S5E10a: Outworlds, Part 3

'''Once again the Sayan Squad finds itself thrown to an unknown world. Cut off from the rest of the STU and the greater Alliance Forces, they have to once again find out how to get off this rock and complete their mission. But now that they're stuck with the infamous Butcher, a man known to exterminate entire Rebel installations by himself, will they survive long enough to do so?'''

Plot Summary
A black portal opened up in the skies of an unknown world, and dispensed the Sayan Squad and Warrant Officer Williams onto its surface. This time the planet was a barren wasteland, covered in dust and soot, with ruins of structures barely coming up to their knees in height. The layout of the bombed-out ruins was vaguely familiar, indicating that they were on yet another parallel version of Earth-M101A. Williams immediately tried hailing the Princess to no avail. He had the rebels try their own communicators, to similar results. Williams theorized the reason for this was due to neither The General nor the Rebellion having visited this universe in the past. This meant neither left a subspace relay that would connect to either interdimensional communications network. Arachnos asked if they could build one, to which Williams immediately told him to scrap the Suppressor for parts, and handed him his communicator to assist with establishing the contact lines.

In the meantime, all the rest of the team could do was wait. Ketsueki was displeased about this, being a lone Rebel group stranded on an unknown world with no means of calling for backup, alone with one of The General's most infamous killers. Joseph "the Butcher" Williams was known to be a complete psychopath, brutally murdering entire Rebel installations by himself, killing everyone from men, to the women, to the children. As usual his concerns fell on deaf ears, at least from Kanako and Arachnos. Arachnos went so far as to claim that he was "just following orders" and was programmed to do so. This was met with no shortage of shock at the person speaking this. Arachnos also said they could "take him" if Williams decided to attack. Ketsueki promised to punch him in the face if he ever doomspoke again. The argument ended when Arachnos pointed out that shouting these things right in front of the Butcher would probably get him killed. Unable to counter the point, Ketsueki went to go hide in a corner. Williams watched most of this in silence, and as he looked on, the Squad noticed a tan face suddenly appear next to his, wearing an upside-down inflatable crown. When Williams turned to look, he stumbled in shock, as the intruder began shouting at them in an incomprehensible language. At about this time, the group became encircled by other, similar creatures. these things were vaguely humanoid, but like the outworlders encountered before, clearly weren't. Arguably even moreso, as just as Amadeus forewarned, their translators were unable to decipher their language. And, as it appeared, neither could they. On several occassions these outlanders would talk to each other in an increasingly agitated and confused tone until it erupted into a fight. While one of these happened, the "King" burped up a clone of himself, who went to break up the fight. This clone then also burped up a clone, and it devolved into a four-way melee.

Meanwhile, some of the other outlanders had begun investigating the beacon Arachnos was making, eventually stealing some of the parts. The Squad gave chase as they ran to the King, and then all the outlanders fused together into a giant bear and ran out of town. It led them to a series of fissures into the earth, that led to an alcove identical to the ones on both M101A and M120A. Within these fissures appeared to be a city built of stone, fallen from the surface, inhabited by more outlanders. The Squad had lost track of the bear, but felt their best bet would be to investigate the alcove yet again. As they trekked through the city, they observed strange curtains of flesh hung from some of the walls and over cooking fires, while a foul stench permeated the air. Some of the outlanders were eating this substance, or altneratively engaged in a brawl to kill each other. The alcove itself was adorned with banners made of the odorous sinew, but once they looked inside they understood why. Almost the entire interior was covered in the Sayan terraformer, stemming from a deactivated portal identical to the ones Ouitat's people had been led into and out of. However, joining the terraformer were Sayan corpses, mounds of them, that the outlanders had been using as food and decoration. In the center of the room in a throne made of rough stone was a throne, the "king" sitting upon it, eating Sayan meat off of a bone, while idly fiddling with the stolen parts in his other hand. Considering these outlanders apparently had the ability to slay Sayans all on their own, the Squad reconsidered the idea of just taking the parts back. Qiang suggested they barter, give the King something in exchange for the components they need. Arachnos said he could probably give him nonessential parts for the beacon, and warped back to his worksite to get them. He handed him mostly armor pieces, including the head of the Suppressor. The king was excited, dropping the other newer parts to hold on to it. Working up the nerve, Arachnos pointed to the pile of essential pieces and to himself, as well as the head and the king, trying to communicate the exchange. Several tense seconds followed, with Williams grabbing his rotator and holding it at the ready in case things went south. However, the King seemed to understand this, and returned the pieces for the head. Breathing a collective sigh of relief and sharing a wish to never have to do that again, they returned to the beacon.

