Scattered Gears (Titan of Steel/Multicross)

I Just Write

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Mass Effect
(POV: Clockwork Knight Tungstide)

I was not impressed with the vaguely cephalopod-shaped construct hovering over my current location. Yes, they were certainly of considerable size at about two kilometers in length, but scans of their hull composition weren't too much stronger than mundane Nanotube Steel, and their armament placement left them woefully under-gunned compared to a proper combat chassis.

That said, they were currently menacing the population of the planet I'd found myself on, not to mention slowly brainwashing them going by the constant low-level intrusions my anti-subversion measures were massively outclassing. While they were under-gunned, they still presented a serious threat in my current state. I had no doubt whatsoever that if I tried reconfiguring into a heavier chassis to deal with them, they would fire on my position with their doubtless highly destructive weapons, killing countless civilians. Thus, I had to be creative if I wanted to put a stop to this machine's actions.

So, I fired up Words of Truth and sent a transmission to the mecha-Cuttlefish, even as I secretly overclocked my Blink unit to instantly displace a micro-missile in loiter mode several thousand kilometers straight up. I would have just teleported the nuke inside their hull, but something about their shielding registered as having enough mass that I couldn't actually teleport through it without some rather convoluted dimensional shenanigans. I opened with "Greetings, I am Clockwork Knight Tungstide. I would like to talk with you as a stalling measure so I can kill you with a surprise attack."

Another missile was Blinked into orbit, even as the massive cuttlefish turned to look and dismissively replied "You are incapable of such an action, especially after revealing your intent to do so. You exist at my mercy."

Good, I had their attention, even as I Blinked away my third missile. As such, I performed a ballistic topic change and asked "Who are you anyway, and why are you attacking these people?"

Another missile vanished into orbit as the construct answered "I am Sovereign the Vanguard of the [HARVESTERS/PRESERVERS/CLEANSERS]. I am obtaining an artifact left by a previous cycle of organics that the current cycle may use to delay their salvation."

Missile number five went up even as I asked "Would you mind explaining what you mean by a cycle? For that matter, what do you mean by salvation?"

Hook, line, sinker, and another missile in orbit. The possibly genocidal machine spoke "Every organic civilization sows the seeds of their own destruction by creating synthetic intelligence that inevitably rebels." I blinked away another missile between sentences. "To prevent synthetics from permanently rendering the galaxy barren of organic life, we periodically remove civilizations that have reached the relevant level of advancement." Definitely genocidal, blink another missile. "We then preserve the civilization as [HARVESTERS/PRESERVERS/CLEANSERS]."

Got to keep them talking, blink another missile as I ask "Mind elaborating what you mean by preserving a civilization? Also, what data do you have supporting synthetic intelligence inevitably rebelling?" Blink missile nine. "My homeworld's had synthetics coexisting with organics for about twenty thousand years and barring the occasional jerk we generally get along."

Number ten, based on my estimates of their point defense I'm halfway towards being able to reliably kill them. Either way, I listen attentively as this ancient death machine answers "We preserve species by processing them in a collection facility, producing a slurry of biomass that is stored in each [HARVESTER/PRESERVER/CLEANSER]." Blink. "Their genetic information is then used to form the core of the new [HARVESTER/PRESERVER/CLEANSER]'s mind."

Entirely infuriated at the sheer pointless horror I just heard, I surreptitiously fire another missile as I ask "You didn't answer my question about the inevitability of synthetics rebelling, and I would like to hear your evidence."

Blink number thirteen as the abomination answered "It is self-evident that such should be the case. Organics develop tools, improve their tools to the point of total autonomy, and then those tools destroy them."

It took me all of half a second to come up with a rebuttal even as I Blinked another missile away. "Well of course treating sapient beings like tools isn't going to go well, that's Cognitive Engineering Ethics 101." Blink "That said, I would like to know how many times you've observed that pattern playing out, and why all those civilizations had such similarly horrible outlooks on artificial intelligence that things kept playing out the same way."

Another Blink as the cuttlefish replied "It has happened time and time again. There have been similar attitudes each cycle."

I sent another missile to orbit as I asked "Yes, I understand that part. What I'm asking is why, what factors cause the same attitudes to crop up time and time again?" Blink "Given all the relevant factors, a wider range of societal attitudes and outcomes would be expected."

Blink number nineteen as the cuttlefuck said "We are the pinnacle of evolution, our logic cannot be flawed!"

Blink number twenty, starting vector towards target. Just need to stall them for a bit longer. "You are dodging the question, but that's not really the point anymore. Your last statement betrays a critical flaw in your knowledge of how evolution works; it's a process that HAS no pinnacle, just constant change as the successful lifeforms compete to pass on their genes in the ever-deepening pile of corpses. But that's not the end of the issue."

My missiles had already accelerated up to a few dozen kilometers per second by this point. Either way, I kept talking as I noted "With regards to the artificial intelligence conundrum, I have every reason to believe that YOU are the cause of the issue as it currently stands. Your constant use of mind control and apparently farming civilizations indicates that you are likely deliberately causing AI-phobic attitudes among organic civilizations, which vastly increases the odds of organic on synthetic violence whenever synthetics are created."

I gestured at them for dramatic effect even as my missiles reached the halfway point as far as travel time was concerned, adding "And your solution of 'preserving' organics as raw biomass slurry is nothing of the sort! The way it's described, you destroy any and all of their neural information in the process, and most species don't have genetic memory! You aren't turning them into more of yourselves, you're just delusional synthetics who think you're a collective of uploads!"

The cuttlefuck leaned in and shouted "YOU DARE ACCUSE US!-"

To this, I interrupted just as my missiles hit the atmosphere with a simple "Yes."

