[IC] Innocence Lost - A Science Fantasy RP [v.03]

[FalloutJack]

NERO KAYAKOS

At the mention of spreading propaganda, Nero snorted and went "I'm not zippin' through the galaxy just to shout at people, lady.", clearly not interested in talking his battles. Talk is cheap, or for making badass one-liners before getting down to business. Oh, they saw Nero coming when they started taking kids for this war. They knew he was destined for killing things. Well, to that end, that's what he did, and that's what he preferred. Leave the rumors and gossip to people who like that sorta' thing. He'll take the wetwork assignments, thank ya much. Anyway, Nero had been talking over the first part of that sudden news bite with his attitude, so he missed part of it, at first, picking up at the mention of 'Restarters', and going "What the fuck?" as he noticed. There was a weird collection of guys who wanted the war to start up going around, kicking shit to the curb, apparently. Surprised to see a Rau've involved. Nero thought they were all suppose to be logical, not crazy like him. Ah well, whatever. What really threw him was everybody looking ahead at this armored crawler-thingy ahead of them now.

"Wait, in there? How the hell did we miss that shit goin' on?"

Hard to say, really. When did the food shuttle come across the weapon crawler in the first place? Nevermind... Looks like they were gonna be taking them on next, 'cause the weirdest Kaisoken Nero ever saw sent a transmission, next thing ya know. Ya get use to a thing, after a while, like the Kai being all floaty gem dudes who cast magic missle. This guy was somethin' else... He was basically workin' to plunder the shop they were on with his little demand. The owner made them the offer of essentially paying them to help out, which put a smile on Nero's face as Natasha seemed to agree that they had a job to do. He had no idea who Abbadon Kinslayer was, and it didn't matter, 'cause he got himself an idea when Ash started talking with others on how to do things.

"Here's what I say we do: Fin makes us a little portal in there so we can see what's up inside, and then Tarak shoves a whole buncha' stuns in there to make everyone miserable. And if he sees that crystal bastard, I give his gun a jolt that'll make his bullets shatter the guy's ass."

It was a cocky plan, but...think about it. They got portals, they got stun grenades, and that'll put off just about everyone. And as for Mirrorshard, Shadow Charged bullets oughta' rip right through him, no problem. At least, he thought so. Nero smirked as he got on his tactical armored mask as Avelyn spoke up about whether they were taking from the weapons shop.

"Hey, I'm all for it."

[Landaus Five-One]

---

If anything, Narvia was kind of slow in eating her meal compared to the ones who were eating. She had always taken her time to eat things since she had all the time in the world. The one thing that made her go Aww was when Samuel and Iris fell asleep next to each other. It was super cute, but their antics are adorable, but they are acting like themselves anyway. Narvia always had a fondness for adorable things, and Iris and Samuel are definitely that. ’Aww, so cute… These two are adorable and great siblings… Makes me miss my older sisters...’ She thought with a slight hope her sisters are doing much better than they are. It was obvious to her she wants to reconnect with them badly. The hope in her is greater than anything else; at least it couldn’t get any worse, she supposed.

Natasha’s voice from Flame’s Omnitool drew her interest much when Natasha spoke about The Dragon is a respectable guy. Narvia smiled happily, since yeah, he is definitely respectable, just a bit cryptic, to say the least. ” I can’t wait to meet you in person, Natasha. And yeah, we will be great friends.” She responded to Natasha with a definite good vibe in her tone of voice. It was always the will of her godfather to make acquaintances that will last a lifetime. However, the question that Ariel brought up to Natasha did make her wonder. In terms of what Natasha answered did make her a bit happy about the specifics. The Ascendancy needs to pay for their crimes, but the one that needs to pay for his crimes is closer to her. It was her own father, Conner, who allowed the Ascendancy to experiment on her. That just made her disappointed the man that was never there in her life betrayed her as a father. It was specifically from what she heard Nikolas talk about when they had some alone time between operations. Even though she wants to know why her father is so evil and the only one to give that answer would be her godfather.

It took her a bit by surprise when her omnitool went off about a shuttle-crawler weapon shop hijacked by a group called the ’Restarters’ wanted to restart the Coalition war. This somewhat scared her; haven’t enough people been hurt through the war. Her godfather was heavily intelligent that neither side would be happy about the collusion of the war. Even though the Ascendancy did lose but still had the capabilities to rebuild itself. At least, some things did rub off onto her since her godfather was incredibly intelligent and strategically minded about certain rumblings in the Ascendancy. However, when it was found out that the crawler was basically in front of them, it made her a bit shocked. The biggest shock was the holographic message of a standing Kaisoken with arms and legs. ” What… the?” She questioned with a slightly confused look on her face. Her tone of voice was quiet since this was the literal first time seeing one of these Kaisoken.

When everything settled down in her head, she knew the only responsible thing would be helping the kind Rau’ve Lady who owned this shop. Even though it would mean she wouldn’t be able to finish her meal, it was more important to protect civilians. It is mostly from her training by the Dragon. His fleet never harmed civilians in any of their sorties. This felt like everything was moving so fast, but when Natasha spoke up and saying it their first mission to save the civilians from those extremists. It was pleasing to her since she wanted to help. She was pleased to hear that, but she wasn’t the most helpful in the strategy planning since that’s more of her godfather’s expertise.

In terms of everything, she would do her best to defeat the extremists. The questions came all at once, which was saying something. Needless damage wouldn’t be a good idea to deal with. But Finbarr’s portals would be the best way to attack the extremists. It is a good thing that Finbarr answered Flame’s question. However, when Avelyn asked her question, she gasped a bit. ” I would rather behave Avelyn, honestly. We are trying to save people not to get a five-fingered discount.” She responded to Avelyn’s question since she would rather do the right thing. She was a bit idealistic, but she was raised for 7 years of her life by Nikolas R. Zahrin. Additionally, it was what Nikolas would do anyway. She giggled at Nero slightly by what he said. It makes sense to do that since it was so like him to say that. ” I’ll do what I can too. One of my magic can disable gravity could probably be a good idea on the Mirror prick.” She responded by adding that one of her magics is a Gravity Disable. It was an idea added to Nero’s plan.

_{@Letter Bee@Starlance@Th3King0fChaos@dragonpiece@FalloutJack}

[Th3King0fChaos]

---

Tarak

---

Tarak had a small smile on his face as he watched the others talking, not really smiling at what they were talking about, more smiling at how relaxed the twins were, to the point where they felt comfortable to sleep. He even saw Finbar was more than comfortable as he rested on them as well, giving them his coat as a blanket. Giving him the tell tail signs to wake them when they got there, Tarak chuckled slightly as he looked back to everyone else, thinking who else will he be carried to the ship when they get there.

As that train was broken when Tarak heard their little stray speak up, as Ariel spoke and spoke how the Twin's were cute, Tarak agreed as it was cute, but he understood why, so he found it normal more than anything, just always a nice sight. As everyone started to talk of the work that was to be done, he had no care in the work, much of the work would not be one he cared for, for him, making 'enough' was always the goal, many of these kids were aiming higher and higher, yet for him, he wanted enough money to keep going. Well enough is also a very strange idea, as enough can change based on circumstances and what you are doing, yet for Tarak enough was enough to keep his equipment working and himself and those around him fed.

Yet, as they were talking, a notification came on Tarak's omni-tool, then for everyone else. The report showed a group called the 'Restarters', people who wanted the Ascendancy demolished, frankly Tarak never understood why they let the Ascendancy off, yet it just meant he was allowed to go without death, so that was nice. They had taken an Armory shuttle and had taken hostages, most likely explosives are rigged up inside, when they run off with the goods, they will blow it to hell to make a statement, like most terrorists.

Tarak noticed almost immediately where they were and a shuttle was out in front of them, "Ye-p, that's them". Tarak was a little irritated, why are they stealing from this shop? It's a glorified eatery and there are kids in here! Yes, they are human kids who are armed to the literal teeth, yet that is not the point. As a strange Kaisoken appears on the Hologram as it was standing on 2 legs, with a pair of arms and a sword! "What in the actual fuck is that?"

Tarak has never seen something so peculiar as it started to speak, that was normal. As he made a demand of the food shop, give them their money and supplies…why? Tarak asked himself as he really doesn't understand now if this is because they are there, or if literally this Mirrorshard evolved a stomach where his brain is, as to why are you robbing a food shuttle while you are on the run! Well, they seem to be asked to help with the situation, as Tarak heard the Rau've woman asked them for help, and they will be paid for the help, "We can help ma'am, just leave it to us". As he threw her a reassuring smile to her as he shifted his feet and grabbed his helmet.

Tarak started to listen to everyone speak as he thinks through the situation, they can't just bust in ham-fisted, they have hostages, and sneaking in is very difficult. Teleporting will work, but half of the use will be useless, as we'll be in an enclosed space with explosives', a small spark could send us all to kingdom come. And the Kaisoken has a fucking sword, so even if we get close, he isn't any slouch.. As people continued to talk Tarak was waiting for everyone to finish so he can put his idea out there.

"Hey how about this? What about we go and have Abaddon talk to him over comms. He could possibly talk down the situation and bring them into the open where we will have the advantage of not worrying about the damn shuttle exploding. Besides, we have no clue what this Mirrorshard and his pose have. Would be better for us all to not worry about moving and also blowing up if we make a false move."

As Tarak takes in a breath and continues, "Besides, even if that doesn't work I have an idea on still bring him out." As he points to Finbarr as he continues, "Fin you will need to be fast with portals, but I think this can work." As Tarak points his finger, his omni tool activated and started to trace with white light where his finger was, as it stays and creates images, as he set to work to make a fast diagram of what will be happening, "So I will drop from the top of the ceiling in this shuttle, I will go through the portal on the ground and then pop out as I tackle into MirrorShard, you will then make two new portals, one right behind Mirrorshard, and then one from the ceiling on the actual station, as it will bring us out of the shuttle and hurtling towards the ground, as it will create a big distractions"

As Tarak begins to point to the others, "While you guys will be waiting, as when Fin makes the portals come back, he will place one more in the shuttle again as you will step through to quickly clear out the people and explosives.

