As Christofer and Kallenger continued down the pathway it begins to look more recently used, with boot prints and tire tracks that looked like they belonged to some type of bike or atv. Even farther down the path the sound of a woman's voice could be heard off to the right of the pathway in a lighter density section of the forest "....Empire units in the area receiving me? This is Staff Sergeant Helen Cox of the fifty-sixth engineering battalion requesting extraction." *static is faintly heard* Is anyone receiving me?!"
In her rig she was stuck blasting through rubble with her contact beam down on the ground clearing a path for herself to walk through and get to places she needed to go. After Jill heard the comm she immediately responded "Holy crap someone else is out here? I've been too busy noticing other things. Say where are you so I can find you?" Jill asked eagerly making her way somewhere she didn't necessarily know where. Jill was a skilled engineer with a suit that would allow her to last in space for a time so she could make repairs to vehicles that had been damaged outside of airlocks. She carried a contact beam which was a high intensity laser that could break apart larger materials or wreckage so paths could be made clearer, essentially it was a deadly laser pointer.
[Warning : this is a background only post, feel free to PM me if there's incoherences so I can correct them !]
Harry is what they call an "APEX", a silicon based life form, capable of assimilating nearly every material and with infinite possibilities, 5 years ago the C.E.L.L., a GE's R&D division, implanted human consciousness into human shaped APEX, creating some sort of metal golems with a human mind.
Over the years, the C.E.L.L. observed excellent result from the APEX soldiers and began implementing APEX AIs(or EXI for short) with human consciousness paterns into all of their systems, at the point of completely removing their artificial intelligences for more efficient, living ones.
The EXI are very childish, human like and are represented by holograms, they also are all female (the C.E.L.L. director, Malcom Green, argued that EXI with female thoughts parterns are less likely to rebel or to be aggressive)
Around a year ago, it appears evident that the APEX was immensely powerfull, it's soldiers clearly overpowering the human ones and their EXIs proved to be more efficient and intelligent than the standard AIs, to prevent what it saw as an upcomming disaster, the GE ordered the Omega project (the one in charge of the APEX) to be shutdown. In a matter of weeks, it's bases and laboratories were evacuated before being sealed, the consul also ordered that the APEX must be replaced from the systems.
But some facilities remained secretely active under C.E.L.L. command, continuing to research new APEX applications and replacing standard C.E.L.L. equipment with APEX, as all APEX equipment had been seized by the GE.
The orginal APEX unit was also shutdown, most of it's member being put into stasis into different C.E.L.L. and GE facilities (and not killed, for an unknown reason), however the 400 first transformed soldiers were kept as a "disposable" task force for the GE needs, they were allocated some of the remaining APEX equipment and EXIs, as well as a small number of very experimental and extremely dangerous weaponry.
Why did the GE thought that the APEX was a danger ? Not only because it was intelligent, but because it had an insane capability of self regeneration, only one cell of an APEX soldier could regenerate the entire soldier in a matter of days (or hours, depending of the environment).
Cooper Harry Rosenfield is the Commanding Officer (CO) of the last APEX unit, and is the only anomaly in this group, when his consciousness was implemented into an APEX, his memory was wiped clean and all of the data on him was destroyed by the GE, for still unknown reasons, because of this, all the EXI considers him a brother.
[Okay just so you know, I am going to rewrite this background again, again and again, that's how I work, I write a bêta version and then upgrade it, and never stops changing it until I found it perfect]
Harry is what they call an "APEX", a silicon based life form, capable of assimilating nearly every material and with infinite possibilities, 5 years ago the C.E.L.L., a GE's R&D division, implanted human consciousness into human shaped APEX, creating some sort of metal golems with a human mind.
Over the years, the C.E.L.L. observed excellent result from the APEX soldiers and began implementing APEX AIs(or EXI for short) with human consciousness paterns into all of their systems, at the point of completely removing their artificial intelligences for more efficient, living ones.
The EXI are very childish, human like and are represented by holograms, they also are all female (the C.E.L.L. director, Malcom Green, argued that EXI with female thoughts parterns are less likely to rebel or to be aggressive)
Around a year ago, it appears evident that the APEX was immensely powerfull, it's soldiers clearly overpowering the human ones and their EXIs proved to be more efficient and intelligent than the standard AIs, to prevent what it saw as an upcomming disaster, the GE ordered the Omega project (the one in charge of the APEX) to be shutdown. In a matter of weeks, it's bases and laboratories were evacuated before being sealed, the consul also ordered that the APEX must be replaced from the systems.
But some facilities remained secretely active under C.E.L.L. command, continuing to research new APEX applications and replacing standard C.E.L.L. equipment with APEX, as all APEX equipment had been seized by the GE.
The orginal APEX unit was also shutdown, most of it's member being put into stasis into different C.E.L.L. and GE facilities (and not killed, for an unknown reason), however the 400 first transformed soldiers were kept as a "disposable" task force for the GE needs, they were allocated some of the remaining APEX equipment and EXIs, as well as a small number of very experimental and extremely dangerous weaponry.
Why did the GE thought that the APEX was a danger ? Not only because it was intelligent, but because it had an insane capability of self regeneration, only one cell of an APEX soldier could regenerate the entire soldier in a matter of days (or hours, depending of the environment).
Cooper Harry Rosenfield is the Commanding Officer (CO) of the last APEX unit, and is the only anomaly in this group, when his consciousness was implemented into an APEX, his memory was wiped clean and all of the data on him was destroyed by the GE, for still unknown reasons, because of this, all the EXI considers him a brother.
[Okay just so you know, I am going to rewrite this background again, again and again, that's how I work, I write a bêta version and then upgrade it, and never stops changing it until I found it perfect]
"Oh a sparing match? Let me tell you Ketin, if you rely on luck too much it'll bite you in ze ass later" Kampfer says as he takes his seat on is little lab set up and begins to work. He picks up a pair of tweezers and uses his own claw to mess with a couple of metal pieces that soon began to float on the table relatively close to each other. Just began to pick at it and make notes of findings as the sparing match was underway behind him. He didn't really mind and but did enjoy hearing both of them duking it out with each other. "Soon its sparing...zen love making" he jokes to himself as he gives a weezly laugh.
The commanding the three battleships was Ascendant Knight Odin, head of the Ascendant Order. he looks like any other ascendant knight but was a dark blue color with a black face with red eyes, but like the god himself, he was missing an eye replaced by a scar going diagonal over it. He also holds rather long two prong spear with occasional lighting coming out of it. He stood there as they arrive to intercept Aylen, but ne of the crew reports to him "Sir we have detected an old heavy cruiser coming to intercept us" He looks at the crew member and says "What's the ships name?" in deep elderly voice.
"It's uhhh, the Kingsbane sir" the crew member says as he looks at the monitor and then back at the knight. The old knight shook his head and said "Hail the Kingsbane" the crew member replied "Yes sir" and made his effort to contact the ship. With the secure channel open between the Kingsbane and the Kaiser Battleship, Odin says to the older ship's captain "This is Ascendant Knight Odin to the Captain of the Kingsbane, our quarry is the one called Aelyn and his crew not with you, stay out of our way and we promise not fire upon you" as the Battleships jump out of slipspace, quiet a distance from the old planet and away from Aelyn
The commanding the three battleships was Ascendant Knight Odin, head of the Ascendant Order. he looks like any other ascendant knight but was a dark blue color with a black face with red eyes, but like the god himself, he was missing an eye replaced by a scar going diagonal over it. He also holds rather long two prong spear with occasional lighting coming out of it. He stood there as they arrive to intercept Aylen, but ne of the crew reports to him "Sir we have detected an old heavy cruiser coming to intercept us" He looks at the crew member and says "What's the ships name?" in deep elderly voice.
"It's uhhh, the Kingsbane sir" the crew member says as he looks at the monitor and then back at the knight. The old knight shook his head and said "Hail the Kingsbane" the crew member replied "Yes sir" and made his effort to contact the ship. With the secure channel open between the Kingsbane and the Kaiser Battleship, Odin says to the older ship's captain "This is Ascendant Knight Odin to the Captain of the Kingsbane, our quarry is the one called Aelyn and his crew not with you, stay out of our way and we promise not fire upon you" as the Battleships jump out of slipspace, quiet a distance from the old planet and away from Aelyn
This had gone horribly wrong.
When admiral Malbec learned about Kallenger being back on Ardella, he imediately ordered commander Harry to grab a few soldiers, go meet her and bring her back ASAP to the capitol city.
As ordered, Harry and 20 of his nearest available soldiers boarded an AMX-70-0-3 Spacecraft "Avenger", wich was a polyvalent canonier capable of transporting men directly into the battlefield from orbit, it was equipped with two MXX-M770 dual laser blasters under the wings as well as 2 SM-44 heavy APEX gatling guns on the front and a GM-44 20 mm APEX cannon just under the cockpit, it dispose of an heavy shielding and APEX reinforced armor plates, it also have multiples EXI slots and a long range communication array for recon missions.
As the ship was at less than a kilometer of the space station where was Kallenger when the signal came in, deactivating all the non APEX systems, wich was just the communications, the thrusters and the reactor.
The ship suddendly began spinning as the thrusters nearly detonated, switching to apparently completly aleatory thrust every second, the ship began spinning as it nearly hit the station.
-Alarm ! Alarm ! Communications offline ! Thrusters and reactor out of control !
-I know Rosa ! Answered Harry
He was in the cockpit of the ship, along with 3 other soldiers, one was struggling to keep balance by gripping the pilot seat Harry was on while the two others were on their own seats and trying to manipulate the consoles.
-Sir ! All the electronics consoles seems to have gone haywire and the EXI holograms are offline ! What are your orders ? Said a soldier on his right, sergent Alexandor.
-Try to keep the ship in one piece ! Activate inertia dampeners manually if you can and seal the truster plasma input !
The soldier nodded before litteraly reeping apart his console to access the wires under it, soon imitated by his colleague.
Eleana, the soldier behind Harry, clasped her hand on his shoulder and pointed something with the other.
-Hey, do you see that ?
She was pointing towards the Nothern hemisphere, towards the nuclear detonations.
This isn't good thought Harry
Suddenly a sattelite came into view, violently colliding with the station, shattering them both to pieces.
The soldier on his right pulled back from the mess of wire in front of him before adressing to the commander :
-Done, what do we do now ?
-We must get to the surface, with all ships out of control, the planet orbit is going to turn into a deadly scrap yard.
-And how are we going to do that exactly ? Asked Eleana
-With the reactor purge, answered Harry and Rosa at the same time
Harry frowned again, Rosa was one of the EXI which his squad was assigned with, her, along with 7 others, were supposed to assist them in battle as well as keep track of...well, everything.
He looked at the vocabulator integrated to the command board, even if he couldn't see her he knew she was sticking her tong out at him, he sighed, the EXI tended to be so immature some time...
He refocused as the radar came back to life, signaling multiples debris and...a shuttle, a lonely, completely wrecked shuttle, which was going straight towards the surface.
Lieutenant Eleana looked at the radar screen before facing her CO.
-Do you think she's... ?
-That she's piloting it ?
She nodded.
-I think so, after all those agents are trained from childhood, she must have a rather quick thinking.
She bit her lower lip as she heard the acid tone of her leader, he really hate that program, not the agent themselves, but the one who trained them.
-Operatives Eleana and Harry, I must warn you that you are getting off topic, I believe it would be more efficient if you would focus on the task at hand. Said another voice from the vocabulator
-Yes Ether, answered the four soldiers in unisson.
-So, what do we do ? Continued Eleana.
-We are going after this ship.
Harry turned his head toward the left soldier, the navigation officer, private Santos.
-Santos ! Are the gyroscopes still online ?
-Yes sir !
-Then align us with this ship estimated landing point !
-Sir yes sir !
-Alexandor ?
-Yes ?
-Set the APEX armor plates to thermal and cinetic resistance.
-On it sir !
Harry waited for a few seconds as the ship began stablizing before aligning with the shuttle's trajectory, then he activated the barely working intercom to adress to all the soldier in the ship's back.
-Okay boys, we have a serious problem, it seems that something as deactivated nearly every electric device we have, and from what I can see, it's the same everywhere, our mission is now to get to the surface ASAP and investigate a civilian shuttle which could potentially contain our target, in order to do so, I am obligated to activate the reactor purge, so everyone, get ready for an harsh landing !
He pulled back into his seat, a few seconds later the intercom crackled.
-This is corporal André Asimov, we are all ready.
-Good.
Harry then turned towards Eleana who took the last seat in the cockpit before nodding.
The commander then faced the command board and looked at the big red button stamped with EMERGENCY REACTOR PURGE-LAST RESOURCE MESURE, DO NOT USE UNLESS EMERGENCY, the reactor purge was rather simple : they used plasma thrusters and a plasma reactor core, in case of emergency, the ship can simply eject the reactor via the engines, at the cost of completely melting them, but since they were already completely wrecked, it didn't really matter.
Harry release the safety lock before raising the plastic cap wich was protecting the button, then he stared for a second before firmly pressing it.
In a matter of second the ship jettinson it's own plasma core, propulsing himself towards the planet.
As the ship entered the atmosphere it began to shake, when the ground began approaching at an alarming rate, Eleana spoke to Harry :
-You are sure this is a good idea ?
-It was our only option !
As the crash became imminent, he pressed one last time the intercom button.
-Brace for impact !
The ship hit the ground with all of it's kinetic force, creating a deep crater, aproximately 1 kilometer away of the shuttle landing point, the detonation shook the ground as the kinetic energy was transformed into an impressive shock wave. If Kallenger was here, there was no way in hell she could miss that.
