>>641331
Yeah, good idea. Blind the arkots.

Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)19:07 No. 641335 ID: dd338c
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>"Rokoa, EMP!" I tell to her, tossing her my EMP. She sets it off, as Bell shuts down for a moment. While she activates that, I toss a smoke grenade ahead of the arkots to save myself bullets and blind them.

The train connector is split in half, and Rokoa doesn't waste any time turning around and using her sword on the front door with her usual recklessness. At least if there are any lasers pointed back at her direction, they'll be shut down with the EMP, and I doubt the arkots above the train will get a good shot in by the time she digs a hole.

While she continues, I look ahead in the direction of the rumble. The fog lifts just enough to reveal that it's no landslide. A gigantic christmas tree rising out of the ground beyond the fog is now in view.

>>641335
Okay this is ridiculous. First off, Bell is down so that means the second bike is no longer controlled. Better grab it or something.

Secondly... radio this in. And yell at Rokoa that there's a giant fucking christmas tree up ahead.

Just a thought but this whole thing could end up being some televised thing to make you look bad. Or god knows what.

Say the Grinch shows up on camera worldwide and does the whole Grinch giving back the presents thing and then you two run in and he makes it look like you blew up the presents or something?

Honestly at this point we still have no idea what this whole stupid mess is about so just be careful.

Huh. I'm surprised the plasma blade works after an EMP. And that if Bell was in range, that the hover-bikes still work.

I guess it's just advanced computing that shuts down? Your regular electronics must be hardened enough to take it.

>Giant Christmas Tree
It's gotta be a rocket. That's the escape plan.

>what do
Back Rokoa up. Get alongside, or ahead, on the outside of the train. Provide supporting fire through the windows, and/or try to damage the engine with a few well placed AP shots.

Not sure if it's time to rocket pack to the air yet, or if we save that for the tree.

Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)19:35 No. 641342 ID: dd338c
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I take everything about them being a serious threat back.

>Some things still working
Rokoa's bike is on cruise control parallel to the tracks until Bell comes back online to take them again. Plasma swords are simple enough in practice to avoid EMP affecting them.

"Rokoa. There is a giant christmas tree up ahead." I yell.
"How big?"
"Mountainous."
"There's a bigass laser up front that just tried to fire at me, I'm gonna blow it up."

Bell comes back online while I hear various explosions inside the train. I cannot supply cover fire, as there are no windows.

"Alison."
>"Polo! We're detecting huge thermal signatures down below - do you see anything?"
"A giant christmas tree. It might be a rocket"
>"It might be a ro - er, yes, you're probably right! Scanners indicate something that may be a missile silo!"

I see the train tracks heading into an upward ramp inside of the tree itself. I will have to follow Rokoa inside, although there is not much stopping me from using my plasma sword to enter what may be the train's engineering or piloting room. I can also attempt to damage the train engine.

>>641342
I kindof want to just derail the train now that all the presents are detached. At this point that would be an anti-climax though so get to the engine. Toss a frag grenade down the exhaust pipe or something.

Rocket pack- engage.

You're cutting in through the side with your plasma sword. And/or attacking the engine.

Well a Christmas tree rocket is a thing I guess.

Well the train is going into it so that makes things easier. If you can shut it down quickly that's great but I think it will be stopping soon on its own. Might want to save some firepower for whatever this rocket ends up being.

1/3 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)20:26 No. 641360 ID: dd338c
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I use my rocket pack while strapped on the bike to speed up, and take aim with an AP round when I'm caught up. Surprisingly, it seems to go through easy, and I hit it a few more times. Smoke starts billowing, and the train slows down. It seems too easy.

2/3 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)20:27 No. 641362 ID: dd338c
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It was. The ceiling bursts open as a sleigh, lead by jet powered robot reindeer.

3/3 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)20:28 No. 641363 ID: dd338c
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>"HAHAHAHA, foolish neumono, you thought it would be so easy? That train is the only way you had available to board my Anti-Christmas Rocketship, and you just blew it to smithereens! I'll come back for your frozen corpses later, fuzzballs, but for now, I'm off to see my grand scheme come to fruition!"

Shoot him.

>>641363
Pump HE rounds into his reindeer.

