Relaxation

After the mornings excitement, I decided I'd wind down a little in a little place I discovered the other day in Sharkshead - the Monkey Fight Club.

A few swift bets later, I had garnered enough cash to help purchase some more components from the Arachnos Technology Quartermaster. You'd have thought that being in R&D for Arachnos would allow me to requisition parts, but apparently everything is at a premium - the best components have to be "exported" from Paragon City.

Still, more internal munitions for the Assault ZR-6 are required and if Paragon City is the best source then...

Fish Sticks

In return for bringing me to my Assault ZR-6, the pride of the ZR Autonomous Assault Series, I agreed to clear up a small matter of a cult that Diviner Maros wished to deal with. Some "Cult of the Shaper", something about some quasi-mystical demi-god slumbering underneath Sharkshead Isle. I barely paid much attention - the individual in charge was a Coralax Hybrid calling herself Calystix (leading a group of misguided Freakshow).

She was dealt with swiftly and surely by the team of miscreants I gathered for distraction, as I assaulted her with my robotic team from afar. Hardly a challenge at all.

Gobsmacked! The Assault ZR!

I... words fail me, they really do. Maros' directions were accurate and I encountered no heavy resistance before breaking into the facility.

And this is the sight that greeted me as I threw back the shutter doors. An Assault ZR-6 model in an equipping harness being unloaded from a storage crate.

I barely dare to see if he is still functional....

See the Future? Is it Orange?

Having recently done a little freelance work for the Cage Consortium, and in particular Crash Cage, I was introduced to a strange thaumaturge name Diviner Maros.

It would seem form our first chats that he is able to acquire foreknowledge of events in the future. When asked to prove his ability, he gave me the location of an Arachnos storage facility on the outskirts of Paragon City.

I am travelling to Sirens Call, and from there on to the facility itself. I trust this Maros has not sent me on a wild goose chase - I have important testing to be done.

Rocket Boots!

Now I know why the Sky Raiders Force Shield technology was instantly compatible with mine - it was mine! After a tip off from some captured Longbow agents, I stormed an offshore Sky Raider facility and liberated a Protector ZR-5 - a slightly more refined version of the ZR-4 with better repair and shielding functions.

Plus, it appears that the Sky Raiders had modified the ZR-5 for flight. Of course, I cannibalised a few of their jetpacks and upgraded the rest of the ZR Series on the spot for a speedy aerial getaway.

I took the photo on the right, just before the fuel in the blasted Sky Raider jetpack gave out and I plummeted into the ocean - good thing the force shileding buffered my fall.

In other good news, I have started acquiring technology enhancements form the Arachnos Quartermasters that are making significant improvements to the ZR Series and the ZR Aegis Transponder. It's Tactical Analysis, Assault Sub-systems and Dispersion Bubble Emitter are all now much more energy efficient.

Anatomy Lessons

Had a bit of time between operations and field tests today and decided to pop into the Black Heart Memorial Hospital to brush up on my human anatomy. All the better to target the AI at critical and vulnerable areas.

Of course, I had to subdue several of the staff and a couple of pedestrians to do my research upon. I'd forgotten how fun an old-fashioned post-mortem can be - takes me back to my medical school days.

Sky Raiders? Never Heard of Them

Having now moved to using a broker in Sharkshead Isle, one Kara "The Scorpion", I spied a local interest piece on someone working for a paramilitary group called the "Sky Raiders".

Naturally curious about what technologies they employed, I broke into one of their facilities and carried out some "investigations". Turns out they had some rudimentary shield technology embedded in autonomous drones (though of poor AI). After field-stripping one of these "Force Field Generators", I managed to extract the functional components and wire them into my Wrist Communicator.

This new "Dispersion Bubble" has a low power yield, allowing me to maintain it almost indefinitely. So far, it seems to disrupt any power or technology that would normally paralize myself or anyone within it along with a minor force shield effect. Very useful.

With my Wrist Communicators' ability to publish these archives, communicate with my allies, and produce three types of shields it is now certainly a formidable piece of technology in its own right. It should have a name... Of course! The "ZR Aegis Transponder" is born!

Winter Months

Winter is drawing in here in the Rogue Isles, and though genius I may be I am starting the feel the cold in my old bones. Luckily "Face" (a clothing merchant in the warehouse district of Cap Au Diable) had a sale on and I managed to pick up a scarf, hat and gloves for virtually nothing!

