[IC] Void of the Stars II: Return to the Stars [Sci-Fi] [Always Accepting]

[null123]

Unknown Discovery
"You have called the Equestrians, I know you have. Leave, let them retrieve the gem."
The gem did not move, and the Alicorn moved closer to the Spectres.

[darkwolf687]

Unknown discovery

"Apply and identify the object" One of the Deuscidium merely stated, and Spectre teams filed out of the chamber to secure the location

Another strange discovery

Continuing the current trend of weird discoveries, the Collective recently discovered a small, decagon shaped room far below the surface of one of its forge worlds. Built out of Aetherii metals, it held a small device that was known to be used by the Aetherii to lock secrets away. Oddly, when opened it revealed that there was nothing onside but stale air, and the reasons for this having been buried is entirely unknown. Some, including some of the Aetherii, have speculated that it must have been a mistake made by there ancestors. Others believe it may have been placed there intentionally but included nothing for whatever reason, or had originally included a message which had been lost over the years after not having been sealed correctly

Equestrian Cloning Project

All of the clones have been female... Except one who has interestingly come out as a male, with other odd DNA markers that are separate to the female models, but implies a relation.

[Keyguyperson]

Lakfakalle
'The Rigel system?" Said Admiral Spoor "We detected FTL comms signals from that area, they matched up with intelligently designed broadcasts transmitting information. There's definitely something there. If we take the fact that there seem to be very few civilizations in the galaxy with FTL comms technology into consideration, that increases the change of Sylve being present. As I'm sure Captain Oras already told you, we can't send scout vessels out due to the expense of our FTL drives. However, if the scout mission finds anything, then we have a secret military project nearing completion at the gas giant Hyphelia, where we get most of our sublight fuel from. We discovered an ancient vessel, equipped with a completely new FTL drive that our scientists say created a pocket universe around the vessel. Its weapons are just as advanced as its engines as well, the same antiproton streamers found on our warships and multiple missile launch tubes. We are outfitting it with a warp ring, and luckily it has a neural link system that cam be used by us Abh. If we can complete its refit in time, it could prove valuable in the war on Sylve."

Krugor-4
"We hear you, it certainty is nice to know that the planet wasn't attacked recently. Unfortunately, we cannot turn around due to the nature of our drive systems. We are transmitting the coordinates of our homeworld to you now, in case you wish to make formal contact."

[MrFoxNews]

After Century's of traveling through wild space Hive Fleet Chimera had finally arrived.

It's first target was a distant Jungle world it's only inhabitants were non sentient creatures. Easy prey for the Tyranids.

The spores poured out of the Tyranid Craft in the billions releasing Trillions of Combat Organisms to the surface.

The skies Blackened as Tyranid Micro Organisms began their unseen duty of Terra forming the world to produce even more biomass.

Genestealers that had been here for months calling the Fleet to the fertile world finally sprang from hiding.

The first day of the assault ended with the death of every living creature on the world.

Huge Capillary towers began sprouting from the earth, the local foliage grew at an incredible rate now. The Jungle now reached into the upper atmosphere.

It was time to feed.

Within 7 Days the Entire system was an airless Rock. The Psi Resonance resounded to all with the gift to comprehend it.

The Great Devourer is here.

[TehAlphaGamer]

Lakfakalle

"No matter how advanced or complicated, whatever can make those conniving assholes disappear from the cosmos, Sazkarjhia will be more than happy to assist the effort. I will report the situation to my superiors and I'm certain that we can arrange a mass fleet mobilization to rendezvous with your own assault force. Once our strategy is planned out, we will converge onto the station, destroy it and whatever--and whoever--is on it, although if the Abh reach the base first, we should require one thing: Captain Switch must be brought into Sazkarjhit custody, alive. He's the kingpin of this sector of the universe and if we can find out information on the organization from him, we can find out how to erase the rest of Sylve from existence."

[null123]

Discovery
"The Gem is a magical artifact, im a being of great power, Now leave and let the Equestrians retrieve it."

Triarii Sub-Race Creation
Vahlen began looking at the male. She wanted to improve the advanced cloning process so that they had more males. After all she would need males to make a sustainable population.