As construction continued, the idea of weaponizing the outlanders against the Sayans became a topic of discussion. Given the evidence presented, it was believed the Sayans had attempted to take this world like they had many others, but the outlanders proved too tough and forced them to shut down the portal. They wondered if they could trick Elias into coming to this world so he could be slaughtered, but his intelligence was proven to be too great for that. In fact, if anything, Elias probably sent them to this world intentionally, so he would naturally know about their threat. Williams began to wonder, if they couldn't bring Elias here, if they could bring the Outlanders to him instead. While they could use the beacon to call for an extraction, Williams was concerned they would lose their opportunity to learn what the Sayans were up to, and what they needed the outworlders for. Food was only part of it, he reminded them.

He started thinking out loud, and wondered if there wasn't a way to trick the Sayans into re-opening the portal themselves. He was asked if the rest of the 447th could potentially open it, to which he said possibly, if they could contact them, which the interdimensional communications jammer in the Citadel would forbid. Kazoku asked if they couldn't send a "blip" alongside the communique to attract the Sayans to this world to open the portal, and get them to investigate. Arachnos pointed out that the jammer would likewise make that impossible, and even past that, Elias knew they were there. There was no way he would be dumb enough to open the portal. This gave Williams an idea. He began ordering Arachnos to send the communication past the Errus they visited, instead. This would not only bypass the jammer, but it would be picked up by someone who wasn't Elias. The only question, then, was what to send. Williams suggested sending a fake portal signature, to trick the Sayans into thinking they had already opened one, forcing the Sayans to act quickly. They would have to send someone to shut down their portal, but when they did so, the Squad would be waiting for them, the Outlanders beside them. this was within Arachnos' capabilities, being both an engineer and Arachnos. With that, he went to work.

Several hours later, the beacon was ready. Arachnos activated it, managing to make contact with ETZ. He and the rest of the Squad were greeted by none other than Amadeus aboard the Iron King. They reported to Amadeus everything they saw and did on the Citadel world, and how they ended up where they did. Amadeus immediately began preparing an assault force, as the jammer had prevented the Alliance from discovering the world and the Citadel. He also confirmed that they had indeed discovered a new planet and dimension, christening the world Earth-M133A. He said he would send a transport to their location and pick them up, as well as Sirus and the others when they arrived. Just then, the Squad heard a strange sound through the transmission, and Williams began shouting that that wouldn't be necessary, that they had a portal open, and were supported by several bloodthirsty monsters that could wipe Sayans out. Then he shot the beacon and destroyed it. He confirmed that the noise they heard was the Sayans tapping into their lines, and said it was showtime.

The Squad hurried back to the city, Arachnos creating a portal back to its outskirts. Before the Squad was entirely through, the air was split with a mighty howling, and a pink light began emanating from the alcove. This was followed quickly by the sounds of battle. Entering the alcove, the Squad bore witness to utter carnage as the Outlanders ha transformed. Their heads had turned upside down with their mouth in a constant roar, their legs stretched to an impossible length and extended out to their sides, and their arms went limp. Despite this, the Outlanders were able to viciously beat and bash the Sayans using strange momentum and torque, and it was a significant enough threat that the Sayans had to send a massive horde through a portal just to stem the tide. Notable was the fact that none of them were Mutants, but purebreds. The Outlanders made such quick work of them that it was clear the Sayans had prepared a suicide army, led by none other than Erin.

The Squad made a surprise attack, coming from above since the only entrance was blocked by the stream of Outlanders. Their attack was enough to destabilize the rush of Sayans coming from the portal, forcing Erin to dive back in, cursing Elias for sending them to this world. The Squad followed through, and interrupted Erin's attempt to order the portal shut down. Once even a few of the Outlanders made it to M120A, it was a lost cause, and Erin called for a retreat, warning Elias of the incoming danger. Williams also contacted Sirus and gave a similar warning to Sirus, confusing him since he still believed they were in the Citadel. Sirus reported that they were pinned down by the "head honcho" on one of the lower levels.