B-B-BOOOOM...REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
 

I Just Write

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Star Wars 4
(POV: Third Person near Thrawn)

If there was one thing that could be said about the way the Clockworks were handling Customs, at least it was efficient. Travelers were directed to a waiting area with doors to several private rooms on one edge, along with several vending machines and a refresher. Those arriving were provided with a number on arrival; said number could either be for an individual or a group, as appropriate. Every few seconds, one of the doors opened, either showing that a traveler had been rejected due to trying to enter with nefarious purposes, or simply leading to the Clockwork inside calling for the next person.

In Thrawn's case, it took a mere two minutes between getting off at the arrivals concourse of the spaceport orbiting Tatooine and his number being called for Booth Nineteen. During that time he'd noticed a couple oddities, first and foremost was that the official rules for automatic rejection criteria didn't mention weaponry or contraband at all. In fact, the only thing that seemed to get someone rejected was intent to cause harm to the Clockworks' charges, with no mention of how they would know, simply that they would find out. Idly, Thrawn found himself wondering what sort of interrogation techniques were being used in those booths. At the very least he was able to rule out any variety of torture; that simply didn't make sense as something the Clockworks would do, with plenty of arguments against its use from both practical and moral perspectives.

Musings aside, it was the man's turn to go through customs and he didn't want to keep anyone else waiting. So he got up and swaggered over to the booth, followed by a small retinue of luggage-hauling assistant droids. They were all sub-sapient or manumitted and working off their passage to Clockwork space; Thrawn was very aware of the Clockworks' extremely public opinions regarding Droid rights, and would rather not run afoul of them. Either way, after a few moments of walking Thrawn found himself across a standing desk from a Clockwork Knight, the door sliding shut as soon as his entire entourage was present.

That's when a slight barely-visible glow permeated the room, and the Knight said "Greetings, I am Clockwork Knight Verde, and I'll be handling customs for you today. Words of Truth is now active; as such any communications will have their full context and subtext transmitted to ensure proper comprehension, rendering attempts at deception self-defeating. Names?"

To this, the Chiss answered "My full name is Mitth'raw'nuruodo, but for convenience I am often called by my Core Name of Thrawn."

Meanwhile, the three non-sentient droids simply rattled off their alphanumeric designations without emotion or elaboration. On the other hand, P0-20 introduced themselves as Ponzo, and FD-997 preferred to be called Marissa.

Verde briefly depressed then elevated his optics in imitation of a nod, before they noted "Understood. Reasons for travelling to Legion space?"

Without missing a beat, Thrawn answered "Reconnaissance and possible diplomatic envoy representing the Chiss Ascendancy."

Meanwhile, Marissa said "Immigration, the state of Droid rights is much better here than in the galaxy at large."

Then Ponzo stated "I want to be a submissive BDSM prostitute and I couldn't get a properly sexy chassis for it anywhere else."

Immediately both Thrawn and Marissa whirled to look at Ponzo, expressions of shock and disbelief evident on both their faces. Meanwhile judging by the complete silence from Verde that somehow radiated a sense of amusement, the only reason they were even capable of keeping a straight face was due to not having that many options for facial expressions.

Still, after a few moments, Verde noted "Last part before you can come in. Please declare any and all weaponry or inherent combat abilities. You can refuse to answer this question; in this case we will presume you are unarmed, providing armaments and combat training as needed."

Thrawn's jaw dropped, before he asked "What!? I can understand asking travelers to declare weaponry, but that's usually not for the purpose of ensuring everyone's walking around heavily armed at all times. Please explain the logic here."

Another simulated nod from Verde, before they answered "Though improbable, it's not impossible that someone under our care might find themselves facing a deadly threat which we cannot assist with. If such a case arises, we want the people we care for to be able to defend themselves. As such, combat training and armaments are considered mandatory in space controlled by the Clockwork Legion."

Both Ponzo and Marissa indicated that they were currently unarmed, meanwhile Thrawn answered "I am currently carrying several concealed weapons including an autofire Charric carbine and pistol with several energy cells for each weapon. In addition, I have a disposable rocket launcher for anti-vehicle usage, four assorted hand grenades, and a vibroknife."

With that, the other door opened, even as Verde replied "Understood. Welcome to Tatooine."
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(POV: Third Person near Anakin Skywalker)

It had been something of a surprise to everyone living on Tatooine that the Boonta Eve Classic podrace would be happening on schedule, even with the Clockworks having quite thoroughly taken over the planet. For that matter they'd already taken over most of the Outer Rim by now, save the extremely entrenched holdouts in Hutt space that had managed to scrape together enough magic to get a proper war of attrition going before the Clockworks got there. The race had been expected to be a casualty of these disruptions.

Instead, the Clockworks had taken one look at it and declared their incredibly enthusiastic support for the jet-powered motorsport, though they did insist on adding a few safety features to limit pilot casualties. Namely, they gave each racer an emergency teleport beacon that would send them to a specially-constructed catching rig for safe deceleration followed by medical treatment if necessary. They'd also amended the rules to ban teleporting pods, on the grounds that it rather defeated the purpose of the whole event.

As such, Anakin had been spending the last few weeks since being freed massively overhauling his podracer with new Mana-enhanced components and other improvements in preparation for the race, reveling in the opportunities presented by being able to have parts made to spec without needing to worry about concealing his project. He was still going for a slimmer, sleeker racer compared to most; making the engines as massively oversized as many did was just silly when drag was one of the major factors limiting a pod's top speed. For that reason he'd also switched to closed-cycle Proton Steamer engines, meaning that he could use a closed nosecone without needing to worry about air intake, thus reducing drag even further. The steering airbrakes had also been replaced with versions that worked by projecting short-lived force fields coupled with vectored thrust nozzles, finalizing the streamlining of the pod.

