Blasterbobo

((happy birthday to me!!!!))

"Unit 1 this is command, at this time set up a defensive perimeter outside the airlock. can you confirm how many Malta are out there? over."

"this is Unit 1. I have visual confirmation on three of them, but there may be more of them outside of my visual range. The three I can see are attacking something, but i'm not sure what it could be at this time. Over."

"roger that Unit 1, Reinforcements are enroute to your location keep us informed of the Maltas' movements. Command out."

Once he finished his communication with command, unit 1 began setting up a minefield along the outer edge of the airlock.
When he finished with the mines he headed back into the airlock and set up an auto turret set to attack anything that isn't using a friendly IFF tag. By the time he finished with the auto turret his backup came around the corner, Unit 1 heard them before he saw them.

Command was gracious enough to send up three Zenith Warcry mk1's and two hoverbots as backup. The three Warcry's lumbered into the airlock and held their positions there. Apparently command decided they would be better off as the fallback defense just incase there was indeed a sizable force of Malta out there. The two hoverbots began patrolling outside the base edging closer and closer to the perimeter constantly scanning and checking for intruders that might have made it through the perimeter detection devices. Meanwhile Unit 1 just stood outside the airlock invisible and waited to see what would happen, but still alert enough to react quickly if an attack did occur.

After hearing zealstorms voice unit 1 turns in the direction it came from only to see the airlock doors close behind her. He bolts through the doors only to see missles flying at a red streak and hearing a voice above him saying that "this should be interesting".

Unit 1 focuses back on the point of origin of the missiles and is immediately surprised to see Malta agents on the moon, but didn't bother to take the time to wonder how they got here. He immediately activated his radio to contact kommandant backer,

"Sir, visual contact with Malta agents outside the secondary airlock, requesting immediate backup at my location,over?"

Unit 1 reactivated his cloaking device and took aim with his rifle waiting for the Malta agents to move in a direction towards the base then waited for backup.

Unit 1 muttered to himself while he waited for Zealstorm to make her escape, "damn Assassin bot's gotta learn some tact on where she kills people." Just then a lone 5th column trooper happened to walk by the secondary airlock, a lone trooper unit 1 recognized from when he was first created. A lone trooper Unit 1 vowed to kill. Unit 1 hid inside the airlock and waited for the soldier to pass by. As the soldier passes by unit 1 grabs the soldier from behind, covering his mouth and paralyzing him by breaking his back. Not enough to kill him, but enough to make him wish he was dead. Unfortunately this made Unit 1 partially visible to anyone in the immediate vicinity, but as far as he knew there was noone around but him. Seeing a locker across from the airlock unit 1 drags the soldiers body to it and stuffs him behind some bulky emergency pressure suits, then tapes the soldiers mouth shut so he can't cry out for help. "it'll be a long and painful wait for someone to find you Konersman, I hope you enjoy the wait as much as I will." says Unit 1 as he closes the door and locks it, he then walks back to the airlock and checks his chronometer on his wrist and goes back to muttering to himself about how "she better hurry up and get through before the patrols head back this way."

Unit 1 snaps his head up seeming to look in Zealstorms hidden direction then slowly keeps looking past her almost as though he caught a glimpse of something in the corner of the visual range. When in reality he had been switching his visual modes and had indeed seen her, he just wasn't going to show it.((IR goggles are nice things to have.))

(( um he is inside))

After hearing the alarms unit 1 commed into the command center.

Unit 1 thought to himself over and over, "do what I like?" then concluded that "do what I like" served as a viable command even though it wasn't from a ranking officer he'd just pretend it was from one. Then he came up with an idea to help Zealstorm escape.

"this is unit 1, I have found Fleishman's body but no sign of the attacker. They could have gotten out before the security protocols activated. I am proceeding to the secondary airlock and will deploy an auto turret. Unit 1 out."

