OOC: @onslaughtbear: Your ship has only been spotted so far. The Imperium hasn't sent its forces out just yet. You can still run away. Count yourself lucky.
Khasan System
"{Show me.}"
"{Yes, Prelate.}"
The screen in front of the imposing Khalai templar shifted to show the image of a protoss carrier. It was not moving yet but showed all the signs of preparing for a warp jump.
"{The Order. As I thought. Up to their underhanded, dishonorable tricks again. Attacking the defenseless and scurrying away like zerg when detected,}" the templar's mental voice trembled with anger as he spoke.
"{Prelate, the ship has almost completed its warp jump preparations. Shall we pursue it?}"
"{Of course. Inform the Council that Order operatives likely to be responsible for the desecration of the monument to the Founders have been detected and that we are giving chase. I will not let criminals infringe on our borders and escape unscathed. All templar ready for warp jump.}
Council Meeting Chambers, Aurun, New Aiur, Khasan System
Odranos surveyed the rest of the Council with a lazy eye. They were talking among themselves, discussing the issue in the groups Odranos was so familiar with. He could see Khanyr and Malyr shift uneasily as they conversed while Umar and Naren nodded vigorously, no doubt planning the Order's swift downfall.
"{I take it you have thoughts of your own on this recent... development?}" Arali's question half-startled Odranos. It was not like her to talk in public, much less begin conversations with other Council members without prior warning.
"{What makes you think that?}" Odranos asked, effortlessly concealing his surprise.
"{You are the one who suggested this course of action. It is only reasonable that you would have envisioned every possible outcome and accounted for it prior to even discussing theidea with the rest of the Council. After all, you are not Umar.}"
Odranos chuckled at her comment. "{Arali, I did not know you could sting.}" He felt a wave of emotions from the Khalai female. Mirth, embarrassment... guilt?
"{I am a patron of the arts. It would be strange if I could not jest. But that is besides the point.}"
"{Indeed.}" Odranos responded and then addressed the Council as a whole: "{Councillor Arali has inquired as to whether I had foreseen and prepared for the inconvenience I am sure all of you are currently discussing.}" There was silence as the eyes of the Council turned towards him.
"{Since the transfer of former Praetor Erana was my idea to begin with, it is only natural that I had accounted for any future developments. However, let me inform you that the recent sighting of an Order ship in our system was something I did not foresee}"
A wave of surprise washed over Odranos but he spoke before he could be interrupted.
"{Allow me to tell you why. It has been little over a week since the traitorous rebels assaulted what is perhaps our most important historical monument. It has been a little less than a week since we decided to transfer the traitor Erana to Vetras. It has been barely an hour since Prelate Erios notified us of the presence of a hostile ship in our system. Given the recent arrival of Executor Sevethrun and the flagship from Khasyn, it is only natural to suspect that the rebels have noticed that something is afoot.
However, let me ask you this. What would be more suspicious? Recalling our troops to a recently assaulted capital or leaving it as undefended as it was when the attack took place? Would it not be more logical for the enemy to assume their attack has worked to such an extent that it has forced us to reinforce our capital? Let us not forget that these rebels underestimate us. How else could they maintain the hope of defeating us? They think us paranoid, incompetent, stupid!
This is why I did not foresee this. Not out of negligence but out of the assurance that, were it to happen, it would mean nothing. Nothing. The rebels underestimate us and in doing so cripple their own thinking, their own intelligence. I assure you that the transfer can proceed as planned for were the rebels half as intelligent enough to see through our plans this easily, I would not have suggested this course of action.}" Odranos spoke more through emotions than words, driving the point of his argument home with bursts of anger and contempt. He turned to Arali.
"{Does that answer you question, Arali?} he asked. A moment of silence. A nod.
SoA:
An Imperium flagship gives chase to Opheilm. Its speed is the same as the Amadeus' but it can call reinforcements to intercept. Assume that travel time has been proceeding normally from onslaught's post.
The Council discusses the sighting of the Amadeus and decides not to delay Erana's transfer.
“What can the AIA do for you, Major Carls?” A friendly female hologram answered, wearing the Aranov Intelligency Agency uniform.
“I’d like to get some information on a ghost.”
“I am sorry, but Ghost information is highly classified.” She said with a friendly smile.
“I know, I know. I just wanna know whatever isn’t classified. I’ve done this before, alright? You are allowed to do things like confirm existence and orders if I am involved, and I am involved.”
“You are correct. What is the name of the operative?” She asked, and he could see her typing on a keyboard that wasn’t displayed on the hologram.
“Xavier Origin.”
The woman typed a bit, her face showed a hint of surprise for a fraction of a second, and then she turned back to Carls.
“I am sorry, but Xavier Origin does not exist.”
“What? He showed up here with an army and took command of mine!”
More typing and reading.
“That is correct.”
“Wait, you’re saying those are his orders, but he doesn’t exist?”
“You are correct.”
“You know what, I don’t even wanna know. Carls’ out.” He gave up - It wasn't unusual for a ghost's existence to be denied, but his orders being confirmed at the same time was a whole different story.
Aranov Command Tent Dunar, Magrathea System
Firebats, enclosed spaces... Medics... And to top it off, marines... Couldn't make use of mech even if I had some, air cannot be used either... And going in there and finishing it alone would attract unwanted attention.
“You there.” Xavier called to someone who looked like he knew what he was doing.
“Yes, sir?” The man asked. Xavier looked over him quickly. Glasses, insecure smile, body armor instead of a CMC suit, no rifle - just a pistol... ****yst or technician.
“Tell Carls and whoever is in charge of the patrol ship to organize bare minimum base and outpost defenses, make the outposts look bigger by using bunkers and having the soldiers stay outside them, give the rest the day off. Then contact Magrathea. Tell them to get the Heavy ready and over here. ID code X-01.”
“That’s a rather short ID code, sir...”
“I know.” Xavier said and pointed at the same code printed in big white letters on the chest of his black ghost suit.
Xavier turned back to the hologram, displaying the system and available forces. He looked at the flagship with a skull’n’bones logo beside it’s name.
I sure as hell could use those banshees and reapers.
“What’s your name, kid?” He asked.
“Lamond, sir.”
“Lamond, what would you do in this situation?”
“Uh... Well, sending marines in would be suicide. The firebats can roast entire corridors instantly... Marauders might be a better idea, but there are marines and medics in there as well. I'd probably request some ghosts and get siege tanks to cover the entrances.”
“And why ghosts?”
“Because Marines, Medics and Firebats have no way of detecting cloaked units and wouldn't know where to shoot. The firebats could probably hit the ghosts reliably in that space, but a sniper rifle delivering a headshot at point-blank...”
“So... You disagree with Carls' original plan?”
"Well... Yes..."
"Did you tell him?"
"No, he'd just--"
"Next time, tell him. Suggest the plan." Xavier said. "People could get killed otherwise. I'll make sure to drop your name next time I see a competent high ranked person. But don't get your hopes up, those are rare." Xavier said and started walking away from the tent.
"Thank you, Com-- Cap-- Maj-- Col-- Sir." Lamond tried to guess the right rank and failed miserably. "Where are you going?"
"To get my gun. You didn't want to finish the point-blank sentence when it was about a ghosts sniper rifle. You definitely won't want to when it's a portable railgun with a recoil of a thousand newtons."
Lamond was slightly confused and about to dismiss the recoil as a bad joke, but then remembered the sound Major Carls' hand armor made when Xavier shook it...
Aurulean Spec Ops Vessel X17 Vicinity of Domus
Xen walked through the Stealth Cruisers corridors, heading to the bridge. He had short black hair, a face with a few faint scars, and dark eyes that made sure you knew that no one messes with him. He was just under six feet tall, looked strong, and was stronger. Usually the ghost uniform would unnerve the soldiers, but almost half the crew here was psionic so the other half was far too used to them.
"Captain, we are now near Domus, staying out of sight in the asteroid field." The Yeoman said.
"I'm not a captain." Xen said.
"Yea, but calling you "Agent" already sounds weird, and you claim that is wrong as well, and "Operative" is even more awkward, and calling you X Three N is off the table. How about Commander, is that good? You command us, so you're the Commander. Or, you know, get a name. I'm sure someone of your salary can afford it." The Yeoman joked.
"Fine, Commander will do." Xen said. Why the Yeoman hadn't thought of "Xen" was beyond him - The man spent a lot of time on the network already, he should be familiar with substituting letters with numbers, so why couldn't he do it the other way around.
"Hey, or, I just got a brilliant idea. We could call you Xen!"
Xen sighed, and saw the X-3N printed on his outfits chest reflect in the console. Took the Yeoman long enough... "Sure, Xen will do. Get me our agent on the comms."
A hologram appeared of a man with olive skin, wearing black and a heavy trenchcoat, and looking like just the sort of person that would lurk around Domus.
"Operative." The man nodded. "What do you need?"
"We've come to secure the data once you have it, and take care of any loose ends if necessary. How are things coming along?"
"Haven't heard from them yet, but the ticking wreck they're travelling in isn't particularly fast. I'll notify you when they pass the time I estimated."
"Think we can trust them to do as they were told?"
"No. I will contact them as soon as they are within range, allowing you to deal with them before they reach Domus if the deal is off or they try anything funny."
"Ok, keep us updated."
"One last thing. Bonecrusher is here."
"Dammit. Thanks for the info, X-3N out."
The feed was cut, and Xen swore. The Bonecrushers were bad news. A space battle near Domus usually couldn't be ended before anyone intervened, but they'd let an official Coalition fleet go if they had reason to attack - like, for example, tracking a criminal. The time a response from Domus would take would be long enough to board a ship and tie up loose ends though. The Bonecrushers though... They could respond instantly. They could find their ship before the fight even started. They could legally resolve the conflict and even accuse the Auruleans of crimes. Worst of all, they had a telepath that could figure out the true reason behind an attack...
"Yeoman, pull away from Domus, but stay close enough for radio contact, and position us between the asteroids and Dvergar so that we can intercept the ship if its taking a straight line. And keep an eye out for the Bonecrusher ships."
"How would I do that, Xen?" The Yeoman asked. They knew about the stealth systems, making the pirates undetectable on all scanners and radars.
"I told you. Keep an eye out. Go stand in an airlock and open it if you don't get it."
"Now that's just mea-- Ooooh."
What an idiot...
SoA:
The Aranov Heavy on Magrathea is preparing to reinforce Dunar. 2 ICs until Arrival. Xavier wants those siege tanks and ghosts.
Operative X-3N arrives near Domus to secure the Aurulean's Data, and tie up loose ends if necessary.
Terran Quarters aboard Murkag, somewhere between Domus and the Celest system
Adam had just finished working out. Though the Terran compartment had a 'gym', it wasn't exactly too big - there were two treadmills the Terrans had brought from Barkanos, and a punching bag. Apparently the Jacuzzi's were something Dagganoth did manage to fit in, but he'd been skipping out on everything that wasn't a sleeping area, common room or laboratory. Adam was sitting on the lone bench in the room, regaining his breath, as he heard a familiar voice in his head.
{I have sent out all the orders I need to for the day. Could I tell you the next part of the story?}
Adam didn't jump anymore - he had become used to Dagganoth 'sneaking' up on him. He had tried to teach the Cerebrate the idea of privacy, but the conversation ended fairly rapidly when he couldn't really explain how it was a different thing than him living inside another living being.
"There's more to that story you told me?"
{Yess. There is a reason why I'm telling it to you. But all in due time.}
{Last time we were talking about Zerg history we talked about Zerus, and the Cerebrates that wanted to stay on the planet themselves. Some among them actually had an irrational fear of flight. They saw flight as something chaotic and erratic. When touching the soil, they thought, one always had a direction to go in, and a sense of purpose. Flight is hectic. It cannot be controlled as well as movement on the ground, and any flying being can at any time go in countless different directions.}
"Makes sense..."
{While the Zerg did take to flight, it would seem that the idea of the air-fearers has still taken hold of later Cerebrates. Perhaps these sentiments were even implemented on purpose by the Overmind.}
"Why would that be?"
{Because in the present, this 'fear' of flight amounts to much more. It is the difference between some of the largest Cerebrates in existence. The difference between chaotic Cerebrates, who rejoice in dealing with the unknown, and strategic Cerebrates, who prefer a carefully planned approach. Both of these breeds make use of air and ground forces, but their mentalities differ. This is one thing that makes the Swarm so strong - their different mentalities balance out strategical thinking and pure chaos. None of the Broods understand my approach to the search for perfection. This makes me an unknown variable to all of them. But because their mentalities differ, so does their stance towards me.}.
"How so?"
{One of these 'strategic' Broods is the Gracken Brood, and the Cerebrate Draal is their leader. 'Strategic' Cerebrates like Draal have two ways to deal with unknown variables: assimilate them, or ignore them. I looked weak to them and Draal decided he could take control of my brothers and sisterss.}
"And you proved him wrong?"
{Not yet. I had to avoid fighting him. My forcess lack strength and number to take on the Gracken Brood.}
"So what are you planning now? And how does any of this play into this 'distraction' you promised those pirates?"
{I will hit Draal with what he fears: chaoss. But that is a tale I will tell you the next time we conversse, Terran brother.}
With that, Adam recognized that the conversation was over, got up, and left the gym.
SoA
-Flavour story, Dagganoth tells Adam about the difference between 'strategic' and 'chaotic' Broods in Zerg history, and explains why he his at bad odds with the Gracken Brood.
"Sir, reinforcements have arrived." Lamond's voice came over Xavier's earpiece.
"Deploy ghosts first, send them into the tunnels." Xavier said as he walked on through the darkness of the tunnels, capable of seeing everything with his naked eyes.
"Should I set up a radio channel for you and them?" Lamond asked.
"Yes, do that." Xavier said and lifted the two hundred kg sniper with a single hand and pointed it at an orange chunk of metal just above head height. "Once the ghosts are ready, deploy siege tanks in a perimeter around the complex."
He pulled the trigger. The sound of the railgun in the confined space had the same effect as a flashbang grenade on everyone's ears apart from Xavier's. The orange metal could have just as well been a wet tissue paper. It shattered and remains of a human head flew in all directions. The Railgun barely twitched in Xavier's hand.
"Then organise air patrols to assist any tanks that might get endangered," With a flick of his wrist he moved the dead firebat to the side using the tip of the sniper, then grabbed the head of the other firebat with his free hand. "It's highly unlikely they'll leave the tunnels though, so don't send too many forces. Waste of budget."
The firebat didn't even have time to scream as it's head got crushed in Xavier's hand. He lifted and pointed the sniper at one of the marines without even looking, and the bullet tore through it and the medic behind it.
"Do you agree with the plan, Lamond? Any suggestions?" Xavier asked as the Outsiders were beginning to recover from the initial sound shock. The Ghost punched one through the chest, crushing the heart against the wall with enough force to crack the walls halfway down the corridor.
"Sending in cloaked units to deal with the Outsiders is the perfect plan, sir." Lamond said. Another shot tore through a medic that tried to run. The remaing two marines just shot wildly through the air, not being able to see Xavier. "Air support and tank perimeter are perfect as well. I would reinforce each tank with a squad of infantry, but as you said, it is highly unlikely the Outsiders will try and leave the tunnels."
"Good." Xavier said as a bullet hit him just underneath the eye. He brought a hand up and removed the bullet, then felt his skin. It felt slightly soft and indented, and it itched a bit. The Ghost shot another one of the marines, then slammed the rifle into the other marine, crushing it from hip to shoulder. "I've taken out one squad. Two firebats, four marines, two medics."
"Noted." Lamond said, not able to hide the suprise in his voice. Xavier knew that his vitals were being monitored, and that his heart rate, blood pressure, and everything else hadn't changed in the slightest.
Ellum, Capital of Dones Bysdoch System
Ray Kane looked at the report. One of the heavy fleets on Magrathea had mobilised. The forces on Dunar were goners. He frowned.
"Prepare defenses on Elos, in case the Coalition attacks." He said to the holograms of his officers standing around him.
Ray Kane had short brown hair, rarely shaved, and wore a heavy gray jacket and pants. He sighed silently as he looked over the other reports. He had a large army, definitely. But the Outsiders weren't as large as he had hoped. Would the Coalition truly decide to do something against them, they were done for. The Pirates could destroy their planets while that damned Aranov defended the Coalition. He opened a starmap and gave it a good look.
"Have a fleet raid a planet in Naran. Janan might be a good target, it would definitely suggest the right message."
"And what message would that be?" A young man asked. Ray sighed, Jackson was new, and unfortunately not as bright as his file made him look.
"Janan is a Magrathean planet, a planet belonging to the empire that allowed a Heavy fleet to be dispatched from their homeworld to deal with our grounded troops, instead of doing the honorable thing and letting us retrieve them, or at least taking them prisoner and possibly ransoming them for some of our prisoners."
Jackson nodded and stayed quiet.
"Any objections?"
No one answered.
"Good. Send the fleets here from Dones, and start the construction of new ones. I have a few plans on improving our army." Ray said and dismissed the holograms.
SoA:
Aranov Heavy arrives at Dunar. Deploys Ghosts to take care of forces hidden in tunnels, then siege tanks to set up a perimeter, then air units to lend support in case an attempt to attack the tanks is made.
Xavier destroys his first squad of Outsiders in the tunnel complex
Ray Kane issues an attack on planet Janan, Naran system from Dones, Bysdoch system(1 Outsider Patrol and 1 Outsider Assault, 10 ICs travel time) and is preparing to upgrade the Outsider armies.
Before Razarac had arrived the Nirogg were clearly winning, having already isolated a Swarm Lord and eliminated it and holding more of the habitable planets. After Razarac, and the forces granted him by the Brood Mother, arrived in Karinth, it was a completely other story. Nirogg had managed to gather up a sizable force of its own, and a Gracken Leviathan had even been spotted skulking about the system, but now the fight had begun, and Razarac would be victorious. For the Brood Mother, and for his life.
He had commanded his three remaining Swarm Lords to lure out the enemy Leviathans, and finally had them exactly where he wanted them, in an asteroid field that orbited the system's largest gas giant. The ball of gas below was where the majority of the Nirogg forces were harbored, and so it was easy to bait the Leviathans into position, where the Serpentine forms of the Swarm Lords could easily maneuver, and where his Spores could strike.
His body lay dormant in the biological meteor as is streaked toward its target. The lead leviathan had already begun deploying Mutalisks, and attempting to strike its foes with it's mighty Tentacles, more often hitting rock then beast, when it noticed the object rushing toward it. It was too slow to maneuver and was struck soundly by the Spore, resulting in a gaping wound that spilled blood and flesh into space.
Razarac came back to his body and stood up in the enemy Leviathan. With luck, the beast would be ill equipped to handle his presence inside itself. All around him, the remains of the Spore had covered everything with Creep and Larva. Many of the Larva had already begun the process of morphing into higher strains, while many others burrowed into the soft flesh of the Leviathan to do the same elsewhere in the body. Soon the corridors of the monstrous beast would be filled with his little brethren, zerglings and banelings and Defilers to rip the creature apart from the inside. The first of the eggs hatched, and Razarac ran off at the head of his pack, looking for prey.
~~
Back in the asteroid field, the Gracken Behemoth rushed in to join the fray, and was almost immediately struck by another Spore. It, however, was fairing much better then the Leviathan, as it held within it's monstrous chambers an army of Roaches and Hydralisks. The battle raged inside the beast, and it struggled to remain in stable orbit above the gas giant. Meanwhile, the Nirogg commander attempted to execute the same tactic on the Fenrir Swarm Lords, but the creatures were far to agile to be easily captured. The beasts and meteors danced around the asteroids, the unscathed Leviathan struggling to keep up, until one of the Nirogg spores, deteriorating from the massive number of Spines and Acid symbiotes peppering it's surface, crashed violently into one of the larger rocks. The remaining spores immediately maneuvered themselves free of the rocks, and aimed themselves in system, toward the only world that Fenrir held. One of the Swarm Lords gave chase, while the other two closed in on the Leviathan.
~~
Below, a third Fenrir Spore burst to light as it collided with the atmosphere of the gas giant and disintegrated. The Nirogg brood roosted on enormously bloated biological platforms, kept afloat by carefully sifting the atmosphere of the gas giant, keeping and heating the lightest airs. The platforms wandered the atmosphere in loose formation gathering the precious gases and minerals from the air and acting as breeding stations for the local zerg. The invaders would not have an easy time taking this place, but that would not stop them from trying. Fragments of the Spore peppered one of these platforms, and drones began to take shape. Gathering in the precious proteins and enzymes from the atmosphere, the remnants of that spore that had carried them to this strange environment, they quickly formed together to create a hatchery. From there they would conquer.
~~
The Leviathan was holding its ground. Though outnumbered two to one, it was bred for battle. The Swarm Lords were bred for trickery and fleeing. The massive beast traded blows with the two giant serpents while their armies; his bolstered by that of his brother, now squirming in agony below him as his body was over run by the enemy's tiniest of breeds; fought around them in a vicious swarm of acidic death. His forces were clearly superior, as Devourers bathed the enemy in mutant spores and Corruptors shrugged off the enemy's most lethal attacks, the mutalisks worked themselves into a killing frenzy. The Nirogg had been bred better, stronger, tougher and faster then their adversaries. The Fenrir, however, fought dirty, flying in and out of the fray rapidly to return to the Queens aboard the Swarm lords for transfusion, and baiting the enemy into swarms of Scourge or close enough to be caught in a deadly plague. The Leviathan brutally pummeled one of the serpents, finally pinning it to a rock and tearing it in two, but in doing so it had exposed its backside to the battle, and a swarm of scourge attached themselves to his hide and detonated, tearing him apart. Severely wounded, it desperately navigated to attack the second Swarm Lord; but his intended target was far to swift, and nimbly remained behind him and spat at his fractured hide with vicious stinging spines. Finally, it's feeble last efforts failing him, the massive creature succumbed to its wounds and died.