Williams led the Squad out of the alcove and back into the city, where they got to observe the carnage the outlanders were bringing to it. Already red-brown streaks covered the metal streets, with mutants and purebreds alike lying mutilated. It was also discovered why exactly the mutants weren't brought for the assault: the outlanders were unable to be mutated. The Squad also observed the Outlanders disrupting the lines of captured outworlders, and discovered that the freed outworlders would begin taking charge, able to direct the outlanders to cause further chaos. Their own brute strength combined with the outlanders, and it was beginning to become clear that their strength was one of the reasons the Sayans targeted these people. Arachnos suggested using them as a bridge of communication, and put that to the test when the Squad returned to the Citadel. Arachnos asked one of the outworlders to direct the outlanders and clear the bridge, which the outworlder agreed to. However, the bridge acted as a significant choke point, allowing the Sayan horde to surround and come at the Outlanders from all sides, while the outlanders were limted by the bridge. The horde began directing the outlanders towards one side, slowly but surely isolating the Squad. Erin reappeared and began taunting them, eventually managing to get in Arachnos' head and keep him enraged, calling him "Seabreeze." While the rest of the Squad dealt with the Sayans attacking them directly, unsupported by the outlanders, Arachnos kept trying to take on Erin alone, with little success. Erin was able to resist even Arachnos' black hole bomb. Williams ordered the Squad to pull away from the fight, and directly ordered Arachnos to disengage from Erin. Strangely, Erin did not follow, instead laughing at them as they retreated deeper into the Citadel.

Coming across another of the Sayan shafts, the Squad dropped down it, and ended up in a section of the Citadel covered completely in metal, with no flesh to be seen anywhere. The power was mostly out, seemingly a result of their battle in the portal chamber up above. It was believed this to be an important section of the base, as the systems were deemed critical enough to cover with Angolian Steel as opposed to the normal fleshy walls. Faint moaning could be heard from up ahead, and following to its source, the Squad found themselves in a massive experimental laboratory. Outworlders on tables being torn apart by various machines also made of metal, or being pumped up with an unknown green substance. Many of them lay dead, with their bodies heavily mutated past what a Mutant would normally do. Some were missing their lower halves, with a few of these attached to additional machines. Others were barely recognizable as anything other than a pile of entrails. Unfortunately, there were some that were also alive despite the torturous experiments. And still yet others sat inside pods, forced to watch.

Luckily there were no Sayans here, of Mutants or Pure types. Drones were the most likely operators of this place, but they had seemingly vacated the area once the battle begun. Only the Squad was left to wonder what the Sayans were up to. The operation seemed far too extensive if they were merely trying to figure out how to mutate them. And yet it was significant enough for the Sayans to round up billions of outworlders and ferry them into the Citadel.

Their thoughts were disturbed by the distant sounds of battle, coming from below. Figuring them to be the rest of the 447th, the Squad tracked down the source of the sound. Eventually they came to a massive door several stories in height, with no known way to open it, so Arachnos had to portal them through it. Where they wound up was a chamber even more massive than the feeding chamber above, with a several mile-long diameter, a ceiling so high it was hidden from view, and every last inch of the walls covered in pods containing outworlders. On the far side from where they were standing, they could see the rest of the 447th in Butcher mode engaged with some large yellow machine. Getting closer, the operator of the machine was revealed to be none other than Elias, who had been anticipating their arrival. He was irritated that Erin had fallen for their trap, but was grateful she helped ot rectify her mistake by leading them directly to him. Now he had the chance to dispose of the 447th before they could interfere any further. He said it was one thing when they defended the Rotter, but now at his home base he could not allow them to ruin their "greatest accomplishment." The battle began, and his machine proved extremely agile and reislient. He could also use pyramids on the top, underside, and on each limb of the machine to summon various attachments to fight them with, such as missile launchers or flamethrowers. The Squad had to destroy each pyramid to prevent him from summoning them, or unsummoning them if they were destroyed while something was attached. During the battle, Arachnos tried to use the momentum of the mech against it to send it crashing into a wall, which he was successful in doing. However, this came at the cost of sending the mech into the capsules, killing several outworlders in the process. This bought the ire of G Squadron and several other members of the Squad.