[MrFoxNews]

Hive Fleet Chimera had grown exponentially from its latest meals, several more small worlds. 1 even contained a marooned crew of some kind.

The fleet consisted now of 50 Super Massive Hive Ships and a seemingly limitless amount of support craft. Capable of Launching numberless hordes of ground forces.

The Fleet slowly moved through space towards it's next prey. What the rest of the galaxy referred to as the Triarian Collective. Genestealers had already begun to infiltrate the world and drew the fleet towards it with ever growing speed.

Because they do not utilize FTL travel it will take a long time for the fleet to arrive. But they will not be detected until they are close enough for the shadow in the warp(the effect Tyranids have on FTL and communication technology) to take its deadly hold.

(The fleet is moving to the recently colonized Collective world, this will be the first contact with a defended world)

[darkwolf687]

Alert, Genetic imperfections detected among population, possible Unauthorised Procreation committed...

"Protectione team alert, biosignals of individuals for PCIDs transmitted to your HUD scan imperfect genes. Subject is confirmed non-perfected individual. Possible genetic malmatch through non authorised procreative activity. Code: Inquire, Prosecute, Confirm." Overwatch said to them, as the units prepared their weaponry. The Collective law code actually forbade reproduction without the consent of the state, given on a case to case basis to prevent the formation of imperfects. If an imperfect couldn't be cured, full amputation from civil society was the appropriated treatment.
Effectively, the genestealer cult had been identified and branded as Imperfects due to their Genestealer DNA, the biosignals readings would constantly state that the genes were nonstandard. As a result, the subjects were slated for amputation

The APC rode forwards, the individuals activating the biolocks on their weapons, which scanned their DNA before linking it up to their integrated HUD. Hardlight pistols, electroshock batons, anti-personal pulse grenades... And the squad leader had a light hardlight rifle. Not what one might consider military grade, but considering the effect of the hardlight rounds on even armoured targets, they were still dangerous. Shots had been known to remove limbs entirely, and the shot almost never failed to punch straight through the target. It was, after all, travelling at the speed of light to its targets.
And as this was a Saeva Simius new world, those holding then were the massive apes. The worlds gravity alone was .2 G lower than what they were used too, and it was still 3.8G. These were known, unaugmented, to be able to tear a man limb for limb with relative ease.
The apc arrived at the location, its dark energy machine gun scanning the area. The six Civilis Protectione units poured out of the back, their squad leader watching his motion tracker while the 02 linked the bioscans with their HUD integrated tracking device
As for detecting the fleet its self, unconventional means achieved that. This was, after all, a massive psionic signal, flying across space. There wasn't a Triarian Watcher alive who was going to fail to report that to high command, conventional means be damned. And the response was appropriate.
"Attention all ground, defense and space units, arm planetary defence grid and prepare for exogen infection. Code: Inoculate, Cauterise, SWORD. Inoculation code: Steriliser, Viscerator, Bouncer. Force deployment code: Non-Surgical, Zero, Zero"

Equestrian transport ship

The Equestrians would make a shocking discovery come morning, when it turned out the transport ship they had used to get to the Triarian planet was now partially eaten and had areas of an odd biological substance on jt, with little worm like creatures apparently trying to eat the ship. These were, in fact, Larvae for a somewhat larger creatures. They were known for infesting and eating devices they came across and there werre entire procedures dedicated to detecting and removing them on Triarian worlds, due to an infestation in the past which resulted in several ships being damaged by the ravenous creatures

Triarian subspecies

All genetic markers in the male pointed to what the Collective would easily deem imperfection. His sensory systems were not properly developed, only one of his lungs workered, only one of his two livers worked, and his nervous system was slow in comparison. Atop of this, he seemed to possess, a lowered level of intelligence which pointing to a child having been born extremely prematurely and somehow having survived. Dozens of other problems plagued it, mostly from under development. Yet it had an unnerving way of having survived so far, and seemed rather content. Externally it could be mistaken for being as healthy as the others, if only it could see.