As he heard people wanting to take stuff, he stated, "We don't need to be herald as heroes, and then immediately chased as criminals. Besides, most of those are id and coded, you ain't selling them anywhere without being caught".

Tarak starts to message Natasha, 'Hey, try having Abaddon talk to the fuck in the other shuttle. I think if this guy is a fanboy, he might come out and disable to explosives to talk to Abaddon. If not, we got a plan, just be prepared that you will probably be coming into a war zone.'

@Landaus Five-One@FalloutJack@Starlance@The Man Emperor@Letter Bee@dragonpiece

[dragonpiece]

---

Abaddon

---

Abaddon was sat in the 8th terminal access point like usual, trying to make sure the main hatches hydraulics would pressurize correctly. " I have no idea how to fix this but I have books for a reason" Abaddon quietly said as he flips through hydraulics for dummies. " I think this will do it, just need to run a test to make sure though" as he starts to set up for a manual activation of the hydraulics. "Natasha will turn me into a sword if this opens up mid-space jump." All pressures normal, it moving normally. Abaddon pumped his fist in success. He walked out of the terminal, slammed the door, and stretched his nonexistent back. He checked this off of his to-do list and continued with his day.

The day was busy but somehow boring. Natasha loved to capitalize on the Kaisoken physiology, having Abaddon work 20/7. It was fine to Abaddon though as the work Natasha had him do was more stimulating than sitting around doing nothing. The monotonous day was broken as Natasha called Abaddon over the intercom that they were leaving to meet the Star Children and to have a fight. If there was anyone to witness Abaddon, they would have felt his presence explode out, being riled by the prospect of a battle. Abaddon dashed to his quarters, throwing on his large black trenchcoat. The trenchcoat was heavy set with purple highlights to make it pop. He grabbed his custom hammers and more importantly his sword. The hammers were on full display as they were held onto Abaddon's trenchcoat. His sword was slightly wrapped to obscure the material it was made of, leaving some of the material exposed to frighten onlookers.

Abaddon made his way to the vehicle deck and hopped in Kirin. He had been thinking for a while to get a custom hoverbike. Something with extra thrusters, he wants to go at least Mach 12 in it. Something to really for his need for speed. However, he had been too busy with work to talk to a dealer so that will have to wait. As they were about to leave, Abaddon looked at who he would hopefully be fighting. He was mostly disappointed until he saw a Kaisoken like himself. "Oh! A follower! I knew that my beliefs would spread but to see such an active perpetrator is always good. Oh, but I feel such confliction Natasha! My orders from you are to battle him but how I would love to speak to him! I can't disregard orders like that so I'm sorry my innocent Mirrorshard but I shall shatter you like everything else." Abaddon was slightly bummed having to kill his first follower but oh well. At least he could give him the highest honor of being shattered by his master.

As they rode towards Mirrorshard, one of the child soldiers, Tarak, suggested that Abaddon speak to him try and bring him out. A simple method that Abaddon considered but decided against for the sake of his own bloodlust. But with it being thrusted towards him he couldn't ignore the peaceful option. Abaddon leaned on Kirin's door, spread his legs slightly, and held a fist to the side of his head to show his annoyance. If he had eyes they would be rolling as he said "Fine." Abaddon's tone clearly showed that desired a fight of some kind. His slumped posture straightened up as he grabbed Natasha's omnitool to record a video. Before recording Abaddon was sat there, trying to conjure a small speech in his mind that would draw Mirrorshard out. He rocked his read back and forth thinking. He had stated that he is a follower of me, meaning he believes that the Kaisoken are weak. He is part of some pitiful group called the 'Restarters'. Judging by his tone, he might be sympathetic to other races causes or, like most Kaisoken, want revenge for the Ascendency's crimes against our people. It should be a point to not disclose I have sold tons of my people to them before and during the war. His superiority towards humans seems to come from a place of pain, I should focus on that. He's so young, probably desperate for approval and recognition!

Abaddon's head stopped swaying as he curled inwards a little as he let out a malevolent chuckle "Alright, I'm ready for the camera!" he adjusted his sitting position, leaning forward, putting his elbows in his knees. He took his sword and out it between his legs having it lean towards the door. He hit play and started his video to Mirrorshard. "Mirrorshard," Abaddon spoke in a deep, calm manner all in order to exert his excellentness, "I have been made aware of you by the news and I must say I'm quite impressed. You have fully transferred over to our species' ultimate form. And to do it so young only proves that you are special even among those like us."

Make him feel special, make sure he knows you recognize him, give him the approval he so desires. Abaddon takes his arm opposite from the show and gracefully moves it out of the way, opening his stance, like he was physically inviting Mirrorshard, "I'm quite happy to see that you consider yourself my student! I believe that it is some sort of destiny that I am only a few minutes from you. In fact, I'm on my way there." Abaddon said while slightly speeding his pace, lifting his tone of voice higher to posture the excited master. "However," Abaddon says as he begins to bring his arm in again closing the invitation as he continues, "you seem to be in quite a situation at the moment. One that would stop me from speaking with you! I am working on a way to strike deep back at the Ascendency of Man at this very moment. One that will echo a tale of hubris for eons. Right now your actions, although righteous, are preventing this grand plan. I ask that you stop so we can meet. I can provide a way for you to escape but your people will have to fend for themselves. It would be wise to disarm the bomb as well as it seems a task force will handle the situation soon. Sadly you are outgunned." Lowering his tone to show condolences for what he is about to say. "The authorities would have you shattered and your people tortured. Do not let your time come to an end yet Mirrorshard, there is so much more to do. As for your people," Abaddon sits up fully showing he is about to say something, "have them surrender, it is the best way for them to survive. If their spirit is too strong to surrender, you, as the strongest speciese must make them submit. I look forward to seeing you." Abaddon stops the video and hands the tool over to Natasha "You can figure out how to get the video to him I presume." Abaddon leaned back satisfied with himself. Maybe if he plays his cards right, he can do his job, talk to a follower, and murder Mirrorshard. That would be lovely.

[samakama]

Before Moonstrike could send the child soldiers out to for some Ascendancy-kicking action, it would seem that the action had come to them.

Restarters… the name rung a bell. A tiny little bell, but it was vaguely familiar to Ariel all the same. Their ultimate aim was pretty much the total genocide of humankind, although they had long been considered extremists or outright terrorists in practically all polite circles and weren’t known for being particularly well-organised. Even accounting for the sheer expanse of the Bazaar, though, the security forces’ response time for an incident of such gravity was atrociously slow. Stalling for time with such a violent group wouldn’t be a tenable strategy in the long run.

Although Ariel had drawn her stunner, it wouldn’t work against Mirrorshard — he was a Kaisoken, after all, and a little zap would hardly be of any effect. The same was unfortunately true for the baton, and her magic was not well-suited to a close combat situation such as this. Her time to shine would perhaps come later: right now, it was time for the others to take the limelight. A peaceful resolution — somehow, having someone with the moniker of ‘Kinslayer’ speak to their fellow Kaisoken was actually the most diplomatic approach — would of course be for the best, but if that didn’t play out as planned, then Tarak and Nero had thankfully come up with a plan.

Now she just needed to find a niche to slot herself into…

“I’ll stay on this shuttle and evacuate the civilians here to someplace safer. If they try to board us while you guys are over there, I’ll fend them off. And, if things go awry—“ heaven forbid, Ariel muttered silently to herself “—don’t forget that Flame, Iris, and I all have med-kits. Please get back in one piece, though.”

The shop’s proprietress was a Rau’ve, but her customers were of all species. There was no guarantee that they would all speak English, and on occasion even Basic. Fortunately, Ariel knew her fair share of alien and foreign tongues, more than enough to communicate.

Ariel spoke to the store owner first. “Madam, let’s move everyone to shelter. Do you have a room with metal doors or locks?” Leaving the area entirely would be best, but with so large a group it would be difficult to evade detection from the militants.

Next, she began to speak to the customers all around the shuttle, all in various stages of shock or disbelief, some already showing sign of panic. Managing crowds wasn’t Ariel’s specialty, but someone had to take control of the situation. “Everyone, please remain calm and listen to my instructions! We cannot exit the shuttle, so follow the owner and we’ll head to a safe room until security arrives. Keep calm, and don’t push!” She repeated this first in English, then Basic, Rau’ve, and any language she could muster until she was confident that no one was left confused.

Ariel wasn’t a police officer, but looking at all the regular people in the store whose lives were at stake now, she had only one objective — to serve and to protect these innocents.

[Letter Bee]

Mirrorshard

“Sir,” one of his Rau’ve soldiers said to the crystaline being, “Someone has sent you a video. It claims to be from the Kinslayer himself.”

Mirrorshard whirled at the male-presenting being, and said two words using his artificial voice, a voice produced by controlling vibrations on his throat, “Give me.”

A few minutes later, Mirrorshard ordered a video reply to be sent to the source of the message merely saying, “Kinslayer! You honor me with your words and your presence. Indeed, the both of us represent the future of the Kaisoken race. Very well, I will order my people to cease this operation, but as for surrender… They have their own ways of escape.”

A pause, “Nevertheless, I will sacrifice this operation, as well as my loyalty to my superiors, for the sake of your plan to strike back at the Ascendancy. Let us meet once your vehicle arrives!”

Some more minutes later, the Kirin would arrive at the scene.

Natasha

Natasha said to the others, “All right, folks! It seems Mirrorshard here has agreed to a meeting.”

Abaddon

Abaddon looked towards Natasha and said, "I'll reply with a quick confirmation and set a signal for him to get to the Kirin." Abaddon stretched out like he was trying to morph himself into Mirrorshard's master once more. After what seemed to be only a minute or two, Abaddon had returned to his previous position, ready to confirm their meeting.

