EliteCommander

The Cradle

Rareth had all of the relevant results from her people’s scans sent to her implants, as well as observing whatever the Barbarossa had managed to detect. The foreign signal had scanned the planet itself, but it had interacted directly with the Human ship’s internal systems, so they had at least been in position to get a close look at the signal. In any case, her people’s trace of the signal did agree with that of the Humans, so they had a likely location for a source.

“We have a source and a vector.” Rareth commented. “Our trace agrees with yours, so we know the star system of origin. The scan was carried through sophisticated FTL signaling, perhaps even somewhat faster than our own. What we need to determine is the reason. This scan was particularly directed at the object itself, and connected systems, but how would the source know of it? Neither my people nor yours were broadcasting about our investigation towards this remote portion of space, and certainly not along FTL channels. So how did this source know to scan us at all?”

Meanwhile, the Rothians did not delay in carrying out the next part of the plan, regardless of the interference of this outside scan. A gateway had been moved into position around the object, so once it powered on, they were able to send it through the wormhole in an instant to another that a Rothian cruiser had moved into position in orbit around the void star. Without delay, smaller tug vessels surrounded the object and started to carefully slot it into a specialized frame they had fabricated with thrusters to allow them to steer the object into its carefully calculated orbit. They had planned out its path and calculated the effects of relativity down to the second, so they knew exactly when it would be returning from its orbit.

The Cradle

In light of the unprecedented circumstances, Rareth had moved to the bridge of the Barbarossa along with the Captain to make sure she had access to as much information as possible, though she still stayed in constant contact with her people on the surface. As soon as she had confirmation that no more of their people remained in the simulation, she gave her orders to the engineers down at the FOB. “Do it now! Modulate the shield!” They could not block the signals while they still had people connected, but now, they could adjust the containment shield to block all incoming signals in order to protect it against whatever it was that was scanning it.

Now that the immediate crisis had ended, Rareth could not take a break in dealing with the next. A scan of unknown origin had affected the planet, as well as the object and everything connected to it. That in itself opened up a myriad of questions, and she hoped they would be able to get some answers. As soon as it was detected, Rothia directed an impressive array of sensors towards finding its source. Hopefully, the analysis of that data would give the answers they wanted, but nothing that happened would change their plans in the short run. As soon as she could, Rareth gave the go-ahead to power up the gateway they had moved into position around the object. They needed to get the object into its orbit around the void star as soon as they could.

Despite all of the unexpected events that had transpired, there was one aspect of the Rothians’ plans that had still proceeded uninterrupted. The data stream from the Barbarossa had been secretly intercepted and copied from the moment they had entered the object. Every piece of data that had been sent to the object, they now could analyze on their own time. Of course, there was one mind in particular in which they were interested. Agent 595 had secrets in her memories that could allay the Rothians’ fears, or confirm them. The data stream was immensely complex, of course, and they would have to discover how to decode the mnemonic impressions originally intended for the object. Though, the notion of digitized minds was something with which they had…relevant experience. Agent Vreta’Sori had already done a great deal to assist in isolating the memories they were specifically interested in with just a few words. As soon as they had entered the simulation, he had approached her to ask leading questions, not with the expectation that she would answer, but just to make sure she would think about the question. He had asked about her encounter with the entity, her experience in the cave, and even spoke about the motivations of the Director-General. His commentary would have ensured that the memories they were interested in passed through 595’s mind, and therefore were available to be intercepted.

The data intercepted from 595 was sent securely, to Threria. Nirann handled the virtual package momentarily, but he would not be the one to analyze it. The place the package was sent went beyond the clearance of even the Rahn’Masser, and into the care of a mind unlike any other.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei’s expression held a slight grimace as she looked out over the area in the direction of the Daedra. They did have the high ground, being at the top of the hill, but it was about the only advantage they would have. The Daedra would have overwhelming numbers, and it would not be the fodder that would be rushing them. With the lycan and Dominion soldiers Ri’vashi had brought with her, they did have enough numbers to form a defensive line, but it would not be more than a few ranks deep.

Taking the Staff of Magnus in hand, Meesei turned her gaze up towards one of the pillars of magicka. “I know it would be easier to hold from inside, but I need to be out here if I want to drain the magicka from that pillar. I am going to need a lot of power to force a portal through this interference. The whole process shouldn’t take more than a minute or two, I just…need that time.”