Back on the docks the temperature dropped enough that I had to don my new acquisitions lest my fingers froze and I was unable to use my Wrist Communicator.

Of course, that may have had something to do with the villain running past me coated in half of the Arctic Circle...

You Win This Round Aeon!

In my continued efforts to thwart, discredit or otherwise destroy Dr. Aeon, I decided to do some sabateur work in conjunction with Virgil Tarikoss and some colleagues from Arachnos Research and Development.

This photo was taken shortly before we set off as a strike force (some of Doc Bot's robotic creations were also in the photo). From left to right: Doc Bot, Dr E Genius, Virgil Tarikoss, myself and Mauss.

Alas, we were foiled at the final hurdle by a hero calling themselve Infernal. Though how anyone can be a "hero" and summon demons is anyone's guess. For now Dr. Aeon, his PTS and pet demon remains safe.

Smile for the Mugshot!

Well, that was very, very smooth despite the heavy resistance - Blunt Trauma was most helpful in bowling over the obstacles in our way, and Nexus 99 was wielding some focussed energy torrents that did most of the mopping up. Even Jenkins seems to have picked up the pace with explosive grenades to share.

I asked the fellows to line up so that I could capture the moment on film - sure is nice to visit Paragon City once in a while!

In the Cellblock

Well, I'd like you to meet my new friends for the duration of this prison break - Void Ripper, Nexus 99, Blunt Trauma and the much improved (gotta love those Arachnos Retraining Facilities) Jenkins who almost bungled my own breakout last year.

Guess I should escort these gentlemen to their Arachnos Helicopter I left parked in the wreckage of the courtyard.

You know, some days I love field testing for Arachnos!

Visiting Paragon

Ah Brickstown. The sights, the smells, the prison breaks! Yep, just a quick upload from the courtyard of the Ziggurat Prison - I'm back on official business for Arachnos since Operative Wellman needs a few "good" men breaking out.

All Longbow, no real "heroes" so this shouldn't take me too long...

Debriefing

After delivering my final report to Marshall Brass, I was reassigned to Operative Wellman, and I parted company with Project Pythagoras.

While he is only a junior Lead Scientist within Arachnos Research and Development, I have seen much promise in him and his own research. I shall have to keep an eye on him in future.

He should be a formidable ally, and excellent colleague here at ARAD.

I Was Right!

I have dealt with Professor Echo. After a fashion.

Marshall Brass sent me and Pythagoras to a second Arachnos Base, where he believed Echo and his Wyvern pals were holed up.

After fighting through a few sub-basements, I overheard talking as I rounded the corner - I can barely believe it now, but it's true. Professor Echo was Dr. Aeon. Or Dr. Egon. Or whatever he calls himself these days. The likeness was astounding - only age separated them. An older Dr. Aeon was there and the younger was telling him they were the same person, but "Echo" was from the past!

Unfortunately while I did manage to eliminate the "Echo", the older Dr. Aeon escaped before I could interrogate him. I'm not sure if it was a Dr. Aeon from our timeline, or from the future. I wish I paid more attention to my temporal physics during my time with the Portal Corporation back in the day.

Come Out, Come Out...

Looks like Marshall Brass has Professor Echo's scent - he's been identified with some Wyvern cronies at two seperate abandoned Arachnos Labs (how many labs has Arachnos abandoned?!).

After fighting through several more darn Shivans (why does Aeon keep leaving these creatures in his labs?) myself and Pythagoras managed to corner Professor Echo again. And again he teleported out! This is starting to be infuriating - I want him dead.

He made a mistake though - he dropped a note. Goo-covered, but legible...

Remembered it being an unused base. Just not this one. Perhaps I could still make use of it?

To do:
2: Go back several weeks, clone army of Shivans here.
1: Go back before I do that, and remind self to build control mechanism into Shivan clones.
3: Spring Shivan ambush.
1.5: If ambush fails, jump back again and ready arrival location in 2nd base.

Is this Echo some kind of time traveller? Would explain how he keeps getting one step ahead of me and why he wanted the Time Deflector... what if... No, that's too far fetched.

Oh Nemesis, Where Art Thou?

From one disaster averted, to another waiting to happen! Marshall Brass got wind of some Wyvern lackeys raiding an Arachnos laboratory.

Always keen to pry into other labs, and to further my field testing I went along with Pythagoras to assist. Who should I run into though, but the accursed Professor Echo.