When admiral Malbec learned about Kallenger being back on Ardella, he imediately ordered commander Harry to grab a few soldiers, go meet her and bring her back ASAP to the capitol city.
As ordered, Harry and 20 of his nearest available soldiers boarded an AMX-70-0-3 Spacecraft "Avenger", wich was a polyvalent canonier capable of transporting men directly into the battlefield from orbit, it was equipped with two MXX-M770 dual laser blasters under the wings as well as 2 SM-44 heavy APEX gatling guns on the front and a GM-44 20 mm APEX cannon just under the cockpit, it dispose of an heavy shielding and APEX reinforced armor plates, it also have multiples EXI slots and a long range communication array for recon missions.
As the ship was at less than a kilometer of the space station where was Kallenger when the signal came in, deactivating all the non APEX systems, wich was just the communications, the thrusters and the reactor.
The ship suddendly began spinning as the thrusters nearly detonated, switching to apparently completly aleatory thrust every second, the ship began spinning as it nearly hit the station.
-Alarm ! Alarm ! Communications offline ! Thrusters and reactor out of control !
-I know Rosa ! Answered Harry
He was in the cockpit of the ship, along with 3 other soldiers, one was struggling to keep balance by gripping the pilot seat Harry was on while the two others were on their own seats and trying to manipulate the consoles.
-Sir ! All the electronics consoles seems to have gone haywire and the EXI holograms are offline ! What are your orders ? Said a soldier on his right, sergent Alexandor.
-Try to keep the ship in one piece ! Activate inertia dampeners manually if you can and seal the truster plasma input !
The soldier nodded before litteraly reeping apart his console to access the wires under it, soon imitated by his colleague.
Eleana, the soldier behind Harry, clasped her hand on his shoulder and pointed something with the other.
-Hey, do you see that ?
She was pointing towards the Nothern hemisphere, towards the nuclear detonations.
This isn't good thought Harry
Suddenly a sattelite came into view, violently colliding with the station, shattering them both to pieces.
The soldier on his right pulled back from the mess of wire in front of him before adressing to the commander :
-Done, what do we do now ?
-We must get to the surface, with all ships out of control, the planet orbit is going to turn into a deadly scrap yard.
-And how are we going to do that exactly ? Asked Eleana
-With the reactor purge, answered Harry and Rosa at the same time
Harry frowned again, Rosa was one of the EXI which his squad was assigned with, her, along with 7 others, were supposed to assist them in battle as well as keep track of...well, everything.
He looked at the vocabulator integrated to the command board, even if he couldn't see her he knew she was sticking her tong out at him, he sighed, the EXI tended to be so immature some time...
He refocused as the radar came back to life, signaling multiples debris and...a shuttle, a lonely, completely wrecked shuttle, which was going straight towards the surface.
Lieutenant Eleana looked at the radar screen before facing her CO.
-Do you think she's... ?
-That she's piloting it ?
She nodded.
-I think so, after all those agents are trained from childhood, she must have a rather quick thinking.
She bit her lower lip as she heard the acid tone of her leader, he really hate that program, not the agent themselves, but the one who trained them.
-Operatives Eleana and Harry, I must warn you that you are getting off topic, I believe it would be more efficient if you would focus on the task at hand. Said another voice from the vocabulator
-Yes Ether, answered the four soldiers in unisson.
-So, what do we do ? Continued Eleana.
-We are going after this ship.
Harry turned his head toward the left soldier, the navigation officer, private Santos.
-Santos ! Are the gyroscopes still online ?
-Yes sir !
-Then align us with this ship estimated landing point !
-Sir yes sir !
-Alexandor ?
-Yes ?
-Set the APEX armor plates to thermal and cinetic resistance.
-On it sir !
Harry waited for a few seconds as the ship began stablizing before aligning with the shuttle's trajectory, then he activated the barely working intercom to adress to all the soldier in the ship's back.
-Okay boys, we have a serious problem, it seems that something as deactivated nearly every electric device we have, and from what I can see, it's the same everywhere, our mission is now to get to the surface ASAP and investigate a civilian shuttle which could potentially contain our target, in order to do so, I am obligated to activate the reactor purge, so everyone, get ready for an harsh landing !
He pulled back into his seat, a few seconds later the intercom crackled.
-This is corporal André Asimov, we are all ready.
-Good.
Harry then turned towards Eleana who took the last seat in the cockpit before nodding.
The commander then faced the command board and looked at the big red button stamped with EMERGENCY REACTOR PURGE-LAST RESOURCE MESURE, DO NOT USE UNLESS EMERGENCY, the reactor purge was rather simple : they used plasma thrusters and a plasma reactor core, in case of emergency, the ship can simply eject the reactor via the engines, at the cost of completely melting them, but since they were already completely wrecked, it didn't really matter.
Harry release the safety lock before raising the plastic cap wich was protecting the button, then he stared for a second before firmly pressing it.
In a matter of second the ship jettinson it's own plasma core, propulsing himself towards the planet.
As the ship entered the atmosphere it began to shake, when the ground began approaching at an alarming rate, Eleana spoke to Harry :
-You are sure this is a good idea ?
-It was our only option !
As the crash became imminent, he pressed one last time the intercom button.
-Brace for impact !
The ship hit the ground with all of it's kinetic force, creating a deep crater, aproximately 1 kilometer away of the shuttle landing point, the detonation shook the ground as the kinetic energy was transformed into an impressive shock wave. If Kallenger was here, there was no way in hell she could miss that.
It was not long before Royanna stopped dead in her tracks, holding out a hand in a subtle gesture for Christofer to halt as well. She stood still as a rock and listened – and was pleasantly surprised at what she heard. With the hand signal for ‘weapons cold’, the woman continued onward, listening carefully to pinpoint exactly where this voice was coming from. Really such careful listening was not necessary since the clearing was directly connected to the increasingly traveled pathway.
She emerged rather suddenly from around that corner and wasted no time, removing the badge that hung on the inside of her coat to hold it out as she approached.
“S-Class Special Agent R. Kallenger.” she said promptly, introductorily.
The blue-green half-diamond shape was all she needed to show. Even though the lower half was hanging around Chrostofer’s neck, only half was necessary to validate her position. ‘S-Class’, the black-ops division of the Galactic Empire, S-Class agents did not technically exist, but their credentials were nonetheless universally valid. The division also did not technically exist, though it was universally known – and even the highest ranking members of the Imperial military forces were obligated to their will with one flash of the badge. Indeed, S-Class agents were few and far between, and nobody knew what they were actually doing at any given time, much less who they were – but the fact that an S-Class agent was now flashing her badge at this Staff Sergeant was unusual. S-Class agents were usually too busy conducting business (when they did at all) with colonels, generals, and scientists to bother with an engineering battalion.
Why in Space had an S-Class agent been sent here? Sure, the meltdowns were catastrophic; maybe she was running an investigation on the cause? To lower ranking militants, S-Class agents were just S-Class agents – there was no reason for anyone to know their real designations – Kallenger being captain of the DEU, for example. It would be assumed that she was here on some important business, something vague and top-secret.
But that theory was immediately made very unlikely as she continued. There was no need for her to tell the Staff Sergeant that she, as an S-Class, was now and until further notice her commanding officer.
“I need everything you know on the situation here. My craft went down in the EMP from those blasts. I haven’t been able to establish any outside contact and all electronics are down – I’m amazed that thing’s working at all.” She gave a nod toward Cox’s communicator.
Not waiting for the Staff Sergeant to answer, Royanna spoke up “Point two kilometers south of the old radio t-”
There was a thunderous, earth-shattering crash as a vessel – which had been largely silent during its’ descent – collided with the rocky, jagged cliffs not far from where Kallenger’s shuttle had crash landed – albeit a whole lot more smoothly than whatever poor souls had been in this latest wreck. Royanna’s first instinct was to grasp onto Christofer’s shoulder – not to brace herself, but him – against the trembling recoil that rippled through the ground beneath them. That, and to reassure him if only the slightest bit – she did not stop to think about how interesting it was that such an action had become instinctive and habitual.
Great plumes of black began to bellow up from the north, indicating that either the wreck had caught aflame, or the crash had set a fire in the yellowish grass that topped the craggy cliffs.
Gradually, their hearing returned. Royanna was saying to Cox “Get the name and rank of whoever you’ve got on the radio there. Then we’ll look into that.” a generalized motion in the direction of the crash site.
But realizing that the wreck was north of their position – and possibly even further north than her own shuttle had crash-landed – she was re-thinking her decision as Cox worked on getting more information over the barely audible voice over her communicator.
Too much, it was all too much. It went without saying that she hated all this, but she really hated all this.
Plus, the lingering feeling in her gut that said there was something, or someone in those jungle-forests who was not very friendly was still nagging away.
She emerged rather suddenly from around that corner and wasted no time, removing the badge that hung on the inside of her coat to hold it out as she approached.
“S-Class Special Agent R. Kallenger.” she said promptly, introductorily.
The blue-green half-diamond shape was all she needed to show. Even though the lower half was hanging around Chrostofer’s neck, only half was necessary to validate her position. ‘S-Class’, the black-ops division of the Galactic Empire, S-Class agents did not technically exist, but their credentials were nonetheless universally valid. The division also did not technically exist, though it was universally known – and even the highest ranking members of the Imperial military forces were obligated to their will with one flash of the badge. Indeed, S-Class agents were few and far between, and nobody knew what they were actually doing at any given time, much less who they were – but the fact that an S-Class agent was now flashing her badge at this Staff Sergeant was unusual. S-Class agents were usually too busy conducting business (when they did at all) with colonels, generals, and scientists to bother with an engineering battalion.
Why in Space had an S-Class agent been sent here? Sure, the meltdowns were catastrophic; maybe she was running an investigation on the cause? To lower ranking militants, S-Class agents were just S-Class agents – there was no reason for anyone to know their real designations – Kallenger being captain of the DEU, for example. It would be assumed that she was here on some important business, something vague and top-secret.
But that theory was immediately made very unlikely as she continued. There was no need for her to tell the Staff Sergeant that she, as an S-Class, was now and until further notice her commanding officer.
“I need everything you know on the situation here. My craft went down in the EMP from those blasts. I haven’t been able to establish any outside contact and all electronics are down – I’m amazed that thing’s working at all.” She gave a nod toward Cox’s communicator.
Not waiting for the Staff Sergeant to answer, Royanna spoke up “Point two kilometers south of the old radio t-”
There was a thunderous, earth-shattering crash as a vessel – which had been largely silent during its’ descent – collided with the rocky, jagged cliffs not far from where Kallenger’s shuttle had crash landed – albeit a whole lot more smoothly than whatever poor souls had been in this latest wreck. Royanna’s first instinct was to grasp onto Christofer’s shoulder – not to brace herself, but him – against the trembling recoil that rippled through the ground beneath them. That, and to reassure him if only the slightest bit – she did not stop to think about how interesting it was that such an action had become instinctive and habitual.
Great plumes of black began to bellow up from the north, indicating that either the wreck had caught aflame, or the crash had set a fire in the yellowish grass that topped the craggy cliffs.
Gradually, their hearing returned. Royanna was saying to Cox “Get the name and rank of whoever you’ve got on the radio there. Then we’ll look into that.” a generalized motion in the direction of the crash site.
But realizing that the wreck was north of their position – and possibly even further north than her own shuttle had crash-landed – she was re-thinking her decision as Cox worked on getting more information over the barely audible voice over her communicator.
Too much, it was all too much. It went without saying that she hated all this, but she really hated all this.
Plus, the lingering feeling in her gut that said there was something, or someone in those jungle-forests who was not very friendly was still nagging away.
WARNING
SUIT INTEGRITY : 28%
BODY INTEGRITY : 88%
HEAVY DAMAGES SUSTAINED-SWITCHING TO FACTORY-MOD SUIT
INITIATING PROXIMITY SCAN
...
...
PROXIMITY SCAN COMPLETED
FIRE DETECTED-OPERATOR IMMUNE TO FIRE, DANGER IGNORED
AREA CLEAR AND SECURED
RUNNING COMMUNICATIONS CHECK...
...
...
SHORT RANGE APEX SQUAD COMMUNICATIONS ONLINE
SHORT RANGE STANDARD COMMUNICATIONS 50% OPERATIONNAL
MEDIUM RANGE COMMUNICATIONS OFFLINE
LONG RANGE COMMUNICATIONS OFFLINE
CRYNET INTERSTELLAR NETWORK FONCTIONNAL-RESTRICTED TO EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS ONLY
INCOMMING TRANSMISSION...
...
...
NEW INSTRUCTIONS AKNOWLEDGED : ACQUIRE AND RETRIEVE AGENT KALLENGER TO THE NEAREST C.E.L.L. WARSHIP FOR EXTRACTION-DO NOT COMPLY TO MALBEC ORDERS.
NEW INSTRUCTIONS AKNOWLEDGED : AVOID ALL GE'S FORCES, NEUTRALIZE IF NECESSARY, DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED.
COMMANDING OFFICER CHANGED-MALCOM GREEN IS NOW THIS OPERATION COMMANDING OFFICER.
COMMAND CHANGED-THIS UNIT IS NOW UNDER THE ORDERS OF THE C.E.L.L. HIGH COMMAND.
RUNNING AREA SCAN...
...
...
AREA SCAN COMPLETED
UNKNOWN STRUCTURE DETECTED
UNKNOWN SHIP DETECTED
SHIP RECOGNIZED AS POTENTIAL TARGET LOCATION
COMMUNICATION DEVICE DETECTED
INFILTRATING COMMUNICATION DEVICE SYSTEMS...
