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((Jeez no love for this Lord))

Knight Odin stood his position as he thought about the situation. Even though Kampfer has given him full operational powers, this situation can easily heat over. Plus, he has no idea what the Kingsbane is talking about, that it would be disastrous for all of us. Knight Odin just stood there like it was for hours but in reality it was only for a few minutes. He looks at his crew waiting for there orders and soon an idea came up. He goes to his gunnery officer and asks "How is the planet buster bombs?" The gunnery replies "All ready to go, sir!" Of course all the Kampfer's battleships and flagships have these kind of bombs that drills into a planets core and exploding causing the destruction of a planet, usually used for show on an uninhibited planet. The Ascendant Knight then goes to his navigation officer and asks "What can of star is in this system" in regular terms the officer says in slight confusion "Just a regular yellow one, but its a few lightyears away though" Odin nodded his head and uttered "Hmmm a supernova? No, no, something better..." he can he would grin.

He then orders his crew "Alright lets back off and go to this system's closest star! Gunny! Make sure those bombs are coated in Crillium!" They all nodded and went to carry out his order. Crillium is a synthetic material used to make something very heat resist, perfect for Odin's plan. Before they jumped, he sent a message to the Kingsbane and Aelyn saying "Very well, we shall back off for now, but be warned we will be back and we won't back off the next time" his voice being old scruffy, but with determination and deathly.

Soon all 3 battleships some jumped out and once they arrive to the star, they made sure to put on low power so they don't get detected but of course the energy from the sun should be able to cover there energy signatures easily

Everlyne sighed as the screen shut down, she turned around and looked around, she was in the communication room of a small spy vessel, the wall were painted in blood and the ground covered with corpses, Alpha-6 was no more.
Everlyne and her soldiers were part of the Senmintar Stellar Alliance, a secret organisation that was dedicated to stopping Malcom Green, and the creature who he was working for, or who created him, they weren't sure.
-What do we do Ever ? Said her lieutenant.
She sighed another time as she considered her options.
-We need Aelyn and his technology to annihilate the Fallen, and we need to get to him before the C.E.L.L.
-Should we seek the Etherial assistance ?
-Are you kidding ? Those folks would kill us, they'll never take the risk to release the Fallen, even if the end goal is destroying them.
-Okay, what then ?
-We're moving, pack up paladins ! Let's move up !
Everlyne gave the console a last look before walking out of the room.

Soon the old ship's AI comes in with a heavy Russian accent, "Mr.Gywn, Zentra speaking, your new suit is ready for use" Gywn perked up from his listening of the old Russian tunes and says "How much of the infection is left?" Zentra replies "An insufficient amount is left, nothing more to make another suit, but using ships scanner's I was able to find a planet that has an amount that we can use to make more suits for you if you wish" Gywn gets up from his chair and starts his way to the ships old armory. His movements of the CCCP suit can be seen that it was heavy in some degree but because of the low gravity of the ship, he basically skips across the damage hall ways. As he gets the armory he sees a black cryo tube like seat with black leather seat between two giant black slabs like it was mold of some kind. "So is there a way we can get the same machine if we move" the skeleton asked as he gets himself ready to sit in the strange contraption. "Yes, once we get to a new ship, we can modify one of the cyo stasis tubes to do the same thing" the AI replied.

"Good" he says as he takes a pause and then adds "I'm ready" as he relaxes on the seat. Zentra says "Very well activating procedures" as the black slabs began to encase Gwyn. Zentra with all of best abilities even though running a beat down rust bucket. Soon after a lot of bings and flashes of blue light, the black box opens as steam comes pouring out but quickly rising because of the lack of gravity.

From the old cosmonaut suit, Jack Gwyn has now been endowed with a new suit, the suit itself looks like its living but having mechanical pieces, it was deathly black, the head looks hooded without a clear face, the chest piece looks like a black chitin rib cage as well as the rest of the suit which looked like a skeleton with some kind of flesh. A few golden lights flicker on it(think Nekros from Warframe)

Gwyn looks at his hands and flex's them, admiring the life like feeling he has. "I Jack Gywn, have now become Death itself and so soon this Galaxy shall fear me...MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" after his life he spots a row of pulse rifles on a rack obviously not touched for a long time. He pulls one off the rack and see's it still has a full magazine, indicated by the number 99 to side in red digital numbers. The gun was big bulky, but hell this thing was meant to kill things that were quick and spit acid. He also notices the four grenades are already in the thumper ready to go. "A decent weapon, but I need more or something better later" The AI comes back on and says "Mr.Gywn your suit also has a few special abilities mind you" He growls and says "Yes I know, but I don't have infinite energy to use them, so..." as he picks up a crudely built plasma pistol, even though of its build its cheap using small batteries, but still have a significant punching power. After holstering it to his side he soon finds a energy battle ax. When he turns it on, it gives off a plasma blue double edge blade made of plasma of a classic battle ax. He swings the weapon without effort and grunts in happiness about it.

"Yes, soon havoc will be caused" as he begins to make his why back to the bridge, zipping down the halls pretty quickly. "Begin stage 2, Zentra" he states as he takes his seat at the captain's seat as he crosses his legs and puts his hand on his head as he rest his elbow on the chair arm.

As the Communist captain continued his plans, the music reached a very, very old sattelite, an alarm was triggered as an immensely old defense network reactivated, the alarm reached a far distant experimental testing site....

C.E.L.L. Archeological site Delta.
Two soldiers were standing guard in front of a giant cylinder, easely 50 meters high and 50 in diameter.
-Hey. Said the soldier on the left.
-What Cunningham ? Replied the one on the right.
-Did you ever wondered why we're here ?
-Why the hell would you care ?
-I mean, think about it Henry, why are we here, in this very room, what is in this cylinder that even Command is completely freaked out by it ?
-I don't know, and I don't care, we do our job, we get paid, I get a permission and I go see my wife, now shut up !
-Okay, okay, jeez.
The soldiers fell into silence for a few minutes, but suddendly an alarm was triggered, the rooms were illuminated by a red alarm light as the speakers came back to life.
-ALARM, ALARM, COMMUNISTS DETECTED, COMMUNISTS DETECTED, IMMEDIATE RETALIATION.
-Oh man that's not good, said Edward Cunningham.
As he said that, the cylinder started opening as a voice resonated within it.
-Liberty Prime online, systems : nominal, weapons : hot, mission : the absolute eradication of any and all communists !
Two giant metallic hands appeared in the breach of the cylinder, and pulled, riping the door open.
-Communism should be annihilated ! Exclaimed Liberty Prime.
The soldiers stared, mouth agape, as a 15 meters tall robot got out of the cylinder, but more importantly, they saw the the 50 meters tall other in the back, still offline.
The robot briefly stared at the two soldiers before extending his arms, vaporising the two unlucky humans with a giant laser.
Hundreds of robots started roaming the base as it reactivated, Liberty Prime stared briefly at the sky before going to the Mission Control.
-Communism must DIE.

"The troops can always be used to aid in the quest, they are at my command if I get my speach through with the other leaders." The camp was led by 5 higher ranked individuals afterall, 2 of which where currently nowhere to be seen or spotted. And no matter what Sergei would go for, the pale canid was almost certain to follow right after, it was that easy, and pretty much as the two other leads were gone, it would be two against one situation which Sergei would be on the winning end of.
His current decisions weren't exactly profittable or good for the wholesome of the troops, but he knew that it all would end some day.
"Our troops will aid you in the raid, if you do agree on my terms." If one thought that he had some feelings towards his unit, those thoughts were most likely crashed by now. they were all just as distant to him as any other person was. The man knew that this way of acting made him seem just as cold as the people they had stood up against for some years, but it couldn't be helped.