Ri’vashi did not hesitate nor question Meesei, and she certainly did not waste any more time. “Form ranks and take positions to defend the Champion!” She shouted to her soldiers. “Allow none through, guard the men and women at your side, and refuse to die until that portal is open!”

The Cradle

Ultimately, Vreta was not willing to follow 595 any farther this time. The rig’s anti-grav was failing, and the last place he would want to be was inside if it hit the ground at speed. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no dissuading the Agent, so all Vreta could do was to make sure everyone else got out alive.

Mercifully, there was nothing to actually stop them from evacuating. Vreta, along with Eti’s team, boosted away from the rig, back in the direction of the mountain. The worm was still in pursuit, but fortunately, it seemed to have its sights on the rig itself, rather than any of the tiny creatures flying around it. Vreta could only guess that it would end up disappointed in the end, but he would be long-gone by then.

The side of the mountain was mostly steep and jagged, but Vreta managed to find a space that was flat enough for their needs. As the worm fell past the group, Vreta did spare one more look over the edge while the transit station was deploying. Despite his rather strong distrust for Agent 595, he did hope she made it out of this alive. If nothing else, they were going to need to have a conversation soon. Regardless, once the station was ready, he joined Eti’s team in returning to the real world.

The Cradle

Nirann could not help but to feel some fear creeping up inside him. The rig did not have the power to control its descent completely, and sensor information from the outside was worryingly limited. He did not know how much time they had, especially once he started to feel the rig listing farther to the side. Fortunately, he did not have to wait too long. The lifesigns readout he was watching suggested that the others had made it to the common room, and he had no reason to wait for them to get their own transit station set up.

While he had not had enough power to transit everyone in every room, he could push the power he had available to transit everyone in a single room. Luckily, the fact that they had given him the responsibility of operating most of the rig’s systems meant that he could have a great deal of control over its power distribution. He was able to shift power to the common room and transit out everyone inside at once.

The sudden drain of energy would certainly affect the anti-grav, so Nirann wasted no time in doing what needed to be done. The whole rig started to list even more heavily, but the claws on his feet could pierce through the metal floor itself to give him enough grip to keep moving. Each step reverberated throughout the small room as he bent and crumpled the paneling beneath him as he steadily made his way up behind Freyr. She still held on tight at her her console despite all happening around them.

It would be quite impossible for Freyr not to hear Nirann coming, but all the same, she might have been surprised by his next step. All the sudden, he clamped his hands down around both of her forearms from behind. He did not squeeze too tightly, but his grip was like a vice all the same: unmoving, no matter how much she might struggle.

“Sorry, but we’re leaving.” Nirann said before pulling her away from the console into the scan area. He took a few steps back, then hit the button on the station with his tail to transit the both of them away.

---

Rhia guided Vreta in every step of the way to land on the rig. He was slower to reach the rig than 595, but he could be more controlled with his thrusters, so his landing was considerably better. Instead of smashing into the hull at speed, he matched its downward velocity and spin before landing and used his magnetic boots to touch down gently. Altogether, he even had a better landing than the rest of Eti’s team. Still, anti-grav on the rig had now weakened to the point that it was spinning out of control, and the worm above them had it in its sights.

”I picked up a pair of power spikes from the rig on our way in, consistent with the use of transit stations.” Rhia quickly informed Vreta. There was a great deal else that Rhia could tell Vreta about at the moment, but she was keeping any commentary brief and mission-critical.

“We just need to get out of here!” Vreta said through comms. “I picked up some energy readings on the way in; the others have probably already evacuated. We just need some stable ground to deploy my transit station.”

The Cradle

For now, Vreta had no problem following in 595’s wake. The weapon she used was effective for clearing the creatures, and any that remained could be burned away by bursts of his plasma thrower. Her thrusters seemed overpowered for her weight, but as long as he did not delay, Vreta could keep up enough to follow behind. The farther they moved away from the hatchway behind them, the more reliable sensory information Rhia could access. She observed each and every creature within her view as best as she could, calculating their positions and velocities to identify priority targets for Vreta and overlay their projected paths onto his HUD. She had done as well as she could, given the circumstances, to keep him from getting overwhelmed. His armor would not be threatened by the odd scratch from a stray creature’s claws.

