Ok here is part five, just a short part to get the thing going again. Nothing too dratic happens this time, though we find out things are not as easy as they seem.))
Part Five
Snakes and ladders.
She had just finished moving her main base to the council one and a new control room had been set up utilising council computers, the council symbols had been removed from the walls and the doors and soon she would have her own symbols placed around the base. She was already planning on expanding it later and improving its wall structures to make it stronger, at the moment the rule of the day was cleaning house, the power generators had been repaired and the bodies had been buried, the control room door had been replaced so now she was inspecting the control room and making sure the computers were all in working order, two of her soldiers were permanently on station here at all times, she was about to move on and inspect the rest of the base when the communications operator said to her, Mistress, there is a message for you.
Yes? What does it say.
I cannot read it mistress, its on your personal coded frequency.
But how
She trailed off not bothering to continue her sentence, who could still know her code, anyone who knew that was dead, she knew she had killed one of them herself, ah of course, telepathy, a powerful type, this could mean only one person, yes her father had decided to finally show interest in her again, this would be a eventful meeting.
Krosse approached her as she made her way to the bases main door, Forgive my intrusion mistress, I just thought you would like to know in person that the experiment with them nanobots on the dead bodies seemed to be working, at least partially, the man I have monitoring them says they are moving and standing up, we have them on lockdown, so far they have not made any more moves.
No they wont, they will be awaiting my orders hopefully, I hate using such methods but we really do need the men, I have a plan to free some of my men from the Zig, at the moment though we dont have the resources.
I understand mistress, I shall keep them under close monitoring until you are ready to give them orders.
I trust the drug dealings are all in hand?
Yes mistress everything is ready we send the first shipment out tomorrow.
Excellent, we will need the money for some components I require for another of my plans, I shall be seeing you later captain, I am sure I can trust you with the running of things in my absence.
This was a sign of great trust on Contessas part usually she would have kept in control via the communications equipment but she felt she could trust Krosse, this was to be his big chance. Krosse knew it too and he bowed, Of course mistress, I wont let you down.
I dont doubt it for a second captain. Contessa said with a smile, Now you may go.
So they made their separate ways and Contessa walked out of the main entrance, not knowing what to expect of this meeting or weather it was a good sign or a bad sign, her father could be enraged at her for the events that had unfolded or he could be pleased that she was making a slow comeback. She sighed, he was the only connection to her people she had however so she had to tread and speak carefully around him, not that he felt any love for her, it was more a interest in his offsprings career, probably this was more for his own ends than her so he could brag about it to the other nobles and layabouts of the ruling families.
It was her father she could feel him in her mind guiding her to the coast and she found him standing under a long dead tree, he had sensed her ages ago of course and said to her mind with his mind, Ah our daughter finally we see you again.
He was not mad as such, his manner of speaking was more a sort of eccentric royalty thing than any real sense of multiple personalities, she often wondered if he realised how silly it sometimes looked but would never dare to ask. He was a tall man in a expensive suit and sunglasses, he looked rather average standing there, the only hint that he was more than he seemed was the fog surrounding him. She bowed respectfully and said in a practiced official voice, Greetings father, it has been a long time.
Her father nodded and he went right into business he had never been one for niceties and he said in his strange almost Russian accented voice, We are most displeased with your loses of before, the loss of that island was not something that can easily be forgiven, it can be forgiven however it will take some time. You as you are well aware are special to us, to the future, if this was not the case we would order your destruction, however this would make us loose face in the grand chamber so we give you another chance yes?, dont disappoint us this time, you are not indispensable, another could be made our daughter. Do not forget that.
Contessa bowed only semi respectfully and said in a controlled angry voice, Yes, I lost the island, it was a gamble, however still the gamble may pay off, there are many discussions still going on about weather it was a legal act, however, I admit I made a mistake, I however learn from my mistakes, that time over confidence was my weakness, I see that now that destroying those submarines was a bad idea, and as I still live the error was hardly that bad we have the advantage of time over humans, is that not so?
Some of us do our daughter, some of us meet our maker sooner than some human life times, you have failed before yes, your anger at failure makes you impulsive, show respect to us, there is much of your mother in you.
Contessa hissed and bowed her head, I did not mean any disrespect, I simply mean I shall avenge myself and my mother, it is fitting I am like her after all the stinking humans murdered her.