...
...
INFILTRATION COMPLETED
RETRIEVING AUDIO FILES...
AUDIO FILES RETRIEVED
LAUCHING RECORD :
"-....Empire units in the area receiving me? This is Staff Sergeant Helen Cox of the fifty-sixth engineering battalion requesting extraction. *static* Is anyone receiving me?!
-Holy crap someone else is out here? I've been too busy noticing other things. Say where are you so I can find you?
-S-Class Special Agent R. Kallenger, I need everything you know on the situation here. My craft went down in the EMP from those blasts. I haven’t been able to establish any outside contact and all electronics are down – I’m amazed that thing’s working at all.
[Insert text here]
Point two kilometers south of the old radio t-
*Loud crashing sound*
-Get the name and rank of whoever you’ve got on the radio there. Then we’ll look into that."
END OF RECORD
ANALYSING CONTENT...
VOICE 1 SELF IDENTIFICATED AS GE MILITARY PERSONEL
VOICE 2 DIDN'T SELF IDENTIFICATED BUT HAS ACCESS TO MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS, CONSIDERED AS A TANGO
VOICE 3 SELF IDENTIFICATED AS TARGET
ANALYSING VOICE 3 PATERNS
VOICE 3 PATERNS MATCHING S-CLASS SPECIAL AGENT ROYANNA KALLENGER OF THE GALACTIC EMPIRE VOICE PATERN
TARGET LOCATED
OBJECTIVE CREATED : RECOVER AGENT ROYAAN, NEUTRALIZE ALL GE FORCES IN THE AREA
TANGO NUMBERS : UNKNOWN, 2 ESTIMATED.
WARNING-POTENTIAL TANGOS INCOMMING IN AREA
OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE ADDED : CUT COMMUNICATIONS, ELIMINATE/NEUTRALIZE TANGO 2
ALL OBJECTIVES READY
WAKING UP OPERATIVE...
Harry suddenly opened his eyes and stood up, pistol in hand.
-Wow, wow, easy there commander, everything's okay. Said sergent Anedia
He was in a clearing in a forest, with his men around him, most of them were intact and in uniform, but some of them were visibly damaged and were wearing the grey factory mod armor.
-What happened ?
-The ship crashed, you died, we rebuilt you, the usual. Answered Andrew.
Harry cursed under his breath while glaring daggers at Andrew, out of all of the men here, he was the only one who could talk to him like that, for the only reason that he was a Alpha Commando, the only one apart from him in this group.
-Apart from that, what did I missed ?
-Nothing sir, replied Anedia, we just crashed a minute ago.
-Oh, wait, why wasn't I awake ?
-The EXI made you unconscious and insisted that you had to be fully operationnal before waking you up.
Harry frowned, he knew that the EXI considered him a brother and always took care of him when they could, but that doesn't explain everything, they always seemed to want him intact, for a reason or another.
While he was thinking, Eleana snuck up behind him before putting an hand on his right shoulder.
-What are your orders sir ?
Harry's eyes flickered.
-You didn't received the message ?
Eleana looked at the others before shaking her head.
-No sir, why ?
-We did ! Exclaimed Epsilon, her hologram materialzing in front of Harry's face, her fist high in the air in a winning pose.
Harry sighed, and here we go...
-Aww...C'mon Harry ! Be a little more energic ! No ? Said Epsilon as she leaned in front of his face.
The EXI holograms were from four to eight inches tall, and were always in one color and representing a young human female.
Epsilon was the youngest EXI in the group, she was childish, immature and bubling with energy, ever since she saw Harry and his neutral expression, she made it a personnal task to "energize" him, she was represented by a 15 years old european girl and her colour was white.
Harry closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, Epsilon winced before disapearing.
-So, I suppose the holograms are working then ?
He opened his eyes and saw Anedia nodding in front of him.
-Very well then, everyone ! Our objective is still to capture Royanna Kallenger, her location is less than two kilometers south from here, we have been instructed by Malcom Green himself to avoid or neutralize any and all imperial military personel in the area ! We have two tangos confirmed ! Let's go ! Tight formation, deadly force authorized but set your weapons to stun, I don't want any unecessary casualty ! Move it marines !
[Starting with a good old crashing ship, seems mandatory for this RP]
SUIT INTEGRITY : 28%
BODY INTEGRITY : 88%
HEAVY DAMAGES SUSTAINED-SWITCHING TO FACTORY-MOD SUIT
INITIATING PROXIMITY SCAN
...
...
PROXIMITY SCAN COMPLETED
FIRE DETECTED-OPERATOR IMMUNE TO FIRE, DANGER IGNORED
AREA CLEAR AND SECURED
RUNNING COMMUNICATIONS CHECK...
...
...
SHORT RANGE APEX SQUAD COMMUNICATIONS ONLINE
SHORT RANGE STANDARD COMMUNICATIONS 50% OPERATIONNAL
MEDIUM RANGE COMMUNICATIONS OFFLINE
LONG RANGE COMMUNICATIONS OFFLINE
CRYNET INTERSTELLAR NETWORK FONCTIONNAL-RESTRICTED TO EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS ONLY
INCOMMING TRANSMISSION...
...
...
NEW INSTRUCTIONS AKNOWLEDGED : ACQUIRE AND RETRIEVE AGENT KALLENGER TO THE NEAREST C.E.L.L. WARSHIP FOR EXTRACTION-DO NOT COMPLY TO MALBEC ORDERS.
NEW INSTRUCTIONS AKNOWLEDGED : AVOID ALL GE'S FORCES, NEUTRALIZE IF NECESSARY, DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED.
COMMANDING OFFICER CHANGED-MALCOM GREEN IS NOW THIS OPERATION COMMANDING OFFICER.
COMMAND CHANGED-THIS UNIT IS NOW UNDER THE ORDERS OF THE C.E.L.L. HIGH COMMAND.
RUNNING AREA SCAN...
...
...
AREA SCAN COMPLETED
UNKNOWN STRUCTURE DETECTED
UNKNOWN SHIP DETECTED
SHIP RECOGNIZED AS POTENTIAL TARGET LOCATION
COMMUNICATION DEVICE DETECTED
INFILTRATING COMMUNICATION DEVICE SYSTEMS...
...
...
INFILTRATION COMPLETED
RETRIEVING AUDIO FILES...
AUDIO FILES RETRIEVED
LAUCHING RECORD :
"-....Empire units in the area receiving me? This is Staff Sergeant Helen Cox of the fifty-sixth engineering battalion requesting extraction. *static* Is anyone receiving me?!
-Holy crap someone else is out here? I've been too busy noticing other things. Say where are you so I can find you?
-S-Class Special Agent R. Kallenger, I need everything you know on the situation here. My craft went down in the EMP from those blasts. I haven’t been able to establish any outside contact and all electronics are down – I’m amazed that thing’s working at all.
[Insert text here]
Point two kilometers south of the old radio t-
*Loud crashing sound*
-Get the name and rank of whoever you’ve got on the radio there. Then we’ll look into that."
END OF RECORD
ANALYSING CONTENT...
VOICE 1 SELF IDENTIFICATED AS GE MILITARY PERSONEL
VOICE 2 DIDN'T SELF IDENTIFICATED BUT HAS ACCESS TO MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS, CONSIDERED AS A TANGO
VOICE 3 SELF IDENTIFICATED AS TARGET
ANALYSING VOICE 3 PATERNS
VOICE 3 PATERNS MATCHING S-CLASS SPECIAL AGENT ROYANNA KALLENGER OF THE GALACTIC EMPIRE VOICE PATERN
TARGET LOCATED
OBJECTIVE CREATED : RECOVER AGENT ROYAAN, NEUTRALIZE ALL GE FORCES IN THE AREA
TANGO NUMBERS : UNKNOWN, 2 ESTIMATED.
WARNING-POTENTIAL TANGOS INCOMMING IN AREA
OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE ADDED : CUT COMMUNICATIONS, ELIMINATE/NEUTRALIZE TANGO 2
ALL OBJECTIVES READY
WAKING UP OPERATIVE...
Harry suddenly opened his eyes and stood up, pistol in hand.
-Wow, wow, easy there commander, everything's okay. Said sergent Anedia
He was in a clearing in a forest, with his men around him, most of them were intact and in uniform, but some of them were visibly damaged and were wearing the grey factory mod armor.
-What happened ?
-The ship crashed, you died, we rebuilt you, the usual. Answered Andrew.
Harry cursed under his breath while glaring daggers at Andrew, out of all of the men here, he was the only one who could talk to him like that, for the only reason that he was a Alpha Commando, the only one apart from him in this group.
-Apart from that, what did I missed ?
-Nothing sir, replied Anedia, we just crashed a minute ago.
-Oh, wait, why wasn't I awake ?
-The EXI made you unconscious and insisted that you had to be fully operationnal before waking you up.
Harry frowned, he knew that the EXI considered him a brother and always took care of him when they could, but that doesn't explain everything, they always seemed to want him intact, for a reason or another.
While he was thinking, Eleana snuck up behind him before putting an hand on his right shoulder.
-What are your orders sir ?
Harry's eyes flickered.
-You didn't received the message ?
Eleana looked at the others before shaking her head.
-No sir, why ?
-We did ! Exclaimed Epsilon, her hologram materialzing in front of Harry's face, her fist high in the air in a winning pose.
Harry sighed, and here we go...
-Aww...C'mon Harry ! Be a little more energic ! No ? Said Epsilon as she leaned in front of his face.
The EXI holograms were from four to eight inches tall, and were always in one color and representing a young human female.
Epsilon was the youngest EXI in the group, she was childish, immature and bubling with energy, ever since she saw Harry and his neutral expression, she made it a personnal task to "energize" him, she was represented by a 15 years old european girl and her colour was white.
Harry closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, Epsilon winced before disapearing.
-So, I suppose the holograms are working then ?
He opened his eyes and saw Anedia nodding in front of him.
-Very well then, everyone ! Our objective is still to capture Royanna Kallenger, her location is less than two kilometers south from here, we have been instructed by Malcom Green himself to avoid or neutralize any and all imperial military personel in the area ! We have two tangos confirmed ! Let's go ! Tight formation, deadly force authorized but set your weapons to stun, I don't want any unecessary casualty ! Move it marines !
[Starting with a good old crashing ship, seems mandatory for this RP]
In the mean time...
Malcom Green rose from his seat, intensely concentrated.
-Do you think it's worth it Malcom ?
Malcom turned around and saw Aaron, his old friend and second in command, he smiled before answering his question.
-If what Alpha 6 says is true, then yes, it's worth it, it has been decades since the C.E.L.L. has last encountered the Stella Vientium, but we never forgot this encounter, this Aelyn, whoever he is, could be the key to all of this.
-If you say so. Replied Aaron, dubitative.
-Sir sir !
The door opened as a soldier entered te room, completely exhausted.
-What is it marine ?
-Sir *puff* we *huff* have lost contact with facility 10-1-1-BT !
The two mans stared at the soldier for a split second, completely stunned.
The research facility 10-1-1-BT was the most important research base ever built by the C.E.L.L., for two reasons :
1. It was the place were was stored the last vial of the MIA-77-O-B Tactical Viral Super-Weapon, the virus who was supposed to be destroyed in the annihilation of it's research base after the outbreak, decades ago.
2. The first Solaria fragment was housed there, Solaria is the most ambitious experimental project ever conducted by the C.E.L.L., they captured an Etherial, an insanely powerfull and intelligent plasma being living in the stars's photosphere. The C.E.L.L. originally captured 3 of this entities : Solaria, Etheria and Chronexia, Solaria had been fragmented into multiples smaller beings to be studied without danger, Etheria was put into containment in a completely sealed container for further study while Chronexia was...killed, decomposed, her thoughts paterns used to create the EXIs.
The lost contact could only mean one thing : either the virus had got out of control, or Solaria X1 had breached her own containment, and honestly, Malcom didn't knew which one was worst.
The virus was intelligent, the last time it had broken out it had been capable of controlling the soldiers, the equipement (it was a machine virus, after all) and entire battlecruisers, it even managed to understand and use the ship's jump drive ! Fortunately the ship was completely obliterated before it could reach another planet.
And Solaria, well...One fragment was fine, it was merely powerfull enough to kill someone with the proper equipement and training, but the entire creature ? It would be a disaster, it could even be the end of the C.E.L.L. if she managed to free her sister (from what they have learned, all the Etherial name each other "sister", much like the EXI), and even the end of mankind if she convince her people to launch a massive invasion, which would be highly unlikely, but still, it was a possibility.
Malcom thought for a few seconds, then he came up with a plan, in either case, or in both, a diplomatic response was completely out of order, since they betrayed Solaria and her sisters (and even killed one) and the last time they negociated with the virus (yes, the virus can be reasonned with, it possess the knowledge of it's victims after all) the GE showed up and destroyed the facility without even a question, almost annihilating the virus, fortunately a vial was kept in secret in another facility, so if the non-violence response were out of order, he was just going to use blunt force.
-Go find admiral Sanders, tell her to take all of her ship to the facility and to destroy it, no survivors, except for Solaria X1, we need her, but tell her to kill her if necessary.
-Sir yes sir !
The soldier saluted his superior before leaving the room, running like he had the devils on his tracks, wich he kind of had, seeing what was happening.
Malcom sat back on his seat before sighing.
-So...What do we do now ? Asked Aaron.
-We wait...and we pray...
Malcom wasn't praying for the operation to go well, he knew that Sanders would most likely only find ashes, he was praying for the two experiment to fight one another and not ally.
Malcom Green rose from his seat, intensely concentrated.