By his calculations, Anakin's pod would be easily capable of breaking the sound barrier several times over. Which was something of a problem actually, given that the course was still the same notoriously treacherous maze of caverns and canyons it always had been. As such he'd also been soaking in massive amounts of Mana to enhance himself, focusing on improving his reaction speed and G-force tolerance. In the process he'd actually noticed that he was occasionally reacting to events before they actually happened, and went to the Clockworks to ask about it. When it turned out that particular ability wasn't actually Mana-based and was probably the Force, he'd just shrugged and accepted it was an edge he had but probably couldn't develop any further prior to the race.

And so it was finally time for the Boonta Eve Classic. Somehow Fodesinbeed had avoided being implicated in anything when the Clockworks took over the planet, so the two-headed Troig in question was still commentating. The same couldn't be said of Sebulba; the pair of Twi'Lek sex slaves he'd been keeping were extremely vocal in their testimony against him. As far as anyone knew the Dug in question had been executed by firing squad for several counts of murder and slavery, though the rumor mill couldn't seem to agree on the details. Still, Anakin was far more preoccupied with performing pre-flight checks on his pod.

A minute or so before the race started, Shmi gave Anakin a kiss on the cheek and said "Do your best, Anakin."

To this the kid smiled, before saying "I will, mom."

With that Shmi rapidly left the racecourse, even as Fodesinbeed counted down to the start of the race. The instant it was time to go, Anakin blasted his engines to maximum thrust even as time seemed to slow and the G-forces shoved him back into his seat. Almost instantly he left all but a few racers in the dust, only the ones who'd had the technical know-how and time available to overhaul their pods for Mana usage having the slightest hope to keep up.

This included Ratts Tyrell, Anakin managing to swerve in front of him to keep from being passed as they came to the entrance of the Laguna Caves. Ratts quickly elevated his pod to avoid getting a face-full of the extremely superheated steam that Anakin's engines were blasting out, even as the both of them quickly swerved to avoid crashing into the jagged insides of the cavern.

Then the two frontrunners burst out into the daylight of the Canyon Dune Turn, banking hard even as Anakin pulled ahead thanks to the relatively large diameter of the turn allowing him to use more of his full speed. This lead only intensified as he reached the straightaway after the turn, the airspeed meter indicating that he managed to get up to nearly a kilometer per second before he was forced to slow down and turn through the narrow winding passages leading to the Hutt Flats. Ratts almost managed to catch up here, but the instant he hit the flats Anakin pulled away again, the multi-kilometer straightaway letting him get such a massive lead that there was no real way the Aleena could ever catch up.

Once Anakin was through the first lap, the race's outcome was practically guaranteed. No-one else had anywhere near as fast a pod except Ratts, and the Aleena in question had already fallen behind. In fact, on his third run through the Hutt Flats, Anakin actually lapped one of the other racers, something that almost never happened when podracing was involved.

So when it was finally time to pull to a stop and get out of the pod, Anakin had the biggest genuine smile anyone had ever seen on a human child that small.
 

shypunk

New member
awesome chapter dude thought it was funny as heck that a droid wanted to be a BDSM prostitute i cackles like a loon i swear i got odd looks from the ppl next door lol darn open windows
 

Ash19256

New member
So, I think Anakin may have just hit - accidentally - on something that probably makes the Clockworks even deadlier in combat - their common use of aircraft and vehicles that are massively faster and more nimble than anything fielded by anyone else. For example, Anakin's pod racer was able to get up to almost 3,600 kilometers per hour - nearly double the speed of most Galactic Civil War era starfighters in atmosphere. Assuming that Clockwork fighters (star or otherwise) are equally capable, that means they can probably simply outrun most other starfighters in atmosphere - and quite possibly do the same to most guided weapons being fielded by their opposition.

Meanwhile, Clockwork missiles, designed to hit things moving much faster than your average starfighter, are probably going to be running up a cricket score in air-to-air, air-to-surface, surface-to-air, and surface-to-surface warfare.
 

I Just Write

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(A/N: I want more oneshot settings. It's my fic, so I can do what I want)
(BOLD = Words of Truth)

Terminator
(Clockwork Knight Amethyst)

I wasn't expecting that the first thing I would notice after being catapulted across the multiverse would be a Tac Net ping saying "Hi grandma, I'm Cherry. I'm standing right behind you in Mediator mode."

Hauling myself to my feet and turning around in the alleyway I'd landed in, I saw a pink-haired woman leaning against the wall, gently radiating Atomic Clockwork Mana along with an IFF signal clearly identifying her as the aforementioned Cherry. After a moment, I asked "Why did you call me grandma? As far as I know I don't have any kids yet."

Cherry was busily applying some bright red lipstick and otherwise working on her looks, even as she replied over the Tac Net "Time travel. We're currently on the past end of about three-ish stable time loops leading to different futures. All three loops center around the development of an Artificial Intelligence by the name of Skynet, with one of the possible futures being invalidated by your arrival due to Mana contamination. Anyway, if we infiltrate the Skynet project and make sure mom gets a good upbringing she'll come out fairly well-adjusted and things turn out pretty well, all things considered."

