up to the ceiling I should be able to avoid...no one. GAH! And you had it coming, you vills! Hang on, is that how they know it's me all the time? Am I being scanned? Right, I drop a grenade on you, Ms. Scientist, and then I drop a few more on your scanner. Boppity bop, as they say. (No one says that, but I'm thinking about a catchphrase. No? Ok then.) If you can't make it then steal it? Well, that attitude goes all the way from on the street Goldbrickers burglarizing houses to here, it seems. Should I warn Crey? I don't think so. They have a lot of money so can easily afford to defend themselves. And like your colleague before you, you get your ass whupped and your consciousness machine scrapped. Ok, who's next? I'm just working up a sweat here. Come to mama! Now why on earth do Langston need a consciousness uploader anyway? Some sort of human mind loaded into those Big Brother Bots? A chocolate robot? Strike 3! You're out! That's them and their machine dealt with. Now there's a Dr. Freyhaufer to deal with. And an old friend of ours, Mr. Mainframe. Yeah, he's here too. Just here in fact! Hey! Miss me? Yes, me again! And you can scuttle back into the ether and download yourself to another Mainframe somewhere. You know, he's gonna get annoyed at me eventually and then what will he do? Block my internet? Oh, the pain. It's not like I'm even in my apartment much these days (have you seen the amount of work I've been doing, it's like there's 3 of me!) Dr. Freyhaufer! You're quite possibly mad. Attack Crey's Utopia facility? Are there ANY scientists who aren't a bit mad in this place? And by "place" I don't mean just here. I'm sure the people in DATA are all certifiable too! OH! Hella groggy. Pull it together Engineria! Pull it together or these shmucks are going to lacerate you with their sonic weapons. Not to mention the obligatory being thrown across a room. HEY. I just noticed! I've not been set on fire yet! Ah, I've jinxed it now. Memories? Whose memories? Are you stealing my memories? With that scanner thing? Lord knows why. I know zilch. Ok, that was rough. Those sonic weapons STACK on you so you can't get up while still being hit. Fools came in to hit me in person though, and that did not go well for them. No siree. Now, I have two computer terminals to hack and then I am outta here. Got one, and now for the last one. Done. Let's skedaddle! Seems our Doctor Hacker friend knows ALL about the Crey Revenant plan. She helped shut it down a while back. Transferring human minds into grown organic bodies. How is that not cloning with an extra step, Doc? Except it looks like Revenant is living up to its name and isn't QUITE dead. It's still out in Eden in the Utopia Complex. And Langston want it. [Mission 2 = Not as lethal as Mission 1! But still pretty dangerous when the scientists go all Ghostbusters and cross the streams of their sonic weapons. The plot unfolds further. Good stuff] Mission 3: From the Corners of Our Minds. I'm getting another history lesson from the Doctor, Carole Friedkin. But that's ok, cos it's good to know this stuff actually. Friedkin was responsible for taking down the initial versions of Project Revenant and Project Locke. And wait a minute, Crey killed her! So who am I talking to now? Oh, she downloaded her consciousness! Now, I'm having difficulty with this. In the end the point is irrelevant if the outcome is the same I suppose, but for me Carole Friedkin is dead. What I'm speaking to is a COPY of her consciousness that THINKS it is Carole Friedkin. Not that I'll say that to her, why should I hurt her like that? Anyway, she's smart, she's sure to have asked herself that question a lot. I would. Anyway, Crey then stole her patents and tech and managed to imprison her in a digital cell. She's managed to hack a single pathway out to send messages though. But I, Engineria, might be able to rescue her. Well, I'll try but I'm going to need a really big ZIP drive! Or a Mainframe! I wonder. Plan is to copy MY consciousness and convert it to a digital form, then send "Digi-Me" into the Digital Prison to break her out. First I need to get to Friedkin's old lab in Eden to do the uploading/conversion. I have probably had (and will have) weirder missions, but this is gonna be in the Top 10 for sure. This place is infested with those Gaians! Ok, time to update the files with the data Friedkin gave me. There we go. Lovely. And dispose of a few more Gaians, and then activate the memory download ray. So far so good! Back to chat to the Doctor. She's puzzled by the Gaians, since Devouring Earth normally (normally!) turn humans into Devoured, not whatever these creatures are. But more pressing things are at hand. Time to go all TRON and get Friedkin out of her digital prison. [Mission 3= Short and sweet and to the point. No frills mission that sort of acts as the intro/prologue for Mission 4. Nice] Mission 4: Jailbreak. The simulation is some sort of vanity Arachnos project. A final Arachnos "victory" in the ruins of Atlas Park. Friedkin can't beat the "Boss", a randomly generated enemy of Arachnos. So, that's where I come in. She's also finagled help from another digital being, Number Six. So there'll be three of us in there doing our thing. How bad could it be? Famous last words? In I go. Oh! There's a 30 minute timer! The Doc says that will be PLENTY of time. Let's see, shall we? AND.. I'm off to a wobbly start. This was probably the WRONG computer. Yeah, probably. "Happy Birthday, Lord Recluse"? Populating enemies? Whose enemies? Well, technically EVERYONE in here besides Friedkin and Number Six I suppose. And THIS computer is in a rather peculiar spot dontcha think? Ok, well that's that done. Time to find the Doctor. Out along the corridor and through a portal. This place is a bit confusing to navigate. Ah, Doc! Found ya! (And in another life, I actually recognize those Arachnos types!) A few well aimed Proton beams later ... ...and it is time to find the Doc's ally, Number Six. He's calling for a little aid himself too. Shout louder, Sixie! We'll follow your voice to you. Stepping out of what I THOUGHT was an elevator we find ourselves outside in that ruined version of Atlas Park the Doc told me about. It looks hella grim. And over there is...Swan? Is she the Boss? Let's go and see. OH, she's damn dangerous! I'm staggering around like a new born foal, all wobbly legs and looking for my mother, while the Doctor and Number Six take on Swan. And they take her down. Simulation is still running though, so she wasn't the boss. Hmm, the Doctor has decided to stay standing over Swan's inert body until it vanishes, or whatever digital bodies do. So Number Six and I go looking for the boss. Positron? Maybe. OFFS! It ain't Positron! At least I don't think it is. Anyway, I didn't think this guy would be here, or even think about him AT ALL, since he's, you know...dead? Except here isn't out there. STATESMAN! There goes Number Six! I hope he's ok. Number Six is doing all the heavy lifting and we've got him down to a red sliver of health, when he decides to do his patented "Hey, I've just decided not to die" move, and just keeps going! One set of LIGHTNING OF THE GODS later both Engineria and Number Six are doing decidedly less than well in our endeavors. Statesman takes down Number Six (cos he's nearest) and then comes for me! I stagger back to the Doctor and Statesman effectively WALKS over her (she's gone now!) to get to me. I'm on fumes. Little Engineria with her quasi support Corruptor has no inspirations left, about 2 minutes left on the timer and all her allies are gone. And HE IS STILL COMING. I stop because he's flying after me and chasing me into Manticore! I'm down. And off he flies to wherever. I still don't know if he was actually the boss! Shortly after the mission failsafe kicks in and I come to in the real world. Surely digital pain shouldn't hurt? I mean that's just not fair. However, whatever the hell I did it was enough for the Doctor to use my diversion to free herself. I've got an hour to rest before the Goldbricker attack on the Utopia Complex in Eden. Yeah. Doc, is there such a thing as digital Advil, or icepacks? Mission 4 = A mission of two halves. First half, collect the ally and free the Doc. Second half, die. Ok, not die (even though I did die) but I might have been able to take Statesman if the Doctor had stayed with Engineria and Number Six after the initial fight with Swan. TOUGH! Nice] (A thing for you @Ankylosaur) Mission 5: Born Again. The Doctor has contacted Wyvern and spooled them up for the attack on the Utopia Complex. in the meantime she's been surfing the net since she got out of her digital prison, finding all sorts of things. Such as the original founder of Langston, dead a while now, is actually a digital being like the Doctor these days. That's him in the Mainframe! Once we start the attack though we have to stop the Goldbricker raid, and arrange for the Doctor to get downloaded into a body print of some kind. This lesson gets interrupted by alarms. Seems the Goldbrickers have brought their attack forward, so it's time to go and do my thing! Well, let's start as I mean to go on. GOLDBRICKERS! PPEPARE FOR A WHUPPIN'! ('sides, after getting the tar beat out of me in the digital realm I have some frustrations to burn off!) And AWAY you go! Man, I love Kinetics Repel! It really does help to keep me alive by keeping enemies off of me. And these two get shot before they have time to clamber back to their feet. And on I go. Ok then. You lot can finish that fight by yourselves. Winners can come challenge me for the title. I've got stuff to do in the meantime. Now, there's a Doctor Pareia I need to talk to. I can hear them shouting about beacon boxes attracting Gaians. They don't sound happy! Also, my new mask is working! He doesn't recognize me! I'm...well, no I didn't cause the chaos, but I'm sure as hell going to take advantage of it! Right, that's Pareia dealt with. Time to integrate the Doctor and then go and find her. OHO! lookee who I found! It's Old Man Langston-Mainframe hisself! Time to go bye bye, Mr. Langston-Mainframe! Take a little trip back to digital heaven, or wherever you hang out when you're not getting carried about by Bots. I'm sure it's nicer than that place I found Friedkin. And you got what you came for? Hmm. So that's why the raid was brought forward, you got the jump on Crey. Plus your Bot guards are immune to those Gaian things. I think I found Doctor Friedkin! Gimme a few minutes Doc, I'll soon have you out of that thing! There's something wrong with the process! Looks like the Doc got flushed through the system! Now I have to find where she came out. Fortunately, she was flushed to a different spot in the same cloning chamber. And was promptly caught in an energy field. No problemo, Doc, I'm a comin'! So that's the Doctor freed, and she seems both delighted to be in her new body, and yet a bit repulsed by it. Then again beggars can't be choosers as many folks say, so she's mostly happy to be actually alive again. We have more yet to do. We have to take out the Burninator, he's the Goldbricker raid leader. Friedkin finds him first. Well, she doesn't so much find him as run off and work her way towards him through the cooling bodies of literally everyone who gets in her way. She's got something to prove I think. And maybe she's going to need a therapist later. A really good one. He's tough but doesn't last long against both of us. That's the last of the Goldbrickers down, even though Mainframe Man claims they got what they came for. Next is dealing with the Crey VP, Juan Hernandez. He's answered the alarms and arrived to find the Utopia Complex in chaos, partly destroyed, infested with Gaians, and so on. I bet he's not going to get a holiday bonus this year from the Countess. I'm just guessing now. And there he is! Come on, Doc. Let's finish this and go home! My digital Advil is wearing off....those were just a placebo, weren't they? Hmmph. He's got plenty of guards around him, including Bot Masterminds, and their guns are causing havoc. But he goes down and as he does he teleports out. It's time for Engineria and Doctor Friedkin to leave. Job done. The Doctor is relaxing, and pleased to be free in the flesh. She babbles about what Langston is doing, if he's going to duplicate himself, or sell the tech to the highest bidder as an Immortality device, or...and then she wisely decides to get a bath. I'll do the same when I get home. [Mission 5 = Great finale. Plenty to do, plenty of danger. Objectives following objectives. Mechanics worked perfectly. Good stuff] Verdict. Loved it. It got nasty on two missions, but we got a conclusion of sorts and now have an ally who owes us. Tune in for our next episode which will be All that Glitters 3.2: Suspicious Maneuvers in St. Martial. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is, after the commercials, @cranebump's Leviathan 4: Origin.

