Sector J84 - Moon 456
Meanwhile...
Grabbing whatever had it's multiple wavelenght seeing eyes was something that only managed to happened only into Maria's fantasies. Even if the object scanning her corvette, were, in fact, at arm range, it would be just better to shoot at it. Even though it was nigh armored, a Buzzer 787 were far from being a target easily taken down. However was the defenses of a 787, thought. It was unspeakably far from the Bounty Hunter, calmly floating high-above the atmosphere of Moon 456, scanning every corner of it's surface with state of the art - therefore expensive - surveillance apparel.
And it was looking straight towards Maria's had headed: The Hangar. Even if the data collected from her ship were meager in relevance, the Buzzer would simply transmit all of it back to 456's surface and somewhere in the outer corners of that sector.
As Maria took flight, in opposite direction of the drone, the smaller drones made with Kampfer's Technology were detected as some sort of ingenious ruse measure. It actually took the Buzzer to switch it's visible wavelengths a few times just so it could uncover the ruse. And, for that reason, someone else had taken notice of Maria's real spacecraft...
At over 200 km/h, an apparent marvel of engineering left behind a storm of dust as it ran across the wasted surface of 456. Sleek in design and built within medium armor, a crimson vehicle of substantial size, almost as big as Maria's own personal ship, started to follow the bounty through ground. It's rider: A creature of unknown origins, never seen in this galaxy; Sporting the same colors of the vehicle where it rode, the beast appeared to be some of half-man and half-lizard hybrid, with it's only human 'parts' being it's silvery-white torso, akin to a young woman on her twenties. Her limbs, however, appeared much more intimidating: It's arms, burly. It's legs, trunks of a young oak. And, save for the torso, it's whole body were covered in sleek scales. However, it wore nothing besides the big automatic grenade launcher it used in the attempt to strike Maria down, just some minutes ago.
The corvette on which Maria rode had the eyes of the beast locked unto and, pointing it's menacing grenade machine gun towards the ship, it let out a yell...
"Hear me out, Maria Lockhart!" - Even could Maria obviously couldn't hear it, the beast kept continued. "Hear the roar of Illiya! I am here to take you as my bounty! Hah, hah, hah, hah!" - ... And that's when this'Illiya' fired.
Under normal circumstances, one would have to calculate the trajectory of projectiles fired just so it could have a minimal chance to struck a fast moving target as Maria's ship. Specially for the weapon that this Illiya-thing used. A HE 30mm, Box-Fed, Automatic Grenade Launcher, assuming a normal person would even be able to lift its 6 kilos of loaded weight...
Illiya did it with nigh perfect accuracy... With one hand.
Without any sort of deep concentration, Illiya just pointed her weapon and unloaded it's box-magazine unto the corvette flying into the distance, ignoring completely the two dummies that Maria had deployed. She did it naturally, like she would breath. The only hesitation on the part of Illiya was the fact that she actually wanted to fight Maria Lockhart personally, hand-to-hand, just for the sake it, just because.
The grenade rounds would pass many meters far from Maria's ship while some would stray dangerously close to her craft. However, which rounds had actually stricken unto the craft would depend entirely on Maria's piloting skill... Which Illiya knew it was barely unmatched.
Meanwhile...
Grabbing whatever had it's multiple wavelenght seeing eyes was something that only managed to happened only into Maria's fantasies. Even if the object scanning her corvette, were, in fact, at arm range, it would be just better to shoot at it. Even though it was nigh armored, a Buzzer 787 were far from being a target easily taken down. However was the defenses of a 787, thought. It was unspeakably far from the Bounty Hunter, calmly floating high-above the atmosphere of Moon 456, scanning every corner of it's surface with state of the art - therefore expensive - surveillance apparel.
And it was looking straight towards Maria's had headed: The Hangar. Even if the data collected from her ship were meager in relevance, the Buzzer would simply transmit all of it back to 456's surface and somewhere in the outer corners of that sector.
As Maria took flight, in opposite direction of the drone, the smaller drones made with Kampfer's Technology were detected as some sort of ingenious ruse measure. It actually took the Buzzer to switch it's visible wavelengths a few times just so it could uncover the ruse. And, for that reason, someone else had taken notice of Maria's real spacecraft...
|
With the fire from the fireworks up above me, With a gun for a lover and a shot for the pain at hand, You run for cover in the temple of love, You run for another but still the same, For the wind will blow my name across this land... In the temple of love you hide together, Believing pain and fear outside, But someone near you rides the weather, And the tears he cried will rain on walls, As wide as lovers eyes... In the temple of love! Shine like thunder! In the temple of love! Cry like rain! In the temple of love! Hear my calling! In the temple of love! Hear my name! |
At over 200 km/h, an apparent marvel of engineering left behind a storm of dust as it ran across the wasted surface of 456. Sleek in design and built within medium armor, a crimson vehicle of substantial size, almost as big as Maria's own personal ship, started to follow the bounty through ground. It's rider: A creature of unknown origins, never seen in this galaxy; Sporting the same colors of the vehicle where it rode, the beast appeared to be some of half-man and half-lizard hybrid, with it's only human 'parts' being it's silvery-white torso, akin to a young woman on her twenties. Her limbs, however, appeared much more intimidating: It's arms, burly. It's legs, trunks of a young oak. And, save for the torso, it's whole body were covered in sleek scales. However, it wore nothing besides the big automatic grenade launcher it used in the attempt to strike Maria down, just some minutes ago.
The corvette on which Maria rode had the eyes of the beast locked unto and, pointing it's menacing grenade machine gun towards the ship, it let out a yell...
"Hear me out, Maria Lockhart!" - Even could Maria obviously couldn't hear it, the beast kept continued. "Hear the roar of Illiya! I am here to take you as my bounty! Hah, hah, hah, hah!" - ... And that's when this'Illiya' fired.
Under normal circumstances, one would have to calculate the trajectory of projectiles fired just so it could have a minimal chance to struck a fast moving target as Maria's ship. Specially for the weapon that this Illiya-thing used. A HE 30mm, Box-Fed, Automatic Grenade Launcher, assuming a normal person would even be able to lift its 6 kilos of loaded weight...
Illiya did it with nigh perfect accuracy... With one hand.
Without any sort of deep concentration, Illiya just pointed her weapon and unloaded it's box-magazine unto the corvette flying into the distance, ignoring completely the two dummies that Maria had deployed. She did it naturally, like she would breath. The only hesitation on the part of Illiya was the fact that she actually wanted to fight Maria Lockhart personally, hand-to-hand, just for the sake it, just because.
The grenade rounds would pass many meters far from Maria's ship while some would stray dangerously close to her craft. However, which rounds had actually stricken unto the craft would depend entirely on Maria's piloting skill... Which Illiya knew it was barely unmatched.
It only took a moment for Helen to wheel on Kallenger , her face nearly touching Kallenger's own. In a clearly commanding and angry tone she says in a low voice "Agent Kallenger I'm the engineer tasked with surveying the ruins. I will not be put in front of a firing squad because you drowned in your own blood by refusing to put on the mask in a elini-ether rich environment. Put. On. The. Mask. Now. Ma'am."
Stepping over and looking at Christofer, she says in a much nicer tone while reaching out to properly adjust the scarf to protect his face "He is right that the mask won't fit him. I can breathe elini-ether, though it's extremely uncomfortable and I have odd side effects once I'm out of the zone....sometimes my eyes or ears bleed. Other times I go blind. Kind of random. The tunnel-rat program never fix the side effects."
Satisfied with her handy work, Helen quickly turns back around, motioning at right branch at a cross-corridor "Papayrus...Keep your mask on for now due to the ether. Also medbay should be down that corridor. Two doors on the right. Hope it's still stocked."
Stepping over and looking at Christofer, she says in a much nicer tone while reaching out to properly adjust the scarf to protect his face "He is right that the mask won't fit him. I can breathe elini-ether, though it's extremely uncomfortable and I have odd side effects once I'm out of the zone....sometimes my eyes or ears bleed. Other times I go blind. Kind of random. The tunnel-rat program never fix the side effects."
Satisfied with her handy work, Helen quickly turns back around, motioning at right branch at a cross-corridor "Papayrus...Keep your mask on for now due to the ether. Also medbay should be down that corridor. Two doors on the right. Hope it's still stocked."
"Dammit!" she exclaims once the unknown craft was behind her at her 6 o'clock. On the keypad she was able to pull up the mysterious craft and yet, it is a mysterious craft, Maria looks at it trying to figure it out, for the bounty hunter, the mysterious craft looked like a good ship, no doubt has some money to give it's crimson red. Soon the alarms blared as incoming grenades were coming towards the corvette. Maria, grunted at the noises and says "Why are you using grenades, fool?" as she begins to take evasive manures. She dipped the ship down to avoid the grenades, one grenade clipped her though, causing a large rattle within the ships as the shields were brought down to 25% since these were old school shields, not Kampfer's style of shielding in once taken a hit, they'll automatically recharge. Maria's shields slowly recharge at a steady rate, but she has a shield booster to quicken up the recharge time, visible as a blue energy glow appeared on the ship. She turned the ship on a dim facing the mysterious craft (possibly head on if the Illiya was following her movement) and opened fired at it with dual laser gatlings, to mostly likely to down the enemy shields quickly and open fire with her double canons to do damage to the hull of the vessel.
She would continue it until they get close in which she would most likely break off unless the enemy vessel break off first or break off if the enemy vessel fired its grenade launcher at her
She would continue it until they get close in which she would most likely break off unless the enemy vessel break off first or break off if the enemy vessel fired its grenade launcher at her
Number 12 clasped her hands before smiling again.
-Yes, we had a conversation to finish, I wanted to make you a proposal, I'm offering you a job as a contractor for my corporation, so, what do you say ?
The two battleships deactivated their weapons before breaking their combat formation, clearly stating that whatever was her decision, she was now considered as a friendly.
Sector J84- Deep Space
-Sir, our probes report that our target is under attack, should we intervene ?
-Negative, hold your position brother.
-Yes, commander.
Isandril's orbit
-Lieutenant, give me a sitrep, asked the commander.
-Sir we...are frozen.
-I-What ?
-Something....is wrong, no, everything is wrong, it's like if all of our equipment was frozen the second we entered the system.
-**** ! Can we use our hyperdrives ?
-Negative, but the Aethernet is active sir, however, our encryption software are malfonctionning, impossible to encrypt data, whatever we'll say, everyone will see it.
-That depends, if it's on a focused ray, they can't, alright, prepare a Aethernet direct ray to relay station IBSMV-74-IV !
-Roge-
-ALARM ! ALARM ! DENRIL SHIPS DETECTED ! Yelled one of the crew members.
-DAMN IT ! Yelled back the Commander, How many are they ?
-About a dozen sir, but I think they are as stuck as we are.
-Good....Is the communication ready ?
-Yes sir, we are ready to send a transmission to the relay station, it'll make sure that nothing can trace it back to HQ, however, I must inform you that we received a transmission.
-When ?
-Just about when we entered the system.
-Damn, okay, replay it.
The space entity would bang against the ship's hull just about now, but due to the thick armor, no one on board would hear it.
After hearing the message from the Kingsbane, the Commander decided to choose not to escalate things and try to get them to realize that they were allies, and surprisingly, the Denril were going to make it even easier.
-Doctor Benedict Severin, this is Shadow Squadron INIT-ALPHA-1, we are friendlies, I repeat we are friendlies ! We tried to get ahead from this Denril's fleet to prevent you, but as you can see, this...whatever is blocking everything has destablized us a little, but we are here at last, if you have a way to get into contact with Aelyn Petrovalyc, please, tell us at once ! I simply must talk to him as fast as possible.
-Yes, we had a conversation to finish, I wanted to make you a proposal, I'm offering you a job as a contractor for my corporation, so, what do you say ?
The two battleships deactivated their weapons before breaking their combat formation, clearly stating that whatever was her decision, she was now considered as a friendly.
Sector J84- Deep Space
-Sir, our probes report that our target is under attack, should we intervene ?
-Negative, hold your position brother.
-Yes, commander.
Isandril's orbit
-Lieutenant, give me a sitrep, asked the commander.
-Sir we...are frozen.
-I-What ?
-Something....is wrong, no, everything is wrong, it's like if all of our equipment was frozen the second we entered the system.
-**** ! Can we use our hyperdrives ?
-Negative, but the Aethernet is active sir, however, our encryption software are malfonctionning, impossible to encrypt data, whatever we'll say, everyone will see it.
-That depends, if it's on a focused ray, they can't, alright, prepare a Aethernet direct ray to relay station IBSMV-74-IV !
-Roge-
-ALARM ! ALARM ! DENRIL SHIPS DETECTED ! Yelled one of the crew members.
-DAMN IT ! Yelled back the Commander, How many are they ?
-About a dozen sir, but I think they are as stuck as we are.
-Good....Is the communication ready ?
-Yes sir, we are ready to send a transmission to the relay station, it'll make sure that nothing can trace it back to HQ, however, I must inform you that we received a transmission.
-When ?
-Just about when we entered the system.
-Damn, okay, replay it.
The space entity would bang against the ship's hull just about now, but due to the thick armor, no one on board would hear it.
After hearing the message from the Kingsbane, the Commander decided to choose not to escalate things and try to get them to realize that they were allies, and surprisingly, the Denril were going to make it even easier.
-Doctor Benedict Severin, this is Shadow Squadron INIT-ALPHA-1, we are friendlies, I repeat we are friendlies ! We tried to get ahead from this Denril's fleet to prevent you, but as you can see, this...whatever is blocking everything has destablized us a little, but we are here at last, if you have a way to get into contact with Aelyn Petrovalyc, please, tell us at once ! I simply must talk to him as fast as possible.
Independence's avatar looks somewhat uncomfortable at the proposition, and a couple of status lights on her headset flick from blue to red, then reset a couple of times. Perhaps she's running into some kind of software block?
Whatever it is, it's over quickly, and she replies, "I must apologize, but I don't think I'm comfortable signing on with any organization for now. There is too much to see in this... future galaxy, and for now at least, I'd like to do it on my own terms, and without factional... complications in my interactions with new people. Matters aren't helped by the fact that I still feel pretty attached to a faction which... well, you've got the data on the Laurentian Union."
She offers a hopeful smile, however, and adds, "Maybe sometime sooner or later, I'll contact you to see if your offer's still open, though. Once I've 'found my footing', as it were."
Whatever it is, it's over quickly, and she replies, "I must apologize, but I don't think I'm comfortable signing on with any organization for now. There is too much to see in this... future galaxy, and for now at least, I'd like to do it on my own terms, and without factional... complications in my interactions with new people. Matters aren't helped by the fact that I still feel pretty attached to a faction which... well, you've got the data on the Laurentian Union."
She offers a hopeful smile, however, and adds, "Maybe sometime sooner or later, I'll contact you to see if your offer's still open, though. Once I've 'found my footing', as it were."
Okay, so, she probably deserved it.
She definitely deserved it. Royanna had expected that the kid would just get the idea and she would save herself the painstaking effort of having to speak. She probably should have expected it, too; just because the kid was harmless didn't mean he couldn't be jumpy and there was no reason why his fangs wouldn't be sharp as any feral canine's.
But some combination of the drugs Papyus had given her, the stench, the residual pain, and the gut instinct telling her that somebody was just about to get up in her face, all came together to the effect of stifling her. Abruptly, her breath caught and held on nothingness. Teeth gritted and eyes widened into the spotty dark as the realization of exactly what had happened sank in. A very small "Hnngh~!" might have been heard as she valiantly kept from barking out a number of colorful curses and other exclamations.
The brat had bit her!
It was incredibly painful, and her body couldn't decide if the overwhelming soreness from the other injuries made it worse, or the opposite. But, even now she had to admit that she did kind of deserve it.
And then, before she could recover enough to even take an argumentative stance, Cox was wheeling around on her and coming practically nose-to-nose. Kallenger's first reaction was that of being distinctly impressed with the woman's gall. Her second, following rapidly, was an oddly out-of-place reminder that Cox was probably a decade older than she was, and she was not entirely certain why this came up and why it bothered her. Her third reaction was to try and say something, but the words wouldn't come.
And then that was it. She had the mask in her hands. Silently, thoroughly cowed, she strapped the thing on and loathed herself.
The kid had fallen behind, and was moping.
The vast majority of Royanna's mind was focused on one thing now - her own utter worthlessness - and it was a thoroughly distracting thought process which served no purpose but to make her less and less valuable to the group. Some abstract part of her knew this, but the bulk did not care.
But she was not so oblivious to those around her that she couldn't sense when she had offended - or, rather, hurt someone. As usual, it took a great deal of effort to speak without sounding like a hateful bitch, and sentimentality had to be deeply concealed in order for her to allow herself to use it.
"Hey, keep up kid." She said lightly, taking pains to sound as easy as she could, and succeeding only slightly. If nothing else, it was obvious that she was trying. Kallenger was always obvious with that sort of thing - it was so very clear when she was trying to sound like a human being instead of...whatever she was.
"If I fall on my ass 'cause you're not here to prop me up I'mma be real pissed." Another fine example of Roy's warm and fuzzy demeanor. She wished she could do better. She was trying!
If he didn't immediately pick up stride again and return to her side, she would turn and gesture sorely with a stiff hand and nod her head in the general direction that they were moving. "Well, c'mon." She would grumble, still obviously doing her best and proving that it was quite possibly among her weakest skills.
But if she could fix it, it would make her feel better, she knew that. At least she would be doing something right. Taking care of her people. If he returned to her side, she would give him a few reassuring pats on the back. Granted, her injured dignity would still not allow her to actually accept any help, but as of this point she would decline with a half-forced smile instead of biting words.
Great Galaxy, the kid could bite. Roy glanced down at the arm - or, rather, the wrist - he had gotten. Luckily the coat had been between her and the worst of it, so it would be mostly little more than speckles of bruising along the joint. He had dug into the skin pretty good near the back of her palm, however, and it stung. Not a lot of blood, at least. It would be best, she figured, to just forget about it.
After what seemed like a walk of a few long days, the little 'team' arrived at the medbay. It was exactly where Cox had said it would be, and in a good-hearted attempt at being supportive, she said "You really know your @#$%, Cox." She wasn't angry at Cox, as she had been a few moments before. That had drained quickly with the recollection that it was herself she was furious at.
But now, now they were in the medbay, and Roy's problems would be over - she was sure of that.
Being so closely involved with the Imperial Special Forces, Roy had a good deal of experience in dealing with the Empire's more questionable endeavors. She had been given access to the Empire's best, after all - and that included knowledge about what they had tried in the past. As it happened, Roy was sure that the bases from this approximate period would be stocked with reserves of...what was it called again? B-2, that was it. An experimental and very potent painkilling and 'performance-enhancing' compound of a host of artificial medicines all packed into neat little syringes.
