“Verification confirmed. Running DF1Z2.” Q, the head android of the Zdenko when Malkan was away, turned to his counterpart, R. “Go wake up the others. Malkan initialized DF1Z2.” R nodded and strolled downstairs to complete its orders. Q turn to the few customers that had showed up during his captain’s absence. “Hello. Unfortunately, we have to close the shop early today. Please make your way towards the exit.” Before the customers could even protest, Q herded them all towards the stairwell. As soon as he got to the main deck, he closed the door and locked it, preventing anyone from going back down.
Looking around, Q could see why Malkan wanted to run the protocol. Black gunships raced across the sky, firing down at the populous below. Those who could fight were defending what little they had against the invaders while most were running for their lives. In fact, there were a few who had taken refuge on the Zdenko and Q could see more coming in the distance. Swiftly, he walked over to the bridge of the ship only to find a group of Seeqs attempting to take it over. Upon seeing him, the group tried attacking Q but he ducked and dodged their attacks. He grabbed one by the arm to swing it into an approaching Seeq before kicking another one out of the room completely.
Once he got the group out of the room, Q locked the bridge down. He ran his hand over what appeared to be a wooden table to activate the ship’s control system. “Ready downstairs, R?” inquired Q. He could vaguely hear the Seeqs trying to enter the bridge again but paid them no mind.
“Ready,” replied R.
DF1Z2 was a typical defense protocol Malkan would run if there was trouble. Its main purpose was to create a shield around the ship that deflected low to medium powered attacked. The same shield also cloaked the ship. Those who were running towards the Zdenko would see the ship slowly disappear from sight and the Zdenko was nonexistent according to most other ships’ radar. Although it was mainly a defense program, it also powered up some of the Zdenko’s weaponry, which was manned by the other androids.
“Malkan, Z2’s complete. Our radar indicates one Reaver ship with Dominion ships following behind. I recommend you come back here as swiftly as possible. Also, would you like me to dispose of the freeloaders that have taken refuge on the ship?”
In the Marketplace…
Cursing as the cargo ship crashed, Malkan wrapped herself tighter in her cloak and ran as fast as she could away from the mess. She created a force field around herself to avoid any debris as she weaved through the market. As she was running, if Malkan found anything of interest that was left behind, she would grab it. Eventually, Malkan slid into an empty alley to catch her breath.
Who in Apti was invading Teresg, Malkan wondered as she examined what she had grabbed. There wasn’t anything of value on this planet to take. She began disassembling her right hand and reassembling it into a weapon. Malkan hadn’t anticipated an invasion today so she hadn’t brought much with her that would work against what looked like Reavers- by Apti, those things never die do they? As she worked, Malkan listened to the transmission that came in from the Captain Sardis. While she wasn’t fond of working with others, Malkan figured she didn’t really have much of a choice. The Zdenko wasn’t fast enough nor was it currently well-equipped enough to fight an air battle of this magnitude. The last thing she wanted was having the Zdenko end up like the cargo ship she saw get obliterated moments ago.
Malkan was almost done tinkering with her hand when a plasma beam almost took off her head. Looking up Malkan saw a group of Reavers approaching her. She quickly grabbed an orb from her belt, programmed it into a grenade and threw it at the group. Then she ran the other direction to get away from the explosion that happened five seconds later.
She was in the midst of shooting another Reaver that had come down the alley when Q’s report came in. “Just let them be if they’re not disruptive. They’ll be the Cerebus Gate’s problem later.” Malkan slid underneath another charging Reaver and fired from below. After artfully dodging the rest of the chaos, Malkan finally made it to her ship. Had anyone been watching, it would have appeared as though she disappeared into thin air once she passed the Zdenko’s shields. Ignoring everyone who took refuge on her ship, Malkan waltz over and unlocked her bridge. “Head over to the Cerebus Gate.”
Q began steering the ship towards the cruiser, avoiding other ships and gunfire to the best of his abilities.
A large airship, bringing people and goods to the busy Haabin markets began to slowly turn as the Reavers were spotted. Alarms blared, people crushed against each other as some rushed for the lifeboats, and others to the cargo hold. The ship had basic defences, enough to make pirates think twice, but it's nowhere near enough to stand up to the random artillery fire coming from the Reavers. Too slow for evasion, all the transport can do is hope to get lucky. For a while, it's enough.
And then it isn't.
One of the airship's turbines belches green flames as a plasma blast ignites the metal itself, and the airship starts to drift. The turbine explodes, and the airship tips a full ninety degrees, sending a crowd tumbling overboard, screaming and flailing in the air.
All save for a single Ku, calmly falling, holding a T-pose. Smoke fires from her joints, and plates extend, tilt, and rearrange themselves into a new pattern, with fins for flight stabilisers. She flips over, and her feet fire rainbow flames that stop her falling. She points a finger-gun at the listing airship, and says "Pow!" as she 'fires'.
There's a rush of magic as a digital ghost is launched into the ship. A shipment of delivery drones find themselves with new instructions and break free of their storage, invalidating dozens of warranties. They zip straight past their ostensible owner, out into open sky, where they begin catching castaways.
Matrix turns to face the rescued travellers as the drones carry them to solid ground. She strikes a pose, and detonates a heart-shaped firework behind her, then turns and blasts off to engage the Reavers.
The channel spikes again, something different from the captain's voice. "Bo'lak? Pilot Bo'lak." A male voice confirmed. "This is Radar Specialist Zen of the Cerberus Gate. You do you pilot, but you're gonna have a hell of a time getting off planet without us. Still it's appreciated, make it through and we'll make sure you're compensated." The radio remained odd, but it seemed his coordinator probably had other contacts to notify.
Bo'lak could see the other ships getting off the ground, speeding towards the other destination. Many of them had the remaining fighters and gun ships firing on them, no doubt he would be joining them soon enough. Regardless, above him, the Reaver Cruiser seemed to be the only ship in attack position, the others, dozens of other ships, different kinds and models were settling around the outskirts. A moments look would realize their tactics immediately.
The Reavers were the shields, just softening the space port up for the main fleet.
While making her way towards the gate, the Free-Loader's channel stayed on. She could hear a very quiet female voice complete with a loud male's.
"That ship-----say---rina Makhno?" Some of the words were garbled.
"Yes mame! Yes, err Pilot, Makhno!" The male's voice was such a way that his attention was to broadcasting and responding to his captain.
"See to it th---------!"
"Yes mame! Pilot, you have hostiles on your six! Bring them along side the gate! We have Anti-air teams set up! We'll try to get them off you!"
And almost on cue, did the streaks of plasma race just beyond her window, blasting the buildings as she passed. They congregated just after her Reaver stowaway grabbed her attention. The Gate loomed in the distance before her, a massive silver wall. As she approached, she could see the activity all around it. There were crowds of people, almost a riot all plugging away towards anything that looked like it could protect them. But more presently was that the deck had the dots of crewmen setting up weapons. Seemingly like they were aiming at her, the deck erupted with fire.
The plasma behind her was answered with machine gun and laser fire from small crew served weapons. It wasn't alot, nothing truly anti ship but enough fire would be able to deal with their small aircraft. True to their word, they attempted to clear her path through.
Towards the aft side, she could see the warehouses and landing pads that were brimming with activity. A place to land among the crowds if she needed.
The Seeg having been more or less put in their place by the superior androids and no longer being kicked out, found a quiet place to cower during their take off. They had means to defend themselves, but they were not warriors. Most just wanted to protect themselves or their families. Following the Android's and the captain's acceptance to allowing them to come aboard, they would receive praise and gratitude in their squeaky broken language, some even getting on their knees and thanking the God of the Life Ship.
Her radio would continue to play the transmission, but as she approached the gate, she would receive instructions even as the sheilding of her ship would be rocked with some incoming fire as she immediately became a target at lift off. "Pilot! Is your ship armed?" It would ask. "We're starting to get overwhelmed with the amount of incoming! Any covering fire we can get would be appreciated, we're getting alot of civilians here!"
Matrix's selflessness at rescuing who she could would result in dozens of saved lives and a modicrum of safety. The civilians would be ignored, and any fighter Matrix would get into contact with would be their target. Their plasma salvo's thought were bulky and slow, much better conditioned to hitting considerably larger airship targets. She could practically dance through them, her efforts thinning their already strained numbers. Eventually she'd be left alone, most of the gunships moving to support the attack at the Gate.
Still, being free in the air, she'd have a birds eye view of the city, the battle, the Reaver Cruiser above her, and her systems would pick up on the radio transmissions. The call for aid at the grounded Cerverus Gate Cruiser and the exchanges with the other defenders.
It was that very ship that was calling to them, asking for their, that Dahal came to this dust bowl to investigate, having found the name attached to something quite special. It would actually be fighting to protect the trio, to offer them safe harbor if only they put their prodigous skills to its defense. They get off world, and they get to find the answers that lied within its massive silver bulk.
Time will only tell if she will reveal her secrets willingly or if the entire cruiser would need to have itself cracked open.
Her unique ship would be able to get some additional attention, but not as much as when she originally took off. Not responding to the summons of the Gate, she'd be lucky that she'd not be fired upon, but the Reaver vessels were their only targets. Somehow, as if either fearing her or seeing that her craft without it's weapon fire signature as not the greatest of threat, she would see squadrons of them head in her direction, not directly attacking her but aiming their weapons at the gate, which revealed itself to be the biggest threat as more and more ships were congregating.
The silver metal was lit aflame with plasma fire, all of them directed at the cannon batteries on the top deck. The radio would go off again.
"This is the Cerberus Gate! We are taking fire!" The Gate's gun crews were attempting to destroy as many of them as they can, but it wouldn't be enough. They were forming a screen of their ships, protecting something far worse behind them.
"Wait, what- Oh OH MY GODS! That ship! It's an Infestor!"
Back towards the center of the city, there would be a greater threat descending from the Reaver Cruiser.