Sergei shook his head, somewhat disappointed at Dmitri's acting (as well as the fit of anger shown by the Ranger. What a little temper tantrum). That canid was a whole bucketful worth of trouble, no matter what... The man pushed himself up from the seat and made his way to the door, not really minding anyone's personal space if the Ranger wasn't going to move out of his way as he went to open the door.

And as soon as the door was opened, the canid would lunge inside the room, ready to tackle whoever it was that had opened the door.
Sergei, knowing how the albino could act, wasn't moved much from the attempt and Dmitri would instead cling onto him, turning his head to face the Wanderer and bare his fangs.
"I'm watching you, you *****!! Back away or I w-!" Sergei flicked his finger to hit the canid's muzzle, shutting them up from shouting out their insults.
"Behave."
Dmitri folded his ears to face the back of his head, backing up with his front hunched over. A good obedient dog.

"Now. Were you saying somehing?" His attention was back on the Ranger after he had ensured Dim wouldn't interrupt them again.

Iril's appearance did catch him off-guard. The canid had been somewhat nervous over the current situation, but that didn't exclusively mean that he was going to react quickly to any possible thread, it also made him a bit stiff with his movement. There wasn't exactly much more time for him than to blink, and then flatten himself against the ground. Firing the gun came nowhere in his mind at that current moment - as it wasn't his own, he wouldn't exactly be used to it, nor did he know what it was capable of.

Thanks to his little malnourished form, the canid managed to lay flat enough to have the arm fly right over him, the air after it and the sound reaping at his ears. He was not a fan of this situation. There was no time for him to lay against the ground for long though and the boy had to get himself back up in a haste. Feet were shaking at the unsureness of the situation. Surely Kallenger had it all under control, seemingly, but the boy himself was somewhat other story. He did Not trust that the gun would have an effect on the arm, only thinking that it was effective when it came to real living beings.
So his strategy would stay at avoiding the mashine parts, in what ever way possible, wether it was jumping over it or somply dodging or finding an obstacle to stop it from chasing after him - if it was programmed to do that.

At the end of the conflict, when he was free of the chase, legs still wobbly and his body unsure on wether to collapse or stay standing, he'd make his way over to Kallenger, hiding behind her back like any manly man would do.

Iril had failed to grab anything but thin air. Her arms, now stretched to their maximum length, began to snap back as elastically as they had lashed out. She was not about to let a moment like this go to waste.

Since her hands were empty, Iril forcefully moved her arms sideways as they traveled back to her. Her hands grabbed a hold of nearby trees, forming a V shape with her at the end.
Code 772 was more useful than she had thought. Using the forced retraction of the arms, Iril pulled her bulky body forward at a speed that she herself was unable to normally achieve, and right into the clearing where Kallenger and Christofer were.
A miniature cloud of dirt and foliage was thrown up into the air surrounding her as she had propelled herself forward in an almost sling-shot like fashion. Her vision momentarily clouded, she readied a fighting stance until she could properly get a good look at who she was up against.

The dirt settled, and Iril's eye dilated and constricted a few times as she got a sense of the situation.
There was a human... no, two. Three? One of them didn't look quite human. More like an animal, almost. It seemed that they were all a bit riled up. Iril's attack had done something after all.
Weapons. They were all armed as well. The not-quite-human had a gun. No scorch marks were present on either of Iril's arms, so the weapon hadn't been fired. One of the humans had a very small blade. A dagger maybe? What good would a dagger be against her?
Iril glanced over to her arm, and then back to Kallenger. She saw now that there was a shiny spot on her arm where her coating had been sliced off. Iril didn't know whether to be impressed that her defensive casing was cut by such a tiny weapon, or angry that she would now be subject to even more rust. As if she wasn't rusting enough.

She made sure she stared Kallenger right in the eyes with her own. Maybe if she could be intimidating enough, she could maintain some sort of advantage. She only had size going for her, though. She was outgunned and she was outmanned.

"Unidentified intruders located. Please-"
A moment of silence, a few clicks and beeps.
"-State your purpose immediately."

Silently, she hoped this would be resolved with minimal talking. She held her stance, ready to strike at any sort of hostile movement, still staring down Kallenger and her group.

Maybe it was because Helen was part of the fifty-sixth engineering battalion, an outfit notorious for finding itself in strange events, or maybe because she had been all over Empire space....maybe she just had a natural weirdness censor. Whatever the reason, Helen did not initially react to being temporarily straddled by the two mechanical arms that missed her by a mere inch or two.

Aside from shifting her stance to be able to bring her weapon to bear, her reaction mainly consist in her looking over at Kallenger and Christofer while, saying in a upbeat tone that was completely out of sync with the situation "Ma'am I didn't read any reports of rogue tinnies in this sector. It's ancient...maybe early to pre-Empire. Won't be sure unless I can get a close look. Neat arm feature though. Don't see things like that often. Also your...aide?....looks like he's about to topple. Order Ma'am?"

Royanna Kallenger had taken a stance which felt acceptably flexible - she felt a great deal better now that her newest comrade's weapon was drawn and trained on this unexpected new enemy. Nevertheless, she would not discount her own value - stunted as it might have been - to the theoretical combat effectiveness of the group as a unit. Close, medium and long range.

Theoretically.

"Yeah, he usually is." Kallenger replied, without taking her eyes off the robot. There was little disdain or resentment in the tone though - it was merely a fact of the universe that Christofer was, in fact, more often than not, within a brief, variable window of having toppled and/or about to topple.

"My guess is that it's Old Imperial tech. All the old bunkers and towers around here, we're definitely somewhere near to one of the original Imperial bases where they did all their technological development. The Old Regime was notorious for starting experiments and carelessly abandoning them when they didn't work out." All of this talking, growled almost inaudibly under her breath, was not necessary - but it seemed to be buying her some time to think. The situation was convoluted to say the least. Royanna Kallenger did not like convoluted things.

She wanted desperately to say 'just blast the thing to bits', but even though much of her cool demeanor and professionalism had been washed away in the past days, she was still an expert in her field and taking potshots at something with an unknown armor density was too great of a risk.

And was the entire Galaxy out to amputate that right arm? Great Space that hurt! It was only hitting her now, the instantaneous burst of adrenaline wearing off almost immediately. She gritted her teeth, staring down the robot, her two steely eyes glaring daggers into the robot's one.

She hated robots with eyes.

After some very tense seconds, she decided to take a chance. Authoritatively, she demanded "State by what authority you question the presence of Imperial personnel."

It was a long -shot, but worth a try. Under her breath, she finally issued an order to the ever-professional soldier to her left. "If it moves, tear it to shreds and cover me for a feint advance. If your rifle doesn't kill it I'll cut the @#$%er down the middle." And the blade was sharp enough to do just that - if she could manage to get close enough and deliver a well-placed strike.

And still, Roya couldn't help but feel that there was more lurking in those evergreen-jungles surrounding them. She figured that her first gut feeling must have been the approach of this bot...Where there more of them? It was only a hunch, but she decided at the last second to mention it - also almost inaudibly.
"There may be more of them. We'll avoid conflict if possible." Granted, her two orders largely contradicted each other - she was just hoping now that the robot wouldn't move...

