Jackson “Two Jacks” Murphy rocketed down the launch ramp, his fingers white as he sailed from the dull gunmetal gray of the launch tubes to the intense black of space, the blue-green planet above him, a sea of twinkling stars spread out before him. Jamming the stick down and throttling up he roared up into place alongside his flight leader, they were headed out to meet the mysterious incoming objects. Flipping the toggle for his HUD to ramp up he heard the high pitched whine of targeting computer kick on.

Glancing at the HUD his mouth dropped as the six-large objects began disgorging dozens of smaller blips on the screen. Hearing the static crackle of the flight leader echo across the headsets, “Alright boys and girls we have bandits incoming! We have fast movers, stay frosty!” With that everyone shut down all non-essential communications as they barreled towards the Angar-Ryllan fighters. In a matter of seconds, Jack was in the proverbial shit. He banked his fighter into a twisting dive, following his flight lead as they tore through a horde of boomerang shaped dull black fighters. All around him flashes of high intensity lasers light up the sky like lances of days of yore as both sides began in earnest their deadly dance in the high orbit above Darashal.

Racing through a stream of heavy laser fire, Jack saw ahead of him several of the black Angar-Ryllan fighters bank and turn towards him, as he did so his flight leader opened up with his own turbo lasers, firing a series of intense amber energy towards the turning fighters. Following his leader Jack checked his six and was a little miffed to see a bandit was closing in them. Throttling back he turned inside the bandit and flipped up and over so the Angar-Ryllan was now between he and his flight lead. Accelerating forward he raced after the black ship as it tried to kill his lead.

Dropping the hammer he felt the surge of power ripple through the fighter as he closed the distance, all the while his computer started lining it up for a kill, once the lock on triggered, Jack throttled his mic, “Tally ho!” he said as he unleashed a nuclear tipped missile. Pulling up and away as the projectile raced towards the ship, he managed to catch a glimpse of his lead getting hammered by the ship just before it exploded in a fiery ball of debris then suddenly flaming out.

A sickening feeling came over Jack as he whipped his fighter around, accelerating it through a series of harsh Snap-S turns trying to gain some distance from the fight. Roaring on after burners the sleek single engine fighter skittered and darted until it was nearly two-thousand miles from the battle.

Lazily pulling up and turning his fighter back towards the fight, he just gaped. Brilliant flashes of light followed by sudden and bursts of energy before they faded to nothing. Jack licked his lips as he began to easy the throttle forward heading back into the fight. Had he looked behind him he would have seen one of the large disk shaped Angur-Ryllan assault ships entering the atmosphere of Darashal.

The large assault ship roared through the atmosphere creating a series of sonic booms and a massive contrail as it dipped from frigid space to the much warmer upper-atmosphere then raced downward until it created a billowing roiling cloud as it headed towards one of the small settlements.

Sarah Qallar woke early this morning, far earlier than she normally did and both her parents were surprised and oddly pleased. To them their daughter was growing up, but Sarah woke early so she could head down to the little creek that ran through the farm. She had seen some of the local fauna there before, the large eyed and slender-limbed deer that populated the area. She had seen a doe and several fawn and wanted to see them again.

Making her way gingerly down towards the creek in the early morning fog she was eager to get there in case the deer left. The sky was usually vivid this morning the petite ten-year old thought as she paused to catch her breath.

Dazzling streaks of light seemed to appear and vanish in the darker parts of the sky. Maybe it would rain the little girl thought as she inhaled the chilly air and continued her walk. A boom in the air made her pause, looking up she saw one of the fighters that were kept in space station roar overhead, following close behind it were several odd looking black wing like things. They looked like they were playing tag as the silver fighter thundered towards the far mountains, the others close behind it.

Shaking her head the little girl turned towards the small creek when she saw them. Tall, armored warriors with glowing swords and lances. Large black eye sheilds stared at her as the closest one peered down at her. What looked like plasma staff held in its large hands.

Before Sarah could scream she heard a shot followed by another and another as her father unloaded his rifle at the Angur-Ryllan warriors. The one who was reaching for her was hit twice and stumbled, falling to the ground. The others began returning fire, heavy lasers rippled through the air, slamming into the pudgy farmer, shredding the flesh from his bones. His scream echoing through the small valley, followed by his wife's cries.

Sarah just stared at the dying Angur-Ryllan before her, her mind numb to all else as she watched a series of colors flash and twinkle under the skin of the creature. Slowly reaching out she touched the slick, clammy skin and shuddered. Withdrawing her hand, she gasps as the body stopped moving and the large eyes focused on her, dimming slowly, the flashing lights under the skin fading to nothingness. Looking up Sarah saw another silver fighter and another as they raced towards something on the other side of the valley.

Standing slowly the little girl looked around, as an explosion rocked the area, kicking up dirt and debris high into the air. More of the strange creatures marched past her, they seemed focused on the small village that lay to the north of the farm. Not seeing her father or mother a stream of tears began as the little girl felt for the first time truly alone on this world.

Aboard the Heavy Cruiser Voided Lights, Lord-Captain Hannah Kuzar allowed her psychic energies flow around her as the Talisan communications officer explained the nature of the distress call from the Darashal system. An eerie voice echoed around the bridge as Kuzar spoke, “I see...very well captain we shall respond to the call by the Darashallans. Flash transmit a message to the Galactic Congress explaining the situation.”

With that Kuzar whirled and moved with deadly grace towards her room. Captain Hussar cleared her throat a moment before speaking, “My Lord? What are you going to do?” Pausing a moment the brilliant white energies flared illuminating the bridge, “I am going to Darashal and see what is happening.” Pursing her lips, Captain Hussar, nodded slowly as she turned towards the command boards, the ability of the Psychics to travel mentally through unnerved her.

In her chambers, Lord-Captain Kuzar allowed her mental energies to expand, swirling around her a chaotic whirl of flashing colors before finding the vibrational patterns that would lead to Darashal. Allowing the patterns wash over her, she stepped forward and began her mental journey towards the beleaguered planet. It would take her mere minutes to reach the world nearly 3 light years away, and take the warship about an hour to reach the world using the fold space technology it used.