An Infestor Swarm. These were the main threats to the Reaver Assimilation Fleets. These ships were control conduits for their nano swarms, clouds of nanomachine that spread their infections among the organic populations. The Reaver Cruiser opened its bay and this horrid thing began it's descent towards the city below with a contingent of gunships. Having lost so many units, the Reavers must have become desperate.
If that Infestor hit the city, it would be lost. Nothing living would survive.
There was always something off about this whole contract.
It was on a Confederation world, roughly towards the middle of the Oblivion Crisis just when fear was beginning to spread through the known empires. Unmarked messages appeared to people all across the planet, a mass e-mail to anyone that had even the slightest bit of knowledge of esoteric concepts, all without a lack of any sender information. Priests were asked of the knowledge of gods, Hunters their knowledge of demons, Navigators, their knowledge of devils, and scientists, artificers and mages their knowledge of Essence. Most ignored it, being treated as spam mail. Those that responded were vetted without their knowledge, having opened themselves to a rather sophisticated virus that searched their systems and PDAs for information that backs up their claim. Those that chosen receive a job offer. Either to conduct research or act as security with 'No Questions Asked' stipulation. It was a strange way to go about hiring some contractors, but with Oblivion prowling and eating the outer rim of planets of Elysia, it seemed a good idea to start getting strange.
The Cerberus Gate was a heavy cruiser, almost a battleship in size and scope. It held some unique features about it. The Hanger was built for loading and off loading cargo rather than ships. Alot of the cargo was destined for the Research Decks, six total, way more than a typical military vessel. All of them were under heavy guard in massive crates. All of them taken from different places across Elysia until they came here on Teresq. Not even the researchers working on these things got the full story. Access was tight and restricted, teams weren't allowed to talk to each other.
Then Oblivion was destroyed. The research slowed down, the quotas and progress reports were pushed back, parts of the research decks were sealed off and research crews were dismissed. The military like security teams were replaced by arguably cheaper mercenaries. Over more than two months, the ship just seemed to gather dust, its purpose slowly waning.
Now in a sudden moment it was like the Gate was being revived. All its remaining crew in the city, scrambling to set sail, to prepare for borders, and get their meager air craft into the air to cover the Gate's ascent in the atmosphere.
"Altari!" calls the Ku Researcher Dr. X9 Fibra Ops and head of the Demonic Research Team over the vox channels. "Looks like those idiots up top are going to be letting some refugees inside. Go make sure your research is secured and seal off the rest of the research deck. I fore-see we're going to have a failure of security pretty damn quick after take off and I don't want anything walking off!" Fibra had been Altari's superior during the project, and for the most part, she has been pretty open to him. Enough that he was privy to some of the classified files. She also had some skill with arcane probabilities and divination and was generally right about things, particularly when it goes wrong.
Even the well known trading lanes that run along The Currents have their dangers. The ways are vast, neutral space has no protective fleets to guard its paths. Wise traders bring escorts, wiser travelers don't sail where others do. While it's likely to run into aid when it's needed, predators know where prey travels. Captain Hades, 'the Storm Bolter' of the Cerebus Gate should have been wiser.
The Destroyer sized ship and it's frigate were all that stood before The Worm when it descended upon it like a falcon upon a trout. There wasn't much treasures to be had surely, but it would have been an easy mark. Another ship or two to sell and salvage. Bravely, they did not submit, they fired their weapons, attempted to out maneuver the approaching ship. But greater craft, greater pilots have tried. Engines, then guns, they did not last before the Darklight weaponry. Pretty standard, pretty boring. But the interesting part came when the boarding parties attached their harpoons and pierced the hull. The crews, though out manned, and out gunned put up a surprising amount of resistance, making the pirates fight and bleed for every inch of the ship. More than firepower, the pirates needed to be devious just to make sure their numbers were not dwindled too severely. They made more entry points, cutting into the engine room, the barracks, the command deck. Eventually with too may contact, too many observations of fire, the giant of a man, regardless of his terrifying weapons, regardless of his powered armor and its advanced sheilding, fell before them. He fought like a demon, and caused more casualties than a pirate lord would feel comfortable with.
That wasn't the most interesting part though. Going over the systems computers, their data logs, their AI cores, they found that in a moment of desperation, every bit of memory was wiped, scrapped. Even the Awakened Intelligence that minded the ships automated systems had its processor physically ripped apart, turning the being into something ravenous and primal. These people were trying to hide something, something important enough that it couldn't fall into anyone else's hands.
And that led to this, Captain Hades, rippling with muscle, nearly eight feet from enhancement gene therapy could barely be recognized as a human or even a human subspecies. He was more akin to the giants, and that made his form, bolted and strapped to the girny within the bowels of the Forever Worm rather awkward. He would be impressive, despite all manners of pain wrought upon him from the medical staff and brutes that wanted a bit of petty vengeance for friends lost, the man remained silent. Only his exhausted breath could be heard now in the black room, blood trickling from a thousand wounds. He would not give up his secrets.
Working on one of the Research Decks right near where the airships are supposedly parked was a snow-haired elf, his tongue just lazily swaying from side to side as his one eye was practically glued into one of the more sophisticated microscopes, one that zooms beyond the microscopic level just to study the contents of an atom. On his right was a Lashstalker head, one of its tentacles sliced off almost recently given the small pool of blood in his workplace, and on his left was the said tentacle, almost as if it was squeezed the moment it got sliced by a laser surgical knife just next to it. His posture was slouched, fully focused on the specimen before him. An odd reddish-black germ that seems to spazz out whenever it is met with foreign elements and becomes one with it, growing in size even if it is just a bit.
"Interesting..." Altari mutters to himself and not to the small study team members who was behind him doing the jobs they were assigned to by Dr. X9. Dipping a small amount of alcohol and hand sanitizer, he took out his Holo-Ledger and recorded whatever was the blood sample inside the Lashstalker head's tentacle, muttering to himself before doing so. He quickly deactivates said ledger and looks to the head before him, glaring for a little bit, studying it from top to bottom. "So only liquid then?" He said once more, to no one in particular as he put the head down.
"Got something there, Somnus?" A human in a lab coat approached him from the divider's door, wiping his hands off of the purple-ish blood that he dissected from a demon plant's stem that Altari brought from one of his many ventures. The space elf nods, almost excitedly so as his ears twitched. "Yes, yes of course! Demon blood somehow reacts positively to foreign liquids and make its cells grow in size. Fascinating really, I thought the Lashstalker head I brought with me was alive for a moment." This freaked the scientist out a bit, turning to the head and then back to Somnus with a sigh of relief. "Father's graces, Somnus don't try to even say that it had a chance to live or else we would've died." Apparently this man is one of his members in this research deck to study demon remains and how they worked. The two converse for a little while before the speakers around the deck would ring with the usual tune with his superior's voice on the vox channels.
"Altari!" She yells. Altari stands firm, his right knife-ear raised a little bit just so he could hear the announcement. "Looks like those idiots up top are going to be letting some refugees inside. Go make sure your research is secured and seal off the rest of the research deck. I fore-see we're going to have a failure of security pretty damn quick after take off and I don't want anything walking off!" With a frustrated sigh he would give a mock salute to the Ku Researcher before responding over the comms placed on his side: "Will do ma'am. Packing up now."
Gathering his research, he bid goodbye to his fellow researcher and began to clean his side of the deck, not one speck of demon blood should be left here lest their research be ruined by the locals or the tourists hanging around here. He places each scientific tool in the proper place, locking them with his authorized keycard before turning the lights out. He was the last researcher to leave before sealing the bay doors with the same card. He quickly puts all his research into the Cosmos Strider's rear storage. Perhaps another time he thought. "Must be another freak sandstorm out there or something." He thought to himself, but oh no, it was something much more dangerous.
...The Massen Company, or in full: "Rekyl-Gevayr-Skindikat af Hynwuld Massen og Sonner", is considered by military scholars to be one of the oldest weapon's manufactories in Outer Elysia, if not the oldest. Additionally, Massen forms one of the principal members of "The Guild of Barrel Makers and Lock Filers", a Cartel that controls the vast majority of the ballistic firearms market in Elysia. The company was founded as an arms repair and refurbishing shop on the crossroads between Sigasmaranda and the Core Worlds, but as more settlers began to migrate to the Outer Systems, the company reinvented itself as a quality arms producer in an attempt to gain a slice of the market before the larger corporations arrived. With the advent of rapid colonisation, however, so came the proliferation of cheap, crude and more often than not, unsafe weapons, as a result, Massen and various other enterprises formed the previously mentioned guild. The Guild of Barrel Makers and Lock Filers was created to protect legitimate firearms concerns from the influx of cheap weapons, and with the approval of many state actors, weapons that bore their proof (and only weapons that bore these proof marks) could legally be sold in the Guild's jurisdiction. In recent decades the influence of the Guild has been waining, with the advent of more powerful and easier to produce energy weapons, the traditional arms manufacturers are on the backfoot. With the exception of Rekyl-Gevayr-Skindikat af Hynwuld Massen og Sonner, which still maintains primacy in the Sigasmarandi arms market...
"Fuck this thing is heavy," Mira puffed, heaving her end of the tangled mass of tubes and solenoids. Midshipman Mirrandra Snevlicks wasn't used to danger of this calibre, she had joined Cerberus Gate as part of the security attaché, and that meant the most action she saw was tasering drunk sailors when they got too close for comfort. Maybe that was why the sent her to retrieve the cooling coil, she was expendable. Flas lifted his end with far less effort, one hand gripping on to his end of a frozen over pipe, as he scanned around with his machine gun at a low ready. "When I said find us a cooling coil I didn't mean this jury-rigged anvil.
"Your whining isn't making it lighter kid, just fucking move it." Flas' eyes roamed around the darkness of the factory for a few moments before turning around, the pair headed towards the gaping hole that they had blown in the back of the factory, where their utility buggy awaited them. As their feet shuffled noisily through the debris from the blast, a high pitched sound hissed in the background, growing sharper as they approached their makeshift exit. The hiss was shattered by a deafening screech, as they flew forwards the cooling coil simply fell to the ground by virtue of its mass. Flas rolled, came to a halt on his knees with his gun shouldered in the direction of the forceful blast. In the reticle of his sight, clouded by the billow of dust from the stirring shove, a darker figure was etched out against the darkness of the factory interior.