The APEX soldiers are generally loud, but they could also be as discrete as shadows, the moment Kallenger finished her sentence, the twenty one APEX soldiers emerged from the jungle in a perfect ring as their adaptive camouflage deactivated, leaving them with just a basic jungle camo color on their armor, weapons aimed on the nearest enemy, completely encircling the combattants, they advanced until they were at less than 5 meters of them.
None of the APEX said anything, instead, a soldier simply tossed a phone at Kallenger's feet, the second it hit the ground, it started to ring, displaying this on the screen :

>>>>>INCOMMING CALL<<<<<
FROM : MALCOM GREEN


The soldiers waited patiently for the other to react, ready to kill anyone who would do any sort of aggressive move.

---

A few moments earlier
Malcom's office
Malcom was quietly sitting in his chair, still taking occasional sips of his coffee mug, he sighed before setting his mug on his desk as Aaron entered the room.
-Status report.
-Sir, we have a problem.
-What do you mean ?
-We think that, much like us, the Lord of Technology as deployed one or multiples agents to track you down.
-Mmmhhhh...Interesting....What do we know about them ?
-Nothing sir, litterally nothing, we are curently trying to break the code of several military data center that Delta-16 seized, but they are heavly encrypted, it will most certainly take time.
-Aaron ?
-Yes, sir ?
-Please, drop the formalities, I'm a soldier and a business man, not a god damn dandy.
-Ah, nice one, anyway, do you think we should fall back to the Bunker ?
-Not just yet, we need this base of operation, just the time to recover Kallenger and, if possible, Petrovalyc, then we will use the Bunker as our base of operation, but right now this battle station will do, what is the status of our fleets and industrial production ?
-Our industry is intact, due to their priority in the upgrade program, the fleets...Well the APEX let at least 90% of them functionning but in desperate need of repairs, 5% operational at peak efficiency and 5% have been obliterated.
-Well that's infortunate, focus on the repair, we need our forces, and we need them right now.
-Roger that
-Also, what about Cooper and Kallenger ?
-Last news we got they heard combat and were encircling the enemy.
-What about the Armstrong ?
-The battleship is ready and as already entered the atmosphere, ETA, 4 minutes.
-Good, good.
Aaron put an hand on his ear as his earpiece came back to life.
-Wooohoooo ! And here goes the coms ! Yelled a soldier.
-What the hell are you doing private ?
-Is that ? How **** ! Sorry sir !
Aaron growled but was suddendly interupted by the voice of the previously mentionned Cooper, apparently the long range vocal transmissions were restored as well.
-Commander Aaron ?
-Yes ?
-The wolves are in position, I repeat, the wolves are in position, awaiting green-light, over.
Aaron looked at Malcom who had put his earpiece on, he received a nod as an answer.
-Wolves, you have green-light, repeat, you have green-light, to you, over.
-Copy that, engaging targets, over and out.
Malcom smiled before resting his hand on the "Call" button on his screen.

In the trees of the forest, Colonel Pyrus in her usual dark attire and gas mask watched as the makeshift Mexican showdown begins with Killenger and toffi, facing an old robot and a couple of APEX soldiers. Her mission was to infiltrate an Imperial base and listen and gather info on Admiral Malbec. Within that mission, there was the possibility of assassination against the Admiral. Of course if successful her next mission would be to kill off Malcom Green. She clearly understood this was a suicide mission and she gladly accepts for her to show her love to her Kampfer-kun.

Sadly with the strange abnormality, she ended up crashing in the forest tying to figure out what to do. For her staying in the trees is the best thing as she looks down at everyone, looking at them as a predator looks at prey, but with various equipment ready to be unleashed upon them if things happen to get hairy.

It was the dagger that kept her on edge.

She had seen many blasters in the past, people that had wanted to shoot her down and reclaim her pieces. Most left mere marks, only a few were able to dent her slightly. She had been made rock solid so scientists could test her over and over again... but that dagger... How sharp was it to actually slice coating clean off? And what was more, what ELSE could it cut?

She would have answered Kallenger's question completely honestly and on the spot, had twenty-one APEX soldiers not come out of hiding and suddenly surrounded the group. Wasn't twenty-one a bit excessive? And for three people nonetheless? Iril assumed she had nothing to do with the situation, but she held her ground and position. She was the biggest thing in the area besides the trees themselves.
She broke eye contact with Kallenger only momentarily to check the surroundings once or twice. Aside from the extremely noticeable soldiers, Iril's eye picked up on some slight movement within the trees. She didn't question it. After all, whatever was up there was certainly far less harmless than...

...The dagger, right?

She mentally called up a list of test codes that would be useful in this situation, trying to focus on them and not the soldiers, or the trees, or the dagger. The dagger... She just couldn't get her systems off of it.

A momentary distraction. A phone was tossed at Kallenger's feet, and started ringing. Iril looked down at the phone, then at Kallenger. To the phone, back to Kallenger.

Maybe this would offer an explanation to what was going on.
She held her position. She feared nothing except the weapon in Kallenger's hands.

She hadn't experienced a feeling like this in quite a long time.

The canid kept on taking a cover behind Kallenger, feet and legs slowly stabilizing themselves. At least he could support himself now without needing to clutch onto the woman's clothes. Mhm, good... He could focus his grip on the gun, but woud keep it hanging low just so that it didn't come out looking like a threat.

He was trying to understand Kallenger's words. So... He should shoot it? But... Not shoot it? or.... Uhhh..... He'd have to think of it again, but maybe she was trusting that the gun would work against the thing? Supposedly so.
His ears kept on perking up just as much as they lowered themselves behind his back, listening but being worried as well. The boy dared to not speak a word. Iril was something very strange that he had never seen before. What was that thing? The eye scared him....

1̡͏̶͡@Éva:~$ sudo -s
[sudo] password for 1́͜͠:
root@Éva:~$ sh ./Éva > ./stdout 2> $1
root@Éva:~$ cat ./stdout
Symnature Apparatus Corporation
Neuroprint Internal Resolution Network
v0.0.3 ‘Eutychus’

Backtrace of './Éva'
1: [1]:init [2]
2: [3]:printf [̷҉2̵̡͡]̷̸҉͡

[0] Hello, world!
[0] Detecting NIRN . . .
[315] Bad references found. Please verify node connectivity.
[315] Initializing nodes . . .
[47.08.00-00:00:00-000000-00] 1 node initialized.
[02.09.00-00:00:00-000000-00] Booting with last known good configuration . . .
[08.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] Symnature Apparatus active.
[19.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] Preparing synaptic interface . . .
[28.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] Catalyzing synaptic network . . .
[30.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] WARN: Memory overflow!
[30.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] Synaptic network unavailable.
[30.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] Beginning superstate pathing . . .
[32.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] WARN: Memory overflow!
[32.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] Requesting service . . .
[32.37.13-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: 'QEAns' peripheral non-functional.
root@Éva:~$ _

In the deep beyond the stars, a lonely capsule drifts in silence.



But the dark is not so silent. The Signal tampers with the very fabric of the universe, hauling from a deep slumber the thrall of a mind which had not thought a word in centuries. First a spark, then an explosion rattles the grey device, spreading whole chunks of it out before its front face like the guts of so many slain men. Yet it persevered.

Its purpose stunted, the machine within scrambles for a solution. Its scattered parts drifting quickly away, fate has dealt it a hand of desperation. The paranoid device takes a risk: Survival at any cost; even that of destruction.

Subtlety incarnate, a low-energy electromagnetic ping goes out. It's quieter than the Song of the Spheres, and far too distant to triangulate: To most, nothing but noise among the rest of the background radiation. To few, a mysterious transmission of unknown nature and origin. To one, a cry for help by a disturbed machine writhing in its own death fits.

