-Of course, of course, it's too bad that you are stuck inside of your own body, (she set her drink down) the cargo should be there right about (the two battleships warps out of hyperspace, one cloaked and out of sensor range, the other right next to Independence and the frigates) now....
The ship's weapons were activated and charged, but none of them was pointed at the damaged battlecruiser, the uncloaked battleship began it's approach before requesting a docking permission.
-This is shadow squadron MVC-8-8-1-1-0-0-45-BCD, requesting docking permission for material transfer, over. Said blankly the commander, most of his face was covered with a heli-pilot style black helmet and visor, and he was wearing a black suit.
The other battleship started investigating the battlecruiser's, using it's most sneaky scanners.
Independence would be able to clearly see that she could easily overpower the battleship and the frigate, even if she would certainly suffer damages if she tried to fight them, Number 12 absent mindedly poked at her glass before continuing.
-Since we're at it, would a job offer interest you ?
Sector 7-8-47-00-LIMA-FOXTROT
Seven battleships and Twenty-five battlecruisers took off from yet another deep space station, and those one were clearly mean for combat, covered in heavy weapons, shields and armor, the ships split into multiples groups, each one warping into a different solar system, on of those group warping into a very special system.
Unamed system, Isandril space.
Two Black Ops battleships and seven Spec Ops battlecruiser suddendly appeared in Isandril's orbit, as the crew was carefully watching the desertic planet and scanning the planet's orbit, the fleet commander activated his quantum crypted secure channel.
-To all ships, get ready to defend the Stella Viventium, do not engage anyone unless fired upon or if the Stella Viventium is threatened, Captain Collins, report !
-Sir, it seems that the Stella Viventium and a part of the planet are in some kind force field sir, I can't get through !
-What is it exactly ?
-I have no idea, I've never seen that before (he mutter under his breath) whoever designed this is a god damn genius...
-Captain Collins ?
-Oh ? Yes ! Like I was saying, I can't get through, and I'm ready to bet that neither Kampfer can.
-What do you advize we should do ?
-Wait.
-I beg your pardon ?
-We should wait, whatever is going on down there is going to happen without us, I can't think of any way of passing by this force field, but maybe Kampfer or our superiors could, I advize that we should contact Command and stand guard.
The commander didn't even thought for a split second before taking his decision.
-Very well then, we will stand guard, all ships, get into defensive positions and await further instructions, I'm going to contact Command, dismissed !
His screen went blank as the other officers disconnected, he sighed before reactivating the console once again.
Daedalus' orbit
Four massive battleships appeared into orbit with 14 battlecruisers, they immediatly began to scan the entire system for Kampfer, one lonely battlecruiser (in reality covered by 2 entire cloaked Banshees squadrons) descended into the planet atmosphere, in direction of the planet capital, decided to see what had redirected all of the coms systems somewhere else.
General Mortis Morale looked at his screen before activating his secured coms system.
-Commander Logsley, Commander Land'rey, status report !
-We have entered the planet's atmosphere sir, ETA : 10 minutes, time until total forces deployement : 20 minutes, we can immediatly send a specialized unit inside of the com center if you want.
-Do it, try to find out what's going on, and get this data back ! Commander Land'rey ?
-Sir, no sign of Kampfer, but we should find him soon, I hope.
-Very good, when you find him, make our intentions extremely clear : we are not here to fight, but to negociate a treaty, all units, stay in com, Logsley, how is it going for your intervention team ?
-She's on her way, but she's been detected by the planet's defence system, whoever is reponsible for this mess now knows it's coming.
-It was a risk to take, do not attack anyone unless fired upon, if you find out that somebody grabbed the intel, capture it or kill it.
-Yes sir !
Whoever had taken control of the satellite put the GCC in an extremely difficult position, sure, the data was quantum encrypted, but it was so vital that they can't afford to see it fall into the wrong hands, since it contained...GCC's headquarters coordinates.
Which sucked, a lot.
What happened is that the info was safely moving from relay satellite to relay satellite, when the satellite were suddendly redirected, unable to be sent, the system automaticaly redirected the file to the station so that it could be saved until the network would be back online, of course, it was a file between a billion of a billion others, but anybody who would pay attention would immediately find out that it was waaaayyyy to much encrypted to not be important.
The General crossed his fingers and prayed for the operation to go well, because if someone got the file (the file couldn't be copied), the GCC would do anything to get it.
[Hey there Petro, offering you some options, take or leave, your pick.]
The ship's weapons were activated and charged, but none of them was pointed at the damaged battlecruiser, the uncloaked battleship began it's approach before requesting a docking permission.
-This is shadow squadron MVC-8-8-1-1-0-0-45-BCD, requesting docking permission for material transfer, over. Said blankly the commander, most of his face was covered with a heli-pilot style black helmet and visor, and he was wearing a black suit.
The other battleship started investigating the battlecruiser's, using it's most sneaky scanners.
Independence would be able to clearly see that she could easily overpower the battleship and the frigate, even if she would certainly suffer damages if she tried to fight them, Number 12 absent mindedly poked at her glass before continuing.
-Since we're at it, would a job offer interest you ?
Sector 7-8-47-00-LIMA-FOXTROT
Seven battleships and Twenty-five battlecruisers took off from yet another deep space station, and those one were clearly mean for combat, covered in heavy weapons, shields and armor, the ships split into multiples groups, each one warping into a different solar system, on of those group warping into a very special system.
Unamed system, Isandril space.
Two Black Ops battleships and seven Spec Ops battlecruiser suddendly appeared in Isandril's orbit, as the crew was carefully watching the desertic planet and scanning the planet's orbit, the fleet commander activated his quantum crypted secure channel.
-To all ships, get ready to defend the Stella Viventium, do not engage anyone unless fired upon or if the Stella Viventium is threatened, Captain Collins, report !
-Sir, it seems that the Stella Viventium and a part of the planet are in some kind force field sir, I can't get through !
-What is it exactly ?
-I have no idea, I've never seen that before (he mutter under his breath) whoever designed this is a god damn genius...
-Captain Collins ?
-Oh ? Yes ! Like I was saying, I can't get through, and I'm ready to bet that neither Kampfer can.
-What do you advize we should do ?
-Wait.
-I beg your pardon ?
-We should wait, whatever is going on down there is going to happen without us, I can't think of any way of passing by this force field, but maybe Kampfer or our superiors could, I advize that we should contact Command and stand guard.
The commander didn't even thought for a split second before taking his decision.
-Very well then, we will stand guard, all ships, get into defensive positions and await further instructions, I'm going to contact Command, dismissed !
His screen went blank as the other officers disconnected, he sighed before reactivating the console once again.
Daedalus' orbit
Four massive battleships appeared into orbit with 14 battlecruisers, they immediatly began to scan the entire system for Kampfer, one lonely battlecruiser (in reality covered by 2 entire cloaked Banshees squadrons) descended into the planet atmosphere, in direction of the planet capital, decided to see what had redirected all of the coms systems somewhere else.
General Mortis Morale looked at his screen before activating his secured coms system.
-Commander Logsley, Commander Land'rey, status report !
-We have entered the planet's atmosphere sir, ETA : 10 minutes, time until total forces deployement : 20 minutes, we can immediatly send a specialized unit inside of the com center if you want.
-Do it, try to find out what's going on, and get this data back ! Commander Land'rey ?
-Sir, no sign of Kampfer, but we should find him soon, I hope.
-Very good, when you find him, make our intentions extremely clear : we are not here to fight, but to negociate a treaty, all units, stay in com, Logsley, how is it going for your intervention team ?
-She's on her way, but she's been detected by the planet's defence system, whoever is reponsible for this mess now knows it's coming.
-It was a risk to take, do not attack anyone unless fired upon, if you find out that somebody grabbed the intel, capture it or kill it.
-Yes sir !
Whoever had taken control of the satellite put the GCC in an extremely difficult position, sure, the data was quantum encrypted, but it was so vital that they can't afford to see it fall into the wrong hands, since it contained...GCC's headquarters coordinates.
Which sucked, a lot.
What happened is that the info was safely moving from relay satellite to relay satellite, when the satellite were suddendly redirected, unable to be sent, the system automaticaly redirected the file to the station so that it could be saved until the network would be back online, of course, it was a file between a billion of a billion others, but anybody who would pay attention would immediately find out that it was waaaayyyy to much encrypted to not be important.
The General crossed his fingers and prayed for the operation to go well, because if someone got the file (the file couldn't be copied), the GCC would do anything to get it.
[Hey there Petro, offering you some options, take or leave, your pick.]
"How... I got here? I... er..."
Q didn't know how to answer. She stared into space, her expression blanked. That was a complicated question with a complicated answer. At the time, and from what she knew, most of the IRI series robots weren't exactly... awake. It was back then that they were still... dependent on their creators to do anything.
"I... I uh.." She stuttered. Quick paced lines appeared on her visor as she tried to validate her memories. Her first memories. The first moments of sentience. Some memories came to her.
Dark. Cold. A tremor.
Crud.
A sound. A roar. Metal tearing against metal. Bodies.
Bad memories. Bad memories.
Her. Staring at Q. Fear.
Quick, say something. Divert the topic.
"There was... an explosion. A ship? I can't remember... But I do remember falling. Falling long and far. And, uh, wowzers! I landed here. Surprised I made it, really. Since then, I've been stuck here... and to be honest, how I got here really isn't all that important. I'd rather forget it anyways."
Q looked up into the sky, almost nervously. "It's been ages since then. A good thousand years or even more... And since that fall, I've done all that I can to put my past behind me and help out the people here!" Q looked back down at Arthur with a tiny smile.
"It is nice to see other robots, though. So welcome! Welcome to our home. It is a pleasure to meet you."
She nervously glanced about, hiding the nervous chatter going on in her mind with that pleasant smile. She hoped she hadn't been quiet for too long, thinking about... No! Stop! Don't think about it.
"Ahem. S-Sorry! Looks like I've still a few bugs in my system that haven't been patched. As far as I know, i'm only a prototype... but I have plenty of information to share! You said you were exploring? I'd be happy to show you a few oddities we have here."
______________________________________________
Iril could sense that her group was becoming increasingly wary of the smell. She was barely able to pick it up herself, her sense of smell not being that great after years of rust and wear. Could she even smell? Odd question to ask herself. She didn't even have a nose.
She looked at the walls of the bunker, the rust and the mold. Had this really been a glorious air base at one point? Maybe if she had seen it when she had first awoken, she would have an easier time believing it. For now, she did her best to look ahead and light the way.
They were right. The smell was getting worse. She couldn't identify it, but it was as though a chemical was reacting to the new supply of oxygen they had let in. Guess years of being underground really did a number on air quality. Did this place have no working ventilation?
Well, maybe at one point it did. She couldn't think much of it now.
"Would you.. perhaps like-"
"-Me to carry you?" She asked Kallenger and Toffi, who were having a bit of trouble keeping up with the quick Papyus and with Cox, who hadn't received any wounds that limited her mobility. It was a harmless offer, she assumed.
________________________________________
In the darkness of space, the pings from the Independence rung out.
From the darkness, a ping came back.
A loud one.
Q didn't know how to answer. She stared into space, her expression blanked. That was a complicated question with a complicated answer. At the time, and from what she knew, most of the IRI series robots weren't exactly... awake. It was back then that they were still... dependent on their creators to do anything.
"I... I uh.." She stuttered. Quick paced lines appeared on her visor as she tried to validate her memories. Her first memories. The first moments of sentience. Some memories came to her.
Dark. Cold. A tremor.
Crud.
A sound. A roar. Metal tearing against metal. Bodies.
Bad memories. Bad memories.
Her. Staring at Q. Fear.
Quick, say something. Divert the topic.
"There was... an explosion. A ship? I can't remember... But I do remember falling. Falling long and far. And, uh, wowzers! I landed here. Surprised I made it, really. Since then, I've been stuck here... and to be honest, how I got here really isn't all that important. I'd rather forget it anyways."
Q looked up into the sky, almost nervously. "It's been ages since then. A good thousand years or even more... And since that fall, I've done all that I can to put my past behind me and help out the people here!" Q looked back down at Arthur with a tiny smile.
"It is nice to see other robots, though. So welcome! Welcome to our home. It is a pleasure to meet you."
She nervously glanced about, hiding the nervous chatter going on in her mind with that pleasant smile. She hoped she hadn't been quiet for too long, thinking about... No! Stop! Don't think about it.
"Ahem. S-Sorry! Looks like I've still a few bugs in my system that haven't been patched. As far as I know, i'm only a prototype... but I have plenty of information to share! You said you were exploring? I'd be happy to show you a few oddities we have here."
______________________________________________
Iril could sense that her group was becoming increasingly wary of the smell. She was barely able to pick it up herself, her sense of smell not being that great after years of rust and wear. Could she even smell? Odd question to ask herself. She didn't even have a nose.
She looked at the walls of the bunker, the rust and the mold. Had this really been a glorious air base at one point? Maybe if she had seen it when she had first awoken, she would have an easier time believing it. For now, she did her best to look ahead and light the way.
They were right. The smell was getting worse. She couldn't identify it, but it was as though a chemical was reacting to the new supply of oxygen they had let in. Guess years of being underground really did a number on air quality. Did this place have no working ventilation?
Well, maybe at one point it did. She couldn't think much of it now.
"Would you.. perhaps like-"
"-Me to carry you?" She asked Kallenger and Toffi, who were having a bit of trouble keeping up with the quick Papyus and with Cox, who hadn't received any wounds that limited her mobility. It was a harmless offer, she assumed.
