TerroirNoir2

Now if I knew that before, and had done that mission, then summoning her to help rescue her could have been interesting!!

Thanks for this @Zhym. Something I was meaning to get around to, especially since I had to cut the "Box Set" threads, but this is most appreciated.

Now that makes sense! That was very much a mission of AH! Whew! AH! Ok. AHHH! Whew! What? NOOO! AH! LOL.

Arc 12 from our first author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 4.3: Grand Designs in Grandville. So after all the shenanigans of working with Wyvern and Delia and the Doctor and....who shows up to meet me but Manticore! Excellent! (Weird double vision since Alternate Universe Engineria is currently working for Chimera!) Mission 1: Fab News. Manticore is straight to the point. After all we've been through with the Langstons and the Goldbrickers, Longbow is finally taking note of them. Not before time I say! Well, Arachnos is involved now, somehow mixed up in the thing with the Mooks and the Family, and the illicit supply of Praetorian tech. (I've always had trouble with that. I mean I know the Rogue Isles, or as I learned from Ghost Widow, the Etoiles, is effectively a rogue state, but they're still a foreign state with their own laws et cetera, so how is what they do on their own territory illegal? Nevermind. Back to Manticore!) So we (not me, Wyvern it seems) have an inside agent in Arachnos who has been feeding out intel concerning Warwalkers and Goliaths and who all knows what else. All happening in the "Fab". The fabrication zone in Grandville. So our Colleague (and that's her code name) needs extracting and will have more information for us once out. Looks like Engineria is off to Grandville. What fun. Longbow is dropping me off by a submarine and in I go alone. Sheesh. I really need a vacation by now I think! And right out of the gate we have Langston scientists informing Arachnos on the uses of Warwalkers! Oh, time to put a few kinks in your style while I search for Colleague! Right, after menacing that guy I move on down the giant ramp to find Colleague. And...I'm quite happy I have stealth on! Oh my oh my. I'm gonna slowly creep by you, you crazy woman. I've heard of you and you are nasty. Just a bit more. Activate flight and scoot up out of her line of sight. Whew. And sometimes getting out of line of sight of one maniac brings you into line of sight of another. Crey is here too, and they are NOT happy about Langston's presence. I reckon the phrases "Stealing Thunder" and "Corporate espionage" or...something along those lines is being thrown around. And as I said, Juan Hernandez, one of Crey's VPs, has spotted me! I never seem to meet anyone friendly! Well, apart from say Hornet and Ollerus and the Doctor, ok I DO meet some. But MOST want to kill me. I mean ...never mind. Juan here seems to know who I am as well! Did I upset Crey too? Maybe. My life is a whirlwind of interestingness...ness. Let's see if I can deal with Juan here before his giant friend behind us takes an interest! And I do! Ok, sometimes things go right! Now to find Colleague. This Fab place is damn big. Just need to avoid Silver Mantis on the way out is all. OH CRAP. Well, I avoided Silver Mantis. NOPE. I'm just going to fly like the Bejeeezis out of here, as though Michael Flatley himself was chasing me, legs swinging all over the place. I can do combat, but I know my limits! And I'm not calling Buddy in to help on this one, he doesn't deserve that sort of treatment! Ok, ok. Got away from Black Scorpion. Seems like this place being huge has advantages after all. Oh, hey, there's Colleague! Several stunned and dropped Arachnos later. Oh Colleague I LOVE you! You can fly! So that means we don't have to try to sneak by Silver Mantis, who is still at the entrance to the ramp, and the only exit out on foot, sneaky woman. We slowly climb up and jet out to the Longbow sub. And Colleague climbs in and we're away! Success! And she's looking forward to seeing Positron again. An old flame maybe? Who can tell with these people. Debriefing with Manticore informs me that Langston will be rebooting the entire Arachnos system to integrate all the ACUs, BCUs and Warwalkers I saw there into their system. After that? Who knows what Arachnos will do with them. He's off to confer with Ms. Liberty (who I don't trust for some unknown reason!) to see what can be done about a strike with Longbow on this operation. [Mission 1 = This is a simple rescue that can go soooo wrong if you're not careful. Simple doesn't mean stupid or bad, elegant maybe. Fun stuff. No, I didn't fight the big bads because I'm not even a big good, but good stuff all the same.] Mission 2: Saving Agents Longbow. I have my new badge title up! Manticore doesn't notice. Oh well. Anyway, he's saying that we've been reading the intel all wrong and what is actually happening is one of the biggest attacks on Arachnos seen since, well since I dunno, Statesman showed up and punched some holes in things? So a missile was launched from Warburg. At Grandville. Yeah, let that sink in! And it coincided with the reboot that Langston was doing for Arachnos. A massive EMP took out whole sections of Arachnos's defences and so on. But it also dropped two Longbow Chasers containing vital field operatives into the middle of the chaos. Indigo and Crimson. Engineria (that's me) has to go in and get them out safely, though knowing those two they will not need that much rescuing. And the Warburg Arachnos are there in force too, as the Blitzkrieg has been spotted. Oh lovely. Happy memories of that thing! No, don't tell me any more or I won't go! Later, Manti! Oh man! It's heavy here! I mean heavy. Here comes the oddest Abbey Road cover tribute I've ever seen. And I'll be staying the hell away from them, thenkyewverymuch. Oh man, they are everywhere. Arachnos Warworks fighting those Piratey version, Ships of the Line, and the Arachnos ones are getting hammered. And I thought I caught a glimpse of Captain Mako! A glimpse is enough I think. CRIMSON! I'm a comin' for you, pal! Yeah, yeah, Manticore filled me in on the EMP thing, now hit the GIANT ROBOT for frik's sake before I get stuck to the sole of its foot! So I get Crimson safely to the Grandville city door. From there he can vanish into the under city or whatever that place is called, and, I dunno, be all sneaky or whatever. That's up to him what he does now. Seems him and Indigo discovered that Dr. Aeon is no longer nutripaste flavor of the month after some foul up with a D-Rifter. Whatever that is. I'll just tell Manticore and nod when he understands what I'm reporting. Like I usually do. Now, the thing that bothers me is I saw Indigo when me and Crimson were making our way out, but she was practically sitting underneath the Blitzkrieg! She's a special ops kinda gal, and I'm not. I'm still a newby when it comes to a lot of things in this world of heroes. However, time to go and hope I'm not seen. And avoid Arachnoids. UGH. Nasty spitty webby things. And manage it I do. And there's Indigo, and her downed Chaser just nearby. Come on, girl. let's skedaddle! Sand everywhere? Can I recommend my new tailor at Icon? This armor is great! Of course things seldom go to plan, and we have to battle our way through some people along the way. Well Indigo does a large amount of the battling, but I helped! Honestly! Then...aw, would ya look at that! Crimson waited for her! Now that's loyalty. Ok, time for me to get back to Manticore, and this time see if he notices my new badge title. Back with Manticore I learn that the Fab area where all the Warwalkers were stored was outside the EMP blast zone, so THOSE ones went for a walk. And took a direct route into the heart of Grandville after stomping their Arachnos guards into the ground. And when things did come back on line, quite a lot of the automated defences attacked their own side, i.e. Arachnos! No wonder Mako was down there in person. And then it gets MORE interesting! [Mission 2 = Oh hell, another mission of stompy fighty madness. Lots of fun, plenty to do and plenty to get you killed! Great fun.] Mission 3: Grandville Squaring Off. Manticore is on a roll here with the speeches! The Family and the Mooks (All Family ultimately but like lots of families, strife ridden) are in Grandville. Wyvern and so on thought it was going to be about selling Warworks to Arachnos. Looks like they've temporarily joined forces and