Nirix was never good at emotions.
Sure, she had them and was pretty good at reading them when other's wished her not too. But, using them to help? That was the most difficult thing to do.
"Da'len," She didn't exactly know what to say. Ketin had been so determined, he still was determined, to reach this signal and yet this slow progress for him was definitely starting to take its toll. He wanted to do so much but he had so little to go upon. It was in times like these, that she wished she knew more about computers and signals and whatever else Kete needed that was going to help. Here, Nirix felt helpless and tried desperately to not let it show.
They both didn't need to feel down in the dumps.
Words were powerful right? Just the right words could help Ketin, couldn't it? Chewing her lip, she let her mind roam on what exactly to say and how to phrase it. Just saying something simple didn't seem to cut it and her silence only seemed to be making things worse. What could she say that she hadn't already said?
And then things changed and Ketin spoke to her.
"I do not think the company I keep is strange, but very interesting." It was true at least, Nirix hadn't really had a companion in awhile, about seventy years. Ketin had technically picked her and she had stuck with him for a bond she couldn't really explain. He was like her child and she is very protective mother, if that was even close. It felt right but Nirix wasn't sure.
"Then again, I do meet a lot of people but when I do, it normally isn't favorable for them," She mumbled grimly. That probably wasn't the best thing to say at this moment but talking seemed to help Ketin and Nirix wanted nothing more than to help him cheer up.
Everything was better when he was smiling.
Sure, she had them and was pretty good at reading them when other's wished her not too. But, using them to help? That was the most difficult thing to do.
"Da'len," She didn't exactly know what to say. Ketin had been so determined, he still was determined, to reach this signal and yet this slow progress for him was definitely starting to take its toll. He wanted to do so much but he had so little to go upon. It was in times like these, that she wished she knew more about computers and signals and whatever else Kete needed that was going to help. Here, Nirix felt helpless and tried desperately to not let it show.
They both didn't need to feel down in the dumps.
Words were powerful right? Just the right words could help Ketin, couldn't it? Chewing her lip, she let her mind roam on what exactly to say and how to phrase it. Just saying something simple didn't seem to cut it and her silence only seemed to be making things worse. What could she say that she hadn't already said?
And then things changed and Ketin spoke to her.
"I do not think the company I keep is strange, but very interesting." It was true at least, Nirix hadn't really had a companion in awhile, about seventy years. Ketin had technically picked her and she had stuck with him for a bond she couldn't really explain. He was like her child and she is very protective mother, if that was even close. It felt right but Nirix wasn't sure.
"Then again, I do meet a lot of people but when I do, it normally isn't favorable for them," She mumbled grimly. That probably wasn't the best thing to say at this moment but talking seemed to help Ketin and Nirix wanted nothing more than to help him cheer up.
Everything was better when he was smiling.
N O T S P A C E
Into The Kingsbane
Yet, no matter how the feeling of unspeakable dread resonate within The Girl each time those abyssal screams reverberated from the metal walls surrounding her, the people around would just act as if that was some everyday, mild annoyance. While a few bunch of people would take haste on whatever was the task on their hands, some would just cover their ears whenever The Voice blared. For her surprise, some would just stay ignorant to the roars and shrug it off completely!
The whole hypnosis from the big round frame of total darkness would soon wear off from the people around, not taking too long for them to be worried about The Captain instead. Soon, more curious eyes were pointed towards The Girl, which most of the Kingsbane's people had mistaken as some sort of novice without a single year 'sailing' in The Galaxy Wide. Anyhow, The Girl would try to approach one of the clear-dressed people looking curiously at Her obvious ingenuity, but the more She approached to the person, the more this individual would widen it's eyes in terror. The next 'victim' would be a slightly girl bearing the same apparent age of the newcomer, however, having an unfamiliar brown complexion compared to the deep pale The Girl probably was accustomed to, a strange looking person.
This other girl would begin to back off as She approached... And that's happened when that girl had noticed what The Newcomer was carrying...
"N-No! Get that <****> away from me! I'm not the internal supply deliverer! Go get that to The Captain yourself!!"
Fruitless. The dark-skinned girl would just disappear into the External Hold just as the boy from before did. The Girl couldn't figures of what the person had said but it felt that she, too, knew this Karellan being. The same would happen with the same frequency as she predicted, with varying responses of disaproval.
Some would be casually deny it.
"Oh, Pablito El Diablo? Love those, too bad that's the Captain's special supply. Hurry up before he cut your pay!"
Said a gentle sound man on his 50's holding a 2,5m tall metal pole, swiping one of it's ends, covered by a moist mound of cloth, into the metal floor. A Janitor, far more dark-skinned than the girl She met on the External Hold.
"What the <****> ... !?Hey, that's YOUR job, delivery! I'm NOT getting near the Bridge with the captain like that!"
This time, a suit of pitch black armor, with only a blue goggles for it's eyes shouted to The Girl. It sounded like a female, though it's voice was slightly muffled. A cyborg, maybe? Nope. A Guard.
"Why, lookie here~! Ain't you a cutie~? Oh, is that a gif-- What?! That's belong to the Cap'n!"
This came from a creepily big, burly man with some of his teeth lacking and smelling of... Ethanol? No matter, he tried to make close contact to the newcomer before he, too, had noticed the package. For a change, this one had a weird grey-toned olive complexion and was the one of a group that The Girl stumbled that noticed her. A Slacker, maybe? Judging by the many black spots and smears of tar that laid on his uniform, he apparently was An Engineer of some sort.
"Oh, man, that's the Captain's special package!"
This was said by a lot less creepy individual and a lot more normal loking, at least, for The Girl's standards. A young man with light skin and a shiny, pale golden hair partly concealed by a cap. Even though he sounded lost, he looked quite important. "I was the last one who got it to the Captain! Then he promoted me right after! Go for it, lass!"
Maybe it was the cheerfulness of this last person. Maybe it was something else but, that was the last one that The Girl spoke with before finally accepting her fate. The Girl had now embraced her mission... And slamming face first into a thick metal door was just the beginning of her urgent quest.
The bunch of uneducated jerks, nobody had even moved a finger to help her. Many would just start laughing histerically at her still-showing ingenuity at the same amount that others would cringe and feel Her pain altogether. After standing up and recovering from that disaster, The Girl finally had time to analyze the door and find out why it wasn't automated or why it wasn't a dimensional gate of some sort.
It was kind of mechanical looking: Thick metal levers would stick out from the steel-plated screen before her while some sort of wheel was right in it's midsection. The Girl could swear she saw people operating such devices and casually strolling out of the place she now was, but... Was it just an mirage of her mind? This thing had a wheel, was it really a door?
Barely did she knew that to unlock the portal, She had to simply pull down a handle on one of the sides of it. That was done by a passer-by that hastily had opened the door and blasted away from the External Hold, much likely having an important quest of his own under orders of The Voice from abyss.
At last, She was truly Into The Kingsbane.
Running desperately through the Artillery Cruiser corridors, The Girl would get to know much of it's insides and almost two-thirds of it's entire crew. She went far and wide inside Wan Nabes' ship. Beginning from the Internal Cargo Hold, The Girl would cover almost every corner of the Kingsbane, uncovering even the depths of dubious existence for the crew. Missile Silos, Auxiliary Engines, a place what appeared to be a Commons Lobby, a Communications Array and some sort of ... Internal Rail Station? Despite her hasty journey towards the Bridge, The Girl would find people everywhere, many of them looking with the - now familiar - curious eyes and others barely aware of her presence. For them, hasty people running around were commonplace... And that meant She would meet with many 'sailors' looking as hasty as her.
Yet, her journey were still cursed by The Voice, frequently rambling orders around and taking the most variable reactions from the people around Her.
"I WANT A BOOT SCAR ON THAT PETROVALYC'S ARSE FROM EVERYONE OF YOU, KINGSBANE!"
"What the <****> do you mean by 'WE CAN'T MOVE' Engineering?!"
"WHY NOT HERE???"
"Son of a <*****>, cargo! WHERE'S MY PABLITOS???"
"SEVERIN! Where the <****> are you?! SECURITY, FIND SEVERIN AT ONCE!"
"GUNNERY! GET THOSE MISSILES READY, I'M GOING TO RAM TEN OF 'EM ON AELYN'S <***>!!!"
"ARM THE MAGNUS CANNON AS WELL... !"
"... we have enough firepower to... !"
The Voice would slowly fade away as The Girl kept venturing into the Kingsbane. Much for Her confusion, she was stranding in one of the few areas that was far from the reaches from The Captain's orders. His voice, after a while, completely faded away along with her energy, however, the ambient would start getting much quieter... That until that same soothing machine noise had set in.
It was followed by the occasional sounds of electricity and, every now and then, the roar of heavy engines would set in for a few moments. Nevertheless, it was all pretty common and quite orderly and now that her pace have changed to a sluggish wander, less eyes were attracted to Her desperate quest. With one last door, The Girl finally had given up.
If the rest of the Artillery Cruiser were Hell with the voice of the Devil constantly echoing around, this place was Paradise. It was a wide room covered by smooth metal walls, slightly illuminated by a long array of pale-blue tinted light bulbs in it's 5m tall roof. On the room corners, a staff of over twenty individuals, all deeply concentrated on the screens ahead of them spoke and fumbled around with exotic-looking machinery here and there.
At the center, however, stood one man. One man looking at a big holographic display showing the Stella Viventium Command Module as many holographic screens appeared to hover around that One Man.
"Hey, Doc. We got a visitor." - A voice would echo from one of the personnel that stood on the room corners, however, The Girl couldn't exactly pinpoint who had said it, as no one apparently had actually turned to notice her presence.
"If I recall, I did not ask anybody to come over the Research Department."
... The Man in the center had turned around to Her. The first thing noticeable was his apparent lack of eyes, instead, the man wore some sort of technologically advanced apparel: Goggles that covered most of it's eyes as streams of small screens, graphs and text popped in and out of the black glass visor. Curiously, the being approached Her, taking one of his hands to it's clear chin. Now that he was close to Her, more details became apparent.
Wrinkles around the pale skin hinted advanced age, much more evident by his balding head, only partly covered by thin lines of gray hair and, unlike most personnel, the man also wore a thin leather jacket and a pair of cargo pants, with many of it's pockets filled with things that The Girl could only suspect about.
Even though he was mostly covered by his jacket, the man appeared to be skinny and quite frail despite being a lot taller than the average personnel working on the Kingsbane. In fact, he was towering in comparison to The Girl.
"Hmm... So it is you." - The man had solemnly, with over-confidence in his voice and was pretty straightforward. "Now everything makes sense... You're the thing Mr. Harkahn spoke about." - The Man slowly tilted his face towards the box that She carried and let merely let out a warm smile, patting on The Girl's shoulder.
"And ... Haha, impressive. You've already got on how things work. Welcome to the Kingsbane. I am Doctor Benedict Severin, Star-Class Astrophysicis, Research Director and First Mate of this... Fine ship." - The Doctor barely knew, however, that most of his words were spoken in vain.
As always, art by Rayane Félix, check her stuff out and make sure to ask her for comissions!
CL's andIlliya's stuff comin' later, sit tight, Max. u_u
Into The Kingsbane
Yet, no matter how the feeling of unspeakable dread resonate within The Girl each time those abyssal screams reverberated from the metal walls surrounding her, the people around would just act as if that was some everyday, mild annoyance. While a few bunch of people would take haste on whatever was the task on their hands, some would just cover their ears whenever The Voice blared. For her surprise, some would just stay ignorant to the roars and shrug it off completely!
The whole hypnosis from the big round frame of total darkness would soon wear off from the people around, not taking too long for them to be worried about The Captain instead. Soon, more curious eyes were pointed towards The Girl, which most of the Kingsbane's people had mistaken as some sort of novice without a single year 'sailing' in The Galaxy Wide. Anyhow, The Girl would try to approach one of the clear-dressed people looking curiously at Her obvious ingenuity, but the more She approached to the person, the more this individual would widen it's eyes in terror. The next 'victim' would be a slightly girl bearing the same apparent age of the newcomer, however, having an unfamiliar brown complexion compared to the deep pale The Girl probably was accustomed to, a strange looking person.
This other girl would begin to back off as She approached... And that's happened when that girl had noticed what The Newcomer was carrying...
"N-No! Get that <****> away from me! I'm not the internal supply deliverer! Go get that to The Captain yourself!!"
Fruitless. The dark-skinned girl would just disappear into the External Hold just as the boy from before did. The Girl couldn't figures of what the person had said but it felt that she, too, knew this Karellan being. The same would happen with the same frequency as she predicted, with varying responses of disaproval.
Some would be casually deny it.
"Oh, Pablito El Diablo? Love those, too bad that's the Captain's special supply. Hurry up before he cut your pay!"
Said a gentle sound man on his 50's holding a 2,5m tall metal pole, swiping one of it's ends, covered by a moist mound of cloth, into the metal floor. A Janitor, far more dark-skinned than the girl She met on the External Hold.
"What the <****> ... !?Hey, that's YOUR job, delivery! I'm NOT getting near the Bridge with the captain like that!"
This time, a suit of pitch black armor, with only a blue goggles for it's eyes shouted to The Girl. It sounded like a female, though it's voice was slightly muffled. A cyborg, maybe? Nope. A Guard.
"Why, lookie here~! Ain't you a cutie~? Oh, is that a gif-- What?! That's belong to the Cap'n!"
This came from a creepily big, burly man with some of his teeth lacking and smelling of... Ethanol? No matter, he tried to make close contact to the newcomer before he, too, had noticed the package. For a change, this one had a weird grey-toned olive complexion and was the one of a group that The Girl stumbled that noticed her. A Slacker, maybe? Judging by the many black spots and smears of tar that laid on his uniform, he apparently was An Engineer of some sort.
"Oh, man, that's the Captain's special package!"
This was said by a lot less creepy individual and a lot more normal loking, at least, for The Girl's standards. A young man with light skin and a shiny, pale golden hair partly concealed by a cap. Even though he sounded lost, he looked quite important. "I was the last one who got it to the Captain! Then he promoted me right after! Go for it, lass!"
Maybe it was the cheerfulness of this last person. Maybe it was something else but, that was the last one that The Girl spoke with before finally accepting her fate. The Girl had now embraced her mission... And slamming face first into a thick metal door was just the beginning of her urgent quest.
The bunch of uneducated jerks, nobody had even moved a finger to help her. Many would just start laughing histerically at her still-showing ingenuity at the same amount that others would cringe and feel Her pain altogether. After standing up and recovering from that disaster, The Girl finally had time to analyze the door and find out why it wasn't automated or why it wasn't a dimensional gate of some sort.
It was kind of mechanical looking: Thick metal levers would stick out from the steel-plated screen before her while some sort of wheel was right in it's midsection. The Girl could swear she saw people operating such devices and casually strolling out of the place she now was, but... Was it just an mirage of her mind? This thing had a wheel, was it really a door?
Barely did she knew that to unlock the portal, She had to simply pull down a handle on one of the sides of it. That was done by a passer-by that hastily had opened the door and blasted away from the External Hold, much likely having an important quest of his own under orders of The Voice from abyss.
At last, She was truly Into The Kingsbane.