She had been told the story many times by her father about how the humans had chased her mother through a forest in America and had hunting dogs tear her apart before decapitating her and then they threw Contessa who was then a baby into a river to drown. Yes she owed humans a lot for that, though she did sometimes wonder how a member of a high caste family would get trapped on her own like that but she imagined accidents happened even amongst the supposed high and mighty nobles, she hated most of them almost as much as she hated most humans, they were supposed to be the guides of the vampire race, instead they spent their time lounging in decadence and playing petty power games. She was one of the ones who wanted to push her people forwards, they of course resented this because it often exposed how useless they were. That was why no help ever came when her island was attacked, they were trying to humble her with her failure, her father knew this too which was probably why he was being rather gentle about it.
He went on in his usual only seemingly half interested voice, You will require a cover name, you realise this, something to slow your enemies in finding you, we trust you are already working on such a thing?
Contessa had to admit she had not really thus far thought about it, however it was probably a wise idea, after all heroes had hero and real names, so could she, she was a hero of her people, weather they liked it or not!
Yes father.
She lied as she followed him as he paced along the water front and he looked around at the state of Mercy Island, yes this would teach his upstart little daughter not to be so cocky, this would be a lesson in discipline. She had dared to challenge the old ways, if she was anyone less than who she was she would probably already be dead, she was treading on thin ice, he was covering his self by attempting to help her, she might be special but his family and his personal reputation came before her and anything else for that matter.
We will be leaving you now our daughter, you will do us proud or you will die, this is your final chance, we trust you understand that yes?
Contessa bowed and said in a quiet respectful voice, I understand, this time there will be no mistakes, I know their ways better now, I am already working on ways to rid the world of the fools who opposed my rule of the island, they will fall to me, all of them.
She had quite a few plans in her mind and that was where they were staying for now, she was telling no one, certainly not her father, he would probably only steal some of her ideas and claim they were his to gain favour in the council. Her father nodded, Kill them, regain our trust in you, that is all our daughter.
With that he seemed to vanish into thin air leaving a cloud of fog behind himself to cover his exit. Contessa sighed, somethings were not going so well evidentially, she would have to show them fools up and make herself powerful again they would be made to respect her, and she would finally be a undisputed leader of the vampire nation and later is resurgence to total global dominance, no not just a leader, not just one of many, the leader, the queen of all the world. She smiled at this she liked the sound of that, yes it sounded so right, so destined so much like she knew things should be. She laughed to herself and made her way to the captured meat packing plant, she had to see how her, what would she call them, Nanozombies, yes that worked, she had to see how they had came along, her father would soon see what she was still capable of as would the heroes, she would have to find a way to get to them and she would, it was only a matter of time.
The shadows moved again the eyes watching her this time from an archway of a once grand but now partially collapsed brick building that had once been some kind of dance hall or the like fifty years ago and the whispery voice said in a mocking but obviously insane tone, Daddy look, ah yes we must talk to daddy, like a good little girl, yes I shall be waiting, watching, soon, soon.
A shadow separated from the rest of the darkness and seemed to drift up onto the roof of another building the eyes still the only thing visible watching as Contessa walked away then vanishing again in to the shadows when Contessa was out of range of the building.
Contessa who was totally unaware that she was being watched had decided to head to the drug lab, she was going to calm her mind a little by seeing how her latest experiment had came along. She walked into the large walk in freezer and looked at her newly created soldiers one at a time, the nanobots had indeed done well the bodies were in perfect working order, there was no signs of the combat damage from before, this was very pleasing, she cleared her throat and said in a commanding voice to the foremost nanobot controlled body, You are the command unit of these battle units, do you understand, you will coordinate and guide them when I send you out on missions.
The Nanozombie nodded and said in a metallic tinged flat sounding human voice, Yes mistress understood.
She nodded to her two soldiers, Give them some of the captured assault rifles, and some of the council chest armour, I have a mission for them.
The two soldiers nodded and started handing out the equipment, she was pleased with this experiment but not overly happy about it, it worked but she did not feel comfortable with it, there was something about using bodies like this that she found distasteful, she would make others of course but in a very limited number, maybe six more at most to make a proper attack squad to break some of her troops from the Zig and to carry out missions where she didnt want to be seen to be the one carrying out the attacks. All in all they would probably prove quite useful, she had to admit it was morals more than anything that was preventing her from using them to their fullest, she knew it was a weakness but this was the same reason she destroyed supernaturally possessed bodies with such relish, there was something about body stealing and using she did not approve of. She nodded towards the Nanozombies after they had been given weapons, You will now commence training with the weapons in the town outside, kill any who attack you then return to base after one hour, make sure you are not followed, then standby, I shall return with your mission later once I have finalised it.