are battling against Arachnos! And, stop the presses! King Midas sent a message just moments ago declaring Port Oakes and Cap au Diable independent of the Rogue Isles! Seems the Goldbrickers/Langston want that island for themselves. Midasland? Goldbrickerville? Langstonia? And they've shut down the PTS and Aeon is out! Weirder still, Midas heard I (as in me! the I that I am, you know, Engineria!) was on the beach in Grandville and messaged us for my help. I may need to have a sit down. Manticore and Ms. Liberty agree that we should help them. I may need a lie down now. (I'm getting a "better the devil you know" gut feeling here!) Thanks to my effectively independent contractor self I can go help then achieve INDEPENDENCE(!) from Arachnos without drawing in UN sanctions or what have you. Manticore actually doesn't expect them to win, but destabilizing Arachnos in any way is good. Ok, I'm going to spruce up my uniform and then see what I can do. Oh boy. I'll have Buddy on speed dial, along with my summoning amulet. Refill the old utility belt for all I need, and try not to die. Ok, here I am in Grandville. I need to link up with the revolutionaries and take down the front guard of Arachnos. NO PROBLEM. Right. Right. Let's not get over confident, Engineria. First to join me is Bloody Vicious. Now, Bloody V, as can be gleaned from his name, isn't the nicest of people, but he's always done right by me, so that's good. Next up is Dr. Cohen! Oh, me and him go back a while now. He's not pleased to see me personally, but he seems to be pragmatic about it and we're all on the same side now. For now, Dr. C, for now. Shortly after that King Midas and Princess Zoe join the fight. Well, we join them is more accurate. So, that's Midas, Zoe, Bloody, Cohen and me. On we go! I see Mr. Rodney up ahead. With Rodney on board we pick up Guido Verandi, and then ahead we can see Alton Langston. Regular family shindig with these Langstons! And after that, we have Wretch to deal with. And if Wretch is around then Ghost Widow must be around somewhere too! And there's Wretch! Down a side alley. I snipe him and he comes a charging and a roaring at us, and straight into the group! And we're standing right at the feet of one of the revolutionary Warwalkers. Handy! Wretch goes down, although considering his issues I felt a bit bad about that. Not so bad that I was going to let him him me more though! As suspected, Ghost Widow is around, and she's not giving up without a fight. Though how you ultimately defeat a ghost is beyond me. Magus Mu'Drakhan appears behind us and he and his floaty friends have a go at sapping our endurance away but he gets his comeuppance too, and that leaves Dr. Aeon standing on the ramp above us, surrounded by his assistants. He's not at all happy about the attempt to oust him from Cap Au Diable. We battle through his forces, which are suddenly reinforced by MORE versions of Dr. Aeon! I pull back and slap on Kinetics Repel, pushing them off us and we circle around him, the real him, until he's cornered and he drops. Or TP's out? I lost track of him visually in the fight. Either way he went down and we slogged through mopping up his troops. Time to get back to Manticore and report in! Manticore informs Engineria that Amanda Vines, the reporter, was broadcasting the entire thing from within the Arachnos building! Everyone, including Lord Recluse, saw us take down Dr. Aeon! People are gathering and demanding their independence for "the big island"! Now we wait for a response from Lord Recluse! [Mission 3 = Fun and tough. The final fight with Aeon was a free for all of powers and versions of him hopping around us but we managed to hold him off and defeat him. Fun stuff indeed!] Mission 4: Decisions, Decisions. WSPDR announces that Lord Recluse has offered King Midas the governorship of Cap Au Diable and Guido Verandi the governorship of Port Oakes! Instead of actual independence. Which, frankly, I as Engineria never thought was going to fly. Lord Recluse has this whole deal with the strongest proving themselves but that would have been a step too far. William Langston, miraculously alive (sure sure, body #87) is going to sign a treaty with Lord Recluse....and has requested Engineria to witness it. Oh, that's a lot of limelight on a mid level super who would get her ass handed to her by a lieutenant on a bad day. Sheesh. Amanda Vines is wating for me in the lobby of the main building in Spider City. Oh boy. Let's just get this over with and I can get the HELL OUT OF HERE. Why thanks, Bloody V. Just keep painting a target on me why don'tcha? C'mon, Vines. Let's get to the treaty. We pass others along the way. Midas, Zoe, Guido, the whole gang. Plus plenty of Arachnos telling me to watch my back. Right. And we arrive up in time to hear Lord Relcuse talking to Langston. Does that little speech feel like it has knives hidden in it? I think so. And he's ignoring me. (Good, he's frankly terrifying most of the time!) So I sign the document and leave. Amanda Vines does her reporting and I report back to Manticore. (Somewhere alternate me is saying THEY are working with the sane one!) Manticore is blasé about it! Sure, the Langstons got what they wanted ultimately, despite ALL our efforts along the way to stop them, and so did the Mooks. But as long as Arachnos is weakened then Manticore is happy about that. I'm unsure I made the right choice here. It's hard to go against someone with the clout of Manticore of the FP though. Why do I think this is going to bite us all in the ass later? [Mission 4 = Unexpected. Dramatically excellent though. Bravo.] Mission 5: The Consequences of War. Now I'm getting a lecture in civics from Manticore. Hmm. The Big Island, Cap Au Diable/Port Oakes, is going to have to live with my choice for years to come. MY choice? I witnessed a treaty, that was already agreed on between William Langston and Lord Recluse. I totally overheard that! Plus I'm not sure being the fall gal for many a Wyvern and company mission works like that. Seems to me, Manticore, that you're hanging me out to dry here! But he's advising that I go check out what's going on now that Langston has taken over. Feel the undercurrents. Ok then. Ok. Ok, first things first. What happened the damn sky? Really? And we thought Dr. Aeon was the crazy one? And these guys are wondering about me signing. Well yeah, I had my doubts, until I overheard Recluse and Langston, and knew it was effectively a sealed deal. Oh hey, Duke. At least you're still being your old self. I've actually grown rather fond of you. I'll leave you alone. You keep fighting the good fight! You hear? Throughout my walkabout I hear plenty of people questioning whether I did the right thing, and hey, apparently, I was a pawn of Langston all along, and I've been seen beating up civilians in Kallisti Wharf of all places. I bet I drown kittens too, according to some. And then I DO get into a fight with some civilians! Oh thanks, Olivia. Thanks. Though most of the papers report that despite their successes, Langston and the Robopals and so on are reeling from being sued, shut down, not granted licences. Looks like having a seat at the table means having to know how to use a knife and fork properly. Somewhere Countess Crey is laughing I imagine. Ok, Manticore. I'm done. Let's go home. [Mission 5 = interesting. Nearly a Scouring of the Shire moment in some ways. Well done.] Verdict. Well, this has to be a BIG verdict, because it's not just the end of this arc, but the end of this entire string of arcs. Individually it works well as an arc of two halves. Cannot fault it on that. Great stuff. Overall the entire plot came together very well. If I had any complaint, then maybe it could have been shorter! And I wasn't entirely sure of Manticore's motivations, but he is near Vigilante so there's that. However, all that said I'd definitely recommend it to others to run this entire thing and really get a feel for the thing, because even playing and commenting like I have been, I've still left SOOO much out. For various reasons. Brevity, not wanting to spoiler stuff (that's a biggie!) and also being wary of my upload limits! Yeah, go play this, folks! Have fun with it! Next up from @Ankylosaur is All That Glimmers 1.1: Death in Light Astoria. (Having no 1.1 and so on threw me for a bit there!) Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is @cranebump's Mobius 4: Dempsey's Hard 8.

