Mirror Desert (Western Sahara)

 

     What once was the magnificent desolation of windblown sand has now become a near blinding expanse of solar panels and monitoring equipment, occasionally sparsely broken up by substations, roads, natural caves, rock formations, and occasional ruins of older structures from the bygone ages when traders plied these sands atop camels and wagons. The largest generating plant ever built, all for the glory of Dr. Albert W. Wily. The heat is incredible, and the sight is breathtaking. But if you don't have a good reason to be here, you might be best leaving.

 

Sphere Outpost <Beta> [RM]

 

Submerge <D> leads to Underneath Central Atlantic.

West <W> leads to Eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Northwest <NW> leads to Atlas Mountains.

North <N> leads to Barbary Coast.

East <E> leads to Eastern Sahara.

South <S> leads to Ivory Coast.

Up <U> leads to Sky Above Sahara.

 

Flash Man arrives from the Barbary Coast.

Flash Man has arrived.

 

Storm Owl has never been one to be unwilling to take matters into his own hands. And so, when he saw that the recon requests he put in weren't getting done, the Fortress V Commander took it upon himself to see to it. An encounter similar to his run-in with Flame Man's terrorists at the Eta sphere, however, is something he is hoping to avoid this time around. Thankfully, the mirror desert is much friendlier for an aerial Reploid than the jungle was.

        Storm Owl flies low along the ground, peering downward briefly and noticing his reflection in the solar panel landscape. The owl would admire the efficiency of this transformed terrain, but instead keeps his optics peeled and his sensors ready. The war bird has been patrolling the area cautiously, trying to spot sentries, detect drone patrols, and otherwise being passively watching. He's still quite far from the outpost itself.

 

The landscape looks extremely similar. Everything glints in the desert sun, sending light everywhere, and making the area slightly more unbearable. Unless, of course, you don't mind getting light in your face. Some people probably don't. But overall, the landscape seems to just be made up of the power plant, and everything seems to shine. Perhaps some do more than others, but that could very well just be because of the way the sun hits said spots.

 

Storm Owl doesn't mind getting the light in his face, although it does cut down on the visibility just a tad. The owl has seen the vast solar panels before, and he idly speculates on whether it would be possible to employ many of them should Repliforce be successful in destroying the Beta Sphere. Something to ask Prismatic about at a later time, Storm Owl supposes. The war bird reaches one of the many waypoints in his patrol route and changes course, starting to head towards another. Thus far, things seem to be pretty quiet. Storm Owl would be surprised at this, given that the Beta Sphere is one of only two remaining spheres in Africa, but it's possible that the bulk of the defences are closer to the outpost itself.

 

The area isn't too varying in structure, except for the few blank spots in the area, all with some sort of rock formation or other structure within them, that would make them hard to build in. But despite these, the majority of the desert is covered in glassy, reflective surfaces.

 

Storm Owl is, thankfully, a very dull person. And so, he doesn't mind the monotone terrain below him. Still, he keeps his sensors ready as he observes the passing solar plains for Prismatic's benefit. Reaching another of his way points while, thus far, seeing hardly anything of interest (although that fact itself is important), Storm Owl once again changes course. As he passes over various rock formations, he pauses in order to scan them for any defences within. Wily is quite adept at hiding guns inside... well... anything, really.

 

Inside of some rock formations, there are traces of metals, but it wouldn't seem to be much upon first glance. Now, if there were ways of telling whether or not certain rock formations were hollow, well, that may produce some results. And, if Storm Owl was able to tell that, in general, the ones with a lot of metals in them were also hollow, well, that's certainly a good bit of information. But, not too many of the rocks are like this. Maybe three or four so far.

 

Storm Owl has excellent sensors, but nothing for getting geological information. Thus, the hollowness will go undetected. Still, Storm Owl keeps track of any rock formations and anything even remotely suspicious for later analysis. Aside from pauses in order to carry that out, however, Storm Owl continues on his way, idly wondering if he's actually being tracked as he goes. Either Robot Master patrols are quite pathetic... or quite incredible. Storm Owl hopes for the best, but expects the worse.

 

Well, they're certainly one or the other. But as he continues, there are slight movements in the sandy patches of the desert. It looks like something small, it could be any number of animals, but then again, perhaps not. Whatever it is, it blends in with the yellow sands relatively well, but there is some slight discoloration. Mostly, though, the landscape is comprised of more of the power plant.