"Mirrorshard, I'm elated to hear that we will be meeting. I am in an odd vehicle, one that was obtained by stealing from the Ascendency themselves, one of the war machines they were never able to realize." Abaddon began to delicately unwrap his weapon, letting them fall to the floor. He turned his attention back to the video, "The signal shall be two sonic booms. The first to make it presence known, the second to tell you when to come. May fortune play into our hands." Abaddon shut the recording off and looked towards Natasha, he spoke telepathically towards her, I apologise for complicating this more than necessary, I hope you can forgive me. Abaddon let himself get a little carried away there. Although he doesn't see it affecting the plan, he does believe he had put more stress on the other components of this outing.

Natasha

“It’s all right,” Natasha said, “If anything, it’s good to see that you’re enjoying yourself.”

The Kirin had arrived at the crawler’s location. Speaking of the Kirin, Natsha continued, “That said, did you have to reveal that our vehicle was made from stolen Ascendancy blueprints?”

Mirrorshard

“I hear and obey, Kinslayer,” Mirrorshard responded. “I will wait for the signal.”

Abaddon

Abaddon looked towards Natasha, relaxing his pose back to his more natural, lax positioning and said, "It's hard not to enjoy yourself when in such precarious situations, for a being such as myself, it can be the only thing worth living for." Abaddon started to relax as they were nearing the shuttle. After a few minutes of silence, Abaddon spoke as he had an idea, "You know with how good of an actor I am, maybe I could make it to the galactic broadway. Would have to find a director who was material blind though", speaking to the entirety of the cabin.

As they arrived, Natasha brought up the fact that Abaddon had let it slip that Kirin was stolen from the Ascendency. He froze as he could tell Natasha was annoyed, he turned to get and said, "Well Natasha, you see, the thing is that… I needed to sell that I'm the conductor of these plans and that was crucial to solidifying that idea." It was obvious from his tone that he knew he had messed up but was desperately trying to cover it up as part of his well thought-out performance. "I'll just do the sonic boom on your signal, Natasha." He was ready to do it at her command.

Natasha

Natasha decided to let the slip side and press on with the plan, “Do it, then.”

Mirrorshard

Mirrorshard had given his soldiers orders to escape, and they could be seen streaming out from the vehicle and going into some maintenance ‘manholes’ which had just opened up beneath the ground. Now the ‘abnormal’ Kaisoken had walked out of the crawler, waiting for the sonic booms. He was giddy to meet his hero!

Abaddon

Abaddon let out a sonic boom, starting the signal to Mirrorshard. Abaddon had been wanting some death on this mission but it will have to wait for a different day. After a few seconds, to give Mirrorshard time to locate them, he sends another to tell him it was time to move. Abaddon was ready to open the door and pull him in.

Mirrorshard

Mirrorshard walked - No, ran - towards the Kirin, ready to be pulled into the vehicle by his ‘hero’, a master whom he now regarded as immensely intelligent and a deep schemer as well as a visionary. He was thinking that nothing can go wrong...

Abaddon

Abaddon opened the door for Mirrorshard and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him into the Kirin. Mirrorshard could feel the immense strength of Abaddon, as he was able to pull him in as if he was a paperweight. Helping Mirrorshard to his seat, "w.Welcome Mirrorshard, it is good to see you in person. But first, Natasha, let's hurry away before the authorities show up." Now here comes the hard sale, Mirrorshard hates humans and that doesn't sit well considering the crew. He would have to perform his crystals off. If it goes wrong, Abaddon was ready to crush Mirrorshard at the first movement to harm his captain. Or to any of his crewmates.

Natasha

She looked at Abbadon and said, “All right, I suppose we can pick up our new crewmembers later.”

As she drove off, she can hear Mirrorshard say…

Mirrorshard

“Is she your servant?” Mirrorshard asked Abbadon. “Have you subjugated her to your will?”

Natasha

A twitch, as Natasha showed subtle signs of anger…

Abaddon

"She works for me but for more pressing matters, have you been injured? I can provide some rudimentary reconstruction if need be." as he was trying to show some care to Mirrorshard he spoke to Natasha telepathically, Natasha, my captain, please overlook his position for now. If you so desire, I will personally turn him into jewellery for you.

Natasha

That won’t be necessary, she thought back as she continued to drive back to the Xuanzang, which was in sight.

Mirrorshard

“Thank you for your compassion, Master Abbadon!” Mirrorshard said, “But as there was no fight, there was no injury. Now, what is your plan to teach the Humans their place?”

Abaddon

Abaddon never knew that being called master would be such an enjoyable experience, he started to understand why his elders almost commanded to be called elders. He looked towards Mirrorshard, ready to start weaving a story for him, "The plan is one that barely requires sacrifices from any races," Abaddon lets out a small wicked chuckle, "well, except for humans. Humans have a wonderful tendency to change quickly. For the better or for ruin. You see the atrocities they had caused our people go hand in hand with the crimes against their own. A large group of humans wish to destroy the Ascendency. Better yet, some of their supporters are Star Children, the peak of their army." Abaddon leaned towards Mirrorshard, Abaddon's started to fill the room with this eerie pressure, one that can only be produced by a man as crazy as Abaddon. "Would it not feel like a warped sense of humor if the destruction of the Ascendency came from their hubris. They greed for strength, looking to take advantage of our natural born gifts. Now that very pursuit of domination shall be there achilles heel. I do not wish to destroy them by myself but to watch them fall into a grave they made. There is no better humility than a humility of your own construction." these ideas were of course exaggerated but they would serve a purpose of glorifying his cause.

Mirrorshard

“That is wonderful!” Mirrorshard was gushing, his tone enthusiastic, “How can I help in this unutterably clever plan? And will the ‘Star Marines’ be helping in forcing our kin to adapt?”

Natasha

Natasha tried her best not to mutter something insulting to Mirrorshard, and was succeeding for now. Nevertheless, it was quite clear she found the Kaisoken irritating, although she found Abbadon’s act very entertaining, which balanced things out.

“Hmm, Star Marines,” she spoke, “That’s actually a nice name for the Child Soldiers. It’d be pretty easy to remember, too.”

Abaddon

"Star Marines are a good way to refer to them, thank you for the name Mirrorshard. I believe they are able to help cause change as in all reality, they are somewhat like us, weaker for sure, but like us. It people are naturally resilient to change but I believe as they cause more damage to the Ascendency, the more our people will see that and of what they could inflict on the other races. This will be but another catalyst for change, have their actions act as a call to those who wouldn't be persuaded otherwise."Abaddon began to relax, leaving himself open to Mirrorshard, showing his trust in him. "let us discuss plans for at the ship and just enjoy the beginning of a new age" as he finished talking he spoke to Natasha, once again privately through telepathy, I'm sorry for the rudeness of him. Have you decided whether we will still kill him when we get back to the ship or not? Tap your finger once for yes and twice for no. Three times if you would like to discuss this further.

Natasha

Natasha tapped her finger thrice, then thought. I don’t want to kill someone who can be an ally in the future, plus breaking one’s word is bad for business in general. But I would prefer if we find an excuse to send him far, far away where he cannot trouble us...

Abaddon

I'll do my best Natasha. I'll speak to him in my chambers. If it goes well he will walk out, if it goes wrong he will make excellent arts and craft materials for the kids, maybe use him as friendship bracelets.

Abaddon turned to Mirrorshard, "We will be heading to my chambers to discuss things more thoroughly as the humans here get confused by my plans", then gesturing over to Natasha. He finishes his little performance with an eye roll so hard, Natasha will be able to feel it.

Mirrorshard

“I am happy,” said the crystalline warrior. “The depths of your plans already amaze me.”

GM Post

And with that, the situation was resolved, and the Rau’ve shopkeeper of the restaurant shuttle kept her word, giving the ‘Star Marines’ several crates’ worth of food and purified water, as well as several large containers the size of Iris, all filled with various forms of candy.

As for the armory shuttle, its own proprietor, a Korta, offered the ‘Star Marines’ a 15% discount on all items, including Power Armor, Explosives, and Combat Drones...

@Letter Bee@Th3King0fChaos@The Man Emperor@Landaus Five-One@FalloutJack@Conscripts@dragonpiece@Starlance@supertinyking@samakama

[The Man Emperor]

Finbarr Callaghan | The Spacetime Breacher

Finbarr sighed when the situation got resolved rather quickly, as this Abaddon person seemed to be very effective with persuading the other Kaisoken. To this end, Mirroshard had been dissuaded from continuing the whole hostage situation by the eloquent arguments of the other being of crystal, and has since went his way to meet with Abaddon. "Well, that's a bloody relief.", Finbarr said as the prospect of tiring himself by summoning a rather large amount of portals in such a small amount of time had been erased. "I would have expended the greatest amount of energy I have ever spent in any time in my entire life if that other plan had been the way that we went!"

Once the situation had been completely resolved, they had been offered a substantial discount on items on the armory, as well as the fact that were was now a whole LOT of candy to go around. Now, there was no need to worry about the money that would be spent to satiate Iris' diabetic compulsions. Finbarr in particular had his eyes for the bombs. "I think we should have a bit of explosives... for me to throw through the portals in case we need it."

[Landaus Five-One]

---

When it was said and done, Tarak’s plan to talk it out worked much better than expected since this Abaddon and the Kinslayer was a master of persuasion. She gave out a small sigh of relief that it didn’t have to escalate into a full-blown fight and was peacefully handled. It made her remind of her godfather’s persuasion methods as well since he wouldn’t want to fight allies or hurt civilians either. She smiled happily and knew she can enjoy her plate of food in peace now since it wasn’t much to do other than chat and eat. ”I have to agree, Finbarr, it is a relief.” She spoke with a tone of relief in her voice. If anything, it was great that they could take their time to get to Natasha’s starship. More chatting with others would be lovely. She giggled at Finbarr’s statement. ”At least, you can relax Finbarr with all the other stuff that has happened.” She spoke with a smile on her face.