~~
Razarac paused to consider the fight, as his brethren munched happily on the great Leviathan's nervous system, leaving it very much dead. Above him, the Swarm lord was cleaning up what remained of the Nirogg's air force. It pleased him that he had won the air battle against an opponent so clearly dominant in that area, however reports from the planet below showed that the Nirogg were far more dug in then he had anticipated. His army below had been contained to only one of the floating platforms by swarms of mutalisks, and his Overseers had shown that the enemy was operating out of a Great Hive, a massive structure designed to withstand a siege. On the planet, he was outmatched. To make matters worse, those enemy's forces were quickly making their way in system to Fenrir's only hold, and the defending forces would not likely be able to hold before the Swarm Lord arrived to help them, and even then would be hard pressed to defend. Lastly, the Gracken Behemoth was cleaning up what remained of the Spore that had struck it, and would likely be returning to the fray shortly.
Dejectedly, he gave the order to retreat and led his pack back to their initial beach head. There, the creep had gathered together into a massive cannon-like orifice and was gathering up the unused larva and creatures for travel. Razarac knew that the same was being done below on the planet, judiciously guarded by the Queens, backed by Defiler Swarms. When the last of his minions had disappeared, Razarac himself stepped in, and allowed himself to be cocooned for the journey. When that was at last done, the spore cannon fired it's package, and the spore once again traveled through space, quickly navigating itself in system joined by its fellow from the planet below. They would only be a few short minutes behind the enemy, and when that threat had been dealt with, they would be back.
SOA:
Operation: Meatgrinder
Outcome: Draw
Fenrir Losses: 1 Spore, 2 Swarm Lords, 300 supply.
Nirogg Losses: 1 Spore, 2 Leviathans, 50 supply.
Gracken Losses: 300 Supply
Fenrir and Nirogg will immediately pay for resupply. Gracken cannot, but will power on regardless.
This was in large part a demonstration. I wanted to show how some of my Flagships worked (the Spore isn't exactly standard fare, and both it and the Swarm Lords are not from the standard game) as well as demonstrate how a battle post should be. As I was fighting myself, no collaboration was needed (except for with myself). In other circumstances, all parties should discuss how the battle plays out, and then one party posts the entire thing. ((Just reiterating.)) Lastly, I felt that some friendly army trading was due.
Terran Quarters aboard Murkag, somewhere between Domus and the Celest system
"Sleep well, Bob!", Adam said to the older man as he went into his own room. The Terran crew had just finished a drawn-out dinner and was about to head to bed. While the Zerg they were traveling with proved quite interesting in multiple ways, they didn't make for very good companions. Not that this was really a problem, but it had caused the Terrans aboard Murkag to rely on eachother for friendly banter and conversation. Tonight's evening had been an especially funny one, with Bob wanting to prove his manliness and challenging Adam to an arm wrestling competition with the girls' everlasting adoration as a price. Adam grinned - he had lost the match (Bob proved a lot stronger than he looked), but everyone had enjoyed himself.
As he said down on his bed, a familiar sense drifted over Adam as Dagganoth entered his mind.
{We are approaching Celest and I want to share the final part of my story with you, if you are willing to hear it now}
Adam had to admit he had been looking forward to this; though not exactly a Zerg enthousiast from birth, the history Dagganoth was learning him had helped him not only understand the Zerg race, but also their interactions with the Terrans and Protoss.
"I'd love to!"
{Very well. Last time we discussed the difference between 'strategic' and 'chaotic' Broods. I told you how Draal attempted to take control of my Brood as his way of handling an unknown variable}
"Uh-huh...", Adam nodded, only half-realizing that Dagganoth wouldn't be able to see the gesture, let alone understand it.
{The chaotic Broods lie at the other end of the spectre. They revel in the unknown and form their tactics out of doing the unexpected. To me, they cannot be trusted either. Though chaos means a liking to unknown elements such as myself, it also means a chaotic Brood could at any moment choose to assault me, as is their nature. Most chaotic Broods ruled by actual Cerebrates manage to avoid pure folly, though}
"Last time you mentioned using these 'chaotic Broods' against Draal?"
{Exactly. The system we are headed now, Celest, houses colonies of the Nirogg Brood. They are such a chaotic Brood, and are led by the erratic Cerebrate Zemreh. Currently, he is in an alliance with Draal.}
"Then how can we trust him?"
{His alliance is a fledging one. Chaotic and strategic Broods have only formed alliances out of pure necessity, or under the orders of an Overmind. When left alone, these alliances never last. The two are too different in their approach of thingss.}
"Are you suggesting we break that alliance?"
{Exactly. The situation has opened up for us as well as it possibly can.}
"Why so, exactly?"
{Last time we spoke, you wondered how all of this tied in to the diversion the Pirates asked for. I will tell you. My plan is to head to Zemreh, and cut a deal with him. We will tell him of the incoming shipment in the Protoss system. We give him the truth about everything, except for the planet where the package is set to arrive. In return for the information, we want to receive a small percentage of the spoils. If all goes as expected, Zemreh will jump at the opportunity and attack a Protoss planet. We receive part of his spoils, the Pirates receive their diversion and pay us for that, and we weaken the coalition between the Gracken and Nirogg Broods, possibly gaining ourselves an ally.}
Adam hesitated for a second. "All of that sounds great, Dagganoth, but what about the Protoss? Not only are we robbing them, but we will put innocent civilians up against a Zerg horde!".
{I have given this thought. You must realize, Adam, that the majority of the casualties and targets Zemreh will attack will be military targets. The Imperium defends its borders and planets well enough to not let a simple invasion cause millions of deaths. And these soldiers aren't anything like you, or me for that matter. They would never be open to accepting our place in this world, or accept any kind of coalition with any kind of Zerg.}
"Still, though... what about the civilians that do get left behind?"
{It would be impossible to convince Zemreh to not attack civilians. What I do plan to do, however, is evacuate any of them that fit on the ship. I will include it in the deal with Zemreh. He'll think I want prisoners for my own experiments. We will not harm these hostages and return them safely to the hands of their brothers.}
"Alright... So do you really think we can pull this off?"
{I do not know. I am neither as strategic nor as chaotic as Draal or Zemreh. I think our chance of succes is large, which means that I want to try. I... would like for us to pull it off, though.}
"So would I."
{Good night then, Adam}
Adam smiled. He knew a Cerebrate wasn't anything like a Terran person was, but he had underestimated the strategic insight of the creature. Even though he didn't want to characterise himself as a 'strategic Cerebrate', at that moment Adam very much considered him to be one.
"Good night, Dagganoth".
SoA
-Flavour story, Dagganoth tells Adam his plan in regards to the upcoming events, explaining who Zemreh is and how he aims for all of it to play out.
Grell checked his gloves and mouthpiece, making sure they were secure. He was in a pair of fighting shorts, they were right above knee height and fit well enough to be comfortable and still aloud someone to move around. He stepped forward, raising his left hand just infont of his face his right next to his side clenched into a fist. He checked his footing, adjusting at a good angle. He was fighting Lentan one of the marines that had survived the attack of the city. He had a scar on his right cheek from were a hydralisk spike had pierced his helmet and sliced his cheek pretty bad. His orange air usually got him bad attention, yet he had said to him it reminded him of a character from the old anime he had watched as a kid. Now each of them staring eachother down, fists raised, he could see the man was a true warrior.
“Alright, both parties ready?” said a man wearing a simple white shirt, the referee for the match. They both nodded approval. They stepped forward and tapped fists, the match was started.
Lentan attacked first, charging forward, he threw a right handed straight punch for the face. Grell sidestepped, knocking it to the side, he stepped in bringing his right fist forward to his opponents gut. The man jumped back, taking Minimal damage and managed to get a jab in, hitting Grell in the face. The punch left an opening for attack, he stepped forward, an began to let out a barrage, falling for the simple trap. Grell parried the first punch to the side, the second over his shoulder, then with a quick flash of speed slammed his fist into the mans forehead.
Lentan Stumbled back, reflexively shielding his face yet took a kick to the side. Grell stepped forward, delivering punch after punch to the man, soon the man shoved a bad punch to the side and came forward to tackle him. Twisting around him, Grell let down an elbow on the mans back, causing a quick shout as the man fell.
The referee stepped forward stopping anything from continuing. “Jesus man, you could kill someone if you fight like that. This is sparring, not street fighting.”
“I’m sorry . . . Ill be more careful next time.” he said, letting out a sigh as he exited the ring. He grabbed a small container of water and made his way to the end of the gym were his friend Mike stood, a frown on his face.
“You alright man? You have not been yourself lately.”
“I’m fine Mike, now what did you come here to tell me, or was you actually going to workout with me for once.?” he said finishing by spinning the lid off the water canteen and began to gulp it down.
“We are half an hour away from Domus, get a shower, and some clean cloths on before we get there.” he said his eyes avoiding Grell's, and instead running over the datapad he held in his hand.
“Alright sounds good, I know you got everything ready, thank you Ill be out before we dock.” with that he slapped his friends shoulder and walked out the door to his cabin to get showered and a fresh set of cloths.
Docked at Domus
“Alright Mike, I hope that you copied that data without them being able to find out.” he said as he slammed his boot against the metal wall of the airlock to push it all the way on.
“You cut it out of the fucking computer, an idiot like you makes my job harder, but it atleast makes all the locks that were on it make sense to be so scrambled up. He responded, his hand going over the usb with some of the scrap from a computer still attached to it. Looking up he saw the hat and old style cloths Grell was wearing. “Whats with the cowboy hat anyways?”
“It makes me look genuine badass with the revolver at my side.”
Mike made a comment, but it was to low to hear and they moved out towards the asteroid city. Entering the grusky place brought a smile to Grells face, and the opposite to his friends. The place had not changed much, walking towards the cantina was a quiet journey, with afew people looking at him oddly. Entering the cantina he stepped up to were the bartender was, the place had a lot of business today. He found one of the few empty bar seats, and sat waiting for the bartender to pass by.
“What can I get you.” The bartender asked, a Russian accent leaking from his lips.
“Get me some swamp water, unalcoholic please.” As he said that the few people around him looked at him like he was insane, but he wasn't getting drunk when he had serious business at hand. The man soon returned, a glass of lemonade set on the table infront of him. He took it and downed it in one gulp, set it down, and placed a coin on the table. He got up and left, sure enough that he would have caught the attention of the man he was looking for. He soon made his way over to the spot they had met last time, and heard the familiar voice beside him.
“Do you have the data?”
“Yes, now when am I going to get payment for this job?”
The man put his hand out, waiting for the data before responding. Letting out a sigh he tossed it into the mans hand which examined it for a split second before pocketing it in the trench coat he wore.
“The money has been sent to your ship, I believe we are done here.”
“Yea, If you need another job you know were to find me.” After tipping his hat Grell left, well aware his payment would be there.
Mike shook his head at him. “your slipping man, what if he had not of if given the payment to us?”
He just laughed and smiled at Mike. “You would of knocked the sense out of me before I left, so I knew he wasn't lying.”
“What now, go be a real pirate?”
“How about we check out the job board and see whats up, that's how I saw this one remember. Besides it offers a lot of odd jobs I’m perfect for.”
5 Minutes later
“Fucking scurvy ass pirate, why the hell you have to ruin my hat!” he yelled picking up yellow rum stained cowboy hat.
“You bumped into me you little asshole.” The two began arguing as Mike tried to settle it, Grell raised his fists. “Bring it on!” A street fight was started, people gathered around to see it happen. Mike, tried to stop it, yet failed as Grell pushed him aside, and nailed the pirate in the side of the head. A split second later he hit the ground from a punch the pirate slamming down the bottle, barley missing his head as Grell came up with a kick to his hand. Mike grabbed the burly man by the shoulder and was ripped off from someone in the crowd, it seemed to be another pirate.
Just as the four of them were about to get serious, the crowd moved aside as an eight foot behemoth came through. Pulling the Pirate off of Grell and Mike he stood there, the smell of rum and sweat seeming to fill the air. "Ye're fightin' one of mah boy, why's that?" he demanded.
Forcing his rage to subside, he brushed off and looked the man in the eyes. He showed no fear, and began, his voice calm. “They ruined my cowboy hat,” He placed the now rum stained hat on his head to emphasize the point. “I don't mean to of started a fight, but I don't take kindly to someone ruining my genuine cloths.”
“Are ya, a merc?”
He put the question through his mind, knowing that something else was coming. “Im one of the finest.”
“I has a proposition for ya then, "it involves ye gettin on a protoss ship o' mine and havin' my mens back. Ill offer upfront payment, and people.”
Grell looked at the man, and let out a grin. “Come to my ship, we can work out the details there.”
SoA: Grell Receives 20 points payment from the employer who hired him to get the data. After a short Rumble with two of Cap'n Dooms people, Grell gets hired for job involving protoss ship, his men, and watching over a Templar and Kenny to make sure they succeed. Upfront payment is 5 points, 8 marauders and 14 reapers. Gnarled wolf will remained docked on Domus until mission is complete.
Mark threw the cube of junk and John stepped out of the airlock-shield, took aim, and shot. The cube exploded and its remains scattered in the vacuum of space outside the ships cargo bay.
"My turn." Mark said, lowered the visor of his CMC suit and took the ghost rifle from John as he walked back into the bay, grabbed a cube and threw it out the airlock.
Mark took aim, and the cube exploded - before he could shoot. He heard John swear over the comms and turned around to see the Commander walk into the cargo bay, lowering his rifle. The ghost could have been there a second at most - the door takes a second to open, and he hadn't heard it before he stepped out of the airlock. He quickly walked back in.
"Heeeey Commander, here to join us for a little shooting exercise?" John said, trying to sound welcoming.
"No." Xen said. "You aren't authorised to use those sniper rifles, this cargo bay or the junk cubes."
"Oh, come on, don't be such a buzzkill, man."
"Get out of the CMC suits and bring them and the rifles back to the armory. You're being transferred as soon as we are done with this mission."
"You can't be serious."
"It's Commander. Or Operative. Or at the very least it's sir. Now do as I say."
"And what if I don--"
John never got to finish the sentence. Xens fist crashed into his face, the ghost stepped forward, put his leg behind the marines knee and then used the arm he punched with to push at the chest, throwing the marine to the ground.
"I can fire you right here and right now." Xen said and placed the tip of his rifle on the marines chest, right above the heart. "Or I can fire at you, your choice."
"You are one nasty son of a--"
Mark immediately picked up the sniper rifle and made his way to the armory, preferring the former option.
___________
"What is it?" Xen asked as he walked onto the bridge, and then saw the hologram of their Domus Agent.
"The mercs are back. I've got the data secured."
"Good. Any loose ends or people I need to tie up?" The ghost asked.
"Negative. It seems they got hired by Doom, and they're going on his ships. I'll take a shuttle and deliver the drive to you, bring it back to HQ. In the meanwhile, I'll do my best to keep an eye on these mercs while you're gone. It's probably going to be a while before they get back on their own ship - You'll probably want to tail them after that, make sure they don't try selling copies of our data to someone else."
"You think they have copies?"
"They'd have to be braindead not to make copies, or at least read the files. I told them not to, that I'd know if they did, hopefully that scared them. But hope isn't reliable."
"Alright. See you soon, then." Xen said and the hologram disappeared.
The Bonecrusher Port Domus
Darth Waiter watched as the last of the mercs loaded their equipment onto the Unnamed, a large traditional protoss gold and blue vessel. There were parts of it that looked different than the regular protoss flagship, as if terran design had been mixed in. They did it on purpose - It only further points towards Erana's Order, who are known to work with terrans. It had been tricky though, making it look just enough terran to imply the Order had to use their technology, yet not terran enough to imply that terrans had actually built it for them.
{Ready ta go?} Words asked as he, Sticks and Stones stepped out from the shadows behind the Templar. He had noticed them long before.
Waiter nodded, and the three of them and Kenny walked into the ship. The mercs occasionally gave them odd stares, most of them because they were protoss, and the non-racist stares were aimed at the short guy walking with them. The marauders and reapers from their own crew that joined this one nodded, and some even smiled at them. A group of four marauders actually decided to escort the Pirate Templar and Kenny, which lowered the amount of stares they got.
{Ya must be Grell.} Waiter said as he got onto the bridge.
"Yea, that'd be me."
{I'll keep dis short. Ma name is Darth Waiter, and behind me are Sticks, Stones and Words. I see ya already know why they're called that.} Waiter commented, and Grell flinched as he realised his mind was being read. {Don't resist, it only ends up more awkward, mon. Officialy, I and Kenny are in charge of dis ship, but ya opinion will be listened to. Ya job is ta secure tha ship we will be boarding and escorting us to the cargo we need. Ya will not be workin' on tha job alone, and therefore aren't in charge, Doom and our allies are. Any order he gives override yours. I see that ya dan't like that thought, but don't worry - It probably won't come to that. We'll let ya do ya job, we'll let ya pitch in on tha plan, but if it becomes necessary ta give ya orders, ya obey, understood?}
Grell looked the Templar in the eyes. An unnatural and irrational sense of fear washed over him, and knowing that it was unnatural and irrational didn't make him feel any better.
"Understood. Not like we have much of a choice, do we?"
{Good. Now that we got tha unpleasentness out of tha way, when ya ready call Doom and we'll leave Domus. Then get acquianted with tha ship and tha various files we've uploaded to ya personal account in this ship. It includes data on current Protoss Imperium ship specs, including internal security and blueprints. They may be slightly outdated, but tha principles are tha same. Kenny can help set up training scenarios on this ship if ya wanna run ya troops through em.}
The protoss left the room, but the short guy stayed.
"Hi, my name is Kenny." He said in a voice that so obviously was trying to sound annoying, and he succeeded. Then he talked normally. "I know this ship in and out. I know technology in and out. Anything you need regarding the ship or tech in general, talk to me. I've also got access to a massive database, in case you need info on something." The short pirate tapped a large metal bracer covering most of his left lower arm, and Grell presumed it was a sort of computer.
________
"Captain Doom, we're ready to leave." A holographic Grell said.
"It's Cap'n actually." Doom said and pulled out an expired ID card.
First Name: Cap'n
Middle Name: Doom
Surname: Bonecrusher
"That's odd." Grell commented.
"No, not really. Old Pirate tradition. Name yer kid by the rank he's gonna have when he grows up."
"Uh... Huh... And what if some parents name their kid toilet scrubber?" Grell asked out of curiosity.
"Well, then it'd end up in prison." Doom said.
"Why's that?"
"Double homicide. Now let's cut the chat and leave." The massive pirate captain replied and the hologram disappeared. "Kenny, get me another crate of rum, this one's going empty suspiciously fast." He added as he finished another bottle.
"Cap'n, you'll have to get it yourself." Kenny said. "I'm not on the Drunkman."
"Right. Call Kosh, tell him to bring me a crate of rum."
SoA:
X-3N fires a marine. Other one is put on probation.
The Aurulean Special Operations Vessel heads back to the Rasalin system to drop off the data, it will then return to Domus. 10 ICs for the entire trip.
The Pirates and Grell leave Domus and head for Dras Lana, 2 posts travel time.
Stats of the ship Grell is on, currently called the "Unnamed":
Amar watched with anticipation as the modified cargo vessel approached the wall of plasma that was the Great Wave. On any other day, at any other time, this would have looked like a suicide mission, a death wish. But in this particular case, it wasn't. Well, at least it wasn't an intentional one.
The vessel slowly began to turn towards the left, preparing to brush the side of the ever-expanding supernova. The view on the screen shifted to show the ship from a different angle and Amar clenched his fists. He knew that he and his group of scientists were thousands of kilometers away from the Great Wave. He knew that the ship he was watching was unmanned. He knew that neither he nor the others were in any danger whatsoever.
But that did not stop the enormous supernova shell from inspiring both awe and fear in him. Here was something truly big. Something that not even their toughest designs could survive. Something that could kill - had killed - but couldn't shed tears. Something that didn't feel. Something bigger than both the protoss and the zerg and the Imperium and the Exiled and their conflicts. Here was a mystery. And they were here to tame it. Not explicitly but-
"{Estimate: Contact in twenty seconds,}" the AI's robotic voice echoed in his mind and he could feel the others begin the countdown in their own heads. He joined them, adding his own mix of anxiety, fear, excitement and curiosity to their mental connection. This was their first trial in two months and their first ever trial using an actual ship. And if it worked... oh, if it worked! And if it didn't...
"{Estimate: Contact in five, four, three, two, one.}" All eyes were glued to the screen as the vessel and supernova touched. For half a second, nothing happened. And then, the plasma started coiling itself around the ship, like a wave collapsing in on itself as it entered shallow waters. The plasma continued to spiral, obscuring the vessel from view, enveloping it.
One second passed. Then two. Three. Four. And then, just as they were about to lose hope, the cargo ship emerged from the death wall, the inanimate killer, the cosmic destroyer. It may have been no more than a glorified cargo vessel but to Amar it was Kharun's Flame as it battled the Tama, Tassadar's Gantrithor of legend as it descended upon the zerg. The ship looked like a missile as it accelerated away from the supernova shell, leaving a trail of orange-glowing plasma in its wake, apparently unaffected by the Great Wave's infernal interior.
"{Shields at 25%,}" the AI proclaimed. The jubilation that met the statement eclipsed all else.