You are a maniac. How many other things are hidden in your missions that I never thought to look for? Now I'll be looking all the time.

Oh did I? Cool. Timing! If I had been able to do the mission earlier I'd have probably been on the same map as @Zhym I suppose.

@Darmian, still laughing at the "I've always hated spiders" line! 😄

Arc 6 from our third writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is, @Darmian's Darker Deeds: Part Three. Mission 1: Busman's Holiday. We're still in the Meteors' makeshift HQ in a set of suites in the Hotel Geneva in Atlas Park. Madame Maven has convened the team to recap what we know and how to move forward, especially since Arachnos have a copy of all our intel now. We're in the weird position of now trying to prevent an internal civil war in Arachnos! Madame Maven says normally she's let them fight it out but we don't know how that will end. Paragon has enough trouble with Warburg and the Marshal Blitz faction already. The only clue we have is what Elliott Burgh said about the Renegades' mad plan, whatever that is. So we need to get Burgh back from Arachnos somehow. Burgh's been seen and a Longbow agent has that intel. Longbow can't be trusted completely but this guy wasn't one of the Red+Whites, he's undercover. Meet him and get out. Sure, how hard could it be? Well, first of all I'm going to avoid you lot. Seems the sensible thing to do. And this is where Colin Dreyfuss, the undercover Longbow agent, is waiting for me. Let's have a chat with the man. Hopefully it's not a trap. Well, there's no one lying in wait here. But Dreyfus won't have much to say for himself. Damn. He's got blood on his hands though, and there's a trail...which leads to here. A bookshelf. A paperback novel has bloodstains on it, and there's a computer disk slid between the pages. That has to get back to Madame Maven and the team. But who killed Dreyfus? And then from outside there's a voice shouting "COME OUT LITTLE HERO!" Well, I think I just will. If for no other reason than Colin Dreyfus deserves some justice for his murder. Ok, here I come, ready or not! Webmaster Fallon, is it? Well, I plan on kicking your spidery ass until you can't get your helmet off ever again! Ok, in one sense that's a relief. This team of spiders have no idea who I am or the mission. On the other hand they ARE trying to kill me right now, so fighting back is the right option. Oh yes! OHO! Fallon is smarter than I thought! Now we're going to have Arachnos looking into Dreyfus' movements and possibly getting in our way. Not his lucky day! Local Longbow troops show up and back me up! He always hated spiders? You joined the wrong team my friend! With that Engineria accompanies the Longbow troops back to their HQ in a converted Dirty Duck restaurant not far from here. At their HQ Engineria uses their comms to contact the Meteors. Madame Maven is saddened to hear Dreyfus is dead. She wants the disk uploaded to her ASAP, and to find out who Dreyfus' associates were. Someone gave that to him and we need to find that someone. Axios is also in the Rogue Isles searching for the missing Chris Jenkins. [Mission 1 = Short and simple but instantly setting off on a course to solve a bigger mystery. Everything loops back around. Nice!] Mission 2: We're Not in Kansas. Next morning Engineria speaks to Bennett, the local Longbow commander. She seems reasonable and helpful and lets me know of two associates of Dreyfus that still aren't accounted for. Then it's on the comms to Madame Maven. She and the team worked all night decoding the disk data and Dreyfus had a mole inside Arachnos. That mole saw Burgh being taken to a black site. Bullet Streak has been working on this and provides a location to check, and that matches one of the associates of Dreyfus. Time to check that out then. Off I go. Stepping in there's local Infected and Arachnos patrols. And the patrols seem all squirelly, like they're afraid for some reason. Can't be the Infected, those sad people are a minimal threat to a power armor clad Arachnos trooper. And there's the elevator at the far end. I'll just ignore the Infected and stealth by the Arachnos patrols. Oh boy! I just found out why the Arachnos patrols were acting all weird! I can't say I blame them actually. These...things...are dangerous as hell. And if I want Calhoun then I have to take them down. Wish me luck! Right, let's see how they respond to some Radiation. Plus I've put Kinetics Repel up to keep them away from me! It's bad enough that they spit! And it is toxic! Ok! One done already and the other two bounced over the railing. Follow them down and keep hammering them with Proton Blast. Oh man but these guys are ugly! A face only a mother could love. Not that they have any. Mothers I mean, they obviously have faces. But the Radiation does it for them, that and stealing Health/Power/Speed via Kinetics! Then it's upstairs again to grab Calhoun. He does not seem well. At all. Hang on, PRIMUS? What's a Primus? Another of these damn things? Oh boy. Back down we go then, Mr. Calhoun. Ah, looks like we have intermediate trouble BEFORE we hit that Primus you mentioned. One down and another one coming our way. WTH? I just got hit in head! Calhoun? No, a damn sneaky Fortunata came around behind us! Clever. Well, she's still getting a face full of rads for her trouble. Ok, now Calhoun, can we please get out of here? That would be oh so lovely. Come on! Yes yes yes yes YES! Just get in the damn car! I have a Primus to deal with! Ok ok, he's a big one but there's only one of him, so same tactic as before and voila, toasty giant spider...thing. Right, I'm outta here. Run like blazes back to the exit! OH WHAT NOW? Vinny's Boys? Big Vinny from the Zig who nearly broke my neck? THAT Vinny? I do not have time for this! Blasty blast and goobyeee! Ok, back to the Longbow base. And catch my breath. Calhoun is there getting medical treatment and promises to tell me everything when he gets himself settled. A quick call to Madame Maven and Engineria gets instructions to question Calhoun. She and the gang in Paragon are still working on translations. Axios thinks he's found Chris Jenkins in St. Martial, and Longbow have taken custody of Tessitore. And Maven's best news? Chis Jenkins' law firm is bringing a case against the Meteors. Busy day. In fact, Engineria might have gotten off light in this one. [Mission 2 = Another fast mission to move the plot along. It feels like pieces are being pulled into place for a bigger reveal later. Good stuff] Mission 3: The Winds of Change. So, it's a video call to Madame Maven on the Longbow comms. Calhoun spills that Burgh was seen leaving Ghost Widow's place and he decided to see who this prisoner was. Burgh was transferred to Kodal's unit. Location included, so that's where Engineria is going. On a good news front, Axios has retrieved Chris Jenkins. Well, hurray! I suppose. And she wants to know who Vinny is! Too weird to explain. LOL. Anyway, time to visit Kodal's base of operations in Port Oakes. Off I go. On stepping in there's that greasy air feel I got before when I came across time generators and so on. So, this is the right place, or at least Burgh WAS here. So, Wolf Spider Marius. Who might you be? Shall we have a little talk? Let's talk. Oh, Fallon was far too lax, was he? Looks like the old camaraderie and esprit de corpse is strong in Arachnos. Well, time to stomp spider! Well that's more like it! Why don't I meet more people like you, Marius? I mean you just want to patrol your warehouse or whatever and get on with your life. Amirite? Yeah, course I am. C'mon then. Let's find Burgh. Oh hell, got a little bit cocky there and walked around the corner straight into this one. Bit groggy but I got her. And I see you're no help, Marius. Then again I suppose I can't expect you to fight any of your Arachnos friends, suppose they survive and file a report? Damn it. Lost Marius. Have to go get him again. Ah, there you are! Really? Well, I suppose I'm off your Christmas card list then. (Do people still do those?) To be honest, this is not so bad. The only other Arachnos person I've spoken to was Ghost Widow, and Marius is downright lovely compared to her. Now, my friendly Arachnos buddy, pal, friend o' mine, what in the blue blazes is that thing? Never mind, I'm here for Burgh. Ah, there you are Elliott. Not seen you since the ship. Hope Ghost Widow was nice to you. Oh Marius. And we were getting on sooo well. Oh, didn't stay to fight. Run off to "get help" maybe? Anyway, stuff to do. Boppity bop, spiders! I owe you? Maybe I do at that. Well, spilt milk and crying over it, Burgh. We are where we