Narvia’s face kinda looked a bit confused when she heard ’Star Marines,’ which it was a better name than Child Soldiers. However, it felt like her godfather Nikolas’ had called her that once or twice during one of the meetings she was in with him. This was an utterly weird coincidence, but Nikolas was the one that didn’t like names that felt unnecessary. It took her a bit to focus and was a bit shocked to see all the candy around them, specifically for Iris’ sweet tooth. ”The twins will definitely thank you for all the candy, especially Iris.” She spoke towards the Rau’ve Shopkeeper with a smile. If anything, she also heard that the other store owner of the weapon shop is also willing to discount 15%. With the same name of Star Marines, which felt like her godfather knew of something far in advance that she’d have to do. Her godfather’s words of advice came through her, ’always better to be over-prepared than under-prepared in any situation.’ She only had eyes on basically more ammo for the Sigma. ”I’ll only go for more ammo since I only know how to use this pistol. I’ll leave the explosives to the others since it would be better that way.” She spoke with a lack of understanding of explosives since she was only trained in pistols, sword, and survival tactics from the Brigade.

She finally finished her meal, which felt a bit embarrassing to be close to the last one to finish. It was only because she really missed it and was enjoying it. ’I wonder what mission parameters did… my godfather gave to me? But that can wait, but I have a feeling I shouldn’t wait too long on them… I should probably wait after I get to Natasha’s ship to read them.’ She thought with a look of confusion on her face. Obviously, her confusion about what she should do next with the Enigma Codex she has on her left wrist. However, it wouldn’t be too penitent to deal with something the others cannot read anyways, and she usually reads out her orders from her godfather aloud most of the time. It’s a bit of a problem of hers, which she should really get a bit less cute when reading the codex. ’Godfather, why did you give me these mission parameters now of all things?’ She thought with a big-time wondering about those mission parameters' true meaning. However, Nikolas did give her a decipher to unlock the true meaning of these mission parameters that were on her mind. She couldn’t remember how long it will take.

Narvia sighed with a slight annoyance to the sigh in question but decided to look at her Omnitool on her wrist. She opened it up, which was still for her eyes only, and it made her remember that her godfather said. ’Wait… didn’t he tell me that my omnitool is… not like the others in the Brigade? How can that be…? Guess he built it himself or something to that effect. I like him so much can he be not as cryptic?’ She thought with an odd look, specifically about the whole thing. It was good; it was only for her eyes, but it still had the oddly super cryptic mission parameter on the screen, which is needed the decipher code to start deciphering it. She inserted the code, took the message away, and had a massive timer on it, which was able to be seen by everyone else. The countdown timer was 14 hours worth of time on it. This made her gasp at the decipher. ”...Seriously? 14 hours to decipher something on my omnitool. I hope this is good...” She spoke with a bit of shock on her face, but she looked towards everyone and realized she spoke aloud like she usually does. Obviously, she was definitely embarrassed and blushing about that speaking out loud. If anything, she always had this problem, but it seems like the omnitool’s usual deciphering will take much longer than only a few minutes. ”Umm, sorry about that, everyone… Ugh, got to wait 14 hours for a decipher… Godfather, why do you have to do this?” She questioned and apologized to everyone else for her strange quirk for reading out on her omnitool. It was definitely a bit odd for her to emphasize godfather, basically meaning that Nikolas R. Zahrin, the Dragon was her godfather. It made her realize she said godfather instead of Nikolas, which she was even more embarrassed and put her hands on her face.

_{@The Man Emperor}

[Conscripts]

Alexander Kherol

---

There was something about him that made us feel we could do more than we ever imagine...

Draken'vina, Fehtzaal's Military Base, 2456 AD

"So this is the situation." Various holographic photographs were laid out by the Lieutenant before the Staff Sergeant and the rest of his squad. On his left side's were something coming straight out of a disaster movie. Entire towns frozen in ice, even the tall crops of some poor farmer living there were at the time were frozen it its place, the icicles sideways. On his right was multiple angled view on a huge creature, toweringly soaring through the sky with its gleaming silver blue wings. Its entire body was plastered with uncanny silver fins, with occasional spikes along its spine, ending at its diamond-tipped tail. Unlike a dragon, this beast only had two legs.

"An ice wyvern has been terrorizing towns around the east of the Vanguard Mountain Range. It has destroyed many houses and halted the production of crops of these towns. Luckily, the local militias of the area have been able to evacuate the civilians to safety, so human casualties are minimal. Nevertheless, we are trying to keep the creature dormant, but it is behaving very aggressive and continuously lashing out against intervening soldiers."

The Lieutenant, with an insignia belonging to his clan family, let out a deep sigh.

"So you are tasked with putting it down."

It wasn't at all desirable, but it had to be done. This was supposed to be a paradise planet, or at least the areas where humans live are, and this wyvern is threatening it.

"Lieutenant? How old is the wyvern?"

A voice suddenly came from the ranks. It's that nerdy kid again.

"Corporal Kherol. I have not given the authority to speak." The Staff Sergeant barked, visibly annoyed. He had been fed up with this 4-eyed kid for quite a while, ever since he transferred to this unit. He had been asking so many questions and so freely that it is making people think he couldn't control his men.

"Permission granted." The Lieutenant overruled the Staff Sergeant instead, curious to see the kid noticing this detail. "It's relatively young. If I'm going to give an analogy, it's probably around your age in dragon's lifespan."

Wyverns do grow quite fast, so under untrained eyes they might not be able to differentiate between an adult wyvern and a young one.

"Hmm, thank you Lieutenant."

"You are to deploy your squad quickly. We have cornered the dragon now and we do not want it to lash out anytime soon and ruin all of our work."

---

Strangely enough, the wyvern wasn't in a cave or something that could encapsulate it like Alexander initially thought. It was rather in front of a massive vertical mountainside. Soldiers donning both the militia and the Ascendancy's military uniform were swarming the increasingly agitated wyvern, as its standing ground was getting smaller and smaller. But occasionally, Alexander could see the wyvern covering its mouth with the upper-side of its right wing. Why such a thing? That is unnatural posture for a wyvern, and why would it do such a thing that could leave it vulnerable to attacks from the soldiers.

Once he was on the ground with his fire squad, however, it became clear to him what was going on. There was a huge gaping slash wound on its right wing. That explained why the wyvern felt the need to cover its mouth by it: it was actually licking it. As Alexander approached the other men who were keeping the wyvern in place, he could have a closer look at the wound itself. It looked messy, as if something coarse had inflicted upon it. It probably meant that this was not inflicted by a sword by a human being. It also explained why the creature is behaving so aggressively. Well, they behave aggressively on a daily basis against humans anyway, but wyverns don't tend to lash out in his previous sorties against them.

"I didn't expect you here sir. 3rd Platoon reporting in."

The Lieutenant saluted two men Alexander recognized. The first one he had met a couple of times but never spoke to. The commander of the Dragon's Brigade, Leon. Alexander already heard of him through stories, but he personally didn't find those stories particularly entertaining, as they seemed to be packed with so much aggrandizing that it does not sound realistic, but he overall found him to be a decent guy. The other man he knew particularly well though.

"Hey Alexander." He also recognized the young Corporal just as soon, giving him a handshake even when Alexander was still standing in formation. "I was supposed to come to base to visit, but me and Leon also came across this. Sorry that we have to meet right here."

Governor Saxon of Earth. He was the one taking in Alexander after he left his parents and got him into the military in the first place. He also arranged him to Draken'vina as a trainee soldier, and hopefully be a part of the Dragon's Brigade as well, or at least having a post here, where things were relatively peaceful. It might sound cruel to be sending a kid into the military, but this is the Ascendancy they're dealing with.

"That's ok. We can't help it." Alexander replied, his eyes more interested in Leon and the wyvern. "Can I speak to Mr Leon?"

"Sure, I guess." Saxon called the man in question over, followed by the Lieutenant.

"Is there something you want to say to me young man?" Leon politely asked as he gave Alexander a handshake as well.

"Yes sir. I want to know if the wyvern was attacked. I saw a big wound on its right wing"

"Well, I don't know for sure, but all I know it's already there when I had my men deal with it. Good observation." He nodded.

"It may be aggravated by the wound, causing it to rampage. Is there any ways we can heal its wounds?"

"We have special tools to seal it at least, but good luck calming it down. You can't reason with wyverns."

Can they? That was exactly what he was taught, as well as any books he could lay his hands on about this place. Intelligent beings but lonely and never hunt in packs. But they hated humans. To their very guts. They came to the planet and chased them out of their habitats, so in turn they hunt humans. They don't even speak like humans even though they can. Reasonings to them are weaknesses, natural instincts triumphs everything. Smart for a species, but primitive compared to human beings. That is the reason why they are not meant to be reasoned with. You just force them to be dormant or kill them. But is it truly so? It was all but a trend, a trend unbroken, but it is a trend.

Alexander observed the wyvern carefully. Its right wing twitching slightly, still threatening to soar from the humans grasp at any moment. Its breathings surprisingly slow, while its eyes trailed the soldiers back and forth.

"Please get it for me, Mr Leon. I'll calm it down."

Leon was obviously not convinced. "Are you crazy? It's gonna kill you. It won't listen to humans."

"Yes it can." Alexander pointed firmly. "To me."

"What will we do then if it lashes out again? If it kills someone here because of it." He sternly doubled down. "It's not something I will take from a 14-year old."

"I will take full responsibility if that's the case. Prosecute me, court martial me or however you handle things here, like adults to adults."

Alexander also wouldn't back down. His eyes trailed over to the governor, who were also a bit surprised that he would raise his voice to the Dragon's Brigade commander. Luckily, this is Leon he's talking to, not some self-endorsing vain captain of the Ascendancy.

"Let him be." Saxon intervened.

"What? Are you serious Saxon?"

"If there's any danger, get back immediately, ok?"

As if Alexander would let it stop him anyway...

[samakama]

In retrospect, not very much time had passed. The incident had lasted maybe twenty minutes at the very most. When Ariel finally set down her stunner, however, the exhaustion she felt was as if she had just been in an hours-long standoff. Thank goodness Natasha and Abaddon had managed to convince the rogue militants to depart peacefully!