B-2 was by no means outlawed. In fact, there were still small supplies of B-2 in modern Imperial storehouses. It was dangerous and highly addictive, and it had a host of unpleasant side-effects - but the stuff would be great in an emergency.
It did not matter to Roy as she held out a hand and muttered something about wanting her sword back. Once she had the blade again in her possession, the muttering Agent would largely ignore her comrades and head toward one of the storerooms off to the side. It was a small, stuffy room, the door to which had been long-since rusted in the 'open' position. Lots of crates and drawers and boxes. It took some achy maneuvering, but it was only a minute or two before she had found the metal box which would contain her prize. With the sword, she sliced off the lock as if it were nothing at all, and opened the case to find ten glorious syringes, each filled with a cloudy, vaguely yellowish liquid.
Once the syringes had been gathered up and placed into the empty bullet-holsters at the back of her belt - nine empty, with an indeterminate number of bullets remaining, very convenient - Roy found herself hit with the sudden anxiety that someone might try and stop her from using the B-2. It was, for all intents and purposes, a very stupid thing to do - one dose would be bad enough, but Roy knew damn well that she was going to be taking a second real soon. She wasn't going to be useless anymore.
Glancing behind her, the woman proceeded with the utmost haste and dug about almost frantically until locating a rubber tourniquet. Shrugging off one shoulder of her coat, she wrapped the band around her upper arm, let the mask hang 'round her neck long enough to bite the thing and hold it there. The injection went without a hitch, and hopefully she would have pulled it off without being seen...Though there was a distinct possibility that she would get 'caught in the act'. If this was the case, she would wheel around with a start and look surprisingly guilty, whether or not whoever found her knew what she was doing. There would be muttered blusters about how she 'wasn't doing anything' and to 'forget it' and that 'it's fine'.
Either way, the drug would get into her without issue, and nobody would have reason to believe that she had stashed the remainder of the stuff in her belt under the coat. They would stay nicely hidden, even if she had to take the coat off - as long as she stayed seated.
Regardless, Roy would be back in the main area after only two or three minutes. Pupils had dialated and she was already feeling @#$%ing fantastic and this probably showed in the form of a little grin which had certainly not been present before.
"Alright" She said, having returned to the others, looking for a place to sit and the tools she might need, quite ready to proceed all on her own. "Anyone wanna' help me get this @#$%ing bullet out of my leg?" An indefinably unusual tone of voice. Nothing overtly baffling, just a little weird.
And sure enough, one way or another, Royanna was going to get the bullet out of her leg - whether she did it herself (She did, of course, know how to do this, even though she had only needed to utilize the skill twice, and never on herself) or with some assistance. Teeth would be hard-gritted, but five minutes in virtually any trace of pain would be completely erased, and it was fantastic. In fact, she was already starting to feel bouncy with excess energy, but she could control herself.
For now.
It's always your eye, huh?
"Yeah," Kete replied wistfully, distantly, unnecessarily returning his eyes to glance uselessly about at the monitors which all displayed figures and operations which he could hardly comprehend. "It does all the hard work. I'm just what it uses to get around." The half-smirk remained, and was sardonic - but not aimed at Nirix.
He appreciated her reassuring him more than she could know. Again, here he was, having someone telling him that everything would work out fine. It was the same lie he told everyone else all the time - everyone who thought for some reason that he was a good person, worth sticking around, even as he tore their lives to bits under their noses and left them at a loss as to what to do next one he was gone. It was the lie he told himself when creeping thoughts began to intrude on his stupid, happy-go-lucky attitude that so protected him from the reality of it all, that so disconnected him from all the bad.
And he knew that her confidence in him was wrongly placed, but he appreciated that someone else was willing to lie to him for a change - and more importantly, someone wanted to make him feel better, and that was worth so much more.
Always the eye.
It was, of course, in no way sentient. There was no artificial intelligence inside the Devil's Eye, no little techno-demon, not even protocols to alter his behavior. It was a complex, dumb machine, which operated in the background, which just did what it had been built to do. It was not alive, it did not think, it did not make decisions, and yet it controlled Ketin's entire existence. It was everything. What would he be without it? Dead, obviously.
All too often he did feel as if his entire person, everything that was Ketin Clarke, for better and for worse, was no more than a vessel for the Devil's Eye.
Oh, right, it was. That was a very, very unwelcome thought that was now trickling back to the fringes of his meticulously denial-ridden conscious mind. The recollection that he had, in fact, not been special except for that the Eye had taken well to him. It could have been anyone. He was just a body, and he existed only for the Eye, and that was it.
Kete knew a bad line of thought when he saw one and quickly, hastily dashed it from his mind - in doing so, the minutes had been passing too slowly and he was suddenly antsy again, getting frustrated with how long it was taking.
A shuddering sigh, he leaned forward over one of the consoles, elbows planted and head resting in hands which tangled in feathery orange hair.
"Grrgh. There's nothing else I can do, Ny'." He said, voice suddenly wracked with hopelessness. Grip tightened about his scalp, then loosened. "I don't know...It's out there, somewhere out there in space, and it wants me, needs me to help it, and I'm stuck here. I can't talk to it. If I could just talk to it I...I dunno'." Words petered off there, he shook his head disparagingly in his hands. Tail hung limp off the side of the rolling office chair. He was definitely too emotionally involved right now. Much too much.
But then, he was far too emotionally involved with Nirix, too. For a fleeting instant, the line of reasoning he couldn't help but follow touched upon this, and the idea of not having her around was sickening. That was bad. He knew it was bad. He simply could not afford to make connections like this with anyone, not when sooner or later he would have to say goodbye and see to it that they never met again, that the Empire never knew Ketin Clarke had been anywhere near them.
Sure, this situation was different. She had, after all, slaughtered the entire DEU - he didn't want to think about that, either. The idea of his Nirix doing something so terrible as killing...
Who was he kidding? She was an assassin, for Space's sake. He was well aware of this from the beginning. It was just another lie he was telling himself, the lie that he could keep her from killing again, keep her around...
And now this signal. This was ridiculous. It was a signal. Nothing more. It was an automatic distress beacon from some computer or something, some hunk of space debris floating Space-knows-where and he was attaching some kind of emotion to it.
No, he wasn't attaching emotion to it. He was sure of that. There was emotion behind that signal, just as clearly as it existed in the sentient brain. The little, random jitters that the particles made beneath the normal operation, that which could only fleetingly be controlled by the enigmatic 'self' and for short periods. Like the weather. And it was definitely afraid. He had stumbled across something very special. That signal was a cry for help across space, the death throes of someone or something that was dying slowly, dying alone in the blackness of the void between worlds. Dying, dying, and there was nothing he could do about it!
And the cycle repeated. A vicious circle of hopelessness. He tried to convince himself that there was no need to help it, but could not. He tried to convince himself that there was something he could do to help it, but could not. Around and around, with all the other nasty bits and pieces of his ruined, godshattered mind. He shook his head again, gave another huff.
"I jus'...I jus' dunno' what else t'do." He half whispered. All possible attempts to establish something a 'verbal' connection had failed. Some kind of connection had been made, he was pretty sure - but what use was it? He wanted so desperately to talk to it, to tell it in words converted to the language of computers that 'everything was going to be okay', to ask it 'what can I do to help you?'
He had tried over and over, but the 'language barrier' prevented him from any certainty that what he was trying to 'say' might get through. He could ride the signal back to the source, but that wouldn't help him find it. He could open up an entire planet's-worth of receiving satellites in order to catch it, boost it, maybe get something out of it that he, the organic thing behind the eye, could make some sense of.
There had been something like coordinates, but what good would that be? It wasn't like he could just waltz among the stars, just go pick it up. It wasn't like he could hope to convince some passing ship to grab it and return it to him.
He was still trying, of course. Halfheartedly and with little hope of success, all too often just sending the same things over and over again. He could manipulate these computers as naturally as any bodily appendage, he was one with them, and yet he did not know their language, did not know how they worked. He knew all sorts of tricks, shortcuts, had expansive knowledge on the extent of his abilities with them, how to use them to his advantage, how to manipulate the world around him through them. But now, trying to talk to some far-off, mostly-dead switchboard? What, he could phrase it differently. Maybe the equations of intention/language to computer input might change slightly depending on the nuances.
What can I do to help?
What can I do to help!
I want to help!
Run diagnostic!
Report errors! Suggest means of repair!
What can I do?!
Talk to me!
Tell me what to do! Please!
And yet it all seemed to be in vain, even as he worked with the fraction of his mind which had not quite given up hope, just trying to figure out what he could do. Sending command after command - most of them probably weren't even getting through, the thoughts converting to operations that had no relevance to the little capsule out in the depths of space. Much of it wouldn't reach it at all, though he could hardly know that. All Kete could do was what he usually did - try to fix the problem 'naturally'. Wrack his brain until something 'clicked'. He hoped, but sincerely doubted, that anything was going to 'click' any time soon. But he had to keep trying...
"Y'know, you pick some pretty strange folks for company." He said, letting a little bit of a smile creep back over lips. This was a humorous little quip, because obviously he was the one who picked her. But talking helped, even if he was talking stupidity.
He felt stupid enough anyway. Might as well embrace it as he usually did.
There was stillness in the Not.
This was to be expected, obviously.
Nevertheless, it was an eerie sight; all the ships just hanging there, unmoving, plastered upon a background of pure nothingness - deeper than black, yet two dimensional in appearance - zero-dimensional in actuality.
The ALPHA vessels, the Dendril vessels, the Kingsbane and the command module of the Stella Viventium, all motionless - and most within a clear line of sight from each other. Presently, Chief of Communications Isha Lastrow was attempting to contact the unknown vessels which had warped into view just before the Dendrils. "Attention, Stella Viventium Command Module requesting identification of unknown fleet, over. Please respond at once. This message repeats."
And upon the surface of the world of ghosts, an electric blue phantom appeared in fleeting glimpses, all over the interior of the city of Isandril.
The phantom appeared in the plaza, where the scientific base of operations had been set up - but most of the people there were too busy dealing with the rhythmic tremors echoing from the outer wall as a monstrous abomination pummeled the indestructible alloy. Despite her best efforts, Security Chief Aleessa Rivierre was unable to prevent those tremors from being the demise of three men - two in the immediate vicinity of the beast, who were torn to shreds and tossed aside, and one on the opposite end, who hit the sand in just the right fashion so as to break his neck. The remainder of the security team now proceeded with pulling back, though they would not give up the prime vantage points they had obtained earlier. To see this incredible sight - this dead world, brought back to life in a flash of impossibility - it was not an opportunity to be missed.
The phantom appeared atop one of the tallest gilded towers, and was granted the grandest view of the reborn planet for that fleeting heartbeat - the image of long past, long dead.
The phantom appeared on the city floor, and might have caught a glimpse of the Scientific Administrator Dorin Harkahn sprinting with all his might in the general direction of the city center.
The phantom appeared in what had once been a library - or the equivalent of a library - but all material had been long, long since removed or destroyed. The shelves were utterly bare now, devoid of so much as a mote of dust which might have once been First People information. Ironic, too - since they had been the ones to purge their knowledge from existence in what little time they had before being wiped off the face of the universe. They had cooked alive inside the metallic city, inside that chamber which served as a reference repository for information regarding the Notspace Drives themselves - and their remains had been loon gone for untold millennia.
And at last, the phantom appeared deep within the heart of the city of Isandril - beneath the surface of the dune world, beneath the city floor, in the cavernous, domed chamber with the pillar of incomprehensible un-light standing centerfold - and with a man and woman standing upon a platform whereupon controls could be manipulated.
They had managed to bring up a series of holographic real-time 'video feeds' from around the world, and were now quite aware of the full scope of the situation. Due to the incredible size of the Isandril Drive, one had the power to view any given view on or around the world by projecting what could be equated to a 'microscopic wormhole through Notspace' . Actually, this method was almost identical to that which the Lord of Time and Space had used to view them not long prior.
So they saw the world which had been magically, impossibly restored to life. They saw that it was all an illusion, as the Dendril beast tore through the incorporeal structures and the illusion of solid ground with seafoam grass as if passing through naught but light. They saw the ALPHA fleet, saw the Dendril fleet, and had since realized that their unintentional transmission into Notspace had likely saved all their lives...Temporarily, at least.
Aelyn-Paeryc did a very good job, as usual, of looking totally unperturbed by the sudden appearance of a very, very unexpected individual. He knew before she spoke, examining her out of the corner of his eye, that she must have been with the Dimensional Lords - only an incredibly advanced technology would be able to penetrate the walls which surrounded them and isolated them from everything else.
But then, the aethernet signal could pass through petrostanium largely because it was so simple and low-energy. It would be an unstable connection, but a connection nonetheless.
Only when Codsworth cleared her throat to get their attention did Aelyn-Paeryc allow his eyes to slide knowingly in her direction. With time untold of practice, the process of making himself seem as untouchable as possible was merely natural habit by now.
He regarded her for a long, silent moment. Alexia seemed preoccupied with another control panel.
At last, a wide, minutely psychotic and thoroughly amused grin appeared on his face. The eyes - normal now, with piercing hazel irises - were, in a way, more haunting now than when they had been inky black pools of darkness what rivaled the ebon of Notspace itself. Hair hung in his face in a couple loose strands, but this never bothered him. He leaned heavily on the console all the while, palms down on the edge.
"If you think that I'm going to give up my search for Lost Earth when I'm this hot on my brother's trail, you're severely lacking in the intellect I would expect should be a requirement in your field." He said, dryly as usual, trying - without appearing to try - to be as infuriatingly cool and passively antagonizing as he could.
"Besides, the real flaw in your baseless accusations is that you fail to recognize my rightful ownership of this place. I'm very sorry that you and your Dimensional friends can't crack the science behind my brother's work, but that's hardly an excuse."
He turned, looking to one of the monitors. With a flick of his finger, it spun slowly so that Codsworth would be better able to see it. "As best I can tell, all we're looking at here is a temporal anomaly caused by entering into Notspace at the same point which the planet had entered before. Everything out there is inconsequential, just images of the innocent people that once lived here before you and your people came along and committed planetary genocide, and snuffed out an entire race just because they started to surpass you technologically. Frankly I find it pathetic that your egos are so fragile that you must destroy anyone who threatens your technological superiority."
Now, the man's low stare turned into a real glower - but combined with that sadistic grin. "And you know, there's nothing you can do about it. That's the best part." He stood up straight now, began a slow, leisurely stroll down the short flight of stairs and closer to the holographic phantom that was the projection of Erica Codsworth.
"You try to threaten me with some unseen consequences only because your absolute impotence overwhelmingly eradicates any hope of doing it by force. You can't destroy it, instead you strive to scare me away, to hide it away where nobody will ever have the chance to learn of the one weakness of the 'infallible Dimensional Lords'."
He was standing before her now, hands behind his back, gazing hard, fixedly on her flickering blue countenance between stray black tresses. "You call yourself 'Lord of Time and Space', yet you command a species which exists solely to destroy and consume everything in your path. You slaughter innocent people, you take lives by the billions upon billions, and yet you have the gall to try and tell me that I'm the one putting everyone in danger? It's @#$%ing pathetic.
"So, tell me, 'Miss Winston Niles Rumfoord'*, what in Space can you possibly say to me that will make me give up my overwhelming advantage over you and succumb to the subjugation of myself and my people?"
(*Aelyn-Paeryc has a fondness for very vague and often ill-fitting references by which he alone is mildly amused.)
She definitely deserved it. Royanna had expected that the kid would just get the idea and she would save herself the painstaking effort of having to speak. She probably should have expected it, too; just because the kid was harmless didn't mean he couldn't be jumpy and there was no reason why his fangs wouldn't be sharp as any feral canine's.
But some combination of the drugs Papyus had given her, the stench, the residual pain, and the gut instinct telling her that somebody was just about to get up in her face, all came together to the effect of stifling her. Abruptly, her breath caught and held on nothingness. Teeth gritted and eyes widened into the spotty dark as the realization of exactly what had happened sank in. A very small "Hnngh~!" might have been heard as she valiantly kept from barking out a number of colorful curses and other exclamations.
The brat had bit her!
It was incredibly painful, and her body couldn't decide if the overwhelming soreness from the other injuries made it worse, or the opposite. But, even now she had to admit that she did kind of deserve it.
And then, before she could recover enough to even take an argumentative stance, Cox was wheeling around on her and coming practically nose-to-nose. Kallenger's first reaction was that of being distinctly impressed with the woman's gall. Her second, following rapidly, was an oddly out-of-place reminder that Cox was probably a decade older than she was, and she was not entirely certain why this came up and why it bothered her. Her third reaction was to try and say something, but the words wouldn't come.
And then that was it. She had the mask in her hands. Silently, thoroughly cowed, she strapped the thing on and loathed herself.
The kid had fallen behind, and was moping.
The vast majority of Royanna's mind was focused on one thing now - her own utter worthlessness - and it was a thoroughly distracting thought process which served no purpose but to make her less and less valuable to the group. Some abstract part of her knew this, but the bulk did not care.
But she was not so oblivious to those around her that she couldn't sense when she had offended - or, rather, hurt someone. As usual, it took a great deal of effort to speak without sounding like a hateful bitch, and sentimentality had to be deeply concealed in order for her to allow herself to use it.
"Hey, keep up kid." She said lightly, taking pains to sound as easy as she could, and succeeding only slightly. If nothing else, it was obvious that she was trying. Kallenger was always obvious with that sort of thing - it was so very clear when she was trying to sound like a human being instead of...whatever she was.
"If I fall on my ass 'cause you're not here to prop me up I'mma be real pissed." Another fine example of Roy's warm and fuzzy demeanor. She wished she could do better. She was trying!
If he didn't immediately pick up stride again and return to her side, she would turn and gesture sorely with a stiff hand and nod her head in the general direction that they were moving. "Well, c'mon." She would grumble, still obviously doing her best and proving that it was quite possibly among her weakest skills.
But if she could fix it, it would make her feel better, she knew that. At least she would be doing something right. Taking care of her people. If he returned to her side, she would give him a few reassuring pats on the back. Granted, her injured dignity would still not allow her to actually accept any help, but as of this point she would decline with a half-forced smile instead of biting words.
Great Galaxy, the kid could bite. Roy glanced down at the arm - or, rather, the wrist - he had gotten. Luckily the coat had been between her and the worst of it, so it would be mostly little more than speckles of bruising along the joint. He had dug into the skin pretty good near the back of her palm, however, and it stung. Not a lot of blood, at least. It would be best, she figured, to just forget about it.
After what seemed like a walk of a few long days, the little 'team' arrived at the medbay. It was exactly where Cox had said it would be, and in a good-hearted attempt at being supportive, she said "You really know your @#$%, Cox." She wasn't angry at Cox, as she had been a few moments before. That had drained quickly with the recollection that it was herself she was furious at.