-Do you think it's worth it Malcom ?
Malcom turned around and saw Aaron, his old friend and second in command, he smiled before answering his question.
-If what Alpha 6 says is true, then yes, it's worth it, it has been decades since the C.E.L.L. has last encountered the Stella Vientium, but we never forgot this encounter, this Aelyn, whoever he is, could be the key to all of this.
-If you say so. Replied Aaron, dubitative.
-Sir sir !
The door opened as a soldier entered te room, completely exhausted.
-What is it marine ?
-Sir *puff* we *huff* have lost contact with facility 10-1-1-BT !
The two mans stared at the soldier for a split second, completely stunned.
The research facility 10-1-1-BT was the most important research base ever built by the C.E.L.L., for two reasons :
1. It was the place were was stored the last vial of the MIA-77-O-B Tactical Viral Super-Weapon, the virus who was supposed to be destroyed in the annihilation of it's research base after the outbreak, decades ago.
2. The first Solaria fragment was housed there, Solaria is the most ambitious experimental project ever conducted by the C.E.L.L., they captured an Etherial, an insanely powerfull and intelligent plasma being living in the stars's photosphere. The C.E.L.L. originally captured 3 of this entities : Solaria, Etheria and Chronexia, Solaria had been fragmented into multiples smaller beings to be studied without danger, Etheria was put into containment in a completely sealed container for further study while Chronexia was...killed, decomposed, her thoughts paterns used to create the EXIs.
The lost contact could only mean one thing : either the virus had got out of control, or Solaria X1 had breached her own containment, and honestly, Malcom didn't knew which one was worst.
The virus was intelligent, the last time it had broken out it had been capable of controlling the soldiers, the equipement (it was a machine virus, after all) and entire battlecruisers, it even managed to understand and use the ship's jump drive ! Fortunately the ship was completely obliterated before it could reach another planet.
And Solaria, well...One fragment was fine, it was merely powerfull enough to kill someone with the proper equipement and training, but the entire creature ? It would be a disaster, it could even be the end of the C.E.L.L. if she managed to free her sister (from what they have learned, all the Etherial name each other "sister", much like the EXI), and even the end of mankind if she convince her people to launch a massive invasion, which would be highly unlikely, but still, it was a possibility.
Malcom thought for a few seconds, then he came up with a plan, in either case, or in both, a diplomatic response was completely out of order, since they betrayed Solaria and her sisters (and even killed one) and the last time they negociated with the virus (yes, the virus can be reasonned with, it possess the knowledge of it's victims after all) the GE showed up and destroyed the facility without even a question, almost annihilating the virus, fortunately a vial was kept in secret in another facility, so if the non-violence response were out of order, he was just going to use blunt force.
-Go find admiral Sanders, tell her to take all of her ship to the facility and to destroy it, no survivors, except for Solaria X1, we need her, but tell her to kill her if necessary.
-Sir yes sir !
The soldier saluted his superior before leaving the room, running like he had the devils on his tracks, wich he kind of had, seeing what was happening.
Malcom sat back on his seat before sighing.
-So...What do we do now ? Asked Aaron.
-We wait...and we pray...
Malcom wasn't praying for the operation to go well, he knew that Sanders would most likely only find ashes, he was praying for the two experiment to fight one another and not ally.
Crouched as she was in the clearing beside what was now a unusable dirtbike, Helen looks over at Kallenger with a sour expression "Ma'am I was out here searching for that D-thirteen comm tower and other early empire installations. I lost VISR connection when the emp went off. I have no information to the current situation."
Following the the earth shaking crash of another vessel Helen Holds up her wrist comm, seemingly unconcerned as she says calmly "To the unit receiving this signal, please state your name, rank and unit then make your way to map point F-six. From there please stand by for further instructions." With that taken care of she stands from her position by her bike and picks up her weapon and pulling the charging handle to ready her weapon "Ready to move out Ma'am."
Following the the earth shaking crash of another vessel Helen Holds up her wrist comm, seemingly unconcerned as she says calmly "To the unit receiving this signal, please state your name, rank and unit then make your way to map point F-six. From there please stand by for further instructions." With that taken care of she stands from her position by her bike and picks up her weapon and pulling the charging handle to ready her weapon "Ready to move out Ma'am."
Jill responds to the comm with "My name is Jill Valentine, I am a Corporal with the engineering unit, I got separated and before I knew it everyone else was dead." and looked at her map of the local area taking notice of the location. She immediately begins moving towards the map point. "I'm on my way to the target location now." and Jill hauled ass. Knowing where to go and how to get there she only had to move quickly otherwise she'd likely miss her next chance.
Christofer followed closely after Kallenger, afraid that he'd be mortally lost if they'd end up being separated. He took long strides, crossing the grassy terain and rockly paths, always only a few meters ahead or behind the woman, holding steadily onto the weapon he had been given.
The building they stumbled upon had his spine feeling chills crawling up it. The athmosphere it gave off seemed like something he would not want to approach, but in the end, he'd take steps towards it, only because Royanna thought that it could be useful - and who knows, maybe it was. The boy was just being overly negative at the moment...
"Oh, ok..." The boy would consent to her order of stashing the weapon, only showing small hints of reluctance. He was still safe, they were. The gun was still there, only hidden... If they were attacked, he would surely be able to retaliate quickly enough. Surely... His biggest worry at the moment was accidentally shooting himself though.
Inside the building, Christofer's ears would be glued to the back of his head and his tail to one of his legs. He felt anxious about the place, it stressed him. Ever in his tiny mind would he dare to touch anything inside, afraid that he might break them.
Royanna ordered the two to leave - Christofer more than eager to obliege with the plan and wanted them to move rapidly away from the Place, seeing that it had made even Royanna feel 'uneasy' - but just then static filled the air. Someone was trying to contact someone - or so the boy could only assume. He stopped, feet hitting ground so harrd they made a dent to the softer part of the road.
He didn't have much to say to the situation at hand, all he could do was to listen with this ears open. Maybe it was an ambush.... Maybe they were coming from behind.... The boy was unsure, holding his hand near the gun just to be ready if the situation would escalate
The canid would jump a bit back upon seeing someone approach, not having expected hem to be there so soon. Upon seeing the weapon he'd grab the one given to him, not firing or even accidentally pointing it at the newcomer, but it was there just to prove some comfort and safety.... Kallenger must have been so disapointed in him..........
The building they stumbled upon had his spine feeling chills crawling up it. The athmosphere it gave off seemed like something he would not want to approach, but in the end, he'd take steps towards it, only because Royanna thought that it could be useful - and who knows, maybe it was. The boy was just being overly negative at the moment...
"Oh, ok..." The boy would consent to her order of stashing the weapon, only showing small hints of reluctance. He was still safe, they were. The gun was still there, only hidden... If they were attacked, he would surely be able to retaliate quickly enough. Surely... His biggest worry at the moment was accidentally shooting himself though.
Inside the building, Christofer's ears would be glued to the back of his head and his tail to one of his legs. He felt anxious about the place, it stressed him. Ever in his tiny mind would he dare to touch anything inside, afraid that he might break them.
Royanna ordered the two to leave - Christofer more than eager to obliege with the plan and wanted them to move rapidly away from the Place, seeing that it had made even Royanna feel 'uneasy' - but just then static filled the air. Someone was trying to contact someone - or so the boy could only assume. He stopped, feet hitting ground so harrd they made a dent to the softer part of the road.
He didn't have much to say to the situation at hand, all he could do was to listen with this ears open. Maybe it was an ambush.... Maybe they were coming from behind.... The boy was unsure, holding his hand near the gun just to be ready if the situation would escalate
The canid would jump a bit back upon seeing someone approach, not having expected hem to be there so soon. Upon seeing the weapon he'd grab the one given to him, not firing or even accidentally pointing it at the newcomer, but it was there just to prove some comfort and safety.... Kallenger must have been so disapointed in him..........
-Did you knew that he humans love this animal because of a parasite ?
Solaria was lost in her thoughts, completely dead to the world, she was thinking about their escape, so much death...She didn't really understood what happened, the...parasite ? He/she/whatever it is designated itself as "Hackmar" or H, for short, had found her after the power failure, he freed her and helped her by offering her to escape on the ships he managed to stole before the C.E.L.L. sabotaged it, she didn't really understood how he escaped, apparently a pletunia pot appeared in orbit, fell for a few days and crashed in his room right after the power failure, destroying the remaining security systems and the vial wich was containing him, he escaped and started infecting everyone, taking control of the facility in a matter of minute, after that he was able to take control to half of the C.E.L.L. ships, 2/3 of the ships were in dock, the rest were in orbit and escaped while some in dock self destroyed to avoid falling into his hands.
-Solaria ? Are you listening ?
-Uh ?
Solaria snapped out and looked at the little girl holding a cat in front of her.
-Oh, uh, yeah, go on.
-Mmhh, you're lying, anyway, like I was saying, the humans love this animal, just because of a parasite, then if they are manipulated by it, why is it better than us ?
-I...don't know, maybe because they are used to it ? Or because they think they can control it ? Or they know it won't directly harm them ?
-That's...a possibility, or they just don't care.
The little girl stopped petting the cat and put him on a nearby desk, the cat rolled in a ball and instantly feel asleep.
Solaria stared at the little girl, amazed by this...entity, when the virus invade a body, it doesn't destroy the human consciousness within he just convert it, "upgrading" the spirit, creating some sort of hive mind, since all the virus are a single entity. So the virus was...multiple and unique, immense and small, it was...fascinating. Strangely, all the infected had metal gray eyes and skin, as well as a dark blood, which maked the infected look a little like what would humans would call "demons", well, Solaria couldn't criticize that, since she looked a little like a supernatural creature herself, the virus found a way of hosting her inside of a human body by replacing the organic cells by bionic reinforced cells so it could resist her energy, so she was in the body of a 16 years old girl, quite fit and approximately 5.2 inches tall, her hair was completely illuminated and floating around her due to static energy, and her body was completely illuminated from the inside.
So here she was, an Etherial inside a human body, with a virus philosophing on life and human logic, on board of a stolen ship en route to another C.E.L.L. facility.
-Hey hey ! You snapped out again !
-Uh ?
The little girl face palmed before sighing and sitting down on the desk, just beside the cat (which was also infected).
-Can I ask you a question ?
The little girl blinked a few times, still a little uneasy while looking at what looked like a mini star.
-Yes ?
-Are you a he ? Or a she ?
-Both.
-...I beg your pardon ?
-For human criterias I am both, since I possess both type of body, according to your criterias, it would be a "she", since your specie only has female beings.
-Okay...
The little girl froze for a second, her gaze unfocused, then she snapped back before talking to Solaria.
-We are approaching the system, we are required on the command bridge immediately.
Solaria was lost in her thoughts, completely dead to the world, she was thinking about their escape, so much death...She didn't really understood what happened, the...parasite ? He/she/whatever it is designated itself as "Hackmar" or H, for short, had found her after the power failure, he freed her and helped her by offering her to escape on the ships he managed to stole before the C.E.L.L. sabotaged it, she didn't really understood how he escaped, apparently a pletunia pot appeared in orbit, fell for a few days and crashed in his room right after the power failure, destroying the remaining security systems and the vial wich was containing him, he escaped and started infecting everyone, taking control of the facility in a matter of minute, after that he was able to take control to half of the C.E.L.L. ships, 2/3 of the ships were in dock, the rest were in orbit and escaped while some in dock self destroyed to avoid falling into his hands.
-Solaria ? Are you listening ?
-Uh ?
Solaria snapped out and looked at the little girl holding a cat in front of her.
-Oh, uh, yeah, go on.
-Mmhh, you're lying, anyway, like I was saying, the humans love this animal, just because of a parasite, then if they are manipulated by it, why is it better than us ?
-I...don't know, maybe because they are used to it ? Or because they think they can control it ? Or they know it won't directly harm them ?
-That's...a possibility, or they just don't care.
The little girl stopped petting the cat and put him on a nearby desk, the cat rolled in a ball and instantly feel asleep.
Solaria stared at the little girl, amazed by this...entity, when the virus invade a body, it doesn't destroy the human consciousness within he just convert it, "upgrading" the spirit, creating some sort of hive mind, since all the virus are a single entity. So the virus was...multiple and unique, immense and small, it was...fascinating. Strangely, all the infected had metal gray eyes and skin, as well as a dark blood, which maked the infected look a little like what would humans would call "demons", well, Solaria couldn't criticize that, since she looked a little like a supernatural creature herself, the virus found a way of hosting her inside of a human body by replacing the organic cells by bionic reinforced cells so it could resist her energy, so she was in the body of a 16 years old girl, quite fit and approximately 5.2 inches tall, her hair was completely illuminated and floating around her due to static energy, and her body was completely illuminated from the inside.
So here she was, an Etherial inside a human body, with a virus philosophing on life and human logic, on board of a stolen ship en route to another C.E.L.L. facility.
-Hey hey ! You snapped out again !
-Uh ?
The little girl face palmed before sighing and sitting down on the desk, just beside the cat (which was also infected).
-Can I ask you a question ?
The little girl blinked a few times, still a little uneasy while looking at what looked like a mini star.
-Yes ?
-Are you a he ? Or a she ?
-Both.
-...I beg your pardon ?
-For human criterias I am both, since I possess both type of body, according to your criterias, it would be a "she", since your specie only has female beings.
-Okay...
The little girl froze for a second, her gaze unfocused, then she snapped back before talking to Solaria.
-We are approaching the system, we are required on the command bridge immediately.