The Nanozombies all said in unison, we obey mistress.
Then they turned as one and marched out of the room heading outside into Mercy Island, Contessa smiled slightly, there was going to be quite some trouble tonight, some Arachnos soldiers were out there arresting civilians for some reason or another. Her creations would be more than a match for those thugs, if not, well it would be unfortunate but not all that bad, if they could not handle a few gang members and a few lowly Arachnos soldier then they were not a worthy experiment to continue using anyway. She would let fate decide if they were good enough to serve her, with that she made her way out of the drug lab and headed slowly for her base, she was in no real rush, everything was at this moment in progress, she would have to step thing sup a notch and she would.
The Nanozombies marched as one into the town centre outside the drug lab, they slowly got into attack formation and approached a group of Arachnos soldier who were interrogating a group of Skulls and civilians. The soldiers watched the Nanozombies approach and lifted there guns, You are messing with Arachnos business, its time you learnt a lesson.
The Nanozombie leader said, Battle units engage hostile elements. Then both sides opened fire and the Nanozombies were hit repeatedly and chunks of flesh was ripped from their bodies as Arachnos bullets hit them, however the damage did not even slow them down and they continued to fire gunning down several Arachnos soldiers before the rest scattered for cover. The Skulls who were being held for questioning opened fire at the Nanozombies as well but were easily gunned down, the Nanozombies fired after the Arachnos soldiers closing in on where they were hiding slowly and systematically shooting those they made break from hiding. A few nearby Skulls and Hellions had heard the fighting and had came to investigate only to find their selves targeted by the Nanozombies as well and they too dove for cover as some of them were shot, this had been intended as a test and the Nanozombies were certainly going to get that, the lead unit knew the mistress would be watching and its collective mind made sure it would not disappoint her and ordered two of the others to deal with the gangs while it and its last two soldiers would deal with the Arachnos soldiers, they were the priority targets as they had proved to be more skilled than the gang members from before. The fighting went on for a few minutes but it was clear that the Nanozombies had won, the last two Arachnos interrogators decided to run and they fled, no doubt they were going to tell their commanders that they had beaten their attackers and were going to get back up. The Nanozombies finished their combat test and slowly scanned the area for any more enemies, when they were satisfied they would not be followed they turned as one once more and made their way back to the drugs lab to repair the host bodies and await orders.
Later that night in her base Contessa was in her personal room, which was a small box with a old bed up one corner of it and a red flag with a fanged skull on it hanging on the metal wall behind her bed, the other walls remained empty, it was lit by one rather dim light that was in the centre of the metal ceiling. It was not exactly suiting to her but it served for now until something better came along, something better would come along as well eventually she had already drew up plans to expand the base and to buy property on the isles when she was ready to climb the ladders of Arachnos. She had fixed the desk from the control room and was sitting behind it on a rather battered looking seat, again reminding her of how far she was still in the ditch of failure, she however was busy on something else, she had been scouring the island for useful components and had found a few in a scrap heap and she had so far made a power supply for a device she had been waiting to test for some time. She hated having to test it so close to her men, they would understand though and the pain would not be for long if there was any, she had it all under her full and constant control, she always did, one had to know what one was doing with these sorts of things. Only hacks or absolute morons never test a device first, she was neither of these, she fitted the power supply to the back of a small metallic disk device and heard the pulsing sound and felt it pulling at her mind before turning it off. She rubbed at her head and smiled, oh yes it worked alright, she would have to make it more powerful and find a way to protect herself and her troops from it but she now knew the principles of the device were sound and it worked exactly as it should do. She stroked the device and smiled speaking to it almost like it was a pet, You are going to get me payback, yes you are the first part of my revenge.
She had also been working on other things, paramount in her mind at the moment was a hero name as it were, she was having rather a lot of trouble thinking of one however. Maybe she was going about it wrong, she didnt need a really impressive cover name if anything that would invite heroes and villains to attempt to take her down because she had a name with impact. No that would attract too much attention and she was not ready for that right now, her position on the isles was still merely a foothold at best, she smiled, she had found the perfect name and she didnt mind the fact that it showed a bit of humour, if anything that would make people under estimate her. She would be known now amongst the islanders and heroes alike as Countess Leeches.
))