But now, now they were in the medbay, and Roy's problems would be over - she was sure of that.
Being so closely involved with the Imperial Special Forces, Roy had a good deal of experience in dealing with the Empire's more questionable endeavors. She had been given access to the Empire's best, after all - and that included knowledge about what they had tried in the past. As it happened, Roy was sure that the bases from this approximate period would be stocked with reserves of...what was it called again? B-2, that was it. An experimental and very potent painkilling and 'performance-enhancing' compound of a host of artificial medicines all packed into neat little syringes.
B-2 was by no means outlawed. In fact, there were still small supplies of B-2 in modern Imperial storehouses. It was dangerous and highly addictive, and it had a host of unpleasant side-effects - but the stuff would be great in an emergency.
It did not matter to Roy as she held out a hand and muttered something about wanting her sword back. Once she had the blade again in her possession, the muttering Agent would largely ignore her comrades and head toward one of the storerooms off to the side. It was a small, stuffy room, the door to which had been long-since rusted in the 'open' position. Lots of crates and drawers and boxes. It took some achy maneuvering, but it was only a minute or two before she had found the metal box which would contain her prize. With the sword, she sliced off the lock as if it were nothing at all, and opened the case to find ten glorious syringes, each filled with a cloudy, vaguely yellowish liquid.
Once the syringes had been gathered up and placed into the empty bullet-holsters at the back of her belt - nine empty, with an indeterminate number of bullets remaining, very convenient - Roy found herself hit with the sudden anxiety that someone might try and stop her from using the B-2. It was, for all intents and purposes, a very stupid thing to do - one dose would be bad enough, but Roy knew damn well that she was going to be taking a second real soon. She wasn't going to be useless anymore.
Glancing behind her, the woman proceeded with the utmost haste and dug about almost frantically until locating a rubber tourniquet. Shrugging off one shoulder of her coat, she wrapped the band around her upper arm, let the mask hang 'round her neck long enough to bite the thing and hold it there. The injection went without a hitch, and hopefully she would have pulled it off without being seen...Though there was a distinct possibility that she would get 'caught in the act'. If this was the case, she would wheel around with a start and look surprisingly guilty, whether or not whoever found her knew what she was doing. There would be muttered blusters about how she 'wasn't doing anything' and to 'forget it' and that 'it's fine'.
Either way, the drug would get into her without issue, and nobody would have reason to believe that she had stashed the remainder of the stuff in her belt under the coat. They would stay nicely hidden, even if she had to take the coat off - as long as she stayed seated.
Regardless, Roy would be back in the main area after only two or three minutes. Pupils had dialated and she was already feeling @#$%ing fantastic and this probably showed in the form of a little grin which had certainly not been present before.
"Alright" She said, having returned to the others, looking for a place to sit and the tools she might need, quite ready to proceed all on her own. "Anyone wanna' help me get this @#$%ing bullet out of my leg?" An indefinably unusual tone of voice. Nothing overtly baffling, just a little weird.
And sure enough, one way or another, Royanna was going to get the bullet out of her leg - whether she did it herself (She did, of course, know how to do this, even though she had only needed to utilize the skill twice, and never on herself) or with some assistance. Teeth would be hard-gritted, but five minutes in virtually any trace of pain would be completely erased, and it was fantastic. In fact, she was already starting to feel bouncy with excess energy, but she could control herself.
For now.
It's always your eye, huh?
"Yeah," Kete replied wistfully, distantly, unnecessarily returning his eyes to glance uselessly about at the monitors which all displayed figures and operations which he could hardly comprehend. "It does all the hard work. I'm just what it uses to get around." The half-smirk remained, and was sardonic - but not aimed at Nirix.
He appreciated her reassuring him more than she could know. Again, here he was, having someone telling him that everything would work out fine. It was the same lie he told everyone else all the time - everyone who thought for some reason that he was a good person, worth sticking around, even as he tore their lives to bits under their noses and left them at a loss as to what to do next one he was gone. It was the lie he told himself when creeping thoughts began to intrude on his stupid, happy-go-lucky attitude that so protected him from the reality of it all, that so disconnected him from all the bad.
And he knew that her confidence in him was wrongly placed, but he appreciated that someone else was willing to lie to him for a change - and more importantly, someone wanted to make him feel better, and that was worth so much more.
Always the eye.
It was, of course, in no way sentient. There was no artificial intelligence inside the Devil's Eye, no little techno-demon, not even protocols to alter his behavior. It was a complex, dumb machine, which operated in the background, which just did what it had been built to do. It was not alive, it did not think, it did not make decisions, and yet it controlled Ketin's entire existence. It was everything. What would he be without it? Dead, obviously.
All too often he did feel as if his entire person, everything that was Ketin Clarke, for better and for worse, was no more than a vessel for the Devil's Eye.
Oh, right, it was. That was a very, very unwelcome thought that was now trickling back to the fringes of his meticulously denial-ridden conscious mind. The recollection that he had, in fact, not been special except for that the Eye had taken well to him. It could have been anyone. He was just a body, and he existed only for the Eye, and that was it.
Kete knew a bad line of thought when he saw one and quickly, hastily dashed it from his mind - in doing so, the minutes had been passing too slowly and he was suddenly antsy again, getting frustrated with how long it was taking.
A shuddering sigh, he leaned forward over one of the consoles, elbows planted and head resting in hands which tangled in feathery orange hair.
"Grrgh. There's nothing else I can do, Ny'." He said, voice suddenly wracked with hopelessness. Grip tightened about his scalp, then loosened. "I don't know...It's out there, somewhere out there in space, and it wants me, needs me to help it, and I'm stuck here. I can't talk to it. If I could just talk to it I...I dunno'." Words petered off there, he shook his head disparagingly in his hands. Tail hung limp off the side of the rolling office chair. He was definitely too emotionally involved right now. Much too much.
But then, he was far too emotionally involved with Nirix, too. For a fleeting instant, the line of reasoning he couldn't help but follow touched upon this, and the idea of not having her around was sickening. That was bad. He knew it was bad. He simply could not afford to make connections like this with anyone, not when sooner or later he would have to say goodbye and see to it that they never met again, that the Empire never knew Ketin Clarke had been anywhere near them.
Sure, this situation was different. She had, after all, slaughtered the entire DEU - he didn't want to think about that, either. The idea of his Nirix doing something so terrible as killing...
Who was he kidding? She was an assassin, for Space's sake. He was well aware of this from the beginning. It was just another lie he was telling himself, the lie that he could keep her from killing again, keep her around...
And now this signal. This was ridiculous. It was a signal. Nothing more. It was an automatic distress beacon from some computer or something, some hunk of space debris floating Space-knows-where and he was attaching some kind of emotion to it.
No, he wasn't attaching emotion to it. He was sure of that. There was emotion behind that signal, just as clearly as it existed in the sentient brain. The little, random jitters that the particles made beneath the normal operation, that which could only fleetingly be controlled by the enigmatic 'self' and for short periods. Like the weather. And it was definitely afraid. He had stumbled across something very special. That signal was a cry for help across space, the death throes of someone or something that was dying slowly, dying alone in the blackness of the void between worlds. Dying, dying, and there was nothing he could do about it!
And the cycle repeated. A vicious circle of hopelessness. He tried to convince himself that there was no need to help it, but could not. He tried to convince himself that there was something he could do to help it, but could not. Around and around, with all the other nasty bits and pieces of his ruined, godshattered mind. He shook his head again, gave another huff.
"I jus'...I jus' dunno' what else t'do." He half whispered. All possible attempts to establish something a 'verbal' connection had failed. Some kind of connection had been made, he was pretty sure - but what use was it? He wanted so desperately to talk to it, to tell it in words converted to the language of computers that 'everything was going to be okay', to ask it 'what can I do to help you?'
He had tried over and over, but the 'language barrier' prevented him from any certainty that what he was trying to 'say' might get through. He could ride the signal back to the source, but that wouldn't help him find it. He could open up an entire planet's-worth of receiving satellites in order to catch it, boost it, maybe get something out of it that he, the organic thing behind the eye, could make some sense of.
There had been something like coordinates, but what good would that be? It wasn't like he could just waltz among the stars, just go pick it up. It wasn't like he could hope to convince some passing ship to grab it and return it to him.
He was still trying, of course. Halfheartedly and with little hope of success, all too often just sending the same things over and over again. He could manipulate these computers as naturally as any bodily appendage, he was one with them, and yet he did not know their language, did not know how they worked. He knew all sorts of tricks, shortcuts, had expansive knowledge on the extent of his abilities with them, how to use them to his advantage, how to manipulate the world around him through them. But now, trying to talk to some far-off, mostly-dead switchboard? What, he could phrase it differently. Maybe the equations of intention/language to computer input might change slightly depending on the nuances.
What can I do to help?
What can I do to help!
I want to help!
Run diagnostic!
Report errors! Suggest means of repair!
What can I do?!
Talk to me!
Tell me what to do! Please!
And yet it all seemed to be in vain, even as he worked with the fraction of his mind which had not quite given up hope, just trying to figure out what he could do. Sending command after command - most of them probably weren't even getting through, the thoughts converting to operations that had no relevance to the little capsule out in the depths of space. Much of it wouldn't reach it at all, though he could hardly know that. All Kete could do was what he usually did - try to fix the problem 'naturally'. Wrack his brain until something 'clicked'. He hoped, but sincerely doubted, that anything was going to 'click' any time soon. But he had to keep trying...
"Y'know, you pick some pretty strange folks for company." He said, letting a little bit of a smile creep back over lips. This was a humorous little quip, because obviously he was the one who picked her. But talking helped, even if he was talking stupidity.
He felt stupid enough anyway. Might as well embrace it as he usually did.
There was stillness in the Not.
This was to be expected, obviously.
Nevertheless, it was an eerie sight; all the ships just hanging there, unmoving, plastered upon a background of pure nothingness - deeper than black, yet two dimensional in appearance - zero-dimensional in actuality.
The ALPHA vessels, the Dendril vessels, the Kingsbane and the command module of the Stella Viventium, all motionless - and most within a clear line of sight from each other. Presently, Chief of Communications Isha Lastrow was attempting to contact the unknown vessels which had warped into view just before the Dendrils. "Attention, Stella Viventium Command Module requesting identification of unknown fleet, over. Please respond at once. This message repeats."
And upon the surface of the world of ghosts, an electric blue phantom appeared in fleeting glimpses, all over the interior of the city of Isandril.
The phantom appeared in the plaza, where the scientific base of operations had been set up - but most of the people there were too busy dealing with the rhythmic tremors echoing from the outer wall as a monstrous abomination pummeled the indestructible alloy. Despite her best efforts, Security Chief Aleessa Rivierre was unable to prevent those tremors from being the demise of three men - two in the immediate vicinity of the beast, who were torn to shreds and tossed aside, and one on the opposite end, who hit the sand in just the right fashion so as to break his neck. The remainder of the security team now proceeded with pulling back, though they would not give up the prime vantage points they had obtained earlier. To see this incredible sight - this dead world, brought back to life in a flash of impossibility - it was not an opportunity to be missed.
The phantom appeared atop one of the tallest gilded towers, and was granted the grandest view of the reborn planet for that fleeting heartbeat - the image of long past, long dead.
The phantom appeared on the city floor, and might have caught a glimpse of the Scientific Administrator Dorin Harkahn sprinting with all his might in the general direction of the city center.
The phantom appeared in what had once been a library - or the equivalent of a library - but all material had been long, long since removed or destroyed. The shelves were utterly bare now, devoid of so much as a mote of dust which might have once been First People information. Ironic, too - since they had been the ones to purge their knowledge from existence in what little time they had before being wiped off the face of the universe. They had cooked alive inside the metallic city, inside that chamber which served as a reference repository for information regarding the Notspace Drives themselves - and their remains had been loon gone for untold millennia.
And at last, the phantom appeared deep within the heart of the city of Isandril - beneath the surface of the dune world, beneath the city floor, in the cavernous, domed chamber with the pillar of incomprehensible un-light standing centerfold - and with a man and woman standing upon a platform whereupon controls could be manipulated.
They had managed to bring up a series of holographic real-time 'video feeds' from around the world, and were now quite aware of the full scope of the situation. Due to the incredible size of the Isandril Drive, one had the power to view any given view on or around the world by projecting what could be equated to a 'microscopic wormhole through Notspace' . Actually, this method was almost identical to that which the Lord of Time and Space had used to view them not long prior.
So they saw the world which had been magically, impossibly restored to life. They saw that it was all an illusion, as the Dendril beast tore through the incorporeal structures and the illusion of solid ground with seafoam grass as if passing through naught but light. They saw the ALPHA fleet, saw the Dendril fleet, and had since realized that their unintentional transmission into Notspace had likely saved all their lives...Temporarily, at least.
Aelyn-Paeryc did a very good job, as usual, of looking totally unperturbed by the sudden appearance of a very, very unexpected individual. He knew before she spoke, examining her out of the corner of his eye, that she must have been with the Dimensional Lords - only an incredibly advanced technology would be able to penetrate the walls which surrounded them and isolated them from everything else.
But then, the aethernet signal could pass through petrostanium largely because it was so simple and low-energy. It would be an unstable connection, but a connection nonetheless.
Only when Codsworth cleared her throat to get their attention did Aelyn-Paeryc allow his eyes to slide knowingly in her direction. With time untold of practice, the process of making himself seem as untouchable as possible was merely natural habit by now.
He regarded her for a long, silent moment. Alexia seemed preoccupied with another control panel.
At last, a wide, minutely psychotic and thoroughly amused grin appeared on his face. The eyes - normal now, with piercing hazel irises - were, in a way, more haunting now than when they had been inky black pools of darkness what rivaled the ebon of Notspace itself. Hair hung in his face in a couple loose strands, but this never bothered him. He leaned heavily on the console all the while, palms down on the edge.
"If you think that I'm going to give up my search for Lost Earth when I'm this hot on my brother's trail, you're severely lacking in the intellect I would expect should be a requirement in your field." He said, dryly as usual, trying - without appearing to try - to be as infuriatingly cool and passively antagonizing as he could.
"Besides, the real flaw in your baseless accusations is that you fail to recognize my rightful ownership of this place. I'm very sorry that you and your Dimensional friends can't crack the science behind my brother's work, but that's hardly an excuse."
He turned, looking to one of the monitors. With a flick of his finger, it spun slowly so that Codsworth would be better able to see it. "As best I can tell, all we're looking at here is a temporal anomaly caused by entering into Notspace at the same point which the planet had entered before. Everything out there is inconsequential, just images of the innocent people that once lived here before you and your people came along and committed planetary genocide, and snuffed out an entire race just because they started to surpass you technologically. Frankly I find it pathetic that your egos are so fragile that you must destroy anyone who threatens your technological superiority."
Now, the man's low stare turned into a real glower - but combined with that sadistic grin. "And you know, there's nothing you can do about it. That's the best part." He stood up straight now, began a slow, leisurely stroll down the short flight of stairs and closer to the holographic phantom that was the projection of Erica Codsworth.
"You try to threaten me with some unseen consequences only because your absolute impotence overwhelmingly eradicates any hope of doing it by force. You can't destroy it, instead you strive to scare me away, to hide it away where nobody will ever have the chance to learn of the one weakness of the 'infallible Dimensional Lords'."
He was standing before her now, hands behind his back, gazing hard, fixedly on her flickering blue countenance between stray black tresses. "You call yourself 'Lord of Time and Space', yet you command a species which exists solely to destroy and consume everything in your path. You slaughter innocent people, you take lives by the billions upon billions, and yet you have the gall to try and tell me that I'm the one putting everyone in danger? It's @#$%ing pathetic.
"So, tell me, 'Miss Winston Niles Rumfoord'*, what in Space can you possibly say to me that will make me give up my overwhelming advantage over you and succumb to the subjugation of myself and my people?"
(*Aelyn-Paeryc has a fondness for very vague and often ill-fitting references by which he alone is mildly amused.)
Erica remained quiet as Aylen spoke. For her it was as if history was repeating itself. Once Aelyn finished, she gave a chuckle at his reference knowing exactly what he was referencing and she won't can't exactly argue with the little name. She quickly reclaim her composer and with a straight face she says to him "Why, you ask? It's because of this" as she opens her arm and looks around and then looks at Aelyn. "The Ghost of the Stella Viventium, on a power trip, thinking just because it has forbidden technology makes it powerful...thinking its playing God. But let me tell you, this...all of this we can easily be done by my colleagues. The reason we don't do this because it upsets the influx of entropy in the Universe, accelerating its destruction instead of allowing it to end naturally" she explains to him, using the pronoun of "it" for Aelyn to make him feel insignificant and not powerful as he seems to be.
"No deserves this power...not even you, ghost. This tech deserves to be buried or destroyed...it seems after using a cleansing beam this planet and using an infecting agents to bury this tech wasn't enough" she says as she gives a sigh. "What do you expect to find if you where to able to find this fable lost Earth in which it isn't really lost. Do you expect to find forest paradise? Or do you expect to see a planet filled with pollution? Of course I can tell you...but it seems you're far from saving" she says to him, hoping her knowledge on the lost Earth would peak his interest high enough that he'll listen.
"Aelyn, everything I do, is for a reason, either its to preserve and continue the longevity of all of space, even if I have to send my hordes out for the consumption of life to preserve the Universe even if it is devoid of other life. Do not test me Aelyn or your precious Stella will just be another hive for the Dendrils...its not hard to track its radiation from its Not Space drives" she says as an evil grin came onto her face. "Ghost, end this quest for the planet or you and your friends will suffer something more devastating than death...Kampfer's offer still stands" she adds as her arms remain crossed on her chest.
Dendril Scoprion continues to smash the gate, making dents into it slowly. It was getting frustrated and so it turned it attention to let out its frustration at the guards up in the towers. So it backs up slowly and lets out another furious scream and out of it's pincers it let out a three round burst of high energy of kinetic shot at the towers intending to kill the guards. It was comfortable that it's thick armor should protect itself from the shots from the guards.
"No deserves this power...not even you, ghost. This tech deserves to be buried or destroyed...it seems after using a cleansing beam this planet and using an infecting agents to bury this tech wasn't enough" she says as she gives a sigh. "What do you expect to find if you where to able to find this fable lost Earth in which it isn't really lost. Do you expect to find forest paradise? Or do you expect to see a planet filled with pollution? Of course I can tell you...but it seems you're far from saving" she says to him, hoping her knowledge on the lost Earth would peak his interest high enough that he'll listen.