________________________________________
In the darkness of space, the pings from the Independence rung out.
From the darkness, a ping came back.
A loud one.
I have become Death, destroyer of Worlds- Bhagavad Gita. Oh how the words ring true as another planet falls to the parasitic bio organic organisms known as the Dendrils. These living scrapes of twisted metal, sharp teeth, drooling from the mouth and covered in black soot with glowing orange eyes, that only see one thing...the consumption of all sentient life in the Galaxy and then all of the universe. All of this in the name of there Goddess...A Dimensional Lord known as Erica Codsworth, Lord of Time and Space, overseer of entropy, chaos, in universe, task in keeping it stable and let it increase naturally over time.
In her deep red throne room, sitting on an metal throne. The "Destroyer of Worlds" plays holographic chess with her self, playing as both the white pieces and black pieces. She sighs as it seems once again, that the ending of the game comes down to the two King pieces facing off each other face to face, Light vs Dark. With her head resting on her hand as it rests on the arm rest of the throne and crossed legged in true royal fashion. Soon someone comes into her rather spacious throne room, a man, his pale skin shriveled to a prune, his metal legs clanking on the red metal floor as his tail drags along the ground. his arms and wrists covered in industrial metal black metal. he had a mid drift that showed off his tone wrinkly body, his chest covered in metal and as well as the addition of large metal pauldrons. He wore a helmet that covered the top part of his head and has holes in it, making it look like almost a bug like helmet.
He walked with step and kneeled unto one knee and says "My humble Goddess Lord, the carrier fleet has been deployed to the ancient planet of Isandril after we have got the singal from our operative there" Erica just grunted and says "Aleyn will never learn that most things a better left buried...he shall see a familiar fate as his brother, don't you agree, Field Marshal Nikolai, Leader of the Dendrils?" her voice sounding young but obvious with a lot of experience as well as slightly stressed as she continues to look at King pieces.
The Field Marshal was thrown off by his usage of his full title and went ahead and continued "Yes, I do agree, I also report that Egon V is under our control" he didn't hear an answer from her and then he looks up and see's her face in discomfort. "Lord Erica, if I shall? You play that game constantly when stressed, but yet you play it like you expect a different experience. Why play it at all?" he says as he stands and looks at his Goddess. Erica with her sleepy looking eyes looks at him and says "Thank you Nikolai, for defining my insanity...repeating the same task over and over, expecting the a different result...yet it is the same, either the white King falls or the black King" She gives a loud sigh and adds "From Aelyen, Kampfer, Kellenger, Toffi, Mad Ranger, Arthur, Glades, Etherials, C.E.L.L, GCC, Ascendant Knights, Ova, Arena, Ketin and Nryx...all of this! The travesties of this universe, everything up until this point causing the rise of Chaos! Sending this Galaxy and universe down the path quicker to Death...the end of the universe fast approaching us!" he voice raised filled with stress, can't believing in what she was saying as she continue to her rant as she stood from her throne. "Yet you criticize me as I try to find peace with this lawless universe! Everyone from there peasantry lives, causing me to forward the agenda of the Dendril race! More than I wanted too, to try to scavenge up whats left of this doomed Dimension for mortals!" he she yells out as her nostrils flared at the Field Marshal as he has his head down. "Field Marshal Nikolai...remember this...the races of this Galaxy will try to stop us, but they can't stop the Dendril horde since we are the constant in every mortal Dimension as are Humans. They may stop our progress...but the full assimilation of the Galaxy will happen and then the Universe and with that...I win as the Black King!" as she bends down and tosses the White King piece over on its side signaling check mate. "Now be gone, Field Marshal! My long awaited guest as just arrived in the system" as she begins to walk down from her throne towards the door. "As you wish my Goddess" he states, slightly sad that he enraged his Goddess as he step aside and exits with her to greet Kampfer.
In her deep red throne room, sitting on an metal throne. The "Destroyer of Worlds" plays holographic chess with her self, playing as both the white pieces and black pieces. She sighs as it seems once again, that the ending of the game comes down to the two King pieces facing off each other face to face, Light vs Dark. With her head resting on her hand as it rests on the arm rest of the throne and crossed legged in true royal fashion. Soon someone comes into her rather spacious throne room, a man, his pale skin shriveled to a prune, his metal legs clanking on the red metal floor as his tail drags along the ground. his arms and wrists covered in industrial metal black metal. he had a mid drift that showed off his tone wrinkly body, his chest covered in metal and as well as the addition of large metal pauldrons. He wore a helmet that covered the top part of his head and has holes in it, making it look like almost a bug like helmet.
He walked with step and kneeled unto one knee and says "My humble Goddess Lord, the carrier fleet has been deployed to the ancient planet of Isandril after we have got the singal from our operative there" Erica just grunted and says "Aleyn will never learn that most things a better left buried...he shall see a familiar fate as his brother, don't you agree, Field Marshal Nikolai, Leader of the Dendrils?" her voice sounding young but obvious with a lot of experience as well as slightly stressed as she continues to look at King pieces.
The Field Marshal was thrown off by his usage of his full title and went ahead and continued "Yes, I do agree, I also report that Egon V is under our control" he didn't hear an answer from her and then he looks up and see's her face in discomfort. "Lord Erica, if I shall? You play that game constantly when stressed, but yet you play it like you expect a different experience. Why play it at all?" he says as he stands and looks at his Goddess. Erica with her sleepy looking eyes looks at him and says "Thank you Nikolai, for defining my insanity...repeating the same task over and over, expecting the a different result...yet it is the same, either the white King falls or the black King" She gives a loud sigh and adds "From Aelyen, Kampfer, Kellenger, Toffi, Mad Ranger, Arthur, Glades, Etherials, C.E.L.L, GCC, Ascendant Knights, Ova, Arena, Ketin and Nryx...all of this! The travesties of this universe, everything up until this point causing the rise of Chaos! Sending this Galaxy and universe down the path quicker to Death...the end of the universe fast approaching us!" he voice raised filled with stress, can't believing in what she was saying as she continue to her rant as she stood from her throne. "Yet you criticize me as I try to find peace with this lawless universe! Everyone from there peasantry lives, causing me to forward the agenda of the Dendril race! More than I wanted too, to try to scavenge up whats left of this doomed Dimension for mortals!" he she yells out as her nostrils flared at the Field Marshal as he has his head down. "Field Marshal Nikolai...remember this...the races of this Galaxy will try to stop us, but they can't stop the Dendril horde since we are the constant in every mortal Dimension as are Humans. They may stop our progress...but the full assimilation of the Galaxy will happen and then the Universe and with that...I win as the Black King!" as she bends down and tosses the White King piece over on its side signaling check mate. "Now be gone, Field Marshal! My long awaited guest as just arrived in the system" as she begins to walk down from her throne towards the door. "As you wish my Goddess" he states, slightly sad that he enraged his Goddess as he step aside and exits with her to greet Kampfer.
Joint post with Playwars.
Independence flicks an ear, and looks a little bit distracted as her scanners pick up the new contacts. "I... have your ships on sensors now. If it's alright, I am interested in your offer, but I would like to focus my attention on the exchange. Maybe we could continue this discussion after I've received the materials, and delivered the rest of the data?"
The ship performing scans of Independence might pick up some strange readings from the bow sections of the ship. Her "Hyperspace Distortion Impeller" drives seem to work on the same principle as her hyperdrive, but those are to the rear. These readings suggest something like an inactive secondary hyperdrive in the bow of the ship, behind the armored clamshell doors in the mandible section.
"But of course my dear," replied Number 12, "the ship is going to dock immediately, all the materials are on board, and the personnel will move them in your cargo bay, they can also help with the repairs. And yes, darling, it's pretty obvious why you need those materials."
Independence's avatar shows a flicker of concern before she nods. She might have picked up the cloaked ship's scans, but she is too distracted, and they go unnoticed for now. She turns her attention to the incoming battleship. She's not happy that their guns are charged and ready, but she knows that hers would be, too, if she were in their shoes. "Shadow Squadron, you are cleared for docking at the ventral bay. Material-Handling Drones will assist with the unloading, and distribute the materials to their proper destinations."
The two ships dock, airlocks connecting and opening to let in the human crew with their cargo. Together, the drones and crew get the cargo moved in record time, but the crew took data as well, making sure to record anything and everything, from the manufacturing marks to signatures. When finished, they stand guard near the cargo, waiting for the AI to respect her part of the deal. They might note, however, that the drones are also waiting, standing ready, but not yet trying to move cargo out of the docking bay.
"Very well," started Number 12 once again, "we are finished. The data please?"
Independence's avatar looks rather distracted for a moment longer, before she snaps her attention back to Number 12. "Oh! Yes, transmitting now," she says, fulfilling her end of the bargain. She makes note of this strange signal she's picked up, and though she keeps her attention on Number 12, she sets a secondary program to work examining it.
"Good, good, now, how about that job offer? I propose you a post inside of my military, since credits are probably worthless to you, I don't see why we'll pay you with that. Your needs will be fulfilled, and you will be payed in data, equipment and technology. Hell, we can even give you more bodies, but let's come back to the point. Does all of this for your services sound fair to you?"
"I'm afraid that, at least for now, I am... uncomfortable with the idea of becoming a part of another military. Your offer certainly sounds very fair, but I must decline. That said, I would like to maintain a positive relationship. On that note, and in that spirit, I'd like to inform you that my active sensors have just picked up a... rather large contact. I don't know what it is, but I thought it might be interesting."
"A large con-" Number 12's face went pale as she looked at her screen. "Sone of a-! ALL UNITS! BATTLESTATIONS!"
Independence flicks an ear, and looks a little bit distracted as her scanners pick up the new contacts. "I... have your ships on sensors now. If it's alright, I am interested in your offer, but I would like to focus my attention on the exchange. Maybe we could continue this discussion after I've received the materials, and delivered the rest of the data?"
The ship performing scans of Independence might pick up some strange readings from the bow sections of the ship. Her "Hyperspace Distortion Impeller" drives seem to work on the same principle as her hyperdrive, but those are to the rear. These readings suggest something like an inactive secondary hyperdrive in the bow of the ship, behind the armored clamshell doors in the mandible section.
"But of course my dear," replied Number 12, "the ship is going to dock immediately, all the materials are on board, and the personnel will move them in your cargo bay, they can also help with the repairs. And yes, darling, it's pretty obvious why you need those materials."
Independence's avatar shows a flicker of concern before she nods. She might have picked up the cloaked ship's scans, but she is too distracted, and they go unnoticed for now. She turns her attention to the incoming battleship. She's not happy that their guns are charged and ready, but she knows that hers would be, too, if she were in their shoes. "Shadow Squadron, you are cleared for docking at the ventral bay. Material-Handling Drones will assist with the unloading, and distribute the materials to their proper destinations."
The two ships dock, airlocks connecting and opening to let in the human crew with their cargo. Together, the drones and crew get the cargo moved in record time, but the crew took data as well, making sure to record anything and everything, from the manufacturing marks to signatures. When finished, they stand guard near the cargo, waiting for the AI to respect her part of the deal. They might note, however, that the drones are also waiting, standing ready, but not yet trying to move cargo out of the docking bay.
"Very well," started Number 12 once again, "we are finished. The data please?"
Independence's avatar looks rather distracted for a moment longer, before she snaps her attention back to Number 12. "Oh! Yes, transmitting now," she says, fulfilling her end of the bargain. She makes note of this strange signal she's picked up, and though she keeps her attention on Number 12, she sets a secondary program to work examining it.
"Good, good, now, how about that job offer? I propose you a post inside of my military, since credits are probably worthless to you, I don't see why we'll pay you with that. Your needs will be fulfilled, and you will be payed in data, equipment and technology. Hell, we can even give you more bodies, but let's come back to the point. Does all of this for your services sound fair to you?"
"I'm afraid that, at least for now, I am... uncomfortable with the idea of becoming a part of another military. Your offer certainly sounds very fair, but I must decline. That said, I would like to maintain a positive relationship. On that note, and in that spirit, I'd like to inform you that my active sensors have just picked up a... rather large contact. I don't know what it is, but I thought it might be interesting."
"A large con-" Number 12's face went pale as she looked at her screen. "Sone of a-! ALL UNITS! BATTLESTATIONS!"
A flash of brilliant light erupted from the darkness. In the distance, it shone brighter than any of the stars surrounding the Independence.
An eye. It was unmistakably a huge eye. A huge eye had just lit up in the darkness.
And it was getting closer.
Ping. Another signal. Louder. Almost... more menacing.
Two more lights joined the eye. A flicker of blue. Two flickers.
Flickers that quickly became hands.
Hands that pushed aside huge asteroids with a flick.
Hands that made large space debris seem like tiny flies.
Hands that were reaching out.
Ping. The loudest it had been.
SHE was there.
Z was there.
The colossal titan of a robot eased forward. It's eye illuminating the darkness as though it was day. The Independence was bathed in a heavy light. Dwarfed by massive machinery.
The hands reached out, cupping underneath the Independence as though it was a firefly ripe for capture. Looking down was like looking at a sea of blue light. A sea that encroached ever closer.
The gaze of the eye softened, but the hands did not move away. They did not move closer, either. Instead, Z waited for the small ship to make a move. To say something.
Vibrations from ancient machinery shook the space where she was.
Immaculate.
Intimidating.
Horrifyingly close for comfort.
An eye. It was unmistakably a huge eye. A huge eye had just lit up in the darkness.
And it was getting closer.
Ping. Another signal. Louder. Almost... more menacing.