Ultimately, the Squad was victorious, and Elias ejected the cockpit from the rest of the machine, warping away. This allowed the Squad and the 447th to reunite. Williams and the Squad brought Sirus up to speed, and informed him of the incoming bombardment. Sirus said they had to evacuate since he didn't want to be caught in the building when they bombed it, fearing the jammer. Arachnos wanted to try to destroy the core of the Citadel, but was unable to explain how they could find it in time, or even how they would destroy it. Just then, the Citadel began to rumble as something roared from above. Several of the capsules fell, indicating that the battle might have started. The STU had to flee the Citadel, using the map Arachnos built that led them down. Along the way they were stopped by a few Sayans at several points, seemingly directed to lie in ambush for the Squad by Elias. One of these places was the lab, and a few members of the STU worked to free the outworlders which joined the push and helped force the Sayans back. When the time came to climb up the first shaft, Sirus sent the flying members of the Squad up first, to keep them busy while they set up the jump pad. The rest of G Squadron was to follow, and soon after the outworlders. The 447th would bring up the rear. After pushing through the Sayan ambush, the STU noticed that there were very few outlanders, and they soon discovered why: the Citadel doors had been shut. But as they approached, they suddenly opened. Their outworlder allies were pulled away to the Sayan horde inside, leaving just the STU to cross the bridge as the rumblings and deafening roaring continued. When they got outside, they noticed something was strange: namely that the skies were clear. The Citadel doors shut behind them, and once they crossed the bridge, they learned to their horror that the Citadel was not under attack. Instead, the white column had reappeared, and the portal was forming above it in the air. Before they could figure a way back into the Citadel, Elias returned, coming out of the trench as the bridge collapsed. He was still piloting the mech's cockpit, though now it was covered in an armored hide that also covered its last warp pyramid. He had partially staged the assault, saying that he was aware of the incoming Alliance fleet. He said it was more important to get the STU out of there before they arrived than to kill them. However, now that they were out, he was more than happy to oblige continuing where they last left off. He warped away and returned with a bombing carrier, and proceeded to do a bombing run on them. Elias would repeat this tactic of warping away and then returning with a high-caliber weapon meant more for starships against the Squad. He was more than happy to destroy the surrounding city if it meant taking down the Squad. Saiyo had to use her weakness spotting, saying the machine did not have one, but that the hide over the pyramid couldn't be too thick or it would block the portal generation. Taking this to heart, Arachnos and Shade starting pelting the area with webbing and darkness respectively to try and clog the area. Catching wind of this, Elias shot a teleport beam at the rest of the Squad and the senior members of the 447th, warping them to the top of a distant building, away from Shade and Arachnos. Shade was able to track its location using the darkness however, and with Arachnos following they caught up soon enough. Seeing them coming and realizing they would be able to know where he was regardless of where he went, he warped Williams and the Squad far away form the city, forcing Shade and Arachnos to spend more time following. They were slowed down even further by the wounds Elias had inflicted upon Shade, forcing Arachnos to heal him. In the meantime, Vate and Kanako tried to finish their work. Vate had Kanako summon a jet of water at the craft, which Vate froze. This was enough to block the portal signal, forcing Elias to try and fight off the Squad with a slow-firing starship cannon. Shade and Arachnos caught up, prompting Williams to order Arachnos to bring in the rest of the 447th for a combined assault.

As the STU pelted the craft, the Alliance fleet appeared in the sky, and opened fire on both the city and Elias. Elias had no choice but to retreat, using his engines to speed him towards the city. Both the Princess and the King descended over the STU, the former retrieving them. Arachnos warned Amadeus that they had to get to the Citadel and stop the beam, to which Amadeus had no idea what he was talking about. Arachnos believed this meant they failed, and that whatever their "Achievement" was, they had managed to activate it. He was prepared to write the whole mission off as a failure, but Sirus reminded him that their main mission was to investigate and gather data, which they did manage to do. They found several significant clues, from the outworlder's intense strength to the experiments they were performing in the Citadel. Whatever they were up to involved creating something out of the outworlders, and somewhere in there the Citadel's portal technology came into play.