For Eti and her team, it was clear they did not have to worry about being too protective of their civilians. They could focus more on protecting the unit as a whole. With 595 clearing the space ahead, Eti and Kelest focused their fire on guarding the flanks. They could fill the air with plasma to deny space to the creatures and prevent them from flying in behind them.

The Agent herself was intent on reaching the rig. Strictly speaking, they only needed to reach some stable ground to deploy a transit station, but the rig would serve that purpose just fine. Either way, they needed to get off of this cube, so diving off the side was a plan they could all agree to.

Vreta did not hesitate to leap from the side of the cube. Once finally free from the effects of the jamming field, Rhia could finally had an unclouded view of the environment through her full sensor array. Vreta’s HUD came alive with alerts to steer him clear of danger, recommendations on burn timings and strength for his thrusters, and a clearly marked landing area on top of the rig.

---

From his console, Nirann had at least some limited view of the interior of the rig through lifesign readouts. Provided they were still accurate, it seemed that at least some of the crew had managed to transit so far, though the Sacred Band still needed to make their way inside. The common room was close to most of their positions, so Nirann added on quickly after Thebes’ order. “The common room is close. You can set up your transit station inside. Anyone else who doesn’t have a transit station in front of you, get there quick as well.” At this point, he wanted to get everyone else who was left into the same room. The Sacred Band would certainly have a station of their own to deploy, so they naturally could use it, but Nirann saw no harm in hedging his bets with multiple escape plans.

Nirann muted his comms and turned back towards Marae. “I’ll make sure they get out. Go ahead and transit, love.”

“Nir-”

Marae could not get out so much as a word before Nirann interrupted her. “We talked about this. You know my mind has the best chance of handling the trauma. Just hurry.”

Ultimately, Marae wasted no more time. Regardless of her worries, she trusted Nirann wholly. He made sure he was out of the scanning area before she moved quickly to the station he had set up between them, then transited away. He no longer bothered asking Freyr to leave, as he had his own plan in mind for the evacuation.

The Cradle

With the two plasma throwers firing into the air, some of the creatures were outright incinerated, while many were kept at bay. Some were getting around the cloud of plasma with only minor burns, but they at least came in more manageable numbers than an entire swarm. Mar swapped her particle cannon to its faster firing mode to try and deal with as many as she could. Despite the speed of the creatures, she was still deadly accurate. The particle beams from her rifle traveled at near light speed, so she merely needed to point and shoot. She could cover at least one angle herself, though that still left plenty swarming around the cloud of plasma.

For this kind of threat, Vreta found the plasma throwers to be a good idea. He swapped his rifle to that same mode as well. While Mar covered one angle, Vreta picked another to immolate. These creatures were not made of stone, so they could be incinerated just as well as one would expect. Still, that did not stop some from reaching them. Agent 595, on her part, seemed intent on killing them with her hands, at least at first.

Vreta was surprised at first at the blinding glow from behind him. It was over in just a moment, but from what he gathered, 595 had some kind of electricity-based weapon integrated into her armor. He had not expected it, but it was pretty much the perfect sort of weapon for this situation. It gave them the space they needed to move, in any case. “Let’s go! We just need to get beyond the jamming field, then we can use a transit station.”

---

“It’s not worth dying over! If we don’t evacuate now, that ‘key’ will end up buried with you!” Nirann argued. He did what he could to keep the rig stable, but the limited power restricted his options. He did not have the power left to use the rig’s transit capabilities on everyone, but he did have one idea in mind. While Freyr was distracted, he rushed out to the adjacent storage room.

Marae, meanwhile, did not hesitate to make the call to evacuate over their team-wide comms. “Everyone, find your nearest transit station and use it immediately! And I mean everyone, soldiers included.”

It only took Nirann a moment to return holding one of the mobile transit stations under his arm. He said nothing to Freyr to call attention to it and instead simply started to deploy it in the center of the room without a word. With just a touch of his hand to the top, three sensors shot out from its rounded edges. They were suspended by anti-grav fields at first, until they attached themselves to the floor at three points, which encompassed most of the space in the small room. The sensors could scan in a triangular area between them as accurately as the physical platform of the larger version. It could not handle large objects, but it would be more than enough for a few individuals.