I intend to! Work has me busier lately so I'm a bit slower but I intend to get through all of it. Plus all of @Darmian's and all of @cranebump's. THEN we will see. I've got some other stuff lined up to take up the gap after that. And then TerroirNoir 3 will make an appearance no doubt!

With his endurance tanked he wouldn't, but I've found him extremely durable most of the time!

@Darmian, ironically Engineria is wearing a Top Dog badge title, which is a badge you can't get in Praetoria! But I felt it fit with Praetor White's Top Dogs.

HA HA!

Arc 11 from our third author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @Darmian's Bridge of Forever. (Caveat. I have played these before but never reviewed them. Although it has been a while, considering the number of other AEs and stuff I've been getting through!) Bridge of Forever is subtitled "(Imperial Power, Ch. 6)" which means it is meant to follow on directly from "Project Phoenix (Imperial Power, Ch. 5" Mission 1: The Dossier. Engineria (Praetorian Engineria, with her blue and gold trim uniform and Top Dog badge) is summoned to meet Praetor Sinclair AKA Chimera. He has a job for her. It seems members of Powers Division are going missing. Praetor Tilman's Seers are unable to locate them and Praetor White is angry at the loss of his subordinates. The Seers say that it's possible they are no longer in Praetoria's dimension. Sinclair informs Engineria that such a thing is actually possible. I'm given a dossier on the missing people, which is based on the investigations of Officer Welks of the PPD. I'm to meet her at the CMF. Welks has been working directly for Provost Marchand on this case. So off I go. The CMF yard is a small area where Clockwork are normally repaired. Welks is there making notes and has been searching for a Dominic Kincaid, the latest Powers Div officer to vanish. All she's found so far is a box of Clockwork parts. So, these parts then? Ok, let's give them the once over at least. We have a look and yes, there's some oddity here. Something that looks like a holo-emitter. So we switch it on and there's a signal from elsewhere in the CMF yard. We track that down and find a body! No idea who this guy is. Kincaid I suppose. But we've suddenly got company! Time to load up and fight back, Welks! This Vargas guys and his goons are Resistance. We fight them off but he summons help, and that help comes running. Welks is a pretty good sidekick actually, taking plenty out with her rifle. And we drop them. I salute Welks, gather up the clues we have and bring the body back for examination. On returning to Praetor Sinclair he proceeds to list out where he thinks things are going. This is more than just a simple missing persons case, if it ever was. And since only Sinclair and Marchand knew I was meeting Welks, the leak had to come from Marchand's office. Vargas has been taken to interrogation. Which means Praetor Tilman's Seers now have him. Might be better for him if I'd just shot him in the head. [Mission 1 = Short, quite short intro but immediately getting into the mystery. Very detailed notes on everything so clue reading essential. Great stuff] Mission 2: Following Vargas's Leads. Now that Engineria has been "adequately loyal" (Oh, I love working for Chimera), I report back and find that Kincaid's body is totally normal. Sinclair is paranoid as hell though and brought in Transmuter to look it over for occult traces and so on. The weird signal device has been examined by Alec Parson and he's determined it's part of the Brandt protocol. Somehow infected with a psychic virus. Nope, no idea how a psychic virus infects tech but hey! And Vargas got interrogated and gave up everything. They always do, I'm told. A friendly face, to use Vargas's words, contacted them about eliminating Welks. And therefore stopping the investigation most likely. Sinclair thinks this further points to a mole in Marchand's offices. (I'm not sure how you can get so paranoid and function normally) So I'm off to meet Zane, one of Marauder's team, and do an inspection of the office. I head along to the office which is around the corner from the Loyalist Lounge. And there's no sign of Marchand's staff but Zane is surrounded by Clockwork! Time to help out! Zane says Marchand doesn't use Clockwork so someone knew we were coming. And one of the Clockwork mentions a hostage. Right, talk of a hostage and a device. Let's get to work. We clear our way through Clockwork, Zane being very enthusiastic about chasing them down and turning them into scrap it seems. Then we examine a nearby mainframe. We download what we can but the files are partially deleted. So something valuable was definitely on this machine, especially as it is air gapped from the main network. Now, what the hell is this thing? Let's have a look. It's got a large chunk of masonry in it. Which is peculiar. It looks like part of a bigger piece too. Ok, strange. Upstairs we find Assistant Director Kelly, one of Provost Marchand's staff. She seems to be the hostage mentioned earlier. And the Clockwork have wiped out the rest of her staff. Zane and Engineria promptly take out her captors and free her. She presses a memory key into my hand before she runs off and asks me to give it to Chimera. Will do, ma'am. Happy to oblige. After that Engineria and Zane leave. No doubt there will be a PPD clean up crew along, or Marchand's own version of that. Time to report back to the Praetor. Praetor Sinclair thinks that Marchand is personally compromised somehow, since Kelly didn't give the memory key to HIM. And there's a strange etching on the key that Sinclair seems to recognize but he will get Transmuter to examine it first. He'll send in his own scene of crime team to go over everything. And Engineria and Zane performed well. That will go in his report to the Emperor. (Oh dear) He'll send for me later. [Mission 2 = Another small mission but definitely building on the earlier mystery. And the air of menace and paranoia coming from Chimera is creepy. Excellent] Mission 3: First Ward. Summoned back to see Chimera, Engineria is told that thanks to the SOC team, Parson and Transmuter, we have a slim lead to a project that was designed to replicate the power of a device seized by the government in the War on Magic. All traces of that device are in fact missing, but Chimera knows where it was last. A lab in First Ward. So, time to go visit the ruins. I get in and it looks active. It shouldn't be. So time to scout around. There's an alarm going off, and a secondary relay to that I need to shut off. And done. Plenty of D.U.S.T around, and Seers too. Stealth seems the best option around these guys, so that's the plan I follow. Now to find a mainframe with a listing of the device I need to find. There we go. Ah, no it isn't. Blah. Ok, a different mainframe then! Sometimes you just cannot stealth your way through an area and you get shot by whoever. D.U.S.T in this case, with whatever goop their weapons fire. Sort of a green toxic spray. I wonder is it like weed killer for Devouring Earth things? Who knows. It burns me that's for sure! And down they go and I check the mainframe in the room they were in. Right, the mainframe lists an artifact like Chimera described. A crystal thing with shielding on it. I need to crack that before a teleport tag can be attached and I send it back to Imperial City. And there it is. Crystal Shard Alpha. If they're calling it "Alpha" does that mean