Running through the pathway leading down, Raphael's team soon learns how deeply defended this underground base is. Immediately after exiting the stairs, they arrive in a large, cemented room, with robotic humanoid beings stationed inside of small nocks in every wall of the room, three in each, two spaces in each direction, totaling twelve.
The team spreads out across the room, but Raphael's eyes stay aimed towards an overhead screen directly opposite the stairs. With the squad's attention divided elsewhere, Raphael says “I know your watching, Gintaro.”
The second Raphael's sentence ends, the screen turns on, showing the face of Gintaro Kori, but it is far more twisted than any sane human being's should. Extending out of his forehead is the same rune that is on everyone else he has been taken, but it is more advanced, with the bone of the rune having breached skin, and it now being a dark purplish-color, and there is a crackling aura of black electricity emanating around it. However, the most obvious difference from a normal human about him is that a set of black, demonic horns have sprouted from his temples, cementing what Raphael had already believed.
“Hell of a makeover you got since early autumn. Hope your Demu benefactors gave you a discount on the horns, it must be terrible on your pillow budget.” Raphael says, snickering at the end.
“Shut the hell up, you bastard!” Gintaro screams through the loudspeaker. “You've killed so many of my children, my family! You've ruined everything this planet needed!”
“What? You thought you're little 'family' would bring world peace or somethin'? All you were doing was making people crazy and getting other's killed. The bullshit you put this entire city through is downright sickening. I might have made some mistakes, but I've had enough. No more deaths. I'm stopping you! Now!” Raphael says, drawing his RIU SPEC. handgun in the process.
“I could have given this planet peace, prosperity, all I ever wanted was for the world to be a place where everyone could live in harmony. So what if some eggs were broken? So what if there needed to be some deaths? The ends justify the means. We would be a better people once we were all in the family, when we are all within the mental conscience that connected my children with me. Can't you see!? Telepathy! A mentally-connected consciousness! Through it, empathy! True empathy! Full knowledge of how we effect one another, feelings then known to us to our absolute core! Once we feel this, we have complete peace. There will never be a war again! Don't you want world peace...?”
Raphael holds his head low, takes a deep breath in and out, and then looks towards the screen. Unknown to him at the time, but clear to his squad, Raphael's iris' are glowing a deep marble white, symbolizing the angelic rage that is growing in his soul. “World peace is a noble goal, but the ends never justify the means, especially in that regard! This isn't peace, this is savagery brought forward by a mission turned evil! Do you think any of the people you've taken wanted this? To have their mind's wiped and be made into ruthless madmen who attack anyone they see. Mr. Kori, you've lost every bit of virtue you ever stood for!”
“Gintaro Kori. I was once known by that name, but that isn't who I am, not any longer. You will address me by a name far more suitable. I am The Peacemaker. You shall address me as such, for soon, I will be the one who brings about a peace that shall never end! Minions! Dispose of the intruders, as I must finish my preparations!” the image on the screen disappears, and it is quickly followed by the whirring of machinery throughout the room.
Raphael examines the room and quickly diagnoses what is happening “They're security bots! Disable them!” the members of his team immediately agree, shooting and smashing the robotic beings nearest them. They destroy about nine of them before they become fully operational.
The robotic beings are situated with firearms and small, piercing blades, with which they are able to get a lucky stab or bullet into the team's soldiers. Soon after, the soldiers, with help from Raphael, June and Miyra, are able to disable the remaining security.
The nanobots in each soldier's system quickly do away with the wounds, and Raphael then turns his attention to the open path opposite of the stairs”Everyone, move forward!” he orders, the soldiers then moving towards the front of the squad, with Miyra moving behind them, Raphael taking position behind her, and June in the back.
Moving through the open passage, the party is now inside of a large tunnel, sparsely dotted with cover. Raphael looks back, stating “Keep a watch for snipers, June.” to which she nods, aiming her Ultra HUS down the passage. Soon enough, she spots a Demu with a rifle on a catwalk near the tunnel's end that is preparing to take a shot at the party, but June is faster.
The sound of June's rifle echos across the tunnel, followed by the Demu's body falling off the catwalk and dropping to the ground below. The noise startles the mind-wiped guards that were hiding behind the cover along the passage. They get up and scream a battle cry before firing at the squad, but they are quickly knocked out with stun rounds by Raphael's UMA soldiers.
Within another three minutes of traveling through the tunnel, the party arrives at it's end. A large bunker door is waiting for them. Raphael looks at it, saying “Damn, he didn't spare any expense, huh? Miyra, any ideas?”