Natasha’s six-wheeler looked more familiar than Ariel would ever have expected, though. It would hardly have seemed out of place in a military garage or a boarding shuttle — Moonstrike must either have some excellent R&D teams, or a well-placed network of infiltrators among the ranks of the Ascendancy; or perhaps it was more likely to be both. Seems like they were more than just your typical ragtag rebels.

The grateful storeowners had offered the Star Marines (as they were now apparently called) a few pallets’ worth of free wares and generous discounts on their products. While the group was hardly lacking in funds, exploiting the 15% off would be saving money nonetheless. But Ariel would leave the shopping to the rest — her equipment was satisfactory enough, and only needed electricity to run, so it wasn’t like she needed ammunition either.

Ariel’s attention turned to Narvia, who was fiddling with her omnitool and sheepishly complaining about a… fourteen hour countdown?!

“Wow.”

With advances in computing, it took truly unique circumstances or massive scales to achieve such a long timer. That omnitool was military-issue, too, much like the majority of Narvia’s equipment. Her service history was rather unique, in that she was assigned to an autonomous fleet under Admiral Zahrin, one of very few such formations in the Ascendancy’s armed forces. Much like the Windsors’ fleets, such independent units had often been viewed with suspicion and wariness by both other military commanders and the civilian government, though it could hardly be called baseless — the Dragon’s Brigade had developed their own unique versions of a lot of tools and systems, and if they decided to defect one day, their odds of survival in the long term weren’t bad.

Must be one really bulky document. (Unless the estimate was simply off by an order of magnitude or two, which was still within the realm of possibility.) Narvia’s godfather had probably butchered the formatting or something to inflate it to a size like that. Fourteen hours? Unless she felt like staying up hideously late, it would probably be better to take a look at it the next day instead.

“Make sure it doesn’t overheat~”

Actually, perhaps the decryption would go faster if Ariel lent her omnitool’s processing power. It wasn’t like she had plans to use it in the immediate future or anything, so… no harm in trying!

“Navi, want to try linking our omnitools together and see if it deciphers any quicker? At this rate, it’s only going to finish tomorrow.”

[FalloutJack]

NERO KAYAKOS

Abaddon the Kin-Slayer? More like Abaddon the Chin-Wagger! Let's start from the beginning...

The problem started around the time Narvia felt they shouldn't be looting. Oh, come on! They weren't the good guys! They were out for revenge and doing other work on the side! They were mercenaries! That be only a step or two above pirates, me hearties! Yarrr! But putting that aside, people disagreeing with picking up a few goodies 'in the line of duty' wasn't really an issue. A disagreement of opinion, at best. Besides, Narv liked his plan, so he wasn't gonna give her hell over it. He wasn't even mad that Tarak was against it.

No, the problem was that Tarak wanted to talk, or rather Abaddon to talk.

He suggested it as a distraction, which was alright, but...ehh, not as fun as any of their previous plans, which was to show that Kai how many pieces he could break into. And let's be clear here: Getting the master to talk to the disciple wasn't necessarily bad. It was just boring, and that was the problem. It worked too well! They set up a meeting between Abbadon and Mirrorshard and...there was no real fight, and there wasn't gonna BE a fight! The whole thing was transmitted via Omni-Whatsit and Nero with his killer mask on slumped before finally removing the thing, clearly disappointed.

Ah, dammit... I wanted to kick someone's ass in.

It ain't bad that they probably lad Mirrorshard on their side now, having gotten 'im to leave the Restarters with some piss-easy talking on the part of Abaddon, but Nero was disappointed that there wasn't a fight today, and he wasn't exactly keen on the name of 'Star Marines' either. I mean, I know 'Space Marines' was taken, but it wasn't really...him, ya know? So, the situation was resolved before it ever really became one. Kind of a let-down. Ah, well... At least they got stuff. Nero figured now was probably time for Freo-flavored popcorn. Uhhh, Freo was kind of a sugar-hot spice. He didn't remember what planet it was from, but it was good. For his own part, though, Nero did decide to ask the weapon merchant a thing or two about weapons.

"So yeah. Some of the others might want guns and things. I can see us even using explosives. Dunno on the powersuits, though they're always cool. But uhhh...ya got any special knives in stock? I got these mono-blades, and they're alright, but having more and better is gonna get real important, real fast."

He would rejoin the others later after hearing Narvia and Ariel talking about a 14-flipping-hour decode?! What the everloving fuck is it FOR?! Nero just stared for a moment, and then...well...he hadda' ask.

"What the heck are you doing with that thing? What takes half a freakin' day on these things?"

[Starlance]

Things died down just as fast as they started to move. The plan was sound, and it worked like a charm, and now they were being showered with rewards and discounts, something that made Avelyn stir uneasily. Her poverty-induced greed was one thing, and a strong one, but this just seemed too easy, too good. And things that were too good were usually a trap. And the last one she walked into ended with spacing and capture. She shook her head to get that memory out, still too early to try and stanch that particular wound. Anyway, at least it looked like they’d have better transport to the ship itself once the low-squat APC returned, and if a day didn’t require gunfire and medical assistance, it was a good day in her book.

Since they were picking themselves up, she leaned over the table and gently shook Iris awake. “Rise and shine, sleeping beauty. Sandman put you under and made off with all your candy.” She whispered, figuring that ought to do it and excused herself to see what the gun shop had in store, specifically looking for field apparel. She had a hunch the road they'd chosen had quite a few scrapes in store for them, and getting her only attire soaked with blood and full of holes sounded about as smart as it sounded appealing. While she was at it, a dozen or so spare inserts for her armor would be nice, but she expected that would bite into her current private funds something fierce and leave her with just enough to grab a meal. One meal.

[Letter Bee]

Ashton and Flame

"So 'The Dragon' is your godfather," Ashton said to Narvia. "I can see why you speak fondly of him. And yeah, I think you and Ariel should sync your Omni-tools - That ought to shorten the decoding time..."

As for the weapons merchant, the young man ordered, "Ah, do you have those organic Rau've knives which ooze poison in contact with blood and have to be watered?" They did, and Ashton paid the required credits with a quick, "Thank you!" before being interrupted by Flame.

"Ashton," the other youth was trying to be practical, "We need proper helmets, or at least earplugs - The ones we have are getting old. And we also need better armor than our ballistics vests - Perhaps a Steelweave suit with trauma plates underneath? Power Armor will obstruct our mobility, after all."

Ashton nodded, getting into the spirit of things, and ordered those goods as well, before saying to Flame, "We'll also need grenades - EMP, fragmentation, inciendary, cryo, the works. And what about a Rocket Launcher for Tarak?"

Flame gave another nod and said, "Done," before turning to Nero and saying, "If you want maximum cutting power, I recommend getting a hybrid metal-plasma knife with a heat-resistant blade which can be covered in plasma. But just in case we need to fight robots, electrified knives would also do."

Either way, once the purchases were done, they'd arrive at Natasha's ship, the Xuanzang.

Same ship as on the OOC OP

Natasha Zhang

Natasha had made sure the ship was as clean as possible once the Star Marines - The new additions to the crew - finally reached it. This was easier said than done as Moonstrike had installed plenty of redundant self-cleaning systems inside the ship, including a small battalion of robotic 'roombas' which constantly went to the hard-to-reach places to scrub off dirt and such. Either way, the ship was presentable, and the Captain prodded herself on that. And now, to introduce herself - Presumably all the kids had come through the airlock?

The 'Light Frieghter' (though of course, it was tougher than that) had a meeting room for the crew to gather together and plan operations, whether legitimate or criminal. Natasha led the Star Marines to this meeting room, which contained holographic projectors which were more advanced than a commercial ship should have, then spoke to introduce herself and Abbadon, who seemed to be the only crewmembers present - The two others still have not arrived.

"Greetings," she said in a clear, friendly, but still firm voice. "My name is Natasha Zhang, former Captain of a Corvette during the Battle of Proxima, dishonorably discharged, and now a Moonstrike Operative - We seek vengance against the Ascendancy which threw us away." She then gestured to Abbadon, "And this is Abbadon Kinslayer, the first 'Limbed Kaisoken' but as you saw earlier today, not the last. He seeks to force his kind to adapt or die."

She then smiled and said to the 'Star Marines', "So, what are your names, all of you?"

@Letter Bee@Th3King0fChaos@The Man Emperor@Landaus Five-One@FalloutJack@Conscripts@dragonpiece@Starlance@supertinyking@samakama

[The Man Emperor]

Finbarr Callaghan | The Spacetime Breacher

It wasn't long after the whole near altercation with the damned Restarters that their merry troupe had been ushered into the vessel that had been waiting for them all this time. For all intents and purposes, it would serve as their mobile base of operations in their campaign of vengeance against the Ascendancy of Man, that corrupt institution that must be brought down to the ashes of history. It wasn't an all too special ship; it was officially a light freighter, though it was obviously more than just some tug boat cargo ship plowing the void. No. It will be the instrument of revenge!...

"Pfffft... limbed Kaisoken... ahahahaha... feck... Why am I laughing... ah, bloody hell."

Taking a brief second from snickering at sight of the second Kaisoken with limbs that he had seen during his entire life, Finbarr straightened himself as he introduced himself. "The name of this git standing in front of ye is Finbarr. Finbarr Callaghan. I be specializing in Timespace magic, especially them portals. I'm from Titan's undercity, and I love getting into them little vents."

[Starlance]

“Avelyn Vernal. Gravity manipulation, mindfuckery plus some extras.” She swam out of the shoulder strap of the bag holding the fruits of her unexpected shopping trip - two sets of field gear and enough spare armor plates to last a few days of uninterrupted frontline duty - and bent down to fix a shoelace that’s come undone, leaving the bag floating in mid-air like it was completely normal before straightening up and slinging it over her shoulder again, “So let me know if you’ve got something heavy in the cargo bay that needs moving or something.” She let her mental guards down during this flourish, looking for the captain’s thoughts to parrot them back at her, “You’re correct in assuming he’s the most competent of us.” she continued, addressing Natasha’s thoughts directly while pointing at Tarak before turning to Finbarr, “She’d also like to know more about Titan.”