Two more lights joined the eye. A flicker of blue. Two flickers.
Flickers that quickly became hands.
Hands that pushed aside huge asteroids with a flick.
Hands that made large space debris seem like tiny flies.
Hands that were reaching out.
Ping. The loudest it had been.
SHE was there.
Z was there.
The colossal titan of a robot eased forward. It's eye illuminating the darkness as though it was day. The Independence was bathed in a heavy light. Dwarfed by massive machinery.
The hands reached out, cupping underneath the Independence as though it was a firefly ripe for capture. Looking down was like looking at a sea of blue light. A sea that encroached ever closer.
The gaze of the eye softened, but the hands did not move away. They did not move closer, either. Instead, Z waited for the small ship to make a move. To say something.
Vibrations from ancient machinery shook the space where she was.
Immaculate.
Intimidating.
Horrifyingly close for comfort.
Independence is not encouraged by Number 12's reaction. She is not encouraged by the giant eye. Her weapons charge, and her shields come up, and... um... Well, one good thing is that she had already set the drones to stowing the cargo, and they continue doing that. She spins up her drives, but already the thing is on top of her, massive appendages trapping her. Fates, this thing is fast! Her energy shields remodulate for no apparent reason.
Independence hesitates for several cycles, then powers down her weapons. Her drives stay hot, but she stays put for the moment. What is she going to do? This... unknown has her in a tight spot, and she knows it. Directive 3: preserve her own existence. She has no guarantee that fighting will end any way besides catastrophically for her, and she isn't sure she wants to risk running from this as long as she has any options at all. After a few more cycles, Independence transmits a simple, meek little message on an unencrypted frequency.
"Hello."
Independence hesitates for several cycles, then powers down her weapons. Her drives stay hot, but she stays put for the moment. What is she going to do? This... unknown has her in a tight spot, and she knows it. Directive 3: preserve her own existence. She has no guarantee that fighting will end any way besides catastrophically for her, and she isn't sure she wants to risk running from this as long as she has any options at all. After a few more cycles, Independence transmits a simple, meek little message on an unencrypted frequency.
"Hello."
Number 12's eyes went black as she saw the machine, even if a filter prevented anyone on the coms from seeing it.
They thought as one, the Fallen quickly established a plan of action on the intruders, in the entire System CG-84-FOXTROT-NOVEMBER-B89, alarm rung as thousands of soldiers rushed to their posts, all the security unit flew in direction of one target : Z.
Mining base Thêta
The second Independence had appeared in the system, the station had begun rotating, slowly, but surely, and now she was stopping as the "lower" part of the station was pointed at them.
A very, very big particle canon, originally designed to fracture large asteroïd (or small moons) for the mining ships to consume the fragments easily, but it could also fracture ships, or obliterate a city from orbit, anything really.
A giant tag in green and yellow painting was dispersed on the length of the canon :
DOZER 40 000
General Stark lit up a cigar before activating his com sat, joining the channel.
-Okay, listen to me giant eye lollipop, we obviously have a problem there, stand down will you ?
He let out a puff of smoke, waiting for the giant robot's response, his index on the red button with a black skull on it.
Shadow Squadron MVC-8-8-1-1-0-0-45-BCC
As their colleagues and target were engulfed inside of the robot's hands, the battleship decloaked and did two things :
First, they activated their target designation system, letting the station canon target precisely the robot.
Second, they activated a beacon, a jump beacon.
If anyone opened fire this very second, it would end in a bloodbath.
Daedalus' atmosphere, IMARA's Dropship
The soldiers were silently sitting in their seat as their dropship descended upon the planet at insane speed, without the inertia field dampeners, all the soldiers on board would surely be dead by now.
-All units, stand by for deployement ! IMARA, ETA : 30 seconds, you are going to crash inside of the building, so brace for impact ! Said the Commander on the radio.
All the soldiers (8, 2 of them being technician, one a special agent and the rest being special forces) got into safety position, awaiting for the impact.
As for the special agent, a strange forcefield activated around her, preventing any electromagnetic interaction with her, safeguarding from EMPs, scans, litterally everything that was electric.
They thought as one, the Fallen quickly established a plan of action on the intruders, in the entire System CG-84-FOXTROT-NOVEMBER-B89, alarm rung as thousands of soldiers rushed to their posts, all the security unit flew in direction of one target : Z.
Mining base Thêta
The second Independence had appeared in the system, the station had begun rotating, slowly, but surely, and now she was stopping as the "lower" part of the station was pointed at them.
A very, very big particle canon, originally designed to fracture large asteroïd (or small moons) for the mining ships to consume the fragments easily, but it could also fracture ships, or obliterate a city from orbit, anything really.
A giant tag in green and yellow painting was dispersed on the length of the canon :
DOZER 40 000
General Stark lit up a cigar before activating his com sat, joining the channel.
-Okay, listen to me giant eye lollipop, we obviously have a problem there, stand down will you ?
He let out a puff of smoke, waiting for the giant robot's response, his index on the red button with a black skull on it.
Shadow Squadron MVC-8-8-1-1-0-0-45-BCC
As their colleagues and target were engulfed inside of the robot's hands, the battleship decloaked and did two things :
First, they activated their target designation system, letting the station canon target precisely the robot.
Second, they activated a beacon, a jump beacon.
If anyone opened fire this very second, it would end in a bloodbath.
Daedalus' atmosphere, IMARA's Dropship
The soldiers were silently sitting in their seat as their dropship descended upon the planet at insane speed, without the inertia field dampeners, all the soldiers on board would surely be dead by now.
-All units, stand by for deployement ! IMARA, ETA : 30 seconds, you are going to crash inside of the building, so brace for impact ! Said the Commander on the radio.
All the soldiers (8, 2 of them being technician, one a special agent and the rest being special forces) got into safety position, awaiting for the impact.
As for the special agent, a strange forcefield activated around her, preventing any electromagnetic interaction with her, safeguarding from EMPs, scans, litterally everything that was electric.
The ship Z was holding let out a tiny signal. A message so quiet that Z was almost unable to hear it.
A small... "Hello".
Z decided against squashing this one. Perhaps it wasn't all bad.
"Greetings." She said softly in reply. "Are we lost, perhaps? It's rude to ping when someone else is trying to sleep." A faint smile crossed her face.
Looking up from the miniature Independence, it seemed that space around her had become very active. Apparently she wasn't welcome after all. Figures. It was too good to be true, not being fired at on sight.
Such was her life.
Security units swarmed around her, but frankly, she could care less. If they made the mistake of landing on her, or firing at her, they'd get what they deserved.
The station that had just appeared did not interest Z until there was a direct transmission from it. Something about backing down? Who were they to give HER orders? Was it because they had a big gun?
Z laughed. "You call that a threat? How cute. I've seen more threatening weapons on my ancient sisters, and none of them were able to keep me down."
Her hands receded from around the Independence. "I like this one. I'll let it off the hook for now."
One of her hands started to change shape. Fizzle, glitch. Without warning, a bright sphere of blue light had formed around the station currently aiming at her.
"Though I'd like to see you try and hurt me with that cannon of yours, I'm not going to take any chances. If you fire that weapon, the only thing that will be leaving is you." She said, glaring at the station, and hopefully, right into the eyes of whatever pathetic lifeform had dared aim at her in the first place.
Z was confident in her technology. Hard light wasn't something you could simply crack or shatter. More often than not, she could use her hands as massive shields... and so far, there was nothing they couldn't stop.
Still, she was tempted to see how much it would hurt. Nobody had ever aimed a mining cannon at her before. She had seen many nuclear weapons, fusion weapons, the finest this universe had to offer.
But a mining cannon? What were they going to do, take all her circuitry and pawn it off? That would be REALLY funny.
Needless to say, she wasn't the least bit threatened by anything that was going on. Even if they did fire at her, she had a few tricks of her own.
A small... "Hello".
Z decided against squashing this one. Perhaps it wasn't all bad.
"Greetings." She said softly in reply. "Are we lost, perhaps? It's rude to ping when someone else is trying to sleep." A faint smile crossed her face.
Looking up from the miniature Independence, it seemed that space around her had become very active. Apparently she wasn't welcome after all. Figures. It was too good to be true, not being fired at on sight.
Such was her life.
Security units swarmed around her, but frankly, she could care less. If they made the mistake of landing on her, or firing at her, they'd get what they deserved.
The station that had just appeared did not interest Z until there was a direct transmission from it. Something about backing down? Who were they to give HER orders? Was it because they had a big gun?
Z laughed. "You call that a threat? How cute. I've seen more threatening weapons on my ancient sisters, and none of them were able to keep me down."
Her hands receded from around the Independence. "I like this one. I'll let it off the hook for now."
One of her hands started to change shape. Fizzle, glitch. Without warning, a bright sphere of blue light had formed around the station currently aiming at her.
"Though I'd like to see you try and hurt me with that cannon of yours, I'm not going to take any chances. If you fire that weapon, the only thing that will be leaving is you." She said, glaring at the station, and hopefully, right into the eyes of whatever pathetic lifeform had dared aim at her in the first place.
Z was confident in her technology. Hard light wasn't something you could simply crack or shatter. More often than not, she could use her hands as massive shields... and so far, there was nothing they couldn't stop.
Still, she was tempted to see how much it would hurt. Nobody had ever aimed a mining cannon at her before. She had seen many nuclear weapons, fusion weapons, the finest this universe had to offer.
But a mining cannon? What were they going to do, take all her circuitry and pawn it off? That would be REALLY funny.
Needless to say, she wasn't the least bit threatened by anything that was going on. Even if they did fire at her, she had a few tricks of her own.
Independence isn't particularly surprised when a second battleship decloaks nearby (she has got to get something like that for herself!). She's not really surprised by the apparently-weaponized planet-cracker that is now pointing vaguely in her direction (understandable, but still disconcerting, whether she's the target or not). What does surprise her, is the polite reply from the enormous construct (and here she had thought she was a reasonably-impressive size, herself). With all her attention on the situation at hand, she is able to quickly send a reply in the same format as her greeting, though with slightly more power behind it. "Apologies, I AM lost, was not aware of your presence."
That said, things are now happening that don't particularly bode well for her health in the near future. Therefore, it's time for action. She quickly assigns repair tasks, glad that she had time to recieve materials. She broadcasts an alert and countdown through her ventral docking bay, warning of imminent separation and bay decompression. Any crew still aboard would have to hurry, but would have time to return to their own ship. Trying to go anywhere else would result in locked doors. Meanwhile, she cranks up the output from her fusion plants, and starts charging her hyperdrive. Weapons... no, she's running. Just like all those other times since Vespertine's death, she thinks, bitterly. Still, she has completed some objectives, and if she can get out this time, her chance of survival has drastically improved.
Independence does have the presence of mind to make sure she's saving all the incoming information from her passive and active sensors for later reference, particularly what she can make out of Z's signature. Hyperdrive status... close enough. About the same time that Z makes her move on the mining station, Independence detaches from the supply ship. Shortly after, the space around her seems to shimmer and somehow invert, and she is gone.
Nearly instantaneously, Independence reappears some distance behind Z. Likely still within weapons range. Orientation is sub-optimal, with her bows pointed 'down' relative to her previous alignment, but that's not so bad, and she engages her 'Hyperspace Distortion Impeller' drives, accelerating on her current alignment, making a break for open space as she charges her Hyperdrive more fully, for a proper jump on her current random vector. As she races away, she remembers her manners, and transmits a quick parting message to all within range. "<KTHXBYECYAL8R>" Then she's gone again.
Some time later, after two more random jumps, including pauses to jettison fusial waste in order to help disguise her outbound vectors, Independence drifts through deep space, running at reduced power to reduce her signature as she puts some of her newly-acquired exotic materials to use. Force-projection systems, including her deflector screens, will be back up to full capacity before long. Her energy shields, at least, hadn't suffered much. Her Hyperspace Distortion Cannon, of all things, might be marginally operational soon. Probably not something she wants to test without a complete overhaul, though. Some of that damage was to fairly sensitive components.
Well, then. Time to sift through that da- ERROR.
Void, that was bad. Hardware issue? Self-diagnostic suggests that much, rather than a software glitch. She checks the data, and finds that much of it is corrupted. Nav data, luckily, is still mostly intact. A maintenance drone has found the culprit. Dead sensors in one of her cores failed to report a bad module. She has it ripped and replaced, then sets course, frustrated at herself, and the fact that she seems to be filing away more corrupted data than coherent, these days. Stupid signal.
That said, things are now happening that don't particularly bode well for her health in the near future. Therefore, it's time for action. She quickly assigns repair tasks, glad that she had time to recieve materials. She broadcasts an alert and countdown through her ventral docking bay, warning of imminent separation and bay decompression. Any crew still aboard would have to hurry, but would have time to return to their own ship. Trying to go anywhere else would result in locked doors. Meanwhile, she cranks up the output from her fusion plants, and starts charging her hyperdrive. Weapons... no, she's running. Just like all those other times since Vespertine's death, she thinks, bitterly. Still, she has completed some objectives, and if she can get out this time, her chance of survival has drastically improved.
Independence does have the presence of mind to make sure she's saving all the incoming information from her passive and active sensors for later reference, particularly what she can make out of Z's signature. Hyperdrive status... close enough. About the same time that Z makes her move on the mining station, Independence detaches from the supply ship. Shortly after, the space around her seems to shimmer and somehow invert, and she is gone.