[Sukui]

Life in the Ceramus is not quite easy, or as other races would experience or view it.

Constantly, one works for 16 human hours, 2 hours of free time, and the rest for sleep. Consequently, they see work time as their recreation, whether be it war services, mining, research, production, or et cetera. God(dess) knows how it came to that. The only recreational activity that lacks productivity is to use their telekinesis to hurl large rocks or creatures from their homeworld (yes, there are animals living off Thzeer also) to the air. No wonder how, at only the age of 10,000 years, they were already at the faster-than-light stage of civilization.

The Qourux's genders can be noted by the females lacking a mouth (the most notable), a slightly more bluish glow, and a more forward-leaning upper body. (Qouruxes have a centaur-like body, as shown here.) The Qourux's reproduction method works like the usual four-legged creature's ways, and perhaps as one would think, this is disturbing to image. When a Qourux sleeps, its glow shuts down and its body stiffens while remaining standing, much like a gargoyle.

There is also water in Ceramus worlds, but because the Qourux has more dependencies on Thzeer, water is rarely used for personal consumption, instead being more used as production material. Because of its high Thzeer radioactivity, the H20 glows a greenish color, with more brightness based on the presence of a nearby Thzeer-based lifeform. Precipitation also drops such water, and clouds are also under this effect.

Despite being able to survive airless environments as long as Thzeer radiation is present, the Qourux is still sensitive to heat and pressure. A fire that would kill a human, also kills a Ceramusii. Crushing blows, explosions and the like are no exceptions for the Qourux's radiation-caused resilience.

Current Status:
8 worlds (Chros and Ndos now terraformed by Ceramus terms)
270 ships (excluding 300 fighters incapable of FTL and quite weak) +10 each turn, fighter production paused
Awaiting contact of interest: magic-capable four-limbed species

[MrFoxNews]

A Genestealer is a species of Tyranid used as the ultimate shock trooper. Their purpose is to advance ahead of a Hive Fleet and pinpoint potential planets for the Tyranids to devour. They are amongst the most deadly creatures in the Galaxy, combining high cunning, lightning-fast reactions and movement, with large, diamond hard, extremely sharp claws that can rip through the toughest armour in seconds.

20 of them along with 10 of their hybrid children were set into a frenzy as the Hive Fleet approched, They spread throughout the city killing anything they can reach. 8 Genestealers swarmed at the 6 creatures that had just exited the APC.

=============================

The Hive Fleet was close now, the planet although impeccably Tiny at this range was in sight.

The shadow in the warp would now begin taking effect.
FTL engines stall in any attempt to escape the system and long range calls for help receive nothing but static in return.

[darkwolf687]

APC conflict

The six CP Officers, considering they were a police force, put up a brutal fight. Their lack of proper close combat weaponry besides a stunstick would be their downfall however, as the Tyranids brutal attacks tore through their comparatively weak armour. But as they engaged the Tyranids, the APC pulled away from the combat, turned its turret... And let out a stream of dark matter from its Dark Energy Machine gun. Tyranid and CP alike were hit and completely destroyed by the beam. It worked on the basic idea of the dark energy the Collective used... That is, anything it touched would be transformed into more dark energy. Dark energy was quick to dissipate and the energy often returned to a bon-exotic variant within 0.5 seconds... By which nearly 3/4 of a man sized target would have been consumed, depending on impact area, and when multiple blasts were flying at approximately sixty shots per second, targets were rarely standing after it hit. Due to the distortion caused by the passing energy, these shots often appeared to merge into a single beam, and as such were usually mistaken as such by individuals who lacked the knowledge. Still, within a few second of firing, the Cp's themselves had been destroyed, along with almost anything around them, including a chunk of the ground.
Civilis Protectione Nexus

The leader of the Planets Protectione units watched the view screens with interest. The threat of the Genestealers was not above Civilis Protectione, and they were quick to handle it themselves. Hardlight pistols were the generally used weaponry of individual units. It was prefered for general police work because it allowed a unit to kill a hostile anti-kyn quickly and with precision, with the shots travelling at the speed of light and the resulting impact nearly almost always fatal. Against these new hostiles, there was little doubt that the shots would achieve the same, unless they managed to negate both the laws of physics and the existence slash travel of light
It had dawned on him long ago how intriguing their mistake was though. In a way it was just an advancement on the standard kinetic weaponry... The same kinetic weaponry that the Collective had suspected they would never use again.