 

Storm Owl is just starting to get disappointed with his patrol when something catches his keen optics. Was there movement down there? Yes, it's most likely animals, but considering Storm Owl has, apart from this, seen absolutely nothing up until now, it's worth at least taking a quick look. Diving downward as he passes from the mirror solar panel terrain to the yellow sands of the original desert, Storm Owl touches down on the ground. He notices the discolouration in the sand, and begins cautiously walking towards it. Given the surprises at Eta Sphere, this could be anything.

 

Yes, it could be anything. What it actually is, however, is a group of Metools. They seems slightly startled at the sudden presence of someone behind them, and begin to scatter, but a few turn around and stare at Storm Owl for a few seconds before following the others into several directions. Whether they are just running in fear, or running to inform someone, is not apparent.

 

"This is the great Beta patrols?" Storm Owl muses allowed, watching the Metools as they begin to skitter away in several directions. Still, presumably they're going to sound some kind of alarm or something. Rather than start shooting at the Nerpium protected hardhats, Storm Owl instead picks one group (or is it one per direction?) at random and begins following it, lifting off into the air to get a better view. Might as well see what the drone is planning to do given a hostile force in the area.

 

While there are a few groups of two or three, most are headed off in seemingly random directions. However, whichever group the bird follows keeps running, eventually until they duck under one of the solar panels. And after that, they don't seem to come out of the other side. They could be hiding under there, or perhaps there's enough space to run underneath all of the solar panels. Maybe there's even a building hidden by them. But, considering the low amount of room to get under, it seemed a tight fit even for the Metools, probably not.

 

Storm Owl picks one of the groups of three, even though the size of the groupings probably doesn't indicate anything in particular. As the trio he's tailing skitters under one of the panels, Storm Owl swoops down and once again has to travel on foot. Sure, this could be some sort of 'cunning' trick by the Metools, but better to find out about whatever they're up to now rather than when the invasion starts. Since there's not enough room for Storm Owl to follow, he cautiously peers underneath to see what the Metools might be up to.

 

The Metools aren't going anywhere. Underneath the solar panel, there are the three chased Metools ducking under their hard hats. One of them, however, peeks up and spits out a small sphere of energy. Truthfully, it's not enough to do any serious damage to an unarmored human, let alone Storm Owl. (Actually, it might cause some 80-year-olds to have a minor heart attack, but that's beside the point.) It's mainly just used to keep the reploid from coming any further in.

 

If it can barely harm a human, then Storm Owl doesn't have much to worry about. He brings down one of his heavily armoured wings to protect himself. There's now a burn mark on the orange metal, but Storm Owl is otherwise unharmed. He takes one other peek inside just to see if the Mets are doing anything aside from just hiding there. Storm Owl's too big to fit in there anyway, and he didn't come to the Mirror Desert in order to shoot things. He has no problem with letting them be.

 

Aside from hiding, they're, well, looking at everything there is. Before they all ran, they were looking around. Right now, while two of the three are ducking, the one that isn't is periodically peeking behind the owl, checking to see if anyone else is there. They seemed to be doing the same thing as Storm Owl, but in reverse: checking to see if anyone else was checking on them.

 

Storm Owl shakes his head in wonder. Who's controlling these Mets, anyhow? Storm Owl stands back up and takes to the air again. Watching Metools stare back at you doesn't exactly accomplish a lot. The war bird once again takes to the air, this time setting himself on a course that will take him closer to the Beta Sphere itself. Surely this place is inhabited by more than just the occasional frightened Metool.

 

The Metools look at each other, and wait for the owl to fly away, then quietly nerp at each other, eventually radioing something to someone else. And, at a remote location, Flash Man gathers the information. The unfortunate thing is that the Repliforce knows their approximate location. The good news is that he didn't seem to discover anything too helpful... yet.

 

Storm Owl didn't discover much, it's true. Aside from the fact that there doesn't seem to be much in the way of defences out this far. Unless you include the odd Metool running around scared. Of course, it's possible that there was a greater defence hidden in the solar panels for a /real/ invasion force, or perhaps those rocky formations back there had more than meets the eye. Regardless, Storm Owl's scouting mission is over, and he streaks back towards the safety of the Fortress V.