Yeah just shoot the reindeer.

Take to the skies, Polo. Final boss fight time- with mandatory sudden genre shift from tactical stealth and action to flying shmup.

I think it's time you put Rudolph down, Polo.

Rokoa can jump on her bike and head for the rocket. I'm sure she can break it somehow. She's a snow hiver in her element. I'm sure she can cut down an evergreen. (Snow borrowers. She'll get snow borrowers to knock it over)!

1/2 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)20:52 No. 641369 ID: dd338c
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BOOM

I think I just shot down evil santa.

2/2 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)20:52 No. 641370 ID: dd338c
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"... you're not bad, Polo." Rokoa says.
"Rokoa, I'll clean up the Salikai, I see his parachute. Go after the rocke - are you okay?"
"I am very happy right now, Polo.
"Go after the rocket. What I thought was shrapnel kept on flying up to the rocket. I don't like it."

I wonder if there's any gear on me that Rokoa should have while going ahead.

Give her the CAI number, and a few 'nades. The rocket might need blowing up, and it might have the enemy CAI in it. The escaping Grinch you're chasing won't have usb ports, though. Probably.

Your visor might be useful but it wouldn't fit her. If she's going into the rocket, which is likely CAI-controlled, maybe she should take the CAI number? Not like the salikai's going to have a port to jam it into, unless you get very upset with him.

Also, remember to call in about medical assistance for all the hapless goons Rokoa maimed, won't you? It's not like any of them had any real say in becoming minions, probably.

Give her a high five and the usb stick. Also some explosives. Tell her to bring back the cai module so we can lock that up as well.

Then go track down the Grinch. But be ready for stupid tricks.

1/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:15 No. 641393 ID: dd338c
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I give Rokoa the CAI number and a few grenades. A high five can be her present after this is over.

I ride up to Vanski as he lands, with my sniper pointed.

"Hands up!" All of them, I don't care if your belly is on the ice! Alison, get us a medical and a recovery team."
>"Yes, yes, standard procedure, Polo. I'm surprised, you could have killed me! You seem to have respect for my intellect, knowing that I would have a backup incase I was taken out of the skies."
"No."
>"... regardless, worm, you are far too late! The plan is set in motion, and I was only wishing to see it in person - and I still can, albiet in less comfortable surroundings. You see, this was all a ruse - the present stealing was a means to an end. After all, it's global christmas time - as we speak, even in the parts of the world where it is the middle of the night, they will celebrate it all at the same time as a connected ultra-hive global event! And right now, they are finding a great deal of disappointment under their christmas trees."

2/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:15 No. 641394 ID: dd338c
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>"Then my super planetary array of sadness gathering empathy will reach full peak, and power my Sadness Cannon, destroying the minds of all neumono!"
"Powered by only sadness?"
>"Yes, there is no way you could have thought that!"
"It was one of my first thoughts, but even I did not think you would be so stupid to do something like that."
>"Stupid? We will see how stupid you are, when you and your awful partner's minds enter untold depression! Not even jammers will block rays of this intensity!"
"No, Vanski. You made one error."
>"Oh?"

3/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:16 No. 641395 ID: dd338c
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"It is true that right now, we have not delivered the christmas presents, and few got what they wanted. However, that does not make us sad. We do not get melancholy over such things."
>"Hmph. Let's watch then, Polo, I will bring out my portable television set. Yes, there it is, close by."

I keep my gun on him, but it appears to be a regular TV.

4/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:16 No. 641396 ID: dd338c
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>"Ah, there is my drone, and I hear the neumono in the streets. Sounds, Polo, sounds of - wait, what is this? They are not sad! This is not the sound of sadness! These sounds, they are..."
"I told you, Vanski. You will never understand neumono. We will not get sad."

5/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:17 No. 641397 ID: dd338c
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"We will get unreasonably pissed off. I can already see an untold number of simultaneous riots and looters. The amount of legitimately sad neumono will be paltry."

6/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:17 No. 641398 ID: dd338c
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>"NO! How? I had such low expectations of neumono around the world, but this! They have fallen short of even the shortest bars! Christmas didn't come for them, so they resort to looting! They will take christmas if it means the downfall of society itself! I didn't stop christmas, I simply put the responsibility in their own hands!"
"Give up, Vanski."
>"... well, I suppose it's plan B, then. Alison, fire the nukes for me, won't you?"
>"You got it."