As Murkag entered the system, Dagganoth's mind was suddenly loaded with activity. Though he could not control the Nirogg Zerg, as a Cerebrate that Zemreh hadn't specifically shielded against, he could track their thinking patterns, movement and actions. It was as if Dagganoth had suddenly become completely aware of every single ant in one huge anthill. Only moments later Murkag found himself connected to the mental system ordering all these creatures around.
{Dagganoth.... our little 'pacifist', as I believe they call you...}
-{Zemreh. Our 'uncontrolled', as I'd like to believe they call you.}
Zemreh laughed. It was a horrifying sound, rather resembling something like two wet pieces of cardboard being scraped together than any Terran laugh. He finished rather suddenly and immediately sounded completely serious again.
{I sense you are here with a reason... Speak.}
-{I am indeed. I bear important news. News that could empower both our Broods greatly. I need your help to make it worthwhile, though.}
{Help? You realize most of our brethren would see such a request as a weakness and take it as a cue to attack your puny forces, right?}
-{I do. And you can surely try if you think it will benefit you more. Just as I know you are not stupid, though, so do you know I am not stupid. I would not have come here had I not have some tricks up my sleeve. Plus, you'd never get to hear my news}
{You are right. I am not stupid. I feel your unpredictability has its uses. What is this news you've got?}
-{I have spies within the Imperium. They tell me a package is being moved within their space, soon. My suspicion is that the package is the Protoss called Erana...}
Zemreh laughed again. {I knew there was a reason we left you be, Dagganoth. Where are you going with this?}
-{It is simple. My Brood is not large enough to recover this package. You supply me with the forces to attack the planet where it lands. The Protoss is yours. All I want a small amount of the spoils, and any survivors I can get my hands on}
{Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to attack a planet in one of the best defended Protoss systems? It'll be easier to intercept the convoy.}
-{They'll be prepared for an attack while flying. Attacking the planet when they deem the package safe would be a better tactic.}
{Yet you know as well as I do that my forces will be less effective there, if it even is the better tactic. No, I will send out scouts and intercept the convoy.}
Dagganoth quickly considered his options. He did not like this turn of events, but he should have expected it. He took Zemreh to be stupid as well as chaotic. The Cerebrate was only the latter. At this point it seemed like Dagganoth had two choices left; either pull out, or go along with it. Pulling out right now would definitely not be succesful. In the best case, Zemreh would let him go, but would frantically start patrolling the skies around the Ilyr system. If he went along, he had a chance to minimize the damage.
-{You make a good point, Zemreh. Interception it is.}
{I'm glad you agree.}
Feeling particularly bold, Dagganoth realized he had to make something happen if he wanted to gain any benefit out of this.
-{In that case, let me rephrase my offer. You supply the troops, I will send them to intercept the convoy once my spies tell me its exact location. You can have Erana, but I want payment for my services. And any possible survivors.}
{You are the one with the information. You commanding the troops would only make sense. Payment... I'm willing to give you access to one the genes of one of my weaker breeds, or an evolution. And I'll replace any troops your Brood might lose. I do not care for the survivors, you can have them. Do we have a deal?}
-{Show me how to evolve my Mutalisks' armor and we do.}
Zemreh complied. He thought Dagganoth to be a fool for accepting these terms. In his mind, Erana was worth far more than anything he could pay Dagganoth with. He quickly shared the thoughts of two of his giant Spores in the Celest system with Dagganoth.
-{'Pleasure doing business with you', as I think the Terrans say.}
{You should get the forces into position. I have two Leviathans already in Protoss space. Take these Spores and the Leviathans and set up a line, so that we will be ready when the time comes.}
-{Very well. I will be heading out past the Ilyr system, which is where the package should come by}.
With that, Murkag and the two Nirogg spores started to accelerate in the direction of the Ilyr system.
SoA
-Zemreh and Dagganoth cut a deal. Dagganoth is to lead a force of two Nirogg Spores and two Nirogg Leviathans against the Protoss convoy moving Erana, who will go to Zemreh if captured. As a payment for his information and services, Dagganoth will A) have any of his lost troops replaced by Zemreh and B) be allowed to claim any Protoss survivors of the battle. He has also recieved the evolution of Flyer Armor level 1.
-For this interception, Murkag is currently moving with two Nirogg Spores (speed 7) towards the border between the two empty hexagons of space to the right of Ilyr. With Murkag's 6 speed, it'll be 3 posts from here until he's in position. Two Nirogg Leviathans are already in the vicinity but will arrive a post later (due to their slow speed of 2).
Khalos trailed behind the others, bored out of his mind. He hadn't wanted to come and see the security upgrades on the ship meant to carry Erana but the Executor had been adamant about it. According to him, commanders had to be familiar with what the were protecting but Khalos knew that there was a part of the Executor that wanted to sow superiority and dominance over his subordinates. Showing off the improvements to the ship he was going to command for no more than a few days was one way of flaunting his rank. The elaborate armor he wore was another.
"{The forcefields can be triggered by all personnel or only a select few, as dictated by the commander. The range in which the order can be given, however, is limited to seven meters, though the bridge can control all forcefields and doors regardless of distance,}" the leading engineer explained, illustrating his words by turning a nearby forcefield on and off.
"{How long can it last?}" Executor Sevethrun asked.
"{That depends. It can be held as long as there is power but it can be destroyed. The small surface area ensures that it cannot be destroyed too quickly.}"
"{And if it is destroyed? Can it be replaced?}"
"{With a small downtime, yes. However, if even one of the four crystals used to generate a forcefield is destroyed, it cannot be generated. Nonetheless, the forcefields will slow down the enemy, if not stop them completely. And one would need to know how the forcefields work to disable them.}"
"{Indeed,}" Sevethrun said, nodding in agreement.
Except the rebels were part of the Imperium once and knew the workings of Imperial technology Khalos thought to himself, carefully shielding his mind.
"{The floors are pressure sensitive. All movement can be tracked from the bridge and any kind of cloaking is rendered useless.}"
Except you don't have to walk on the floor. And you don't have to walk to exert pressure. It went on like that for half an hour, with the engineer pointing out the new security upgrades, Executor Sevethrun praising them and Khalos privately pointing out flaws and thinking up methods of bypassing them. From auto-turrets that could be turned against the defender to doors that were nearly impossible to open but all too easy to breach, Khalos concluded that their best defense was the fact that the rebels did not know about the transfer.
"{And finally, the reason for the upgrade,}" the lead engineer said and then gestured towards what looked like an ordinary wall. Suddenly, what looked to be seamless metal parted, a straight line separating equal lengths of the wall. The separate sections of wall slid in opposite directions, revealing a metal blast door. This door also opened and was followed by another two pairs of blast doors. Khalos had to admit, the system was impressive. The metal was thick and he could sense scanners continuously examining the group, ensuring that they were allowed to enter. The chamber on the other side was better protected than the ship itself.
"{Executor, you will be the only one with the ability to open this chamber via mental command. It contains another three photon cannons and an emergency escape pod should the need for escape arise, though I assure that it will not. The stasis tube itself can only be opened through a DNA and psionic signature scan. Do test this, Executor.}"
Sevethrun nodded and stepped forward, putting his hand on a small blue panel next to a cylindrical protrusion from the wall. There was a hiss and the metal encasing the protrusion opened vertically, revealing a large stasis tank. And in it: Erana.
SoA
The ship meant to house Erana during the transfer receives a security upgrade.
Small asteroid field, deep space 1 hex south of an unnamed system southwest of Hades
*
“Have I made myself clear Mr.X?”
“You know, Runa, I used to think you were quite interesting, a woman working with the Zerg, of all things, however, turns out your just infested, how... boring, I decided I didn’t want any more to do with you, so I tried to have you killed, do you hate me now?”
There was movement on the other side of the vid-screen and Mr.X could make out the outline of a woman, but her features were fuzzy, like she was somehow out of focus.
“You of all people should now that crossing me never ends well, even more so since you somehow got a hold of the sealed documents of my past”
MR.X eyes widened in surprise.
“How did-“
“I am a Linguapath, or to use layman’s terms, I can understand and speak any language almost immediately, so speaking a foreign language to your buddies were useless”
“So that’s how you knew”
“Indeed, as it turns out you have made several enemies, Dude, some of them paid me back what you cost me in full, just so I would come over to say hello”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The lips of the woman turned into a smile that seemed surprisingly innocent, yet at the same time Mr. X could feel the bloodlust from her even through the vid-screen.
The chamber suddenly shook and Mr.X looked up as the lamp started to flicker and the connection with Runa disappeared.
"Report, what in the world is going on out there?"
No response, apart from a powerful static on the line.
"Dammit! REPORT, NOW!"
The door burst in and one of his subordinate’s stumbled in, the left side of her face was covered in blood, and she was clutching her arm, clearly hurt.
“Sir! Zerg are attacking, they are coming out from everywhere!"
"Damn... OK, were leaving NOW!"
"Sir?"
"NOW DAMN IT!"
"A-Alright!"
They left the chamber and ran down the corridor to the right of the office, away from the sound of fighting
“Damn, how could Runa find us so quickly?”
As they rushed down the corridor they ran smack into a battle between several roaches and his hired goons, whom, without any strong firepower on their side were quickly being overwhelmed.
Mr.X motioned for the woman to follow him as he took a side passage to get around the fight, they didn't get far however, as part of the tunnel had caved in.
The woman looked around and spotted a door.
"Sir, this way, hurry!"
The woman grabbed Mr.X and dragged him into the side chamber; it was a storage room with boxes littering the walls and only one way out.
"What are you doing? This room is a dead end!"
Mr.X turned for the door, only to see it blocked by a roach, and he was struck by a sudden insight as he slowly turned around and looked at the woman behind him.
"Precisely, which is why I lured you in here Mr. Nikohita, or should I call you Mr. X?"
Mr.X swallowed, even a fool would realize just how much trouble he was in at the moment.
"Runa, I, please I'll make it up to you I-"
He never got to finish the sentence as Runa grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the short wall in the back of the room, which for some reason was cleared of boxes.
The reason became apparent quickly however as Mr. X was stuck to the wall by some kind of adhesive.
Runa gave another one of those cute smiles while she reached for Mr. X’ forehead.
"Yes you will, Dude, yes you will, don't worry, this memory probing won't hurt.... much"
"No please I-!"
The screams could be heard even over the noise of the fighting.
About an hour later Runa sat inside her specially evolved Swarm Lord, Ferrog, having loaded up as much resources as they could inside the giant Swarm Lord.
“Mistress, are leaving the base intact all that wise? Other Terrans might find evidence of our presence there”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that Dude; after all, you can’t investigate a place that no longer exists”
As if on cue, the small base that the information dealer known as MR. X had operated out from exploded as the Plasma reactor inside the base went critical, the resulting explosion set off the mines Mr. X had placed around his base to protect it, and the resulting cataclysm turned the asteroid field into space dust.
******************
Drawing a deep breath Runa woke from her meditational trance.
“Three mistakes, I could have done better”
{“Perhaps Mistress, but given the available resources at the time you did as well as you could, you even improvised a way to restrain him”}
“I did not ask your opinion, Dude”
{“Forgive me, Mistress, anyway since I have your attention I would like to inform you we have arrived, I have prepped an Overlord for you”}
**
Hel
**
Runa carefully exited the Overlord as it touched down at Draal’s primary Hive Cluster, as she looked around she noticed the usual level of activity. The Roaches was patrolling the edges of the cluster as usual and the Hydralisks was ever watchful as well.
Runa walked up towards the gigantic Hive which served as Draals stronghold as she drew near several higher evolutions of the different strains moved as to intercept her, but let her pass as they recognized who it was.
As soon as Runa entered the Hive she could feel Draals mind focusing on her and she did not resist when he made contact with her mind.
{”Ah, Runa, I have been expecting you”}
{”I am sorry if I kept you waiting, Sensei, this latest development with the Themos have the entire brood on edge and makes it harder to move about undetected”}
{”I see, anyway let’s talk more when you reach my chamber”}
{“Of course, Sensei”}
As she made her way through the confusing labyrinth that was Draals home she again pondered, as she had pondered so many times before, how she never lost her way, she suspected that Draal might have implanted the knowledge into her mind at some point, but if he had she had never noticed it or he mentioned it.
After walking for several minutes she finally entered a gigantic space at the center of the hive, in the middle of which was Draal and a small fleshy pad which served as Runas seat when she visited, all around the chamber was Draals bodyguard, highly evolved strains of all the units at his disposal, from the Hunter Killer to the gigantic Torrasque, but Runa ignored them, if Draal wanted her dead she would never have gotten this far in the first place.
Runa walked over to the fleshy pad and knelt down on it, keeping her head down as a sign of respect.
“You sent for me, Sensei?”
{Yes, my child. I have need of your skills. But first, what do you think of the Themos Brood?}
"With all respect Sensei, the Themos Brood are a lesser brood that copied Shuuls battle tactics simply because their leader didn't have the skill to create her own."
{Ah, but Baal never did have an original idea. Even his progeny are mere echoes of something far older, and far greater.}
Runa only nodded in assent to this, hoping to learn more, but the great mind instead asked, {And the Fenrir?}
Runa clenched her fists tightly and clenched her teeth, but remained silent, the mental waves of hatred that emanated from her was answer enough.
{I would give you a chance to strike at either of them. Would you take it?}
Runa closed her eyes in deep thought for a moment before answering. "I am sorry, but I have to decline Sensei, my brood are still to scattered and too weak to be able to stand up to either of them, only if you committed your entire brood to the offensive would I stand a chance, and that would be too great a risk, even for one as powerful as you"
{You show wisdom by tempering your passion. May it be used as a deadly weapon, at the appropriate time.}
Runa bowed her head at the compliment "I have had two great teachers in the art of war, one of those lessons was to always be calm and collected even in the most dire of circumstances, I believe both My old Master, Shuul and you, said so, Sensei"
{I beleive he learned that lesson from me, but that is not the point. If you do not wish to aid one of the current conflicts, I would demand of you another task. What do you know of the Terran world of Apoca?}
“Hmm... Apoca, haven’t been there in years, not since the early parts of out invasion, back when the Master was still alive”
{It has changed much since you were there then. I wish you to go there with two missions: Find information on the weapon that the Terrans call the Arken, and find out if an attack on Dras Lana would be feasible. We have left the Terrans sitting comfortably for far too long, to my mind, but the Overmind had not yet given the order to resume the attack. I hope to be ready when he does, or to push the issue if he does not.}
Runa bowed her head "As you wish Sensei, and what if an attack is not possible at this time, what then?"
{Do as much damage as you can, without provoking or allowing a counter attack. We are already fighting on two fronts, we need not open a third until the Themos and Fenrir have been subdued.}
Runa momentarily flinched at the mention of Fenrir but bowed her head, "I think I know how to pull it off and make it look like someone else did it... I will have to think about it some more first though. If there is nothing else Sensei, I will take my leave. I must make preparations for the mission"
{Very well. Go well, my child.}
************
SOA:
All in all it's an intro post, the important bits are the upcomming job on Apoca and the conversation with Draal
{"Warp out completed."} Reois said anxiously as Amadeus burst out of the warp hole, its thrusters still at maximum speed. {"By Adun.. that's the worse possible place to Warp out."} Reois continued, his eyes not wanting to believe what he's seeing.
Before the Warp was initiated, the Amadeus was spotted by an Imperium observer, and subsequently, an Imperium flagship twice the size of Amadeus with more weapons and probably a larger army. With no other choice, Opheilm ordered an emergency warp to Sindiris in an effort to ditch the Imperium flagship. However, that looked like it may have been one of the worse decisions Opheilm has ever made as the Imperium flagship followed them shortly after and the location of the warp out.
{"Activate and zoom in all Navigation Cameras, we will need every eye we can get."} Reois ordered. In an instant, holographic panels appeared around the entire bridge, each panel covering thirty degrees of vision.
Countless Celestial bodies teemed the Upper Atmosphere of Sindiris, making it a deadly space minefield and in the middle of it all, the Amadeus was flying at full speed upon warping out. Reois saw several Asteroids moving even faster then the Amadeus itself and a number of them passed by the Amadeus, barely missing it. Suddenly, something caught Reois' eye; at first he wasn't sure, but as it got slightly closer, he could make out what it is -. It was an Asteroid which is as huge as the Amadeus, and its heading straight towards the ship.
{"Thrusters to reverse now!"} Opheilm immediately commanded, with an urgency in his voice. The helmsman responded instantly as he had expected the command. {"Maintain current speed and I want all weapons to be manned. All Asteroids that are on the same course as us are to be identified and destroyed without delay"} Opheilm continued.
Despite reversing all Thrusters, the Amadeus was still accelerating due to the momentum generated earlier on. With the Asteroid closing in fast, Reois estimates that the Amadeus has only around five minutes to move out of the Asteroid's course. {"Take the ship left to bearing 135 at reverse, get us out of the Asteroid"} Opheilm directed calmly. Reois turned his head right, looking at the direction through the navigation camera that Opheilm wanted to take Amadeus. Several meteoroids were approaching from that direction in a crash course with the Amadeus. Before Reois could say anything, shots fired from the Amadeus took those meteoroids down immediately. {"That's efficient, I guess everyone's feeling the urgency."} Reois closed his eyes for a short moment and focused. {"I mustn't panic as a first mate."} Reois thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Opheilm was busy giving out orders to the bridge crew. {'What's the speed of that Asteroid? and designate it as Ax-1 on the radar."} Opheilm said, still keeping his composure. {"About 1.5x faster then our full speed Praetor, if it crashes into us, the Amadeus will definitely be smashed, even with our armor. Based on current speeds, we have about seven minutes before a collision course."}.
{"Praetor, I recommend that we focus all our firepower at Ax-1 while moving to a full retreat. Our armor will be able to keep us safe for a while from the other asteroids while we break Ax-1 into smaller pieces"} Reois suggested.
{"No, the Amadeus isn't geared up for heavy firepower nor are we a maneuverable ship. Its just a base for the members of the Order to get some rest from the fighting."}. Opheilm shot down his suggestion immediately. {"Then Praetor, what do you have planned?"} Reois questioned. Opheilm pondered for a short while and quickly gave his reply.
{"Six minutes will be more then enough, Reois. Sortie all scouts to aid in breaking down smaller asteroids. Reois, you are in charge of designating targets to fire control. Helmsman, stop all thrusters from reversing, instead get all thrusters to push the Amadeus up, we are changing our altitude."}
({"That's amazing, if we can't beat it in speed, we can just win it by height."}) ({"Wait... No, there's a big flaw in this action"}). Reois cogitated. {" Navigator Doxyila, how much more time do we have left? Helmsman Statos, how long does it take to divert the thrusters and get it to full power?"}
{"We have five more minutes for contact with Ax-1"} {"The thrusters have already been diverted, but it will take us two minutes to get to full power"} were the two replies Reois gotten. Before Reois could continue, Opheilm understood the mistake that he made.
{"Navigation, recalculate how far up we will be before Ax-1's impact, we are not in reverse and taking in account the time the thrusters need to reach full capacity."} Opheilm ordered, this time without his usual calmness. His voice showed signs of uncertainty, something that he very rarely exposes to others. The next few seconds felt like hours. While waiting for the calculations to be done, the ship continued to move upwards, ever so slightly. A few asteroids managed to slip pass the defenses of Amadeus and minutely damaged its external armor, but a slight vibration can still be felt by everyone in the ship. After what seemed like moments, Doxyila replied.
{"Praetor, if we move up, the center part of the hull will still be hit by Ax-1. It is as good as losing the whole ship."} Her words sank deeply into the bridge crew. Reois was at a total loss on what to do. It seemed that there isn't anything they could do to salvage the situation.
Opheilm sunk back into his seat, feeling hopeless. Suddenly, a strong vibration shook the ship, bringing Opheilm and some of the bridge crew off their seats and onto the floor. A sound buzzed, signaling a transmission from the weapons crew.
{"My apologizes, Praetor, an Asteroid has crashed into the bottom of the ship, we tried to destroy it, but it was too colossal."}. The abrupt transmission ended immediately as it started, Opheilm could hear voices at the background, his weapons chief giving multiple orders to his crew. Opheilm got up and looked in front and saw something strange. Ax-1 seemed shorter then he last saw, he understood all of it there and then. The asteroid must have collided with such impact that it pushed Amadeus up slightly. The bridge have been to focused on Ax-1 to bother about other celestial bodies heading towards them.
{"Navigation, recalculate again how far we will be before impact'"}. Doxyila replied Opheilm instantly as only the tweak of values are needed. {"Praetor, our lower half of the hull will still be affected."}. The ship shook again, this time only slightly. A flash of inspiration came upon Reois and before he knew it, he was giving out orders with such fevor that he seemed like a different person.
{"Chief Engineer Cindel, purge all armor from the lower hull immediately. We will use the Asteroid as a.."}. Before Reois could finish his statement, Cindel began to retort. {"Reois, are you out of your mind? We are barely surviving with our armor, if we purge it, we might as well just blow ourselves up!"}. Reois wanted to argue, but Opheilm jumped the gun. {"Cindel, do as Reois says. His command is the same as mine."}. Begrudgingly, Cindel complied without complaint as he respected Opheilm much more then Reois.
{"That's a good plan, Reois. Purging the armor will let us use the Asteroid as a leverage and lighten the ship. This may very well work out if Adun is willing."] Opheilm praised. Something which he very rarely does, then again. These moments aren't usually experienced.
The lower hull's armor was purged entirely, leaving only 1 single layer of armor before the ship's interior is penetrated. Even a small meteoroid would be hazardous for them now. With its thrusters reaching full power, its weight lessened and using the Asteroid as a leverage, Amadeus could elevate itself almost fifty percentage faster.