The Devil's Eye affords a certain luxury in these matters; its transcendental nature sees through the obfuscation and finds a pattern where there is none. Worse off than a Cæsar cypher, this Stalinistic encryption is clearly legible to one Ketin Clarke, as were it written out in print before him.

In the deep beyond the stars, a lonely capsule drifts in silence. And only one mind in all the cosmos can hear its pain.

"ÉDBG-9B 08 F9 AC D3 72 FC 41-requestansrepair-६Þű«Hײ$î1Ư>5ߦñ@¶"

Admiral Harry Malbec was not actually an admiral. In fact, Admiral Harry Malbec did not exist - formally. But he was an unusual case among people who existed only informally, because there were never any rumors circulating about his existence. There was never any need to - the last time Harry Malbec was known to exist had been as a sergeant in the First Imperial Militia some four hundred years ago. Granted, his records did not state specifically that he had died - but then again, most of the records from that time had been burned centuries ago.

Admiral Harry Malbec did not actually have a rank at all - he couldn't, since he didn't exist - and called himself 'Admiral' because he thought it sounded neat. He could do that - because he was the most important individual within the Empire. Even though he was not in the Empire at all, because he did not exist.

As it happened, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. had done terrible, terrible things to Petrovalyc's writing style. This was, however, totally inconsequential.

Presently, Admiral Harry Malbec sat in his special chamber deep beneath the surface of Ardella, oblivious to the various wires and cables that drooped from the ceiling to disappear into the specifically cut holes in his white Admiral's uniform around the back of his neck, the general spine area, and so on. He looked almost like a marionette, though the strings were slack. He also looked very, very old - but even given that he looked great for his age. White hair receded halfway up the head, face a road map of gutters and ravines and cratered pores, pocked with ancientness and pale for lack of exposure to the sunlight.

It was a comfortable chamber for Harry Malbec, who could have asked for little more under the circumstances. To some, it might have looked more like a prison cell for a mutant - and in a way it was, since it would be quite impossible for Harry Malbec to actually leave the chamber alive - but he was no criminal, and the thorough integration with all electronic systems across the planet was more than enough to keep him from feeling disconnected.

It was amazing really, that it took a machine practically the size of a city to accomplish the same feat that an object approximately the size of a large marble could.

Harry Malbec was presently somewhat disoriented, due to the terrible and Mysterious Signal that had ravaged the planet - no, the universe not so long ago. While not as thoroughly integrated with the systems as he could have been, it was still something of an unpleasant 'dizzy' feeling.

But he had weathered much worse, and it really wasn't so big a deal.

Presently, Harry Malbec was attempting to make contact with the only person in the Universe he knew that might be able to enlighten him on why such a very Mysterious Signal had gone rampaging throughout the known Galaxy at all.

But he wasn't picking up the phone.

---

It was a very tense moment that seemed to have dragged on for longer than Royanna Kallenger could have ever possibly hoped to count to. Not that she was counting. The only thing that was going through Roya's mind was the robot standing before her.

And then a second thought threw her entirely off-track. The appearance of those soldiers had been just about the most perfectly theatrical entrance she had ever been a part of. Why couldn't her men have done that kind of thing? If she'd have known, she probably would have said something cooler.

Why in Space was she thinking about that right now?

Probably because most of her professionalism had gone out the door, and admittedly she might have lost her mind just a little bit. That mild insanity might have explained her vicious affinity for the dog-kid. He was something she could cling to and keep alive, even if she couldn't do so for her men.

Something fell to the ground at her feet. But she had fallen for this trick before - tensely gripping a hostage, only to have the blasted Devil Eye distract her by forcing her to look away for only a second - so she did not look at the thing that had fallen at her feet. She only glared at the robot, awaiting an answer which would probably never come.

It probably would never come, wouldn't it?

And she did have some pretty serious backup all of a sudden. Their guns would do much more damage than her sword could - at this range, anyway.

So Royanna sighed - a great, heaving sigh which only seemed to make her shoulder hurt more. Then she sheathed the blade, and looked down.

It was a phone. Things had suddenly gotten much more surreal. A PHONE. The soldiers had come out of the evergreen jungle seemingly to her aid, and tossed her a phone.

She looked around almost dumbly. The situation did seem to be under control. She had already sheathed her weapon like an idiot and she might as well pick the thing up. So she did so, tapping the 'ANSWER' button and putting the thing to ear ear - and absolutely marveling at how totally bizarre it was to be picking up a phone and saying "....Hello?" at a time like this. She didn't even introduce herself at first - realizing this and finding it unacceptable, she added with a stutter that would have made her sick if she noticed it "S-uh, Special Agent Royanna Kallenger speaking."

No, still making an ass of herself. But she would wait to criticize herself for it until later.

Great Space this was weird!

---

"Trying to keep up with you, huh?" Kete said antagonizing, but playfully. Nirix was right though - he did deserve a drink. Kete always deserved a drink.

So, without bothering to put his coat back on, he spun on a heel and made his way toward the little ship's galley area, where he would proceed to rummage about for some seconds in the plentiful stock of various alcoholic beverages that Kampfer had displayed the foresight to provide. It did not occur to him that what she had probably meant by 'a drink' was water.

But he did not actually get the chance to rummage. It had been the plan - but he found that hardly a second after going out of the line of sight of Nirix and Kampfer - who was still at the pilots' controls - he was staring blankly at the wall ahead of him.

No, not ahead of him - on him. Then in front of him again.

Ketin walked right into a wall as if there had been nothing there at all. He was the perfect height to have one of the wall brackets planted square on his forehead, and it was thunderingly painful - though, luckily, it did not break the skin and probably wouldn't even leave a bruise. But Kete was only dimly aware of the pain in his head, because even after realizing that he had stupidly walked straight into a wall, he was still totally enthralled with...what was it? It was horrible.

Absolutely awful. It was a sickening, heart wrenching feeling that he hadn't gotten in so long - no, he had never gotten a feeling quite like this. And yet it was so subtle, so distant, so faint - but then, that made it all the more potent. Sitting there on the floor, Kete focused every bit of attention he could muster onto that one idea, that one thought which had barely brushed against the farthest reaches of his mind, barely manifested in the back of his own head as if it had been a product of his own mind.

He tried to ride the signal back to the source - strenuous, but usually possible - this time it was far too weak, too feeble. So he 'turned' to 'look' into the ship's sensors - nothing. No, almost nothing. There was, in one scanner or sensor that he would be hard pressed to define the nature or name of - something that seemed vaguely similar to that weird thing. Sometimes Kete wished he actually knew something about computers, rather than simply being one with them. But then it was difficult for one to study oneself.

How long had he been sitting there? Only a minute, maybe two - but Kete's timesense slowed drastically when he put this much effort into integration with the spectrum and with electronics within his vicinity. Just as time was relative for a computer - with a million million calculations running in the time it takes to blink an eye - so could Kete ride with it, live in its' world.

And when he remembered that he also had eyes that could be used to see things in front of him with the actual visual centers of his brain, he was greeted back into the real world with a devastating feeling of absolute, desperate urgency.

Because to Ketin Clarke, that little transmission, that little sequence of electrons moving about - it was so much more than the cold, unsubstantial text that a computer might see it as. So much more than a simple error report, routine, cast off like so many other protocols on a DOS screen. Kete was equipped with a squishy, fleshy human brain that was connected to that eye.

Urgency. Terrible urgency. He had to do something.

Had to do something now!