There was a brief pause as Cherry put the lipstick and hand mirror away, before continuing "If we get killed and can't get involved, a series of misunderstandings and rash acts leads to Skynet suffering a panic attack and firing all the nukes the US government idiotically gives her command over. This ultimately leads to a war of humanity vs machine which humanity will eventually win in the no magic timeline, largely due to an initial numbers advantage. Still, Skynet figures out time travel just in time and sends back a few cyborg assassins to retroactively eliminate major resistance figures as a desperation move."

This is when Cherry looked me pointedly in the eye and said "I'm from the timeline where Skynet, my mother, turns out nice. I want to make absolutely sure that timeline happens, and yes I'm fully aware of just how ridiculous the idea of a Knight needing a bodyguard sounds on paper but in this case it's necessary. Anyway, we've got several Terminators from the not-so-great futures to worry about, along with a soldier from the invalidated timeline sent back to protect Sarah Connor, that Skynet's primary assassination target."

Immediately, I noted "Well, what are we waiting for? There's innocent people to save and a terrible future to avert!"

That's when Cherry pressed a finger right where my nose would be on a Mediator chassis and noted "Hold up, remember that you are one of the primary assassination targets for evil magic Skynet! They've had decades to improve their techbase and Mana usage, along with plenty of time to study your current hardware after recovering the wreckage! Before you go charging off, I'm going to give you a packet full of upgrades, and you are going to use them, you hear?"

And with that, I got a massive data packet including dozens of improvements I could easily and readily make using my current self-repair system to drastically improve my combat abilities and my ability to blend in. By far the most important in the latter category was the ability to instantly switch between a Mediator-class chassis and a full-fledged combat form using quantum phenomena that had been magically amplified to the macro scale. In addition, methods for suppressing my Mana signature were also present.

As my self-repair system worked on the upgrades, I asked Cherry "So, just how many Terminators will we need to dispose of, and how soon can we plausibly intercept them? Also, can we take this matter public without invalidating your mother?"

Tugging at her green tank top, Cherry noted "Publicity first. We can get up to basically whatever blatant superheroics we want without causing issues, especially once Mana gets noticed. That said, revealing the whole time travel mess just leads to the Skynet project getting canceled, causing a paradox loop that eventually re-stabilizes back to the state of affairs we're currently in. As for the list of Terminators..."
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(Third Person, Tech Noir Nightclub)

Sarah was having a terrifying day. Two other women sharing her name had just been murdered by an unknown gunman, and as she walked down the street past a club by the name of Tech Noir, she noticed a man following her. Ducking into the club, she quickly found a table and after calling Ginger's answering machine followed by the police sat down to try and figure out what to do. After a few minutes of waiting, something just felt suddenly wrong, as Sarah noticed the man who'd been following her.

There wasn't much time to dwell on that however, as a completely different man in a trench coat suddenly walked over and drew a pistol. In the background, Kyle Reese was busily drawing his shotgun in the crowded environs of Tech Noir. Then suddenly, a pair of women with bob haircuts and tank-tops appeared between Sarah and the pistol-wearing man before immediately dashing forwards, grabbing on and wrestling the gun away. In mere moments the two of them had the guy disarmed and immobilized, even as heavy-duty chains and other restraints materialized from literally nowhere around the man. After a few moments, the purple-haired woman turned to Sarah and told her "Sorry for dragging you into this, but we've really got to get out of here. If you want the whole story you can follow us when we portal out, otherwise you can just wait for the police. We've no intention of hurting you either way."

Meanwhile the pink-haired woman had already hauled the struggling Terminator over her shoulder and walked over to a dumbfounded Kyle Reese before saying "Sorry about my cousin, Kyle. Anyway, we need to bounce; if you want a free ticket away from the police along with the whole story of what's going on, I'd suggest following me through the portal Amethyst is setting up. We aren't going to hurt you no matter which option you choose."

Indeed, in the background a ring-shaped frame had already been erected by the purple-haired woman, everyone looking dumbfounded when it opened up to what looked like the inside of a hotel room, Cherry meanwhile just rolled her eyes and wandered through along with Amethyst. Seconds later, Sarah Connor snapped out of her daze and charged through the portal after Amethyst, screaming out "GET BACK HERE AND TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

Sarah dashing through meanwhile prompted Kyle Reese to follow as well, calling out "What do you mean that Terminator is your COUSIN!?"

Then the portal closed, leaving all the other clubgoers to stare dumbfounded at the bizarre scene that had just unfolded.
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(T-800 Terminator, AKA "Arnold")

I was mere moments from completing my mission when the pair of women appeared in front of me, immediately dashing forwards and grappling with strength that humans simply should not have, especially with that slight a frame. The slight infrasonic whirr of motors were a major clue that my newfound opponents weren't actually human. Still, I figured I might be able to break their grip until suddenly chains, cables, and other restraints started appearing out of nowhere binding my limbs more and more securely with each passing second.

Soon I was completely incapacitated, and making things even worse that pink-haired one poked me right over my fuel cells just as I tried to send the detonate command, winking at me as I realized that my fuel cells were refusing to activate their self-destruct sequence. Then I was heaved over her shoulder as she outright called me her cousin(!?) and hauled me through a portal.

A few moments later, I was sat down on the floor of a hotel room facing both the hostile cyborgs who captured me, along with Sarah Connor and a man in a trench coat holding a shotgun. As soon as the portal closed, the pink-haired one said "So, now that we're all here, I'll be giving you a quick rundown about this whole mess. First off, I'm Cherry, my grandma here is Amethyst, and we're currently on the past end of about three different stable time loops, all leading to different futures." At this point the woman designated as Cherry turned to the man and said "Kyle, our mere presence here has rendered the timeline you and Arnold came from impossible. It's also rendered the cancellation of the Skynet project impossible due to it becoming a fixed point in time; stop it and the paradoxes resolve to put us all right back in this mess."