"Aelyn, everything I do, is for a reason, either its to preserve and continue the longevity of all of space, even if I have to send my hordes out for the consumption of life to preserve the Universe even if it is devoid of other life. Do not test me Aelyn or your precious Stella will just be another hive for the Dendrils...its not hard to track its radiation from its Not Space drives" she says as an evil grin came onto her face. "Ghost, end this quest for the planet or you and your friends will suffer something more devastating than death...Kampfer's offer still stands" she adds as her arms remain crossed on her chest.
Dendril Scoprion continues to smash the gate, making dents into it slowly. It was getting frustrated and so it turned it attention to let out its frustration at the guards up in the towers. So it backs up slowly and lets out another furious scream and out of it's pincers it let out a three round burst of high energy of kinetic shot at the towers intending to kill the guards. It was comfortable that it's thick armor should protect itself from the shots from the guards.
Colonel Paypus continue her lead listening in the conversation in the back of the group between Kellenger and Toffi. She gave a laugh which had her sound a little weezy and says "Oi! Please don't bite the special agent I kinda need her" as she continues to the medbay. Once there she step off the said and ignoring Cox's warning, she had her back towards the group as she took off her mask with a loud blow of steam coming out. She held her breathe as she fiddle with the breather as everyone else was doing there own thing. If some got a glimpse of her face, they would see what was under her mask. Her face was grayish and all wrinkly, her face looked like beef jerky as her eyes were grayed out showing what was left of her original eyes, which were brown. She had no nose, her face was just so grotesque, but its the price one pays when they are present with miracle drugs that Kellenger was injected with. After a few moments she puts the mask back on, creating a vacuum within the mask making the inside sterile. She turns around approaches Kellenger after grabbing a pair of pliers after wiping it with a cloth she had and says "Hold still" as she deep inside her wound quickly and basically goes to dig out the bullet from her leg.
Unnamed Solar System - Isandril's Low Orbit
The Kingsbane & The Stella Viventium
Deep inside the deepest bowels of the Heavy Artillery Cruiser Kingsbane, a new presence, seemingly popping from out of nowhere would just 'pop' into existence as the newest crewsman of artillery cruiser. Crates, bins, cages, all sort of containers to store something in could be seen stacked almost infinitely one upon another, bearing different shapes and sizes. Metal crates, wooden pallets, cardboard boxes, it would have all kinds of stuff inside. This 'newcomer' would be no more, no less, than in the Kingsbane's External Supply Hold.
Just as Her senses came into being, a whole mob of men, some under the cover of thick jackets, others clad in stupid-looking, clean-white sailor uniforms, would dash right in front of her, pretty much ignorant of the newcomer. All of the ladies and gentlemen that had ran just by her would immediately direct themselves to the big and only round window available in that area of the Kingsbane. If it wasn't the only window in the Artillery Cruiser's interior.
Some would scream in horror, some would laugh at the sheer impossibility. Some would cry in desperation or in amazement and others... Would simply stare in awe. Bewildered. Enchanted. Those many men and women of flesh and bone would stand there, each one with their own reactions to One thing. Wording it better, to "One Nothing".
Those many men would be hypnotized by the sheer pitch black of Notspace.
"Holy <****>, man! Come on, James, you got to see that!!"
"W-Wait up, Hikari! I-I'm tire-- Oh, my... God have mercy..."
"... No... We... WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!"
"Shut up, Camila, that's just the Supervoid!"
"You're wrong, Ahab, that's Not Eridanus."
"A-A... A-Allahu Ackbar... HAN-FU! COME THE <****> HERE! ALLAHU ACKBAR!!"
"... You're freaking out, Juan. It's just a bunch of Nothing."
For Her, it felt that the crew of the Kingsbane's had stuff more important to do rather than acknowledging a possible dimensional wanderer appearing inside the ship. They were far too busy either freaking out, praying to their gods or just snapping pictures from Notspace, the place that the Kingsbane had just 'unexisted' into. Eventually, a very well kempt man, or rather, boy on what appeared to be his sixteens would come rushing to the female newcomer, waving to her the same bewilderment in his eyes as most of the crew.
"Come on! Come on! You have to see this! It's amazing!!"
Regardless how dazzled She was, the boy would just take a firm grip on Her hand, taking lead towards the mob, where the big round window could be seem with most ease. The voices from all around could be summed into the enchantment that they had fell into. Those men were too used to the constant sight of stars, satellites, warring ships and even worse but none were prepared for Utter. Complete. Ultimate Black.
The External Hold wouldn't be an amazing sight by itself, however. The countless stacks of boxes of all kinds would just stand there while soft hums appear to come out from everywhere in the room. It was of machine in origin, sure, but the noise would be actually relaxing. It would leave Her ears devoid of the agonizing silence of Notspace and the infernal buzzing that would come in consequence. The resonating 'silence' of the Kingsbane could be heard, as most voices from the mob went silent after a while...
Then there was a scream. A bloocurling roar of anger that would all of the mob to instantly dissipate around the cargo hold. And it came from everywhere.
Why, of course, it was the very familiar - to the crew - scream of a deeply frustrated Captain Wan Nabes.
For the newcomer, the scream echoed through the intercoms from all around the External Hold would sound like a horror from the lowest circles of the abrahamic purgatory, Hell, however, it was nothing more than the Kingsbane's Captain trying to find someone responsible for the sudden shut down of most of the ship's functions.
"... For <****>'s sake, engineering, MOVE THIS <*******> SHIP ALREADY!!!"
Back at the bridge, Severin didn't knew if he let himself to laugh at Wan Nabes' FREAK OUT™ at being trapped in Notspace or to attempt to resolve the issue immediately before the Captain ends up having an heart attack due to the "Mighty Kingsbane" finally being rendered unusable. While the Captain would stare in both unspeakable horror and in hellish rage at the Command Console, the Doctor would not stand there and give himself to panic. His own console, displaying a detailed radiation-map of short-range space would be quite disposable, as Notspace made the map go entirely blue, indicating no radiation whatsoever in the Kinsbane's surroundings. Not even from the Shadow Squadron's fleet, nor the Stella Viventium. It was pretty much like being into a universal void.
The thought, at first, terrified the Astrophysicist. It was done which major ease without any warning. First there was space and there was The Not. The sheer speed of the Notspace drives to instantly send whole fleets in what Severin thought to be a complicated form of FTL Travel managed to pull the same bewildered reaction towards the Doctor's face. Then, the voice of Harkahn came into his console. The Doctor took no hurry in trying to send back a message.
"I-It's... It's impressive, Mr. Harkahn." - The Stella's research chief would hear, if communications via Radio and Aethernet were possible, the voice of an amazed Benedict Severin. Usually, the Astrophysicist would manage to coldly keep his composition with ease but this was something new. "I-I can see everything exactly as it were, but... There are no stars! Not even this system's star! I-I... There's the Stella and Isandril too, but something is wrong. My radiation scanner shows nothing, as if we were into some sort of Void... There's even that unknown fleet I have warned you about."
The old man really sounded worried.
After a while while, the message that the Unknown Fleet had sent would reach the Kingsbane through Aethernet. While Severin were completely unaware of how could Radio travel into the state of nonexistence that was Notspace, all communications appeared to function with some sort of miraculous technology hailing from the Stella Viventium.
"We copy you, Shadow, uh... Init-Alpha." - The screams of an very upset Wan Nabes could be clearly heard in the background. "I believe that the same... Ailment, has fallen upon this ship... As you can hear from it's Captain."
While not immediately clear, the Shadow Fleet's Commander would hear occasional - and creative - curses towards Aelyn's family, specially his mother, from the this apparent Captain 'Wanheed'.
No matter how much the crew tried, they just couldn't make the Kingsbane do as its Captain said. It's guns were unresponsive, engines just wouldn't fire up, the countless 787 Buzzers would, somehow, would shutdown and even the most auxiliary systems of the Artillery Cruiser would just stop. Even it's unique Barrier Dimesion Drive would fall into inertia.
The crew could just hope for the Captain to calm down and issue an emergency state of operation.
Sector J84 - Moon 456
Illiya "Dragon Lady" Vs. Maria "Lock-On"
As Maria did, the only reaction from Illiya due to the badly placed hit on the corvette was a disgruntled moan, all amidst the demonic roar of the - apparent - assault bike she rode. Now that Maria had executed a turnaround maneuver with the corvette, a wide grin formed on the draconian features of Illiya's face, it was Lock-On, after all, she knew that Maria was the sort of reckless bounty hunter that would charge into battle against an unknown enemy, even if that meant to charge in with mediocre arms and equipment. In operation, at least.
Illiya knew, from a certain acquaintance, that weapon choice weren't based purely on it's firepower but, almost ever, on the sound it produced when fired. That and countless reasons the Dragon Lady wouldn't understand at the time. Reasons that person called Style.
However, Lock-On was careless for not taking a spy drone into thought before engaging into a deadly encounter. Using the data collected from the 787 to her advantage, Illiya predicted many of Maria's possible counter-maneuvers and was pretty sure that the corvette were equipped with some sort of military targeting system. Illiya were far from wrong.
Jamming her enormous fist against a button on the panel of her Assault Bike, Illiya managed to engage it's emergency braking mechanisms, making the machine-demon fall from the two hundreds to mere fifties in a split second. Nitroglycerin-Based Blast Thrusters; a set of lower, reverse-only, wheels; along with an electronic brake system for the steering wheels, would make the feat easily possible, and, with the Dragon's Lady strenght, the 'punch' that would propel her forward were next to a puny shove-off. Consequently, Illiya and her vehicle would be consumed by the dense dust storm that the many engines of her bike managed to produce in it's monstrous stampede. Coupled with the overall heat of Moon 456, the dust storm managed to make make Maria's assailant, essentially, invisible. Either for Maria herself or the lasers of her corvette.
"... You think I'm your average mook, Lockheart? Heehee..." - The Dragon Lady muttered, much as if Maria were actually listening. The corvette's gun-run would be met with absolute failure, Illiya wouldn't do much beyond from covering her eyes with the substantially big arms she boasted. Not from the storm itself but from Maria's lasers. Finally, Illiya had time to reload.
Since her ammunition started to deplete, a box of brand-new 30mm grenades appeared to slide off from within the Dragon Lady's vehicle. Even though it was a box-fed gun, it was specially built to operate much like a magazine-fed firearm, enabling Illiya to almost instantly to detach the depleted box and put on the new one. "Let's see if you're really good as Carl said, heeheehee..."
With the same turnaround maneuver that Maria pulled out, Illiya accelerated her vehicle forward and made a masterful U-Turn, finally emerging from the storm, again on Maria's tail. However, the Dragon Lady were, too, foolish to unload all of her ammunition right at once on the corvette. This time, all that Illiya did was to wait for Lock-On's next maneuver. There was no room for misses, there was no room for errors: Illiya had to score a direct hit at Maria else all she would accomplish was to simply tickle Lock-On's shields.
"Your turn to draw, Lockheart~!"
too sleep to review and edit all of that, sorry :c
The Kingsbane & The Stella Viventium
Deep inside the deepest bowels of the Heavy Artillery Cruiser Kingsbane, a new presence, seemingly popping from out of nowhere would just 'pop' into existence as the newest crewsman of artillery cruiser. Crates, bins, cages, all sort of containers to store something in could be seen stacked almost infinitely one upon another, bearing different shapes and sizes. Metal crates, wooden pallets, cardboard boxes, it would have all kinds of stuff inside. This 'newcomer' would be no more, no less, than in the Kingsbane's External Supply Hold.
Just as Her senses came into being, a whole mob of men, some under the cover of thick jackets, others clad in stupid-looking, clean-white sailor uniforms, would dash right in front of her, pretty much ignorant of the newcomer. All of the ladies and gentlemen that had ran just by her would immediately direct themselves to the big and only round window available in that area of the Kingsbane. If it wasn't the only window in the Artillery Cruiser's interior.
Some would scream in horror, some would laugh at the sheer impossibility. Some would cry in desperation or in amazement and others... Would simply stare in awe. Bewildered. Enchanted. Those many men and women of flesh and bone would stand there, each one with their own reactions to One thing. Wording it better, to "One Nothing".
Those many men would be hypnotized by the sheer pitch black of Notspace.
"Holy <****>, man! Come on, James, you got to see that!!"
"W-Wait up, Hikari! I-I'm tire-- Oh, my... God have mercy..."
"... No... We... WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!"
"Shut up, Camila, that's just the Supervoid!"
"You're wrong, Ahab, that's Not Eridanus."
"A-A... A-Allahu Ackbar... HAN-FU! COME THE <****> HERE! ALLAHU ACKBAR!!"
"... You're freaking out, Juan. It's just a bunch of Nothing."
For Her, it felt that the crew of the Kingsbane's had stuff more important to do rather than acknowledging a possible dimensional wanderer appearing inside the ship. They were far too busy either freaking out, praying to their gods or just snapping pictures from Notspace, the place that the Kingsbane had just 'unexisted' into. Eventually, a very well kempt man, or rather, boy on what appeared to be his sixteens would come rushing to the female newcomer, waving to her the same bewilderment in his eyes as most of the crew.
"Come on! Come on! You have to see this! It's amazing!!"
Regardless how dazzled She was, the boy would just take a firm grip on Her hand, taking lead towards the mob, where the big round window could be seem with most ease. The voices from all around could be summed into the enchantment that they had fell into. Those men were too used to the constant sight of stars, satellites, warring ships and even worse but none were prepared for Utter. Complete. Ultimate Black.
The External Hold wouldn't be an amazing sight by itself, however. The countless stacks of boxes of all kinds would just stand there while soft hums appear to come out from everywhere in the room. It was of machine in origin, sure, but the noise would be actually relaxing. It would leave Her ears devoid of the agonizing silence of Notspace and the infernal buzzing that would come in consequence. The resonating 'silence' of the Kingsbane could be heard, as most voices from the mob went silent after a while...
Then there was a scream. A bloocurling roar of anger that would all of the mob to instantly dissipate around the cargo hold. And it came from everywhere.
"AEEEEEEEELLLLYYYYYYYYYYYNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnn ... !!!"
Why, of course, it was the very familiar - to the crew - scream of a deeply frustrated Captain Wan Nabes.
For the newcomer, the scream echoed through the intercoms from all around the External Hold would sound like a horror from the lowest circles of the abrahamic purgatory, Hell, however, it was nothing more than the Kingsbane's Captain trying to find someone responsible for the sudden shut down of most of the ship's functions.
"... For <****>'s sake, engineering, MOVE THIS <*******> SHIP ALREADY!!!"
Back at the bridge, Severin didn't knew if he let himself to laugh at Wan Nabes' FREAK OUT™ at being trapped in Notspace or to attempt to resolve the issue immediately before the Captain ends up having an heart attack due to the "Mighty Kingsbane" finally being rendered unusable. While the Captain would stare in both unspeakable horror and in hellish rage at the Command Console, the Doctor would not stand there and give himself to panic. His own console, displaying a detailed radiation-map of short-range space would be quite disposable, as Notspace made the map go entirely blue, indicating no radiation whatsoever in the Kinsbane's surroundings. Not even from the Shadow Squadron's fleet, nor the Stella Viventium. It was pretty much like being into a universal void.
The thought, at first, terrified the Astrophysicist. It was done which major ease without any warning. First there was space and there was The Not. The sheer speed of the Notspace drives to instantly send whole fleets in what Severin thought to be a complicated form of FTL Travel managed to pull the same bewildered reaction towards the Doctor's face. Then, the voice of Harkahn came into his console. The Doctor took no hurry in trying to send back a message.
"I-It's... It's impressive, Mr. Harkahn." - The Stella's research chief would hear, if communications via Radio and Aethernet were possible, the voice of an amazed Benedict Severin. Usually, the Astrophysicist would manage to coldly keep his composition with ease but this was something new. "I-I can see everything exactly as it were, but... There are no stars! Not even this system's star! I-I... There's the Stella and Isandril too, but something is wrong. My radiation scanner shows nothing, as if we were into some sort of Void... There's even that unknown fleet I have warned you about."
The old man really sounded worried.
After a while while, the message that the Unknown Fleet had sent would reach the Kingsbane through Aethernet. While Severin were completely unaware of how could Radio travel into the state of nonexistence that was Notspace, all communications appeared to function with some sort of miraculous technology hailing from the Stella Viventium.
"We copy you, Shadow, uh... Init-Alpha." - The screams of an very upset Wan Nabes could be clearly heard in the background. "I believe that the same... Ailment, has fallen upon this ship... As you can hear from it's Captain."
While not immediately clear, the Shadow Fleet's Commander would hear occasional - and creative - curses towards Aelyn's family, specially his mother, from the this apparent Captain 'Wanheed'.
No matter how much the crew tried, they just couldn't make the Kingsbane do as its Captain said. It's guns were unresponsive, engines just wouldn't fire up, the countless 787 Buzzers would, somehow, would shutdown and even the most auxiliary systems of the Artillery Cruiser would just stop. Even it's unique Barrier Dimesion Drive would fall into inertia.
The crew could just hope for the Captain to calm down and issue an emergency state of operation.
Sector J84 - Moon 456
Illiya "Dragon Lady" Vs. Maria "Lock-On"
As Maria did, the only reaction from Illiya due to the badly placed hit on the corvette was a disgruntled moan, all amidst the demonic roar of the - apparent - assault bike she rode. Now that Maria had executed a turnaround maneuver with the corvette, a wide grin formed on the draconian features of Illiya's face, it was Lock-On, after all, she knew that Maria was the sort of reckless bounty hunter that would charge into battle against an unknown enemy, even if that meant to charge in with mediocre arms and equipment. In operation, at least.
Illiya knew, from a certain acquaintance, that weapon choice weren't based purely on it's firepower but, almost ever, on the sound it produced when fired. That and countless reasons the Dragon Lady wouldn't understand at the time. Reasons that person called Style.
However, Lock-On was careless for not taking a spy drone into thought before engaging into a deadly encounter. Using the data collected from the 787 to her advantage, Illiya predicted many of Maria's possible counter-maneuvers and was pretty sure that the corvette were equipped with some sort of military targeting system. Illiya were far from wrong.
Jamming her enormous fist against a button on the panel of her Assault Bike, Illiya managed to engage it's emergency braking mechanisms, making the machine-demon fall from the two hundreds to mere fifties in a split second. Nitroglycerin-Based Blast Thrusters; a set of lower, reverse-only, wheels; along with an electronic brake system for the steering wheels, would make the feat easily possible, and, with the Dragon's Lady strenght, the 'punch' that would propel her forward were next to a puny shove-off. Consequently, Illiya and her vehicle would be consumed by the dense dust storm that the many engines of her bike managed to produce in it's monstrous stampede. Coupled with the overall heat of Moon 456, the dust storm managed to make make Maria's assailant, essentially, invisible. Either for Maria herself or the lasers of her corvette.