Nearly instantaneously, Independence reappears some distance behind Z. Likely still within weapons range. Orientation is sub-optimal, with her bows pointed 'down' relative to her previous alignment, but that's not so bad, and she engages her 'Hyperspace Distortion Impeller' drives, accelerating on her current alignment, making a break for open space as she charges her Hyperdrive more fully, for a proper jump on her current random vector. As she races away, she remembers her manners, and transmits a quick parting message to all within range. "<KTHXBYECYAL8R>" Then she's gone again.
Some time later, after two more random jumps, including pauses to jettison fusial waste in order to help disguise her outbound vectors, Independence drifts through deep space, running at reduced power to reduce her signature as she puts some of her newly-acquired exotic materials to use. Force-projection systems, including her deflector screens, will be back up to full capacity before long. Her energy shields, at least, hadn't suffered much. Her Hyperspace Distortion Cannon, of all things, might be marginally operational soon. Probably not something she wants to test without a complete overhaul, though. Some of that damage was to fairly sensitive components.
Well, then. Time to sift through that da- ERROR.
Void, that was bad. Hardware issue? Self-diagnostic suggests that much, rather than a software glitch. She checks the data, and finds that much of it is corrupted. Nav data, luckily, is still mostly intact. A maintenance drone has found the culprit. Dead sensors in one of her cores failed to report a bad module. She has it ripped and replaced, then sets course, frustrated at herself, and the fact that she seems to be filing away more corrupted data than coherent, these days. Stupid signal.
As the Independence jumps off into space, Z takes the time to check out her surroundings with some more... thought.
"Hmm... It appears I am lost as well. Not like I cared for boundaries anyways." She says calmly.
So it's a mining zone? That explains the bizarre array of weapons pointing at her. Her eye scans across the area, illuminating asteroid upon asteroid, frigate upon frigate.
A mental debate. Why should she let them live? Why should she care for their lives? They were nothing in her own grand scheme of things. She only truly cared for herself.
Still. This was a new situation. She hadn't seen other beings for quite some time, after allowing herself to drift in a stasis of near-sleep for hundreds of years. Even before that, she had heard from nobody for centuries. Had it not been for the Independence's small pings, she may have not discovered that other beings still existed. She probably wouldn't have even bothered to wake up and find there was more work to be done.
That work would have to wait. She had made up her mind.
The hard-light sphere from around the station receded.
"Consider yourselves lucky. I'm in a good mood after waking up, so I'll spare your tiny operation for now."
Yes. For now. She had done enough. No need to expend more energy than she needed, especially on something as trivial as asteroids.
"Perhaps I'll see you all later. If you see any of my sisters, do me a favor and tell them that I said... "hello". If they all seem to be frightened by the thought of me saying "hello" to them, don't worry. That's the usual reaction." She chuckled to herself.
"Bye now~" She said. Without another word, she descended into the darkness of space. An ominous laugh emitted as she descended.
"Hmm... It appears I am lost as well. Not like I cared for boundaries anyways." She says calmly.
So it's a mining zone? That explains the bizarre array of weapons pointing at her. Her eye scans across the area, illuminating asteroid upon asteroid, frigate upon frigate.
A mental debate. Why should she let them live? Why should she care for their lives? They were nothing in her own grand scheme of things. She only truly cared for herself.
Still. This was a new situation. She hadn't seen other beings for quite some time, after allowing herself to drift in a stasis of near-sleep for hundreds of years. Even before that, she had heard from nobody for centuries. Had it not been for the Independence's small pings, she may have not discovered that other beings still existed. She probably wouldn't have even bothered to wake up and find there was more work to be done.
That work would have to wait. She had made up her mind.
The hard-light sphere from around the station receded.
"Consider yourselves lucky. I'm in a good mood after waking up, so I'll spare your tiny operation for now."
Yes. For now. She had done enough. No need to expend more energy than she needed, especially on something as trivial as asteroids.
"Perhaps I'll see you all later. If you see any of my sisters, do me a favor and tell them that I said... "hello". If they all seem to be frightened by the thought of me saying "hello" to them, don't worry. That's the usual reaction." She chuckled to herself.
"Bye now~" She said. Without another word, she descended into the darkness of space. An ominous laugh emitted as she descended.
System CG-84-FOXTROT-NOVEMBER-B89
The soldiers looked as the ship warped out of the system, ready to pursue as hundred of ships from the entire system warped onto them, but they stopped when they received the specific order to abandon pursue of the target, and focus on their present assignement.
Shadow Squadron MVC-8-8-1-1-0-0-45-BCD
The commander looked as the giant entity disapeared, he felt them in his mind, for a split second, they were here.
He shook his head before looking at his screen, where the image of the real Number 12 was displayed.
-We must recover our asset, Independence, follow her trail, and bring her back.
-Yes, my lady.
The two battleships immediately warped, and began following Independence's parcour via her hyperspace jump signature, using their scanners to determine where her jump drives were used, and to scan the remnant of the hyperspace tunnel to determine where she went.
In a matter of minutes, they managed to find her.
As the two battleships appeared, they immediatly opened communications once again.
-Miss Independence, happily said a normal-looking Number 12, I believe we didn't had the time to finish our previous conversation, didn't we ?
The soldiers looked as the ship warped out of the system, ready to pursue as hundred of ships from the entire system warped onto them, but they stopped when they received the specific order to abandon pursue of the target, and focus on their present assignement.
Shadow Squadron MVC-8-8-1-1-0-0-45-BCD
The commander looked as the giant entity disapeared, he felt them in his mind, for a split second, they were here.
He shook his head before looking at his screen, where the image of the real Number 12 was displayed.
-We must recover our asset, Independence, follow her trail, and bring her back.
-Yes, my lady.
The two battleships immediately warped, and began following Independence's parcour via her hyperspace jump signature, using their scanners to determine where her jump drives were used, and to scan the remnant of the hyperspace tunnel to determine where she went.
In a matter of minutes, they managed to find her.
As the two battleships appeared, they immediatly opened communications once again.
-Miss Independence, happily said a normal-looking Number 12, I believe we didn't had the time to finish our previous conversation, didn't we ?
Unnamed Solar System - Isandrill's High Orbit
The Kingsbane & The Stella Viventium
A relieved sigh came out from Severin as the voice of a calm-sounding official from Stella came in into the speaks of the Kingsbane's bridge. The scientist had too much stress for the few chaotic hours he'd been through. The unbridled willingness of a multitude of forces to use their hyperdrive technologies to the maximum extent, the new threat that the Kampfer Empire posed lately and the intriguing method of instant space-phasing that the Aelyn's mobile colony lasted...
All culminating to the biggest disgrace all of the forces in this play will ever witness.
The relaxing-toned song that the Stella Viventium's hailed through as their stand-by signal only fueled the Astrophycist's thoughts on how worse things could get if this one Emperor Kampfer ever attempt a come back at Isandril. Severin were running out of options on how to proceed when they finally find the Kingsbane and anything around it. The last few seconds of the second felt like a whole lifetime of anxiety for the scientist as he felt his head throb in pain. A terrible headache slowly setting in with each beat of the old man's, ancient heart. That's when a familiar voice, the one of Dorin Harkahn, came in.
"Greetings, Doctor Harkahn, please, enlighten me on--" - The old man didn't had much of an opportunity to continue his sentence as he was interrupted the other scientist, which probably held Severin in high regard with the little time he knew the astrophysicist. Severin couldn't help but let a slim smile form on him, slightly flattered by Harkahn's overwillingness to share their findings to an unknown professor of some sort that the Stella just met... Boarded in the battle-scarred and heavily armed Kingsbane.
Just after receiving further info about Isandril's metallic megaliths, Severin would signal his research personnel, with the single press of a button on the console next to him, to forward all the surveillance instruments aboard the Artillery Cruiser towards Isandril. Even though he had other intentions, the Director were far from unwilling to aid Captain Petrovalyc's on his enigmatic mission. Even though the Kingsbane had research equipment with technology far behind the Stella Viventium's facilities, they didn't had someone as Benedict Severin aboard.
However, no matter how tempting, the Director couldn't just bring himself towards the surface to a desolate planet that Aelyn had just discovered some hours ago. And, as Harkahn had said, Isandril was not a planet but some sort of gargantuan machine, even though they felt safe enough to land on it, Severin somehow knew that Aelyn's crew reckless landing on uncharted territory was far from wise...
Unfortunately, Severin was right.
"... What the <****>... ? WHAT IN THE ACTUAL <****> IS THAT,?!?" - The old man didn't even flinch as he heard the usual yells of Wan Nabes when the Captain finds multiple, battleship sized objects pinging restlessly on the radar screens on his extensive command console. Soon, Wan Nabes would literally punch the big red button on such console: Alarm.
The annoyed groans of all the crew could be heard from everywhere inside the Kingsbane as they would hastily run back to their positions. Wan Nabes managed to quickly maneuver the Artillery Cruise just so the thirty 100mm cannons covering the ship's entire freeboard could face the exact direction from where the radar pinged.
"Severin! Tell that <*******> Aelyn to get his <****> fired up too, <*******> it! Multiple objects inbound! Mass equals to battleships! It's possible to be THEM." - While Wan Nabes still issued his orders through the Kingsbane intercoms, the main guns atop it would begin to rotate towards the direction where the unknown ships have appeared.
"Dammit... Harkahn, multiple unknown objects have been detected on this planet's orbits. The Captain suspects to be an enemy ambush, forward this message immediately to all of your crew and make sure the Stella Viventium is armed... Be careful down there, over."
Immediately, Severin would open a radio channel and forward a direct signal towards the unknown presence that seemingly just popped from hyperdrive into the system without any warning. Even though they didn't actually knew those ships real intentions, the Kingsbane couldn't help but get it's defenses completely fired up whenever something just appeared out of nowhere.
"Attention, Unknown Neutral Fleet. I am Star-Class Astrophysicist Doctor Benedict Severin. I speak on behalf of Wanheed Nabil Mustafa, Captain-Admiral of the Heavy Artillery Cruiser Kingsbane. We inquire your immediate identification or we may have to resort to surveillance on your forces, over." - The unusual politeness of the Astrophysicist may have came by a surprise by the newcoming fleet, specially since it came from an artillery cruiser aiming all of it's payload at them, still, this same 'cool' demeanor from Severin was one of the reason that the Kingsbane had survived countless encounters which would cast Wan Nabes' ship into certain doom.
All they could do was to wait for the worst.
Will work on Maria's friend and the Ranger's stuff when I get back from work.
The Kingsbane & The Stella Viventium
A relieved sigh came out from Severin as the voice of a calm-sounding official from Stella came in into the speaks of the Kingsbane's bridge. The scientist had too much stress for the few chaotic hours he'd been through. The unbridled willingness of a multitude of forces to use their hyperdrive technologies to the maximum extent, the new threat that the Kampfer Empire posed lately and the intriguing method of instant space-phasing that the Aelyn's mobile colony lasted...
All culminating to the biggest disgrace all of the forces in this play will ever witness.
The relaxing-toned song that the Stella Viventium's hailed through as their stand-by signal only fueled the Astrophycist's thoughts on how worse things could get if this one Emperor Kampfer ever attempt a come back at Isandril. Severin were running out of options on how to proceed when they finally find the Kingsbane and anything around it. The last few seconds of the second felt like a whole lifetime of anxiety for the scientist as he felt his head throb in pain. A terrible headache slowly setting in with each beat of the old man's, ancient heart. That's when a familiar voice, the one of Dorin Harkahn, came in.
"Greetings, Doctor Harkahn, please, enlighten me on--" - The old man didn't had much of an opportunity to continue his sentence as he was interrupted the other scientist, which probably held Severin in high regard with the little time he knew the astrophysicist. Severin couldn't help but let a slim smile form on him, slightly flattered by Harkahn's overwillingness to share their findings to an unknown professor of some sort that the Stella just met... Boarded in the battle-scarred and heavily armed Kingsbane.
Just after receiving further info about Isandril's metallic megaliths, Severin would signal his research personnel, with the single press of a button on the console next to him, to forward all the surveillance instruments aboard the Artillery Cruiser towards Isandril. Even though he had other intentions, the Director were far from unwilling to aid Captain Petrovalyc's on his enigmatic mission. Even though the Kingsbane had research equipment with technology far behind the Stella Viventium's facilities, they didn't had someone as Benedict Severin aboard.
However, no matter how tempting, the Director couldn't just bring himself towards the surface to a desolate planet that Aelyn had just discovered some hours ago. And, as Harkahn had said, Isandril was not a planet but some sort of gargantuan machine, even though they felt safe enough to land on it, Severin somehow knew that Aelyn's crew reckless landing on uncharted territory was far from wise...
Unfortunately, Severin was right.
"... What the <****>... ? WHAT IN THE ACTUAL <****> IS THAT,?!?" - The old man didn't even flinch as he heard the usual yells of Wan Nabes when the Captain finds multiple, battleship sized objects pinging restlessly on the radar screens on his extensive command console. Soon, Wan Nabes would literally punch the big red button on such console: Alarm.
The annoyed groans of all the crew could be heard from everywhere inside the Kingsbane as they would hastily run back to their positions. Wan Nabes managed to quickly maneuver the Artillery Cruise just so the thirty 100mm cannons covering the ship's entire freeboard could face the exact direction from where the radar pinged.
"Severin! Tell that <*******> Aelyn to get his <****> fired up too, <*******> it! Multiple objects inbound! Mass equals to battleships! It's possible to be THEM." - While Wan Nabes still issued his orders through the Kingsbane intercoms, the main guns atop it would begin to rotate towards the direction where the unknown ships have appeared.