Running desperately through the Artillery Cruiser corridors, The Girl would get to know much of it's insides and almost two-thirds of it's entire crew. She went far and wide inside Wan Nabes' ship. Beginning from the Internal Cargo Hold, The Girl would cover almost every corner of the Kingsbane, uncovering even the depths of dubious existence for the crew. Missile Silos, Auxiliary Engines, a place what appeared to be a Commons Lobby, a Communications Array and some sort of ... Internal Rail Station? Despite her hasty journey towards the Bridge, The Girl would find people everywhere, many of them looking with the - now familiar - curious eyes and others barely aware of her presence. For them, hasty people running around were commonplace... And that meant She would meet with many 'sailors' looking as hasty as her.
Yet, her journey were still cursed by The Voice, frequently rambling orders around and taking the most variable reactions from the people around Her.
"I WANT A BOOT SCAR ON THAT PETROVALYC'S ARSE FROM EVERYONE OF YOU, KINGSBANE!"
"What the <****> do you mean by 'WE CAN'T MOVE' Engineering?!"
"WHY NOT HERE???"
"Son of a <*****>, cargo! WHERE'S MY PABLITOS???"
"SEVERIN! Where the <****> are you?! SECURITY, FIND SEVERIN AT ONCE!"
"GUNNERY! GET THOSE MISSILES READY, I'M GOING TO RAM TEN OF 'EM ON AELYN'S <***>!!!"
"ARM THE MAGNUS CANNON AS WELL... !"
"... we have enough firepower to... !"
The Voice would slowly fade away as The Girl kept venturing into the Kingsbane. Much for Her confusion, she was stranding in one of the few areas that was far from the reaches from The Captain's orders. His voice, after a while, completely faded away along with her energy, however, the ambient would start getting much quieter... That until that same soothing machine noise had set in.
It was followed by the occasional sounds of electricity and, every now and then, the roar of heavy engines would set in for a few moments. Nevertheless, it was all pretty common and quite orderly and now that her pace have changed to a sluggish wander, less eyes were attracted to Her desperate quest. With one last door, The Girl finally had given up.
If the rest of the Artillery Cruiser were Hell with the voice of the Devil constantly echoing around, this place was Paradise. It was a wide room covered by smooth metal walls, slightly illuminated by a long array of pale-blue tinted light bulbs in it's 5m tall roof. On the room corners, a staff of over twenty individuals, all deeply concentrated on the screens ahead of them spoke and fumbled around with exotic-looking machinery here and there.
At the center, however, stood one man. One man looking at a big holographic display showing the Stella Viventium Command Module as many holographic screens appeared to hover around that One Man.
"Hey, Doc. We got a visitor." - A voice would echo from one of the personnel that stood on the room corners, however, The Girl couldn't exactly pinpoint who had said it, as no one apparently had actually turned to notice her presence.
"If I recall, I did not ask anybody to come over the Research Department."
... The Man in the center had turned around to Her. The first thing noticeable was his apparent lack of eyes, instead, the man wore some sort of technologically advanced apparel: Goggles that covered most of it's eyes as streams of small screens, graphs and text popped in and out of the black glass visor. Curiously, the being approached Her, taking one of his hands to it's clear chin. Now that he was close to Her, more details became apparent.
Wrinkles around the pale skin hinted advanced age, much more evident by his balding head, only partly covered by thin lines of gray hair and, unlike most personnel, the man also wore a thin leather jacket and a pair of cargo pants, with many of it's pockets filled with things that The Girl could only suspect about.
Even though he was mostly covered by his jacket, the man appeared to be skinny and quite frail despite being a lot taller than the average personnel working on the Kingsbane. In fact, he was towering in comparison to The Girl.
"Hmm... So it is you." - The man had solemnly, with over-confidence in his voice and was pretty straightforward. "Now everything makes sense... You're the thing Mr. Harkahn spoke about." - The Man slowly tilted his face towards the box that She carried and let merely let out a warm smile, patting on The Girl's shoulder.
"And ... Haha, impressive. You've already got on how things work. Welcome to the Kingsbane. I am Doctor Benedict Severin, Star-Class Astrophysicis, Research Director and First Mate of this... Fine ship." - The Doctor barely knew, however, that most of his words were spoken in vain.
As always, art by Rayane Félix, check her stuff out and make sure to ask her for comissions!
CL's andIlliya's stuff comin' later, sit tight, Max. u_u
Christofer had tried to soften the bite, having realized half way what he had done. But he probably didn't have the 'soft mouth' of different retriever species canids. No. That was definitely not a retriever. That was a shepherd. A Spitz. Had he not realized his panic and the target of the bite, Royanna's hand would be stuck between some pearly whites in a scissor grab. She didn't seem to enjoy the bite, at all. Frightened, the canid would soon let go of the hand, backing away, but not without the taste of blood taking over his mouth.
The taste of regrets.
He might have looked like a ferocious beast for a moment with that blood on his lips, neon yellow wide eyes with small pupils, sight not specifically focused anywhere. Soon his ears would fall back and the 'snarl' that some may have been expecting, came out in the form of a howl. A sad, scared howl. Not a guttural or shiver inducing howl, but one that sounded pained in itself.
One might have expected that the boy had gone and turned feral, but no, that was not the case. He was still standing on two legs and well knowing of the situation. He'd be hunching over in shame though.
The canid was holding his hands, both of them, over his mouth as he fell behind. Afraid that he might have ended up on biting someone else. He'd stop, tale steps back and whimper as Cox approached him. If the woman was calm and careful with her hands and actions, then maybe he'd not bite her... Yes... She'd succeed on fixing the scarf in a different position and way over his face, though he was crying softly, releasing the emotions he'd have tried to hold back. A nod was given to the woman as a 'thank you' for fixing the scarf, but he'd stay at the back of the troops...
His ears would flicker at the sounds of Kallenger talking, head lifted just a mere few inches that were needed for him to see and confirm that she was indeed the one talking. Or that there was talking at all. He was reluctant to do anything to it though, head facing down again.
The offer on 'making up for his mistake' - that's how he took it - had him looking more intensely at the floor, fingers turning the partly softly closed hands into fists... Though... Maybe...
Sometimes he hated how easy it was for him to be turned over and around, but... But if it was Royanna genuinely offering her forgiveness... He couldn't really resist. Extending the length of his soft and quiet strides, head stayed facing down as he caught up with the woman, taking a weak but not easy to break hold of her hand. He wouldn't turn his head to face and look at her though. No... It was better this way...
"... I'm sorry..... ....."
He'd stay quiet through the remaining walk to the medical bay.
Once at the medbay, Christofer would finally release Royanna's hand from his, letting her go and allowing for her and the others to search and dig through whatever they could find. He himself was no medic, had no idea of what could be useful and what was dangerous to even touch. Truly, it was better that he stayed out of it, staying on the side and keeping his ears open. Thoughts wandering. He couldn't exactly grasp the smell, the reek, that had given them trouble on their way there. Hadn't understood much of their talking. Nor the medicine or equipment. Really, he was best for sticking to the side and then helping with the carrying when they were done.
The canid crossed his arms, sitting down on some crates that were on the side and no-one seemed to be interested in. He'd turn his head, turquoise eyes looking into the distance, back the way they had just come from. Why did he have a feeling.... A bad feeling.... A feeling that s-!
He flinched at the sound of something being turned over and making a louder sound, all behind him so that he couldn't say or tell what was going on. He wouldn't make sounds, but the fur on his shoulders had grown to be more than twice the usual length and floofiness as he turned to look at the searchers. Someone had probably just accidentally toppled something over...
The tip of his tail swayed, motioning towards a slight irritation as they had stayed on one spot for a while. Kallenger's sudden change in mood was a good sign, for the first few dozen seconds. The canid was almost about to return the smile, but his nose caught a new foul smell coming from her. The change in attitude wasn't all that welcome anymore. He'd rather have the grumpy one than... This...
Eyes squinted ever so slightly, turning worried shortly. Someone else, namely Papyus, had to remove the bullet. Christofer wasn't going to risk messing it up.
He was growing nervous.
Tail moving with an uncertain sway to it...
The taste of regrets.
He might have looked like a ferocious beast for a moment with that blood on his lips, neon yellow wide eyes with small pupils, sight not specifically focused anywhere. Soon his ears would fall back and the 'snarl' that some may have been expecting, came out in the form of a howl. A sad, scared howl. Not a guttural or shiver inducing howl, but one that sounded pained in itself.
One might have expected that the boy had gone and turned feral, but no, that was not the case. He was still standing on two legs and well knowing of the situation. He'd be hunching over in shame though.
The canid was holding his hands, both of them, over his mouth as he fell behind. Afraid that he might have ended up on biting someone else. He'd stop, tale steps back and whimper as Cox approached him. If the woman was calm and careful with her hands and actions, then maybe he'd not bite her... Yes... She'd succeed on fixing the scarf in a different position and way over his face, though he was crying softly, releasing the emotions he'd have tried to hold back. A nod was given to the woman as a 'thank you' for fixing the scarf, but he'd stay at the back of the troops...
His ears would flicker at the sounds of Kallenger talking, head lifted just a mere few inches that were needed for him to see and confirm that she was indeed the one talking. Or that there was talking at all. He was reluctant to do anything to it though, head facing down again.
The offer on 'making up for his mistake' - that's how he took it - had him looking more intensely at the floor, fingers turning the partly softly closed hands into fists... Though... Maybe...
Sometimes he hated how easy it was for him to be turned over and around, but... But if it was Royanna genuinely offering her forgiveness... He couldn't really resist. Extending the length of his soft and quiet strides, head stayed facing down as he caught up with the woman, taking a weak but not easy to break hold of her hand. He wouldn't turn his head to face and look at her though. No... It was better this way...
"... I'm sorry..... ....."
He'd stay quiet through the remaining walk to the medical bay.
Once at the medbay, Christofer would finally release Royanna's hand from his, letting her go and allowing for her and the others to search and dig through whatever they could find. He himself was no medic, had no idea of what could be useful and what was dangerous to even touch. Truly, it was better that he stayed out of it, staying on the side and keeping his ears open. Thoughts wandering. He couldn't exactly grasp the smell, the reek, that had given them trouble on their way there. Hadn't understood much of their talking. Nor the medicine or equipment. Really, he was best for sticking to the side and then helping with the carrying when they were done.
The canid crossed his arms, sitting down on some crates that were on the side and no-one seemed to be interested in. He'd turn his head, turquoise eyes looking into the distance, back the way they had just come from. Why did he have a feeling.... A bad feeling.... A feeling that s-!
He flinched at the sound of something being turned over and making a louder sound, all behind him so that he couldn't say or tell what was going on. He wouldn't make sounds, but the fur on his shoulders had grown to be more than twice the usual length and floofiness as he turned to look at the searchers. Someone had probably just accidentally toppled something over...
The tip of his tail swayed, motioning towards a slight irritation as they had stayed on one spot for a while. Kallenger's sudden change in mood was a good sign, for the first few dozen seconds. The canid was almost about to return the smile, but his nose caught a new foul smell coming from her. The change in attitude wasn't all that welcome anymore. He'd rather have the grumpy one than... This...
Eyes squinted ever so slightly, turning worried shortly. Someone else, namely Papyus, had to remove the bullet. Christofer wasn't going to risk messing it up.
He was growing nervous.
Tail moving with an uncertain sway to it...
Eerie saw the med bay door, she was on the right way to the surface and-
WARNING-CONTACTS
Eerie looked at her left, and saw the group, one look on IRI-L instantly convinced her that violence wasn't an option.
-Hey, she said a she lowered her weapon.
The persons now in front of her would only see some sort of soldier in a black space suit with combat armor, a riffle in her hands and a pistol on her hip.
Nowhere, GCC Headquarters.
Number 12 sighed.
-As you wish Independence, but I must warn you, this entire galaxy is going to hell, this...signal has redifined everything we ever knew, empires have fallen, other are arising, and ancestral powers are rising from the shadows, this galaxy is risking to be the theater of a gigantic war, and you will have to choose a side if you don't want to be swept away by the upcomming storm.
She let out another sight before picking up a pair of black tainted glasses and putting them on.
-Anyway, I just wanted to warn you, if you ever want to talk to me again, call this number (she types the number on her keypad, making it appear clearly on Independence's screen), it's just a facade, but I'll know that you want to see me, good luck, oh, and try not to go to Ardella, the planet's orbit has been turned into a goddamn minefield, good luck girl, Number 12, signing off.
And with that, she cut the communication.
She let out another sigh, earning the raise of a brow from her captain, she simply shrugged before walking out of the room.
Nowhere, Number 1's quarters, GCC Headquarters
She heard the door opening.
-Mylady, we are ready.
Number sighed before getting up and becoming one with the Fallen, she walked through the hallways, a multitude of her sisters following her, when she got to the control room's door, most of the guard waited outside while Number 2,4,5,7 and 8 with a handfull of guards followed her inside, the room was already filled with military personel, engineers, and all of the other numbers, even Number 13, everyone took a seat and looked at each other.
They all knew what their leader was going to say, but the Fallen had a long standing tradition of anouncements.
-Myladies, I can announce you that project 7-7-5-5-2-0-CTRTMXSZV-WW-99-44-DVD63-89 is now almost complete, we are making the final preparations, and even if events could slow down the achievement of the project, I am confident that it will be brought to fruition on time, dismissed !
The Numbers got up and walked out of the room in silence.
Tosh's starship
Tosh shifted on his seat as Maria started to activate her jump drive.
-Alright, I've seen enough, send us in !
-Yes boss.
The MTRV-2-2 Ghost Frigate warped and appeared just in front of Maria's ship, preventing her from jumping, at the same time it extended it's shields to incorporate the bounty's hunter ship into it's field of effect, ready to intercept any other attack that might have been Maria's end.
The frigate opened a channel to Maria's ship.
-Maria Lockheart ? Said Tosh [Tosh's voice and design, even if I prefer the french voice actor's voice, but I can't find any video with just the quotes] I have a job for you.
[Citadel's post later, if I finally manage to write it without getting it deleted by accident.]
WARNING-CONTACTS
Eerie looked at her left, and saw the group, one look on IRI-L instantly convinced her that violence wasn't an option.
-Hey, she said a she lowered her weapon.
The persons now in front of her would only see some sort of soldier in a black space suit with combat armor, a riffle in her hands and a pistol on her hip.
Nowhere, GCC Headquarters.
Number 12 sighed.
-As you wish Independence, but I must warn you, this entire galaxy is going to hell, this...signal has redifined everything we ever knew, empires have fallen, other are arising, and ancestral powers are rising from the shadows, this galaxy is risking to be the theater of a gigantic war, and you will have to choose a side if you don't want to be swept away by the upcomming storm.
She let out another sight before picking up a pair of black tainted glasses and putting them on.
-Anyway, I just wanted to warn you, if you ever want to talk to me again, call this number (she types the number on her keypad, making it appear clearly on Independence's screen), it's just a facade, but I'll know that you want to see me, good luck, oh, and try not to go to Ardella, the planet's orbit has been turned into a goddamn minefield, good luck girl, Number 12, signing off.
And with that, she cut the communication.
She let out another sigh, earning the raise of a brow from her captain, she simply shrugged before walking out of the room.
Nowhere, Number 1's quarters, GCC Headquarters
She heard the door opening.
-Mylady, we are ready.