And with that, she’d wait to see if that would get some reaction from the new boss before leaning agaisnt a nearby wall and closing her mind to foreign thoughts again, eyeing Abaddon suspiciously, not quite sure what to make of him given his moniker. Kaisoken, Tayanen and other species without a central nervous system were significantly harder to get a read on, and although she was against probing the minds of friends and allies, the sudden lack of the option should it be needed made her cautious regardless.

[Landaus Five-One]

---

It was one thing when she was looking at her omnitool and said 14 hours, which she did hear Ariel say wow about the timer. This was even more embarrassing than anything she had said while reading things out loud. It was one thing, but she overheard someone else question the length of omnitool’s decoding, which was obviously Nero. ” A Mission parameter, which my Godfather gave to me when I first arrived at this Market. It weirded me out he still gave me one when the war is over...” She spoke, hopefully, to help Nero, and everyone understands the situation. It's odd to get a mission parameter from the Dragon’s Brigade Fleet when there’s no such thing as a war actively going on. This whole situation makes her a bit worried for her godfather.

Narvia raised an eyebrow slightly when Ariel spoke about not letting the omnitool overheat. However, before she could interject about the Dragon’s Brigade Fleet’s gear is top of line gear. It took her a bit off guard when Ariel suggested linking their omnitools together. Ariel did make a specific good point about the whole thing; it would be tomorrow when it's done. If anything, then Ashton interjected with what he said. ” Y-Yes, Nikolas’ is my godfather. I love him dearly; just him being cryptic is a bit off-putting sometimes...” She spoke with fondness towards Nikolas’ though his cryptic behavior is definitely off-putting. In terms of anyone who doesn’t know him, it's definitely off-putting. Now, Ashton is even suggesting it, which makes it better to try than not. ” Y-Yeah, Ariel, we can link our omnitools. Better this than staying up nonstop watching the countdown timer...” She spoke with a definite want to know what this mission parameter is hiding. It would be like her to actually watch for the countdown of the omnitool. She reactivated her omnitool to check where the timer was before the link; it was 13 hours and 58 minutes. In terms, she sighed at the timer; hopefully, it will decrease with the link.

Her omnitool made a strange sound, which wasn’t like it, and this was at the time of the link between Ariel’s omnitool. The countdown timer was shifting between many different times, but all of them lower than the decipher's starting time. Narvia was blinking at all the times, rapidly fluxing between them all, but it stopped directly at 8 hours and 30 minutes. ” Uhh, what the… I haven’t ever seen anything like that happen before. But 8 hours and 30 minutes are much better than 14 hours...” She spoke a bit shocked at the whole situation of the decoding software. It basically made her a bit relieved at the whole situation.

_{@FalloutJack@samakama}

---

Afterward, Narvia arrived on Natasha’s ship, which looked very pretty from the outside and inside. She was lead by Natasha to the meeting room, which she sat down at one of the chairs in it. It was polite to allow the others to introduce themselves before herself, which she waved happily towards the Kaisoken that saved the day. The first person to introduce themselves to Natasha was Finbarr, then Avelyn. However, it was her turn now, which she specifically deeply sighed about this entire thing. She wants to go back to how she was younger, living with her mother and older siblings, but she’s here and not there. Therefore, she decided to be honest with Natasha since everyone in this room is trustworthy to know the truth. She previously did blurt out to her peers about Nikolas’ connection to her anyway. ” My name is Narvia Folspear Hadley, Goddaughter to Nikolas R. Zahrin, the Dragon. My biological family still lives on Mars in the Hadley Estate. I miss my mother, Lana, my older siblings Freya and Ashley… And most importantly, I want to know why… my biological father Conner separated me from my siblings and mother.” She spoke with sincerity like no other; she wants to reconnect with her family badly desperately. It still doesn’t make any sense why Conner had done this to her of all people, which is why her godfather protected her throughout the seven years she was in the Brigade. ” Also, I specialize in primarily magical constructs, magical barriers, ability to recharge magical energy from the ground, and with the ability to disable gravity. I like to cook, as well.” She spoke with a smile on her face. It was obvious she went through much over this whole time, and she had no idea about really anything because her Innocence is still intact from when she was a child.

_{@Letter Bee}

[Th3King0fChaos]

---

Tarak

---

Tarak sent his message out and slowly watched the Armory Shuttle. He waited, watched as if ready to kick into gear once the fighting began. Tarak stood tall, as he had his rifle now at his back and his arms crossed, watching for any movement, as he tuned out the bustling and commotions of the people being evacuated to a safe place. His eyes never left the shuttle, as even when Tarak noticed the terrorists leave the shuttle, he never wavered, as he spoke out before some go too riled up, "They aren't trying to board". As many people started to head to exits across the floors, manhole covers, hatches, or even shops that are left unattended. As he waited, waiting for the large rock to leave, as when Tarak noticed even the big shiny bastard even came out he, looked on to where he was going…a battle crawler? Tarak looked on to wonder why a battle crawler was out here as he noticed the Kaisoken enter as another Kaisoken hand reached out to help him in. Tarak had a good feeling the talks went on well. As Tarak silently sighed as he announced, "Alright, problem solved".

Tarak really didn't want to fight, he just got his gear back, and he didn't need to get the damn thing repaired right when he got it back. He looked at his companions and noticed on some of them relief, others seem to be neutral to the matter, and a few seemed to be upset with the result. May it be because they wanted to scratch their fighting itch, or may it be because they thought the outcome was too easy, in all honesty, it was. To Tarak, this felt way too simple, it felt as if something was wrong, or is this really what the Ascendancy had to fear? A bunch of no-name terrorists lead by a deranged talking rock with enough sentience to make complete sentences yet not enough to think for itself? Or was that how good of a talker this Abaddon is? Tarak didn't know, yet all he knew was that it felt weird, yet like a good weird, one that makes your life too easy, one that just helps you along.

Tarak started talking to each of the Shop keeps as they offered them their thanks and their reward. Tarak noticed an absolute load of food here, he was okay with this, it would be a good way to show that they are useful, after all, they brought supplies with them. Yet the real treasure came from the Armory. They were given 15% off of everything in the shop, Tarak knew this was a great discount, after all, 15% of 1 million dollars worth of ammo would leave a dent, yet with that 15% it takes a load off the expenses to upkeep himself. Especially with people buying some high ticket items, and talking about getting Tarak a rocket launcher? "Hmm, I might get it, I'll do some looking around first".

Tarak walked the shuttle, amused by the wide selection held here, yet nothing compared to some of the shadier places he was shown before, hell a place like this is a wet dream for many mercenaries, yet for Tarak? This was the cleanest shop he's ever been to. Something like this would have been out of business in no time in other parts of the universe, hell, he'd be surprised if they could set up shop. But he is here, so he could at least buy what he thinks would be good.

Tarak started bouncing from rack to rack, stall to stall, as he inspected different weapons and items into consideration. As the first stall he went to was the explosives stall as he began thinking to himself as he weighed the pros and cons of carrying a rocket launcher 'A rocket launcher would be useful if we ever needed to take out a vehicle on foot, yet is encumber some and dangerous to carry as it can explode while on me, so I would need to make compartments on the suit to carry the rounds so I don't just explode when they get hit with a stray round, maybe instead going for an anti-material rifle instead'.

Tarak moved over to the high caliber stall and started inspecting the weapons, oh he so wished he could find a disruptor rifle, those babies can tear a starship in half with ease, but fuck those things cost more than a damn starship, but they tore any target apart by their very atoms. So Tarak wasn't bummed to not find one, anyone insane enough to have one would normally meet the ire of any and every government from how truly cruel those damn things are. Tarak inspected the stall and found a beauty hidden amongst the rough, an XR-Ulysses anti-material rifle. Tarak whistled as he picked up the weapon and said, "Aren't you beautiful" as he began inspecting the rifle he stood it up, as it was as the damn thing was taller than him, even in his power armor, as he took up the 30mm rifle round, he was more than elated, this weapon would fit perfectly with his already existing weapon as the under-barrel launcher could fire a 30mm, so he isn't carrying too many extra rounds. He then inspected the scope, a high-tech piece of technology, able to interface with an Omni tool and a HUD with ease, making for a sniper's best friend. Tarak was happy, this would be a good buy for him.

Tarak took the weapon to the counter to purchase the weapon, "…50,000,000…". All that could escape Tarak's mouth was, "Fuck".

After some haggling and some…name-calling, Tarak was able to bring the price down to 25,000,000. And Tarak even left with enough ammo to keep himself topped up for a long time. He just knows that this is gonna be a fun time with Ashton on why he just spent a 4th of the damn money they just got. But Tarak doesn't care all too much, he just likes the gun too damn much.

====Meeting the crew====

Finally, after their 'little' shopping trip, the group finds themselves at their new captain's ship. An innocuous ship, as it looks like a simple freighter, yet Tarak could tell from looking a bit more at it, he can see that this ship has a few aftermarket parts on it, specifically, the thrusters seem especially powerful, as those same thrusters are ones he seen on corvettes during the war. So these aren't just small-time. There are probably some higher-ups in the ascendancy planning a coup d'etat.

They were taken to what looked like a meeting room, as they were introduced to their new crewmates and captain, Natasha Zhang, a woman Tarak heard about a little, a Frontier-Born she rose through the ranks fast as she pushed and worked her ass off from literal dirt to become a captain of her own ship. Truly remarkable, yet was used as bait as, just like the children, they were discarded and used as scapegoats. Tarak listened to Natasha as she introduced one of their other crewmates, Abaddon, Tarak chuckled slightly at calling him a limbed Kaisoken. A terrible name for Abaddon, yet a simple description. As immediately after Tarak heard of Abaddon's strange goal, one that makes him seem dangerous, yet has an air of superiority he shows off, and he feels cunning. Tarak had a read on MO and thought if they were to be crewmates, he should at least make sure to be friendly.