As the Lord-Captain arrived on the world, a series of explosions rocked the landscape as silver fighters streaked across the skies chasing or being chased by dull black shapes. Allowing the mental energies to flow from her, slowly enveloping everything for miles around her, during the process of acquiring understanding she felt energy signatures that seemed to blunt and turn away her ability to perceive them clearly.

A low growl rumbled from the silver-white form as she turned towards the largest concentration of this disruptive energies. The scream of fighters, followed by a massive air burst caused him to look skyward, doing so the Lord-Captain witnessed another of the large assault ships descend from the upper atmosphere, dozens of fighter craft disgorging themselves in a flurry of activity into the hazy morning. It was movement that drew her attention as several creatures began moving towards a small farm where a girl stood between them and the home. A second later shots rang out as a Darashallan male with a firearm began firing at the entities.

Dimming her energy in order to block the last moments of the man’s life as heavy kinetic projectiles riddled his body, the impacts shredding the soft flesh in a hail of arterial spray.

The Darashal child, for that is what she was, seemed shocked, her hand extending towards the dying thing before her. As she watched Lord-Captain Kuzar felt a presence behind her, drawing and ethereal sword and whirling in a deadly display of martial prowess the Lord-Captain slashed at the large Angar-Ryllan warrior that was closing in on her.

However, the others began firing their weapons at the shimmering form some of the heavy slugs slammed home knocking the glowing form being back into the trees. The explosive power would have shattered bones and most likely killed her had she been physical; however, the psychic energies flowed and swirled around her. As she slammed into the ground, she allowed herself to be draw into the ethereal spaces between worlds and dragged back to the warship.

In her darkened chambers the Lord-Captain fell into her regeneration chamber, the energies dimming in her eyes. She had made a mistake and assumed she would be able to withstand the impacts of the Angar-Ryllan weaponry. Normally had she prepared mental defenses properly she may have but she didn't and now would be out of commission for several hours as her body healed itself. Before slipping into the embrace of sleep,she felt the engines of the warship boost the cruiser into the folded space, moving towards the Darshal world at incredible speeds.

As the Voided Lights emerged from its folded space drive,, the massive scanner systems all began flashing with alerts and a stream of data started scrolling on the screens. Kicking in the heavy maneuvering engines the cruiser began to skitter in a maneuver to kick the stern around so that the massive guns would be able to fire broadside if needed. An automatic message was sent to the orbital space station- “Darashal System. This is Talisan Cruiser Voided Lights. We are responding to your distress call. We are assessing the situation and will provide what assistance we can.”

Captain Hussar eyed the screens before she inhaled deeply, “Send word to COMAHFLT, we have a situation here, a very bad situation.” The junior officer next to her nodded and scrambled down to communications where a pulse broadcast was sent to the closest Talisan Naval base with the following.

To:COMAHFLT
From: HMS-Voided Lights CAG-21
Reference- Map-Series Special- DA 1:50,000.
Time: Local Alpha- 0023:444

OppFor elements at Darashal-Open hostilities. Elements of the HPDF are engaged with OppFor. Large concentration of fast-movers near HPDF. It is estimated that HPDF will have less than 4 hours survivability. CoD-223 attached to CAG-21, further cross-attachement to T/F BB-54/CVN-98.

CAG-21 will move to defend Darashal in OPD Lagrange 1-311200A and OPD Lagrange 2-9984064 to destroy one OppFor at that station.

CAG-21 defends in detail Darashal- CAG-21 will deploy CoD-223 and VF-28 to intercept fast-movers and provide PDF.

CAG-21 End. Alpha-0023:445

The command at Al-Hazred forwarded the information to T/F BB-54/CVN-98. The Talisan Battleship Fading Glory and the Assault Carrier Tempest and their accompanying support ships 20 L.Y away from Al-Hazred and nearly 100 L.Y out of the Darashal system.

The defensive forces on Al-Hazred were alerted, while the information was forwarded to the President and his council as well as the psychic impressions recorded by the Lord-Captain were accessed to glean further insight on the Angar-Ryllan forces.

While the transmission is being sent, the large ship began moving forward towards the planet's Lagrange point, the whole while the battery of defense weapons began ripping apart dozens of incoming fighters from the Angar-Ryllans. Still a beam of the large Angar-Ryllan assault ship the massive Xi-particle boson accelerator long range assault cannons of the cruiser opened up, sending massive energy bursts towards the disc shaped ship that hung in a geosynchronous orbit over the planet.

The brilliant display of energies as the weapons fired filled the skies above the planet with intense lights as the radiations illuminated particles that were traveling through space. Even the ground troops of both sides paused as the brilliant streaks glowed bright enough to compete with the planets own star.

Aboard the warship, the flight crews of the fighters and the unmanned fighter/bombers were busy finishing equipping and fueling them. As the first pilots climbed into the cockpits, the entire ship shuddered a moment as the main guns fired. A cheer raced through the flight deck, before they returned to the business of prepping the fighters. A moment later, the first flight launched, to be followed the rest at intervals of every 5 minutes.

It was as the energy weapons of the Talisan Cruiser slammed into the defensive shields of the Angur-Ryllan warship, creating a stunning display of crackling and fragmenting energies spheres. A series of blips appeared on the Talisan scanners. A long-range sweep displayed a number of Patronius warships, this was confirmed a moment later as the following message was picked up:

Darshal Colony, this is Patronius Task Force 112/424D responding to an emergency communication sent out by one of our freighters...
We are in-system and twelve minutes out...
We will render what aid we can...
Requesting orders...

Jabbing down a override communication button, Captain Hussar spoke swiftly, “Patronius TF 112/424D, this is Cruiser Voided Lights, CAG-21. We are engaged with the OPPFOR and request that you establish evacuation routes starting from our position outward. Out.”

As Captain Hussar finished she saw the first flight of her own fighters enter the fray around the Darashal orbital station. It was going to be a long day.