Jornwuld levelled her Pyroclasts at the Ziharin, silver front sites gleaming where his small head 'ought to have been.
"'Right, Clunch. Drop the piece or ee'll 'ave yer gizzies for supper, follow?" Flas was struck dumb by what his translator was feeding his ear, truly whatever the brigand was speaking it must have been the most colloquial language in Elysia. He pulled the trigger on his gun but was met by a faster response from Jornwuld, before he could depress the second stage of the seer his gun exploded in a shower of sparks and cartwheeled out of his hand. "Aye, ye reck'n'd ye could tug me lids o'er me eyes? I'll 'ave yer skivvies we'hen ee'm done with ya, tha's fer cert'n!" She racked the finger leaver of her pistol and crouched down by the hulk of metal that was the cooling coil, resting the pommel of her other pistol on it. "Now, wha's te idea'er with pinchin' tha' codger's doodah?"
As the sentence left her countryside lips, the Midshipman stirred from her trauma-induced slumber. Watching through blurred vision and hearing through ringing ears as Flas broke down the situation to the armed blackguard. Mira reached for her service revolver, the one she had not touched since her training with it, which was buried under months tasers and truncheons. Flipping the latch, she reached into her holster with dazed fingers, before a posh voice rang out in the din.
"And what have we here? Your dithering compatriot has awoken from her lullaby slumber? I'm afraid you won't be needing that, my dear." Jornwuld spoke, gesturing with the muzzle of her other pistol for Mira to discard her gun, "[color=696969]In the dust, that's a good girl." Mira scowled at the clad figure and did as was told, tossing her pistol and watching it skitter away under a pile of loose rubble. "Now that we are all chummy, and the situation is crystal clear, I purpose a solution to our mutual catastrophes." Jorn turned her attention to Flas, and smirked under her wraps, "Ee'll bring ye the fellah oo dun fiddl'd this contraption inta being, and ye'll tell me wha's te way to yer floaty, follow?"
Flas considered it, as haphazard and junky the coil was, it would probably take him and the mechanics onboard the Cerberus Gate time to decipher the pipes and wire. Time they precious, little had. Perhaps siding with the Rogue would do them some good, and if he didn't come through, they probably head enough flak-shells to hold out for a bit.
"Tell me your name and I'll tell you where the ship is." Flas said as he rose from the dust, met by mimicked motions from Jornwuld, guns still held at the ready.
"Barbell, Tamzerwuld, at yer service."
"Northwest for about ten metric miles, you'll see it waving the tricolour."
"Fuck!" Jornwuld retreated her head around the corner of a sandstone hovel, clutching at a smouldering wound on her arm and hissing with frustration. She had battled through the winding alleys of the desert metropolis for what had felt like hours, but what must have been only minutes. Flas had described the invaders in a way that had made her quietly confident, and despite their crude tactics, their potent weapons and greater numbers were proving a challenge. She fingered the lever of her pistol forward a sliver, seeing if she had a round chambered before she progressed, in Jorn's mind she counted the shots she had fired and guessed that there were likely three rounds left in the tube. The unspent one in the chamber making it four before she would have to reload.
Jornwuld brought her hand away from the burn and wiped the miasmic tar off on her trousers, leaving a black, hand shaped smear.
In a fury of fluttering blackness, the exile launched herself out from around the corner, nearly catching a chestful of plasma. Slipping on loose gravel and sand, Jorn slid forwards, crossing the street at a diagonal as the Reaver charged up its next shot. She arrived at the wall of the cramped alley at speed, and let the speed carry her up it, until friction couldn't support her any longer. She launched herself off of the wall in the direction of the assailant, hand curled up into a fist and arm extended towards the creature's dome-like face. The punch connected and hairline cracks spider-webbed out across the bulbous, glass surface. Just as the Reaver began to recoil, Jorn opened her mouth and let out a piercing shriek, had she been back home it would have probably torn the creature to tatters. But there, on that curseless desert planet, where the sun drove off most Vapour, the scream served to send the creature piling into the ground under its own weight.
The opposing force of her Wuld sent Jorn carting backwards, head over heels in an elaborate, wheeling arc. She landed on one knee, sliding back against the gravel and her own residual momentum before an outstretched foot stopped her against the wall. The Reaver stirred, steam hissing out of the glass bowl that covered its face.
An echo of a gunshot rang out from the alley, followed promptly by a dashing, dark figure. Jornwuld rolled under a market stall and vaulted over another, heading for the open maw of the squat ship that stood in the middle of town. Around her, a battle raged for control of the city centre, Reavers and Terersgis firing at each other in large volumes. Sprinting towards the clearing between the market and the airship, the huntress scooped up a loose metal panel and used it for cover as she traversed the space. Gripping on to it, she grit her teeth as bolts of plasma slammed into the plate, shunting her into a stumble. She discarded the searing metal panel and careened into the monumental airship, followed hotly at the heel by bolts of plasma, leaving behind clumps of molten glass.
Jornwuld was met by the bristling muzzles of Seeg rifles, pointy, glinting bayonets hovering just in front of her face.
"I'm looking for Jeet."
Jeet screeched loudly, jostled about as Jorn bolted and vaulted across the crossfire outside the ship, accompanies by the screeching of the other Seeg, who were willing to abandon the holy ship to save their own skins. They clung on to Jorwuld's clothing as she barrelled into an alley and down its length, navigating towards the outskirts of the city using intuition and a little luck. Breaking into the sunlight, she was faced by the bone-dry wastes ahead of her, and with her suit leaking at an alarming rate she was sure she wouldn't make the treck to Cerberus. Standing there in the sand, Jorwuld cupped her hands around where her mouth was under her scarf, and chirped loudly. It was quiet, apart from the muffled sounds of battle in Terersg and the panting of the Seeg on her back. Her eyes scanned around flightily, squinting into the sky despite the relief from the vaporous veil about her eyes.
From the alley that she had just emerged from, the sound of a pair of heavy footfalls rattled towards them, most likely alerted by the sound of her high-pitched cries. She passed an empty pistol to one of the creatures that clung to her back and drew her other one, three shots remaining in it.
"Load it, and be quick about it," Jorn commanded, to the quick response of the Seeg, passing around bullets from her belt and loading the gun behind her back. She extended her weapon forwards and stood sidelong, aiming down the length of her arm at the alley where the reavers would no doubt emerge. As the first one came around a corner and into view, a massive, dark shadow sailed across the ground and then promptly disappeared into her periphery. A few moments later, after she had fired a round into the beast, sending it back around the corner, the shadow returned crossing her field of view.
Before she could take the next shot, as a reaver came around the corner, followed quickly by the other, the dark mass descended and landed its talon ended wings on the houses that flanked the alley. Thrusting its head downwards, and crunched against the chitinous exterior of the Reaver, thrashing it about with shakes of its head before throwing the body against the now retreating alien. Flashes of green Plasma glowed from the next street over, but the winged creature traversed the rooftops and once again darted its head into the street. Rearing its head up, it took off with a mighty flap and tossed the Reaver into the air with a backwards flick of its neck, send it carting into the air and off some considerable distance.
"Top Man!" Jorn called as Tarkarus circled down to land. She panted as she rushed towards him, the Seeg dismounting her so as to climb aboard their latest mode of transportation. Chattering about it curiously as they climbed on to it, inspecting it and worried as to the lack of wires and pipes. Jorn scratched the mottled, matted fur of her mount rewardingly much to the amusement of the Seeg. After that she didn't spare a moment, mounting and sitting high on Tarkarus' neck, snatching her machine gun from the little gremlins before they could take it apart.
Tarkarus flapped and lifted off the ground, inducing a plume of dust beneath him before spiralling upwards and away in the direction his reins tugged him.
Now Jornwuld just had to find the crew of the Cerberus, and get everyone back there safely.
"You can run like a rabbit, fly like a bee, but no matter whatcha do you'll never getta'way from me becau' I'm right behin-" Static filled the song on the ships intercoms within one of the cargo holds as a few security members were preparing to make their rounds through Cerberus' corridors. The security was more or less hired guns who had a knack for "keeping the peace". Former vets and shitbirds from various armies and wars, they were some of the best out there. Their job was simple, observe those entering and leaving research level 3 as well as respond to any suspicious activity along its halls. Seemed reasonable, but the catch was why such dangerous individuals were needed to watch a few halls and a room. That was one of the questions brought up yet again by a scruffy man in his early 30s who went by the nickname Gradey. He had taken apart his Kesler 887SR for a routine cleaning. He sat upon a crate within the cargo bay, lip singing to the radio as a small cigarette dangled from his mouth.
"So Sarge, why am I here again? I mean...I could be out there getting puss and drowning myself in Huskler Premium Lager in the port itself then be cramped in this rust bucket..." Gradey finally spoke up. A woman quipped up quickly in response as she watched over the security video.
"Why? Well if you want credits to get beer and puss then you need to stay in here with the rest of us." She said with mild irritation. He smirked as he sat up and patted his lap.
"Clare, why don't you come sit on daddy's lap and help hi - oof!" Another female sat down upon him with seduction and leaned in, tempting Gradey to kiss him. As he did, she leaned into his ear and turned on his comms headset.
"She would, but you have small cock syndrome. Most humans do. But yours...extra small." Her seductive yet broken common broke the silence amongst the others who went milling about their mundane duties, causing the others to laugh, much to his chagrin. His response was to push her off, embarrassed and angered by her remark, but being the most agile and flexible one of the group she gracefully cartwheeled away.
"Oh shut the fuck up Kae'lis! Yo Mo'wok, it aint that funny." He barked at the only one still laughing hard, a large dagger, if one could call it that, held in his hand. The more Gradey yelled, the louder Mo'wok got until finally Gradey stood and in one quick motion walked over and shoved him.