The Cradle

Nirann may no longer have been connected directly to the rig’s systems, but he could still use a console like anyone else. He rushed over to the nearest still-functioning console and used his emergency overrides to get control over whatever functionality was left. As far as he was concerned, the anti-grav thrusters were the only system that actually mattered at the moment, so he shifted power from everything else to keep them going as long as possible. The rig’s fall slowed dramatically, but it was only a temporary solution.

“The rig doesn’t matter!” Nirann shouted. “We’re not in the jamming field this far out, and the transit stations will work without the rig. I have the data we’ve been analyzing in my memory, so as long as we get out of here alive, we can salvage this mission.”

“He’s right, we need to evacuate!” Marae said as she started to move towards the exit.

---

Rhia saw it coming before Vreta did. He did not question her when she warned him to yank his cables immediately, which did at least save him from being pulled from his feet. Though, that was far from the end of their problems. The rig was coming closer to slipping off of the mountain entirely; if those inside had not already evacuated, they needed to do so as soon as possible.

Vreta leaped forward, his thrusters helping him to close the gap to 595. Fortunately, the rig’s slip into the abyss did start to slow, which gave Vreta the chance to catch up to her. As quickly as he could, Vreta tried to help her get the transit station off her back, and get her back up to her feet.

Despite the growing chaos around them, the screeching from above them could still be heard louder and louder as the creatures dove downwards. Vreta raised his rifle up towards the sky, but soon found his line-of-sight blocked by a bright, red-orange glow that filled the air above them. The moment the threat had shown itself, Eti and her team had turned back to assist. Eti and Kelest had switched to the plasma thrower firing mode of their weapons, allowing them to protect them with an umbrella of superheated plasma.

The Cradle

Between the voice, the strange sounds, and the deafening crash, Eti had a rather rapid change of heart regarding her plan. “On second thought, screw caution. Best speed forward, follow my lead!” Eti shouted. Her armor’s thrusters deployed, both on her back, and the back of her legs. She leaned forward and sprinted forward into a thruster-assisted leap forward. She did not know entirely 595’s capabilities, but she seemed to be aware of the fact that she could at least keep up in theory. Mar, Kelest, and Vreta were all quick to follow suit. Vreta himself was slower than the soldiers, particularly as he was carrying their transit station, but the soldiers made sure not to outpace him by too much.

---

Marae tried to check the rig’s systems to figure out Nirann’s status, but she had no more luck using the consoles than Freyr did. “I…don’t’ know. Something’s disrupting, well…everything. Nirann! Are you alright? What’s happening?”

At first, there was no answer. Consoles continued to flicker, and after a few moments, the room darkened as it switched to emergency lighting. However, the slight red glow of the eyes of Nirann’s droid body soon pierced through the shadows as he regained control of his frame. “Present! I’m fine, just a…minor near-death experience. Something’s draining the rig’s power, and it was taking mine too…somehow. I had to cut myself off from the rig, so I don’t have control anymore. I, uh, suggest we grab the mobile transit stations and make ourselves scarce.”

The Cradle

There were many questions that Rareth could, and certainly would ask in time about this situation. They would have to find out who could be in position to perform a cyberattack in their system, but first, they needed to respond to and deal with it. Any questions could wait.

Disconnecting those in the simulation forcefully was not an option, so they needed to respond to the attack itself. Rareth did not wait for the Captain to reach the bridge before contacting her. “The harnesses do not require a connection to your ship’s mainframe to function, yes? Disconnect them from your ship’s storage drives and there will be nothing connected to the network for this attacker to access. The harnesses on the FOB are on a closed system already, but I will send word to warn them as well not to allow access to any outside networks.”

---

Vreta wasted no time in helping 595 up to her feet. His worries only grew when he realized they did not have contact with the rig at the moment. The cables leading back to it could have taken some damage while they were unconscious. Though still somewhat disoriented, Vreta finally released 595’s hand, gripped his weapon, and turned back towards the temple’s exit. “I don’t know, but let’s hurry. We get back to the rig, get back to the real world, then we can talk about it.”

Without hesitation, Eti’s team once again took up formation surrounding the pair of them. “Stay between us, and move cautiously. We need to get back quick, but let’s still try to avoid drawing attention if we can help it.”