are. Now, I have a Kodal to deal with before I get out of here. OW! Caught in an ambush! And Marius is for the chop, poor guy. Maybe Longbow could take...no, that won't happen. Poor guy. Anyway, greetings Kodal! Looks like they already picked old Burgh's brain clean. But at least we'll find out what they found out, as soon as I get out of here alive that is. Ok, you are seriously blocking my exit here, Monsieur Kodal, if that IS your name...what are talking about now? No, I'm not falling for that! "Look behind you!" Do you think I'm a child?! And down you go Kodal. Oh hell, it was the Spectra Arachnos he was talking about. They look a bit peculiar, sort of zombie-like! I blast them with radiation and retreat. Kodal had a strange key on him labeled "Master Engine Control". It's for that giant machine thing I saw earlier. One last thing to do then before I get outta Dodge. Chrono Engine is shut down apparently. It was enormous and looked nothing like the previous time generators I found. Ok, time to hightail it out of here. Back the LB base where a revived Burgh is set up in front of a screen where Madam Maven questions him over a videolink. He spends a bit raving about Ghost Widow and her obsession with her bones. And she didn't listen to a word he said. THEN he informs us that the Arachnos here plan on infusing the Arachonoids with Spectra DNA. And that's not a pleasant idea at all. Burgh's temporal knowledge was used to speed up the cloning procedure. And if you think that's insane, apparently it's not as crazy as the plan the actual Spectra Arachnos are hatching! Madame Maven prioritzes. The Arachnoid lab has to be taken out. Then we get back to the main Spectra hunt. Looks like I'm going into the spider's web! [Mission 3 = I love this map (even though the elevator door is broken) and while a simple rescue, there's so much layered into this. Good stuff indeed] Mission 4: Slash & Burn. Burgh gets questioned some more, including about if he knows why the Spectra guys look like zombies now. He figures they were caught in a time trip when a generator was destroyed. And Madame Maven then says that was our fault, when we blew up the travel device back in Steel Canyon. Oh, they love us now. And then he tells us THEIR plan. Richter plans to detonate a chronal bomb in the Rikti war zone. Burgh thinks it could wipe out Paragon if it interacts with the Mothership shields! Jeez Louise! They're going to blame it on Recluse and instigate a full on invasion of the Rogue Isles. Okaaay. That's like insane. Completely insane. Maven says "One thing at a time" and orders Engineria to shut down the clone lab. And that's where I'm going now. I'm in. And there's an intercom announcement. Great. They know I'm coming. Patrols and ambushes all the way then! Grenades in the utility belt? Check. Let's gooo! I'm stealthing my way though this place, but sometimes you just can't sneak by people and have to take them down. I'm just gonna scoot around the corner here into a quiet spot and get my breath back before moving on. No, no. I'm FINE. WHAT? Who patrols this stairs? I mean why? Ok, more spiders to get smashed! It's like they're deliberately blocking all routes where my Stealth power won't help. That's right! KABOOM! Oh, I wonder did anyone hear that? Back to stealthing! Allow me to present Exhibit A. One clone lab, to be destroyed. Also, patrolled by Arachnoids. Horrible spitting toxic Arachnoids. Ok, I have to find the main control and then eliminate the gestating Spectra/Arachnoid hybrids. Easy! Ok, master control is down, now the pods with the hybrids. There's the first one. Carefully does it. And where the hell is the last one? AHA! down there! Well, that didn't take long. However I have caused quite a lot of noise and Commander Allan has found me. Well, I do so hate leaving a job unfinished. And, you know, he DID order bad things to happen to me, so it's only right that I go kick his head in. Allan is not in the best of moods. Then I suppose that's a mite understandable since I have just destroyed his cloning operation and done quite a bit more damage along the way. Lower base? There's like a sub basement under all this? And someone called Vodat. File that away for later, Madame Maven will want to know. Hell, those back arm things are dangerous! And over he goes! Nice knowing you, Allan. And then...and then...sometimes the bad guy is right. Not morally right but correct in what he says. And then this. Now Engineria can leave, OR (following @Darmian's advice) check out the voice while running through a collapsing building. So, I do. OH NO. I've been saying for ages that I'm a mid level super in a city of supers much more powerful than me, and I actually meant that! OH CRAP. HE'S SEEN ME! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! I run away! And he hits me in the back. I make it to the elevator and get away. (Embarrassed mode: Because I tend to hide my Nav bar so as to take better screenshots, I hadn't noticed that the blue button to just exit was right there all along) [Mission 4 = This gets sold to us narratively as a thing to get done before we get back to the "main plot", but that's deceptive. There's plenty of action and adventure in here. And that Easter Egg! @Darmian, were you TRYING to kill me? LOL. Good stuff] Mission 5: Resistance. No returning out the way I came. Lord Recluse(!) is back that way, though thankfully separated from me by a building on fire. Small mercies are still mercies I suppose. Allan said there was no signal and he was right, so it's down into this sub lab place and watch out for Vodat. Whoever she /he/it might be. I say "it" because I've already run into the Arachnoids and so on, so...cough cough! Down down down! Well there's Vodat. Waiting for me. I'm not surprised since Allan DID warn him about me so, yeah. Gonna have to tackle that guy. And there are lots of troops down here. I suppose some came down to get away from the upper levels exploding. HEY! Don't blame me! That was Allan! So you know when you have a bright idea? Like, hey, I'll just stealth by these guys and get the drop on them from the rear? That sort of an idea. And then you nearly walk straight into an Arachnoid patrol! This place is also FULL of Arachnoids. Just sayin'. Ok, here goes nothing! I keep saying it! It wasn't ME who blew up the upstairs building! And who are these fools you keep facing? Well, they must be fools because no sane person in their right mind would come down here. Shut up. Extenuating circumstances. Staying upstairs was detrimental to my continued existence. And that's all the reason I need! Blinded! But I keep targeting Vodat. Although the Arachnos Mistress keeps targeting me! I hope I can kill him before she kills me! I do manage it! Mainly by taking s stupid risk and turning on the Arachnos Mistress and flaying her with Radiation. I pop my last greens and blues and turn to take out Vodat. Unleash Termagant? That doesn't sound good at all. Dollars to donuts it's a King Spider of those Arachnoids. I betcha. These guys are all over this place! Thankful there weren't as many upstairs! OHO! Found Termagant. And all their friends. Oh this is really going to be painful, I just know it. Using a clever combination of hit and run, meaning I hit and run while keeping Kinetics Repel up and flinging grenades over my shoulder, plus Smoke Flash to lose line of sight with them, I feebly whittle down the foot soldiers of Termagant until there's only him and one subspiderthing left. And then I heroically wade in! Ahem, not. I was "heroically" webbed and couldn't move! I drop Vodat and concentrate on his minion, and while you can't see it, Engineria's own health bar is hovering about the same level as the Arachnoid's. I'm staying alive by pulling health from him with Kinetics! And then he's down and I can escape this building. Getting outside Engineria manages to get through to Madame Maven. Super Charger is on the way in their reclaimed flyer to pick her and Burgh up. The team has isolated what they need from all those translations and the data disk and then Maven says: THAT'S the boss! She is taking the fight to them! [Mission 5 = Small mission that effectively acts as an epilogue to both the last mission and the entire arc. Simple but deadly. Fun. Good stuff] Verdict: Interesting arc. Liked it a lot. Pulling back in plot strands from across previous arcs to build (well my assumption) to the final trilogy. Okay, our next episode will be Darkest Before Dawn: Part One. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is, after the commercials, @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 3.1: Extractions in Eden.