Deep in the bowels of the command ship a tall being rose slowly from a pool of briny water. As the glistening flesh reflected the dull lights, the being wiped water off the sleek limbs. Turning large black eyes towards the smaller Angar-Ryllan that waited patiently, High Cleric Landars dressed slowly, as he did so he nodded for the smaller being to speak. “We have found another system with life and possible; clues about the Nexus of Worlds that can benefit the Angar-Ryllan.” The being spoke rapidly to the larger being, who nodded as the ornate robes shifted and draped over his form.

Glancing at the smaller knight, the High Cleric said, “Has the General been informed of this?” The smaller being nodded then after a moment hissed before speaking, “Our sister ship has encountered life forms willing to fight. It seems that they found a small system of bi-pedal hominids. When our brothers attacked, other fleets of ships appeared to defend the planet.”

The High Cleric pondered this as he moved with an elegant grace towards the lifts that would lead to the command center of the vast world destroying ship. “Do we need to assist them then?” He queried. The cleric shook his head, “No, the Lord Abbot merely said it was a delay to the search, nothing more.”

Stepping on the vast command deck, the High Cleric peered at the captain of his own assault ship and spoke to him softly, “This system. Tell me of its potential.” Rising from her chair the captain bowed slightly as she pointed towards the massive screens, “This system has life and the possible clues we require. It appears easily conquerable, however we have noted an oddity that seems to surround the system.”

Gliding towards a smaller screen, the captain tapped it and the exploded out a multidimensional map display. “They have this...cloud. It seems to be inherent to the system itself but we are having trouble isolating and identifying the exact nature of it.”

The High Cleric peered close to the screen allowing the data to scroll as he took it in, after a long moment he nodded saying, “Send a single destroyer, if makes it with little effect we shall proceed.”

The captain nodded and began a series of orders to several officers on the command deck, who promptly began their own order chain until on one of the destroyers that sailed ahead and below the flagship raced ahead.

On the command deck, the High Cleric moved to his large chair and sat down slowly, as he did so, a thought edged at his consciousness. With a growl he spat, “Psychics!”

Aboard the Voided Lights, the combat information center crew began relaying the positions of the Patronius ships and their distances to the central combat computer in order to plot new firing positions. Captain Hussar narrowed her eyes a moment then exhaled slowly, “Plans go to hell once the enemy is encountered.” she muttered to no one in particular as she felt the ship shudder again as the massive main guns unloaded their deadly bursts towards the Angar-Ryllan warship closest to them.

It was almost exactly at that moment that hundreds of screens began to relay information that required the crew to check the data before a sudden chill passed through many of them. The officer in the CIC depressed the comm, leaving it hanging a moment before he spoke, “Captain? We have some off the chart readings...We have the same readings, it seems as if cosmic energies are being unleashed in large amounts.” The words caused Captain Hussar to pause, a sickening feeling in her stomach as she moved to look at a screen to read the date herself.

“CIC, get me telemetry data on the source of that energy build up and I want it yesterday.” she murmured as she began sliding screens until the latest information came up. Toggling the hailing frequencies she spoke in a low tone, “Patronius TF 112/424D, this is Talisan Cruiser Voided Lights. We are picking up massive energy build-up from a source that is located near the fifth planet in this system, near one of the moons. Our scanners are detecting a massive heavy metal body as the source of the build-up, can you confirm? Over, out.”

LAST TIME ON DRAGON BALL Z!

No, but seriously. In lower orbit around Darashal LeeRoy's Space Grazer was brought out of absolute thin air with the engines as cold as space. The scientist frantically went through every single motion of getting his ship started up, "Come on you old hunk of space junk, work!" That unpleasantly gritty voice of his was already wearing on his nerves, having to listen to himself talk was one of the highlights of his focus. And now this voice? Jesus, this is going to suck. It's already breaking his concentration because he's standing here thinking about it, why? "Oh! Right, ship!"

'Don't lose focus, and try not to gargle marbles dude.'

"Shut up! This is not funny!" Apparently it was to his patron god, but to LeeRoy and Voidman this was quite serious. Another bodily destruction in immediate succession? That would mean another segment of his god showing up with an overblown musical fanfare. And that wouldn't be any good, LeeRoy tried to level out but the ship just wasn't starting. And the entire thing was literally clicking like a fucking Geiger counter, no wait, that was an actual Geiger counter. Right, the ship was bathed in radiation, is he going to get cancer? Probably.

LeeRoy tugged on the wheel and demanded that the ship leveled out, but it just wasn't cooperating. LeeRoy was absolutely going to crash!

“What in the world is going on?” Maxwell thought to himself, just a hint of grump in that thought. “When I signed up for this, I didn't really plan on having something like this happen to me.” He looks around, his eyes squinty, brow furrowed as he stares at his current surroundings. Maxwell is currently inside the portal. Now, Maxwell is just as tough as the, no. Wait, that's a load of shit. Maxwell is FAR tougher than any normal human being, he's tougher than any SUPER human being too. But still, being surrounded by a swirling vortex of gold, purple, and black energies is just *slightly* offputting, even for him. Should he touch it? Probably not. There are two possibilities. One: He absorbs the power of the Nexus and becomes a god. No more of this worshiping stuff that he has to go through (Not that he really minds). Two: The energy rips him apart molecule by molecule, leading to an indescribably painful death. Now, Maxwell admittedly isn't the smartest guy, but he's not dumb either by any means, and he has enough experience to know that touching it is probably a terrible idea. For now, he just holds himself stiff as a board, trying to stay away from the energy that seems to be creeping closer and closer. "I hope this doesn't spit me out anywhere that's a pain in the ass."

Well Maxwell, sorry, but you did not get your wish. As he nears the end of the portal, a high pitch noise begins to ring in his ears. "Whreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" Oh joy. "Stop that portal. I would absolutely punch you in the face, but I think that would kill me. I'm not going out that early." The portal quickly contracts, squeezing around his waist. "Wait what the hell, I was kidding! Let me go!" The portal squeezes tighter, then draws back, shooting Maxwell out of it like a freshly uncorked bottle of wine, complete with a *POP*.