there's a "Beta" and so on? Never mind that for now though. The shielding was psi shielding, so obviously that alerts the Seers. Should have thought of that! And their commander, Andromeda appears. I manage to do her serious damage initially before getting flung to the floor and attacked by her reinforcements. Struggling up (and munching on Break Frees) I, ha ha, break free and finish her off before making a fast escape. Praetor Keyes? Interesting. Getting out of First Ward and Back to Imperial City is usually by the Imperial Underground. Reporting to Chimera he tells me that they received the TP'd artifact a short while ago and he has Transmuter examining it at this moment. He ponders how long those Seers and D.U.S.T. have been in that lab, since Antimatter hasn't been a Praetor for years and the Seer commander had a name, not a number. Which means she may predate Praetor Tilman's accident. And as usual by now he tells me to be on standby until he needs me for the next thing. [Mission 3 = More mystery! Delving into the past of Praetoria with hints of a pre ruined First Ward going on. Plus reference to the War on Magic. Great stuff] Mission 4: Recall. So, I'm getting used to being summoned. Praetor White isn't like this, he's just shouty all the time. There's been a break in the investigation. Officer Welks's data contains a bioprint of someone called Recall. One of the earliest missing Powers Division members and one who was part of seizing the crystal device originally. The thing is Recall has reappeared in Praetoria. Or his bioprint has and has been located in the Underground. Engineria is to meet up with Stern on site and capture Recall and bring him back. He may know the mole's identity and if he doesn't he'll spill other beans I'm sure once the Seers get him. Off I go after the signal! First things first, after dealing with a couple of Ghouls (Oh man, Ghouls are really annoying) I find that Stern isn't here. He'll get chewed out by Chimera later I'm sure, but who is here is far more dangerous than Stern. I think. It's Mr. G. He's got spies and fingers in every plot it's said. So why he's here is curious. He says there's a few things that need doing along the way. AND he knows my name. Sheesh. There's several caches of explosives rigged up down here. Guarded by Resistance members! Ok, those are things that definitely should be dealt with but surely it's a Powers Div thing or PPD at the least? Mr. G being down here to deal with it is odd. This is the sort of thing I'd normally get sent to do! Anyway, we dispose of the explosives and their guards, along with more Ghouls and some odd looking ghouls in pajamas. After wandering down tunnels with more Ghouls thrashing around and having fits while I shoot them, and Mr. G cuts them open with swords, I spot Recall ahead. Bit of trouble. The PPD have him. And I have direct orders to bring him in so there's going to be what they call interdepartmental conflict. In that I hit them a lot and take Recall off them. That did not go according to plan! Well, it ALMOST went according to plan. But Recall saw Mr. G and ran for it and Mr. G is no longer friendly to me! I'm going to examine this beacon next to me as fast as I can before he has a go at skewering me! And why do these sorts always say it's nothing personal? It feels very damn personal to me! The beacon... well, this says it all. Looks like I got told! And we have company! I mean as well as Mr. G. But this guy is NOT trying to kill me. Maybe he'll be a temporary friend for a bit? Here's hoping. Also, him being here on the Emperor's business is a bit heavy! Yeah, I'll forget you were here, sure. (I'm totally reporting this to Chimera. What? You think he won't suspect I'm holding out and set the Seers on me?) In the meantime, Mr. Electric and Engineria are taking down Mr. G! And he does go down but he gives me some seriously cracked ribs along the way. I also think he literally stuck a sword through my chest plate! So, OW. And now the bad thing. Reporting back to Chimera that I don't have Recall. Oh, he knows. Marchand has been in touch. And Chimera's agents picked up Recall as he fled the Underground. Ok, not all bad. Plus Chimera thinks that Mr. G himself was the mole. Seems his abilities extend to shapeshifting. Sigh of relief. Mission a botch but not ultimately a failure. I'm to rest up until summoned again. Yes, boss! [Mission 4 = This one is deceptively simple. Meet a guy, catch another guy. Except of course that's too simple for @Darmian! So more plot laid out and more mystery everywhere. And another big player on the scene besides Sinclair. Good stuff] Mission 5: Luna Palisade. Standing before Chimera once more, he informs Engineria that Recall has been questioned and revealed that he has crossed the dimensions to Primal Earth! Chimera isn't particularly bothered by most of what he got up to there, some Fixadine dealing or something, but Recall did cross paths with missing Powers Division members and killed some of them. Along with some dimension hopping Resistance members. Chimera seems to think this points further at Mr. G being involved since that man has fingers in EVERY scheme, not just those of the Loyalists. Or so Chimera says. So, Engineria is to infiltrate a cloning facility in Luna Palisade, one owned by Mr. G, and wipe it out. This looks like a deliberate attack to let Mr. G know we're on to him. Off I go. I have 3 data core mainframes to find, plus shutting off the security before it gets very dangerous for me. Plenty of Syndicate types in here. Chimera did say they would be here, though how they're connected to Mr. G is unknown. Time to stealth by them! Ok, moving along and...those are NOT Syndicate. Hmmm. Ok, I avoid those and collect the data from the three mainframes. And CCTV shows more of those Arachnos people, and a generator like the one in the First Ward lab. Engineria's mission for Chimera is officially over, but let's keep looking. Oh well that'll teach me to be adventurous! This guy is no fun at all! Feeble copy? Who does he think he is? The Emperor's insane plan? Well that's getting put in my report! These guys are nasty, particularly the floaty ones in red. Really draining my endurance! Then again, the old Plasmatic Taser rocks them pretty well! I drop this Kaspian dude and then go hunting for the generator. And there's more floaty boys! Well, they get dealt with too. In fact I think they take some damage when the generator blows! All for the good then! Time to get out and report in. Data recovered, Arachnos agents in Praetoria from the other dimension. A portal generator and someone called Sheridan. And Mr. G is somehow linked to all of this. First thing he does is ask why I didn't do what he asked me to do. So I explain. Then he explains that the next thing he's doing is taking the fight to Primal Earth. The Cassini Division is being formed. All Hail Emperor Cole! [Mission 5 = Great finale, though it feels like a mid season thing as opposed to an end in itself. Good stuff] Verdict. Loved it. Again. And @Darmian I am really loving the frankly clipped and in control, though possibly deranged (!) tone of voice Chimera speaks in. He's absolutely in charge but at the same time kinda twitchy. I wish Manticore sounded as good. Next up in Praetoria is The Cassini Division. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 4.3: Grand Designs in Grandville. BONUS MATERIAL:

There's a blank History Plaque in there too.