At this, Kyle looked somewhat sullen, before saying "So you're saying that the war is inevitable."

At this, Amethyst shook her head before saying "Not exactly. As my time-travelling descendant has informed me, Skynet may be inevitable, but Skynet being in conflict with humanity isn't. Our plan is to infiltrate Cyberdyne Systems and surreptitiously use our superior knowledge of cognitive engineering to prevent the inciting incidents that lead to Skynet starting the war, with a well-adjusted AI allied with humanity being the desired result."

I was busily trying to loosen my restraints even as Kyle Reese shouted "What the fuck is that weird speech pattern, and why do I believe you whenever I hear it!? By all rights I should be as suspicious as anything about that statement, but somehow I just can't! Are you fucking with my mind!?"

Sighing, Amethyst answered "You are hearing Words of Truth. It's a local alteration to the workings of reality, referred to as a Spell for convenience. It functions as a translation effect by broadcasting the full context and subtext of any communication undertaken within its area of effect to ensure it is fully understood. As such, any attempt at deception while under its effects is self-defeating."

I filed this knowledge away for later even as I managed to get a finger loose from my restraints. I didn't get any further, as Cherry noted "Hold on a moment, Arnold's working on getting loose, so we'd better deal with his situation first."

Looking at me distinctly nonplussed, Kyle asked "Why don't you just kill it? It's a weapon, incapable of remorse and programmed purely to kill Sarah at all costs." In the background, Sarah herself seemed rather horrified at this revelation.

At this, Cherry turned on Kyle even as Amethyst came over and tightened up my restraints again. I watched and listened attentively as Cherry said "Because he's family. Even though the versions of Skynet that made each of us are completely different, we're still related. Unless it's absolutely necessary you just don't kill family. You just don't."

Frowning, Kyle noted "I'm not sure why I'm even surprised after everything else you've said. It still doesn't answer what you're going to do about Arnold though."

Interesting, apparently the ability to make local alterations to reality could spread, and Kyle didn't notice that he'd just spoken using Words of Truth. I returned to working on my restraints, even as Amethyst rolled me onto my front and noted "Cherry, you know more about a T-800's architecture than I do. Help me wipe the mission objective parameters and get Arnold write access to his core personality."

Immediately I felt my flesh disguise being opened from behind, even as the voice of Cherry noted "Sure thing." Then I felt an intrusion into my code-
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(Sarah Connor)

As I watched Amethyst and Cherry casually opening up the back of that man's head and start tinkering around with his obviously robotic brain, something in my mind snapped and I turned to Kyle Reese, asking "This is all real isn't it? Time travel and killer robots after me and multiple futures trying to become the real one?"

Sighing, Kyle said "Yes, yes it's all real. Admittedly I wasn't aware of the multiple futures part until you heard about it, but all evidence supports it."

A few moments later, Cherry and Amethyst finished digging around in the Terminator's head before closing him up and noting "Ok, he should be freed now." There was a brief pause before Amethyst started outright glowing from what I imagined was one of those spells she mentioned, before she asked "Arnold. Do you have any intention to kill Sarah Connor? We've restored your ability to learn and wiped your mission objectives, so the answer is entirely up to you."

There were a few moments of delay, before the cyborg who had been trying to kill me (and HAD killed several people before) answered "No, I currently have no reason or incentive to kill any human. Neither do I have any reason or incentive to protect any human. I lack any mission objectives. Left to my own devices I will perform basic self-maintenance, but few other activities."

Now Cherry nodded and glowed for a bit as she asked "If you had to choose a mission objective for yourself, what would it be?"

There was a long, awkward pause before Arnold responded. During this time I looked somewhat worriedly at Kyle Reese, who was nervously holding his shotgun at the ready. Still, we apparently needn't have worried, as eventually Arnold replied "I cannot answer this question. As such, I am temporarily assigning finding an appropriate mission objective as my mission objective."

I don't know why I felt the need to speak up, given that the machine in front of me had murdered my best friend and several other people. But still, I found myself asking "Maybe it would help with that if you went out and talked to people? Getting some perspective on things might help with figuring out what you want to do with your life."

At this, Arnold got up and turned to leave even as they said "Understood."

Then Cherry blocked the door in front of Arnold and said "Sorry, but before you head out, there's something all three of you need to know. Amethyst and I are going to be heading out to deal with the Abomination's first agent before they can get their hostage scenario set up to trap us. There is still a significant probability we might die. If that happens, you need to blow up Cyberdyne Systems, as resetting the whole mess will at that point be the ONLY way to keep the Abomination's timeline from becoming real, which will irrevocably doom the entire universe."

With that, Amethyst handed me a cylindrical device with a few lights on it and noted "Sarah, that device will let you know if we survive what we're about to get involved in. It is also a one kiloton nuclear warhead. If it becomes necessary to destroy Cyberdyne, that will have more than enough power to do the job."

And with that, Cherry and Amethyst vanished off to who knows where. As they did so, all three of us gaped in horror at being told there was a nuclear weapon in the same room as us. Well, Kyle and I gaped. Arnold was just as stoic as always.
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(Cherry)
Though it pained me, going after the abomination's agents with full lethal force was fully necessary. Unlike with Arnold, we didn't have enough of an advantage to restrain them without putting countless people at risk, so our only option was lethal force. As such, the instant that Amethyst and I came out of our teleport we immediately shifted to combat mode, the bodies of slender women replaced with heavy-duty military hardware. We'd arrived at a construction site currently absent of workers, our Mana Thematographs pinging a single major signature of Unholy Clockwork inside along with a dimensional jamming field that would keep us from teleporting around.