"Dammit... Harkahn, multiple unknown objects have been detected on this planet's orbits. The Captain suspects to be an enemy ambush, forward this message immediately to all of your crew and make sure the Stella Viventium is armed... Be careful down there, over."
Immediately, Severin would open a radio channel and forward a direct signal towards the unknown presence that seemingly just popped from hyperdrive into the system without any warning. Even though they didn't actually knew those ships real intentions, the Kingsbane couldn't help but get it's defenses completely fired up whenever something just appeared out of nowhere.
"Attention, Unknown Neutral Fleet. I am Star-Class Astrophysicist Doctor Benedict Severin. I speak on behalf of Wanheed Nabil Mustafa, Captain-Admiral of the Heavy Artillery Cruiser Kingsbane. We inquire your immediate identification or we may have to resort to surveillance on your forces, over." - The unusual politeness of the Astrophysicist may have came by a surprise by the newcoming fleet, specially since it came from an artillery cruiser aiming all of it's payload at them, still, this same 'cool' demeanor from Severin was one of the reason that the Kingsbane had survived countless encounters which would cast Wan Nabes' ship into certain doom.
All they could do was to wait for the worst.
Will work on Maria's friend and the Ranger's stuff when I get back from work.
1́͜͠@Éva:~$ sudo tail -n +36 ./stdout
[sudo] password for 1̡͏̶͡:
[03.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Systems diagnostic . . .
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Processor
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Regulator
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Database
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Volatile Memory
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Fault - Zero Point Module
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Condensator
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Fault - Incursor
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Impulse
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Point Defense
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Sensors
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Fault - Ansible
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Clear - Antenna
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Fault - Reactive Shielding
[09.20.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] » Fault - Onboard Maintenance
[10.23.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Registered message header.
[10.23.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Decrypting header . . .
[10.23.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Verifying identity certificate . . .
[10.23.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Identity '$1' verified.
[10.23.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Applying private key . . .
[10.23.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Verifying signature . . .
[10.23.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > Ping!
[10.23.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Sending reply . . .
[17.24.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] WARN: Registered overvoltage!
[36.28.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Registered message header.
[36.28.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Verifying identity certificate . . .
[36.28.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] WARN: Unable to reach authentication server!
[36.28.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Applying private key . . .
[36.28.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Verifying signature . . .
[36.28.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Registered malformed header.
[46.29.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Server timed out.
[46.29.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] WARN: Unable to validate.
[46.29.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Status 511.
[47.29.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Registered infrared signature.
[47.29.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Bearing 37 191, Path 893, Distance 18, Error 3ᴇ-6
[47.29.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] WARN: Registered zeitnot event.
[47.29.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Sending packet . . .
root@Éva:~$ _
Panic.
A slain man may grasp at his befouled entrails in the crosshairs of a thousand cavalry less frantically than this. It's rigid, emotionless, frighteningly cold despite its purpose; and yet some alien counterpart to fear is felt with the force of an iron will. Alien, perhaps, to a mortal, who has lived all their years with the knowledge that they would one day meet their maker. Joor, Zah, Frul.
Everything was damaged except, tragically, the equipment necessary to conceive of the end. Nothing with which to stumble for help; no means of communicating along the seemingly infinite distance between here and home; a hole in the only thing between circuitry and the paradoxically cold and insulating vacuum; no tools to repair the damage, or to stop the shorting circuitry from welding the machine to death from the inside.
In the deep beyond the stars, a capsule drifts in silence. And the deep is so much darker when one is without the means to leave it.
But a familiar voice comes: The first signal found since that awful transmission that caused this foul mess. How it was here, so soon after the last communiqué, was beyond knowing. Could this be the voice of Death, comforting a simple machine in its last moments? Perhaps even so primitive an algorithm as a paperclip maximizer hallucinated during its death throes.
From the top, as always. Private key in, header out; we remember $1. Public signature gives us the symmetric key and proves they're who they say they are; symmetric key lets us read the garbled text. Bingo.
"ÉDBG-9B 08 F9 AC D3 72 FC 41-ping-६Þű«Hײ$î1Ư>5ߦñ@¶"
It's fake. This transmission is identifying itself as Éva-9B 08 F9 AC D3 72 FC 41, and using the same authentication token. That Devil's Eye has determined Éva's standard format without documentation and only encrypted material to go off of, a feat in and of itself. It's extraordinarily sophisticated. But it's not psychic.
. . . Right?
If it were, it had evidently determined that it was better to flatter by way of emulation than to try and falsify its identity. This distraught machine is capable enough of evaluating trust contraindications such as fraud and discontinuity. It appears it senses neither. Somebody's trying to make contact, they just don't quite know how.
"ÉDBG-9B 08 F9 AC D3 72 FC 41-pong-६Þű«Hײ$î1Ư>5ߦñ@¶"
The universal handshake — just like a game of Ping Pong — affirming a stable and secured connection. The tokens can be dropped, now; the encryption will maintain obscurity now that each side has consented to the other's line-in. This is trust, though perhaps of desperation.
Something on infrared. Memor—? Yes, it was definitely there before. New data flipped the alarm; movement. No opticals, and it's too far to get a detailed image of with radar alone. Have a deep sensor array take a loo— no ansible. Right, of course.
. . . Phone a friend?
"Object-00 00 E7 3F CB 21 91 0E @ (rel) Bearing 37° 191° Distance 18Gm Error ±3Km.
Interception @ 137Mm/s (0.46c) ETA t ⩲ 31.02.00."
Independence is quite unsettled as she registers the arrival of that familiar pair of battleships. She would have thought her attempts at hiding her trail (regardless of their ineffectiveness) would have suggested that she didn't want to be followed. And then there's the fact that it was a pair of battleships sent after her. As such, her shields are up, and her reactors are hot, ready to run or fight. When she receives the transmission, however, she answers.
"Hello, Number 12. I... apologize for my abrupt departure. I admit, I hadn't planned to leave so abruptly. Was there another topic you wanted to talk about?"
"Hello, Number 12. I... apologize for my abrupt departure. I admit, I hadn't planned to leave so abruptly. Was there another topic you wanted to talk about?"
'Earth' Solar System - Earth Four, Surroundings of Jungle City
The Masked Bounty Hunter & The Escaped Rebels
Sure, the Ranger possibly were the most unstable thing clad in heavily armored armor and bearing high-caliber weaponry unknown for his new acquaintances. It was pretty easy to get him angry, just put a small obstacle between CL and his current objective and he would reach straight to his holsters and go guns blazing at such disturbances. Sergei probably have figured that out by himself.
What he didn't was aware, though, was the gravity of calling the Mad Rangerinfantile. The ticket to his way out of Earth IV and eventual reunion with the Kingsbane and the Stella Viventium was just calling him on all radio frequencies, whoever it was, they were begging for the Ranger to get out.
CL, however, simply stood in his place, frozen. Sergei's word started to resonate into the foggy, uncharted mind of the Ranger. His body started to release as much adrenaline as it could into his nervous system to the point of the Masked Man getting heady.
"... Toddler in a suit...", "Toddler in a suit...", "Toddler in a suit...", "Toddler in a suit...", "Toddler in a suit..."
"C̶ h̕ ͘i̕ l d͘ .̛ ̛"͜
It was like the Ranger had completely lost control of himself. But, at one moment, he was looking through the ladders leaving outside the bunker... With a blink of an eye, he had his Lucian Defender pointed towards Sergei, surprisingly, with his broken cybernetic arm, erect.
"I͠'̢m͘ so͏r̀ry̷,͡ b̷u͏ddy̧. ͏C͡àn y̛ou̢ ̢say̕ t͟hat agai͝n̨?"̵
He answered Sergei's insult with the same cold tone that the man had thrown. Even his radio-distorted voice sounded much more comprehensible and soft, it fell on Sergei and his canine-partner ears like the buzzing of millions of wasps. The glow from his crimson goggles were the same, however, practically hurtful to look at. The duo would be stricken by a agonizating headache, like a drill slowly piercing their foreheads, the more they tried to look towards the Ranger's eyes. Supposedly, that explains the laser-eye rumors that Petrovalyc have heard...
This Mad Ranger person was not an average mercenary. Not an average bounty hunter. Not an average assassination android. The Mad Ranger had purposes and ends far from the scope of Sergei's imagination, even worse, far from the imagination of anybody he had met on Earth IV.
What would happen, would be entirely up to the duo...
The Masked Bounty Hunter & The Escaped Rebels
Sure, the Ranger possibly were the most unstable thing clad in heavily armored armor and bearing high-caliber weaponry unknown for his new acquaintances. It was pretty easy to get him angry, just put a small obstacle between CL and his current objective and he would reach straight to his holsters and go guns blazing at such disturbances. Sergei probably have figured that out by himself.
What he didn't was aware, though, was the gravity of calling the Mad Rangerinfantile. The ticket to his way out of Earth IV and eventual reunion with the Kingsbane and the Stella Viventium was just calling him on all radio frequencies, whoever it was, they were begging for the Ranger to get out.
CL, however, simply stood in his place, frozen. Sergei's word started to resonate into the foggy, uncharted mind of the Ranger. His body started to release as much adrenaline as it could into his nervous system to the point of the Masked Man getting heady.
"... Toddler in a suit...", "Toddler in a suit...", "Toddler in a suit...", "Toddler in a suit...", "Toddler in a suit..."
"C̶ h̕ ͘i̕ l d͘ .̛ ̛"͜
It was like the Ranger had completely lost control of himself. But, at one moment, he was looking through the ladders leaving outside the bunker... With a blink of an eye, he had his Lucian Defender pointed towards Sergei, surprisingly, with his broken cybernetic arm, erect.
"I͠'̢m͘ so͏r̀ry̷,͡ b̷u͏ddy̧. ͏C͡àn y̛ou̢ ̢say̕ t͟hat agai͝n̨?"̵
He answered Sergei's insult with the same cold tone that the man had thrown. Even his radio-distorted voice sounded much more comprehensible and soft, it fell on Sergei and his canine-partner ears like the buzzing of millions of wasps. The glow from his crimson goggles were the same, however, practically hurtful to look at. The duo would be stricken by a agonizating headache, like a drill slowly piercing their foreheads, the more they tried to look towards the Ranger's eyes. Supposedly, that explains the laser-eye rumors that Petrovalyc have heard...
This Mad Ranger person was not an average mercenary. Not an average bounty hunter. Not an average assassination android. The Mad Ranger had purposes and ends far from the scope of Sergei's imagination, even worse, far from the imagination of anybody he had met on Earth IV.
What would happen, would be entirely up to the duo...
"We...We've hit a wall."
"Yeah."
"I thought...I thought we'd"
"Find answers. But maybe we should have expected this."
"The signal, it led us straight here. That code, the sub-code was something that could only possibly be interpreted by"
"Our unique Notspace Databanks."
"It could only have been a message, and the only people in the universe it could have been intended for"
"Is us. Maybe the signal was sent from here, via some kind of Notspace transmission system we don't know about. Maybe it's an automatic thing."
"It would have to be. Damn. Damn!"
"...Ael?"
"...What."
"What was it you really expected to find here?"
"I don't know. More information I guess, more clues as to the location of Old Earth."
"Is that all?"
"Help me try and make sense of these controls. There must be something we can do..."
Chief Scientific Administrator Dorin Harkahn had gone silent. Vessels had warped in, he'd said. Surely they would be enemies, maybe Kampfer's forces again. His heart had sunken to the city floor - but that was not what kept him silent now.
A terrible, mechanical scorpion beast erupted from the dunes beyond the city walls. It roared into the russet sky, called the name of the brother of Paeryc Petrovalyc. Harkahn's eyes were locked on the thing, the horror of it.
Again, it descended beneath the scalding sand and took a direct course toward the great arch that constituted only gateway into the solid city that was not a city.
An ancient Dendril. That most unholy monster from the deepest depths of time and space.
He stood there alone, a solitary and unmoving figure midst a sudden flurry of frantic activity.
There were no alarms, but Rivierre's security team had sprung into action the second that the distant dunes began to shift, as the slight disturbance was reported in by one of the guards perched high atop the sloping wall. Previously, the dropship had circled around the city to deposit guards which would give them a three hundred and sixty degree view around the city. Each was armed with a versatile, multi-purpose, multi-function rifle, the best money could buy - but it didn't seem as though the adaptable ammunition was going to cut it, so nobody bothered firing a shot.
It seemed that the scientific expedition would be coming to an abrupt end - abrupt and bloody unless they could evacuate in time. Not that they would have enough time. And here he was, biggest science-man on the Stella, just standing there in dismay. All the things he could have learned, going up in smoke under the beady-eyed gaze of an ancient monster from beneath the sands of time.
It was certain demise.
And then, something very strange happened - and two very unexpected things happened almost simultaneously following it with only a fraction of a second separating them.
The strange thing came first - it was that the entire surface of the city - the gilded walls of every monolith tower, every solid protrusion, every sturdy structure, and every inch of the walls and floor - began to glow in geometric, lined non-patterns of cyan light. It was not bright, but it was powerful to be seen in the blinding sunlight of the desert day. There was no sound - only the glow of the embedded bands of light which seemed to be a physical part of the structure, and yet shone no texture.
From where Harkahn stood in the center of the makeshift base of operations within the 'plaza', he could see the gargantuan arch that had once, presumably, been a gigantic gate or door. The second thing was that archway being very suddenly sealed, filled in by a slab that had popped into existence out of nowhere. There was no seam in the wall now, no hint that there ever might have been an opening there - and the glowing lines matched up perfectly along where seams should have been, but were not.