After finishing his transmission unit 1 looked down at fleishman and muttered to himself "I never liked you anyway." then stomped on her neck, breaking it and ensuring that she was infact dead. He then hurried off to the secondary airlock to ensure that it stayed unlocked for a certain intruder who suddenly needed a way out. When he got there he found a warwolf and a vampyri guarding the airlock, when he got close enough to them they turned and looked at him with a questioning gaze.

"I am here to cover this exit, you are needed in more important places than here i'm sure." Unit 1 said to the two columnists.

"sure. we could be back on earth, but I suppose we could go check the armory. We'll be back though to check on you, you don't look like to can fight to good." replied the vampri. the warwolf simply growled.

The two columnists hurried off to the armory and the vampyri muttered something about this better not being another drill cause if it was he'd run outside the habitable zone and kill himself.

Once they were out of sight Unit 1 checked to see if the doors were locked, which they were so he unlocked both doors then activated his own cloaking device and simply waited with the inner door open and himself leaning on the wall invisible .

"I am Infiltrator Unit mk1. My primary role is to infiltrate hero groups, discern their possible weaknesses, record them in action, and return any and all data possible to central command. My secondary role is a ranged weapons support unit and I am capable of emergency teleportation of injured teammates. Senior Warrant Officer Fleishman will be pleased to know that during my radio silence with the 5th column I created an updated Assassin unit based on my designs, he is currently stationed in bloody bay being field tested courtesy of some unwitting ARACHNOS operatives." said unit 1 to both zealstorm and fleishman.

Unit 1 turned to Fleishman and said, "if you would like I could attempt to make radio contact with unit 2. I am sure he could be put to use up here in some form or another. Although I must say I am unsure how he would be able to get here since I came through the portal at Beta base."

Turning back to Zealstorm, "Perhaps once your programming is complete we'll be assigned together as an infiltration strike unit in the near future. In any case welcome to the 5th column."

He then turns back to Fleishman and says, "mission complete, I await further instructions"

He looks at Fleishman with his cold robotic stare awaiting orders....

Unit 1 stepped through the airlock and waited for depressurization to complete. While the airlock cycled through it's process unit 1 soaked in everything he had witnessed, then with a hiss the outer doors opened and unit 1 activated his cloaking device. Once outside he calculated the time it would take for him to get to moon base beta with the reduced gravity and began leaping across the surface in the direction of moon base beta. He stopped long enough to test a theory on how effective his flight boosters would be up here and before he could shut them off he was in sight of moon base beta and what appeared to be some sort of fight he had no interest in.

He took this oportunity to sneak in one of the side access airlocks and just as he got there a team of 12 longbow came running out the very airlock he planned on using. As they finished piling out of the airlock Unit 1 snuck in, and waited for the airlock to return to its normal pressure. As he waited he saw a glimpse of who he thought was S6 running by to go see what was going on. Unsure of who it might have been Unit 1 switched his IFF transmitter back to its original Paragon Security code status, while he did this he also changed his appearance to its original form also. When the airlock finally returned to neutral status he caught a reflection of himself in the glass and was satisfied with the look he chose, the disguise consisted of a blue beret, a blue flak jacket, and blue tucked in cargo pants with a white stripe down the side tucked into combat boots. It was the perfect U.N. costume, which was his original disguise to begin with.

Once he was inside he realized that fleishman never told him where he could possibly find them, which left him high and dry on where to look. He didn't even know what to look for, so he stopped a scientist walking down the hall and asked him.

"excuse me, you wouldn't happen to know where the X-C condensors are stored do you?"

"uh hmm... yeah take the third elevator down to tech labs, then go to requisitions and you should find them there." replied the scientist.

"thanks" said unit 1, meanwhile thinking to himself " I'm glad i got to keep this omega level security clearance, i'm gonna have some smooth talking to do to get these parts."

As Unit 1 proceeded down the elevator, the scientist he just talked to said to himself, "wait a sec, when did the U.N. get involved up here?" as he said that another scientist walking by replied "when isn't the U.N. getting involved in anything."