"... You think I'm your average mook, Lockheart? Heehee..." - The Dragon Lady muttered, much as if Maria were actually listening. The corvette's gun-run would be met with absolute failure, Illiya wouldn't do much beyond from covering her eyes with the substantially big arms she boasted. Not from the storm itself but from Maria's lasers. Finally, Illiya had time to reload.
Since her ammunition started to deplete, a box of brand-new 30mm grenades appeared to slide off from within the Dragon Lady's vehicle. Even though it was a box-fed gun, it was specially built to operate much like a magazine-fed firearm, enabling Illiya to almost instantly to detach the depleted box and put on the new one. "Let's see if you're really good as Carl said, heeheehee..."
With the same turnaround maneuver that Maria pulled out, Illiya accelerated her vehicle forward and made a masterful U-Turn, finally emerging from the storm, again on Maria's tail. However, the Dragon Lady were, too, foolish to unload all of her ammunition right at once on the corvette. This time, all that Illiya did was to wait for Lock-On's next maneuver. There was no room for misses, there was no room for errors: Illiya had to score a direct hit at Maria else all she would accomplish was to simply tickle Lock-On's shields.
"Your turn to draw, Lockheart~!"
too sleep to review and edit all of that, sorry :c
Ever so gradually, her senses were starting to return to their usual state of dreamy disconnection, rather than the near total incapacitation she had been plagued with for the minutes prior. For some time, the girl had just wandered about the new place, with the slightly-too-cold air and the boxes and things piled up and stacked everywhere. There were lots of different materials, and she had taken to poking and prodding at them as she meandered around. New things. Strange, new things. It was fascinating!
Almost timidly, she couldn't resist the temptation of ever-so-gingerly prying a finger beneath the loosely half-opened lid of a cardboard box and peering inside, almost as if facing the very real possibility of something jumping out at her from within. Relatively neat rows of little plastic packages of some kind, with more strange symbols on them. Curiosity had been, to some extent, sated, however. Though she could not place why she felt so, it seemed a good idea not to snoop further. Not in that box, anyway.
And so she went about, poking, prodding, leaning in closely to better examine the totally and utterly mundane with a wonder-struck fascination.
Gradually, she was becoming aware of the ambient sound about the place. Once it was realized consciously that this new place was making gentle, soothing humming sounds, an unparalleled sense of relief washed over her. The ambiance was deep, resonant, and everywhere. She had not realized just how devastatingly silent it had been before. And now, it wasn't, and it was elating. She couldn't keep from smiling a little now, looking all around at this incredible new place and feeling stupid for having ever been afraid of this change. How she had gotten here was of no consequence to the girl. The chill air was becoming less bothersome.
And then, movement.
She froze solid, abruptly focused on her surroundings in a more guarded fashion, and instinctively reached behind her for the remarkable projectile weapon holstered behind her, which hung as if from a tool belt. It had been only out of the corner of her eye at first. Thinking fast, she silently skipped over to the subsequent row of boxes and things to peer around the edge. Again, it was only a glimpse, but sure enough, she had seen a humaoid figure running far at the other end of the place.
She was exalted. Eyes lit up wide, and a big, ecstatic, beaming smile fell over her. Hand never quite reached the remarkable projectile weapon.
And this excitement was contrasted at once when a whole host of other people made their presence known. They practically stampeded by her, all clamoring to get to the same place, she figured. If anyone had seen her, they had paid no mind. This was not unusual, she knew - though she had no idea why she was so certain of the normality of being ignored. All in all, this sudden rush of people proved vastly more startling even than her sudden appearance in this new place, and she had been no pun intended starstruck by the whole ordeal.
They were making sounds, too. It was gibberish, though, and made no sense at all. Just sounds. It must have been some kind of speaking she had never heard of before - at this point, she was willing to accept just about whatever she was faced with, despite how thoroughly preposterous it seemed, and despite how much of her logical mind rejected it. People talking in some way that was incomprehensible to her was one of the less strange things that had happened today, admittedly.
She was still standing about looking rather dazed and confused in the wake of the tide of people when someone else came along. It had been overwhelming to say the least, and now someone was approaching her directly! She stiffened slightly, already feeling on-the-spot, already aware that they were going to say things to her and she would have no clue at all what it was going to mean. She was going to have to say something back, right? Was that how this stuff worked?
Though she was given no opportunity nor prompt to reply to the young man's hasty, over-excitable words. He certainly was all riled up about something, though. At least, even though these people spoke in nonsense sounds, their expression was natural and familiar.
Really, it was of little surprise that nobody really noticed the Kingsbane's newest 'visitor' - because she did not look terribly out of place, except perhaps for the bewildered, confused demeanor. She was very short, though not grotesquely so. Her stature was generally small. Skin was definitely pale to a considerably unusual degree, and hair was a wild, feathery white-blonde, almost silvery mess that tufted out from beneath a black baseball cap - which was stylishly turned backwards. Physically, the only truly unusual aspect would require a closer look - the eyes - which were also normal, save for white irises defined only by the change in texture and perhaps a slight deepening of pigment. Similarly unusual was the pair of positively vicious fangs in her mouth, which would do any folklore vampire justice. They were most visible with her wide, beaming smile when that had been present. Her clothing was not unusual either - there was a (scuffed, but not quite grimy) white T shirt, with warm black, fingerless gloves, black cargo shorts which hung just below the knees, and black high-top boots which were only very loosely tied. Everything about her, from clothing to skin, was sort of scuffed up, implying an indifference to wear-and-tear, but not poor hygienic habits. Her age was questionable and, really, entirely subjective. She was of a very ambiguous nature in this regard, and she would appear anywhere from her late teens, to early twenties - depending on the viewer. A safe average would be around nineteen, if one was pressed upon to make a solid estimate.
Without warning, he grabbed her hand and tugged her along behind him. She stumbled and did not resist, keeping up only barely.
Woah.
Woah.
WHAT.
He grabbed her hand?!
She couldn't place why, couldn't recall any personal experience, but something told her that she had at one point displayed a generally poor grasp of the concept of 'personal space', and that others had been infuriated by it, because physical contact in any fashion was severely uncouth. It had never seemed that way to her, she thought. If these people were the kind to not gasp in revulsion at hand-to-hand contact, then she liked them already.
It was not long before she too was standing before the source of these peoples' apparent excitement, anxiety, and general unrest. Though she was toward the back of the crowd and had to stand as high on tip-toe as she could to get a decent look, it became clear right away that for some reason, it was the big, black circle on the wall that they were all staring at and talking about.
It did unsettle her, since after a moment she noticed the depth to it. It was not merely a circle of blackness on the wall, it was something more - maybe a window of some kind? Though there was nothing outside for reference. Gradually, she recalled the sensation of suffocating from not so long ago, and looking at the black circle began to make her more uncomfortable. Even barring that unpleasant experience, the abyssal nothingness stirred long-buried memories of being buried alive for decades and decades, losing track of what she had once thought of as some now alien concept called 'time'. The girl squirmed involuntarily beside the boy who had dragged her here. If he still held on, she made no move to pry herself loose.
She did however tear her eyes away from that progressively more nervewracking sight of nothingness and took the opportunity to look around at the people. They were definitely people, alright, not so different from her. Though there were some key differences. For one thing, all of them had different shades of skin, as if they had been cooked for various degrees of 'too long'. They had all funny colors for hair, too - blacks, browns, very few examples of the platinum blonde she was accustomed to literally everyone having. She also realized with a start that many of them were dressed in absolutely fantastic attire. She was positively infatuated with the white of many of their uniforms. White like her T shirt - maybe a little cleaner - she loved it.
The tumult of voices quieted down after some time, as she stood there with them toward the back of the crowd, just looking about with that mild, almost disconnected confusion. That gentle, soothing ambient hum was coming back into the focus of her ears.
Just as she was beginning to get back into the relaxing sensation of it however, the Hellish roar of an archdemon from the deepest pits of fire and brimstone roared out in fury. It positively scared the living daylights out of the girl, who finally made a sound, in the form of an audible little yelp. She whirled around, half expecting to see an unholy monstrosity looming over her with flaying tools in hand, come to shred her limb by limb for having come to this new place where, she realized for the first time, she might not have actually been welcome.
She was frozen now, save for a slight, and very tense tremble about the hands and shoulders. Eyes like discs of utter fright, occasionally twitching minutely in some subconscious desire to find the source of the voice uttered in the ghastly babble of grotesque evil beyond her most morbid comprehensions.
As the crowd dissipated, she was left standing there, paralyzed in abject terror and without the meagerest clue as to what she should do now.
Almost timidly, she couldn't resist the temptation of ever-so-gingerly prying a finger beneath the loosely half-opened lid of a cardboard box and peering inside, almost as if facing the very real possibility of something jumping out at her from within. Relatively neat rows of little plastic packages of some kind, with more strange symbols on them. Curiosity had been, to some extent, sated, however. Though she could not place why she felt so, it seemed a good idea not to snoop further. Not in that box, anyway.
And so she went about, poking, prodding, leaning in closely to better examine the totally and utterly mundane with a wonder-struck fascination.
Gradually, she was becoming aware of the ambient sound about the place. Once it was realized consciously that this new place was making gentle, soothing humming sounds, an unparalleled sense of relief washed over her. The ambiance was deep, resonant, and everywhere. She had not realized just how devastatingly silent it had been before. And now, it wasn't, and it was elating. She couldn't keep from smiling a little now, looking all around at this incredible new place and feeling stupid for having ever been afraid of this change. How she had gotten here was of no consequence to the girl. The chill air was becoming less bothersome.
And then, movement.
She froze solid, abruptly focused on her surroundings in a more guarded fashion, and instinctively reached behind her for the remarkable projectile weapon holstered behind her, which hung as if from a tool belt. It had been only out of the corner of her eye at first. Thinking fast, she silently skipped over to the subsequent row of boxes and things to peer around the edge. Again, it was only a glimpse, but sure enough, she had seen a humaoid figure running far at the other end of the place.
She was exalted. Eyes lit up wide, and a big, ecstatic, beaming smile fell over her. Hand never quite reached the remarkable projectile weapon.
And this excitement was contrasted at once when a whole host of other people made their presence known. They practically stampeded by her, all clamoring to get to the same place, she figured. If anyone had seen her, they had paid no mind. This was not unusual, she knew - though she had no idea why she was so certain of the normality of being ignored. All in all, this sudden rush of people proved vastly more startling even than her sudden appearance in this new place, and she had been no pun intended starstruck by the whole ordeal.
They were making sounds, too. It was gibberish, though, and made no sense at all. Just sounds. It must have been some kind of speaking she had never heard of before - at this point, she was willing to accept just about whatever she was faced with, despite how thoroughly preposterous it seemed, and despite how much of her logical mind rejected it. People talking in some way that was incomprehensible to her was one of the less strange things that had happened today, admittedly.
She was still standing about looking rather dazed and confused in the wake of the tide of people when someone else came along. It had been overwhelming to say the least, and now someone was approaching her directly! She stiffened slightly, already feeling on-the-spot, already aware that they were going to say things to her and she would have no clue at all what it was going to mean. She was going to have to say something back, right? Was that how this stuff worked?
Though she was given no opportunity nor prompt to reply to the young man's hasty, over-excitable words. He certainly was all riled up about something, though. At least, even though these people spoke in nonsense sounds, their expression was natural and familiar.
Really, it was of little surprise that nobody really noticed the Kingsbane's newest 'visitor' - because she did not look terribly out of place, except perhaps for the bewildered, confused demeanor. She was very short, though not grotesquely so. Her stature was generally small. Skin was definitely pale to a considerably unusual degree, and hair was a wild, feathery white-blonde, almost silvery mess that tufted out from beneath a black baseball cap - which was stylishly turned backwards. Physically, the only truly unusual aspect would require a closer look - the eyes - which were also normal, save for white irises defined only by the change in texture and perhaps a slight deepening of pigment. Similarly unusual was the pair of positively vicious fangs in her mouth, which would do any folklore vampire justice. They were most visible with her wide, beaming smile when that had been present. Her clothing was not unusual either - there was a (scuffed, but not quite grimy) white T shirt, with warm black, fingerless gloves, black cargo shorts which hung just below the knees, and black high-top boots which were only very loosely tied. Everything about her, from clothing to skin, was sort of scuffed up, implying an indifference to wear-and-tear, but not poor hygienic habits. Her age was questionable and, really, entirely subjective. She was of a very ambiguous nature in this regard, and she would appear anywhere from her late teens, to early twenties - depending on the viewer. A safe average would be around nineteen, if one was pressed upon to make a solid estimate.Without warning, he grabbed her hand and tugged her along behind him. She stumbled and did not resist, keeping up only barely.
Woah.
Woah.
WHAT.
He grabbed her hand?!
She couldn't place why, couldn't recall any personal experience, but something told her that she had at one point displayed a generally poor grasp of the concept of 'personal space', and that others had been infuriated by it, because physical contact in any fashion was severely uncouth. It had never seemed that way to her, she thought. If these people were the kind to not gasp in revulsion at hand-to-hand contact, then she liked them already.
It was not long before she too was standing before the source of these peoples' apparent excitement, anxiety, and general unrest. Though she was toward the back of the crowd and had to stand as high on tip-toe as she could to get a decent look, it became clear right away that for some reason, it was the big, black circle on the wall that they were all staring at and talking about.
It did unsettle her, since after a moment she noticed the depth to it. It was not merely a circle of blackness on the wall, it was something more - maybe a window of some kind? Though there was nothing outside for reference. Gradually, she recalled the sensation of suffocating from not so long ago, and looking at the black circle began to make her more uncomfortable. Even barring that unpleasant experience, the abyssal nothingness stirred long-buried memories of being buried alive for decades and decades, losing track of what she had once thought of as some now alien concept called 'time'. The girl squirmed involuntarily beside the boy who had dragged her here. If he still held on, she made no move to pry herself loose.
She did however tear her eyes away from that progressively more nervewracking sight of nothingness and took the opportunity to look around at the people. They were definitely people, alright, not so different from her. Though there were some key differences. For one thing, all of them had different shades of skin, as if they had been cooked for various degrees of 'too long'. They had all funny colors for hair, too - blacks, browns, very few examples of the platinum blonde she was accustomed to literally everyone having. She also realized with a start that many of them were dressed in absolutely fantastic attire. She was positively infatuated with the white of many of their uniforms. White like her T shirt - maybe a little cleaner - she loved it.
The tumult of voices quieted down after some time, as she stood there with them toward the back of the crowd, just looking about with that mild, almost disconnected confusion. That gentle, soothing ambient hum was coming back into the focus of her ears.
Just as she was beginning to get back into the relaxing sensation of it however, the Hellish roar of an archdemon from the deepest pits of fire and brimstone roared out in fury. It positively scared the living daylights out of the girl, who finally made a sound, in the form of an audible little yelp. She whirled around, half expecting to see an unholy monstrosity looming over her with flaying tools in hand, come to shred her limb by limb for having come to this new place where, she realized for the first time, she might not have actually been welcome.
She was frozen now, save for a slight, and very tense tremble about the hands and shoulders. Eyes like discs of utter fright, occasionally twitching minutely in some subconscious desire to find the source of the voice uttered in the ghastly babble of grotesque evil beyond her most morbid comprehensions.
As the crowd dissipated, she was left standing there, paralyzed in abject terror and without the meagerest clue as to what she should do now.
"Grrr, no ordinary pilot...especially flying a bike" she says to herself as the storm the enemy pilot brought up. Even though she couldn't see the craft, she was able to track it on her advance radar as a small bing. Realizing it was getting behind her again, she thought about what to do, especially being slightly close to the moon. She gritted her teeth, she just wanted to get out of her and drown out brain out at the bar, not really in the mood to fighting. So she goes ahead and pulls the image behind her and see's the assault bike. A small opening from the back of the corvette between its engines making it very hard to see. Maria focus on the target and fires a proton Torpedo at the purser. With the enemy pilot dealing with that, for a few seconds, she pulls up hard away from the moon and activates her jump drive. She plans to do a blind jump mostly in the direction she knows where friendly ships would be. So she puts her powers away from the weapons to engines and shields as the drive prepares to jump...
Aelyn-Paeryc Petrovalyc's eyes brightened suddenly, intensified. He leaned in closer still. Voice was sharpened with an abrupt edge to the words. "And who are you," he hissed, "To decide who plays the role of God?" He derisively spat the last word, then leaned back to his original, though no less meaningful stance. Proceeding, his voice lost much of the venomous edge but was no less certain in conviction nor determination.
"You claim the right to decide who deserves what power. That means that you hold the power, doesn't it? That you play the role of God. So who decides what you deserve then? Why should you deserve to play God? Surely you can't be so full of yourself that you actually believe the utter fecal matter you're trying to feed me. You're nothing but a series of sorry excuses, trying to justify the fact that you lust for power and utterly fear the idea that someone else might take it from you."
He scoffed.
"Preserve the longevity of the universe - why, so you can continue to go about eating up worlds to satisfy your ego? No. What good is a universe filled with life if it exists only to be the plaything of a power-hungry psychopath who seeks to erase it all away? No, the way I see it, the universe would be better off ceasing to exist entirely than with your tyranny hanging over every living being unfortunate enough to fall within your sight. Preserve a universe devoid of life? No, I don't think so."
He was actively refusing to take the bait. Though there was a lull in his monologue, he did not seem as though he were quite finished, and shortly he gestured to the pillar of incomprehensible un-light in the center of the domed chamber.
"Besides, your threats are impotent bluster. I would concede that you hold power over time and space, but that? That is neither. This-" He splayed the arm in an arc, indicating their surroundings, implying Notspace,"This is not time, nor is it space. This is nothing within the jurisdiction of any 'Dimensional Lord'. That's why your little Dendril ships are powerless here. That's why the best you can do is a cheap hologram. That's why the idea of my accessing this place has you trembling at the knees. Notspace is no part of any Dimension. It is more than a Dimension, and it is thoroughly outside the realm of possibility within any concept which you and your compatriots could hope to manipulate. Don't try to tell me that the Lords know anything about the Not. If they did, this problem never would have arose in the first place and you know it. The very fact that we are standing here, inside this place which even you were unable to eradicate - that proves it beyond a doubt. "
Again, Aelyn-Paeryc paused his monologue, seeming for a silent moment to be awaiting a response from Codsworth, though receiving none as the tension of their encounter mounted ever further.
Voice lowered drastically, were growled through gritted teeth with thorough resolve.
"I will never submit to the sadism and tyranny of the Dimensional Lords, and I will gladly see the entire universe burn into nonexistence before I allow you or any of your pathetic, insecure cohorts deprive sentient life of the gift that my brother and the First People gave to them. In fact..."