"Shut the fuck Toad!" The laughing ceased.
"What you call me!?"
"You heard me ugly!" It didn't take too long before the arguing turned to yelling which turned to an all out fist fight most definitely in Mo'woks favor. Mo'wok towered over the rest of his compatriots by an outstanding foot and a half with three times the muscle mass as their strongest member, Reiner. The fight only lasted roughly 15 seconds but it was enough for an old, gravelly voice to pierce the chaos.
"Mo'wok, put Gradey down! That's an order!" Mo'wok looked over with narrowed eyes to an older man who's presence radiated authority. There seemed to be a standoff of dominance in this moment. The raw physically prowess Mo'wok displayed against Gradey in the short bout he had, and the man's sheer presence. One could even assume that at some point in their history, they were enemies.
"You heard Pops...put...me...down..." The demand was ignored until Pops erected his posture more, adjusting the rifle in hand and with that Mo'wok did what was asked. Sort of. Looking at Gradey whose smug look was akin to that of a spoiled child getting what he wanted, the larger memeber of the party lobbed Gradey into a pile of crates before giving the old man a sidelong glance.
"Men and their pissing contests." Clare mumbled before Kae'lis glanced at her.
"I...don't understand..." She squinted in confusion. Clare just shookher head and smiled.
"It's nothing Kae." Kae'lis stared for only a moment before looking back at the boys. What urination and primitive displays of dominance had in common to males she might not ever understand. A few minutes went by before the old man looked at the group and subconciously nodded. His gruff voice broke the silence.
"Alright, time for patrols then. Kae'lis, Gradey and myself shall take wings 2 and 4. Mo'wok, Clare and Reiner shall take wings 1 and 3. We will meet in between wings one and two as they intersect and debrief each others' groups before continuing on to three and four. After the last to wings are checked we will go ahead and make our way to research level 3 and do our normal runs there, is that understood? Good..." With that Pops turned around and made his way for the heavy door which slowly opened. The sound of heavy metal sliding was the only indication the lower cargo door opened.
Stepping into the long metal hallways that lined the interior of the Ceberus gate like veins within the body, the two teams separated and begun their patrol. Silence replaced any form of meaningful conversation as eyes scanned the walls, doors, ceiling and staff that they passed. Eventually the two groups met at the intersecting hallways and discussed what they saw.
"You guys see anything new?" Gradey said with a bit of irritation. One could see in his face that he was tired of the same patrol, with the same faces, in the same corridors, on the same ship, in the same port, on the same... fucking... planet. Kae'lis gave him a sidelong glance before looking at Pops.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Dr. Jo'dak just got interstellar call from love. He will be a father soon." Clare smiled. Mo'wok glanced over to Reiner who seemed to still be on edge.
"What wrong with Reiner?" He asked looking to the man. Reiner's eyes had been focused on the nearby ventallation gate with unwavering sight.
"Nothing..." He looked back towards the group and after a moment spoke up.
"With all do respect I believe we should continue on now with the patrol." Pops looked at him with a bit of suspicion before taking a glance at the vent. Knowing Reiner as long as he had, Pops knew that the man didn't act like this unless something spooked him or caught his attention.
"Alright then. Let's carry on with the patrols and we can discuss this later in the elevator to RL3." Pops slowly turned back towards his respectable corridor and continued on, with the other part of his team in tow. As the second team branched off, Clared took a glance back at the vent before bringing up the small wrist size computer closer and began to press a sequence of buttons.
"Lemme guess...Internal Biometrical scan of the ventallation system?" Reiner looked to her with a lopsided smirk, one that she happily returned with a nod. Reiner patted her on the head.
"Good girl."
"Well, I learned to just trust your instincts. You haven't proven me wrong yet." She shrugged before glancing up to him. She did catch the slight jealousy in Mo'woks features but quietly moved over to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Either have you big guy. You two were the first ones that accepted me in this group you know that? Just a strange little girl abandonded on a nearby planet and you brought me in." Her face was calm but her eyes had a tinge of somber nostalgia.
"If it wasn't for you two I could have been dead."
"But Clare not. Clare safer with Mo'wok and Reiner and Pops and...Sometimes Kae'lis." Mo'wok nodded in affirmation to his own comment, Reiner smirked while continuing to survey the area. It wasn't until the groups were halfway through the patrol did they see a familiar sight. A wall of green that slowly passed through the corridor with the faintest of humming was the only indication that the bioscan was in progress. As it passed over, the laser grid outlined their bodies and continued on towards the stern of the ship where the cargo bay was held. This scan was made every day in three hour intervals and information it would gather would be relayed back to Clare's PCPU with the normal readings. However, as the secruity's main computer wiz she could at anytime override the rountine scan and force an untimed scan if anything was found to be out of place. Only once did she have to do it within their three months span on the Cerberus Gate, and the culprit that they found onboard was a small cat. After another fifteen minutes of walking, Clare's screen flashed red, an indication something was out of place.
"Nother cat?" Mo'wak questioned. Reiner shook his headand sighed.
"Cats don't where clothing...Hey this is team two. Clare just made a command override of the routine bioscan and came across an unknown mass on the readings in the ventallation tunnels leading to RL3, how copy?" A gruff voice responded.
"This is team one. Understood. Enroute to RL3 now. We'll meet you there." With that the radio went silent and the teams began to converge on the elevators leading up towards RL3, Research Level 3. Kae'lis looked to Gradey and Pops.
"I'm hopping into vents, see if I can intercept. Let you know what I see." She turned towards the nearest vent and crawled in with the only indication of her location being the sounds echoing through the vents themselves.
As the group converged on the research level, Kae'lis responded to the group.
"Its a fucking space rat. Squatter or a stowaway. He's heading your direction! Hey stop!" The sounds of yelling and movement within the ships vents could be heard through their recievers and was only amplified by a similar sound in the distance as what could only be assumed to be a pursuit of the individual through the vents which grew louder and louder as Kae'lis grew closer and closer. Pops raised his gun towards the vent as did the others, but Mo'wok, as tall and as big as he was, simply grabbed the sides of the vent shaft and yanked down. The whining of metal as it bent indicated that the chase would soon end. The stowaway fell from the now open vent shaft with a heavy thunk. As expected, the man, definitely in his younger years, showed a bit of frustration and fear when he looked up to see multiple barrels in his face. Pops gave the slightest of smirks and glanced up to see Kae'lis, now laying in the vent, pistol out and pointed at the man.
"So what were you doing in the vents boy." Pops questioned now the now tied up stowaway who remained silent. Guns still remained on him but not with as much fevor as before. What's the point in shooting someone who's tied up, right? The group had not bothered to move him from where they found him, not yet anyway. They had questions, mostly so the captain could be informed in what they found. Clare however decided it was best to make a secondary scan incase there was another.
"Hey shitbag, this ain't the time for playing the silent game. Answer the question or else Mo'wok here will start practicing his ciropratic...cyropractic...fuck it...he'll break your fucking arm." Gradey stated as he stepped forward. Reiner and Pops both looked at him with irritation but strangely enough the last thing this boy wanted was to be physically harmed more than he already was.
"I've been moving around, trying to find a comfortable spot in this ship to just relax. Get out of the blazing sun of the port." He managed to mumble out.
"How long?"
"Since this ship got here."
"And how exactly have you managed to avoid detection, especially from the bioscans?" Clare asked more intrigued than anything else. From what she was told, this ship was state of the art and one of a kind. Human ingenuity with alien technology. Perfection from a technical standpoint. The boy rubbed his face against the coat he wore.
"I took this in one of the Cantinas in the port. Some Kepler's jacket. Recognized what kind of jacket it was. Stalker 401. It helps hide and camoflauge your bodyheat, core temperature, vitals and other things from any form of scanners or radar. An infiltration jacket." He smirked.
"I thought it would be helpful traveling from one planet to another without being seen." He looked down to his side where he saw a tear in his jacket.
"Thats until-" Reiner chimed in.
"Until I caught you on my five in the vents." The boy nodded.
"The moment you saw me I turned and moved quickly. Guess I didn't see the fact I cut myself on the metal as I left."
"Stalker model jackets are great for infiltration but the moment the fabric is destroyed it just becomes a jacket." Clare pointed out and Kae'lis nodded.
"She is right. My race, we use this. They work, until rip or torn." The sound of a 'Shunk' Caused Gradey and Mo'wok to turn towards the research door with guns up before hearing the voice of an old man yell "Don't shoot dammit!". This caused Pops and Reiner to glance over towards the voice. Pops nodded to the man.
"Hagersfield. How are you today." The old man rubbed his balding head before looking down at the boy with a stern look.
"I was off to get some coffee before starting my shift but I think I'll be making my way to the head caus' I just shit my pants thanks to him." He chuckled as Gradey smirked.
"Just doing my duty sir." The old man patted Gradey on the shoulder before looking down at the boy.
"Whose this?"
"Some stowaway we found in the vents."
"I have a name you know." He glanced up with anger. Kae'lis looked at him with a cocked head.
"What?"
"Jason" She sounded out the name and nodded.
"Well Jason you do understand that this ship isn't going anywhere soon and has been considered Class 1 Security Objective by the Naomi Incorporation? Meaning-" Pops began before Reiner chimed in this time.
"Lethal engagement to unauthorized personnel is applicable if found trespassing around or within the confines or perimeter of this ship. I.e...We could have shot you on sight without recourse or reprimand to us." Jason cocked his with a squint as he quietly with deft hands began work on his cuffs. Despite the advancement in human technology, cuffs still had a very reliable weakness. They still all used the same key.
"Anyway-" Hagersfield spoke up, wanting to continue on with another topic. Pops looked to him with a quirked brow.
"I know I'm not usually allowed down here but I was given specific instructions by Dr. X9 Fibra Ops to check on Containment Pod 7-438-Alpha's electrical integrity and locking mechanisms. As well as any and all major circuit boards within Level 3. This is my second stop but after here I was supposed to report in with the Doctor and to let her...him?...Them know what the status of the electrical-" As per the usual bullshit, Gradey interjected, annoyed with the long and redundant explanation.