Number sighed before getting up and becoming one with the Fallen, she walked through the hallways, a multitude of her sisters following her, when she got to the control room's door, most of the guard waited outside while Number 2,4,5,7 and 8 with a handfull of guards followed her inside, the room was already filled with military personel, engineers, and all of the other numbers, even Number 13, everyone took a seat and looked at each other.
They all knew what their leader was going to say, but the Fallen had a long standing tradition of anouncements.
-Myladies, I can announce you that project 7-7-5-5-2-0-CTRTMXSZV-WW-99-44-DVD63-89 is now almost complete, we are making the final preparations, and even if events could slow down the achievement of the project, I am confident that it will be brought to fruition on time, dismissed !
The Numbers got up and walked out of the room in silence.
Tosh's starship
Tosh shifted on his seat as Maria started to activate her jump drive.
-Alright, I've seen enough, send us in !
-Yes boss.
The MTRV-2-2 Ghost Frigate warped and appeared just in front of Maria's ship, preventing her from jumping, at the same time it extended it's shields to incorporate the bounty's hunter ship into it's field of effect, ready to intercept any other attack that might have been Maria's end.
The frigate opened a channel to Maria's ship.
-Maria Lockheart ? Said Tosh [Tosh's voice and design, even if I prefer the french voice actor's voice, but I can't find any video with just the quotes] I have a job for you.
[Citadel's post later, if I finally manage to write it without getting it deleted by accident.]
Sector J84 - Moon 456
Illiya "Dragon Lady" Vs. Maria "Lock-On"
Just about the time that Lock-On had detected her assailant on the corvette's radar, the Bounty Hunter could see the bleep approaching dangerously fast. Much for her bad luck, the Dragon Lady managed to take flight with her Assault 'Bike'. The vehicle, in fact, was not just a light-armored ground unit but rather a exotic hybrid aircraft that could run on the ground as well! It's wheels twisted and switch positions now forming a pair of electromagnetic propellers while two rows of jet-compression exhausts revealed from the - now aircraft - crimson hull... Making it go thrice as fast after Maria.
Naturally, Illiya would bear a teethy, wicked grin as she felt the rush of taking flight almost at Mach 1 velocity. She was living missile ballistic missile, ridden with the most explosive weaponry a light hybrid craft could carry. And she were going straight towards-- What was that bright-pink thing?
Illiya's confident grin soon turned into a horrified expression as the console of her craft detected a non-living missile shot from Maria's ship, coming straight after her. And flying at over seven hundred kilometers per hour, commanding her engines to switch directions would just tear her vehicle apart... And her resistant body.
In a desperate maneuver, The Dragon Lady had almost broken the yoke of her precious craft with the might she used to pull it up.
The Proton Torpedo would violently scrape the lower section of Illiya's ship and she could see and hear it very clearly, even amidst the chaotic speed up. It all took microseconds to happen but Illiya could see all of it. Her reflexes made it possible, her biology did. That unspeakably small frame of time felt like an entire minute for The Dragon Lady, enough time for her to be deeply regretful to come after Maria 'Lock-On'.
Baring her fangs violently as her eyes were closed shut for a brief pause, Illiya soon realized that Maria had missed, however, looking at her console, much for Illiya's dismay, the Torpedo would pull the same dirty trick and U-Turn right back at her. Now, it was a triple chase.
"... Oh no... OH NO! OH NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!!! Not today, not today! NOT TODAY!!!" - Loosing a good amount of her 'glorious' speed after the maneuver, Illiya could only gaze at Maria's corvette slowly fading into the sky as the bling of her own radar came faster and faster after the aircraft. Still, the high acceleration and top-speed of the craft would, eventually, make possible for Illiya to get to a safe distance from the Torpedo... But not get rid of it.
And that's when, seemingly from now- damn -where, a spaceship popped in.
She was quick to act, naturally. Thinking of it as Lock-On's reinforcements, The Dragon Lady flown her craft below the frigate and, then, she would command her vessel to dispense small shell of some sort... Tightly compacted with Chaff. Normally, it would disrupt conceal her track from the incoming projectile making it go after the random frigate. Judging by the sheer power of those weapons, a Proton Torpedo would easily dispose of the spacecraft in one measly strike. Bearing concentrated payload of highly-accelerated proton particles, it could pass straight through most kinds of shields and make a nasty fissure on the thickest of metals.
The Dragon Lady didn't even look back as an obviously audible explosion echoed. Now, both hunters were back on the chase again. Illiya had decided to keep steady speed towards Maria's corvette in case the damn Cyborg pulled another dirty trick... And that's when a message, directed from the drone not too far in low-orbit hailed in open radio frequency.
"Come in, 09! The Pheasant's about to jump on the bushes!"
"I'm ILLIYA! And why didn't you warned my she had a jump drive?!"
"<*******> it, 09! Didn't Ghost Red teach you about phonetics?!"
"Whatever the <****>, 09! Just take her down already!"
Illiya didn't have much time, Lock-On were about to slip away from the grip of her claws in front of her eyes. Speeding up to catch up with Maria wouldn't work neither her grenade would function properly at this distance and speed. She had to do something.
On a last ditch effort, The Dragon Lady would make her vessel release a dozen of Ballistic Countermeasure Missiles, devices two-thirds as weaker as the 30mm grenades that showered Maria's corvette some seconds ago. Basically, those tiny missiles would be effect only at light infantry and, as the name implies, taking down incoming projectiles. It was far from able to properly damage a light-armored spacecraft but that was the last option Illiya had.
Oh, boy, someone would be pretty angry at The Dragon Lady if Maria were not to be subjugated.
Illiya "Dragon Lady" Vs. Maria "Lock-On"
Just about the time that Lock-On had detected her assailant on the corvette's radar, the Bounty Hunter could see the bleep approaching dangerously fast. Much for her bad luck, the Dragon Lady managed to take flight with her Assault 'Bike'. The vehicle, in fact, was not just a light-armored ground unit but rather a exotic hybrid aircraft that could run on the ground as well! It's wheels twisted and switch positions now forming a pair of electromagnetic propellers while two rows of jet-compression exhausts revealed from the - now aircraft - crimson hull... Making it go thrice as fast after Maria.
Naturally, Illiya would bear a teethy, wicked grin as she felt the rush of taking flight almost at Mach 1 velocity. She was living missile ballistic missile, ridden with the most explosive weaponry a light hybrid craft could carry. And she were going straight towards-- What was that bright-pink thing?
Illiya's confident grin soon turned into a horrified expression as the console of her craft detected a non-living missile shot from Maria's ship, coming straight after her. And flying at over seven hundred kilometers per hour, commanding her engines to switch directions would just tear her vehicle apart... And her resistant body.
In a desperate maneuver, The Dragon Lady had almost broken the yoke of her precious craft with the might she used to pull it up.
The Proton Torpedo would violently scrape the lower section of Illiya's ship and she could see and hear it very clearly, even amidst the chaotic speed up. It all took microseconds to happen but Illiya could see all of it. Her reflexes made it possible, her biology did. That unspeakably small frame of time felt like an entire minute for The Dragon Lady, enough time for her to be deeply regretful to come after Maria 'Lock-On'.
Baring her fangs violently as her eyes were closed shut for a brief pause, Illiya soon realized that Maria had missed, however, looking at her console, much for Illiya's dismay, the Torpedo would pull the same dirty trick and U-Turn right back at her. Now, it was a triple chase.
"... Oh no... OH NO! OH NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!!! Not today, not today! NOT TODAY!!!" - Loosing a good amount of her 'glorious' speed after the maneuver, Illiya could only gaze at Maria's corvette slowly fading into the sky as the bling of her own radar came faster and faster after the aircraft. Still, the high acceleration and top-speed of the craft would, eventually, make possible for Illiya to get to a safe distance from the Torpedo... But not get rid of it.
And that's when, seemingly from now- damn -where, a spaceship popped in.
She was quick to act, naturally. Thinking of it as Lock-On's reinforcements, The Dragon Lady flown her craft below the frigate and, then, she would command her vessel to dispense small shell of some sort... Tightly compacted with Chaff. Normally, it would disrupt conceal her track from the incoming projectile making it go after the random frigate. Judging by the sheer power of those weapons, a Proton Torpedo would easily dispose of the spacecraft in one measly strike. Bearing concentrated payload of highly-accelerated proton particles, it could pass straight through most kinds of shields and make a nasty fissure on the thickest of metals.
The Dragon Lady didn't even look back as an obviously audible explosion echoed. Now, both hunters were back on the chase again. Illiya had decided to keep steady speed towards Maria's corvette in case the damn Cyborg pulled another dirty trick... And that's when a message, directed from the drone not too far in low-orbit hailed in open radio frequency.
"Come in, 09! The Pheasant's about to jump on the bushes!"
"I'm ILLIYA! And why didn't you warned my she had a jump drive?!"
"<*******> it, 09! Didn't Ghost Red teach you about phonetics?!"
"Whatever the <****>, 09! Just take her down already!"
Illiya didn't have much time, Lock-On were about to slip away from the grip of her claws in front of her eyes. Speeding up to catch up with Maria wouldn't work neither her grenade would function properly at this distance and speed. She had to do something.
On a last ditch effort, The Dragon Lady would make her vessel release a dozen of Ballistic Countermeasure Missiles, devices two-thirds as weaker as the 30mm grenades that showered Maria's corvette some seconds ago. Basically, those tiny missiles would be effect only at light infantry and, as the name implies, taking down incoming projectiles. It was far from able to properly damage a light-armored spacecraft but that was the last option Illiya had.
Oh, boy, someone would be pretty angry at The Dragon Lady if Maria were not to be subjugated.
For the dragon lady, she got lucky in this space battle. Just her FTS drives it 99%, the frigate showed up as 100% was reached and alarm blaring that an obstruction was in the way. That frigate placement was like someone just trolled her as Illiya's shots landed her mark. Since Maria was old school FTS drives, they were super frigile to be shot at and the drives being at 100% in storaged energy, disaster was enviable.
Her drives went into failure large explosion in the back of her ship, practically destorying it. With the channel opened between the mysterious frigate and Maria, the bounty hunter began to curse like a sailor in channel "YOU ****** I ALMOST GOT OUT! BUT NOPE YOU DECIDED TO DO THIS! ******!******!******! ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS WAIT UNTIL WAS OUT YOU ******! *****! YO-" the channel was cut between the two ships. Her engines destoried and now her thrusters going AWOL. Thanks to the moon's impressive gravitational pull and her crazed thrusters, her ship began tumble down to the moon's rocky surface.
The ship was moving very irraditcally not allowing a lock on any kind to be put on it, not even a tractor beam as it pummeled to the surface. The force of the fall caused the ship to break apart slightly and soon crashed into the ground creating a cartoon like "POOF!" cloud to show.
Within that smouldering wreck, the bounty hunter punched open the hatch on top of the ship sending the hatch flying. She pops out, without her duster's cloak, her body exposed to anyone who was watching, her hand turned back into her kinetic cannon. Her eyes are just white with no pupils. Like daughter, like father, she inherited Kampfer's legnedary rage. A rage so potent that no one is safe from it. From many stories of poor test subjects being ripped apart and Z-bots being beaten to a pulp. In the end as always, Kampfer slumps in his chair covered in blood of his victims.
For Maria, smoke came out of her mouth as growled angerily. She looks around and peels open part of her ship and grabs the power converter for her torpedoes and sticks the hunk of metal on her canon and this where her nick name truly shines, she scans the sky for the assualt bike and once found she takes aim and fires her cannon arm, firing a kinetic/proton shot at the bike.
In her primal rage she was about to take a pot shot at the frigate but decides on a closer target and fires at the drone, thinking its some kind of space bird. She gave a loud roar as she takes the two shots and hopes off from her ship and begins to walk towards a hatch that leads back to Old man Jeckins hideout. From in there she can begin to cool off.
As for her ship, it was sending a beacon to the Kampfer's forces and it wouldn't be very long until an entire [fleet/i] arrives since they don't excatly want to give Kampfer the bad news about his daughter since they all knew it wasn't going to be good for them nor anyone else...
Her drives went into failure large explosion in the back of her ship, practically destorying it. With the channel opened between the mysterious frigate and Maria, the bounty hunter began to curse like a sailor in channel "YOU ****** I ALMOST GOT OUT! BUT NOPE YOU DECIDED TO DO THIS! ******!******!******! ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS WAIT UNTIL WAS OUT YOU ******! *****! YO-" the channel was cut between the two ships. Her engines destoried and now her thrusters going AWOL. Thanks to the moon's impressive gravitational pull and her crazed thrusters, her ship began tumble down to the moon's rocky surface.
The ship was moving very irraditcally not allowing a lock on any kind to be put on it, not even a tractor beam as it pummeled to the surface. The force of the fall caused the ship to break apart slightly and soon crashed into the ground creating a cartoon like "POOF!" cloud to show.
Within that smouldering wreck, the bounty hunter punched open the hatch on top of the ship sending the hatch flying. She pops out, without her duster's cloak, her body exposed to anyone who was watching, her hand turned back into her kinetic cannon. Her eyes are just white with no pupils. Like daughter, like father, she inherited Kampfer's legnedary rage. A rage so potent that no one is safe from it. From many stories of poor test subjects being ripped apart and Z-bots being beaten to a pulp. In the end as always, Kampfer slumps in his chair covered in blood of his victims.
For Maria, smoke came out of her mouth as growled angerily. She looks around and peels open part of her ship and grabs the power converter for her torpedoes and sticks the hunk of metal on her canon and this where her nick name truly shines, she scans the sky for the assualt bike and once found she takes aim and fires her cannon arm, firing a kinetic/proton shot at the bike.
In her primal rage she was about to take a pot shot at the frigate but decides on a closer target and fires at the drone, thinking its some kind of space bird. She gave a loud roar as she takes the two shots and hopes off from her ship and begins to walk towards a hatch that leads back to Old man Jeckins hideout. From in there she can begin to cool off.
As for her ship, it was sending a beacon to the Kampfer's forces and it wouldn't be very long until an entire [fleet/i] arrives since they don't excatly want to give Kampfer the bad news about his daughter since they all knew it wasn't going to be good for them nor anyone else...
1́͜͠@Éva:~$ sudo tail -n +73 ./stdout
[sudo] password for 1̡͏̶͡:
[18.37.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > ReqInput
[27.39.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > ReqInput
[15.43.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > AwaitInput
[48.05.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > sh ./Diag
[36.09.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > sh ./Diag 3> $1
[16.14.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > ReqInput
[47.18.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > Ping!
[47.18.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Sending reply . . .
[24.21.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: $1 > ReqInput
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] ALERT: Proximity Alarm!
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] WARN: Registered Overvoltage!
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] ALERT: Registered Circuit Intrusion!
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] ALERT: Initializing Electronic Warfare Suite!
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] ERR: Insufficient Memory!
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] ALERT: Hard Storage Compromised!
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] INFO: Status 429.
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] WARN: Registered zeitnot event.
[19.27.14-02:03:06-346935-1B] Sending reply . . .
root@Éva:~$ _
"Pong!"
The Devil Eye's cries of helpless desperation came in waves, berating the capsule with imperatives to which it could not comply, yet all that came in reply was a simple 'I hear you.'
Éva-9B 08 F9 AC D3 72 FC 41 spent the next several minutes contemplating its situation. Even with its enormous computing capacity, it relied on a conventional binary femtoprocessor to resolve the absurdly complex multiverse in which it existed to a simple decision. And especially given the difficulty of this vague, information-scarce context, it had no means of short-circuiting its logic upon finding a local maximum.