{"Praetor, this is still not enough, there is still a chance that..."} Doxyila said but Reois cut her off. {"Cindel, purge armor layers one and two of the entire ship"}. Cindel didn't reply Reois, but did as he said. Within moments, the Amadeus was almost stripped naked of its defenses, its armor floating around the ship, getting pushed by the Meteoroids that were floating by.
Ax-1 was approaching fast, Opheilm felt that he did everything that he could, if this is his end, then so be it. There's nothing else he could do. A sense of helplessness engulfed him as he waited for Ax-1 to come.
{"Ax-1 will be under us in 3...2...1.."} Doxyila announced. Then it came, the moment that everyone has been waiting for. Ax-1 swept pass underneath Amadeus, it edges just missing the last single piece of armor of Amadeus' lower hull. Everyone held their breath as the huge asteroid went pass them and within seconds that seemed like eternity, Ax-1 passed Amadeus without any causalities.
Sounds of jubilation and reliefs could be felt. Opheilm has never felt that much relieved for a long time. He looked around can went to Reois.
{"You have done an excellent job today, Reois."}. Opheilm commended . Reois wasn't one that receives praise regularly, but did his best to hide his obvious elation. {'The credit goes to the everyone on the ship, Praetor."}.
Meanwhile, within the Asteroid field, an Imperium flagship warped out. Coincidentally, a piece of Amadeus' armor floated passed them. Prelate Erios looked at it and smiled to himself. {"All weapons on full alert! Sortie all units to be around the Flagship for elimination of asteroids. Navigation radar on full area scan in the direct of the floating armor. All thrusters at maximum output. To all crew of the Imperium Flagship, Niflheim. Our prey is near."}
("This is just perfect for the hunt. The hunting grounds, the hunter and the hunted, this is all what Prelate Erios has always wanted, to inspire despair into his enemies and this, he believes, is the perfect setup.)
SoA
Amadeus manages to somehow dodged Ax-1, but suffers a reduction in armor. Amadeus now has an armor of 2, but its lower hull is at 0 armor
The Imperium flagship, Niflheim has just warped out and is now on the pursuit of Amadeus.
Amadeus doesn't know that Niflheim is here.
There was nothing ceremonious about their arrival or their reception. As soon as their medivacs landed in the planet's capital and only city, they were quickly escorted away from the landing zone and towards the interior of the settlement. The efficiency and lack of hospitality, combined with the silence of the protoss that received them angered Grell: he felt like a dumb animal being lead to a slaughterhouse. He would rather walk into the building with his CMC suit and Rifle or atleast his Magnum or knife, but the protoss calling himself Waiter had explicitly told him not to bring any weapons.
He looked around himself. Waiter, Captai- Cap'n Doom and the four other pirates that had joined them seemed to be at ease with the protoss. Next to him, Mike seemed to be paying more attention to the buildings they were passing than the protoss they were following. He sighed and kept walking resigned to the silence so thick he could almost smell it.
Eventually they approached what seemed to be the biggest building in the city, though Grell had seen hundreds of terran buildings that dwarfed it. The building was roughly dome-shaped and made of dull metal that looked more like brass than the gold terrans associated the protoss with. This, together with the unkempt look of the streets they were walking through gave Grell the impression that this "Order" wasn't exactly the mightiest protoss faction around.
"{Ya know, I'm not tha only that can read yo mind.}" Grell was abit surprised at the sudden “contact” of waiter, but soon adjusted.
"What do you mean?" he asked, breaking the silence, but soon realized that talking through his mind would better suit the occasion.
What do you mean? he repeated, noticing that the Order protoss were looking at him.
"{Tha Order may not be as powerful as tha Empire, but tha' doesn' mean they don't fight their hardest. Yo snap judgments are insultin' 'em. Careful what ya think mon.}"
Sure, Ill keep that in mind. Grell thought and he noticed that the protoss stopped glancing at him. After another half-minute of walking, they reached one of the entrances to the dome. The door slid open and they entered, leaving behind all but one of their escort.
"{Follow me,}" the protoss said and continued on ahead of them. They passed through three more doors and Grell noticed that each one was more heavily guarded than the last, starting with what looked like one cannon and ending with two protoss warriors and enough static guns to bring down a Thor. Finally, they entered a large elevator and climbed to what Grell thought was the very top of the dome.
The doors opened without a sound and their escort stepped to the side.
"{Master Rassyr will see you now.}" They exited the elevator and entered what looked like a waiting room. Another door opened immediately and Grell followed the others into a large circular room with a table in the middle: a meeting room. Around the table were a number of large chairs, three of which were already occupied by protoss. One of the protoss rose from his seat upon seeing the newcomers.
"{Ah, Cap'n Doom and Waiter. En Taro Tassadar. We've been expecting you. Do take a seat.}" There was nothing offensive or threatening about the protoss' psionic voice but the look he gave Grell and Mike, not to mention the fact that they hadn't been addressed, angered Grell. It took a mental nudge from Waiter to keep the emotion in check.
"{Ya've met Kenny, Swallows and Sparrows. Dis here's Kosh,}" Waiter said, pointing towards the man in the brown suit, "{And this be Grell and Mike. They be the leaders of the terran mercenaries we hired.}" They all sat down.
The protoss looked at Grell again. This time, his eyes were less demeaning and more... calculative. Grell stared right back at him, not blinking once.
"{I see,}" he said and then took his eyes away from Grell. "{Since you have so kindly introduced your own companions, I shall now introduce my guests. Ambassador Kelanin of the Exiled Tribes.}" the protoss gestured at one of the other protoss, "{and Templar Raznar of the Tama tribe.}" Grell noticed that the second protoss had his nerve cords bundled behind his head, unlike Kelanin and...
"{For those of you who don't know me, I am Rassyr, leader of Erana's Order,}" their host said, "{But enough with the pleasantries. We have matters of great importance to discuss.}" Suddenly, a holograph appeared above the center of the table. Grell immediately recognized it as a starmap.
"{As you already know... or perhaps don't know, we have been informed that the Imperium will be transferring Praetor Erana to the planet of Vetras in two days time. So far, we have been able to discover that four flagships will form part of the transfer convoy. However, details regarding the fleets and their commanders have proven... elusive.}"
"So we're hitting blind?" Grell asked. Rassyr looked at him, his eyes narrowing.
"{Grell, I assure you that our forces have had sufficient experience fighting the Imperium to be able to handle whatever the Imperium throws our way. It is your forces' ability to fight that I am worried about.}"
"{I am fairly sure Commander Grell is aware of both the Order's abilities and his forces' lack of experience with the Imperium. I, for one, interpret his question as a request for information, not a complaint,}" the words came from Ambassador Kelanin and stopped Grell from making a retort of his own. He turned to look at the ambassador.
"{As I have already told Master Rassyr, the Exiled under my command are fully ready to aid you in this assault.}"
"Really? I thought you guys bailed out?" Doom said. He drained the bottle of rum he had been holding and wiped his beard, all while staring at the ambassador.
"{Correction. It is our Council that "bailed out". The heart of the Exiled is still very much with the Order. After all, it is only right that allies aid allies. I, for one, consider everyone present an ally,} Kelanin replied, seemingly without missing a beat. Grell had to hand it to the ma- protoss: he knew how to talk.
"{We, the Tama, will assist you in what way we can,}" Raznar added.
"Well that's all fine and dandy but we ain't heard no plan yet," Doom said, draining another bottle of rum he had procured from who knew where. There a moment of silence in which Rassyr stood up and leaned towards the hologram. The starmap shifted to show a more detailed layout of what Grell took to be protoss space.
"{The plan has changed little since the last time Waiter and I spoke. Your ships will patrol the sides of the direct route from Khasan to Ilyr to ensure that the convoy is taking the predicted path and does not slip out of our grasp. Our forces and the terran mercenaries commanding the newly built vessel will lie in wait and attack the convoy when it is as far as possible from both systems.}"
“So, they're hiring me, why no action from them?" he asked, confused at the idea.
"{We can't interfere directly. If tha Imperium finds out we helped with tha attack, it would strain relationships with the Coalition, possibly leading to a war. We don't want that. You don't want that,}" Waiter explained, adding a menacing tone to the last sentence as if to warn Grell.
"Alright, three against four sounds fair to me."
"{Four against four. Another of our Order will be joining us though his current whereabouts are unknown. Ambassador Kelanin was the last one to speak to him,}" Rassyr answered.
"Alright, four against four should make things easy, now I'm guessing this is just a qucik snatch n' run, not sending em all to hell right?"
"{A quick snatch n' run. Yes, that is an accurate way of putting it.}" Rassyr seemed to chuckle as he used the term. "{But that does not mean we won't have to fight. Commander Grell, I trust your troops are battle ready? For there will be battle, both inside the ships and outside.}"
Grell leaned forward, a grin coming across his face."I will promise you my men are one-hundred percent ready to kick some ass! Now all we need to do is get to that ship, the rest is the precision job of infiltration, and killing."
With that the meeting continued with small details on the job at hand. Afterwords Grell got Mike off of a conversation with a protoss and they both took their leave to the protoss ship to get ready.
SoA:
Grell, Mike, Kenny, and Darth Waiter went to Order base and discuss in simple, the plan of capturing the Order's captured leader.
As the last of the two Leviathans drew in range, Dagganoth began to issue commands. Since the Leviathans provided the big fire in his army and the Spores were quick and maneuverably, he laid his ships out in a largely spread C-shaped wedge: the spores on the outsides, the Leviathans on the insides, and himself in the middle. This way the convoy would have to fly right into his trap and would immediately find itself surrounded. Of course, Dagganoth considered, he had to leave some leeway for the pirates to come in and get their hands on that package, but the spores took care of that; they'd be there to cause massive damage, after which the Leviathans would fight a two versus four battle to keep the convoy occupied. Murkag would be swooping around the edges of the battle, avoiding fire and focusing on non-essential systems, picking up any 'captives' along the way. Dagganoth had other plans for the Protoss who might fall into his hands.
In the Terran quarters, Adam, Jeremy and Sarah were hanging around in Adam's bunk, all of them looking slightly nervous. Dagganoth had shared his exact plans with Adam, who had spread them on to the rest of the crew. None of them had protested as each understood Dagganoth's motives and actions, but a lot of them had never really seen a battle before - where, even for a brave shy man like Jeremy, Domus was a rough place, a Zerg-Protoss space battle seemed like a tad hard for him to handle.
There was however one Terran aboard Murkag who wasn't in the slightest bit nervously. Bob Gentry quietly hummed the Beverly Hills Cop Theme song as he strutted through his laboratory, moving over to check a specific telescope. He had been having small but daily conversations with Dagganoth and was making tremendous breakthroughs in understanding not only Zerg biology, but also philosophy. As a result, he had been in a good mood for days and simply shrugged off the battle to come. He had been considering the options and, after his last conversation with Dagganoth, the possibilities: there was a good chance he might become involved in the creation of an all-new Zerg strain, or at the very least gain a chance to experiment with existing strains to see if he could upgrade them. Nothing was really set in stone yet, but he had already laid dibs on the 'Gentryling'.
While everyone was getting into positions however, Dagganoth realized he had to let Waiter know of the... developments in his 'diversion' so that he could adjust your plans. He mentally notified Adam, who picked up the strange communications device Waiter had given him, pushed a random button and spoke into what seemed to be the microphone: "Hello? Waiter?"
SoA
-The Nirogg forces are set up and ready for their ambush and a plan of battle has been chosen.
-Some more plans for Bob Gentry lateron in the story are revealed.
-Adam attempts to contact Waiter for Dagganoth to inform him of the change of plans.
Above the Atmosphere of Planet Sindiri, within the Asteroid field, Amadeus' bridge
{"Time is running out, Opheilm. You will need to expedite the Amadeus to Dras Lana. Our other allies are already there, and we do not know when the transfer will take place, if it were to happen before you arrived, it wouldn't be good."} Rassyr said.
{"I understand Rassyr, the Amadeus will make haste immediately. However, we have an Imperium Flagship that may be pursuing us. If they find out about this clandestine meeting..."} Opheilm replied
{"This will not do. If the Imperium Flagship shows even slightly on the radar, you are to take them out before heading off to Dras Lana."} Rassyr warned
{"Yes, Rassyr, that's the intention. As of now, there hasn't been anything suspicious happening yet, but the Amadeus has taken some damage. I request a repair crew at Dras Lana for maintenance of the Amadeus.. That is all I have to report."} Opheilm said.
{"That will be done. Just get here as fast as possible without any suspicion. Till then."} Rassyr ended the conversation.
The Amadeus had taken a fair bit of damage on its armor expect for its lower hull, which is damaged substantially due to Asteroids. Other then that, all functions of the Amadeus are still working perfectly. {"Helmsman, Take us directly to Dras Lana at step 7 thrusters. This should give us some room to avoid the Asteroids"}. Opheilm commanded. Statos nodded his head and began powering up the thrusters.
{"Navigation, check frequently for asteroids about the size of Ax-1 and designate them onto the map, as for the smaller asteroids that are at our course, pass the information to weapons for them to clear it."} {"Yes, Praetor"} Doxyila replied. Opheilm put on the Psionic Transmitter and made an announcement to the entire ship.
{"This is Praetor Opheilm, as of now, we have immediate orders to head towards Dras Lana to rendezvous with Rassyr regarding Erana's transfer. However, moments before we warped out, an Imperium Flagship was sighted on radar pursuing us. The good news is, they are not in sight now. The bad news is, if they happen to be on radar, we are to take them out before heading over to Dras Lana. I require all personnel to be on full alert until we are cleared of this asteroid field. That is all.}
{"Prelate Erios, I recommend that you slow down the Niflheim. At this rate, hitting into asteroids will be a certainty.'} Arronax cautioned.
{"I assure you, Prelate Arronax, that I have this under control. Your concern is unnecessary. Do not forget that I am the steward of the Niflheim and I have been commanding ships long before you were at Erana's Order."} Erios replied with a snide voice. Arronax stayed silent, but seethed within. He was irritated by the arrogance of the young Prelate. Arronax was older then him by around a 100 years, but age is no substitute for hierarchy. Arronax was just made Prelate a short while ago whereas Arronax had been a Prelate for a couple of years now. {"As you say, Prelate Erios"} Arronax tried to sound as sarcastic as possible, but it didn't really work.
The Niflheim was traveling at full thrusters in the direction of the torn pieces of armor from Amadeus and within moments, they had hit the jackpot. The Amadeus showed up at the radar. Erios smiled to himself. {"Crew of the Niflheim, this is your Prelate speaking. We have the Amadeus in sight and is now giving full pursuit to them. All forces are to head back into the Niflheim for resupply and repairs. All personnel are to be on standby until otherwise noted. That is all.'} Erios ended his announcement. {"Hmmm, what are you doing here Arronax? Shouldn't you be at somewhere else?"} Erios questioned sardonically, already knowing the answer.
{"Somewhere else? Prelate Erios. Where else a Prelate has but the bridge of a ship?"} Arronax replied curtly, not wanting to play this game.
{"Prelate Arronax, I heard that you are quite the scout pilot. With you around, I am sure the pilots will feel... safer. After all, wouldn't you know the ship?"} Erios said sarcastically.
{"What are you inciting Prelate Erios?" I left the Order years ago. They were wrong. My loyalty is only to the Imperium. If you so order, I'll personally lead the assault on Amadeus. I take my leave"} Arronax replied, trying to curb his anger. He went out of the bridge, heading into the hangar.
{"Don't get yourself killed Prelate. It would be hard to explain to the council."} Erios laughed.
The Niflheim was moving closer to the Amadeus with every passing second. Erios had no doubt that they were spotted, but he wanted no other way. It wasn't the sense of honor that guided his actions, its the feeling of despair and anxiety that he wanted the crew of Amadeus to feel before destroying them. Undoubtly, he was enjoying every second of this. One thing kept nagging at him - Arronax. The council had recently promoted that cretin from the order to Prelate and assigned him as an observer to the Niflheim. Erios hated Arronax. {"How dare a new elected Prelate give him orders!'}. By the end of this skirmish, Erios was sure Arronax would be dead. Either by the Amadeus, or by his own hand.
{"Praetor Opheilm! The Niflheim is on our radar. It appears that she is moving at full speed"} Doxyila quickly informed as soon as she saw the Niflheim.
{'Full thrusters at this density of Asteroids? They are insane."} Reois said disbelievingly. He looked at Doxyila's screen and saw that there was no lie. At this rate, the Niflheim will catch up within 30 minutes. Opheilm thought for a moment about his next course of action. He couldn't afford take on the Niflheim just by power alone nor could he allow the Niflheim to follow him to Dras Lana. His only option, he concluded, is to take down the Niflheim here and now.
{'Navigation, get me asteroids within the vicinity the size of Ax-1."} Opehilm ordered. {"What are you planning, Praetor?"} Reois asked.
{"You'll soon see. The steward of the Niflheim is probably a brash, overconfident Protoss who thinks that brute force is everything."} Opheilm replied with certainty. {"Praetor, what makes you think so?"} Reois questioned again.
{'Look at this field of Asteroids. At the speed that the Niflheim is on, it would be hazardous if they meet an asteroid a quarter the size of Ax-1. Yet the Niflheim still moves at full speed, using its weapons to destroy all asteroids and its armor to soak up some of the smaller ones. Its either their commander is overconfident of the ships' abilities or he has an extremely good judgement. I believe the council wouldn't waste talent on a chase mission like this."} Opheilm reasoned.
{"Praetor, there is an asteroid slightly bigger then Ax-1 up front with the same velocity as we are on."} Doxyila said. {"Shut down the radar and go on ECCM mode. Helmsman, move behind the asteroid. We are going to hide ourselves there. Reois, make an announcement to prepare for battle with the Niflheim."} {"Yes Praetor"} they all replied with confidence.
{"Praetor Erios, the Amadeus has vanished from the radar."} navigation said suddenly.
{"They must be hiding in fear of us. Continue as normal. Scan for asteroids big enough to hide the Amadeus in the vicinity of where they disappeared." Inform all pilots to be ready to sortie"} Erios directed. {"Fools! This is even easier then I thought."}
As soon as his navigation reported that there was only 1 asteroid big enough to hide the Amadeus, Erios ordered the Niflheim to move into the vicinity of asteroid and sortied half of his armada out, expecting to take out the Amadeus with ease. However, what he expected and what he saw was totally different. The battle was swift and deadly, with both sides sustaining heavy losses. At the end of it, Prelate Erios couldn't believe what just happened and had his confidence crushed.
***************
"All scouts are to return to the Amadeus at once. We will began heading directly to Dras Lana at full speed once we are out of the asteroid field." Opheilm instructed wearily. The battle had cost him much, including his personal scout. The only consolation he could get out from it is that the Niflheim would no longer be chasing them. Nevertheless, he was as worried as much as he was relieved. Arronax had joined the Imperium. He knew that their disagreement and his discontentment with the Order had taken a toll on his mental state, but this was something else altogether. A revered member of the Order joining the Imperium...
Opheilm slumped back into his quarters and rested as his ship made its way to Dras Lana, not knowing what awaits them
SoA
The Niflheim spotted the Amadeus and began attacking
The Amadeus managed to win, but at a heavy cost
Opheilm found out that an ex-Order member had joined the Imperium
The Amadeus will be heading towards Dras Lana immediately.
PS: Will post a battlelog soon about the battle. The next post will be a recollection post. I wanted the Amadeus to head to Dras Lana as soon as possible.
The Flying Drunkman, Dras Lana Orbit Dras Lana System
"That's a waste of time." Doom told the hologram of Rassyr after hearing the news about Opheilm.
{Have ta agree there, mon.} Waiter agreed from the bridge of the Unnamed.
{Well, what would you have us do, then?} Rassyr answered, slightly offended.
"The Currently Unnamed has enough space for a good amount of SCVs and the resource required to repair a flagship." The holographic Kenny pointed out. "And it's faster than your ships. You give us the materials you need for the repairs, and we will go on ahead of you and repair the ship in the time it takes your fleet to reach us."
{And what if you get spotted?} Rassyr asked, not particularly friendly. {You made it rather clear you cannot be involved officially.}
"We'd leave the Jack brothers to stay with yer part of the fleet of course." Doom said. "The Flying Drunkman isn't easily spotted, it can serve as emergency backup. As for the Unnamed, it being spotted would actually be helpful in establishing it's cover as an Order ship."
Rassyr nodded, somewhat calmer. {You have a good point. The Unnamed is a very capable ship, so it should be able to hold off an Imperium attack long enough to get the Amadeus travel ready again. Having Kenny on board might even allow the Drunkman to reveal itself in the worse scenarios. I am somewhat disappointed that we cannot use your fleet and men, Cap'n, but I understand why.}
{Get ya men ready then and have tha repair supplies sent to tha Unnamed. We will leave immediately.}
{En taro Tassadar Darth Waiter, Kenny, Cap'n.}
{En taro Tassadar, Rassyr.} Waiter answered as his hologram went offline.
"Ditto." Kenny said as his disappeared as well.
"See ya." Doom said and switched of the feed. "Kenny! Another bottle of rum!" He yelled after emptying a bottle.
"Cap'n, I'm still not on the Drunkman."
"Send Kosh then, for fucks sake! What am I paying you for!?"
"You aren't really paying me."
"Oh, right. Still, get someone to get me that bloody rum already! I'm getting sober over here!"
Novigrad, Planet Zagrov Dinari System
Aranov looked out over the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows. He always did that after a boring day. Bureaucracy annoyed him.