"Well its nice to be out of-" Maxwell stops talking as he notices all of the blue around him, complete with a tinge of fluffy white. "Are those clouds? Yay." Maxwell's face goes completely stale, a look of complete seriousness upon it as his body snaps to rigid hardness as he begins to hurtle to the ground. Light as a feather, stiff as a board Maxwell, you know how this goes. It isn't the first time you've had to deal with horrible falls. He begins to fall faster and faster, approaching speeds that no human should hit just from falling. Then, all of a sudden, BOOM. He slams back first into something hard. And metally. Also very hard.

Sitting in his two foot dent, Maxwell groans. "Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhng. That hurt." Maxwell is a tough dude, but even he's allowed to groan after slamming into a metallic object at 160 mph. It turns out this object was LeeRoy's ship, and Maxwell landed square on the back of it, with all his weight and speed. This undoubtedly actually helped to level the ship and perhaps stop it from crashing.

In a feverish panic LeeRoy accidentally broke one of the levers on the main console, trying to forcefully pull his ship up so he wouldn't just nosedive into the dirt. It was damn near a certainty that he was going to crash, but then something parallel to a godsend happened. The entire back half of his ship dropped like a brick, faster than the front half. The sudden slam of weight to the back sent the ship careening through the air, like a dropped piece of wood LeeRoy's ship started upending and correcting itself repeatedly. A spiral of excruciating discomfort as LeeRoy was in a gravitational environment, as the ship spun through the air LeeRoy was thrown about inside of a metal coffin in the sky. "Today is the worst day that I've had in a very long time."

'We're flipping around! We're gonna die!' Forgetting that she's already dead the Voidman panicked and forgot entirely that LeeRoy can't die. Perhaps being flipped through the air distorts one's judgement.

While being tossed around the ship, slamming into walls and chairs and computer screens LeeRoy was speaking silently and deliberately. Trying to use his old level tone but with the new gritty voice. "That's unlikely. But I'll be honest, my body is not ready for this. I was literally just reborn from a pile of my own gore." His calmness in a shitstorm was cut short, however, as he slammed facefirst into the roof of his ship. The hull screamed with the sudden impact onto what seemed to be a soft surface, the glass viewscreen shattered and the front of his ship filled with sand. LeeRoy rose to his feet, blood trickling from his mouth and nose. Glass sticking out of his eyebrows from his broken glasses. "Ow."

'That's it? Ow? That's all you have to say about this?'

"It's not the first crash that we've survived, won't be the last."

'What the hell hit us?'

"Probably something Angar-Ryllan, a bomb or something they planted on our ship."

'That felt more like a sudden jarring impact.'

"You feel this stuff?"

'Only the movement.'

"Why do you keep withholding information from me?" Leaning up against the wall to steady himself he wandered over to his helmet. Now full of sand from top to bottom. "Great, it'll still work for protection or something." With one hand he shook the sand out and reattached it to his suit. Lucky the visor was still intact, it would provide some protection. The scientist walked out of his ship and into the sandy terrain, in every direction he looked he saw rocks and sand. "Great."

'What?'

"You know where we are? You want to know what terrain we are on?"

'Yes! What's wrong!?'

"This is a god damned desert!" In one foul swoop his day went from worst in his life, to worst in the fucking multiverse. Died, brought back, had to feel growing back, lost his own voice, was teleported to a new planet, and then fucking crashed. Not just any crash! A crash in a desert! Not a desert planet! No, the ONE desert at the equator! The one desert! "I hate you!" LeeRoy screamed to the sky, kicking sand every which way as he walked away from his crashed ship. "God dammit!"

'Calm down!'

"No you calm down! I'm probably gonna have to repair my ship with shit from the desert! I'm not gonna walk! I'm gonna wait right here, because this is bullshit!" LeeRoy was screaming at the voice in his head, audibly furious at this desert. Oh, right, did I fail to mention? His ship is half buried and upside down in the sand!

Oh for the love of god. Okay, so now the entire ship has started to spin tremendously, which would probably give him a headache if he didnt have the constitutional fortitude of adamantium. Honestly though, it's probably a good thing he's crammed so far down into the hull, otherwise he would be unceremoniously ejected out of his little hole, right back into the air. And from this high up, it would do a lot more than just hurt. He might even break his leg or something, and that would be unfortunate! So for now, he really has nothing better to do than close his eyes and brace for impact. "This day is already not going in my favor."

I mean really, as long as the ship doesn't land backside down everything will be fi-THUMP.

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPPNG." Maxwell lets out a muffled cry of pain behind his mask. He just slammed into sand at 150 mph, which wouldn't have hurt him that much, to be honest. It's the 78 ton ship that just LANDED ON HIM. Right on his back. Not only was he just Meteor Crashed into the desert sand, the force of the ship landing on him ejected him about 70 feet into the sand, absolutely burying him under a massive amount of bullshit, and he only kept sinking further. Most of the time, Maxwell never lets any sort of painful utterance out, but his body decided to make an exception after what just happened.

Maxwell takes a second to pat himself down and do a runcheck of the damage. Armor's horribly dented, some parts of it crumpled up against his body, some of them bulging out, there's a hole in his left leg piece. Bones seem to be okay though. Nothing's broken, but everything is sore. Absolutely incredibly sore. And angry. Maxwell reaches up and removes his angry mask, revealing an even angrier face underneath. "I. Hate. Sand." He begins to mutter as he wiggles around to face up. "Sand. Gets. In. Everything." His gauntlets begin to light up and glow with the Holy Fire. "Takes. Forever to get out." The heat from the Fire begins to glass the sand around him as he pulls himself through the sand at a pretty marvelous pace. Once he stops, the gloves turn off.