Arc 6 from the second writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is, @cranebump's Leviathan 3: Hollow Victory. It appears that Tucker Hannity, NewsAnons's main presenter, is still stirring up all the misery in the world and throwing it at the screen. Rogue Isles criminals infiltrating Paragon at every level and the powers that be do nothing but let it happen. Our great institutions hobbled and unable to respond and so on. All in garish technicolor. Trouble is there's a grain of truth in there, and that's the issue. And then Freitag calls. Comrade, yeah that guy, wants to talk. He's in the Rogue Isles though and will only talk to Engineria. Oh joy. I'm going back to one of my favorite places. To talk to one of my favorite people. Well, it's the only lead Freitag has right now so...yeah. Mission 1: The Noise Before Defeat. And here we go. After spending the day visiting the Museums in Mercy(!) I'm told where the meet is on and I head there. And wouldn't you know it, my old pal Hollow Point is ahead of me. Chh. Well, win some lose some. Hey HP. I make some space around us and we catch up on old times. Me? I should pay more? Which one of us needed helping just there? Was it me? I think not. Still, we round the corner and get jumped by Kugelwhatsits, and it's a mite painful, but lookee here! Hollow Point has other uses besides shooting people in the head. Well, HP, this I appreciate. I'll just stand here beside you for a minute or two and bathe in the healing. Of course no sooner do we round the NEXT corner than we get fired on! Look! I'm flattened again! I'd almost forgotten what that felt like. Almost. And now I never will. And Hollow Point goes down! Muttering something about Retrograding? I dunno what the hell that is. Wait, was he another fake? No, that can't be right because he'd be on the other side surely? Never mind. Busy now! And it's all ambushes on corners tonight! I get around a corner and Comrade comes out of the shadows, along with the Kugel Elves, who really hate my guts. Not sure what Comrade is shouting there but he appears to be helping me. Comrade wades into the fight! Giving me some needed breathing space but he's taking heavy hits now from all around him. Those Gun Drones are lethal. And Comrade is also down! Well this went south fast! What the hell?! The last thing Comrade says to me before he dies is this: And then I'm staggering out of that hellhole and making my way back across Mercy to make a phone call. And get some Advil. And bandages. And maybe a new career in dog walking. Freitag is livid. Well, more so that usual, what with the NewsAnon thing contributing to his high blood pressure and all. He'll be in touch and he and Pep Becktrees will search for mentions of this Schturmivol whatevers. [Mission 1 = Hardcore crazy! This mission is insanely deadly. Everything and everyone (apart from HP and Comrade) wants you dead at 100 percent and will stop at nothing to do it. Great but bring inspirations. Lots of them!] (Little typo on Becktrees' name in the end text, @cranebump) Mission 2: Know Thy Enemy. So, News Anon, purveyoe of the finest news to the gentry, have banners scrolling across the screen about how Comrade's death was Hollow Point's fault. Seems they had a "beef". Or something. Best not to delve too deeply into that morass of crazy. And then Engineria's temp phone goes off. I'm to watch my back with HP. Yeah, we know he seems on our side but he's still a gun for hire. As for the other thing, Becktrees thinks it's Storm Korps. Not heard from since World War 2. Actual old timey Nazis. Well great. Anyways, tracking Comrade's movements and retracing his steps, turns out he was in a place owned/used by Doc Buzzsaw just prior to the meet. Time to see the Doctor. I'll bring "apples". The explosive type. Hello! Hollow Point is here. Again. Well, let's see how he is today. He's got some of Doc Buzzsaw's "friend" with him. Oh, apparently, he's just waiting for a friend. Me. Ha. Ok then, HP. Time to tidy up. Oh it's Janitors! I forgot those sumbeeches rez themselves! Here I am stunned and the other one is racing towards me while the one I just downed is busy upping again. Oh my! People will talk? About what exactly? About me wringing your neck because nooo, Engineria is fine and doesn't need help from the rezzing Frankenmonster? C'mon, let's get this done. I know you want revenge but I need answers. Right, whatta we got here? The Doc's logs. Interesting. She's got fingers in every major pie. Well, every pie that might want new fingers at least. You know where I'm going with this. More Frankenmonsters. They seem happy in themselves though. One of them, Clawe, likes to sing. Oh, two cryptic notes here too. Lotan and Tiamat. A job for Pep I feel. Further looking around nets me access to some of her experimental data. I've met and killed most of these. She just makes more. And some antiquated stuff marked "NG-original". On the list for Pep. And there's a Warrior! He's run off! Babbling about being at a meeting and hearing a hissing sound and then everything went dark, and now he's here. So that's where the Doc is getting her "subjects". Could be worse. Could be Vahzilok. At least the Doc prefers them alive! What else? A genetic resequencer, with a print that looks like the NG-original schematic. Oh look, a body! Wonder who it is? Hmm, tagged as a failed experiment. It's a long dead Death Doll. Well, I dunno. You have to feel sorry for some vills when bad things befall them. They didn't ask to be experiments. Well, apart from the Freakshow I suppose. Oh Doc, say it ain't so. Crey too Brutus? Shut up HP. I'll explain that later. I suppose she has to get lab stuff from somewhere. She had BETTER be talking about you, Hollow Point, or me and the Doc are gonna have words. Nope, words are being had anyway, but there may be shouting too! Our definitions of progress are not the same! I like a microwaved dinner, you like resurrecting killer janitors. See the difference? Oh save it. You'll have plenty of time to talk afterwards. Oh yes. Peon! Peon? Anyway, see you later HP. Freitag's debrief is in fact brief and bullet pointy. Doc Buzzsaw, as per her MO, is a chatty Cathy when she wants to be. Lotan and Tiamat and Leviathan are all like mythical sea beasts. (I say mythical, but I've seen Lusca in IP so...) So, Crey provides the lab stuff (got that right!), Leviathan provides the subjects (like that Warrior I met) and Doc does some resequencing on them, keeps what she likes and returns the rest to Leviathan. Shares tech updates with her Crey suppliers. All cosy. And Freitag has info on the Dr. Gressmann that Buzzsaw mentioned, connected with the "NG-original". Well, I'm agog, Joe. Let's hear it! [Mission 2= Simple capture and retrieve clues but really drives some plot home. Gets across Buzzsaw's odd personality too! Nice!] Mission 3: Opportunities Multiply. Ok then, with Doc Buzzsaw's help a meet has been set up between Crey and Leviathan. Buzzsaw has promised to deliver something special and they're salivating. Ick. As for a mole inside the PPD? That's being dealt with without Engineria. Seems ok to me. And I'll have some special back up on this mission. Cage Consortium. Kirk Cage is unhappy with his rep being "tainted". Whatever. I'll take the help. Off to Sharkhead to a clandestine Crey facility then! We're entering at different points so I'll need to collect the others. Well, definitely Crey. No sign of my allies yet though. Time for a scout around I think. Stealth on and...ok, it was already on. Well that didn't take too long. Here's the first, Savage Siren. So based on previous experience I should be seeing Pyrelord and Critical Mass around too, Ok, let's get Siren and do this thing. Oh excellent! Savage Siren gets into the fight as fast as she can. Go girl! (Takes a quick breather) Several Crey agents later, plus a Crisis Unit... That's a floor cleared. I was stealthing my way along but Siren seems so happy to be inflicting high levels of damage on those Mr. Smith clones Crey uses as agents. Oho! Look who I see! Yes yes, we know. You want to raid the Crisis Units for their tech and...what do you mean Pyrelord's in trouble? And there's Pyrelord. With a bullet through his head and his body stuffed behind this generator. Did he have any family? You don't know. Just as a matter of interest, Critical Mass, WHICH Pyrelord was he? There was like 3 of them at one point. You don't know? Well, now we need to proceed with a reducted team. Careful out there! Right, next up is hacking their system. Which turns out to be locked. So we need to find someone who can unlock it. I hate my life. I should do the Jessica Jones thing and take off the suit and just take low level detective work, divorces, all that thing. Yeah, it'd be dull but the perks are not being left stuffed behind a generator. Oh for the love of...you do know you've got a Crey employee standing right next to you while you rant? No? Well, it won't matter soon anyway, Me and these two are not going to bother to sort out the differences between you around a table or anything. Just sort you out. Every time! Well, nearly every time! Damn zealots! That's what I liked about Hollow Point, he's a ruthless merc but he's never ranting about "the cause" and so on. Damn it. Savage Siren is down! Last I heard from her was something about never working with Redcaps and then it trailed off. In the meantime where the hell did this globe thing come from? Ok, Critical Mass finishes off his foe and comes to help me smash this very very annoying person in the face. And this very very annoying person is hella tough, pushing us back into the next room! Critical keeps on the pressure but it looks like his armor is starting to overheat! Not that I have time to worry about that since I'm thrown clear of any explosion. By the time I stagger up, Critical Mass has joined Savage Siren on the ground. Out for the count. Ok, I have one trick up my sleeve here (or somewhere in my tray!) Quick scrabble through the old utility belt for it...ah yes! Envenomed Daggers! Take that! One sec. Maybe more than one sec. Ok, time to find someone else to chat to about the security console. That's so much better. See? Reasonable. And no one gets hurt. Apart from some fingers. Whatever. Your orders were just to take Buzzsaw prisoner, you don't know any more than that. Hmmm. I have to talk to the Chief Scientist do I? Well, I will. Mr. Chief Scientist I presume. Ignore the prone bodies of your guards, or you'll be joining them Yes, I am threatening you. So spill. Him? What now for the love of Recluse! Ok, I finally get the console running and start uploading stuff to Pep's data directory. Let him sort that out. Oho! I spy company. Now, that's just not right. Ok, I used grenades on you the last time, so let's tool up again. Except THAT one knows me! That one IS Hollow point! Oh it's just business is it? Well I was asking for that I suppose. However, I'm still going to kick your verdamnt head in. There's too much going on here for me to play dead, HP. How about YOU play dead. As soon as I dispose of your cosplayer minions here. Ok, got him. He's moaning. But we have the data and the alarms are screaming and I'm outta here. Back with Freitag. He's not surprised really that HP took a bigger pay check to work against us. If it really WAS HP. I dunno. Some good news, one of the scientists has willingly turned themselves in, not a fan of the entire enterprise. And Pep's working on that data now. [Mission 3 = A tough mission! Crey can be tough at times but you know what you're getting. The zealot was brutal! Great fight though. Nice] Mission 4: Formless Subtlety. And several weeks pass with no sign of Leviathan, outside of their minions causing havoc here and there across the city. All the while the hate spews from NewsAnon. And then I get called out. WTH? "Like Engineria". Right. Ok, I'm pissed now. And there's the phone. Oh look, someone else who is pissed. Hi Freitag, whatcha got for me? Nothing, huh? Apart from some info on Dr. Gressmann. Taken in by us after WW2 in Operation Paperclip. Got a medal for scientific whatevers in 1954, died a few years later in an auto accident. But...I knew there was gonna be a "but", Joe. But all her files are missing. If there's anything on her then it's in a government safe site. And Joe says he's going to put in the paperwork to request it. It will probably take a long time to get any reply. And that's just unfortunate. If only there were another way. Sadly as an officer of the law he just can't think of one. Me neither, Joe. Let's just give up. Just give me the damn address. Ok, a normal sort of building. Office-y looking. Some security. Willie Sullivan has given me a backpack to stick files in. Just disable the security system and go find stuff. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. If only. Ok, security guard dealt with, and the terminal is up there. Right. With that done I can check that PC I walked by a minute ago. Let's go see what's where and so on. Hmm, all data on Storm Korps is locked in a wall safe. It needs the thumbprint and keycard of the Site Security Chief. The guard I just knocked out was not the chief. Let's go find him then. Oh well done, guards. Let's just hang around the elevator and chat. Out of sight of your boss no doubt. Well, I'm just going to stealth by you (remembering to take Repel OFF this time!) So, if I don't punch out any more of your guys then you'll show me to the safe and open it? That seems suspiciously easy, but sure. Let's try that plan for now. What have I got to lose anyway? (Dignity mainly) There we go. Now wasn't that easy. Apologies for misgendering you earlier, ma'am. Oh come on! And we were getting along so well! Right. I knock you out and get the hell outta Dodge, files intact. Back with Joe Freitag He and Pep start going through the files. Story so far kiddies. Gressmann didn't die in an auto accident. She was recruited into a covert team for Roger Vrabel, the Might for Right Act guy. Working on Project Augeoides. Yes, met someone with that Augie name. Someone got Gressmann's notes and gave them to Buzzsaw, and abracadabra, new versions of Augie. Freitag's next plan is to feed false intel to the mole inside the PPD and draw people out. [Mission 4 = Actually a deceptive mission. Absolutely needed, and no extra clutter. No cramming main villains into a place they shouldn't be just for the sake of it. Good narrative there. Nice] Mission 5: To Win Without War. So, Freitag's theory is our mole has close connections with NewsAnon. He'll announce that the PPD are going to investigate their lead reporter/presenter. They're not because they can't legally do it, but they're going to say it. And the reporter is going to react to that and break cover hopefully. And wouldn't you know it, Freitag happens to know a supe not a million miles away that isn't actually a member of the PPD and who knows what they might do. Like even follow the reporter. Funny how these things can happen. So a couple of days later I have a conversation between T. Hannity Esquire and X (no idea who X is yet) and he's all squirelly. Really starting to lose it. Argsosy. Ok, let's tail our guy and see where in Argosy he goes. Oh fer the love of ...it's Hollow Point. I mean c'mon man, you're busting my chops here. And he has Sacco-Vanzettis for company. Great. As soon as he looks iffy I'm dropping him. Oh, it was all a ruse to get on the inside to shut down their operations. And the new togs were just a bonus. Sure, why not? It's a lot more reasonable than "For the cause!" Time to do the needful and shut off the security system. Gotta be around here somewhere. AHA. Excellent. And now, now Hollow Point and Engineria venture into the sewers below the building. Because of course we do. Some day I'd like to be more than a mid level super, and you know, fight vills that live in penthouses and have helicopters and swimming pools. Ah, a girl has to have her dreams. In the meantime, watch where you're stepping HP. We run into a few more of the Sacco-Vanzettis along the way. And wade through them (as well as other things), until we find T. Hannity himself. Of course, he has company. And lookee here! Hannity is a super himself! Well there's a turn up for the books. Ok, grab him HP. Having disposed of his guards/friends, we get a loudspeaker announcement (in the sewer? Sanitation dept is well funded!) telling us that Hannity is to be considered a traitor and to take him out. And a Collection Team arrives toot sweet to, well, collect him. And a few minutes later, because Hollow Point is seriously dangerous (yeah, I know I've beaten him, but let's not rub that in right now) we have the weasel of a reporter in our hands and Collection Team 1 is cooling in sewer water. Time to get out of here. But we have 2 more Collection Teams to get by along the way. Well, watch your 6 boys. Here's the next set of idiots. Serve the Disir? What in the blue blazes are you talking about? HP, shoot that man. Repeatedly if you please. So after dusting those, we make our way back to the main building and run into the final Collection Team, led by some dickwad named Sturm. He's a bit...he's a bit. I'll leave it at that. Refuse of prof...nope. Not going there. I'm just going to hit you until you STOP TALKING. Plan? Plan. HP approves too. I reckon Hannity does as well, since we're the only things keeping him alive right now. With Sturm down the others flee. And then there's a noise of an incoming signal on a nearby terminal. And Freitag knew it. There's always someone else at the end of the line. Someone pulling strings. We get out and go home. Time to report back. We've made some advances and the enemy have seemingly retreated for now. Prop 86, a bid for a new Super Hero Draft law, has failed. And thanks to my heroics (and HP's shooting people through the eyes) I appear to be on the good side (ha!) of NewsAnon. This just in from Tucker Hannity: [Mission 5= A great mid season wrap up. Plenty of tough fights and intel acquired and looking forward to the next move. Nice] Verdict: Loved it. We're tracing our plot back through the decades and finding out more and more. Our next episode will be Leviathan 4: Origins. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is, after the commercials, @Darmian's Darker Deeds: Part Three.

Going to be going for a while! And later I'll be adding MORE to this, including @Take One's stuff you recommended and @Getaways's set of arcs.

That already existed in Trident Base though (with the addition of the ASF) except everyone kept forgetting it was there.

Currently in Independence Port doing that exact thing! Well, after Real Life has finished with me!

Arc 6 from our first writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is, @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 2.3: Terawatts in Terra Volta. Engineria is back in Delia Huntley's office again. She's majorly pleased with the results coming in from Faultline, what with the removal of all that tech. She's even informed Vanguard of the rogue Rikti stuff that we found. In the meantime ConDev/Langston is buying up undeveloped land and buildings across Paragon. Seems the Mayor likes all this renewal that's going on. Now they've muscled their way into Terra Volta and Delia wants me to have a looksee at something there. Seems our shiny gold friends are guarding a building in the Old Coroman district. Delia thinks they're manufacturing Robopals there. And I still think those things are one mistake away from being ED-209! Let's go investigate! Mission 1: Handy Helpers. Stepping into the Coroman district you can immediately tell it is not a friendly place. I mean, there's work going on and all, but that's dragged a lot of unsavory types out of the shadows. Case in point. And of course I'm spotted. So I get in there and start blasting! These guys have the numbers on me, and there's something hitting me from one of the walkways! OOF. Bit of a dent to the old pride so soon after entering the zone. I'll be back in a minute or two. Ok, back again. Now where was I? Yeah. There's 3 prototype Robos I need to "deactivate". That's a technical term used by us "deactivators". You're not in the union, you're not cleared to know this stuff. Hell, there are a LOT of Goldbrickers around. Plus I've seen Freakshow, Sky Raiders and other things. Of course the Freakshow, being the Freakshow, have taken a dislike to the other things, and the Goldbrickers. Me too if I get any closer I bet! Although this could be used to my advantage. This Tank Smasher took out one of the Robopals I was looking for. I didn't get near it! May have to induct him into the Deactivators Union, if he doesn't try killing me first. 2 more of these bots to find. And it is a BIG place! Oh well, on we go. Next I run afoul of some Sky Raiders. Of course in the middle of dealing with them, well see for yourself! Electricity Attack From Above! Booya! I pull free of that attack and fly up, and that's handy because what do I see but the NEXT bot I need to take out. He IS heavily surrounded though, by his own assistants and by plenty who will join the free for all. Nothing for it though. I manage to tag him and his buddies and drop a Smoke Flash, blinding pursuers and make a hasty getaway. There's just too many of them! And they're in a near constant battle with each other. Langston might be rebuilding here, but these guys are taking it back down. HEY! I see the last bot. Although this is going to be tricky. So the plan is I fly around, land on the walkway and approach on its level, hoping the ones above and below don't spot me. What have I to lose? Sorta like this if you see what I mean. You are here? Well, so am I and that is not good for YOU. Bye bye botsy! Ok Delia, that's the last of them. Heading back to Wyvern Central, or wherever the meeting place is! Delia informs us that a hacker has been in touch. There are as far as is known, 4 main types of these robots. Handy, Servant, Professional and Hazard. And all of them have some sort of combat capability. Yeah, I know that first hand thank you very much! This hacker calls themself "The Doctor", and has supplied Wyvern with the address of Langston's distribution warehouse, if we want to have a looksee that is. So, that's next on the agenda. After a nice bath. [Mission 1 = Find and Destroy. A simple mission but the zone is very well populated and if you want a fight then you're definitely going to get one. The targets can be tricky to spot but they all say things so that's useful. Nice.] Mission 2: Handy Distribution. Delia tells us that Wyvern's main benefactor received gifts of several Robopals. Ahead of their official sale date. Seems he is finding them useful. At the very least Delia thinks that Langston will have spies in every house. I mean the conspiracy theorists say that our phones are spying on us, but these ones will be able to actually do stuff too! So following the lead to the distribution warehouse provided by this "Doctor" person, Engineria heads to investigate. Straight in the door of the building, avoiding the constant fighting outside. So look for clues. There's a Doctor of some kind in here, along with a Boomer leader...ah, there he is! Well, let's see what you have to say for yourself, shall we? I mean one of these guys has to know something, right? I can't be getting my ribs cracked every second day for nothing. Oops! Wrong target! Oh well. Here comes Mr. Peace. And Mr. Handy! GOD DAMN CLEANERS! I mean is it too much to ask not to be beaten over the head with a broom? I'll take getting shot over that anyday. Ok, hyperbole but seriously, brooms hurt! They REALLY hurt! Right right. Don't worry, I can actually handle cleaners. Just. NOW, let's go see that Boomer guy and have a chat. Oh my back. Think I cracked the plate there. Came to play? Oh I'll do more than play. That cleaner got my dander up! And as for sound...I'll let you know when I land. A minute later I stagger up and catch my breath. No, you go on without me, I'll only slow you down. Course saying things like that when you're on a solo mission could get you locked away or sedated. Ah sedated. Lovely. But never mind. Let's keep moving. Hmm. Lots of crates, all filled with Robopal parts. Well, it is the distribution center so I suppose you'd expect that here. Well well, if it isn't my old pal, Chatty Mainframe Esq. Wonder what he'll have to say for himself today. And there's that Doctor! Dr. Zygonsky. The Doc first I think. The Mainframe is guarded by Gold Brickers and the Boomer nearly deafened me. I'll just take it easier here. Yep, functional and error free. Although the ones I met earlier might have some...hardware issues. Yeah, let's call it hardware issues. A few quick blasts and Zygonsky is down, but he appears to have his own mediporter! Well, that's him gone. Nothing I can do about that I reckon. Mainframe time! AW! He remembers me! It's like some sort of weird dating app that I cannot delete from my phone! A violent and armed dating app. Now what did he mean by that? Ok, I've started calling the Mainframe "he". Just ignore me. It's a thing. Where exactly am I not supposed to be? I mean I'm obviously not supposed to be here yet I am and you're fine with