Equitem Nexus

The Equitem, however, were not having such an easy time. This new threat was large and the planets defence forces were currently just a small patrol group. If they could get the hostiles into a land battle, the Overseer suspected a more even playing field. If the enemy vessels had any form of half-good weaponry, his outnumbered forces would achieve nothing.
This was a new colony. There were no space stations, no habitat walkers, no Assembly Walkers, not Praetorian ships. The closest they had were reaper drones.

But look at all that biomass, the hostile fleet seemed to be almost entirely composed of it! How many Synths would that make...

He tapped a few commands on his terminal and frowned, CSS Long Range Comms were down. He tapped a few commands on his terminal to contact the Space Overseer. The Triarian appeared on screen and the Saeva Simius overseer opened his mouth, his vocoder activating as he spoke
"CSS Long Range Communications disabled. Request you use TSPN Communication to Equitem Quadrant Overlord and request assistory surgical force." The Saeva Simius Overseer said, and the Triarian nodded in response
"Request confirmed. Utilizing TSPN Communications to send information and reinforcement request. Use planetary defenses on the approaching fleet, ships preparing. Advise; Prepare Endgame, begin evac through transverser in CP Nexus." The Triarian overseer turned away and his eyes began to burn a bright orange.

On the ground

In lieu of the approaching fleet, the Collective begins a movement of Civilians to the CP Nexus, and check each ones bio readings before allowing them in groups into the Teleportation Chambers, which are used to beam them to a classified location that is being referred to simply as NF by the high ranked units

[MrFoxNews]

The Tyranid Fleet moved into orbit over the planet releasing it's swarms of bioengineered ships towards the meager space defenses.

The Hive Ships did not wait for them to be destroyed.

Carrier spore began pouring to the planets surface carrying billions of Combat organisms within them. The spores will crash all over the planets surface in seemingly random locations.

Few spores feel within the city itself but those that did carried more Genestealers and a new creature. The Lictor, pretty much a larger quicker deadlier Genestealer with cameleon type skin.

Outside the city the swarm forms. Billions of organisms moving as one towards the city.

Something else far more insidious was taking place across the entire world. Micro Organisms were being released everywhere. These organisms would mutate the local flora into a rapidly growing Tyranid flora within a few hours. Huge Capillary towers will begin to sprout all over, they would change the atmosphere and raise the core temperature of the planet. Any creatures unlucky enough to have proper filtration would begin growing I'll.

[darkwolf687]

Ground Command Center

"Endgame" The Saeva Simius Overseer ordered... But nothing happened "Endgame." He repeated, louder. This time the AI responded
"Denied, authority over ridden" The voice came, and the holoterminal displayed the symbol of Spectre. The Saeva Simius frowned and tapped a few commands. CSS was down, wasn't ENPC? He tapped a few commands. It was long range ENPC wasn't functional. That meant it was coming from... He checked the view screens, and sure enough a single ship decloaked in orbit. Unbeknownst to him, a single transmission was sent out, a physchic one towards the alien contact

"Attention! Identify and confirm situation, cease land invasion, the Collective will not cede this world. Collective requests knowledge of hostile wants from the world, conflicts resulting from minor resource disputes can be settled. The Collective prefers not to repurpose you, so request cooperation. The Collective prefers not to amputate you from the universe, so request cooperation. The Collective prefers not to expend resources needlessly, so request cooperation" The psychic message 'thought'... In truth, the unit didn't know what he ws supposed to give it to, so he simply transmitted it to some of the hostile planetary forces in hope that they would report it back to whoever their leader was. There was a strong psionic presence surrounding this alien contact... Of interest and concern

[MrFoxNews]

The swarmed stopped attacking and regrouped around a single Tyranid creature before the walls of the Nexus

The Zenomthrope floated towards the Nexus, the Psionic energy around it rippled As it sent out a single thought not words so much as an understanding "Host" Images of countless other "hosts" were broadcasted as well.