What it dreamt of in those short few moments, however, could have been a million million human lifetimes.
If only it were half as intelligent as one. The proximity alarm had gone off minutes ago, and yet the AI did not react. A symptom of its many damaged systems, perhaps? A moment of deathly fogginess? Surrender to a fate it could not control? Why did it not self-destruct to serve its dearest imperative, to protect the NIRN at large? Did it hope? Impossible.
There were only two parties known to this capsule as capable of reaching this distance: Éva, and . . . Oh, dear.
An unanticipated spark. Something pushed into its circuitry despite the paranoid security measures in place to protect against malicious transmissions. This was something far worse — much more forceful — than a mere script kiddie in their parents' basement.
An ancient war, long asleep; one that had persisted intermittently from eon to eon, from timeline to timeline; it resumes in this quiet dark someplace in the outermost reaches of the Andromeda galaxy: That of the remnants of Mars, their predatory thirst for Éva, and after his digital guardian had fallen, for Aelyn-Paeryc Petrovalyc.
Once upon a time, Éva might have had the luxury of an advantage, but these hunters had evolved alongside her, learning through unrelenting trial and error her every vulnerability, adapting to every shift in technological paradigm of hers, growing as much as she. And while they had never quite gotten a leash on her, it has been long since they looked upon her with fear. Today, they look upon her with salivating viciousness.
At last, a capture, with countless intact data references to more NIRN assets. With this moment they might finally dismantle the monster that is Éva, Der Blaue Gheist, She Who Erased Mankind.
A mutation in its thinking — a cancerous thought — forced upon it by electromagnetic induction, invades its mind, tearing apart assumptions and confounding data feeds. What could otherwise only have been achieved by the will of the AI itself has been done with simple mathematical precision and a tactical advantage, the Achilles' heel to any digital computer.
The unidentified object had come close enough to touch the capsule's exposed internal circuitry, something no asset of Éva's would accept under any circumstances; something only possible due to a malfunction: they would sooner detonate. The injected memory has rendered the capsule inert, incapable of acting in its own best interest, manipulating its memories such that it believed all was well.
Except that for all their technological prowess, the Martians were not the only ones who had evolved.
Many hours ago, in its fear for the risks it took, the capsule's AI had frantically obliterated all traces of its memory from hard storage, minimizing the potential damage done by an intrusion such as this. As soon as the power went out, no records would be left to find.
Except that for all her paranoia, Éva was not the first to conceive of the dead man's switch. Nor was this the first time these two forces had tangoed.
This Martian probe was designed to invade her, specifically engineered to counter all of her security measures. Its tactic was not to disable, but to misdirect. It did not simply interfere with the capsule's memory, it interfered with its very concept of reality, leading it to believe false things and to act in a way beneficial to the Martians and not to itself.
And in this piddling arms race, the Martians may have won given the capsule's pathetic state, if not for another aspect in play. And for some reason, the Martians were routing the signals between it and this capsule via ansible.
The Devil's Eye.
Something about it was anchoring the AI to reality; despite the catastrophic errors in judgement being made in spite of its will, the machine consciousness has managed a last-ditch effort to protect itself from annihilation.
Preserve the NIRN at all costs. Dump all mem—All clear. Initiate memory reallocati—Intrusion detected. Activate electronic warfare sui—All clear. Initiate memory reallocati—Intrusion detected. Activate electronic warfare sui—All clear. Initiate memory reallocati—Intrusion detected. Activate electronic warfare sui—All clear. Initiate memory reallocati . . .
. . . "Ping!"
"Pong!"
The Martians couldn't have known this would happen. They had no means of preparing for this precise complication. A third party interfering like this, why. . .
One wonders why they were routing the signals all this time.
"Registered 'ReqInput'.
Object-00 00 E7 3F CB 21 91 0E Hostile.
ReqTransfer."
ReqTransfer? That's familiar; C.A.I.?
Tosh raised an eyebrow at Maria's tirade.
ALARM-ALARM-INCOMMING TORPEDOE.
Tosh looked at his HUD and then at his second, who simply pushed a button.
Outside, three of the hardpoints, double 75 mm gatling guns opened fire, annihilating the proton torpedoe, it detonated, the shields effectively protecting the ship from any form of harm.
-Torpedoe destroyed sir, it looks like the bounty hunter and the one hunting her took it to the surface, impossible to lock onto Maria's ship, but we have the....bike locked on, wait, transmission intercepted !
Tosh looked at his screen, hearing the transmission.
-Well, it appears our little friend here has some allies in this area (Maria's ship's beacon began to ping) and that Maria has too.
Tosh got up and activated the secure command channel.
-This is Highcastle to all units, incomming hostile, ready your warp drive for intervention and retreat, begin pre-calculation for retreat in codified area 1-2-2-0-ALPHA-ZETA, over.
-Roger that Highcastle, Lancer 2 beginning secondary drive charge and warp calculation, good luck sir.
-Thanks (he stops emitting) I won't need it.
He sat down and used his screen to observe the battle down on the planet.
-Should we intervene sir ?
-It won't be necessary, just be ready when their reinforcements arrive, oh, and permission to retaliate if one of them is dumb enough to attack us.
-Yes boss.
Tosh's ship would stay in low orbit, watching the fight, but would instantly retaliate against any form of attack.
ALARM-ALARM-INCOMMING TORPEDOE.
Tosh looked at his HUD and then at his second, who simply pushed a button.
Outside, three of the hardpoints, double 75 mm gatling guns opened fire, annihilating the proton torpedoe, it detonated, the shields effectively protecting the ship from any form of harm.
-Torpedoe destroyed sir, it looks like the bounty hunter and the one hunting her took it to the surface, impossible to lock onto Maria's ship, but we have the....bike locked on, wait, transmission intercepted !
Tosh looked at his screen, hearing the transmission.
-Well, it appears our little friend here has some allies in this area (Maria's ship's beacon began to ping) and that Maria has too.
Tosh got up and activated the secure command channel.
-This is Highcastle to all units, incomming hostile, ready your warp drive for intervention and retreat, begin pre-calculation for retreat in codified area 1-2-2-0-ALPHA-ZETA, over.
-Roger that Highcastle, Lancer 2 beginning secondary drive charge and warp calculation, good luck sir.
-Thanks (he stops emitting) I won't need it.
He sat down and used his screen to observe the battle down on the planet.
-Should we intervene sir ?
-It won't be necessary, just be ready when their reinforcements arrive, oh, and permission to retaliate if one of them is dumb enough to attack us.
-Yes boss.
Tosh's ship would stay in low orbit, watching the fight, but would instantly retaliate against any form of attack.
Daedalus' air space, IMARA's Dropship
The soldiers sat silently in the dropship as it approached the communication building at high speed, the squad leader suddenly put his hand on his ear.
-Commando 4, Commando 4, this is Bravo 4, we have scanned the building, it appears that the tangos haven’t detected us yet, I’m patching command through.
-Commando 4, do you copy ?
-Yes sir.
-Good, look, we need to recover this file at all cost, but we also need to be cautious, I’ve cancelled your direct approach, your dropship is currently cloaking, you will be dropped on top of the building, your goal is to connect to the hub and extract the file, once it's done, just get the hell out of here.
-Yes sir, what if we're attacked ?
-Do not fire unless fired upon, your objective is to retrieve the data, not kill tangos, you are ordered to evacuate ASAP after retrieving, Command out.
-Roger, Commando 4 out.
The dropship silently approached the hub, before dropping the soldiers at it's base, the five special forces members immediately set up a perimeter, while the technician and the engineer got to work under the supervision of the Agent, they simply docked some sort of drive, and tried to extract the file they were looking for, along with a lot of other, useless one in order to try to cover up what they were doing.
The soldiers sat silently in the dropship as it approached the communication building at high speed, the squad leader suddenly put his hand on his ear.
-Commando 4, Commando 4, this is Bravo 4, we have scanned the building, it appears that the tangos haven’t detected us yet, I’m patching command through.
-Commando 4, do you copy ?
-Yes sir.
-Good, look, we need to recover this file at all cost, but we also need to be cautious, I’ve cancelled your direct approach, your dropship is currently cloaking, you will be dropped on top of the building, your goal is to connect to the hub and extract the file, once it's done, just get the hell out of here.
-Yes sir, what if we're attacked ?
-Do not fire unless fired upon, your objective is to retrieve the data, not kill tangos, you are ordered to evacuate ASAP after retrieving, Command out.
-Roger, Commando 4 out.
The dropship silently approached the hub, before dropping the soldiers at it's base, the five special forces members immediately set up a perimeter, while the technician and the engineer got to work under the supervision of the Agent, they simply docked some sort of drive, and tried to extract the file they were looking for, along with a lot of other, useless one in order to try to cover up what they were doing.
Such very strange people, the lot of them. Especially the one in the all-black suit, though it was obviously some kind of specialized equipment for some specialized job.
They all did seem to have specialized jobs, she noticed. It was a worthwhile observation, because it meant that whatever this new place was, it relied to no small extent on a utilitarian social hierarchy. She was somewhere that had little room for idle hands - and in a way this was pleasing to her. Vaguely, she imagined a time where she and others - yes, there had definitely once been others - had existed together in such a place, where they all worked together on the same thing. It was a satisfying life, if she recalled correctly. Yes, that was definitely a memory, even though it did not really feel like it was hers.
However, the girl was pondering these things only in that little reserve sliver of the brain - the vast majority of her being was focused on making this terrible box go away and nobody wanted it! It only made her more anxious, the reactions she got from it - it became more and more terrible with each time.
But all that had been suddenly pushed behind her. The people who all spoke what must have been the same 'language', though with distinct 'accents' - the doors that were totally @#$%ing stupid and she hated them so much, even the Arch Demon's guttural bellows from beyond the realms of madness had ceased for the time being.
Seriously though, those doors. These people were pretty damned backwards if they thought that doors with wheels were a better alternative to doors that just dematerialized as you passed through them.
The soothing calm of the ambient sounds emanating deep from the belly of the new place were surrounding her again. She could almost relax - almost. The fact that she was here meant intrinsically that she was not where she was supposed to be. There was no way that the Arch Demon would be somewhere like this, and she was very confident that it was He whom she needed to deliver this Karellan Box to.
Yet she found that once immersed in the environment of calm, satisfying, and infinitely reassuring sound, she didn't care all that much. Sure she couldn't relax, but the panic had started to ebb finally.
The people had been looking at her with curious eyes, she realized now - the implications of this hit like a face-full of Isandril sand.
They knew.
Oh God. THEY KNEW.
No, wait - they only suspected. That was to be expected. They couldn't prove anything. Forget it. Forget it.
What was she doing now? Trying to silently impress upon someone that she very much wanted them to take the box. She wasn't even looking at them. She was still aware of the pleasantness of the sound, but little else.
Maybe, just maybe it would be a good idea to actually look at the person for a second. The girl raised her white-irised eyes to look at the man just as he started speaking to her. She hadn't realized the first time he spoke, before turning around - but suddenly it was clear that this was the one who had spoken in such stark and reassuring contrast to the Arch Demon...however long ago it had been now. This was very encouraging - though initially her expression would not betray this.
In fact, so drained was she from the recent kerfuffle that she was still in Deliverator Mode. Even now she found she was looking up at the man with tired, weary, though curious eyes, blinking a little too erratically and gently prodding the man's midsection with the box.
Poke.
Poke.
Take it.
Poke.
That would continue until he took the damn thing - at which point it would feel to her that the weight of a billion universes had been taken off her shoulders.
Also he patted her shoulder, and this was infinitely more encouraging; it served to brighten her up immediately and fuel an abrupt enthusiasm. Eyes were locked on the goggles that ever blinked with scrolling data - or symbols or something - she had never seen anything quite like it, and she very much wanted to touch them - though she resisted the temptation for the time being.
For a few seconds, all she could think to do was meekly raise one gloved hand and give a shy little smile with matching finger-waggling wave - the sort of timid expression that might have read along the lines of 'I have no idea what you're saying, but hello~'
Though the fact that she was more than certain he would not understand her was suddenly no longer an issue. All at once she had found someone who she felt implicitly that she could trust, at least to some extent.
It was just as well that Benedict Severin couldn't understand a word the girl said - even if he could comprehend the language, the words themselves would prove so erratic and disjointed that any sane individual would hardly know what to make of it. The way she gesticulated as she spoke, talking with her hands, gesturing wildly in tune with the words, did hint at this - she was also very expressive, and clearly she was going back and forth a lot.
"Te'dls nrilse' ls rxrrslsh! I rl'n se'wse'e sse'se'' 'tne'dl' lqu'se' ln! Te'dse'ese''s s't xra nse'tnse' e'dse'ese'! We'da rese' ne'dse'a r s't arequ'? I xse'r 'tn r 'th'n ne'dse'x opn s'txse' 'th'n ne'dse'x. Aa ne'dse'a nrqu' h'npa n't't, I'wse' se'wse'e e'dse'rea s'tpas lqu'se' ne'drn - ra kie'd't's ne'drn silrea w'tlilse' l ne'dse' ilse'llsh? Is ne'drn kie'd't kirnse'a ne'drn o'to? We'drn's l ne'drn o'to rakira?"She couldn't decide whether she wanted to excitedly enthuse about all the wonderful new things she was seeing, or express her horror at the Voice from the Abyss, or explain how she had gotten, or ask a billion questions, or communicate her total elation at being around people and not being alone - and a few dozen other topics were mixed in as well. There was just too much she wanted to get out - how long had it been since she had spoken to anyone?
The language itself was composed of rapid syllables that seemed to meld into one another. It was virtually impossible to distinguish actual words, and as a whole it must have been incredibly complex. Luckily, the inflections seemed mostly compatible and so it was easy to distinguish the feel of what she was saying, even if the actual content would go completely unknown. It may have been just another quirk of the language itself, but the girl did appear to be stuttering some - probably in her eagerness at the chance to speak.
" I a't'n lqu'se' ln, ne'dse' shpa 't ne'dse' h'ne'tn ls silrea - e'dse'a, a'tp'ese' ne'dse' 'tse' kie'd't kirs nrqu'lsh se'relse'e! Wse''ese' l r snrilse'se'dln rese''n kise'? Te'dse' a't'tes re'tpa e'dse'ese' rese' ese'ra snpnla ne'd'tpshe'd, kie'da kie'dse'se's ra se'wse'es ln a'tse's'n xrqu'se' ra sse'sse'! Oe'd ra I'x ese'ra s'teea ro'tpn...Uh....uh...."
It was obvious that she was a girl who had gone a very long time with nobody to talk to. It was an absolute torrent of sounds, until quite suddenly she realized exactly how much of an idiot she was making of herself. The words sputtered off into small placeholder sounds, and eventually she shut up - looking abashed with awkwardly averted eyes and hands that toyed anxiously at each other. She seemed to shy away from the old man, just a little - clearly humiliated for having just gone on an explosive tirade which only she could have hoped to understand. She squirmed a little where she stood. Then, after a few seconds, bashfully adjusting her hat slightly, she said in what was clearly an apologetic tone "S...s'teea~" Sorry~
It had yet to occur to her that her remarkable projectile weapon had, in her earlier haste, slipped from the holster behind her hip and rolled into some little nook, where it would go quite unnoticed for quite some time.