"We get it your the fucking handyman. Jesus...Can we just get fuck boy over here-" As he thumbed to Jason,
"Back to lock up so I don't have to look at his face anymore."
"Learn some respect Gradey, he may have an explanation." Reiner spoke up this time, emulating their leader Pops in both tone and pitch. One could see why he was second in command. Some time had passed since they initially found the boy within the vents and for the most part everything had been going as expected. Those within level 3 had continued conducting research on pieces of 7-438-Alpha from behind enclosed cases. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until a hooded kid with a heavy pistol came through the doors holding Hagersfield as a hostage. Guns drawn on the boy as the Mercenary/Security Team demanded him to stand down. It was bad enough having Hagersfield enter without proper hazmat gear but now it was contamination en masse. Scientists and other staff began yelling and adding to the chaos that was building already. However, the moment the boy aimed towards the group of veteran soldiers it was over. Gunfire erupted from within the lab and screaming could be heard from down the hall.
The lights in Research Deck A dropped down from the ceiling, spinning red with a never ending Breh! Breh! Breh! Breh! before the ships comms came online.
WARNING! WARNING! ATTENTION ALL PERSONEL! CONTAINMENT POD BREACH IN RESEARCH LEVEL 3! CONTAINMENT BREACH ON RESEARCH LEVEL 3! LEVEL 4 SECURITY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED! LOCK DOWN AND QUARINTINE OF LEVEL THREE COMPLETE...
From one of the speakers above the horrific sounds of blood curdling screams and gunfire was heard, the only acknowledgement that this wasn't a dream was the reverberations of the gunfire below them.
"Please for the love of fuck get us out of here!" "OPEN THE DOOR!" "Don't lock us in here with this thing!" "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!" "Open this fucking door! What the fuuuUU-AHHHHHH!" The yell was quickly silenced followed by a sickening squelch and a shriek.
"It ate him....Eh fucking ate....What the fuck....No....Not like this...please...God….have mercy...NO! NOOOOO! NOOOO-AHHHHHHHH!" The coms went silent. A few moments later the power on the research floors went off but came back on as quickly as they went. Only static was heard before the systems' coms took over.
WARNING! WARNING! SECURITY BREACH IN RESEARCH LEVEL 3! SECURITY BREACH IN RESERCH LEVEL 3 WARNING! WARNING!
The cameras if they could access them from their position would show what has only been told through word of mouth by soldiers and demonic researchers alike...
The lights occasionally flickered on and off with sparks cascading to the ground like a light-filled waterfall, illuminating the grotesque and hideous blood and gore that now painted the walls and floor of this lab. Bodies crushed, limbs torn and flesh ripped. Guts held firm against walls and slowly would begin sliding to the floor before falling with a squelch. A few who had survived would not for much longer. The intestines and other innards laid on the floor. A few who had been split in half crawling towards safety they would never find. A head that laid still, its eyes moved for a few more seconds before ceasing. There was no second camera and god willed there to be none.
Whatever was on that level broke free from its pod and what ever was in that pod...Was now free within the ship.
Leaving the battlefield behind and with the speed they were going, they would have little trouble reaching their destination. The street was cleared by now, meaning there was no obstacles, aside from charred corpses and blasted out vehicles. Still unlike the uniquely calm streets, the battle still raged and the sound of destruction and death was still resounding throughout the city.
In fact, they seemed to be getting close to one such scene now.
S.S Lamprey was still in its hanger dock, a complex of hallways where the repair yards lay with each opening offering another dock. The crew was mounting a defense, Reaver Warriors have landed atop the hanger and were firing into the ship below.
"Captain! We got an incoming message!" One of Ripley's men came through on Ripley's personal vox, this was quickly replaced with hoarse voice of his quarter master."Piss on that! Cap'n we got these gnarly lookin tings blastin hol's in the ship! They are comin in from the bloody roof!" Ripley would enter hanger at exactly the same time as his crew were using the Lamprey, the crates, and one of them was even using a forklift to plow into any that were stupid enough to hop down. Ripley could see that there were two dropships over them, perhaps thinking that the hanger bay was something important. Almost a dozen Reavers against Ripley's crew.
"No hostiles detected." What was probably mistaken for a vehicle or even a merchant stall, stood a Mechwalking out with a overly large submachine gun that it stowed away back on its pack. A human woman was nearby, reloading her weapon and scanning the street. She was followed by two others, one was a Howler A particularly violent species often stereotyped as barbarian raiders. Hoping down from a second story roof was a sniper she pulled a bolt on her rifle and let the brass hit the ground. She was surveying the other side of the street.
"I think we're good." Said the sniper, her voice was chalky, harsh, it almost made everyone UTI buzz with static as it could barely pick up her language. Not a human obviously.
"Stay sharp. Anyone see where Ra'Sheilla run off too?" The girl with the robot was obviously the leader of this little team. They were the only ones that didn't lose their nerve or get vaporized when the first shelling went out. She looked back to Ailita. "Good moves kid." She said even though they looked the same age. "Thanks for the assist. Speaking of- Hey pretty boy! You alive!?" She shouted to Al'at whom was still behind the crate.
"I GET!" The Howler ran over on all fours and grabbed the iron crate before sliding it over with a terrible racket. Her wolfen face looked down at Al'ta, not even caring about the blackish tar of blood that hung on his mouth. She seemed to smile. "You cute!" She said, a bit of waggle to her tail.
The leader laughed before addressing the two of them. "Name's Grip. She's T-"
"Sup." She said with a head bob, their UTI's sparking off again.
"That's Gutter Runner. Big guy is Panzer. We're Vespa." The howler began to pant and the mech turned its gaze. "We owe you a favor. Could use an extra pair of guns... or, or whatever the heck that was. Seriously, what was that? You guys wizards or something?" She asked.
Down the street though, that Garuda from before rocketed towards them with a jeep, its wheels kicking up dust and sand as it barreled towards them before it broke to a halt and a skid. The woman with her smug smile looked at them through the window. It was a tight fit, cramped with all of them but they had transportation. "I think I found a way off this ball."
And with a wall of plasma bolts coming at him, the corpses of his victims were already being picked up by the dropship above him, though it seemed to release more almost in effort to overwhelm the sudden mass casualty unit on the battlefield. Even as the cloud emitted and spread to envelop the street, the street itself was torn up as the drop ship above him began to fire in order to vaporize the small target below.
IT wouldn't help, and amongst them the venom would seep into their systems. However, unlike the ones before, almost as if they were trying to adapt to the new type of attack, the Reavers attempted to utilize filters and gas pumps they used for relieving excess heat build up. They rerouted cables to rely more on the techno portion of their hybrid forms. When Eilsel was within range, they would switch from plasma to attempting to beat the aggressor with their rifles or shoulder ram them with their spikes.
And even still firing on them from above, regardless if it hit the soldiers, the drop ship continued to pepper the area with plasma. Even with his toxins, he was outgunned.
SHING
The ship seemed to simply fell apart, and this was literal. It peeled like a ripe fruit sliced cleanly in half. The firing engines pushed against the other half of the ship and both simply dive bombed into the ground, taking a building out with it before it erupted into a fireball. This gave the Reavers pause, even as the toxins ate through their protections.
Silhouetted in the sun, a figure held aloft a massive blade. He looked down at the battle below and while he swung the blade behind his back, he took out a pistol with his free hand and began firing. A shot struck through one of Eilsel's attackers before it could raise it's rifle. "Mind if I help out?" he asked smugly.
Stepping into the dingy interrogation chamber in the bowels of the Forever Worm, was one of the most infamous figures in all of Elysia. Perhaps the most despised pirate in history, Lotan Felheart, loomed over Captain Hades, accessing him with his single dark eye. Clad in a dark bodyglove and a billowing cloak, he seemed more a specter than a man in the dimly-lit brig. As he looked over the wounds his interrogators had uselessly inflicted on the man, he ran a pointed fingernail over his gene-enhanced body. He seemed to admire the man before him as one did the carcass of some prized beast; hunted for game to prove the prowess of the hunter.
"Captain..." He began, drawing the word out in his dark and rumbling voice, "You've been causing a great deal of trouble for my men. I've come to ensure this trouble is put to an end. I am sorry that you've gone to so much trouble to obviously conceal something from us. Destroying your data logs, testing the patience of my crew... It is a shame that all of these efforts will be wasted."
Hades spit blood at Lotan, which erupted from his mouth as a fine mist. "Go to hell." He uttered.
Lotan merely smiled insincerely. "Don't feel ashamed, it was only ever a matter of time. No matter how much you try to hide a secret, all it takes is for you to know it, and it will be mine."
The malevolent black aura of the Void overtook both Lotan's eye and the covered socket of his missing one, and he gripped Hades by his forehead. The same aura burst out from the soldier's eyes as he began to scream in psychic agony, his mind being torn asunder by Lotan's inquisition. Lotan ripped through the lesser man's psyche like he was rifling through paper, casting aside his paltry mental defenses as easily as though they were not there. So often did men who took great pains to enhance their body and fortify their will forget entirely to defend their mind. Soon enough, Lotan had what he wanted, and released the psionic stranglehold he held the massive soldier under. The black aura subsided, and Hades collapsed into unconsciousness. Lotan stroked his chin, pondering the information that he had just gained.
"Your wishes, milord?" One of Lotan's interrogators, an insectoid thing that carried a metal implement in each of its six hands, spoke up. "Shall we have him spaced?"
Lotan held up a hand. "No. Have the rest of his ship's crew rounded up. Kill them, and disintegrate the bodies. Get me a tracker worm."
His minions immediately set out to meet his demands, and soon enough Lotan was handed a jar filled with squirming black creatures. He picked one out of the jar, the others scurrying away from his grasp, and held it aloft and it wriggled impotently. He held it over the ear of the unconscious Hades before dropping it onto his face. It squirmed a moment longer before finding the opening of his ear, and wriggling into his ear canal. He screamed in pain despite being unconscious as it burrowed into his skull, but this subsided as it found its resting place deep in his head.