I was lucky. He appeared in front of the train station. (tram station? I'm never sure about which it is)

Arc 11 from our second author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @cranebump's Mobius 3: The Sign of the Five. Mission 1: A Study in Scanning. Several months later. Engineria is in a secret underground facility. Johann Parker is speaking. He's seemingly cured of his earlier madness. Three main missions. The first two are (a) monitoring Time Spikes and (b) the task of freeing the "inside team in the Mobius Strip". That last one is headed up by Milos. Another man cured of time madness. I'm still wary of both of them. The third mission is that of the Chalikar. Dangerous and nasty Chalikar. So the plan is to lure them in and destroy them. Oh lovely. Set up devices that initiate their response and wait for them to show up. I'm loving this already. How did I get into this again? Joe Freitag. I'm going to put sugar in his gas tank, see how he likes that! Working for the Autumn Wards. Well, it's all getting very interesting. Just need to set up the control panel and then...and then, yeah. Oh! Those guys ported in really fast! Along with what appear to be Wards agents! But even so the trap is set and they are biting! Which is exactly what we want. Well, what Parker says we want. I dunno. I'm still just nodding and smiling, and occasionally edging away from the stranger ones. Yes, yes, of course. Absolutely. And since I haven't done this in AGES. OW. Lovely view of the ceiling from here. Well, I say "lovely"... So with the TP'ing intruders dealt with, the extra superfluous scanners removed. I can download the data from the ACTUAL scanning device, and if I was paying attention properly then this will allow Parker and his science wizards to track the Chalikar back to wherever. I think. And we are done and a tapeworm is sent through the signal and out we go! Not a mediporter used! Whew! [Mission 1 = Good intro! Sowing the seeds of proactivity so that we drive the story forward rather than being mostly reactive, like too many arcs. Good stuff] Mission 2: The Field, Bizarre. So, after scanning and analyzing it's time for Alpha team, led by yours truly, to go crack some heads. Said heads being those of the Chalikar. We get in and hit the site as hard as we can. Teknique is coming with us to keep her focus on the fight ahead rather than brooding about her lost friends. Oh excellent! Briggs-Hughes is on my team. She's a go-to-gal for back up. Hang on, yeah, I DO hear something. Come on, this way! We proceed through the Chalikar site, finding scanners and Time Spikes. And dealing with them in turn. Still no sign of the rest of the team, which is troubling. Nevertheless, on we go, # Smollin, Vacarro and Teknique still MIA. Hang on, there's Vacarro! Ok, got her. On we go. And now we have Smollin. She's not good. Oh gal you get out and back. We're going on for Teknique. And also blasting every damn Chalikar we can find. Which is a few! Along with their scanners and those Time Spikes! And there's Tekinque. Poor gal got overwhelmed by the look of it. Let's get her outta that situation! BOOM! Chalikar! BOOM! Datapad? Ah, then she was on to something before they grabbed her. It's tucked behind a weapons rack. Looks like these creeps were planning an attack on the Circle of Thorns. Well, on the regular robe wearing Circle of Thorns I suppose. Time to get back to Johann and report in! [Mission 2 = Totally straighforward mission. Storywise we're one of a set of coordinated attacks on these guys. Works as it says. Plenty of combat and destruction and moves the plot along. Nice] Mission 3: Waxen Gambit. No sleep til Brooklyn! Apparently. So, Engineria is called back in rapidly after preliminary examination of the data pad reveals that the Chalikar are developing something they call Antiphasics. Some sort of defence thing. No, we don't know what it is. But we do know where they're developing it so guess where I'm going? Three guesses. Got it in one. Why the rush? They know we can track them so that means they'll change their MO up so we can't. Yada yada. No team this time. Just little me. Ok, rolls shoulders, cracks knuckles. (ow) We're in Faultline (correction, I'M in Faultline, or under Faultline) and there's a lot of abandoned old labs and bases in this part of the city, and the Chalikar are down here doing their evil thing. Time to unevil them. After avoiding Arachnos infiltrators I get inside to find ...bodies. Someone is here ahead of me. Ah. You. Well that explains that. And it begins. Cue Mission Impossible theme! Angevin is a monster! Also, he insists on coating me in ice armor. I suppose it helps. I'm alive anyway! Tring!!! Dun Dun Dun! Dun Dun Dun. Diddle dooo! Diddle dooo! Closing in on you! Oh, you can try purging all your data but we're taking you down. Look at Angevin doing his slow broody move in! Seconds later that Lead Technician is chopped and down. I manage to get a shot off. Looks like I AM the squire in this one. You're damn right you have a breach! Were you not hearing every one of your friends get kicked in the head? Also, since us two walked in here and NOT your friends, yeah. Breach. Now, you have some data we want, so tell us where it is. And I'll let you go. Ahem, THIS guy won't though. Psike! And there we go. And I think we got most of it. And we're out. A cloaked transport picks us up and we're back to Boundless Antiquities to get debriefed. [Mission 3 = Yeah! Really moving this thing forward and taking the fight to the Chalikar (who I do not like!) Good stuff there] Mission 4: Speckled Bands. Ok, this is a doozy of a plan. The Chalikar have gone all Sauron! They're about to seize the Azh Gaddur! (Nope, not a clue but I'm a Tolkien fan so when Johann refers to it as "one thorn to rule them all" I get it. So, THIS Spirit Thorn will allow its user to control ALL the Circle of Thorns. Seems Baron Zoria is actually a restrained individual and has had it locked away, never to be used. OH, I'm getting a terrible feeling of Frodo-ness about now. (Looks around for a Gollum). So this Anaphasic tech will let the Chalikar get by the old CoT magic barriers, and Johann says we can replicate it. Oh good. And now it begins. And I'm through! Time to meet up with Angevin. That sword wielding madman is around here somewhere. Creepy place. Ok, Angevin, where are you? Ah, found you. Gimme a second, am I standing on caltrops? Hard to see on the sand. Why is there sand? Key Holders. Gotcha. So we face the Chalikar AND the Circle of Thorns. And whatever else is here. Hmm, got a bit ahead of Angevin and lost him. Last I saw he was chopping up some Chalikar. I thought I saw a Key Holder. I'm going to go back and get Angevin, two is better than one in this sort of thing. AH! Ok, flying out over the void is dangerous. My flight power just shut off and I'm falling. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (Mediporters better work out here!) JEEZ LOUISE. I'm catapulted back to the entrance of this place. Mediporter? Mediporter. Note to self, don't do that again. OH! I hope Angevin hasn't fallen too! Oh, I ache. But getting back I manage to find Angevin. Fortunately, he had not fallen off into the void. And there's a Key Holder. Let's get him. One down. Then a second and then a third! Oh, we're getting them good. Once we have the last Key Holder one of our assistant bots gets the data and calculates the location of the Azh Gaddur. So, off to get it. Aaaand....we have to deal with Zoria now. Well, why am I not surprised by that? No, that was rhetorical. And the Herald of Zoria appears to guide us to her master. Ah, so...a chat? Or am I getting my skin taken off and fed to me? AH HELL. Zoria you are an utter utter... genius. I suppose. So, we can't prevent the Chalikar from getting it, because they simply CAN'T get it. Stalemate I suppose. Well played, Baron. Well played. We arrive back to report in only to find the base in absolute chaos! The Chalikar struck while Angevin and I were in CoT-Land. (I don't think that was Oranbega) And while the rest of the group were rescuing the Missing Five (Four, Teknique already here). We have to get down to where they are and stop them! [Mission 4 = Ok, tricky to judge this one. Storywise it works well and I like it. The map has issues! Nothing @cranebump can do about that short of changing it for another map unfortunately. I died three times after the one shown above, but that was deliberate. I was testing the boundaries of the void, and yeah, there's spots where your flight just cuts out and you die. The Herald needs a flight power if you want her to be able to follow you to Zoria, then again it wasn't a needed objective so didn't prevent a mission completion. The Key Holders can appear under trees and on the outside boundary but that just slows you down, it doesn't affect the story. Now, despite all that, I liked this mission!] Mission 5: The Veiled Lodger. The attackers have collapsed elevators and other access points into the lab with the bridging tech to get to the Mobius Strip. (Can someone tell me what the hell it actually is. So we're going in through an emergency teleportal. Yep, time to kick these guys out once and for all. Right. Two Levels. Angevin is on the upper doing his thing. I'm sure Johann will send in bots to hose the blood off the walls afterwards. While me and my gand are on the lower level. We've got to shut off the emergency teleportal sealing the Chalikar in here. And us with them for now. Then get the security back up. And then...doom? Oh you do, do you? My advice to you is to suck that floor and not move. Best all round for you. OH SWEET BEARD OF ZEUS! Where did all my endurance go?!!? RUN! So I run as fast as is HUMANLY possible, weaving and dodging, and throwing grenades and Plasmatic Tasers (popped when a sliver of blue rebuilds) behind me in a bid to get away from the bunch of bots that literally just tanked all my endurance. I get away. Rest. And then refit stealth and go hunting. Snipe and run. Grenade and run. Smokeflashing my way around them to drop Line of Sight and moving around them. And they are done. Ok, Oh hey! Briggs-Hughes! Am I glad to see you. What do you mean Teknique is here? No, she's not on my team. Hmmm. Teknique is here. Only Milos can reprogram the bots and Johann doesn't know how the Chalikar got it. I'm thinking, Briggsy, that this is not an outside job. And I'm not happy about that. Teknique better hope I find her before Angevin does. TEKNIQUE! What the hell are you doing? No, I don't need excuses, I need an explanation. And down you go! Jeez, Briggs-Hughes is a great shot. Teknique falls. When I see Richard I'm to tell him not to look for her. Ok, sister. Stay down. We'll deal with you later. For now we have other things on our mind. Namely Milos and his bot friends. Time to call in Buddy, no offence Briggsy, but three of us is better than two. PRETEND TO LOSE? Oh the ego on some people. I mean I'm no Angevin (Or Axios or Hornet) but I can take a punch and get up again. Take him down, team! And we take down Milos and his bots. And it was rough. Those bots hurt! But the attack is over, as far as I know. So we head back to see Johann and Buddy goes back to his base. (Note to self, Buddy needs a commendation) Johann is packing up his stuff. He's getting reassigned, because someone has to take the blame for all this. For letting Milos, a mole, on the inside, and for Teknique's betrayal. Johann's last official act was to order a second autopsy on Milos. There's a lot of tech speak I don't understand, but whoever that was, it wasn't Milos. [Mission 5 = Great action romp through the lab/base. Lots of "Oh hell!" moments to pull the fat out of the fire, and a great finale that ends setting up the next arc. Good stuff] Verdict. A lot of background is now foreground and you get a feel, if not an answer, to what is going on. A few hiccups with that particular map and maybe a further polish up but definitely a sound addition to the long-running story. Next up from @cranebump is Mobius 4: Dempsey's Hard 8. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is @Darmian's Bridge of Forever.