7/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:17 No. 641399 ID: dd338c
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"Rokoa!"
"On it, good thing you gave me that CAI number. There, there's terminals everywhere in here."
>"Please, you already numbed me with the same number. It's just gonna make me groggy and weak this time, but I can still push the damn nuke button."

8/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:18 No. 641400 ID: dd338c
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>"Fuck! Oh, come on!"

9/9 Polo 2015/05/18(Mon)22:20 No. 641404 ID: dd338c
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smack

>"Stop being mean, Mafia-Me." the allied Alison says. Our CAI will have an easy time subduing the enemy CAI while they're numbed.

With this christmas is... not really saved, but we will launch a report saying that we did find most of the presents in order to appease the masses, and over the course of a couple of months, most of everyone should get their presents.

The next update will serve as the epilogue, so suggestions will be used to tie up loose ends.

I kinda feel bad for this guy. He must have been pretty driven by something to pull this off, so you should see if you can get him some help. And a christmas present.

A present to enjoy after you've arrested him, and thrown him in the slammer.

>epilogue stuff
Polo needs to go home to her hive for Christmas and that party they were planning.

Pilon needs to somehow come through with that coffee cake he promised (even in an altered mental state).

The baddies need to be shown locked up, working in Christmas chain gangs or something.

Alison forcibly rehabilitating her alternate.

Rokoa's owed a fight with Az. And a present from Polo, after that conversation on the bike.

And last and most importantly. Polo. You owe Ramella a date. You said yes- it's happening.

Tell Vanski he was a vainglorious moron with poor taste in everything imaginable.

Get those signatures for Rokoa, if she didn't already get them. Then tell her you're taking her for a fight with Az, drinks, and then backrubs after she pulled through.

Date Ramella. See how it goes. Tell her you doubt she expected much of a chance with her arresting officer and to convince you of what to do next. Something like that. A challenge.

Investigate whatever shenanigans Hok is up to now.

Man that is a really short bar to set that they all would just riot like that.

Everyone needs to get laid.

It's Christmas.

>>641404
Some Belenosian scientist is likely very happy to get his hands on the fufa data. Or maybe there's another advanced fufa still alive in that base...

>>641427
I think it's like empathic peer pressure.

Tell Vanski that if he wanted to make everyone sad all at once he should have gone into broadcasting. Then he could have made a popular show about a young Neumono and her pet Toya that go on adventures together. Have it run for 2-3 seasons until it hits peak popularity. Then for the season final have a heart wrenching episode where they get lost in the woods in the middle of winter and the girl has to eat her loving pet to survive. And then minutes later she is saved by her hive so if only she had waited! And then she gets brain parasites.

Anyways tell him he is bad at this and should feel bad.

Make sure you track down that Arkot. He was the only slightly effective person on the Grinch's team.

Also all of your counter intelligence people need retraining. Your security has more holes in it than the Grinch's plan did.

And then go enjoy Christmas with your family.

Wait, we can save Christmas from rioting. Take Bell's visor recoding of the train takedown action, give it to the CAI to edit, and distribute it as a Christmas special. Instead of being pissed off and needing an outlet, people will get to see the people responsible blown up. Instant vindictive celebration.

Go antagonize the omega waveforce a few more times before becoming their sixth ranger.

1/7 Polo 2015/05/19(Tue)21:46 No. 641600 ID: dd338c
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>Appease the forces
That has already been done.

Nonetheless, a ship comes to pick us up, and Vanski behind bars appears in the paper the next day.

>Tell Vanski he was a vainglorious moron with poor taste in everything imaginable.
Many things are said about him and his terrible and terribly poorly executed plan.

>Tell Vanski that if he wanted to make everyone sad all at once he should have gone into broadcasting. Then he could have made a popular show about a young Neumono and her pet Toya that go on adventures together.
Implausible. Vanski especially is the type that must be in control of everything, and being in control of the show means having to know how to pull neumono heartstrings. An impossible task for him.

It still would have been a better plan, because making bad television shows is not against the law, contrary to some opinions on the matter.