Now, with a face and armor full of sand, Maxwell positions himself underneath the hole he made in the ship, now facing up. "Piece of shit ship." He punches it, HARD. The ship creaks, moving up about a foot. "Dropping me in sand." He punches again, this time with his right arm, trying to put his body into it the best he can in the bad sand conditions. About two or three feet this time. "Just fucking MOVE!" He roars, punching the ship with both arms at full strength, the veins in his arms rippling out, a vein bulging in his forehead. Normally,he'd be able to lift and toss something like this out of the way no problem. The sand makes it so the best punch he can deliver is a straight arm punch. Not particularly good, probably only about 30 percent normal force. But for Maxwell, even thirty percent is still huge. Huge enough in fact, to blow the ship out of the sand, busting a hole through the bottom and sending it spiraling through the air, flipping over and over. Maxwell is not happy. He crawls to where the ship was, standing on the bottom of the crater.

Though LeeRoy's ship was hot on his mind the entire time he was forgetting one crucial detail, a detail that was incredibly important. What hit his ship? The voidman tried to speak over the shouting and ranting, LeeRoy was currently inconsoleable, until the sound of metal creaking touched his ears. LeeRoy went silent, as did the voidman. Again, the sound was certainly there. Was his ship making noises? Was his ship going to explode? That would be a nightmare. Then he'd be forced to walk through the damned desert.

Let me explain why LeeRoy's incredibly opposed to the desert.

It's useless.

The desert serves one purpose, to provide certain minerals at certain times in the year, to certain parts of the world, when a certain trade wind blows over. Otherwise, ninety-nine percent of the time, it's a literal death trap. Anything that is in the desert is totally worthless, no matter what 'gems' or 'resources' they find out there. It's not worth it, you are GOING to die, that's just how deserts work. They don't have food, water, and they're incredibly hot. Some contest that cacti and desert animals could be used to make a proper life out in the desert. Those people are dumb. LeeRoy fucking hates the desert.

But then the creaking noise a third and final time, and then his ship was sent flying. Not taking off, more like it was thrown. By something. "What." That wasn't a question, it was simply a statement of the word.

'What?' That was actually a question, the Voidman doesn't know what to expect.

"Was- Was that my ship? Why did my ship get sent flying?" He spoke aloud as he watched his ship do several flips before landing rightside up in the sand, sinking in once again. LeeRoy wandered over to the hole that had formed where his ship was and looked inside. There was a man. A man who should have been dead, but was not. And not only should he not be alive, he just threw LeeRoy's ship. "What." It wasn't just any man, no, this man was clad from head to heel in armor. Big obtrusively bright armor, like something ripped out of a cheesy RPG. And more importantly he was god damned huge! Why was this guy so big!? He's like nine or ten feet tall! What is wrong with this universe. "What!?"

"Ah, that's much better. Don't have a hundred tons of bullshit sitting on my back. No sand in my face. Love it." He takes a deep breath and stretches, trying to loosen some of his muscles so that bruises he gets later won't be the size of melons, his muscles sounding like tanned leather as they stretch. He opens his eyes and his ears twitch as he hears a faint, 'What.' Oh, so the pilot of that ship decided to show up, huh. Guess there's really no choice, considering the ship itself if now about 200 feet away, buried in the sand. Maxwell allows himself a small grin of satisfaction. Normally he doesn't get so much enjoyment out of ruining someone else's things, but not gonna lie, tossing that ship felt real good. He looks at LeeRoy, takes a step backward, and then makes a jump.

Now, this is no ordinary jump. Maxwell has legs that would make a Giant Redwood tree weep from the beauty. We're talking grade A treetrunks. These legs allow Maxwell, all thirty five HUNDRED pounds of him, to run at a speed of 100 miles an hour without stopping for at least 7 hours. So when I say that Maxwell jumps, its more appropriate to say he took off from the ground. With force. Jumping 100 feet is simple for Maxwell. So, he angles himself properly, and launches over to LeeRoy, cracking the ground where he lands with his massive weight.

"So, is this your ship? It landed on me. It kind of hurt." He states is simply and matter of factly, as if just being slightly hurt by it was completely natural.

Yep.

It's official.

LeeRoy should not have come to this little corner of the Multiverse.

The man who was just in the hole and buried beneath his ship was now in the air above his head, a single jump had sent him soaring through the air like a bird. So he was indescribably strong. Scratch that. He was so strong that he threw incredibly heavy star ships through the air as though they were fucking nothing. That's how strong he is. And he has a hundred feet of vertical jump. This guy's like fucking Original Superman. LeeRoy groaned and marched up to the giant muscular jerk and pointed his finger at him accusingly. "Yes, that's my ship! You wrecked my ship! You hit my fucking ship!"

'What.'

Ignoring the voice in his head he continued screaming at this gargantuan man, not really caring about his safety at this point. "You're damn right it hurt! You hit my ship! How the hell did you not only hit my ship, but crash it, and then survive the crash!?" The screaming continued like that for a little while until LeeRoy ran out of breath and then just sat down in the sand. LeeRoy was done screaming, he was done caring, he was just done. What kind of backwoods universe had he stumbled into? What's next, that fucking hill over there standing up to beat the hell out of him? Probably, but he just couldn't find it in himself to care.

"I've just got one question left. Are you the bitch of some god?"

'What the hell, LeeRoy, this guy could probably rip you in half!'

"Yeah I've been through worse."

Oh, this is a turn of events. Turns out the scientist is a rather stocky individual with HUGE arms. Maxwell raises his eyebrows and looks down at his own arms. Hmm, they're about the same size. That's honestly really surprising. Maxwell is so much bigger than normal people, its not common to find anyone with limbs coming anywhere close to his size. Completely ignoring his ranting, Maxwell nods his head. Rather impressive that, honestly. Odd thing to be impressed by, but come on, when you're like Maxwell, you've really got to take your likenesses with other humans when you can get them.

But anyway, back to the topic at hand. Little arguing guy right in front of him. "Yeah, I did hit your ship! It was on TOP of me. What else was I supposed to do?" Maxwell states this VERY obvious line of though. Ships on top of him, ship needs to go. "And I survived that crash because I'm made of just a wee bit sterner stuff than most people, including, Im assuming, you." His voice gets a bit lower near the end of that statement. Its not exactly a threat, but ey, when you've lived a life of violence like Maxwell has, things like this just have a tendency to happen.