Sergei wasn't too happy about the gun, yet he didn't exactly feel threatened by it either. Even if the stranger sounded frustrated, Sergei would still trust him to not act hastily with the device - at least the man thought of him as some sort of professional shooter, not an amateur - as much as he wouldn't want to trust a masked machine person.
"You seem very intrigued by this one specifically peculiar species. Might you want to tell me more about them? Or why they have caught your interest." Sergei was quite positive that the stranger wouldn't really be telling him anything. They had both been avoiding questions left and right and the situation seemed to be dragging a bit too long. Others might be getting suspicious.
"What are you trying to declare with it?" Sergei asked, not fully convinced that this, moving can, could have anything against the government. "What do you know? What do you want to know?" He asked, soon suggesting they discuss the situation. "If we can strike a deal, I will tell you what I can, about the government and the species that fascinates you so much, here and now." He may have trusted the Ranger, he wanted to be able to trust him on a level anyway, but he couldn't take the risk of being betrayed. Not again. He had learned. Always take something for yourself, never let yourself be out in the open and don't be fooled. "If you can get me out of here. Then we have a deal."
On the other side of the door, a certain canid was starting to grow worried.
"Seeeeergeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiii....." Dim's mourning could be faintly heard through the door if one was standing near enough. The albino was leaning againt the door with his whole upper body, wishing that he could just slip right through it.
"You seem very intrigued by this one specifically peculiar species. Might you want to tell me more about them? Or why they have caught your interest." Sergei was quite positive that the stranger wouldn't really be telling him anything. They had both been avoiding questions left and right and the situation seemed to be dragging a bit too long. Others might be getting suspicious.
"What are you trying to declare with it?" Sergei asked, not fully convinced that this, moving can, could have anything against the government. "What do you know? What do you want to know?" He asked, soon suggesting they discuss the situation. "If we can strike a deal, I will tell you what I can, about the government and the species that fascinates you so much, here and now." He may have trusted the Ranger, he wanted to be able to trust him on a level anyway, but he couldn't take the risk of being betrayed. Not again. He had learned. Always take something for yourself, never let yourself be out in the open and don't be fooled. "If you can get me out of here. Then we have a deal."
On the other side of the door, a certain canid was starting to grow worried.
"Seeeeergeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiii....." Dim's mourning could be faintly heard through the door if one was standing near enough. The albino was leaning againt the door with his whole upper body, wishing that he could just slip right through it.
Out of all the unexpected talents Nirix had observed from Ketin, she had strangely enough, expected this. He had proved more than once his unexpected combat prowess to her and it had definitely saved her life more than the Eoclu could count. It was funny how things could turn out the way they did and how often these things seemed to happen to Nirix the more Ketin was involved. Was it fate or chance, she could never really decide...
Once Ketin stepped in their small ring, The Assassin told herself she was ready. She had studied him in certain situations, saw him play his usual aloof and oblivious card until he made others believe it was truth. Ketin was insanely good at that, even tripping up Nirix multiple of times only for her to grant him a second glance. Even as their spar began, she wasn't exactly sure how to start. He played aloof and then when she struck, he moved into action, dodging her attack with basically a hundred percent accuracy.
Though her movements were precise, her target meant to cause the death or downfall of her opponent, Ketin invaded them all at every turn. It was rather....challenging.
Nirix was glad at that fact. She enjoyed challenges, ran forward and embraced them. The Da'len was one of her best opponents and even as they sparred for what seemed like hours, neither broke a true sweat.
"Venavis, Stop. This spar is finished." Nirix gave the command with a small and her traditional bow of respect. Maybe he wasn't her Da'len no longer.
A Hahren- an elder- prehaps....
"You deserve a drink Da'len. Your eye may need a break from trying to keep up with me."
Or maybe a Harellen fit his description better. Ketin was quite the trickster, especially when he was just being himself.
Once Ketin stepped in their small ring, The Assassin told herself she was ready. She had studied him in certain situations, saw him play his usual aloof and oblivious card until he made others believe it was truth. Ketin was insanely good at that, even tripping up Nirix multiple of times only for her to grant him a second glance. Even as their spar began, she wasn't exactly sure how to start. He played aloof and then when she struck, he moved into action, dodging her attack with basically a hundred percent accuracy.
Though her movements were precise, her target meant to cause the death or downfall of her opponent, Ketin invaded them all at every turn. It was rather....challenging.
Nirix was glad at that fact. She enjoyed challenges, ran forward and embraced them. The Da'len was one of her best opponents and even as they sparred for what seemed like hours, neither broke a true sweat.
"Venavis, Stop. This spar is finished." Nirix gave the command with a small and her traditional bow of respect. Maybe he wasn't her Da'len no longer.
A Hahren- an elder- prehaps....
"You deserve a drink Da'len. Your eye may need a break from trying to keep up with me."
Or maybe a Harellen fit his description better. Ketin was quite the trickster, especially when he was just being himself.
In the dark sector of the galaxy, there is an area there called the Red sector. A sector with nothing particularly dangerous or cause for alarm, but instead on radio waves and other frequencies one could hear the constant playing of Soviet era music, filling the waves full of communist rhetoric from a past long forgotten. Of course in this time where the conflict between capitalism and communism has ended and now long forgotten , to some it may sound inspiration. From songs like Tamo Daleko to Polyushka polye and even Katyusha
The source of all these songs, are coming from a drifting old spacecrusier, full of holes. The ship design was classic soviet design with 4 cone shape engines and crudely built by present design. On the side of the cigar shape space ship read the name Yevgeny Yevtushenko a name of a poet from the iron curtain, no longer remembered as well as the classic sickle and hammer on the side both in which suffer what seems to be plasma burns.
Inside this vessel, garbage and debris can be seen. From holes in the hull to expose wiring, in true USSR fashion the ship is still using power even though its very little of it being used and is left from all this time. On the bridge in a more of a star trek configuration, in the captains chair sat a being in an astronaut suit, well more of a cosmonaut since the helmet on the suit has the red letters blazen upon it CCCP. The individual tapped its foot and finger as it listens to the music that floods the radiowaves of the ship. Its helmet clear to see inside, but this individual is just a blacken skeleton on the inside and yet it taps its foot and finger and occasionally adjusting itself on the chair.
As it looked into the darkness of space, it spoke! In a voice cold and deathly it says "So this is where I come to...a galaxy full of chaos...how so welcoming"
The source of all these songs, are coming from a drifting old spacecrusier, full of holes. The ship design was classic soviet design with 4 cone shape engines and crudely built by present design. On the side of the cigar shape space ship read the name Yevgeny Yevtushenko a name of a poet from the iron curtain, no longer remembered as well as the classic sickle and hammer on the side both in which suffer what seems to be plasma burns.
Inside this vessel, garbage and debris can be seen. From holes in the hull to expose wiring, in true USSR fashion the ship is still using power even though its very little of it being used and is left from all this time. On the bridge in a more of a star trek configuration, in the captains chair sat a being in an astronaut suit, well more of a cosmonaut since the helmet on the suit has the red letters blazen upon it CCCP. The individual tapped its foot and finger as it listens to the music that floods the radiowaves of the ship. Its helmet clear to see inside, but this individual is just a blacken skeleton on the inside and yet it taps its foot and finger and occasionally adjusting itself on the chair.
As it looked into the darkness of space, it spoke! In a voice cold and deathly it says "So this is where I come to...a galaxy full of chaos...how so welcoming"
Everything was ready to go. All of the teams had been assembled, a sturdy, well armed small space-to-ground transport had been prepared, all equipment loaded up. The only people who were not at this moment in the hangar making the most final of preparations were Aelyn-Paeryc and Alexia. They had solemnly made their way to the Notspace Drives located deep within the belly of the Command Module and seemed to be tampering with them – or, Aelyn was, for the most part.
A.P. was none too pleased when it was reported back to him that their trick with the Notspace bombs had failed utterly – he thought with some bitter hindsight that they had probably assumed it to be an attack – and as it had been from the beginning, Aelyn had never a will to start a fight…Not with the Kingsbane, anyway. Even if the Kingsbane seemed intent on starting a fight with him.
But for all his appearance of malice, his sociopathic suppression of emotion and thorough non-existence, Aelyn was more noble than he appeared – or, at least, he appeared to be more noble than he appeared.
But one could go mad trying to figure someone like him out, and it would probably be best just to go on fighting.
Or maybe Aelyn wanted to avoid combat because he had hardly any combative resources left, and found himself at a severe disadvantage to all other involved forces?
Either way, he was initially ruffled, and then pleasantly surprised to find that a message from the Kingsbane had been relayed directly to his BrainPal™ - meaning their trick had not worked, and they had been followed – but it was Severin speaking, and this was very good. Aelyn liked Severin – amazing how the abrasiveness of Nabes had been so severe that he had made his Star-class Astrophysicist seem like a friend to Aelyn even though they had spoken only once or twice. Amiability was always exemplified by abrasiveness.
“Ah, the Kingsbane’s Most Civilized-”
And before he could go any further, the equivalent of blaring sirens and emergency broadcasts wailed through his BrainPal™ as the readings of Grimlock Kampfer’s war vessels were detected in the immediate vicinity. Aelyn barked aloud a short flurry of unspeakable profanity, which actually startled Alexia somewhat. Then he whirled and went furiously to work on some console implanted within one of the great, geometrical shapes that made up the Notspace Drives.
It was a cavernous central chamber, at the center of which (surrounded with the most advanced security technology known to modern Man) stood a lengthy platform. All over the platform were boxes of various sizes, all gilded bronze, looking as though large machines had had liquid metal poured over them to make a solid casing, which hardened and completely isolated the inner workings. Indeed there was no seam between the metallic casing and the floor, which melded together as one.
Aelyn himself – along with a geologist-engineer named Raluca Stana – had synthesized that particular compound of metals out of an atomically-manipulated variant of iron and tungsten – it was quite indestructible once the compound had hardened, due to the nature of the atoms which had been so stimulated as to cause an inward collapse of mass over the area of the metal itself – the result was a material with an atomic structure that was, at the very fibers of its being, collapsing inward on itself, making itself atomically impenetrable. Aelyn had never expected that his half-invention would be so used against him, and by his own brother, to completely hide from him the nature of the Notspace Drives. He was sure he could have figured them out if only he could get in – but with all the atomic strength of a black hole backing up that metal there was simply no hope of that.
The console he was currently occupied with had also been a mystery, since it allowed him control over the drives but did not give even the slightest inkling of the inner workings. There were no debug functions or manuals for this kind of tech.
Presently, Aelyn finished a flurry of flying fingers across the keyboard – how nice it was to be able to touch something, he thought idly, even if what occurred when non-existent Aelyn made contact with paradoxically-existent Stella Viventium, it was not really touch as it was atomic repulsion. With a flourish, he hit one final key and whirled around again, making his way hastily toward the awaiting dropship.
A great pulse of distorted energy readings – those which were unique to that most incomprehensible Notspace – emanated from the Stella’s Command Module – harmless in itself, but foreboding. If nothing else, it was now clear that the drives were either rebuilding some of the momentum they had lost in the previous encounter…Or something was going wrong.
All bands focused onto Kampfer’s attack force as Aelyn spoke a harsh-toned message to the command centers of their ships. If the highest ranking crew members had no interest in listening, a simple script would run and relay it to Kampfer’s Battle Network – or, rather, to somewhere that Kampfer’s Battle Network could pick it up, since he was quite incapable of actually infiltrating the impenetrable security, not to mention basic incompatibilities that made the Battle Network and BrainPal bands completely closed and separate from each other.
The energy readings were beginning to fluctuate more now – the ship and the planet (Or rather, one particular spot on the planet) were reacting to each other in some way – though it was anyone’s guess as to exactly what was happening. It was entirely possible that, having been brought together, some kind of unknown defense would have been formed. A.P. did seem more than confident enough, after all.
Aelyn-Paeryc strode down the corridor, at the end of which spanned the main hangar and the little armored craft that would carry him down to the place he had, it seemed, been destined to go for so inconceivably long. Following in his little brother’s footsteps…
“I’m giving you one warning.” A.P. said, not bothering with introductions or formalities – the message would show up where it was needed and no explanation would be required, obviously. “The desert planet which you are approaching is called Isandril, doubtless you understand the significance of this discovery. Legend has it that this is one of the two worlds on which sentient life and civilization first came into existence within the boundaries of this particular Universe. Legend has it that they achieved godhood through technology, planted the seeds of human life on Earth and then disappeared entirely. Some think they ascended to an ethereal plane of godliness, some think they left for another galaxy, but y’know what I think?
I think an inferior being from some other dimension came along, saw their godlike technology and feared it. Dubbed it ’forbidden’, and when The First refused to share the secrets to their ascendant powers, that inferior being wiped them from existence – but one last failsafe managed to protect those two precious structures from even the most vicious attacks that the inferior being could throw at it. They locked their secrets in tombs that outside technology would be simply incapable of accessing. There’s a fundamental difference between the technology of the Dimensional Lords and that of the Stella Viventium – which is a piece of The First’s ’forbidden’ tech. That’s why you can’t follow me into Notspace, and that’s why if you have any goddamned sense at all, you’ll cease this stupid attack and stop @#$%ing with what you don’t understand. Because I don’t give a @#$% about you as long as you’re not messing with my affairs – but whatever’s in that vault is mine, and I @#$%ing guarantee it’ll be more than enough to wipe you and your hollow robots out of existence if you keep trying to get between me and my goals.”
But as Aelyn-Paeryc was delivering an admittedly well versed monologue, someone else was busy writing up a little note of their own, and sending it in a discreet, entirely uninteresting little text document across the most insignificant band to pop up unobtrusively on screens in the command centre of The Kingsbane.