"Lord Aranov." The butler said. "General Wray wishes to talk to you, sir."
"In person?"
"No, holo-stream, sir."
"Put him through, and thank you."
The butler turned on the holo-feed and left the room, while Domovoi kept looking out the window.
"Lord Aranov." General Wray said.
"General." Domovoi acknowledged without turning around.
"We have received word that the Order is leaving Dras Lana."
"Is the source trustworthy?"
"No."
"Good." Aranov turned around to face the General's hologram. "We have been contacted by the Order some time ago that Erana herself was being moved. While the Coalition is not able to and did not offer any help, we have to make sure our own systems are secured. I'll be sending you a list of what armies to relocate to Dras Lana in case the Imperium tries to invade Terran space - I don't care why or who they are attacking, but their ships are not entering our systems."
"Understood, sir." General Wray said as Aranov pressed a few buttons on his holo screen, sending the General the data, who immediately read. "I'm sorry, sir, but... You're putting the commander of a Light fleet in charge? Those aren't exactly our best people--"
"The commander is not the usual one." Aranov said. "He is to be transferred to the Heavy immediately. I will inform him personally of what is going on."
The general looked at Aranov questioningly, but the leader of the Consectorate looked the same way as always: Calm, serious and in control. "Alright, Lord Aranov, I will dispatch the fleets immediately. Good day."
Aranov nodded, and the hologram shut off.
"Contact Xavier." He said, and the hologram popped up again, playing it's idle animation.
Some Desert, Planet Dunar Magrathea System
"Sir, there is an urgent call for you." Lamond said.
"From who?" Xavier said, stepping over the last Outsider corpse.
"Lord Aranov himself."
"Put him through."
"Good day, Xavier." Aranov's voice said. "You seem to be spending a long time in those tunnels."
"Sixty seven Outsiders taken out. No losses. No damage. Minimal funding required." Xavier said. "What do you need?"
"Order ships have left the Dras Lana system. We have reasons to assume something big is going on and that the Imperium may retaliate. As you know, I can't let possibly hostile protoss enter terran space. While generally I prefer you on smaller and subtler assignments, you are to assume control of the Heavy you called from Magrathea and make your way to Dras Lana and make sure no protoss gets in without the proper documents."
"Understood." Xavier said. "Is that all?"
"An Aurulean ship is part of the army I am stationing at Dras Lana. I presume you would be more comfortable on a stealth ship, so feel free to assume control of any ship you want after you reach the system."
"Comfort is relatively subjective. I don't act on subjectiveness." Xavier stated. "Good bye."
"Good bye." Aranov said and cut the feed.
"Lamond?" Xavier asked.
"Yes, sir?"
"Pack up our troops and send em back to the ships. Then take place as Captain of the Light fleet I came with."
"Uh, sir, I am unqualified for such a position and--"
"Captain Lamond, what does the first word of this sentence imply?"
"A... Promotion?"
"And am I the kind of person to make a joke?"
"Uh, no...? Sir...?"
"And am I the one that takes kindly to disobeying orders?"
"Uh... Depends on the order?"
"And that's why you're a Captain now. Is this order one to disobey?"
"No, sir."
"Get your ass on that ship. Xavier out."
A dark room, The Unnamed Warp Space
"Hello? Waiter?" A hologram appeared before him in the perfect darkness of the room.
{I am here.} He answered.
"Well, I'm here to talk on behalf of Dagganoth."
He probed the humans mind. Oh, the discomfort... It was almost amusing. Almost.
{Ah, problems. Talk.} Waiter said, sounding calm. Too calm.
"Well, Dagganoth went to arrange the distraction, and while it worked, it didn't work how it was supposed to. He meant for the Nirogg to attack the planet, but the conversion with their cerebrate didn't go as planned and..."
{They're attacking tha fleet.} Waiter said, unnervingly calm. He smirked mentally to himself as he felt the increasing discomfort of the human. He sensed that Adam remembered the threat that had been given together with the job.
"Well... Yes..."
Waiter reached through the communicator into the humans mind. It was not nearly as smooth as if he had been physicall there, but it was enough for him to read the memories. Adam wasn't really trying to defend himself as he saw that Waiter was only going after important bits.
{Dis complicates things.} Waiter said, still calm as ever, slowly shifting towards the coldness of a Nerazim. {Tell Daganoth ta contact me as soon as he has tha Imperium's attention - A zerg attack will force them ta reinforce tha convoy, so we have ta act quickly. If ya manage ta board ships, notify me of their internal security. It should help us figure out where our package is.}
"Of course." Adama paused for a second. "The deal still stands, right?"
{Dat remains ta be seen, mon. A direct attack may prove a betta distraction than attacking a planet. It may also prove ta be a big problem. If ya can pull dis off without makin' tha Nirogg suspicious and losin' their trust while not pissin' me off either, ya could possibly prove ta be a good ally. Unless ya need somethin' else, good bye.}
"Bye." Adam said and cut the feed, glad to be away from the protoss. His nervoussness and discomfort faded immediately, and realizing that made him wonder just how powerful a telepath Waiter was.
SoA:
The Unnamed and Flying Drunkman depart for the hex beneath Sindiris. 5 posts. Onslaught, it'd be good if you meet them there, otherwise they'll continue on into the system (Same travel time)
All forces helping with the breakout that are currently at Dras Lana are heading towards the hex to the lower right of Ilyr. They will reach the Pirates and Opheilm in 9 or 10 ICs (Depending on whether Opheilm leaves the system to meet the pirates and get repaired)
Lamond is promoted to Captain of the Aranov Light in Dunar's orbit.
Xavier is put in charge of the Aranov Heavy in Dunar's orbit.
An Aurulean Spec Ops fleet from Domus heads to Dras Lana. 4 posts.
An Aranov Heavy and Aranov Light head to Dras Lana from Dunar, Magrathea. 10 posts.
An Aranov Patrol from Reginos, Myrym heads to Dras Lana. 3 posts.
An Aranov Patrol from Elsar, Fyrd heads to Dras Lana. 4 posts.
Adam contacts and discusses the situation with Darth Waiter.
Space, next to the unnamed System between Dras Lana and Zaratun
Protoss Flagship
A darkened room with a giant window and only a small sun, not larger, but brightener, than any other point in the space, lightens it. Kelanin is sitting right in front of the window starring to the bright point.
"Hatred is the catalyst for war and its source is love. Love to a woman, love to a country, love to a planet or an empire. The seeds of hatred let bloom new plants of war and its seeds will create new love to the missed. This process is called revenge and it will always lead to new wars. To forgive is the only solution of that spiral. The spiral of death and hatred."
"I hope I doesn't disturb your meditation, Ambassador Kelanin no' Karanur.", Rassyr entered the open room through the archway, which function as a door.
"No, there isn't a disturbtion without a meditation. I was only peering through the space." Kelanin stands up while turning around to the Order's Leader.
"The calm before the storm is always nice to listen to, don't you think?"
"Sure. It reminds me to an era of peace."
"That is the only thing you always searching for, right?"
"It seems you knows some parts of me that even Ambassador U'lun haven't noticed yet."
"It was always the task of a leader to know the other side of a conversation."
"Thanks for your understanding and guidance. I think you make a good leader to the Order."
"Thank you, but acceptance isn't a good thing for a leader. It could make him perfect and impregnable, which leads to carelessness and finally to his death. I hope that wasn't your intention." Both are laughing at this statement. "I'm glad to have you for this mission, Ambassador, even under these circumstances."
"I will always searching for a way to peace and I'm glad to hear that you share this vision with me." He bowed in front of Rassyr.
"I know we can restore peace and we will have a huge amount of influence to that. Ambassador, I will take my leave because my units needs my presence. We will see us again, with Erena."
"Sure."
Shortly after Rassyr leaved the room a dark templar entered it.
"En Taro Tassadar, Ambassador Kelanin. I'm Raznar, Commander of the Tama."
"En Taro Tassadar, Commander."
"I respresent the Tama Tribe to inform you that our council send you ten Dark Templar for your mission to rescue Erana."
"I appreciate this gesture."
"They are already with your other troops and ready to take your command." Raznar semms to worry about something until he tells Kelanin his unusual statement. "Peace is not always the way to peace. Sometimes peace have to be forced out to accept he is peace itself."
"Force will never lead to peace. The removal of force and power is needed to create peace from nothing."
"Creation is not in our hands. We can only shape. The time, the matter and our own will. We always shape those things and it will never be otherwise."
"You are binded to a higher good. Take good care of yoour believings."
"Watch your back, Ambassador. I can't guarantee for your safety."
"Of course, I will."
Rory's boots sent a echo of metal against metal through the hallway as he made his way towards the bridge. Indoors on the freighter it looked very industrial, mostly green or orange painted metal although the paint was gone in many places and everywhere there were signs of rust, many pipes ran against the wall of the hallways and from the ceiling the lights hang freely from the wires.
Some places were badly damaged and hot steam or freezing coolants could spray out of broken piping even though Rory had done a good job patching mostly of it up. As Rory walked the ship began to careen, Rory steadied himself as patches of metal started to come loose, electrical bolts shot out from exposed wires and the lights began to flash. It soon calmed down and despite missing it during the turbulence Rory know noticed that a electrical bolt had seemed to turn a broken fuel pipe into a flamethrower behind him, he was quick to turn a valve and put it out.
"Oh man, we must have hit something, shields took the hit but the generator got overloaded there for a while. Never shoulda left the wheel of this tin can to a god darn mercenary, i have better trust in the autopilot."
Rory said to himself as he continued to walk to the bridge. Luckily they didn't hit anything else and as he approached the door he punched the console next to it, it frizzled and then the door opened. He walked out on the bridge, a quite light room compared to the rest of the ship and the most decorated one aswell, seeing the three mercenaries he selected of controlling the ship while he was away standing bent over the main console, as he approached he began to hear their talking;
"But i didn't even knew it was even there!"
"How did you not see the giant asteroid?"
"Well i got all these shiny lights and gizmos to look at, it's all very complex."
"Complex my ass. When you see a asteroid, maybe turn AWAY from it?"
"It ain't that easy when you're standin' right there! Right, left, up and down i got 'em all confused."
This squabble continued as Rory walked up behind them and decided to interrupt:
"All of you jackasses out now!"
The mercenaries were startled at first but after some attempts to blame eachother they started to move away, Rory heard that the quarrel continued behind him. He took a look at the radar's glowing green screen, they weren't far of from Domus now, it was just out of sight behind some asteroids. The comms unit on the ship had picked up several transmissions from there and it seemed like a great hub for finding work, anything that helped someone was Rory's first priority.
SoA
-Rory is about to land on Domus and scout for any potential odd jobs.
Green energy enveloped the apple and began disintigrating - No, that wasn't the right word. It began removing the apple, slowly, fluidly.
A green glow appeared across the room on a emerald pedestal identical to the one the apple was on, and the glow slowly started turning into an apple.
Well, that was the desired result at least. What came out was an apple whose parts somehow got lost on the way. Apple juice collected on the pedestal while apple sauce just oozed over what little parts of the apple made it through intact.
And then part of the apple came through with some... Molecular instabilities. The hydrocarbons, carbohydrates and what not kinda split up, and hydrogen can get somewhat nasty around oxygen, and... Well, let's just say that the apple was no longer confined to its previously assigned volume of space.
"Kenny! The mop--" Neal yelled, but Kenny had already arrived wielding cleaning equipment like a ninja wield nunchucks or other outdated weapons.
"I have to admit that I find it curious that you want to clean up apple remains, but not all the junk that's lying around." Kenny said as he removed the consequences of the rapid increase of volume that took place in the apple.
"This stuff can come in handy." Neal said and looked around the room. The remains of a hellion-viking lay on one desk, various parts of different turrets lay on another, metal alloys that failed crash tests were everywhere, not to mention the bits and pieces that no one but him could trace back to their original machines that lay scattered about everywhere. "Alright, I guess we can move some of this to storage."
"You don't have a storage room."
"Get one. Equip it with shelves. Bring everything there, try to keep a pattern similar to hear so that I can easily find things again should I need them."
"Aye aye." Kenny said and began arranging a storage room.
"Woah, you got Neal to clean the lab?" Keeva asked as Kenny dragged the hellion-viking through the halls.
"Technically seen, I'm doing the cleaning. And technically seen, he only authorised moving the mess from one room to another."
"Baby steps, Kenny. Baby steps."
"Can you help me out here? I'm not made for such heavy lifting."
"Sure." Keeva said, grabbed the end opposite the one Kenny was holding and lifted it up as if it were merely a heavy bag, and not hundreds of kilos of metal.
The two continued carrying the heavy machinery down the corridor of the massive protoss-terran flagship. Flagship was kind of an understatement - Neal referred to it as a Worldship. Massive enough to house the population of multiple space stations, the ability to support and grow plant life - They actually had three large parks - About as hard to destroy as a planet, and controlled only by a fully sentient AI to prevent it form falling into the wrong hands.
Keeva smiled as she thought of it. Most would see the Worldship as a WorldDestroyer instead, the Graviton Cannon able to devestate planets, and even destroy them. They would admire the sheer amount of weapons installed on the ships surface while still keeping it practically indestructible. They would think of the massive amount of space the Arken had for fighters and soldiers, capable of holding entire fleets of battlecruisers inside it. Yet Neal just saw it as a place to live in. He saw it as a source and means of life instead of death.
"What's he working on right now?" Keeva asked Kenny as they entered the storage room and placed the machine on a shelf.
"Trying to crack Warp Tech again." Kenny said. "I have to say, he is making some progress. Some more information on the technology would help him out though, seeing as I no longer have access to the protoss databases."
"I think I've got an idea about that." Keeva said, looking at Kenny and thinking of Kenny.
SoA:
Neal cleans up his lab after an apple exploded in an experiment.
Just for everyone's information, seeing as 9 days have passed since the departure post, Onslaughts ship is fixed and the breakout fleet has regrouped and is now on its way to the hex to the bottom right of Ilyr. 4 ICs/Days until arrival.
OOC: @onslaughtbear: Your ship has only been spotted so far. The Imperium hasn't sent its forces out just yet. You can still run away. Count yourself lucky.
Khasan System
"{Show me.}"
"{Yes, Prelate.}"
The screen in front of the imposing Khalai templar shifted to show the image of a protoss carrier. It was not moving yet but showed all the signs of preparing for a warp jump.
"{The Order. As I thought. Up to their underhanded, dishonorable tricks again. Attacking the defenseless and scurrying away like zerg when detected,}" the templar's mental voice trembled with anger as he spoke.
"{Prelate, the ship has almost completed its warp jump preparations. Shall we pursue it?}"
"{Of course. Inform the Council that Order operatives likely to be responsible for the desecration of the monument to the Founders have been detected and that we are giving chase. I will not let criminals infringe on our borders and escape unscathed. All templar ready for warp jump.}
Council Meeting Chambers, Aurun, New Aiur, Khasan System
Odranos surveyed the rest of the Council with a lazy eye. They were talking among themselves, discussing the issue in the groups Odranos was so familiar with. He could see Khanyr and Malyr shift uneasily as they conversed while Umar and Naren nodded vigorously, no doubt planning the Order's swift downfall.
"{I take it you have thoughts of your own on this recent... development?}" Arali's question half-startled Odranos. It was not like her to talk in public, much less begin conversations with other Council members without prior warning.
"{What makes you think that?}" Odranos asked, effortlessly concealing his surprise.
"{You are the one who suggested this course of action. It is only reasonable that you would have envisioned every possible outcome and accounted for it prior to even discussing theidea with the rest of the Council. After all, you are not Umar.}"
Odranos chuckled at her comment. "{Arali, I did not know you could sting.}" He felt a wave of emotions from the Khalai female. Mirth, embarrassment... guilt?
"{I am a patron of the arts. It would be strange if I could not jest. But that is besides the point.}"
"{Indeed.}" Odranos responded and then addressed the Council as a whole: "{Councillor Arali has inquired as to whether I had foreseen and prepared for the inconvenience I am sure all of you are currently discussing.}" There was silence as the eyes of the Council turned towards him.
"{Since the transfer of former Praetor Erana was my idea to begin with, it is only natural that I had accounted for any future developments. However, let me inform you that the recent sighting of an Order ship in our system was something I did not foresee}"
A wave of surprise washed over Odranos but he spoke before he could be interrupted.
"{Allow me to tell you why. It has been little over a week since the traitorous rebels assaulted what is perhaps our most important historical monument. It has been a little less than a week since we decided to transfer the traitor Erana to Vetras. It has been barely an hour since Prelate Erios notified us of the presence of a hostile ship in our system. Given the recent arrival of Executor Sevethrun and the flagship from Khasyn, it is only natural to suspect that the rebels have noticed that something is afoot.
However, let me ask you this. What would be more suspicious? Recalling our troops to a recently assaulted capital or leaving it as undefended as it was when the attack took place? Would it not be more logical for the enemy to assume their attack has worked to such an extent that it has forced us to reinforce our capital? Let us not forget that these rebels underestimate us. How else could they maintain the hope of defeating us? They think us paranoid, incompetent, stupid!
This is why I did not foresee this. Not out of negligence but out of the assurance that, were it to happen, it would mean nothing. Nothing. The rebels underestimate us and in doing so cripple their own thinking, their own intelligence. I assure you that the transfer can proceed as planned for were the rebels half as intelligent enough to see through our plans this easily, I would not have suggested this course of action.}" Odranos spoke more through emotions than words, driving the point of his argument home with bursts of anger and contempt. He turned to Arali.
"{Does that answer you question, Arali?} he asked. A moment of silence. A nod.
SoA:
An Imperium flagship gives chase to Opheilm. Its speed is the same as the Amadeus' but it can call reinforcements to intercept. Assume that travel time has been proceeding normally from onslaught's post.
The Council discusses the sighting of the Amadeus and decides not to delay Erana's transfer.
Terran Quarters aboard Murkag, somewhere between Domus and the Celest system
Adam had just finished working out. Though the Terran compartment had a 'gym', it wasn't exactly too big - there were two treadmills the Terrans had brought from Barkanos, and a punching bag. Apparently the Jacuzzi's were something Dagganoth did manage to fit in, but he'd been skipping out on everything that wasn't a sleeping area, common room or laboratory. Adam was sitting on the lone bench in the room, regaining his breath, as he heard a familiar voice in his head.
{I have sent out all the orders I need to for the day. Could I tell you the next part of the story?}
Adam didn't jump anymore - he had become used to Dagganoth 'sneaking' up on him. He had tried to teach the Cerebrate the idea of privacy, but the conversation ended fairly rapidly when he couldn't really explain how it was a different thing than him living inside another living being.
"There's more to that story you told me?"
{Yess. There is a reason why I'm telling it to you. But all in due time.}
{Last time we were talking about Zerg history we talked about Zerus, and the Cerebrates that wanted to stay on the planet themselves. Some among them actually had an irrational fear of flight. They saw flight as something chaotic and erratic. When touching the soil, they thought, one always had a direction to go in, and a sense of purpose. Flight is hectic. It cannot be controlled as well as movement on the ground, and any flying being can at any time go in countless different directions.}
"Makes sense..."
{While the Zerg did take to flight, it would seem that the idea of the air-fearers has still taken hold of later Cerebrates. Perhaps these sentiments were even implemented on purpose by the Overmind.}
"Why would that be?"
{Because in the present, this 'fear' of flight amounts to much more. It is the difference between some of the largest Cerebrates in existence. The difference between chaotic Cerebrates, who rejoice in dealing with the unknown, and strategic Cerebrates, who prefer a carefully planned approach. Both of these breeds make use of air and ground forces, but their mentalities differ. This is one thing that makes the Swarm so strong - their different mentalities balance out strategical thinking and pure chaos. None of the Broods understand my approach to the search for perfection. This makes me an unknown variable to all of them. But because their mentalities differ, so does their stance towards me.}.
"How so?"
{One of these 'strategic' Broods is the Gracken Brood, and the Cerebrate Draal is their leader. 'Strategic' Cerebrates like Draal have two ways to deal with unknown variables: assimilate them, or ignore them. I looked weak to them and Draal decided he could take control of my brothers and sisterss.}
"And you proved him wrong?"
{Not yet. I had to avoid fighting him. My forcess lack strength and number to take on the Gracken Brood.}
"So what are you planning now? And how does any of this play into this 'distraction' you promised those pirates?"
{I will hit Draal with what he fears: chaoss. But that is a tale I will tell you the next time we conversse, Terran brother.}
With that, Adam recognized that the conversation was over, got up, and left the gym.
SoA
-Flavour story, Dagganoth tells Adam about the difference between 'strategic' and 'chaotic' Broods in Zerg history, and explains why he his at bad odds with the Gracken Brood.
~~ The Karinth System ~~
It was glorious.
Before Razarac had arrived the Nirogg were clearly winning, having already isolated a Swarm Lord and eliminated it and holding more of the habitable planets. After Razarac, and the forces granted him by the Brood Mother, arrived in Karinth, it was a completely other story. Nirogg had managed to gather up a sizable force of its own, and a Gracken Leviathan had even been spotted skulking about the system, but now the fight had begun, and Razarac would be victorious. For the Brood Mother, and for his life.
He had commanded his three remaining Swarm Lords to lure out the enemy Leviathans, and finally had them exactly where he wanted them, in an asteroid field that orbited the system's largest gas giant. The ball of gas below was where the majority of the Nirogg forces were harbored, and so it was easy to bait the Leviathans into position, where the Serpentine forms of the Swarm Lords could easily maneuver, and where his Spores could strike.