As the STU was airlifted onto the Princess they got to see the destruction of the city be carried out by the Alliance. Buildings were levelled and the straggling Sayans were obliterated. In this, they observed that the Citadel was gone. Not destroyed, as there was no sharpnel, but just a massive clean pit in the ground where the Citadel used to stand. They had at last discovered the purpose of the portal: it was for the Citadel itself. Meaning that wherever the Citadel was out there in the multiverse, they'd find their "achievement." Davis was amused at them running away from the Alliance. One of the soldiers chimed in that they must have been afraid of what they'd do to their home turf. Sirus, far less amused, said they had every right to be after that day. Twice now the Sayans had killed several members of the 447th, and Sirus gave an order to the entire STU: The next time they meet with Elias, to never give him the chance again. Hood tried to tell Sirus to stop brooding, only for Sirus to tell him to "can it." He told him that Hood was not the one who lost soldiers today. He then promised that nobody ever killed his "brothers and sisters." Nobody.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Gold Rush (Ancient Aliens)
 * 2) Vacant Earth - Cave (The Legend of Zelda: Twlight Princess)
 * 3) The Outlanders - sans. (Undertale)
 * 4) The Untamed City - The City Streets (Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour Edition)
 * 5) Contact - Main Theme (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader)
 * 6) True Power - DOOM (Andrew Hulshult remix)
 * 7) Aftermath of the Horde - Into Sandy's City (Gothic Remix)
 * 8) Inside the Citadel - Shawn's Got the Shotgun (Andrew Hulshult remix)
 * 9) The Labs - Creer and Prier (Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero Telos)
 * 10) Walls of Pods - Gloomy! (Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour Edition)
 * 11) Elias - Brave (Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine)
 * 12) ~Vs. Elias, Round 2 - Zerstörers (Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus)
 * 13) Destruction Rush - Heart of Nova (Kirby Super Star)
 * 14) Return of Elias - Stage 13 Intro (Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine)
 * 15) ~Vs. Elias, Round 2 phase 2 - Metalhead Dance (8MBGMSFX version)
 * 16) The Sayan Termination Unit - Plunge Saw (Plutonia Midi Project)
 * 17) The Vacancy - Brave (Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine)
 * 18) Ending Theme - Gold Rush (Ending Mix)

Trivia

 * This episode was a quad-interrupted broadcast, a new record.
 * To the surprise of everyone involved, this episode was even more "cursed" than Part 2.
 * It was first run in the beginning of January 2018, and did not conclude until the middle of May. In fact the entire Shifting Worlds roleplaying came to a gridning halt due to various factors, including personal issues on the side of one of the members.
 * Magmetor7 was unable to be present for the conclusion, but was asked if the episode could proceed without him, as the entire Outworlds saga was nearing to be a year old at that point.
 * The sheer length of the hiatus between parts allowed SDM to begin a side-story RP entitled "Reflections". The self-contained story involved a group of characters suffering an invasion by The General, and ultimately being tricked into helping doom their own world by none other than a younger Sirus. When the XRP reconvened and this episode was continued, SDM encouraged the players to slowly insert their characters into the episode as members of the 447th. As such, this makrs the debut of Taverias, Isaac, and Msali into an ongoing storyline.
 * The introduction of the Outlanders was one of the oldest concepts for the entire Outworlds storyline, including both the theme and the burped up clones.
 * The Squad was originally intended to just take the parts of the beacon back, but to SDM's surprise they decided to attempt a non-violent path instead, which he allowed to work. Had they not, they would have seen the wrathful transformation of the Outlanders firsthand, and would have had to run with Wicker running distraction due to him being just a Mimic. They would subsequently then lead the raging horde into the Sayan world and let them cut loose.
 * Much of the following events had to be improvised as a result.
 * This also led to heavy soundtrack changes.
 * There were additional soundtrack changes, such as the inclusion of several Doom songs.