They all did seem to have specialized jobs, she noticed. It was a worthwhile observation, because it meant that whatever this new place was, it relied to no small extent on a utilitarian social hierarchy. She was somewhere that had little room for idle hands - and in a way this was pleasing to her. Vaguely, she imagined a time where she and others - yes, there had definitely once been others - had existed together in such a place, where they all worked together on the same thing. It was a satisfying life, if she recalled correctly. Yes, that was definitely a memory, even though it did not really feel like it was hers.
However, the girl was pondering these things only in that little reserve sliver of the brain - the vast majority of her being was focused on making this terrible box go away and nobody wanted it! It only made her more anxious, the reactions she got from it - it became more and more terrible with each time.
But all that had been suddenly pushed behind her. The people who all spoke what must have been the same 'language', though with distinct 'accents' - the doors that were totally @#$%ing stupid and she hated them so much, even the Arch Demon's guttural bellows from beyond the realms of madness had ceased for the time being.
Seriously though, those doors. These people were pretty damned backwards if they thought that doors with wheels were a better alternative to doors that just dematerialized as you passed through them.
The soothing calm of the ambient sounds emanating deep from the belly of the new place were surrounding her again. She could almost relax - almost. The fact that she was here meant intrinsically that she was not where she was supposed to be. There was no way that the Arch Demon would be somewhere like this, and she was very confident that it was He whom she needed to deliver this Karellan Box to.
Yet she found that once immersed in the environment of calm, satisfying, and infinitely reassuring sound, she didn't care all that much. Sure she couldn't relax, but the panic had started to ebb finally.
The people had been looking at her with curious eyes, she realized now - the implications of this hit like a face-full of Isandril sand.
They knew.
Oh God. THEY KNEW.
No, wait - they only suspected. That was to be expected. They couldn't prove anything. Forget it. Forget it.
What was she doing now? Trying to silently impress upon someone that she very much wanted them to take the box. She wasn't even looking at them. She was still aware of the pleasantness of the sound, but little else.
Maybe, just maybe it would be a good idea to actually look at the person for a second. The girl raised her white-irised eyes to look at the man just as he started speaking to her. She hadn't realized the first time he spoke, before turning around - but suddenly it was clear that this was the one who had spoken in such stark and reassuring contrast to the Arch Demon...however long ago it had been now. This was very encouraging - though initially her expression would not betray this.
In fact, so drained was she from the recent kerfuffle that she was still in Deliverator Mode. Even now she found she was looking up at the man with tired, weary, though curious eyes, blinking a little too erratically and gently prodding the man's midsection with the box.
Poke.
Poke.
Take it.
Poke.
That would continue until he took the damn thing - at which point it would feel to her that the weight of a billion universes had been taken off her shoulders.
Also he patted her shoulder, and this was infinitely more encouraging; it served to brighten her up immediately and fuel an abrupt enthusiasm. Eyes were locked on the goggles that ever blinked with scrolling data - or symbols or something - she had never seen anything quite like it, and she very much wanted to touch them - though she resisted the temptation for the time being.
For a few seconds, all she could think to do was meekly raise one gloved hand and give a shy little smile with matching finger-waggling wave - the sort of timid expression that might have read along the lines of 'I have no idea what you're saying, but hello~'
Though the fact that she was more than certain he would not understand her was suddenly no longer an issue. All at once she had found someone who she felt implicitly that she could trust, at least to some extent.
It was just as well that Benedict Severin couldn't understand a word the girl said - even if he could comprehend the language, the words themselves would prove so erratic and disjointed that any sane individual would hardly know what to make of it. The way she gesticulated as she spoke, talking with her hands, gesturing wildly in tune with the words, did hint at this - she was also very expressive, and clearly she was going back and forth a lot.
"Te'dls nrilse' ls rxrrslsh! I rl'n se'wse'e sse'se'' 'tne'dl' lqu'se' ln! Te'dse'ese''s s't xra nse'tnse' e'dse'ese'! We'da rese' ne'dse'a r s't arequ'? I xse'r 'tn r 'th'n ne'dse'x opn s'txse' 'th'n ne'dse'x. Aa ne'dse'a nrqu' h'npa n't't, I'wse' se'wse'e e'dse'rea s'tpas lqu'se' ne'drn - ra kie'd't's ne'drn silrea w'tlilse' l ne'dse' ilse'llsh? Is ne'drn kie'd't kirnse'a ne'drn o'to? We'drn's l ne'drn o'to rakira?"She couldn't decide whether she wanted to excitedly enthuse about all the wonderful new things she was seeing, or express her horror at the Voice from the Abyss, or explain how she had gotten, or ask a billion questions, or communicate her total elation at being around people and not being alone - and a few dozen other topics were mixed in as well. There was just too much she wanted to get out - how long had it been since she had spoken to anyone?
The language itself was composed of rapid syllables that seemed to meld into one another. It was virtually impossible to distinguish actual words, and as a whole it must have been incredibly complex. Luckily, the inflections seemed mostly compatible and so it was easy to distinguish the feel of what she was saying, even if the actual content would go completely unknown. It may have been just another quirk of the language itself, but the girl did appear to be stuttering some - probably in her eagerness at the chance to speak.
" I a't'n lqu'se' ln, ne'dse' shpa 't ne'dse' h'ne'tn ls silrea - e'dse'a, a'tp'ese' ne'dse' 'tse' kie'd't kirs nrqu'lsh se'relse'e! Wse''ese' l r snrilse'se'dln rese''n kise'? Te'dse' a't'tes re'tpa e'dse'ese' rese' ese'ra snpnla ne'd'tpshe'd, kie'da kie'dse'se's ra se'wse'es ln a'tse's'n xrqu'se' ra sse'sse'! Oe'd ra I'x ese'ra s'teea ro'tpn...Uh....uh...."
It was obvious that she was a girl who had gone a very long time with nobody to talk to. It was an absolute torrent of sounds, until quite suddenly she realized exactly how much of an idiot she was making of herself. The words sputtered off into small placeholder sounds, and eventually she shut up - looking abashed with awkwardly averted eyes and hands that toyed anxiously at each other. She seemed to shy away from the old man, just a little - clearly humiliated for having just gone on an explosive tirade which only she could have hoped to understand. She squirmed a little where she stood. Then, after a few seconds, bashfully adjusting her hat slightly, she said in what was clearly an apologetic tone "S...s'teea~" Sorry~
It had yet to occur to her that her remarkable projectile weapon had, in her earlier haste, slipped from the holster behind her hip and rolled into some little nook, where it would go quite unnoticed for quite some time.
Alone on her bridge, deep within her hull, Independence's avatar giggles. A pretty girl just gave her her number! Who'd have thought a battlecruiser like h- oh, void. The avatar stops giggling as Independence checks her signals. Well, at least this time, she hadn't broadcast it. Fates, that would have been embarassing. She runs a quick diagnostic, but finds nothing out of the usual. She comes back to that psych evaluation. Significant deviations from prior results, established parameters, and way off from baseline. Indications of underlying instability? Well, she's got a bit of evidence to support that, and not a lot to refute it. She'll have to be careful. What would her captain have done? Probably put on some music and set course for- okay, bad example. Maybe she should ask Number 12 about this? No, she just met her. Later. Oh hey, that's a good idea. She'll just deal with this later. Maybe when she contacts Number 12.
For now, Independence pulls up her recently-acquired nav data, and ponders her next destination. Stay away from Ardella, huh? She filters out anything near Ardella. No sense taking bigger risks than she already is. Also, they tracked her through hyperspace. That's a bit of a disquieting thought. They did it quite easily, too, it seems, judging by how quickly they arrived. Conclusion: something must be wrong with her hyperdrive. She puts that on the list, but she's not trying to hide at the moment, so she gives it a relatively low pri- this is a hyperdrive, we're talking about. She bumps the priority of diagnosing the problem to the top of her list, then picks a destination at random.
The GCC battleships should receive a short, but hopefully-polite, goodbye message from Independence, shortly before the battlecruiser's main thrusters activate, followed by her hyperdrive, and she disappears.
For now, Independence pulls up her recently-acquired nav data, and ponders her next destination. Stay away from Ardella, huh? She filters out anything near Ardella. No sense taking bigger risks than she already is. Also, they tracked her through hyperspace. That's a bit of a disquieting thought. They did it quite easily, too, it seems, judging by how quickly they arrived. Conclusion: something must be wrong with her hyperdrive. She puts that on the list, but she's not trying to hide at the moment, so she gives it a relatively low pri- this is a hyperdrive, we're talking about. She bumps the priority of diagnosing the problem to the top of her list, then picks a destination at random.
The GCC battleships should receive a short, but hopefully-polite, goodbye message from Independence, shortly before the battlecruiser's main thrusters activate, followed by her hyperdrive, and she disappears.
Q disconnected herself from the ship's computer and stood up. With no grime and dirt in her joints, she was able to move about much more gracefully. She felt like new, which was a feeling she hadn't felt in eons, it seemed. The electron bots had really put in some work, as her outer coat shined and glistened in it's original orange hue.
Arthur's question permeated the small moment of silence. "A signal?" Q responded, inquisitively. She scanned through her memory for incoming and outgoing signals that had happened recently.
"Come to think of it, about twenty days ago, there was a gargled and over-encrypted sort of signal that I picked up, but I thought nothing of it, really. Those kinds of messages come from space all the time. Why? What is it to you?"
She hoped that it was harmless in origin, but seeing the electron bots checking the weapons that were in the ship didn't reassure her.
L had been quiet for quite some time, watching the scene unfold in front of her. Not much she could really do for Kallenger, her own hands were much too large to pull out a single bullet. Maybe if it was a larger object like a steel rod that was embedded in her leg, she could easily pull that out... but then again, it was probably better that it wasn't. She was perfectly fine providing light for her friends to work about in. Anything to be useful, really. She was glad that they hadn't decided to ditch her.
A sound. Movement. The rest of the people with her might have been caught up in their current actions, but Iril was able to sense Eerie before she even spoke. Even after Eerie had lowered her weapons and meekly greeted them, Iril was on edge. Before anyone else could react, she had moved herself into the front, ready to take any shots that would have been meant for her friends. After what had happened on the surface, she was taking no chances with an armed individual.
"Stand back." She uttered to both her friends and to the unknown.
If anything was going to go down, it would have to get through Iril first.
Arthur's question permeated the small moment of silence. "A signal?" Q responded, inquisitively. She scanned through her memory for incoming and outgoing signals that had happened recently.
"Come to think of it, about twenty days ago, there was a gargled and over-encrypted sort of signal that I picked up, but I thought nothing of it, really. Those kinds of messages come from space all the time. Why? What is it to you?"
She hoped that it was harmless in origin, but seeing the electron bots checking the weapons that were in the ship didn't reassure her.
L had been quiet for quite some time, watching the scene unfold in front of her. Not much she could really do for Kallenger, her own hands were much too large to pull out a single bullet. Maybe if it was a larger object like a steel rod that was embedded in her leg, she could easily pull that out... but then again, it was probably better that it wasn't. She was perfectly fine providing light for her friends to work about in. Anything to be useful, really. She was glad that they hadn't decided to ditch her.
A sound. Movement. The rest of the people with her might have been caught up in their current actions, but Iril was able to sense Eerie before she even spoke. Even after Eerie had lowered her weapons and meekly greeted them, Iril was on edge. Before anyone else could react, she had moved herself into the front, ready to take any shots that would have been meant for her friends. After what had happened on the surface, she was taking no chances with an armed individual.
"Stand back." She uttered to both her friends and to the unknown.
If anything was going to go down, it would have to get through Iril first.
As the night descended upon the city, Arena was the only one at work in her office as everyone else went home or happy hour for the night. For once the CEO was actually doing work, mostly organizing things on numerous spreadsheets and making sure everything adds up. Of course, she could go clubbing or something, but it really didn't interest her, it only interested her if someone got hurt though...she was more incline to see ancient Roman gladiator fights than go to the club to tried to be wooed by a guy who wanted to get into her pants. As she continue to work on the computer in her dark office as the two moons shone brightly, a darkly aberration appeared siting on one of the two chairs in front of her desk, with its ghostly dark flame like legs crossed. Without looking up from her computer screen, Arena says “So I was wondering when this realm would interest you. So which is it? Darkness or Undead?” The aberration spoke in a feminine voice and says “Darkness, this time, Lord Arena. I’m here because all the Lords have apparently converge here and it seems the problems of this mortal realm have become even worst after Erica and Kampfer blasted the First People out of existence” Arena then looks over her monitor and says “And now you’re here as you try to bring yourself into existence…no doubt Erica would be glade not to deal with another added popped blood vessel if you don’t get involved, Lord Ova”
She begins to laugh and says “Well, you know how I get, when a dimension is on the road of be on saving, I might as well incorporate some of it into my domain…plus there is some tasty looking Individuals of Interests” Arena looked at her with a very unamused face and says “You belong in a prison with all the…interests you take in and scar for eternity and I also remind you that certain laws are still enacted for safety reasons” Ova laughs again and says “Hey, I checked and they are of age, so I am not violating anything here but the taking away of one’s freedom” as he shifts over to Arena and begins to type in names. “Hey! I have been working! Get off my computer!” she yells out to her as she fails to push her off as her ghostly butt was in her face, making it hard to breath. Once Ova moved away, she was facing a purple hue monitor showing a few pictures including ones of Ketin Clarke, Alyen, mysterious girl on the Kingsbane, in which interestingly enough her info has a who lot of question marks on them, Wane Nabes, Benedict Severin, Toffi, and the IRI bot labeled Z and a few others.
Arena gave a raised eyebrow and says “So you’re into Tomboys, furries and robots?” Ova rolled her red ghostly eyes and says “No, these are individuals of interest, they all contribute to this disaster of a realm. For example this one, with the fox tail and ears, he is the one that everyone wants because of his eye, essentially making this one giant goose chase. This one with the inky eyes, he’s after some forbidden tech and knowledge and that’s who Kampfer and Erica are facing” Arena nods her head as Ova spoke and says “Well that slightly explains why I sense the increasing levels of chaos in the Galaxy…what about the rest?” as she gives a light laugh. Ova shakes her head and says “Those individuals are regular citizens in which I need to visit later. Wane and Severin because they are ripping holes in space with their ship and the dog boy, because he’s cute” Arena looks at her with the “really?” look when she was talking about Toffi. “How about this one?” she points to the white haired tomboy.
Ova crackled and said “Oh, she’s a kicker. Of course all of us Lords thought after Isandril was a dead planet devoid of life after Erica and Kampfer blasted it to hell, but once Aelyn arrived to Isandril with Wan Nabes and Severin behind him, which by the way is currently going on, she appears on the planet itself” as she begins to type more into the computer and brings up First People profile pics and says “And you know what, she looks like the extinct First People” Arena scratched her chin and says “I see the familiarity, but she has difference’s from them though” Ova now with a wide grin showing off her spectral razor sharp teeth says “Of course, but who else besides Kampfer’s and Erica’s agent was on Isandril? That’s right Paeryc Petrovalyc was there and I was thinking maybe she’s is his daughter and now just reappeared after a long disappearance” Arena says “If you are right about this mysterious girl, then I applaud you on your investigating” as she gives the Lord of Darkness a slow clap.