that. Soooo, that means there's somewhere MORE important to you that I need to find. On the list, put a pin in it. Moving to the upper walkway offices I deal with some more Robopals, including a rather angry Ms. Zen. Quite odd. Not as vicious as the cleaner guy but still pretty odd. After that I find two desks and finally some intel for Delia. One is a manifest along with notes on AI that allows Robopals to sift what they hear for key phrases and words. Looks like Delia was right. The other piece of intel is a little more curious. And then it's time to leave the warehouse and report in. Delia starts breaking down the intel but doesn't get very far when alarms go off! The Wyvern base is under attack! Robopals given to the benefactor let the Gold Brickers in, and some of them were manhandling a Mainframe! Engineria is needed on deck to repel boarders! [Mission 2 = More investigation. Slowly whittling down the tree until we get what we want. This feels a bit police procedural/Colombo-ish. We KNOW they're villains, we just have to prove it and find out what they are actually up to. Nice!] Mission 3: Unhand Our Base. So Delia Huntley fills Engineria in on who their mysterious benefactor really is. (That's probably an open secret but just in case I'll spoiler it here: Matthew Burke, who I rescued way back should be in the building, fighting off the attack. Link up with him then find Delia. Ok, in we go! Ah, there's Burke, and the Gold Brickers have him in some sort of energy cage. Well, Matt, my boy, time to get you out of that and then we can do some damage! Plan? Plan! Not as many of them here as outside in Terra Volta, so not getting hit in the back by sonic weapons is a bonus, definitely! Ok Burke, let's get you out of that thing, whatever it is. Yep, let's grab Delia and clear these Gold Bricker bozos out of the mansion. Lead on, MacBurke! "There is no need for violence"? Then STOP attacking me, you stupid Mr. Head Butler bot! Oh, Burke drops him with a very heavy punch. Now, there's a secret door here. In fact lots of old mansions seem to have secret doors. I'd like to find one that isn't in a bookcase someday, just for a change! Aha, Wyvern getting attacked by Robopals. Come on, Burke! Let's help them out. Unfortunately our Wyvern compatriots are down when we reach the fight but we wade in anyway. Has to be done. They have to be taken down and the base cleared out. Burke has spotted someone else and run off. I follow and there's a Gold Brickster. Princess Zoe? I've no idea who she is. A relation of King Midas maybe. Either way, I've just been threatened with some form of smelter weapon! (I think). Pick and pick and pick at you? (Pikachu!) Well, if you don't want us to pick at you, STOP BEING CRIMINALS. It's very simple. Oh you got what you came for? So you guys are just a delaying team to let the others get away? Also, what the hell is a nimeith? Burke, do you know? Still not found Delia. Hopefully she'll be up ahead somewhere. Ok, on we go. Another bout of the Hi Ho song about to happen. Burke doesn't seem pleased by that. Delia! Ok, let's get her, Matt! We drop her guards and free her. She's intent on getting to that Mainframe and solving this thing as well as cleaning house. Burke stays to mop up some stray Gold Brickers. Well, I say "mop", more "punch until they stop moving, and then maybe a few more punches". He's got a very simple technique but it seems to work for him. Ok, Ms. Huntley, there's our boys in mid combat with a whole passel of Gold Brickers. Let's not sit this one out, yeah? HOOBOY. This turned into a great fight! Wyvern and Delia and Engineria just taking on the Gold Brickers! Delia is there somewhere doing her stealthy/invisible thing. And pretty soon we have them down and are heading into the lab area under the mansion. Oh, looks like Chatty Mainframe was expecting me! Well, these dates of ours are getting so cosy of late. I mean I'd hate to stand him up or anything. Food's not the best though but since he's paying can I really complain? Of course I can! Got it in one, Delia. That's the guy/thing/it whatever that has been plaguing me across all the missions I've done with Ollerus and Hornet and you. And frankly it's about time we sorted his electronic butt out. Also, nice bow work! I see you're not a boss who skips leg day! (Or bow day, whatever the approved Wyvern exercise class is) We disconnect him from whatever network he's attached to and the physical mainframe bit goes dead. Unfortunately he does appear to have got what he came for. Delia regroups with Engineria and discusses what happened. The base has been cleared but these guys now have vital intel on Wyvern, including the identity of their backer. But nothing has been revealed yet. Stalemate. One side waiting for the other to make a mistake it looks like. In the meantime other Wyvern forces are assaulting a Goldbricker/Langston/ConDev operation, an energy plant, in the old Carter Engineering district. Engineria however has a different job in front of her. Looks like the attack by the others is a diversion. [Mission 3 = Good rescue and release mission. The plot moves forward and @Ankylosaur's use of allies to lead you to things/other allies is as usual spot on. Good stuff] Mission 4: Out of Hand Aeronautics. So, our hacker friend, the "Doctor", has informed us that there's an as yet unknown reason why Langston (insert all other name variants here) are trying to generate an enormous amount of power. And there's a way into the plant. A Gold Bricker by the name of Fort Knoxxer has access. So Engineria is to liaise with Hornet and Ollerus and persuade him to let us in. There's a lot of Gold Brickers here. Not to mention the usual Sky Raiders and Freakshow. And I spotted some of our Wyvern buddies on the way here. A lot of Gold Brickers! Looking down I can see another squad of them below me. I'll have to be careful not to get caught in a sonic weapon crossfire in this place. Ok there's Ollerus. He's got himself captured. Again. You know, for a competent Wyvern agent he does that a lot (yeah, I know, AE is tricky). Luckily for Engineria that far group of Gold Brickers is busy dealing with a Sky Raider Skiff AND some Wyvern. Ok, having dealt with those Gold Brickers I free Ollerus and he's all intel today! Excellent. On the way to the spot we have to clear a path (or 3) and hooboy, that's a LOT of arrows! Ollerus really lets loose in these fights. All to the better though because these sonic weapons are hammering me. Are you sure he was here, Ollerus? Yes, we need that key card from him to get in the plant but he's not here now. Ok, I'm gonna go find Hornet and see if he knows. (@Ankylosaur, little glitch on the thumbtack location here. But from what little I know of the AE mechanically, that can happen) Ha ha! Old Hornet is literally around the corner! If I'd gone left instead of right I'd have found him faster first. And no guards around him either. Looks like one of the other enemy groups took them out. All the better for me! It takes us a few minutes, going up and down and around, this place is a maze of steel and pipes and walkways, to find our elusive Fort Knoxxer. So the next plan is jump to the walkway below and down the slope! Well, we've been seen. Nothing for it but to get into the fight and take them down as fast as we can. Time's a wastin'! Oh! This is a ROUGH fight. So many around us blasting away and Knoxxer himself is giving as good as he gets. But in the end he hits the walkway face first and Hornet and Engineria remove a vital key card from him. Next stop, back to Delia to debrief. Delia is pleased. So that's good. She's wondering why the Gold Brickers are doing all this in Paragon and not back in the Rogue Isles, though they did have a "difference of opinion" with Dr. Aeon over the PTS thing, demons and so on. So staying out of his hair I suppose. Time to get into that energy plant then! [Mission 4 = Plenty of roving fights, plenty to do! Unfortunately the AE went awry with the escort mechanism here but that happens. Worked around it. Overall a thumbs up] Mission 5: Handy Wiped. Right, time to lay siege (or sneak in, I'm good with sneaking in) to Langston's energy plant in Terra Volta. Further intel (from the Doctor?) suggests that all that power is possibly needed to open portals to Praetoria! What now? Isn't Praetoria a Devouring Earth infested hellhole after the war? Or did I mishear the news reports? Anyway, we need to stop them whatever they're at. Which might also include transferring human consciousness into the bots! Like human minds in a machine body. Sort of uber cyborgs? I dunno. I just blast stuff and hope, mostly. Ollerus and Hornet will be assisting and we have to plant bombs tactically so as to collapse the place without, you know, taking out all of Terra Volta like some sort of mid city volcano. So NO PRESSURE. In I go! There's Hornet, doing his Hornety thing. Time to collect the team and blow this place skyhigh! Or not, since that's 100 percent contrary to Delia's instructions. Implode it? Whatever. There's explosives. You too, old buddy, old pal o' mine. Let's go find Ollerus. He's probably got caught again. Remind me again why YOU'RE not the lead agent, Hornet? HOLD UP! We've been spotted! Ollerus will have to wait a few minutes while we deal with...Bamboozle? Is there like a Spin the Bottle thing where Gold Brickers get to pick their names? Never mind. Hit him! Hornet perforated that guy with arrows! I mean I used Radiation Blast on him and a few Kinetics drains but he's a damn pincushion now! Hey, see who I see, Hornet? Let's go help him out. Think nothing of it. Force fields? OF COURSE. Of course of course of course. Must have been. What say you, Hornet? Silent now, huh? Ok team, let's move on. bombs to plant. Now, surely there must be a reason why these guys drag an entire MAINFRAME around with them all the time? Have they never heard of the Cloud? Or does that need to be air gapped and free of any other influence? Perhaps. Oh wow! Nice piece of work, guys! He REALLY blew up! Wonder what he meant by common enemy though. Expensive power? Welcome to reality my former AI suitor, it's always expensive unless you're off grid. As well as planting the bombs there's a Dr. Prodan here. And Mr. Rodney of the Gold Brickers! He's one of the more important ones I hear. So he'll probably be well guarded and tough. Ok, let's get these bombs placed then. Moving around the corner we spy Dr. Prodan, with some sort of protective shield around her and her assistants. Whoa indeed! And before we get into the weeds about human minds embedded in Clockwork bodies, how do you NOT know who I am? Maybe I should have a calling card or something? Business cards maybe? Never mind. Time to whack the weeds! You know, these people keep talking like they are trying to save the world. Not the uniformed Gold Brickers, they seem intent on kicking my teeth in, but the scientists in general. So what do they know that we don't? Is this the common enemy that Mainframe was talking about? A few more bombs planted along the way, some along the walls, a few on those big reactor thingies. And then we come face to face with Mr. Rodney. He seems a little put out that we're here. Talk of Warworks? And showing Dr. Aeon what's what? Are they building an army here out of sight of Arachnos so they can go back and take out Aeon? Hell, Wyvern would probably have HELPED!! As to what Engineria and the Wyvern boys are doing here? I'll give you three guesses. And he seems intent on getting out of here as fast as possible. Well, there he goes! Not much we can do about that. With Rodney gone we plant the rest of the bombs and retrieve some data from terminals before exploding the entire plant so as for it to collapse in on itself. Cleverly waiting until we are OUTSIDE to set off the detonations. Back with Delia. That put paid to any possible attempt, at least from Terra Volta, to engineer a portal to ruined Praetoria. And as for the digital mind thing? Well, we will have to wait and see. Delia is in contact with this mysterious hacker Doctor, so she'll be in touch with me ASAP. [Mission 5 = Great little mission. Doesn't feel like a finale to an arc, but that's obviously due to the bigger picture plot we discovered along the way. Looking forward to finding out what is actually going on. Nice!] Verdict: Good stuff here. The plot grows and grows by increments. A jigsaw puzzle with no picture! Anyway, our next episode will be All that Glitters 3.1: Extractions in Eden. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is, after the commercials, @cranebump's Leviathan 3: Hollow Victory.