Tarak stepped forward and extended his hand out for a handshake and gave a smile to both Natasha and Abaddon, "Hey'a My name is Tarak, it is great to meet you both. I seem to have been nominated as the de facto leader of this small little group". Tarak noticed as he stood in his armor, he is at eye level with Abaddon, well, what would be eye level. As it felt like he was looking at his eyes, yet he says nothing, it felt slightly uneasy yet Tarak never let it even surface beyond a small thought, as this was a normal habit of Tarak's: be calm, if you know it, they will too.

All Tarak did was keep his big smile, one that was too good looking for the years of pain that it was put through. His smile was too perfect for what should have been a hard life, yet it seemed that God deemed it necessary to keep his smile beautiful.

@dragonpiece@Letter Bee

[Conscripts]

Alexander Kherol

---

"Saxon, this is a bad idea. That wyvern is gonna break him into pieces."

The governor's only response was adjusting his helmet.

"It's not going to stop him. He will have to figure that for himself."

But to send him towards an incredibly hostile creature to humans? No matter how determined or brave they are, no one in the right mind would send a 14-year-old kid to that monster. Saxon was the one sending him to Leon for personal protection. He wanted safety for him, and yet...

"Kids his age are aimless. They play all day and they study all night. And then there is Alexander." The governor looked at the wyvern. "I want to know if something is true."

Meanwhile, Alexander was ready to go in and confront the wyvern.

"Here sir." He handed his Staff Sergeant all his weapons and his ID.

"All of them? What if it attacks you?"

"I'll be dead either ways. Don't worry, just chalk it up as an idiotic daredevil's death if you want to."

At least that would not tarnish his reputation.

"Wait-" He didn't have a chance to finish what he said as Alexander had already walked in. Now, it is a staredown between a man and a beast.

Noticing one particular human suddenly getting too close to its territory, the wyvern's eyes turned red in response. A furious growl echoed, with its bared teeth in full display. Alexander had the instinctive reasons to run, but he was determined. He had set course on his goal, as he took his steps forward towards the wyvern. And another. And another.

"Stay away from me human!" Finally pushed to the point, the wyvern spoke, its voice harrowingly booming.

Alexander wasn't flinched. He opened his palms wide, as he took yet another step.

"I shall not."

His eyes did not once look away from the wyvern's, still glowing red in anger. To the wyvern, this is an unacceptable act of trespassing. By a human nonetheless. The one species that ruined the lives of its ancestors. And here this one subject thought it had the audacity to try and ruin its lives as well. But his arms continued to be wide open. The tool he requested wasn't even in sight. It was just a slim man in two layers of fabric. He looked so defenseless, yet every look in his eyes was an indication that the wyvern was the one defenseless. One small step at a time, Alexander made it to its six toes, each claws on them large, long and sharp enough to pierce through an Ascendancy transport vehicle. He placed his hand on each of them, one at a time.

"Are you trying to deceive me into trusting you?" The wyvern bent its neck down to Alexander's level, its voice much deeper than before.

"I don't need to deceive." Alexander replied almost immediately. "You're wounded."

"That's none of your business." It snarled again.

"It's not a business. I am just helping."

"I can do it by myself!"

"But it hurts for you." Alexander now approached the head itself, feeling its bone-numbing freezing breathe down his spine. He removed his right, revealing his bare hand to the wyvern, along with the dark line that sliced through his palm. "There. I have nothing. I also have nothing to ask."

Confusion sowed. Everything just felt surreal to the young wyvern. Everything told it to just snap this human in half, but his touch was so gentle. It wasn't vengeful, nor deceptive. His imitation of the wyvern's usual bonding gesture was also strange, well beyond being amusing. What was he even thinking at this moment in time?

---

SWISH!

...

SPLAT!

...

"Are you alright?!"

...

"You have to let him go with us..."

...

"You say I have the intellect beyond others. And yet you say I am to sit here helpless?"

---

The wyvern let out a sudden puff of ice, blowing over the human before it. Carefully, it swirled its wings around, letting them lay on the ground with its wounds exposed. The eyes were still red, but his breathings had slowed down much. Alexander had earned its trusts.

"What is this even?"

As Alexander made his way up there and using his special tool to accelerate wyvern healings on the wounded area, both men were just as astonished as anybody present. The wyvern was literally putting its guards down just for him. The Dragon's Brigade commander wasn't sure if this is something he would ever see again in his life.

"What's your name?" The wyvern's voice suddenly echoed in his head.

"Hmm, I'm sorry?" Alexander was a bit caught back by the Mind Magic use.

"You humans like to use names. What's yours?"

"Alexander." He replied with his thoughts. "What's yours?"

"...I don't have one."

"Oh right, right." He forgot how this young wyvern was already out there by itself. After having finished patching the wing, Alexander, instead of climbing down from there, climbed up onto the wyvern's head instead.

"Athenia. That's what I'll call you."

"Hmph..." It snorted. "I thank you human...no, Alexander. Is every human like this, or are you just one of the good ones?"

"Hmm..." Alexander hummed both in thoughts and outside. "I would like to say they are not, but I'm sure there's something you also feel confused about your own species as well."

"How the hell do you know about it? Your Mind Magic can't be this strong."

"I don't have it. I just know." His thoughts whispered. "How about we set an example?"

"Is it even going to change anything?"

"I don't know, but I will try anyway." Alexander crouched and brush through its fins. "Will you, Athenia?"

This funny little human. Weak, feeble and powerless, yet here speaking about changing the world. To a system deeply rooted in centuries of bloody history. He wished to change that, as someone who probably had never seen a wyvern in his life. And yet Athenia let him. It felt...empowering. It wasn't merely reasons, the empty husk of words and letters often conjured up for a convenient cause. Perhaps they were more similar than it was led to believe. The difference is that he is more courageous. And he'd probably succeed.

That, Athenia shall see for itself.

WOOSH!

Its wings, fully healed, opened to its full majestic beauty. Its eyes turned white. It stood up, carrying its companion to tower over everyone else.

---

---

"Thank you for trusting me." Alexander said. "Be the flow, Athenia. Let's go!"

It took off.

Carrying the young ambitious Earthling.

Standing firm and proud.

With courage and ambition.

Ambition that would take him to the end of the galaxy.

Courage that guarantees it.

He would succeed. Or die trying.

And it took heed.

That a common soldier was too small a fate.

Two men witnessed his glory.

"He tamed it?!" Leon exclaimed.

The governor saw it differently.

He wasn't a tamer...

He is a leader

---

@Landaus Five-One

[Th3King0fChaos]

---

The Matthews Twins

In collaboration with: @dragonpiece

---

Iris had slept through the whole terrorist conflict. She wouldn't call herself a heavy sleeper but the situation ended so quickly it didn't even warrant waking up. In fact, you would even call it inconsequential background noise similar to leaving the television as you fall asleep. However, the words uttered by Avelyn was more than enough to rouse her from her nap. She sat straight up and drowsily asked "Where's my candy?" then whipping her head back and forth in visible confusion.

Samuel was awake, yet acting like he was asleep. He didn't want to get up too quickly and frighten Iris, he just wanted her to sleep nice and soundly. After all, Tarak and the others had the situation under control, sure their help could be useful, yet Samuel just didn't feel like dealing with these washouts. And thankfully he didn't even need to get up as he just cuddled slightly close to Iris, as he just rested there as he waited for there to be a reason for him and Iris to get up. Yet it seemed Iris decided to wake up as she got up quickly and ask where her candy is, all because Avelyn wanted to play a little joke. Which ended up with Samuel falling forward and landing his head on the table and then onto Iris' lap. Feeling slightly dazed as he wasn't prepared for that sudden movement, yet otherwise fine.

A head had fallen into Iris's lap. A bit startled she pulled her hands away from the area and leaned back a bit. She had realized her brother had literally fallen there. Iris bursted out laughing as she just ran her fingers through his hair, finally getting out "What are you doing?" as she pulled him up, setting him back onto his seat.

Samuel feels slightly dizzy as he feels his sister's fingers run through his hair, as he felt better, but also still in pain. As Samuel answered his sister's question with, "Eh…I dunno…just hangin' out". As he felt Iris slowly raise him back into his seat as he looked at her still slightly dizzy as he says, "Thank ye". As he looked over as Tarak was talking to the shop keeps as there were crates upon crates of food, and…candy. Oh lord. Iris is gonna rot her teeth

Iris was still laughing as she watched her brother look off for a bit. She sprung out of her seat and said, "Where be my candy?" As she tried to find her sweets. Some moments later, Iris's candy had been found. It seemed to have been moved, like people had been scurrying about. "Samuel!" Iris yelled at she gleefully skipped over, "Look! I found my candy..." Iris went deathly quiet as she spotted what had caught Samuel's eye. She dropped her measly bag of candy as with almost glimmering eyes she yelled "CANDY!" as she stated to inspect is content. It was full of the works. Nougat, fudge, caramel, gum, chocolate, connections, hard candy, gummies, and licorice of red and black. That wasn't all though. Much to Iris's surprise, there was a ton of candy she had never tried. It wasn't long until she started to reach in there with the sole idea Just one candy... Of each...

"Oh no you don't" Samuel immediately grabbed Iris's hand before she starts taking out more candy. He continued as he said, "You already have enough candy you can't be opening more already". Samuel lightly scolds her as he notices everyone else leaving too. As he starts taking Iris by the hand as he continues, "Come on, they are going to the other shuttle, let's not get left behind!"

Samuel pulled Iris out of the crate but not before she was able to grab one of the random ones and stick it in her mouth. With that, she started to run towards the other shuttle to get slightly away from Samuel. She then pulls out the candy from her mouth and unwraps it to them promptly starts sucking in it. It had a warm feeling like it was spiced with cinnamon or clove. She turned to Samuel with a smile, showing the candy through her cheek. She extends a hand for Samuel to hold as she asks him, "Hey Samuel, what is this place? It seems pretty heavily armored and kind of looks like a bug." She takes a whiff out of the air and says, "It smells like ozone and explosives", looking back at Samuel for confirmation.