2/7 Polo 2015/05/19(Tue)21:46 No. 641601 ID: dd338c
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I go home, enjoying the company of my hive on christmas day, or at least what little I can before going back to work.

3/7 Polo 2015/05/19(Tue)21:47 No. 641602 ID: dd338c
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By the time I go back to work to wrap things up, no pun intended, Az is already awake. I tell him that I would like to be less of a field agent, and instead begin reworking our security system that currently has more holes than the Grinch's plot.

Az says he'll accept if I can defeat him in a one on one duel, wording it in such a way that I end up able to sic Rokoa on him to get her that fight she wanted.

She wins, with Az quoting something along the lines of 'I meant a clean, fun wrestling match, but shit if she didn't try to murder each bacteria individually in me.'

This act reminds Rokoa that she is a violent brute, and being an agent, even under Az, falls short of personal face to fist time with criminals compared to being a cop in the capital town. Rokoa prefers being around her hive as well, so it's an easy choice to go back to being a regular police officer.

4/7 Polo 2015/05/19(Tue)21:47 No. 641603 ID: dd338c
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Rokoa and I are given light duty during cleanup in respect to our previous work, and she reminds me that I owe her a present. I forgot about it, and she insists on enough backrubs that I have to double check that she's not the fufa. The fufa ended up alive after all, and is given the chance to regrow in an ultrahive lab much to the belenosian's delight.

I have also been told that the enemy CAI is under constraints. While normal jurisdiction would sentence a criminal CAI to stasis, Alison believes her worse half can be salvaged, so they are being given a second chance.

5/7 Polo 2015/05/19(Tue)21:48 No. 641605 ID: dd338c
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Over time, the presents are returned, and the Voklit assist Pilon in handing out presents to all of those he talked to as santa. This includes a coffee cake for me, and it was one he baked himself. I offered to repay the present, but he insists that he would feel bad accepting any gifts after everything I did for him.

6/7 Polo 2015/05/19(Tue)21:49 No. 641607 ID: dd338c
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As for the voklit reservation itself, most of the innocent bystanders end up let out after confirming they are healthy again. Rokoa gets the football team's signature, and I specifically avoid the Omega Wave-Force, as they apparently are taking it especially hard that not just did they get mind controlled, but they were beaten by, I quote, 'a lone ranger with our own weapons.'

At least Rokoa's kids get a signed football for christmas.

>Investigate whatever shenanigans Hok is up to now
Given how hot the trail is on him, I expect that he is going to be laying low for a long time. Nonetheless, Hok, Whiskers and that arkot have not been found.

The First Neumono Christmas END Polo 2015/05/19(Tue)21:50 No. 641608 ID: dd338c
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>Date Ramella
While she is not hit the hardest with the legal processing, it still lands her in jail. Nonetheless, I did tell her I would see her, and so I do show up on visiting hours. She appears to do her best to make it romantic for some reason, but it is difficult. Candles are contraband, and the guards inspect all of Ramella's food for contraband on top of it. I also have to bring my own food in.

While I am still confused as to why she wanted a dinner date with me, she is incredibly pleased that I actually showed up.

>Everyone needs to get laid
I cannot help but notice that Ramella feels like this would be a nice thing to have happen, but I doubt that I will experiment outside of my hive. Regardless, I have not been called 'adorable' outside of my hive often, and inside of a single visiting period, Ramella got the majority stock hold of those times. She does not remind me of a criminal outside of the obvious jail wear and surroundings, and I would be more receptive to her advances if she works to make up for the bad that she's assisted in.

She asks for more dates. Perhaps normally I would decline, but I have been reminded that I have good reason to loosen up sometimes, so between that and her enthusiasm, I end up making occasional visits for her.

There is a lot to do, and the effects of this christmas are going to last through the next one. In fact, I am unaware if we will even have a second christmas after what happened the first time.

If we do have another christmas, it can only happen again too soon.

>>641608
No stinger where this ends up revealing that Polo was captured and thrown into a holo-sim?
Whew.
I thought we were screwed back when this whole thing started.

Yaaay!

>>641608
*victorious music* MISSION COMPLETE!

Well, that was a fun time.