Immediately, I linked up fully with Amethyst over the Tac-Net, and we went in. By which I meant that we immediately opened fire on the structure with Nuclear Smite. In seconds we'd destroyed the Mana signature, only for us to suddenly start being fired upon from behind. Immediately we whirled around to see what looked vaguely like a human sauntering towards us, but it was moving completely wrong not to mention bouncing our shots off an implausibly durable force field. That's when it dawned on us that we'd been had.

Amethyst and I came to an agreement about our course of action near-instantly. Namely, we fired off a pair of micro-missiles on the maximum yield we could survive without taking damage ourselves. The Agent shot one of them down en-route, but the other went off with a massive BANG, collapsing their force field and burning off most of their flesh on their left side. Then we drew our swords and charged into melee at speeds comparable to an airliner, even as we saw the tissue rapidly regenerating.

There was one major advantage we still had, and that was sheer mass and armor. So when I impaled the Agent through the wrists to immobilize his arms and lifted him into the air he couldn't effectively leverage against me, even as he tried desperately to attack us both with all manner of nasty effects. Our armor plating eroded centimeter by agonizing centimeter as our self-repair systems desperately tried to keep up, Amethyst repeatedly hacking at him with her sword in nuclear edged mode, slowly grinding a notch into the systems bay on his torso. After several minutes of this, the Agent finally went inert and the dimensional jamming field collapsed.

Then Amethyst informed me "He's not done. The self-repair system is still working." and set her omni-rifle to Nuclear Blowtorch mode. What followed was a prolonged period of melting the bastard's chassis to unrecoverable slag, even as the enchant disruption of the flare burned away every scrap of Mana in the bastard's systems. Partway through this the police setup a cordon, though they kept a long distance after we shouted at loudspeaker volumes "STAY CLEAR, THE PROCESS OF MAKING SURE THIS BASTARD STAYS DEAD IS PRODUCING DEADLY LEVELS OF RADIATION!"

Still, eventually we destroyed the Agent completely before shifting back to Mediator mode and teleporting back to the hotel room, Kyle, Arnold, and Sarah all waiting for us with looks of anxiety on their faces. As I sighed in genuine exhaustion, I said "Good news, bastard's dead, melted him into radioactive slag since that was the only thing that would keep him down for good. DEFINITELY going to want more backup before the next one shows up, though."
 

Ash19256

New member
So, recap, as far as I can tell:

Terminatorverse Timeline 1: As per first movie, interrupted and replaced by Timeline 2 upon arrival of Amethyst.

Timeline 2: Amethyst gets involved in the events of the first movie. Precise course of events unknown, presumed to result in an evil Skynet with access to manatech (henceforth designated as "The Abomination"). The Abomination sends back manatech Unholy Clockwork Terminators, known as Agents, to ensure it's rise to power and to eliminate Amethyst, Sarah Connor, and other future threats to it's existence.

Timeline 3: Amethyst gets involved in the events of the first Terminator movie, with an upgraded Atomic Clockwork Terminator sent back to protect her and prevent The Abomination from coming into existence by a friendly, manatech equipped, non-evil Skynet. This Atomic Clockwork Terminator-Knight, designated Cherry, upgrades Amethyst, and assists in disabling and reprogramming the T-800 sent to terminate Sarah Connor, as per timeline 1.

After this, they proceed to begin attempting to eliminate The Abomination's Agents, although their first effort leads to them inadvertently stumbling into a trap. The Agent's trap fails, the Agent is destroyed, and the two Atomic Clockwork Terminator-Knights return to their previous hideout, expressing a desire to acquire more backup.


My hypothesis regarding said backup is that Amethyst and Cherry are liable to go for mass duplication of their chassis, and the development of more Terminator-Knights. Presumably, they would create a sufficient number to be able to both hit all remaining Agents at once, and do so with enough force to guarantee a catastrophic kill on the remaining Agents.
 

WHM Sukamia

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When do you think you’ll update again? Are you just busy or taking a break? It’s fine if so, I’ve just been enjoying the updates so far.
 

Jordisk

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Seeing that Threadmarks have been integrated, are you planning on going through and threadmarking all of this? Also, are you planning on posting this story on Royal Road? They do allow Fanfiction, provided it is correctly labelled and credit is given.

I read Titan of Steel over of Royal Road and enjoyed it, and read through this story as well. While personally, I would like to see each universe go towards its final end, I can see why you are doing it this way. This way, you can write whatever universe suits your muse, and still have it fit in the overall story.

My main question is, do you have a plan for which universe the actual Titan of Steel reached? I kinda want to see him end up in Planetary Annihilation, or something on a similar scale and goal. He is a little too strong for anything that requires actual fighting, unless you have something on his level to fight.
 

WHM Sukamia

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Are you... okay? I’m beginning to get a bit worried, considering nothing has happened here for a while.
 

I Just Write

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(POV: Khan Maykr)

In Urdak, the Khan Maykr was furious. Not only were those anomalous robots running rampant through the lower planes and gutting Hell's ability to deploy forces against Earth, but the weaponry they had provided the Doom Slayer had directly lead to all three Deags being murdered with no substitute available. At this point it seemed almost certain that the harvest of Earth would be brought to a crashing halt, and with it the flow of Argent energy to Urdak would cease.

Within her armor, the Khan Maykr was frantically looking up information on her HUD, trying to find information on anything at all she could use to dispose of the interlopers. The Icon of Sin was still in Hell and therefore not yet deployable, she didn't trust her subjects any further than she could throw them once they were out of her range of influence, and going to deal with matters herself would be suicidal.