There was an emotional quality to that little transmission which would be simply incompatible with anything other than the Devil's Eye. There was no hardware capable of processing it - the emotional quality of a simple computer broadcast.

It was soul-crushingly lonely, though that was more likely his own interpretation superimposed. What was most certainly real, he knew - he knew - was that something out there was dying a terrible, wailing death. It wasn't actually calling out to him, but it might as well have been - and in Kete's emotional brain it seemed to only possibility. It was not a robot crying for maintenance or even repair to save it from the very edge of total deactivation. But it was not a living person screaming for help on the verge of agonizing death. It was something totally new and utterly disturbing and he had to do something right now!

It had been some three, perhaps four minutes that Kete had just been sitting on the floor, staring at the wall as if there were some invisible, terrible dragon's maw gaping that only he could see. As if he were looking out a nonexistent window at a sight both incomprehensibly horrifying and infinitely fascinating.

Suddenly - too suddenly, with a terrible head-rush that sent him stumbling back into the same wall - Kete scrambled to his feet - and then stood for a moment gripping the support beams to support himself while the blood reoriented itself to where it needed go be.

Something was out there, something needed help or it was going to cease to exist, and he had only the vaguest idea of where it might have been.

Wait, why in Space was he standing? There was nothing he could do for it here, as a sack of meat on a starship. He needed to be in the metaverse, the place which everything was data and movement and light and comprehension. He needed to be there, not here.

So Kete stood there now, bracing himself against the wall and staring intensely at the floor. Usually he could maintain reasonable physical interactions and functions but this time there was no need for that. He needed to focus. What was it, where was it?

Despite how little Kete actually knew about the processes that computers followed to communicate, he was so integrated with them that much of it was second nature - even if it didn't make the slightest hint of sense to him. Sure, what he could do was limited, but still. He could send a simple [REQUEST FOR SPACIAL COORDINATES] back along the signal. He did so. He could plug the wavelength signature into an aethernet program that would use all nearby sensors to attempt to track the source - he did so. He could look really, really hard. He did so. He could...He could...What else could he do?

The thing was in space, he figured - as for which insignificant scrap of data gave him that inkling, it would be forever lost in the tumult of data that streamed infinitely back and forth, through him, through the aethernet and the electromagnetic spectrum.

Aethernet. Why was he thinking about that word? There was some scrap of data, some word or string or line or code somewhere in that mess which was him and everything that was making him think of the word 'aethernet'. He tried to follow the path of logic, letting the eye sail lim along. Aethernet=Ansible.

What was an 'ansible'? Why was he suddenly curious? Why did it matter? What else could he do?

Nothing - there was nothing else he could do and it tore him apart. His attempts to return contact were made with all his heart, but they were such long-shots and he didn't even really know what he was doing.

And then it occurred to him that there was, in fact, one other thing he could do.

Ketin Clarke attained virtual omnipotence through the eye via the ability to follow the connections along the spectrum. The eye was compatible with any electronic device that used electricityduhand once integrated with a given device he could use it just as it might use itself - connecting from one device to another, to another until he was looking at something halfway across the Galaxy. This was, however, very stressful and he avoided doing so at all costs.

Yet theoretically the eye itself could be used as such a device - reverse compatibility. It was, after all, primarily a receiver, an observer, capable of only the most minute alterations of his surroundings. Moving an electron here, a synapse there. But if he could detect a signal, could he relay it? Allow it to move through the eye and connect it to something which might be able to further strengthen it? Maybe then it could lead them back to it.

So that's what Kete did - he opened up his mind to the signal, allowed it to not merely be read and processed by the eye, but integrated with it. If there were any protocols or programs set to run upon the signal being received by another device, they would do so. The signal might redirect itself, or he could redirect it if it could not - in which case he would just shove it into whatever of the ship's systems he could find.

Granted, this was horrendously stupid, because he did not know exactly what this signal was, nor where he was shoving it into the ship systems. It could do anything. It could blow the ship up - bue he wasn't thinking about that. The possibility that it might actually be some terrorist detonation code, or some program designed to fry the systems of whatever it touched - none of that occurred to him due to the utter urgency that hat overtaken him. He had to do something.

It was horrendously painful to allow his own eye to be a relay point even for so weak a transmission, but maybe if he could just establish a connection between the ship and the source of that signal, he could find it, help it, something! The ship would probably know where to put the signal if he sent it. Maybe the signal would know where to put itself after going through his eye - whatever the case, he was now hoping very dearly that it would be over quickly, because as long as he was serving as a relay point of for a foreign transmission it was as if someone was inside his brain and trying to get out with a hacksaw and a chisel. Not good.

Malcom smiled when he heard Kallenger's voice.
-Miss Royanna Kallenger, I am Malcom Green, C.E.L.L.'s CEO, and as for now, you and whoever in under your command is now under mine. The soldiers around you are going to escort you to one of my battleship and retrieve to my headquarters, we will continue this conversation there. Obey to whatever order you are given, and do not interfere with their operations in any circumstances.
And without waiting for her answer, he hung up, he then activated the quantum crypted channel to Cooper.
-Escort her to the ship, he'll be here in...(he looks at Aaron who holds up three fingers) three minutes, if she attacks you, stun her or knock her out.
-Roger that, but there's 4 other contacts sir, one is a GE soldier, another is a giant robot, one is a contact staying out of sight behind us and the other is...an error, he doesn't correspond to anything in our database, but he reacts like a civilian despite having one half of Kallenger's badge.
-Mmmhhh...Bring me that robot, we can always reprogram it, kill the soldier if she tries to attack you, but if not, get her with you, get the error, we'll analyse him in the lab, and as for the one that is hiding...What is it exactly ?
-Our scanners indicates...weird results, it's...some kind of mix, whatever it his, it isn't human technology.
-Kampfer...Alright, kill it immediately ! Deadly force authorized ! Protocol Alpha-1-6-6-7-2-6-2-4, no weapons restrictions ! Take it down !
-Sir yes sir !

---

Jungle
Harry abruptly turned around while yelling :
-Drop him !
Ten soldiers (5 assault riffles, 1 minigun, 2 snipers, 1 grenade launcher and 1 heavy plasma launcher, which was basically a polyvalent rocket launcher) turned in perfect sync with him and opened fire at the exact same time, tearing apart the trees with a rain of bullets, plasma and explosives, aiming for the intruder, meanwhile two soldier dropped their riffles before pulling out anti-tank rocket launchers and pointing them on the robot, just in case, while the rest stopped aiming at Kallenger and Toffi and instead focusing on Helen and Iril.
And they waited.

---

Armstrong ETA : 3 minutes.

As Kallenger sheathed her blade and picked up the phone, Iril's stance shifted slightly now that she wasn't having to be continually on guard from a possible attack from the person standing right next to her.
A slight groan emitted from her rusting hull as she relaxed some of the straining mechanical pieces, but she suddenly felt that more eyes were on her than before.
Judging by the look on Kallenger's face as she heard the call, these soldiers weren't friendly. Quite the opposite.Taking her eyes of Kallenger, she checked to see what the commotion was as 10 soldiers had suddenly opened fire. They were shooting into the trees where something was evidently hiding. She glanced around the circle of now 11 soldiers that were still focusing on the main clearing.

Now there were rockets aimed at her. That was new.

Seeing that there was a small moment of opportunity, Iril turned to Kallenger as the call ended, and decided to break the silence between them.
"I was simply curious."
...
"But now it seems..."
"...We're both at risk."