Oh man! You could just stand in the ruins and shout! LOL.

I have done those myself but it's been awhile. Might add them to this and give them a proper review, especially since the All That Glitters series is well over 100 missions in total! Just for balance!

Ok, that's a fair point but let me just say, that screenshotting as I go along is really helpful with that! I can get through the mission and then when I'm done have a good read rather than run down the clock at the start. They are totally worth a look after you've done @Ankylosaur's stuff.

AND I just got past that part about the Hotel Geneva! Have you finished this entire storyline @Zhym? I'm enjoying it immensely at the moment! (mind you I'm also enjoying @Ankylosaur and @cranebump's arcs immensely too, just different styles!)

Arc 5 of from our third writer on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is, @Darmian's Darker Deeds: Part Two. Previously on Darker Deeds Engineria had returned from wiping out a base of Spectra Arachnos in Dark Astoria to find the Meteors' base cordoned off after an explosion. No sign of any of the team, although Axios wasn't there when it happened. And a suspicious Captain Hartigan of the PPD attempting to interrogate her. Now what? Mission 1: Clandestine Meetings. The PPD spent a while questioning me, but their Psi guys say I'm telling the truth. Small mercies. Several days later I get an invite to the Hotel Geneva in Atlas Park, go to Room 420. I show up and who do I see but Blue Spectrum. Ok then. He informs me that Axios is in the Vanguard building across the street. Ok, that makes sense. Vanguard won't hand Axios over to the PPD, they're a little French Foreign Legion-y like that. Then he asks for my help in finding out what happened the Meteors. For various reasons (like being mind controlled earlier I reckon!) he can't do it himself. Sure, sure. Ok. Let's do this. Old Bluey called Von Horn on the night of the bombing and got a garbled answer, something about Arachnos attacking the place and then the line went dead. So they were in there. And the PPD took bodies out of the building and have them in a makeshift PPD warehouse elsewhere, away from prying eyes. Time for me to check if those bodies are our friends. Ok, off I go. There's a Captain Donovan on duty in here somewhere too. The place is packed with PPD. More than I was expecting for a temporary morgue. I avoid a lot of them, no need to have the PPD on my back really. Sneak into the center room. What's this then? Apparently it's part of a Superadine converter rig. Confiscated no doubt. I hardly think the PPD are brewing up their own Superadine. Well, I certainly hope not. Right, time to snoop around some more. And here we have a body bag. Let's see who is in this. Not one of the Meteors! That's good. Three more to check but it is encouraging so far. No idea who is actually in the bag though. Maybe one of the attackers? I keep looking around. Wait a minute! There's that little creep Tessitore! What the hell is HE doing here? Same thing as me probably. Let's go find out. Afraid I'll have to render the PPD guards unconscious. Wait what? He's with the FBSA? The Federal Bureau for Super-Powered Affairs? But that would mean he has oversight of DATA, ELITE, SERAPH, and all the rest of those organizations. If he's telling the truth of course. Which I don't believe he is! Oh no, don't you dare! He dared. GRRR! Ok, you'll get what's coming to you, Doctor. Wait and see. In the meantime I have three more body bags to find. There's a lot of this Superadine stuff lying around too actually. So I try the raised office area on the far side of the room and....hello Captain Donovan. You're looking particularly mechanical! And of course you've spotted me. I'm a what now? Skull thug? I dunno what's going on here actually but either way he seems intent on arresting me with some force! OHO! There ARE Skulls here! They're attacking the place and shouting about raiding the Superadine! Donovan thinks I'm one of them. I look NOTHING like a Skull! Idiot! Well, idiot or not our fight has spilled back into the main area and others are joining in! That sounds like a call for back up! I need to take the Captain down fast. And the Skulls, because they've taken a dislike to me too. Can't please everyone I suppose. Or in Enginera's case, anyone! @Darmian, what the hell are these Skulls talking about? Fighting off the Skulls and PPD, Engineria drops a Smoke Flash and retreats to rest. Smoke Flash is great like that. Rest over, checking the remaining body bags reveals that none of them are the Meteors. WOO! Searching this filing cabinet reveals a set of files marked "1966", in Spanish or French perhaps. 1966 is a vital year for the Spectra Arachnos gang. Avoiding the remaining PPD and Skulls I vanish into the night and back to the Hotel Geneva to see Blue Spectrum. Old Bluey is baffled by the Skulls' being crazy enough to break into a PPD warehouse to get Superadine. Not our problem. So, the Meteors aren't there, so where are they? If the PPD didn't recover them then someone else has them. And he doesn't believe that Tessitore guy is actually from the FBSA. Nor do I. Bluey is going to get those files I found translated and he'll get back to me ASAP. [Mission 1 = This starts off like a sort of midseason return from the previous cliffhanger. I like it! And the change in contact to outside the team is interesting. Good stuff.] Mission 2: Another Fine Mess. Old Bluey wakes Engineria with a phone call in the middle of the night. What a monster! A girl needs her sleep! Especially after all the madness I've been wading around in lately. Anyways, this is time sensitive and needs to be done ASAP. He has a location that needs checking out. He found it in the set of 1966 files he's been having translated. Turns out they're in Italian. And this is a doozy 🙂 The address is for a boarded up mansion in Croatoa. Seems it was a gentrified spot back before it became spook central. We have to move tonight because Tessitore has been seen. Logging a flight plan out of Paragon at a small private airfield, and there's a chance he's at that mansion. It's slim but better than nothing. Time to get to Ghostville then. Into the mansion. Pretty upmarket despite being boarded up. And there's cables for a security system. That has to be turned off. And these guys are, well not new but have different versions of the uniform I suppose. I'll just stealth by them for now. There we are, one Arachnos issue computer. All red and black and grim looking. Don't these guys have nice things? Viewing the CCTV recordings Engineria sees that BULLET STREAK is being held in an underground part of the mansion. Accessed through a hidden door in the library. Ok, looks like I'm going there then. I just have to deal with those guys I saw earlier, they came back! Ok, spider goons nothing, Engineria 3. Now, where's that hidden door? Ah, there you are! And on we go into a cave or cavern. Plenty of those Psi Stick guys around. I decide to pick them off from a distance rather than get down and dirty with them. Until finally I get to where I think I need to be. Just an Arachnos Psyker here. Dangerous mid power coming off these guys though so a grenade for you, my little 8-legged friend! That got a mite rough so a small rest to recuperate before heading into the prison area. There's my boy! Dontcha worry none, Bullet Streak, I'm a comin'! Those guys around you are about to be introduced to a world of hurt. Three on one? Yeah, I can handle that. Be with you in a minute, Bullet Streak. You just lay there and recover from what ails you! A little of the old Nemesis Staff won't go amiss either! Oh he is? Blue Spectrum was hoping he would be. Now, you little running away nuisance, let's take you out once and for all. (If he manages to get away again I will be SOOO pissed.) Hey Doc! We're coming for you! You better not run this time! And we meet a little resistance on the way but Bullet Streak lives up to his name. He'd probably give Twinshot a run for her money in the old Dual Pistols I reckon. There you are, you little ****! End this charade? Me? You're the one being all mysterious every damn time we meet! He's a damn Mastermind! Here come his thug minions now, along with the regulation White Spiders. Jeez Louise! What in the hell did he just hit me with? Thing is HOW do you know that? Also, thanks Bullet Streak for taking out the rest of the spider gang. ROFL! Oh you do, do you? Well, we will see about that! And wouldn't you know it, Bullet Streak and Engineria get rushed by regular present day Arachnos...who have cut down more Spectra Arachnos while getting to us. Those sides really don't like each other, do they? Leaving some smoking spider bot bits behind, we leave with our prisoner and make our way out of Croatoa and back to the Hotel Geneva in Atlas Park. Bullet Streak stops of at the PPD station to make a statement about the attack on the SG base, and effectively clear Engineria and Axios's name. Blue Spectrum says we probably should turn Tessitore over to the PPD or Longbow, but he doesn't trust either group at the moment. We may have to hire Chris Jenkins! (Oh hell, I see another visit to a law office in my future!) Right now it's time to rest up and regroup tomorrow. [Mission 2 = An infiltration and rescue mission that plays really well, with the various types being very agile and dangerous. Also, finally capturing the slippery Tessitore felt good! Good Stuff] Mission 3: Once More With Feeling. So the following day Engineria goes back to the Hotel Geneva. She's met there by Axios, back from wherever, and Bullet Streak. Blue Spectrum is about to give us all a lesson! Tessitore has been spilling the beans, and yes he's Arachnos. Just not the Arachnos we know. Arachnos has been around a LONG time, and Lord Recluse wasn't always the leader. That was a guy called The Weaver. Recluse had him killed. So, Weaver is dead, boo hoo. But his faction in Arachnos wasn't and went undercover. That was the faction that tried to capture Blue Spectrum (or one