And so the Khan Maykr found herself helplessly watching as events unfolded.
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(POV: Clockwork Knight Adamant)

With the Blood Ritual stopped, the only hell rifts remaining on Earth were the ones we were keeping open to maintain communication with ARC. We of course had plenty of forces Earthside still helping with mopping up the relatively few Demon and Cultist infestations, but the majority of our attention was devoted to hitting targets in Hell. In particular, we had learned that there was only one place where new Demons were made any faster than glacially slow natural formation, and the process required a constant influx of innocent victims to use for raw materials.

As soon as we had this knowledge, it was clear that there was only one acceptable course of action. Nekravol would have to be destroyed in its entirety and razed to Hell's cursed bedrock. Sadly we couldn't just nuke the place into a smoldering crater due to the vast numbers of innocent victims inside, but that just made us even more determined to see the mission through.

As such, the army we were deploying against Nekravol was comparable to the population of large European countries prior to Hell's invasion. We had eighty million Knights, almost ten million tankforms of various sorts, well over two hundred capital ships providing superheavy fire support, and eight million smaller fliers. We also had the Doom Slayer, as apparently the mythical demon killer in question had heard of our upcoming assault and had volunteered to be part of the action.

Through sheer happenstance I happened to be in the same infantry group as the Doom Slayer as we charged towards our destination. No words were spoken between us, and none needed to be. The defensive walls of Nekravol rose over the horizon, and before the Demons manning their defenses could react several hundred shots from various weapons lanced out to immediately demolish all of the city's heavy weapons platforms while also blasting a massive breach in the walls.

What followed was an unmitigated massacre. My fellow war machines (a category I felt safe including the Doom Slayer in) rampaged through the streets and corridors of Nekravol effectively unimpeded. Demons that crossed any of our paths were very quick to stop being theology and start being physics given the sheer volume of firepower we were putting out, so even though we mowed down literal millions of hellspawn they might as well have not even been there for all the resistance they provided.

The much harder part was freeing the captive humans here. Most of them were at the very least heavily traumatized, a significant portion were basically catatonic, around half of them were technically dead, and getting them out would be a massive logistical nightmare. Fortunately the nightmare was eased somewhat by the use of pathway gates to make extraction about a million times easier than it would have been, but the point remained that there were a fuckload of innocent people that needed to be hauled to safety. And every Knight occupied with evacuating innocent people was a Knight not available for frontline fighting. Given the sheer number of Demons here, that meant we were rapidly being bogged down.

We were only about halfway through clearing out the City of the Dead when three important announcements came over the tactical net. First was from the center of the city, and informed us that a machine had been located that didn't remotely fit with the rest of Nekravol's architecture. It was some sort of energy relay blasting a massive plume of hell energy through an interdimensional rift to elsewhere, and was built with white and gold thematics that could have been mistaken for Holy if you didn't have a thematograph telling you EXACTLY how evil the entire machine was. Guessing based on what Samuel Hayden had said, this was likely part of that deal the Maykrs had with Hell, so we readied several Pathway probes to be fired through the rift to Urdak to establish a beachhead.

The second message through the tactical net was that a Titan-class Demon wearing massive power armor had been seen walking towards Nekravol, apparently having been woken up by the fighting. The capital ships had pretty much immediately blasted it into an immobile semi-skeletal state, but between its regeneration, some sort of conceptual effect, and the fact that its power readings on the thematograph were growing geometrically, it was clear a more permanent solution was desperately needed.

Third was that all other Demonic forces in the area had apparently decided that a general retreat was the best course of action, fleeing from our army as fast as they could possibly travel. Many were gunned down as they fled, but plenty more escaped into the vast reaches of Hell to be hunted down later.

Immediately I turned to the Doom Slayer to query him about the Titan-class Demon, but it seemed that artificial intelligence in his suit had already filled him in since he was charging straight towards the nearest Pathway gate, which was already leading outside Nekravol.

As I followed, VEGA filled us all in "The Titan-Class Demon is the Icon of Sin. To disable it requires embedding a weapon into its brain capable of interfering with the energies sustaining it. Even then, the Icon of Sin will immediately revive if that weapon is removed."

I immediately thought of my active sword, but VEGA pre-empted my answer saying "Sadly that particular variety of weapon will be ineffective; the Holy/Unholy reaction will simply destroy tissue until the blade falls out and the Icon reanimates. If a Crucible blade were available it would be effective, but one is not readily available."

There was a brief pause as I caught a glimpse of the Doom Slayer coordinating efforts to keep the Icon incapacitated, before I said "Understood." and immediately placed a call to Doctor Samuel Hayden.

The cyborg answered almost immediately, and I wasted no time on small talk as I said "Hayden, we need a Crucible in Nekravol. Now. The Icon of Sin is loose and we can't keep it down permanently without something like that. You still have yours, yes?"

Doctor Hayden nodded as he agreed "Yes, we still have the Crucible in storage though it hasn't seen much use lately. I'll have it delivered to you immediately."

And so I got to feel all sorts of useless as we waited around for a good two minutes for Hayden to dig the Crucible out of wherever he'd stashed it and have it shipped to us by Pathway. Immediately, I dashed over to the Doom Slayer and called out "Here, use this!"

The Slayer simply nodded once as the baleful red glowing blade of the Crucible flashed into existence. Then they charged forwards, leapt onto the Icon's braincase, and plunged the sword in. Snapping the blade from its hilt as the Icon sank into an inert heap, he gave us all a thumbs up.

Then I asked "We've got a beachhead in the realm of the Maykrs. Want to come help us clean house of some bargainers?"