“Anyway, I shall arrive soon, Nocturnus is running around prepping for my arrival, I think he’s where Ketin is” Ova says as she backs off and walks towards the door. She turns around and says “Anyway, I bid you farewell and I hope to see you soon” as she gives a little bow and disappears. Arena sits back on her chair as she stares at the computer screen looking at all the pictures. “Interesting…” she says as she turns around on her chair and looks at the two moons.
She begins to laugh and says “Well, you know how I get, when a dimension is on the road of be on saving, I might as well incorporate some of it into my domain…plus there is some tasty looking Individuals of Interests” Arena looked at her with a very unamused face and says “You belong in a prison with all the…interests you take in and scar for eternity and I also remind you that certain laws are still enacted for safety reasons” Ova laughs again and says “Hey, I checked and they are of age, so I am not violating anything here but the taking away of one’s freedom” as he shifts over to Arena and begins to type in names. “Hey! I have been working! Get off my computer!” she yells out to her as she fails to push her off as her ghostly butt was in her face, making it hard to breath. Once Ova moved away, she was facing a purple hue monitor showing a few pictures including ones of Ketin Clarke, Alyen, mysterious girl on the Kingsbane, in which interestingly enough her info has a who lot of question marks on them, Wane Nabes, Benedict Severin, Toffi, and the IRI bot labeled Z and a few others.
Arena gave a raised eyebrow and says “So you’re into Tomboys, furries and robots?” Ova rolled her red ghostly eyes and says “No, these are individuals of interest, they all contribute to this disaster of a realm. For example this one, with the fox tail and ears, he is the one that everyone wants because of his eye, essentially making this one giant goose chase. This one with the inky eyes, he’s after some forbidden tech and knowledge and that’s who Kampfer and Erica are facing” Arena nods her head as Ova spoke and says “Well that slightly explains why I sense the increasing levels of chaos in the Galaxy…what about the rest?” as she gives a light laugh. Ova shakes her head and says “Those individuals are regular citizens in which I need to visit later. Wane and Severin because they are ripping holes in space with their ship and the dog boy, because he’s cute” Arena looks at her with the “really?” look when she was talking about Toffi. “How about this one?” she points to the white haired tomboy.
Ova crackled and said “Oh, she’s a kicker. Of course all of us Lords thought after Isandril was a dead planet devoid of life after Erica and Kampfer blasted it to hell, but once Aelyn arrived to Isandril with Wan Nabes and Severin behind him, which by the way is currently going on, she appears on the planet itself” as she begins to type more into the computer and brings up First People profile pics and says “And you know what, she looks like the extinct First People” Arena scratched her chin and says “I see the familiarity, but she has difference’s from them though” Ova now with a wide grin showing off her spectral razor sharp teeth says “Of course, but who else besides Kampfer’s and Erica’s agent was on Isandril? That’s right Paeryc Petrovalyc was there and I was thinking maybe she’s is his daughter and now just reappeared after a long disappearance” Arena says “If you are right about this mysterious girl, then I applaud you on your investigating” as she gives the Lord of Darkness a slow clap.
“Anyway, I shall arrive soon, Nocturnus is running around prepping for my arrival, I think he’s where Ketin is” Ova says as she backs off and walks towards the door. She turns around and says “Anyway, I bid you farewell and I hope to see you soon” as she gives a little bow and disappears. Arena sits back on her chair as she stares at the computer screen looking at all the pictures. “Interesting…” she says as she turns around on her chair and looks at the two moons.
The arrival with soldiers most likely after Ketin/Nirix was something that wasn't suppose to happen so soon for Loki. He was hoping for a friendly stalk and save the two in the last minute, but it seems the cloaked soldiers where here for Ketin. Since of there cloaking he couldn't a positive read and far away, in who these soldiers belong too, but either way for the master assassin it was easy pickings. A classic kill from the back, distract with decoys and picking everyone off one by one in quick succession. It didn't take him long to get behind the troops and with a dagger raised he was poised to strike like a snake upon one of the soldiers if they entered THE ROOM
Unknown to him, a black mass formed behind them from the darkest corners of the building and began to formulate into a large mass. Soon out of the dark cloud of...darkness, came a large burly, hulking knight, clad in black armor with a large purple blume on his helmet, his ghostly red eyes appearing in his slit of his helmet. The knight's sword in which he held in two hands was ridiculously large and seemed very very heavy and troublesome to use, it just looked impractical in combat as the large dark blade was forged in the abyssal known as Space.
And without seeing a word. the large knight stabs Loki straight through his chest, lifting his body up on the air being impaled by the large blade. Loki laid limp on the blade as his head turned to look at his murder and blackish grayish oil dripped out of his body. The knight finally spoke in a deep foreboding voice, a voice that would cause shivers down men spines "The mortal shadow steps are pathetic, yours is good, but mine is better" as the blade darken even more, Loki eye's went wide knowing what was happening, but he couldn't move almost all of his systems were shot, he was feeling the impossible substance of dark matter flow through the blade! In mere moments, Loki exploded into pieces as the dark sword released its pent up energy into him. Pieces went flying as well as the grayish blackish fluids spraying the room and the Knight itself. Loki's robotic head flying and skipping across the ground like a rock skimming across water and slowing stopping at by Ketin's feet. Loki's red eyes soon went black and he was no more.
The knight took the giant blade and held it in a low stance as if prepared to swing horizontally, slowly approach causing loud bangs as his metal feet made contact to the floor and looks at Ketin and Nirix and says "Tho one named Ketin Clark, my Lord aquires your presence. But not right now...it seems we are not alone in the building. Once they leave, we shall get down to business" his voice full of dread as he towers over the two as he gets closer to them, his eyes staring into there souls.
The Champion of the Dark Dimension has arrived....
Unknown to him, a black mass formed behind them from the darkest corners of the building and began to formulate into a large mass. Soon out of the dark cloud of...darkness, came a large burly, hulking knight, clad in black armor with a large purple blume on his helmet, his ghostly red eyes appearing in his slit of his helmet. The knight's sword in which he held in two hands was ridiculously large and seemed very very heavy and troublesome to use, it just looked impractical in combat as the large dark blade was forged in the abyssal known as Space.
And without seeing a word. the large knight stabs Loki straight through his chest, lifting his body up on the air being impaled by the large blade. Loki laid limp on the blade as his head turned to look at his murder and blackish grayish oil dripped out of his body. The knight finally spoke in a deep foreboding voice, a voice that would cause shivers down men spines "The mortal shadow steps are pathetic, yours is good, but mine is better" as the blade darken even more, Loki eye's went wide knowing what was happening, but he couldn't move almost all of his systems were shot, he was feeling the impossible substance of dark matter flow through the blade! In mere moments, Loki exploded into pieces as the dark sword released its pent up energy into him. Pieces went flying as well as the grayish blackish fluids spraying the room and the Knight itself. Loki's robotic head flying and skipping across the ground like a rock skimming across water and slowing stopping at by Ketin's feet. Loki's red eyes soon went black and he was no more.
The knight took the giant blade and held it in a low stance as if prepared to swing horizontally, slowly approach causing loud bangs as his metal feet made contact to the floor and looks at Ketin and Nirix and says "Tho one named Ketin Clark, my Lord aquires your presence. But not right now...it seems we are not alone in the building. Once they leave, we shall get down to business" his voice full of dread as he towers over the two as he gets closer to them, his eyes staring into there souls.
The Champion of the Dark Dimension has arrived....
They could never catch a break, it seemed.
Jumping into action, Nirix took a position in front of Ketin, acting as a shield, as chaos seemed to happen around them. Black oil sprayed on them like a dark rain and with an eerie skidding noise, the head of Loki laid at their feet. A voice of pure darkness made itself heard and a strange creature, bearing armor like those in the days of old, approached them and set the hairs on the back of her neck to raise. Whomever this...thing was, Nirix didn't trust it.
It claimed his "Lord" wanted Ketin. Someone always wanted Ketin. The Eoclu was really getting tried of this. Why couldn't people just leave the Da'len alone and let him find some peace in his life?
"You will not be taking him anywhere. Touch him and I'll sever your head from the protective metal you wear," It was not a threat but a promise. While one hand hovered just above the hilt of her sword, the other was gripped tightly around the handle of her gun, itching for an advance. Nirix was ready for anything and after a relatively peaceful time of no official action, she was slightly thrilled at having the opportunity to fight once again.
Lavender eyes quickly darting to Ketin, she tried to give him time to run. Though she knew he was very capable of handling himself, Nirix didn't want to witness him being captured again.She had failed miserably in helping him the first time when it had been Kampfer who wanted him, and she would damned to let it happen again by the hands of this Dark Knight and whatever uninvited guest, he had mentioned.
Jumping into action, Nirix took a position in front of Ketin, acting as a shield, as chaos seemed to happen around them. Black oil sprayed on them like a dark rain and with an eerie skidding noise, the head of Loki laid at their feet. A voice of pure darkness made itself heard and a strange creature, bearing armor like those in the days of old, approached them and set the hairs on the back of her neck to raise. Whomever this...thing was, Nirix didn't trust it.
It claimed his "Lord" wanted Ketin. Someone always wanted Ketin. The Eoclu was really getting tried of this. Why couldn't people just leave the Da'len alone and let him find some peace in his life?
"You will not be taking him anywhere. Touch him and I'll sever your head from the protective metal you wear," It was not a threat but a promise. While one hand hovered just above the hilt of her sword, the other was gripped tightly around the handle of her gun, itching for an advance. Nirix was ready for anything and after a relatively peaceful time of no official action, she was slightly thrilled at having the opportunity to fight once again.
Lavender eyes quickly darting to Ketin, she tried to give him time to run. Though she knew he was very capable of handling himself, Nirix didn't want to witness him being captured again.She had failed miserably in helping him the first time when it had been Kampfer who wanted him, and she would damned to let it happen again by the hands of this Dark Knight and whatever uninvited guest, he had mentioned.
The Dark Knight merely continue his stare at both at them and says as he looks at Nrix directly into his red ghostly eyes "One who bares the Dark sign, I wish not to engage in combat with you in which my gracious Lord has given you the coin that marks you with the sign...marking you as this boy's protector he then sticks his sword into the ground hilt sticking up as the blade caused cracks on the floor and kneels down on one knee and says "We don't need to go anywhere, the task at hand is that I require Ketin for her Lordships arrival...its a quick ritual and I promise Ketin will be alive he looks up and addsEven though I would generally accept your challenge, but this mission is important and I require Keitn's mind as the catalyst for her arrival as he waits patiently for there response to this, slightly hoping the possible would be considered in there answer. A devious plan coming from the Lord of Darkness herself
A majority of the galaxy is dark and cold.
There was comfort in this. The thought that one could be alone to think, to ponder, and to plot unnoticed.
In a particular sector much like this, there was nobody.
Nobody, except for Z.
She had warmed up fully at this point. Checking over her systems every now and again to ensure everything was working optimally. She was grateful that, despite being at rest for eons, she was indeed fully functional. Then again, it WAS the intention of her creators to make her able to survive even the deadliest of cosmic events. A little sleep was nothing compared to the numerous tests they had performed. Her creators were quite thorough.
Z chuckled a bit to herself about that thought. Her creators. Her chuckle went soundless into space.
If they could only see her now. Even after all this time, there was presumably little that could rival her. The Iridiites had done a fantastic job making their death machine.
Ah, but the Iridiites didn't make it either. Just like the first people who they fled, the Iridiites too, couldn't stand the test of time or space.It seemed after they had been... finished off... that all traces of them had vanished into the darkness.
But their vengeance and rage... was right here. Their fear and hatred... awake again. A mechanical ultimatum. A hope in the form of technology stolen from a lost race.
But if they still had any hopes for themselves, Z would have let them down anyways. She smirked, pushing that thought aside for later.
Yes, if the Iridiites were watching from beyond death, they would have no hope for their memory. Z did not care for her makers. She only saw herself in this galaxy. What she was made for and what she planned to do were two different stories now.
She regretted not showing her power back at the asteroid field, but those regrets were minimal. In hindsight, it was probably better that she had fled and given herself some time to warm up, and some time to think.
And she had plenty of time to think. This galaxy had changed so much since she was last awake. Fighters and frigates, as well as many other things that had not been around since the death of the first people and the Iridiites. Was she prepared for taking on such forces?
The wrecked hull of a ship came into view, floating about aimlessly as it might have for years upon years. Z wrapped one of her hands around it. Taking a moment to view the minuscule wreckage before suddenly clenching her hardlight fist.
Releasing her hold, she pleasantly saw that there was no longer a rusting hull there, but dust.
An asteroid appeared in her field of view. The hand lashed out and crushed it on sight. Dust.
Incredibly satisfying it was, to observe dust float back into space. She scanned the space around her for more asteroids to destroy.
In no time, there was once again, nothing but Z. She could feel it all coming back to her. Her goal, her rage, and her confidence. She silently thanked the Independence for waking her. Should she have slept onward, there would have been a chance that she would not be able to achieve her end goal... but the timing was perfect. Little could get in her way now, and Z was sure of it.
She smiled. They could come at her with their guns and their bombs, missiles and mining cannons... but as long as her will wasn't dented, there was no way they could have any hope of denting HER.
"Ready or not... Here I come." Z broadcasted through the darkness. It didn't matter who it reached or what faction heard it, because in the end they would all become one.
Dust.
A horrifyingly strong vibration and loud frequency emitted from her location as Z opened up a wormhole. Such was her cost to pay for traveling in this way, but it was enough to move the titan from place to place. On the other end, the same loud vibration and sound would signal her arrival as she slipped through, closing the wormhole behind her and vanishing from that sector.
The last bit of a signal anyone nearby would have picked up would be the soft laughter of someone on the brink of madness.
There was comfort in this. The thought that one could be alone to think, to ponder, and to plot unnoticed.
In a particular sector much like this, there was nobody.
Nobody, except for Z.
She had warmed up fully at this point. Checking over her systems every now and again to ensure everything was working optimally. She was grateful that, despite being at rest for eons, she was indeed fully functional. Then again, it WAS the intention of her creators to make her able to survive even the deadliest of cosmic events. A little sleep was nothing compared to the numerous tests they had performed. Her creators were quite thorough.
Z chuckled a bit to herself about that thought. Her creators. Her chuckle went soundless into space.
If they could only see her now. Even after all this time, there was presumably little that could rival her. The Iridiites had done a fantastic job making their death machine.
Ah, but the Iridiites didn't make it either. Just like the first people who they fled, the Iridiites too, couldn't stand the test of time or space.It seemed after they had been... finished off... that all traces of them had vanished into the darkness.
But their vengeance and rage... was right here. Their fear and hatred... awake again. A mechanical ultimatum. A hope in the form of technology stolen from a lost race.
But if they still had any hopes for themselves, Z would have let them down anyways. She smirked, pushing that thought aside for later.
Yes, if the Iridiites were watching from beyond death, they would have no hope for their memory. Z did not care for her makers. She only saw herself in this galaxy. What she was made for and what she planned to do were two different stories now.
She regretted not showing her power back at the asteroid field, but those regrets were minimal. In hindsight, it was probably better that she had fled and given herself some time to warm up, and some time to think.
And she had plenty of time to think. This galaxy had changed so much since she was last awake. Fighters and frigates, as well as many other things that had not been around since the death of the first people and the Iridiites. Was she prepared for taking on such forces?