of him!) in 1966. And then time travel forward to now. And here's the crazy bit. Only half time travelled. The other half stayed hidden and went "the long way round". Tessitore is one of THOSE ones. Tessitore and his gang have been waiting years for the others to show up! Oh man. That's insane! Tessitore's gang bombed the SG base, and has told us where the others are. And Blue Spectrum thinks Richter is a clone of LORD RECLUSE! Like Spectra is a clone of Blue Spectrum. (I'm assuming without the Well of the Furies powers otherwise I'd have died a looong time ago!) Anyway, time to rescue the rest of the Meteors. Axios goes in ahead and scouts. A graveyard. In Dark Astoria! Not far from the other Spectra Arachnos base. Hmm. Engineria may need a vacation after all this if I'm honest. And it's down there we have to go. Ok, I've met up with Axios. It's time to bring our lost team members home! Hi ho! (No, not singing a dwarven song while underground, more of a Long Ranger thing. Except there's two of us. Shut up.) And there's the Boss Lady herself. Let's go get her, Ax my friend! Feel free to punch as many Arachnos as your heart desires! I know I will. I literally just said that! LOL. Ok, Madame Maven. Gotcha. Now for Von Horn and Super Charger. They're around here somewhere. And there are boxes of tech too, like these guys were definitely planning a move. Well lookee here. That is majorly handy. Less running around caverns and getting attacked by Arachnos since the guys are both here. Let's go get them! Hi ho! Halox is with us now. Just Super Charger left and then we go looking for that Commander Mr. Von Horn just mentioned. Back in the Hotel Geneva for coffee and cigars later 🙂 You know, I had heard that Bullet Streak was the vain one of the team. Talking about entering a costume contest at the time of the Galaxy City attack and all. Seems I was misinformed! Now, where's that Commander? Ah, found you. Well, Tessitore sold you out, my friend. Otherwise me and Axios wouldn't even know to come here in the first place. And what a great shot of Madame Maven's boot as we charge down the slope! Swords on the anvil? Oh hell, a zealot! Those are always trouble. At least Tessitore was out for his own skin in the end. We find pass codes to a Tech box on the Psyker. He was trying to hide them so this box must have different contents to the others. We've just had to wade through a few Banished Pantheon to get to it. Of course they would be here in Dark Astoria. More files from the 1960s written in coded Italian. Another job for Blue Spectrum's friends to translate. Let's go home, gang. Well, the hotel. Blue Spectrum and Bullet Streak are happy to see us all back. We're going to meet up in two days after some rest. Old Bluey has booked us SUITES(!) next to his room. Oh, Engineria is having a bath! [Mission 3 = Totally straighforward rescue mission but lots and lots of fun anyway. The Meteors are all back together and the plot is heading forward. Good Stuff.] Mission 4: Troubled Waters. Back in the Hotel Geneva Blue Spectrum steps aside and lets Maven take the lead. She's in a feisty mood! She's thinking about Bluey's theory that Richter is a clone of Recluse. Put a pin in that for later. Now Longbow is compromised, as we've seen, so Engineria has to go to Striga and liaise with them as they transfer Spectra to a more secure location. Striga? She doesn't know but the transfer point is a weak spot and Tessitore's gang want him badly, so something will happen there. Striga it is then. Off I go. As soon as I reach the complex of buildings near the bridge I hear gunfire and energy weapons! And shouts about Arachnos. Ok then. Hang on! You're not real Longbow! And now I'm on fire! That's just not on. So it is looking like I can't trust Longbow anymore! My earlier enthusiasm for their help is diminishing by the second! But right now you don't have Spectra, so who does? And you're willing to kill him yourself. That's...weird. I don't understand that. Though he was pretty woozy when I found him in Faultline, enough to actually help me at the time. I get a set of pass keys for a Longbow distress beacon, which these fakers have disabled! I can turn it on again if I can just find it! I cross over the bridge and pass some REAL Longbow. I'm assuming they are real since they didn't try to kill me. And then I find Spectra, and it looks like present day Arachnos have captured him. Can't have that. I spend a few moments and take out his guards. He's still a bit woozy. You sense your lord nearby? Nope, buddy. I killed him....oh wait. Clones. Yeah. Well that's my assumption but I don't like it. Well for now Spectra is fighting alongside me and we're clearing through more Arachnos. And there's more fighting Longbow around the entire site. This place is under a huge attack. Oh! And there's Lord Richter. A new one. (Old one? I dunno which one I killed actually) Oh, this is gonna hurt sooo bad. He's making short work of whoever is up there. Me next. Oh great. He's killed those Longbow, and flung Spectra to the ground. And now the dictatorial ranting. Yep, there it is. OH NO! NO NO! He turned the Spectra back to his side! I am gonna die here! Told you. And he walks slowly away. Ok, mediporter is activating. I'm stocking up on inspirations and I need to separate those two or I won't have a snowball's chance in hell of stopping them. Right. Back in the fight. I have a plan. Planette. A bijou plan. Ok, it's a hail mary and stop looking at me like that. I come back around the bridge and snipe Richter from the air then retreat to where I know there's a squad of Longbow to help me fight him. It's already off to a bumpy start as he hits me with a temporal slow power. At least Spectra isn't coming too. Ok, hit him now, Longbow! While I blast him with radiation! And crazily, madly, luckily, it WORKS! Also, I flung more grenades at him! He is down! Now, my clever plan to take out Spectra is...yeah, it's the exact same plan. Whatever, it worked so it could work again. Shut up. Except I was not expecting him to go full aerial flying god and blast us from the sky! He's just dropping my Longbow buddies here! And he stays up there in full messianic mode! Jeez Louise! I just have to hope I can outlast him as the last of the Longbow go down. Farewell soldiers, you fought bravely. In the meantime I'm popping greens and blues like crazy because that energy blast is burning my Endurance down! Nearly! YES! Oh yes! And I have literally nothing left. Ok, I have a single Break Free and one Rez. (You never know). But he's down. Hands on knees time. Definitely. I find the Longbow distress beacon and turn it on. The red and whites can come tidy up this mess. Then I call Madame Maven and head back to the Hotel. [Mission 4 = Well, that went from "normal" fighting of fake Longbow and real Arachnos, to just a crazy crazy near epic fight with two seriously dangerous foes. Great stuff.] Mission 5: Kearny Lansing. In the spirit of trusting NO ONE outside of the Meteors, Blue Spectrum and Engineria, Madame Maven hands out jobs to people. Axios is heading to the Rogue Isles to find out where Tessitore was flying to, Bullet Streak is "talking" to Spectra again, Super Charger is collecting translations, Von Horn is getting a check up in hospital (not a job obviously) and I have to go to the Kearny Lansing law offices to lodge a record of everything we have found and know, as insurance. Another law office. Ok, not Jenkins but still. (Bluey is gone to see Penny Yin for his mental check up) Off I go. Ok, I arrive in to Kearny Lansing and a secretary tells me that Jim Rufus is who I need to see. Oh wonderful. Clients talking about how Jenkins has BOUGHT this place! LOL. And there's Jum Rufus. Go to the end. Lodge the papers. Avoid clients and lawyers and secretaries and maybe cleaning staff too. Right, ok. Ok, using the codes Rufus gave me I open the safe and stick the documents in. And there's a weird noise a bit like a mediporter and the documents just vanish in front of me from inside the safe! Ok, time to go have a sharp word with Mr. Chris Jenkins, the new owner of Kearny Lansing, and get this nonsense sorted out. Oh, you really are a nasty lawyer! Call the PPD? What the hell? Who is this WE you're talking about? (Also, officially a member of the Meteors! Whoa!) Ah, so the WE is Arachnos! I might have guessed. Chris Jenkins works for Arachnos though? Isn't his grandmother a super? Then again Lord Recluse was Statesman's brother-in-law so maybe that means nothing. OK! So another double! It's Doppelganger City lately. I'm surprised Protean hasn't made an appearance. Then again, how would I know? Jeez Louise! I am having more trouble with this guy than I had with Richter! Of course Richter didn't have an army of guys with him all shooting me at the same time. And I stagger up, stunned. And fall. "Jenkins" and his guard head back around the corner. No mediporter this time. I'm going to take that grinning little **** down. Any minute now. Any minute. What are you looking at, Mr. Secretary? And Mr. Jenkins DOES get what's coming to him. Well, "Jenkins". Now I have to deal with the PPD! Since that faker called them to deal with me! Sorry Kade. I am going to have to give you a bit of a headache or maybe a few cracked ribs. And you know, when asked later I'll say that there's a criminal out there impersonating me. And I'll sigh. So, I knock Kade out and vamos out the door. Only to get arrested by an entire SWAT team. After some persuasive phone calls, Madame Maven gets me released. She sums it up best herself, so I'll let her do it. [Mission 5 = well, that was different! The plot thickens further! Rogue Isles Arachnos is back in the picture properly and kicking over the game board. Good stuff] Verdict: Loved it! What started off as rescue turned into god fights and then another plot twist! Our next episode will be Darker Deeds: Part Three. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is, after the commercials, @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 2.3: Terawatts in Terra Volta.