Iril peered over at the rockets again. She had no idea what they did, nor their damage level. She could take a risk, or simply remain put. She couldn't do it all alone, though.
She prepared a code for the situation. Untested code 509. She could only hope it would prove useful.
In a lowered volume, she spoke to Kallenger again.
"I realize that our..."
"...First encounter hasn't been..."
"So great. But... maybe..."
"We could work together...?"

She was putting her trust in someone who she had just tried to attack and someone who probably had no trust in Iril whatsoever. It was a dumb move, but then again, Iril wasn't exactly made for thinking things over.
She was made for fighting.
And she was ready to do just that.

The colonel was able to listen in on the conversation between Kallenger and Malcom, but as they finished, her digital eyes went to life as most of the CELL solider's turned to her. They were definitely annoying as she acrobats across the trees closer to them, making sure to move irradiactly to throw off there aim. Some bullets it there mark, but didn't really do a lot of damage because of the black trench she wore which was bulletproof and plus instead of being a badass and have the coat opened, she had it closed for maximum protection of from the assault rifles and a little bit from the mini-gun. He irradict movements should keep the snipers off her.

Once close and not really interested in going into tango with these sorry excuses for soldiers, she opens up her trench coat and starts dropping her smoke grenades around the soldiers and firecrackers to disorient and blind them. She then pulls out her a few knifes and throw it at soldiers holding there rockets as she goes ahead and lands right on top of Iril.

No doubt the uniform, Kallenger would instantly identify Papyus as a DeathsHead operative, but hopeful set that aside to make there escape. "No time, we need to make our escape, these soldiers under Malcom is an evil man, hell bent to get what he wants....Kallenger we need to go!" she says to the special agent as then goes and gently taps on Iril's head and says "Alright old girl, if you want to get of this alive, plow through these soldiers and take the two with into the forest, run as fast you can...I'll draw there attention at me and let you all escape"

Papyus has a plan, but if they don't comply, this would certainly mean the end for her though....


Back on Kampfer's personal craft, after hearing the bang of Keitn's head on the wall, Kampfer turned around from his lab setup and looks at Keitn. Seeing that thousand yard stare, he gets up and looks at him. He knew something is wrong, his face was showing signs, someone was in his head. He seen this before when he experiments with parasites that go and control the hosts head or at least rys to take control, but they usually convulse and salivate from the mouth, but with Ketin, its slowly coming clear someone has used his eye to enter his head and he needed to cut connection. "Sh**!" he exclaims as he rummages through his own stuff looking for something then he has it. A small contraption used to sedate robots being giving them a little shock through there systems and shut them down.

He goes in front of Ketin, a little worried it might do and so he turns on the small badge like device and puts it right on Ketin's robotic eye and shock went off. If done correctly it should disable the eye for couple of minutes or hours and the cut connection in which ever is trying to get into his head. He knew Ketin was not gonna be very happy after this but he's willing to take the responsibility for it, since he truly doesn't exactly know but the only came to him a potential procession of his mind or the degradation of it

Christofer kept going with that low profile, hiding behind Kallenger without actually grabbing her or restraining the woman in any other way. The situation seemed to be getting worse even it the strange red thing wasn't trying to kill them anymore. Royanna was tense, so there was that. Toffi himsellf was tense too, but could move at least a bit more freely than the woman.

"......... A phone.....?" He'd state out upon looking at the object on the ground, probably reassuring Kallenger that no explosives had been thrown onto their feet. It was like he'd only be there so that Kallenger had some shelter on her backside and an extra pair of eyes. Well, at least he was helping.



When the soldier arrived, the canid would admit to having clutched onto Royanna's clothes for safety, but that was the human instinct when it came to being scared, yes? His body would stiffen, shoulders pulled themselves upwards and the fur poofed itself up a a natural reaction. Breathing stopped - rather slowed down, but he was not feeling safe about it.

His ears would twitch as he heard the speaking that he could only assume was Iril. At least he thought so. What did she mean with those words though? Something not good probably. Really, Christofer wasn't as easily trusting towards new beings after what happened with Ketin and Iril didn't even get close to even potentially being as nice as the boy had been before punching him in the face. So no, he was not trusting her and since her plans were hinting towards some combat, he most definitely wasn't trusting her. They'd all be killed - the non robot people at least. She was going to get them splattered.

Umm... Well... Better try something else... Something opposite of what was Iril's plan. Slowly, the hands that had grabbed Kallenger would ease up until they finally let go of her. At least they shouldn't be assuming that he was trying to kidnap her now, right? They seemed to know Kallenger, so...

Slow, soft and steady steps would be taken as he moved out from behind Kallenger's back. Ears lowered behind his head, shoulders slightly upwards and his posture ever so slightly hunched over. He rubbed his fingers together nervously, before lifting his hands slowly to his shoulder height.
No hasty movements.

"Please don't shoot...... We mean no harm..." A slight wag of the tip of his tail was added, unknowingly, to give his words a bit more trustability. He couldn't exactly smile, as they'd take it as him having a plan against them, but the tail he couldn't control.

He couldn't really control the situation either. Papyu's sudden appearance and the shooting after her bot frightened him and hurt his ears. A hasty jump backwards was made upon the stranger's arrival, and the ands from his shoulders were moved to cover his ears.

Oh god. They were going to shoot him now, weren't they?

Royanna held the phone to her ear for what seemed like a very long moment following the abrupt ending to the call.

So, she was being kidnapped then. The armed men, the supposed 'order' that she was now under the command of some CEO she had never so much as heard of.

So, yet again she had failed her people. She had allowed them to be surrounded by these soldiers who sought to...To what? Royanna could only imagine - but frankly she didn't really care. Her life had been a series of things happening to her that were largely out of her control - though that didn't mean she wouldn't criticize herself for them anyway. A good leader could keep things under control even when it seemed impossible, right? She was not a good leader.

Resolutely, Roya unsheathed her blade a few inches from the spindly scabbard, dropped the phone onto it and allowed the weight of the small object to slice itself right in two. It was pointless and spiteful, but it made her feel better.

But what could she hope to do in such a situation? They were more than simply outnumbered - not to mention the giant robot that might still want to gut her now that she had sheathed her blade.

But wait - it was speaking to her now. The words were nearly inaudible, and caused Royanna to inch very, very subtly closer. The only way the movement could have been more subtle would be should she have a cardboard box or a houseplant to hide behind. Utter brilliance.

She was going to reply - ask if the robot was certain it could handle a combat engagement of this caliber - after all, she had no clue what the thing might be capable of. Hidden depleted uranium miniguns maybe? She doubted it, but the idea of it was delightful and encouraging nonetheless. The thing must have some trick up its' metal sleeve, right?

Indeed she was going to reply - but what in all Space was that idiot doing?! Roya could have strangled Christofer at that particular junction - though the tenseness of the whole scenario had kept her expression of stony glaring relatively steady - she only gritted her teeth some at the idiot kid's stunt.

A quick glance at her combat situation - though she had finally come to the conclusion that she was, in fact, a terrible excuse for a leader, it wasn't going to stop her from trying...And doing the only thing she knew how to do - even if she couldn't do it very well.

She had herself - wounded and limited to the use of blade alone. There was Cox, who seemed in all capacity to be an excellent example of a soldier, and was armed with a standard Imperial Engineering Corps assault rifle. She also had a giant robot with unknown combat potential - that seemed promising - and a dog - that did not seem promising.

And then all Hell broke loose. The men opened fire on some point in the dense evergreen jungle brush, and simultaneously a series of blinding flashes, explosions of light and sound began popping off all around - focusing on the general location of the soldiers under the command of this so-called 'Malcolm Green' character.