His body lay dormant in the biological meteor as is streaked toward its target. The lead leviathan had already begun deploying Mutalisks, and attempting to strike its foes with it's mighty Tentacles, more often hitting rock then beast, when it noticed the object rushing toward it. It was too slow to maneuver and was struck soundly by the Spore, resulting in a gaping wound that spilled blood and flesh into space.
Razarac came back to his body and stood up in the enemy Leviathan. With luck, the beast would be ill equipped to handle his presence inside itself. All around him, the remains of the Spore had covered everything with Creep and Larva. Many of the Larva had already begun the process of morphing into higher strains, while many others burrowed into the soft flesh of the Leviathan to do the same elsewhere in the body. Soon the corridors of the monstrous beast would be filled with his little brethren, zerglings and banelings and Defilers to rip the creature apart from the inside. The first of the eggs hatched, and Razarac ran off at the head of his pack, looking for prey.
~~
Back in the asteroid field, the Gracken Behemoth rushed in to join the fray, and was almost immediately struck by another Spore. It, however, was fairing much better then the Leviathan, as it held within it's monstrous chambers an army of Roaches and Hydralisks. The battle raged inside the beast, and it struggled to remain in stable orbit above the gas giant. Meanwhile, the Nirogg commander attempted to execute the same tactic on the Fenrir Swarm Lords, but the creatures were far to agile to be easily captured. The beasts and meteors danced around the asteroids, the unscathed Leviathan struggling to keep up, until one of the Nirogg spores, deteriorating from the massive number of Spines and Acid symbiotes peppering it's surface, crashed violently into one of the larger rocks. The remaining spores immediately maneuvered themselves free of the rocks, and aimed themselves in system, toward the only world that Fenrir held. One of the Swarm Lords gave chase, while the other two closed in on the Leviathan.
~~
Below, a third Fenrir Spore burst to light as it collided with the atmosphere of the gas giant and disintegrated. The Nirogg brood roosted on enormously bloated biological platforms, kept afloat by carefully sifting the atmosphere of the gas giant, keeping and heating the lightest airs. The platforms wandered the atmosphere in loose formation gathering the precious gases and minerals from the air and acting as breeding stations for the local zerg. The invaders would not have an easy time taking this place, but that would not stop them from trying. Fragments of the Spore peppered one of these platforms, and drones began to take shape. Gathering in the precious proteins and enzymes from the atmosphere, the remnants of that spore that had carried them to this strange environment, they quickly formed together to create a hatchery. From there they would conquer.
~~
The Leviathan was holding its ground. Though outnumbered two to one, it was bred for battle. The Swarm Lords were bred for trickery and fleeing. The massive beast traded blows with the two giant serpents while their armies; his bolstered by that of his brother, now squirming in agony below him as his body was over run by the enemy's tiniest of breeds; fought around them in a vicious swarm of acidic death. His forces were clearly superior, as Devourers bathed the enemy in mutant spores and Corruptors shrugged off the enemy's most lethal attacks, the mutalisks worked themselves into a killing frenzy. The Nirogg had been bred better, stronger, tougher and faster then their adversaries. The Fenrir, however, fought dirty, flying in and out of the fray rapidly to return to the Queens aboard the Swarm lords for transfusion, and baiting the enemy into swarms of Scourge or close enough to be caught in a deadly plague. The Leviathan brutally pummeled one of the serpents, finally pinning it to a rock and tearing it in two, but in doing so it had exposed its backside to the battle, and a swarm of scourge attached themselves to his hide and detonated, tearing him apart. Severely wounded, it desperately navigated to attack the second Swarm Lord; but his intended target was far to swift, and nimbly remained behind him and spat at his fractured hide with vicious stinging spines. Finally, it's feeble last efforts failing him, the massive creature succumbed to its wounds and died.
~~
Razarac paused to consider the fight, as his brethren munched happily on the great Leviathan's nervous system, leaving it very much dead. Above him, the Swarm lord was cleaning up what remained of the Nirogg's air force. It pleased him that he had won the air battle against an opponent so clearly dominant in that area, however reports from the planet below showed that the Nirogg were far more dug in then he had anticipated. His army below had been contained to only one of the floating platforms by swarms of mutalisks, and his Overseers had shown that the enemy was operating out of a Great Hive, a massive structure designed to withstand a siege. On the planet, he was outmatched. To make matters worse, those enemy's forces were quickly making their way in system to Fenrir's only hold, and the defending forces would not likely be able to hold before the Swarm Lord arrived to help them, and even then would be hard pressed to defend. Lastly, the Gracken Behemoth was cleaning up what remained of the Spore that had struck it, and would likely be returning to the fray shortly.
Dejectedly, he gave the order to retreat and led his pack back to their initial beach head. There, the creep had gathered together into a massive cannon-like orifice and was gathering up the unused larva and creatures for travel. Razarac knew that the same was being done below on the planet, judiciously guarded by the Queens, backed by Defiler Swarms. When the last of his minions had disappeared, Razarac himself stepped in, and allowed himself to be cocooned for the journey. When that was at last done, the spore cannon fired it's package, and the spore once again traveled through space, quickly navigating itself in system joined by its fellow from the planet below. They would only be a few short minutes behind the enemy, and when that threat had been dealt with, they would be back.
SOA:
Operation: Meatgrinder
Outcome: Draw
Fenrir Losses: 1 Spore, 2 Swarm Lords, 300 supply.
Nirogg Losses: 1 Spore, 2 Leviathans, 50 supply.
Gracken Losses: 300 Supply
Fenrir and Nirogg will immediately pay for resupply. Gracken cannot, but will power on regardless.
This was in large part a demonstration. I wanted to show how some of my Flagships worked (the Spore isn't exactly standard fare, and both it and the Swarm Lords are not from the standard game) as well as demonstrate how a battle post should be. As I was fighting myself, no collaboration was needed (except for with myself). In other circumstances, all parties should discuss how the battle plays out, and then one party posts the entire thing. ((Just reiterating.)) Lastly, I felt that some friendly army trading was due.
Terran Quarters aboard Murkag, somewhere between Domus and the Celest system
"Sleep well, Bob!", Adam said to the older man as he went into his own room. The Terran crew had just finished a drawn-out dinner and was about to head to bed. While the Zerg they were traveling with proved quite interesting in multiple ways, they didn't make for very good companions. Not that this was really a problem, but it had caused the Terrans aboard Murkag to rely on eachother for friendly banter and conversation. Tonight's evening had been an especially funny one, with Bob wanting to prove his manliness and challenging Adam to an arm wrestling competition with the girls' everlasting adoration as a price. Adam grinned - he had lost the match (Bob proved a lot stronger than he looked), but everyone had enjoyed himself.
As he said down on his bed, a familiar sense drifted over Adam as Dagganoth entered his mind.
{We are approaching Celest and I want to share the final part of my story with you, if you are willing to hear it now}
Adam had to admit he had been looking forward to this; though not exactly a Zerg enthousiast from birth, the history Dagganoth was learning him had helped him not only understand the Zerg race, but also their interactions with the Terrans and Protoss.
"I'd love to!"
{Very well. Last time we discussed the difference between 'strategic' and 'chaotic' Broods. I told you how Draal attempted to take control of my Brood as his way of handling an unknown variable}
"Uh-huh...", Adam nodded, only half-realizing that Dagganoth wouldn't be able to see the gesture, let alone understand it.
{The chaotic Broods lie at the other end of the spectre. They revel in the unknown and form their tactics out of doing the unexpected. To me, they cannot be trusted either. Though chaos means a liking to unknown elements such as myself, it also means a chaotic Brood could at any moment choose to assault me, as is their nature. Most chaotic Broods ruled by actual Cerebrates manage to avoid pure folly, though}
"Last time you mentioned using these 'chaotic Broods' against Draal?"
{Exactly. The system we are headed now, Celest, houses colonies of the Nirogg Brood. They are such a chaotic Brood, and are led by the erratic Cerebrate Zemreh. Currently, he is in an alliance with Draal.}
"Then how can we trust him?"
{His alliance is a fledging one. Chaotic and strategic Broods have only formed alliances out of pure necessity, or under the orders of an Overmind. When left alone, these alliances never last. The two are too different in their approach of thingss.}
"Are you suggesting we break that alliance?"
{Exactly. The situation has opened up for us as well as it possibly can.}
"Why so, exactly?"
{Last time we spoke, you wondered how all of this tied in to the diversion the Pirates asked for. I will tell you. My plan is to head to Zemreh, and cut a deal with him. We will tell him of the incoming shipment in the Protoss system. We give him the truth about everything, except for the planet where the package is set to arrive. In return for the information, we want to receive a small percentage of the spoils. If all goes as expected, Zemreh will jump at the opportunity and attack a Protoss planet. We receive part of his spoils, the Pirates receive their diversion and pay us for that, and we weaken the coalition between the Gracken and Nirogg Broods, possibly gaining ourselves an ally.}
Adam hesitated for a second. "All of that sounds great, Dagganoth, but what about the Protoss? Not only are we robbing them, but we will put innocent civilians up against a Zerg horde!".
{I have given this thought. You must realize, Adam, that the majority of the casualties and targets Zemreh will attack will be military targets. The Imperium defends its borders and planets well enough to not let a simple invasion cause millions of deaths. And these soldiers aren't anything like you, or me for that matter. They would never be open to accepting our place in this world, or accept any kind of coalition with any kind of Zerg.}
"Still, though... what about the civilians that do get left behind?"
{It would be impossible to convince Zemreh to not attack civilians. What I do plan to do, however, is evacuate any of them that fit on the ship. I will include it in the deal with Zemreh. He'll think I want prisoners for my own experiments. We will not harm these hostages and return them safely to the hands of their brothers.}
"Alright... So do you really think we can pull this off?"
{I do not know. I am neither as strategic nor as chaotic as Draal or Zemreh. I think our chance of succes is large, which means that I want to try. I... would like for us to pull it off, though.}
"So would I."
{Good night then, Adam}
Adam smiled. He knew a Cerebrate wasn't anything like a Terran person was, but he had underestimated the strategic insight of the creature. Even though he didn't want to characterise himself as a 'strategic Cerebrate', at that moment Adam very much considered him to be one.
"Good night, Dagganoth".
SoA
-Flavour story, Dagganoth tells Adam his plan in regards to the upcoming events, explaining who Zemreh is and how he aims for all of it to play out.
Hour away from asteroid City Domus
Grell checked his gloves and mouthpiece, making sure they were secure. He was in a pair of fighting shorts, they were right above knee height and fit well enough to be comfortable and still aloud someone to move around. He stepped forward, raising his left hand just infont of his face his right next to his side clenched into a fist. He checked his footing, adjusting at a good angle. He was fighting Lentan one of the marines that had survived the attack of the city. He had a scar on his right cheek from were a hydralisk spike had pierced his helmet and sliced his cheek pretty bad. His orange air usually got him bad attention, yet he had said to him it reminded him of a character from the old anime he had watched as a kid. Now each of them staring eachother down, fists raised, he could see the man was a true warrior.
“Alright, both parties ready?” said a man wearing a simple white shirt, the referee for the match. They both nodded approval. They stepped forward and tapped fists, the match was started.
Lentan attacked first, charging forward, he threw a right handed straight punch for the face. Grell sidestepped, knocking it to the side, he stepped in bringing his right fist forward to his opponents gut. The man jumped back, taking Minimal damage and managed to get a jab in, hitting Grell in the face. The punch left an opening for attack, he stepped forward, an began to let out a barrage, falling for the simple trap. Grell parried the first punch to the side, the second over his shoulder, then with a quick flash of speed slammed his fist into the mans forehead.
Lentan Stumbled back, reflexively shielding his face yet took a kick to the side. Grell stepped forward, delivering punch after punch to the man, soon the man shoved a bad punch to the side and came forward to tackle him. Twisting around him, Grell let down an elbow on the mans back, causing a quick shout as the man fell.
The referee stepped forward stopping anything from continuing. “Jesus man, you could kill someone if you fight like that. This is sparring, not street fighting.”
“I’m sorry . . . Ill be more careful next time.” he said, letting out a sigh as he exited the ring. He grabbed a small container of water and made his way to the end of the gym were his friend Mike stood, a frown on his face.
“You alright man? You have not been yourself lately.”
“I’m fine Mike, now what did you come here to tell me, or was you actually going to workout with me for once.?” he said finishing by spinning the lid off the water canteen and began to gulp it down.
“We are half an hour away from Domus, get a shower, and some clean cloths on before we get there.” he said his eyes avoiding Grell's, and instead running over the datapad he held in his hand.
“Alright sounds good, I know you got everything ready, thank you Ill be out before we dock.” with that he slapped his friends shoulder and walked out the door to his cabin to get showered and a fresh set of cloths.
Docked at Domus
“Alright Mike, I hope that you copied that data without them being able to find out.” he said as he slammed his boot against the metal wall of the airlock to push it all the way on.
“You cut it out of the fucking computer, an idiot like you makes my job harder, but it atleast makes all the locks that were on it make sense to be so scrambled up. He responded, his hand going over the usb with some of the scrap from a computer still attached to it. Looking up he saw the hat and old style cloths Grell was wearing. “Whats with the cowboy hat anyways?”
“It makes me look genuine badass with the revolver at my side.”
Mike made a comment, but it was to low to hear and they moved out towards the asteroid city. Entering the grusky place brought a smile to Grells face, and the opposite to his friends. The place had not changed much, walking towards the cantina was a quiet journey, with afew people looking at him oddly. Entering the cantina he stepped up to were the bartender was, the place had a lot of business today. He found one of the few empty bar seats, and sat waiting for the bartender to pass by.
“What can I get you.” The bartender asked, a Russian accent leaking from his lips.
“Get me some swamp water, unalcoholic please.” As he said that the few people around him looked at him like he was insane, but he wasn't getting drunk when he had serious business at hand. The man soon returned, a glass of lemonade set on the table infront of him. He took it and downed it in one gulp, set it down, and placed a coin on the table. He got up and left, sure enough that he would have caught the attention of the man he was looking for. He soon made his way over to the spot they had met last time, and heard the familiar voice beside him.
“Do you have the data?”
“Yes, now when am I going to get payment for this job?”
The man put his hand out, waiting for the data before responding. Letting out a sigh he tossed it into the mans hand which examined it for a split second before pocketing it in the trench coat he wore.
“The money has been sent to your ship, I believe we are done here.”
“Yea, If you need another job you know were to find me.” After tipping his hat Grell left, well aware his payment would be there.
Mike shook his head at him. “your slipping man, what if he had not of if given the payment to us?”
He just laughed and smiled at Mike. “You would of knocked the sense out of me before I left, so I knew he wasn't lying.”
“What now, go be a real pirate?”
“How about we check out the job board and see whats up, that's how I saw this one remember. Besides it offers a lot of odd jobs I’m perfect for.”
5 Minutes later
“Fucking scurvy ass pirate, why the hell you have to ruin my hat!” he yelled picking up yellow rum stained cowboy hat.
“You bumped into me you little asshole.” The two began arguing as Mike tried to settle it, Grell raised his fists. “Bring it on!” A street fight was started, people gathered around to see it happen. Mike, tried to stop it, yet failed as Grell pushed him aside, and nailed the pirate in the side of the head. A split second later he hit the ground from a punch the pirate slamming down the bottle, barley missing his head as Grell came up with a kick to his hand. Mike grabbed the burly man by the shoulder and was ripped off from someone in the crowd, it seemed to be another pirate.
Just as the four of them were about to get serious, the crowd moved aside as an eight foot behemoth came through. Pulling the Pirate off of Grell and Mike he stood there, the smell of rum and sweat seeming to fill the air. "Ye're fightin' one of mah boy, why's that?" he demanded.
Forcing his rage to subside, he brushed off and looked the man in the eyes. He showed no fear, and began, his voice calm. “They ruined my cowboy hat,” He placed the now rum stained hat on his head to emphasize the point. “I don't mean to of started a fight, but I don't take kindly to someone ruining my genuine cloths.”
“Are ya, a merc?”
He put the question through his mind, knowing that something else was coming. “Im one of the finest.”
“I has a proposition for ya then, "it involves ye gettin on a protoss ship o' mine and havin' my mens back. Ill offer upfront payment, and people.”
Grell looked at the man, and let out a grin. “Come to my ship, we can work out the details there.”
SoA: Grell Receives 20 points payment from the employer who hired him to get the data. After a short Rumble with two of Cap'n Dooms people, Grell gets hired for job involving protoss ship, his men, and watching over a Templar and Kenny to make sure they succeed. Upfront payment is 5 points, 8 marauders and 14 reapers. Gnarled wolf will remained docked on Domus until mission is complete.
The Great Wave
"{Adapted spacecraft trial one}"
Amar watched with anticipation as the modified cargo vessel approached the wall of plasma that was the Great Wave. On any other day, at any other time, this would have looked like a suicide mission, a death wish. But in this particular case, it wasn't. Well, at least it wasn't an intentional one.
The vessel slowly began to turn towards the left, preparing to brush the side of the ever-expanding supernova. The view on the screen shifted to show the ship from a different angle and Amar clenched his fists. He knew that he and his group of scientists were thousands of kilometers away from the Great Wave. He knew that the ship he was watching was unmanned. He knew that neither he nor the others were in any danger whatsoever.
But that did not stop the enormous supernova shell from inspiring both awe and fear in him. Here was something truly big. Something that not even their toughest designs could survive. Something that could kill - had killed - but couldn't shed tears. Something that didn't feel. Something bigger than both the protoss and the zerg and the Imperium and the Exiled and their conflicts. Here was a mystery. And they were here to tame it. Not explicitly but-
"{Estimate: Contact in twenty seconds,}" the AI's robotic voice echoed in his mind and he could feel the others begin the countdown in their own heads. He joined them, adding his own mix of anxiety, fear, excitement and curiosity to their mental connection. This was their first trial in two months and their first ever trial using an actual ship. And if it worked... oh, if it worked! And if it didn't...
"{Estimate: Contact in five, four, three, two, one.}" All eyes were glued to the screen as the vessel and supernova touched. For half a second, nothing happened. And then, the plasma started coiling itself around the ship, like a wave collapsing in on itself as it entered shallow waters. The plasma continued to spiral, obscuring the vessel from view, enveloping it.
One second passed. Then two. Three. Four. And then, just as they were about to lose hope, the cargo ship emerged from the death wall, the inanimate killer, the cosmic destroyer. It may have been no more than a glorified cargo vessel but to Amar it was Kharun's Flame as it battled the Tama, Tassadar's Gantrithor of legend as it descended upon the zerg. The ship looked like a missile as it accelerated away from the supernova shell, leaving a trail of orange-glowing plasma in its wake, apparently unaffected by the Great Wave's infernal interior.
"{Shields at 25%,}" the AI proclaimed. The jubilation that met the statement eclipsed all else.
SoA:
???
'Flagship' Murkag, Celest system
As Murkag entered the system, Dagganoth's mind was suddenly loaded with activity. Though he could not control the Nirogg Zerg, as a Cerebrate that Zemreh hadn't specifically shielded against, he could track their thinking patterns, movement and actions. It was as if Dagganoth had suddenly become completely aware of every single ant in one huge anthill. Only moments later Murkag found himself connected to the mental system ordering all these creatures around.
{Dagganoth.... our little 'pacifist', as I believe they call you...}
-{Zemreh. Our 'uncontrolled', as I'd like to believe they call you.}
Zemreh laughed. It was a horrifying sound, rather resembling something like two wet pieces of cardboard being scraped together than any Terran laugh. He finished rather suddenly and immediately sounded completely serious again.
{I sense you are here with a reason... Speak.}
-{I am indeed. I bear important news. News that could empower both our Broods greatly. I need your help to make it worthwhile, though.}
{Help? You realize most of our brethren would see such a request as a weakness and take it as a cue to attack your puny forces, right?}
-{I do. And you can surely try if you think it will benefit you more. Just as I know you are not stupid, though, so do you know I am not stupid. I would not have come here had I not have some tricks up my sleeve. Plus, you'd never get to hear my news}
{You are right. I am not stupid. I feel your unpredictability has its uses. What is this news you've got?}
-{I have spies within the Imperium. They tell me a package is being moved within their space, soon. My suspicion is that the package is the Protoss called Erana...}
Zemreh laughed again. {I knew there was a reason we left you be, Dagganoth. Where are you going with this?}
-{It is simple. My Brood is not large enough to recover this package. You supply me with the forces to attack the planet where it lands. The Protoss is yours. All I want a small amount of the spoils, and any survivors I can get my hands on}
{Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to attack a planet in one of the best defended Protoss systems? It'll be easier to intercept the convoy.}
-{They'll be prepared for an attack while flying. Attacking the planet when they deem the package safe would be a better tactic.}
{Yet you know as well as I do that my forces will be less effective there, if it even is the better tactic. No, I will send out scouts and intercept the convoy.}
Dagganoth quickly considered his options. He did not like this turn of events, but he should have expected it. He took Zemreh to be stupid as well as chaotic. The Cerebrate was only the latter. At this point it seemed like Dagganoth had two choices left; either pull out, or go along with it. Pulling out right now would definitely not be succesful. In the best case, Zemreh would let him go, but would frantically start patrolling the skies around the Ilyr system. If he went along, he had a chance to minimize the damage.
-{You make a good point, Zemreh. Interception it is.}
{I'm glad you agree.}
Feeling particularly bold, Dagganoth realized he had to make something happen if he wanted to gain any benefit out of this.