"I will give Captain Hades here a delightful set of new memories. Surely fending off the Forever Worm will be a cherished victory for him, after such an already highly decorated career. Return him to his ship. He will believe himself to be the only survivor of the attack, and he will rejoin the Cerberus Gate. Now that he's carrying one of our trackers, he will be easy enough to follow covertly." Before he began the work of psychically rearranging the man's memories, he barked another order. "And put out a contract to any mercenaries planet-side. I want someone on the Cerberus Gate I can personally contact. Perhaps we can find out more about these 'Oblivion Weapons' from the source."
As the descending visage of the Infestor bore down on Garamm, her entire countenance changed. Before, it had simply been a matter of toying around with her opponents. Reavers were not known for their love of the blade, thus there was little for her to appreciate in them. All she had been doing was letting off a little steam while she awaited the end of this invasion. The best she had expected was to put something together from all the metal left behind after the invaders had perished. But now, staring down at them all was a horrid beast that threatened to release its vile spores across the entire population, seeking to change those that lived here into techno-organic abominations in their own image, no doubt...techno-organic abominations that did not appreciate the superiority of a good, bladed weapon over their plasma toys.
There could be no greater sin than to wipe out a planet full of people who, while not fully appreciative of the sword, at least possessed the capacity to create them with love and passion. All they were to the Reavers was a backup weapon in case their sordid guns couldn't do the job properly. This would not do. Garamm placed her ship on auto-pilot, charting a course to manage some basic maneuvers in the vicinity of the Cerberus Gate. The intent was to let her focus on her plan of attack while not remaining so still she would be a sitting duck. She needed her full concentration to begin her grand bombardment, after all. Reaching out with her power, one by one the Reaver gunships harassing the Gate would find themselves ensnared and flung outwards towards the Infestor, each one detonating upon impact, gradually building into a vast panoply of explosions covering the surface of the large ship. Every last gunship she could reach out to would find itself sailing through the air to assault that which they sought to protect, and especially so for any ship bold enough to fire upon Garamm herself. She would keep going until she either ran out of ships to throw or came under too intense pressure to continue. Whatever it took to destroy that eyesore, Garamm would do it. The Reavers would pay for their lack of appreciation for the blade, or Garamm would die making them bleed for it.
He had crystallized parts of his mist into shields that block the plasma blasts from their guns while he would counter back by throwing crystallized javelins in return. Even if the javelins didn't pierce through them, it instead corroded their armor along with their skin. Eilsel condensed the toxic mist around him to strengthen its poison and easily inflict the enemies around him. Like dominoes they toppled, their bodies convulsing from taking in too much poison. He became confident that he would win the fight.
But of course, life doesn't work the way you want it to. He noticed them equipping some sort of breathing apparatus to avoid breathing in the mist, as if they were trying to adapt from the situation. Much to his surprise, those who were near Eilsel physically confronted him by striking with their rifles and even their bodies.
Eilsel generated a whirlpool of acid liquid around him that corroded those foolish enough to come close to him, but he was even more surprised when he glanced upwards and saw a ship. He cursed as he didn't notice the ship earlier that seemed to retrieve the corpses of those Eilsel defeated and release more of their good-for-nothing race, then the ship would rain fire down at the street where he is. He tried to evade the blasts but he was overwhelmed from the continuous charging of his enemies.
"I'm sorry, O'Gun. I failed you", he said.
Then the weirdest thing happened. The ship was suddenly cut in half and its remains fell to the ground, exploding and destroying the buildings it landed on. Everyone on the battlefield was silent, completely surprised and baffled on what just happened.
Eilsel saw the man who sliced the ship in half, looking at him from above with a smug look on his face. He put his giant blade on his back and retrived his gun, pointing it and firing at the enemy behind Eilsel. Afterwards, he asked if he could help out, all the while having a smug look on his face.
He didn't know why, but Eilsel began to be a bit irritated at him for some reason. He thought of killing the man instead; on the other hand, he did just sliced a freaking ship in half on his own so he could be a very good fighter in his own right.
The mysterious guy jumped to Eilsel's side and the Xiliph took this opportunity to create a crystallized dome with a hole on top from his acid liquid to buy them some time. The formation of the dome snapped them back in reality and began to fire at the dome.
Eilsel looked at the man suspiciously. "Who are you and why are you interested in helping me?"
The man replied back smugly. "Really? You're asking me questions in the middle of a battle? Maybe you could survive this first then I'll answer your questions later", he replied with a wink.
Eilsel growled. He really doesn't like this guy. "Fine, but at least tell me who or what the hell I'm dealing with here", he said as he waved at the enemies continuously firing at the dome.
The man's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean you've been battling them all this time and you don't even know what they are?. Eilsel's absent look on his face was his only response. "Wow. You're really something, aren't you? They're called Reavers, labelled as the blight of Elysia. They should've been dead by now but seems like these cockroaches survived all these years. The thing is, I don't know what brought them here, but whoever they are must be more despicable than I thought".
Eilsel looked around him. Reavers? He heard bad things about them once before but he thought they were just a myth. Based on what's happening now, he was gravely mistaken.
He sighed and began to remove his gas mask. "Alright. I'll accept you on your offer, but ugh I can't believe I'm saying this, you've got to kiss me first".
The man was taken aback and laughed nervously. "E-Excuse me? I'm not sure I-"
Eilsel lunged and kissed the man on the lips. The man's eyes widened as Eilsel opened his mouth with his lips. Eilsel began to excrete the antidote fluid and wrestled his tongue with the man's to make him drink it. After a few more minutes, they stopped kissing, a thread of the fluid connecting their lips stretched and broke. Eilsel licked his mouth and put back his gas mask back on, his lips still tingling from his first kiss. "The liquid you drank while we were kissing is an antidote, making you immune from my poison and radiation. Your immunity only lasts three hours so we better make quick work on the Reavers."
The man was silent for a few seconds. Eilsel exasperated and jabbed the man on his stomach, which was quite hard but Eilsel pretended to not care as he didn't want to raise the stranger's ego, and the man snapped back into reality. "Yeah, okay, sure. W-Whatever you say", he said while rubbing his stomach.
"Good. Now", Eilsel paused and looked at the dome. Cracks began to appear as the Revears continued their efforts to destroy it. He noticed the man still had a look of surprise and confusion at his face. Now it's Eilsel's turn to smile smugly. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"
It seemed that she was indeed recognized by somebody. Truth be told, Katrina had the fuzziest feeling she recognized the voice on the other end herself. Then again, she heard so many voices in her time that some of them tended to blur together. She once swore she recognized the voice of a client before physically discovering it had not been them at the place and time she was certain she remembered them from. It was hardly important right now, as everyone had a billion bigger problems on their hands, including her. Katrina wasn't all that concerned about the Reaver ships on her tail, as she was confident the Free-Loader could keep out of their sights, but it wouldn't hurt to let the Gates soldiers light them up. She did a pass of the gate, and sure enough, they all opened up on the ones riding her coattails.
"I'm going to run air-support. Just keep them off my ass." She replied to the main channel before swinging around to engage the ships swarming around the Gate. She would pick her targets from those engaged with others, using the armor piercing rounds from her cannons to shred them from behind. She kept this up until she took notice of the Infestor Swarm. She let out a string of curses at the sight of it. Whoever the hell was behind all this was apparently cool with letting the Reavers try to assimilate the whole planet. It was like they wanted to create a monster or something. What did they even stand to gain out of this, if it wasn't taking over the planet themselves? How the hell could they benefit from having the Reavers try to restart their dumbass crusade from Terersg? It was infuriating to watch this unfold.
Katrina couldn't afford to sit here and curse and spit over the stupidity of it all. Neither could the Cerberus Gate. She resolved to carry on her hit and run tactics and hopefully buy the others the time needed to act. She maneuvered behind yet another Reaver ship, lined it up with her cannons, and opened fire. Only, she swore she saw the ship rocket off backwards before she could hit it. Then she saw another ship rocket backwards. Then another, and another, and another. Something was causing multiple Reaver ships in the vicinity to veer away, all seemingly headed back to the Infestor ship. "Hey, is anyone else seeing this? The Reavers are being tossed around like rag dolls!" She spoke aloud to the public channel. Whatever was going on, it looked like it was happening to their benefit.
Sir Kindle unclipped his hostler that held the Battlestar and grabbed the handle of the Battlestar ready to pull it out and kill whoever dared to face him. As the kids scatter a massive beast falls down from the sky and lands on the ball which pops it. This beast was heavily armoured which looked like it was made with organic material and was holding what looks to be a plasma weapon. This thing looks like it was made to strike fear into the enemy that dared to fight it. Dear god, its ugly. Sir Kindle wasn't afraid but instead was disgusted by it. Before the beast got a chance to reacted to Sir Kindle holding his weapon Sir Kindle pulled out his gun and shot it right between the eyes. The plasma rounds that Sir Kindles gun fired were able to melt right through the armour of the beast like a hot knife through butter.
The plasma melted a hole straight through its head Killing it instantly. The beast fell over and hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Sir Kindle slowly approached the corpse of the beast with his gun still drawn just in case. As Sir Kindle got closer to the corpse he noticed that not only was the armour a part of the beast but so was the weapon. It was connected by one big long tube that came from his torso. It wasn't long until two more of those creatures dropped down behind Sir Kindle.
Sir Kindle turned around to face the two beasts behind him. "Now listen here fine sirs, he was already dead when I arrived" But of course they didn't believe that. So they opened fire at Sir Kindle, but he was able to just nearly dodge the shots. Then in a split second, Sir kindle pulled out the Battlestar and fired two shots. One landed as a headshot when the other one just shot off the other beasts weapon. The beast looked at Sir Kindle and prepared for a fist fight. "Come on chap, come at me with all you got" Sir Kindle could have just fired another shit and kill it, but weres the fun in that. Sir Kindle holstered Battlestar and raised his fists.