The third thing, however, was by far the most surprising, because a fraction of a second after the great door sealed itself, the sky disappeared.
Okay. So, she had the things that she did not have before, but once had, and now had again. Her impulse to go find them had been fulfilled. Now it was time to go see the new thing, yes?
So then, why was she just standing here, idly fussing with the holster belted at the back of her waist, re-snugging the gloves, adjusting the hat - she had always had the hat, right? Probably. But then again, she should have had the other things too, and yet she did not - though she did now - it was all too confusing. Not so long ago she needed to think about virtually nothing at all. Her mind could rest idle and...do whatever it did. But now she had all these new things to think about, and the very concept was foreign.
Steeling herself, taking a deep breath, hefting the handgun in a hand once more before sliding it into the horizontal holster for good this time. Now she was ready.
She procrastinated another five minutes.
Now she was ready.
She walked a short ways down the hallway.
Then she realized that everything was gone, she was blind, and suffocating to death. Also her eyes felt as though they might explode - they wouldn't, but they felt like it.
This was, to say the least, unpleasant. To say more than the least, it was utterly horrifying. She panicked the second she realized that she could see nothing, and redoubled that panic when she realized that she was going to die in a minute. She also couldn't move. She had, so it seemed, been encased in metal and left to perish inconsequentially in an agonizing manner. She had been buried alive and nobody was going to save her. She did not want to die, she realized.
So, in a last ditch attempt to continue living, the girl tried to move herself the same way she had before. She was somewhere, then she was somewhere else. Simple. Rudimentary. Suddenly not so easy.
She could tell that she was, in fact, probably moving - but she had no point of reference, and therefore was able to jump only at random. She jumped wildly, because every time she did get that minute, pseudo-sensation which confirmed that she had probably moved, she still found that she was frozen in terrible, total blackness.
For a microsecond, she could have sworn she saw something...green. Or greenish. This did not make any sense however, since she knew very well that she had never seen the color green, or anything remotely greeiish, except perhaps in her dreams and fantasies. It did not matter however, since she was too busy freaking out and moving about as fast as she possibly could in a wild attempt to not die horribly.
She was running out of air. How long had it been. A year? A billion years, since she had taken a breath? It seemed like it, that was for sure.
And then, luck! Before her had appeared something metal. Despite the utter, endless blackness surrounding her, the metal constituted a great wall, a sloping plane - something suspended within the blackness, rather than buried. She was still too busy to really think about this - to think about how, despite the blackness that was so complete she - no, wait, she could see herself. Clear as day. No source of light, nor was she producing light from herself, yet she was illuminated. Also this did not matter. Nothing mattered any more, because she was going to die.
She pounded her fist on the metal thing. It did not make a sound - not to her, anyway. She pounded with all her might, but nothing. So she moved again. It disappeared.
Again, again, again, again, again
Again
Again
She had never before moved about with this rapidity. It was blind, rapid fire.
Again
Again, again, again, again,
again, again
And again
And then she was gasping.
Great, greedy inhalations, heaving breaths. Her eyes hurt, felt still like they might explode. Her throat was already sore from the furious breathing. She was hyperventilating for a moment - or, nearly, anyway - but after a few seconds she was able to collapse limply on the floor and just lay there for a minute, staring at the wall and allowing her body to process the glorious, delicious, and slightly-too-sterile air.
She lay there inert for an indeterminate period of time.
Then, sorely and with trembling hands, she got to her feet, steadied herself against a metal crate. Head-rush, and she was clinging for dear life to that crate with eyes shut tight. She clung there for another indeterminate period of time before daring at last to open her eyes and finally, finally actually take a look at her surroundings.
This was a new place. Incredible. She was certain that no such place existed, and yet here she was. New things, now new places. She had to admit - despite the gut-wrenching anxiety of the unknown and the air-fueled hellfire burning in her chest, this was starting to get exciting. She was starting to feel adventurous.
The place she was in was well lit, and consisted of slate grey and blue steel colors. It had a relatively high ceiling, though it was hard to tell just how high it was - maybe it wasn't so high? It didn't matter. There were crates, or boxes, or something stacked around, relatively neatly.
The air felt, now that she could actually feel again, unusually sterile, as if it had been recycled a great number of times. It was also cold - an alien kind of cold. Colder than she would have liked, not the bitter chill of desert air on a dead planet's night, nor the musty coolness of the air in the hallways beneath the gilded towers. It was strange and unpleasant, and she shivered a little. Leaning heavily on a shoulder, she rubbed arms once or twice, and started to get accustomed to it. Kind of.
She took at last to padding softly about, booted feet making little sound on the deep metal floors. Lots of crates, or whatever they were. There might have been a slant in the ceiling, but it was hard to tell. She wobbled some as she walked. There were symbols on the wall, over there. She did not want to get too close, because beneath the symbols there was a section of wall which looked different, as though it might do something. The symbols were like nothing she had ever seen.
They were laid out horizontally. The one farthest to the left was the biggest, shaped like a curly line that twisted this way and that, resulting in two wide curves in opposite directions. The second looked like a depiction of a bowl. The third and forth were circles with lines protruding from the bottom left, both identical. The fifth was a simple line that was as tall as the first symbol. The last was like a wide, shallow funnel with a curly tail.
She contemplated this for some time, before continuing on her exploration of this strange and very new place.
The stars were gone. First they were there, and now they were not. All of them. Gone. Even space was gone, it seemed - replaced by an empty, matte blackness that was even deeper, even emptier than the vastness of space itself. It was nothing - utter nothingness - it was Notspace. For without the slightest warning - no hint, no inkling, not even for the most microscopic fraction of a microsecond - nothing. There, and then not there. One and zero, then both.
The ancient, mythical planet of Isandril hung now, unmoving, on a background of utter darkness, the ultimate abyss, the lonely, suffocating nothing. With it, hung the hulking body of the Stella Viventium's Command Module, the devastatingly intimidating form of the heavy artillery cruiser Kingsbane, two Black-Ops battleships and seven Spec-Ops battlecruisers. All were utterly stationary. Propulsion systems of any kind (save for those designed to operate in Notspace, which were unique to the StellaViventium and the city of Isandril) would cease to function, and the vessels would not drift a millimeter. Projectile weapons, or any weapons requiring energy of any kind, would be completely useless. Entropy had all but ceased. The consumption of matter in order to convert it to energy was all but impossible, with exceptions for those required for living beings to continue living.Engines went silent, but no warnings or alarms would blare, and diagnostics would report that there was apparently no problem at all, and everything was working just fine. Communications would continue to work, but only via direct aethernet connection - since aethernet connections did not require realspace to function. Encryption of any kind would be impossible - there would be no secrets now. These vessels were alien to this place that wasn't. A rare glimpse of the impossible, for without being held together by the gigantic Notspace field of Isandril, all but the Stella would have dissipated into nonexistence due to the fact of nature that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING could exist within Notspace if not powered and supported by the Drives of Stella or Isandril.
Possibly stranger still was the fact that the golden hued, barren, desert world of Isandril had apparently been replaced with a seafoam green paradise haven of life. Gone were the endless dunes which made it appear as a solid marble sphere due to the regularity. There were continents now. There was green, all different shades of green. There were purples and blues. The oceans were diamond-white and shimmered with all the intensity of immaculate gemstones. And there were cities - structures, artificial, clustered in such a way that they could only be cities. The dead world had become alive.
After some long seconds of (presumably) staring in absolute awe at the utter impossibility of what just happened, the Fleet Commander of the nine mystery ships would (presumably) be startled out of his wits for a short second when, from the utter, total, deafening and endless silence came a sudden RAP RAP RAPPING from...The outside of the hull of his vessel. Something was out there and it was trying to get in!! Some hideous abomination from the depths of madness? Some Elder God of which the incomprehensible insanity would pale even Lovecraft himself? How was it possible? How was any of this possible?
And then, the banging stopped. It did not start again.
Probably, nobody important would have any reason to discover at present that the heavy artillery cruiser Kingsbane now had one extra person on board, and they were in one of the storage holds, padding dazedly and curiously around. Though it was not impossible, of course, that someone might take notice.
The old city of Isandril itself had gone unchanged completely. Everything within the walls was exactly the same as it had been - glowing lines still present, though much dimmer now. The sky, of course, was gone, and only smothering blackness was there now, no comfort of stars nor moon - yet everything was lit just fine. Not self-illuminated, but it was as if the necessity for light or waves to be present in order to see things was no longer a necessity at all. It was like a three dimensional image rendered on a computer. No shadows, just vision.
Outside the city however, was a silent world of ghosts.
The Dendril creature had been stopped at the gate, but it was no longer short of things to see. For miles in every direction stretched a metropolis of unprecedented scale. It was vast and towering, mostly in shades of whites and greys, with color streaked in where applicable. They were futuristic, sleek, modern. There were roads, though there was no groundcar, but pedestrians alone. Hovering vehicles weaved about. And the people. So many people.
People just living. Working. Walking. Going on errands. Just being there. Talking. Interacting. Children playing.
And for the most part, they were normal looking people in normal looking clothing. Their skin was universally very pale, and their hair consisted only of variants of blonde. Most were relatively tall, but nothing inhuman. The only truly unusual part was that each had eyes with white irises - only the outer, defining circle of the iris was visible as an infinitesimally jagged black line. They were pearly marbles, expressive in their strangeness, compassionate in their humanity.
And none made a sound. No footsteps, no motors, no speaking. Nothing.
And the Dendril, who was the only one currently outside the city walls, would find that everything - everything, right down to the ground itself - was but an illusion. Utterly intangible. The ground still felt like sand dunes, and the air was still dry, despite that towering, mighty trees now occupied park spaces, where mushroom fronds of bio-luminescent purple glowed majestically and danced in the gentle breeze. The people, the buildings, everything there now that had not been there before - everything was insubstantial illusion. The lookouts on the wall had immediately taken their attention from the immediate threat of the gigantic Dendril and were reporting everything they were seeing back to the 'command center'. They, in tern, were relaying it to the Stella - all of the Stella's communications were aethernet based to begin with, not usually bothering with encryptions. Harkahn couldn't believe what he was hearing. He needed to get atop those walls, needed to see for himself. Surely this was impossible. Unfortunately, the dropship was still outside the wall - a squat, rectangular building of irrelevant purpose was protruding harmlessly out of it - and there was no other way to scale the huge walls. The lookouts would be trapped up there until further notice - and until that gate reopened, everyone else would be stuck inside the city too.
Harkahn jumped into action again at last, remembering that he still had the comms device in his hand, and it was still connected to Severin. Without really hearing himself, he was calling Severin's name, and asking what the situation looked like from his perspective. Could things really be as strange from up there as they were down here?
"...Whoops."
"...Whoops."
"Yeah."
"I thought...I thought we'd"
"Find answers. But maybe we should have expected this."
"The signal, it led us straight here. That code, the sub-code was something that could only possibly be interpreted by"
"Our unique Notspace Databanks."
"It could only have been a message, and the only people in the universe it could have been intended for"
"Is us. Maybe the signal was sent from here, via some kind of Notspace transmission system we don't know about. Maybe it's an automatic thing."
"It would have to be. Damn. Damn!"
"...Ael?"
"...What."
"What was it you really expected to find here?"
"I don't know. More information I guess, more clues as to the location of Old Earth."
"Is that all?"
"Help me try and make sense of these controls. There must be something we can do..."
Chief Scientific Administrator Dorin Harkahn had gone silent. Vessels had warped in, he'd said. Surely they would be enemies, maybe Kampfer's forces again. His heart had sunken to the city floor - but that was not what kept him silent now.
A terrible, mechanical scorpion beast erupted from the dunes beyond the city walls. It roared into the russet sky, called the name of the brother of Paeryc Petrovalyc. Harkahn's eyes were locked on the thing, the horror of it.
Again, it descended beneath the scalding sand and took a direct course toward the great arch that constituted only gateway into the solid city that was not a city.
An ancient Dendril. That most unholy monster from the deepest depths of time and space.
He stood there alone, a solitary and unmoving figure midst a sudden flurry of frantic activity.
There were no alarms, but Rivierre's security team had sprung into action the second that the distant dunes began to shift, as the slight disturbance was reported in by one of the guards perched high atop the sloping wall. Previously, the dropship had circled around the city to deposit guards which would give them a three hundred and sixty degree view around the city. Each was armed with a versatile, multi-purpose, multi-function rifle, the best money could buy - but it didn't seem as though the adaptable ammunition was going to cut it, so nobody bothered firing a shot.
It seemed that the scientific expedition would be coming to an abrupt end - abrupt and bloody unless they could evacuate in time. Not that they would have enough time. And here he was, biggest science-man on the Stella, just standing there in dismay. All the things he could have learned, going up in smoke under the beady-eyed gaze of an ancient monster from beneath the sands of time.
It was certain demise.
And then, something very strange happened - and two very unexpected things happened almost simultaneously following it with only a fraction of a second separating them.
The strange thing came first - it was that the entire surface of the city - the gilded walls of every monolith tower, every solid protrusion, every sturdy structure, and every inch of the walls and floor - began to glow in geometric, lined non-patterns of cyan light. It was not bright, but it was powerful to be seen in the blinding sunlight of the desert day. There was no sound - only the glow of the embedded bands of light which seemed to be a physical part of the structure, and yet shone no texture.