-{In that case, let me rephrase my offer. You supply the troops, I will send them to intercept the convoy once my spies tell me its exact location. You can have Erana, but I want payment for my services. And any possible survivors.}
{You are the one with the information. You commanding the troops would only make sense. Payment... I'm willing to give you access to one the genes of one of my weaker breeds, or an evolution. And I'll replace any troops your Brood might lose. I do not care for the survivors, you can have them. Do we have a deal?}
-{Show me how to evolve my Mutalisks' armor and we do.}
Zemreh complied. He thought Dagganoth to be a fool for accepting these terms. In his mind, Erana was worth far more than anything he could pay Dagganoth with. He quickly shared the thoughts of two of his giant Spores in the Celest system with Dagganoth.
-{'Pleasure doing business with you', as I think the Terrans say.}
{You should get the forces into position. I have two Leviathans already in Protoss space. Take these Spores and the Leviathans and set up a line, so that we will be ready when the time comes.}
-{Very well. I will be heading out past the Ilyr system, which is where the package should come by}.
With that, Murkag and the two Nirogg spores started to accelerate in the direction of the Ilyr system.
SoA
-Zemreh and Dagganoth cut a deal. Dagganoth is to lead a force of two Nirogg Spores and two Nirogg Leviathans against the Protoss convoy moving Erana, who will go to Zemreh if captured. As a payment for his information and services, Dagganoth will A) have any of his lost troops replaced by Zemreh and B) be allowed to claim any Protoss survivors of the battle. He has also recieved the evolution of Flyer Armor level 1.
-For this interception, Murkag is currently moving with two Nirogg Spores (speed 7) towards the border between the two empty hexagons of space to the right of Ilyr. With Murkag's 6 speed, it'll be 3 posts from here until he's in position. Two Nirogg Leviathans are already in the vicinity but will arrive a post later (due to their slow speed of 2).
New Aiur, Khasan System
Khalos trailed behind the others, bored out of his mind. He hadn't wanted to come and see the security upgrades on the ship meant to carry Erana but the Executor had been adamant about it. According to him, commanders had to be familiar with what the were protecting but Khalos knew that there was a part of the Executor that wanted to sow superiority and dominance over his subordinates. Showing off the improvements to the ship he was going to command for no more than a few days was one way of flaunting his rank. The elaborate armor he wore was another.
"{The forcefields can be triggered by all personnel or only a select few, as dictated by the commander. The range in which the order can be given, however, is limited to seven meters, though the bridge can control all forcefields and doors regardless of distance,}" the leading engineer explained, illustrating his words by turning a nearby forcefield on and off.
"{How long can it last?}" Executor Sevethrun asked.
"{That depends. It can be held as long as there is power but it can be destroyed. The small surface area ensures that it cannot be destroyed too quickly.}"
"{And if it is destroyed? Can it be replaced?}"
"{With a small downtime, yes. However, if even one of the four crystals used to generate a forcefield is destroyed, it cannot be generated. Nonetheless, the forcefields will slow down the enemy, if not stop them completely. And one would need to know how the forcefields work to disable them.}"
"{Indeed,}" Sevethrun said, nodding in agreement.
Except the rebels were part of the Imperium once and knew the workings of Imperial technology Khalos thought to himself, carefully shielding his mind.
"{The floors are pressure sensitive. All movement can be tracked from the bridge and any kind of cloaking is rendered useless.}"
Except you don't have to walk on the floor. And you don't have to walk to exert pressure. It went on like that for half an hour, with the engineer pointing out the new security upgrades, Executor Sevethrun praising them and Khalos privately pointing out flaws and thinking up methods of bypassing them. From auto-turrets that could be turned against the defender to doors that were nearly impossible to open but all too easy to breach, Khalos concluded that their best defense was the fact that the rebels did not know about the transfer.
"{And finally, the reason for the upgrade,}" the lead engineer said and then gestured towards what looked like an ordinary wall. Suddenly, what looked to be seamless metal parted, a straight line separating equal lengths of the wall. The separate sections of wall slid in opposite directions, revealing a metal blast door. This door also opened and was followed by another two pairs of blast doors. Khalos had to admit, the system was impressive. The metal was thick and he could sense scanners continuously examining the group, ensuring that they were allowed to enter. The chamber on the other side was better protected than the ship itself.
"{Executor, you will be the only one with the ability to open this chamber via mental command. It contains another three photon cannons and an emergency escape pod should the need for escape arise, though I assure that it will not. The stasis tube itself can only be opened through a DNA and psionic signature scan. Do test this, Executor.}"
Sevethrun nodded and stepped forward, putting his hand on a small blue panel next to a cylindrical protrusion from the wall. There was a hiss and the metal encasing the protrusion opened vertically, revealing a large stasis tank. And in it: Erana.
SoA
The ship meant to house Erana during the transfer receives a security upgrade.
*
Small asteroid field, deep space 1 hex south of an unnamed system southwest of Hades
*
“Have I made myself clear Mr.X?”
“You know, Runa, I used to think you were quite interesting, a woman working with the Zerg, of all things, however, turns out your just infested, how... boring, I decided I didn’t want any more to do with you, so I tried to have you killed, do you hate me now?”
There was movement on the other side of the vid-screen and Mr.X could make out the outline of a woman, but her features were fuzzy, like she was somehow out of focus.
“You of all people should now that crossing me never ends well, even more so since you somehow got a hold of the sealed documents of my past”
MR.X eyes widened in surprise.
“How did-“
“I am a Linguapath, or to use layman’s terms, I can understand and speak any language almost immediately, so speaking a foreign language to your buddies were useless”
“So that’s how you knew”
“Indeed, as it turns out you have made several enemies, Dude, some of them paid me back what you cost me in full, just so I would come over to say hello”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The lips of the woman turned into a smile that seemed surprisingly innocent, yet at the same time Mr. X could feel the bloodlust from her even through the vid-screen.
The chamber suddenly shook and Mr.X looked up as the lamp started to flicker and the connection with Runa disappeared.
"Report, what in the world is going on out there?"
No response, apart from a powerful static on the line.
"Dammit! REPORT, NOW!"
The door burst in and one of his subordinate’s stumbled in, the left side of her face was covered in blood, and she was clutching her arm, clearly hurt.
“Sir! Zerg are attacking, they are coming out from everywhere!"
"Damn... OK, were leaving NOW!"
"Sir?"
"NOW DAMN IT!"
"A-Alright!"
They left the chamber and ran down the corridor to the right of the office, away from the sound of fighting
“Damn, how could Runa find us so quickly?”
As they rushed down the corridor they ran smack into a battle between several roaches and his hired goons, whom, without any strong firepower on their side were quickly being overwhelmed.
Mr.X motioned for the woman to follow him as he took a side passage to get around the fight, they didn't get far however, as part of the tunnel had caved in.
The woman looked around and spotted a door.
"Sir, this way, hurry!"
The woman grabbed Mr.X and dragged him into the side chamber; it was a storage room with boxes littering the walls and only one way out.
"What are you doing? This room is a dead end!"
Mr.X turned for the door, only to see it blocked by a roach, and he was struck by a sudden insight as he slowly turned around and looked at the woman behind him.
"Precisely, which is why I lured you in here Mr. Nikohita, or should I call you Mr. X?"
Mr.X swallowed, even a fool would realize just how much trouble he was in at the moment.
"Runa, I, please I'll make it up to you I-"
He never got to finish the sentence as Runa grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the short wall in the back of the room, which for some reason was cleared of boxes.
The reason became apparent quickly however as Mr. X was stuck to the wall by some kind of adhesive.
Runa gave another one of those cute smiles while she reached for Mr. X’ forehead.
"Yes you will, Dude, yes you will, don't worry, this memory probing won't hurt.... much"
"No please I-!"
The screams could be heard even over the noise of the fighting.
About an hour later Runa sat inside her specially evolved Swarm Lord, Ferrog, having loaded up as much resources as they could inside the giant Swarm Lord.
“Mistress, are leaving the base intact all that wise? Other Terrans might find evidence of our presence there”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that Dude; after all, you can’t investigate a place that no longer exists”
As if on cue, the small base that the information dealer known as MR. X had operated out from exploded as the Plasma reactor inside the base went critical, the resulting explosion set off the mines Mr. X had placed around his base to protect it, and the resulting cataclysm turned the asteroid field into space dust.
******************
Drawing a deep breath Runa woke from her meditational trance.
“Three mistakes, I could have done better”
{“Perhaps Mistress, but given the available resources at the time you did as well as you could, you even improvised a way to restrain him”}
“I did not ask your opinion, Dude”
{“Forgive me, Mistress, anyway since I have your attention I would like to inform you we have arrived, I have prepped an Overlord for you”}
**
Hel
**
Runa carefully exited the Overlord as it touched down at Draal’s primary Hive Cluster, as she looked around she noticed the usual level of activity. The Roaches was patrolling the edges of the cluster as usual and the Hydralisks was ever watchful as well.
Runa walked up towards the gigantic Hive which served as Draals stronghold as she drew near several higher evolutions of the different strains moved as to intercept her, but let her pass as they recognized who it was.
As soon as Runa entered the Hive she could feel Draals mind focusing on her and she did not resist when he made contact with her mind.
{”Ah, Runa, I have been expecting you”}
{”I am sorry if I kept you waiting, Sensei, this latest development with the Themos have the entire brood on edge and makes it harder to move about undetected”}
{”I see, anyway let’s talk more when you reach my chamber”}
{“Of course, Sensei”}
As she made her way through the confusing labyrinth that was Draals home she again pondered, as she had pondered so many times before, how she never lost her way, she suspected that Draal might have implanted the knowledge into her mind at some point, but if he had she had never noticed it or he mentioned it.
After walking for several minutes she finally entered a gigantic space at the center of the hive, in the middle of which was Draal and a small fleshy pad which served as Runas seat when she visited, all around the chamber was Draals bodyguard, highly evolved strains of all the units at his disposal, from the Hunter Killer to the gigantic Torrasque, but Runa ignored them, if Draal wanted her dead she would never have gotten this far in the first place.
Runa walked over to the fleshy pad and knelt down on it, keeping her head down as a sign of respect.
“You sent for me, Sensei?”
{Yes, my child. I have need of your skills. But first, what do you think of the Themos Brood?}
"With all respect Sensei, the Themos Brood are a lesser brood that copied Shuuls battle tactics simply because their leader didn't have the skill to create her own."
{Ah, but Baal never did have an original idea. Even his progeny are mere echoes of something far older, and far greater.}
Runa only nodded in assent to this, hoping to learn more, but the great mind instead asked, {And the Fenrir?}
Runa clenched her fists tightly and clenched her teeth, but remained silent, the mental waves of hatred that emanated from her was answer enough.
{I would give you a chance to strike at either of them. Would you take it?}
Runa closed her eyes in deep thought for a moment before answering. "I am sorry, but I have to decline Sensei, my brood are still to scattered and too weak to be able to stand up to either of them, only if you committed your entire brood to the offensive would I stand a chance, and that would be too great a risk, even for one as powerful as you"
{You show wisdom by tempering your passion. May it be used as a deadly weapon, at the appropriate time.}
Runa bowed her head at the compliment "I have had two great teachers in the art of war, one of those lessons was to always be calm and collected even in the most dire of circumstances, I believe both My old Master, Shuul and you, said so, Sensei"
{I beleive he learned that lesson from me, but that is not the point. If you do not wish to aid one of the current conflicts, I would demand of you another task. What do you know of the Terran world of Apoca?}
“Hmm... Apoca, haven’t been there in years, not since the early parts of out invasion, back when the Master was still alive”
{It has changed much since you were there then. I wish you to go there with two missions: Find information on the weapon that the Terrans call the Arken, and find out if an attack on Dras Lana would be feasible. We have left the Terrans sitting comfortably for far too long, to my mind, but the Overmind had not yet given the order to resume the attack. I hope to be ready when he does, or to push the issue if he does not.}
Runa bowed her head "As you wish Sensei, and what if an attack is not possible at this time, what then?"
{Do as much damage as you can, without provoking or allowing a counter attack. We are already fighting on two fronts, we need not open a third until the Themos and Fenrir have been subdued.}
Runa momentarily flinched at the mention of Fenrir but bowed her head, "I think I know how to pull it off and make it look like someone else did it... I will have to think about it some more first though. If there is nothing else Sensei, I will take my leave. I must make preparations for the mission"
{Very well. Go well, my child.}
************
SOA:
All in all it's an intro post, the important bits are the upcomming job on Apoca and the conversation with Draal
Above the Atmosphere of Planet Sindiris
{"Warp out completed."} Reois said anxiously as Amadeus burst out of the warp hole, its thrusters still at maximum speed. {"By Adun.. that's the worse possible place to Warp out."} Reois continued, his eyes not wanting to believe what he's seeing.
Before the Warp was initiated, the Amadeus was spotted by an Imperium observer, and subsequently, an Imperium flagship twice the size of Amadeus with more weapons and probably a larger army. With no other choice, Opheilm ordered an emergency warp to Sindiris in an effort to ditch the Imperium flagship. However, that looked like it may have been one of the worse decisions Opheilm has ever made as the Imperium flagship followed them shortly after and the location of the warp out.
{"Activate and zoom in all Navigation Cameras, we will need every eye we can get."} Reois ordered. In an instant, holographic panels appeared around the entire bridge, each panel covering thirty degrees of vision.
Countless Celestial bodies teemed the Upper Atmosphere of Sindiris, making it a deadly space minefield and in the middle of it all, the Amadeus was flying at full speed upon warping out. Reois saw several Asteroids moving even faster then the Amadeus itself and a number of them passed by the Amadeus, barely missing it. Suddenly, something caught Reois' eye; at first he wasn't sure, but as it got slightly closer, he could make out what it is -. It was an Asteroid which is as huge as the Amadeus, and its heading straight towards the ship.
{"Thrusters to reverse now!"} Opheilm immediately commanded, with an urgency in his voice. The helmsman responded instantly as he had expected the command. {"Maintain current speed and I want all weapons to be manned. All Asteroids that are on the same course as us are to be identified and destroyed without delay"} Opheilm continued.
Despite reversing all Thrusters, the Amadeus was still accelerating due to the momentum generated earlier on. With the Asteroid closing in fast, Reois estimates that the Amadeus has only around five minutes to move out of the Asteroid's course. {"Take the ship left to bearing 135 at reverse, get us out of the Asteroid"} Opheilm directed calmly. Reois turned his head right, looking at the direction through the navigation camera that Opheilm wanted to take Amadeus. Several meteoroids were approaching from that direction in a crash course with the Amadeus. Before Reois could say anything, shots fired from the Amadeus took those meteoroids down immediately. {"That's efficient, I guess everyone's feeling the urgency."} Reois closed his eyes for a short moment and focused. {"I mustn't panic as a first mate."} Reois thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Opheilm was busy giving out orders to the bridge crew. {'What's the speed of that Asteroid? and designate it as Ax-1 on the radar."} Opheilm said, still keeping his composure. {"About 1.5x faster then our full speed Praetor, if it crashes into us, the Amadeus will definitely be smashed, even with our armor. Based on current speeds, we have about seven minutes before a collision course."}.
{"Praetor, I recommend that we focus all our firepower at Ax-1 while moving to a full retreat. Our armor will be able to keep us safe for a while from the other asteroids while we break Ax-1 into smaller pieces"} Reois suggested.
{"No, the Amadeus isn't geared up for heavy firepower nor are we a maneuverable ship. Its just a base for the members of the Order to get some rest from the fighting."}. Opheilm shot down his suggestion immediately. {"Then Praetor, what do you have planned?"} Reois questioned. Opheilm pondered for a short while and quickly gave his reply.
{"Six minutes will be more then enough, Reois. Sortie all scouts to aid in breaking down smaller asteroids. Reois, you are in charge of designating targets to fire control. Helmsman, stop all thrusters from reversing, instead get all thrusters to push the Amadeus up, we are changing our altitude."}
({"That's amazing, if we can't beat it in speed, we can just win it by height."}) ({"Wait... No, there's a big flaw in this action"}). Reois cogitated. {" Navigator Doxyila, how much more time do we have left? Helmsman Statos, how long does it take to divert the thrusters and get it to full power?"}
{"We have five more minutes for contact with Ax-1"} {"The thrusters have already been diverted, but it will take us two minutes to get to full power"} were the two replies Reois gotten. Before Reois could continue, Opheilm understood the mistake that he made.
{"Navigation, recalculate how far up we will be before Ax-1's impact, we are not in reverse and taking in account the time the thrusters need to reach full capacity."} Opheilm ordered, this time without his usual calmness. His voice showed signs of uncertainty, something that he very rarely exposes to others. The next few seconds felt like hours. While waiting for the calculations to be done, the ship continued to move upwards, ever so slightly. A few asteroids managed to slip pass the defenses of Amadeus and minutely damaged its external armor, but a slight vibration can still be felt by everyone in the ship. After what seemed like moments, Doxyila replied.
{"Praetor, if we move up, the center part of the hull will still be hit by Ax-1. It is as good as losing the whole ship."} Her words sank deeply into the bridge crew. Reois was at a total loss on what to do. It seemed that there isn't anything they could do to salvage the situation.
Opheilm sunk back into his seat, feeling hopeless. Suddenly, a strong vibration shook the ship, bringing Opheilm and some of the bridge crew off their seats and onto the floor. A sound buzzed, signaling a transmission from the weapons crew.
{"My apologizes, Praetor, an Asteroid has crashed into the bottom of the ship, we tried to destroy it, but it was too colossal."}. The abrupt transmission ended immediately as it started, Opheilm could hear voices at the background, his weapons chief giving multiple orders to his crew. Opheilm got up and looked in front and saw something strange. Ax-1 seemed shorter then he last saw, he understood all of it there and then. The asteroid must have collided with such impact that it pushed Amadeus up slightly. The bridge have been to focused on Ax-1 to bother about other celestial bodies heading towards them.
{"Navigation, recalculate again how far we will be before impact'"}. Doxyila replied Opheilm instantly as only the tweak of values are needed. {"Praetor, our lower half of the hull will still be affected."}. The ship shook again, this time only slightly. A flash of inspiration came upon Reois and before he knew it, he was giving out orders with such fevor that he seemed like a different person.
{"Chief Engineer Cindel, purge all armor from the lower hull immediately. We will use the Asteroid as a.."}. Before Reois could finish his statement, Cindel began to retort. {"Reois, are you out of your mind? We are barely surviving with our armor, if we purge it, we might as well just blow ourselves up!"}. Reois wanted to argue, but Opheilm jumped the gun. {"Cindel, do as Reois says. His command is the same as mine."}. Begrudgingly, Cindel complied without complaint as he respected Opheilm much more then Reois.
{"That's a good plan, Reois. Purging the armor will let us use the Asteroid as a leverage and lighten the ship. This may very well work out if Adun is willing."] Opheilm praised. Something which he very rarely does, then again. These moments aren't usually experienced.
The lower hull's armor was purged entirely, leaving only 1 single layer of armor before the ship's interior is penetrated. Even a small meteoroid would be hazardous for them now. With its thrusters reaching full power, its weight lessened and using the Asteroid as a leverage, Amadeus could elevate itself almost fifty percentage faster.
{"Praetor, this is still not enough, there is still a chance that..."} Doxyila said but Reois cut her off. {"Cindel, purge armor layers one and two of the entire ship"}. Cindel didn't reply Reois, but did as he said. Within moments, the Amadeus was almost stripped naked of its defenses, its armor floating around the ship, getting pushed by the Meteoroids that were floating by.
Ax-1 was approaching fast, Opheilm felt that he did everything that he could, if this is his end, then so be it. There's nothing else he could do. A sense of helplessness engulfed him as he waited for Ax-1 to come. {"Ax-1 will be under us in 3...2...1.."} Doxyila announced. Then it came, the moment that everyone has been waiting for. Ax-1 swept pass underneath Amadeus, it edges just missing the last single piece of armor of Amadeus' lower hull. Everyone held their breath as the huge asteroid went pass them and within seconds that seemed like eternity, Ax-1 passed Amadeus without any causalities.
Sounds of jubilation and reliefs could be felt. Opheilm has never felt that much relieved for a long time. He looked around can went to Reois. {"You have done an excellent job today, Reois."}. Opheilm commended . Reois wasn't one that receives praise regularly, but did his best to hide his obvious elation. {'The credit goes to the everyone on the ship, Praetor."}.
Meanwhile, within the Asteroid field, an Imperium flagship warped out. Coincidentally, a piece of Amadeus' armor floated passed them. Prelate Erios looked at it and smiled to himself. {"All weapons on full alert! Sortie all units to be around the Flagship for elimination of asteroids. Navigation radar on full area scan in the direct of the floating armor. All thrusters at maximum output. To all crew of the Imperium Flagship, Niflheim. Our prey is near."} ("This is just perfect for the hunt. The hunting grounds, the hunter and the hunted, this is all what Prelate Erios has always wanted, to inspire despair into his enemies and this, he believes, is the perfect setup.)
SoA Amadeus manages to somehow dodged Ax-1, but suffers a reduction in armor. Amadeus now has an armor of 2, but its lower hull is at 0 armor The Imperium flagship, Niflheim has just warped out and is now on the pursuit of Amadeus. Amadeus doesn't know that Niflheim is here.
Planet Dras Lana, Dras Lana System
There was nothing ceremonious about their arrival or their reception. As soon as their medivacs landed in the planet's capital and only city, they were quickly escorted away from the landing zone and towards the interior of the settlement. The efficiency and lack of hospitality, combined with the silence of the protoss that received them angered Grell: he felt like a dumb animal being lead to a slaughterhouse. He would rather walk into the building with his CMC suit and Rifle or atleast his Magnum or knife, but the protoss calling himself Waiter had explicitly told him not to bring any weapons.