[Message to Admiral Nabes of Kingsbane from Stella CM. We are after the same end. We both want to find Earth. We both are @#$%ing with powers that neither of us fully understand. We NEED each other. We NEED to cooperate on this or the whole thing will collapse. There is more at stake here than just the petty dignity of two ships and you know it. Send a team to the surface. We will be able to learn a lot from whatever is inside that structure. If you pass up this opportunity another one will not come. I will vouch for your people once en-route planetside. Bring guns if you need to. If nothing else please for God’s sake keep those Kampfer maniacs off our back and we can collaborate afterward. Don’t be @#$%ing stupid. -DH]
(Other parts later~ And by 'later' I hopefully mean tonight.)
A.P. was none too pleased when it was reported back to him that their trick with the Notspace bombs had failed utterly – he thought with some bitter hindsight that they had probably assumed it to be an attack – and as it had been from the beginning, Aelyn had never a will to start a fight…Not with the Kingsbane, anyway. Even if the Kingsbane seemed intent on starting a fight with him.
But for all his appearance of malice, his sociopathic suppression of emotion and thorough non-existence, Aelyn was more noble than he appeared – or, at least, he appeared to be more noble than he appeared.
But one could go mad trying to figure someone like him out, and it would probably be best just to go on fighting.
Or maybe Aelyn wanted to avoid combat because he had hardly any combative resources left, and found himself at a severe disadvantage to all other involved forces?
Either way, he was initially ruffled, and then pleasantly surprised to find that a message from the Kingsbane had been relayed directly to his BrainPal™ - meaning their trick had not worked, and they had been followed – but it was Severin speaking, and this was very good. Aelyn liked Severin – amazing how the abrasiveness of Nabes had been so severe that he had made his Star-class Astrophysicist seem like a friend to Aelyn even though they had spoken only once or twice. Amiability was always exemplified by abrasiveness.
“Ah, the Kingsbane’s Most Civilized-”
And before he could go any further, the equivalent of blaring sirens and emergency broadcasts wailed through his BrainPal™ as the readings of Grimlock Kampfer’s war vessels were detected in the immediate vicinity. Aelyn barked aloud a short flurry of unspeakable profanity, which actually startled Alexia somewhat. Then he whirled and went furiously to work on some console implanted within one of the great, geometrical shapes that made up the Notspace Drives.
It was a cavernous central chamber, at the center of which (surrounded with the most advanced security technology known to modern Man) stood a lengthy platform. All over the platform were boxes of various sizes, all gilded bronze, looking as though large machines had had liquid metal poured over them to make a solid casing, which hardened and completely isolated the inner workings. Indeed there was no seam between the metallic casing and the floor, which melded together as one.
Aelyn himself – along with a geologist-engineer named Raluca Stana – had synthesized that particular compound of metals out of an atomically-manipulated variant of iron and tungsten – it was quite indestructible once the compound had hardened, due to the nature of the atoms which had been so stimulated as to cause an inward collapse of mass over the area of the metal itself – the result was a material with an atomic structure that was, at the very fibers of its being, collapsing inward on itself, making itself atomically impenetrable. Aelyn had never expected that his half-invention would be so used against him, and by his own brother, to completely hide from him the nature of the Notspace Drives. He was sure he could have figured them out if only he could get in – but with all the atomic strength of a black hole backing up that metal there was simply no hope of that.
The console he was currently occupied with had also been a mystery, since it allowed him control over the drives but did not give even the slightest inkling of the inner workings. There were no debug functions or manuals for this kind of tech.
Presently, Aelyn finished a flurry of flying fingers across the keyboard – how nice it was to be able to touch something, he thought idly, even if what occurred when non-existent Aelyn made contact with paradoxically-existent Stella Viventium, it was not really touch as it was atomic repulsion. With a flourish, he hit one final key and whirled around again, making his way hastily toward the awaiting dropship.
A great pulse of distorted energy readings – those which were unique to that most incomprehensible Notspace – emanated from the Stella’s Command Module – harmless in itself, but foreboding. If nothing else, it was now clear that the drives were either rebuilding some of the momentum they had lost in the previous encounter…Or something was going wrong.
All bands focused onto Kampfer’s attack force as Aelyn spoke a harsh-toned message to the command centers of their ships. If the highest ranking crew members had no interest in listening, a simple script would run and relay it to Kampfer’s Battle Network – or, rather, to somewhere that Kampfer’s Battle Network could pick it up, since he was quite incapable of actually infiltrating the impenetrable security, not to mention basic incompatibilities that made the Battle Network and BrainPal bands completely closed and separate from each other.
The energy readings were beginning to fluctuate more now – the ship and the planet (Or rather, one particular spot on the planet) were reacting to each other in some way – though it was anyone’s guess as to exactly what was happening. It was entirely possible that, having been brought together, some kind of unknown defense would have been formed. A.P. did seem more than confident enough, after all.
Aelyn-Paeryc strode down the corridor, at the end of which spanned the main hangar and the little armored craft that would carry him down to the place he had, it seemed, been destined to go for so inconceivably long. Following in his little brother’s footsteps…
“I’m giving you one warning.” A.P. said, not bothering with introductions or formalities – the message would show up where it was needed and no explanation would be required, obviously. “The desert planet which you are approaching is called Isandril, doubtless you understand the significance of this discovery. Legend has it that this is one of the two worlds on which sentient life and civilization first came into existence within the boundaries of this particular Universe. Legend has it that they achieved godhood through technology, planted the seeds of human life on Earth and then disappeared entirely. Some think they ascended to an ethereal plane of godliness, some think they left for another galaxy, but y’know what I think?
I think an inferior being from some other dimension came along, saw their godlike technology and feared it. Dubbed it ’forbidden’, and when The First refused to share the secrets to their ascendant powers, that inferior being wiped them from existence – but one last failsafe managed to protect those two precious structures from even the most vicious attacks that the inferior being could throw at it. They locked their secrets in tombs that outside technology would be simply incapable of accessing. There’s a fundamental difference between the technology of the Dimensional Lords and that of the Stella Viventium – which is a piece of The First’s ’forbidden’ tech. That’s why you can’t follow me into Notspace, and that’s why if you have any goddamned sense at all, you’ll cease this stupid attack and stop @#$%ing with what you don’t understand. Because I don’t give a @#$% about you as long as you’re not messing with my affairs – but whatever’s in that vault is mine, and I @#$%ing guarantee it’ll be more than enough to wipe you and your hollow robots out of existence if you keep trying to get between me and my goals.”
But as Aelyn-Paeryc was delivering an admittedly well versed monologue, someone else was busy writing up a little note of their own, and sending it in a discreet, entirely uninteresting little text document across the most insignificant band to pop up unobtrusively on screens in the command centre of The Kingsbane.
[Message to Admiral Nabes of Kingsbane from Stella CM. We are after the same end. We both want to find Earth. We both are @#$%ing with powers that neither of us fully understand. We NEED each other. We NEED to cooperate on this or the whole thing will collapse. There is more at stake here than just the petty dignity of two ships and you know it. Send a team to the surface. We will be able to learn a lot from whatever is inside that structure. If you pass up this opportunity another one will not come. I will vouch for your people once en-route planetside. Bring guns if you need to. If nothing else please for God’s sake keep those Kampfer maniacs off our back and we can collaborate afterward. Don’t be @#$%ing stupid. -DH]
(Other parts later~ And by 'later' I hopefully mean tonight.)
Taking a long, audibly frustrated, sight from behind his mask, The Ranger slowly diverged his look away from Sergei as his goggles' glow illuminated a corner of the room that the dim light didn't manage to shine upon. Along with this and a, now twitching, leg, Sergei's questions started to drill a hole on the Ranger's helmet and go through his skull. All that interrogation was making him quite bothered. All of them didn't help but make the Ranger feel uneasy about Sergei's intentions.
The Masked Man simply opted for not answering those questions right away, as he preferred to waited for his new 'acquaintance' to speak again, mentioning the 'deal' he had to offer. Lifting his mechanical arm, charred, misshapen, and running with random patches of what appeared to be skin and flesh, the Ranger shrugged, seemingly devoid of any pain from the extensive damage on his robotic limb.
"As 'u can see, 'bud, I'm 'inna rather... 'Precarious' situation. Thought 'bout 'raidin the nearby town, 'lotsa jets out there." - He would lean against the concrete wall behind, letting his arm drop abruptly beside him. - "... 'Dunno 'bout your all 'o 'yo men, but I guess we can fit two or three of 'yo 'buds al-- *********, JUST LET THAT DAMN DOG IN ALREADY!!"
... The brief moment of rage from the Ranger's part made him the surrounding environs, including Sergei, momentarily deaf to the pinging signals coming through any and all mass communication devices installed on the depths of the supposed underground base. After the invasion of Kampfer on Earth VII and the event simply as referred as "Chaos" sat in, it was more than oblivious that all population that was left on the planet would hail as many distress calls as humanly possible to any allied forces in the far reaches of the solar system. However, amidst all the pleas of help and requests of countless amounts of military and humanitarian aid, a message stood out...
"... Canary to Ghost Red! Canary to Ghost Red! We are, uh-- ! Gears, what do you see down ther-- Ah! We're flying by--! A jungle... ?! Canary to Ghost Red! We have found your proximity beacon! Ghost Red, send us confirmation to land. Over!"
The message would come from the same war-fitted, hybrid civilian transport ship that pierced Earth VII's atmosphere just some minutes ago, right after the "Chaos" had ceased. Luckily, it's crew managed to maneuver it's way past detection from the Forces of Kampfer.
The ship resembled what was once known as a V-22 Osprey with a much thicker hull, only available to a civilian transport through illegal means and sporting Clean Fission blast engines in place of the pair of rotors that it has. Notably, however, was the big gun placed atop the hybrid craft: Supported by series of pistons and an engine of some sort, it appeared to be able to aim towards any direction despite the ship's tilt. For any stray onlookers and sky gazers, a gyroscope-assisted, computer-guided gun of unknown firepower.
Despite their names, the blast engines gentle hums echoed through the Jungle as the ship flew by the approximate location of the bunker, where the Mad Ranger took shelter.
As Severin were answered by a threat from a high-ranking official on one of the Kampfer's Fleet Flagships, he wasn't hesitant to take immediate actions in response. His worn-out voice echoed through the longest halls and the deepest rooms through the Kingsbane's intercom systems, requesting immediate presence of it's Admiral on the bridge. Much like Aelyn, Severin preferred to stray away from conflict as much as he could, however, he was more than prepared for when the situation called for a fight, specially in a critical mission that him, CL and none than Aelyn-Paeryc Petrovalyc himself were taking part.
"Greetings, Ascendant Knight Odin, I'm Benedict Severin, Star-Class Astrophysicist, First Mate of the Heavy Artillery Cruiser Kingsbane and the Second-In-Command of this more-than-well-fit-for-war craft and I supplicate for your mercy upon Captain Aelyn. We are undertaking a quest beyond any of your superior officers comprehension and any kind of medium-to-major halt in this operation coming from your forces will cast dire consequences for my, the Stella Viventium's and your own party as well, over."
Severin preferred to use voice-only transmission, leaving only his voice as a clue of how he looked like. Apparently, a man in his coming of age, seemingly unaware of the advanced medicine of the Intergalactic Age as he would cough here and there between his spoken words with varying frequency. Still, this Severin person appeared to be, above of all, self-contained and fearless in the face of imminent destruction from an polydimensional enemy... That is, if such were able to pass through the Kingsbane defenses.
Just as he finished speaking, the hot-headed admiral blasted into the bridge - serving as a commanding center. Taking a strong grip of the rudimentary Ship's Wheel used to control the Kingsbane handling, Wan Nabes began maneuvering his ship just so the wide amount of 100mm cannons covering it's Freeboard could face the three Battle Ships under Knight Odin's command.
Amidst their preparations for an imminent and bloody combat, Doctor Harkahn's message would not be ignored, at least, not by Wan Nabes. Benedict rapidly managed to throw back a text-only back for Doctor Harkahn, still unknown to him, but futurely one of the most important allies he will ever have... Possibly vice and versa.
"Stella Viventium, our Captain may not be aware of the direness of your mission, however, as the one in charge of the Ranger's mission to find the Original Earth, I'm thoughtful about it. Our ground forces have been dispatched back to the planet know as Earth VII's to look for the Mad Ranger, our front man in infantry combat. I'm afraid that artillery is the best we can provide you with at the moment. However, worry not, our Captain may not be brilliant, but be wary that he's one of the best warship pilots and fleet tacticians known by man, I really hope the need of his skills won't be necessary against Kampfer but his forces will not be spared in case he does not cooperate with our case."
The Masked Man simply opted for not answering those questions right away, as he preferred to waited for his new 'acquaintance' to speak again, mentioning the 'deal' he had to offer. Lifting his mechanical arm, charred, misshapen, and running with random patches of what appeared to be skin and flesh, the Ranger shrugged, seemingly devoid of any pain from the extensive damage on his robotic limb.
"As 'u can see, 'bud, I'm 'inna rather... 'Precarious' situation. Thought 'bout 'raidin the nearby town, 'lotsa jets out there." - He would lean against the concrete wall behind, letting his arm drop abruptly beside him. - "... 'Dunno 'bout your all 'o 'yo men, but I guess we can fit two or three of 'yo 'buds al-- *********, JUST LET THAT DAMN DOG IN ALREADY!!"