Samuel takes hold of Iris's hand as he says, "This place does smell like that yeah". As Samuel continues to look around as he continues, "Oh this must be an armory". As Samuel starts to look around at the weapons as people start talking about getting gear. Samuel looks over to Iris as he says, "You want anything? I don't really need anything".

As they walked in, Iris let her eyes wander from stall to stall, looking for anything that might interest her. She replies to Samuel, "Honestly, I think we are fine, we don't really use equipment. But it would be fun to do some window shopping. Come on!" Iris pulled him slightly forward to have them start walking again. It was truly a fun place to window-shop as much to her surprise, there was plenty of weapons and guns she has never seen before. There was this strange lightheadedness Iris was experiencing. It didn't make her feel much more like she was slightly out of her body. She didn't know what was happening but it was okay she thinks. She leaned closer to Samuel to keep herself safe as there was some nervousness with this development. Iris's eyes were starting to dilate.

Samuel was more than happy to go and start to just walk around and window shop with Iris. Almost like they were back home. They were just walking around and viewing all these strange and interesting tools and weapons. Sure it is slightly weird that they were doing this in an armory shuttle, however, Samuel thought this was more than fun as he was able to just be with his sister in a normal-ish situation. He felt Iris hold onto him closer as he was thinking, This is nice, she even seems to be enjoying this. As they start bouncing from stall to stall as Samuel starts just looking at the weapons and tools, many seem very strange, like many combat droids, many different guns, and even strange ammunitions that may seem a little inhumane, like who would need an exploding, incendiary, poisonous Rau've bullet? Oh wait, he knows who would. At the end of the trip, everyone was starting to leave as Samuel looked toward Iris and noticed she seems slightly off as he asks, "Hey Iris are you alright?"

Iris just glided through the shuttle, just following Samuel. The weapons were arranged in ways that made them look attractive to the eye. Some of the weapons were the same with just different decals. Most of them looked alright, some looked good, a few looked like literally shit. "Hey Samuel, hey Samuel", Iris tugs on Samuel's shirt sleeve and grind at him and says, "look at that fecal decal." She started laughing, being quite proud of her shit joke. But through the jokes and genuine curiosity, she did see something that interested her. A Rau've gear seller was showing off a pair of dark pink fingerless combat gloves. She stared at them the entire time passing by and although she wanted to stop and buy them, she didn't want to spend any money so she just let it go. As they were leaving, Samuel asked her if she was alright. Iris turned to him, put on a slight smile, and responded "Yeah, I'm fine. I saw a really cute pair of combat gloves. They were fingerless and like this really pretty shade of pink. I wanted them but don't worry, I have successfully have controlled my want for cute gloves." Iris said as she then takes a power stance, putting her hands on her hips and standing wide, stocking her chest out. She then relaxed from that pose and said to Samuel, "Other than that, I'm pretty fine, thanks for looking out for me" as she then gives Samuel a big hug. The lightheadedness was still there but she could feel it starting wane on her. Whatever the case, it made the walking around a lot more fun, things just seemed more colorful. She looked towards Samuel and clasped his hand, "Come on, let's catch up to the others" this time waiting for him to start walking instead of pulling him along.

As Samuel listened to Iris he was very happy she was having a good time. She had fun looking at each of the weapon stalls. As each one seemed to have different and interesting weapons she made jokes about. Yet when they left, she talked about a cute pair of gloves that she wanted, yet she held her wants. He was happy she was gaining more self-control, now if she could put that to candy. As this did get Samuel to think, how much money do we have? People left with tons of weapons and gear, Samuel plans to ask later, just now they needed to go and head to the ship with the rest of their group.

=---=Meeting the Crew=---=

Once Samuel and Iris made it to the ship, Samuel was not impressed with the look of the ship. It looked boring and really like a simple freighter ship. A simple ship, and really Samuel held very little expectations of what the group inside will look like. Maybe it's just some outer-rim hicks who want to overthrow the government because of taxes. Samuel was ready to be disappointed, and feel like this was a mistake, yet he was willing to keep going, if it was to get back at his tormentors, he'd go through being with these people.

Iris was busy wondering what kind of jobs she would do on the ship. Maybe she can be the cook! Images of making fabulous meals filled her mind before coming to a halt when she realized she didn't know how to cook. Ok, maybe I can do electrician work. Wait, I'll die of shock before getting something to work. I could work as a gunman... If they have guns. Um, I can, um.. Run the intercoms! She had a sudden ping of anxiety realizing all she really knew how to do was punch stuff. It'll be fine she said to herself as she entered the ship.

Once they came to the ship they met their captain, as she guided them to a meeting room where they found a…Kaisoken? He was standing on 2 legs and looked to have 2 arms as well. Samuel was at first nervous as he held Iris slightly close, yet noticed their captain seemed not alarmed at all as she introduced herself and the Kaisoken, Natasha and Abaddon. Samuel watched on as he saw the others start introducing themselves, as he even saw Tarak was at ease with him, so Samuel knew he could be at ease. Samuel waved to both Natasha and Abaddon as he said "Hello, my name is Samuel. Good to meet you".

Oh my God it's a Kaisoken, with 2 legs and arms!? Is it a Kaisoken? Is it a Tayanen with some crystal armor? It looks kinda cool. As Iris was left speechless at the cool looking rock person, she could feel Samuel pull her closer. She could tell it was probably because of the rock person called Abaddon. And the captain's name is Natasha, cool. As Iris saw the little bit of crew she realized that she was essentially dead weight to the crew... After Samuel introduced himself to Natasha and Abaddon, she took her turn to introduce herself, "Hi! My name is Iris, Samuel is my twin and my best friend, well maybe besides Tarak. I'm good at punching stuff and I don't know what else!" Iris kept a smile on her face even though she was doing on the inside after that embarrassing introduction.

@Starlance@Letter Bee

[FalloutJack]

NERO KAYAKOS

So, his shopping experience had gone like this... Nero had asked the Korta clerk for recommendations, since he wasn't a gunnery dude, and while the alien was going down the long list of melee toys, Ash and Flame were also looking into this and Flame had a few suggestions. To which the dedicated slashy said "You heard the man. I'm into handheld cutting power, so bring on the knives 'n stuff. The selection was pretty good on that front. There were monomoleculars like he had, there were the hybrid-metals with the plasma-heated edges, there were electro-daggers, there were what had to basically be miniature light sabers that were basically plasma cutters, and...

"Eh? What're these things?"

"Ah, your friend just bought these. Rau've poison blades, grown from thistle trees of their home planet. They exude a deadly poison when they detect blood, causing most species to lapse into a feverish coma, and then death. Most effective...but you have to take care of them. They're alive. I keep mine suspended in a nutrition fluid for longterm storage."

"What? I gotta water these things? I never had a pet or a plant or nothing at home, 'cause I never had a proper home. That's a pass on that one. So, here's what I want. Gonna have two extra mono-knives, so I got extras an' disposables on me. Gimme the hybrid-metals, two of 'em. And gimme a pair of the electricals. Let's see...don't want the plasma beam cutter things... That garroting wire any good?"

"It's monofilament."

"Mmm...nah. I'm getting enough shit, as is. Gonna need a better belt to hold it all, though. Ya got anything for that?"

"I do, indeed."

He ended up getting a utility belt with alot of slots for his knives, which now numbered in eight. It was fine, though, because he wasn't going to put anything else in there. Nero had what he needed to be a light killing machine, to armor himself up and improve his fighting power. These weapons would make him stronger in attack without the need to power his weapons up. It would work out nicely. Very nicely... But getting back to the present moment, the thing with the Omni-Tool Narvia was using was that she was decoding a secret mission from her...godfather? He was pretty sure he heard her mention that this Dragon guy - Zahn - was decent stuff, and Nero was pretty sure someone mentioned that Dragon Fleet he was in command of. Nero kinda' wondered what it was the guy wanted. Maybe he was on their side for putting down the Ascendancy? That'd be sweet. Well, eight-and-a-half hours to go, now that Ariel offered her own OT to sync. Nero was kinda' anxious to learn now, but he could wait the hours if they got plenty of shit to do, anyway.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

They arrived at the hangar of the Xuanzang and...well, that's a ship, alright. It wasn't anything special to look at, but then again, maybe it wasn't suppose to be. As someone who understood doing things on the sly and keeping out of view while pulling sneaky shit, Nero could see that a ship that didn't seem like it could do much would be ultimately perfect. That Dragon Brigade that Narvia's godfather ran was so famous that it had its own entry in the Omni-Tool's database. This? Nobody knew that Moonstrike used this. It was just another ship. It was therefore perfect for their needs. If nobody ever knew they were operating from it, nobody would ever give it a second look. Just like how nobody outside of their little group really knew what he could do to your face.

They finally met Natasha and Abaddon the Limb-Seeker, though she was doing the talking for the moment. She wanted to know about them, of course. Ehh, this was that socializing thing that Nero didn't exactly like. He didn't mind talking, but...he and other people weren't like best mates or anything. He got along with the others here, but they were umm...whadyacallem? Collagues? Associates? Partners in crime? Even back at the Rau've place, he wasn't super-close to people. These guys were alright, but Nero kept going off on his own. It was hard to really feel like they were more to him than anyone in Moonstrike, with the exception of the fact that they all were linked by one big eyesore: Earth. They needed to get back to Earth, get back at Earth. And let's be honest here. That's what linked them here, or at least Nero to the rest of 'em. Sam and Iris may be sibs while close to Tarak, Flame and Ash had a thing for each other, and all the rest may be friendly enough, given the chance, but...this was about them sticking it to the Man, the Ascendancy pf Man.

A bunch of 'em introduced themselves, some kind of showing off or explaining what they do and where they come from. Nero looked at Natasha and Abbadon with a shrug and said, "Nero Kayakos. I kill people.", in just a blunt matter-of-fact sort of tone. It's all the assholes back home ever wanted from him. They didn't give a shit about anything else, and it's something he was good at. He didn't want to kid them here. It's what Moonstrike wanted from him too. Sure, they had things where they talk it out, but you all know what Nero is about, and so did they.