They ARE a bit odd though!

I don't like that thing either, but there are moments where @Darmian breaks that rule and it seems to work! Like @cranebump said about other stuff, hard to see how he does it but he does. I dunno.

I love both. And arcs in the AE are generally a lot more fun than a lot of the earlier in game material.

I might redo that first mission later, as a Director's Cut sort of thing.

Arc 11 from our first author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @Ankylosaur's All that Glitters 4.2: Privateers in Praetoria. Mission 1: Pillaging The Town For Clues. Shortly after the defeat of the Goliaths and so on in the Rikti War Zone, Engineria ends up in the base of the New Praetorians. These people are among the best to discover who has been acquiring and selling Praetorian tech. Obviously the Goldbrickers are at the heart of it. But there's more to it than that. Time to visit Kingston Heights again and do some snooping. Entering Kingston Heights Engineria sees the departing shapes of Rikti Dropships. Great. There will be Rikti bombs around. Well, there's a Cap'n Willis. Let's go talk to him then. Clues to be found! And Goldbrickers are at the bottom of all this. Well, he and his friend are all piratey, much like some of the others I've met. Is it a gimmick or have they really adopted the lifestyle, just without actual ships. So they're setting sail but for where? And when? I'd like to think Praetoria but after the war it's supposed to be ruined. Ship of the Line, huh? Well, I've seen Master and Commander, but that's about all I know about that sort of thing. They didn't look like THAT. I manage to take it down though, with some careful skirting around and circling the damn thing. Avoiding the Blunderbuss warwork beside it too! Well, I might have guessed that Warburg would be involved in this. I mean they have to keep themselves supplied somehow while cut off from normal Arachnos sources. Then again I've sometimes wondered if the entire Warburg thing isn't a huge deception by Lord Recluse to give him plausible deniability if a missile should ever hit Paragon. You never know! And this guy and his Fortunata bodyguard are tough but not impossible and I get the drop on them. After a few stuns rattle my head though! Heading back to the Blitzkrieg? Ok, Let's have a look for that then after this. Well, I FOUND the Blitzkrieg. I'll leave it at that. (Mediporter on!) On the way back through Kingston Heights I tussle with a Goldbricker by the name of Mr. Boombalova (no, really). He was talking about how they'd never be able to build up the same amount of forces back in the Isles. So, it looks like whatever is being done here is aimed at their home in the Rogue Isles, not Paragon. And who would be stopping them? Arachnos? Crey? Ah! Some trucks carrying Praetorian tech. Hmm, a nearby warehouse. Put a pin in that for Marchand for later. And a second truck! Robot parts for an assembly line. Interesting. WHAT? Doh. I'm an idiot. What does it matter that Praetoria is a ruined hell hole when you can just send ROBOTS over to get stuff for you? Dr. Bellamy is not happy to see me! Well, not after a few minutes of getting her equipment fried by radiation blasts. Seems that Langston Labs DOES have what we suspected, a portal to Praetoria. And they're sending robots through. Not JUST robots though, AUGMENTED HUMANS. So, that's why they stole the Crey Revenant stuff! And I get that confirmed by running around and straight into a Dr. Pouligny. She's all chatty about how her Revenant lab is up and running. Ok, not to me! I just interrupt her mid-morning break with her co-worker. You know how it is. Finally I run into an old "friend". It's Bloody Vicious. Actually, it's not bad seeing him here. He's the only one, apart from some citizens, who hasn't tried to kill me. Hey, Bloody. What's the deal? He won't tell me exactly what he's up to but apparently "the plan is coming together". Yeah. Clear as mud. Laters, Bloody! With a fair amount of intel gathered Engineria makes her way back to Marchand and his team. They go over what I've discovered and have a good think about it. Grant Creston suggests a divide and conquer action. Each of then (and me) will tackle a separate piece of the puzzle. Well, time to get my duty assigned! [Mission 1 = A typical good worldbuilding open map mission from @Ankylosaur. Plenty of hooks laid out an trails to pick up on. Nice] Mission 2: A Pirate's Booty. The team divide up their duties. Marauder and Aurora Pena are going to check out the Revenant lab complex, Pendragon will talk to the citizens from Refugee Island (that place must have an ACTUAL name, surely?), Parson naturally is interested in the Robot assembly plant, seems just his type of thing, but is going to stay and monitor their own teleporter, so Riptide and Grant Creston will be checking the plant instead. That leaves the Praetorian tech warehouse for Engineria. (And my faithful partner Buddy, should I need him!) There's a lot of stuff in this warehouse, I mean a lot of stuff. They're clearly hard at work here on getting this tech out. (That's a LOT of glowies, @Ankylosaur!) And Bruto Louie of the Family. Why are you here, other than the Family has clear interest in making money. I know Bloody Vicious was talking about a grand plan, but he's Verandi/Mook. Hmmm. And Arachnos will be surprised by a big shipment? World's oddest Avon Calling? I tackle Bruto and he pulls one of those Singularity thingies out of the air and cracks me around with it a bit. Ok, I survive that and drop him. He's moaning about how I'm stopping him shipping stuff to the Isles. I dunno. These guys are taking it very personal. Didn't the Family used to be so hypocritical with their "Nothing personal, it's only business" shtick? Engineria moves on. Moving on I check out a terminal. There's a log from a Cap'n Sligh. SLIGH? His parents must have loved him I suppose. Anyway, This is Warehouse D, implying there's an A, B and C somewhere. And the Mooks have been supplying the Council, and sometimes even Arachnos, with Praetorian stuff. What do we have here? Ah, this needs removing. Along with some lab people who are intent on stopping me doing just that. Nasty sonic devices they wear can really ruin a girl's day. Well, I say ruin. And there's a couple of, well just energy fields hanging in the air! They're also portals but marked as not for human consumption so to speak. So the bots around them are obviously fine to go back and forth. Let's see about shutting those off, shall we? By "those" I do mean the portals AND the bots. And then, through no fault of my own I add, I run right into Cap'n Sligh. He's a little tough! And he keeps TP'ing around me, and that's distracting when you're trying to defend yourself! VERY DISTRACTING. Mediporter on? Yep. Ok, we'll try this again! Engineria comes back in, this time with PPD Buddy in tow, and proceeds to stomp on Cap'n Sligh. He maintains that Mr. Rodney isn't going to like this. That the same Mr. Rodney that myself and Ollerus and Hornet gave a well deserved