What's this dudes problem anyway? If he built a ship capable of traversing through space, shouldn't it have like, self repairing nanomachines or something? He'll be the first to admit, Maxwell doesn't know all that much about science. His origin world wasn't that scientifically advanced, and he only knows what he picked up through his travels. "Doesn't your ship just repair itself anyway? I mean, if you can travel through space quickly, it's gotta be pretty advanced, right?" He takes his helmet off, letting his hair out, and scratches the back of his head. "I mean, I'm fairly ignorant of all this "Future Science" stuff."

"Also, you've got to be a lot tougher than you look, cause otherwise you'd not be insulting someone of my stature. I've beat the literal shit out of dudes for less than what you've said." He's gotta admit though, he respects someone who won't back down from a fight, even if it is incredibly stupid. "Yes, to answer your question, I am a "Bitch" of a god. I prefer the term paladin though, so I'd appreciate if you use it." Maxwell creases his eyebrows. He's not about to beat LeeRoy up yet, but he's also not quite a nice guy, and being referred to as a bitch is not something he takes kindly to. He's not above punching a nerd in the glasses.

Bigass lug was looking at his hands in what appeared to be a disconnection from the conversation, this irked LeeRoy. Some people were so powerful that they seemed to think conversation was totally worthless. In fact, more than some. It's ignorance in its most heavily refined form. A lack of conversation lead to silence, silence leads to a lack of practice. You never know when you're going to have to talk your way out of something. But now the guy was talking about LeeRoy's ship.

In what seemed to be an indignant matter-of-fact statement he started speaking about how it was totally normal to send massive chunks of metal flying through the air. Specifically how he was acting as though he were the one victimized here. Then he concluded his point with the sentence: "And I survived that crash because I'm made of just a wee bit sterner stuff than most people, including, I'm assuming, you." That was rather offensive to LeeRoy, it wasn't his fault that he couldn't sleep. "Yeah, sure, you can go right ahead and make abbrasive commentary about how much better you are than me. Whoop de doo, now that I know what god you're working for I know exactly how this'll go anyway."

'What do you mean b- Oh. Really? Him? Of all the gods to toss someone our way, him?'

"Of course, I mean he is friends with Big Blue. I'm assuming. Gold and Blue go well together, colors contrast pretty well and all that."

And then he made the dumb comment. Of course he's dumb. "Self repair? Really? Is that what you think I'm capable of. Sure, let me just sit down and explain to you the thousands of reasons why that doesn't make sense. For starters, creating the materials that can reshape an entire ship would take decades. Proper programming would take a fucking century before it doesn't run the risk of rampant over aggression. Trust me, I've tried."

'We all know how that one ended.'

"Yeah, theoretically apocalyptic situations aren't fun." LeeRoy stood back up and took a step up to Maxwell, opening up the visor on his helmet to get a better look at him. "And besides, what do you know about science. I can tell that you're armed with Iron Age technology, you couldn't even begin to comprehend how to build a space ship."

"I don't need to be anything, numbnuts. I can insult any person I want and there's not a damn thing you can do to me. What're you gonna do? Punch me? How original." The scientist's temper was running incredibly hot. The long list of shitty events that have ruined LeeRoy's day has just not been annoying, they have been compiling. He could literally not care less about the emotions of some meatheaded 'paladin.' "Yeah, and about that 'paladin' shit. You're nothing more than a worker of your god, gods are not super caring about mortals. You know that right? You're just a blink in the lifetime of an immortal being. And your cock-sure behavior isn't going to get you off of this heap of a planet. I'm the only person in the entire world who knows you're out here, and I'm the only person who has a fucking ship that's easily accessable."

'LeeRoy, you're getting ahead of yourself!' The voidman pleaded with him but his frustrations were too great for him to care.

"And besides, Bitch. You're the one who wrecked it, so you either make the choice of helping me or fucking die out here."

Ohhhhh, we have ourselves a feisty one here. Looks like the scientist has a bit of fight in him after all. Maxwell grins once he starts his tirade again. Two can play this game, and I can guarantee Maxwell has more fight in him that the one yelling.

"You can go on making abrasive comments about how you're better than me!" "Well excuse me! I wasn't exactly saying Im better than you, just tougher. Two totally different categories. If I was talking about being better than you, trust me, you'd know!" Maxwell retorts rather aggressively. He doesn't take kindly to being yelled at for no good reason. He comes hurtling out of the sky, gets hit by a SPACESHIP and somehow its HIS fault he had to get it off of him!? Yeah no, he doesn't think so. LeeRoy is pushing his luck quick, and the thread is wearing thing. And now that he knows what god Maxwell's with? How in the hell would he know that? He better keep his mouth shut on that though, if there's one thing Maxwell doesn't tolerate at all, it's having his patron talked shit about.

And now the runt is going on about how stupid self repairing ships are. Yeah, like Maxwell fucking cares about that. "Well fucking EXCUSE me princess! How in the hell was I supposed to know that!? I've run into self repairing ships before, it's honestly not that uncommon! I take it I'm a wee bit smarter than you give me credit for. I've been all over the fucking universe and have learnt a lot more than your average, everyday solider. TRUST me, I'm EVERYTHING but average!" Now Maxwell's yelling too, a vein bulging in his head from anger. Goddamn he hates people yelling at him. His hearing's better than a normal human, just like everything else, and yelling is just fucking grating.

Numbnuts. How clever. Thats grade A middle school insults right there. But its still annoying now, annoying enough to give Maxwell just even more of a push over the edge of violence. As LeeRoy keeps yelling about how punching him would be super unoriginal, he nods his head. Yeah, punching him, that's exactly what he's gonna do. He brings up his right arm and takes the gauntlet off, hanging it off of his hip, attached to the armor. And how lucky for LeeRoy, he just lifted his visor.

Wait, what was that? " You're nothing more than a worker of your god, gods are not super caring about mortals. You know that right? You're just a blink in the lifetime of an immortal being." Yeah, that's what he thought he heard. Maxwell immediately stops listening to whatever the rest LeeRoy is saying. Talking shit about his god is the number one thing to not do around Maxwell.

