By Sally Fields – Council Member, Bureaucrats
Buoyed with the energy of clearing out a significant number of Hive on the surface mission, several of us travelled to Bunker Fortitude to observe and assist with the mission to clear level 17 of Hive.
We made our way to Level 17 in a lift that was controlled by Fortitude engineers and was blocked after our leaving it so the only way back to another level was to clear the floor.
I was less than happy with the new call sign that Frank Malone has gifted me, but my swearing at the new call sign and laughing at my expense seemed to settle Fortitude and Ascendancy personnel into a fighting force. I was also less than happy to discover that Chief Welkerson had not revealed until we were in the lift he wanted us to search for a missing engineer while we were on level 17: Engineer Pantellic. She is an Ironclad armour specialist.
On entry to 17 we met with heavy resistance. It appeared that the Hive were everywhere and we were hard pressed at the start but we managed to battle our way though to the habit area. Our progress was documented by new crat that was working under Kincaid.
In the habitat area we managed to find Engineer Pantellic who was malnourished and struggling but seemed to be okay or so we thought.
Several diary entries were found during the search and one indicated a issue- that the Hive didn’t trouble Pantellic and seemed to ignore her. Other entries indicated the heart nreaking stories of those on level 17 and those were passed on to Debbie to catalogue as part of her documentary. Katia a medic and Psionic who I trust and have worked with in the past checked Pantellic with her permission and was hit by an immense wave of a vast mind and space and pain. From this point on we kept a very close eye on the Engineer.
The Hive continued to trouble us in the area and it was suggested that we moved to a better location. There seemed a never ending number of Hive Golem.
I witnessed an amazing display of soldiers working together to pull out and pepperpot tactics to get us to engineering. When the area had been made safe we realised that Hive had been attempting to access level 16 through the floor and were drilling through. It was lucky that Fortitude had decided to take back 17 as they were very close to breaking through.
Next it was suggested that we head to power generation to look at a fluctuating generator.
Frank went ahead with a Fortitude soldier wearing CHAPS and carrying a Shannon/Max patch and so he was able to report back that there was a Hive in an Ironclad armour ahead.
After another magnificent display by everyone we fought our way through to the power area taking down the Iron Clad. The engineers looked at the fluctuating power and stabilised it and said that they could use it to blow up this level to take out the remaining Hive. I was loud in my objections considering their was a nursery and infirmary below us in 16. At that point the power armor blew up. The engineers had looked at it and said it was mostly safe, and so Pantellic was looking at what modifications the Hive had done. She finished what she was doing and moved away when it exploded rendering several of us unconscious and injured. Luckily there were enough people around to get us all back on our feet but we (and Welkerson) were unhappy it had exploded. At this stage I made sure to brief Frank especially that although Pantellic was being considered a hero by Fortitude for her survival in 17, there may be more too it.
And indeed there was.
On moving to the medical section the last main Hive stronghold the medics and engineers found a what looked like a murder scene which has been reported to Fortitude council. Also in the infirmary we found a Hive subject unlike anything we have seen, it appeared mindless and directionless, with rogue nanite programming that has attempted to create a shaper Hive. There was a cybernetic device entered into the brainstem and all the work on the body appeared to focus on the technical machine aspect of integration.
On clearing out the medical area we were told that the majority of Hive had been dealt with so we could return to the lift.
On the way to the lift I made sure to apprise Kincaid and Welkerson of the situation and on returning to their level Pantellic was escorted to medical and sedated.
The whole mission was a great success and shows how well the two bunkers can work together.
Unfortunately it also showed that the engineers were right about the Hive upgrading any Hive into a more senior one as when we were on level 17 we found evidence that the Hive were trying to forcible upgrade the golem in the set of Fortitude power armor to a Scythe. This was 77.2% accepted. This proves the theory that any golem is upgradable with enough time and so both Fortitude and the Ascendancy must continue our efforts to wipe out even the smallest pocket of Hive Golem.
Since operation Reclamation medical teams have been examining Pantellic and trying to help stabilise her and it is likely that she has been exposed to a version of Hive Pandora. She is now suffering withdrawal symptoms or suffering a bodily craving for something that cannot be identified yet by medics.
I’m sure that together we can help her through this, and to root out Pandora in the same way we have the Vulcans.