beating to a while ago? Yeah, he can try for a title rematch later but we still have the belt on that championship! Sligh referred to receiving shipments from "William" in Praetoria. Great. Digital Grandpappy Langston is in Praetoria then, doing his business. More intel for Marchand. A final sweep around and I think we have all we need. Time to retire back to base and meet up with the others, pool the knowledge. The only one missing is Pendragon. So far the run down is that we have new Revenant shells. The Goldbrickers did send people to Praetoria but that did not go well for them, as they were irradiated or worse, infected by who knows what. But with those Rikti transformation pods they've been augmenting people to survive over there. (That's no life though, I mean really!) the Clockwork bots are apparently fine over there it seems. So what now? Now it seems we go to Praetoria! Not entirely happy about that. That sounds hella dangerous. I mean just standing there should be hella dangerous, never mind dealing with whoever and whatever. [Mission 2 = The intel flows always onward, inlets filling up and so on like a river. More widening of the World, and now Worlds, building. Nice] Mission 3: Land Ho! Now here's the interesting bit. Not that it all hasn't been interesting up until now, but apparently I've got an all expenses paid trip to Praetoria. Sun, sea, sand, DE, and all in the space of 15 minutes! Oh joy. I know supers that can hold their breath longer than that. (Ok, some don't have breath to hold but Electric Ned is a bit weird. I mean who has their lungs replaced like that anyway?) Now, the rest of the gang are native Praetorians and know the place, so I'm getting sent to a small area called South Aetna. After 15 minutes I'll get ported back automatically. Ok, THAT'S good. Getting trapped over there was not in my horoscope this morning. And through the Vanguard provided portal we go! And...ok, Riptide said this was not far from where Tyrant had his last stand thing. But it looks...normal? Well, not an irradiated wasteland. I mean it looks better than most of Atlas actually. On par with Kallisti Wharf if I'm honest. What gives? I'm obviously going mad. Because in front of me, like just OVER THERE, I can see samurai, well they look like samurai, fighting a Warwork. The Warwork looks wrong, like it's diseased or something. And in my search of the place I run into more of them. So, I'm not mad and they ARE dangerous. To everyone not them it seems. Still, Kinetics Repel keeps them away from me long enough to continue my searching. I end up having to deal with a Heavy Constructor Control Unit, and it has PLENTY of minions to throw at me. Cue activating flight and taking to the rooftops to get a breath and recover health before returning to the fight. It's actually quite pretty up here. It really doesn't look like any war happened at all, never mind not that long ago. (I thought I had some image of the Constructor fight, but it turns out I was too busy not getting killed to take them!) Finishing off the Constructor I grab a final few clues before getting whisked back to Primal. Glad that's over. I've got a mixed bag of stuff to show the others, so let's see what we have. So, the diseased Warworks are Warworks infected by Devouring Earth. How does that work? I mean they're machines. Unless it means. Well, I remember reading once that a computer is effectively some sand we've thought to replicate thinking, and some of the DE are rock and crystal, so...I'm not sure where I'm going with this but the word "Piezoelectric" is arriving in my brain like an ice cube dropped in a glass of water. The samurai are evidence of Neo Tokyo attempting to take over the city. Neo Tokyo? Ok then, a zone on Praetoria that seems to have survived, or survived well enough to invade the capital. Lots of Clockwork and a keycard belonging to a Syfotine CTO, Claudia Michaels. It seems like random stuff to this non Praetorian but the others are excited by it. So...I wait and see 🙂 Parson reckons he can find out where that card fits and port us right to it. So, we're going back! [Mission 3 = Short and to the point. Nice feel of difference in the surprisingly clean Praetoria. Sort of a "mid intro", if there is such a thing. Good] Mission 4: Going Down With The Ship. All of us get checked out for DE infection and radiation sickness. To be fair, it's gonna take a SEVERE overload of radiation to make me sick, considering what my powers are. But you never know. In the meantime the team have located a ship not far from Kingston Heights that was generating the sort of signal that would indicate a portal to Praetoria. That has to be checked out. And there's the location zeroed in on from the Syfotine card I found. So, a team of Grant Creston, Riptide and me are heading back to Praetoria! PLUS, a gift! IVy is being sent with us. She's a one gal army all by herself! Let's gooo! I arrive in last in the Underground. That's where the signal brought us. And I can here the buzz of energy traps. Looks like some of the others will need freeing. Oh well, new girl gets the job I suppose. Hi there, IVy! And off behind you I can see Riptide. He's not amused. IVy and me get him out of his energy cage though and the three of us proceed onward. Grant Creston, ever the soldier, got further than the rest of us but even he was taken unawares. But now we are 4! Time to scope this place out and see what's what! There's a lot of Praetorian tech still being collected by Big Brother robots and moved to spots for collection. Those spots being non organic energy portals like the ones I found when I fought Cap'n Sligh. No one get too close! And there's a Cap'n Bonnet! What is it whit these people and their piratical nonsense? I mean their home base on the Rogue Isles is pretty lawless in Paragon terms, so what's with the extra affectations? Never mind. Affected or not, they're still damn dangerous! Get him, team! OW OW OW! We take him down but ...Mr. Rodney is here! I call up Buddy to join us. His armor is completely sealed, so radiation proof. Now then, Mr. Rodney, let's fling a Plasmatic Taser bolt at you and see what happens! You didn't do so well against Ollerus and Hornet and me, let's see how you face off against 5 of us! Oh he does not like that one bit. The 5 of us surround him and while he tries to give as good as he gets, he's getting worn down all the while. He does manage to badly injure me at one point but the others cover for me, letting me get some relief momentarily. My trick? Looks like I wasn't important enough for you to remember me blasting you with RADIATION. That's my trick. Natural immunity. Wait, you went through a Rikti transformation machine? Are you completely insane? We put him down but he TP's away at the last instant. Parson has to find a way to block that I think, or redirect it so that Rodney ends up in a cell. That would be useful. Our timer is almost up and we gather to port back to Primal Earth. A job mostly well done, but even more questions need answering I think. When we get