In orbit the Hive Fleet continued launching spores to the planets surface but the destruction of its defenders ceased.

The Tyranids waited for a response

[darkwolf687]

The Saeva Simius overseer tapped a few commands, opening a comm link to the Indespectus in orbit "Subject appears to want an individual, unknown purposes." There was a paue
"Subject psi-energy fluctuations consistant with possible hive mind, possible request for host."
"Copy, orders"
"Establish communication, code: Sacrifice, subsumed, communicate. Linking your mind with my own for access of free communication, isolating myself from Central."
"Copy, ready for communication establishment"
"Prepare yourself. Overwatch, activate Command unit 01 for current world's neural command link. Flash wipe" There was a pause and the Saeva Simius let out a gasp before stumbling forwards
"Flashwipe complete" Overwatch reported. The Spectre tapped a few commands and changed the angle slightly, looking to the Zenomthrope, transmitting an image of the Saeva Simius overseer back to it, not bothering to add words beside "Host"

[null123]

Vahlen's Lab
Vahlen looked bored. She was sorting through the DNA of the male Triarii to determine the gene that determined sex. It was boring work however, so she had delegated to one of her fellow colleagues, Black Marble. She stepped into what appeared to be a bio-suit to ward off condemnation in infected areas. She brought with her a set of surgical tools. Enter-ting a completely white and sterilized room was a dead Triarii. A few had intentionally been designed to come out of the cloning vats dead so they could be dissected to study there Psionic structures and other structures, so that the development of a Psionic Race could be done if the Triarii Sub-Race creation project where to fail. Her knife touched the flesh, eagerly cutting into it.

Larvea Infestation
Thanks to the fact that the GSF have there own hangars no other ships have suffered the contamination. A spell designed to lock on to the signatures of one race was used for the larvea and they were quickly exterminated via fire and other methods. They were wiped from the base, hangar, and ship. Although the ship had suffered inreparible damage, so it would be sent for recycling.

Magical Artifacts
The High Archmage looked at what little notes they had on the two recently acquired magical artifacts. Thank Faust that the Triarii saw no value in keeping the second one, otherwise they probably never would have gotten it. It was obvious such things emanated so much magical energy that precautions needed to be taken. It had been transported to D-01, a underground research lab on Equiis, and one of the most secure. They seemed to broadcast magical messages, which supposedly contained new powerful spells or megaspells, they were still trying to decipher the magical messages however.

[MrFoxNews]

The Tyranids continued to ideal about outside the Nexus wall's. The Zenomthrope sent out a psychic prob towards the new host. Finding the mind blank and willing the Hive Mind quickly ensnared it gaining what little knowledge it now possessed.

The overseer twitched slightly and then looked up.

"We have intercepted your communications and will hear your offers. " The newly acquired host said in a flat tone.

Outside the world was becoming a Jungle of alien flora. The sky taking on an unnatural red Hugh. The spore shelling had finally stopped for the moment even though many more creatures waited aboard the fleet.

The Tyranid line advanced and engulfed every undefended part of the city. Anyone unlucky enough to be caught by them was brought before the Zenomthrope or killed immediately. The Nexus we left untouched though.

[darkwolf687]

Tyranids

The Overseers tone didn't exactly change too much, given that it had its vocal cords replaced by a vocoder. The Spectre officer turned his head to the view screen, and turned it back "Cease unauthorised amputations, those individuals may have tactical value." The officer said slowly, before turning his head away and continuing, as if the beginning was just a side note and the death and destruction was a minor inconvenience. "State reason for invading the planet. Resource disputes can be settled. Territorial conquest is unacceptable."
The Civilis Protectione in the city had just activated the ground defense network. Though the network was incomplete due to the colony not being fully, it resulted in the finished ground defense turrets activating and attacking the Tyranids. The CP's focussed on retrieving the civilians for the time being, though several ghost teams secured the cities dark energy generators. If they went up the teleportation network would not be able to function fully.
Clones...