“I always pack a TLC Thermal for something like this. It'll melt through this in about five minutes. Just a moment.” Miyra states, moving up to the massive door and taking a pack of wires out of her side satchel. She attaches them in a square, ten feet by ten feet, on the bunker door.
She steps away, and thus the squad waits. They take up positions around the door, watching each way an opponent might find their way to them.
Five minutes later, and Miyra walks back to the door. She sways her hand for the squad to form up, and then pushes the section of the door the breaching device was attached to. The portion is pushed in by seven feet, before Miyra lifts her foot up and kicks it, sending it skittering into the room before it comes to a rest thirty feet into the room.
Miyra revs her minigun immediately after, scanning the room. The rest of the squad forms up behind her, surveying for hostiles. Within the large, two-story room they have entered, there is no one but them.
“Who do ya think made this? There's no way this Peacemaker bastard was able to put it together this fast.” June says, sky eagle gauged in her hand.
“I heard that this world went through a cold war about three centuries back. Every country here must have built underground bunkers in case of nuclear war, and if I can guess, we're standing in one of the bigger ones.” Miyra says, minigun still revving.
Scanning the room and moving carefully forward, the squad makes their way past the room and down a corridor to their right. Within a few moments, they have made their way to a room with a large swimming pool.
Raphael observes the room, searching for hostiles “Damn, I thought there would be more security than this... why is this place so lightly defended?”
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“Raph! Over here!” June yells from the other end of the room, near an exit to the left of where they entered.
Raphael responds immediately, signaling with his hand for his squad to follow as he makes his way to June's location.
Once Raphael has made his way over, he notices what she called him over for. There is blood on the floor and walls near the exit, black blood. “Someone was fighting Demu... we're not the only one's here.”
“Yeah, but who? Do you think it's the Investigation Group?” June mutters, now trying to keep her voice down.
Raphael examines the blood splatter, stating “I... don't think so. Look at the trajectory of the blood, it doesn't look like it came from multiple angles, and I don't think they would do this as a solo group. Also, we would have heard gunfire or sounds of battle, but we've heard nothing since we got in here. Whoever came in before us is someone more experienced than them. We need to follow the trail.” he then brings his ITO UMA rifle in front of him and does exactly as he said he would.
The blood trail leads to a set of Demu bodies, and it seems as if they had crawled away from the earlier battle scene. The squad pays them little mind, knowing that the blood trail leads further still.
More bodies are found down a hallway, these being formerly mind-wiped. Raphael goes to one of the bodies, seeing that their eyes are still open, and shuts them. He then moves on, following the trail of death.
They find themselves at a guard post, fully fitted with automated turrets and robotic security, but they have all been destroyed by this mysterious force. “Whoever did this is a one-man army. This place was sealed off, how did they get in?” Raphael mutters to himself, examining the decimated machinery.
Miyra, examining the pathway forward, states “It's possible they disguised themselves as one of the Peacemaker's taken. Other than that, I don't know.”
“... Can anybody even do that? I thought they were linked mentally, so he would know if someone wasn't one of his.” Raphael says, looking back towards Miyra.
“Actually, sir, it is possible.” one of the soldier's says “This isn't the first time the UMA has had to deal with something like this, so we've developed mind-control blockers that can be outfitted into nanobots. With the right tinkering and coding, they can be made to make it seem like they are taken when they aren't, or allow them to be taken until they subconsciously block the control off.”
“So, like a sleeper agent? Damn, learn something new every day.” Raphael says, pointing his rifle down the hallway “Let's keep following the trail.”
Following the pathway, they come across the remnants of a large battle.There lay dead Demu, security bots, and taken all around a single person laying with their back against a wall. It's Naoto, Hoshi's friend. He is covered in blood, both from his enemies and his own. He has a discarded UMA sword and pistol next to him. He looks over at Raphael, his life almost depleted “You're... a little late....”
“Good lord!” Raphael yells, running over to him. “Hold on! You have to have gotten the nanobot treatment, I just need my charger to-”
“Don't... bother. Demu... used anti-nanobot equipment... There's nothing you can do....” Naoto says, holding out his hand.
“There's so much I don't understand....” Raphael says, eyes beginning to tear.
“I'll spell it out... for you. Me and Hoshi... we're recruited by the... UMA... as a way of stopping... the Sigil heads. They needed... a failsafe.... Hoshi... never knew about... my training. I... hid it from him. He... probably had no idea the Sigil heads took me. It was... my way into... their base. Thought... I would do some damage... before you got in. I took out their forces... I think, at least.... Don't let my sacrifice... be in vain....”