And now, Aelyn-Paeryc's face lit up with a combination of broad, toothy smile and shimmering eyes that was positively psychotic.
"I might collapse the whole of reality in upon itself just to deprive you the pleasure. After all, if you're so intent on destroying all life in your path anyway, why delay?"
Scientific Administrator Dorin Harkahn had decided, after a seemingly indefinite period of standing about in utter bewilderment, to take flight in search of the damnably elusive Aelyn-Paeryc and consult him as to what in the name of Space to do about this great mess they had found themselves in. He had realized after only a few leaping strides that in reality, walking would suffice just fine, and tiring himself out trying to sprint all over the place would serve only to do just that - tire him out.
He had switched to an earpiece to maintain communications with the Kingsbane's Astrophysicist, and he listened carefully as he strode purposefully along, glancing intently and almost frantically about for any sign of where the Captain might have gone to. Before long, the sounds of the chaos around the plaza had faded, and he found himself alone among the maze of monolithic pillars. "I see. Welcome to Notspace, Professor." He said, more than gravely. "This is the wonderland that our little boat goes to when we want to disappear. Feel free to cordially inform your crew that the whole lot of you have officially ceased to exist by any laws of physics." The black humor died off, and his words gained slightly in pace. "Nothing like this has ever happened before. Usually it's only us in the Stella; we've never sent any other vessel in without, uh-" He faltered suddenly, stumbling a little over hesitant words. "Without turning off the drives and making them dissipate. B-but don't worry, I can assure you that's not what the Captain intends on doing and it probably isn't possible from within anyway."
Already he was starting to get frustrated, both due to the difficulty of locating that so-vital Aelyn-Paeryc and the vast stores of information that he abruptly wanted Benedict Severin to have. The concept of Notspace was simply too alien to explain in hasty words.
Nevertheless, he did give it a cursory attempt, and tried briefly to summarize and paraphrase a few vital excerpts from 'The Amateur Hypercosmophysicist's Guide to Notspace, tailoring it for a fellow man of science as best he could.
"We're not actually in any place. It's a...state of simultaneous existence and non-existence outside of any physical Dimensions. All physical matter transferred has been converted to...to concept and potential. Any space not occupied by solid matter has reverted essentially to nothingness - there's no space for any radiation to move through except for within the atmosphere of your ship. Everything else, I can only theorize on. Probably you'll be stuck stationary, most of your systems will shut down or cease to function properly. Most thermodynamic, chemical and entropic reactions don't work in Notspace but we haven't done extensive testing so I couldn't tell you the extents-"
Words broke off, as Dorin Harkahn swore he caught a glimpse of a semitransparent, blue-shaded figure standing far downwind of one monolithic corridor. Brushing it off, he tried to pick up where he had cut, but failed, and sputtered a little.
"Damn, damn if I could just find the Captain... Oh, hold on a sec."
The line cut off abruptly, but Harkahn was back within some fifteen seconds.
"I'm having Isha send you some more detailed information. Also, you should know - she said they detected a small amount of Drive radiation - uh, that is, traces of the same energy emitted when we use the Notspace Drives on the Stella - on the Kingsbane. It might just be an effect of being sustained remotely but you should check it out anyway. I-" There was a distant, faint rumbling over Harkahn's end of the line. He stumbled some. "Oh yeah, did I mention there's a giant robot scorpion battering at the city walls? It's one of those Dendril things, it's not very happy with us." He explained, deadpan. "It won't be able to get in - it might put some pretty serious dents in the wall but the hyperatomic collapsium bondingwill keep it from actually breakingat any point so..." Realizing that he was starting to ramble nervously, Harkahn stopped and, almost miraculously, gave Severin a chance to actually get a word or two in.
He barely knew the man, but already had something of a reverence for him - perhaps merely his reputation proceeded him - or maybe he was just elated to have someone other than A.P. who he could rattle on to and still sound mostly coherent.
--
It was true, what Harkahn had said about the petrostanium 'collapsium' walls of the city. The beast was almost inconceivably powerful, to be capable of putting dents in that wall - and it was putting dents, amazingly. Nevertheless, unless it could tear apart a black hole with it's bare pincers it wouldn't be actually getting through.
Unfortunately for Aleessa Rivierre and her security team, the beast had no intention of trying this futile effort, and had instead shifted tactics. Now it was firing death-beams up at them, and within a few seconds she lost three more men.
"Hey mother@#$%er, if you can talk so @#$%ing good why don't you use your @#$%ing inside voice you piece of @#$%!" Rivierre accosted the thing in her slightly accented speech, hoarsely and at the top of her lungs. Still, it was probably of no use, and either way it was now time for the security team to make a tactical retreat and go hide like real men inside the safety of the bowels of the city. "You ain't gonna' touch us in here mother@#$%er so go bury your head in the @#$%ing sand or some @#$%!"
Being of the Stella, the tiny transport which had spawned from the belly of the bulky dropship was still capable of buzzing around, and a pilot was now skillfully - and desperately - collecting the retreating security team from atop the walls, bringing them and their Security Chief down to the plaza - where they could focus their efforts on corralling the frightened (Or, in some cases, almost hysterical) science team away from the open space where the creature could conceivably climb the wall to take pot-shots. Granted, this was not likely, since if it could climb the curved wall it would have done so already - but it was best to play it safe.
Rivierre too was trying in vain to contact Aelyn-Paeryc for orders. She was competent, but there was only so much she could do without orders from the top and this was more than an unfair scenario for her.
Damn, she hated bugs.
"You claim the right to decide who deserves what power. That means that you hold the power, doesn't it? That you play the role of God. So who decides what you deserve then? Why should you deserve to play God? Surely you can't be so full of yourself that you actually believe the utter fecal matter you're trying to feed me. You're nothing but a series of sorry excuses, trying to justify the fact that you lust for power and utterly fear the idea that someone else might take it from you."
He scoffed.
"Preserve the longevity of the universe - why, so you can continue to go about eating up worlds to satisfy your ego? No. What good is a universe filled with life if it exists only to be the plaything of a power-hungry psychopath who seeks to erase it all away? No, the way I see it, the universe would be better off ceasing to exist entirely than with your tyranny hanging over every living being unfortunate enough to fall within your sight. Preserve a universe devoid of life? No, I don't think so."
He was actively refusing to take the bait. Though there was a lull in his monologue, he did not seem as though he were quite finished, and shortly he gestured to the pillar of incomprehensible un-light in the center of the domed chamber.
"Besides, your threats are impotent bluster. I would concede that you hold power over time and space, but that? That is neither. This-" He splayed the arm in an arc, indicating their surroundings, implying Notspace,"This is not time, nor is it space. This is nothing within the jurisdiction of any 'Dimensional Lord'. That's why your little Dendril ships are powerless here. That's why the best you can do is a cheap hologram. That's why the idea of my accessing this place has you trembling at the knees. Notspace is no part of any Dimension. It is more than a Dimension, and it is thoroughly outside the realm of possibility within any concept which you and your compatriots could hope to manipulate. Don't try to tell me that the Lords know anything about the Not. If they did, this problem never would have arose in the first place and you know it. The very fact that we are standing here, inside this place which even you were unable to eradicate - that proves it beyond a doubt. "
Again, Aelyn-Paeryc paused his monologue, seeming for a silent moment to be awaiting a response from Codsworth, though receiving none as the tension of their encounter mounted ever further.
Voice lowered drastically, were growled through gritted teeth with thorough resolve.
"I will never submit to the sadism and tyranny of the Dimensional Lords, and I will gladly see the entire universe burn into nonexistence before I allow you or any of your pathetic, insecure cohorts deprive sentient life of the gift that my brother and the First People gave to them. In fact..."
And now, Aelyn-Paeryc's face lit up with a combination of broad, toothy smile and shimmering eyes that was positively psychotic.
"I might collapse the whole of reality in upon itself just to deprive you the pleasure. After all, if you're so intent on destroying all life in your path anyway, why delay?"
Scientific Administrator Dorin Harkahn had decided, after a seemingly indefinite period of standing about in utter bewilderment, to take flight in search of the damnably elusive Aelyn-Paeryc and consult him as to what in the name of Space to do about this great mess they had found themselves in. He had realized after only a few leaping strides that in reality, walking would suffice just fine, and tiring himself out trying to sprint all over the place would serve only to do just that - tire him out.
He had switched to an earpiece to maintain communications with the Kingsbane's Astrophysicist, and he listened carefully as he strode purposefully along, glancing intently and almost frantically about for any sign of where the Captain might have gone to. Before long, the sounds of the chaos around the plaza had faded, and he found himself alone among the maze of monolithic pillars. "I see. Welcome to Notspace, Professor." He said, more than gravely. "This is the wonderland that our little boat goes to when we want to disappear. Feel free to cordially inform your crew that the whole lot of you have officially ceased to exist by any laws of physics." The black humor died off, and his words gained slightly in pace. "Nothing like this has ever happened before. Usually it's only us in the Stella; we've never sent any other vessel in without, uh-" He faltered suddenly, stumbling a little over hesitant words. "Without turning off the drives and making them dissipate. B-but don't worry, I can assure you that's not what the Captain intends on doing and it probably isn't possible from within anyway."
Already he was starting to get frustrated, both due to the difficulty of locating that so-vital Aelyn-Paeryc and the vast stores of information that he abruptly wanted Benedict Severin to have. The concept of Notspace was simply too alien to explain in hasty words.
Nevertheless, he did give it a cursory attempt, and tried briefly to summarize and paraphrase a few vital excerpts from 'The Amateur Hypercosmophysicist's Guide to Notspace, tailoring it for a fellow man of science as best he could.
"We're not actually in any place. It's a...state of simultaneous existence and non-existence outside of any physical Dimensions. All physical matter transferred has been converted to...to concept and potential. Any space not occupied by solid matter has reverted essentially to nothingness - there's no space for any radiation to move through except for within the atmosphere of your ship. Everything else, I can only theorize on. Probably you'll be stuck stationary, most of your systems will shut down or cease to function properly. Most thermodynamic, chemical and entropic reactions don't work in Notspace but we haven't done extensive testing so I couldn't tell you the extents-"
Words broke off, as Dorin Harkahn swore he caught a glimpse of a semitransparent, blue-shaded figure standing far downwind of one monolithic corridor. Brushing it off, he tried to pick up where he had cut, but failed, and sputtered a little.
"Damn, damn if I could just find the Captain... Oh, hold on a sec."
The line cut off abruptly, but Harkahn was back within some fifteen seconds.
"I'm having Isha send you some more detailed information. Also, you should know - she said they detected a small amount of Drive radiation - uh, that is, traces of the same energy emitted when we use the Notspace Drives on the Stella - on the Kingsbane. It might just be an effect of being sustained remotely but you should check it out anyway. I-" There was a distant, faint rumbling over Harkahn's end of the line. He stumbled some. "Oh yeah, did I mention there's a giant robot scorpion battering at the city walls? It's one of those Dendril things, it's not very happy with us." He explained, deadpan. "It won't be able to get in - it might put some pretty serious dents in the wall but the hyperatomic collapsium bondingwill keep it from actually breakingat any point so..." Realizing that he was starting to ramble nervously, Harkahn stopped and, almost miraculously, gave Severin a chance to actually get a word or two in.
He barely knew the man, but already had something of a reverence for him - perhaps merely his reputation proceeded him - or maybe he was just elated to have someone other than A.P. who he could rattle on to and still sound mostly coherent.
--
It was true, what Harkahn had said about the petrostanium 'collapsium' walls of the city. The beast was almost inconceivably powerful, to be capable of putting dents in that wall - and it was putting dents, amazingly. Nevertheless, unless it could tear apart a black hole with it's bare pincers it wouldn't be actually getting through.
Unfortunately for Aleessa Rivierre and her security team, the beast had no intention of trying this futile effort, and had instead shifted tactics. Now it was firing death-beams up at them, and within a few seconds she lost three more men.
"Hey mother@#$%er, if you can talk so @#$%ing good why don't you use your @#$%ing inside voice you piece of @#$%!" Rivierre accosted the thing in her slightly accented speech, hoarsely and at the top of her lungs. Still, it was probably of no use, and either way it was now time for the security team to make a tactical retreat and go hide like real men inside the safety of the bowels of the city. "You ain't gonna' touch us in here mother@#$%er so go bury your head in the @#$%ing sand or some @#$%!"
Being of the Stella, the tiny transport which had spawned from the belly of the bulky dropship was still capable of buzzing around, and a pilot was now skillfully - and desperately - collecting the retreating security team from atop the walls, bringing them and their Security Chief down to the plaza - where they could focus their efforts on corralling the frightened (Or, in some cases, almost hysterical) science team away from the open space where the creature could conceivably climb the wall to take pot-shots. Granted, this was not likely, since if it could climb the curved wall it would have done so already - but it was best to play it safe.
Rivierre too was trying in vain to contact Aelyn-Paeryc for orders. She was competent, but there was only so much she could do without orders from the top and this was more than an unfair scenario for her.
Damn, she hated bugs.
Getting irritated the Dendril Scoprion like it was ordered by Rivierre and dug back into the sand. For once, it was quite for a few minutes and soon BOOM!, like a snake coming to strike its prey. For a large piece of metal organism, it can jump. Even though in the air, it doesn't jump very gracefully. Soon a loud BANG can be heard up against the curved wall. It's pincer's can be seen just over the top. But it struggles to get a grip and begins to slide off and be on its back. Before the soliders, can take adavantage, it flipped itself back over and went back into the sand, as if it was scheming something.
Erica had her arms crossed and just merely shook her head at what he was saying. "This Not Space is not natural Aelyn and you know that and that's why it must be destroyed or put to rest" she says as she gives a loud sigh. "This isn't the first time the Dendrils, encounter this Not Space situation and you'll see what I mean...you have made me force my hand" she says in a ominous way. "Since from your speech you won't listen to what I say...I guess I bid you farewell. I hope you die an agonizing death here, you and your crew in which you signed there death wish on" she says as she begins to flicker in and out of existence and soon vanishes.
She cut it, since Kampfer finally arrived and he takes more importance than talking to a ghost who doesn't understand the magnitude of his actions. Her conversation with the Kingsbane will also wait...
The Dendril fleet even though basically disabled was operating very calmly unlike the Kingsbane and the Spec-Op ships. By using manpower and a giant crank, they were able to more guns to take position once they got out of the Not Space and interestingly enough vary faint Not Space radiation was being emitted from the all ships, besides the one they were transporting.
Erica had her arms crossed and just merely shook her head at what he was saying. "This Not Space is not natural Aelyn and you know that and that's why it must be destroyed or put to rest" she says as she gives a loud sigh. "This isn't the first time the Dendrils, encounter this Not Space situation and you'll see what I mean...you have made me force my hand" she says in a ominous way. "Since from your speech you won't listen to what I say...I guess I bid you farewell. I hope you die an agonizing death here, you and your crew in which you signed there death wish on" she says as she begins to flicker in and out of existence and soon vanishes.
She cut it, since Kampfer finally arrived and he takes more importance than talking to a ghost who doesn't understand the magnitude of his actions. Her conversation with the Kingsbane will also wait...
The Dendril fleet even though basically disabled was operating very calmly unlike the Kingsbane and the Spec-Op ships. By using manpower and a giant crank, they were able to more guns to take position once they got out of the Not Space and interestingly enough vary faint Not Space radiation was being emitted from the all ships, besides the one they were transporting.
Q was a bit surprised at the request at first. A total stranger offering to fix her up? It seemed too strange to be true.
She looked down at her hands and her frame, noticing the effect of many, many years of time on her exterior. She didn't look too bad, but there was no hiding the rust and dirt. Not to mention, she had just bluffed about the whole "bugs" thing... but it was indeed true that she would sometimes run into a wall of code that did nothing.
"Maybe... it couldn't hurt to have a tune up. Sure, I guess? I'm alright with it."
She was actually horrified as to what would happen next. Hundreds of thoughts rushed through her system at once.
Are they looking for Z?! Why the heck would they be looking for Z in the first place?! Maybe that's not it. Do they intend to pawn me off for scrap?! To some otherworldly being who wants me for some weird reason?! Reprogramming?!? Warfare?!? The infinite possibilities were gathered at once and run through a probability test. Q could rapidly compute nearly anything she desired in a few seconds. A handy skill for a nervous breakdown.
Results. Apparently, "A friendly cup of tea" was higher on the list than "Looking for your destructive monster-of-a-sister", but she still wasn't convinced.
The chief spoke to Arthur in his strange language, confirming that Arthur could indeed, take Q. He also reminded Q to "Come back if she could" with a wink and a flashing of fangs. Fantastic, it was like he knew she'd be gone for possibly, forever. Honestly, with more and more people wanting to worship her instead of his gods, who could blame him? She did most of the work around here, after all.
"Uh... Lead on then, Arthur." She said, secretly prepping her systems for whatever would happen next. It had been a while since she had needed to work the codes that supplied energy to the lasers in her palms, but one could never be too careful.
She remained quiet for the journey back to Arthur's ship.
She looked down at her hands and her frame, noticing the effect of many, many years of time on her exterior. She didn't look too bad, but there was no hiding the rust and dirt. Not to mention, she had just bluffed about the whole "bugs" thing... but it was indeed true that she would sometimes run into a wall of code that did nothing.
"Maybe... it couldn't hurt to have a tune up. Sure, I guess? I'm alright with it."
She was actually horrified as to what would happen next. Hundreds of thoughts rushed through her system at once.
Are they looking for Z?! Why the heck would they be looking for Z in the first place?! Maybe that's not it. Do they intend to pawn me off for scrap?! To some otherworldly being who wants me for some weird reason?! Reprogramming?!? Warfare?!? The infinite possibilities were gathered at once and run through a probability test. Q could rapidly compute nearly anything she desired in a few seconds. A handy skill for a nervous breakdown.
Results. Apparently, "A friendly cup of tea" was higher on the list than "Looking for your destructive monster-of-a-sister", but she still wasn't convinced.
The chief spoke to Arthur in his strange language, confirming that Arthur could indeed, take Q. He also reminded Q to "Come back if she could" with a wink and a flashing of fangs. Fantastic, it was like he knew she'd be gone for possibly, forever. Honestly, with more and more people wanting to worship her instead of his gods, who could blame him? She did most of the work around here, after all.
"Uh... Lead on then, Arthur." She said, secretly prepping her systems for whatever would happen next. It had been a while since she had needed to work the codes that supplied energy to the lasers in her palms, but one could never be too careful.
She remained quiet for the journey back to Arthur's ship.