With a vein bulging in his forehead and a brutally cold smile, Maxwell cocks his arm back and twists his hip. This is gonna be a full power, whole contact right straight. "You need to shut the hell up, NOW. I've fucking had it with you! I TRIED being nice, and since that didn't WORK, try this! You're gonna need my help a hell of a lot more than I need yours!" He throws his shoulder forward, twists his hips back around and give a perfect, by the book right straight right at LeeRoy's face. This would take a normal human's head right off, but Maxwell gives no fuck. LeeRoy shouldlve take then warning when he got it, but he let his temper get the best of him. Oh well.

I think the biggest point that LeeRoy got from all of this was the fact that he had fucked up somewhere around halfway through his rant. The massive man pulled the gauntlet from his hand and clenched his fist. LeeRoy's eyes trailed up from the fist to Maxwell's face. Oh boy.

A smile.

'You have officially fucked up.'

"Yep."

He closed his eyes and pressed his head against the back of his helmet to best possibly brace himself for this punch. No, it wasn't going to do much. In fact it was going to do almost nothing. But it was more for his sanity's sake. With a punch so swift it would take a normal man's head off LeeRoy was struck right in the jaw. Without his helmet this would have likely knocked his block clean off. But we'll assess the damage after he lands.

Lands?

Yeah. He's flying. LeeRoy's face was struck with so much force that he was sent flying backwards over the surface of the sand. The wind ripped against his increasingly sore face, that was surprising. Why? Well he didn't expect to already be upside down, he was flipping through the air with the momentum from that punch. As his flight began to slow down LeeRoy's face was met with a fuckton of sand, he flipped a few more times in the sand. Sending huge clouds of sand into the air as he struck the gritty surface. By the time LeeRoy had landed in the dirt he was damn near invisible behind the cloud of sand.

He slid to a half on the sand and just laid there.

'You fucked up so bad.'

Yeah. I really fucked up.

The scientist checked himself over, wiggling his toes and fingers and then his arms and legs. At least I'm not paralyzed. And that's when the pain returned from the shock of it all. LeeRoy's face was screaming in agony, and so was he. Oh hey, he hadn't noticed that he was screaming. Hooray. In fact he hadn't noticed a couple things.

First off he's got both of his hands on his face, holding it tightly and muffling his screams. From his neck down he was in fact convulsing and writhing on the ground. This was understandable for someone who's barely over a low tier getting punched by a high tier. Finally there was a lot of blood, his hands were soaked in the stuff. The low quality reddish grey blood was coating his palms and actually seeping through his fingers.

'That's bad.'

Oh yeah. I'd be willing to bet that my face is screwed up pretty bad.

'No sense in delaying it.'

Nope. He lifted his hands away from his face and closed his visor, flicking on the self observation. Oh Jesus Christ. Let's start with the least ruined part. His nose was shattered and pressed flat against his face, damn near completely crushed. Second was the fact that his front teeth were all in the back of his mouth, that was disgusting in more than one way. And last but certainly not least of these observations was his jaw. LeeRoy's jaw was literally hanging off of his head, almost completely split in two and functionally severed from his skull. Trying to move it was excruciating and fruitless so he just let it hang.

'You just got wrecked.'

I am very well aware of my current situation.

'Should you apologize?'

Are you serious? Even if I wanted to I couldn't, did you not see my jaw?

'You're a stubborn asshole, you know that?'

To be fair, he punched me in the face.

'After you insulted his god.'

Shut up. LeeRoy struggled back to his feet and started a very slow and deliberate walk back to his ship. His body was, overall, rather unharmed from the punch. Since it was a punch to his face he was left only in pain from the neck up. But the slow walk was to keep it from getting any worse. LeeRoy kept his visor down to prevent Maxwell from seeing the damge that he had caused.

Yes. He's that prideful.

'Today is not your day.'

I know.

"Bahahahaha! Oh man, that was awesome." Maxwell laughs profusely and wipes his eyes. Yep, there's a tear there. Honestly, that's not what he was expecting. He was expecting his head to go flying or something. Maybe after that he would loot the ship for some valuables. It's not the first time he's done something like that But no matter! What he just got to see happen was a hilarious scene of that dude rolling through the sand. Mm, priceless. Its actually really incredible that LeeRoy managed to survive that too. There aren't many things that can survive a full punch from Maxwell, and he'll be the first to tell you, he certainly didn't expect THAT guy to live. He looks decently tough for an average human, but certainly not anything greater than average. Maxwell rubs his impressively chiseled chin. "Maybe I underestimated you, Scientist," He mumbles to himself.

Now, there is a crucial decision to make here. Maxwell could either A: Apologize to LeeRoy and offer his help. (Not gonna happen.) Or he could B: Go to LeeRoy, say he underestimated him, and try to come to a mutual understanding so that they both dont die out in the middle of the fucking desert. Hmmm. Neither of them are honestly very appealing. Admitting he's wrong? Fuck that noise.

Maxwell shrugs his shoulders and begins to walk towards the ship. It's whatever really. It's either join up with LeeRoy, or have a considerably more likely chance of dying out in the middle of a metric asston of sand. And right now, Maxwell hates sand more than he hates LeeRoy. He definitely at least dislikes LeeRoy though. I mean, did you hear what all he said to him?! Ridiculous. He totally insulted Maxwell's god, and that's a grievous charge. However, Maxwell just almost literally knocked LeeRoy's block off, so he figures they're even. He'll call it that anyway, cause having to deal with more arguing is more of a pain in the ass than Maxwell is willing to go through. And after looking at LeeRoy, he figures that dude could do a whole lot more arguing before getting tired.

So hopefully the two grown ass men will realize that more arguing is stupid, let bygones be bygones, and not make even more of a mess than they're already in. Maxwell slips his gauntlet back on and continues walking towards LeeRoy, who is walking towards the ship, calling out to him.