As the doors opened unit 1 saw how large the base really was, this floor alone had thirteen tech labs that he could see and there were undoubtedly more labs on the other floors. Unit 1 finally made his way over to requisitions and saw behind the desk a short older man with glasses reading over some of the paperwork from the previous day.

"uhm excuse me, are you the person I need to talk to about requisitioning some X-C condenser's?"

the older man looked up from his paperwork and looked a little surprised for a few seconds then said, "oh my, I didn't even see you walk up. Yes I am the requisitions officer for the base, you said you needed some X-C condenser's eh? Do you have the necessary paperwork for these son?"

Unit 1 pulled out his Omega level security clearance card and replied, "This is my paperwork sir, we need these down on earth asap and this base was the only place that even had any left. The warehouses on earth are backlogged for weeks to even get on the waiting list for these things. The U.N. is hereby requisitioning these parts for classified projects."

"well... I guess since you put it that way, i'll go get 'em for you." as the requisitions officer walks back to get the condensers unit 1 hears him mumbling to himself "Damn United Nations brats, like they got nothing else better to do than interrupt me"

"how many of these do you need?" yells the officer.

"as many as you can spare!" yells unit 1 back to the officer.

"WHAT!! you need that many? did I hear you right? you want all of em? But we need the twelve we have!" yelled back the officer obviously mishearing unit 1.

"uh yep we need all of em" yelled back unit 1 while at the same time thinking to himself "how the blazes am I gonna get all of em back, and how big are they anyway."

The officer returns dishearted and hands unit 1 a steel briefcase and says, here they are, all tweve of them. I hope the U.N. is happy, some of our scientists needed these for projects you know."

"The U.N. is very happy with moon base beta's cooperation, if you'll excuse me I really must be going." replies unit 1 as turns to leave. Unit 1 sighed tohimself and thought " atleast they aren't heavy."

Once he got back into the elevator he quickly opened up a storage compartment in his back and stowed the briefcase away safely. Just as the doors opened letting him know the ride was over. He steped out and headed back to the airlock he used earlier and could still hear the fight continuing on outside, but dying down fast. As he stepped into the airlock he reactivated his cloaking device and waited for the airlock to cycle through letting him know he's clear to leave. He hears the airlock hiss open to the outside lunar world and steps out and starts sprinting and hopping using the lunar gravity to his advantage getting him a good distance away. "well's the easy parts done, now I gotta get back. Guess i'll leave my hero transponder on till I get close to alpha base just incase."

"Mother goose, this is Hansel. The gum drops are going back to the gingerbread house. little red riding hood couldn't make it to the party, i'll bring the scarecrow down yellowbrick road. over?" radioed unit to alpha base.

"this is mother goose, we copy you Hansel. The muffin man can't wait to get those gum drops for the new gingerbread man.
We've got you on the crystal ball,come fly the friendly skies. over and out." replied Alpha base.

"good they know this is my hero frequency, so now I just have to hope they don't shoot me on accident. I wonder what fleishman's up to with whoever or whatever that was I saw on the way out anyway. Guess i'll find out soon enough." unit 1 thought to himself as he got closer to home.

(would have responded to you earlier essex, but my internet crashed and then i crashed my bike so i hurt right now.)
press start to boot from cd.....

beginning system check.........

All systems functional........

startup complete..

slowly unit 1's systems reactivated after what seemed like hours of emergency code repairs, but something was different. as his audio receptors came back online he heard alarms in the distance. slowly he started to sit up after discerning that there were no threats in the room, he noticed that there were still some tech's in the room sorting out the data that he had recently downloaded and putting them into relevant files.

as he looked at the technician's his targetting computers activated and the technician's showed up as green, telling him that they would be easy to take down. It also told him they shouldn't be here if he could trget them. Opening the sidearm compartment in his right leg he pulled out the crey pistol he had acquired some time back and took aim at the first technician. He activated his cloaking device and slowly backed away to the exit door only to find it was locked. "guess we do this the hard way then."he thought to himself, and fired the pistol on the first technician who instantly froze into a block of ice. the second technician turned to see who fired the weapon, but do to unit 1's cloaking device all he could see was a second beam hit him as he too turned to ice.