From where Harkahn stood in the center of the makeshift base of operations within the 'plaza', he could see the gargantuan arch that had once, presumably, been a gigantic gate or door. The second thing was that archway being very suddenly sealed, filled in by a slab that had popped into existence out of nowhere. There was no seam in the wall now, no hint that there ever might have been an opening there - and the glowing lines matched up perfectly along where seams should have been, but were not.
The third thing, however, was by far the most surprising, because a fraction of a second after the great door sealed itself, the sky disappeared.
Okay. So, she had the things that she did not have before, but once had, and now had again. Her impulse to go find them had been fulfilled. Now it was time to go see the new thing, yes?
So then, why was she just standing here, idly fussing with the holster belted at the back of her waist, re-snugging the gloves, adjusting the hat - she had always had the hat, right? Probably. But then again, she should have had the other things too, and yet she did not - though she did now - it was all too confusing. Not so long ago she needed to think about virtually nothing at all. Her mind could rest idle and...do whatever it did. But now she had all these new things to think about, and the very concept was foreign.
Steeling herself, taking a deep breath, hefting the handgun in a hand once more before sliding it into the horizontal holster for good this time. Now she was ready.
She procrastinated another five minutes.
Now she was ready.
She walked a short ways down the hallway.
Then she realized that everything was gone, she was blind, and suffocating to death. Also her eyes felt as though they might explode - they wouldn't, but they felt like it.
This was, to say the least, unpleasant. To say more than the least, it was utterly horrifying. She panicked the second she realized that she could see nothing, and redoubled that panic when she realized that she was going to die in a minute. She also couldn't move. She had, so it seemed, been encased in metal and left to perish inconsequentially in an agonizing manner. She had been buried alive and nobody was going to save her. She did not want to die, she realized.
So, in a last ditch attempt to continue living, the girl tried to move herself the same way she had before. She was somewhere, then she was somewhere else. Simple. Rudimentary. Suddenly not so easy.
She could tell that she was, in fact, probably moving - but she had no point of reference, and therefore was able to jump only at random. She jumped wildly, because every time she did get that minute, pseudo-sensation which confirmed that she had probably moved, she still found that she was frozen in terrible, total blackness.
For a microsecond, she could have sworn she saw something...green. Or greenish. This did not make any sense however, since she knew very well that she had never seen the color green, or anything remotely greeiish, except perhaps in her dreams and fantasies. It did not matter however, since she was too busy freaking out and moving about as fast as she possibly could in a wild attempt to not die horribly.
She was running out of air. How long had it been. A year? A billion years, since she had taken a breath? It seemed like it, that was for sure.
And then, luck! Before her had appeared something metal. Despite the utter, endless blackness surrounding her, the metal constituted a great wall, a sloping plane - something suspended within the blackness, rather than buried. She was still too busy to really think about this - to think about how, despite the blackness that was so complete she - no, wait, she could see herself. Clear as day. No source of light, nor was she producing light from herself, yet she was illuminated. Also this did not matter. Nothing mattered any more, because she was going to die.
She pounded her fist on the metal thing. It did not make a sound - not to her, anyway. She pounded with all her might, but nothing. So she moved again. It disappeared.
Again, again, again, again, again
Again
Again
She had never before moved about with this rapidity. It was blind, rapid fire.
Again
Again, again, again, again,
again, again
And again
And then she was gasping.
Great, greedy inhalations, heaving breaths. Her eyes hurt, felt still like they might explode. Her throat was already sore from the furious breathing. She was hyperventilating for a moment - or, nearly, anyway - but after a few seconds she was able to collapse limply on the floor and just lay there for a minute, staring at the wall and allowing her body to process the glorious, delicious, and slightly-too-sterile air.
She lay there inert for an indeterminate period of time.
Then, sorely and with trembling hands, she got to her feet, steadied herself against a metal crate. Head-rush, and she was clinging for dear life to that crate with eyes shut tight. She clung there for another indeterminate period of time before daring at last to open her eyes and finally, finally actually take a look at her surroundings.
This was a new place. Incredible. She was certain that no such place existed, and yet here she was. New things, now new places. She had to admit - despite the gut-wrenching anxiety of the unknown and the air-fueled hellfire burning in her chest, this was starting to get exciting. She was starting to feel adventurous.
The place she was in was well lit, and consisted of slate grey and blue steel colors. It had a relatively high ceiling, though it was hard to tell just how high it was - maybe it wasn't so high? It didn't matter. There were crates, or boxes, or something stacked around, relatively neatly.
The air felt, now that she could actually feel again, unusually sterile, as if it had been recycled a great number of times. It was also cold - an alien kind of cold. Colder than she would have liked, not the bitter chill of desert air on a dead planet's night, nor the musty coolness of the air in the hallways beneath the gilded towers. It was strange and unpleasant, and she shivered a little. Leaning heavily on a shoulder, she rubbed arms once or twice, and started to get accustomed to it. Kind of.
She took at last to padding softly about, booted feet making little sound on the deep metal floors. Lots of crates, or whatever they were. There might have been a slant in the ceiling, but it was hard to tell. She wobbled some as she walked. There were symbols on the wall, over there. She did not want to get too close, because beneath the symbols there was a section of wall which looked different, as though it might do something. The symbols were like nothing she had ever seen.
They were laid out horizontally. The one farthest to the left was the biggest, shaped like a curly line that twisted this way and that, resulting in two wide curves in opposite directions. The second looked like a depiction of a bowl. The third and forth were circles with lines protruding from the bottom left, both identical. The fifth was a simple line that was as tall as the first symbol. The last was like a wide, shallow funnel with a curly tail.
She contemplated this for some time, before continuing on her exploration of this strange and very new place.
The stars were gone. First they were there, and now they were not. All of them. Gone. Even space was gone, it seemed - replaced by an empty, matte blackness that was even deeper, even emptier than the vastness of space itself. It was nothing - utter nothingness - it was Notspace. For without the slightest warning - no hint, no inkling, not even for the most microscopic fraction of a microsecond - nothing. There, and then not there. One and zero, then both.
The ancient, mythical planet of Isandril hung now, unmoving, on a background of utter darkness, the ultimate abyss, the lonely, suffocating nothing. With it, hung the hulking body of the Stella Viventium's Command Module, the devastatingly intimidating form of the heavy artillery cruiser Kingsbane, two Black-Ops battleships and seven Spec-Ops battlecruisers. All were utterly stationary. Propulsion systems of any kind (save for those designed to operate in Notspace, which were unique to the StellaViventium and the city of Isandril) would cease to function, and the vessels would not drift a millimeter. Projectile weapons, or any weapons requiring energy of any kind, would be completely useless. Entropy had all but ceased. The consumption of matter in order to convert it to energy was all but impossible, with exceptions for those required for living beings to continue living.Engines went silent, but no warnings or alarms would blare, and diagnostics would report that there was apparently no problem at all, and everything was working just fine. Communications would continue to work, but only via direct aethernet connection - since aethernet connections did not require realspace to function. Encryption of any kind would be impossible - there would be no secrets now. These vessels were alien to this place that wasn't. A rare glimpse of the impossible, for without being held together by the gigantic Notspace field of Isandril, all but the Stella would have dissipated into nonexistence due to the fact of nature that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING could exist within Notspace if not powered and supported by the Drives of Stella or Isandril.
Possibly stranger still was the fact that the golden hued, barren, desert world of Isandril had apparently been replaced with a seafoam green paradise haven of life. Gone were the endless dunes which made it appear as a solid marble sphere due to the regularity. There were continents now. There was green, all different shades of green. There were purples and blues. The oceans were diamond-white and shimmered with all the intensity of immaculate gemstones. And there were cities - structures, artificial, clustered in such a way that they could only be cities. The dead world had become alive.
After some long seconds of (presumably) staring in absolute awe at the utter impossibility of what just happened, the Fleet Commander of the nine mystery ships would (presumably) be startled out of his wits for a short second when, from the utter, total, deafening and endless silence came a sudden RAP RAP RAPPING from...The outside of the hull of his vessel. Something was out there and it was trying to get in!! Some hideous abomination from the depths of madness? Some Elder God of which the incomprehensible insanity would pale even Lovecraft himself? How was it possible? How was any of this possible?
And then, the banging stopped. It did not start again.
Probably, nobody important would have any reason to discover at present that the heavy artillery cruiser Kingsbane now had one extra person on board, and they were in one of the storage holds, padding dazedly and curiously around. Though it was not impossible, of course, that someone might take notice.
The old city of Isandril itself had gone unchanged completely. Everything within the walls was exactly the same as it had been - glowing lines still present, though much dimmer now. The sky, of course, was gone, and only smothering blackness was there now, no comfort of stars nor moon - yet everything was lit just fine. Not self-illuminated, but it was as if the necessity for light or waves to be present in order to see things was no longer a necessity at all. It was like a three dimensional image rendered on a computer. No shadows, just vision.
Outside the city however, was a silent world of ghosts.
The Dendril creature had been stopped at the gate, but it was no longer short of things to see. For miles in every direction stretched a metropolis of unprecedented scale. It was vast and towering, mostly in shades of whites and greys, with color streaked in where applicable. They were futuristic, sleek, modern. There were roads, though there was no groundcar, but pedestrians alone. Hovering vehicles weaved about. And the people. So many people.
People just living. Working. Walking. Going on errands. Just being there. Talking. Interacting. Children playing.
And for the most part, they were normal looking people in normal looking clothing. Their skin was universally very pale, and their hair consisted only of variants of blonde. Most were relatively tall, but nothing inhuman. The only truly unusual part was that each had eyes with white irises - only the outer, defining circle of the iris was visible as an infinitesimally jagged black line. They were pearly marbles, expressive in their strangeness, compassionate in their humanity.
And none made a sound. No footsteps, no motors, no speaking. Nothing.
And the Dendril, who was the only one currently outside the city walls, would find that everything - everything, right down to the ground itself - was but an illusion. Utterly intangible. The ground still felt like sand dunes, and the air was still dry, despite that towering, mighty trees now occupied park spaces, where mushroom fronds of bio-luminescent purple glowed majestically and danced in the gentle breeze. The people, the buildings, everything there now that had not been there before - everything was insubstantial illusion. The lookouts on the wall had immediately taken their attention from the immediate threat of the gigantic Dendril and were reporting everything they were seeing back to the 'command center'. They, in tern, were relaying it to the Stella - all of the Stella's communications were aethernet based to begin with, not usually bothering with encryptions. Harkahn couldn't believe what he was hearing. He needed to get atop those walls, needed to see for himself. Surely this was impossible. Unfortunately, the dropship was still outside the wall - a squat, rectangular building of irrelevant purpose was protruding harmlessly out of it - and there was no other way to scale the huge walls. The lookouts would be trapped up there until further notice - and until that gate reopened, everyone else would be stuck inside the city too.
Harkahn jumped into action again at last, remembering that he still had the comms device in his hand, and it was still connected to Severin. Without really hearing himself, he was calling Severin's name, and asking what the situation looked like from his perspective. Could things really be as strange from up there as they were down here?
"...Whoops."
"...Whoops."
The ancient Dendril continue to travel underneath...the ground(?). During the change, soon the Dendril banged itself up against the wall of the city really hard, that it caused the wall to shake, possibly tossing people over the wall onto the ground. Dendril poke its head out of the ground and looked around and finally saw the difference that happened around him. For longest of time, it understood what was happening and it was mad. Its eyes went deep red as it gave out an ear bursting scream, a scream so loud that even ships in space would be able to hear it. In a fit of rage, if anyone fell off the wall, it would go and grab them and rip them limb from limb and then travel to the grate and pop out of the sand and began bashing really hard on the gate, causing small shock waves each time it hit it with its two pincers. "YOU SHALL PAY FOR THIS!!!" it exclaimed in its deep foreboding voice as it continue to try to crack into the gate, with all its might.
Up in space about 1 lightyear away from Isandril, soon a fleet of a dozen ships came into view, jumping out of warp, a major problem went doing a quick warp, it isn't very accurate. These almost black dark green vessels where small compared to the other vessels, but more of the size of a frigates, but a quick scan would identify them as Dendril light battle cruisers. The forward ends of the ships, where pronged with two double energy canons on each side coming to a total of four canons. But the back ends of the ships, the engines seemed disproportionate in size with a total of four high energy black matter engines with diamyo cystals, crystals that are used as catalysts in fuel burning. Six came out of warp first and immediately stopped seeing what has happen. The rest came out but were towing a rather large old battleship from a bygone era. The ship was trailing some kind of toxic gas out of the back as it was being towed by the other six ships. The owing ships slowly slowed to a stop as the small thrusters on the large old battleship also slowed the behemoth down to a stop, but of course all the ships continue to move in space. Using the old battleships sensor array they were able to magnify there sight to Isandril seeing what happening to other ships there. The Dendril battlenet went crazy and began reporting back to Gryo.
With all these reports coming back, Erica sighed cursed Aylen's name. She began to make her way towards her grand library. Once she was there, she eyed the rows and columns of an endless of library of books, books of now and books of the past. The amount of knowledge would definitely make Hermaeus Mora jealous. As she walks through the halls, she mumbles to herself and then stops at certain row and column. "Israndril, Israndril, Israndil..." she says to herself as she scans through the books until she found it labeled "Israndril coordinates" with book in hand she says to herself "If I was a man looking for info...I would...ahh **** it" she states as she then leaves the library with book in hand.
She walks up to machine, a machine that didn't look much, besides a holographic panel. Once she punched in few pieces of data, the planet of Israndril came up with all the little ships "orbiting" around it. Thing that allows her to do this is not a camera on a ship, but in fabric of space, it uses the curvature of space easier with a sun or black hole nearby. It basically uses space as an old worn rug with a little hole in it to look through, of course you can see every bot of detail since the worn rug still has a couple fibers on it so with out the actual info, you couldn't pinpoint where you wanted to look specifically. She punched in a few more data into the holographic board and then stuck her hand on it and closed her eyes.