Raphael wipes a tear from his left eye, and says to Naoto “I will not. The Peacemaker's rain of terror ends tonight! You have my word.”
Naoto nods his head, the last strands of his life force fading from him “Good... now go end this....”
Naoto's eyelids fall, and his head goes limp. Raphael looks down at him in silence for a few moments, his squad watching on. “Raph....” June says, putting a hand on his shoulder.
He mutters “I know....” and puts his hand on hers, looking back at her. He stands up again a moment later. “Let's go. I've got a promise to keep.”
Leaving the battlefield behind them, Raphael's squad continues down the hallway. Miyra returns a glance towards Naoto's corpse, before turning back around and asking “Why wouldn't the UMA tell us about this?”
With the image of Naoto's death still fresh in his mind, Raphael mutters out “I don't know, but after I'm done with Peacemaker, I have... words for General Lendlock.”
June, in her mind understanding his anger, states “Raphael, Mr. Lendlock probably didn't know about it. He doesn't even know were taking on this vision quest. This planet, from what Sherah has told me, is out of his jure... jura... jurisdiction! That's the word.”
Raphael falls silent for a couple of moments before asking “I thought he would know everything about it. He was supposed to be our UMA representative.”
June puts her fingers to her chin, and states “I... don't really know the details. You might need to talk to someone more knowledgeable about the UMA than me.”
“... Haven't you been with them for the last seven years?” Raphael asks.
“Have you ever been a scared child for seven years wanting your parents, but knowing you may never find them. I had other stuff on my mind than understanding complex multi-galaxy governance of a massive military army.” June states, staring directly at Raphael the entire time.
A few moments pass without their leader stating a word, before he says “touche'”
After ten more minutes of walking with tensions at a high, and finding a series of wires leading from a wall down the corridors and throughout the bunker, the squad discovers that the cord's end at a single open metal door. Inside they hear mad chattering from a single source.
The squad forms up at the entrance, hugging one wall. Raphael puts his left hand in the air, holding out three fingers, and begins to count down. He reaches zero moments later, and sways his hand, signaling to follow.
The party streams into the room, expecting to go against what resistance was left in the bunker. They see, however, that there is not but the Peacemaker in this room, huddled in a corner against the wall. He is whispering, over and over again the words “They will come....”
Also within this room is a large black metal computer that all of the wires in the squad saw along the way seem to be connected to the back of.
Raphael takes a step into the room, muttering “The hell is that...?” as he looks towards the computer. He then turns towards Peacemaker, wondering out loud “What's the matter with him....?”
“Psionic shock, if I had to guess....” Miyra says, her minigun trained on him the entire time “What should we do with him?”
“Nothing. The machine is the problem. If the show is anything to go by, destroying this computer will stop the control on not just everyone else, but him as well. Something tells me he's just as much a victim as all the others....”
“They will come.... It's too late.... Plans in motion.... I have failed....” Peacemaker mutters to himself, blood dripping from his eyelids, and his head stuck firmly against his cradled legs.
“... Raphael, something's not right...” Miyra states as something clicks in her mind.
“What is it?” Raphael asks, gauging his automatic rifle and aiming towards the computer.
“The Demu's other plan... what he's saying... maybe we can-” Miyra says, turning back towards Raphael, but quickly yelling for him to stop as he unloads his firearm into the machine.
Smoke explodes from the machinery, miniature explosions rocking the inside of it's mainframe as the machine is entirely destroyed by the explosive ammunition of Raphael's rifle.
“NO!” Miyra yells as the machine's power is wiped clean. “Do you realize what you've done!?”
“I just stopped the mind control?” Raphael says with a shrug of his shoulders, pulling his rifle into the air by one hand.
“He had information! We know the Demu have a backup plan, and he clearly knew something! We can only hope we can figure it out in time now....”
Raphael's eyes go blank for a moment, before lighting back up “Oh yeah, almost forgot about that....”
Miyra goes silent for a few seconds, her brain trying to comprehend how Raphael could forget something so important, and a few seconds later states “... Do you have any idea the kind of plans the Demu can concoct? Most of the shit they can do makes Sherah's possession look like a preschooler stealing from the cookie jar! I'd suggest we all head back to base right fucking now and start going over those documents we found. We should pray we find out what it is before it's too late...”
Miyra shoves past the UMA soldiers, going out into the hallway and calling a portal back home. Raphael looks towards June, stating “... I fucked up again... didn't I...?”