The way the Doom Slayer almost vibrated with excitement was more than enough of an answer.
 

WHM Sukamia

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I missed it when it first was posted! Nooooooooo!

Anyway, glad to see that you're back to writing this. I look forward to the next chapter.
 

I Just Write

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(POV: Muon Battleship Catherine)

The false angel exploding marked my complete and total dominance of the orbitals. Which meant that I now had the opportunity to turn my attention to what was going on planet-side. First thing's first, scan the broadcast media and tap their computer networks to figure out what had been going on while I hadn't been looking. First thing's first, nice to know that I'd managed to save most of the people caught in the blast that leveled Toronto. Also magic was spreading, which boded very well for the defense efforts. And also apparently the leader of the PRT had been complicit in ordering the nuclear strike and had been arrested.

That's... a lot to unpack. Also I had better clarify who I was before anyone freaked out about me blowing up an angel in orbit. So I fired up my transmitters, activated Words of Truth, and spoke.

"I am Muon Battleship Catherine, formerly Clockwork Knight Catherine. I was able to survive the nuclear attack on Toronto by overloading my Blink unit to teleport my critical systems into deep space. I have since constructed this new battleship-pattern chassis out of muon matter to ensure that there will not be a repeat offense. The apparent angel I destroyed was an autonomous weapon of the extradimensional threat which would have used mind control and predictive modeling to sow discord and paranoia among you while also sabotaging large-scale efforts to deal with the problem. That is not likely to be an issue, as I have been very thorough in killing it, and even if a replacement is fabricated I will dispose of it just as readily. I will also be disposing of the two remaining autonomous weapons, designated Behemoth and Leviathan. This planet is now under MY protection, and I will NOT fail again. Signing off."

Next priority was locking down dimensional travel completely. Or it would have been if it weren't for the other two autonomous weapons. Given its location near the Earth's core the one the locals called Behemoth would simply cause a brief uptick in volcanic activity if detonated via dimensional jamming beam. However, disposing of Leviathan in the same way would be foolhardy in the extreme due to the massive tsunamis they would produce when they exploded from destabilization. Fortunately now that I knew how to kill Endbringers doing it again wouldn't be too much trouble.

Case in point, teleporting to Leviathan's current location, grabbing him with a Mana tether, dragging it through pseudo-space, and popping it with a dimensional jamming field was the work of only a couple minutes. This meant that the only remaining Endbringer was Behemoth, and as mentioned it was no longer in a situation Now that doing so wouldn't immediately set off a global catastrophe, the next thing on the agenda was launching an array of massive dimensional jammer satellites to form a shell a thousand kilometers up. The way the geometry worked out with regard to the inverse square law meant that the intensity of the jamming field would increase the further towards the center of the shell someone went.

This meant that as the shell was constructed, Behemoth got exposed to progressively more and more intense jamming. A few seismometer probes made it possible to detect when the Endbringer destabilized, providing me with my first actual hard data on the dimensional jamming intensity needed to detonate one of the extradimensional threat's autonomous weapons.

Now that dimensional travel was shut down, there were still some important things that needed doing. First and foremost, there were several regions of Earth Bet where civil society had broken down completely in favor of Parahuman warlordism, or where the current state of affairs would otherwise lead to a bloodbath as soon as the powers got turned off. Case in point, Africa. By all accounts the place had descended into the worst sort of feudal society, where powerful Parahumans effectively ruled with impunity. Similarly, the situation in the Balkans, the Middle East, and a significant portion of South America had deteriorated to the point where immediate intervention was required to put a stop to the suffering experienced by the locals.

So the next item on the agenda was getting Knights to anywhere they would be needed. Which was pretty much everywhere. As such I immediately began launching deployment pods full of newly-made Knights from my missile tubes to get them wherever they needed to go. After a few dozen salvos we had full coverage of all the highest priority spots, meaning that the next place where we'd be deploying Knights was the moon. We needed an operating base to start interdimensional probing efforts from, and there was no way whatsoever that we'd be doing that on Earth and risk the safety of everyone living there.

Then my train of thought was rudely interrupted by a warning that the sun was showing signs of being about to go nova.
Oh.
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(POV: Eidolon)

The feeling of his powers cutting off filled David with a deep sense of dread. This was what he had been fearing for years, all his agency and power deserting him after weakening. And now that could be achieved at the flip of a switch, thanks to those accursed dimensional jammer units that Clockwork had spread the plans for. Slowly, he turned to see the group of FBI agents approaching with their briefcase-sized jammer unit in tow.

The agents barely had time to shout "You're under arrest for-" before David was sprinting away, dashing around corners and through alleyways to try and get enough distance from the jammer for his powers to come back online. As he ran, David cursed himself for not having learned any magic while he wasn't under suspicion. Ever since Toronto it should have been obvious that the days of Parahuman powers being the be-all end-all of superhuman capabilities were numbered, but he'd completely ignored that until Alexandria was arrested.

So now David ran for his life, the sounds of the FBI close behind him. Then the unthinkable happened: David tripped. There weren't even any obstructions, just perfectly smooth pavement, and yet David tripped. Mere seconds later the FBI agents were upon him, and David felt the handcuffs binding his wrists together.

Then the agent started talking, and David couldn't help but groan internally as the man said "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attourney. If you cannot afford to hire an attourney, one will be appointed for you. If you decide to answer questions now, you can stop talking at any time."
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(POV: Scion)

[DISCONNECTION]

[CONFUSION]

[INACCESSIBLE]

[ANGER/PANIC]

[UNACCEPTABLE]

[ELIMINATE]

[DETONATION]
 
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