The beast began to charge at Sir Kindle once the beast got closer Sir Kindle did a front flip over the beast and grabbed his head and ripped it off. Sir Kindle looked at the beasts head. "Absolutely disgusting" Sir Kindle dropped the head on the ground and kicked it away from him. Some of Sir Kindles drones were in dogfights above and around the city The dogfighting above the city was very intense and really couldn't tell if they were Sir kindles fighters or the government fighters. After a while, Sir Kindle started getting worried about this ship and his men. So he decided to call Kindle 0253 to send a ship to pick him up and return him to the carrier.
"I think I've seen quite enough fighting today. I would like you to send a ship to get me out of this damn town."
"Copy that, we're sending one of the drones for EVAC but be careful Sir, its a war zone up there. Over and out.
As soon as the transmission ended one of Sir Kindles drones that were flying around the town landed and opened its cockpit. Sir Kindles sat down inside the cockpit and buckled up. ""Heading back to base" said the A.I with a robotic tone. As the drone started to lift off Sir Kindle looked out the cockpit window facing towards the town. He saw lots of gunfire in every alleyway and in every street. "Thank goodness I'm not the only person fighting these horrendous things."
As Sir Kindles was approaching the carrier two enemy fighters came up behind him and began to open fire. After one of the bullets just barely missed the Sir Kindles drone the A.I system started to evade the shots. "Begining evasive maneuvers." The drone began to do barrel rolls, Flips and other very fast movements to avoid being destroyed. "I'm starting to get quite sick of this." Sir Kindles pressed a few buttons on the panel and activated manual override. "Manual Override activated" The driving controls sprung out the dashboard Sir Kindle grabbed the controls with a tight grip and pulled the controls towards him causing the aircraft to fly straight up. The enemy fights did the same and continued to fire at Sir Kindle as they gained altitude. Sir Kindles aircraft took a few hard hits but those hits were not enough to shoot him out of the sky. After they reached a current hight they began to stall out their aircraft. They all started to fall back down to the planet giving Sir Kindles the advantage since now he was behind them.
As they fell the two enemy aircraft went different ways. Sir Kindle had to make a split second decision on which aircraft to take out he chooses the left aircraft to destroy first. Sir Kindle tailed the enemy and shot him out of the sky in mir seconds but his problems weren't over yet. The other aircraft came up behind Sir Kindle and started firing and following his every move Sir Kindle made. Sir Kindle couldn't shake the enemy. Sir Kindle thought that this would be the end of him that he was going to die at the hands of some disgusting monster on this horrible planet. Then all of a sudden from the clouds below emerged the H.F.A.K. Once they saw they saw the enemy aircraft the AA shot it down in no time at all.
"That did not sound good." The entire A section of the Research Deck's power just went off suddenly before it quickly switched back on. Before that was the alarm raised for all research personnel to evacuate from the third level of the Cerberus Gate. The elf, finding himself right next to the Cosmos Strider, initially thought to get his weapons first only to have his knife-ears droop at the sudden realization that all his armaments were submitted to a security clearance in the upper levels. "It seems The One wishes me to challenge myself in the face of this danger." He held his hand out to a nearby supply closet in which he activates one of his many Exalted powers, Air Vacuum. With a whoosh, the doors blast open and a short-range vocal communicator came flying toward his open hand, grasping its plastic and holding it to his mouth. "This is Altari Somnus of Research Team A, is anyone still in this section of Level 3?" Static, almost nothing. He tries again but all he would hear are screams and steps. He hopes that his research co-worker he talked with earlier wasn't caught up in all of it. With a sigh, the elf would have to depend on his powers in hopes of getting out of the Research Labs alive. "Guess I'm on my own."
Altari would continuously try to contact his superior on the level he was in. The Cerberus Gate is a big ship and what a day to start off with. Treading slowly through the halls hoping to not get shot by the Security Team that might be probably sweeping in sometime soon or doing one of those formations that they love so much eventually he came across a security room which was empty, one of the screens left open and with one of the chairs still spinning about. "I guess security's handling it... hope they don't mind I take a little peek in the...re..." Utter shock came about his face as he studied the bloody scene before him. An entire laboratory deck was massacred... bodies, organs, flesh, skin, blood, and whatever gross matter is strewn across the steel walls and floors as well as the screens of the many tables and computers that are somewhat still active. While this did not bother the elf much like humans do, this did cause a small stir in his stomach... to think there was someone or something on this ship that's able to do this... he began to worry about the security guards that left their posts. He continued to study the situation and noticed the containment capsule was open. The video feed did not show how "it" got out but whatever "it" did... Altari would deem it hostile for the time being. "A live demon." He declares before shaking his head. "I need my equipment if I want to defend myself." He steps away from the room and began treading slowly towards the upper levels, still attempting to contact Dr. X9 with the short-range comms. "Ma'am? Madam Fibra Ops? Madam come in, is anyone still out there? He only hopes that whatever is lurking around isn't so fast that it would just come up into his face. Elf would start running the other way should such a situation arise.
Weakly lit sockets beheld the backs of crewman burdened by anxiety and duty. Dreads’ sway was at its zenith here, and inspired a fear in them they would have originally thought alien. Beneath Anasazi’s ever watchful gaze they valiantly fought. Their movement marked by yells, curses, and, chatter as they fired searing beams of heat, into the waiting maws of horrid things. An enormous translucent bubble enveloped the command deck, as an omnipresent sentinel against the encroaching horde. Spawned from the gargantuan armor Anasazi adorned, it undulated beneath the weight of enemy fire. With each collision, he could feel his barrier weakening, before it would inevitably fail until recharged.
“Shit. My force field is going to give out soon.” Anasazi’s concerns were spoken aloud but shared between no other. Still, he was confident his contraption’s shielding could withstand another barrage. Sadly, such was not to be the case, as the hollow globe shimmered one final moment before dispersing into nothingness. An unseen grimace etched itself into his features in response. It would take another 30 minutes before his device could erect another protective coating leaving him without many options. Thankfully, the cruiser’s own defenses gave him more than enough time to wait out the barrier’s cooldown phase. They assured him the cruiser could handle the job, and he could rest for now.
Despite the ship’s own protections, Anasazi loathed these down periods. They always made him feel worthless, and almost without purpose. Granted, he was being somewhat melodramatic the bodyguard couldn’t help it. Discontent with feeling useless, the bodyguard opted instead to leave the command deck. Reasoning that a walk around the craft would kill just enough time Anasazi wandered off. Besides, the crew wasn’t in any immediate danger so a temporary absence wouldn’t have been an issue.
Submerged in chaos, the cruisers’ corridors were filled with bodies and chatter. Talk of Reavers and surrounding chaos at the forefront of their conversations. Some even questioned if the overseeing behemoth and security could ensure everyone’s safety, should the savages force their way onboard. “Hey, Anasazi you guys got a plan if those things get in here?” Shouted a large woman clad in work garments and drenched in sweat. “We can obviously handle anything that comes our way.” Responded a smaller man sandwiched between a door and his coworkers.
Uninterested in assuaging the woman’s concerns when someone else could do it, the behemoth moved onward. Eventually, the crowd thinned out until it was only he and a few stragglers hurrying off to another task. When he’d finally walked until not another soul could be seen, he’d wondered if enough time had passed. By that point, Anasazi was certain of it and would return to assist his brethren. Well, that was until a siren rang throughout the building. An alarm gripped his attention. Something dire was happening in the research deck, but he knew not what that was. No doubt a small team would be sent to see what the issue was. They were far too busy to spare any more than that.
“Anasazi, can you accompany a security detail to check out the problem?” The request came through his radio in a burst, somewhat surprising the armored guardian. “Understood.” He replied. Admittedly, the request was a welcomed change of pace. It was somewhat boring standing around on the command deck all day, and playing detective was different. It’s not like he could have rejected their request anyway. Luckily, his force field had just finished recharging so if it proved to be dangerous he’d be ready for it. A few more orders fell from his radio's receiver. Anasazi was to meet up with five guys from security, and where they would assemble. The situation sounded urgent if only because of the alarm that started him down this path. With nothing else left to do the armored bodyguard dove into the bowels of the cruiser. After he met with his fellow security personnel he would confront whatever awaited him.
Captain Urdessa Sardis had been screaming at her crew for the last few minutes, shouting order after order to get the ship ready, while fending off the Reavers, while assuring that all of the crew and cargo are back safely. The captain served during the Oblivion Crisis and Expansion War, so she took to her position quite well.
"I want to know the very instant we have everyone checked in! I don't care! Save as many as you can!"
"Captain! We got alarms on the Research Deck!"
"We have alarms all over the damn ship!" She growled. "Fibra!?"
The Ku scientist was already going through the monitors, her screen flashing. "Im looking I'm! YAAH!" She looked at the bloody room on the security room. "We got causalities! We got a problem!"
"What now! Dammit!" She took a moment, getting her personal radio on the line. “Anasazi, can you accompany a security detail to check out the problem? Fibra, monitor the deck, find out what it is.”
"Yes mame..." The doctor went about checking the video feeds and paused when "What the? Altari? Altari!" She tried to get him on the radio. She tried to get him but something was really wrong.
The blood bath took place in one of the research rooms. It was held for the 'Anomaly' Research Team. They were already on the ship when Altari was assigned. They were there the entire time. But they havent been seen recently, not since before the Gate was grounded in its decrepit sleeping state. Thinking back, Altari wouldn't be able to remember a single face or name of any of them, nor could he recall exactly when they left. Not an important feature now.
Their labs were filled with all manner of things dedicated to theoretical research. The gore stained computer panels and chalk boards held various mathmatical formulations and references to Essence procedure that even he would have trouble understanding at a glance. There was photos of what appeared to be something organic, but everything else about it seemed to defy description or composition.