... The brief moment of rage from the Ranger's part made him the surrounding environs, including Sergei, momentarily deaf to the pinging signals coming through any and all mass communication devices installed on the depths of the supposed underground base. After the invasion of Kampfer on Earth VII and the event simply as referred as "Chaos" sat in, it was more than oblivious that all population that was left on the planet would hail as many distress calls as humanly possible to any allied forces in the far reaches of the solar system. However, amidst all the pleas of help and requests of countless amounts of military and humanitarian aid, a message stood out...
"... Canary to Ghost Red! Canary to Ghost Red! We are, uh-- ! Gears, what do you see down ther-- Ah! We're flying by--! A jungle... ?! Canary to Ghost Red! We have found your proximity beacon! Ghost Red, send us confirmation to land. Over!"
The message would come from the same war-fitted, hybrid civilian transport ship that pierced Earth VII's atmosphere just some minutes ago, right after the "Chaos" had ceased. Luckily, it's crew managed to maneuver it's way past detection from the Forces of Kampfer.
The ship resembled what was once known as a V-22 Osprey with a much thicker hull, only available to a civilian transport through illegal means and sporting Clean Fission blast engines in place of the pair of rotors that it has. Notably, however, was the big gun placed atop the hybrid craft: Supported by series of pistons and an engine of some sort, it appeared to be able to aim towards any direction despite the ship's tilt. For any stray onlookers and sky gazers, a gyroscope-assisted, computer-guided gun of unknown firepower.
Despite their names, the blast engines gentle hums echoed through the Jungle as the ship flew by the approximate location of the bunker, where the Mad Ranger took shelter.
As Severin were answered by a threat from a high-ranking official on one of the Kampfer's Fleet Flagships, he wasn't hesitant to take immediate actions in response. His worn-out voice echoed through the longest halls and the deepest rooms through the Kingsbane's intercom systems, requesting immediate presence of it's Admiral on the bridge. Much like Aelyn, Severin preferred to stray away from conflict as much as he could, however, he was more than prepared for when the situation called for a fight, specially in a critical mission that him, CL and none than Aelyn-Paeryc Petrovalyc himself were taking part.
"Greetings, Ascendant Knight Odin, I'm Benedict Severin, Star-Class Astrophysicist, First Mate of the Heavy Artillery Cruiser Kingsbane and the Second-In-Command of this more-than-well-fit-for-war craft and I supplicate for your mercy upon Captain Aelyn. We are undertaking a quest beyond any of your superior officers comprehension and any kind of medium-to-major halt in this operation coming from your forces will cast dire consequences for my, the Stella Viventium's and your own party as well, over."
Severin preferred to use voice-only transmission, leaving only his voice as a clue of how he looked like. Apparently, a man in his coming of age, seemingly unaware of the advanced medicine of the Intergalactic Age as he would cough here and there between his spoken words with varying frequency. Still, this Severin person appeared to be, above of all, self-contained and fearless in the face of imminent destruction from an polydimensional enemy... That is, if such were able to pass through the Kingsbane defenses.
Just as he finished speaking, the hot-headed admiral blasted into the bridge - serving as a commanding center. Taking a strong grip of the rudimentary Ship's Wheel used to control the Kingsbane handling, Wan Nabes began maneuvering his ship just so the wide amount of 100mm cannons covering it's Freeboard could face the three Battle Ships under Knight Odin's command.
Amidst their preparations for an imminent and bloody combat, Doctor Harkahn's message would not be ignored, at least, not by Wan Nabes. Benedict rapidly managed to throw back a text-only back for Doctor Harkahn, still unknown to him, but futurely one of the most important allies he will ever have... Possibly vice and versa.
"Stella Viventium, our Captain may not be aware of the direness of your mission, however, as the one in charge of the Ranger's mission to find the Original Earth, I'm thoughtful about it. Our ground forces have been dispatched back to the planet know as Earth VII's to look for the Mad Ranger, our front man in infantry combat. I'm afraid that artillery is the best we can provide you with at the moment. However, worry not, our Captain may not be brilliant, but be wary that he's one of the best warship pilots and fleet tacticians known by man, I really hope the need of his skills won't be necessary against Kampfer but his forces will not be spared in case he does not cooperate with our case."
There had been better days.
Iril's heavy machinery clanked and groaned through the jungle. Continually getting stuck in the occasional spot of deep mud and tangled in vines wasn't bothering her more than usual, but the noises were.
What had once been a quiet and natural jungle was now full of machinery, far more advanced than her. She could sense it. A crash landing of a ship, mechanical noises, yelling, the sound of footsteps. She wondered what was going on that would bring such a large amount of beings to the area.
Not to mention the EMP waves that had surged across the jungle earlier as well. Guess that was the reason for the crash, but it did a lousy job if it meant to shut Iril down. She paused for a moment and ran a few scans through her system again, just to make sure that nothing was affected.
Good, she was still intact and working fine. That was a relief.
Now to focus on whatever was making the noise.
[Initiating Combat Mode... Running code 772]
As a prototype machine, Iril had thousands of unused and untested codes and coding that could be tried out to enhance her capabilities. Normally just allotting extra power to certain functions or to activate a certain attacking type. Running a code was natural to her at this point, and she was willing to experiment. With this code active, she could feel her arms receiving a bit more power and retracting just slightly.
"Code trial success. Begin-" Her vocoder cut off as it loaded a new set of words. Whoever had made her didn't think that this prototype would need to say anything more than a response to a command.
"-Search for unidentified intruders."
The clanking and groaning quickened as Iril moved somewhat faster than she had before. Her bulk combined with her thin legs did not make for much power, but she made do with what she had.
There were no more crashes, but she heard voices. Voices coming from what appeared to be a break in the trees. Were they friend or foe?
Iril didn't hesitate to react. She executed code 772, and felt a surge of energy go to her arms. A few deep beeps from Iril's system and her arms sprung out, reaching for anything they could grab.
(Heyo! New here, don't know how Iril will fit into the story entirely, but I figured I'd start off with where she'd be most comfortable, the jungle-ly area. If you feel she would be better in another location/part of the story, i'd be happy to move her wherever. For now, have some music I find fitting for your first encounter with her: Here
Iril's heavy machinery clanked and groaned through the jungle. Continually getting stuck in the occasional spot of deep mud and tangled in vines wasn't bothering her more than usual, but the noises were.
What had once been a quiet and natural jungle was now full of machinery, far more advanced than her. She could sense it. A crash landing of a ship, mechanical noises, yelling, the sound of footsteps. She wondered what was going on that would bring such a large amount of beings to the area.
Not to mention the EMP waves that had surged across the jungle earlier as well. Guess that was the reason for the crash, but it did a lousy job if it meant to shut Iril down. She paused for a moment and ran a few scans through her system again, just to make sure that nothing was affected.
Good, she was still intact and working fine. That was a relief.
Now to focus on whatever was making the noise.
[Initiating Combat Mode... Running code 772]
As a prototype machine, Iril had thousands of unused and untested codes and coding that could be tried out to enhance her capabilities. Normally just allotting extra power to certain functions or to activate a certain attacking type. Running a code was natural to her at this point, and she was willing to experiment. With this code active, she could feel her arms receiving a bit more power and retracting just slightly.
"Code trial success. Begin-" Her vocoder cut off as it loaded a new set of words. Whoever had made her didn't think that this prototype would need to say anything more than a response to a command.
"-Search for unidentified intruders."
The clanking and groaning quickened as Iril moved somewhat faster than she had before. Her bulk combined with her thin legs did not make for much power, but she made do with what she had.
There were no more crashes, but she heard voices. Voices coming from what appeared to be a break in the trees. Were they friend or foe?
Iril didn't hesitate to react. She executed code 772, and felt a surge of energy go to her arms. A few deep beeps from Iril's system and her arms sprung out, reaching for anything they could grab.
(Heyo! New here, don't know how Iril will fit into the story entirely, but I figured I'd start off with where she'd be most comfortable, the jungle-ly area. If you feel she would be better in another location/part of the story, i'd be happy to move her wherever. For now, have some music I find fitting for your first encounter with her: Here
There was always something of a stillness that seemed to hang in the air after a loud sound – not necessarily the deafening effect or ringing of the ears, but a vague ’calm-after-the-storm’ kind of feeling that could, in the right circumstances, be overwhelming. Royanna Kallenger was not, however, overwhelmed by this vague semblance of a notion. Rather she was overwhelmed by the absolute bad@#$% madness that was surrounding her. For a brief moment, the woman wondered absently at the idea of where she might have preferred to be – and the thought was jolted into consciousness with the sudden realization that she didn’t have anywhere.
Hers had been a lifetime focused on a single goal. She trained, and then she hunted. No home save for the ship in which she had arrived at Earth IV, no family save for her long-passed mentor and the twenty men beneath her command that she had allowed to die. Her ultimate mission was almost certainly at an end. Surely they wouldn’t just grant her another whole troop and let her start over – especially considering she hadn’t even made any actual progress on catching the rat bastard.
So where was there to go? Only to Malbec, to what was probably her death - but it was the only option. She knew the inner workings of the Empire better than almost anyone, and she knew that a mere mortal such as herself would be utterly daft to try and hide from them. It was better to just face him honorably and-
The hazy stillness was interrupted suddenly, first by the smallest rustle of foliage, then by the great whirr of machinery as what appeared to be a pair of mechanical grabbers burst from the cover of pine-jungle shadow and rocketed toward the trio. Having been stupidly caught off-guard thanks to her moment of idle thought – she was seriously getting sick of letting herself be caught off-guard like this – there was only a split second to react, and the result would be largely half-and-half.
A utilitarian flourish, twisting to one side and fluidly drawing her blade was enough to keep her from being grabbed by the thing, but not sufficient to keep her from being hit with some great force in that wounded shoulder as the bulk of the grabber brushed by. She was, however, able to produce a swift counterattack, swiping upward with the monomolecular blade and – similarly to her target’s initial attack – just barely miss, but still clip the side.
The rapier blade – which was capable of cutting through literally almost everything (It was the only way for such an archaeic weapon to still be useful in a Galaxy dominated by projectile weaponry) – managed to nick the side of one arm, shaving off a hair-thin slice approximately the size of a thin-cut deli meat. It was such an insignificant wound, in fact, that the bit which had been scraped off actually floundered about in the air like a gauzy leaf before settling onto the ground. If Roya had been at the top of her game, she might have caught the little thing in an effort to appear totally badass – but Agent Kallenger was, to say the least, not currently at her best.
As to where the other long arm stuck – that would prove to be out of her jurisdiction, and likely there would be no time for her to react to it. Needless to say, of course, that the very first course of action the moment she was able to regain balance from the recoil of the swipe, the very first thing she would be doing was looking toward Christofer and reacting accordingly. If she had showed that kind of favoritism in a real combat unit she would have gotten sacked in a minute. But this little group was only superficially a combat unit, and frankly the woman's only real concern was the wellbeing of that dog-kid.
Of course, if the other arm had gone after the engineer woman instead, she would react with equivalent haste - it was simply a matter of which individual she instinctively checked on first.
Hers had been a lifetime focused on a single goal. She trained, and then she hunted. No home save for the ship in which she had arrived at Earth IV, no family save for her long-passed mentor and the twenty men beneath her command that she had allowed to die. Her ultimate mission was almost certainly at an end. Surely they wouldn’t just grant her another whole troop and let her start over – especially considering she hadn’t even made any actual progress on catching the rat bastard.
So where was there to go? Only to Malbec, to what was probably her death - but it was the only option. She knew the inner workings of the Empire better than almost anyone, and she knew that a mere mortal such as herself would be utterly daft to try and hide from them. It was better to just face him honorably and-
The hazy stillness was interrupted suddenly, first by the smallest rustle of foliage, then by the great whirr of machinery as what appeared to be a pair of mechanical grabbers burst from the cover of pine-jungle shadow and rocketed toward the trio. Having been stupidly caught off-guard thanks to her moment of idle thought – she was seriously getting sick of letting herself be caught off-guard like this – there was only a split second to react, and the result would be largely half-and-half.
A utilitarian flourish, twisting to one side and fluidly drawing her blade was enough to keep her from being grabbed by the thing, but not sufficient to keep her from being hit with some great force in that wounded shoulder as the bulk of the grabber brushed by. She was, however, able to produce a swift counterattack, swiping upward with the monomolecular blade and – similarly to her target’s initial attack – just barely miss, but still clip the side.
The rapier blade – which was capable of cutting through literally almost everything (It was the only way for such an archaeic weapon to still be useful in a Galaxy dominated by projectile weaponry) – managed to nick the side of one arm, shaving off a hair-thin slice approximately the size of a thin-cut deli meat. It was such an insignificant wound, in fact, that the bit which had been scraped off actually floundered about in the air like a gauzy leaf before settling onto the ground. If Roya had been at the top of her game, she might have caught the little thing in an effort to appear totally badass – but Agent Kallenger was, to say the least, not currently at her best.
As to where the other long arm stuck – that would prove to be out of her jurisdiction, and likely there would be no time for her to react to it. Needless to say, of course, that the very first course of action the moment she was able to regain balance from the recoil of the swipe, the very first thing she would be doing was looking toward Christofer and reacting accordingly. If she had showed that kind of favoritism in a real combat unit she would have gotten sacked in a minute. But this little group was only superficially a combat unit, and frankly the woman's only real concern was the wellbeing of that dog-kid.
Of course, if the other arm had gone after the engineer woman instead, she would react with equivalent haste - it was simply a matter of which individual she instinctively checked on first.
Harry and his soldiers were walking through the jungle in a combat manner, checking every corner, scanning the tree, surveilling the ground for traps, even throught they were sprinting like the devil himself was on their tracks.
-Hum, sir ?
Harry slightly turned his head toward Eleana.
-Yes ?
