New Game+

In the weeks that have passed since the destruction of the Fifth Fortress in the Caliphates, Africa's various nations began to gather and meet with state heads to discuss the coming problems that started to rise.

There were many political, military, and even conspiracy turmoils occurring all over the country.

The main concern was imminent war with the Caliphates. The attack that involved the mysterious disappearance of General Vender Hirock had led to a clash as the newly elected leaders of the Caliphate region after the fall of General Joab Barak made tensions much worse.

The Caliphate had blamed Africa for collaborating with the mysterious Lost Primordial or was part of another group known as the Progenitor.

The issue of Planteds was also brought up, which further hastened the tensions. Many Commanders who guarded the borders of the Caliphate made synchronized attacks. Although Africa has yet to lose one base, their losses were far greater than that of the Caliphate.

The Caliphate deployed its secret technology called the Desert Bloom and created large sand monsters that wreaked havoc within the desert regions of Northern Africa.

With Africa, various tensions were also occurring.

Various Jewish families with great empires vanished overnight. It was later discovered that the attacks on the borders were a diversion to get many Jews out of Africa. Some other odd incidents involved the WGP wherein the forces of Admiral Intrik had once more raided various adult sensual shops. The raid also involved attacking factories within Africa, with the WGP Fleet Admiral claiming that the objects were linked to weapons of mass destruction that have not been submitted to the WGP for approval.

The WGP also claimed that they were to investigate certain key locations and soon ambushed and harassed various nudist beachgoers in the entire country, which caused even more confusion.

But the greatest upset that the African nation had was the sudden rebellion of two states which have suddenly voted for independence. The situation was so beguiling since these states had never shown any signs of wanting to rebel.

The States of Chad and Niger of the African Nation held a sudden conference to combat the rising threat of Egypt. There had been reports of mysterious activities, tremors, and unexplained sightings within the border of Egypt that forced these two states to meet to strengthen their defenses. The situation was even more frightening as the region of Libya, which is part of Central Egypt, reported to have launched satellites. 

Due to the apathy of the WGP, these alleged launches were not investigated.

And so, the two States met. A few hours later, they declared their independence from the African Nations.

The sudden declaration sparked outrage and confusion as all leaders of the two states unanimously elected a new leader, who they called the Desert Queen.

Under the orders of the Desert Queen, the armies within the states were suddenly called to gather, and a census and inventory of all available war materials were issued.

As the declaration was so shocking, the economic and trade market around the African Nation came crashing down.

All of the surrounding states of Chad and Niger that belonged to the African Nation were outraged and even sent threats and important military leaders to demand the compensate them for the sudden loss of various materials going into the two states as part of the trade agreement.

But things turned worse as these Generals and soldiers who marched into the newly formed Desert Empire suddenly switched sides and declared their eternal loyalty to the Desert Queen.

And as the unexplained events continued to unfold, a certain meeting was underway.

Arthur was standing with a nonchalant expression. Everyone else around him was vomiting.

Alean looked nauseated but did not have the same sick expressions as the rest.

"That… was crazy. Fun… But crazy." Gardo finally laughed.

From Malta, Arthur activated a series of unique teleportation techs through the harnessing of the Void Assassins power. The storm above them was a weaponized storm meant to hinder and limit the trading and voyages between islands. As the storm had a strange lightning story, the fluctuations that appeared from the teleportation were masked when the thunderstorms were directly above them.

The group was given precise instructions as to where to go and what steps to take. Along the way, Alean and Arthur navigated through the dimensions to bring everyone safely back.

Arthur stood up.

"As I thought. I need help to navigate through it." Arthur concluded.

Alean played a vital role in doing this. But Alean was still trembling from fear. If she did it alone, she would have died as her Path had been distorted in that plane. It required both Alean and Arthur to be present in order to save the rest of the members.

As the group was recovering, a tall, dark man stood nearby.

"General Barak?!" Vender exclaimed.

"Father." Arthur called out.

"I suggest you treat me differently, Arthur. I am Lennox V.3.17a." The man answered.

"How is this possible?!" Gardo was amazed.

"Through various operations and by implanting several steel rods in this person's head, I can hijack his thought process. For this particular person, he was already dead."

"How did you… resurrect him?" Alean was horrified.

"This isn't resurrection. The person's body is dead. But the desires of the flesh remained. Through her power, this body was resurrected in a vegetative state." Lennox answered.

"The Tyrant Empress is quite horrifying." Harker laughed.

"Wait a minute… Those leaked information! You released information that was counter to the technology of Planteds! By implanting steel rods in a person's brain, they cannot be manipulated or controlled by the Programmed Slave chip! Many nations have imitated it as the information of the Programmed Slave was leaked! This was your plan?" Lowengren realized the intention.

"What?" Vender was confused.

"That's right. My father is literally perfecting Frankenstein Technology. In the coming wars, a simple thunderstorm will change the allegiance of many soldiers." Arthur explained.

"That's just half of it. We are perfecting a means to resurrect dead people. Through the rods, the Tyrant Empress that can awaken the desires left on the bodies of dead man, we can redo the miracle of the Dry Bones." Lennox couldn't hide his mad smile.

"A dry bone army… What a freak that Empress is. It's good that she agreed not to meet with us." Lowengren sighed.

"She's quite prideful. After all, Arthur and Lowengren did defeat her. So she values you and will try to devour more upfront and won't resort to trickery."