Arthur gave a nod at Q and the turned towards the Chief and in there language he gave his deepest gratitude to him. Chief gave a nods back says "Take care of her, she'll need to guide for the world beyond" Arthur gave his thanks and got next to Q and lead the way. As they walked back to the ship, he opened his arm panel and fiddle around with some sensors. His array was picking up a very strong signal, almost as strong as a Lord signature. A energy signal that Dimensional gives off, but what makes this faint lord was on this planet and yet no Dimensional Lords are nearby. Erica and Kampfer are at Gryo and Arena is deep inside GE territory, no one is here.
They soon arrive to the ship, still there and intact. The two guards went into the ship and Arthur went up to Q and says "Please ma'dam bot take a seat on that moss growing rock over there and I'll get you ready and up to date" as he went towards the ship quickly. He comes back with a Jack and says nervously "May I stick my jack into your port, if you have one of course?" even though the jack is connected to the ship's computer, he still felt nervous about it. Of course all this would fix any bugs she has in her system, up date it with current data and current information today, from factions to planets, stars and many other things. Once the info and her data are updating, the two electron unit's came back with a giant rag, a jug of cleaning wax and some other substance used to get rust, grim and dirt off and make any object look new again...another miracle product from Kampfer. Arthur looks at Q and says "If you want we can clean you up...can't have such a wonderful bot like yourself be in this kind of shape" trying to be flirty with Q little bit
They soon arrive to the ship, still there and intact. The two guards went into the ship and Arthur went up to Q and says "Please ma'dam bot take a seat on that moss growing rock over there and I'll get you ready and up to date" as he went towards the ship quickly. He comes back with a Jack and says nervously "May I stick my jack into your port, if you have one of course?" even though the jack is connected to the ship's computer, he still felt nervous about it. Of course all this would fix any bugs she has in her system, up date it with current data and current information today, from factions to planets, stars and many other things. Once the info and her data are updating, the two electron unit's came back with a giant rag, a jug of cleaning wax and some other substance used to get rust, grim and dirt off and make any object look new again...another miracle product from Kampfer. Arthur looks at Q and says "If you want we can clean you up...can't have such a wonderful bot like yourself be in this kind of shape" trying to be flirty with Q little bit
An interesting sort of thing to have in a ship. A rock that grows moss? Homely. She wondered what purpose it would serve for a robot like Arthur and how it got enough light to produce a continual growth of plant substance in space... she figured she'd put those questions aside for now. Perhaps it was artificial.
Q took a seat on the rock, casually crossing her legs and patting the moss a couple times with her hand.
Arthur's sudden appearance startled Q. He had suddenly approached her.... holding an all-purpose, wired jack of sorts and asking her for a port. Did she even have a port that would accept this auxiliary device? Maybe. She went to the only one she really knew she had, twisting off the tip of her left pointer finger. Some dirt tumbled onto the clean(ish) floor.
"Well, lets see if it works. Plug it in." She said, a hint of curiosity in her tone.
Surprisingly, her ancient tech and the modern tech managed to be compatible. A few notifications of unrecognized hardware registered in her system, but she shrugged them off and let the various programs from... whatever she was connected to... do their work.
She was nervous at first, keeping tabs on what codes the system attempted to access, but after seeing it removing codes she knew did absolutely nothing, Q managed to trust the system enough to let it go about it's business.
Within time, her system had been cleansed of hiccups, walls of meaningless code, and built up temporary files. She was ready to access the information that the ship's computer had in store for her.
Woah. Just... woah. A trove of information was suddenly available to her. Star-maps, planets she had never seen before, people, places, technology. Was that the same empire that had tried to shut the operation down, or was that a break off? You're telling me they made a blade so thin it can slice through anything? Someone named Kampfer? Who now?
She was so engrossed in the information that she almost didn't hear Arthur proposing to clean her up. Q didn't grasp that Arthur was trying to flirt with her in the slightest, but she did appreciate the offer.
"Oh! Why, thank you. A clean up would be quite nice. I'll hold still for you." Q smiled meekly.
Back to the information. Oh wow, there was a lot of it. A lot to take in, and all in one sitting too. Kampfer Empire? Dimensional lords? Dendrils?! Look at all these advancements!
...
[Search Database: Iridiites]
Nothing.
Odd.
You think with a database on everything in the galaxy known to this massive empire, they'd have some information on her creators?
[Search Database: Project IRI]
Nothing.
What?
[Search Database: IRI-Z]
Nothing.
Thank goodness, or something. At least Z was off the radar. She probably jinxed it by entering the search terms into the ship's database, but whatever.
[Search Database:]
She paused. Could this computer access her thoughts? Was it getting suspicious from her searches? Was this data being transmitted to some "dimensional lord" who was actively trying to hunt her down?
She'd risk it.
One final search.
[Search Database: "IRI"]
Just IRI, and only IRI. The base. Building block number one.
There was nothing. No documentation. No history.
[The term "IRI" did not match any search results.]
Unbelievable.
She came to her senses, aware of what was happening in the room again. She made sure to smile at Arthur as though nothing had happened. "Er... Is it alright to move now?" She asked.
Q took a seat on the rock, casually crossing her legs and patting the moss a couple times with her hand.
Arthur's sudden appearance startled Q. He had suddenly approached her.... holding an all-purpose, wired jack of sorts and asking her for a port. Did she even have a port that would accept this auxiliary device? Maybe. She went to the only one she really knew she had, twisting off the tip of her left pointer finger. Some dirt tumbled onto the clean(ish) floor.
"Well, lets see if it works. Plug it in." She said, a hint of curiosity in her tone.
Surprisingly, her ancient tech and the modern tech managed to be compatible. A few notifications of unrecognized hardware registered in her system, but she shrugged them off and let the various programs from... whatever she was connected to... do their work.
She was nervous at first, keeping tabs on what codes the system attempted to access, but after seeing it removing codes she knew did absolutely nothing, Q managed to trust the system enough to let it go about it's business.
Within time, her system had been cleansed of hiccups, walls of meaningless code, and built up temporary files. She was ready to access the information that the ship's computer had in store for her.
Woah. Just... woah. A trove of information was suddenly available to her. Star-maps, planets she had never seen before, people, places, technology. Was that the same empire that had tried to shut the operation down, or was that a break off? You're telling me they made a blade so thin it can slice through anything? Someone named Kampfer? Who now?
She was so engrossed in the information that she almost didn't hear Arthur proposing to clean her up. Q didn't grasp that Arthur was trying to flirt with her in the slightest, but she did appreciate the offer.
"Oh! Why, thank you. A clean up would be quite nice. I'll hold still for you." Q smiled meekly.
Back to the information. Oh wow, there was a lot of it. A lot to take in, and all in one sitting too. Kampfer Empire? Dimensional lords? Dendrils?! Look at all these advancements!
...
[Search Database: Iridiites]
Nothing.
Odd.
You think with a database on everything in the galaxy known to this massive empire, they'd have some information on her creators?
[Search Database: Project IRI]
Nothing.
What?
[Search Database: IRI-Z]
Nothing.
Thank goodness, or something. At least Z was off the radar. She probably jinxed it by entering the search terms into the ship's database, but whatever.
[Search Database:]
She paused. Could this computer access her thoughts? Was it getting suspicious from her searches? Was this data being transmitted to some "dimensional lord" who was actively trying to hunt her down?
She'd risk it.
One final search.
[Search Database: "IRI"]
Just IRI, and only IRI. The base. Building block number one.
There was nothing. No documentation. No history.
[The term "IRI" did not match any search results.]
Unbelievable.
She came to her senses, aware of what was happening in the room again. She made sure to smile at Arthur as though nothing had happened. "Er... Is it alright to move now?" She asked.
N O T S P A C E
The Kingsbane & The Stella Viventium
"Yes..." - A simple word of approval. The only reaction that Harkahn could hear from his newfound ally. Severin, however, was more than signalling comprehension of the subject to the Scientific Administrator of the Stella Viventium. Something about metaphysical nonexistence felt pleasing for the Astrophysicist. Naturally, even amidst Wan Nabes enraged command-voiced orders, the Doctor would let a wide smile form on his wrinkled face.
"Our 'dear' Captain have taken great notice of the Notspace as a weapon, Mr. Harkahn. I was impressed how you managed to deal with that rogue force-" - Speaking of Kampfer. "- With such ease and, now, it's a privilege to be, hah, hah, a living test subject for this so called 'Notspace'."
Even though Severin noticed clear distress from Harkahn's, which was hurriedly looking out for Aelyn, the voice on the Astrophysicist soon regenerated to a more confident tone. Only by the way on which Harkahn spoke, Severin could find out that those were no ordinary jokes or allusions on how Notspace worked. That would bring a looming sense of curiosity from the Kingsbane's Research Director in the, one which slowly seeped into his mind, throwing the Old Scientist in a deep state of concentration.
... And there was more to come from Dorin Harkahn...
The Doctor would direct himself towards the Bridge's Main Entrance, just a few steps behind him, slowly sliding off from Wan Nabes' tantrum and the many crewsmen trying to calm down the Captain... Just to be knocked out by well-placed punches of a rumless seaman. Or rather, spaceman. The chaos on the Bridge wouldn't let Severin focus his thoughts properly on the theories about Notspace he was already coming up with. However, a sigh of disappointment came out from the Old Man, seeing as Harkahn thought that there were such palpable "concepts" or "ideas".
Severin, while exclusively atheistic, would follow the Theory of Relativity religiously. Even though such theory were developed by a scientist only heard from dubious historians and fairy tales, the solidity of General Relativity and Gravitation amazed Severin... And because of it, the Kingsbane would function as it was, much ahead of most ships technology.
Those thoughts were overridden, however, by a more detailed description of Notspace that Harkahn were speaking, making more and more temporary theories to be formed and erased altogether on the Astrophysicist's broad mind. Next, came the waves upon waves of theoretical - and practical - tests he would have the joy to participate and develop about Notspace: How it could be produced as more viable mean of transport. How it could be use as an exclusively defensive planetary barrier. Hell, how it could be even applied to the Kingsbane's own FTL travel: The Barrier-Dimension Drive.
It wouldn't take too long before Severin would make his way into the laboratory his team had set up where previous power core of the Kingsbane laid. The Astrophysicist would order all of his personnel to focus all of their instruments towards data acquisition on the behavior of Notspace. He wanted everything. Benedict Severin wanted everything to be tested on Notspace. Ranging from particle accelerators to Barrier-Drive itself, a device unknown for most... In the entire universe.
Finally, the Astrophysicist would answer Harkahn.
"No... It can't be. That's probably just some harmless anomalous reaction of the Notspace with our own machinery, Mr. Harkahn, don't worry about it." - In fact, nothing inside the Kingsbane had noticed that it's crew went up by One. The Heavy Artillery Cruiser were equipped with the most advanced surveillance system known in the region where it had originated and it was even equipped with a remarkably intelligent AI, unknown by most of the crew, however, despite all of this, it could not detect Her.
"We would send an emergency squad of automated drones to deal with the problem, Mr. Harkahn but, as you voiced... Our actions are impossibly limited by the influence of the Notspace." - Briefly muting the input channel towards Harkahn, the Doctor would press a nearby intercom console and voice his order clearly to all of the personnel of his personal research team...
"Attention, Research and Extravehicular Activity personnel, this is Benedict Severin speaking: The Kingsbane requires a squad of five CM Level 2 787s to be powered up and ready-only for immediate take-off. By any circumstances, do not send the Drones into space."
Right after the eardrum-blasting scream that just echoed through all of the External Hold, a much calmer voice would echo around Her. It sounded like angels had taken notice of the demon and, ordered by some divine authority, were now there to strike this even from the insides of this unknown vessel. The mob, however, would quickly spread apart, with most of it's varied people disappearing towards random directions while some would just stay on the External Hold, merely pretending to do something about the situation or just too hypnotized the big window to be affected by the scream.
A few stray lookouts, however, would stare with both curious and amazed eyes at the young girl and a few more who would just stand there, apparently ignorant to the demonic roar. Such eyes had never been laid on people willing to stay still upon the infuriated Captain of the Kingsbane's... And there was simply no end to it, more roars eventually would come to fill the room once again.
"I DON'T <*******> CARE, JUST GET THOSE MISSILES READY!!"
"MAINTENANCE, PUT THOSE AC TO WORK, I'M <*******> MELTING IN HERE!!!"
"Engineering... You're going to put those <*******> thrusters to work..."
"ELSE I'M GOING TO RIP THE HEADS OUT OF EACH <*************> ONE OF YOU AND <****> DOWN YOUR NECKS!!!"
"And what in the actual <****> you think you're doing, Cargo?!"
"BRING ME A BOX OF PEPPER-FLAVORED CIGARS RIGHT <*******> NOW!!!"
Immediately, the same boy that abducted Her would come rushing towards the girl, carrying a red cardboard box as he wore an expression of profound terror, like something sentenced him to death and were coming to take his life on the spot. The boy would just shove the box against Her and would say, stammering almost incomprehensibly: "T-Take this to the B-Bridge, p-please! I-I'm too busy and the Captain n-needs i-it pronto!"
As if She could understand what the boy were saying anyway.
Regardless if She had dropped the box right on the spot or not, the young sailor would desperately run towards an unseen corner and disappear through the many columns of stacked boxes. Upon closer inspection, the young-looking girl would see the face of a black-haired, horned man, grinning as a substantially long pepper hanging from it's mouth. It's tip would appear to be burning, letting out a dense cloud of smoke and, more notorious, the 'man's face would appear to be red. A depiction of Satan smoking a damn pepper.
And the Captain, no more than Wanheed Nabil Mustafa wanted it in immediate. Like the life of the crew awhole would depend on this box of ardent cigars.
She was in trouble. In very deep trouble. And to make things worse, she didn't do figures where the hell she was... Most likely some sort of Hell itself.
The Kingsbane & The Stella Viventium
"Yes..." - A simple word of approval. The only reaction that Harkahn could hear from his newfound ally. Severin, however, was more than signalling comprehension of the subject to the Scientific Administrator of the Stella Viventium. Something about metaphysical nonexistence felt pleasing for the Astrophysicist. Naturally, even amidst Wan Nabes enraged command-voiced orders, the Doctor would let a wide smile form on his wrinkled face.
"Our 'dear' Captain have taken great notice of the Notspace as a weapon, Mr. Harkahn. I was impressed how you managed to deal with that rogue force-" - Speaking of Kampfer. "- With such ease and, now, it's a privilege to be, hah, hah, a living test subject for this so called 'Notspace'."
Even though Severin noticed clear distress from Harkahn's, which was hurriedly looking out for Aelyn, the voice on the Astrophysicist soon regenerated to a more confident tone. Only by the way on which Harkahn spoke, Severin could find out that those were no ordinary jokes or allusions on how Notspace worked. That would bring a looming sense of curiosity from the Kingsbane's Research Director in the, one which slowly seeped into his mind, throwing the Old Scientist in a deep state of concentration.
... And there was more to come from Dorin Harkahn...
The Doctor would direct himself towards the Bridge's Main Entrance, just a few steps behind him, slowly sliding off from Wan Nabes' tantrum and the many crewsmen trying to calm down the Captain... Just to be knocked out by well-placed punches of a rumless seaman. Or rather, spaceman. The chaos on the Bridge wouldn't let Severin focus his thoughts properly on the theories about Notspace he was already coming up with. However, a sigh of disappointment came out from the Old Man, seeing as Harkahn thought that there were such palpable "concepts" or "ideas".
Severin, while exclusively atheistic, would follow the Theory of Relativity religiously. Even though such theory were developed by a scientist only heard from dubious historians and fairy tales, the solidity of General Relativity and Gravitation amazed Severin... And because of it, the Kingsbane would function as it was, much ahead of most ships technology.
Those thoughts were overridden, however, by a more detailed description of Notspace that Harkahn were speaking, making more and more temporary theories to be formed and erased altogether on the Astrophysicist's broad mind. Next, came the waves upon waves of theoretical - and practical - tests he would have the joy to participate and develop about Notspace: How it could be produced as more viable mean of transport. How it could be use as an exclusively defensive planetary barrier. Hell, how it could be even applied to the Kingsbane's own FTL travel: The Barrier-Dimension Drive.
It wouldn't take too long before Severin would make his way into the laboratory his team had set up where previous power core of the Kingsbane laid. The Astrophysicist would order all of his personnel to focus all of their instruments towards data acquisition on the behavior of Notspace. He wanted everything. Benedict Severin wanted everything to be tested on Notspace. Ranging from particle accelerators to Barrier-Drive itself, a device unknown for most... In the entire universe.
Finally, the Astrophysicist would answer Harkahn.
"No... It can't be. That's probably just some harmless anomalous reaction of the Notspace with our own machinery, Mr. Harkahn, don't worry about it." - In fact, nothing inside the Kingsbane had noticed that it's crew went up by One. The Heavy Artillery Cruiser were equipped with the most advanced surveillance system known in the region where it had originated and it was even equipped with a remarkably intelligent AI, unknown by most of the crew, however, despite all of this, it could not detect Her.
"We would send an emergency squad of automated drones to deal with the problem, Mr. Harkahn but, as you voiced... Our actions are impossibly limited by the influence of the Notspace." - Briefly muting the input channel towards Harkahn, the Doctor would press a nearby intercom console and voice his order clearly to all of the personnel of his personal research team...
"Attention, Research and Extravehicular Activity personnel, this is Benedict Severin speaking: The Kingsbane requires a squad of five CM Level 2 787s to be powered up and ready-only for immediate take-off. By any circumstances, do not send the Drones into space."
Right after the eardrum-blasting scream that just echoed through all of the External Hold, a much calmer voice would echo around Her. It sounded like angels had taken notice of the demon and, ordered by some divine authority, were now there to strike this even from the insides of this unknown vessel. The mob, however, would quickly spread apart, with most of it's varied people disappearing towards random directions while some would just stay on the External Hold, merely pretending to do something about the situation or just too hypnotized the big window to be affected by the scream.
A few stray lookouts, however, would stare with both curious and amazed eyes at the young girl and a few more who would just stand there, apparently ignorant to the demonic roar. Such eyes had never been laid on people willing to stay still upon the infuriated Captain of the Kingsbane's... And there was simply no end to it, more roars eventually would come to fill the room once again.
"I DON'T <*******> CARE, JUST GET THOSE MISSILES READY!!"
"MAINTENANCE, PUT THOSE AC TO WORK, I'M <*******> MELTING IN HERE!!!"
"Engineering... You're going to put those <*******> thrusters to work..."
"ELSE I'M GOING TO RIP THE HEADS OUT OF EACH <*************> ONE OF YOU AND <****> DOWN YOUR NECKS!!!"
"And what in the actual <****> you think you're doing, Cargo?!"
"BRING ME A BOX OF PEPPER-FLAVORED CIGARS RIGHT <*******> NOW!!!"