The wrecked hull of a ship came into view, floating about aimlessly as it might have for years upon years. Z wrapped one of her hands around it. Taking a moment to view the minuscule wreckage before suddenly clenching her hardlight fist.
Releasing her hold, she pleasantly saw that there was no longer a rusting hull there, but dust.
An asteroid appeared in her field of view. The hand lashed out and crushed it on sight. Dust.
Incredibly satisfying it was, to observe dust float back into space. She scanned the space around her for more asteroids to destroy.
In no time, there was once again, nothing but Z. She could feel it all coming back to her. Her goal, her rage, and her confidence. She silently thanked the Independence for waking her. Should she have slept onward, there would have been a chance that she would not be able to achieve her end goal... but the timing was perfect. Little could get in her way now, and Z was sure of it.
She smiled. They could come at her with their guns and their bombs, missiles and mining cannons... but as long as her will wasn't dented, there was no way they could have any hope of denting HER.
"Ready or not... Here I come." Z broadcasted through the darkness. It didn't matter who it reached or what faction heard it, because in the end they would all become one.
Dust.
A horrifyingly strong vibration and loud frequency emitted from her location as Z opened up a wormhole. Such was her cost to pay for traveling in this way, but it was enough to move the titan from place to place. On the other end, the same loud vibration and sound would signal her arrival as she slipped through, closing the wormhole behind her and vanishing from that sector.
The last bit of a signal anyone nearby would have picked up would be the soft laughter of someone on the brink of madness.
Arthur looked back at the computer see's what the signal that Q was talking about and see if it was similar to what she was talking about. "Hmmmm, no its not that signal, this signal I'm talking is known as a Lord Signal, a energy signature that all Dimensional Lords have and apparently this signal has been going on since....interesting....a couple hundred years, its faint, but there" he then turns around and looks at Q enjoying how beautigul she looks as the Electron units came out and shook there heads at Arthur and ran out of the ship. "Well Q, me and my guards are going to investigate...you are more than welcome to join or you can stay on the ship and wait till we get back" he says as he goes to a desk and pulls a drawer and holds a classic star trek style phraser and says to her "Either way, I believe a woman like you deserves a little protection...no doubt from the ship's computer you know how to use it now" Either she takes it or not or goes with or not Arthur goes out and him and his guards are going to the signal
Eventually they would arrive to a cave in a small mountain, engulfed by the surrounding jungle. He would look at the others and says "Well it seems the signal is coming from the dark ominous cave"
Unknown to Z, a small Z-bot was in space doing the back stroke, his skin was ruined slightly exposing his metal parts on his face, terminator style, wearing ruined civilian clothes. He's been there for a very very long time and long forgotten and so no doubt the madness of space has gotten to his head. Soon he felt as if space was tearing itself apart and soon was sucked into the wormhole with Z and was transported to whatever he would arrive as he hears the sinister laughter of the bigger bot.
Eventually they would arrive to a cave in a small mountain, engulfed by the surrounding jungle. He would look at the others and says "Well it seems the signal is coming from the dark ominous cave"
Unknown to Z, a small Z-bot was in space doing the back stroke, his skin was ruined slightly exposing his metal parts on his face, terminator style, wearing ruined civilian clothes. He's been there for a very very long time and long forgotten and so no doubt the madness of space has gotten to his head. Soon he felt as if space was tearing itself apart and soon was sucked into the wormhole with Z and was transported to whatever he would arrive as he hears the sinister laughter of the bigger bot.
"Oi! Please don't bite the special agent I kinda need her."
Yeah, right. Like anyone needed the worthless sack of !@#$ she had been proving herself to be.
But no more. NO @#$%ing MORE. She was feeling better now - and the sensation of having that blasted bullet wrenched out of her leg was proving almost masochistic now. As if merely to augment it, Royanna Kallenger couldn't resist the temptation to dig her fingernails with some force into her arm. Though it was an unconscious clenching of the hand more than anything - even if her mind refused to acknowledge the presence of fiery agony emanating from the wound as it was manipulated, the body was still registering all the pain one might associate with bullet removal, and so it proved a potent cocktail of throbbing hurt and drug-induced semi-pleasure. Her teeth were gritted hard and there was an almost jokerish grin on her lips. A bitter humor about it - really got me good, right? Well @#$% 'em. Nobody brings Royanna Kallenger to their level except Royanna @#$%ing Kallenger!!
The Kid was doing better, or so it seemed to her. She had attempted to make him feel better a moment ago, right? Everything was fuzzy.
Yeah, he had bit her, so she comforted him. Seemed legit. She had probably done something stupid.
Rather out of the blue, Roya gave a low chuckle. This was naturally even more out of place than the grimacing half-smile given her current situation.
"Hnhnhnh~ That all y'got Platy? I thought these kinda' operations w'supposed t'hurt~!"
Any banter to break the silence, she figured.
If Christofter was close enough, she'd give him an encouraging pat on the back - perhaps a little too roughly - as if he were the one needing encouragement. Well, he was, she figured.
Again there was a kind of laugh, though this time it was closer to a low giggle, something guttural and exhausted. "Huhuh~ D'you always bite your friends, Toffi~? Can't imagine what y'd do backed into a corner~"
...Weird.
But at last, the bullet was removed. Actually it hadn't taken all that long - Papyus was clearly adept at these things - and Royanna Kallenger was now free of the second bullet ever to be lodged within her. Both in the past couple of days, too - she tried not to think about it.
How many years had she been chasing that bastard? Seven or eight? Odd how she couldn't quite recall anymore, even though she would have been so certain not long prior. Odd how far it all seemed. Here, deep below the surface of her home planet, hiding in an ancient air base with possibly the most unlikely combination of individuals she could conceive of acting as a team. It was like a whole new life now.
Some jackass named Malcolm Green wanted her - she'd forgotten about that until now. Absently, as Papyus bandaged the wound, Roya wondered about this. What possible reason could anyone have to want her that badly - so badly that they would send soldiers like them?
And the world was falling apart around her. Nuclear explosions to the north, chaos in the skies - and yet here she was, just basking in the glow of experimental painkillers.
And then there was someone else.
Roya had taken her sword back from Papyus earlier, and so it was once again sheathed at her hip. Whatever wonders the B-02 experimental painkiller might have been doing for its' intended purpose - that being pain - it wasn't doing anything good for the logical processors in Roya's mind, and so she was about to make an idiot out of herself.
Again.
With lightning-reflexes, Royanna Kallenger spun off the table upon which she had lain for the operation. As she moved, she drew the blade, preparing to take a stance behind Iri-L and assume a defensive posture.
Instead, she failed to realize that Papyus had applied a cortical, localized numbing agent to the area of the wound in order to extract the bullet without causing any trauma. Instead of twisting about like a badass, Royanna went collapsing to the floor, landing on her face, dropping the blade and letting it clatter to the floor.
It was never a good thing to let a monomolecular blade fall out of ones' hand. Luckily, there had been nothing beneath the floor in that particular spot which might prove sensitive to being sliced and/or pierced with perfection. It was surreal to watch the thing just fall into the floor as if there were nothing there at all, merely stopping at the hilt. It was like a 3D-model under 'noclip'.
Roya's face turned a humiliating shade of bright red to match the utter embarrassment at her abysmal folly. At that precise moment, she felt like a bigger idiot that she ever had before in her entire life - officially. Every awkward moment in the academy was nothing compared to this.
She said nothing - only laid there on the floor for what seemed like a few decades, but was merely seconds. If anyone came over to help her up they would receive a disproportionately violent swat to keep them away as she struggled to her feet, then snatched her sword, re-sheathed it, and limped back to the table to sit hatefully upon it and glower at this strange new person.
In her anger toward herself, Roya found that she suddenly wanted very much to stab the living daylights out of the new person, as if it had been her fault...Which, of course, it had not. At all.
He was really starting to get discouraged, and it was not a feeling that Kete was accustomed to. Or, at least, he was not accustomed to acknowledging his discouragement. Usually he could ignore these kinds of things, but he was just so desperate in his fight to salvage this signal - so hopelessly entangled in this half-conceived plot he'd wrapped himself up in, based on so very, very little.
But it didn't matter that every bit of logic pointed in the most reasonable direction of just cutting it out. He had to do this. He had to help. To him, that signal was alive, whether or not it made any logical sense - and he was going to do something.
It occurred to him too late that something was off - that he was not alone in this endeavor - that there was more at play here than jut himself and the rogue signal. The Eye had managed at last to translate some simple facts into thoughts compatible with his squishy human brain, and the realization took him off-guard. He could not explain why he was suddenly aware - that was the 'magic' science of the Eye which worked behind his conscious mind - but he knew now that the signal was not broadcasting directly from the source.
Rather, it was being relayed. It was second hand. The signal was hitting something else, then being redirected to him.
Well.
He'd just have to find out what this mysterious middleman was, and then totally tear it apart for every scrap of information it had!
So Kete did this, and was it ever violent.
Of course, on the outside it didn't look like he was doing anything at all.
But in his mind, Kete was now focused. He was riding the signal, copied, relayed a million times a second, riding it along the nothingness between the Eye and the computers, the computers and the satellites, the satellites and...the new guy.
The results for the middlemen would be positively catastrophic. Kete was determined now, and frankly he was mad, and he was going to learn everything he could. He was going to ravage their data stores, no matter how many times he needed to redirect his signal, no matter how hard he had to focus on the task - he would batter down every security measure they had in place, utterly destroy any protocols designed to stop himself or any less sophisticated intruder from waltzing in and just taking whatever they wanted.
That's what he would do - he would take whatever he wanted. He would rip from their unwilling grasp any and every minuscule scrap of information relating in any way shape or form to this signal. Anything involving the unique pattern in which the signal produced - anything. Everything.
No, he wouldn't go deleting anything, unless he was required to do so in order to copy the data to his own mind.
He was in the computers now, a fifth or sixth dimension known to him alone in the Galaxy Wide. A perspective on computers, on data that was utterly alien to any mind not augmented by the precious devil's eye. The universe was data, was movements, was colors that could not be seen and sounds that could not be heard. Patterns of memory, movements of electrons a billion billion miles away - or however far away these middlemen were. It did not matter.
They had inspired not the wrath of the Devil's Eye, but the abject, helpless frustration - and in their line of work, that was much more dangerous.
He really meant business too, because Kete wasn't bothering with downloading the data he stole into some external drive, not this time. This time it was all going straight into his own organic processor - he was committing every speck of knowledge he gained to memory so perfect that it would be impossible to differentiate from the most advanced hard drive - and with the ever-adapting security of the Devil's Eye it would be safer there than possibly anywhere else in the Galaxy.
Other instruments might have been able to detect a sudden data transfer - either it was a large sum of data being dumped all at once, or a great deal of effort going into extracting a very small bit of information. Either way, the proper devices would be able to notice the event, which was exceptionally strange since they would be entirely unable to detect exactly what was downloading the information. The Devil's Eye, after all, would show up only as a mass of electromagnetic energy not much different from a human brain - except a lot more complex and active.
Kete had failed utterly to respond to anything Nirix said. He had suddenly become very intense, planted hands palm-down atop one console and just stared intently at a blank screen, looking as if he had just made some kind of breakthrough - a look of determination upon his countenance that was almost disturbing in the implications behind it - the implication that a man with that face could do anything he wanted - the implication that behind those strange, mismatched eyes there was a willpower so great as to transcend space and time itself, to achieve any goal, no matter how ludicrous, it set its' mind to. Willpower, determination - the kind that could accomplish anything - anything - anything...
He had even failed to notice when Loki, the mad droid from back on Kampfer's station, appeared by the door as if readying himself to jump some potential attacker. He probably could have found some workaround that would have given him clear sight of the people on the roof too, but that would have taken far more attention that he'd have been willing to give even if not for the new development of ravaging the data files of the mysterious relaying middleman.
Nor did he notice consciously when a black knight from beyond the abyssal darkness of eternal night appeared and impaled the mad Loki from behind. He was still deep in conceptual, existence, existential remoteness in the databanks of some vessel out in space which was now coming under attack with such sudden curiosity and intensity as to warrant a full-scale defensive operation...Which, of course, would prove futile against him.
But then the severed head of mad Loki rolled across the floor and bumped into Kete's foot - and all at once he was all too aware of his surroundings once more. It hit him like a bucket of ice water. His attention had been focused on the task at hand - which was now concluded, whether or not there were still scraps of data he had missed, the attack was over now, and he would need to review it all later - but the Eye had been diligently recording in electromagnetic form everything going on around him, and so he was not entirely out of the loop when he turned around to look with an almost disturbingly level gaze at the black knight.
Surprised, yes - but no less in-control of himself for it. It was one of the more unnerving qualities about Ketin Clarke that people tended to have a hard time getting past - he simply could never be caught by surprise...if he didn't want to be.
He did not look amused - he was not happy about being interrupted at such a critical moment - anything he hadn't captured would have been deleted by now for security - he had probably gotten every bit, but he couldn't be sure - his flow had been disrupted, and for what nonsense was this?
With almost passive disinterest, he glanced down at Loki's severed head, then raised eyes gradually back up to the knight with the oversized blade. With cool affection, he raised one hand and rested it casually on Nirix's shoulder.
"You've got some guts, Galahad. My Ny' here could totally whoop you, she's not kidding." He said with what could only be described as good humor, a mildness to the voice and something of a cocky half-smile on his lips. Eyes stayed locked unflinchingly on the red glow of Noctournus - it was as if he had looked into the eyes of Satan himself and failed to flinch, and as if the being before him, the cosmic horror from within the madness of the abyss - was nothing now.
Abruptly, the smile faded.
"A catalyst, huh? Y'know, I really can't understand why I'd want to agree with that. It sounds like it would hurt, and frankly I don't want people @#$%ing around in my head right now."
Woah. Kete meant business.
"It's been kind of a hectic day, y'know? And I'm busy. So how about this..." With the hand that wasn't (almost possessively) resting on the assassin's shoulder, he pointed coolly at the knight. "How about a rain check?"
Yeah, right. Like anyone needed the worthless sack of !@#$ she had been proving herself to be.
But no more. NO @#$%ing MORE. She was feeling better now - and the sensation of having that blasted bullet wrenched out of her leg was proving almost masochistic now. As if merely to augment it, Royanna Kallenger couldn't resist the temptation to dig her fingernails with some force into her arm. Though it was an unconscious clenching of the hand more than anything - even if her mind refused to acknowledge the presence of fiery agony emanating from the wound as it was manipulated, the body was still registering all the pain one might associate with bullet removal, and so it proved a potent cocktail of throbbing hurt and drug-induced semi-pleasure. Her teeth were gritted hard and there was an almost jokerish grin on her lips. A bitter humor about it - really got me good, right? Well @#$% 'em. Nobody brings Royanna Kallenger to their level except Royanna @#$%ing Kallenger!!
The Kid was doing better, or so it seemed to her. She had attempted to make him feel better a moment ago, right? Everything was fuzzy.
Yeah, he had bit her, so she comforted him. Seemed legit. She had probably done something stupid.
Rather out of the blue, Roya gave a low chuckle. This was naturally even more out of place than the grimacing half-smile given her current situation.
"Hnhnhnh~ That all y'got Platy? I thought these kinda' operations w'supposed t'hurt~!"
Any banter to break the silence, she figured.