"Ah. It's good that she's vain then." Lowengren laughed.

"What is the status in Egypt?"

"The powerful mirage wall that surrounds the borders is capable of distorting most scanning techs. And the constant sandstorm that covers the land remains. There is also the Locust Techs that haunts the land."

"Meaning it's still nearly impossible to sneak inside." Lowengren thought.

"Most techs can be detected inside Egypt. With Locust Tech, you can't really tell if eyes are watching you. Of course, as Unlocked, you can lower your body temperature to match the heat of the environment. But their locust tech is strong. It can detect the slightest fluctuation of metals moving within their land because of the constant sandstorm. It's similar to the Caliphates Dune tech but is applied differently." Lennox continued to explain.

"So we can't bring any weapons or gear?"

"You can if you manage to steal the weapons of the soldiers and their specialized outfit. Same with their guns. However, their outfit requires you to wear everything. But there is another issue. The suit is activated through fingerprint and retinal scans of one pilot. No soldier can wear other gears, but it has to be that soldier." Lennox explained.

"Simple enough. That could even work to our advantage. We wear the gear all the time, and if we need to activate it, we do. Everyone here is trained as spies. With our blank fingerprints, and our abilities to change the retina, we can easily wear those gears and activate them only when necessary." Lowengren explained.

"Great plan! That way, the Egyptian military can't trick us, and we can switch suits by killing soldiers inside. That will make it difficult for them to track us." Gardo nodded.

"But here is the problem. The Presider. Seeker said that my sister was killed even before my father got to her because the Presider killed her. Hence our plan. We infiltrate ahead to save her before my father and the Tyrant Empress makes Egypt their war zone. But if our infiltration draws too much fear from the Presider, we might endanger my sister. And so, I need the Council's help. How would you recommend we infiltrate this place?" Arthur turned to everyone else.

"Can't you just walk your way in? We have lies and trust that should allow us to talk our way in easily."

"That, however, puts a mark over us. And while we can move inside through those means, it might be noticed by someone who will report it to the Presider. And we don't know how many Aragarian's are in Egypt. Since they locked themselves up during the Void Years, we don't know what to expect. It's better to assume that almost everyone inside is an Aragarian. This means, if we enter and get scanned, the fact that we don't have Aragarian physiology will already be found out. And even Lowengren's lies can't twist that fact. And Harker can't lie to gain trust but only use truth."

Harker nodded to agree.

"Our option is to carry on the facade of being the Progenitor or the Lost Primordial."

"Lost Primordial. I have received word that another Presider, stronger than Zeraphine, has boarded the submarine headed to the World Governing Trading Hub." Lennox added.

"Oh? Any new information?"

"Through the Unlocked painter, Granite Malang, we managed to draw out the strange power of this Presider. His powers ought to be something that can breach the dimensions. And from the looks of it, he is a being that is four personas." Lennox explained.

The group fell into silence and continued to think.

"Then if that's the case... why don't we do something so strange and bizarre that the Presider would be forced to come out and investigate."

"Bizarre?"

"We show him that we are beings that surpass his current technology. We can tell that Presiders have not yet mastered teleportation from what we see in the many reports. Seeker's future life also confirms that only the stronger ones have it. We have a poor version of it that is extremely limited, but with Arthur, we can use it to an advantage."

"Then what bizarre event are you suggesting?" Arthur asked.

"The science-fiction kind." Lowengren grinned.

"We have to enter the borders without any gears, right?"

"Yes." Arthur nodded.

"So, we teleport our way in. We then use one of Lennox's thunder... But it has to explode out in the shape of the ball."

"And then?"

"Picture this. Five naked men appear in the middle of nowhere right after a spherical lightning explosion occurs." Lowengren explained.

"???" Arthur's expression turned strange.

"We will undoubtedly be approached by the soldier who will ask us who we are. We tell them that we are cyborgs from the future sent to stop a robot uprising."

"What?" Alean, Harker, Arthur, and Lennox exclaimed.

"That is awesome!" Gardo approved.

"Aw, men! Can't we be Jedi's or something!?" Vender complained.

Everyone ignored him.

"Because we are cyborgs, we can assimilate with the clothes of the soldiers we kill. In fact, we should show it to them, how we do it!"

"And then, we literally call out the Presider and demand that we meet them. Otherwise, the Principal that sent us will destroy all of Egypt to kill the Planted who will soon become a Prime!" Lowengren explained as he turned to Arthur and Alean.

"What do you guys think?" Lowengren asked the two people in the group who could gauge the best actions for the future.

"I don't know... But I feel... that could work." Alean was surprised as she said that. She couldn't even dare to say that the whispers of her Path were encouraging her to approve of it.

Arthur had his eyes closed. He began to calculate and consider the possible actions of the Presider. The word Prime would have earth-shattering consequences. One of the possibilities that this Presider hid in Egypt could be because he found something related to the real Lost Primordial and Progenitor of the Unlocked. If such an event does happen, the Presider would be forced to conceal the event and attempt to meet with them. 

The allure of the Prime would work with Lowengren's power to lie and Harker's power to convince.

Finally, Arthur opened his eyes.

"Sounds crazy... But it should work." Arthur finally concluded.

"Then I guess we should go! Alright, guys... Ghet to da choppa!" Gardo joked as he imitated a thick robotic, Austrian accent.