My Wrist Communicator caught this image, moments before he activated some strange kind of teleportation device - appears he acquired an old piece of temporal technology, a Time Deflector. A curio, but no real use since it can only redirect a time traveller, and only if you know their point of arrival - even that hack Aeon agreed it was useless (he even created it) and left it in this old lab, discarded.

If only I knew where this Professor Echo was based, or what he wants I could shut his "research" down for good.

You Call That Gratitude?!

When Amanda said she'd spill all I thought Arachnos would get to her first and have a "word". I was evidently wrong - she's about to spill all about Dr Aeon/Egon on the midnight bulletin!

Much as I hate the old hack, such "news" would cripple the public image of Arachnos, and set back my funding by years! I've suffered a loss of my research before in Paragon - never again!!

The only chance is to take down all the generators and auxillaries that power WSPDR's broadcasts. Myself and Pythagoras are already on the case.

Demonology!

I knew Aeon, Egon, whatever you want to call him is no scientist! Imagine the effrontery - using a demon to power a city! What does the imbecile think he is doing?

Myself and Pythagoras found Vines and extracted her but not without heavy resistance from Arachnos troops loyal to Aeon. Filthy traitors.

Exobiology, demonology... the man is a hack. A third-rate thaumaturge maquerading as a scientist. If I ever see him again...

Reporter Rescue

Marshall Brass called me urgently - it seems that Dr Aeon has stooped to kidnap and has plucked the Amanda Vines from her job at WSPDR as their star reporter. She was getting too close to the truth of Dr Egon.

Since our Lord Recluse likes to keep her around for a little "known" opposition (she pries far too closely into our beloved leaders work) I've been tasked with her safe return.

Since she's being housed in the PTS Control Room, Brass also wants me to find out what the true nature of the System is. Appears Arachnos are not sure of their pet governor.

I decided to take Pythagors, also of Arachnos Research and Development with me. An interesting creature, who is himself working on a robotics project - I hope it yields fruit, as his prototypes R.E.X. and R.A.Y. were most encouraging.

Echo Escapes

Shortly after I took this still image of Professor Echo with my Wrist Communicator, he teleported out. Granted, not as final a solution to him as I may have wanted but at least he left the lab and I was able to easily mop up his Wyvern cronies he had with him.

Curious about Dr. Aeon's work, I had a little look at the good doctors research materials, and may have used his privileged access to the Arachnos Core Network for a little "background work".

Seems our Doctor has led an interesting previous life as the mad scientist Dr. Egon (who I am sure you recall the execution of on ArachnosTV), and he may be up to no good with his PTS System. For one thing I found Shivans - those strange alien life forms from Bloody Bay, all over the good doctors laboratory. Exobiology - it's not a real science.

Robotics Breakthrough

A new breakthrough - I have managed to isolate a group of repair nanites from the Protector ZR-4 and enhance them exponentially. Unfortunately, the result does require more power than the current ZR Series can output, so for now I have installed them to my Wrist Communicator.

I must think of a name for this wrist-mounted device I am perfecting - it now controls flight, forcefields, targetting data (only the Assault subroutine is ready - I'm working on one for Tactics) and now nanite repairs. It is a shame that the ZR Series Pulse Rifle can not be incorporated into it.

Still, I digress. The nanites mean I can now undertake instantaneous repairs to any of my robots in the field. Alas, the production of sufficient nanites to do so drains their capacitor and I can only do it intermittently, though I expect with enough modifications I can reduce that recharge time.

Not a moment too soon either - Marshall Brass has contacted me about someone styling themselves Professor Echo who has broken into Dr. Aeon's labs. I am to bring his field trip to an abrupt close.

Crossed Communication?

Sigh, does noone in Arachnos read my reports? I acquired Goldbrickers Flight Technology months ago, and submitted my findings to Black Scorpion and his research team. I see now why Arachnos are sponsoring my Arachnos Research and Development team.

Regardless, I reacquired a Goldbrickers Flight Pack and took it over to a colleague in Arachnos Core R&D. If they use this fossil-fuel driven antiquity they need shooting though - the ZR-Series Anti-gravity Harness is far superior (and doesn't require the bulky backpack). Of course, I had to save the scientist from the itinerant Goldbrickers who tried to kidnap him - I have no pity for anyone who calls themselves a scientist in the Rogue Isles and does not travel heavily armed, I really don't.

Marshall Brass better have some better research work lined up for me, or I'm going to have to look elsewhere for new subject matter.