He looked around himself. Waiter, Captai- Cap'n Doom and the four other pirates that had joined them seemed to be at ease with the protoss. Next to him, Mike seemed to be paying more attention to the buildings they were passing than the protoss they were following. He sighed and kept walking resigned to the silence so thick he could almost smell it.
Eventually they approached what seemed to be the biggest building in the city, though Grell had seen hundreds of terran buildings that dwarfed it. The building was roughly dome-shaped and made of dull metal that looked more like brass than the gold terrans associated the protoss with. This, together with the unkempt look of the streets they were walking through gave Grell the impression that this "Order" wasn't exactly the mightiest protoss faction around.
"{Ya know, I'm not tha only that can read yo mind.}" Grell was abit surprised at the sudden “contact” of waiter, but soon adjusted.
"What do you mean?" he asked, breaking the silence, but soon realized that talking through his mind would better suit the occasion.
What do you mean? he repeated, noticing that the Order protoss were looking at him.
"{Tha Order may not be as powerful as tha Empire, but tha' doesn' mean they don't fight their hardest. Yo snap judgments are insultin' 'em. Careful what ya think mon.}"
Sure, Ill keep that in mind. Grell thought and he noticed that the protoss stopped glancing at him. After another half-minute of walking, they reached one of the entrances to the dome. The door slid open and they entered, leaving behind all but one of their escort.
"{Follow me,}" the protoss said and continued on ahead of them. They passed through three more doors and Grell noticed that each one was more heavily guarded than the last, starting with what looked like one cannon and ending with two protoss warriors and enough static guns to bring down a Thor. Finally, they entered a large elevator and climbed to what Grell thought was the very top of the dome.
The doors opened without a sound and their escort stepped to the side.
"{Master Rassyr will see you now.}" They exited the elevator and entered what looked like a waiting room. Another door opened immediately and Grell followed the others into a large circular room with a table in the middle: a meeting room. Around the table were a number of large chairs, three of which were already occupied by protoss. One of the protoss rose from his seat upon seeing the newcomers.
"{Ah, Cap'n Doom and Waiter. En Taro Tassadar. We've been expecting you. Do take a seat.}" There was nothing offensive or threatening about the protoss' psionic voice but the look he gave Grell and Mike, not to mention the fact that they hadn't been addressed, angered Grell. It took a mental nudge from Waiter to keep the emotion in check.
"{Ya've met Kenny, Swallows and Sparrows. Dis here's Kosh,}" Waiter said, pointing towards the man in the brown suit, "{And this be Grell and Mike. They be the leaders of the terran mercenaries we hired.}" They all sat down.
The protoss looked at Grell again. This time, his eyes were less demeaning and more... calculative. Grell stared right back at him, not blinking once.
"{I see,}" he said and then took his eyes away from Grell. "{Since you have so kindly introduced your own companions, I shall now introduce my guests. Ambassador Kelanin of the Exiled Tribes.}" the protoss gestured at one of the other protoss, "{and Templar Raznar of the Tama tribe.}" Grell noticed that the second protoss had his nerve cords bundled behind his head, unlike Kelanin and...
"{For those of you who don't know me, I am Rassyr, leader of Erana's Order,}" their host said, "{But enough with the pleasantries. We have matters of great importance to discuss.}" Suddenly, a holograph appeared above the center of the table. Grell immediately recognized it as a starmap.
"{As you already know... or perhaps don't know, we have been informed that the Imperium will be transferring Praetor Erana to the planet of Vetras in two days time. So far, we have been able to discover that four flagships will form part of the transfer convoy. However, details regarding the fleets and their commanders have proven... elusive.}"
"So we're hitting blind?" Grell asked. Rassyr looked at him, his eyes narrowing.
"{Grell, I assure you that our forces have had sufficient experience fighting the Imperium to be able to handle whatever the Imperium throws our way. It is your forces' ability to fight that I am worried about.}"
"{I am fairly sure Commander Grell is aware of both the Order's abilities and his forces' lack of experience with the Imperium. I, for one, interpret his question as a request for information, not a complaint,}" the words came from Ambassador Kelanin and stopped Grell from making a retort of his own. He turned to look at the ambassador.
"{As I have already told Master Rassyr, the Exiled under my command are fully ready to aid you in this assault.}"
"Really? I thought you guys bailed out?" Doom said. He drained the bottle of rum he had been holding and wiped his beard, all while staring at the ambassador.
"{Correction. It is our Council that "bailed out". The heart of the Exiled is still very much with the Order. After all, it is only right that allies aid allies. I, for one, consider everyone present an ally,} Kelanin replied, seemingly without missing a beat. Grell had to hand it to the ma- protoss: he knew how to talk.
"{We, the Tama, will assist you in what way we can,}" Raznar added.
"Well that's all fine and dandy but we ain't heard no plan yet," Doom said, draining another bottle of rum he had procured from who knew where. There a moment of silence in which Rassyr stood up and leaned towards the hologram. The starmap shifted to show a more detailed layout of what Grell took to be protoss space.
"{The plan has changed little since the last time Waiter and I spoke. Your ships will patrol the sides of the direct route from Khasan to Ilyr to ensure that the convoy is taking the predicted path and does not slip out of our grasp. Our forces and the terran mercenaries commanding the newly built vessel will lie in wait and attack the convoy when it is as far as possible from both systems.}"
“So, they're hiring me, why no action from them?" he asked, confused at the idea.
"{We can't interfere directly. If tha Imperium finds out we helped with tha attack, it would strain relationships with the Coalition, possibly leading to a war. We don't want that. You don't want that,}" Waiter explained, adding a menacing tone to the last sentence as if to warn Grell.
"Alright, three against four sounds fair to me."
"{Four against four. Another of our Order will be joining us though his current whereabouts are unknown. Ambassador Kelanin was the last one to speak to him,}" Rassyr answered.
"Alright, four against four should make things easy, now I'm guessing this is just a qucik snatch n' run, not sending em all to hell right?"
"{A quick snatch n' run. Yes, that is an accurate way of putting it.}" Rassyr seemed to chuckle as he used the term. "{But that does not mean we won't have to fight. Commander Grell, I trust your troops are battle ready? For there will be battle, both inside the ships and outside.}"
Grell leaned forward, a grin coming across his face."I will promise you my men are one-hundred percent ready to kick some ass! Now all we need to do is get to that ship, the rest is the precision job of infiltration, and killing."
With that the meeting continued with small details on the job at hand. Afterwords Grell got Mike off of a conversation with a protoss and they both took their leave to the protoss ship to get ready.
SoA:
Grell, Mike, Kenny, and Darth Waiter went to Order base and discuss in simple, the plan of capturing the Order's captured leader.
'Flagship' Murkag, Outisde the Ilyr system
As the last of the two Leviathans drew in range, Dagganoth began to issue commands. Since the Leviathans provided the big fire in his army and the Spores were quick and maneuverably, he laid his ships out in a largely spread C-shaped wedge: the spores on the outsides, the Leviathans on the insides, and himself in the middle. This way the convoy would have to fly right into his trap and would immediately find itself surrounded. Of course, Dagganoth considered, he had to leave some leeway for the pirates to come in and get their hands on that package, but the spores took care of that; they'd be there to cause massive damage, after which the Leviathans would fight a two versus four battle to keep the convoy occupied. Murkag would be swooping around the edges of the battle, avoiding fire and focusing on non-essential systems, picking up any 'captives' along the way. Dagganoth had other plans for the Protoss who might fall into his hands.
In the Terran quarters, Adam, Jeremy and Sarah were hanging around in Adam's bunk, all of them looking slightly nervous. Dagganoth had shared his exact plans with Adam, who had spread them on to the rest of the crew. None of them had protested as each understood Dagganoth's motives and actions, but a lot of them had never really seen a battle before - where, even for a brave shy man like Jeremy, Domus was a rough place, a Zerg-Protoss space battle seemed like a tad hard for him to handle.
There was however one Terran aboard Murkag who wasn't in the slightest bit nervously. Bob Gentry quietly hummed the Beverly Hills Cop Theme song as he strutted through his laboratory, moving over to check a specific telescope. He had been having small but daily conversations with Dagganoth and was making tremendous breakthroughs in understanding not only Zerg biology, but also philosophy. As a result, he had been in a good mood for days and simply shrugged off the battle to come. He had been considering the options and, after his last conversation with Dagganoth, the possibilities: there was a good chance he might become involved in the creation of an all-new Zerg strain, or at the very least gain a chance to experiment with existing strains to see if he could upgrade them. Nothing was really set in stone yet, but he had already laid dibs on the 'Gentryling'.
While everyone was getting into positions however, Dagganoth realized he had to let Waiter know of the... developments in his 'diversion' so that he could adjust your plans. He mentally notified Adam, who picked up the strange communications device Waiter had given him, pushed a random button and spoke into what seemed to be the microphone: "Hello? Waiter?"
SoA
-The Nirogg forces are set up and ready for their ambush and a plan of battle has been chosen.
-Some more plans for Bob Gentry lateron in the story are revealed.
-Adam attempts to contact Waiter for Dagganoth to inform him of the change of plans.
Above the Atmosphere of Planet Sindiri, within the Asteroid field, Amadeus' bridge
{"Time is running out, Opheilm. You will need to expedite the Amadeus to Dras Lana. Our other allies are already there, and we do not know when the transfer will take place, if it were to happen before you arrived, it wouldn't be good."} Rassyr said.
{"I understand Rassyr, the Amadeus will make haste immediately. However, we have an Imperium Flagship that may be pursuing us. If they find out about this clandestine meeting..."} Opheilm replied
{"This will not do. If the Imperium Flagship shows even slightly on the radar, you are to take them out before heading off to Dras Lana."} Rassyr warned
{"Yes, Rassyr, that's the intention. As of now, there hasn't been anything suspicious happening yet, but the Amadeus has taken some damage. I request a repair crew at Dras Lana for maintenance of the Amadeus.. That is all I have to report."} Opheilm said.
{"That will be done. Just get here as fast as possible without any suspicion. Till then."} Rassyr ended the conversation.
The Amadeus had taken a fair bit of damage on its armor expect for its lower hull, which is damaged substantially due to Asteroids. Other then that, all functions of the Amadeus are still working perfectly. {"Helmsman, Take us directly to Dras Lana at step 7 thrusters. This should give us some room to avoid the Asteroids"}. Opheilm commanded. Statos nodded his head and began powering up the thrusters.
{"Navigation, check frequently for asteroids about the size of Ax-1 and designate them onto the map, as for the smaller asteroids that are at our course, pass the information to weapons for them to clear it."}
{"Yes, Praetor"} Doxyila replied. Opheilm put on the Psionic Transmitter and made an announcement to the entire ship.
{"This is Praetor Opheilm, as of now, we have immediate orders to head towards Dras Lana to rendezvous with Rassyr regarding Erana's transfer. However, moments before we warped out, an Imperium Flagship was sighted on radar pursuing us. The good news is, they are not in sight now. The bad news is, if they happen to be on radar, we are to take them out before heading over to Dras Lana. I require all personnel to be on full alert until we are cleared of this asteroid field. That is all.}
{"Prelate Erios, I recommend that you slow down the Niflheim. At this rate, hitting into asteroids will be a certainty.'} Arronax cautioned.
{"I assure you, Prelate Arronax, that I have this under control. Your concern is unnecessary. Do not forget that I am the steward of the Niflheim and I have been commanding ships long before you were at Erana's Order."} Erios replied with a snide voice. Arronax stayed silent, but seethed within. He was irritated by the arrogance of the young Prelate. Arronax was older then him by around a 100 years, but age is no substitute for hierarchy. Arronax was just made Prelate a short while ago whereas Arronax had been a Prelate for a couple of years now. {"As you say, Prelate Erios"} Arronax tried to sound as sarcastic as possible, but it didn't really work.
The Niflheim was traveling at full thrusters in the direction of the torn pieces of armor from Amadeus and within moments, they had hit the jackpot. The Amadeus showed up at the radar. Erios smiled to himself. {"Crew of the Niflheim, this is your Prelate speaking. We have the Amadeus in sight and is now giving full pursuit to them. All forces are to head back into the Niflheim for resupply and repairs. All personnel are to be on standby until otherwise noted. That is all.'} Erios ended his announcement. {"Hmmm, what are you doing here Arronax? Shouldn't you be at somewhere else?"} Erios questioned sardonically, already knowing the answer.
{"Somewhere else? Prelate Erios. Where else a Prelate has but the bridge of a ship?"} Arronax replied curtly, not wanting to play this game. {"Prelate Arronax, I heard that you are quite the scout pilot. With you around, I am sure the pilots will feel... safer. After all, wouldn't you know the ship?"} Erios said sarcastically.
{"What are you inciting Prelate Erios?" I left the Order years ago. They were wrong. My loyalty is only to the Imperium. If you so order, I'll personally lead the assault on Amadeus. I take my leave"} Arronax replied, trying to curb his anger. He went out of the bridge, heading into the hangar.
{"Don't get yourself killed Prelate. It would be hard to explain to the council."} Erios laughed.
The Niflheim was moving closer to the Amadeus with every passing second. Erios had no doubt that they were spotted, but he wanted no other way. It wasn't the sense of honor that guided his actions, its the feeling of despair and anxiety that he wanted the crew of Amadeus to feel before destroying them. Undoubtly, he was enjoying every second of this. One thing kept nagging at him - Arronax. The council had recently promoted that cretin from the order to Prelate and assigned him as an observer to the Niflheim. Erios hated Arronax. {"How dare a new elected Prelate give him orders!'}. By the end of this skirmish, Erios was sure Arronax would be dead. Either by the Amadeus, or by his own hand.
{"Praetor Opheilm! The Niflheim is on our radar. It appears that she is moving at full speed"} Doxyila quickly informed as soon as she saw the Niflheim. {'Full thrusters at this density of Asteroids? They are insane."} Reois said disbelievingly. He looked at Doxyila's screen and saw that there was no lie. At this rate, the Niflheim will catch up within 30 minutes. Opheilm thought for a moment about his next course of action. He couldn't afford take on the Niflheim just by power alone nor could he allow the Niflheim to follow him to Dras Lana. His only option, he concluded, is to take down the Niflheim here and now.
{'Navigation, get me asteroids within the vicinity the size of Ax-1."} Opehilm ordered. {"What are you planning, Praetor?"} Reois asked.
{"You'll soon see. The steward of the Niflheim is probably a brash, overconfident Protoss who thinks that brute force is everything."} Opheilm replied with certainty. {"Praetor, what makes you think so?"} Reois questioned again. {'Look at this field of Asteroids. At the speed that the Niflheim is on, it would be hazardous if they meet an asteroid a quarter the size of Ax-1. Yet the Niflheim still moves at full speed, using its weapons to destroy all asteroids and its armor to soak up some of the smaller ones. Its either their commander is overconfident of the ships' abilities or he has an extremely good judgement. I believe the council wouldn't waste talent on a chase mission like this."} Opheilm reasoned.
{"Praetor, there is an asteroid slightly bigger then Ax-1 up front with the same velocity as we are on."} Doxyila said.
{"Shut down the radar and go on ECCM mode. Helmsman, move behind the asteroid. We are going to hide ourselves there. Reois, make an announcement to prepare for battle with the Niflheim."} {"Yes Praetor"} they all replied with confidence.
{"Praetor Erios, the Amadeus has vanished from the radar."} navigation said suddenly.
{"They must be hiding in fear of us. Continue as normal. Scan for asteroids big enough to hide the Amadeus in the vicinity of where they disappeared." Inform all pilots to be ready to sortie"} Erios directed. {"Fools! This is even easier then I thought."} As soon as his navigation reported that there was only 1 asteroid big enough to hide the Amadeus, Erios ordered the Niflheim to move into the vicinity of asteroid and sortied half of his armada out, expecting to take out the Amadeus with ease. However, what he expected and what he saw was totally different. The battle was swift and deadly, with both sides sustaining heavy losses. At the end of it, Prelate Erios couldn't believe what just happened and had his confidence crushed.
***************
"All scouts are to return to the Amadeus at once. We will began heading directly to Dras Lana at full speed once we are out of the asteroid field." Opheilm instructed wearily. The battle had cost him much, including his personal scout. The only consolation he could get out from it is that the Niflheim would no longer be chasing them. Nevertheless, he was as worried as much as he was relieved. Arronax had joined the Imperium. He knew that their disagreement and his discontentment with the Order had taken a toll on his mental state, but this was something else altogether. A revered member of the Order joining the Imperium...
Opheilm slumped back into his quarters and rested as his ship made its way to Dras Lana, not knowing what awaits them
SoA
The Niflheim spotted the Amadeus and began attacking
The Amadeus managed to win, but at a heavy cost
Opheilm found out that an ex-Order member had joined the Imperium
The Amadeus will be heading towards Dras Lana immediately.
PS: Will post a battlelog soon about the battle. The next post will be a recollection post. I wanted the Amadeus to head to Dras Lana as soon as possible.
Space, next to the unnamed System between Dras Lana and Zaratun
Protoss Flagship
A darkened room with a giant window and only a small sun, not larger, but brightener, than any other point in the space, lightens it. Kelanin is sitting right in front of the window starring to the bright point.
"Hatred is the catalyst for war and its source is love. Love to a woman, love to a country, love to a planet or an empire. The seeds of hatred let bloom new plants of war and its seeds will create new love to the missed. This process is called revenge and it will always lead to new wars. To forgive is the only solution of that spiral. The spiral of death and hatred."
"I hope I doesn't disturb your meditation, Ambassador Kelanin no' Karanur.", Rassyr entered the open room through the archway, which function as a door.
"No, there isn't a disturbtion without a meditation. I was only peering through the space." Kelanin stands up while turning around to the Order's Leader.
"The calm before the storm is always nice to listen to, don't you think?"
"Sure. It reminds me to an era of peace."
"That is the only thing you always searching for, right?"
"It seems you knows some parts of me that even Ambassador U'lun haven't noticed yet."
"It was always the task of a leader to know the other side of a conversation."
"Thanks for your understanding and guidance. I think you make a good leader to the Order."
"Thank you, but acceptance isn't a good thing for a leader. It could make him perfect and impregnable, which leads to carelessness and finally to his death. I hope that wasn't your intention." Both are laughing at this statement. "I'm glad to have you for this mission, Ambassador, even under these circumstances."
"I will always searching for a way to peace and I'm glad to hear that you share this vision with me." He bowed in front of Rassyr.
"I know we can restore peace and we will have a huge amount of influence to that. Ambassador, I will take my leave because my units needs my presence. We will see us again, with Erena."
"Sure."
Shortly after Rassyr leaved the room a dark templar entered it.
"En Taro Tassadar, Ambassador Kelanin. I'm Raznar, Commander of the Tama."
"En Taro Tassadar, Commander."
"I respresent the Tama Tribe to inform you that our council send you ten Dark Templar for your mission to rescue Erana."
"I appreciate this gesture."
"They are already with your other troops and ready to take your command." Raznar semms to worry about something until he tells Kelanin his unusual statement. "Peace is not always the way to peace. Sometimes peace have to be forced out to accept he is peace itself."
"Force will never lead to peace. The removal of force and power is needed to create peace from nothing."
"Creation is not in our hands. We can only shape. The time, the matter and our own will. We always shape those things and it will never be otherwise."
"You are binded to a higher good. Take good care of yoour believings."
"Watch your back, Ambassador. I can't guarantee for your safety."
"Of course, I will."
Space, somewhere outside Domus
Rory's boots sent a echo of metal against metal through the hallway as he made his way towards the bridge. Indoors on the freighter it looked very industrial, mostly green or orange painted metal although the paint was gone in many places and everywhere there were signs of rust, many pipes ran against the wall of the hallways and from the ceiling the lights hang freely from the wires. Some places were badly damaged and hot steam or freezing coolants could spray out of broken piping even though Rory had done a good job patching mostly of it up. As Rory walked the ship began to careen, Rory steadied himself as patches of metal started to come loose, electrical bolts shot out from exposed wires and the lights began to flash. It soon calmed down and despite missing it during the turbulence Rory know noticed that a electrical bolt had seemed to turn a broken fuel pipe into a flamethrower behind him, he was quick to turn a valve and put it out.
"Oh man, we must have hit something, shields took the hit but the generator got overloaded there for a while. Never shoulda left the wheel of this tin can to a god darn mercenary, i have better trust in the autopilot."
Rory said to himself as he continued to walk to the bridge. Luckily they didn't hit anything else and as he approached the door he punched the console next to it, it frizzled and then the door opened. He walked out on the bridge, a quite light room compared to the rest of the ship and the most decorated one aswell, seeing the three mercenaries he selected of controlling the ship while he was away standing bent over the main console, as he approached he began to hear their talking;
"But i didn't even knew it was even there!"
"How did you not see the giant asteroid?"
"Well i got all these shiny lights and gizmos to look at, it's all very complex."
"Complex my ass. When you see a asteroid, maybe turn AWAY from it?"
"It ain't that easy when you're standin' right there! Right, left, up and down i got 'em all confused."
This squabble continued as Rory walked up behind them and decided to interrupt:
"All of you jackasses out now!"
The mercenaries were startled at first but after some attempts to blame eachother they started to move away, Rory heard that the quarrel continued behind him. He took a look at the radar's glowing green screen, they weren't far of from Domus now, it was just out of sight behind some asteroids. The comms unit on the ship had picked up several transmissions from there and it seemed like a great hub for finding work, anything that helped someone was Rory's first priority.
SoA
-Rory is about to land on Domus and scout for any potential odd jobs.