Immediately, the same boy that abducted Her would come rushing towards the girl, carrying a red cardboard box as he wore an expression of profound terror, like something sentenced him to death and were coming to take his life on the spot. The boy would just shove the box against Her and would say, stammering almost incomprehensibly: "T-Take this to the B-Bridge, p-please! I-I'm too busy and the Captain n-needs i-it pronto!"
As if She could understand what the boy were saying anyway.
Regardless if She had dropped the box right on the spot or not, the young sailor would desperately run towards an unseen corner and disappear through the many columns of stacked boxes. Upon closer inspection, the young-looking girl would see the face of a black-haired, horned man, grinning as a substantially long pepper hanging from it's mouth. It's tip would appear to be burning, letting out a dense cloud of smoke and, more notorious, the 'man's face would appear to be red. A depiction of Satan smoking a damn pepper.
And the Captain, no more than Wanheed Nabil Mustafa wanted it in immediate. Like the life of the crew awhole would depend on this box of ardent cigars.
She was in trouble. In very deep trouble. And to make things worse, she didn't do figures where the hell she was... Most likely some sort of Hell itself.
The rock inside the ship was artificial, but the moss was real. Of course leave it to Arthur to add something to make a place feel different from the rest. Anyway as Q was getting her dose of Knowledge and the Electron Units where cleaning her up, he was on the ship's control panel, further investigating the strange Lord signature. Of course it was coming from one direction, not to far away...upon further investigation, it seems like its coming from a cave on a small mountain hidden in the thick jungle. "hmmmm" he says to himself as he continues to analyze the signal trying to figure out what it is. "Maybe Q knows", he thought to himself . Once he heard Q say something for to move, he turns around and was stunned for a moment by her beauty and how clean and new she looked. He stuttered and says "Yes you can move now if you want" as he averts his gaze from her embarrassingly
He then returns to look back at her and says "Q have you by chance detected a signal on this planet, that seemed foreign in nature?" as he cocks his head to the side as the guards were in the armory checking on the weapons they had.
He then returns to look back at her and says "Q have you by chance detected a signal on this planet, that seemed foreign in nature?" as he cocks his head to the side as the guards were in the armory checking on the weapons they had.
Sergei stood firm. His assumption on the Ranger seemed to become more and more accurate every passing minute. No soldier of his unit that he considered equal would pull out such a temper tantrum over a 'name'. It was very immature behaviour. He was like a kid, a pampered child whose parents always got him everything he wanted. The kind that would fall on the floor and start screaming and flailing their arms uncontrollably if they didn't get what they wanted.
The man couldn't help but to sigh and shake his head. He was disappointed.
But he didn't have much of a choice now did he?
He frowned when the man lifted their gun. Not an extremely polite act to take towards their ally. This is how you lose your allies. Bad play. But he'd be the smarter one of the situation. The stranger can be a baby all they wanted, but he wasn't going to fall o that same level.
"No." He'd continue on with his cold tone, Dim snarling at his side. "I will not repeat my words. I prefer to be understood on the first time." And he'd stand firmly by this, not backing up an inch.
The static sound did hurt his ears, though the man would stand on his place.
Dmitri on the other hand was not as patient on staying still with that much irritating noise in the air. The canid would attempt to cover his ears, but grew out of that attempt rather shortly.
"You're pissing me off!!" He snarled, flashing his fangs at him before crouching ever so slightly as if he would have been ready to leap at the man.
But he didn't.
Instead, there was either a 'clang' or a 'blam' at the back of the Ranger's helmet. Nothing to make him pass out, but certainly something to try and get his attention.
"So you're planning on leaving, huh?" It looked like the trio had gotten some extra company.
If the Ranger would turn, they'd find another canid standing behind them, not an albino, but instead someone with a more creamy color to them, ears perked up and green eyes squinted, staring right back at him, seemigly not all that pleased. The canid didn't seem too taken aback with the mask and the looks of the Ranger, he had his own issues with him; mainly the attempt on 'fleeing'. The same glare would be directed to Sergei as well (though the glare would probably be caught by the snarling being that was Dim) if there was a chance to see past the masked man.
Sergei would be folding his arms behind himself, crossing them at the small of his back and taking it somewhat easily.
The blonde man, size somewhere between where Sergei and Dim met, wasn't alone though. Behind him stood another canid, roughly his size, be it slightly taller than the blonde, but not as hostile looking though. Darker in fur color and the clothing he wore, he stood silent with his ears folded slightly to be hiding behind his back. If someone were to look towards him, he was more likely to turn their blue eyes to gaze somewhere else.
These two didn't seem all too military focused in their appearance. Sure they were standing with straight backs and all that, but their clothes were not uniforms by any means. The blonde was way more lose, more like a chill overly British Brit, and the darker one for all that you could tell was wearing something more resemblant to a suit than an uniform.
The one wearing the suit, he was carrying someone in his arms. Another canid, mostly brown in color. but that person didn't quite seem too interested in the situation, having their face turned away and their back and side facing the Ranger and the two others on that side of the room. But at least they had the decensy and were wearing the camo unlike the other two newcomers
There was silence, but if any gaze would linger to the one with their back to the main group, the blonde would bark.
"Well? Start speaking." Came a demand from the blonde canid who had his tail swaying from side to side, annoyed.
The man couldn't help but to sigh and shake his head. He was disappointed.
But he didn't have much of a choice now did he?
He frowned when the man lifted their gun. Not an extremely polite act to take towards their ally. This is how you lose your allies. Bad play. But he'd be the smarter one of the situation. The stranger can be a baby all they wanted, but he wasn't going to fall o that same level.
"No." He'd continue on with his cold tone, Dim snarling at his side. "I will not repeat my words. I prefer to be understood on the first time." And he'd stand firmly by this, not backing up an inch.
The static sound did hurt his ears, though the man would stand on his place.
Dmitri on the other hand was not as patient on staying still with that much irritating noise in the air. The canid would attempt to cover his ears, but grew out of that attempt rather shortly.
"You're pissing me off!!" He snarled, flashing his fangs at him before crouching ever so slightly as if he would have been ready to leap at the man.
But he didn't.
Instead, there was either a 'clang' or a 'blam' at the back of the Ranger's helmet. Nothing to make him pass out, but certainly something to try and get his attention.
"So you're planning on leaving, huh?" It looked like the trio had gotten some extra company.
If the Ranger would turn, they'd find another canid standing behind them, not an albino, but instead someone with a more creamy color to them, ears perked up and green eyes squinted, staring right back at him, seemigly not all that pleased. The canid didn't seem too taken aback with the mask and the looks of the Ranger, he had his own issues with him; mainly the attempt on 'fleeing'. The same glare would be directed to Sergei as well (though the glare would probably be caught by the snarling being that was Dim) if there was a chance to see past the masked man.
Sergei would be folding his arms behind himself, crossing them at the small of his back and taking it somewhat easily.
The blonde man, size somewhere between where Sergei and Dim met, wasn't alone though. Behind him stood another canid, roughly his size, be it slightly taller than the blonde, but not as hostile looking though. Darker in fur color and the clothing he wore, he stood silent with his ears folded slightly to be hiding behind his back. If someone were to look towards him, he was more likely to turn their blue eyes to gaze somewhere else.
These two didn't seem all too military focused in their appearance. Sure they were standing with straight backs and all that, but their clothes were not uniforms by any means. The blonde was way more lose, more like a chill overly British Brit, and the darker one for all that you could tell was wearing something more resemblant to a suit than an uniform.
The one wearing the suit, he was carrying someone in his arms. Another canid, mostly brown in color. but that person didn't quite seem too interested in the situation, having their face turned away and their back and side facing the Ranger and the two others on that side of the room. But at least they had the decensy and were wearing the camo unlike the other two newcomers
There was silence, but if any gaze would linger to the one with their back to the main group, the blonde would bark.
"Well? Start speaking." Came a demand from the blonde canid who had his tail swaying from side to side, annoyed.
Things were very bad.
Then, things were okay again.
THEN THINGS WERE MUCH WORSE.
Just when that horrific utterance from the depths of unknown evil seemed to have ceased, seemed to have been replaced by the voice of the entity of gentleness and kindness, it was back and with a force greater even than before. It didn't seem to end! That lord of terror from mysterious places, bellowing the guttural hexes of the damned for all to hear, surely punishing all those unfortunate enough to be cursed with eardrums which still functioned even in the face of that which should have shut them down for time immemorial.
It was a primordial terror that shot down her spine like black electricity. She hadn't been so terrified of anything since, since...since the verdict. She shuddered. Best not to think about that. No need to compound the depth of fear she was experiencing now with the dread of the looming sentence so long ago...
It was still there!!
Why won't it stop?!
And then it stopped. Not that it mattered - the voice resonated in her like an endless bell toll, going and going reverberating through her soul. The desert was seeming so much better now.
But wait wait! Look at all these other people! Other people! She could never go back to that loneliness again, she knew that now. This was it. Fine. If she was in Hell now, if that's what it took to be with these other people, so be it. She would suffer.
But then that nice guy came along again, and he looked seriously distressed. Her first reaction was a flare of the temper - who did that ethereal horror voice think it was, making...whoever that was so distressed?! Unacceptable.
Now he was saying something in that weird 'language' they spoke. He was as afraid of the voice as she was.
Oh!
Of course. It had to be the voice everyone was afraid of. That was the only thing that made sense. That helped clear things up a little.
What did not help was that the guy then shoved something into her hands and scampered off. She watched him go, dazedly, and vaguely realized that she did not want to look down.
She looked down anyway, and if she could have gone any paler, she would have. An icy claw gripped her stomach. The crimson flesh. The sprouting protrusions from the forehead. The evil, toothy grin.
It was...
It was...
KARELLAN!!
Oh, wait, no it wasn't. Who the @#$% was 'Karellan'?
Nevertheless, she was utterly mortified by the red man on the little box and she wasn't sure why. Now there was more puzzle to piece together. The evil voice. Everyone afraid and running around. Then the guy scampering up to her and shoving this abomination into her hands, and yammering on about something, and then running off. She was just standing there, looking in abject dread at the face of nightmare personified. Then she jumped into action. She was definitely expected to do something.
But she also didn't want to be holding this thing.
So she scampered over to the nearest other person and tried to do the same thing - just shove it into their arms - except she did so silently, for she had been struck with a gut instinct telling her that for some reason, speaking would be a very bad idea.
Naturally they wouldn't want to take it. She looked at them imploringly, no regard for the strangeness of her white irised eyes, but it was no good. So she tried again with someone else. Then again, and again, and again.
So apparently nobody else wanted this thing. Well surely she wasn't meant to keep it. So who did want it?
The terrible voice from beyond the limits of madness?
That would make sense, she figured. A depiction of evil, so it must have been intended for evil. But where was that voice coming from? It had to be the voice of a person...or...something. They had to be somewhere, but it wasn't as if she could just ask for directions.
So she did the most sensible thing and, clutching the box with a sense of mission, she bolted out of the External Supply Hold.
Or, rather, she ran face-first into the door which lead out of the External Supply Hold. Then she fell onto her back, and rubbed sorely at her nose which, by some miracle, was not broken.
Then it was a matter of fumbling about with the door until she could figure out how to open it, growing more and more frantic as the seconds ticked by. This was hot merchandise and it needed to go!
Whether she was able to fumble the door open or someone had to help her, eventually the girl would be out of the External Supply Hold and sprinting like mad down some hallway. Then some other hallway. Then some stairs, or a ladder maybe, or something, anything, anywhere, just blindly, madly careening down corridors and hallways, through rooms and chambers, probably blasting through a whole heap of different places she had no place being caught in. On at least four occasions she collided with someone, boasting enough force to knock both of them clear to the floor - but she was on a mission and would scramble back to her feet, glance apologetically to whoever had been unlucky enough to cross her path at the worst possible time, and keep going.
A few times she would realize she had been going in circles.
Or had probably been going in circles.
She was lost.
That much was obvious.
But she was really, really lost.
She might have scampered right past the bridge once or twice.
She ran face-first into a few more doors, becoming more and more exasperated as the collisions racked up, and up, and up...
It had to be the evil voice. That was the one who wanted the evil box. But where, where where where WAS HE?!
How many minutes had passed? Too many. It was hopeless, there wasn't a chance in Hell she was going to find the place with the evil voiced man. What was going to happen? She was getting tired. Very tired. Eventually it was from a sprint, to a run, to a jog, to a miserable, desperate trot.
How she had gotten here was no longer relevant. Where she was had never really been relevant - though she was pretty sure now that this is where QMs went when their sentences were up. Somewhere where the voice of pure evil roared in desolation and demanded that which could never be delivered.
Well, @#$%.
Too tired. The same instinct screaming DON'T TALK was the same one screaming DON'T DO THAT MOVING THING YOU DO and instinct had always served her well in the past...Right? Everything was confusing.
Oh well. Too tired. Too tired. Too damned tired.
Panting like a half-dead dog, the girl fumbled and burst her way through one last door. She had no idea if it would be the right one or not, and she wasn't even really paying attention any more. She was just going to stumble to the first person she saw upon entering the room, and shove the box into their hands, and if they didn't take it, well, @#$% it. She wasn't even really looking at the person who's hands she was now shoving the box into. Dimly she hoped it was the right person, though whether or not it was she hadn't the foggiest idea. Maybe if she'd have looked she might have some intuition, maybe she could fit the voice to the individual, but nope. Too tired.
Just take it.
Then, things were okay again.
THEN THINGS WERE MUCH WORSE.
Just when that horrific utterance from the depths of unknown evil seemed to have ceased, seemed to have been replaced by the voice of the entity of gentleness and kindness, it was back and with a force greater even than before. It didn't seem to end! That lord of terror from mysterious places, bellowing the guttural hexes of the damned for all to hear, surely punishing all those unfortunate enough to be cursed with eardrums which still functioned even in the face of that which should have shut them down for time immemorial.
It was a primordial terror that shot down her spine like black electricity. She hadn't been so terrified of anything since, since...since the verdict. She shuddered. Best not to think about that. No need to compound the depth of fear she was experiencing now with the dread of the looming sentence so long ago...
It was still there!!
Why won't it stop?!
And then it stopped. Not that it mattered - the voice resonated in her like an endless bell toll, going and going reverberating through her soul. The desert was seeming so much better now.
But wait wait! Look at all these other people! Other people! She could never go back to that loneliness again, she knew that now. This was it. Fine. If she was in Hell now, if that's what it took to be with these other people, so be it. She would suffer.
But then that nice guy came along again, and he looked seriously distressed. Her first reaction was a flare of the temper - who did that ethereal horror voice think it was, making...whoever that was so distressed?! Unacceptable.
Now he was saying something in that weird 'language' they spoke. He was as afraid of the voice as she was.
Oh!
Of course. It had to be the voice everyone was afraid of. That was the only thing that made sense. That helped clear things up a little.
What did not help was that the guy then shoved something into her hands and scampered off. She watched him go, dazedly, and vaguely realized that she did not want to look down.
She looked down anyway, and if she could have gone any paler, she would have. An icy claw gripped her stomach. The crimson flesh. The sprouting protrusions from the forehead. The evil, toothy grin.
It was...
It was...
KARELLAN!!
Oh, wait, no it wasn't. Who the @#$% was 'Karellan'?
Nevertheless, she was utterly mortified by the red man on the little box and she wasn't sure why. Now there was more puzzle to piece together. The evil voice. Everyone afraid and running around. Then the guy scampering up to her and shoving this abomination into her hands, and yammering on about something, and then running off. She was just standing there, looking in abject dread at the face of nightmare personified. Then she jumped into action. She was definitely expected to do something.
But she also didn't want to be holding this thing.
So she scampered over to the nearest other person and tried to do the same thing - just shove it into their arms - except she did so silently, for she had been struck with a gut instinct telling her that for some reason, speaking would be a very bad idea.
Naturally they wouldn't want to take it. She looked at them imploringly, no regard for the strangeness of her white irised eyes, but it was no good. So she tried again with someone else. Then again, and again, and again.
So apparently nobody else wanted this thing. Well surely she wasn't meant to keep it. So who did want it?
The terrible voice from beyond the limits of madness?
That would make sense, she figured. A depiction of evil, so it must have been intended for evil. But where was that voice coming from? It had to be the voice of a person...or...something. They had to be somewhere, but it wasn't as if she could just ask for directions.
So she did the most sensible thing and, clutching the box with a sense of mission, she bolted out of the External Supply Hold.
Or, rather, she ran face-first into the door which lead out of the External Supply Hold. Then she fell onto her back, and rubbed sorely at her nose which, by some miracle, was not broken.
Then it was a matter of fumbling about with the door until she could figure out how to open it, growing more and more frantic as the seconds ticked by. This was hot merchandise and it needed to go!
Whether she was able to fumble the door open or someone had to help her, eventually the girl would be out of the External Supply Hold and sprinting like mad down some hallway. Then some other hallway. Then some stairs, or a ladder maybe, or something, anything, anywhere, just blindly, madly careening down corridors and hallways, through rooms and chambers, probably blasting through a whole heap of different places she had no place being caught in. On at least four occasions she collided with someone, boasting enough force to knock both of them clear to the floor - but she was on a mission and would scramble back to her feet, glance apologetically to whoever had been unlucky enough to cross her path at the worst possible time, and keep going.
A few times she would realize she had been going in circles.
Or had probably been going in circles.
She was lost.
That much was obvious.
But she was really, really lost.
She might have scampered right past the bridge once or twice.
She ran face-first into a few more doors, becoming more and more exasperated as the collisions racked up, and up, and up...
It had to be the evil voice. That was the one who wanted the evil box. But where, where where where WAS HE?!
How many minutes had passed? Too many. It was hopeless, there wasn't a chance in Hell she was going to find the place with the evil voiced man. What was going to happen? She was getting tired. Very tired. Eventually it was from a sprint, to a run, to a jog, to a miserable, desperate trot.
How she had gotten here was no longer relevant. Where she was had never really been relevant - though she was pretty sure now that this is where QMs went when their sentences were up. Somewhere where the voice of pure evil roared in desolation and demanded that which could never be delivered.
Well, @#$%.
Too tired. The same instinct screaming DON'T TALK was the same one screaming DON'T DO THAT MOVING THING YOU DO and instinct had always served her well in the past...Right? Everything was confusing.
Oh well. Too tired. Too tired. Too damned tired.
Panting like a half-dead dog, the girl fumbled and burst her way through one last door. She had no idea if it would be the right one or not, and she wasn't even really paying attention any more. She was just going to stumble to the first person she saw upon entering the room, and shove the box into their hands, and if they didn't take it, well, @#$% it. She wasn't even really looking at the person who's hands she was now shoving the box into. Dimly she hoped it was the right person, though whether or not it was she hadn't the foggiest idea. Maybe if she'd have looked she might have some intuition, maybe she could fit the voice to the individual, but nope. Too tired.
Just take it.
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