"now then, let's see where the key is" unit one spent a few minutes finding the key only to realize that he should have just pushed the manual release button next to the door. Something just didn't seem right about the tech's though, unit 1 moved in to check what was wrong with them. Astonished with his findings unit 1 activated his personell locator to find kommandant backer, seemed he was in c&c. unit 1 opened up an emergency line to c&c.

"kommandant, the base has been infiltrated by unknown units. I have two of them isolated in lab 1, requesting assistance."

"unit 1, can you identify who they are?"

"it is difficult to tell, they are either longbow or malta agents sir"

"understood reinforcements on the way, backer out."

a minute later the effects of the crey pistol wore off on the first technician, which unfortunately for him was poorly timed as 12 column troops piled in and took aim at him. then the second technician unfroze and the troops ruthlessly opened fire on the two technicians dropping them like sacks of potatos. Once the shooting stopped lieutenant eichmann nonchalantly walks in and begins inspecting the now dead technicians, then activates his radio.

"sir, eichmann here. the tech's unit 1 reported were longbow, looks like they were trying to delelte the files unit 1 brought in."

"understood, good job. search the base and begin id checks on all personnel is that clear?"

"as crystal sir, eichmann out."

"ok men, i want you to disperse into teams of two and keep radio contact. Check all personnel make sure they are who they say they are, we've got rats onboard and its time to scare em out." says eichmann. His troops immediately break off into teams of two and begin searching the base. Meanwhile eichmann turns to unit 1 and says, " you on the other hand have a different mission, report to fleishman for instructions. She should still be up top near the airlocks dealing with a possible intrusion."

"acknowledged" says unit 1and he heads out the room and starts towards fleishman's position. Unsure of the situation up top he takes his multi purpose rifle from out of the storage compartment in his back and heads up the elevator to the airlock room. when the doors open and he turns down the hallway he sees fleishman, but he also sees someone he does not recognize as authorized inside the base and immediately raises his rifle and takes aim thinking to himself "why do I get all the annoying jobs?"

((Was only using fleishman like a contact. wasn't trying to step on toes.))

Warning....warning....file corruption in progress.... system reboot in 5..4..3..2..1

Not long after he finished his download and left fleishman to continue her work on S6, unit 1 decided to check out lab 1 when he processors started crashing one by one. Electricity started to arc off his body and he was barely able to manually deactivate his auto destruct from initiating, when his power supply gave out and he collapsed to the ground. Suddenly the fire alarm in lab 1 activated and halon gas started pouring down from the ceiling, luckily no human was in the lab at the time as this was an automated lab run by specialized mek men. unfortunately for the mek men the lab doors sealed shut to keep the halon gas from spreading through the base. a few minutes pass and the ventilation system clears the gas out of the room and technicians come pouring in to see what caused the the alarm to go off, only to trip over unit 1's now immobile body.

Technicians immediately tried moving unit 1 onto a table only to realize that they weren't strong enough to lift them so they gathered a few mek men from the lab and had them put him on a table.

"begin a system reboot and run a diagnostic I want to know what happened in here." said the lead technician

after thirty minutes they finally get unit 1's processors rebooted and finish their diagnostics.

"first lieutenant Eichmann sir, we found what caused the mass overload to his system. It seems that after he finished his download in lab 2 a council subroutine that was buried in his harddrive activated and tried to activate his self destruct. The subroutine was placed shortly after he was constructed. The council sabotaged him sir."

"damn, i want every useful programmer in here to rewrite his codes. We need him on the infiltration team with that new android over in lab 2 that fleishman is working on. get it done yesterday men!" yelled leiutenant Eichmann.

After situating himself outside of moon base beta USCMC Sgt. opened up his commications channel to moon base alpha.