If Christofter was close enough, she'd give him an encouraging pat on the back - perhaps a little too roughly - as if he were the one needing encouragement. Well, he was, she figured.
Again there was a kind of laugh, though this time it was closer to a low giggle, something guttural and exhausted. "Huhuh~ D'you always bite your friends, Toffi~? Can't imagine what y'd do backed into a corner~"
...Weird.
But at last, the bullet was removed. Actually it hadn't taken all that long - Papyus was clearly adept at these things - and Royanna Kallenger was now free of the second bullet ever to be lodged within her. Both in the past couple of days, too - she tried not to think about it.
How many years had she been chasing that bastard? Seven or eight? Odd how she couldn't quite recall anymore, even though she would have been so certain not long prior. Odd how far it all seemed. Here, deep below the surface of her home planet, hiding in an ancient air base with possibly the most unlikely combination of individuals she could conceive of acting as a team. It was like a whole new life now.
Some jackass named Malcolm Green wanted her - she'd forgotten about that until now. Absently, as Papyus bandaged the wound, Roya wondered about this. What possible reason could anyone have to want her that badly - so badly that they would send soldiers like them?
And the world was falling apart around her. Nuclear explosions to the north, chaos in the skies - and yet here she was, just basking in the glow of experimental painkillers.
And then there was someone else.
Roya had taken her sword back from Papyus earlier, and so it was once again sheathed at her hip. Whatever wonders the B-02 experimental painkiller might have been doing for its' intended purpose - that being pain - it wasn't doing anything good for the logical processors in Roya's mind, and so she was about to make an idiot out of herself.
Again.
With lightning-reflexes, Royanna Kallenger spun off the table upon which she had lain for the operation. As she moved, she drew the blade, preparing to take a stance behind Iri-L and assume a defensive posture.
Instead, she failed to realize that Papyus had applied a cortical, localized numbing agent to the area of the wound in order to extract the bullet without causing any trauma. Instead of twisting about like a badass, Royanna went collapsing to the floor, landing on her face, dropping the blade and letting it clatter to the floor.
It was never a good thing to let a monomolecular blade fall out of ones' hand. Luckily, there had been nothing beneath the floor in that particular spot which might prove sensitive to being sliced and/or pierced with perfection. It was surreal to watch the thing just fall into the floor as if there were nothing there at all, merely stopping at the hilt. It was like a 3D-model under 'noclip'.
Roya's face turned a humiliating shade of bright red to match the utter embarrassment at her abysmal folly. At that precise moment, she felt like a bigger idiot that she ever had before in her entire life - officially. Every awkward moment in the academy was nothing compared to this.
She said nothing - only laid there on the floor for what seemed like a few decades, but was merely seconds. If anyone came over to help her up they would receive a disproportionately violent swat to keep them away as she struggled to her feet, then snatched her sword, re-sheathed it, and limped back to the table to sit hatefully upon it and glower at this strange new person.
In her anger toward herself, Roya found that she suddenly wanted very much to stab the living daylights out of the new person, as if it had been her fault...Which, of course, it had not. At all.
He was really starting to get discouraged, and it was not a feeling that Kete was accustomed to. Or, at least, he was not accustomed to acknowledging his discouragement. Usually he could ignore these kinds of things, but he was just so desperate in his fight to salvage this signal - so hopelessly entangled in this half-conceived plot he'd wrapped himself up in, based on so very, very little.
But it didn't matter that every bit of logic pointed in the most reasonable direction of just cutting it out. He had to do this. He had to help. To him, that signal was alive, whether or not it made any logical sense - and he was going to do something.
It occurred to him too late that something was off - that he was not alone in this endeavor - that there was more at play here than jut himself and the rogue signal. The Eye had managed at last to translate some simple facts into thoughts compatible with his squishy human brain, and the realization took him off-guard. He could not explain why he was suddenly aware - that was the 'magic' science of the Eye which worked behind his conscious mind - but he knew now that the signal was not broadcasting directly from the source.
Rather, it was being relayed. It was second hand. The signal was hitting something else, then being redirected to him.
Well.
He'd just have to find out what this mysterious middleman was, and then totally tear it apart for every scrap of information it had!
So Kete did this, and was it ever violent.
Of course, on the outside it didn't look like he was doing anything at all.
But in his mind, Kete was now focused. He was riding the signal, copied, relayed a million times a second, riding it along the nothingness between the Eye and the computers, the computers and the satellites, the satellites and...the new guy.
The results for the middlemen would be positively catastrophic. Kete was determined now, and frankly he was mad, and he was going to learn everything he could. He was going to ravage their data stores, no matter how many times he needed to redirect his signal, no matter how hard he had to focus on the task - he would batter down every security measure they had in place, utterly destroy any protocols designed to stop himself or any less sophisticated intruder from waltzing in and just taking whatever they wanted.
That's what he would do - he would take whatever he wanted. He would rip from their unwilling grasp any and every minuscule scrap of information relating in any way shape or form to this signal. Anything involving the unique pattern in which the signal produced - anything. Everything.
No, he wouldn't go deleting anything, unless he was required to do so in order to copy the data to his own mind.
He was in the computers now, a fifth or sixth dimension known to him alone in the Galaxy Wide. A perspective on computers, on data that was utterly alien to any mind not augmented by the precious devil's eye. The universe was data, was movements, was colors that could not be seen and sounds that could not be heard. Patterns of memory, movements of electrons a billion billion miles away - or however far away these middlemen were. It did not matter.
They had inspired not the wrath of the Devil's Eye, but the abject, helpless frustration - and in their line of work, that was much more dangerous.
He really meant business too, because Kete wasn't bothering with downloading the data he stole into some external drive, not this time. This time it was all going straight into his own organic processor - he was committing every speck of knowledge he gained to memory so perfect that it would be impossible to differentiate from the most advanced hard drive - and with the ever-adapting security of the Devil's Eye it would be safer there than possibly anywhere else in the Galaxy.
Other instruments might have been able to detect a sudden data transfer - either it was a large sum of data being dumped all at once, or a great deal of effort going into extracting a very small bit of information. Either way, the proper devices would be able to notice the event, which was exceptionally strange since they would be entirely unable to detect exactly what was downloading the information. The Devil's Eye, after all, would show up only as a mass of electromagnetic energy not much different from a human brain - except a lot more complex and active.
Kete had failed utterly to respond to anything Nirix said. He had suddenly become very intense, planted hands palm-down atop one console and just stared intently at a blank screen, looking as if he had just made some kind of breakthrough - a look of determination upon his countenance that was almost disturbing in the implications behind it - the implication that a man with that face could do anything he wanted - the implication that behind those strange, mismatched eyes there was a willpower so great as to transcend space and time itself, to achieve any goal, no matter how ludicrous, it set its' mind to. Willpower, determination - the kind that could accomplish anything - anything - anything...
He had even failed to notice when Loki, the mad droid from back on Kampfer's station, appeared by the door as if readying himself to jump some potential attacker. He probably could have found some workaround that would have given him clear sight of the people on the roof too, but that would have taken far more attention that he'd have been willing to give even if not for the new development of ravaging the data files of the mysterious relaying middleman.
Nor did he notice consciously when a black knight from beyond the abyssal darkness of eternal night appeared and impaled the mad Loki from behind. He was still deep in conceptual, existence, existential remoteness in the databanks of some vessel out in space which was now coming under attack with such sudden curiosity and intensity as to warrant a full-scale defensive operation...Which, of course, would prove futile against him.
But then the severed head of mad Loki rolled across the floor and bumped into Kete's foot - and all at once he was all too aware of his surroundings once more. It hit him like a bucket of ice water. His attention had been focused on the task at hand - which was now concluded, whether or not there were still scraps of data he had missed, the attack was over now, and he would need to review it all later - but the Eye had been diligently recording in electromagnetic form everything going on around him, and so he was not entirely out of the loop when he turned around to look with an almost disturbingly level gaze at the black knight.
Surprised, yes - but no less in-control of himself for it. It was one of the more unnerving qualities about Ketin Clarke that people tended to have a hard time getting past - he simply could never be caught by surprise...if he didn't want to be.
He did not look amused - he was not happy about being interrupted at such a critical moment - anything he hadn't captured would have been deleted by now for security - he had probably gotten every bit, but he couldn't be sure - his flow had been disrupted, and for what nonsense was this?
With almost passive disinterest, he glanced down at Loki's severed head, then raised eyes gradually back up to the knight with the oversized blade. With cool affection, he raised one hand and rested it casually on Nirix's shoulder.
"You've got some guts, Galahad. My Ny' here could totally whoop you, she's not kidding." He said with what could only be described as good humor, a mildness to the voice and something of a cocky half-smile on his lips. Eyes stayed locked unflinchingly on the red glow of Noctournus - it was as if he had looked into the eyes of Satan himself and failed to flinch, and as if the being before him, the cosmic horror from within the madness of the abyss - was nothing now.
Abruptly, the smile faded.
"A catalyst, huh? Y'know, I really can't understand why I'd want to agree with that. It sounds like it would hurt, and frankly I don't want people @#$%ing around in my head right now."
Woah. Kete meant business.
"It's been kind of a hectic day, y'know? And I'm busy. So how about this..." With the hand that wasn't (almost possessively) resting on the assassin's shoulder, he pointed coolly at the knight. "How about a rain check?"
Christofer would be reacting immediately, ears flicking at the sound steps getting closer- even if the whole 'crew' was already there. A scared yelp was let out, followed almost immediately by a series of barks as his neon yellow eyes caught a glimpse of the weaponry of the newcomer. Not that he was scared - too much at least. But at least he'd have the rest of the group informed, even if he was shot.
A leap back was made, possibly working as some sort of defense mechanism as his now newly found weapon, the tail, would be smacking itself against the newcomer before he'd processed backing away, covering behind Iril and joining the others.
He was no coward. It was more like knowing his limits. He had no weapons other than his body - if you could call or take it like that - fangs and the tail that worked like a hammer. But he was never much for physical combat, that he knew. He'd not last too long when pitted against firearms.
It wasn't him being coward, but instead a rather smart move, in his opinion.
The canid wouldn't be known or be able to predict how others were to react to his retreat. Could be good, could be bad.
What he was hoping was that everyone was alert, but not pulling the trigger immediately. He'd move further back, not with as much of a hurry as with the move from before, but with a decent speed, back turned to the direction he was headed as eyes were kept on the one at the door.
He didn't really know or measure how far back he should be going, but his retreat was stopped when he felt the arm of someone on his back. A hasty turn was made, almost a jump again, but it was no stranger to be near him this time, instead it was Kallenger, patting his back. It was like that when you're used to patting a big bulky dog and then all of a sudden you're made to pet some smaller being and you don't remember to restrain yourself.
Had he gone soft? Or was she nervous? No? The canid had no idea, but even with the uncomfortable feeling, this was where he would stay.
His ears flicked. The words spoken by Kallenger were all just some bubbly mystery to him. What was she on now, ecstasy? For having gotten a chance to have a break from walking? Get a hold of yourself woman... Not that he blamed her, but the strange change in the mood that quickly was worrying. He didn't know her to the bone, but the canid did not consider this to be the normal way for someone to behave. And it's not like she'd have felt this way when they were first taken to get some medical attention. With that shoulder and all...
The German had not been prepared for the reaction others gave to the arrival of a stranger, so he was much frozen still when it came to Kallenger leaping up.
Royanna wouldn't find herself catching her face on the floor with her little showing, but instead something rather soft - that being his tail. Well, it was something. Better than the cold hard floor. It wouldn't quite cover any other part of her than the face and possibly a little bit of the upper body, but not her legs or feet. Better than nothing, with the cost of probably getting some fur in your mouth.
The sword, regardless of the change in her landing, would end up on finding itself on the floor, making that predicted sound, scooping a nice little slice of 'floor butter' with itself. Well. That could have ended worse.
He couldn't reverse time, so what had happened, happened. All he could really do for the woman was to pat her back, try and comfort her. He had a little doubt on her not understanding whatever he was going to even say, for some reason, or at least ignoring his words. The swatting away of his hand did give him that feeling. So it was better to just stay silent on the back and provide support... The kind he could at least.
He'd have tried to reach for the sword, just to hand it back to her, hopefully preventing a violent lash forward with it. But he was stopped halfway, Kallenger's hasty hand reaching further and faster than his. It was only thanks to good reflexes that he didn't end up with a half shorter arm as a result. He'd have to be more careful with her for now...
Ears fell back as he turned his attention towards the door again, unsure on where the situation was going to go after this...
A leap back was made, possibly working as some sort of defense mechanism as his now newly found weapon, the tail, would be smacking itself against the newcomer before he'd processed backing away, covering behind Iril and joining the others.
He was no coward. It was more like knowing his limits. He had no weapons other than his body - if you could call or take it like that - fangs and the tail that worked like a hammer. But he was never much for physical combat, that he knew. He'd not last too long when pitted against firearms.
It wasn't him being coward, but instead a rather smart move, in his opinion.
The canid wouldn't be known or be able to predict how others were to react to his retreat. Could be good, could be bad.
What he was hoping was that everyone was alert, but not pulling the trigger immediately. He'd move further back, not with as much of a hurry as with the move from before, but with a decent speed, back turned to the direction he was headed as eyes were kept on the one at the door.
He didn't really know or measure how far back he should be going, but his retreat was stopped when he felt the arm of someone on his back. A hasty turn was made, almost a jump again, but it was no stranger to be near him this time, instead it was Kallenger, patting his back. It was like that when you're used to patting a big bulky dog and then all of a sudden you're made to pet some smaller being and you don't remember to restrain yourself.
Had he gone soft? Or was she nervous? No? The canid had no idea, but even with the uncomfortable feeling, this was where he would stay.
His ears flicked. The words spoken by Kallenger were all just some bubbly mystery to him. What was she on now, ecstasy? For having gotten a chance to have a break from walking? Get a hold of yourself woman... Not that he blamed her, but the strange change in the mood that quickly was worrying. He didn't know her to the bone, but the canid did not consider this to be the normal way for someone to behave. And it's not like she'd have felt this way when they were first taken to get some medical attention. With that shoulder and all...
The German had not been prepared for the reaction others gave to the arrival of a stranger, so he was much frozen still when it came to Kallenger leaping up.
Royanna wouldn't find herself catching her face on the floor with her little showing, but instead something rather soft - that being his tail. Well, it was something. Better than the cold hard floor. It wouldn't quite cover any other part of her than the face and possibly a little bit of the upper body, but not her legs or feet. Better than nothing, with the cost of probably getting some fur in your mouth.
The sword, regardless of the change in her landing, would end up on finding itself on the floor, making that predicted sound, scooping a nice little slice of 'floor butter' with itself. Well. That could have ended worse.
He couldn't reverse time, so what had happened, happened. All he could really do for the woman was to pat her back, try and comfort her. He had a little doubt on her not understanding whatever he was going to even say, for some reason, or at least ignoring his words. The swatting away of his hand did give him that feeling. So it was better to just stay silent on the back and provide support... The kind he could at least.
He'd have tried to reach for the sword, just to hand it back to her, hopefully preventing a violent lash forward with it. But he was stopped halfway, Kallenger's hasty hand reaching further and faster than his. It was only thanks to good reflexes that he didn't end up with a half shorter arm as a result. He'd have to be more careful with her for now...
Ears fell back as he turned his attention towards the door again, unsure on where the situation was going to go after this...
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