Colossus By Design: Season 2 - Log 98

[April 27, 2166]
[Black Panther Industries Mining Site - Kenema Branch]
[Kenema, Sierra Leone]
[African Mainland]

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Despite having united together as a single super-nation to crack down on the rampant criminal elements in many of Africa's mainland states, pockets of deviant resistance persist in the more vulnerable areas that can't be policed as well as the industry-sustaining major cities. Kenema, in the state of Sierra Leone, is one such area of criminal concentration.

This African city, as well as other previously lawless areas, has recently seen a rise in attention from the corporate powers that be; more specifically, Black Panther Industries has expressed an interest in developing the land into a viable branch for mining resources.

With the super-corporation's interests came a sizable private military force, although the city's former lack of real policing certainly didn't leave the security situation very stable for the company. Still, as any good employee of Black Panther knows, persistence is key to success. The facility, built on the outskirts of Kenema, has managed to tap into a rich vein of mineral deposits.

However, as of recent, remnants of the criminal elements that once plagued the whole of the nation have reemerged, ready to take back what they consider their turf; these deviants, the Flying Rhinos, were ordinarily not much of a problem for the augmented and heavily armed forces hired by Black Panther Industries. Unfortunately, an organized crime syndicate by the name of Lion Claw has expressed an interest in "recovering its former assets" and has begun supplying the gangsters with weapons and other formidable military-grade equipment.

On this particular day, a day that would seem as ordinary as next for the mining facility's employees, it would prove to be rather unlucky for these working men and women of Human and Synthetic families.

A large group of Flying Rhinos has managed to storm the facility at night, overwhelming the security personnel through sheer numbers which, coupled with the surprisingly advanced gear supplied by Lion Claw, has proven to be quite the downfall. Instead of simply killing everyone as they would normally be happy to do, the Rhinos have instead decided to "reappropriate" ownership of the facility and its staff under the orders of a higher-up from their supplier, known only by one name: Blackjack.

Inside of the mining site, gangsters drive the workers like slaves, always sure to give out routine beatings and killings to serve as an example to the rest lest they get any funny ideas about trying to rebel.


(Lucee Sy): Alright, enough with the drilling! Back to your cages, you damn cattle!


The workers stop working the machines and reluctantly head off to where the guards direct them. Lucy Sy, the apparent leader of this contingent of gangsters, shoots one of the lagging older staff as "incentive" for the rest; the others get the message and pick up the pace.

All of a sudden, explosions are heard outside; the windows in that particular section of the plant are shattered from the blasts.


(Lucee Sy): GET THOSE WRENCH MONKEYS INTO THEIR CELLS! I'M GONNA FIND OUT WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!


The Flying Rhino leader kicks open the door leading outside from the catwalk; bright light blinds her at first. Once her eyes adjust, though, everything is clear as day: the mining facility is under attack by strange forces unfamiliar to her. One particular vehicle hovers up from below, right at eye level with her: a Mimetic Chariot.

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Mimetic Chariot

[Height]: 8'11"
[Length]: 30'10"
[Weight]: 5.85 tons

[Appearance]: Similar structural aesthetics of ornate plating held together by hard-light as other Mimetics; basic body is similar in shape to a 21st-century helicopter; prominent downward nose hook; medium length thin tail with fins on the end similar to a swallow's tail feathers facing upwards; engine motor composed of a cylinder of glowing energy held in floating rotating rings, with one mounted on each side of the body floating diagonally; silvery-grey plating; hard-light colour dependent on payload, with yellow for Mimetic Drones, blue for Warriors, and red for Keepers

[Observed Characteristics]: Free-thinking tactical intelligence; able to drop payloads of Warriors, Drones, or Keepers via their collapsed forms carried on the length of the tail; flies using anti-gravitational thrusters; has nose-mounted twin particle beam cannons; gravitational singularity launcher designed as a swirling vortex on the bottom of the body

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Before the Mimetic Chariot can fire off its particle cannons at Lucee Sy, a quick salvo of rockets to its left thruster knocks it out of the sky; a VTOL flies in, piloted by a fellow Flying Rhino.


(Gunner Joseph Sarr): GRAB MY HAND!

(Lucee Sy): DON'T YOU FUCKING DROP ME!


The Rhinos' leader makes a jump; the VTOL gunner grabs her hand just in time. As she's pulled up by the gunner, him, Lucee, and the pilot fly around the mining complex; the whole facility is being hit in all directions by strange mechanical forces. The gangsters are being overwhelmed as easily, if not more so, as the security staff they themselves dispatched.

Several dozen more of the flying vehicles that confronted the gang leader have dropped off reinforcements in the form of mechanized soldiers and their lieutenants; they're steadily picking off stragglers on the ground and forcing snipers to remain in cover.


(Lucee Sy): What in blue blazes are those things?

(Gunner Joseph Sarr): No idea, ma'am! They just flew in and started ravaging the place like a swarm of bees!


All around Lucee Sy's gunship, more of those Mimetic Chariots, as they call themselves strangely enough, are engaging the Flying Rhinos' own VTOLs and winning by the looks of it; more and more of the gangsters' own equipment is blown up just shy of their leader's own.


(Lucee Sy): Tell the others to fall back into the plant! Hold the working stiffs hostage, see if that'll make these robots think twi--


Suddenly, an extremely large mechanical humanoid, the leader variant seen directing groups of the robotic soldiers on the ground, lands on the side of the gang leader's gunship. He pokes his head through and holds onto the aerial vehicle from the outside with his feet and one arm; gunner Sarr and Lucee quickly grab a pair of shotguns from a cabinet on the floor of gunship aim them directly at the mechanized being.


(Mimetic Keeper): I'm afraid your operations here have been cancelle--


The two Flying Rhinos repeatedly shoot the Mimetic Keeper in the face at point blank range, causing him to reel his head back from out of the gunner's bay of the VTOL. However, the shots don't seem to have much of an actual effect, as he quickly regains his composure and sticks his face back into the gunner's bay.


(Mimetic Keeper): Naughty naughty!


The Keeper grabs gunner Sarr by the neck and tosses him out of the VTOL.


(Lucee Sy): WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!

(Mimetic Keeper): Ah ah ah!


The Mimetic Keeper then grabs the gang leader by the throat and holds her out of the flying gunship.


(Mimetic Keeper): You should've said please first.


The Keeper drops the Flying Rhinos' leader from an incredible height. After doing so, he disassembles into metal pieces and hard-light particles; he quickly traverses as a cloud across the VTOL's body and reassembles in front of the pilot's cockpit. With a single punch, the Mimetic elite shatters the glass, grabs the pilot, and tosses her out of the vehicle; the VTOL itself is sent careening into the ground. The Mimetic Keeper jumps off at the last second, safely landing on the ground.

The battle is over.