"Hey! That was really impressive, surviving that punch. I'm prideful, but not stupid. So how about we call it there and see about getting out of this fucking desert?" He swears to god though, if he makes a comment about 'Oh, backing down already?' or something, LeeRoy's gonna get the slip slapped out of him. Again.

When Maxwell called out to him after LeeRoy stood up he didn't even bother trying to wave out a response, continuing on his way back to his ship. LeeRoy climbed inside and checked the main console, deactivating non-vital systems and rerouting directly to the medical bay. At that point he collapsed onto the floor and pressed a couple buttons on his chest piece. The armor snapped open and the helmet popped off like a cork, as it rolled away the small spherical form of LeeRoy's assistant droid rolled across the ground and stopped by his body. "Do you need assistance, LeeRoy?" Rather weakly he nodded to the small robot. "Very well, medical bed?" Another small nod. "Very well." A dozen or so metal tendrils emerged from the sphere and coiled around his body, lifting him above the sphere and carting him off to the medical bay. It was quite desolate in there, despite the main table still functioning, the only lights on were the emergencies. This gave the entire chamber a dim blue glow. Why blue? Red may illuminate more but it looks mad nasty in a medical bay.

On the table was LeeRoy's still writhing form, encased in metal appendages that slowly unraveled from around him. After releasing him the ball robot rolled over to the secondary console, connecting directly into the surgical table. Metal hands reached out from the table and grabbed LeeRoy's legs and arms, locking them into place. Then a golden dome, filtered to an ugly green in the blue light, sealed itself around LeeRoy's body and released several small machine arms. These little arms slid up to his face and began work with a series of potent local anesthetics, dulling the nerves before they were even properly reconnected. This would prevent any unnecessary pain in the near future.

After injecting the various wounds a small hose emerged from the table and curved upwards into his mouth, siphoning out the excess blood. Two hands reached down and opened up his mouth all the way, a third hand reached in and grabbed the teeth that had been knocked out and set them aside. Several dozen little wiry arms reached up and started repositioning LeeRoy's jaw, inserting themselves into the torn flesh as living sutures. With one quick sickening crack his jaw was snapped back into position. If his mouth would open he would have let out the loudest and most pained scream humanly imaginable. After a full battery of facial reconstruction, which some parts are too gross to go into detail for, LeeRoy was left to recover and come down from the sedatives.

'That was sickening to witness.'

Though his mouth was still numbed he managed to mutter out a few words. "At- At leaft you diddin haff to fill it."

'You sound like an idiot.'

Fuck yourself. He thought aloud, laying there on the metal bench and staring up at the blue overhead lights. His tongue limply prodded at his replaced teeth and bones, the metal wiring connecting them to his skull was unpleasant to the touch. "Groth." And now LeeRoy waits for Maxwell to enter his ship and say whatever off-hand comment he wants to say.

As he approaches the ship, Maxwell hears many a whirring and buzzing noise. "Hmm, what could those sounds be? I thought this whole thing was trashed." Walking into the ship with a classic sound of metal boots on steel floor, Maxwell walks through the trashed craft, noting an odd glow throughout the whole place. Happening upon the medical bay (How? I dunno. Plot progression that's how.) Maxwell freezes as he walks in halfway through the procedure. Holy shit man, that looks intense. Maxwell cringes as he watches, gasping when the small wire arms burrow into LeeRoy's jaw. Maxwell can absolutely power through worse things that that, his pain tolerance levels are high, but even taking that into consideration, that still looks and sounds incredibly painful, and he's just a little sympathetic, cause you know. He's the one who did it to LeeRoy, so. There's that.

After the procedure, Maxwell clears his throat. Cough cough, and all that. "So. That looked incredibly painful." He's a bit awkward, he's never really one to apologize. (Really? SHOCKING.) "Also, I am incredibly impressed that you managed to take that punch and get up. So, I'm sorry for breaking your ship, but not for punching you. You should have known better, being someone of I'm assuming, pretty incredible intellect." Yeah, he's not gonna apologize for the punch. LeeRoy was pretty much literally asking for it, talking shit about Maxwell and his god like that. "So, I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. I need help getting off of this planet to get somewhere more worthwhile, and it's pretty clear this fucking ship isn't going anywhere unless I move it around for you. So, I think we should work together to try and get out of this sand hellhole."

Maxwell holds out his massive hand in a handshaking position. "Now, Im not saying we should be all buddy buddy, but I think we need to at least try and not kill each other so we're not surrounded by sand for the next seventy years. Can we make a deal on that?" That should do. Maxwell doesnt particularly like LeeRoy, and he knows LeeRoy doesn't like him, so a truce is the best that BOTH of them can hope for at this point.

The ship rocked slightly as Maxwell's weight pushed down on the side he came in, followed by the echoing clang of his metal boots on the floor. When the blue colored outline of Maxwell's enormous form peeked his head in the door he saw a slight look of disgust on his face. LeeRoy would have smiled if he had the ability to, a bit squeemish despite his brutish nature. Duely noted.

But then something unexpected happened.

He apologized.

'What.'

We're done with that.

'Oh.'

He did apologize though, not about the punch to the face. LeeRoy didn't expect an apology for that. Maxwell apologized to him for striking his ship, which was alright by LeeRoy, as long as he didn't have to deal with another punch. "Yeah thure, I thupothe that we cout comm to an agweemen." The numbing agents plus his new voice are an incredibly unfortunate combination, it makes him sound like a drunkard with a heavy lisp.

Reaching up he shook Maxwell's hand and used his arm as a lever to hoist himself back up to his feet. Flexing his jaw a bit he tried to get some of the feeling back into his tongue so he could speak properly. He did this as he walked up to the main console on the ship. At the console he pressed a few buttons and a shaky viewscreen popped up, he touched it and rerouted all power from the medical bay and emergency lights to the main lights and forward screens. "Ath it iss-" He paused for a moment, congratulating himself on the usage of the letter 's' with a numb tongue. "We'll about a hundred or tho milth fom anywell elth. I can get tha lannin' gear down if you go lift her up a bit." He paused again to clear his throat and turn around to Maxwell. "That thould help you drag her a bit, the wheelth should be functhunal."