"Mond-niedriges Alpha dieses ist fünfte Spalte Kennzeichnung Eindringlingmaßeinheit MK1, Sie kopieren, ich sagt wieder dieses ist Eindringling, den Maßeinheit MK1 Sie kopieren, rüber?"
(Moon base Alpha this is Fifth column designation Infiltrator unit MK1, do you copy, i say again this is Infiltrator unit MK1 do you copy, over?)

"Dieses ist niedriges Alpha des Mondes, lesen wir Sie Maßeinheit 1., was Ihr gegenwärtiger Betriebszustand und Position ist, also können einen Wiederherstellung Betrieb Schalter Ihr Sprachenprogramm zu Englisch anfangen, also können unsere Verzeichnismaßeinheiten Sie einfacher finden, rüber?"
(This is moon base alpha, we read you unit 1. what is your current operational status and location so we can begin a retrieval operation. please switch your language program to english so our locator units can find you easier, over?)

"Bestätigendes, zugeschaltetes language, das jetzt einstellt.(Affirmative, switching language setting now.) My location is east north east of moon base beta and i am a half mile out, over?"

"copy that, stand by for teleport to the base. The kommandant will debrief you and give you an update on our situation here. When you are finished please report to Senior Warrant Officer Fleishmann, she will be waiting for you in processing lab 2 to download any relevent data on the situation on earth. She will also update your threat assessment files also, over and out."

When he finished his communication with the base, he activated his cloaking device and waited for the teleportation to bring him home. a minute later Unit 1 was momentarily blinded by the flash of the teleportation to alpha base, when his visual receptors cleared he was greeted by a first lieutenant named miller.

"welcome home unit 1, you must have been quite lonely in Paragon City all by yourself without any help." said miller.

"That was what I was built and programmed for lieutenant, survival in hostile territory while on solo missions for the 5th column." replied Unit 1.

"Ja in any case the kommandant is waiting for you in his office, please follow me."

As he walked through the base to the kommandant unit 1 noticed that despite the apparent state of disarray that the base appeared to be in it was actually quite secure and heavily defended. The deeper into the base he got he noticed that it became quite utilitarian looking, the way a proper 5th column base should appear. After a few minutes unit 1 finally made it to the kommandants office.

"welcome home unit 1, i do sincerely apologize for not being able to get in contact with you earlier but we were entirely unaware that you were even activated during the coup with the council. We heard through our remaining spynet that you took out Archon Burkholder and I must say i'm glad the traitor got what he deserved, especially since it was at your hands. I bet he never thought one of his creations would ever turn on him."

"I was only doing what i was programmed to do after i was reactivated during the coup. I was also programmed to record possible meta human weaknesses that I encountered which i have stored away and await downloading into the column's mainframe" replied Unit 1.

"outstanding! First though take this disc, and upload its contents into your threat assessment files. It's an update that includes anything you might run into here on the moon." he hands the disc to unit 1 who takes the disc and places it into his chest and begins uploading the files. After a few minutes of silence the disc pops out.

" transfer has been completed, this will be most useful kommandant. Am i dismissed to report to warrant officer fleishmann now?"

"Ja report to her immediately, and welcome back unit 1." replied the kommandant.

Unit 1 salutes the kommandant and walks out of his office to be again greeting by lieutenant Miller.

"this way please, we won't have far to walk this time." says miller

They walk the 50 feet to processing lab 2 and unit 1 proceeds in to see rows and rows of deactivated mek men at the back of the lab and in the middle he notices someone strapped to an upright table with a woman taking something from the back of whoever it is strapped to the table.

"Senior warrant officer fleishman?"

The woman at the table turns and says in an annoyed voice,
"I thought i said that i was not to be interrupted! who are you and what do you want!"

"My designation is Infiltrator unit mk1, the kommandant said you were expecting me." unit 1 one glances at the person on the table, "but I see you are busy so I will come back later."

"nonononono come right in, i have been expecting you. I was wondering if you were ever going to make it here, but here you are now all in one wonderful piece. Well then where shall we start hmm?" replied fleishman

"Perhaps downloading my memory files, they are slowing my proccessing speed. I was beginning to run out of memory and would have had to start wiped files."