Soon she appeared on the planet itself, well not really. She appear as a flashing blue AI all around the major parts of the planet. For her maintaining the connect was getting hard because of the usage of Not systems allowing only the aethernet connections for communications. It was also harder since her avatar was everywhere, from the plaza, to some towers, an old library and then finally found Aelyen and his wife. She smiles and then eliminates all the avatars around the city. She sighs seeing the connection was somewhat stable, but she knew she didn't have much time as she continue to flicker in and out of existence.
She looks at the two and coughs, trying to get there attention. "So, you just couldn't give up uh? Have you ever heard the phrase that says some things are best left buried? Now look what you have done, we have given you a chance to stop this, but no you just needed to keep picking your nose into areas where you don't belong, Aelyn. Let me introduce myself, I am Erica Codsworth, Dimensional Lord of Time and Space, a pleasure to meet you" she says as she gave him a cold hard look at them as she crosses her arms like a disappointed mother.
Up in space about 1 lightyear away from Isandril, soon a fleet of a dozen ships came into view, jumping out of warp, a major problem went doing a quick warp, it isn't very accurate. These almost black dark green vessels where small compared to the other vessels, but more of the size of a frigates, but a quick scan would identify them as Dendril light battle cruisers. The forward ends of the ships, where pronged with two double energy canons on each side coming to a total of four canons. But the back ends of the ships, the engines seemed disproportionate in size with a total of four high energy black matter engines with diamyo cystals, crystals that are used as catalysts in fuel burning. Six came out of warp first and immediately stopped seeing what has happen. The rest came out but were towing a rather large old battleship from a bygone era. The ship was trailing some kind of toxic gas out of the back as it was being towed by the other six ships. The owing ships slowly slowed to a stop as the small thrusters on the large old battleship also slowed the behemoth down to a stop, but of course all the ships continue to move in space. Using the old battleships sensor array they were able to magnify there sight to Isandril seeing what happening to other ships there. The Dendril battlenet went crazy and began reporting back to Gryo.
With all these reports coming back, Erica sighed cursed Aylen's name. She began to make her way towards her grand library. Once she was there, she eyed the rows and columns of an endless of library of books, books of now and books of the past. The amount of knowledge would definitely make Hermaeus Mora jealous. As she walks through the halls, she mumbles to herself and then stops at certain row and column. "Israndril, Israndril, Israndil..." she says to herself as she scans through the books until she found it labeled "Israndril coordinates" with book in hand she says to herself "If I was a man looking for info...I would...ahh **** it" she states as she then leaves the library with book in hand.
She walks up to machine, a machine that didn't look much, besides a holographic panel. Once she punched in few pieces of data, the planet of Israndril came up with all the little ships "orbiting" around it. Thing that allows her to do this is not a camera on a ship, but in fabric of space, it uses the curvature of space easier with a sun or black hole nearby. It basically uses space as an old worn rug with a little hole in it to look through, of course you can see every bot of detail since the worn rug still has a couple fibers on it so with out the actual info, you couldn't pinpoint where you wanted to look specifically. She punched in a few more data into the holographic board and then stuck her hand on it and closed her eyes.
Soon she appeared on the planet itself, well not really. She appear as a flashing blue AI all around the major parts of the planet. For her maintaining the connect was getting hard because of the usage of Not systems allowing only the aethernet connections for communications. It was also harder since her avatar was everywhere, from the plaza, to some towers, an old library and then finally found Aelyen and his wife. She smiles and then eliminates all the avatars around the city. She sighs seeing the connection was somewhat stable, but she knew she didn't have much time as she continue to flicker in and out of existence.
She looks at the two and coughs, trying to get there attention. "So, you just couldn't give up uh? Have you ever heard the phrase that says some things are best left buried? Now look what you have done, we have given you a chance to stop this, but no you just needed to keep picking your nose into areas where you don't belong, Aelyn. Let me introduce myself, I am Erica Codsworth, Dimensional Lord of Time and Space, a pleasure to meet you" she says as she gave him a cold hard look at them as she crosses her arms like a disappointed mother.
Arthur merely nodded his head as she tries to explain her about where she was from. It seems he may have hit a sensitive fuse. "Oh that's really nice" he says happy to hear that she was able to help out the natives. He titled his head again and heard that she has a few bugs and so he decided to be friendly with her. "You know Q, I can update you and possibly fix some bugs back at the ship, if you want" he asks, the Electron units behind him look at each other and spoke to each other. Arhtur overheard there conversation of being worried and so he quickly hushed them and said "It's fine, she not a threat...she's a scholar" he then looks at the tribe chief to see if he can get approval to take Q to be fixed up
The sharpness of Royanna's words cut deep. He was certain that the woman wasn't ok, there was something bothering her and the way in which she tried to hide it only made him worry more. His ears lay flat against the back of his head, like he had done something bad by asking the woman if she was doing alright and needed help. The way in which she was trying to push people away was a bad sign to him and he'd not want for her to try and isolate herself from the group. They needed her and she needed them, reluctant or not. He'd not want to do it, but if she kept resisting the group's aid, he'd have to make her understand that she wasn't a lonely individual and it was ok if she depended on others every now and then.
"I'll be right here, don't worry..." Hand would seek Kallenger's back to give it a gentle reassuring rub and a pat. If she were to react agressively he'd probably get to know what bothered her.
Christofer kept walking along with the other group. Head turned to take a look at both Papyus and Helen as the strange smell had reached their noses too - or so he suspected, it was getting stronger afterall. When the situation with the mask arose, the cani stopped temporarily to watch over the two women, not expecting that he'd be pulled into it. But he was pulled into it and Kallenger's hasty movement and the forced attempt on getting the uncomfortable mask on his face made him do something that he'd regret.
He bit her.
There was a moment where he panicked. It hadn't been a bad bite by any means and basically he had retrated his head immediately after he felt something softer between his fangs. He felt horrible, but he had been scared so he couldn't help it.
Ears were still folded behind his head when he took the mask with a saddened expression.
"If... If I take the mask, you take my scarf... Ok..?" Helen had said that doubled up cloth could help just as well, and he did have that scarf. "Or... Or then we switch, it's more suited for your facical shape afterall... That mask..." He'd move his eyes and face to point more towards the ground, holding the mask closer to his chest for a little added comfort. "I... I... I'll be here...." He'd speak to himself as he deliberately took some slower steps, making himself stay a bit further behind the group. He wouldn't want to hurt any of them, so maybe it was best if he'd just disappear...
"I'll be right here, don't worry..." Hand would seek Kallenger's back to give it a gentle reassuring rub and a pat. If she were to react agressively he'd probably get to know what bothered her.
Christofer kept walking along with the other group. Head turned to take a look at both Papyus and Helen as the strange smell had reached their noses too - or so he suspected, it was getting stronger afterall. When the situation with the mask arose, the cani stopped temporarily to watch over the two women, not expecting that he'd be pulled into it. But he was pulled into it and Kallenger's hasty movement and the forced attempt on getting the uncomfortable mask on his face made him do something that he'd regret.
He bit her.
There was a moment where he panicked. It hadn't been a bad bite by any means and basically he had retrated his head immediately after he felt something softer between his fangs. He felt horrible, but he had been scared so he couldn't help it.
Ears were still folded behind his head when he took the mask with a saddened expression.
"If... If I take the mask, you take my scarf... Ok..?" Helen had said that doubled up cloth could help just as well, and he did have that scarf. "Or... Or then we switch, it's more suited for your facical shape afterall... That mask..." He'd move his eyes and face to point more towards the ground, holding the mask closer to his chest for a little added comfort. "I... I... I'll be here...." He'd speak to himself as he deliberately took some slower steps, making himself stay a bit further behind the group. He wouldn't want to hurt any of them, so maybe it was best if he'd just disappear...
Deep in GE territory, on planet Gaun Yu 86b,desert type planet
In the city Al-Nizeer, of its many high rise skyscrapers, one stands the most impressive as it shows the power that it holds. At the top is the name of a mega pharmaceutical company called "Pseudo-Apuleius Inc" one of the largest suppliers of medicine to GE. It also absorbed other companies, like weapon manufacturing and clothing chains, making there own clothing brand. Of course, all these absorption seem random and impulsive, but it makes sense since the CEO of the company is an impulsive hot headed woman called Arena Exitium. He office was all the way at the top of the building, with an excellent view of the city and the sand dunes in the distance as the window spares as another wall. Her office was definitely one of luxury with mahogany time wood floors desk and a nice leather swivel chair that screamed "Executive".
So she sat wearing her suit and tie with slacks, as he feet was propped up on the desk showing off her black cowboy boots that has flames blazen on the sides of it. She was accounting the rather large wad of cash in had as a cigar was in her mouth and nodded her head as she counted with her computer off to the side, showing some rather...risky websites if you know what I mean. She also wore her favorite pair of glasses, these triangle shape glasses position at a steep angle making her look she was about to give some cheesy one line to inspire some kid who doesn't have the courage but for the kid to believe in her who believes in the kid.
"I love dank monies" she says in a teasing tone as she finishes counting and takes a good wif of the cash before she sets them down on the desk. She then pulls a hand mirror out of the drawer full of hand mirrors and she looks at herself and says "So Peter, got those pictures of spider man for me?" in manly tone as she position the butt of the cigar up in the air, but all of a sudden it cracks and so she rolls her eyes and says "Dammit, that's fifth one this week" as she tosses it across the room smashing it up against the wall and falling into the garbage below. The male secretary flinched as the mirror was smashed as he came in with paper work in hand. "What the hell do you want Mr.Evans?!" she yells as a puff of smoke comes out of her as she yells at the short haired secretary in glasses. "I'm sorry ma'am but their is some paperwork for you to sign.." he says nervous of her wrath. She rolls her eyes as she takes in another puff of the cigar and looks at the paper work on the table. "Thanks...I guess my meme creations gotta be put on hold" as she looks through the paper work.
The secretary smiled, enjoying her humor as he left the room. Once Evans left, she pushes the paper work to the side and went on her computer. She closed her windows of her "favorite" sites and then opens up a tab that was saved on the desktop and pulls it up. It was a picture, a picture of a certain Chibbi white haired, claw having mad scientist. His facial expression was one close to adhegao(look it up) and so with that face, she began to work with picture adding various things around. Things you would find hidden in a bedroom and consider an adult toy. She made many of those objects as she spoke to herself "You so son of a **** you like that don't you. Take away my old position uh? How about I make you my *****!" as she continues to make other things as well. For Arena, its just another day as the Dimensional Lord of Chaos and Destruction in hiding.
In the city Al-Nizeer, of its many high rise skyscrapers, one stands the most impressive as it shows the power that it holds. At the top is the name of a mega pharmaceutical company called "Pseudo-Apuleius Inc" one of the largest suppliers of medicine to GE. It also absorbed other companies, like weapon manufacturing and clothing chains, making there own clothing brand. Of course, all these absorption seem random and impulsive, but it makes sense since the CEO of the company is an impulsive hot headed woman called Arena Exitium. He office was all the way at the top of the building, with an excellent view of the city and the sand dunes in the distance as the window spares as another wall. Her office was definitely one of luxury with mahogany time wood floors desk and a nice leather swivel chair that screamed "Executive".
So she sat wearing her suit and tie with slacks, as he feet was propped up on the desk showing off her black cowboy boots that has flames blazen on the sides of it. She was accounting the rather large wad of cash in had as a cigar was in her mouth and nodded her head as she counted with her computer off to the side, showing some rather...risky websites if you know what I mean. She also wore her favorite pair of glasses, these triangle shape glasses position at a steep angle making her look she was about to give some cheesy one line to inspire some kid who doesn't have the courage but for the kid to believe in her who believes in the kid.
"I love dank monies" she says in a teasing tone as she finishes counting and takes a good wif of the cash before she sets them down on the desk. She then pulls a hand mirror out of the drawer full of hand mirrors and she looks at herself and says "So Peter, got those pictures of spider man for me?" in manly tone as she position the butt of the cigar up in the air, but all of a sudden it cracks and so she rolls her eyes and says "Dammit, that's fifth one this week" as she tosses it across the room smashing it up against the wall and falling into the garbage below. The male secretary flinched as the mirror was smashed as he came in with paper work in hand. "What the hell do you want Mr.Evans?!" she yells as a puff of smoke comes out of her as she yells at the short haired secretary in glasses. "I'm sorry ma'am but their is some paperwork for you to sign.." he says nervous of her wrath. She rolls her eyes as she takes in another puff of the cigar and looks at the paper work on the table. "Thanks...I guess my meme creations gotta be put on hold" as she looks through the paper work.
The secretary smiled, enjoying her humor as he left the room. Once Evans left, she pushes the paper work to the side and went on her computer. She closed her windows of her "favorite" sites and then opens up a tab that was saved on the desktop and pulls it up. It was a picture, a picture of a certain Chibbi white haired, claw having mad scientist. His facial expression was one close to adhegao(look it up) and so with that face, she began to work with picture adding various things around. Things you would find hidden in a bedroom and consider an adult toy. She made many of those objects as she spoke to herself "You so son of a **** you like that don't you. Take away my old position uh? How about I make you my *****!" as she continues to make other things as well. For Arena, its just another day as the Dimensional Lord of Chaos and Destruction in hiding.
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