-Did you wonder how the ship is going to get to us ? I mean, our equipement survived the EMP, and nearly all of the C.E.L.L. vessels are equipped with APEX, so they could get to the orbit, but how are they going to avoid getting crush by all this mess ?
At the word « mess » she pointed towards the sky, were even through the tree they could see the explosions in orbit and the shooting stars, signaling that debris were starting to fall.
Harry sighed before shaking his head.
-I honnestly don’t know, I’m a foot soldier, not a ship captain, but I can only think of two ways to get past this : brute force or extremely complicated manoeuvers.
-So either they shoot their way through it or they danse ? Added Andrew.
-Basically, yes, or if they have shields strong enough, they’ll just rush through it.
-Yeah, no offense Harry, but that’s just straight out suicide, I don’t even know if a battlecruiser would make it out of this mess.
Harry sighed, Andrew was right, the ship would probably not make it through, unless…
-Hey, remember about the Unioany ? Said Harry to Andrew.
-Uh ?
-The experimental ship we saw last year at outpost BT-41
-Oh yeah, I remember that, so what about it ?
-I talked with an engineer, he said that they were producing at least a hundred of this bad boys, maybe a thousand, and that those ships would be a revolution of astro-engineering.
-I think I know what you’re saying, added Adenia, wasn’t it because they started integrating some sort of living plasma into it ? And that it could generate solar shields and solar beams ?
-Exactly.
-Wait, what’s a solar beam ? Said Andrew, visibly lost.
-It’s a column of solar plasma, litterally, it’s like a super-death ray, except that it isn’t laser, and before you ask, a solar shield is like the atmosphere of a star, you know the 1 million degrees celsuis gazes above the star surface ? Well it’s that, litteraly, and only energy weapons can get past it. Answered Anedia.
The discussion stopped, not because it wasn’t safe since they used internal APEX communications by thought transfer, so they didn’t risk anything, but far ahead (700-600 meters approximately) (and yes, the squad sprinted through 1.3 kilometers of thick jungle in a few minutes, but they weren’t exactly discrete) they started hearing fighting noises.
-Looks like our target’s in trouble ! Move it marines ! GO GO GO !
The APEX soldiers rushed foward, weapons in hand and finger on the trigger, ready to kill, as they rushed throught the thick vegetations, their scanners started picking the signatures of….4 targets.
1 robot, 2 humans, and….1 error.
Wait, what ?
The soldiers suddendly stopped and looked at each other, an error ?
Harry looked at the scan results, it was some sort of modified human, but the system had no references for that, command will surely be interested.
-Uh, it seems that there’ll be more enemies than I thought…Okay marines, change of plans, we don’t rush gun blazing, we surround the area and push everyone to surrender, move it !
-Sir yes sir !
All the soldiers spreaded as the EXI gave them a spot for the attack, in the end, Harry was left with only Anedia, Eleana, Andrew and corporal Jenkins.
They were almost there…
In the meantime….
Malcom’s office.
Malcom was sitting in his chair, taking from time to time a sip of his mug of coffee, but suddendly the screen of his terminal came back to life, announcing a call on the emergency line, Malcom set his cup on his desk before answering the call.
-Yes ?
-Sir, this is Alpha-6, we’ve managed to pick up a transmission from the Stella Viventium’s captain, Aelyn Petrovalyc to a group of battleships, according to our intels, their designs match Lord Kampfer’s ships.
-What Lord Kampfer ? The Lord of Technology ?
-It appears so sir.
-And me who thought the Dimensional Lords would leave us alone…What does it says ?
Malcom stayed silent as the message played, when it was finished her frowned before hitting the « replay » button, after his second listening of the message, he let out a chuckle.
-Okay, that does sound like Petrovalyc when he’s pissed, okay, what’s the status of Kampfer forces ?
-We think he sent 5 battleships, but we’re not sure, as for the rest of his units, they seemed to have…disapeared.
-Excuse me ?
-It seems that his forces have fallen back, we think that the code that put down technology delt a fatal blow to most of his army, due to his heavy reliance on androids.
-So what you’re telling me is that he’s defenceless ?
-No, not defenceless, but considerably weakned.
Malcom stood up and hit his palm with his fist.
-That is the best news in a long time Alpha-6 ! We haven’t been able to deal with him before, but now…It’s time for a preventive strike ! Continue to monitor his ships’ activities, I’m sending you backup immedialtely !
-Roger that, Alpha-6, out.
Malcom turned towards Aaron.
-Go to the control center and order the immediate take-off of the 6th, 3rd, and 9th flottillas and send them to Alpha-6, their objective is to destroy Kampfer’s ships at all cost ! Got it ?
-Sir yes sir !
Aaron rushed out of the room, even if it wasn’t fair to send his second-in command and advisor with his orders like a messenger, but he had something else to do.
He approached his screen before typing a serie of codes that only him knew, the screen switched to black and start displaying a humanoid shadow, Malcom stepped back and kneeled, like a vassal speaking to his overlord.
-What is it, Malcom Green ? Said a deep, cold voice.
-My Lord, my men have picked up Aelyn’s trail, but the Lord of Technology is interfering with our plans.
-HRRRG…Kill him if you must, but recover Aelyn alive ! I need him in order to breach the barrier, do not fail me.
-Yes, my Lord.
The screen got back to his normal orange colour as the transmission was interupted, Malcom stood up before sitting back on his chair.
He sighed, this was going to be a long day…
Still meanwhile…
Amiral Sanders’ flagship the Everest, command deck
Sanders was sternly looking at the base below her, they were too late, the virus already took off….
-So, what is going on ? She asked in a coold voice.
The lieutenant behind her on her right stepped foward.
-The strike force took control of the landing pads facing minimal resistance, but they expect more traps and tangos on the inside, they ask for reinforcement ma’am.
-Good, dispatch them the 1st and 3rd interstellar marines company as well as the 4th and 5th Biohazard units, dispatch the rest of our troups in the shipyard, to find out what happened.
-Why the shipyard ma’am ?
-The virus took off immediately after it took control of the ships, but some of them self-destroyed, I can promess you that it didn’t had the time to check the wreckage, so if we want to find survivors, it will be there.
-Roger that !
The lieutenant as well as the officers of the ground troops rushed out of the room to their different units.
-What about us ? Asked a navy officer.
-Provide ground support to our men below, stay high enough to avoid being hijacked by the virus, kill every flying object that isn’t ours an ready the nukes for an orbital bombardment.
-Yes ma’am !
With that, the navy officers rushed out as well, leaving only Sanders and a handfull of soldiers on the command deck.
-What about us ? Hesitantly asked a member of the science and recon team.
-Try to pick up their FTL trail, I want to know where they went, also, bring me my god damn coffee.
-Sir yes sir !
Two soldiers collided with each other as they tried to exit the room at the same time, Sanders sighed, this was going to be a long day….
-Hum, sir ?
Harry slightly turned his head toward Eleana.
-Yes ?
-Did you wonder how the ship is going to get to us ? I mean, our equipement survived the EMP, and nearly all of the C.E.L.L. vessels are equipped with APEX, so they could get to the orbit, but how are they going to avoid getting crush by all this mess ?
At the word « mess » she pointed towards the sky, were even through the tree they could see the explosions in orbit and the shooting stars, signaling that debris were starting to fall.
Harry sighed before shaking his head.
-I honnestly don’t know, I’m a foot soldier, not a ship captain, but I can only think of two ways to get past this : brute force or extremely complicated manoeuvers.
-So either they shoot their way through it or they danse ? Added Andrew.
-Basically, yes, or if they have shields strong enough, they’ll just rush through it.
-Yeah, no offense Harry, but that’s just straight out suicide, I don’t even know if a battlecruiser would make it out of this mess.
Harry sighed, Andrew was right, the ship would probably not make it through, unless…
-Hey, remember about the Unioany ? Said Harry to Andrew.
-Uh ?
-The experimental ship we saw last year at outpost BT-41
-Oh yeah, I remember that, so what about it ?
-I talked with an engineer, he said that they were producing at least a hundred of this bad boys, maybe a thousand, and that those ships would be a revolution of astro-engineering.
-I think I know what you’re saying, added Adenia, wasn’t it because they started integrating some sort of living plasma into it ? And that it could generate solar shields and solar beams ?
-Exactly.
-Wait, what’s a solar beam ? Said Andrew, visibly lost.
-It’s a column of solar plasma, litterally, it’s like a super-death ray, except that it isn’t laser, and before you ask, a solar shield is like the atmosphere of a star, you know the 1 million degrees celsuis gazes above the star surface ? Well it’s that, litteraly, and only energy weapons can get past it. Answered Anedia.
The discussion stopped, not because it wasn’t safe since they used internal APEX communications by thought transfer, so they didn’t risk anything, but far ahead (700-600 meters approximately) (and yes, the squad sprinted through 1.3 kilometers of thick jungle in a few minutes, but they weren’t exactly discrete) they started hearing fighting noises.
-Looks like our target’s in trouble ! Move it marines ! GO GO GO !
The APEX soldiers rushed foward, weapons in hand and finger on the trigger, ready to kill, as they rushed throught the thick vegetations, their scanners started picking the signatures of….4 targets.
1 robot, 2 humans, and….1 error.
Wait, what ?
The soldiers suddendly stopped and looked at each other, an error ?
Harry looked at the scan results, it was some sort of modified human, but the system had no references for that, command will surely be interested.
-Uh, it seems that there’ll be more enemies than I thought…Okay marines, change of plans, we don’t rush gun blazing, we surround the area and push everyone to surrender, move it !
-Sir yes sir !
All the soldiers spreaded as the EXI gave them a spot for the attack, in the end, Harry was left with only Anedia, Eleana, Andrew and corporal Jenkins.
They were almost there…
In the meantime….
Malcom’s office.
Malcom was sitting in his chair, taking from time to time a sip of his mug of coffee, but suddendly the screen of his terminal came back to life, announcing a call on the emergency line, Malcom set his cup on his desk before answering the call.
-Yes ?
-Sir, this is Alpha-6, we’ve managed to pick up a transmission from the Stella Viventium’s captain, Aelyn Petrovalyc to a group of battleships, according to our intels, their designs match Lord Kampfer’s ships.
-What Lord Kampfer ? The Lord of Technology ?
-It appears so sir.
-And me who thought the Dimensional Lords would leave us alone…What does it says ?
Malcom stayed silent as the message played, when it was finished her frowned before hitting the « replay » button, after his second listening of the message, he let out a chuckle.
-Okay, that does sound like Petrovalyc when he’s pissed, okay, what’s the status of Kampfer forces ?
-We think he sent 5 battleships, but we’re not sure, as for the rest of his units, they seemed to have…disapeared.
-Excuse me ?
-It seems that his forces have fallen back, we think that the code that put down technology delt a fatal blow to most of his army, due to his heavy reliance on androids.
-So what you’re telling me is that he’s defenceless ?
-No, not defenceless, but considerably weakned.
Malcom stood up and hit his palm with his fist.
-That is the best news in a long time Alpha-6 ! We haven’t been able to deal with him before, but now…It’s time for a preventive strike ! Continue to monitor his ships’ activities, I’m sending you backup immedialtely !
-Roger that, Alpha-6, out.
Malcom turned towards Aaron.
-Go to the control center and order the immediate take-off of the 6th, 3rd, and 9th flottillas and send them to Alpha-6, their objective is to destroy Kampfer’s ships at all cost ! Got it ?
-Sir yes sir !
Aaron rushed out of the room, even if it wasn’t fair to send his second-in command and advisor with his orders like a messenger, but he had something else to do.
He approached his screen before typing a serie of codes that only him knew, the screen switched to black and start displaying a humanoid shadow, Malcom stepped back and kneeled, like a vassal speaking to his overlord.
-What is it, Malcom Green ? Said a deep, cold voice.
-My Lord, my men have picked up Aelyn’s trail, but the Lord of Technology is interfering with our plans.
-HRRRG…Kill him if you must, but recover Aelyn alive ! I need him in order to breach the barrier, do not fail me.
-Yes, my Lord.
The screen got back to his normal orange colour as the transmission was interupted, Malcom stood up before sitting back on his chair.
He sighed, this was going to be a long day…
Still meanwhile…
Amiral Sanders’ flagship the Everest, command deck
Sanders was sternly looking at the base below her, they were too late, the virus already took off….
-So, what is going on ? She asked in a coold voice.
The lieutenant behind her on her right stepped foward.
-The strike force took control of the landing pads facing minimal resistance, but they expect more traps and tangos on the inside, they ask for reinforcement ma’am.
-Good, dispatch them the 1st and 3rd interstellar marines company as well as the 4th and 5th Biohazard units, dispatch the rest of our troups in the shipyard, to find out what happened.
-Why the shipyard ma’am ?
-The virus took off immediately after it took control of the ships, but some of them self-destroyed, I can promess you that it didn’t had the time to check the wreckage, so if we want to find survivors, it will be there.
-Roger that !
The lieutenant as well as the officers of the ground troops rushed out of the room to their different units.
-What about us ? Asked a navy officer.
-Provide ground support to our men below, stay high enough to avoid being hijacked by the virus, kill every flying object that isn’t ours an ready the nukes for an orbital bombardment.
-Yes ma’am !
With that, the navy officers rushed out as well, leaving only Sanders and a handfull of soldiers on the command deck.
-What about us ? Hesitantly asked a member of the science and recon team.
-Try to pick up their FTL trail, I want to know where they went, also, bring me my god damn coffee.
-Sir yes sir !
Two soldiers collided with each other as they tried to exit the room at the same time, Sanders sighed, this was going to be a long day….
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