While he was in the area, the equipment of the former crew represented atleast methods to defend himself but obviously it didn't help them in this instance. He'd know the paths on this level, everything up to the end of the hall. The massive sealed gate leading to the containment portions and the secondary research levels. Beyond his security level. It was a long run back to where he entered.
Anazasi would meet up with a team of three other soldiers. Unlike the paid mercenaries, this security team was the last few members still assigned to the ship. It was a military vessel after all. They met at the entrance to the deck, just at the elevator lift. They were notified of their 'peculiar' attendant. "Coming in with us sir?" The sergeant asked him, not exactly burly like a normal soldier would be but there was a confidence around him as he looked over a map of the ship. "Well enter at the scientist's barracks and move right into labs. The the containment is at Deck 3, and lets hope to the gods it doesnt get to 4 or lower."
With that, two of them loaded their guns and the last one seemed to be equipped with some kind of flame unit. He had a medical pouch along with the perpetual glow of an essence battery locked onto his hip. A specialty unit, maybe a medic. The elevator lift stopped and they ran through the mostly deserted deck before reaching the stairs that led down to the research labs.
From here on, there were labs on their left and right, behind locked doors but these could be opened at any time really. Within there was the remains of what the scientists were experimenting on, but other than that no sign of anything... yet.
There was many places to hide in this prison of metal. There was the hallways, the ventilation shafts, the shafts that went from one deck to the other. By this point the Deck should have went into full containment mode, but 'serendipity' was on its side.
There was also others like the room he was in, some dark, some bright, some locked. There was a few more containment chambers like the one that was his prison. There was even a room that held such things... shapeless things waiting, dead and forever entombed in glass. So many new, horrible things, and the creature would remember getting poked and prodded by them endlessly before this moment.
Now all that was with him was the stench of iron and the noises down the hall...
The presence of the Infestor was not ignored by the Dominion either apparently. They knew what it meant, they knew that using the Reavers was a calculated risk, but they so far had shown to be completely in adequate for taking the city, and now they would cut their losses and send their nano clouds to turn it and the planet into a ghost town.
Suddenly the Reaver Cruiser above the city began to take incoming fire from all directions. The Dominon Ships, mostly Destroyers turned their attention to the Reaver craft, their cannons echoing by the dozens as they attempted to blow the horrid thing out of the sky.
The Reaver ship responded in kind, its batteries began to fire back at the Dominion ships, and a war waged between them.
Being composed of metal, and having very little else within their simple, small, systems, being seized by Garamms grip was almost all too easy. The on board computers could barely register what was happening and couldn't compensate for the essence and force that seized them. There was nothing could do aside from trying to straighten themselves out.
One by one, they collided with eachother, exploding in a ball of orange and green. Sometimes it was enough for them to only collide with a building or sail wildly in a random direction. Each one acted as a conduit, her power running out from one to another until it reached its target. A mere three hundred above the surface, the gunships that hung around the infestor, It colided with it, one by one smashing into its form. The Infestor wobbled from the blows, each ship blowing off a piece of it upon impact. It teetered wildly to one side before it over compensated and sailed careening into the ground.
"What the hell?" And for a moment the radio chatter went dead, probably for the first time in atleast ten minutes.
There was a moment of aww as something unseen saved countless lives and no single person that saw the spectacle could figure it out... Except those that know of such power.
Katrina's efforts along with the spectacle had resulted in the ships ceasing their assault. She had taken down another few before the Reavers broke off. There was only the barest wisps of their squadrons left and with that, she, and everyone else that took to the air would be free to finally reach safety. The battle was temporarily one.
But there was still an armada above them.
"Nows our chance! Listen everyone! While they fight we're making our escape!" It was a woman's voice, that captain again. "Pilots, once we get to air the Dominion is going to be on us! Cover us and we'll cover you! We have a hanger open on our port side for you if you need repairs and refueling."
While the H.F.A.K would easily deal with the remaining gunships, above them it would be apparent as the Dominion destroyers began closing in to barrage the Reaver ship. It was their best time to escape if desired. Sir Kindle's drone ship would be loaded along with the rest, his carrier a rather large target over the city. In the ensuing battle, only one of Sir Kindle's drones took a plasma hit, their speed and mobility showing in their craftsmanship and performance.
"Sir. We are being hailed by a heavy Cruiser. We have been receiving their distress signal for some time and they are asking for our assistance. Shall we respond?" the H.F.A.K has already began moving out away from the battle field. Considering the battlefield would no doubt show some collateral fire. The way was clear however, but the carrier would not have the speed the drones would and its scanners could pick up over three dozen corvette sized airships and larger, some of them bringing more accurate projectile weapons to bare.
"Sounds good. But why you have to make everything weird?" He said with an odd sensation on his lips and in his stomach as he held his blade forward holding it low. As he gripped the blade, the blade itself seemed to heat up, like the odd hilt itself held some sort of power within.
The Reaver numbers were dwindling. The last dropship had transported the dead and dying Reavers into its hold and a new one seemed to take its place. Due to events elsewhere, it seemed like that would be the last of the resources. "Really funny if you could smoke out the ones up there." But as he tried to think of a plan in order to do so, the last five began to fire their plasma.
Eilsel would have a very capable shield this time as his companion seemed to be quite adept at charging forward and deflecting the blasts, cutting through the molten energy with his blade and dispensing it harmlessly. He was just wall closing in, he would let Eilsel be the hammer...
When the last of them were dispatched. His companion would flourish his blade with a slice, spreading the ichor across a wall to make his blade clean. He set it on a clip in his back before getting back to Eilsel. "Not a clean fight but whatever." He held out a hand. "Name's Rook. Chief of Security for the Cerberus Gate. Rides yours if you want it, least we could do after helping us out."
It was then, behind him, that Eilsel would notice that there was a half dozen others, some of them wearing similar uniforms despite the race. They were carrying bags and moving out to make sure that a nearby truck still held its contents.
"Cargo's secure sir!" Shouted one of the females before she made a bowing motion to Eilsel. "Thanks for the help!" She then set out to make sure that the rest of her crew was okay and ready to get the truck started. It was obvious they seemed to be stealing it, considering how they had to rip out a panel.
Rook looked back to his Eilsel. "What do you say?"
"Weird?", Eilsel asked with his brow raised to the swordsman as he shot javelins that pierced through the Reavers. "Kissing is, like, generally practiced all around Elysia. Maybe it's your race that's so sensitive that they make kissing a big deal".
The swordsman, who's slicing through the Reavers at ease, managed to look back at Eilsel just to give him an exasperated and smug look before going back to commit genocide. Eilsel, on the other hand, felt even more irritated. How can this guy be so smug all the time?, he thought to himself as he filled his side of the battlefield with toxic mist and hardening it to encase the Reavers in toxic crystals, trapping and killing them slowly at the same time.
Though he hates to admit it, but Eilsel thought they make a pretty good team. The swordsman was a good vanguard as his giant sword seem to be able to cut through the enemies' plasma blasts while Eilsel would support him by giving him a floating shield whenever a Reaver would attack him from his blind spot and Eilsel will through a javelin to the Reaver's head.
Whenever Eilsel felt they were overwhelmed, he'd generate a wall of liquid acid and splashed the enemies forward, burning their armor and skin. Thanks to Eilsel's kiss, the swordsman was unaffected by the wave and he even rode it to push through the enemy lines and kill more of the Reavers.
Remembering his mistake earlier, Eilsel made sure to glance up from time to time and sure enough, the Reaver's ship was picking out more and more of their dead kin while a new ship was on its way here. "Really funny if you could smoke out the ones up there", Eilsel's companion said. While thinking about what he said, the last of the Reavers began to fire their weapons. Once again, the swordsman charged forward, cutting through their plasma blasts with ease while Eilsel ran behind him. He generated liquid acid while running, hardening the tips into crystals, and made the remaining five Reavers-on-a-stick-through-the-head ala Eilsel. He threw their dead bodies towards the other left-over bodies of the Reavers.
When the last of them were dispatched. His companion would flourish his blade with a slice, spreading the ichor across a wall to make his blade clean. He set it on a clip in his back before getting back to Eilsel. "Not a clean fight but whatever." He held out a hand. "Name's Rook. Chief of Security for the Cerberus Gate. Rides yours if you want it, least we could do after helping us out."
Eilsel inclined his head to the side. That's why he was so powerful. Guess he wasn't a know-it-all smug like what Eilsel thought after all. Eilsel returned the gesture and shook back his head. "Eilsel. Just a humble adventurer. I appreciate the offer, but my ship's just a few walks away from here. You can catch a ride with me there instead if you want."
It was then, behind him, that Eilsel would notice that there was a half dozen others, some of them wearing similar uniforms despite the race. They were carrying bags and moving out to make sure that a nearby truck still held its contents.
"Cargo's secure sir!" Shouted one of the females before she made a bowing motion to Eilsel. "Thanks for the help!" She then set out to make sure that the rest of her crew was okay and ready to get the truck started. It was obvious they seemed to be stealing it, considering how they had to rip out a panel.
Rook looked back to his Eilsel. "What do you say?"
"Before I answer I answer that question..." Eilsel turned his attention back at the approaching ship. He concentrated his energy between his palms until he could form a sphere with both acidic and toxic properties, then he willed it to shoot towards the ship.
The sphere was too small to be able to be even noticed by the enemies. It shot straight towards the inside of the ship with ease as it easily corroded the ship's surface and, with a snap of Eilsel's fingers, willed the sphere to explode. The energy released by the sphere immediately fried almost all of the Reavers inside the ship while the mist poisoned the lungs of the rest and corroded everything it touches including its energy-driven engines, eventually causing the ship itself to explode.
Eilsel turned his attention back at Rook only to realize he was staring at him along with the other soldiers near another ship. "I don't mind them taking that ship. Like I said earlier, I have my own ship that's just a few walks away. If you want to come with, better decide quickly 'cause I don't want my companion to wait any longer. Besides", Eilsel shyly said as he looked elsewhere, "I kind of have no idea of this Cerberus Gate everyone's talking about, so I thought it would be nice if someone could guide me there..."