"well let's start there then, take a seat and plug into the mainframe relay over here next to our new guest" replied fleishman.

Unit 1 goes and stands at the terminal next to what is now an andriod of some sort that he is unfamiliar with and plugs the socket into the side of his head and begins his 5 minute download and 30 second upload of the necessary files. He turns with a dead look on the visor, to look at the captive as fleishman walks back over to her and says to unit 1.

"Unit 1 I'd like you to meet replicant humanoid essex, or S6 as she likes to call herself. she will make quite a nice addition to the family won't she?" says fleishman with a mad gleam in her eyes.

Unit 1 just stares straight ahead with his deactivated visor, unable to respond to fleishman he just turns his head were his audio receptors tell him she is standing at and he just listens to her babble on about her grand schemes for the 5th column and about her inevitable promotion once her scheme comes to fruition. All the while unit 1 just thinks to himself " I just wish she'd shut up", then wonders if that will be downloaded with part of the files too.

Finally able to recieve a scrambled 5th column transmission after the long silence from the council takeover, USCMC Sgt. went through his usual routine of double checking the source of the signal to verify it sending origin. Then he double checked again unsure as to why the signal was originating from the moon, his cpu theorized that since he wasoperating in firebase zulu that it could be a bounced feed from the moon. His final decision was to ask general hammond about recieving a signal from the moon, he just wouldn't tell him who sent it. Much to his surprise he was informed that it was possible he recieved a transmission from the moon since there is a base there, the general even told him who to talk to to go there if he really wanted to. So USCMC Sgt. activated his flight boosters and proceeded to city hall in atlas park to talk with rick davies about going to the moon. "sure, Sgt. we sent some hero's there earlier. We were actually about to send some supplies through if you'd like to go along and see for yourself, not a chance you get everyday you know.", said rick davies. "very good, i've been getting these signals all week. It's been wearing my memory storage units down.", said Sgt. "Well go stand by those crates near the portal and we'll send you on your way. Oh and tell professor clark that poker night is tuesday this week." As soon as USCMC Sgt. steps over to the crates the portal is activated and teleports him immediately to moon base beta.

Upon reaching the other side he tells the technician that he thinks there is some kind of dimensional creature that tried to attack him on the way there. The technician simply looked at USCMC Sgt. like his head magically turned to cabbage. "what, is there something bad behind me that I should be running from?", said the Sgt. "no, just go down the hall and talk to professor clark. He'll brief you on the important things to do and not to do.", replied the technician. "ah yes, I see we have yet another hero in our midst. Welcome to moon base beta, now with properly adjusted hospital pads for those hero's who throw caution into the wind.", said professor clark. "uh, thank you? I think?" replied the Sgt. "Rick Davies from DATA says that poker night is tuesday this week. If you would please tell me if it is possible to recieve transmissions from here to earth, or to firebase zulu?", said the Sgt. "yes, it is possible, but only if the recieving frequency was known beforehand. That would be the only way that we know of for a signal from here to reach firebase zulu, that is until they install a direct portal from here to the firebase.", replied the professor.

"Is this the only functional base here on the moon? or are there other locations I should be aware of.", said USCMC Sgt. "Well the only other moon base here is moon base alpha, but it was overrun by the indigenous flora quite some time ago and we aren't risking an expedition to investigate it yet. I can show you on our map where the base is if you feel you can survive", replied the professor. The Sgt. nods in approval and they walk over to the map room. "This map we have is updated instantaneously by heros out in the field by using camera drones that we have follow them unless they request otherwise. There is an upload station over there in the corner that you can use to get an updated copy of the map for you to use in the field. If you'd like we will assign you a camera drone also.", said the professor. "A camera drone will only give my position away to possible threats, so I must decline your offer of the drone. I will however take a copy of the updated map", replied the Sgt. He walked over to the upload station and begins a direct upload to his map subroutine and when he finishes he abruptly walks out of the maproom without saying another word.