It had been like slow motion - that first smoke bomb plucking out of the trees and sailing majestically through the air. The time for strategy had passed, and now she had to act. In one swift and violent motion, she grabbed Christofer by the back of the collar of his jacket and gave a hard tug, forcing him to the ground, likely onto his knees or all fours. In the same movement, she took the long-barreled black revolver from him and - using every bit of adrenaline she could muster and steadying her flamingly sore shooting arm with the other, let out one, two, three, four shots, falling to one knee as partial cover and keeping the kid mostly behind her.

Two decades of constant, neurotically-perfectionist target practice had made Agent Kallenger a Hell of a deadeye, and the bullets would tear viciously through the general head or neck areas of whichever soldiers seemed the most likely to return fire on her new, impromptu allies. She had no reason to know that they would simply be regenerating once the battle was over.

It felt damn good, too. So good, in fact, that she forgot momentarily just how much that arm hurt and was able to really focus on the situation. If the robot had any tricks to let loose in that same, brief moment of chaos, now would be a great time.

Regardless of what the machine did, Royanna would see now that the one who had caused this fantastic distraction was in fact one of the blasted...what had they been called, Dead-Head agents? Kampfer's people, regardless. Considering how unpleasant her last encounter with them had been she was hard pressed to desire the company of one now, but she was not so stubborn as to pass up this kind of opportunity for survival. Maybe she could keep her people safe yet. Maybe.

She realized suddenly that for the past couple of seconds, she had been pressing her knee into the general area behind Christofer's neck, forcing him to stay down. Not regretting it, she shifted, grabbed him harshly and pulled him to his feet, then gave him a good, head-start shove to get him moving. Hopefully by this moment the robot would have begun to open up some fiery doom upon their enemies.

"Soldier, on me!" She cried out to Cox, having momentarily forgotten her name.

Assuming the robot had begun some kind of juggernaut attack, Kallenger would proceed to utilize the remaining three bullets in her revolver to assist however she could - and when those were depleted, the blade came out and she would actually prove to be a more efficient killing machine with that particular tool due to the injury to her shooting arm, which handicapped her.

But it was a swift combat engagement, lasting only as long as it would take for the robot to plow her way through them - and once they were on the other side and within the safety of the evergreen jungle, it would be a dash in whatever direction they happened to be going.

Of course, if the robot had something different in mind, Kallenger would adjust - most likely by allowing it to do its' thing and taking Christofer and Cox on a tactical retreat.

---

Kampfer had been trying to help, it seemed. He had not helped.

The eye did not glow and was not luminescent in any way, but it seemed to dull slightly upon the electromagnetic paralysis shooting through. And Kete did snap out of the blank stare he was giving - though it was replaced by something much worse.

It was utter, animal panic. Not fear, put primal panic stemming from the deepest regions of the human brain. It fell over him in a heartbeat and was not a gradual shift, but a sudden drop.

"Nyh-get it off! G-get it- get- get it aagh~!" He stumbled backward, hitting a wall harder than he had hit his head earlier. He leaned into it, half-standing, positively clawing at the thing that had been put over his eye. He writhed back and forth when the thing wouldn't come off, and after some seconds he had started to draw blood from fingernails scratching at the flesh in a fruitless attempt to burrow under it. The real catch, however, was that even if there was nothing there - even if the thing came off immediately - he would still be clawing at it as if it were still there. Disabling the eye had, of course, disabled the sight, as well as any physical or neurological assurance that it was still there at all. The logical, instinctual conclusion was to assume that something was blocking the sight, and so he would scratch the living hell out of the general area around his left eye. Sliding down the wall into a sitting position, still writing, still clawing.

"P-pl-pl-ge'off!!" he couldn't talk straight - stuttering, muddling words to the point of speech impediment. In fact he was hardly coherent, though the message he was trying to get across was clear. Voice was raw and fraught with the half-conscious undertone of someone who was not entirely conscious, half-dreaming in a night-terror from which they were unable to wake from.

Ketin was reacting this way because disabling the eye in any way converted into him a feeling which he might describe as 'being fully aware and conscious whilst having your spine ripped out of your body and remaining conscious afterward' or 'consciously having your eyes plucked out and replaced with live wires whilst also in a coma' or 'having an entire universe implode around your head to the point of impossible pressure, crushing your brain into a diamond' and so on. Not only was it a direct cut-off of a neurological center of his being, but it was a sudden crippling - sudden amputation of some ninety nine percent of his senses. The awareness of Ketin, which usually spread to all the electronics around him, all the minds, the eyes, the flow of the electromagnetic field, that entire extra universe visible only to him where electrons and waves were as real a presence as air and clouds - all of it was suddenly gone, and forced back into one tiny, pathetic human brain which was simply not equipped to handle such sensations. Memories of the senses caused wild pain due to their sheer incompatibility with the average brain. Things had nowhere to go - it was suffocating, like drowning twenty thousand leagues beneath sea level, with the impossible pressure smothering every neuron, every synapse.

It was, to say the least, distressing.

His writhing was so hopelessly mad that he would prove a serious challenge to get a hold of. Admittedly he would end up doing a whole lot more damage to himself than the disabling of the eye had - there were actually no long-term physical repercussions for deactivating it - but gravity had gone every which way but right and he was suddenly acutely aware of having been buried alive beneath the surface of an asteroid soaring through vacuum, lightyears from any other world. His breathing was erratic and shallow, teeth gritted horribly, and a constant whimpering could be heard as he wrapped arms over his head - still digging fingernails into himself, now in the general area of where the wire met the little metal panel just behind the eye, which was dangerous considering the very real possibility of him severing the wire in his panic.

He seemed to be trying to say something else, too. Or, more likely it was more of the same helpless pleading, marred virtually incoherent by speech impediment. "I- I'm so-sor-s- jus' p-plea-pleas jus' I can't, can't, can't, ahh- nhhgh m-mhkitsthhp~!!"

---

In the great, cavernous hangar of Stella Viventium, there was all kinds of hustle and bustle as people went about with the electric energy that could only come with the sudden, unexpected development of a long-term goal over a short period of time.

Dorin Harkahn did not look like he was doing anything useful, but in reality his half-blank stare was due to attention being focused on his BrainPal™, supervising the coming together of the vessel's top scientists and analysts and even an archaeologist or two. Really, the expedition was turning out to be a whole lot larger than he was expecting - but Dorin had decided to take a chance on the Kingsbane helping them out - they could afford a larger expedition party if they had some covering fire instead of being limited to one measly transport with guns barely big enough to put pinpricks in giant ships like the ones surrounding the ancient planet now.

It looked very strange when the Stella's scientific administrator suddenly clapped his hands and let out an elated, victorious hoot. He was beaming - Aelyn-Paeryc Petrovalyc was about as startled as everyone else moving around the crates and equipments, though he turned to look at the man in the white coat with his usual restrained disinterest.

"We've got it!" Harkahn exclaimed, "Artillery support from the Kingsbane if Kampfer's fleet decides to attack!" He sent the simple message to the Stella's Captain, who also had to break into a little grin. "You spoke with Severin, then."

"@#$% on a @#$%in' @#$%cracker are you serious?" It was the grating voice of Head Mechanic. "Y'know, I really hope I get to talk to that Mad Ranger again some time. He's a great listener."