The males genes provide a somewhat shattering discovery. He is obviously marked as a relation to the others... Apparently, their his "mothers". It becomes apparent the Triarian they took a sample from was pregnant, and for an unknown reason the child's DNA had ended up in the sample.
As a result, to say his DNA was corrupted due to the cloning... and inherently broken due to the none complete samples, would be close enough in laymens terms. Some snippets of genetic code were entirely defective.
The clones had formed a sort of network with each other despite their young age through their psionic prowess. Interestingly the male had not been left out despite technically being detrimental to the group. The reason for this wasn't exactly known, though there appears to be traffic between the clones. Since the Equestrians lacked psionics, they couldn't monitor the traffic past knowing it was there. Which was just as well, because if they had they would have discovered something that the clones certainly didn't want them to see. The accelerated aging was having some unpredictable effects on their behavior

Vahlens lab

The skin wasn't hard to cut through, but the blood was. Whatever substance it had become nearly solid, presumably due to the cold conditions. The body had began to decay quickly in these conditions, it was easy prey for the microbes due to its composition, and many parts of the body were already being consumed. How they got to the corpse in a sterilised room was anyone guess Its nervous system was a complex array, far beyond the understanding of almost every race in the universe. It would likely have taken the Supremes knowledge and skill to replicate it perfectly, even if they could. Interestingly, this network was incomplete, presumably already destroyed. Completely alien structures ran along it, and it was linked up to the large brain its self. The mind appeared to have a section which didn't appear in other species prima facie, just underneath the other parts of at the top of the brainstem, set into its own bone encasement. Again, its structure was alien, though one wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it. It had a single, set between two lungs, with a third in front of it and covering the heart. Two livers sat below the lungs, one of either side, nestled in. The Kidneys lay just behind them, and were connected to the stomach. The stomach was rather small, but the digestive system was extensive and fat lay along it, linked up to the nervous system by an odd web. There was actually an even smaller second stomach attached to the gullet. The muscles were almost non-existant, but this couldn't be considered standard as it was obvious there had been no chance for them to build, and there was certainly something stronger in other Triarii as this wouldn't hold it upright..
There was a single organ nestled behind its heart was that is warmer than the rest of the body, though its purpose was unknown.
The rest of its organs had already broken down and been consumed by microbes.

Triarian Medical Report

Filed by: Julius Lucinius Attanus
Subject: Fetal death.
Content: Lower Kyn Member (Medical ID: P9-1048281) has lost her child (Father: CCA-MACE-04.95931, medical ID P9-1048627) due to the unknown toxin utilised to incapacitate her. The toxin was in too high a dosage for the foetus systems to handle once it was passed through. P9-1048281 shows signs of depression. deferring to medical center P9-00

[MrFoxNews]

The Tyranids reluctantly brought all survivors before the Zenomthrope who in turn sent them towards the Nexus

"This planet is to be consumed as all life eventually will. Give us a reason to spare you and we may." Said the overseer.

[null123]

Clones
Black Marble continued his work, although he did make notes of the relations and the corrupted DNA of the child. He began sorting through the sample of the male clone rapidly. The sample of the child was at least enough to provide a gene that determined sex, and he continued looking for it. He also activated a Psi-Tester. Built be Dr.Shen who worked in the same complex it had been built after some minor study of the clones that gave them locations of Psionic Signals. It was obvious when he turned it on that the clones were talking, but he could not decipher. He have to speak to Vahlen about this.

Vahlen's Lab
Vahlen carefully grabbed and removed the small organ that had been hiding behind the heart. She placed in a solution designed for long term preservation and study of organs, as well as that the solution was designed to destroy all microbes. She also extracted the brain, placing it in a similiar solution, along with taking a sample of the blood like substance of further study. The dead body was seemly lifted to a chamber, where several lasers activated, turning into nothing but a pile of dust, that was quickly disposed of. She went through a decontamination room then back to her office to carefully read over her notes. She noticed the files sent to her by Marble regarding the DNA of the male clone. She would have to destroy him once they found the gene that gave him his male sex. Vahlen did not need him ruining the purity of the entire sub-race.