back there's a big discussion about time travel and whether we are actually seeing the "real" present of Praetoria. I admit I don't understand it. It involves the TUNNEL system, and frankly that thing confuses me. I've been to Firebase Zulu once. That was enough. Much talk of Midas assembling a pirate force from both Resistance AND Loyalists, so that's crazy. But to fight who? These Neo Tokyo people? But we've not heard back from Aurora Pena or Marauder and that's worrying. [Mission 4 = Building and building. Nice little intro to the Praetorian underground (apart from the one flaw it always has, NPCs on those long stairs!) Excellent. On we go!] Mission 5: X Marks The Spot. Parson gives us the once over again. Well, it's his job and he sounds a little bit OCD, but in a good way. Riptide and Creston have been exposed to too much radiation and need treatment to recover. IVy needs a refit after being back in Praetoria, so it's me. See, I knew having radiation powers gave me some sort of immunity, or at least a protection. Anyway, It's up to little Engineria to get on board that beacon ship and rescue our companions, shut down whatever portal we find and, you know the deal by now, hand out some fresh tasty justice. So we pull up alongside the ship in a little tug boat thing and I hop out. OHO! So, we have more company! Hiya Manticore! Well, looks like me and the New Praetorians have an actual Freedom Phalanx member on our side! You are still IN the Freedom Phalanx right now, yeah? Only sometimes it's...ok ok, I'll drop it. Sheesh, touchy. A couple of minutes later and we have our full attack team. Manticore, Aurora Pena, Marauder and me. Let's go sort out this set of vills then! And grab anything that looks useful for Parson! He likes all that stuff. Plus he understands it, I just hit things. We drop a bunch of Goldbrickers on the way into the ship, and they're not too happy about it. Well, now they can have a nice nap and forget all their troubles. Once inside we get attacked by blue Goldbrickers and we lay them out. Shortly after that I find the bombs that Marauder had brought with him, so we'll be needing those! Examining one of the terminals on the ship it seems that the Langston scientists have been hitting the same problem that Parson was raving about earlier. They too are having trouble accessing the "present" of Praetoria, mostly getting sent into the past or just after the end of the War. And they don't know why either. And then we run into an old friend. Well, "old friend" to me anyway. Dunno if they others have met him. It's Fort Knoxxer. He's pissed at me. Seems they are so close to...something. I have the curious notion that it actually isn't taking over Praetoria. There's a bigger thing here. I'm sure of it. Aurora has him pinned, I blast him with radiation and when Marauder reaches him...it's goodnight! Manticore is off being Manticore somewhere. We can here the muffled groans of AU Goldbrickers as he wades through them, invisibly. Gold Brickster goes down in much the same way, unfortunately for him. Marauder seems amused to be "working with a red Chimera", whatever the hell that means. I'll ask him later. And there's William Langston! Looks like Grandpappy Goldbricker has hisself ANOTHER body. Well, not for long! Though I expect him to have a back up somewhere. Then he starts singing. I...these guys are sooo strange. I really think we should, you know, take them in for psychiatric analysis or something. It's a riff on the old Carly Simon thing and he's singing it to Marauder. Me, maybe that would work. Did Praetoria even HAVE a Carly Simon over there? Or a music industry to speak of? More questions to ask the Praetorians after we get off this ship. And there we go, he'll see me again soon. Bodyhopping Old Man Langston. Creepy as hell. Now, we have some portals to dismantle and some bombs to plant, and then vamoose! Or not! King Midas himself his here. Oh oh. That's not good. Ok, none of this is "good" but after a while I have a sliding scale of what's doable and what will probably kill me. Suffice it to say, Midas is on the far end of the "kill" end. But I also have a team of badasses with me so I have a chance. Spoke too soon, it's just me and Aurora! Where the hell are the other two? Ah! There they are, and just in time too. I was getting hammered there. And time for you to take a snooze, your majesty. You're done. It's the Isles where your prize is? See! I damn well knew it wasn't Praetoria, and the earlier guy spoke of building a force in Paragon. Something big is going to happen in the Rogue Isles. But what? And after Midas takes a snooze we just have some bombs to deploy. And I get cocky and ...someone help me up. I mean shoot that Goldbricker first obviously and then help me up. Bombs planted, portals destroyed, we get back out to the little tug boat and sail away! We get back to the New Praetorians base. Well, most of us. Manticore has vanished. Again. All that talk of freedom is peculiar though. Pendragon and Marchand have the last word on the matter. [Mission 5 = A great romp around a (for now) new map. Really fits the Goldbrickers (obviously) and adds to the mood. Whetting the appetite for what comes next] Verdict. This was a fun arc. Plenty of investigation and combat. It did feel like a middle section though rather than self contained, so we'll see what happens in the next one, which will be All that Glitters 4.3: Grand Designs in Grandville. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is @cranebump's Mobius 3: The Sign of the Five.

Well, as for a new trio, with Horus being gone and all, plus I imagine his original costume would be a pain to make, I just played through a long AE where the author had included Thunderclap from the very first promo comic! He then meets Apex and War Witch but doesn't reappear in the later comics. A bit like Incandescent though, he's in the canon too and could just be "out there fighting the good fight".

So, Orson Welles then? Or maybe John Huston!

Yeah, @Ankylosaur has a flair for those maps I've found. A definite skill! Your stuff leans into sort of noir and odder, and I dunno what exactly @Darmian's is apart from really densely packed with detail even though it doesn't feel like that when I'm reading it.

I think myself the issue with that map is basically where you start from. If you appeared say nearer then of course it would be dangerous but you wouldn't be stuck in a corner. I dunno. I just play them! Engineria has no AEs to her credit!

I suppose having a Find Target whatever Macro would help 🙂

I was getting the futility of it, but I was also leaning into the way I was thinking about reviewing it, so that colored my views.

Ha! So the posts are useful beyond just reading! Glad to be of service!

@Zhym, you found people? I was lucky enough to find Positron early and then no one else. Baron someone I think. Maybe taking the timer off is a plan, I did get the whole futility feel going on from it though. It was my take that that is what was intended. My assumption though to be honest.