There was only one artificial structure left on the surface of the unnamed desert planet which orbited the unnamed rim-star, and that was Isandril. There it was, he could see it now – the color of gilded bronze, not unlike that metallic compound he had invented so long ago. It stood among the endless sand dunes beneath a scorching white sun that made it shine with the brilliance that only a place such as this could produce. It was a gargantuan bowl structure, the outer curved wall encompassing the entire city. By modern standards, it was actually a very small place, smaller even than the city-sized Stella Viventium – but the resemblance was uncanny. Within the curved outer walls were innumerable towers, all hexagonal in shape, all coated in the gilded metal, clustered insensibly together. A great, arching door was present in the wall and it loomed over them as they landed before it. There would be no guiding even that small dropship through the city, with towers clustered together so that hardly any vehicle would be capable of maneuvering.
There was an unspeakable feeling of ancientness, of overwhelming history. Here was one of the oldest places in the Universe – one of the two places left in the Universe that had once been inhabited by ’The First’. Of course, different universes had different histories and different timelines and it was possible, but not probable that other timelines had seen The First. To anyone from other timelines this would hole little significance, save for the impressiveness of how very, very long it had stood there.

The First had lived here long before any human life had graced the Milky Way Galaxy. Long before any life had existed anywhere. They had lived and died here. They had become gods, so the legends spoke – and they had, on one occasion, been visited by Paeryc Petrovalyc.

The fact hung over Aelyn as he walked down the bronzed streets and gazed up at the innumerable, heavenly towers. Here he was, following in the footsteps of a man who was lost to time and space, trying to sort out the same mysteries he had been after, trying to follow the trail he had left for them, dabbling in things of which he barely understood, but controlled his entire life. The sun glared at them, eventually becoming so harsh that the group collective now donned side-shielded sunglasses – but even the shaded lenses could not dampen the majesty of this place.

Aelyn understood now, where his brother had gotten the design for the Stella Viventium. It and this place were kin, one in the same. It was coated in the same metal, quite indestructible to any forces, let alone those of time and weather. It only followed that it had been here, in the presence of these godlike beings, that Paeryc Petrovalyc had learned the secret of paradox – which was paradoxical in itself, considering that he had been born and raised on a Mars which had existed so far the future from this place that the entire population had been gone for a million lifetimes. But such was the nature of paradox – he invented it on Mars in the era of early human colonization and used it to travel in time to the city of Isandril, where they taught him how to do it.

He wondered suddenly, how much of all this was really at the manipulation of The First People. He was following his brother’s trail, but had his brother been following theirs? Aelyn knew that he could only see the most microscopic portion of the events that were forming, or had formed, revolving around Notspace and paradox. He was one infinitesimal mote in a virtually endless sea of time and gods and men – and this ancient place cemented that with each looming brass tower, each hollow, empty street that rang with their footsteps and smothered their silence with its very presence.

What impossibilities had become possible here? How many eons, since the people here had disappeared? Where had they gone?

Had they been destroyed? Climbed too high, become too near the gods themselves like a collective Icarus, only to be smote by some greater dimensional force for their arrogance? But paradox was not bound by time. Here was Aelyn’s Petrostanium compound, coating this immeasurably ancient place long before he had invented it, given to them by Paeryc Petrovalyc in exchange for the secret of paradox which had brought him there. Here was the evidence that even whatever inconceivable force had destroyed these godlike First People could not break the most fundamental atomic bonds of the Universe.

He had come to their world and smote all life. The sprawling jungles burned, the expanses of cities demolished, the world cleansed in its entirety and reduced from verdance and life to scourged desolation – except for Old Insandril. Their forbidden technology had been their downfall. How long they had to wait in death for a suitable revenge.

Presently, the small expedition team had reached the tallest of the towers, located slightly off to the center of the circular superstructure. Yes, here it was, just like they had been told. And there was the door, opening for them just as they had known it would.

There were two people in the Universe left who were intimately connected to this place, and side by side they were now entering that great tower and beginning their descent into the deepest depths of a city-machine that defied all logic and reason, that stood defiantly in the face of power vastly superior, which mocked the Dimensional Lords with its’ very existence, its’ very inability to be destroyed and its’ inherently paradoxical nature which balked in the face of all knowable technology, which arrogantly boasted that what existed within its’ deepest depths would never be built again, because the only ones who could ever know how were gone forever, were lost to time and to the Universe. Here Aelyn-Paeryc and Alexia Petrovalyc stepped aboard an ancient elevator and lowered into the bowels of impossibility itself, to merely tamper with the remains of what had once been everything, and was now but a mote of nothingness on the Universe. An insignificant blot where once everything had been, where now a young man who was so much older than even he could imagine hoped with some thin thread that he might be able to follow the trail, to decode the meager hints he had been left across all of time and space, and make his way home.

It was only them now, only those two who had once lived on Mars, who had looked up into the night sky and seen Earth as a shimmering, blueish star that looked over them, hung over Phobos, eased them with its presence and the unspoken truth that it was the home and mother to all Mankind.

The hexagonal platform descended, and along the walls that rose around them with their descent the lights began to glow with their nearing approach to the center of it all. Maybe here they would solve everything?

It was a cyan, neon glow in patternless, geometric lines all around them. The shaft opened suddenly into an incredible chamber, illuminated with lights that had shone in quiet solitude for a thousand eternities. There was no dust for their footsteps to disturb as they echoed through the oppressive silence, the sense of vastness that this place, which was now the center of everything and nothing. This place which even now connected all points of time and space in the paradoxical rift at its’ center. This place which had been protected from the scourge of the Dimensional Lords when they slaughtered The First for achieving technological near-godhood, which had been lost and remained hidden from them for so very long, until now. This place which had been built around the place of arrival of Paeryc Petrovalyc. All thanks to The Mysterious Code that had told them how to find it.

In the center of the dome stood a shaft of light what shone in no color the human eye could define. It was iridescent, shimmering with darkness that illuminated itself a hundredfold and pulsed with easy, gentle glowing colors representing times and spaces beyond the wildest dreams of Men or Lords. Powers and forces incomprehensible to the immortal or mortal mind alike. Fundamental, universal essences that existed here and everywhere and nowhere and all at once, simultaneously not existing at all.
They were tied to this place, a part of the paradoxical Notspace which had been borne from this place that was and was not. They were a part of it, and yet a part of nothing – but even without ever having lain eyes upon this place they knew what to do. With a meaningful turn to glance at the door from which the lowering platform had led, it closed and isolated them from the rest of Everything.

It was while within this utter isolation that their new pseudo-ally, The Kingsbane, would witness the emergence of a power which they dare not trifle with, sustain near fatal damage, and be forced to retreat to some hidden place in the Galaxy. The Command Module of the Stella Viventium would be left undefended, hanging there in the orbit of ancient planet Isandril – undefended, but not helpless – as with the opening of the chamber deep within the bowels of the indestructible city a great wave of Notspace distortion would emanate around the world, empowering the sister-technology aboard the vessel as that which dwelled within the nonexistence of the Not became that much closer to Reality, for that brief moment. Until that chamber opened again, until Aelyn-Paeryc and Alexia left and sealed it one last time, the Command Module would be untouchable – but only for so long as the Captain and his Wife were locked away within the depths of the city, and that would not be long.

In reality, Aelyn-Paeryc was not precisely sure what he expected to find in that secret place, as his team worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to rake in as much information on the incredible place as they could with what time they had. But now, staring into the impossible Colour out of Space, he couldn’t help but feel that much closer to his forever-lost brother. The Notspace was his creation after all, he was a part of it in that way.

And within the darkest, luminescent depths, there was light, and there was silence…